THE GIANT CLAW (1957) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

The Secret of the Bermuda Triangle Revealed

Before MST3K we had … The Texas 27 Film Vault! Before Joel and Mike there was Randy and Richard! Balladeer’s Blog continues celebrating the FORTIETH anniversary year of this neglected cult show which debuted Saturday night February 9th, 1985.

MOVIE: The Giant Claw (1957)

ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: Saturday April 6th, 1985 from 10:30pm to 1:00am. Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma.

SERIAL: The Lost City (1935) about a mad scientist who rules a high-tech city in the middle of the African jungle.

Randy (right) and Richard way down on Level 31 hosting The Texas 27 Film Vault

Film Vault Lore: Thank you to my fellow T27FV fan Dolores for this episode’s date, the serial and for this quote about Ken Miller, who played “Tex” on the show: “I loved the random bits of madness added by the gung-ho Tex each episode! He always reminded me of Robert Duvall’s character Kilgore from Apocalypse Now.

The Movie: The Giant Claw is another of those staples of bad movie shows. It’s been presented by just about every Movie Host program at one time or another. Because of the film’s familiarity I will keep this review short.

Global UFO sightings turn out to be sightings of a gigantic (and ridiculous-looking) flying buzzard from outer space. As if that isn’t silly enough the destructive creature is also an ANTI-MATTER gigantic flying buzzard from outer space. Continue reading

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MARVEL ISSUES: MAY 1966

This weekend’s escapist and light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at all of the Marvel Comics published in May 1966 except for reprints.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #36 (May 1966)

Title: When Falls the Meteor

Villain: Meteor Man

Synopsis: A meteor comes crashing down in upstate New York and is retrieved by unscrupulous scientist Norton Fester. He discovers microscopic organisms inside the meteorite and those organisms grant him incredible strength.

Fester dons a costume and begins robbing banks on a daily basis as Meteor Man. Meanwhile, Peter Parker is continuing his classes at Empire State University where his interest in science over dating intrigues fellow student Gwen Stacy.

She makes a point of showing up at an astro-science exhibit that Peter is visiting and is exasperated once again as the fragments of meteorites and other displays capture Peter’s attention instead of her blonde hotness. (Save your own life and just walk away, Gwen!)

The villainous Meteor Man, however, has noted that his personal meteorite no longer shows signs of microorganisms or unearthly gases. Worried that this means his powers may wear off some day he goes to the Empire State exhibit to steal some of the meteor fragments hoping they contain more. Continue reading

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ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: A TRIP TO THE NORTH POLE (1903)

A TRIP TO THE NORTH POLE or DISCOVERY OF THE TEN TRIBES AS FOUND IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN (1903) – Written by Otte Julius Swenson Lindelof.

This is a work of Mormon science fiction. A detailed message in a bottle is found regarding the fate of the LDS whaling ship Mt. Walston and its crew, led by Captain Nye, Linder, Jost and Lothair. The manuscript is dated to the late 1870s and recounts the ship’s journey through the Bering Strait and on so far north that the crew discovered a region of warm temperatures.

The Americans come across an archipelago of more than ten islands which turn out to be populated by descendants of the ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The islands are ruled by a beautiful young queen and, in fact, all of the Arctic Israelites are excellent physical specimens thanks to the abnormally high nutritional value of the region’s foodstuffs. Continue reading

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MARCH SEVENTH ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

Another current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog here in an America where the Democrats who get giddy about the Ukraine-Russia War would NEVER support their own country if it comes to war between the U.S. and China. (Or anyone else.)

DEMOCRAT AL GREEN WAS ONE OF THE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO PAID SEXUAL ASSAULT HUSH MONEY TO HIS ACCUSER FROM THE INFAMOUS CONGRESSIONAL SLUSH FUND OF TAXPAYER MONEY. That was all years ago and BOTH PARTIES had guilty members, but people often forget about this scandal just like they forget about the Congressional Bank scandal of years ago.

PRESIDENT TRUMP PROVIDES EVEN MORE HELP FOR CALIFORNIA FIRE VICTIMS BY EXTENDING THE MORATORIUM AGAINST FORECLOSING ON THEIR PROPERTIES. Yet Hollywood creatures didn’t even offer their $200,000 Academy Awards gift bags to the people who lost their homes. But they still pretend to be the “compassionate” ones.

THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD BRAIN CANCER SURVIVOR D.J. DANIEL CALLS OUT UNHINGED DEMOCRATS FOR ATTACKING TRUMP. He has more class than the entire Democrat roll call in Congress.

