Emerson Film Enterprises released Manos: The Hands of Fate throughout the southwest. But the film premiered on 15 November 1966.
People have written so much about this film. But I don’t want to repeat any of its history because it is all questionable. For example, people still claim that writer-director-producer Harold P Warren was a fertilizer salesman. But Brian Albright in Regional Horror Films, 1958–1990 disproved this claim.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 features Manos on the last episode of its fourth season. Most people have only seen it in this form. That was me for many years. I used to think it was the worst film I had ever seen. Of course, that was before seeing Black Frankenstein and Bad Teacher.
But there’s something more. A few years ago, I found a good print of Manos: The Hands of Fate. The print that MST3K used was terrible. There is no film good enough to counter that. So I watched this print. And I found a lot to like.
For one thing, John Reynolds as Torgo is iconic. People may laugh but the character is a lot like Ro-Man in Robot Monster. If he weren’t so weird, no one would remember him. And the character is deeply disturbing for the first half of the film when there isn’t much else of interest.
And Reynolds isn’t alone. The acting is way better than it should be — generally as good as the acting in most Herschell Gordon Lewis films.
The film also looks pretty good — especially considering they clearly had limited lighting and most of it takes place at night. This is very clear in a good print. The bad print makes the main set appear disgustingly dirty, which was the biggest issue for me during early viewings.
But okay. The script isn’t great. But it works reasonably well. The idea of a sex cult that kidnaps a family and turns the father into a Renfield and his wife and young daughter (!) into sex slaves is creepy in the extreme.
So let’s watch Manos: The Hands of Fate the way it should be presented. I’m not saying it’s great. But it’s a lot better than people give it credit for. And it’s a fast and even fun watch!
Manos: The Hands of Fate poster via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.
Plus, the female lead is a total smokeshow.
I had to look up “smokeshow,” even though I had a hunch. I just looked her up. She was also in Manos Returns and a voice in the second episode of a 4-episode miniseries, The Manos Chronicles. Dare I try to find these?!