Blank Check with Griffin & David - Caged Heat/ Crazy Mama/ Fighting Mad

Episode Date: November 10, 2019

It’s the first episode of a new mini-series. You voted for him, you’ve only yourself to blame for JONATHAN DEMME. Probably one of the directors with the most range of films - from rom coms to serious dramas - Griffin and David start with the first three of his films, each a strange genre movie: Caged Heat about a prison break; Crazy Mama about women doing crimes; and Fighting Mad which pits farmers vs coal companies. What is the appeal of women’s prison movies? Literally what is Michael Richards doing all day? Can art be non-political nowadays? And what exactly makes Demme SO iconic that he’s such an influencer? 

blank check with griffin and david blank check with griffin and david don't know what to say or to expect all you need to know is that the name of the show is blank check white hot desires melting cold podcast steel. Is that for Kate Sheet? Yep. Okay. Give me another second here. You got them all? Hold on.

Hold on. Pause. The crazy mama one's long. In 1957, Cheryl drove mom's Chevy on a heavy date, got knocked up, knocked over a bank, smashed four police cars, and kidnapped her stepfather. It was a crazy podcast. Pretty good. Okay, hold on. The next one's pretty good too.

Hold on, please. People really care about tackling. Please hold on. An Avenger on wheels. He chases them across the state and wipes them off the podcast. Does he? Hold on. What they do to his woman is the most shocking podcast of all.

Really? I don't even know. I mean, a lot of shocking stuff happens in that movie. I don't know if he chases them across the state. Yeah, I don't know how accurate. I feel like he just goes over to their house. Okay. Well, anyway, I am finished now, so you can make whatever points you want to make. People used to really put a lot of effort into taglines. They were good. And I really appreciate that. And they were like a little, like, I am finished now, so you can make whatever points you want to make. People used to really put a lot of effort into taglines, and I really appreciate that.

And they were like a little- And it could be longer. A paragraph. It could be like a little story. Well, here's the thing I like looking at old movie posters. Yeah. I mean, KGT poster is phenomenal. Phenomenal.

That's a phenomenal poster. Oh, phenomenal. That's a phenomenal poster. No, but the thing I like about old movie posters is- Crazy Mama looks like some shit like a weirdo drew. Like, they were just like, give it to the weirdo. And he was like, crazy mama. It looks like a pamphlet that someone hands out at Times Square.

Right, that it's like a Chick tract or something. Fighting mad, it's okay. The thing I like about old posters, and especially I feel like sort of like schlocky, Corman-y, exploitation movies like this is that marketing was not as saturated. So a movie had to be able to sell itself

exclusively on its poster if that was what need be. This Fighting Mad poster is really good. Right. Because there's the other one where he's like

got the bow. Yeah. And that one has the thing where it's like, hey, he's got a bow. This one, no bow, but still pretty cool. Do you know what I'm saying though?

Yeah, I do. Like you need to be able to walk up to the theater and be like, what's he's got a bow. Right. This one, no bow, but still pretty cool. Do you know what I'm saying, though? Yeah, I do. Like, you need to be able to walk up to the theater and be like, what's playing this Friday? And the poster has 12 sentences on it. It has a bunch of elements. Right. Right, right. It's got, like, really kinetic, like, illustration.

Yeah. It's kind of similar to, like, schlocky paperback novels. Yes. I would buy this poster and hang it on my wall. It's a great poster. You know what I mean? Because it's sort of a conversation piece too. You can be like, oh yeah, Peter Fonda's in that. You know, that was a Jonathan Demme movie. You know, I feel like you get a couple

times a year a movie, especially if the movie's supposed to be like a throwback or an homage to like a bygone genre film. They'll be like, oh look, it's an internet exclusive. A VHS cover. Right, but they'll just like put it on like a fucking website. It'll be like a film thread exclusive or whatever and it disappears and I'm like

how much attention would one of these movies get if they were just like this is our fucking poster. We hired like a painter. The best part. Right. There were like 12 painters. Right. You hired one of them. Right. But like look at like you know the most popular movie of 2019, Stuber, did one of these posters that's like.

Stuber is just so crucial to this podcast, I feel like. And also I feel like crucial to the state of cinema. No, but that's why we're invested in Stuber. A hundred percent. Even though Stuber came and went. Yes. Didn't make a ton of money. Like an Uber ride.

Just a quick blip. Just a quick blip. Just a quick blip. Just a quick blip. But Stupor's important. Because I feel like Fox, Alan Horn comes out and he's like, look, what can we say? Fox had a terrible year. We have to fire 8 billion employees because Dark Phoenix bombed. But I, and obviously an excuse.

Right? They were always going to fucking cut Fox off at the ankles. They were always going to strip it for parts, right? But I feel like you could put as much blame on Stuber as Dark Phoenix. And Stuber is a far better movie, and it lost less money. Yeah, I don't think, right, it didn't lose too much money, because it can't cost that much, right? Right, but I do think that, like think that movie had an aggressive marketing campaign. Sure.

And it had a prime position in a summer where no comedies were working. Yeah. And it so fully failed to register in any way. I think I had a few. If we really want to, can we start our miniseries off on a good note by analyzing a couple of the problems in the super marketing campaign? I forgot we're starting a miniseries. I forgot. Like the dew on a leaf as the sun gently rises and tickles the plains.

The promise of a new tomorrow. It's morning in America, blankies. Can you add a, um, like a rooster crowing right there when he says that? It's morning in America, and if you look out there, off in the horizon,

squint, Ben, squint. Can you see it just faintly? Just slightly. Coming up the road. Yeah, here it comes. What is it? Oh my God, it's a new miniseries! It's a new miniseries! It's a new

miniseries, David! Oh no, it's burning up! I think people are like, ah! The miniseries is too hot! It's photosensitive! I can't handle the miniseries! Of course, this podcast is called Blink Check with Griffin and David.

I'm Griffin. So excited for the new fans. David, new fans joining the Demi heads. Podcasts about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers who give a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear, and sometimes they bounce. Baby! And this is a miniseries on the films of Jonathan Demi,

and I just realized we have not had even one conversation about the name of this miniseries. No. I don't think so. We just barreled into it. Yeah. Look at how fucking arrogant we've become. Pretty sure I know what the name is. What do you think it is?

Married to the Pod. I strongly disagree. I could not disagree. No, no, please go ahead. What's the name? I don't know. I'm saying we didn't have one conversation. You just strongly disagree with Mar could not disagree. No, no, please go ahead. What's the name? I don't know. I'm saying we didn't have one conversation. You just strongly disagree with married to the pod cast?

Yeah, I do. I feel like it should be a Silence of the Lambs thing, but now I'm trying to figure out how to make it work. We've not talked about this once. Not even ideally. I'm not upset. I'm just astonished. Our lack of planning? Do you remember the amount of hand-w wringing we used to do over every detail?

The Pachurian cast. We've become complacent. We need to shake it up. Well don't you think it's

really a Slicinger movie? And it's a miniseries. Right. A remake. You know miniseries shouldn't

be titled after a remake. I mean Frankenheimer not Slicinger. Jesus Christ. I always get my you know

Isingers. It's fine and you're cancelled. It finally happened. Silence of the Lambs. Canceled! Silence of the Lambs. You've been walking a tightrope for so long and David is high-fiving Ben. Ben is not interested in my antics today.

No, I like antics. Alright, thank you. I was actually, I was getting distracted because I was thinking about how I would sound design the cancel moment. Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure. See, this is what I'm talking about. And I was thinking about it would be a stamp and it would be like, cancel. Yeah, that's good.

We got to kick our butts in the gear. Okay. We got to get creative. You know what? You're right. It's a new miniseries. This is always an opportunity to start fresh. And the freshest start we've ever had.

And I'm going to say. You don't want to talk about Stuber? I do want to talk about Stuber. We'll get back to Stuber in a second. Of course we have to talk about Stuber. Table Stuber for now. To be clear, this is posting November 10th. So Stuber will be available on digital.

Steelbook's coming. All platforms. You know, I haven't seen a Steelbook pre-order. We're going to be better this mini-series. We're going to be stronger. Stronger? We're going to be faster. Oh, boy. I don't think a Steelbook pre-order. We're going to be better this mini-series. We're going to be stronger. Stronger? We're going to be faster. Oh, boy.

I don't think we'll be faster. I'm going to vape less. Well, I thought you quit. Well, I have a different kind of vape now. Oh, boy. I don't think getting a different kind of vape is quitting. It's like, you know, a special vape. Yeah, get wacky tobacco.

Yeah. Ben's holding up. It's Snoop Dogg's brand. And what is the name of Snoop Dogg's brand? Give him a free plug. Why not? G-something. Great.

I'm sure he's thrilled. Okay, here are a couple big news items. It's probably how Snoop Dogg pitched it. I don't know. It's called like G-something. Here are a couple big news items. One, Ben, you will be elated to hear that I finally watched The Beach Bomb. Oh.

It's now streaming on Hulu. I forgot you hadn't seen it. Because it— It came and went. It opened so wide. It bombed so quickly. And, like, the week it was playing wide was the week I was in L.A. trying in vain to save my TV show. Right.

My TV show, of course, being— Fuck. I was going to make some joke. No, I couldn't think of a show that got canceled which I could pretend I was a fan of. Oh, sure. That was the joke for me. You did that joke at George Lucas. I do that joke all the time.

Yeah, if you can't remember what show you said it in. No, I can't remember what fucking show. It was whatever was actually in the news that week. Sneaky Pete, whatever. I don't know. Sneaky Pete, he's so sneaky. It was funny when I did it. You should have been there. What if Sneaky Pete, whatever. I don't know. He's so sneaky. It was funny when I did it. You should have been there.

What if Sneaky Pete was sneakier than ever? I know. Goliath? Oh, here's another check-in. Remember when I predicted that both Sneaky Pete and Bosh would be canceled by the time that episode came out? And I was correct about Sneaky Pete but incorrect about Bosh? It turned out Bosh got renewed for two seasons at the same time. So it doesn't count

so I wasn't wrong I was ill informed fine okay now back on to serious matters such as the title

of this mini series or Stuber's performance table it Stuber is in the hopper I have two other things to talk about first this very streamlined episode

people complain that we're not talking about the movies enough I'm going to correct that but let me talk about four things that have nothing to do with this filmography first. One. Finally watch The Beach Bomb.

It's on Hulu. A lovely film. No one, no one told me that Harmony Koran wrote a script in which Snoop Dogg is a character, hired Snoop Dogg to play Snoop Dogg, and then somewhere along the process

Snoop Dogg was like, I feel a little constrained by this literally being me can we change the name of the character so the character's name is different but he is otherwise exactly the same as celebrity Snoop Dogg right down to the point where when drop it like it's hot is playing he goes this song was a big hit for me and yet also he's intricately involved in the life of a Miami poet. I love that he was like, you know what would be funny? If this guy was friends with Snoop Dogg, and he reaches out to Snoop Dogg and he's like, it's kind of a weird, it's like a being John

Malkovich thing, it's like a fictionalized version of you but you fit into this narrative, are you down to do it? And he's like, yes. And then as they're in the rehearsal process, he's like, you know what? I feel like I want to make some choices with this character. I need to change the name to Lie but otherwise nothing else has changed simple question yeah was it did he want to change the name because he was worried he was a little too close to the character or just because it would be funny if he was called lingerie

from my understanding because i tried to go deep on this i was like demanding answers from my understanding he was like, I think we have more room to play if it's not literally me. Right. Right. Okay. I think pot celebrities

like Snoop Dogg. Yeah. Like, I think that's cool. Like, this is what this miniseries is going to be, huh? All right.

No. What did you think of the beat? Come on. Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg. How do you rise to that level? I like smoking weed. Where you're making money off of your brand as just being a

smoker. I smoke a lot of weed. I'm Willie Nelson. We're famous already, it feels like. You've got to be famous for a good few years and then just talk about it so much. People are like, we get it. That's your thing. Alright. And then after a while, you're like, I quit. And they're like, all right.

You're not interesting anymore. Seth Rogen, I got to say, has done a pretty good job of. I can't do it. He's done a good job. I'm going too Cookie Monster. I'm going too Cookie Monster. I think he's done a good job of maintaining a level of weed culture focus that is sustainable. Because he's never had to do the scale back thing.

Yes. You know what I'm saying? A lot of these guys go a little too hard at some point. Things have changed. Then they have to go like, I'm not just all about weed. Right. Okay. Very important matter of business. Yeah.

Well, I was just going to say, I love the Snoop Dogg lingerie beach bum thing. I think it's one of the most audacious choices I've ever seen in a movie. And it's great because it's the opposite of Diane Ward in Chappie in terms of successfulness. I agree. Which is like, oh, they keep the names the same make the characters different but the actors are playing t-shirts

with the name of their band on them did you like the movie? Beach Bum yes I think it's fantastic point number two point number two

I have a huge announcement for everyone and Ben doesn't even know this I've officially gotten David into steelbooks. Oh, sure, sure, sure. Right. I don't know if Ben's that pumped about that. I don't even know what that means. Okay, for the listener at home,

Ben's eyes have rolled back into his head. The listeners are freaking out and the point is I started texting David images of steelbooks and then selling him on steelbooks are like... I always fucking talk about them. No, I'm excited.

Discs that come in like a metal case and they usually have more minimalist artwork. And they're like limited edition and they're usually exclusive to Best Buy. And I set David off and he ordered like three of them. Yeah. Yeah. I just feel good about this. That's cool. And this is a new miniseries and it's a fresh start and it's a really clean entry point for new listeners.

Okay, point number three, Stuber. So, Stuber. I'm just going to say, I know what you're talking about. I know what you're saying. You know what I mean? With the Stuber poster? Oh, you wanted to say you were talking about the poster specifically. Yes.

I'm sorry. What were you going to say about Stuber? I just think, like, a lot of these titles that underperformed this year and prompted a sort of, like, oh, no like the studio movie dead is the comedy that is the, you know, like, you know, it's like Stuber got bad reviews.

