Episode 20: The Last Dinosaur (1977)

Welcome to rank It. I'm Bass, an offhand joke that became a podcast. I'm your host, Mike White joining me as a reptile who wants to take over the world. Chris Dash, You, I am the last Dinosaur. Also long for the ride is a silent but very tall native Mister Richard Hadham.

You are one crazy lady. On this podcast, we discussed the works of Arthur Rankin Junior and Jules Bass, usually their stop motion and animated work, but lately we've been talking about their live action films. Specifically, this month, we are talking about nineteen seventy seven's The Last Dinosaur, in which the one and only Heck Ramsey Richard Boone himself hunts a dinosaur. Oh boy, that's yeah. You already have lost the audience.

You lost us. I'm not sure that's what this movie was about. To be perfectly honest with you. Actually, really, he is the last dinosaur. When you think about it, he's the last like in The Walking Dead, the Walking Dead are the people and the zombies.

That's right, yeah, guys, just because this has thematic cohesion off the charts. Oh, don't mock it. Yes, he's the last dinosaur. Hunting a literal dinosaur. He's the last dinosaur.

The song is embedded in my head. I cannot get over it. Franken and Beast huge fans of Last Things. Is the second last show we have talked about now, the first one being The Last Unicorn. So hey, hey, they're fans of the Last of Things.

I guess damn straight, guys, we have gotten so far away from Rudolph. I it's like it's like when you when you cross a line and look back and you can't even see the line. Like I can't even connect what we just watched to, you know, an elf who wants to be a dentist. But but but that's the thing, can't you though, Because like you've already mentioned, there is music in this which is completely out of place, almost so out of place it is. It feel it would almost feel like a parody if you were watching it today.

The music and then the stop motion or this isn't stop motion? Yeah right, I mean costumes, Yeah, dudes in costumes. You know this ain't this ain't the bumble you know this is? Oh boy? Yeah?

So Richard Boone the most famous, slash powerful, slash richest person. He's basically Elon Musk is what this guy is. He's got his face on magazines, He's got a whole scrapbook of just how fucking wonderful he is. He's, um, I don't know about Elon and women, but this guy's super sexist and basically just picking up and throwing away women giving him a gold bullet when he's done with him. He's just well an irascible bastard in general.

Okay, and he doesn't know how to wear sunglasses right, but he was like wears them like kind of It's just like I wanted to push them down on his face. I was like, just don't. Don't wear him that way. Look, look, maybe he was drunk throughout the entire shooting. I don't know who would blame him.

Yeah, well, from what I've heard the story worries of him on the set of Winter Kills, yes, he probably was drunk at the time and heade right he was, which hopefully we will be talking about next month, fellas we literally do we have that in store, but also a interview with one of the producers of that film. I'm very excited. But yeah, he worked with rankin Bass many times. I'm not sure if he was in anything before. He was the voice of Smog in The Hobbit, but he was.

Yeah, he was also in the Bischido Blade and this one, and yeah, this was just a few years post heck Ramsey. Wait wait you're saying Richard Boone was the voice of Smog. Yes, yeah, okay, and who do and who are you interviewing or have you interviewed? I interviewed the producer. He might have even had a hand in this movie.

But he definitely was Bushido Blade. Um, that would be yeah, he's not in this one. Benny. Yeah, he produced this one as well, associate producer Benny Corzen. Oh Net's Feast, which is a great movie.

Exactly, Yeah Wilder, this guy had yeah boy yeah wait so so wait, so are you telling me that we're going to watch a movie called Mashido Blade as part of our Ranking on Bass podcast, Yes, sir, because it is bass movie produced by Ranking and Bass Ones again Richard and and then I literally have so lost track of why I ever. I got on a boat, oh a year and a half ago. I don't know where I thought that boat was going, but I didn't think it was going underneath the polar ice caps. Just think the final Dinosaur. We haven't even gotten there yet.

I don't even know. Yeah, Thrust, Oh excuse me, what's that? Richard Boone plays a character named what what's his film name? Mason Thrust. No, it's Maston Maton masked in the Mastodon like masked.

That's not what I thought it was. It's Thrust Industries, and it has this big butt plug looking thing drill dozer at the dinosaur plays with yeh, did you got it a drill dozer or a dildozer? What do you I don't know. The dinosaur could have used it as a dildozer. And it looks it's really funny.

There's shots where you see it it looks tiny, and there's shots that you see it then there it's expected to fit inside of it. It's you know, like you're you're right. I understand why you watch this movie twice, because it is it's kind of like that King Kong movie we watched. It's like, so that's the thing, Richard, you weren't on that King Kong episode with us. So this is the first time that you've seen like a kaiju ranking in bass movie?

Right? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is really very do a Ranking in Bass episode without me. Yeah, earlier, this, earlier last year.

Remember when we did the King Kong movie and was I not able to join for some reason, probably robot that look like a monk, that looks like a frog. Right, exactly why am I upset about this episode of our show? Because you weren't there, That's right. Usually Richard is always out there tweeting and posting about us and just really getting the numbers in for all of his followers. So yeah, it's it's It's true that I'm trying but not that hard.

And hey, maybe we'll tap into a crossover audience with fans of either knots Landing or Dallas with this episode, because right, Joan van arc is here, damn right. She is really channeling Gloria what's her name from Miss Magazine, the feminist writer Gloria say again Steinham. She looks like Gloria Steinham the first time you see her, with those glasses and the straight hair coming down, but she proboually becomes a woman as the film goes on, especially when she's doing a stripped tease behind a bush. You probably know her by her married name, Gloria Steinham. Thrust.

Oh is that what it was? That's why she's been out of the news. They've been talking about her. It's just been the other version. Oh right, right, Well, I mean this, as far as I'm concerned, this should be called the last Dionasaur Colon a feminist piece because it is very clearly rooted in a lot of feminist beliefs in feminist literature.

