Episode 614: Welcome Home Brother Charles (1975)

[MUSIC PLAYING] Told you he is, folks. It's so time. People pay good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater, they want cold so that a hot hot corn in no monsters in the projection booth. Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.

Then it'll arms. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] This is the color of a black baby. It's a whole lot different than white. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BEEPING] I'm a devil. He's a goddamn devil, man. What kind of a-- [BEEPING] If you let my devil sit in the hall of the guy's hand, why don't you let him sit in the hall of the hall? I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Oh, go ahead. I'll be with the ballman when you get the one down.

I'll do what he's doing. What do you mean? I'll take you. I'll take you to the bathroom. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, baby. 10 on three.

Oh, man. Why are you going to cook me through our dish? No, the go-in rate is 20 and 3. Okay. 23. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome home, brother Charles. [MUSIC PLAYING] You done the man's time.

Now are you going to do ours? Hey, baby. What happened? Hey, man. You told me to wait a minute.

The bigger soap puts you in, all of sudden. He's gotten cold for now. Don't do this again. Hey, baby. Hey!

And I'll take it out. Oh, oh, baby. That's a deal. 24. I need faster.

That's why I'm you to man. The first chance I get. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome home, brother Charles. A most impicture about the way it is, and the way some people think it should be. That kind of hatred brings on mania. Look, I didn't come here to be called a maniac doctor.

Now, man, damn it cuts my man. You're all not one of my supposed to do nothing. Tell him to come downstairs. Come down for a moment, dear, please. What's the butter, honey? [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey.

Hey. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Why just sit down and hold on to that. But you're a evil person. I know. Hey, hold on. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] You're damn sweet. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] I just want to call him. I get back, I'll jump.

I'll jump. I'll hold it. [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome home, brother Charles. They tried to take everything, even as manhood. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to the projection booth at my house, Mike Whitejew and me once again is Jackie Stewart. Hey, great to be back tonight. Also back at the booth, Mr.

Gary Phillips. Thanks for having me back. We conclude Black History Month with a look at Jamaf Anakas welcome home brother Charles. Released in 1975, it's the story of our titular brother Charles played by Marlo Monty. He's picked up by the police and possibly castrated maybe for being too upperty.

It made the crime and corruption of mid 70s Los Angeles. We follow Charles as he's railroaded into jail and swears vengeance upon his release. We will be spoiling this film as we go long. So if you haven't seen welcome home brother Charles, please turn off this podcast and go watch it. We will still be here.

So Gary, when was the first time you saw this movie and what did you think sir? The first time I saw it, it's when you sent it to me. Wow, really. Oh boy, I can't wait to hear your reaction. I have seen some other Mr.

Vanocas films. Of course, you know the penitentiary cycle like I think I guess everybody knows of him through that. But yeah, man, this was because as I said, I was actually surprised. That was not surprised that of the film itself and that I know somebody in the film, Sam and Grafria. I actually know two people, well, I know slightly.

But I know two of the camera operators at the end of the credits, you see Charles Vanette's a name. And you see Ben Callwell and I've been called well, who's both of course is still around making films. But Ben in particular, I know he runs a lovely community organization here in LA called the Chaos Network and they do by our work around, still making and pop culture and accessibility, etc. Anyway, all that to say is that yes, so it was quite a treat. Being having some knowledge of what the film was about.

I mean, that I had some knowledge of from my guess from some years ago, but still being able to see the film, you know, all this glory was pretty good. And Jackie, I bought you. It was one that was sort of a legend for years. I, it's the unfortunate downside is that the reputation of the movie precedes itself in the big surprise and sort of what everyone knows beforehand. So I've known for years what I was going to get out of the movie, but I figured the best possible way to give myself that introduction is to prepare for a show like this.

So I only recently watched it knowing all too well the basis of what to expect and I figured getting away to discuss it with you guys will probably be the most interesting way to go about it. And it is similarly, I was familiar with Jamafanaka, particularly because I've seen the first two penitentiary films. I still need to see the third one because those were back in the early days of Netflix streaming when they would show interesting stuff that nobody else would carry at the time or they could just, you know, they were still fighting with all the big distributors. So I saw the penitentiary movies on there and whole bunch of weird stuff. And I mean, like those, but like a wild time and streaming was interesting instead of just the only option that we had left.

So I knew the name, I knew that he made some very interesting, very singularly voiced stuff. And seeing a student film of his knowing, knowing where it's going to go, I could not pass up the opportunity to talk about it with you guys. Yeah, this was actually the first time I watched for me as well. I again knew the reputation of the kind of notorious reputation of his film. And I was honestly really pleasantly surprised by just how well put together this movie is because I was afraid, oh, Jesus is a student film that was shot on weekends and things.

You know, maybe Fonaka was too ambitious for what he wanted to do, but I don't think so. I think he really pulled this together and I really think that Marlomonti does a great job. I mean, so many of these like lower budget films just live and died by the performances. And yeah, there's a couple like Clark key lines, but if that's more the writing than the performance, because I think that performances are pretty solid, especially Marlomonti, and this whole movie is on a shoulders. I was very happy with what they did with it.

Now I'm a little confused by a couple things here and there, like reading reviews and it's like, oh, well, this happened, then this happened. I'm like, I didn't get that. Like there are a couple things along the way where I'm going to be like, is that what you guys got? Because I didn't necessarily get this, but so it's kind of like held together by hopes and dreams sometimes. But overall, it's pretty cool.

And especially that we start with our main character on this ledge and this cop talk and to him just like, hey, I'm here to help you down to the da da da da da da da. They bring this woman along on top of this roof and it's like, oh, well, here's your girlfriend and she's going to help us out. And then we go to a flashback or we flash back to the whole beginning of the story. And so this whole movie is basically a flashback leading to that moment back on the roof, which I always appreciate that, especially like, okay, well, how did this happen? And it was really nice when you suddenly realized, oh, we're about to meet up with the beginning of the movie.

And you never know how long the flashback or how long the present is going to last after that. Could be like a JJ Abram saying where it's always like, you know, like two thirds of the way through that third act is in the present, but the rest was in a flashback, but this one, it's like, that's a 95% 98% is flashback and the other 2% is just this wrap around either end and it's very effective the way that he does that. Yeah, where the beginning of the movie is the end of the movie, you just get everything right in the middle of it. And to me, all of these characters, you know, there's Charles, there's Twilight. I mean, I was a little confused at times and I'm not saying this, you know, I'm going to say this is good sense super racist, but allow me to finish.

I was very confused by who was who in this movie, a lot of times people that like to me, but that was both the black people and white people because there were a couple times areas like how many cops are there. I would be here with the beard like the guy with the beard is the same as this guy, but he didn't have enough hair and so who is it's so there were a couple times where I was like, okay, now is Charles a pamper or there's no it's this other guy who's the pamper. Right, Charles with the drug dealer. Yeah, Charles is the drug dealer, that's right. Low level, he's not really, how was it that Charles and the wife of the cop get together, but all right, okay, yeah, well, I will go with that we'll roll with that.

It was a case where I feel like a second viewing was almost necessary just to because it helped piece together, not really plot convenience necessarily, but just where everyone can oh, like, oh, that's the judge is doing one and all right, very right. That's the guy we saw on the beginning, right, that's it. Yeah, because I like the first time. Yeah, I'd completely forgotten about that guy by the time you got to the court. Yeah.

Yeah, and like the prosecuting attorney, I was glad that they gave us a flashback to the prosecuting attorney because I was like, oh, okay, because I wasn't really sure. Yeah, and same thing with the judge as glad they're like, oh, see, he was this guy and I'm, oh, all right, all right, I got it now. There's the Pimp, who's another guy, there's Charles who's the low-level drug dealer. Is it the Pimp is buddy? Yeah, well, the Pimp is his buddy, but it's not peanuts though, right, because there's that guy that's like really gregarious in his friend, but then there's, there's the Pimp has like the sunglasses, I think.

Well, I guess, because when he goes when Charles gets out of jail, is it peanuts who shines him on sort of, is that peanuts is the other guy? No, no, no, what, he goes to peanuts house and peanuts is really super nice to him and tells him about like where twilight's working at, and she's over at this bottomless club, I guess it was. Okay, that's a way to put it. Yeah, the other guy, I'm trying to remember his name. It's not JD.

