Short: (1956) A fifth-grade girl and boy demonstrate how to have obsessive hygiene habits.
Movie: (1959) Detectives investigate a murder that they suspect is related to a secret porno operation.
First shown: 11/5/94
Opening: M&tB throw Gypsy a shower
Intro: Frank’s missing and Dr. F. begins to worry
Host segment 1: Frank has become a mad bomber, and gives the SOL a taste of what he’s planning for Deep 13
Host segment 2: M&tB check Frank’s background for clues
Host segment 3: There’s little hope until Mike remembers Frank’s weakness
End: Dr. F. stops Frank’s plan, Mike reads a letter, Frank has been deep-fried
Stinger: “Dirk? No that can’t be Dirk…uh-uh…no…that’s not Dirk…no.”
(249 votes, average: 4.51 out of 5)
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• I had a lot of people disagreeing with me the last time around, but I watched it again and I am going to stick with the “good-not-great” rating. It’s an Ed Wood movie, so you know it’s going to be good, and the riffing is fine, but the very topical host segments haven’t aged very well and that drags the overall rating down for me. Great short, though.
• You’ll find this episode in Rhino’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 9.”
• References.
• Of course that’s Paul as Huggy Bear and Patrick as Rooster. On the basis of these incredibly brief cameos, they’ll make a re-appearance in next week’s “Urkel” segments. In fact I wonder if these appearances were thrown in just to add two more characters to the bits in the next episode.
• The springboard for the host segments was the spate of “mad bomber” movies that hit theaters in ’94, in particular “Speed,” “In the Line of Fire,” and the now-pretty-much-forgotten “Blown Away.” At the time, I didn’t get most of the references, because I don’t go to the movies a lot and I hadn’t seen them on video yet. I do give Frank credit for capturing the tone most of the villains in these movies had. His evil faces are fun.
• Tom says: “I think these scenes are from a completely different movie” and in fact they are. The pizza joint sequences were shot in 1956 for a film that was to be called “Rock and Roll Hell” a.k.a. “Hellborn.” It was never finished, so Ed used the footage for this.
• This movie has no relationship with what the porn industry — even back then — was really like. Sadly, in about 10 years, Ed would know a lot more about what the porn industry was really like.
• Non-spaghetti ball bumpers: datebook, bulletin board, film canister.
• Callback: During a host segment, Frank says: “You’re stuck here!” (Fugitive Alien).
• Speaking of callbacks, Mike refers to the the grinning car as “Jet Jaguar” and Crow whispers: “How would YOU know?” Fans had been doing that sort of thing for a while, so I guess it was inevitable that the writers would do it.
• Tom falls off his theater seat laughing, at one point.
• Cast and Crew Roundup: Cinematographer William C. Thompson (who was nearly blind when this film was made and required assistance) also filmed “Bride of the Monster,” “The Violent Years,” “Racket Girls” and “Project Moonbase.” Score composer Manuel Francisco a.k.a. Mischa Terr also composed music for “The Violent Years,” “King Dinosaur,” “The Unearthly” and “Bloodlust.”
In front of the camera, Harvey B. Dunn was also in “Bride of the Monster,” and “Teenagers from Outer Space.” Reed Howes was also in “The Phantom Creeps.” Harry Keatan was also in “The Violent Years.” Nick Raymond was also in “The Hellcats” and “Red Zone Cuba.” Conrad Brooks was also in “Bride of the Monster” and “Red Zone Cuba.” Kenne Duncan was also in “Radar Secret Service.”
• Creditswatch: Host segments directed by Trace Beaulieu. Interns Wendell Anderson, Julie Van Goethem and Sarah Swanson (though in this episode they gave her first name as “Sara”–they fixed it in the credits of the next ep) begin their stints.
• Fave riff from short: “Remember, people like you better when you’re pretty.” Honorable mention: “Don’t touch that!”
• Fave riff: “Well, THERE’S her hat!” Honorable mention: “I’m just gonna ask: Is this a juniper bush?”
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A few more great moments I forgot to mention earlier:
The police station sequences where you can occasionally hear a police siren getting louder and louder in the background. Each time it happens, Crow adds the sound effects of the car screeching to a halt and crashing through the wall. Pure Trace brilliance!
And of course, the fight in the duck pond, where the water barely comes up to their waists and the girl just flails about a bit before awkwardly floating away. “So she just decides she’s dead…”
@ #50: I should probably specify that, while Season 6 does have some rilly bad movies, that doesn’t hurt the episodes in my opinion. Some of my favorite shows from this season feature the guys making something out of nothing (“The Dead Talk Back”, “The Skydivers”, “The Violent Years”, “The Starfighters”, etc.). I personally think Season 6 was the highest point of the show, even in the face of depressingly awful movies – proof that the Brains can take a bad experience and make it fun!
“I actually have the original movie on DVD, and it had some nudity! ”
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Just so it wasn’t Gloria. :eek: Or Kline :twisted:
Anyone notice there’s a poster for “The Violent Years” on the wall in the producers office?
I love this episode. Not a super riffing effort but very enjoyable never the less. I remember there were a few “eew” moments which I loved. This is one of my better liked Ed Wood films the sol had to endure. SMUT!
It’s episodes like this that make me enjoy these weekly reviews.
I hadn’t seen this episode for a very long time, but I was quite amused by it, and have watched it twice since. (I have to rely on my VHS copy, since Volume 9 is still financially out of reach for me). The story arc of Frank plotting to blow up Deep 13 was abit weak, but it did display Frank in the all-too-rare case of him having the upper hand over Dr. F for most of the episode. The riffing was very good, and having the likes of a Gloria, Johnny Ride, Kline(!), and the “smut” detectives left a great deal of material for M&tB to pounce on.
Fav riff from short: as the announcer says, “Look at your room, it’s as messy as Don’s was,” Servo chimes, “Don Was? The producer?”
Fav riffs from movie: As Johnny and Gloria are discussing their plans to produce more movies, Crow blurts out: “Wow! I’m learning alot about the porn industry!”, Crow’s take on Gloria: “DON’T TOUCH DA BOOZE!!”, and Mike’s quip, “Put it on my bill! Thank you!” while Dirk is killing another girl in a pond full of ducks.
From the “Hey! That’s Where I Live!” Department: as Gloria is walking across her living room, causing her dress to make a swishing noise, Crow comments, “It sounds like autumn in New Hampshire”.
When Harvey B. Dunn made his only appearance, as the “angry taxpayer”, I’m surprised there was no references from previous movies he’s been in…no “New Zoo Revue” theme song sung by Servo (from Teenagers From Outer Space), nor any “she tampered in God’s domain” from Bride of the Monster. Not even a mention about being the crazy bird man.
Oh yeah! I had forgotton that this ep. has one of my favorite cameo appearances: Huggy Bear! Not the Huggy Bear, but a Huggy Bear. I crack up every time I here the chipper, “Hey, Crow!”
#37 ( nope ) & #38 ( amen ).
Regarding Hymie is a dual reference to Regarding Henry a 1991 Harrison Ford movie (about a fellow with brain damage that has to re-learn how to walk etc ) and Hymie the Robot secret agent from Get Smart. They even make a robot noise riff shortly after.
Yes, Hymie does have a derogatory connotation ( but I don’t know the spelling ), but it is also a legitimate ( albeit goofy ) man’s name.
#40: “Um, do you mean what I think you mean? :oops:”
Well, no, but if you want to interpret it that way, I’m not gonna stop you. :grin:
This one’s a regular for me, I’ll pop it in the DVD player pretty frequently. Lots of great riffs, and the host segments are goofy fun (and I always get a little thrill out of the shout-out to Comic Book College. :) )
TKD #35
I think Ed Wood was actually doing something kind of clever there…. the story within the story dissolves into something ‘happening’ elsewhere in the flick. It’s not Citizen Kane, but it is kind of neat.
“We’ve got a duck in another room giving a statement.”
“Ironically it was a SAFE-T cone.”
To reference a Tom Waits song, these two cops couldn’t catch a cold. In Ed’s hands, a movie about smut, murder, blackmail, and betrayal, boils down to two guys at desks. Ed Wood could make anything slow and boring and stupid. I actually watched one of his nudie flicks, Orgy of the Damned, and he even made naked girls boring. Was there nothing this guy couldn’t put you to sleep with?
re me #58. I think I misplaced my robot noise riff. But I yeld to no man in my belief that dill is good spice. or something like that.
“The weird waving gesture he does while talking to Gloria.”
Ah! Thanks for pointing this out! The last time I watched this, I must have rewound that moment about three times and laughed myself silly every time. Great moment…
Weird episode. :shock:
Movie was kinda dull, but the ep overall was okay, funny in spots. All my fave riffs were already mentioned.
Did anyone else think they got into Kline a little too soon? Like before he’s even introduced. Why, one would almost think they saw this movie AHEAD of time. :roll:
Maybe Mike saw Jet Jaguar late at night on TV by himself before he got shot into space.
Everyone remember that Rob Zombie made a CD called The Sinister Urge.
I’ve also found it odd that some men apparently respond to pictures of pretty women with homicidal rage. I never responded that way to seeing a pretty lady. What is the connection?
I didn’t get to see this one until the DVD. Watched it with a friend right after the new ‘Doctor Who’ 2-parter that reintroduced the Cybermen, so “…quick, into the Tardis!” as the girl runs into the phone booth in the beginning cracked us up perhaps more than it should have.
That may also be why the riff that stands out most in my mind is from the other phone booth scene during the fight, as the knocked-over Bob Dylan-esque character ducks into it Clark Kent style: “This looks like a job for Zimmer-Man! Wheeoooooooo!” It’s been over 2 years, and I’ll still occasionally just remember that one for no reason and almost double over laughing.
I also love utterly nonsensical morality plays. Soooo, porn leads directly to…murder. Gotcha. Almost makes me sad Ed Wood didn’t get to make movies in today’s Mega-church climate of total abstinance education being the only foolproof cure for AIDS.
#39,#59 – I think I DO want to interpret it that way. I know she’s totally abrasive and horrible, but Gloria has a certain….something. An attraction that I cannot place, other than she makes me feel kinda naughty. I think she’d make an awesome dominatrix. Her outfit is halfway there, anyway. I mean, if Paul Chaplin can find Jimmy Wilson’s mom attractive, can’t Gloria get some love too? Who’s with me? Anyone?
Am I alone in thinking the TV’s Mad Bomber Frank segments are actually based on the movie? I mean, as I make it out, the moral of the film is dirty pictures cause your brain to get all warped, and sure enough, Doctor Forrester points out at the start how susceptible TV’s Frank is to moving images and then TV’s Frank goes off on his mad bombing campaign.
This episode is definitely in my top 10.
Favorite riffs:
‘Stolen oriental art! Grab it Hal!’
‘Ed Wood looks great in panty hose.’
‘Ed Wood agonized over this scene…and now we are.’
‘This is why Ed Wood gets final cut!’
‘Glamour shots!!!’
#69: Yeah, I think that’s the idea: Just like the porn in the film leads Dirk to kill, seeing mad bombers in films make Frank become a mad bomber.
Another one of my favorites. A great short and a movie with a pretentious moral lesson. The one cops line “Show me a crime and I’ll show you picture that caused it.” just had me laughing. Do people really think that looking at dirty pictures will turn you into a serial killer? Ted Bundy tried this defense at his trial but, thankfully, no one bought it.
Still, if you showed people back then the internet and all its graphic glory, their heads would explode.
I love this episode so much. Cliff Weismeyer mentions the line that, for me, sums up the entire thing so neatly, the sheer incompetence of Ed Wood’s vision…
“Mister Taxpayer, the smut picture racket is worse than kidnapping or dope peddling… Show me a crime, and I can show you a picture that could have caused it.”
Wow. Wow, Ed. Wow. I especially love the “could have”. I can also show you a chicken salad sandwich that could have caused that triple homicide. And did you know that the lack of pirates today is the cause of global warming? The cop even completely sidesteps Romaine’s direct question as to just how smut causes all these crimes with “well it’d take a scientist to explain it”, going for a simple, stupid scare tactic to cow the citizen into line. (Good thing our government doesn’t really do that, right? Right? …right?)
