FINAL CURTAIN - Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1957)

 Tonight's Saturday Night Special was supposed to be a pilot episode for a projected anthology series titled "Portraits in Terror." It didn't happen!

 "Final Curtain" is a 20 minute Ed Wood film that was all but lost forever before being unearthed and restored by Jason Insalaco and Jonathan Harris in 2012!

 "Final Curtain" is an vaguely interesting piece of work! There are two actors with no speaking parts and a narrator, the IMDB describes the plot thusly......and I quote...

"After a horror play's final performance, The Vampire roams the theater." Yep, that's about it, but it's a must see for any real fans of  Ed Wood or film history in general!

 "Final Curtain" was filmed in it's entirety at Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica, Ca.

 There's never a whole lot going on in Ed Wood's full length features, so you just can't expect a lot out of 20 minutes, and that's just about what you'll get!

 Here's the "Final Curtain" itself!

 This is the "Final Curtain's" cousin, the always welcoming water cooler!

 James "Duke" Moore shows a lot of depth of character as 'The Actor!'

"Final Curtain" was the Dukester's first film with Eddie. He would go on to work with Ed in five more films including "Plan 9 From Outer Space," and "Night Of The Ghouls," 

 At first you think 'The Vampire" is a mannequin............

 .............Until she smiles!

Jeannie Stevens ( she used her stage name Jenny in this role) was only ever in one more movie, and that was Ed's "Night Of The Ghouls" as 'The Black Ghost!'

 The rest of the 20 minutes is padded with shots like this!!

Narrator Dudley Manlove, (What a great freakin' name) was also in "Plan 9" and was the only one of the three who branched out from Ed's troupe to be in two episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Creation Of The Humanoids," and a few other things!

Whether you are a big fan of Ed's or you can't stand his work really doesn't matter! The fact of the matter is that he did it, and has his place in history no matter what, and for that, he will always be a Dungeon hero!

THE AMAZING TRANSPLANT / Mostest Productions - 1970

Here's a weird one from Something Weird video, filmed in Brooklyn, New York City!.. The story goes like this ~ A seemingly pleasant dude, Arthur, goes berserk and rapes any woman he notices wearing gold earrings! One woman tells the investigating detective (who's Arthur's uncle) that she was raped, she flashes back to an erotic love making scene for the details. Another girl, a lesbian, relates a story in flashback that is totally kinky. Other women tell about their encounters with Arthur. and, we find out from a doctor that Arthur underwent a penis transplant with a just-dead friend, not knowing he was a serial rapist who preyed on women with gold earrings.

Well, it all starts when this oversexed gal sets up a meeting with Arthur at her place later that evening. And, guess what happens to her after our fiend notices her gold earrings?..

And, while visiting this lady, the same thing happens! Ladies, wear some silver or something, didn't you read the damn script?

Here's the guy on the case, Detective Barlen, the uncle of Arthur. Check out that mustache of his, clearly not one he grew for the part.

Eventually, Arthur goes back to his doctor to tell him the bad things that are happening to him!

So, doc has no choice...

It's time to replace his evil ding dong with a normal one. After some time on the operating table, the deed is done!..

But, when Arthur is confronted by his detective uncle, he pulls a knife on him! His uncle talks him into turning himself in, and, he goes to trial...

This is pretty cool, the viewer has no clue if Arthur was found guilty or not guilty! Okay, so, we're back to tomorrow with more cool junk, here at The Dungeon!!

I SAW WHAT YOU DID - "I Know Who You Are" (1965)

Probably should have saved this flick for a Saturday Night Special, but planning things ain't really my forte! It works for a Wacky Wednesday just the same, because it looks like a 60's TV sitcom, it's mean and brutal, and has music that sounds like it came from a cartoon! What more could you want from a movie?

Tonight's feature film is called "I Saw What You Did," a William Castle film from 1964!  Here's a link to all of Bill's films we've covered so far, and a fine array of titles it is, and this one is right up there with the the best of the rest! Follow that link, and you can catch our take on "13 Ghosts," "The Tingler," "13 Frightened Girls," "Mr. Sardonicus," "House On Haunted Hill," "Straight-Jacket," "Macabre," "The Night Walker," and more.

Here are the main two little missies who start all the trouble! It was all innocent enough, just some silly phone pranks gone horribly bad! Besides this film, Andi was in four episodes of "Wild, Wild, West," and one episode of "Black Sheep Squadron" before hanging it up forever! Sarah went on to act in 105 episodes of "The Virginian," something called "Schoolgirls In Chains," and two Billy Jack movies! "I Saw What You Did" was both girls first appearance in film or TV!

Just in case you missed it, William Castle was responsible for an assortment of movies that affected movie makers everywhere! Gizmos, gadgets, and ghosts, Bill liked to use them all, and........He was really good at it! As far as I can tell, this is the only movie produced by William Castle that we haven't written about, except for his last movie in 1969, "Riot!" I obviously need to try and track a copy of that sucker down!

The parents are going out of town for the evening, and the babysitter has ironically called and said she couldn't make it, so they reluctantly agree to leave! Sharyl Locke is the little sister Tess! Sharyl only has a couple more acting credits, one being a character named Jenny McGillicuddy in a "Bonanza" episode! The parents are Leif (Invaders From Mars) Erickson and Patricia (Homicidal) Breslin!

Libby and Tess show their blonde friend Kit who has come to spending the evening how they like to make prank phone calls, but instead of calling a bar and asking them if they have mouse knuckles, their regular act when somebody answers the phone is to say "I know who you are, and I know what you did!" and then they usually just hang up, but not this night...........

The name the kids find in the phone book is Steve Marak played by John Ireland, but it's Steve's wife who answers the phone as she's packing her bags to leave! The girls don't do the title line, but just ask for Steve, who is in the shower! His wife decides to take things into her own hands, but fails miserably!

Steve ends up stabbing his wife viciously and throwing her through the glass shower door, and then his neighbor/lover shows up and it starts getting complicated William Castle style very quickly! That necklace is just too much!!

The kids have been on hold the whole time, but haven't really heard anything of importance! The dog is very well trained!

Probably not a good ideal to listen in on other people's phone calls unless you can run real fast! Joan Crawford got top billing just for her name, but this wasn't the end of the line for Joan, she went on to be in "Berserk," and "Trog!"

Libby's got her learner's permit, and it's only about 20 miles to the madman's house, so she gets all gussied up, and they head out on a road trip in the middle of the night to see what this guy looks like! (Stoopid Kids!)

You'd probably have to be at least in your 50's to remember when it was commonplace to have your car registration wrapped around the column of the steering wheel for easy access in case you got stopped!

Here's a good shot of Joan Crawford, not exactly smiling, but at least smirking!

I had so many good shots I wanted to show you, but I just couldn't resist going with these three peeper scenes instead, because they just kind of say it all!

John Ireland puts in a very credible performance as a murderous madman! I laughed out loud when he finally tracks down the kids via the car registration with full intent to kill them and after hearing Libby's innocent explanation, he tells her, "I should really tell your parents about this," and she responds that he doesn't know what a mess she would be in, if they found out! (Without realizing how huge of a mess she is already in!)

I do love this simple shot!

Leave it to Bill to have an end with a double meaning!

This has got to be one of the strangest posters I've ever seen!

All through the 40's and most of the 50's William Castle directed mostly western movies, but it was in 1958 that he hit his stride as Producer/Director with "Macabre," and a string of cool movies that will never be duplicated! If there's not a shrine to this man somewhere, there sure should be!