Short: (1941) In the conclusion of a two-part short, our sales manager hero gets advice from his handkerchief-wearin’ dad.
Movie: (1966) A hapless family on a car trip in rural Texas takes refuge at a “lodge” that turns out to be the home of a deadly cult.
First shown: 1/30/93
Opening: Joel has programed the bots to agree with everything he says
Invention exchange: The Mads present the chocolate bunny guillotine; J&tB show off the cartuner
Host segment 1: J&tB’s car trip sketch is ruined by Manos footage, Frank apologizes
Host segment 2: J&tB discuss the physical attributes that would make them a monster
Host segment 3: Joel dons a Manos cape, Dr. F. apologizes
End: The bots reenact the lady wrestling scene, Torgo’s pizza arrives
Stinger: “Why don’t you guys leave us alone?”
(355 votes, average: 4.83 out of 5)
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• Whatever else they study, every Civil War buff has an opinion about Gettysburg. Whatever else they grow, every gardener has an opinion about tomatoes. No matter which team they root for, every baseball fan has an opinion about the Yankees. And every MSTie has an opinion about “‘Manos’ The Hands of Fate.” So much has been written about this awful, awful movie, and this justly famous episode, that it’s hard to make a fresh observation, but here are a few thoughts.
• This episode was issued by Rhino as a single, and also as part of the “Essentials” set.
• References
• This is one of two or three episodes that I practically have memorized. I can pretty much do all the riffs right along with J&tB.
• There’s been a lot of “Manos” news, including the sequel (featuring cast members from the original movie) that now seems to have sputtered out, the work to restore the movie and create a high-definition version, and the re-riff by RiffTrax. A fascinating recent article in Playboy investigated the bitter legal battle for the rights to the movie.
• Paul Chaplin once noted that many MST3K movies are “made by oily guys who elect to direct the camera largely on themselves.” He was talking about TISCWSLABMUZ, but this is another perfect example.
• At several MSTie parties I have attended where this episode was screened, people handed out napkins, which people unfolded and put on their heads at the moment ol’ Dad in the short does so. Has anybody else done this, or do I just hang out with weird people?
• The opening bit is great, and I suspect every fan of Joel has felt a little like the programmed bots at one time or another. You see this butt? Kick this butt.
• There’s a funny clank as chocolate bunny guillotine falls. I’m guessing it’s the weight that held the blade up falling to the floor somewhere off camera?
• The last issuance of The Cartuner isn’t really that strange: It sounds pretty much like something Gary Larson would have actually done (if he wasn’t afraid of getting sued by the Bil Keane empire). God, I miss The Far Side…
• Joel seems a little touchy when Crow suggests this might be a snuff film! Does Joel really know the limit of the sort of evil the Mads might try?
• Stuff about the movie you may already know: The movie was shot with a camera that could only shoot a small amount of film at a time, making long, continuous takes impossible. Hence the “dissolving to the same scene” Crow observes early on. Also, the long pointless driving scene was supposed to have credits supered on it, but Hal forgot.
• I had the opportunity, a few years ago, to exchange emails with Hal Warren’s daughter, who told me that her brother wore the Master costume on several Halloweens and that the painting of the Master adorned a wall of her home for many years.
• Joel’s looks of disgust and horror in segment two are great.
• As I was watching segment 3, my wife wandered through and said, “You should have worn THAT to the costume party at one of the conventions. I could have made that.” I had to break it to her that about 20 guys were wearing versions of the Master cape.
• Joel mentions Mentos, commercials for which were being seen regularly on MST3K.
• Then topical: “The Tasters Choice saga.” Remember when people cared about THAT nonsense? Also, I’m betting fewer and fewer people remember who Marilyn Quayle is.
• That’s Mike, of course, in the first of several appearances as Torgo. Let me just get your complementary crazy bread…
• There is no cast and crew roundup for this movie.
