About this episode
Transcript
Automatically generated, so expect the odd misheard name.
Look, there comes one of them now. My name is George Kosana. I'm with Night of the Living Dead, and I'm listening to Movie Meltdown. They're dead. They're all messed up.
It's showtime. The following feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental discretion is advised. Our nuclear reactor pumping out one million kilowatts of power. We're cooling in the containment chambers.
To your citizens, we have a rebound. Death awaits you all with nasty big pointy teeth. Way down among Brazilians, coffee beans grow by the billions. So they've got to find those extra. Cups to fill.
They got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil. What's up? Welcome to Movie Meltdown. I'm Brian. I'm Greg.
I'm Marlena. I'm Beau. I'm Ben. I'm Lucy. I'm Alan.
And it's time for another session of the Caffeinated Movie Geek. Cappuccino on my butt. I still drink coffee. The last fucking thing you need is another cup of coffee. It's time for the Caffeinated Movie Geek.
We come to you live. Via digital recording from Nancy's Pickle Grounds, where we'll get together, drink coffee, and talk movies. And this week, we are drinking the ever-popular Clatsop Spit. It's good stuff, though. It is good.
You question these names sometimes, but it's good stuff. Alright, so with that, we do have a guest this week. We would like to welcome Chris from Surreal Film. Hey, guys. How's everyone doing?
I guess, go ahead and give everybody a rundown of Where you're from and what you guys do there. Right, sure. Well, I'm a Louisville native. I went to University of Kentucky and now back living in town. And we've been doing some real film.
Originally started on WRFL in Lexington, which is the UK affiliated radio station there. I've been doing it here in town at Crescent Hill Radio, which actually films on Frankfurt Avenue right down the street, or courts rather. Try to bring on locally oriented actors, filmmakers, the like, and review the best of the crop of independent-leaning films that come through town. Which, they're more than you would realize sometimes. Absolutely.
It's surprising what we have coming out of this town and what ends up coming back here sometime. I don't know, do you have anything specific you've got coming up to tell people about? Sure. Well, we record Monday nights, and the new episodes come up online on Wednesdays via Crescent Hill Radio's SoundCloud page. We actually have our on-air debut Sundays at 1 p.m.
On Crescent Hill Radio. This week's episode I'm particularly excited about. We've got Lexington native filmmaker Kentucker Audley is coming on. He's actually based. In Memphis, goes back and forth between there and New York City.
He's going to be phoning in and he's going to tell us about his new film, which is called Open Flight 2. And then also he was actually in attendance at Sundance Film Festival last week. So we're going to kind of get a rundown of his experiences from that. We are reviewing, we are putting our octogenarian hats on and talking about Quartet, which is Dustin Hoffman's directorial debut that's playing in town right now. And then going back to a little, what I think is criminally overlooked film from from this year, which is Sound of My Voice, which is the follow-up to Another.
Earth with Rick Marlin. And we have Kentucky Arm Show. He's very fun. He's a good guy. Well, we usually have a geek activities kind of intro, which just consists of what we've been watching.
So I will throw it to you this week, Chris. What have you been watching this week? I don't know if it's as geek as much as it is slightly embarrassing, but I'm finally figuring out just what's up with Downton Abbey. And I have, in the past week, watched the entire first season of Downton Abbey. It's very geeky in a different way.
Definitely. It's a little more nerdy probably. Absolutely. But yeah, I found out that was on Netflix and I figured I might as well have been watching it just from my Twitter feed of all the walks of life people that seem to find it. So I was especially excited for Maggie Smith today when I saw Quartet.
Wow. No, my favorite thing about that was our local independent circulating magazine thing here. Actually, in the rundown, he. Mentioned it as Downtown Abbey, which I was really kind of thrilled about. There's a recent episode of Modern Family.
Two of the characters had, I guess, been watching Downton Abbey, and they'd gone to Disneyland in the episode, and he called it Toontown, and then got mad at himself. He had said that. I would watch that, Toontown Abbey. That sounds... Based on Roger Rabbit.
Yeah, I would watch that. It's pretty good. All right. Well, we've got a lot of dead people to get to, so I think we'll take a break, and then we'll come back with this week's topic. Maybe I should entertain The very fact that I'm the same I wasn't fooling when I said All.
The people I like are those of the. Day And I've been around this town and I've seen what they. Do Golden, pure, creamery butter. Rich, flavorful, satisfying. That's what it takes for the finest buttered popcorn, and that's what we use.
See for yourself why there's no showtime treat to equal the crisp, delicious. Flavor of hot popcorn that's bathed in real melted butter. It's at the concession stand now. I want to tell you of a new motion picture entitled The Undertaker and His Pals. This movie is a shocking expose of a part of the young generation, that part that destroys, the part that plunders and ravages for kicks.
This is the story of two knife-slashing, axe-hacking, motorcycle-riding maniacs and their pal, The Undertaker. If you think you can take it, don't miss it. The Undertaker and his pals. Well, I love the movies. Welcome to the biggest movie event of the year.
We're going to have a great night, ladies and gentlemen. And the Oscar goes to. And the Oscar goes to. Nick Ledger. Thank you so much.
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves. It's time for the Movie Meltdown Oscar Mayer Party. With all the glitz, glamour, poor products, and vicious commentary you've come to know and love. The Academy Awards will never be the same. Bacon tastes good.
Pork chops taste good. Coming soon to this feed. Don't miss it. Oscar meltdown. It's going to be orderly, clocking good.
Are you tired. Of film podcasts where the hosts exist in a constant blissful state of agreement? I mean, the main characters are two of the dullest main characters I've ever encountered in any film. Well, you're in luck. That means you shoot a chin-stroker and punter.
One is an ex-film. Student with a penchant for David Lynch and art cinema. The other is a man on the street. Listen in perplexed and horrified terror as we tear apart one film a week. It just really isn't.
It's not visually striking. No. Just getting confirmation. That's the third time, though. I mean, is this on?
You can find us at csvsp.libson.com. So come and share the victory. If you could fuck any man in film, who would it be and why? My answer is Lance Henriksen. He wouldn't tell.
He looks like somebody... He looks like somebody who can keep a secret. Tweaked Audio, your source for high-performance, noise-reducing earbuds. Available in three styles and seven colors, durable and designed to sound great for both music and those chatty podcasts, like the one you're listening to now. Tweaked Audio earbuds come with a one-year warranty, and now there's a special deal for Movie Meltdown listeners.
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You're listening to Movie Meltdown. It's part of your problem, you know. You haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies. And now, on with the show.
Chance had the clue. He was 12 years old. Fell from the roof on East 2-9. Kathy was 11 when she pulled the plug. 26 reds and a bottle of wine.
Bobby had leukemia. 14 years old. He looked like 55 when he died. He was a friend of mine. Those are people.
That's what I do whenever stoners come into the theater to see a movie. If you can tell, they're blazed out of their mind. It's just you do shit like that. It's just they ask for you. It's like, can I have one for this movie?
Blueberry? What? 675. Can I have one for This is Lincoln? Wait, do you work at...
You sold me my ticket to see Quartet today. You were probably the youngest person. I was. I was. We definitely, as I was saying, I went with my friend Hope, and we're the same age, and with us included.
So he's very generous. All the old people want to see Maggie Smith, because he's working at the downtown Arby's now. What? Yeah, that's where they ask for it, and you're like, are you sure you got the right movie? You're in the wrong demographic.
All right, we're back. And it's time for The Grind. In this segment, we will discuss a specific topic or question. Related to movies. And this week's topic, again, comes from.
Beau, who asked us, essentially, it's what performers who have passed away in 2012 will you miss the most? I believe your take on it, though, is since the Oscars are kind of bad about overlooking or sometimes completely omitting specific actors. Look at the major ones, like the bit players, the character actors that typically get overlooked. And I almost think there's a political element to it as well. I mean, it was like two, three years ago, I thought it was bizarre that they overlooked Clayton Moore.
It's like the guy was famous for playing. The Lone Ranger, but I knew that at least in Hollywood circles, he was not well-liked. So I think they accidentally overlook actors a lot of the time if. They weren't in the preferred circle. So I just thought this might be an interesting way to kind of make sure all bases are covered prior.
Definitely, because they overlook a lot of people, because Misty's still boycotting the Oscars because they left out. Corey Dane when he Which is kind of uncool. I mean, he was in a lot of popular movies at one point. He'd hit hard times, but still, I mean, he died for God's sakes. Just show his picture for a second.
He sold a lot of popcorn. He did. A lot of teen beats. Yeah. So, that being said, yeah, we'll go ahead and get into it.
Do we have someone specific we want to start? I guess we're going to go character actors and most recent work our way back and just kind of skip around. Charles Durning was definitely the. Most prolific character actor to die right before the end of 2012. I think it was on Christmas Day.
Christmas Day, yeah. I figured he would come up because most of us here, I think the Tiger Generation were sucked in by Doc Connery. Oh, yeah. I mean, it really, for. All the impressive, you know, Oscar caliber kind of movies he was in, I still think probably a lot more people of that generation will always know him from.
The Muppet movie. He was the first bad guy I knew. I mean, I swear, the first real bad guy I knew. I mean, you could say Darth Vader, but you don't see a face. You just know the voice.
And so, I mean, it's the first real movie, the Muppet movies, I really remember seeing. I saw Star Wars, but really remember seeing and loved every second of it. And I remember, especially him, he was the bad guy. I also remembered a lot of Steve Martin, thinking how funny he was in that one scene. I.
As the waiter. But anyway, I'm getting off topic. But yeah, no, Durning was definitely I never he never broke that character for me, no matter what he did or what I've seen of him as an adult. He's always been Doc Hopper. And then also from that movie in particular, it's impressive that he is who you remember.
In a movie that's. Just littered with high-caliber cameos, you still, like, that's kind of your main human that you remember out of the movie. Is Charles Dickens. And I saw a weird thing. Like, you go back and you watch the original Muppet movies, you know, it's not like what they did later with, like, Muppet Christmas Carol or some of the others where humans and Muppets were well-integrated.
In the Muppet movie, the Muppets were like the flukes of. The real world. Yeah. And you almost kind of wondered how that these humans even coexisted in this world. It's like, they just accepted they were there, but they were like freaks.
