Movie: (1963) The relationship between a ventriloquist and his dummy is even creepier than it seems.
First shown: 10/4/97
Opening: It’s Friday at the dorm and M&tB have a window!
Intro: Tom agrees to send the window back, but a drunken Crow smashes it; meanwhile Apearlo and Brainguyus liven up a dull Roman party with pants
Host segment 1: Crow expresses interest in Pitch’s line of devil dolls, Mike disapproves
Host segment 2: The bots set up a British pub, and it has a *very* stout ale on tap
Host segment 3: Pitch helps Crow transfer Servo’s soul, Mike disapproves.
End: Crow dresses Mike up as Hugo, Mike disapproves. Meanwhile Apearlo and Brainguys, attending Lesser God Day at the Colosseum, see a familar face!
Stinger: Hugo takes a licking and keeps on ticking
(255 votes, average: 4.35 out of 5)
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• This movie is so weird, but it’s a little dark for MST3K and I think the darkness drags the episode down a bit. Still, the riffing keeps up for the most part. Host segment-wise, it’s a mixed bag. The Roman Times stuff is good for a chuckle, but not many. I do like the bits with reasonable, affable Pitch and intemperate, outraged Mike. Paul and Mike are both terrific. The British pub sketch, however, is too long for a one-joke bit.
• This episode is included in Shout’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol. XIX.”
• Paul’s take on this one is here.
• References.
• Not included in that list is “Papers, Fawlty!” which is an evocation of the gruff Colonel from the British comedy series “Fawlty Towers.”
• That’s Patrick, Beez and Paul as the “Roman day players.”
• As the Roman Times segment begins, Kevin is singing “And now to Eden” from the “Star Trek: TOS” episode “The Way to Eden.”
• A nice callback to season four with “pants” business, but it takes a while to get there. Another callback from the old days: “Does this bug you?”
• What’s fairly clear, as you watch, is that they used a lot of real-life locations, not studio sets. Example: In the first scene with William Sylvester and his assistant, it appears they are in an actual office somewhere. As he dials the phone, watch the window sill behind him. A tiny shadow goes by. At first I thought it was a mouse but then something transparent goes by, and it becomes clear that that is actual city traffic going by outside the window.
• Callbacks: The appearance of William Sylvester prompts several “Robert Denby” riffs.
• If I recall correctly, there was some trepidation when the Sci-Fi Channel’s counterpart channel in the U.K. began running the show and this episode — featuring the observation that England is populated by “chinless, jug-eared stomach eaters” — first aired. From what we heard from MSTies in the U.K., they loved it.
• Then-current reference: Warren Christopher. The former Secretary of State was an easy target because of his dour persona.
• Servo the toaster strudel riffs for an entire segment.
• Cast and crew roundup: Director Lindsay Shonteff also directed “The Million Eyes of Su-Muru.” In front of the camera, we’ll see Bryant Halliday again in “The Projected Man.” William Sylvester was also in “Riding with Death’ and “Gorgo.” Alan Gifford was also in “Phase IV.”
• CreditsWatch: Produced and directed by Kevin. Intern Dan Breyer begins a stint that will last until the end of the season.
• Fave riff: “Look! There’s the proof: There’s no God. Not a single God…” Honorable mention: “So how many hours have rotary phones added to movies over the years?”
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Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm St. have been referenced with: “Meanwhile in Friday the 13th” riffed in Being from Another World. And “I’m your boyfriend now” from either King Dinosaur or Giant Gila Monster. Not sure about Halloween or Child’s Play. I think Leatherface has been referenced. Of course Rifftrax riffed Halloween post MST. I’m a horror fan. I notice these things.
It’s true that there are few slasher movie references in MST as a whole. I don’t think any of the writers were particularly fond of the genre.
mstgator @144: Yes, Pitch perfect! Good one!
Sitting Duck @146: Will do.
Welcome, thequietman! So happy you’ve “joined us”!
Never thought the phrase “blood of the virgin” could bring out two of the biggest laughs for me.
“…Blood of the Virgin.”
“But I call it giggle juice.”
“DRINK THE BLOOD OF THE VIRGIN!! Or am I coming on a little creepy?”
@140
It depends – do you count Joel’s and Frank’s characters coming back in season 10?
Welcome thequietman. “We accept him, we accept him. One of us, one of us.”
I’m driving with my MIND!!
