THE WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar: Christmas Day - SANTA CLAUS

 

What day is it? Why, it’s Christmas Day! The Worst We Can Find Christmas Advent Calendar concludes with a return to the golden days of old of MST3K with Santa Claus!

Santa Claus (1959)

Program: Mystery Science Theater 3000

Air-Date: December 24, 1993

 

The original U.S. poster and the DVD artwork for the MST3K version.

Plot: Santa lives in the clouds and has children slave-labor that he torments with his organ while mechanical reindeer laugh as a “pentagram” hang on the wall. And that’s not the weird part. Satan can’t stand Santa for obvious reasons (that whole “pentagram” thing, for one) and since he can’t take down Jesus, he’s going to send one of his dancing elves, I mean, devils, to take out Santa. Pitch, the devil that loves to prance, does this by entering people’s minds and convincing them to do bad things that cause trouble for Santa. He’s also extremely goofy, which shows how evil he is. Lupita, a little poor girl who wants a doll for Christmas, refuses Scratch’s suggestions and wins a doll from God, I mean, Santa, in the process. There’s also Merlin for some reason, three bratty kids who get what they deserve, a rich kid who gets to see his parents for a night, and various shenanigans and going-ons, but you get the idea.

At some point, this reindeer was intended to make kids laugh instead of hide under their seats and cry.

Thoughts: It’s K. Gordon Murray, and he’s at it again. A producer who worked out of Florida, Murray found a lucrative career taking foreign fantasy and horror films, redubbing them into English, ed-editing them, then releasing them with ballyhoo titles in the U.S. Some say that it was shifty work, but thanks to him U.S. audiences grew up on a number of Mexican films that they may not have seen otherwise. His first few redubs were German movies, but by 1957 he had scored after releasing two Aztec Mummy movies (one of which, The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy, was one of the first – if not THE first – movie shown on MST3K when it moved to The Comedy Channel).

Santa Claus was an early feature found by Murray, and it managed to get national theatrical bookings starting in the 1960s up into the 1980s (a rarity amongst movies), as well as becoming a popular one at Christmas time on various television channels around the country. The film was such a success that Murray released even more kiddie movies from Mexico in the U.S., although none had the sustaining power as Santa Claus.

Devils mocking the damned as they journey to Hell. Merry Christmas, kids!

Director Rene Cardona had a long career in Mexican television and movies, while Jose Elias Moreno as Santa had been working in movies since the late 1930s, but this is the movie they are best known (and fair’s fair, Jose may be manic in the part, but he does at least LOOK the part in comparison with other movies). Murray liked bits of this so much that he used shots of Santa and his castle in the sky in various other shorts he produced over time. Speaking of which, that’s Murray narrating the movie in the English-dubbed version, for those curious.

The plot of the movie is unique, as one usually doesn’t associate Santa having an ongoing battle with Satan, although the general idea of a devil trying to stop children from being good isn’t a bad one to play the Santa concept off. The original cut of the movie is somewhat more sinister, as the opening dance sequence with the devils takes place with a number of damned souls moving their way into Hell (you can briefly seen them as robed figures surrounding the devils at the end of their dance), with the insinuation is that they are dancing not because they got a NEA grant, but rather to mock the condemns souls as they head off to be tortured. Wheee! Such fun! That was probably a bit too much for children and is cut from most prints of the movie since it affects nothing else in the film and makes Pitch a bit more “fun” in a way, because that way he doesn’t have the damned hanging around him.

Seriously, the only part of the movie I remember from seeing it as a kid.

Along with Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, I also saw Santa Claus at the same hometown theater as a kid. The only clear memory I have of that showing was of Pitch heating up the doorknob. I’m not sure why that stuck with me, to be honest, as there’s certainly enough weird stuff going on with crazed happy reindeer, Merlin in Heaven with Santa, and all the prancing around that Pitch does. Maybe I was just too bummed out that another “toy for every kid that comes to the theater” was another broken light-up top? Probably.

Favorite Riff: (Reading a letter to him asking for a baby brother)  Santa:  “Oh, ho, ho!  Can do!  Can do!”

Pitch will later discover that Lupita will grow up to be a lawyer.

The Riffing: Santa Claus would be the tenth episode in the fifth season of MST3K that Mike hosted after Joel left midway through the year. By this point, although Mike worried he “sucked” at the job (see my The Worst We Can Find book for more details), and the online fanbase was having their little ongoing feud about Mike vs. Joel, it is clear that the introduction of Mike was slowly changing the dynamics with the characters on the SOL. Earlier times with Joel would have see the first sketch with the Christmas carol going wrong thanks to one of the bots and Joel scolding them. Mike here is obviously different. He not only is the clumsy cause of the accident that stops the carol, but he is also taken down with all the bots at the same time, making him just one of them in the process.

The Bond!

It would be a sign of things to come over the next four years of the original program, with Mike becoming more of a sibling to the robots rather than their father as Joel had always appeared to be. With that, the robots had more freedom to do insane things that never would have worked as well with Joel there and also helped push the show into a darker twist of humor than seen before. (Joel would plead with the bots to not get dark, like with the Circus short mentioned earlier in the Advent Calendar, but Mike tended to be the first to go there in later years.) It was still clearly MST3K, but there was an obvious shift that probably explains more the reason people had issue with Mike or Joel than simply if one guy “sucked” more than the other.

The episode is crammed full of good sketch material, from the first carol that goes wrong, the O. Henry spin between Frank and Forrester (ya, we know – Frank’s bond can be turned in for that $25 now), the gift-giving that has everyone strangely happy with their weird assortment of gifts, and even two musical number: “Whispering Christmas Warrior” and “Merry Christmas … If That’s Okay” that play up to Mike’s abilities as a musician and singer. We also get a lot of additional cast members on-camera, including Paul Chaplin as Pitch (who will return in later episodes, especially Devil Doll), Mary Jo Pehl as the wrong Mother Nelson, behind-the-scenes members Timothy Scott and Patrick Brantseg as other members of the wrong Nelson family, and, finally, Kevin Murphy as the wrestling Santa.

