Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Danny Huston Encore

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

GGACP celebrates the 60th birthday (May, 14, 1962) of actor-director Danny Huston (“The Aviator,” “Hitchcock,” “Wonder Woman”) with this ENCORE presentation of a 2019 interview. In this episode, Danny regales Gilbert and Frank with stories about meeting Orson Welles, directing Robert Mitchum, getting inside the heads of big-screen bad guys and growing up with (and working alongside) his legendary father, John Huston. Also, Hal Roach cozies up to Mussolini, Katharine Hepburn makes like Eleanor Roosevelt, George Raft turns down the role of a lifetime and Danny reflects on the career of his grandfather, Oscar-winner Walter Huston. PLUS: “The Other Side of the Wind”! Remembering Robert Evans! The mystery of B. Traven! The punk rock cinema of Bernard Rose! And Danny and Gilbert reenact a scene from “Chinatown”! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're listening to Hervé Villachez as Paul Williams. You're listening to Gilbert Goffrey's amazing, colossal podcast. I'm already lying, and this is my favorite podcast. Including my own. Love you. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried and this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And our guest this week is a writer, occasional film director, and one of the busiest and most respected actors working today. You've seen him in popular TV shows like CSI, Magic City, Masters of Sex, American Horror Story, the current hits

Yellowstone and Succession, and the multiple Emmy-winning HBO series John Adams. He's done excellent work in feature films such as The Aviator, Marie Antoinette, The Constant Gardener, Children of Men, X-Men Origins, Wolverine, Robin Hood, 21 Grams, Grams? 21 Grams! 21 Grams. Grams. 21 Grams. 21 Grams. Hitchcock, Hitch, oh God.

Hitchcock, Big Eyes, Wonder Woman, and Stan and Ollie, just to name a few. And he's also worked behind the camera, directing the well-received features Mr. North, The Maddening, Becoming Colette, and recently released The Last Photograph. In a very active career that began back in the 1980s, he's worked with Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Robert Mitchum, Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as directors Tim Burton, Ridley Scott, Sofia Coppola, and Martin Scorsese. He's even directed an actor we love to discuss on this show, Burgess Meredith. And as if all that wasn't enough, he also happens to be a member of a Business Dynasty as the half-brother of Oscar winner Angelica Huston, the grandson of Oscar winner Walter Huston, and the son of one of our favorite filmmakers, the iconic director, John Huston. Please welcome to the podcast an artist of many talents

and a man versatile enough to play both founding father Samuel Adams and bad boy film producer Robert Robert Evans. Danny Houston. Thank you very much. Wow, what an introduction. I feel that I've fooled you thus far. Maybe I should just leave the room and go home after the next one. You won't get a longer intro than that, Danny. Thank you.

We covered a lot. So I guess we can do away with the first question. Were any other members of your family in show business? It seems to be the family business.

That's for sure. You know, we just watched Laurel and Hardy, both of us, and you turned up as Hal Roach. Yes. Fascinating, fascinating character.

A great character to play. And I was always a big fan of Laurel and Hardy as a kid. And when I saw John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan in their wardrobe and makeup and doing this sort of magical, delicate dance. I promise you guys, I forgot my dialogue. Really? I was just gobsmacked. It was just astonishing. Yeah, they really disappeared into those parts.

Yeah. And Hal Roach produced your favorite of Mice and Men. Oh, yes. Yeah. Speaking of Burgess. Yeah, Lon Chaney Jr. Talking about Burgess Meredith. Yeah.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah, Lon Chaney Jr. Talking about Burgess Meredith. Yeah, that's right. And it's funny because playing famous characters like that is really tricky because you don't want to be a nightclub comic doing an imitation. No, exactly. But that character was pretty much a sort of cigar-chewing kind of studio boss guy.

So I was quite happy to play him, just a little arch. Yes. And I only had so much screen time to make him identifiable. He came out a bit of a scumbag. Well, you know, you do research into your characters, Danny, and you must know that he was a Mussolini sympathizer.

Yes, and also quite a dictator in his own studio. And claimed a certain ownership over Stan and Ollie. And so, yes, I do like playing douchebags. You've played your share. And now, speaking of dictators and Mussolini,

Speaking of dictators and Mussolini, when Hollywood, Hollywood for the longest time, wouldn't even mention concentration camps or Jews or anything. And then at the end of World War II, they wanted to document the Holocaust. And I think they sent Alfred Hitchcock, John Stevens. George Stevens. George Stevens. I knew I missed that. That's okay. Yeah, George Stevens, Alfred Hitchcock, and your father, John Houston, to document.

Yeah, and John Ford, I believe, and a few others. But yeah, my father made a very important documentary called Let There Be Light. Yes, it's great. And it's soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress and the hypnosis that they go through. Now, apparently, the screening that he had, which was a screening for the armed forces, did not go down very well. And everybody left in order of their rank.

And finally, the theater was empty. And then later, he won a Congressional Medal of Honor for it. How about that? Yeah. that yeah and uh and it was um the army insisted that soldiers uh see the film so that they understand the psychological impact of war he must have been very proud of that of that yes he did that he did another one called the battle of san pedro uh-huh uh which was also also great um and um yeah very very very much involved um the second World War, as a lot of the directors of that time were. And they came back and made extraordinary films.

I think Capra got some resistance, too, when he made the Why We Fight series. Yeah. There was a lot of pushback. And I think George Stevens, after he did the Holocaust documenting, he was very affected. They all were changed. Yeah. Yeah. Capper, too.

They were haunted by it. They were haunted. And the films that they made afterwards was very interesting because some of the films were very light and fun and entertaining, even though there was always a sort of undercurrent of something, a work of depth. But they all went their different directions. And, yeah, Stevens and also Frank Capra, different filmmakers entirely, but suffering from the same experience. different filmmakers entirely, but suffering from the same experience. Before the 50s,

when your dad got so disenchanted with the way things turned that he wound up going to Ireland, which we'll get to later. Yeah. Yeah. Did your father ever talk about what he saw there? Yeah.

I remember him saying, if I ever make a pro-war film, please, somebody take me out and shoot me. Oh, wow. Wow. That's a strong statement. Yeah. You know, the bravery of the men and what they went through was also heroic qualities that these men had under these incredibly

tough circumstances let's not forget his film Red Badge of Courage sure which is very much about that about somebody

who doesn't commits an action that is considered as heroic but really it's just because of survival and he had a hard time with that one too. Was it recut?

It was. Yes. It was recut. Yes. Lillian Ross wrote a wonderful book about it. Yes. I remember reading that in your dad's memoir. Yeah.

In an open book. I just want to talk to you again about playing real people because we started with Hal Roach. You also played Orson Welles. Oh, wow. And Fade to Black. I think Marlena Dietrich said one should cross oneself

before mentioning his name. She's come up a lot on this show. We had Bogdanovich here. Oh, wow. So a lot of Orson stories. Well, you know, the other side of the wind

is just that Frank Marshall was able to put together after such a long time in classic Orson Welles style, the film, The Negative, ended up in a vault in Paris. And the chain of title, the ownership on it, was completely up for grabs because in classic Orson Welles style, he had, I believe, the cousin of the Shah of Iran finance it. There was a minor revolution in that country. Hilarious. And things became complicated. But because of that and their sort of maverick spirit, my father and Orson, they were able to make this incredibly spellbinding, aggressive, avant-garde, experimental film that you don't see today.

No. It's a shame it took so long to see the light of day. Can you do any Orson Welles for us? I don't know about Orson Welles, but I'll save a couple of John Hustons for you. You didn't want to play Wells as an impression.

You wanted to take a different approach. Yes. I mean, as I said, I definitely felt overwhelmed by the idea of playing somebody as large and majestic as Orson Welles. But then I had my own little private chat with the guys up there, with my father and Welles, and I could see that they found it very funny. So I decided to play it in a light, not too heavy way. And it's a fictionalized account, of course.

