WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? - Malneck & Mercer "Goody Goody" (1971)

Time for another Saturday Night At The Movies Special in The Dungeon! The poster for "What's The Matter With Helen?" doesn't leave much to the imagination, no matter what language it is in! Shelley Winters as Helen looks crazy as Hell, and Debbie Reynolds as Adelle looks equally dead!

So what the F is the matter with Helen? She's a 100% bonifide nut case!

Pretty simple concept really!

Here's a rare shot of Adelle and Helen without much makeup on! 

After both their sons are convicted of a grisly murder, Adelle and Helen move to Los Angeles to open a dance studio!

Debbie Reynolds is both beautiful and talented, and this is probably the freakiest movie she has ever been in! It's definitely not a sequel to "Tammy And The Bachelor!"

Speaking of freaky, am I the only one who gets creeped out by weird dolls like this?

In an effort to perk Helen up a bit, Adelle cuts her long hair!

Since this movie is about a couple of women, there's more than a few scenes of weird guys hanging out in the shadows!

"What's The Matter With Helen" could just also almost be considered a musical! It's the 1930's and Shirley Temple is all the rage! One of the songs that is strung throughout the film is the 1936 hit "Goody Goody" written by Matty Malneck and Johnny Mercer. This song has been recorded by countless artists, and went to #20 on the Billboard charts as a recording by Frankie Lymon in 1957! If you really want to do yourself a favor, go check out this version by Marie Adams & The Three Tons of Joy recorded live on The Johnny Otis Show! Whoa!!!

Dennis Weaver is Linc Palmer, the super wealthy Father of one of those little girls! To me, he comes across as a sleazy weasel, but he really turns out to be a nice guy! No matter what Dennis did in his career, in my book he'll always be remembered as Chester on "Gunsmoke!" I don't know why, it only ran for 290 episodes!

Here's another shot of a massive and mysterious shadow of a man!

"What's The Matter With Helen?" has got a pretty star-studded cast! Dungeon hero Timothy Carey even makes a brief appearance as an annoying bum, the figure that was at the door!

Linc takes Adelle out to a floating casino, and she gets a chance to show off her Tango skills!

Helen is a stay at home Christian, but Adelle wants to, and does enjoy some of the finer things in life!

Time for a recital, and since Linc's daughter is one of the stars of the show, he doesn't have a problem paying for a theatre and some sets like this! Pretty wild for a small dance studio! This performance was titled "Animal Crackers In My Soup!"

The Mother of the little girl doing the bawdiest of the acts, "Oh You Nasty Man," goes through the motions backstage!

What do you think about this stage setup? Debbie gets to show off her tap dancing skills!

Wow! What an outfit!!

One of the guys hanging out in the shadows was this dude who was just trying to let Helen know she had inherited some money! He walks up the stairs to tell her the good news and she gives him a shove, and down the stairs he goes, and cracks his head wide open! The bottom still is a quick flash hidden horror rearing it's ugly little head from Helen's past!

Always awesome Agnes (Endora) Moorehead is great as the evangelist Sister Alma that Helen is always listening to on the radio!

"What's The Matter With Helen" is an MGM Shelly Winters twofer that also includes another questionable film "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" and it's available from Amazon Prime for $4.48 with free shipping! You wanna talk about a deal?

GOTHIC / Virgin Vision - 1986

Thanks for checking in... We have a story about the night that Mary Shelley conceived her horror classic, FRANKENSTEIN, during drug induced games with her friends on a rainy night at Lord Byron's country estate. Ghost stories are told, personal horrors are revealed and the madness of the evening runs from sexual fantasy to nightmare.

I've got a little sound clip from this movie for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button over by our story telling pit, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's a tangy taste of... GOTHIC!

To me, the story is about rich people having too much money and time on their hands.

This is Lord Byron's roomy mansion in England where friends gather for a night of debauchery.

After a nice meal, it's time to start the fun and games with Lord Byron getting things going.

I swear, if The Dungeon had a staircase like this, it would really increase its real estate value!

Once upon a time there was a stinky antisocial dude that lived in a small cave outside of town, his name was The Creep... He only came out at night, dressed in black with shades... His only friends were two rotting decapitated heads from his victims he kept as trophies near his bed in the cave. He named them Shorty and Lil' Buddy for laffs... One night, he was in a foul mood...

The night wouldn't be complete without a séance, now, would it?! Nice shots.

It wouldn't be much of a horror flick without this token skull, I'm thinking.

