In Memory of Mitch Thorne 1950-1995 [With Footage]

Mitch Thorne on the set of Last Bullet III.
Promo for the second instalment of the Last Bullet franchise. The lead role was played by none other than Tam Crump (not his real name); the B-movie’s answer to you know who…
Promo for the first straight to home video Last Bullet released in 1984; one which Mitch firmly put his stamp on.
The final Last Bullet movie.
Mitch at work on the set of Night Creeps; a film about a stalker who wears a papier-mâché mask.
The set of popular ’70s puppet show Kid Gloves. Mitch’s job was to turn trash into puppets and puppets into cash.
This brief footage we’ve found on a very old website is an excellent example of Mitch fulfilling his duty by turning trash into puppets and puppets into cash.
This puppet is the wicked witch who stole children’s dreams and left the victim trapped in a permanent nightmare. They certainly don’t make them like they used to.
Another clip we’ve found. This time a creepy puppet girl playing with smaller but equally as creepy puppets.
The first Sensei Bert movie released in 1983. It featured the Aikido master Witt Schrueder.
Sensei Bert II also released in 1983. Notice the recycled tagline.
Oh, look! A new tagline for Sensei Bert III which was also released in 1983.
A cheerful photograph of Mitch covered in gunk on the set of Sensei Bert III.
Sensei Bert IV released in 1984.
Sensei Bert V released in 1984. A new tagline which doesn’t work on account of being slightly confusing.
Mitch enjoying some disco dancing in 1974.

After we wrote about his role in the short-lived Give Me Head special FX department, we received an anonymous email from somebody who claimed to have been close to Mitch Thorne before he sadly passed. While we can’t identify this person, the information they provided to us checks out, and so we are very grateful to them for reaching out to us.

We were saddened to hear that Mitch passed away in 1995 from respiratory problems brought on by passively huffing too many adhesives at work. We understand that Mitch was much loved as a husband, son, brother, father, friend and colleague. As we can see from his photographs, he was never without a smile.

Mitch lived in the Santa Clara Valley all his life and was a huge movie fan from the age of ten after his father snuck him into the cinema to watch Hitchcock’s Psycho (“I sat on my old man’s lap and literally shit on his thighs,” he once recalled in an interview for Splatterbrains magazine).

He has an impressive curriculum vitae, working on everything from the 1977 children’s puppet show Kid Gloves right through to softcore midnight muck after he ran into financial trouble during the 1980 recession. He soon bounced back with his best work on Sensei Bert and Last Bullet.

Like the best of us, Mitch also had his demons. He spent many periods throughout his life completely sozzled both at home and at work. But after crashing four cars, two police chases, three divorces and nine visits to rehab, he managed to get sober in the spring of 1990.

Mitch was recruited by Give Me Head towards the end of August and the team was ecstatic because his credible reputation alone made him an asset. However, by that stage of the production, CEO Cassidy had spent tons of money and had very little to show for it. Yet he still had no idea. It was left to his sidekick Ryba to start saying no.

We have also learned that Mitch had tried to convince the lead actor in Sensei Bert, Witt Schrueder, to come on board the Cyberia project. Apparently Witt had considered it but had other commitments which he was actually going to get paid for. Had Schrueder agreed, having one of the greatest B-list celebrities of all time would have been a game changer.

We will leave you with these words from Mitch which is taken from an interview he gave to Splatterbrains six months before he passed:

I can’t complain about much, really. I got paid for doing something I used to do for free as a kid. I got to party with some of the best people in the straight to home video industry, snorting up the best snow in the country and I got to travel around the whole of California. I mean, rehab wasn’t fun but everyone needs to go to rehab at least once in their lifetime, right?

But when I look back at my career, I’ll always remember this fella called Lawrence Cassidy. He tried to get a television series together from virtually nothing. In my opinion he was a misunderstood genius and it’s a shame his project didn’t succeed.

I only worked with him for a few weeks and then the company tanked. But I used to visit him in his office regularly to make sure he hadn’t overdosed because back then he was a serious Silicon snow fiend spiralling out of control.

Anyway, I’ll always remember this one time when Cassidy could see that his dream of producing a television series was fading. He was staring out of the office window at a couple of birds playing together and I swear he had tears in his eyes.

I asked him if he was okay and he said to me:

“Mitch, I’ll always be okay. When you have a dream you must always follow it because even if your dream was only ever going to be a dream, at least you can’t regret having it. Because dreams are, well, dreams. As opposed to nightmares. Did that even make any fucking sense?”

I placed my hand on his shoulder, nodded and didn’t say a single word.

Now I can’t guarantee that’s what he actually said word for word because I’ve been in rehab a couple of times since then, but you get the picture. The man was undoubtedly a misunderstood genius.”

In memory of Mitch Thorne, 1950-1995.

Sleep well, Mitch.

RF Productions

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