Movie: (1957) A monstrous praying mantis is awakened from hibernation, and attacks the East Coast. Smug scientists are dispatched to stop it.
First shown: 2/22/97
Intro: Tom sets the rules for the SOL’s “business casual day”
Opening: The apes fix their mutant neighbors’ malfunctioning thermonuclear device; an alarmed Pearl skeedaddles
Host segment 1: The rumors of Pearl’s death are greatly exaggerated and she has a stowaway; Gypsy shakes her off their tail
Host segment 2: Mike searches for something good on the radio…and fails
Host segment 3: Tom hits something that really likes Crow!
End: Crow serves up juicy revenge, a letter from Dr. Peanut, a last word from Pearl
Stinger: The smarmy corporal out Donny Most-ing
(234 votes, average: 4.42 out of 5)
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• I love this one, largely because, after dopey rocketship movies, giant bug movies are my favorite kind of dumb ’50s sci-fi. I only wish MST3K had done more of them. But this one’s lots of fun. The riffing is also terrific and the promised “endless chase” premise finally kicks into gear, and does so with considerable flair.
• Mary Jo’s take on this episode is here.
• This episode was included in “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol XXVII.”
• I think that’s Beez’ voice as the bomb recording, but it’s uncredited and we neglected to ask at the time, so now I’m sure they (including Beez) have probably forgotten.
• That’s Bill, Beez and Paul as the bomb worshippers. I believe this was the first time Bill face was actually shown on the show.
• The opening segment is LONG, at least compared to what we’re used to.
• Note that Mike does the patented Star Trek shirt tug (aka “the Picard maneuver”) before giving a command to engage.
• This marks the first appearance of the bridge steering wheel, which seems to materialize and dematerialize at will. It also marks the first appearance of The Widowmaker, Pearl’s VW astro-bus.
• Callbacks: Starfighters music, “Gamera!” “Shut up, Iris!” (The Beatniks) “Poopie suits” (Starfitghters) “Everyone’s legs are sticking out!” (reference to a line in MST3K The Movie) Also: “Your crank is turned to Frank,” during the host segment.
• After several episodes in which the Sci-Fi Channel logo, or “bug” was obscuring Crow in the theater, fans began to gently gripe online about it (mindful that their incessant griping seemed to piss off the LAST channel that ran the show). In response, going WAY out of their way, they arranged to move the bug to the left side of the screen — just for this one show (this apparently involved hacking some computer at the channel). By this episode, the bug had officially moved.
• Segment two features the voices of almost the entire cast as country music singers, radio announcers, etc.
• Crow’s voice really settles in with this episode. Compare to his voice in 801, it’s much more natural, with more less strain, much more like Bill’s real voice.
• Gypsy has a nice moment as the “Shirley Muldowney of deep space.” Note that she uses the phrase “Out out out!” just as Mike did to her in MST3K: The Movie.
• I love the riffs as the old scientist. “Marie died, ya know!”
• Then-current reference: “The final desperate hours of the Dole campaign,” (might as well be the Dewey campaign, now) “Kelsey, throw us the keys!” (referencing actor Kelsey Grammar’s run-ins with the law).
• That’s Patrick inside the big blue monster suit.
• Nice job on the digested version of Crow
• When Crow is doing the voice of the Mantis, he sounds just like Observer.
