LIGHTS OUT / "The Deal" Some Deals Are Made To Be Broken - 1951

Hello der!!.. Today we have a crazy little story from early TV, it's all about a man who makes a deal with a mysterious businessman in order to rid himself of his high maintenance wife, and to set her up with a rich gentleman that will be able to make her happy!..

This thing stars Tom Ewell as Charlie Drome, Anne Bancroft (as Anne Marno) as Helen Drome, Martin Gabel as the Agent and Joseph Wiseman as the Croupier/Devil. Really nice job on the title card!

Of course our narrator pal Frank Gallop pops in to say... Turn out them got-dang lights!..

Here're Charlie and Helen Drome, all Helen can talk about is the fact that Charlie promised they'd soar like eagles after they got married but it's like they're holed up in a chicken coop! She needs material things to make her happy... Anne was 20 years old at this time, what a beautiful lady she was.

The couple live above Charlie's book store, there, he meets up with an agent for a wealthy client who will pay Charlie $50,000 for Helen! Because of course he's very attracted to her and can give her everything she ever wanted. And Charlie knows that he could never make her happy, so, he signs the contract. But, he wants a $10,000 advance to take Helen out for a night on the town, which he's given.

They end up at the roulette wheel in a casino, Charlie wants to see if he's lucky at gambling tonight since he gots some loot in his pocket... And of all things, Charlies wins every freaking time, what the Hell!

The next morning Charlie tells Helen the whole story about the arrangement he made for her, because that's how much he loves her!!

But now, Charlie wants out of the contract, he's changed his mind!.. The agent leaves to tell his client about the situation.

Charlie goes up to tell Helen what has happened when someone enters the book store. Sensing possible trouble, Charlie grabs his revolver...

It's the damn croupier (dealer at roulette wheel) from the casino!! He informs Charlie that he let him win the money, how else could he win like that! Charlie feels threatened so he pulls out his gun and empties it on the guy to no effect. Charlie's really confused when the 'man' tells him that the deal is off. It's like this... He knows Helen has fallen back in love with Charlie, and after all, the Devil has his pride too. He won't take a back seat to a loser like Charlie, so, farewell... Join us tomorrow for more kuhl junk, here at The Dungeon!!..

THE FRIGHTENERS - "The Minder" (1972)

This Weird Wednesday's offering is not only weird, it's stark, tense, and taut!

"The Frightener's" was made in the early 70's, and was billed as a 'horror anthology' series, but from what I saw in this first episode, it's not the kind of horror you would expect, but deals more with the horrors of people and personalities, kind of like the world today! 

There are no monsters or vampires or flying saucers in this series, instead, these are stories of the horrors of the mind, and are more like serious depressing drama than horror!
Once again, this show is something I would never have even heard of if it wasn't for Lord Litter in Berlin! Thanks pal!

The story begins with a well-planned jailbreak, and goes South from there!

Tom (Dr. Terrible's House Of Horrible) Bell is the man they call Bender

Kenneth J. (Dr, Blood's Coffin, I, Monster, The Creeping Flesh) Warren is the bad and bald Cyril, the angry guy they're breaking out!

All seems to be going well at first!

The one slight bit of comedy is when they're wheeling Cyril out, they do run his extended broken foot into the front door, ala The Three Stooges!

From there on, it's mostly Cyril is this room pissing and moaning about everything!

The problem is this guy Bryan (Oh Lucky Man!, Alien 3) Glover as the prick named Porter. Bender has a previous run-in with him in jail, and he is expecting Bender to off Cyril for him once and for all!

When Bender ceremoniously empties his clip in slow motion, you know he has no plans to follow through on the killing of Cyril!

The last member of the main cast is Warren (A Clockwork Orange) Clarke as Bender's easy going partner Ronnie!

Two things stand out, number one is a good part of why this show is so stark is that is it totally devoid of any background music!

Number two is that if you don't have a good handle on understanding people talking with a Cockney dialect, you're not going to know half of the details of the story. Even though it's in English, they should still have sub-titles for us foreigners!

Bottom line is, everything's a mess at the beginning all the way to the end as you can plainly see! I'm going to try and watch another episode, but I'm not really expecting the general mood of me or the show to change!

THE ASPHYX / aka SPIRIT OF THE DEAD - 1972

Wow, here's one brutal British flick that'll flip your lid, it's all about a Victorian English country squire, Sir Hugo Cunningham, who searches for the source of immortality by using his machine to 'bottle up' the spirit of the terrifying... Asphyx!

The Asphyx is the grim reaper in Greek mythology.

It stars Robert Stephens as Sir Hugo Cunningham, Robert Powell as Giles Cunningham, Jane Lapotaire as Christina Cunningham, Ralph Arliss as Clive Cunningham and Alex Scott as friend Sir Edward Barrett.

Sir Hugo and friends are giving a lecture to the parapsychological society where they show slides of what they believe are photos (taken by a special camera he built) of the human spirit leaving the body at the time of death, as shown with this man. The audience is amazed as to what they have just witnessed.

Sir Hugo loves his camera, he's out filming his fiance and his son in a boat but the whole thing ends in disaster as both drown after the boat capsizes.

Still in mourning, Hugo and his ward, Giles Cunningham, open Clive's coffin to photograph him to see if there's any trace of his soul still present. It's not.

So, next, Sir Hugo wants to film a public hanging and use a special spotlight ray to actually see the thing's image. The crowd goes bananas as they can hear the screeching of the spirit too...

By the way, the guy was innocent, the authorities try and stop the hanging but it's too late!!

Hugo finally figures out that the thing is not a soul but an entity that appears at the time of death, better known as 'the Grim Reaper!' Here, he and Giles capture the Asphyx of their guinea pig that is near death. After the capture, the guinea pig is now immortal...

Sir Hugo is a nut case, he wants to become immortal now (without even considering what could possibly go wrong) by restraining himself in an electric chair that he has control over the amount of electricity he receives.

Giles needs the help of another person to pull off the event and gets Hugo's daughter (and his fiance) Christina to operate the beam to pull the spirit into a special coffin for capture.

Giles and Christina take the coffin down into the cellar where it'll rest for eternity!!

Giles and Christina want to wed but Hugo says that only if they both agree to become immortal!!.. Christina is outraged but after daddy spills out his heart, her and Giles agree...

Holy freaking Hell man, they decide to set Christina up to be decapitated (while Giles makes sure not to drop the blade all the way down) in an attempt to lure out her Asphyx for capture. Sounds great on paper, right!..

No, that's insane!! Here's what happens... Yeah yeah, spoiler alert, BFD!.. Okay, so as Sir Hugo is working the beam, something crucial breaks on the machine and panic ensues. Giles needs to assist the crazy man, he 'drops everything' and rushes to his side. OOPS!!! Christina cannot be brought back to life now since she's been decapitated!!

Giles tries to choke out Hugo but he reminds his young ward that he cannot die!

Giles goes a little whacko and wants to attempt/fake his death inside an enclosure with deadly gas. It's all a ruse though, Giles can't go on without Christina and brings down the house with one tiny match!!

Sir Hugo survives the explosion only to grab his little immortal friend and head off into the future... The ending was totally unnecessary as far as I'm concerned.

Here's a better pic of what the ghastly thing actually looks like. And like, tune in again Wednesday when Eegah!! tightens the screws a little tighter, here at The Dungeon!!..