LOONEY TUNES / Daffy In "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" - 1950

Here's one for a Friday, Daffy pitches his massive script to J. L. Warner for an adventure movie set in merry olde England, with him as the star, The Scarlet Pumpernickel. Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese deliver the good while Mel Blanc does all the voices (even Elmer Fudd) except for The Fair Melissa, voiced by Bea Benaderet.

So, Daffy's in JL's office, ready to pitch his epic movie adventure...

Here we go, the script is like 2000 pages!

It starts with the handsome swashbuckling Scarlet Pumpernickel thwarting the king's men as they chase him through the English countryside.

When The Fair Melissa is caught swooning over the masked bandit, the King gets plenty angry! We see Melissa's Lady-In-Waiting, Momma Bear, there playing the harp.

Prince Sylvester receives a note from the King, he will have The Fair Melissa's hand in marriage, and keep her from the clutches of The Scarlet Pumpernickel...

Scarlet Pumpernickel shows up in disguise as a weary young traveler, he'd like a room for the night after his journey.

He visits the King and Sylvester, this is hilarious. The word is out, The Scarlet Pumpernickel may be dressed like a weary young traveler. While Daffy's being questioned about who he is, he says that he just might be the one they're looking for...

It's the wedding day and The Fair Melissa cries all the way to the alter.

There's only one way for Daffy to get to the top of the castle to break up the wedding!

The Fair Melissa grabs her duck and makes a b-line out of the castle.

Daffy takes a pause from reading the script but JL wants to know, what happens next?

So, Daffy and Melissa have holed up at the pub. The Pumpernickel has to go do battle with the bad guys and in the meantime, Sylvester locates his damsel in distress.

Daffy hears Melissa's screams and swings in on a rope, but misses the window. Then it's a duel to the death with Sylvester...

Daffy runs out of  pages and wings it when he's asked... What happens next?

There's a terrible storm and there's so much water that the dam breaks!

What happens next?.. Well, there's a volcano that covers over everything with lava!

So, what happens next? asks JL once again. Daffy says, there's only one thing left for The Scarlet Pumpernickel to do! He pulls the trigger...

He rises up and ends with, you have to kill yourself to get a script accepted in Hollywood!!

THE MIDDLEMAN 01 - "The Pilot Episode Sanctuary" (2008)

Tonight's Middle of the Week feature is called "The Middleman."

 

 

"The Middleman" was a 2008 TV show that was based on characters from a graphic novel (Too sophisticated to call it a comic book) written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, and illustrated by Les McClaine. It's funny that this show is 13 years old, but I still think of it as being modern, and while not bad, it still makes me long to go back and watch something from the 50's or 60's instead, mostly because of the overacting!

At least it wasn't called "The Middle Finger."

"The Middleman" was Cuban cutie Natalie Morales's fourth credit as a temporary worker named Wendy Watson who becomes a superhero's apprentice and sidekick. It wasn't really the kind of job she was looking for, but she was desperate!

Nice shot of the proverbial smoking gun!

This is Matt Keeslar as Wendy's new boss, "The Middleman."

This creature just reminds me of "Mr. Potato Head!"

Just a little too intelligent for Hollywood, Matt has 45 credits to his name, and two years after this show was made, he permanently moved to Oregon where he is currently working as a physician's assistant!

Wendy gets the blame for that laboratory burning down, even though she had nothing to do with it, so it becomes increasingly more difficult for her to find another job!

So she reluctantly agrees to work with "The Middleman," because she really doesn't have much choice!

Matt Keeslar was in some interesting films including "Waiting For Guffman, and "Psycho Beach Party," and he also played Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in a 2007 version of the classic tale.

The always enjoyable Mary Pat Gleason has the role of Ida, "The Middleman's" grumpy robot assistant! She has to put Wendy Watson through a series of tests to make sure she is going to be able to handle the job.

Wendy's real choice of occupation if she had one, would be to be a professional artist, and her new life experiences come out in her work.

Just goes to show you that you can't trust anybody, because he's not really an F.B.I. agent.

The opening segment is an homage to "The Avengers."

This show aired on the "Family" Network!

I give the writers big kudos, and a lot of credit for reviving the gorilla suit costume!

 

"The Middleman" is quirky, and fairly amusing if you're in the mood for something light, funny and odd, but then I'm a sucker for anything with a gorilla, a pretty girl, and a goober hero in it.

And how can you go wrong with episode titles like "The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum," or "The Flying Fish Zombification?" I just don't think you can!

THE FROZEN GHOST / Inner Sanctum #4 - 1945

Here's an Inner Sanctum movie that is a really weird one. Stage mentalist Gregor The Great is infuriated when a drunken member of the audience belittles his act (it's all done with mirrors). Things go wrong and it's downhill from there in this story, and honestly, I don't know what it has to do with ghosts being frozen!

It stars Lon Chaney, Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone, Douglass Dumbrille, Martin Kosleck, Elena Verdugo and Tara Birell.

Gregor The Great is on stage with his lovely assistant, The Fascinating Maura, and it's being broadcast on the radio!

One drunken fool (who Gregor tells Maura he'd like to kill!) volunteers to be hypnotized but is giving Gregor a bad time until the mentalist orders the old man to concentrate.

The old bastard falls over dead, the death confirmed by a doctor in the audience.

Gregor is devastated by the death but is cleared of any wrongdoing by Inspector Brandt. The man had a heart condition and it was ruled a heart attack.

Maura, who's Gregor's fiancée, is told that he's calling off the engagement, and, he's retiring from the act because of the death, still convinced he was responsible. She walks out on him.

He ends up staying in the mansion at Valerie Monet's Wax Museum. From now on Gregor wants to be called by his first name, Alex.

Alex immediately bumps heads with the figure artist, Rudi. Rudi's a real weirdo and spends a lot of his time talking to his creations. Next to him is Atilla The Hun, the greatest killer of all time!

Then Alex finds out that Valerie wants him but starts belittling him when he refuses her advances, and next thing you know...

She's fainted and has fallen to the floor after Alex gets angry and wants to kill her with his mental powers. Alex leaves the place.

Valerie has gone missing. Nina, the museum assistant, discovers her boss under a costume and wig, apparently dead.

Rudi is now chasing Nina with a big knife, and she barely gets away after he tosses it and barely misses her.

Then we find out who's running the show, Alex's agent, George Keene. Rudi is actually a discredited doctor, doing all the dirty work for George. Their scheme is to be inheritors of Valerie's estate and holdings.

Valerie is supposedly in an induced coma, but when they check her pulse, they find out that she's actually, dead!! George orders Rudi to burn her body in the incinerator, and also Nina's body, who is also in a comatose state.

George is leaving but runs into Alex and Maura, and boy is he unpleasantly surprised! Alex has George ask questions to Maura after he's put her in a trance, he wants to find out who the killers are. George really doesn't have a choice so he goes along with it.

Maura finally sees the men responsible for the death of Valerie, they are Rudi and George Keene! George kicks Alex in the face and tries to make his escape, but the Inspector was listening outside the door and nabs him.

Maura also saw flames in her vision so Alex runs to the room with the incinerator, and before Rudi can toss Nina into the fire, he falls backwards into it himself. You can see his legs there! Everything turns out fine and there's a happy ending.