I mean, yeah, there's nothing better than Richard Boone just dismissing everyone, including women, because all women, guys. I've never brought a woman on a safari and I'm not gonna start now. That's our major conflict for the first full act of this film. The first full act of this film that is almost two hours long. Yeah, just at times beyond and stuff.

Unfortunately. Yeah, I had the best time watching this movie. I was just did I hooting and hollering and just going nuts. And when I watched it again today I also had a great time. I kept wondering if Mystery Science Theater had ever done this movie, because it is perfect for them.

Yeah. This, Uh, By the way, I would like to speak to structure. I'm not sure the first act was two hours. I believe that you would say that the movie is two movies two hours. Yeah, the movies almost two hours long.

Oh oh yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I thought you said that the first act was almost I was gonna say, oh, can you imagine as being a six hour film, The Last Dinosaur, a Drewe cinematic epic. You're doing your thirty sixty thirty first second, third act break on this one. I think, Yeah, that that's how I would go. I think, but but um, but I will say, look, they totally own it.

It's not it's not like they're not aware of what they're doing. They're totally aware. It's like, no, no, the gag is he's the last Dinosaurs, and and he has outdated attitudes about women, and and now now we bring in a female character who asked you challenge that on some level. And and I mean, look for what the movie's goals were, I'm not gonna call I can't call the movie a failure. I think it achieved everything it wanted to do.

It's just what I wanted to do was a little goofy and old fashioned. Yeah yeah, but hey, I mean it's seventy what seventy seven, so it's it's goofy and old fashioned Now, I mean, I guess it was goofy and old fashioned then, I mean, Chris, I don't know what they were doing in seventy seven. Differently than if they were going to do Godzilla, they were it's going to be a guy in a suit anyways, right for a convincing suit. This is the year of Star Wars. These are Star Wars level effects that are going on in this movie.

I mean, you have to admit, this is a mighty cutting edge here. That is shocking. Part my favorite part is the t Rex. That is actually my favorite part in the entire movie is the two men in a horse suit tri Saratops. It is literally the horse gag in a movie.

You can tell. It's two guys, one in the front, one in the back doing the horse gag in a triceratops suit. It's it is. It is so good. That dinosaur fight scene is just if you're here for something funny, you're that's what you should be watching, because it is truly just it's all over the place that that scene is just hilarious and weird and off putting at times even well, look, but that's the moment when um when Joan van Arc shows us how dedicated she is to her job.

She's a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer who who's sort of you know, you know, in a in a somewhat questionable feministic manner, somewhat tricks her way or seduces her way onto this expedition beneath the polarized caps to where the last dinosaur is resumed to exist. And now that she's there, all she cares about is getting photographic evidence, even if she has to risk her life to do it. So maybe she and Maston Thrust have a little more in common than Maston thought. Oh so the third part of this trio, because we have five people that go on this expedition. The third person is Chuck Wade, who's played by He's played by Stephen Keats, who I mostly knew for his role as Jackie Brown in the Friends of Eddie Coyle.

He is really good. I really like him, though he's not given a whole lot to do in this other than basically he gets to Cuck Richard Boone at one point, so I was glad for that. He is so great. He's one of those guys you're sort of like, yeah, I know him. I've seen that that thing, the space between the teeth.

Guy. I know him from somewhere. He seems very familiar. He was also the I guess Charles Bronson's son in law or his was the son in law in death Wish. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's great children's zoo Ooh, that's right, as one of I believe the parent, the male parent in which was you know, one of the better sections of the Twilight Zone nineteen eighty five.

He's oh, he's okay, I don't I need my issue with him in this movie's just not given anything to do, right, Yeah, I'm not even sure. He's a necessary character in a way, so necessary, but they don't give him anything to do. That's the problem. But he does have something to do. He's the other guy.

Sure, he's the he's the other kind of man. He's the more intellectual, sensitive, enlightened and so and so. We we've got sort of you know, look, we've got a whole range of male types that Joan van arc is sort of the the center of the wheel, and they're the spokes off of this wheel. You've got your Maston thrust, Maston thrust, Mast and Frost. I know, that's what I was thinking.

Sounds like my weekend. And and then you got him, and then you've got Don too, and we're going to get the Oh my god, he stands up. When he stands up, I went, holy shit, they're not kidding six fen ladies and gentlemen. He towers over little little old Richard Boon. Of course, believe it or not, he was a professional basketball player.

Yeah, yeah, mostly I mostly knew him for his role in the Fish at Save Pittsburgh, but which was his only other role that he ever had. I'm surprised he wasn't in more as the strong, silent type. He definitely knew what he was doing. I was actually also a huge fan of Tetsu Nakamura as the doctor who's totally not gonna get stepped on. Oh my god.

Yeah, so maybe you guys can help me out. So what happens is that somehow Chuck Wade was on an expedition and he is the only one who survived because he stayed in the ship, I think, in that big drill dildo thing, and he's back, and then you know, mass and Thrust has to be like, hey, you know you saw this thing. It's really there. Yes, Oh, there's a dinosaur and we're going to go after this thing. And doctor Hazel, I guess is the guy's name, Sekia's name, And he's like, oh, but you're not going to kill it, right, He's like, no, no, even though I am a hunter and have been hunting my entire life and I've got all these stuffed trophies all over my house, I'm not going to hunt this dinosaur, as he says with his fingers crossed behind his back.

And it's like they somehow drill is it, like through the ice caps, because it's very much a like journey to the Center of the Earth type of thing or the Lost World type of thing that they're doing here. They go like and like they come up and like an underground late that ends up also having sky the sun. Yeah, it's like, you know what, let's just call it what it is. It's their attempt to do what that King Kong versus Godzilla movie did last year, which was Hollow Earth. That's what it is.

