There will be an extra holiday between 4th of July and Labor Day this summer. Sandy Frank Day will be celebrated on July 31 when his remaining movies are released as part of Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXIV. Fugitive Alien and Star Force: Fugitive Alien II were the last two Japanese productions that Sandy Frank sliced up and distributed to UHF channels across the USA. Many people thought they’d never see MST3K‘s grilling of these shows on DVD since Sandy Frank had been pretty open about his hatred of what Joel and the Bots said about him. Even more exciting is a bonus feature that promises to let Sandy Frank have his say. Here’s the press release from Shout! Factory with the great news:
4-DVD BOX SET FEATURING 4 EPISODES PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED ON DVD TO BE RELEASED BY SHOUT! FACTORY IN STORES JULY 31
Los Angeles, CA – Put on your spacesuits and get ready for a summer vacation on the Satellite of Love! Shout! Factory has announced the newest release in their Mystery Science Theater 3000 line, readying Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXIV for release on July 31. A must-have for fans of cult television shows and B-movies alike, the 4-DVD set features four episodes previously unreleased on DVD: Fugitive Alien, Star Force: Fugitive Alien II, The Sword And The Dragon and Samson Vs. The Vampire Women. Also included are all new bonus features, including introductions by Japanese cinema historian August Ragone, You Asked For It: Sandy Frank Speaks!, MST Hour Wraps, Life After MST3K: Frank Conniff, MST3K Shorts: Snow Thrills & A Date With Your Family, Lucha Gringo: K. Gordon Murray Meets Santo, and four exclusive Mini-Posters by artist Steve Vance.
The cult comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 has always welcomed immigrant films with open arms. One can almost imagine a Satellite of Liberty greeting the waves of foreign films seeking a more prosperous life in America. Its inscription might well read, “Give me your tired plots, your poor acting, your muddled directors yearning to be schlock-free.” It is in this spirit that Volume XXIV presents four of cinema’s transplants — from Russia, Mexico and two from Japan —that simply didn’t take.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXIV (currently $41.99 on Amazon) brings us Fugitive Alien, wherein our hero Ken is pursued as a traitor by his own race because he refuses to kill humans; Star Force: Fugitive Alien II continues the story of Captain Joe, reformed interstellar marauder Ken and the rest of the crew of the Bacchus-3 as they set off to destroy an alien race’s super-weapon; The Sword And The Dragon, an epic journey of a mythical knight and his fights against a barbarian horde in an ancient land; and Samson Vs. The Vampire Women, featuring Mexican wrestling hero Santo saving the locals from Vampire women awakened by their leader with orders to find him a bride.
Thankfully, Joel, Mike and their band of robot brothers (Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot) alleviate their (and our) suffering by watching these movies with a joyously irreverent stream of higher consciousness. You have in your hands passports to laughter. Consider them riffed and stamped by those tormented souls aboard the Satellite of Love.
