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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Gotta say, Dr. Nedrick’s explication of why the sharp appendage has to belong to a bug is priceless anti-science. I can’t remember his exact wording, but something to the effect of, “All animals have a bony skeleton. Why, even fish have a bony skeleton.” Oh really, Dr. Ned? Sharks, with their cartilaginous skeletons, aren’t fish?
You can always count on 50s sci-fi movies to have, at best, a flirtatious relationship with the facts.
“Well, where’s the woman?”
“I’ll just hang up your coat and hate you.”
and my favorite “Mrs Torgelson from __________ has spurs like that.” I know I’m getting at least part of it wrong, but it comes from completely out of nowhere and I have no idea what it means, but Mike laughed at it so maybe it’s an inside joke. Perfect example of something I don’t even understand, but it’s still funny. Great episode. I love this run from 801-811, every one is a gem.
This is a whiz-bang episode. Great riffing and loads of fun to watch. A+ all the way!
#2 Word! I was taping these Sci-Fi episodes my own self, and I didn’t know how to skip the commercials. I get so sick of fast-forwarding thru that Xerox ad! And how I love to hate that psychic phone-line ad (“Why do think I let you call from my house?” “LOLZ!”).
Mary Jo’s country song sounds eerily like Tom Waits’ song “Ol’ 55” in my opinion.
Crow: The thing that almost didn’t hit you!
(I love the utterly bizarre riffs like that one.)
Mike and company are always making jokes at the expense of the elderly–but these are freakin’ funny, I gotta say.
The whole episode grew on me over time, they really were improving.
This is a pretty good, not great episode. The riffing is good, especially during the first non-mantis part of the movie. Once the (pretty cool looking) Mantis shows up, the movie gets pretty routine. I kept waiting for Peter Graves to show up, but that’s a different giant bug movie.
The Host Segments don’t really do it for me. The opening with the detonation of the bomb seems to take forever, and while I appreciate the Beneath the Planet of the Apes reference, it doesn’t bring much more to me than a smile and nod. HS#2 is pretty good with the country space radio, but the others fall flat, HS#3 is just a set-up for the closing segment. “I made meatloaf!”
In HS#1, at the end, Gypsy says “I need a —- Fresca.” I can’t make out what that word is before Fresca, but it sounds like a curse word…..can someone with a better video dub fill me in on what she says there cause all I can hear now is Gypsy swearing. :shock:
–
RIFFS:
Servo: “Somebody dropped a joint on the map.”
movie: “It wasn’t a gale that broke this shack,”
Crow: “It was a Debbie!”
Mike: “Men! Commence tapping the Rockies!” —–another Coors Light commercials reference, just like last week..
Mike: “Uhhh, I’m so baked right now. You gotta hear this Rush tape. Let’s pull over for some Mickey Cakes and Doritos, man.”
Servo: “He’s wearing David Byrne’s suit.”
Crow: “Mantis wows crowd in Portland.”
movie: “ladies and gentleman..”
Crow: “Lick me.”
Mike: “(laughing) You’re hurting today.”
Crow: “Quick! To the poopie suits!”
Crow: “Suddenly the lights come on in the car and the mantis peels off.”
–
–
so the endless chase begins…
.
I give The Deadly Mantis
3 out of 5 mantises in my pantises
>>>Great host segment line: “Foghat, Lawgiver?”
I don’t usually admit this sort of thing, but:
I don’t get it.
I tend to think Craig Stevens was a real pilot; he starred in several training films for the army during WWII. I found one uncredited on youtube (“Flying the B-26”); it was pretty good, especially if you want to fly a B-26. My grandfather made B-26s during the war, that’s how I happened across it.
I love all the riffs during the map sequence; one of the most incomprehensible few minutes of a any MST film. Just a little sadism on the part of the director (or the B-unit camera was drunk and pushed the focus off in random directions). “Now, a coldwater flat in brooklyn, where another volcano is erupting…”
The next generation won’t get it, but ‘discharging the capacitor’ (when Peanut is working on the bomb) was a big deal when fixing old tube TVs. If not, that capacitor could (i was told) hold a huge charge for a long time after you turned the tube off.
Other faves:
Nedrick on the phone: “Well, try lancing it.”
“This is just stuff, not antiques!”
“I will destroy Christmas…I will!”
Tom: I fear mantis-mounting, too!
Several Mantis-in-traffic riffs: “The mantis slowly pulls out and follows them.”
And, after a recent cross-country trip, I can attest there are sizeable towns called Richmond in several other states.
AND, I would pay good money for the full-length versions of all those honky-tonk songs they found on the radio. Each one is a home run. How does that one go, “Mommaaaaaaaaaaaa knocked me down . . . again!”
