We’ve covered good acting performances in bad MST movies, but how about “Non-Acting Bright Spots in Otherwise Horrible Movies”? It could be particularly beautiful scenery, a surprisingly well-done camera shot, music, good special effects, etc.
I thought of this the other night when watching “The Sky Divers.” When the dancing starts at the party, the first girl is an AWESOME dancer. She’s the one in the striped top wearing a wide headband in her hair, and she’s really got those 1960s dance moves down.
And continuing in a Coleman Francis mode, two words to say about “The Beast of Yucca Flats” — the bunny.
Two words: The Platters.
Your pick?
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“Ace of Spades.” Nuff said.
that is a good scene. I have a thing for Sister Ann, she reminds me of a young Madonna (the singer). Very cute and appealing in this movie. #1 thing I look forward to when I start to watch it.
Giant Gila Monster –
The hot rods! Those genuine, out of somebody’s garage, flat head V8 sleds were way cool. Somebody put a lot of work into those model As and early V8 roadsters.
Lupita in Santa Claus. She is so stinkin’ cute.
And I always liked Tina in Horror of Party Beach. She got eaten by toxic sludge monsters way too soon.
Who didn’t grow up with Unchained Goddess and Hemo the Magnificent, at some point in their elementary-school years?
Goofballs or not, he was an admitted influence on the early Beatles.
I’ve always been fond of John Williams’ jazzy score from Daddy-O.
Going back to the KTMA era, “Cosmic Princess” features two of the lesser episodes of “Space:1999”. But the visual effects are very good, especially the Eagle crash in the hangar the second ep- I mean, the second half of the “movie”.
And okay, I’ll say it–I’ve got a thing for cheap 80’s synth soundtracks, and sorta liked the “Music From Some Guys in Space” Pod People soundtrack (at least the cuddly Vangelis-esque “Boy and his hellbeast” main theme)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7rv__TWRVE
Torgo’s theme music from Manos is genuinely creepy. Reminds me of John Carpenter’s theme for Halloween.
I always liked the chase through the trainyard at the end of The Rebel Set. There were some really creative touches there. I really think the director took good advantage of the location.
The cinematography in VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS is really quite decent. As are the pre-CGI special effects. Plus the Beau Brummels are a great band.
Goshzilla: How’s that for a Weekend Discussion: types of movies we hope to see in the new season? Personally, I’ll be a bit disappointed if we don’t get a ’70s made-for-TV movie or failed pilot.
Sorry I disagree, I hope they never do a movie like that.
Since KTMA was mentioned above, The Film Crew’s Hollywood After Dark
had some interesting (if downbeat) locations, starting with the junkyard
(LA has junkyards?), the rather dingy beach scenes, and the glimpsed in passing businesses
by the shore. Reminds you in a way of a scene at the end of Genevieve (1953) (old car
race to Brighton) where you see things like trolley tracks near the Thames. It’s almost
like taking a tardis trip to the early 1950s since things are so changed now. And at the time
was just filmed as general background—no thought of a history type preservation.
Already been said, but Mary Beth Hughes’ musical numbers in I Accuse My Parents were delightful. The songwriters would go on to win three Oscars.
Diabolik is a gorgeously shot movie with a great Morricone score. Too bad about the writing and the awful English dub.
two words:
Sid Melton.
as for The Platters, I love Doo Wop and 1950’s music.
Carol Connors, the cute singer in Catalina Caper (and she could really sing, too). Her band only had one hit according to IMDB (that was three years before Catalina Caper, and by the time that movie was released, they were already breaking up), but she did go on to co-write “Gonna Fly Now” — the theme from ROCKY!
Totally agree! She also did a darn good job for a child of her age. I’m not sure if her voice in English was dubbed, but if it was, the kid who dubbed her also did a good job.
Love 1950’s and 60’s jets, so Starfighters and Deadly Mantis are favorites. Plus I just can’t get enough air to air refueling scenes!!
I am in total agreement here.
Angelika Jager is definately worth some prurient ogling. Especially in the unedited version of Robot Holocaust. Hummana hummana!
yeah, Lupita!
Operation Double 007 managed to get the actual M and Moneypenny, Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell, even if they did not use those names for their characters.
On a related note, how about any time a movie features some big name actor before or after their big break, such as Peter Graves in Beginning of the End, Robert Vaughn in Teenage Caveman, or Roddy McDowall in Laserblast? This pretty much guarantees decent acting on their part as well as lots of riffs from their entire careers, making the episode all the more enjoyable.
One of the very, very few ideas in Manos that was clever and executed decently well was the “this movie lapped itself!” structure, bookended by Michael and his family coming up to Torgo Lodge at the start, and then another car coming upon the lodge with [spoilers!] Michael having replaced Torgo.
there are a lot of them in San Francisco International too.
Perhaps it’s my tolerance for crappy folk from the 60s, but I agree with Farmland about Chris Howard and the Third World. The song they played during Michelle’s first night dancing is actually pretty catchy, provided you actually manage to hear the lyrics through the terrible sound mixing.
Other halfway decent music includes the score of “I Accuse My Parents” (though mostly mismatched with the film) and the downright groovy end theme to “Final Justice”.
I challenge the notion that there was nothing good about “Monster A-Go Go”! Chris’ wife in the restaurant actually seemed fairly casual and sweet, and I’d at least believe that she had known Chris for some time in her life, if not them being married. Her performance was probably the best in the film, even if it topped out at a minute. So there.
The music in Manos is pretty good jazz, especially the song over the closing credits, “Forgetting You,” sung by Nicki Mathis. I often find myself humming bits of the soundtrack after I watch the movie.
I absolutely love the string arrangement in the Squirm closing theme. You just have to drown out the shadow lady and the terrible lyrics. She’s not a half bad singer either. Just pay attention to the strings. They’re beautiful.
I’m in on the Beast of Yucca Flats and the rabbit too.
You know where the fish lives? That pond and surrounding area always captivates me. Then Satan butts in. The Sulfer River where Crenshaw and the Boggies live is another favorite.
When Mitchell goes to make the deal at Golano’s/Mestrada’s/Dini’s house in Calabasas you can clearly see in the surrounding area there are barely any houses there. It doesn’t look like that anymore. I love that moment in time captured on film.
I too agree with Farmland about Chris Howard and the Third World. They were a very decent bar/coffeehouse band, and their music was snappy. I also agree that the relationship between Sister Ann and Fred Borroughs was well done and I wouldn’t have minded seeing a film about how Sister Ann and Fred’s relationship prior to Future War. I liked the character of Lt. Polaris in Future War as well, he seemed to be a decent cop, and person. I mentioned in our discussion of RZC, but I’ll say it again, Night Train to Mundo Fine was a pretty good song. I also think that the way Dr. Lorensz captured the brides, and sneaks them past the roadblock in The Corpse Vanishes to be pretty clever. Also, that writer of Hamlet? He’s pretty good.
I heard the soundtrack online once. Some fine jazz that really seems out of place in the move.
Oh well…I’m sure the Master would approve.
Let’s not forget Clint Eastwood in Revenge of the Creature.
Many times I’lll watch a movie just to see life in the background. Watching Bullit is cool to see old San Francisco.
I definitely second this. She had one of the most central roles in the movie, particularly toward the end – it’s always a risk when you’re relying on a child actor so heavily like that, but she absolutely knocked it out of the park. Her realistic acting is likely why Joel & the bots get so pulled into the movie (“This is one dark mama-jama of a movie, guys”), and for me Sandy’s character arc ultimately makes this movie work, despite its faults.
A few that come to mind:
1. The soundtrack to Pod People. I love the “Music from Some Guys in Space” host segment, but this is actually a really cool, minimalist soundtrack. I managed to isolate the intro theme as an .mp3, and it works with in a playlist with “Stranger Things,” “Beyond the Black Rainbow,” and other recent 80s inspired soundtracks (not to mention the M83 album with the Trumpy-looking monster on the cover).
2. Echoing what Gobi (#28) said, I love the footage of the Strip in “Girl in Gold Boots.” It’s a bit like watching a documentary.
3. I love some of the fantastical imagery in the Russo-Finnish movies. So incredibly bizarre and wondrous.
4. “Wait’ll I Get You Home, Girl” from “Daddy-O.” Contino’s no Elvis, but this performance is really intense and weirdly aggressive. You don’t know if he’s gonna smack Gloria Victor or kiss her.
5. Not an MST, but I love the cinematography on “Alien Factor,” from Cinematic Titanic. There’s a shot of kids playing on a hill with the sun behind them that is a genuinely beautiful and affecting shot.
In Warrior of the Lost World. When the Paper Chase guy snipers the guards on the smoke stacks, rather than just spray and prey at them with his SMG set at full auto. The film takes the time to show him switch his SMG to semi-auto, and unfold the stock and actually aims at the guards with the sights. Pretty rare for even a well made A action film to do that let alone a B Action movie ripoff.
And on a similar but completely different note, ya gotta admire the way Trash takes down a helicopter with one shot from a revolver. As far as action scenes go, that’s BOLD.
Chris Howard and the Third World
I thought Bob did a legitimately good Frankenstein’s monster impression while they were exiting the movie theater in “Terror From the Year 5000”.