It's about him going to Rome to shoot a movie and getting involved in this crazy Italian politics. That's's right while he's trying to finance othello yeah it's an ambitious storytelling had you met the man in your lifetime i met orson wells and with my father when they were talking about the other side of the wind in a restaurant in beverly hills or hollywood uh and and orson was eating eating a great deal. And his chin was covered in grease. And I could see my father feeling a little queasy. It was a hot day.

That's gold. But my father just adored him and adored his sort of Machiavellian ways. I guess my father was maybe a better poker player at playing the studios, you know, giving one to them and a couple for himself. And he knew how to play the game maybe in a more cunning way. cunning way uh but orson was just uh you know so uh honest in his rebellious spirit uh that's that sometimes um he didn't get the money that he so deserved how old were you when you met him you must have been i was in my uh late teens late teens yeah mid mid mid to late teens and they they then you know went back to the to a screening room and watched The Other Side of the Wind and talked about how it would be cut. Now, did you realize back then a lot of people who are in the business young, they're around legends and they go, oh, so-and-so, there's Orson, there's whoever. And they don't get the full impact. Well, we've had a lot of people on this show

who were the children of very famous parents, like Griffin Dunn and his father, Dominic Dunn. So he grew up with Elizabeth Taylor and all of these people at the table, as did you. Yes. Ava Gardner sitting across from you. Oh, Ava Gardner. I remember the first time I'm meeting her.

It was in a restaurant in London. And she walked in. She's wearing Dr. Scholl's, maybe hardly any makeup. And she was just beautiful. And she sat down. I had lunch with my mother and Ava and I. And after lunch, when Ava left, I said to my mother, Mom, I think I'm in love.

And she slapped me in the back of my head. She goes, of course you are. It's Ava Gardner, for Christ's sake. Well, were you jaded? I mean, being around all these people, did it take you years to realize the scope of this? No, I don't think, Jay, as I slowly started putting it together, I started to understand the world. But I got confused very early on in life in regards to fiction and reality. I remember seeing one of the first cuts of a film that my father made based on a rather well-known book called The Bible.

And we're in a sort of editing bay kind of screening room situation, and the film starts, and everybody thinks that their father is a god, I guess, for a certain amount of time anyway. But the film starts and I hear, in the beginning, and it's my father. And he's god, for real. And then the film continues and then suddenly he appears as Noah.

And I was like, wow, that's so cool. My father is God, and he's Noah. And he's walking into the ark, animals side by side, and I'm thinking, this is just fantastic. So it's the first, I never met my grandfather, Walter, but the first times that I saw him was in my father's films. And I thought he was that character. I thought he was the gold prospector from Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

That's who my grandfather was. He's that convincing. Yeah. That you believe he's actually a, and he learned Spanish. Yes, yes. For that role. That's right, that's right. And he learned Spanish. Yes, yes. For that role. That's right, that's right. And he took his teeth out.

Yes, he famously took his teeth out. And it's so amazing. His range is like, you see the early Walter Houston films, where he's like a leading man. And then later on, he's like this crazy old prospector well he really rolled into the leaned in as they say to the character actor thing yeah yeah yeah he was he was something else and then you know other films that you mentioned earlier films like rain and dodds oh devil and daniel webster devil and daniel webster and then there were none i love him in

with barry just so many and i i always remember him doing that, dancing that little jig in Treasure of Sierra. And I'm going, you're dumber than the dumbest jackass. It's gold. Yeah, get rid of me and you'll die here worse than rats. It's great. I think it's great, too, that you were 16 or 17 when you met Orson Welles. None of you could know, just the funny turns that life takes, that you would end up playing the man on screen.

What a kick he might have gotten out of that. But what I did, which actually was all the more, one of my most poignant film experiences really was they were missing some dialogue for the other side of the wind or some of it was just really bad, badly recorded. There were problems with the soundtrack. So I went to an,

into an ADR dubbing stage and I was the voice for my father. And I would say things like, you know, action cut. And, and I, and when it was played back, my father spoke to me. How strange. From the screen, a voice that, his voice that I gave, I returned back to him. That is surreal.

Yeah. Wow. Pretty wild. Wow. You were also in Hitchcock another man your dad knew another man that my dad knew

and played by the wonderful Anthony Hopkins and he's great in it and again you played a real person again I played a real person you played Whitfield Cook watching that picture and again I know you do deep research into these characters, especially the bad guys. And Whitfield not being necessarily a heavy in that movie, but doesn't come off in a very flattering way.

How much of that was factual? How much of, do you know? Were he and Alma actually, did that consummate that affair? It's speculative. Did he and Alma actually consummate that affair? It's speculated. Yes, I believe that there was a certain warmth that they had towards each other. Primarily because she spent a lot of time alone and Hitchcock was doing his thing. And this was an opportunity for her to maybe have a cocktail with somebody from time to time without the pressure of it being Hitchcock.

And my character, I think, somewhat feels the same, but he's also manipulating it for himself. Yeah. It's a good film. I mean, it takes a little creative license, but it's fun. It's not meant to be a documentary. No, exactly.

Hitchcock always comes across, when they talk about him, as like a very frustrated individual and strange feelings about women. We had Tippi Hedren here on the show. And she has her own experiences. Uh-huh. Yeah. That's all I can say to that.

It'll be my father's uh-huh. Yeah. It'll be my father's, uh-huh. Yeah. Now, of course, I always have to ask you the famous people that you've worked with, of course. Humphrey Bogart. No, I never worked with him. No, you didn't work with him, but were you there?

No, sadly not. Sadly not Bogart. Yes, to Mitchum. Yeah, you directed Mitchum, sadly not. Sadly not Bogart. Yes to Mitchum. Yeah, you directed Mitchum, in fact. I directed Mitchum. Yeah, I directed Mitchum. I made a film called Mr. North early in my career based on a Thornton Wilder novel.

And my father called me and he said, Danny, if I were to fall ill, is it okay if I were to call somebody to is it okay if I were to call somebody to stand by? And I said, well, yes, of course, if it makes you, you'll be fine. But of course, if it makes you feel better, I said, okay, I'm going to call Robert Mitchum. And sadly, he did become ill and Mitchum stepped in heroically.

and Mitchum stepped in heroically. And my father was in a hospital in Newport, Rhode Island. And Mitchum said, look, I'm sorry about the circumstances, but I'm delighted to be here to help. And when Mitchum left the room, my father lowered his oxygen mask and looked at me, winked, and said, biggest hoax I ever pulled. Which speaks volumes of the man, doesn't it? I mean, the show of bravado and his generosity towards me and trying to make light of otherwise a rather sad moment.

And his admiration for Robert Mitchum. Yes. Well, who was one of those people that you got used to seeing around when you were a kid? Yeah. And on set it would be, morning, Bob. How are you? He'd say, worse. Would you like some coffee?

Makes me fart. It's hilarious. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast right after this. That's what you say. Hear that, C Pounder fans? That silence is two friends enjoying the new creamy parmesan and bacon Quarter Pounder at McDonald's. Because adding crispy bacon and creamy parmesan sauce to our 100% Canadian beef makes it impossible to have a conversation. impossible to have a conversation.

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It's Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Podcast. Is there a story, too, about you and your dad trying to, when you decided to try to recruit Lauren Bacall for the film? Yes. Staircase? Yeah, Lauren Bacall outside the Sunset, the Westwood Marquee in Los Angeles, a big flight of steps. And I was carrying his oxygen tank. And we're walking up these steps.

Lauren's at the very top. And my father has the script in hand. And as he hands it over to her, again, he gives me a little wink. We were hustlers. We were hustling. And he gives me a little wink. And as we walk away, it's impossible for her to turn this down. Because we made such a show of it.

He was right. Such a show. A sweet little film, by the way, with a great cast. Thank you. Thank you. I then worked again with Lauren Bacall on a film called Birth. Yes, with Nicole Kidman. Yeah.

