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I wrote another review that was censored. I wonder if this cartoon is shown at colleges as a subject to critique? Obvious stereotypes of Asians and popular Hollywood Blac actors of the time. But if the viewer looks closer, whether they are all white and other, they are a team. And they are together not as a race but as a species, dolls (humans). W. C. Makes approaches on a black woman in this and is rebuffed (indicating equality). W. C. Also hangs out out with another non-white doll They are all a team. The doll cartoon characters here seem very happy hanging out with the other race doll types, lol. I watched this to see Bud .Duncan (thinking it was a live film, not a cartoon) but he's not portrayed art wise here, only as a doll (the police doll), his star in the silent films had already fallen, sad. Great cartoon, a Disney with Mickey Mouse on the title but no mouse in it. Also United Artists. Its great to watch I love the teamwork of all the races and sexes of the characters! Every character is very respectful (unless you count WC slapping the black woman, but he apologized).

I found this to be a really funny cartoon. Made in the 1920s and later reimaged in color with sound effects, I prefer the newer 1930 version. For those wondering why they are using whistle effects for the voices, why not? It worked for Peanuts decades later for the adult's voices. Besides, Mutt and Jeff shorts were also remade in the 1970s with voices using the silent film versions and colorizing them or using the 1930 color version and adding voices and splicing it together as a feature film. One of the voice actors has been in dozens of films as a character actor short guy type (Robert Weil). The voices added nothing to the cartoons and I think hurt them more then helped. BTW, a really crazy movie of Mutt and Jeff with a exotic dancer spliced in, perhaps it was for the adult film circuit but my Mom dropped me off to watch it on a Sunday morning and I fell asleep, it was so bad (called The Weird Adventures of Mutt & Jeff and Bugoff). Back to this film, I have seen both the black and white and colorized version, the gags are great. I don't know who would win, Popeye the Sailor or Jeff in a fight. Popeye would definitely need his spinach to take on Jeff, lol. I would imagine a fight between them as like when Popeye is trying to catch Eugene the Jeep. The animation wasn't Disney from the 1930s, (but looking at Disney animation for the 1920s, when this was made, this was actually better, and it wasn't Hannah Barbera 1958 TV show bad quality either). 10 of 10, any Mutt and Jeff fan would agree!

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I have this series on DVD but now rarely watch discs (I'm lazy), so when I found this free, on demand, streaming on one of the free with commercial streamers (Pluto), I decided to check it out. I've watched many OL episodes over my boomer life but there are a few that remain unseen, this was one of them. I watched it with my wife, over dinner, probably the way most people watched it when it first aired (although now we have mush bigger TVs!). She seemed engaged by it, which is always good. The premise of the story is that extraterrestrials (or maybe demons? Lol) are controlling humans in powerful positions to take over the world for their species. This is a recurrent plot in sci-fi. There are probably films that predate it but the earliest I can think of a film with aliens (not talking about zombies or vampires controlled by others) is the 1953 film Invaders From Mars. Very similar concept of the alien injecting a human in the back of the neck. Roger Corman would also do it in 1956 with It Conquered The World, starring Lee Van Cleef, Peter Graves and Beverley Garland, a must watch if you really enjoyed The Invisibles and have not watched it yet. "It" was riffed on MST3K and its awesome but I enjoyed it by itself as well. Again, this is the alien in the back of the neck injection action, so we can see a pattern here. Of course the most famous alien injecting itself into humans is in the "Alien" franchise which is still making big budget films in 2024. I had to go back and look for Richard Dawson, his role here was so different then his usual cool Limey roles, I forgot it was him! Any fan of George Macready will really like him here, he has one crazy scene that breaks his polished mold into a thousand pieces! Analyzing all the sci fi things he was in, to me, he is like the 1960s version on Lionel Atwill. BTW, check him out in the other OL episode he was in, "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" (which also has a pre Spock, Leonard Nimoy). Everyone will notice Walter Burke, the hobbit looking guy. But what probably makes this a higher rated episode then the average OL is Don Gordon! He pulls it off for my suspension of belief. My rating and my overall entertainment factor is 7 out of 10. Judging by the number of reviews on this one episode (almost 20), its a good episode! BTW, if you look for this on Pluto they have two choices, an episode that is streaming now and one that says watch now, the later choice will take you to the episode list to chose which one to watch. As much as you may want to binge on this series, its probably best to watch it over a long period of time because the show can seem repetitive if one episode is watched right after another (the same dramatic music doesn't help, lol).

