SKY KING - "Operation Urgent" (1952) - In Color

 

It's Wild Western Wednesday down in The Dungeon, and tonight's feature is the first episode of the 1950's TV show "Sky King."

I saw this show a lot as a kid because it was on every Saturday morning after "My Friend Flicka" for many years, but I never saw it in color until yesterday, so this was pretty interesting. 

Thanks to that old cowpuncher Lord Litter in Berlin for once again finding crazy stuff like this for me. I hate to sound like a broken record, but if you don't think there's still good music being made in the world, then you really should go check out some of his radio shows. I guarantee you'll dig it!

 

Kirby Grant was "Sky King" in 72 episodes from 1952 to 1959. Kirby Grant was also a talented musician and singer, and performed or sang in quite a few movies like "Ghost Catchers" where he was the bandleader and performed with his orchestra, or in the movie "Chip Off The Old Block," where he was in a dance group called The Jivin' Jacks and Jills.

 

Sky King's plane was a twin engine Cessna called "Songbird" and there were quite a few of them used over the years, but the best known one was one of the later ones, a 1958 Cessna 310B, serial number 35548 that was owned by the Cessna Company. 

After the show ended, the plane was sold in 1959, and in 1961 it crashed near Delano, California, killing the pilot!

 

 

This first episode of the series was called "Operation Urgent." This distressed Air Force pilot is going down, and he's carrying secret documents that need to be protected. He's in the general area of The Flying Crown Ranch, and Sky King is able to get his call for help.

Todd (Invaders From Mars) Karns is Lieutenant Doug Mercer.

 

Lieutenant Mercer gives special instructions for Sky King to call into his base!

Sky gets a hold of his old friend Colonel Yates as played by Pierre (Creature With The Atom Brain) Watkin. 

Pierre had 431 credits to his name and was billed as White (As in Perry) in the 1948 version of "Superman," and was also in four episodes of the 1950's "The Adventures Of Superman" in different roles.

Lieutenant Mercer is stuck in literally the middle of nowhere.

 

 How ironic, a kindly old man just happens to be out strolling in the area!

 

Turns out that the old man has a shack with a bunch of radio equipment in it. Nothing suspicious of course. "Come on in, you look tired, have a cup of coffee!"

Do you suppose this is how 'Radio Shack' got their name? Are there even any 'Radio Shacks' open anymore?

 

Weird, the coffee is having the opposite effect on the Lieutenant. I think it was drugged! 

 

 

Lieutenant Mercer is a little slow, it took him this long to figure out that the kindly old man was actually a dirty rotten scoundrel named Griz Raetze! How'd this guy ever learn how to fly a plane?

 

Pretty hard to recognize him here, but the diabolical Griz Raetze was played by John Banner, who was also the beloved Sergeant Schultz in 168 episodes of "Hogan's Heroes" from 1965 to 1971.

 

 

Sky King's niece and nephew Penny and Clipper King, live with him and usually get involved in his adventures. Penny was played by Gloria (The Life Of Riley) Winters, and Clipper was played by Ron Hagerthy who was in "The Twilight Zone" episode titled "Dead Man's Shoes."

Clipper finds Lieutenant Mercer but Griz Raetze is a step ahead of him!

 

When she's not looking cute, a big part of Penny's job is to look worried.

 

Griz Raetze has got the shack wired up to blow up at two o'clock with Lieutenant Mercer and Clipper trapped inside!

 

Just in the nick of time Sky King bursts in and manically tears the bomb apart with only five seconds to spare. Sky was a real do or die kind of guy!

In real life Kirby Grant was a flying enthusiast and pilot, and sadly on Oct. 30, 1985 he was killed in a car accident while on his way to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger at Cape Canaveral, Florida, but Sky King will live forever!

MONSTER MOVIES I SAW AT THE THEATER IN 1958

 Well, I thought I'd do another post of  horror and sci-fi movies I saw at the theater, this time 1958, and it was a banner year to be sure! Just check out the movies I was sooo lucky to see when I was a measly 10 years old...

Oh man, this movie was a thrill and a half plus some! It was non-stop action with some of the greatest animated movie monsters ever created, by Ray Harryhausen and his pals of course. Wow, a real scary/fun roller coaster ride!

