Monster of the Day #28

When I was a tot out trick-or-treating one Halloween, some guy had pictures of monster faces taped to his door, including this creature. I was fascinatingly terrified.

I like to picture his giant brain exploding out of his skull like the Incredible Hulk busting through a dress shirt.

>Tne Major Matt Mason man from Uranus action figure was a total ripoff of this.

And I’ll just bet the guy from Pluto is really pissed off at astronomers.

Hang on a sec, did they totally revamp the Matt Mason characters? Cos I had a lot of those as a kid, and I remember that the Martian guy looked totally human, except he was (scale-wise) about ten feet tall.

And I still remember the voice-over for the character from Jupiter: “And this is Callisto, from Jupiter. His transparent skull reveals the workings of his alien brain.”

I like to use that second sentence in conversation whenever I can.

I think I enjoy reading the quotes just as much as seeing the new pictures each day (when a quote gets included, anyway). Sadly, the line I always think of from This Island Earth is Rex Reason yelling “Run, Ruth! Run!” Not much of a quote is it?

Flick had some fantastic Technicolor use.

For quotes, Bill Warren has a nice bit (in Keep Watching the Skies) from the end of the picture:

Ruth: Where are you going?

Exeter: Our universe is vast – full of wonders. I shall explore, perhaps find another Metaluna, a place inhabited by beings not unlike myself. You see, I’m more adventurous than you imagined me.

Cal: Exeter – you’re a liar. You’ve run our of power bringing us here. Even if you had a place to go, you couldn’t make it.

Ruth: Come back with us. We’ll heal your wounds.

Exeter: I’m afraid my wounds can never be healed.

>Speaking of brains my favorite part of the movie is even though the guys from Metaluna (Metalunans?) have gigantic foreheads I don’t remember any of the Earthers noticing.

The Metalunans don’t look like aliens. They look like humans with a mild facial deformity. I’d guess acromegaly.

To be blunt, I’ve seen much odder-looking people out and walking about. I can’t recall ever pointing at them and yelling “Look! An alien!” People don’t do that. They notice, think, “God, I hope I didn’t stare at that poor man,” and go on.

In the film, it wasn’t until the humans saw two Metalunans that they began to suspect something odd was going on.

I thought THIS ISLAND EARTH was a poor choice for the MST3K movie because its really not tthat bad a film. As 50’s sci-fi goes, its not in the same class as THEM ! OR FORBIDDEN PLANET, but it’s a heck of a lot better than KILLERS FROM SPACE or THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS. They never showed that MST3K series on any of the local channels, so the movie was my first exposure to it, and frankly it was all too reminiscent of having three drunken louts in the row behind you when you are trying to watch a movie in peace. The rational response is “SHUT UP !” .

I never thought of MST3K as “criticism,” per se. It’s a way to take a film and hopefully add some humor to it. I mean, really — there’s a lot to like in a number of the MST3K films. There’s a riveting subplot in Giant Leeches which had some of them defending it offline.

I love MST3K and FIlm Crew and Rifftrax, but unlike this place I don’t look at them for honest criticism.

And it was something like this that made me decide I’d never go to a B-fest or similar event. I read about one of your shows where you screened The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake. I’d seen the opening to Four Skulls one night way back on TNTs 100% Weird, but didn’t get to see much of the film because it was on so late. I’ve been wanting to see it ever since, and I could just imagine finding out that someone was going to be running it, showing up to see it, and then find out the room was full of mockers. I’d hate for that to be my first time for an old genre movie like that. What little I caught on TV looked like it would be a movie I’d really enjoy.

This Island Earth consists of a fantastically interesting opening 30 minutes (or so), followed by another 60 minutes (or less) of nothing happening. The Metalunans kill everyone except Steve and Ruth, who they kidnap and take to Metaluna, where they are threatened (but nothing happens), they then watch as Metaluna gets trashed (they have absolutely no influence on what happens) and then they come home again, the end.

I love watching that first 30 minutes, then I get really angry at the last 60 for wasting all that potential.

Not to mention, as the MST3K crew pointed out, the hero of the film does nothing. For most of the film, he’s just standing around, being smart but not actually doing anything.

I’ll admit that he does shout “Run, Ruth, run!” very convincingly, however.

>I still avoid watching these episodes often because I like the used film and don’t want the commentary playing in my head whenever I go back and watch the film itself.

Well, that’s the danger, isn’t it? It’s hard to watch Lionell Atwell’s excellent role and performance in Son of Frankenstein after Young Frankenstein. And ditto for the hermit in Bride of Frankenstein.

And since I love all three of those movies, what’s a guy to do?

Give uncle Scrotor a hug!!!!