Movie: (1951) A military/science team searches for a downed rocket atop a remote, dinosaur-infested mountain.
First shown: 11/24/90
Opening: Coach Joel gives the bots a locker room pep talk
Invention exchange: The Mads unveil their exercise treadmill equipped with wheels, introduce the movie and give Joel movie sign against his will
Host segment 1: Hugh Beaumont, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, visits on the Hexfield with a message of unholy death
Host segment 2: J&tB’s preachy “The Explorers” sketch bogs down
Host segment 3: J&tB see The Cool Thing and announce a contest
End: J&tB analyze the movie, Joel reads a letter, Dr. F declares victory
Stinger: “Well, thanks for straightening the whole thing out…”
(157 votes, average: 4.19 out of 5)
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• Rock climbing, everybody. Rock climbing.
• Well this one is definitely a winner. Wacky movie, great riffing, decent host segments and, oh, did I mention…rock climbing? Rock climbing.
• Joel, still sporting a cheesy goatee, is now in a never-before-seen cyan jumpsuit.
This episode appears on Shout’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol. XVIII.
• A message at the beginning of the Shout DVD apologizes in advance for the tape artifacts in their product. Apparently the official BBI copy was damaged or not stored properly. Upsetting.
• References.
• This is the infamous episode featuring, as previously mentioned, the mind-bloating “rock climbing” sequence. A couple of years after this episode came out, the sequence so moved one usenet fan that he created a “rock climbing FAQ (frequently asked questions) file” that analyzed the “rock climbing” phenomenon within an inch of its life. And, as proof that nothing ever really disappears from internet, here it is.
• During this season, J&tB’s response to the movie was seen in a very black-and-white way–either Dr. F. “won” or Joel and the bots did. They never made this more explicit than in the opening segment here.
• However, Joel makes a little mistake in his pep talk: the episode two weeks ago was “Ring of Terror,” not “Rocket Attack USA.”
• I hope the Mads sued these guys.
• Frank twice addresses mole people, Jerry and Sylvia, who are apparently behind the camera in Deep 13.
• Joel never gets to do an invention exchange, but don’t worry, the one he’s holding, the sign language translator, will be used next week.
• Joel gets Movie Sign “against his will”–He refuses to enter the theater and appears to get an electrical shock to his tush. This is described as a “shock to the shammies” in episode 302- GAMERA, when Joel gets it again.
• Yes, the opening shot is the same shot used in “Rocket Ship XM.” Lippert was nothing if not thrifty.
• Callbacks: “We’re on our way!” (Rocket Ship XM) “Charbroiled hamburger sandwich and french fried potatoes!” (Jungle Goddess) “Thees will seemplify everything!” (Phantom Creeps) “Chili peppers, they burn my gut.” (Sidehackers) “That square bugs me! He really bugs me!” (Wild Rebels)
• That’s Mike, of course, as Hugh Beaumont (“Cryptodad” in the credits) in yet another Hexfield Viewscreen appearance, in segment 1, and he’s very funny, though the writing is excellent as well. This segment is a pretty good example of what is so wonderful about MST3K.
• Servo keeps asking “Ever fly one of these things?” He also said it a few episodes back. Is that from something?
• Obscure KTMA reference I never got before: Joel riffs, “Maybe there was hand soap in the hydraulic fluid.” A reference to a plot contrivance in the movie in episode K13- SST DEATH FLIGHT. Went right over my head in the past.
• Movie observation: Actors do things in movies that real people would never do (unless they are very stupid). A pristine example is the cop in “Plan 9” who scratches his temple with the barrel of his gun. There’s a moment like that in this movie: Would anyone really sit RIGHT on the edge of a cliff, with their legs dangling over the side, like they do in the movie?
• Host segment 2 is probably inspired by the brief “asking for directions from the native” scene in this movie, combined with all the “white male reality” stuff from “Jungle Goddess.” But here’s a question: Is this the first “We’re doing a sketch but it’s not going very well” sketch? They’ll do more sketches like it throughout the series.
• The “cool thing” bit in segment 3 is clearly inspired by the moment in the movie when the characters reach the top of the mountain, and everyone stands amazed at what they see, but they don’t show us for a long time. Some of the entries they got from viewers were shown in episode 213- GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER.
