Movies over the years have left us with many memorable characters...
Like Robert DeNiro's character in Taxi Driver...or Darth Vader...Indiana Jones...and even the likes of Freddy and Jason...
But who do you think is the best B-Film character ever?
Myself, I have to side with the mighty Father McGruder...he has it all, a true showman!
Second to him is the bible salesman from "Beware: Children At Play".
Ash all the way. "Groovey"
It just has to be the mighty, vengeful basketball with arms - BELIAL!
Ash, definitely, as well as Herbert West, Derek from Bad Taste, and Dwight Frye as Renfield. Also, while he's more obscure, I don't think many people who have seen "Manos: The Hands of Fate" will forget Torgo any time soon.
Tor Johnson, while not a good actor, certainly is the first thing that pops to MY mind when the phrase "most memorable" comes up --
This thread brings up the question again of just what IS a "B" movie these days -- The Ash pictures, while culty and all that, are, by the old definition, "A" pictures in that they were not made to be shown as the opening film on a double-bill.
If we are to call, say, the output of the Hammer studio as "B" material -- and they were frequently paired up as double-features, though both would be of equal quality -- then how could we not say Christopher Lee's vampire incarnations are in the running for "Best B-Film Character"?
Same for Dwight Frye as Renfield -- Dracula was decidedly an A feature when it came out in '31 -- probably some Monogram oater & a Flash Gordon serial, along with newsreels & several Felix the Cat cartoons ran before Mr. Lugosi or Mr. Frye were revealed to a breathless public.
I know it seems to be sort of splitting hares -- Double Lepis!! -- , but "B-Film" should have more meaning than just "weird films we all like here". Some of the films we discuss here are B's, but very many are not.
What say we all?
Ash, of coarse, and Bud the zombie from Day of the Dead coming in a close second.
I always liked the Crimson Executioner from "Bloody Pit of Horror". No one could be more over the top than that, no one else is physically strong enough.
Here are some of my favorites:
Suicide from return of the living dead
Santo (Samson in the dubbed versions)
Montag the magician- Wizard of gore
Belial - Basket case
the crimson executioner - bloody pit of horror (love those over dramatized lines. Very surprised someone else mentioned this guy besides myself.)
Paul Naschy as the wolfman
Tarman in return of the living dead
Dr Tongue in day of the dead (yeah just a puppet and only on the screen for less then a minute but still very memorable.
Alan from Children shouldn't play with dead things
etc, just to name a few of my choices
Sex Machine in From Dusk Til Dawn. Man, I wish I had a gun like that.
What constitutes a "B" movie is a hard one to call. The double-bills of the 60s and 70s (eg Straw Dogs/Soldier Blue) - which is the "B"? Are Bs just any non-mainstream movie? Are all independently made movies Bs? My definition would be any movie that is not on the regular release schedule, although of course many so called A-list movies turn out to be anything but.
Don't forget Attitude. A B-film is as mush the spirit and attitude behind it, as the cost of production. And that is harder to define. some films, like J-Park2, The Lost World, are B's even when they think thier A's. Or A- holes...but i digress.....my point is, a film can be...well, a B, even when it has the right amount of A production values. Indiana Jones 1 and 3 best capture that for me. And thats good. The fun element is what makes a B film good, even if the production values could have been better. Dai Kaiju Eigah, anyone? Ya' gotta admit, Gamera and Godzilla do have Attitude!
They sho' do - big Godz. especially. Attitude and the spirit behind the flick are also important ingredients. Breadline budgets would also help, in the sense that poverty-row movie makers have nothing to lose.
Yes, I think the definition of B-movie has been expended somewhat to include any film that, intentionally or otherwise, captures the spirit of a B-movie. Today, the only place in the mainstream movie business I regularly see double features are at the drive-in, and the opening flick there is simply an "A-picture" that's a few weeks old. Perhaps the B-movies of today are the ones that get relegated to the slow season between Christmas and May 2-4 (Memorial Day to Americans), the limited releases, and the direct-to-video releases.
I personally prefer the broader, more inclusive definition, that a movie with the qualities (or lack thereof) of the true B-movies can be, perhaps, an "honourary B-movie."
I just caught "Hercules vs. the hydra" a.k.a "The Loves of Hercules" (note:He doesn't love the hydra). It has Mickey hargitey (aka the Crimson Executioner) and Jayne Mansfield who has a dual role (he hehe). I'd seen in on one of those worst movies ever lists and would agree with whoever it was that said he was a terrible Hercules. He's got all the muscle but no class. Still, it was fun with a ridiculous hydra and guys turning into trees and stuff.
I must say that Father McGruder rates high on my scale, along with Ash, but my favorite is Lash LaRue's character "Ranger Girard" in
The Dark Power."Feel my whip you son of a b***h!"
(Said to an undead Toltec Sorcerer.)
Andrew
So, okay, we get a possible definition here in the form of SPIRIT. Fine. I can live with that.
Indeed, by this definition, we have a vast fake ouvre category to explore: That of the "Intentionally Bad". Isn't all of the Troma output to be included here? What about Fred Olen Ray?
Okay, so if it's intentionally bad B, then it's one of ours.
I dunno -- doesn't seem quite right, somehow --
It seems to me that the real Bad Movies that give the most pleasure would only be those which were originally made to be considered as actually GOOD movies that somehow went wrong.
Andrew . . . Oh, Andrew. . . We call to you. . . What is our boundry? Please define . . .
i only need 2 words-bruce campbell
Hey, Welcome back,Andrew! P.J. raises a good point. I think the deliberatly bad movies should be in a sub-section of their own. The best bad films, And i'm talkin' MST fodder here, are the pretentious ones that don't realise they have a booger on their figurative mustach. THAT makes a good/bad film. After all, what better foil for, say, Groucho Marx, then Margret DuMont. The Perfect straitwoman. Groucho:" Darling, you may think me silly, but could i have a lock of your hair?" M.D.: "A lock of my hair? why i'v never.". Groucho:" I'm letting you off easy, i was gonna' ask for the whole wig."
Jack Burton
I think I might want to reconsider the word 'intentional.' You make a good point about the intentionally bad movies. I don't particulary like Troma films either. They're like the idiot who laughs too hard at his own jokes, while lacking the best joke of any bad movie - that the makers seriously believed it was good. Somewhat artificial, really.
I think by 'intentional' I meant the sort of filmmaking represented by the direct-to-video releases of the 80s. These people knew they weren't making Citizen Kane and didn't try to. They set out to provide a couple of hours' worth of cheap entertainment, to separate teenagers from their money. The main concern was in getting the target audience to pick up the box and it shows. Perhaps the intention was not to make them bad, but nobody was going for greatness either.
Those movies have a lot in common with the true B-movies. Just the same, I do agree that the best bad movies are the ones that set out to be good.
My point is really that the strict definition of a B-movie as the opening half of a double feature is rather limiting, particularly since double features are really a thing of the past.
Guys; my favorite characters from the movies are Wallach's "Tuco" from "TGTBTE", (Eastwood and Van Cleef are up there too from that trio of movies), Burt Reynolds character in "White Lightning", Jerry Reed's character " 'Bama McCall" in "Gator", and Ned Beatty in "White Lightning".
All time favorite of ANY movie is Bill McKinney's crazy character in "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot". He wa the one driving the '72 Plymoth with his pet raccoon and and a trunk full of white rabbits. Had the exhaust vented ot the insdie of the car too, and to top it off he talked like a hair lip. 100% hilarious!!!!!!!!!
BradLaGrange
I think it goes against the nature of b film to organize it or really do anything with it in any way.