Andy is one. Yes, that's it, that's it, that's it. There you go, indie, that's right, that's right. Yeah, I just straight up didn't even bother getting names the whole movie. I just remember faces and when long with that.

That's it. Well, I had to look what I have VV to get some some of the names, so I could be clear about, you know, yeah, that was it. Well, we had when he said peanuts is name, I was just like, did he just call him peanut or what am I hearing here? Because there's twilight, but then there's the other other lady. So like, twilight's the one who's a stripper and used to be a prostitute, but then there's the other lady who ends up being like Charles's girlfriend.

And I don't think she's a stripper. I don't think she's a foreigner prostitute. She seems like she's got her life a little bit more together. I've been thinking about this movie in a lot of ways, right? So as we know, you know, as we've all, he's around the big, the the regio as it were toward the end, the anaconda of death.

Was it because it started as a, is this thesis film was this was this thesis film? I think it was, yeah. And I guess maybe that was part of the constraints, so you couldn't really go full porn, right? Soft core porn is a balloon, right? But it is interesting that it walks this really strange interesting light.

In fact, I had a brief discussion with speaking of, I mentioned been call was one of the camera operators. And so, and so this recollection is that it was he and, you know, we're talking about, you know, the perception of black men, of course, with, you know, the film gets into our lot, uh, sweet, sweet back. And that's how then we get to this, to this film, uh, working home by the Charles, which is interesting. And that, you know, some of the film, like Charles, when he gets out, he seems so, it's interesting to me that in some cases he seems very, he's that bitter, right? Or, or, or, seemingly he's that bitter.

I mean, he's bitter, but that seems to sort of come on at a, at a kind of at a stage, right? Because initially, he doesn't seem to me. He seems to almost not have any drive when he gets out of prison. It's not like he's looking for revenge or a smell of these, immediately looking for revenge. It seems that the idea of revenge kind of comes to him at a stage.

To your point, when he gets out, he goes, he visits peanut, he just has, like, you know, kind of catches up with some people. And the next thing you know, I think it's, is it him that shooting heroin because we get this shot of like, meat, or going into a little bit of a freak was in him. Yeah, what's it him? Was it? Yeah, I just took that as just random people on the street.

Right. They cut me out. There's so many people. That was honestly, you know, like, all the, all the visuals that stand out in this movie. That was the one that caught me off guard.

I was like, they just played it like you was your regular, you know, cool street montage, but it started with, yeah, just needle straight in the arm. It's fine. Blood on the street. And Charles is looking, I mean, initially he's looking for a square gig, right? I mean, he's not, you know, right?

He's just trying to, you know, make a living and, and I go back to that, to that life that he lived before. And there's a bit of, you see a bit of a kind of, I believe it's kind of a montage of his transformation in prison, not like you're not coming back, but still he is transformed as some extent. Oh, and I love that whole montage of the still images and then the desaturated, how they're like, it's not not black and white. It's probably blue and white. And then some of the images, I think, are actual like, films like moving.

And then others are just stills. And I thought that was really well done. What if in 2023, you try to remake this movie, right? You know, you try to, you know, you know, the game, what do you said it now or said it then? I mean, I guess it's really the way you could do it, right?

Well, as soon as the way you could do it as a, well, maybe it is a way, I don't know. I don't know if you can do it. I know you can't do it. It's interesting to me to think about it because I, because then I started going down that rabbit hole. And it was funny too, because I was thinking about the sequels.

And so I looked up the cop. So he's stopping Freeman's wife, who's Christina. I looked up the name or a different name in the cast. She played by a really linked Tiffany something, but anyway, but remember there was a sequence where it was, and I think it happened after the fact after the, the typical castration, where is it dealing with this and somehow, I mean, they both, was buddy or both ice cops, and yet somehow they're doing dealing with a bomb at the, at LX, right? And he's, and he's running with the briefcase and maybe he's getting irradiated or maybe he's not getting irradiated.

I'm not quite sure. But that is that, that happens after the attacks, Charles, right? Yes, yes it does. And that's being cross cut with Charles fucking that guy's wife. Yes, okay.

So it, that's right. That's right. That's right. Well, this guy's, well, risk in his life, Charles is banging his wife. That's right.

That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Cross cut with that with a beautiful footage of the, the airplane taken off.

Yeah, I kept waiting for the bomb to go off to be the orgasm. So that's right. That's right. So that does have a fully drives the castrate. The castration scene is earlier than that.

That's right. That's right. I just just rewatched it. And I was confused about the order of the order of events there. That first 20 minutes or so, the first time around, it's hard to, to get a real grasp of exactly what's happening.

If you're not paying, like if you look away for a second and you look back, it's like a whole different scene is going up and every time. And so I, I say all that to say, you know, in the in the remake or in the underground graphic novel version, I would want the bomb radiation bomb scene that happened for only because now you see in the, in the, and I'm not by the way, I'm also waiting to give us to how Luke Cage, you know, Luke Cage in the comics in 72, you know, gets his powers through an experiment in prison, right? And so apparently, by the, by the, by the Charles gets his power because his, his, his, his, a member is reattached in prison or at least in jail. Anyway, all of the say that if Freeman were to deal with the radiation bomb earlier and he uses knife, like let's say, just for the sake of this argument.

And to, you know, help somehow make the bomb, it, it's, it's got, you know, cut wires of the knife or whatever it is. And so on the Marvel colleagues version of that knife would become the irradiated object, right? So then when he tries to cut, Charles, it's the radiation, you see, they give him the special, the special powers all, I, that was, I was just thinking about that to the, I would want to clean that sequence up just so we're clear how you got that power. And then of course, I, I was soon going to do start with the African statue imagery in the title sequence with that great theme that they play there. And then, while that I think you got to wrap that in the two, maybe the doctor who works on them, you know, maybe the statue was there in the operating room or at least the box office or something.

So we kind of, you know, tie those that imagery and that symbolism together. Yeah, the order of events has strange even the idea of is he castred, isn't he not castred it? Because I think later on in the movie they say he was castred and I was like, I didn't really get that from that scene. I just thought that guy took a knife to it. I didn't think about removal.

Exactly. Yeah, because I think even that is part of the system. Like, you were about to do it or you almost did it. And I thought there was some, you know, qualifier as opposed to yes, you really did it. When the husband, Freeman, he confronts his wife, that's when the dialogue for me gets really kind of overriding.

And maybe little Gary for you. What another vicious rape case? Much worse than that. Well, nothing's worse than rape. Spuck this guy's, he's married, about a few years.

Two kids, nice house, couple cars, you know, all the things that make a nice, happy old life. A little wifey, you've just satisfied. Did you come to have your boat and just satisfaction? Seems like that. Shacks up behind his back.

You want to know a trauma path? Well, the guy she was shacking up with turned out to be a dirty, bacon, no good, don't push it. Turn me blind me, fat. You didn't have enough men, but to face me straight off. No, you had to go through some gods, damn silly Panama, because you're not enough of a man.

That's why I meet a man. The first chance I guess, because no matter how many Mickey Mouse bombs, you disarm. It isn't going to make you any more of a man that shriveled up thing down there, den players you. But just like the way that she's demigrating him and his, what she called it, like that shriveled up thing between your legs kind of thing. Just like a little clunky here and you add this thing together.

And that's the other way. It's not like they get into the horse. I mean, she's still there when he gets out of jail for God's sakes. And then they have this like kangaroo trial of just putting him on. And that's where we see the judge.

And we saw the judge earlier trying to pick up one of the prostitutes. I think it might have been Twyla. And then we've got the, you know, the prosecuting attorney who's a real blowhard. And yeah, they shoot a right into jail. And when we get into jail, that's when that theme comes back.

We've got that desaturated footage, the kind of lesgety use of the still images, which was really cool. And then he gets out. And like you said, he tries to make that good life for himself. And yeah, it really does feel like he's getting so frustrated because his girlfriend is able to hold a steady job. And he's unable to do anything.

And then it was kind of funny because when he starts his plan of vengeance, he starts to take on different media roles. Like, I'm the telephone repairman or I'm the guy with the water bottle and all this kind of stuff. That's right. But that's not what that's. That's three out of seven.

He's poor, right? But we're going to lie. You know, the pizza delivery man, the repair man comes by and he winds up. You know, I'm in the house. Why?

