MST3K (401)

401 - Space Travelers - I bet Film Ventures was really kicking themselves for already using up the title Stranded in Space when they got the rights to this one. Worse, that title didn't even make sense for the prior movie. The guy was stranded on Earth's sister planet. Space didn't figure much into it. Space Travelers isn't terribly descriptive of this film, either. Yeah, I guess they're technically traveling in space, orbiting Earth. That's not really the important part of the movie's plot, though.

At any rate, I think this is my least favorite Film Ventures movie, Academy Award-winning, well-liked-by-the-general-public though it may be. The pace is a little plodding and, in this post-Apollo 13 world, it's a little redundant. Plus, Rocketship X-M did it better and with a ballsier ending.

Wife: "Oh, there's one more thing..." Joel: "I'm buying a... oh, I guess it can wait till you're dea... I'm mean down." Once again, the "insensitive clod" riffs are my favorite. The guys have ample time to play with these during the long, long scene in which each wife talks to her doomed astronaut husband for the last time. Wife: "They want to give you something." Crow: "A headstone."

The host segments in this episode were just OK. The list of inventions that the space program has given us and the rocketship sketch were both densely written and clever. Not laugh-out-loud funny, though. I was pleased to hear SPACOM! get a mention as a NASA invention, though. The final segment was another one of those in which knowledge of a before-my-time actor is a requirement to enjoy it. I've no idea who Tony Franciosa was. I probably should. As a horror fan, I really should get around to watching Argento's Tenebre someday.

"Oh, Gene Hackman. He's good in anything, you guys." (6/10)

film d. John Sturges (1969)
mst d. Jim Mallon (6 Jun 1992)