Bimbo might get the main credit, but Betty Boop is the real star of tonight's Halloween Countdown Saturday Night Special "Talkartoon" presentation, the super mysterious,
"Mysterious Mose"!
This was Betty Boop's third appearance on the big screen following "Dizzy Dishes" and "Barnacle Bill!" The first one and this one both featured Margie Hines as the voice of Betty, Little Ann Little was Betty in Barnacle Bill and several features to follow, sharing the role with Margie, Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe and Kate Wright over the years!
Well, this kind of action sure would be unacceptable by today's cartoon standards!
Not only once, but twice, Betty gets her top completely scared off! You might notice that Betty's character hadn't morphed into a complete human being yet, and still featured dog's ears!
A few years later Margie Hines became the main voice of Olive Oyl, but still did some Betty Boop cartoons also. In 1939 Margie married her co-star, the voice of Popeye, Jack Mercer, but it only lasted for a couple of years! Now I'll bet that would have been an interesting home to be a fly on the wall in!
What Betty's doing in this house and what or who Mysterious Mose is, is a question only Dave, Lou, or Max Fleischer could answer, since they were responsible for about 90% of what their company was putting out at the time!
So to calm her nerves Betty breaks out into song! Right about here is where it really gets mysterious, and to make things even more confusing, even though Margie Hines was doing the voice of Betty Boop, it was Mae Questel who was actually singing the song! "Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh!"
Mae Questel was also the voice of Olive Oyl for a number of years, along with Little Audrey, Little Lulu and more! She was also quite an actress, and will be remembered for all time for her last role, as good ole Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation"
Outside, things aren't much better!! "Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh!"
"When your path at midnight dark by a graveyard goes,
And someone whistles, Whoooooo, That's Mysterious Mose!"
"He sees all, He knows all, He's just been everywhere, Some night, he might wait for you upon the stair!" And who is this guy anyway, Bimbo or is he Mysterious Mose??
Man, these two hit it off immediately, now it's time for Mose to make his move!!
Mysterious Mose goes all out to impress Betty with his charm, wit, and ability to go from inside the stovepipe to being decked out like an Alpine mountain climber, and the perfect lover!
Strike up the band!!! The music for "Mysterious Mose" was composed by a Mr. Walter Doyle and has been performed by not only The Walter Doyle Orchestra, but also Cliff Perrine And His Orchestra, Rube Bloom And His Bayou Boys, and R. Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders!
Just for the heck of it, here's R. Crumb's version! There's a couple of handfuls or more versions on youtube, plus you can also watch the whole cartoon, just do a search for "Mysterious Mose," you'll be amazed how many folks have gotten the Mysterious Mose fever over the years....
.....like this lively group by the name of The Soothsayers Jugband!!
There's so much going on, it just keeps getting weirder, and it will make your head spin before the whole scene explodes into chaos!
While Bimbo gets himself together, I'll tell you that one of the coolest things about "Mysterious Mose" is that it can be downloaded for free by anyone in a variety of formats at the mysterious
Internet Archive!!!
You've probably seen it somewhere else, and we generally eschew videos in lieu of old fashioned music and pictures, but this is a little something everyone should see at least once, Betty Boop (Bonnie Poe) and Dracula (Bela Lugosi) together! "Are we having fun yet?"
I can't think of anything better to present on this Black Sabbath All Saint's Night Eve, than a twisted tale of man and God like "The Evil Of Frankenstein"!!!
Peter Cushing IS Baron Frankenstein! What more do I need to say?
"The Evil Of Frankenstein" is directed by cinematographer turned director, and Dungeon fave, Freddie Francis! It makes all the difference in the world!
The music is by perennial 60's Hammer work horse Don Banks. If Don would have lived past the age of 56 years old, he would have shared a birthday with Reverend Tom Frost last Tuesday!
Bodies disappear in the night, and all that's left is a crucifix, where do they go??
The laboratory of Baron Frankenstein is a wonder to behold! Does anybody want a Blood Orange Julius?
But wait, there's something insanely inhuman going on here!
"The Evil OF Frankenstein" was written and produced by Anthony Hinds! Anthony was the son of the co-founder of Hammer Films, Will Hammer!
Can't get enough of these terrific lookin' lab scenes!
No matter what, success or failure, the main goal is too look good, and that's where "The Evil Of Frankenstein" succeeds!
Very strange transition shot!!
This is not the first time we've seen that mask on the wall in these pages!!
Madam, I beseech thee, No, I command thee, Pull my Finger!
Baron Frankenstein and his assistant Hans, as played by Sandor (Countess Dracula) Elès do a fine impersonation of The Green Hornet and Kato!
Pretty subtle, right?
"The Evil Of Frankenstein" is also quite a love story!
Eye Candy Castle of Evil!
Sometimes nothing goes right!!
This was the first time a non-Universal film was allowed to use the concept of the big square Jack P. Pierce created, and copyrighted brow of Frankenstein, so they took it to the next level, and made it even bigger and squarer. It was only made possible because this film was being distributed by Universal!
Baron Frankenstein enlisted the use of Peter(Gollum)Woodthorpe as Prof. Zoltán the Hypnotist to get Frankie's brain jumpstarted, which creates a problem! The monster ONLY listens to the Hypnotist!
Zoltán sends Frankie out to do some shopping and to take care of some dirty laundry for him!
Frank was thinking about trying out for the British Olympic team in the Javelin Throwing competition!
When I first saw this film as a kid, I didn't like it because of the monster's pasty putty makeup, but Kiwi Kingston strikes a pretty stunning portrait in this shot! Kiwi was only ever in one other film, and that was one year later in another Freddie Francis flick, "Hysteria."
And just for Douglas McEwan, here's a picture of boxer/wrestler Ernie Kingston in one of his wrasslin' poses! He got his nickname Kiwi because he was from New Zealand!
Sometimes green screen itself is inherently evil!
All the painted backgrounds are killer, right up to The End!
