MST3K #113: The Black Scorpion

It's #113: The Black Scorpion, with giant clay bugs.

Our movie this time is a 1957 monster movie, with better-than-average scope (thanks to the expansive use of location shoots) and effects (thanks to King Kong genius Willis O'Brien). In fact, apart from its shoddy script, it's not a terrible film.

An Mexican earthquake opens up a new volcano, freeing plenty of subterranean prehistoric giant scorpions, who attack cows and people and trains indiscriminately. The brave scientists venture down into the scorpions' cave, discovering a lot of other giant bug species (like in Kong, and a lot of the designs are either similar or identical to the ones from Skull Island). There's a lukewarm romance plot and ranching and an annoying kid and silly plot complications, to pad out the running time. But, like I said, the film overall is halfway decent.

Well, okay, some of the effects aren't perfect either. But our in-theater friends keep the experience fun and fast-moving. The riffing is thick on the ground, diverse and sharp. (Sadly, the host segments are still not quite as good -- I like the idea of Crow and Tom trying to understand Joel's humanity, but Gypsy turning into a scorpion behind them is less funny to me. Later, the idea of Tom and Crow doing a puppet show of Joel is funny, but it just turns into a lecture about film history.)

There are a lot of repeated jokes in this one. For the second episode in a row, the gang references: M*A*S*H, "Serpentine!", Manuel Noriega, Nick the ...Wonderful Life bartender, Jacques Cousteau, and a "motorman's helper." Only the last is the same identical joke, but with the quantity here, there are bound to be some reuses. Joel also calls back his minigolf obsession from #102, and there's a long run of golf jokes. (Oddly, there's no Python joke.)

This is, sadly, our farewell to Josh. While I prefer TV's Frank to Larry Erhardt (naturally), Josh's Tom is so wonderful. Josh was a fantastic writer and a hilarious performer. One of my favorite things about Cinematic Titanic was that it helped remind us about the greatness of Josh. His farewell here is beyond understated -- the show didn't realize yet that we could get attached to its stars, so Larry just waves goodbye and walks off.

Bonus feature alert: for the first time in my binge, I get one of those great Shout! Factory documentaries about the making of the original film. It's a nice historical overview of the effects and production, and I love having that type of info about the raw material. Also, the traditional Shout! Factory animated menu is done all in stop-motion, and it's great. Stop-motion Tom and Crow, plus an adorable felted scorpion? I'm in.

A joke I had to look up: "Look over there. It says Arne Saknussemm."
A joke that didn't age well: "Wow, Dan Witkowski really puts on a halftime show. When do the Elvis impersonators come out?"
My favorite joke from this show: (as Jacques Cousteau) "Lower and lower we go, past ze matte paintings."

Odds I'll watch this one again: 7/10. It's a perfect encapsulation of season one.
Overall, I rate this one 6/10. The host segments still aren't perfect, but otherwise this is great.

Coming up next, it's #203, Jungle Goddess.