TERROR IN THE WAX MUSEUM - Shani Wallis - "Happy Family" (1973)

"Terror In The Wax Museum" is one of the more obscure movies that have been made over the years about wax museums, and fits in perfect between X-Mas and New Years!

The lineage of wax museum movies that culminated in 1973 with "Terror In The Wax Museum,"  includes all these great titles! From 1933, "Mystery Of The Wax Museum," 1936, "Midnight At The Wax Museum," 1940, "Charlie Chan At The Wax Museum," 1953, "House Of Wax," and in 1969, "Nightmare In Wax!" Let's face it, wax museums are just freaky!!

This particular wax museum is not just your ordinary run of the mill wax museum, Hell No, this place is also a chamber of horrors featuring famous murderers!

Next door to the chamber of horrors is the "Clock and Horn" pub, and their main attraction, singer and actress Shani Wallis as dance hall queen Laurie Mell! Laurie is singing a unique and dark little ditty about a happy family of undertakers that not all the patrons are comfortable with!

Not all the guys get rattled by the dark and dreary tunes!

These wax characters are a little more animated than most! Lizzie Borden, Bluebeard, Jack The Ripper, and Marie Antoinette!

Somebody or something murders Claude Dupree, the owner of the wax museum as played by the always astounding John Carradine, and all the evidence points to the Jack The Ripper wax figure!!

Nicole (Torture Garden) Shelby has the role of Claude Dupree's niece Margaret Collins who is set to inherit the whole place after Claude's death!

Steven (Zabo) Marlo is Karkoff, Claude Dupree's deformed but harmless assistant!  He is also the ticket taker at the door for that extra added special effect!

What a roomful of amazing talent! Broderick (Highway Patrol, The Vulture) Crawford, Elsa (Bride Of Frankenstein, Mary Poppins) Lanchester, and Ray (X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes, Panic In The Year Zero) Milland!

Broderick Crawford puts in a fine performance as Amos Burns, a guy who wants to buy the wax museum and move the whole thing to America! He also plays a very good Shish Kabob!

I just like this shot in the Chinese restaurant!

The always great Lisa Lu as Madam Yang reads Margaret's fortune! Lisa was on a ton of TV shows whenever the script called for a beautiful gal named Su Wo Toi, Mei Ling, Quong Lia, or Hsieh-Lin etc.

Ray Milland as Harry Flexner, and Steven Marlo as Karkoff should have been the rightful heirs to the Dupree Chamber Of Horrors! From the poster etc, you are totally mislead that Karkoff is some kind of monster, but in reality, he's just this poor misfigured gentle soul!

Imagine that!! Margaret is being plagued by bad dreams! How very odd!

Then dead Uncle Claude pays Margaret a visit in the middle of the night! At this point, she's ready to get the Hell out of Dodge!

It gets even worse for Margaret when Jack The Ripper comes back to life! At least some nails to the face prove that it's some human imposter wearing a lifelike mask!

I actually fell asleep watching this movie three separate times, but the good news is that when I put all the pieces back together, I liked it quite a bit!

Margaret is completely fried by this point, but by the time it's all over, she'll be all right!

After Dupree's murder is solved, the wax museum gets a new exhibit!

I had to include this Mexican lobby card because of the blatant error they made! Lizzie Borden's picture is labeled Lucretia Borgia, and Lucretia Borgia's pic is labeled Lizzie Borden, and that pretty much sums up this krazy mixed-up movie, and this krazy mixed-up year!!

1950s Pre-Code Eye Candy HORROR COMIC COVERS

Here's your Belated Xmas Present Santa found in the back of the sled, it's about Horror Comics before the implementation of the infamous Comics Code that literally cut the nuts off all the fun. The stories and art were toned down after the Code and they lost what made them collectible, and, a lot of titles just went belly up because the stuff was LAME!!

I had a nice little pile of these comics until I sold them on eBay years ago, loved them! Here's a title from Atlas Comics, which will become Marvel.

A nice cover from BEWARE, reanimated skeletons in a graveyard are always a kick!

