We’re a danger
to ourselves and others!
Roger Corman. One man industry.
Filmmaker. Legend.
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| When plastic bags attack |
Leeches. Small. Blood sucking. Icky.
Combine them, and what you do get? Eh,
mostly actors wading around small sets and swampy locales and giant leeches
made of garbage bags for monsters.
The movie is pretty typical B
movie/Corman fare (edit: this film was produced by him, but directed by his brother Gene). A bunch of people, some likeable, some not, wander around a
location and get picked off by monsters, usually of the larger animal and
improbably kind. There’s the usual Corman players (fat guy, hot slut, etc),
recycled music, recycled sets, recycled fun. I’m sorry, I know Best Brains
hated his flicks, but Corman had something over the Larry Buchanan’s of the
world; work ethic and delivery. These are as typical b movies as your’e gonna
get, really more C grade, not the budget of a Universal Deadly Mantis or a Bert
I Gordon flick, but sturdy enough to keep teens watching when they were necking
or high on soda or whatever happened at 50s drive ins (consult Joe Bob Briggs
for more on the subject). Really what sets this one apart from others is the
southern swamp setting, but that mostly means thicker accents, sweatier actors
and lots of rowing on lakes. Not painful, not great.
What it is, though, is good fodder for
the SOL grinder. Not as good fodder as the bewildering Unearthly or pseudo
pretentious/alien impregnation story of Blood Beast, but its serviceable. Which
is a good way to describe this episode. Serviceable. Not a ton of great jokes: a
“Kurtz was close” reference during one of the many boating scenes here; a
goofy, “I’m a beaver, and this is the view from my living room” after another
underwater shot there. Corman movies tend to keep the crew of the SOL engaged,
so the riffs are fast and plentiful, just not always great. Really, it’s the
rapid delivery and t heir jovial attitude that keep this episode afloat.
The highlight for this episode is the
next to last host segment, where Joel, Crow, and Tom play the part of dangerous
and inept hicks in charge of searching for dead bodies and sing the classic
“I’m A Danger to Myself and Others.” Lyrics like “I’m a danger to myself and
others / my cousins are as close as brothers” give them a great opportunity to
zing at all the stereotypical and dangerously inbred hicks that pop up in their
movies. It;s catchy, funny and has great visuals of them in a boat with waders,
fishing hats, Crow with buck teen, and their cartoonish accents to go along
with it. It’s worth the entire episode for this. The other host segments have strong
parts, like the terrifying Holo Clowner in the intro, but nothing as strong as
this hillbilly song.
Not a highlight, however, is the first episode
of the 30s serial Undersea Kingdom.
In the ACE Guide, they mention how in season one they were glad to be done with
the Commando Cody shorts. I bet they
were glad to be done with this one too, considering they only did one more
episode of it. The corny, silly 30s
serials are surprisingly heavy on exposition and slow moving. And frankly Joel
and the Bots don’t feel into it. Though there are a few good riffs, like Servo,
upon seeing an underwater miniature prop sub, saying, “Meanwhile, in little Billy’s
bathtub,” or Joel observing, “All these people are dead,” which is dark, obvious,
and hilarious. But the riffing in the movie is a good 25% better.
I’d like to say more good things about
it, but aside from the inspired song, it’s an okay episode at best. One worth
rewatching if you haven’t seen it in a while or for the first time. But that’s
any MST3K episode. In my opinion, there are other episodes from them more worth
your hour and a half.
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| I'd listen to an entire album of this. |
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| Undersea Atlantean robots. |
Episode in a Riff:
“It’s a Hee-Haw writing session!” –Servo, upon seeing a room full of hicks.
Random Asides:
-Oh my GOD the Holo-Clowner is creepy
-Man, I love the joel era. And re-watching
an episode after a while let me see the show without nostalgic glasses and see
how wry it is.
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| Top this, Pennywise! |
-The leech invention is great,
especially Frank’s goofiness and Forrester’s non-shit giving
-The Insto-Adolescent kits, with the
great joke of “Ecstatic feelings of immortality!” make me wonder what kind of
childhood Joel went through.
-Lon Chaney Jr. is in the short
somewhere
-It’s weird seeing what buff and in shape
men looked like back then compared to now. It’s like the difference between
Jack Kirby’s Captain America and Rob Leifeld’s.
-What is it about plucky women reporters
from the 30s that makes them so darn likeable?
-I like that Atlantis is basically
undersea ancient Rome with flying bomber planes, robots, and bows and arrows.
-Tom makes some R2-D2 noises in the
short, and I wish he and Crow would have done that more. Though, it is kind of
obvious humor. Maybe that’s why they didn’t.
-Roger Corman movies did not skimp on
the babes. Thanks!
-That's Ken Clark as the game warden, who was also in 12 tothe Moon. I like the character of he and his wife, unusual for a Corman movie.
-There are a lot of repeaters in the
Corman movie casts. The closest this show gets to recurring guest stars.
-There’s some actual filmmaking artistry
in the bed filmed between Liz and Cale in the store scene
-They do the “reed” joke (“rex reed,
donna reed…”) again.
-The letter at the end is really sweet,
though Joel does read her name weird.
"I'm a Danger to Myself and Others"
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