This shorts compilation brings the one MSTies have been asking for since the these compilations began: Mr. B Natural. It's the short so popular that they named the entire compilation after it. Also included is Hired! Part 1, which wasn't yet on home video. Part 2 is not included, since I imagine those who put this compilation together assumed you already had Rhino's VHS of Manos at the time. Oddly enough, Design for Dreaming is a short we find double dipped, since it was also included in Shorts Volume 3.
The shorts selection is pretty solid. Despite the popular opinion, Mr. B isn't a favorite of mine, however there are three more great selections making up for my lukewarm response to the opener: Hired!, Design for Dreaming, and, in my opinion the real star of the set, Are You Ready for Marriage? X Marks the Spot is pretty solid, while Mr. B and Johnny at the Fair bring the laughs but cover the rear. Mr. B's Lost Shorts isn't the short compilation powerhouse that Shorts Volume 2 was, but there are some must sees here.
Original Episode: War of the Colossal Beast
The androgynous music sprite Mr. B Natural appears to a socially awkward boy named Buzz to turn him on (?!) to the wonders of music. Mr. B gets him to toot is own horn (?!?!) by going out and buying a trumpet. And with no practice necessary, he is awesome at it. Mr. B then goes into hibernation, awaiting to be called upon once again.
This weird short has been a long time favorite among MSTies for being something of an oddity. And it lives up to the oddity part. It tries to make children interested in music by creating a magical character out of it, but this storyline comes off less encouraging than intended. Mr. B is a bit of a high pitched annoyance and Buzz doesn't really experience much of a growth. His story arch pretty much consists of buying a trumpet and reaping the rewards.
Remember kids, being instantly good at music makes you popular.
Like "Manos" The Hands of Fate, Mr. B Natural is one of those "discoveries" MST made. When it aired, the fan base exploded with adoration for the ripe slice of WTF they had just watched. It's one of those pieces of riffing that every fan had to see and love. Being a fan from the Sci-Fi era I was very late to the party on Mr. B, but I had heard a lot about it, how weird it was, and how funny the riffing was. Finally watching the short I found myself disappointed. Maybe I built the thing too much in my head, but I think the short kind of overwhelms them. At times they just react to it, and in the moment that's the right approach, but as the short goes on it becomes clear the majority of the short is reaction. Reaction is great for a shock laugh, but repeating the shock over and over loses it's charm. They ride on maybe one too many run-on gags in Mr. B Natural: sexuality confusion over Mr. B's gender, Buzz being a loser, and just saying "Huh?" and "Oh wow" at it. And once Mr. B leaves the picture the riffing becomes a bit dead. It's decently funny short, but not one of the greats in my book.
X Marks the Spot
Original Episode: King Dinosaur
The short does what it’s supposed to and drives home a point about driving safety. It’s an important point to make and you can easily forgive the film for being a tad somber about it. But there’s an inordinate nature of the production, taking place with angels and the like. It doesn’t want to simply tell the audience what it’s stating, it wants to scare the crap out of you while doing so by taking you beyond the grave. Shorts like these aren’t scary anymore, with the silly depiction of a crude afterlife, so anything it says gets lost.
Last Clear Chance does it better. “Why don’t they look?”
X Marks the Spot is the first non-serial short of the series, and while it’s irritating that the series has now abandoned its second serial in a row, it’s for the best. X Marks the Spot is a liberating experience for the series, because they’re given a program ripe with melodrama but with cheap and silly production values and an inflated sense of self-importance. There’s plenty of opportunity to make fun of it and they jump on it. It’s little wonder they rarely looked back on serials after this point (Undersea Kingdom notwithstanding).
Hired! (Part I)
Original Episode: Bride of the Monster
Chevrolet's automobiles can't sell themselves, and they've got salesmen to do it! But customers seem to be hesitant of buying the product, but it can't be that they're selling a commitment of thousands of dollars door to door. It's the salesman's fault! Or is it?
This vintage training film was split in two, with Part II being featured in "Manos" The Hands of Fate. It's hard to get invested in this portion of the film because it distantly concentrates on failure without going into the portion that attempts to contextualize it and correct it. This short doesn't quite go anywhere, but becomes better when viewed back to back with it's followup.
