SPOOKS RUN WILD / Monogram - 1941

Welcome to Moldie Oldie Monday at the Dungeon! Tonight's featured flick is a fun little thriller from Monogram as they match the East Side Kids with good old Bela and his little helper Angelo (FREAKS) Rossitto, Sam (THE WEREWOLF) Katzman is producer.

Uncredited music is by Johnny Lange and Lew Porter. Mr. Lange wrote the songs "Mule Train" and "Clancy Lowered The Boom" and did mainly just westerns. He passed away in 2006 at the age 100! Mr. Porter had 69 composing credits including THE TERROR OF TINY TOWN, THE GIRL FROM RIO, ONE DARK NIGHT, THE LONE RIDER IN GHOST TOWN, JUNGLE SIREN, PRAIRIE PALS, JIVE JUNCTION and MURDER IN THE BLUE ROOM!

Lil' Dungeon helper Rufus the Gnat is here with Tabonga tonight. He scream to Tabonga that he been eating his Flintstone Kids vitamins and he all ready to push that big red 'GO' button once again and start our Eariffic Earclip rollin' an' rollin' an' rollin'... SPOOKSTERS RUNNIN' WILD!

The boys have to go to summer camp because, what else, they're underprivileged! A minute later they blow tailpipe exhaust into, what else, a counselor's face!

Muggs, Danny and Glimpy end up at a small restaurant, ordering drinks and getting fresh! Margie, what a moniker!

"All citizens are warned to be on the look out for the monster killer, who's believed to be in this vicinity!" Over and out...

This was hi-tech in 1941, today's kids would go into a coma!!

Did you hear the one about the guy who could read in the dark?

This gas station attendant can't believe the strange people dropping in, looking for the old same place!! ...You can't get there from here!

Muggs sees this skull in his cup and gets the heebie-jeebies!

This flick is No. 1 when it comes to spiderweb overkill, almost every room looks like this, or worse!!

Scruno gets to keep an eye on Peewee, who seems to have turned into a zombie!

Bela mentally outmaneuvers Muggs!!

It's the ghost of the black widow spider!.. G'wan! Git!!

Oh, come on!.. Two knights?!!

Peewee's wandering all over the place!

"How to meet'cha!!"

I thought there was something weird about this gravestone!

At this point, Muggs and the boys try and scare Bela into confessing that he's the killer! After Bela faints from fright, they tie him up so he won't get away.

Here, everbloody finds out from Muggs that Bela is the good guy! A very nice twist!!

This is the real monster killer!

The monster killer has the door locked, so Muggs crawls out his window and into his, then takes him on!.. Go Scrappy Doo!!

Bela gives a special performance of his magic show for everbloody! Muggs thinks he's going to hook up with some hot chick behind the curtain!

Awwwww shucks, ma'am!

7 FACES OF DR. LAO - Leigh Harline - "The Circus Is In Town" (1964)

It's Saturday night, and the circus is in town, that is, "The Circus Of Dr. Lao!" And this ain't no ordinary spectacle of wonder, this is a one-man freak show, and that one man is Mr. Tony(Felix Unger)Randall who in real life, actually fathered his first child at age of 77!! Jeez, as evidenced by this film, he was very talented, and quite a busy guy!!

I'm not sure anyone else would be willing to take on 8 different characters in full makeup in one film, but Tony Randall seems to do it effortlessly in the adaptation of this Charles G. Finney novel, his first and most famous, written in freakin' 1935!

As an Asian in the old west, Dr. Lao was almost invisible, despite his uncanny and supernatural powers, because, how can you notice something if you're always, and only, thinking about how important you yourself are?

It's pretty hot out in that there desert, and Barbara(I Dream Of Jeannie)Eden as Angela Benedict is raising the temperature even higher!

And the sexy bits don't stop there!!

Yippee!! The circus is in town! The circus is in town!!

Tony Randall also gets credit for the Abominable Snowman character, but it was really George Pal's son, Péter, inside the suit!!

Cartoon genius George Pal produced and directed "The 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao" and would enlist the help of cartoon genius composer Leigh Harline to do the music. Leigh Harline not only composed music for cartoons and Disney classics, but also had some titles like "The Wayward Bus," "The Girl Can't Help It," "Teenage Rebel," and "Black Widow" under his belt!!

Pretty dang weird, but this movie could have even been darker and creepier if you think about it, and it wouldn't surprise me if Tim Burton redid it with Johnny Depp in all the roles some day!!

In this scene, we have Tony as Apollonius of Tyana, a blind man who can't see in the present, but can see into the future!

Spinster Mrs. Howard Cassin played by the awesome Lee Patrick, doesn't like Apollonius's vision of her lonely unmarried future! Among some of Lee's many accomplishments, she was Leo G. Carroll's wife, Mrs. Henrietta Topper in 39 episodes of one of my favorite 50's TV show, "Topper," and was Effie Perine in the classic Bogart film, "The Maltese Falcon.

Prim and proper widower Angela Benedict is completely worn out after her sensual romp with Pan, "The God Of Joy!"

I'm pretty sure that Chubby Johnson on the left, was in every cowboy TV show and movie that was ever made, and record producer and musician Kim Fowley's Dad, the great Douglas Fowley, has the role of "the toothless cowboy!"

The Flying Burrito Brothers steel guitarist, "Sneaky" Pete Keinow is just one of the many stop-motion animators and special visual effects artists who worked on this movie. Besides being a fantastic musician, Pete had worked on "Gumby," "Davey & Goliath," "Terminator," "Return Of The Living Dead" and so very much more!

Everybody knows you do not look into the eyes of Medusa, that's why they teach Mythology in high school, so people can avoid situations like this!

Tony Randall even takes a moment to be himself as nothing special, just a member of the audience. Tony had shaved his head for the role of Dr. Lao, so they had to fix him up with a wig for this quick shot!!

Even passed out, the mug of John Doucette is unmistakable. You might not have known his name, but after some 268 character acting roles, you are bound to recognize that face! Dal McKennon on the left hosted and created his own 50's TV kids show in L.A. called "Space Funnies!"

Dal and John screw up, and have to deal with the giant sea monster. The other stop animation artist working on this film was Jim Danforth, who also worked on "Gumby" and "Davey & Goliath," and such films as "Equinox" and "Journey To The Seventh Planet," and was in charge of special photographic effects on 24 episodes of "The Outer Limits!"

Dr. Lao's "Rainmaking Machine" saves the day!

Bye Ya'll, see you on Wednesday with some real honest to goodness weirdness!