Mystery Science Theater 3000/Manos, the Hands of Fate

Manos, the Hands of Fate
Season 4, Episode 24
Airdate	January 30, 1993
Production Number	424
Screenplay	Harold P. Warren
Directed by	Harold P. Warren
Production Companies	Norm-Iris
Episode Writer(s)	Michael J. Nelson
Episode Director(s)	Joel Hodgson
← 4x23 Bride of the Monster	5x01 → Warrior of the Lost World
Mystery Science Theater 3000 — Season Four

This article about an episode needs to be expanded with more information. Please help out by editing it.

Manos, the Hands of Fate is the twenty-fourth episode of the fourth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and the ninety-fifth episode overall.

Guest Stars:

Plot Overview

The Short

Manos is preceded by a short film entitled "Hired — Part Two." This is a short film about car salesman produced in 1940. A car dealership owner is having troubles with his salesman who just can't seem to move any product. He goes to his crazy old father for advice, who tells his son that he needs to take a more hands on approach to his business and teach his employees how to go about getting prospects and selling cars. After turning his business around, the owner proceeds to give the audience advice on how to run a successful car dealership.

The Movie

Manos, the Hands of Fate is a 1966 film universally known as one of the absolute worst movies ever featured on MST3K. Inept in every single category, Manos is the story of a family travelling to the Valley Lodge. They become lost and spend the night at a house watched over by the mysterious Torgo, a man with giant legs and eyebrows that jut off of his face. The family stays at the house even though Torgo insists they don't because "The Master wouldn't approve."

The Master is a mysterious gentleman in a robe with giant hands stiched onto it (and a convenient zipper on the back of if). He sleeps on a marble slab, surrounded by his many wives. He seems to make a hobby out of collecting the women who come by his home. Torgo falls in love with the newest woman to visit the house and rebels against The Master. For his betrayal, Torgo is snuggled to death by the brides before having his hand forced into a fire. The family attempts to flee from The Master and his vicious hound as they stumble around the desert, but since the lighting equipment is so bad they can't flee very far and have to return to the house. The Master takes the woman and child for himself and transforms the husband into his new assistant to replace the late Torgo.

The Host Segments

• Opening Segment - Joel creates a new program for the bots that makes them constantly praise him. The praise ends up making Joel feel hollow inside so he disables it.
• Segment One - The mads and Joel have an invention exchange. Joel invents a machine that combines unfunny comic strips to make funny ones. The mads invent a guillotine to decapitate chocolate bunnies.
• Segment Two - Joel sets up a rear projector that shows the incredibly long car ride at the beginning of Manos. The bots attempt to make the footage funny but break down into tears because the movie is terrible. It's so terrible, in fact, that TV's Frank apologizes to Joel and the bots for sending it to them.
• Segment Three - Inspired by the large legs and eyebrows of Torgo, Joel and the bots have a conversation over what attributes monsters should have to make themselves scary.
• Segment Four - Joel dresses up in a robe like The Master (with feet instead of hands) and tries his best to make the bots laugh, but their senses of humor have been killed by the awful movie. Dr. Clayton Forrester stops by to apologize for the movie as well.
• Closing Segment - The bots dress up like The Master's brides in the movie and engage in the thrilling sport of full contact nightgown wrestling. The mads order a pizza that ends up getting delivered by Torgo, who is incredibly slow thanks to his freakish legs.

Notes

• Manos, the Hands of Fate was directed by Hal Warren, a fertilizer salesman from Texas. He directed the movie off of a dare when he claimed he could make a successful horror movie on a small budget.
• The camera used to film Manos could only shoot 30 seconds of footage at a time and could not record sound. This is why the film is made up of so many quick cuts and all the voices were dubbed by three people in post-production.
• Torgo's large knees are supposed to be goat legs like that of a satyr. The hooves at the bottoms of his feet are obscured by Joel and the bots at the bottom of the screen.
• The incredibly long driving sequence at the beginning of the film was supposed to have the credits overlayed upon it. For some reason this didn't happen and we are left with ten minutes of driving footage.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

Characters

Referbacks

Trivia

The Show

Behind the Scenes

Allusions and References

Memorable Moments

Quotes

• Crow: I remember one of the first things Harry drilled into me -- was Harry!
• Joel: Every frame of this movie looks like someone's last known photograph.
• Tom Servo: Tonight: Manos gets caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
• Tom Servo: You know, there are certain flaws in this film.
• Torgo: I am Torgo, I take care of the place while the Master is away.
• Torgo: There is no way out of here. It'll be dark soon. There is no way out of here.

Reviews

• Overall Grade: no reviews yet
• Review Breakdown: A+: 0 A: 0 A-: 0 B+: 0 B: 0 B-: 0 C+: 0 C: 0 C-: 0 D: 0 F: 0