How To Watch
"It's Shocking"
"It's Beyond Your Imagination"
—The Manos The Hands of Fate tagline
"I aM TORgo. I Take CARe oF THe pLaCE whILE the MASTer is awAY."
"You know, there are certain flaws of this film."
-Tom Servo
1966 horror film about a young couple, Mike and Margaret, their daughter Debbie, and her poodle, Peppy. The four of them go on a nice family vacation, and the audience is treated to an extended, uncut, driving sequence with very little dialogue. They can't find the way to Valley Lodge, so decide to spend the night in a
Haunted House. Can you feel the horror?
The caretaker of the house, Torgo, speAks VeRY OdDly, has extremely bulgy legs (he was meant to be a satyr), and continuously refers to someone called "
The Master" (No, not
that one nor
this one). It turns out that the Master is the evil undead (or something) leader of a cult dedicated to a dark god (or is it a goddess?) named Manos. He and his wives live in suspended animation at a little chapel out in the desert. They decide to kill the intruders, but Torgo wants to keep Margaret alive so she can be his wife. The Master wants to keep Margaret alive so she can be his seventh wife. His wives want to kill Margaret and Mike, but are unwilling to kill Debbie.
Hilarity Ensues. Well, not intentionally anyway. Oh, and the Master's dog eats Peppy.
This film is best known for its appearance on
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Its creator prophetically suggested that it could be redubbed into a comedy). Conversely, it's widely considered one of the funniest episodes of
MST 3 K. It is often considered, as is probably evident from the above synopsis, the Worst Film Ever Made, but has achieved some cult popularity. It was directed by Hal P. Warren, starred Hal P. Warren, and written by Hal P. Warren, who was trying to win a bet with Stirling Silliphant (screenwriter of
In The Heat Of The Night and genuinely talented fellow) that he could make a successful horror movie on a minimal budget. Despite his previous experience as a fertilizer salesman, he was unable to make any money off this sack of crap.
The crew at Best Brains actually considered
not riffing on this because they thought
Manos at first was too strange to riff on. They eventually came to the conclusion that the world
must know about this movie.
The rest, they say is history.
Also see
Plan Nine From Outer Space. Seriously, see both of them. They're hilarious. However unlike
Plan 9,
Manos is close to unwatchable by itself. While a great episode, even parts of the
MST 3 K version lags behind at times.
Provides examples of:
- Angry Guard Dog - The one that later eats Peppy.
- Big Bad - The Master.
- Bilingual Bonus - "Manos" is of course Spanish for "hands," making the movie's title Hands: The Hands of Fate.
- Or perhaps Hands: Las Manos del Destino.
- Broken Record - Torgo in particular, but really, everybody.
- Bumbling Dad - Mike
- Catch Phrase - "THe MASTer would NOt APProvE"
- Cat Fight - An extremely long sequence of this with the wives as they try to decide on what to do about Debbie. Presumably intended as Fanservice.
Tom Servo: "So, I'm guessing this is the whole reason this movie was made."
- Chest Insignia - The Master has a black robe that big pair of red hands on it
- Crazy Awesome - It's hard not to like Torgo
- Crusty Caretaker - Torgo. Presumably Mike as well, later on.
- Cult
- Cult Classic
- Department Of Redundancy Department - Certain words tend to be repeated. This Troper is pretty sure that certain words get repeated.
- Then there's the title itself. And Torgo's frequently repeated line about how the Master would not approve of... like, anything at all.
- Designated Hero - Mike, who makes the crippled man carry their luggage in by himself after forcing him to let his family stay the night at his house, and then has the nerve to complain about the state of living. Later, he orders Torgo to put the luggage back in car, "quickly" this time.
- Downer Ending - The Master wins. See also The Bad Guy Wins
- Ear Worm - The only truly disturbing thing about this movie except maybe the ending is how thoroughly the "haunting 'Torgo's Theme'" gets stuck in your head.
- Evil Laugh - The Master is altogether just a cheery guy.
- Ensemble Darkhorse - Torgo
- Guilty Pleasure
- Haunted Castle, or rather, small and boring house
- Hong Kong Dub - Torgo's voice wasn't done by the actor but by another unknown actor. In fact, all the voices were done by just three actors, as the film was shot entirely without sound, and the dialogue was added in post-production. For some reason, they still used a clapboard, which is of course visible in a few shots.
- The little girl who played Debbie apparently cried when she heard how she sounded in the movie.
