Movie: The Bubble (1966). A couple lands in a strange town where the inhabitants are catatonic.
Host: Joel.
Opening: Crow & Tom are trying sell Joel on the concept of “Star Trek”-themed breakfast foods.
Invention exchange: The Mads have Lens-B-Safe, which prevent scratches on your glasses. J&tB have the pop duster, which adds exotic flavoring to movie theater food.
Segment 1: J&tB discuss 3D movies. Meanwhile, M. Waverly and Growler are gathering rocks and flipping radio stations. Joel builds a 3D simulator.
Segment 2: Concerned about Tom’s 3D blindness, Joel invents a cure. Tom becomes part of The Bubble world. After intermission: Joel turns it off.
Segment 3: Joel, Jonah and Emily rhyme their escape plans.
Close: The escape planners convince Pearl the plan was all her idea.
Stinger: Drunken Tony sees floating beer bottles.
Thoughts:
• This episode premiered on Nov. 11, 2022.
• Nice “Patty Duke Show” reference during the invention exchange.
• Ya know, I don’t think The Mads’ invention is that evil.
• Oh, I everlovin’ hate this movie and its icky message. That said, the riff has a lot of great laughs. This one may be one of the best of the season.
• Fave riff “You know what I like about this movie is that reminds us to take our time.”
• Honorable mentions: “You appear to be going through a car wash. Over.” “Or a catcher’s mitt.” “This guy who keeps yelling at me to act better…” “Netflix: those monsters.” “Before you ask, I don’t know. That should cover everything.” “Our selfies. Our humblebrags.” “Recalculating…” “Your work is derivative.”
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Jonah&tB clearly want “Arch Obler” to be the next new Funny-Named Scapegoat Director, to join the ranks of Coleman Francis and Sandy Frank, but truth is, we wouldn’t HAVE 3-D without Obler:
He invented the modern polarized “Natural-Vision” format in the 50’s (no, nobody wore those red-green glasses in the 50’s, no matter what hip 80’s graphics might have told you), with 1952’s “Bwana Devil”, if you can imagine an even tougher static slog than this one.
Obler’s “Space-Vision” wasn’t just another delusional producer-gimmick name–In the 50’s, 3D required two cameras and two projectors, which resulted in occasional eye-strain misalignment and long intermissions. The new one-camera Space-Vision, which resembled the side-by-side 3D video we have today, only needed one projector, and was used for various 70’s movies until the ’82 renaissance brought new systems in.
And for those who’ve seen the properly mastered Blu3D with crisp, clean Active 3DTV glasses…Laugh at the wires all you want, that floating beer tray is six freakin’ inches away from your nose. Take that, Avatar 2.
(Yes. Thanks to years of persecution and intolerance, diehard Blu3D fans have become encyclopedic geeks about the history and defense of 3D.
Just there are fellow geeks old enough to remember trailers for “The Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth” with their first-run screening of Star Wars as a kid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RdZw6vHKLI )
Hello, are you a phone?
I must admit I didn’t get how this was anywhere near the level of ‘Manos’ or ‘Monster a-Go-Go’. Those films were incompetent and nonsensical, while this one was just nonsensical. That being said I did laugh a lot during the riff, more so than last week’s ‘The Mask’. I’d love to know what studio backlot they filmed this on, with soundstages visible in the background and that huge DeSoto taxicab that looks like it came off the set of a 1950s MGM Technicolor musical.
Fave Riffs
‘…Dr. Frozen Face’
That’s Froh-zhen Fa-say!
Is this a ‘Blazing Saddles’ LARP?
This whole film feels like a cutting room floor.
The 3D is so good you feel like you can reach out and touch the wires!
‘Crix Nix Arch Obler Pix’?!
‘…some kind of crazy shock treatment.’
Is there any other kind?
Honey, I’m going to leave you with the woman who can’t talk or react to you, you’ll be fine!
Does our marriage count in this realm? Please say no!
Imagine the irony when he finally strikes gold.
Mark honey, I think we just started a cult!
