My GOD, David!

Appeared in experiment #1003, Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders is a film written, directed, and produced by Kenneth J. Berton, whose only other credit for… anything, is an earlier film called The Devil’s Gift (1984). If for some reason you’re curious enough to want to see it, don’t bother: it was re-cut and used as the second segment of Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders. (Though some viewers may prefer the original’s downer ending, and if you haven’t seen the MST3K episode, then go for it – The Devil’s Gift appears to be the superior movie.)

The first part of Merlin’s… (the bit with the evil newspaper columnist and his poor wife) is a bit of a mystery, however. I wasn’t able to find any behind the scenes info on the project, nor any interviews with the people involved. Moreover, it doesn’t seem like a re-purposed, re-cut film at all, and thus might have been filmed at around the same time as the wrap-around segments. For all I know Kenneth J. Berton made one film in 1984, spent the next twelve years working in a toll booth, and then woke up one day with the burning desire to make half of a direct-to-video film with Ray Miland and Ernest Borgnine.

Though I suspect that Berton was probably primarily a commercial director; but those credits are notoriously difficult to track down, so I have no proof he was making local Carpeteria ads, it’s just a hunch.

As for Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders itself, it’s late Saturday afternoon TV meh, but it has its moments: the maniac husband talking to himself, breathing fire, chasing his cat around; the latter half’s pissed-off psychic, and the visual delight of Merlin in his wizard jammies asking random strangers about his “little monkey.” Good times.

There aren’t really even any interesting links between cast an crew and anything else (apart from the actress who played Merlin’s wife appearing in Big Top Pee-Wee). This thing came from nowhere and went back to nowhere.

Except of course it appeared on MST3K, which means we have to deal with its existence. Huzzah!

Rock 'n roll martian!