Hollywood After Dark
A Review by Nick Peron
Wait, wait, wait, wait... I'm doing a review of an old movie from the 60's? What the hell is up with this? Well my friends, it's not just any movie from the 60's, it's a movie that was savaged by the Film Crew.
Don't know who the Film Crew are? Well sit right back my friends, and allow me to explain what the deal with this is:
Anyone remember Mystery Science Theater 3000? Well for those of you who don't remember, or never heard of it, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K) was a television series that played on Comedy Central (and later the Sci-Fi Network) from 1989 to 1999. The basic premise of the show was that these two mad scientists shot a guy in space and force him to watch bad movies. The brilliance to this series was that the guy in space (teamed up with his two lovable robot pals) would watch said bad movies and make fun of them as they played. Viewers would enjoy watching some terrible b-movie all the while the silhouettes of a guy and two robots sat at the bottom of the screen mocking it (So you don't have to!)
The series itself was unjustly canceled after it's 10th season, but has manage to survive a bit of a resurgence in popularity as of late (As of the time of this writing Rhino Home Video has released 12 box sets of various episodes as well as 11 single episode DVD releases over the years) and it has caused many of the cast members of this series to come back and reprise their roles as master movie hecklers in various new projects (more on that below), one such project is the Film Crew.
The Film Crew consists of MST3K alumni Mike Nelson, Bill Corbet, and Kevin Murphy. They originally reunited under the name "The Film Crew", which started as a website where the guys would write commentary on current Hollywood projects, this eventually fell by the wayside, but the guys took the Film Crew title to a new location. Enter Shout! Factory. If anybody matches Rhino on re-releasing pop-culture phenomenon from years gone by, it's Shout! Factory.
The brilliant minds at Shout! did the one thing that said would never happen: Release a direct to video concept similar to Mystery Science Theater 3000. Upon coming up with the idea of "The Film Crew" there have been four direct to DVD releases under this title. The premise to the DVD series is simple: Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbet are hired by the CEO of Shout! Factory (Bob Honcho) to provide commentary tracks to movies that lack them. Sound pretty simple? Well, if the type of movies you're used to seeing these guys riff are any indication, these movies are going to be the worst of the worst.
The first film of this series is a movie called Hollywood After Dark.
The Film Itself:
Hollywood After Dark is a 1968 cautionary film about a young woman traveling to Hollywood looking for fame and fortune and finding nothing but misery and regret. In this particular film, our would-be starlet gets caught in the seedy world of stripping. Oh, and who is the female lead in this film? Rue McClanahan. You know, the woman who played Blanche Devereaux on the Golden Girls? Yeah, the old biddy that was always bragging about having sex. Yes that one. But more about that nightmare in a moment, I'm going to talk about the plot.
This movie follows the course of a 10 time loser who gives up his junk yard to work in the office of a strip club while he waits to help out on a bank heist that needs somebody who is really good at scuba diving. And who better than somebody who fought in the war!
Buddy gets caught up with McClanahan's character, a girl who traveled from New York who went to find fame and got stuck being a stripper. After a script reading leaves her getting drugged and rapped by the "writer", and the charm of being a stripper wear off, buddy decides that it's high time he get enough money to take his lady love away from the magical land of Hollywood and decides to help out in the bank heist
In the end, the crooks make off with the money, but one of his fellow robbers decides to double cross everyone and take the money for himself, leaving everybody dead at the end, proving that once again crime doesn't pay.
The movie itself is a bleak, and depressing film, offering no likable characters, bad acting, a very bad plot, and really no redeeming characteristics. Oh yeah, and there is Rue McClanahan stripping. Even in her prime it's nothing short of frightening, and it's not something for the faint of heart to watch. There are enough plot holes big enough to fly a jet through. This mostly due to poor narrative, and just bad flow. Thankfully, if you've seen enough of these "Going to Hollywood to be a star, but totally fuck everything up and make my life a fucking wreck." movies you can pretty much fill in the blanks because they're really all the same.
