March 31, 2010

Belgian. (1987). One of three stories, based on Bukowski's earlier, acne-riddled years.









Haven't seen this. But, does it 'qualify' as a Bandage Man movie???



I say, if he has the wraps on like this for more than five minutes, in
two or more various scenes possible in that time, it's a yes.

March 30, 2010

Dan Blocker in 'Hoss' garb.




















The 1966 'Hoss' doll. Ub..action figure.



'Don' (sic) Blocker in "Outer Space Jitters" (1957).













So, where's our monster doll???

March 29, 2010

Not a very good, colorized pic
of my favorite gorilla from the
Three Stooges short, "A Bird in
the Head".


Scheduled for brain exchange by mad scientist Vernon Dent,
the toothy, grimacing, slack-jawed ape becomes fitful friends
with (ill) Curly, who leads him by the hand.

March 23, 2010

The Rick Baker ape from "The Thing With Two Heads", that infamous
oddity with Ray Milland as a dying bigot bolstered to big, lovable
Rosie Grier's shoulder. Have a Certs, Ray.




Pic 'stolen' from 'chattycathy's' Flicker stream, of some years ago. I
acknowledge that here, as it scintillates with electronic 'houndstooth'
like said 'chatty' or whomever lovingly took it right off the television
screen. And I can readily relate to such dedication.

March 5, 2010

Sometime in the early eighties,
I had a dream where an older,
heavier Curly Howard ran into
our garage, hurried up to an
inside balcony ledge which isn't
there and, 'to be funny', hurled
himself to the pavement in front
of me, onto his back.


It was not fatal.






















In recent years, I've briefly imagined how, if Curly had survived somehow, he
would have made an odd, fun and at least passable Uncle Fester.




Tho', of course, Jackie Coogan is wonderful, as was. And Curly, being
born eleven years earlier than Coogan and at an age 61 when
"The Addams Family" series started, would necessarily have had to
perform with somewhat less vim and with more concern for his safety.
But, it's still amusing to me to imagine the possible differences.

March 4, 2010

The other 'Gnaghi', Francois Hadji-Lazaro in "Cemetery Man" (1994). {See previous post}.

February 28, 2010

This lovely old bird had a night time TV show when I was four. We heard it
a few times, I'm sure. Not that I can recall, now, what numbers.

Anymore, I imagine his all(?) male chorus singing, "She's Having Our Baby",
or "We're Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover".













Another little record I never
heard of. An' whattaya know, there's ole Mitch.












That same year, if I happened
to get up early on Saturday
mornings to see Supercar, I
might catch Jon Gnagy, here,
giving his art lesson.

He was big on basic shapes.


In 1980 or so, in my only visit with friend Sam K. in Green Bay, I ran across
a lesson book of (G)Nagy's. But, decided not to buy it.

He's a load smudgier than I like to do anything, but he was another in a set of
things that let me know art was possible as an adult. As you can hear in his
clips, he had a great voice (and some might say a face) for radio.

But, not only does he share 'devilish good looks' with Mitch, they look roughly
like each other. And I seldom think of one without thinking of the other.

February 27, 2010

From one of the earlier episodes. Note the longer muzzle.
And bolder lines.






















Rocky doll of the era. New to me today.






The statue outside of what was the Jay Ward studios, on Sunset Boulevard.
Occasionally fleetingly visible in films. And said to bear the elbow prints of
his staff in its base.

February 26, 2010

Other than Gorshin's Riddler, my favorite of the Batman TV villains, Egghead.
For his eggcess of eggzasperating eggsclamations they eggcised every
eggsemplary eggspression in the dictionary. Eggcetera, eggcetera.

















Some marionettes I never saw before.
Glad I didn't.












From the late Ray Steckler's "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo", part orange, part blue.
A fun novelty film if you don't mind the first half being thieves and a stalker
tagging after Carolyn Brandt's can for what must be twenty minutes; (I don't).

Or the other half a pseudo go go romp with Rat Pfink standing in a sidecar
stalwartly peering ahead through most of their chase scenes.

Anyhow, there's nothing much else like it.

February 25, 2010

BROTHERS UNDER THE "COBBLES"??



From the 'Doomsday' box episode of the '60s Outer Limits. Actually called 'turdy' in the http address.













Caramel corn lava guy from the old Trek's
'Savage Curtain' episode,(w/ Abe Lincoln).

