Saturday, January 14, 2017

RED INGLE AND HIS NATURAL SEVEN - "Melody Masters" (1948)

 Tonight's Saturday Night Special is for me, I hope you like it as much as I do!

 When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time listening to my Dad's olde 78 records, and I mean a lot of time! Many, many of those songs will be ingrained into my head for my own personal eternity!
Of course, the novelty records were the ones I listened to the most by Spike Jones, Tex Williams, and there was this record called "Yokohama Mama" by Hari Kari and his Six Saki Sippers, that I accidently broke one day, but two of my favourite records were by Red Ingle and his Natural Seven, "Tem-Tayshun" with Red Ingle and Cinderella G. Stump (Jo Stafford) on vocals, and  "Cigareets, Whuskey, and Wild Wild Women" with vocals by Red and Buttermilk Tussie!

 Red Ingle was born into this world as Ernest Jansen Ingle in 1906, and departed in 1965 at the age of 58. If you'd like to visit his grave, it's in a Santa Barbara graveyard that he shares with Fess Parker and Alan Thicke!

 This is a 14 minute burlesque show that Red made in 1948, and you can watch it or download it for free, no strings attached at a site I just discovered and added to our side bar called "Free Classic Movies!" As I captioned the link over there, If this blog was a class, that site would be one of our textbooks. There are probably at least 100 great movies you can watch there that we've covered on this site, so don't ever tell me you don't have anything to do!

 Red knew how to surround himself with talent like The Albin Dancers, and singer Karen Tedder!

 "The Man With The Big Sombrero" is the song sung by Karen Tedder!

 I didn't know before I started writing this that Red worked with Spike Jones and his City Slickers before going solo, and had done the vocals on a couple of Spike's hits like "You Always Hurt the One You Love," "Liebestraum" and "Glow Worm!" From listening to the music, I always had assumed that this was a hillbilly band, but that aspect was just one part of their shtick! I love Red's outfit, like some kind of military busboy ringmaster!

 
 Red learned to play the violin at a very young age, and then also turned to saxophone!
This Wikipedia page will show you what an amazing cat he really was!

Okay, enough of all that, let's get this show rolling!!

 Can't find out much about the very talented and very pretty Karen Tedder, except she was in another one of these Red Ingle shorts, and was on the Perry Como show once. I'm pretty sure that she was also the one doing the Buttermilk Tussie vocals!

 Karen is awesome doing her Carmen Miranda routine, and ignoring Red the whole time as he eats all the fruit in her headdress !

 Next up are the Albins doing an insane dance number you're just going to have to watch because I don't think I can really describe it accurately!

 
 Red's guitar player was a guy named Hayden Causey, and Hayden and the boys do a hot little number called "Steel Guitar Rag!" with Red on fiddle!

 In a more serious moment (Right!) Red does something he calls "Violin Concerto!"

The show closes out with "Cigareets, Whuskey, and Wild Wild Women!" The only thing that's missing is the drunken heckler on the recorded version! This song became a big hit because it was banned from playing on the radio for it's lyrical content! That'll work every time!! 
And you gotta admit, 
"Cigareets, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women, They'll Drive You Crazy, They'll Drive You Insane!"
That's advice that some almost 70 years later, you still can't argue with!

So, thanx big time to Jimbo Berkey at Free Classic Movies for this killer blast from the past!
The way things are going, gettting to see this might be the best thing that ever happens in 2017!

Friday, January 13, 2017

THE HEARSE / Marimark Productions - 1980

It's Friday, so, I guess it's time for this little horror flick, the story's about a girl who's haunted by a phantom hearse, which she believes is connected to her dead aunt, a witch with a bad reputation in their town! The tagline sez... There is a door between life and death, and now, that door is open!

The movie stars Trish (THE CHANGELING) Van Devere and Joseph (FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON) Cotton. Joseph was sure in a lot of bad movies near the end of his career, but, not as bad as Keenan Wynn.

Although the story is supposed to take place in the Bay Area, it was actually filmed at Griffith Park, what else!

What The Hell?!!.. Where'd this freakin' ID Monster come from?!

I like this shot because of the colors, chartreuse, pink and lime green, nice!

Joseph Cotton plays Walter Prichard, local big wig and ultra lush, here he is getting the damn sheriff lit at work!.. Man, the good old days!

The movie takes a while to get going, so, they throw in this albino dude to get you to think he's the bad guy!

This is the mysterious driver of The Hearse making an appearance at the cemetery.

If you look real hard, you can barely make out Trish in the shower.

Then she dreams about seeing herself in a casket at her own funeral!.. Good one!

Here's a fun shot of some early eighties doofus dudes, fulla mischief and other stuff.