It was like that true freak show. Yeah. Todd Browning's the Muppets. Yeah. And it's like, why was it that Doc Hopper just had to have like his legs?
Like, do you not realize they're like plush? I mean, are they plush in that world? Are you aware that this thing is not flesh and bone or are you oblivious to that? Like we're supposed to pretend that it is flesh and bone in this world. It's just, I don't know.
You start thinking about the mechanics, it's just weird. But I like the fact that Durning just said the hell with it and just went full-fledged, you know, method mode into Doc Hopper. To me, it's just a really fun role to watch him in. It's like that and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? is just another really fun one for his character. Because to me, I think he steals almost more of the laughs than most any character in the film.
Do we want to go. More into Durning or do we want to skip around? What's his name that died this year? See, I know he was a character actor, but I only know him as the lead in Phantom of the Paradise. As the Phantom.
What's his name? I don't even know his name. It's so bad and embarrassing that I don't know his name, but I just know his character. As the Phantom. And I know he was kind of a big character actor in the 70s and 80s.
And he was a big friend and collaborator of Brown to Palmer, and I think he was in several of his. Earl Williams? No, it wasn't Paul Williams, because Paul Williams. He played, I mean... Paul Williams played...
He played Winslow Leach, and I can remember. Because Paul Winslow played... I mean, Paul Williams played Swan, so it's not Paul Williams. He's definitely still alive. What's that?
William Finley. Thank you. Finley, yes. Sorry, I can't remember his name, but... Yeah, I know he died this past year.
It's a fun movie that's just kind of under-watched or under-seen. What, Phantom? Mm-hmm. I mean, I personally prefer it over Rocky Horror Picture Show. I think it's a better movie.
It feels tighter, it feels more reined in, and the characters are way more interesting, I think. Even though there's not as many songs in it, I kind of prefer... the song i mean i know like because it's it's hard to go up against rock and roll show because it's like the songs and that but like. Stylistically they're similar too yeah they are similar and it's it's not like i mean it's easy to think that because they came out the same time it's like oh maybe like rocky war copied off of phantom but no rocky war was like a stage show when i understand before it. Was the movie. And I was just recently told that they were released as a double bill because they were released at the same time.
That's interesting. I guess Phantom took a little longer to get going because I think it was the year prior to Rocky. Yeah, it was made technically before but they were made so closely together I don't think it's a matter of Yeah, I mean, when I was watching, I was thinking, like, I knew it was the, like, IMDB said it was the year before. So I was like, oh, obviously, Roger Moore copied. But, you know, there would be no way.
Because they ended up, you know, they could have known, you know. They were released at the same time, basically. So it was just kind of a coincidence. It was just kind of a cultural. Thing with the glam rock.
Yeah, and just it was a good introductory role for Jessica Harper. Because I can't think of any major role she had. Yeah. Prior to that. I mean, after that, she did Love and Death and Suspiria.
Suspiria was the only thing I'd seen her in before that. And then she just kind. Of disappeared, surely, thereafter. She was in Sisters, wasn't she? I believe so.
I don't know if that was before. Was that before? I think she retired from acting to write children's books. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, she did.
And I feel like it was right after, or. Not too long after Suspiria, where she kind of wasn't in as many movies that I know of. Yeah. Anyway, I just, I thought, like, I hadn't, like, when I heard when he died, I hadn't seen Phantom, like, all the way through before, and then I made it a point to, like, watch him again after hearing about it, because it just, I had never, it never occurred to me to, like, think of the movie, because no one talks about it, really. I mean, there's the new doc, the Paul Williams doc, that kind of brings it up, and there's kind of this cult, I don't, it's not a huge revival, but, like, there's a little bit more interest in it now because of that but still there never was as compared to Rocky at least as big as a you know.
Fervent following thematically I think it's also it works in line with this is Spinal Tap too because so much of it is a parody of the music industry and glam rock at the time. Yeah, even like in Rocky Horror, it wasn't even that at all. It just kind of used the sound of the movie to tell its kind of own twilights, not twilight, but just kind of like sci-fi kind of riff on B-movies of the 50s. And it really wasn't, you know, like Family Paradise did kind of have that riff of, you know, the Vincent Price kind of, what's the movie that's... where he had a messed up face. Dr.
Fives? Dr. Fives. He kind of was riffing on Dr. Fives, but then, you know, the cabinet of Dr.
Caligari and stuff like that. But at the same time, it also managed to be the satire on the music industry, and I thought that's kind of what made it especially good. What I like about it, too, is the songs within it are catchy. It's the same with Spinal Tap. It's like the songs are making fun of songs of their type at the same time.
You want to go out and buy the soundtrack after you watch the movie. I mean, that's kind of what makes it awesome. It has this cheeky kind of... Like, all the characters who are singing the songs are kind of goofy and, you know, kind of stupid. And, you know, these crazy characters.
But they're kind of like, but these songs... Yeah, when they. Sing these songs, these songs, you know, they kick ass, you know, a lot of them. And you're like, yeah, I definitely want to hear that soundtrack. I've got more.
Do you guys have any you want to get to? No, go ahead, sir. I do. Dead people, you mean? I've got a.
Whole bag of dead people. They're already dead. No, this year was actually debilitating for me because two of my favorite Cassavetes players passed, and I was not anticipating. I guess Peter Falk had been sick for a while, but I did not know the things I was going to be departing. So, yeah.
Yeah. And I could talk for the next hour about how fine both those gentlemen were. But just the idea of watching Husbands. Has everybody seen Husbands? It's one of my favorite Cassavetes films.
And it's the three of them. It's Gazzara and Falk and John Cassavetes. And just having the time of their lives. I mean, it's just beautiful to watch these three men who loved each. Other so dearly make this film together where they're three men who love each other so dearly.
And it's just palpable, like, the feeling that comes across watching that film. So. This is a tough one for me. Did you post that clip of them on the talk show? The Dick Cavett show?
Yeah. Best television. That was pretty... Moment ever. Yeah.
Wanting weird talk shows. Yeah. Having to deal with that would be a nightmare because they were out of control. But Dick Cabot, I mean, Dick Cabot himself, the show is always interesting, whoever's on it, because he's just such an intellect and such a force, and to. Have them on it and have them steal it from him.
But maintain his cool as best he can. I mean, they were all over the place. They were a nightmare. And yet he, in true Dick Cabot form, he just had it down. He dealt with them and still maintained his calm, Dick Cavett exterior.
Also, I just feel like Dick Cavett is just, if you watch, like, in clips of, like, interviews of him now, he's still just as, like, as cool as he was. Like, he's still Dick, like, you know what I mean? Like, he's, you know, you can tell he's aged, but he's still, he. Still feels like he's in touch, or you still feel like he's in touch with, you know, whatever is going on. He just kind of has that aura of cool about him, and I'm just like, you know, in terms of talk show hosts...
Like, that doesn't really happen, I don't think, when they age. But he was always just kind of the cool guy. And every time you talk about just his personality and that, I can't help but imagine there's an SCTV sketch where Rick Moranis plays Dick Cabot interviewing Dick Cabot. That's the funniest. Damn thing you've ever seen.
Oh, man, I need to immediately, I need to see that. Because it's a dead-on impersonation. It really is. Wow. But Ben Gazzara, there was a film that he did that is so overlooked and I think.
Is one of my favorite movies. It's a film called St. Jack that Peter Bogdanovich did, and I always try to tell everybody to find it. It's hard to get hold of, but if you can, get it, because it's a great one. I'm not even a Peter Bogdanovich fan at all.
But he plays an American pimp living in Singapore trying to. He plays. Actually, now that I think about it, he's often, like, killing of a Chinese bookie. Like, he's always. Yeah.
Yeah. Which brings humanity to them in such a way that seems almost implausible. Just picture him as a pimp in the real world. So, this was a tough year for me. And just realize that you're vexed because most.
People are going to remember him from Roadhouse. Yes. Which I haven't actually seen. It's only worth watching, I mean, if you have the DVD of it to watch it with the Kevin Smith commentary. It's one of those things, it's like, it's such a weird cult phenomenon, and it's like, I personally couldn't get into it until I saw how enthusiastic people like Kevin Smith were about it, and how much they sort of, like, at the same time made fun of it, but loved it, like, genuinely, and that.
Kind of made me love it too, so I feel like I needed. Kevin Smith to introduce me to Roadhouse. I need to watch the commentary. The first time I saw that, I just remember thinking, how serious were the crew even taking this plot. When it came around?
I mean, do they really buy into it, or do they realize that it's just bullshit and. They're screwing with the audience? The best part, I guess all you need to know is that he's a bouncer- who's also a philosopher. Yes, yes. That's a good way to sum it up.
That's all. That should just be the back of the DVD. He'll say, well, because I'm a philosopher, it's that bad. I think you'll have a reason to come back to it soon. I think we're working on it.
We're kind of special. Don't you worry. I don't know. Now, how does everybody feel about, I know you kind of brought this in as a character actor thing, and yes, you can put character actor, but it's someone that's so big, Ernest Borgnine. He definitely became a character actor.
Yeah, exactly. He didn't start out as one, but I think he's so good at that, you know, identifiable person or role that kind of gets put into that niche, I guess. But I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to, like, especially when the Academy Awards come on, that's going to be one of the big cheers that everybody gets, because he's so identifiable. And because he won the Academy. Well, yeah.
I mean, I'll admit I'm a curmudgeon. I'm not that much of a fan of romantic comedies, but damned if, like, if I made a list of them, probably Marty would be in the top five, just because it's an amazing role, and he's so damn dang daring. And it's just, it he's basically a lovable lug is the best way to describe him in that movie to where it's just, he's in his thirties. He's kind of in a dead end job and he's got a mom who's just in pecking. Him about, you know, you need to get married.
You need to find a girl. And it's just, he, he finds this girl, the detractor is just clueless as to how to, you know, have a successful relationship. I just absolutely love it. Yeah. But I always liked him, um, in the wild bunch too, which, you know, For me, when I first started getting into film after high school, I just couldn't get into Westerns.