It's 'All Outta Candy Cane" Time!

Santa Claus is a classic and has been done in excellent re-riffed live versions by both RiffTrax and The Mads, while Lupita remains a classic callback by every riffing team as well over the years in other movies. There’s a lot going for the movie as a riffable one, but it is thanks to this first appearance on MST3K back in 1993 that it is remembered so fondly by fans. Better yet, the episode demonstrates that Joel left behind a well-oiled machine that was going to go on strong thanks to those who worked with him to make MST3K the program that it remains today. It proves they were right with what they did and how they did it, and that success continues today in all the varied forms still out there with RiffTrax, The Mads, and the revised MST3K. Santa and Santa Claus keep going strong because there’s magic there that keeps people going back to what they love. MST3K and all its children are the same, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

THE WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar: Day 23 - MST3K REUNION SHOW

 

It’s Day 23 of The Worst We Can Find Christmas Advent Calendar and Christmas Eve. What’s a better tradition than bringing the family together to celebrate, which is exactly what we get with The MST3K Reunion Show!

The MST3K Reunion Show

Program: RiffTrax

Air-Date: June 28, 2016

Plot: It’s the 20^th live show from RiffTrax and its tenth year; going strong with multiple live shows during the year and their various releases through various streaming platforms. Frank and Trace were also going strong, touring as The Mads in live shows around the country. Finally, Joel was back in the game with the coming return of MST3K on Netflix starring Jonah Ray. With all that in mind, it was a natural fit to bring everyone together for one of the RiffTrax live shows.

The performance was filmed and sent to theaters around the country as remains custom for RiffTrax live shows, but this specific event took place at the State Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota in a homecoming in the city where it all started. After a short intro showing brief clips from earlier live shows, and with a portion of the stage set up with a version of the MST3K logo, the show begins with Bill, Mike, and Kevin introducing the others that will be appearing that night: Mary Jo Pehl, Bridget Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Jonah Ray, and Joel Hodgson. The program features eight shorts done with the various teams of riffers before the final two are done by all involved.

The Talking Car (1969) – Produced by AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and Alfred Higgins Productions, this short stars Brian Forster, who later played Chris Partridge on The Partridge Family after the first season. The short has Forster as Jimmy, a boy who missed out on a fishing trip after almost getting hit by a car. He later dreams of meeting three talking cars who discuss with him traffic safety.  The cars are given cartoon eyes and mouths, making them disturbing to look at, and with a dog that camera cuts to in order to growl at times, it’s a perfect starting short for the riffing by Bill, Mike, and Kevin.

After a brief congrats to some of the cosplayers coming to see the show, Bridget and Mary Jo are introduced with a shocker of a story by Mike, and then given the reins to riff the next short.

A Word to the Wives (1955) – This comedic short sponsored by the Woman’s Home Companion is directed by Normal Lloyd (a frequent Hitchcock collaborator) and stars Marsha Hunt and Darren McGavin. With people like that, you’d expect something better than a standard “look at my electric house!” hard sell, but that’s what you get here, with McGavin hamming his way in his unique manner that tells you “I’m only here for the paycheck.”

A clip of Mothra is shown next, since it was RiffTrax's next live event, and then Frank and Trace are brought out. Frank makes the mistake of announcing they’re doing way too many movies at their next live shows (and a mention of everyone telling Frank that he needs to work PG13), and then it’s on to their riff, which is one of their most sinister of shorts from the Night of Shorts collection.

More Dates for Kay (1952) – It’s a Coronet short that is SUPPOSED to show girls how to be less of a wallflower, but really comes off as teaching young girls how to put out for any many boys as possible. It’s as horrifying as it sounds, and right in the wheelhouse for The Mads to riff. It is really the best short of the show and worth seeing, but creepy and depressing at the same time.

Shake Hands with Danger (1980) – An early riff by RiffTrax and a favorite returns for the live performance with Bill, Mike, and Kevin doing the duties. It’s directed by Herk Harvey of Carnival of Souls fame and features more than a dozen hazardous accidents in the workplace, including some gore effects that may not go over well for the squeamish (which Bill cautions people about before the short begins). Even with all the head injuries and limb detachments, however, it’s a good one for the RiffTrax guys to bring back for the special event.

A quick promotion of the at-the-time newish RiffTrax app to help synch up movies with their riffing, and then Jonah Ray and Joel Hodgson are brought out for the next short.  Joel mentions the start of the show back at KTMA and the loving only-in-Minnesota responses from fans back in the early days.

Americans at Work: Barbers and Beauticians (1960) – A short from a series made by the AFL-CIO to show support for various service industry jobs in the country, this one focuses namely on a couple of people getting their hair done while describing how important and training-intensive the occupations are. For many MST3K fans, this was a first look at the “new guy” who would be become the host of MST3K in the Netflix years and onward, Jonah Ray, and he does a fine job playing off the RiffTrax team with Joel. Look for the Podium Switch … which ends up with them right back at the same podiums they started from. Joel is obviously pushing Jonah, but that’s understandable with the new MST3K just around the corner.

Mike introduces two of the major writers for RiffTrax, Conor Lastowka and Sean Thomason and then members of the RiffTrax team from behind-the-scenes before a ten-minute montage of various movie riffs from over the first ten years of RiffTrax is shown, including clips from movies that are only available as audio commentaries. They then bring out everyone for the final two shorts.

Stamp Day for Superman (1954) – A short featuring the cast from the Superman series to help promote U.S. Saving Bonds. It’s not too far out of the realms of a standard episode of the series, except the robber doesn’t want to steal, he’s broke and needs to learn how to save money; hence the lesson to be learned by buying Saving Bonds (and, yes, yes, we all know that the $25 bond Forrester gave Frank can now be cashed in 2023, thank you … it’s a funny reminder, but everyone has thought of it.  Everyone.) It’s about bonds but seems to be more about doing cool things with a typewriter for half the running time, to be honest.

At Your Fingertips – Grass (1970) – One final short before everyone can scurry away is another RiffTrax favorite from the ACI production team. It’s supposed to be showing how kids can build toys and masks with grass and weeds, but really just becomes a type of Lord of the Flies homage before it’s all over. Still, is corn grass? (What? Well, yes, everyone says that line too, but it’s not like the $25 bond thing if I repeat the grass joke. No. But I – If – oh, okay. I hang my head in shame, and a grass mask would complete that shame.)

Favorite Riff: (After introducing Bridget and Mary Jo to the crowd)

Mike: Now, Bridget you were telling me a very funny thing backstage, and do you mind if I bring this out in front of the audience? I understand that you’re married to me!

Bill:  What is this about?!

The Riffing: This was a chance to see nearly everyone from the MST3K back together again for the first time riffing, and the programming is done effectively with everyone giving a chance to shine. By doing so, The Mads get to promote their touring, and of course Bridget and Mary Jo get to show off their glowing work, but more specifically, Joel gets to promote the new version of MST3K. This was important in some ways as that passing of the torch no doubt felt needed. There were (and in some cases, still are) sore feelings for some fans about the shift away from the old cast to a new one with the revived MST3K. Compounded by the mid-western tendency of the cast to avoid discussion personal issues, and the emphasis of repeatedly asking former cast members – in particular Trace and Frank – about their involvement in the new show, and it didn’t help to secure the feeling that all was fine among the old crew.

Yet, the MST3K Reunion show helped show that if there were issues “the play is the thing” (or “riff is the thing” as it were). The new show could go on, and it was clear that Jonah had the chops to go the riffing route with his introduction here. More importantly, besides reminding us as fans where it all started, it also shown how riffing had flowered into other projects that were going strong: The Mads continuing to tour with their own live shows, which continues today in a monthly format at The Mads Are Back. Mary Jo doing her own thing at Dumb Industries and still pairing up with Bridget for RiffTrax, as well as appearing as Pearl in the new version of MST3K (making Mary Jo the nexus-point of all realities in the riffing world). And of course, there’s RiffTrax, going strong at 10 years here and continue to go strong into the future (with Joel, Frank, and Trace, as well as Jonah, all saluting RiffTrax in a pre-show clip when they did their live show for The Return of Swamp Thing in 2022).

The live MST3K Reunion is successful as a celebration of the art of riffing. And, besides, getting together with old friends to bond over old times and new is one thing we always look forward to during the holidays.

THE WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar: Day 22 - BEYOND CHRISTMAS

 

It’s Day 22 of The Worst We Can Find Christmas Advent Calendar and it’s time to return to Bridge and Mary Jo over at RiffTrax with the sweet, forgotten Christmas movie, Beyond Christmas

Beyond Christmas (1940)

Program: RiffTrax

Air-Date: December 15, 2017

 

The original movie poster (with original title) and the RiffTrax steaming artwork.

Movie Plot: Three older, successful businessmen live in the same house in the big city: Michael (Charles Winniger), who is the most joyous of the three; Allan (C. Aubrey Smith), who misses his son that died in the Great War; and George (Harry Carey), who is miserable and anti-social due to his past involvement in legal matters that has turned many against him. 

It’s Christmas Eve and a planned party looks to derail when the couple that was to join them declines because George will be there. To cheer everyone up, Michael stages a game where each throws a new wallet out their window to the busy sidewalk below. Each wallet contains $10 and their business card, with the objective to prove that people are ultimately good in nature. George’s wallet is picked up by Arlene (Helen Vinson), who takes the money and throws away the wallet.  The other two wallets are picked up people who return them: James (Richard Carlson, of Tormented fame) and Jean (Jean Parker). They are two young people new to the city and it is clear to the men that they have an eye for each other.

The trio have a great dinner with the pair and begin inviting them to various functions and outings to try to match them up. Their scheme works, with James proposing to Jean, and they arrive at the men’s home only to discover that the trio just died in a plane crash. Michael, in preparation for the two eventually getting married, left them several bonds and James is asked to stay at the home by the servant, Madam Tanya (Maria Ouspenskaya, who many of you may recognize as Bela Lugosi’s mom in The Wolfman).

Unknown to everyone, the threesome are soon back at the house as ghosts, with Michael determined to make sure that James and Jean stay together. James, however, has finally gotten a big break with his singing career and finds Arlene latching on to him, knowing he’s on his way up. Michael can clearly see the mechanics involved in Arlene’s attention and is upset to see James ignoring Jean, but there’s little he can do.

And little time left. It is George’s time and is called to Hell, which he does without reservations, feeling he would be a hypocrite if he tried to reform after death. Allan leaves soon after as well, but his destination is Heaven, where his son, wife, and all his friends from the past are ready for him. Michael finds himself left behind and finally gets the calling, but refuses to leave James and Jean in their time of need, even after being warned that to stay means no entrance into Heaven later and he will wander the Earth for eternity.

Arlene convinces James to join her on a vacation, quite aware that her ex-husband is stalking her. The Ex-husband arrives at a restaurant and shoots Arlene dead and gravely wounds James. As Jean waits outside the operating room, it appears James has died, full of regret over how he treated Jean and wanting to go back. Michael convinces Heaven to let James live. Michael is then invited into Heaven, along with George, who saw the light of his friends guiding him out of the darkness. They transcend to Heaven as the movie ends.

Thoughts: Beyond Christmas is commonly remembered as Beyond Tomorrow and only took on the Christmas title in the past twenty years. Most articles mention that another alternate title was And So Goodbye, but that appears to have been during the scripting phase and not when the movie was finally released.  While only the introduction of James and Jean take place at Christmas time, the otherworldly structure of the story leans towards the film being considered a Christmas movie, so the title change isn’t too outlandish here.