D.J. DANIEL’s FATHER TELLS RACIST DEMOCRAT HATEMONGER RACHEL MADDOW TO “SHUT HER MOUTH” IF SHE HAS NOTHING NICE TO SAY ABOUT HIS SON AND PRESIDENT TRUMP.

ALVAREZ GALLOSO: REALITY IN AMERICA. Brilliant piece!

COURAGEOUS FEMALE ROLE MODEL TULSI GABBARD ANNOUNCES THAT THE BIDEN REGIME RELEASED ROUGHLY ONE HUNDRED TERROR-LINKED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS INTO THE U.S. LAST YEAR.

CNN HAS TO ISSUE CORRECTION ACKNOWLEDGING THAT TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT DEMOCRATS FUNDING TRANSGENDER MICE EXPERIMENTS. More HERE. The main problem is that Democrat policies are so idiotic that they sound like they can’t possibly be real.

POLL: TRUMP’S GOLD CARD IDEA IS RIGHTFULLY DISAPPROVED OF. Is he forgetting what a “Caesar’s Wife” situation he and Elon are in? Continue reading

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“I CLAIM THE WORLD” – BEHOLD!!! THE PROTONG (c1940)

STANISLAV SZUKALSKI (1893-1987) – Just as L. Ron Hubbard went from being a pulp story writer to founder of a nutzoid religion, Stanislav Szukalski went from being a celebrated, even brilliant, artist to founder of an equally irrational belief system.

Stanislav Szukalski the artist was a complicated figure who held a lot of ugly attitudes and he fled Poland after the Nazi invasion despite his own intense antisemitism. The war destroyed most of Szukalski’s artwork and he arrived in the U.S. without a penny. 

By all means check out Struggle, a 2018 Stanislav Szukalski documentary co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, whose father was friends with the artist. There’s even a photo of a very young Leo sitting next to Szukalski. 

The topic of this blog post, however, is Zermatism, the insane philosophy that Szukalski founded in 1940. He named it after the city of Zermatt, where he was convinced that survivors of a pre-deluge civilization settled.

Yes, it’s about to get weird, as in Scientology weird or even Yakub/ Tribe of Shabazz weird. And at 39 volumes,  Zermatism would be way too off-putting if not for some of the memorable artwork that Szukalski made to accompany his mad ravings. 

IN THE BEGINNING(ish) – Szukalski argued that all of humanity once dwelt on one huge continent and spoke one language (Protong) which still lives in fragmentary fashion in all modern languages. The Great Flood wiped out most life on Earth with the only survivors being on what is now Easter Island, which was the peak of the highest mountain of the now submerged mother continent. Continue reading

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL POSTSEASON AT BALLADEER’S BLOG: MARCH FIFTH

NJCAA3

NORTH DISTRICT

FIRST SEMIFINAL – The HERKIMER COLLEGE GENERALS took the court against the GENESEE COLLEGE COUGARS. The Generals were on top 36-30 by Halftime, and from there they floored it. Herkimer College left the Cougars further and further behind as they won the game 86-65. Kenny Freeman and Jayson McGhee led the Generals with 20 points each, while teammate Oladele Oladitan logged a Double Double of 19 points & 10 rebounds. Continue reading

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NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS ROUNDUP: MARCH FIFTH

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog provides another current events roundup from an America where Democrats have made embracing war, transing children and advocating for political corruption their platform.

CBS NEWS/ YOUGOV POLL: SEVENTY-SIX PERCENT APPROVE OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SPEECH BEFORE CONGRESS. Yet Democrats still pretend it was “divisive.” (?)

        Over three-quarters of viewers also approved of Speaker Mike Johnson ordering the Sergeant at Arms to eject the unstable Rep. Al Green (D-TX) for his deranged behavior and for disrupting the president’s speech despite warnings. (Remember when Democrats pretended that simply calling Obama a liar during a Congressional address was unacceptable?) More HERE.

TRUMP HEARTWARMINGLY MAKES YOUNGSTER WITH BRAIN CANCER AN HONORARY SECRET SERVICE AGENT. Democrats refused to stand for the child. I guess they were too busy telling each other how “compassionate” they consider themselves to be.

PRESIDENT TRUMP READS LETTER FROM LITTLE MAN ZELENSKY, WHO SIMPERINGLY BEGS FOR A CHANCE TO SIGN THE DEAL HE COULD HAVE SIGNED A FEW DAYS AGO. People can support Ukraine but not support the sleazy toad Zelensky, y’know. No one man is synonymous with a nation.

