History Trivia / ManosTheHandsofFate

* Jackey Neyman Jones claimed in an interview that she had looked for a copy of Manos in libraries and other places during her adolescence and early adulthood but had never been successful. [[note]]Too bad she never checked the Video Watchdog catalog, which sold copies of it for years before the ''[=MST3K=]'' airing.[[/note]]
Then, one weekend in 1993, her father called her. He must have fallen asleep watching Creator/ComedyCentral while listening to some recognizable music during [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S04E24ManosTheHandsOfFate a certain Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode]]. Jackey was overjoyed and contacted Comedy Central in New York to ask for a copy of the movie that they had just screened. When Jackey mentioned the movie, the person on the other line was completely shocked.

* Jackey Neyman said in an interview that she had spent some time as a teenager and young adult looking for a copy of ''Manos'' in libraries and such, but never could find a copy.[[note]]Too bad she never checked the Video Watchdog catalog, which sold copies of it for years before the ''[=MST3K=]'' airing.[[/note]] Then, one weekend in 1993, she received a call from her father. Apparently, he had settled in to snooze in front of the TV with Creator/ComedyCentral on, and heard some familiar music during [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S04E24ManosTheHandsOfFate a certain episode]] of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. Elated, Jackey called Comedy Central in New York, told them that she'd been in this movie that they'd shown, and requested that she get a copy. The person on the other end was absolutely floored when Jackey identified what movie.

* ProductionNickname: The film was often referred to as ''Mangos: The Cans of Fruit'' by the more frustrated cast members.

* AscendedFanon: The game was played by ''WebVideo/TheGameGrumps'' and [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Crow]] during the "''Bring Back MST3K Telethon''", where the Grumps [[https://youtu.be/hI3gVtOFRRg?t=322 play the game and joke alongside Crow]] in full Shadow-rama.

** Because the budget was stretched so thin, actor Tom Neyman also had to serve as the film's art director (crafting all the props and paintings, as well as the prosthetic legs for Torgo's costume) on top of his role of playing The Master - see ActorInspiredElement and TheCastShowoff above. Warren also chose to record the film's audio in post as an attempt to save money on renting sound equipment.

* TalkingToHimself: Everyone is dubbed by five actors, including Warren himself. When the sheriff points out Mike's burned-out taillight, it becomes an odd UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} experiment in alternate reality.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: The planned sequel has managed to get back almost all of the original cast, but the death of John Reynolds means that Torgo had to be recast.

* TheCastShowoff:
** Tom Neyman contributed the various "hand" sculptures and the Master's portrait and robe.
** Diane Mahree sung "Forgetting You", which is actually a haunting song -- unfortunately, it's edited (there's supposed to be a sax solo) and most films have a tremendously bad audio track.

* FanNickname: The film was often referred to as ''Mangos: The Cans of Fruit'' by the more frustrated cast members.

* TheCastShowoff: Tom Neyman contributed the various "hand" sculptures and the Master's portrait and robe.

* CreatorBacklash: In a strange variant, Hal Warren admitted that ''Manos'' was a terrible movie, but he remained perversely proud of it all the same, and would apparently put on the old Master robes every Halloween to give out candy. At one point he half-jokingly suggested redubbing the film into a comedy in hopes of obtaining a wider release.

** The story of Diane Mahree was a total mystery when the film resurfaced, with much speculation on her background and ultimate fate. Rumors suggested she was dead; one was that she was killed in tragic car accident shortly after the film came out, while someone claiming to be her daughter posted an obituary on a message board alleging that she died in 2007. Eventually she re-emerged as very much alive, though still valuing her privacy, and Jackey Neyman-Jones divulged a lot of the [[RealityIsUnrealistic stranger-than-fiction]] details about Diane on her blog--Diane was an El Paso native who took a modeling job after her car broke down and had a chance meeting with Hal Warren that led to playing Margaret, then she went on to a prolific modeling career before retiring and becoming an antiques dealer.

* ReclusiveArtist: It's pretty difficult to find any sort of personal information on any of the cast or crew involved in this film. Things that ''are'' known about the crew members, such as actor John Reynolds and director Hal Warren, are mostly rumors, provided through word of mouth. One of the 2015 Blu-Ray release's main selling points was an [[DVDCommentary audio commentary track]] featuring two of the film's stars - Tom Neyman and Jackie Neyman-Jones - finally breaking the silence and making their first public appearance in decades. A year later, Jackie released her book, ''Growing Up With Manos'', which cleared up a lot of misconceptions, confirmed a few rumours as indeed true, and generally provided a bit more information on the production and the people involved. Naturally, to promote the book, she - and to a lesser extent, her father, before his passing in late 2016 - took on a more public persona.

