THE GREATEST TAG-TEAM MATCH IN MEXILUCHAHERO MOVIE HISTORY by Dave Goode

Of Universal's classic monsters my favorite was the Wolf Man. Lon Chaney Jr. starred in a series of films during the 1940s beginning with The Wolf Man (1941). This was followed by Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943), House Of Frankenstein (1944), House Of Dracula (1945), and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). These films have come to be known as the "Larry Talbot Saga".

There was also a novel by Jeff Rovin titled Return Of The Wolf Man that continued Talbot's story. It begins where Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein left off. And if you're a fan of classic horror movies I can't recommend this book enough.

Werewolves are also popular in Mexico's Cinema of the Psychotronic. No where so much as in flicks featuring Mexiluchaheroes. Blue Demon's first starring role was in Blue Demon, El Blue Demonia (1965). It featured the blue-masked luchador battling a scientifically created wolf man. Blue Demon would take on another werewolf in Santo & Blue Demon vs. Dracula & The Wolf Man (1972).

Santo y Blue Demon contra Dracula el Hombre Lobo directed by Miguel Mi Delgado from ascreenplay by Alfredo Salazar is a favorite of fans of the genre. Largely because it's one of the few team - ups where Blue Demon isn't playing second fiddle to a steel guitar. In this one the two anonymous adventurers stand on equal ground. The same can't be said of the relationship between Dracula (Aldo Monti) and Rufus Rex, the Wolf Man (Augustin Martinez Solares). It reminds me of the one between Armand Telsa (Bela Lugosi) and Andreas Orby (Matt Willis) in Return Of The Vampire (1944). With the wolf man as the vampire's slave.

There's plenty of action in this flick. Especially between Blue Demon and the Wolf Man in the movie's climax. But the best remembered scene is the one where the two masked heroes, dressed like the Men from U.N.C.L.E., play a game of chess while standing guard over the movie's heroines.

For this week's blog my buddy Vance Capley and myself did a Mr. Incognito mash-up page featuring some characters that may be recognizable to fans of Universal Studio's movies of the 1940s.

Dig the art?
Then get it on a t-shirt, cup, magnet, and more:
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/8658884-luchador-vs-wolfmen

CAPTAIN AFRICA,THE COMIC BOOK by Dave Goode

 

I often think of the one-shot Republic serial heroes like the Masked Marvel , the Copperhead and the Tiger Woman starring in their own comic books. Likewise I can see Columbia serial heroes starring in spin-off comic books. Especially Captain Africa if he was illustrated by Glenn Cravath. Born in 1897 and dying in 1964 Cravath started as an illustrator for the New York Journal in the 1920s including working on a Sunday Frank " Bring 'Em Back Alive " Buck comic strip for that publication. This strip was based on the adventures of the famed real-life jungle adventurer. Gravath would also work as an illustrator for the King Features Syndicate. In 1928 he started freelancing for movie studios. Most notably Columbia and RKO. It was for RKO that Cravath created some memorable poster art for the classic adventure movie KING KONG. He also did comic strip ads for King Kong , The Song of Kong and Africa Screams , an Abbott & Costello jungle comedy that featured Frank Buck.

 

 

Cravath would create posters for Columbia serials like The Flying G-Men and B programmers like the Jungle Jim / Johnny Weissmuller series. And of course he did the poster art for Columbia's 1955 serial The Adventures of Captain Africa. If you're a fan-boy you already know that this was originally supposed to have been a Phantom serial , a sequel of sorts to Columbia's 1943 serial starring Lee Falk's classic comic strip hero. Well after production on the film started it was found that the studio had let their movie rights lapse. And King Features was asking for more money than Columbia was willing to pay to use the character. So the movie studio created a knock-off hero and gave him a similar costume to match the Phantom's costume in long shots.

 

 

The best thing about the Captain Africa serial was Cravath's poster work. Captain Africa's costume looked ridiculous on actor John Hart. But looked great illustrated by Cravath. Truthfully a lot of super-hero costumes that look great on the pages of a comic book look awful on actors. But this one looked especially stupid. So it's easy enough to imagine a Captain Africa comic book drawn by Cravath. But not a sequel to the serial.

 Greetings, blog fans! Dave Goode has written an article about Konga (1965) for Monster Magazine #1. You can read more about Dave's article and the magazine >>>HERE<<<

Did you enjoy this weeks blog? Share it on social media with your friends or better yet, show your gratitude buy purchasing our fine products:

Then click >>>>>HERE<<<<<< and buy ours!

Buying cool T-shirts and what not help support this blog!

Click >>>HERE<<< to see our latest designs! 

JOE BESSER SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLE FEATURE by Dave Goode

If you were to take a poll of 3 Stooges fans on who their least favorite member of the comedy team was odds were most would name Joe Besser. In my case it would be Joe DeRita. Though I wasn't a big fan of Besser as a "Stooge" I did like him as Stinky on the Abbott & Costello television show. And there were two Three Stooges' shorts that Besser appeared in that I did like. SPACE SHIP SAPPY and OUTER SPACE JITTERS both from 1957. Besser doesn't really bring anything special to the table. But in retrospect I don't think either one of these parodies of sci-fi pulp would work as well with anyone else playing the third Stooge. 

SPACE SHIP SAPPY was produced and directed by Jules White and written by his brother Jack White. The story has Moe , Larry and Joe assisting Prof. A.K. Rimple and his daughter played by Benny Rubin and Doreen Woodbury on a mission into space. Landing on the planet Sunev (Venus spelled backwards) and the Stooges meet up with three Amazons played by Lorraine Crawford, Harriette Tarler and Marilyn Harold.

  

The women turn out to be cannibalistic vampires. But just before they're going to suck the blood from our heroes a giant lizard appears, the women run off and the Stooges beat a hasty retreat back to Prof. Rimple's space ship and escape back to Earth.The Stooges had been relating this story to a gathering of the " Liars Club " who present them an award for being the greatest liars in the world.

The second movie OUTER SPACE JITTERS  (also directed and written by the White brothers)  finds the Stooges working as assistants to Prof.Jones played by Emil Sitka and arriving on the planet Sunev. Why waste a good gag. Or a lame one for that matter. Sunev's leader played by Gene Roth is planning on invading Earth with an army of prehistoric zombies.

We only get to see one of these monsters. And it's played played by Dan Blocker of BONANZA fame. Hey. If Marshall Matt Dillion can play a giant carrot from outer space than Hoss Cartwright can play a prehistoric zombie.There is more flirting with sexy aliens played by Diana Darrin , Harriette Tarler and Arline Hunter. The great Phillip Van Zandt is along for the ride as a Sunev military leader the High Mucky Muck. The Stooges free Prof. Jones defeat the zombie and save the Earth.

As a kid I found both of these shorts entertaining and enjoyable. Later I would realize that they were comedic takes on the type of stories that you would find in the pages of science fiction pulp magazines.