“ | Nipple, nipple, tweak, tweak, fly! fly! fly! | ” |
The Short[]
- Main article: Radar Men from the Moon
Cody, et al. return to Earth, where Moon Men-hired goons Graber and Daly are waiting in ambush.
The Movie[]
- Main article: The Corpse Vanishes (film)
A mad scientist kidnaps brides as a component in his work to maintain his wife's youthful appearance.
Information[]
- Originally released on May 8, 1942, The Corpse Vanishes is tied with The Mad Monster - which was released on the same day - as the oldest feature film used on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (though the short Catching Trouble from 1936 used in Experiment #315 is the oldest material ever used on the show).
The Episode[]
Host Segments[]
Prologue: Dr F brings Larry a bottle of Isaac Asimov Body Splash (part of the Foundation Trilogy gift set) from the Mad Scientist Convention. "It smells like space!"
Invention Exchange: Joel demonstrates the "Chiro-gyro" and Clay presents the "Flame Throwing Flower".
Segment Two: Tom and Crow read Tiger-Bot magazine, featuring a "dreamy" Commander Data and a dream date with Twiki.
Segment Three: Crow, Tom, Gypsy and Joel play tag on the Satellite of Love.
Segment Four: Crow runs his own barbershop.
Segment Five: The Bots say a good thing and bad thing about the movie in exchange for a RAM chip, only for Tom to fail when he could not think of a good thing, and his head explodes.
Obscure References[]
- " Ah, Gold'n Plump Turkey?"
- Gold'n Plump is a brand of chicken products. Now a part of Pilgrim's Pride, their chicken processing operation located in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Their advertising gained nationwide fame for their battle-ready, helmeted birds driving tanks or parachuting from airplanes.
- "Try not to look like Mr. Peanut."
- Mr. Peanut is the corporate mascot for Planter's brand roasted peanuts. He is identifiable by his top hat, cane and monocle.
- "He never drinks coffee on our home planet."
- Reference to a television advertisement for Yuban coffee. The wife is surprised that her husband has a second cup of coffee while at a friend's house when he "never has a second cup of coffee at home". It was notably parodied in the comedy film Airplane!.
- "...the Macy's parade gone awry."
- The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade presented by Macy's Department store. The most prominent feature of the parade is the huge balloons in the shape of well-known characters from popular culture.
- "...kinda reminds me of Das Boot!"
- Das Boot is a film about a German submarine and its crew.
- "Daddy, what's Vietnam?"
- References a Time-Life commercial in the '80s for its "History of the Vietnam War" book series. In the commercial, a man and his son stand before the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. The son looks up, and asks "Daddy, what's Vietnam?". At which point, a voiceover somberly intones "A question a child might ask - but not a childish question."
- "They're at the Cadillac Ranch!"
- Cadillac Ranch is an art installation in Amarillo, Texas. Created in 1974, it consists of several Cadillacs partially buried into the ground similar to the pyramids of Giza or Stonehenge.
- ""I'll remember that, stooge!"
- The bots proceed to make The Three Stooges sounds.
- "It's Nelson Eddy!"
- Nelson Eddy was an American singer and movie star who resembles the actor on the screen.
- "Ponch! Jon!"
- Ponch and Jon are the motorcycle-driving California highway patrolmen from the 70's TV show CHiPs.
- "Meanwhile back at the Addams family home..."
- The Addams Family is a television comedy inspired by the work of cartoonist Charles Addams. It featured an eccentric and macabre family living in a gloomy mansion. It was later adapted into a feature film series and had several animated incarnations.
- "She's practicing for her role as Camille."
- Camille is the stage play adapted from the novel La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, which has also been adapted into several films. The main character is a courtesan who is suffering from tuberculosis, and the story has a famously sad ending.
- "Lovely... Lovely!"
- This is a reference to the necktie killer in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.
- "When a hunchback comes along, you must whip him. He's playing with your corpse, unless you whip him. It will not go away, you must whip him. Whip him, whip your hunchback."
- Joel and Tom are singing a pastiche of the song "Whip It" by Devo.
- "Something stupid this way comes!"
- A play on "something wicked this way comes", a phrase from Shakespeare's Macbeth.
- "Ze plane! Ze plane!"
- Crow says the phrase made famous by Herve Villechaize on the TV anthology series Fantasy Island when a diminutive man is seen onscreen.
- "The weather started getting rough..."
- Tom sings the theme to Gilligan’s Island as lightning is seen onscreen.
- "She's got legs and she knows how to use them."
- Lyrics from the song "Legs" by ZZ Top.
- "I've got to go back here and talk to the lion and the witch."
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a novel by C.S. Lewis.
- "Dr. Denton! Dr. Scholls! Dr. Pepper!"
- Dr. Denton is a brand of blanket sleepers. Dr. Scholl's is a brand of foot care products. Dr Pepper is a soft drink.
- "I've got a bad feeling about this, Joel."
- Crow could be making a Star Wars reference, as several characters used this phrase throughout the series (of which only 3 films had been released at the time of this episode's production).
- "Little leg of the dog that bit him!"
- "Hair of the dog that bit you" is a common phrase meaning to drink alcohol to cure a hangover.
- "Character actor Burgess Meredith!"
- Burgess Meredith was a character actor best known for his gruff voice. He played the Penguin on the 1960s Batman TV series, and Mickey the trainer in the first three films in the Rocky franchise.
- "Thank you, Shecky!"
- Shecky Greene was a comedian known for his nightclub act in Las Vegas.
- "And now, right here in our very office..."
- Said as a parody of Ed Sullivan, a popular television variety show host who would often introduce acts as being "right here on our stage".
- "A date that will live in infamy!"
- References the "Day of Infamy" speech by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in which he asked Congress to declare war against the Axis powers following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.
- "It's the Notre Dame Fight song!"
- Notre Dame Victory March is one of the most recognizable collegiate fight songs in the United States.
- "It's the sleeper!"
- The sleeper hold (or chokehold) is an illegal move in wrestling.
- "Hey, Cloris, what's up?"
- The actress seen onscreen somewhat resembles Cloris Leachman.
- "And his hair was perfect!"
- From Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London", a 1970's rock song with the lyric: "I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic's, his hair was perfect."
- "It's a Wham-O Magic Window!"
- Produced in the '70s by the Wham-O toy company, the Magic Window was oval-shaped and filled with colored sand. Users moved the window to create different designs.
Behind the scenes[]
MST3K cast[]
- Joel Hodgson - Joel Robinson
- Trace Beaulieu - Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester
- Josh Weinstein - Tom Servo / Dr. Laurence Erhardt
- Jim Mallon - Gypsy
MST3K crew[]
Trivia[]
- Tom Servo’s head blows up for the first time in the final segment.
- Tom's Tiger Bot magazine is a take on the teen fan magazine Tiger Beat.
- At the end of segment 3, Joel runs down the doorway sequence and is run over by Cambot. This is the first time he has done this in the national series, but he did it at least twice in KTMA episodes.
- The prologue segment with Dr. Forrester returning from the Mad Scientists Convention was reworked from SST Death Flight.
- The segment with Joel and the bots playing tag only to have Joel cheat was used previously in Humanoid Woman.
- In segment 4, references are made to a variety of Eastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin locales and institutions including the Hot Fish Shop[1] also referenced in Episode 1001, as well as Ellsworth, Wisconsin and Bixby, Minnesota. This segment is a remake of one originally done in Episode K10.
Goofs[]
Movie Edits[]
Like most riffed movies, The Corpse Vanishes was altered to fit the TV aspect ratio and several scenes were trimmed slightly to reduce the overall length of the film for the desired time-slot.
Video releases
- Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in December 2009 as part of Volume XVI, a 4-disc set along with Warrior of the Lost World, Santa Claus, and Night of the Blood Beast.
- The DVD includes a theatrical trailer.
- Digitally available through Shout's official Youtube channel (with annotations), Shoutfactorytv.com, Amazon Instant Video, Rifftrax, iTunes, Vudu, and VHX.
Gallery[]
References[]
preceded by: Season K | MST3K Season 1 | followed by: Season 2 | ||||||
1989 - 1990 | ||||||||
101 | The Crawling Eye | 1989-11-25 | 106 | The Crawling Hand | 1989-12-16 | 111 | Moon Zero Two | 1990-01-20 |
102 | The Robot vs the Aztec Mummy | 1989-11-18 | 107 | Robot Monster | 1989-12-23 | 112 | Untamed Youth | 1990-01-27 |
103 | The Mad Monster | 1989-12-02 | 108 | The Slime People | 1990-12-30 | 113 | The Black Scorpion | 1990-02-03 |
104 | Women of the Prehistoric Planet | 1990-02-10 | 109 | Project Moon Base | 1990-01-06 | |||
105 | The Corpse Vanishes | 1989-12-09 | 110 | Robot Holocaust | 1990-01-13 |