GHOST CATCHERS - Olsen & Johnson - "High Spirits" (1944)

I was recently lamenting the lack of quality comedy team duos in the present day, it used to be such a common thing, but as far as I'm concerned, the last great comedy team to work in the movies was Cheech & Chong, followed by Penn & Teller. In the old days, they used guys who either had radio shows like Amos & Andy, or it was just an extension of an already existing vaudeville, or Broadway act, like tonight's stars, those not so common household names in this day and age, but they should be, Ole Olsen & Chic Johnson!!

No, Olsen & Johnson have not exactly withstood the test of time popularity like Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, or Martin & Lewis, but boy, did they make a couple of movies that should be in the Comedy Hall of Fame of all time, like tonight's especial feature brought to you courtesy of Professor Grewbeard & Huckleberry Margaritas, "Ghost Catchers"!!!

Martha Driscoll as Susanna Marshall and her sister have been brought out from Georgia by their Dad to perform in New York, and they are staying in a mansion that is believed to be haunted!

The family is awakened on their first night by loud noises and a mysterious message by what seems to be a ghost!!

Susanna gets so scared by all the commotion that she books it out of the house, and heads on over to the neighbors to ask for help and consolation, and after being nicely greeted initially, the next thing she knows is, she's gagged and bound, and sitting in an electric chair!

The following year Martha O'Driscoll would play Miliza Morelle in the classic House of Dracula. After having a run of 39 films in 10 years, Martha decided to get married and breed thoroughbred horses!

"Three cheers for the customer, the customer is always right!"

Susanna Marshall had no idea that the next door neighbor was actually Olsen and Johnson's club. Even in real life Ole and Chic were known for their wild Hellzapoppin' act! By the way, "Hellzapoppin'" is also the name of another one of their freakin' amazing movies we will be discussin' in the future!

Sight gags, sound gags, explosions, midgets, phony guns and knives, Olsen & Johnson were irrepressible and unstoppable! They were both former musicians, Olsen played the violin and Johnson was a ragtime pianist, so their act and their films were both insanely funny and full of music!

Morton Downey was one of the featured musicians in this film, doing an excellent job of playing himself!

So after that wild beginning, Susanna is joined by her father, Walter Catlett as Colonel Breckinridge Marshall, and her sister, Gloria Jean as Melinda Marshall, in an effort to root out the ghost! Goria started her career at 13 in "The Under-Pup," and Walter was usually typecast as a Colonel or a Mayor!

The Marshalls elicit the help of Olsen & Johnson and a bunch of jitterbuggin' teenagers to help them find, and get rid of the ghost!

Somewhere in the midst of all this krazy ghost chasin' jitterbuggin' is 19 year old ultimate Dungeon Hero, Jerry Warren, dancin' his ass off, in his first film ever! Yes, THAT Jerry Warren!

More arcane and cryptic messages!

A good part of the reason that the work of Olsen & Johnson is different than the aforementioned duos is they didn't have a straight man, they were both insane, so a lot of time the humor is just zany non-stop madness.

The quality of the talent associated with "Ghost Catchers" is evidenced by the presence of heavies like Andy Devine as "Horsehead" and Lon Chaney Jr, as "Bear!"

There is just no way to go wrong with a good water gag!

In most of the 'Haunted House/Ghost' comedy flicks of the 40's, there weren't really any ghosts, but usually hoodlums or nazi spies, making the place seem like it was haunted to keep people away, and this one does have the underlying crime tale, but there also is a real ghost too!!

Ole Olsen's Son-in-law was William Lear, who invented the Lear Jet, but more importantly, he also invented the 8-track player, so they we could all rock out in our cars in the 1960's and 70's!

Director Edward F. Cline made scores of slapstick comedies from 1916 to 1951 featuring some of the best comics of all time, including names like Slim Summerville, Ben Turpin, Buster Keaton, W.C. Fields, Wheeler & Woolsey, and The Ritz Brothers, and a lot of them are Shorts, so you'd be wise to try and see all 171 of them if you can!!

THE KILLER SHREWS In Color / Hollywood Pictures - 1959

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In here at the Dungeon, with your host Tabonga and his little helper pal, Ralphie the Tarantula! Tonight we have a colorful reprise of the Texan made fifties lo-budget classic THE KILLER SHREWS that we posted originally back in Jan. 8, 2009! Next Friday it will be the other flick made in Grewbeard Country by Hollywood Pictures for a double bill, THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, in color! Those two titles are the only movies Hollywood Pictures ever made!

Legend Films has done a swell job of restoring and colorizing a number of older titles like SHE, THINGS TO COME, PHANTOM FROM SPACE, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH and LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS!

Tonight's music maestros are Harry Bluestone and Emil Cadkin, who both had a limited career in music composing, but who both ended up on the soundtrack "Ren & Stimpy 'Adult Party' Cartoon" from 2003!.. Weird.

So, on wif' da show, as they say in filmland... Lil' Ralphie's saying that he's ready to push the old 'GO' button once again, and start our Eariffic Earclip rolling down the lane and into your brain! Here's... THE KILLER SHREWS!

A storm's a comin' so captain James (FRANCIS GOES TO WEST POINT) Best and crewman Judge Henry (MY DOG, BUDDY) Dupree look for cover for their sea cruiser.

For some reason, this scene always gives Tabonga a twitch of vertigo, trying to comprehend it's surreal perspective!..

Boy, it didn't take James long to make friends! 'Rook' stays back with the boat because he don't drink.

Dr. Baines lets James hold a for-really shrew!

As poor old 'Rook' ties the boat up to a tree, he hears some mysterious rustling in the brush!

Unbelievably, they're still hungry!

Looks like some of the stuff Eegah!! and Tabonga made in woodshop back in 1959!

Oh God! Let's hope it didn't!..

Wow, phew!.. That was a close one!!

It looks great as the shrew chews, rips and pulls on this rubber leg!

"Take that, you dirty varmint!"

Sounds cool if you imagine Queeksdraw saying that line!

Ken Curtis did almost entirely westerns, playing the big dumb galoot. This role does not disappoint!

Ken really shouldn't have pointed that rifle at James!.. Look where he ended up!!

Hey, is anybloody to home?!

Portrait of a dead shrew on the living room floor, with gunsmoke.

Some people can hold their booze, and some can't!

Whooz der?..

Ingrid (THE BIG BEAT) Goude can't take much more of this psycho-drama!

If you look closely, you can see Ken's feet up in the air as a pack of killer shrews pounces on his sorry ass!

Getting to the shoreline is fraught with plenty of long sharp teeth!

They make it to the sea and swim to the boat for safety. Luckily, killer shrews don't like water!

That shrew running there looks like Tabonga's old Terrier named, oddly enough, 'Killer!'

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!!