Super Dog

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPER PUP-1958-Whoa! Whitney Ellsworth really hit the bottom of the barrel with this TV pilot where dogs (little people in costumes) play all the characters. At the Daily Bugle, Bark Bent (Billy Curtis, also in SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN) is really Super Pup, canine crime fighter. He works for editor in chief Terry Bite (Angelo Rossitto) and his female rival on the paper is Pamela Poodle. Sergeant Beagle is an incompetent bungler dressed like a Keystone Kop. Because of his stupidity arch villain Prof. Sheepdip escapes from jail. He has his dumb henchman Wolfingham disguise himself as a clock so he can set a bomb in the newspaper offices. Bark also has an annoying mouse friend who narrates parts of the story. Later Sheepdip kidnaps Pamela and ties her ro a rocket but of course Super Pup saves her.

The costumes are really something to see. It's hard to imagine anyone over the age of 3 enjoying this, although it does have a certain “must be seen to be believed” quality. It uses the same Daily Planet set from the original human version and I think Sheepdip's hideout was used in some episodes. 

Amazingly this was done three years before the Superboy pilot!

Director Cal Howard was an animator and script writer who's worked previously for Walter Lantz, Walt Disney and Leon Schlesinger.  

Thanks for reading! 

More Weissmuller

JUNGLE MOON MEN-1955-Johnny Weissmuller plays Johnny Weissmuller who bares a strong resemblance to Jungle Jim in this low budget adventure (it's because the studio lost the rights to the JJ character). He helps a woman writer (Jean Bryon) try and find the source of life but instead runs into a tribe of “little men” (lead by Billy Curtis). Myron Healey is a trouble making guide looking for diamonds. The small safari captures the little leader and ties him to a tree. At night the rest of the tribe (Angelo Rossetto is there) disguises themselves as trees to save their leader. They also kidnap Bryon's macho boyfriend Bob (Bill Henry) and tie him to a tree. It turns out the tribe is working for “the moon goddess Oma (Helen Stanton from THE PHAN-TOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES the same year)) a blond haired white woman with ties to ancient Egypt! She wants to make Bob her high priest. In the end runaway lions ruin her empire and “Ra, the sun god” turns Oma into dust. 

This typical Sam Katzman Columbia production seems to choose the most un-African sets it can find (this was filmed on stuntman Crash Corrigan's ranch). JUNGLE MOON MEN is one of only a handful of movies Charles S. Gould directed as he was a busy assistant or second unit director.

Thanks for reading!  

Have A Cigar

 

 

LITTLE CIGARS-1973-Unusual crime drama (released by AIP) with Angel Tompkins (who had just appeared in Playboy) as a floozy on the run from her crime boss former lover who hooks up with a group of “little people” (in this also referred to as “midgets”) who use a dumb show to cover up their low level crimes. Their leader Slick (Billy Curtis) and Angel become lovers and she teams up with the group to commit robberies (a movie theater, a laundry, a bank) where their diminutive size comes in handy. Later they have a violent falling out and Slick and Angel wind up hawking candy bars at an abandoned carnival site. It's very low budget, preposterous and doesn't show dwarfs in a very good light but it was nice to see little people in the lead roles with lots of dialogue and not just being patsies or evil assistants. Angelo Rossetto appears in a police line up and Michael Pataki has a small role as a mechanic.

 

This is the only feature length movie made by Chris Christenberry who was usually a second unit director. Co-screenwriter Louis Garfinkle had written I BURY THE LIVING and later provided the story for THE DEERHUNTER! Frank Ray Perilli, the other writer later wrote LASERBLAST and DRACULA'S DOG.

 

Thanks for reading!

Cowboy Musical

TERROR OF TINY TOWN-1938-Everyone's favorite little peoples western begins with a narrator addressing the audience.

Billy Curtis is the cheerful hero Buck Lawson. He battles cattle rustler Bat Haines ("Litte Billy" Rhodes), a really mean guy who's trying to cause a range war between Buck's father (John Bambury) and another rancher named Tex Preston (Billy Platt). The highlight for me are the very bizarre musical numbers but it has all the elements of a regular low budget western: shoot outs, runaway stagecoach, crooked sheriff, hired gunslingers, outrageous make-up, bad acting, chiched script. The funniest character is Tex's German cook. Buck (who sings and plays guitar) falls in love with Tex's niece (Yvonne Moray) to complicate matters. Later Haines kills Tex and Buck is blamed. He's almost lynched but Haines' neglected girlfriend (Nita Krebs) clears him. In the climax Buck and Hanes duke it out in a cabin while dynamite burns in the basement.

Some of the cast would appear in THE WIZARD OF OZ the next year.

TERROR was directed by San Newfield who typically made 15 other features in 1938!

Thanks for reading!