MST3K (105)

105 - The Corpse Vanishes (w/ Radar Men from the Moon, Chapter Three: Bridge of Death) - Poor Bela Lugosi. The man's first movie happens to be a horror picture where he defines an entire mythological species for several generations of fans, which immediately dooms him to mad scientist and hunchback roles for the rest of his life. This Lugosi film began promising. It was very dark: brides are dropping dead left and right on their wedding days and their corpses are being stolen. Beyond that, there's only a bitchy countess, a very long basement scene and some creeps watching people sleep to fill in the remainder.

The guys repeat more KTMA host segments in this show. The game of tag, Crow as a barber and the "chiro-gyro" from the KTMA credits all make an appearance. The barber sketch was vastly improved over its previous incarnation. Crow, Servo and Joel amp up the down-home chatty barbershop aspect. The picture Crow paints of the 200-clown accident on the highway was a thousand times more horrifying/funny than anything in the horror movie they were watching.

Other than the visibility issue with overscan, I think the main reason the silhouettes are so much bigger than they were during the KTMA episodes is that it gives Joel greater reach to play with the screen. He was jumping out of his seat constantly this week. He even, as a courtesy to the actors on screen, brought along a pair of brooms to dust the characters' suits. Fun stuff and thoughtful too.

What about episode 104 you might be wondering? I'll tackle that subject when I get there. (6/10)

film d. Wallace Fox (1942)
short d. Fred C. Brannon (1952)
mst p. Jim Mallon (23 Dec 1989?)

[not that anyone cares, but this was my 500th movie since I started keeping track 19 Dec 2003. Woo! One movie per 1.8 days.]