THE SCI-FI AND HORROR MOVIES OF 1954

For some reason the other day, I was wondering what it would look like if I compiled a list of all the sci-fi and horror movies from 1954. I thought the list would be strange, you know, 1954, and there are lots more sci-fi flicks than there are horror films. Movies are in random order.

We got our first television in 1953, so, I got to watch movies like KILLERS FROM SPACE on TV a lot because they re-ran them all the time, mostly Friday and Saturday evenings. I liked this one, it was just so weird, and for a kid, it delivered the goods. Love the ping pong eyeballs!

I swear, I cannot remember if my dad took me to see CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, there are a few parts I remember for some reason, and, this was not a movie that played very often on TV at all. Now, I cannot watch it, it's boring as Hell, but the Creature costume is superb!

GOG is another movie they played the crap out of on TV in the fifties. I was creeped out a little by the robots, I loved the sets, but that spinning two-seat centrifugal machine was plain ridiculous!

I can't tell you how many time I saw RIDERS TO THE STARS on TV, but many. The main thing I was interested in was the scene where the astronaut gets toasted by a meteor, of course!

I'd say they started playing GODZILLA on TV in 1955, and soon thereafter, GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN. The original Godzilla is terrifying!

I'm not sure if I saw MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR on TV. As a kid, I probably wouldn't have stuck around for the 55 minutes it took before they showed the monster. Love that damn monster though, a small masterpiece of imagination.

I totally preferred anything sci-fi to horror, the ideas were fresh and space monsters were a new kind of horror. PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE just recycled another ape.

They played TARGET EARTH a bit on TV and it was okay, but watching it now is a real chore, and, there was only one actual robot!

I don't think I ever saw a Bowery Boys movie at the theater. In THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS, the boys are stuck in a haunted house filled with creeps and ghouls, and a man eating plant. Here at The Dungeon, we prefer MASTERMINDS, it's so freaking hilarious!

Vincent Price gives another great performance as THE MAD MAGICIAN, and for a second time the movie's filmed in 3-D, a follow up to HOUSE OF WAX a year earlier.

Here's another one they played a lot on television, another boring movie, SNOW CREATURE. The monster looks like a guy in a suit playing a monster, you can practically see a zipper!

Here's the finest movie to come out of 1954, THEM! They may have played this one on TV but it would have been on some special occasion during prime time.

I can still watch DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS at times, and again, they played this one a lot on TV in our area (Fresno and Bakersfield) in the fifties. It definitely has atmosphere, and a refrigerator shaped robot, unlike the one shown on the poster.

I always loved to watch TOBOR THE GREAT when it came on, really terrific robot. But my very favorite part in when Russians are entering the scientist's compound and they play wartime sounds with dive bombers, machine guns and explosions over the loud speakers (with flashing lights), chasing off the bad guys in a hurry..

Never even saw STRANGER FROM VENUS until like 10 or so years ago. Boring, way too much yakkity-yak, ho-hum. Dude was trying to capitalize on his marriage to Patricia Neal.

Can't remember seeing THE ATOMIC KID but sure I must have. You can tell that a number of actors are going to be chewing lots of rug! Included this title for the Hell of it!

Then there's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA from Disney, another movie I have no desire to watch again. When the giant octopus attacks the Nautilus at the end, it just looks silly, or maybe just plain stupid.

Here's one for Eegah, our last movie on the list. GORILLA AT LARGE is one wild and weird horror movie starring the lovely Anne Bancroft. Well, there you go, the sci-fi and horror movies from 1954, a warm up for what was yet to come!!

MANNIX - "The Mouse That Died" (1970)

 

This Saturday Night Special is brought to you courtesy of Lord Litter in Berlin. There were 194 episodes of Mannix made, and I sure as Hell don't have time to sort through them all, so it's pretty cool that I have somebody I can trust to find one for you, and this is a good one!

 

"The Mouse That Died" was episode five of the fourth season of "Mannix," and aired in 1970. 