* AmateurCast: None of the cast had ever acted on film before. Most of the main players (including Harold P. Warren himself) were community theater veterans. The wives were recruited from a local modeling agency.

* CreatorBacklash: In a strange variant, Hal Warren admitted that ''Manos'' was a terrible movie, but he remained perversely proud of it all the same. At one point he half-jokingly suggested redubbing the film into a comedy in hopes of obtaining a wider release.

* IncestuousCasting: Tom Neyman (The Master) and Jackie Neyman (Debbie) are father and daughter. [[spoiler:Debbie ends up becoming one of the Master's wives.]] The hellhound was Neyman's own dog, which is why both the Master and Debbie were able to handle him so well.
* LoopingLines: The movie was shot using a silent camera, so Warren and three other actors dubbed everyone's lines.

** Not only did the cast and crew work on Manos for free, but Warren could only afford a single take for each scene using an outdated camera that shot up to 30 seconds at most. [[note]] Which contributed to several errors like him shouting "Cut!" and the clapperboard briefly appearing in the final cut[[/note]] These budget issues also led to night scenes being shot with as little lighting as possible, along with a four hour editing deadline for the film in post. In the end, Warren was only able to compensate Jackey Neyman and her dog for their work on the film (with a bicycle and 50 pounds of food respectively).
** Because the budget was stretched so thin, actor Tom Neyman also had to serve as the film's art director (crafting all the props and paintings, as well as the prosthetic legs for Torgo's costume) on top of his role of playing The Master. Warren also chose to record the film's audio in post as an attempt to save money on renting sound equipment.

** The actors who play the Master and Debbie are father and daughter.
** The Master's evil dog was their dog, which is why (despite the dubbed-in barking) it's very friendly.

* ReclusiveArtist: It's pretty difficult to find any sort of personal information on any of the cast or crew involved in this film. Things that ''are'' known about the crew members, such as actor John Reynolds and director Hal Warren, are either rumors or were provided through word of mouth. Jackie Neyman's book, ''Growing Up With Manos'', cleared up a lot of misconceptions, confirmed a few rumours as indeed true, and generally provided a bit more information on the production and the people involved.

* StuntCasting: Inverted. Diane Mahree was signed up for a regional West Texas BeautyContest that would lead to Miss Texas - just so Hal Warren could say that the film starred "a local beauty queen".

* John Reynolds, who played Torgo, was usually high while filming, according to Jackey Neyman. He committed suicide about a month before the film was supposed to premiere.

* {{Jossed}}: Jackey Newman dismisses the rumor that John Reynolds wore the leg braces incorrectly and ended up with chronic pain and an addiction to painkillers.

* ReclusiveArtist: It's pretty difficult to find any sort of personal information on any of the cast or crew involved in this film. Things that ''are'' known about the crew members, such as actor John Reynolds and director Hal Warren, are either rumors or were provided through word of mouth.

* TroubledProduction: The film was made when fertilizer salesman Hal Warren befriended and later made a bet with famous screenwriter Stirling Silliphant that he could make a horror film with a low budget. And ''[[MovieMakingMess it shows]]''. From a severely limited camera (only ''thirty-two seconds of film'', without sound) to Warren's overall ineptitude, it was a struggle to create.

* ReclusiveArtist: It's pretty difficult to find any sort of personal information on any of the cast or crew involved in this film. Things that ''are'' known about the crew members, such as actor John Reynolds and director Hal Warren, are either rumors or minor tidbits.

* ReclusiveArtist: It's pretty difficult to find any sort of personal information on any of the cast or crew involved in this film.

** Not only did the cast and crew work on Manos for free, but Hal could only afford a single take for each scene using an outdated camera that shot up to 30 seconds at most. [[note]] Which contributed to several errors like Hal shouting "Cut!" and the clapperboard briefly appearing in the final cut[[/note]] These budget issues also led to night scenes being shot with as little lighting as possible, along with a four hour editing deadline for the film in post. In the end, Hal was only able to compensate Jackey Neyman and her dog for their work on the film (with a bicycle and 50 pounds of food respectively).
** Because the budget was stretched so thin, actor Tom Neyman also had to serve as the film's art director (crafting all the props and paintings, as well as the prosthetic legs for Torgo's costume) on top of his role of playing The Master. Hal Warren also chose to record the film's audio in post as an attempt to save money on renting sound equipment.
** The reason for the endless driving montage in the intro was because the opening credits were supposed to be added over the footage, but Hal couldn't cover the cost to do so. This is also the reason why the movie fell into the public domain, as a copyright notice wouldn't have been present in the final cut, which was required under copyright laws at the time.

* NoBudget: The budget was $19,000 in 1966 dollars, and it really shows.
** The film had no editing. At all. Instead, the film was edited in-camera. One shot shows Hal saying, "Cut!" and then realized he didn't need to, because there was no way to stop the camera. The actress playing the girl making out with her boyfriend twice looked at the camera as if wondering when the shot would end. It also explains all the endless shots of the car parking and why the film ran for several seconds before the Master's dog barked.
** Tom Neyman made most of the props, including the hand staff that Torgo wields, Torgo's knee prostetics, and the painting of The Master. The only actors who were compensated were Jackey Neyman (who received a bicycle) and the dog playing the hellhound (50 pounds of food).
** Presumably due to the low budget, they could only afford one take on most scenes, as such there are some cases where characters obviously forget their lines or take several seconds to realize they are on camera and start acting.

* LoopingLines: The movie was shot using a silent camera, so Warren and several actors dubbed everyone's lines.

* TroubledProduction: The film was made when fertilizer salesman Hal Warren befriended and later made a bet with famous screenwriter Stirling Silliphant that he could make a horror film with a low budget. And ''[[MovieMakingMess it shows]]''. The problems included:
** The camera they used was a 16-millimetre Bell and Howell that not only didn't record sound, but could record only ''thirty-two seconds of film''. The sound was later dubbed in in post-production by four members of the crew, Hal included. This explains a number of things, including the bad editing, the long pauses, and why a few characters, such as Torgo and Debbie, sound horrible.
** The crew found themselves so bemused by Hal's amateurishness that they mocked the title of the movie (which was once called "''Lodge of Sins''") as ''Mangos: The Cans of Fruit''.
** Instead of the technique of shooting "day for night", Hal opted to film night scenes ''at night''. Thanks to poor lighting, it gave the accidental illusion of the cops getting out of their car to investigate a gunshot, but decide otherwise.
** The modeling agency that loaned Hal the women to be the Master's wives proved to be a bit of a prima donna, refusing to let the women to be "too skimpy" (that red sash they wear? They were supposed to be ''tails'') and when one of the women broke her leg, Hal was forced to recast her as the other half of the makeout couple that has [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment no real effect to the plot!]]
** Years later, the HD restoration of the film hit a major snag when Hal's son Joe, feeling incredibly slighted for not being a part of this, attempted to sue Ben Solovey, the man spearheading the restoration, in an attempt to assert copyright, only to find out that his old man never secured the copyright for the film.
* VindicatedByCable: This film was virtually unknown to the public at large until appearing on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. Now it stands as a "classic" alongside ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace'', ''Film/RobotMonster '', and ''Film/SantaClausConquersTheMartians''.

* IncestuousCasting: Tom Neyman (The Master) and Jackie Neyman (Debbie) are father and daughter. [[spoiler:Debbie ends up becoming one of the Master's wives.]] The hellhound was Neyman's actually dog, which is why both the Master and Debbie were able to handle him so well.

* IncestuousCasting: Tom Neyman (The Master) and Jackie Neyman (Debbie) are father and daughter. [[spoiler:Debbie ends up becoming one of the Master's wives.]]

* AuthorExistenceFailure: The planned sequel has managed to get back almost all of the original cast, but the death of John Reynolds means that either Torgo will be left out or will have to be recast.

* NoBudget:

* DoingItForTheArt: Harold P. Warren was just an average everyday man who went out there with his friends and group of community theater actors and wanted to make an entertaining horror movie with no studio backing and without the risks of ExecutiveMeddling. TropesAreNotGood unfortunately, as he had no experience in actually shooting, editing, or basically anything regarding movie making and it’s universally seen as one of the worst and most boring movies to sit through. [[DamnedByFaintPraise Still, point for effort]].

* DoingItForTheArt: Harold P. Warren was just an average everyday man who went out there with his friends and group of community theater actors and wanted to make an entertaining horror movie with no studio backing and risks of ExecutiveMeddling. TropesAreNotGood unfortunately, as he had no experience in actually shooting, editing, or basically anything regarding movie making and it’s universally seen as one of the worst and most boring movies to sit through. [[DamnedByFaintPraise Still, point for effort]].

* DoingItForTheArt: Harold P. Warren was just an average everyday man who went out there with his friends and group of community theater actors and wanted to make an entertaining horror movie with no studio backing. TropesAreNotGood unfortunately, as he had no experience in actually shooting, editing, or basically anything regarding movie making and it’s universally seen as one of the worst and hardest movies to sit through. [[DamnedByFaintPraise Still, point for effort]].