Wednesday, November 3, 2010

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF - Milton Schwarzwald - "There's Been A Murder" (1949)

WTF?! What The Hey? Why is "Abbott & Costello Meet The Killer, Boris Karloff" not like the other 'Abbott & Costello Meet Somebody' movies? It's said this movie was written as a vehicle for Bob Hope, but because of the success of "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" they rewrote it for Bud and Lou!! Also, Boris Karloff's role was originally written for a woman, and guess what, I hate to give it away after 61 years, but he's not even the killer!! How do you like those apples?

I would have really liked to play or at least to have seen some of the "Lost Cavern Golf Club," I'll bet that place was a kick in the pants!!

You've seen this movie, right? Lou Costello is Freddie Phillips, the bellhop at The Lost Caverns Hotel, and he's witnessed a murder! Bud Abbott is Casey Edwards, the hotel dick! Alan Mowbray in the middle is Mr. Melton the Boss!

They are trying to keep the whole murder thing low key, but Freddie says the wrong thing and sends the maid into a screaming tizzy!

At least nobody looks suspicious!!

Boris Karloff has the role of Swami Talpur, the hypnotist! Boris always looks cool, no matter what, even in a turban that would look silly on most folks! It's very frustrating for Swami Talpur, because Freddie is almost too stupid to be hypnotized!

The cops suspect Freddie of the murder, so they hold him in the Hotel, so while he's there, he takes full advantage of the facilities, since the Feds are picking up the tab!!

The music, what little there is of it, was composed by a cat that's hard to find out much info on, a Mr. Milton Schwarzwald! Milton only composed the music for 7 films like "Arctic Manhunt," "The Story Of Molly X," and "Ma And Pa Kettle Go To Town," but he directed 80 comedic shorts from 1933-1939, and he also worked in the music department or as writer on a slew of other titles. Milton passed away back in 1950, he was only 58! The remainder of the soundtrack is stock music from a minimum of seven other uncredited composers!

The fantastic 40's femme fatale Lenore Aubert is Angela Gordon!

Although not the killer, the swami does try to get Freddie to kill himself, first unsuccessfully by hanging!

Then he gives Freddie a knife, and tells him to kill the guy in the mirror, unfortunately it backfires, because Freddie is not looking directly into the mirror and sees the swami's reflection instead!!

A dead body is not something you ever really want to find hanging in your closet!

Nice shot of the whole ensemble!

The duel of the claws!

The old whodunnit of amping up the temperature in the steam bath gag!

Finally the Lost Caverns come into play, and it looks pretty cool down there in what appears to be Dante's Inferno!!!

First Freddie comes in contact with an owl, then he meets up with the real Killer!!

Useless signs is an industry still going strong today! Our motto: If you can't fix something, put up a warning sign instead!

Special effects artiste David S. Horsley cut his teeth on films like "Bride Of Frankenstein" and "Werewolf Of London," and worked on 4 other Abbott & Costello movies, some Francis the Talking Mule, and Ma & Pa Kettle flicks, and at the end of his career was doing special photography for movies like "This Island Earth!"

This shot just ain't right!!!

Monday, November 1, 2010

DR. CYCLOPS / Paramount - 1940

Tonight we have an early monster movie filmed in Technicolor and stars that very kinky stage, film and TV actor, Mr. Albert Dekker! Albert's last role was the detective Pat Harrigan in THE WILD BUNCH.

Hey, nice Mexican lobby card!!..

So you see, Dr. Alexander Thorkel has a secret, he can miniaturize any type of animal, including man. And, when nosey colleagues arrive, he miniaturizes them when he feels his research and solitude are being threatened.

The music was composed by Gerard Carbonara, Albert Hay Malotte and Ernst Toch, together they had a total of 225 credits in good old Hollywood.

Now it's time, to say goodbye, to all our fam-il-y, M.. I.. C.. Wait, no, it's time to bring in our feisty lil' flyboy helper, Rufus The Gnat! He's 'ere to be pushin' that big red 'GO' button on this, the first day of November, 2010, wif' dis wild Moldie Oldie!.. DR. CYCLOPS!

There's no beating around the bush here, the movie begins with a friend questioning the doctor's motives concerning his weird experiments, and threatens to tell the authorities about it! So, already, the audience knows that this madman will do anything to protect his interests.

The Doc's colleagues show up at his out of the way abode slash lab!

The Doc has his own Radium mine, as witnessed by Victor (TUGBOAT ANNIE SAILS AGAIN) Kilian, who plays Steve Baker.

Eegah!! sells those special atomic wrenches where he works!!

The Doc admires some of his clever handywork!

He does a great job of pretending to be willing to share his discoveries with the world, after being caught in a lie.

Pedro, come here!..

CLANK!.. zztttt... ha ha ha!

That's one fine insert poster, probably worth $15,000, I'm guessing..

After they escape to the outside, they have to hide in cactus to get away from the Doc's big black cat!!

Dr. Bulfinch becomes a miniature human guinea pig!

Our little heroes have to face alligators and a big pyromaniac!!

They try to have him shoot himself and then they steal his glasses... Nuttin' woiks!

The train goes off the tracks here for Dr. Cyclops as he breaks the beam he's on, trying to get his machine unjammed. He should'a had Lean Cuisine instead of those $7 gordoburgers at Carl's Jr.

The Doc hangs on by a thread as our hero Bill Stockton is able to cut the cord holding the atomic reactor in position.

YAH-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!.....

Here's a pulp cover that probably most of us don't remember!

Ghoulnight Everbloody!!..

Monster Music

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