Reviews (45)

Laughing out loud
Ever notice that you don't really laugh out loud when you're alone? Well, while sitting on the couch alone on a Sunday afternoon, this movie made me laugh until I hurt. Give the MST3K folks a movie with no plot and horrible acting and they'll turn it into on of the funniest things you've ever seen.

The (supposed) plot: scientist builds atomic hearing aid - Rat Fink and his agents steal it - Batwoman and her clan of scantily clad Batgirls save the day. Trashy? Yes. Awful? Yes. Entertaining? Absolutely.

Coupled with the "Cheating" short, this is one of the best episodes of MST3K I've seen. The typically unpredictable combination of obscure cultural references and Ye Olde Scatological Humour can cater to all of your comic sensibilities and leave you exhausted and begging for more.

"You're Speaking in Chinese Again!"
This is the original uncut version of 'The Wild, Wild World of Batwoman', as director Jerry Warren wanted it seen. The world was not ready for it when it was made and it still isn't. Most people know this film from Mystery Science Theatre 3000, where it was one of their most diabolical experiments ever. This is the un-MST version, so you are on your own. Good luck.

This is one of my favorite MST episodes because this movie is so unbelievably bad. Rarely has a film been so badly conceptualized, scripted, acted and directed. For lack of viability, I think that the only movie to top this is Warren's own "Frankenstein Island", where Katherine Victor plays Shelia Frankenstein. Here she plays Batwoman. Batwoman and her Batgirls spend the movie fighting crime against a dizzying array of bad guys (including the Mole People) but in the end are able to save the atomic powered hearing aid and, thus, civilization. If this sounds like a mess, that's not the half of it. This movie must be seen to be appreciated.

Five stars for staggering ineptitude on the part of every single person involved with this film. It is a work of grade Z genius!

Terrible - in a good way!
It is a testament to the immense talent of the Mystery Science Theater folk that they managed to turn such a horrible piece of rubbish as "The Wild World of Batwoman," into an uproarious comedy, worthy of being watched over and over and over again.

The plot is simple. I think. If there is a plot. Whatever it was supposed to be, it seems to involve a hearing aid (a "very large and ungainly hearing aid," to quote Crow), a mad scientist, a middle-aged woman in an uncomfortably revealing costume (and her cult of scantily-clad "batgirls"), monsters, cobalt, soup, guns, and dancing. The whole mess is bewilderingly incoherent, and at the film's climax (was there even a climax?) Mike expresses the audience's frustration by begging for an explanation - "What about the hearing aid?! Am I crazy? Wasn't that the PLOT?!" During the final scene of the movie, Tom loses it altogether, screaming "END!! END!!"

The movie is preceeded by a preachy short on the evils of cheating, which leads to some cheating-related friction in the Satellite of Love. Luckily, all is worked out in the end, with the help of Hostess Snowballs.

If only Batwoman had had some Hostess Snowballs, perhaps things would have made sense in her world, too. One can only wonder.

Buy this tape!

"Looks like Casual Day at Control Data"
Zounds -- the sight of our zoftig hero is enough to make even Luke Skywalker go over to the Dark Side. One of the most deliciously bad movies EVER, and Mike and the 'bots give it the full treatment it deserves. Store these images away for future nighmares: The wild scene with everyone swinging on ropes, while the soundtrack reverberates with "Ellie Mae goes to the see-ment pond"; Count how many times the Norm Crosby lookalike says "little doll,"; and finally Batwoman playing the organ (where's Al Lewis when you need him?) in her "hideout" that looks like part of Levittown. Who knew that drugs were such a problem in Hollywood, so early on? Don't try to figure it out - just let the wave roll over you and swim with it.

Where do they FIND this stuff??
This is one of my favorite MST3000 episodes, a true feast for bad-movie fans. It features not one, but two bizarre films to be spoofed. The first, an oh-so-earnest fifties-era industrial black & white short on "cheating," contains some of the worst performances I have seen in a long time. The director tried to make his film look surreal and Bergmannesque, a delusion of grandeur that results in some very funny comments from the MST3K team. The robot interludes, typically the least funny parts of an episode, here play off the short and deliver some great comedic interplay.

The second film and main attraction, "The Wild World of Batwoman," is almost incomprehensibly bad. This is the kind of film that could only have been made in the 1960s. You keep asking yourself, was this intended to be hilariously weird, or was the director simply on a par with, say, Ed Wood? Batwoman herself looks ridiculous, with a lumpy frumpy shock of a haircut, a cheap black mask and a bat tattooed right above her pulchitrudinous cleavage. She bears no resemblance whatsoever to a DC comics character. Her "bat-girls," decked out in bikinis for most of the film, spend most of their time either go-go dancing or obsessively reciting chapter and verse of the arcane bat-regulations.

The director's obsession with food is worthy of a Jan Svankmajer film. In the beginning, the girls force a newbie to drink what is supposed to look like blood, later explaining that it is only a synthetic substitute. Later on, there is a plot about drugged soup that makes people dance compulsively. Some of the scenes are so bizarre (but politically incorrect) that they would have been funny even without the MST3K commments...a seance interrupted by a disembodied voice screaming in ersatz Chinese, or the villains donning disguises that look like something out of Yiddish theater.

One of the characters, who looks something like Martin Mull, sits motionless for about five minutes during an interminably stupid and boring scene. When we later discover his dark secret, which puts him on a par with Robin Williams in "One Hour Photo," the moment is so badly bungled that we can only sigh and go on to the next absurdity.

If you are a MST3K fan, this one is for you. If you are not, give it a try. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Man Beast - Jerry Warren's Most Entertaining Film
Okay, I realize that's not saying much, but this is an entertaining picture much in the way that Ed Wood and Phil Tucker movies are entertaining. This is one of the 3 Abominable Snowman pictures released in the 50's. This version is much better than the BORING Snow Creature and more campy than Hammer's Abominable Snowman. Plot involves a young woman in search of her brother who is on an expedition to find the Yeti. Warren has stolen some footage of mountain climbing, but obviously spent more time trying to match the footage in this film versus his other spliced up messes.

There is enough plot information in the Editorial review and the VHS review. Let's discuss the merits of the DVD. As with most Rhino DVD's, you get the movie and that's it. The picture is okay. Not spectacular, but not bad. Certainly nowhere close to an Image Entertainment release, but much better than a Retromedia DVD. Unlike other Rhino DVD's, the sound is consistent and you don't have to crank the sound on your TV. This version is certainly acceptable and worth the low price.

Not a great film, but not as bad as advertised.
True, it would be difficult to come up with a list of three people with worse filmographies than the director of Man-Beast, Jerry Warren. But he evidently had not learned enough to do absolutely everything wrong yet in this 1956 creature feature, his first foray into flicks. The acting is lousy, the budget is minuscule, the direction is bad (when it's not stock footage) and the overall film-making quality is negligible, but somehow it manages to be more entertaining than its more intelligent and more highly-regarded Hammer counterpart, The Abominable Snowman. This is due primarily, in my thinking, to the fact that we ACTUALLY SEE THE MONSTERS (cheap and lumpy though they be)! Yes, I know, a gradual build-up of suspense is important, and one never wants to reveal too much too soon, but in the Cushing film that revelation is the whole point. A thousand pardons to zealous Val Guest fans, but whoopty-doo. Man-Beast builds to an adequately satisfying suspense climax, and the motivations of the titular character(s) and their cat's paw are pressingly evil, ringing more true than in the later film. In addition, some of the action in Man-Beast takes place in darkness. In "Snowman" it is mostly in the light, or else in badly-composed day for-night scenes. Still, if you don't like fairly ludicrous 50's drive-in fare, there is no way you will be able to stomach Man-Beast. Yet again, if you don't like fairly ludicrous 50's drive-in fare, you wouldn't click on a movie called Man-Beast. Sit back, enjoy, and experience a time we will never recapture. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Man Beast - Jerry Warren's Most Entertaining Film
Okay, I realize that's not saying much, but this is an entertaining picture much in the way that Ed Wood and Phil Tucker movies are entertaining. This is one of the 3 Abominable Snowman pictures released in the 50's. This version is much better than the BORING Snow Creature and more campy than Hammer's Abominable Snowman. Plot involves a young woman in search of her brother who is on an expedition to find the Yeti. Warren has stolen some footage of mountain climbing, but obviously spent more time trying to match the footage in this film versus his other spliced up messes.

There is enough plot information in the Editorial review and the VHS review. Let's discuss the merits of the DVD. As with most Rhino DVD's, you get the movie and that's it. The picture is okay. Not spectacular, but not bad. Certainly nowhere close to an Image Entertainment release, but much better than a Retromedia DVD. Unlike other Rhino DVD's, the sound is consistent and you don't have to crank the sound on your TV. This version is certainly acceptable and worth the low price.

Not a great film, but not as bad as advertised.
True, it would be difficult to come up with a list of three people with worse filmographies than the director of Man-Beast, Jerry Warren. But he evidently had not learned enough to do absolutely everything wrong yet in this 1956 creature feature, his first foray into flicks. The acting is lousy, the budget is minuscule, the direction is bad (when it's not stock footage) and the overall film-making quality is negligible, but somehow it manages to be more entertaining than its more intelligent and more highly-regarded Hammer counterpart, The Abominable Snowman. This is due primarily, in my thinking, to the fact that we ACTUALLY SEE THE MONSTERS (cheap and lumpy though they be)! Yes, I know, a gradual build-up of suspense is important, and one never wants to reveal too much too soon, but in the Cushing film that revelation is the whole point. A thousand pardons to zealous Val Guest fans, but whoopty-doo. Man-Beast builds to an adequately satisfying suspense climax, and the motivations of the titular character(s) and their cat's paw are pressingly evil, ringing more true than in the later film. In addition, some of the action in Man-Beast takes place in darkness. In "Snowman" it is mostly in the light, or else in badly-composed day for-night scenes. Still, if you don't like fairly ludicrous 50's drive-in fare, there is no way you will be able to stomach Man-Beast. Yet again, if you don't like fairly ludicrous 50's drive-in fare, you wouldn't click on a movie called Man-Beast. Sit back, enjoy, and experience a time we will never recapture. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Man Beast - Jerry Warren's Most Entertaining Film
Okay, I realize that's not saying much, but this is an entertaining picture much in the way that Ed Wood and Phil Tucker movies are entertaining. This is one of the 3 Abominable Snowman pictures released in the 50's. This version is much better than the BORING Snow Creature and more campy than Hammer's Abominable Snowman. Plot involves a young woman in search of her brother who is on an expedition to find the Yeti. Warren has stolen some footage of mountain climbing, but obviously spent more time trying to match the footage in this film versus his other spliced up messes.

There is enough plot information in the Editorial review and the VHS review. Let's discuss the merits of the DVD. As with most Rhino DVD's, you get the movie and that's it. The picture is okay. Not spectacular, but not bad. Certainly nowhere close to an Image Entertainment release, but much better than a Retromedia DVD. Unlike other Rhino DVD's, the sound is consistent and you don't have to crank the sound on your TV. This version is certainly acceptable and worth the low price.

Not a great film, but not as bad as advertised.
True, it would be difficult to come up with a list of three people with worse filmographies than the director of Man-Beast, Jerry Warren. But he evidently had not learned enough to do absolutely everything wrong yet in this 1956 creature feature, his first foray into flicks. The acting is lousy, the budget is minuscule, the direction is bad (when it's not stock footage) and the overall film-making quality is negligible, but somehow it manages to be more entertaining than its more intelligent and more highly-regarded Hammer counterpart, The Abominable Snowman. This is due primarily, in my thinking, to the fact that we ACTUALLY SEE THE MONSTERS (cheap and lumpy though they be)! Yes, I know, a gradual build-up of suspense is important, and one never wants to reveal too much too soon, but in the Cushing film that revelation is the whole point. A thousand pardons to zealous Val Guest fans, but whoopty-doo. Man-Beast builds to an adequately satisfying suspense climax, and the motivations of the titular character(s) and their cat's paw are pressingly evil, ringing more true than in the later film. In addition, some of the action in Man-Beast takes place in darkness. In "Snowman" it is mostly in the light, or else in badly-composed day for-night scenes. Still, if you don't like fairly ludicrous 50's drive-in fare, there is no way you will be able to stomach Man-Beast. Yet again, if you don't like fairly ludicrous 50's drive-in fare, you wouldn't click on a movie called Man-Beast. Sit back, enjoy, and experience a time we will never recapture. ... Read more