In discussing this week’s episode, The Beatniks, many have referenced Peter Breck’s exciting portrayal of Moon. In stark contrast to the dull, lifeless work of much of the rest of the cast, Breck virtually explodes in fits of acute over-acting (sometimes referred to as Shatnering). As MST3k fans, we have all been exposed to some truly classic moments of extreme scene-chewing. My personal favorite example would be the death of Kurt, the gnarly-handed assistant from the Brain that Wouldn’t Die. You?
Well, I have to go with John “Mikey” Humphries in “Teenage Strangler.”
Your pick?
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My assumption was that John Phillip Law and Donald Plesance both knew they were in bad movies for the paycheck, because they both did the hammy actor thing quite well. Donald Plesance in particular didn’t even bother to get the Hero’s name right, which is just hilarious in his overacting: it’s kind of like Orson Wells walking out of a frozen peas ad because he couldn’t work with the directors.
For actresses: the Voodoo Priest in Zombie Nightmare seemed to think that warbling her voice and flailing about would suffice. If we’re counting Rifftrax, that annoying witch (Creedence. I just looked up her name, and I’m slightly embarrassed) in Troll 2 takes the prop cake and eats it every time.
Hilarious topic. Well done.
Well, I’d be remiss to not mention my namesake, the laziest man on Mars.
Heathcliff in Batwoman.
“But, I’m a Grimwald warrior!!!!!!” – Viking Women
Great call on John Humphries.
#46 “after he died”???
he did a movie after he died?
@Boot blacking: Dead Jim Backus would be a more emotive actor than half the people in MST3k experiments.
Creeping Terror’s “my god what is iiiit!” girl
The “ARGH! AAAARGH!!” dude in the woods in Bloodlust.
I haven’t seen the movie since the 80s and have never watched MST version but I remember clearly there was a lot of Shatnering in SST: Death Flight especiallly George Maharis, John de Lancie and Bert Convy. All of those 70 disaster movies were full of competitive Shatnering really. It’s a shame they never did Disaster at 37,000 Feet.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Hackman in Space Travelers!
Don’t want to make anyone Thor but I’m watching Teenagers from
Outer Space now and Thor is not only one-dimensional
throughout but after he gets wounded goes totally over the top
(I must say)!
Of course for a nicely understated performance there’s
Megaweapon (but then they killed off the best character
with the most subtle performance)!
Another vote for Troxartis
I have to give a shout out to Reb Brown, “David Ryder” (aka “Big McLargeHuge”) from ‘Space Mutiny.’ After killing off his VIP passenger and saving his own skin from a crash, he screams at the space ship’s captain to defend himself. On the bridge. (Dang, how many times have you wished you could scream at the head of your workplace, right in front of everybody?)
“SINCE YOU’RE ASKING! I HAD NO CHOICE! THAT EXPLOSION CUT THE POWER! I HAD TO EJECT! COMMANDER! EXCUSE ME, I HAVE TO FILE MY REPORT!”
53# I was quoting a riff in Angels Revenge. Haven’t you seen the episode?
58# Megaweapon gave us an acting class in that movie.
@41 – Wondered when someone would mention Valeria:
Thought that was already in the fans’ hall of fame–The early 80’s “Sheena Easton meets Elmer Fudd”.
(And of course, as we know, it was Mike in drag who said “Yew and your dauddah are doomed”…
It was Angelika Jager who told Glowing Ball With Hair Like Sam Donaldson “I ashoo you, Dagwan, they aw aww doomed”.)
I will have to agree with Stoneman and Monoceros4 that John Phillip Law and James Ryan (MacPhearson) did some great acting. They really stole the show in the scene they did together. I couldn’t help but laugh evilly along with ’em! Heh-heh-heh!!
Even though it wasn’t done on MST, I would have to say the John Phillip Law was great as well in “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” Did some great overacting in that one. “No more…..Soviet Navy submarine booat” (that misspelling was intentional)
The fast talking palooka from The Undead sprang immediatelly to mind. Frantic overacting, but wonderfully so for MST’s purposes.
Geez, just about everyone in “Overdrawn At The Memory Bank” but especially Toobie who I think played Special Ed a bit TOO well.
Man, I forget the names of the Martians in “Santa Claus Conquers The Martians” but the evil martian guy with the moustache who talks with a lisp. “All thisss trouble for a fat little man”.
The evil, John-Saxony guy in “Cave Dwellers”.
The dork who does all the “hilarious” pratfalls in “Catalina Caper”.
Billy Barty in “The Undead”. Also a shout out to the guy who yells STAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!
The Creeping Terror itself. Not only did it chew the scenery, but the cast as well.
EricJ:
Thanks for the correction–I guess I need to watch “Robot Holocaust” again some time, if only to see Mike as Valeria once more.
Among those that have not been picked: The dinosaurs in Future War or the villain (Satoris?) in Final Sacrifice.
Oh, not much mention of the ladies here.
For best supporting ham in a major motion picture: please consider the maid in Radar Secret Service.
Oh man, just want to thank you all for some of the best laughs I’ve had since, well, the last Rifftrax I watched.
Other than that, nothing to add because all of my favorites have been mentioned.
And don’t forget Michael Pataki not only chewed scenery LIKE Shatner, he practically chewed scenery WITH Shatner as the Klingon who picks a fight in The Trouble With Tribbles (“The Enterprise should be hauled away AS GAR-BAAAAAAAGE!”) — too bad they didn’t have any major scenes together.
(BTW, last week I had the pleasure of seeing Shatner’s one-man show, Shatner’s World, on Broadway, and it was just wonderful.)