You've gotta love this wild and crazy, twisted kitschy cover from BLACK CAT MYSTERY.

The BLUE BOLT line of horror titles always had some of the most eye catching cover art!

I double-dog dare you to enter the insidious... CHAMBER OF CHILLS!!

DARK MYSTERIES also made good use of skeletons, even used a skull in the title logo.

You can easily tell that this cover was done by the amazing artist, Wally Wood. Wally drew the most beautiful women in the history of comics! Too bad he had so many demons.

Here's another cool Atlas title, Stan Lee was part of the crew at this time!

Here's a title from Charlton Comics... Jeez, more skeletons!!

TOMB OF TERROR always had wild covers, this one with a crazed mummy. I had a few of these.

If this isn't a Wally Wood cover, it's a damn good imitation.

Not to be outdone, UNCANNY TALES puts their little twist on the horror graveyard scene!

This VOODOO cover has yet another cute gal being tormented at the hands of monsters.

Ace Comics' WEB OF MYSTERY had higher quality stories and artwork than most horror comics.

But, I totally prefer the cruder cover art, they just POP!!

Eegah!! is back tomorrow with more Holiday treats headed in your direction!!

THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL - Beaker - "The Bird Is The Last Word" (1992)

Trying to get into the spirit on this Christmas Eve night, so here you go! I don't know about you, but one of my favorite scenes ever in a Christmas movie is a quick little shot that happens in "The Muppet Christmas Carol," a wonderful movie that was made in 1992!

Everybody has their family favorite Christmas movie, and in our family, it's a tough race between "The Muppet Christmas Carol" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas!"

Poor Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew have come to try and solicit a few pennies from Scrooge for the poor and homeless! Scrooge doesn't understand, aren't there plenty of prisons and mental institutions to take care of those people?!

Michael Caine is always good, and in the role of Scrooge, he's great!
He also doesn't understand why Beaker and Dr. Honeydew aren't leaving!

So Scrooge finally gets up and escorts them to the door............

...............But it's Beaker who gets in the last word, and the last gesture!
Take that, all you Scrooges in the world!
Here's a link to a Youtube 26 second video of the scene! It's not very good quality, but you can get the idea just in case you have never seen it before!
Beaker Gets The Last Word!

"And To All A Good Night!"

CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN / Universal Pictures - 1943

It's time to check out this little weirdie from Universal, released during WWII, it's all about a mad scientist who transplants human glands into a female gorilla which turns the ape into a beautiful young woman. Later though, a severe emotional jolt reverts her back into her primitive self!

Eegah!! sent over another fun little sound clip from this flick for our earjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our captive wild weasel, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a taste of... CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN!

John (THE UNEARTHLY) Carradine plays the slick Dr. Sigmund Walters, he likes to experiment on animals in his lab and has a fascination with gland transplanting!

Here are Evelyn (THE WOLFMAN) Ankers as Beth Colman and Milburn (INVADERS FROM MARS) Stone as Fred Mason, both work for the circus.

Dr. Walters talks to a circus worker about stealing an ape for his experiments in a local bar. This is a joint that Eegah!! and Tabonga! would like to hang out at!

Dr. Walters gets his bloody ape, but, at what cost?..

So, on with the show! Walters hooks up the ape to exchange fluids with a female victim.

After the gorilla receives the human glands, she starts changing into...

Right, a beautiful young woman! Acquanetta plays Paula Dupree/the Ape Woman and can be seen as Paula Dupree again in JUNGLE WOMAN a year later.

Paula has a primitive power over the animals and assists Mason with his big cat act, footage of Clyde Beatty in the cat cage was beautifully cut in for the long shots!

Paula sees Mason kiss Beth and her jealousy takes over, causing her to start reverting back to her primitive ape form...

I threw this pic in from our Weird Photo Department, pretty cool, huh?!

Anyway, Beth lets the ape out and it tears Dr. Walters a new ass hole!

Be sure to check in Wednesday when the Dungeon Gang will give you another Xmas present!