This early talking film (one of the first made in England), is not so much a great film, but it's fun to watch due to it's predictions of how the near future will be. Made in 1929, it predicts a world in 1940 where a lot of change has happened in roughly 10 years. Instead of a UK and USA, the continents have all been consolidated to a Atlantic States (USA, Canada, Mexico all together) and the European States (The UK and Western Europe together), as well as all the other continents together in their respective places like Africa and Asia. Despite this nation consolidation, there is still the threat of world war, with a border incident beginning the tensions. The message of the film seems to be for a one world government to prevent future world wars. It ends with a courtroom trial which doesn't help the story end very well. Is it really a 7? Well, no. But as a film geek, seeing anything early talkie is interesting for me to watch just to see how films evolved into the sound era. This film has a lot of things going on in the world yet it seems pretty slow paced despite its short run time. The best entertainment is seeing the "future" where everyone has a flat screen TV that also acts as a video phone. A DJ that uses automated instruments to replicate an orchestra. Funny thing is, the technology changed but they still listened to 1920s flapper music, lol. An English Channel Tunnel is real in this film, 60+ years before reality. Automatic sliding doors like in Star Trek with intercom buzzers and many other future predictions that I missed. My rating for the film itself is like a 5, but when you factor in cool stuff like a first English made talking film and future world war and all the advances humanity has made, I give this a 7. My main gripes with the film are, the dialog is over extended (boring too) and the ending is silly. SPOILER, the Doctor didn't shoot first, so why wasn't this self defense? Why are they so progressive in the future but still have a death penalty? Also was that scene really necessary to end the film, or was it just padding to get it over a 1 hour length? As another reviewer suggested, the silent version is probably more entertaining to watch, I don't think I'll re-watch the film in its silent version but something to keep in mind if you have access to both. BTW, look for Raymond Massey in a speaking role (his first film) who was also in the HG Wells future world war film, Things to Come.

This film made me laugh, more then once too! Plus its an early Dan Blocker film before Bonanza! Emil Sitka has a role on the Stooge's side instead of being against them like he seems to usually be. The film Pal Joey is plugged here and since its from the same studio, Columbia, and released the same year, this probably played as a short before it in the theaters. Joe Besser is really hated in Stooge land but hey, I'm a fan of his work on other shows like playing Stinky on the Abbott and Costello Show. A role that has been revived in the 1990s with TV's Frank character on Mystery Science Theater 3000. "I'll harm you!" So I get that Joe Besser didn't like getting slapped around when he joined the Stooges and to me that's a positive because the boys have to find other jokes and they do here. Besides Larry now took the brunt of the slaps and here gets hammered with Moe, among other playfulness. These Besser shorts are better then most of the Stooge feature length films, in my opinion. And unlike later Shemp films, the stories don't seem to be remakes of earlier Stooge films, I don't remember them going to a planet before this one! Also, they were still orientated to a general movie audience, not the kiddie show scripts with Curly Joe DeRita. I recommend it. Don't be a Stooge snob, or 'I'll harm you!

This is a notoriously censored early Beavis and Butthead episode. Its basically in the show's first 5 episodes, including its Liquid Television shorts. The show got instantly popular and probably propelled MTV away from expensively made music videos to TV geared for young adults (myself included if you include late 20s-early 30s when I watched this on broadcast cable TV). I watched this many times before and thought I'd show my wife for a laugh and realized that I watched a censored version as I never saw the cat getting painted scene. As a lover of cats and pets, I thought that was cringed but I laughed at it anyway. Am I like Mr Anderson? If you served in the military and are older now, how can you not identify with Mr Anderson, lol. This early BB episode features drug use, similar to the next time they would meet Mr Anderson, when they washed his poor dog. As a Cheech and Chong fan before, I found this very funny, but not good role models for the kids, lol. 10 out of 10.