I think you have to be a little bit older to appreciate Westerns, just because they deal very much with adult issues and very much male issues, too. I feel almost like they're chauvinistic in that regard. But a lot of the Peckinpah stuff, like. I'm trying to think, it's Ballad of Cable Hoag, I think is one of them, and Wild Bunch, and a couple of his others, they all focus on basically the idea of just the cowboys becoming outdated. Just all the scenes to where you'll see them like looking at motor vehicles and stuff like that.
I mean, it's just a very cool juxtaposition. It's like, depicting the loss of this time in our country's past. Essentially, I mean, the Old West is like the closest thing that we have to American mythology. And it's just sort of depicting the passing of that era with that film and a lot of Peckinpah's other stuff, which, speaking of Peckinpah, you were talking about losing Cassavetes regulars this year. One of the remaining two Peckinpah regulars, R.G.
Armstrong passed away earlier this year. Really, the only one left now is L.Q. Jones, and that's about it. But Armstrong, he was in, I'm trying to think, Major Dundee, Ride the High Country. Oh, it's going to come back to me now.
One of Chris Christopherson, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and one other. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, I. Love his scenes. To where Billy the Kid breaks out of prison. It's early on in the movie, and you hear one of the other sheriff's deputies shouting back.
Basically, there's a scene to where Billy the Kid is running out of the back of the jailhouse, and he's got this shotgun, and R.G. Armstrong is playing one of the deputies. He comes running up, and Billy the Kid just has the rifle on him, and they're just staring each other down, and he's realizing he can't make any kind of move. and you hear the sheriff in front of the office shout out, he's like, hey he just killed so-and-so and he just shouts back yeah he killed me too which point then billy the kid shoots him it's just like this great. Little moment within the film but i. Always liked um Peckinpah's dedication to trying to get just a ton of character actors.
He never really had, I mean, even like when he had, say, William Holden in Wild Bunch. That was after William Holden had kind of fallen from grace. He wasn't really that much of a box office label anymore. Same with Charlton Heston in Major Dundee. That was like during the low point of his career, so...
He always tried to pick these just offbeat character actors to make up his cast versus going for like huge billing names. I don't know if it was a personal preference or maybe that's all he had to work with budget-wise. I think that's just what he liked because some of them wouldn't need the actors like your beloved Donnie Prince. Your bestest friend, let's see. You wouldn't celebrate how awesome Donnie Prince is.
Donnie Prince is the greatest human being that ever lived. I knew that was going to be your answer. So he's still kicking around. He's still hanging in there. Yeah, I don't know.
He always had a weird little group that sort of rotated from one movie to another. Not all of them, but, you know, yeah, there were so many crossovers. Along the way. Well, Donnie in that movie, assuming he talked about this when you had him on the show, but Chris wanted him in the film because he was his buddy and he needed his buddy there with him to hang out and shoot and shit. And so he said, we need him in the film.
And he was like, well, I guess he could be part of the gang. But, you know, we'll just kind of have him there. And so they didn't have any lines for him. So he was just going to be sort of the dude that stood around. And then I guess at some point, St.
Pachypah was like, this feels weird. There's just this guy that's kind of lurking in the background. He's like, all right, we're not going to change the script, but how about if you just repeat things that other people say? So if a character says something, then you just say exactly what they said. And that's what he did.
So the whole movie, he speaks, but he never has an actual line that's written. He did mention that, I think, when we were showing it. And then watching the movie, it's like, wow, really? That's just kind of weird. It's just an echo.
But to tie it back into the last one, I mean, we've got Ernest Borgnine is also in another of the Peckinpah bunch, which is Convoy. Which, again, I think we're going to have to come back to because I had a weird thing for Convoy as a kid. I don't even know why. That weird redneck run of movies came about, and I didn't get into most of them, but there was something weird about Convoy. That I was just fascinated with on TV all the time.
I had a friend tell me specifically not to watch it. It's a myth. I'd never seen Peckinpah before. He gave me Straw Dogs, but I loved it. And he's like, you need to watch Wild Bunch and all this stuff.
And I said, well, Convoy's on Netflix, too. He's like, don't watch Convoy. It's not a standard Peckinpah kind of movie. But yeah, he directed it. But wasn't that something else that Donnie said?
Well, I mean. I think that was towards the end when he didn't really care to ask about anything. He was just sort of, I don't know, by the end he was dying already and. Still sort of showing up on set every day. Do we need to check?
Yeah, I can't remember. I'm trying to remember the cast of the film. Other than Christopherson and Alan McGraw. Hang on a second. Burt Young, I think.
Burt Young is the other director I know. Going back to Armstrong, with me, I kind of fell in love with him with the movie The Car, which I keep saying we need to do an episode. Because he's on the list. Just because for me, when it comes to character actors, there is a certain extent to which they play the same character. It's like you need somebody to be like some very mincing maitre d' or head of a hotel or something.
We'll get Franklin Pangborn. Or, you know, it's like we need some you know, sort of aristocratic, deep-throated, you know, fellow who's just. Going to kind of boss people around. Let's get Eugene Paulette. So it's like, I feel like when it came to, well, we need somebody who plays a southern asshole.
That was R.G. Armstrong. And in the car, it's very much so, because. I mean, his first scene within that, you just hear the shouting going on inside of this house, and this hitchhiker looks over, and he sees this woman thrown down the front porch steps, and Armstrong just walks down and just starts wailing on her. And the hitchhiker's like, uh, hey, mister.
And he looks at him and he's like, who the hell are you? He's like, I just don't think you ought to be hitting on that lady. He goes, oh, you don't, huh? Well, she's my wife. It's like just the nastiest introduction you can have for any character.
It's just so bizarre. And he's like, wait a minute, you out here playing with that bugle. It's like, oh, I was just practicing, waiting for somebody to pick me up. It's like. Why don't you put in the case or else I'll ram it so far up your ass.
You'd be farting music for a year. It's like, he just berates anybody who's. On screen in that movie. I was like, wow, this guy's amazing. I love him.
So, but I mean, that's pretty much cause going back to Peckinpah, um, when Peckinpah would, like, cast him, he said if he ever needed someone to where basically the role was like a fellow who could act like a, um, Southern Baptist preacher who would hold a Bible in one hand and a shotgun in the other, he would go for Armstrong. So, he was up there in the late 90s, I think, when he passed this year. But in the way of other Southern regulars since Lucy's still over there searching. But, um, something everyone's going to remember him for playing, you know, in the Andy Griffith show, but, For me, facing the crowd, I think, was Andy. Griffith's best role he ever played.
It's the same, almost it's the same persona that he had within the Andy Griffith show, but instead it was this character who's just so manipulative about putting on that persona just to get whatever he wanted. I mean, I just thought it was a fantastic role for him. That was pre-Andy Griffith show, was it not? Yes. I think so.
He had several roles that were pretty good and pretty big at that point before he got known for that show, before the show came along. I don't know. It seemed like most of his roles still, especially after that, he just became that character. He wouldn't. Even as, you know, he rolled into his next TV series, it's not that far removed.
It's just Andy Griffith is a lawyer. But, I mean, it's, yeah, it's kind of weird to try to see him doing something outside of that, right? I never really got into the Andy Griffith thing. A lot of people love it. I acknowledge it for being, you know, what it was and being a pretty good show.
I just never really got into it. So it's weird to see him. I don't know. I mean, for me, it was one of those regular reruns on television to where I grew up with it. So I just kind of got into it.
Yeah. No, I mean, I think it was aided by all the different actors he was working with. I mean, once Don Knotts left the show, it was almost unwatchable. He's pretty amazing. Yeah, I can't remember the character actor who played Floyd the Barber, but he was another one who was just entertaining no matter what episode he was in.
But yeah, later on as it transitioned to color and you lost Don Knotts and that, it just lost. Focus more on. His relationship and all this other stuff came in. It became less funny. It almost tried to become a serial in and of itself.
It just didn't work. Did you find which unit? James Coburn. He was the second unit director, and I've been told that he pretty much was running the show. I can see, again, Coburn kind of did that once as well.
Yeah, I guess he was trying to get his DGA card, so he jumped on and then took the reins. But, yeah. Gordon Knight in that one is, he's just, he's the Roscoe P. Coltrane in that movie. It's just, it's kind of silly.
You're talking about, you're talking about Convoy. Yeah. Okay, because I. Was going to say it's like half the cast of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid that was thrown me off there. And really, it just rolled into that one and they just, yeah, I mean, it does seem, it's a very different mood for him and it's very strange watching, you know, Gordon Knight, even if he, like, he has a weird acting style and he would always take himself so seriously but sometimes, especially as he got older, he got sillier And they gave him these really.
Kind of silly roles, and this is one of those. It's like, he really is. It's just kind of mimicking a Smokey and the Bandit idea, you know? Really, it doesn't fit what he's sort of known for before that. I guess probably more so after.
If we're doing Ernest Borgnine, though, the first one that always comes to mind for me is Side Adventure. Again, I've mentioned it before. A weird fixation on that movie as a kid. I don't even... fully understand why I like that movie. It was on a lot?
It was on TV a lot. It was on a lot, but not, I don't know. I'm trying to think who's still around from that. I mean, Gene Hackman is about the only one because, I mean, in recent years, you know, Red Buttons and Leslie Nielsen and Shelley Winters have all been. In the dust.
I guess the kids are still there. Yeah. I'm trying to think of any of the why or the other, like the minor sort of Silly, right? Wives are still around. But I don't think they are either.
I think Hackman's the only one that's still kicking from that... Of the main cast. Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, to throw that group of characters in that situation, you kind of need that. Yeah, the robo is, you know, Borden and his character.
You kind of need him. He has to be there to counterbalance Gene Hackman. Because, you know, the Reverend Scott guy is so. in control and self-assured and he needs somebody there to just naysay. Everything he does. Yeah.
To just be, hey, you know, he's kind of a tough guy and he wants to be in control but he can't, he can't take charge the way he needs. To but he needs somebody to butt heads with him the whole time. Mm-hmm. As the plot goes on and he feels that. Like, he's kind of annoying but at the same time it's another one of those, you know, Hackman kind of knows he's the next best thing he's got when he needs somebody to count on he still knows he can count on but they just argue almost the entire movie but I don't know he does that so well in that role he's kind of an obnoxious character but he makes it work so well I.