• Cast and crew roundup: Producer Sigmund Neufeld also produced “The Mad Monster.” Director Sam Newfield also directed “Radar Secret Service, “The Mad Monster” and “I Accuse My Parents.” Cinematographer Jack Greenhalgh also worked on “The Mad Monster and “Robot Monster.” Editor Philip Cahn also worked on “The Brute Man. Special effects guy Augie Lohman also worked on “The Rebel Set.” Special effects guy Ray Mercer also worked on “I Accuse My Parents,” “Radar Secret Service,” “Last of the Wild Horses,” “The Sinister Urge” and “The Beast of Yucca Flats.” Costume guy Alfred Berke also worked on “Last of the Wild Horses. Makeup guy Harry Ross also worked on “The Mad Monster and “Viking Women and the Sea Serpent.” Production manager Bert Sternbach also worked on “The Mad Monster.” Writer Orville H. Hampton also worked on “Rocket Ship XM.” Score composer Paul Dunlap also worked on “The Rebel Set” and “I Was a Teenage Werewolf.” In front of the camera, Whit Bissell was also in “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” and Murray Alper was also in “The Leech Woman.” Hugh Beaumont was in “The Human Duplicators” and “The Mole People.” He was also the narrator of the short “A Date with Your Family.” Sid Melton was also in “Radar Secret Service.” Chick Chandler was in the short “Once Upon a Honeymoon.”
• CreditsWatch: Trace and Frank are still “special guest villians” (misspelled). This week’s creative pit boss: Kevin Murphy. The “Explorers Action Theme” written and performed by Michael J. Nelson. This was intern James Smith’s last episode.
• Favorite riff: “Still talking to crap, monkey boy?” Honorable mention: “I never knew Mountain time was so slow!”
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This episode is one of my favorites. Cesar Romero is so out of place, Sid Melton manages to be so awful that it’s actually entertaining to watch, and the audience is tortured in the same way that Joel and the bots are.
Classic.
My favorite riff is during one of the extended rock-climbing scenes when a very frustrated Crow pleads, “Will someone please tell the director about compressing time through editing?!”
And if anyone is wondering why Joel said Cobb specifically, a Cobb salad includes hard-boiled egg and cheese – often Roquefort. So, y’know. *phoot* :snicker:
Rock climbing everybody…rock climbing.
I love this episode, had never seen it until it came to DVD (didn’t discover the show until mid-season 3). Love Mike as cryptodad steals the show.
Since watching I wonder why the guys never mentioned the same footage being used in Robot Monster. Maybe they thought it was too obvious?
Can’t remember the exact words but one of my favorite riffs is when they shoot down the pterodactyl (spelling?) It’s like “Pterri! No!! Or something like that. That and Crow going “Kitty!” when it shows the giant lizard.
A bit on the slow side but many people and things to savor. A great cast of character actors with stand outs Hillary Brooks, Cesar Romero, Hugh Beaumont, Whit Bissel and of course Monkey Boy. No slam to Sid, but he’s as funny as Adam Sandler. Cesar’s enthusiastic grab ass of Melton which causes Hugh’s melt down is classic. Stop action is more like stutter action and a ketchup bottle. It never ceases to amaze me how clothes lines and wing tip shoes were used for mountain climbing?
@20
Sampo, 90 percent of my tapes I recorded myself. First generation recorded at SP on a Super-VHS editing deck. (The higher resolution industrial cousin of VHS.) My copy of Lost Continent looks way better.
I knew guys back in college with racks of industrial video gear in their house taping just about everything off those good old unscrambled satellite feeds of yore. Somebody out there had to have been taping MST back then with such a setup. It won’t cost Shout Factory a thing simply to ask the fans for help. Asking the fanbase did wonders for Doctor Who!
An entire episode does not have to be transferred from a first generation “fan copy”, but video and audio glitches can be patched up from one if SF was willing, and somebody with the expertise donates their time.
Dude, the recorded episodes have the Comedy Central/Sci Fi Channel bug in the corner. You can’t use that. Of course at the time this episode first came out it was the Comedy Channel, or whatever. I don’t know about those.
What I love about this movie is that it’s an enormous gyp. It’s supposed to be about this ‘lost world’ of dinosaurs but they apparently only had the budget for maybe five minutes of (pretty bad) stop-motion dinosaur footage so they used that and spent the rest of the movie stalling. I’m surprised the kids in the theaters in the 50’s didn’t riot. Maybe they were afraid Hugh Beaumont would get ’em.
