So that we could enjoy host segs and shorts, MST3K often had to remove scenes from a target movie so that they could cram everything into two hours. I’d like to know if any Msties have seen any unMstied movies and what kind of scenes they cut.
For instance, in “It Lives by Night”, they cut a scene of the sheriff escorting Kathy back to her motel room and trying to kiss her. A very icky scene indeed, but it adds a bit of meaning to Mike’s riff which claims the sheriff is a pervert…
In “Warrior of the Lost World”, MST shows Nastasia shooting Prossor once, but she actually plugs him five or six times, and point blank in the head to boot!
In “Mitchell” they skip over Mitch killing John Saxon!
I hate that I know all of these.
Here’s another one: in episode 704 – THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN: Just before that confusing moment in which Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith is seen sobbing in a police car and a photographer is taking pictures of everything in sight, they cut a scene in which the photographer gets the her to pose and bounce around, then forcibly removes her top. She starts hitting him as he continues to take pictures, and then trips over the Bill-Gates-look-alike corpse.
Anybody know any others?
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I have seen the uncut version of Mitchell. Scenes cut include one where Walter Deany (John Saxon)and another guy try to kill Mitchell with Dune Buggys(!) Mitchell manages to kill the other guy by beating him with a rock , takes his buggy, goes after Deany, and after a wild chase, Deanys buggy overturns and explodes! That is what happened to John Saxon’s character. Another cut scene has Mitchell finding the mustang driver who ran him off the road. Mitchell brutally beats the guy, and then slams a car door on the guys hand, and Micthell leaves the guy there screaming! (How does Mitchell KEEP his job?!!?) And the sex scene between Mitchell and Linda Evans is longer, and more disgusting and appalling then in the MST3K version, just to warn you. Most other cuts are minor.
There is NO FRIGGIN WAY I am going to watch a cut of Mitchell with a longer love scene. You’ve got MAH MAH MAH MAH MAH word on that one!!!
Ugh! So the uncut version of Mitchell makes him even worse all around? I don’t think I need to see that, but then I might for I am now intrigued.
First deleted scenes ive ever seen were in Terminator II, many many years ago. Epic.
When it comes to MST3K The Movie, clearly the movie studio made cuts that were not desired by BBI. I fairly certain that BBI did not want the movie to be only 75 minutes long. The studio made cuts that made the movie and MST3K humor a bit convoluted and it made it hard for people who had never seen the movie before to follow it I’m sure. For example, the part where Exeter uses the interociter to destroy the construction manual is cut, but BBI still has a host segment in the movie where their interociter is used in that way. Since we never see it happen during the movie thanks to what had to be a studio demanded cut, the host segment humor probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to people who have never seen This Island Earth before. Fortunately I had seen it on TV before and I’d also seen the MST3K Live showing of it at the first Conventio-Con. If MST3K The Movie had been the length of the live show it would have been a whole lot better for everyone concerned.
I’ve actually seen many of the movies done on the show uncut years ago because they were staple viewing in my childhood. Deadly Manits, War of the Colossal Beast, Amazing Colossal Man, Giant Leeches, Giant Gila Monster and others were on local UHF channels all the time years ago. I even saw Creeping Terror once years ago on broadcast TV. We also bought Indestructible Man and Sword and the Dragon on VHS before they were on MST3K. However, by the time most of these movies made it to MST3K I couldn’t possibly remember all the scenes from the uncut versions as it had been many years since watching most of them and after seeing them on MST3K there aren’t a lot of them I’d watch without the MST3K treatment again.
I think the only Rhino MST3K DVD which has an uncut version on it that I actually watched was Eegah because I had never seen it till it was on MST3K and I was curious. That was a mistake! The extra groping scenes did not make the movie more enjoyable.
Agree with #31: the extra gore missing from The Horror of Party Beach. It’s pretty disturbing for the time.
@ Dean (#101): “Mitchell manages to kill the other guy by beating him with a rock”
Is this the shot that gets freeze-framed in the opening credits?
“In the real ending the monkey kills everyone in the house. After the kid yells out dad a couple more times the screen goes to black and you hear an explosion and some fire over the end credits.”
I dunno, that sounds like one of those infuriatingly ambiguous endings to me. Not that showing their mangled corpses would have made it a better conclusion to the film, but as you’ve described it, it leaves some room for doubt.
