NIGHT AFTER NIGHT - "Archival Sunday" (1990)

 

I remember when "The Comedy Channel" came on in 1990 because in the beginning, some of it like "Night After Night" with Allan Havey was hilarious. It really seemed like it happened all too fast, and they said, "Okay Allan, be funny for two or three hours." It was fascinating, and that's why it's this week's Weird Wednesday presentation!

 

Allan Havey has gone on to be in many TV shows like "Madmen," and his latest was a show called "Billions" that was on from 2017 to 2020. Allan is a very funny and sarcastic guy, and I'd really like to see how his stand up routine holds over to today's standards of what's funny and what's not!
 

This bit on "Night After Night" was called "Archival Sunday" which was nothing more than showing weird shorts made over the years that I'm sure were public domain, with Allan as the host.

It was all silly stuff like "Dating Do's & Don'ts" from 1949. 

It was not much different than a lot of public access TV shows I've seen.

Then they'd cut back to Allan and whatever the heck he'd come up, like this bit about "Ploughman's" Piccalilli, which was a pickle relish, or this other fine product known as "Bovri" which was a meat extract like bouillon but the texture of "Vegemite."

The topic was spotlight on archival snacks, and the show is now called "Cholesterol Carousal." Allan goes on to tell you that these products meet all our "traditonal requirements, like high fat, high sodium, and low nutritional value!"

 "Let's pour some out, and explore "Ploughman's Piccilli." It's vicious, it's pungent, and it leaves an ooze trail like a tree slug." He even describes it as being a goose turd colour.

Yummy!

Then out comes the "Bovril." 

Allan thinks that both of these classic condiments would probably taste great on a chunk of "Spam."

The disgusting stench eventually gets to him, and his has to push the plate away while he's speaking.

 

Time for more fun shorts like "Round-Trip Tickets from 1961.

And, video of this "Lottery Winner" from 1936.

And if all that wasn't enough, there were monkeys in pajamas..................

..........and footage of 80's heartthrob, the beautiful and hilarious Judy Tenuka!

The only thing I have to compare this to is when a local FM rock radio station went out of business here about 25 years ago, and when you turned it on, and they played Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" over and over with no interruption for I think was about 72 hours straight. It was all just very Surreal.

 

 

The Comedy Channel turned into Comedy Central, and although it will never be as funky as it was when they first started, at least they brought "Drunk History" to the world, and for that, I am forever indebted!

PILLOW OF DEATH / The Thrilling Story Of The Whispering Corpse! - 1945

This was the last of the Universal Inner Sanctum stories, and boy is it a doozie! It stars our man Lon Chaney as attorney Wayne Fletcher, Brenda Joyce as his secretary Donna Kincaid, J. Edward Bromberg as psychic Julian Julian, Rosalind Ivan and Clara Blandick as the Kincaid sisters, George Cleveland as Samuel Kincaid and Wilton Graff as Police Captain McCracken.

In this story, attorney Wayne Fletcher and his secretary Donna Kincaid are having an affair, when Wayne's wife is found smothered in her bedroom, he becomes the prime suspect. As McCracken investigates the crime, a psychic with questionable intentions tries to contact Wayne's dead wife. Wayne begins to have visions of his wife, then people involved in the case begin to be killed off one by one...

Wayne's wife is dead (you never see her) and Police Captain McCracken is questioning Wayne about the case. Psychic Julian Julian has paid a visit because he got a vision that Wayne's wife was in danger, and came to check on her. Wayne shows the Captain a book of hers called "Famous Suicides Of History" and Wayne says that Julian's influence over his wife was to blame for her death.

Holy cow, this movie has so much detail that I cannot spell everything out, so...

The Captain goes to the Kincaid home to question the family (who are believers in psychic powers) where strange noises and voices upstairs are investigated. Left to right, Samuel Kincaid, Captain McCracken, Julian Julian, Donna Kincaid and Bruce Malone.

Wayne is invited to a séance given by Julian to contact Wayne's dead wife, and to find out who the killer is. Wayne breaks it up because he thinks Julian is faking it.

And, next door neighbor Bruce is sneaking around in the background and is threatened by Wayne, because Bruce says he's there to protect Donna from him!

Back at him house, Wayne is getting drunk when he hears his wife calling to him.