And I remember the AD, the assistant director, arriving suddenly with a big red cheek. I said, what happened? He looked quite upset. He said, Lauren Bacall slapped me. And I said, why? He said, well, I took her dog, Papillon, for a walk, and I was gone too long, and she slapped me.

He looked rather tearful, and I said, oh, come on. I said, you should be delighted. You were slapped by Lauren Bacall. Yeah, that is an honor. He really should have dined out on that how did how did you feel about clint eastwood's performance as your father i thought he was very good i i thought the film was was was excellent um if there's a a criticism uh maybe his voices was just a little too thin because my father's voice was so specific.

But that's a note coming from my father's son. Yeah, it's a good movie. Not a lot of people talk about it. Yeah. White Hunter Blackheart. It's very, very well made, I thought. Novel originally written by Peter Vertel. Yeah. And I remember my father saying that Peter Vettel asked him if,

he gave him the book to read first before he published it, and he asked my father if it would be okay to publish it, and my father said, yes, of course. But he later said to me he would have published it anyway. Well, yeah. But he liked the mythology that Peter Vertel created for him. And everybody that worked for my father was up in arms saying that it wasn't a correct depiction. But my father liked it.

Interesting. Well, the film is certainly made with affection for your dad and for the subject matter. Yes. Yes, it is. It comes Yes. Yes, it is. It comes through. I believe it is. Yeah. And you were born during the making of a film that they used to show on TV a lot when I

was growing up, and that was Freud with Montgomery Cliff. Yes. Well, I like to say, if we were to use my father's film as a sort of measuring stick, that I was conceived during Freud. Seems appropriate. Born during the Bible and teased on Night of the Iguana. Now, I may have the chronology completely wrong, but that's the way I remember it. That sounds close. have the chronology completely wrong, but that's the way I remember it. That sounds close.

When you made Mr. North, and by the way, you're pretty young, and we were talking off mic about your first picture, about Mr. Corbett's Ghost, which I guess you made for the BBC? I made it for the, yes, I made it for English television, and I cast my

father as a collector of souls. He's great in it. Yeah, typecast as a collector. And I He's great in it. Yeah, typecast. Yeah. And I had Paul Schofield. Yes. That's all to my father's, all my father's doing. And Burgess Meredith. And Burgess Meredith, I think, was what I'm doing. Because Burgess Meredith and I became really, really good pals.

And I used to stay in his place in Malibu. And my father and Burgess Meredith and I went to the Sea of Cortez looking for a theme to make a film about the sea. Literally searching for a theme. And there we were in the middle of the Sea of Cortez reading Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez and drinking and talking. And they talked about their lives and their marriages. And it was a very, very special time. And we stayed in these small little cabins. I remember Burgess Meredith saying that I was his womb mate.

We've heard a lot of nice things about him from people we've had on the show who knew him and interacted with him. He was great. We were talking about mice and men and the penguin, of course. Of course. Of course.

I mean, he directed. He did a lot of things. He did. Made a good film called The Man on the Eiffel Tower. Yeah, yeah. And his book is wonderful as well, Burgess's book.

Well, you were all of 25 when you made Mr. Corbett's Ghost. And aside from the fact that you're working with these giants, your dad included, but also the great Paul Schofield, I mean, it's very competently made. It's spooky and it's, I mean,

and you're a kid. Thank you, thank you. Fresh out of film school. Yeah. Before that, I shot a title sequence, credit sequence for my father for Under the Volcano with some paper mache dolls. I used to make drinks for him

depending what part of the world we were in. And in Mexico, at this particular moment in time, he was drinking Cuba Libres. And I made him his drink at the end of the day when we'd watch dailies, rushes. And he complained. He looked at it and he said, no, no, no. He said, the Coke should only color the rum. That's a great impression.

So I imagine making drinks for him was a full-time job. From what I've heard. One could keep busy at it. That's for sure. But it gave me the opportunity to not only happily make drinks for him, but also to sit in and watch dailies, watch how he made films. And he turned around to me at this particular instant, turned around and said, Danny, you've come out of film school.