As a LiL Abner fan (of sorts) from the papers, I found this pretty good! Someone "restored" this and posted it on Youtube using black and white version parts to fill in for (I guess) missing color parts, if that was the case they did a good job. Its posted as the title "Amoozin' But Confoozin', if you are looking for it. I had never noticed "A Columbia Favorite" brand of cartoons before so that was a nice discovery for me, maybe the title cards were changed if they were shown later on TV. Grannie is like Popeye here which Columbia was also making cartoons of, so I guess they have privilege to use his mannerisms here. The artwork is a nice 1940s quality. All in all, it seems it's not getting a lot of love from cartoon enthusiasts but I thought it was interesting and funny at times. I enjoyed it better then the live action musical, I'll look for the others they made now! 7 of 10, especially if you are a LA fan.

It's strange, or maybe not so strange, that I am in my 60s and have watched Sanford and Son for decades in reruns sometimes very frequently, but I never watched Happy Birthday, Pop. I am familiar with first season Sanford and Son though. Have you noticed that Fred was much more set in his ways in the first season, at least as far as race, sexuality, gender and religion goes? This is why I think I never watched this on commercial or cable TV in reruns. Here Fred (Foxx doing some great stand up comedy), makes fun of the Whites, the Jews, and the Chinese! If you ever watch Red Foxx doing stand up on places like Youtube you will material like this (though with profanity). I loved it, laughing at every line he said. Man, Fred really upset Lamont in this but before they went out they were almost fighting too! 10 of 10, it may offend, I laughed at the white jokes (and the other jokes too, lol). BTW, I watched it on Tubi, very few commercials, not like the old days, they actually have it available!

I really enjoyed this one because its kind of different. There are scenes with Larry alone and there is an epic pie skit with just Moe and Shemp. Overall, we get to watch the Stooges perform some nursery rhymes (very funny), and there is a large amount of violent humor as well! Shemp gets destroyed in more then one skit, poor Shemp, lol. I like that Larry is the only one acting like he is playing a violin seeing his musical background is as a violinist (probably an inside joke thing). Being made in the 1940s there are a few jokes that may go over the head for 2024 viewers like wolf calls and BO (body order). Shemp gets the last laugh by himself in the film. A different Stooges short, I enjoyed it, 9 out of 10.

Awesome low budget film by Walter Hill. Brian Donlevy's final performance (remember him in Beau Geste? "I promise you!", lol), AND SIG HAIG WHO CANT DRIVE IN REALITY! Seriously, with all those very memorable cult film names AND throw in Richard Davalos and the Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn, I mean come on, this is grade A drive in material. I like the very end though when the Star Trek actor, Beverly Washburn, has the last line. That's how you will remember the whole picture. I luckily found this on Amazon prime a ways back but have seen it posted elsewhere since. I would recommend this with the 1964 film The Killers to get a double dose of drive in racing action. RIP, all those memorable actors who have now passed but especially Brian, Richard and Sid. Thanks for a wild ride!

There are some Mutt and Jeff haters out here in the 100 years later world. The IMdb score is again a low under 5.5 score. I really enjoyed this in its repackaged form using whizzo sound effects and in color, I'm sure I'd also like the original, I guess I'm a Mutt and Jeff fan. I notice a lot of similarity to the later Tom and Jerry cartoons (the cat and mouse ones and also the human cartoon team from the 1930s), Jerry the mouse even reminds me of Jeff here when Mutt keeps disrespecting him, first with the girl Jeff is trying to attract and then Mutt calling Jeff, "boy". Jeff is just really steaming angry (much like Jerry would do) and this is used as the reason why Jeff accidently does a switcheroo with the pep drops instead of the soda syrup. Those pep drops say on the label 2 drops per dose, so when the customers get 500 drops in their soda instead of syrup, you can understand what happens in a cartoon next. Then Jeff has a serious altercation with the world and that includes a dozen police. Hilarity ensues. Because many of the themes were used in cartoons later, I'm giving this a 10 out of 10. This was released originally in silent black and white and then repackaged in a film colorized with dialog around 1973, called The Weird Adventures of Mutt & Jeff and Bugoff and shown with other colorized M&J shorts and spliced together a couple of ways with a belly dancer segment once and shown at the 16MM circuit theaters. Then they repackaged it again as just silent with sound effect colorized shorts separately for TV sale. The film with the belly dancers is horrible but may be of interest to obscure film lovers. I think I saw it on a Saturday morning as a kid in 1973 and fell asleep, lol. 10 of 10 for the silent versions!

I was taken aback that this has a pretty low overall rating under 6. Domestic Difficulties has a lot of rough edges to it. Plus its silent and in black and white so some viewers may dismiss it and not be entertained. As another contributor has said, there is reptation in the movements and you can see a lot of the scenes are using the same drawings. BUT, the material is hilarious! The humor starts nuanced where Mutt (who's wife calls him Augustus here) is sitting at home stroking a banjo or small guitar acting like a regular boy scout saying "yes Dear" to everything his wife demands of him. This is very similar in premise to the 1930 Laurel and Hardy film, Blotto, predating it by 14 years; when Mutt telephones Jeff to meet him for drinks after he gets away from his wife. The boys eventually get out thinking the coast is clear (its not) and get smashed drunk. Which, after personally being in that situation before, with everything spinning around, is hilarious. I played this twice, the second time with my wife and she was greatly amused also, especially the end when the boys come back to Mutt's home. I watched this on the internet, its public domain and easy to find. Thinking that this funny adult humor is from 1916 gives it extra star ratings in my book, kind of dirty! 10 of 10!

This is a really good Columbo episode. I just watched it after frankly giving up on Columbo for a few years after watching it for decades, but I had never watched this one. It was on Roku Channel with very small commercial breaks, much better then we had to put up with on 1970s broadcast TV! I had been watching some Oskar Werner films (The Last 10 Days, about the Berlin bunker) and wanted to see more. Someone on his bio mentioned this and I'm glad I finally watched it 50 years after it was made. For me this had the best Columbo ending I ever remember, except maybe the one with Donald Pleasence, that one is also very memorable. But Oskar's character really takes the bad police news like you can believe it, not like a person automatically admitting guilt like in a Perry Mason. His acting is top notch at the end! 10 of 10.

I put this on from the Roku channels, its on 24/7. I used to watch this probably daily after school in the 70s, I most remember the theme song and Lassie, the rest is a blur, I guess that I flipped the channel dial around after the Lassie theme song to watch another show after school, like The Brady Bunch or Gilligan's Island, or Looney Tunes. Watching now in 2024, in my 60s, the stories always seem that Timmy gets in trouble in the woods and Lassie saves him from injury or death. This went on week after week for years, talk about formulaic TV! Lassie has nostalgic memories to it, but I prefer the Lassie films, this is like lame in 2024. I did look up Hugh Reilly to see what else he was in, seems like a nice father in the show. Maybe too nice? I mean Timmy is almost badly injured or outright killed or almost kills other people every week. I would break out the switch, especially in the 1950s. Anyway, I tuned in this Sunday morning and the first episode didn't have Timmy down a well (as the trivia points out, never happened) but his old Uncle Martin (played by kindly George Chandler (of WC Field's fame Fatal Glass of Beer) was down a deep well and needed his crow friend and Lassie to save him! I then saw Timmy go into a US Army active minefield they put up near their farm (lol), then an episode where Timmy broke some eggs he was delivering for his mom and substituted owl eggs from an owl's nest and got stuck in an abandoned barn and Lassie had to get help twice (L. Q. Jones saved them, twice, the second time Timmy's mom was in trouble too, lol), the final episode I started to watch but couldn't finish was a mountain lion in the area and they were putting bear traps all in the woods. The thought of either Lassie, Timmy or the mountain lion getting caught in a bear trap was too gruesome for me, so I flipped the channel (to I Dream of Jeannie's 24/7 channel, lol). I did get to remember Lassie's dog friend Mike, I always liked little Mike the dog as a kid. Thinking about it as a whole, the show ran so long that it did have some good guest stars on it, and the only Lassie shows I remember watching were with Timmy and I see now that Lassie was with several families over it's run so I upped my score a little. Great show to sample a little (at least of the Timmy ones) but after you see one you probably saw them all. Watch the Lassie films, they are epic.

