JAMES BATMAN - "Bistek Tagalog" (1966)

This Saturday Night Special is just that! If you're a fan of the ridiculous, the absurd, and/or the insane, well then this is definitely a movie made to order for you!

"James Batman" is such a blatant rip-off, you could never make a film like this these days, and I'm actually surprised it's not completely banned by everybody! But it's not, so welcome back to what's cookin' tonight in The Dungeon! Sweet, Salty, and Sour!

You want some pancit with that adobo?

 

This crazy cat named Dolphy plays both a Batman character, and a James Bond character! Mr. Dolphy had 266 acting credits to his name, and parodied everybody from Dracula to Tarazan at one time or another. He also made a handful of movies where he played a character named Agent 1-2-3.

 

That's the whole story in a nutshell, that and the world has five days to meet The CLAW's demands or everything will be destroyed! 

CHEERS!

 

Before Batman and Robin can go to work, they scarf down a bunch of what looks like some kind of tapsilog breakfast treat.
 

As you can obviously see, Batman has got some very sophisticated high tech equipment!

James Batman and James Hika are not really on close terms, but they decided to put their differences aside so they can save the world!

The swank Batmobile is a converted old Cadillac, which looks to me to be a 1959.

There's plenty of action in this film, in fact, there's too much! "James Batman" runs a little over an hour and a half, and if it were cut down to about thirty minutes, it would probably be a pretty good movie. There's also a whole lot of non-action that could be cut out that wouldn't be much of a loss!

Although "James Batman" is largely an action/adventure movie, it is also undoubtedly a comedy!

One weird twist, in this film, Batman and Robin are brothers. Robin was played by a guy named Boy Alano. Boy has an amazing 144 credits of his own in films like "Papa Um Mamaw," and "Sandwich Shindig."

I just can't help but think that the blanket on the bed and on the wall, are made of the same fabric as James's suit!

They bring this CLAW girl in, and she hypnotizes the whole room full of guys with her body! In fact, the one guy there is so not paying attention that he sticks his cigarette in his nose of instead of his mouth!

Outlandish as it may seem, they even have a Penguin character!

This gang of Filipino guys is ready to rumble!

James finds a very unlikely place to hide from The Penguin.

I felt exactly the same way for the major portion of this film!

Now this VW van ambulance is pretty cool!

 

The CLAW is gonna get you, one way or another! No, that's not Debra Harry, but this is!

Then this guy Jimmy or Johnny or whatever his name is, shows up, and helps the guys defeat the CLAW.

Batman is so sneaky!

"James Batman" should not get mixed up with "TheTurkish Batman." It's easy to do since they are both equally insane. Boy, what a double feature that would be!

I did a little trolling around and found out that "James Batman" now plays freely on YouTube, so gather all your batty friends together, have a grand olde time, and figure it all out for yourself, because it makes about as much sense as anything else these days!

BEANY AND CECIL In "Beanyland" - 1962

Here's a great little episode from our pals floating around in the Leakin' Lena, it's all about a special trip to the Moon by the gang and a magical place created for the Moon Mice!

After failing with their first Moon rocket, the Cap'n builds another one around their boat and prepare for a trip into space!

Beany and Cecil fasten themselves in with the Cap'n at the helm...

The fuse is lit and the rocket streaks into the void, flattening out the crew due to the extreme G forces, and the fact that it's a Clampett cartoon.

Looks like the conflict has stowed away inside a crate made just for him, DJ you dirty guy! When the Cap'n tells Cecil to drop the anchor, DJ takes the shape of an anchor and Cecil drops him out a hole in the ship and DJ lands on the Moon before the gang does...

And, he's up to no good! He plans on mining the green cheese and selling it back on Earth, and when he's done... THERE WILL BE NO MOON LEFT!! And he'll be rich.

Love this shot of the rocket as Beany follows the Cap'n to where he plants flag, and...

He shows Beany his plan, a map of his proposed Moon attraction, Beanyland, modelled of course after Disneyland. But the names of the the 'lands' have been changed to protect their butts! We have Day After Tomorrow Land, Fantastic Land, Malice In Blunder Land, Slipping Beauty Castle, Madhatter Horn and the Darn Old Duck Pond.

Then, Cecil sings "When You Wish Upon A Moon" and the magic begins! Cap'n turns into a flying fairy and with his wand he sets out to create Beanyland!

Also love this shot of DJ trying to get a gander at what's going on. Hmmm, looks like a little competition!

Beanyland is finished and a bunch of Moon Mice line up to get in...

Everything's going great until DJ sneaks inside dressed up as a big rat! And he's there for one reason, destroy Beanyland!!

It gets insane when DJ commandeers the train that circles the park. Instead of Casey Jr. it's CRAZY JR... Hilarious!

At the submarine ride, DJ launches some torpedoes and sinks the ride.

DJ launches bombs from the top of Crazy Jr. and ends up destroying all the attractions!

But Beany makes a magical wish that makes DJ go Poof!

And Cap'n restores the place back to all its glory! Hope this one makes your day!

WOODY WOODPECKER - "Secret Agent Woody Woodpecker" (1967)

It's a Woody Woodpecker Wednesday in The Dungeon, and a 1967 Cartune from the studios of Walter Lantz called......................

 

 

........."Secret Agent Woody Woodpecker!"

 I've been watching a lot of secret agent and spy movies lately, so why not a secret agent cartune too? Cartunes is what Walter Lantz called his cartoons, and he produced 604 of them, so who are we to argue? There's a lot of good ones, but we probably won't ever get around to all of them.

 

The Villain is this nefarious and dirty character named Louie The Litterbug.

Louie's chronic litterbugging has got the Police in a frenzy, and they are left with no choice!

It's time to call Secret Agent Woody Woodpecker in on the job!

Woody comes racing to the rescue in his Peckermobile!

But Louie can see him coming a mile away, and has got Woody in his sights!

Woody has got all kinds of cool secret agent gadgetry at his disposal like this built in ink pen that sprays Louie with ink. (It was probably a much bigger mess to clean up that Louie's littering!)

Now Woody's going to use this giant pencil and eraser to "rub out" Louie!

And since it's a cartune, it works!

But that doesn't stop Louie, and in no time at all, he's back at it, scattering Litter all over the place!

 

This is 1967, and Woody has a drone to use! Drones were developed in the 1930's, but radio controlled drones wouldn't come into real use until the 1970's, and the 80's.

Woody also has something akin to an Apple watch! Pretty high tech for a woodpecker!

They do this gag twice, or actually four times. The first time, Louie gets an anvil that he drops off a rooftop dropped onto his own head because he came downstairs too fast, and they thought it was so funny, they decided to do an 'instant replay.'

A minute later, Louie gets this telephone pole dropped on his head, and even though he runs like a mile to get out of the way, he still gets boinked on the head, and again, they do an 'instant replay!'

Louie gets caught in the trash where he belongs!

But Yes, he escapes again! He is incorrigible!

Before he gets caught Louie parts Woody's hair real good with this pistol!

Louie  goes to jail, and Woody ends up in the cell next to him, because the Police gave him a letter, and after he opens it, the dummy tosses it on the ground, and is arrested immediately for littering! 

Boy, would the jails be full today if that still happened!

I'm not a big fan of these 'limited animation' cartoons that came into favor in the 60's. Growing up with the awesome animations of Popeye and Superman, these stylized flat cartoons were quite a disappointment, but if they had some good jokes, gags, and puns like this one, they were still fun!