LOVE THAT BOB - "Grandpa's Christmas Visit" (1955)

 

Here's a festive and fun holiday Saturday Night Special for you from 1955, an episode from "The Bob Cummings Show," or "Love That Bob," whatever you want to call it, called

"Grandpa's Christmas Visit."

If you're not familiar with this sitcom, it's about a fashion photographer called Bob Collins, who was played by yet another Dungeon Hero, Bob Cummings. That's Rosemary (13 Ghosts) DeCamp as his sister Margaret, and her son Chuck as played by Dwayne (Dobie Gillis) Hickman.

To show off his multi-dimensional talents, Bob Cummings also plays the role of Grandpa!

Being a modest man, Bob only takes credit for the role of Bob Collins, and Grandpa Collins is credited at the end as being played by "The Pride of Jopin, Missouri," which is where Bob Cummings was actually born!

 

Pretty cool split screen special effects for a TV show done in 1955!

The art of photography has come a long way in 65 years. Thank goodness we don't have to use flash powder anymore!

 

SMILE!!

 It's pretty funny when they show you the photo that Grandpa took!

Bob and Margaret are both pretty hung over from a Christmas party, and they think poor Grandpa must be sleeping in, but he's really outside shooting hoops!

In fact, Grandpa feels so good, he wants to take Chuck's new bike for a spin!

Bob's main squeeze at the moment is this gorgeous model named Mary Beth Hall who was played by Gloria (Roadracers) Marshall, and that's Bob's secretary Schultzy played by Ann B. Davis who was also Alice on "The Brady Bunch."

Bob tells Grandpa to come to his studio and check out his new equipment.............

.....................And of course Grandpa gets all the wrong ideas!

Bob decides to try and get Grandpa hooked up with Mrs. Taylor down the street, someone more his own age, and he calls her and impersonates Grandpa on the phone, and indeed, she'd love to come down and play checkers!

Bob and Mary Beth have a dinner date and Mary Beth is starving since she has been on a diet trying to get her 25 inch waist down to 23 inches, and while waiting on Bob, she peeks inside the refrigerator! 

 

That turkey leg was just too appealing.

Grandpa returns with a box of chocolate covered cherries because he still thinks he has a date with Mary Beth.

At this point Mary Beth doesn't care who she's going out with, as long as she gets something to eat!

 

So Grandpa and Mary Beth end up going out to dinner, and Bob gets stuck staying home and playing checkers with Mrs. Taylor who has just suggested they play a series of eight out of fifteen matches! Bob graciously agrees, and that's where this great story ends!

FIVE GOLDEN DRAGONS - "Time Of Our Lives" (1967)

The soup du jour for this Saturday Night Special is one of the most bizarre films I've seen lately! I've seen a lot of weird movies, but "Five Golden Dragons" is right up there at the top, especially in the category of bigger budget movies! They have nothing in common, but for some reason, this film reminds me of William Castle's "13 Frightened Girls," I guess just because it's so odd!

They claim it to be an Edgar Wallace story, which would explain a lot, but IMDB only credits Harry Alan Towers and Peter Welbeck as writers!

I've always been a big fan of Bob Cummings, because I used to watch his TV show "Love That Bob" aka "The Bob Cummings Show," all the time as a kid, and in the context of that show, I always thought he was hilarious, but in "Five Golden Dragons," he just seems lost! In fact, about half the time, he doesn't even seem to know that he's in this movie!

What's much more important than the five dragon characters is the trio of Euro beauties used in "Five Golden Dragons!" It gets pretty confusing too since Maria Perschy seen here is a character named Margaret!

And Maria Rohm is a gal named Ingrid!

And Margaret Lee is a club singer named Magda!

So out of three actresses, two are named Maria, and two are named Margaret!

The two Marias are of Austrian descent, and Margaret Lee is British.

Maria Perschy's Margaret is the first to go!

 I don't usually notice screw ups, but it's hard not to notice Margaret's dead eyes blinking as the scene ends.

You know it's got to be an Edgar Wallace film because Klaus Kinski is in it, looking as cool and weird as ever in his Pee-wee Herman polka dot bow tie!

Here's the original mock up for the title card!

This movie has got everything including a rickshaw chase scene!

Almost every moment Bob Cummings is on screen is awkward especially when he's in a scene with Margaret Lee.

One thing I really liked about "Five Golden Dragons" was there were three songs performed in the club. Two songs were performed by Margaret Lee and....

..........Yukari Itô also gets a chance to do a number!

I was just wondering if they did this because of the popularity of the song "Sukiyaki (Ue o Muite Arukou)" by Kyu Sakamoto. "Sukiyaki" reached number one on the Billboard charts in the United States in 1963, and has sold over 13 million copies worldwide!

Robert Cummings was in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "King Nine Will Not Return," and if you want to see him in a better role than this, then go watch Hitchcock's "Dial M For Murder!"

I think this was the second guy that got tossed off a building!

Finally, it's time for the "Five Golden Dragons" to show up. Five guys who are so rich and powerful, they run everything, but this is going to be the first time they ever meet!

The first dragon is Dan (The Bamboo Saucer, Black Angel) Duryea!

Brian (The Creeping Unknown, Quatermass II) Donlevy is dragon number 2.

Sir Christopher Lee is dragon number 3.

