MST3K #211 - First Spaceship On Venus

“Any interest I had for them getting safely off the planet has been completely erased by a miasma of boring technical stuff.” – Crow



Released in 1960. Starring Yoko Tani, Oldrick Lukes, Ignacy Machowski, Julius Ongewe. Written by a ton of East Germans. USA production by Hugo Grimaldi, and others. Directed by Kurt Maetzig. Color.

Original air date: December 29, 1990

Sitting through “First Spaceship on Venus” – both the film and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode – is a chore. Long stretches of thick dialogue, scenes where nothing happens and a general disinterest from Joel and the robots make this the low point of Season 2. I might have some disagreements from fans here. But the episode nearly puts me to sleep. It feels like a first season episode in the sparsity and low frequency of the riffing. The movie itself also benefits from a wide screen showing, which the show can’t provide, resulting in jarring jump cuts. But you can’t hit a home run (or at least a double) every episode. I think the writers were just biding their time until Godzilla showed up in the last two episodes of the season.

You’d think the episode would be a standout since it has much in common with the very successful Russo-Finnish films they covered in future seasons. It’s produced by Eastern Europeans, has a big budget, is poorly dubbed, and features some thinly veiled socialist realism. It even throws in some well-meaning propaganda at nuclear disarmament. Much of the problem lies in the dialogue. It’s not goofy, like we’ve seen in previous films (#210 “King Dinosaur” is a good example), but it’s plenty clunky. Lots and lots of technobabble, enough to make “Star Trek: The Next Generation” decipherable. And there are few breaks in between lines. The characters throw big words at each other almost constantly. This is the death knell for the episode’s riffing. Much of the time Joel and the bots just stare at the screen and when they speak, the humor is spotty.



“First Spaceship on Venus” is also not that terrible a movie. Like I mentioned before, it presents an anti-nuclear message and shows a hopeful future. An international cast of Germans, Japanese, Israelis and Africans make the spaceship’s cast. We’ll see this type of international cooperation and hopeful future in “Star Trek,” which this film somewhat resembles. While the film is overloaded with technical dialogue, there are some interesting ideas presented and you can tell the film’s scriptwriters really tried to include as much real science and theory as possible. To East German audiences in the 1960s, when communism made their lives a gray, fearful and repressive world, this colorful film must have been a transforming experience. But today, the film remains dreadfully dull and slow-moving.

Like many films show on MST3K, “First Spaceship on Venus” opens with an excited narrator throwing tons of plot our way: it’s sometime in the future (probably 1970) and wreckage from a Venusian spaceship is found to include messages that are deemed undecipherable. A crack team of international scientists are quickly dispatched on the Earth’s first interplanetary mission. On the way to Venus, the crew discovers the messages might indicate a possible invasion of Earth by Venus. Landing on the second planet, they discover an advanced civilization undone by its own science.



The jokes and riffs are not the best here, but there are a few memorable moments. Joel has fun doing the voice of the little robot on the ship, who’s head resembles Twiki from “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.” As a result, we get a lot of “beedee, beedee, beedee” from Joel, which is funny. Joel also gives Servo an adjustment on his sarcasm sequencer, which is a running gag throughout the episode. Sometimes Servo’s sarcastic comments are funny, often times not. It does make his head explode at the conclusion of the show.

The astronauts’ flight suits more than resembles teddy bears, to which Servo sings “This is the time the teddy bears fly to Venus.” At the end, when the ship is thrown off the planet leaving three crew members behind, the African pilot, who previously was a rock of strength, screams like a girl and freaks out. Understandable, sure, but surprising and strangely out of place in context of the film. “At least he’s taking it like a man,” Joel says. Later, when one crew woman is trying to contact those left behind: “Um, there’s an angry black gentleman on line one,” Crow says.



My favorite jokes are when one character sees his Japanese former flame, saying her name Sumiko. Crow quickly says “I will as soon as I get a lawyer.” And at the film’s denouement, one scientist says they still have a lot of work to do, “Like covering the whole thing up,” Joel inserts.

The sketches are also less than inspired this time around. Crow and Servo’s robot creation, which only speaks in foam, is a dud. As is the bizarre gorilla visit. The send-up of old Kraft commercials is amusing, except most people don’t remember the originals. The junk drawer invention exchanges make it look like the writers are running out of ideas.



I can’t say much else about the episode. It’s boring as hell and that’s about it. I’d consider watching “First Spaceship on Venus” uncut, in wide screen, and in better quality. It might play a whole lot better. At least we know that the Japanese monster movies will make their MST3K debut in the next episode. It’s about to get a lot more exciting.

Rating: **

Side note: This episode is available on the Shout! Factory box set “20th Anniversary,” which is really #13 in the DVD release series.

MST3K #210 - King Dinosaur, with short X-Marks the Spot

“You know guys, lizards were hurt in the making of this film.” – Joel



Starring: Bill Bryant, Wanda Curtis, Douglas Henderson, Patti Gallagher, Marvin Miller. Producer: Robert L. Lippert. Written, produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon. Released in 1955.

X Marks the Spot – Starring: Edmon Ryan, George Matthews, Richard Gordon, Del Sharbutt, Commissioner Arthur W. Magee, N.J. DMV. Directed by Warren Murray. Presented by the State of New Jersey. Released in 1940.

Original air date: December 22, 1990

“King Dinosaur” – the rousing tale of four horny astronauts who land on a new planet infested with stock footage. Robert Lippert strikes again in another run-of-the-mill monster movie the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew must watch. Lippert knew how to make movies, especially on the cheap. Find bad actors, raid the public domain stock footage shelves for shots of animals and scenery, and pad out the action with pointless walking scenes. He must have been cranking out these turds once a week. And he probably made millions!

Best part of “King Dinosaur”: we never see a dinosaur, just super-imposed giant lizards. Although one of the characters tries to convince us we’re looking at a T-Rex. Sure we are…

To be fair, “King Dinosaur’s” creatures aren’t all brought in through stock footage. Several of the lizard scenes are shot on miniature sets, especially the ones where they’re fighting. And these aren’t fights achieved through clever editing; these lizards are really going at, blood and all. PETA would have a fit seeing this film.

As for the riffing, this film lets the crew have some real fun. It’s not the best of the second season, but it’s a bit above average. The writers are getting sharper, funnier and nastier. Quite a few jokes fall flat, like in #209 “The Hellcats,” but they’re trying new stuff to see what works and what doesn’t. The terribleness of the movie and quirky jokes makes this an enjoyable episode.



Before Joel and the robots endure “King Dinosaur,” they must first watch a short film. It’s the first short that isn’t taken directly from a serial. This time it’s from a “scare film,” which were used back in the days to teach children and adults what’s right and what’s wrong. For the rest of the series’ run, we’ll see shorts delving into morality tales, instruction films, Canadian expositions, and tourist videos. The short in this episode is “X Marks the Spot,” which deals with driving infractions. In it, Joe is proven to be one of the worst drivers in New Jersey and pays the ultimate price. I’m sure this was shown to repeat offenders back in the day.

The short is an odd set up; Joe dies in a crash that is his fault. He’s brought to heavenly traffic court where his guardian angel proceeds to tell the judge how awful a driver he was. Joe then asks forgiveness, to which the judge then turns to us at home to ask if Joe should be given a second chance, then asking if we’re even qualified to make that decision. The undercurrent of the short is deadly serious, but how can you take it seriously when the guardian angel is played like a retarded Sid Melton (see #208)? In actuality, the angel is played by former prize fighter George Matthews. The guardian angel was once a bad driver, which we learn through the judge; “You see, I stopped a car with my face once. My forehead’s all bondo!” Servo says, imitating the angel.

The riffing, like many shorts in the show, is some of the tightest and funniest all season. When the narrator tells us we recognize Joe because he lives on our street, Joel chimes in “In fact, he’s under your bed right now.” At one point, the angel tells the judge Joe liked a cocktail or two before he drove, to which Crow says “A half-gallon or two.” And Joel gets exacerbated at the judge’s insistence on talking to the audience to decide Joe’s fate: “We’re stranded here in space and we still have to pull jury duty.” With the end of “X Marks the Spot,” it’s evident we’ll see a lot more fun in future shorts.



