SCARED STIFF - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis & Carmen Miranda (1953)

Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, well, there's not much new I can say about these showbiz icons, so let's just get with it! Here's some seriously cool photos and songs from the 1953 zany classic, "Scared Stiff!"

 The musical credits give you all the information you need to know!! 

 

This movie is all about music and starts right up with Dean's act at the club! 

 

Dorthy Malone plays the part of Rosie!! Dorthy meet Jerry before I beat the crap out of him!! 

 

Jiggers, the cops!!! 

 

When Jerry Lewis puts on his game face, he's really scary!! 

 

Time to sail off into the unknown, and for all you schmaltzy Dean lovers, here's "Dino" with a classic love song! 

 

Frank Fontaine as the obnoxious drunk on the pier would go on to have a number one record 9 years later with his "Songs I Sing On The Jackie Gleason Show" LP!! In character as Crazy Guggenheim, the non-drinking Fontaine, could barely put a sentence together, but had a smooth singing style out of character, just like Jim Nabors when he wasn't Gomer!! 

 

My favorite thing that Jerry Lewis does, is when he stands behind some one and mimics and mocks them!! That'll get me rolling on the floor every time!! 

 

Carmen Miranda as Carmelita Castinha performs here in her last film role, with the boys and "Bongo Bingo"! I love the countdown at the end! Defies comprehension to me! 

 

There's no way to forget "Enchiladas", even if you try, because just like in real life, they will come back to haunt you! Listen to this at your own risk and guard your crystal! 

 

And once again to justify the whole thing, see, there is actually a ghost!! 

 

"Carmen's Late", so of course, Jerry has to go on for her miming to a record! He almost pulls it off, and the crowd is just weird enough not to care! 

 

It might be her last movie, but backstage with the gang, Carmen doesn't look like she knew she was going to get this kind of send up! 

 

Super scary sequence giving new meaning to the word 'armchair!' 

 

Oh, it's Bob Hope and Bing Crosby!! Imagine that!!! How ironic!! And they're skeletons!!! Wow, how is that even possible or plausible? And, in the, Oh, Yeah, department, am I the only one who thinks it's hilarious that another Martin/Lewis movie made in the same year titled "The Caddy" had an actor in it whose name was Lewis Martin??? That's just weird!!!

THE NUTTY PROFESSOR - Les Brown - "The Greatest Drink Since Dracula Discovered Bloody Marys" (1963)

Welcome to yet another Saturday Night Special in The Dungeon! Tonight's feature is the classic 1963 adaptation of Robert Lewis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as portrayed  by one of the most popular guys in France, Jerry Lewis! Pre-ratings, "The Nutty Professor" is like a Disney movie for adults! It's insipidly stupid, but just plain fun to watch!

I watched "The Nutty Professor" a couple of weeks ago and it was the reason I got sidetracked on the whole lengthy film history of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

 The great Jerry Lewis is Professor Julius Kelp, the Dr. Jekyll character in the movie!

 The Professor is trying to get into shape, but the workout is not working out too well!

 In a literal walk through scene, Dungeon Super Hero Richard (Eegah!!) Kiel, strolls through the gym just to set up....

 .........this short but uncomfortable encounter with Julius!!

Without his thick glasses on, Julius bowls over a group of kids he thought were bowling pins and is very excited that he got a strike!

 In the older Dr. Jekyll movies, the transformation would have stopped here, but in the hipper 1963 version, there's time for one more change!

Who shows up after that? The ultra cool Mr. Buddy Love!

 The Hyde character is no killer, but he does have quite an attitude problem! I've often heard that Jerry Lewis wasn't always the nicest guy in the world, and Buddy Love might be a little closer to the real Jerry than the goofball we all grew to love! Comedian/Actor Buddy Lester is the sarcastic bartender feeding it back to him.

 Lucky Jerry gets to have Stella Stevens as his love interest!
Maybe he did the casting himself!

 I think you get the point! The poster besieged me not to give out too much information, so I think I've gone too far already!

 This is a great shot!!

 The music by Les Brown and his Band of Renown swings from start to finish, and makes the party complete! Here's about a minute and a half from the ending credits! Pretty sweet!

 When Mr. Cool Buddy Love's voice starts reverting back to the nerdy squeak of Professor Kelp, the crowd of new and adoring fans are shocked back to their senses when he reveals the truth and changes back completely to his former self!

In an otherwise classic tale, the 1960's nerdy guy wins the gorgeous gal in technicolor with cool music! It's about three bikinis, and two surf bands short of being a beach movie, 

but that's all right with me! I liked it almost as much as when I was fifteen!

BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA - Duke Mitchell & Sammy Petrillo - "Deed I Do Too Soon" (1952)

Before Steroids, way before Milli Vanilli, going back before P.T. Barnum, and right to the very roots of civilization, there's always been, and there always will be people going for the cheap con! In 1952, one example was "Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla"!! 

 

In this case, you had a guy, Sammy Petrillo, who sometimes looked and acted more like Jerry Lewis than Jerry himself, and so, the people with the money added a suave partner, a fella named Duke Mitchell (who was a good sport, but a mere shadow of a character like Dean Martin), play it up big, add a 'big name' star like Bela Lugosi, make a cheap movie, and hope you dupe enough people into thinking it's the real thing. It really is quite uncanny!! 

 

Information dissemination was slow back in 1952, so it was easy to get away with cheap stunts like this. Even though Sammy was brought on originally as the character of a baby Jerry Lewis, Jerry couldn't take it, had his manager take on Duke & Sammy's career, and made sure they stayed out of work, so, at least one of Jerry's kids was left behind!! For a great and timeless interview, thanks to WFMU, go here:"Sammy Petrillo Speaks Out!"

 Duke Mitchell belts out "Deed I Do" composed by Walter Hirsch and Fred Rose, and later sings "Too Soon" by Nick Therry, to the lovely Charlita, who was playing the native girl Nona. Richard Hazard rounds out the musical score with some sweet island lounge music!!! 

 

Bela Lugosi looks quite poised and relxed throughout this whole film. 

 

I'm thinking he was pretty amused by the whole lookalike situation! Sammy has nothing but nice things to say about Bela in the interview! 

 

Pretty big budget really, I mean, at least they could afford two gorilla suits!!!

THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL - Heneker/Norman - "House Of Fright" (1960)

Tonight's WTF? feature film was originally going to be "Robo Vampire," one of the most WTF? movies I've ever seen, but there's another completely different film that's been hanging around here for for almost two years that I need to get out of my system first, and since we just did "The 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao," seems like it's finally the prefect time for "The 2 Faces Of Dr. Jekyll"!!

So here's the two faces, and just like Jerry Lewis in "The Nutty Professor," it's the reversal of the original tale, the good doctor goes from basic bland to wild nightlife playboy! Unlike Jerry Lewis, I cannot for the life of me get into the character of Paul Massie as Dr. Jekyll, it just doesn't work for me, and even his voice bugs me, other than that, it's a pretty damn good movie!!

The best part of the whole film for me is the appearance of Dungeon Hero, Oliver Reed, in one of his earliest roles. Talk about your single degrees of separation, one of Oliver's earliest credits, was also one of the main quotes from "The 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao," a movie entitled, "Life Is A Circus," done the same year as this film!

To show you how tough Mr. Hyde is, they have him beat the living crap out of Oliver Reed! Yes, that is Christopher Lee egging him on!

London had a pretty swingin' nightlife back in 1874 according to this movie, and if too many of them swingers had personality defects like Mr. Hyde, then it might just be a stone's throw away from Gommorah!

Norma Marla puts in one of only two career credits, as Maria, the exotic dancer with a short life expectancy! Norma was also in another Hammer Dr. Jekyll vehicle one year earlier, "The Ugly Duckling!"

Now Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you the next new mixed tag team champions of the world, Mr. Edward Hyde and diva Maria!!

Poor Maria, she seemed like such a worldly and intelligent gal, but she just wasn't a good judge of character, and that bad boy thing only goes so far!

I'm sorry but that narrow little bench Chris Lee is sitting on just doesn't look comfortable!!

The city is only wicked if you're poor, but Mr. Hyde's got money!! Yeehaw!!!

This is a very good message, and some quite sound advice for all you retro home buyers out there! "Beware of bad houses!"

"The Two Faces Of Dr. Jekyll" is quite lively musically, and sexually for a period piece, and not that far removed from an episode of American Bandstand!! Musical credits go out to Monty Norman, who also composed the original James Bond theme (Wouldn't you like to have those royalties?), and David Heneker, whose few other credits are mostly TV.

As long as he was high on absinthe or opium, Mr. Hyde remained pretty cool, but it was when he had to deal with his own mind, that the problems arose!!

Don't F with Mr. Hyde! You're his best friend one minute, the next minute you are dead!

The whole damn thing has gotten out of hand, and it's time to turn this matter over to the authorities! Hey, who's out on patrol?? No wonder the world has gone mad with debauchery!!