• Cast and crew roundup: producer William Alland also worked on “Revenge of the Creature,” “The Mole People.” “The Space Children” and “This Island Earth.” Scriptwriter Martin Berkeley also worked on “Revenge of the Creature.” Cinematographer Ellis Carter also worked on “Leech Woman” and “The Mole People.” Special effects guy Fred Knoth also worked in “This Island Earth.” Costumer Jay A. Morley Jr. also worked on “Revenge of the Creature” and “The Mole People. Makeup guy Bud Westmore did a whole slew of MSTed movies, as did art directors Alexander Golitzen and Robert Clatworthy and set designer Russell A. Gausman, sound person Leslie I. Carey and music supervisior Joseph Gershenson. Set designer Oliver Emert also worked on “Kitten with a Whip.” Score composer Irving Gertz also worked on “Leech Woman” and “Jungle Goddess.” Score composer Henry Mancini also worked on “This Island Earth,” “Revenge of the Creature,” “The Mole People” and “The Thing that Couldn’t Die.” In front of the camera, John Close was also in “Slime People” and “Beginning of the End.” David McMahon was also in “It Conquered the World.” Paul Frees can also be heard in “War of the Colossal Beast,” “The Sword and the Dragon” and “The Beatniks” (which he also produced and directed).
• CreditsWatch: This time the show is produced by Jim, directed by Kevin. “Additional music” (the various performances on the space radio) by the “Best Brains Ad Hoc Radio Band.”
• Fave riff: “Get back in your little boat, Grandpa!” Honorable mention: “But ah got a mantis in mah pantis…”
• Great host segment line: “Foghat, Lawgiver?”
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This is an awesome episode that gets better after each viewing.
I watched the hell out of this one.
Also it was the episode where I knew Bill Corbett was not only going to fit right in, but flourish, (and he certainly did).
The riffing is great all the way through, and the host segments kick ass too.
Love the old man jokes like “Whens Jello?!” and “Who’s gonna drive me home?!”
Also the Ladies & gentleman…”Lick Me!” line by Crow is excellent.
Also famous is the classic
“But I’ve got a mantis in my pantis” riff.
I laugh at that opening host segment every time, especially when Mike as Peanut gets all pissed of while he’s trying to fix the bomb and the worshippers are too loud.
And the radio segment is too funny!
That last song “Turkey turkey” or whatever always gets me. And then Crow says “but I like this song!”
Then that riff at the end credits, where it lists the cast as “Players” and Crow says “I don’t think any of these people are “players”.
And Mike sees that last name that says ‘Mrs Farley played by…’ and says “Who the heck was Mrs. Farley?! was that the mantis?”
I still wonder who Mrs. Farley was.
Manny: Mrs. Farley was the woman who got off the bus and saw the mantis attack it.
So much good stuff in here!
“I peed your pants. I’m not sure how.”
“Rhythm!”
“I made all of this up, you dopes.”
“He’s flippin’ us off!”
Favorite episode, for all the above reasons, plus vivid memories of seeing this one summer afternoon with my mom when I was about 10. I remember being afraid that we were only going to get to see the aftermath of the monster attacks and very pleasantly surprised when the Mantis appeared onscreen in the flesh… er, exoskeleton. Great monster effects for the era. The Mantis was far more convincing than most giant bugs in b/w films.
To this day I wonder if the government paid the filmakers to put all that propaganda about our cold war defences in a movie?
“It’s a magma flow of savings at MENARD’S!”
Great episode, love it, gave it the full five star rating.
This is a giant bug movie that’s practically tailor-made for the MST3K bunch. Once again, the writers/riffers show that they really bring out the silliness when the movie really brings out the seriousness.
Servo’s one riff – “Doggone balsa wood houses!” – always make me laugh very hard.
804 The Deadly Mantis
One of the better made 1950’s B-movies MST did. Good effects, decent performances, very nice death scene for the mantis in the tunnel.
Beginning scenes evoke the tedium of Radar Secret Service but it soon gets past that. Never realized that the Rush song “Distant Early Warning” was named for the DEW Line illustrated here.
I agree with #14, the arctic scenes are evocative of Carpenter’s The Thing. These early sequences would be even creepier if we hadn’t already seen a frozen mantis under the opening title, which itself gives away the identity of the creature.
Our three leads personify brains (doctor who figures stuff out), brawn (colonel who gets the job done) and beauty (photographer who screams a lot and fails to do her job at the end and is better off becoming a housewife).