Sampo says would anyone really dangle their legs off the edge of a huge cliff?, and I say without a doubt, most definitely!
Fools will do just about anything because they lack fear, and fear is good because it keeps people alive much longer than if they lacked fear.
And when I say ‘fool’, I am talking about someone who knowingly refuses and even mocks wisdom. The ‘purposely ignorant’, one might say.
Those who lack fear usually die quite young, and are admired while they live, by other fools. Because they see the lack of fear as a being courageous, when in reality it is a horrible moral defect.
For many great examples of these types of people, take a gander at the great website called the ‘Darwin Awards’.
Because in the end, if we mock and refuse wisdom, it is we who are the ones mocked…by wisdom. :skeleton:
Watched the vid of the guy who “invented” the outdoor treadmill. One question- how do you steer it? Can you only use it when you can go straight for a really long time?
I had heard of the rock climbing before I saw that episode. At the time, I (foolishly) thought, “Really? Is it really that bad?” It seems like it was one big exaggeration. Boy, should I have known better! I downloaded the episode from DAP way before it was ever released on DVD. And it turned out those scenes were as bad as I had read. I remember the first time I had realized exactly what was going on and thought to myself “Do you really have to show every bloody second of this? They’re not climbing Mt. Everest!”
Other than the painful mountain scenes, I quite enjoy this episode. Definitely a Season 2 gem! :-D
Okay, Sid, this is your big scene. I want you to make me believe you’re a hideous, deranged monkey-boy being mauled to death by a triceratops hand-puppet!
( offtop. the more I look at that mobile treadmill video the more I’m convinced it’s a gag ( hoax is too strong a word ). We never see him starting from a standstill on level ground, or going uphill.)
Love this episode!! This has one of my favorite all time jokes in MST3K history: when Hugh Beaumont says “I’ve seen tracks like this before” and Crow responds “It was Larry Mondello”…I was rolling on the floor the first time I heard that. I’ll still stand by Catalina Caper as being my fave from season 2 but this one is a close second.
Hello boys, I come bearing a message of unholy death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X34KIiVYbcA
“This place is crawling with GOLDAK!”
“Mountain cows. Nothing deadlier.”
So, haul ass back down the mountain, steal a handy catamaran, and… what? Float around for a while in the uncharted Pacific until they die of dehydration?
Isnt it cool how funny this episode is?
Season 2 has an amazing quality about it, I like it more than any other season except for maybe 6, (besides the sci-fi years which I like most).
Wild Rebels is my favorite, but there really isnt a bad episode in the bunch.
I loved Lost Continent ever since I first saw it from tape trading back in ’99. It’s really packed with ‘funny’.
I probably watched it 20 times before I even started paying any attention to the storyline of the movie, since my first focus is always the humor. So I couldn’t have ever said it was a boring movie, because there is too much ‘funny’ going on to waste time following the movie.
I love the callback to Wild Rebels too, (“That square bugs me, he really bugs meeee!”), something they pretty much did in every episode for the rest of the season and even on into season 3.
I always felt that they must have taped or written #203 ‘Jungle Goddess’ AFTER this episode, because of the line in Jungle Goddess by Trace about “…STRAP FEMUR BONES TO OUR WAISTS and dance naked in the moonlight!”.
Unless I’ve missed something, how could they have gotten that from anywhere but this movie?
I absolutely adore this episode. 5 stars without question. One of the first episodes I ever saw and helped cement getting me hooked.
I’d rank it so high that it makes my Top 5 overall episodes.
The rock climbing sequence is as funny as any in MST3K history. My favorite moment is when Joel finally loses it after trying to calm the bots.
The riffing from the moment we leave the set-up with the rocket on is as strong as any in the history of the series and perfectly encapsulates the charm of Season 2.
Love, love, love it.
5 stars again this week. Season 2 is just so good!
M’eh
(sorry, that’s all the enthusiasm I can muster for this one) ;-)
This is a really good one, definitely in the top 5 of Season 2, probably the top 3. Everything is clicking in the opening segments, I love Joel’s pep talk and Servo’s line, “Coach, if I sky on the boards tonight, can I have some arms that work?” The first Host Segment, with Hugh Beaumont!, is classic while the other two are pretty good. Actually, the 3rd Host Segment, with the “cool thing” is one of those moments on the show that reminds me the most of a kids show, for some reason. I love what Dr. F has to say about the cool thing: “I think it’s subterfuge.”