Hired! is a MST classic, though when most say this most point to Part II, which is not only hilarious but paired with one of the most infamous movies of the series. It must be said that Part I is no slouch either. It's not as funny as Part II, but it's quite fun and the riffing keeps great momentum with the short. You can't go wrong with either in my book.
Design for Dreaming
Original Episode: 12 to the Moon
Did those salesmen from Hired! just not sell you on buying a Chevrolet car? Well the good people at General Motors are here to try to sell you more! In Design for Dreaming a dancing couple head to the FUTURE...of the past, and tour Motorama, looking at a bunch of neat gizmos and some shiny new automobiles.
There's not much meat on the bones of Design for Dreaming. It's a song and dance number that's trying to sell product. It's surreal and imaginatively shot, and the beat is catching. Try not to get too weirded-out by it and you might enjoy yourself.
There is a companion short called A Touch of Magic. This short was riffed by Rifftrax in their Summer Shorts Beach Party Live show.
Design for Dreaming is constantly in motion and giving Mike and the Bots different and weird imagery to work with. This is pretty much T-ball, but a home run is a home run. This short is the equivalent of a sugar rush and once the ball is rolling there is no stopping the energy in the room. This is one of my favorite shorts in the series, with catchy musical numbers, eye candy, and hilarious riffs perfectly in tune with the material.
Johnny at the Fair
Original Episode: The Rebel Set
I’m kind of a small-time short subject buff, someone who likes watching these little appetizers that used to play before the main feature. Stuff like Johnny at the Fair ranks among my more disliked short genre, as they’re just hapless filming of things that really aren’t that special that are only heightened by pointless celebrity cameos. The attempt at a storyline is a bit inane, showing inept parents not paying attention to their child and the little whippersnapper just kind of wandering around aimlessly. It’s not that interesting.
As we open this short, Joel warns the bots to not “get too dark.” This is perhaps more of a warning to the audience, as they really don’t seem afraid to riff in a dark place during this piece. There’s a lot of jokes about the psychological trauma of being a lost child all the way to something as random as the assassination of John Kennedy. Mostly what makes Johnny at the Fair worth watching is that Joel and the bots take an “innocent” story and adult it up, with references that can get political, critical, and even a bit blue. On that latter subject, this short does feature one of my favorite riffs of the series, which sees a baby horse trying to nurse from his mother only to jerk its head away, prompting Crow to spout “Oops! Sorry, dad!”
Are You Ready for Marriage?
Original Episode: Racket Girls
This educational short evaluates the relationships between man and woman and what it takes to build a successful marriage (my sister should have taken tips from it, as she was on her third husband by age thirty). Larry and Sue plan to get married right after high school, but after their parents scoff at the idea they decide to elope. Discussing it with marriage counselor Reuben Hall, they discover they might have a lot to learn about marriage compatibility.
Almost a companion piece for Is This Love?, Are You Ready for Marriage? isn’t nearly as melodramatic, a bit goofier, and features a moral hammered into the heads of all that watch it instead of acting as a discussion piece. Like Is This Love?, the material here is to sway youngsters from getting married too soon, and likely didn’t work because nothing can overwhelm the power of a 50’s teenager who is squishy. This particular short lends itself to riffing far better than Is This Love?, given the bad acting, lackluster “Just rappin’ with the kids” lecture, and overall overstaged oddness of the production.
One of the best shorts of the series. Are You Ready for Marriage? (“Yeah, I’m sick of sex anyway.”) is a likable lunkhead of a film, and the boys hold nothing back on it. They go after just about every aspect of it, specifically our two leads, enhancing their boneheaded peabrains into two of the most memorable characters ever featured Oon the show. Plus the short gave us one of the best stingers the show ever had…
“IT’S GONE!”
“WHERE’D IT GO?!”
The DVD
Mr. B's Lost Shorts was released as the fourth disc in Rhino's Volume 6 collection. There were no special features.
Shout Factory eventually re-released this volume with Shortsighted, an interview with Rick Prelinger, who is a short film archivist who provides both MST and Rifftrax with their various short films. He discusses how he got into the archival business, how he makes a living off of it, and his love of Mystery Science Theater.
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