Manuel, the Spanish waiter from Fawlty Towers. MST3K used the Barcelona joke (and “chokay, Mr. Fawlty,” also from that show) on almost anybody with an accent.
As far as I can tell, they did watch Spring Fever during Season Three - but I haven’t found any reference to why they chose not to use it.
**MST3K 4.24 - Manos : The Hands of Fate **
If any movie in the MST3K lexicon cried out for a sequel, this is it. Just kidding. Manos is, perhaps, the most infamous film that they ever did. It is available on individual DVD, and in the “Essentials” collection, paired with Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. It comes with an MST3K blooper reel, as a bonus. It’s shown with the second half of Hired.
A man, his wife, his daughter, and their poodle are on vacation somewhere in texas, and turn down the wrong back road. They get lost, and come upon the secluded home of “the Master”, who, as it turns out is a leader of the cult of Manos. He employs a semi-competent, lecherous caretaker (supposedly a satyr) named Torgo, who gets his own haunting theme music. The family spends a single night at the house and the Master awakens form hibernation, and all hell breaks loose. Well, maybe not ALL hell, but some. Well… there’s a catfight amongst the Master’s wives.
It is a difficult movie to endure because of the technical limitations of the film equipment they used and the talent limitations of the producer-writer-director-star. Still, you haven’t seen Mystery Science Theater until you’ve seen Manos.
Opening : Joel’s programmed the Bots to think he’s brilliant, but decides against it; Invention Exchanges include the chocolate-bunny guillotine and the “Cartuner” that hybridizes funny-page strips; Host Segments include re-enacting the endless travelling of the movie in front of a bluescreen, but the Bots lose it. Frank Apologizes; Discussion of Torgo as a monster, and exaggerated physical characteristics of monster forms; Joel appears as ‘the Master’, Dr. Forrester sympathizes with the Crew; the Mads get delivery from Torgo’s Pizza. (With Mike Nelson as Torgo.)
Signature Riffs:
<Sales Leader> “Sales are the most important thing in this business.”
<Tom, as SL> “Seeing as how we’re salesmen, and all.”
<Joel, on the location> “Visit beautiful Ground Zero.”
<Joel> “Every frame of this movie looks like someone’s “Last Known Photograph”.”
This wraps up Season Four, which would be Joel’s last full season on the show - Season Five would be split evenly between him, and Mike Nelson.
Next up :
5.01 - Warrior of the Lost World
That’s one of my two favorite Joel lines, both from this film. The other, which he says when Torgo shows up, is “He looks like a chainsaw sculpture.” Mike’s riffs were never quite that odd.
Manos. Hands of fate.
You know, “manos.”
Actually, there’s **“The Sinister Urge” ** where we see Ed in drag and “The Violent Years” where we see the same right turn again and again.
Seeing **“Bride of the Monster” ** makes Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood” that much funnier.
To recap… Manos. Hands of fate.
One of my favorite lines from *Manos * is toward the end, when the movie starts reusing more of its footage and they start screaming, “NO! No! The movie’s lapping itself!”
At this stopping point, CandidGamera, can I hijack briefly to ask: what, in your opinion, are the funniest (ie, best riffing) episodes of the first 4 seasons?
I’m going shopping, and would welcome suggestions. thanks!
I apologize, you’re correct. I glanced over the list of Wood’s credits and nothing familiar leaped out at me - mainly because I’ve never seen either of those MST’s.
jsc1953 : Sorry for the delayed reply, I’ve been off. One of the collected volumes, the number escaping me at the moment - has Pod People and Cave Dwellers from early in the third season. (plus Angels Revenge, and Shorts, Vol 1) That’s a solid set right there, as is the Essentials volume with Manos and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
The one with Pod People and Cave Dwellers is Volume 2. And if you buy The Essentials from this website, it comes with Shorts: Volume 3, which is hilarious.
I should probably have clarified that I already own all the Rhino releases, so I was looking specifically for unreleased episodes. But we’ve sidetracked enough: on with the thread!