With a vision like that, there’s plenty of material for the crew to work with… and then Ed gives us the pillar of scary hilarity that is Gloria on top of that. For me, the skits are barely a blip on the radar… not that they’re not great (the whole middle bit with Huggy Bear, and Crow and Tom suddenly making up this school bus incident, is just generally brilliant), but this movie has gone beyond incompetence and out the other side back to some twisted version of brilliant, and the Brains are in top form to catch it.
I gotta disagree with Sampo, this is probably my favorite episode. This is one twisted maama-jamma; mean-spirited yet a ton of fun. It just shows Ed Wood’s warped genius: seedy characters, ridiculous moral themes, and “it-sounds-brilliant-when-you-hear-it-once-but-dumb-if-you-really-think-about-it” dialogue. Heck, even some of the intentional humor works.
Mike and the bots did a great job with this one. The riffing is on target and always made me laugh. I seriously don’t think there was a dry spot in the entire episode. The wrap around story / host segments were pretty funny too, but the movie just dwarfed them.
And yes, we do learn a lot about the porn biz. :twisted:
Favorite lines:
Randy: Looks like we hit the jackpot.
Crow: Ed Wood looks GREAT in pantyhose!
Crow: (as Gloria, when Johnny goes for a drink) AND DON’T TOUCH THE BOOZE! (my friends and I constantly repeat this one.)
A great episode from my favorite season. The riffing was never better than season six.
Nope, gotta disagree–it sounds to me like Regarding Heinie. There is a long history of porn movies with titles that sound like naughty versions of mainstream movies. Witness later on in the movie, when Gloria asks Johnny what the title of the movie they’re watching is, and he calls it “Lover’s Lane”. Crow then responds, “or Forrest Hump.” I believe there was even a real flick called “Pulp Friction”, somewhere out there in the ether…
Love to everybody!
I agree with adam 12. It makes much more sense for it to be Regarding Hiney, although I’m not sure how it should be spelled.
It is “Regarding Heinie,” which could be a porn version of “Regarding Henry.” It makes absolutely no sense at all, especially in the context of the film, for Mike to have said, “Regarding Himey.”
Dr. Batch – also a poster for “Bride of the Monster”. And “Jail Bait”, which unfortunately was never given the chance to be mstified. A loss for the ages.
@54 Yeah, noticed that — and that all the posters on the wall promote other Ed Wood projects. I chalked it up to echoes of Bert I. Gordon’s “Earth Vs. The Spider” style self-promotion antics. “I’m thinking of seeing this new movie — something about puppet people. Sounds pretty wild!” Shame on you Bert I Gordon (and Ed Wood).
I liked this one. I laugh when I watch it.
#’s 76,77,78 –
Don’t let SyFy get a hold of it, or it will be spelled, “High Knee”. :roll:
One of my favorite lines is in the short where crow says jump into another time dimension if it helps. Kline makes the movie though.
“Film it all, Ed.”
With regard to Ed’s twisted moral tirades (“Show me a crime and I can show you a picture that could have caused it”), don’t forget that he sometimes threw in that sort of nonsence at the behest of his finacial backers. The most famous example is the bit in Plan 9 about the aliens believing in God, which was added by the Baptist church that paid for the film.
#68, i agree whole heartedly that she is, well, one you could has some wierd fun with. I thought I was the only one. :twisted:
Fyeah! Every gals got sumpin!!!!
While I haven’t seen this episode, some of the comments made got me thinking. Specifically the half-arsed moralizing may have been Wood attempting to mock such films. Except, being Ed Wood, he does a bad job of it.
I think the confusion comes in, about the Himey / Heinie riff, because at one point, when Johnny enters the apartment, Tom does blurt out, “It’s Himey!” But later, when Johnny is shooting in the park, and the bumpkin girl sees him filming footage, Mike then says, ” On Location with ‘Regarding Heinie’ “.
I still stand by Himey all around, but I need to respect the roughly even split of opinion. I still have it cued up in the player, so when i get home I will give it an extra close listen.
I really like this episode. I think a lot of fans are turned off by episodes with monster/scifi-free movies but this one is just so bizarre it’s nonstop entertainment. This and “Bride of the Monster” are two of my all-time favs.
