Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)

Thanks for the memories!

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Absolutely brilliant

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Manos: The Hands of Fate is quite possibly the worst movie of all time… no hyperbole. Everything from its technical issues, pacing, story and acting shows no redeeming value whatsoever. However, like most bad movies it fascinates you in to what went behind this monstrosity of a film.The movie was shot on a camera that could only record approximately thirty-two seconds of footage, explaining the overly long takes used in the film. The whole movie was also dubbed since the filmmakers had no sound equipment.Actor John Reynolds, who plays Torgo, was reportedly high on LSD while filming and his performance consists of him displaying confusion, twitching and other strange mannerisms.Manos has gone into infamy as one of the all-time bad movies and it's no wonder why...

Michael, his wife Margaret, their daughter Debbie, and their dog Peppy are on a road trip vacation. They take a wrong turn onto a dirt road and get lost in a maze of dead end paths. They find an isolated home and its caretaker Torgo. They decide to stay. Torgo keeps mentioning The Master. Peppy disappears and Debbie finds The Master's dog. The Master and his bickering wives awaken.This is horrible filmmaking. Filmmaker Harold P. Warren is also the star playing Michael. He's not an actual filmmaker but rather a fertilizer salesman. Supposedly, he made this on a bet. Warren is impossibly incompetent in his filmmaking. The list is too long. The acting is bad but it's made infinitely worst with terrible voice dubbing. It's something one has to see to believe. All of it is horrible. The worst and possibly the best is John Reynolds who plays Torgo. Again seeing is believing although he is also rumored to be constantly on acid. The whole thing is a mess but some of it is so unbelievably bad that it's actually funny. The catfighting wives is so stupid that I cannot stop shaking my head in disbelief and I hope they kept that handy cape. After its disastrous release, it quickly fell into anonymity until Mystery Science Theater 3000 did a show on it. This is one for the record books.

I can't agree more with other reviews, just to add I understood "Plan 9 From Outer Space" to be the worst movie ever made but Manos makes it look like an Academy award winner.I'm sorry but I couldn't even make it to the end. What a waste of film! Why was it even made? Even mst3k couldn't help it.

Update: 11-5-16 - !!!HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE!!! I'm off to Arby's....*********** *********** *********** *********** *********** *********** ***********Manos: The Hands of Fate, one cinema's best known and most beloved bad movies. It's by-product-on-celluloid created from the singular mind of a certain fertilizer salesman from El Paso, namely: Hal P. Warren. How old Hal thought he had the knowledge and ability to make a movie (that people would actually want to/pay to see) is anyone's guess, but he did try and I'm very,very glad he did; because Manos: The Hands of Fate is, indisputably, one of the pinnacle of achievements of crap-cinema.A man with a vision! Hal P. Warren, a man of many talents, not only sold fertilizer, but also wrote the script, served as director and "starred" in his own movie, in the role of "Michael" clad throughout the film in a hip white cardigan, combined with one of the wickedest widow peaks ever seen in a movie. Then there's his wife "Margaret".....does anyone hold the same opinion that she sets a new level for on-screen patheticness? Because she can't do ANYTHING without, crying and whining, falling down or repetitively yelling "Mike! Mike!, where in the world could he be, Mike!". I challenge anyone to find a character in a movie who's less capable then her. Then there's the couples, 5 year-old daughter "Debbie", who like all other characters, had her dialog dubbed in after filming, except for her they chose a middle-aged women to do her lines - with less than convincing results. It sounds like she's channeling the voice of her dead grandma some have said, it's certainly a somewhat creepy and unnatural sounding voice. And let us not to forget their little black dog "Peppy". Does anyone really not yet know the plot of this movie? The plot is so pointless - so it's pointless to talk about it. Things really get interesting when Torgo shows up, "I am Tor-go, I take care of the place, while the mas-ter is away!". He functions as the motels caretaker, a rather short, bearded, quirky fellow with big, puffy, highly abnormal knee's and is always carrying a staff, presumably to help him maintain his balance as he slowly and awkwardly shambles to and fro. Torgo is propelled forward by "The Haunting Torgo Theme" an exceptionally catchy and charming little ditty, consisting of a repeating 3-note keyboard pattern, a pulsing bass drum and crystallized with tinkling xylophone. Torgo has a highly memorable introductory scene, with some funny dialog, which is often repetitive and contradictory - his opening line is a one of the all-time greats. Without a doubt Torgo is one of the oddest and quirkiest characters ever depicted in any movie. The actor who played Torgo, was the doomed 25 year-old John Reynolds Jr., who was reportedly very depressed and on drugs when filming the movie, to further make life miserable for him, the rigging that he wore under his pant-legs was unknowingly worn wrong and caused him to have chronicle knee pain. He killed himself with a gunshot to the head on October 16th 1966, about three weeks before Manos' world premiere in El Paso Texas, which occurred on November 5th 1966, a highly laughable, budget-restricted event (just like the movie itself) from what I've read. Torgo has several great scenes, watch and be rewarded.Then there's The Master.....Torgo's boss, along with his six wives, who apparently hang out in the desert and sleep during the day. I've always loved The Master's awesome robe, it's jet-black with gigantic bright red hands, with splayed fingers, one hand on each side (purportedly, Hal P. Warren kept the robe after filming and for years afterward wore it on Halloween night when greeting the trick-or-treater's - THAT ROBE should definitely be in some sort of movie museum) and it simply looks spectacular when The Master raises his arms when he prays to Manos, which happens frequently. Played by actor Tom Neuman, who pretty much has the perfect look happening for this role, especially his great villainous mustache. His lunatic rantings and raving are even more ridiculous and repetitive then Torgo's. Then there's The Master's six wives, dressed in all white, partially see-through gown's of some sort, which you THINK would look sexy, but I assure they do NOT look sexy, these six harpies's proceed to bicker at each other and get into cat-fights in the night, some of that cattiness is eventually directed at Torgo. The plot of this movie was an afterthought, but they had to give the ladies something to do. They proceed to clumsily (that word is particularly apt for Torgo) harass Mike and his family in and around the motel at night, apparently there's an undead angle to their existence, because they're solely nocturnal.Primitively filmed, by an assortment of novices and semi-pros 50 years ago, on 16mm film, with a camera that was unable to record sound, the end result, not surprisingly is pretty wretched looking to say the least and the editing in this movie is among the very worst ever seen. Though it has, within the past several years been restored and thankfully, from a visual standpoint greatly improved. Reportedly Hal P. Warren had a real short-fuse, did a lot of yelling and was hated by his entire cast and crew. Also there's the fact that Hal was so ignorant about film-making, that his cinematographer said that he often feed him lines such as "We'll fix it in the lab." which was pure BS, just to speed up production, Hal must have been hell to work with. But I must say I wish the man had made more movies, he could have been the next Ed Wood, but sadly that never happened and Manos: The Hands of Fate remains the one and only Hal P. Warren production......................................................but the guy sure could sell some fertilizer, couldn't he??!!