The 24th collection of episodes from Mystery Science Theater 3000 arrives on DVD from Shout! Factory, including the final two Sandy Frank episodes, Frank Conniff’s farewell episode, and some highly entertaining and enlightening bonus materials.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXIV
Studio:Shout! Factory
US DVD Release Date: July 31, 2012
Rated: Not Rated
Running Time: 360 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 full screen
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (English)
Subtitles: None
In the not too distant future, next Sunday, A.D.....
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 24 is the twelfth set of episodes to be released by Shout! Factory. As with the previous set, they go back to tradition by offering up two Joel episodes long sought-after by fans of the series as well as two Mike episodes. One other thing fans will be pleased about - the inclusion of the Turn Down Your Lights (where applicable) title that appeared at the beginning of most Joel-era episodes, and has been missing on many of Shout! Factory’s previous releases.
The major highlight of the set is the inclusion of Experiments 310 and 318, Fugitive Alien and Star Force: Fugitive Alien II respectively, the final Sandy Frank episodes from season three. Like Mighty Jack and Time of the Apes, both Fugitive Alien movies are compilations of episodes from a Japanese television series, in this case, Star Force, loosely based on the series of science fiction novels by Edmond Hamilton. In typical Sandy Frank fashion, the “movies” are badly dubbed and just plain goofy, even without the MST3K riffs. Essentially, Ken (Tatsuya Azuma), a Starwolf officer, is sent to attack planet Earth. During the battle, a young boy, also named Ken, wanders into the line of fire. The elder Ken shoots and kills his partner to protect the younger Ken, thus becoming a fugitive. He is then enlisted by the alcoholic captain of the Earthship, Bacchus 3, and they blast off to many adventures in space. The riffing is in top form here, and I get the feeling that the two episodes were taped back to back, even though they were aired several weeks apart, since the jokes flow evenly between the two episodes, essentially picking up where they left off, much like the movies themselves. By the end of the double feature, fans will find themselves singing the MST3K lyrics to the movies’ theme song (They tried to kill him with a forklift....). The pop culture references range from the more obvious (Rocky and Bullwinkle, Monty Python) to the more obscure (The Deer Hunter, Chinatown, Hudson Hawk).
Host segments in Fugitive Alien include Joel’s poultry farm; the Mads’ 3-in-1 Ear, Nose, and Throat Dropper; Joel and the Bots have a Hat Party; Joel tries to explain the plot structure of the film with help from Syd Field’s bestseller Screenplay; and the Mads continually torture Jack Perkins (Mike Nelson). Host segments in Star Force: Fugitive Alien II include Tom and Crow discussing what constitutes a puppet; Joel tries to resurrect Tom Servo after his head explodes during the movie; and Joel and the Bots sing the theme song from Fugitive Alien.
Experiment #617, the Russo-Finnish co-production The Sword and the Dragon, is another goofy episode, but not quite at the level of what I consider their best of the four films from the series run, Jack Frost (we’re still waiting for The Day The Earth Froze to arrive on DVD). The film was imported from the Soviet Union by Roger Corman, who hired Mike Wallace as the narrator and voice-over maestro Paul Frees to voice many of the characters in the film, including Kalin. The Sword and the Dragon could best be summed up as a Russian version of the Arthurian Legend, in which an elderly crippled man is endowed with great strength thanks to a magical and mythical sword, but don’t expect a lot of dragons in this story (despite their mention in the title), as only a three-headed variety finally arrives in the last few minutes of the climactic battle sequence. Riffs include pop culture references to 60 Minutes, Doctor Who, The Princess Bride, Wang Chung’s hit Everybody Have Fun Tonight, and ZZ Top.
Host segments are all over the map, some funny, some not so much. Tom Servo tries (and fails) to teach Mike and Crow how to play Dungeons and Dragons; the Mads get interrupted from sealing their fanzines and comic books by two girls who just moved in upstairs (Mary Jo Pehl and Bridget Jones) while Mike and the Bots perform what is, perhaps, one of the few times the show ever attempted political humor with their musical skit Supercalifragilisticexpeali-wacky; an Ingmar Bergmen spoof on telling a joke (which fails miserably); Ilya Murametz, the hero of the film, visits the crew via the Hexfield; Gypsy reviews Supercalifragilisticexpeali-wacky while the Mads are deluded into thinking the two girls from upstairs are their new girlfriends.