Now over 60 years old, I have been watching the 3 Stooges since childhood. Wanting to be a completest Stooges viewer, I bought their official complete set on DVD a long time ago (not the best quality, not recommended unless very cheap, used) but now with streaming video I just look up the episodes online. I was looking up a sci fi film review for The 27th Day and saw that it and this Stooge short used Earth vs the Flying Saucers footage. Being it was a Saturday morning why not watch Flying Saucer Daffy? I thought at first from the title it was a Daffy Duck cartoon but was happy it was a Joe Besser Stooges short. Happy about Joe Besser? YES! BTW, my theory after watching the Stooges for over 50 years is that I watched episodes mainly on broadcast TV and they only showed about half of their shorts, perhaps the TV stations had a 100 film Stooge deal?

What this means is that many people only know about the Curly shorts, maybe a few Shemp ones, but all were chosen to be on broadcast TV because things like smoking, drinking and carousing around with women were not shown much. So when people see the Joe Besser shorts they are instantly put off by them, because many have smoking, drinking and carousing around. Some reviewer gave this short a 1 rating saying it didn't follow "Stooge etiquette" of all for one and one for all. Ever watch the very first Stooges short (Women Haters)? I don't think Larry was on the same side with Moe and Curly, lol. Later on, as their act was in its 2nd and 3rd decade, they tried to incorporate more adult humor, I remember watching one with Shemp cheating on Moe's wife (Gypped in the Penthouse)! Another Shemp one had them all cheating on their taxes (Income Tax Sappy)! I'm pretty sure none of these type Stooge shorts got shown on broadcast TV during the 60s to 90s. As much as I love the Curly shorts (and Shemp), to see a Stooge film that I've never watched before, I love it! This one did make me laugh too, so that's the point. I also like to watch how the act was changing with the older Stooges and Besser, looks like Larry got more airtime, and slaps, lol. Watching Joe go against the other two also made me laugh and the ending was very funny. 7 of 10, great way to start my Saturday morning! BTW, stop hating on Joe Besser or, I'll harm you!

I don't want to give any spoilers away, just to say that this is an excellent episode! As the trivia section mentions, it has 4 James Bond links to it with, Donald Pleasence (Blofeld), Martin Benson (Mr. Solo), Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny) and of course Patrick McGoohan who turned down the Bond role. I actually mistook this for another later made Danger Man 1 hour episode called A Man to be Trusted and watched that one first and followed it with this episode from the first season with the shorter episodes. Two different Drakes for sure! This one is great because Drake seems out of his normal do little wrong persona. 9 out of 10 for me. I wish to convey the story of how I got here today in 2024. I have been watching a lot of actor Donald Pleasence's work lately and remembered him being in a Danger Man before and remembered the title had the word "Trust" in it. After a YT search, I jumped on A Man to Be Trusted although I vaguely remembered it was only a 30 minute episode, not 1 hour, I figured I was mistaken. So about a few minutes in I realize it's not the Donald Pleasence episode, but was hooked anyway. That one I gave an 8 out of 10, check it out, the Danger Man whodunnit with Voodoo episode! I decided I must watch the Position of Trust Episode next and did, great entertainment! Awesome to rewatch too because I didn't remember the drug angle, which is more relevant then ever.

Very entertaining episode. It features a real "whodunit" up until the end on a 3rd world island with Voodoo. Look for at least two actors who were on the TV show UFO. The trivia section also talks about a connection to Live and Let Die! I wish to convey the story of how I got here today in 2024. I have been watching a lot of actor Donald Pleasence's work lately and remembered him being in a Danger Man before and remembered the title had the word "Trust" in it. After a YT search, I jumped on this although I vaguely remembered it was only a 30 minute episode, not 1 hour, I figured I was mistaken. So about a few minutes in I realize it's not the Donald Pleasence episode, but was hooked anyway. I looked up the Donald P episode it's named "Position of Trust" BTW. I'm going to watch it now as a sort of double feature. To wrap it up, I didn't know who the bad guy was until the end, 8 out of 10. Scary ending!

After cutting off cable TV recently I was in search for something light to watch along with my wife over dinner and decided to give this episode a try. My experience with WWW is watching it as a child in reruns and on and off since but its been years since I last watched it. I find it being like most action TV shows, repetitive. This episode is no exception but I really enjoyed watching Angel Tompkins, the villainess, who struck me as having an uncanny similarity to Taylor Swift! I mention this as a time capsule review because if I had watched this in 2014 and not 2024 I never would have thought this but Taylor Swift in 2024 is a corporate media darling so she is unavoidable to see on a daily basis. I even put both of their photos side by side and you could ask random people who was Taylor and I bet a few would guess wrong! Besides Angel, Wendell Corey is the main antagonist and I was wanting to see him slur his dialog like he did in other films he did around the time like, Women of the Prehistoric Planet and Agent for HARM. Surprisingly Wendell acts more like the 1950s Wendell version then he does late 1960s Wendell. Sadly for him he would pass away not long after this was made. I noticed Arthur Batanides in a small henchman role, I enjoyed him a lot in the John Carradine Z schlock The Unearthly and also in Star Trek as no doubt a soon to dead crewman. Another notable I saw was J. Pat O'Malley as Brother Angelo, his parts were mostly wide shots not the typical close ups of his recognizable face. Some things I noticed, some of the action music sounded a lot like Mission Impossible theme music to me. And a scene where Jim could have burned a guy alive but instead they briefly show the knocked out henchman in a corner. My wife enjoyed the episode so it was a good time to watch over dinner. The stinger end aboard the train with beautiful women was perfect for an ad lib joke I made that made my wife laugh. 7 out of 10.

One great thing about the Abbott and Costello show for me is how I can watch many of the episodes over and over again. This episode I specifically remember watching over 50 years ago as a kid because I remember it teaching me how to tell time! I'm probably biased by memories of my youth but I really laugh out loud at this one now. There is intense dramatic dialog used and Lou is utterly depressed after Lou's birthday guests leave his party for reasons I wont spoil. It gets pretty dramatic from there but if you are in on the gag it is very funny. Look for a Stinky cameo and the Sidney Fields looking glass picture is a riot! 10 of 10.

I'm being too generous with a 6 rating but this was a watchable war film especially if you are watching it with a date, such as your wife (like I did). I personally hate most love interests in a war film with a few exceptions like from Here to Eternity, but here the love interest triangle helps move the story forward. Otherwise this is a cartoonish war film. Lots of action and explosions in the manner of a Gerry Anderson production (toy boats). Directed by the same person who made the 1968 Lloyd Bridges film, Attack on the Iron Coast, the effects, love interest storyline and suicide mission with small boats are both very similar, Attack on the Iron Coast is based on the real St Nazaire Raid. In a way, Hell Boats is another variation on that raid. Interesting to watch, and my wife stayed interested due to the love interest back story. Its available on Prime Video as of 08/2023.

Beyond Atlantis was a great watch. I watched it with commercials on Pluto TV so that was OK because it reminded me of watching it on cable in the 90s. Stay around for the ending and credits which were not shortened. They play this rap music called mother crabbers and its very funny. I was a snob of 2nd gen MST3K but I have watched a few episodes after the first season and was cracking up. BTW, Pluto TV did NOT speed past the doners who gave to this on the web which is pretty cool. Wow, I stayed for the ending credits stinger at the very very very end while typing this and the crazy guy who played Ralph in Spider Baby said "Some Mother Crabber tried to set a trap!" Interesting huh?

I see that this film has many fans, some that like it straight up and some that like it in a so bad its good way. I wanted to like it in the latter, the so bad its good way. I also watched it "riffed" by Sleazy P. Martini (of Gwar fame) who does a Twitch channel and ad libs his riffing so its not nearly as funny as the riffing done by MST3K or Rifftrax who use writers and rehearse. But Sleazy has done some good riff movie episodes like the week before he did Battle Beyond The Stars (which I like a lot, riffed or not). The thing of it is, this movie is just plain bad so that's all you can riff about it. The tone of the film is like its a kids movie like a Prince of Space so there isn't any good adult humor to like although I loved watching the Sandy Frank films done on MST3K and Rifftrax and the special effects are like watching a Power Rangers show without any CGI. The characters all are boring and there isn't any eye candy I noticed that was knock out hot. Just nothing at all to see here and Sleazy didn't riff it very well but if you're looking to watch it, he did it on Twitch, probably by the time you read this review it won't be up anymore though. 2 out of 10 with the 2 being because it was riffed, otherwise virtually unwatchable and a 1.

