"Manos: The Hands of Fate" Gets a Digital Restoration For Some Reason

Well, someone had to do it.  Fans of outrageously bad movies are about to get an extra holiday present as Manos: The Hands of Fate, easily the worst horror film ever written, produced, directed, and starring a fertilizer salesman from Texas, is getting prepped for a non-awaited digital restoration for an eventual blu-ray release, courtesy of a fan (sadist?) named Benjamin Solovey. 

For those not familiar with the legend that is Manos, here's a quick history course:

-Released in 1966, Manos really was written, produced, and directed by a Texas fertilizer salesman, Harold P. Warren, who also stars in the film.  Warren made the movie based on a bet that anyone could put together a film.  While he won the bet that anyone could make a film, the lesson learned from Manos was that not everyone should. 

-The story involves a family on vacation who takes a wrong turn and drives straight into a hotel overrun by a cult.  Unfortunately, almost no one involved in the film had actually worked on a film before...which means the movie itself was overrun by such electrifying moments as this:

-That stuttering doorman, Torgo, played by John Reynolds, was meant to be a satyr-type creature complete with hooves.  Unfortunately, the rigging in his costume to give him this appearance just left him looking like he'd shoved something down his pants and he stumbled around the screen for no apparent reason.  Reynolds actually committed suicide the same year Manos was released, although it was reportedly not because of his performance in the film.

-The title character, Manos, actually wears a robe adorned with giant hands.  He appears to reside somewhere in the backyard with his legion of wives.  In one scene, the wives break into a full-out brawl that goes on for most of the rest of the film. 

-The film features several scenes of a couple making out in a car.  They have nothing to do with the story and we never figure out why they're there.  To add insult to injury, a clapboard is visible at the start of one of their makeout scenes.

-Because the movie was filmed with a 16mm camera that could only film 32 seconds at a time without sound, the editing is horrendous and the actors were dubbed over by the same four people in post-production.  This led to scenes where two-person conversations were voiced by the same person, and the little six-year-old daughter having the voice of an adult woman. 

-"Manos", of course, does mean "hands" in Spanish.  So you could translate the title to "Hands: The Hands of Fate".

Needless to say, the film's release was short-lived.  After a disasterous El Paso premiere during which the audience members that didn't walk out within the first twenty minutes stayed to laugh at the ridiculousness on screen, the movie lingered at some local drive-ins before fading into obscurity...where it remained until Mystery Science Theater 3000 spoofed the movie in 1993. 

Thanks to MST3K, Manos has gone on to achieve the cult-status is enjoys today amongst bad-movie afficianados.  It's also made watching the movie a lot less of a painful chore:

So, getting back to the whole digital-restoration thing, who is this Benjamin Solovey guy, who feels some desperate need to restore this film?  According to Fangoria, he's a professional cameraman who collects old 16mm prints.  He somehow got his hands on two copies of the 16mm edition of Manos, including the original workprint.  Granted, the film does look like hell (MST3K's Joel Hodgson was right on when he described every frame looking "like someone's last known photograph")...but considering how bad the movie is, the poor picture quality seemed like the least of its problems.

Looking over some samples of the restoration on Solovey's site, the work he's done so far is actually pretty impressive.  Almost as scary is seeing how he's already gone more than $6000 over the needed funds he's asking to help restore Manos to digital glory. 

Solovey's plan is to ultimately make prints available to reperatory houses and even release a blu-ray edition.  Although why anyone would want a non-MST3K version of this film, I'll never know.

But if you're a fan...it looks like it just might be happening! 

Comments

[Binks]

Being a proud resident of El Paso, Texas, I really enjoyed the posting. Thanks!

[welshfilmbuff]

The sad thing is, there are far more important films owned by major, Hollywood studios that will never get this kind of lavish treatment.