The Lemon Drop Kid

Weird. So I've heard of rumor, and we do the Chevy Chase podcast, you and I Mike, that's a Bob may have been the proto Chevy Chase. Is this a true true statement? Because we talked about were we talking about those travel movies and the spy and spies like us? And that was the whole movies, the road movies, and so now we're talking about a Bob Hope movie this year.

So it seems a little apropos given the Chevy Chase of it all. I haven't heard the thing about Chase. I was talking with a biographer of Woody Allen and he was saying that Woody Allen pulls a lot from Bob Hope, and I can really hear that, especially with the delivery and the kind of little under the breath type of things that he does. So yeah, I actually downloaded a bunch of Bob Hope stuff. So this fits in perfectly with what I've been watching lately.

I would not be surprised at all if Chevy Chase, whether he would ever admit it, had Bob Hope in his mind and heart and soul as he was doing his comedy, because that's the that's the generation. You know, it's you know, however old. He is a little bit older than us. Certainly he would have been watching Bob Hope movies, the Road movies that and and because Bob Hope was sort of a debonair and sort of you know, not like a real big physical comedian, even though chevy Chase was. I think he I think he would picture his persona being more like Bob Hope.

Right, And there's that kind of backhanded complement kind of thing and just get a little mean spirited, not a bunch, But I think that Chase revels more in the mean spiritedness of comedy. And the aloofness of him. Yeah, but that's a good word. But the thing that Bob Hope doesn't do is the fucking pratt well, I guess he does do the pratfalls and the physical horseshit that chevy Chase was known. For a little bit, like a little bit, yea.

Not as much as chevy Chase, not as much as chevy Chase. But then chevy Chase beyond like a few like shots in foul play, like I don't know that in movies now, I guess he did. I guess in the vacation movies. He did pratfall. He was falling off roofs and you know.

Oh yeah, he really screwed up his back when he jumped onto the very hard mattress. And what was that Chris was at Germany in European vacation. Yep, yep, that's right. Yeah, and then got hooked on painkillers. Probably him, who else Jerry Lewils, Yeah, Burt Reynolds.

For Reynolds had that fall in City Heat. Wasn't that the one that he did with Clint Eastwood? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, And and then he began taking the pain pills and he started losing weight, and for a while there were rumors that he had AIDS because he had dropped so much weight so quickly. People were like, oh my god, have you seen Burt Reynolds. And it was right around that time, you know, But yeah, that that happened.

I didn't remember that, but I know that when whenever anybody loses a lot of weight very quickly. I mean I remember when Billy Bob Porton lost all of his weight post Sling Blade and was like, is everything okay with you? He's like, yeah, no, I'm just married to a crazy person, and I'm crazy too, perstly logical. So on this episode of the Culture Cast, I'm still your host Christashi, much to the chagrin of at least two people out there in the world. And I'm joined by my two good friends.

Yeah, one of them is right here with us, Mike White joining us. All the way from the projection booth is Mike White. Silver Bells, Silver Bells, Let's put some dough in the. Kitty boy kinky a and all the way from Richard Adam's paranormal bookshelf. He's the HadAM on the shelf in Everyone's life, your friend and mine.

He programmed this entire month, so it's his fault if we don't like these movies. Richard HadAM and I did not pick a quote, So I'm just here saying hello everyone. I'm happy to be here. And on this episode of the Culture Cast, like I just mentioned, we are joined by the two of them to talk about Richard Hadams month of fun with all these Christmas movies, and we are talking about nineteen fifty one's The Lemon Drop Kid. Okay, so let me just jump in here really quick.

Some of these movies and you've you've heard me talk about them are some of my favorite movies of all time. I really enjoy The Lemon Drop Kid. I would not put it in my favorite movies of all time. But to me, part of what I wanted to use this month for was not just to trot out, Oh it's a wonderful life. I mean I chose a few down the middle favorites elf, you know, screwge Miracle on thirty fourth Street, I mean some real classics.

This one is practically unknown as a Christmas film, and yet it is a Christmas movie. It's got the all the beats, all the themes of a Christmas movie, and it's got a famous Christmas song, and it's got and it's just got a lot of laughs and a lot of spirit. I really think this was an opportunity to let people know about The Lemon Drop Kid, and maybe you can introduce a new film into your holiday rotation. I think you're gonna like this. One, Richard Adam's Holiday Rotation.

There you go, that's the name of the show. Richard. It's like Rankin on Bass, but you just cover Christmas movies the entire year. Wouldn't that be fun? I'm himself from Big trouble when he gets a bad tip in The Lemon Drop Kid on WFX The Fox twenty five Boston.

So the film is directed by Sidney Landfield with uncredited Frank Tashlin, based on a screenplay by Frank Tashlan, Edmund Hartman, Robert O'Brien, with additional dialogue by Irvin Irving Ennolson. And it's based on the Damon Runyan story of the same name. And this does, like we've mentioned, star Bob Hope, Marilyn Maxwell, Lloyd Noland and and Sheridan and William Frowley, Yes, William Frawley all the way from I Love Lucy, And the film is about the titular Lemon Drop Kid played by Bob Hope, who is a swindler, I guess, a con man who cons the wrong person out of money at a racetrack and ends up having to make good on a ten thousand dollars amount of money that the guy who lost the money at that horse race would have won.

And so we get ourselves embroiled in some con artists horseshit, with Bob Hope running around the city of New York trying to figure out how to pay ten thousand dollars back by Christmas Eve or else his head will be in his stocking. Quote to quote Moose Moran, So to kicking it to you first, Mike, first time you saw this movie? If it wasn't now, when was it? And what did you think then or now? And yeah?

Does this make the holiday rotation for Mike White? I don't have a lot of movies in my holiday rotation. There's Diehard and Happy Trance. Yeah, that's kind of the one that I watched the most. You know, it's really not Christmas till I see Hans fall off of the knock and Tomy tower.

So yeah, this was a first time watch for me, and I really enjoyed it. I had a great time with it, so much so that I went back and I checked out the nineteen thirty four version as well, which also has William Frawling in it. A little bit similar in story, but really I mean similar insofar as it starts at a racetrack. That's about it. The main character of that, the Lemon Drop Kit of that, I can't remember the actor's name, but oh my god, can he deliver patter like nobody's business.

And he's really good at doing that. The whole ten thousand dollars thing really isn't on the table. There's all kinds of misunderstandings. There's his wife who ends up dying. Yeah, it gets pretty sad pretty quick in different places.

But yeah, this one, the Bob Hope one. Really enjoyed it. I really love so many of these actors, Fred Clark, William Frawley. To see fucking Tor Johnson in here was a real treat. I was so excited as soon as I saw this Swedish wrestler.

