MANIAC / Roadshow Attractions - 1934

Welcome to Moldie Oldie Monday here at the Dungeon, with your host Tabonga and his little Gnat helper pet, Rufus! Tonight's feature is very moldie, a strange one from 1934 that clocks in at only 51 minutes!

Alternate title is SEX MANIAC! Tagline reads... "He menaced women with weird desires!" The plot goes like this... "An ex-vaudeville actor gifted at impersonation assists a mad scientist to reanimate corpses and soon goes mad himself."

Part of the Roadshow Attractions lineup, a lineup that included TEN NIGHTS IN A BARROOM, THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT, NARCOTIC, MODERN MOTHERHOOD, INYAAH Jungle Goddess, MAN'S WAY WITH WOMEN, THE MARCH OF CRIME, HELL-A-VISION, MARIHUANA, HOW TO UNDRESS IN FRONT OF YOUR HUSBAND, SLAVES IN BONDAGE and they produced WILD WEED in 1949!

Where the music came from is anybloody's guess since there's no reference in the credits or at IMDB! Well, makes my work easy...

So's, wif'out any further delay and all, here's that cute lil' Rufus pal, ready to push again that big red 'GO' button to start our Eariffic Earclip for... MANIAC!

R.I.P. Tabonga's best friend, Freddie Cat, 6-19-10. I'll miss that little face...

I thought this was interesting, sez Phyllis Diller plays Mrs. Buckley! Guess what, not our Phyllis!.. n'yuk n'yuk!

Shades of Frankenstein. It's not very healthy when the doctor and student are both coo-coo.

If you don't like things the way they are, then use that god-given second amendment solution, especially if you're flippin' nuts!

According to this clinical explanation, the dude has a problem, or two... or three!

Bill Woods plays Don Maxwell, the MANIAC, but it is believed that "the 'Bill Woods' who is credited as playing Maxwell appears to be William Woods, a Los Angeles makeup artist whose skills would have been of great assistance to the plot of the film."

When Don takes the doctor's glasses off to complete that last bit of deceptive detailing, the doc blinks as they're removed!

..PEEK-A-BOO, I SEEEE YOU!!

Remember, Don's winging it!

In fact, Don is so delusional, he shoots up this poor dupe up with battery acid!

So, the guy turns into a Mr. Hyde type and goes out to do his evil deed.

In the meantime, Don needs to get rid of the doctor's body. He unwittingly seals a black cat up with him! Man, they're ripping off everbloody!!

~ INTERMISSION ~

Three 'fun' pics from the flick!

Probably the best part of this flick is that there's, yes, nudity in it!.. And, why not?!.. Nuf' said!

Don gets instructions from his friends at Area 51!

Criminy Sakes Alive!!!

The cops finally arrive and break up the cat fight, then the cat that got buried with the doctor yowls and helps them uncover this weird mystery fueled by a few twisted nerves.

When you're insane, everbloody's crazier than you!!.. Shout out to GB!

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!'