Must See Movie...

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

First of all if there's one thing I can tell you, with one-hundred percent certainty, it's the fact that there's absolutely nothing remotely "incredible" about the movie "The Incredible Melting Man".The title of this movie should really be "The Many Shortcomings of Dr. Ted Nelson" because that's whats going on for the majority of this profoundly mediocre movie, yet another example of lame and forgettable B-Grade Schlock-Cinema. On all counts The Incredible Melting Man is a very amateurish effort, a tepid combination of Sci-Fi and Horror, which ultimately is quit pointless and for the next 84 minutes boredom and disbelief will be your two primary emotions. Which is something I know quit well, having seen the MST3K-version of this movie several times, I find that there are few movies that do less or have a weaker plot then The Incredible Melting Man - not to mention the films glowing star-power! The cast of this movie is as bland and as forgettable as you'll ever see and that couldn't be more true when one mentions the actor, Burr DeBenning, who is the movies star and main character and also Blandness Personified. If one were to waste their time rating individual actors, it's really hard to think of one who had less charisma or screen presence then Burr DeBenning and really what kind of a name is that anyway? The films feeble and poorly defined plot involves a trio of space explorers who are presumably irradiated "by the rings of Saturn" ... or something like that, one of them "Steve" initially survives and makes it back to Earth, only he's not the same man that he was, thus he goes on to become: The Incredible Melting Man. There's really very few important details involving plot once Dr. Ted Nelson (Burr DeBenning) makes his grand entrance and for the next 84 minutes this movie is nothing more than a series of bland and uninspired events (a true master-class of mediocrity in the movies), all of which falls right in line with what I said about this movie being pointless. Thus this pitifully puerile little Sci-Fi flick proceeds to play out in a series of loosely connected occurrences (many of which are entirely mundane), which are happening somewhere in one of the less densely populated areas of southern California. One can't help but sense that the cast of this movie seems to be aware of just how bad the material is and are completely bored and indifferent to it, not surprisingly this negatively affects their acting, which is as flat, as it is uninspired.From a visual stand-point this films just miserable, a murky combination of scenes, which when not showing-off someones riveting home life, are a mess of under-lit and poorly composed night scenes; that primarily focus on showing the melting man, who pointlessly ambles around various locations while committing a few murders. The murder scenes in this film are lamely carried out in a series of quick cuts or in some cases not shown at all, thus leaving us to just presume that a grizzly murder has taken place. The main thing that keeps Dr. Ted Nelson busy throughout the movie, other than entertaining General Perry and arguing with his wife about them being out of crackers, is when he's actively searching for the melting man with his trusty "Detectron" Geiger-counter and repetitively yelling "Steve, it's Dr. Ted Nelson, I want to help you." over and over. Another reason why this movie is so underwhelming (besides it's minuscule budget) and so utterly uninvolving, is because the very existence of the melting man is a closely guarded government secret, one that's on a strictly need-to-know basis or at least those were the General's orders.One character who does inject some energy into this otherwise slow-going movie is the local Sheriff, who after at least four murders finally gets filled in on the situation, which leads up to the movies tepid and illogical conclusion. In the middle of the night Ted and the Sheriff track the melting man, by following his radioactive "pools" to a large and curiously accessible power-plant, where the final encounter is to happen. Here the movie ends even less logically then how it started, such as the melting man's "powers" increasing in potency as he literally loses limbs and further proceeds to melt, which even for an Incredible "Melting" Man, is evidently an unhealthy state to find yourself in. The logic of this movie is riddled with holes and plagued by one ponderous and poorly-acted scene after another and I know that it comes as a shocker, but this movie possesses many of the qualities which are typical of that of a bad movie. Gasp! Say it ain't so. Yet depending on how you see it it can be fun, as it should come as no surprise this movie was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and I would definitely recommend that version, if any.My favorite part of The Incredible Melting Man, other then the "cracker conversation", is that just seconds earlier the movie introduced a great new "comic-book word" to the rest of the world. Which is heard when Dr. Ted Nelson carelessly burns his hand on a hot pot and yells out loud >>> OTCH-GHA! <<< all while wearing a dorky-looking, brown, turtle-neck - but hey, this was filmed in the 70's after all. One last thing and that is the fact that this Sci-Fi film was released somewhere in the latter half of 1977, which officially places it in the Star Wars Era (Stars Wars mania was rolling at full-tilt at the time), which when compared to those icons of the genre, only serves to make this excruciatingly amateurish excursion into Sci-Fi seem all the more pathetic.Conclusion: Apart from Rick Baker's FX, The Incredible Melting Man is profoundly lame and was obsolete immediately upon release.

