Before we get to the 1964 film Devil Doll (and yes, I have to specify which one because…well, you didn’t think there could just be one film with that title, did you?) let’s hit a couple other old-time radio favorites, shall we? First we go to Quiet Please, a radio show from the late 1940s and the episode “Tanglefoot.” I’ve written a story myself about messing around with making what are essentially designer insects. It never goes the way you intend, you know.
Time for some more sci-fi tonight…but that of course put me in the mind for some of the 1980s Twilight Zone, which has been much maligned but I really enjoyed. First we have a very young Bruce Willis (well…he has hair, anyway) in a Harlan Ellison story directed by Wes Craven! This was the first segment of the new TZ that aired.
It occurs to me that there are a great number of When Animals Attack genre films, so in the interests of public safety, it might be a good idea to provide a true cautionary tale for one way to avoid being devoured. This is, of course, courtesy of Hilaire Belloc.
I think it’s a good idea to ask that question once a week, whether it makes sense in your present context or not.
We’re venturing into Vincent Price territory once more, so I think we should have, as an appetizer, another episode of his radio show, The Price of Fear. This is an episode from 1973: “Waxwork.”
Holy mackerel, we’re already at the halfway point! Time flies when you’re launching it from a trebuchet. We kick off tonight’s festivities with a bit of old-time radio. It’s the show Sleep No More, with readings by Nelson Olmstead. This episode, “The Storm,” is close to a half-hour in length, so that makes it post-1956 when the show was expanded. The show ended in 1957.
So it’s a night of screaming, apparently. That started with choosing the feature film and it just extended through the rest of this. So let’s get some of it out of our system. The first minute of this is the only part that’s really relevant, though, so bear that in mind.
First up, holy crap, somebody posted another Procession of the Ghouls from St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York. Not only that, they shot it with a 360 camera, going behind the scenes and the whole nine. Check it out and make sure to whip around a bit to check everything out. Sweet.
It’s a Friday at 32 Days of Halloween, so let’s relax with some Looney Tunes. First up, the classic Hyde and Hare from 1955, directed by Friz Freleng and with voicework by Mel Blanc (naturally).
At Disneyland, they shut the Haunted Mansion down for a while in order to transform it into a Haunted Mansion/Nightmare Before Christmas mashup. And each year, there is a bigass gingerbread house featured during the ride. First up, here’s a quick run-through of the houses up until last year. Warning: this video has jaunty music which could cause seizures in the over-caffeinated.
It occurred to me we hadn’t had any full-on sci-fi mayhem this year, so we’re going to go Beyond the Time Barrier in just a bit. But first, back to two different versions of the classic panel show (yes, we did have them over here), I’ve Got a Secret. Here are two full episodes. The first features Peter Lorre and is from 1954. The second features Vincent Price and is from 1973. They are full episodes so if you want to skip ahead to the gist I won’t blame you, but classic shows like this are hellacious fun, so you should really treat yourself.