I was like, that's Tor Johnson. But yeah, I had a real fun time with this movie. And I've actually watched it two times since, and yeah, I can see me watching this a few more times as the year goes along. So again, or years, I should say, probably not. Twenty twenty five is not the year of Lemon Drop Kid.

Maybe it will be in some circles, but not for Mike White. Right, you've had them. Well, there came a time when when I actively searched, and this is within the last twenty years, maybe within the last ten years, where I was sort of like, well, you know, I know what I watch every Christmas, but there's got to be other things and That's when I I think I sort of got a bunch of DVDs Christmas in July, Christmas in Connecticut. I love Christmas in July. Right, I mean, which is again kind of an offbeat, sort of Christmas kind of thing.

And I'm like, there's a lot of movies that I haven't seen, and but they're out there and they're classics, so I want to check them out. So I checked out a bunch of them. I mean, even I came to White Christmas late and then I do like the movie White Christmas, but some of the didn't quite work for me, and you know, and then someone was like, have you ever seen a Lemon drop kid? And I'm like, what are you talking about? Is Bob Hope's Christmas movie where he debuts Silver Bells?

So a classic Christmas song debuted by him, And it was a big deal when this happened because he kind of he kind of scooped Bing Crosby on this one and it became a classic. And yet everyone knows that Bing Crosby has a Christmas classic, White Christmas, and no one knows that Bob Hope was the one who debuted silver Bells. And it's a wonderful sequence. I mean, really charming. It's exactly what it should be.

And you're like, it's one of these movies where you watch it and you're like, how do I not know this? How is this not you know, getting run on? You know all the channels, you know, how is this? How did I not accidentally just see this? Because you know, in December it's just everywhere, but it isn't.

And yet it's delightful. We've got multiple santas, you know, We've got we've got holiday songs and and a big Christmas Eve climax which I always like. So christ had to me it was a bit of a discovery and yeah, so I enjoy it to And of course damon Runyon. That's another thing for people nowadays. Unless you saw some high school production of Guys and Dolls, you may not really be in that world.

But this is one of those movies that lives in that world, isn't it? Sure does? How about you, Chris? Were you familiar with this one? No?

I I knew nothing about it. I all I knew is that had him for you know program this month, and I knew that we were gonna be watching a Bob Hope movie, and this is the first Bob Hope thing I've ever seen ever, So I. Was gonna I knew I was gonna say, God, I love it. And it kills me that I programmed these movies. And you're like, oh, I've never seen Kerry Grant.

Oh, I never seen. But I'm like, I'm thrilled to be the one to help you lose your Bob Hope virginity. It's too bad it wasn't my Milton Berle virginity. You know, well, I do throw the man a line in this inside the House, Well Milton Burl's on tonight. Yeah, yeah, they sure they Well that's why I brought it up, because they kick it to old Milt, oh big old Milt, as they would say.

I enjoyed it. I had never seen it before. And I think the thing that I enjoyed about the movie is you guys didn't didn't mention the absurd names of the characters, which is just I think my favorite part of the movie. Everybody has like the most like nineteen I don't know, like nineteen. Forties, weird, nineteen Runyon.

Yeah, it's like it's so specific, like the lemon Drop kid, like that's the character's name, like and they just call him the kid over and over again, like it's I don't know, it's obviously it's very anachronistic now given the way things are and the way we are as a society, and it's I mean, it's a fun I'm I'm not sure Bob Hope is for me. I think I'm not gonna say I dislike Bob Hope. I think my issue with Bob Hope is more of a me thing and less a hymn thing. I think my issue is just he he's self aware almost too much, and there's a little bit of like winking at the camera that I'm kind of just like it wasn't that stuff wasn't necessarily for me. However, that being said, I enjoyed the movie immensely.

I think that, you know, the use of silver bells I think works in the movie, especially when they you know, they explain why and how the song works the way that it does, and you get like the original quote version and then the un the un I guess the sanitized version as the movie would probably play it off. But I enjoyed the movie AMENSI Again, Bob Hope maybe not my cup of tea all the way. But I think he works here pretty well in terms of what they need from him. I guess the question that I have is on the poster, is that supposed to be him as a lady with that hair or what is going on. A bad poster?

And yeah, that's supposed to be him. And when he goes and drag at the end of the movie and he looks more like little Lord faunt Lawyers. It's bizarre. The poster for this movie, I think is really upsetting. I'd never seen it.

The DVD cover is just is him dressed as Santa holding onto the prison bars, and then of course they just put Christmas lights around it to sell it as Hey, it's Bob Hope and it's a Christmas movie. Yeah, that's got to be better than that poster with the blonde hair. It's really not good. The logic behind posters is its own history book. I mean, you'd have to know what was popular within the past six months to know why they painted the poster the way they did.

But yeah, they clearly wanted it to be known as a wacky comedy. You know. I will say this, Chris, I think this is a really, really solid first Bob Hope movie, because I think if if someone had heard you hadn't seen Bob Hope, they'd go, oh my god, you've got to see the road movies, and they would point you to the ones he did with Bing Crosby, and there were a handful of them, and they were immensely popular in the fifties, like immensely like like like like dollar for dollar, Hope and Crosby might be the most successful comedy teams of all time in terms of dollars earned at the box office. I was watching an intro to this movie with Robert Osborne Rip and he was saying that of I can't remember which studio this was, but Bob Hope was one of the four most bankable stars that they had, and one of the other one was Bing Crosby.

This is a Paramount Pictures film. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And I get it, like I get it.

I'm not saying I don't get it. I get the appeal, you know, like I get the appeal of Bob Hope. I just I think, I think when you have this kind of movie, it the movie is that you already mentioned the run yan of it all, Like there is so much in this that just feels so specifically Runyan that it is is again like Bob Hope works in this and if this is a solid Bob Hope movie, okay, but yeah, it's I think for me, when I think about a movie like this, a Christmas movie that's trying to kind of have somewhat of a message, but at the same time have this kind of redemptive arc of the main character by the end of it, I'm not sure I believe that Bob Hope is a redeemed character. Well, he's very much you know, the Bob Hope is the He's the slippery schemer, and his delivery in this movie is very indicative of his radio delivery, which was a picture this twice as fast.

I mean, this guy could spit out words like it was stunning. That was sort of his thing, you know. He and Graucho Marx actually had a sort of a legendary radio episode. I think it was Flywheel, Shister and Flywheel, which was a Marx Brothers race video show. But there was a classic episode where Bob Hope came on and the two of them were going, you know, just boom boom boom, boom boom, and it was like Wow, these two comedy icons.

And throughout Groucho Marx's life he always kind of tipped his hat to Bob Hope because I think he recognized not everyone can do the boom by boom by boom by boom by boom and get the words out and make them funny and get the timing, because it's a skill and it's not everyone can do it. What you're seeing right now is a very good rendition of it, but at not even his top speed nowadays in pop culture, and if you listen to the Gilbert Godfried podcast in its reruns, when they talk about Bob Hope, it is the old Bob Hope. It is the Bob Hope of the TV specials in the eighties. A USO tours, Yeah, and even later yeah, because he started the US over tours and back in World War Two, but then kept it up all the way into Vietnam, which was little tone deaf at times.