In her introduction, Kinga mocks Joel for thinking he can handle anything because just he’s been through Manos. While I’m not sure if The Bubble is actually worse than Manos, it’s definitely in the same weight class. Like a lot of MST3K movies, there’s a kernel of a good idea in there, but it doesn’t quite pop. Part if it is how this is an Arch Oboler product. I personally know him best for his work in radio, and he is what could be described as hit and miss. Then there’s the use of 3-D. Unlike The Mask where its use is creative, The Bubble indulges in all the usual gimmicky shots associated with the method.
Favorite riffs
To your left, you can see virtually nothing. And to your right, absolutely nothing.
“What is it, what gives?”
Oh, we’ve angered God with our hubris again.
“Give me a fast clearance. I gotta get down fast, over.”
What’s the magic word, over.
“I’ll sleep in a lonely tearstained bed.”
So on the couch, right?
The townspeople shun the outsider for wearing white after Labor Day.
So is this a Blazing Saddles LARP?
Better call my wife and tell her I can’t find a phone.
Our younger viewers might require some explanation. That’s a phone booth. Your grandparents used to see how many people they could cram in there because they liked rubbing their bodies against other people without consequences. It also made phone calls.
Try Beer brand beer. Ask for it by name.
Crix nix Arch Oboler’s pix?
It’s Moe, Larry, and Trotsky.
“All I want is my plane.”
All I want is the end credits.
So anyway, that’s what people don’t get about Fight Club. Now let me tell you about The Joker.
Hey, I know this tunnel. From the sex metaphor at the end of North by Northwest.
“Are you drunk or something?”
Cuz that’s my thing.
Status report. We didn’t find a way around, but we did find an Applebee’s.
That’s right, my robot friends. No matter how bad your day is, you can always say, “At least I’m not in Arch Oboler’s The Bubble.”
But we are watching Arch Oboler’s The Bubble, and that’s pretty bad.
Honey, before you ask, I don’t know. That should cover everything.
Bet those aliens are as disappointed by humans as I was by sea monkeys.
Whoa, they mummified Snuffleupagus! Those monsters!
Thrill as our hero stumbles around the home and garden store.
Meanwhile at the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.
The music is telling me something is about to happen, but I don’t know. I’ve been burned by this movie before.
La-Z Boy presents the David Cronenberg Collection.
I had such high hopes but got zero answers to why. This movie shows how you can take a really good idea and piss it down ones leg. it was almost as if the writers and director had no idea how to end it and decided to end it when they ran out of money/film. Good riffing, however.
“We angered God with our hubris again”
Some great riffs, and man what a weird movie. You could feel it grasping to be profound, but all it was was confused. No kind of resolution or even explanation of the bizarre events. The three protagonists are painfully slow to realize that something strange is going on. Why even have the baby as a part of cast? Especially when they seemed to be forgotten and remembered at random by the cast and writers.
And worse than the mother wanting her baby killed so it wouldn’t be experimented on (which I can understand), is the pointless and callous way the pilot destroyed the mesmerized dancer. Did they think she would be able to jump off the truck aimed at the bubble? Why was she even on the truck? He just killed her. He might be the worst psycho in MST history. And the other characters, even though they were upset she burned to death, didn’t have any problems with the fact that the pilot was directly responsible. WTF? This makes less sense than the trance behavior of the townsfolk.
Cold Opening: Star Fl-Eats breakfast foods. This was a little confusing as I thought they were going to pitch a restaurant a-la the John Belushi era SNL sketch. But it quickly pivoted to just a pun filled group of grocery store items. I have to admit, given the lower carb diet I’ve on for the past four years, the Worfles with Mrs. ButterWorfs is really tempting me to fall off the wagon.
Invention Exchange:
Joel and the Bots give us the Pop Duster: Just as they were putting a hot dog in the Duster I was actually thinking: White Castle burgers from the freezer isle. I do have to ask. Why were Joel’s tears such a thick Karo Syrup looking liquid?
The Mads give us Lens-B-Safe: This one quickly gets to the punch line. Others have said this isn’t evil enough. I disagree. Some poor unsuspecting child will do this, sue MST ending our favorite show. Okay, maybe it is more ill-conceived than evil.
