TRACKDOWN - "The End Of The World" (1958)

 Welcome back to a blue plate Saturday Night Special feature from 1958!
This is without a doubt the most incredible thing I've seen lately, and it doesn't quit for the full 22 minutes!

 It's hard to imagine that this story was written some 61 years ago, and in that amount of time, we still haven't seemed to learn a damn thing!

 This is a story about a con-man, and a liar, the High Priest of Fraud, a man called called Trump! No, not Donald, but Walter! He's here to save the place from certain disaster because the sky is falling, and only he has the power to keep everybody safe! The metaphors continue for 22 minutes!

 All I can say is that the writer John Robinson must have been clairvoyant to write a story like this!  Besides "Trackdown," John Robinson also wrote many episodes of "Dragnet."

 Robert (I Spy) Culp is Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman. He's a good and honest man!

 That's the crooked sheriff on the left and the shyster Mr. Trump on the right! The sheriff was played by Dabbs Greer who had 317 acting credits including his role in the original "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers," and "It! The Terror From Beyond Space." Dabbs also has the distinction of being in two "Twilight Zone" episodes, "Valley Of The Shadow," and "Hocus-Pocus And Frisby," and two episodes of  "The Outer Limits." Walter Trump was played by Lawrence Dobkin who was also in "The Day The Earth Stood Still," "Them," and "Space Patrol" among his 212 credits! Guys like these two are the unspoken core foundation of two or three decades of movies and TV!

 So Trump tells Hoby that he has degrees in DU MC SSR. That's Doctor Of The Universe, Mastery Of Cometry, and Student Of Stellar Reactions! Hoby ain't impressed!

 Back on the street, Trump has the denizens all fired up, and has them convinced that only he can save them from all the space stuff that's going to come falling down from the sky at midnight. He has protective umbrellas with special deflective signs on them for the people, and to protect their cattle he has this common 5/8" flat washer that he claims is a metal mined in Peru called Magnetium that will also do the trick! The drones just eat it up!

 "I know these people all pretty well, and right now there is nothing in the world that can change their minds, and anybody who tries to, could end up getting hurt. They're not going to listen!"

Bzzzzzzzz!

 It's right about here somewhere that when you watch this spectacle, your jaw will drop when Trump says "Trust me....I can build a wall around your homes that nothing can penetrate!" Nothing, no meteors, and no Mexicans!

 "So what do you want me to do about it?"

 Even more irony, when he gets caught trying to get out of town, Trump tries to buy off the honest Ranger!

 Here's where I think the situation lies, the whole thing was made up, but when they put down their phony umbrellas, they should have got pelted with meteorites anyway for being so gullible!

I dunno, maybe this was really a TV show from 2043 projected back in time by some future civilization as a warning that we forgot to heed, or is it just a coincidence?! Either way, thanks to KD for the lead!
You can try and figure it out for yourself at either the Internet Archive or YouTube, the choice is yours!

ORLOFF AGAINST THE INVISIBLE MAN / God Help Us... If They Rise Again! - 1970

This is a wild one, in this story, Dr. Garondet is summoned by Professor Orloff but people in his village are afraid to go near his castle. Garondet reaches the castle and the servants send him to talk with Cécile, the daughter of Orloff, she's worried about his mental health. When Dr. Garondet meets Orloff, the professor tells him what happened to Cécile sometime ago and his experiment with an invisible man, and, he explains that his daughter is deranged due to the incident.

It stars the awesome Howard Vernon, Dungeon super villain! Other actors include Brigitte (only acting credit) Carva as Cécile Orloff and Paco Valladares as Dr. Garondet.

So, here's Dr. Garondet, he's been let off near the castle of Prof. Orloff. He then walks through the woods to the castle from there.

The doctor finally meets Orloff in his lab. After putting his gun down, Orloff tells him what has happened around there in a flashback.

It starts with the premature burial of his daughter...

The maid Maria wants the jewelry that was buried with Cécile, so, she has a plan to get Orloff's guard to help her get it... He couldn't refuse an offer like that! There's quite a bit of nudity in this one, a little shocking for a movie from 1970. Bush City!

Inside the crypt, the two remove all the jewelry from Cécile, including pulling off her ring, which hurts her and she wakes from her sleep! She also gets stabbed when she screams.

When he finds out what has happened, Orloff takes his guard and shackles him up in the dungeon. Maria is found wearing the jewelry and gets brutally whipped by Orloff.

Later, when Dr. Garondet goes into the dungeon after hearing screams, Orloff locks him up too! Thing is, the professor needs women to complete his experiments with his Invisible Man! He wants the women to bear the monster's children! Luckily, the doctor uses a torch to burn through the board holding the iron gates closed and escapes!

He finds Cécile, she shows the doctor how to use flour to see when the thing is getting near!

After knocking the doctor out, it grabs Cécile and takes her into the bedroom, then pulls her clothes off! Horny little devil, he is!

The monster, now semi transparent from having flour tossed on him, reveals a freakin' APE!

After the doc knocks the thing out with a fireplace poker, Cécile runs to him!.. Interesting!!

Then, pops tells his daughter to take the doctor and run away, as, the monster was going to burn the place down, which it does!!

When the monster tries to escape, Orloff's dogs kill it! Welp, there you go, weirdsville all the way! Tune in tomorrow when Eegah!! should have sumpin' special for us, later dudeskis!!

NIGHT EDITOR - "It's A Nightmare! With Convulsions!" (1946)

It's time for another Weird Ass Wednesday from down in The Dungeon! Tonight's feature is a special for for all the quadruple F'ers out there, you know, the card carrying members of the Freakin' Femme Fatale Fanclub!

 "Night Editor" doesn't seem like a very exciting title, but it's a movie that was based on a very popular radio show of the time, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

New York City, circa 1946.

Not the New York Times, but the New York Star!

Love this shot of the storyteller with the cool silhouette in the background! So it's newspaper guys sitting around waiting for something to happen while playing cards and shooting the shit!

This story is about New York police Lieutenant Tony Cochrane as played by William Gargan!

Tony's got lots of problems! He's a happily married cop with a psycho socialite girlfriend, and because of it, he doesn't have a lot to gain, but he sure has a lot to lose! Femme fatale Jill Merrill is played by Janis (The Woman On Pier 13) Carter!

Tony and Jill have parked it and are smooching when a car comes speeding in. They see the driver beating a young lady with a tire iron, and when approached, he runs off into the night!

Tony's got a big problem now! He's a cop, and he's witnessed a murder, but he can't do anything about it without damaging his career and his marriage!

And it doesn't help things one bit that Jill is a total bitch!

Tony arranges to meet Jill in the library where they can talk undisturbed!

In the meantime Tony realizes that the rich sleazy weasel Douglas Loring is the guy he saw running from the car! Douglas is played by the classic Frank (Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, End Of The Beginning) Wilcox.

Now it gets really complicated. Tony finds out that Jill and Douglas are good friends, and that she also knew the dead girl, a little matter she never told Tony!

Tony is now officially screwed!
A lot of the time William Gargan reminds me of  Eddie Constantine in one of his Lemmy Caution roles! Not quite sure why, but I think it's his demeanor.

The only person who has any sense is Tony's partner Ole. Police Lieutenant Ole Strom is played by Paul E. (The Mummy's Tomb) Burns. Paul was also the janitor in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "Escape Clause."

If that's not all bad enough, Douglas and Jill are also lovers!!

Not too subtle!!

 "Night Editor" is a simple enough movie, but it kept me plenty entertained! My copy is part of a four film set of Columbia Classics called "Bad Girls Of Film Noir," that also includes "One Girl's Confession," "Women's Prison," and "Over-Exposed," a pretty nice package that you really ought to check out if you like this kind of stuff!