Film Year: 1954
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Hollingsworth Morse
Starring: Richard Crane, Scotty Beckett, Sally Mansfield
MST Season: 4
Featured Short: "General Hospital" (Part 3)
The Short
In the aftermath of the previous segment's party, lead General Hospital stud drives his engaged girlfriend-wannabe home and tries to convince her she's marrying the wrong man. Meanwhile the nurse who has eyes for Dr. McStudmuffin throws a fit about him driving her home.
After three segments General Hospital's tenure on Mystery Science Theater 3000 comes to an end. I'm not going to miss it. What more can I say about General Hospital? The only reason it's not the lowest bar for television programming is that reality shows based on the Kardashians, "Real Housewives," and a bunch of idiots in Jersey Shore exist. There's nothing really in General Hospital for me to comment on, so I won't even bother.
The Movie
Rocky Jones is back and this time more strings are visible than ever before! On this adventure Rocky must convince a stubborn space queen to evacuate her colonized moon before it collides with another. And that's about it for an hour or so.
For a "movie" (read: edited TV episodes) about two worlds colliding, Crash of Moons is slow as molasses. Usually I find goofy space swashbucklers like this fun, but this outing doesn't do much of anything until it's third episode...er, act. We get to watch our heroes look out of screens at moons, listen to babies cry, and bicker with a pouty alien lady. SCI-FI CLASSIC!
But I haven't turned my nose up at Rocky Jones completely. There are still enough fakey spaceship shots and old-timey fight choreography for me to be glad it exists. I just found Manhunt in Space more diverse. Crash of Moons may have two moons crashing, but not a lot else.
The Episode
We open with our last gasp on the soap opera General Hospital, and the melodrama and lackluster sexual tension is thicker than ever. Like the other General Hospital segments I think the format sets itself up for riffing quite well and the riffing takes full advantage. The three segments of this soap do blend in together after a while making it difficult to pick a favorite, but I do remember laughing a bit more at this one, with a killer pitch like "You don't love Ken!" and a perfect swing like "Like I love Ken!" General Hospital in the long run seems to be an experiment on the show, and while it's not a fairly memorable one I'm glad it happened and I got some laughs out of it.
Speaking of blending together, Crash of Moons finds itself mostly indistinguishable from Manhunt in Space for the most part. I don't know if it's just deja vu hitting me from doing another Rocky Jones outing, but Crash of Moons always disappointed me in that it never felt truly reinvigorating for this forgotten 50's franchise. That's not to say the riffing isn't good, because it's a constant stream of chuckles. This is just a been-there, done-that experience that may come off as a bit lesser since Crash is a bit duller than Manhunt. If they had tackled this movie in another season, putting some distance in between the two episodes for a fresher perspective, I think Crash of Moons might have been much funnier.
The host segments are consistently good, though the climactic Banner Gram is one of my favorite closing scenes in the history of the show (Dr. F's screams of horror are pure gold). There is also the cute song "Gypsy Moons" and a new Rocky Jones inspired screenplay by screenwriter Crow T. Robot. The Invention Exchange is a bit meh, which gives us sugary toothpaste and Joel constructs a guitar you can break in the heat of a concert and reconstruct in an instant.
I don't "feel" Crash of Moons as much as I do Manhunt in Space. This could be for a variety of already stated reasons, though the bottom line is that it just feels like a retread of the previous Rocky Jones episode. That said, as an individual episode it still offers more good than bad. I laugh, I just laugh at Manhunt more.
Speaking of blending together, Crash of Moons finds itself mostly indistinguishable from Manhunt in Space for the most part. I don't know if it's just deja vu hitting me from doing another Rocky Jones outing, but Crash of Moons always disappointed me in that it never felt truly reinvigorating for this forgotten 50's franchise. That's not to say the riffing isn't good, because it's a constant stream of chuckles. This is just a been-there, done-that experience that may come off as a bit lesser since Crash is a bit duller than Manhunt. If they had tackled this movie in another season, putting some distance in between the two episodes for a fresher perspective, I think Crash of Moons might have been much funnier.
The host segments are consistently good, though the climactic Banner Gram is one of my favorite closing scenes in the history of the show (Dr. F's screams of horror are pure gold). There is also the cute song "Gypsy Moons" and a new Rocky Jones inspired screenplay by screenwriter Crow T. Robot. The Invention Exchange is a bit meh, which gives us sugary toothpaste and Joel constructs a guitar you can break in the heat of a concert and reconstruct in an instant.
I don't "feel" Crash of Moons as much as I do Manhunt in Space. This could be for a variety of already stated reasons, though the bottom line is that it just feels like a retread of the previous Rocky Jones episode. That said, as an individual episode it still offers more good than bad. I laugh, I just laugh at Manhunt more.
Good
The DVD
Brought to us on Shout Factory's Volume XVIII set, Crash of Moons featured good audio and video. The only special feature was wraps from the Mystery Science Theater Hour.
General Hospital was combined with its other segments into a glorious whole in a bonus disc called the Serial Variety Pack, which was released as an online exclusive with Volume XXVII.
General Hospital was combined with its other segments into a glorious whole in a bonus disc called the Serial Variety Pack, which was released as an online exclusive with Volume XXVII.
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