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in: MST3K Episodes, Season 4, Mystery Science Theater Hour Episodes, Directed by Kevin Murphy

MST3K 414 - Tormented

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“ You know, this is one dark mamajama of a movie. ”
- Joel


The Movie[]

Main article: Tormented (film)

Tom Stewart, a jazz musician who is about to marry into a wealthy family, watches as his former lover falls to her death from a lighthouse. Knowing that he could have saved her but chose not to, he is then haunted by supernatural occurrences. As these experiences become more intense, others are drawn into Tom's web of deception and fear as the wedding day approaches.

The Episode[]

Host Segments[]

Dr

Dr. F's Drinking Jacket

  • Prologue: Tom Servo and Crow set up a new home in the ventilation duct over the bridge. When Gypsy tries to join them, chaos erupts.
  • Segment One (Invention Exchange): Gypsy has entangled the bridge. Joel shows off the Aunt Catherine Wheel to help people remember all their relatives. The Mads show off the drinking jacket, perfect for the fashionable lush going through the DTs.
  • Segment Two: Joel tries to clean out the Crunchberries the Bots left in the vents and gets stuck; the Bots flat-out refuse to help him, trying to blackmail him for their assistance.
  • Segment Three: Joel and the Bots push figurines of their least favorite pop singers out of the top of a toy lighthouse, in the same manner the man in the movie pushed his singing girlfriend off. In the end, they feel a bit guilty. Well, not really.
    Pushing Musicians from the Lighthouse

    Pushing Musicians from the Lighthouse

  • Segment Four: Tom and Crow pretend to be disembodied heads to scare Joel and Gypsy. Gypsy screams in terror while Joel outwits them by taking their bodies and leaving them in the dark.
  • Segment Five: Joel and the Bots are traumatized by the film, but cure their blues by singing a song about happy thoughts. Frank joins in with his own morbid version, but Dr. Forrester leaves a live grenade beside him just before the button is pushed.
  • Stinger: "Tom Stewart killed me! Tom Stewart killed me!"

Obscure References[]