On the host segment front, I don’t mind when they have episode-long plots but sometimes it seems stretched to thin, for example segments 2 & 3 could’ve been combined into one scene. Sometimes I wish, since they got rid of the invention exchange anyway, some episodes had shorter intros to jump right into the short or movie, followed by a longer host segment as the first interstitial..
I love Mike talking to Frank on the phone, I wish they had Frank interact with the S.O.L. more often (like in the TVFSN sketch or when Mike & the bots gave him a job interview via the hexfield).
Everyone mentioned a ton of great quotes. Anyone note the weird quaking theater seats effect when Frank sends the bomb up the umbilicus? And the nightmarish Deep Fried Frank make-up at the end…
This was one of those great episodes where Mike and the Bots and the Mads worked together, or against one another, to achieve some sort of goal. During the Joel run, this was never done. I always found myself wanting an episode where something out of the ordinary happened, but for the most part except for the occasional Gypsy sighting in the theater, and of course Timmy, things stayed the same. When Mike showed up all kinds of funny things started happening. The wall between Deep 13 and the SOL really came down as they all got to know each other better.
The champion of chiffon sweaters, director Ed Wood, really went all out on this one, by shooting at more than one location.
His own personal hell/heaven in the world of underground porn is put out there for all to see. The fact that hardly any of it makes sense didn’t stop this visionary tranvestite auture from telling this soft-boiled, thre minute egg of a story.
But perhaps it should have.
Okay, I’ll admit it: Gloria is somewhat attractive, in a very sleazy way. Far more attractive than Jimmy’s mom in I Acccuse My Parents, anyway…
Heinie!
I love these types of movies, because the message at the end is usually even more ridiculous than the movie itself.
I love the opening segment to this one, because almost every shower I’ve ever attended has been an excruciatingly banal experience. Also, I love Gypsy’s horrified query “am I PREGNANT?!?!?”
I wonder if Mexican singer Ninel Conde saw this movie. The wardrobes that she wears during her concerts are quite similar to Gloria’s in this movie. Of course, Ninel wears it a lot better. Check Google image search, I’m serious!
@ #32: I believe potato cakes are mashed potatoes cooked like pancakes. So I suppose you could see them as hash browns, but not as chunky.
Arby’s potato cakes. They are just hashbrowns, really, in a different shape.
Is it just me or is the Conrad Brooks intro on the Rhino disc sound like the guy is reading a children’s book? So many pregnant pauses and emphasis put in the strangest places of the phrases. Also he seems to believe this movie WAS Rock and Roll Hell but just renamed rather than, as Sampo points out, scenes canabalized from an unfinished into Sinister Urge.
The shower opening is cute. It goes on about the right length. Any longer would have been too much for the single joke sketch. I’ll agree with others that Gypsy puzzling over the reason for the shower is great. She’s not getting married, she’s not pregnant but she’s pretty sure she’s a woman.
The line of the host segments:
Dr. Forrester “Frank, if you don’t cut it out I’m going to kill you.”
Frank “No Dr. Forrester, it is you who is going to kill me.”
And there is no reaction.
On the whole I really wanted to like these host segments. But the Brains didn’t deliver to their normal potential. It was a great idea but there was just something missing in the writing and for once Frank really overacted a bit.
As for the riffing, I have to classify this one as workmanlike. Not spectacular but quite solid. No slow spots either.
Favorite Riffs:
Short:
Crow “So clean yourself in alphabetical order.”
During the shower scene Crow “Why couldn’t they have Mamie van Doren in this scene?”
Movie:
Fleeing woman makes a face while calling from the phone booth. Tom “You’re not dealing with AT&T.”
Mike “You don’t direct Kline, you just get out of the way.”
Mike “Hey the car turned from a Ford into a Plymouth.” Crow “That’ll happen.”
A cop car makes a Y turn. Crow “This is why Ed Wood gets final cut.”
Mike about Gloria “Jeeze you could shave with her voice.”
Gloria “Don’t tell me they’re trying to sell those pictures at church.” Mike “That market is saturated.”
Most of the mad bomber movies were forgotten, but I think Speed still has a legacy going for it. If you want proof, look at the mini-Rifftrax they did on Super Mario Bros.: The Movie. “Remember when Dennis Hopper put a Bob-Omb on a Bub-Us?” Then again, sometime they enjoy making references that most people don’t get…