But this was much better Yeah the movie. Yes, yeah, he actually yeah, I would agree, Yeah, one hundred percent. I would watch this eight times over Godzilliver. Yes, this one made a lot more sense. Even though the dinosaur to your point, change sizes quite a bit.

He's still Oh my god. It was just it was so much fun to watch this thing, especially when they're going up against the dinosaur. I mean, we can talk about the whole rock around the tail thing later, but this movie just had such amazing set pieces. I was here for it the entire time. I think the only issue with the movie is it doesn't do a very good job of letting the audience know that time has passed.

That's true, yeah, because it's like months have passed. They have this weird like, well, if they don't come, if they don't hear from us, they're gonna wait like six months. It's like, well they say five days at first. Yeah, well it's like clearly not day. Oh yeah, no, it is wildly different.

First it's it's five days. Then then some stuff happens. Then it's like we fade out and fade back up. And one of the first lines of dialogue is it's been four months, right, and someone else I feel like four years and you're like, oh, okay, okay, so now all right, so time has passed. They're stuck here, we get it, you know, now we're now they're just trying to survive.

It's just strange because like, there's there's no need for that time, Joe. Nothing. I don't think anything is gained from it. I don't think it's needed. And well, they could have used it to their advantage, especially with the cavemen people that they end up running into, because they could have shown like that relationship progressing.

That's the thing. Yeah, because they talk about those cave people is like, oh they're learning stuff or whatever, like, oh, they learned how to sharpen their sticks and now they have spears. But yeah, to see that would have been probably a lot better. Well, and then we would get to understand why we have Richard Boone just you know, shooting one in the heart with a crossbow. Yeah, he may well, you know, they're like hyenas.

They just they're just following, following around for scraps. What they apparently they're more successful hunters having been in this area for a few weeks than the people who have apparently been here for generations their whole lives. But still they got to follow Richard Boone around just to eat the scraps. Right, I'm so sorry I called the doctor Hazel, but Hazel is the one woman native who keeps following them around and taking things that Joan van Narc leaves behind. Sure, your purse and all that.

When she took the purse is a woman around her head. I lost my shit. I really could not stop laughing. And there's there's even moments because like as they're progressing through this landscape, there's even a moment when Joan van Nark drops her sweater and I was like, Okay, well we're going to see now the native girl pick that up as well. No, we're just going to assume that she did that because I might get to see her putting the scope for the rifle in the purse.

And I was like, is that ever going to come back? That scope for the rifle? It does a little bit when she's trying to sleep with mast and Thrust, but that's scene. Holy cow, that might have been the most uncomfortable scene. That was pretty bad.

I mean, this poor Japanese lady in bed with Richard Boone, well, well she yeah, she tries. I mean, here's the best I can figure. It's like she sort of understands he's the alpha male, so she goes to mate with him, and then he doesn't want any part of her, because what does he say that she smells like? I mean, it's like really upsetting. It's like, what the hell are you doing in my bunk?

That smells like, you know, some sort of like an animal or something. I mean, it was pretty rough considering that, you know, I thought Hazel's kind of cute. So yeah, well, and it wouldn't have kicked her out of my bunk. No, it tracks that all of these natives that are in this land are all basically just Japanese actors with like free wigs on and spears and extra hair, kind of fake fake teeth too. Yeah.

Yeah, because this is a Japanese co production. This is very much like to your point, Chris, that King Kong Lives movie, and like all of these other live action films where you've got half of the crew is Japanese. And so that's why that's why it tracks that this is a Kaiju film and that the t Rex actually uses Godzilla's voice. Yeah, that's a thing, I mean, it is. It is so much just a Kaiju movie.

This is not the kind of movie that they're making in the States and seventy seven. There's the kind of film they're making in Japan and it's interesting and I you know, Richard, you gave us that Ranking and Bass book that and I was looking at it and they didn't say anywhere why I mean outside of the fact that they had already worked with a Japanese company. They didn't say what was like, well, they were like, you know, Ranking and Bass, we're really into Kaiju. They don't say anything to that effect. It's just like, well, they were already working with So I really do wonder like, was it just like where you just happened to be working with you guys and this is an opportunity or if there was like a motivation behind the scenes.

Because again, now this is the third because there's also the Ivory Ape, which is about a giant gorilla that Jack Palance fights. Right, well, all of those, I mean, the animated stuff was all Japanese co production. Even I would say some of the animotion stuff had Japanese people working on it. Oh yeah, well that's what I'm saying, Like the Rank and Bass Christmas specials are all being done by an emotion, which is a Japanese thing. I mean, yeah, I just don't know, Like I guess they were just like, oh, we're already working in Japan, like might as well, which you know, I mean, I think it was a way to make money.

I think I think it was just sort of like, well, okay, we can we can provide an American star, you provide some of the production facilities and mechanisms, and we'll do it. It'll it'll play in America, it'll play in Japan. And because it's a kind yeah, I mean you're calling it a Kaiju movie, which is how we would describe it. Now, I'm not even sure Americans would describe it that way. Then they'd say it's a monster movie or sort of a Godzilla style movie, and and that was its own subgenre of action thriller horror.

And so I think they all sort of felt like, well, we're not going to lose money on this. And the weird thing is it did apparently it aired on ABCS some night in nineteen seventy seven. Is there, you know, movie of the Week, The Last Dinosaur. I mean again, that would have been weird to go to see Star Wars and then come home and watch this that night on ABC and go These movies were basically made the same year. As far as I know, this was supposed to get a theatrical release, Yeah it was.

It didn't in America, it didn't, but I think it did overseas, okay probably. I mean throughout you know, Europe and South America. That happened a lot, and I think to Richard's point, it might be kind of I mean, it is a kaiju movie, but I think broader. It's a Tokusatsu film obviously, you know, heavy on the special effects and stuff like that. But yeah, I don't imagine American audiences would have gone and seen this in the theaters.

