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(1921–2002). American actor.
Appeared in
video documentaries: Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Ray
Ferry 1991); 100 Years of Horror: Zombies (short) (1996); 100 Years
of Horror: The Walking Dead (short) (1996); 100 Years of Horror: The
Double Demons (short) (1996); 100 Years of Horror: Mutants (short)
(1996); 100 Years of Horror: Giants and Dinosaurs (short) (1996); 100
Years of Horror: Freaks (short) (1996).
More
importantly, I am increasingly persuaded that Agar was operating in a cinematic
realm where acting ability is irrelevant, perhaps even counterproductive. It is
not simply that the overall context of the low-budget, poorly-written,
hastily-filmed Z-movie virtually ensures artistic failure regardless of the
actors' efforts—I mean, can anyone sanely argue that The Mole People
would have been a classic if only they had cast Laurence Olivier in the
lead?—but also that in depictions of humanity confronting the unknown and the alien,
persuasive acting might actually undermine the story's impact. I first noted
the phenomenon while contemplating the powerful fascination of This Island
Earth (1955) despite the complete ineptitude of stars Rex
REASON and Jeff MORROW, but
John Agar may function as a better example. Consider this paradox: by any
standards of cinematic achievement, The Creature from the Black Lagoon
(1953) is far superior to its sequel Revenge of the Creature; and yet,
the Gill Man is more terrifying in the latter film, and not because he has
abandoned his remote home in the Amazon to menace residents of Florida. It is
rather than, in the first film, the presence of capable actors like Richard
CARLSON, Richard DENNING, and
Whit BISSELL helped to
convey the reassurance that, whatever strange evil lurked beneath the water,
humanity would ultimately prevail. It is much harder to feel so reassured when your
major representative of beleaguered humanity is John Agar.
For several
years, if you were in the business of making terrible science fiction films,
John Agar was your go-to guy, so that he ended up appearing in more
abominations than any man should be forced to watch, let alone star in. He was
probably at his best in Tarantula, probably at his worst in The Brain
from Planet Arous, but the difference between Agar's best and Agar's worst,
frankly, is not terribly large. Given the sorts of science fiction films he was
being offered, it is little wonder that he started telling his agent to only
put him in westerns, where one hopes that he at last found a little piece of
mind. But his ultimate reward for enduring the likes of The Attack of the
Puppet People, Journey to the Seventh Planet, and Zontar: The
Thing from Venus came when a new generation of filmmakers, part of the
tribe of people who had grown up loving such films in spite of everything,
eagerly recruited him to bless their homages with his esteemed presence.
Strangely, no one to my knowledge was extending similar invitations to Agar's
ex-wife, Shirley Temple Black, despite a film career that was in every respect
more distinguished—still more proof that the often-execrable science fiction
films of the 1950s, and the often-execrable performers who appeared in them,
remain uniquely appealing, at least in certain demented circles.
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