  • "Uh-oh, Crook and Chase are calling!"
Crook & Chase is a TV talk show that focuses on country music.
  • "...from the mixed-up files of one Bert I. Gordon."
A reference to the children's book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
  • "And watch for me in the Blaine Community Theater production of Butterflies Are Free."
Butterflies Are Free is a 1969 stage play by Leonard Gershe. It depicts the growing romance between a young blind man and free-spirited woman, and was adapted into a film in 1972.
  • "Boy, boy, crazy boy..."
Lyrics from the song "Cool" from the musical West Side Story.
  • "It's over Ivana!"
Referencing the divorce of Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana which was settled in 1992.
  • "Let's dig into those 'Super Mario' fruit chunks, okay?"
A reference to the Super Mario Bros. video game franchise and the subsequent licensed products.
  • "The Secret Storm!"
The Secret Storm is a TV soap opera that aired from 1954 until 1974.
  • "Forever in Lugenes!"
Tom is parodying the Neil Diamond song "Forever in Blue Jeans".
  • "Meg..." "It will come back to you!"
A parody of the Steely Dan song "Peg".
  • "They lived in that last house on the beach." "On the left?"
A reference to the 1972 horror movie The Last House on the Left.
  • "Believe it... or not!"
Crow is imitating Jack Palance on the 1980s Ripley's Believe It or Not! TV series.
  • "This belonged to V. I. Warshawski!"
V. I. Warshawski is a fictional female Chicago private eye featured in a series of novels and a 1991 movie.
  • "Vi ask Vi?"
A parody of "Why ask why?", the advertising slogan for Bud Dry beer.
  • "Chuck Norris in The Octagon."
The 1980 kung-fu movie The Octagon, co-starring Lee Van Cleef, has frequent voice-over with lots of reverb in which the audience hears the thoughts of Chuck Norris' character. The lighthouse beacon is octagonal.
  • "Like a bit of undigested beef or an underdone potato..."
A passage from the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol spoken by Ebenezer Scrooge as he tries to explain the presence of the ghost of his deceased partner Jacob Marley as being a nightmare caused by something he ate.
  • "This is like Barton Fink now!"
Barton Fink is a 1991 film directed by the Coen brothers. One of the plotlines involved a severed head in a box.
  • "Now I'm in The Seven Year Itch!'"
The Seven Year Itch is a 1955 romantic comedy known for its iconic scene of Marilyn Monroe's dress being blown up around her by the air from a subway grate.
  • "Lolita..."
A reference to the novel by Vladimir Nabokov (later adapted into a film) in which Humbert Humbert, a European professor in his 50s, becomes sexually obsessed with Delores Haze (Lolita), a 12 year-old girl.
  • "An aging Kim Novak re-enacts this scene from Vertigo..."
The Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo ends with a scene in which Kim Novak's character falls from a bell tower.
  • "I need help with 'Autumn Leaves'."
Tom's songwriting struggle is mocked by referencing "Autumn Leaves", a jazz standard often used for rudimentary instruction.
  • "Let me call Bill Wyman."
Sandy says she'd be willing to marry someone like Tom tomorrow. In 1989, Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones famously married Mandy Smith, whom he had courted while she was under age.
  • "Thank you, Thing."
The disembodied hand apparition is compared to character Thing from the Addams Family franchise.
  • "It's the ghost of Señor Wences!"
The disembodied hand apparition is compared to Spanish ventriloquist Señor Wences' famous puppetry of his own hand.
  • "Third base!!"
Follows the line "That's what I said!" to mimic Abbot and Costello's famous routine "Who's on First?".
  • "Don't look now but Arthur Murray's here."
Ghostly footprints are compared to dance instruction tools. Arthur Murray was a famous dance instructor, known for his Arthur Murray Studios dance schools.
  • "Hey, 2 years sobriety!"
Sandy finds a locket. Alcoholics Anonymous and other addiction recovery programs often use tokens like a Sobriety coin to commemorate milestones of time sober.
  • "It's Lou Reed."
Lou Reed was an American singer and founding member of the Velvet Underground. Nick's resemblance to Reed (and "beatniks" in general) is referenced often.
  • "How much did you wager? Oooh..."
TV game show Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek would often sympathize with contestants' Final Jeopardy gamble which resulted in their loss.
  • "Of all the lighthouses in all towns in the world..."
A reference to Humphrey Bogart's famous line from the film Casablanca.
  • "Okay, I'll sing 'Nights in White Satin'."
Nick says he's waiting to hear something from Tom. "Nights in White Satin" is a song by The Moody Blues. An apparition of Vi then appears, wearing a white satin dress.
  • "I do believe in spooks. I do, I do, I do."
Joel is quoting lines from the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.
  • "Either this man's dead or my watch has stopped."
Riffed in the voice of Groucho Marx from the movie A Day at the Races.
  • "The original Dead Milkman."
The Dead Milkmen are a satirical punk band.
  • "I got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack!"
A quote from the Bruce Springsteen song "Hungry Heart".
  • "It's a Twister dress!" "Right hand - RED!"
A woman's dress has large colored circles, resembling the playing mat of the party game Twister.
  • "Sammy Cahn is the doctor!"
Sammy Cahn was a songwriter for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway.
  • "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida!"
The church organist is riffed as if they were performing the song "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" by Iron Butterfly, which features a very long organ solo.
  • "Savoir-Faire is everywhere!"
The catchphrase of Savoir-Faire, a French-Canadian mouse (who was also a master thief) that appeared in the cartoon Klondike Kat.
  • "Left! Left, Mr. Muckle!"
Mr. Muckle is a character from the 1934 W.C. Fields movie It's a Gift, a blind man whose destructive clumsiness is played for comedy.
  • "It's only a movie...it's only a movie...it's only a movie..."
Repeated line from the trailer for the horror film Last House on the Left.
  • "Sessions presents..."
Sessions was a record label that released compilations of popular hit songs, typically thematic.[1] Throughout the episode, Tom Servo mimics a voice-over for a commercial while Joel and Crow (and occasionally Servo) sing the recognizable lyrics of many hits.

Callbacks[]

Behind-the-Scenes[]

MST3K Cast[]

Notes[]

  • Unusual credits: The hand grenade Dr. Forrester drops on Frank explodes as Joel Hodgson's credit appears, causing the screen to shake briefly.
  • Joel's maroon jumpsuit is revealed in this episode to have been permanently altered, with the legs cut off below the knee.
  • This episode was ranked #91 among backers of the Bring Back MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 campaign in the Top 100 Poll.
  • This experiment was used during the Mindless Summer series of livestream events. It was shown on August 13, 2021.
  • This was originally planned to be the 18th episode of Season 4, following Fire Maidens of Outer Space, which was originally intended to be the 17th episode.

Goofs[]

  • During the song, Tom Servo’s head falls off. They keep going.
  • The snack bar chef is not played by Merritt Stone, it’s Gene Roth. Merritt Stone appears as the clergyman who marries Tom and Meg.

Video Release[]

  1. ↑ Sessions Album Discography
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