My favorite character is Dr. Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper) who stays cool throughout. He looks like cross between Steve Martin and Richard Gere. No romance for him, just science. His early scenes at the museum with the over-enthusiastic photographer Marge suggest we may be made to suffer through a sub-par Tracy/Hepburn-style romance, but then she gets all squishy for the military dude instead. And our good doctor doesn’t care, he’s more interested in the bug.
And just to nitpick, Sampo, didn’t the bridge steering wheel first appear in MST3K: The Movie?
This was the first episode I saw once my cable picked up Sci-Fi.
I also admit the riffing from Mike and bots, the Cheech and Chong segment from “It came From Hollywood”, and what the local horror host did to this film has made nearly impossible to watch it on its own with a straight face.
“This is a boxing nun puppet.”
” Ya, and the rabbit can go mach 5.”
Pearl’s pronounced “GYAH!”, spin and “oh $#!+” face at the sight of the activated bomb never fails to make me chuckle. The Brains in general really sell bizarre utterances in shock (though #1 remains Mike’s “GUAH!” as the Hubble suddenly plummets in the Movie).
Also, who knew Mike did such a killer Norm McDonald impression?
This is basically a damn solid episode through and through. I really have nothing to add concerning the riffing. Crow’s rather calm descriptions of what’s happening to him as he’s being devoured are wonderful. Bill can really deliver bizarre and horrific lines with the most matter-of-fact tone, resulting in hilarity.
I missed Peanut, truthfully, but the trail of carnage and weirdness that followed made up for it and more.
What was with sped up film of the bus as it was making its stop? Out of all of the times the movie intentionally drags on, they couldn’t let the film run at normal speed for the ten seconds it would take to park that bus?
One thing it’s a shame they missed. Though they caught William “Paul Drake” Hopper as being from “Perry Mason,” they missed that Craig Stevens was also the original “Peter Gunn.” It would have been funny for them to go into the musical riff, even if no one would have gotten the joke.
I’ve seen this only once….it going to be good to rewatch this :!:
This is another one of those movies that was shown ad nauseum on UHF channels when I was a kid. I watched it many times, then didn’t see it for years till it ended up on MST3K. As always in cases like this, I really enjoyed seeing an old childhood favorite made fun of on the show. It was always fun to see movies like this after so many years and compare how good or bad they really are to my childhood memories of them.
A good solid episode. They managed to do a lot with what is essentially a very dull movie.
The film contains yet another scene with a scientist breathlessly and angrily shouting his theories at people with an attitude of utter contempt. Sheesh, us scientists aren’t that nuts. Well…most at least.
So the mantis wasn’t named Mrs. Farley! And I noticed that the actress playing the mysterious Mrs. Farley, who screams in horror as the mantis tears apart the bus, is the same woman who appears out of nowhere to scream in horror at the holy blob in The Space Children. Such minor, yet nearly identical roles. Did she have the horrified-bystander acting market cornered? Or did she sell the role of Mrs. Farley so well that the director of Space Children simply had to cast her for that 0.5 second scene? I’m probably overanalyzing; she was probably someone’s wife.
I remember the dread I felt when I heard the bottom right bug was going to become the standard in early ’97 – almost entirely because I knew it would ruin my (and everyone elses) MST3k recordings/viewings.
I think my favorite riff (from this viewing anyway) is “She’s a waitress at the International House of Usher.” I just cracked the hell up at that line.
For me it’s all about the riffing and IMHO this film is brilliantly riffed throughout.
One of their best.
#35, only if Mike KNEW about Timmy, what with the dark specter appearing before he was conked on the noggin and shot into space to replace that other guy (“Joike” was it?)
About the logo thing: Cartoon Network recently moved their logo to the top right corner of the screen during ‘Bakugan’, because in either bottom corner it kept obscuring some of the ever-changing stats when the kids made their monsters fight. However, it took them about 5 times longer to realize this was necessary than SciFi Channel did for MST3K.