Either way, though, the fact that somebody saw fit to work that film into what was ostensibly an innocuous children’s movie is pretty damned appalling.
“Either way, though, the fact that somebody saw fit to work that film into what was ostensibly an innocuous children’s movie is pretty damned appalling.”
No kidding. Even though Berton took out the more disturbing parts, it’s still completely at odds with George Milan’s happy-go-lucky Merlin that he’d be so casual about such a deadly monkey toy.
Heck, in the scene where Susan and Mike watch cartoons, there’s a creepy bit cut out where Susan slowly turns up the TV volume so Mike won’t hear the dog’s squealing. “I’m benign” indeed.
The only thing cut out of Final Sacrifice is one solitary moment of Rowsdower saying “Jeee-zus KUH-RAIST!” after his truck breaks down. Would’ve made a pretty good stinger, actually.
Just because I watched it last night, Ive been dying to see Jimbo get killed by zombie Jon Mikl Thor in Zombie Nightmare.
I love the episode Werewolf, and the scene when Yuri breaks into the hospital is longer in the real movie. He hits on a nurse and says, “Nice hairdo,” which I thought would have been perfect riffing material considering how many different hair dos Yuri has throughout the movie.
I am a little surprised to learn that the Monkey Toy segment in Merlin’s Shop was from a “completed” movie rather than cannibalized from an unfinished low-budget pic. I’m not surprised to learn that the toy kills everyone in the house in the end of the original film, even edited for use in the Merlin movie it’s pretty dark. I guess cannibalizing the film worked well for them because they assumed virtually no one had seen The Devil’s Gift and I’m guessing they were correct. I know I’d never seen or even heard of it. From what little there is about it on IMDB it was apparently about as exciting as Manos or watching grass grow.
What about the origins of the other segments in Merlin’s Shop? I’ve always been curious about where the reused footage in the film comes from and now my curiosity level is up a bit again since it came up in this discussion. I’ve never seen the footage in Merlin’s Shop elsewhere, which is lucky for me I guess based on what I’ve just read about The Devil’s Gift.
“What about the origins of the other segments in Merlin’s Shop?”
I’m pretty sure the first story arc was filmed for the movie itself, since we see Merlin interacting with those characters directly, and the type of film they used for it matches the other Merlin segments, while the monkey stuff clearly looks older.
I don’t recall any other particular bits that look like they were from anything else . . .
“Heck, in the scene where Susan and Mike watch cartoons, there’s a creepy bit cut out where Susan slowly turns up the TV volume so Mike won’t hear the dog’s squealing. “I’m benign” indeed.”
Hoo . . . I have friends who like dogs so much that they can’t stand that scene as it is – *that* would put it over the top. Jeez.
This is my suspicion about “Merlin”: it was a failed TV pilot in the “Amazing Stories” vein. I imagine the selling point was that Merlin could meet a new customer every day a la Mr. Roarke and help out with said person’s problems. When the pilot didn’t sell, Berton got Milan and Summers to film some more linking bits related to the monkey, hired Borgnine for what must have been a day’s worth of shooting at most, cannibalized “The Devil’s Gift” and repackaged the whole mess as a “movie.”
In a way, clever. In a different way, really irritating. I even suspect Borgnine never saw any of the rest of the film.
I am a big serial fan, so I have seen RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON, UNDERSEA KINGDOM, and THE PHANTOM CREEPS many times
unncut. Almost nothing is cut from RADAR because it was released in 1952 and the chapters were only 12 minutes long. On the other hand both UNDERSEA & PHANTOM were released in 1936 and 1939 when each chapter was closer to a half hour. Each was cut by about half but only for time.
“This is my suspicion about “Merlin”: it was a failed TV pilot in the “Amazing Stories” vein.”
An intriguingly plausible explanation . . .
Stil, given how creepy even the true Merlin parts were for kids and how childish they were for adults, what would the target audience have been?
Oh, right: deeply disturbed by it. And no wonder . . .
My wife and I also enjoy those old serials and we actually purchased Radar Men From The Moon, Phantom Creeps and Undersea Kingdom years ago because they had been featured on MST3K. We also bought Robot Monster on a budget DVD because it had been on the show and that movie is hilarious and fun all on its own. It’s short enough to not get on your nerves as it’s the good kind of bad it’s just so silly.