“Deep-sea mosques!” One of the show’s relatively few references to Islam. They also touched on the United Arab Emirates, which apparently doesn’t have any cities named Richmond.
“Oh, sorry, this is about Ukrainians.” Are Ukrainian women KNOWN for devouring their husbands? If not, “Oh, sorry, this is still about Siberians” would’ve worked just as well. Since they were doing callbacks to the Comedy Central era (aka “The BETTER version,” at least to me) such as “Your crank is turned to FRANK,” they could’ve tossed in “The Ukrainian National Anthem” from “Racket Girls” while they were at it. Oh well.
What with those two references AND being literally all over the map during the DEW Line sequence, this is one of MST3K’s most international-riff-heavy episodes ever. I guess the South Sandwich Islands aren’t particularly known for much of anything if the best Servo could come up with is “I’ve got some family there.”
When in the universe, be sure to visit scenic…DOT. Home of finely made joints.
“You blame my bottomless stupidity for everything. It’s not fair.”
I love this line. Another good senior quote.
The riffing is solid here, and the movie is pretty good. I think this is one of the best giant bug movies from the 50’s. Better than most. The Mantis looks awesome in my opinion. I loved seeing this as a kid on afternoon summer TV.
Did they get some Dept. of Defense promo film for the beginning?
Perhaps my all-time favourite episode. True, the movie grinds to a halt in the last ten minutes or so (which feel like an ETERNITY), but it’s an archetypal movie for the show. I’m a fan of the Planet of the Apes host segments, and the listening-to-the-radio-to-stay-awake skit never fails to amuse me.
“How does the bug fit in?” :-)
And thanks, Sampo, for reminding me of the great Foghat line.
When I watch that whole Dew Line/radar hoo-ha during the movie’s prologue, I think, “What a waste of money.” All that for a nuclear war that never happened.
Was it ever explained how Mike can have descendants in Earth’s future when he’s trapped in space? I mean, okay, yeah, we know *NOW* that he eventually got back to Earth, but we didn’t know that during Season Eight, and I don’t think it was ever implied that he’d left a wife or girlfriend behind, let alone kids.
I wonder if ALL of the several billion apes were sent back in time by Earth’s destruction.
@106: Foghat was a British rock band that had their peak success in the mid-to-late-1970s. Their style can be described as “blues-rock”, or boogie-rock, dominated by electric and electric slide guitar. The band has achieved 8 gold records, one platinum and one double platinum records. The band had far more success in the United States than home in Britain.
You’re maybe familiar with the song “Slow Ride”? That’s Foghat. If you’re not familiar, ask an adult.
I’ve just found myself wondering about Dr. F’s 2nd life that Pearl briefly summarized at the beginning of the season. Did he have another assistant? Who? Did he shoot another man in space to show cheesy movies to? Who was the victim this time, and who were his robot pals? What movies did they watch, and wouldn’t it be cool to see?
#112> I’d have to go back and check but wasn’t it said Mike’s family/relatives did the interbreeding with the apes?
That said, it’s just a show. You should really just relax.
MSTie #96: …has more likable characters than “The Giant Spider Invasion” and “Squirm.”
That particular hurtle can be measured in millimeters. Not exactly difficult to clear.
schippers #101: You can always count on 50s sci-fi movies to have, at best, a flirtatious relationship with the facts.
As opposed to modern movies, which have a thoroughly dysfunctional relationship with the facts. :P
@116, so true, Sitting Duck. How does this episode do on the Bechdel Test? I really enjoy your list of MST3K movies and the test results and am humbly begging for updates. thx
#113: Thanks, but I still don’t see how it’s funny. Oh well.
#115: Nope, it was said to be Mike’s kids and grandkids. That’s why it was supposed to reflect so poorly on Mike in particular, they were his DIRECT descendants.
Shrug. Sometimes they explain things, most often they don’t.
@106 and 113,
Of course, the joke is that Foghat was one of the corporate rock bands who made it huge in the late 70’s, so people spent the 90’s pretending they never liked them, and then started referring to them as “guilty pleasures” in the 2000’s. Just about any of those bands would have worked as well:
Styx, Lawgiver?
Boston, Lawgiver?
Molly Hatchet, Lawgiver?
Foghat probably works a bit better because it’s such an odd name. And of course, the fact that it’s on 8-Track tape, the most loathed of all formats, is just a cherry on top. Asia was one of the last corporate rock bands. Bobo often refers to them as well.
#116 – That’s true. I was temporarily forgetting about Prometheus, wherein we are told the genetic sequence of the albino muscle twink aliens is “identical” (or close enough terms) to our own. Oh yeah? Why then are they 9 feet tall, hairless, and albino? And don’t get me started on the taking off of the helmets.
