Any big fan of MST3K is familiar with Manos, the Hands of Fate. To them, the movie is a spectacularly bad product which made for one of the best episodes of Mystery Science 3000 as Joel and the Bots riff hit about ten jokes a minute at some points. But the circumstances of Manos makes for an amusing story in and of itself.
When I started reading the book and Ms. Jones' description of life in El Paso it definitely struck a chord with me. I have lived in El Paso at three points in my life (although well-after the days of Manos) and was familiar with much of the culture described by her in the book. I even recognized the movie as having been shot in El Paso when I saw it on MST3K... which I watched for the first time during my second assignment to Fort Bliss. Manos reinforced my belief that nothing good ever comes out of El Paso.
Jackey Jones, who played the little girl Debbie in the film, hits a lot of high points in her book: the story behind Torgo's knees, the origin of the Temple of Mild Foreboding (Temple of Doom was already taken), the near strike put on by the Wives and The Big Premier. The involvement of her and her family on the film (her father played the Master and her mother made some of the costumes) put her in a great position to provide her own reminisces of the movie as well as giving her the means to find many of the folks involved with the film. The book is well-written, although to be honest I expected a more tongue-in-cheek presentation but God knows, the truth is funny enough.
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