Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN
May 11, 2017 1:03 AM - Season 7, Episode 4 - Subscribe

"The First New Horror Creature... Come Prepared!" An irradiated astronaut returns to Earth and, horribly deformed, starts killing people. 'I Can't Believe It's Not Monster A-Go-Go!' Satellite News informs us that the host segments in this one, depicting Dr. F and Pearl making a film out of Crow's screenplay Earth Vs. Soup, were them getting even with Hollywood types who were the source of much pain during the making of MST: The Movie, and that their performances call back to specific people they met. Fan consensus is this is a very good episode, but I'm not a fan of gore myself so I've not seen it much. Everyone take note: after this, there are only two Comedy Central episodes left, and thus only two episodes remaining with Trace Beaulieu. YouTube (1h32m) Premiered February 24, 1996.

Episode 704 THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN
Satellite News - Mighty Jack's MST3K Review - War of the Colossal Fan Guide - Annotated MST3K

Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, entry by Mary Jo Pehl.

Movie
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
Rotten Tomatoes (Critics 8%, Viewers 25%) - Wikipedia
IMDB (1977, 3.8 stars)
"An astronaut is transformed into a murderous gelatinous mass after returning from an ill-fated space voyage."
Directed and written by William Sachs. Starring Alex Rebar, Burr DeBenning and Myron Healey.

Notes:
Wikipedia tells us some of the problems with this movie are a case of producer meddling. Director William Sachs was trying to make a parody horror movie, and it is said was inspired in his production by Night Of The Living Dead. Sachs has said the producers' new scenes harmed the film with inferior acting.

According to Daddy-O, an actress in this movie is Cheryl Smith, who appears here under the name Rainbeaux. She chose a screen name because, in a scene edited out of the MST version, she appears topless in a scene where she is assaulted by a photographer. There's a scene left in where she's crying in a squad car. She also appears, it turns out, two episodes later in 706 LASERBLAST.

The special effects of the astronaut's decaying flesh are considered to be well done by connoisseurs of the genre. I, sorry to say, am not one of them. Wikipedia tells us that four stages of decomposition were created by make-up artist Rick Baker, but the transformation ended up cut out of the film.
posted by JHarris (6 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This is from the end of Mary Jo Pehl's ACEG entry:
The host segments were an exercise in healing after our struggle to make the Mystery Science Theater movie. It was a difficult process, and not really fun at all -- working with the studio and all the attendant politics and creative roadblocks was really, really frustrating. We didn't have the freedom to be as irreverent and eclectic as we were in the TV show. We had to work with people who had silly names that they had made up for themselves. I remember at one point, while the studio shepherds in charge of MST3K: The Movie were in Minneapolis, it was during the height of the ubiquitous O.J. Simpson deal. The studio exec informed us over lunch that there was a big trial in Los Angeles with O.J. Simpson because he'd been accused of murdering his wife, and "had (we) heard anything about it out here?" It was like a hog-pile on our souls.
posted by JHarris at 1:11 AM on May 11, 2017


"I'm Dr. Ted Nelson!"

*BANG*
posted by Servo5678 at 6:04 AM on May 11, 2017 [3 favorites]


I think I have to watch this. When I was 15 I went to visit my older sister who lived in Soho (NY) and we went to this crappy old cinema and watched a double feature of Star Wars and The Incredible Melting Man. The only thing I remember about the movie was that at one point he shambles past a bush and his ear gets stuck to the bush and left behind, and the camera lingers on it for a moment. It was ridiculous. It looked like a dried apricot that had been dipped in strawberry jam.

Between movies there was noise from the lobby, then a guy holding a piece f stereo equipment comes running down the aisle and goes out one of the exits near the screen. A few seconds later a uniformed cop comes running in. People do the "he went thataway" thing and the cop goes running out the same exit.

Star Wars was awesome, despite the beat-up print they had.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:57 AM on May 11, 2017


I came in this thread for crackers. Are there crackers?
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:28 AM on May 11, 2017 [2 favorites]


There's a turkey leg, but only for Generals.
posted by Servo5678 at 11:59 AM on May 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


Notice going up a bit late....

Every week we in MST Club watch that week's episode together in a video sharing room. And with the recent release of Season 11, we've been watching episodes of both the new season and the classic series. This week we're doing this at https://www.rabb.it/rodneylives. Times and episodes:

7 PM ET / 4 PM PT: 1105 THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN
9 PM ET / 6 PM PT: 704 THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN

We've sometimes been doing another episode after 11 PM/8 PM, but I've had a lot of work to do lately and may not have time for it. We'll have to see.
posted by JHarris at 1:13 PM on May 11, 2017


« Older Fargo: The Narrow Escape Probl...   |  Star Trek: Voyager: Innocence... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments