Don’s Review:  The first Comedy Central (back then called the Comedy Channel) episode is actually pretty decent.  As for the movie itself, although the effects for the monsters are super-cheesy, I really liked the electronic music that plays in the monster scenes – it’s kinda Forbidden Planet like.  The riffing for this is fairly good, although very subdued compared to later seasons, and the host segments are very primitive, but enjoyable.  So overall this is a good start to the cable era of the show.
Trivia Note: This movie will be briefly seen again in the final episode of the show, ep #1013, as Mike Nelson and the ’Bots watch it on TV as the final image seem on MST3K in a nice, circular reference.

Don’s Rating: 

David’s Notes on the Cast:  The Swiss-German scientist was played by English actor Warren Mitchell, who also played J.J. “One Hundred Percent” Hubbard in Moon Zero Two (ep #111).  Mitchell had a recurring role on The Avengers as Brodny, the Soviet ambassador to England.  As you may have guessed, there isn't much difference between Mitchell's “Russian” and “German” accents.

David’s Review:  The Crawling Eye is one of the better early episodes (ep #101-108) from Season 1.  Really, there's not a whole lot else to say about it.  I’m a fan of TV westerns and John Wayne movies, so Forrest Tucker as a hero was kind of campy, I suppose. (Tucker normally played villains, second bananas, or even the dreaded third banana henchman.)  Unlike most S1 episodes, I first saw this in 1992, because it was re-aired several times.  The first show has decent replay value; some of the riffs are every bit as good as material from S 2-10.

     The actual movie, The Crawling Eye, could have become a minor cult flick with better execution. It isn't flawed in concept: a rarity for MSTed movies. (The Rebel Set and First Spaceship on Venus also come to mind.)  Very little actually happens (at least on-screen), but the director understood mood much better than your typical hack, so it's bearable. By casting someone in the romantic lead, you know, actually capable of opening a movie (as opposed to Forrest Tucker), this picture may have escaped the attention of J&tB.  Tucker is no Lance Fuller, but hey, who is?

     The very first episode introduced two of my favorite MST3K/bad movie archetypes: Bland Scientist (Tucker) and X-Treme Scientist (Mitchell).  Bland Scientist is something like Scully in The X-Files.  Until the monster appears in broad daylight, hands the scientist videotape of its activities, and provides a blood sample (or a reasonable facsimile thereof), Bland Scientist cannot accept the possibility that there isn't a “rational explanation” for all these goings-on.   X-Treme Scientist, not to be confused with its final stage, the “Mad” Scientist, is the exact opposite.  He or she wants to declare martial law and harness the combined might of Industry, Science, and Technology to ruthlessly NIP IT IN THE BUD!  Bland Scientist is often just a pawn in the game of exposition, or he may hang around to impart pearls of wisdom such as “a wounded animal that large isn't good” or that the heart “is made up of a single cell, for all practical purposes.” X-Treme Scientist is more likely to be the film's protagonist; in this movie, the typical roles are reversed, with Bland Scientist as hero and X-Treme Scientist as comic relief.

David’s Rating: 

David’s  Suggested Stinger:  Hans (barkeep of the Hotel Europa): “It’s not for me!”

Related Links:
    (1) Mighty Jack’s MST3K Review (Episode Review)
    (2) DVD Savant (Movie Review)
    (3) BadMovies.org (Movie Review)
    (4) B-Movie Central (Movie Review)
    (5) Bad Movie Report (Movie Review)
    (6) DVD Cult (Movie Review)