This idea came to me because I was struck by Chester Morris’ performance in the movie we did this week for the episode guide: 808- THE SHE CREATURE. Maybe part of it was the contrast with Lance Fuller (who wasn’t acting at ALL), but it struck me that Morris was doing something we don’t see a lot of in our movies: actually acting pretty well! His acting was also obscured by the horrible print and the nonsensical plot but, still, ol’ Chester was giving it his all.
So, this weekend, let’s hear what actor you think really showed us some acting chops in a MSTed movie. (We’ll do actresses next week.)
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Brett Halsey, aka Big Stupid in Girl in Lover’s Lane was actually pretty good.
I also liked in Ross Hagen Sidehackers and Hellcats. He is pretty good in his misted movies.
# 6 – Agree about Toblerone, kind of interesting character
#12 – Beverly was really good. Loved the scene where she goes off on the giant pickle. If you can make that believable you’re a good actress.
Here’s a few that haven’t been mentioned yet…
The witch/baba yaga in Day the Earth Froze/Jack Frost. I think he (don’t ask me to write out his name) does a fine job playing a woman/witch in both films. I’ve seen Jack Frost in the orginal Russian and he is good and a much beloved actor in Russia. Better than Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire anyway.
I also like Kevin Casey. Yes, the helmet-haired girl in Skydivers. (Never heard of a girl named Kevin before, but oh well) She seems quite natural, despite the awful lines she had to utter.
Maris Mell and Law are both well-cast and fun in Diabolik which is actually a pretty cool movie anyway.
Also, pre-bludgeoned to death by my dwarf son Susan Cabot in Viking Women. She always seems somewhat diginified despite her surroundings.
And cudos as always to Ricu Browning for making the lagoon Creature a most elegant and believable (well, kind of) monster.
Gregory Peck and Richard Crenna in Space Travelers (Marooned).
Bruno VeSota, who appeared in many of Corman’s films done by the MSTies. While a rotund chap he nevertheless was a very good character actor and wasn’t pigeonholed into “fat guy” roles.
Maximillan Schell – Hamlet.
Roddy McDowell – Laserblast.
Oh, okay Sampo, I can see… Huh?
I’m gonna stick my neck out there and nominate John Nelson (Deathstalker). Everytime I watch ep. #703, I find his portrayal of DS refreshing in that he’s no Conan or Stryder, but darnit, he gets the job done and has fun doing it. He KNOWS he’s the hero and he wants everyone to know it with his trademark “Relson” laugh and claiming he’s never encouraged women to hang on to their innocence.
And also Peter Graves in any Mst3k role, EVER.
I wasn’t going to chime in, but I want to go with two actors/three performances that I don’t believe have been mentioned yet:
Edward Platt in the Rebel Set. He plays Mr. Tucker, the night club owner/murderous priest on the train. I think putting the misogyny aside, he plays the role with subtlety, which I would imagine you have to do if you’re simply putting on a new shirt to hide from your dim-witted accomplices in order to systematically dispose of them.
Also, Don Sullivan, take a bow. Chase Winstead in The Giant Gila Monster, and George the troubled rebel in the, ahem Rebel Set. Chase Winstead actually has some depth as a character, and I find myself rooting for him as the movie goes on (I’m also rooting for the Gila Monster to a certain extent, but that’s a different story.) The George character in the Rebel Set doesn’t have to do too much besides brood, whether in the foreground or in the corner, but he does a good job of it.
Does anyone think I’m crazy?
Donald Pleasance did pretty well with the material he had to work with in Pumaman and Warrior of the Lost World. Granted, he’s no Megaweapon, but…
If we’re going for convincing performances, ala Torgo, I think I’d better recognize Jack Elam in The Girl in Lover’s Lane. I actually believe that he’s a hate-filled, unhinged psycho.
John Philip Law and whoever played MacPhearson in “Space Mutiny,” especially in their scene together in the early part of the film. Even Mike and the Bots seemed to be feeling the intensity during that scene. I was, too. I even started laughing evilly with them. Man, they were good!
I submit that EVERY actor in EVERY episode turned in at least a good performance.
Why, you ask? Look at the facts; They appeared in a movie that actually got released (or serial, or TV miniseries, etc), and THEN said cinema was released to the world again many years or decades later by a bunch of strangers with an interest in their performances.
Says it all, really…..
I actually think Richard Keil did a decent job in Eegah. If you think about it, he had to do the entire movie in pantomime, and did a pretty good job conveying just what he felt at any given moment. I’d say that after that, the best supporting job goes to Crenshaw’s suspender (Legend of Boggy Creek 2)- that’s a lot of weight for that little strap to hold up….
“I’d say that after that, the best supporting job goes to Crenshaw’s suspender (Legend of Boggy Creek 2)- that’s a lot of weight for that little strap to hold up….”
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And what if it had snapped under the weight of its responsibility! :shock:
Clint Eastwood was surprisingly Eastwoody in his Revenge of the Creature cameo. How one can manage to seem intimidating in a gag about a lost lab rat is beyond me…
But no one beats Raul Julia. The man is just plain watchable, no matter what he’s in. One gets the sense that he never allowed himself to judge the piece, or deem it beneath him. So he managed put the same quality of work into something like Overdrawn at The Memory Bank, or Street Fighter as he did Panic in Needle Park or Kiss of the Spider Woman. That guy was one of the greats. /gush
losingmydignity #52 – The witch in “Jack Frost” was a dude?! I need a shower. However, I think Louhi the witch in “Day Earth Froze” was played by a woman. But I don’t mean to split hairs. Both good nom’s.
Regarding Crenshaw and his suspender – if that little sucker HAD snapped, would it have amplified Crenshaw’s performance to the level of, say, Dennis Franz?
I will go with the norm and second a choice, that being Iggy Pop’s brother Steve Pop’s pick of Hicks as Kimar in SCCTM. He exudes authority, and can even be patient when kids STEP OVER HIS LINES!
I’m going to go with the guy who played safecracker Harry March in “High School Big Shot.” The dialogue he has with his liquor store-owner brother-in-law/ex-partner-in-crime is amusing. Actually, come to think of it, the performances all around in that movie were pretty good, it was just the boring tedium/depressingness-itivity of that film that made it suck.
Clint Eastwood in Revenge of the Creature.
I second Miguel Angel Fuentes of Puma Man. I really like him as Vidalia. Hell, he was even good just standing around in the movie Deathstalker; certainly better than that Relson guy.
Speaking of Deathstalker, I have to say that Thom Christopher was good as Troxartis. He’s a total ham, but, had he not played the character as so full of life, it would have made the movie a lot worse than it already was.
There are a lot of other good choices that have been made by others.
So, the witch in Jack Frost was a guy? I think I need a shower as well. :shock:
Donald Pleasance in Puma Man. Despite the S&M outfits, he manages to pull of a bit of menace and gravitas when states, “Your mind…and your will…belong to me…forever!”
How about Robert Easton in Giant Spider Invasion?
John Ashley had many great line reads as the lead in “Attack of the The Eye Creatures”. He’s the only one who sounds like he’s talking instead of reciting. His performance is extra courageous, since he never let on that he was terrified that his girlfriend’s spider egg sack was about to burst open at any moment.
Also, I’d like to nominate Nestor Paiva for his very different performances as the Amazon boat captain in “Return of the Creature” and Load/LeFarge in “The Mole People”. In “Creature” he was rough and confident and unafraid of the deadly nature around him. As Load, he was weak, afraid and complaining (“No food…no wuh-tuh!”) and brought no small amount of physicality to his role with chest pains and staggering. (Plus, I’ll always love him for being the voice of almost all of the foreign bad guys on “Jonny Quest”.)
“If you covered him with garbage, George Sanders would still have style.” From Celluloid Heroes, by The Kinks.
I think this applies to Basil Rathbone, as well. Even covered in The Magic Sword, he still has style.
# 71- thanks for the Kinks quote- I’ve been listening to a couple of their CD’s all week.
I named three mstie actors from Star Trek TOS- thought of two more female actors- France Nuyen (#608) and Leslie Parrish (#810) as boozed up Wisconsin white trash.
None of them.
#42 Sean: Yes you were.
Robert Easton made a go of it with both “Giant Spider Invasion” and “Touch of Satan.” Other than Luther Strickland looking exactly like the protagonist of TV’s “Danger Bay” (shout-out to Canadian MSTies) he was the most striking thing about “Touch of Satan.”
Agreed with George Pataki in “Sidehackers.” Were it not for his choice of a suitably suitably OOT performance, that movie would have been unwatchably heavy-handed.
Let’s add the gone-far-too-soon Allison Hayes to the list. She has a natural charisma about her in “The Unearthly,” as the villain in “The Gunslinger,” and as bad/good/bad/good/go/STAAAY witch in “The Undead.”
I wholeheartedly concur with the Bruno VeSota fans and I’ll throw his performance in Attack Of The Giant Leeches, especially when he’s got his wife and her lover at gunpoint in the swamp. Truly believe that he’s a man at the end of his rope and could go either way in shooting them or not shooting them. VeSota is always a welcome face in MST, as is Gene Roth, who was a believable cracker sheriff in the aforementioned Leeches as well as Earth Vs. The Spider.
Incidentally, George Pataki was the governor of New York 1999-2006. Michael Pataki was the actor from “Sidehackers” and “It Lives By Night” (not to mention his doing guest spots on both Star Trek TOS and TNG.)