So yeah, they get. But I like I appreciate it that too because like later on in the movie when, you know, he's, you know, he's sneaks out on on his girlfriend to go on his path to revenge. And he tells her he was just out looking for jobs. And so this every time he's doing that, he's just playing work to get something. I didn't look at the time code to see how far long it takes, but really it's when he shows up at, I think it's Freeman's wife that he goes to first as the telephone repairman and he comes in and it almost feels like she doesn't recognize him at first.

And, and, and he basically like takes down his pants and next thing you know, boom, she's got this fake it, look on her face and she is just completely Literally hypnotized by his cock. You directly and directly he just starts to give her all these instructions and she is helpless. She's completely helpless because of looking at this man's cock. And it's amazing. This is just a big eye on it.

Is that what it is? In the remake, you know, it moves like a compliment. Yeah, maybe it's like a pendulum. Exactly. Exactly.

You know, to be fair, now there also needs to be got to use it on me too, right? You can't just use it on women. We got to be playing fair. You got to be, it's all good. I'm sure it's like going up to her ear and whispering in her ear.

Exactly. That's right. Oh my god. Oh, yes. You know, a turn Freeman and bed together.

She just wakes up, goes downstairs and then lets him in. Let's see. Let's see. And then we just get the the screams of Freeman and that look on Charles's face and then cross cutting to the wife who just again is completely deadpan. But just we don't know.

Like the first time I watched it, of course I didn't know who's going up. But I was just like as an audience member, the first time seeing this, you would have no idea. You have no idea. You have no idea. Right.

That's right. That's exactly. It did play some theaters, right? Yeah. I think so.

Yeah. I mean, so that you kind of think, well, what? I mean, I did, you got to head into the market. I mean, I was like, well, how did he sell this movie? Do these just dividers?

I mean, you know, he's just doing it himself. I fool walling it, right? You know, I was like, oh my god, I was, you know, you know, talk about the midnight show, man. I mean, yeah, to be a fly on the wall of that, like, first unsuspecting audience. It's a holy moly.

What's the thing? What do we watch in here? And they're like, even knowing what to expect. The whole time we go, they're not really going to do that, right? And I like it.

Right away, by the way, my God, a little, a little article you said is where I get a I guess at least what what of the aunt has a it's a job breaker That shot he's back in town to get his peace of action only a movie man isn't all the other I guess that's the scrap of the film to a tea. That's all Cannot you with a word of it. I like get our That's some drink and advertising air boy. I'd say I almost wish at there were more people for him to get his revenge on me because What exactly exactly exactly because he's already defeated by the second guy He's up getting to that Preschooling at her long listen man. We got a scene of him swinging you know What my bad boy, you know escape him Oh, we're really not like dare double you know, I'm so scared Listen man the remake would be so wrong.

I'm so many levels But it would be so much fun. You'd like a fucking polgo stick Exactly exactly Lariat all kinds of things you can do with that bad boy come on It's one of the weirdest ways to go to just because it takes a long time for him to get fully Racked him longer than John Holmes and the guy the prosecuting attorney is just like I mean he's just backing it in the walkers. I mean what is you know what is the the small white man more afraid of than the black man's big She grace all he could be was trying to back up exactly It also maybe a bit on the nose, but I couldn't help but notice it like it couldn't have been Unintentional that the officer that pulled all the shit was named officer Freeman What's right?

Yeah, so he manages to kill that guy and then when he goes after the judge that's when the you know The the quote unquote good cop like the one who Left the scene when his partner was trying to cast rate Charles and I like how he was like hey Yeah, what they'll punch his pilot you know, why's your hands a walk away? Yeah, but good cop who dared to say hey, are you sure about that? You see it well, they help me out just a couple bad apples, right? That's right. It's good.

Yeah, yeah, I tell you. Oh, man, yeah, he is the one that goes to his psychiatrist and the psychiatrist is talking about Charles totally breaking Patient that's right. That's right. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

That's right. What's right? And then the tells him about this dream that Charles had where he was able to do this with his Johnson, but and so then it the light goes off over the guy said he's just like all right Gonna go save the judge All things I did appreciate with that the psychiatrist though here in something that I feel like I still hear constantly today You know when he tells the officer like hey, you know I'm you know, my services are open you know all the time and cops like well I don't need me of that yet and he's like that's where you're wrong pretty much everybody does and they don't even know it You know I was like well, that's a surprisingly open-minded thing that even now people haven't trouble happened there had I tell you man, this is not really I guess I can't get out of the The notion that I did that man to try to remake this film you know I graced her oh, man, you know, and we could I thought about it too because I realized that like I was thinking is there any way You could retell this story and is there any other movie where you could get away with just that one The twist in the one scene and then just because like most of this movie stands pretty well on its own is just kind of a pretty serious drama About a guy getting back you know getting his life back and maybe maybe going on a little revenge on the side in that one scene comes out of nowhere And then the movie just came to you Then I was thinking like how many movies there there is no other movie in history where you could just throw that He like you can't just go through like two thirds of a death wish movie and then have Bronson girl a giant dick and kill somebody with it and then finish the death wish movie that's right That's right, but but you know and you just gotta keep going.

That's right. That's right You know it was just another instrument in this toolbox as it were that's that exactly exactly That might be it that might be it you know that you like that Charles Right so to to my point you have obviously go you want a more people for him to to Go through as it were to you know to exactly revenge and if he does different Methods of death and then you know like you said like pour the end of the movie all of a sudden You know like if the giant anticon of thing It's strangle the guy and you will look wait where that go for And I'd love the way they film it like the between the legs and you see it to send down Is that when I think The operation that's what it is that's right and they don't even say anything about it like at the end it's like You know the guys like hey, I know you've got these physical problems, but don't worry You know we'll find it here or something you know it's like trying to talk the whole Countdown, you know don't worry Dave Edio What will fix it? be better.

Oh, it's not really better. I don't want to be Be better. I want to be low. Be crazy. Are you out of your mind?

Yeah, and so our our quinoa code hero cop shows up and that's when we rejoin the movie and we go back up to the roof And when they bring out Charles's girlfriend, you know you're expecting her to be like Charles, you know, it's okay You know work this out Yeah, they want you to be safe. You gotta gotta and instead just her going jump and I'm like holy shit And then fucking freeze frame on her and then pull up this title card Let them indulge and indulge their pride in thinking I am destroyed. It is a comfort to them let it be and I'm like Holy shit man Making the way for for the sequel man. I'm talking he used that bad boy to swing down off that roof We wrap that bad boy around that it bark. Yeah, you know boy Good for real Lasse around the flag back what exactly did either of you watch the original trailer for it because it shows the whole day of movie Yes, yeah, it's a while we show it in half minutes.

Yeah, it's like four and a half minutes and it literally ends with her yelling to jump Like that's the old movie right there except for you know the scene That was I was shocked when I opened up this episode It's gonna be the radio trailer that I use which is much more effective I think and it's like a minute maybe minute and a half and just get through it Because yeah, they even did this on Trailers from hell and the guys just like it's not that kind of a movie But let's just skip to the end where it's the big cock and it's like there is a little bit more to this movie I feel like that's just a lot about society for you that that's right So these parallels right so of course I was like I said I was thinking about you know Luke Cage and how you know Luke Cage gets his power also from Well, I mean, I guess we're not quite clear how brother trial gets his power exactly But you know like I said out one you're ready to it's so of course you know cage it's a power from a actually it's a it's a racist guard Caged volunteers was experiment in prison, but the racist guard knocks the scientists out and you know Up's the uh up's the Amperage as it were that you know try to kill cage because he and his guard are going at it and then of course And something me Amperage it gives Kate his steel hard steel hard a skin and it's super And but I was thinking so there's another interesting character not from comics, but this was a series of Books Paperback originals in the early 70s so a few years before This movie's like 71 at 72 this there was like six books about a character called I and I have a couple of Some were or maybe I haven't been stored with my my so-called collection There's a character called Richard Abraham spay aka super spade.