I just they had they wouldn't sell the original Godzilla, but they weren't seeing it because it was Godzilla. They were seeing it because it was Raymond Burr, because they forced ass into that movie. So I just I have a hard time believing that people were like, like you said, Mike, like I'm gonna go see this well, not knowing what it was, not as Star Wars is burning up the screens, that's right, right. Well, but if you were a kid in the seventies as I was, there was a lot of sort of like is it rated? G is it playing at the mall?

Okay? You guys going there for two hours. Well, mom goes and does some shopping right right, And it didn't. It could have been it could have been Close Encounters of the third kind or this. It really didn't matter.

Yeah it was. There were a lot of I mean, what was that one Richard the people at time for God. I mean just there were a lot of really bad sci fi films that were playing theatric lay that. I mean, yeah, you can go see Star Wars, but after you see it like ten, fifteen, twenty five times, maybe you want to try something else. And man, yeah you were.

There were plenty of awful movies. I remember going to see one of those, like shark exploitation movies in the theater in the early eighties. I mean so it's just like, yeah, there were plenty of awful movies being shown theatrically. Yeah, and that's right. It would have fit right in.

But but as a kid, you always sort of you always knew like the difference between this or something like this, and you know, a Disney movie, like you always knew you were going to be sort of better off with a Herbie movie or a World's Greatest Athlete, you know, Dexter Riley even Yeah, something with Kurt Russell. You know, it's sort of like, Okay, well that'll at least kind of have some level of quality to it. I like that this was released in the UK with a as a double feature with the edited version of Sorcerer of all things. Yeah, and I think of this movie. I think of William Friedkin and Roy Scheider transporting what explosives in South America.

Yeah, movie I have never seen. Would would love to make time to see. But pretty great. And then yeah, as a ten year old, you'd be like, well, well, the Dinosaur movie was cool. They showed this really boring thing about these old guys two hours too.

Can you imagine going and seeing this end Sorcerer together, It's like four and a half hours of entertainment. Yeah, it'd be the greatest thing ever. I want to know who watched this movie was like, well, the only double feature we could think of his Sorcerer. Well, you know. The other thing is is that there used to be um a thriving drive in market in America and this is classic drive in fair.

Yeah that's fair. But see that's the thing. In the United States. It never got released theatrically, which is a shame. I do kind of feel like it is a shame because this is the most I think, aside from maybe King Kong Lives, I think this hangs together better than the Bermuda Depths does as a singular narrative from start to finish.

Yeah, we're not asking questions at the end of this, like what the fuck happened? At the end of Depths, we were generally confused as to what the point of the film was, And this is like, I get it. I get what they were going for one percent, no question them. Yeah, And I think I think because this one weighs more heavily on on action beats and and as crude as the quote unquote romance elements of it are, at least it's not central like romance was central to Bermuda Depths. And I think again, when you're making a rated G movie, for it's a lot to ask of a ten year old to be super into or even cognizant of a story of you know, love from the Mermaid, from the Depths.

From child It's like, what this is? This is boy girl stuff. I don't like it. Where's the dinosaur? You know?

So I think this one would have appealed to it. I mean I think that's why it appealed to me. Now, yeah, did you guys look at the interview that Joan man Arc did a couple of years ago regarding her time on the set of this film. No, no, it's pretty interesting. Yeah, it's it's it's linked through on the Wikipedia.

But a website called vantage Point Interviews did an interview with her about three or four years ago where she talked at length about the movie. Apparently Richard Boone was great to work with, so was Alexander Grassoff and no one here should be surprised that none of the pre production crew spoke any English, which but apparently they were beside themselves when she showed up because she was a, you know, a blonde actress, so obviously there are no there are no blonde actresses in Japan, that's true. Yeah, so, but apparently it was also a William Morris movie, so that might answer why there people are in this movie that are in this movie, or why this movie. Again. I don't think this movie failed.

I just don't understand why it didn't get released. They released the guess no, they didn't release Bermuna Depths. It was also a TV movie. But what's weird is why they would have thought that this would was going to be able to be a movie to begin with. When Bermuna Depths came out before this is that right?

Or is this no? This is after? Excuse me? The next year King Kong Escapes came out in theaters though, oh yeah, definitely. Now this was I think the so they had done yeah, King Kong Escapes in sixty seven and that was Universal Pictures.

I think that did that one, and then they had Marco, but I believe that was for sure a TV movie, and then yeah, I guess, I mean they even released what Christmas in July, the Frost and Rudolph movietically, Um, so yeah, I guess they probably had this lined up and then maybe at the last minute they're just like, yeah, no TV movie a lot. There was no there was no distribution deal in place to begin with, so I think they just knew it's like even if it like, here's what we think is going to happen, but even if it doesn't, we're not going to lose money. It'll still play internationally and then it'll it'll obviously be better if if we can, you know, And then they put and then it got on network TV, right, I don't.

I don't already had a total with ABC because they were already showing like Jackson five and the Osmans and stuff on there, so it's probably pretty easy. I want. I want to an interview with the production manager, up line producer or or just sort of the general producer of Ranking and Bass productions, who who could come on this show and explain to us the financial angle of their entire business, Like what were they how did this work? What were they thinking? Were they making money handover fist?

Are we idiots? Or were these things? Just like like if someone came on and said, oh, I worked with them, I was there, you know, I was the money guy for Ranking and Bass and they made a shit ton of money on all of this stuff in a weird way, I wouldn't be surprised. Oh it's like either maybe you know. And to answer your question from before, Mike, Joan van Arc said that Richard Boone did enjoy the blood.