And then yeah, the TV specials. I mean, that's what I grew up with, was Bob Hope as an old man doing a lot of like a lot of George Burns esque shtick, just like can you believe how old we are? Kind of things. You know, and he really looked kind of badd towards those end of years. But yeah, those things didn't impress me, and it really took a lot for me to get over that hump and to finally start to watch some of these movies and be like, oh okay.

And I think it was the radio stuff that helped out, where I had heard him on the radio and said, oh, this is actually really funny, like he's in Jack Benny's league as far as being really freaking funny on the radio. Yeah, and it is. It's a funny sort of retro you know, stepping slowly back in time process because I'm like you, Mike, when I was a kid, it was a big deal and he was making a lot of money. I'm sure for NBC he was doing three or four specials a year. And that's who I thought.

He was, just this old guy who sort of you know, it's like, hey, tonight, it's going to be me and Lannie Anderson and the village people. Right Hey, those guys sleep six on a bunk bed, you know. And I'm like, oh, okay, I don't know. I guess this is what grown ups think is funny. All right, I'm in and then you know, then that goes straight into the the knowing that Dave Thomas does a really funny Bob Hope and they really skewer him in SETV, like they really.

It's like, oh, they're making fun of Bob Hope. This is so cool. And it was even after that late eighties into the nineties before I was like, let's go back, let's see who this guy was. And then you're like, oh, this is kind of the tragedy of life. When you're famous, and you're famous for a long time, the world gets to see you grow old and and get not great at what you do.

You know, and unless your real care you know, Paul McCartney is being careful. Johnny Carson was careful. Johnny Carson was careful. Yeah, yeah, well you're talking about Letterman. I don't know if David Lennon is being careful.

Yeah, he's going a big bum beard And I don't know what's happening with him. I'm not really following yet. I just know that forty years ago he was the greatest guy and the funniest thing in the world. This is the arc of a world famous human being. I think he is un retiring David Letterman.

I think he found that it was too boring to be retired, even though he really hadn't retired very well at all. He's retired, like who is Stephen King? Kept retiring and just kept coming back, right. Yeah, Samon Tarantino, just go away already. Just fucking make that tenth movie and leave.

Yeah, But to your point, the delivery, and I love those little like aside things that he does, or when he's talking with what's the woman's name Thursday. The o'nelly Thursday Thursday. Yeah, keep your chins up, you know. Those kind of things are like when he sees the Santa guy ringing the bell and everything, He's like, well, at least you've got a pot. I'm like, okay, that's nice, you know, like little like quick zingers in there.

And I was like, yeah, yeah, this really works for me. And yeah, some of those little throwaway lines that he was doing, I was like, all right, these are really nice, very very They all landed for me. But the thing is, it's like when you then when you spend a decade and a half, you know, and your only gig is four specials on NBC, you know, with you know, uh a Pink Lady and then and then you're the only other thing you're known for at that time is like doing the you know, the Reagan inaugural. It's like, who is this asshole? And it's sad because it's like, oh no, that's like I didn't catch the first forty five years of your career.

It's like, I mean, and this is I don't want to get into this, but it's like if you're in your twenties right now and you hear the name Bill Cosby, it's like hearing the name Charles Manson, and it's tragic when you're old enough to go yes, yes, but there was a time dial back the clock fifty years and we didn't know. But he was brilliant. And his brother excuses and. No apologies, but fuck man, you should have you. Know, I remember that his brother Russell thing.

That was like I listened to that when I was growing up, and I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I really did. Used to listen to all those old comedy records. I mean, you still have. It's like this many comedy records.

And by the way, by the way, to be clear, Bob Hope does not have that reputation it's not like. It's not like somehow in two thousand and two we found out he was, you know, drugging and raping people. There was no Jimmy Savile with Bob. No, No, he wouldn't not have been something Jesus Christ. He was very likely living the life of a male superstar in the later half of the twentieth century.

Okay, God only knows who he was fucking on those USO tours. I don't know, but but you know it wasn't. Bob Hope was gay. No, that's what I thought you were getting at, knows how talking. About him fucking starlets.

Hey, we're bringing out the girls, you know. I mean, that's that is. Bob what was a good looking guy. I wouldn't who fucking cares Frankly, right. If Carrie and Carrie Grant doesn't make.

If Carrie Grant can do it, that's all I'm saying. Bob Hope is a good looking guy too. But Carrie, Now, everything is gay, now right now, that's the everything is good I. Mean in a certain I mean again, to go back to the context of it all, in a certain time in Hollywood, you couldn't be out and gay. That's all I'm saying Rock Hudson.

We know about Carrie Grant, heavily rumored. Him, and who was at Randolph Scott. I think we're partners. In whatever way you describe partner. All I'm saying is, as far as I know, in the Hollywood whisper stream, it was never and he wasn't gay, he was just he was a big male star, so he probably I'm not sure he kept his wedding vows.

Let's just put it that way. I have no proof other than the culture. That aside, though, what you're seeing in this movie is what made Bob Hope a superstar. I think everything he does well is on display in this movie. He is you know, the Woody Allen part is the cowardly, but the Bob Hope part is the I'm super vain while I'm being cowardly.

I'm trying. I'm trying to think of who, like, who are the modern equivalents. For Ryan Reynolds. Oh, okay, there you go, Ryan Reynolds. I mean, I mean, Ryan Reynolds is very much in the Bob Hope vain right, Okay, I don't know, Like I'm not gonna say like, well again, like I mentioned the fourth wall breaking?

What is Ryan Reynolds known for now like the fourth wall breakingest thing of all time, to the point where it's like breaking the fourth wall in and of itself while breaking the fourth wall with you know, dead Pool. Yeah, four it's not as it's not as sort of a classic comedy persona now as it was in the past. That's sort of like I'm the lovable scoundrel who's always an inch from getting you know, I'm always Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds is that though he totally is like he's become Yeah, he's a character unto himself now, I think right like I mean, I mean, I think, I mean we mentioned it on the Deadpool Wolverine episode, like Deadpool and Ryan Reynolds, at least the cinematic version of Deadpool are one and the same, Like it is just Ryan Reynolds at this point.

And I think that's because of how big of a personality Ryan Reynolds is. And if you had been making Marvel movies in the fifties, there's no fucking way Bob Hope wouldn't have been cast as some sort of like slick talking superhero. I mean genuinely right, like think about if those kinds of movies had been made at a time where these kinds of people were popular. The you know, well well slick, slick talking, you know, a very slick talking guy who who was always being sort of hoist hoisted on his own petard and then having to talk his way out of that. It's like the comedy of you keep digging the hole deeper, will you ever get out of your own the hole you have dug for yourself?