Although this isn't technically an Ed Wood film (he only helped write it), it's very silly premise of a pretty woman being attracted to gorillas in more then an affectionate way has all the signs that this is an Ed Wood film, especially in his post Bela Lugosi film days (look at his film catalog such as Orgy of the Dead). I understand he has a loyal following and I like watching Ed Wood movies' from the 50s as well, but after watching some straight I realized I can only watch them if they are being riffed by a Mystery Science Theater 3000 or Rifftrax crew. In this case I watched it riffed by Rifftrax. The straight version is available on Youtube for free, the riffed version from Rifftrax is available for pay per view, or on Tubi free with limited commercial breaks (thats the way I watched it). I think that this Allied Artist production is less funny then when Ed was doing his films alone, here are real actors not women he picked up off the street, so I kind of sympathize for them being in this garbage. Lance Fuller is distracting because he has a constant smirk on his face even when the scene is supposed to be dramatic. Maybe he couldn't keep a straight face doing this shlock? The film posters for this show a blonde but Charlotte Austin is a brunette, go figure. Looking at the IMdb ratings, 57% rate it a 3 or less and I'm in that group. However, when its riffed its pretty good so I rate the riffed version a 7. Its one of the few things left for free to watch from Rifftrax that I haven't already seen and since it had a strong female role, my wife was interested in watching it with me, something she wouldn't be interested in if it was a space or Japanese monster film. So if you're looking for a Rifftrax date night film, this is a good choice. It's interesting that the highest demographic rating for this film comes from middle aged women too! Over a 5! It gets a 2 for me, I was cheering for the tigers to eat Lance and the ending was about the next best thing.

This is a condensed version of the full serial, The Phantom Creeps, and boy I'm happy Rifftrax didn't do the full 4 plus hour run! I recall fondly watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 version's riff the first 3 episodes of this serial and fans have edited them together on Youtube, but if you were curious about how it ended, I recommend checking this version out also with riffing. There is also a condensed non-riffed film version that runs about 90 minutes where they cut out the cliff hangers (I guess), I saw that was also posted on Youtube. If I was a young boy in the theaters watching this in 1939 I would have been very entertained, as an adult in the year 2023 this serial lacks a lot of excitement and is very repetitive, its not in the top tier of film serials in any way and I say that as a big Lugosi fan. This Rifftrax version runs just over 60 minutes and that's enough of this silliness for me. The opening of the serial has plenty of cool weapons and gadgets like invisibility and suspended animation gas, and then there is the robot! This robot is remote controlled so its not on the smart side. It's tint is a very dark black color and it's face reminds me of an African caricature which I'm sure was intentional and in 2023 could be considered racist, but unfortunately you get a lot of those things in 1930s films. Rifftrax has posted a preview for free on Youtube and its also available as a pay per view purchase on their website. I watched it with limited commercial breaks on Tubi for free and I also saw that its available free on Pluto TV. Tubi I think has less commercial breaks then Pluto so I recommend watching it there. Although I never watched it as originally released, my guess is I would rate the straight serial a 4, the MST3K and Rifftrax versions an 8. As Bela would say, Now I shall have my revenge with my army of robots! (hint, he only had one robot, lol).

I discovered Science Fiction Theater recently online, its available on youtube and also on old time tv Roku channels. This episode I found in pretty decent quality (color 480p) on Roku called "Classic TV channel" or something ;like that, its probably elsewhere as I'm pretty sure this show is in the public domain. One thing from my limited knowledge of this show is that it tries not to stray too far from reality and our host always likes to point out that saying "this didn't happen" in each episode. The plot of this episode is Dane Clark's (well known film and TV star) character gets electrocuted by 90,000 volts and this gives him super human powers in hearing, eyesight, smell, and intelligence. He acts very strangley because he can hear things through walls and people distrust him until he finally proves his powers. Along the way Dana comes across Beverly Garland's character, a woman in an abusive relationship. This becomes a sc fi love story where they will develop a relationship at the end. Besides those two well known stars, Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer is in this post Little Rascals days, he is an adult now. I've watched a few of his appearances later in his career and I think this show has his biggest role post LR I've watched. The ending is a surprise but I didn't like it too much so instead of a 10 I'm giving it an 8. For comparison of a sci fi show with enhanced human evolution, check out The Outer Limits episode, The Sixth Finger starring David McCallum!