I’m a little late to the party, and I’m not mentioning anything new, but this has never been one of my favorite eps so I watched it again last night to give it a second chance. Man! This one is creepy! It’s like a black and white episode of X-files! People becoming dolls is just one of those things that REALLY spooks me. (Anyone see the Gepetto episode of “Once Upon a Time”? (SHUDDER!!)
The ending also got me wondering. SPOILER ALERT (not that it matters). So, now that Hugo LOOKS like Vorelli, can he still be the showman that Vorelli was to keep the act successful? Also Vorelli seems infinitely more devious than Hugo and so, even though he IS a doll now, mightn’t Vorelli figure out some way to swap souls back? Even if not, what keeps Doll Vorelli from going on a murderous rampage during their first show? Who would blame a doll, meaning that Hugo would be blamed for the “accident?”
Maybe I’m thinking too much…
The dorm window bit is a classic that I actually ripped to audio to I could listen to it on road trips. The other segments, while having positive aspects, haven’t proved as memorable for me.
There’s also a lot of butt in this movie (well, one in particular). I’m surprised they could get away with that back then (or maybe I just have London’s 60s mores all wrong).
Ah yes, the movie that reminds me how lucky I am to be able to enjoy ham and many other various luncheon meats. As I mentioned in the last go-round, I still believe this could be a good film, especially if it were still set in the 1940’s, before that whole rock ‘n roll thing.
You could tell there was a change in movie-love from one regime to the other in that almost every third SciFi or RiffTrax riff seems to be over the fact that a movie is “boring” if characters talk in a scene and something isn’t plot-pointing or isn’t living up to its cool title promise at any given fifteen-second interval, or the director is “padding the scene out forever” if the shot runs on for five seconds longer than it should have.
What sort of mosquito attention-spans do MK&B HAVE, anyway? Do they drink that much coffee in Minnesota??
And the first of many, many, many, many, many, many, many directly Brit-baiting riffs began through S8-9, sparking a new riff-hook for the distributor package of 60’s British films (Deadly Bees, Projected Man, Gorgo).
Even to the point that they had to substitute “Europe” for “Italy” in baiting “Devil Fish”, hoping that UK fans would be baited by Europe-bashing jokes, since there was no Sci-Fi Italy. Evidently, Brexit has cut into MK&B’s act somewhat since then. :(
“Brit-baiting riffs” –
The British have a long and cherished tradition of self deprecating humor. Parliament could not function without it, I suspect. My British friends relish such banter with the possible exception of disparagements dished out by the Aussies who are particular in their Brit-baiting vehemence such as “That Pommy derro has a bad case of DADS”. The latter term is an acronym for Dumb As Dog Sh-t, in case you were wondering. In comparison The Brains seemed mild in their transoceanic abuse, I think.
Yes, but that puts it in the same professional gray area as Jewish Jokes, Geek Jokes and Guy Jokes: Brits can tell their OWN jokes about themselves because they know how, but anyone else who tries to joke about them and doesn’t, just ends up sounding like bigoted jerks.
And no, M&tB’s “It’s okay, we made jerk jokes about the US, too!” cover-all excuse from the Mexican “Santa Claus” isn’t the automatic universal Get Out of Jail Free card they thought it was, either.
Well we did have a near boob flash (though it might have been actual, since that scene has what looks like a sloppy cut where it could have happened) from a post-coitus Magda. The first series of Monty Python also had a nude woman appear in the Dull Life of a City Stockbroker sketch. Going off on a bit of a tangent, the IMDB profile of that performer (Sheila Sands) lists the bulk of her characters as being strippers, so looks like she got typecast. No nudity in original Doctor Who (unless you count Sergeant Benton at the end of The Time Monster). Then again, it was a kids’ show.
The British have always been masters at taking the wind out of gas bags and they can take it as well as they give it; a skill we could sometimes make use of here. If one travels abroad even a bit it quickly becomes apparent that WE are the thin skinned ones. Not counting the French, of course.
Last week I actually said the word ‘damn’!
So this was the first thread I posted on (an extremely belated thanks for the welcome, everyone!). Has it been that long already? Indeed, it’s been so long that before tonight I would have sworn this was from Season 9 and for the life of me I could not remember which episode came between “Horror of Party Beach” and “Invasion of the Neptune Men”.
