THE TWILIGHT ZONE - "Steel" (1963)

There are SO many great episodes of "The Twilight Zone," and every one of them has been discussed multiple times, and yet, the subject just never gets old. That's just how damn good the show was, so The Saturday Night Special on the menu tonight is from Season 05, Episode 02 called simply "Steel."

 

 

I love the forward and backwards letters, it just doesn't make sense!

It's 1974, and boxing has been declared barbaric, and is forbidden, but since there's still a need to watch two guys beat the crap out of each other and bet on it, they now employ robots to do the fighting. Okay, so they got that part of the timeline wrong, but there's some rich professional boxers today who are mighty thankful for it.

 

This robot is already falling apart, do you see where this is going? His wheels have already literally fallen off, and the wheels are only for transporting him around.

Lee (Gorilla At Large) Marvin is ex-boxer turned manager/trainer Steel Kelly, and Joe (The Birds) Mantell is the corner man known as Pole. They just need to get one win to get them on the road to fortune, unfortunately their robot is an older model, and needs a tuneup.

Did you know that there was an episode of the "Jack Benny Program" where Jack hires Rod Serling to improve his show but he winds up trapped in the "Twilight Zone" himself? Me neither, but somehow I gotta see that! Steel and Pole agree!

 

I haven't seen everything Lee Marvin was ever in, but from what I have seen, I'm sure every one of them is worth watching!

Lee Marvin and Joe Mantell are so good, they were both in another episode of "The Twilight Zone."

Battling Maxo doesn't stand a chance. The B7's are the latest models. It's just a paycheck!

Despite the odds, the boys are ready, but Pole has his doubts.

Battling Maxo ain't looking that great, but Steel has faith in him!

Here's the inside story on what makes Battling Maxo work!

Steel and Maxo have a little impromptu sparring session that causes Maxo to have a wiring problem that won't allow him to fight.

Anywhere else but "The Twilight Zone," and they would have headed to that exit sign!

Steel knows that nobody in this part of the country has ever seen Maxo before, so he goes out to fight Maynard Flash himself just to get the $500.00 payday.

Chuck Hicks has the role of the robot Maynard Flash. Chuck wasn't just screwing around either, besides acting, he was a professional boxer, a football player, a stunt man, you name it, Chuck did it.

Lee looks pretty cool in his robot makeup!

Chuck Hicks was one of those guys who made movies and TV shows so good over the years, and he just passed away last May at the age of 94. Thanks Chuck, we salute you!

 

No, there's no fairy tale ending because this is "The Twilight Zone," so even after getting the shit beat out of him, Steel only gets a partial paycheck because he didn't even finish one round.

Bust your ass, and still get screwed, that's the message of hope delivered here!

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!