Thought you were going to say Willard. There's another real classic. Many people are fine. That's one that's still not on DVD. I mean, I just still have an old VHS of that.
I thought when they remade the thing, they would have released it, but no. Which actually, that's one where I like both the original and the remake for different reasons. I think both of them have positive elements to them. But, yeah. Board nine's a hell.
Of a lot of fun in that too and he's playing a similar role to what he does in poseidon adventure just sort of a bullying archetype yeah he's good at. That especially as he got older. Except towards the last third of his career it was just like joke they kept sticking him in the worst like if you look at that last third of his run on imdb it's It's some scary stuff. That he did. Unless you look at his voice work.
He did a lot of voice work for animated series. With live-action movies. No. He ended up in a lot of junk. And, like, that was the joke, is they would be like, star an Oscar winner or a winner?
And, like, they thought it was funny that they could say that an. Oscar winner in a movie, but it was kind of sad. Yeah, because the only one that pops into mind for me is that Merlin's Mystical Shop and Magical Wanders, the thing that Mr. Sons Theater tore apart a couple years ago. I just think there's a whole generation of kids that are going to think of him as Mermaid Man.
Yeah. See, that he was good at. I liked that stuff. Yeah, the voice work was a lot better than most of his live-action stuff went down. I mean, it kind of goes back to what Lucy was talking about earlier, about Peter Falk's earlier stuff.
It's like, how many people aren't going to know him for anything prior to Princess Bride? Well, you're missing out on all the Marvels, damn it. They're classy. I've got. three non-actors, if we can allow it. The first is a duo that were actually involved with Star Wars.
It's kind of interesting when you look at it. There's a lot of people other than George Lucas, and sometimes in spite of George Lucas' best efforts who prevented Star Wars from ending up like the ridiculous storyboards from Argo, two. Of which we lost this year. The first one was Bob Anderson, who was an Olympic fencer and actually uh, was the double for Darth Vader during the, during the lightsaber fight. He kind of did all of it in that first one.
He was the, he was the third guy after James Earl Jones who does the voice and then David Prowse who does, who was Darth Vader's body. In every other scene. The interesting thing there is he was in pretty much absolute anonymity because George Lucas had this strange thing where he wanted to preserve the idea that Darth Vader was all done by one person. So for years, no one even knew who he was until Mark Hamill eventually outed him, um, because he felt bad for him, but he was 60 when he first did that first Star Wars movie. Most recently was the sword master on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, died this.
Year, 89. The second is Ralph McQuarrie, who was a, he had me at work with a concept artist, designed Darth Vader, Chewbacca, RTD2, C-3PO, Cloud City, all those huge vistas, and actually got his start as a technical illustrator for Boeing. Which I thought was really interesting. This stuff's amazing. And then just a general shout-out, this musician, guitar player named Skip Pitt, his claim to fame was that he did the guitar flange riff for the original Shaft soundtrack.
So pretty much there's a good chance any Blaxploitation film where you hear a similar riff to that, that is this man, Skip Pitt, who also passed away this year. Almost as important as any character in that. In that genre, yeah. Definitely. And the way of going back to, just like, you know, I thought of this when you mentioned Doc Hopper being one of those villains from your childhood memories of movies you grew up with.
I grew up watching Monster Squad all the time when I was a kid. And Leonardo Cimino, who played the scary German guy, he wasn't the main villain, but if anything, he was the older sidekick to them. He passed away. And he's on to where he didn't start doing acting, at least, I think he mostly did stage work up until, like, he was in his 50s or something, before he started getting involved in film. That's definitely his most prominent role that I can think of, because, I mean, he has little bit parts here and there.
I remember he played, like, the Baron's doctor in Lynch's Dune. And he popped up in little things like Waterworld and Creatable Rock for, like, brief moments. But nothing as major as that. Just. I mean, I always thought it was just a very, very funny.
Role that he had. There's another one where it's like, it makes that little blip. If anything, it's half the time, whenever you see these headlines listing them on IMDb, it's like, scary German guy from Monster Squad dies. They don't even give him the name right off the bat. They just list the role that you would most know them for.
You don't even name them. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody I'd like to mention in terms of character actresses and who I don't think anybody paid any attention when she passed was Susan Tyrell. Who's probably best remembered for the Forbidden Zone.
Oh my god, I. Had no idea. I thought that was last year. Was it this year or I thought it was last year? I'm pretty sure it was this year.
She was in Fat City, which is one of my favorite John Huston films. It's incredible. It's a really great film. Also a Chris Christopherson tie-in. I actually thought about being her character in Forbidden Zone for Halloween, but I.
Just couldn't find the right dress. That would be awesome. You couldn't find a dwarf to go with. I know, yeah. Well, she and Kirby Villashez were really in love.
I mean, they had a relationship for a number of years. And then she, I guess, had a rare blood. Disease and had to have her legs. Amputated and has been living in Austin sort of, I think, doing a one-woman show before she passed. I mean, really fascinating person, really troubled, but really talented.
I mean, Fat City, she's so good in it. Looking through, there weren't a ton of actresses. It was all old white dudes, really. Celeste Holm is the main actress that I can think that was lost this year. And Rutherford was gone with the wind.
Remember Rutherford passed this year? I don't even remember that. I've just been thinking of people who passed years before 2012. I mean, just because of movies I just recently watched. I mean, kind of get into old gangster character actors.
Like Lionel Stander, who was like, he died in the mid-90s. Mm-hmm. But I always thought he was like, he always made, he was just one of those character actors, like, you know, the best character actors that just automatically make whatever movie they're in. No matter how crappy it is. Because, you know, usually character actors, if you look at Phil Laugherty, it's fairly uneven.
Sometimes it's a great movie, and they'll, you know, they'll be awesome in it, but they're always awesome. And, like, he was just one of those gangster actors that was like, oh, when he shows up, he's sick. the most badass gangster probably in any movie I've ever seen. I mean, I think that could be said for character actors in general. For me, whenever I'm. Watching a film, I already know who's going to be in it based.
On, like, the posters. Yeah. As to who are, like, the lead and the lead actresses and supporting. But you wait until, like, you get to that fifth or sixth credit screen and you start seeing the little bit names popping up. It's like, oh, she's in there.
He's in this. It's awesome. And he's, like, my favorite part of, like, one of my favorite movies, Blast of Silence, and he's just the voiceover narration guy. And he's just, like, he's just one of those actors, like, just the fact that someone thought to make him a, you know, a voiceover narrator is just crazy. Because he just, you wouldn't take something like, you know, like a Cagney or someone like that.
You wouldn't make them, you know, tell a whole story through voiceover. But, like, he's the best part of that movie, I think. Like, it's his, him telling... It's one of the best examples, I think, too. I usually hate voiceover work in movies.
In Blast of Silence, he's just so perfect for it. It's this pulpy kind of. The dialogue is kind of cheesy when you think about it on paper, but the way he delivers it is so convincing. It works so well. What I first heard about him was that movie, and then I was interested in the other stuff he was in for that.
Because by then, he was kind of blacklisted, and he couldn't get work. and he had been just shown up in big parts in gangster movies in the 40s and 50s, I think. I'm going to go back and re-watch Blast of Silence, but I remember that was one of the things that kept taking me out of the plot was the narration versus immersing me more into it. I think it was just the back and forth between the constant narration and then switching over to dialogue in and of itself. I think it would have liked one or the other. I actually think it would have worked as a silent film if you had the narration only.
And there was just sort of a. A series of films like it at the time, because there was. Yeah, like I said, he's the best, but even the main guy, the director, actor, came in the same. Because they did The Thief, which was the Ray Moland film noir, and there was no spoken dialogue in that, nor no title. It's not like it was a silent film where title cards came up.
It was just not spoken. And same with Dementia. Yeah. Which I can't even remember who wrote or directed Dementia because that was the only thing that fellow did. It was based on like a series of nightmares his secretary had had.
He went ahead and made the movie based on that. I mean, it's a fantastic little like it's like a 50 minute short. It's if anything, when you see it you realize it was made in the mid 50s it's like this thing was decades ahead of its. Time it's kind of overlooked but I'm yeah I. Don't blast a song so I just for some reason it was the narration I think was too excessive for me.
You see it kind of like I it I know, like, I mean, I didn't know this until after I'd seen it. Like, I knew. Then I read afterwards that the guy who directed and acted in it, and that was, like, his only thing, which kind of sucked so much and been interesting to see, because it's such a good first feature. And that's what intrigued me to watch it. Is that, like, it just has this comic book aesthetic, and I found he was, like, a comic book illustrator, or, like, writer.
He was. That was his. You know, he wasn't even a filmmaker. He worked in comic books before that. That kind of made sense to me, just the way. how i.
Mean just because comic books. Are you know usually i never have a problem whenever i look at comic book like with the narrative like that just it absorbed me all the more and it just totally made sense that you know the one example where a voiceover narration where it's it's permeated that much throughout the movie that heavily it works so well it comes from a person who you know comes from comic books and i kind of like oh that's interesting i. Also liked um The one thing I did like about that was the fact that it was all set at Christmastime. That's what... That was.
For that to have it, you know, be that sort of biting and satirical in that era was very uncharacteristic. Because typically if you have anything that's set at Christmas, you know, it's going to be it happened on Fifth Avenue or shop around the corner or something else. Yeah, yeah. And what I like about it is like in the. Yeah, yeah.
And like, you know, there's a lot of those. Not a lot, but. I mean there's several famous examples of like kind of the... I guess it started in the 60s. I really don't know.
But the Hitman movie where he was really cool and precise. We were just following the method of the Hitman. You're talking about Samurai. Samurai, stuff like that. This was the example.
This was what stuck out for me with this movie. He was just such a bitter person. It was all about him. He wasn't cool or anything. He was just a bitter, angry person.
And like, like you said, the Christmas thing, the juxtaposing with the Christmas just added to that. Just like, oh yeah. And of course, you know, I'm going to kill this guy on Christmas. Like I hate everyone. Like it just, it added to it.
And like, you know, that the sequence where he's walking across Times Square and, And you hear all those carolers, and there's a big tree in the background. You can just see that he just hates all this. They'll have all these pretty shops. That he goes by, and he's going in, and he's talking to this fellow, and this rundown apartment over him. Yeah, he's just blocking it out with his hatred, and the voiceover narration is just saying, you hate these people, don't you?