I just looked up the aforementioned “guy who played Droppo” on Imdb and to my surprise it’s spelled Dropo and Bill McCutcheon actually won a Tony award 20 years later. Huh.
Hafta agree with John Philip Law as Kalgon. I’m firmly convinced he knew this was going to be drivel and opted to just have a good time delivering the most preposterous performance imaginable.
I’m rather taken with Mister Krassner in THE DEAD TALK BACK; he’s trying so hard to come across as cool and heroic and so totally wrong for it…
For the females, gotta go with the evil gypsy fortuneteller Branded From Birth With The Wart of Horror from THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES. “You feelthy pig!”
As for a cameo, how about that bizarre ‘Trying WAY Too Hard To Sound Sexy’ backstage stripper in THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE. “Who’s to tell me to blow if I don’t want to!”
Lots of great ones here. I’ll add the red-headed agent from Secret Agent Super Dragon and the grandma from Parts, The Clonus Horror.
@70 Gummo – EXCELLENT choice with Michael Pataki. “Gooch, I tried to show him the WAY, MAN!”
@5 Professor Gunther – Love that post! I imagine Anthony Cardoza as some sort of emotion-devouring black hole. I did notice that he really does make the most of his cameo in Hellcats as the groovy painter fella.
How about anyone other than Miles O’Keefe in Cave Dwellers? Miles seems to be the only one not eating scenery compared to his costars. Thong seems to be a notable exception.
Crow T. Robert is right; The Mean Psychic in “Merlins Shop of Mystical Wonders”. It would have been a more obvious choice, had she not been in only one scene. Can you imagine the talent we missed out on there…
#70: Excellent mention of Pataki’s role in that ST:TOS episode… and you chose the perfect line to do it with. Watching it now you’d think the Klingons were a race of rejected drama students.
I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Bob Jackass from ‘Merlin’s Shop Of Mystical Wonders.” That guy chewed the scenery so hard it caused him to age prematurely (“I am the SUPREME! BEING!”)
J.C. in “Sidehackers”.
Did I miss it or was there a vote for Toberlone?
@ Thomas K. Dye (#77)
Still, given the situation (Korax is obviously trying to rile Scotty), Pataki’s performance was justified. Besides, it’s one of the funniest moments in TOS.
On subject, I agree with previous posters citing Pataki in “Sidehackers”, Law in “Space Mutiny” and Hackman in “Space Travellers”. Definitely over way the top in all three cases. Enjoyable? Absolutely! But heavy duty scenery chewing.
@#69,
Most of the women I can think of tended to be relegated to really, really supporting roles — giving them little chance to overact.
The one who comes to mind in the little girl, Caroline, in “Time of the Apes.” As Crow commented “Must you scream every line?”
But that was also a dubbing actress so….. I’m really not sure how to classify it. But certainly the dubbing actress on that one overacted her way all the way through.
Two words-“Tor-cha”.
3 – Mr B Natural
2 – Troxartas
1 – Toblerone – HAHAHAHAHA!
I’ve given it some thought, and I think that any discussions of scene chewing must include Dr. F and TV’s Frank from Angel’s Revenge. They did break Servo’s Shame-o-meter, after all… :-)
Two conflicting entries from Robot Monster. Obviously Ro-man the Ro-man from Ro-man did some fine hamfisted overacting, but there were moments when Ro-man was just strolling placidly through a wide shot and the movie’s score decided it was time for DRAMATIC MUSIC.
The votes for Toblerone (to which you can add mine) put me in mind of another Season 7 scenery-chewer: the mother in “Deathstalker” who declares, “Potatoes are what we eat!”
From Rifftrax: The guy who got the super adrenaline in Maniac and proceeded to have the mother of all spaz attacks.
Cinematic Titanic: Charlie from War of the Insects. “GENOCIDE, GENOCIDE, INSECTS!!”
Kathy Ireland in Alien from L A ,her voice almost made me go insane
the Deputy in Final Justice,you think you can take me go ahead on
Using the following criteria:
1. Main, not minor character (goes to time on screen)
2. Sheer audio volume of performance
3. Aneurysm-rupturing facial contortions
4. Severity of mood swings
5. Being a professional actor, not an amateur
The winner is… Michael Pataki, as J.C.! Congratulations to all to selected him, with trickymutha
being first out of the box! Honorable mention to John Philip Law who aced the “hamminess” category.
@ 89 I forgot about Kathy. How could I… great choice.
And still no one mentions Bella! His emoting about home in Bride of the Monster trailed the path Shatner traveled upon to the stars and beyond!Lugosi’s hypnotic technique reveals depths of acting lore-
@#64: I’m guessing you meant The Unearthly.
re 94, yes indeed I meant The Unearthly. Posting while unconscious.
re86, your comment about dramatic music made me wonder if we could nominate Albert Glasser’s scores. Pummeling us with music at all times
I vote for the lemon-thieving old folks in “The Incredible Melting Man”…one of the few genuinely enjoyable performances in a very dreary, icky film.
@ #91- Thanks!
@ #66 — “The Creeping Terror itself. Not only did it chew the scenery, but the cast as well.” Touché! Although, of course, they aided and abetted by helpfully crawling into TCT’s mouth/maw/thing.
We have to go WAY back for this one: Brian “I have a deep powerful voice and I’m going to use it!” Blessed in K10’s “Cosmic Princess”.
He wasn’t much of a scenery chewer, but I still have to nominate Red from Out of This World. His hamming it up is more over the edge than over the top, but it’s just so dang unintentionally funny that I never get sick of it.