Let He Who Is Without Skin…

They're jammin' the blues on dem bones
That tambre, those musical tones!
But no vertebrae's fused
Neither hurt nor abused
To damage them, use sticks and stones.


A spinal column becomes a xylophone in The Skeleton Dance (Ub Iwerks; 1929). Title by Donald Benson, who has the skinny.

THIS is Spinal Tap

This xylophone's slickly erected
Restyling bones quickly selected
This chuckle-head dreamer
Gets struck with a femur
A smiling, prone, stickman dissected.

David Cairns


The Skeleton Dance (Ub Iwerks; 1929) was the first Silly Symphony animated short subject produced by Walt Disney. Title by boney Donald Benson.

Counting Scarecrows

Two movies were made out of this,
And both are too juicy to miss.
One's Disneyfied glamour
One's horror from Hammer
So which do you choose: Syn or Bliss?

Donald B. Benson



Patrick McGoohan and Peter Cushing play the same character in two films. Hammer's Night Creatures (aka Captain Clegg) and Disney's Doctor Syn, Alias the Scarecrow were both released in 1962, and both derived from Russell Thorndyke's tales of a smuggling vicar. Of course lawyers got involved, so Hammer renamed Dr. Syn as Dr. Bliss. Disney turned the vicar into a masked hero, while Hammer offered a much darker tale. Both are worth seeing.  --Donald Benson

Marsh Fellows

He's cunning, the Reverend Bliss.
Rum runner who locals don't hiss.
He isn't a Syn,
For Disney'd cut in
And done his own version of this.

Donald B. Benson

Peter Cushing in Night Creatures aka Captain Clegg (Peter Graham Scott; 1962). From Donald Benson: "Dr. Syn, the smuggling vicar, was revived by both Hammer (Night Creatures) and Disney (The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh). After legal sparring Hammer renamed its hero Bliss (but oddly kept other character names) and left the colorful alter ego to Disney; Night Creatures is a much different and much darker tale next to Disney's iconic do-gooder."

Out of the InkHell

A team of redoubtable goons
Who seem to come out on full moons
With fang, claw, and bolt
This gang sends a jolt
Don't scream! These three louts are cartoons.

In Mickey's Gala Premiere (Burt Gillett; 1933), Bela Lugosi (dressed as Count Dracula), Fredric March (as Mr. Hyde) and Boris Karloff (as Frankenstein's monster) attend the premiere of a Mickey Mouse cartoon at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Title out of  Donald B. Benson.

Doghouse of Frankenstein

He's noxiously evil and clever
Sends shocks with one squeeze of a lever
He's mad -- lost his grip -- 
Your shadow he'll snip!
It's this doctor's most fiendish endeavor.

The Mad Doctor (David Hand; 1933) is a classic Mickey Mouse cartoon co-starring Pluto. Due to its unusually scary content, at one time it was banned in the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany. Title by dog-eared Donald B. Benson.

A Pullet With His Name on It

 

Full of dread, Pluto's heart starts to quicken
Will his head become part of a chicken?
Will he nest and lay eggs?
Will his breasts, thighs and legs
Be breaded, then served "finger lickin'"?



Pluto is one half of a bizarre experiment in the memorably macabre Mickey Mouse short, The Mad Doctor (David Hand; 1933). Title by name-dropping Donald B. Benson.

Disneyland of Lost Souls

This madman's a medical nut
A baddie who's ready to cut
This sicko's a pest
With chickens obsessed
The cad tries de-heading your mutt!

Pluto is threatened by The Mad Doctor (David Hand; 1933), a very scary and eerily atmospheric Mickey Mouse cartoon. The doc's experiment: transplanting Pluto's head onto the body of a chicken.

Mouse of Horrors

As the skull on the railing post glares,
Little Mickey keeps climbing the stairs
At the landing he stops
And then back down he drops
The guy just doesn't get anywheres.

Mickey Mouse in the memorably moody short, The Mad Doctor (David Hand; 1933). Title by mousey Donald B. Benson.