Volume XXII will contain:

306- TIME OF THE APES
314- MIGHTY JACK
610- THE VIOLENT YEARS (with short: YOUNG MAN’S FANCY) Yay! A personal fave!!
702- THE BRUTE MAN (with short: THE CHICKEN OF TOMORROW)

The fullframe interlaced transfer that graces this DVD won't blow you away but it’s watchable enough particularly when taken in the intended context. You will see the MST3K silhouettes in front of the screen so purists take note, and the transfer is taken from an old TV master so those expecting the movie to appear here as it was originally intended will be disappointed. That said, it looks as good here as it did on TV when it first aired and pristine video quality isn't really the point here. If you’ve seen MST3K before, you’ll know what to expect.

The commentary comes through nice and clear, there are no problems understanding the participants but there are times where the dialogue for the movie itself is a bit too low and muffled. As far as the quality of that part is concerned, it's on par with the transfer. It's not great; in fact, there are times where it sounds quite shrill. It gets the job done, I suppose, but it's nothing impressive – but you’re more concerned with hearing the riffing here anyway, right? That part comes through just fine.

As far as the extras go, amazingly enough this is a two disc set and it’s stacked with goodies. On the first disc we get the MST3K version of the movie, but additionally we get a new eighteen minute featurette entitled Group Therapy: that reunites Joel, Trace, Frank and Mary Jo to discuss this infamous episode. They start off by trying to explain just what the plot of Manos is and from there they go on to talk about the infamous ‘slow, scenic drive to that plot’ and the weird jazz soundtrack. They express their admiration for and confusion from the movie, talk about its allure, and what makes Manos work so well in the MST3K context, including how putting the short Hired in front of it really works and how this episode features the group with ‘all pistons firing.’ The first disc also features 5:11 worth of Mystery Science Hour wraps that are pretty amusing and which discuss in mock-serious tone the appeal of Torgo and the greatness of Manos in general.

Disc two includes Manos on its own, should you ever decide to want to watch the movie without the MST3K riffing. The movie is presented in fullframe and it’s not in the best of shape but it’s great to see Shout! Factory including the ‘standard’ version of the movie here and it’s something that a lot of fans would probably appreciate seeing more of in the future where possible. At any rate, it’s a worn and muffled sounding presentation but its inclusion here really helps to fill out the set quite nicely.

If that weren’t enough, next we get Hotel Torgo, a twenty seven minute long documentary on the making of Manos The Hands Of Fate that includes some modern day location footage of the El Paso locations used in the film and which includes a lot of input from ‘Manos Historian’ Richard Brandt who explains how the movie was made by a fertilizer salesman in the sixties. Since the cast and crew have all either passed away or vanished since the movie was made, there aren’t any interviews with them here except for Bernie Rosenblum who was a cast member (he played one of the teenagers in the car) and who helped work the camera on the film. He talks about how Hal Warren came on board, and that he was ‘just fucking nuts’ and how he was going to be the star, director, and producer of the movie. Rosenblum has got some great stories about the shoot, the cast, and how this whole mess was put together while Brandt is able to put many of the comments into context. Rosenblum also takes us on a tour of some of the locations and talks about how certain shots were done and how Manos started to become a cult film and how it has sort of followed him around since the MST3K episode brought the movie out of the shadows of the past and into the mind of pop culture lovers around the world.

Also included on the disc is Jam Handy To the Rescue!: A Ballyhoo Production. This is a twenty-three minute Shout! Factory presentation that gives us some background on who Jam Handy is in the context of a fake educational short film. It ties in with some of the riffing from the Manos/Hired! bit, "Jam Handy to the rescue!" and it’s actually very well done in terms of keeping it believable in the context of the educational movie format. There are also two minutes worth of bloopers from the shoot included here, and an ‘archival’ TV spot entitled ‘Look Over There’ meant to promote the Jam Handy film. Also included here is My (Educational ) Short Life which is a nine minute interview with Joel Hodgson about why MST3K started taking on educational short films and how Comedy Central wound up with all of these old short movies in the first place. From there, Joel talks about what the appeal is of old short movies and how taken out of their intended context they tend to be really bizarre and how the Handy films were actually just thinly veiled car advertisements made under the guise of being educational movies about the automobile industry.

Last but not least, disc two also includes ‘Hired!: Parts 1 & 2’ in their MST3K form with the riffing completely intact. Both of these are pretty funny and features the satellite’s crew in fine form as they poke plenty of holes in what is really a very dated and hokey promotional movie. Combined, this one clocks in at just under nineteen minutes in length.

Both discs feature some nifty animated menus and chapter stops for the two versions of the film included in the set. Inside the keepcase is an exclusive mini-poster by artist Steve Vance that replicates the cover art of the DVD.