Parts: The Clonus Horror is an awesome premise.
Cupcake from “Riding with Death” is cute.
Eva (Ava?) from “Agent From H.A.R.M.” — 11/10
A couple of the quick closeups in “Prince of Space” reminded me of the Maul, Kenobi, Qui-Gon lightsaber battle.
The beginning car scene in “Horror of Party Beach”.
The guy that played The Great Vorelli in “Devil Doll” put in a pretty good performance, IMO.
The Birds in “Deadly Bees”.
One of the songs that the triangle-butted dancers danced to in “Final Justice”.
Oh yeah, she was definitely easy on the eyes.
Boggy Creek 2 had some pretty music in its soundtrack.
BTW, do we get RAM chips for finding the good things in these movies? :)
Jimmy Bryant from Skydivers! He’s like Robert Fripp playing rockabilly.
At the end of Beginning of the End the shots of downtown Chicago, although I can’t help but feel
that Peter Graves was somehow partially responsible for them.
There’s been some speculation that Mary Beth Hughes was dubbed by Martha Tilton (the internet, as per usual, is inconsistent on this), but either way, the nightclub scenes (and MBH) were the best parts of IAMP.
Not being pedantic with that little “factoid”, by the way. Just find it interesting that there’s been some doubt cast, and no one is around anymore who can verify/debunk it. It was certainly a common practice back in those days…
Had a few posts here, let me add one more.
When the creature was walking around outside in the storm at the end of Boggy Creek II, I felt a little bit of the panic that Leslie felt. I thought they built that tension up pretty well.
I thought Peter Breck’s wacked-out performance in “The Beatnicks” (#415) kept that movie from being a complete bore.
Lots of discussion about soundtracks and such, but another thing I enjoy (as per the discussion topic) are genuinely touching moments in these movies. I suggested this type of WDS to Sampo a few weeks ago.. but I guess he doesn’t think I’m neat. Even though I’m full of turtle meat. (Well.. actually at the moment I’m full of a chicken taco salad.. but I digress):
Two scenes that really stand out for me as being genuinely touching and well-acted:
– I don’t remember his name, but in the original Hercules, when they’re discussing heading out to find the Golden Fleece, one of the characters says this rather poignant line: “The poets will write of this day, when we found the Golden Fleece.. or disappeared into the silence beneath us.. ” I’ve always loved his delivery on that.
– But perhaps the most poignant of all is Silver Morgan’s transformation. She is placed in the home for wayward girls, she lives with her crazy aunt, she has no parents, and ‘mother’ is a dirty word to her… but at the end, after seeing that there truly are caring, good people in the world, she hugs Mother Superior, and says “Goodbye… Mother.” It actually makes me a little teary watching that part.
Gare
That big pneumatic blond gal from Horror of Spider Island was … interesting.
Max Schell’s performance is fascinating to me. I especially love how he delivers “I loved Ophelia!” Sends a chill down my spine every time.
One I want to share on my mother’s behalf is she likes the song California Lady.
And Raul Julia…to this day I still have no idea what’s going on in Overdrawn but it’s still fun to watch him.
I’ve mentioned it before here, but I totally find the title character in The Deadly Mantis bossin’ cool. It isn’t a good effect, strictly, because I’m never convinced that’s an actual praying mantis (except for the one shot where it’s climbing the Washington Monument and they use a real praying mantis), but it’s one of those bad effects that circles around to being really cool-looking and strangely captivating to watch. Other than that, for me, when a bad movie has a good element, it’s usually some piece of soundtrack (Village of the Giants, City Limits), an actor I like showing up (Dan O’Herlihy in Invasion USA, Richard Kiel’s myriad appearances) or a cute girl that tickles my fancy (Joy Harmon in VotG, the judo range lady in Agent for HARM). That’s all I have to say, I guess.
Sampo, like Santa, dispenses gifts to all in the form of Weekend Discussion Threads, This Day in MSTery, and innumerable other MST3k posts. However, unlike Santa he cannot give the gift of posting every MSTie’s idea that he receives. An example – I was actually full of turtle meat myself after an excellent meal of creole turtle soup and homemade cornbread in Morgan City, Louisiana. In spite of this neither Sampo nor Gamera immediately commented which, come to think of it, may have had more to do with the fact that I did not tell either of them about it. C’est la vie, mon ami.
In Boggy Creek 2, Jimmy Clem’s performance as Crenshaw is great. That whole sequence at Crenshaw’s house feels like Charles Pierce found some backwoods hillbilly and convinced him to be in his movie.
Godzilla vs. Megalon is great once Godzilla finally shows up.