THE THREE STOOGES In "If A Body Meets A Body" - 1945

I'm finishing off my month with this great little Three Stooges short from 1945. Besides the boys, we have Fred Kelsey as kookie Detective Clancy and Theodore Lorch as the weirdo, Jerkington, the butler. It also has Al Thompson as the deceased Uncle Bob O. Link.

The story goes like this... Curly is set to receive money from his rich dead uncle's will and the boys go to the uncle's mansion to claim their cut. But as expected, the Stooges encounter unexpected terror, and that's when the fun begins!

Curly's doing the cooking, it's soup from a nice juicy bone! Moe and Larry have had it with Curly and they order him to leave, and never come back!

But when Moe notices an article in the newspaper stating that the knucklehead could inherit 3 million dollars, Moe and Larry quickly make up with Curly and they head to the uncle's house on a dark and rainy night...

Once inside the house, Larry is proud of himself for bringing his umbrella!

The butler, Jerkington, holds onto the boys' wet coats and is drenched in the process. I swear this is so funny, the boys walk around and act as if they own the place!

The will is ready to be read and all the family members are there. But Detective Clancy shows up and declares that their uncle was murdered! And, the body is missing! And no reading of the will until things get cleared up.

We hear a scream, Clancy and the boys run into a room to find the guy that was going to read the will... Stabbed to D! And now the will's missing too!

The lights go out after Clancy says that everyone has to spend the night there because of the murders. Jerkington shows the boys to their room, the one where uncle Bob O. died, right where Curly's standing!

In Bob's laboratory, the wind from the storm blows a window open and it knocks over a cage with a parrot in it. The bird escapes and climbs on a skeleton.

After knocking the skull off, the parrot is trapped inside and starts walking around, and makes weird squawking noises. If I could have just one prop they ever made, I'd choose this one!!

This gag is hilarious, Moe's showing Curly there's no ghost under the bed, and by the time Curly gets Moe to take a look at the walking skull, it's gone behind the chair.

The bird is walking on the headboard and falls off, conking Larry on the head before tumbling to the floor. Larry wakes Moe up and asks him why he conked him in the head... Moe responds by conking Larry in the head.

The cat's out of the bag!!

The parrot gets tangled up in a sheet and starts flying around the room!

The boys stumble upon Curly's dead uncle and go get Detective Clancy to show him. But when they get back, the body's gone. Clancy barks back at Curly a few times during the story.

After a run in with the maid, the boys expose the killer, the maid was a man dressed up as a woman, and, the will was hidden in his wig! Goodbye to the bad guy.

Curly reads the will, he will receive... 67 CENTS!! In RING OF TERROR, the guy out collecting money for their club cause, well, he brings back 23 cents! In THE CREEP, Eddie takes the cup from a blind man and complains that, what, only 22 cents?! Then the Creep proceeds to push the guy down, hit him with the cup, and kick him in the ass!

BEST OF BANDSTAND (1961)

 

 I found this file on the Internet Archive called "Best Of Bandstand 1961," and not paying close attention, I just naturally assumed it was "American Bandstand" and that I would see performances from groups and people like Gene Pitney, Gary U.S. Bonds, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Bobby 'Blue' Bland, The Mar-Keys, and The Velairs, but instead, it's really "Australian Bandstand," and it's full of performers I was pretty much totally unfamiliar with!

That's how it works around here, it's just another Weird Wednesday down in The Dungeon!

 

The host of the show is a cool cat named Brian Henderson.

Sometimes Brian doesn't even look at the camera when he's giving one of his introductions!

 It's pretty obvious that they only had one sponsor!

First up on the show is the disheveled lookin' singer Lonnie Lane performing "Why Why, Bye Bye."

Next up are The De Kroo Brothers, Leon and Doug, who really wanted to be The Everly Brothers.

One of Brian's favourite groups is up next! He thinks they are just "naturally good!"

The Deltones perform a song called "Kansas City," but not the one I'm familiar with.

Then this fellow named Johnny Devlin performs a song I think is called "Charlie Mopps," rhymes with hops, and that's what they are all drinking beer.

Next up is Ian Crawford doing "Lost Weekend." Brian says the colourful moving background looks just as good in black and white, but that's not quite true.

Last of the groups is The Sapphires doing "Sydney Girls."

At the end of the show Brian announces there is a lookalike contest, and the person that looks the most like singer Patsy Ann wins a two week vacation in the Fiji Islands including a flight on a Pan-American 707 Super Jet.

Patsy Ann Noble performs two songs, "Busy Lips," and "It's Always The Way!"

Patsy ditched Australia and headed to America where she became an actress who had a small but very important part of "Star Wars" history, Jobal Naberrie, the Grandmother of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia! Sadly, that was her last role. Patsy just passed away in January of this year at the age of 76.

TALES OF TOMORROW / "What You Need" - 1952

Here's another great episode from Tales Of Tomorrow... It stars William Redfield as  writer Tom Carmichael and Edgar (4-D MAN) Stehli as curio shop owner Peter Talley. Those are the only two actors with credits on this production for some reason. The story is by Henry Kuttner and another version was done for THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

The story's about an unscrupulous writer who's short on money and wants to marry his girlfriend. He stumbles upon a potential mystery when he notices well-to-do men shopping at a small curio shop. And, the men come out of the shop with mere mundane items...

Here's the sign hanging at Peter Talley's shop. Guess what? He has what you need!

Writer Tom Carmichael is watching the well dressed men visiting this odd curio shop. He makes notes of every item the men leave with, this time, a pair of gloves. He's really puzzled.

So, Tom goes inside to ask the owner what the Hell's going on!  Peter and his wife are turned off by his brashness. In the meantime, another gentleman comes in and picks up a pistol and pays Peter $5000 for his services! Tom's dumbfounded, he explains that he doesn't have any money and wants to marry his girl, and begs for a freebee.

Just to have Tom leave, Peter agrees. He has built a machine that can predict outcomes in the future of situations. Peter sees Tom getting his tie stuck in a printing machine.

Tom gets a measly pair of shears, Peter tells him to keep it close at all times... Oh, and never come back, we don't like you!

Tom's girl thinks the shears are funny, what are you going to do Tom? Become a seamstress?!! They'll make a great married couple. But Tom's thinking about something else, money.

And sure enough, Tom goes back to the print shop and gets his tie stuck in a machine! Luckily, the shears were handy to save his neck! Now, Tom, the publisher and his girl all get the big picture, that machine of Peter's is worth a million dollars!!

Tom rushes back to the curio shop and threatens Peter, give me another thing I need, OR! Peter tells Tom that he'll have a courier deliver the item to him at the restaurant he'll be at. Tom is giddy with delight.

Peter has the machine make a future prediction about the current situation and it has Tom coming in, killing Peter and then stealing the machine...

Peter is in shock, what is he to do? He quietly gets up and picks out what Tom needs...

At the restaurant, Tom gets his package, a pair of shoes, brand new with super slick soles! And you know what? It's snowing outside. Tom quickly puts the new shoes on before him and his girl leave the place.

Outside in the snow, Tom slips and is run over by a truck, the driver swears that it looked like an invisible person pushed Tom in front of the truck!

Tom is dead and nothing can bring him back. Peter realizes that he has just played God with Tom's life and it's a bad ending for everyone! He destroys the machine.

Reminds me of a Guzanos tune... "Alles Ist Kaput."