Are you ready for Summer Fun? Gather Your Surfboards, Practice Your Dance Moves, and Bathing-Suit-Up! This Classic CINEMA INSOMNIA Saturday, we celebrate summer through Beach Blanket BLOOD-O-VISION with our “Lifeguard” MR. LOBO as he hosts the Hip Classic HORROR OF PARTY BEACH(1964)!
Tweet, Tumble, Share, and Scare this free movie up to all your friends and remind them that it’s Classic Cinema Insomnia Saturday and that “They are NOT BAD MOVIES–Just MISUNDERSTOOD!”
Join us next Saturday for another free episode online…and if you want more CINEMA INSOMNIA and Mr. Lobo check out the free ZOM-BEE TV channel for ROKU video players! You can watch a BRAND NEW CINEMA INSOMNIA EPISODE tonight–followed by another CLASSIC CINEMA INSOMNIA EPISODE!
On October 31st at 8PM on ZOM-BEE TV, CINEMA INSOMNIA host MR. LOBO and a group of “Paranoid Investigators” enter an old dilapidated house in Winchester Virginia that locals believe is truly haunted by ghosts. The CINEMA INSOMNIA HAUNTED HOUSE SPECIAL features Horror Hosts in character roles including COUNT GORE DEVOL AKA DICK DYZEL as Sheriff Bronson Canyon and KARLOS BORLOFF AKA JERRY MOORE II as ghost hunter Vinny “Price” Tagge.
What are ghosts but the past intruding on the present time. We hope that we awaken the ghosts of classic supernatural-comedies that you all have enjoyed since your earliest days of trick or treating and perhaps way, way, before that.
Besides loosing his mind, while writing the episode, MR. LOBO made some interesting discoveries…
Last time we talked about GHOSTBUSTERS(1984) and THE GHOST BUSTERS(1975) and how they are both throwbacks to the 1940′s horror comedies. Prior to this, in WALT DISNEY’s LONESOME GHOSTS(1937) MICKEY MOUSE and company raid a Haunted House as The Ajax Ghost Exterminators. GOOFY exclaims “I ain’t scared of no ghosts.”
The Dynamic between Peter Venkmen(BILL MURRAY) and Dana Barrett(SIGOURNEY WEAVER) in GHOSTBUSTERS(1984) is arguably similar to that of comedian BOB HOPE’s smarmy radio personality Larry Lawrence and PAULETTE GODDARD as sophisticated Mary Carter who lives in a New
York high rise in THE GHOST BREAKERS(1940) which was the third remake of DICKEY AND GODDARD stage play, THE GHOST BREAKER(1914) directed by CECIL B. DEMILE and THE GHOST BREAKER(1922) directed by ALFRED E. GREEN are both lost forever.
THE GHOST BREAKERS(1940) by director GEORGE MARSHALL was not only a remake but a follow up to 1939 hit THE CAT AND THE CANARY pairing Hope and Goddard again.–it’s said both films inspired Walt Disney for the HAUNTED MANSION attraction at DISNEYLAND.
At the same time, the NBC radio series I LOVE A MYSTERY(1939-44) was enormously popular and later spawn two movies, TV show and be a primary inspiration for SCOOBY DOO(1969). In it a tough, charismatic woman-hating group leader Jack and the slightly less edgy Doc and Reggie are detectives. It had vividly imagined settings and elaborate, often bizarre plots. In a medium whose heroes tended to be serious and strait-laced, this trio was reckless and exuberant and was the first serial to cause concerned parents to write letters to the network. Sadly most of the original shows are lost to the ages.
Speaking of exuberant, “THE DEAD END KIDS” were a group comedic characters based on tough New Yorker stereotypes that originally appeared in the film DEAD END(1937) and featured LEO GORCEY, HUNTZ HALL, BOBBY JORDAN, GABRIEL DELL among others. They appeared in six more films as “THE DEAD END KIDS.” In 1938, LITTLE TOUGH GUYS, was launched by UNIVERSAL and ultimately recruited most of the original DEAD END KIDS for twelve films and three serials.
Later, MONOGRAM PICTURES hired several of them from both groups and called them EAST SIDE KIDS. They added SUNSHINE SAMMY MORRISON one of the original members of OUR GANG–who also had many bumbling adventures with ghosts.
When the first issue of the long running cartoon magazine ARCHIE COMICS appeared in 1942, the character of JUGHEAD enormously resembled LEO GORCEY’s character SLIP in look and “speech” and appeared with a modified fedora beanie crown like what was worn in these earlier films. (More on the ARCHIE Later)
After ABBOTT AND COSTELLO’s haunted-house comedy HOLD THAT GHOST(1941) became a smash hit, THE EAST SIDE KIDS released the similar SPOOKS RUN WILD(1941) with BELA LUGOSI.
When LEO GORCEY’S's request to double his weekly salary was refused, He quit which ended the series immediately. His agent, JAN GRIPPO, GORCEY, and HALL, revamped the format, and they became THE BOWERY BOYS. The gang usually hung out at Louie’s Sweet Shop(Like Pop’s Chocolate Shop in ARCHIE) until an adventure came along. The original main characters Terrence Aloysius “Slip” Mahoney(GORCEY), Horace Debussy “Sach” Jones(HALL) became more and more of a ABBOTT AND COSTELLO-like duo with the rest of the guys standing around.