And he's just like, yeah, and it's... Yeah, yeah, that's right. It drove me. Crazy, though, just when it was, just like, you hate these people, you hate this whole city. It's like, I get it, it's enough, it's enough.
But it just kept going for me. I think if you tone down a little bit of the narration, maybe, I think that was about the only thing that really bothered me about it. It was just, it felt like it was, of course, I mean, it was experimental in and of itself, the way it's done. So, you know, I think it, at that point in time. I mean, you could have gotten one or the other.
It was just, if anything, it's just very, very new. I'll just lump, you know, gangsters with Hitman right now and just say that it probably is my favorite of those. Like, I would put it up there with Goodfellas. Like, personally, I totally get why people would be like, you. Know, it's not this masterpiece, it's kind of this more obscure, kind of weird movie, but I have just something about it, like the whole comic book aesthetic and, like, the bitterness and the setting.
Of Christmas that just. I was really drawn towards that movie. I mean, Jean-Pierre Melville, he did a lot of those films that were focused on that, because he did Samurai, that's the one he's the most well-known for. I love Le Cirque Rouge. I kept hearing rumors they were going to remake that with Orlando Bloom and a couple other people, and they were just going to flat out call it The Red Circle.
Interesting. Thankfully he died. And Dolos, I mean, it just basically focuses on thieves and criminals and all the stuff, and just how there is no honor amongst thieves. Yeah. Ultimately, really, none of the main characters in any of his films end up well.
I want to say Rafiki, but I don't think Rafiki is his. I want to say that's Goddard, maybe. None of those guys in those movies ever have a happy ending. That's one thing that pretty much never changes. They either die right before, you know, they're like, oh, I'm going to change.
Even with, what was the George Clooney movie that came. Out that was trying to be like the samurai character? A couple years ago. A couple years ago? Yeah, it was like he was the hit man.
Oh, the American. The American, yeah, yeah. I mean, it was totally like, it still followed the whole, like, you know, oh, wait, you know, the last minute, maybe I can be someone, I can give up this life, you know, I can do this one last hit, and it's like, oh, no, you can't. You're, you know, you're just going. To, like, last minute.
The whole idea of the one last job thing has just been done so many times, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It definitely is a cliche. Blast of Silence definitely does have that cliche, for sure. If we want to jump back to women.
That was a much more beautiful segue than what I was going to... Well, like I said, I mean, Celeste Holmes... There's no. Way to do that anyway! Are you about to mention Phyllis Diller?
I had her on my list. I don't know what to do with her. She's kind of awesome in her own weird way, but... She didn't have a lot of film work. She was mostly just kind of TV bit stuff.
Yeah, she was herself. But then she kind of did the Charles Turing career trajectory, or no, the Ernest Borgnine career trajectory, where she started doing voiceover stuff in the latter years. Yeah, Ernest Borgnine should have been on Scooby-Doo. He would have been a great, you know... Mike Philistella.
Mike Philistella. He would have gone in really well. Anybody, that's like a place of honor for anyone that, you know, if you've got to be a guest as yourself on there or your own character, like if you were one of those few people that got to be a live person guest starring on Scooby-Doo, that's pretty impressive, really. There was only a handful of them. That's why Jerry Reid will always be cool.
Not everybody. I guess Sherry's the only one still around, though. Phyllis diller some of the harlem globetrotters might still be around i know that they did that because they wanted whatever shaggy had yeah. But yeah phyllis diller i don't i don't know what else to do with her she was she could just acknowledge her greatness and move on Although I did see a movie, I may have to go back and find it. I think it may be one for us to watch later.
Because there was one or. Two that she was in, and there's one that looks like a nightmare that I think we'll probably have. To come back to. What is that? Pink Motel?
I like it already. Pink Motel? Yeah. Wait, wait, the way he said it, it sounded really creepy. I don't know why.
Or the way I said it? Yeah, the way you said it, it sounded like, like Brian was like, it was a question, but it was a little bit, maybe a little bit more light. And I was like, oh, okay, that sounds like it'd be fun. You said it, and I was like, yeah, that's going to be scary. Well, it is.
It's her and Sleuth Pickens on a motel. I'm sold now, actually. So, yeah, I think we're going to have to come back to this. What year is that? Like, 80, maybe?
Somewhere early 80s. It was one of those, probably ended up on VHS and nobody rented it. I can only keep my fingers crossed and hope that he's co-manager with Andy Devine. I just want to hear conversations between those two. I'm just picturing those two.
Just turn the camera on and go. Just throw odd-voiced people together. Before Nick Nolte dies, I want him... and Robert Loggia, Gary Busey, and just, you know, Elaine Stritch. They're all these gravel-voiced actors and actresses together. I don't care what it is.
Just put them in something, and you're going to need subtitles because it's going to be just so rough to listen to. They're all in love with Kathleen Turner. Yeah. You know who we lost this year? And Bacall.
There's another one. Richard Dawson. which that you know for somebody he was he was playing a role I think anyway on his show or on Family Feud but he did such a good job of changing it just a little bit for the running man that it it was he was. A creepy character he was amazing in the running man yeah he was a really creepy character. He changed my whole view like he's one of my you know like you can't even watch Family Feud now because you're like Ooh, I don't think he's a good guy anymore. Yeah, no, like, I seriously, like, I mean, of all the movies I've seen, because I grew up watching them on TV, and it's still one of my favorite movies of all time.
And I honestly think Richard Dawson in Running Man is one of the best movie villains. I seriously think this. And I experienced it in reverse. Oh, really? I saw Running Man was on, like, TBS or something when I was a kid.
And then I was introduced to. Somebody picked up, you know, syndicated, like, old reruns. Of Family Feud, and I was like... Really uncomfortable. When he goes in for a kiss, you're like, what?
The electric guy's going to jump out of his closet. Yeah, the movie kind of ruined it. I never really thought he was, the kissing was always really creepy to me. I never really thought he was a good guy. Did you know that he stopped doing it because his daughter asked him to?
And that's actually the daughter of the woman that he met on the show. There was a girl that came into one of the families, and he was like, I felt this instant connection with her. And so after the show, I asked if we could go out, and she said, okay, Richard Nossman. And they went out, and then they married, and they were married for decades. Wow.
That's incredible. Yeah, but yeah, they had a kid, and I guess at some point the kid was like, um, dad? So, I see you kissing other ladies on the TV, and I'm not super comfortable. With that, and so he stopped. That's good.
But, no, that's, like, the perfect example of, like, a character actor kind of performance. Like, somebody really, I mean, he had been an actor. I mean, he did, you know, his whole stint on Hogan's Heroes, and he was, like, you know, on Match Game, and he was more known for being. Himself, really. And then, like, again, almost put his Family Feud career in jeopardy and, like, take this role that's doing this weird view of it, you know what I mean?
It takes that same idea and just puts a spin on it and makes him a horrible person. So, I mean, it really could have, like, I don't know that it ruined his career. He still ended up doing that for years, but I think he took a chance there that most people wouldn't have taken. And, I don't know, it turns in this amazing performance that, again, for the rest of his time, I was just like, well, I mean, family feud, eh, but he. Was amazing in the running mail.
Like, it always put him on a higher shelf. I'm just like, eh, just a weird guy hosting a game show, but you watch Running Man. If only Bill Cullen had done something like that. He's great. I don't think you could see an Alex Trebek doing the same thing.
No. If he did, that would blow my mind. But Pat Sajak might be able to do something like that. Or if he'd still been around, the co-host for Price is Right, Rod Roddy. I'm surprised he wasn't in The Running Man.
I felt like it would have been logical to just throw him in as one of the bosses. Yeah, he was the guy with the jetpack, wasn't he? Yeah, Richard Dawson, he's such a badass in The Running Man that he just, like, you know, in the scenes where it's like he's in the control booth, like, he can just totally, like, threaten, like, Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger and not give a shit and be. Like, yeah, I, you know, like, and totally... be, like, you know, be. The boss of those guys and just go out and still do his whole family feud.
Like, he still had the family feud act. But it was just so, like, it was such a great role. And his death when they put him in the pod. Oh, yeah. And he's just, yeah, and even up to the, like, the last minute, he's trying to be all, you know, charming and apologize.
Like, hey, you know, it's just Brady, blah, blah, blah. And Arnold Schwarzenegger just shoves him in the slot. It looked like a fun slide. Like, I want to go in that thing. And it's just, like, you know, and... shoots out it's just it's it's great it's definitely an underrated movie.
It's a great drinking game movie you know as are most of Schwarzenegger's movies but this one particular like it has pound for pound the most amazing Arnold Schwarzenegger one-liners I think in any of his movies I mean including like this it gets the point like I this is this my I think this still holds the you know, the title of my favorite one-liner in any movie, you know, not just in all sports, but any movie is where he just, they just defeat the, uh, the, the, the game show boss called Sub-Zero. He's like this big Samoan dude who, you know, he's like an ice, he's like a hockey goalie. And, you know, his, his, his, uh, hockey stick is like this blade weapon. Anyway, his name is Sub-Zero. And they just, you know, all sports just killed Sub-Zero.
And he looks up at the camera, you know, everyone on the game shows watching him. He's like, It's like, here's Sub-Zero. Now, plain Zero. It's just so cheesy. They should have had that writer for when he was Mr.
Freeze on Batman and Robin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was thinking, that rivals some of those. I tell everyone this repeatedly, this one line, and it's just my favorite. I feel like I've said it already on the show once or twice even, but it's.
Just such a great. Arnold one-liner. Well, that's the thing. The Richard Dawson performance is so good that it makes me wish that were. A better movie.
It makes me wish they wouldn't have given it to Arnold Schwarzenegger because they weren't supposed to. It's a great story. Obviously, because they keep kind of ripping it up and doing other movies like that now. It would be so much better if they were, and do you know who was supposed to be cast in that original? Was it written for someone else?
When it was just a script and they were throwing it out there, I mean, I guess it was taken from the novella or whatever it was, and then they turned it into a screenplay. They initially wanted it to be Christopher Reed. Now, how much more serious would it have been with him in the lead? Is it a Philip K. Dick story?
