Saturday, October 24, 2009

What's Going on With the Inheritors?

I have a counter on my Steve Ihnat Tribute Site (Brief Candle) which not only tells me that someone has visited, but also where they are from, what kind of browser they use, and how they found the site.

99% of my visitors find the site from the link on Steve's wikipedia page, but today, I've gotten three times as many visitors as normal...and they all come to the site after having done a search on The Outer Limits The Inheritors.

And being a curious soul, I wonder why. I checked the IMDB and the episode isn't being shown anywhere (which is a pity. Much as I love the Twilight Zone marathons on the SciFi channel, I wish they'd show The Outer Limits once in a while!) but it's too much of a coincidence to think of dozens of people throughout the US just choosing today to look up The Inheritors. Perhaps it's being screened on some country-wide online film class, or something.

Anyway, in one way it's a pity. I had interviewd Steve's widow, Sally Ihnat-Marshall, a couple of weeks ago, and haven't had time to upload it yet. But one of the things she told me was that Steve had ad-libbed the entire final speech he makes to Ballard, when Ballard (Robert Duvall) is trying to get the mind-controlled men to fight back and release the children that they are taking away in the space ship. And it's that speech that many fans of this episode say has them sitting there with tears on their faces...

That would have been a nice little paragraph to share on my website's Inheritor's page, but I just haven't done it yet!

Best performance of Julius Caesar EVER

Okay, I exaggerate a little bit. But theater majors will get a kick out of this.

Eric Morecambe as Marc Anthony. Ernie Wise as the body of Julius Ceasar.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Morecambe & Wise and Peter Cushing

Morecambe & Wise were the most popular comedy duo in England for some time. Peter Cushing, star of many a Hammer film, including The Hound of the Baskervilles as Sherlock Holmes, and of course Grand Moff Tarkin from Star Wars.

In 1969, Peter Cushing guest-starred on the show, in a sketch about King Arthur. Every year for the next 10 or so years, he would show up periodically on the show, asking for his money.

His first appearance, July 1969:






More reapperances, trying to get paid:

2nd appearance in the year, Sept 1969:



1970 Christmas Special




1978 - moved from BBC to different Network



1980 Christmas special:

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Who Goes There?

I've written a few pieces of fan ficton regarding the "Whom Gods Destroy" episode of Star Trek, which of course starred one of my favorite actors, Steve Ihnat.

They are downloadable as free PDFs here: http://volcanoseven.com/BriefCandle/StarTrek/Garthfanfiction.html

There's a prologue to the episode, called "The Madness of Garth of Izar" which attempts to explain why Garth's madness took the form it took, and then there's Who Goes There? which is a complete re-envisioning of the episode, as it should have been!

To explain some of the in-jokes:

1. The title refers to the John Campbell sci-fi story, Who Goes There?, which in turn was the basis of The Thing From Another World, the great 1950s movie, and The Thing, a 1990s remake with Kurt Russell. In the short story, the alien is able to appear as anybody he wants (or can possess anyone he wants, I forget now, as it has been a long time I'since I've read it, I confess.)

2. All of the male characters - who are not actual Star Trek characters - possess names of characters that Steve Ihnat played during his career. I'd originally intended for Who Goes There? to be much longer, and to take place entirely with the cast of the Enterprise, but for various reasons I changed my mind, so only half of Steve's character names are used...

3. Gus Keller, Garth's ultimate persona, is of course from Mannix: End Game. I echo a few of Gus's lines in the story...as well as a couple of Lt. Minns' lines...

So, I hope you enjoy.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Captain Kirk climbs a mountain

This must have been a TV doc on William Shatner and rock climbing... from 20 years or so ago... he looks very young and fit.

The original poster doesn't explain where it's from, but it's been edited, as you can see.

Still fun to watch.

Steve Ihnat in The Young Rebels



You've just got to laugh. Two days or so after I complete The Ultimate Steve Ihnat TV and Movie appearance video, I find screencaps of Steve in The Young Rebels. Playing the villain, of course.

Irritatingly, the person who has these episodes on VHS or DVD or whatever, doesn't appear to want to make them available to fans...(at least, he/she has posted a message on their fan site saying, no, I don't have any videos...well, where'd the screencaps come from, then???












Martin Landau as Rollin Hand

I loved Martin Landau on Mission: Impossible, especially with his wife Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter... (MI was never quite the same when they left...)

Here's a tribute (done by someone else!) of Landau as Rollin Hand:

Monday, October 5, 2009

The Ultimate Ihnat Video Tribute

This video features a screencap of every TV ep and movie that Steve Ihnat ever appeared in (where the screencaps were available. Unfortunately some of his stuff is not released on either VHS or DVD.)



There's music to this video - Apres Midi and Forever Autumn by Justin Hayward. If you don't hear the soundtrack please let me know!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Steve Ihnat's Epic Fights and Confrontation Scenes

Set to the music of Carmina Burana's O Fortuna:


If you'll forgive a rant...the first version of the above video had the action timed precisely to the music. Precisely. Chanting for the confrontation scenes, music for the fights. And it was soooo good. But for reasons which I now know - too late to do me any good - I couldn't convert that version to a movie file.

So, there's this version, and the timing of the music really falls down at the end of the video, so much so that the "effect" I was going for throughout will be pretty much lost.

Having said that...it's still fun to see Steve mix it up with his fellow actors!

1. Mannix, Endgame. Steve as Gus Keller has placed a bomb in Joe's walkie talkie. Unfortunately for Gus, Joe realizes this and gets rid of it...in the one place Gus hadn't expected.

2. Andy Warshaw in Hour of the Gun, opposite James Garner as Wyatt Earp. Steve acts as lookout when Earp's brother is killed, so Earp guns him down.

3. In The Chase, Steve has the role of Archie, a guy who, along with Richard Bradford, had beaten up Marlon Brando earlier in the film. In this scene, Brando gets his own back.

4. In Daniel Boone, Steve as Sheriff Tyler has come to take Rebecca Boone into custody, in order to force her husband Daniel to do what his employer bids. Rebecca has a gun, but Steve doesn't believe she'll have the guts to shoot him. She does.

5. Another little bit of Mannix, Endgame, with Joe and Gus fighting.

6. Star Trek. Steve plays the insane Garth of Izar. William Shatner as Captain Kirk tries to remind him of who he used to be. He seems to be getting through, but then Garth's insanity reasserts itself.

7. 77 Sunset Strip. Steve is a flunky who gets whammed in the head with a frying pan by actress Virginian Gregg. He has a fight at the end with Efrem Zimbalisst.

8. Honey West. Anne Francis as Honey West, John Ericson as Sam Bolt.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Anthony Zerbe in Kung Fu


When I was growing up, in the late 1960s and through the 70s and early 80s, the Western was king. Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, etc. I never cared for Westerns, so only watched them when one of my favorite actors was guest-starring, as for example Steve Ihnat or Anthony Zerbe.

The exception to the rule was Kung Fu. I was never a big David Carradine fan, but I liked the kung fu fights!

One of my favorite episodes was in the third season, The Predators, starring Cal Bellini as Apache Hoskay, and Anthony Zerbe as Rafe, a scalp-hunter, and also a man who knows that Kwai-Chang did not kill a sheriff in a certain town. Caine tries to bring Rafe back to the town to testify to who really killed the sheriff, while his men chase them, and the wounded Apache, Hoskay.

In the end, Rafe witnesses the humanity of Hoskay, and of Caine, and is changed for the better.

Click on photos to see larger verions.









































Warren Stevens in TZ's Dead Man Shoes



There's a bit of a mini-Twilight Zone marathon going on at the Sci Fi channel (that was), and an episode that just ended is Dead Man's Shoes, which starred Warren Stevens.

A gangster has been killed by his partner, and his body dumped in an alley. A bum, played by Warren Stevens, comes across the body and makes off with his "Size 9, black and grey loafers, made in the old country."

Once the timid and meek bum puts on the shoes, he becomes possessed by the gangster, and his demeanor changes completely. Then, a bit later on in the episode, when he takes the shoes off briefly and is de-possessed, his demeanor changes again.

That's what I like about this episode. We get a chance to see Warren Steven's acting ability, playing two disparate characters.

In searching the web for a photo of Stevens to illustrate this article, I came across the Lex Barker website. http://www.lex-barker.com/. (Barker and Stevens co-starred in three movies.)

Barker, who played Tarzan and who had a great body which he kept in shape, died of a heart attack at the age of 54. 54! Well, it's better than 37, but it just goes to show... doesn't matter how fit you are, if you've got a weak heart...


Sneak preview: Interview with Gary Clarke

Actor Gary Clarke, who co-starred on Mike Shayne and on The Virginian, was best friends with Steve Ihnat for many years.

Gary gave us an interview about Steve for Brief Candle. The first part of the interview is ready for viewing. (The second part is still being transcribed.)

However, lots of fun stuff here:

http://volcanoseven.com/BriefCandle/GaryClarke.html

Includes brief clips of Steve dancing in Dragstrip Riot, and menacing Clarke and Jeanine Riley in Strike Me Deadly. There's also an amusing clip of Gary Clarke trying to figure out a puzzle with three glasses, in the opening of Steve's first Virginian episode, "The Fatal Journey."



(Apologies for the unsynched audio in the clip. But you still get the gist.)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Last of the Original I Dream of Jeannie?

I visited Steve Ihnat's IMDB webpage today, to check out the TV schedule for him that they have. (As for every actor.) His Gunsmoke episode, Exodus 21:22 will be airing on Friday, October 2, 2009, by the way.

Anyway, I noticed that of the 7 videos you used to be able to watch there, the I Dream of Jeannie episode was missing. (My Master the Rainmaker, in which Steve plays the meek and shy Sgt Ben Roberts, opposite Barbara Eden as Jeannie and Larry Hagman as Major Anthony Nelson.) So I went to the IMDB page for I Dream of Jeannie. You used to be able to watch all of those episodes...but now they are all gone.

And I'm wondering...they're remaking I Dream of Jeannie as a movie to be released in 2010, so did the producers decide to forbid the free viewing of all old episodes of the TV show, prepatory to releasing them on DVD or something?

In that regard, it's interesting, as you can watch every episode of Star Trek from the IMDB site (although the original versions, not the remastered, special effects added ones.) [And what's sad about that is, in the first season theme music, a vocalist named Loulie Jean Norman sang the melody line (not words, just the melody), but the episodes on DVD today don't have her vocal for some reason!Perhaps whoever owns the rights to the TV shows doesn't want to pay Norman's heirs the copyright due her each time that theme music plays, which is a damn shame.

However, you can hear it at YouTube: