424. Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)

MST3K Central
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424 Promo.

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It’s Just A Show 100. [MST3K 424. Manos: The Hands of Fate]

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Turkey Day 93 Bumper for Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966).

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Another Turkey Day 93 Bumper for Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966).

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Best of 424.

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The Driving Scene.

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Hired Part II (1940).

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How About It Torgo?

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Pigs, Lies, and Videotape.

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Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966). The Full Unriffed Movie.

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Why Manos The Hands of Fate Is A Masterpiece.

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Manos: The Hands of Fate - Why We Love It.

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Manos does have one nearly-decent cut in it. Probably unintentional, it might even be due to a reel change. But the grandiose speech The Master gives to awaken his wives, hard-cutting to him sitting and looking totally, utterly miserable as they bicker with eachother is such a great comedy cut. All the tension is dissapated, and it’s one of the only instances a “wife bad” kind of moment elicited an actual laugh from me.

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The single solitary cut that made me smirk in the whole film. His stern declaration followed by the sorority party cracks me up and is perhaps the lone bit of levity in Manos (1966). Anyone I’ve showed Manos to has laughed at that. One of the only amusing touches in it.

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Best of RiffTrax Live of Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966).

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Crow: What was I thinking?!

Perfect response.

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@Goldash Your Werewolf (1996) observations were on the money. Your bead on this MST3K institution?

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Hey Bruce, appreciate it! Manos is one of my favorites, probably a top 3 MST3K episode of all time. It’s significant in that its riffing essentially saved a film from total obscurity, among countless other reasons.

Manos moves so slowly that, by the time you reach the end, you forget that the episode also included Hired (Part 2)…which happens to also be one of my favorite shorts. Now, if only they could stop talking about their prostates all the time…

The Frank apology host segment darn near breaks the fourth wall, knowing his personal involvement in selecting the movie. Taking into consideration the Kuleshov effect and removing the clip from all context, it absolutely reads as Frank apologizing on behalf of MST3K to the audience.

I really love the driving host segment, with the b-roll of the scenery on a loop. GPC’s “WELL WELL, WHAT WE HAVE HERE” is unironically one of my favorite lines of the series. Tom yelling out “oh, daddy” with Joel protecting him from The Mads was adorable. It’s one of the many “dad Joel” moments throughout the series that I loved seeing.

Mike as Torgo is legendary, as we all know. The final punchline of the episode is equally great.

I’ve said a lot about the movie in other threads. Tom Neyman’s performance isn’t all that bad. He has definite screen presence that could have been harnessed by an actual director. And I unironically love the music, especially Torgo’s theme and the end credits music. Otherwise, yeesh…as a story, it’s incredibly bleak. As a film, it’s incredibly incompetent. The ADR makes me wonder what might have been had they shot sync sound.

Overall, this is what MST3K is all about. Part of what makes this series fun is finding out about these movies in the first place. The fact Tom Neyman was a MSTie and that Jackey Neyman Jones ended up embracing the fanbase is a credit to all this show — and episode — accomplished.

Give my thanks to Frank!

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I couldn’t resist :joy:

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This has an IMDB rating of 1.6. It is not the worst thing on there. Velma is at 1.3!

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