It's a Stephen King story. It's Stephen King. Yeah. And, like, he even takes, he changes his name, I think, in the credits of the movie. Like, it says based on the story by some other, and it's just some different, and it's some pen, pseudo, like, pen name or something.
It's really Stephen King's. Yeah. Yeah. It's a story, but I mean, imagining them doing a really serious version. Yeah, I mean, like Total Recall, it's a clever, you know, sci-fi story, but because Arnold Schwarzenegger's in it, it just becomes an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
And like, what's one of, you know, one of, Starsky or Hutch, one of those guys directed it. Really? Like, they want to, well, I don't know his name, but one half of Star State Hutch directed The Running Man. He did, of course. He was directed by one half of Star State Hutch.
Yeah. I'm surprised that wasn't his name. We think it might be Hutch. Yes. Oh, wow.
Yeah, I, for some reason, and I always lump it together with RoboCop, it seems like it lives in the same world as the two of those. RoboCop is definitely, it's the better movie, and it's a better satire. It's cleaner, yeah. It's, it's, uh, But Running Man, there's such a childhood. I mean, a lot of it I was probably nostalgic, but just such a joy that comes whenever it's on TV.
Again, it's a great pod. I wish it was done not so silly. Yeah. Arnold Schwarzenegger. I have something to say about Family Feud.
Okay. I don't know if I should say it. No, it's something that's always bothered me. Okay, because you were saying that that might have jeopardized his Family Feud career. But I feel like that show's always been very dark.
Like, Ray Combs. Like, Ray Combs passed. And you found out, like, how much serious shit had been going on with him. And then they're like, who will we get to replace him? I know.
Louie Anderson. I mean, it's so messed up. Right. He's turned to comedy as therapy. I feel like that was purposeful.
Who seems just enough on the edge that they could do something really fucked up is Louis Anderson. Anyway, I just never understood that. And was it last week we were talking about how it's become a race war? Was it talking to you? It's Richard Karn who's the host now, isn't it?
He was Steve Harvey for a while. Steve Harvey is. Great with innuendo. But now he's got his own talk show. I think it's Richard Kahn now.
At some point, I don't know his name, but it was Al off of Home Alone. Yeah, Richard Kahn. I think he was in between. He was in between. I think Steve Harvey is the most recent, right?
I think so. Maybe it's just Donald Trump. I've heard. No, so I'm thinking of. I guess something that prices right was Drew Carey.
Took over Bob Barker, yeah. And then now it's like, is it Wayne Brady or someone? Or that's, let's make a deal. Okay, sorry. I'm getting my game shows mixed up.
You better get those right. As far as I'm concerned, John Hurley can just. Do all of them. Because when he was doing, God, it wasn't match games. The thing was to tell the.
Truth was what he was doing for a while. He took over for somebody else. It's like he's obviously been slumming ever since Seinfeld went off the air trying to figure out something to do. He just has sort of like a presence about him where it's like he seems credible. I trust him as a game show host.
There's nothing shady going on behind the scenes with him. I feel like Whoopi Goldberg would be the perfect host of the newlywed game. Because he could be like, where's your favorite place to make Whoopi? Nice. Wow.
It's so bad I can't believe it's not on. Hollywood Squares, I think, is the thing that John Earl is doing now. I didn't know that was still on. That will forever be the game show. I'll just always remember as the thing that was on TV when I was doing homework in middle school.
It was always on. When I come home from school, all the squares were just on TV. I was like, well, it's time. I guess I'll do homework. The bottom of the barrel squares.
It's a carrot top. I actually auditioned for that when I first moved out to Los Angeles. And I've forgotten, I've suppressed this memory until right this very moment, but it was when she was the center square, and Whoopi was. And there was a. Very high-stress audition process where they throw you into a simulated game, and they tell you all of the ways.
That you can and cannot interact with the squares. And her deal was you can call everybody by their first names except whoopie Goldberg. And she's Ms. Goldberg. And so they throw a bunch of stuff.
Out at you. And as you're trying to answer these questions, you also have to remember the power dynamics of how you're supposed to talk to the squares. You think you're the next Tom Arnold? You can't answer. I can't remember.
There are a lot of them, but that's the one that stuck with me. It was like, you cannot call her Whoopi. She's always. But did they at any point teach you the rules of tic-tac-toe? No.
They just assume you already did. That would make a great movie, you know, seeing someone try out her game shows. So, Brian, who were you thinking of? For the female side, the major. And granted not an actor, but uh nor epron who i didn't love a lot of her stuff but i mean almost just give her credit for being there and you know directing movies at a point when they were still kind of closing out a lot of female directors and I thought you were going.
To say Whitney Houston. She's on the list, but I mean, she really hasn't turned in good stuff after Gimme a Break. So, I mean, it was all. Now, granted, I haven't seen Sparkle yet. But the verdict is still out totally.
But, yeah, my Gimme a Break days is the end of her. But, no, Nora Ephron, I think the only thing with that... I mean, she... Not even her stuff... There's some good ones.
I actually, like, I think probably the best for her is Sleepless in Seattle. I think. To me, that was the most tolerable of that type of movie. It's very cheesy, but it's supposed to be. But as the other ones went on and some really bad ones got thrown in there, Michael.
Oh, yeah. Ouch. I don't know what to do with that one. Yeah, that just took her down a notch. Bewitched.
Took her down a couple. Anyway, but no, I give her credit for, again. Not so much artistically what she delivers sometimes, but for showing studios that a female director could be financially capable You know, it's. At a time when nobody was really doing that. And she did sort of mainstream movies that actually made a whole lot of money.
So that's, I think, an accomplishment for, you know, female directors more than anything else. Sorry to interrupt, but like who, I don't know like which of these two because, yeah, was Pippi Marshall, was she like more, which of those two like found success? Commercial success. She hits first, Penny Marshall. She definitely gets credit for, I mean, there's always been minor here and there, but yeah, Penny Marshall was sort of the exception to the rule at.
That point, and Nora Frankel. Kind of came in along that same time. She was already starting to build up. Penny Marshall had such a short run there. It was like by mid-90s, she had already sort of moved on.
And even like, I mean, yeah, like Catherine Bigelow, was Point Break kind of big? Catherine Bigelow was always there at that point, but nobody cared. Near and Dark was before Point Break. Near and Dark was. Yeah, it was like in the 80s.
It was like in the 80s, and nobody cared. And nobody ever gave her credit other than Patrick Swayze. Like, I remember at the time watching him just like, he was all over her about what a badass director she was, and people were just like, whatever. Nobody cared until, you know, two years ago. But yeah, it's funny that she'd been making stuff consistently that.
Long, and just nobody. Most people wouldn't even know who her name was before she got an Oscar. I always had a soft spot in my heart for Nora Ephron, because I grew up with six sisters, so I watched a. Lot of her. I didn't like a lot of them, but you've got mail for whatever reason.
That's what I'm... I always enjoyed and still to this day. It's just kind of a fun, nostalgic thing. I swore at the time that that was a sequel to Seagulls in Seattle. Is it?
Unofficially. It's the remake of that. It's the Evil Dead 2 to Seagulls in Seattle. I swear I've seen this before. Kind of.
Now they don't like each other. Sort of. The only other movie of hers I've actually seen because I haven't scene sleeps with Seattle was Julie and Julia, which I found to be a really interesting viewing experience because I really loved the Meryl Streep segment and I really hated the Amy Adams segment. It goes back and forth. I keep going back and forth between I love it at this moment, I hate it at this moment.
I've heard that before, actually. I've had other people say that that was the balance. Big surprise, Meryl Streep's good in a movie. Yeah, I've heard that before from you. Yeah, like, that whole segment was just excellent.
If she had made a whole movie just about a Julia Child, it would have been just a fantastic film. But Amy Adams' part just kind of pissed me off. If we're doing directors, do we even touch on the big ones? I mean, it's certainly not a forgotten person, but, I mean, do we just want to skip over Tony Scott? Because it's his own episode, really.
I would love to talk about it if we get the chance, I mean. It totally could fill another episode. No, no. I mean, he was definitely an auteur. And, you know, another one of those that found mainstream success and never really got any credit.
Again, he would always be in his brother's shack. Yeah. So, I mean, he would never get any credit. And it's like, I always thought it was the weird thing. Like, you know, I just consider, like, when I look at Ridley Scott's filmography, to me, like, I know there were commercial successes.
Like, I mean, Thelma and Louise, like, I don't love them as much as, like, you know, Most people do. But I feel like, you know. After Blade Runner, there's this, like, almost 20-year gap where you just didn't really make anything good. And, like, Tony Scott, for me, consistently, just during the 90s, especially when, like, really, Scott wasn't really doing anything that really was worth mentioning. He was knocking them out at that point.
Tony Scott was knocking them out of the park. I mean, like, pretty regularly. I mean, even the ones that, I mean, like, something someone might dismiss like The Last Boy Scout, which I think is an awesome movie. Stuff like that. Like, you know.
Days of Thunder is actually kind of awesome. Like, seriously, it really is. For what it is. For what it is. No, like, seriously.
Like, he just had this cheesy, like, you know, you would look at the, if he was one of those directors, you would look at the VHS covers of his movies and the story would be like, oh, you know, this piece of shit. But, like, the way he, like, did them. Was just so cool and so kind of, he had this badass kind of, I don't know, like, Days of Thunder almost has, like, a Western vibe to it. Like, it's just, the way he approached it, these genres was just really interesting. And like, I, I don't know, like I, I'm not saying I prefer him to.
Ridley Scott because the movies I do love that Ridley Scott, you know, I mean, like I, there's Blade Runner and Alien are some of the best movies I've seen, but Tony Scott, I mean, he, he's certainly up there. I mean, I don't see one as lesser. Than the other. Well, also, I mean, just thinking about Top Gun alone, every aviation film that came before that, was crap in comparison. I mean, as far as just showing the planes in, you know, in flight and showing a dogfight and having some understanding of the dynamics of how the planes fly or where they are in the sky or this person is, you know, in position to shoot down this person.
There were lots of those World War II. It shows stock footage and people taking off and cuts and planes, and it's just sad. It's bad. And then all of a sudden Top Gun comes along, and I can't think of anyone before that that has any worthwhile scenes of it. And just for that, and since then, every film after that stole everything he did from Top Gun.
