Film Year: 1966
Genre: Horror
Director: Hal P. Warren
Starring: Hal P. Warren, John Reynolds, Tom Neyman, Diane Mahree, Jackey Neyman
MST Season: 4
Featured Short: "Hired!" (Part II)
The Short
In this thrilling conclusion to the Hired! saga, our not so friendly sales manager is put in his place by his father, who assures him his employees are working, but they need to be guided and not grunted at. He then returns to work with the attitude of leading his soldiers to victory.
Finally the short gets to the point (splitting it in two for MST didn’t really do it much favors) and the message of the short is actually a timely one. It’s a dated presentation, and hardly very in-depth, but it at least tries to be insightful.
The Movie
The burning question we MSTies have asked ourselves over the years: Is Manos the worst movie ever made? This seemed indisputable for a while, but as time goes one people seemed to have softened to the film, citing Monster A-Go-Go and Hobgoblins being worse. Personally I think the worst movie ever featured in a riffing project is Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (which was a revelation on just how much pain I can endure in a film).
What exactly happened to Manos? Is it really not that bad?
Here’s the thing, I don’t think Manos is a better movie than we initially gave it credit for. What I think happened is that we just got used to it. We managed to learn more about what the movie is and how it came to be, which explained so much about what we saw. We found out it was made by a farmer on a bet, put together with very little money and limited resources, and couldn’t even afford sound. Suddenly we pointed to aspects of the production and said to ourselves “so THAT’S what they were going for.”
But here’s what lingers in the back of my mind: I can’t forget my first reaction to this movie. I sat there absolutely dumbfounded and bewildered by what was forming in front of me on screen. Everything was wrong, and if anything was right it was probably for the wrong reasons. I had a reaction of indifference to Monster A-Go-Go (save for the “Wait...what?” response to the ending) while I have seen enough movies like Hobgoblins to have not been phased by it. I have only had the “Manos reaction” to two movies since I saw this episode, and those were Birdemic: Shock and Terror and Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (and maybe to a lesser extent The Room and The Happening). That tells me something about this movie.
What helps Manos is that is somewhat transcends badness into some sort of otherworldly experience with it’s presentation, and people have become fond of the film because of it. It became one of those special “so bad it’s good” midnight movies that people celebrate because it simply exists. This aspect actually enhances the premise of a satanic cult and hell. It looks like something we weren’t meant to see at every turn.
And of course there’s Torgo. Who doesn’t love Torgo?
Manos is a special movie that we’ve grown to “love,” but that doesn’t mean it’s less of a bad movie. There’s a lot to discuss and dissect about this movie and why it is the way it is. That might make it more interesting than a lot of other movies ever made, but it is what it is. And I can’t deny it.
The Episode
But does the worst movie ever made translate to a funny episode?
Yes. Yes it does.
Here’s what I noticed about this movie on this viewing, there is a LOT of dead air. Of course, that’s obviously one of it’s flaws, but it is something of a virtue when it comes to this show. The question is does the film give them anything to work with in these moments? Fortunately they pinpoint the exact portion of each belabored to ride on more often than not. I’ve watched this episode quite a bit in my time, and watching it again just now I found myself laughing loud and often. To gain such familiarity and still keep itself strong after all these years is something that deserves celebration, because I can’t say that about all episodes.
It’s very clear that the movie is the star of the show this week, because the host segments are centering on it so much. They come up with monsters they think are scarier than Torgo, Joel pretends to be the Master, and there are more than a few breakdowns at the pain of this film. We even see Dr. Forrester and Frank apologize and root for Joel and the Bots to get through the experience. The invention exchange is passable, with the silly Chocolate Bunny Guillotine and the lacking visual payoff Cartuner.
Regardless of whether or not Manos is the worst movie ever made, this film and episode have a special place in our hearts. So much so that when Joel and Shout polled fans of the top six episodes of the series for the 2016 Turkey Day marathon this episode came out on top. Joel seems a tad bewildered by the popularity of this episode, and has gone on record saying he doesn’t think the riffs are very strong. Personally I disagree. You made this film watchable and hilarious, which is more than it probably deserved. I may not agree with Manos being the best episode of the series, but I understand why it thought to be.
Classic
It can't be anything else.
The DVD
The mother of all Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes has been released not once, not twice, but three goddamn times on DVD! That alone tells you how important it is. The first of which was a single disc released by Rhino Home Video. Audio and video were both nice, but the only bonus feature was a mildly amusing blooper reel called “Poopie!” The second release is the exact same disc, only repackaged and paired up with Santa Claus Conquers the Martians in a set called the Essentials, also released by Rhino.
Shout Factory then picked up the rights to the series, and I think they were a little bummed that they didn’t have the opportunity to get this episode first so they could cover this episode more thoroughly than Rhino did. Knowing fans wouldn’t want to see a space of an unreleased episode taken away from one of the sets (there was an uproar for Manos taking the spot on the Essentials set despite having already been released), Shout released the episode as a solo, with passable video and audio with a few unfortunate tape hits, for those who were willing to invest in it. And brother, did they go all out in a two-disc set that celebrates one of the most influential episodes of the entire series.
The first special feature is a retrospective on the film itself called Group Therapy staring Joel, Trace, Frank, and Mary Jo (I guess Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic can’t mix, because Mike and Kevin aren’t here) and they talk about their own reactions to the film when they had seen it for the first time. It’s interesting because their feelings on the films are all over the place. They think it’s awful, but they also think it’s not bad. It’s as if they aren’t sure what to feel about it, and I totally get what they’re feeling, you know? Regardless of whether or not it’s the worst movie ever made, Manos is something that needs to be experienced, and if you haven’t then you haven’t lived.
The bonus feature that wraps up the first disc is segments of the MST Hour featuring Mike as Jack Perkins. It’s a little disappointing that they’re pretty workmanlike for such a landmark episode, but hindsight is 20/20.
Kicking off the second disc is the unriffed feature film itself! Picture is abysmal and the audio sounds as if it was poorly dubbed (which it was), but it all adds to the weird charm of the picture. Manos is Manos. Let’s embrace it.
Next up is an independent documentary called Hotel Torgo, which chronicles the making of the film to the best of its abilities. There’s a few incomplete aspects of it (there are several other surviving cast members other than the ones shown), but it’s thorough and enjoyable.
Next is Jam Handy to the Rescue! This is a Shout produced documentary about Jam Handy, which produced various shorts seen on the series, including Hired! The film is presented as a mock industrial film primarily showing a Stephen Colbert style interview with old footage of Jam Handy himself. It’s not one of the best docs Shout has made, but it’s good to have.
Under this Jam Handy submenu we find more features. One is bloopers from the documentary, which aren’t really that funny. Another is a rather wasteful phony TV spot for the phony interview. Finally we have Joel Hodgson, telling us about his history with these short films.
The final extra on this killer set is Hired parts 1 and 2 edited together with MST commentary. Something I’m sure we all wanted to see.
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