Joel still has his cheesy goatee, but Trace’s ponytail is out of control. That thing is massive!
Has anyone mentioned rock climbing? Rock. . . .climbing? As Servo says, “rock climbing movies don’t have this much rock climbing.” The tremendous success they have at riffing the shear amount of padding in this film (plus the infamous butt grab scene) is reason enough alone to give this one a 4/5 rating.
RIFFS:
Crow: “My neck sir, it’s fused to my spine!”
Joel: “Uh, suicide has a ‘u’ in it, sir.”
After the plane crash, Servo: “Thank you for flying Northwest.”
Crow: “Let’s form a soccer team and eat each other!”
Joel: “Is everyone done heaping shame on me?”
After the butt grab scene, Joel: “Hey watch out, they’re grabbing butts up there.”
Crow: “Why do the violins always trill when he’s climbing?”
Battleship Potemkin reference, Servo: “That was the exciting Odessa “trip” sequence.”
Crow: “Save the fog, we’ll use it in a Ridley Scott film.”
Crow: “This was called Caesar Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.”
movie: “No country can survive without the respect of its people or the world.”
Servo: “Hasn’t stopped the good ol’ U.S. of A.!”
Crow: “Tell the plane I love her!”
Joel, in lizard voice: “Hey cut it out, I’m eating here.”
I love Joel’s lizard voice, which we get to hear again in the Godzilla movies coming up (vs. Megalon is my favorite Season 2 episode) and comes into perfection with The Giant Gila Monster episode of Season 4.
You shouldn’t be so hard on that movie. A lot of people worked really hard to bring you that movie. So we shouldn’t be so quick to judge others?
A real defining episode of the series. The concept of pain from the movie is cemented here. I love every aspect of this episode, and watch it quite often. This is one of the few episodes that has caught the attention of my non-Mystie friends.
Morbid note: I’m pretty sure that Sid Melton is the only cast/crew member alive from “Lost Continent.” Hurry up and get that interview Shout Factory!
what kind of psychedelic voyage are you on now?
Rock Climbing, guys.
ROCK CLIMBING.
To me, this is the second best MST3K episode of the season, the first being Catalina Caper.
Lost Continent shows that the crew CAN make funny material out of a movie that is 99% nothing.
A question regarding the final host segment. I’m guessing that it’s spoofing some TV show or the like. Would anyone happen to know which one?
Kind of interesting side not to this episode:
I used to work with Acquanetta’s son Rex. After her passing a few years ago I forwarded her obit that the guy’s here at MST3KInfo wrote about her. A few weeks later he was at my satellite office and was telling me that even though she had retired years earlier she still received fan mail. He also mentioned that he was very touched that the operators of this site would write such a caring obit for his mom, even though she played such a minor character in the movie.
This was one of my 1st episodes. And it’s no less than a 5-star.
First saw this Turkey Day ’92, the fateful day my brother introduced me to MST3K. 300 VHS tapes and 100 DVDs later, it remains an absolute classic ep.
and kudos to everyone giving props to Season 2. The first great season.
I like this episode. The movie is boring, but it’s boring in such a way that makes it perfect for riffing, thus making it watchable.
I give this episode 4 stars.
There’s a callback to The Sidehackers. Crow, as Rommel, mutters, “Chili peppers burn my gut.”
Like Joel and ‘Bots, I too feel joy and relief when I see the stop motion dinosaurs. They’re not exactly Ray Harryhausen in quality, but they are a welcome sight after all of the rock climbing.
The host segments are all good, with Mike Nelson’s Cryptodad being the best one. Mike Nelson was really good at that stuff. It’s segments like this that will always put MST3K far above anything done by RiffTrax and Cinematic Titanic.
Does anyone know what the cool thing ended up being? Never seen the episode where they revealed what it was.
I love this episode, especially how the guys break down. That’s my favorite thing about MST, they’re saying the things you’re feeling.
Mike as cryptodad was awesome, spot on.
Favorite riff: oh no, they shot Pterri! Then the Pee-Wee impersonation.
A special one for me as it is the first episode I watched all the way through from start to finish. I had caught glimpses before but this was the first. It’s one of those I remember exactly where I was, etc moments.
