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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Jack Palance, the drug kingpin in Angel’s Revenge.
Tickle Me Carlo Lombardi.
he gave a commanding performance that never once wavered from the original script… and the laugh still haunts me to this day.
he doesn’t like to be disappointed.
I agree with Douglas Kennedy as Joey Faust in “The Amazing Transparent Man”–interesting character, very solid performance. (Haven’t seen “Kitten w/a Whip” for a while, but I recall thinking at the time that John Forsythe must have turned in his role under heavy sedation.) I also second the actor playing Baba Yaga the witch in “Jack Frost”; that and the other Russian epics, I think, were on MST not for poor quality, but for their over-the-top scenery-chewing. Let’s see, Torgo . . . ? NO! :twisted:
feelingsquishy #98.
Actually, Quest of the Delta Knights is from the 1993. MST3K used that movie not long after the Sci-Fi Channel showed the movie on it’s own. I remember the commercials too. The announcer really made it sound like a big deal.
Just finished watching I Was a Teenage Werewolf and thought Michael Landon did a pretty good job. He was closer to being a teenager than the others. I mean, when he was werewolfing and with crepe hair glued to his face, I was convinced of his werewolfism!
very interesting topic and some intriguing choices.
like many, i think bruno vesota is a good character actor. i thought he was good in all his MSTie roles, with particularly strong performances in daddy-o and giant leeches. it’s a shame he didn’t get more opportunities in non-b movies.
i liked raul julia in memory bank (though i seem to be one of the very few who actually liked the movie!)
Jack elam is suitably creepy & disturbing in lovers lane – again, a good job by a first class character actor.
on the other hand, i’m surprised at how many people liked the performances in space travelers – i found hackman & jansson (sp) to be downright awful in that film, while gregory peck seemed to be just going through the paces half asleep. the only male actor who i thought did reasonably well was richard crenna. obviously, hackman & peck are great actors, but they both clearly show here that they are NOT good in anything. i would note that space travellers is one of my favorite MST episodes (in my top 25) but i regard it as one of the poorest movies they did, particularly because of its wasting its “big budget” & name cast.
#106, codename: diamond-tree, I have a family member who also likes Overdrawn at the Memory Bank all on its own, so while you’re in the minority, you’re not entirely alone.
Does that help?
People may disagree with me on this one but I liked Alan Hale’s performance in The Crawling Hand, mainly because he was actually in a serious role not meant to provide dopey comic relief. I liked seeing him that way.
Ditto for liking OatMB. Like Time Chasers, it’s an interesting concept, not without flaws in the execution :smile: ) but much better then a typical ScyFy “high concept” horror film where they take one “idea”, say a bunch of teenagers caught in a closed amusement park, and procede to kill them off one by one.
:roll:
All the male actors in “The Girl In Lover’s Lane” do a great job, from Big Stupid all the way down to the girl’s father who runs the diner. It’s the only movie I actually get involved in and forget about the riffs, which…troubles me.
To add to comments on Donald Pleasance: in Warrior of the Lost World he seems half asleep but Pumaman gave him something to chew on. Incidentally, while I’d never seen Sydne Rome in anything before, I knew she’d had a fairly prolific career. But she was terrible in Pumaman–I didn’t expect that.
Hm, who else…Ken Curtis as the cowardly, drunken Jerry in Attack of the Killer Shrews is more memorable than the solid but forgettable hero. It’s hard to care for the hero, but it’s pleasant to look forward to Jerry getting the snot beaten out of him.
Joe Turkel does a good job with his bit role in Tormented as the would-be blackmailer. Curiously in The Killing Turkel also plays a two-bit hood who comes to a bad end. The guy knew how to play slime.
Would you believe that Adolfo Celi made more of an impression on me in Operation Double 007 than in Thunderball? (Which I actually thought was a bit of a snooze.) Joel’s parody of Celi’s character, strutting about in a smoking jacket with a smug grin, is hilarious but damned if Celi doesn’t make it look good. Double 007 is a pretty decent movie all round, truth to tell, even if Neil Connery is as stiff as a plank.
I stick by Mitchell although I’m embarrassed I forgot about Martin Balsam.
Got to love Leslie Daniels slicing ham in The Brain that Wouldn’t Die. Honestly he and the colorless Jason Evers should have traded roles. I’m pretty sure Daniels would have done a better job trying to chat up girls, anyway.
Was Mel Torme good in Girls Town? I’m not sure what he was. You can only watch in stunned disbelief. Same with the guy who played Dirk in The Sinister Urge. Somehow he manages to be both threatening yet impossible to take seriously.
I can’t answer that question.
No performance in any MST3K film ever struck me to think “Gee, that’s a good acting performance”.
I would have to set out to find good acting performances deliberately, which I’ve never done. (but I’ll keep my eyes open for it now).
I’m sure there must be some.
I guess Richard Carlson did a good job acting scared in Tormented, but he never convinced me that he was any kind of jazz musician whatsoever, so I can’t say him.