Albino Guy shows up again to see if he can help out. There's just something cool about this scene in a well lit yellow dining room.

Oh yeah, guess what?!.. Joseph gets strangled in the shower!.. Who could have done this?

The Hearse is chasing Trish... Yow! That Packard grille looks like it's biting the car!

Here's the real bad guy, Tom Sullivan, played by David (STAR TREK: THE MOVIE) Gautreaux. He's also the Hearse Driver and he can go Poof!

This is a beautiful still showing The Hearse meeting its doom... Or, does it?! Anyway, check in tomorrow for something special, here, at The Dungeon!

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

LOBSTER MAN FROM MARS - "Rock Lobster" (1989)

Welcome to another wacky Wednesday in The Dungeon! Tonight's feature is called "Lobster Man From Mars" and it surfaced on this planet in the year of 1989!
I'm not sure what I was doing in 1989, but I wasn't going to the movies, so I never saw this thing when it first appeared! I think I was into Martinis and Margaritas, not Martians, at the time!

"Lobster Man From Mars" is so dumb, I really want to hate it, but I just can't for several reasons!

Probably the biggest reason that "Lobster Man From Mars" is actually a decent movie is because it truly has an incredible cast! Maybe they're not used to their full potential, but as far as Pop Culture goes, this movie is pretty amazing!
Like Fr'instance, here's two of my favourite guys in one scene together, Tony (Some Like It Hot)( And Father of Jamie Lee) Curtis and  the comic genius  of one fourth of The Firesign Theatre, Phil Proctor!
That was it for me, the movie could do no wrong after that, and it really doesn't! Weird, because most movies like this suck to me!!

"Lobster Man From Mars" is a movie about a kid who makes a movie and tries to sell it to a big Producer, who only listens to the kid and watches the movie because he's in so much financial trouble with the I.R.S. that he needs to produce a movie that is so bad it is guaranteed to lose money!

The effects aren't half bad, in fact, they're sometimes even pretty good !

 
William Ackerman gets the credits for casting, and all I can say is that he was one brilliant some of a gun; here's cute as a bug and gorgeous enough to be a Maybelline model, the "Valley Girl" Deborah Foreman as Mary proving that using the Bronson Caves in L.A.'s Griffith Park just never gets old!
And I don't get it, William's bio on IMDB says, his wife is Michelle, and they have three children! That's it! Nothing more, zip, nichts, nada! Seems fishy!

Probably somebody's, but not my favourite character in the movie is Tommy Sledge as The Detective! It's a valiant effort, but he's just not the Nick Danger he would like to be!
These ads are funny though!!

Just to keep that Pop Train rolling, here's Skip Young (Best buddy Wally from The Ozzie and Harriet Show) as Zip, the bartender! Skip was of course also in the classic film "The Spider!"

The Colonel is most likely name Colonel Ankrum because in some cool Sci-Fi movies in the 50's Morris Ankrum played the military man in charge of cleaning up the whole mess like "Invaders From Mars," "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers," and "Beginning Of The End!"
Fred (Galactica 1980, Project U.F.O.) Holliday plays the Colonel!

Big Dick Strange does his best, and it's a good one, impersonation of Rod Serling! 
Big Dick is played by D.J. and "Wheel Of Fortune" announcer M.G. Kelly!

The aforementioned William Ackerman also plays the mechanic whose body becomes a nest for these little buggers!

Even the unknowns like Karen Kelley Dugan do a good job! This was Karen's only movie gig as far as I can find out!

No, we're not done yet, here's "The Avenger's" Patrick Macnee as Professor Plocostomos! At first I expected Patrick to just show up, but he also puts in a good performance!

The Lobster Man shows how devious he is by going through a girl's shower and locker room at a college!

A cooking show on TV gives them an idea on how to destroy the Lobster Man! 
BOILING HOT WATER!

 Believe it or not, this wasn't the first time in film history that somebody decided to have a lobster as the main character! In 1966, there was Ebirah in "Horror Of The Deep," or "Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster!"

In 2014, there was "Mutantis," but then again, this might be a crawdaddy!

I couldn't find any info on this poster, and I'm pretty sure that it's not really a movie, but it's a cool image I just had to include here!

 Almost like a mixture of "Night Of The Ghouls," and "Frankenstein Vs. The Space Monster!"

 Arguably one of the most famous little guys in the whole world, Billy Barty plays the mystical Mr. Throckmorton!

 The Colonel says it's time to wrap this up! 

It's too much, I tell you, too much!!
There are more appearances from a host of notable people like Dr. Demento, Bobby "Boris" Pickett, Richard Penn, Dean Jacobson, Anthony Hickox, and of course they had to use the B52's 1979 hit:
"ROCK LOBSTER"...........but then, WHY NOT?

Monster Music

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