Actually though, that’s partly why I like Prometheus. When I saw that scene in the theater, I said to myself, “Oh, I see, I’m simply watching a gorier, bigger-budgeted remake of Cat-Woman on the Moon or Missile to the Moon. Sweet.”
[Scientist]… Like this large prehistoric ant, trapped in this piece of amber….
[Tom, as Scientist] Shaped like a beetle…
[Crow, as old man] Where? Where?
I love Crow’s delivery of “Mrs. Bert Lahr.”
Great episode. Can’t believe I didn’t comment before – this is like the only early season 8 episode I find myself ever coming back to regularly.
“that capacitor ‘ll kill ya” omg that line cracks me up so much it hurts. even tho i was exposed to joel first, way before mst3k even- he was on david letterman and HBO’s young comedians way before mst3k- i Love the sci fi eps the most.
@ #117: While I do have that episode on a VHS tape somewhere, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it and I haven’t used my VCR in so long that I don’t trust it. However, from what I can recall it’s probably a Fail. I’ll know for certain when the next DVD set is released next month.
#105: I kept waiting for Peter Graves to show up
Well, you could say that about any movie, really…
This episode took a long time to grow on me; it was in and out of my rotation before it finally went in to stay a couple of months ago. After repeated viewings, they finally had me at “There’s a mantis in my pantis.”
@ #113:
I actually had a copy of “Fool For The City” when I was in college and, despite Foghat being a “corporate” band, I found it a quite serviceable party album. Still, it was one of those albums I got tired of really fast, kind of like the first Boston album, which I also owned a copy of in college. This was, of course, before I started getting heavily into the Grateful Dead (didn’t get tired of them), Elvis Costello, and the Talking Heads (both of whom I also haven’t gotten tired of).
Wow, this was the VERY FIRST mst episode I ever saw. We didn’t have CC so I didn’t even know what Mystery Science Theater was. I remember seeing ads saying it was coming on Sci-fi and wondering what it was. Then I was flipping channels one day when I saw the silhouettes. I stopped and Crow blurted out “Screw you Greenland” and that was it. I’ve been hooked ever since. So this ep has will always have special meaning to me.
My favorite line from this episode occurs during the Country Music radio sketch, when Gypsy goes “YUCK!” It makes me crack up every time.
“might as well be the Dewey campaign, now”
i think most people today wont even know who Thomas Dewey is.
This is not one I think of often, but rewatching it (to keep up with the handy guide here), I found I liked it a lot more than I remembered. There’s lots to enjoy, and the country songs on the radio crack me up. Not perfect, but I’ll certainly move it up in my rankings :)
I might be wrong, but I think the “Out, baby” is a reference to It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. I rewatched it maybe two months ago and finally that line clicked.
https://youtu.be/apHZKlQJI_c?t=4m12s
Didn’t he write “The Child and the Curriculum”?
Nor do they know why he’d hang his head down.
Just another horribly unfunny Pearl/Mike episode.
Beez confirmed to me on Facebook, that she did in fact voice the bomb.
The Deadly Mantis fails the Bechdel Test. At no point in the film do two female characters converse, with Marge being the sole female character through most of the film.
Regarding the Leon M. Leon credit, I know a guy whose name is William Williams.
Is that an Infant of Prague mounted on the Widowmaker’s dashboard?
While the belief that female mantises eat their mate after doing the deed was considered valid back when the movie was made, later research proved that to be erroneous. The problem was that the original mantis voyeurs were observing them directly. The more recent research had the observation done through hidden cameras.
Do you think that Nedrick tossing the suitcase at Marge was an ad lib? She looked like she wasn’t expecting it.
Though there is a theater in Richmond that was called the Mosque (due to the Arabic-themed interior decoration). However, back in the Nineties they changed it to the incredibly bland Landmark Theater.
Well Stalin did induce some manmade famines in the Ukraine back in the Thirties.
Favorite riffs
The world is closed due to massive amounts of snow.
You know what? Screw you, Greenland!
Here in the frosting mines of Canada, the slaves of Betty Crocker work round the clock.
“Another radar fence stretches across the long, unfortified border between the United States and Canada.”
Canada, our mortal enemy.
The natural radar of pine trees protects our northern borders.
“At long last, the ships are gone. The summer is gone. But the job is finished.”
And the job was what again?
And the slower, fatter plane tries to catch up.
Sir, let’s just surrender to the Russians.
Frosty the Snowman’s partially melted body was found at the site, a victim of a pistol-whipping. Herbie the Misfit Elf is wanted for questioning.
Excuse me, sir. The world just blew up.
Filmed in BaldspotVision.
“Gentlemen, let’s be logical.”
