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Sampo & Erhardt
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Visit our archives of the MST3K pages previously hosted by the Sci-Fi Channel's SCIFI.COM.
FRIDAY HARBOR, WASH.– Veteran Western and action movie director Andrew V. McLaglen died Aug. 30 at his home here. He was 94. Although best remembered as the director of a numnber of John Wayne movies, including “Cahill U.S. Marshal” and “McLintock!”, MSTies will recall him as the director of the movie in episode 512- MITCHELL.
Alert regular Steve sent a suggestion that I am going to bounce off of for this weekend’s question: If you could jump into a time machine and visit anyone involved in any MSTed movie while they were making it, what would you say to him or her? Don’t worry if your comment might make the movie less funny.
Me, I think I would find Larry Buchanan, the director of “ATTACK OF THE THE EYE CREATURES” and say one word: “care.”
Movie: (1968 TV series; 1987 compilation movie) A top secret organization, called Mighty Jack, makes use of a giant submarine, called Mighty Jack, to battle terrorist organization Q.
First shown: 2/26/89 Opening: Dr. E. thinks he and Dr. F need a change; Joel listens in Host segment 1: As a joke, Servo, Crow and Gypsy weld themselves together Host segment 2: Crow and Servo admit they have no idea what humans think is funny Host segment 3: Crow bowls, but Crow and Servo don’t want to play games with Joel anymore End: Viewer mail (113 votes, average: 3.96 out of 5)
• References.
• As with some of the other Sandy Frank movies, we get to see lots of footage we didn’t get to see in the season 3 version, including a long segment before the credits. And I have to say that it helps. The season 3 “Mighty Jack” is a thick, almost impenetrable plot stew. It took many repeat viewings of it before I could figure out what the heck was going on. I was able to follow the plot, such as it was, much more easily watching this version.
• I was always aware that this is the first and last episodes of a TV series, but in the more complete version you can really see the dividing line. Clearly the end of the first episode comes when Atari is introduced as the team’s new commander and all the old grudges are smoothed over.
• In the theater, as the opening credits roll, Joel addresses the viewers and promises a fan club newsletter in two weeks. He does so again about half-way through the movie.
• I have been pleasantly surprised at the viewability of these DVDs. They ARE several-generation copies of VHS tapes of an over-the-air TV feed, after all. But I should mention that there are some pretty rough spots in this one, and I can’t tell if it’s just tape artifacts or if whoever was originally taping this just had their rabbit ears adjusted badly.
• During segment 1, Joel “accidentally” drops a pencil, then bends down (out of shot) to pick it up. For a moment, no one is in the frame … then Joel pops back up. That way the editors could cleanly cut the action.
• Host segment 2 is a little dark, what with the bots contemplating Joel’s death.
• One of the fan letters refers to the part of “SST Death Flight” in which Servo says “His eye needs some air.” This line was actually said by Crow, but no one corrects the viewer’s error.
• In Segment 2, as an example of what is clearly NOT funny, we see a little snippet of the TV series “Punky Brewster.” If you’re too young to remember it, don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything.
• Two odd comments in the theater: At one point, Servo says: “That’s the kind of entertainment Josh — this guy I know — really likes.” Weird. Even weirder, Crow says that one character “looks like Frank Conniff”!
• Watch Servo as J&tB leave the theater right before segment 3. As he exits, Josh lifts the puppet too high and it completely clears the theater seats. We can see the control rod, a little of Josh’s hand and we can also see that Servo doesn’t have the lower half of his body! Wow!
• Segment 3 was redone in episode 106- THE CRAWLING HAND.
• Toward the end of the movie, one of the characters yells “Launch!” and Joel riffs “I said lunch, not launch!” Somebody check for me, but I THINK that is a rare example of a riff that appears in both versions.
• Crow waves goodbye at the end of the episode. Ah, the days when Crow’s arms worked.
• CreditsWatch: Additional writing: Faye Burkholder. Additional puppet operation and voices: Alexandra Carr, Faye Burkholder. Alexandra, taking on even more work, is now also listed as fan club coordinator.
• Fave riff: “Ew. Get a mop.” Honorable mention: “”Hmmm… how to drive a boat.”
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