Well, they weren't always that bad . . .

[optiMSTie]

Howdy there!

I haven’t seen that, but I’ll have to make it a point to set some time aside to check that out. That sounds fun as hell, the guy going through all the franchises like that.

Thanks so much for passing that along my way!

[Petrichor]

I watched the Cool as Ice Rifftrax the other day, and I was intrigued by the jokes they were making regarding the director of photography, so I looked him up. His name is Janusz Kaminski and, after being the DP on Cool as Ice, he went on to be the DP for movies like Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, and a bunch of other Spielberg pictures including the recent West Side Story and the upcoming movie The Fabelmans.

Seriously, what a resume: Janusz Kaminski - IMDb

[Spacelamb]

My pleasure!

[Garth_Vader]

@Mr_Sack

The director, David Winters, is an accomplished dancer, choreographer, and actor, originating the role of Baby John in the original production of West Side Story and later recast as A-Rab in the 1957 film production.

And he has a small but significant role in the 2015 movie he directed, Dancin’: It’s on!, which has recently given a thorough RiffTrax treatment.

[Some-who-call-me-Tim]

I loved the Poe films, and enjoyed The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. And some of his produced films are guilty pleasures, like Battle Beyond the Stars.

[SpaceTimC]

John DeLancie, who played the wormy husband, of course goes on to be terrific as Q in various Star Trek episodes.

[moviegique]

Oh, that could be one of my awkward celebrity encounters, I guess. I was snooping around the ST:TNG soundstage in the summer of '87 and almost smacked right into him.

[NatalieShark]

I think Jack Frost is surprisingly watchable. It’s nuts, but it’s also kinda interesting.

[Spacelamb]

Agreed, it’s got loads of very weird fairy tale charm.

[NatalieShark]

Yeah, it feels almost educational at that point. It also inspired a lifelong love of Baba Yaga and her chicken house in me.

[AndrewCrossett]

Those Finno-Russian movies would probably be perfectly fine if you watched them with the original dialogue, and could understand it. Subtitled, even.

[Tim_Sandaele]

I’ve watched The Day the Earth Froze in its restored edition, under its original title, Sampo. I didn’t even need dubbing or subtitles, which is good, because it didn’t have them. It’s actually quite good. And it looks gorgeous.

[duaneiac]

Ken Curtis. In addition to being the bestus Festus there ever was, Mr. Curtis also had a beautiful singing voice. He could have simply lulled those killer shrews to sleep, allowing every one to escape from the island. Would have been a better movie than what we got.

Shep Fields and His New Music feat Ken Curtis - The Whistler's Mother-In-Law

Everybody's Dancin' - Room Full Of Roses

Ripcord - Red River Valley

[CPFace]

And he was Digger Smolkin in The Undead!

I like his performances, he did good.

[optiMSTie]

@AndrewCrossett

This got me wondering… how many Academy Award-winning actors have appeared in MST3k-riffed movies, either before or after their wins?

@optiMSTie

Let’s see… in addition to Lee Grant (winning for Shampoo ) from Space Travelers , we know we’ve got:

• Ernest Borgnine (won for Marty , appeared in Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders )
• James Earl Jones (won an honorary Oscar in 2012, appeared in City Limits )
• Gregory Peck (won for To Kill a Mockingbird , appeared in Space Travelers )
• Maximilian Schell (won for Judgment at Nuremberg , appeared in Hamlet )
• Gene Hackman (won for The French Connection and Unforgiven , appeared in Space Travelers )
• Christopher Plummer (won for Beginners , appeared in Starcrash )
• Martin Balsam (won for A Thousand Clowns , appeared in Mitchell )
• Jack Palance (won for City Slickers , appeared in Outlaw , Angels Revenge , and H.G. Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come )

That’s just onscreen talent and doesn’t get into the folks who worked behind the scenes.

That’s also just for performances, so that doesn’t take folks into account like Ron Howard (won for directing and producing A Beautiful Mind , appeared in Village of the Giants ) or Clint Eastwood (won for directing and producing Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby , appeared in Revenge of the Creature ).

Plus that’s only the nationally run episodes. If we take the KTMA years into account, that also gives us Martin Landau (won for Ed Wood , appeared in Cosmic Princess ) and Henry Fonda (won for On Golden Pond , appeared in City on Fire ).

Oh, I almost forgot!

You also had Jonathan Demme, who played a bit part in The Incredible Melting Man and would go on to win Best Director for The Silence of the Lambs.

[CLANG_Potroast]

Carol Connors, who sang “The Book of Love” in Catalina Caper, co-wrote the theme from Rocky. So she was part of an Oscar-nominated team, at least.

Honestly “Book of Love” is competently sung. At least Connors isn’t completely undone by terrible sound. The way that poor Mary Wells was in the opening theme.

[optiMSTie]

@CLANG_Potroast

Carol Connors, who sang “The Book of Love” in Catalina Caper , co-wrote the theme from Rocky . So she was part of an Oscar-winning team.

Oh, wow, how about that? Best of both worlds!

This was brought up in the dedicated thread for I Accuse My Parents, but story writer Arthur Caesar has an Oscar to his name, too:

@RyanLohner

This film’s writer Arthur Caesar also wrote the novella which was turned into Manhattan Melodrama, ie the film John Dillinger was killed at. And because of the way the Oscars worked back then, he even got to share in its Best Adapted Screenplay win despite not actually being involved with the film.

[CLANG_Potroast]

Sorry. I had to change my original post because “Evergreen” from A Star Is Born was the actual winner that year. :o

[optiMSTie]

@CLANG_Potroast

Honestly “Book of Love” is competently sung.

I rather enjoyed it.

[optiMSTie]

Also from that I Accuse My Parents thread:

@Sitting_Duck

The songs Kitty sings were written and composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, who would later win a Best Song Oscar for “Que Sera, Sera” in The Man Who Knew Too Much .