Saturday, March 18, 2017

THE WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS - "Aren't You Glad It's Not A Chicken Bone?" (1966)

I had something completely different planned but I got sidetracked by a bunch of Japanese videos, so I thought I'd try and have some fun tonight instead!
In the classic 1966 Japanese film, "The War Of The Gargantuas," there was one of the most memorable musical scenes in film history! It's my pleasure to present the original song, and a couple of unique covers, so here's................

                        
........"The Words Get Stuck In My Throat" by Kipp Hamilton." You have to see it to believe it!

                       
In 1977, DEVO came out with their version of "The Words Get Stuck In My Throat" sung by Booji Boy! Why was this not number one with a bullet, I have no idea!
In the 'Six degrees of Separation' Department, DEVO were in Neil Young's hilarious musical called "The Human Highway," which also co-starred Dungeon Hero Russ Tamblyn, who was also the 'American' star of "The War Of The Gargantuas," and one of the stars of what I'm currently fixated on, "Twin Peaks!"


And then in 2010, "The Words Get Stuck In My Throat" bounced back again, this time performed by Trini Lee and her band at The Tiki Tub in a 2010 "Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated" episode titled "Battle Of The Humungonauts!"

You can watch "The War Of The Gargantuas" start to finish, including this scene right here!! No strings attached, and you won't have to cough up a cent!
It's pretty sad, so just try and not get too choked up!
Thanx to all the people who posted those videos on YouTube and The Internet Archive, we appreciate it!!

Friday, March 17, 2017

THE SMILING GHOST / Warner Bros. - 1941

Today we go back to 1941 to check out this little horror comedy, It goes like this... Elinor Bentley Fairchild's previous three grooms-to-be have either died or been maimed and her aunt hires Lucky Downing to become engaged to her for a month to break the curse! But then, Lucky becomes the target of what appears to be a ghost of one of the former fiances.

It stars Wayne (THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X) Morris, Brenda (THE SEA HAWK) Marshall, Alexis (THE DOUGHGIRLS) Smith, Alan (TUGBOAT ANNIE SAILS AGAIN) Hale and Willie (THE GHOST BREAKERS) Best.

So, three of Elinor's fiancees have fallen to the wayside, the Smiling Ghost is responsible, and, that there newspaper backs me up big time!

Lucky Downing joins the fun at Elinor's house for a month to break the curse, everything seems okay but all the characters at the house are a little crazy to start with.

Lucky brings his servant Clarence along to keep him company while he readies to get hitched at the end of a month. Willie Best was also a talented musician/song writer, but, a drug arrest ended his film career, he worked in television for a while before retiring to obscurity.

Lucky and reporter Lil Barstow go to the hospital to talk to Elinor's only living fiancee who now occupies an iron lung!

Back at the ranch, the Smiling Ghost is creeping around in the basement, just looking for trouble! I'm not sure that's a smile on his face.

I like this foggy scene as our heroes search for clues to the mystery.

At the wedding, Lucky is getting a little nervous about tying the knot with Elinor... Then, the lights go out and all Hell breaks loose!

The Ghost stalks Lucky and has him trapped in the basement where he plans on doing him in!

A fight ensues and Lucky gets in a lucky punch on the menace who falls back, knocking a boat down and knocking him out cold.

They pull the mask off the Ghost and discover that it's Elinor's former fiancee, the one in the freakin' iron lung! A nice creepy twist to the mystery.

Lucky dons the mask and asks the reporter, Lil, to marry him with his back turned to Elinor!!

For some reason, Lucky starts running through the house with the mask on, stirring up a lot of trouble with Elinor's family. Norton, (Alan Hale) finds the mask on the floor and gets his hand in a mouse trap while trying to grab it.

Then, Lucky finds a shrunken head in his closet and thinks it's Clarence! But, it ain't and there's a big happy ending! Be back tomorrow when we'll have something special for y'all...

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

ULTRAMAN MEBIUS (2006)

Wanna talk about a Wacky Wednesday? I think "Ultraman Mebius" fills the bill!
I'm a little bit out of my league here, but I'm pretty sure this was episode # 4 from a Japanese TV series that ran for one season from 2006 to 2007.

This is like a test-tube baby of a big but funny little monster named Miclas!
He is the property of a group of youths called GUYS that consists of Marina, George, Konimi, Teppei, Ryu, and Captain Sakomizu, a network of paramilitary monster fighters! 
So what are they gonna do with him?? 
Miclas, play the Intro!

