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in: MST3K Episodes, Season 10, Foreign Film

Changes: MST3K 1011 - Horrors of Spider Island

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*''"The Dixie Chicks go big game hunting!"''
  
*''"The Dixie Chicks go big game hunting!"''
 
The Dixie Chicks are a country music trio that were at their peak of popularity when this episode originally aired. Their popularity would decrease drastically after they made some controversial remarks about President George w. Bush.
  
The Dixie Chicks are a country music trio that were at their peak of popularity when this episode originally aired. Their popularity would decrease drastically after they made some controversial remarks about President George w. Bush.
  +
*''"She's from Minnesota."  "Their governor's a huge bald Nazi."''
  +
At the time of this show's original airing, that was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura Jesse Ventura] .  I will leave it up to you to decide how fair a statemetn that may be.
 
*''"So, Minnesota. That must be passive-aggressive." ''
  
*''"So, Minnesota. That must be passive-aggressive." ''
   

Revision as of 01:25, 2 September 2014

The Movie

Synopsis

En route to a show in Singapore, a troupe of dancers and their box shaped manager crash near an apparently deserted island. After washing up on the beach like so many dead carp, the gals (with some help from old 'pants-up-to-his-armpits') coo and sigh their way to a cabin previously occupied by a professor in search of the official trope of all bad monster movies: Pitchblende (uranium).

Radioactivity has wreaked havoc on the island's spiders giving them the strange ability to turn men into, well, fur faced vampires. Except for the duration of the movie, it would appear there is really one one actual spider, who makes a quick exit.

Later the girls are 'rescued' by a couple of leering dirtbags, who came to the island to bring fresh supplies to the dead professor.

But don't let this plot summary distract you from the movie's real goal: Filling the screen with lots and lots of skin and skimpy clothing. The girls very quickly determine the island's climate to be too warm for a normal amount of clothing. The climate is also apparently capable of causing people to make poor relationship decisions, or at least that is the excuse they give afterward.

And, please, let's take time to thank Marie and Pierre Curie for discovering radioactivity and Hans Geiger for inventing the Geiger Counter. Why without those discoveries can you imagine what these monster movies would've been reduced to, in order to explain giant insects, arachnids, lizards, octopuses, fish, shrews, and people? Where would The Incredible Melting Man be? Or the Amazing Colossal Man? Or The Beast of Yucca Flats? Or our own Bob Box-Body, the "Horror of Spider Island"?

Yes, like Bronson Canyon, V2 stock footage, spacious and sparsely furnished spaceship cockpits, general confusion about interstellar distances, and radar, radioactivity has made our lives richer. Please support radioactivity where you work or shop.

Information

Originally released in German as "Ein Toter hing im Netz" or "A Corpse Hangs In the Web", which explains the horrible dubbing.[1]

The first release in the US (1962) was titled "It's Hot In Paradise" and featured several scenes that were a bit too racy for general circulation. It was subsequently recut and released as "Horrors of Spider Island" (1965)[2]

Barbara Valentin, the buxom blonde that Mike comments looks a bit like "Clint Howard", was a girlfriend and long-time associate of Freddie Mercury.

The Episode

Host Segments

1011-2

Prologue: Crow has a syndicated column in several major newspapers. Mike doesn't appreciate his keen observational powers. Tom is a big fan.

Segment 1: Pearl decides to move the castle in order to avoid the rising costs of a monkey license. Brain Guy protests, but Bobo is thrilled.

Segment 2: Mike clumsily stumbles into the Bots' obvious giant spider web.

Segment 3: Mike is auditioning dancers in Castle Forrester a la Gary. Brain Guy's Flashdance gets his legs crossed in a hurry.

Segment 4: Crow wonders if the movie's portrayal of women after a plane crash is accurate.

Segment 5: Mike's been turned into a Spider! Except...not really. Meanwhile, The Mads decide to move the castle yet again. Bobo makes a chance discovery in a truckstop men's room, and Pearl decides it's time for "the talk."

Stinger: Stock footage of a plane crash makes the girls scream.

Obscure References

  • "I give Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a B-plus"

Scalia is a notoriously conservative jurist. Mike pronounces his last name "SKAL-ya" while it is more commonly pronounced "skal-EE-ya".

  • "Barbara Valentine. That's an acronym for A-bra-bra Navelnite."

Crow meant an anagram.

  • "Finally, I can read Savage Love!"

Savage Love is a sex-advice column widely syndicated in "alternative" weekly newspapers. It is written by Dan Savage.

  • "That's my Hai Karate!"

Hai Karate was a men's aftershave from the 1970s.

  • "I've gotta go back and get Camryn Manheim - this may take a while."

Actress Camryn Manheim is best known for playing Ellenor Frutt on the TV series The Practice. The joke is that Manheim is very overweight.

  • "I see a tall Spaniard in a white suit, with a midget!"

A reference to the TV show Fantasy Island, which featured the white-suited Mr. Roarke (played by Ricardo Montalbán) and his diminutive sidekick Tattoo (played by Herve Villechaize).

  • "And Hedonism II is born!"

Hedonism II is a nudist resort in Jamaica.

  • "Let's go visit Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins!"

A reference to the stars of the 1980 movie The Blue Lagoon, in which a very young couple is stranded on an island.

  • "Excuse me, Charo?"

Charo is a Spanish-American comedian, who derives much of her act from her very thick (and sometimes incomprehensible) Spansih accent.

  • "We've got spirit...yes we do...we've got spirit...how 'bout you..." "MRxL."

A callback to the opening host segment of The Giant Spider Invasion.

  • "I've got feet like Billy Pilgrim."

Billy Pilgrim is the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five.

  • "Unfortunately, they were picked up by Captain Ron!"

Captain Ron was a 1992 comedy movie starring Kurt Russell as an unkempt boat captain of questionable ability..

  • "Damn Californian, it never helps anyone!"

The SS Californian was a British steamship that was nearby the HMS Titanic when it sank, but did nothing to help.

  • "Tuns out they were on Catalina."

Santa Catalina Island is just off the coast of southern California, about 20 miles from Los Angeles.

  • "The Dixie Chicks go big game hunting!"

The Dixie Chicks are a country music trio that were at their peak of popularity when this episode originally aired. Their popularity would decrease drastically after they made some controversial remarks about President George w. Bush.

  • "She's from Minnesota."  "Their governor's a huge bald Nazi."

At the time of this show's original airing, that was Jesse Ventura .  I will leave it up to you to decide how fair a statemetn that may be.

  • "So, Minnesota. That must be passive-aggressive."

Mike was referring to the fact that some consider "Minnesota Nice" as a form of passive-aggressiveness because it can be a forced politeness.

  • "Minnesota, huh? Boy that Harold Stassen is a bright young face."

Harold Stassen was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943.

  • "So, is he strong?" "Is he strong? LISTEN BUD, HE'S GOT RADIOACTIVE BLOOD! Is he strong? Just ticks me off..."

A reference to the theme song of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon (You know, the "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can" one).




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