Product Details

• Actors: Peter Breck, Kent Taylor, Rod Lauren, Alan Hale Jr., Allison Hayes
• Directors: Vince Rodriguez
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Rhino / Wea
• VHS Release Date: March 16, 1999
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305320470
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,970 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You will believe a hand can crawl!, July 28, 2002

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Crawling Hand [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ah, MST3K Season One. I can see how some people, even MST3K fans, might be disappointed by this video. Instead of TV's Frank, Dr. Forrester has Dr. Larry Erhardt (John Weinstein) for a sidekick, and it is Weinstein rather than Kevin Murphy supplying the voice of Tom Servo. The set looks as cheap as it really was, the silhouettes in the theater are sort of green-looking, Joel sometimes seems to forget which bot is which, and the jokes are sometimes rather lame. However, the show is still hilarious. If you've never seen a Season One episode before, cut Weinstein's Servo voice some slack. Initially, I hated it, but being fortunate enough to have the whole first season on tape, I found that this initial Servo incarnation was actually pretty funny in his own right after I got used to him. This one video probably won't make you a Weinstein fan, but give him a chance.

As for the movie itself, The Crawling Hand was perfect MST3K material--there's a silly plot, an annoying teenager, and some incredibly bad acting. America's space program is apparently run in a little warehouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and the scientists there are in a tizzy. On two occasions, a guy has been sent to the moon, landing successfully, then being lost on his way back to earth. This second time, communication is reestablished with the astronaut 20 minutes after he has run out of oxygen. He begs the men in the control room (actually, it's really just a desk) to blow him up before he reenters the atmosphere. The doctor-type guy finally hits the red button. Meanwhile, a supposedly smart slacker goes swimming in the ocean with his Swedish girlfriend, and while they are frolicking around they run across a human hand lying on the beach. Naturally, our hero decides he must have that hand; he sneaks back that night (apparently this is the one beach in California that no one whatsoever goes to) and makes the wonderful hand his own, lovingly placing it in his landlady's storage room behind some relish. Soon, the hand (which does crawl, just like the title says) begins strangling people (that's gonna happen, you know). At this point, the sheriff, AKA Alan Hale (Skipper!), commences an investigation. One print found on the body of the first victim is matched to the fingerprint of the blown-up astronaut, and that's when the Space Boys come out to try and clean up a little of their mess. To complicate matters, our boy who found the hand begins having episodes wherein he turns into an "Elvis zombie" with heavy mascara under his eyes and feels compelled to strangle people himself. As you may have guessed, it all comes down to some hand to hand combat in the end.

I think this is one of the best Season One episodes. I particularly enjoyed one skit in which the guys all pretend to be William Shatner being choked by a disembodied hand. Joel and the bots are still developing the real spirit and style of the show, but the genius is already unmistakably there. Most importantly, I can assure you that this show is very funny.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Thank goodness for Kevin Murphy!, November 27, 2001

By 

J. Hollomon IV "the_king_in_yellow" (Library of Celaeno, Carcosa; near Hali, Aldebaran) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Crawling Hand [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I've been a rabid MSTie ever since I accidentally caught an airing of "Cave Dwellers" on the Comedy Channel many many moons ago (and for those of you who remember the pre Comedy Central era, that should tell you just how many moons that is.) While I can appreciate the fact that these guys were still in their experimental/formative stages at the time of this episode -- let's face it, they had just graduated from local access -- I still can't help but label this one as a dud. MST3K was (is) a show with riffs and snags at the core, and when the rimshots are as slow-coming and uninspired as the ones featured in "The Crawling Hand," the focus of the show shifts rather unhealthily to the actual film itself. I barely managed a chuckle for the majority of the episode -- the fact that Servo (brought to "life" by Weinstein) sounds narcoleptic didn't help much either. If it weren't for the Shatner-ripping in the bumpers and a few moments of life toward the end, I'd have laid a one-star review on this one. Still, it is useful to have in a collection to show how far the cast had come by the time of such third season opuses as "Cave Dwellers" and "Pod People." Also, it will make you appreciate Kevin Murphy, who took over Servo after Weinstein departed, pretty much on the same level as oxygen.

16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Make sure you know what you're getting, November 28, 2001

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Crawling Hand [VHS] (VHS Tape)

For a long time, the Best Brains' resisted releasing Season One episodes, feeling that they had not yet perfected their art -- or, as they put it in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, 'they're not very good and we don't want them seen.' According to producer Jim Mallon, Season One is remembered as 'the awful time.'

But finally they relented, and gave us Show 106, 'The Crawling Hand.' And you know what? It's not great. The MSTie interested in the complete and utter history of the show will value this glimpse of the semi-legendary Dr Erhardt, Tom Servo's old voice, and the early versions of the set and opening credits. But if you're less familiar with the show, I would recommend starting someplace else, because it got a LOT better than this, and I wouldn't want you to be scared away by one early performance.

MST featured many villainous body parts and horrors-from-space in the early years. Come to think of it, they had a lot of horrors-from-space in the later years too. Cult TV aficionados will enjoy the sight of Alan Hale, Jr hamming it up in a horror flick