Since Merlin’s Shop was made by the same film maker (a title clearly not deserved by the fellow) as the cannibalized Devil’s Gift, I guess it was just another way for him to try and make a few bucks while spending as little as possible to complete his second low budget turkey. Given the title and the opening sequence with the kid and Ernest Borgnine we also found it appalling that the movie might deceive someone into thinking it’s appropriate for children. It’s so disgusting it’s not appropriate for anyone.
I’m sure due to cost that this will never happen, but it would be interesting if there were deleted scenes from the MST3K movie. I always liked the movie very much… BUT, it is shorter than the average MST3K episode.
I know that “The Mole People” has a lot more scenes, and they make the film drag even more.
There are some misogynistic scenes in “The Beast of Yucca Flats” that were left out in the MST3K TV show, I remember that. And like all Coleman Francis ideas, they were mean scenes.
Yeah, The Mole People was heavily edited.
There was 10 minutes at least of ropes and a$$es cut out, and I’m pretty sure there was a scene where David Crosby eats a McRib sandwich that was edited out.
@114:
If so, that’s very “meta” of them, and it is actually somewhat clever. “Well, all of the networks turned us down. What do we do with all this material?” “I know–we’ll make it into a movie about a guy who’s telling his grandson about a failed TV pilot he wrote.” Also, I kind of hate to say this, but The Devil’s Gift is relatively (not absolutely) well-crafted compared to most of the horror fare on MST3K. If only it weren’t such a rip-off of Stephen King’s short story “The Monkey.”
#113
Add me to that list. That scene alone is why I hate that episode, despite the hilarious riffing.
Haven’t seen “The Devil’s Gift” (I was just about to rent it when the video store up and closed, dammit!), but didn’t some “deleted” footage sneak into the beginning? That is, wasn’t Earnest Borgnine’s grandson watching it on TV until the power went out? An old lady with a Ouija board apparently has her house on a cliff destroyed by the same monkey, so I guess it’s from the beginning of TD’sG. That means it was intentionally ironic to have gramps tell the kid that his mother wouldn’t want him watching “that scary stuff” FROM HIS STORY which he later puts the tyke to sleep with!
Also, I just found the unMSTed Warrior Of The Lost World for under $2.00 at FYE tonight! Can’t wait to enjoy it with extra Persis gunplay and Zombies!
Didn’t the deleted scenes from Mole People just end up in the Wild Wild World of Batwoman? :grin:
They probably could’ve been deleted out of that movie, too.
“Also, I kind of hate to say this, but The Devil’s Gift is relatively (not absolutely) well-crafted compared to most of the horror fare on MST3K.”
I certainly agree with that. It’s genuinely creepy, not just gory or unsettling. It takes its time to build the tension, and you even sort of sincerely empathize with the dad.
“Add me to that list. That scene alone is why I hate that episode, despite the hilarious riffing.”
I actually once showed that episode to someone who hadn’t seen MST3k before, and they refused to watch not only that episode but ANY MST3k after that. Which is kinda dumb, if you ask me, but clearly the deaths of cute animals evoke a stronger response in most modern audiences than the deaths of human beings.
Does the Devil’s Gift explain why the psychic hates David so much?
The US version (not the MST version specifically) of Godzilla vs Megalon had a lot of content edited out. When the Seatopian agents kidnap the kid, they beat him up and then throw him in the trunk. Also, the scene where the agent hijacks those two guys’ truck is cut, because they had a nude centerfold hanging behind them. There’s also a scene of those guys getting their revenge, beating up the Seatopian, and tossing his body off a cliff.
It’s pretty easy to see why distributors thought these scenes wouldn’t work in America. But then consider the fact that Toho apparently thought that this WAS appropriate for kids in 1970s Japan. No wonder Japan is so screwed up today. :roll:
In regards to the psychic, in Merlin David’s meeting with the psychic in the park was actually the second he saw her. The first time David saw her she was a little more calm and she gave this explanation about how evil spirits can possess inanimate objects. This is the exact time when David notices it’s the monkey that’s killing everything in the house because he has a flashback to when he killed that fly and he remembers the monkey clapping its cymbals at that same time. So yeah she didn’t get pissed off until later when she noticed David actually had an evil spirit in his house. As you can see some of the more ridiculous stuff from that Merlin segment has some better context here.
