New Rifftrax short "When Sally Fell" on sale now - lemmus.org

Lemmy

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders released on this day in 1996 - lemmus.org

My GOD, David! Appeared in experiment #1003 [https://www.mst3kinfo.com/?p=5768], Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders is a film written, directed, and produced by Kenneth J. Berton [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0078246/], whose only other credit for… anything, is an earlier film called The Devil’s Gift [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Gift] (1984). If for some reason you’re curious enough to want to see it, don’t bother: it was re-cut and used as the second segment of Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders. (Though some viewers may prefer the original’s downer ending, and if you *haven’t seen the MST3K episode, they go for it – The Devil’s Gift appears to be the superior movie.) The first part of Merlin’s… (the bit with the evil newspaper columnist and his poor wife) is a bit of a mystery, however. I wasn’t able to find any behind the scenes info on the project, nor any interviews with the people involved. Moreover, it doesn’t seem like a re-purposed, re-cut film at all, and thus might have been film at around the same time as the wrap-around segments. For all I know Kenneth J. Berton made one film in 1984, spent the next twelve years working in a toll booth, and then woke up one day with the burning desire to make half of a direct-to-video film with Ray Miland and Ernest Borgnine. Though I suspect that Berton was probably primarily a commercial director; but those credits are notoriously difficult to track down, so I have no proof he was making local Carpeteria ads, it’s just a hunch. As for Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders itself, it’s late Saturday afternoon TV meh, but it has its moments: the maniac husband talking to himself, breathing fire, chasing his cat around; the latter half’s pissed-off psychic, and the visual delight of Merlin in his wizard jammies asking random strangers about his “little monkey.” Good times. There aren’t really even any interesting links [https://www.mst3kinfo.com/daddyo/di_1003.html] between cast an crew and anything else (apart from the actress who played Merlin’s wife appearing in Big Top Pee-Wee). This thing came from nowhere and went back to nowhere. Except of course it appeared on MST3K, which means we have to deal with its existence. Huzzah! *Rock 'n roll martian!"

MST3K 0209 – The Hellcats – Yet Another Website

Happy birthday Tiger Joe Marsh! ("Cop" in *The Rebel Set*) - lemmus.org

Who is Merritt Stone!!! Oh I’m sorry, that should have read “Who is Tiger Joe Marsh?” Well, in terms of MST3K, he was one of the police officers who boarded the train at Newark, after a corpse connected to the armored car robbery was discovered. This is him (I think): [https://lemmus.org/pictrs/image/01d4c71c-7ee7-4cde-8c6f-d327252fc4a8.webp] Not the most glamorous part, I agree. But you know what they say, “there are no small parts, there are only small actors.” And brother, if there’s one thing Tiger Joe Marsh was not it was small. Born August 25, 1911 in Chicago (as Joseph Samuel Marusich), he dropped out of school before finishing the 7th grade and got a job as an errand boy for a local shoe store (a big, BIG errand boy, one presumes). SlamWrestling.net [http://SlamWrestling.net] quotes the Los Angeles Times as saying, “He once sold newspapers to Al Capone and watched Frank Nitti’s (or Johnny Torrio’s) car for him,” but the Times writer might have been joking. (Might.) Before long though, he joined a local gym and learned how to wrestle, and met a fellow in the business named Steve Savage, who helped him go pro in 1927. He would eventually win a world championship. (This might be disputed, but Tiger Joe claimed he held the title [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NufwXYtHRdo] – due to the ref’s mistake – for a total of about a week.) His May 10, 1989, Chicago Sun-Times obituary describes his entree into film like this: “He was wrestling one night in the 1950s when a movie director, Elia Kazan . . . asked him if he wanted to act in the movies in Hollywood.” He said yes, and the rest is on his IMDB page [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0550675/]. He would eventually amass 50 official credits there, and he was also active in the theater. He left behind no children, but was reported by his friends and family to be a soft-spoken, warm-hearted fellow. All 6’ 1" and 262 lbs. of him. He’s a really interesting guy, and I’d recommend checking his profile linked in the title of this post for more details; and maybe taking a look at some of his movies to see if you can spot him. For a one-line character in a cheap caper film, he sure turned out to be an interesting guy! I’ll get you for this, Joel…