It was a black character written by a black writer Super spade was was I guess a bit more intellectual than a chap a kind of in the shaft mode But he had a super power not not necessarily this monster Johnson But he could he could release a kind of some kind of um Hyperferomon so would make a women go weak in the knees form so when he wanted to like when he needed to You know doing his investigation He would he would release this thing you know, release this power over over the women So I was thinking about that so I think by the in the context of brother Charles or again You know the remake maybe maybe he would control that kind of fair amount or maybe the Maybe Maybe your giant dick would talk and release it out of though, but anyway all this all this double sort of in my head when I what I keep thinking about the book Well, I mean that's you know that's what they used to tell us that they had to embrace the power of jazz music to do back in the day It's funny to me because so much of this stuff is still with us I mean and I think that historically this whole thing of black guys have huge cocks and they just like Basically hypnotized the women they're gonna steal all the white women away and I'll just got it They I mean I don't know how long that's been going on, but I want to say at least 150 years here in the United States you were Jake yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah something like that if not more and then you got You know like now you go to like porno or x hamster and you're just like BBC all over the fucking place And just like the the way that the right wing headed ahead adapted the whole like calling somebody a cuck For a lot of time and it's just like well, you're not just talking about cuckolding somebody you're talking about cuckolding somebody with a black guy and like just making the the black man Just the piece of meat in that It's like super racist all all And weird and weird and twisted right sexual weird way like apparently you know and I Well, he's never listened to this but and I guess he's admitted this right Roger stolen the big you know GOP hack guy apparently has you know paid Black men to services wife and he watches and I mean you know so it's all you right And he's the guy to get this got the big tattoo of Nixon on his back, right?

But like well, what do you look how do you Compartment well, how do you make sense of any of this man? It's it's something weird and it's twisted kind of thing Yeah, it's pretty hard being a racist piece of shit, so You know if anybody's got it's off it's them Yeah, you got to do so many mental gymnastics to make it all make sense. Yeah Speaking of Nixon did anybody notice the scene where it was it was it was a twilight that was dancing in the two-piece And there was a there was a poster behind her and it looked like Richard Nixon But with a devil face sitting on a toilet and I really really want to get a better look at what that poster was Oh, that's it looked like that's great though. I'm sure that must be yeah, that's not perfect of course Yeah, that's some of the best set set decoration I've ever seen it right on right on And not now usually right at me just to back up for another second Nixon Nixon made it Want me back to top of the heat just pretty back to super spade why just mentioned which is written by Joe Green under the BB Johnson was the was the pseudonym but Joe Green had anything career-perleaves like a musician and it wrote very Be Johnson big black Johnson.

I That was that was the pseudonym that he used sir. I just passed those things along. It's not me. Okay. All right.

Sorry You just like said it so now the July and why not talk about it? I'm not but Joe Green Apparently because I was reading about on my friend Kevin Smith's the link detective site Which is where I went back to look up super spade so Joe Green apparently did some Unquid and writing on top of the heat how about that for a small world after all so there you go I really liked the sequence that we're talking about earlier that starts with that kind of disconcerting heroin abuse But then goes into almost like documentary footage of just people on the streets and get to see Charles and learn the worst hours but then just like kind of go around. It's like you know this guy dance in these people just drinking on the street And I was just kind of like you know like little kids just kind of like slice of life stuff and I was like That's really cool and like it was a good way to you know Wink then the movie out a little bit but also it's just like such a nice time capsule Yeah exactly yeah, as soon as I started dancing for cameras like oh, this isn't they they don't they don't know They don't know they're in a movie do they I think you just turn the camera on on some people and got some good footage out of it The scope of this I think you know you mentioned that this was kind of like a stasis film and I think it was supposed to be I'll let sure but Fanaq is just like no, no, I'm gonna do a feature.

You know, I've already done a short I want to do a feature now. I was just like So ambitious and I think that was his whole thing was just like pushing pushing pushing and always trying to like Do do better with his next one and so you know He would just kept improving his craft every single film and because this is no slouch man. This is that I would not be disappointed and it's funny right? Did it in these folks ever go on well Sam does yeah, but do we know that others in the movie? I guess I guess Maddie never did nothing else really right is that true?

I don't think he yeah I don't find anything and I thought you know He's really what holds that movie together like yeah, no, I thought he had I thought there was time really is you know this Right over that oh well, yeah, this cat you know, it's got something going on you know Yeah, like you had a great voice a great delivery like he was a natural with everything when he flipped that switch Whether those moments you know where like the women are in trans, but he's kind of in a trans too And he's just staring at the camera and he gets all sweaty and like this dude had it But we only got to see one time just a damn shame the woman that played Carmen the his girlfriend She went on to do Rethagre I think her name is she's it was an at least 75 things including an episode of the upshaws that just come out I'll be there.

Well right on excellent right now. There we go. Yeah, she's she's still working I'm being honest It's like it's a sand sand still working too. So there you go. At least you've got you got out of the grip.

I think I don't have the Yeah, yeah, that's it yeah, and one of the I think it was the top Yeah, the gym coming in I think it was the cool quote good cap He went on to do a bunch of stuff as well only like 23 things but I'll be talking about him again Later this year I think when we're covering walking the edge which I think just also came out Nice ploo ray as well, but yeah, it's one of those where it's like okay who went on to other things and they We didn't and it's like 90% of the cast didn't and they're probably probably a lot of like people effort I can do maybe people in theater. I mean the guy the place peanuts Charles D Brooks the third I thought he was terrific and I kind of was like I'm gonna hang out with this guy.

He's seems so nice Oh and you know you mentioned in this this word association you mentioned walking the edge made me think of something I also briefly thought of during this which like for the most part is not similar, but I thought a walking tall and how the difference there This one a white man pisses off a bunch of white people they just cut up his chest a bunch That's it That's right Well, the black man does it they take a lot more person Exactly, that's right. That's good point very good This is right. There's no way brother Charles is gonna get to take over the uh take over the police department I thought I wish you would oh, man What a Yeah, I mean they both dude walked all in tear your pigs All right guys, let's go ahead and take a break and we'll be back with an interview with actor Sam and grapheo right after these brief messages Hi, I'm Jason and I'm jewels and we do in filmographies We've compiled a list of actors.

We draw a name at random and tackle their entire acting filmography from start to finish Or at least as much of it that still exists and hasn't been lost to time Jason loves actor Billy Crudup and films like Jesus a son or almost famous, but will he love Billy and movies like Montyman Avenue or world traveler? No, they're not good and jewels loves actor rotta Mitchell and films like hi art and pitch black But will he love rotta in movies like when strangers appear or love in other catastrophes You'll just have to tune in to find out some of the names that pop up might surprise you some of the films as well So join us every Saturday on the podcast app of your choice or via YouTube as we do in filmographies Tell me a little bit more about you and how did you decide to get into acting?

Basically it kind of all starts with Basically we're gonna talk about the film we're gonna talk about today. I was a political science major at UCLA and was a very serious student and then a friend of mine said that it was very easy to meet young ladies if you got into an acting class And so when I went to UCLA, it didn't have to be a theater major or a film major in order to take acting classes He just had to get permission of the instructor So started taking acting classes and had a whole lot of fun and met a lot of people and Didn't really seriously think about being a professional actor. I was kind of either when I graduated I was using a girl law school or a business graduate school and I ended up going to business graduate school While I was at business graduate school somebody that I had met at UCLA in one of the acting classes called me and he was directing the play In Los Angeles, per I live and he said I'm having difficulty casting this very small part Would you be willing to cover it until I get a real actor to kind of come in and do it and I was on a break from school I said I'm sure Sure, okay be fun.

So I came in I did the you know the part I audition read for him and he said fine You know you're not so awful you could do it and I started working on the play and and I think it had like a three three or four week run and we were I mean it was literally in a garage and from the seven people and when that ended and I went back to graduate school I was so full depressed because I had been so excited being and that's silly play for seven people and I think I was I wasn't even getting paid for and I was more excited about that than I was about taking finals at business graduate school and so I said Maybe I should take a take a look at my career choice here that I have made and I went and talked to the Dean and he was so nice He basically said you know you're doing climbing you're getting good grades and you can come back if you want to take a leave But it seems like possibly you want to be an actor and not an accountant That was almost 50 years ago and Here I and I have serious doubts about it at times so I have visions go badly or people don't treat me nicely I think you know I couldn't have been an accountant and I needed more fallback plan maybe I can go back to graduate school So what were those early rules like for you were you then doing more plays did you do commercials like Well were those early roles?

