THE WILD WILD WEST - "The Night Of The Flying Pie Plate" (1966)

 

It's not just Wednesday, and it's not just Wild Wednesday, it's Wild Wild Wednesday down in The Dungeon!

 

Tonight's feature is the second episode of the incredible TV show "The Wild Wild West," and the name of this episode is "The Night Of The Flying Pie Plate."

If this group of cowboys looks totally astounded by what they see, it's because they've just come across a flying saucer, or in cowboy lingo, a flying pie plate!

Speaking of flying pie plates, check out this Offbeat version!

My first question of course is how do a bunch of cowboys even know what a flying saucer is? They have no TV, radio or internet! Hell, they don't even have books or running hot water and there are not even cars yet!

So that takes away a lot of credibility of the story right from the start!

This green-skinned blonde Goddess exits the spacecraft to a group of freaked out cowpokes! 

Leslie (Missile To The Moon) Parrish was also Glacia Glaze on the "Batman" TV show.

Gol'durn it! What the heck??

What do you think? We don't even know what a flying saucer is, and now one has landed right here! How is that even possible?

Two more sisters pop out to the amazement of the gathered throng!

The two sisters are Arlene Charles who was also one of Dr. Goldfoot's robots, and Cindy Taylor who was one of the gnome-maidens in "The Gnome-Mobile," so they are experienced at these kinds of roles.

The girls outfits are covered in precious stones that they are willing to trade for the 400 pounds of gold they need to power their ship back to Venus.

The guy in the middle is Hellfire Simon, the local religious fanatic that thinks everything is evil, especially this space ship!

Artemus Gordon inspects the jewels for authenticity!

Wait a minute! Who is this peering out of a hole in the side of the saucer? That doesn't look like the eye of one of the girls.

The townsfolk put all their gold together in expectation of trading it for jewels worth ten times the money, but even though it was the result of years of work, they are still 300 pounds short!

 

Ironically, the reason Jim West is in town is to watch over a gold shipment that needs to sit in the local assay office vault for a couple of days. And No, they can't borrow it!

The plan all along was for the space girls to steal the gold!

The jig's up. It's fake, The flying saucer is made out of wood and was dropped by a hot air balloon, and the girls are all just a bunch of pretty petty thieves!

The ole hidden knife in the boot trick is put to good use!

Most of the bad guys go ka-blooey, and the girls might have to do some prison time, but it won't be for long I'm sure.

The story ends with what appears to be a real UFO in the midnight sky!

Fantastic, Incredulous, and you can watch it all for free on YouTube!

13 OF THE COOLEST WOODY WOODPECKER CARTOONS from 1951 to 1963

 

This Saturday Night Special is a presentation of thirteen of the coolest Woody Woodpecker cartoons because they all tie in with either Science Fiction, or Friction in this case, Horror, and/or other things we like.

I'll start with the newest ones first because the title cards just get cooler the older they are.

"Science Friction" was a story about a mad scientist that Walter Lantz Productions released in 1963.

The voice of the mad scientist was Benny (Antonio Zucchini Salami Gorgonzola dePizza) Rubin, and Grace Stafford did the voice of Woody Woodpecker. Grace was Walter Lantz's wife, and she was also the voice of Woody Woodpecker from 1950 into the 1980's! 

 

1962 saw them come out with "Rocket Racket."

In this one Daws Butler was the voice of the Gabby Gator.

Over the years Daws has been the voice of almost everybody in the Hanna-Barbera Studios including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Quick-Draw McGraw, just to name a couple.

"Franken-Stymied" came out in 1961.

In this one Daws Butler was the voice of the mad scientist.

Covering all the bases in 1961, they went from Frankenstein to Voodoo!

Daws Butler is back as Gabby Gator again.

Still in 1961 and they had one more movie title to parody!

The art has all been good so far, especially "Franken-Stymied," but now when we drop back down into the 50's you're going to see a big change.

In this one Dal McKennon was the voice of Dirty McNasty. Dallas McKennon has been the voice of Archie and Gumby, just to name two out of hundreds.

 

Getting a little more exciting with "Woodpecker In The Moon" from 1959.

Dal is back as Professor P. Cosmo Klunk.

Simpler but still effective was "Misguided Missile" from 1958.

Dal is the voice of Dapper Denver Dooley.

I don't know if it was Walter Lantz or Director Paul Smith, but somebody was a little obsessed with the planet Mars. This title card from "Round Trip To Mars" in 1957 was superlative!

Dal is Professor Dingledong.

 

This title card from the 1956 "Woodpecker From Mars" was not even in the same league.

Dal is an unnamed Professor in this one.

"Witch Crafty" from 1955 was the only one of these that predominately displayed Director Paul J. Smith's name.

