Riding with Death

Two episodes of atrocious 70s TV show stapled together to make a film. Secret agent has ability to become invisible due to exposure radiation or something. Has a "Southern" character only slightly less annoying than The Dukes of Hazzard. If you see a copy of it somewhere in a used bin, buy it then burn the video.

well let's just say that one line from "Riding with Death" completely summarizes the type of movie it is and that is a big, fat turkey.

This one was deliciously roasted on MST by Mike and the oh so funny robots, with many references to how dopey the hero, Ben Murphy really is.

The flimsy plot jumps from an explosive being transported in a truck to another explosive substance being used in a race car to kill off some people for no apparent reason. The reason for the jumping of the plot most likely stems from the fact that the movie is no more than 2 episodes of a short lived 70's T.V. series, slammed together and released in theatres. Oh well flimsy plot aside, the rest of the movie is just plain horrific, most of the bad stuff is in the form of awful acting, which raises the question as to how this got made into a T.V. show to begin with.

Well, the MST version was a lot of fun, though this is still an incredibly bad movie. 9 for the MST version, none for the actual film.

Someone at Universal thought it would be a good idea to make a show about a guy who can turn himself invisible. But, they made him a government agent, and made him mellow. Dr. Heywood Floyd, transported from the year 2001, assigns the ever cool and mellow Sam Casey to transport Murray from the MTM Show, from point A to point B. Oh there's also something about an unstable liquid. Anyway, Captain Stubing intends to doublecross our mellow hero and take off with ten million dollars. Then there's some scenes with Jim Stafford singing and driving a truck, Sam turning invisible and then finally a truck blowing up. Then we go into the fast paced world of raceing! There's the elusive Robert Denby and why he's elusive, we never find out. Dr. Floyd is harassed by his dentist and a woman named Cupcake plots and schemes. Sam and Buffalo Bill, as Stafford is known in this mishmash, throw some punches, drive some cars and thwart the machinations of the ever elusvie Robert Denby. Oh, and Abby is quite a gal. She's such a gal that she can view things in her lab and project her thoughts over space and time. Based on a story by H.G. Wells, and I think he's suing.

Like most folks, I suspect, I saw Riding with Death on MST3K. There's no question that it's a totally hackneyed, badly acted, horribly edited movie. But there's something about their attempt to splice together two separate episodes into a movie that moves me. They're incredibly clumsy in their attempt; mainly it consists of totally obvious voiceovers while the camera shows a shot of a truck or a landscape. Gene Roddenberry, whatever his flaws, was able to do this brilliantly in "The Menagerie." But watching the attempt in Riding with Death can be fun, and all the 70's stuff (e.g., fadeaway jerk handshake) is a blast. So I give it a 2, perhaps my first-ever non-1 for a Msted movie.

Two episodes of a really bad 70's T.V. show crammed together. It's worth watching for laughs. Observe all the bell bottoms, cheap dialogue, and unquestionably the worst actor I ever saw (the guy who plays Dr. Hale). Expensive and hard to find, so stick to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, which appears on the Sci-Fi channel. "Riding With Death" occasionally runs.