Michael J. Pollard Day *

* (restored)

 

‘Michael J. Pollard may not be a household name, but anyone that ever saw him in a film or television show instantly will recognize his face. He always reminded me of a kid that had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar and his face said that he knew no excuse to extricate himself from the situation.

‘Pollard was born Michael John Pollack Jr. in Passaic New Jersey on May 30, 1939. He has been acting since 1959 and is still active 53 years later in 2012. He was married to Beth Howland, who television fans will remember her playing Vera on the Alice situation comedy. They were married from 1961-1969.

‘Since Pollard was only 5′6″ he had to play youthful roles into his 20’s. One of the most hilarious shows I have seen him in is the April 30,1962 episode of The Andy Griffith Show, when he played Barney Fife’s cousin Virgil who could do nothing right. He was 22 when this episode was filmed.

‘Fate intervened when he was cast as Jerome Krebs the weird cousin of Maynard G. Krebs on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, portrayed by Bob Denver, when Denver was going to be drafted in the Army. However, Denver soon returned when he was classified 4-F, which resulted in the dismissal of Pollard from the series.

‘Once again fate handed Pollard more bad news, when after starring as Hugo Peabody in the Broadway version of Bye Bye Birdie the role was given to Bobby Rydell, when the role was changed to require a singer.

‘In 1966, at twenty-six, Pollard played the role of an alien boy in CBS’s Lost in Space. That same year, he portrayed Bernie in another NBC espionage series, I Spy, in the episode “Trial by Treehouse”, alongside series stars Bill Cosby and Robert Culp with other guest stars Cicely Tyson and Raymond St. Jacques. Also in 1966, Pollard played the role of Stanley the runny-nosed airplane mechanic in the Norman Jewison comedy, The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming opposite Jonathan Winters, Brian Keith, and Carl Reiner, among many others.

‘Pollard played a 14-year-old despite being 27 in a Star Trek episode, when he played Jahn in the “Miri” episode. He played C.J. Moss in Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde in 1967 and would receive an Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category, a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and he won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles.

‘Three years later he starred in Little Fauss and Big Halsey with Robert Redford. Another memorable role was when he played the homeless man who thought Bill Murray was Richard Burton in the 1988 film Scrooged.

‘Pollard’s most important role and greatest performance was in the 1972 film Dirty Little Billy. The film covered the very early days of Billy the Kid, just after the mother and step-father moved from New York, a little examined and very formative period in Billy’s life. Dirty, ugly, gritty, too real for many, but an accurate depiction of what a tiny frontier town was like, the film is must, and it offered a “James Dean” role for Michael J. Pollard. Dirty Little Billy is a sleeper that was about 40 years too early to be appreciated.

‘More recent photos of Pollard shows he is the same Michael J. Pollard, just a little older. He is still very busy at 73 having appeared as “Stucky” in the 2003 Rob Zombie-directed cult classic House of 1000 Corpses, having released Sunburnt Angels in 2011, having completed The Woods this year, and currently starring in a film called The Next Cassavetes.

‘Even though Pollard is not that well-known, actor Michael J. Fox inserted the J in the middle of his name out of respect to Michael J. Pollard. Pollard will probably always be known as the man, who has a familiar face but very few will be able to remember his name.’ — collaged

 

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Stills

 

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Further

Michael J. Pollard @ IMDb
Michael J. Pollard @ film reference
Michael J. Pollard @ Facebook
‘In Praise of Michael J. Pollard’
‘Michael J. Pollard Movies List: Best to Worst’
‘The Magic Mirror: An Essay of Analysis
‘The Michael J Pollard Diet’
‘whatever happened to michael j pollard?’
‘“That Guy” Actor of the Week: Michael J. Pollard’
‘Michael J Pollard As The Boy Who Lived On The Other Side Of The Mirrors’
‘I was going to purchase a signed photo of Michael J. Pollard, no questions asked, when … ‘

 

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Michael J. Pollard For President
‘In 1968, DJ-turned-singer Jim Lowe (who hit the top of the charts in 1956 with “The Green Door”) recorded “Michael J. Pollard for President” on the Buddah Records label. The record, which contains sound bites from U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy of New York and Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago, extolled Pollard’s qualifications for the Oval Office: “Those who saw him as C. W. Moss/ Know this hippie is really boss!” Pollard himself can be heard at the end of the song: “Furthermore, if I’m elected for President…hey, man! President of what…?” The 45 failed to make the record charts, possibly because the use of Kennedy’s voice on a comedy record after his assassination was considered to be in poor taste. (Pollard was just 29 years old in 1968, and thus ineligible for the presidency in any case.)’ — collaged

