Mystery Science Theater 3000: Manos - Hands of Fate

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Manos - Hands of Fate
by Harold P. Warren

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DVD Reviews of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Manos - Hands of Fate

DVD Review: The most famous episode of the show, but not for beginners!
Summary: 5 Stars

People new to show, or curious about it, need to be warned, however: DO NOT start your experience of MST3K with this episode! Try the collections from Rhino (I recommend Vol. 1 & 2) or Red Zone of Cuba or I Accuse My Parents first. To put it simply, Manos is so utterly bizarre an episode, that even though its one of the funniest episodes in the whole series, a newcomer may be more stunned by the sheer weirdness of the movie and be unable to focus of the wisecracks of the hosts. And even Joel and the Bots have a very different style of comedy in episode; the movie stuns them as well, often reducing them to bizarre mumbling and repeating of the shows title in a daze of amazement and horror.

In case you are REALLY new to MST3K, I better explain a bit about the show: each ninety-minute episode features a silhouette of a man and two robots in movie theater seats projected in front of a terrible movie. The hosts provide side-splitting, satiric, and culturally-savvy wisecracks to accompany the movie. Each episode also includes sketches and songs and adds up to some of the most hilarious comedy you will ever see.

Manos: The Hands of Fate is the last episode of Season 4, probably the best period in the shows ten season history. Host Joel Hodgson and the two robots, Tom Servo (voiced by Kevin Murphy) and Crow T. Robot (voiced by Trace Beaulieu), had reached a level of comfortable brilliance and camaraderie in their riffing on the movies and in the sketches outside of the theater. But Manos taxes them to the limit. Even the mad scientists who inflict these films on them both have to apologize for making them watch this THING: Even I have to admit, we really went too far this time, one of them explains.

Before Manos begins, however, Joel and the Bots get a bit of a warm-up and watch a short subject: Hired! Part II. This training film for Chevrolet salesmen of the late 40s teaches them how to bully customers until they buy, whether they like it or not! A funny short, very typical of the fourth seasonbut then the nightmare begins!

Manos: The hands of Fate (since Manos means hands in Spanish, the title literally is Hands: The Hands of Fate) was shot in 1966 by Harold P. Warren, an El Paso Texas fertilizer salesman  now theres a bad place to start! The film was shot on the ranch of ex-El Paso County Judge Colbert Coldwell at night, and Mr. Warren (who is also one of the stars) rushed the cast and crew through the shoot so he could return the camera equipment on time, resulting in the slapdash, surreal, and ugly quality of the film. The cast, all local community theater people and other relatives, were working for shares in the films grosses, which none of them saw, and all were aware they were making a stinker and amused themselves with the hope that the film developer would somehow save the awful footage they were shooting.

Whats the film about? You got me. A family of three drives into the wastelands on vacation and become trapped in the mansion of The Master (a Freddy Mercury look-alike wearing black robes with silly red hands painted on them) and his bevy of nightgown-wearing wives who occasionally wrestle to Gene Krupa drum solos. The Masters assistant is a stuttering pervert named Torgo with big thighs (hes supposed to be a satyr), who gives the oddest performance in MST3K history, and is a legend unto himself. (The actor, John Reynolds, later committed suicide, although no one knows if it had anything to do with this movie.) Meanwhile, a couple smooches somewhere and the cops bother them. The sound is muffled, the editing bizarre, the photography awful, and the whole things makes you feel like youre having a fever dream. The comedy from Joel and the Bots is strange but hilarious. (Joel, this is going to turn into a snuff film, isnt it?) The comedy peaks when, near the end of this marathon of awfulness, Tom Servo makes the deadpan understatement of the decade: You knowthere are certain flaws in this film. The breaks away from the movie are also hilarious, as Joel and the Bots try to find some way to survive this monstrosity.

Yes, Manos is one of the highlights of MST3K history, if not THE highlight. But it is simply too bizarre for a beginner. You need to have absorbed some of the shows style, the characters personalities, and their relationships before you watch them tackle this film that seems to have come from another planet. Watch a few of the other episodes available on DVD. Get to love to show. Get a feel for it. Then youre ready for MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE.

But I warn you, you may never be the same again.

(Final note: There is actually a bonus feature on the DVD, Poopie!, a reel of bloopers from the show covering many seasons. Its a half hour of hysterical stuff for die-hard fans. But again, newcomers wont quite understand this.)

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