415-The Beatniks

Film Year:  1960
Genre:  Drama
Director:  Paul Frees
Starring:  Not actual beatniks, that's for damn sure
MST Season:  4
Featured Short:  "General Hospital" (Part 2)

The Short

Continuing on from where the last General Hospital segment left off, the party is held complete with a lot of awkward tension between characters who want to bang each other.  The audience is just screaming "Start the orgy and be done with it!"

And there is cake.  Very slow cake cutting.  Very slow cake eating.

I want cake.

This segment is probably the least memorable of the General Hospital shorts on the show, because less happens than usual (and almost nothing happens at all in the entirety of the story presented in the three segments overall).  People glare at each other and just look pissy.  That's pretty much the entire thing.  And yet, there is one more of these things to deal with.  Ugh.

The Movie

A movie about beatniks made by people who don't know what beatniks are.  This movie has a group of juvenile delinquents who like going around and loitering.  One day one of them gets a record deal and becomes a famous singer overnight.  But his thug friends begin getting into violent trouble, dragging his eventual success down the toilet.

The Beatniks is a fairly poor in many regards, with bad acting and somewhat poor plotting.  Though the story is light it has a somewhat interesting idea at its core.  I kinda dig this story about a guy who is given the opportunity to drag himself out of the gutter only to be pulled back in by his company.  The big elephant in the room is the title though, because this guy isn't a beatnik, nor are his friends.

The movie can also be hilariously dated as well.  While I'm willing to let a lot of stuff slide for being one with the times in which it was made, the glaring thing about the episode is the character who has the nickname of "Moon."  When he threatens someone he pulls a knife and says his famous catchphrase "I'm gonna MOON ya'!"  Boy that means something way different today than what I think he wants it to mean.  Since he's our primary antagonist of the film he comes off as a bit of a joke because of this, though his loose cannon characterization is noted.

The Beatniks isn't hard to watch, though it feels like it was put in the wrong hands.  There was probably an interesting movie here, one that didn't need to be latched onto a phony title to sell it.  I wish the film were better because it clearly wants to be.

The Episode

"I'm gonna moon ya', man!  I'm gonna moon ya'!"

Joel and the Bots embrace this silly and dated movie and take it for everything it's worth.  Their parody of the rise and fall of our character's short lived musical career is fairly fun, and they get into it's 50's-going-on-60's vibe and start grooving with it.  They seem to enjoy the music from the simple but charming songs all the way down to the score, which Tom Servo begins to not a familiar beat to as he sings "Meet George Jetson!  Jane, his skirt!"  The Beatniks is lightweight Mystery Science Theater fare.  It's not horrible, but it's easy to make fun of, and it's a blast being there.

The riffing on the General Hospital short doesn't quite take off the way the other segments of General Hospital do.  It has a few chuckles, though the dry uneventful story weighs the riffing down.  There's a genuine effort to keep things lively, as they note the somber mood since the first moment.  Despite not being a laugh riot, they liven up this lifeless party.

Outside of the theater we find some decent if unmemorable host segments.  My favorite is probably the parody of the rise and fall from fame plotline staring Tom Servo and featuring Joel with some nifty spinning newspaper props.  Also we see the Bots fauning over our film's protagonist and Joel challenging (and winning against) the Bots at Rock, Paper, Scissors.  The Invention Exchange has the Mads dressing up as Troll dolls (which is more or less an excuse for Frank to wear a plastic butt) and a clever play on the term "Pocket Pool."

The Beatniks probably isn't hilarious and its General Hospital short anchors it down a tad, but it's wonderfully entertaining in its best moments.  This is an episode worth putting in your collection, and one that's always worth a spin in the DVD player.  Watch it now, or I'll MOON ya'!

Good

The DVD

The Beatniks graced our DVD shelves as a part of Shout Factory's Volume XVII set.  Audio and video were exceptional, while the special features kicked off with a neat con appearance by Trace and Bill (and Frank is there in the audience too).  This panel is called The Main Event:  Crow vs. Crow and the duo talk about handling the puppet and Crow's characterization.  Trace mostly dominates the discussion, though Bill offers a few tidbits.  Also featured are MST Hour wraps and a trailer for the film.

After this set went out of print due to lapsing rights to The Final Sacrifice, The Beatniks was re-released in a new set called The Lost & Found Collection, which gathered six episodes that were left homeless from out of print MST collections.  The disc featured is the exact same disc as the Volume XVII set.

General Hospital was featured as an exclusive disc called the Serial Variety Pack released with Volume XXVII.