Digi-Schlock: MST3K: MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE (Shout! Factory 2-DVD Set)

Shout! Factory has done com­mend­able work with their line of Mystery Science Theater 3000 discs since they took over this fran­chise from Rhino.  Whether the release is a multi-disc set or just a sin­gle title, they’ve put admirable effort into what could have been sim­ple cat­a­log releases by putting seri­ous work into the pack­ag­ing and extras.  Their recent Manos: The Hands Of Fate release is a fine exam­ple these tac­tics at work.  It’s a gen­er­ous and ambi­tious two-disc set that applies more love to this fabled MST3K episode than any­one imag­ined possible.

For starters, Manos: The Hands Of Fate is pre­sented in both its orig­i­nal and MST3K ver­sions.  The fea­ture ver­sion is basi­cally the same ver­sion you’d get if you picked this title up via a bud­get label: it’s an old video ver­sion that is slightly shorter than the ver­sion used for MST3K (a short­ened open­ing scene appears to be the cul­prit).  As any with any old video source, detail and col­ors are a bit fuzzy but the result is on a par with other cur­rent ver­sions of this title.  The MST3K episode ver­sion has a crisp, col­or­ful video image with no notable defects.  Both ver­sions sound fine — the cock­tail jazz score and awk­ward dub­bing of the main attrac­tion come through fine in either version.

There is also a sur­pris­ing plethora of extras spread out across both discs.  The first disc fea­tures “Group Therapy,” a round-table inter­view ses­sion that includes Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff, Mary Jo Pehl and Trace Beaulieu.  This group offers a mix of sly wit and unex­pected insight as they explore why the Manos episode is so unique and mem­o­rable in their reper­toire.  Conniff in par­tic­u­lar speaks about the appeal of bad movies as an alter­na­tive to Hollywood prod­uct with sur­pris­ing elo­quence.  Elsewhere on the disc as MST3K Hour Wraps fea­tur­ing Mike Nelson as a bum­bling James Lipton-style host.  His dead­pan schtick is amus­ing here and its worth a look to the show’s fans.

The sec­ond disc offers even more in the bonus fea­ture depart­ment.  Longtime fans of this episode will be happy to see Hotel Torgo, a short but event­ful doc­u­men­tary on the mak­ing of Manos.  It inter­views fans, a man who pro­vided a loca­tion and the only surviving/available par­tic­i­pant from the shoot, Bernie Rosenblum, to tell the tale of how this frac­tured favorite came to be.

Luckily for us, Rosenblum was not only an inte­gral part of the shoot, he is also an engag­ing racon­teur with a good mem­ory.  His rec­ol­lec­tions form an engag­ing tale that is illus­trated in a spar­tan but art­ful style via atmos­pheric images of the film’s loca­tions.  The sto­ries of film­maker Hal P. Warren at work are price­less and the end result isn’t too far from Best Worst Movie in how it evokes what is like to sur­vive being in/working on a ter­ri­ble film.

And that’s not all the sec­ond disc has to offer: “Jam Handy To The Rescue” is a fea­turette about the per­son behind the edu­ca­tional film group that pro­vided so much mem­o­rable classroom-flick fod­der for the MST3K crew.  That said, this isn’t the short doc you might expect — instead, it’s a novel blend of doc­u­men­tary and satir­i­cal humor that rep­re­sents a unique col­lab­o­ra­tion between actor/writer Larry Blamire and film­maker Daniel Griffith.

“Jam Handy” teaches the viewer about the real life of William Jamison Handy, founder of the Jam Handy Organization, via a show-within-a-film approach that is unusual for a DVD fea­turette.  Blamire plays two roles.  In the fram­ing device, he is Lineman Larry, a kindly worker who teaches a young boy about Jam Handy by show­ing him an episode of a t.v. show in which Handy was inter­viewed.  Blamire also stars in the t.v. show as an addle-brained inter­viewer whose mad­cap ques­tions and reac­tions often baf­fle Handy (who is pre­sented via real footage from an old inter­view and inter­cut with Blamire).

The atyp­i­cal approach works well for a few rea­sons.  The first is Blamire: his script weaves dead­pan humor into a know­ing recre­ation of retro styles to achieve a sub­tle satire not unlike an SCTV sketch.  He’s also great in both of his roles, with his work as the inter­viewer achiev­ing a con­ta­gious lunacy.  The other rea­son behind the suc­cess of “Jam Handy” is the styl­ish work of Griffith behind the cam­era.  He recre­ates the black-and-white look of an edu­ca­tional film with skill and achieves the illu­sion of Blamire “inter­view­ing” Handy through deft edit­ing that rein­forces the humor.  As a result, this short works as a fresh, gen­uinely enjoy­able alter­na­tive to the con­ven­tional doc­u­men­tary featurette.

The “Jam Handy” fea­turette is also accom­pa­nied by a short blooper reel, a faux t.v. spot for the show-within-the-film and a bonus inter­view piece called “My (Educational) Short Life.”  The lat­ter is a nice lit­tle eye-opener in which Joel Hodgson dis­cusses how MST3K came to uti­lize edu­ca­tional films as part of the show as well as the ele­ments that made them a main­stay of its for­mat.  The pack­age is rounded out by a com­plete ver­sion of “Hired,” the short that is only par­tially shown in the Manos episode.  It includes the MST3K heck­ling and offers plenty of vin­tage edu­ca­tional fun.

Simply put, this is an excel­lent pack­age that goes above and beyond the call of duty in its pre­sen­ta­tion of a key Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode.  Having the film in both ver­sions is a good hook but it’s the fea­turettes that really make this set a win­ner.  Kudos to Shout! Factory for mak­ing the extra effort here: it’s sure to make a lot of MST3K fanat­ics very happy.

To read Schlockmania’s fea­ture review for MST3K: Manos: The Hands Of Fate, click here.

MST3K: ”Manos” The Hands Of Fate [Special Edition] MST3K: “Manos” The Hands Of Fate [Special Edition]      ***All orders of“Manos” The Hands Of Fatecome with a free MST stress ballavail­able nowhere else!Order your copy todayto guar­an­tee deliv­ery of yours!***Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and oppo­site reac­tion. Sure, there’s math to back that up, but the far more com­pelling proof is in the treat­ment accorded “Manos” The Hands Of Fate by those physi­cists of com­edy at Mystery Science Theater 3000. Consider this leg­endary low point in film his­tory, which depicts a fam­ily that gets lost en route to a vaca­tion and stum­bles into the lair of a cult. Since SoL cap­tive Joel Robinson and his robot side­kicks Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot react to movies, it fol­lows that this par­tic­u­lar episode must be a glo­ri­ous high point in MST3K history.This 2-DVD set cel­e­brates a spe­cial film and the spe­cial TV show that made the film even more spe­cial. That’s why we’re call­ing this a spe­cial edition.DISC ONE: Mystery Science Theater 3000 Presents: “Manos” The Hands Of FateBonus Features:Group Therapy: Wherein Joel, Frank and Mary Jo relive the hor­rorMST Hour WrapsExclusive Mini-Poster By Artist Steve VanceDISC TWO: “Manos” The Hands Of Fate (orig­i­nal feature)Bonus Features:Hotel Torgo: A doc­u­men­tary on the mak­ing of “Manos” The Hands Of FateJam Handy To The Rescue!: A Ballyhoo ProductionHired!: Parts 1 & 2 together again … just because we could.And More!