They had me at rock climbing.
Almost everyone has mentioned this, so I’ll just leave at this: rock climbing says a lot about the show, its sense of humor…why, most of life is rock climbing and Joel and the Bots represent our own….oh, uh, time to relax.
Subsequent viewings over the years have revealed this has some sloggy patches, so it’s not a classic ep, but pretty close.
A
After watching Crash of the Moons from the same set – which was a fight to get through – this movie was wonderful. Cheesy movie, great riffs.
If I may be picky most of the time the team aren’t even rock climbing – they’re “Walking up rather neatly delineated paths up the mountain.” But that’s picking at nits.
20 minutes of rock climbing. Yikes. That’s enough padding to arrest that one guy’s fall off the mountain into the fog.
#79 – I repeat, Mexican Stoplight Candy
I recently heard that they filmed the rock climbing segments as the paint on the fake rocks was still drying…in other words, we were watching rock climbing AND paint drying!!!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!
Imagine if that were true. :) Hey it seems plausible to me. At least it would help explain how mind-numbingly excruciating the scenes were.
The “let’s-do-a-sketch-oops-our-sketch-isn’t-working” is one of the most tedious motifs of the Joel era. I think it manifests itself in its most ugly and hideous form in segment 1 of “The Giant Gila Monster.” Because so many sketch ideas were recycled (e.g., “Say a good thing about the movie and a bad thing about the movie and you’ll get a ram chip”) during the Joel era, I generally find the skits boring and unfunny.
This episode does almost nothing for me. I’m too young to remember ANY of the actors’ better known works, although I do know of Hugh Beaumont and Cesar Romero. I agree with #22 (Thomas K. Dye) that the riffers just whine through this instead of cracking jokes and making it entertaining. Most of the sketches are forgetful or stupid (like the “cool thing”) and I never sensed a riff that rose to the level of brilliance.
That said, Segment 1 IS pretty funny and definitely the highlight of the episode.
@50 (Sharktopus): I find the comment that “. . . most white ’50s guys looked alike” to be really racist. OK, not really. I have my personal demons, too: I think all Klingons look alike.
@77: Season 2 the “first great season”??? I respectfully disagree. IMO, Season 3 is the first consistently watchable season and Season 4 is the first great season. But, to each his own.
This one’s pretty good, but it can drag in spots.
Mike as Hugh is funny.
No great insights into this, just some
fave riffs not already mentioned:
“Oh, yeah -I’M the jerk, it couldn’t be YOUR crappy rocket.” – Joel
“As I was tellin’ the other guy, never wanted to die in a plane, but now I’m very excited about it.” – Crow
(Movie: “Your head clear?”) “No, it’s opaque.” – Joel
“Not since Andy Warhol’s “Empire State” has a camera stayed in one place for so long.” – Crow
“Yeah, it looks like Doc’s been writin’ his own prescriptions.” – Crow
“Hey! A whole other mountain! And twice as big as this one!” – Crow
“NOOooOO!” – Joel and Servo
“Uh – I think his accent has gotten thinner with the air.” – Servo
(Movie: “We’ll worry about that when the time comes.”) “God knows we’ve got tons of THAT lying around.” – Crow
“Oh, that’s right, the ROCKET, thank you, I forgot what we were DOING.” – Joel
(Movie: “We may have hit something important.”) “Like the PLOT? Please say it’s the plot.” – Joel
(Movie: “Well, let’s take a fifteen minute break.”) “Uh- but- keep the camera running.” – Servo
“I see a dinosaur – but I hear an elephant.” – Servo
“Wow. Someone’s got a secret agenda, I guess.” – Joel
“One day, I’ll be able to tell this to my three-headed grandchildren.” – Servo
“Hey, does this movie have a continental breakfast?” – Servo
“No, they, uh, LOST the continental breakfast.” – Crow
And of course, as was already mentioned:
Servo: “Oh, no – guys! Now it’s the trip DOWN!”
All: “NooOOOOoo!” :)
I’ll also add I’ve noticed a larger than number of this-was-my-first-ep posts. Was this one more heavily rotated than other Season Two eps? Or longer perhaps?
^^^ All those winks were really supposed to be closing parentheses. :-?
Despite the rock climbing this is an okay episode. It was worth doing just for the moment of Hugh cracking up and breaking character while monkeyboy gets hauled up by his ass. Maybe it’s just the resolution on my 13 year-old television but I didn’t think any of the video issues on the V.18 dvd were any big deal (besides that, Jack Frost was my primary reason for getting that set).
#50-I’ve seen other episodes from this season/era which also had VILLAINS misspelled as “villians” in the end credits. This episode is old enough that they can’t blame it on the Internet.
Yeah, I actually didn’t find the video issues distracting at all.
While noticeable, I wasn’t bothered by the problems with the video either. They’re certainly not as bad as that audio break on the Final Sacrifice DVD.
@56 Castle Monster, what bug? CC didn’t put it up for most airings back in the day, because fans complained it covered up Crow. Just as they complained about the announcer’s voice yakking over the “love theme”. How soon people forget! ;)
Maybe I should put some screencaps?
Oh, I loved this episode, although I did think the “You ever fly one of these things?” gags went a little too far. At least Crow realized it in the end.
Okay, The Explorers skit was kind of dumb. Even Joel realized it had no point. And are we sure Joel wasn’t stoned back then? The Explorers seems to have him at his worst – he couldn’t even remember the lines at all. :-) I wonder if that’s REALLY why he went off script at the end. Crow’s right, though, it got really preachy at the end.
Mike’s turn as Apocalyptic Hugh Beaumont is one of his classic moments.
Hugh: “First a stern talking-to! You know, you boys shouldn’t be so hard on that movie! A lot of people worked quite hard to bring that movie to you!”
Crow: “Gee, I guess we shouldn’t be so quick to judge others, then, huh?
Hugh: “That’s right, Crow.”
Crow: “He bought it, what a jerk!”
Of course, the funny thing about Crow’s line about hitting a witch and “Maybe the film will be in color from now on,” is the fact that supposedly the “Lost Continent” scenes were tinted green in some releases.
Rock climbing, Joel. Rock climbing.
Joel (as Rostov): “Goodbye, Nobel!”
Servo: “Ah, so that’s what Ward does at the office!”
Hillary Brooke (don’t remember her name, but Joe doesn’t either, so it works out): Tell me about the boys you teach to fly? How about them?
Servo: Oh, they’re dead.
Joe takes a drink
Crow: (high-pitched helium voice) “Well, they’re…
Then Joe goes into his big speech, droning. He’s reading the cue cards very well…
Servo (as Hillary): Just keep talking, dickweed!”
Joe goes over to the record player and goes through the records.
Servo (as Joe): Hmm. The Dead! Mel Torme! Hey, here’s one of mine!
Did Joe toss one of them away after that scene?
(Whoever does the great Dean Martin impression): “Hey, Jerry, there’s something wrong with the stock footage generator!”
Joe forced to leave the girl’s house.
Joe: “I don’t mean to sound personal, Sergeant, but…”
Sergeant: “If I hadn’t come across this at your quarters, Major, I might not have found you for another fifteen minutes.”
Joe: “That was very careless of me.”
Crow: “Give me that!”
Servo: “Hey, these are all guys!”
Joel: “Um, Suicide has a U in it, sir.”
Servo (as Hugh): “Would you get out of here!”
Servo (as Rostov after refusing Monkey Boy’s coffee): “I do not sleep – git avay from me, Monkey Boy!”
Native girl: “Who are you?”
Joel: “I’m Cesar Romero – international Latin star!”
Crow: “Rules of the road, boys! See anything, shoot to kill. I mean, don’t shoot if it’s going to advance the plot!”
Servo: “Could you please turn down your Aaron Copeland watch?”
Crow: “Who brought the string base?
Servo: “It’s contra bossa, sir.”
Crow: “Shut up, maggot!”
You sure Albert Glasser didn’t do the music for that scene?
Hugh: “We may have come across something important, Major.”
Joel: “Like, the plot? Please say it’s the plot.”
Servo: “Hey, there’s Vitalis all over this rope, CESAR!”
(Sorry, I can’t find one of his Vitalis commercial on YouTube)
Servo: “Remember, Robin! Both hands on the Batrope!”
Crow: “Joel, why are we watching this dull mountain climbing scene?”
Joel: “Well, because it’s there!”
Joel: “Oh, this is just great. There’s an ELEVATOR! – We could have rode up!”