And I swear sometimes you even see some of the explosions. All that's ripped straight out of Top Gun. Right. So, you know... It's one of those.
Technically, he was great. Right. I mean, there's the thing is, like. He would have had side out if it weren't for Tony Scott. Yeah.
I mean, I feel like he made it a. I don't know if he was conscious of this, but, like, even, like, his movies that aren't quite maybe as good as others, like maybe Enemy of the State, which was, like, a big kind of hit, like, commercially, but, like, he. Still, like, for, like, film geeks, he still. you know, made sure to, like, include all these obscure character actors in these cool roles, like, in these movies. And I just, I thought it was really cool. You know, there wasn't, there wasn't any other director that really.
I just realized my favorite Tony Stark movie is Crimson Tide. Crimson Tide is awesome. Yeah, yeah. Oh, hell yeah. It's kind of frowned about now, but yeah.
That one, and I still think True Romance is amazing. Yeah, and also True Romance. Daring someone else with Tarantino's writing is really weird. I was just about to say that. And he handles it really well.
Yeah, I feel like he, I can't imagine any other director, like it feels like you're watching, it's basically a Tarantino movie, like in the... the box set of, you know, the Tarantino box set of all his movies that just came out. Like, they include true romance. And that just kind of makes sense because it feels like you're watching... It's, you know, you're watching a Tarantino movie. It sounds like you're watching a Tarantino movie.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, if no one had told you, like, if you don't know that much about, like, you know, the stuff he's directed, like, if no one had told you Tony Scott directed, like, if I didn't know, like, I would have totally believed. It if someone said, you know, oh, this was... Quentin Tarantino directed this. I'd be like, yeah, I would have bought that.
That Dennis Hopper monologue before Christopher Walken is incredible. Yeah. And it felt... And it just feels like, I mean, Quentin Tarantino just... made that movie. I mean, like, he was able to translate his voice so well.
The Gary Oldman scene. And that one, the dialogue doesn't surprise me that that came from Tarantino, but having it delivered as amazingly as Oldman does, it's, that was the point, I was just like, well, whatever he does from here on out, alright, Gary Oldman, that and the professional, it's. Like, whatever he can do, I don't have a word for it. Yeah, I was surprised when Tony Scott died how old he was. Because I guess I sort of just perpetually, I mean, it makes sense the length of his career, but I just always sort of perpetually imagined him as like a 40-year-old person.
Yeah, the kind. Because he made films that were. His movies are really energetic and like fun and like these kind of hip, kind. Of like the last several, like, Enzo Washington movies. Those just, you would see, like, those are the kind of movies that, you know, if another director was directing, there would be some young, hot shot director, you know, doing that, like, you know, unstoppable, taking.
A pill one, two, like, stuff like that. That's what's weird is he got stranger as he got older. His visual style definitely took a distinct turn. And it kind of stayed that way. That second half of his career, he sort of comes into his.
Own and finds this new visual style. It's pretty consistent. The oversaturated saturated look and the kind of weird but not jump cut but like how it would be like i don't know how to describe the film i don't know the technicality of like what what the technique. Was that i used but it was you. Know it would kind of blur out and it would cut to you know you know, an alternate kind of view of that same shot.
Like a frenetic style. Yeah, real frenetic was a good way to describe it. And like, I feel like there's like Man on Fire was where he really took that. Yeah. Yeah.
And then Domino just like went crazy. Oh my God. Oh my God. But that's what I mean to be doing that kind of like. Really revolutionary film style stuff when you're the old guy that he kind of was at that point.
Like that's, That's impressive that he was still trying to push the envelope and do new things when he was, you know, at that point, a lot of guys retire from the business already. I know I always try to bring things around to either Harry Dean Stanton or John Huston, but I feel like John Huston was the other director that had that sort of same career path where he started out as. A young man and then became an old man but was still, you know, keeping up with the kids. Yeah, kind of doing different stuff all the way. And always reinventing.
The only major one I can think of that we haven't already touched on is Michael Clark Duncan, because that one was sort of the surprise of this year. Was it a heart attack that he had? I think it was. I think that's what it was. I was more surprised by the fact that, what, he was engaged to Omarosa?
I don't know. I think that's what I heard, that she was the one that made the call. Did I misread something? You can think that. I don't really know, so we'll let you think.
I'm going to do some fact-checking right now. I don't want to start that rumor. That is unfair to him. But yeah, he's always remembered for The Green Mile, and that's his big showy role. But I was like, of other weird little roles that he was.
I mean, of anything that was good from Planet of the Apes, he's amazing in that. Like, that's not a good movie. He's one of the best part of it. Well, him and Tim Roth. Him and Tim Roth make that movie worth watching.
Oh, yeah. But make it worth seeing. The Rick Baker makeup makes that watchable. Yeah. Because I don't even like what they did with the ape characters and how they changed it so it doesn't really make any sense with the original story, but.
No, to me, like, the whole remake of Planet of the Apes, the thing that didn't work, I mean, if you go back and you watch the Pest one, he's there, by the time he escapes Ape City, if you, like, track it, it's like he's been there for three months. He's been there a long time, and he's seen one of his friends shot and stuffed, and he's seen the other one, like, part of his brain cut out, and even when they first land, his... fourth friend is, you know, decayed because the time. Capital or whatever it was cracked in, you know, the landing. And so he's been in essentially almost like an asylum. He's treated like shit.
He sees all these humans treated like shit. And so by the time when he finally, like, wants to break free, I mean, you're like, hell yeah. And he doesn't even become like this revolutionary per se. He's just, for the better part, wanting to escape on his own, and he's taking, like, the one girl with him. And even, like, when he's riding off at the very end, it's.
All about him. But when you watch the Tim Burton one, it's like Mark Wahlberg is there for, like, 48 hours. Not even a day. And he escapes, and everyone's following him. Yeah, and suddenly he's, like, this huge revolutionary character, and I was like, this is...
Because he has pretty gadgets that he shows off. Yeah. It just didn't work. There's a lot. There's a lot that doesn't work, yeah.
That's one of those. Movies, like, it just, one thing, it just doesn't feel like it's, it just screams second unit when you watch it, you know, like it doesn't, no, the only Tim Burton aspects come out there. I don't think Tim Burton knows how to, he was trying to do, well, I mean, he'd done Batman, but it's just, somehow he couldn't handle that action. I don't think he even knew what he wanted to do with it. Yeah.
Yeah. But that, I mean, to me, that was the saving grace, were those two performances. And that was something like kind of big and a weird, different kind of role for Michael Clarke Duncan. So that's what I think of, you know, other than Green Mile, which I already used. Well, he's one of those people who didn't really do much after he got his Academy Awards nomination for Green Mile.
He kind of coasted in the whole nine yards. Yeah, in Daredevil. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Kind of the same role.
Armageddon was his first movie. Yeah, that was kind of... That's train wrecking space. I can't deal with Armageddon. I still teared up when the little kid brings the space shuttle to meet his dad that he's never met.
Sorry. I did. I'm on it, man. Nice try. I cry every time Steven Tyler shows up on the crater and he has all the dynamite.
And right before he blows up, he's like. He screams. And it's just... I mean, it's just... The dip.
I don't want to admit to this, but I was at my mom's house doing laundry, and she was watching Two and a Half Men, and. It was Michael Clarke Duncan in an episode of that show. I thought I missed it on that. I was like, oh, wow. It was really uncomfortable watching that show.
Marlene sees all the bad things that. Her mom's having. Isn't it some sort of my part to say that Roland Emmerich did Armageddon? That would probably have been better. It's Michael Bay.
I would have preferred him. I would have liked to have seen Roland Emmerich try to do the remake of Poseidon Adventure, just because he is almost like an Irwin Allen in his own right. I would have rather seen that, yeah. Well, you mentioned Herbert Long. I mean, yeah, Herbert Long, the quintessential chief inspector.
On all the Pink Panther films. Oh, yeah. So, I mean, all of them, I think... It's not from the whole. Rest of his career, but.
Yeah, yeah. It's funny that that's how most people knew him as he got older. Yeah, because, I mean, that's what I grew up associating him with. Because, I mean, out of all of them, I think Pink Panther Strikes Again is my favorite of them all, just because that's the one where it's truly just... It's him and Inspector Clouseau, and all of that, but, I mean, within the first film, just within the Pink Panther...
Clouseau is almost sort of an incidental character, as is Dreyfus. And then Shot in the Dark becomes more focused on Clouseau and his interactions with all these people, and Dreyfus starts taking a larger role. And by the time you get to the end of Return, that's Return, the third one, that's when they've established Dreyfus was this villain. If anything, out of all the characters in those films, Dreyfus was the only one that really had a story arc. Because really, Clouseau didn't change.
He stayed the same. But Dreyfus went from being this very respected chief inspector of the Circe to essentially getting to the point where Clouseau's driving him crazy and he's turning into a murderer, and then by the time you get to the fourth film, it's. Just he's absolutely nuts. It stops trying to give you a formalized plot and just gave you a bunch of silly vignettes, but I think it's the funniest of them all for that reason. Those all ran together for They played them so much on TV, and I never knew which one was on then.
They were funny, but I need to go back and watch them individually and give them an identity, because it just became Pink Panther movies. I always shut them off when the Pink Panther was stopped. Yeah, that was my favorite part. Objectively, Shot in the Dark is the best of the series, but I do think that Strikes Again is the funniest of the series. And then after that, you get into. there's revenge, which is just.
Kind of, I mean, you can tell that Peter Sellers is like sick and that, and he's not enjoying himself. And, and I think they made trail, which wasn't even like, it's just clips that they cut from other movies pieced together. And it just, yeah. But no, I mean, family opera is still, you know, yeah. I love the hammer fan of the opera with him.
Yeah. And, uh, he has also what kind of Dracula it's him as a model scene. Into that one. He's got Nemo and Mysterious Island. And Mysterious Island, I remember he's kept a name.
Which one is he Van Helsing. In, though? The 1970 Counterkill. Okay, I haven't seen that one. I thought when you said Dracula, I was thinking Horror of Dracula.
Is that the Christopher Lee or is that the Andy Warhol? No, that's the Christopher Lee. That's Christopher Lee. I just haven't seen it. He's in Lady Killers.
He's in some pretty high-end stuff. Yeah, I've forgotten about him being in Lady Killers opposite Alec Guinness. And that's one of those movies to where You know, a lot of people didn't like the remake of Lady Killers, and I argue it's like, I own both the original and I own the remake, because people say, well, on the Coen Brothers' Lady Killers, it runs out of steam three-fourths of the way in. I'm like, so that's the original. I have never met anybody that liked that movie.
Which, the Coen Brothers? Yeah. I saw it a few years, and I laughed my ass off. I mean, you've got. Yeah, I mean, Irma P.
Hall. I honestly think Irma P. Hall should have gotten a Best Supporting Actress nomination for that. Because she is just very, very good in it. See, I've always thought it was such a strange choice to remake that and to remake it in the way they did.
Because it has the sort of silly, folksy story that nobody believes anymore, but then added just a lot of. foul language so you've like alienated the crowd that would. Like that movie by adding the language. But I think I picture them putting it on on a Saturday when they don't have anything else to do and just laughing their asses off you know they don't care that no one else likes it they love it what made it. So funny for me is because i you feel like the coen brothers might be above like just putting a bunch of fucks in like a movie like that like just overloading it but just the fact that they weren't afraid to be so dumb like the movie is just funny in just a real dumb way like like dumb and dumber funny you know what i mean like it's that kind of funny and the fact that the coen brothers are doing that just i thought that was kind of awesome like they really haven't made a comedy that Like, low-brow.
But so, like, at the same time. It's the only role you'll see Tom Hanks. Playing a villain, and I think he's genius in it. Right. Everything he says in that movie.
He does seem to be having fun. Yeah. Everyone seems to be having fun. I mean, I can see what you're saying, the Wayans brother that's thrown into the mix. I mean, but.
He's annoying and everything, and not only that, but he makes sort of a funny juxtaposition with the sort of traditional sensibilities. That this R.M.P. Hall character has. I mean, otherwise, if you hadn't thrown those characters in, you might as well have just made it a period. Piece, which it would have worked as a period piece.
I mean, it almost works as a. Very strange companion piece to O Brother Where Art Thou, because there are similarities in the way the stories are done, and also just, you know. The musical. selections the way it shot a lot of things and i think maybe that's what threw a lot of people off they almost expected it to be another oh brother where art thou and the fact that you did have like your foul language and all that stuff it throws you off but no i think there's a lot of fun to it i mean it's the same as the original one i mean yeah it's once once you get past the bank robbery and then the criminals are picking each other off it's like that's when it kind of slows down. I mean, as a comedy, to me, I think it works way better than Burn After Reading, which to me just totally fell flat and was miscast and was just weird.
The one that I've never seen that I've heard nothing positive on is Intolerable Cruelty. I actually love that movie. That's the one I haven't seen. That's the one I've not seen. That's the only one of their comedians I haven't seen either.
I haven't seen it since it came out, so that might be a 180 show topic. I really loved it. We might get back to it if we ever do. Someone on a plane once. Really?
Well, we can start to round it out here. Is there anything that we've left? Is there anybody left? I've got a couple more that are minor, but is there anything else? I do just want to jump in and confirm that Omar Ripsa and Michael Clark Duncan were, in fact, dating at.
The time of his death. It's just him. It said his girlfriend slash secret fiancé, which I'm pretty sure means after he died, she was. Like, yeah, we were engaged. She was like, I can have a lot of stuff.
I can have a lot of stuff. She killed him. From all those kingpin action figures when they get sold at big lots. He just stacks them I just want to give a shout out he's not an actor he's a director to Oshima because Empire of Passion. Is like one of my favorite films and I was just kind of bummed to hear about that this was like just last week but yeah just shout.
Out to him well if we're doing impressive directors but granted I brought this up when he passed away on Facebook, and I'm sure he wouldn't have made it. But Larry Hagen was known for most TV roles, but he is the director of Beware the Blob, his only feature film. He did a little bit of TV, but that was the only film that he directed. The 1972's Beware the Blob. So, you know, Larry Hagen seemed like a good guy.
I got to like him a little bit. I was never a huge I Dream of Jeannie fan, so. yeah I mean just for that but I mean even movie wise I love the blob as a kid just the original and the fact that he wanted to make a sequel or somebody suckered him into making a sequel. One or the other like 20 years later too. Yeah yeah it was like way after people took care I don't know I just thought that was funny so. Um Jack Klugman was huge but again mostly TV.
I guess Club Angry Men yeah movie role what kind of comes to mind for me yeah And. Then I'm assuming the Oscars probably won't do a big shout-out to Zalman King. Who also, I don't think I'd realize, died this past year. How will we have Richie Dyer in that? Director of Two Moon Junction is gone, guys.
Come on. Anyway, so if we have nothing else, I've got one more to wrap it up. Okay, so my last one, and this was one, as soon as I got to it, I was like, of people that died, and again, a Character actor because they had an entire other career that was a way bigger career. Levon Helm turned in an amazing performance in Cold Minded's daughter. Having just watched it this past year.
And I got midway in and had no idea that's who it was. Like, he's so unrecognizable. It's impressive. And Carrie is the beginning of that movie. That whole dynamic between him and his daughter is sort of what sets the structure for everything in her life, basically.
So, I don't know. I thought that was. an impressive, lesser-known person, at least in the acting world, but he was in that. He was in the right stuff, so he did. A few acting roles over the years, but that was always such a weird thing. Just him as a, even as a musician, he was always strange.
The band was such a weird grouping of people, like, he's from, like, Arkansas, and, like, they all seemed like they were New Yorkers, and then you get into the backstory, and they're from Canada, so they're Canada, but they hang out in New York with Scorsese, and they hang out with Pop Dylan, and then this guy from Arkansas shows up and starts hanging out. Actually, it reminded me, I think Pat Engle died this year. If not, it was at the end of last year. Everyone remembers him from playing Commissioner. Gordon in the Batman movies, you know, Bert once, but.
For me, I always loved his role in Norma Rae, just being her father, and. That is just, I mean. He kind of just did little bit comedic parts. I think the last comedic role I can picture him in is he was the owner of the team on Ricky Bobby, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which disappointed me. Because I was like, I really wanted that to be.
A scathing middle finger flipped towards all the NASCAR fans, but instead it was like, a loving little tribute. And I was like, fuck you guys. You had the opportunity to do something edgy and funny and you went the safe route. It's hard to make fun of Red Nets because even when you blatantly make fun of them, they still. Say hell yeah.
See, I don't know because I know a lot of people that love NASCAR that hate that movie. I was going to say, I feel like that would totally rip NASCAR a new one. They have a French guy that comes in and can easily beat any of them at any time and makes fun of them. You know, I don't know. And that...
The only reason the hero of the movie wins is because he pretty much lets, the French guy lets him win. I don't know. I kind of loved it for that. It's going to be so exciting. I live in Bullitt County and I hear it.
Quoted all the time. But see, that's the genius of it is they're being made fun of and they don't know it. They're making fun of themselves while they're making fun of it. They can't have teenagers quoting Cartman on South Park. Right.
So I don't know. I definitely appreciated it for that. Mm-hmm. We're out of dead people. I think so.
All right. Somebody's dying tonight. Probably. That will wrap up this week's session of The Grind. Remember, we'd like suggestions from you guys.
You're usually slacking off, but if you have them, email them in and let us know at geeksatmoviemeltdown.com. Now, we've got it geared up. We rarely get it sectioned out so we can do the next coming feature. Okay, kids, get out your decoder pins. . . . . . We're every Sunday at 1 p.m. on Crescent Hill Radio.
You can also stream that. Also live via crescenthillradio.com. Check us out on our Facebook page. That's facebook.com slash surrealfilm, S-U-R-R-E-E-L-F-I-L-M. We are also doing an Oscar nomination pool contest right now via the Facebook page.
And the winner is going to get two free tickets to a Dreamland Film Center event. So that should be... Pretty fun to look out for. That's cool. Which we were just hanging out at last week.
So it's all tying together. Once again, thank you to Nancy's for letting us come in here and invade the coffee shop. Musically, to go out, I thought it. Would be very fitting when I go away from the previously mentioned Levon Home. Otherwise, that about does it.
We will return next week. Same geek time, same geek feed. Thanks for listening. Early in the morning When the church bells toll. The choir's gonna.
Sing And the hearse will roll. On down to the graveyard Where it's cold and gray. And then the sun's gonna shine through the shadows When I go away. Don't want no sorrow For this old orphan boy I don't want no crying on the tears of joy. I'm going to see my father.
I'm going to see my father. And I'll be bound for glory in. The morning when I go. Away I'll be lifted up through the clouds On the wings of an angel There's only flesh and bones in the ground Where my troubles will stay See that storm over yonder It's gonna rain all day But then the sun's gonna shine through the. Shadows When I go away.
I'm going home, lift me up when I'm free. I'm going home, lift me up when I'm free. I'm going home, lift me up when I'm free. No more trouble No more crying No more trials Home to leave my worries Home to leave my troubles Home to leave my trials And I'll be bound for glory in the morning when I go away All my kin who loves me. All my friends who care I look beyond the dark clouds We're gonna.
Meet up there When they lay me in. The cold ground Bow your heads and pray And I'll be bound for glory in the morning When I go away. And then the. Sun's gonna shine through the shadows when I go away. I'm going home.
No more trouble. I'm going home. No more crying. I'm going home. No more trying.
I'm going home. To leave my worries in the dream. I'm going home. No more trouble No. More crying No more triumph Home to leave my worries in the graveyard Home to leave my troubles in the graveyard Home to leave my trial And I'll be bound for glory in the morning.
When I go away. And the sun's gonna shine through the shadows when I go away. Ah, when I go away. When I go away. When I go away.
When I go away. When I go away. When I go away. I totally like it. Did you already mention, uh, did we talk about Charles, was it Charles Durning?
Charles Durning? Yeah. Yeah. You say you're not paying attention. That's how it started.
I feel like in the back of my mind, I was like, Charles Green was mentioned. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by the Auditude Studios, with opening music performed by the Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Talk hard!



