Did anyone else find this guys performance distractingly bad? That put-on country accent and the ridiculous sayings sounded so fake coming out of his mouth that I had a hard time watching any of his scenes. Thank God his part wasn't a big one.
share"I'm insulted. Let's go."
Well, yeah, this was over 60 years ago. Our lexicon has changed a bit since then. What did you expect? I can imagine 60 years from now after viewing some of the dreck that Hollywood is putting out, people will think we're a bunch of retards.
KS
I don't hate the vernacular so much as the accent. It was really awful and it just made his country-fried hick sayings sound even worse.
And don't be such a pessimist. Why would anyone look back on the age of Meet The Spartans, Scary Movie 1-4 and The Happening and think we're a bunch of retards?
Shorty was from Virginia. I'm only acquainted with the area of Virginia near the beltway where accents aren't so strong. The accents of those in western Virginia where Manch came from, I don't know of. I couldn't find anything on John R. Reilly, who played Manch, but he sounds more like he's from Texas. By the way, at least one of his "country fried hick sayings" showed up on a favorite quotes site - the "feed me corn.." one. Reilly only made a few other movies and I haven't seen any of them so I don't know if he always sounded like he did in "Thirty Seconds.."
KS
He had a small uncredited role as one of Jane Powell's boyfriends at the beginning of the musical Royal Wedding (1951) with Fred Astaire, and had virtually the same overdone accent. Or maybe it was just his acting that was overdone: he was basically playing the same character he had played in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo seven years earlier. RW was one of his last movies. I'd like to find out more about him, what else he did, birth/death dates, etc. I can already see why his acting career imploded.
shareWhy would anyone look back on the age of Meet The Spartans, Scary Movie 1-4 and The Happening and think we're a bunch of retards?
hE HAS to be the most irritating character that i think was ever in a movie, not to mention the worst actor also....
shareYES!!!
I'm watching 30 O.T right now, I came online just to start a thread about it, and saw you already had (thanks)
he has to be the most aggravating character ever!!!
Personally, I would've tossed the "sizzle platters" out of the airplane first chance I got.
"I'm not reckless . . . I'm skillful!"
People were not only different 60 years ago and more innocent, but also movies were so different. This was a political cheer leader type movie.
But it was all true! Very accurate from the book. So I bet this guy really was annoying and yet in the movie, they all endured it. What they were doing was so hard that a little comic relief didn't matter.
Most everyone around him was incredibly well behaved by comparison.
I really need a copy of the book. And, after rewatching the movie last night, I have to remind myself that Manch *did* voluntarily go on with the mission.
As a Texan myself, however, I might've asked to be on a different plane than his were I in the same situation.
"I'm not reckless . . . I'm skillful!"