Okay, yeah, that's all she will say, who is kind of and do it for Arthur was apparently a phrase that was uttered quite often around the set, as in, do it for Arthur Rankin, so that that led to eighteen to twenty hour days for this movie. Wow, well it took a lot to get those turtle effects. You know. I think it must have been where they were filming in the you know, high country of Japan, right, because I can't imagine getting all that equipment out there. Because that's the thing.

This movie looks beautiful. Where is the shot is beautiful. The effects are kind of you know whatever, seventy seven effects, but the film looks really nice, and it being shot in the Japanese Alps, I think really lends itself to a better look than Bermuda depths. But clearly it also led to a lot of production problems with you know, eighteen to twenty I just eighteen to twenty hour days for this is just well they're out in you know, nohere the middle there's mud. You know, they say it's ninety degrees.

I bet it was. They depending on what time of the year, it is probably summer, meaning night was probably only full dark for a few hours, so they had long days. They could, I mean they could. Their desire was probably yeah, let's just shoot this and get Addie here in two weeks if we can, or whatever their schedule was because that's also an aspect of cost is how many days you have to be there, so even if you go long days. In other words, I'm sure this was not a union gig for anyone, so it's like, okay, yeah, let's just well we're going to you know, golden overtime even though you're all still just getting paid, you know, in rank and bucks, Arthur rank and do it for Arthur.

That should have been the name of this fucking show. I look it, does it? Does it come out on screen? I think this is I don't know if for me this is better than King Kong Lives, but I think it's about the same level. I think realistically, I do think this is much better than the Bermuda depths.

Like I think this is a good two or three leagues of Bermuda depths, right at least it hangs together as a story. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I'll say this and this is I'm about to make the stupidest comment of all time. And I hate it when people say this, but it did occur to me when I was watching it. It looks like they were having a good time. Like seriously, the Japanese actors playing the you know, the cavemen at a certain point, I'm like, you know what, I bet they're having a blast.

I bet they're just doing these shots. They're half naked, They're all going back to you know, base camp. You know, everyone's getting drunk. You know, everyone's everyone's sleeping with each other. God only knows what Joan van Arc was up to.

God only knows if was Richard Boone's keeper there? Did someone have eyes on Boone? I doubt it. I really doubt it. I doubt it.

You know, Stephen Keats, I'm sure he came back with stories and several you know, incurable venarial diseases come on. I mean, that's that is the thing about these kinds of productions, is the stories that come out of them, with these American actors that go overseas is really what you end up gleaning all of your kind of information from. Because, yeah, I looking through all the information about this movie, I didn't find a lot of Japanese takes on it or that production side. It was a lot of like the Joan van Arc interview, you know, talking about because she seems to be the only one who's has ever gone on record talking about it in recent memory. So there is that.

Well, Yeah, unfortunately Richard Boone, I think his last movie was The Beshito Blade and then yes, sure was poor Stephen Keats, is it he died in ninety four? Yes, he unfortunately took his own life, so which is a shame because again, he has a great role in this movie. Again, I just wish he was given more to do. I think you could make this movie better by combining the Richard Boone and Stephen Keats character into one character and not having to have the Joan van Arc character have a male third lead. And I know that that's at the time, that's not a thing that's going to happen.

But but but you needed I would. I'm gonna I'm gonna push back because I'm gonna say that again and forgive me if I've taken the movie too seriously. But but you need you need the Stephen I'm sorry, you need the Chuck Wade character to further understand the mast and Thrust character. Even those characters streamed Mass and Thrust, you still need to understand him a little better. I agree.

More Well, they could give him more and then and they could have made I think the way to give him more is to give that triangle more and and at a certain point, look, for all we know, there were scenes left on the cutting room floor because someone said, you know what, at the end of the day, it's about the dinosaur and fighting the dinosaur, and let's just have more of that, and we don't need twelve extra minutes of understanding Joan van ARC's heart being torn in two directions by the you know, by what is clearly the father figure that she has not come to terms with, you know, because it was her father who would take her hunting and taught her all that stuff that she could pull out of you know, her you know, her hat to gain credibility with Maston thrust you know, he was completely shocked that she knows about hunting and guns and calibers and all that stuff.

And then the other guy who's just you know who's the other guy who's sort of the rational modern man, who's like, look, I found the spaceship, we can get her the drill do we can get out of here now, we should leave immediately. And I really liked that, and I totally bought when Maston was like, I'm not going I'm going to stay here and die like Ernest Hemingway fighting that dinosaur. Yeah, and it's great. He had himself, Yeah, totally had and and and the end of the movie was just like weirdly like it's like, oh, okay, so he's there and there's Hazel kind of sneaking after him, and then we're left to understand what will probably become of that relationship. And it's like, well, old dinosaur knows his world.

He's found it and he's at home there and God bless him and the others go off to the modern world. I wish they had maybe given us a little bit more context as to how Richard Boone feels out of place, because they don't make it like again, if we're going with this and this is not like you just mentioned, this isn't me doing this. This is the movie doing this and not doing I think enough of it. They should have made it more clear to the audience that Maston Thrust feels out of sorts with the modern world. And I never got that sense.

I never got that he was like Dan Nagget phones and whatever, like I never got the sense that like he was out of touch. I mean, his like his way he talks is out of touch, but he's still like the scientist says, like, you're not gonna You're not gonna kill it, right, and he holds to that until the thing the dinosaur kills this doesn't he's like, well, now we have to kill it. But up until that point, he's like, I'm not going to kill it. And that was weird, Like, that was a weird thing in this movie that I was having a hard time kind of figuring out what the point of juxtaposing it was because they have that like, I'm not going to kill it. I am changed.

But then he's at the end of the movie, he's like, no, I'm going to stay here. It's like, well, what was the point of you not right? Well, his earliest dialogue where he's talking about the Lochness monster and how it's probably already been put onto an endangered species list and that he's just so upset that you know pretty soon they're going to put the cow on there. He's very much a dinosaur when it comes to all this stuff, where it's just you know, well, why can't I hunt anymore? This isn't any good, you know.

