Movie: (1972) A Florida scientist turns himself into a catfish monster and … seems to have some sort of plan after that. But local authorities are on his trail.
First shown: May 2, 1999
Opening: Crow enjoys a nice chaw
Intro: Crow labels his chaw cans; Pearl conducts a maternal love deprivation experiment
Host segment 1: Mike becomes wedged in the bulkhead of Crow’s evil voiceover
Host segment 2: Gone fishin’
Host segment 3: Brain Guy & Bobo demonstrate Crow & Tom’s naked acting theory
End: Crow & Tom show off their specialized food carrying cases; Pearl’s mer-monkey has an admirer
Stinger: “Sargassum! The weed of deceit!”
(324 votes, average: 4.10 out of 5)
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• I really think this one rises above the last few “good not great” outings and is one of the best of the season. Insane movie, great riffing, mostly good segments. I like it.
• Bill’s thoughts are here.
• This episode is included in Shout’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol. XVII
• Don Barton, the man to blame for this movie, talks about his film here. You can also read about a screening/celebration of the movie here. This movie even has its own Web site.
• The opening bit is very funny, but also may be the most disgusting host segment ever. Yuck.
• Pearl’s IMF experiment on the bots is reminiscent of the maternal love sketch in episode 602- INVASION U.S.A., and I’m not sure they did anything the other sketch didn’t do, but the look on Bill’s face as he looks into the “love basket” is priceless.
• The movie has a very familiar plot. We’ve seen plenty of these “mad scientist is ridiculed and dismissed by his peers and plots revenge against them using the very technology they claimed was ridiculous” movies. “Mad Monster” comes immediately to mind.
• I’m assuming the filmmakers got a lot of the score from various PD needle drops. Some of it sounds familiar. Anybody recognize any snippets?
• Another movie observation: Why does the scientist create the elaborate block-and-tackle hammock when THERE’S A LADDER?
• Segment 1 is one of those great “one or more of the bots seize on some insane element of the movie and take it to heart” bits. Great line: “Soon it will be YOU who becomes wedged in the bulkhead of my plan!”
• Riff I didn’t get: “Then I gotta go kill Farley Granger’s wife.” That’s certainly a “Strangers on a Train” reference, but why? Somebody explain.
• By the way, I DO know what Cabela’s is. I just heard “Chavella’s” and was baffled.
• The movie was apparently going for a sort of “In the Heat of the Night” vibe between the sheriff and scientist guy. But it just comes off as offensive.
• Segment 2, well, there’s not a lot going on, but it’s cute.
• M&tB still have their fishing hats on when they head back into the theater.
• Movie continuity mistake: As Leopold attempts to convert the girl into his mate, we first see her hands tied down as he gives her the injection (preventing her from stopping him, of course) but her hands are free seconds later when he dunks her (apparently so the actress could hold her nose).
• Callbacks: “rice a pipple” (Bride of the Monster), “Think I’ll head over to Party Beach and see how The Horror is doing.” (Horror of Party Beach) and “I had such a pretty miiiiind!” (Girl in Gold Boots).
• Slam on Sally Forth outta nowhere!
• Note to the Brains: Catfish Hunter did NOT change his name to Chapstick. He just appeared in a now-nearly-forgotten Chapstick commercial in which it was suggested that he might want to do so. He seems disinclined. So I say Servo’s Catfish Hunter joke stands as funny.
• Segment 3 is fun, but that’s more of Bill than I want to see (no offense, Bill).
• The last third of the movie is dominated by “riding on the running board guy.” His amphibious clown car is particularly funny. “Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, Snork. They’re cops!”
• That’s Paul as “Barnicle” (that’s how it’s spelled in the credits) Bob. Paul was definitely the guest star guy in the later years.
• Cast and crew roundup: Nobody involved with this movie was involved with any other MSTed movie.
• CreditsWatch: Directed by Mike.
• Fave riff: “Thank goodness I have my provolone carrying cases.” Honorable mention: “Jack Ruby at home.”
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I give this episode 5 stars. The riffing is good and so are the host segments.
Is there a missing scene at the end of the movie? I ask because I want to why the hell that lady went into the ocean after Dr. Z? This movie has the most depressing ending out of all of the movies on MST3K. Manos? No, because at least that has the excuse of an over-powering, supernatural force at work. It Lives by Night? Nope, because at least the woman in the movie was the guy’s wife and they had sex after he was infected by the bat. Blood Waters of Dr. Z has no apparent excuse for how it ended.
#20: “The claw marks of an ape”
No, no, the claw marks of a large animal LIKE an ape. ;-)
#41: “The movie may be one of the oldest of the type that gives us a smart, sympathetic, charismatic black protagonist only to kill him off”
“Night of the Living Dead” precedes it, although it’s arguable as to whether or not Ben had those traits…particularly since Ben’s insistence on not hiding in the basement gets everyone killed except himself by the ghouls/zombies. He only survived the raid (although not the movie) because he ended up HIDING IN THE BASEMENT like Harry the angry guy wanted to do in the first place.
“But that’s a whole other film…”
An episode of “I Love Lucy” once used the vaudeville sketch “Slowly I Turned” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowly_I_Turned with the name “Martha” (as mentioned in that very reference source) as the trigger phrase (“Martha! MARTHA! Sloooooooooowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch, face to face with the man who had ruined my life…” or something like that).
Thus it surprised me when the guys didn’t break into “Slowly I Turned” dialogue at the end when the agent was calling “Martha! Martha!” I guess they were more familiar with other versions.
2 things.
If the arhives are correct, this ep only aired 3 times…. the debut, the following weekend and once in 2002 ( may help explains why I never got a chance to see it on air ). Where does this stand in the record book for least airings ?
Catfish Hunter ( lip-balm spokesman and riff-complex subject ) died just about 4 months after the oriignal airing of this episode.
Agree with Sampo on this one, it’s one of the best of Season Ten. Just a really bizarre flick which the Brains appeared to enjoy riffing. Loved most of the host segments in this one too, especially Crow enjoying his “smokeless tobacco” as well as getting stuck in one of the overhead vents and having to be pried down by Mike. The most memorable line in this one goes to Crow:
Voiceover: “Sargassum. The weed of deceit”.
Crow: “That’s what I smoke!”
It’s certainly not amongst the best episodes in the show’s history.To be honest, nothing in Season Ten matches their last, great episode, “Girl in Gold Boots”, for as I’ve said before I just get the sense that in most of this season they just didn’t seem to have their collective hearts in it anymore. Still, “Blood Waters of Dr. Z” is still among the better episodes of this season, ranking amongst the “very good”. Four out of Five stars.
Just wanted to mention that I love the folk-song “Through the sarcassam”…
Also, isn’t the line something like: “claw marks of an animal like a cat or an ape”? I can check this later, but I remember M&tB snickering at what a strange combination of animals the scientist used as an example…
After the masturbation remark, there is still more in the same vein. “Ah, some of my best work!”
#56 Johnny Ryde: “Also, isn’t the line something like: “claw marks of an animal like a cat or an ape”? I can check this later, but I remember M&tB snickering at what a strange combination of animals the scientist used as an example…”
Yeah, I wasn’t sure about that first part, hence my mauling (ha ha) of the quote. It was the sheer absurdity of the idea that the kind of damage an ape would do to a person would look anything like a large cat’s claw marks, and this is a supposed expert making this call, is just… really?
wasn’t there some sort of legal issue with this one? I think that’s why it only aired three times…perhaps the director wasn’t wrong about the rights being improperly acquired?
“The B.O. suite for bassoon”
When he’s dunking the bikin girl and she screams, someone starts mimicking an Ohio Players song (Love Rollercoaster?)
When the folk singer rhymes sarcasm with sargassum, Mike gets a good guffaw in.
Oh god, words can’t express how much I love this one. I saw it on one of its first airings and was delighted (if not more than a little perplexed). The only reason it’s not higher than 9 on my top ten is that there are eight episodes that work even better for me.
i guess i need to watch this one again… got it in the last shout! collection…
i don’t remember it being very good… but i’m willing to admit i may be ‘misremembering’…
“And you, balding comb-over fish!”
For what it’s worth, I would put the first 25 minutes of this episode (up to the end of the first host segment) up against any other episode. To me it’s the single best stretch of comedy the show produced; nothing misses its mark, and there are tons of gut-busters. The rest of the movie can’t match up to that kind of performance, unfortunately, but it’s still good enough to make this one of my top 3 in season 10, and now that the DVD’s out it’s one I watch on a pretty regular basis.
In terms of “completely ineffective monster costumes,” where would Dr. Leopold’s fishman costume rank? It’s certainly better than Ro-Man or the Creeping Terror, but it’s still pretty damn bad. And what’s with every character in this movie (save our intrepid black scientist, whose death in the movie made me legitimately angry) being an unlikable moron? Was that a 70’s thing, too, to make everyone lousy as a sort of “statement on the human condition?” I mean, there are plenty of movies where you don’t end up liking anyone (Hobgoblins comes to mind), but I can’t think of any that were more egregious in making one decent character and then killing him as a “take that” to the audience.
Host segments are mostly pretty good. The opening is solid, though I must say I’m kind of surprised to see some of you comment on how it feels like a Comedy Central opening. Pearl’s love deprivation experiment works for two reasons: the completely bizarre contents of Pearl’s love box and Crow’s instantaneous freak out when it’s removed. Segment 1 is in my top 5 Crow moments and might be my favorite host segment of the season. The others seem kind of lacking after that, but there really wasn’t any way they could top that.
Yeah, I believe only “Gorgo” aired fewer times than this one…
Dr. Leopold’s voiceover always makes me think of the Professor on “Futurama”.
Weird..so many middle of the road reviews….I love this episode! :mrgreen: the goofy movie and riffs make for a very fun watch.
The regular version has played on Turner Classic Movies a couple times in the past. Not sure why. :lol:
One of my favorite host segments ever: Crow imitating Dr. Z’s narrative from the ceiling.
Does anyone else think that the INPIT agents suddenly give movie a ’70s porn feel? Everything was going fine the sheriff and the state’s DNR scientist, then these two people in flimsy red jumpsuits show up.
I love the fact that the running-board-riding jump-suit-wearing scientist guy looks just like Gil Gerard and talks just like Dr. Brackett from “Emergency”.
And Crow’s Dr. Z-type voice over, shouted from the rafters:
“SADDLE SOAP! CLEANING COMPOUND OF DECEIT!”
Now it’s my turn to sashay through the sarcasm….
Just watched this one the other night and I stand by my initial reaction when I watched this the first time some years ago..
The first half (45 minutes or so) is HILARIOUS…right up there with some of their best work. In particular from the great riffing in the opening credits to ALL of the great stuff in the lab, the Brains’ riffing is impeccable. There are so many great riffs as we get to know Dr. Z, his funky lab, and his…funk.
But it all peters out so quickly in the second half. You can really see the Brains trying their best, but unlike in Monster a Go Go (very similar in tone and feel to this movie) they just can’t sustain the momentum. I still have amenesia when it comes to the second half, though I tried really hard to pay attention this time and there are some great riffs.
ATTENTION!
There is a boom mike shadow the Brains miss some time in the late-middle part of the movie. Watch for it on the white wall in a scene where, I believe (sorry, Amnesia) Rex exits and then the quasi-soft core porn couple (MikeK you are so right) have a little love scene. Watch it above (the bed?) It swings back into the shot as the girlie crosses the room. Such poor lighting too!
“I’m being followed by a boom shadow, boom shadow. Leaping and a hoping boom shadow boom shadow. Boom shadow, boom shadow….”
Sorry I’ve always wanted to sing that…and now I have my reason! Ha ha aha ahahahahahhahaha….etc
Is there any other ep where they make fun of each other for so long…I’m talking about the catfish chapstick incident. And then when Mike starts in the riffing again Servo nails him. I love these self-reflexive moments. Points out again the “involuted” nature of the show.
The host segs are…meh. I would rather have had more of the film. From what some of you described there were some really good bits cut out of this ep…in particular the folk scene with sheriff sounds like it would have riffed well.
Was there ever a direct reference to In the Heat of the Night by the Brains? I didn’t catch one…
This time around I remember the dune buggy scene…hilarious, and one of the few bright spots in the latter half of the ep.
Do those shower caps come in pink and blue?
B- (I raised my grade from a C, because I enjoyed it more this time, but it’s still one of the great “misses” of the show’s run).
*As they drive off away from the camera with INPIT Agent, Walker Stevens on the running board, I believe it is Mike who has him say, “Gentlemen? Whee”.
*I think it was also Walker Stevens who drove his amphibious vehicle straight into the water, prompting Servo to have him say, “What’d I do that for?”
*Servo’s Peter Gunn horn-section theme was also quite impressive.
My already-established respect for Bill Corbett’s comedic timing and delivery deepened even more with the hilarious Crow-trapped-in-the-bulkhead segment.
The boom shadow is just above are injured hero’s head in the tucking him and saying good night to Rex scene (Rex’s “acting” is particularly hilarious here)at about 57:00 in the shout disc. Rex says goodnight to porn actor in the bed and hello to porn actress coming in and we see the boom shadow again as she crosses the room. Just to be exact about it.
And at one minute, Sampo (or anyone else) does the Farley Granger reference appear? I would like to check that out.
Love everything about this episode. Only thing I didsn’t care for was the love deprivation skit, too long and predictable. Everything else, the 70’s era movie with it’s zapruder underwater boringness, the lame characters, the perfect riffing and execution, good funny host segments, The Balding combover fish, astronauts from a different film, and the catchy opening tune “planning revenge on my friends” (actually “World War Two Boy”)
– It all works great for me. I can still watch it and laugh, and I’ve seen it a lot.
Ten stars.
My brain hurts today…corrections:
At what minute, Sampo….
our injured hero’s…
tucking him in….
Gummo: “Tom: I need to simplify my masturbation ritual.” The single most out-and-out dirty riff in the 10 season history of MST. The first real acknowledgment to me that the run was ending and they were damn well going to make any jokes they pleased.
* * * * * * * *
Any comedy act with a (relatively) ‘clean’ reputation can crack an inappropriate remark to get a cheap laugh, especially a cowtown puppet show with Saturday Morning TV standards. What elevates Tom’s ‘masturbation’ remark into a classic riff is Crow’s reaction to Tom’s utterance. Even in black silhouette the mouth-open, slow-turning body language of Crow in the theater reacting to Tom’s remark (which also shows how good at handling the Crow puppet Bill had gotten by this point) completely sells the filth of the moment. It’s both shocking and hilarious, and that’s such a great and lovely feeling in “MST3K” when it’s done right.
As for “Dr. Z,” I honestly don’t remember it. It’s forever stuck in my mind as ‘the one where Tom uses the ‘M’ word’ episode. Got the Shout! DVD, will watch it tonight for kicks.
IMO this is the least of the SciFi era. Still very good, but nothing spectacular. I too, was confused by the Farley Granger reference, which I think had to do with “Strangers On A Train”, I figured someone (Paul, perhaps?) must have thought the charachter resembles Robet Walker, Jr., but I don’t see it.
In a Cinematic Titanic vid, Trace uses a “he keeps a masturbation journal” comment. Wonder if Mary Jo came up with both comments?
2 star episode. Probably the weakest season 10 episode for me. A lot of it has to do with how unwatchable the movie is–It’s just dreadful, and not in a funny way. I like the SciFi era, and I love 70’s movie riffs (Riding with Death, Touch of Satan, Angel’s Revenge, The Giant Spider Invasion, Etc.) but I can barely watch this one without blacking out.
With that said, “I need to simplify my masturbation ritual” is a hilarious riff.
More dislike for this episode :lol: It pales in comparison to the next two episodes: Boggy Creek II and Track of the Moon Beast, and to earlier episodes The Girl in the Gold Boots and Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders, which I consider the 4 best of season 10.
The voice-over narration at the beginning of the episode may have been the most unwatchable segment in any MSTied movie.
Good God, this movie has the most annoying noises since “The Projected Man.” Parts of the “score” sound like they accidentally recorded a hearing test and decided to throw it in, and the sound effects in Dr. Z’s lab seem to be calculated to drive the audience mad, like a bad 70’s monster movie version of The King in Yellow.
I’m not sure exactly why, but this viewing has had a soporific effect on me. This, combined with my intense, seething hatred for the movie, has made it difficult to enjoy the riffs, although there are some real gems in there.
One word- sargassum. This is a pretty good one. The movie and host segments hold up pretty well for me, although I have to agree with Sampo about segment 3.
All this talk about masturbation. Does nobody remember the pocket pool invention exchange from The Beatniks ?
MST’s made plenty of masturbation jokes over the years. It’s just that they were typically (thinly) veiled puns or slightly obtuse, and pretty much never outright used the word “masturbation”.
“I’m gonna go spank myself!” – Monkey in Women of the Prehistoric Planet
“Buzz? Next time don’t make so much noise when you read.” – Mom, Mr. B. Natural
“You’ve seen me do everything?!” – Buzz, Mr. B. Natural
“We make the saints cry…” – The Del-Aires, Horror at Party Beach
Now there’s a Weekend Discussion for you. Either “Dirtiest riffs” (interesting to see how many come from the Joel era… more than some would claim) or “Dirtiest riff it took you a minute to realize it was filthy.” “Noise when you read” certainly ranks way up there on either scale. Though Tom howling in pain as Big Stupid closes the sliding doors in the brothel while walking backwards, indicating he got… um… caught… certainly took a moment to realize exactly what he closed the door on.
(Actually, Mr. B. Natural is full of really dirty riffs. “Ever notice the energy in a high school hallway?” “Oh yeeeeeaaaaah.” Tom’s shock-whispered “Joel!!” after that is great.)
@losingmydignity, #70:
I noticed that later in the show’s run they seemed to avoid pointing out boom mike shadows, even when they were really obvious… Maybe they just got tired of making the same joke?
It is Cabella’s that he “just placed an order two” I watched the episode last night. I wouldn’t have noticed the line if I hadn’t been waiting for it. Cabella is a outdoorsman store. They have a big catoloug too. I can’t spell today can I?
I really can’t say much about this one since it’s one of those that just wasn’t too memorable for me, with one exception: Segment One. That’s all I need.
No, you spelled ‘today’ right, you just got catalog wrong.
I agree, the first 25 min or so were the best. The rest…not so much. Overall, this was one of the worst episodes that they ever did. I am really surprised that those (some, not all) that love this episode feel that the four previous ones were just “meh.” I thought just the opposite.
To each their own…
This is the rare MST episode (maybe the only one, besides a few season one entries) that I cannot get all the way through. The movie is so dreary, almost grotesque that even the presence of Mike and the Bots can get me through. After the ridiculous “theme-song” and the riffs mocking it, the episode gets unwatchable, very quickly.
er, should have been “can’T get me through.”
ZaAt actually played on TCM not four weeks ago in HD no less. my dvr hardrive was full so i didnt record it. maybe next halloween movie season TCM will show it again. TCM just started up in HD and not very many movies have been converted to true HD and i dont think this version was. maybe next time.
the uncut version can also be found on youtube.
this was also my kids favorite ep. when were little when it first aired. of course they(and many viewers) didnt have a clue what the catfish capstick joke was about but they thought it was the funniest thing ever and refered to Z as the “catfish capstick one”.
shoulda previewed my post. when they were little. and catfish chapstick. i stand corrected.
I think whenever someone says they didn’t think the riffing was very good, they should be required by law to state truthfully their age.
Also, very surprised Sampo didn’t know what Cabellas is. It’s a quite famous outdoors mail-order catalog that I’ve seen for years, and I’m not even an outdoorsman. I admit though that I’ve worked in shipping & receiviong nearly all my life and have seen a lot of mail.
Say what you will, I rate this episode in the top 5 of season ten, and top 10 of the sci-fi years. But again, boring & tedious has no effect on riffing quality. I certainly don’t watch this show for the movies.
As I’ve said in the past, I have seen some of these movies over 10 times before I even began to try to pay attention to what is actually going on. I’m in it for the kicks, baby. (riffs).
Re: music cues, I recognized several in the early laboratory sequence, that I’ve heard on the old “Courageous Cat” cartoon when I was a kid in the 1960s.
#93:
IMDb lists two people credited for “original music” on this movie, which is damned weird. I wonder if they perpetrated the “I just got my synthesizer and haven’t figured out how to use it yet” cues, while all the other horribly-mismatched stuff is repurposed from other works. Whoever did the synth crap is guilty of a serious crime against my ears, and I’d like them to be brought to justice.
