And continuing the trend of great releases from The Shout! Factory, this one’s chocked with more strong episodes, one of which is considered legendary by the general fan base (more on that in a bit). You’ll also find another novelty first-season episode as usual—never the highlight of the set—though this time, it inarguably carries greater significance: it’s none other than The Crawling Eye, the very first real episode of the show.
And what about the extras? Well, of course, we’ll be covering them in depth later on, but to summarize, they’re not bad. Not the best, either, but then again, the actual episode content this time around is really strong.
So, without delay, let’s get to the episode summaries.
The Beatniks (with short General Hospital, Pt. 2)
Son, when your mother and I were young (what was that? Oh, say, ’88 I guess), there were forces at work far more powerful than anyone could imagine today. More terrible than the mob, more ruthless than terrorism—they were none other than The Beatniks. Dare I make mention of their horrific deeds, but let’s just say that you’d better not park in front of them or they just might bump your car. They also like to wreck hotel rooms, maliciously switch off televisions, and randomly sing and dance to nearby jukeboxes.
Eddy Crane (Tony Travis), on the other hand, just happens to belch a tune whilst in the company of a record exec, and thus out of nowhere he’s blessed with a contract and is sure to be the next big star. That is, unless his fellow gang members have anything to do about it. You see, the ever-charming “Mooney” (Peter Breck) really likes him some violence, and thus he’s the source of an altercation involving a local bar owner who was, more or less, in the wrong place at the wrong time (the wrong time being the 1950s, and the wrong place being this film). J&tB rip this one a new one with sharp, consistent riffing and some truly great host segments (it’s always better when they spoof the film rather than wander off on their unrelated tangents). Oh yes, and there’s a short, too, though in this case, the movie’s actually more entertaining (oddly enough)! My Score: 8/10
Blood Waters of Dr. Z
How does the saying go? Don’t tease a budding mad scientist. Well, maybe that’s not exactly right, but regardless, this is a perfect example as to why you should leave such narcissists to their own matters. Dr. Z, or Zaat, as it was originally termed prior to the renaming of the film, has an obsessive lust for all things aquatic. What better way to take over the world and have his revenge against those who have wronged him, then, than by building an army of marine warriors to do his evil bidding? Great plan and all, yeah—but unfortunately, such lofty goals would require him to initiate more volunteers than himself and some random chick. That’s where he went wrong I think. Well, that, and the fact that having sea-based servants provides no functional benefit whatsoever in context with his plot (Fins? Scales? Great planning there).
But whatever, he’s a mad scientist. The opening of the film is a cheery little sequence featuring some fuzzy Discovery Channel footage of fish and crustaceans of various types attacking other underwater prey. This is all set to the voice of Dr. Z narrating the thrills of the predators’ attacks… it’s at this point which you’ll realize what a turd of a film you’re in for. Terror is eclipsed by camp, so on, so forth, right up until the “shocking” conclusion and abrupt introduction of the credits sequence, a bit of a blessing in disguise I suppose.
The bots’ wisecracks are fairly good in this one, though not as sharp as some of the other Sci-Fi era episodes I’d argue. Nevertheless, the host segments are once again quite entertaining, cleverly integrating the themes from the film and the pervasive question of whether it’s possible to improve every scene of any movie by simply having the actors perform it nude. My Score: 7/10
The Crawling Eye
Thus we are met with the obligatory season one episode of the set, which by now none of us expects to be truly entertaining, but at least it’s here for novelty (and hell, it’s still MST3K regardless). This one holds a particular sort of charm, however, as it’s actually the first of the episodes to ever grace network television. It also feels like such, as it starts off surprisingly slowly and only manages to pick up pace (as Joel testifies during his new introductory segment) around the halfway point of the film. Since it’s a never-ending subjective debate, I won’t spend a great deal of space here arguing the merits of Dr. Erhardt/old Tom versus Frank/new Tom, but I will say that the characters in these early episodes simply aren’t as refined as their later counterparts.
So what’s the movie about? Not much of anything interesting, of course, but if you dig self-aware, vengeful human organs, you’ll appreciate the angle here. In short, this huge evil giant crawling eye creature lives at the top of a mountain within a radioactive cloud of… radioactive stuff. But he’s not your average huge evil giant crawling eye creature—he likes to decapitate his victims as well. Scary stuff! If only we actually got to see the monster for crying out loud; you know, try and put an eye to the name.
Anyway, so the movie features scientists and investigators galore, all stereotypical in their own individual way, plus a couple of psychic chicks who are drawn to the area to investigate a strange feeling while passing by (oh, the suspense!). Near the end of the film we’re finally presented with a peek at the bad guy in all its cheesy slithering glory (as Joel says, it delivers). Shortly thereafter, the film’s protagonists discover that they should have simply resorted to the universal Zelda advice from the very start: “When all else fails, use fire.” My Score: 6/10
The Final Sacrifice
Oh, boy. And to think I call myself an MST3K fan, and yet I’d never to date seen this particular beast of an episode. A young boy named Troy is scouring his attic for information about his father, who was a mysterious man with some sort of hourglass/Ponderosa steakhouse fetish. Oh, and he was fighting against a cult or something. But nevermind that; what’s more disturbing is the prevalence of the undeniably wimpy Troy (also flamboyant in his own unique way, uttering the name of his unlikely companion in a sexually questionable way). What’s that name, you ask? Rowsdower, of all things. He’s a drunken slob, he has no money, and he sort of drives an old pickup truck (it makes it around 50 yards per venture). Rowsdower. He was an ex-member of this same cult—called the Ziox, by the way—a society of ancients who reportedly took a wrong turn at sanity and ended up working toward world domination… at least, that’s what they work on whenever there’s a spare moment at Bridge Club.
The movie is ridiculous. Even the beginning, where the cult members go after a map in Troy’s possession, barging into his house with scimitars and chainsaws, is laughably campy. And the main antagonist, the evil Satoris, is outrageously bad. His preposterous hyper-tenor voice alone is impossible to take seriously—but his entire character is just plain hysterical. Oh yeah—and this one’s also a Sci-Fi era episode, so it features Mike, of course. My Score: 9/10
The Special Parts (No sense in messing with a great sub-heading, right?)
Then, of course, there’s the special features, which always seem to surprise us somehow these days. Although it isn’t the deepest set of extras we’ve seen to date on an MST3K DVD set, you really do have to respect how much effort goes into selecting all these segments. I mean, let’s face it—it’s only one show, so you have to wonder how much historical material they’re going to burn through before the well begins to run dry.
Here’s what you’ll find on XVII:
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Bruce J. Mitchell Interview (9:29) – Bruce played the part of the legendary Zap Rowsdower in The Final Sacrifice, and here he discusses what it was like participating in the creation of the film. The primary theme is low budget (shock of shocks!), and to that end, Bruce repeatedly references the admirable resourcefulness of writer/director Tjardus Greidanus (he comes from a long line of Greidanuses). He also provides some interesting fun facts as to how certain scenes were done and how the cast felt about the project.
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The Main Event: Crow Vs. Crow (35:02) – A lengthy panel discussing the history of Crow in depth, featuring both Trace Bealieu and Bill Corbett. Everything from the construction of Crow to the different versions over the years, the personality development, and even Bill and Trace’s personal lives during their participation on the show is covered. Guest participant Frank Conniff even takes his shot at an answer.
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New Introduction by Joel Hodgson (6:26) – Joel describes what it was like being crushed under their production schedule, toiling around the clock to prepare for the first network television episode. He explains the thought process involved in working toward the first really scripted episode, along with the retrospective missteps involved in their early strategy (such as they obvious need for more jokes during the breadth of the episode).
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The Mystery Science Theater Hour Wraps for The Beatniks – Shout! Factory has graciously included the Jack Perkins wrapper segments from the syndicated Mystery Science Theater Hour which some of us recall seeing on network television back in the early nineties. Well, they aren’t really Jack Perkins, of course, but rather Mike Nelson in a pretty convincing pound of makeup.
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Original Theatrical Trailers for The Beatniks, Blood Waters of Dr. Z, and The Crawling Eye
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Original Promos for Blood Waters of Dr. Z
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Photo Gallery of Archival Promo Materials for Blood Waters of Dr. Z
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The Obligatory Lobby Cards by Artist Steve Vance
So respectable, yes, though not quite what we’ve seen on some of the sets. Still, this is a far cry from some of the thin releases we saw from Rhino in the early days, especially for the price. Nice work, Shout!