FELIX THE CAT / Trans-Lux TV - 1959

Welcome to Moldie Oldie Monday here at the Dungeon, with yer knotty old host Tabonga and lil' Dungeon helper, Rufus the Gnat!! This post is a special request from our little pet pals, Ralphie and Rufus!

To put this great series in perspective, here's an excerpt from Wikipedia... "In 1954 Otto Messmer retired from the Felix daily newspaper strips, and his assistant Joe Oriolo (the Creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost) took over. Oriolo struck a deal with Felix's new owner, Pat Sullivan's nephew, to begin a new series of Felix cartoons on television. Oriolo went on to star Felix in 260 television cartoons distributed by Trans-Lux and produced by King Features Syndicate and Paramount Cartoon Studios (formerly Famous Studios) starting in 1958. Oriolo gave Felix a more domesticated and pedestrian personality, geared more toward children, and introduced now-familiar elements such as Felix's Magic Bag of Tricks, a satchel that could assume any shape and characteristic Felix wished it to be."

The program is also remembered for its distinctive theme song written by Winston Sharples, and performed by 1950's big band singer Ann Bennett...

Felix the Cat,
The wonderful, wonderful cat!
Whenever he gets in a fix,
He reaches into his bag of tricks!
Felix the Cat
The wonderful, wonderful cat
You'll laugh so much your sides will ache
Your heart will go pitter pat
Watching Felix, the wonderful cat!
Felix the Cat
The wonderful, wonderful cat
You'll never know what he'll do next
So don't even try to take a guess
Felix the Cat
The wonderful, wonderful cat
He's so much fun for everyone
No one can question that
Cause he's Felix, the wonderful cat!

Okay then, Rufus sez, let's get this show on the road! Check out our Eariffic Earclip for... FELIX BABY-SITS!

Felix is out wandering around at night when he notices that The Professor is looking for a baby-sitter for his nephew, Poindexter, so that he can go to a wrestling match!

I guess there's no fuel like an old fuel!

Poindexter's full of laffs!

This was 1959!!

How can they do this to kids?!

Poindexter concocts a 'little' drink for Felix!

And, it works!!

Being a true scientist, Poindexter inspects his handywork with, what else, a microscope!

Felix meets The Blob Sisters, they multiply by dividing!!

Then, Gulpo, King Of The Blobs shows up!

Poindexter comes up with an enlarging serum, but some gets on Gulpo when he administers it to Felix with a eye dropper!

Felix throws the entire glass of shrinking serum at Gulpo, who then dissolves into nothingness, and Felix saves the day once again!!

Then, Poindexter blows himself into a flask!..

Which makes it easy for Felix to corral him til The Professor returns!

HELLZAPOPPIN' - Don Raye & Gene de Paul, Frank Skinner, Slim & Slam, Martha Raye, Jane Frazee, The Six Hits - "Il Cabaret Dell' Inferno" (1941)

Hellzapoppin' was an uncanny New York stage show brought to the big screen, and the enthusiastically wild music was composed by a couple of cool dudes, lyricist Don(Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy) Raye and compser Gene(Cow Cow Boogie) de Paul! The basic soundtrack is attributed to Mr. Frank (Abbott and Costello) Skinner!

Maybe I've said this before about some other movie, but "HELLZAPOPPIN'" just might be THE best movie ever made, period, paragraph, end of story, would the prosecution like to rest their case? Real quick, just let me say that tonight's special feature is brought to you courtesy of the honourable Professor Grewbeard! Can we have a hardy clap for the Prof? One, two, three.....!

Just to get it started, a Pre-Stooges SHEMP HOWARD IS WORKIN' THE PROJECTOR!! Give me a break!!

Excuse my French, but just what in the name of Hades is goin' on here??

The action is HOT and Heavy!! No CGI, just a whole lot of Devil-Freaks moving around together in synch, like some kind of insane comedic tornado from where else, that's right, HELL!!

You've got your "Satanic Choir!"

You've got your Bar-B-Qued Teriyarki "Chix-On-A-Stick!"

The ever so popular, "Canned Guy" assembly line!

And last but not least, you've got Chic Johnson and Ole Olsen!!

And what are Olsen and Johnson staring at, still more freakin' devils!!!!

I like how Ole and Chic have their hats cocked the opposite direction of each other!

Shemp's character Cousin Louie, only got the job as projectionist because he was related to Chic and Ole, but he is totally distacted by his main squeeze, Jodi Gilbert, who had a big career in TV and movies. She would be Mrs. Putney in 2 TV episodes of "Batman," a fat lady in a "Night Gallery" episode, and she was Mrs. Martha Barton in the 1948 feature, "Bungalow 13," just to mention a couple!

It's 1941 and they came up with the concept of talking from the screen to the projection booth! These people were thinking overtime because..........

........It's.... H E L L Z A P O P P I N'!!!

And all that non-stop music and mayhem happened in about the first 7 or 8 minutes of Hellzapoppin', before they clue the audience into the fact that they are just on the set of a movie!

Time to take a breather, I'm out of breath after that whole sequence!!

There's a sub-plot about the making of the movie, but essentially, Hellzapoppin' is a jive jumpin' musical comedy that is literally beyond description, unless you want me to write a book!

Then the amazing musicians Slim (Flat Foot Floogie) Gaillard and Slam Stewart along with the "Six Hits" display their awesome talents as Slim and Slam, when all the service employees take a break to fire up the boogie!!

At this point Hellzapoppin' is totally out of control again with the wildest bop party you've ever seen going on, as the dance crew known as the Harlem Congeroos tear up the joint!!!

The neverending and crazed jitterbug frenzy, never stops for even a second!!

The amazing Martha Raye has a good part as nutjob songstress Betty Johnson, and performs "Watch The Birdie" and "Waiting For The Robert E. Lee." Martha had her own TV show back in the 50's and was also a regular on The Steve Allen Show, and was always hilarious! Lastly, for you younger readers, Martha Raye was also Benita Bizarre in 17 episodes of "The Bugaloos!" Martha Raye's awesome career ended in 1994, but what a trail she left!

What a production!!

Elisha Cook Jr had the part of Harry Selby, the writer of the script for the movie within a movie! Elisha ended up working on over 200 movies during his career, including titles near and dear to us all like, "Voodoo Island," "Panic," "House On Haunted Hill," "Black Zoo," "The Haunted Palace," and "Dead People!"