FEATHER YOUR NEST - "Count Your Chickens" (1944)

 This week's Wacky Wednesday feature is a 17 minute short from 1944 called "Feather Your Nest!"

 It's a funny little story about a guy named Edgar who has his in-laws living with him and his wife, and he's about ready to do anything to get rid of his obnoxious brother-in-law....

 .......Including loaning him $250.00 so he can buy a wedding ring, because if he gets married, he should be moving out!

 Edgar gets the ring, and the brother-in-law pops the question!

Everything was fine up to that point, but Edgar just got a call from the jewelry store saying that the rings he was looking at got mixed up, and he got the $2000.00 one, not the $175.00 one, and he has to return it ASAP or they're going to charge him for the balance!

 Edgar is desperate to get the ring back, but now it's stuck on her finger! Time to get out the soapy water!

 When that doesn't work, Edgar's wife does what everybody thinks is hilarious these days, she drugs her with about 10 sleeping pills!

 The ring is finally removed from the finger, but after a series of minor events it ends up in the back yard where this white leghorn chicken sees it, and decides to eat it!

 No big deal! Edgar has got this under control!

 But the chicken jumps over the fence and joins it's chicken mates, and now Edgar can't tell it from the other 74 birds!

 The owner of the chickens isn't real happy about all this, so Edgar offers to buy the chickens one by one, until he finds the one with the ring. He pays the guy one dollar for each chick, inspects it's gullet, and throws it over the fence back into his yard!

 To "Feather one's own nest" means to make money illicitly and at someone else's expense, and that's exactly what the owner of these chickens is doing. After Edgar buys one, and inspects it, and throws it over the fence, this guy is letting them back in again! Like poor Edgar doesn't already have enough problems!

"Feather Your Nest" is basically just a long cartoon! It doesn't take much imagination to think of Edgar as the dumb dog, and the owner of the chickens as Foghorn Leghorn!

From 1911 to 1948, Edgar Kennedy was in 446 films, most of them shorts!

Florence Lake was a 'cave woman' in the Superman episode called "Through The Time Barrier."

Dot Farley was in 370 films and shorts dating back to 1910 with titles like "Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde," and "Mac's Beth." 

Jack Rice - "From Bowery to Broadway" to "Blondie" and "Boston Blackie."

Emory Parnell was in "The Andromeda Strain" in 1971.

Maxin Semon was in an episode of "The Addams Family."

Lee Trent was a hairstylist on 11 episodes of "Fraggle Rock."

Bryant Washburn had 380 acting credits!

"X" THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES / He Stripped Souls As Bare As Bodies! - 1963

It's time for a Dungeon Redo of this wild and weird Roger Corman flick that I saw with my cousins way back in 1963... The story's about Dr. James Xavier, a world renowned scientist experimenting with human eyesight. He devises a drug, that when applied to the eyes, enables the user to see beyond the normal realm of the light spectrum and also gives the user the power to see through objects! Xavier tests this drug on himself when his funding is cut off and continues its use as time progresses. He then begins to see, not only through walls and clothes, but eventually through the very fabric of reality!

This thing stars Ray (PREMATURE BURIAL) Milland, Diana (THE SWIMMER) Van der Vlis, Harold (THE INVISIBLE BOY) J. Stone, John (ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE) Hoyt, Don (MUSCLE BEACH PARTY) Rickles and features Morris (EARTH vs. THE FLYING SAUCERS) Ankrum, John (THE OMEGA MAN) Dierkes, Dick (WAR OF THE SATELLITES) Miller, Jonathan (NOT OF THIS EARTH) Haze, Barboura (A BUCKET OF BLOOD) Morris and more.

The Story starts with Dr. Xavier showing Dr. Diane Fairfax his experiments with increasing the possibilities of eye sight in animals and humans. He has had some success with his monkeys...

The doctor's funding gets cut off, so, he decides to test his sight enhancing drug on himself, you know, like, why not?!.. Right?

Diane thinks it would be a good idea for the doctor to take a break so they go to a party.

The serum kicks in and Dr. Xavier sees some pretty interesting sights! And, he even gets a peek at Diane in the nude, which makes him blush.

The doc keeps on using the serum and things are getting extra weird. When Dr. Stone tries to inject Xavier with something to counteract the serum, well, Xavier pushes him aside and his friend falls through the window of the five story medical building!

