LIGHTS OUT / "The Faceless Man" - 1951

In this above average production, Francis Carvel goes to a plastic surgeon to get a new face after years of ugliness. Now handsome, he returns to a French inn where the owner's daughter had spurned his affection a year earlier. But complicating matters is his new travelling companion, a disfigured man in bandages that seems to know everything about him...

It stars Robert Sterling as Francis Carvel, Ted Hecht as the mysterious Man, Patricia Reardon as Laure, Louis Sorin as the Inn Keeper and Laure's father and Gregory Morton as the Doctor.

The story starts with Francis ready to have his bandages removed after his plastic surgery.

Francis likes what he sees!

Here's a photo of him before the plastic surgery as a reminder of what he used to look like, pretty amazing what they could do way back in 1951...

The doctor has another photo of Francis for his files. Francis wants that one too, but the doc says.. No! And he recommends that Francis see a psychotherapist to explore what makes him such an unpleasant person to be around.

When the doctor has his back turned, Francis grabs a scalpel off a tray and goes to town on him! For some reason, Francis doesn't want anyone to know anything about him.

As he's leaving the doctor's office, Francis comes face to face with a disfigured man in bandages that seems to know many things about him. After holding a short conversation with Francis, the man leaves after Francis asks ... Do I know you?

Francis checks in at the French Inn where he stayed in the past. And where the Inn Keeper's daughter there, Laure, had spurned his advances.

Laure has a creepy feeling about the man, he reminds her of that despicable person that used to stay there. But pops says she's being silly.

Francis goes up to his room and guess who's waiting there for him!

Francis tells the man to remove his mask! The man replies... You wouldn't like what you see! Francis is a little afraid of the guy some decides to just ignore him.

He has more important things to do, like asking Laure to marry him! He gives her a necklace he stole from the doctor to seal the deal, and goes back to his room to wait for her decision...

But when Laure opens the box, a strangler's cord is found there, not a necklace!

Back at the ranch, the masked man is spouting all kinds of accusations towards Francis including the fact that he's also a murdering strangler!!

There's a loud knock on the door and Laure's dad wants to know what the Hell's going on, giving his daughter a strangler's cord!! Francis tells him to come back after he figures out what happened with the necklace.

Francis is beside himself, he snatches the mask off the man and lo and behold, it's him, Francis, before he got the plastic surgery!

Freaking out, Francis backs toward the open window, grabs the curtain cord and falls through!

Laure and dad rush outside to see the curtain cord wrapped around his hands, then dad notices something else...

It's the disfigured man that used to stay at the Inn!! What a wild ride!

ELVIS AND HIS MUSIC IN THE MOVIES - "Part One" (1957 - 1968)

 

We never talk about Elvis Aaron Presley much, and I'm not quite sure why, because he was just as much a part of our lives growing up as The Three Stooges were, so that's why this Saturday Night Special is dedicated to the memory of the movies of the man iconic enough to be known by a one word name, and that would be

ELVIS!

Elvis's first movie was "Love Me Tender," and his second film was called "Loving You," and in it he performs one of his biggest hits, "(Let Me Be You) Teddy Bear," that was number one for seven weeks in 1957. The other side of that single was the title from this movie. His love interest in this film was Lizabeth Scott.

 

 

 A much funner song is the one he performs at this outdoor barbeque called "Let's Have A Party," that never even charted in the U.S., but was a big number two in the U.K. with the shortened title of "Party."

These stills are from Elvis's third film "Jailhouse Rock," and the song Elvis, Scotty Moore and the boys were doing was called "Treat me Nice" that charted at #27 in 1958. "Treat Me Nice" was the B side to to the title song "Jailhouse Rock," that was number one for seven straight weeks in 1957.

In 1965, Elvis made a movie called "Tickle Me" with Julie Adams of "Creature From The Black Lagoon" fame.

In "Tickle Me," Elvis  performed a song called "Night Rider," written by Doc Pomus and  Mort Shuman.

In the 1960 film titled "G.I. Blues," the big E performed "Doin' The Best I Can," another tune penned by Doc Pomus and  Mort Shuman, who I would assume have families that are very wealthy these days.

 

In 1968, Elvis was in "Speedway" with Nancy Sinatra and Beverly Hills.

In "Speedway" he performed "Let Yourself Go" which only made it to #71 on the Billboard Charts.

 

Back to 1958 and Elvis's fourth film "Kid Creole."

By my count, The King performed twelve songs in this film. This one was called "New Orleans."

In 1963 Elvis made a movie called "Fun In Acapulco" with Ursula Andress and Elsa Cárdenas.

 

The crazy song Elvis performed in this movie was called "Bossa Nova Baby" and was one of eleven songs in the film.

Not sure what all that "Fun In Acapulco" included, but the choreography on this song goes to a surreal other level!

Elvis starred in 31 movies, and that was only six of them, and his music is so enduring, it was been used in over 650 soundtracks over the years.

 

 

In fact, I liked "Boss Nova Baby" so much, I thought you should see it too!

Elvis really was The King of something, and it's hard to believe that he only lived to be 42 years old, but that's because he also had a dark side that also included a place

 "Where Only Elvis Can Smell Us!"

FELIX THE CAT / Relaxing On A Sunday Morning - 1960

Here's one of my favorite Felix adventures. There were 126 episodes and a lot of them can't be found as far as I can tell, with titles like "Electronic Brainwasher," Ghostly Concert," Sheriff Felix And The Gas Cloud," The Termites Of 1960," "The Pep Pill," "The Strongest Robot In The World," "Stairway To The Stars" and "Felix Finder And The Ghost Town."

Well, it's Sunday morning and Felix goes out to his mail box to get his newspaper so that he can relax on his hammock and read the funnies, about himself!

But he gets socked right in the mush by a boxing glove!

It all makes sense when you find out that Rock Bottom is Felix's next door neighbor!

Rock is a loud person, now what's the commotion?!

He's fired up his tractor and has a mower attached to the front... Hmmm.

First he plows through Felix's tomato patch and gets a nice healthy drink of juice!

And when it comes to the watermelons, just gobble down the chunks!

Next, Felix discovers that all the water is missing from his swimming pool, and it doesn't take long before the mystery is solved.

Felix finally comes up with a plan to teach the big lug a lesson. He calls Rock and interrupts his pool time, disguising his voice as a woman. Felix tells him to hold for a minute, Rock responds with, I'll wait for you... Forever!

That gives Felix the time he needs to put the water back in his pool.

Rock finally figures out that no one's on the line!

Back at his pool, Rock decides to do a fancy dive off the board.

Rock's really mad now and chases Felix with his tractor...

But Felix ditches him and starts painting Rock's house!

And after he paints a picture of himself into the scene, Rock ends up plowing full speed into his own place!

And boy, he got just what he deserved!