THE TWILIGHT ZONE - "The Howling Man" (1960)

Let's venture off into "The Twilight Zone" for this Wednesday's offering on The Countdown!

I was looking at a list of Halloween TV shows on Wikipedia, and this "Twilight Zone" episode was on it, but I'm still not quite sure why. I guess because it has a scary guy in it, but there definitely ain't no trick or treating going on!

The story begins with H.M. Wynant as David Ellington, telling the story you're about to hear!

 H.M. might not be a household name but this guy has been acting on TV for seven decades, so I'm sure you've seen his face before. H.M.'s last appearance was in 2018, and if I did the math right, he should be 94 next February! Active in not just stage, TV, and film, H.M. also has a twenty year old daughter named Pasha.

Out taking a nice walk when the weather goes South in Europe somewhere, David Ellington stumbles on this shelter from the storm, and you know what that means, he just entered "The Twilight Zone!"

The welcoming committee is anything but welcoming, and tell him that he needs to leave.

Immediately, but he keeps hearing this howling sound.

The truly amazing John Carradine has the role of the boss of the joint, Brother Jerome!

Brother Jerome reiterates what the other fellow told David, but after David asks enough times, he finally gives in, and says he can spend the night!

Not a whole Helluva lot else is going on, but the howling continues, and everbody else acts like they don't hear anything!

Instead of staying in his room as told like a good boy, David goes out to try and track down the noise, and he finds this guy who seems fairly normal penned up and wanting out really bad!

Robin Hughes as 'The Howling Man" was also in "The Son Of  Dr. Jekyll," "The Maze," "Dial M For Murder," and "The Mole People."

David was warned by Brother Jerome, but if he had listened, we wouldn't have a story, so the stupid, dim-witted numbskull releases the prisoner!

It's not more than a few seconds before he realizes that he screwed up really bad!

What a moroon!!

The poor falsely imprisoned man is indeed The Devil himself!

Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, or Mephistopheles, whatever you want to call him, he's just evil!

David really feels stupid now, but the damage is done, and this evil genie is not going back in the bottle!

"Trick or Treat!!"

 

After David says that he didn't recognize that it was The Devil, Brother Jerome tells him 

"That is man's weakness and Satan's strength," and I'm willing to say that is a problem we still have to this day!

OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT In "Wax Works" - 1934

At one point, Walt Disney lost the rights to Oswald The Rabbit, so, came up with Mickey Mouse to compete against Universal Studios!

Here's a fun Halloween Countdown cartoon fer you'se aul... In this story, Oswald owns a wax museum! I guess he IS lucky! On a dark and stormy night someone rings the doorbell and dashes away. Oswald finds a basket on the step, and when he discovers a baby under the covers, he doesn't have much choice and brings the basket inside.

Oswald ain't too happy about the whole arrangement...

The little rabbit has lots of wax characters from history.

And operas, although, Groucho shows up in this scene to steal Juliet from Romeo!

There's even a fan dancer that gets the attention of The Thinker and the little stinker!

And wouldn't you know it, there's a horror chamber to liven things up!

The Hunchback snags the baby and introduces him to the other monsters in the chamber.

Here's good old Dracula to make you quiver!

The Frankenstein Monster eyeballs the little kid.

And the Mummy, Mr. Hyde, Bluebeard... They're all here!

Oh yeah, it's easy to miss the Invisible Man!

As the baby hides from the monsters, a candle ignites a blow torch and melts Mr. Hyde. That gives the little guy an idea and he chases the frightened figures around until the Invisible Man grabs the torch away from him.

Oswald, who was sleeping, hears the commotion and runs to the baby's side, but the little guy's been encased in wax. Then Oswald finds out, HE'S NEXT!

The oldest trick in the book, Oswald was just having a bad dream, although, he does get some hot wax in the mush from a candle the kid's holding! We're back on Wednesday to continue the Halloween insanity, here at The Dungeon!!..

5 MILLION YEARS TO THE ALIEN BAY OF BLOOD IN SPACE

For this Countdown To Halloween Saturday Night Special, I have made you a scary "Ear Movie Sound Scape" with the help of my good friend, the Sonicmeister Chris Phinney!

Chris laid down the base 'harshient' track, and I added sound clips from all these movies you see here. It's only about three minutes long, so Enjoy!

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! 

The neat thing is we never used these posters when we wrote about these movies the first time. If you want to be confused, it's all right because most of these films had multiple names. This poster from "5 Million Years To Earth" aka "Quatermass And The Pit," is one of the coolest posters I've seen lately. This guy is attacking this woman, but it really looks like they're dancing!

 

"The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula" was also known as "The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires."

Don Dohler's "The Alien Factor."

"Alphaville"

Boy, what kid wouldn't want to have this "Atragon" model?

"Attack Of The Mushroom People"

"Bad Taste"

 

"Battle In Outer Space"

 

And last but not least, Mario Bava's "A Bay Of Blood"

 

If you'd like to hear more from Chris, go check out the Bandcamp page for his Harsh Reality label!

MERRIE MELODIES / "Transylvania 6-5000" - 1963

Bugs is burrowing underground, looking for that illusive Albuquerque, and ends up in Transylvania for another whacky adventure. Directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble.

As Bugs digs away, he runs head first into a mangled old tree. He looks up and notices that he's now in Pittsburghe, Transylvania. Guess he missed his mark by a lot!

He starts wandering up a hill where there's an old castle that looks like a good place to stay the night...

He pulls the noose and the coffin-shaped door creakily opens up for him. Notice the skull hanging there, it's a wind chime!

Once inside, Bugs is greeted by Count Bloodcount, who seems to be an interesting kind of guy. And, he invites our little buddy to spend the night there...

Bugs walks past this weird piano with sharp teeth and claws, with a portrait of 'Mother' hanging on the wall.

The Count shows Bugs to his room, it's confirmed, there's something devilish going on!

As Bugs walks down the hall to his room, he sees these pictures hanging there.

In his room, Bugs can't sleep so he grabs a book to read. He chooses one on magic words and phrases, sounds informative...

As Bugs starts reading, the Count comes a-creepin'. He reads the first magic word, 'abracadabra,' and the vampire changes into a funny looking little bat! Bugs shoos it away.

The Count flies out the window just as Bugs reads the second magic phrase, 'hocus-pocus,' he changes back to human form, and falls to the ground on his face!

Throughout the story is this 2-headed buzzard, Agatha and Emily, what end up amorously chasing a 2-headed male buzzard.

Bugs is obsessed with the two words and just walks around repeating them. At one point, the Count is turned into that pesky bat again and gets sprayed with pesticide!

In a cycle of not learning a lesson, the Count gets caught in a loop of, when he's ready to drop a huge stone on Bugs, he hears the word, 'abracadabra,' and turns into the bat only to get crushed, then hears the words 'hocus-pocus' only to return as a dazed and beat up vampire.

Anyway, Bugs wants to go home and calls an airline to purchase a ticket. As he's talking on the phone, he says, 'abracapocus' and his ears change into bat wings!! He cancels the ticket.

 

He flies off into the moonlight like a good little bunny... So, I'll be back Monday with another treat for you, until then, you'll have to deal with Eegah!! tomorrow, here at The Dungeon!!..