HONEY WEST - Anne Francis - "The Swingin' Mrs. Jones" (1965)

I do believe it's about time we had a "Honey West" Wednesday in The Dungeon, and so finally, tonight is that time! In 1965 the TV show "Honey West" starring the incredible Anne Francis, featured the first female detective in a prime time series ever, and that was just for starters!

"Honey West" was a trailblazer. The people who produced it were smart, and my guess is they had been watching some German Krimi movies, because it's all there, the swingin' music and the smart ass wit, and wry humor! If not, either way, the bottom line is, "Honey West" rocks!

I might be a bit prejudiced in my adulation, but I've been in love with Anne Francis since she was Altaira Morbius in 1956, and for good reason, as you will soon find out!

Anne's very talented co-star was German born John Ericson, who was in some cool movies like "7 Faces Of Dr. Lao," and "The Bamboo Saucer!" John just turned 92 last September!

"The Swingin' Mrs. Jones" was the first episode of "Honey West" and aired on September 17, 1965!

Anne Francis was rockin' the mole a couple of decades before Cindy Crawford!

These shots are just from the opening credits!

This shot reminds me of one of those 'what do you see' puzzles, a couple about to kiss, or a skinny version of the "Venus Of Willendorf?"

"Honey West" was on for two seasons in 1965 and 1966. I'm bummed! I've only got the first season!

Here are two more reasons to love Anne Francis.........

.......She was one of those rare people that were in more than one episode of "The Twilight Zone!"

In 1960, Anne played Marsha White in the episode titled "The After Hours!"

And in 1963, she played Jess-Belle Stone in the episode called "Jesse-Belle!"

Too much information about Anne Francis and not enough about "Honey West?"

"That's Life, That's Tough!"- Gabriel and the Angels (1962)

Sadly, but inevitable for all of us, Anne Francis passed away in 2011 at the age of 80! Kind of strange but on the same day, 7 people were killed by lightning in South Africa, in the Philippines, a bus wreck killed 7 people, and a Chinese fishing boat capsized and killed 7 more!

 This is not only my favorite shot of Anne Francis, it's also my favorite shot of anybody! Do what you want in the course of your life, but you're gonna be hard pressed to ever find an image any cuter than this!

The epitome of cool, Dungeon hero Ray Danton is in this first episode too!!

 Ray Danton and Barton Mclane in a martini scene together? This is the kind of stuff that made the 60's so great!

Those were the days! "Honey West" has been around for quite a while, and I don't know who they're going to get to play her next time, but I think it's time for another round!
Drinks are on the house!! Let's get buzzing!!

DRAGONWYCK / DANGEROUSLY She Dared To LOVE! - 1946

Today's story is complicated, but basically, a Connecticut farm girl is recruited by a distant relative, an aristocratic patroon, to be governess to his young daughter in his Hudson Valley mansion. What happens next gets interesting real fast...

It stars Vincent (THE MAN!) Price as Nicholas Van Ryn, Gene (THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR) Tierney as Miranda Wells, Glenn (THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE, WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET) Langan as Dr. Jeff Turner, Walter (KONGO) Huston as Ephraim Wells and with a ton of other great actors.

To put things in historical perspective, well, here you go!..

Miranda gets a letter from a her distant relative, her mom reads it aloud to her. Her relative would like for her to come to his mansion to be his daughter's governess!

Her father finally allows her to go and she arrives at the estate. Her relative is Nicholas Van Ryn, a rich landlord. She's greeted by Nicholas and his wife.

We start to get a glimpse into Nicholas, he's a dominating landlord, all the farmers in the area have to answer to him about how much money they receive for their effort and he doesn't give a damn about their problems.

Later, the local doctor comes to the mansion to see what's wrong with the missus, she's suffering from an apparent cold. She dies soon after that. Glenn was very handsome.

Miranda decides to go back home. She says goodbye to Dr. Turner who has come to see her off.

But, Nicholas shows up at Miranda's house and asks her for her hand in marriage. After her father interrogates Nicholas, he gives in, they can marry...

Back at the ranch, Miranda requests a girl with a deformed leg to be her helper, but Nicholas rejects the request. He says that deformities make him uncomfortable... Uh-oh!

Then, Miranda tells Nicholas she's pregnant, he wants a male child more than anything, to carry on his ruling bloodline you know. You need to see this movie to understand all the twisted stuff going on, like, Nicholas doesn't believe in God, he believes in himself, which makes Miranda very upset, and he's naturally cruel.

All the townspeople hate Nicholas and make fun of him at the pub. He comes in unexpectedly and the place goes quiet. He asks Dr. Turner to come to his mansion, Miranda is having the baby and there are some complications.

Of course the doctor goes with Nicholas to the mansion. The baby has health problems and dies, but, not before Miranda had him baptized, which insults Nicholas to the core!

Nicholas, dejected, retreats to a dark room in the house and is now shooting up morphine and drinking heavily...

Classic Vinnie!!.. Dr. Turner comes in and tells Nicholas that he knows that he killed his first wife by putting poisonous flowers in her room... And... Nicholas goes berserk but ends up on the floor after the doc clocks him good!

At this point, Nicholas is hearing things, he leaves the place and goes to his throne chair in the garden. The townspeople show up and he tells them that he's ready to shoot them all!

As he points his gun, ready to shoot, someone in the crowd shoots him first... Nicholas dies and Miranda goes back to her parents. Check out Harry Morgan there on the right. So, tune in again on Wednesday when we continue down the old dusty Dungeon trail...

SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS - "A Magical Adventure" (1989)

Thanksgiving might be over, but tonight's Dungeon fantasy adventure proves one of two things, you can either be thankful that you've seen this movie, or you can be thankful that you haven't seen it. I don't think there is any middle ground! That being said, welcome to yet another Saturday Night Special in The Dungeon!

"Sinbad Of The Seven Seas" was made in 1989 and starred "The Hulk" himself, Mr. Lou Ferrigno!

They got me from the start when they said that Edgar Allen Poe wrote this tale about the mighty Sinbad the Sailor. Edgar Allen might have wrote it, but some of the lines in this film are straight out of the 80's. Actually, this film is based on Poe's "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade," a story that included all kinds of weird anomalies that had they been part of the movie might have made it even better. I'm talking about things like Coralite, "an island, many hundreds of miles in circumference built in the middle of the sea by a colony of little things like caterpillars," and Maelzel's Chess Player, "a man out of brass and wood, and leather with such ingenuity that he would have beaten at chess, all the race of mankind," or Antlion, "myriads of monstrous animals with horns resembling scythes upon their heads who dig for themselves vast caverns in the soil, of a funnel shape."

The truly curious of you can read the whole story of "The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade," for yourselves thanks to Wikisource!

This is the mean, evil, and wicked Jaffar as played by John (Yor, The Hunter From The Future) Steiner! Jaffar is a wild-eyed crazy man Hell bent on taking over everything, but mostly he just wants.......

.........Princess Alina to love him! The stunning Alessandra (Cave OfThe Golden Rose) Martines has the role of Alina!

Somehow Jaffar has a bunch of sophisticated equipment made of poly vinyl tubing and plastics from the future! It's all in vain though, because Alina will never love him!

Sinbad and his loyal crew comprised of Alina's boyfriend Ali (Roland Wybenga), the cook (Yehuda Efroni), a Samurai (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), a viking (Ennio Girolami), and a midget (Cork Hubbert) are set out on a mission to find some jewels of power that Jaffar has distributed in weird places scattered around the world!

Sinbad put his hand all the way through this demon and extracts it's heart which has this little face on it. As dumb as it might sound, I actually respect this movie because they somehow managed to make a movie in the 80's without any bad language, sex, or horrible gratuitous bloody violence!

No sex or nudity, but sexy as can be, here's the strikingly beautiful model Melonee Rodgers as the Amazon Queen Farida!

And just for the heck of it, they throw in American bodybuilder and writer Teagan Clive as Soukra, in a role bereft of meaning!

Big Lou gets a lot of on screen time destroying and tearing monsters limb from limb! In one of the earlier scenes, Sinbad is dropped into a pit of vipers, and he talks them into helping him. Just like in some cheap prison movie where the inmates tie sheets together to escape, Sinbad ties Cobras together. It will have you scratching your head in wonder no doubt!

Lucky for Sinbad, most of the creatures he has to face are hollow and lifeless forms that are pretty easy for him to handle! This rock monster is just as cool as the ones in "Missile To The Moon!"

Lou looks like he's having a good time for most of the film!

Jaffar is pulling out all the stops now, and traps Sinbad inside a cage of beams of light!

When nothing else works, what else can you do but make a copy of Sinbad to kick his own ass!

Sinbad Vs. Sinbad! Is this a great shot or what? It really shows you what a talented actor Lou really is! Lou's still working hard to this day and is in a handful of films in either pre or post production, so keep your eyeballs peeled!

From the start, the movie is presented as a bedtime story as read and narrated by Daria Nicolodi. Yes, the same Daria Nicolodi of "Phenomenon" and "Suspiria" fame!
As the world's longest bedtime story, this movie wasn't that bad, and it did serve it's purpose. I fell asleep at least seven times myself while watching it, but it was addicting, and every time I woke up, I went back for more!