Xavier disappears after the accident and reappears as a psychic at a carnival. He now has a helper named Crane who takes questions from the audience. Dungeon heroes Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze are in the audience, and Dick is being a dick. It all backfires on him when Xavier tells the audience all about what a fuck up he is, funny stuff!

Crane finds out that Xavier is actually a medical doctor and wants to make more money by having him diagnose the sick, so they move into an old medical room. Things are going well until Diane shows up, and she takes the doc away from the setup against Crane's will.

She takes him to Las Vegas, he has a plan...

The Doc cleans up at the '21' table and the supervisors get suspicious when he wins ever time!

His glasses get knocked off and it reveals his mutated eyeballs! Now he's seeing psychedelic skeletons instead of people,... Help, Mr. Wizard!!

Dr. Xavier takes Diane's car and drives into the desert, chased by a heckilopter even! He crashes the car and starts walking, then, he hears some noise. It's a holy roller revival, he stumbles to the entrance.

The doc testifies, he tells the crowd of the things he has seen. They respond with, "If thine eye offend thee... Pluck it out, pluck it out!" So's, he plucks each eyeball out... Kind of a crappy effect, but, it gets the point across! Tune in again on Wednesday as we edge our way toward 'Halloween Countdown!'

THE ANNIVERSARY - "She's Got Bette Davis Eye" (1968)

Just when you get to the point where you think you've seen every weird movie made in the last 80 years, something like this pops up out of nowhere. Welcome back to The Dungeon Saturday Night Special! Bang bang, shoot shoot!

"The Annniversary" was written by the Hammermeister Jimmy Sangster, and is based on a popular play of the time that was written by Bill MacIlwraith!

Here she is, the star of the show, Bette Davis as the mean and deplorably horrible rich bitch named Mrs. Taggart! Every year on this day, Mrs.Taggart gathers her three dysfunctional sons and their families together for the anniversary of her and her late husband's marriage! 

Here's the core of the cast all in one nice shot together. Starting on the left is James (Privilege) Cossins as the cross-dressing Henry Taggart, Jack (For Your Eyes Only) Hedley as Terry Taggart, Sheila (But Seriously, It's Sheila Hancock) Hancock as Terry's wife Karen Taggart, Elaine (Casino Royale) Taylor as Shirley Blair, and Shirley's fiancee Tom Taggart as played by Christian (To Sir, With Love) Roberts!

"The Anniversary" is Bette Davis! There's no better way to describe it!

Haven't had a lot of chances to show you a vintage Vauxhall. Still in business, popular Vauxhall models of today include the Mokka X, the Vivaro, the Movano, and the New Grandland X.

Bette plays up the eye patch the whole way, and at times she reverts to being Captain Bligh or Long John Silver no doubt!

Mrs. Taggart asks her soon to be daughter-in-law Shirley to move a little further away because she detests the smell of body odor!

If Gross, Despicable, and Obnoxious were signs of the zodiac, Mrs. Taggart would  have been born in all those houses!

Time to drag the whole proceeding down to the club!

I'm not often speechless, but this film doesn't require much further conversation! These stills speak for themselves!  It's all about obsession!

Bette/Mrs. Taggart is the Queen!!!

And everybody else knows she's full of bullshit!

AARRGGHH!!"

Meanwhile, Henry's out stealing lady's undergarments! Well, not exactly stealing, he takes them off the clothesline, and pins up money in their place!

Somebody calls the cops on Henry, and they find the undies in his car, but he had borrowed his brother Terry's car, and Mrs. Taggart tries to explain to Terry, that it's better for him to take the rap, because he will only have one strike and it will never happen again, but if Henry gets arrested, the next time will be two strikes and they'll take him away for good! Terry is not happy with this concept!

There's not a chance in Hell this is going to happen!

Wherever you are or whatever you do, Bette wishes you "Happy Anniversary!"

The opening segment of "The Anniversary" has The New Vaudeville Band playing a nice version of "The Anniversary Song" or "Waves of the Danube." 

A couple of years earlier The New Vaudeville Band had a killer novelty tune #1 hit with "Winchester Cathedral." So whatever happened to novelty songs? I grew up with "The Purple People Eater," and "The Witch Doctor," and "The Monster Mash," and now there's...........? Oh, that's right, there's no more real radio any more either.......except in the ozone!