Catalina Caper

This episode of MST 3K is worth watching for the sheer joy of the song Creepy Girl!

Catalina Caper is a lightweight piece of fluff. Overall, however, it is an enjoyable lightweight piece of fluff. It is a beach party movie taking place on Catalina Island (natch). The plot (for what it is) consists of a Jack Benny espy selling a stolen ancient Chinese scroll to a shady ethnic type. (A Greek tycoon). He brings his wife and teenage son along on the trip. The kid wants his parents to go straight and the Tycoon inexplicably wants to steal the scroll (even though he is there to buy it).

The kid meets up with some friends, runs into a strange depressed Swedish girl and the whole gang is serenaded by Little Richard looking about four drinks in.

Highlights include a very young Lyle Waggoner as depressed Swedish girl's boyfriend and main henchman for greedy Greek tycoon. The other highlight is the delightful Venita Wolf who would go on to be a guest actor on Star Trek and a Playboy model. She brightens up the movie with an overwhelming pixie cuteness. (She plays one of the gang's sisters and Betty to depressed Swedish girls Veronica). It is really a surprise she didn't do better as an actress.

Lowlights include horrible pratfall comedy and a plot that would be considered too lightweight for a first season Scooby Doo episode. I, of course, did not suffer alone as I had Joel and the bots along with me. They make good sport of the overwhelming whiteness of the film (Even for a Beach movie from the sixties) and the poor music choices and pratfalls. I have also read reports they cut a good chunk out of the movies running time making it much more watchable.

Overall a good time especially if you take Joel and the bots along for the ride.

I admit that this episode didn't seem like much at first, but it definitely got better the more it went on. In fact, the show seems to do that a lot. What was most interesting was seeing the scenes in the beginning that were later featured in the intro. It was weird seeing a different intro for this Season 2 episode. It was weird to just watch those mole people just sit around. We still got some pretty good stuff with Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank. I think the creepy girl goes on a bit too long, though.

What was really weird about this episode was that they actually tackled on a comedy. I know they said at Rifftrax they wouldn't do comedies there. I guess there were many parts of the actual movie that were meant to be taken seriously. They still made it work great! My favorite joke might be when the guys were slapped with, "That's for you, Moe and Larry!". I also loved, "Here is the grand prize" followed by, "It's a stick of dynamite. You can throw it at me!". I was as confused with this film as Joel and the bots here. Another great bit was with the bikini top and, "Too small, got to throw it back!" ***1/2

In a few of these early episodes Joel seemed very willing to throw around racial slurs and this one is probably the worst display of racial bigotry.

The other guys on the show didn't seem too willing to play along, but there were a few instances where it got the better of them. Lots of lazy racial stereotypes thrown around instead of the fun, escapist humor we came to know and love as the show progressed.

I'm glad that they moved away from this kind of open bigotry as the show progressed because there were a few moments in this episode that were difficult to watch.

This episode probably takes the cake as the worst of the Joel era and stands alone as a low point.