512-Mitchell

Film Year:  1975
Genre:  Action, Crime, Drama, Comedy
Director:  Andrew V. MacLaglen
Starring:  Joe Don Baker IS Martha Mitchell!!!  Linda Evans, Martin Balsam, John Saxon
MST Season:  5

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

After a disagreement with his boss, beerhound cop Mitchell is reassigned to keep watch over suspected drug dealer named Cummings.  While Mitchell is hardly subtle in his stakeouts, Cummings does whatever he can to get Mitchell off his tail.  But when Mitchell proves to be less keen to bribes (including money and prostitutes) than he looks, Cummings tries deadlier means.  But Mitchell vows to bring Cummings down.

Okay.  ::inhales deeply::  Folks, grab your torches and pitchforks because I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Mitchell...is...not...that bad...

::runs away::

Hear me out here, this is not an endorsement of the film, which still isn't good.  There is a lot that's said in the community about how Mitchell is supposed to be a badass like Dirty Harry and the like but Joe Don Baker doesn't fit the type and he comes off as a fat, lazy slob who acts like a jerk.  I've had many years to digest this movie and I feel my interpretation of Mitchell is much different.  The character of Mitchell is supposed to be a slob.  He's supposed to be a jerk.  That's kind of the joke of the movie, because it takes these tropes that are made to fit one type of character and it inserts Mitchell into it.  Mitchell's the last type of cop you'd expect to be effective, as he's a brash, loud, hungover asshole, but despite all of that he does his job well.  What's interesting to me about this movie is that in movies like this cops like Mitchell are often portrayed as "on the take," but Mitchell is straight as an arrow and almost incorruptible.  People attempt to bribe him at various points in the movie and he always turns them down flat and/or laughs in their face because they have the wrong idea of him based on what the cliche of his character is.  The only real illegal indulgence he partakes in is a prostitute played by Linda Evans, which he does a one-eighty on and arrests her when he finds that she has brought drugs into his apartment.

The idea of Mitchell himself is actually kind of brilliant, and say what you will about Joe Don Baker but he's actually really good in the role (no seriously, watch his performance, he plays Mitchell to a tee).  The movie around him however is fairly poorly made.

The production of the film itself feels really low rent, with not a lot of energy to get from one point to another.  It seems that instead of providing something exciting in their cop movie the filmmakers are fairly content with humiliating Mitchell however they can.  This drifts the film more into comedy territory than I think most people consider it (especially considering how brutal that last act is), as each scene usually ends with a goofy tune as Mitchell is just the butt of some joke.  The jokes aren't really ha-ha funny though, but rather an eye-roll kind of funny because our hero is somehow competent but somehow incompetent at the same time.  The attempt at balance between the two works against the film in the long run.

The finale of the film finally brings some action on, with some dune buggies (including one more scene with John Saxon which was deleted from the MST version) and a helicopter chasing a boat, but the action doesn't quite swell in the climax the way the film intends it too.  It just looks cheap, and Mitchell wears it's "budget production" status on its sleeve.  I think Mitchell could work as a character, but the movie just doesn't let him shine.

The Episode

I've probably reached a point in my life in which I could review the episode of Mitchell without viewing the episode beforehand.  It's probably one of the most viewed episodes of the entire series for me (I don't know, I'm not keeping count).  Hell, there was a point when I was a teenager when it was the only MST tape I had available and I watched it five times in a single day.  I didn't have a lot going on back then.  These days it often seems like setting aside enough time to watch a single episode can lead to chaos.

This is the famous episode where Joel escapes from the Satellite of Love, amusingly he does so obliviously as well.  In these host segments Gypsy misinterprets a message from the Mads and believes they desire to kill Joel (which they probably do, but not yet), when they're really talking about their new temp, Mike Nelson.  Gypsy spends the segments scheming to smuggle Joel off the SOL before discovering via Mike that there was an escape pod on the Satellite all along in a box marked "Hamdingers."  And thus at the end of the episode Joel is sent flying back to Earth, with a tearful goodbye by quoting The Circus of Dr. Lau.  The segments are astonishingly well done, telling a fairly complete story with the lean amount of time they're given and there is not a wasted minute.  Except maybe the Invention Exchange.  Daktari Stool?

Mitchell seems like a bizarre movie choice for an episode at all, let alone Joel's final, because the film is at least partially a comedy.  Strangely enough the movie lends itself to the riffing format beautifully, as the failed comedic bits are played up and built into much funnier bits by Joel and the Bots through their enhanced version of the Mitchell character, turning him from just a lazy pig into the lovable burping and farting action hero icon of the series.  Because Mitchell himself is built on a comedic idea Joel and the Bots extend their interpretation of him into the points where the movie is trying to be serious, and it's some of their funniest work.  The riff of Mitchell is wondrous to behold because looking at the film by itself it shouldn't work, but they found a magical door into making it a series highlight.

"Mitchell!"

"Hearts poundin'!"

"Mitchell!"

"Veins cloggin'!"

"Mitchell!"

And after over one hundred episodes Joel bids farewell to the series he created and passes the baton to Mike Nelson, and it's bittersweet because I love the Mike era as well.  Joel as a character would return for a guest spot on Soultaker, while Joel would later play the character of Ardy in the relaunch seasons (as well as several guest spot characters), so this isn't exactly goodbye, but I'm going to miss the sleepy-eyed bastard.  But he can rest easy knowing he went out with a bang.

Classic

The DVD

Mitchell was a single released by Rhino Home Video in their early days, because every MSTie wants Mitchell!  The audio and video were good, while the only special feature was a trailer for the film.

Shout Factory eventually re-released the episode in the 25th Anniversary Edition collection, where it was featured on a double feature disc with the following episode of The Brain that Wouldn't Die.  Audio and video were mostly fine (there are a few video flaws), while bonus features relating to both episodes were presented.  The first is Last Flight of Joel Robinson, in with Joel, Trace, and Kevin reflect on the making of Mitchell and what was going through their minds at the time.  The second is a five minute interview with Marilyn (Hanold) Neilson, who played a beauty pageant contestant in Brain that Wouldn't Die.