Oh well I did a ton of theater in Los Angeles side probably 150 or 60 plays in LA and I did summer stock and regional theater in off-off Broadway when I was starting as an actor It was a it was very cool to be a very angular Italian guy So the success of the godfather the kind of a bad guy the day were mafia guys There's a lot of roles on television for Italian bad guys and I think I played a lot of Basically I single-and-ably you know forwarded the stereotype of the Italian mafia guy I played a lot I played drug dealers and gun runners and mafia hit men and and That was kind of what I did for a number of years and I got kind of pigeonhole doing that and that was kind of how I Segwayed into being a writer because Nobody would really consider me for anything except bad guys because that was basically all I had on my real And so my plan was I was going to write something for myself to show my Amazing versatility as an actor.

I started kind of again backed into it like I backed into acting With another actor friend of mine we created two characters and we started going to open my Comedy clubs and showcases to try and show people that first we could do comedy and second of all that we could write for our selves And we did that for about six months and it was like it was very encouraging because we didn't get anything at all And we didn't get hired and we didn't get any writing jobs We continued to do it and it was almost like a performance art that we we created these two characters We showed up in costume as the characters signed in as the characters and we didn't really have an act We were our characters were two guys from New Jersey who wanted to be in show business, but have no talent So we literally read joke books on stage We insulted the audience we did a mind reading game and we were it was like awful and we would end up yelling at each other on stage And nobody quite knew what to do And a producer came what happened to be in the audience one night.

He was from Universal and he thought we were these characters We were sal and junior and we came up afterwards and he said I'd like to take you guys out for a drink And we said oh sure and we went out for a drink because of him and he was like shocked because we were Sal and junior and the next day he took us to Universal and we got a pilot development deal We weren't gonna write the pilot Riders were gonna write the pilot for us and They wrote a draft and it wasn't particularly funny and the development people at Universal said a lot of you guys give them some notes Then kind of punch it up while we gave a pages and pages for pages of notes which they used a lot of it in the pilot and they said Does you know you could join the writer's guild now because there's enough of your stuff in the pilot and we had no idea what that even meant Well, yeah, Louis should join the writers guild because then we'll be writers And so we joined the writer's guild for that all this money joined the writers And had absolutely no clue what we were doing That pilot didn't sell They came up with another draft of the pilot that didn't sell then we wrote a pilot based on the characters and that didn't sell A universal like does so much that they gave us a development deal and said come up with funny stuff And if you if it's Sal, it's you know you'll be the writer producer hunt so for almost a year We had an office at Universal and we tried to come up with funny funny ideas that we would pitch to the people in the black tower and most of them got rejected and some of them Some of them we got paid to write a script and some of them we didn't we never went anywhere But that was kind of how we started and we wrote together my partner Gary Stein and I wrote together for 12 years and we made a pretty decent living And if you look at on my credits by acting credits on IMDB There's there's a big break for about 10 years where I don't have any acting credits and I actually had somebody who was interviewing me say You know, I don't want to embarrass you but like do you have a drum problem or did you go to jail?

You know what happened to you for 10 years I'm like well sorry to disappoint you, but I didn't go to jail I was working as a writer and then the two of us went our separate ways and then I kind of Started the focus back on acting again and then I I always wanted to be a film actor and write screenplace That was always my dream and so at that point I said to my wife You know, I've made a fair amount of money writing television and a fair amount of money as an actor I think I'm going to try something really dumb now and I'm gonna try and be a screenwriter So I formed a production company with another Parker and we started making Independent films and internet series and short films and I've been doing that and then Acting again, you know my focus has been on acting and and now Because I have white hair now I can play doctors and lawyers and CEOs and things like that and what I never did When I first started as an actor friend of mine was made a lot of money doing commercials and she set up an interview for me with a commercial age and a really good commercial age And I went in for the meeting and I literally sat down and He said well nice to meet you and now You know what year was and I said well I like to do commercials You know that's not my primary focus, but I would really like to do it and he said well with a facelike yours You're not gonna sell a lot of dogs and I had no idea what that had and this was in the early 80s And what he was saying to me is that unless you had blue eyes and looked you know like the arrow shirt guy where you were very kind of a philosophy looking there wasn't a lot of stuff In commercials for that and now that has all Completely changed Which is lovely for me because I'm now making more money doing commercials than anything else They're like nutty making machines, you know I people have figured out that I'm sort of funny and so now I play kind of funny bad guy is or And so the grandpa who's a little nuts or and it's been great I think I've done like a dozen commercials in the last four or five years and COVID Obviously put a big dent in that now things are again picking up again So that's kind of my life story.

I'm kind of Backed into acting back into writing and I'll have done okay. Are you making more money commercials on your from your two books? I mean, there's just breaking in royalties I'm making so much money from my my books that I don't even know how to spend the past no No, I mean the second actually doing pretty well The first one was hard because you have no name recognition and you know you're just somebody among the other millions of books But when you have a second book then you have a little bit of credibility and so it's actually and I I learned a lot from the first book about how to market and promote and do all that stuff So now I'm working on the third book because once you have three With the same central character then basically you have a series Then gives you a lot more leverage You know the the short answer is you don't make a lot of money from the the book publishing game Unless your James Patterson Tell me how did you get involved with welcome home brother Charles and was it called that when you were shooting it?

No, it wasn't called I you know, it was funny. I was trying to mean it's almost 50 years ago now So I was talking to remember I know it wasn't welcome home brother Charles the director was walls Gordon When I met him he was not Jamaf and Aca he was well Gordon when I first met him But I don't I know it had a different title, but I don't remember what the title was it's soul vengeance It sounds right yes that sounds that sounds right because it was kind of a very political time You know this was like 73 or 74 and there was racial tension and a lot of stuff going on and I remember There was a directing class at UCLA that you had to take if you were going to get your advanced degree in film And Jamaf is going to UCLA and he had a little group of kind of very Political filmmakers that he was his friends with and so the teacher who taught the class Her name was Dealia Salve and she liked me as an actor So she had recommended be to a lot of the directors who came into the class So I ended up doing a lot of scene work in the class and that was how I met him and I don't think I had to audition Form because I don't remember auditioning I think he just gave me the part and it was supposed to be like we were supposed to be like wet redneck White cops who were going to run around and chase The I was just like I got my drone blank on his name he had a strange to name Marlo It was a young black man African-American and he was kind of like the intense bad guy and and we were supposed to chase him around Guns and say stop or out soup and now that was kind of how it started and I was so excited because I had done some short student films but this was like a real move this was like they there were actors in the movie Who had actually been on television and they weren't students they were like real actors And I remember the thing that was most exciting I hadn't done anything on film where I had gotten a costume and they were going to give me a Costing to wear and they had a wardrobe person who took measurements and it was like holy Macro this is like the big time They're gonna give me something to wear We were filming on campus and there was a point where they told us to show up and I don't know if for familiar We're UCLA but there's a big building called bunch hall which is a big brow and multi-story building Very modern and they said okay, we're gonna meet there So we all met there and they had a camera and a couple of lights and Paul Pazera was a friend of mine Who wasn't an actor he was kind of good looking blonde hair guy and I I said you know they need like a blonde hair guy to be the other cop to be in kind of contrast to me Because I very dark hair at the time very thick curly dark hair So he said will they pay me and I said I don't I don't think they're gonna pay you but they'll give you like one You know and you'll get to be in a movie and he was like, hey, okay, so he showed up And he brought a camera and I was trying to find him today He took pictures of us and and I think I you know over the course of the last 50 years I probably have moved to dozen times some somewhere in my house now are those pictures But I couldn't find there were two pictures of me in my Policeman uniform looking very intense holding this gun I had that those pictures for years and I actually think I actually use them as acting shots for a time So we show up and Jamaz says okay here's what you know, we're gonna shoot you guys up on the balcony up there looking down And then you're gonna run down the stairs and you're gonna start yelling you know blah blah blah Okay, so they say you go in the bathroom and change into the copy uniforms So Paul and I go into the bathroom and we're changing into our copy uniforms They have the gun belts and the guns and the whole thing so we change into our uniforms we come out we look really cool He takes pictures of us We go up on the balcony they shoot us up on the balcony we come running down and the campus police are there The campus police say somebody just saw you in the bathroom changing into a policeman uniform.

