Movie Night: Manos: The Hands of Fate.

Review #350: Manos: The Hands of Fate.

Cast
Harold P. Warren (Michael), Diane Mahree (Margaret), Jackie Neyman (Debbie), John Reynolds (Torgo), and Tom Neyman (The Master) Directed by Harold P. Warren.

Review
If I ever regret watching a film, this would be it, along with Birdemic. What can I say about a film that has nothing going for it? The facts about the film are immensely better then the film itself. It has really bad choppy edits, with a camera that can't film more then half a minute and the quality being a copy of a copy of the original work print (which was recently found in 2011), which gives the impression of being filmed through a drain. The fact that this managed to be filmed in color (Eastman as said by the...poster of the film) and not in black and white astonishes me.

This was made on a bet to see if Harold P. Warren (a insurance and fertilizer salesman) could make a film all by himself on the budget of a shoestring ($19,000), with amateur acting (including himself). You might think that because he did a majority of the film making process, the is the 60s equivalent of Tommy Wiseau. He is not for only one reason: Wiseau had a budget ($7 million), and he still had a bad (if not laughable) film. This is an incoherent mess, with dubbing for all the voices, being shot at night (they couldn't film at daytime because the actors has jobs) an attracting moths, without much light for scene, including one scene where two cops go "investigate" by going three steps away from the car, then give up (this due to the fact the lights didn't illuminate much, if at at all), which is immensely noticeable. The only person that looked like they had some talent is John Reynolds, as Torgo (also known as that guy with big springs in his legs), giving a slightly creepy performance, even if sometimes it is undermined by the dubber (The dubber apparently thought repeating lines made sense. Oh well. The dubber apparently thought repeating lines made sense.) The fun fact is that "Manos" translates to Hands, making this literally Hands: The Hands of Fate.

Believe it or not, but this film actually had a grand premiere, at a theater, with a searchlight and the whole cast (Except for Reynolds who had died earlier) there to see the grand failure. Warren said that if was dubbed differently, it could be me made into a comedy, which is correct. The film faded from the critical eye for nearly 30 years, fading from laughter until Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed on it, giving this film some level of recognition, good or bad is debatable (for about 5 seconds), but nonetheless, this is one of those films that you can suffer through AND still comment on, either as jokes, or at yourself if you manage to watch it. If you need to waste an hour, you could watch it and have some sort of critique...or just watch the MST3K version. Either way. Wow, great idea for Review #350, hmm? It's like I make a copy of a review, badly saturated, and with the same line writing months ago. I lived through the film, and if you can live through the film, you should get a medal. But hey, 350 Reviews, at least that's something. Now then...

Overall, I give it 1 out of 10 stars.