BIRDS IN A SUITCASE Part 02 (1967-1968)

   This week's Saturday Night Special is Part 02 of "Birds In A Suitcase," a tribute to all the talented and beautiful women who were in "Man In A Suitcase." 

Episode eleven was titled "Dead Man's Shoes," and featured Jayne (Tales From The Crypt) Sofiano as Juliette Crowther, the close friend of a man in deep trouble.

 

Jayne was born in Israel, but she did most of her acting in England, where I assume she still lives today.

 

 

Episode twelve was titled "Find The Lady," and had two international beauties in it. Norma (A Study In Terror) Foster as Angela was born in South Africa. It's really amazing how most of these gals are well into their seventies, and still alive. Norma is one of them.

 

The gal who got the most onscreen time though was Jeanne Roland as the double dealing Francesca. Jeanne was born in Burma, and was in "Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb," and was James Bond's masseuse in "You Only Live Twice," and yes, she's still around too.

Episode thirteen was simply titled "The Bridge," and had Jane Merrow as Annabelle Fenchurch.

 

Jane Merrow's career goes all the way back to the Herbert Lom version of "Phantom Of The Opera," where she played a showgirl, and besides a host of other things, was in the remake of "The Horror At 37,000 Feet" with William Shatner. Jane was still working as of last year, and hopefully will continue long into the future.

Episode fourteen was titled "The Man Who Stood Still," and highlighted the talents of Jeanna L'Esty as the lovely Leocadia Iglesias.
 

If you appear on one show fifty times, it only counts as one credit, so despite the fact that Jeanna has only five credits to her name, she was on "Man In A Suitcase" twice. Those cool spit curl sideburns make Jeanna look like she is from some exotic place, but she was born in Middlesex, England. She is also alive and kicking today at the age of 74.

Episode 15 was titled "Burden Of Proof," and co-stars Nicola Pagett as the wife of a diplomat in some deep, deep trouble!

Nicola was born in Cairo, Egypt, and is very elegant looking, so it's no wonder she was chosen for the starring role in a 1977 TV mini series called "Anna Karenina." Sadly, I have to tell you that Nicola passed away just six months ago at the age of 75.

Explosive episode sixteen was called "The Whisper" and had Sheila (The Curse Of The Werewolf) Brennan in it as the wife of an African plantation owner with some personality problems.

Sheila is of Irish descent, and should be about 90 years old these days.

 

Episode seventeen was titled "Why They Killed Nolan," and features Nike Arrighi as Angela Cunliffe, the young girlfriend of a married man.
 

Nike was born in France, and was in  some cool flicks like "The Devil Rides Out," "Day For Night," "Countess Dracula," and "The Perfume Of The Lady In Black." She just turned 74 a couple of months ago.

Episode eighteen titled "The Boston Square" is almost entirely devoid of female characters, although at the beginning there is a brief appearance by Alexandra (Prehistoric Women) Stevenson, as a secretary. An internet search for Alexandra comes up with zero biographical information unless you think she was a former professional tennis player born in 1980, or twelve years after this show was made.

Later on there is an even briefer appearance by Jeanna L'Esty as a stewardess. As you'll recall, Jeanna also appeared in episode number fourteen, but in a much larger role.

 

 Episode nineteen brings back a couple of  actresses who were in other episodes. Jacqueline Pearce who had a very small part in episode seven is back in a major role as a spy and ex-girlfriend of McGill's.

Wendy Hall who had a fairly big role in episode eight is back in a minuscule role as a hotel receptionist.

Episode twenty titled "Blind Spot" had Felicity Kendal in it as a blind woman.

Felicity Kendal has had a fabulous career, and has had many continuing roles in TV shows like "The Good Life," and "Rosemary And Thyme." She'll be 75 years young today, and I can't think of a better place to end this Part 02 than that! 

Happy Birthday Felicity!

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!

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.