She tells him to go to the crypt in the cemetery, she has something she wants to show him. He goes to the crypt but the door is locked.

The very next day Samuel Kincaid is found smothered, hmmm...

Bruce (who's in love with Donna) pops in again and begs Donna not to go see Wayne, who he believes to be the murderer. Donna tells him to get lost.

Then, Belle Kincaid is found murdered!! What is going on here?!

At the Kincaid's home, Wayne and Donna hear some sounds and go exploring in the basement, where they find Bruce yet again. Wayne is ready to pound Bruce.

Spending the night at Donna's, it's finally revealed who the real murderer is... WAYNE!! Great twist, he was always portrayed as the victim in the Inner Sanctum stories.

Wayne goes upstairs and has a discussion with his dead wife on how to handle Donna, who, you know, could tattle-tale on him!

This is the only pillow that you see in the movie, as he presses it down over Donna's head!

But, McCracken and Bruce break into the room and Wayne is pulled off Donna. Bruce runs over to console Donna.

Wayne asks his wife what he should do now that he's caught, and she tells him to join her and Wayne jumps out the open window!

It's a happy ending, Bruce now has Donna and Julian inherits the Kincaid estate enabling him to continue his work in psychic phenomenon.

A 008 OPERAZIONE STERMINIO - "Let's Go Bowling" (1965)

 

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is a fairly interesting Italian spy film from 1965 called "A 008 Operazione Sterminio," and was released in English as "008: Operation Exterminate."

"A 008 Operazione Sterminio," is written and directed by Umberto (Eaten Alive) Lenzi, so you gotta know it's not your every day run of the stone mill spy movie!

 

The two main provocateurs are Alberto (Atom Age Vampire) Lupo as British Agent 606, Frank Smith..........

................And Ingrid Schoeller as American Agent 008, MacDonald!

The movie begins in Giza, Egypt, at the site of "The Great Pyramids," and "The Great Sphinx."

They have been sent by their different countries to work together as a team to find an anti-radar device that is threatening the security of the world. Frank Smith and MacDonald are being watched from the very beginning!

MacDonald's cover is that of a nightclub singer named Piper Astor!

Ingrid Schoeller is a good lookin' gal, but you'll never see much of her anywhere else, unless you watch a lot of Italian movies. She was also in one episode of "I Spy,' and one episode of "The Saint," but I think those were her only U.S. credits. She graced the covers of five magazines in Britain and Italy in the 60's and 70's.

I told you they were being watched all the time. This fool's even monitoring the activities inside their hotel room, so they have to make it look good!

MacDonald and Cairo, Egypt compliment each other quite nicely!

This freak with a glove that shoots knives pursues them for most of the film!

He's played by Sal (Death Rage) Borgese who has 138 credits total, as a lot of different bad guys!

Then all Hell breaks loose, first the women at the Institute of Beauty Charmant attacks MacDonald, who luckily has a few tricks up her sleeve herself!

Knife-glove boy then tries to get in on the action, but he's not really that accurate.

Meanwhile Frank Smith is catching up on his reading by the pool. Nice choice of reading material!

Then Frank and MacDonald start out on the worst day of their lives. First somebody has tampered with the brakes on the special car they were given to drive, which causes them to crash in the middle of the stinkin' desert!

They try and hitchhike back to town and are picked up this nice couple in a weird truck.The truck is weird because it is really a traveling gas chamber!

They manage to escape that, and are happy they have something to drive again, when MacDonald hears something ticking!

So that was a three tiered attempt on their lives, but they still somehow managed to survive them all!

From there, they proceed to steal this little beauty from a tourist, and finally are able to continue on their mission!

They finally get to the location of the anti-radar device, and it reminds me of some interactive kid's museum, or are they the bowling balls of the future?

After all that Frank and MacDonald end up near The Matterhorn in Switzerland, and he pulls the old double-cross on her because he's really a Russian posing as a British agent!

But MacDonald turns it back on him again, because she already knew that, and has friends ready to take him away, when they get back down.

Well, so much for that romance!

In The End, it turns out that Frank was actually a British agent, who was merely posing as a Russian that was pretending to be a British agent, and everybody gets to bowl and live happily ever after, just the way it was meant to be in Umberto Lenzi's world.