Spy Episodes

[Mitchell]

There's been something that I've occasionally wondered about. The "spy" episodes like Code Name: Diamondhead, Secret Agent Super Dragon, Operation Double 007, are generally regarded as decent (and maybe I'm presuming too much there), but rarely do they appear on many people's Favorites lists.


I'll readily admit I'm a sucker for the genre, so maybe they just naturally appeal to me more, but for those of you that don't care for those episodes, or think they're just middle-of-the-road, what is it that you find in other episodes that make them more appealing?

I guess this really begs a broader question: whether genre influences the enjoyment of an episode. I know that's been discussed to death, but I'm really interested in why the espionage episodes aren't considered as highly as some of the others.

Or is it really just about the robots?

[Monophylos]

I don't know if it's possible to generalize. The spy movies featured in MST3K are a somewhat miscellaneous group: most of them are Italian-made Eurospy flicks, but you've also got a couple of cheapjack American productions (Rocket Attack U.S.A. and Agent for H.A.R.M.), a paint-by-numbers TV pilot (Code Name: Diamondhead) and a "movie" based off a Japanese spy show (Mighty Jack.) But the Eurospy movies are the most numerous and I'm guessing that, if you say "spy episode" to most MST3K fans, they'll have one of those cheap Italian spy movies in mind, or maybe also Agent for H.A.R.M. which oddly resembles a Eurospy movie in many respects.

You're right, I can't honestly say that any of these episodes is a favorite of mine, although Operation Double 007 comes pretty close. I think one general problem of the genre, at least with the Eurospy (or Eurospy-ish) films, is that they tend not to have much going on. They're not totally incompetent, they're just really cheap, so most of the "action" consists of a bland leading man being smug all the time and talking to people in hotel rooms, punctuated by the occasional fistfight. I think the quality of an MST3K episode sags a bit when the movie is dry and doesn't give much to work with. Operation Double 007 comes out the best in this regard because it actually moves along at a pretty good pace, with a fair number of action scenes and changes of location. Agent for H.A.R.M. is probably the worst here and so, although there are a good number of laughs, it's a rare case of an episode with funnier host segments than movie segments.

[Mr. Atari]

Danger: Death Ray is a top 10 episode for me. Possibly top 5. I think the spy genre is my favorite in the show's run.

I think genre of film affects my enjoyment of an episode more than any other variable. I rarely watch any season 10 episodes because I just don't enjoy the greasy, southern-baked genre. It's the main reason I couldn't get into Cinematic Titanic. They kept picking ugly, slimy films. The film doesn't have to be ugly to be mockable. On the other hand, I love the KTMA episodes because they picked films in genres I love (sci-fi, disaster, made-for-TV).

[Monophylos]

Yeah, I rather regret that MST3K didn't do more disaster movies. Every single damn one of them from the made-for-TV rubbish to the best of the best like The Poseidon Adventure is an overripe, laughable farrago of clunky plotting and ham acting. If only they'd done City on Fire a few years later!

I agree about Cinematic Titanic. Eventually they started riffing on more varied and interesting fare but for a while they were choosing nothing but one grey, nasty movie after another.

[mummifiedstalin]

Maybe it's because the spy movies actually have a plot that kinda gets in the way of the dumbness? I dunno, but it's a good point.

But Danger Death Ray and Super Dragon are two that are close to my heart. Pannenkoeken!

[Mike Flugennock]

I've enjoyed every genre of movie featured on MST3K -- even the Westerns -- though it took me a while to warm up to the post-apocalyptic/dystopian flicks.

Several of my instant favorites are secret agent movies: Secret Agent Super Dragon, Danger: Death Ray, and Agent From HARM.

Until I got into MST3K, I honestly had no idea there were that many cheesy third-rate Bond knock-offs back in the '60s, nor did I realize they were really that godawful. The only ones that really did anything for me were the two Flint movies with James Coburn. I know a lot of folks dig the old Dean Martin Matt Helm flicks, but I was never that crazy about them.

As awesome as I thought Our Man Flint was, it's kind of disappointing to think that not only did it never make it onto MST3K, it also hasn't been done by RiffTrax or Cinematic Titanic.

[continosbuckle]

Well, the spy movies that were the rip-offs of James Bond movies all required a protagonist who all men wanted to be and who all women wanted to sleep with. But since the movies weren't competently done, and the male lead usually came across as a buffoon, that may be part of the problem. It's one thing when your protagonist is a harmless goofball. It's something else when he's someone you're supposed to be in awe of. So you may find the protagonist particularly irksome, especially when other tropes come into play like Talking Villains, Super Telepathic Hero Competence and all women immediately falling over and spreading 'em for our hero. Agent From H.A.R.M. was the worst of them, but Neil Connery and Super Dragon were also smug dopes.

Plus, they're all in color (I'm not including Rocket Attack USA in this because it's so far removed from the other films in the discussion), which for some people may mean that they don't have that silly quaint charm that some of the older B&W movies had.

When the protagonist is unpleasant in just that certain way, it can make the MST of the movie just a little less fun. Wonder if the smug little turd Deathstalker elicits the same sort of reaction.

[Don Quixote]

I don't really like Secret Agent Super Dragon. It drags and bores me quite a bit.

I love Operation Double 007, though. I have no idea why.

I couldn't finish Codename: Diamond Head. I don't know why the spy genre in MST usually bores me so much. I love James Bond films. My tastes have always been toward the more fantastic, but again, there is nothing mundane about the super-spy genre.

[GodoHell]

Danger! Death Ray! Is in my top 5.

Code Name: Diamond Head is in my top 10.

Operation Double 007 and Secret Agent Super Dragon wouldn't make my top 10, but are decent episodes nonetheless.

[Monophylos]

When the protagonist is unpleasant in just that certain way, it can make the MST of the movie just a little less fun. Wonder if the smug little turd Deathstalker elicits the same sort of reaction.

I agree. I think that's one reason I find Operation Double 007 to be the most watchable of the MST3K Eurospy movies: Neil Connery's character is humorless and wooden (and uncaring) but you can't really say that he's very smug. Bart Fargo and Super Dragon are further up the smug scale but they can kind of get away with it. With Adam Chance, though, Level Five Smug Alert! He doesn't have anything to counterbalance the smarm: he's not good-looking, he doesn't cut a dashing figure, he's not especially competent, and he's not that bright. Fortunately Mike and the 'bots are absolutely merciless with him, accurately pinpointing him as the source of comedy in the movie. Still you just want to slug the guy.

Deathstalker is worse even than Adam Chance, though, and you're right about the reaction. At least with me, whenever I think of cuing up the Deathstalker episode, I remember some of his worst moments in the movie and more often than not I'll decide, nope, don't want to put up with his smirk and his infuriating tone of voice.