Before MST3K we had The Texas 27 Film Vault! In the middle 1980s, way down on Level 31 Randy and Richard, machine-gun toting Film Vault Technicians First Class, hosted this neglected cult show which debuted Saturday February 9th, 1985. Balladeer’s Blog continues its celebration of the program’s FORTIETH anniversary year with this schlock film set on the 4th of July.
ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: Saturday July 5th, 1986 from 10:30pm to 1:00am. Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma.
SERIAL: Before showing Frogs our members of the Film Vault Corps (“the few, the proud, the sarcastic”) showed an episode of the 1950 Columbia serial Atom Man vs Superman. Kirk Alyn starred as Superman with Lyle Talbot as his archenemy Lex Luthor.
Lex has his own secret identity in this serial – each episode he dons a lead mask and oversees the villainy as “Atom Man”.
HOST SEGMENTS: According to fan Gemini Jim, Randy and Richard’s interview with Sam Elliott, conducted at Ben Johnson’s ranch, was shown. Elliott was also one of the stars of Frogs.
Randy (right) and Richard way down on Level 31 hosting The Texas 27 Film Vault
THE MOVIE: Frogs was another low point in the career of Ray Milland, along with The Thing With Two Heads, shown previously on The Texas 27 Film Vault.
Pollution was to cheap monster movies of the 70s what atomic radiation was to cheap monster movies of the 50s. In other words it was the catch-all explanation for anything and everything. In this movie’s case pollution, which Ray Milland’s corporations are heavily guilty of, is to blame for wild animals (NOT just frogs, despite the movie’s title) going berserk and viciously attacking human beings. Continue reading
MISS LIBERTY 
THE SALAMANDER – The 4th of July is fast approaching! As another seasonal post Balladeer’s Blog examines the Revolutionary War career of Captain Jonathan Haraden, nicknamed the Salamander because of “his ability to withstand fire.” 
The Tyrannicide wasted no time, battling the HMS Dispatch on July 12th. The Dispatch boasted 20 cannons but after an hour & a half battle fell to Fisk and Haraden’s crew. The commerce raider towed this prize into Salem by July 17th and soon set out for more. 
BLUE LIGHT (1966) – Goulet … Robert Goulet. Had to be said. The forgotten television series Blue Light ran 17 half-hour episodes from January to May of 1966 and starred singer Robert Goulet of all people. Despite the odd casting, this series was actually a more sophisticated and grittier spy program than television had yet seen. 
The story is set during World War Two. Robert Goulet plays American reporter David March, one of eighteen U.S. spies who have infiltrated Nazi Germany by posing as Americans so taken with Nazi philosophy that before American involvement in the war they renounced their U.S. citizenship to become citizens of the Reich. 
TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR (1887) – Nearly eighty years before the movie Fantastic Voyage, this work of “ancient” science fiction detailed a party of shrunken heroes on an odyssey through a human being’s body. This cleverly-titled tale was written by Alfred Taylor Schofield under the name Luke T Courteney. 
CAPTAIN MORS VS HIS MORTAL ENEMY – The brilliant and deadly Ned Gully, Kapitan Mors’ archenemy, at last returns! Along with his female associate Nelly he is in the Rocky Mountains overseeing the construction of his newest airship – one capable of vertical take-off and landing. 
MARCH 8th – Another encounter during the Great Forage War. American and British troops continued foraging for supplies throughout the New Jersey No Man’s Land. Near Amboy, NJ an unknown number of U.S. forces under General William Maxwell ambushed hundreds of British-Allied Hessian troops and captured 70 Hessians in the resulting fighting.
SEA DEVILS (1953) – As England and other nations battle France in 1800, English Captain Gilliatt (Rock Hudson) has abandoned his career as a fisherman to become a smuggler. He excels at the task and over the past few years he and his ship the Sea Devil have gained quite a reputation. 
Amid much swordplay and other action during frequent trips across the Channel, Gilliatt struggles to keep her alive and understand the motives of this beautiful woman with whom he has fallen in love. 
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