This movie had a great cast of characters and was very fun to watch, but was tarnished by its special effects, namely the giant space alien that was very transparent at times. They tried to fix it in post but it was futile. And that weird giant hand just made me laugh. All in all though, it was an entertaining sci-fi flick

This was one of Mr. BIG's finest movies, the special effects were top notch for the time. I remember loving the giant furniture and telephone, the dolls of puppet people were excellent even if they used cut out photos.

O... M... G!.. My dad took me to see this freak out fest and I was never the same again, seriously!! The creepiest parts were at the beginning, starting with the old man and then at the doctor's office. When Steve went back to see if the old man was okay, he's walking outside the house when he sees something crashing against the window blinds... I got out of my seat and went into the lobby and sat there 10 minutes before my dad dragged me back to my seat. Man, this movie was the absolute scariest! I even had the 45 record, freaking love that theme song!!

Donald Wolfit was a terrifying mad scientist, but I don't remember a whole lot about the movie because Hammer made so many of them using that formula. Their labs were the best!

As cheap as this little thing is, I love it to pieces. At the time though, it was hilarious when they show the little Brain Eaters scooting around the place, I mean, holy cow, what the Hell!

This movie left me stunned at how cool the Colossus looked, what a great monster movie it was! As usual, it ends up a tragedy, his son is the one that destroys him...

Here's another cheapie that has its moments, especially when the Faceless Man starts moving around, causing mayhem and crushing people!

I actually saw EARTH vs. THE SPIDER, and that particular poster is a little hard to find for some reason. Anyway, I liked it, but I had already seen TARANTULA a few years earlier and there was no comparison. Joe's hot rod was very nice, but the part that still bugs me is when the Spider was displayed at the school (really?!), its leg just looked wimpy! Best part was Paul Blaisdell's motorcycle policeman dummy after the Spider sucked all his blood out!

THE FLY and THE BLOB were the two movies that really kicked my ass, remember, I was only 10 years old! When David Hedison was walking around in his lab coal, right hand in pocket, head draped, unable to talk, well that was unnerving enough, but when he was shown with his fly head and hand exposed, I almost fainted, I'm not kidding. I cannot watch it now, too sad. James Clavell's screenplay is pure genius! What a ride!

Wow, here's another mind blowing movie for me, it totally kept my attention the whole time. The skeletons looked a little crappy with clear plastic wrap for skin, but when they go into the cave with the satellite and see the guy who got stuck there inside of the blob, yikes, blobs! The tension of the thing growing in cycles was pretty intense too.

Oh man, I dug this crazy movie! The Frankenstein monster at the beginning was creepy and weird as Hell. Boris Karloff as the mas scientist was great, but I liked that freaky atomic Frankenstein wrapped in cloth, it's one of my all time favorite monster!

There was so much drama going on that it was easy for this monster kid to lose interest, I just didn't remember much about it. It used some gadgets from FORBIDDEN PLANET and even some of the electronic sounds, round peg in a square hole.

I liked this one, the monster was pretty unique, the action was okay, and that last scene made me dizzy because I has a touch of acrophobia. But the part I'll never forget is the sweat on Robert's rear end when he was climbing the stairs, looks like he wet himself!

Wow, wow, wow!! This thing was a real thriller, in color with lots of bright red blood. Chris Lee was the man, his portrayal of Dracula is number one. The climax was just too much, another amazing movie from Hammer!

I saw this one with my dad and loved every minute of it, the rocket was definitely from Hell. The ending was intense, would their Thor missile destroy the Lost missile?!!

Talk about a thrill packed movie, this thing had it all, the creepy prehistoric fish, great transformation scenes, and plenty of mayhem! The cherry on top was that giant dragonfly!

I was enthralled by the beginning credit music and the digital delay used after the spaceship goes through a time warp. It was okay as a movie, beautiful women are always a plus, it had a giant spider reused from WORLD WITHOUT END. The girlie power plant at the end is one of the worst sci-fi sets, ever!

Again, those Hammer horror movies came through with a consistent mad lab theme, always the best. I remember this one had a sad ending, being their latest Frankenstein monster.

I really like this strange little movie, it was about kids saving the day. Loved the rocket at the military base, and it had a different kind of blob creature, making my day. 

