Friday, September 24, 2021

THE THREE STOOGES In "The Three Troubledoers" - 1946

Here's a wild little short with our best pals, The Stooges! Christine McIntyre and Dick Curtis are also there to make the thing even funnier. When you see Dick, he hovers way above the guys, because, he was 6' 3" and played mainly bad guys in westerns, he had 241 acting credits.

The boys, who look like they've been mining, come to the town of Dead Man's Gulch, looks like the population just went down three souls, the Sheriff and his two deputies, all shot by the notorious Badlands Blackie.

The boys go to the blacksmith shop and find Nell there, crying as she works on a horse shoe. She tells them that Blackie has kidnapped her father and is going to kill him unless she accepts Blackie's hand in marriage!

The big guy shows up and starts pushing the boys around because they're not being respectful to him. He grabs Curly's gun belt and tosses it aside, right into the furnace!

The bullets start going off like a firecracker, Blackie gets so confused by the action that he backs out of the shop and falls into a water trough, and runs away.

Curly's holding a smoking pistol when the actual Sheriff shows up and make the knucklehead the acting Sheriff because he's so brave, and Moe and Larry get Deputy badges.

Now that's he's getting $100 a month as Sheriff, Curly asks Nell to marry him, and, she says she will if he can rescue her father!

So, it's time for Curly to bone up on his shooting skills... 'Nuf said?

And, Moe makes a life-sized dummy of Blackie so that Curly can test out his fighting skills. At one point, the dummy stabs Curly in the head with a knife, so he shoots it.

Curly's doing something, and when he turns around, the big dummy is standing there!

Moe and Larry have been in the back room making a bazooka to even the score but it fails, so, Larry decides to hit Blackie in the head before he pulls the trigger. Of course it's a two for one sale today.

Blackie wins this round and Nell wants to get ready for the big day and will come to Blackie's place in Skull Bone Pass before sunset. Before the boys can leave though they have to get that horse collar off of Curly's neck!

The boys ride their 3-seat tandem bike to Blackie's place, a saloon.

Blackie takes Nell to the justice of the peace but the Stooges grab the preacher and takes his clothes and wig, which Curly adorns... To no avail. Curly gets away just before he's shot.

The wedding must go on and one of Blackie's lackeys will perform the ceremony. Blackie needs a ring so he takes it off the finger of one of the dancers. 

The boys get their TNT shooting bazooka ready but it fails again!

Blackie and his pals run outside to find the disrupters, Moe tosses the bazooka down because it still won't work, and it goes off!! The bad guys run into the explosives storage room with a bundle of boom following them!!

The place blows sky high! Then Nell's dad digs himself out of the wreckage (that's where they were hiding him) and she tells him that she's going to marry Curly for saving the day. The blacksmith gets a look at Curly and picks up a stick of dynamite, lights it and says that he'd rather be dead than have her marry that guy! Nell get the stick away from him and tosses it aside, right at the boys, who all run away. Here's something cool, Nell's dad is played by Elmo Lincoln, the very first TARZAN! Funny!

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

BIRDS IN A SUITCASE Part 01 (1967-1968)

 
I've been trying to watch the whole series of "Man In A Suitcase," and every one of them has an interesting female character in it, so why not do a segment on this bevy of British Birds? Welcome to a Wonderful Wednesday down in The Dungeon!

 
The first episode of "Man In A Suitcase" called "Brainwash" featured Suzan (Die Monster Die) Farmer as Judy Davies. Suzan passed away in 2017 at the age of 75.

 
The second episode was titled "The Sitting Pigeon" and had Lois (Captain Kronos:Vampire Hunter) Daine in it as Valerie Wilmot. Lois is still alive and well today.
 
Here's a shot of Lois from the BBC TV series "Play For Today" and an episode called "The Long Distance Piano Player" in 1970.
 
 
The third episode was called "Day Of Execution" and featured Rosemary Nicols as Moira, a love interest of McGill.
 
Rosemary had the ongoing role of Annabelle Hurst in the fantastic TV series "Department S." Here she is in the first episode with a blonde wig as a disguise. Rosemary is also still around today.
 
The fourth episode was titled "Variation On A Million Bucks: Part 1"

McGill's Romantic partner in this one is Yôko Tani as Taiko. Although Yôko is Japanese, she was born, and passed away in Paris, France. She's the only one so far here not British.
 
Episode five is "Variation On A Million Bucks: Part 2," and Taiko stays on as McGill's girlfriend.

