Shout! Factory relights the Movie Sign for their upcoming DVD box set, Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVIII.
The Mads of Deep 13 and the loyal yet helpless crew of the Satellite of Love — including Joel, Mike, Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot and Gypsy — cordially invite you to join them as they pay tribute to some of the finest-quality cheesefests this side of Gouda! The 18th laugh-filled edition of Mystery Science Theater 3000 promises to keep you as entertained as ever with four episodes never before available on DVD!
Lost Continent, Season 2:
A group of scientists and military men, their nitwit plane mechanic in tow, set off to find a failed rocket experiment that’s nose-dived into a land inexplicably populated by rubber dinosaur models. You’d think that in a movie featuring dinosaurs, they’d be the main attraction, but no; most of the movie focuses on eternal scenes of the expedition scaling a mountain (“Rock climbing, Joel, rock climbing!”) and slogging through the jungle, with barely a word of dialogue spoken. That the film is in black-and-white only adds to the tediousness of the rock climbing, to the point that the normally unflappable Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow lose their patience and snap at the film. The casting of Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver, Leave It to Beaver) provides an endless supply of Wally and the Beav jokes, and Beaumont (played by Michael J. Nelson) even visits the Satellite of Love during one of the host segments to inform Joel and the ‘Bots that he’s actually one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, spoofing on the iconically wholesome 1950s TV Dad image he secured in his most famous role. Shout! Factory warns at the beginning of the film that the “episode was compiled from the best possible surviving master”, so there are quite a few distracting image and sound flaws, but none bad enough to ruin the viewing experience. The bonus features on this disc are a new introduction by Frank Conniff (“TV’s Frank”), and the film’s original theatrical trailer.
Crash of the Moons, Season 4:
This episode opens with the B&W short General Hospital, the final entry in a three-part riff of the soap opera’s 1963 debut season. Mocking soap operas is almost too easy for Joel and the ‘Bots, who wring General Hospital for every drop of melodrama it has, and mercilessly lay on the camp. The episode’s main feature, Crash of the Moons, is cobbled together from three episodes of the space opera TV series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger to create a feature length collection of 1950s sci-fi clichés. John Banner (Sgt. Schultz, Hogan’s Heroes) steals every scene he’s in as the overly chipper, English-mangling ruler of one of the two doomed moons, and is the target of much good-natured ribbing inside and outside of the Satellite of Love’s theatre. One host segment is dedicated to the promotion of “Bannergrams”, and in the closing segment Bavarro (played by Michael J. Nelson) appears on the SOL’s viewscreen but is quickly redirected to Deep 13 to annoy the Mads with his cheerfulness. Crow and Tom Servo also have a musical number, “The Gypsy Moons”, in which they serenade Gypsy until the escalating competition gets completely out of hand. The bonus feature on this disc is the Crash of the Moons Original Mystery Science Theater Hour Wraps, a Biography-style film intro and wrap-up with host “Jack Perkins” (played by Michael J. Nelson).
The Beast of Yucca Flats, Season 6:
The main feature is preceded by two short films — Money Talks resurrects Benjamin Franklin’s shadow to lecture a teenage boy about managing his 1950s-era budget, while industrial video Progress Island, U.S.A. unenticingly hawks Puerto Rico to potential investors in 1973. In The Beast of Yucca Flats, fan-favourite B-movie star Tor Johnson (Plan 9 from Outer Space) plays a Russian scientist who flees his would-be assassins right onto a military test site, an atomic blast mutating him into a lumbering killing machine. The film, gloomily narrated by director Coleman Francis, is largely silent, leaving plenty of dead space for Mike and crew to fill with riffs. The bonus features on this disc are No Dialogue Necessary: Making an “Off-Camera Masterpiece”, a featurette that examines the making of The Beast of Yucca Flats, done in a style that mimics the film and guest-starring Frank Conniff; Coleman Francis: The Cinematic Poet of Parking, a retrospective look at the director and his filmmaking process; the original theatrical trailer for The Beast of Yucca Flats; and a stills gallery.
Jack Frost, Season 8:
In this trippy Russian/Finnish fairy tale, Ivan, a narcissistic young man with a blonde bowl cut, and the unfortunately named Nastenka, Russia’s answer to Cinderella, find true love despite Ivan being briefly turned into a werebear by Father Mushroom and Nastenka accidentally getting frozen solid by Jack Frost. Along the way to their happily-ever-after, they also encounter the inept witch Baba Yaga, a flying house, menacing trees, a pig transformed into a sled, and a band of unsavoury dwarves. Jack Frost borrows its palette of supersaturated colours from The Wizard of Oz — overcompensating for the lack of colour in the other three episodes of Volume XVIII — which just increases the film’s surreality. The snowballing weirdness makes Mike’s performance as the Lord of the Dance, and an appearance by Yakov Smirnoff (played by MST3K prop master Patrick Brantseg) on the Satellite of Love, seem normal by comparison. The bonus feature on this disc is a new introduction by Kevin Murphy (“Tom Servo”).
Steve Vance continues to illustrate the film poster style covers of the slimline DVD cases, copies of which are included in each MST3K box set as exclusive mini-posters. Their campy, retro comic book design perfectly fits the tone of the cheesy movies, and the easy-to-frame prints are ideal MSTie decor. The discs’ animated menus, always of exceptional quality, have practically become a bonus feature in their own right. Sound clips from the movies are cleverly edited together to create new scenes of interaction between Crow and Tom Servo, the vignettes serving as previews of the films they accompany.
Shout! Factory has obviously been listening to fan suggestions, as Volume XVIII is another solid set of most-wanted episodes. If you’d like to help keep the hits coming, be sure to e-mail Shout! Factory or post on their Cult Faves message board.
Pre-order at Amazon.com:
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVIII (Canada)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVIII (US)
Or order directly through the Shout! Factory website.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is distributed by Shout! Factory. For more Mystery Science Theater 3000 information, please visit The Official Mystery Science Theater 3000 Website and Satellite News: The Official Mystery Science Theater 3000 Fan Site.
