Saturday, November 26, 2011

LUCKY GHOST - Don Swander, June Hershey, Loreza Flennoy and his Chocolate Drops - "If Anybody Cares" (1942)

Tonight we've got a super Saturday special event for you from 1942 called ""Lucky Ghost." The title was later changed to "Lady Luck!" Blame the ghost union, local 666!!

These two wild cards are left to right F.E. Miller as Jefferson, and Mantan Moreland as Washington! He called himself F.E. because his real name was Flournoy Eakin Miller. You've probably met all kinds of people in your life, but have you ever met someone who ran away from home at the age of 12 to join the circus? That's because they don't make people like Mantan Moreland anymore!

Washington and Jefferson meet up with some high rollers who know everything except how to shoot craps!!

The high rollers not only lose the shirts off their backs but also their car and chauffeur!!!

Next stop, the Country Club, and yes, Mr. Mantan IS checking out that hostess's derriere!!

Jefferson has a signature, but Washington just has an X! Don't worry, he's going to make up for it in the funzoid department!!

Big guy Maceo Bruce Scheffield has the role of Blake, the Boss of the Club! Maceo was a policeman earlier in his career, and also was actually a club owner in Los Angeles, I think he had this role pegged!

As my drill sergeant used to say, "Smoke 'em if you got 'em!"

More known as a comedienne, Florence O'Brien almost steals the show, with the backing of Loreza Flennoy and his Chocolate Drops!! The rest of the show is flushed out with the songs "If Anybody Cares," "When You Think of Loving, Think of Me," "Can't Use It Anymore," and "Down In Old Darktown" all written by Don Swander and June Hershey and performed by Lorenza Flennoy and His Chocolate Drops!

Washington better watch out because The Boss is not taking to his best girl giving out so much attention to someone other than his own bad self! The Boss is smokin' hot under the collar to the point that he eats his own stogie!

The Boss has had enough, and throws a haymaker at Washington, only to knock out one of his own guys instead!!

Time to bring in the ghosts, and some of that Thriller-Diller Laff Sensation stuff!

Out in the graveyard, remember this is a ghost story, the natives are getting restless! Florence Field is Mrs. Ezra's Ghost and she's mad as Hell about all the noise and carrying on going on over at the adjacent club!

The rest of the ghosts were fleshed out by Henry Hastings, John Lester Johnson, Edward Thompson, and Lester Christmas!

Here are the two respective reactions by Washington and Jefferson during the big craps scene inside the club! The bank has gone bust, and the whole club ownership is on the line, everything and everybody! Blake tries to slip in some loaded dice, but Washington is shaking so bad, he drops one, grabs another pair, and throws a seven!

The ghosts decide to take some action, the light's start flashing, and here are some of the customer's reactions to seeing Uncle Ezra's ghost finish off a drink!!

I love the part in the sound clip where all the instruments drop out except the drummer! One of the ghosts took over the drum set, and the rest of the Drops disappear one by one as they notice!

Now it's getting scary, Skully on the keys and an animated suit of armor doing the Hullabaloo!

Mantan, Florence, and F.E. want nothing to do with any ghosts! Mantan and F.E. are gone these days, but I'm pretty sure Florence is still around!

Time for one more reaction from F.E. and Mantan! They get so scared they take off running down the road to get as far away from that place as possible and............

.....the ghosts all go back to where they came from because now they can rest again!

Mantan Moreland was a very funny guy. He probably claimed his biggest fame in the continuing role as Birmingham Brown in a later 40's series of Mr. Moto movies, but he was also in films like "Spider Baby," and King Of The Zombies," and if you're like me, and you can't get enough Mantan, then you'll do what I'm doing right now and go over to The Internet Archive where you can watch or download about 10 movies with Mantan in them for FREE, including a totally awesome 1955 movie called "Rhythm and Blues Revue." It's a musical variety show filmed at the Apollo Theatre with a cast that includes Mantan Moreland himself, and Willie Bryant, Freddie Robinson, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Faye Adams, Bill Bailey, Herb Jeffries, Amos Milburn, Sarah Vaughan, Nipsey Russell, Big Joe Turner, Martha Davis, Little Buck, Nat 'King' Cole, Cab Calloway and Ruth Brown!!!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Of course I also do not know this classic. If a rather witty film seems to be, however.

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