Host Segment 1: This is the segment where we learn this was originally a 3D movie and we are just seeing a 2D version for this experiment. Why? They went to the trouble of shipping Kingavision 3D glass to all us backers. It would have been interesting to see how the 3D techniques used in this film came out. I can’t imagine they were very good but I’d still be curious to see. Meanwhile Growler and M. Waverly do a bit where Waverly becomes a radio receiver and all he gets out before the station is changed is the respective DJ introductions. I liked It’s soft rock with Hard Beth.
Host Segment 2: This segment has to be some sort of therapy for the writers who were forced to watch this movie not once but multiple times. I feel their pain. (More on that later.) I sure do envy Tom prior to experiencing Joel’s invention.
Host Segment 3: This has to be another extension of the writers’ therapy. Here they are longing to escape. Not sure why they use the rhyming gimmick.
Closing segment/The Plan: The way they plan Pearl into thinking the upcoming crossover was her idea has elements of both bringing Joel back to Earth during Mitchel and the SOL back to Earth during Diabolik. I’m looking forward to it.
The movie: In her introduction Kinga compares this film to Mitchel, Monster-A-Go-Go and Manos. Ardy says it is worse than Manos and the wolf-mother (whatever that is) of all movies. There’s a lot to unpack there. The disjointed production history makes Monster nonsensical in an incohesive sort of way. This movie isn’t that. Mitchel is the dictionary definition of 70’s ick. That doesn’t really apply here. Manos of course is made by amateurs. There’s a kernel of a story there but it completely lost in the “they just had no idea how to make a movie while using substandard equipment and then choosing to loop all the lines use just three actors after the fact. This movie isn’t that either. There’s definitely more production competence than that here. What this movie is: a depressing mess. Now it started out slow and odd. It even tries to be whimsical during the floating beer tray scene or having a watch repairman working in the middle of the street. But then it takes a turn when Tony goes in the giant popcorn looking thing and sits the chair which (during a 3D scene from The Mask) and becomes one of the living gifs. This is when the movie begins giving me anxiety attacks with its grating psycho-thriller attempts. It was at this point this film made me increasing irate. I become irritable. Panic attacks really set in. I just wanted it to end. I think I was just supposed to feel suspense. That didn’t happen. I ended up loathing this film. I didn’t feel that way with either Monster A-Go-Go or Manos. I did with Mitchel but that was for a completely different reason. That was because I couldn’t stand the loathsome Lothario that was Joe Don Baker. This was for a much more primal reason. It made me feel I was desperately clinging to sanity. It made feel like Tom Servo in host segment 2 when Joel turned on the Arch Obolu Rift. Maybe this means this portion of the movie achieved its goal to a certain extend. But I sure don’t find this entertaining and would never watch this unriffed. Don’t make me watch this again. Joel and the Bots sum it up perfectly:
Crow “This movie’s helping me put my little problems into perspective.” Joel “That’s right my robot friends. No matter how bad your day is you can always say at least I’m not in Arch Obolor’s The Bubble.” But Tom points out “But we are watching Arch Oboler’s The Bubble and that’s pretty bad.” Joel “Yeah, I guess I’m sorry I tried to cheer us up. This blows.”
I do have one question: Since all of the townies are stuck in very short “Groundhog Day” loops, how did they actually deliver Catherine’s baby? All I know is I never want to see the complete 112 minute full length cut of this film. I will say this. The score is actually pretty well done.
Favorite Riffs
The plane flies through thick fog. Tom doing a captain’s announcement: “To your left you can see virtually nothing and to your right absolutely nothing.”
Catherine flubs a line by stuttering. Tom “Great take. Move it on.”
Mark explains why he hasn’t called the newborn’s grandparents. “I just can’t find a working telephone.” Joel “And I tried one whole place.”
A doorman opens an imaginary door standing in the street in front of a building. Crow “Ah, the changing of the guard at the theater of the unknown soldier.”