The plan is when a monster comes to Earth, they release Miclas, and he kicks the other monster's ass, and everything goes back to normal again!

What makes it interesting is that Miclas is not exactly a prefect monster!

Konimi, the kindergarten teacher is kind of the Mommy of Miclas!

The GUYS give Miclas a holographic monster to practice on, but Miclas turns out to be very clumsy!

This is Miclas's way of trying to scare you!

And he's got this big nasty looking creature to contend with!

And if that ain't bad enuf, Miclas is also a pacifist, which is kind of rough when you're a monster!
I won't say he's a coward, he's just scared stiff!

Of course the guy who ordered Miclas in the first place is the one who bitches the most about his lack of horrific performance! Budget cutbacks!

Oh, Damn! I almost forgot this was an Ultraman show!

This is actually Ultraman's son, who is one of the GUYS!
What can you do? Get in there and kick some monster butt!

I only watched one of these shows, so I have to admit I have no idea what's going and why this Japanese Gene Simmons reptile woman is just hanging out watching the whole proceedings with me, all I know is that it's weird for a kid's show!

Finally, Ultraman shows up!

This monster's name is Kellbeam!! He's pretty bad!

Kellbeam is on a rampage but there is yet another problem with Miclas.......

Miclas has a very short shelf life, and only exists for 60 seconds at a time, so if he spends 55 seconds goofing off, being scared etc, it doesn't leave him much effective monster bashing time! It was kind of a minor flaw in the program!

Is this a great shot, or what?

Poor little Miclas is very distraught over the whole situation, but his Mommy cheers him on!!

Finally, Miclas kicks it into gear, and with some help from Ultraman, sends this monster back to wherever the Hell it came from!

Ultraman has been around 50+ years now, and it's funny how sometimes he looks like a Mexican wrassler!

 Makes me hungry for some Mexican Sushi, ala Sushinola!  The perfect blend of East and West!
Yum!

Monday, March 13, 2017

FIFTIES SCI-FI MOVIE MONSTERS ON ALIEN PLANETS

Last Monday I posted FIFTIES SCI-FI MOVIE EARTH INVADERS, so, today I have the Monsters on Alien Planets that we encountered there. When I decide to do one of these posts, I have no real idea how it will turn out until I make the list. With the Earth Invaders, there were 40 movies, with this post, there are only 12 movies! We were invaded over three times more than planets we explored with Monsters! So, check it out...

First up is ROCKETSHIP X-M from 1950, the Martians were messed up primitive mutants and some were blind. Something definitely went wrong on the Red Planet years ago...

Next is CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON from 1953, there was this giant cave spider that would love to strip that tasty flesh off your bones!

I remember seeing this photo of KING DINOSAUR from 1955 in FAMOUS MONSTERS back in the day. This movie is pretty whack but fun to watch for the over the top acting!

THIS ISLAND EARTH from 1955 has one of the finest weird monsters from the Fifties. I mean, wow, what a thrill it must have been to catch this great movie when it came out!

Then we have FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE from 1956, it had this weirdo creature I think was known as The Dark One... All he could do is throw some rocks at you and I guess choke you if you got too close to him, wow!!

My all time favorite fifties creation is The ID Monster from FORBIDDEN PLANET in 1956. What a movie, besides that, there was Robby The Robot and those amazing sound effects!!

In IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE from 1958, Paul Blaisdell came up with this mighty Martian to terrorize the crew when they return to Earth in their spaceship...

MISSILE TO THE MOON from 1958 was a remake of CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON, this time besides the giant spider, they threw in a couple of very cool Rock Monsters.

In QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE from 1958, the only monster was this giant spider reused from WORLD WITHOUT END. It looks so fakey when our hero holds on tight to the big thing to make it look like it has a hold of him!

A pile of terrific monsters appeared in THE ANGRY RED PLANET from 1959 including The Martian, the Bat Rat Spider and the giant killer Amoeba!

Also in 1959, these two bizarro monsters show up in BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN from 1959, they have to be some of the craziest creations of the Fifties!

The last movie in the post is for the Stooges' HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL from 1959, it had lots of cool monsters to chase our guys around, making for a ton of laffs... Check in again on Wednesday as we keep chugging down the tracks, bringing you the goods!

Monster Music

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