MST3K: 102 - The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy

Robot:  Yah!  Aztec Mummy:  Booo!

Joel Robinson is trapped in space and forced to watch bad movies by a pair of mad scientists.  His only companions are the robots he made from some of the spare parts.  A cult classic of the 90's, this is Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Original air date: November 18, 1989

This was the second episode produced for season one, but was shown before the first episode, The Crawling Eye.  I prefer to watch and review this show in production order, so this episode is coming second.

Again we start the episode with Dr. Erhardt and Dr. Forrester.  I really actually like their interaction here, as they talk about Dr. Forrester wanting to win first prize at the National Mad Scientists Competition.  This is the kind of thing that gets a little lost when J. Elvis Weinstein leaves at the end of this season.

Joel's invention, the air bag helmet, would actually prove quite useful.  Assuming, you know, motorcyclists actually bother to wear helmets (I'm looking at you Ben Roethlesberger, or, as Dr. Forrester mentions, Gary Busey).  It wouldn't prevent lacerations, broken bones, or torn flesh.  Maybe a air bag full body suit would be better.  As for the Mad's invention, the Chalk Man is quite evil, and the sound made me cringe even though I knew it was coming.

Pumpkin Boy!

This week, not only do the Mads give Joel and the Bots a movie, but they also include a short:  the first part of the 1952 Republic serial Radar Men from the Moon (entitled "Moon Rocket").  Movie serials (along with cartoons) is something I wish still existed in today's theaters.  My father grew up in the 40's and 50's and used to tell me how he would go the local movie house every Saturday to watch serials, cartoons and a feature.  Sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday!

Clayton Moore, who had become famous at that time for playing The Lone Ranger on TV, plays Graber, a human criminal hired to help the moon men while they are on Earth.

Now, this might be asking a bit much from a 50's movie that thinks "atomic rays" are a thing, but who in their right mind would just try to fly to the moon in a rocketship without testing the ship first?  And it takes off horizontally from the ground?  Plus, space apparently is the same color as the afternoon sky!

Radar Men from the Moon is an obvious Red Scare allegory - aliens from a different culture with atomic weapons want to invade our home.  They have learned English so they can work easily within the United States -- just like commie spies!

The first part of the serial wasn't that bad, as far as bad movies go, and there were a good number of funny riffs.  The first host segment, on the other hand, is rather weak.  "Demon dogs" infest the ship and Tom Servo tries to order them to leave with this äuthoritarian tone.  He ends up getting peed on, which looks like silly string.  It occurred to me while Joel took some of the silly string off that he is touching demon dog pee with his bare hands.  Ick.  The entire first sketch builds to the obvious joke that Tom looks like a fire hydrant.

The feature, The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy is a Mexican made film from 1958 dubbed into English.  It is actually the third movie in a trilogy, although it spends a lot of time recapping the first two movies.  At the start of the movie, Crow says "My legs are old. My teeth are gray", as a paraphrase from Monty Python's Life of Brian.  It becomes a recurring riff for older characters in movies.

The second host segment tries to tie the Demon Dogs to Commando Cody.  The leader of the Demon Dogs, Enoch appears and acts somewhat like Retik from the Commando Cody short.  Unfortunately, it wasn't that funny and didn't make a lot of sense.

Why did the makers of this movie think it was acceptable to spend at least half of its length recapping the first two movies?  Why do mummies hate crosses?  Bruno hitting the gravekeeper was just hysterical.  The movie was so incredibly bad, it was hard to make sense of everything.  The production quality of the whole thing was atrocious.

At one point, the silhouettes completely disappear due to the film being dark.  Also, Crow's got quite a Midwest accent in this episode.  I hadn't noticed it in The Crawling Eye.  A section in the middle of the episode felt very slow.  Not only was the movie's plot not really moving, but the riffs were also very bland and far between.  Part of the problem, I'm sure, was the lack of material.  The riffs picked up again once Dr. Almada went to the graveyard to investigate, but then slowly fell back down to it's previous poor quality.

The third host segment was just a rehash of the first.  Crow dresses up like the Demon Dog leader Enoch and goes outside to convince the dogs to leave.  He fails, and is peed on.  Not funny when Tom was peed on.  Still not funny this time.

This movie was just so awful I could see why the writers found it hard to make it funny.  With about 21 minutes left in the episode, which would be about 18 minutes left in the movie, the movie finally stopped recapping the previous stories.  That's insulting to the audience.  I can't comprehend how the production team of this movie thought that was acceptable.  The title fight between the mummy and the robot was maybe a minute or two long.  The mummy literally ripped the robot apart, and then the police just watched as the mummy killed The Bat and Bruno.  Flora tells the mummy to go back where he came from, and BAM!  movie's over.  Wow.  That was just bad.

Overall, there was some great riffs, especially during Commando Cody, but the entire episode went downhill after that.  This is definitely one of weaker episodes in the show's run.  I don't recommend starting with this episode.  Leave it until you feel compelled to be a completist and watch every episode.

Favorite Riffs:  "Nice shooting, Lionel.  Thanks, Tyco.",  "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.  We are cruising at approximately 50 feet.  The captain has turned off the No Screaming sign, and we just emptied the wash room.", "Hey, it matches my helmet and everything!  All I need is the Sparkmaster playset, and I'm done!"  "Oh, I hate to shoot a butt like that!"  "Yeah, a guy in a leather jacket with his butt on fire.  They're never notice that."  "Kinda looks like Dirty Dancing, doesn't it?  I've reached the end of my life, and I’m waiting for the knife to fall.", "The other people used the door.", "Do it Edward, do it!", "Mummy's home!  Now you're going to get it.", "Hey, it's your movie.", "The beer barrel Popoca?", "And the snappy Coco Chanel pantsuit."

This episode was included in the Vol 15 DVD set, and is also available on Amazon Instant Video and YouTube.