You feel like you can direct something? Direct the title sequence. And he put the fear of God in me, and I did. And he handed over Gabriel Figueroa, who was one of the great cinematographers, Mexican cinematographers, and I shot the title sequence, and much to my delight, he liked it.

Good movie, Under the Volcano. And I grew up being in love with old monster movies, and I heard from my friend Alan Asherman that your father was a screenwriter for both The Werewolf of London and The Invisible Man. Wow. Now, that I do not know. Well, Alan better be right. And I heard he had written a scene that back then was too blasphemous to put in Werewolf of London, where

the character puts his finger in the holy water and it starts to boil. And later on, that was a scene in Devil's Advocate with Al Pacino. Wow. Fascinating. How about that?

You didn't know that? No, absolutely not. We pray to God it's true, Danny. Yeah, I know. It's such a good story. Of course he was an accomplished screenwriter before he became, I mean, it was the success, if I'm not misspeaking, the success of High Sierra that led him to get his shot on Maltese Falcon. You're absolutely right. And the studio didn't want to give him a shot on Maltese Falcon. And I believe it was george raft that they had

that they'd cast and he didn't want to work with a first-time director and he certainly didn't want to work with walter houston's kid um so uh so he he said no he wouldn't do it and walter um had And Walter had enough pull to be able to say, well, look, give my kid a chance and I'll be in it as well. And that sort of sealed the deal. And you can barely know it's him, but he's the captain that comes in with the falcon. Very small scene, but fun that he pops up there. Okay, we make him do this on almost every show, but now it's specific. You've got to do a little Joel Cairo for him. Oh, well, yes, Joel Cairo.

Yeah, Peter's character. No, it's you who did it. You and your stupid attempt to buy it. Kevin found out how valuable it was. No wonder we had such an easy time finding it. You idiot.

You bloated fathead. What do you think, Dan? I think that's spectacular. Wow, well done. That is just great. Every little color is right there. We've been waiting to have you so he could pull this out.

He does Casper Gutman as well. Oh, yes. You are a character, sir. I enjoy talking to a man who enjoys to talk. I just trust a closed who enjoys to talk. I just trust a closed mouth man. Talking is not something we should do judiciously.

That's just great. Do you do stinking badges? Do you do Alfonso Bedoya, Gilbert? Is that in your repertoire? Badges? We don't need stinking badges. Badges?

Didn't you guys host, you and Angelica, host a private screening, a fundraiser, for Maltese Falcon? We did. It was for Turneraltese Falcon? We did. Last year? We did. We did.

It was for Turner Classics. Yeah, absolutely, we did. Great to be seen on the big screen. What I find interesting... Oh, sorry. No, no, please go ahead. What I find interesting about Maltese Falcon is that if someone now were to say, we're doing a remake of maltese falcon that would be

blasphemy but that was like the third maltese falcon the bogart version yeah one was played for laughs i think yeah i'm his my father's reasoning on that was i remember him saying i don't understand why people remake good movies. They should remake the bad ones. And the previous versions of Maltese Falcon, I believe, were not all that good. And so he'd figured out a

way to make it work rather than making a great film again and making it not as well. Because I remember there was one version with Ricardo Cortez. I think that's the previous version. Yes.

And Ricardo Cortez, I should mention my favorite topic, although he was given a Spanish, romantic Spanish name, he was a Jew from the Bronx. Ricardo Cortez. Love it. And Owen, Dwight Frye. Right. And it's like, it's so similar

to the Bogart version, but it just doesn't work. Interesting. You know, that movie could have made George Raft an even bigger star, and he must have kicked himself for years. Let's hope so.

But much to my father's chagrin, much to his delight, I believe he really wanted Bogart in it. Oh, so it worked out. It worked out. Yeah, yeah. And he was able to slip Wilmer the Gunsel past the censors at the time, too. Yes, yes. And there's a scene with Peter Lorre with his perfumed business card.

