valis666

This very early Warner Bros. Short has two claims to fame -- it's on the "Censored 11" list of cartoons United Artists ceased distribution of in 1968 because of their crude racial depictions, and it borrows scenes from two far more well-known cartoons -- the famous "Steamboat Willie" (1st Mickey Mouse) and the horror classic "Skeleton Dance," both from 1920s Disney.

And while this toon is mildly enjoyable but rather nondescript, the music is incredible. And, as far as I can tell, made especially for this cartoon. I need to do more research into this because this seems hard to believe, but I can't find any evidence of this song having existed outside of this cartoon, unlike the songs used in many 1930s WB toons. It sounds so authentic and lively and lived-in, like it came straight from some obscure country blues 78 on Paramount from the decade before.

Surprisingly entertaining B crime pic, possibly direct to video or maybe was in the theaters for a hot second, but I can't quite find that info. Pare, who's career started with a bang between Eddie & the Cruisers and Streets of Fire, ended up making close to 200(!) under the radar movies like this over the next couple decades, and unfortunately he's the worst part of the film. Stiff acting with every scene met by the same facial expression and vocal tone, and his character's idea of "investigation" is to bust straight in everywhere and demand answers. Not exactly Columbo.

But on the other side we have the always quality Michael Ironside as a clearly-up-to-no-good importer/exporter with an ocean front compound the size of a small theme park, and ex-Bond girl Barbara Carrera as the exotic hothouse flower wife of Ironside's, who spends about half the movie in some state of undress.

Set in Miami, the film leans into it with all manner of sports cars, skinny dipping, plots revolving around Cuba and Cubans, shootouts and fist fights, sex, sex, and more sex, and a bit of pastel-colored clothing and neon lights leftover from the previous decade. Perfectly entertaining B-level cheese.

I have a love/hate, or more accurately, like/dislike relationship with Mystery Science Theater. I think there's always been a love for B-movies from the staff (either in the Joel or Mike years) that comes through, but the sad truth is nearly every movie they've covered has become a popular culture joke. "Oh, that pile of junk! Ha ha!" And that's how one of their subject films are known from then on. Well, some of them aren't so bad, and The Clonus Horror is way up there for MST3K subjects that deserved a better fate.

It's a very '70s paranoid sci-fi along the lines of Coma and Soylent Green (and others), with an actual good cast including Peter Graves, Keenan Wynn, and Darren #2 from Bewitched. Sure, there are clunky parts, usually when Tim Donnelly is on the screen, and the camera work is drab and TV-like, but the movie plays with some genuinely interesting ideas, particularly in how the keepers define reality for the clones. Rivers just produce cans of beer, y'know. It's natural. What the monolith was to the apes, the can of Old Milwaukee was to the clones.