 

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The Sexy Flying Machine that Burst from a Cloud

 

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Michael J. Pollard Flower Power Car

 

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Extras

‘HAVE YOU SEEN MICHAEL?’ (2008)

Michael J. Pollard in 2010

Michael J. Pollard walking in Los Angeles (2011)

Michael J Pollard & Kevin Kelly rehearsing ‘IN LA WITHOUT A CAR’

Michael J.Pollard interviewed on ‘The Method Actor Speaks’ (2012)

 

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Interviewed by Roger Ebert (1969)

 

“Hey, man, my wife and I were up until 7 this morning, rapping about things,” Michael J. Pollard says, lighting a Camel and taking a mouthful of coffee.

“It’s nice to still be able to talk to your wife after four years. Maybe it comes from living in Los Angeles. Andy Warhol’s dream city. New York builds hostility. If we had lived in New York, we might not have lasted three years. Well, we’ve been married three years, but living together four years. I moved in the very same day I met her. No flowers, no Whitman Samplers, nothing.”

Pollard is very small, weighs maybe 120 pounds, and wears a cowboy hat, Levis, a flannel cowboy shirt, a belt with a big brass buckle.

“I used to think I was Bob Dylan,” he says. “I heard Dylan’s new album the other day. Nashville Skyline. It has a cut on it by Johnny Cash. Hey, sometimes I think I’m Johnny Cash. “Dylan doesn’t sound the same on the new album. He sounds like, oh, Gordon MacRae. He’s about four octaves deeper. And he doesn’t look like he used to look. His voice used to be way up there; now it’s way down there.”

Pollard smiles, and you know what Walt Disney was thinking when Disney promised to make him the biggest star since Mickey Mouse.

“Hey, we’re making this movie,” Pollard says. “It’s going to be called Goodbye, Jesse James. I’m making it with some friends in New York. It’s about these four guys on a rooftop, they’re going to assassinate these people. This man and a chick. Actually, the man and the chick are going to assassinate the four guys, so everybody gets shot. No, the chick tells the story. No, she gets shot too. Hey, everybody gets shot.”

Pollard’s eyes widen at the irony of it.

“Then I’m making this movie for Paramount, called Little Fauss, Big Halsey. About two guys and a chick who meet in Nebraska and go motorcycle racing. No guns.”

Pollard was in Chicago to promote Hannibal Brooks, his first film since he played C.W. Moss, the getaway driver in Bonnie and Clyde. The title role is taken by Oliver Reed, who escapes from a German stalag by piloting an elephant across the Alps. Pollard tags along as the inept leader of an anti-Nazi guerrilla squad. The film was directed by Michael Winner, who previously directed Reed in The Jokers and two other films.

“Reed and Winner were pretty close, having made all those films together,” Pollard said. “And Winner is a fast director. He usually only takes one or two shots for every scene. He’s faster than Roger Corman. But for my scenes, he was taking 17 or 18 takes, man. And no two the same. I can’t ever get them to come out the same anyway.”

Was the role written with you in mind?

“Yes. Well, no.”

Some of your scenes seem to resemble the great scenes in Bonnie and Clyde. Like the scene in the gas station where you meet Bonnie and Clyde.

“Yeah. That gas station scene, you know what? That was the first scene we shot in the whole film. And we did it in one take. Then Arthur Penn and Warren Beatty spent the rest of their time making me play against that scene. I guess they didn’t want me to seem too funny.”

But the scene where you were the getaway driver and you parked the getaway car…

“Yeah. We made that up. See, I can’t drive a car.

There was this guy teaching me, but I couldn’t learn. So here I was stuck in the parking place, and Penn said, Okay, do it that way.”

Pollard shrugged. “Violence. Everybody’s criticizing violence,” he said. “In Bonnie and Clyde, they criticized the violence. That’s dopey, man.

Everybody’s violent. They’re criticizing themselves. Everybody will realize that in a year or so and start on something else. I don’t know. Hey, maybe they’ll start on humor in movies. Too much humor in movies. Children laughing too much.

“But, you know, we make such a big thing about movies. Like sex in movies.