After Mark encounters the millionth townie stuck in a short time frame loop: “He’s stuck in a gif, my god they’re all stuck in gifs.”
Tony gestures at the large “piece of popcorn” set piece. “What’s this?” Joel as Mark “Looks to me like a Double Dare obstacle course.”
The main characters discover the Bubble. Tony “It’s a wall made out of glass.” Tom “It’s called a window.”
Tom “Honey before you ask… I don’t know. That should cover everything.”
Catherine stammers through a soliloquy. Joel “She learns her lines phonetically.”
We see a 2D shot of a 3D scene of an extra being lifted into the sky. Tom “Somebody up there has a claw machine.”
Mark examines the bubble. Crow “It’s just dirty glass. Maybe I’m stuck in a minor league hockey game.”
Catherine “That first night. How did our plane fly through the wall.” Tom “It flew threw a plot hole.”
Mark rips open the hypnotizer seat revealing a 3D scene of tubes spurting liquid. Crow “I’m always losing my small intestines in the chair cushions too.”
This movie has the feel of a half baked Twilight Zone episode that was left out to rot. It’s also reminiscent of The Dome series.
Yes, I agree: The Bubble is bad, but it’s nowhere near as bad as Manos, etc. This movie is far more inert in its offensiveness–it just sits there. Manos/Coleman Francis/The Atomic Brain/Hobgoblins, etc., etc., are actively repellent. It is closer to Monster a-Go-Go, in that they start with
But because it is more competently made than that, it’s not unintentionally funny. That confirms my theory that the higher production values of newer cheesy movies make them far worse than all those ’50s-era sci-fi movies we all love.
I completely agree. That was the first thing that occurred to me. It makes one think if it would’ve been better cut down to an hour and shot in black and white.
All in all, this was a good, solid episode. I thought Joel was much better than he was in Demon Squad–this has the feel of a classic Comedy Central ep. The only thing I didn’t like was them trying so hard at the beginning to make this the Manos of Season 13: as Servo says during the opening credits of a movie made by Cinema Classics, “Hey, we’ll decide if it’s a classic or not!”
Again, this may have been “the 3D movie” when the Brains were choosing titles, and The Mask was “the Halloween movie”, but a red/green TV print existed for Mask, and none existed for Bubble. It’s easier to do color-filtered 3D with B/W movies.
(That’s where the “50’s color glasses” myth started: Polarized 3D needed special projectors and screen overlays, and red/greeen 3D doesn’t, and can be shown anywhere–That’s why it could be used for TV prints, revival-house screenings, and print comic books.
And why all those cheap New Line movies in the 90’s like “Freddy’s Dead” and “Shark Boy & Lava Girl” had to use it before 00’s digital projection came along, now that all we had were cheap cineplex theaters after the 80’s glory days.)
It’s on Blu, if you’ve got the setup (or a Playstation 4 w/VR)–Apart from the beer tray, that’s IT, except for those weird floaty things and spurting intestines from the alien device.
Still, that’s one pop-out effect MORE than we got from three years of 3D-converted action movies in the 00’s-10’s.
How did Kinga trap Joel?
I have to agree that, in a way, this is worse than “Manos” or “Monster a Go-Go”. With those, the filmmakers were just trying to make a movie that would pass the time, make a buck, and, in the case of “Manos”, win a bet. “The Bubble” is trying to say something about human pride, God, conformity, the unknowability of the universe, or something-or-other, and doing it in a really annoying way. Even worse, Rod Serling did basically the same thing, several times, on “Twilight Zone”, but in less time and with better scripts. And, even worser, Arch Oboler wrote some really good stories for radio, so you’d expect better from him. Still, there is a bright spot: this was the 90-minute re-cut version. I can’t imagine how much more tedious and pointless the original, nearly-two hour version is.
The riffing was good, though, and I liked the host segments, particularly the bit with Growler & M Waverly. The Gizmoplex version included a segment with a viewer letter, including a nice picture. And the post-show Q&A included Joel explaining just why, after the staff’s painful first screening of “The Bubble”, he ultimately decided they just had to do it.
