Monster of the Day #323

Updated on September 16, 2011 By Ken Begg 19 Comments

Ah, so that‘s Zamfir’s secret!

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  • Flangepart

    “How do you like me now, Little buddy?”

  • roger h

    I seem to recall people went to see this just because Vinnie Barbarino was in it or because William Shatner was in it.

  • Gamera

    There was a throw away comedy bit in ‘Airwolf’ where Dom had a goat in the hanger (?) and Katelyn heard it and thought it was a rat (rats go baa???). I had flashbacks to this movie- ‘OMG Dom is going to turn into the goat-demon-thingee- run sweet Katelyn run!!!’

  • fish eye no miko

    @Flangepart: If that’s an Alan Hale, Jr/Gilligan’s Island ref, sorry to tell you, that’s not him. It’s Ernest Borgnine.

    Ah, Devil’s Rain… it’s been years since I’ve seen that…

  • Flangepart

    @Flangepart: If that’s an Alan Hale, Jr/Gilligan’s Island ref, sorry to tell you, that’s not him. It’s Ernest Borgnine.

    Ah, Devil’s Rain… it’s been years since I’ve seen that…

    fish eye no miko said this on September 16th, 2011 at 11:52 am
    D’OH! Did it again!.
    Drat…should have said “The last thing Capt. Binghampton ever saw.”

    Capt. Kirk and Commander McHale, the plebe years.

  • roger h

    Ma, leave me alone! Ma, what do you want from me? What do you want for me? I’m miserable enough as it is. Alright, so I’ll go the Stardust Ballroom, I’ll put on the blue suit and I’ll go. And you know what I’m gonna get for my troubles? Heartache, a big night of heartache!

  • zombiewhacker

    I guess Tovah’s facial cream was no help here.

  • Rock Baker

    The Devil’s Rain was a very well-mounted production, with a great cast and nice atmosphere. Love the setting of the picture. It’s one of those I’d like to like, but it really isn’t very good when all is said and done. Oh, well.

    On a side note, I think “Little Buddy” wasn’t so much a Gilligan’s Island thing as an Alan Hale Jr. thing (so I don’t think that first line in The Giant Spider Invasion was a Gilligan joke as many assume). Hale was always big guy, and friendly to a fault, so everybody was a little buddy to him. What tipped me off was his guest spot on an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, where he kept calling Barney “little buddy” a full two years before he got the gig as “Skipper” Jonas Grumby.

  • My main problem with Alan Hale Jr. is that I absolutely hate Alan Hale Sr. as an actor. He was the blight on so many 1940s movies. “Algiers” is a great film, hurt badly by Hale Sr.’s mugging Americanisms. To compare, Stanley Fields (Carlos) is just as out-of-place, but does NOT hurt the film.

    Alan Hale Jr. is probably a more likable actor than I’m able to give him credit for. The sins of the fathers I guess.

    But I love everything about Ernest Borgnine. What a guy.He spent 6 years in the Navy, and then mustered out. But then Pearl Harbor was bombed, and he re-enlisted for the war’s duration. Unlike some other actors of the time, he didn’t get shot at or win any medals, but it wasn’t his fault. He went where he was told.

    Now we have a Hollywood in which after 10 frigging years of war, the only movie we see about the experience is The Hurt Locker. How many Korean War films were there? Pathetic.

  • fish eye no miko

    @Rock Baker: I agree; Devil’s Rain has a lot going for it, but… it’s not great. It’s one of those “I wanna like it more than I do” kinda things.

    Re: Alan Hale, Jr: Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, I can see him being the kinda guy who’d say that. Neat. (-:

  • roger h

    Borgnine reminds me of the questions I often contemplate of who has had the longest movie career. Ernie had been in film for something like 60 years, he might have it.

    There are guys like Charles Lane who went from silent to the 21st century but, they are not well known by name, face yes.

    There is also child actors like and Dean Stockwell and Russ Tamblyn who have been around since the 40s, they may have Borgnine beat but, don’t have the Oscar.

  • fish eye no miko

    Christopher Lee has also had a long, distinguished, prolific career (nearly 200 hundred films since 1948).

  • Rock Baker

    I remember seeing Borgnine interviewed on television a few years ago. He was somethig like 93 at the time! The man didn’t look far north of 50, just as sharp and spry as any one I’ve ever seen. All chuckles and that smile of his. The man has truely been blessed.

    The main thing I remeber him talking about was what made him take the McHale’s Navy part, because he didn’t want to do a series because he fancied himself a serious actor. He was talking to a kid one day, seems he was the paperboy or something, and the kid asked who he was. I think he first answered “I’m Richard Boone” and the kid said it wasn’t true because Boone starred on Have Gun, Will Travel. Ernie did a couple more false names and the kid countered with the shows they were on. That convinced Borgnine he should do a series.

  • Rock Baker

    Alan Hale Jr. also wore his Skipper duds a lot when he wasn’t working. It’s the only thing he would wear when visiting children’s hospitals and the like, I’ve heard.

  • sandra

    Rock, I hope you are wrong about the Skipper hat being ‘the ONLY thing he would wear when visitng children’s hospitals’ ! Imagine how traumatized those poor sick kids would have been !

  • Flangepart

    Yeah, Ernie was a Navy man. Like other actors, it helped his acting when he got a military role, such as THE DIRTY DOZEN.
    Speaking of which, that had a Navy (Borgnine), Two Jarheads (Ryan and Marvin)…D’oh…what other guys in that were ex-Mil?

  • zombiewhacker

    Dirty Dozen also had Richard Jaeckel (Navy, WW2). Charles Bronson and George Kennedy were also WW2 vets.

  • Flangepart

    http://www.google.com/search?q=richard+jaeckel&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=865&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=S0B3TrDXIeL10gHFssjJDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CEEQsAQ
    Dirty Dozen also had Richard Jaeckel (Navy, WW2).

    Ah, yes. A man with the humor to show up in some Jabootu worthy flicks, and still get gigs with the A list.

  • I hope they paid Ernest Borgnine enough cash to humiliate himself like this.