And now the movie: “King Dinosaur” starts with a frenzied narrator setting up the plot of four astronauts – two men, two women – visiting Planet Nova for study, which looks a lot like a field in Wisconsin (“That’s one step for man, one giant leap into a cow patty,” Servo says). Upon landing, they spend a long time walking and discovering stock footage of deer, owls and other animals. They even adopt a furry little animal Joel and the bots dub “Joe the Lemur.” Problem is, it’s not a lemur, but Joel has fun doing its voice now and then. Eventually, two of the party discovers an island where giant lizards roam and duke it out occasionally.

The film drags quite a bit until the giant lizards show up. True to form, we get a lot of walking scenes early on (“Fifteen minute break everyone. Lippert rules apply here,” Servo intones). There is a funny fight between Dr. Ralph (Bill Bryant) and a rubber alligator. When Ralph comes to, he sees a giant spider, which he shoots because it’s different. Everyone tells him to relax (“Relax?! There’s a bee the size of a moose over there and you tell him to relax?!” Crow shouts).

There’s no relaxing when the lizard fights begin. For the last quarter of the movie, Drs. Richard (Douglas Henderson) and Patricia (Wanda Curtis) watch as giant lizard after giant lizard kill each other (“Mr. Lippert, I’m appalled!” Crow says of the animal abuse). Dr. Ralph and Nora (Patti Gallagher) come to the rescue, equipped with an atomic bomb. Apparently that’s standard issue on all planetary explorations.



Herein lies the most confounding part of the movie – the ending, which makes me angry. All four explorers run for their lives from the giant animals. It’s clear they’ll probably get away just fine, but still they feel the need to trigger the A-bomb. In the end, the island of animals explodes, forever disrupting the natural course of Planet Nova. What the hell was the point of that? It’s another in a long line of Lippert moments where the characters destroy things because they do not understand them. “Looks like we brought civilization to Planet Nova,” Dr. Richard states in so many words. Please. “Thanks for annihilating all that I know,” Crow says as the lemur. That’s actually more like it.

I can’t fail to mention that “King Dinosaur” is actually the brainchild of Bert I. Gordon – Mr. BIG himself. One of the more famous of the B-movie directors, Gordon made a career out of superimposing ordinary animals onto the silver screen to make them huge. In typical Bert I. Gordon fashion, he wrote the story as an excuse to feature special effects. To hell with character development and direction for actors (George Lucas must have taken notice). Just watch Douglas Henderson shove the actresses around several times. You’d think Bert would tell him to tone it down. Nope. Instead, we see Henderson literally throw these women to the ground and it looks painful! Regardless, we’ll see plenty more of Bert’s movies in the coming seasons.

The sketches are a little sub-par this time around. The invention exchanges are funny, but aren’t really inventions – Joel’s is really stinky socks. The “Joe the Lemur” bit is overdone and not funny, and comes before we even see the “lemur” in the film. The Emotional Scientist bit isn’t much better. Same with the closing moments. But Crow’s questioning whether he’s qualified, based off what the “X Marks the Spot” judge asks is really funny. It’s easily the best sketch here. The beat poetry moment in the beginning is amusing, too. Joel has shaved his ‘50s goatee, but the bots have grown their own.



“King Dinosaur” makes for a fun experiment for the show. Not the best riffing and certainly lacking on the sketches, but it’s still a memorable episode.

Rating: ***

MST3K #209 - The Hellcats

“We’re born, we die, and there’s lots of padding in between.” - Joel



Starring: Ross Hagen, Dee Duffy, Sharyn Kinzie, Del “Sonny” West, Robert Slatzer. Writers: James Gordon White and Robert Slatzer. Producers: Anthony Cardoza and Herman Tomlin. Director: Robert Slatzer. Released in 1967.

Original air date: December 8, 1990

Ross Hagen is back in a return to form that we never asked for. In the third grindhouse biker film of the second season, and the second one starring Hagen, we get more of the same; lots of long scenes of people on motorcycles, violent shootouts, and trippy dialogue, man. Like “Wild Rebels,” this is a watchable film on its own if you have a soft spot for these kinds of 1960s movies like I do. And the incessant dancing and partying makes for some really great commentary from the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew. I think the film is summed up best in this one scene: a stoned biker dude stumbles around a field, saying “Roses are green, violets are red…” Joel finishes for him: “I like to shoot heroin straight into my head.”

It’s also an easier to take film than Hagen’s last showing, “The Sidehackers.” Where that movie was mean-spirited with rape, murder and domestic violence, “The Hellcats” is just plain goofy. At least both movies have something Joel and the robots can easily pick apart – Ross Hagen’s glowering performance. Thankfully, we get plenty of “chili peppers burn my gut” references.



“The Hellcats” features Hagen playing Army Sgt. Monte Chapman, whose police detective brother is murdered by a drug ring early in the film. He and his brother’s fiancé, Linda (Dee Duffy), decide to go undercover in the drug-running biker gang his brother was investigating. They believe it was these drugged, free-loving hippies that killed their loved one, but soon learn that it was evil, suited-wearing grease balls. In between, there’s lots of dancing, drugging and some weird scenes of physical endurance. Like most films shown on MST3K, this film could have been told in about 20 minutes. But noooooooo.

Apparently, the show’s writers rushed through this episode as they were attending a Comedy Central meeting in New York to ensure MST3K remained on the air. As a result, the show would become the flagship production for several years for the powerhouse that is Comedy Central today. But some fans believe this show took a hit because the writers were in a rush. In regards to the theater segments, I can kind of see it, but the gang has gotten into the art form much better at this point, so it’s not overly noticeable. The riffing is punchy and sharper than some of the earlier second season episodes. There are lots of call-and-answer jokes to be found. My favorite is when the eye-patched biker babe asks Chapman if he has any Mary Jane. Mocking Chapman’s struggle to fit in, Tom Servo says, “No, but I have some pot.” Stuff like that.

Other favorite moments include the extended musical party sequence near the beginning. There’s a terrible ‘60s rock song playing in the background – “I’m losing my baby” – that Servo turns into “I’m losing my dignity.” The Hellcats dance and speak slang, which is something drives Crow nuts: “What the heck is he saying? It’s like he’s speaking in an ancient tongue!” One gang member holds an exploding beer can close to his crotch and proceeds to spray foam all over the place. Problem is, the camera work makes it a little ambiguous, especially upon seeing the gang member’s look of ecstasy. “I hope that’s beer,” Crow says, sliding in one of the show’s dirtiest jokes. Later, one of the Hellcats endures a bad trip, eventually coming down pretty hard; “Better get him some cocaine, or something,” Tom offers.

The riffing is strong in the episode, especially in the first two-thirds, but peters out towards the end. The film takes on a more serious tone when bikers get killed and Chapman confronts the drug ring that murdered his brother. The film also gets pretty self-righteous, but the writers don’t always capitalize on it. Instead, we get an overdone gag about a gang member who squeals to the police. Joel makes it sound like the biker, whom he names Kooky, is a goofy comic relief. While the lousy music might suggest it, the scenes don’t. It makes for an odd and overworked joke that goes nowhere. Can’t be sharp all the time, I suppose.



One other thing I must mention. The movie is co-produced by Anthony Cardoza. The writers don’t know it now, but he’ll become an infamous person in the annals of MST3K. One of Coleman Francis’ good buddies, he starred and produced the Francis Trilogy seen in Season 6. They are among the worst and most baffling films this show ever featured. He’s actually seen here in “The Hellcats” in a non-speaking role as a painter who gets comically roughed up by the gang. He’s a little older and a little fatter than he will be in the earlier Francis films, but it’s still the same old Tony Cardoza the bots will come to know and despise.

As for the show’s sketches, it’s very obvious “The Hellcats” was a rush job. Besides the invention exchange and the closing letters bit, we get flashbacks (with introductions) of earlier sketches. The first is the Shatner Hands from #106 “The Crawling Hand.” Next we again see zero gravity lesson from #201 “Rocketship X-M.” Finally, we get the matte-scope lesson from #203 “Jungle Goddess.” They’re funny, but we’ve seen this before.

Joel does have a funny invention he didn’t have time for in “Lost Continent.” It’s the sign language translator, in which you speak into a funnel and a hand translates the message. It’s a funny slight-of-hand (sorry for the pun) gag. At the end, a letter from an Italian viewer warns Joel and the bots that there are many terrible Italian films that could be used as future experiments. It’s a look into what’s to come, as we’ll see a number of Hercules films and other crappy Italian jobs in the coming seasons.



“The Hellcats” is a funny episode thanks to a goofy, yet watchable, movie. While sketches make this the only MST3K “clip show,” I still find this one I return to for repeat viewings. Sadly, this is the last ‘60s biker film we’ll get (if I remember correctly), but not the last misguided youth movie. There are many more of those down the pike.

Rating: ***

Side note: “The Hellcats” was available as a stand-alone disc from Rhino, but it’s out-of-print like so many others.

MST3K #208 - Lost Continent

“Lost Continent?! I lost my keys once, but that’s ridiculous!” – Joel



Starring: Cesar Romero, Hugh Beaumont, Sid Melton, Chick Chandler, John Hoyt, Maria Stevens. Writer: Richard H. Landau. Producer: Sigmund Neufeld and Robert Lippert. Director: Sam Newfield. Released in 1951.

Original air date: November 24, 1990

Watching “Lost Continent,” you get the feeling the film’s director grew worried that he didn’t have a feature-length movie to film when he read the finished script. About 20 minutes of dialogue does not constitute a movie meant to be 90 minutes long. What to do? Apparently, you pad the film with as many extraneous scenes as possible. When the script called for the characters to climb to the top of a mountain, Director Sam Newfield (who did #103 “The Mad Monster”) translated that simple idea into 60 percent of the movie. The set designers built a rock wall stage and dammit all if they weren’t going to use. Thus, one of the most notorious scenes in Mystery Science Theater 3000 takes place.

Rock climbing, people. Rock climbing. There’s so much of it, Joel and the robots scream in agony at one point. “Who are you?! Where are we?! Could we get a frame of reference or something. Please?!” Joel screams at the movie.

The camera shoots the rock climbing sequences from as many different angles as possible, but it doesn’t make the scenes any more watchable. This is on top of lengthy walking scenes, where the cast wanders through a jungle set for long periods. It’s crazy to think that there’s only about 10 minutes in the whole movie where something actually happens. Par for the course in any Robbert Lippert production. But my God! It hurts the head!



Fans of the show either hate this episode for the above reasons, or love it because the writers really flourish here when there’s hardly anything to work with. I’m partially grouped in the latter. It shows a maturity in the writers and you can tell it wasn’t easy to do. “Lost Continent” is certainly not one of the best episodes of Season 2 because the film really does drag on you after a while, but it’s much better than it might have been.

The film takes place post-World War Two, where we discover an experimental rocket has disappeared from radar in the South Pacific. Created by a German-sounding Russian scientist working for the Americans, Dr. Rostov (John Hoyt), the government decides the rocket must be found due to its important nature. A six-man team, led by air force Maj. Joe Nolan ( Cesar Romero, who played the Joker in the “Batman” TV series), take off in a plane, which eventually crash lands on an island that looks suspiciously like the set of “Jungle Goddess.” Also along for the mission is American scientist Robert Phillips (“Leave it to Beaver” actor Hugh Beaumont) and comic relief officer Sgt. Willie Tatlow (unfunny comic Sid Melton).



After the landing, the crew learns the rocket crashed on a mountain top and they begin their climb. And they climb. And they climb. And they climb. Throughout these lengthy scenes, Joel and the bots constantly reiterate, in a bland tone, “Rock climbing, Joel,” or “Rock climbing, Tom,” and so forth. “Joel, why are we watching this dull, rock climbing scene?” Crow asks. “Because it’s there,” Joel responds. “No one will be admitted during the riveting climbing sequence,” Tom Servo mocks. “Would someone please tell the director about compressing time through editing!!!” Crow shouts.

There is a break in the climbing when the search party rests for the night in a cave. There are some hilarious riffs to be had during this scene. Another funny instance comes when Sid Melton’s character needs a little help climbing a rock. One of the crew helps him up by grabbing Melton’s ass in every which way, so much so that it appears he’s fondling the dude. Hugh Beaumont, sitting in the back of the scene, apparently found this funny, too. He breaks character and loses it, laughing into his sleeve. I guess no one caught that in the editing room. Joel and the bots missed it, too.

Eventually, the rock climbing ends and the search party discovers a jungle world on the summit. Thus the walking scenes through the lost continent begin. At a clearing, they come across a stop-motion brontosaurus that’s none too happy to see the humans (“I see a dinosaur, but I hear an elephant,” Servo says upon listening to the roar). They fight off the poor special effect dinosaurs (which, I swear, are seen in the weird dream sequences in #107 “Robot Monster”), and eventually discover the rocket. They then have to make their way down the mountain. At least Sid Melton gets to become a triceratops’ lunch (“I feel like a little Italian. Hello, my little pizza roll!” Joel says).



Besides the rock climbing, the movie has a few other quirks. I feel as though all the lead actors demanded to have an equal amount of lines, thus there are a lot of pointless scenes where everyone must say something, important or not. Second, some of these guys (I’m looking at you, Cesar Romero) speak in these lengthy, annoying soliloquys (“Jeez, everything is a speech with these guys!” Joel says).

I have to mention one other riff that had me laughing out loud. The director’s name is Sam Newfield, and the producer’s name is Sigmund Neufeld. These two are brothers, something MST3K’s writers picked up on – “They were in separate lines on Ellis Island,” Servo states. Now that’s clever!

The sketches are hit or miss with this episode. The Mads create a new brand of exercise machines that have, in fact, already been created. In anger, they don’t let Joel proceed with his invention. He’ll have to wait until the next episode. Hugh Beaumont, played by ever-wholesome Mike Nelson, visits the station, bringing a message of “unholy death” to the Satellite of Love crew. Joel and the bots talk him out of destroying earth.

The sketch about mocking explorer movies and they’re white dominance is overlong and obvious. And Joel and the bots take too long a while oohing and ahhing to something outside the satellite before announcing a viewer contest asking what the “Cool Thing” they saw was. I believe the contest winner is announced in a future episode, although I don’t remember.



If you can handle the rock climbing sequences, then this episode is quite funny. Not the easiest movie to sit through, but a fun episode in the end.

Rating: ***

Side note: This episode is available on the Shout! Factory box set Volume XVIII, with a special introduction by TV’s Frank Coniff.

MST3K #207 - Wild Rebels

“Live fast, die young, leave a fat, bloated, ugly corpse.” – Tom Servo



Starring: Steve Alaimo, Willie Pastrano, John Vella, Bobbie Byers, Jeff Gillen. Writer: William Grefe. Producer: Joseph Fink. Director: William Grefe. Released in 1967.

Original air date: November 17, 1990

Lay into me if you must, but I like this movie. Something about “Wild Rebels” makes it completely watchable on its own, without the help of Joel and the robots. I think it might be the late ‘60s vibe flowing through it, or maybe the laid back feeling of small town Florida. Or maybe it’s the wildly over-the-top performances of the bike gang juxtaposed with the sleepy performance of Steve Alaimo playing the “hero.” Perhaps it’s film’s lame attempt at being a morality tale. The misguided biker gang sure looks like they’re having fun drinking, smoking and doing whatever else they feel like. And the film relishes all of this by glamorizing the fun side of the seedy life. As long as the characters receive their dues in the end, it’s OK to show us all this, right?

Whatever the case, it’s silly enough on its own. Terrible, but in a good way. When Banjo (former boxer Willie Pastrano) growls, “He bugs me. That square really bugs me!”, it might be one of my favorite scenes in any Mystery Science Theater 3000 feature. I have to pause the episode until I stop laughing.

This movie is famous among the show’s fans because of the constant reminder that movie’s misguided youths are only in it for The Kicks. I guess armed robbery and murder are just a lot of fun. “It’s the kicks, baby,” Linda (Bobbie Byers) reminds the viewers in a repetitive manner. And in the end, when their world comes crashing down, Linda still manages to let us know it was all for the kicks. “It’s a cereal, man,” Joel insists instead.

This is the second biker film MST3K tackles this season, and it’s a much more enjoyable episode. In “The Sidehackers,” the movie was too brutal and distasteful for the writers to do a good mocking job. You could tell they really hated the movie and didn’t know what to do with it. Something about rape, murder and spousal abuse just sucks the funny right out of the show. Luckily “Wild Rebels” is easier to take. Sure, it’s bloody and violent and about 20 incompetent cops get gunned down by the end of it, but it’s not filmed in the same mean spirit of “The Sidehackers.”



In Wild Rebels, semi-famous stock car driver Rod Tillman (Alaimo) crashes and burns one too many times and decides to quit the business. It’s then he has a run in with hilariously named Satan’s Angels, who run around dressed like they raided a Nazi party rally – iron crosses and swastikas are their décor of choice. The gang consists of the leader, Jeeter (John Vella), hot-headed Banjo (Pastrano), fat guy Fats (Jeff Gillen) and the gang’s pass-around chick Linda (Byers). They tear around on their hogs, drinking everything in sight and beating up college kids. “I love a job like this. I don’t think of it as going to work today, I love it that much,” Joel quips.

They want Tillman to be their driver as they rob banks around Florida. Tillman declines the offer, but is intercepted by the police, who convince him to work undercover and infiltrate the gang. Apparently, Satan’s Angels are too smart for the police, as they freely admit, which is funny to contemplate because this biker gang is clearly a stupid group of people.

As Tillman gets further in with the gang, he becomes a part of their next big robbery that ends up going horribly. The end features a shootout at a lighthouse with a lot of guns, dead bodies and really funny riffing on the part of Joel and the bots. I have to point out that, near the end, Banjo steals a police motorcycle during the shootout. The bike is literally inches away from the cops and they don’t shoot at him until he’s a ways down the beach. “They’re just too smart for us!” Crow shouts.

The police also set up a roadblock and forget to block the main road to the beach and lighthouse. See what I mean by the gang being far too smart for law enforcement?

Throughout the film, as it chugs along in its nice and easy pace, so does the riffing. Joel and the bots poke fun at the many inconsistencies and continuity issues that plague the movie, as well as the terrible performances. Pastrano always looks like his head will explode from his skull while he plays a “high strung” Banjo. “Hey Banjo, de-tune your G-string, baby!” Crow says.



One of the best scenes comes when Tillman goes outside the gang’s shack for a smoke and to bury a message for the cops (“Oh, he’s sending it by carrier vole,” Crow says). Tillman decides to hang out and play his guitar when Linda stops by and we slowly realize that Alaimo was using this movie to further a singing career. Is he trying to be the next Elvis or Sinatra? Joel and the bots can’t figure it out, but the song is terrible! And to top it off, it’s orchestrated. Where are these other instruments coming from? “Thank you, brother squirrel, for the saxophone,” Crow says, adding later “This must be the b-side to the 45.”

Speaking of Steve Alaimo, his singing career never quite got off the ground. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t making a living off of it. A good friend of the Allman Brothers, Alaimo co-wrote their song “Melissa,” one of their best known tunes. Thank God the band didn’t cover this dirge of a track he sings in the movie!

The sketches are also very funny, with a few focusing on Gypsy. In the beginning, she’s feeling sick and overtaxed, with Joel shutting down a few key systems on the Satellite of Love so she’ll feel better. We learn she controls the ships higher functions and, as a result, has a slower brain capacity when she’s doing this. Of course, when the systems are down, she ends up sounding like quite the intelligent robot. When things are back to normal, she continues her obsession with Richard Basehart. Speaking of which, when Crow makes a “Voyage at the Bottom of the Sea” joke while watching the movie, Gypsy pops into the theater thinking she’ll find Basehart. It’s a surprising and very funny scene.

Later, Joel croons to Gypsy, much like Tillman does to Linda in the film. Crow and Tom Servo, acting like Banjo and Jeeter, beat him up, with Gypsy looking at the camera and saying, “I’m in it for the kicks!” It’s a perfect way to mock the film.

In the invention exchange, Dr. F and Frank create the “hobby hogs,” which are appropriate for “Wild Rebels.” Joel takes his inspiration from “Star Trek’s” 3-D chess game to create the 3-D pizza. Later, the gang sings a “Wild Rebels” – themed cereal jingle and throw a party on the SOL to counteract the effects of the film.



The watchable movie and hilarious riffing make for a great episode and one that remains eminently watchable. It appears that Season 2 is picking up steam and rolling along quite nicely.

Rating: ***1/2

Side note: This episode is available on Rhino’s box set, Volume 9. Unfortunately, that box set became unavailable shortly after it was released, so it’s not cheap to acquire at this time.

MST3K #206 - Ring of Terror, with The Phantom Creeps, ch. 3

“Life does begin at 40!” – Joel



Starring: George Mather, Esther Furst, Eddie Erwin, Austin Green. Writer: Lewis Simeon. Producer: Alfeo Bocchicchio. Director: Clark Paylow. Released in 1962.

Phantom Creeps – starring: Bela Lugosi, Robert Kent, Dorothy Arnold, Edwin Stanley, Dora Clement. Writers: George Plympton, Basil Dickey, Mildred Barish. Producer: Henry MacRae. Directors: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind. Released in 1939.

Original air date: November 3, 1990

There’s a saying that goes, “You’re never too old to go back to school.” The students in this film took that axiom to heart. “Ring of Terror,” the film featured in this episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, follows a group of medical students as they continue with their studies and prepare to enter a fraternity. Problem is, they’re all well over 40. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, except that they’re supposed to be freshmen in college. Real freshmen. As in, they’re supposed to be 19 years old. I guess when they reach the end of their years in school, they really will be seniors! (Thank you, thank you very much. I’m here all week.)

This movie is ridiculously stupid. Is it supposed to be a morality tale, a campfire spook story, a character study of middle age adults looking to reclaim their lost youth? I can’t tell. And it’s another in a long line of MST3K movies that could actually be about a 10-minute short film, but instead is stretched into a feature. As a result, we get some very long scenes and needless characters. This film is a joke, except that no one associated with it understands that.



Joel and the robots do a decent job ripping on the film, especially the characters’ advanced ages. But it’s not as sharp as the previous episode and, as a result, the boring stretches in the film weigh down the episode. It’s not a terrible episode, just not one I’d consider re-watching often.

“Ring of Terror” follows med student Lewis Moffit (George Mather), as he studies corpses, makes out with his girlfriend, and acts like an oddball because he’s not afraid of anything. Why that makes him an oddball, I don’t know. Slowly, very slowly (this is a padded movie, after all), we learn Moffit has trouble in dark rooms, especially ones that have corpses lying around. Apparently it stems back to some childhood trauma that he doesn’t want anyone to know about. Word gets out about this fear and the fraternity elders devise a creepy hazing event for him. He must go to the graveyard and steal the ring off a cadaver the students worked on during an autopsy. Hence, the ring of terror.

Again, it’s a story that could have been told in half the time it takes to show a “Twilight Zone” episode. But since this movie is more than an hour long, we get a lot more crap. For instance, there are several long scenes of Lewis and girlfriend, Betty (Esther Furst), where they are making out or arguing that his medical career will be too stifling for her. There’s one terrible scene where Moffit tells Betty how much he hates “They.” He also reiterates to her that he’s afraid of nothing, “Except our intimacy,” Crow says. To illustrate this, Moffit fights off a snake that somehow crawls into his car. Betty tells her friends all about it: “We just had a rendezvous with a rattlesnake,” she says. “Didya touch it?” Crow asks...

There’s an extended scene where the med students’ professor (who looks to be about the same age as everyone else) performs an autopsy. It goes on and on and on, with plenty of scenes of students leaving so they can hurl. Lovely.

Then there are the fat people. They eat and they eat and they eat, and all the thin students find this hilarious and make fun of the fatties. And the movie hammers this home so many times. “Alright, you’ve made your point about them being fat. Now just stop it,” Joel tells the movie.



What is most odd about the film is the needless bookend scenes. I guess it’s there to ramp up the tension, but like the rest of the movie, it’s slow and pointless. The movie opens in a graveyard, where a narrator introduces the movie, then walks around the graves stalking and stepping on his cat, Puma, a name he utters about 4,000 times in one minute. Poor cat. “I’m calling Betty White,” Tom Servo says after the narrator’s foot clamps down on Puma’s tail.

The best jokes come at the expense of the students’ old age. Everyone looks like they should have their own kids in college. Who thought it was a good idea casting people in their middle years? “We’re thinking of taking advantage of the freshmen’s osteoporosis,” Crow says, mocking the senior fraternity guys. “Could you get that son?! Oh I forgot, I'm a College Student,” Servo quips when Moffit asks his friend to do something. “Oh, to be 40 again…” Servo later muses pretending he’s the professor.

You get the idea. The age jokes come often and fast, and are funny enough to make the episode watchable. The sketches that mock the film are great, as well. Joel and the bots come up with the idea of the “Old School,” a college for the elderly. Students can take classes in Advanced Nodding Off and Television as a Drug. And at this school, it’s always a good day for a BM, Servo reminds us. They also mock the autopsy scene by performing one on a hoover vacuum. It’s very funny and the bots can’t handle the brutality of it.

In keeping with the film’s theme, the Mads come up with a real life game of “Operation,” and Joel develops the “pin bolus.” Both are funny and creative.



But just when you though the episode was over, the Mads spring a surprise; Joel and the bots must watch another installment of “The Phantom Creeps.” Wonderful. It’s the only time the Mads send the short at the end of the feature. Like any serial, this one runs out of steam quickly, right around this third chapter, “The Crashing Timbers,” actually. And there are 12 parts to whole serial! Luckily, this will be the last time MST3K shows “The Phantom Creeps.”

Like the previous installment, Dr. Zorka (Bela Lugosi) still lurks around, invisible or otherwise, looking to keep his inventions from the Feds and other nefarious parties. There are chases, gunfights and that giant robot, but it’s all confusing and uninteresting. Plus, everyone looks exactly the same, except for Mr. Lugosi. Crow even wonders how they can tell themselves apart. As in the other chapters, Joel and the bots rip into the serial by saying ridiculous things in the Bela accent, which is sometimes funny. What is kind of humorous is TV Frank’s song at the end of the show, which is an ode to Zorka’s long suffering chauffeur.

As I said earlier, this will be the last time “The Phantom Creeps” will be featured on the show, and the last time a serial will be featured until the fourth season. The repetitiveness of serials weighs down the show after a while and I think the writers realized this. Still, anytime that big metal beast is on screen it makes me laugh. I can’t really help it.



“Ring of Terror” is an average episode with some genuinely funny moments, and others that drag. Still, it should serve as an inspiration for anyone looking to go back to school. Hell, these guys are older than most graduate students. So go out there and learn!

Rating: **1/2

Side note: This episode is available on Rhino’s box set Volume 11. And it’s not out-of-print!

MST3K #205 - Rocket Attack U.S.A., with The Phantom Creeps, ch. 2

“I never though the end of the world would be so annoying.” – Joel



Starring: John McKay, Monica Davis, Phillip St. George, Arthur Metrano. Writer, Producer and Director: Barry Mahon. Released in 1959.

Phantom Creeps – starring: Bela Lugosi, Robert Kent, Dorothy Arnold, Edwin Stanley, Dora Clement. Writers: George Plympton, Basil Dickey, Mildred Barish. Producer: Henry MacRae. Directors: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind. Released in 1939.

Original air date: October 27, 1990

Here’s a bizarre experiment for Mystery Science Theater 3000; part propaganda film, part cautionary tale, part spy thriller. All these ideas and genres blend together is this jarring and shoddy old movie that reminds us Russians are bad and Americans are good. Both sides have nukes and the Ruskies are itching to use theirs. The title of the film pretty much gives away the ending of the movie. And man, is this a dull and soul crushing film, complete with a narrator who sounds like he’d rather be somewhere else, as well. As the blind man says in the odd scene towards the end, “Help me.”

But thankfully, the writers at MST3K are up to the challenge of making this black and white crap-fest hilarious. What may have been a tough episode to sit through in the previous season zips along quickly thanks to the sharp writing and fantastic delivery of Joel and his robot pals. This couldn’t have been an easy film to work with, but they more than manage. It’s actually a highlight of Season 2.

Two pieces of this episode are worth mentioning: it’s the first time MST3K added what is known as the stinger. The stinger is a five-second clip from the film that the writers thought was especially funny or weird. The above mentioned blind man must have struck them as so strange, so odd, and so terribly bad and funny that it merited an encore. I agree completely. The scene features a blind guy walking with his cane down a city street before the imminent rocket attack. He puts his hands out and says, “Help me,” in a deadpan style, like a comedian telling his punch line. There’s no urgency in his delivery. Even Joel and the bots are mystified in the theater. Only Crow can manage a “What?!”

Also, Tom Servo gets a haircut. Apparently the writers and suits at Comedy Central were concerned about Tom’s big head covering up stuff in the theater. So they trim it down to a thin rod. It looks stupid and will only last a few episodes.
Before we get to the end of humanity, we must sit through another installment of “The Phantom Creeps” serial, starring Bela Lugosi. After the insane first chapter, the serial’s second chapter, “Death Stalks the Highway,” offers much of the same. Dr. Zorka (Lugosi) looks to steal back his inventions from his kooky lab, with plenty of chances for gunfire, car chases, and disappearing acts. This time around, Zorka is angry and even crazier because his wife was killed in the plane wreck from the last chapter. We also get another chance to see the gigantic robot with the mean face.

The problem with these serials is the manic pace that occurs. In hoping to pack as much plot and action into the short film, it becomes overwhelming. And it’s overwhelming to Joel and the bots, too. But they get a lot of mileage out of their Bela impersonations and the hilarity of the big machine (“He’s no good on light dusting, but on heavy jobs he’s just perfect,” Crow says in the Bela accent).



There is a funny scene at the end of the car chase. Zorka turns himself invisible for the hundredth time and flees his car. The Federal investigator and his hot blond reporter friend (there’s always one in these serials) look into his car. Off screen, in something that sounded like it was added in post production, the Fed says “The driver is gone or he’s hiding” in a vaguely Ronald Reagan-esque voice. Crow then says, in his best Reagan, “Welcome to Death Valley Days.” In many, many future episodes, Crow will do his best Reagan with this line whenever he feels a scene calls for it.

There’s also a moment where Zorka’s bumbling assistant gets shot several times while escaping from the house. After he collapses, the Fed comes by and says he’s only stunned. Huh? “Stunned!? He took six bullets!” Crow says. My thoughts exactly. Nobody ever said these serials were any good.

After “The Phantom Creeps” comes the film, “Rocket Attack U.S.A.” This black and white movie sees the world in black and white, us versus them. It feeds of the paranoia common during the height of the Cold War and is actually kind of prescient seeing it was released only a few years before the Cuban Missile Crisis. Still, this is an awful movie with some truly wretched performances. My favorite in the worst actor department is the narrator. It sounds like he was coerced into reading the script and resents the fact he’s making less than union scale to work on the movie. A bored, disinterested and vaguely frustrated narrator is not someone you want working on your movie. Joel and the bots realize this and run with the gags every chance they get. And each time is funnier than the last. I found myself laughing so hard I missed some jokes.

The movie is ridiculously simple; U.S. intelligence discovers Russia is building a nuclear rocket, so they send their best agent into the communist country to blow it up. Their “best” is apparently inept because he pretty much gets himself and everyone killed while failing at his mission. This results in the “tense” last third of the film, where people go about their daily lives until the bomb is dropped on New York City. It’s the feel-good movie of the year!



During the film, we’re treated to a lot of padding, including Russian officials speaking importantly, a long dinner scene with terrible dancing and music, and an endless scene of the rocket launch preparations complete with an annoying ringing sound. There’s also the Russian guy that looks like Tor Johnson and the British agent who doesn’t have a British accent.

But the jokes come fast and furious. There plenty of cracks at communism to be hard: “Remember guys, this is filmed in color, it’s just that everything in Russia is gray,” Joel says. During the dinner and dance scene, there’s a running gag about how the American agent can’t get any service (“I. Would. Like. To. Order. PLEASE!!!” Crow shouts). The disturbing scene where the female agent talks to our hero about how Tor Johnson likes to come and stay and “do things” to her is lightened when Joel says “I’ll only watch until I run out of quarters.” Then, when, she later wonders why he doesn’t go home to his wife at night, Servo says “Because she’s fat and bald, too.” Near the end, as the prospect of a nuclear strike is apparent and the radio announcer expresses his love for his wife and family before signing off, Crow heckles the moment by shouting, “What a wuss!”

My favorite scene is when the Russian generals go to inspect the missile by standing in a field and looking up at it. Judging by their shadows, they’re looking up at nothing. Just the sky. Apparently the director didn’t realize how painfully obvious this was. “Must be a stealth missile. There’s no shadow,” Crow quips.

Along with the riffs in the theater, the sketches are quite strong. The Mads invent a water polo/foosball table that looks like it could be a lot of fun. Later, before the film begins, Joel discusses the Cold War and McCarthyism with the bots, using cartoon characters to illustrate his point. It’s funny and effective at the same time.

Joel then hosts a nuclear quiz show, asking questions on the Cold War, with some hilarious answers. Mike Nelson also has memorable moment when he arrives at the Satellite of Love as a Russian cosmonaut. And at the end of the film, Joel and the bots really let the Mads know how angry they are at the quality of the movie. Funny, funny stuff.



Many who feel that the more awful the film, the better the MST3K episode have a strong argument with “Rocket Attack U.S.A.” Great riffing makes this one to watch again.

Rating: ***1/2

MST3K #204 - Catalina Caper

“I think I know a bright young singer who’s hopped up on goofballs.” – Joel



Starring: Tommy Kirk, Del Moore, Peter Duryea, Robert Donner, Ulla Stromstedt, Jim Begg, Sue Casey, Brian Cutler, Lyle Waggoner, Little Richard, Carol Conners, The Cascades. Writer: Clyde Ware. Producers: Bond Blackman and Jack Bartlett. Director: Lee Sholem. Released in 1967.

Original air date: October 13, 1990

The 1960s beach party movies – there’s a film genre nobody misses. The formula is simple: feature lots of pretty women in bikinis (no complaints here, actually), a bunch of Aryan-looking guys in boxer-brief swimsuits (no thanks), a lame plot masquerading as a mad-cap comedy, a bunch of goofy adults, crappy music played by half-decent musicians, and Tommy Kirk. Bam! You’ve got yourself a beach movie. These were huge back during the early 1960s, when the Beach Boys ruled the radio waves when the Beatles took a break between singles.

Unfortunately for the genre, but fortunately for us, “Catalina Caper” was the last film of its type. “Catalina Caper” was released in 1967, at time when audiences no longer clamored for lame plots and Tommy Kirk. The Summer of Love, with music by the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and the drug-influenced Beatles, took center stage. Even the Beach Boys made the great leap forward a year earlier with “Pet Sounds.” Musicians such as Little Richard found they no longer had an audience. And nobody wanted to see another beach party movie, at least one that included bad music and lacked gratuitous nudity. Yes, “Catalina Caper” marked an end of sorts. Especially for Tommy Kirk. His career disappeared right around this time.



“Catalina Caper” is crappy film, alright, and it makes for an interesting challenge for the cast and crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Much of the time, the show focused on bad movies that tried hard and were meant to be taken seriously. Here is a film that winks at the audience and is marketed as a comedy. Fortunately for MST3K, nearly all the film’s jokes fall flat and there’s plenty to mock. In fact, I laughed out loud many times, and the movie is watchable enough to make this a fun episode. Still, MST3K didn’t really feature many more intentional comedies in the coming seasons. Although there is “Valley of the Giants” in the fifth season. Big shocker – it stars Tommy Kirk, as well.

Like most beach party movies, the plot is sometimes incomprehensible and inconsequential to dancing women in their bikinis. An Arizona college student, Don Pringle (Tommy Kirk), follows his buddy, Charlie Moss (Brian Cutler), home to Santa Catalina Island off the coast of southern California. On the island, Charlie promises plenty of girls and partying on the beach, and Don quickly meets a foreign girl (Ulla Stromstedt) on the island, lovingly referred to as Creepy Girl by Tom Servo. Meanwhile, an ancient Chinese scroll is stolen by fat dude wearing what appears to be a Crayola crayon suit who goes by the name of Laurence (Jim Begg). His effeminate boss (Del Moore) plans on copying the original artwork and selling the fake to a Greek art collector. But an insurance investigator with the “hilarious” name of Fingers O’Toole (Robert Donner) is on the case. All these plots and more collide with predictably unfunny results. Let the laughs commence…



The films packs a lot into its 84 minutes, with plenty of dancing, music and scuba diving fight scenes reminiscent of a bad “Thunderball” outtake. And Joel and the robots pack a lot of great jokes in, as well. We get plenty of remarks about the island’s 100 percent white people population (“Ah, the clean smell of kids who know they rule the world” – Crow) and lots of laughs out of Fingers O’Toole’s bumbling antics (“Wait, it’ll get funny…” – Joel).

When a scene of people dancing around a bonfire comes on the screen, Crow shouts out “Throw another Beach Boy on the fire!” When several of the beach babes peer out at the ocean on a boat, Joel quips, “Hey look, they’re standing four abreast!” Later, during another dance sequence when many of the teenagers look like they’re having seizures, Crow says in science film narrator’s voice, “Girls become provocatively aroused by the shamed males of the village.”

My favorite riffs come during the musical numbers that appear at random. Near the beginning, as Don and Charlie are taking the ferry over to Santa Catalina, Little Richard spontaneously appears to sing one of his worst songs, “Scuba Party,” complete with his trademark, falsetto “woooooooooooooo!” “Prince, I hope you’re watching this,” Servo says. They all then a have a great time pointing out that Richard looks really stoned, and sing “Nazi Party” over “Scuba party” to all the very white people on the boat. Later, a forgotten band, The Cascades, sing a song at a yacht party. “I’m going to quit the band and start a career in music,” Servo says mocking one of the musicians. “I think they sent the wrong people to ‘Nam,” Crow adds.

Speaking of the movie’s musicians, The Cascades still perform around the country, probably at crappy locations like town fairs and the Hampton Beach half-shell. The song they sing, “There’s a New World,” is written by the Kinks’ Ray Davies. Carol Connors performs a song later in the movie, looking quite beautiful in a black bikini. She became famous when she was only 16 as a member of Phil Spector’s Teddy Bears, where she sang lead on “To Know Him is To Love Him.” We all know about Little Richard and, needless to say, this isn’t his finest hour.

As for the actors, Tommy Kirk is best known for his Disney films and beach party movies. After “Catalina Caper,” his career took a dive. Now, he mostly does conventions. Del Moore, the fey crime boss, gets confused by the MST3K crew with Don Adams, another effeminate actor, in a future episode. And Lyle Waggoner plays a bad guy. He’ll become more famous on the “Carol Burnett Show” and appears in “Women of the Prehistoric Planet” (MST3K #104).



For the most part, the sketches are pretty funny. The Mads design new tank tops, literally wearing tanks for tops. It’s pretty appropriate considering the film’s content. Joel creates the tickle bazooka. Later, Joel discusses the 1960s with the bots, which is a brilliant and hilarious monologue – “People smoked openly on The Tonight Show!”, “Women were called girls!”.

Kevin Murphy as Servo gets center stage by singing an original song, an ode to Creepy Girl. There will be plenty more opportunities for Murphy to flex his singing muscles as the show progresses.

TV’s Frank’s Tupperware party with the Mole People isn’t funny at all and drags on too long, as does the final sketch about the movie’s convoluted plot. But overall, I laughed at what the sketches brought to the episode.



“Catalina Caper” is a fun episode to watch, mainly because it’s a goofy film, has a high production value, and the gang looks like they’re having a good time. It also makes you want to pull out a good Little Richard album at the end of the day!

Rating: ***

Side note: This episode is available on Rhino’s Volume 1 box set, although I think it might now be out-of-print.

MST3K #203 - Jungle Goddess, with The Phantom Creeps, ch. 1

“Would it be crass for me to say the natives are restless?” – Tom Servo



Starring: George Reeves, Wanda McKay, Ralph Byrd, Armida. Writer: Joseph Pagano. Producers: Robert Lippert and William Stephens. Director: Lewis D. Collins. Released in 1948.

Phantom Creeps – starring: Bela Lugosi, Robert Kent, Dorothy Arnold, Edwin Stanley, Dora Clement. Writers: George Plympton, Basil Dickey, Mildred Barish. Producer: Henry MacRae. Directors: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind. Released in 1939.

Original air date: October 6, 1990

How do filmmakers know how to stretch out a short film into something much longer? Just add tons of stock footage and a little racism and, Pow! You got yourselves a movie! “Jungle Goddess” is remarkable in the fact that nothing really happens. Oh sure, two guys land in the jungle, find a woman, then leave, but somehow the filmmakers drained the possible excitement right out of the concept. No surprise this film is presented by noted “padder” Robert Lippert. Wait until another Lippert film, “Lost Continent,” is you want to see a movie stretched to its boring point.

Unfortunately, the dull movie makes for a limp episode. The Mystery Science Theater 3000 writers try and do succeed at times (especially by pointing out the blatant racism throughout), but mostly this feels like a middle-of-the-road first season show.

Like the first season, the episode starts with a serial that isn’t that bad. I liked it a lot better than “Commando Cody and the Radar Men from the Moon,” of which we had to watch nearly nine chapters worth in Season 1. “The Phantom Creeps” stars Bela Lugosi as (what else?) a mad scientist who discovers how to make exploding spiders and people disappear – two unrelated talents he somehow meshes together. Anything with Bela is funny on MST3K. Joel and the robots really get into it with their Lugosi impersonations and since they’re so over the top, it’s almost always funny.

A lot happens in the first chapter of the serial, “The Menacing Power,” which sets up the rest of the serial. Bela plays Dr. Alex Zorka, a scientist with a knack for bizarre and dangerous inventions. When the Feds try to stop his experiments, or buy them for the military, Dr. Zorka snaps. A lot of important people say important things, tons of exposition is rained down upon the audience, and the serial ends with a plane crashing and people supposedly not escaping (but we know they will at the start of the second chapter).



So much is packed into 18 minutes of the first chapter that it’s tough to know who any of the characters are, save for Bela. All I know is that, at the very end, a spider explodes in the cockpit of a plane that carries the doctor’s wife, although the doctor says she’ll be OK because he’ll put her in suspended animation. How he’ll accomplish this by pulling her body from the smoking wreckage is beyond me.

The Bela jokes come fast and furious in this serial. When the doctor excitedly pulls a piece of paper from his desk, Servo says in his best Lugosi, “Hey! I just invented the post-it note.” When the doctor first tries his disappearing concoction and makes a funny face, Joel does his Bela: “I never should have filled up on that four-alarm chili!”

The most notable aspect of the serial, aside from Lugosi, is the mad doctor’s giant robot with the mean looking face. It’s big, clunky and hilarious, and bears a strong resemblance to Richard Kiel, as Crow points out. That thing must have terrified audiences in 1939. Or not.



While tons of stuff happens in “The Phantom Creeps,” not much happens in “Jungle Goddess.” The daughter (Wanda McKay) of a rich, Dutch South African disappears in the jungles of Africa and two unappealing white guys (“Superman’s” George Reeves and Ralph Byrd) go find her. Turns out she’s been living for six years amongst a tribe who sees her as the White Goddess. While she’s enjoyed her exalted status, she can’t wait to get back to civilization so she can eat a “hamburger sammich with French-fried potatoes.” And that’s about it.

Actually a few things do happen, notably shots of African animals walking around, probably lifted from a nature film. Also, Byrd’s character enjoys shooting things and he doesn’t discriminate: lions, monkeys, people, coconuts… the list continues. When the two explorers discover the jungle tribe, Byrd shoots the first person he sees (“I hope that’s an acceptable greeting,” Joel says). He earns the moniker White Devil and goes from unappealing to downright distasteful as the film continues.



In true Hollywood racist fashion, the black tribesmen jump up and down saying incomprehensible things while dressed in what looks like bathroom towels (“Hey, it looks like they all just got out of the shower,” Servo says upon first seeing them). The white main characters just look on and laugh. Silly natives!

Throughout the episode, the riffs are frequent but not always that funny. Mostly just observational stuff. But there are some highlights. When the Jungle Goddess learns that the White Devil killed a tribesman, she says the punishment for murder is the same in the jungle as it is in the rest of the world, to which Servo says “Plea bargain!” Later, the good white explorer tells the Jungle Goddess he’s so hungry he could eat a horse; “You’re in luck!” Crow says. Actually, it turns out that zebra is the main course, to which Joel says, “Great! Dark and white meat!”

My favorite comes after this, when the White Devil is talking to a native girl about learning English. She says the Jungle Goddess called her smart, but she doesn’t know what that means. “It means you’re stacked,” Crow says, which is a hilarious call-back to a joke from #106, “The Crawling Hand” (“What does stacked mean?” the Swedish girlfriend asks. “It means you’re smart,” Crow said at the time). True MST3K geeks will get a kick out this.

Like most episodes, the skits have their good and not-so-good moments. Dr. Forrester does a visual trick by putting his head in a saxophone for the invention exchange. Joel creates a radio-controlled circular saw, which leads to some funny scenes. During a break in the film, Joel explains to the robots the filmmaking trick of seeing through binoculars, showing them how it’s done with lens cutouts. Of course, Joel goes through a ton of different cutouts, including “intestine vision” and “glaucoma vision.”

The sketch where Joel and the bots poke fun at “The Phantom Creeps” inventions by way of an infomercial drags a bit, and the skit where Mike Nelson and Jim Mallon play trigger happy White Devils visiting the Satellite of Love doesn’t really go anywhere, although Mike does play both noble and condescending quite well.

But the last sketch, where Joel and the bots film a sitcom scene based on “My White Goddess” is really funny. They perfectly mock both the film and unfunny sitcoms of the 1950s with bad jokes, then take a curtain call for the Mads. It’s here Joel jokingly refers to Crow as “Art Crow,” like Art Carney from “The Honeymooners.” This will famously confuse a fan who writes into the show in a later episode.



All in all, “The Jungle Goddess” is a sometimes funny, if forgettable, episode. Better episodes are on the way, however.

Rating: **1/2

MST3K #202 - The Sidehackers

“Now that sidehacking has gotten so big, it’s nice to see it's humble origins.” – Joel



Starring: Ross Hagen, Diane McBain, Michael Pataki, Richard Merrifield, Claire Polan. Writer: Tony Houston. Producer: Ross Hagen. Director: Gus Trikonis. Released in 1969.

Original air date: September 29, 1990

“(Chili peppers) burn my gut,” the lead character, Rommel, says at one point in “The Sidehackers.” That may be true, but this film burns mine. The violent, disturbing and gratuitous film has little-to-no redeeming value; a true, trashy grindhouse film from the late 1960s trying to market itself as gritty when it’s really just mean. Unfortunately, Mystery Science Theater 3000 doesn’t help this piece of garbage.

“The Sidehackers” is the first biker gang film of the second season, and the first to feature actor Ross Hagen. He turns up again in a better episode. In fact, the two other biker movies shown on the show are much more enjoyable than this because of their high camp value. “The Sidehackers” actually starts out pretty campy, too, before it takes a right turn towards a cesspool. Yet I was still fascinated by the movie. It’s just so terrible and unpleasant, that I found myself interested. I’m weird, I know.



This episode is also famous amongst the MST3K writers, as well. None of the crew had watched this movie all the way through before deciding to use it for the show. As a result, they were shocked to discover a graphic rape and murder scene half way through. They edited it out of the broadcast, but “The Sidehackers” set in stone a policy that all films needed to be viewed beginning to end before being written for. Also, Trace Beaulieu has gone on record to say how much the film disgusts him.

As far as the riffing goes, it’s a step down from the last episode. It’s as if the writers were so uncomfortable with the film, they didn’t concentrate too much on it.

The film follows motorcycle racer Rommel (Ross Hagen) as he competes in the “popular” sport of sidehacking, or side car racing (sidehackers: “Aren’t those the guys that spit out the side of their mouth?” Crow asks). Apparently in this sport, one person drives the motorcycle, while another hangs off the side to balance the bike out on the turns, dragging his ass through the stony dirt. Sounds fun. It’s probably more interesting if you watch one of these races live, and apparently people still side hack to this day. I’m still waiting for it to show up in the X Games.

The first part of the film features a lot of sidehacking. I think we watch a whole race, at one point. Joel and the bots struggle to come up with interesting things to say, except Joel’s “For you folks at home, this might be a good time to get a sandwich.” The race footage does allow Cambot to insert an ESPN-style graphic letting us know the score.



When Rommel isn’t sidehacking, he’s frolicking in the fields with his fiancée, Rita (Diane McBain), or working at a motorcycle repair shop. It’s here that Rommel meets biker exhibitionist J.C. (Michael Pataki) and his gang, which includes a guy named Cooch. Despite J.C.’s obvious mental imbalance, Rommel gets him interested in sidehacking, and J.C.’s girl, Paisley (Claire Polan) gets interested in Rommel. This is probably because J.C. is a very abusive boyfriend, as we find out. “What would you do without me?” J.C. asks her after one particularly abusive episode. “I guess she’d heal,” Crow responds.

Paisley comes on to Rommel, but he resists, turning her down is the most condescending of ways. Naturally, Paisley takes offense to this and tells J.C. that Rommel tried to rape her. J.C. goes berserk and finds Rommel and Rita hanging out in a country cabin and attacks them. It’s the rape and murder of Rita that the MST3K writers had to edit out.

With sidehacking just a memory, Rommel goes about hiring a gang of thugs to face off against J.C. What was once a lame race movie quickly turns into a bloody revenge film. You can guess that it doesn’t end well.

Despite this movie, there are some funny riffs to be had. After Rita’s murder, Rommel goes walking through memories of his past with a terrible song being sung in the background. For whatever reason, he walks through a field of thrusting oil pumps: “Even these oil fields seem to remind me of her. Can't quite put my finger on it...” Joel says. As J.C. goes further and further off the deep end, Crow explains it this way: “He gets this way if he doesn’t kill every day.” When Rommel reflects with a friend, “We’ve had some great runs together,” Joel responds, “Yeah, remember that dinner in Tijuana?”



There are also some funny jokes played off Rommel’s name and how it relates to “Patton” (“You magnificent bastard, I read your book!”). And when J.C. asks where Rommel is at one point, Crow yells “Algeria!”

“The Sidehackers” was originally called “Five the Hard Way” for whatever reason. Hagen, also the film’s producer, was actually married to Claire Polan, the actress who played Paisley. Maybe that’s why Hagen looked like he was having so much fun when he told his wife off in the movie. The film’s director, Gus Trikonis, was married to Goldie Hawn for a time and apparently she’s somewhere in this movie.

And even though this film is disturbing on many levels, I have to give credit to the overacting prowess of Michael Pataki, whom I was already familiar with thanks to “Star Trek” (he played a bug-eyed, overdramatic Klingon). His portrayal of J.C. is so off the wall that he genuinely made me nervous every time he appeared on screen. Especially after he punches Paisley in the stomach and later, when he starts shaking all over and screaming just for the hell of it.



Yes, this movie is unpleasant to a fault, but I found it watchable in an icky way. I have a soft spot for 1960s films like this, so maybe that’s why I could watch this with a perverse enjoyment. I know I’m pretty much contradicting some things I’ve said earlier about the film, but there you have it – I’m a man of conflicts!

The skits on the Satellite of Love are actually pretty good. Joel and the Mads come up with different inventions based around the slinky for the invention exchange. Later, Joel and the bots sing a very funny sidehacking song, and put new lyrics to the film’s love theme: “Only Love Pads the Film.” The songs might be the best part of the whole episode.

Mike Nelson appears again as J.C., visiting the Satellite of Love from his sidehacking spaceship (Frank Coniff is there, as well, playing Cooch). The sketch where Joel and the bots try their own color commentary over footage of the sidehacking races is overwritten and overlong. It probably would have worked better as actual riffs in the theater.



“The Sidehackers” is a not an easy episode to watch, both for the film’s content and lack of quality riffs. Still, it’s an interesting episode, though one I wish had been a little funnier.

Rating: **

Side note: This episode is available on Rhino’s box set Volume 3.

MST3K #201 - Rocketship X-M

“At this point the rocket becomes engorged with astronauts.” – Joel



Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Noah Beery, Jr., Osa Massen, Hugh O’Brian, John Emery. Writer: Kurt Neumann. Producers: Robert Lippert and Murray Lerner. Director: Kurt Neumann. Released in 1950.

Original air date: September 22, 1990

Here we are. Second season. Round two. Over the next 13 episodes, we’ll get adventures to forgotten lands, clunky space quests, Grindhouse ‘60s films, and a double shot of Godzilla. Let’s go!

Mystery Science Theater 3000 underwent a lot of changes in its second season on the Comedy Channel, soon to become Comedy Central. The team redesigned the interior of the Satellite of Love, Deep 13 received a makeover, Joel decides to sport a blue jumpsuit, and two cast additions made a significant impact. Josh Weinstein left after the first season, leading to associate producer Kevin Murphy taking over Tom Servo. Murphy’s Servo is far more intense that Weinstein’s laid back character, although that doesn’t yet come across in the season debut here. Murphy sticks with the character until the show’s end, so most fans are familiar to his robot handling and personality.



In replacing Dr. Erhardt at Deep 13, comedian Frank Coniff joins the cast as TV’s Frank, Dr. Forrester’s bumbling assistant. Immediately apparent in this episode is the hilarious interplay between Coniff and Trace Beaulieu. The new Mads instantly become fan favorites.

In a related note, we also get to meet the Mole People, Jerry and Sylvia. They apparently work the cameras and controls on Deep 13, although we don’t see them or hear about them at all after a few episodes. The show will eventually riff on “The Mole People” in Season 8.

Also worth mentioning is the increase and quality of the riffs during the film. The first season was punctuated by long, quiet stretches from Joel and the robots, along with jokes that often missed the mark. This improved by the end of the season, but Season Two picks up dramatically in the jokes department – several pointed riffs can be heard each minute of the film. And in the case with the Robert Lippert-produced “Rocketship X-M,” they’re often hilarious.

The film is a typical “gee-whiz” space adventure that takes itself a little too seriously. When “Rocketship X-M” was released in 1950, it was a big deal – a big budget space adventure aimed at adults. But that doesn’t stop it from being terribly cheesy. Not to mention “Rocketship X-M” is blatantly misogynistic with some really cheap shots directed at the one woman on the mission. Thankfully, Joel and the bots really let the film have it.



In the near future (the 1950s?), a space mission crew is assembled to visit the Moon and study what they find. Led by Dr. Karl Eckstrom (John Emery), the crew includes the pilot, Maj. Floyd Graham (Lloyd Bridges), the navigator, Harry Chamberlin (Hugh O’Brian), the woman professor, Dr. Lisa Van Horn (Osa Massen), and the comic relief, Maj. William Corrigan (Noah Beery, Jr.). Together, they take off for the Moon, where Dr. Eckstrom speaks in long soliloquys, Graham tells pointless stories from his past, Corrigan compares anything and everything to Texas, and everyone busts on Dr. Van Horn because she’s a woman. “Chauvinist detector just went off,” Joel says after Graham says something particularly stupid and an alarm sounds.

Due to some mistake, the Rocketship X-M travels super-fast to Mars instead of the Moon. Dr. Eckstrom says some sort of divine intervention brought them to the red planet, but more likely it’s the film’s clunky science. To make the most of an opportunity, the crew lands in Death Valley, I mean, Mars, and begin exploring (“Hey look guys, it’s the Statue of Liberty, and there’s James Fransiscus and Charlton Heston!” Joel says in response to the desert views



The crew finds a long dead advanced civilization, as well as a bunch of crazy cavemen (“It's an entire race of mimes! We've got to get back and warn Earth!” Joel says). Let’s just say the crew runs into trouble and the film does not end well. In fact, it’s downright depressing, even with its moral message. Joel asks the Mads why they didn’t just send them “Marooned” if they wanted to show a depressing space movie. “We couldn’t get it,” Dr. F says. Funny, because they will get it for Season 4.

“Rocketship X-M” takes itself so seriously that the writers have an easy time ripping this film a new one. First, they have great fun with the overtly gay subtext between Dr. Eckstrom and head of the space program on Earth.

Second, each character has enough of their own stupid quirks that allows for a lot of material. Corrigan, or “Tex,” goes on and on about Texas and, like many of the other characters, tells boring tales from his own state. “What’s next? Stories about this guy’s uncle in Milwaukee?” Crow asks. O’Brian’s character earns the funny moniker of “Dirk Sqaurejaw,” the first of many hilarious names the crew will come up with for beefy guys over the show’s run. Dr. Van Horn spends a lot of time dreamily staring out the ship’s window, which allows for the gang to imitate her asking questions like, “What are you dreaming?” and “Where do you want to be in two years?” And then there’s Lloyd Bridges, of which Beaulieu does a great imitation. We get treated to several Sea Hunt gags, most memorably “By this time, my lungs were aching for air” by Crow. In fact, he’d been saying that joke even in the last season. All in all, there are some classically funny moments here.



And the show’s sketches are good, too. The invention exchange remains from the first season, and Joel develops the BGC-19, a drum set for rock drummers who want to be frontmen. It’s modeled after the walking forklifts from “Aliens.” TV’s Frank, working on his first invention, blatantly steals Joel’s idea, much to Dr. Forrester’s chagrin.

In mocking the old white guys playing journalists who pepper the beginning of the film, Joel and the bots offer a funny tribute to them, of sorts. The gang later stares out at the stars saying random phrases in dreamy voices before being interrupted by a visit from Valeria from “Robot Holocaust,” played by Mike Nelson of all people. It’s a sketch that starts nowhere and ends nowhere.

But the best part is the “funny-not funny” bit they do in regards to things floating in space. The stuff they come up with is hilarious and Gallagher is never funny, even if he’s floating in space, as we learn.



“Rocketship X-M” turns out to be one of the better episodes of the second season and it’s a “good” film to kick off the show’s sophomore year. The upgrade in quality with this new season promises good things to come.

Rating: ***1/2