• Creditswatch: Host segments directed by Joel Hodgson. This was intern Curtis Anderson’s last show.
• Callback: “Torgo, you’re the laziest man on Mars.” (Santa Claus Conquers the Martians). “He tampered in God’s domain” (Bride of the Monster).
• Fave riff from the short: “Gah! Flying elves are back!” Honorable mention: “Seein’ as how we’re salesmen and all.”
• Fave riff from the movie: “And now the Manos Women’s Guild will re-enact the Battle of Pearl Harbor.” Honorable mention: “Yeah, here I go! Vroom!”
Next week we will do the MST3K Scrapbook and we’ll start Season 5 the following week.
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As I’m reading through these 200 comments I’m struck by the variety of different ways we all came to be fans of the show-MANOS being a milestone of some sort to most of us,of course-some people being only familiar with the Sci-Fi years,some folks not being old enough to have seen any of the original broadcasts-I was only familiar with the early Joel episodes up through GODZILLA VS.MEGALON because I got mad at my cable company and didn’t see the show again until RHINO started selling the tapes-I knew MANOS by reputation,but it’s still a surprisingly slimey experience the first time you watch it,like you need a shower afterwards-I like the napkin on the head idea,sort of like the stuff people used to do a late night showings of ROCKY HORROR!
I think the actor who portrayed Torgo should get a special MST3K K.I.A. award. A good movie isn’t worth dying for, but being crippled by a prosthetic that looked just as dumb as crumpled newspaper padding sewn into the pants is worse. R.I.P Torgo.
Is it possible that Hal Warren succeeded where Max Bialistock failed. In the Hotel Torgo documentary, the cast/crew member they interviewed talked about how they were to be paid in percentages of the profits. Asking others what their cut was, it quickly added up to about 150%. Of course, this doesn’t include whatever percentages were promised to investors who put actual money in the production. Springtime for Torgo or just sloppy accounting? You decide.
Before the end credits, I thought “Manos” was a foreign film due to the dubbing.
By the way, Torgo at the end kept the pizza warm in the red pizza case he was carrying. He clearly pulls it out of there.
A Manos Haiku:
Lo the hands of fate
My many brides do attest
Torgo is weeping
As I mentioned before, I caught on to this show late (mid 90’s). When I got the Rhino VHS this episode had a noticeable first for me: It was the first time I had heard music from the riffed movie used in the show’s closing credits. Up till then all I heard was the slowed down instrumental version of the show’s theme song. What did we get in this case: A looped “Haunting Torgo Theme” as the credits rolled!
I think someone at Electronic Arts must be a Manos fan because the pizza delivery guy, or one of them, in The Sims 3 is named Torgo.
What distinguishes “MANOS” from many other experiments is that “MST3K” made the movie’s reputation because the flick didn’t have any to begin with that could color one’s perception of it when The Brains got a hold of it. “MANOS” was already out there as a forgotten no-name bad flick, and then “MST3K” airing it unearthed info from fans on the legendary bad premiere in El Paso, the cast working for nothing, etc. which spread around the world/internet. With the Roger Corman, Ed Wood, Anthony Cardoza, early S7 Universal, Ray Dennis Steckler, Bill Rebane and even Coleman Francis movies (the last one was re-discovered and buit-up by “MST3K” as a terribe ‘auteur’ of s***ty movies, but an auteur nevertheless) there was history, underground film-culture lore, memories (of seeing them on an afternoon or late night creature feature showing), recognizable faces in the cast or even the faintest-guide-from-having-seen-this-type-of-flick-before for “MST3K” viewers. “MANOS,” like that memorable Joel riff, looking like ‘someone’s last known photograph’ has left old and new fans bewildered by it existing in its own vacuum of time and space (lalala! :blush: ) to which the only connection are the post-“Rosemary’s Baby” satanic movie craze of the late 60’s and early 70’s (“The Devil’s Rain,” “Daughters of Satan,” etc.).
