Dope Island: Remembering the REAL Men in Black...the Ohio-made one

By Charles Cassady, Jr.

MEN IN BLACK III is now in theaters as the standard operational summer-blockbuster-related-to-a-comic-book sequel. If its release is at least partially responsible for the followup to G.I. JOE - THE RISE OF COBRA being bumped to 2013, then Agent J and Agent K really have done a service to humanity, in one sense. In another sense this unnecessary sequel's existence gives us an excuse to reprint this most amazing fun fact: The very first THE MEN IN BLACK? It was actually made in Ohio - in Columbus, set in Cleveland, with key scenes shot in Sandusky.

No, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones had nothing to do with it. THE MEN IN BLACK (note the pronoun) is completely unrelated to the Columbia Pictures cash cow. Directed by Ohio State University alumnus Bradley Lee this low-budget 16mm indie feature from the early 1990s hearkened back to the original paranormal-urban-legend mythology, in which MIBs are mysterious, threatening quasi-official characters who try to intimidate flying-saucer witnesses. Such are the odd diction, movements and demeanor of the MIBs, according to the lore, that they could well seem to be extraterrestrial creatures/robots clumsily masquerading as human.