Hugh’s trying to explain the plot.
Monkey Boy: “Hey, how about a short explanation for the common man, doc?”
Crow: “Go scratch! Is that short enough?” :rotfl:
Servo: “Hey, it’s the Jungle Goddess set!”
Crow: “We’re back at Reel 2! Get the projectionist. Get us on Reel 4 and get us out of here!”
Crow: “Brain the size of a walnut…”
Joel: “The dinosaur?”
Crow: “No – the director!” :laugh:
Servo: “Hmm. I see a dinosaur, but I hear an elephant.”
I guess there really was a problem with the stock footage generator.
Joel (as dinosaur): “Hi, I’ve been waiting for the last fifty minutes, but I’ve got to go! They tell me a cost a thousand dollars a second!”
Joel (as dinosaur): “My favorite! Scientist on a stick! I like it when there’s a salad bar with a little bit of meat.”
Joel: “Oh. We’re in Hell. Neat.”
Crow: “I’m going to ask this once again, and it’s only for the sake of conversation, but what do you think is the tastiest part of the human body? Hands?”
Crow: “Still talking to crap, huh, Monkey Boy?”
Hugh: “You know what a miracle is?”
Crow: “The words, THE END?”
By the way. Does anyone know what happened to Acquanetta and Sabu when the “Lost Continent” blew up? And where did the boat come from? And what was the cool thing, anyway?
Daddy, what’s Vietnam?
And there’s a neat little callback by Cinematic Titanic during East Meets Watts:
Trace: “Hey, Joel! Rock climbing!”
Frank: “Hey, Trace! Pandering?”
Then, a little later:
Frank (quick and quiet): “Time for go to bed.”
Trace: “Oh, who’s pandering now, Frank!”
And did we mention Rock Climbing? Rock climbing, guys. :giggle:
Hey – did any one else notice: When the Russian guy that sounds German (John Hoyt, was it?) is trying to save the guy with the glasses from falling, he’s lying on the rocks, holding on to the guy, then the guy slips, and Hoyt just VANISHES ?:-) from the scene and all you see is the rocks. This is the first time I’ve noticed that, after watching it so many times. :)
Crow: “Joel, why are we watching this dull mountain climbing sequence?”
Joel: “Well, because it’s there.”
Oh…my…GOSH. If you ever wondered what ‘padding’ was, folks, THIS…IS…IT. If I were in Joels’ position, this would’ve been the one that pushed me over the edge. Great character actors, BAD film. 20 minutes of climbing for 5 minutes of plot. The sequence is so long, after a while you start to forget why they’re doing it in the first place. (Was it waffles? No. Sale at Penny’s? No. Oh, a ROCKET! That’s it.) The Cesar Romero character doesn’t trust the Russian-Scientist guy, but later learns a valuable lesson: Just because someone’s Russian, it doesn’t mean they’re a bad person. (Remember, this was made during the McCarthy-era, and predjudice like this was everywhere.) Hilarious riffing, great sketches. This is definitly a 5 star episode. *****
Just watched this for the first time (from the Shout! Box Set) and the video quality wasn’t as terrible as advertised, definitely watchable by this MiSTie’s loose AV standards. :bye:
I’ve been hearing the words ‘Rock Climbing’ since forever (most recently on a “Cinematic Titanic” live DVD) and, though not as terrible as ‘Deeeeep Hurting’ or the sleaze factor of “Hobgoblins,” the rock climbing scenes in “Lost Continent” feel three times as long as they are (mostly because they’re pointless). It could have all been condensed into a 2-3 minute montage but noooo, Lippert needed ‘padding’ until he could unleash his couple of minutes of crude stop-motion effects. And boy could his actors/crew deliver the stiffness. :yawn: Joel and the Bots make some sweet-tasting lemonade out of this lengthy piece of nothing, with either great riffs (‘this movie makes Shoah look like a two-reeler’) or just feeding off from the recognizable faces (Beaumont, Romero, Melton, etc.) dying on screen for a paycheck. Not being a fan of either Dick Van Dyke’s or Danny Thomas’ TV shows Sid Melton is new to me, and boy did he make me hate life whenever he was on-screen. I was surprised J&TB didn’t do a celebratory reaction/cheer like when Eegah punched Tommy in “Eeegah!” after Melton was eaten, but then the sudden jumpcut after he bit it had me rolling from laughter at the indignity/cheapness with which the so-called comic relief character (which he was anything but) is gotten rid of. Haven’t seen the other Lippert movies from Season 2 (it’s the season from which I have seen/owned the fewer episodes) but looking forward to more cheap and recycled sets/scenes now that I know what this guy was up to.
