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in: MST3K Episodes, Season 6, Episodes with shorts, Teen Exploitation

Changes: MST3K 618 - High School Big Shot

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===Synopsis===
  
===Synopsis===
   
−
It's 1959 somewhere in America. Friendless, motherless, sad-sack, 26-year-old high school student and "Shakespeare queen" Marv Grant (the late Tom Pittman, who died in a car crash shortly after this film was made) dreams of improving his dismal life by escaping to college. His English teacher, Mr. Carter (Peter Leeds, who was also in MST's "Girls Town") is an ally who is working on getting him a scholarship, partly because Marv has memorized "Hamlet". Marv's father is a sporadically employed, dipsomaniacal widower and boat anchor (Malcolm Atterbury, who was also in MST's "I Was a Teenage Werewolf"). He dreams of keeping away from the booze, landing a steady job, moving out of the dump he and Marv share, sending his son off to college and getting re-married. He dreams this, that is, when he is not destroying Marv's ego with thoughtless comments.
 +
It's 1959 somewhere in America. Sad-sack 26-year-old high school student and "Shakespeare queen" Marv Grant (the late Tom Pittman, who died in a car crash shortly after this film was made) dreams of getting out of high school and  escaping to college. His English teacher, Mr. Carter (Peter Leeds, who was also in MST's "Girls Town") is an ally  working on getting him a scholarship, partly because Marv has memorized "Hamlet". Marv's pop is a sporadically employed, dipsomaniacal widower and boat anchor (Malcolm Atterbury, who was also in MST's "I Was a Teenage Werewolf"). He dreams of going on the wagon, steady work, moving out of the dump he and Marv share, sending his son off to college and getting re-married. He dreams this, that is, when he is not grinding Marv's ego into a fine powder with thoughtless comments.
   
−
When "the prettiest girl in school", the bosomy, conniving Betty Alexander (Virgina Aldridge) approaches Marv with her plight of not being able to understand Shakespeare well enough to write a required paper (thus endangering her plan of marrying her boyfriend Vince), Marv volunteers to write it for her. She goes out on a mercy date with him, and, tragically naive to the perils of romance, he becomes infatuated with her pleasing appearance and, I suppose, the fantasy of idyllic lifelong union with her. When he pops the question, she tells him it's "no dice" unless he can satisfy her monetary demands. See, she's on combative terms with her father, and with sufficient wealth at her command, she feels she can "throw diamonds and furs in his face".
 +
When "the prettiest girl in school", the bosomy, conniving Betty Alexander (Virgina Aldridge) approaches Marv with her woeful plight of not being able to understand Shakespeare well enough to write a paper (thus endangering her plan of marrying her boyfriend Vince), Marv volunteers to write it for her. She goes out on a mercy date with him, and, tragically naive to the perils of romance, he becomes infatuated with her pleasing appearance and, I suppose, the fantasy of idyllic lifelong union with her. When he pops the question, she tells him it's "no dice" unless he can satisfy her monetary demands. She's on combative terms with her father and wants to "throw diamonds and furs in his face".
   
−
At his shipping clerk job, Marv overhears his bosses say that a million dollars of drug money (that was a lot of money back then) will soon be temporarily stored in a safe on the premises. He concocts a precisely planned scheme to make away with it, enlisting the aid of two experienced but non-threatening sometime criminals, amiable safe cracker Stanley "Tribble" Adams and Adam's brother-in-law, suspicious, put-upon liquor store proprietor Louis Quinn.
 +
At his shipping clerk job, Marv overhears that a million dollars of drug money will soon be temporarily stored in a safe on the premises. He concocts a precisely planned scheme to make away with it, enlisting the aid of two experienced but non-threatening sometime criminals, amiable safe cracker Stanley "Tribble" Adams and Adam's brother-in-law, suspicious, put-upon liquor store proprietor Louis Quinn.
   
−
Marv breathlessly assures Betty he will soon have the money she craves and also divulges to her how he plans to get it. She immediately tells her main squeeze, the chickpea-brained, fully whipped, Michael-J-Pollard-ish bully/petty thug Vince (Howard Veit). She presses him into her plan of snatching the money from Marv and helpfully furnishes a handgun. Vince resists, having only stolen hubcaps in the way of crime up to this point, but at last he relents.
 +
Marv breathlessly assures Betty he will soon have the money she craves and also divulges his plans to get it. She immediately tells her main squeeze, the Michael-J-Pollardesque bully/petty thug Vince (Howard Veit). She presses him into snatching the money from Marv and furnishes a handgun. Vince resists, having only stolen hubcaps in the way of up to mow, but at last he relents.
   
−
Things fall apart. At school, Marv's cheating is revealed. It appears his chances of a scholarship and college are dashed. Marv's dad proposes to a woman he's been seeing, is snubbed and then loses out on the promise of a job. Utterly defeated, he hints to Marv at a dark possibility. What else, one wonders, could possibly go wrong?
 +
Things fall apart. Marv's cheating is revealed. It appears his chances of a scholarship and college are dashed. Marv's dad proposes to a woman he's been seeing, is snubbed and then loses out on the promise of a job. Utterly defeated, he hints to Marv at a dark possibility. What else, one wonders, could possibly go wrong?
   
−
Who will wind up with the million dollars and the beautiful girl - Marv, Vince, or neither one? Will sociopathic siren Betty pay the price for her pitiless plotting? How does the title of the film relate to any of its content?
 +
Who will wind up with the money and the girl - Marv, Vince, or neither? Will villainous vixen Betty pay the price for her pitiless plotting? How does the title of the film relate to any of its content?
   
 
===Information===
  
===Information===

Revision as of 22:09, 11 February 2013

The Short

Out of this World

Synopsis

A tale of the never ending battle between good and evil, heaven and hell, as the battle moves to Earth for ultimate domination of bread delivery truck drivers.

Information

  • This short was included on Shorts Vol 3, released by Rhino Entertainment on VHS in Janurary 2001, and on DVD in August 2004 as an limited time exclusive bonus for ordering MST3K: The Essentials from a specially created Rhino site.

The Movie

Synopsis

It's 1959 somewhere in America. Sad-sack 26-year-old high school student and "Shakespeare queen" Marv Grant (the late Tom Pittman, who died in a car crash shortly after this film was made) dreams of getting out of high school and  escaping to college. His English teacher, Mr. Carter (Peter Leeds, who was also in MST's "Girls Town") is an ally  working on getting him a scholarship, partly because Marv has memorized "Hamlet". Marv's pop is a sporadically employed, dipsomaniacal widower and boat anchor (Malcolm Atterbury, who was also in MST's "I Was a Teenage Werewolf"). He dreams of going on the wagon, steady work, moving out of the dump he and Marv share, sending his son off to college and getting re-married. He dreams this, that is, when he is not grinding Marv's ego into a fine powder with thoughtless comments.

When "the prettiest girl in school", the bosomy, conniving Betty Alexander (Virgina Aldridge) approaches Marv with her woeful plight of not being able to understand Shakespeare well enough to write a paper (thus endangering her plan of marrying her boyfriend Vince), Marv volunteers to write it for her. She goes out on a mercy date with him, and, tragically naive to the perils of romance, he becomes infatuated with her pleasing appearance and, I suppose, the fantasy of idyllic lifelong union with her. When he pops the question, she tells him it's "no dice" unless he can satisfy her monetary demands. She's on combative terms with her father and wants to "throw diamonds and furs in his face".

At his shipping clerk job, Marv overhears that a million dollars of drug money will soon be temporarily stored in a safe on the premises. He concocts a precisely planned scheme to make away with it, enlisting the aid of two experienced but non-threatening sometime criminals, amiable safe cracker Stanley "Tribble" Adams and Adam's brother-in-law, suspicious, put-upon liquor store proprietor Louis Quinn.

Marv breathlessly assures Betty he will soon have the money she craves and also divulges his plans to get it. She immediately tells her main squeeze, the Michael-J-Pollardesque bully/petty thug Vince (Howard Veit). She presses him into snatching the money from Marv and furnishes a handgun. Vince resists, having only stolen hubcaps in the way of up to mow, but at last he relents.

Things fall apart. Marv's cheating is revealed. It appears his chances of a scholarship and college are dashed. Marv's dad proposes to a woman he's been seeing, is snubbed and then loses out on the promise of a job. Utterly defeated, he hints to Marv at a dark possibility. What else, one wonders, could possibly go wrong?

Who will wind up with the money and the girl - Marv, Vince, or neither? Will villainous vixen Betty pay the price for her pitiless plotting? How does the title of the film relate to any of its content?

Information

The Episode

Host Segments

Prologue: Mike has a major headache. Crow has to practice his cymbals, Tom finds a bagpipe, and Gypsy really likes Seinfeld. These things don't go together.

Segment One: Mike turns to a drill to relieve the pressure. Dr. Forrester gives Frank and the SOL crew chemistry sets to do the work for him. Frank clones a dinosaur using his chemistry set. Alas, it does not like Dr. F. Crow mixes a potion that makes Tom Servo huge!

Segment Two: Mike, Crow, and Tom present their specialty breads, such as a bread with a shampoo and conditioner built in, or a butter-top bread with bars of real butter stuck into it.

Segment Three: Crow and Tom egg Mike. With an omelet. And the hollandaise is too lemony.

Segment Four: Crow and Tom try and fail to break into Gypsy’s diary using dynamite and more dynamite.

Segment Five:Mike reads a letter until the Bots reenact the tragic end of the movie with water pistols. Dr. F gives the little dinosaur something to chew on, and it's in Frank's pants.

Stinger: "A million bucks!"

Obscure References

  • "Say I'm starring in Forever Plaid!"

Forever Plaid is an off-Broadway musical about a 1950s pop music group.

  • "I just saw Howard Hughes in the desert!"

A reference to Melvin Dummar, a Utah gas-station owner who claimed to have picked up reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes as a hitchhiker in the Nevada desert.

  • "This is Charles Kuralt. We're gonna leave you now with images of bread!"

Servo is mocking the late Charles Kuralt's sign-offs on CBS News Sunday Morning.

  • "Hey, Dr. Giggles!"

Dr. Giggles was a 1992 horror movie.

  • "Uh...that's Christine Jorgensen!"

In the early 1950s, Christine Jorgensen became famous as one of the first people to undergo a sex-change operation.

  • "Niels Bohr buys groceries."

Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who was a key contributor to the development of quantum mechanics.

  • How's the German expressionist date going?

German expressionism was a dark and moody school of film-making developed in Germany in the 1920s.

  • "Terry Malloy!"

Terry Malloy is the name of the main character in Elia Kazan's 1954 classic film On the Waterfront.

  • She committed thought crimes! Put the rat mask on her!

A reference to the crimes and torture of Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984.

  • "Dad's turned into Gregor Samsa."

Gregor Samsa is the character in Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis who changes into a giant bug-like creature.


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