What are you doing? And we're like we're making a movie. There's there's the camera there's the lights and You know, I can't speak for any other campus policemen, but at the time The campus police at UCLA were very intense because a lot of them had wanted to be LAPD had made the cut And so they were they were not the easiest guys to get along and they started to give to my a lot of attitude about You know because I think he was a black man and it was like okay, you know He you know before long it had escalated to can't you believe that I'm a director because I'm black It's like oh We're going in a direction that we may not want to go here and he trying to explain to them that he shooting a film And he's a student that UCLA and they say well, where's your permit?

Turns out he didn't have a permit and he hadn't talked to anybody in the film department So then they say okay you're under arrest and we say he's like what do you mean you're weird? I'm a filmmaker and they said you're under arrest and so they take Paul me and Jamah and they take us they didn't put us in Hank The police station is not actually on campus. It's a little ways down westwood Boulevard about a half mile away from the campus So they walk us down and off the campus put us in the car and drive us to the police station They didn't I don't know if the police station actually has cells but they didn't put us in a cell They held us there and said you have to get out of the police uniform put it on your own clothes We put our own clothes and they and they book us for caring a gun On a college campus and impersonating a police officer both of which are felony offenses And we're like holy well you can't do this and then they say we're gonna hold you Until somebody can come and get you because we don't want to we're not gonna let you leave the station So I have to call my father the call my dad Tell them I've been arrested and can you please come and get me So he goes what did you do?

And I said work on an amovie and they arrested me just come and get me So he comes and gets me and when he shows up in the police station They tell them your son has been arrested for impersonating an officer in caring a gun on campus And he goes crazy and starts screaming at him what are you nuts? You're arresting my son for this. He's an actor. He's trying to make a movie So they let us go and then my dad bless his heart. He's gone now, but bless his heart He stayed on it for probably six months Because he said you know you cannot have on your record that you are arrested on campus carrying a gun and Impersonating a police officer and so finally he got the chief of police Some of the campus police to write a letter saying that it was all a misunderstanding and that it was you know Wicked from my record and they gave him a letter on the stationery of the universe He police saying it's blaming that if anybody heard about this or mentioned anything about it that it was all a mistake And so I think I actually worked on the movie for about 45 minutes I mean, what are I I was arrested But that was literally my I mean I consider it a professional acting job I didn't get paid anything for but I mean it was a real movie that got released in theaters I don't I don't think I've ever seen movie.

Oh wow. Yeah, I don't think I because I did see Clips of when he was editing stuff but I don't think I ever saw the the actual movie You didn't get invited to the premiere? No, I so no Although it was interesting I did run into him Later to my later I was doing a play at the inner city cultural center We were doing the great white hope and Ernie Hudson Played Jack Johnson and at least he knew Ernie Hudson and so he came to one of the performances and we chatted afterwards and You know and had a lovely conversation and unfortunately he died very young He made a number of films and it was actually doing doing well as a filmmaker and That genre and then he died very young for the genre. He was working it in the fact that he didn't have a lot of money to work with I think he was a talented a talented director who probably is time-change and black people were allowed to like kind of move up in the industry as As a director I think he would have done well He's career would have gone gone well you have been in so many things over the years.

I mean What are some of your favorite things that you've been in? Well, that's a hard question to answer because there's a lot of different like The feature film the Falcon and the snowman is probably my favorite Was such a pleasure to work with Sean Penn and an incredible cast a great Script John Slesinger that was again that was the reason it sticks out of my head is because I like I said I had done a lot of bad I'm shouldn't say bad but I had done a lot of episodic television and that was the first time I ever had a meeting with a director or he They called me and I came in and I met with him and you know, he's an Academy of War winning director And I'm sitting across the desk from and he's chatting with me.

I know here's the sides. Can you audition? Can you read? You know, asking me questions about my life and my family and kind of getting to know me And I'm so nervous that I'm like I'm I'm I'm I can't think of anything interesting to say or clever And it I know it's going really badly and so I finally say Mr. Slesinger I know this is gonna sound weird But I'm so nervous because I want to be in this movie so badly that I know I'm blown what I could we start all over again You know you don't have to spend a lot of time with me, but we just start over again And I'll try to be more interesting and he started to laugh and he said well, you know and he's English You know what I do when I'm in the meeting and I'm going to be nervous I wear a lapel pin and then when I sit down it never fails the person says What is that lapel pin about and then we have a conversation and it's going but then I break the ice So we have something to talk about so now obviously every meeting I have gone to for the last 40 years I have a drawer full of lapel pins and I wore the palpine and it never fails Because the person you're talking to is usually as nervous or more nervous than you are and they always say oh That's an interesting lapel pin.

What does that mean? Oh, I was an Italy and I thought it was really cool And it represents the families of the you know that found the betel you know and suddenly you're not saying well I started I as an actor and blah blah blah and I this is my credits and I'd like to talk you know, you know It's like it relaxes everybody in the room and suddenly it's a whole different meeting and then when I Luckily got the job and I know one was more shocked than me than I got the job but I got the job and the thing that was remarkable is I got to work on the film for like three weeks and He's the only director to this day that I've ever worked with he never even looked through the lens They didn't have video monitors then you actually have to look through the eyepiece to see how the shot was set up And he would sit in a chair like he was watching the play and never looks through the lens of the camera the eyepiece of camera And then after we still very very very lovely and he would come up to me and he would whisper something to me and say let's do it again And we would do it again and it would be a different scene because I was at the other actor I was playing with he didn't hear the direction so he couldn't anticipate what I was going to do and then I would lovely very Nice nice nice nice let's try it one more time and now he'd go to the other actor and whisper something to them And I didn't know so I had to really pay attention and listen and it was just a really really nice And then he was so sweet he wrote me a letter on his own personal stationary to say what a nice job I had done and and I still have that frame in my office It was just a really remarkable job and then flash forward to a year and a half ago working on Barry When I went to audition for that They said okay, they gave me the scenes to read and they said when you finish to scene Improvise keep going don't stop so I have a lot of stage background that I was like yeah Okay, I mean this is very rare and television because usually particularly when the producer is also the writer They don't like actors to make the scene funnier It's basically you know dull improvise or your house can forget trouble and they said oh no Improvise we want you to do that so we did it like two or three times and I improvised every time I get the job I show up the first day and We do the first take okay great then Albert who's phone of the creators of the show and also one of the writers that the show walks over and to the other actor and whisper something is it?

Okay, you know 40 years later or whatever I'm still in the same I'm doing the same gig and sure enough Anthony who plays no Hank said different lines So now I had to like come up with something to kind of work with him You know because Okay, still within the context of the scene still about the same stuff but now you're you know, okay I got to come up with something new and different and we did it about 10 times and it was You know then we took a break and it was very nice as I was walking out of the sound stage to get a cup of coffee How it came up to me and said you know nice job good job, you know, and that's kind of like the ultimate gig if for an actor Is it getting paid isn't working but it's really nice when somebody that you respect Says good job that was you know a lot of actors would have got thrown by that Those two I mean there's been a lot of jobs and there's been nice moments Getting to go to a great location, you know getting to go to Mexico City was very interesting and a very cool Getting to go to Canada was very nice very cool Absolutely wonderful you know meeting aluas who was grandpa on the monsters and getting to work with him All these great character actors that I've met over the years I was working out of the film and there's a Inextra kind of sitting there and you probably and is you know 70s and maybe 80s See me very politely and I sat down and we started the chat and this was an Arizona knee Was like I said you know do you live around here and he's early.

I moved I used to live in Hollywood for years But I moved Terrasona for to retire and I said oh were you an actor? Yeah, I was an actor Of course the conversation we find out that he was he was a straight man and all of WC fields movie He's in the famous Then to scene and he's like well, yeah, I was in the dentist I'm like you were in the dentist scene. You're the one that feels kind of pulls all around the chairs He's yanking your teeth on he's like yeah, I knew WC called him bill I knew bill from waterville and we just kind of started working together, you know in those moments like that You know where you just kind of go what a what a cool I couldn't have done this if I was an accountant Right You know there's moments like that that you know over the course of the years where you just kind of go you know I'm that's I'm a lucky guy.

I was that was really fun and the fact that I still get excited You know I had a job not too long ago and you know I don't need an alarm clock to get up in the morning. I still I wake up and I'm excited to get there and they You know it's it's very funny when you get to a certain age where they don't give me a lot of makeup anymore Which is really interesting because they kind of say well, you know I don't think you need I don't think you need much You know they're pretty much kind of politely sake. It doesn't make any difference There's an amagica new with you there my friend We do a podcast also about Martin Miller and I know you're on a couple episodes of that. What was your experience like on that one?