- Hell Hotel
- Hellhound
- Idiot Plot
- The Igor - Torgo, in fact, was going to be called "Igor" originally.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes - The Master's robe
- Infant Immortality - The Master's wives refuse to kill a child
- Her becoming a sex slave is much better of course...
- Jerkass - Mike is an unbelievably callous guest.
- Laughably Evil - All of the villains.
- Leave The Camera Running - Too many times to count. Probably the film's greatest weakness, although not the only one.
- The very long car driving scene was actually supposed to be where the opening credits went, which would explain the length and lack of action. For whatever reason, they did not end up there.
- Unintentionally averted in certain scenes that should last longer than they did (such as the police traveling all of two feet from their car to investigate a gunshot before giving up) because they couldn't afford a camera that could film more than 30 seconds at a time.
- Leitmotif - The "Haunting Torgo Theme"
- LoopingLines
- Lovable Sex Maniac - Torgo again. He's the only character with any personality, really.
- Make Out Point - On the road to the Master's house.
- The Master - Self explanatory.
- Memetic Mutation - evErYtHinG ToRgo saYS
- Narm - Everything
- Neutral Female - Margaret
- Nice Hat - Torgo's hat.
- Nightmare Retardant - Everything, except, for some people, the end
- Or Is It - "The End?"
- Pale Skinned Brunette - The Master
- Parody Retcon - By the end of the experience, this film's creator predicted that while it failed as a horror movie, if it were redubbed as a comedy it might make good money.
- Police Are Useless - Most of the sheriff's time is spent bothering a couple who can't keep their lips off of each other. Then, they show up when Mike fires the gun, get out and walk in front of their car, then turn around and leave.
- Porn Stache - The Master has one
- Red Right Hand - Torgo's knees
- The Renfield - Torgo
- Sequel Hook - The film ends with Margaret and Debbie in suspended animation in the desert. Two young college girls arrive at the house and are greeted by the new caretaker, Mike.
- Snark Bait
- So Bad Its Good or So Bad Its Horrible. Cult fans consider it the former. Doctor Forrester and TV's Frank seem to think it's the latter.
- Soundtrack Dissonance - The happy jazz music playing at the beginning and end
- Special Effect Failure - Torgo's knees, caused by the actor wearing them backwards. He was nebulously intended to be a satyr.
- Squick, specificially pedophilia and Torgo's creepy attempts to hit on Margaret.
"Ah, the tender Peeping Torgo scene."
- Those Two Guys - "The Make-Out Couple". They have no relevance. And we can't forget the two sheriffs.
- The make-out couple was used because the actress broke her leg early in production. She was intended to be one of the wives, so they worked her into her own, pointless subplot.
- Title Drop: Apropos of Torgo, the Master says
Manos! God of primal darkness! As thou hast decreed, so have I done. The hands of fate have doomed this man. Thy will is done!
- Too Dumb To Live: Mike insists on staying at the house despite the protests of the mysterious satyr man who calls his boss "the Master".
- What Happened To The Mouse - It's ambiguous whether or not Torgo survives
- Hal P Warren intentionally left it ambiguous with a plan to make a sequel starring Torgo. Of course, this never happened.
- Verbal Tic - ToRgO (pause) TAlks (pause) LIkes thIS.
- Vindicated By Cable - This film was virtually unknown to the public at large until MST 3 K got their hands on it. Now, it's stands as a "classic" alongside Plan Nine From Outer Space, Space Mutiny, and Puma Man.
- The Woobie - Due to his speech problems and the way Michael and The Master treat him like crap, Torgo manages to fall into this.
- What Could Have Been - Harold P. Warren once stated that he left Torgo's fate vague on purpose. If the film was a hit, the sequel was to involve Torgo's return. The sequel was never written.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe
- You Have Failed Me
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation has examples of:
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: The Manos episode is widely considered the show's best episode by many, and is easily the most well-known episode of the show.
- Really? This troper has always heard of it being considered the worst one, as it's so bad that not even riffing can make it enjoyable. A sort of "everything you touch turns to suck" effect. S'pose this is why we've got tropes for that.
- Even Evil Has Standards: TV's Frank and Dr. Forrester actually apologized to Joel and the 'bots for showing the movie, with the former claiming they may have went a little too far.
- Special Guest: Torgo (played by Mike Nelson) as the Torgo's Pizza Delivery Man.