Ah, the “shopping” bit misled me.
Well, you can’t go wrong with Fugitive Alien or its sequel, or the Magic Sword.
Thanks!
**MST3K 5.01 - Warrior of the Lost World **
Oh my god. I don’t know if I was just in the perfect mood for this episode, or what, but it’s one of the funniest I’ve seen. Sacrificed on the MST altar is this cinematic lump - a post-Apocalyptic Mad Max wanna-be. Our “hero” (“The Paper Chase guy”) drives a talking motorcycle, and gets involved with some rebel types who want to overthrow the oppressive evil government. Donald Pleasance plays the evil villain, and Persis Khambatta actually makes one of her few film appearances in this stinker. We’ll see Pleasance again in ‘Puma Man’.
A large portion of this film is composed of endless chase sequences, involving the chirpy talking motorcycle and the ‘Omega’ police vehicles. This episode is especially notable for the presence of MegaWeapon, a monster semi armored to the gills that menaces our heroes for about five minutes late in the film.
The solid riffs abound. Nothing is spared, especially the puffy-cheeked, mumbly-mouthed hero.
Intro : Tom gets the introduction duties; Inventions : Mads have ‘SquareMaster’, Joel has ‘Bitter Hearts’ candies - very funny. Host Segments : Tom and Crow as slot cars; Joel as the Warrior of the Lost World; the Bots are enthused about the apocalypse. Finale : Joel gets MegaWeapon on the line to chat with Tom and Crow.
Signature Riffs:
<Joel> : “You know, it’s not so much the apocalypse, as the humidity.”
(regarding the old rebel leader character)
<Joel> : “Jimmy Carter is : The Enforcer.”
(as Persis, brainwashed, holds a gun to her own head)
<Crow> : “She’s got a Lady Hemingway!”
Next up: Hercules.
The Mad Max films have been instrumental in shaping the B-movie industry. It’s practically a sub-genre of it’s own. It makes sense, though. When you set your movie in a world of junk, it helps keep your production cost down. Way down. Far enough down that you can blow the whole budget on a motorcycle and a pimped-out semi.
I just received an email from the MST3K Info Club about the 9th volume of DVDs. Here’s what they sent:
This info is also available at www.mst3kinfo.com.
Tiscwslabmuz!
**MST3K 5.02 - Hercules **
Quite unusually, after running through most of the later Herc films, we take a step back as Dr. F presents the original Steve Reeves classic. While it launched a generation of imitators, it’s really not that great by today’s standards. Racy riffs abound in this episode more than any other to date, as far as I recall. Two Marx brothers riffs, as well. (“Either this man is dead, or my sundial has stopped!”)
Hercules has been brought to a kingdom to teach the son of the King in the ways of warcraft, but the son is killed by a lion and Herc falls afoul of an old murder mystery - the previous king’s death. It’s really choppy and the plot is hard to follow - I think the Best Brains crew had to chop the hell out of it to get it to fit the runtime. Herc ultimately sets sail with Jason and the Argonauts, recovering the Golden Fleece, and unveiling the murder.
Intro : Casual day on the SOL - the crew struggles to Improv; Inventions : Cellular Desk, Instant Karma. Segment One: Updated Constellations, including ‘Guernica’. Segment Two : Rambling on the band Hamilton, Joe, Frank, and Reynolds. (sp?) Segment Three : Crow’s one-man show dedicated to the host of the Match Game, called “Give 'em Hell, blank” - hilarious. Finale : Crew is visited by two modern Minnesotan Amazons.
Signature Riffs :
<Crow> : “Wait, this is ancient Greece, they didn’t have ruins yet!”
(as the Argonauts are led away by the Amazons)
<Tom> : “It’s the Bataan Sex March!”
As a bonus, I present this gallery of MST Art :
http://www.mst3k-fic.com/g.html
Next up - Swamp Diamonds.