Whilst on a space mission to Saturn, astronaut Steve West (Alex Rebar) is exposed to mysterious radiation which leaves him severely burned all over his body. His two fellow astronauts don't survive, and upon his return to Earth, Steve is bandaged and hospitalized by Lisle Wilson from Brian De Palma's Sisters (1977) while the doctors run further tests. He breaks free of his restraints and attacks a nurse, devouring her face and fleeing into the countryside. Dr. Ted Nelson (Burr DeBenning) is given the task to track down Steve before he commits more murders by General Perry (Myron Healey), who later joins him on the hunt.Inspired by the Universal monster movies of the 30's and 40's, The Incredible Melting Man puts more focus on make-up and effects than blood and guts, which were on the rise due to the increasing popularity of slasher movies at the time. When Steve escapes the hospital, he begins to melt, his hands and face sliding off his skin in a vomit-inducing yellow and brown goo. Make-up artist Rick Baker's (of An American Werewolf In London (1981) and Videodrome (1983) fame) effects are, sadly, the only incredible thing about this cheap shlock-fest. A baffling script fails to explain just how Steve made it back home without his fellow astronauts, and more crucially, why he has suddenly developed a taste for human flesh and has gained super-strength. Even the movie's tagline, "the first new horror creature", makes no sense.The appalling acting is made worse by some strange narrative decisions. One scene includes Dr. Nelson, having just been commanded by Perry to lead the search for Steve as a matter of extreme urgency, choose not to start straight away and instead goes home to his wife to complain about the fact that she didn't buy crackers. The film shifts between ridiculous domestic conversations and the ever-dripping murderous lunk biting, punching and decapitating his way through a highly-populated woodland area. Fans of drive-in exploitation will lap it up, and it at least moves at a fast pace, but The Incredible Melting Man is a half-baked idea thrown together without any consideration, redeemed somewhat by its wonderfully gruesome effects.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

The Incredible Melting Man is written and directed by William Sachs. It stars Alex Rebar, Burr DeBenning and Myron Healey. Music is by Arlon Ober and cinematography by Willy Curtis. Astronaut Steve West's body begins to melt after he was exposed to radiation during a space flight to Saturn.Escaping from the hospital, West trawls the land in search of human victims to eat in the desperate hope of staving off the melting of his body.It's as bad as you most likely have heard it is, and Rick Baker's makeup work is as good as you have heard it is! Intended as a horror parody but switched to being a "supposed" horror with some cuts and swipes requested by the studio, it's pretty evident upon viewing the film that was clearly the case. Tale doesn't add up to much more than the melting man of the title walking from one scene to another dripping in goo whilst meeting up with a host of bad actors. He's pursued by a pal who wants to help him, while it all builds to some fireworks at a power plant where the "big" battle unfolds.You can't really do much with the story, after just 8 minutes of film he starts melting and once his bodily parts start falling off you just know he is beyond help. The tragic creature vibe is strong enough to hold interest, if you can stop yourself from laughing at everything else that surrounds him (it) during its Quatermass Experiment journey. The power plant scenes are nicely photographed, the final demise of the creature is bleakly sad and Baker really comes through with the only bit of quality in the piece. It's messy in more ways than one! But fun to be had if in a very forgiving mood. 4/10

For connoisseurs of the incredibly terrible. A quick 10 point guide to what you can expect.1. Stock footage of solar flares cause a 'tached astronaut to wobble a bit in his seat.2. Inspite of his two comrades apparently dying and the guy himself starting to melt he makes it back to Earth from Saturn, with the aid of no special effects whatsoever...3. Melty gets out of bed and chases a fat nurse. Who runs in slow motion down a 50 yard corridor. With no one behind her. Yet she still plunges through a glass door. In Slow-mo, of course. Someone had seen Suspiria, then.4. 5 seconds later she gets caught by an arm riding a camera dolly.5. Melty lurches about in some bushes for a bit, before deciding to kill a fisherman. Who is fishing in a pond about a foot wide.6. Said fisherman's head is later seen floating down this non-Amazonian creek.****new fact learnt**** I didn't know severed heads could float.7. Meanwhile our hero doctor, proudly displaying his brown polo necks, and having successfully dusted off his wife's concern by starting an argument about crackers, teams up with the worst-dressed off-duty General in history and goes searching for melty, making lots of speeches about how no one must know. Cue a topless "fashion shoot" scene really convincingly taking place in the middle of nowhere. So our reluctant bit of totty can accidentally wrap her ankle around a severed hand - presumably the fisherman's but perhaps some critics caught up with the script-writer.8. Cue terrible child actors being menaced by Melty. (In joke for British viewers - I wanted to keep shouting out "It's Jimmy Savile!" during this scene.)9 Melty actually looks very convincing, courtesy of some splendid Rick Baker make-up; easily the only decent thing in this film.10. I really can't go on writing this much longer. Doc Polo Neck runs around a lot for about the next 40 mins accomplishing doodly squat, before shouting "I'M TED NELSON", and promptly getting shot, possibly mistaken for a crap Country and Western singer. Melty melts in the end. Never saw that coming. Melty then hilariously gets cleaned up by a janitor. There, saved you having to watch this.....