The Crawling Hand: Mystery Science Theater 3000

It's Mystery Science Theater 3000, America's only show that makes fun of really bad B movies from the comfort of a spaceship floating above Earth. Joel Hodgson, along with his mechanical companions, wisecracking Crow and well read chick magnet Tom Servo, make suffering through Hollywood's worst films a breeze. Adding their own dialogue, barrage of witty remarks, and an occasional colorful skit, the nest hour and a half will fly by like it were only 90 minutes. There are no ushers with flashlights, crying babies, or women with big hair to spoil the fun.


This is such an early Mystery Science Theater 3000 that Larry, not Frank, is Dr. Forrester's bumbling assistant. It's sorta like Curly replacing Shemp. Anyway, in The Crawling Hand an astronaut becomes unglued and blows his ship to smithereens. Some of the wreckage makes its way to Earth, and among the charred remains is the poor clod's hand. While frolicking on the beach, a wild eyed med student, Paul finds and becomes possessed by the lacerated limb and takes it home- Tom: "Thank goodness he brought a handbag." For a while the two are happy, but eventually things get out of hand (hah, hah). They start to fight, and as Crow says, "It’s hand to hand combat." Alan Hale, Jr. costars as an overweight sheriff whose brawn surpasses his brain capacity. Gee, now that's a stretch for him.