602-Invasion USA

Film Year:  1952
Genre:  Drama, Thriller
Director:  Alfred E. Green
Starring:  Gerald Moore, Peggie Castle, Dan O'Herilhy, Phyllis Coates, Noel Niell
MST Season:  6
Featured Short:  "A Date with Your Family"

The Short

A monotonous narrator guides us through the importance of spending time with the family as we watch a family spending the evening together for dinner and discussion.  But be forewarned, there is a endless list of do’s and don’ts to take to heart, or father will scowl at you and narrator will disapprove.

Worthwhile subject matter of making family just as important as personal time is aimed primarily at teenagers and children in an attempt to show them how fun family time can be.  It fails.  It makes family time look anguishing; with so much proper etiquette to follow otherwise you ruin everything.  Honestly, if you can’t fart in front of family, who can you fart in front of?

But that’s kind of the point, as it goes to great lengths to try and portray a proper socializing environment with the people you spend every day of your lives with.  The short wants you to keep family close, which is something that gets lost as one gets older (specifically with teenagers).  But this short is more likely to bore the people they’re trying to spread that message to, who are more likely afterward to pick up the telephone, call their buds, and ask them if they want to go to a movie instead of spending an evening at home.

The Movie

“Eeeeeeeeeeextra paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaper READ ALL ABOUT IT!”

Not to be confused with the Chuck Norris movie of the same name (though I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what Best Brains thought they were getting only to be disappointed with the movie they received), Invasion USA is melodramatic Cold War propaganda as the distant communist country of “The Enemy” sparks World War III by invading America, and we’re forced to watch all the effects such a war would cause on US citizens.  You know, kind of like Cloverfield was for monster attacks, only Invasion USA isn’t nearly as crappy.

The Cold War was a scary time, and Invasion USA attempts to capitalize on potential tragedy BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT AMERICA IS ALL ABOUT!  EAT IT, COMMIES!  The movie has very little genuine entertainment value to it, especially in a post-Cold War climate.  Aggressively bleak and shrill with its lackluster attempt at emotional punches, it does have a lot in common with angst-ridden dystopian teenage garbage like The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner, so one could consider it ahead of its time in this respect.

The most that can be said about this film now is that it features supporting roles for Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill, the two actresses who played Lois Lane on Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves (Neill had also played Lois in the Superman serials starring Kirk Alyn).  Coates plays a woman who is drowned by the destruction of the Hoover Dam with her family (this episode of MST misidentifies her as being in another scene), while Neill plays a ticket agent at an airport.

The Episode

Things get off to a delightful start with a fun short.  Mike and the bots are on fire with A Date with Your Family, as the short’s pantomime becomes a huge advantage.  The only dialogue comes from the narrator while the actors try to act out to the best of their abilities, often wildly overdoing it.  It becomes child’s play for our riffers to just add their own dialogue to the scenes, resulting in huge laughs.

The movie is a bit of a killjoy, however.  Mike and the bots still seem jazzed up from the short, but such a dreary, low energy film doesn’t really give them the same amount of material.  Invasion USA is an unquestionably bad melodrama that offers moments of ingenious quips, but its bleakness drains the energy out of the room.  The crew is at its best when they counteract the movie and/or aren’t afraid to go to a dark place with their riffs, but they are nearly drowned by the movie.

The host segments almost save the episode.  My favorite is the opener featuring Mike trying to build his own robot, to disastrous results (think “Destroy Robinson family” results).  We also have Dr. Forrester’s science experiment on Crow and the crew trying out the advice from A Date with Your Family (“Mike, this sucks.  Can we just eat?”).  Crow has a delightful comparison between Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill as the Man of Steel’s leading lady, though it’s hampered by a few inaccuracies (he misidentifies Coates in the film and falsely claims that Neill voiced Lois in the radio dramas), though I don’t think they’re superhero nerds like I am so I won’t hold it against them.  The big dud (no pun intended…well, maybe a little) is the crew being visited by an atom bomb.

Invasion USA is hilarious at the best of times, and in those moments I wonder why I don’t like the episode better.  Then it just lulls itself into funk and I become depressed.  There’s a great episode at its core, but it can’t keep itself afloat.

Average

The DVD

The Enemy invaded our DVD libraries in Shout Factory's Volume XXXVIII box set, with good audio and video.  There is also a feature on producer Albert Zugsmith called Zugsmith Confidential.  This documentary features film historian Michael Schlesinger discussing his lengthy career and the various projects he was involved with, such as Touch of Evil, The Incredible Shrinking Man, High School Confidential, Dondi, and of course Invasion USA.  There is also a trailer for the film as well.

The short A Date with Your Family was released as a part of Rhino’s Shorts Volume 1 compilation featured on their Volume 2 set.  The short featured an introduction by Tom Servo.  The box set and compilation was later re-released by Shout Factory.