413-Manhunt in Space

Film Year:  1954
Genre:  Science Fiction, Adventure
Director:  Hollingsworth Morse
Starring:  Richard Crane, Scotty Beckett, Sally Mansfield
MST Season:  4
Featured Short:  "General Hospital" (Part 1)

The Short

Abandoning Undersea Kingdom, season four’s attempt at a serial comeback, MST tackles the enigma of their entire shorts lineup:  segments of the soap opera General Hospital.  I’m not entirely sure if anybody has ever spoken out on why General Hospital was considered for the short section.  Perhaps they were seeing that serials were too monotonous and trying to figure out something else that could be serialized to take their place.  Whatever the reason, General Hospital is here, and boy does it suck.

This particular segment features a doctor/nurse love octagon bubble ready to burst, as a nurse plans a party to ruin her crush-doctor’s delusion that he can be with a woman who is engaged to another man.  Meanwhile a patient gets bad-ish news.

When I was babysat as a tyke my cousin used to watch soap operas all the time.  I don’t think General Hospital was one of them (her shows were All My Children and Days of Our Lives), but I grew to have an intense loathing of them at a young age.  Cheap “entertainment” churned out at a pace so fast it was impossible to have any sort of bar for quality, these things were merely meant to be afternoon killers for stay-at-home moms with a case of the mopies and jobless dads who want to see easy cleavage.  Seeing this vintage piece from the 1960’s proves that they haven’t really changed much.

The Movie

Segwaying from televised soap opera to televised space opera, Manhunt in Space is three episodes of the largely groundbreaking (believe it or not) Rocky Jones, Space Ranger television series from the early 1950s.  While the sets, costumes, and characterizations are laughable by today’s standards (or by any standard to be honest), believe it or not this was one of the most expensive shows of its period way back when.  Largely forgotten in the wake of far more popular space travel shows such as Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space, and Space 1999, Rocky Jones was something of a stepping stone toward these shows.  While I’d be hard pressed to say they wouldn’t exist without Rocky (old Buck Rogers serials probably had more impact), it has it’s place in history and probably should be recognized for what little it did accomplish.

Manhunt in Space features Rocky Jones, sidekick Winky, shapely navigator Vena, and token annoying child Bobby on the hunt for space pirates.  These pirates serve a vicious and beautiful alien Queen, and the Space Rangers will do anything and everything they can to stop them.

Simplistic and goofy, I don’t have it in my heart to hate something like this.  In fact, I kinda dig it.  This is the sort of retro nonsense I like to see on the show, and watching it can be just as fun as making fun of it.  If you’re disappointed that I’m not tearing this ripe slice of stupidity apart, I don’t know what to tell you.  My eyes clamor for more.  And thank god there is more coming up.

The Episode

In theory soap opera’s are ideal for riffing.  They’re melodramatic, feature little humor, and hold large amounts of dead space for commentary to fill.  As such, the riffing on General Hospital is good, and they pin this thing to a wall and pretty much ribbing it senseless.  If I were to cite a problem with it it’s that little-to-nothing happens in the segment, leaving the audience a little mystified as to what the point of it was.

Playing better is the feature.  Manhunt in Space may not be as loathsome as General Hospital, but it is just as open for making fun of.  Only in different ways.  General Hospital ramps up the DRAMA so hard that you can’t take seriously while Rocky Jones you can’t take seriously at all.  Even not taking into account how goofy everything looks in this movie, when it goes into rip-roaring action and adventure the movie just doesn’t seem to have a concept of choreography.  Sometimes characters are caught in little instances where their movements just look foolish, allowing the riffers to add a form of dialogue that suits it beautifully.  One of my favorite instances is when a double agent is cornered, looks around the room for a way out, zeros in on a chair, and just flings it.  This scene is so delightful on its own that it was used for the stinger to the episode, however in the episode in question Crow pipes up “I was just...looking for...THIS CHAIR!” which enhances the moment so beautifully it turns from a simple laugh to a sidesplitting moment.  The one dimensional characters are also under fire, especially co-pilot Winky, who just lights up Joel and Bots every time he is onscreen.  However there is a bit of a missed riffing opportunity when nobody seems to recognize the actor as Spanky from Our Gang/The Little Rascals.  But who can blame them considering he’s all grown up now?

The Winky abuse continues in the host segments, as Winky makes a memorable visit to the SOL (played by Mike) in what is a truly classic host segment.  Other host segments involve goodies like the bots re-enacting the soap opera, playing with SPACE-MODIFIERS, and Servo discovering he’s color blind.  Invention Exchange is a bit of a miss, though the Mads’ bean bag pants are the better of the two presentations.  Joel’s recycled paper clothing just isn’t that funny.

All things considered, Rocky Jones is a pleasant presence on Mystery Science Theater.  So much so that there’s another coming up.  Does Crash of Moons live up?  We’ll find out when we get there!

Good

The DVD

Shout Factory released Manhunt in Space on Volume XIV.  Audio and video were both solid, though in a rarity for Shout Factory there were no special features.

General Hospital was featured as a part of Shout Factory's bonus Serial Variety Pack, released exclusively through Shout Factory's website on Volume XXVII.