Ironically a new generation of both “MST3K” and bad movie fans have “MANOS” as a template/tentpole of sorts as measurements of what a good-bad movie can be. This has me curious how en Earth Mike, Kevin and Bill are going to make hay out of it in the upcoming Rifftrax concert. I know I can’t be the only one worried that their new riffs/jokes just won’t go over as well with an audience that is silently screaming the same riffs/jokes from the “MST3K” version of “MANOS” at the appropriate scenes. I do know though there’s no way the Rifftrax shorts/animated stuff before the new “MANOS” riff will come close to matching the elite status of “Hired! Part II” as an “MST3K” all-star short. “Hired! Part I” was the wind-up, “Hired! The Musical” the pitch, and boy does “Hired! Part II” sends one deep into the bleachers. Every joke/riff in this short is aces (‘Ahh, flying elves are back!) and, like the movie, I’ve seen them so many times I have them memorized. If this site ever seriously takes on setting up a Hall of Fame-style voting to get shows/episodes/shorts/movies elected “MANOS: The Hands of Fate” would be a first-round instant entry. “MANOS” was made by “MST3K,” and in kind “MANOS” continues to make “MST3K” every time a new recruit into The Brains’ work (either via “MST3K,” Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic or anyone) rents/buys/borrow a DVD/Blu-ray copy and takes a spin.
FIVE STARS (duh!) for “MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE” and “HIRED! Part II”. FAVORITE RIFF: Oh, no, it’s starting over!
Torgo is George Washington on my Mount Rushmore of MST3K characters. Followed by Rowsdower in Jefferson’s spot, Mitchell in Roosevelt’s spot, and Godzilla in Lincoln’s spot.
I think any random collection of geeks of any variety* can be counted on to have Manos/MST3K fans in their ranks. ;-)
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Well, perhaps not of the circus variety. But even then…
I first encountered this episode on Rhino Home Video. My local cable company did not yet carry Comedy Central, but the local video store (remember those?) always had MST3K videos in stock.
So much to love here. A few highlights:
“They just dissolved to the same scene!”
“Be sure to visit beautiful Ground Zero.”
“Every frame of this movie looks like someone’s last known photograph.”
“Your dog’s compost, kid!”
and my all-time favorite riff from any episode:
“Do something! Gah!”
It fits the movie so perfectly.
I was in high school when I first saw this one. That was in ’93/ ’94 and I saw it as a repeat as a repeat during season 5. I was watching it with one of my friends and I got really cracked up when Joel says “that’s not how you wear your Depends Torgo”. So for next few weeks or so my friend would come up and just say that to me and it would make me laugh out loud every time.
This is definitely one I know pretty much by heart and am just as entertained\repulsed every time I watch it.
“This episode was issued by Rhino as a single, and also as part of the “Essentials” set.”
uh, how about shout factory’s re-release? the one that’s actually in print and readily available? no?
You see this butt? Kick this butt.
Manos: The Hands of Fate passes the Bechdel Test. The wives talk about what to do about the presence of Margaret and Debbie.
I’ve pretty much given up on newspaper comic strips, as I’m not sure that even the Cartuner could be of any help.
Just as the Brains heard Clu Gullager as Clu Gallager, I used to always hear Jam Handy as Jim Handy, and for much the same reason. What kind of a name is Jam Handy?
Favorite riffs
“I remember one of the first things that Harry drilled into me…”
Was Harry.
I’m beginning to sober up and you’re scaring me.
We’re going to have leadership the way my old man told me. You, put a handkerchief on your head. You, swat at imaginary elves. You, rock on the porch all night.
Are you now, or have you ever been, a Ford owner?
Visit beautiful Ground Zero.
No, you’ve got it all wrong. Love should be musty and hurtful.
Manos: The Hands of Fate was filmed on location in a vacant lot.
Careful, honey. Torgo’s been marking his territory.
He’s the clown that makes the Dark Side fun.