"Spock...help me..Spock..."

February 24, 2010

He's like a genie with no legs !! Mine is still in a box I haven't looked into
in about 25 years, even tho' it's been only two feet away from me every day,
(behind a fan).

WHAM-O was like a lab, spewing out clever enuff, scienterrific ideas, but in
a sort of crappy way. They weren't big on colors and fancy packaging.
They also came up with the Superball. (Think Flubber).

Their TV ad for this had kids trying to pull a Volkswagen, which we also had,
with about three of them. Of course we tried it, to little effect.

'Monsty' was stronger than yer average kid's magnet of the day. But,
certainly not as strong as the sorts of magnets you can get now from supply
catalogs or geek stores. Whaddaya expect from a genie with no legs?

February 23, 2010

The Martian/s from Twilight Zone's dumbbell 'Mr. Dingle' episode.
Didn't see the series as a kid, but finally saw most of them in
the early '90s. This one might've made a better text story, by say,
Fredric Brown. As it was, I prefer to view it as the aliens' story,
than tolerate the mix of the hammy Burgess Meredith and the over-
intense Don Rickles. James Westerfield, the bartender, is always good.

According to the date on this likely test shot, Douglas Spencer,
the Martian on the right, was only months away from an early death
at age fifty from diabetes. He was also most visible in "This Island
Earth", "The Thing from Another World" as 'Scotty' the reporter, and
in the sanitarium section of "The Lost Weekend".

Left side Martian, about ten years younger, was Michael Fox. He made
it to age 75, working all the way to the end in small parts, often
very small, in just about every TV show from the fifties onward.
And sometimes movies. 'Baby Jane'. Here he is missing his radar dish.
Perhaps they mainly put it on for filming, so it wouldn't fall off.

I think they worked well together here. Fox comes out the more
chipper. But Spencer had a nice believability you don't always see
in more famous actors. The costume had no legs, so they had to be
wheeled in somehow.

Now that I know a bit about their deaths, I'll be picturing viewer's
left Martian soon having to drag around viewer's right Martian. And
in that thin atmosphere...




Here is another Dingle, one I'd never heard of, a little before my time.
A "weather elf" puppet. No relation to the above, but I like the painting.

February 22, 2010

Hey? Why ain't these guys on TV no more? They're fast enuff and
sadistic---they should fit right in.

February 21, 2010

The other film that knocked my mouth open then, was Corman's "Not of This Earth" (1957) with Paul Birch, stolid and grim visaged, but plenty convincing as the blood craving alien, agent from the planet Davanna. He mostly wore wraparound sunglasses, until his attacks.














I still have not seen this film again in going on forty years. Tho' one of the last issues of the old Castle of Frankenstein did a thorough recap of the story. Gotta get me a DVD someday soon...

The real edge it had over, say, "House on Haunted Hill', was that not only did he arrive in the seedy town that could well have been your own, his craving was treated as an addiction, dependent on nurse Beverly Garland's assistance. Include a fridge of blood bottles, contaminated dog's blood, scenes of 'Johnson' fixing, enough fellow aliens, and an 'it's not over' conclusion and you have quite a potent mix of fears for a six year old psyche.

February 20, 2010

From William Castle's "House on Haunted Hill" (1958), one of two movies on TV after school, (first grade) that blew me away. The first grabber was the worried countenance and soppy babble of Elisha Cook, Jr., thence forever seared into my mind...



One of the film's many creepy moment's, below, the little head in the suitcase, which for me was relocated in my mind to the bathroom cabinet...



You don't see the head for long---there's the overused plot gimmick of having other/s called in, when of course it is gone. A lame move even to a six year old kid.

February 19, 2010

When I was four, my aunt gave me an inflatable dino like this. I left it in the sunlight from a window and it deflated.




It was like it had died. One of a limited number of things I didn't manage to hang on to for years.
What does one do with limp polyvinyl?


This next dude here I never saw before today. Too bad people had to write all over 'im.


Rapid City, South Dakota 1945 photo by Hans Wild


He's with the Sinclair dinosaurs, on the Google images, but I doubt he was one. Not a bronto.

February 18, 2010

This is the first day I've used this place. It badly needs some redecorating...



MILTON the MONSTER and Professor Weirdo
(Hal Seeger production, 1965).