This is another weird movie I liked, it just had a lot of elements that pushed my buttons. The characters went to a double bill movie with I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and i WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN playing, I liked the noise their time machine made, but showing the lady from the future at the end, well, she looked goofy. One great part is when the hired hand Angelo is seen in his shack reading a girlie magazine and has nudie pictures of girls pinned on the wall!

This one creeped me out pretty good, the Thing looked terrifying with its makeup. All in all, it was at the end of the Universal fifties run and this one had a small budget.

Damn, I loved this movie, with the aliens taking over the mind of the head of the space project, where he burns his hand and just wipes off the residue, the squat rockets and wild satellites, it's definitely one of Corman's best films.

Wow, how lucky was I to get to see this many monster movies, they have had a lasting effect on me and I/m still doing retro monster art, in fact, I'll be working on them after I hang up. Click.

AMERICAN SATAN - "Let Him Burn" (2017)

 

It's Wicked Wednesday down in The Dungeon and tonight's post strawberry moon extra-special feature is................

 

......."American Satan!"

Okay, so you can see from the start that there are differences in opinion about where this is going!

The other morning I was watching Gordon Ramsay's show called "Scrambled," that had Rowdy Rhonda Rousey on it, and that one was followed by one that had a gorgeous and funny gal in it by the name of Olivia Culpo.  besides being Miss Universe in 2012, was also an actress, so when I looked on IMDB, I found out that she was in this movie called "American Satan," and that's how we ended up here! The likeness on the record album doesn't do her any justice at all!

At first I didn't even recognize Malcolm McDowell, but after I did, it seemed perfect that he would be playing the Devil tempting a rock and roll band, especially if you've ever seen the movie "Get Crazy!"

So that's it! "American Satan" is your basic 'sell your soul to the Devil' story, and then sit back and see what happens!

You wanna play at "The Whiskey," then you better get out there and sell some tickets!

"American Satan" is a film made by Ash Avildsen about a band called The Relentless. There's a soundtrack album you can buy for the movie, and there's also an album out there by The Relentless, but since there's no real band called The Relentless, it's more like "Cow Pie" by The Masked Marauders!"

The always enjoyable Mark (Sons Of Anarchy) Boone Junior has the role of the big shot record producer Elias!

Ash Avildsen is no stranger to making movies, his Father John G. Avildsen was the Director of some minor movies like "Rocky," and "The Karate Kid," even though apparently they had a zero relationship. Ash Avildsen is also a songwriter responsible for some of the songs in this film, and is also the founder of the primarily Heavy Metal Sumerian Records label, that has bands like my new favourite Starbenders on it!

The lead character in "American Satan," and The Relentless is named Johnny Faust, and is played by Andy Biersack who is a real musician in a real band called Black Veil Brides, who just happen to also be on the Sumerian Records label.

The first half of the movie is pretty good. Johnny's a good guy with a sweet girlfriend and a bunch of goofy band mates. The music is all good too, and then it all goes dark! 

The band gets more and more popular, but more and more bad things also keep happening!

The second part of the film is all sex, drugs, rock and roll, and trouble, lots of trouble!

Olivia Culpo is Johnny's girlfriend named Gretchen. They had a nice love story going until he screws it all up!

The other woman in Johnny's life is Lily Mayflower, the bass player in the band, as played by trans actress Jesse Sullivan.

Just about the time I was getting tired of this film, they threw in Big Time wrassler Bill Goldberg as the band's new road manager Hawk. Multiple Champion Goldberg is the master of moves like the 'Jackhammer,' and the 'Pumphandle Drop.'

The band's life is going up in flames, and at the same time their single is going up the charts!

This movie is crazy! Even though Andy Biersack was a singer with Black Veil Brides, for some reason, they decided to use song vocals for his character by Remington Leith, the lead singer in another Sumerian signed band named Palaye Royale, instead. 

And just as I suspected, Olivia looked great throughout the whole ordeal!

There's also another beauty, Denise Richards as Johnny's Mother, and too many other characters to list, so you're just going to have to watch it for yourself if you want to find out.

You can find "American Satan" streaming all over the place. 

I watched it in all it's glory on this Plex site!

AND...........

Now I just found out that Ash and company made a spinoff TV show last year called "Paradise City" using many of the same characters, but a different story line, that streams on Amazon Prime for eight episodes! Rock on!!