Yeah. It had a terrible name. I'm sorry, but it did. Yeah. Um, and although I think there's a lot of public goodwill for Dave Batista and Camille,

maybe they're not quite at this sort of level where people just automatically going to see movie because they're in it. Sure. So it just had a lot working against it. And, you know, that was that, right? Like, it's just sort of like, it's hard to break through. Like, it opened against Crawl, and a lot of people were like, Crawl, what's it about?

There's a crocodile? Yeah. It eats people? I'm there. But Crawl even underperformed. Crawl did fine. Crawl did not. Crawl should have done much better.

What? Krall did great. Krall ended up at 45? 38. Oh, David, that's not good. Horror is one of the only viable genres. Yeah, but it was Paramount. That's what I'm...

Oh, so that means it did well? Oh, I don't know. For new listeners, they do this all the time. Paramount torpedoed that movie. They fucked it up. They torpedoed everything. They fucked it up. Please hire us, Paramount.

Look at Cursa La La Ronia. A movie that quietly made $65 million domestic? Yeah, but that was in the Conjuring universe. That's some branding right there. I'm just saying. Krall had some of the best reviews of the year. Krull got some good reviews, but that was a good movie.

They didn't screen it in time, so it got kind of late good reviews, but yeah. They fucked it up. Can I say a big thing about Krull? Sure. Saw it in theaters like all American moviegoers should have.

Right. And it was the first film I've seen in a long time. And obviously I have more love for the medium than most. But it was the first film I've seen theatrically in a long time where I was like, man, I hate that they fucked up 3D and killed it. Because Crawl is a movie designed to be 3D. You like the medium more than most, I would say. But even still, I cannot remember the last time in five years I saw a movie and I was like, fuck, movie designed to be a 3D. You like the media more than most I would say. But even still, I cannot

remember the last time in five years I saw a movie and I was like fuck, this should have been in 3D. Crawl is like it should have been in 3D. It's all like spaces with a water level that's high. It's very immersive. It's all about depth. Right, it's in like small contained quarters. See, I couldn't, I'm too claustrophobic to see that movie because

everyone was like, Ben, you have to see this. It's such a wet movie and I was interested. Very wet. But I can't do claustrophobic to see that movie because everyone was like, Ben, you have to see this. It's such a wet movie and I was interested. Very wet. But I can't do claustrophobic stuff. Most of it's in a basement. Yeah, sounds like a nightmare. I'll see it on Steelbook. TV. Oh man, the Crawl Steelbook.

Maybe it'll be like in the shape of a crocodile biting. Ooh, maybe there'll be a bite mark in the Steelbook. Got a text message? What do you got there? That's not important. What's important is that the Venom steelbook,

and once again, very streamlined episode, very focused, new miniseries, great entry point for new listeners. The Venom steelbook is like...

It's his face, I see. And it's like the title is forming in the sides of his mouth. Well, Venom's a pretty malleable face. I know, but I just think that's like a clever design.

And this gets back to the thing, watch me come full circle. I love Venom. I find the steelbook artwork is so often more compelling than the actual artwork for the main release of the film because they feel like, oh, we can get more creative with it. And then for the main release,

it's usually some Photoshopped, like jumbled nonsense, right? And I feel the same way about posters, where you look at these three Corman movies, and they all have striking posters. They do. They do. And I feel like something like Stuber, they'll do, like, a retro throwback, like, Stuber

poster. Do you mean, like, this one? I think that's the one. Right. And you're like, it's kind of half-assed. This one's no good. It's like a poor emulation of what they're trying to do.

And This Jouber poster that wasn't bad was the one that prominently featured the dog. I know. Because then at least I'm like oh there's a dog

in this thing? Well and I also like And it turns out the dog's barely involved. Okay. This is a miniseries on the films of Jonathan Demme.

Obviously. Kind of a green. Yeah. And I'm gonna just write on the films of Jonathan Demme, obviously. Kind of a green, yeah. And I'm going to just write out The Silence of the Lambs and see if I can visualize how to make this work. And we're going to talk about all three of these movies a bunch because this is the first time we've covered three movies in one episode, which of course means we're stalling for time and trying to figure out ways to pad out the episode.

Yeah, which we really need to do. Yeah, this is the beginning of our Jonathan Demme miniseries, and for the beginning of our Jonathan Demme miniseries, we're talking about the three movies he made with the Corman family. Mm-hmm. Caged Heat, Crazy Mama, and Fightin' Man. In that order,

three successive years. 1974, 1975, 1976. Bam, bam, bam, and someone on the Reddit pointed out Caged Heat is now officially the oldest movie we've covered on the podcast. That is true. We've got to go further back. We haven't done anything. Yeah, no.

We've got to go back. But we so far have not covered a film earlier than 1974. I think this beats The Loveless as previously the oldest. There you go. Fair enough. But here's a big asterisk as to why. We usually cover current filmmakers, working filmmakers, whose careers we can still track. This is the first time we are

covering a late filmmaker on the podcast, which is sad. I'm happy that we're making time to discuss all of his films because it's quite a career. I mean, he's a relatively current filmmaker in that he made a movie that came out five or six years ago whenever

Ricky and the Flash came out. But it's the first time we're talking about someone where there's a full end ellipses on the miniseries. There's no sort of forward thinking like what could happen. Griffey and the podcast? This is our second director. March Madness. That won our March Madness bracket. He defeated George Miller.

In the final round. And it was quite a Cinderella run. Kind of like the Nancy Meyers one. But it's stealth. That's the thing. Because Nancy Meyers was dominating every matchup. She got some big scalps early. Right.

But he was like, that March Madness was kind of boring. Like all the winners were kind of big shots. We were upset because we were like, it's going to be a really boring Final Four where it's just the top four seed. He was kind of sneaking along. I mean, let me try and get... I feel like he was edging out narrow victories.

Yeah, okay. Here was his run. He beat Cronenberg by four points. Kind of a surprise. Yeah, I was surprised. He beat Verbinski by a lot. I was very surprised But you swung the vote

By tweeting that you didn't want to talk about Johnny Depp for a while I swung the vote And I didn't think it would have that effect And I will live with that guilt forever Yeah who cares And then in the quarter finals He beat PTA by a hair By two points

And that was kind of an interesting matchup That was like Ew Yeah mentor And you know, disciple. PTA being the disciple. And then in the semifinals he beat Ramey

by two points, so another tie. I mean, he squeaked all the way. And then he beat Miller by four points. So it was always squeakers. Squeaked squeak. But even now, looking back, I can't believe it happened. What a run. I'm looking at his films.

I mean, right now, I feel like, is it just the silence of the podcast? Yeah, fine. That's good. Okay. Let's do it. The silence of the podcast. The truth about podcasting. Stop potting casts.

The truth about podcasting. Stop potting casts. No, I don't like that. Stop making podcasts. I don't like potting as a word. Stop making podcasts. That's not a verb. We're not potting right a word stop making podcast that's not a verb we're not potting right now as the thing that america cries out to us all the time stop making podcasts conan already did it

the truth about podcasting i just kind of like that as a grabby title it's kind of interesting the truth about podcasting but here's and here's the truth about podcasting And here's the truth about podcasting I love it I mean a great twist But what I like about Silence of the podcast Is it's a little bit funny It's a little winsome because it's like

Silence of the podcast Is an audio medium I mean that's fair It's really funny, David. Well, why don't we put up a survey? Okay. Here are the options. Stop making podcasts.

All right. Wait a second. Let me. The truth about podcasts. I think all of these have to be podcast is in it as one word. We're not splitting up podcasts. I don't like splitting them up unless it's really smooth. And when it's smooth, oh oh baby, does it feel good?

Something wild doesn't work. Married to the podcast. Did I like when you were humping the air? Yes. Everyone loved it, David. What's he doing? More physical! Okay, that's a new thing. Yeah. For this new miniseries, more physical bits more physical

bits uh well if you want to get david physical hold up a picture colin farrell what am i doing ben's dabbing you said that with great distress yeah okay here are the four options ready and don't worry we will very shortly start talking about the first of three movies also effective moving forward this is i have to weigh in as the commissioner the commish right one of your names of course officially no more eating on blank check hey look you know it's controversial but i am one who has been vouching for this for a little while. To stop eating? Yeah. I'll say this.

We're only ever eating if we're fucking hungry and, like, timing has gotten away from us, right? We don't do it deliberately. But no more. If I see, if I see just anything edible in your hands, I will smack it out.

What the fuck is the Twitter password? I'm not, what, you want me to say it on mic? For listeners just tuning in, we spent six minutes trying to remember the password to our own Twitter account. Alright, here are the polls. Okay, we had to cut all of that out. Yeah. Truly, several minutes. Okay, here we go.

Back in full energy. All right, here we go. Come on, come on, come on. Four options. One, stop making podcasts. Ben is vomiting in the corner. Two. No, I'm not.

The silence of the casts. No pod. Drop the pod. It's cleaner. This is a new miniseries. Everything's out the window. All right. Number three, the truth about podcast singular.

Your boy's wild for this one. Truth about podcast. All right, okay, fine, yeah. Number four, married to the pod. I want all four of them to be different. A singular, a plural, one pod, one cast. This is radical. This is what happens when there's a new miniseries.

It's tweeted. Okay, huge. I didn't mean to say that like I sounded like a crazy person. And we're having a great time and we're all in great mood. I think it's going pretty good. I think it's going great. So Jonathan Dunbar was born February 22nd, 1944 in Baldwin, New York. In Baldwin, New York?

Baldwin, New York. All right. He was raised in Rockville Center, New York. He, New York. All right. He was raised in Rockville Center, New York. He's long out. And Miami. He's long out. And Miami because he graduated from Southwest Miami High School. Okay, okay.

Went to the University of Florida. Right, so it's like first half, he's in sort of like Westchester, Long Island, New York life. Second half, he goes tropical, baby. Like the beach bum. Yeah. Do we have any idea what happened? Did he go to film school? I realize we didn't. University of Florida has a famous film school. Right. I bought

a Demi book. Hasn't arrived yet. We went quickly into this mini-series without realizing we had done any of the prerequisites. You're looking at me like I'd do that. I'm looking at you with a sense of like, please forgive me.

Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Cut some of that out. Cut everything out. Enough dissing of the podcast. Here's the start of the episode. Here we go.

Here we go. He was a film critic at the U of Florida College Paper. The old Bogdanovich pathway. I can reveal this now. Can I reveal a spoiler about it too? What? Because this is coming out way. Bogdanovich plays. I can reveal this now. Can I reveal a spoiler about it too? What? Because this is coming out way.

Bogdanovich plays a director in it. He plays like the director of a movie of like It 1 essentially. Like James McAvoy like wrote It 1, right? He's like a grown-up screenwriter now and he like wrote a movie about his childhood. Uh-huh. And like Bogdanovich plays the director. It's pretty great. a movie about his childhood and like Bogdanovich

plays the director it's pretty great. I thought you were saying can I share a spoiler about It, T-O-O which is a problem that I think is going to

keep happening when this movie comes out. Well, I believe It Chapter 2 is the No, but you know what I'm saying. I was like a spoiler about what? Okay, sure.

Anyway, that's the spoiler. And you were like this also. That's what I thought you were saying. Alright, alright. Which I bring up because the other day I was texting with our friend Alex Ross Perry, and we similarly had a giant miscommunication over the fact that I texted to ask him if he had seen Scary Stories to tell him the dark.

And then to curious what you thought about it. But the first text didn't go through, and he was like, I liked it okay. Oh, sure, sure. Saw the first one. I'm excited for the second one. And I was like i liked it okay oh sure sure saw the first one i'm excited for the second one and i was like have they announced a sequel and we kept talking about it all right came to the attention of producer joseph levine okay as a critic as a critic who was so impressed by demi's positive review of the movie zulu a british classic yeah that now is probably just the most fucking impossibly racist movie ever made.

Like, I haven't thought about Zulu in a while. It was Michael Caine's launch. Have you ever seen Zulu? No, I've heard Michael Caine talk about filming Zulu. Like, where it was rough at? Like, what, like talk negatively? You know, when his Masterclass thing. Yeah.

Yeah, he talked about it a lot, all the lessons he learned from being bad on Zulu. Anyway, whatever. I've never seen that. My parents and my grandparents used to have it on VHS. Yeah. And when they died, I threw it out. Wow.

Brutal. I took home a box of Betamax tapes and threw out Zulu on VHS. Oh, sure. Oh, you took. So Levine hires him as a publicity writer. Okay. Okay. So now he's in the biz tangentially. But so he was not studying.

No, I don't think so. Directing. But he liked movies because he's writing about them. Blanket. Blanket. He probably would have said that. Yeah. Then he meets Roger Corman.

Okay. Because he's doing publicity on a Corman movie, von Richthofen and Brown. Okay. Mm-hmm. And so Corman's like I like you kid you know I got Bogdanovich I got Coppola I got

fucking Scorsese like you know he's coming a little later but like right like come join my stable of nerds who will make movies for me right years later he's gonna have James Cameron making models exactly Bill Paxton working as a gripper. Bill Paxton's first appearance

is in Fighting Mad, right? Or is it Crazy Mama? No, this is like a mythical figure. Sure. Roger Corman. He's still alive? He's still alive. He's still alive. He's a mythical figure. He, several years ago, got the honorary Oscar. And it was

kind of a big deal because his movies are not considered particularly good. But like the fruits of his tree, you know? That was the argument, was like, look at the amount of Academy Award winners who made their first film for Roger Corman.

Because he was like- Ron Howard. Yeah, another one. Francis Ford Coppola. Jonathan Demme. It's crazy. James Cameron. Like people where Roger Corman was like, I don't

know, make a thing. I think wouldn't it be more like, and people are experts on this sort of cinema decorum, but he'd be like, look, it's got to be a motorcycle movie, there needs to be tits, and there has to be a scene where a guy is thrown off an Apple truck. He had some specific demands that he

just was like, this is what the people like right now. But then he'd be like, do whatever else. I don't give a shit. Do whatever you want. You want to be weird? That's fine. You know the guy Mike Starr plays in Ed Wood when he goes in and he's trying to pitch him on like, this project means so much to me. I've been wearing these dresses.

