A BUCKET OF BLOOD In Color - 1959

Here's one of our favorite movies, one that Eegah!! and I saw way back when we were in 6th grade! This movie is great, and today we have a colorized version to show off. You can see on this British poster that it was rated X (adults only), just like all the other horror movies at that time.

The cast is awesome, which includes Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Anthony Carbone, Julian Burton, Ed Nelson, Judy Bamber, Bert Convy, Bruno VeSota and even Sheila Noonan!

Beatnik poet Maxwell is doing his thing, accompanied by saxophone, for the audience at The Yellow Door hangout. There on the left is the owner, Leonard, enjoying the groove.

Walter Paisley is a busboy there, he has memorized Maxwell's hip poetry and is quoting him to some customers, and they're impressed by his artistic enthusiasm.

Walter decides that he wants to be a real artist and buys some modelling clay. He's attracted to a girl at the Yellow Door, Carla, and tries to do her face in clay to impress her but fails miserable, and gets violently frustrated!! He ends up killing the landlady's pet cat with a knife (not on purpose) who got stuck in the wall, and won't stop screeching. Then, Walter gets an idea...

The next day before work, Walter takes his new sculpture to The Yellow Door to show to Leonard and Carla. They're so impressed that Walter gets to display it inside the club with the other artists. The name of the piece is called.. Dead Cat! Leonard asks him why it has a knife in it, and Walter replies.. I didn't mean to!!

Then, when leaving the club, drug addict Naolia hands Walter a small packet and tells him to stick it in his pocket, which he does. An undercover cop sees the transfer and follows Walter to his home. The cop tells Walter, who's holding a griddle, that he's under arrest for possession of horse. Confused as Hell, Walter buries the pancake maker in the cop's skull after he pulls out his gun!

At this point, Leonard knows that Walter just covered the cat in clay. An art dealer wanted to buy the piece for $100, but Leonard says it's not for sale, because, he knows the dirty secret and it would be bad for business if discovered. Then the guy offers him $500 because his wife wants it so bad! And greedy Leonard sells it to him. Leonard gives Walter $50, instead of 50/50 as agreed!

Leonard wants Walter to work at home and complete a number of pieces for a show, instead of bringing them to the club one at a time. This one's called.. Murdered Man!

So, Walter invites Leonard and Carla over to check out his new sculpture. Carla is totally impressed with the piece, but Leonard is freaked by what he thinks might be under the clay! I have to admit, my favorite part of the crazy story is the fact that Leonard knows what's going on the whole time, and how he reacts to one horror after another, just to keep the secret.

Then super bitch Alice shows up at the club and makes fun of Walter's claims of being an artist, but does mention that she will model for him for $25 an hour. Later, Walter goes to her place and tells her he'll pay the price, and he's ready to work. The rest is history.

At Maxwell's place, Walter gets to show off his newest masterpiece, a Nude!! Everyone loves it, Walter is definitely a superstar.

Later at the club, Maxwell celebrates King Walter's accomplishments to the audience, all hail the King of Sculptures!!

Walter leaves the club, he's drunk as Hell and gets an idea for another piece!

He show it to Leonard the next day.

Before Walter's show starts, he says he wants to talk with Carla. Walter says that he's in love with her and wants to get married! Carla levels with him, she's not in love with him, not good.

They go back to the club for the show and Walter's in a horrible mood.

Then it happens, Carla has noticed that the nude has a body beneath the clay. She goes to Walter and tells him, and he says.. Yeah, that's Alice! Carla dashes out of the club and runs down the street in the dark, followed by Walter.

Then, the other undercover cop finds his partner under the clay, and it's a race to find the killer.

Walter is hearing voices now, he finally heads for his home for safety.

The others have followed him and when they open his door!... Hope you enjoyed  this classic movie in dying color!!

LAND OF THE GIANTS - "Mini-People Playthings" (1968)

This week's Saturday Night Special is another journey down the road of "Mini-People and Their World of Giant Tormentors!"

 

There were fifty-one episodes of "Land Of The Giants" made between 1968 and 1970.

  

The first episode aired on September 22, 1968, and was titled 

"The Crash."

On a flight to L.A., an aircraft enters a warp in space and time, and ends up in another dimension where everything is much larger than what is normal to these people. Now it's up to them to figure out how and why!

 

The star of the show is Gary (I Was A Teenage Frankenstein) Conway as Captain Steve Burton.

Gary is long since retired! One of his lifelong passions has always been painting, which he is still doing today. Here's a nice sample of his work titled "Vineyard Reverie." Since retiring from acting, Gary and his beautiful wife, former Miss America Marion McKnight, have owned and run a stunningly beautiful vineyard in Paso Robles, California called Carmody McKnight Estate Wines, that is most definitely worth checking out. Carmody was Gary's real last name.