Americans can’t handle sex in movies. Like this whole thing…you know, these two movies, Stolen Kisses and The Graduate. Well, they’re both about the older woman, right? But we have to make it funny. In The Graduate, we make fun of the older woman. But Truffaut, he doesn’t have to do that. In Stolen Kisses, the older woman just teaches the young guy what it’s all about.” Pollard shrugged, took a drag on his cigarette, thought a moment. “Which is what older women are for, I guess.”

Pollard shook his head in disbelief. “Up until 7 this morning,” he said. “Oh. For years I’ve been putting down drinking. Last night, I drank. Wine. My mouth is dry. Hey, I’m a paradox, even to myself. Here I am in Chicago. You know those Plaster Casters? Hey, they’re in Chicago, right? I read about them. I wouldn’t mind meeting the Plaster Casters, I’ll say that much. Well, my old lady might mind. But I mean…well, I don’t do weird things just to do weird things. I’m just weird, man…”

You mean you really can’t drive a car?

“Nobody ever taught me.”

But you ride a motorcycle.

“Yeah, I learned that making the Hell’s Angels picture. But I don’t drive that much. I lied.”

A short silence. “Hey, I don’t know if I’ll call it Goodbye, Jesse James, after all,” Pollard said.

“Maybe I’ll call it Rattlesnake. That’s a good title.” Pollard paused. “I dunno,” he said, “I may not even do it.”

Besides making personal films, what else are you into? “Painting. I paint some. And I write…oh, little things. Maybe someday I’ll put them together into bigger things. Little poems and things. And I paint. I have this white canvas, and on it in vermilion letters is spelled s-e-n-c-e. No, that’s wrong. S-i-n-s-e. Yeah. Sinse.”

What does it mean?

“That words can’t express what you feel.”

 

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24 of Michael J. Pollard’s 112 roles

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TV: The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959)
‘Michael J. Pollard played Maynard Kreb’s cousin Jerome, also a beatnik. Jerome was intended as a replacement for Maynard when Bob Denver was drafted in mid-1959, and was written out of the show after Denver failed his Army physical and returned to the series.’ — Wiki

full episode

 

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TV: The Andy Griffith Show (1962)
‘Pollard appeared in episode #2-30 of CBS’s The Andy Griffith Show (April 30, 1962), as Barney Fife’s clumsy young cousin, Virgil, who stops by for a visit and manages to wreak havoc at the courthouse in fictional Mayberry, North Carolina.’ — Wiki

Excerpt

 

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James Neilson Summer Magic (1964)
‘Ostensibly a remake of Mother Carey’s Chickens, Summer Magic has little in common with the earlier film other than the idea of a widowed mother suddenly finding herself in an uncertain financial situation. The Disney version is very typical of the kind of live-action family fare the studio turned out at this time — pleasant, a little too cute, and somewhat bland. Dorothy McGuire is warm and motherly, Deborah Walley is great fun, and in a small part, Michael J. Pollard makes a distinct impression. Mills’ next film, The Chalk Garden, would afford her the chance to better stretch her dramatic muscles.’ — collaged

Excerpt

 

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TV: Lost in Space (1966)
‘Bittersweet episode of Lost in Space has the always watchable Michael J Pollard, especially adept at portraying weirdos, guest starring as a mischievous boy who lives in a dimension on the other side of an alien mirror found by Penny (Angela Cartwright, this episode a vehicle mainly for her) and “Bloop” (her alien monkey pet) during a cosmic radiation storm. Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) notices that the mirror has this goat head made of platinum (as well as, platinum lining the mirror), with designs on chiseling the precious metal for possible financial benefits later. Bloop “enters” the mirror which serves as a portal to the boy’s dimension, is given a bell, and goes back to Penny, who wants her pet to show her where it found the toy. This leads to Penny accidentally stumbling into the dimension where the lonely boy wants to play games and have fun. Penny, however, is afraid of this eerie, dream-like place, full of statues (seemingly right off the set of a Universal Studios Mummy picture) and “items discarded by others no longer interested in them” (essentially, these are all props probably found around the studio, like a chandelier among other things used to dress sets). Also present is a monster with one eye and husks, for which the boy wants Penny to play hide and seek with, but all she wants to do is get home to her family. Pollard is so youthful and playful here, he really plays his part like a child stuck in the body of a young man, eternally trapped in the body of a teenager, never to grow old but longing for companionship.’ — IMDb