Yeah, And that's kind of this movie right here as well as this whole Okay, I oh, Moose, sorry, I can say Moose Molloy. Yeah, because Moose mLOY was, well, it's he's from uh what was that not alf Dark my suite Farewell my no murder, my suite there we. Go, Yeah yeah yeah yeah the chandler. Yeah right, So I keep thinking that, but Moose Moran Fred Clark, who usually plays like the uptight office guy, but seeing him as the gangster, I was like, oh, okay, that's nice. But like having him in Florida and then having what's the guy's named Oxford got the big Yeah Oxford Charlie, and once he gets win at the scheme that the kid is trying to pull in order to pay back Moose, and he wants to get in on it, and it's just, yeah, it's this.

We keep getting deeper and deeper into this stuff because he ends up having a really good plan this whole thing of the it's basically creating a rest home for old dolls, which I love that he dolls for old dolls. But then it's like, okay, well, now that's making this smile. Oh you raked in two thousand dollars just by being out on the street with the bells and everything. Yes, we did. Okay, well I want that money and now I'm gonna put my feet inside of here.

And I just I thought that was really nice. Yeah. Well, and you know, you talk about the names of all these characters, and William Frawley's character is named Gloomy Willie. Oh and let me tell you, if you've ever had a case of gloomy Willie, go see doctor. There's a medicine for that, I.

Think little blue pills. Yeah. Yeah, And on this episode of the Culture Cast, brought to you by Blue Chee, it's if you're doesn't work, We're not sponsored by Blue Choo. I'm sorry to tell everybody. And if you are a sponsor, yeah, right, like you know blue Choo, come too ll oh wow, no pun intended.

It's not that hard. Come on, speaking of speaking of dolls, Marlene Maxwell or Marlon Right, good lord, BRAINI huh. Brainy, she's brainy, you guys. Oh, man, who doesn't love a smart woman for fuck's sake? Like she's great, she's great.

I love that she's got that picture of the kid in her room. But then when she knows he's coming back, she just takes it and throws it in the garbage. Then he walks in, he sees the picture, pulls it up, starts starts polishing it, and then I think he even gives himself a kiss on the face. I love that picture of him too. I want a picture of that picture on my desk.

He's just like, its fucking I mean, look, i mean, go again, it's disturbing. He's just like it's like, oh, bob ho, what the fuck? Yeah, she's she's great, though she feels like an equal to him. Oh and and and that I mean in fifty one, like come on, like it's I mean, I'm not saying it wasn't a thing, but it feels a little out of time in a positive way, like at this right, like at least in my mind. I mean again, you know, fifty one is not a time known for the equality of men and women in film and storytelling.

I would say it's a little different in comedies because you definitely get a real good male woman interplay in so many of these movies. I mean, going all the way back. I'm I'm sure it happened before His Girl Friday. But to see Rosalind Russell and Carrie Grant trade trading those barbs and going. Back before, specifically comedies, is what you're saying.

Oh, it's a commed Okay, that's fair. That's fair. It's a comedy thing. It's a romantic it's a romance thing too, I guess, to be fair. But that's because I guess they need them.

They need in a romance, they need two big leads. Like that's almost the necessity of it, right, I guess. I mean that's the question in a comedy, do they need two big leads? Well, the damon runyon of it. There's there's a kind of brassy sort of again, sort of like you know, the men are all either gangsters or or low level schemers of some sort, and then the women kind of kind of have to be equal to that and in on that culture in a way that you know, there's not a lot of you know, in Guys and Dolls, the whole joke is there is a very there's a woman who is not part of the Guys and Dolls world who one of the guys meets up with and falls in love with.

That's in the movie. It's Frank Sinatra falling in love with I don't remember, forgive me? Oh I love yeah? Great, great, great. Actors is either remember, yeah, yeah, forgive me.

The amount of fucking commitment to the bit from the three of us is just it never gets old. That's why, that's why, that's why we do this. That's why ranking on Bond is a thing. That's why Richard came up with the title of the show at the beginning of the fucking first episode that we did. It's the commitment to the bit.

But what's good about this is, and what you need in a movie like this, is that everyone is against Bob Hope. His girlfriend's against him, there's a mobster against him, then there's another mobster against him. The cops are against him every he is up against the wall at all times. And yes, part of the joke is that whole sequence he does into the mirror that goes on a bit oh down in the in her lobby. Yeah, yes, that's so good.

It's kind of like even if you needed to like even distill it even more and just go, okay, here here is what this guy called Bob Hope was. And he's alone for again minutes on end in a single shot, which is not common, you know in movies. It's just like, okay, now for the next five minutes, you do your thing, and he does this thing and it's his thing, and you see that and you're like, Okay, if I wasn't clear up until this point, now I know who this guy is. I'm on board. I get it.

He's full of himself, but the world's against him. He's not a bad guy. Ultimately, we're gonna believe that his better nature will win out. But we don't know because this guy will look like he would sell out his mother and mother Teresa if he had to, and we're just gonna have to wait and see how this shakes out. And then it shakes out in a very satisfying way.

I know this isn't a side, but I just want to put this out here. How old do you think he is in this movie? Bob Hope? Yeah, without looking it up. Yes, are you saying the way his are you saying the way his character is?

Or the actor? Him's actor? The actor Bob Hope, twenty eighteen. Okay, forty forty seven. What the fuck.

We're in nineteen oh three? This came out nineteen fifty one. This guy's forty seven when he's making this movie. That's fucking. That's fucked.

Like twenty years you were off amazing, But that's brilliant. I thought he looked great. He looks amazing. Yeah, height of it. Well, that's the other thing about about movies of this era and a little earlier.

And I'm gonna be talking specifically about Abin Costello and especially the Marx Brothers. What we're seeing on film is a shadow of what they were doing live on stage. Okay, with the Marx brothers, it is part of their lord. You read one book about the Marx Brothers, you will learn you're seeing them fifteen years past their prime. Now, what we're seeing appears to be amazing, and then you're thinking, wait a second, So we're getting the tail end in a weird way.

The same thing with Martin and Lewis. People talk about their movies now it's a little less about age and it's just more about Look, when you're making a movie, it's a controlled environment. When you we were in a nightclub and Martin Lewis came out, nothing was under control. It was a madhouse and and you had to see it live because you never knew what was gonna happen. I mean literally, the show would start with Dean Martin's, you know, crooning some love song, and then you would just hear forty glasses shatter, and it was it was Jerry, who at the time I believe was about twenty one maybe twenty two, dressed as a waiter, you know, walking through the crowd.

