Embedded Files
I'm a MST3K fan. I think that's been made evident. In fact, most of the writers here have caught a few episodes live streaming together. Its been a staple of my childhood, growing up with robots and bad movies. More than the riffing, because its not just about making fun of a bad movie (that's my personal criteria), its about suffering together in a bad movie and having fun together.
Joel and the original crew came together for more wonderful b-movie riffing, in Cinematic Titanic. The whole original gang is here: Trace (Dr. Forrester/Crow), Josh (Dr Larry Erhardt/Tom Servo mark 1), Frank (TV's Frank), Mary Jo (Pearl Forrester/Magic Voice), and of course, Joel (Joel Robinson), and so are the silhouettes; the live shows instead feature the gang flanking the movie like hunting veloceriffers--expert riffing carnivores in the plains of the b-flick. The first few dvds have host segments that couche the movie, sometimes even with the same playful interruptions that the old show used to have (one of my favorite interruptions is during Legacy of Blood where the Institute guards raid the theater to confiscate Frank's chewing gum). Trading in the "trapped in space" story for "protecting future media with nanotated disks", the gang merrily romp their way through each bad movie with aplomb and more. Fabu.
Today's film is, like Chibiusa's Picture Diary, about VAMPIRES!!! Last year, I dropped in the promo for the ep, but now its on Hulu! The 1966 vampire flick comes straight from one of my ancestors: the Philippines. The long and short of the plot is that the Escodero family is cursed...by vampires...kinda. The Escodero children Leonore and Eduardo find out their deceased mother isn't really, and their father had had her locked in the basement and whips her nightly. I guess...to keep her from sucking the blood of the villagers. Meanwhile, because of it, Daniel and Leonore can't marry, and somewhere along those lines, Eduardo is courting Daniel's sister Christine, and when Pops takes a turn for the heart attack, he wills that the property is to be burned to the ground and nobody is allowed to get married, so there. That's the bare bones of the film, but I don't need to tell you that the entire film ends with an inferno and no wedding. ....Oh. Guess I just did.
I forgot to tell you my favorite parts of the film! 8D Numero Uno! The movie was filmed in the Philippines, but the story is set in Mexico, so we have philippinos acting mexican. I can honestly tell you, as someone who IS part philippina and part mexican, that the results of this are mixed. Some of the actors can kinda pass for mexican. Others are so philippino, I'm surprised that anyone thought this could pass for anything mexican (spaniard...MAYBE). As Josh says "That's always a good sign, when english if your movie's third language."
The second? That to give the illusion of having 1800s black slaves, instead of...I dunno, actually hiring black actors, they simply placed some more philippinos in black face. For the 1960s, its prolly a total faux pas if it was in Hollywood. Nowadays, it seems terribly (though sometimes it is hilariously) racist. But it does give you pause: was it because they didn't have black actors in the Philippines? Joel puts forth a good point on the Cinematic Titanic site: "did Filipinos really have the social leverage back then to even be considered racist, or were they just working with what they had? Of course – filtered through time and our ever- changing media context, it just looks goofy." Its true. Can you really feel very offended if its handled so clumsily and not as maliciously? You make the choice.
The movie interruption in this film is when Eduardo, right before he goes to make heretical, undead vampire sex with his new vampire bride Christine, takes a shot of the liquid courage, and Josh stops the film so the gang can toss it back a bit.Josh: MJ?
Mary Jo: No! I couldn't.
Josh: You know the movie's only half over, don't you?
Mary Jo: Gimme that. *snatches it*
Josh: Uh-huh.
Frank, being clean over 20 years, takes a shot, but immediately he gets a call from his sponsor to check up and make sure he hasn't...fallen off the wagon; the rest of the gang chime in that its only "apple juice".... But then you have to think: where's Steve calling from...and how can he see what's going on inside the theater? >__>
The acting in the movie is of the soap-opera ilk, but there are some hilarious gems. Like Christine here chewing the scenery with just her eyes. Still, there is, embedded in the bad acting and odd racism, the core of a love story. Oh, did I forget to mention that? But what vampire flick these days doesn't?? It may seem like a cheesy lovestory, the pledges of eternal love, even beyond the grave, but, as Mary Jo mentions in the Cinematic Titanic site, it can't help but get some people. Daniel promises eternal loyalty, going as far as to ask God to take his life instead of Leonore's during a comically fatal carriage crash, and coming to her aid after the grave when her brother turns up the creep factor on Leonore to turn her to the dark side of all things bitey. If she calls, he will answer, no matter what. "Til death do I part? Not on my watch, baby." Daniel doesn't leave her side, and you have to admit...that's pretty damn good partner move. If only other women could have such wonderful loves in their life--though I wouldn't wish the vampirism and demonic incest on them.
Watch for the ending, which has a mega-Catholic entourage chanting in sped-up latin to attack the vampires and eventually burn the whole place down around them. FUN for the whole family!
Also, the Cinema Titans end up doing a BUNCH of Independent International Pictures Corps movies. Why? I assume because they are rife with badness. The same director and producer went on to do another CT hit: Danger on Tiki Island, which also has philippinos, swords on the wall, and spanish villa sets. What can I say? When you see the II logo, you know you're in for a riffing good time.
Enough of me. Time for the gang! Unfortunately, the site has long since closed shop in the years since, BUT Shout!Factory has the ENTIRE RECORDED COLLECTION of Cinematic Titanic for a pretty damn fine price for 12 films. Please grab your copy today!
By Dio (10/8/12)
Screens capped by me, Cinematic Titanic belongs to the Cinema Titans :3
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse