THE COCAINE FIENDS / aka THE PACE THAT KILLS - 1936

In today's Friday the 13th tale, it's all about how unlucky you can be if you get hooked on cocaine! A drug dealer is on the run from the law and meets an innocent young girl and her brother, it's only a matter of time before he turns them into "Cocaine Fiends!"

This one stars Lois (THE BLACK CAT) January, Noel (THE BLACK RAVEN) Madison, Sheila (THE HELL CAT) Bromley, Dean (THE RETURN OF CHANDU) Benton, Lois (THE LONE WOLF RETURNS) Lindsay, Charles (THE BEATNIKS) Delaney, Eddie (PHANTOM PATROL) Phillips and Frank (FLASH GORDON - Dr. Alexis Zarkov) Shannon.

Here's Jane, she's new in town, and has unknowingly hooked up with a drug dealer named Nick. She overhears the police talking about taking down local pushers...

Jane's brother Eddie has a job at a car hop establishment. He's feeling tired and so Fanny gives him some "headache powder." Women always have interesting places to hide things.

But, it isn't long before Eddie and Fanny are fired from their jobs and are now addicted to cocaine. The landlady wants to know why Eddie isn't out looking for a job. Fanny sez... He's sick. Just look at them, what an understatement!

Things get worse, so, Eddie leaves Fanny, saying that he never loved her!.. Poor addicted girl, just no way out of Hell.

That's Nick on the right, him and his pal cause a pile of trouble at the Dead Rat Club and create a diversion to escape from the authorities...

Jane goes to a cocaine den for a fix but finds that her brother Eddie is in one of the beds. She grabs him and takes him away with her.

Jane calls the cops and tells them where she is, the apartment of rich playgirl, Dorothy Farley.

Jane has a gun and is not afraid to use it. Nick's pal comes into the room and gets a shot to the gut! The police arrive to find him dead on the floor.

Through some interrogation, it's discovered that Dorothy's father is the head pusher!.. Dorothy breaks down upon the devastating news.

After the dust clears, Dorothy and her beau Dan, the detective, drive off merrily into the sunset, making for a happy ending... Tune in tomorrow when we'll bring you (and them) another special post, here, at The Dungeon!..

THE MUNSTERS Pilot Episode In Colour - "My Fair Munster" (1964)

I accidentally turned to the next page in The Monster Cyclopedia, and guess what comes after Mummy? Munsters! 

Welcome to Alternate Reality Wednesday in The Dungeon sponsored this week by Lord Litter's Magical Music Box!

So, what the heck am I talking about? The pilot episode of "The Munsters was created in 1964, and was only 15 minutes long  in an effort to try and sell it to the network!

This episode wasn't released until 2004, some forty years later!

The first weird thing is that it was shot in glorious colour, unlike the real series which aired in black and white like this!

They changed a few other things too..........

........Like the look of The Munster's house!

The pilot episode was titled "My Fair Munster," and when they completed it with the necessary changes, it was used not as the first episode, but the second episode that aired the first season. The first episode ended up to be about a masquerade party and was called "Munster Masquerade!"

This episode starts with Marilyn coming home from a date, but he runs away when he sees Herman. Grandpa makes a love potion to make Marilyn more attractive, and that's where it ends. When fully aired, Herman and Lily end up ingesting the potion instead with predictable results!

I was watching this without knowing, and everything was fine until it got to the credits, and I was like what the Hell is going on here? Joan Marshall as Phoebe? Who the Hell is Phoebe? Very confused, I stopped watching, and started reading, and trying to figure it all out!

I'm just assuming the network liked the pilot but somebody decided it was just a little too dark, and started making changes!

Joan Marshall was in scores of TV shows in the 50's and 60's, and was in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "Dead Man's Shoes," but she would never be part of The Munster family again!

Yvonne De Carlo as Lily Munster was nine years older than Joan Marshall, less scary, and much more maternal!

I guess they thought Beverly Owen as Marilyn was just fine in her role, because they kept her, but look, they spelled her first name two different ways! The black and white one is the correct one.

Nate "Happy" Derman's career never took off after this. He was in four other TV shows before calling it quits a a couple of years later!

In 1983 Butch Patrick released a 45 as Eddie and the Monsters called "Whatever Happened To Eddie?" Butch looks younger than Happy, but they were both born in 1953.

Again, why did Happy get axed from the show? For me, he was just a little too over the top maniacal, and maybe the producers felt the same way.

They kept Al Lewis as Grandpa!

 Al was just a little too unique, and I can't even imagine who they could have replaced him with!

Fred Gwynne would have been pretty hard to replace also, but....

.......They did goofy-up his role some I think!

It looks like they changed up his makeup a bit too!

Look how young he looks in this shot!

The more I look at Joan Marshall in this role, the more she looks like Barbara Steele, which just might have been too much for the 60's sitcom fans, but I would have liked it!

ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST / aka DOCTOR BUTCHER aka ZOMBI 3 - 1980

In this Italian multi-titled movie, members of an expedition in search for the last followers of Kito the cannibal god, land on a small island in the Moluccas, in the East Indies. They are soon hunted by both cannibals (with machetes) and zombies created by the sinister Doctor O'Brien (Doctor Butcher) who is experimenting with corpses. Lori, a woman on the expedition team, is accepted as queen of the cannibals, and directs them against the mad scientist and his army of zombies.

This wild production stars Ian (I, MONSTER) McCulloch, Alexandra (THE NEW YORK RIPPER) Delli Colli, Sherry (TENTACLES) Buchanan, Peter (HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET) O'Neal and Donald (GHOSTHOUSE) O'Brien.

We'll start with this scene where the focus is some strange goings on the island of Moluccas, where, grisly deaths are being discovered...

These photos make little sense, if these were the work of cannibals, why are they not being eaten? So, Lori Ridgeway, the woman at the meeting, gets a crew together to go to the island to find out some answers.

Once the crew arrives on Moluccas, someone is watching Lori undress through her window.

Then, all Hell breaks loose when the cannibals smells blood in the air. Man, those machetes are freaking effective when it comes to making a statement!

If that's not bad enough, there are also zombies roaming around too! Here're their ugly faces.

This is what the cannibals do to a main dude on the expedition! Not real pretty!!..

In the meantime, Dr. Obrero, aka Dr. Butcher, continues to experiment on whatever body he can get his hands on. This time it's a woman, and, why the Hell not, right?!

Somehow, Lori becomes the Cannibal Queen in a nudie ceremony... Now what?

St the same time, Lori's beau, Peter, has been captured by the mad doctor. While him and his new helper are distracted by an experiment, Peter cuts himself loose from the leather straps...

At the opportune moment, Peter uses the scalpel to slit the throat of the traitor that was part of the expedition. Maybe he can be another zombie for the doctor's army of doom.

Peter is stopped from making his escape, the zombies have him securely in tow. But, Lori has ordered the cannibals to invade the doctor's place, and soon thereafter, the cannibals have eaten most of old Doctor Butcher! Peter and Lori escape into the jungle, ending this tale.

Here's the poster for the alternate title. Love it, Salvador Dali is Doctor Butcher, wild ass shit! Tune in again Wednesday for more cool junk, from, The Dungeon!