Looks like poor Mary is not having a such a great time giving birth to Frankenstein!

Lookit here, now!.. That Lord Freakin' Byron guy is totally out of control!!

There's lots of fun stuff going on after they move the party to the nether regions of the cellar. There's this nude spider girl running around scaring the kids!

I threw in this shot because it just looks wild 'n' weird.

The night ends with a thrilling lighting storm and attempted suicide.

So, whose up for some fresh baked ham?.. Eegah!! invades the place again tomorrow, so, if I were you, I'd be there or be a square! That's what I always say...

ONE GIRL'S CONFESSION - Hugo Haas - "The Kind Of Girl Every Man Wants" (1953)

1953 was a simpler time, and tonight's feature titled "One Girl's Confession" is a simple movie I have to confess, and I'm not even a girl! Welcome to the midweek 'It's Time To Pay' version of The Dungeon!

I bought this DVD to see Cleo Moore, and instead I ended up finding out everything there was about Hugo Haas instead, who was a most interesting character! Hugo wrote, acted in, directed, and produced "One Girl's Confession!" The man had cajones!

What can I say? This is such a classic woman on a beach shot, even if it is phoney as Hell!

The fantasy is over and now it's time to get to work!

The music in this movie was written by Václav Divina, and if you listen to this clip, you'll hear all the guys whistling and catcallin' when Cleo enters the scene! She's a waitress in this dump! Her name is Mary Adams, and she's late for work!

The boorish local patrons just can't seem to keep their hands off of her, but Mary is a good gal, and she just takes it all in stride!

Mary's employer (Leonid Snegoff) is an ass, but he's been taking care of her for a long time, ever since her Dad died, but she also knows that he responsible for robbing her Father of a great deal of money!

This is the way we're all gonna be taking baths in the near future in California unless something happens pretty damn quick!

Then one night Mary decides to take things into her own hands, and she steals the cash box from the old man, and the twenty-five thousand dollars inside it!

Mary hides the money, and when she is confronted by the police, she confesses to the whole thing, except, she won't tell them where she hid the money! She's sentenced to something like ten years, but she's so damn cheerful and nice, she gets out in just a couple of years!

The old place is gone, so Mary spots a 'waitress wanted' sign in another dive, and asks the owner, an obsessive gambler, for a job!! The owner's name is Dragomie Damitrof, and he's played by the man of the hour, Hugo Haas!

In the 'Life's Just Not Fair' department, Cleouna Moore died of a heart attack at the age of 48!

Hugo was a comedic character actor who decided he wanted to be calling all the shots later in his career, and he's pretty damn good at it!

Dragomie's main squeeze is a gal called Smooch! Smooch is played by Helene Stanton in her first big screen role! She went on to be in "Jungle Moon Men," and "The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues!" While she pretends to doze off here, when Dragomie's not looking, she's grabbing bills, and stuffing them in her top!

Mary's frustrated suitor is a fisherman named Johnny played by Glenn (HANGOVER SQUARE,  THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE) Langan! Glenn didn't just have a bit part in "The Amazing Colossal Man," he was "The Amazing Colossal Man!"

So Dragomie lost all his money and the bar in a card game, vaguely reminiscent of "Carnival Rock, so Mary, being the nice person that she is, tells him where she buried the money! He comes back all frustrated and tells her that he couldn't find it! A couple of days later, he's back in business, partying in the penthouse, and Mary is like WTF!? I liked this guy, I tried to help him because he helped me, and now he's ripped me off!

Mary sits outside of Dragomie's apartment and watches all the partying silhouettes on the shade!

Hugo's like Hell Yeah, I wrote, directed, and produced this film, and I'm going to enjoy myself!

This shot is just so silly I had to use it! When all the partygoers are gone, Mary goes into Drag's room to confront him, but he's so drunk, he's barely conscious! He grabs onto her, and in an attempt to get away, she clocks him in the head with an empty champagne bottle, and as far as she can tell, he's dead!

I'd have a cool lamp like that in my home, but my wife would divorce me!

As it turns out, Drag wasn't dead, and he also didn't steal Mary's money! He had won it all back the following night in another card game, so it's pretty much a happy ending for everybody, except that Mary gave her money away to an orphanage by mistake, but at least she's still got Johnny!

"One Girl's Confession" is just one of four films on this two DVD set called "Bad Girls Of Film Noir Volume 2!" I swear I got a copy for under ten bucks a couple of months ago on Amazon, and now it's $22.00, but I see they have used copies for under $10.00 in case you're interested!