MERRY MELODIES / "Tortoise Wins By A Hare" - 1943

Today we gots one of my favorite cartoons, and for good reason! It's directed by Bob Clampett and Tex Avery, written by Warren Foster with voices by Mel Blanc, Kent Rogers, Michael Maltese and even Tedd Pierce, how can you lose!

So, Bugs is reviewing footage from his last race where he lost to the turtle, and it's making him very angry! How in the heck does he lose to a turtle?!

Bugs decides to go to Cecil Turtle's home in disguise to try and get some information out of the little guy, to see what his secret to winning is...

Cecil shows Bugs his designs and it boils down to aerodynamics! You see, rabbit ears create wind resistance, and oh yeah, rabbits aren't very smart!!

Bugs goes to his workshop and is busy coming up with his solution to the problem.

And viola, Bugs has made himself a sleek racing shell, now he'll show that little so, and so!

And, the race is on!! Man, it's amazing what a small group of super talented artists can do with a measly 7 minutes!

Bugs has hidden his secret weapon down the road apiece in an old tree trunk, he's raced ahead of Cecil and put on his racing gear. And to solve the problem of wind resistance, Bugs simply uses a green swim cap, genius!!

After watching Cecil trot by, Bugs shoots on down the road so quickly it makes the turtle spin like a top!.. How can Bugs lose?!

Like Cecil said, rabbits aren't very smart. The gambling ring is out in force to make sure that the rabbit wins, as they put all their dough on Bugs!

It's reported, the turtle is on his way!! So, the boys cause a diversion!

Bugs plows into the wall and is then attacked by the gang. Bugs says... I'm a RABBIT!! And they hit him with a mallet and all yell... TOITLE!! It's a RABBIT.. TOITLE.. RABBIT.. TOITLE back and forth, hilarious!!

Cecil's there to affirm that Bugs is definitely a turtle.

As Bugs tries to escape, the gang shoot at him and even launch bombs to stop him.

The guys at the finish line have another special surprise for the turtle!

Bugs is so elated, he just can't believe that he's going to win the race!

The guys hold back the turtle from crossing the finish line, while...

Two other maroons grab Cecil and rush him across, ahead of Bugs!

All Hail Cecil!!..

Bugs reveals to them that.. HE'S THE RABBIT!!

In classic fashion, the guys say... Now he tells us!! That's it for today, now you can go out and play on your slide!

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND Will Always Be An Inspiration To Us!

 

I was looking for some inspiration tonight, so I dug out my copy of the first issue of SPACEMEN magazine, and inspire me it did. Covers painted by Basil Gogos have a tendency to have that effect on you. SPACEMEN was the third movie magazine put out by James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman in 1961 after their first publication FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND became so popular, and that magazine probably has more to do with why we do this than anything else.

The first issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND CAME OUT IN 1958, and I'm not completely positive, but I think the first issue I got at the newsstand was this one which was # 9 that

came out in 1960. After that, we tried to buy them all as they came out, and ordered as many back issues as we could afford, which wasn't many.

 

In 1960, Warren came out with their second magazine FAVORITE WESTERNS OF FILMLAND, which changed it's name by issue # 3 to WILDEST WESTERNS. There were no monsters, and more gags, so kids got bored, and the magazine only lasted six issues.
 

 

In 1962 Warren Publishing came out with SCREEN THRILLS ILLUSTRATED, which was a great magazine that covered serials and movies that didn't fall into the 'Monster' category, but it never really seemed to take off, and folded after ten issues. To this day, nobody seems much interested in this magazine, and I think I still have all my copies.

 

Other purveyors to the crown were the magazines CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and........

.........FANTASTIC MONSTERS OF THE FILMS.

These two magazines I actually liked, but they still just did not not compare to 

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND! The bar was just raised too high!

We always thought HORROR MONSTERS was a joke. Their covers were so bad compared to those of FAMOUS MONSTERS!

And HORROR MONSTERS sister publication titled MAD MONSTERS wasn't much better at all! The Creature looks like he's about three feet tall on this cover!

MAD MONSTERS, HORROR MONSTERS, and this one shot from 1962 titled WEREWOVES AND VAMPIRES, were all Charlton publications. The price was only thirty-five cents, but they still didn't seem to be worth that much to us.

