315-Teenage Cave Man

Film Year:  1958

Genre:  Science Fiction, Fantasy

Director:  Roger Corman

Starring:  Robert Vaughn, Darah Marshall

MST Season:  3

Featured Shorts:  "Aquatic Wizards," "Catching Trouble"

The Shorts

It's a double header of shorts, starting off with some hot water sports in Aquatic Wizards!  This short is one of those sports reels that shows off a bunch of people engaging in physical activities with daffy grins on their faces.  In this case it's water skiing, and we get to thrill to various tricks and waterplay.

It is what it is.  Back in the day before watching the Super Bowl in your own home, the only ways to watch sports was either to see them in person or to go out to the theater and see a reel like this with humorous (?) narration.  Back then it was likely more amusing than it is now, where you can watch water tricks on YouTube.

Any animal rights activist who might watch the show might do well with a "trigger warning" for Catching Trouble, a short from the 1930's where animal trapper Ross Allen goes out into nature to catch several animals and put them on display in a zoo.  Of course, this is 1930's humane animal treatment, which would pass as animal cruelty today.

The most interesting line of this short to me is when Ross tells his employee to handle a pair of bear cubs he caught, by saying "Be careful, they've been a lot of trouble!"  I'd be trouble too if some dude popped out of nowhere and stole me from my family, just to put me in a cage for people to look and point at me.  This short will likely cause a discussion for the ethical treatment of animals today, because it comes off a bit like the almighty Caucasian busting in on nature and declaring "Everything here is mine!"  Is this a metaphor for colonialism and slavery too?

What the short is supposed to be is a look at cute animals in the wildlife and how they get transferred to your local zoo, and people were supposed to shrug off the treatment because Ross Allen was "conquering the savage beast" and proving the superiority of man.  I think Catching Trouble may have been considered a crowd-pleaser back in the day, for better or worse.  I do ponder how it must have been much more difficult to handle animals back then and it probably was never pretty, but still turning it into a pop entertainment show with this short film just makes me feel dirty.

Whatever we may think of it today, Ross Allen is still somewhat well revered mostly because of his work in developing snake anti-venom during World War II, and was very knowledgeable about animals in general.  I'm sure most will rather we remember him for that, but those who see Catching Trouble will most likely associate him with this small glimpse of outdated wildlife ethics instead.

The Movie

Oh dear, Roger Corman goes stone-age!

Teenage Cave Man is about Robert Vaughn, who isn't really a teenager, playing a character that's not really a cave man.  He challenges his tribes law about not venturing out to explore by venturing out and exploring.

So basically it's Moana, only it's not good.

Corman is a master of making things for a buck fifty, and Teenage Cave Man is a smart way of doing it.  All you need are some rags and stock wilderness sets and you're in business.  It's hard to say the film doesn't work because it utilizes pretty much exactly what it needs.  The issue becomes that it can't really expand beyond that because they don't have the resources they need for anything except what they have.

So Corman relies on drama.  Roger Corman drama is not exactly a pretty picture.  There is a lot of theatrics of people boldly DECLARING their lines as if they were in a Shakespeare play.  Too bad it's not Shakespeare dialogue.  Teenage Cave Man becomes a talky picture as everybody has a lot to say but each character usually only has one thing on their mind throughout the story.  Because of this the film feels as if its running circles as everyone continues to make the same argument over and over.

All of this leads up to a twist ending that wishes to make a statement.  To be fair, it's not a stupid ending and its lesson works for the themes of the picture.  It's kind of sharp, though its delivery is clumsy, what with the fake rubber monster setting it up and whatnot (which is the same monster costume from Night of the Blood Beast).  It doesn't quite make the movie worthwhile, but it's at least assuring that it's not as dumb as it comes off.

The Episode

Two shorts for the price of one this week!  The last time we had that was in the first season when they were riffing Commando Cody.  These pop edutainment shorts hit a bit more briskly than a serial does and it's a fun experience of WAM POW!  Aquatic Wizards hits first, giving Joel and the Bots a chance to motorboat.  The short's riffing vibe mostly stays pleasant throughout it's brief stay.  The commentary adds to the soundless pantomime of the skiers on display, having fun with the playful tricks, and quick-talking narrator.  It's workmanlike stuff, but it's an effective use of theater-time that keeps viewers amused.

The next offering is much funnier but a bit more troublesome in subject matter.  At one point in Catching Trouble, Joel turns to the audience and apologizes for what we're watching, and what else can really be said?  I don't immediately look at this short and think someone could make it humorous, but I'm not Joel and the Bots.  They look at it and think "shock comedy," and their approach works.  They take this short and mostly just react, and they're disgusted by what they see.  They twist the short on its head and root for the animals rather than Ross Allen, like it wants you too, and somehow it make the short a bit easier to swallow.  There are also some fun plays on outdated expression, even to something as simple as using the term "pussy" to describe the wildcat.  One of the funnier run gags involves the narrator refers to Ross as "My boyfriend" (in a similar expression to how a woman would refer to her lady friends as "my girlfriends"), to which they respond with a "say no more" style of amusement.

The main feature is a little more forgettable than either of these offerings.  Teenage Cave Man is a very wordy movie and it's hard to speak over it.  When they do it becomes a bit cross contaminated and I personally have trouble figuring out what I should be paying attention to.  But Teenage Cave Man is also cheap and silly, which means its not a total loss.  There are some easy targets in the film, mocking the stiff delivery of the actors and the melodrama of its presentation, while stock footage and a cheap looking "monster" get some solid lines as well.  Also they're obsessed with Bunny Hop during this movie, for some reason.  It's funny, though I question whether its funny enough.

I'm of a similar opinion on the host segments, which are largely devoted to Dr. Forrester and Frank getting into a brawl (complete with Star Trek action music too).  The Mads don't even have an invention for the Invention Exchange this week because they're busy fighting about it.  The other segments are just cute fluff, as it's a rainy day (in space?) and Joel and the Bots are bored, leading to a poker match with Gypsy.  The most memorable segment of the episode is a riff on Catching Trouble called "Catching Ross" in which Joel is hunting the elusive Ross with Crow as his native partner and Tom Servo as his narrator.  You bet this was therapeutic!

Catching Trouble is a classic and there is some good riffs in this one, it just tends to be an uphill battle.  I find myself a bit on the fence but feeling in my heart I need to dial it back and say this one's just okay.  It's an enjoyable enough watch all the same.

Average

The DVD

Teenage Cave Man caught some trouble as a part of Shout Factory's Volume XXXV set, with good audio and video.  The sole special feature was I Was a Teenage Cave Man, a documentary on the making of the film that includes an interview with the man himself, Roger Corman!

Aquatic Wizards was featured in Shorts Volume 3, which Rhino included as an online exclusive bonus disc for their Essentials set.  Shout Factory also re-released it as a part of The Singles Collection.  Likewise, Catching Trouble was featured as a part of Shorts Volume 2, which was released in Rhino's Volume 3 collection, which Shout Factory eventually re-released.