THE CHASE - "The Black Path Of Fear" (1946)

 

Just from the looks of this Turkish poster, you know right away that there's something strange going on! That's why this Saturday Night Special is "The Chase!"

"The Chase" starring Robert Cummings came out in 1946, and while there have been other films with the same title but different stories, like the Marlon Brando version in 1966, or the Charlie Sheen version in 1994, the 1946 version is the one you really want to see.

A down and out veteran finds a wallet full of money, and after pinching enough to buy himself some breakfast and a cheap cigar, he decides to return the wallet to the owner whose name and address he found inside.

As it turns out, the owner, a man named Eddie Roman is quite wealthy!

But before he can talk to Mr. Roman, he has to get by his henchman/partner named Gino, who was played by Dungeon Mega Hero, Peter Lorre! Peter is great in this sinister role, just as he always is!

Another Dungeon Hero, Robert Cummings, is the honest vagabond veteran Chuck Scott. Four years earlier, Robert was in an equally paranoid adventure as Barry Kane in Hitchcock's "Saboteur."

 

Steve Cochran has the role of a two-bit gangster posing as legitimate businessman Eddie Roman. Steve was in "The Twilight Zone" episode titled "What You Need." In 1965 at the age of 48, Steve sailed off for Guatemala, but died of a lung infection before he ever got there.

Eddie Roman is a punk, and likes to slap women around!

Chuck Scott gives Eddie his wallet back, and is rewarded for his honesty with a chauffeur job driving for Mr. Big Shot!

Not knowing anything at all about his new boss, Chuck thinks he's landed himself a pretty good deal!

It doesn't take him long to figure out that Eddie Roman is not exactly the guy he pretends to be, especially when he finds out that he has an accelerator pedal and speedometer in the back seat where he can control the speed, and scare the crap out of the driver!

These are not the smiling faces of two guys you can trust!

 

Because they will literally feed you to the dogs if you don't do what they ask!

Michèle (The Strange Madame X) Morgan as Eddie Roman's wife Lorna is not a happy camper. She didn't know Eddie was a dirty rat and a crook when she married him, and now she wants to find a way to get away from him forever. Maybe the new chauffeur will be the answer to ending her nightmare!

Chuck and Lorna come up with a plan to go to Cuba where hopefully Eddie will never find either of them.

But once they get to Cuba, everything goes to Hell in a hand basket in no time at all. It appears that Eddie has people watching them wherever they go!

Chuck and Lorna have now officially fallen in love, and then, out of nowhere, she gets a knife in the back and dies on the spot!

Of course, Chuck is the number one suspect!

Chuck escapes from the Police, and now, "The Chase" is on!

Chased through the streets of Havana, Chuck is allowed to hide behind the door in this prostitute's apartment, as the cops go door to door searching for him. When he asks her why she helped him, she replies "I hate cops." The actress who played the prostitute was Yolanda (Shockproof) Lacca.

There is a picture of the real killer taken by the photographer in the restaurant where the murder happened, but before Chuck can get to him, he's murdered, and the photo is destroyed.

"The Chase" goes on until Chuck gets shot in the chest, and he wakes up disoriented in this room.

I'm not going to tell you what happened after that, but it did confuse the heck out of me, so you're just going to watch it yourself! And the cool thing is you can do it right here! 

 "The Chase"

ULTRAMAN / "The Rambunctious One From Space" - 1966

Welp, it's Friday the 13th, what's hilarious is that it seems like every day anymore is Friday the 13th. Let's face it, this is one whack time we're stuck in.

So, here's one whack episode from this Toho production to stay the course. Here, a stone has just fallen from the sky, and a group of kids found out that they could wish for something, like a cake, and the stone would turn itself into that!

A girl wishes for a piano, and viola, one appears in the field and all the kids run over to it and admire their handy work. But, someone is watching them!

The Science Patrol has obtained the stone from the children and they take it to a lab to have it analyzed. It turns out that it is part mineral and part plant...

When the scientists have a meeting to explain their findings, the guy who was spying on the children places a small speaker under the desk he's sitting in.