I was impressed by Bryant Haliday’s differentness in his 2 episodes, but I won’t go out and say his acting was great.
I just can’t really pick anybody right now.
Several good choices here.
It’s pretty much a one-note character, but I do agree that Miguel Angel Fuentes (Vadinho in Puma Man) does bring a certain good-natured charm to the role. I’ve seen him in a couple other flicks playing the equivalent of Random Thug #3 and being appropriately nasty & mean.
But he’s different as Vadinho, and comes across like a guy you’d really enjoy having a beer with. That’s ‘good’ in its own way!
I’ll go way out on a limb here and argue that the reason so many of the terrible movies on MST are so much fun is that most of them have at least some good actors. Spectacularly bad performances (like Lance Fuller last week) stand out because most actors in these films are doing well. Take a movie like The Giant Spider Invasion. I’d argue that there are very few false/unpersuasive performances in it, even though the characters are stupid and icky. That is on the screenwriter, not the actors. The actors (and locals) in Giant Spider Invasion are very compelling, which is what makes the movie so disturbing.
In that vein, I’ll second the nomination of Joe Don Baker in Mitchell (he is so convincing that the crew can get away with melding the actor and the character as one for the whole episode), and add the guy who played Phantom of Krankor in Prince of Space. For a guy dressed in one of the more absurd costumes in the history of cinema, and given absurd and repetitive dialogue (“blast him!” “you scum!”), that guy really committed to the performance. It must be hard to pull off a glowering slow burn with a chicken beak glued to your face, but he pulls it off consistently.
Sydne Rome maybe couldn’t act in Puma Man, but she was pretty hot.
Wow, this one is tough!I actually think Bruno Vesotas’ acting in “Attack of the Giant Leeches” was a fairly good turn.Seems as though he and Merrit Stone(HE’S NOT MERRRIT STONE!), excuse me Gene Roth, were the only ones acting in that movie.But there is that WWWofB thang.As for an actress, Beverly Garland in “Swamp Diamonds” or “Gunslinger”.I mean it’s Beverly Garland,comeon…Comeon.
Hugo the Devil Doll. Very convincing!
Gotta say as far as performances go everyone in “Quest of the Delta Knights” wasn’t too bad. Story and production on the other hand…
Richard Lynch who played Prof. Noel in Werewolf was the only actor in the film who seemed to have any idea he was actually in a film.
The actress who played Batwoman in The Wild World of Batwoman was quite believable as Batwoman. “She brought a quiet dignity to the film.”
I also thought Teenage Crimewave, Tormented and Kitten With A Whip were all pretty well acted. However, when I first watched San Francisco International, I was very impressed with Clu Gulager’s performance. The scene where he exhibited Solomon-like wisdom in dealing with a wormy business man and a drifting hippie was pure genius. Confident and relaxed, Clu eased into his roll like a mustached actor from the seventies slides into a padded leather chair on the set of some popular cop show also from the seventies. He makes me want to go collect DVD sets of The Fall Guy. Nice work, Clu.
I previously mentioned Beverly Garland and Joyce Meadows,but you meant male actors,right?? Peter Graves and Lee Van Cleef in It Conquered the World…Michael Landon in I Was a Teenage Werewolf..Joe Don Baker in Final Justice..I think.. :roll:
1. David Kester (Giant Spider Invasion, Touch Of Satan) is always mellowed out and seems relaxed in his “craft”. He also is creepy-looking.
2.The old dad scientist was kind of good in Horror At Party Beach
3.Gerry from Squirm was good. She had that whole wide-eyed Southern girl thing going on.
-M
James Best (Roscoe P. Coltraine) from The Killer Shrews, did a good job, given his material.
Ray Adash from Future War gave a pretty good performance as the gruff police officer Captain Polaris.
Also Don Sullivan from Gila Monster and The Rebel set gave two good performances. One as the teen-hero who outperforms the sheriff.(Not hard I’ll grant you) and in Rebel Set where he played the punk who you could still feel sorry for.
It was fun seeing Adam West play a villain in Zombie Nightmare.
I agree with #123, Don Sullivan did a good job in GILA and REBEL SET. Also Chester Morris in SHE CREATURE, and Bruno veSota in LEECHES. Lastly, the guy who played Bob Hedges in TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000. He was convincing as the sceptical scientist, and had chemistry with his on-screen love interest.
I want to put another vote for Donald Pleasance in Puma Man. Supposedly he said that he could have been the next Olivier if it wasn’t for his alimony payments. He might have been thinking of this when he said that but still he’s clearly running rings around everyone else in the movie. Even in those outfits he makes a bald fat guy in a mumu seem like a coiled snake ready to strike. I also like the touch of levity he adds calling his enemy the PUmaman and when he passes the catatonic Jane on the stairs he looks at his henchman like he’s just won a bet.
How about the frog legs guy in Red Zone Cuba? He might have been just playing himself, for all we know, but he really does seem like a guy who had dreams who realizes each and every one has gone down in flames forever.
Oh , and William Sylvester in Riding with Death. I’m convinced his glasses are still dirty!