MST3K #421: Monster a Go-Go

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #421: Monster a Go-Go (with a short, Circus on Ice).
Originally aired January 9, 1993.
Part of the eighth Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection.
Also released in non-MST3K form by Something Weird Video (discontinued).

This is one of my favorite MST3K episodes of all time.

An American astronaut named Frank Douglas (Henry Hite) mysteriously disappears from his spacecraft, which according to the film, is just slightly taller than a man of average height. Douglas is either replaced by, or turned into a tall radioactive humanoid monster. Hite was a legitimate 7'7", so he made a convincing giant, albeit one who made very brief appearances during the movie. A team of scientists and military personnel attempt to capture the monster, and succeed, reportedly keeping him in a storage room for eight weeks according to the narration. The monster escapes, and neither his escape or even his capture are shown, just described by the narrator.

Meanwhile, the monster stumbles through the heartland, randomly killing people, and eventually making his way to Chicago, where the military shuts down the Windy City to track him down. The monster is seen slowly stalking his way through a tunnel, and then came the biggest cop-out ending in cinematic history:

As if a switch had been turned, as if an eye had been blinked, as if some phantom force in the universe had made a move eons beyond our comprehension, suddenly, there was no trail! There was no giant, no monster, no thing called "Douglas" to be followed. There was nothing in the tunnel but the puzzled men of courage, who suddenly found themselves alone with shadows and darkness! With the telegram, one cloud lifts, and another descends. Astronaut Frank Douglas, rescued, alive, well, and of normal size, some eight thousand miles away in a lifeboat, with no memory of where he has been, or how he was separated from his capsule! Then who, or what, has landed here? Is it here yet? Or has the cosmic switch been pulled? Case in point: The line between science fiction and science fact is microscopically thin! You have witnessed the line being shaved even thinner! But is the menace with us? Or is the monster gone?

Director Bill Rebane ran out of money making the movie, and abandoned it in 1961. Hershell Gordon Lewis needed a second movie to show with his own completed project Moonshine Mountain, so he purchased Monster a Go-Go, but didn't complete it until 1965 with some extra scenes and dialogue, which made it into a confusing mess of a film that makes almost no sense, Still, it makes for a hell of a good time when featured on MST3K. Highly, highly recommended!