FanFare

MST Club presents! The Devil Bat was released in 1940, and stars Bela Lugosi, who--get this--invents an aftershave lotion that causes giant bats to attack the wearers. All, um, according to plan? Premiered November 2022.
posted by JHarris on Oct 24, 2024 - 1 comment

The dashing, mysterious Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), after hypnotizing a British soldier, Renfield (Dwight Frye), into his mindless slave, travels to London and takes up residence in an old castle. Soon Dracula begins to wreak havoc, sucking the blood of young women and turning them into vampires. When he sets his sights on Mina (Helen Chandler), the daughter of a prominent doctor, vampire-hunter Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) is enlisted to put a stop to the count's never-ending bloodlust. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Oct 21, 2022 - 5 comments

Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi and Julian Sands narrate the Edgar Allan Poe stories "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" and "The Masque of the Red Death" in this animated anthology of five tales adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's stories. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Sep 13, 2022 - 1 comment

Rewatch! An Ed Wood movie with Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson that isn't Plan 9 From Outer Space, it's still quite, quite awful. This episode also has part 1 of "Hired!", the Chevrolet/Jam Handy short. Previously
posted by JHarris on Nov 15, 2020 - 1 comment

Rewatch! Bela Lugosi plays a mad scientist who extracts brain juice from young brides to keep his wife young, because that's a thing that works. Come on, if it did Trump would be trying to suck it out of people's heads with a drinking straw. Both this and the previous movie are among the oldest films MST ever did, made in 1942. There's another Commando Cody short too, and some classic sketches, such as the robots saying bedtime prayers and the haircut bit. Previously
posted by JHarris on Mar 12, 2020 - 3 comments

"The Screen's Master of the Weird... In His Newest and Most Daring Shocker!" The movie described is, in fact, one of notorious director Ed Wood's most infamous, and stars Bela Lugosi in his last speaking role. Some of the events of the making of the film, including the one where Lugosi thrashes around in rubber octopus tentacles, are depicted in Tim Burton's wonderful movie Ed Wood. With short, the first half of Hired!: an internal promotional and training film for Chevrolet, the 50s equivalent of that video they make new Wendy's employees watch. He tampered in God's domain! In addition to Wood as director and Lugosi as mad scientist, this film features the screen presence of Tor Johnson. BRIDE OF THE MONSTER is another example of a movie known for badness, but is at least watchable, which is more than you can say for Coleman Francis' work, or indeed the movie we're watching NEXT WEEK.... It seems the BotM got a sequel, Night of the Ghouls, that was finished four years later but didn't get released until 1987. YouTube (YouTube 1h32m) Premiered January 23, 1993. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Mar 31, 2016 - 4 comments

An ambitious but troubled movie director tries his best to fulfill his dream, despite his lack of support. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Feb 13, 2016 - 15 comments

Two hapless freight handlers find themselves encountering Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Oct 13, 2015 - 2 comments

(1948, B&W, Lippert, Adventure, Short) Pilots land in Africa to search for Greta, an heiress lost in a crash at a young age. Now she's worshiped as a goddess by a native tribe. Greta and Pilot Mike must overcome the machinations of both the tribe witch doctor and the other pilot to make to back safely to hamburger sandwiches and french-fried potatoes. A fairly good episode mocking a movie with some pretty unfortunate racial stereotypes. Also: The Phantom Creeps, part 1: Bela Lugosi is Dr. Zorka, who threatens the world with his inventions: a goofy-looking robot and a collection of explosive walking Ding-Dongs. YouTube (1h38m) First aired October 6, 1990. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Jan 21, 2015 - 8 comments

(1942, B&W, Horror) -- Young brides are spontaneously dying at the altar, deaths engineered by the mad scientist Dr. Lorenz, who then steals the bodies to extract youth juice to inject into his aged wife. YouTube A Bela Lugosi "classic," and one of the oldest movies MST ever did. Riffing quality level isn't as high as 104, but is improved over 103. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Jun 11, 2014 - 5 comments