MYSTIFIED

As a film history writer with three books and hundreds of articles on motion pictures to my credit, I was surprised--and disheartened--that your aptly named article “ ‘MST3K’ Attacks a New Alien Force: Real Moviegoers” (by Chuck Crisafulli, April 14) failed to mention the disturbing wake projects like “Mystery Science Theater 3000” bring with them.

Within the same paragraph Crisafulli claims its writers maintain “the show’s tone of bemused affection rather than mean-spirited attack” while “whipping up their trademark mix of brilliant mockery.” Since when do “affection” and “mockery” go together? Certainly the creative forces behind “This Island Earth” never imagined decades later that their work would be held up for ridicule in theaters nationwide.

Movies are highly personal things. Personally, I think Andrei Tarkovsky’s movies are unendurable, but some friends whose opinions I respect think the man a genius. Sam Fuller, Edgar Ulmer, Roger Corman and Douglas Sirk’s films were considered garbage until they were “rediscovered.” I don’t mean to suggest that “Teenagers From Outer Space” will ever be considered a masterpiece, but there are those--including myself--who have a genuine affection for such pictures.

It’s safe to assume that the vast majority of these filmmakers did their best given the time and budget constraints they had to work with. Could “MST3K’s” makers have done any better under similar circumstances?

Films like “MST3K” have only spurred would-be punsters to heckle virtually anything in black-and-white or made before the advent of computer-generated special effects. One need only visit the local, tension-filled repertory theater to see such boorish behavior in action.

STUART GALBRAITH IV

Burbank