Jock Mahoney Layin’ the Smackdown

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Chris Mills [the creator of one of my all-time favorite crime comics, Gravedigger] wrote yesterday about being a fan of Jock Mahoney. Nearly a year ago I posted about Jock being a guest at OrlandoCon and how I was lucky enough to appear on stage with him. Then I remembered that my buddy Bill Black had sent me a photo of Jock giving me a knuckle-sandwich. So thanks to Chris for tweaking my memory and Bill for forwarding the picture.PS – Regular ZONErs can probably guess who it is sitting under all that curly hair. LOL!

Mercy

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Most of the music I listen to is from the 70’s. Don’t get me wrong, I like some music from most genres and time periods, but it’s not often that I hear a current song that grabs me. Mercy by singer/songwriter Duffy grabs me. If you’ve heard it, it probably grabbed you too. If you haven’t heard it, click HERE and prepare to be touched. 

The Brute Man

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I recently watched “The Brute Man” as the second part of the double feature dvd “M is for Madman”. “M is for Madman” is the third in Bill Blacks’ Crypt of Horror series which takes us back to the days when drive-in movies and late night horror hosts were two of the things that made weekends so much fun. “M is for Madman” features “The Man Who Turned to Stone” and “The Brute Man” hosted by Lon Madnight.

Lon Madnight is our horror host. He appears before and after each film to provide insightful trivia about the movie to be seen and later leave us with some final thoughts and a chuckle or two. He’s exactly what’s needed in a horror host. The production values on the dvd are top notch. The films are crisp and clear with excellent sound. The movies can be seen without the Lon Madnight openings and closings, but they’re so much fun, who’d want to miss them? Priced at less than twenty bucks for two remastered movies and Lon Midnight — you’d be hard pressed to find a cheaper evening of family fun.

I reviewed “The Man Who Turned to Stone” here, so let’s take a look at “The Brute Man”…

The Pitch: “Frankenstein” meets “The Dark Man” set in the 1940s. A star high school football player is left disfigured by a practical joke and years later comes back for revenge.

The Good: The movie moves at a brisk pace. All of the cliches of the genre can be found here: spinning newspapers with headlines updating us on what we’ve just seen, the blind girl who doesn’t know she’s harboring the killer, a huge disfigured monster who walks the streets at night and easily escapes the cops after each murder… and there’s even some comic relief with the chief of police and city commissioners. And let’s not forget Rondo Hattan.

The Bad: How The Creeper kills his victims – he breaks their backs!

The Ugly: The Creeper.

The Summary: There are a couple of things that will make this a must own dvd for fans of the genre:

1] It was produced by Universal Pictures, so completists will want it for their collection to place along side “Frankenstein,” “Dracula,” etc.

2] It stars Rondo Hatton as the monster. Hattan suffered from acromegaly, a disease which caused abnormal growth of his hands, feet, and face. Because of the disfigurement caused by the disease, makeup wasn’t needed for Hattan. Most reports attribute the onset of this disease to Hattan’s exposure to mustard gas in World War I. Hattan is somewhat of a legend among horror buffs and even has a horror award named after him!

Trivia: Janelle Johson had a supporting role in the film. Her biggest claim to fame is probably that she is the mother of Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees!

If you’d like to see a clip of the first three minutes of “The Brute Man” click HERE. 

We Have a Winner!

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I visit a lot of blogs daily. Rod Lott’s Bookgasm is one of them. I enjoy his reviews – he’s turned me on to some very good books. He also runs contests and I enter the ones that have prizes that I think I’d enjoy. Guess who was just named the winner of a copy of Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide? Yep. Big ole me.

You’ll have a chance at the next contest if you start reading his site… not that I want the competition.

What ‘Cha Watching?

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I just read today that “Back to You” the FOX comedy starring Kelsey Grammer was cancelled. My guess is that most of you never caught an episode since low ratings killed it. I thought it was one of the funniest shows on and was surprised to find that it wouldn’t be brought back. It was really well written with an ensemble cast that meshed. I guess I should have posted about “Back to You” when it might have helped.

I was happy to see that “Boston Legal” and “Medium” have both been given the greenlight for new seasons. I’ve yet to see an episode of either show that let me down. “Til Death” is another show that I don’t miss. I can’t recommend it as unconditionally as “Boston Legal” or “Medium” but it does have it’s moments.

Of course my wife and I still watch “Survivor” [yeah, I think I WILL GIVE UP THE IMMUNITY NECKLACE!] and “American Idol” [which David will win? — my guess is Archuleta]. I’m still in front of the set each week when “The Ultimate Fighter” airs, but I think this season lacks a bit of the drama. Maybe it’s because they have two fights each episode and we don’t get to know enough about the fighters’ backgrounds. My newest favorite show is “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” which comes to us from the FOOD NETWORK. And you just know that I still dvr episodes of “The Wild, Wild West” off of RTN.

So, what am I missing?

Sammy Terry

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Here is a link to about 20 minutes of Sammy Terry from the early 80’s. Of course I started watching Sammy when he premiered in the early 60’s out of Indianapolis when I was but a child. You can imagine how spooky he seemed in black and white. [That’s right youngsters, there was a time when television shows weren’t broadcast in living color.]

I don’t guess you’ll watch the entire clip, but if you do you’ll see ads for used cars, Billy Graham, a brand new $350 VCR, John McEnroe, Cowboy Bob and a bunch of other stuff… but Sammy Terry is the reason to click on the link.

Stoked for QoS

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I loved the James Bond reboot, Casino Royale with Daniel Craig as Bond. As I walked out of the theater I was ready, right then, for Craig to do another round as 007. So I was excited when a new Bond film was announced. Then the title and teaser poster were leaked and I was left feeling a bit less excited. IGN.com has posted quite a few pictures from the filming of QoS and I have to admit I’m starting to feel more stoked about it.