I’d definitely like to second James Ryan (MacPhearson) from “Space Mutiny” and Antonio Sabato (Toblerone/Dablone) from “Escape 2000,” and both for the same reason: they hammed it up for all they were worth, and it may be because they realized they were in terrible movies and wanted to enjoy themselves. That’s what really comes across in both performances. It’s too bad MacPhearson wasn’t the main villain in Space Mutiny, because John Philip Law just can’t compete.
This is the trope we call “Ham and Cheese”.
I totally agree with #2 David Madson. Can you imagine Manos without Torgo? or even having another actor play Reynolds’ role? Was he a good actor? No. However, his performance was memorable, and its his character that keeps the viewer (well at least me) watching. To me what he did qualifies as a good performance.
Wow! After reading further down, #40 Trumpy… really explained it a lot better than I did.
I also think that the guy playing Peter Graves’ brother in Clonus was pretty good.
Peter Graves all the way.
My picks include:
Ross Hagen in Sidehackers; I like his gruff-but-gentle persona, which I think he sells pretty well.
Of course, Peter Graves and Lee Van Cleef in ‘It Conquered the World;’ they really sell their characters, especially Van Cleef (I’m also partial to Van Cleef in ‘Master Ninja;’ no, he’s not believable as a ninja, but as a wise, crusty old man he is)
Bruno VeSotta in everything; I especially like him in ‘Daddy-O’ where he’s basically playing the poor man’s Sydney Greenstreet…and making it work!
Clu Gulager in ‘Master Ninja’ and ‘San Francisco International;’ gives a nice casual performance that really makes you accept the character. Actually, most of the actors in ‘San Francisco’ were professionals.
Raul Julia, of course, and Roddy McDowall. They don’t let the fact that they’re in bad movies take away from their acting.
Bryant Haliday; he comes off as a very professional actor who has bad-luck with his roles, but still does his best (especially like him in ‘Projected Man’).
The two main actors in ‘The Deadly Bees’ are both quite good, especially Manfred.
Maximilian Schell in Hamlet does a pretty good job.
Donald Pleasance in ‘Puma Man;’ of course, Donald Pleasance is usually good, and here he actually manages to rise above the material, and what more can be said?
Edward Platt in ‘The Rebel Set;’ does a pretty good job of depicting a chessmaster effortlessly outsmarting his nit-wit underlings.
I’m sure there are plenty more, but that’ll do for now.
Iggy Pop’s Brother Steve Pop #29: For some reason, the one that immediately popped to mind was Leonard Hicks as Kimar in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (if I’m thinking of the right character… the father/leader). It may not be the best performance in the world, but I have to admire an actor who can project a certain dignity and down-to-earth/marsness in a movie like that, while wearing green facepaint and wire antennae.
It probably helped that he had a really cool cape and was the only male Martian who wasn’t a total eyesore in tights.
Della Street did try to play her character straight in The Giant Spider Invasion of Savings, but, since I’v e just rewatched it, was anyone else reminded of The Princess Bride at a certain hillside scene? :smile:(Of course, Buttercup wasn’t being chased by a number of interns carrying a giant puppet).
Since no one has mentioned him yet….
MERRITT STONE!
oh, yeah, and the guy who played Kline in The Sinister Urge.
Does anyone else think Matthew Bruch from Time Chasers did a decent job, all things considered?
#83–Sure, I’ll give you Matthew Bruch and his high level of commitment to the role. And along the lines of male MSTies admiring the charms of Allison Hayes or Mamie Van Doren, I hope you won’t think it’s crass of this female MSTie to comment that, mullet aside, Mr. Bruch had a “rockin'” body. :mrgreen:
Dare I say it? I think Miles O’Keefe did a good job as Ator. I especially like the scene from which that episode derives its stinger. “Dong, the fish is ready.” I like that line and it adds some dimension to Ator as a character. He’s not just a stoic hero, unapproachable hero, he’s a human being.
The following MST movies have some good acting in them.
1. The Corpse Vanishes
2. Pod People
3. Earth vs the Spider
4. Space Travelers
5. Teenagers from Outer Space
6. The Painted Hills
7. Swamp Diamonds
8. Gunslinger
9. The Day the Earth Froze
10. Overdrawn at the Memory Bank
The rest are mediocre at best, and very bad as a norm. Period!
Any questions
I’d like to nominate Jorge Rivero (George Rivero) as Yuri in “Werewolf”. He played a mad scientist / total physco so well, you could almost hear the hisses from the theater. Also R.C. Bates as Sam the keeper. As good as a grizzled old man as Crenshaw, without the thought of a potential wardrobe malfunction.
On a different tack, I would like to nominate Lassie as Shep in The Painted Hills. Against all of the other rotten actors, Lassie stole the show. Include also Xerxes from the Atomic Brain and Chris from Revenge of the Creature who easily out acted John Agar. (King didn’t make the cut.)
