THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER / A G.I.B. Production - 1950

Here's a great little 39 minute British short you've probably never heard of... In the classic Poe story, a traveler arrives at the Usher mansion to visit his old friend, Roderick Usher. Upon arriving, however, he discovers that Roderick and his sister, Madeline, have been afflicted with a mysterious malady, Roderick's senses have become painfully acute, while Madeline has become nearly catatonic. That evening, Roderick tells his guest Jonathan of an old Usher family curse.. Any time there has been more than one Usher child, all of the siblings have gone insane and died horrible deaths! As the days pass, the effects of the curse reach their climax...

It stars Gwen (TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA) Watford as Lady Madeline Usher, Kaye ( his only acting credit) Tendeter as Lord Roderick Usher, Irving (his only acting credit) Steen as Jonathan, Vernon (his only acting credit) Charles as Dr. Cordwell and Lucy (her only acting credit) Pavey as The Hag. Besides Gwen Watford, it seems that director Ivan Barnett used local talent for the other parts!

It begins when a book of Edgar Allan Poe short stories is chosen to be read to friends at a gentleman's club... A good old horror story!

The story has Jonathan riding through the creepy woods surrounding the Usher mansion, on his way to pay a visit to his old friend, Roderick Usher. Once there, Roderick tells Jonathan some dark secrets and the curse on the family name.

Here's Roderick's sister Madeline practicing her piano skills, the family doctor has her on medication she takes with milk.

Madeline follows Roderick and the doctor to a secret location, a place with a dark past...

The doctor tells Roderick all about the hidden rooms of torture and death! The place even comes with its own Mad Hag!

At their next visit to the dungeon, a helper comes along and steps on a bear trap!

Then, the Hag pulls a knife on Roderick and stabs him! Rod and the doc split, leaving the helpless helper there by himself!

In the meantime, Madeline runs around the countryside in this very odd garb, she's also wearing black ankle boots which looks a little goofy when she walks!

Well, it doesn't go well for the helper, er ist tot! Wow, look at that wicked blade and the creepy look on the Hag's face!!

What else, the Hag leaves the place in search of the Usher mansion. Love that background!

First thing she does after making it inside the house, is... Scare the crap outta Madeline!!

Madeline goes into a coma, everyone thinks she was scared to death, so, they seal her in a coffin! Madeline wakes up and somehow manages to push the lid open!

Roderick really flips out when he finds Madeline wandering around the house, she starts stalking him as he tries to get away from her! She follows him to the roof, it's raining like Hell, he slips and falls to his death due to a weak spot in the brick structure!

Then, of all things, lightning strikes the mansion and Jonathan barely makes it out before the place goes up in flames!!.. Wow, what a ride!!

Our reader has now finished his story, that's mall folks!! This little movie is really a sleeper and it would pay to search it out for viewing, a real gem! Got this copy off of TCM...

LIFE ON MARS From 2006 U.K. to 2008 U.S.

Tonight's Saturday Night Special isn't really a grudge match per se, it's just a simple comparison between two very similar versions of the same show called "Life On Mars!"

 The British version came out in 2006, and was a great show in my opinion! So much, that I really didn't want to try and even watch this U.S. version. "What's the point?" was what I thought, but then it got interesting! I'm thinking somebody knew this was a great show, but also knew that the U.K. version wouldn't fly in the U.S. because, for the uninitiated, you can't understand what they're talking about half the time! They could have released it in the U.S. but it would have had to have sub-titles like in "The Harder They Come," and a lot of people just won't watch movies with sub-titles, so they just remade the whole thing as close to the original as they could! It's weird! It's like a clone!



The top pictures will all be from the 2006 version, and this is a prime example of how far they went to re-create the original! They even tried to make the photos identical! That's wild! Actually, it got so confusing that while I was doing this, I mixed up these pictures myself!

 

Occasionally there is a bit of variation here and there like the location of Officer Tyler's girlfriend's bloody shirt went from a playground swing set to a merry-go-round!

The changes in technology from 2006 to 2008 are evidenced by the improvements in the mp3 player`

Some scenes are as close to exactly the same as is humanly possible!

The shot of the eight track player!

 

There are also some obvious variations that can't be avoided because it's New York City and not Manchester, England!

But whenever they could, they made it this close to the original!

I really didn't expect them to pull it off, but Jason (The Death Of Superman) O'Mara does an excellent job as Sam Tyler!

Jonathan (Animal Among Us) Murphy and Michael (The Sorpranos) Imperioli are also excellent as the Chris and Ray characters, and Harvey Keitel is equally amazing as Gene "Genie" Hunt!

Two obvious changes are Annie is now a blonde as played by Gretchen (The 13th Floor) Mol.

And Nelson is no longer a black man, but it makes sense if you think about it. A dreadlocked bartender would probably be fairly common in a 1973 England, but in a 1973 New York, it would be an Italian guy.

The new Nelson is Mike (Dumb and Dumber, Ed Wood) Starr, but I just saw that he's only in this one episode, so they must be going to deviate from the story after this first show, because the original Nelson was in many episodes!

I loved the record store scene in both movies!
I got to watch this first episode for free because I opted for Amazon Prime no rush shipping on some shampoo I ordered. I still have another 99 cent credit, so I can either watch another episode or I might just break down and buy the DVD for about $13.00. Either way, I'll be watching the rest of it one way or another! I probably won't know what year it is or where I am by the time I get through!

THE BULLWINKLE SHOW / Jay Ward Productions - 1960

THE BULLWINKLE SHOW aired on TV from 1960-63 and was one of my all time favorite cartoons, also at this time we had BEANY AND CECIL and FELIX THE CAT, holy crap, how in the Hell could you beat that?!! Not to mention WB and Hanna-Barbera. Great freakin' time for us kids back then!

In this episode the boys are working on their secret rocket fuel they want to sell to the government. Of course, Boris and Natasha show up, and some Moon Men!.. From the MOON!!

Rocky and Bullwinkle are walking down the street, Boris gets the word from Natasha, who's reading a secret message from Fearless Leader, to... Keel Moose!

But, Natasha finishes the message after Boris has already cut the rope holding a safe meant to fall on Bullwinkle... Complete message says... Oh, Do NOT Keel Moose!

Boris rushes downstairs to save Bullwinkle and ends up under the big old safe himself!

The boys are working away, trying to create a new rocket fuel. After succeeding, they realize that Bullwinkle never wrote the formula down, so, Rocky wants to hire a hypnotist to hypnotize Bullwinkle into remembering!

Of course, Boris and Natasha show up for the job...

It's not long before Boris has Bullwinkle eating out of his hand. Now, start talking!

So, Bullwinkle tells them everything he knows, it's so boring Boris and Natasha fall asleep!

When Bullwinkle finally gets to the rocket fuel formula, some Moon Men are listening in!..

They are my favorite little characters from the Moon, Gidney and Cloyd... Gidney has the wild mustache and Cloyd carries around his precious Scrooch Gun!

Generally speaking, Cloyd is interested in just one thing... Can I scrooch 'em now, Gidney?!.. And, Gidney would usually reply...

You can scrooch 'em now, Cloyd!..

This still fascinates me, that look of sheer joy on Cloyd's face is priceless!!

Besides the adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, the show included Fractured Fairy Tales, Dudley Doo-Right, Aesop And Son and Mr. Peabody & Sherman... Eegah!! is back tomorrow!