FOUR-AND-A-HALF STARS (out of five) for “Lost Continent” from this first-time viewer, the pace and consistency of the riffing make-up for a lack of creativity in pointing out the obvious and not being more clever with the host segments (a Quinn Martin production, really?). Favorite riff: ‘A dope on a rope.’ :evilgrin:
Regarding when the Cool Thing was revealed, it was during the final host segment on Fugitive Alien (#310).
When this episode came out in Shout Vol. XVIII last year, we were in the midst of watching KTMA’s and I noted: “Hate the movie, love the riffing – they really had their stuff together as a team by this point in Season Two.”
Joel’s opening pep rally with the Bots (Beat ‘Em! Beat ‘Em!) frames this experiment in the context of a sports season. You win some, you lose some, a meta-commentary on the series itself.
This is almost a 5 star episode, if only for the way Dr. F & Frank, after the invention exchange, manage to gleefully frame the awful movie we are about to see within the “Pain Experiment” concept, practically DARING us to watch it. This is, for my money, the first truly great Deep 13 segment. Trace & Frank really sell it. YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE. After watching hour after hour of the early years of this series, this stands as the most definitive statement of their goals to date. It’s as if the Brains knew they had a winner (i.e., loser) on their hands. Confidence is high.
Joel’s defiance is futile as he is forced into the theater. “I’ve got Movie Sign against my will!”
Lost Continent is the archetypal MST B-grade movie. Recognizable stars in a sci-fi flick with an interesting concept but lackluster execution, padded with dialog and subpar special effects. The riffing is great, especially during the Rock Climbing sequence, which becomes a series-defining moment. A major win for the Mads (as characters) and the Brains (as writers/presenters). This is the first time they have told us in advance of watching the film that something we are about to see will hurt us. They are following Hitchcock’s advice that forewarning the viewer of a dreadful event will create more tension than if the event merely occurs by surprise.
I only deny this one a 5 star grade because… well, I watched it twice this week and could barely make it to the end. Somewhere along the line it loses too much steam for me to stay fully on board. Still, it’s one of the best of Season Two: a great place to start for a newbie, and a crystallization of all that has come before (and predictor of what is to come). Despite my love of all the colorful, jaded hippie-era 60’s movies they did, this B&W dreck is more typical of classic MST3K.
4 stars.
Lost Continent fails the Bechdel test. There are only two female characters who are never on screen at the same time. Perhaps Acquanetta’s native woman passes the Mato Mori test if leaving the island is considered a separate goal.
The scene with Joe getting drafted for the mission while talking to his girlfriend at the beginning is very similar to one that starts another ’50s B-movie, The Atomic Submarine.
Going through this season really points out how much better MST’s film selection process had become–instead of an unbroken slog of B&W sci-fi, the color films and variety of subjects really spice up the show.
Lost Continent fails the Bechdel Test. There are only two female characters with bit parts in the whole film who are nowhere near sharing scenes, much less talking to each other. Mostly rock climbing.
The Incredible Mr. Lippert riff is interesting in retrospect, since that wound up being the title of the Ballyhoo feature on Lippert that came with King Dinosaur.
Notice how in HS2, the illustration of Joel is wearing a red jumpsuit though he’s currently wearing a cyan jumpsuit.
Favorite riffs
Hey Jerry, there’s something wrong with the stock footage simulator.
As I was telling that other guy, I never wanted to die in a plane. But now I’m very excited about it.
Put your shoes on, kids. We’re circling Grandma’s.
Thank you for flying Northwest.
Well fellahs, looks like we just came across a sacred burial ground. Let’s say we defile it.
Is everybody done heaping shame on me?
Joel, why are we watching this dull mountain climbing sequence?
Well, because it’s there.
Remember Robin, both hands on the Batrope.
My spirit is snoring.
I’ve plummeted to my death and I can’t get up!
Watching this movie reinforces how large WWII loomed in the cultural consciousness for some years after the end of fighting.
I love this movie. I wish BB had used a print with green tinting for the jungle sequences, but oh well.