(watch the entire episode)

 

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Norman Jewison The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966)
‘Harkening back to the studio days of the 1950s, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming brings together an accomplished cast and crew who create a great comedy-of-errors in a family-friendly environment, as well as a film that still offers a powerful impact. Michael J. Pollard, who will go on to be the goofy Bonnie-and-Clyde sidekick, shows that quirky tendency here.’ — collaged



Excerpt

 

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TV: Star Trek (1966)
‘Kim Darby and Michael J. Pollard guest star in this Star Trek prime episode where Darby is in the title role. They are 300 year old children on this planet, a handful of survivors whose growth has been slowed, but not halted. When they reach puberty they will die of the same plague that their parents did. When the Star Trek away team beams down, they all with the exception of Leonard Nimoy due to his Vulcan anatomy all start coming down with what killed the inhabitants. William Shatner has an interesting problem, the only ones who can help are the kids, but they are children and reason like children. But Darby is entering puberty, we know because she finds the grown up captain of the Enterprise attractive. By the way the Enterprise away team are referred to as ‘Grups’ a slang contraction for grownups. And Grups are the enemy of kids. An interesting episode to say the least.’ — IMDb

Excerpt

 

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Roger Corman The Wild Angels (1966)
‘The Wild Angels is a work of questionable exploitation and the second popular film to tap into public fascination with outlaw motorcycle gangs since The Wild One (Laslo Benedek) in 1953. With a modest budget of about $350,000, and the promise of complete artistic control, Corman hired his friend Charles Griffith to write the screenplay, and the two of them based the script on real stories recounted to them by members of the San Bernadino Hells Angels. Corman shot The Wild Angels in three weeks and entirely on location, at his insistence. His assistant at the time was a young Peter Bogdanovich, who essentially rewrote the script while the film was in production, and the editor was none other than Monte Hellman. Richard Moore is credited as the cinematographer, although it is hard to tell who shot, wrote, or edited individual scenes in this typically communal AIP production. Cast: Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, Buck Taylor, Mark Cavell, Michael J. Pollard.’ — Senses of Cinema

Trailer

 

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Arthur Penn Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
‘Bonnie and Clyde is considered a landmark film, and is regarded as one of the first films of the New Hollywood era, since it broke many cinematic taboos and was popular with the younger generation. For some members of the counterculture, the film was considered to be a “rallying cry.” Its success prompted other filmmakers to be more open in presenting sex and violence in their films. The film’s ending also became iconic as “one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history”. Michael J. Pollard received an Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance as dim-witted gas station attendant, C.W. Moss C.W. Moss. He also won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles.’ — collaged

Trailer

Excerpt

Michael J. Pollard interview for BONNIE AND CLYDE

 

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James Goldstone Jigsaw (1968)
‘In this thriller, Jonathan Fields (Bradford Dillman) awakens in a strange apartment and finds a dead woman floating in the bathtub after he suffered an LSD-flashback the night before after being dosed by Michael J Pollard. Finding blood upon his hand, he can only wonder how he is involved in the woman’s death. He hires private detective Arthur Belding (Harry Guardino) who has him take another dose of LSD in order to see if he can remember what had happened. Jigsaw is not so much a “who dunnit?” as it is a “how high were they when they dunnit?” film with original music by Quincy Jones and a notable hip-’60s cast that shows off Bradford Dillman’s considerable charisma, Pat Hingle’s dexterity in reaching his chin with his tongue, Victor Jory as smarmy as ever, Hope Lange once again hopelessly attracted to a crash-and-burn type while struggling with propriety, let alone sobriety, and Michael J. Pollard mumbling monologues while effortlessly exhibiting all the cachet of one of those troll dolls from grade school.’ — Twitch Film

Trailer

 

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Michael Winner Hannibal Brooks (1969)
‘British PoW Brooks (Oliver Reed) is assigned to look after an elephant named Lucy, to whom he grows devoted. En route with the elephant from Munich to a safer zoo in Innsbruck, Brooks accidentally kills the Nazi member of the escort (Karsten) and then sets off with Lucy over the mountains to Switzerland. Michael J. Pollard is tiresomely flaky as one ‘Packy’, leader of a private army, and Oliver Reed is not much more than Oliver Reed. Pretty good, though, for a Michael Winner film.’ — Time Out (London)