Of course we love Yôko Tani for her part in the classic "First Spaceship On Venus."

Gay (Journey To The Unknown) Hamilton was also in Part 2. Gay is still with us too.
 
Episode number six was actually the pilot episode of "Man In A Suitcase," but oddly inserted at the number six position, and featured Angela Browne as McGill's ex-girlfriend Anna Wilson.

Angela was also in a couple of episodes of "The Avengers" and was the leading lady in this episode of "Danger Man" titled "The Girl In Pink Pajamas." Angela passed away in 2001 at the age of 63.
 
Episode number seven was titled "Sweet Sue," and had Judy (Berzerk) Geeson in the role of Sue herself.

Judy is probably the most recognizable face here so far, and she just celebrated her 73rd birthday a couple of weeks ago on September 10th, and is still working today.
 
Jacqueline (The Reptile) Pearce also had a small role in this episode. Jacqueline left the planet in 2018 at the age of 74.
 
Episode number eight was called "Assay In Evil" and has Wendy Hall as the wife of one of McGill's Clients.

Wendy was also a regular on eleven episodes of "Doomwatch." Wendy is also still alive.

Episode nine titled "The Girl Who Never Was" featured Annette Carell as an unscrupulous art dealer. Annette was also in "The Vulture," and believe it or not, a TV show called "The Man Who Never Was."
Annette took her own life at the age of 41 in 1967.

Priscilla (The Wednesday Thriller) Morgan had the role of Mavis Fletcher. Priscilla is still very much alive.

The tenth episode was titled "All That Glitters," and featured the beautiful Barbara Shelley!

British horror would be a vacuum without the likes of actresses like Barbara Shelley, who was in such classics as "Blood Of The Vampire," "Village Of The Damned," "The Gorgon," "Dracula: Prince of Darkness," as shown here with Sir Christopher Lee, and "Quatermass And The Pit."
Sadly, Barbara just passed away in January of this year at the age of 88.

Monday, September 20, 2021

TALES FROM THE CRYPT / "Undertaking Palor" - 1991

Here's a creepy little tale from the Crypt starring John Glover, Graham Jarvis, Aron Eisenberg, Scott Fults, Jason Marsden and Ke Huy Quan.

The story's about four friends that find out the local undertaker and a local pharmacist are working together to murder rich people and profit from their funerals!

Aaron, Norm and Jess just got out of the theater after watching the show and are walking through some back alleys...

A dark figure persues them and they're freaking out until he reveals himself as their other pal, Josh. He's the filmmaker in the group. He really had them going.

So, the boys thought it was a pretty good trick, but if you really want to be a filmmaker, they need to go to the undertaker's lab and shake hands with a corpse! Now, that would be epic. So, they sneak in and check the place out while the undertaker is out. One of the boys pulls back the sheet and discover the school librarian (with a look of horror on her face) on the table!

And guess who comes back? It gets weird real fast as the boys, hiding, catch a glimpse of the undertaker doing insane things to the body. He then removes the sheet, makes a cut down her stomach and uses a commercial vacuum to suck out her innards...

The boys are sickened by the unbelievable methods being used on the librarian.

And while working, he's listening to a horrible operatic song with a woman singing along, I really wanted it to stop. He also has pizza and Pepsi to enjoy as he does his thing.

The boys get away after the undertaker gets a visit from his partner in crime, the pharmacist Grundy. They also learn that the two plan on committing another crime that night by poisoning a rich patient with a prescription. That night, Josh's father dies and the boys decide to play some games themselves, by getting video evidence back at the lab...

Jess works for Grundy and is asked to take a prescription to the mortuary for the undertaker.

But Jess drops the bottle and the undertaker ends up chasing him down the street.

Aaron and Norm run into the lab and find some invoices showing that the undertaker was cheating his partner, Grundy. They take them to Grundy.

In the meantime, we see the merry undertaker stuffing Josh's dad with filler after removing his innards with the vac.

Grundy shows up and threatens the undertaker who grabs a pole and whips around, knocking Grundy out. Grundy is then strapped to a table...

The undertaker pours some fluid down his throat and Grundy dies a gruesome death, but, one of the boys is video taping him in the midst of his crimes!

Wait, another boy?.. And another? Yes, all four friends are there to tape the incident and mess with the undertaker.

One boy scoops up the undertaker with the librarian behind him, then Norm turns on the big vacuum machine and jabs it into the psycho's gut! Let the sucking begin!!

Pretty cool ending!! John Glover was great as the undertaker.

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??