This came from an elf.
Who are you men, and where’s my soup?
This is kind of bad timing. They’re just about to toss Grandma out onto the tundra.
She didn’t want to have so many little planes. But her husband was a DC-10 who couldn’t keep his wings off her.
Remember the tension and breathtaking action of that map?
The deer fly does six hundred an hour.”
And a rabbit can go Mach 5.
Quick, poopie suits on!
Non-stop, high speed, aggressive non-action.
So did you like meeting my privates? I mean the guys back at the base!
And this just in. The colonel’s advances were rebuffed once again. Sweaty hands slapped away. Breasts escaped unharmed.
We accelerated to Mach 1, but the deerfly still outpaced us.
We really need you to stop talking funny and kill that big bug. Over.
Meanwhile in the mens’ room at Giants’ Stadium.
You have the right to an entomologist. If you’re found guilty, you’ll be pinned to a giant piece of cardboard.
Sir, when I was in the third grade, I bought a bug collection. Never did the assignment. I think I should be excused.
Sir, I just remembered you didn’t tell us what your plan is or anything.
Colonel, if we frag you, don’t take it personally.
Visitation will be from two to four in the Lincoln Tunnel.
Last one to the Gulf of Mexico buys lunch!
Starting out in the middle of Season 8 when I first got hooked on the show, I was glad to finally see this episode and find out how the ‘endless chase’ got started. Even more important now, watching the first four episodes in order close together I finally see how the Sci-Fi era came together. The first three were okay, this one is out of the park. The host segments are a blast, I love M&TB whipping around on the bridge during the ‘car chase’ and Tom’s engine noises (“ngngngngng-I’m idling!-ngngngngng”). The movie, while competently done, lets itself in for prime riffing with its short-like opening segment, painfully unfunny comic relief, and out-of-nowhere love story. Seriously, was there a cut scene that explains why Colonel Man and Photographer Lady are suddenly an item?
All that, plus we get the return of callbacks and even a letter! Sure it’s not a real fan letter, but the spirit is there. For me, this is the real start of the show’s second wind.
By the way, is it me, or is the paleontologist’s office the same set as Exeter’s study from ‘This Island Earth’?
Fave riffs
Ah, the glorious days before Environmental Impact Statements!
Thanks for breaking my nose, you creep!
[Jet launches off aircraft carrier] Well, I suppose…AAAAAA!
As far as the movie and riffing goes, this one is ok. But the host segments, yuck! Crow being almost eaten, followed by he serves up the outer space creature? Nasty! What happened to the pleasant cowtown puppet show I adore? That’s gross And disturbing!
At least next week we have an absolute classic to look forward to!
Ladies and Gentlemen (and Lawgiver), Foghat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcCNcgoyG_0
I love this episode.
One of many favorite riffs:
Narrator: Radar.
Servo: Please!
Just the way Kevin says it makes me laugh every single time I watch this ep.
I’ve thought quite a bit about the change in narrative focus that accompanied the shift to Sci-Fi Channel. Where I think the Brains went wrong was in settling down in Castle Forrester – a boring location that they seldom did anything meaningful with. Frankly, I loved the ape planet, as well as all of the other little Star Trek worlds they visited during the Great Chase. Well, of course, with the exception of Roman Times (shudder), the less said about the better.
See, this is why numbers are kind of useful. (Many many many other examples abound.) Any chance they could be restored? Or if for some reason not, at least say so?
Although if you’re gonna do Star Trek worlds, especially if you have TOS in mind, I guess you kinda gotta have a Roman planet.
Assentio maxime!!!
We really could use the post numbers. I’d refer to an earlier post making this point but it doesn’t have a number.
I think the apes were some sort of hive mind (like the Borg) and when Bobo was removed from it, he lost a lot of his intelligence as a result. As good an explanation as any. ;-)
Speaking of bugs, I requested comet TV to move theirs once they started broadcasting mst3k, and they said they would accommodate…. It still hasn’t moved:(
Does Gary Larson live in a cowtown? ;-)
At least we weren’t given any reason to think that the creature was SENTIENT (in contrast to being an animal much like chickens, cows, pigs, et cetera are).
If one wishes to think so, Crow MIGHT have just been yanking Mike and Servo’s chain, allowing them to THINK the meat loaf was the creature while the creature was in fact alive and well off-camera. The whole “CROW!!!” phenomenon (in the theater, not the credits) suggests that Crow’s sense of humor is a bit off-kilter even by Mike and Servo’s individual standards.
I don’t think Rifftrax has tackled a cannibal film as of yet but I suppose it’s just a matter of time.
I’d kind of rather they’d stop riffing films that MST3K has ALREADY riffed but whattayagonnado?