Grace Stafford was the voice of Woody as always, and as it was in many cases, she was totally uncredited!

 

Out of the realm of Sci-Fi and horror, as it is today, wrasslin' was really popular in 1953!

Dal is the voice of Bull Dozer!

 

This was really the title card that made me want to do this!

From 1952......"Termites From Mars."

Dal was the voice of the Radio Announcer, and Danny Webb did the voices of the Termites. Danny was also an excellent impersonator, and when he worked for Warner Brothers, he did almost all the voices that Mel Blanc didn't do.

 

I'm wrapping this up with "Destination Meatball" from 1951.

Speaking of Mel Blanc, he did the voice of Woody in the opening title sequence when he says "Guess Who?"

 Lionel (The Bride Wore Crutches) Stander was the voice of Buzz Buzzard in this one!

Thanx to our buddy, and comix artiste extraordinaire Brian J. Riedel for reminding me about Woody's cool adventures!

THE DELTA FACTOR - "It's All Greek To Me" (1970)

This weeks Saturday Night Special is a real zinger called "The Delta Factor," or in Spanish,

 "El Factor Delta!"

"The Delta Factor" is a Mickey Spillane Production, and it's also based on a story written by Mickey Spillane.

The star is Christopher (Project X) George as a fast talkin' ladies man and thief named Morgan! I'm not quite sure why, but I've never been a big Christopher George fan, maybe it's because he has two first names! Christopher died at the age of 52 from a heart attack that was caused by an injury he got 16 years earlier when his Jeep flipped over while working in one of his most famous roles, that of Sgt. Sam Troy on the very popular TV series, "The Rat Pack."

"The Delta Factor might not be the best movie in the world, but it's got an awesome cast that includes Rhodes (King Kong Escapes) Reason as Dr. Fredericks. Rhodes Reason is the younger brother to another very popular actor Rex (This Island Earth, The Creature Walks Among Us) Reason. One of Rex Reason's finest accomplishments was marrying the sensational Sanita (Missile To The Moon) Pelkey, so Rhodes got to be her brother-in-law.

Morgan has an eye for the ladies, and one of them is Yvonne (Lily Munster) De Carlo in a very small role as Valerie!

Morgan had just escaped from jail where he was doing time for a 40 million dollar heist of unrecovered  money that he claims he's innocent of. After getting caught, he's given a chance to to get a reduction in time if he helps the government rescue a Doctor being held prisoner on a remote island nation. He's assigned to work with an agent named Stacy, who just happens to also be a beautiful woman!

Dungeon Fave Yvette Carmen Mimieux has the role of agent Kim Stacy!

This is about the most excitement I've ever seen at the craps table as displayed by Diane (Pinky Pinkston) McBain. I will always remember Diane for her role as Daphne Dutton on the TV show "Surfside 6."

If they're going to pull this off, Morgan and Kim really have to act like newlyweds when they are out in public!

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen brings us to what I believe is the whole reason for this film even being made!

This is Rosa as played by Sherri Spillane. Sherri was Mickey Spillane's wife at the time, and I think this movie was made mostly just to showcase her talents, and jump start her career. I can't find any corresponding truth to my theory, but it just makes sense, if you think about it!

Five years before this, Sherri had the role of 'girl' on an episode of the TV series "The F.B.I." but no other earlier credits.

But I guess it didn't work, because even though I thought she was pretty good in this role, she only ever had two more credits in the next nine years, one on an episode of "Police Woman," and one on a show called "Hello, Larry." Sherri and The Mick were married for 19 years, and called it quits in 1983.

 This is the scene where they explain the title of the movie. Morgan has been out, and Kim says to him, "You are the X Factor, the essential unknown quantity, and you smell funny, a girl smell. I was wrong, it isn't the X Factor at all, it's the Delta Factor." Morgan replies, "I'm sorry, but that's all Greek to me." Then Kim says, "The Greek letter D, the phallic symbol for woman, the geometric design that identifies the female for the male." What really makes it funny is that I read on IMDB that Christopher George's parents were Greek immigrants, and so he only spoke Greek until he was six years old, because that's the only language they spoke in his home.

Got themselves some pretty fancy spy gadgetry, aka a hotel serving cart!

Time to visit the dark and dank prison where the Doctor is being held!

This long chase scene involves a VW Bug and a Mustang on a windy mountain road, and the VW seems to handle just like a Porsche. 

This shot just cracks me up because these two bad hombres look to me like they just got on a roller coaster ride!

By some kind of miracle, they manage to get the Doctor out and on his way to safety!

Joseph (Hang 'Em High) Sirola is Morgan's two timing old pal Sal Dekker, and the one responsible for most of his misery!

Yep! That's right, believe or don't, Kim and Morgan fall in love, because, you know,

it's "The Delta Factor!"