Excerpt

 

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Sidney J. Furie Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970)
‘Little Fauss and Big Halsy is an uneven, sluggish story of two motorcycle racers – Robert Redford playing a callous heel and Michael J. Pollard as a put-upon sidekick who eventually (in modified finale) surpasses his fallen idol. Hampered by a thin screenplay, film is padded further by often-pretentious direction by Sidney J. Furie against expansive physical values. What is very disappointing is the lack of strong dramatic development. Redford’s character is apparent in his very first scene; it never changes. It is in effect the carrier frequency on which Pollard and others must beat, the end result is erratic. Pollard is very good in lending depth to his character, though his dialect often obscures his dialog.’ — Variety

Trailer

 

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Stan Dragoti Dirty Little Billy (1972)
‘Dirty Little Billy stars cult legend actor Michael J. Pollard as ‘Billy’ and is a tale of how an inept New York teen brought out west transforms into a menacing outlaw. The chemistry between the characters, the balance of humor and drama, and how the story is told, causes my “little grey cells” to dance with ideas. It doesn’t matter that this is fiction inspired by Billy the Kid’s life, or that there aren’t any admirable figures. This is finely crafted entertainment with a scenario that could be set nearly anywhere in the proceeding centuries, presenting the banding of society’s misfits and how each one is molded. This film will be of interest not only to American and Spaghetti Western fans, but to both cinephiles and movie watchers in general.’ — My Kind of Stories

Excerpt

 

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Lucio Fulci Four of the Apocalypse (1975)
‘After escaping death and then wandering through the desolate Utah frontier, gambler Stubby (Fabio Testi), boozer Clem (Michael J. Pollard), pregnant prostitute Bunny (Lynne Frederick) and off-kilter Bud (Harry Baird) enter into a cat-and-mouse game with a vicious and sadistic sharpshooter named Chaco (Tomas Milian). When Chaco crosses the line with Bunny, Stubby exacts revenge. Lucio Fulci directs this explosive spaghetti Western.’ — dvd.netflix.com

Trailer

 

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Jonathan Demme Melvin and Howard (1980)
‘Melvin and Howard is a 1980 American comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Demme. The screenplay by Bo Goldman was inspired by real-life Utah service station owner Melvin Dummar, who was listed as the beneficiary of USD$156 million in a will allegedly handwritten by Howard Hughes that was discovered in the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. A novelization of Goldman’s script later was written by George Gipe. The film starred Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards, Michael J. Pollard, and, in an Academy Award-winning performance, Mary Steenburgen.’ — collaged

Trailer

 

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Edward Murphy Heated Vengeance (1985)
‘This is a really bad film, and I mean that in the best possible sense. Everything about this film is so totally inept that it is frequently hilarious. Vietnam-vet Hoffman returns to the country to meet up with his lover, but is kidnapped by the crazy Sergeant Bingo, who has a bit of a grudge because Hoffman tried to send him to jail for rape of a Vietnamese girl. He manages to escape, and Bingo then sends his men out after him, into the jungle. You know you’re in trouble when a the cover of a film brags, “Filmed on the same location as Apocalypse Now!” The film can be boring, but there are some hilarious scenes that makes it well worth a watch. I liked the first shot of the movie, which consists of a man firing a machinegun straight into the ground from a helicopter, obviously not more that a few feet above ground. And the bad guy screams and cries and whines like a big sissy, and screams so much that it is, in some scenes, completely impossible to understand what he’s saying.’ — IMDb

Trailer

 

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Maurice Phillips Riders of the Storm (1986)
‘A group of radical Vietnam vets become broadcasting pirates and take on a Presidential candidate in this crazy comedy. The vets and their leader, “Captain,” are television raiders flying all over the country in a B-29 they turned into flying broadcasting station S&M; TV, jamming the airwaves wherever they go. Their self-assigned mission for the past 20 years is to keep the public informed about government activity to stop them from launching another foolish war like Vietnam. To do this they monitor the broadcasts of other television stations and when they don’t like what they hear, they bust in and expose the lies. The bulk of the story centers around their final mission: an all-out attempt to keep Mrs. Willa Westinghouse, an ultra-conservative Presidential candidate and strong proponent of the Cold War and military strength, from winning the election.’ — Rotten Tomatoes

Excerpt

 

