Melting.
It’s everywhere. From ice melting into water, to food melting into nutrients in
our guts, melting is an everyday part of our lives. But what if an entire person melted? What’s that? That’s not
interesting enough to sustain an entire movie? What if I told you Rick Baker
did the special effects? Still no?
“The
Incredible Melting Man” is a 50s B movie made with 70s and gore effects, but
with none of the cheesy fun of the 50s and all the poorly budgeted malaise of the
70s. Astronaut Steve returns from visiting the rings of Saturn, but suffers
some kind of… space radiation, I guess, on his way home. His ship crashes, and he
comes back looking like a pie that hasn’t baked for long enough. Understandably
upset and gooey, he goes on a murder spree across the greater suburban Los
Angeles area, pursued by NASA, which consists of about three people. In
between lengthy scenes of the home life of the main NASA doctor, occasionally the
Melting Man progressively melts and kills random people. The movie ends with Melty
melting, and then, literally, being mopped up by a random janitor outside a
power plant.
“Melting
Man” is as much of a mess in production as in name. It was originally developed
as a B-movie spoof but turned serious by producers in the middle of production.
Little time is spent on the rampaging, and improbably threatening, Melting Man,
and more on the home life of main character Dr. Ted Nelson and his expectant
wife; “They made a mistake and just went home with the actors,” Mike says. Add
in a comedic scene, representing what the movie was originally to be, of an old
woman and her date are on their way to meet their daughter and becoming victims
of the Melting Man, that clashes with the tone of the rest and you have a
B-movie that fails at being a B-movie in the way of thrills, tonal consistency
or even titillation; as Crow complains, “Not one of these people have been in their underwear. What a ripoff!”
What
the movie succeeds at, though, is being great fodder for Mike and the Bots, and
they make damn near the most of it. From the 50s-by-way-of-70s movie, to the
ludicrously understaffed NASA, to the turgid soap opera that makes up most of
the running time, and of course to Rick Baker’s fantastically gross effects, there’s
a lot to riff on. Even the title provides the killer line, “The George Hamilton
Story!” from Mike. There’s takes on the 70s like, “Denim theater!” There’s
riffs on the special effects, ranging from the goofy like “Ew, he just threw
himself up!” to the highbrow, when, upon Dr. Ted Nelson finding IMM’s ear, Mike
says, “I’ve been following Van Gogh.” The
movie also gives them plenty of running gags, from the “Ted Nelson” music
stings to the totally normally sounding surprised-at-touching-a-hot-plate utterance,
“HADJKA!” to riffing on the wife forgetting crackers. And the, “What did we
learn?” bit at the end of what they learned from the movie is something I
wished they’d done more (“I learned it was impossible to look good in the 70s”)
Plus, MST sees a ton of black-and-white movies from the 50s, which seem to suit
the show better with their goofier plots, lower budgets and more
family-friendliness. So it’s nice to see something in color and from the 70s on
here, to add a little tone and style to the show’s movie palette.
There
are some things keeping this one from being an all time classic to me. There’s
a lack of anything terrible or silly to make the movie memorably bad (there’s
no Torgo or Rowsdower in the cast, nor any painful songs being sung) and nothing
in the movie or any jokes that become a recurring gag in future episodes. Furthermore,
Mike and the Bots have a good riffing vibe going on, but it’s mostly the same
tone of wry joking and indifference. They don’t really get involved with hating
the movie, like reacting to the gross-out effects with disgust as they do in Giant Spider Invasion or hating on the
stalling plot as in Manos. There’s a
little of that in the prolonged old people date scene, when Crow yells, “What
is happening?!” and Mike’s exasperated “Just hurry up and melt!” during the
beginning, but that’s about it. Maybe some people prefer a constant wry
indifference to the movies, but to me, it’s the little bit of magic that means
the difference between a very good episode and a classic.
But
strong and steady riffing some nice running gags still make this a solid
episode, the kind where Mike and the Bots make themselves chuckle a lot. I’ll
definitely be revisiting in the future.
Episode
in a Riff:
“How
many monster movies end with a janitor scooping a monster into a garbage can?” - Crow
Random
Asides
-Rick
Baker isn’t the only future Oscar winner in this. Director Jonathon Demme has a
small part as Matt, the beery boyfriend to the girl who gets terrorized near
the end!
-At
the time of making this, Rick Baker had already worked on “It’s Alive”,
“Schlock”, and “King Kong”. After those, he would go on to make this and “Track
of the Moon Beast”. Yeesh.
-The
host segments are a little different this go around, though, as Crow’s fabled
“Earth vs. Soup” script is picked up by the Forresters to be made into a movie,
leading to skits riffing on the movie making process (according to Mary Jo Pehl
in the Episode Guide, this was to get back at Hollywood for their painful
experience making MST3K: The Movie)
-I love that the Bots love any excuse to hit Mike in the head.
-I love that the Bots love any excuse to hit Mike in the head.
-Hal
Needham is indeed great film making inspiration.
-You’d
figure after NASA kept sending guys to space and they kept coming back gooey
that they’d stop. But they don’t, because apparently it makes them stronger…in
a way the movie doesn’t show or explain, as the guy melts.
-I was disappointed IMM didn't befriend the kids. That would've made the movie way crazier and goofier.
-Tom: "This is sitcom noir." A good description of Better Call Saul
-I was disappointed IMM didn't befriend the kids. That would've made the movie way crazier and goofier.
-Tom: "This is sitcom noir." A good description of Better Call Saul
-If
the horny grandma and her date scene is any indication, this may not have been
an “Airplane!” level parody, but still would’ve been better and made more sense
than as a serious movie.
-One
of my favorite jokes is the crew pointing themselves out when the movie cuts to
a view of Earth from space.
-How
on earth is solar radiation hitting them that badly from near Saturn?
-Why
am I questioning the science of a 70s sci-fi movie called “The Incredible
Melting Man”?
-We
have a Tom Waits joke! It’s Tom whispering the lines to “Underground”.
-“Hey,
sorry babe.” Mike does a great groovy 70s white guy voice.
-I
love Mike pointing out the “Alien 3, Robocop, Blade Runner” jokes at the scene
in the power station. Ah, power stations: the shooting locations for all sci-fi
movies when they go “eh, screw it.”
-Releasing
company American International was also responsible for releasing a ton of
Godzilla movies back in the day. Thanks!
-I’m
disappointed there was no Ghostbusters
joke at the sight of the old-timey ambulance.
-I
love that Dr. Ted and his wife have time to have the general over for dinner in
the middle of a secret manhunt for a murderous, mutated astronaut.
-NASA
is terrible at keeping secrets. Dr. Ted’s wife knows about the killer
astronaut, for God’s sake.
-Wow, 20 years later and we still have liberal global warming jokes. Damn.
-Wow, 20 years later and we still have liberal global warming jokes. Damn.
-I
love the 70s soundtrack to this thing.
-Is
it just movie, or does 70s movie food look super unappetizing?
-I'll give it this, there was indeed a lot of melting in the movie.
-I'll give it this, there was indeed a lot of melting in the movie.
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