By popular demand, from The Horse’s Mouth, Ronald Neame, 1958.
In Konga, John Lemont,1961. A friend reminded me that when we were kids, I did this Michael Gough “impersonation” that subsisted of putting on a plummy British accent and saying, “I say, Konga, put me down.” In fact in the rather not-very-good giant-ape rethink (“Hilarious”—The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film) Gough’s Dr. Decker reacts rather more frantically to being picked up by the title animal. Rewatchers of the picture will be rewarded by the complete integrity he insists on bringing to his performance. He should have gotten an award for Best Interaction With A Completely Unconvincing Special Effect.
Another friend reminds me of Gough’s immortal lines, “Yes, Jason, it’s an operation. A simple operation,” from the immortal 1973 Horror Hospital, a picture it took me a rather unconscionably long time to get a bead on; seeing it for the first time in my teens, I took it for mere, albeit exciting, schlock, not understanding that it was in fact an elaborate piss-take for some time. When I did, Gough’s performance, a hilariously compelling parody of a character he’d played “for real” countless times, became even more impressive.
I think The Legend of Hell House, also 1973, was the first picture featuring Gough that I saw theatrically. A disconcerting big-screen introduction, as he’s made up to look like an embalmed cadaver and his lips don’t move when he “speaks.”
He did indeed loom very large in my cinematic firmament.
I believe you mean he was a shimmering, glowing star in said firmament.
Leave it to the increasingly unreliable New York Times to omit The Man in the White Suit, Horror of Dracula, The Horse’s Mouth, Women in Love, The Go-Between, Out of Africa, and any specific reference to his considerable TV work (The Avengers, Smiley’s People, etc.) from its shallow obit.
How about “Horrors of the Black Museum”? Can’t forget those binoculars.
Am I the only one who thinks that in that top screengrab, that Gough looks like Jim Jarmusch (or maybe it was the other way around)?
Holy hell, I totally didn’t realize that was him in LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE. Not even Roddy McDowall could save that stinker.