He's like, I got the poster up. It's just got to have these three things in it. It's pre-sold in Alabama. Right. Roger Corman's interesting because he's that kind of like schlock meister except not cynical so first of all what's funny about him is he's super square he's just like this kind of like a vuncular old man who's like well the chill midwestern dude right very much like a normal guy he's not like some twisted master of bdsm right you never hear any stories about him being like a fucking like you know he much like a normal guy. He's not like some twisted master of BDSM. Right. You never hear any stories about him being like a fucking like, you know.

He got like an engineering degree at Stanford. He was like, these kids like the movies. I should try making some. He made TV shows. Right, right, right. But there was no like, oh, he was like a domineering asshole. There was nothing like salacious or, you know, anything about him. A lot of love. A lot of love for Corbin. A lot of love, which makes him this interesting figure.

And he, like, knew, like, I'm not trying to make art. I'm trying to make movies. But I think he had this generosity of spirit of, the thing I can really provide is, I'm selling sort of pre-selling the idea of, like, Fighting Mad comes out of Walking Tall

and Billy Jack. And these sorts of, of like rural Americans taking back what's theirs. Like one man with one weapon standing up to the system kind of movies. So he was able to go and go like, look, here's what you need. There needs to be a kid in it. You need to pick an iconic weapon. And he needs to stand up against something. Like he'll give you the three things. And I'll give you 40 grand and everything else is up to you. And he's also very famous. against something. Like, he'll give you the three things. And I'll give you 40 grand, and everything else is up to you.

And he's also very famous. It's almost like Chopped. Yeah. Well, because a big part of it was, I forget what movie it was. Like that show on Food Network, Chopped. Yeah, no, I'm aware. Yeah, yeah, no, no, we got it. We got it, we got it.

They give, like, three random ingredients. His Griffin sister was on Chopped. Yeah. Retired. Romilly. Yeah. Oh, boy. Remember her?

Sucking on his pen. Yeah. Shut up.. Romilly. Yeah. Oh, boy. Remember her? Sucking on his pen. Yeah. Shut up. The pen pens out. But he would literally do that too where they were like filming a movie in a castle and like Francis Ford Coppola was doing like additional dialogue. And he's like, Francis, you know, we have three extra days on this castle. We're going to wrap in time. If you can write something in the next 24 hours, I'll give you those three extra days

and you can direct whatever you want. And that's Francis Ford Coppola's first movie. There's this cool kind of like resourcefulness in that sense. I mean, sometimes it's like, here are the three elements I need to sell the movie. And sometimes it's, here's stuff I have left over. Here's an actor I have under contract. Here's a location I have. We built this monster for this thing, whatever it is. And that's the other thing that's interesting about him is he crosses over through a lot of different genres. They're all quote unquote genre movies, but he's not a guy where it was like, I just make horror pictures, you know? No, not at all. And he would sort of follow the trends. And he was very big in sort of like pushing the counterculture to the center of the

culture. One of the movies heulture to the center of the culture. One of the movies he directed is this movie called The Trip. That's like the first movie about an acid trip, which was Peter Fonda's big breakout. And it was co-written by Jack Nicholson because Jack Nicholson's another career that doesn't happen if not for Roger Corman. You know, we have a saying in our family,

use sports. Don't let sports use you. Hi, it's Jeff Merrick from 32 Thoughts to Podcast. Are you a sports parent, rep sports, travel sports, whatever you call it? If you're like me, you know that one of the great joys of having your kid or kids play sports is travel. You know, our families use sports to see different parts of the world, meet new people, and stay in a number of different places. Recently, we've started using Airbnb. The kids love it because it feels like a sleepover at a new friend's house, while my wife and I enjoy more space, a proper bed, and mostly a washing machine.

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We have friends who travel south every winter and they Airbnb their place. Why not? Look, if you want to make a little extra cash, and who doesn't need that these days, maybe your home could be the way to make it happen. Find out how at Airbnb.com. Let me give you the Corman, slight Corman. You know, right. He starts out, he does independent stuff, right? Yeah.

He does Machine Gun Kelly. He does, right, like AIP. I think that was his first. Then he does like- These are just like low-budget movies he's making? Yeah. He does like horror movies. Sometimes he's directing them, sometimes he's producing them.

Right. He does a lot of horror movies. He did a lot of Poe, Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. A lot of Vincent Price. Then he- He would sort of get like down on their luck, sort of like past glory, you know, I think he did some Bela Lugosi movies, some Karloff movies and all of that. Yeah.

Then he did like, he had had an actual he worked at Columbia. He had an actual contract there. He made the Wild Angels with Peter Fonda, which is pretty famous movie. He directed that. You know, then after a while, he's sick of that. He goes back to indie stuff. That's what's kind of cool is he gets his chance of their life. You've proven yourself.

And he works in the studio system. He's like, this is stupid. I'm going to go back to doing things my way. Right. And then he starts New World Pictures which distributed all these Demi movies and many other movies and also like

distributed like Cries and Whispers or you know some other like I feel like you know Amarcord and like

a lot of foreign films in the 70s he'd buy them for cheap he'd distribute them make some money win an Oscar like he won a lot of Oscars like not personally but his company did.

Right, sometimes something would be a little more, you know, legitimate and would end up with a wide release. A lot of times he was designing them as when they're literally used to be B-movies. You know, it was like the theater is selling a double feature and the main attraction is the first one. And just give me a B- B movie to fill out the bill. Right. And he could deliver those. And I feel like just as time goes on, like, his world, you know, the space for his kind of movies just gets narrower and narrower. Home video kind of kills him, or at least his model of doing things.

And then he sort of becomes a home video guy, but the movies aren't the same. And he did, like, TV movies for, like, the sci-fi channels. That's the same. And he did, like, TV movies for, like, the sci-fi channels. That's the thing. Then it starts to become like he's doing, like, Megalodon versus, you know, Giant Mecha Octopus or whatever. But now he's a luminary, right? Like, you know, you could get Roger Corman to come to your film festival. Right.

Julie, too. Julie Corman, who produced Crazy Mama. Yes. And, yeah, and of course, like you say, all these directors owe their careers to him. He got an honorary, like, he's a legend. There's the story that's really nice where Ron Howard, like, you know, has been acting for, like, 15 years and he's 19 years old, right? And he's, like, the star of Happy Days.

Or maybe this is right after Happy Days finishes. But he really wants to direct and he goes to film school while he's like a TV star and gets a degree in directing and no one will hire him to direct because they're like, you're fucking Opie. You're Richie Cunningham, right? I'm not going to hire you to direct something. And he went in with like his earnest projects and pitched to Corman who was like the last stop. And Corman was like, well, that's not the kind of movie I make. But I'll tell you something.

He's like, well, that's not the kind of movie I make. But I'll tell you something. We did some tests recently and the title Grand Theft Auto is very popular as an idea. Just the very title. Right. So he was like, if you can make me a picture in 10 days called Grand Theft Auto, I will give you $300,000. You could do anything you want. And the sweet story is that Ron Howard says that Roger Corman came up to him and he was like, you're doing really good.

And he's like, wow. And he's like, you're doing so well that I think you'll never have to make a movie for me ever again. Graduating from Roger Corman is sort of a good thing. Right. And Howard was a guy who was sort of like there immediately. Demi is an interesting figure because especially because I guess it makes a lot of sense now Demi didn't have a film production background. You see these three movies as like experimentation, you know? This isn't a guy who's like ready to make a feature.

This is a guy who's like trying out a lot of different ideas. But that is, I think, the main thing that is compelling about Demi as a filmmaker, is Demi always felt weirdly kind of experimental for someone who became a very mainstream filmmaker and ended up sort of being like weirdly an Oscar-baity filmmaker because his films have this like very playful sense of like, why not do this? You can do this. There's no reason a movie can't do this, you know, in terms of the ways he vacillates between tones or genres within a single movie, between visual styles, you know, or narrative structures or any of those things. Sure. And these three movies each feel like they contain like slices of the things he's interested

in. But we've yet to get the one that's sort of unified as feeling like what a Demi movie ends up being. Is that fair to say? Yes. Cool. I think so. I think, well, we can talk about it.

We'll talk about it. Yeah. But first, before we get to Caged Heat, he shot one scene of a sex film called Naughty Wives, also known as

Secrets of a Door-to-Door Salesman. Uh-huh. He wrote some scripts, Angels as Hard as They Come. I'm sorry. Is that the one that Coppola wrote on? Not seeing any Coppola mentioned.

I don't know. He wrote, you know, Angels Is Hard To Come and The Hot Boxer. He wrote some Corman scripts. Caged Heat he gets to write and direct. So that's... My argument would be like... Crazy Mama feels less... That one feels harder to get a handle on.

Caged Heat and Fighting Mad, but Cage Heat's weird. And that's a movie he made. I agree. What's interesting is... Cage Heat was easily my favorite of the three we watched. Crazy... Yes. I would say I think it's my favorite of the three, but I also think Crazy Mama is the one that feels the most

like a Demi movie. Yeah, I just didn't like Fighting Mama. And I have my theory why. I mean, Crazy Mama. I'm really struggling. You have to keep these titles separate. You didn't watch any of these, right, Benny?

No. Okay. Yeah, great. Yeah, no, yeah. It feels like later movies that, you're right, yes, that he then refines. Right, okay.

So let's start on Cage Heat. Let's start on Cage Heat. Cage Heat is like pure experimentation in like a playful way right not like in like a fucking Stan Brakhage way

but it is here's a tired and true Corman genre it's women in prison at some point it's a classic someone locked onto the idea

that you could always get horny men in the 70s to go see women in prison it's almost on the downswing by the time there's been a lot of them by the time this comes out. Right. This is like the end of like a five or

six year trend. The hot box, that's a famous one. I've seen that movie. Yeah. Which Demi wrote. There's another really famous one. But it was like someone was standing at a blackboard and they're like wait a second. If you do a women in prison movie

you can have all the nudity in the world and it can get past the censors because it's not sexual like it was like they've been like well before if you had 17 naked women in a movie it had to be an orgy and then it's a porno film and they finally like figured out this like

narrative like hack where it's just like oh you can have dialogue that's progressing the story quote unquote right that's taking place while everyone is fully naked and then it becomes this like incredibly valuable subgenre for half a decade i mean that's like the shower scene right the group shower scene they're a bunch of naked bodies, but, you know, it's just. There are no less than six of them in this film. There are a lot of them in this movie. There are a lot of them in this movie.

But also, the women in prison film gives you, like, danger. Yeah. Right? It gives you the criminal element, the crime, the seediness that these B-movies usually need to sort of satisfy. There's either, you know, you get action. Is there an escape? There's like a man that you can rebel against. There's a lot of rebellion elements.

It's the 70s. People are like, fuck the man. So there can be like a warden who's evil and you can hate them. Which is the other thing about it is these movies are then able to also be like, no, but look, it's like feminist. It's empowering. You know? Which very often is a very hollow claim.

Sure. And this movie feels like he's actually trying to square the circle. Like this movie feels like him being like. I know I have to have the nudity. I know I have to have the violence. I have to, you know. You've given me like 10 things I need to put in this movie that seem antithetical to a guy who is by and large characterized mostly for his sense of humanism, right?

That's like Demi's like defining characteristic as a filmmaker. It's like he really cares about people and he's interested in people. And here's a movie in which he's like trying his hardest not to reduce these women, but every five minutes someone needs to show their breasts. And, you know, it's like the tension between that makes the movie kind of interesting,

but there are also just things in the movie that are so fucking strange. It's a weird movie. Really weird. Although it is, as you say, to describe it, it seems pretty normal. There are some women in prison. Right. There's some sort of intersenine warfare.

You enter in with like one prisoner. The movie starts with her getting caught. Her getting caught. The cop shooting her boyfriend. She ends up in jail. She gets caught. She, you know, the cop shooting her boyfriend. Right. And she ends up in jail. She gets caught. She's in jail.

Right. So if you want. You get strip searched. Right. And then she meets like her fellow prisoners. Right. Her bunkmate. The mean lady.

Yes. Who sort of is a bully. Like and steals her smokes. The sort of innocent sweetheart. Yeah. Right. One's a bank robber. One a manslaughter in self-defense, right?

One of them gets, you know, thrown in the solitary community. Thrown in the frickin' slammer thingy. You know, that sucks. Right. The hole. In the hole. Right. In the shoe.

And there is, there is like, you know, the evil doctor. Well, yeah, okay. This is what it starts. I mean, this also feels, yes, very exploitation movie, right? But I don't want to talk about the levels of the evil doctor yet. I want to describe it as if it were a normal movie. Sure, he's an evil doctor and he, like, experiments on them while they're naked as well. Well, I wasn't even going to get to that.

But the point is then the movie goes into what would seem like a plot, which is like they decide to escape. They need to get out of this prison because this guy's up to no good. He's going to come for them all, right? The doctor. Yes. They decide to escape. They need to get out of this prison because this guy's up to no good. He's going to come for them all. Right? The doctor. Yes. They decide to escape. What makes the movie weird is in a film that's like 78 minutes? Yeah, sure. Right. There's a lot of just hangout time

with the women in prison where it feels like there is no tension whatsoever. There's a lot of hangout time. Yeah. There's multiple dream sequences that are barely relevant. Yes. Like where she's sort of having a fantasy

of her old boyfriend or a fantasy of escaping or being attacked or whatever. Which I gotta say are very well shot. I mean, he does this sort of like.

This is why I like this the most. Right. It's visually the most interesting. It has a score by John Cale of the Velvet Underground. Cool. By the way, get this going. I mean, the mouth organ is half the score on all these movies.

Yes. Which is such a classic, like, exploitation Corman movie, like, kind of thing. A lot of that. And then the other half is harmonica. Can you do it, like, at a pretty steady clip? Like, keep on, like, hitting it? Yeah, I mean, that's what all of them sound like it's either that or a harmonica

right like that's the score and so I'm like oh yeah it was just some rando it's like no it's John Cale like a couple years removed from I don't know like white light white heat or whatever yeah and this movie has a level of like

a visual interest that it doesn't need to have. Even just down to like the art direction. Like the jail is painted with pretty striking colors. The clothing choices. I mean they all just wear their own clothes essentially. There's like no prison uniforms in this movie. So it's like very bright and colorful for a prison film, which tends to be very monotonous.