After the meeting, the man goes to his car and orders the rock in the lab to turn into a liquid to get it out of the box it's stored in, then he has it turn into a small rocket and fly into his car for the getaway.

The guy is a total maniac. he screws around with it and eventually has it turn into a monster and lets it roam around in the hotel he's staying at.

It gets into an elevator with a hotel worker delivering a pie to a guest, and this is how it turns out for him!

This guy is at the pool taking pictures of bikini clad girls for a shoot. But when he sees the monster, he drops the camera and goes into a tizzy.

Then the guy orders the monster to grow to giant size, and it collapses the hotel building where the guy's staying.

The Science Patrol shows up and find the man in his room, in a coma from the collapse of the building, and take him to the hospital.

The thing is knocking the crap out of the buildings and the military brings in their special equipment that shoots a ray and it knocks off one of the monster's rotating antenna.

Then the Science Patrol drops a bomb right on the thing's head!

Here's a look at the out of control monster. Wow, scary!

Well, the clock on the wall says that it's time for our hero to change into Ultraman and take care of the berserk invader.

Here are three very cool shots of Ultraman making the monster look like a clown.

Back at the hospital, they finally revive the man and tell him to make the giant monster disappear, it's causing big problems!

And, just like that, the monster changes back into a rock. Ultraman take the plant stone way into space  and lets it go, back from where it came!

SHAT ATTACK - "The Early Days Of William Shatner" (1958 - 1978)

 

Out of over 3300 films and TV shows we've written about, we've never done one "Star Trek" episode unless you count the Turkish version, but it's not because we're not big William Shatner fans, it's just that we'd rather focus on the strange things The Shat's done in his career, and boy, there are plenty of them! I created this "Shat-scape" that shows some of Bill's strangeness we've covered so far, but there is far more than the average Shat fan even realizes, and that's why I've got some samples for you on this Weird Wednesday down in The Dungeon!

 

William Shatner just turned 90 a few months ago, and he has a whopping 246 credits to his name playing a wide assortment of characters, plus he has another 464 credits where he appeared as himself. One of his earliest appearances was in 1954 where he appeared on "The Howdy Doody Show" as Ranger Bob. I couldn't find any pictures of Ranger Bob. The shot above is from an appearance he made on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1958 where he appeared with France Nuyen and the cast of the Broadway show "World Of Suzie Wong."

 

Here's a weird one! William played a boxer in this "Family Theater Production" in 1962 that was a series of film meditations on the Psalms.

 

 In 1963 William Shatner appeared on the drama series hosted by Fred Astaire called "Alcoa Premiere" in an episode titled "Million Dollar Hospital," where he plays Dr. William Grant.

 

 Dr. Grant has to try and make the best of dealing with a run down hospital!

 

1963 was also the year William appeared as "Alexander The Great!"

 

In this 1963 episode of "The Dick Powell Theatre," called "Colossus," William plays Eric Tegman, a poor man who gets tired of being pushed around by the rich guys. William speaks with an accent in this show!
 

In 1964 in an episode called "The Shattered Glass" on "The Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre," William plays a man with a drinking problem!  

In 1975 Bill appeared in an uncredited role as a Doctor attending Ben Franklin in Part 4 of the mini-series "The Lives Of Benjamin Franklin."

 

In 1978, he played Captain Harrison in two episodes of the TV series "How The West Was Won."

Also in 1978.........

.........William played Paul Revere in the TV series "The Bastard."

 

In 1978, a curly haired William also played Prof. Friedrich Bhaer in the classic "Little Women."

The list goes on forever, and I've just given you a taste of what has happened in The Shatosphere in the early years, but I have to stop somewhere.

 

Thanks to my man in Berlin for showing me the way to this great YouTube site hosted by Ruby Pearl. Go there, and you'll not only find most of what I've shown you here, but also a virtual hoard of other Shatner wonders! In the meantime, enjoy this rockin' and hilarious tune done by William with Henry Rollins in 2004 called "I Can't Get Behind That."