I just love this episode! It’s horrible, I know. But there’s something about this one, some special sauce, that makes it a winner. You can’t get bored during the movie because there’s always a jump cut sending you to another scene! The riffing is top notch here, and there’s John Carradine. He evens sings! And this isn’t even my favorite Coleman Francis episode! (See The Skydivers)
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“I want to hurt this movie, but I can never hurt it the way it hurt me.”
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I have this exact disk. I found it used at GameStop. Best purchase I ever made there!
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Before getting subjected to another installment of the Coleman Francis Trilogy of Despair, a brief respite comes in the form of a short from the Centron Speech series concerning platform posture. While the points made about posture affecting your balance as you deliver a speech are valid, I’m skeptical that the Knee Test will be of any help.
But it isn’t long until all hope is abandoned as we witness Coleman Francis at his most nihilistic. The primary issue is that lead character Griffin has absolutely no redeeming traits and assaults people at the slightest pretext (or none at all). I don’t think we’re ever given a good reason to have any concern for or even interest in the character. The general incoherence of the plot isn’t entirely the fault of the movie, as 20-30 minutes of run time got trimmed by the Brains to fit in the show’s time slot. Then again, I think we’re all better off not seeing the alleged scene where Griffin rapes then kills the piano playing woman. Or perhaps it was kills then rapes. Truly, the soul of Coleman Francis is as black as the Ace of Spades.
One aspect where the movie is to blame involves the inappropriate music selections in the soundtrack, in particular the use of whimsical tunes in scenes that aren’t. It’s like they went to the stock music library and grabbed selections at random.
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Drink night train go to the basketball game throw up under the bleachers
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It was a little funny that years later I noticed in the scene that Tony Cardoza is playing Fidel Castro that the guard in the room is the same guy who played Cherokee Jack.
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This is like Manos for me. Very hard to appreciate without company, despite so many of the riffs being gold.
I always think I’m jaded as can be about humanity, but I’ll still sometimes pause the film and genuinely ask myself, “Did Francis really think anyone would shed even half a tear for any of these jerkbags if/when they met their maker?”
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Is it just me, or does this film feel like it could have been used as evidence in a trial? “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, consider the state of mind of someone who could make something like this.”
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I’m Cherokee Jack!
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One of the most vivid things I remember about this “Movie” is when that really thin looking fellow runs for his life out of the restaurant, and he looks like a confused wooden duck or something looking left and right with that colic hair sticking up. It was just weird looking, the whole atmosphere of this “movie” is odd. Also how the heck did Coleman make it up that cliff when they were doing the training prior to the invasion of Cuba? Plus wasn’t that one guy named Justine? LOL!!!
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“Get real beard…”
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Real Cricket Problem.
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Massive Invasion Force.
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Best of 619.
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Thank goodness MST spared us the scene of Griffin doing a certain unspeakable thing to the blind-deaf woman.
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They spared us from the same fate in Sidehackers (1969).
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Only barely because they didn’t catch it until they almost went to air. Thank goodness they since learned to screen films in full before riffing.
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Good point. Joel ALWAYS insisted on MST3K as a family show. He took a personal interest in the work he was involved with. There’s no way he would have tolerated that once he knew. Which he didn’t. The screening of shows beforehand improved after that. Thank You Frank Conniff. Who also gave us Manos (1966) and Coleman Francis.
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