Leave it to My Editor to come up with this wine drenched episode of "Columbo" that Gary Conway was part of in 1973. Thanks to the "Columbophile" Website.

Don (The Thing With Two Heads) Marshall was the co-star, and co-pilot Dan Erickson. Truth of the matter is, Don was one of only a handful of black actors on TV in lead roles during this era.

The rest of the people on the plane include Don (Murph The Surf) Matheson as businessman Mark Wilson. Don was a decorated Korean War veteran, and was a very talented jazz drummer!

Stefan (The X-Files) Arngrim is passenger Barry Lockridge! What is it with all the crazy talented people in this cast? 

 

 Stefan is also a musician, and in 1969 he had a single called "Where Has Christmas Gone," that was produced by Kim Fowley, and in 1976 he recorded this single called "Dying In St. Louis Gonna Make You Blue. Then, in the late 80's, early 90's, he was in a pretty cool band called The Knights of The Living Dead. Stefan has also co-written songs with Warren Zevon.

 

Deanna (Dr. Goldfoot And The Bikini Machine) Lund is the simi-bad girl Valerie Scott.

Heather (Galactica 1980) Young is flight attendant Betty Hamilton.

And the last of the main cast is Kurt (Casino Royale) Kaznar as the bumbling Alexander B. Fitzhugh. 

 

With giant cars etc, it doesn't take long for the crew to figure out they are in the wrong place.

But what is this place?

The scenery and special effects are all pretty cool.

This is about the most classic shot you're ever going to see of a guy talking on a walkie-talkie!

 

Outside the ship, the gang has encounters with a giant lizard, a giant cat, and a giant dog.

The Captain told Valerie not to go into this box, but she didn't listen, and now they're both in trouble, because it turns out it's an insect trap used by entomologists.

 

 

Here's the part I don't understand. Why would two bug collectors who caught two miniature humans treat them so weird? You don't normally associate entomologists with being mean people, but I guess they are.

So, obviously these giant people in this other dimension are not human, or they would have attempted to talk to the little critters that look just like them.

Instead, they pin them down with Scotch tape, and poke at them. Luckily they escaped or it would have been a lot worse. Why is the big lummox poking Valerie with a pencil? That's just not right!

Fifty-four years later, this show is still so popular, you can get a "Land Of The Giants" lunchbox at Walmart for $14.95. Now, that's a deal!

"From now on, that's just the way it's gonna be in this world."

 It's starting to sound like a familiar mantra!

Here's a wallpaper I made for you using titles cards from the best of the miniature people movies and TV shows.

COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE In "The Case Of The Big Squeeze" - 1960

I've been wanting to do one of these for awhile, and today it's gonna happen. This is a series that never played in our area and discovered it on Prime. This is Bob Kane's attempt to make crime fighters in a more camp and humorous style, and, it led the way for the BATMAN TV series starring Adam West later that decade. It has pretty low production value, but I think it lends to its charm. Also, Johnny Holiday created the cool music which includes an awesome riff in the theme song.

In this episode, one of my favorites, artist Rodney Rodent is using his painting machine to create a pile of 'masterpieces' to sell to unsuspecting art collectors.

He tops them off with forged signatures he stamps on!

He takes them to J. P. Mutton to make the sale. J. P. wants to know if the painting are genuine, and Rodney replied... Of course, just smell the fresh paint!

And Rodney leaves with a cart full of  dough!

The first place Rodney goes to is The Pad, a beatnik hang out! Performing the music is Sassy Bones accompanied by singer, Chanteluse. Cracks me up, she doesn't sing, she just uses voice modulations and screams!

Rodney showers her with money because, you know, she's one hot chick!

Courageous Cat and Minute are out on patrol in the Catmobile when the police chief gives them a call to say that Rodney Rodent ripped off J. P. Mutton, he's at The Pad, go get him!

The guys show up at The Pad, ready for action.

While Courageous checks out Rodney's upstairs apartment, Minute goes inside to keep an eye on the crooked artist. Minute even changes into a beatnik outfit to fit in.

Upstairs, Courageous finds Rodney's art machine, now it's time to bust him!

Inside, Minute reveals himself to Rodney, and points two pistols at his head!

But Rodney escapes on his scooter after running over and flattening the little mouse.

While chasing Rodney in the Catmobile, Courageous pulls out his handy multi-purposed gun and fires a giant paint tube at Rodney, encasing him inside the tube.

The police chief shows up and wants to know where Rodney is...

Courageous says... Minute's putting the squeeze on him! Love these crazy characters, the main bad guys are The Frog and Harry The Ape who Rodney works for occasionally. Have a decent weekend, if that's possible any more.