Entertainment
 

Invasion USA

From MST3K

602 - Invasion USA
Air Date July 23, 1994
Movie Director Alfred E. Green
Year 1952
Cast Gerald Mohr, Peggie Castle, Dan O'Herlihy, Phyllis Coates, Noel Neill
Short A Date with Your Family
Preceded by 601 - Girls Town
Followed by 603 - The Dead Talk Back

Contents

The Short

A Date With Your Family

Synopsis

The short covers the basics for how to ensure you and your family have a pleasant and formal 1950's style family dinner. In other words, how to best repress your emotions and ensure a hollow and lifeless social interaction.

Information

  • One of the most fondly remembered shorts of the series.
  • This little gem was narrated by Hugh Beaumont.
  • This short was included on Shorts Vol 1, released by Rhino Entertainment on VHS in July 1998, and on DVD in Febuary 2003 as part of The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Volume 2, a 4-DVD set with Cave Dwellers, Pod People and Angels Revenge.

The Movie

Synopsis

The working title for this film should've been If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em. At the beginning of the movie we're treated to a host of everyday people in a bar (everyday people like Congressmen and guys that run factories on the West Coast and TV broadcasters--you know, the kind of people you see at the grocery store all the time.)

Each and every one of them thinks the military is getting too involved in their lives and business concerns.

The title of the movie should give you some idea of how the director and writer feel about that attitude.

Anyway, on with the plot summary: Apparently because the United States demobilized after World War II, it's easy prey to the Communists who, for no particular reason whatsoever, have decided to invade. See, the message of the movie is that people in the US have it too easy.

And that if you're a broadcaster, war is very good for your love life.

But mostly that people in the US have it too easy.

In furtherance of that idea, as previously mentioned, the US is invaded by prop planes (launched from heaven only knows where), and besieged by World War II stock footage. This, of course, causes no end of difficulties for the people in the bar.

Except the broadcaster. He totally gets lucky with the girl at the bar.

Ultimately, in a move that anticipates such breathtaking denouements as the Patrick Duffy shower scene in Dallas, or the final episode of Newhart, the director chickens out and reveals that the invasion is just a dream.

The movie closes with a quotation from George Washington that is used to imply that the Russians sure do know a thing or two about militarization, and that the US had better get on the stick and put military matters ahead of all else, just like them.

More to the point: Not until Invasion of the Neptune Men will World War II stock footage find so much use as a plot substitute.

Information

  • The hypnotist’s opening monologue chastises the “college boy” who “wants a stronger army AND a deferment for himself” and the “businessman” who “wants a bigger airforce AND a new Cadillac” and “the housewife” who “wants security AND an electric dishwasher.” It’s ironic that these supposedly anti-Communist declarations criticize Americans for behaving like Americans.
    • Then again, the movie’s unwitting subtext is that in order to defeat the Communists, Americans must be more like them -- Americans must be constantly willing to sacrifice, to give up personal possessions, hopes, and dreams. At the same time, it features Communists who take control of a factory and force its workers into slavery, which seems decidedly unlike the group behind the "Worker's Revolution." What we're saying is, the movie tries for social commentary, but doesn't really cut it.
  • Shot in seven days on a budget of $127,000, the movie manages to combine a number of wildly disparate elements into a 74-minute tour de force. 30% stock footage, 20% staged newscasts to explain the stock footage, 30% intense and mostly nonsensical propaganda and 20% inappropriate romantic melodrama: blended together, the movie plays like a Joseph McCarthy fever dream. Surprisingly, this is one of the few movies of the 50’s to earn over $1 million at the box office. Go figure.

The Episode

Host Segments

Prologue: Channelling his predecessor, Mike builds a robot. The Bots marvel over it, but alas its sole objective is destruction.

Segment One: Mike promises the Bots he won't build anymore robots. Dr. F decides it's science project time, and so Crow must choose between a soft, cuddly Dr. F doll or a stark wire robot mother. TV's Frank is the control group, and is dressed as a pincushion.

Segment Two: Inspired by the short, the SOL crew presents their own stilted and awkward "family date". It ends in chaos when Gypsy points out how boring things are.

Segment Three: Tom tricks Crow into giving a ridiculously detailed lecture, comparing and contrasting the two actresses who played Lois Lane on the 1950’s TV series The Adventures of Superman.

Segment Four: A game of Jenga is interrupted by a visit from "A. Bomb" on the Hexfield. He’s kinda bummed about the trend toward nuclear disarmament, but Mike cheers him up, which might not be a good thing.

Segment Five: Traumatized by the movie, Tom is convinced that life is but a dream. He insists that Mike hit him with a huge clown hammer. Mike reads a letter from a little girl who tells them, "You’re not missing much on Earth!" On patrol in Deep 13, Frank asks Dr. F "Who won the World Series?" Dr. F replies, "I did." Befuddled, Frank says, "D’okay"

Stinger: "Extra! Paper! America invaded! Read all about it!"

Other Notes

Guest Stars

Obscure References

  • "Sylvia?"

A reference to poet Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide by putting her head into an oven.

  • "There's a rabbit in there!"

A reference to the scene in Fatal Attraction where Michael Douglas' character discovers that Glenn Close's character has killed and cooked his daughter's pet rabbit.

  • "Madame Defarge waits in the living room!"

Madame Defarge was a character in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, who was depicted as constantly knitting.

  • "I'm moving to Fire Island, dear!"

Fire Island, New York has long been known as a center of gay culture.

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