MYSTERIOUS MOSE - Walter Doyle & Mae Questel - (1930)

Bimbo might get the main credit, but Betty Boop is the real star of tonight's Halloween Countdown Saturday Night Special "Talkartoon" presentation, the super mysterious, "Mysterious Mose"!

This was Betty Boop's third appearance on the big screen following "Dizzy Dishes" and "Barnacle Bill!" The first one and this one both featured Margie Hines as the voice of Betty, Little Ann Little was Betty in Barnacle Bill and several features to follow, sharing the role with Margie, Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe and Kate Wright over the years!

Well, this kind of action sure would be unacceptable by today's cartoon standards!

Not only once, but twice, Betty gets her top completely scared off! You might notice that Betty's character hadn't morphed into a complete human being yet, and still featured dog's ears!

A few years later Margie Hines became the main voice of Olive Oyl, but still did some Betty Boop cartoons also. In 1939 Margie married her co-star, the voice of Popeye, Jack Mercer, but it only lasted for a couple of years! Now I'll bet that would have been an interesting home to be a fly on the wall in!

What Betty's doing in this house and what or who Mysterious Mose is, is a question only Dave, Lou, or Max Fleischer could answer, since they were responsible for about 90% of what their company was putting out at the time!

So to calm her nerves Betty breaks out into song! Right about here is where it really gets mysterious, and to make things even more confusing, even though Margie Hines was doing the voice of Betty Boop, it was Mae Questel who was actually singing the song! "Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh!"

Mae Questel was also the voice of Olive Oyl for a number of years, along with Little Audrey, Little Lulu and more! She was also quite an actress, and will be remembered for all time for her last role, as good ole Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation"

Outside, things aren't much better!! "Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh!"

"When your path at midnight dark by a graveyard goes,
And someone whistles, Whoooooo, That's Mysterious Mose!"

"He sees all, He knows all, He's just been everywhere, Some night, he might wait for you upon the stair!" And who is this guy anyway, Bimbo or is he Mysterious Mose??

Man, these two hit it off immediately, now it's time for Mose to make his move!!

Mysterious Mose goes all out to impress Betty with his charm, wit, and ability to go from inside the stovepipe to being decked out like an Alpine mountain climber, and the perfect lover!

Strike up the band!!! The music for "Mysterious Mose" was composed by a Mr. Walter Doyle and has been performed by not only The Walter Doyle Orchestra, but also Cliff Perrine And His Orchestra, Rube Bloom And His Bayou Boys, and R. Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders!

Just for the heck of it, here's R. Crumb's version! There's a couple of handfuls or more versions on youtube, plus you can also watch the whole cartoon, just do a search for "Mysterious Mose," you'll be amazed how many folks have gotten the Mysterious Mose fever over the years....

.....like this lively group by the name of The Soothsayers Jugband!!

There's so much going on, it just keeps getting weirder, and it will make your head spin before the whole scene explodes into chaos!

While Bimbo gets himself together, I'll tell you that one of the coolest things about "Mysterious Mose" is that it can be downloaded for free by anyone in a variety of formats at the mysterious Internet Archive!!!

You've probably seen it somewhere else, and we generally eschew videos in lieu of old fashioned music and pictures, but this is a little something everyone should see at least once, Betty Boop (Bonnie Poe) and Dracula (Bela Lugosi) together! "Are we having fun yet?"

OCTAMAN / Filmers Guild - 1976

Welcome to Friday Night Halloween Countdown Drive-In Theater with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. And, as promised, here is our offering of... OCTAMAN!

For those not familiar with this weird little story, it goes like this... A scientific expedition in Mexico discovers several unusual baby octopus specimens that seem to have been spawned by toxic waste in the water. Octopus in a river? Whatever. Anywho, when several of the little critters are captured, their half-man/half-octopus parent gets involved.

The music is by... Who The Hell Knows!

Lettuce then bring in our little Friday Night Dungeon helper and button pusher, what else... Rufus The Gnat!.. Rufus is here to start our Eariffic Soundclip, so... Push the big red 'GO' button there in front of your nose, now, Rufus! Here's... OCTAMAN!

If you can understand these numbers and what they mean, then, good for you! I assumed they were just arbitrary numbers made up by the prop department because they were making a movie. Filmed at the old same place, Bronson Canyon and Griffith Park.

Let's honk and let them know we're here!

It stars Dungeon favorite, Kerwin Mathews, he plays Dr. Rick Torres. Kerwin got his start as Major Caldwell on TV's SPACE PATROL in 1954 in the episode called 'The Escape Of Dr. Proteus.'

Dr. Rick is shown a little mutant octopus found in the water. Then, you get to see what the baby's seeing... Ain't that cute?

Uh oh!!..

This classic puss was designed by George Barr, built by Rick Baker and Doug Beswick and worn by Read Morgan.

Jeff Morrow gets a starring credit for 5 minutes of screen time! Here, he sports a mustache as Dr. Willard, head of the IEI.

Looks a lot like Hedorah!

Dr. Rick learns a bunch of junk from Dr. Willard, then, goes out into the countryside to talk with residents about anything strange they may have recently noticed.

He's shown a page of a weird looking creatures made by a local. Which, I'm pretty sure, are some prelims by Barr.

Number 3, gimme a profile!

This dude's searchin' for worms, when, he looks up and gets Octaman's tentacles raked across his face!

This reminds me of the scene where Tabonga throws the Chief down the hill in FROM HELL IT CAME.

Winnebagos were new and quite a big deal back then!

What a motley crew, that's top billed Pier Angeli there, leading the pack. This would be her last film (filmed in 1971), because, disillusioned with her career, was found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her Beverly Hills home. She was 39 years old.

Looks like they built the costume right onto a pair of cowboy boots!

All I can say is, dude!.. Watch out for them freakin' tentacles!!

TRICK OR TREAT, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!

Here are 3 pics for all the gurlz, 4 hot studs from the seventies!!

This is what it takes to humiliate and then capture an Octaman!

It escapes and they follow it through the forest to this cave. There's no forest near the mouth of any cave at Bronson Canyon, you can see that the branches they cut and brought to the set were all dried up by the time they shot this part!

DRAW!!!..

Oh, right, you don't have a gun... Sorry!

They fill it full of lead, so, it decides to head back into the water...

And, take your cheap, piece-o-crap trinkets with you!