God, I'm Jobby, mister Luke, mister, I'm not done with the thing, and the dad love with it. I saw dropped to every please forgive me, and then he'd go up on stage and they'd go for two hours. So so all of which is to say that what we're seeing of Bob Hope at forty seven, this is not his first rodeo not. Even a second or third, not even a second or third. And yet to us, it's like, this is a young, brash guy who was fucking hitting on all cylinders.

And for me, him being forty seven is wild because he doesn't even look it on top of everything else. No, no, he looks damn good. Yeah. I was gonna say, the character is probably supposed to be thirty five, you know, but I'm like, well, it's not possible that he was thirty five. He had to be he had to be older than that in fifty one and uh yeah, forty seven even I'm surprised.

That's older than I ever would have guessed. Bob Hope is genetically talented. I think, just basically genetically talented. I mean, hey, some of the most guys, yeah, some of the most iconic people in Hollywood at that time are like when we watched The Preacher's Wife earlier in this. Month, like I ow the Bishops.

Sorry trying to say, yeah, sorry, wrong movie, same idea though, I mean, I don't remember what age Kerry Grant was in that movie, but it was like he looked timeless. It's like he existed, he existed outside of reality. That's how good looking he is, because no, Richard, it's not a gay thing. But can you imagine looking like that and not having men and women throw yourself at you and have to pass it up? Well when you look that good.

And that's the same with Bob Hope. Bob Hope looks twenty years younger in this movie, and he's presenting ten years younger in the movie, just because I guess. Wild Look, I get what you're saying. But what you're basically saying is a male movie star is so attractive that they almost have to be gay. That's almost like saying Tom Cruise is gay.

Oh come on, that's serious here, Yeah, that would it? I mean, just because they're incredibly attractive and they put across a lot of sexuality on the screen. I mean, you might as well call John Travolta gay. Oh would you stop besmirching the good names of our American male stars? No, but Mike, I know.

But that's my point, of course, is that is that it would be unthinkable just because there are icons of male sort of beauty that that you know, Oh, suddenly they're get that's. Crazy, it is it is? Yeah, Okay, I see your point. I see your point. Yeah, it would be wild if there was an organization that held things over either one of them, so that that wasn't the case.

Right, are you talking about deep state? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about Squirrelbusters specifically. Uh, you know, but that's the thing I mean again, when we look at Bob Hope, same with Carry Grant earlier in the month, like he's just so removed from from again what reality feels like because he is such a big personality. And this is the thing I mean and again, this is this you know what this reminds me of. This reminds me of what Indian cinema just always is.

Like that's what this is. Bob Hope is just you know, Ami tab Buckchon or you know, I mean he is though, but that's the way Indian cinema is still treated. People go see movies still because of the people that are in them, which is a thing like people. I mean again, people were doing that then, So I Bob Hope was the lead in this movie. People were going to see it because it was a Bob Hope movie.

That's not really a thing anymore. I guess people were making the case that Top Gun and Tom Cruise are the last quote movie stars unquote. I'm not sure sure I agree with that sentiment, but I understand what they're getting at. But Bob Hope is his own thing. It's like you are so outside again.

There are a generation of people now that do not know who Bob Hope is. I get it. That's fine, But for more people that are alive right now than not, Bob Hope is still a person of note. Same with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez. I mean, like again, these are people of note to more people than not.

You know, I was telling people that I was getting to talk to Max Gail for our Barney Miller show, and people still knew who that was. Maybe the people are a little bit older than me, but I still got, as they would say in the wrestling industry, I got to pop out of them. They were like Max Gail. I was like yeah, So like again, like that's still a thing. Bob Hope is still a thing for now.

But to both of y'all's points, I would like to see more of this version of Bob Hope and not the version that y'all are talking about, which sounds real bad. Okay, so this is interesting. When we watched Bishop's Wife and it was the first Carry Grant movie you had seen, and you asked me, well, now did I make a mistake? Should I have watched north By Northwest first? And I'm like, no, just go watch north By Northwest next.

You know it will not take away anything. But in this case, it brings up an interesting question which I'll throw to Mike. If if now this is the first Bob Hope movie a person has seen, what's the second? I would say my favorite Brunette should be the second one, because I really like that one. All right, yep, yeah, it's still not It's still not a Crosby.

Yeah, no, I my favorite Brunette. I just recently downloaded Monsieur Beaucaire, which is supposed to be really good. I've had the Ghostbusters or ghost Breakers, i should say, on my server forever. I think like kat In the Canary is supposed to be really good as well. And I'm trying to remember what else I've got lined up for myself.

It's funny Chris brought up Lucille Ball. Mike, have you ever seen Fancy Pants? I haven't. Fancy Pants was fun. I remember seeing that.

I remember being like a kid, like pretty young twelve thirteen, and I knew who Bob Hope was at that point, but it was Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, and I'm like, oh, that's interesting. Okay, so I remember watching that and I'm liking it well enough, so you get them both. Lucille Ball did not have a huge film career, did and she didn't. Stone Pillows, y'all. Yeah.

I just recently watched The Big Street that she was in, which was bizarre because it was not a comedy at all. It was more of a film noir, and. She was like the. Main detectives secretary basically, and like ran around and did all this work for him while he was trying to do other things. It was she was actually really really good in there.

I mean, of course she is, but. Yeah, she's very good. I watched some old I Love Lucy again recently, and holy shit, is that so fucking funny even right now. I mean, it's just a amazing. She's hilarious.

She's not well, she's aged well, Like, I'm not talking about the woman. I'm talking about her as a personality. Because my it's my mom's favorite TV show and I was taking care of my mom rehabbing her surgery, and we were watching I Love Lucy, and that shit still smacks so hard. It's oh, it's so good. It's perfect, is what it is.

It is perfect. And how fucking good is William Frawley in that one Oh Do? And then he's playing Fred the Kerr mudget, I mean, and he's always coming in with the Zigners I mean, and even Ethel's like putting him down, put Lucy down, putting Ricky down. I just love that that chemistry that those four had. And how great is desi ar Nest, Oh god damn.

I mean, I was watching one episode where Lucy's trying to get in the show. She they had one of the dancers that they had fell out, she broke her leg or something, so they needed to find somebody that fit this very expensive costume. So she has to lose all this weight. And while you know, they're in the club and they're prepping for the show, there's Denzie and Nes do a fucking Cuban pete and I'm just like. This is the right because that was an era where you couldn't just do one thing, you had to do like four things.

Great, you had cinema Indian cinema. Yeah, and and and it be a dramatic actor but also be able to do comedy. Now here's the thing with Lucille Ball that again, you read any book, you delve a little bit into it, one of the first things you'll learn is she was not a natural comedian and not a natural redhead. Okay, there you go, and also not a communist. Let's make that point very good.

I remember how they always would make fun of her hair color on the show, and basically I don't know if that was just a shtick or what, but it was always implied that she dyed her hair. Yeah. Well, she was not like people, like some people off stage are as funny as they are on stage. But Lucille Ball was an actress and comedy was one of her skills. So the way they did it, and I still this breaks my brain, but she would get the script for I Love Lucy and go okay, now, now you're gonna have to help me with this, and the director always had to, like, you know, sort of walk her through it, and they would work it out together.

And she knew mathematically what would be funny, but not instinctually, so she really had to rehearse it and go, okay, so I'm gonna do this here, and I'm going to act like this here, and I'm going to do this expression right here, and she'd sort of map almost phonetically wow. And then she would do it and people would say, look, this is nothing. This is actually a bigger compliment than just hey, she glances at the script, comes out, does her stick and kills It's like no, she fucking sweated and rehearsed like a motherfucker to get it just right, and then brought it every single week on Friday night when they filmed, and and then you're like, how was that even possible to do? Like genus through craft, not just through I was born this way.

She is a legend. But I will say again I love Lucy. Then there were five other Lucy shows that you do not want to fuck with. Yeah, that's very true. That's very true.

Yeah, coming soon to the weirding Way Media Network. I love Lucy the podcast. God pretty much. The thing with with Lucy too is that she could go toe to toe with these comedians like Bob Hope was on the show. Remember when Harpo was on the show and they redid the whole mirror gag from Duck Soup and it's her and Harpo doing the mirror gag.

It's so good and just yeah, she could could could go with the best of. Them, Yep, because I think she was the best event she was. Yeah, I mean and again and again it's it's more impressive on top of everything else because she's a woman in the industry at the time who is more respected than the men are at the time. Well, and also making those wise decisions like shooting the whole thing on sixteen millimeters, having Carl Freund, you know, straight over from UFA being your cinematographer for every single episode, I mean. Like producing fucking Star Trek.

Yes exactly. Yeah, was productions. He was a force. Yeah, Star Trek cos I mean that's again, that's their instrumental in that. Three or four years ago, there was there was an Aaron Sorkin show or movie.

The movie with Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem Yeah, yeah, and JK. Simmons as William Frawley. Yes, yes, yes, I don't know who played Ethel, but it was it was It hit on some stuff, but like I didn't love it. But then there was also Amy Poehler produced a documentary that was mostly you know, actual footage of Desilu. Because Desilu is, if not the most fascinating story in television history, it's in the top one.

The relationship between Desiarnez and Lucille Ball, both professionally and romantically and just you know, up and down, you know, every sexually, family wise, there is no more interesting story of two people who really respected each other and loved each other. I mean, Desi Arnez. This was not one of those Yeah, she's the broad. I kind of let her do some stuff. He held her in such high regard and she held him in such high regard, and they both really worked well together, except for the fact that Desiarnez had to fuck every single woman he saw and he wasn't gay.

Okay, Chris, let's just get there now. No, he was just fucking. I mean again, yeah he was. I can. Yeah, you watch that show and you're just like, my god, like I get I good God, I get it, like you can say.

My favorite part of I Love Lucy is is when you watch it and you hear that actual live studio audience and you hear fucking Desi Arnez in the audience laughing like he's watching the show and he's laughing at the same time because he's got that come and laugh. Yes, so good, Well we've we've strayed far away from Bob. Yes, yes, we have by talking about how you have to have a man of a woman of many talents. You mentioned silver Bells in here, but we also have that other song that they're doing when all of the old ladies are there on the game tables, and that's a great song as well. Yeah, really endearing, really sweet, and yeah, it's just if there's if there is a thing that is a hidden gem that I think this is a hidden jem.

It's just it's so worth checking out if you're a person who who tends toward uh holiday movies. Again, this is something you should be aware of, and it's nice to know of amazingly talented people from what's coming very close to one hundred years ago. Which is pretty fucking wild. I mean that's again because on top of everything else, if we backtrack twenty years to Bob Hope being in his late twenties, that would have been nineteen thirty one, which is effectively one hundred years ago at this point, Like we're you know, we're in the sub. We're in the sub you know, the high nineties sub one hundred amount of years.

Like it's it's crazy. And this is again like Bob Hope at forty seven, like, which is just Jesus. I hope I look like him when I'm forty seven. I hope I could Lord Bob Hope and can just the I mean look again, Like I think y'all have brought me around more just having this conversation about the movie and his performance. I do want to watch more of his stuff, because again, I really appreciated I appreciated him as an actor.

Maybe I didn't like the role so much as maybe the issue I kind of and this is gonna be such a weird fucking aside, and maybe it's not just an aside, but the character's name. It did bother me that they were calling him the kid over and over again, because now that I know he was like a fucking fifty year old man, Like, holy shit, he's not a kid at all. He thought he was drop Man, fairly tolerable, but now it's just unacceptable. Yeah, and the lemon drop man, old man fucking fifty years old, I mean good Lord. Yeah, I think I turned forty seven during the pandemic.

Right, yeah, I think you're right, but but you don't. But I don't think The Projection Booth podcast has a poster review with that The Flowing gold Locks, though. I think you know, if you ever wanted to the album artwork to that, I mean, there you can go, and he wouldn't have fucking worse blonde. Let me dutch boy wig I've ever seen ever? You're right, generate Mike White with a Dutch boy wig on playing.

Oh yeah, I mean that. That's interesting because I kept seeing that on the posters or I would see that, or I would see him and like that bonnet type of thing, and I'm like, Okay, I don't really get this because you watch what ninety percent of the movie and he's not in drag, and then suddenly right towards the end he just goes and dragged to get in with the old dolls. I'm like, okay, this works. Missus dout fire, total, missus doubtfire, totally. Yeah, sorry, Richard, it didn't mean to beat you to it.

No, no, no, no, it was laying there, yeah, oh it was. Yeah, it's it's the lowest of low Hanging Fruit. I mean, yeah, I thought that was really good though, and I like how I like how the old ladies just accept him as one of their own. And then the whole thing was knitting and he keeps going and I'm like, oh my god, that's such a monstrosity. They're like, what are you knitting?

I'm mop I'm like, Okay, that's good. Yeah, there are so many good lines to this, so many good bits to this. I love him, you know, rolling around on the floor with Oxford Charlie or whatever his name is, just like, you know, like it really really works, Like every joke lands for me in this. Yeah. I just I just found it really really delightful and that it kept me guessing, like even though you know, well, I would say I I really couldn't figure it out throughout the whole thing.

I mean, the way we start at that racetrack for so long. I think it's like ten solid minutes before we move, and you know, we find out that he's ruined the bat and everything, and then like I said, it's like ninety percent of the movie is done before he even goes and drag and starts to do that part of it. And I was just like, yeah, this really is a very well balanced. Film, and I'm glad that they didn't overdo it with the drag because because again again given the poster and all, I feel like they really could have leaned heavily into it, and I think it's the right amount. I will say the rear screen projection was a bit much.

