Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XIX
Studio:Shout! Factory
US DVD Release Date: November 9, 2010
Rated: Not Rated
Running Time: 360 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 full screen
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 (English)
Subtitles: None
In the not too distant future, somewhere in time and space…
Movie: 3.5 out of 5
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) was the brainchild of Joel Hodgson, a former prop comic and frequent guest on Saturday Night Live and Late Night With David Letterman. Basically an extension of the popular hosted movie format made famous by Vampira and Elvira, the original premise was that Joel (and later Mike Nelson), along with his robot companions Crow and Tom Servo, were sent into space, orbiting the planet and forced to watch bad movies by Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu). The show first aired on local Minneapolis-St. Paul UHF station KTMA in a very crude form in 1988, but was picked up by the Comedy Channel (now Comedy Central) as one of its first series a year later. The series survived for seven seasons, then moved to Sci-Fi for three additional seasons, finally falling out of first-run orbit in 1999.
Volume 19 is the seventh set of episodes to be released by Shout! Factory, and as with previous sets, two Joe-era episodes and two Mike-era episodes have been included. Unfortunately, there is no real standout episode in this set.
Disc One features an episode from season one, Experiment #107, Robot Monster, long considered to be one of the worst movies ever made. The episode opens with the usual experiment exchange (the mads introduce their methane whoopee-cushion, Joel has a cumber-bubble-bund), followed by two episodes of the serial Radar Men From the Moon featuring Commando Cody. They then settle in for the feature, a surreal apocalyptic monster alien movie that turns out to be nothing but a child’s dream. Joel and the bots get some decent riffs in during both the serial and movie, but like many first season episodes of the series, the pacing of the jokes are somewhat slow and the host segments run too long.
Disc Two includes an episode from season four, Experiment #423, Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster. Bela Lugosi plays a mad scientist living out in the middle of nowhere, capturing men and turning them into powerful monsters, hellbent on taking over the world. Of all of Ed Wood’s movies, this one, perhaps, has the best production design, with many of the sets appearing as if they were actually built and not just thrown together. Bride of the Monster, though, still has the Ed Wood trademarks, including the very obvious use of a stunt double for Lugosi. The real treat is the inclusion of part one of the short Hired!, which was concluded in the next episode, #424, Manos. The mads introduce their Tough Loveseat, while Joel misses the mark with microwave Faith Popcorn (Joel explains the joke in one of the bonus features) during the invention exchange. The riffs are much more consistent, such as pointing out continuity flaws (the pencil behind the secretary's ear), the police chief’s pet bird, and even referring back to the short (No, we don’t want a Chevrolet!). The highlight of the host segments, though, is the SOL Theatre’s rendition of a musical version of the short Hired!, featuring, Joel, Crow, Tom Servo, and Gypsy. The opening sketch segment, though, with a look at Crow’s dreams, is a bit creepy.
Before Chucky in Child’s Play, there was Hugo in Devil Doll, the movie featured in Experiment #818 on Disc Three. Bryant Haliday (who would also appear in season nine’s The Projected Man) is The Great Vorelli, a would-be ventriloquist and hypnotist, who has transfer the soul of a young man into his dummy, Hugo. This allows Hugo to speak and walk by himself, which Vorelli uses in his act to the crowd’s astonishment. William Sylvester (Riding With Death from earlier in season eight, as well as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) plays American journalist Mark English, who is determined to expose Vorelli as a fraud. This is one of the darker films to appear on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and the riffing is not as snappy as in previous episodes from this first season on the Sci-Fi Channel. The series rediscovered its footing with #808, The She-Creature, and this episode feels like a mis-step. Thankfully, the riffing and sketches were back on track the following week with Invasion of the Neptune Men. Still, there are some good riffs, such as Mike’s recalls to William Sylvester’s character in Riding With Death and the return of the fan favorite “I’m not touching you. Does this bug you?” Paul Chaplin is hilarious as demon Pitch, trying to sell a set of Devil Dolls to Crow, and in the process turns Tom Servo into a Toaster Strudel, in one of the sketch sequences.
Finally, on Disc Four, we have Experiment #911, the 1984 Italian-French co-production, Devil Fish, in which a prehistoric shark/octopus is terrorizing Florida by attacking boats and eating the passengers. The movie is a complete mess, with bizarre inter-cutting of sequences that make absolutely no sense (prompting Tom Servo to exclaim “Just because you can edit, doesn’t mean you should.”), and borrows heavily from other movies, including Jaws, Piranha, and even Humanoids From The Deep by making one of the scientists at WOI the villain of the piece. The riffing is pretty good here, taking shots at the film’s underwater photography (Crow’s “2000 Flushes: The Movie”), humming the theme from Jaws whenever a lurking POV shot is used, the obvious use of library music, and even a reference to Bride of the Monster (“Ed Wood’s octopus scene was more convincing than this”). The sketches are okay, with Pearl trying to fool a couple into thinking they are on a cruise ship, and Mike and the Bots make fun of dolphins and electricians (with almost disastrous results).
Video: 3 out of 5
As I’ve stated in my previous reviews of these sets, judging the video quality of an episode of MST3K is difficult. The movies are usually in fairly bad shape, with sub-par transfers that the series’ producers had to contend with. This is true on all four features, where the masters obviously came from an older analog video source.
The only fair thing to do is to judge the host segments, and the quality improves as you get later into the series. Disc one has an overall softness to it, but colors are consistent. Disc two fairs much better, with greater detail and color fidelity. Discs Three and Four are excellent, with increased detail and well-defined colors.
Audio: 3 out of 5
As with the video, the audio quality is best judged by the host segments and the actual riffing during the movie. All four discs include a Dolby Digital 2.0 track, encoded at 192 kbps. Dialogue is intelligible and overall the tracks have good fidelity. The stereo mix on disc four generally adds some ambience to the host segments, giving the musical segments some added depth.
Special Features: 3.5 out of 5
As with Shout! Factory’s other MST3K boxed sets, the menu designs on each disc are themed with the episode, with decent CG animation, and are very funny. Also included in the set are a set of original comic book style mini-posters for each episode, identical to the DVD covers.
The limited-edition version of the set also includes a plastic miniature replica of Gypsy.
Disc One
Theatrical Trailer (1:29) for Robot Monster is in generally good shape, and is slightly window-boxed.
Introduction by J. Elvis Weinstein (6:41): The original voice of Tom Servo discusses the early days of MST3K, the weakness of the writing during the first season, and how they resisted choosing this film, but relented when they had to fill an episode order. The featurette is presented in anamorphic widescreen, but does exhibit some interlacing issues.
Larry Blamire Geeks Out (11:01): The writer-director of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra discusses his fondness for Robot Monster. The featurette is presented in anamorphic widescreen.
Disc Two
Theatrical Trailer (1:31) for Bride of the Monster is in generally good shape, and is slightly window-boxed.
Citizen Wood: Making The Bride, Unmaking The “Legend” (27:07): Cinema Insomnia host Mr. Lobo, Joel Hodgson, Larry Blamire, Richard Sheffield, producer Richard Gordon, Tom Weaver, and George Steele
discuss the legends of director Ed Wood and stars Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson, the making of Bride of the Monster, and the film’s connection to Mystery Science Theater 3000. The featurette is presented in anamorphic widescreen.
Inventing the “Invention Exchange” (6:08): Joel Hodgson discusses the concepts behind the invention exchange that was a mainstay of the opening sketch for most of the series’ run on Comedy Central. The featurette is presented in anamorphic widescreen.
Disc Three
Theatrical Trailer (2:01) for Devil Doll is in generally good shape, and is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen.
The Puppet Master: Richard Gordon on “Devil Doll” (9:28): Producer Richard Gordon discusses the making of Devil Doll. The featurette is presented in anamorphic widescreen.
Disc Four
Theatrical Trailer (2:21) for Monster Shark (aka Devil Fish) is presented within a small window in the menu’s hexscreen. It is funny how the trailer touts it (completely unknown) cast.
MST3K: Origins and Beyond at CONvergence 2009 (58:34): Coverage of the MST3K panel from the CONvergence conference in 2009 in Bloomington, MN, moderated by Bill Stiteler and featuring Mary Jo Pehl, Frank Conniff, and Joel Hodgson is an entertaining piece. Longtime fans will not find anything new or groundbreaking in any of the discussions here, but Pehl, Conniff, and Hodgson manage to keep things fun.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5
Shout! Factory continues to put a lot of much-appreciated effort into their MST3K sets, and the show’s fanbase will again likely not be disappointed with this release, although the choice of episodes for this set is somewhat weaker than previous sets released by the studio.