There were a few more entrants into to the monster magazine race like this MONSTER PARADE from 1958, and ........

..................This MONSTER MANIA from 1967. Take note of the scary fonts they came up with for the word monster.

in 1964 Warren tried to reinvent themselves and came out with MONSTER WORLD, but it wasn't even good enough to compete with the original, and paled in comparison to FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, and because of that, it only lasted for ten issues.

In more modern times, SCREEM was the only magazine that came close to being what FAMOUS MONSTERS was. One of the main reasons SCREEM was good is because frequent Dungeon contributor Greg Goodsell was also writing reviews and interviews for them!

 

Well, that's my personal journey through the world of monster magazines, and I'll leave you where I started with another issue of SPACEMEN. This 1965 Yearbook has a very cool cover done by comic artistes Russ Jones and the beyond phenomenal Wally Wood.

While doing this, I stumbled on a blog that hasn't had a new post since 2010, but is a complete list of all the monster magazines of the 60's and more, and it's all lined out in a clear and concise manner, so if you'd like to see more of these fabulous covers, then head on over to the

MONSTER MAGAZINES blog. It's very well done!

THE SCREAMING SKULL In Color - 1958

So, here's another recent colorized horror movie from Allied Artists, this time it's THE SCREAMING SKULL where you are assured a free burial if you die of fright while viewing it at the theater. Eegah and I didn't see this one when it came out, but we did have the 1 sheet poster!

The story's about newlyweds Erik and Jenni Whitlock who move into the home of his late wife Marianne who died under mysterious circumstances a few years earlier. Jenni has history of mental illness, and when things start to get weird, she doesn't know if it's real or just her imagination playing tricks on her...

Here's the complete cast, left to right, Russ Conway as Reverend Snow, Tony Johnson as Mrs. Snow, Peggy Webber and Jenni Whitlock, John Hudson and Erik Whitlock and Alex Nicol as Mickey, the mentally challenged gardener.

The day after Erik and Jenni arrive, Erik has to go into town to take care of business. I used this still because it just looks cool.

Lots of back story going on here. Mickey adored the dead Marianne because they worked on the gardens together, she was like his mother figure. He misses her a lot.

Jenni is getting ready for bed when she hears something like a door slamming shut. As a kid, this is a part that we could only wish for, Peggy gots some dangerous curves there!

She puts on her nightgown and goes into a room where a skull is on a shelf in a cabinet. She ends up throwing it out the window to the ground below. Erik is away that night.

Then, someone or something is pounding on the front door so Jenni goes down the stairs to see who or what is there. In this shot, you get to see through her gown, revealing that she's not wearing a slip! Fairly risqué  for 1958.

Well, when she opens the door, this is what she sees. It rolls over to her and she faints.

A painting of Marianne seems to be bugging Jenni so Erik takes it and has her set it on fire in the back yard near Marianne's gravesite.

As Erik and Jenni put the embers out, she rakes over a spot and uncovers the skull, which makes her faint, again! Erik picks the skull up and hides it in the pond where Marianne had died.

But when Erik goes back to find the skull, it's gone! Mickey must have taken it so Erik physically assaults him, slapping him hard five times, but Mickey denies taking it.

After Erik leaves, Mickey looks around in the greenhouse and finds the skull beneath some leaves. He takes it to Reverend Snow to show him. 

Erik has decided that him and Jenni are leaving the place that night. Jenni goes to the greenhouse to say goodbye to Mickey but cannot find him. But, she does see Marianne's ghost there, the thing starts chasing her and she runs screaming back to the house.

Upstairs, Erik is fashioning a noose for Jenni. His plan is to make it look as if she has committed suicide, you see, he killed Marianne so that he could inherit her estate, and Jenni also inherited an estate from her deceased parents. Connect the dots!

After chocking Jenni out, he hears that crazy pounding on the front door and goes down to see who's there...

Surprise, surprise!! It's Marianne, there for revenge.

Erik runs outside trying to get away from the skull but it keeps following him.

It corners him in the pond, and of all things, it starts biting him on the throat!

Reverend and Mrs. Snow show up to console Jenni, who was not killed by Erik as he got distracted by the pounding on the door.

So, Erik got what he deserved, bringing this wild story to an end. Hope you enjoyed this colorized tale of horror...