#36 – CG: “On a completely different note, I think it’s cool that the stinger comes from the very first line of the movie. That would be like if they riffed Moby Dick and the stinger was “Call me Ishmael.””
My thoughts exactly.
Fun episode. Maybe not the best of the tenth season, but still hilarious for the theme song and any riffs dealing with that stupid costume.
#11 – Joseph Nebus: “There’s also a really weird scene where Racist Sheriff hears there’s some ruckus going on in a house, and wanders in, and it turns out to be a little hootenany with a guitar-playing folk singer at its core. The Sheriff — in a touch which actually left me liking him — smiles at this and sits down a bit, listening for a while to the kids just having fun despite the mayhem and chaos. You don’t see a lot of sheriffs in these type movies doing stuff besides harassing the kids having pointless fun.
And then it gets really weird, as the Sheriff somehow telepathically summons the hootenany to stand up and, as the performer continues playing the guitar and singing, leads them on a musical walk out the house and through town, all the way to the jail, where he puts the contented kids in for their own safety, a cause which the kids seem to agree is right and just. ”
I saw that scene on Turner and was dumbstruck by how silly that was.
I’ve seen this all the way through (on youtube) just once but seem to remember enjoying it. I barely saw a few frames while half-asleep when it first aired on a Saturday morning. I still need to get the dvd set.
All I can say is this movie has one of those odd ball soundtracks. Planning revenge on my friends!
That song put the boogie in my feet.
#70: I saw the boom shadow, too. Yes, they do reference In the Heat of the Night. When sheriff and scientist are riding off in the car, Crow mentions it, not by name, but by the premise of the show, talking like the sheriff saying they’re going to be like them – I don’t remember the exact wording, it’s kind of a drawn out joke.
I never saw this episode when it first aired. I just have the DVD now because I got Shout’s Vol. XVII set. I bought it when it first came out, but I held off on watching it until this discussion, I wanted it to be fresh. How’s that for will-power?
Well, I was disappointed. Here I had an ep I’d never seen and – eh. Nothing to write home about. I thought it was boring, though, like every ep of MST, there’s always SOME bright spots.
“This guy peaked in the womb.” – Mike
“Well, if you’re going to live in a basement, you might as well have all the bells and whistles.” – Mike
“The faces of the fish he’s wronged flash before his eyes.” – Crow
“He’s a cop-a-feel-acanth.” – Mike
“That was locked, but he now has the POWERFUL FOREARMS of a CATFISH!” – Crow
“Tonight! – On Invisible Cracker Mom!” – Crow
Wasn’t too thrilled with the host segments. I, too, laughed at the stupid comparison of the claw marks like a “cat – or an ape.” WTF? So similar.
I was getting very disappointed with this last season. There’s quite a few episodes that I just didn’t bother watching.
It’s amazing that, in this day & age, people can’t handle the word “masturbation” being used, and would correlate it with something being “out-and-out” dirty.
Some riffs I didn’t see mentioned:
“He’s learned to modulate his flatulence!”
“This is the Gerald Ford of monsters!”, after the monster’s 8th tripping/stumbling incident or so.
“It’s kind of weird when your monster has to use a handrail.”
It’s a little slow towards the middle, but overall I find the riffing to be consistently good. The film itself is so stunningly stupid and ridiculous that there’s plenty to laugh at aside from the riffs: Walker Stevens and his hair that seems to take on a life of its own as the film progresses, the overblown “Peter Gunn” rip-off theme that Servo nails, the idiotic scene where Stevens speeds off in the Banana Splits Clown Car at a brisk clip on land only to drive straight into the swamp and slow down to about 1/10 MPH(“Don’t worry, Martha! I’ll catch up and save you in about three days!”)
I find it rather amusing when guys like Don Barton take garbage like the film he made so seriously. It’s laugh-out-loud funny to hear his air of pretension in that video clip, when you realize that his only film credits in any capacity begin and end with ‘Dr. Z’, much like just about anybody else involved with the film. Nothing like hitching your wagon to a train heading straight into the swamp and sinking into oblivion.