 Mike (Voodoo Woman) Connors is "Mannix." Mike's real name was Krekor Ohanian, and in his first few films he was billed as Touch Connors.

Mannix would be lost without Peggy, as played by Gail Fisher. Gail was a multiple beauty contest winner, and was the first black actress to win an Emmy, and she was also the first black actress to win a Golden Globe award.

"Mannix" is shot from a lot of different angles, and at times it feels like you're watching a German Krimi movie. The music swings like a German film too, and was composed by Laurence (Meteor)  Rosenthal.

Mike Connors was born in 1925 in Fresno, California, and lived to be 91 years old!

In this episode, Mannix has been poisoned, and the whole time is spent trying to find out who did it and why, because it's unknown what the poison is, but what they do know is that it's slowly killing Mannix.

Mannix suddenly finds himself in the middle of some ritual he doesn't understand!

And then he dies!

What was really going on was he was having some severe hallucinations, and he finds out about it when he wakes up in the hospital after falling down a flight of stairs.

Mannix keeps feeling worse but insists on trying to get to the bottom of the whole thing

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While riding in the car he hallucinates that they are being attacked by an armed helicopter.

This is a very oppressive looking logo.

Hugh Beaumont has a small part as a guy named Hammond. Most people when they see Hugh's face immediately think "Leave It To Beaver," but Hugh also had some good monster movie creds like "Lost Continent," "The Mole People," and "The Human Duplicators."

Mannix is just getting sicker and sicker, and now has received the bad news that the mouse had died. They had taken a mouse and shot it up with some blood from Mannix, and they were monitoring it to see how long it took for the poison to work. That's where the title came from.

Mannix is getting so weak and pale, he's starting to look like Barnabas Collins.

Of course the guy causing all the problems, and doing all the poisoning was Walter White!

Longevity says a lot about quality. "Mannix" was on television for eight seasons from 1967 to 1975. I think that about says it all!

WILLIE WHOPPER In "The Air Race" - 1933

Well, do I have a one wild and weird cartoon for you, and something that will blow your mind, like it did mine!

The kids notice a poster of the Big Air Meet! happening today.. So, Willie starts telling his tall tale of when he won an air race!

Even here it's a little weird, one of the racer's name is Dirty Dick! flying in his plane, the 'Buzzard.' It's fun to read those old signs.

Here are the pilots getting their DIY planes ready for the race.

Dirty Dick has a very cool plane you gotta admit. In almost every 'race' cartoon the bad guy is a big bully with an awesome black car, train or plane.

Dick fine tunes his gigantic engine with a tuning fork. Great artwork!

He messes with Willie, laughing his ass off about what a sorry excuse he has for a plane!

Another weird part is when Dirty Dick gives Willie the raspberries and Willie looks back at his plane's rear end. What else could it mean except that he thought the plane let one?

And, the race is on!

Okay, get ready for the big one, Elizabeth! This angel was thumbing for a ride when the planes come whizzing by, AND, he flips them off when none of them stop for him!!! Seriously, what the Hell, man!! Can you believe this?!! Wow!

I just like this shot for no reason.

Willie's catching up with Dirty Dick, so, Dick tosses a blanket at him. Willie is blinded when it wraps around his head.

They animated Willie flying into a giant smoke stack, causing it to fall after he crashes through it. The scene was of the actual demolition of the stack, shown falling in a news clip that makes it look like Willie knocked it over as it crashes to the ground! Pretty cool.

Along the way, Willie runs into a fireworks shack and uses some of them to make his plane jet powered.

Dirty Dick sees Willie coming and whips his plane like a horsey to go faster. The top pic is fairly psychedelic for me.

Willie ends up plowing through Dirty Dick's plane and he wins the race.

And of all things, Amelia Earhart praises Willie and gives him a big kiss on his cheek for winning the race!

Back to reality, as Willie is finishing up his story, the big horseshoe hanging there comes loose and conks him on the head, becoming his flower wreath like in the pic above! And the cow is the one that really kissed him. So, leave some comments for this crazy cartoon from Ub Iwerks Studio...