"Manos" The Hands of Fate is a film written, directed, and produced by American fertilizer salesman Hal Warren in 1966, as a result of a bet. He intended to make a successful horror film on a very small budget (reportedly $19,000). The result was a movie considered perhaps the worst ever made. The movie laid in almost complete obscurity until 1993 when it featured in an episode of the television comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Most viewers today have seen the Mystery Science Theater version of Manos: The Hands of Fate with the running commentary by Joel and the "'bots." On the MST3K DVD version of Manos, the actual movie is preceded by the second half of Hired!, a short training film that was made by Chevrolet. There is also a non-MST3K version of the film on DVD that shows the film as it was originally presented. The original version of the film is available for sale through on-line stores such as Amazon.com.

In 2004, a group of Canadian filmmakers made a short documentary named Hotel Torgo. In this short film they interviewed Bernie Rosemblum, who worked on the crew as well as showing up on the film as the man who spent the entire film making out with his girlfriend in his car.

Plot

The story is about a vacationing couple and their little daughter who find themselves at a lodge that turns out to be the headquarters of a devilish cult run by "The Master". The Master has a bevy of beautiful concubines and a servant named Torgo, who is supposed to be a satyr. Due to a lack of both budget and, some might say, competence, Torgo's goat legs were conveyed by dressing actor John Reynolds in overlarge pants and stuffing them full of padding and having Reynolds walk with a strange and slow gait. Fake cloven hooves were also made by Reynolds for his costume, but they are difficult to see on screen, especially on the Mystery Science Theater version which most viewers see.

Warren forgot to add the film's opening credits in post-production, leaving the movie with an early driving sequence that seems to go on forever. Also, all the voices in the movie are dubbed by Warren, his wife, and a couple of friends. As a result, there are some points in the film where the dialog isn't synchronized with the actor's lip movements. Reportedly, Warren's small crew became so bemused by his amateurishness and irascibility that they derisively called the movie Mangoes, Cans of Fruit behind his back.

The film's premiere at the Capri Theater in Warren's hometown of El Paso, Texas, is a tale unto itself. Heavily promoted, it was attended by numerous local dignitaries and media. Warren rented a limousine to deliver himself and his cast to the theater; the limo would drop off one group, then make the block and pick up another. Only minutes into the screening, the audience began laughing and heckling the movie, and soon were in open hysterics. Humiliated, Warren and the rest of his cast made a hasty, shame-faced exit before the film had ended.

Reynolds committed suicide not long after the movie was made -- though, despite some people's grim sense of humor, this act was probably not motivated by his affiliation with "Manos". Reynolds, it seems, had emotional issues concerning his parents and had experimented with LSD. Rumours long claimed that other cast members had also killed themselves shortly after the release of the movie: Diane Mahree, the female lead; Sherry Proctor, one of The Master's wives; and Joyce Molleur, the female half of the "make-out couple". However, the makers of Hotel Torgo , a 2005 documentary about "Manos", researched these rumours and found no obituaries or any other evidence to confirm them.

Hal Warren returned to selling fertilizer following Manos. He attempted to pitch the idea of making a sequel to Manos, and tried to pitch another script he'd written called Wild Desert Bikers. But with the failure of Manos, no one he approached showed any interest in making these ideas into movies. Hal Warren died in 1986.

Users of the Internet Movie Database have consistently voted the film a position on the site's list of the 100 worst films ever made. It is usually near the very bottom of the list. Sometimes it even appears as #1 in the list.

Quotes

• "I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away!"
• "You have failed us Torgo. For this you must die."
• (Last line of the movie.) "I am Michael. I take care of the place while the Master is away."

External links

• Hotel Torgo at the Internet Movie Database web site.