The Second Host is off and running as Mike Nelson walks to the plate and knocks it past the stands. The Head Writer of MST3K is now The Man. Captured, strapped to a rocket, and blasted into orbit, Mike is the guy with those cute robots. “You know guys. The whole situation. Being stuck up here in space, forced to watch cheesy movies, interacting with other life forms, it kinda bites.” Maybe for him but we’re in good hands. A Heap Of Bad Movies, Gutter-Bumbershoot, The Dream Buster, “That’s Not Cheese!”, Crafting Hats For Jan, Embarrassing Childhood Story, Jan In The Pan. “These people will be exploring issues that are teens’ issues”, “By permission of Laurel Records. Oh please, Laurel Records. Let us use The Web, come on”, “He’s not a gaffer, he’s a G-A-F-FER!” “Huh, you know, I bet a lot of Corned Beef went down between these two” or “But for Joseph Green, there would come another film”?
This is a classic bad movie and I’m glad MST3K riffed it. They’ve had some wonderfully obscure movies (Manos or The Dead Talk Back, won’t you?), but I’m glad they didn’t stick with the idea of avoiding anything too well known.
It’s an interesting film that has the “monster” as the hero, although menacing whispers isn’t much of a super power. Good thing there’s another monster in the closet, right? One thing I really like is that the model at the end survived instead of being just another disposable woman, made even more disposable because her beauty was “tainted”, like so many films. You know what, in my head she runs off with Carrie, Michelle, and Wanama for a life of pure awesomeness away from jerks.
As initial movies for a host go, this feature is considerably rougher going than The Crawling Eye or Reptilicus (though Beyond Atlantis is pretty close). After the string of crime dramas and westerns, we’re back to more traditional MST3K fare of a mad scientist Tampering in God’s Domain. Dr. Cortner leans more towards the tradition established by Herbert West, as he uses a specially brewed chemical to reanimate organic parts. It certainly comes in handy when his fiancée Jan gets decapitated in a car accident.
This begs the question on how she can talk without any lungs. While this sort of thing is normally handwaved, an explanation of sorts is provided. It’s indicated that Jan in the Pan (as Mike and the Bots call her) has developed telepathy as a result of her reanimation. Her primary use of this is to communicate with a monster locked up in a closet, because of course there’s a monster locked up in a closet. So, it’s not a stretch to assume that this is what’s really occurring when she talks to Cortner and his lackey Kurt, and she just moves her lips out of habit.
Overall it hits many of the standard beats for a mad scientist film. Monster gets loose, kills the lackey and the mad scientist (though this instance is much more graphic than what is usually seen), carries off a damsel, and causes the laboratory to go up in flames. The one distinguishing aspect is the greasy coating of sleaziness as Cortner goes looking for a replacement body to pop Jan’s head on.
Hard as it may be to believe, someone actually produced and released a remake in 2020. When I first saw the IMDB entry, I believed it to be a hoax on account of its initial release date being listed as April 1. But apparently it’s real and was screened at a virtual version of the Portland Horror Film Festival in June of that year.
On a more depressing note, the movie’s producer Rex Carlton had committed suicide, allegedly due to his inability to pay off a Mob loan that had been used to finance a movie.
Was it supposed to? I understand it greater than Robot Monster (1953), The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961), or Monster a Go-Go (1965). Odd scientist is infatuated by his work, kills his girl, and frantically searches for a body. It’s disturbing because you know what it’s driving at. That’s beyond Monster, Flats, or a Go-Go.
Oh, come now. Who among hasn’t tried at least once to graft our fiance’s head onto a newer, sexier body? Sure it was a outre’ at the start of the last century, but by 1962 it was as normal as doing your taxes!
Especially in B Movies of the period. The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958) leapt out the year prior to this shooting and The Atomic Brain (1963) creaked and popped in theaters not long after this. A Golden Age of Dismemberment?