“What kind of talk is that?”
Why it’s oily, sleazy talk.
Debbie knows it’s Prince Spaghetti Night.
It’s a devil and it’s fun!
Great hotel. Really convenient to the Mouth of Hell.
“Arise, my wives.”
And iron my workshirt.
You can’t kill me. I quit!
How come nobody invited me to the brawl?
You know, there are certain flaws in this film.
An interesting theory I’ve heard is that Torgo is suppose to be wearing an old Confederate uniform. Obviously it’s a modern sports coat (and therefore another testament to the level of They Just Didn’t Care to be seen) and he’d probably get beaten up if he wore it to a Civil War battle re-enactment.
Speaking of Civil War re-enactments…
So…he’s symbolic of American westward expansion?? ?:-)
(Sorry, history geek, love to do that with mainstream “Mount Rushmore” jokes.)
Just a note on Tom’s monologue at the end: I noticed in Ward E and on several of these recap posts they say “And that’s when we were at knives (or knife)” when in fact what Tom is saying is “And that’s when we were at Nye’s”. This is a reference to the legendary (at least locally) Nye’s Polonaise Room in Minneapolis. It was (it recently closed) a polish restaurant and bar that had live polka music and a piano bar where you could go sing show tunes. It was a pretty specific to the Twin Cities kind of riff, and just thought it should be noted.
Anyway, back to “Manos”, a masterpiece of MST3K if ever there was one.
I know this is a classic episode, but not one I watch very much. The film just does’nt have the charm for me as say Creeping Terror or Monster a Go Go. One of my favorite call backs of this one is from The Skydivers, as Suzy and Frankie drive through town in the convertible and Crow says simply…”Manos.”
God, I miss The Far Side…
You & me both.
Oh, Manos. While a truly bad movie, I don’t see it as the worst they ever did. I’d pick either Red Zone Cuba or Monster A Go Go for that. Then Rifftrax introduced me to The Curse of Bigfoot, which was even worse than these (and consisted of footage from several movies thrown into a blender). That was my ‘Worst Movie Ever Riffed’ for some time, until Rifftrax then introduced me to true Horror – Rollergator. At least Manos had the decency to dub the dialogue in when they realized it was otherwise inaudible.
I never did see this one on TV, first time was when I picked up the original Rhino DVD. It had the un-riffed version on the flip side of the disc, but I just never could will myself to watch it without the moral support of J&tB.
There are a lot of people who actually do buy new cars every couple of years (or every year, for some). Sadly, my father is one of them. He’s been making car payments every month since he was 22 (he’s now 74). He’d just decide after a couple years that he wanted a new truck & traded in the old one. Thankfully I didn’t pick up this habit myself.
Also, I have to note that (at least for me) this is probably the only episode where the movie totally overpowers the short. Not that the riffing is funnier in the movie than the short (I’d put them about even), but simply because of how spectacularly bad Manos is. I’ve often forgotten that there was even a short in the episode at all.
“There’s been a lot of “Manos” news, including the sequel (featuring cast members from the original movie) that now seems to have sputtered out…”
Eh? The Kickstarter that ran in February this year funded successfully, and according to updates, pre-production is in swing.
“Torgo, you’re coming dangerously close to crossing the line.”
Gets me every time.
It’s only relatively recently that cars are made to be able to last for very long. Even in the 1970s it was surprising to see a car still going with over 100,000 miles on it, and in areas with snow (and salt on the roads), the bodies would rust out in just a few years. You’d seldom see a car that was over 10 years on the road. I’d expect that in the 1940s the situation would be worse.
So, if you were making decent money and wanted to maintain appearances, it was pretty common to replace your car every two or three years. If you were a two-car family, it wouldn’t take long to buy 10 cars.
The Psychotronic Encyclopedia was where I first heard of Manos, and I was looking forward to it on MST3K. Did not disappoint.
