NIGHT GALLERY / "The Different Ones" - 1971

Here's the companion piece for "Eye Of The Beholder" we vividly remember from The Twilight Zone, but, with a new twist of course.

Rod looks so cool here in his gallery of the weird, my kind of place!

So, the story's about Victor, his father, Paul Koch played by Dana Andrews, is desperate to find a better environment for his deformed son to be in, where he can have a somewhat normal life. He ends up contacting the government for help.

Having no friends at age 17, Victor is unhappy, he feels that he does not have a life of any worth, and is becoming very cynical about the matter. He now wears a hood and dark clothes to hide his ugliness.

Paul contacts the government to see if they can assist him in finding Victor a place to stay where he feels comfortable with other people in his condition.

They want to know what his condition is. Paul tears up and gets tongue-tied, so, Victor rips off his hood and says... I'm UGLY, look!!

Paul gets an appointment to meet with the supervisor for placement into a government institution, but, Victor has a condition that's not in the books, so, he'll either have to live with Paul, or... Be euthanized!!! 

As Paul is leaving, the supervisor gets a call, and it has to do with Victor...

Okay, here's the deal, there is a transfer that can be arranged to the planetoid, Boreon, for Victor. He will be flown there on a rocket ship where another person will be brought back to Earth on the return trip.

Victor agrees and is happy to go, anything's better than his existence on Earth! Wow, I bet that a lot of people in the world today would make that choice. FTW, right Dennis?!

Paul watches as Victor heads off into space, goodbye my son, and good luck!

Victor travels to Boreon in a Saturn 5 rocket, they had great stock footage from the Moon landing in 1969. I was stationed in the Army in Mannheim, Germany on that day and watched it on the TV in the break room with everyone else.

The second stage of the rocket drops off and Victor heads off into the void.

The planet there is actually the Earth, but, I think it's meant to be Boreon.

Here's Boreon, a small planetoid, Victor's destination.

Victor walks into a hallway from the rocket, no one is there to greet him.

Then a regular looking earthling type approaches him. He's the one that will be boarding the ship back to Earth. Victor asks him why does he want to go to Earth, and the guy says... Can't you see?! I'm UGLY! I don't belong here.

And the guy leaves to board the rocket. 

Finally, Victor is greeted by a Boreonian (I made that up) hostess, and guess what?

He looks like everyone else there, and is considered handsome! You can figure out what'll happen to the other guy on Earth, you know, he's pretty handsome himself. Kind of a silly comeback, black and white rules.

THE EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERY THEATRE - "The Malpas Mystery" (1967)

 

"It's Another Saturday Night And I Ain't Got Nobody" except Edgar Wallace, and I'm good with that! 

This week's Saturday Night Special is episode five of "The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre" from 1967 titled "The Malpas Mystery."

 

The show opens with a woman being released from prison. The women is named Audrey Bedford and was played by Maureen (The Deadly Game) Swanson.

Maureen retired from acting when she married into royalty in 1969.

At least she's not alone, because she has a not so loving stepsister named Dora, as played by Sandra (Devil Doll) Dorne. Dora's housekeeper was played by Catherine (Curse Of The Werewolf) Feller.

At first Audrey is rebuked by her stepsister, but is then welcomed when said sister gets a call.

So the two sisters go to a party where there are stupid rich people that need to be taken advantage of!

Mr. Malpas is a creepy dude who lives in a run down flat!

This guy has some pertinent information for him that's for sale!

 

Yeah, well, it doesn't exactly work that way, and the informant disappears never to be seen again until they fish his body out of the river.

This is the scary looking entrance to Malpas' place.

Up the stairs and into a weird room where Mr. Malpas shines a bright light in your face so you can't see him!

Anthony (Captain Midnight) Bate is the constable who put Audrey away, but he's also falling for her in a big way now that she's out.

Allan (The Trygon Factor) Cuthbertson is Lacey Marshalt, the neighbor of the mysterious Mr. Malpas. He's also a scoundrel and Dora's boyfriend. He's always complaining that Malpas is strange, and there's always weird noises coming from his flat.

Not very many people in this story, or actually almost any Edgar Wallace tale, are who they pretend to be.

A seemingly dead Lacey is found in the room of Malpas, but he's not really dead!

Dora pretends to be Audrey in an effort to chisel some money out of Audrey's Dad who hasn't seen her in 20 years.

Lots of drinking, lots of smoking, and lots of mystery, and the guy you can thank for it all is my good friend Lord Litter in Berlin, just because he knows how much I dig Edgar Wallace.

I'm telling you, if you like good music, he provides more of it today than anybody I know on his radio shows!

Try it, you'll like it, and that's a guarantee!

THE THREE STOOGES In "Cactus Makes Perfect" - 1942

It's time for another Stooges adventure here at The Dungeon and get a few laffs on a Friday.

Monte Collins plays the Stooges mom, who loves them but wants to pummel them most of the time. She even does Curly's woob, woob and face wipes, fun to watch her.

The boys try and show mom how Curly's new invention, a 'gold finding' contraption, works. Well, it doesn't go well.

She tells them to go find some gold, and gives them all a swift boot to the rear to send them on their merry way!

Curly's talking about his gold finding machine and is overheard by a 'gold mine salesman' who cons them out of fifty bucks for the rights to a mine. Curly then has to pay another fifty bucks for the map!

Out in the woods, Curly fires up his machine and lets one of the gold searching arrows fly!

And, it lands square in prospector Vernon Dent's behind! Vernon is always a delight to watch in the many Stooge shorts he appeared in. Did you know he had 449 acting credits?!

The boys go searching for their arrow and see Vernon holding it. Curly says, hey, that's mine, Vernon draws his gun and starts shooting!

The boys hightail it out of there while being fired at, Curly backs into a cactus and the needles have to be pulled out one by one, and, there are lots of them!

With his last arrow, Curly ties it to his wrist so that he won't lose it, and he flies away with it, until...

He lands head first in the boarded up entrance to an old abandoned gold mine!

Moe and Larry do everything they can to get Curly extracted, but, it don't work.

So, Larry and Moe push him and he breaks through the boards and crashes to the bottom of a deep pit. Then they drop the tools down on top of him! Just what you'd expect.

After a few close quarters antics, and Moe getting conked in the head with a pick, Curly keeps getting tapped on the noggin by a wooden lever!

Curly pulls the lever down and, Jackpot!!

The boys exit the mine with their bag of gold in tow, but the two prospectors have been waiting for them. Vernon  creeps up behind Curly and is ready to snatch the gold, when, Curly swings the bag over his shoulder and bonks him on the head but good!

It gives the boys time to find a building to hide in. But the angry prospectors have followed them there and are lurking around outside.

The boys hide in a big safe and lock themselves inside, so, the prospectors drill a hole in the door and slide a lit stick of dynamite through.

The boys slide it back through the hole a few time before it finally ends up in Curly's hand, ready to explode! It fizzles out and they give a big sigh of relief...

Then, it goes off after tosses it on the floor, blowing them through the steel walls. It ends here with no resolution. Okay, class is over, go outside and play or something.