STEPHEN A. SMITH SKILLFULLY DEFENDS TRUMP FROM IGNORANT JOY BEHAR.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA BLASTS CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS FOR VOTING TO KEEP MEN WHO PRETEND TO BE WOMEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS.

DEMOCRAT SENATOR MARK WARNER COURAGEOUSLY PRAISES  THE “GREAT, GREAT PROGRESS” MADE BY PRESIDENT TRUMP.

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY INSTITUTE PRESIDENT SPEAKS OUT ON HOW DEMOCRATS WERE FUNNELING USAID MONEY TO THEIR OWN CAMPAIGN COFFERS. Monumental scandal continues to be exposed. Continue reading

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AMY PRENTISS (1974-1975) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

AMY PRENTISS – Long before she was known as Archer’s mother, the talented Jessica Walter had churned out powerful performances of all kinds in movies and television. Jessica’s short-lived run as the sleuth Amy Prentiss is a reminder that a program can be a bit too far ahead of its time to thrive. 

IRONSIDE: AMY PRENTISS (May 23rd, 1974) – For readers too young to remember the term “back-door pilots” it referred to producers using an episode of an existing hit television series as a de facto pilot for a new series. The star and a few cast members of the prospective new series would costar with the hit series’ regulars in a story tailored to show off what the proposed new series would be like. Continue reading

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THE MYSTERY OF DR. FU MANCHU (1923) SILENT FILM SERIAL

THE MYSTERY OF DR. FU MANCHU (1923) – One of the earliest, if not THE earliest, big screen adaptations of Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels, which launched in 1913. The tales depicted the brilliant Chinese figure Dr. Fu Manchu at most plotting global domination but most often uniting many Far Eastern races against White Colonial nations to drive them out of Asia.  

Yes, these stories have quite a bit wrong with them given their bigoted, unfair caricatures of Chinese people and other Asians. Personally, I would never expose children to them as they require adult minds to sort through ugly wording and concepts.  Continue reading

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MARCH THIRD ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

Time for another current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

UKRAINIAN MP JOINS THE VOICES AGAINST ZELENSKYY AND CALLS FOR HIS IMPEACHMENT. How many times now has Zelenskyy blown opportunities for peace? And yes, Vlad Putin is a barbaric, unstable war criminal but that does not give Zelenskyy a pass for all of his corruption, his ending of elections and opposition parties, his press gangs using ever-younger Ukrainians as cannon fodder to feed his own ego, etc. More HERE. Trump also extended the sanctions against Putin HERE but anti-Trump loons ignore that.

*** NEW! ZELENSKYY CAUGHT LYING TO THE U.S. Is anyone all that surprised?

REMEMBER: EVEN JOE BIDEN LOST HIS TEMPER WITH THE UNGRATEFUL, WARMONGERING TROLL ZELENSKYY. Plus, HANSON ON ZELENSKYY’S CRAVENNESS AND INGRATITUDE.

AND ANOTHER UKRAINIAN MP BLASTS ZELENSKYY FOR HIS “ABSOLUTE IDIOCY.” More HERE. Plus remember, Trump was ELECTED, unlike Zelenskyy who canceled elections in his country. 

HEGSETH REMINDS HILLARY CLINTON OF HER ABSURD, GROVELING “RESET” BUTTON WITH PUTIN WHEN SHE WAS SECRETARY OF STATE. Plus there’s always Hillary’s uranium scandal when she funneled it to Putin AND her collusion with Russia to slander and libel Trump.

EVEN THIS ANTI-TRUMP REPORTER ADMITS THAT ZELENSKYY WAS AT FAULT IN THE MEETING WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP. It’s obvious if you watch all 50 minutes of the meeting, but of course most anti-Trump propagandists prefer to push their shrill, hysterical narrative. And look, I stated Trump was foolish for the whole “51st State” bit with Canada and for his bizarre Greenland remarks, but it’s not Trump’s fault that Zelenskyy – whom American taxpayers should all list as a “dependent” on their tax returns – proved once again what a corrupt, self-aggrandizing little toad he is.

MIKE WALZ ON ZELENSKYY’S UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND FOR CAMPAIGNING WITH DEMOCRATS LAST ELECTION SEASON.

STARMER’S PATHETIC “AREN’T WE BUTCH” ALLIANCE INCLUDES WORDING THAT “NOBODY GOES WITHOUT THE U.S. BACKING US.” HILARIOUS! They’ll talk tough about “defending Ukraine” but it’s still only talk.

SOME UNIVERSITIES ARE REFUSING TO END THEIR RACIST AND DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES. The Democrats who run those institutions still push their Discrimination, Exclusion and Intolerance (DEI) approach.  Continue reading

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