FLIP THE FROG In "The Village Barber" - 1930

Man, cartoons from 1930 (92 years ago) were just plain weird, and basically incoherent! Like this little Ub Iwerks story starring old Flip The Frog.

Flip is a barber getting ready for another day's work at his shop, he lubes his barber pole so that it works smoothly...

And he even lubes his little bug pals that turn the pole. For some reason, after he lubes them, they get all happy and really enjoy their work!.. Weird!

This piggy kid sees the pole, tosses down his lollipop, tears off the pole, starts licking it and walks away. Flip gets another pole but we won't go into that, too weird, poor kitty cat...

Then this shaggy guy 's walking down the street when he gets a gander of himself in a reflection, holy cow man!

And he heads into Flip's barber shop.

Flip's having quite a problem trying to comb out the guy's hair! Stubborn!

Flip pulls out his clippers (with a little face on it of course) and he starts shaving the guy, who's definitely in need of a good grooming!

This one's got me stumped..

Then it happens, a customer decides to listen to a tune on the old player piano.

NOOOOO!!..

Too late, a big old spider pops out and starts dancing on the piano keys, playing a ragtime number.. Next stop, Crazy-Ville!

I mean, just look at this pot-belly stove after it gets a mouthful of coal! It's higher'n Hell. Another thing I noticed is that the place is a dump!

So, all hands on deck putting the finishing touches on the old hound, as they merrily move to the nutty song.

They all start singing along in harmony, until...

The hound hits a low note and the floor crashes through.

And they finish the song from there! Just like this post!

A MATTER OF DEGREES - "Where Is My Mind" (1990)

 

January 26, 2022 sounds like a perfect date for a Wild and Rockin' Wednesday down in The Dungeon."

Tonight's feature is a 1990 movie called "A Matter Of Degrees," and while this isn't the greatest movie in the world, it sure has one of the best soundtracks I've heard lately!

This composite shot from the opening credits kind of explains it all!

The Minutemen are one of my favorite bands of all time, and so for their music to be featured in this film makes me really like this movie, even though I didn't really like it that much! Almost all of the music in this film is really good, and if Jim Dunbar is the guy responsible, then cheers to him, because he did a really good job.

Some of the fantastic music is supplied by fIREHOSE, John Doe, UncleTupelo, The Ophelias, Pere Ubu, Thelonius Monster, The Velvet Monkeys, Throwing Muses, Mikey Dread, The Pixies, and the list goes on and on. There are also a couple of really nice jazz cuts by Eric Dolphy, Coleman Hawkins, and John Coltrane!

The basic story is about a college radio station that is going to have to go away because of corporate greed disguised as community involvement.

 I can identify with that. I worked at a college radio station in the 70's, and it was fun and interesting, but frustrating at times. You couldn't get a show unless you knew somebody, but by volunteering to be part of a radio drama of the story "Lysistrata," I was offered a time slot. The funniest thing was, a few months later, when Summer came and half the student body left town, I was having to do five or six shows a week, and basically run the place because there were not enough people.

One of the DJ's is named The Scuzz, and is played by Tom Gilroy. Tom directed a video for R.E.M.

John Doe from the band X is also one of the DJ's.

Wendell Pierce is another DJ named Wells Dennard. Wendell was born in New Orleans, an although he was never a musician, he did take trombone lessons when the character he was playing in the TV "Treme" was a trombonist.

The real star of the movie is not even one of the DJ's, but a kid trying to get into law school named Maxwell Glass. Max was played by Arye (Santo Bugito) Gross.

Lovable whackjobs Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson of The B-52's have a brief scene as lovable whackjobs Moonboy and Bambi.

 

Another very interesting thing about this film, is that there is a really funny scene at a party, and the guy playing the guitar and singing horribly is John F. Kennedy Jr. This is the only movie John John was ever in, and lucky for you, somebody was kind enough to put all twenty-seven seconds of it on YouTube!

The band named Fetchin Bones performs a pretty cool song called "Love Crushin."

 

 

I always did like the cover of their "Bad Pumpkin" LP.

 

This movie is "Dedicated To The Memory Of D. Boon," who joined the 27 Club just before Christmas in 1985.

If I was you, I'd do what I did. Forget this movie, and just buy yourself a copy of the soundtrack instead. I found a copy on Discogs for $3.09.

I don't think the same person who picked out the music for the movie picked out the songs for the album. I would have made some different choices, and at least included one of the Minutemen tunes, but it's still good!

A BUCKET OF BLOOD In Color - 1959

Here's one of our favorite movies, one that Eegah!! and I saw way back when we were in 6th grade! This movie is great, and today we have a colorized version to show off. You can see on this British poster that it was rated X (adults only), just like all the other horror movies at that time.

The cast is awesome, which includes Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Anthony Carbone, Julian Burton, Ed Nelson, Judy Bamber, Bert Convy, Bruno VeSota and even Sheila Noonan!

Beatnik poet Maxwell is doing his thing, accompanied by saxophone, for the audience at The Yellow Door hangout. There on the left is the owner, Leonard, enjoying the groove.

Walter Paisley is a busboy there, he has memorized Maxwell's hip poetry and is quoting him to some customers, and they're impressed by his artistic enthusiasm.

Walter decides that he wants to be a real artist and buys some modelling clay. He's attracted to a girl at the Yellow Door, Carla, and tries to do her face in clay to impress her but fails miserable, and gets violently frustrated!! He ends up killing the landlady's pet cat with a knife (not on purpose) who got stuck in the wall, and won't stop screeching. Then, Walter gets an idea...

The next day before work, Walter takes his new sculpture to The Yellow Door to show to Leonard and Carla. They're so impressed that Walter gets to display it inside the club with the other artists. The name of the piece is called.. Dead Cat! Leonard asks him why it has a knife in it, and Walter replies.. I didn't mean to!!

Then, when leaving the club, drug addict Naolia hands Walter a small packet and tells him to stick it in his pocket, which he does. An undercover cop sees the transfer and follows Walter to his home. The cop tells Walter, who's holding a griddle, that he's under arrest for possession of horse. Confused as Hell, Walter buries the pancake maker in the cop's skull after he pulls out his gun!

At this point, Leonard knows that Walter just covered the cat in clay. An art dealer wanted to buy the piece for $100, but Leonard says it's not for sale, because, he knows the dirty secret and it would be bad for business if discovered. Then the guy offers him $500 because his wife wants it so bad! And greedy Leonard sells it to him. Leonard gives Walter $50, instead of 50/50 as agreed!

Leonard wants Walter to work at home and complete a number of pieces for a show, instead of bringing them to the club one at a time. This one's called.. Murdered Man!

So, Walter invites Leonard and Carla over to check out his new sculpture. Carla is totally impressed with the piece, but Leonard is freaked by what he thinks might be under the clay! I have to admit, my favorite part of the crazy story is the fact that Leonard knows what's going on the whole time, and how he reacts to one horror after another, just to keep the secret.

Then super bitch Alice shows up at the club and makes fun of Walter's claims of being an artist, but does mention that she will model for him for $25 an hour. Later, Walter goes to her place and tells her he'll pay the price, and he's ready to work. The rest is history.

At Maxwell's place, Walter gets to show off his newest masterpiece, a Nude!! Everyone loves it, Walter is definitely a superstar.

Later at the club, Maxwell celebrates King Walter's accomplishments to the audience, all hail the King of Sculptures!!

Walter leaves the club, he's drunk as Hell and gets an idea for another piece!

He show it to Leonard the next day.

Before Walter's show starts, he says he wants to talk with Carla. Walter says that he's in love with her and wants to get married! Carla levels with him, she's not in love with him, not good.

They go back to the club for the show and Walter's in a horrible mood.

Then it happens, Carla has noticed that the nude has a body beneath the clay. She goes to Walter and tells him, and he says.. Yeah, that's Alice! Carla dashes out of the club and runs down the street in the dark, followed by Walter.

Then, the other undercover cop finds his partner under the clay, and it's a race to find the killer.

Walter is hearing voices now, he finally heads for his home for safety.

The others have followed him and when they open his door!... Hope you enjoyed  this classic movie in dying color!!