One would think then this would be just a decent filler episode, but apparently it seems to resonate with folks. I wasn’t expecting to find this many comments here. I had a good time nonetheless, from the unforgettable opening segments to the welcome return of the affable Pitch. Brainguy looks positively manic when he breaks out the pants, and I love Mike’s little question to the drunken Crow; ‘do you ever have a fantasy where you’re happy and successful?’
Fave riffs
Ah, Conglomerated Federated Industries Limited!
The most depressing spot in London, sir, just as you asked!
If it wasn’t for alcohol there’d be no moisture in that woman at all!
I like fratboy Crow.
So how much of your life have you wasted watching something you obviously hate?
I feel like I have a black-and-white block because very few of my “favorite” episodes are B&W and yet when I watch them (Like with Devil Doll) I’m always like “Oh wait this is actually really good”
This episode is near and dear to my heart as it’s the very first episode I saw. I missed the first third of it, but I was immediately hooked and never looked back. Maybe because I share a love of ham.
Please, no. Just, no.
I saw this movie before it was on MST3K, and it was too dark and creepy for even my wacked out tastes even then. I feel it’s completely out of place on MST3K. Once again, the blame has to go to Sci-Fi, who probably gave the Brains very little to choose from. Easily one of the worst of the entire series for me, although I’m sure it has it’s fans.
The Red Devil guy is doing all right for himself.
Better an expert hater, than an uninformed fan. :)
Joel: Oh yeah?…The most sinister friendly witness brought up in front of the committee was none other than…(musical crescendo) Lambchop!
Crow (sarcastic): Oh, wow, big surprise!
Tom: Yeah, I always hated her, anyway!
Crow: Yeah!
Thank you, Ward E.
“Saw a dummy. It gave me the wig.”
Although a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing, it by no means necessarily makes one even the LITTLEST bit smarter.
M “Wait Til You See ME Like Ham!” Sipher:
I’m also wondering about his apparent plan to plunk Vacuous Girl’s soul into an ugly puppet like he did Hugo’s. What is he going to gain there? Wouldn’t he need a living VG to get a hold of her fortune?
He was going to get her to leave him everything in her will, THEN “kill” her via soul-plunk. At which point, hey, he’d be rich. That’s ultimately almost everyone’s master plan: GET RICH.
Because
he’s at
a
Dinner Party?
Where they’re SERVING HAM?
You’ve been watching “Cinema Snob” again, haven’t you? Or possibly “Badly Dubbed Porn.” ;-)
Paging Dr. Vorelli, Dr. Lombardi, Dr….?
Hugo wasn’t evil. He was a victim of soicumstance.
I question the “wisdom” in becoming something edible. And I considered saying something about disturbing internet fetish sites that revolve around that very concept but I just couldn’t find the words. Thank heavens.
He’s dead…made of plastic…
So, who was the more irritating emasculating b|tch, Sally or Lucy? I’d hate to think that either one of them “got her man” as an adult. Boys who constantly harassed girls with unwanted declarations of “love” would rightly be regarded as total jerks, restraining orders waiting to happen. And how did Lucy keep getting into Schroeder’s house, anyway? Should his parents be considered accessories to stalking? Hmph.
Do people really not get the ‘ham’ bit?
At the party, Vorelli goes to the table and says, “Ah ham. I love it!”
To which Hugo replies, “You Cannibal!”
See, it’s because ‘ham’ refers to an inferior, overacting performer, so Hugo says Vorelli is a ham eating ham and therefore a cannibal.
Ooooh! Mega burn from the little wooden dude!
Oh, sure, THIS you folks give serious thought to. ;-)
“Of all the plot holes to fill, they chose the CREDIT CARD plot hole!”
How exactly was “Bob Campbell” supposedly “related” to the Campbells, anyway? How did Chuck introduce him? As his brother? His cousin? His nephew? Or just “Say hello to my leetle friend”?
It’d kind of have to be, since I’d never heard of it all until now. ;-)
Is THAT in the Bible? ;-)
Regrettably, that line’s, uh, it’s not actually in the film. It’s “ham,” not “wine.” Sorry.
In fact, a surprising number of correspondents are misquoting lines from this episode. Shrug.
Wait, he did that? He didn’t do that, it’s so “funny” you’d think he would —
…
Well, yeah, I guess he did. Even if Sex Did Not Occur (I don’t recall the segment very well), mesmerizing someone into acting against their will would indeed be a form of rape, no matter what you mesmerized them to do. You can’t control your body and you’re at the mercy of your assailant. Yes, rape, I just…never thought of it like that before. I thought the Brains had a moratorium on films with rape in them.