If you’re any fan of black and white Hollywood pictures, you’re bound to at least kinda recognize everyone in the cast, and certain MST3K fans will recognize Richard Carlson for obvious reasons (Bridget and Mary Jo even make direct reference to Tormented late in the riffing). As a movie from RKO that was aimed for second-billing status, there are times were the production teams can get away with things that you wouldn’t in A-pictures. The scene where George knowingly goes to Hell because he believes he should go there is very candid for the time and makes his redemption at the end a logical closure that would not have worked if somehow the production had to NOT allow him to go to Hell in the first place. The killing of Arlene and then the throw-away line that she had no soul to send onward is a bit shocking as well for the time. It’s moments like these and others that help make the movie stand out in a way that with a better-known cast or production may not have been available.

The reviews at the time called it preposterous and sappy, but the movie is a vastly warm, sweet little movie that ultimately works and wouldn’t be out of place in a double feature with Powell’s A Matter of Life and Death (especially with the ending operation scenes matching up in a way). What Mary Jo and Bridget bring to it is the chance to laugh at some of the minor inane things and the slower parts, but even these dedicated riffers congratulate the movie in the end for winning them over., making it a case of a good movie made even better with the riffing.

Favorite Riff: (a bell-ringing “Santa” is out on the streets, ringing for donations)

Mary Jo:  Ha, ho, ho! I need a new stereo. I mean give to charity!

The Riffing: Mary Jo and Bridget always team up in the movies and shorts that they do in such a way that it feels like sitting on the couch with a couple of old friends and hearing their gossip at times, more than a strict riffing of a movie. That possibly would not work for everyone, but and perhaps at times they can come across as being more gentle than necessary with a movie or short, but it makes for at least a pleasant diversion with every riff they do and nearly always a great one to watch (and if you haven’t checked out their work before, try one of the TEEN-AGERS movies they riffed for examples of how skilled they are at their game).

As mentioned, what makes this work even better here is that the pair at last give the impression that they gradually begin to like the movie they’re watching and invested in seeing what happens to the character. When George goes off to Hell, it would be easy to mock the movie for rather cheap effects, but they instead see the sadness in what is happening, even if it is a little confusing. The only real deflating part of the film is when we must sit through James’ rise in stardom, but Mary Jo and Bridget keep things moving along and we get over that bump back to the good parts of the plot. It all makes for an excellent combination and while it may not be the best ever work done at RiffTrax, it is certainly in the top tier and personally I considered the best riff done by the pair out of number of strong ones by them over time. 

Beyond Christmas is available on Amazon Prime and the RiffTrax site.  Check it out!

THE WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar: Day 21 - THE CHRISTMAS DRAGON

 

It’s Day 21 of The Worst We Can Find Christmas Advent Calendar and we jump forward to the final episode of the most recent season with The Christmas Dragon.

The Christmas Dragon (2014)

Program: Mystery Science Theater 3000

Air-Date: December 16, 2022

 

The movie poster (yes, it did play some theaters) and the MST3K streaming art.

Movie Plot: Um … yeah … um … Oh, there’s this girl and it’s like Middle-Earth times and her name is Ayden, played by Bailee Johnson, who looks like the granddaughter of April from Angels Revenge. Her mother and father are captured by slave-traders and killed by a dragon before Ayden can even say “Packers!”

Years later, she’s in an orphanage with other kids and she gets a rock that lights up from an elf that dies on her, man. The elf lives long enough to tell her that the rock will guide her “to the north” to save Christmas, since no one believes in it anymore. (I know, it seems unlikely in a world with magic, elves, orcs, and dragons, but bear with us.) She and a bunch of other kids escape the orphanage and meet up with Airk (Jake Stormoen), who turns out to be the son of Santa (what a coincidence). Along the way, they save a baby dragon who becomes protective of Ayden and the group arrive at Santa’s place.

Santa is in bad shape, but they realize if they deliver presents for Santa, it will revive him and he’ll be his old self. They do and he does and everyone except the slave traders and the dead creatures along the way are happy. Way it goes.

And for the movie named The Christmas Dragon, you sure don’t see much of the dragon in the movie. Probably to avoid any lawsuits from the How to Train Your Dragon people.

Jonah, Emily, and Joel watch as Santa and the kids torture humans on the ground. Merry Christmas!

Episode Plot: Kinga still has Jonah on one SOL. She also has Emily on a simulation of the SOL, and – with help of Dr. Ekhardt – she has recaptured Joel and the original SOL. Over the course of season thirteen, she has forced each of them to watch a number of movies with their respective Crow, Tom, and GPC, but now it is time for her new experiment where all three human subjects will be sent into the theater without any assistance from the bots.

Joel, Jonah, and Emily used this moment where they are all together to devise a plan to help them escape together through the Time Bag (which had been used to get Joel in an earlier episode). Their plan is told to each other in code, which is done through rhyming and music that Kinga and Max can’t understand.

The three get together on Joel's SOL.

After several segments where each host is in the theater with their respective bots, the final segment of the movie plays with the three hosts together in Joel’s SOL, which he does have limited control over. Using the power of music, which allows the trio to perform a number of earlier MST3K songs, they finally escape with the Mike version of the theme song and with the surprising help of Pearl (who wants to go to a jazz fest from the period) in the Deep Hurting ship through the Time Bag and back to 1991.

Kinga is in tears at the failure of her project. Dr. Kabahl, the “mysterious financier from the future,” withdraws his funding and demands payback for what was already used. Max tries to cheer Kinga up by mentioning that the bots are still around to be used as subjects at least, and there’s still the Gizmoplex that she built. The Gizmoplex is then destroyed by a meteor.

Thoughts: This movie was made by Arrowstorm Entertainment and is one in a series of incredibly small-budgeted movies by the company; many put together through Kickstarter. Most of their films are fantasy films, with a few science fiction and horror films amongst the lineup. And it shows, but not quite in a bad enough way to make you want to hate them for trying. The acting is okay, the makeup is decent on the orcs, the CGI dragon is okay, and it’s obviously a park they’re filming in, but they do a decent job in hiding that fact.

