Before MST3K there was … The Texas 27 Film Vault!
In the middle 1980s, way down on Level 31 Randy Clower and Richard Malmos, machine-gun toting Film Vault Technicians First Class hosted this neglected cult show.
Balladeer’s Blog continues its celebration of the program’s THIRTIETH anniversary year.
SCROOGE (1935)
ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: December 14th, 1985
SERIAL: Before showing and mocking the movie our members of the Film Vault Corps showed and mocked a chapter of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940). In that serial Ming the Merciless unleashes a disease called the Purple Death on Earth, prompting Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr Zarkov to fly to the planet Mongo to find a cure and defeat Ming for good.
HOST SEGMENTS: None have been unearthed for this episode yet. As always if any other fans of this show have any info they would like to share feel free to contact me at Thtcom15 at aol dot com
We’ve come a long way toward tentatively reconstructing a tiny bit of this show’s history over the past few years so hopefully more memories will be jogged.
MOVIE: This is the notoriously cheapjack and rushed adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
Randy (right) and Richard way down on Level 31 hosting The Texas 27 Film Vault
The overall lameness and lack of effort is best represented in the scene with Marley’s Ghost. The ghost is “invisible” so Scrooge simply converses with an empty chair while Marley’s dialogue is heard in voice-over.
Seymour Hicks also played Scrooge in the 1913 silent movie version previously reviewed here at Balladeer’s Blog. In that version Hicks played Scrooge like a demented homeless person with wild eyes, sloppy clothes and unkempt hair.
Seymour’s depiction of Scrooge as a humanoid ferret in the 1935 film is better … but just barely. Everything else about the movie is so awful you’d think it was one of those painful to sit through talkies from 1929 or 1930.
IN THE NEAR FUTURE BALLADEER’S BLOG WILL PRESENT MORE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT MILESTONES. Be here to share the Film Vault Corp’s mission of “safeguarding America’s schlock-culture heritage”.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFO ON THIS SHOW –https://glitternight.com/texas-27-film-vault/
© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2011-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Fun review! This show was on before MST3K!
Thanks! It certainly was!
I thought you loved this story
I do, but there’s no denying some versions of it are fairly poor.
My father always talked about this show when I would wath MST3K!
You should tell your dad about my T27FV blog posts.
MST3K came first.
No it didn’t. The Texas 27 Film Vault debuted on February 9th, 1985. MST3K did not start until November of 1988.
Strange movie! Strange show too.
Thanks for commenting!