It's, like, concrete jumpsuits. And this is a film where, like, the walls are kind of like a periwinkle, and everyone's wearing, like, different, like, edges of 70s fashion. And the movie is just sort of like, okay, so now it's just like her acclimating herself to the prison. There'll be tension for a scene where the woman tries to like step up to her in the jail cell or like in the cafeteria

or whatever it is, you know, on the yard. But it's like mostly just like, okay, this is just like a movie about what every day in a fantasy 70s movie prison would be like, you know? Right. Where all these women are ostensibly dangerous, but it doesn't feel like the place is very oppressive.

But then the people at the top of the food chain come in who are cartoonishly villainous characters. There's this evil doctor. They're not just like the man. Right. Right. And because the women in the film, the prisoners, are like pretty naturalistic and like attitude-y in their performances. Kind. Right. And because the women in the film, the prisoners are like pretty naturalistic

and like attitude-y in their performances. Kind of good. Pretty good. Juanita Brown, who plays the bully. Yeah. She's pretty striking. She's pretty striking. Who else have we got?

I think the lead woman's kind of the least interesting. Erica Gavin, I believe is her name, who is in Vixen, the famous Russ Meyer. Yeah. Yeah, they're all pretty good. Rainbow Smith, I believe is her name. Cheryl Smith. An incredible name. Great name. Plays one of the sort of

ingenue types. I don't know. They're all fine, but then the two higher-ups come in, and it's this evil doctor who is like full mustache twirling like super high. Rubbing his hands together like evil laughing. Right. Like that extreme. Pretty much. Or just like hmm, we're gonna have to do some experiments. like super rubbing his hands together like evil laughing right like that extreme pretty much or just like we're gonna have to do some uh experiments like that kind of like he's always

smoking a pipe yes he's always got a pipe he's got like a sort of cartoonishly clean like sort of like a doctor's coat you know and then the warden is played she's called mcqueen which is kind of a funny it has to be a Steve McQueen joke, right? Played by Barbara Steele, who's like, you know, she's from Black Sunday. She's like one of those shallow queens, right? She's still around. She's in Eight and a Half. She's so good in this.

She was in fucking... I'm looking at her career now. This is kind of crazy. The last movie she was in was Lost River, the Ryan Gosling movie, which I never saw. Oh, his film that he directed. That must be him being like, that must be some super fandom,

probably more like Mario Bava super fandom. Yeah, I think she plays the grandmother in that. Apparently she's in Piranha. Like, she's around. She's great in this. Lost River is very much Ryan Gosling trying to make Mario Bava. Right, right, that's around. She's great in this. Lost River is very much Ryan Gosling trying to make a Mario Bava movie. Right, right. It makes sense.

It's like all the things he likes about weird expressionistic horror and genre films, except no one was committing him to the elements that those movies needed to sell. Right. Like, it's just the sort of visual shit. Right. Weird film. I want to see it. Some people told me it was's just the sort of like visual shit. Right. Weird film. I want to see it. Some people told me

it was good. I kind of like it. I got booed for an hour at Cannes or whatever but you know whatever. Yeah I mean look

it's the kind of movie I wish people made more often. Right. Like even if it's not great. I like Gosling. I do too.

I'm pro him. Yeah. He's good. And I think he's a weirdo. Like I think a lot of people view the movie as like being very affected i just also like that his response to being like an iconically hot and cool guy and you know drive era gosling has been like oh oh no thank you uh i don't want to ever

talk to the press again and like uh i'll make like movies sometime uh goodbye you know like he hasn't really ever tried to be cool again. But here's what I love. I also love that it doesn't feel like he's doing the thing we sometimes complain about with DiCaprio where it's like I need to fight against this as much as possible. No, no. He makes movies. Because if it's a good part or a good role and a good project or whatever. Or it's a character that has a Brooklyn accent.

Well, I was going to say he'll still be like, yeah, fine, I'll play the hot guy. You know, like he's not like totally adverse to playing the hot guy. He's hot. He's so fucking hot.

Anyway, why are we talking about Ryan Gosling? Lost Raver, Barbara Steele, she's very good in this. She's good. And she plays

what seems like when she's introduced would be like a very one-dimensional, like, oh, it's like the scary headmistress as prison warden. And she's introduced would be like a very one-dimensional like oh it's like the scary headmistress as prison warden and she's got like little owl glasses and like a very tight bun and wears like you know very sharp jackets and everything um but her character is kind of like

racked with introspection yeah and like doubt about what she's doing this is kind of a crazy movie it's pretty nuts because like what happens a crazy movie. It's pretty nuts. Because like what happens in the movie, just to summarize, because we have three movies to talk about anyway. That's the first 30 minutes. Then the experimentation starts and this bad doctor starts using a ton of electroshock therapy. Yeah, bad doctor does bad things. So they break out successfully. Right.

But they leave one behind, right? Right. Leave one behind, right? Right, because the threat is what he wants to do is he promises he will get prisoners out on good behavior early. He'll get them the pardon or the early release if they allow him to perform experimental lobotomy. Right. Which is all of him trying to test the limits of their their why am I struggling for the word now he wants to

sexually take advantage of them yeah he's a bad man he wants to make them submissive not by choice and then it's like but you have no other options

so he's like shocking these women until they're like anything to get me out of here and he's like I can cut a part of your brain out and they're like

I guess so no good very bad don't do it I was thinking they're like, I guess so. No good. Very bad. Don't do it. I was thinking of doing that. No? No! Oh, okay. Alright. Sorry. No! Wait, I need to just cancel. Okay. So yes,

they've already successfully escaped at this point, and they start getting the reports from the prison cell. Right. Because they just escaped because they're like, this electroshock therapy shit's bad. Yeah, they escaped. Have you guys ever been on the lam? Have I ever been on the's bad yeah they escape but you guys ever been on the lamb have i ever been on the lamb no uh no haven't ever been on the lamb seems like a stressful situation i've been on a horse lamb's pretty hard to ride yeah they don't really move around that much they don't really gallop so they escape yeah then they're like look

and they they escape the escape part is the least interesting part they spend like 15 minutes just going like when they're just hanging out we should probably do more crimes right that's the thing we're good at and they go and meet up

with one of their friends who had gotten out like months earlier and she's now working at like a brothel where the service is the women wrestle the men it's like

yeah right underwear wrestling without sex seemingly I mean again some of this stuff just sort of I mean again there's like underwear wrestling without sex. I mean, again, some of this stuff just sort of, I mean, again, there's like multiple fights in the shower. Like, it does feel like it's sort of like just required box checking. And we jumped over my favorite sequence, which we'll get to in a second. We'll go back to it.

Well, I just wanted to tell about the wrestling thing. But they go into the wrestling place to meet their friend, and they just are like this fucking loser. We're here to see our friends. Get out of here. And then it turns out the guy is a cop.

And they're like, look, we're like, we just got out of prison. We're hot. We need to figure out where to go. We need to lay low. And this guy's like,

fuck you, I'm a cop. Here's my badge. And they're like, okay, I guess we're gonna shoot this cop. And they take out a gun. There's like a 30 second transition between them being like, hey, I guess we're going to shoot this cop. And they take out a gun. There's like a 30-second transition between them being like, hey, you need to help us. We're trying to make an honest lives for ourselves.

To them being like, we're going to be cop killers. We're going to shoot this cop and leave this whorehouse, this naked wrestling place and just get out of here. My favorite sequence is when their friend is in solitary confinement. The one, the sort of nicest, most innocent of the group who is the one who is going to be lobotomized, right? Yeah. She

starts timing out how long their shower break is. She counts. She's like one, one thousand, two, one thousand. Right. To figure out the exact time they have between when they're brought to the showers and when they're brought out. And then she realizes that in the bathroom in one of the stalls there's a vent which she can unscrew and go through that leads to the opening above solitary confinement. So there's this great sequence where you see her counting over and over again the movie and you're like, what is this? And then finally, like the fourth time, she takes a bunch of food, sneaks it from like the cafeteria and then goes through the vent

counting second by second, knowing how much time she has, drops the food down the vent, including the grossest thing I've ever seen in a movie. She drops an egg. It's funny. You don't like eggs though.

Because the egg immediately cracks and then her friend is like, with my hands off the floor. And then she just starts eating egg with egg immediately cracks and then her friend is like with my hands off the floor and then she just starts eating egg with her hand and then she has to

like go back in time and the second time she tries to do it she's off on her timing she gets caught and that's when they put her in solitary and she gets stuck

between a rock and a hard place with the electroshocks and the potential lobotomy so that's when they get the call. Hey, things are going real bad here. Rescue her! Doctor's gotten even worse.

So they rescue her. They rescue her. Successfully. And the movie ends. They rescue her. There's a big shootout. The shootout kills the bad guys. Like one by one it kills the doctor.

And then Barbara Steele gets shot to death. And then they escape the end it's one of those movies where they're like okay i think the coast is clear like they're they're doing the shootout right they shoot the final bad guy and they're like okay good they get in the car the movie ends like as they're like closing the door of the car the credits start yeah it. It's weird. That's closure. And like apparently Corman hated, he hated that in Crazy Mama they also get away with it. Like at the end of Crazy Mama they're just like, now we run a business. And he was like, what is this?

Well, I love that. Right. So, I mean, that is clearly Demi kind of being like doing his own thing. Right. And being like, I don't know, why does it have to end with crime paying? What if they just got away with it? Right. That's thing. Right. And being like, I don't know, why does it have to end with crime paying? What if they just got away with it? Right. That's weird.

Right. Like there's no atonement and there's no sort of punishment. There's no atonement because they're, I mean like, yeah.

Right. I mean, what did they do? They committed some, okay. Right. They committed some crimes. Yeah.

They did a few murders. Yeah. I suppose that's bad. Right. But like the prison guys are bad too. Yes. I don't know.

Yeah, it's not a moralistic murder. It's a fucked up system, roll the credits. Yeah, everything's bad. I. But like the prison guys are bad too. Yes. I don't know. Yeah it's not a moralistic moment. It's a fucked up system. Roll the credits. Yeah. Everything's bad. I liked it though. I like all the dream sequences. Also the talent show sequence is incredible. Bizarre. There's this talent show sequence where they do a talent show seemingly like in the bathroom

so like all the stalls of the bathroom are like spray painted and it looks like some like 90s like New York off off Broadway show and they're dressed up in drag doing like vaudeville routines

it's great I forget all the graffiti they have on the stall doors but there's like funny shit because then Crazy Mama also kind of repeats that with the Burma shave signs that you keep on seeing. Him putting in these sort of

like non-sequitur text jokes, visually. So that's Cage Cheat. That's Cage Heat. And he is going to make his next film, Fightin' Mad. Which is as you know...

He wrote Cage Teat, he wrote Fighting Mad, he's getting ready to make that. Right, and I just want to point out Fighting Mad Wikipedia just has one paragraph, which is, in making the film, Bruce and Roger Corman analyzed three other recent low-budget rural action

thrillers that have been big hits. Billy Jack, Walking Tall, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. He deduced that they had three things in common. A hero with an offbeat sidekick, an unusual mode of transport, and an interesting weapon. This is why the Peter Fonda character travels on an old motorcycle

with his toddler son and uses a crossbow. That last sentence is just so good. When I spooled it up I was like he's gonna have a crossbow the whole thing he only has a crossbow

the last 10 minutes but you see him doing some archery training you're getting the idea of the arrows he's an archer David yeah I know

and he has a son but he doesn't get to make this movie next because what's happening Big Bad Mama is that the title of the film right? I believe that

Big Bad Mama 1974 Corman the title of the film, right? Big Bad Mama, 1974, Corman joint. Big hit. And they're like, we need some of this. Big hit, big cast. Do you know who's in that? Who? Angie Dickinson. Huge.

William Shatner. What? Host Star Trek. Wow. Tom Skerritt. Yeah. The legend, by the way. Yeah.

When's Skerritt bad? I've just been watching. I had never disappointed. You watch Brothers and Sisters? legend, by the way. Yeah. When's Skerritt that? I've just been watching. I had never. This is a point of embarrassment. You watch Brothers and Sisters? No, of course not. I think of an obscure TV show. You watch that Pick-A-Fence?

Other than random episodes, I had stayed away from the post-Diane years of Cheers. Oh, sure, sure. Because I was such a Diane loyalist, and I'm not a huge Kirstie Alley fan. I was like, I don't want to watch the Rebecca years. You're fucked up. What do you mean? She's great of Cheers. Oh, sure, sure. Because I was such a Diane loyalist and I'm not a huge Kirstie Alley fan. I was like, I don't want to watch the Rebecca years. You're fucked up. What do you mean? She's great on Cheers.

I finished Seinfeld and I was like, fuck it. I'm going to watch the Rebecca years. I'm still not crazy about the character. I'm only in her first season. She's awesome on Cheers. I mean, Kirstie Alley herself, I guess she's made some bad movies.

I think Shelley Long is awesome on Cheers. Yeah, but it doesn't have to be a competition. It's not a competition, but I maybe the character makes more sense later. As of now, I'm not impressed, but. I think she was kind of crucial for the show, though. It kind of needed a reset. I'm in the transition, so let's see.

But Tom Skerritt is in that entire season. He's in like six episodes. He's Drake, her boss, and he's so fucking good on the show. He's in like six episodes. He shows up like six or seven episodes. He's Drake, her boss, and he's so fucking good on the show. He's never bad. Skirrit is never bad. Steady hand.

He is. I fucking love him. I mean, I recently rewatched Top Gun because the trailer for Top Gun, Maverick, got my dick so hard. I'm so fucking basic. I watched it with you the first time it came out and you went like I don't know and then you have now watched it four times a minute

I keep watching it and I don't even love Top Gun although on rewatch I was like this is kind of an incredibly impressive movie even though it's also sort of total bullshit it's bullshit it's like half horseshit but then it's also so like insanely well made it's sort of the Tony Scott story I guess

but Scare It amazing in it yes so fucking good It's like half horse shit, but then it's also so insanely well made. It's sort of the Tony Scott story, I guess. Right. But Skerritt, amazing in it. Yes. So fucking good. Yes, that's my main takeaway. And Anthony Edwards is incredible in that one. Outrageously good. Everyone always says, well, that's just like Tom Cruise hitting his apex moment.

He's good. Right. He looks great. That movie would have grossed half as much as it did without Anthony Edwards. The effectiveness of that performance and what he contributes to the movie, because he's the only emotionally sincere element in the film. He's the only person who's not a fucking psycho. Right.

Everyone else in the movie is a sociopath. But I mean, but the secret of Top Gun is that it was not a huge box office hit. It was a solid box office hit, but that it was when it was released on VHS, they priced it at $8 rather than like $40 or whatever VHS has cost. And everyone on earth bought it on VHS. My friend, it was a huge box office success.

I understand it was also a big VHS success. It was big. It was a huge box office success. Yeah, look it up. Okay, I'm going to look it up right now. Feel free to talk about anything else you want. I'm giving you 45 seconds of runway. No pun intended.

It was pretty big. Yep. Yeah, it was pretty big. Why did I think it made half this? It's 184? 170 something. Oh, wow. Pretty massive.

Yeah. Why did I think it made half that? Because you're very wrong and I knew what I was talking about. What am I confusing it with then? Risky business? Maybe. Gotta look it up. Risky Business,

I think, did like 50. Did you just say bottom? Bottom arrow. Bottom knife. Oh, he's trying to do the inverse. Oh,

Jesus. That really took me. Bottom arrow was the first place you went? Yeah. Jesus. Ben is resting his head against the microphone

in a pose I can call a man quits. I was 100% confusing it with risky business. Yeah, right? Anyway. Top Gun was like the number two film of its year. But that VHS fact is also so much fun. No, and then it also just then blew up after. Everyone owns it on VHS.

Yeah. We owned it. Yeah. Did you own it? I didn't. My family had so few VHSs. Not a very patriotic family, it sounds like. No.

Just one thing, of course. Jewels and Jim. That's a good movie. Animal House. You're cutting all of this, right? I'm not keeping it all in. First Toy Story. First two Muppet movies.

Space Jam. Mary Poppins. Those are the VHS's I remember us having for how much of an insane physical media hoarder I became later I was about to say

you didn't have like all Disney movies no we did not I don't I had like all the white clamshells yeah I cannot think and maybe I'm wrong here

I cannot think of a traditional Disney animated film that we had we had the clamshells for the first two movies when Disney released them

we definitely had Mary Poppins. I watched that all the time. We must have had Wizard of Oz. I can't think, though, of anything beyond that. And I feel like my parents each owned one VHS. And then Austin Powers was kind of like, that was sort of... Do-da-do.

Yeah. Do-da-do. I think we had three copies of Austin Powers. A lot of copies. You know, we have a saying in our family. Use sports. Don't let sports use you. Hi, it's Jeff Merrick from 32 Thoughts to Podcast.

Are you a sports parent, rep sports, travel sports, whatever you call it? If you're like me, you know that one of the great joys of having your kid or kids play sports is travel. You know, our families use sports to see different parts of the world, meet new people, and stay in a number of different places. Recently, we've started using Airbnb. The kids love it because it feels like a sleepover at a new friend's house, while my wife and I enjoy more space, a proper bed,

and mostly a washing machine. That really comes in handy for baseball trips. Trust me. In fact, it was on a baseball trip last summer when my wife sent me a text after the first night saying, do you think we could do this? Look, if you've ever stayed at an Airbnb, you've probably wondered the same thing. Could our place be an Airbnb? And now that our kids have also discovered the joys of skiing, in addition to travel hockey and travel baseball, we're on the move even more. Well, our house just sits there. Why not make a little extra money to cover some costs, right? We have friends who travel south every winter and they Airbnb their

place. Why not? Look, if you want to make a little extra cash, and who doesn't need that these days, maybe your home could be the way to make it happen. Find out how at Airbnb.com. Crazy Mama. Okay. I was trying to find a Cloris Breachman pivot here, but I couldn't find one. Yeah. But Crazy Mama.

Yeah. Cloris Leachman, four years after she has won an Academy Award. An Oscar. Right. She won an Oscar. But this is kind of like. I think it's just like two years, right? It's right after.

Last Picture Show, 71. Yeah, so three years. Three years. Okay. It is that thing like. Ben, have you seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood yet? I have not. So the thing the movie gets at, which I think is interesting certainly of this time period, I think it's the thing the movie evokes the best, was the panic of all these people trying to figure out how to hold on to their power as a movie star.

Not just an actor, not a TV star, but the holy grail is to be a movie star, to star in pictures. And that idea of like, I would rather star in shitty movies where I get to be the lead. Al Pacino's big scene in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is all about don't you want to win the fights?

If you're on TV, you're playing the bad guy so that they can make some new up-and-comer look tough. It's a great scene when Pacino loses the draw. By beating someone who used to be a movie star. You used to be famous. You get beaten up on screen. It means the other guy's a cool guy.

Right. Sure. And they're like, but you're on big shows. Right. But they never keep you. Right. They pay you well, but you're the bad guy. Yeah.

Wouldn't you rather go to Italy and make four Westerns for shitty money where you get to win the fights? And the whole movie is him being like, God, that seems a little rant. I like the idea of being a Hollywood guy. Cloris Leachman, I don't think had the same kind of ego, but it is the same kind of thing of like,

okay, here's a character actress who won an Academy Award, a very, very warranted Academy Award for an incredible, unshowy performance. Her only in The Last Picture show, made by Corman devotee... Peter Bogdanovich. Peter Bogdanovich.

Which she's phenomenal in, but you're right. It's not like a movie where she cries and screams in the middle and you're like, oh my God, what a powerhouse performance. She plays a lady who's a little older and a little sad. That is a movie I watch about once every 18 months. I think it's about as perfect as things get. It's a great movie.

But I remember the first time I saw it when I was in high school, I was like, she's the one who won for this? Right, because like, Sybil Shepard is so like, big. Ellen Burstyn is like, unbelievable. Ellen Burstyn is incredible in it. She told you to try silence. Eileen Brennan, she told me to try silence. I mean, like every, there's so many loud performances.

It's Jeff Bridges, like, emerging as a fully formed movie star. I mean, he's so handsome. Right. Right. And the Cloris Leachman performance, like, I didn't get when I was 15 because it's really quiet and I had not experienced the depths of loneliness and sadness that that performance has evoked. It is still, though, just a great Oscar win. Oh, an amazing Oscar win. You know, she's also the record holder for Emmys.

For wins, nominations, or both? Really? Tied with, she has eight Emmy wins. Eight. For acting. Okay, but all spread out, right? Like some guest stars, some. Did she win a bunch of times for Mary Tyler Moore?

She won at least, like, twice for Mary Tyler Moore. She won for a performance on The Cher Show. Okay. She won for a performance at the Screen Actors Guild 50th anniversary. Yeah.

You know, like she won for Malcolm in the Middle a couple of times. You know, yeah, like spread out a little bit. She won for the

Screen Actors Guild 50th anniversary. Yeah, she did, I don't know, she probably came out and sang the trolley song. Malcolm in the Middle

she was really good on. Incredible on Malcolm in the Middle. And Raising Hope, which I think was an underrated show. Jinx, you owe me a raspberry coffee.

Gross, you can keep it. Mary Tyler Moore starts 69. Sure. Yeah, why are we here? No,

because I'm interested in the Cloris Leachman timeline where it's like okay, but she's already been on Mary Tyler Moore for a year. She's not in the early seasons.

She's more later. Oh, she comes on post Oscar win? Yeah, she's in the later, Tyler Moore for a year. But she's not in the early seasons. She's more a later season. Oh, she comes on post-Oscar win? Yeah. Yeah, she's in the later, like, right? She's not... Jesus, now we have to delve into Mary Tyler Moore zone. My point here is,

Cloris Leachman has already won an Oscar, right? Yeah. She's on a massive sitcom, but... I guess she's always around. The appeal of, you get to be the star of a movie, you know, is pretty, I think, hard to pass up. So her appearing in a core movie, which in certain ways feels beneath her. In another way, it's like the studios are never going to give her that shot.

You know, Last Picture Show didn't make her a leading lady. Still haven't guessed that other record holder. Okay, other record holder. Male or female? Female. It's another female. Eight acting wins. Still alive. Very much so. Male or female? Female. It's another female. Eight acting wins. Still alive?

Very much so. Very much so? More alive than ever. More alive than ever? It's weirdly a clue. Patty Wyatt? No. No, she's very old.

It's weirdly a clue? Yeah. I didn't mean it to be, but it is. More alive than ever? Did she have a near-death experience? Correct. She did? Sort of. Recently? Yeah. Yes. Ben, do you see who it is? No, he doesn't know. It's in my head, baby.

Would he know the near-death experience? Is it a big enough story that Ben would know? It was in the news. I think so. When I say near-death experience, I don't it a big enough story that Ben would know? It was in the news. I think so. It was in the news. But when I say near-death experience, I don't mean like she almost like drove her car off a bridge. Like, she had a public battle with death.

An illness? Oh, is it Julia Louis-Dreyfus? We stay in a legend. Who I believe has, I think it's four for Veep, three for Seinfeld, and then that sneaky one for old Christine.

David just made such a sneaky face. I always get so annoyed when people are like, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, legend. Starts her career at SNL. Then there's Seinfeld. And then Veep is amazing. I'm like, she did five seasons of a fucking fantastic network sitcom that no one remembers. She hit a hundred episodes and won an Emmy.

And Wanda Sykes and Clark Gregg and all like Hamish Linklater all these funny people were on it. It was great. And it also came out of like everyone being like fucking Seinfeld. When she won the Emmy she like for that one she was like fuck the Seinfeld curse like that was still a concept. Yes. And now like everyone's doing fine. She's doing fine. Seinfeld's

doing fine. Jason Alexander's Nickelback videos. Oh should I stop talking? Michael Richards. Michael Richards he Nickelback videos. Oh, should I stop talking? Michael Richards has his health, at least. Footage not found. Alex Fryer, who's a

great comedian at Chicago, he tweeted recently, and I had just completed my Seinfeld rewatch, and he was like, I wonder all the time what Michael Richards does on a day-to-day basis. And I have the same thought. Like, watching those episodes, I was like,

it must be weird because he has pretty much not even attempted to come back. And as we've seen in recent years, like, most of the cancelled men take like four to six hours before they like go like I'm ready! I'm back! After being publicly assassinated

I'm on my comeback tour! I call you all cucks! Or after publicly assassinating someone else I took a time out after a quick five I'm ready to star in movies again. but Michael Richards like did one season of the Kirstie Alley sitcom

uh yeah and that arc on Curb where he plays himself and tries to like address the scandal which I thought was the clunkiest thing

Curb has ever done it wasn't great um and other than that has just like not existed for a decade now. He's in that wild episode of Comedians in Cars

Getting Coffee. Which is all... Where he is so fucking crazy. And Seinfeld trying to rehabilitate him. And Seinfeld's like, just relax. It's all right.

Like, the world's not ending. Half that episode's scripted. Like, he keeps on pretending. Like, we gotta go meet Jose Canseco. Yeah, right. Or whatever. Have you seen it?

Yeah, it's sad. There's just a moment where Jerry Seinfeld is driving with him and he's freaking out about, you know, Richard's just freaking out about it. And Jerry Seinfeld just goes like, it's been raining on the car. And he's like, we're all just raindrops on a windshield, Michael. Yeah. We'll just go away. The episode also ends with them leaving the coffee shop

and people start swarming Michael Richards asking for autographs and then it like cuts like a montage of like people coming up and laughing and taking pictures with him. And then it's like Jerry in voiceover going like, and I saw how much joy Michael brings to people. He really is a bright light in this universe. He needs to be out here. Like it's like him trying to, like, character witness at a parole hearing. But even that was, like, first season of that show

and he just, like, you know, I'm sure he has ungodly amounts of money. The check never stops coming in. But I do wonder, especially because

he is one of the guys who seemingly kind of, like, took his lumps and was like, I don't know, maybe I just shouldn't be in the public eye anymore. What does he do

on a day-to-day basis? Is he just, like, really into fucking pottery now, you know? Yeah, maybe. I mean, he makes a lot of money. I'm just curious. You should ask him. I will. Give him a call.

By the way, Michael Richards will be our guest on the Last Embrace Citizens Band episode. No, he won't. No, he won't. Nope. We said that at the same time. Nope. I'm just kidding. Of course, our guest is Harvey Weinstein.

So, Crazy Mama, Cloris Leachman gets to do this film, which was supposed to be directed by... Oh, actually, I don't know. You don't know this. Oh, Shirley Clark. Huh. Famous indie filmmaker. Yeah. Pretty outro indie filmmaker

most of her films were never allowed to be released theatrically why uh cause they were provocative

too sexy too sexy I'm sure when you say indie this is like a concept that maybe

I'm not like she was genuinely indie she was genuinely indie and sort of like pre indie American cinema being a real thing.

So she was very much a maverick. And she was not indie in the way that like Roger Corman was indie selling schlock to B theaters. She was making like ultra button pushing provocative films independently financed that were very well regarded in like artistic communities and uh would get written up more for controversies than anything else but what she was doing was more equivalent to like you know in terms of how they were being um absorbed and discussed like museum installations right it's like it's non-narrative. It's weird sounding music. Video art. Yeah, it's sort of

like Warhol. She was making like feature length films. I mean, her first big breakthrough when she got nominated for an Oscar for was about the construction

of a building, right? I mean, it was sort of like the way that Andy Warhol was like, oh, I'm just going to film the Empire State Building for eight hours.

I believe Skyscraper is the name of it. Right. That's like a short film. Right. But you know, she did like a short film famous, I've seen it at a museum, I believe, Dance in the Sun, right, which is like crazy dancing and I don't know. But she made some feature films.

She made some narrative films, but she was always kind of hitting hot button things and pushing the limits. But was someone who was clearly a very skilled filmmaker and Roger Corman was like, I'm going to let you make like a movie that will get released in theaters and make money and without any further information I could find they had a disagreement like four weeks before filming started and Demi's ready to do

Fightin' Mad and he goes like can you take over this movie and that's what I think makes this movie kind of interesting is because the other two Demi is designing them from the ground up, and he's trying to make a way that fulfills what he needs. This is a movie he inherited,

and so he directs it with a kind of sense of abandon, of just like, I don't know, what's like a fun thing I can do today? And the movie's a mess. It's weird. But there are like 27 ideas per scene. Can I ask, what's the game of Mama? What's like her deal?

It's a mother, a grandmother, and a daughter. The first scene lays out the grandmother's Which is crazy. Like origin story. The first scene is like pretty austere and dramatic which is like the grandmother's husband getting shot down. Each of these movies kind of have the same setup. It's sort of like some

quote unquote like rural American, right? Yeah. Maybe not so much, but like the man fucking with some poor person. Mercilessly shoots down someone in cold blood. The first one, the cops catch him and she goes to jail and they shoot her boyfriend. Right. The second one, like some people take their land, right? Like evil landowners.

You're talking about Crazy Mama? Crazy Mama. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Like they shoot her dad. Right. You know, because like they haven't paid the rent or whatever, right? Because then Fightin' Mad is also landowners. Fightin' Mad is the same fucking thing, yeah. But it's like someone losing someone very

close to them who is sort of murdered by the man. 100%! You know, so to speak. Like the boot of society. And, uh, the,

all three movies are people sort of reacting and losing their minds a little bit in the wake of that. But crazy mama sets up that there's sort of like, it's almost like a family curse. Like all of these women are like doomed to continue losing the men they love. Be they father figures, be they romantic partners. And then they feel a little sad.

They feel a little sad. They're like, that's too bad. He was a nice guy. He was all right to me. But the thing that makes the movie kind of interesting to me is that you have Cloris Leachman, who's this fucking heavyweight, right?

Playing the kind of role she doesn't usually get to play. And, you know, she's the leading lady. She has, like, sexual agency, which in most movies, she's the joke or the sad sack, right? Especially as she got older, she became, right. Right. The wacky old lady. Sort of a Betty White type.

Right. Which, of course, you know. Betty White kind of ripped her whole fucking thing off, to be honest. Yes. Even though they were both in Mary Tyler. Well, here's what I think the difference is. Yeah. Betty White kind of plays the innocent. Like, she doesn't realize what she's saying is provocative. Cloris Leachman's, like, just pure salt. She was kind of plays the innocent. Like she doesn't realize what she's saying is provocative. Chloris Leachman's like just pure salt. Salty old broad. Right.

Of course, it hits its apex in Spanglish. As Taylor Leone's mother. Right. In a SAG nominated performance. I believe that's correct. In an AARP winning performance. Yes. Yes. For best performance ever. Yeah, that's what they gave it.

But they were like, ah, best performance ever? Yeah. That was their reaction. There are these scenes that are clearly written as just sort of like table setting of just like,

well, that husband left me or like this man got shot or her father ran out or whatever. And then Cloris Leachman will occasionally just like stare off into the middle distance.

Yep. And in a way that's not overly dramatic but is truly like she's just getting lost in her memory. Just kind of take stock of the life she's lived while reciting what is pretty boilerplate dialogue. Yeah. But it suddenly is this like emotional pocket drop thing that you're like this is some combination of either Leachman went there and Demi didn't stop her. Yeah. Or Demi saying, hey, what if you played this scene real? But either way, it feels like something that probably kind of affected Demi of just like, wait a second.

You can just do that? You can make a movie that's like weird and wild and then have moments of like completely genuine grounded emotion in it, which really sets the tone for like the run of Melvin and Howard's Something Wild Married to the Mom. Because this movie has that same kind of chaotic energy that those three films have. Very chaotic. Very manic pixie, but not pixie. Manic trash fee, I guess. But also just that

it feels like a circus. You watch these movies, you watch those movies, and I love Rachel Gained Married because I think it's like a mature filmmaker trying to come back to that vibe. A masterpiece. But you watch those movies and you go like, this movie looks like it was so much fun to make. And so often that's the fallacy of like if a movie looks fun, it was difficult. It was difficult and they were like shoestring and everything was hard and it was hot. Right.

But like these movies, you're like, this feels like these are the performances that come out of actors who feel very safe and protected. Who are having fun with each other, who feel supported by a director. The scenes are like weird little like sentence fragments. There's like so little narrative follow through on so many elements of the film that it just feels like and being like I don't know why don't we like do a scene like this like it feels like

very like throw shit at the wall see what happens but the bulk of the movie is you know matriarch daughter grand matriarch in a car together

on a crime spree and they just decide like what if we just commit a ton of crimes they kind of just decide to go on a crime spree what if we just like steal cars and rob banks and shoot people and like i don't know let's see how far it can go it sort of escalates it's like they run a beauty parlor yeah after this tragedy is visited upon their family generation right they run a beauty that happens pre-credits and then you present day here's the beauty parlor bad luck and southern

linda pearl landlord comes where's the rent i don't beauty parlor. Bad luck in this family. Anne Souther and Linda Pearl and Clark Sleechman. Landlord comes. Where's the rent? I don't got it. I've been there. Yeah. Well, fuck, yeah, I'm taking... You gotta repossess the place. You're not paying the rent.

So they chase the landlord, including the baby daddy of the youngest. Right, the youngest girl is now pregnant. She's just gotten knocked up, so she's got this, like, boyfriend who's all moon-eyed for her. And it's like, here's the cycle repeating because there's like 17 years between

each of the women in this film in terms of age pretty much, right? So you're like here's the cycle repeating. She's got this boyfriend who is literally Ralph Mal from Happy Days. Oh boy. Right? The dorkiest member of the Happy Days crew. Sure. And he's just like, right, he's

he's in love with what's her pants and so. Right, he's like oh I gotta get married now? And she's just like, right, he's in love with what's her pants. And so, he's like, oh, I gotta get married now? And she's like, I don't wanna fucking marry you.

And he's like, come on, what are you doing here? You're making me look stupid. And she's like, I'm young, I'm trying to have fun. So they chase the landlord around,

they ram his car and shit, and then it just, yeah, they're just like, you know what? We got screwed over by the man way back when.

We just committed a crime. We fucked with this guy. The cops might be on us anyway. Why don't we rob everything we cite so that we can take back our original property, which is like God the fuck knows where, and go on a crime spree? That's the idea. That's pretty much the whole concept, right? Right. The family's curse started at this moment.

Because it's not easy to follow this movie. No, at all. But that is sort of the concept right but like the family's curse started at the moment that their property was seized and the father was shot right yeah so they're like we're justified like reparations we can do whatever the fuck we want to to get back our land is sort of the idea of the movie right um but along the way the teenage girl meets like a biker boy who she loves, and he ends up joining them. So both her baby daddy and this biker boyfriend are there,

and she keeps on oscillating between the two of them. I like the biker boyfriend. I think he's kind of cute. So do you know the story about him? No. He is Cloris Leachman's real life son. Huh. He wanted to be an actor.

This was pretty much his biggest role, and eight years later, he died at the age of 30 in a YMCA from an overdose of ulcer medication, which is one of the saddest things I've ever heard. That's serious. That's a really dire combination of elements. That's no good. It's not like if you took more, your ulcer gets so painful. It's not like taking a bunch of painkillers. Right, and I think he had a young daughter from an estranged wife, and he moved to be closer to them, so that's why he was staying at the YMCA.

The whole thing was bleak, but he's really good in this, and it's kind of sad that he never got another part after this. Brian Englund. Brian Englund. So apparently the whole thing was he didn't want to, he sort of pushed away his mother because he didn't want to feel like

he got success off of her back. It's like a, yeah, really, really sad story. He's really good in this and this movie has like a 1974 thruple. Yes, it does. And it's kind of just how it is.

Right, and there's a scene. She's kind of like, that's going to be the vibe. Where she's in bed with both of them. I want both of you. And Ralph Mouth is like, I can't believe I'm agreeing to this. Right, right. And the other guy's like, yeah, whatever.

Right. Snake, I believe. But what feels kind of progressive about it is the movie isn't like siding with Ralph Mouth. Right. The movie's like, I don't know, whatever. We're all having fun robbing people. But then, just as in Caged Heat,

they get away with it. Well, Cloris Leachman meets sort of one of her lost loves that got away. Yeah, played by Stuart Whitman, you mean? Yes, who's excellent in this. Also, the landlord who's tracking them down at the beginning of the movie is... That's Dick Miller, right? Or no, Dick Miller's in this movie. It's the detective

at the end, right? He's the detective. Who's the landlord? Is it not Jim Backus? Yes, it's Jim Backus. Who is literally Mr. Magoo. Right. Jim Backus who is the millionaire from Gilligan's Island. He's the voice of Mr. Magoo. So it's old man Jim Backus going like, come back here

with my wrench! Also, apparently John Milius plays a cop. He does. Very visibly. He's one of the cops who's in the shootout at the end. They get away with it. They get away with it and then the end of the movie... There's a whole Vegas sequence. We haven't really talked about that where they're gambling.

That part's fun. And they keep saying the slogans. Like the lady keeps saying some sort of motto. Well, the thing that kind of does them in... Also, what about that lady Bernice in Caged Heat? I forgot to mention her. Which lady is Bernice? Remember in Caged Heat when they stick up the prison van?

Uh-huh. And she's like, strangely enough, she's like, Hi, my name's Crazy. What's your name? And she's like, Bernice. Great scene. Great scene. Walk me through these crimes.

That's a great thing in KGT. Oh, they stick up a gas station. Cloris Leachman runs into this lost love of hers, right? And they're like, second time, this is meant to be, let's get hitched. By the way, I have a wife. And so, like, the thing that does them in is that his wife is like, where the fuck is this guy? Try and track him down. So when the cops find him and they're like, he married some other lady.

And now also we've realized these are the people who have been like robbing all these things. Oh, wait. Caged Heat is the one that has the scene where they rob a bank. They go in to rob a bank and it turns out the bank is already being robbed. Right. And they're like oh fuck. And you can hear the sirens coming. Right.

That's when they have to shoot some cops. Well no, no. You hear the sirens coming and they're like fuck we're stuck in here. We haven't even committed the crime. Someone called the cops on the previous guys committing this crime. What are we going to do? And the one woman just shoots the bank robbers. Right.

So they all hear the guns, and then they just walk out with the money because the cops show up and think like, well, it's these guys who got shot. They're the bank robbers. There's like a robbery. The logic of that is... It's kind of fun when you see it in the scene.

It doesn't really make sense. It's a little stinker move. But crazy mom, yeah, the crimes. I mean, it's like a lot of like. They what? They pretend that the old lady is having, the mom is having a heart attack. That's a good scan. Bring her to the stock room and then they immediately stick him up.

You know, I mean, it's like a lot of like environmental, but it's like kind of like petty robbery. And he's like, I only have $60. And they're like, yeah, then give us $60. It's a lot of L environmental but it's like kind of like petty robbery and he's like I only have $60 and they're like yeah then give us $60 that's a lot of LSM LSM? little sneaker moves little sneaker moves a lot of LSM's

let's talk about the last one yeah but of course Leachman has this astounding amount of pathos and the end of the film is them just all have wigs

and change names they've dyed their hair I guess guess, and built new identities, right? Right. And they're working on a truck. Right. It's like a food truck. Yeah, they have a little food business. They have a little food truck.

But notably, this final moment, and you assume that this is one of those things where it's just like, well, like lack of time, rush shoot, what have you. This is what he came to, but then this becomes one of his signature moves. This final sequence of them working the food truck is all first person POV camera, which then becomes Demi's like signature, like trump card with signs of the lambs of like the characters are looking you straight in the eye demi close-up so the end of the movie is a you know a group shot of all of them looking at you and trying to serve you and be like what do you want how can we help you um i do love that

thing about watching like weird genre movies like this where like it makes you think about movies so much when you watch films that didn't have the time. Have you seen Boxcar Bertha? I have. Yeah, I mean that's another one. Right, but when you're like, oh, I'm really thinking about movies because this is a movie that didn't have the time to get all the pieces they needed to make this movie. Anyway, the third film is called Fightin' Matt. Yeah, you just watched this film. I just watched this.

I had trouble getting it. This is the one that's not available on streaming platforms. At all. Right. As far as I can tell. You found a torrent and the file wasn't working for me. And I finally got it to work at the last possible minute. Yeah, I was watching Hustlers getting texts from Griffin.

Oh, how was it? Hustlers, which by this point is out and has had, you know, success or not success. I think it'll be success. I think if J-Lo doesn't get an Oscar nomination, somebody fucked up. Genuinely. I'll say this.

I saw the trailer the other day and I was like, wait a second, is J-Lo going to get an Oscar nomination this year? And I got so excited at the prospect that I didn't even want

to put it out into the world. You think it's like a slam dunk. It should be. I think that she's at a point in her career where it seems like you could sort of make the kind of argument of like, like hey J-Lo's never been

Oscar nominated she's enduring she's been in great movies she's been in bad movies sure but you know and it's just one of those movies when she's not in the movie you're kind of like what's J-Lo doing though like can we get back to her like what's up with J-Lo J-Lo's pretty cool right

but she's kind of back in like a fucking out of sight mode she's in that pocket she's kind of back in like a uh fucking out of sight mode she's no she's in that pocket it's very she's playing a bomb-ass stripper who does crimes like you know and is kind of like the den you know the hen mother whatever right like of this sort of stripper cadre i have not seen the film you have you said if she doesn't get it someone fucked up it's STX which has had zero success with Oscar campaigns but my fear is that it will probably be

like a McConaughey Magic Mike thing yeah where everyone's like how the fuck did they not nominate her for that but it gives her like three good new roles to play

and then one of them ends up being the maybe Jennifer Lopez supporting actress might be I don't know we'll see we'll see

we'll see it's easier to bring should you be supporting or lead? Oh, it's supporting. 100%. Okay, cool. Constance is the lead. Yeah.

And she's fine. You know, we have a saying in our family. Use sports. Don't let sports use you. Hi, it's Jeff Merrick from 32 Thoughts to Podcast. Are you a sports parent, rep sports, travel sports, whatever you call it? If you're like me, you know that one of the great joys

of having your kid or kids play sports is travel. You know, our families use sports to see different parts of the world, meet new people, and stay in a number of different places. Recently, we've started using Airbnb. The kids love it because it feels like a sleepover at a new friend's house house while my wife and I enjoy more space, a proper bed, and mostly a washing machine. That really comes in handy for baseball trips. Trust me. In fact, it was on a baseball trip last summer when my wife sent me a text after the first night saying, do you think we could do this? Look, if you've ever stayed at an Airbnb, you've probably wondered the same thing. Could our place be an Airbnb? And now that our kids have also discovered the joys of skiing,

in addition to travel hockey and travel baseball, we're on the move even more. Well, our house just sits there. Why not make a little extra money to cover some costs, right? We have friends who travel south every winter and they Airbnb their place. Why not? Look, if you want to make a little extra money to cover some costs, right? We have friends who travel south every winter, and they Airbnb their place. Why not? Look, if you want to make a little extra cash, and who doesn't need that these days, maybe your home could be the way to make it happen.

Find out how at Airbnb.com. Anyway, I was watching this, and I was like, is there any way to make this type of movie today and not make it feel like some sort of piece of sociopolitical agaprop? And I don't think you can. But like you say, this is also— Can art not be political right now? No, it can't. All art is political.

No, I mean it's genuinely like you can't— All art is political. All art has always been political. Art that tries to be apolitical is being political by choosing to ignore the realities of the world we live in it is the thing that drives me crazy especially when it comes to the subject of the franchises that people act like are now being taken over by

like fucking agendas when like Marvel was based around civil rights like Stan Lee was like the biggest fucking social justice warrior in the world and Star Wars is about fascism. We've talked about this. Cut it out.

Cut it out. Cut that all out. It's bad. It's bad. I hate the world. It's bad. Shut up. Shut up.

Keep it in. And triple. God, that was awful. Okay, so Fighting Mad. It's about a rural man who's been living that city life with his toddler. Okay. He's played by Peter Fonda. Peter Fonda, the recently passed, less recently passed by the time this episode comes out.

Who had been in Corman's famous movie, The Wild Angels, where he's like, we want to get loaded and we want to have a good time. You know, like, that's a great. And Peter Fonda's career arc is kind of fascinating because he's the son of one of the great movie stars ever. Correct. is kind of fascinating because he's the son of one of the great movie stars ever. Correct. And one of those guys

where it's like, man, the shadow of his dad looms so fucking large. But then in the 60s, almost as a result, and because of the movies he makes, he becomes like a counterculture leading man. He does his run of like trying to just...

His dad was such a square-jawed, golden age leading man. The ultimate sort of like innocent. And Peter Fonda becomes the like, yeah, hippie leading man. But that's the thing. He does his like four or five years as a young actor of like innocent. And Peter Fonda becomes the like, yeah, hippie leading man. But that's the thing. He does his like four or five years as a young actor of like appearing on TV shows and movies playing like the types of roles his father played. And it doesn't really connect.

Right. And meanwhile, in his personal life, he's like doing acid and like riding a motorcycle. And people are like, what's up with this scoundrel Fonda? You see Fonda's kid? He grew his hair out another half inch. It's past the top of his ears now. And he kind of changes everything by choosing to embrace it rather than succumb and be like, not only am I going to not stop doing this shit in my personal life, I'm going to start making movies about it. to not stop doing this shit in my personal life, I'm going to start making movies about it.

And Corman's the first guy who's kind of responsive to it because he recognizes that there is a cultural shift happening, a cultural shift that Corman's not keyed into at all in a way that he can relate. But he understands that Fonda has this energy of a generation that's about to take over. And so, right, he gets big because whatever that first film, I'm forgetting the name now, the one you just said, The Bike and the Wild Angels? Yes. They catch George Chikaris.

Peter Fonda was supposed to be a secondary character, and then they realized... And that's like a Hell's Angel movie? Exactly. They realized that Chikaris could not ride a bike, and Fonda could. So they were like, cool, we don't have time to teach you to ride a bike, Chikaris, you're fired. Despite being an Academy Award winner, Fonda's kid, you're the lead of the movie now.

And then Fonda was in Easy Rider. The Trip. Yeah, I mean, you know. All these things. What else? Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, Open Season. He inspires the line, I know what it's like to be dead.

Sure, he gave the Beatles acid. And He Said, She Said. That was a thing that Peter Fonda said to Paul McCartney while tripping. Because he'd had a near-death experience as a child. I think he had like a heart attack or something. Yeah. Some heart thing. Anyway, doesn't matter.

I will say, you're talking about politics, but this movie is kind of just a pastiche because it is just like Corman watching Billy Jack and being like, yeah, let's do a Billy Jack. It's one of these. So it's not really very political, except for that rich people are bad, which, I mean, is true in a lot of exploitation movies.

Rich people, the man. It's like the kind of almost classic conflict. Yeah, it's either cops or it's guys in suits who are like, we love money, and you're like, eh. But that's the other weird thing. It's not corporation in the way that we see it. No, it's tycoons. It's land barons.

So there's that thing which makes it kind of apolitical. And the other thing is all of the rural characters in this movie would probably be written off as liberal elites now. You know, despite the fact that they're like living on a farm. Like Fonda's got glasses and he's like, well, you know, I did my

years of city living and I'm just moving back here now. And it's like, right, you know, I did my years of city living and I'm just moving back here now. He's got a kid. Right. This is like the most square of his performances from this time period where every other movie he's playing like some kind of radical hippie. And this one he's like a dude in Oxford shirt. I kind of like that about this. I do too. It is sort of like, right, like what if like the most chill fucking hippie guy in the world was pushed too far?

He's almost – it's almost a very – like a much smaller scale kind of Hoffman straw dogs kind of thing. Or it's like Uli's gold, but Uli picks up a bow and arrow. Right. He looks like Uli in this way. He's like the adventures of young Uli. Uli's gold origins. Yeah. Uli's silver.

But yeah, yeah. And it's like the people in the town aren't depicted as stereotypes because Jonathan Demme has no interest in doing that. The land people are incredibly evil and callous. Yeah, they're not very nice. No. But yes, they want to develop. They're trying to kick people off their land. And if they won't sell, they will send in their thugs to suicide them.

Yeah, and they kill Scott Glenn. Who's his brother. He's just gotten back home, reconnected with his father. Right. And, yes, they suicide Scott Glenn and his wife. Right. They enter the home while they're making love. They're nude.

They attack them. She tries to fight back by burning one of the thugs' faces. An iron. An iron, which he just, uh, sports for the rest of the movie, a giant iron mark on his face. Uh,

pretty rad. Kind of cool. Uh, but then they like bind them and knock them out and put them in a car and drive the car off a cliff. Yeah. And Peter Fonda is like, uh,

my, uh, brother. And, uh, he totally did not kill himself or have a car accident. Yeah. And they's like, my brother and— He totally did not kill himself or have a car accident. Yeah. And they were like, well, I don't know what you're talking about.

This looks pretty case closed to me. And he was like, I went to his house. The iron was on. Like, she was, like, cooking dinner. Why were they in the middle of that leave and go drunk driving, as you claim? And he's like, I don't know, but they did. And he's like, well, my sister-in-law was allergic to alcohol. And the guy's like,

well, malarkey. And Peter Fonda realizes, oh, nothing's going to get done about this. And not only that, this guy's going to circle in.

He's going to go after every remaining plot of land including what my father owned. And I just got away from big city living because I thought I wanted to be where the air is pure and the grass is green.

But in fact, this whole country is rotten. So he kills him with a bow and arrow. Yeah, that's pretty much the movie. The problem is the back half is just not... I was expecting a long rampage. Yeah. And it takes forever to get to it

in a movie that's like 88 minutes long. It's like a long movie. A lot of the movie is just him trying to load the arrow. And then when he finally wails on him and arrows them. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah.

And they have that cool like house that they're in with like a pool. Right. Fuck those guys. Right, he gets hurt. I'm glad they got arrowed. He gets hurt pretty badly. He gets shot. And you're like, oh man, is he going to die? And then the movie just comes forward.

The movie ends with him being loaded into an ambulance and right, yeah. Right, but then it just flashes forward to him walking through the field with his son in the credits roll and it's like, oh, I guess it got better. They're all kind of that same vibe. Yeah. They're all the same vibe, but they're... I'm kind of glad we put them together.

So fighting mad, he's mad and he's not going to stand for it anymore. He's going to fight back. He's not fighting calmly. You know what I'm saying? He's fighting mad. So this is the beginning of our Demi miniseries. He's not like files of paperwork.

He's an interesting director. We're going to go all over the map with this fucking guy. We're going to have all kinds of actors to talk about, all kinds of genres, all kinds of eras in Hollywood. He's done everything, except for, I guess, like a fucking Marvel movie. He's done everything. Yeah. Except for, I guess, like, you know, a fucking Marvel movie. But, like, you know, he did everything. Yeah.

He really did. I guess he never made, like, a ball-to-the-wall action movie. That's about it. There's a little bit of him, like the Ang Lee thing, where, like, all of his films feel personal or very much marked by his specific sort of technical flourishes and stylistic signatures and all of that. But he was a guy where you look at this filmography and you're like, this feels like a guy who could have worked in the 40s.

Because he just adapted to whatever the thing was. It's true. And yet, the conundrum we're going to solve with him or think about is partly, one, what made him so iconic, given the fact that he adapted into all this stuff. Right. And yet, like, how is he an influence on two of the biggest filmmakers of today? That's the thing. Barry Jenkins and Paul Thomas Anderson both kind of said he was like, yeah, he was sort of the guy.

He was like, you know, PTAta is very upfront dedicates movies to him right like barry jenkins i mean the close-ups like the looking down the camera like there's so much you can obviously and he talks about it too right and then yeah i guess the demi close-up is sort of a and then also he basically invented an entire genre which is the like the concert movie right he like invented that with what stop making. I mean obviously like concert movies existed before then. The Big Suit movie? Yeah. Fucking heads. Yeah you're gonna fucking love it. He kind of turns it into like it's like you didn't

just shoot a concert like outside. It becomes like a movie. It becomes something more thematic. So it's fascinating. The last waltz had already happened at that point. Of course there's been like Woodstock and the last waltz. You know what I mean though? Yes.

Where it's like talking, it's not making sense as kind of its own beast and it's one of the first concert movies. It's kind of like

half directed by David Byrne. It's got like really interesting stylistic choices. Love that. Love that. It's a masterpiece

and we'll talk about it. We're not going to talk about most of the documentaries because he made too many fucking things.

Yeah, I might watch some of them. We'll see. Yeah, I might try to find time. This is a long filmography. We're going to cover a lot of different things. I do I might watch some of them. We'll see. Yeah, I might try to find time. This is a long filmography. We're going to cover a lot of different things. I do think what you're saying, though,

the arc is fascinating because these do not feel like three films from a man who will direct one of the most dominant Oscar films of all time. And not only that, the most unconventional dominant Oscar film of all time. But then after that, he enters a period of kind of being

the most kind of like classical, prestige-y, Oscar-baity kind of guy, at least in how his films play, even if they do have their own integrity, you know? And then he's sort of in the wilderness for the better part of the 2000s. But he comes from like trash to then being like the top of the heap. Trash to top to back to middle. Yeah. And then always making interesting stuff. But like big budget studio middle. Yeah.

It's a weird filmography and we're going to get into it because you picked it. Now this is the one where we're not going to play conventional box office game because I just can't find data that far back. And also these movies barely had conventional releases. But. Yeah. Come on. Let's play like year box office games. Yeah, let's do it.

1974. Give me the top five movies of 1974. Number one, iconic comedy. Blazing Saddles? Correct. Yeah. $119 million. Huge.

Number two, giant action epic. Giant action epic. Yeah, but like modern, contemporary contemporary sort of invents a genre sort of invents a genre it's not famous for its billing oh oh oh oh it's towering inferno events the disaster movie kind of yeah 116 so those were the two okay all right now the third and this is one reason i wanted to do 1974 first. It's kind of like a revenge movie. We were just talking about it.

Billy Jack? Which one? Is it the... Fuck, I'm trying to remember the other titles. Is one of them Billy Jack Goes to Washington? Maybe. But this isn't that. No. Fuck, I don't know. What is it? The Trial of Billy Jack. maybe but this isn't that uh uh fuck

I don't know what is it trial of Billy Jack I'm sorry there is no Billy Jack goes to Washington that's the one I was thinking of

89 million dollars the third highest grossing film I mean huge obviously Billy Jack is like a joke you make now right about like a weird

like uncool pop culture thing yeah but like huge huge totally forgot and also like total outsider art.

Like a man who was outside of the industry. It's like he had the same career path as like Neil Breen except the movies were like massive. If you look at this

fucking top 10. Yeah. I really sometimes want to slap people in the face when they talk about how movies are over now. This is a terrible

top 10 movies of the year. And there are so many incredible movies that came out in 1974 just as there are now. But they're just not in the top fucking ten. Number four is a masterpiece. This is not that. This is another comedy masterpiece.

This is another comedy masterpiece? I mean, two movies in the same year. In 74? Think about it. Oh, it's Young Frankenstein. That's just unimpeachable. He made both those movies in one year. In the same year. Young Frankenstein right I mean that's just unimpeachable he made both those movies in one year

in the same year Young Frankenstein and Blazing Sally Gene Wadig gave both his performances in the same year I mean arguably his two best movies

yeah maybe inarguably yeah right I kind of think inarguably that's just crazy but then number five

is another shitty disaster movie is it an airport nope that's but Airport 1975 is number 7. Wow. Shade Disaster movie.

Give me a general type of location. The ground. Is it earthquake? Earthquake. Okay. And then like Godfather 2 is 6. Love that. But then like Airport 1975, Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, The Longest Yard,

Murder on the, the Albert Finney Orient Express. Which is a great movie. It's a good movie. I love that movie. I love Albert Finney in that movie.

It's not my favorite movie. I love that movie. Lumet ruled. I love Lumet. Lumet has made a lot of movies, as you have. I agree.

A lot of them aren't good, but that one is one of the really great ones. The end is so boring. The end rules. Herbie rides again. Benji. Freebie and the Bean. Like it's like there was a lot of shit.

There's a lot of garbage here. You go down and you're like oh here's some good stuff. A conversation. A conversation like 31. Cirque Sugarland Express 29. Yeah. Gone with the Wind

25. That's so funny to think about. That's the widescreen re-release. Alright, anyway. Okay. Chinatown came out

the Earth Thunderbolt and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Wow. So let's do top three from the other two years. Wow, you're in a rush? Okay, fine. Let's do top five.

You don't want to do five? Stretch out. Yeah, geez. Make yourself comfy, Ben. How long is this episode? Just hit two hours. Okay. Jesus, 1975.

I'm just saying things have changed when we go, oh, don't worry. We just hit two hours. Yeah, all right, all right. You're right. We've got time to speak. Come on, we're almost done.

Come on, 1975, number one. 1975, number one be Jaws? Yes. Number two, Best Picture. Number two for 75 is Best Picture. Yeah be Jaws? Yes. Number two, Best Picture. Number two for 75 is Best Picture. Yeah, Jaws, 260. Right. And the next one makes 108, which is a lot of money for the time.

Yes. Best Picture, 1975. Tons. I mean, this is still an era where your number one film probably hasn't made $100 million. There are less than 15 movies that have ever made $100 million. There are less than like, you know, 15 movies that have ever made $100 million. Okay, so number two is still a huge hit. It's 108. Give me the genre.

Best picture winner. Oh, fuck, but still, give me the genre. That's not a genre, my friend. Drama? Pretty straight? I guess so. How do you describe this? It's kind of a prison movie,

but it's not set in prison. Well, now, I don't know. Well, what was your hint going to be? Adaptation. It is an adaptation of a book. It's an adaptation of a book. It's kind of a prison movie, but not really. It's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

Correct. Huge hit. Number three, and I mean, this is kind of crazy. This is number three. Kind of like a sex dramedy, but like highbrow with a big star. Highbrow, sex dramedy. Highbrow, like, geez, I just can't stop getting laid movie. Boy, oh boy.

It sure is tough to be hot and get laid. It's not carnal knowledge. No, I mean, you know, sort of that vibe. But sort of that vibe. It's a little less dramatic than that. The big star is the male? Yeah. Interesting.

He's a hottie. I can't deny it. He's a hottie. It's not a Redford, is it? No. More dangerous. More dangerous? It's not McQueen.

No. Less dangerous. Less dangerous. I'd say McQueen kind of is a guy where you're like, this guy could punch me in the face right now. Yeah. Shut up. Yeah. Shut up. Yeah. Less dangerous, but in between the two, he can't stop getting laid.

It's not Alfie. No, but it's sort of like an American Californian Alfie. Right. I'm trying to think through. He has. He's shrugging. The name of the movie is a product. Oh, Shampoo.

Shampoo. Was the third highest grossing film of its year? That's crazy. That's nuts. A great movie by a great filmmaker. 49, though. So, again, a big drop off from, you know, 108. But that's still crazy.

All right. Four is a prison movie. Not a prison movie. Fuck. It's like kind of a crime movie. It's like a bank robbery movie. Four's like a... It's a prison movie. Not a prison movie. Fuck. It's kind of a crime movie. It's like a bank robbery movie. Four is like a... It's a great movie.

Great big performance. Like one very famous big performance. Although a lot of good performances in it. Is it like an Oscar-winning performance or just like an iconic performance? He didn't win an Oscar, maybe outrageously, although he was up against Jack. He was up against Jack. Jack wins the Oscars. Right. For the lead Oscar, he didn't win an Oscar, maybe outrageously, although he was up against Jack. He was up against Jack. Jack wins the Oscars. Right.

For the lead Oscar, he didn't win. He wins an Oscar way later for a bad movie. He wins it way later. Is it Cool Hand Luke? No. But is it Paul Newman? No. Oh, it's Pacino for Dog Day.

And then number five is a sequel. Comedy. Let me ask you, if you could go back in time, would you give the Oscar that year to Jack or Al? I'd give it to Al. Only one way to find out. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

Ladies and gentlemen, he's cracked his knuckles. He has stretched his arms. You asked me the question. The spreadsheet is being opened. I gave it to Jack. Wow. You want to hear the five? Yeah.

Ryan O'Neal for Barry Lyndon. Richard Dreyfuss for Jaws. Al Pacino for Dog Day Afternoon. Warren Beatty for Shampoo. And Jack's the winner. Wait a second. I'm just trying to process Richard Dreyfuss for Jaws.

Yeah, he's my boy. I hadn't even thought about him as lead though. I think I snuck Shaw into supporting. Well, he did get the supporting nomination, right? No, he didn't get a nomination, which is outrageous. Shaw was not nominated for Jaws? It's outrageous. Are you fucking kidding me? I'll double check. I would have bet the house on that. I think this might

be similar to your Top Gun prediction. I think you might be right. I don't know. Wrong about. I thought Jaws kind of got snubbed. It didn't get director. Yeah, no, no, no, no. Because that's the famous.

Really? Four noms total. See, yeah, I would say Shaw is supporting. I would say that Dreyfuss is supporting. And I would say that Scheider is like. No. Scheider was, I mean, Dreyfuss was nominated for a lead BAFTA. He's a lead.

I think he's a lead. It's three fucking roles. I know, it's a good movie. It's a great movie of rules. Can I throw a hot take? It's about a shark. Can I throw a hot take? Eats people.

Jaws is pretty good. No, but can I? I think I gave it to Jack. He's one of those four super, the movie is no good without him, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, Milos, though. I'm a little surprised.

I think I also have given Pacino several wins already at that point. Maybe I'm sort of like spreading the love. I don't know. I think that's the best one. It's pretty good. It's also one of my favorite movies ever. Yeah, it's a good movie. Number five, come on, comedy sequel.

Number five is a comedy sequel. So that's not a very frequent occurrence at this point in time. It's a comedy sequel so that's not very a very frequent occurrence at this point in time yeah it's a comedy sequel is it like character or circumstance that they're sequelizing

he's a character this guy this guy's a character let me ask you is the character iconic enough but the character's name is not in the title but is the character iconic enough

that I would know the character by name yeah is it a shot in the dark it's a Pink Panther? Which one? It's not The Trail. It's not The Curse.

No. It's not Return? It is Return. Return of the Pink Panther? Return of the Pink Panther. Now, 1976. Yeah. And then we're done.

Okay. Number one, best picture, iconic movie, huge, rules, so fucking good. Why am I forgetting what wins best picture in 1976? I mean, it wins it over better movies but who cares it still rules people will shit on it

but they shouldn't because it fucking rules fuck I'd love to do an episode on it fuck I'm into the fact that people shit on it no but we could do

a franchise that's a good franchise oh the film is Rocky Rocky the film is Rocky and we should probably do that franchise at some point

it'd be pretty fun It'd be pretty fun. It'd be pretty fun. I haven't seen any of the Creed movies which is like a bummer. You should watch Creed tonight. That movie is the most

watchable movie ever made. Gotta get off. Well also, look, we might have another reason to talk about a couple of the Rocky movies if March Madness

shakes out in some of the crazy ways it could. Now number two, you may or may not know this, is an IMAX movie that was a documentary. Are you joking? No. It's like a weird box office anomaly.

It was the highest grossing documentary of all time before Fahrenheit 9-11. Weird. And it's from 1975? Six. It mostly played at like this National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. It's a IMAX documentary.

But it was like such a big deal that it was technically the second highest grossing movie of the year. I wonder though if that's them retroactively saying it's the second highest grossing film. It makes it clear 1976 gross, so I don't think so.

Weird. Yeah. Because like I said, on that early one, Gone with the Wind was listed as making $10 million that year. Is the title of the film the subject or is it creative? Yeah, it's like what it's about. It's an announcement.

Yeah, it is an exclamation point. Love those. It's not like this is Cinerama. It sort of feels like it's pointing. It's not that's entertainment. No. I mean. I'm trying to think of titles that are exclamations. Can I give it to you?

Yeah. To Fly. I never knew that existed. To Fly. It's a documentary that shows you have to point. You have to point. David's pointing toward the sky. I believe the poster is like a hot air balloon. Wow. It's about like the history of flight. I did not know this movie existed.

Even if you were to read about it, you'd be like, do you want to see a movie? Maybe we should go see To Fly! And once again, Ben's doing the physical bit. They're pointing at the sky and looking up towards the sky. Now, the three others are big movies of the era. None of them are particularly good in my opinion. But they were all big hits. To Fly. One is a giant

remake that just got remade again. Starsborne? Right. Streisand? Yeah. Chris Christopherson, underrated. Terribleris christopherson underrated terrible movie though yeah terrible number four is a movie that um uh it's it's been remade again it was also made for the stage recently whoa whoa and so it was not a stage play originally. No. I didn't adapt it. Mm-hmm. Recently. Fuck, I'm trying to think of the ones.

Recently. I know. Is it Network? No. Okay, but that was a good guess. No. Because that is the same year, is it not? Yeah, Network was the 19th highest grossing film of the year.

What a great movie. So wait. Good movie. 1976. There's another 76 movie. Hmm. David's, what, stroking? Why is he pointing at us? Hmm.

Maybe you two saw this stage production. Oh. Oh. Oh. It's the Jessica Lange, Dino De Laurentiis, King Kong. King Kong. The one where he's on the Twin Towers! And Jeff Bridges is in it, I believe.

There's that line, yes. Jeff Bridges and Charles Grogan. It's the one where they built, like, a giant puppet. Animatronic. And then it didn't work, so it's mostly just a guy in a suit, right? I believe Rick Baker is also playing King Kong for most of that movie in a costume. I like that poster, yeah. Where he's on both towers.

Yeah. He's not just on one building now do you know what's like the meanest thing that critics say what when they're discussing a new king kong project and they say like every generation gets the king kong they deserve that's really disrespectful to at least three or four different generations basically every generation yeah and like the only one that did got a good one was the one where it came out like during the Great Depression. Right. And the movie's kind of racist.

They're all kind of racist. Yeah. Was the stage play racist? Did they squeeze that in? No. They got 10 minutes of racism in there? No, but the stage play is trying so hard. Yeah, they did have a slow character.

Oh, Jesus. He's not slow. He's lumpy. Okay. And by that, I mean his name is Lumpy. Number five. I will say, Ann Darrow in the King Kong musical is played by an African

American woman who was absent the night that we saw it, so we did not see that. But I have heard that that lends some interesting subtext to the performance. Because it's usually this blonde ingenue. Part of Jackson's problem is he's way too fucking slavish to the performance. Yeah, yeah, it's not because it's usually this blonde ingenue. Right, right, right. Anyway. Part of Jackson's problem is he's way too fucking slavish to the original.

Yeah. Like, he just wants to... Except it's a great movie and it should have won Best Picture. Year of Crash? There are other movies. I mean, yeah,

if I'm picking between those two, sure. I can't think of another one. No, I mean, genuinely, my number one film of the year is New World, but I thought King Kong

should have been the consensus Best Picture winner. Insane. We should do **** next year. Fuck it, let's do **** next year. Fuck it, let's do ****. Fuck ****. Let's do ****. Don't bleep out both of those things. Finally, it's a comedy.

Iconic comedy duo. Is it a Pryor-Wilder? Yeah. You know they used to sell Pryor and Wilder as? Wild and Wilder. There you go. Richard's Wild. Gene is Wilder.

It's not the first one? I don't fucking remember. Silver Street? It's Silver Street. Okay, so that's the first one. 1976. Stir Crazy is the one that's huge. Yeah, right, right, right.

But it did really well. $51 million. Silver Street's a boring movie. It's the one that's on a train it's pretty much just a C grade Hitchcock rip off and whatchamacallit Richard Pryor is in like 3 scenes

and it's very clear that they hired him and he was really funny and they were like fuck we gotta put a couple more Richard Pryor scenes in here it's like the movie with Eddie Murphy where he's in a tank best defense they're like fuck we gotta put a couple more Richard Pryor scenes in here. It's like the movie with Eddie Murphy where he's in a tank. Best of Fence? Yeah right where they're like shit this guy's huge we gotta get him in this watch of this movie but it was like they were like oh fuck this

chemistry is really good and then they made like three more movies that are actually about the two of them but you watch Silver Streak and it's like a Gene Wilder, Jill Kleberg like mystery film that's pretty dry and then has one scene where Gene Wilder does blackface.

At Richard Pryor's encouragement. Great. All right. I'm going to delete the Stuber box office page. We're done! Delete it. Not to close the tab.

It never exists. You've removed Stuber from the timeline? All right. I don't like this. In fourth place with 5% truth about podcasts. It was doomed. Uh like this. In fourth place with 5% truth about podcast. It was doomed.

Oh. In third place, surveillance of the cast. Oh, no. In second place, my personal fave with 32% married to the pot. Which means that they have chosen as number one with 37% stop making podcasts. Outrageous. What do you think? I mean. I like it I guess we gotta do it

we don't have to do it I guess we gotta do it Ange I will say is really hyped up about married to the pod if Ange has like a is like a super delegate you know we got a day left so next episode we'll know for sure right and you will already know because you will have listened to this episode. And there will be artwork. Unless we want to keep it a secret. Yeah, that's fine. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, subscribe.

Thanks to Anne Fraguto for our social media. Liam Montgomery for our theme song. Pat Rounds and Joe Bowen for our artwork. Go to blankies.com for some real nerdy shit. TeePublic for some real nerdy shirts. You can head over to Patreon for BlinkCheck special features where we're getting pretty close to being done with Marvel. Finally.

We're in the endgame now. We're not up to endgame, but we're in the endgame. Towards endgame. And tune in next week for our last double feature because we just got to get through these early ones Last Embrace and Citizens Band and then after that we're on to the real can of gold

hell yeah and as always David's buying steelbooks I'm kind of pumped