The story is a bit incoherent, however, and it is never quite clear why certain things happen unless you play along (for example, Ayden’s relationship to the dragon is hinted as a bounding because she had been attacked when she was younger by one, but it’s never out-right said). We have this glowing rock to guide her, but it’s a plot point abandoned midway through and everything else is aligned with this really cool black orb that Airk obtains for them. But the movie rolls along and the plot comes to an end that works.  Why the kids would want to be with the old guy who they don’t really know is a question to ponder, but it makes it seem it is a happy ending. There’s certainly worse recent fantasy movies being made for kids. I dunno, maybe I’m just full of the Christmas Sprit.

What’s that? No, I said full of the Spirit.  Not the word you’re thinking of.

Favorite Riff: (after arriving at Santa’s place pretty easily to see a dark, falling-apart workshop) “Well, I don’t know, it’s not very climatic.”

Emily and Jonah introducing the episodes to air in season thirteen.

The Riffing: After a nearly three-year period of the show ending it’s two season run on Netflix, it was decided to do another fundraiser to create a new streaming platform for the show, where fans could not only pick up old episodes to watch, but see new ones created before anyone else. That fundraiser was successful, and we soon were introduced to the White Dot.

Oh, and season thirteen, with thirteen episodes starting in March 2022 and running typically once a month with a new episode and plenty of new shorts featuring a variety of characters riffing over them, along with live events through the year, and the first 3-D movie done (The Bubble). As promised during the fundraiser, when a specific goal was reached, it was agreed that Joel would come back to riff some of the movies in the series. This is why the original SOL was seen with Joel, although it doesn’t quite follow the canon of what happened to the SOL during the Mike years (but I explain more about my own thoughts on that, perhaps too much so, in The Worst We Can Find).

Emily Connors (Emily Marsh) was also introduced into the canon of the television series after appearing on the Cheesy live tour as Emily Crenshaw and then as Emily Connors in the Time Bubble tour and in some live streaming events during the COVID period of 2020.

While there had been earlier instances of the human hosts meeting up in previous episodes, this was the first episode where they riffed a movie together and one of the rare times none of the bots appeared in the theater for a segment of a movie. The concept of the ending, with the trio escaping, was also a way to conclude the season on a type of cliffhanger. As seen in previous seasons, this didn’t necessarily mean that the show would come back the following season with a setting in 1991, however. As earlier cliffhangers have shown (like Jonah being taken away by Reptilicus, and later by trapping the Mads in a version of the theater), the following season would start with Jonah once again captured without much explanation. Nor should we worry much about it. After all, it’s just a show.

The gang goes out the old fashion way - singing!

The episode as a whole is interesting in trying to tie everything up, including the hosts attempting vague goodbyes to their bots, the fate of the Gizmoplex, the “mysterious financier from the future” plot, and how to set up the cliffhanger. The rhyming element isn’t quite as successful and it should have been (one could see it played out more like how Forrester and Frank would have handled it, perhaps with them ignoring things out-right until too late, or having instrument malfunctions, which Emily and Jonah could have easily done in character), but there had to be a way to convey the storyline to viewers, so it does take care of that issue. Having Mike’s theme song be the means to leave is a nice homage as well. The riffing moves along well and it’s an adequate movie for a finale since it was Christmas time anyway, but there is a tinge of sadness about the whole thing because it was the end of the season.

The end of the show? Well, that remains to be seen. MST3K didn’t even exist except in reruns for many, many years and made a strong comeback through the help of the fans. I think there’s still life in the old girl to see another round, or two, or three soon enough. We know enough from the unsuccessful fundraiser in 2023 that a lot of the cast were ready to come back to bring us many of the same characters we had seen before. Something is bound to happen.

Meanwhile, there’s still RiffTrax, and The Mads, as well as other riffing groups around, like Master Pancake, to keep us going until the SOL returns to the sky. Then, we will see where we are and when we are as more movies get riffed in the experiments to come.

THE WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar: Day 20 - IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

 

The Worst We Can Find Christmas Advent Calendar is getting closer to the end, but there’s still some Christmas cheer to spread and Day 20 sees RiffTrax daring to go where no one else has tried – beating up a beloved classic – with It’s a Wonderful Life!

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Program: RiffTrax

Air-Date: December 18, 2020

The original movie poster and RiffTrax's artwork for their streaming version.

Plot: Someone’s gotta help George Bailey! We don’t find out why until late in the movie, but the prayers of family and friends for George reach the celestial realm and Clarence, an Angel Second-Class who has yet to earn his wings, is giving an overview of George’s life in a small town called Bedford Falls, before he is sent out on his mission to save George from giving up on life.

The majority of the film is one huge flashback as we see George’s life starting as a 12-year-old and onward to the present of Christmas Eve, 1945. The main theme of the flashback is that George has repeatedly sacrificed his own dreams to help others only to find himself now at Christmas in a precarious situation where $8,000 had been stolen from his business by his nemesis who has also sworn out a warrant for his arrest.

Thinking everyone would be better off without him, Clarence arranges to show George how things would have been if he had never been born. The results make George realize how precious life is to himself and others and prays to have his life back.  Returning to his house, George finds that all his friends are there to help him get the money together so there can be no arrest. Realizing how rich he is with family and friends, George is informed that Clarence has gotten his wings as everyone happily joins in song.

Why you shouldn't put quotation marks around a title as it sounds sarcastic, as per Bill.

Thoughts: Based on a self-published short story called “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern, RKO originally bought the rights to the story in 1944 for Cary Grant to star in a film adaptation. Frank Capra, “the most Capre-esque director of all” as explained in the riffs (with films like It Happened One Night, Lost Horizon, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Meet John Doe to his credit), was putting together an independent production company at the time called Liberty Films and bought the rights to the story to make it a movie.

Capra happily worked with Jimmy Stewart in the past and Stewart had just returned from fighting in World War II and was looking to get back to work. The film really is the beginning of a period where Stewart began expanding beyond the “juvenile lead” comedic roles (although you can see that as early as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington); his George has humorous beats to him early on, but the character’s anger and his struggle at the bar where he is pleading to God have a dramatic tense that would benefit Stewart later in his Hitchcock appearances and movies like Winchester ’73.

