OTLEY - "Nobody Loves Otley" (1969)

There was a British film made in 1969 called "Otley," a story of of a common man named Jerry Otley who, just like Howard the Duck, gets caught up in a world he didn't create! Must just be perfect for another Saturday Night Special in The Dungeon!

I normally like British movies and TV shows, but this one just didn't do much for me. It has it's moments, it's just that most of the time you don't know if it's a spy film or a comedy, I guess it's both, but then that's British humour for you!

Sir Tom Courtenay as Gerald Arthur Otley was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire twenty years ago in 2001 for drama, and is still acting today!

Austrian born Romy (Death Watch) Schneider is a beautiful but mysterious woman named Imogen who is about to make Otley's life very miserable!

First off, two bit crook, and antiques dealer wannabe Otley gets kicked out of his apartment for lack of payment!

A friend tells Otley about a party that he could go to and at least get out of the weather for a couple of hours, and while there, he asks everybody he comes in contact with if he could just spend a night or two at their place, but he gets no takers.

Finally one guy gives in, and allows Otley to sleep on his couch, but when he wakes up, he's in the middle of an airfield, and his host is dead, and this is where all the fun begins.

 

If it's not bad enough to wake up in the middle of an airport......... 

 

 

 ..........It's even worse when your shoes are on the wrong feet!

 

For the rest of the movie, it's Imogen taunting Otley, and getting him into, and out of trouble!

There's a cast of colourful characters pursuing him, and he doesn't know why!

 

And Otley just can't figure out how he got himself into this mess, and how he's going to get out of it!

There's one group of people using him to set up some other people, and they try to turn him into someone he isn't, like a customer at The Playboy Club in London.

While dining at The Playboy Club, the server brings out the biggest pepper grinder you've ever seen in your life!

A depressed Romy Schneider passed away at the age of 43, diagnosed with cardiac arrest, but some people claim it was intentional and was brought on by her consuming a large amount of sleeping pills.

After teasing him for days, Imogen finally comes to Otley specifically to have sex, but this is as far as it goes onscreen.

 

After much confusion, crooked officials, death attempts, and multiple chase scenes, Gerald Arthur Otley returns to the streets where the whole ordeal started!

LOONEY TUNES / The Stupid Cupid - 1944

Here's one directed by Frank Tashlin and written by Warren Foster where Cupid pays a visit to a farm yard to spread his springtime passion..

Elmer Fudd plays the overly anxious Cupid, pretty looney if you ax me!

So, his first attempt at instant love is a success, these birdies are ready to settle down and start a family, just the way it's supposed to work!

But things don't always go according to plan, like this case here...

The bulldog wants to marry the kitty!

Of course the cat says... Now I've seen everything!.. And proceeds to shoots itself 9 times!!

Daffy's taking a bath in the trough, and just when Cupid is ready to let his arrow fly, Daffy gets in his face for a good reason!

Daffy pulls out a photo album and shows Cupid how he has already ruined his life with his potent arrows. The second photo has a fold out showing even more younger kids, all the way down to an egg with its little legs sticking out of the shell!

So there, take that Cupid! Now, get lost!!

Not to be shunned by the duck, Cupid constructs a giant arrow using a tree as a bow. He zeroes in on Daffy and lets it fly!

Daffy is knocked through all the hen houses, and...

He ends up slammed into a tree and falls through on a slab of wood. Then, Daffy sees something that catches his eye!

He immediately falls in love with one of the hens and tries to woo her...

But hubby rooster shows up to deal with the lecherous duck.

Daffy swears to the rooster that it was Cupid's fault, not his, he's just not that kind of duck, he's a family man himself! He begs for forgiveness and the rooster finally gives in...

But on the way back to his place, freakin' Cupid hits him with another arrow!

And, you guessed it, that stupid Cupid!!

THE DEAD DON'T DIE - "Or Do They?" (1975)

Here's a pretty Wild and Wooly Wednesday presentation for you! It's a movie I never heard of until about last week, and I generally shy away from TV movies, because, you know, they're TV movies, but every once in a while they'll make an interesting one like "The Dead Don't Die."

To start with, "The Dead Don't Die" has got a great cast starting with George Hamilton as Don Drake, a man whose brother was just put to death in the electric chair! Who else in their careers played Hank Williams, Evil Knievel, and Count Dracula besides George Hamilton? I daresay nobody!

Marta Victoria Moya Peggo Burges aka Linda (The Fiend Who Walked The West) Cristal is Vera Lavalle, a dead lady! The Argentinean star reminds me a lot of Diana Rigg at times.

Joan Blondell is a mean woman named Levenia. Among 161 other things, Joan was in "The Twilight Zone" episode called "What's In The Box?"

It was when I was looking through Ralph Meeker's credits besides "The Night Strangler" that I discovered this strange film, and that's when I knew I had to try and see it.

Korean War veteran, Record Producer, Actor, Author, and filmmaker James McEachin has spent a good part of his life helping military veterans. During the same time period that this film was being made, James was the star of his own TV show called "Tenafly." Here he's Frankie Specht, a man up to his neck in Voodoo.

The mysterious Austrian actor with the scarred face Reggie Nalder is Perdido, one of the walking dead.

Before it was over, Reggie worked with Hitchcock in "The Man Who Knew Too Much," Dario Argento in "The Bird With The Crystal Plummage," Federico Fellini in  "Fellini's Casanova," and he was Shras in the "Star Trek" episode "Journey To Babel."

And if all that wasn't enough, the 'Special Guest Star" is Dungeon Super Hero Ray Milland as the mean and conniving liar Jim Moss.

Now why do I have such an aversion to movies made for TV? It's because growing up when they started making them, they were usually quite dry and sterile compared to the real thing, but at least they got better, and when you have a story written by Robert (Psycho) Bloch, you know it's going to be worth at least checking out!

So while Don Drake is investigating into his brother's life, he ends up killing Perdido, except for the fact that he's already dead!

Then Levenia conks him over the head!

When he regains consciousness he's in Vera LaValle's apartment, and she is nursing him back to health.

Vera drops Don off at the Mortuary where Perdido comes back to life, and tries to strangle him!

Police Lt. Reardon gets an earful from Don, and tries to help him to no avail. Nothing's adding up. The guy he killed is alive, and Levenia says she's never seen him before.

Jim Moss has a gig running dance marathons, which I assumed would be totally illegal today, since kids dance until they collapse, but lo and behold I found out that dance marathons are still held regularly today on campuses everywhere as fundraisers lasting from 12 to 40 hours. (At least they did before Covid.)

Don and Vera start getting a little cozy, especially by TV standards, but she stops him abruptly!

See the problem is that she is dead. At the end of her life, she had her head chopped off by a Guillotine, and she's got the scars to prove it!

This is the mark of the dead ones!

The Voodoo Boss gets pissed by this whole scene, and decides to melt Vera's Voodoo doll!

The results are predictable and freak Don out a bit!

I thought the movie ended up in this modern art gallery, but it turned out to be a meat locker instead, and you know what kind of stuff happens in meat lockers in the movies!