Tweet
Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: 9/13/2011
Director: Hal Warren
Cast: Hal Warren, John Reynolds, Tom Neyman, Diane Mahree, Jackey Neyman
Year: 1966
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Likely the only movie ever directed by, produced by and starring a fertilizer salesman from El Paso, Texas, Hal Warren's 1966 horror film Manos: The Hands Of Fate has gone on to be universally recognized as one of Mystery Science Theater 3000's finest contributions to the world of bad movies. While the crew of the Satellite of Love took on some real turkeys during their run, this ultra low budget clunker really takes the cake.
The plot, such as it is, concerns a couple, Mike (Hal Warren) and Margaret (Diane Mahree), who, along with their daughter Debbie (Jackey Neyman) and her black poodle, are out for a drive through some backwoods town. They make a wrong turn somewhere and wind up lost, eventually arriving at what is basically a rundown lodge. Here they meet a hunchbacked weirdo named Torgo (John Reynolds), who is basically a janitor of some sort and who takes care of this less than fancy abode for his Master (Tom Neyman) who happens to be out somewhere when the family arrives. Torgo decides to let them stay the night, and then the Master returns - it's then that we learn he worships some deity known as Manos and that he basically collects brides, many of whom seem to enjoy wrestling with one another. Meanwhile, there are teenagers making out in a car and cops out to stop them. When Debbie's poodle turns up dead, Mike starts to snoop around and soon learns that the Master is really a cult leader and that he intends to take Margaret as one of his wives.
Horribly written, horribly acted and seemingly not directed at all, Manos: The Hands Of Fate is prime MST3K material and the crew go in with both barrels blazing. Whether lamenting the absence of Mark Singer or making comparisons (and surprisingly apt ones at that) to the movies of Ken Russell, Joel, Crow and Servo skewer this film with rare perfection. Everything was just so perfectly set up for them here, from the bizarre jazz score to Torgo's own theme song to the strange painting of the master hanging in the main room to random disappearing dogs to even more random rattlesnakes, the movie is just so amazingly awful in every regard that this turns out to be pretty much non-stop hilarity. Throw in references to everything from Del Shannon to Eliot Ness to Jimmy Durante to Frank Zappa and Jerry Reed and this episode is just consistently funny and quite worthy of replay, while running gags about snuff films and, of course, the kissing couple in the car help pace this one really well too.
Before Manos: The Hands Of Fate plays, we're also treated to the Hired! short, in which a chubby salesman learns from his father how to teach car salesmen to seal the deal. This too proves to be prime MST3K material and it sets up the feature quite nicely. The skits that play out between segments of the movie are funnier than usual and involve Joel's efforts to convince the robots that everything he does is amazing before getting Manos specific with some discussion of Torgo and a funny bit where Joel dresses as The Master, complete with a hokey robe.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The fullframe interlaced transfer that graces this DVD won't blow you away but it's watchable enough particularly when taken in the intended context. You will see the MST3K silhouettes in front of the screen so purists take note, and the transfer is taken from an old TV master so those expecting the movie to appear here as it was originally intended will be disappointed. That said, it looks as good here as it did on TV when it first aired and pristine video quality isn't really the point here. If you've seen MST3K before, you'll know what to expect.
The commentary comes through nice and clear, there are no problems understanding the participants but there are times where the dialogue for the movie itself is a bit too low and muffled. As far as the quality of that part is concerned, it's on par with the transfer. It's not great; in fact, there are times where it sounds quite shrill. It gets the job done, I suppose, but it's nothing impressive - but you're more concerned with hearing the riffing here anyway, right? That part comes through just fine.
As far as the extras go, amazingly enough this is a two disc set and it's stacked with goodies. On the first disc we get the MST3K version of the movie, but additionally we get a new eighteen minute featurette entitled Group Therapy: that reunites Joel, Trace, Frank and Mary Jo to discuss this infamous episode. They start off by trying to explain just what the plot of Manos is and from there they go on to talk about the infamous 'slow, scenic drive to that plot' and the weird jazz soundtrack. They express their admiration for and confusion from the movie, talk about its allure, and what makes Manos work so well in the MST3K context, including how putting the short Hired in front of it really works and how this episode features the group with 'all pistons firing.' The first disc also features 5:11 worth of Mystery Science Hour wraps that are pretty amusing and which discuss in mock-serious tone the appeal of Torgo and the greatness of Manos in general.
Disc two includes Manos on its own, should you ever decide to want to watch the movie without the MST3K riffing. The movie is presented in fullframe and it's not in the best of shape but it's great to see Shout! Factory including the 'standard' version of the movie here and it's something that a lot of fans would probably appreciate seeing more of in the future where possible. At any rate, it's a worn and muffled sounding presentation but its inclusion here really helps to fill out the set quite nicely.
If that weren't enough, next we get Hotel Torgo, a twenty seven minute long documentary on the making of Manos The Hands Of Fate that includes some modern day location footage of the El Paso locations used in the film and which includes a lot of input from 'Manos Historian' Richard Brandt who explains how the movie was made by a fertilizer salesman in the sixties. Since the cast and crew have all either passed away or vanished since the movie was made, there aren't any interviews with them here except for Bernie Rosenblum who was a cast member (he played one of the teenagers in the car) and who helped work the camera on the film. He talks about how Hal Warren came on board, and that he was 'just fucking nuts' and how he was going to be the star, director, and producer of the movie. Rosenblum has got some great stories about the shoot, the cast, and how this whole mess was put together while Brandt is able to put many of the comments into context. Rosenblum also takes us on a tour of some of the locations and talks about how certain shots were done and how Manos started to become a cult film and how it has sort of followed him around since the MST3K episode brought the movie out of the shadows of the past and into the mind of pop culture lovers around the world.
Also included on the disc is Jam Handy To the Rescue!: A Ballyhoo Production. This is a twenty-three minute Shout! Factory presentation that gives us some background on who Jam Handy is in the context of a fake educational short film. It ties in with some of the riffing from the Manos/Hired! bit, "Jam Handy to the rescue!" and it's actually very well done in terms of keeping it believable in the context of the educational movie format. There are also two minutes worth of bloopers from the shoot included here, and an 'archival' TV spot entitled 'Look Over There' meant to promote the Jam Handy film. Also included here is My (Educational ) Short Life which is a nine minute interview with Joel Hodgson about why MST3K started taking on educational short films and how Comedy Central wound up with all of these old short movies in the first place. From there, Joel talks about what the appeal is of old short movies and how taken out of their intended context they tend to be really bizarre and how the Handy films were actually just thinly veiled car advertisements made under the guise of being educational movies about the automobile industry.
Last but not least, disc two also includes 'Hired!: Parts 1 & 2' in their MST3K form with the riffing completely intact. Both of these are pretty funny and features the satellite's crew in fine form as they poke plenty of holes in what is really a very dated and hokey promotional movie. Combined, this one clocks in at just under nineteen minutes in length.
Both discs feature some nifty animated menus and chapter stops for the two versions of the film included in the set. Inside the keepcase is an exclusive mini-poster by artist Steve Vance that replicates the cover art of the DVD.
The Final Word:
It doesn't matter how many times you've seen the Manos: The Hands Of Fate episode or if you have the previous DVD release - this one is the one to get, as it's loaded with some pretty awesome extras and not only includes the film itself without the MST3K riffing over top but also throws in the excellent half hour documentary on how the film came to be in the first place. Fans of MST3K or Manos alike should consider this an essential purchase.