Lionel Barrymore, who used a wheelchair for a number of his later roles due to injuries he received in a traffic accident, was originally to play FDR in a movie called The Beginning or The End but was pushed out of the role when the Roosevelt family found out. Barrymore, known for his opposition to Roosevelt when he was alive and happily campaigning against him in his last two elections, didn’t set well with the family and the role was denied him even after a screen test. Instead, he moved on to play Potter, which is probably his more remembered role of his career besides his appearances as Dr. Gillespie in the Doctor Kildare series (and, yes, that explains the one joke in Blazing Saddle for those who may not have been aware). In an odd coincidence, The Beginning or the End was brought to MGM as a project through Donna Reed, who had to turn down working on that picture because she was busy with It’s a Wonderful Life.

Interesting side notes: according to Bobbie Anderson, who played the young George Bailey, H.B. Warner really did slap him hard upside the head, causing the bleeding from the ear that we see in the movie, and it is not just an effect. A more familiar and whimsical tale is that the crash heard after Uncle Billy leaves the party was unintentional on-set, but actor Thomas Mitchell improvised a response that worked well for the scene and it was left in (and you can see a uncharacteristic smile play on Stewart’s face after it occurs).

The movie received mixed reviews from critics, with many feeling the movie was overly sweet. The box office was weak and the movie lost money for Capra’s production company, which it never recovered from. The weak critical response also damaged Capra’s career and both Stewart and Reed struggled to find work after the release of the movie (Reed would later state that Stewart actively avoided being seen with her at events and parties because of the association). What saved the movie was a mistake in the 1970s when the copyright for the movie lapsed. Because of this, the movie because very inexpensive for television stations to use and air, leading to the movie being seen by a large number of people around the country. When video-cassette recording of movies were becoming popular in the 1980s, It’s a Wonderful Life also made a huge mark in that industry for the same reason, hence even more people seeing it over and over. This led to various parodies of the original work to pop up and at one point Comedy Central had a contest where films were sent in by the public in order to retell the story (much like the fan-made Star Wars Uncut done in 2009). Many of those takes were done in a humorous fashion, including redubbing and riffing of material from the movie. (Eventually copyrights were reestablished in the 1990s.)

The movie now is considered a holiday classic and while its running time of 131 minutes usually makes people tepid in trying it out, most come away as fans who will return to it repeatedly over the years.

Favorite Riff: (George, beaten down with thoughts of going to jail, realizes that his violent tantrum has his family staring at him in stunned silence)
Mary: George, why must you torture the children? Why don’t you - ?
George: (despondent) Mary.
Mike: Well, good job, Mary. You went and ruined Christmas for everybody!

The Riffing: MST3K shied away from bigger movies for the most part. First, because they simply couldn’t afford them, and secondly because Joel felt the emphasis of the program would be to show movies unfamiliar to most viewers (this was one reason Plan 9 from Outer Space had not be used in the original series, as it was considered too well-known and already mocked enough at the time). At the time of Cinematic Titanic, Hodgson was asked about a team-up between that group and RiffTrax and he didn’t see the idea working very well, as RiffTrax was willing to dive into more recent and recognizable films, which he felt didn’t work for what he wanted to present. There is, of course, This Island Earth for Mystery Science Theater 3000: the Movie, but that was the exception that proved the rule – there was enough heat for using a “classic” movie that it seemed better to stick with what had worked up to that point.

But RiffTrax was a different beast in that regard. Starting early on with riffing commentaries that could be played over blockbuster movies, there was less fear of mocking the classic. Thus, while it took years for the team to get there, riffing a beloved classic like It’s a Wonderful Life was not completely unusual.

Even so, it did mean that the movie would have to have some type of alteration in order to be of fair-use. To do this, the movie was edited here and there, while still leaving most of the story intact.  MOST of the story intact. In fact, one of the funniest things to happen in the RiffTrax version is that the entire “alternate universe” George witnesses that convinces him to live is gone! Wiped out of the movie with a fast wipe between George in the hut by the bridge drying off and then happily running home to Mary and the kids. How they resolved the change in George is one of the better gags of the movie as well, so I won’t spoil it here, as it is well worth finding out on your own.

Released as the COVID crisis of 2020 was just starting to die down a little, the RiffTrax version of It’s a Wonderful Life is a successful attempt to riff a classic movie that is beloved by a good number of people. It may sting a little here and there with some of the riffs for us that keep going back to the movie every year, but it is also a refreshing reminder that sometimes we can kid the things we love. Even something as wholesome as It’s a Wonderful Life. The riffed version can be found on Amazon Prime and the RiffTrax site.

THE WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar: Day 19 - The Mads Are Back with NIGHT OF SHORTS 4

It’s Day 19 of The Worst We Can Find Christmas Advent Calendar, and it’s about time we returned to The Mads Are Back for a look at one of their great shorts collections, A Night of Shorts 4. It may not have Christmas stuff in it, but it has toys, cartoons, a party or two, and a Scrooge-like boss. Check it out!

A Night of Shorts 4  

Program: The Mads Are Back

Air-Date: July 13, 2021

Kay naturally has shorts on her mind, and A Night of Shorts 4 can be found in this collection from The Mads or by itself.

Plot: Trace and Frank riff four shorts between bits of Episode 81 of Space Angel. Here’s the line-up.

Cindy Goes to a Party (1955) Directed by Herk Harvey, who also directed two riffing favorites: Carnival of Souls and Shake Hands with Danger. This Centron short made for the classroom has Cindy thinking she hadn’t been invited to a party because … well, we’re not sure, but a fairy godmother eventually appears in her sleep to tell her she needs to get hip to good manners at a party or she’s screwed. Cindy goes to the party with her fairy godmother seen only by her and one other kid and they learn how to behave themselves with as little graffiti as possible. Cindy is so good at learning that she doesn’t need her fairy godmother, who leaves before the kegs and strippers arrive. Cindy then wakes up to find that the friend’s older sister – who looks remarkably like the fairy godmother, (although as pointed out by the Mads, that makes no sense) – arrives with an invitation and apology for not inviting Cindy earlier. Cindy will make her pay some day.  Oh, yes.