Re: The Devil’s Gift;
I was actually reading the Stephen King short story collection Skeleton Crew and came across a story that was very familiar that featured a Creepy Monkey Toy that wrought havoc on a boy’s family. I looked it up on Wikipedia, arbiter of all human knowledge, and lo and behold at least two (!) people have thought the filmmakers got their idea from “The Monkey.”
Okay, I watched the dune buggy sequence from Mitchell on Youtube and it DOES help explain a bit more about the film. It also shows the psychotic, rock-smashing violence lurking just beneath Joe Don’s thick, baby oil-coated skin. Basically, Mitchell is the Michael Myers of cops. He stalks the mobsters, then kills them all, usually in inventive ways (rock, boat hook, etc). When mixed with the Hoyt Axton music, it gets even more surreal. Kind of like if Jim Rockford starred in Falling Down.
@124 so, so right….human carnage = no big woop. But, a ‘pet-pocalypse’ is intolerable. “…then repeat to yourself ‘it’s just a show’ I should really just relax…”
MST’s possibly most popular (and most disturbing) short “Mr. B. Natural” is on Comcast cable’s On Demand feature this month, and I worked up the courage to watch it last night.(Menu -On Demand – The Cutting Edge – Something Weird – School Scare Films) The short was cut WAY down for MST3K; it originally was 27 minutes long. There are large chunks missing, including more marching band footage, and a whole middle section where Buzz Turner goes to see the band teacher to decide which instrument to play. The teacher actually asks Buzz about the proportions of his teeth, jaws and lips!!! ( I actually shuddered.) Plus, at the end, Mr. B. (she’s so perky! kill her!) tells us “I may be visiting YOU soon!!”. I’m still trying to decide if that’s a promise or a threat.
“@124 so, so right….human carnage = no big woop. But, a ‘pet-pocalypse’ is intolerable. “…then repeat to yourself ‘it’s just a show’ I should really just relax…””
‘Scuse me? In a day and age where these same people I mention DO watch horror films and crime shows and disaster films and other depictions of human death and suffering while barely flinching, yet cannot bear to watch one scene where a dog dies off-screen?
Yeah, I stand by my statement. I think it’s a perverse state of affairs, but it’s what I’ve observed. Some of these folks were *excited* to watch stuff like “The Andromeda Strain” and disaster/survival movies but swore off MST3k after that one incident.
American audiences are more desentitized to violence against people than they are to violence against animals – probably due simply to relative frequency.
Agree wholeheartedly. I know a guy who couldn’t stomach the dog scene in Merlin but had nothing to say when any other animal got killed, let alone people.
I am not impressed by someone who selectively picks a particular creature of God’s creation to feel sad & angry about when they are killed or tortured, yet is not consistent in that lament when it comes to the rest of creation.
I hope it was clear that I agreed with Raptorial Talon…
…very clear. For my part, I have a dog that I would do just about anything for, but I think it speaks to the genius of MST3k that the cruel death of a dog (what sick bastard directed this?!?),can be funny.
KID: “Where’s Sparkle?”
MIKE: “I very quickly sold Sparkle to a farm where he will be happier.”
C’mon, that’s good dog-killin’ stuff. Besides, everyone knows that puppies’ blood and babies’ tears taste the best! :twisted:
OK, cool. Now, who wants more puppy?
“I hope it was clear that I agreed with Raptorial Talon…”
Oh – sorry. The way the statement was constructed triggered a contrary response (ingrained from my vs debate days) . . . it was kind of ambiguous to me, in retrospect. It makes sense in context now.
But yeah, regardless, it’s a sad state when the natural human shock at seeing brutality against other humans is so eroded that we have more empathy for nonhuman animals. It’s true that stuff against animals (and children) is worse because they don’t really have much of a defense or even a knowledge of what’s happening, but still. Dogs can’t experience dread and despair like humans.
Maybe there should be a discussion thread about “worst/best depiction of animals in an MST3k episode,” or somesuch. With everything from dogs to giant arachnids, there’s a fair bit of material there.
The only movie I have that wasn’t mentioned was “Escape 2000” aka “Escape from the Bronx”. Nothing much was taken out. A whole bunch of swear words, a 20-30 second conversation between Trash, the Reporter, and the kidnapper guy, and Henry Silva’s response to the “word from headquarters”: “F*** Headquarters!!!”
