THE FOG / Embassy Pictures, EDI, Debra Hill Productions - 1980

Here' a blast from the past with a fun cast of characters and directed by John (THEY LIVE, R.I.P. Roddy) Carpenter. The story's about the approaching centennial celebration in the small town of Antonio Bay, California. 100 years earlier, a wealthy leper, Blake, bought the clipper ship Elizabeth Dane and sailed with his people to form a leper colony! While sailing through a thick fog though, they were deliberately misguided and crash their boat against the rocks. When the town's residents prepare to celebrate, an eerie fog shows up!

The movie begins with a sea captain telling his audience of kids the old tale from the past, a good way to set up the story.

Nice title card, very soothing and calm.................. Booo-Wah!

I thought I'd start with this very cool radio alarm clock from the late seventies...

To the left of the radio we find Tom (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) Atkins as Nick Castle and his girlfriend, Jamie Lee (HALLOWEEN) Curtis as Elizabeth Solley. They spend most of their time trying to solve the upcoming mystery.

Adrienne (SWAMP THING) Barbeau plays Stevie Wayne, local radio DJ. There she is going to the radio station in her neato VW Thing! Beautiful locations!

And, The Fog cometh!!........

The Fog rolls onto land and the fun begins. The lady watching Stevie's son there gets tore up real good, but, the son is barely rescued by Nick and Elizabeth... Hurray!!

Here are Hal (THE STAR CHAMBER) Holbrook as Father Malone and Jamie Lee's mom, the great Janet (PSYCHO) Leigh as town spokeswoman, Kathy Williams. They're working on community damage control.

Then, the creeped out sailors find their way to the church, where everyone has gone to congregate, supposedly the safest place in town!

What the Hell, Father Malone brings out a huge metal cross and the main zombo grabs it and there's a tussle over the damn thing as it heats up! Good news is that Nick pulls the father away from the situation and the bad guys go poof! Join us again tomorrow for more cool junk from... The Dungeon!!

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON - "The Colgate Comedy Hour" Season 04, Episode 21 (1954)

What I have for you tonight is an amazing little piece of history! The"Colgate (toothpaste) Comedy Hour" was on TV for 6 seasons from 1950 to 1955! Many of the episodes featured Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.....

.......and quite a few episodes also featured Lou Abbott and Bud Costello!

A lot of it was totally gonzo, free-form "live" TV,  and as much as people try, the feel is impossibly difficult to duplicate!

If you don't know it, then go back and ask your history teacher why, but Abbott and Costello, had an ongoing series of movies featuring all the best of the Universal monsters, like Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man!

If I did my research correctly, this episode introduced "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" a month before the movie was actually released. Too bad "Abbott And Costello Meet The Creature From The Black Lagoon" was a movie that never happened, cause I'm sure it would have been a good one!!

ROBOT JOX / Empire Pictures, Altar Productions - 1989

We're keeping the old ball rolling along again this week, here at The Dungeon!.. Here's one I actually saw when it came out, it was okay but a little disappointing. The story takes place in the future where it is post-World War III, war is now outlawed, in its place are matches between large deadly Robots. The main character, Achilles (Gary Graham), is a pilot in one of the large Robots. The matches take place involving two superpowers over disputed territories and the plot revolves around a match for the state of Alaska!

The flick was actually filmed at the Empire Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy!.. Spicy-a-meat-a-ball!!

Welp, it's time for Achilles to get ready for his next match, thing looks like it's 200 feet tall.

The Robots come out with weapons blazin' away. The tank tracks on the back of Achilles' Robot's legs end up saving his life in a later match!

Then, the opposing Robot shoots its giant fist and knocks Achilles back on his heels, causing the Robot to fall backwards onto the stands with hundreds of watchers! After that, Achilles goes into a depression over the accident.

His girlfriend ends up getting her ass kicked in the next match, so, Achilles has to step in to save her life!

Achilles then grabs his Robot and blasts off into space, so, the opponent, Alexander, follows him in his giant Robot! It's not long before Achilles ' Robot is hit with a blast that disables the rocket in one of its feet.

It's back to Earth to finish the fight. Achilles crashes his Robot and can only wait for Alexander to join him!

Big Alexander brings out the big guns, his Robot transforms into a real horror as it pounds Achilles. It looks bad for our hero, how can he win?!

Achilles is a tricky lil' mofo, He uses what's left of his Robot to send Alexander's Robot to the junk heap and the match goes to hand-to-hand combat between the pilots!

After Achilles is ready to kill Alexander, he decides that fighting is futile, so, him and his foe join together in friendship! A nice way to end the conflict... Be back Wednesday for more from... The Dungeon Gang!

HOKUS POKUS - The Three Stooges - (1949)

Where does the time go? I can't believe it's already Saturday again!

Welcome to The Dungeon and tonight's special featurette!
I've been watching a lot of "Three Stooges" lately, and why not?  In today's krazy world, they make as much sense as anything else, and more sense than a lot of things!

This short is called "Hokus Pokus" and was made in 1949, a couple of years after Curly had to leave the trio and they were rejoined by Shemp after his years of going it alone!

 The Three Stooges are brothers, so it's acceptable that three middle aged men might sleep together, and generally have no relationships with women, but aren't gay!

 The pajamas are worth the price of admission alone!

 These guys took a beating day in and day out, but on screen, it never seemed to wear them out!!

 If you don't have a mirror, it's easier to shave somebody else!

 This is one of the rare times that you'll ever get to see a good shot of Moe's forehead!!

Classic!!

Fried eggs over easy for breakfast at Nick's Cafe where the manager is championship boxing super featherweight contender Carlos Morales!

 I'm pretty sure that Cassius Clay learned some of his defensive posturing by watching olde footage of Shemp! What amazing footwork!

 Shemp discovers that the hypotenuse of a right angle is approximately 31 degrees Centigrade to the left when trying to set up a card table!

 I've forgot what Moe was actually doing in this scene, but it doesn't take a lot of imagination to know what it looks like!

Killer play on words with my favourite food! 

I could not live without garlic, and I have yet to be attacked by a vampire, thank goodness!

Moe gets thrown into prison!!

Oh, gee whiz, he was just looking through the back of a chair!

Via hypnosis, Svengarlic turns Larry into a cat, and Shemp into a monkey

To showcase his skills, Svengarlic makes the boys walk out onto a flagpole some umpteen stories high!

Under the weight of three stooges, the flagpole snaps like a number 2 pencil!

I'm moving the last of my stuff today and tomorrow, and after three months, I feel pretty hypnotized myself right about now!!
Have a great weekend!