The fairy godmother has her agenda.

Space Angel (1962) This is episode 81, “Dragon Fire,” in the Syncho-Vox animated series. Most people remember Clutch Cargo done by the same studio, Cambria Productions (if you’ve seen Pulp Fiction, it’s the cartoon young Butch is watching right before being given his father’s watch; and was a frequent cartoon shown on The Higgins Boys and Gruber program in the early days of the Comedy Channel). Space Angel was an action series set in space, with Scott McCloud (no, not that Scott McCloud) fighting bad guys, and we see Scott investigating trouble in the portions of the episode peppered through the Night of Shorts here.  The animation was so limited that it really could not be called even limited animation. Movement was done by pulling things across the screen as the image stayed stationary, or a fast back and forth of two pieces of artwork to show in-frame movement. More startingly was the way mouth movement was done, which had human lips (typically heavily made-up to give everyone ruby-red lips) superimposed over the mouths of characters to allow natural movement of the lips instead of drawing the lips to synch with the voice actors.  It’s rather unnerving to watch and still is here.

Space Angel and his oh-so-kissable lips.

Coffee Break (1958) Calvin Company produced this short directed by Gene Carr. Owen Bush, an actor who has appeared in secondary roles in a good number of television shows over several decades, is a business manager who is tasked with figuring out how to resolve a made-up crisis by the boss – people taking too long on their coffee breaks. Cigarettes flow freely through the short, as well as coffee, and we get the traditional 1950s worries about WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE! The manager is left to resolve the issue of how to get people to not waste time on break as the short comes to the close, no doubt to then have managers watching the film break up into groups and waste more time trying to find answers to a phony problem when they could be in their offices doing their jobs.

The manager is surprised by the gift given to him.

Space Angel (1962) Even more of Episode 81.

Gilbert Toys 1963 (1962) Preview of new toys from the educational toy company that may have died in the late 1960s, but it was easy to find remnants of their toys at hobby shops for years to come. They introduced everyone to the Erector Set (and bad jokes as kids about the very name) and had plenty of scientific chemistry sets that you could build cool things out of that were very hazardous, including one that included radioactive samples. Coooooool.  They also made trains, racetracks, and other toys generally based around some type of mechanical aspect that demonstrated to children as to how things worked (even the mixer for girls seen in the short at least tries to teach how mixtures work together to create other things). The short here was shown to businessmen at toy conventions looking to supply their department stores for the coming year, so it’s all serious and somewhat dreary, making it perfect for the Mads.

"Just set it on the ground and go home. It's loads of fun!"

Space Angel (1962) One final bit of Episode 81 for those playing at home.

How to Say No (Moral Maturity) (1951) – This Coronet short focuses on peer pressure and how to say no if you’re not comfortable with what others want to do. Marty goes to a diner where all his friends order beers but he doesn’t want to; Nora won’t smoke with her friends at a pajama party; Lucy can’t get the boys to stop trying to pressure her into some serious necking (with Nora suggesting that maybe the girls are to blame); and then there’s Howie, who’s an ass. All offer up suggestions to avoid awkward instances of having to say “no,” which aren’t really that bad, but then again avoid conflict in such a way that they don’t really resolve anything either. The lean into “girls can come off as easy” is a bit hard to stomach these days either, but it was the 1950s. Honestly, any talk suggesting that girls may not be wanting to mess about on a date and guys are jerks for not taking no as an answer is quite radical for the time.

But what's behind the curtain?

Favorite Riff:

Business manager breaking the fourth wall to explain his predicament in Coffee Break: “I like coffee. In fact, I’d be out on a break right now if …”

The Mads: “… it wasn’t because of you assholes.”

The Riffing: We’ve already featured The Mads Are Back in Day 4 of the Advent Calendar with The Mads’ riffing of Glen or Glenda (check it out right here), and they certainly deserve a return visit here. While the pair have done at least one Christmas show (the Mexican Santa Claus movie), I wanted to cover one of their frequent subjects – um … short subjects. The pair; who do all of their own writing for the show, making them unique amongst the riffers we’ve been discussing (RiffTrax comes close, but they do usually bring in a couple of contributors to help); have alternated with an evening of shorts in their monthly shows between full-length films, of which this is an early entry.

As mentioned before here in the blog, some of the best riffing done by any of the riffing groups is when a short is used, and both Trace and Frank use it quite well to their advantage here, playing off some older educational shorts and the obscure Space Angel to make for an excellent hour. As mentioned before, being more independent than the other groups also make The Mads more willing to push the envelope at times, so older fans who only remembers the days of Forrester and TV’s Frank should be prepared for some naughty words popping up here and there and occasional political jokes that probably would not fly on the other shows (case in point, when The Mads appeared live with the RiffTrax gang, there are some humorous comments as to them asking Frank to “tone down” some of his material for the show to keep it “friendly”).

There’s a good mix of shorts here as well, with the Gilbert Toys advertisement being fascinating just for the toys being introduced of the slowly fading company in the emerging changes of the 1960s, with the riffs being a cherry on top. Cathy Goes to a Party and Coffee Break are both more traditional shorts and The Mads handle them effortlessly as should be expected, while How To Say No is an interesting short just by itself and even reviewed on IMDB as being one of the better shorts done by Centron. Last, and certainly least, is that of Space Angel, which needs the support of people like Trace and Frank to make it watchable.

The Mads Are Back may not get quite the coverage as RiffTrax or MST3K, but it’s certainly worth checking out. The Gilbert Toys 1963 short is available to see for free on The Mads’ YouTube site, but you can currently order many of the short collections at half-price on their website up through December 25. Give them a shot with this one or any of their other offerings, as they are well worth the time to see!

THE WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar: Day 18 - MAC AND ME

 

Back to MST3K with the first episode of The Gauntlet. It’s the story of how Ronald McDonald brought the world together in a Sears with Coke products, entitled Ant-Man.