I kind of thought that they did give him enough, But I would say that with the relationship like when she first finds solace in Chuck Wade's arms after that incident with the turtle, and it's like, okay, well, I guess there are a couple now. And then that goes on for a while, and it takes like forty five minutes before Boone finally realizes or sorry, Thruston, mart Um Thrust why Marston Maston Maston Aston Thrust. It takes about forty five minutes before Maston Thrust figures out what's going on and then just gives a well that's a fine, how do you do type of thing? Yeah, And I'm like, it's okay. Is he going to try to kill Chuck Wade?

That seems like it would be more in line, Like give me a scene where he's got his gun up and Chuck Wade is just like wait, no, no, I swear you know, I'll I'll let her. Let you have her dad, And then like you realize, oh no, he's shooting at this pterodactyl above Chuck Wade. That's gonna snatch him up and kill him. WHOA nice? I like that, Dang, that's why they gave me the big butts.

I like that, and I like what you were saying Chris about about like there probably was a way to give him a little bit like I got almost a more sympathetic like man, you know, the world has passed him by a man out of time. It's like it's like, but not not in a you know, well these day I'm liberals, but more in terms of I'm becoming a relic, I'm becoming obsolete. I'm in a way that makes us sympathize with him. And then at the end it's sort of like, I mean he does ask her when she's going back. He's like, back to what's what's back there?

That's so good? But for her it's like the world like I take photographs and I'm winning Pulitzer prizes. There's you know, I'm a young woman, like I probably still you know, have some kids or something. You know, I've got a lot to go back for. And but it would have been nice if there was just a little bit more melancholy of He's like, when I left, I knew I was never coming back.

So you guys, go back. God bless the two of you all, be, you know, the godfather to your kids. Send me a postcard with another drill, go I'm going to stay here and uh and that's it, you know, and maybe you know, he'll hang out with Hazel. Maybe we should convince all of the billionaires in our reality to get on a drill dozer together to go find dinosaurs and then when they get there, just make the decision for them and leave them there. It'd be so great.

Yeah, yeah, what happens to bye? He gets eaten? Okay, that's what I thought. Well, who gets it? I'm sorry?

Yeah, all right, right right right, because he survives a lot. He even survives he manages to get that dinosaur with his spear, and I love how the dinosaur just reaches down and rips it out or half of that. That dinosaur is pretty tough man, because that tri seratops just comes right along. It just bops him right in the stomach. And you hear the noise of the horns going right into him.

But there's no bleeding nothing. He's he's yeah, he takes and then he takes a header with that big rock at the end from when he when he goes when he goes off his feet, he like flips up in the air. I wait, are you talking about with the with the rock the string? I laughed, so fucking oh my god. It was like the ring rat Fall of rat falls.

It's it would have been better if the dinosaur had done that take where he looks at the thing going and goes oops, he holds up a side like Wiley coyote. Oh oh, and it's like it was great. It was. It was almost as good as that that the image of Godzilla writing on his tail. You know what I'm you know what I'm talking about, Like, yeah, yeah, it's like that.

It's it's it's something funny in this movie. But yeah, that rock to the head, come on, die already. No, no, no, because this fight goes on and on. They would dye in each other's arms. I do feel like that would have killed it.

I'm just I feel like a giant boulder. The head especially, I will say this much again, it's a puppet. They show the rock hitting the head and the head going like the head the head makes the rock not just in stride, it almost leaves at a landing place and then pop back out. You know. Again, like maybe if you're writing a script for a movie where you know the suit is hollow, don't have the way you kill the animal be trying to convince us that a rock to the head is gonna do it like anything else.

Chris, The thing is, you got to remember, we don't know enough about the dinosaurs still. We don't know what would kill it. We don't know their bone density. We don't really so so all of this is speculation. Maybe it kills it, maybe it doesn't.

There were two of them. There were two of each dinosaur on the arc, right, yeah, we don't have that. We have the information. Okay, so true what you're gonna do. It's only six thousand years old, and cavemen did live with the dinosaurs at the same time.

I don't know. I went to the Creation Museum. I know all this stuff. I have seen it. I have been there.

God, you know, though, I think you know Richard, back to your initial point of how did we get here? There are still glimmers of ranking in bass here, the music, the puppetry that might be it. There's not. There's not really an American sensibility behind this film. I don't Maria Laws's lyrics for The Last Dinosaur.

Yeah, it's that the requirement, like if we produced the movie, there has to be a song. Oh god, yes, right? Is that what it is? That was. Yeah.

I don't remember a song for Bushido Blade, but maybe there is one. He was a Bushido Blade. The title of it's been the same song this whole fucking time. It was the Last Unicorn. I mean, I mean the Flight of the Dragons.

I mean, it's all the same. If they could have somehow adapted We're a couple of misfits made that the song. No, it's we're just a couple of scientists, quick or just ate me, you go saying we wrote it for them. I do wonder if these movies had been more successful, if we would be having this conversation at all, or be having a conversation about this movie, because there is a universe where Ranking in Bass are still making movies today because these live action movies were successful, and I don't it's unfair because again, this movie is distributed by Toho in Japan. Toho has a record track record of success in Japan, and I think that, you know, Ranking in Bass wanted a piece of that.

And I don't blame them. It's too bad it never really went anyone because he was just like you said, Mike, these movies are a hell of a lot of fun. I don't don't take them very seriously, but there are a hell of a lot of fun to watch. And I don't know if we've talked about this, but in the seventies, like there were so many different sort of um models of American filmmaking. Like there was this studio stuff, and there was Roger Corman stuff.

