MST3K 620 - Danger!! Death Ray

620 - Danger!! Death Ray
Air/Release Date	January 7, 1995
MST3K Director	Kevin Murphy
Running Time	106 min.
Turkey Day(s)	November 26, 2015
AKA	Il Raggio Infernale; Death Ray; Nest of Spies
Movie Director	Gianfranco Baldanello
Year	1967
Cast	Gordon Scott Delfi Mauro (credited as Maureen Delphy) Nello Pazzafini
Preceded by	619 - Red Zone Cuba
Followed by	621 - The Beast of Yucca Flats

“	"Bart Fargo. Bartfargobartfargobartfargobartfargo... Heh, that's hard!"	”
	- Crow

The Movie

Synopsis

Danger!! Death Ray

Scientist Jean Karl Michael invents a death ray which, according to him, is for peaceful purposes. He arranges to demonstrate the ray to a group of European NATO representatives. As he is demonstrating it, a group of enemy agents disguised as NATO officials steals the death ray, kidnap the scientist, and escape by car under the cover of night. Following a pursuit and gun battle, they escape by helicopter which lands on a submarine and is discarded as the submarine submerges. About to go on vacation, Agent Bart Fargo is given the assignment, by his boss, of retrieving the death ray and saving the scientist. He travels to Madrid on a lead to find an evil organization that may be behind this. Rooting out a nest of spies in an ever-enclosing trail, Bart Fargo meets a lady when he hides in her house from the opposition and befriends an enemy agent who later helps him to stop the evil organization.

Information

• Its original Italian title was Il Raggio infernale, which translates as "The Infernal Beam", and it was also released in English as Nest of Spies and Death Ray.
• Cast and crew round up: Set designer Arrigo Equini, who was a scene designer for Secret Agent Super Dragon is the only person on this movie who worked on another MST3K movie.

The Episode

Host Segments

Torgo visits Deep 13

Prologue: Crow gets contact lenses but they're quite uncomfortable.

Segment One: Despite the fact that he has no feet, Servo has signed a contract to endorse sneakers. In Deep 13, Frank is his agent. He refuses to represent Crow, but secures a lucrative deal for Mike and has a brief meeting with Torgo before being shut down by Dr. Forrester.

Segment Two: Servo builds a death ray for peaceful purposes, but can't resist using it on Crow.

Segment Three: "This is your life, Mike Nelson!"

Tom's death ray

Segment Four: Crow's line of Italian sunglasses for men seem a bit woman-y.

Segment Five: Cambot gets emotional, Frank gives Dr. F a glamour shot.

Cambot cries

Stinger: Standing in a third-floor hotel room, Bart Fargo tosses his watch out the window. Then, at ground level, a man’s hand can clearly be seen dropping a watch into a swimming pool.

MST3K cast

Regular cast

• Michael J. Nelson - Mike Nelson
• Trace Beaulieu - Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester
• Kevin Murphy - Tom Servo
• Frank Conniff - TV's Frank
• Jim Mallon - Gypsy (credit only)

Guest cast

• Michael J. Nelson - Torgo

Trivia

• In one host segment, Crow is blasted by a death ray constructed by Servo and is shown smoldering for the rest of the scene. During the filming of this segment, the "burning Crow" prop accidentally burst into flames. In addition to being included in the first "MST3K: Poopie!" blooper compilation tape, this humorous incident was left in the final cut of the episode, although it omits a quip made immediately afterward by Crow's puppeteer and voice actor, Trace Beaulieu.
• This was the fifth episode shown during Turkey Day '15.

Callbacks

• The Starfighters music
• “This nose wheel feels mushy.” (San Francisco International)
• “We tampered in God’s domain.” (Bride of the Monster)
• “I’m dyin’ in a rush!” (Kitten with a Whip)
• Callback to Crow’s screenwriting career.

Obscure References

• "Jeffrey, Steven, David..." (Frank on conference call, during first host segment)

At the time of this episode's production, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, and David Geffen had recently formed the entertainment company Dreamworks. Frank is unwisely questioning their work history.

• "Buckaroo Banzai goes to the nursing home."

A reference to the 1984 movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

• "In an underground bunker, the major league owners plot strategy."

A reference to the various collusion scandals in Major League Baseball, in which the owners of Major League Baseball teams secretly agreed to hold down players' salaries by not signing players in free agency.

• "Why can't I get the Red Shoe Diaries?"

The Red Shoe Diaries was an "erotic" drama anthology series produced for the cable channel Showtime.

• "I have to go undercover as Tony Roberts?"

The hero has hair similar to that of ​Tony Roberts, an actor used by filmmaker Woody Allen in many of his movies during the 1970s.

• "Don't go up there, you'll become a toy!"

A reference to The Twilight Zone episode "Five Characters in Search of an Exit", in which living toys are trapped in an enormous cylinder.

• "Augustus has fallen in to the chocolate!"

Augustus was the fat kid who fell into Willy Wonka's chocolate river, the first victim of a mishap during the chocolate factory tour.

• "This is the best Fortune Hunter ever!"

Fortune Hunter was a short-lived action/adventure TV series from the mid-1990s.

• "Did you ever have to make up your mind?"

Title (and lyric) to a 1966 song by the pop band Lovin' Spoonful.

• "Watermelon Man!"

A reference to the Herbie Hancock jazz composition "Watermelon Man".

• "That nose wheel feels mushy!"

A line from the previously featured made-for-TV movie San Francisco International. Mike utters the quote when a shot of an airport tarmac is shown.

• "Abe Lincoln is Timecop!"

Timecop was a 1994 movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.

• "I'm going to shun him!"

A reference to the Amish practice of shunning.

• "Where Eagles Dare moves downtown!"

Where Eagles Dare was a 1968 World War II movie starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.

• "It's Jerry Reed! Hit him!"

Country singer and actor Jerry Reed is best remembered for co-starring with Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit, a movie whose theme song he also recorded.

• "Barcelona wants me..."

Mike is paraphrasing the opening line to the song "Indiana Wants Me", popularized by R. Dean Taylor.

• "Who's that behind those Amy Grants?"

Tom is referring to the slogan for Foster Grant sunglasses ("Who's that behind those Foster Grants?"), substituting the brand name for that of the pop singer Amy Grant, whose 1991 single "Baby Baby" was extremely successful.

• "You can tell by the way I use my walk I'm a woman's man..."

The movie Saturday Night Fever opens with a very similar shot of someone's feet walking down a street while the Bee-Gees song "Staying Alive" (which this lyric is from) plays.

• "Gun placed by the Gideons."

Gideons International is the organization which has placed Bibles in motel rooms all over the planet.

• "Obey."

A reference to the Shepard Fairey "Andre the Giant Has A Posse" stickers made popular in the early 1990s thrasher scene. (Click here for the 1995 version.)

• "You vill become Michael Huffington."

Michael Huffington, ex-husband of Arianna Huffington (nee Stassinopoulos) and former Congressman, had a political track record most politely described as "expedient", as his associations reflected what would get him votes, rather than his actual convictions and opinions.

• "Whoa, partner, you just missed the Pine Crest resort!"

The Pine Crest Resort is located just outside Brainerd, MN.

• "Look, it's Kids in the Hall!"

Said when the protagonist punched out a woman who turned out to be a man as reference to the Kids in the Hall, an all-men Canadian sketch comedy group who, when the need arose, would dress in drag to play as women characters.

• "One of the Three Tenors is down!"

The Three Tenors were a popular operatic singing group of the 1990s and 2000s. The fallen assassin resembles Luciano Pavarotti.

Video releases

MST3K DVD Cover

• Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in March 2013 as part of Volume XXVI, a 4-disc set along with The Magic Sword, Alien from L.A., and The Mole People.
  • The DVD includes Life After MST3K: Mike Nelson and a theatrical trailer.

preceded by: Season 5		MST3K Season 6					followed by: Season 7
		1994 - 1995
601	Girls Town	1994-07-16	609	The Skydivers	1994-08-27	617	The Sword and the Dragon	1994-12-03
602	Invasion USA	1994-07-23	610	The Violent Years	1994-10-08	618	High School Big Shot	1994-12-10
603	The Dead Talk Back	1994-07-30	611	Last of the Wild Horses	1994-10-15	619	Red Zone Cuba	1994-12-17
604	Zombie Nightmare	1994-11-24	612	The Starfighters	1994-10-29	620	Danger!! Death Ray	1995-01-07
605	Colossus and the Headhunters	1994-08-20	613	The Sinister Urge	1994-11-05	621	The Beast of Yucca Flats	1995-01-21
606	The Creeping Terror	1994-09-17	614	San Francisco International	1994-11-19	622	Angels Revenge	1995-03-11
607	Bloodlust	1994-09-03	615	Kitten with a Whip	1994-11-23	623	The Amazing Transparent Man	1995-03-18
608	Code Name: Diamond Head	1994-10-01	616	Racket Girls	1994-11-26	624	Samson vs. the Vampire Women	1995-03-25