Short: (1936) In part two (“The Undersea City”) of a serial, our heroes are menaced by Atlantean soldiers.
Movie: (1956) A vicious criminal is executed, but then resurrected by scientists. Discovering that he is now invincible, he vows vengeance on those who squealed on him.

First shown: 8/15/92
Opening: Something’s different about the bots (and Magic Voice), but Joel can’t quite figure it out
Invention exchange: The Mads’ have an invention, but they can’t show it to us; J&tB show off their cereal novels
Host segment 1: Tragedy strikes the Undersea Kingdom parade goes awry
Host segment 2: Joel asks: “What would you do if you were indestructible?”
Host segment 3: Joel tries the Lon Chaney “eye thing,” Tom and Crow are no help
End: J&tB sign the “no cop/doughnut joke” pledge, while the Mads deal with cops in Deep 13
Stinger: Indestructible man struggles with a manhole cover
(213 votes, average: 3.94 out of 5)
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• We’re getting into the meat of season four, and this is another of those great, seemingly effortless episodes. Terrible but watchable movie, great riffing, funny segments. Another winner.
• This episode was included in Rhino’s “The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 11.”
• Joel mentions Crow’s Billy doll, last seen the last time “Undersea Kingdom” was featured.
• I assume Trace was running Tom and Kevin was running Crow in the opening segment. I wonder if that was the only time that has ever happened…
• A little biting literary commentary as Tom refers to the “controversial-yet-all-but-forgotten” novel “American Psycho.”
• This episode contains a notorious goof by the Brains: Dr. F says that the movie features “Casey Adams of ‘Catalina Caper’ fame.” In fact, Adams does not appear in “Catalina Caper.” The Brains are confusing him with “Catalina Caper” star Del Moore, whom Adams somewhat looks and sounds like … but not that much, really. Throughout the movie, when J&tB are supposedly doing impressions of Casey Adams, they’re really imitating Moore’s campy portrayal in “Catalina Caper.” They don’t really much sound like Adams at all.
• How could they make such a dumb mistake? Not to sound too much like an old “I walked uphill in the snow to school” fogey, but it’s important to remember that this episode was done before the World Wide Web—and the ability to just pop on to the IMDB and get your cast information straight — existed. My sense is that Best Brains’ entire movie research department, at that time, consisted of a dog-eared copy of the Leonard Maltin Movie Guide — which would have given them the correct name of the “Catalina Caper” actor, had they bothered to consult it.
• This is the only episode I’m aware of in which an actor appears in both the short and the main feature. It’s Lon Chaney Jr., the star of the main feature, who also appears in the short and actually has a few lines.
• The Rodney King incident was fresh in the writers’ minds. There are several references to it.
• Several times during the short, when a character refers to the “strange prisoners” or “strange captives” J&tB respond with “…weeeeird prisoners…” and “…weeeeird captives…”. For those wondering what that’s about, it’s reference to the early Marx Brothers movie “Animal Crackers.” In it, Groucho briefly parodies the trance-like intonations used in the monologues that are the gimmick in Eugene O’Neill’s play “Strange Interlude” (which was playing down the street when “Animal Crackers” was a Broadway musical). Aren’t you sorry you asked?
• Whoa! A somewhat startling reference to future Vice President Dick Cheney. I forgot he was SecDef when this episode was made.
• This installment of “Undersea Kingdom” is largely people running and riding around. It doesn’t really advance the plot very much…
• In segment 1, Crow’s little commercial for pepper sounds like a lot like the ones Garrison Keillor does (used to do? I haven’t listened in a while…) on his St. Paul-based radio show “A Prairie Home Companion.” I wonder if it’s an homage or just a coincidence.
• There’s also something incredibly silly about “Pollixfen, for your den-fen-tures….” That’s about three levels away from an actual joke, but it’s still funny.
• Props to Jef Maynard and the rest of the props team for the parade in segment 1. Very cool.
• As segment 1 ends, Crow says “I’m just going to step into this doorway,” a reference to Les Nessman in the famous “Turkey Drop” episode of “WKRP in Cincinnati.”
• J&tB get mighty cranky during the incredibly static car conversation. Maybe I’m just hardened off to boring movie scenes, but it doesn’t seem that bad to me.
• They still make Old Smuggler. From one who knows.
• The cop-donut thing is funny, but by my count there were only three of them in this episode. Doesn’t seem like Joel overdid it to me…
• Another overtly religious remark from Joel: “…only millions of Christians…”
• The Brains treat Joe Flynn’s appearance in this movie a little strangely. The recognition of him comes when they make a joke that he’s a Joe Flynn lookalike. Later they acknowledge that it IS Joe Flynn, croaking “McHale!” several times and they even make a great “Inspector Henderson and Captain Binghampton” joke. I wonder if that first riff was a leftover from an early pass through the movie.
• This movie offers extensive footage of the Angels Flight trolley, a popular (and, in 2001, deadly) L.A. tourist attraction.
• Lon must have loved this role—there were hardly any lines to learn.
• Try to not blink as long as the witness lady goes without blinking. It’s tough!
• Fans of Joel got about as close as they’re ever going to get to their hero in segment 3. You can count the pores!
• Callbacks: “Hikeeba!” (Women of the Prehistoric Planet). ”Want some?” (Daddy-O). The routine Tom and Crow fall into at the end of segment 3 is from “Sidehackers.” That they are still going on about it two seasons later is amazing.
• Obscure ref: “I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster” – the name of a very short-lived ’60s TV series. Also, Tom refers to “that Crazy Glue demonstration,” a reference to an all-but-forgotten TV commercial in which an actor playing a construction worker Crazy Glues his hardhat to the bottom of a girder and then hangs from it.
• Gypsy’s a notary?
• Mike and Kevin are great as the cops in the final segment. By the way, that scene also provided a wonderful poopie moment, with Mike and Frank cracking each other up.
• Cast and crew wrapup for the short: Some people who worked on this short also worked on “Radar Men from the Moon” including special effects guys Howard and Theodore Lydecker and production support guy Barney A. Sarecky (who also worked on “Radar Secret Service” and “The Corpse Vanishes”). In front of the camera, Jack Mulhall was in “The She-Creature,” Edwin Parker was in “This Island Earth,” “Bride of the Monster” and “The Mole People” and Tom Steele was in “Radar Men from the Moon.”
• Cast and crew roundup for the feature: producer-director Jack Pollexfen also worked on “The Atomic Brain,” as did screenwriters Sue Bradford and Vy Russell. Cinematographer John Russell Jr. also worked on “Girls Town” and “Invasion USA.” Art director Theobold Holsopple also worked on “Rocketship X-M.” Of course, score composer Albert Glasser worked on lots of MSTed movies.
In front of the camera, Ross Elliott was in “The Crawling Hand,” Kenneth Terrell was in “Radar Men from the Moon,” Robert Shayne was in “Teenage Caveman” and “The Rebel Set”) and Robert Foulk was in “Untamed Youth.”
• CreditsWatch: Andrea Ducane does the makeup for the second of three shows this season (Clayton James was the main makeup guy at this point). Suzette Jamison finishes up her internship. Additional contributing writer: David Sussman.
• Fave riffs from the short: “This looks like a set the Monkees would end up on.” Honorable mention: “It’s Jim Henson’s Birth of a Nation Babies.”
• Fave riffs from the movie: (As Irish cop) “Alright, gather round everybody, lots to see, show’s just startin’.” Honorable mention: Detective in movie: “You wanted me?” Joel: “For years!!”