No really. I think usually the only thing that changes is the bad vice the pretty girl with visions of fame gets caught up with: Mob, drinking, drugs, stripping, shit eating. As long as it was something disrespectful and shocking to a 1960's audience, they had that girl getting messed up in it and the end result is usually the same. Girl loses everything, realizes the grave error she made, and either a.) dies a tragic death. b.) loses the man she loves to death or some other miss hap. or c.) Ends up saving face (By kicking the habit and meeting mr. right) and goes back home.
This movie opts for the most bleak ending possible, with the love interest dying and McClanahan's character sobbing her eyes out in a hotel room.
It's horrid, depressing, and even when it attempts to inject some happy romance, it's still grim and upsetting.
So what's the point of watching this movie? Well my friends.... It's because of the Film Crew!
The Commentary:
This is the only reason why anybody in their right mind could possibly watch this movie without wanting to blow their brains out at the end. And that's the Film Crew's commentary track.
So after seven years since the cancellation of MST3K, can Mike, Kevin and Bill still make you laugh? Damn right they can. They haven't missed a beat. These guys make this movie enjoyable to watch because of their witty comments. As usual, the combination of these three offer a hilarious set of one liners. I've always like the Nelson/Corbit/Murphy combination of riffing on MST3K the best over any combination because not only did they do the usual pop culture jokes, the sight gags, and the puns, they also injected a bit of cruel humor, almost childish toilet humor, and weren't afraid to make some sexual innuendo as well (Unlike the earlier MST3K episodes, which although were enjoyable, were very tame in comparison.)
These Film Crew episodes capture the essence of comedy that came out of these three guys during their run as the riffers during the last three seasons of MST3K, they're a bit cruder in these DVD's because they are direct to DVD as opposed to airing on television, but that doesn't make it any less funny. Bill Corbit remains my favorite riffer because when it comes to his commentary, his quips as sharp and sometimes have an air of childish cruelty to them that makes it really funny. Anyone who remembers Bill (As Crow T. Robot) ripping into certain moments during the films Time Chasers, The Hobgoblins, or The Final Sacrifice know exactly what I'm talking about.
Top that off with some intermissions by the three Film Crew guys, plus a bonus clip, this DVD makes for some great viewing. As an added bonus it even comes with a Film Crew iron on patch. Neat stuff.
I recommend this, and the other three films in the Film Crew library, all of which are available on DVD through Shout! Factory, you can also find copies at your regular online DVD retailer, or just walk into your local record store chain and get them to order it for you.
Watching This DVD Was Like:
Watching an episode of Mystery Science Theater... I thought I was pretty clear on that.
Where Can I get Other Stuff Like This?
If you want to maximize your MST3K craving, there is literally a shit-load of MST3K related stuff out there by the people who were the peregrinator of this excellent series. As I mentioned above, Rhino Home Video is presently the distributor of the old MST3K episodes, at the time of this writing they just recently released their 12th MST3K box set. I recommend you get these DVD's fast as some of them get pulled as soon as the rights run out (One example, Volume 10 was discontinued and pulled off the shelf a month after it's release for mysterious reasons, you can buy a copy of it online for 200 bucks if you're lucky.)
Mike Nelson works solo (and with guests) on a project called Rifftrax, where you can purchase and download MP3's which you play in synch with the movies he's riffing (by renting or buying the movie in question), there are also a few DVD releases through Rifftrax of old movies that have been colorized by Legend Films, (Including Plan 9 From Outer Space, Reefer Madness, and House on Haunted Hill) with Mike Nelson commentaries (Including a DVD of the Three Stooges in "Swing Parade" which is only available through the site.)
Also, original MST3K host Joel Hodgson recently announced that he, Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Mary Jo Pehl, and Frank Conniff will be working on a project called Cinematic Titanic, which will be a similar concept to MST3K (using silhouettes of the riffers on scaffolds as opposed to theater seats) which will offer a online movie purchasing service where you can purchase "Riffed" versions of films Cinematic Titanic bought the rights too, download onto your computer and purchase on DVD. So far it's still early one, and at the time of this writing Joel has been mum about the movies that will be offered.
And finally, the people at Best Brains have relaunched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 official website to feature animated webisodes featuring Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, and Gypsy, as well as host clips of the host segments from past episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
