THE PAUL LYNDE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL (1976)

 

Let's get this month long Countdown to Halloween off to a good start, with some really scary stuff on this candy corny Saturday Night Special!

Wait a minute, what holiday is this anyway? There's so many any more!

"The Paul Lynde Halloween Special" aired 46 years ago, smells like moldy cheese and is just as tasty!

There's one thing about Paul Lynde! He was one of a kind!

Paul's housekeeper is played by none other than Margaret Hamilton, who everybody in the world will recognize as the The Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard Of Oz."

Paul has all the scariest people of 1976 on his show like Donny and Marie Osmond."

Witchiepoo was played by Billie Hayes who made a career out of playing characters and doing voice overs for characters like Weenie the Genie, Granny Whammy, Mother Mae-Eye, and Granny Applecheeks!

 

Everybody's favorite little guy Billy Barty joins the cast as a guy named Gallows!

Even the scariest person in the world Betty White attends the ceremonies as Miss Halloween.

Even Paul can't believe it!

Another interesting but less than scary moment involves a trucker skit with Tim Conway!

Roz (Pinky Tuscadero) Kelly adds a little spice to the proceedings. 

 

Witchiepoo is so evil, she thinks "The Exorcist" is funny!

The musical entertainment is presented by KISS. I had no idea that Paul Stanley could levitate!

Super scary Florence Henderson shows up as herself!

Now that we've got this party started, drop in and see what some of the other "Countdown To Halloween" folks have going on! You might even scare yourself!!

MONSTER KID HOME MOVIES / "The Gentle Old Madman" - 1974

I bought the MONSTER KID HOME MOVIES collection a few years back, which consisted of 30 different movies by a number of contributors, well, this is the last one in the set. It's actually a 37 minute movie with sound submitted to the Kodak Teen-Age Movie competition by Alan Upchurch, who received an honorable mention for his little horror film.  

It's called "The Gentle Old Madman" which has a nice title card, but unfortunately is not centered very well as you can see.

Alan plays Carl Kolchak (!!) who is talking with the newspaper editor about the recent murders (with an ax) of a number of young women in the city. Carl has lunch while he's there!

Kolchak goes out to find some leads, when, he comes across yet another ax murder.

Carl gets the skinny from a witness.

In the meantime, the murderer is running loose after breaking out of a mental hospital and killing a number of women. His name is Arthur Grimsdyke, played by Mark Upchurch

Arthur goes to the cemetery and places a red Poppy at his late wife's tombstone.

Kolchak befriends the guy in the basement of the library to assist him in collecting clues about the murders. They come up with a name, Arthur Grimsdyke, ax murderer, recently escaped from a mental hospital, nowhere to be found!

Then, on a high rise, Arthur sees a girl come out a door and he pulls out his ax, but gets distracted and the girl runs away.

On the ground floor, Kolchak notices the commotion above and takes the elevator to the top of the building.

Kolchak makes it to the top only to find Arthur with his ax in hand.

There's a scuffle and one of the two falls to the ground, which one?!

It's Arthur of course...

A small crowd check out the dead old man and his ax... Wha Hoppen?

Kolchak shows up for the old man's last rites, then...

He leaves the cemetery, later.

Then, a mysterious old woman places a red Poppy at his grave.

That's actually a nice little twist ending, but they really need to work on their centering!

DER ROTE KREIS - "The Crimson Circle" (1960)

 

Normally I'd save a film like this for the Saturday Night Special, but since Saturday is the first of October, and the beginning of the Countdown To Halloween, this great film gets relegated to this freakin' Weirdass Wednesday instead, but it's definitely more than that!

You can call it "Der Rote Kreis, or you can call it "The Red Circle."

 

Or you can even call it "The Crimson Circle" if you want to, just don't call it late to the execution!

 

The execution in question involves a safety nail not being removed, and the sobriety of the Executioner when the decapitation fails. Some years later, the man who was supposed to be in a prison nobody could escape from, has escaped, and is wreaking havoc all over London. He's killed eighteen people so far, and the only clues are red circles left on notes and bodies.

 

Eddi Arent is stellar in this film as Police Sergeant Haggett. Although he still provides the comic relief in this film, there's a lot less of it, and his character is not totally annoying!

 

Edith Mill is one of the early victims. Not really known in the United States, Edith acted exclusively in German films.

Many of these sets are really busy, and you can almost miss something like a hanged man in the foreground!

 

"A bow and arrow would make a good murder weapon, because the archer always wears gloves!"

And yet, she has on only one glove! 

Renate Ewert is Thalia Drummond, and only the second fictional Thalia I've ever heard of, the other being Thalia Menninger from the Dobie Gillis show. 

Renate is a sad story. When her career seemed to be going nowhere, she turned to drugs and alcohol. Her death at thirty-three was called a suicide. Overcome by grief, her parents also both committed suicide the following year!

Is it irony or planned that this guy gets off at the Crimsonfield station?

If this movie was in colour, you'd be able to see that the circle on this victim's hand is red.

 

This creepy looking guy is not even one of the bad guys! How's that for irony?

The swingin' soundtrack was composed by Dungeon Hall of Famer Willy (Horrors Of Spider Island) Mattes.

 

There's freakin' people creepin' around everywhere! Somebody needs to do a painting of this still!

The guy pointing to the dead prisoner is Karl Georg Saebisch as Police Inspector Parr. Karl is a pretty unique guy. He made his first film when he was fifty-two. This was his ninth movie and he was already fifty-seven. He was also in the Edgar Wallace film "The Terrible People," and continued working until 1975.

Somehow The Red Circle can find it's victim, even behind locked doors.

In this brief sequence Police Sergeant Haggett gets distracted by something.........

..........And a worthwhile distraction it is indeed!

Here's another Red Circle ransom note!

"Der Rote Kreis" is filled with cool shots like this, and combined with the music of Willy Mattes, the time flies right by!

I love these shots with clusters of people all packed into the background!

There's far too many twists and turns and odd characters to go into much detail here. This copy on YouTube is very good quality, and you can't beat the free price, so what are you waiting for?

I'm done with this now! It's my birthday, so just leave me alone!

You Make Me Paranoid!