But then there was like American International that made movies like In Search of Noah's Ark and The Mysterious Monsters and those sort of you know, faux documentaries that were kind of like In Search of but they also made like like there was a there were it was just a way It's like, if we make a movie for less than a certain amount of money, we can get it into And then they did this thing called for walling that American International would do where they would just buy out these theaters and and and heavily advertised on television in local markets and make a killing in the first couple of weeks, keep the profits, and then and then move it on. It was like a road show, just keep moving it around the country.

And they did it. I think they did it with Billy Jack and they made independent films. Yeah, would do that same methodology. Yeah, yeah, so were like there's always different like theory, which is why I'm always trying to figure out, like there had to be a model where they were like, well, well this movie did it, in that movie did it. And we all know no one's getting an Academy Award, but we can.

Everyone gets to buy a boat. You know, if we just make this movie, you have to go to Japan for a while. But believe me, you'll have a swimming pool at the end of this. And then everyone signed on and said, okay, do it for Arthur so you can move to Bermuda. Yeah, do it for Arthur.

I was going to say, because yeah, I don't know if a lot of people even listening, well, we probably have an older audience on here where they remember that films didn't open wide all At the same time, I mean, it was to your point, Richard, it was very much that it's here in Detroit, and in two weeks maybe it's in Toledo, and in two more weeks maybe it's in Chicago. I mean literal moving of film prints, like just a few prints, and then by the time you get to another market, the print is going to be beat to shit. But we're still going to keep showing it. Maybe now that becomes the drive in print. That's Bob Shay for you.

I mean, yeah, that's New Line Cinema and Reefer Madness. I mean that's literally how New Line got their start. So this movie was distributed internationally by CIC, which is funny given the CIC issue. Was it like nine years ago with The Sorcerer, You remember that where CIC was Universal and Paramount and they released Sorcerer but nobody had the rights to Sorcerer. Universal was like it's yours, Paramount was like it's yours, and William Friedkin was like, whose is it right?

And so he like sued him. I'm pretty sure this was like a couple couple of years ago, but it's weird that it was. This is the movie they got released with Sorcerer in the UK. It was this and Sorcerer together, but Sorcerer had this whole thing with CIC and like, no, they didn't know because it was a it was how they released their movies overseas, right Universal or Paramount and Universal. So however they released him overseas, they didn't know who had the rights in the United States anymore.

To Sorcerer, the theatrical rights, so right. I mean it's it's I mean, this kind of stuff is really anti competitive. It's it's a monopoly. I mean it is cic stuff like that, where you have corporations being unwilling to work with distributors elsewhere, so they just create their own external distribution company. I feel like it's kind of scummy business.

But yeah, they don't operate in the United States for that reason. They operate overseas for that particular reason, because I don't think the SEC would let something they would not let something like that exist anymore. And they well, but that's you know, but they do. I mean, that's well they did. They just don't operate in the United States.

They operate elsewhere and now it's United International Pictures, so right. But that's you know, vertical integration. I mean, in the late eighties, thanks to Reagan, decisions were made were suddenly the means of production and the means of distribution could be owned by the same by the same corporation. And suddenly it's like, oh, because it used to not like theater chains were not owned by studios. These were two separate words.

They were they were and then they weren't. Well they were then they weren't then then, but then it got you know, I mean that's that's when suddenly you had, you know, TV studios and TV networks under the same corporate roof which you used to not have. It used to be very much studios made the thing, and then networks acquired them for exhibition, and they made their money solely on commercials. You know, that's how we make our money, but we don't own it. But then that changed, and it squeezed out a lot of smaller production companies, including the very first writer owned studio, Steve and J.

Cannell Productions. So he made a lot of money for a little while in the eighties until until that law, until that law, until that Act of Congress changed it. And then suddenly it's like, oh well, now studios or networks can have their own studios, and it made buying from outside studios less advantageous. So why invest in someone else when we can invest in ourselves? So anyway, exactly, and I mean that, you know, when when we talk about something like The Last Dinosaur or any of these ranking and Bass movies, I do appreciate that they're not just known for at least with us and our show I do appreciate, you know, Richard, you do joke about it, but I think it is kind of pertinent to talk about these movies only because nobody is talking about them.

You know, there's an interview with Joan van arc four years ago. But the Last Dinosaur King Kong lives, the Bermuda depths, these are things that these you know, Rankin and Bass clearly had a vested interested. You know, Arthur rank and Junior and Jules Bass are still making the decisions here, and they were the ones making the decisions with those Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer things twenty years earlier. So and a movie like this actually does have a weird Like my father in law, John Goodwin, who's who spent his entire career doing makeup and appliance makeup for movies, you know, everything from John Carpenter's The Thing and then he won an Emmy on CSI for doing the cadavers. But he's obsessed with dinosaurs.

Dinosaur movie is all this guy like, I'm sure he's seen this movie just on his own. I'll ask him, Oh, yeah, it does not. Richard's gonna be the new the great son in law do a movie, Bubby, I love it. Why are we assuming Susan's dad is Jewish? Susan is not Jewish.

Oh it's not Susan. This is this is actually my my ex wife, Uh yeah, stepfather, Um so so yeah. But but but a part of my life for fifty years, for forty years. And um, but he loves this kind of thing. And and and it's like, if you if you like, if you're into Ray Harryhausen, if you're into you know, that kind of movie, which of course doesn't really get made anymore, um, then then this it should be in your queue of things to watch.

And um, I mean it's hard to it's hard to say, oh, if you love ranking and bass, you'll love this, because I think most people go, oh, well, I love Rudolph, so I guess I'll love that. Well, no, nobody even realizes as his ranking and bass, like you'd never in a million years. And did we, by the way, did we call out that our buddy Alex Grasshoff also directed our favorite show, many emphasodes of Cold Check. Yes, didn't we? I did?

I think we may have? Did we mention that? I think we did mention it when he directed Bush? Did he directed something we just talked about, Right, it wasn't Marty Milly. Was that Okay?