I think a good project would be a Manos PREQUEL. Who *is* Torgo and how did he get to where we found him? How did THE MASTER get there? Who were the brides before they were the brides? And stuff like that there.
For no real reason, two other Torgos who, while debuting after 1966, took their place in American popular culture much more quickly than Torgo did.
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/torgomekka.htm
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/torgo1.htm
“Y’know, this isn’t Lysistrata. I LIKE it, but it isn’t Lysistrata!”
Perhaps it’s from re-watching the Shout! release tonight, but I felt a newfound appreciation for this episode. I was picking up on riffs I hadn’t before, and laughing harder at all the ones I remember.
Besides everything else folks have said about this film’s tortured history, one thing that just occurred to me was the film’s interior sets. With no lighting and a 30-second clockwork camera, you KNOW Hal P. Warren didn’t have the money to have sets built for this film. We saw in “Hotel Torgo” the actual house that was used, now a rightfully abandoned shell. I just found myself thinking someone actually had to live in this dreary, stained house in 1966. Now THAT is a depressing thought!
think we should try summa dat kissin’ bert?
What can be said about Manos that hasn’t already been said?
Something I noticed the last time I watched it (on Shout!’s annotated MST on Youtube) is that this is one of the very, very few episodes that doesn’t have a Star Trek or Wizard of Oz reference in it. I may have missed one, it was 4 AM when I watched it…
It’s not gray.
I assume they are referring to the first attempt at a sequel, which did sputter out and was headed by different people. However the fact that they didn’t update their guide entry to include the new sequel is a surprising oversight. They didn’t mention that this year marks the film’s 50th anniversary either.
I always thought those Mentos commercials were so bizarre. You could commit grand larceny and eat a Mentos and you would be alright.
This film is so bizarre. Every frame DOES look like someone’s last known photograph. It is claustrophobic, spooky, and absolutely awful at the same time. It’s completely dubbed, too. It sounds so unnatural. I can’t believe how Mystery Science Theater 3000 made it watchable. Even Servos story at the end about losing 10 pounds of butter is great. I still ponder the meaning of the closing segment with Torgo delivering the Pizza. I laughed at it, now I wonder what it was really about. I think it has something do with his pants.
I don’t have kids, but if I did I would send our pet dog to a friends and when they asked me where it was, I would say “You never had a dog.” Essentially for a couple days at least. :)
Are there any Beatles references?
I found this book from 1986 called “Re/Search #10: Incredibly Strange Films,” and it references not only Manos, but Coleman Francis, Ray Dennis Steckler (who talks about Coleman Francis!), Arch Hall Sr., and many others featured on MST3K. It kind of blew my mind when I saw Manos and Coleman Francis in a book from 1986! Some people in the cult movie fanbase really did know about these movies prior MST3K.
http://www.amazon.com/Re-Search-10-Incredibly-Strange/dp/0940642093/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458297163&sr=8-1&keywords=0940642093
Looked grey to me. I suppose it could be the muddled color of the film. Or perhaps one of us is color blind. If you say it’s red, then we’ll know it’s you.
Did that high-def remaster off the work print or whatever ever happen?
Looked more brownish to me. Shrug.
There is a sort of a good story here buried under all the incompetence, but I suppose if it was done well it would have lost much of its “charm”, in a way. If you want to call it that.
So, at the end The Master still has wives, including Margaret. Is she still Michael’s wife? Will The Master allow them to have conjugal visits? Way deep down under the brainwashing or whatever The Master did to them, presumably they are all torn up about Debbie’s fate. I would hope they would be desperate to get her out of there but are now powerless.
And what about the pardon from Fanny Farmer?
Next week we will do the MST3K Scrapbook and we’ll start Season 5 the following week.
Would I be correct in presuming you’re talking about the material included as extras in Volume XV?
I’m wondering if Michael sleeps on Torgo’s dirt pile.
What a movie! Legendary. Every still looking like someone’s last known photo really sums it up well.
I thought Torgo’s suit was white. Or at least it was before being worn and slept in daily for twenty years without being washed.
I’m still struck by how remarkably vague the bad guys religion was. Were they Pagans, Satanists, Lovecraftian Cultists, Scientologists? What? And what were they trying to accomplish by kidnapping a lost family every 10 years in between naps? What did their God Hands want from them? And aside from not liking telephones what was this Hands all about anyway? Was he a demon or devil, a pagan polytheist, a German handyman called Hans whose name got garbled over the centuries?
I got a kick out of Torgo’s cover of Take it Easy and was disappointed when it wasn’t a part of the DVD release of Rifftrax live riffing.
Anyone else catch Torgo’s appearance in Elementary last year?
There are a lot of ways to make a bad movie. Most are made by people who simply don’t care enough to do it right. I include people like Michael Bay in this category. He’s got the technical know-how and massive budgets but just takes the lazy way out, figuring that by throwing together a lot of explosions and effects the movie will make money regardless of whether the story sucks and the dialog is atrocious.
But the most “enjoyably bad” movies are made by people who DO care, but lack everything it takes to make a quality movie. They have no budget, no talent, and little or no technical knowledge. But they WANT to make a movie, and they give it their best. Their best just isn’t enough. But the enthusiasm shows through.
To me, “Manos” is the epitome of this kind of filmmaking.
Mentos…a minty refreshing break for sociopaths! :)
(It was years before we all found out they were foreign ads, which…explained a lot.)
During the nightie-wrestling, Servo riffs “Guys, I think we’re seeing the reason this movie was made”, and…he’s right:
The Cult of Manos isn’t the only one with a hand fetish–We see Warren put in more scenes of characters being slapped by Master’s-wives than Quentin Tarantino can put bare feet into one of his films. Even Torgo is punished with being ambiguously babe-handed to death, which to Warren, seems to be the best way to go.
It was instantly pretty clear to we that those Mentos commercials were European. Then again we used to watch those awful specials about outrageous foreign commercials and televised commercial awards shows so we were attuned to that kind of thing. We wasted our childhoods.
Well, that’s certainly a nice thought, but in the real world, in SOME cults, a “master” has only to ask his followers to “give” their girl children to him and…
The Mentos commercials were foreign. Alright, that makes sense.
Au contraire, mein amigo. The secret origin of “Manos: The Hands of Fate” is a tale of much more than nightgown grapplement:
http://teleport-city.com/2009/02/12/manos-the-hands-of-fate/
“Joel seems a little touchy when Crow suggests this might be a snuff film! Does Joel really know the limit of the sort of evil the Mads might try?”
Odd, to me he sounded more “oh, don’t be silly” as if he thought what Crow had said was ridiculous.
Remember, the Mads don’t MAKE the films, they just SEND them. Even if they DID send a snuff film, it’d be just one more film they got from wherever they get films (“it’s just a show…”). No extra evil would accrue to them. IMHO.
It’s MAKING a snuff film that’s the evil thing. If you (the in-general “you” (“Not you SPECIFICALLY…”) happened to acquire a snuff film, a film that you played absolutely no part in directing, producing, or even selling, wouldn’t you be at least a bit morbidly curious?
Then again, since the act of looking at child pornography can earn one a prison sentence — unlike the smut in “The Sinister Urge,” which only gradually turns one violent, child porn makes one a criminal IMMEDIATELY — I suppose the law might also hold true for snuff films. I genuinely sincerely have no idea.
It’s not my intention to have been tasteless above. If I managed to nonetheless do so, my apologies. Seriously.
P.S.
According to snopes.com , no snuff films made for, uh, I guess you’d call it “general viewing” have ever been found, and the general consensus is that they don’t exist (although I find some of snopes’ reasoning to be naïve at best). Some serial killers film their crimes for their own perverse “enjoyment” but that’s not the same thing.