Dial 'B' for Brush with guest performers Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr. & Vampira The Red Skelton Show : Season 3 Episode 40

The show is 26 min. long, including Red's opening monologue and a weatherman skit. The Bela/Lon/Vampira skit is intact. SPOILERS: The writing is not exactly Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein quality, but Skelton is amusing. He slips in a marijuana joke, and a tranny joke re Denmark (Christine Jorgensen was in the news.) "Dial B for Brush" comprises most of the show, taking place on three different sets (home lab, graveyard, and morgue with working Jacob's ladder) which are pretty elaborate for TV. There's also an ambitious dance-routine (giving band leader David Rose a chance to shine) with ghosts and skeletons double-exposed into the graveyard set. Clem Kadiddlehopper, for those who've never seen Red's character, is a Lou Costello without a brain to steal, though that doesn't stop Bela as "Prof. Lugosi" from trying. He wears a tux under his lab coat, and does the graveyard scene with Lon and Vampira in his Dracula cape. Lon barks like a dog, wears furry claws and wolf fangs, but takes the teeth out for dialogue (explaining that he just got new wolf dentures at the dentist's). He's Lugosi's half brother ("and half wolf") who sounds exactly like Lenny, and is named (for irony's sake) George. Vampira gets to do her famous shriek, and shows off her absolute deadpan delivery and her weirdly tiny waistline. The ad-libbing does not seem as distressing to Bela as some writers have maintained - many asides actually sound scripted. After his mind-swap, Clem calls Bela "Mother!" and Bela shoots back, "Yes?" then covers his mouth, as if embarrassed. Pretty sure that was arranged. Red also warns a bit player on Bela's gurney not to ad-lib around stars, which suggests Bela might have complained during rehearsal. At one point, Lon reads Red's cue card for him, and Red makes fun of Bela's pronunciation of "tetse" fly. Bela seems to be having fun (but you do worry about the old guy being chased around a set full of props and "bodies") while Lon and Red definitely are. Red's jokes are largely corny, but he did have a sharp wit - he was the one who at Harry Cohn's crowded funeral cracked, "See? You give the people what they want, and they'll turn out."