Oh it may have been? Yeah, yeah, yeah, may have been. And then they brought him back to co direct this right with a with a Japanese director, which makes you wonder if I mean now I'm even wondering, well, did did production divide up? Was there like, Okay, we're gonna do two weeks and then we're getting out of here, and then you guys do all of the all the all the shots involving a dinosaur. Yeah, but by then, you know, Richard Boone and Joan van arc Will been back at Beverly Hills for a month and a half.

Right, yeah, I don't think he had anything to do with since Dorian Gray. So yeah, I am curious. Maybe it's just while we were talking about this last month, we said, oh, hey, we're going to talk about this movie director. They're co directed by Grassoff and all this stuff. It was it was excuse me, it was not Dorian Gray, No, that was he did not helm that one.

That was Tony Maylam. I think it must have been when we mentioned this movie last month, right, I think so? Yeah, I tell you, just just when I think I've come to the end of my ranking and bass rope. You guys, you pull me back in now. I'm all excited about Bouschito Blade.

Yeah, as you should be. It's got Sunny Chiba and Shiro Mfuni in it, and Mike Star wearing an incredible like Amish Beard. Oh, Amish Beard. Yeah, I'm in It's great. And Richard Boone is back as a sea captain barely in the film, which is probably a good thing.

And U Jiggy James Earl Jones. That's true. Yeah, barely in the movie as well, but also fantastic to see him show up. Yeah. Does that sound like fun Richard?

It does. I can't wait. And it's Richard Boone's last film appearance. What a proud, proud farewell it might be? Might be Richard's Richard Haddam's last appearance on this podcast.

This is not only Richard Boone's farewell, it is also coincidentally my farewell. I always feel like like I'm right up at the edge of the ledge and I'm just ready. And then I watched Don't let This Man Richard had him lie to you. He enjoys talking about ranking and mass with us. He loves talking about these giant dinosaurs getting smacked around with rocks and Pratt falling down cliffs.

Richard is a fan. Come on, yeah I wasn't you know. I always go into these things. Were like, oh boy, oh what am I always looking at the time? But it's an hour forty five minutes?

What out of my life? And then halfway through I'm like, quiet, kids, I'm trying to watch an important film. This Movieurs and giant drilled dildozers. I need to know who Joan Vnark will sleep with intentually, that's right, She's sleep with Richard Boone in this movie. Oh yeah, is that just hinted at?

No? No, definitely they were sleeping together when she was strange feminist messages. Oh yeah, I used to have the huh but no, no bunta, no, no bunta. I keep waiting to dinosaur man. I I was waiting for him at the end to finally be like, you know, I could talk this whole time as you couldn't speak us as were going to run off together.

I love that that's his voice. Yeah, I know, I wish it's like, yeah, Mike came up with a better movie than this. Just be have boon to be the lead. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, why not?

Why not booton Hazel against the dinosaurs? Yeah? Two silent leads, or maybe they just ride on the back of the dinom right. Yeah, higho dinosaur rock. Oh man, jeez, Richard, I know you've been enjoying the movies we've been watching, and Bushido Blade is coming soon, coming next.

All right, all right, I'm in. I'm in one more. You got me one more, one more. I am now one step away at all times. Let's see if we think Richard, Yeah, because if because if we sent Richard an email saying Richard, this is what we're doing, he would say, I'm not showing up right, Yeah, there's no chance.

See, it's just the draw of ranking and bass is too strong. Just just just when I got out, I feel I feel like a year ago we were watching someone Horrible Bunny Easter It's sing, and thought that was the end. Yeah. I was like, oh, okay, guys, we've got we've been doing this. The dinosaur in this film is christ like, oh yeah, yeah, it's adorable.

Is that wrong for me to say the dinosaur is? It looks really dopey? Yeah, it's one second away from doing the thing that the kermit puppet does where it goes and like pulls its mouth in like it almost does it right, like thing that you can do, or its eyes sort of sort of pinwheeling an opposite direction gets it on the head. I don't know if it's like bumble. Yeah.

Like I liked its tail the most. The tail that was just yeah, right, all just whatever whatever string it was on. The guy was just like, yeah, the tail, I'm the one controlling the tail, Like, okay, you're doing something productive. This is this is a fun watch for sure. Yeah.

The ta the tail gaffer knew that their parents would be in the audience, right, and and so it's like it's, oh, keep your eye on the tail, That's all I'm saying. Yeah, and actually spelled out high mom in a Japanese constip. Oh man. So yeah, next month we're going to be talking about the Beshido blade. And until then, Chris, what are you up to?

Yeah? So as for me, culture cast the c STASU dot com that's where you can go. So that's the stuff that I worked on. Yeah, find everything the stuff that Richard's been on an episode of Barney Miller. He's been on episodes of the Culture Cast.

Mike, you and I worked together on all kinds of stuff. So cstac HIW dot com. That's where you can go to find my stuff. What about you? Richard had him.

I am hard at work on season four of HBO Max's television series Titans, and season four will be out in August. We're not quite to the halfway point of production, but we're having a good time. It's going to be I mean, look, the thing about Titans is every season it's a brand new show, and season four is no exception. We're in a very far away from God, so I think I think it'll be fun anyway. That's what I'm doing.

What about you, Mike, Well, you can always find me over at the Projection Booth podcast, which is available at Projection boothpodcast dot com. Strangely enough, I don't know why I chose that you were all but it's a little obscure. Yeah, you should have. You should have picked something else, anything special. Thanks to the Great Octopus for our theme song.

Thanks everybody for listening. If you want to return the favor a little bit, going over to iTunes, leave us a review. We can talk about how awful. The three hosts are of this podcast because they were talking about feminism. Oh my god god.

Yeah, a bunch of liptard bokesters.