Mac and Me (August 1988)

Program: Mystery Science Theater 3000

Air-Date: November 22, 2018

 

The original movie poster and the MST3K streaming artwork. Note how they made Mac look much more appealing here than in the movie.

Plot: Mac is a young “Mysterious Alien Creature” and if that doesn’t make you quietly pick up your popcorn and head over to the other theater to see A Fish Called Wanda, then you get what you deserve.

Mac and his family of naked aliens are sucked up by a space-probe from a planet they are on. Imagine if the writer had taken too many drugs during the alien landscape scene in The Man Who Fell to Earth and you’ll get the idea. The probe arrives back on Earth and Mac, his sister and his parents are vomited back up by the probe. They are dead after having been stuck in a space-probe for months, if not years, without food, water, or air. Just kidding, they’re alive and the negligent parents of Mac instantly run amok, destroying plenty of things and probably killing a good number of people, while Mac heads to the road and causes an accident that should have killed at least a young boy and his father, but somehow doesn’t. 

William H. Macy in a role that will surprise you.

The traumatized Mac sneaks into a car with Eric (Jade Calegory), a boy in a wheelchair, his brother Michael (Jonathan Ward), and their mother, Janet (Christine Ebersole). They are in the process of moving into a new house, which Mac quickly begins destroying because he’s an alien being from a desolate world and obviously the last of their kind due to their dangerous ways. Eric eventually catches on that there’s an alien in the house and with the help of Michael and a neighbor girl they capture Mac and try to understand what he wants after Mac has large binges of Coke (reminder to self: insert “Hollywood producers with large binges of coke” joke here later). They figure out that Mac is wanting his family who we see dying out in the desert. And what a joyous scene for kids in the audience. It is too. 

Mac steals some poor kid's toy and wrecks it, while letting loose a bunch of neighborhood dogs, because that's the kind of bad news Mac is.

The … um … guys in suits who may be working for the government, begin investigating and Eric tries to sneak Mac out in disguise at a McDonald’s, where there appears to be a gas leak, as everyone is tripping inside, including Ronald McDonald. The government-looking guys appear and give chase through a Sears, but eventually lose Eric when Michael and others manage to lift them into a van and drive away.

They find Mac’s family and gives them life-sustaining Coke products.  At a gas station, the teenagers go to a liquor store to buy Coke, while the aliens break out of the van and go into the supermarket. (Leave it to teenagers to think going to the liquor store is a better idea for drinks.) The police arrive and blow up the market as well as shoot Eric (you’re not supposed to know that, as it was edited out of the U.S. version of the movie, so just assume he got caught in the explosion). Mac and family bring the kid back to life, the government gives them all citizenship and a car, and the film ends with the alien family driving down the road and warning us that they will be back.

They won’t.

Favorite Riff: (mother finding Eric has died outside of a fiery store caused by cops randomly shooting at aliens) “I can’t believe that my son and my husband died in the exact same way, in the exact same spot!”

Thoughts:  You know you’re in trouble when the people behind the movie promote it in interviews as being not at ALL like E.T., and their alien is totally different because he “wants to get back to his family” and “has powers.” Right.

Of course, it’s an obvious rip-off of E.T., down to the family unit the child alien finds and even the escape from the government on wheels. And just like E.T. having product placement, Mac and Me does the same, only by the truckload. We have Coke instead of Reese’s Pieces, a birthday party at McDonald’s instead of Halloween to disguise the alien, a trip through Sears, and a cop just straight-out shooting the kid instead of a type of bonding seen in E.T. causing the boy to die. Tied into that are aliens with non-emotive faces who seem to just being wanting to cause destruction instead of trying to understand things, and it’s just pretty repulsive all the way through. (As least E.T. is innocently causing problems at one point in that movie, and no doubt from drinking alcohol; Mac seems to be a bad kid looking to watch the world burn.)

Something positive for a ram chip? Well, the kids are actually pretty good actors, and Jade Calegory, who really did have to use a wheelchair due to spina bifida, is very good for someone who probably did not have a lot of screen experience. And it will live forever in the hearts and minds of anyone who saw Paul Rudd on the old Conan O’Brien show. There is a final riff in the movie that references Christmas, so it works for this Advent Calendar. Oh, and they never did the promised sequel.

 

Still not as disturbing as what we saw in the movie.

The Riffing:  The was the first episode of the Netflix second season, which was done in a manner where viewers were supposed to indulge in a traditional “Turkey Day” marathon of episodes like MST3K fans had done many times in the past. The only difference was that it was six new movies instead of a dozen or more of the older ones. Returning to the program where all the regulars, although the set for the mads were stripped down to just a small background and featured only Kinga, Max, Synthia, and a handful of the boneheads on the Moon 13 set, unlike the larger crew seen in the first season.

As a fan, it’s a shame they didn’t do much more with the theme of Kinga marrying Jonah, as that could have worked into the entire season (imagine a storyline with Kinga’s idea of a honeymoon was simply to continue the experiment of Jonah and the bots but in “honeymoon locations” and then a quickie annulment when Jonah refuses to go mad at the end of the marathon). At least the program took note of the cliffhanger and tried to resolve it somewhat (although why Jonah would return to the bots after escaping Repitilicus is one for the fanfic writers out there). Interesting to note the “Travel Cambot” looks like Kinga stole some designs for her later cambots in the 13^th season. Also nice to see the sketches between bits of the movie tie into the film (especially the McDonald’s parody), and the ending that finds Jonah and the bots being brought down to Moon 13 to build on to the movie vault helps sets up things to come, which is a nice twist in the setup of the show.

Everyone meets once again, as the Gauntlet sets up the storyline to come.

Mac and Me makes for an excellent first episode of the second season, and is a recommended one for fans of the original show who want to see an episode or two of the new one to see if it’s to their taste.  In fact, I would go so far as to suggest it’s one of the better MST3K episodes done over the entire 30 year run of the series. It’s still available on Netflix to see, so if you have access and haven’t had a taste of the bitterness that is Mac and Me, check it out!