Hamlet (episode)
From MST3K
| 1009 - Hamlet | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Air Date | June 27, 1999 |
| AKA | Hamlet, Prinz von Danemark |
| Movie Director | Franz Peter Wirth |
| Year | 1961 |
| Cast | Maximilian Schell Hans Caninenberg Wanda Rotha Dunja Movar |
| Preceded by | 1008 - Final Justice |
| Followed by | 1010 - It Lives by Night |
A German version of Shakespeare's Hamlet. This episode was released on DVD by Rhino Entertainment on the Volume 4 box set, and it's often the subject of debate among fans, many of whom claim the movie is too plodding and, well, boring to make for a good episode.
Contents |
The Movie
Synopsis
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Schell), returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. [1]
Trivia
- Claudius' English-dubbed voice was recorded by Ricardo Montalbán. [2]
The Episode
Host Segments
Prologue: Tom reveals that he's changed his last name from Servo to the identically pronounced but differently spelt Sirveaux. When also reveals he's added a h to his first name, changing it not to the expected Thom but to Htom, he gets less acclaim.
Segment One: While Crow introduces his new name change, Pearl puts the finishing touches on her deadly virus. But Mike is only interested in playing three card monty to decide the choice of today's movie. Easily winning the rigged game, Mike selects Hamlet, but makes the the mistake of allowing Pearl the choice of which production...
Segment Two: Crow & Tom's plan to scare Mike by pretending to be the ghost of his dead father falls apart due to the fact his dad isn't dead. As is every other relative the pair can name.
Segment Three: With the dreary German version covered, Tom & Crow attempt to come up with their own alternate productions of Hamlet. Their percussion version isn't that much more successful than the scuba diving, buckethead or all furniture versions they've tried.
Segment Four: It's time once again to play "Alas Poor Who?", the game where you have to guess the identity of the person based on a single bone from their body. Problems are encountered as Tom doesn't trust his answers, Crow doesn't answer in the correct form and with the lack of codpiece for Mike's costume.
Segment Five: The Bots have made their own Hamlet action figure, with a voice box that has a really, really long string to activate it. Meanwhile down in Castle Forrester the character Fortinbras resents being dropped from this movie's version of Hamlet and demands his scene be re-enacted, giving Pearl a worthy test subject for her virus.
Stinger: Claudius does a double take.
Other Notes
Guest Stars
- Fortinbras: Kevin Murphy
Obscure References
- "Run-D.M.C. Everett Koop!"
- Run-D.M.C. was a pioneering hip-hop group. C. Everett Koop was the Surgeon General of the United States during the Reagan administration.
- "Hamlet will return in Thunderball!"
- A reference to the "James Bond will return in..." taglines that frequently appear during the closing credits of James Bond movies. Thunderball was the fourth Bond film, released in 1965.
Video Release
- Commerically released on DVD by Rhino in November 2003 as part of The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Volume 4, a 4-DVD set with Space Mutiny, Girl in Gold Boots, and Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.
- The DVD features an intro by Mike Nelson, specifically taped for the release.
| preceded by: Season 9 | MST3K Season 10 | followed by: -- | ||||||
| 1999 | ||||||||
| 1001 | Soultaker | 1999-04-11 | 1006 | Boggy Creek II: and the Legend Continues… | 1999-05-09 | 1011 | Horrors of Spider Island | 1999-07-25 |
| 1002 | Girl in Gold Boots | 1999-04-18 | 1007 | Track of the Moon Beast | 1999-06-13 | 1012 | Squirm | 1999-08-01 |
| 1003 | Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders | 1999-09-12 | 1008 | Final Justice | 1999-06-20 | 1013 | Diabolik | 1999-08-08 |
| 1004 | Future War | 1999-04-25 | 1009 | Hamlet | 1999-06-27 | |||
| 1005 | Blood Waters of Dr. Z | 1999-05-02 | 1010 | It Lives by Night | 1999-07-18 | |||
