From the July 1953 issue of Mystery Tales #13
Make your final casting call today a good one, tomorrow I’ll announce a winner (or winners) of a spiffy new THOIA t-shirt! Good luck!
Friday, July 11, 2008
The Lucky Stiff!
Last day for the undead! And last day for the casting call game too, I hope everyone had a good time. Reminder: As I mentioned on Day One of this, your casting call choices do not have to look EXACTLY like the people in the comic, just “type cast” them as you see fit… if they look like the illustration that’s fine too but it’s not essential. (This is to avoid people nit picking over hair color or whatever else in the comments.) My choices today: Ray Milland as Burt Logan, Jean Brooks as Lisa Humphreys, Ernest Thesiger as Jasper Humphreys, Michael Ripper as Otto the Coroner, and Sid James as Dave the Flatfoot.
From the July 1953 issue of Mystery Tales #13
From the July 1953 issue of Mystery Tales #13
Man,thats one of the best uses of dark-humor i've ever seen,literally a "lucky stiff".my cast: Burt Logan:John Agar,Lisa Humphreys:Maila Nurmi,Jasper Humphreys:Peter Cushing(circa 1990).great artwork for this one too.also,i MIGHT be moving in a few days,so i kinda hope i didn't win the contest(i know that makes me sound troll-ish and conceited.),i'll let you know if i can be certain of the adresses if i win anything.
ReplyDeleteEffectively creepy one! Brr.
ReplyDeleteThe extent to which so many of these old stories have their characters simply accept the existence of “zombies” is remarkable.
ReplyDeleteGuess we'll never know how much the humour in these stories was intentional ; great art anyway , love the close-up on BUrt's eyes in page 4
ReplyDeleteThanks
The Lucky Stiff: Starring John Payne as Burt Logan, Faith Domerque as Lisa Humphries, Royal Dano as Jasper Humphries, Tom Bosley as Otto the Coroner and Don taylor as Dave the Flatfoot
ReplyDeleteI think I'd like to see Abbott and Costello play Dave the Cop and Otto the Coroner in the framing device. Burt Logan can be played by Ronnie Regan (though I'm none too sure anyone's going to come up with anything to top Milland). In the Lisa Humphreys role I see Zita Johann. And I'm frankly going to have to build a time machine to have Abe Vigoda play Jasper Humphreys, seeing as everyone else I'm casting has been plucked from circa the late thirties.
ReplyDeleteLOVE THE FIRST PANEL ON THE LAST PAGE. I'M SAD TO SEE UNDEAD WEEK ALREADY COME TO AN END, AND I DON'T THINK ANY ONE CAN CAST A BETTER MORE PERFECT JASPER THAN ERNEST THESIGER!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fine Friday. Start the day off with a 3 hour long meeting at work, then breath a sigh of relief aftwerward while relaxing with a Mt.Dew, a 100,000 Bar and another great zombie story on THOIA.
ReplyDeleteCasting for this one is all over the map.
Burt- Colin Clive
Lisa- Julie Adams
Jasper- Jimmy Stewart
Otto- Al Lewis
Dave the Cop- Elvis Presley
Great artwork on this one, and the whole morgue/undertaker vibe was creepy- had a friend that was a mortician and I stayed at their home/funeral home once, and I was every bit as freaked out about it as poor Burt here.
Gonna cap off this fine Friday by seeing one of my favorite bands- Cheap Trick in concert. Gotta love a Friday like this!!!
Jimmy Stewart is one of my casting choices, as well, but I have another role in mind for him:
ReplyDeleteBurt: Jimmy Stewart
Lisa: Natalie Wood
Jasper: Vincent Price
Otto: Ernest Borgnine
Officer Dave: Rock Hudson
Love the art in this one! A more "realistic" style, if you will...looks like the artist was probably good at doing ad work.
ReplyDeleteNot much to say about the story, which was excellent, so here are my time-machine-enabled casting choices:
Mighty Dick Miller as the Coroner
William Demarest as the Flat Foot
Leo Genn as Jasper (it's the eyebrows, man!)
Gloria Holden as Lisa
And Max Baer Jr. as Burt!
I love that Burt can't tell that Jasper and Lisa have been dead for six months. They must be the freshest smelling zombies ever.
ReplyDeleteAnd because I' feeling even weirder than usual. The Lucky Stiff! The Musical!
Staring:
Bing Crosby as Otto, the crooning, joking undertaker.
Elvis Presley as Dave, because he looks like him in panel three, and he can sing.
Bobby "Boris" Pickett as Burt,innocent victim of this "Monster Mash"
and Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra as Lisa and Jasper, the sing, dancing, killing zombies.
With Rat Pack members Joey Bishop and Dean Martin as the Body carriers. They can carry a tune better than they can carry a body.
And Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., Judy Garland, Juliet Prowse as the walking Corpses - They're frighteningly talented.
Brought to you by director Robert Wise (West Side Story)
Coming every where in Summer 1963.
Yes, I do need therapy.
Ha ha, some great last minute entries in our Casting Call game, kudos to everyone who played this week... but now the hard part comes for me to figure out a winner/s (which will be announced tomorrow as well.)
ReplyDeleteGot a couple weird tales from the landmark debut issue of Witchcraft #1 for you all this weekend, including another Joe Kubert klassic! And Monday kicks off with another issue in it's entirety, you'll just have to be here bright and early to see what it'll be... but I guarantee you're gonna love it. Have a great weekend everyone.
---K