Saturday, October 29, 2016

THE MUMMY'S TOMB - "Buried Fury" (1942)

So, this is my last post of this year's "Countdown To Halloween," and I couldn't figure out if I wanted to use the "Shindig Halloween Special" from 1965, "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special" from 1976, or the last of the Gossamer trilogy starring Duck Dodgers, but then I decided to do something classy and just go all out classic for a change!

For a good 40 years or so, Horror movies were dominated by a mere handful of creatures! 
The whole Frankenstein family, Vampires, Werewolves, Invisible People, Jekyll and Hyde characters, and Mummies! Of them all, it's obvious that Vampires have stayed at the top of the game, but they are eternal creatures, so what more would you expect, but the Mummies, except for a couple of exceptions, have finally ran out of Tana leaves, and are a dying breed, literally, and figuratively!!

 On the right is the legendary George (The Flying Serpent, The House Of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mad Ghoul, The Mad Monster, The Monster And The Girl) Zucco as the Mummy's keeper, Andoheb!

 "The Mummy's Tomb" is a revenge movie! The Westerners violate the ancient Egyptian tombs and are sentenced to death! It's no wonder the U.S.A. still pays millions of dollars to Egypt year after year!

 But the life force of the Mummy is this potion of Tana leaves that just got spilled on the floor! Set him on fire, and the world is free of the Mummy's revenge forever! (Almost!)

The Mummy didn't die in that horrific scene, because, well, dead people can't die!
So the Mummy gets a new owner, and he's shipped off to America!

The always entertaining Turhan (The Mad Ghoul, The Climax, The Amazing Mr. X) Bey as Mehemet Bey is the new Boss of the Mummy, and just like any good Boy Scout, he pledges to have the Mummy do his job, and kill all of the family of anybody that had anything to do with desecrating their holy resting place!

Cool Police lab, figuring out shit the good old fashioned way!

When he said get rid of ALL the family members, he meant it! 
Mary (The Bride Of Frankenstein, The Body Snnatcher, The Invisible Man Returns) Gordon was one of those kind of people that movies would be lost without! Largely uncredited, she was in over 300 films as a housekeeper or a cleaning woman, etc!

I love shots of newspapers! 
Oh, sure, they'll figure it out now with all these journalists on the case!

The star of the show is Lon Chaney Jr. as the Mummy! Kharis is his name! The dichotomy is that he is slower than a five some of mole asses, but, if he catches you, your goose is cooked, it's over!

Elyse Knox is Isobel Evans. She's planning on marrying into a family that doesn't have much future!
I like her outfit, but I swear she wears it for about 3 days! In this movie Dick Foran is Stephen Banning, and in "The Mummy's Hand" he plays Steve Banning!

Finally, it's time to change!!
Elyse was also in "Free, Blonde and 21," and she had the recurring role of Anne Howe in six Joe Palooka movies!

 Kharis is not happy with Mr. Bey when he is told to go and kidnap the girl because he wants to marry her! That just wasn't part of the program, and Kharis knows it!

But since he just won the employee of the week award, he goes out to do his job! Believe it or not, even though she looks like she is in her 20's, Isobel's Mom just tucked her in!

Let the marriage ceremony begin!

Some things just aren't meant to be, and Kharis goes up in flames again!

She's still wearing that same top!

I hope you had a good time, and thanx again to all the good folks who make the Countdown happen! 
HAPPY HELL ON EARTH YA'LL!!!

Friday, October 28, 2016

LOONEY TUNES / 'Kitty Kornered' - 1946

It's Friday the 28th, so, time to take a look at a favorite Clampett cartoon, one of the last ones he did before leaving Warner Bros. In this hilarious tale, Porky puts his four cats out in the snow for misbehaving, but, then they throw him outside and have a party to celebrate. After expelling them again, Porky goes to bed, only to be terrorized by the felines' mock Martian invasion!.. Laughs abound!!

After being thrown out, the kitties gang up on Porky and give him a little of his own medicine!

The cats immediately break out the booze, cigars and snacks, and, the party is on! It becomes a drunken celebration and the kitties are having a grand old time.

Everything about this pic is a freakin' crack up!..

Then, a mysterious dog shows up and starts barking at the drunken felines! They quickly scatter into another room as...

Porky, now in from the cold, has used his pet shadow dog to his advantage.

The kitties laugh it off until Porky loses it and starts chasing the little jerks! Notice how insane these pics are! Damn, Clampett was so good at expressing exaggerated chaos. Love that guy!

After being ejected from the house yet once again, Sylvester gives the boys a pep talk! Then, he comes up with a clever idea to get back in...

Porky has hit the sack, everything is great until a bulletin comes over his radio about a Martian invasion! The voice on the radio is actually one of the kitties, part of the plan!

Porky then notices some cute little pals in bed with him. That's fine until he puts two and two together, and, realizes that they are the Martians!!

Anywho, they all end up back outside, in the snow, wondering what the Hell just happened! Check this cartoon out when you get the chance, it's one of the best!!.. Okay, be back tomorrow as we close in on the end of Halloween Countdown 2016!!

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

WATER, WATER, EVERY HARE - "Bugs Bunny Meets The Big Red Monster Part Two" - Looney Tunes (1952)

Well, when it comes to Halloween, you just can't go wrong with cartoons, at least that's what we think around here! As I just told Reverend Tom Frost (Go out and buy his new album "Mysteries and Manners," before it's too late!), the cool thing about having kids when you get older is, that you can watch all kinds of stupid shit and lots of cartoons on TV without feeling guilty! I watched so much Nickelodeon and Disney in the 80's and the 90's, it permanently changed my taste!

"Water, Water Every Hare" was a Bugs Bunny, Michael Maltese, Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, Carl Stalling, short that featured the second appearance of the big red tennis shoe wearing monster known as Gossamer, or Rudolph, or Ruda, depending on who you talk to, this time around!

It's a rainy night in Georgia, or somewhere. That's another great thing about cartoons, the location is unimportant; it could be anywhere, and it won't affect the story at all!

Bugs Bunny's burrow is totally flooded! I honestly didn't know that rabbits can breath underwater like Mermen, but apparently, it's true!

Bugs gets washed out of his hole and floats on downstream, still sleeping the whole time!

The artwork is outstanding, the colours are amazing, and this twin falls Yosemite shot of the evil scientist's castle is bootiful!

The last time we saw the big red monster his master was a Peter Lorre character, but this time it's a Boris Karloff character who has created a giant Frankensteinian robot that needs a brain! A rabbit's brain is a little small for the job, but it will just have to do!!

Bugs was reeled in by the mad doctor and gets the bejeezus scared out of him by this mummy!

Bugs leaps into the mad scientist's arms!

When he realizes where he has landed, he leaps again and ends up here!

One more time, and he ends up on the face of the giant robot!

Time for Big Red to be unleashed again!

Bugs is in big trouble this time!!

Last time they met, Bugs ended up doing the monster's nails, but this time it's a dynamite new hairdo!!

Then the fun labels part begins! Bugs pours 'Vanishing Fluid' on himself and disappears, and then....

......He pours the reducing oil on the monster with.........

........Predictable results!!

The next element introduced into this soiree is ether, which causes the mad scientist to go night night..................

...........And bugs floats off into the night and back home again, only to wonder if the whole thing was a dream!!

And.....

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??