Ray Dunakin: Dr. Erherdt pulled Joel through time to riff Demon Squad. Not sure why. He also got the wrong version of Joel.
The radio DJ voices that come out of M. Waverly during that host segment were provided by Kickstarter backers who paid a lot of money. They are listed in the credits for the episode.
In the lead up to the season, Joel kept saying he thought they “found the new Manos” and was referring to this episode. He way oversold it. It’s bad, but not that bad. As has been said by many, it’s a promising premise stretched way too thin.
I would have liked to see more previous interactions between Joel, Jonah and Emily before they suddenly have a rhyming escape plan prepared.
Cabmister!
Agreed. Let’s face it Manos was just a special episode never to be duplicated. When they wrote episode 424 the planets were perfectly aligned and the barometric pressure was just right. As time has gone by I’ve been convinced that under normal circumstances 424 would have turned out as bad as crushing as this episode or Hamlet or Rifftrax’s re-riff of Manos. I’m glad we got what we got and I appreciate it for whatever made 424 so much better than it had a right to be.
I think “Trying to make it one”, and particularly Joel overselling it, as dj timmy puts it, is the key word here:
Joel still knows how to riff, but Producer Joel knows he’s in charge of a franchise now, and seems to be trying to put the reboot on an equivalent pedestal as the CC series overnight, to “legitimize” it as an actual part of MST3K.
That means pushing any Jonah song the audience remembers as the Next Patrick Swayze Christmas, promoting any episode the fans remembered as the Next New Callback-Catchphrase Source (apparently they decided that was “Cry Wilderness” from all the “Paul!” callbacks in S12), and, of course, the big money, the search for the mythical Next Manos and/or Space Mutiny.
I remember when the British children’s-book editor who first discovered JK Rowling tried to stay as a mover-and-shaker, by constantly claiming he’d found “the next Harry Potter”, and believe me, you wouldn’t remember what he picked. It would’ve been sad if it wasn’t funny.
You can’t make a Cult Anything overnight, it has to be a series of serendipitous accidents.
Here’s a better example of Arch Oboler’s work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuFP5IAHeXk
IMHO very few movies can be accurately compared to “Manos” because “Manos” is the SOLE directorial product of Hal Warren. It is our ONLY glimpse into the director’s twisted psyche.
This is not the case with the directors of most if not all other MSTed films which have nevertheless been compared to “Manos,” because they all had several credits to their names (Unless I’m Wrong). Even Coleman Francis had THREE.
A more appropriate example would perhaps be “Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space,” the sole directorial product of Jeff Ferrell. WHO? Well, exactly. ;-)
We always had red/blue glasses
What in the ever loving Christmas is this movie! Manos never made me throw my hands up yelling “What is even happening?” in frustration and despair. Now if Mark, Catherine, and Tony had been introduced as 3 people who’d been kicked in the head by a horse, it would all make more sense. But when a cab driver can only say “Cab, mister?” over and over again, and then the second person you meet does the same thing, and you just keep going on like people are only a little weird, THAT MAKES NO SENSE! And what the hell are the rules here? The doctors and nurses can perform their active duties just fine enough to deliver a baby but are otherwise dimwits?
This is putting it mildly. His radio stuff was WIDELY respected. Adding even more frustration to this whole affair.
I love the episode as a whole, but I can actually watch Manos unriffed. I might hurt myself if I tried to watch the Bubble on its own.
Colossus Prime: I agree that the main characters were painfully slow to realize something strange was going on with the human gifs populating the town.
Another icky thing that hasn’t been mentioned is the night that the pilot spent with the entranced dancer. If the pilot was “intimate” with her that makes him a rapist, as well as a murderer for crushing and burning her alive in the truck the next day.
I can’t say if this is the worst movie MST has riffed or not, but the pilot’s treatment of the dancer and the married couple’s indifference to it probably make this movie the one with the sickest and most twisted moral compass.
I may have overstated. Sidehackers was pretty messed up.
Did we do “MSTed movie with the worst moral viewpoint” as a Weekend Discussion question?
!!!!! I remember reading an article about Manos in some film magazine, and they quoted Mike as saying that all of the writers were at a total loss as to what they were watching and what they could do with it. I can imagine watching The Bubble on late-night TV with a group of friends and a case of good beer and riffing away. In the same scenario, with Manos, I see us yelling WTF and changing the channel.
!!!!!!!!!! I STILL do that when watching Manos! I knew what was going on in The Bubble–it was actually pretty obvious. My reaction was: This is actually a pretty good idea. It’s a shame they’re botching it so bad. And the obvious question was: If I can figure out what’s going on after five minutes, why can’t these people?
You’re not asking the right questions here. It’s not, “How many films the director of this turkey make?”, it’s “Who told this clown that he had any business making films at all?” The way I see it, Coleman F made three movies that could be compared to Manos, each worse than the last.
I agree–THAT is a real Ugh-I-need-a-shower-STAT moment. I can hear the riffers in the classic MST reacting in abject horror and saying just that. That is like all the other films we’ve been talking about in this thread. I would say, though, that the disgust comes much thicker and faster in CF, Manos, Sidehackers, The Atomic Brain (a curiously overlooked moral abomination in the MST canon), etc.
Atomic Brain, Eegah, The Leech Woman, all steeped in moral depravity and ickiness.
Werewolf is pretty icky, too.
Not the worst, by far. A 3-D production, even a bad one, took way more craft and effort to make then what people give credit for. And this obviously had a budget, too.
Disgusted by an MST3K film? You all must not watch many movies rated harder than a PG. You know, films that have what you refer to as “moral depravity” wouldn’t exist without the actual depravity in the world. Films are a reflection. People sometimes act like it’s the film makers who somehow invented all this horribleness. They didn’t. They just reflect it back at you.
So, say it with me now: The films and the makers are not depraved, it’s the subject matter that can be viewed as such.
Why is film the only profession where it’s okay to publicly tear into?
You misunderstand. There are movies that are disturbing and hard to watch, but you do anyway because you can tell that grown-ups made it and have something to say. The ones that make it to MST3K are gratuitously disgusting. Goodfellas is “morally depraved”, full of violent, shallow psychopaths doing horrible things to other people. But it is about the “actual depravity in the world” and tells us something about the real world. Red Zone Cuba has a plot that no mortal can follow, terrible actors, Coleman Francis & Co. going to and from Cuba from New Mexico and Arizona, murders and rapes that are just there for their own sake and have no connection to what comes before and after; it looks and sounds ugly, because it was incompetently made. The moral depravity isn’t telling us anything about real life, which in the end is what actual art does. It just comes out, because that’s the kind of people making the movie. THAT’S the point we’re trying to make: when MST-ied movies are “morally depraved”, it’s not because they’re treating difficult material, it’s because the people involved can’t tell what it looks like, or else just don’t care.
“This is DJ Pretty King in the morning!”
Hope that delivery didn’t annoy anyone. If it did, I apologize.
For the backers who got to voice the DJs, the showrunners gathered us all in a ZOOM call and presented us with an unfinished shot of the scene that we would be voicing. They divided the DJs up so each of us got to voice four of the DJs. Let me tell you, coice acting is no joke. Not only do you have to have a voice that sounds good, you’ve got to be able to interpret the directions you’re being given. For example, I was given the direction to be ‘joyful’ in one delivery and the end result was “That was joyful?”. I’m thinking “Oh my god. Have I been a joyless sounding person my entire life?” But the writer and director were very patient in getting the delivery they wanted.
In my experience, the film makers who made the most “depraved” films have been a joy to meet, and vice versa. I never met Coleman Francis, so I can’t speak to how the person really was, whether they cared about their output or was totally deluded. But I would never judge them based on their art, especially using my own moral compass as a guide. We all are different people, and have different ways of expressing ourselves through art. As long as we don’t hurt anyone while we’re doing it, it’s okay. What works for one person might not work for another. But just because someone made or enjoys a harder fare in their films would never make me judge their personal morals. Art and artistic expression is vital. And if it’s not for me, I just look elsewhere.