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Fred Schepisi Roxanne (1987)
‘Roxanne doesn’t wallow in misery. Steve Martin’s script and his performance allow fleeting moments of genuine pathos without ruining the film’s comedic tone. When Roxanne tells C.D. she’s enamored of a guy in town, C.D. thinks he’s the lucky guy. After Roxanne describes her man as “handsome,” thereby eliminating C.D. from the suspect list, Martin plays his heartbreak with a devastating, stinging brevity. And when Roxanne discovers she’s been tricked by both C.D. and Chris, rather than emotionally break down, Hannah provides a glimpse of the Elle Driver she’d become 16 years later in Kill Bill. Her physical response is the funniest moment in Roxanne. Roxanne is elevated by some fine supporting turns. The fire department volunteers, which include Michael J. Pollard, Fred Willard and Damon Wayans, are a nice blend of comic incompetence in dire need of heroic redemption.’ — Slant Magazine

Excerpt

 

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Richard Donner Scrooged (1988)
‘In 1988, Pollard played the role of Herman (the homeless guy who thought Bill Murray was Richard Burton) in the movie Scrooged.’ — Wiki

Trailer

 

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TV: Superboy (1989)
‘Pollard is noted for his short stature, which had him playing child roles well into his twenties (including on Star Trek, where he played one of the inhabitants of the planet of children in the episode “Miri”) and resulted in a recurring role as the diminutive trans-dimensional imp Mister Mxyzptlk in two episodes of the Superboy television series.’ — Wiki

Excerpt

 

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Andrey Konchalovskiy Tango & Cash (1989)
‘In 1989, Pollard played ‘Owen’ the inventor of super weapons and a super car in Tango and Cash, starring Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone.’ — Wiki

Trailer

 

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Michael A. Simpson Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989)
‘Teenage Wasteland contains female nudity, innovative gore (there is, after all, an evolving creativity in Angela’s calling as a murderer), and loud music. The directions to this horror recipe are adhered with careful precision, and the film lacks its own, characterizing taste; Teenage Wasteland contains all the ingredients and risks no extraneous addition. Teenage Wasteland is thematically impotent and unentertaining. Though there is a discernable humor in its deliberate employment of horror clichés, the same joke is told over and over — and in its frequency the punch line is less effective with each overpronounced utterance. And the joke wasn’t very funny to begin with. Cult legend Michael J. Pollard plays a minor role.’ — notcoming.com

Excerpt

 

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Barry Shils Motorama (1991)
‘Motorama is an American road movie released in 1991. It is a surrealistic film about a ten-year-old runaway boy (played by Jordan Christopher Michael) on a road trip for the purpose of collecting game pieces (cards) from the fictional “Chimera” gas stations, in order to spell out the word M-O-T-O-R-A-M-A. By doing so he will supposedly win the grand prize of $500 million. The film features cameos by Drew Barrymore, Flea, Michael J. Pollard, Jack Nance, Robert Picardo, Martha Quinn, and Meat Loaf.’ — collaged

Trailer

 

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Clark Brandon Skeeter (1993)
‘A small town in the desert is terrorized by over-sized mosquitoes (hence the rather cutesy title). Ecology-minded thriller is fairly pallid, even by the standards of low-rent B-flicks and monster-genre schlock, with laughable special effects and poor dialogue. Former teen idol Clark Brandon co-wrote the script and also directed–and may have been in over his head. Brandon was lucky to get ever-surly Charles Napier cast as sheriff Ernie Buckle, yet Napier has played this kind of character far too many times by now and can’t bring anything fresh to the scenario (it doesn’t help that Napier also looks a little sheepish about the whole mess). Michael J. Pollard gets some laughs as a local weirdo, but the rest of the players are at a complete loss.’ — IMDb

Trailer

 

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Rob Zombie House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
‘A cobwebbed, mummified horror entry that makes obvious, cartoonishly grotesque demands for attention. The endless gore and violence make the experience torturous — and not just for the victims in the movie. The end results are almost strangely devoid of thrills, shocks or horror, other than the sight of not one but two former Oscar nominees (Black and Michael J. Pollard) reduced to such a pitiable career state.’ — collaged

Excerpt

 

 

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p.s. Hey. Michael J. Pollard was/is a charismatic charm-smith of an actor in a bunch of cool, often offbeat films. Get into him today please. And if you’re in LA, please come see PERMANENT GREEN LIGHT tonight at 7:30 pm at Civic Center Studios.