413 - MANHUNT IN SPACE with short: GENERAL HOSPITAL PT 1

Don’s Synopsis:  The feature here is actually is the fifth movie edited from a couple of episodes of the dated ’50s Sci-Fi TV show Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.  And in this “movie”, space pirates are boarding ships, stealing the cargo and setting the spaceships adrift.  Rocky Jones, and his dweebie sidekick Winky, track down the pirates in his invisible spaceship with its “cold light” based cloaking device.  The Pirates capture Rocky and want the secret of invisibility while Rocky tries to find out who’s behind the pirates.  He fails, but escapes with Winky in his invisible spaceship.  In the next episode edited in, the Pirates come to Rocky’s place to steal the invisible ship and take all of his friends hostage, but Rocky stops them, frees his friends, and captures the traitor who was helping the pirates.

Don’s Review:  I actually think this is the better of the two Rocky Jones films seen on MST3K (episode 417 - Crash of the Moons is the other experiment featuring an earlier Rocky Jones movie).  And because I actually saw the other Rocky Jones experiment first and didn’t initially like it that much, I really wasn’t looking forward to seeing this episode.  But this turned out to be a great MST experiment that had me laughing out loud a number of times! (For instance, in the hilarious “crummy special effect” scene.)  I enjoyed this experiment so much that it prompted me to re-watched Crash of the Moons (ep #417) just to see if I judged it too harshly the first time I saw it (and I had, so I revised my original review of that episode).  The host segments are also a highlight of this episode, especially the visit from uber-dweeb Winky.  Watch this episode in the right mood for dated sci-fi and it is a lot of fun.

Don’s Rating:    [ S:   F: ]

Related Link:
   (1) Mighty Jack’s MST3K Review (Episode Review)