Trek guest actors in maybe surprising roles
- Thread starter Maurice
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While I remember that such a movie existed, and I'm pretty sure I actually watched it when it was new, I can't seem to remember anything at all about it -- there's just a complete blank. I've seen George Segal do good work in other movies, but he sure seemed to do a lot of really awful comedies during that period (Carbon Copy, for example, which featured Denzel Washington in his first theatrical film role.)So I'm sitting here on my sofa, aghast, jaw on the ground, simply unable to peel my eyes away from this absolute trainwreck of a "comedy" called The Black Bird (1975).It is a "humorous" (actually painfully unfunny) sequel to John Huston's masterful film version of The Maltese Falcon (1941), starring George Segal as the son of Dashiell Hammett's celebrated private detective Sam Spade.
The Outer Limits reboot from the early 90's remade that episode with David McCallum.
He had a dramatic top-billed turn in ROLLERCOASTER with Richard Widmark. It's one of the less typical disaster movies. I played it for my neighbor two weeks ago. About one-third of the film is set in the then-new Kings Dominion amusement park.
Watched the Outer Limits ep "The Production and Decay of Strange Particles" (whew) just now. Lotsa guests.
Joseph Ruskin, Rudy Solari, Leonard Nimoy and Barry Russo (billed as John Duke). The plot concerns a runaway nuclear reactor and intelligent interdimensional particles dissolving the human operators and inhabiting their radiation suits. Yeah. Ruskin is the first to go. Nimoy - ready? - Nimoy dons a rad suit and rushes into the critical reactor room to save him, but is taken over himself. He should have saved the suit, it'd be handy a couple decades later. Russo seems to just be there to drop off some wives. Rudi makes it through (I think - I drifted off near the end). The mechanical hands are just part of his rad suit.
Joseph Ruskin, Rudy Solari, Leonard Nimoy and Barry Russo (billed as John Duke). The plot concerns a runaway nuclear reactor and intelligent interdimensional particles dissolving the human operators and inhabiting their radiation suits. Yeah. Ruskin is the first to go. Nimoy - ready? - Nimoy dons a rad suit and rushes into the critical reactor room to save him, but is taken over himself. He should have saved the suit, it'd be handy a couple decades later. Russo seems to just be there to drop off some wives. Rudi makes it through (I think - I drifted off near the end). The mechanical hands are just part of his rad suit.
Coincidentally, just last week on YouTube a couple did a reaction video to that movie.
I've known about it, and might have even seen it on tv at some point in the past, but I was surprised to see Timothy Bottoms as the terrorist, a young Helen Hunt as the daughter and Sparks as part of the parks opening ceremony.
I hadn't remembered Helen Hunt, but that movie made the regular rounds as a cable movie in the late 1970s / early '80s -- saw it several times.
I didn't know about this movie until this clip was posted on another forum. Here's William Shatner, Andy Griffith, Robert Reed and Marjoe Gortner in a made for tv movie called 'Pray for the Wildcats.'
And they're wearing division colors as well.
And they're wearing division colors as well.
Saw that one first run. Fun seeing Sherriff Taylor, Captain Kirk and Mr. Brady take a dark turn.
That clip is one long cringe. Griffith is terrible. Plus, he and Shatner have so much anti-chemistry, it takes me right out of the story. After Griffith aggressively grabs Shatner's neck, Shatner retaliates by slapping Griffith's ribs way too hard.
They're like two former TV leads who can't get it through their heads that this is an ensemble piece. They're like bucks slamming antlers to establish dominance. And it doesn't seem like the intentional, layered characterization of a finely observed human portrait. It seems like bad acting.
I'd like to know if there's an explanation as to why they're wearing those faux-Star Trek uniforms. That cannot be an accident. They even matched Shatner up with his Kirk uniform color.
There's a clip from Pray for the Wildcats that people thought for years was test footage for Star Trek: Phase II, due to the costumes:
I'm wondering if those shirts were the costume equivalent of stunt casting, so promos for the movie would reel in Star Trek fans— like an insurance policy to make sure Shatner's pre-sold audience would recognize him.
Also, I'm surprised Andy Griffith agreed to the gimmick, except that this was a period in his career when he had fallen from stardom and didn't think he should turn down work. Griffith said he got Matlock by dressing for business and sitting in his agent's waiting room, all day every day. The agent finally went to bat and got him a series just to get rid of him.
Watched the Outer Limits ep "The Production and Decay of Strange Particles" (whew) just now. Lotsa guests.
Joseph Ruskin, Rudy Solari, Leonard Nimoy and Barry Russo (billed as John Duke). The plot concerns a runaway nuclear reactor and intelligent interdimensional particles dissolving the human operators and inhabiting their radiation suits. Yeah. Ruskin is the first to go. Nimoy - ready? - Nimoy dons a rad suit and rushes into the critical reactor room to save him, but is taken over himself. He should have saved the suit, it'd be handy a couple decades later. Russo seems to just be there to drop off some wives. Rudi makes it through (I think - I drifted off near the end). The mechanical hands are just part of his rad suit.
OMG FIVE - I totally missed Robert Fortier!
How did he get Salvage 1?
He didn't say.
My mistake - I meant to say Bob Justman!
I never knew that. I thought he was just a producer. He was also a design artist? That's wild.
Yeah they look like they're all wearing off the rack Donmoor Star Trek shirts from the mall with the insignia removed!
I don't think they were overacting or being personally actor-dominant, I feel more like two guys who are putting on a good face to diffuse a situation but barely hiding their own hostility.
But then again, I tend to give Shatner more credit than most and it's been 35 or 40 years since I've seen a broadcast of this one. I think a 4:30 movie showing on channel 7.
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