Thanks to post #16, that information is perfectly relevant to this thread, relatively speaking. Is this site gonna’ have to start a personals section, like Bigbot.com?
Oh, and is the Quanza Hut where Kwanza-Bot lives?
Sampo, is this the first appearance of the lovely Beez McKeever on the show? I don’t think she started working on the show until the big move to Sci-Fi.
And when did Jeff Maynard depart, pardon my asking since Patrick and Beez took over prop duties by this time?
There’s one riff that I think they should have made about that general, the one with the mustache. Something like, “General John Waters.”
I really wish they could have incorporated Mike’s Peanut into the show later on. “I’m trying to fix your bomb!” cracks me up every time.
Isn’t anyone going to point out Crows Hand/Claw popping off during the intro Business Casual segment ? I loved that always cracks me up.
Yet another thought, I was immediately well-disposed to this film because as kid I used to check out “Meet the Deadly Mantis,” a kids book actually based off this movie. The book was in fact a lot better than the movie, and featured some neat pictures that would have made the movie a lot better, like the mantis holding a cruise ship in its pincers. Anyway, great book, and a great series of books. I must have worn out the “Meet Godzilla” book.
I also have a fondness for 50s giant bug fare mainly because these films were my ‘Star Wars’, stop laughing you yug’ins. Great host segments, sappy movie and top notch riffing. ‘Mantis in my Pantis.’ and how it was expressed made me much more comfortable with Bill’s CTR. I also enjoy ‘He’s UNHINGING his mandible!’ during the sex scene. I’m not trying to trash the lady but whenever I watch this flick I find myself looking for an Adams Apple whenever she’s on the screen. I realize now why the Hopper character was never interested in her and seemed to snicker whenever the Major and others hit on her. Loved the radio songs!
In summary, stiff slow bug, dancing soldiers who enjoy it a bit too much, Crying Game love, great riffs, good host segments, lame film ending, yelling scientists, dew lines, stock footage and postcards, the fate of Dr Peanut all add up to 4.4 in my book.
#70 Mikek: I, too, was suprised that they didn’t make a John Waters reference for that guy. Maybe the resident John Waters fan had departed the show? (I always figured those jokes were coming from either Frank or Trace.)
#73 BigZilla: are you talking about the Monster series of books? Those books are the BEST!!! They had many of them at my elementary school library, and I checked them out CONSTANTLY. They all had matching orange spines, I think. I found The Wolf Man and Dracula books at a library sale not long ago. They were all beat to snot, but they really took me back. Rue Morgue magazine also did a short article on the book series last issue.
Here’s a few more of my all-time favorite riffs which happen to be from this movie –
When the narrator says “Radar!”
and Kevin says “Please!”
When the blip on the radar screen is happening and the movie guy says “Mike! Hey Mike! take a look at this!” and Bill says “There’s a radar screen here!”
Bill: “Purina Radar Chow”
Kevin: “Police, I’m being Peeped!”
Bill:
“You’ve got to stop talking funny and kill this big bug, over!”
Bill: “I’m turning into a wolf, over”.
As mentioned earlier, Mike’s Norm MacDonald voice.
Bill: “Should he be up there with his oxygen mask?”
Kevin: “Bus drivers in love”
Bill: “Andrew, can we use your airport?”
I also like when the guy says some lingo about chickens over the radio-com and Bill says “What?!”
Also that riff about taping up their plastic salad bowls in a last ditch effort to save themselves.
(There’s just way too many good ones to name them all).
Better than the drab Revenge of the Creature, far better than the padding-packed The Mole People, and infinitely better than the crawly nastiness of The Leech Woman. Most of the mutant menace movie MST3K episodes are above average to side-splitting. (Devil Fish kind of sucks to watch though.) The Deadly Mantis is in the above average category. The pace falters sometimes; deadly dull movie scenes often, if not always, steal the energy from the riffing. Still, they keep things alive during the long intro consisting of nothing but stock footage and voice-over. But then we’ve seen the old team do it before during stuff like The Truck Farmer. It’s like the movie contains its own before-the-movie short!
Love it. Great riffing, decent skits, actually a pretty fun monster film in its own right and my favourite early Pearl moment as she reacts to the active bomb…it’s a winner.
Mantis in my pantis is the most memorable moment (“That’s CHILLING!”), but I always get a giggle out of them ringing Conan (“Dis iz Co-nan!”) and the Mantis’s dying words.
“Tell the Eskimos that I…deeply respect their culture, but…they’re also very? delicious.”
I also must take one post to tell the Brains, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for that middle host segment. The most oppressive thing about the tyranny country music holds over the FM dial in any part of the U S of A outside a 50 mile radius of any major cities is the fact that I never see anyone in any media so much as complain about it, let alone do something funny about it. And heck, I even live close enough to Canada to get a few radio stations that actually play “country” music the way it should be: local, traditional music as it has evolved throughout different areas of the ENTIRE country, rather than allowing one city/region to dictiate homogenous muzac for every rural area. I pity anyone who doesn’t share that benefit, yet has a problem with said U.S. FM system: how outcast they must feel but for the sanity espoused by that sketch.
Okay, so I do listen to a rather narrow range of music myself, but am too cheap to subscribe to any satellite network, so it’s possible I have no idea what I’m talking about. But #804 Segment 2 is also Track 2 on Clowns in the Sky 2, and it gets a HUGE laugh, even from decided non-MSTies, whenever it’s played halfway into any road trip through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. You know, the other, pointier Wisconsin.
I almost forgot to announce my favorite character for this film. It is my habit to select a favorite for each film, no matter how dismal the cast. In The Deadly Mantis I choose Professor Gunther, the wizened old pathologist. He seems like a kindly old academic, the kind of professor that you have for ethnopaleobotany or whatnot, and whose exams are real easy because he’s settled into a mellow pre-retirement zen. I also feel bad for him being the brunt of Paul Drake’s ludicrous, seething rant.
I agree with Nicias.
The old person riffs were some of the best of all-time, and the other riffs about him were real funny too (like ‘get back in your little boat, grandpa’).
On the other hand, the old guy comes off to me as the only sensible person in the entire movie.
—
Hey, heres another riff I love –
When they are spraying the water and the movie guy says “keep pumping” and Mike says something like “Thanks, and you keep pumping too sir!”
Lest I forget, we also are treated to another great RUSH reference when we learn from Peanut’s letter that he ended up in the year 2112.
I have to say “The Deadly Mantis” is a huge improvement over “The Mole People”. This movie has enough stuff going on in it to keep the riffs fueled and the movie entertaining to watch. Sure it’s greyness but the film avoids the doldrums that many of the Universal monster films have. And to clarify, when I say “grey” I mean in tone. I love black and white movies and that never bothers me. But many of the movies shown on MST3K have a kind of dull greyness that seems to seep into them, even some of the color 60’s and 70’s pics.
Anyway back to this movie, part of what makes this movie less dreary are the wonderfully fun effects for the Giant Mantis. Instead of using stop motion or Bert I’s favorite (bugs on postcards) we’ve got a pretty cool looking puppet and some giant props to keep things interesting. This actually gives the mantis some character and one that Mike and bots jump all over.
True to form, the Mantis doesn’t get some serious screen time until the second half of the film, but instead of filling the first half with endless talking (or endless ropes and asses), we actually get some plot scenes that have actual forward momentum (something “Mole People” lacked). You get to see the mantis attacks, without seeing the mantis and the resulting destruction. Then there are the scenes where our scientists quibble over the results. Sure there’s no John Agar to be smug, but the guy we do get is solid in his 50’s scientist frame. Then you’ve got the spunky female reporter and hell, it’s enough like “Beginning of the End” that you begin to wonder if Bert I was involved. But the pacing here moves much quicker and actually makes the movie more entertaining.