Again, that was one of very early on in my acting career and I was very excited to be on it Because it was a kind of a hot show at the time and they shot it in front of a live audience Which was very interesting and I had done a lot of stage But it was still a little intimidating the second episode was easier the first episode It was a little intimidating because you're not to star the show so they kind of put you to green-roaring Green-roaring kind of keep you the hair and then they say okay, we're ready for years. It's like doing a soap opera They kind of park you someplace so they know that you're not gonna run away or get lost or do something silly So you just stay there and then they basically okay, we're ready for your scene and they put you back stage and you're you know You got to enter through this door and somebody gives you the cue and you know you're you're off to the races And you know there's a thousand people sitting in the audience and it's interesting because the energy for a sitcom is even higher than it is for doing stage work There's stage sitcom and then I don't know Nickelodeon or something I can't say was intimidating because everybody on the show could not have been nicer they Just really really nice almost all of them are from New York and had a stage background So they were the actors and the crew very very nice Danny Arnold was an interesting Interfesting character kind of a throwback to the old days of Neil Simon and stuff He actually I think wrote with Neil Simon for a while and you know he was like a real wordsmith who you know Set-up set-up joke set-up set-up joke set-up set-up joke he was real master So that that was a that I'd forgotten about that I mean it's funny I've done so many television shows that I get residual checks and I forgot Beauty in the beast when did I do beauty in the beast on it I don't remember that on but okay I see your Star Trek figures back there are you big Star Trek fan you know I don't want to offend people but no I'm not But it was funny I was working on a working on a movie and the directors if you Star Trek fan and I had given him so much abuse or being Star Trek fan and his wife was like yeah You tell him he's like a grown man.

He's got all these Star Trek figures how ridiculous is that so And so when when I was finished when I was going to the airport to come home he said and this is for you a Star Trek figure So I can give you a lot of heat for having Star Trek figures I have you know as you can obviously see I have a ton of toys and collectibles and all that stuff I just never became I like Star Trek the television show and the movies For whatever reason collecting that stuff never really appealed to me collecting pairs of dispensers much more sense than Star Trek figures But I see you've even got aluus behind it and that he was a trip he was he was a trip to work with very very funny very I mean my stomach hurt at the end of the day by stomach what would hurt Working with him and Jack worked that's right you worked on use cars yeah and that was one of my first acting jobs I think I have three lines one scene but there was aluus and Jack worked at the hotel They picked me up at the hotel aluus and Jack Warden are in the backseat of the car and I'm in the So I say to myself all right I got to say something to them So I turned to aluus and I go you know I loved you on the monsters and blah blah blah Just gonna be a real treat and I turned to Jack Warden and I say and you know I have to say it's just a honor To work with you you've been in so many great films I'm just thrilled to work with you and he looks at me and goes but it's a fuck cares And I'm like and I turn around sitting in the car now then the driver doesn't say anything and I'm sitting there Totally humiliated and I just don't know what to do now Then I feel this hand out and I show the god I'm kidding and for the rest of the time that I was an Arizona with him I was the blood of all of their jokes these are moments that you kind of go how lucky am I Jack Warden goes you know what you're doing tonight I'm like I'm not doing anything I'm I'm in Phoenix by myself and hotel whatever I can be doing He's like you want to come to dinner with me and how and I'm like Yes Yes And so I go to dinner with aluus and Jack Warden and we're hanging out eating dinner in their telling They knew each other for years in New York and they were both lifeguards at the YMCA Ian aluus was a circus clown for a while and just I mean amazing stories could not have been nicer and then paid for my dinner And then the next day I show up and and because people have seen the next morning I'm like there might be two best buddies now we're hanging around we're drinking coffee we're joking Aloud and somebody comes up to me.

It's still makes me laugh somebody comes up and ask for aluus and jacks Watergraf and I'm standing there They say could we have your autograph too and I say I don't know if you really want my autograph Yet and I starting to explain that I'm not a very successful actor and you won't know who I am in jackward It was just I and a god damn autograph You know so it was it was just again those are moments where you know I didn't get paid a real lot of money And I don't do a whole lot in the moody but those were moments that you know I treasure because you know how cool was that to get to and again I work with all these young actors and they go you know Will it's the secret you've been working forever You know and I say the secret is show up on time and be nice you know all upon time and being be nice Then you know don't be a jerk I work with so many actors who are just jerks who basically Show up unprepared expect people to you know cater to them and it's like you know come on It's you're not breaking rocks and the hot sun Yeah, we hear you're an actor you know it's like oh my god.

I'm exhausted Yeah, you know, yeah, you worked a 12 hour day but you only actually worked 45 minutes You know, I mean come on be realistic be polite when they ask you to do something don't give them attitude And the other the other tip is move to George Move to Georgia but because it's much cheaper than Los Angeles and there's a lot more work there So you've got the third book coming out what else are you working on oh How bunch of stuff? I have I think three screenplays at my ageing to Got out and about I have a television pilot that I wrote with two other writers You know, I'm never I'm always working on something that was also something I learned very early on You can't just have one project.

Yeah, if you have to have multiple projects you have to always be hustling You know, I've done okay. I made a nice The writer in actor, but you know, it's a constant hustle and if you're not hustling your dad Literally, I mean I I've gone to parties and run into people Lerat lemman they're trying to be polite but they're like are you retired? Like no, I don't think so Because I took some time off, you know, I was relaxing You know, I have a family I had a life I went on vacation and you know, you go away for a little while and people There's a lot of other office here and I'm in my I pretend that I have a job. I'm in my office by 830 I take a lunch break at 12 o'clock for half hour and then I work from you know like one o'clock to probably three or four You know, so it's like I and I do that five days week and so I have nothing else I am prolific Mr. and Grafia, thank you so much for your time.

This was great talk with you. Thank you pleasure (L erm) (L erm) Alright, we're back and we're talking about welcome home brother Charles. Now you guys mentioned that you'd seen the penitentiary films. I've not seen either of those. How are they?

Should I be checking those out? And immediately? I would think so. I would say, though, sure. I've been thinking about revisiting them.

I met to before this, but I just end then the time. I only saw the first two. I know there's three. But the second one in particular is wild. It was kind of what got me turned on to it in the first place.

Just finding out, like, "Oh, there's a violin ass movie with Mr. Teeinit?" (L erm) And it's a very early Ernie Hudson role too. I think he's the bad guy in it. It's wild. The first one is pretty good.

The second one is crazy. I haven't heard a lot about the third, so. But yeah, I think I fell off too. I don't think I ever saw the third. I think the third got really mixed reviews.

I think that's the thing. Yeah. I honestly think those movies might be right up your alley, Mike. That's right. But I agree, they're definitely the first two.

Kind of like, "God, Father, three, how would you kind of take the third fight?" No. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think it came out a bit later. That's right.

That's right. And then he had one more called Street Wars at the end, which I haven't heard anything about that one. Yeah, I think I tried to see it somewhere or tried to put it down at one point and it was available too. And then the Vittnerkris singer, when they put this one out, when they put out, "Welcome home, brother, Charles, they also included Emma Ray," or, "Sorry, Emma May on there as well." That's about the way. That's been shown on Teeinit.

Back that's where I was at. It's got a different name as well. That's like, soul-sister's revenge or something like that. I can't remember what it is. Yeah.

Because this one, when I watched, before I got the Vittnerkris singer and disc, I watched the Z-9 version, which has at a horrible, chiron-title of soul vengeance at the beginning. Yeah. I was lucky to find that. But I mean, God bless Vittnerkris. That's true.

The things that they will dig up and make look better than anything you've ever seen when we're still in a world where you can't even get a proper HD copy of like true lies of the abyss. Right. Oh, sorry. It was black sisters, revenge. Blacks are the best.

Blacks are the best. Yeah. I think, I think, I think, I think, I think they used the original title. I seen the recall. Yeah.

I also missed the one short film, the alternate title that he made was Death on the installment plan. One of the best lines I think in this movie is the line about him doing time on the white man's installment plan. Yeah. There's some really clever wives in here. I mean, I just, I don't know.