And looking like he'd rather not be bothered, George Raft is dragon number four!

 There's still time for Klaus Kinski's character to eat it!

So, yeah, these super rich and powerful men get together, put on these stupid costumes, and play a sophisticated game of Russian Roulette, kind of, except nobody found the bullet!

Dragon number five finally shows up too!

I saw at least five different posters from around the world for "Five Golden Dragons," and only one of them even had a picture of the star of the movie, Bob Cummings in it, and even on that one, he was very small!
The big sell was these four guys, and those three girls!
Just Weird!!

SABOTEUR - Alfred Hitchcock - "3000 Miles Of Terror" (1942)

Welcome to Saturday Sabotage down in the dark dank depths of The Dungeon! It's kind of like the old Saturday Matinee, but without the cartoons, the "Three Stooges" or "Unlock a Lock!"

Let's just get it straight from the get go, "Saboteur" is just one of the many excellent films that have been created by one of the most creative minds to ever roam the planet, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock! If you ever read anything bad about this movie, just remember it's a Helluva lot easier to be a critic than it is to make a good movie!!!!

It's 1942, right in the midst of WWII, and Alfie makes a flick about the sabotaging of an aircraft production facility, and the paranoia of being the guy who is wrongly accused of the deed!

It's break time, and during the hustle and bustle, one of the workers drops his wallet!

Bob Cummings as Barry Kane is one of the guys who finds and returns the wallet! The next thing you know the whole place is one gigantic fiery inferno, and Bob's best buddy is burnt to a crisp in the ensuring blaze! It turns out the fire extinguisher he was using was full of gasoline! Bob in turn gets blamed for the whole thing and has to take it on the lam!

The cops are after Barry, and the paranoia sets in immediately, but Barry has a flashback on the letter dropped back at the plant, and  he decides to head to the small little burg of Springville, California that he saw the name of in the address on that letter!  Now Springville is a real place, I should know, my ex-wife used to live there. It's about 20 miles east of Porterville up in the hills of central California on the Tule River, population a couple of hundred at best! It wasn't just used in name, part of "Saboteur" was actually filmed there!

Barry hitchhikes his way out of L.A., and once he arrives in Springville, he finds nothing but peace and tranquility at the Deep Springs Ranch!

The next thing you know, the local Sheriff shows up, with plans to escort Barry to jail, but not before he was able to get another clue as to what the freakin' Hell was going on!

Crossing over the Tule River ( and I've never seen a bridge like this up there) Barry scuffles with the Sheriff, and is able to escape by jumping into the river!

Barry makes his way handcuffed into the depths of the mountains and stumbles upon the home of a blind musician! To me, this whole scene was very reminiscent of when the Frankenstein monster is taken in by the blind guy! Just like Daredevil, they might be blind but their senses are keen!

The kindly blind man is played by Vaughan ( Mr. Bradley in the Henry Aldrich series of films) Glaser, and even though he knows Barry has handcuffs on, he senses that he is really a good guy, and tells his niece Priscilla (Brother Rat) Lane as Pat Martin to take him to the local blacksmith and have his chains removed!

Pat Martin is a model and is seen on these wild recurring billboards throughout the film! She doesn't listen to her uncle, and decides to turn Barry in to the authorities!

This is where she ends up when that all fails!

Just look at this shot, and try and tell me you don't want to see this movie! I don't believe you!! Pat and Barry are forced to maintain some semblance of a relationship!

A circus train comes passing by and Barry and Pat hitch a ride on the last car. There is a fantastic debate as to whether to let them stay or not. Pedro de Cordoba as Bones was in 124 movies including "Devil Doll." Billy Curtis as the little General midget was around in small roles for years and argues that the couple should be thrown off the train! Anita Sharp-Bolster, looking like a cross between John Kerry and Abe Lincoln is the malevolent bearded lady! The Siamese twins were played by real life twins (not Siamese) Jean and Lynn Romer, and they can't agree on anything! This whole scene is really my favorite part of the movie!

Barry and Pat end up in Soda City, an abandoned place that looks like Primm, Nevada before Whiskey Pete's was built! In reality, it's Owens Lake, California!

For many, like me, Robert Cummings will always be remembered for the great comedic "Bob Cummings Show" aka "Love That Bob!" that ran for 127 episodes from 1955 to 1959! Then another version of "The Bob Cummings Show" returned for 22 episodes in 1962-62, then from 1964-65 he starred with Julie Newmar in the Sci-Fi comedy "My Living Doll!" Bob was also in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "King Nine Will Not Return!"

One more billboard just to reassure you that Barry's life is doomed!

Next stop, The Big Apple, and lots of clues as to where this is all heading!!

Barry and Pat end up at a party for some very high-rolling un-american sympathizers and as you'll hear in the short little sound clip, any chance of getting anybody's attention is a total waste of time! The music in "Saboteur" was created by the genius mind of Frank Skinner, one of the most prolific composers in Hollywood history!

From there, the final chase is on, and it leads from a movie theatre to...............

.........the big climax at the Statue of Liberty! Actually, "Saboteur" is one long chase movie, and the ending is just a bit too much, but everything in between is quite spectacular, and just in case you haven't ever seen it, it's a movie that is well worth the effort to seek out, and if you don't want to buy it, or wait for it to come back on TV, it is available on disc from Netflix!