The riffing is solid and there are great stretches of nearly constant jokes. Some of the funniest parts in the first half of the movie involve all the scientists trading theories and one elderly scientist being a good source of ribbing. The second half offers the bounty of good riffing with the mantis taking center stage. The final battle is hilarious with our heroes creeping into the tunnel and preparing to finish off the “cute little bug”.
As for host segments, we get Mike destroying Earth. Well, when I first saw this back in the day, I was actually disturbed. I sensed a dark turn in MST3K, but having lovable Mike blow up Earth (indirectly, but still), seemed really harsh and kinda grim. This turn in the show took a while to grow on me. Seeing again for the first time in years, I found it pretty funny actually. I’ve actually come to enjoy these darker host segments. The host stuff in the middle isn’t great, but wasn’t horrible. Crow’s revenge should make everyone very nervous. Don’t cross the golden one! The final host segment with Pearl and Bobo in the Widowmaker is pretty funny and it was good to see that Bobo survived the blast (and Dr. Peanut too).
All told, its an entertaining episode. Solidly funny, but nothing really knocked out of the park. I’d give it 3.5 stars.
This was enjoyable as far as big bug movies from the ’50s are concerned. Fairly decent effects for that time period. On the subtopics, I remember that Monster book series, I read all the ones in my elementary school library. I understand M&TB’s pain when they try to get something on the radio. The excess country wouldn’t be so bad if there was more variety/alternatives on FM to begin with. I’M LOOKING AT YOU INDIANA.
“The army shouldn’t have let in Keith Moon.”
Great episode .. 4.5 stars! They are really back in the zone now, very consistent riffing and Bill is obviously more comfortable as Crow.
The ‘crappy music on every channel while driving’ sketch is one of the funniest host segments ever! I love how they try to give each station a chance until it forces them to keep scanning for something tolerable.
This has been my exact experience on many long drives and the songs they made up are not so far from the truth of the radio wasteland.
Sad to see Dr. Peanut go … he was a funny character that could have hung around for longer. Tons of perfect sci-fi references in the host segments here … brilliant work!
Oh and funny coincidence, on Thursday when this thread was posted, I discovered a GIANT MANTIS (about 6 inches tip to tail) had perched above my front doorway & she stayed there for about 8 hours. First time I’ve even seen a Mantis in 3 years living at this place!
Wow, I rewatched this one especially to do a right up here and forgot! Well, better late…
A superb ep. Doesn’t really take off until the main characters are introduced, so the first twenty minutes or so is a long slog of spotty riffing and pepto abysmal stock mileage.
But they have a lot of fun riffing on the budding relationship between our heroes and the “lady photographer.” The scene with the Donny Moist, um, Most, guy at the base is classic stuff.
Watched this over the weekend but still can’t remember a single riff that made me laugh the most. My alzeheimerish memory does have it’s good side though in terms eps staying fresh.
I had a plastic model kit of a giant mantis when I was a kid. It kind of a knockoff of those glow in the dark Famous Monster kits. But while the Mantis was plastic the background he rested on was a paper cutout city, with tiny plastic cars and people you could put in preying and praying claws. I also had a Tarantula one and a Black Scorpian.
This was a film I really liked on the late show when I was a kid. I guess sitting through all that stock footage is how I developed such a patient persona.
I like this one.
A-
After the previous week’s Mole People, where I felt that the riffing had started becoming back to form, this took a step back. I’ve watched this twice in a week, and I just don’t understand the vast appeal among MSTies to this. For its genre, the movie is actually above riffing standards; the special effects are, for their time, actually pretty good, and the dialogue is half-way intelligent (again, for its genre and time period). The only silly parts of the movie were: the old scientist/government guy (“Who’s gonna drive me home? Where’s my soup?”), and the antics of the Donnie Most-look-alike were both pretty funny. The segments were pretty good, I got a good chuckle out of the fact that Gypsy did more after”knocking off for the day” than she had done the whole season so far. In the end, though, I only gave this three stars. I just don’t get the excitement this episode has seemed to create.