It feels like I'm not supposed to like this movie. It feels like, oh, it's too rough and just, you know, like the whole thing we're talking about what the confusion around what happens first and does he actually get castrated it. Yeah, there's some problems here, but I, you know, I've seen a lot worse man. I've seen hell, full of words and I just think that the things of this and I wasn't doing this whole thing of like the guy who gets out of jail and goes after all the people that put him away. I mean, we've seen that trope and so many movies.

And never like this. Never like this. No. Oh, it's right. That's right.

Man. And see, I could, you see, no, really, I could you see like, you know, try to piss us to a room of women executive. So look, I'm a guy. See, and they try to, and they try to cast me them only doesn't work and the, and the, and this through radiation, some other mystical means he gets his massive cock. Oh, baby.

Oh, yeah. Get out. Get out now. You gotta have the balls of like like, sorry to bother you. And that takes, that takes a lot of build up.

You've got, you've got to set that tone early and just get a weirder from there. And this movie does not have any interest in setting that. And it just comes to such a surprise when that starts happening. Yeah, because like I said, so much of it is, you know, slice of life stuff, you know, just, like, like, like, a legitimate drama, like the stuff with like him and the girlfriend, like, the one scene where they're, you know, they like, they have like a tender love making sequence every other whole red suit. Yeah.

And, you know, it's so, like, it feels so real and human. And I mean, it also kind of, when she put on the record though, I couldn't help but think of the Kentucky Fried movie that joyous sex. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah, it feels, you know, like the fact that the movie takes time to show you like the human side, the fact that like that, it's not just an element of destruction in his pants. Like, yeah, it can be used for good and for a hand in every other. Yeah. That's it. Let's say, well, that's it.

The less the duality that you can, you can bring out in the, in the remake. What we also end the movie on, which I'll just refer to as the love theme for Malcolm Hombra, the chocolate. Yes. I feel like that's a lot of start. Yeah.

Yeah. It was looking for because there was like two or two songs, I think, that play throughout the film. And I was looking for those someplace, but could not find anything, not even, I'd like to scogs or anything. Turn your remember, because there's the theme that I was talking about with like, it almost sounds like horns or like, almost like fog horns in it. And then it sounds like, I don't know, hyenas laughing or something.

It's just really kind of strange, but then the others, two songs by Andre Douglas and the Gliders. And yeah, I think it's imagine is the love theme. And then there's another one called junkies, pumps. And I was looking for those out of 45 or something. And now, no.

Oh, let's do it. That's great. I could, I could find music from top of the heap. Yes, you know. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, this being, yeah, a student film, like, yeah, the distribution couldn't, and then just get in the rice stuff like that. That was, like, exactly. And I was thinking, like, how many, how many would, like, full on student films by noitable filmmakers are like, actually out there and successful on their own, because I could think like this, there's cannibal to musical and I can't think of much else. T.

A. J. X. wasn't that, uh, Lucas, a student film. There was a version that was for, like, that was a, a student film that he played. But then this was actually the theatrical version was actually going to brotherhood that out, and that was all because of, um, Francis, fork popular.

Almost forgot dark star. There's dark star. Dark star. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Because that was the key. My mind immediately went to El Maryachi, but Brad Regas wasn't in school. Yeah. He was just putting himself through medical tests for fun and faculty. Exactly.

That was right. That's crazy. And that's, that's a little funny. It's thinking about it. And then he remade, he remade the right with Ben Dairons.

Is that correct? But it's supposed to be a sequel. It's because it, it flashes back to the end of the first movie, but, but yeah, it kind of just feels like, you know, it's almost telling the same story. It's like evil dead and evil did too. Yeah.

Yeah. There you go. Where are I? It took me a little bit to get that when I was watching at the first time, um, Desperado and I was like, oh, wait, wait. No, he's a big, rainy fan.

This is like, evil did too. You know, like, why would he go back to the, to the cabin? Yeah, that's that one scenery has the flashback to getting shot in the hand and I'm like, oh, yeah, that guy. Yeah, and that original dude actually shows up there at the end with like the three Mary Archie. I recall that.

That's right. Yeah. And I wish they would have like gotten a branched off and done like, oh, and here's the third Mary Archie's story. Instead of once upon a time in Mexico, which I was not a fan of. Which I was, yeah, it's a very strange film.

That is, I'm about three films. Yeah. Yeah. I liked it at the time, but it's been a long time. I think just the, I think just the, I turned to know, came, you know, just kind of sourd it for me.

Yeah, you got a little more history there than we do. There you go. I don't know, man. I, you know, I got to be careful with my words. Everywhere I say is kind of, in you window, and I don't mean it to be.

But, but really, I think it's just planted in me, man, that it's like, I don't know, man. Just, I'll just, I did like, you could do it as a graphic novel or maybe as a, you know, kind of like a crazy, you know, like, in the days of Holloway House. You could do a kind of howly house, kind of just lure it, you know, paperback original and really kind of, you know, clank it up as we've talked about, you know, in terms of just the, you know, the stradious of it and all that. And maybe that's the way to do it is is you put it, it just on paper, maybe you're safe for the imagery, I'm not sure. It can be a whole crew to go on that journey with you and get the money.

That's the hard part. That's hard. That's hard. That's right. That's your foot in it all.

I'm paying for yourself. You can do whatever you want. That's right. You don't want to read it. Go ahead.

You want to burn it. Go on. No, I'm burning. Yeah, I'm making, yeah, you got to steal by at the burn. So that's what I was making.

That's it. And then we don't have to worry about special effects and how they look either. So pretty a really ghetto places with that. You know, in a few minutes, I'm going to ask you where you're working on, but I think I just found your new project for you. So I just, I just got to ask, like, what the hell did Chinese food ever do to that man?

Exactly. Yeah, what was that about? You write that was like the morning thing. You're right. That's right.

That's a strange. Yeah, that was like, you're what the heck, really? Go on man. That's it. All right guys, let's go ahead and take another break and play your preview for next week's show.

What's that? Yeah, but that's it. Wow, we've never had a question. People are next to me. I won't be there for five or five days Hey, popman.

When did I last came back fromилось late ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? That's from Gianni Sympath pushing the Core into the immediate red orertion place with a whole PSV app Fuck them multiple videos buddy, they're not so bad for photography and I think this week's co-host Gary and Jackie so Jackie what has been keeping you busy lately. You know just life. I you know it's been a while since I've made a proper for a into the internet as any kind of personality. Although I'm hoping to do a bit more of it soon.

I've been working as the events manager here at the Alamo Draft House in the Houston area so that keeps me busy because I work up in we are actually right now live from a protection booth because it's the quietest place I could think of busy round the clock just getting good movies out there and making sure people have fun but hopefully good friend Chris Dash who is trying to get me back on his show. I hope to be on there very soon again. I've actually working on of all things and Album of sort of I'm joining on a project. It's not my project. I guess I know a bunch of guys involved in the old retro game scene.

There's an old PC game called the seventh guest and they're doing an Album sort of a reimagining the music from that and it's an incredible soundtrack. So their band is called Air 47 and I'm going to be contributing vocals to the songs on that. So I'm really excited about that because it's just like the music to that game was the first time I heard anything on that medium that sounded like real music. And it's an incredible like it's exciting to be part of that kind of project and then I've got to hope and get more stuff like that out there too. I just want to get more active with the arts wherever I can because yeah it's you know I miss it.

It's so much fun to create and carry how about yourself. A lot I've you know I had a novel out last year once on Harry so I've not been kind of going through which you've very I've had some very good comments from my editor so we've kind of been you know doing the tweaks and rewrites and revisions on that so that's been I've been pretty happy with how that's gone and then we're going to come to a comic book projects including something for all I guess while the door stayed open comic psychology originals which that was got to have solved across the table at Amazon but in particular our project got to be a good one. I guess it's well still out money there and it's taking a character of mine there's a lot of character Martha Cheney that I ridden a couple books about novels about in the past and kind of transporting her transformer into the realm of comics of kind of we get this great artist Adriana mellow who's resilient and she just fantastic and so I've had a great great time you know working on that.

Well thank you so much folks for bringing on the show thanks to everybody for listening if you want to hear more me shooting off by mouth check out some of the other shows I work on there are all available at weedingwagmedia.com thanks especially to our Patreon community if you want to join the community visit patreon.com/projectionbooth every donation we get helps the projection booth take over the world [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]