Finally, the season six finale, Experiment #624, Samson Vs. The Vampire Women, marks the departure of Dr. Forrester’s sidekick, TV’s Frank (Frank Conniff). The film is a Mexican import from 1961. paying homage to the classic Universal monster movies from the 1930s thru 1950s, with Lucha Libre wrestler El Santo (Americanized as Samson) trying to save a young girl from a vampire cult who want to make her their new Queen. It’s as silly as it sounds, and Samson doesn’t even show up (and without notice, either), until nearly halfway through. The riffs are about average, with references to Rhoda, Jeremiah Johnson, Butterfield 8, Magic Eye books, and the Keystone Kops.
Where this episode really shines, though, is in the host segments, which foreshadow how the series would end the following season (before being picked up by Sci-Fi Channel), including several references to both 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, but also Lord of the Rings when our old friend Torgo (from Manos! The Hands of Fate) arrives as Torgo the White to take Frank to Second Banana Heaven, Dr. F sings Who Will I Kill, and Frank says his goodbyes to Dr. F.
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.
The only fair thing to do is to judge the host segments, and the quality improves as you get later into the series. Discs one and two have an overall softness to it, but colors are consistent. Discs Three and Four are excellent, with increased detail and well-defined colors. Throughout all four discs, however, there are some brief minor anomalies inherent in the broadcast masters, such as dropouts.
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.
Special Features: 4 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. All five discs come housed in THIN-Pak keepcases within a paperboard sleeve.
Disc One (Fugitive Alien):
Introduction by August Ragone (6:19): The author of Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters discusses how Fugitive Alien came to be.
MST Hour Wraps (5:04): Mystery Science Theater Hour was a short-lived hour-long version of the series for syndication (splitting each original episode in half), with Mike Nelson, in his Jack Perkins character, bracketing each episode.
Disc Two (Star Force: Fugitive Alien II):
You Asked For It: Sandy Frank Speaks! (25:29): Sandy Frank himself discusses his career in radio and television, including selling television shows to local stations, producing game shows such as Name That Tune, and briefly talks about Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Disc Three (The Sword and the Dragon):
Snow Thrills (9:26): Originally part of Experiment #311, It Conquered The World (yet to be released on DVD), this Castle Films newsreel-style short on winter sports is quite funny, and the riffs are rapid-fire, as well.
A Date With Your Family (9:57): This short was originally released by Rhino as part of MST3K Shorts, Vol. 1, first on VHS, then on DVD as part of the Volume II collection. This is a classic short from the series, and almost always has me ROFL. Tom Servo’s opening remark, “The Woody Allen Story,” sets the tone for the riffing. The original short is incredibly dated, advising children to do whatever is necessary, even lie and hide their feelings, to achieve harmonious family relations. My favorite line by the narrator is “These boys treat their dad as though they were genuinely glad to see him, as though they really missed him.”
Disc Four (Samson Vs. The Vampire Women):
Lucha Gringo: K.Gordon Murray Meets Santo (11:20): A brief look at the Lucha Libre wrestling phenomenon in Mexico, including the popularity of The Man In The Silver Mask, El Santo, and how his films made their way to America.
TV Spot for Samson Vs. The Vampire Women (0:59): The trailer is presented window-boxed, and appears to be from a lower resolution digital source.
Life After MST3K: Frank Conniff (11:32): TV’s Frank discusses leaving the show and what he’s been up to since then, including Sabrina The Teenage Witch (although he makes no mention of appearing in “Weird Al’ Yankovic’s music video for Amish Paradise).
Overall: 4 out of 5
Shout! Factory continues to put a lot of much-appreciated effort into their MST3K sets, and the show’s fanbase will yet again likely not be disappointed with this release. This is a “multi-themed” set, with all four films (badly) dubbed in English, but also a theme of closure, by including the final two Sandy Frank episodes and the farewell episode of Frank Conniff.
