402 - THE GIANT GILA MONSTER

1. They ran off to elope
2. They were injured and are in a hospital
3. They were eaten by a giant monster (…hey, it’s the ’50s, so the possibility has to be considered!)

So while the sheriff is busy visiting Chase at Compton’s Garage for one of their “knee up” sessions (…no, it’s not as dirty as it sounds!), the Giant Gila Monster is busy munching on people in another car as well as a traveling door-to-door salesman. (That last victim is probably just to make the Monster a more sympathetic character.)  Soon, Chase and the Sheriff are “knee upping” everywhere (I promise you, it’s not dirty!), as they also help themselves to the tires and headlights from the wrecked car of some victims (Hey, is this one of those corrupt cop movies in which they deal stolen goods??  What cut does the Monster get of this scam???)  Back at Compton’s Garage, Chase is storing some high-explosive nitroglycerin (hint, hint) and sing hammering such a headache into a drunk DJ that the guy gives him $40 to stop.  But Chase continues to sing, next singing a song to his little sister about laughing children and ’shrooms.  Chase’s boss, Mr. Compton, then is killed in a tanker truck that the Giant Gila Monster makes go boom. (Hmmm, is the Monster sending a message to Chase and the Sheriff for not cutting him in, or am I just reading too much into this???)   The Local Drunk is next playing “dodge the train” when the Monster then tries the same thing... but the train loses.  At the barn sock hop that night, the Drunk DJ is there playing a song by Chase, causing him to once again sing that damn song about laughing children.  Luckily, the Giant Gila Monster arrives in time to stop Chase’s singing.  Now Chase races with his girlfriend recklessly over to Compton’s Garage to get the nitro.  After warning her about how explosive it is, he then drives recklessly again, somehow not blowing up, and crashes his hotrod car into the Monster, where it blows up in some very unconvincing special effects.  Now without a car or a job, Chase is going to go work for the crotchety old father guy who hates him and who will probably try to kill him just as he did Chase’s dad some years earlier, bringing his tire and headlight stealing days to an end.

Don’s Review:  Anytime I see this film, I get a ting of nostalgia because this film was a favorite of the Creature Feature cheesy movie show I watched while growing up (it was shown to almost “The Beastmaster on TBS” proportions).  I still remember every scene in this movie very well because, as a kid, I thought the movie was great.  Looking at it now, of course, I can see that it’s not that good but, at least, it does have some good qualities – such as having a likable main character who has a very cool hotrod car (that blows up real fake!).  Although not a Bert I. Gordon flick, this film has a typical Mr. BIG plot:  a monster (here, a giant lizard, played by a regular-sized lizard crawling around miniature sets) somehow appears out of nowhere in a small town and kills some people in a deserted area.  Soon someone figures out what’s going on and the monster finally makes itself known to all (typically at some large teen-laden event) and then it is eventually killed.  And, of course, there is also a sock-hop, which I think is a required scene in every single “teen movie” made in the ’50s.  However, this is a bit unusual as a ’50s Monster Movie in that a “teenager” instead of the military kills the creature and there’s not a scientist – mad or otherwise – anywhere in the film.  I actually watched the unMSTed version of this first, for nostalgia’s sake, before watching J&tBs riff it to shreds.  And the riffing on this is very strong, especially the “knee up” jokes that had me on the floor laughing!  Besides the generally strong riffing, the host segments are also pretty good overall, with an excellent invention exchange (which are two of my favorite inventions ever on the show) and a good spoof of the ’70s cheeseball flick The Thing With Two Head starring Ray Milland and Rosey Grier.  So strong riffing combined with a good set of host segments makes for an top-notched episode in my book. (And – finally! – Rhino has released this great episode featuring a Public Domain film, so no rights issues, on DVD. Why it took them so long to release this episode is still a complete mystery.)
Trivial Note:  A song from this movie (“I Sing Whenever I Sing”) is spoofed again and again in some future episodes (for example, by Frank in the very next episode, City Limits).

Don’s Rating: 

Forrest’s Review:  Well, this was an interesting movie.  And by interesting, I don’t literally mean “interesting”.  I highly disagree with Don about this episode, I found it to be a bit below average for an MST3K episode (and though Don rates his average at 3.5 Crows, I rate mine around 4 to 4.5 Crows as I love most of the Sci-Fi episodes that he gave low reviews to).  The movie itself is a lot of fun simply for the fact that it is a ’50s giant monster movie.  I enjoy any MST3K episode that features a giant monster, and will never give it a flunking grade just for the movie.  I have seen this episode twice, and both times, I did not enjoy it as anywhere near as much as Don did.  The riffing simply did not make me laugh as much as in most episodes.  Don’t get me wrong, I did laugh quite a bit in this episode, and laughing isn’t always the determining factor for me to give an experiment a low or high review.  But, there were simply to many dead spots for me in this episode, and I find that most of the episodes featuring a giant monster, while they are all enjoyable, don’t have the great riffing seen in either the truly awful (like Red Zone Cuba), the incredible cheesy (like Godzilla vs. Megalon) or the crappy ’80s flicks (like Space Mutiny).  Those three categories, for me, make the funniest episodes of MST3K.
      My favorite episode of all the giant monster movies seen on MST would have to be Beginning of the End.  Hilarious riffing, great host segments, and the enjoyable cheesy movie made me give that episode a perfect rating.  However, the riffs in The Giant Gila Monster weren’t bad at all.  There are many memorable lines, and the hilarious knee-up jokes.  But nothing really stood out for me to make this an episode that I would recommend highly.  Also, this movie was cheesy, but not really all that cheesy because the Gila Monster is only seen for about two minutes of the movie.  It seems like Don loves the dated movies, the more dated the movie, the better. [ed: true, but they are eps that repeat very well.]  With me, I enjoy the dated movies as well, and I’m glad they did them on the show, as well as they are some of the more easy to get through.  But, it also seems that the riffs aren’t as funny (except Season Six, all the dated movies in that season were great!).  The riffs where Joel does the Gila Monster’s voice was actually a bit annoying (although he does say some funny things).  Also, Crow and Tom seem to be in this no-energy slump that would plague the beginning few episodes of Season Four.
      The host segments are, IMO, the true highlight of this episode.  The Mads’ Invention featuring Renaissance Festival Punching Bags was one of the best invention exchanges on the show, and Joel’s plot-point radio station bit was also enjoyable.  The host segment where Joel opens an old ’50s Soda Shop was also fun, and the best was the bit which showed all the “knee-up” parts from the film.  It was a decent episode, with very good host segments, and some great lines, but nothing truly stood out for me, and I really don’t look forward to seeing this one again for a long time.

Forrest’s Rating: 

Related Links:
   (1) Mighty Jack’s MST3K Review (Episode Review)
   (2) BadMovies.org (Original Movie Review)
   (3) DVD Savant (Original Movie Review)