The original cuts of First Spaceship on Venus and Horrors of Spider Island were longer, though I haven’t seen them personally. Nude scenes were cut from Spider Island.
I’ve seen quite a few MSTed films uncut, but most of them have already been covered. (Then again, what do I expect walking into a Weekend Discussion Thread nearly a week late?)
That said, there’s one bit that got cut out of This Island Earth that I’ve always considered a missed opportunity. It’s when Cal is first being shown around the basement lab and he’s told that the cat is named Neutron “because he’s so positive.” That’s stinger material right there.
I don’t think anyone mentioned that Red Zone Cuba had a significant edit, the song sung by John Carradine. “Night Train to Mundo Fine” had a few more bars and more lyrics. I have the original and now that I’ve heard the whole song I am annoyed when I watch that part of the msted version.
I’ve got the director’s cut of Red Zone Cuba with an even longer version of “Night Train to Mundo Fine” where Carradine does this extended scat sequence. Absolutely dreadful. I kid, I kid. But if you close your eyes and think real hard, you can almost hear him. Do be doo bop ski do skee do!
I’ve got some cut scenes posted here… MSTUncut but you’ll have to put up with my lame riffing. :smile: There was actually a lot of great riffable moment cut from Teenagers From Outer Space. I also find it interesting that Crow quotes from a deleted scene in this movie during the skit where they are visited by the skull spaceship.
In I Accuse My Parents there’s another verse to “Are You Happy” and an additional nightclub song left out. There’s a lot of topless scenes and a shower rape in Final Justice (glad they left it out but it shows the evilness of the bad guy – now you know why the blond stripper wanted Geronomo to get her out). Red Zone Cuba has a scene of Griffin attacking the blind woman after the restaurant owner is thrown down the well.
Parts: The Clonus Horror has a good few cuts, as previously mentioned most of these can be found in the trailer:
1) Musty love scene between the sensitive Steve Gutenberg and the woman without a nose, followed by phone conversation between Dick Sargent and George Walker, which provides a bit of exposition about Clonus.
2) The escape from Clonus is a bit longer too, as Richard discovers the frozen body of George, then gets into a fight with the director (well, a guard that happens to be played by the director).
3) Once female clone whose name I can’t remember is dragged away in the middle of the night by the guards, we presume that’s it for her. In the full film, we see her being interrogated by Dick Sargent and Dr. Super Mario Bros, and then she ends up getting subjected to a lobotomy device (for want of a better term). As she screams, Dick Sargent remarks ‘Oh look, it does remember something’.
I think there may be more, the Agony Booth has a detailed recap which has all of these.
In addition, The Day The Earth Froze has a few cuts, but these were by the original distributors rather than BBI. IIRC they involve a little more of Lemminkinen’s fight to get back the Sampo, which ends with him being killed and chucked into the sea, and more of his mother wandering around and asking everything she sees if they can tell her about him.
I once rented the Clonus DVD from Mondo Macabro so I could see the film as the director originally intended it to be seen and to hear his commentary. I was quite disappointed that he didn’t mention MST3K once.
YOUNG MANS FANCY – In a cut scene Judy explains what “THE REDS” are.
About the connection between Stephen King and The Devil’s Gift:
Creepy toys turning on their masters is an archetype that goes back a long, long way, and people have also found those drumming monkey toys creepy for a very long time.
I wouldn’t credit Stephen King with the idea.
It’s kind of like when people see the farce episodes of Frasier and think they’re stealing from Three’s Company.
Regarding Space Mutiny, I never understood the ‘Sherry’s birthday card’ gag? I suspect it was due to an earlier riff being cut perhaps?
Sorry Thomas (23 & 26). The Yes 9012LIVE video was published in like 1985 so it pre-dates MST3k’s showing of “Young Man’s Fancy” buy about 10 years.
It’s more likely that the Yes video gave inspiration to mst3k, as seemingly someone on the show was a Yes fan as evidenced by their parody on Owner of a Lonely Heart in ep 1008.
I perform with these dogs and as far as animal behavior goes, I’m a solid believer in nurture and education. I’ve met Jack Russell Terriers that I would not go in close proximity to once again, but have certainly not had a bad knowledge with an American Staffordshire Terrier. If you’re speaking about their owners- well, that’s a several story. Human beings are creatures as well, and we often each have our individual concepts about “moral concepts”.