I’ve previously seen the actual movie, and thought it was pretty good; mantis effects in particular. Sure, he’s a giant puppet, but still, he looks better than The Giant Claw (which very well SHOULD’VE been on MST).
BTW, I wrote and drew a comic book version of the movie, leaving out the goofy romance sub-plot, plus some other stuff. Great ep!
Oh, one more thing: Rex Reason (‘Cal’ from This Island Earth)was originally supposed to be Col. Parkman (guy who throws the Wheaties at the mantis) in the movie, but he didn’t want to be upstaged by the mantis.
Can’t blame him, he could be out-acted by a piece of wood.
It’s probably been too long to add it, but they also refer back to 520 with a quick “Ned, why don’t they look?” when they see a railway crossing a little bit past the halfway mark! :grin:
mikek #37: As I was watching this movie and its description of the radar system, I thought of a riff. “Geez, why not just tell the Russkies everything else while you’re at it?”
Maybe that’s why the Cuban Missile Crisis came about.
Now the endless chase part of the theme song makes sense to me!
It really is cute how all the rules of business casual day seem to be aimed at Mike. I’m glad we never had to witness him in chaps without pants or a shear camisole!
Mike doing the Picard maneuver was fun but the Star Wars reference “I feel as though a million monkeys cried out in terror and then were suddenly silenced” was really great. But I always love a good Star Wars reference.
I don’t know about you, but I would have understood the Dew Line lecture better if delivered by the gesture professor.
I’m not quite sure why Mike is taking 100% of the blame for the destruction of Earth. Professor Bobo and Dr. Peanut were turning the actual wrenches.
The silent spaghetti ball bumper following the SOL going into stealth mode behind that asteroid was a nice touch.
Is it just me or does William Hopper strike you as a poor man’s Peter Graves?
The radio surfing host segment really is fun. As a lover of the road trip I’ve done that many times in the pre-iPod days. It was especially fun going up and down the AM dial after dark to see what kind of distant stations one could find getting that atmospheric bounce. By the way what was with that barbershop quartet country station they found?
Tom has a great line after he hits the space creature when he says to Mike “I’ll never forgive myself for letting you make me kill it.”
So in closing if “Beginning of the End” and the “Starfighters” had a baby I guess this film would be it.
Favorite Riffs:
A world map is shown. Mike “That’s a rather useless mall map.”
Crow “There I said it. I’d say it again if I had to.”
Crow “All right people let’s go kick some thorax.”
Tom “Non-stop high-speed aggressive non-action.”
During an army scene Crow riffs “is this really all I can be?”
“so shut yer fat Gob.”
“You don’t have to salute the paleontologist”
favorite lines. Love this episode.
The role of Dr. Nedrick Jackson was played by William Hopper. William DeWolf Hopper, Jr. was born on January 26, 1915 and died of a heart attack in Palm Springs, California on March 6, 1970. The 6’3” actor, twice married, was the son of the actress-turned-gossip-columnist Hedda Hopper and DeWolf Hopper Sr. Pushed into acting by his mother, Hopper began in summer stock and on the New York stage. He was signed as a small-part contract player at Paramount, 1935-37. Subsequently received leads at Warner Brothers in second features. His career faltered due to his lack of ambition and ambiguity towards the acting profession in general, and he returned again to bit parts. Stressful wartime military service in the Coast Guard led to a drinking problem. Prior to being a Navy frogman doing underwater demolition in the Pacific during WW II his hair was dark blonde. The stress of the danger turned it permanently white. Resumed acting in 1954, eventually finding his niche as investigator Paul Drake, right hand man to Raymond Burr’s ‘Perry Mason’, the role for which he is chiefly remembered.
Favorite lines:
Here in the frosting mines of Canada, the slaves of Betty Crocker work around the clock.