Oh come on, are you kidding? For that era? Oh that was beautiful. It was for that era especially, Oh. Yeah, that was people were fucking like, oh my god, I believe it was vomiting.

Oh yeah, yeah. The for me, it was the fast motion at times was like like the cow and then the tables and everything, and there's like another part where it speeds up. At one point. I was like, Okay, I mean it worked, it was funny. It could have been better.

You know, come on, it's zany. It is zany. It's very zany. But yeah, I'm just looking forward to seeing more of these. I And I guess, you know, Richard, you mentioned this being like a Christmas movie and it being kind of like an under under cover Christmas movie, right, because I mean, the original poster for the movie doesn't lead on that it's a Christmas movie, but now, like Mike mentioned the poster, like the album artwork is Christmas like leaning right, like it's the DVD.

Yeah yeah, h Even when I watched it this time, I was like, am I fooling myself? Is this really not a Is this sort of like sort of a And I'm like, no, this is a whole solid yeah, total Christmas three days till Christmas. Yeah, twenty three days, still Christmas. The themes that like. Everything's because it came out in April.

That's why it wasn't a christ That's why it wasn't advertised as a Christmas movie. But it comes back to the question that I ask, why the fuck release a Christmas movie in April? I don't know they used to do shit like that. Why I release a horror? Why release a Halloween movie in April?

You know what I mean? Like? Why? Why? Fuck?

It's it? It's almost like there's a month of the year where you could release it. Mike, I'll address this question to you. You know, is Man Who Came to Dinner a Christmas movie? I would put it in a Christmas movie category?

Yeah, yeah, I would. It like it sort of is, but it's also sort of a Kaufman and Hart movie, and it's sort of a Monty Woollie movie, and it's sort of a nineteen thirties sophisticated you know, Broadway play made into a movie movie, like I would be. I would actually be surprised if Man Who Came to Dinner was released as a holiday movie when it was originally released. And yet it's you know, it's Christmas, Steve Christmas Day. Right, Well, it's like, I don't know, Yeah, there are too many what's the movie?

Well, Batman Returns. I think that was a summer release, and I'm like, this is a totelve Christmas movie. Okay, your favorite Christmas movie, die Hard, was also a Christmas release, so there. Yeah, well, yeah that was much better. I mean, I still don't get why something that is set so solidly in wintertime, Like the Thing was a summer release, but.

The thing was not said in the winter. It was said and. Marked first goddamn week of winter is what McCrea says. It is first goddamn week of winter. Bro, how do you know when you're at the South Pole?

Well by looking at a calendar, Jankes, you owe me a coke, Mike Richard, we're living in the religion. As Bill Burnham says, we're living in the future. If that movie had started and he had said, look, guys, what are you complaining about. It's the first week of summer, it would have been hilarious and no one would have questioned, shit. That's well again, you're not wrong.

But to be fair, I think we still don't have an answer for the question of why the fuck do you release Christmas movies anytime other than Christmas? Yeah, well, that's the beauty of physical media. Now we can watch anything anytime we want. That's true. And you can find this on Amazon Prime for rent.

Oh good. Yeah, it's on YouTube if you go region free and aren't in the United States. Otherwise Sony blocks it in the United States. It is on YouTube. I thought that the hard way today because I was watching it on YouTube and right towards the end of the movie, it suddenly stopped and a black screen came up and said you must be in the United States for this or outside of the United States.

I was like, how did I watch seventy percent of this movie before you guys figured that out? Did you watch the colorized version? Oh? No? I went on literally just because I couldn't find my DVDs because we've been you know, the house has been in a complete you know, cyclone Christmas party, Christmas Day uproar.

I couldn't find my DVD. So I'm like, I just I'll find it somewhere online. And then I found it on YouTube colorized. Whoa, And I'm like, well, I've never seen it colorized, and it's the same damn movie, so what the hell? And I watched the colorized version, which was the shittiest job of colorization I've ever seen.

Oh boy, I just watched the colorized version of this film called Pitfall, and there's a lot of scenes that take place in a jail, and you get the mesh of the jail, and they just don't like the visiting room, you know what I'm talking about. And they just didn't even bother when it came to that messa like, the computer can't figure out what the hell to do with this, so we're just gonna leave those black and white. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of this just sort of fell to black and white. It was very odd.

Yeah. No, I wouldn't want to see a colorized version of this because I think it looks really good. Oh it does. It's a beautiful movie. Mm hmmm.

Anyway, there you are, folks. I have no idea when this will air because I've recorded a bunch of these with Chris and he just doesn't ever release them. Why not release them in June? Yeah, that's why I planned on doing. I wasn't going to release them in December anyways.

Why why would you? It'll be in April. Commitment to the bit. Yeah, there you go, commitment to the bit. HadAM you gotta you forgot.

If you're gonna do Christmas movies, you gotta release them in April. And yeah, that colorized version. I looked it up on YouTube just now. Holy fucking shit, that's awful. God, it's like, I'm just gonna have a fucking sees you're right now watching it.

That's horrifying. It's just like I wouldn't want to watch that on a big screen. Having seen the movie. You know, for me fifteen times it was playing while I was wrapping presents and it was the perfect way, the same. I was rapping presence while watching this movie as well.

I love it. Yeah, it's Christmas time, y'all. So so starting with the Mike and then you Richard. Final thoughts on The Lemon Drop Kid. I had a great time with this.

Thank you so much for inviting me on this episode, and thanks Richard for turning me on to The Lemon Drop Kid. I think this is going to be a really good gateway into even more Bob Hope, and I'm excited to see more of his stuff. Chris is nodding at me, so it's my turn to talk, all right, Obviously I chose it. I couldn't be happier that Mike is joining us on this episode, not just because of his incredible insight into film, but because it's the three of us, and it's two days before Christmas, and this feels like the closest thing to the three of us getting together. They're somewhere in a snowy tavern and raising a glass to the year that's gone by and the year that's coming up.

It's not always easy, it's not always great, but when we have friends and people we love, we know we can make it through whatever the future has to give us. Ladies and gentlemen, you'll never find two better people than Chris Dashu and Mike White, and I hope you'll enjoy The Limon. Drop Kid well as Richard. So Mike White doesn't have to talk because he almost got God. But I have to talk now as I fight through the tears that Richard almost brought on.

Yeah, twenty twenty four. I mean, every opportunity that I've had to end these episodes this month. I you know, like Richard has mentioned so many times, Christmas is a time for looking back and forward and in the present and in the present for me right now is much more important than looking to the future in a lot of ways, because the thing about this movie is it's not really a past, future or present movie as much as a redemptive arc movie. And a redemptive arc movie is also kind of a Chris thing, you know, we have. I mean, in a lot of ways, Diehard is a redemptive arc movie.