Since someone above mentioned Time Chasers (which I will defend in the future—, no, really :???: ) here’e some Wikipedia info:
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” The production was shot in the Rutland, Vermont area in summer 1990, though it has a distinctive assortment of mid-1980s cultural artifacts, sets, and props. It was made on a $150,000 budget by 20-year old director David Giancola and his company Edgewood Studios. The film initially lost money, but licensing fees for its 1997 Mystery Science Theater 3000 appearance took its earnings out of the red.
Some sources claim that the GenCorp executive’s desk is actually at the top of the stairs at Castleton State College near Rutland, but other sources claim it was filmed at the Rutland Opera House; director David Giancola says that “[i]t was a combination of both the offices and studios of radio station WJJR 98.1 and The Howard Bank. The grocery store scene was shot inside Martins, an actual grocery chain which eventually became Hannafords and moved to another part of town. The former Martins site (formerly the Rutland Mall) is now where Big Lots exists, inside the Home Depot complex. The exteriors were of the local power utility, VELCO.”[1] When heckling it, the MST3K crew lampooned it as being in a public library and featuring a “giant circus mirror.”
For the showing on MST3K, the cast and crew had a reunion party to view the lampooning. MST3K star Mike Nelson claims that some at the party were not happy at the mocking, in particular Peter Harrington. Director Giancola said they all “laughed their asses off,” but also admitted that some people at the time “took it a bit too seriously.”
A sequel to Time Chasers has been announced as being in early pre-production. The title for the sequel is Time Chasers 2 – Nick of Time which was taken from a fan made poster submitted to Edgewood studios.[
Time Chasers 2 – Nick of Time is a TERRIFIC title for a sequel. Hopefully the taxi driver whose part got mostly snipped by MST3K will get a bigger role, and I will remind you that North is not a destination.
Why has no one mentioned Chuck B Pierce?!? It takes talent to tell a poop story like his.
The guy who played Roscoe on The Dukes Of Hazard, as the lead in “The Killer Shrews”. I was going to add an “also” but I can’t think of another. I’ll go with Gregory Peck as well.
Good points all, but what about some props for Tor Johnson. His range was narrow, but no one else could play a mute hulking mound of flesh like he could. And when he said, “Time for go to bed”, I was completely convinced.
Also Burgess Merideth turned in some good performances in the KTMA season.
Come to think of it both SST-Deathflight and City on Fire had some good actors and performances.
I just watched Roscoe P. Coltrane in this revenge flick from the 70s, Rolling Thunder, starring William DeVane and Tommy Lee Jones. Dark, man, dark.
On another note, I am always in awe as people rally around Time Chasers, and am in utter amazement that it is even mentioned during this week’s discussion. I wish I could slap someone in cyberspace. Matthew Bruch’s performance in TC literally makes my stomach ache.
Dean #69 You know, the more I learn about Robert Easton’s career, the more intrigued with him I become. Wiki says he was born in Milwaukee, which makes his role in “Giant Spider Invasion” all the more interesting.
Lots of good, thoughtful answers here.
Keeping away from well-known good actors, I second Happy Chef from “I Accuse My Parents,” Marv from “High School Big Shot,” Bruno VeSota in “Giant Leeches” (did anybody nominate him for that role yet?
Lots of others, already mentioned.
I liked John Carradine in Red Zone Cuba. His gloomy odd deep mysterious persona really lightened up the film.
Yeah, John Carradine is pretty good. I thought poor Donald Pleasance really phoned in WOTLW and Puma Man… and I felt sorry for him, too. He deserved better. But the only time I can remember being impressed by an actor in an MST3K episode was watching Tormented. Richard Carlson actually did a great job! I found myself caring about the doomed lug by the end, and that takes talent when you’re talking about a would-be child murderer.
I’ll second David Warner in Quest of the Delta Knights and actually the kid wasn’t too bad either. Gotta love bad 80’s movies but they do seem to be having fun with it.
I also have to give props to Rowsdower, Troy and of course, their angry nemesis who took a pretty derivative movie and did their best to make it work. Final Sacrifice is one of my all time fave episodes and you have to appreciate what they managed with such a hokey plot.
How can there be no mention of Lovejoy? Ian McShane is about the only thing that makes Codename: Diamnondhead watchable. Not only is he a skilled actor that make a silly disguise work, but he spies rings around the lead character, who only catches him because of some hobo informant who Diamond dunce shouts at. If the pilot had been focused on ‘Tree’ it might have become a series.
Agree with the Bruno Vesota fans. Compare his characters in Daddy-O, Gunslingers and Leeches. For a MST Actor, he had some range.
I like Harvey B Dunn, even though he’s not very good. I just like him.
I’m probably insane, but I liked the chemistry between Van Cleef and Van Patten, even if again they were not very good.