Plane overdid it on the lipstick.
I’ll call my operatives.
[claw] Well, gentlemen, it appears to be a giant devil’s food Snackwell.
You know somehow I don’t believe Paul Drake was ever this deep in thought.
[Alix Talton/Marge Blaine] The budget Rosalind Russell. She’s like a manly Eve Arden.
[Eskimo tribe] Was there a sale on bowl haircuts?
[Airmen dancing] Clay Shaw throws another party. Don’t ask, don’t tell, but have a darn good time.
People think I’m fat, but I’m really just big exo-skeletoned.
[radar operator] He looks like Ralph Waite after a bender.
Alright people, let’s go kick some thorax.
Meanwhile the city hoses down Pavarotti’s sheets.
[Richard Nixon voice] She’s wearing a good Republican cloth coat.
[Sean Connery voice] Typical human, brings a gun to a car fight.
Final Thought: Paul Drake, Paleontologist. I give this one 3 out of 5 stars.
I love this one. The “giant-or-not mutated bug” movies riffed by MST3K in general are hits for me but this is one of the better ones. Despite the boring “Dew Line” lecture, I think it gets going a little faster than “Beginning of the End” and has more likable characters than “The Giant Spider Invasion” and “Squirm.” Love the 1960s British wackiness of “The Deadly Bees” but think the riffs are better here in “Mantis.” And what’s not to love about the frosting mines of Canada?
I have a lot of affection for the episode and especially the film itself. As as assignment for my video production degree, I had to edit stock footage clips into a brief music video. The trailer for “TDM” was one of the options, along with a few other MSTed movies and similar films. (I think “Prince of Space” might have been one of the clips.) The music I used came from Kamen Rider Decade, in an awesome scene where six Riders literally play music to kill a giant enemy crab.
‘One thing we can be sure of, it wasn’t a giant deadly mantis!’
One of my favorite episodes! I love giant monster movies, be they bug, lizard, ape, or… other.
One thing that I found interesting in this movie is that they switch around main characters. At first the Colonel seems to be there just to set up the bug attacks, then they establish the paleontologist Nedrick (really? people actually named their children Nedrick?) as the main character. Then he’s missing for the last half of the film (showing up briefly at the end to be smug & mock the woman), and the Colonel is the main (kinda), and even gets the girl.
Actually, we all know the main character is really the Deadly Mantis, as are all the giant monsters in these kinds of movies. The Humans are just around as filler (often in more way than one!).
Oh, and ‘Foghat, Lawgiver?’ will always be one of my favorite lines in all of MST3K. Cracks me up every time.
I enjoy watching these early season 8 eps in order, if for no other reason than to watch the show slowly begin to right itself and settle down after some major upheaval. Bill has pretty much found Crow’s voice, and is improving with the puppet, although there are still moments where nothing seems to move but the mouth.
We begin the unfortunate dumbing down of Bobo to act as a helpless victim to Pearl’s anger. I love that the Foghat tape is an old 8-Track.
So the movie thinks that it only makes sense to send the fighter pilot who shot down the mantis into the tunnel to finish it off? Well, he’s the hero, I guess. I suppose they filled the Lincoln tunnel with smoke by closing off the New York side and leaving the New Jersey side open.
The old man riffs made he laugh hard, and then feel a bit ashamed.
“Is it Jello time?”
I agree with the Toblerone Effect, this episode wasn’t as good as last week’s IMO. It did have some good lines and I always appreciate Rush references like Peanut’s going back in time to 2112. Didn’t really care for the host segments, they were all rather predictable or just not funny but that would be a problem for me throughout the latter half of the show’s run.
Some great lines were:
Movie: “It wasn’t a gale that wrecked this shack.”
“It was a Debbie”
“Are we in the southern section of the galaxy?”
“Don’t ask, don’t tell, but have a darn good time.”
“His insurance only covers destruction by giant arachnids.”