He gets his wife back at the end. The Santa Claus is a redemptive arc movie. He learns how to be a dad in the end. I mean, holiday movies are about redemptive arcs or you know, and rankin in Bass's case, the other ring of people. And then you know again like that, there's so many things that remind me of Christmas, but specific avenues of Christmas, and this is a specific avenue of Christmas, which is the person who seems irredeemable can be redeemed in the end through their own choice and free will in the matter of redeeming themselves.

And it comes from within. And I think that Bob Hope's forty seven year old kid character in this movie goes on a full journey by the end of the film. And while again I kind of maybe am bristling a little bit at the movie's portrayal of the character and also the fact that he's forty seven years old, I really enjoyed my first Bob Hope movie. And again, it's a holiday movie that I think will enter rotation and my I mean, you know, I didn't watch it by myself, so my folks were watching it with me, and they seem to enjoy it as well, So it has play for multiple audiences. And that's the other thing, you know, to Richard's point, twenty twenty four has been a long and trying year, and everybody deserves a good redemptive arc, and even the lemon drop kid who's feeding horses lemon drop candy, deserves a redemptive arc in the end, as Richard had him, is on brand putting chapstick on everybody, because you know, at the end of the day, why not always be on brand.

If you're Bob Hope, you're going to be on brand doing your comedy until you're ninety years old. And if you're Richard had Him, you're going to be putting chaffstick on because you put that in the Mothman prophecies, and you know he always has chaffstick on him, folks. So, like Richard said, Mike and Richard are this is as close as we will get to spending the holidays together. But that's okay. You know, through the magic of technology, we can do a digital toast.

And so this is the second to last episode of twenty twenty four, and this is the last thing that the three of us are doing together for the year. And yeah, I'm glad that we get to watch a good movie. We get to out on a rather high note for the three of us. So on that note, we'll take a break and we will play a preview for the final episode of Richard Adams Christmas Rotation Month and also of twenty twenty four. Hi, I'm Susan and I'm Sharon, and we're the hosts of Eighties tv Ladies.

Check us out wherever you find your favorite. Podcasts, and please like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. At Eighties tv Ladies, you can find interviews and exclusive behind the scenes content on all of your favorite eighties TV ladies. Eightyes, tv Ladies is the place to go. Please join us.

Hi, this is HP from Noise Junkies and this. Is fatherm Alone from Dark Destinations. Please join us as we examine one of the greatest sitcoms in television history, Taxi on Night Mister Walters a taxi podcast. Good night, mister Walters, Good evening, and welcome to Night Gallery. Thank you, Rod, and I want to welcome everyone to Midnight Viewing, where once a month we talk all about your follow up to the Twilight Zone, Rod Serling's Night Gallery.

They say it's Rod too Las Night Gallery, and it isn't really Rod too Las Night Gallery. It's somebody else's. Oh, we know, we talk about it a lot. Your curators at Midnight Viewing are the Projection Boots, Mike White. What can happen to human beings when trust is wiped out by suspicion.

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Doesn't remotely belong to me. I have no proprietary interest in that at all. Merry Christmas, the holiday season. It's the perfect time of year to find the one you love. Christmas isn't time to do something about it?

Like what. And tell them exactly how you feel. You've get nothing to lose. You'll always a regrets it if you don't. Don't let the holidays go by without love.

Actually rated daughter. So in some sort of sick, fucked up I don't even know ironic fashion, Richard. The final movie of twenty twenty four is Love, Actually, you fucking psychopath? I picked it a yuric I know, blame. It's like when Mike White picked those fucking host apocalyptic Soviet movies in March of twenty twenty.

We couldn't have known. I oh, oh, okay, I thought you had a real problem with Love Actually the movie? No, I have no problem with it. Okay, I just don't have it either. The irony of it is more what I'm getting it.

Yeah, it's I mean, people now just seem to like to dump on that movie, and I'm like, eh, I'm fine with it. Still, Love Actually is a fun movie, and we're super excited to have Susan Lambert on that episode to join Richard and I to close out the year Richard's wife his love Actually. So until then, Mike, where can people find you in the things that you work on? Pretty much everything that I do is available at weirdingnamedia dot com, except for the Rinking on Bond podcast that the three of us do together, and that's available at Chris's Patreon or mypatreon. That's patreon dot com, slash culturecast or patreon dot com, slash Projection Booth.

How about you, Richard HadAM Well. I love hanging out on Weirdingway. I pop up on culture Cast, I pop up on Barney Miller. I try to pop up on Projection Booth. It's happened, could happen again.

But in any case, if you can't find me on weirding Way, you can find me over at Richard Hadam's paranormal bookshelf. Oh wait, hold on a second, let me roll this back. I'm also a big supporter of another Weirdingway show, a little thing called Eighties TV Ladies. Chris is reminding the redemptive arc of Richard HadAM has met. Look at that, folks, he did it for the first fucking time.

I didn't have to do it. Thank you, Richard HadAM. Your rejective mark is full. I'm so far up my own ass. I forget.

I forget about Susan's ass. But Susan as co host with Sharon Johnson of Eighties TV Ladies, a absolutely delightful trip back to the eighties television show and the women who were in front of the camera and behind the camera, and the people who made those shows. It's a it's really it's really fun. Check it out and then if you'll like this voice, check out Richard Hadam's paranormal bookshelf anywhere you get podcasts. And I think I just released my sixteenth episode.

I think you'll enjoy it. Anyway, that's my deal. And my deal. What's my deal? Weirdingwaymedia dot Com, like Mike already mentioned, like Richard alluded to, that's where you can find all the audio diversions that we're part of.

It's if you're looking for something to spend your time with that doesn't bum you out. I think everything we work on is pretty high energy and positivity for the most part. Sometimes we've been accused of being up our own ass, but I think we try to keep it real at weirding Way Media for the most part, I think everybody's pretty chill. If you're listening to this, you know who you are, which is like, I don't know who listens to these shows that we work with. I don't know, because most of us have to hear our own voices all the time, and why would we subject ourselves to having to listen to it once we're done editing it?

Right, Richard, you know all about editing your own stuff. I've never done that. We know. You still have a redemptive arc yet, Richard. You still have a lot more to do.

Yeah and yeahs, as they both already alluded to, like rate and review whatever content you get, however you get it, wherever you get it. You can contribute financially awesome, But I understand times are hard and guess what they're about to get even harder, So you know that's always fun And Yeah, Weirdingwaymedia dot Com social media. Who cares. I'm not going to plug my social media because it's not even worth mentioning. Yeah, Mike Richard, thank you so much both for joining me.

This has been great. Like we both already or three of us have alluded to, this is our version of a holiday party essentially, so you got to be part of it. And yeah, we'll catch on the next episode.