HOLLYWOOD ON PARADE - "Betty Boop Meets Dracula" (1933)

 

"Hollywood On Parade" was a series of shorts produced by Paramount Studios between 1932 and 1934 that featured a variety of programming, and is what's in the spotlight for this week's Weird Wednesday presentation in The Dungeon.

 

 This fascinating episode was number A-8, and came out in 1933. It is one of only two films that ever featured a real human as Betty Boop, instead of her cartoon persona, and is perfect for the occasion since this is National Betty Boop Week!

If you didn't know it was National Betty Boop Week, it's because I just made it up, but since there's a day, a week, or a month for almost every other damn thing in the world, then why not?

This episode takes place in the Hollywood Wax Museum!

Besides, Betty Boop, the stars are Eddie Borden and Bela Lugosi. Eddie Borden made a career from a multitude of uncredited screen appearances in minute roles as a drunk, a poker player, a bird watcher, a man on a bus, a man at a table, etc. etc. etc.

Eddie tries to put the make on the wax dummy of Clara Bow, not knowing that the wax figure of her husband Rex Bell, was actually Rex himself, who suggests that Eddie's affections would be better off directed at Betty Boop instead of his wife!

The wax figure of Betty Boop is very realistic because she's not wax!

Not knowing that she is real, Eddie will find out real fast when he gets a slap in the mug for messing with Betty's garter!

Eddie suggests that Betty sings a song, and then her accompanies her as she sings "My Silent Love." In the heyday of the cartoons, Betty's voice was done by Margie Hines, Harriett Lee, Mae Questel, Kate Wright, Little Ann Little, and as seen here, Bonnie Poe.

To make the whole thing a whole lot more interesting, the wax figure of Bela Lugosi as Dracula, comes to life!

Dracula leaves his position, and moves in on Betty Boop, and those two dummies are not going to be able to help her one bit!

At first it looks like Dracula is going to dance with Betty, but as a vampire, he has alternative ideas.

So what did you think was gonna happen??

I'll be back on Saturday with more Betty Boop madness!

LOST IN SPACE / "Ghost In Space" - 1966

Here's a very atmospheric episode from season one of Lost In Space, it's strange from the beginning and doesn't let up. So, here we go...

John and Don are doing some drilling and tell Dr. Smith to go to the bog and put the explosives in a hole already drilled in a certain area, easy enough, right?!

And, the lazy doctor just tosses it anywhere, of course!

Low and behold, an invisible monster (FORBIDDEN PLANET) has been released by the misplaced explosion, and there's just one person to be blamed... Give you one guess.

In the meantime, the doctor is creating an Ouija board so that he can contact his long dead uncle Thaddeus!

In a séance setting, the doctor is trying to get serious but is being laughed at by the others, especially Will, who can't quit giggling.

So, the doctor takes Penny away from the non-believers, that way they can concentrate more properly. But when they hear spooky sounds and things start lifting into the air, they hightail it back to the ship.

Then an invisible force attacks the ship and tears up their equipment.

John and Don are out working near the bog and are suddenly attacked by that unknown invisible force, knocking them on their cans!

The two men finally get away from the monster and head back to the ship. There, they find the robot sporting a guitar. he had been playing at the doctor's séance while the two were gone!

John builds a cage to capture the monster, and later that night it happens. Okay, they have it in the cage, now what?!

Of course the thing finally breaks out, turns visible, and is back on the warpath. I swear, its feet are like two and a half feet long, wild!

Of course, Will sets out to do something at the bog and falls head first into a deep hole! Wowie, these sets are great!

Will has actually become invisible down in the bog. Yeah, the story's getting into that WTF zone. Anyway, the monster is now going after Dr. Smith, who is still looking to contact his uncle Thaddeus while wearing a monk's robe!! Again, WTF!!

Then this happens... I know, WTF!!

This event causes the monster to disappear into the void. Check out those feet! The guy playing the monster is Dawson Palmer, he was known as the resident monster on Lost In Space because of his huge frame. In 1972 he was driving home after work and died after hitting some heavy equipment in the shadows on the side of the road, he was only 36 years old. Another Hollywood tragedy.

Anyway, Will is now visible and everything is just fine. So, this episode had a FORBIDDEN PLANET angle, just not so cerebral. And, the very next episode had the real Robby The Robot in it!! Well, there you go, have a good week guys...

BEWITCHED - "Birdies, Bogies and Baxter" (1967)

When I found the Halloween "Bewitched" show, I also stumbled on this one that was Episode seven from season four that I thought looked interesting, so here's your Saturday Night Special for this week!

This episode was titled "Birdies, Bogies and Baxter," and really puts Darrin in the spotlight. He's got a potential new client who is a golf nut, so Darrin has been spending a lot of his time honing his golf game to impress the guy, and is very tired.

Endora puts a hex on Darrin, making him be able to play as good as he did in college, in hopes that he will spend more time at the golf course and less time at home.

If you don't like golf, then this story line will probably not be that interesting to you!

Darrin, on the other hand, is really getting into it!

MacDonald Carey is the "Baxter" in the title. He's a very serious golfer and a bad loser. If MacDonald looks familiar to you, it's probably because from 1965 to the year of his death in 1994, MacDonald was Dr. Tom Horton in the long running soap opera "Days Of Our Lives." Even if you never watched an episode of "Days Of Our Lives" in your life, it's more than likely you saw Joe's face when you walked through the room during one of the 3,556 episodes that your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, or your wife was watching!

These look like golf carts of the future, not the past. They remind me more of one of the cars at Autopia!

Dick York had a pretty nice golf swing. I don't know how much it was bothering him at this point, but two years later, he would have to quit the show because of chronic back pain!

The wife's decide to join the party as bystanders!

Darrin is only three strokes behind Baxter, and it's starting to piss Baxter off!

Darrin's boss Larry doesn't want to lose this account, and he wants Darrin to lose the match, so while nobody's looking, he stomp's Darrin's impacted ball even further into the sand! What a jerk!

When that doesn't work, he makes it look like Darrin's ball landed inside of a tin can!

Darrin's a good sport and plays the ball anyway, and with a little help from Samantha's cute little nose, the shot comes out just fine!

On the 18th hole, Darrin makes it in the cup from here, which leaves a two foot putt for Baxter to tie the game, but he chokes, and Darrin wins, and loses the contract for the deal.

Fortunately, Baxter's wife is the one with the controlling interest in the company, and she says Darrin's company gets the contract, Baxter has to eat it, and he realizes what a dick he has been.

All over TV from 1960 to 1967, this was Joan Banks last role!