Friday, April 3, 2020

CAPTAIN Z-RO / "Moon Glow" aka "Adventure In Space" - 1956

In today's TV adventure, Captain Z-RO and his pals encounter a flying saucer from space. They chase it to the Moon in their rocket to find out if it's friendly or hostile...

Captain Z-Ro works in his remote laboratory on Earth, safeguarding mankind and history from impending harm, and, he has a time machine that's not used in this episode.

The Captain and his side-kick Tetro are working in the lab late one night when something catches their eye!

They start tracking what might be a guided missile, and it;s coming right at them!

The Cap'n, Jet and Tetro watch the screen as a flying saucer comes into view. It seems to be toying with them, darting in and out at them repeatedly. Tetro wants the Captain to shoot it down because he thinks it's a threat, but, Captain Z-Ro is being more cautious.

The saucer heads off toward the Moon, so, our gang take off in their rocket and follow it. That's what our guys look like during the takeoff, jeez, I thought they were a little tougher than that!

The Cap'n wouldn't be caught dead in one of those helmets Jet and Tetro have to wear!

They land on the Moon near where the saucer set down...

Captain Z-Ro puts his space suit on and heads off toward the saucer, against the wishes of Tetro, who's sure that the Captain wasn't going to return from the encounter.

Our hero locates the saucer and cautiously goes inside. He speaks with someone on a distant planet, the saucer is unmanned. The voice says that they have studied the Captain's time and space ideas and now they want him to leave Earth and join them in improving the galaxy!..

The Captain forcefully declines the invitation, stating that his duty is to protect Earth!

The alien isn't happy about that but allows the Cap'n to leave the saucer and return to Earth. Then, the saucer takes off, back into space, goodbye!

The Captain is happy he didn't blow the saucer into pieces, a good ending to just another day at the office! We're back tomorrow with more Dungeon Cargo, jus' fer you's!

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

THE DINOSAUR AND THE MISSING LINK - "A Prehistoric Tragedy" (1915)

Tonight's Wild and Wooly Wednesday feature is known as the earliest stop-motion animation film ever made, and the first film made by one major quadruple F'er, as in "Founding Father of Fun Films, Mr. Willis H. O'Brien, or the guy mostly known for his groundbreaking work in "King Kong" and "Mighty Joe Young."

"The Dinosaur and The Missing Link" is silent and only five minutes long, so they had to keep the story moving. It was obviously also meant to be a comedy!
Miss Araminta Rockface, what a lovely name, kind of like Wilma Flintstone.

What a grand country home the Rockface family has.
 There's no mention of a Mrs. Rockface.

Araminta has a couple of suitors, The Duke, and Stonejaw Steve!

There's also another rather unassuming young man named Theophilus Ivoryhead, who would like to get into Araminta's animal skins.

"Unfortunately not yet been discovered"...........seems like we're still having that problem today!

Here's Mr. Tough Guy, the Missing Link!

An alternate title is "The Dinosaur and the Baboon!"

The Missing Link's name is Wild Willie!

Wild Willie ain't too bright, and as you can barely see, the snake that Wild Willie has found is actually a Dinosaur's tail.

The Dinosaur does not appreciate Wild Willie messing around with his rear end, and flattens him right out!

Theophilus Ivoryhead comes along at just the right time before everybody else, and it looks like he has killed the mean Missing Link, and he doesn't mind taking credit for it at all.
The film ends there, but I'm sure that Theophilus and Araminta lived together happily ever after.

Monday, March 30, 2020

THE OUTER LIMITS / "The Mice" Season 1 Episode 15 - 1964

In today's story, an advanced civilization contacts the US to test both worlds' experimental teleportation systems, by exchanging a pair of citizens. Fearing the matter transport will fail, the military selects a prisoner serving a life sentence to be sent to the planet Chromos, 10 light years away from Earth. What could possibly go wrong?..

This one stars Henry Silva, Diana Sands, Michael Higgins, Ron Foster and Dabney Coleman. Henry Silva took drama classes at age 13, in 1955 he auditioned for the Actors Studio and was one of five students chosen out of more than 2500! Diana (A RAISIN IN THE SUN) Sands died at age 39. And, Dabney Coleman is still up and at 'em!

Well, here are the three prisoners brought before officials heading up the teleportation project. After being informed of what was required of them, only Chino, on the right, volunteers for the assignment after the two others decline the offer which includes possible freedom from prison.

Chino is moody and toys with the doctors a bit, it's a weird situation to be in. When the first exchange takes place of the creature from Chromos, he can think of nothing but escaping.

Well, the thing gets teleported to Earth okay but it spazzes out like a Curly, crashing into everything, knocking stuff over and more. It eventually escapes into the woods after getting through the door. It's tougher than it looks!

Chino sees his chance to escape during the commotion and ducks out of the lab. Unfortunately, he runs into a room and tries to jump out a window that has a force field and he gets knocked out cold.

Dr. Richardson is out at the pond in his spiffy 1963 Mercury Comet. He's there to destroy some weird growths he found the creature hiding in the water. And wouldn't you know it, the creepy old Chromoid darts in and kills the doc!

Then, Dr. Harrison sees the monster at the pond, eating slime it pulls out of the water...

It chases her back to the lab and she barely escapes its grasp...

In another room, Chino is set to teleport, but, something's amiss and the exchange fails. Chino faints and is put in a hospital bed to recover.

The creature goes into the lab and starts setting all the dials, preparing for an exchange back to Chromo would be my guess. Chino and the policeman watching him go to the lab to see what all the noise is about...

The thing knocks out the cop and then tosses Chino across the room, into the wall. The Chromoid then places the cop in the transfer location and sends him to Chromo!

Chino gets a gun and the monster attacks him! It's a battle to the death, but Chino holds the thing at bay with the pistol until more policemen arrive.

Dr. Kellander, head of the project, talks to the leader of the Chromoids and tells it that they were lying about their real purpose for the exchange. He says that they only needed to ask for help with their problems on Chromo, Earth would have gladly helped out, instead, they deceived the Earthlings and so the project failed. Yep, it's one of those kinds of endings, you should'a just asked...

And, it looks good for Chino to be released from prison, a free man!.. Check in again on Wednesday for more cool junk from The Dungeon!!..

Monster Music

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