“No wonder people went nuts over the Beatles. THIS is all there was!”.
So he’s The Ham Nazi?
Somewhere along the line, people got the idea that ventriloquism meant making one’s voice seem to originate from several feet or even yards away, the rather unimaginatively named Tex Avery cartoon “Ventriloquist Cat” (1950) being the first example that comes to mind.
However…
http://www.superdickery.com/super-ventriloquism-in-space/
Then you’ll have to LEAVE, Jacob.
No, not really. ;-)
I’d rather be “uninformed” than lead a miserable existence.
You only have to read the comments here! Nothing wrong with some darkness, people are overdoing it with the forced positivity.
And as universally funny words go, “Ham” is always funnier than “Wine”. Dave Letterman knew that from way back. :)
It’s just how much the movie lingers over this one plot point that sells the riff.
The movie’s strange, utter seriousness over its own predictable plot just transcends any of the S8 Look-It’s-British safety-net gags, to etch its own unique place in the SciFi episodes. This episode and “Prince of Space” manage to be the S8 standouts, no matter what MK&B try to do to them.
I thought they were brother and sister.
Better a miserable pedant, than someone who can just relax and enjoy things. There, fixed it.
Anyone who disagrees with me is clearly uninformed.
Yes, you are now welcome to worship my superiorosity!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Vorelli’s “act” is lame, stupid, and not the least bit entertaining; and his evil plan makes no sense.
His apparent reason for putting Hugo’s soul into the dummy is to make it lifelike and thus amaze his audience. Yet the Hugo-possessed dummy is the most wooden, lifeless, boring lump in entertainment history. And unlike any good ventriloquy act, there’s no witty, hilarious banter between them — just dull, slow, hate-filled sniping.
And why does he hate Hugo so much? That’s never explained in the movie.
Then there’s Vorelli’s hypnotism act… Instead of comical stuff like making his subjects act like chickens or think the audience is naked, etc., he convinces one guy that he’s going to be executed! Yeah, that’s entertainment — not! Especially since the whole bit just involves Vorelli describing the situation, while the subject does nothing but grimace.
Next he has a woman tell the audience that she’s not a dancer, then he has her perform a modest dance that virtually anyone could do, and the audience is supposed to be amazed and astounded.
Hey, darkness is great, I even love Sidehackers. I just don’t like this movie for MST3K
I don’t think I commented on this one before. It is a dark movie in many ways, but is a mostly enjoyable episode with good riffing. I especially like the callback to Robert Denby. It would have been great as an Alfred Hitchcock movie-I think that was someone else’s idea first but I agree with it. “Kubrick saw this scene and said ‘We’ve found our Heywood Floyd.'”
Supposedly, anyone who’s tired of London is tired of life. Hope this film didn’t have any unforseen negative consequences.
Master plan? I think you’re giving Vorelli WAY too much credit. He was obviously winging it, completely improv. But what would you expect from a performer but improv? ;-)
Which reminds me of the Seinfeld episode, The Chinese Restaurant. Elaine went about things ENTIRELY wrong. Jerry’s dare was “You walk over to that table, you pick up an egg roll, you don’t say anything, you eat it, say, “Thank you very much,” wipe your mouth, [and] walk away.” (I looked up the dialogue)
So what’s the FIRST frickin’ thing she does? She tries to explain the situation to the people at the table! That’s NOT how to “don’t say anything,” Elaine! That doesn’t create a surreal moment at all! Stupid, Elaine! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Sheesh.
Why presume that Hugo’s going to continue the act? In his place, I’d catch the first bus out of London, leaving Vorelli to just sit there…
Because he can. Vorelli’s a bully, and Hugo was a fairly helpless victim.
The thing is, though, William Sylvester DID play Heywood Floyd, which means it’s not all that much of a riff. I mean, okay, I’m sure the scene in question in fact had no effect at all on Kubrick’s opinion of Sylvester’s (kind of odd typing that name in a “serious” context) acting ability — it seems safe to presume that he never watched this movie at all — but is that really enough?
“Martin Scorcese *IS* Mr. French in “The Exorcist”, now THAT’s a riff, referring to three entirely different areas of pop culture in a mere few seconds. “William Sylvester *IS* [character name] in “[film that has absolutely nothing to do with William Sylvester or with the named character],” that would’ve sold the bit better. IMHO.