Lugosi was then “borrowed back” for BUD ABBOTT AND LOU COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN(1948). The basic premise to transplant COSTELLO’SÂ brain into the Frankenstein monster played by GLEN STRANGE was copied a few months later by THE BOWERY BOYS in MASTER MINDS(1949) also with Glenn Strange as the monster who switches minds, this time, with Sach (HUNTZ HALL).
And this went on and on and prompted GEORGE MARSHAL remake his remake THE GHOST BREAKERS again as SCARED STIFF(1953), featuring the comic duo of MARTIN AND LEWIS. In it DEAN MARTIN says “I’m a ghost buster, so watch it, buster.”
On CINEMA INSOMNIA, MR. LOBO joked that “artistic theft is a cornerstone of any thriving culture.” and like all jokes–there is a shadow of truth. We promise you nothing but pure entertainment on Halloween night, but we do warn you this is one of the geekiest episodes ever.
This HALLOWEEN NIGHT at 8PM be in front of your TV with your favorite snacks and watch MR. LOBO in a REAL HAUNTED HOUSE with his own hilarious group of “Paranoid Investigators†comprised entirely of fellow TV HORROR HOSTS. If you haven’t yet already, treat yourself to a ROKU streaming player for connected TV and add the ZOM-BEE TV channel for FREE classic and new horror thrills!
MR. LOBO went totally insane while making this years CINEMA INSOMNIA HAUNTED HOUSE SPECIAL for HALLOWEEN and he hopes that you trust him enough to go along with him. It all started when a family friend was talking about how they were showing reruns of “the bad ghost-busters” cartoon show on cable TV–meaning not “The Real Ghostbusters” cartoon based on the Dan Aykroyd-Bill Murray-Harold Ramis blockbuster hit film from 1984.
This got MR. LOBO thinking about the whole idea of Real Vs. Fake, Homage Vs. Parody, Inspiration Vs. Plagiarism and he fell through a worm hole. The Supernatural-Comedy or Horror/Comedy sub-genre–whatever you want to call it–has to be one of the most incestuous and back-biting sub-genre of them all! A greedy snake that eats itself and is somehow born anew again and again…
Mr. Lobo was very influenced as a teenager by THE GHOSTBUSTERS(1984). The green slime here on the CINEMA INSOMNIA website is a subtle giveaway.
“COMING TO SAVE THE WORLD THIS SUMMER”
The teaser trailer gave us “No-Ghosts” logo, a sampling of spectacular effects, and hilarious scenes with MR. LOBO’s comedy heroes DAN AYKROYD, HAROLD RAMIS and BILL MURRAY. But No Title.
All he knew was that he had to find out all he could and see it! Unknown to all of us at the time, there was a hiccup with the rights to the name “GHOSTBUSTERS”. The story goes that when they were filming the triumphant post-climax scene on the streets of New York, The director IVAN REITMAN was on the phone with COLUMBIA, and/or their lawyers, asking them if they secured the name because he had hundreds of extras chanting “Ghostbusters…Ghostbusters…Ghostbusters”.
It could have been “GhostSmashers” or “GhostChasers”…but it had to be GHOSTBUSTERS…Which also happened to be the name of MR. LOBO’s favorite live-action Saturday morning TV kids show from 1975.He remembers lying on the living room floor in footy pajamas flipping the channels on the giant Radiation Master cabinet console. Most of the time, he would change the channel if it wasn’t a cartoon. He barely tolerated CAPT. MARVEL and was pretty unimpressed with ISIS. BUT THE GHOST BUSTERS captivated him…We think it was the Gorilla or what he thought at the time was a Gorilla.(Actually, The Great Bob Burns–but more on him later…)
This show, like the other FILMATION live action shows–were updated throwbacks of a by gone era of Saturday Movie Matinees and Serials from the 1940′s. Especially, the BOWERY BOYS who made films like SPOOKS RUN WILD(1941), GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE(1943)SPOOK BUSTERS(1946) and GHOST CHASERS(1951) which was originally titled GHOST BUSTERS.
Even in its own time this was was nothing new
Funny wise-guys bumbling through supernatural mumbo-jumbo was always good for laughs and were big business. COLUMBIA signed THE THREE STOOGES who made 190 shorts between 1934 and 1957. Often MOE, LARRY, CURLY, or SHEMP face “ghosts”, “haunted houses”, “mad scientists”, and “psychics” and usually there was a gorilla somewhere in there, too.
Let’s take a look at Ghost Busting Supernatural-Comedy in a larger context as a grand American tradition. MR. LOBO has made some discoveries he hopes you find interesting as background to the many fun influences apparent in this years CINEMA INSOMNIA HALLOWEEN SPECIAL.
This HALLOWEEN NIGHT at 8PM be in front of your TV with your favorite snacks and watch MR. LOBO in a REAL HAUNTED HOUSE with his own hilarious group of “Paranoid Investigators” comprised entirely of fellow TV HORROR HOSTS. If you haven’t yet already, treat yourself to a ROKU streaming player for connected TV and add the ZOM-BEE TV channel for FREE classic and new horror thrills!
(Here is an actual behind the scenes photo from the set of our Halloween Special in Winchester, VA.)