Yes. And he's very suggestively running a cane over his mouth, which is... How that got past them is beyond me. But great, great film. How did the audience react to the screening? I mean, it's such a beloved film, but seeing it on a big screen, I've never had the chance to see it on a big screen.

It was great. I believe it was at the Man Chinese, so it was a big screen. It was great. I believe it was at the Man Chinese. It was a big screen. And when you – I've seen a few prints that Scorsese has restored and guards carefully. He rarely screens them in case it causes any damage to the print.

But it's like stepping back in time because these prints are just so pristine. It's like looking at glass or something. They're untouched. And that romantic thing of watching an old movie with all its scratches and its bumps, like an old vinyl record, is in a way part of the experience. So it's quite shocking when it's just completely clear

with no flaws at all. And you really feel like you're stepping back in time and you appreciate how modern these films are. Yeah. I read that he shot the whole thing in sequence, that he detailed everything. He wrote down in sketchbooks. He knew every shot.

It was entirely storyboarded. Yeah. He was determined to come in under budget and on time. Yeah, it was entirely storyboarded, and he was quite known, my father, for cutting in the camera. So he never really shot an establishing shot or a wide shot. The camera would progress through the scene, and he'd never return back to

the same shot i remember there's a scene with bogart laurie and mary esther all screaming at each other with the two cops uh um ward uh ward bond and who's the other cop i can't remember offhand i'll think of it they were all arguing back arguing back and forth and Peter Lorre puts his coat on and he starts to walk away and they say, where do you think you're going? And he says, I'm not going anywhere. It's getting quite late. Did you ever hear such a good Joel Cairo in your life, Danny? I don't believe I have.

He's a savant. And the other line that makes me crack up is Peter Lorre says, you always have such a clear answer for everything. And Bogart says, what do you want me to do? Learn to stutter? Great. And Sidney Greenstreet's film debut. Was it?

Yes. I think he was like 60. He was 61. Wow. Yeah. I wanted to, again, about Mr. Corbett's ghost. Your dad's wonderful in it. I can't believe you made something so good at the age of 25. But it's on YouTube so our listeners can go find it.

It's very spooky. And it really delivers chills but it's on YouTube so our listeners can go find it. It's very spooky and it really delivers chills and it's a cautionary tale. It's great. It is. It's 1767 if I remember right. I'm going to sit Gilbert down and watch it. It's a

Christmas story. Schofield plays a sort of Scrooge-like character. It's Dickensian. And a future pop star turns up in the cast. Do you know who I'm referring to? Alexis Sale, Jules Holland. Jules Holland. Yeah.

Alexis Sale, Jules Holland. Yeah, I was pretty hip with my casting there. I'm watching this thing and going, why do I know this guy's voice? I'm a big Squeeze fan. Why the hell do I know this guy's voice? And I freaked out when I realized it was Jules Holland, who I never thought of as an actor. Yeah, playing the defrocked priest.

Wonderful. Yeah. And people should find Mr. North, too. I believe it's on Amazon Prime. Great cast. Tammy Grimes, Harry Dean Stanton. I never saw Harry Dean Stanton doing a... A Cockney accent. A Cockney accent.

One of our favorite actors, David Warner. Oh, great. Yeah. Terrific job. It's just like a traveling angel story, I guess is what they call that. And Anthony Edwards in the lead role, and Mitchum and Lauren Bacall, as you mentioned earlier, Mary Stewart Masterson, Virginia Mattson. It was a great cast.

Did you bring that project to your dad? Did you find that? I did. It was a great cast. Did you bring that project to your dad? Did you find that? I did. I brought it to him, and he and Janet Roach, who collaborated on Pritzy's Honor, took a pass at it and handed me back the script,

which I did not touch. It's a sweet little film. And your father was fine. In fact, I guess enthusiastic about you going into show business. Yes. I mean, he never really encouraged me. But when he saw my appetite, he was great.

He was extraordinarily helpful to me and would always show me how he was making the film. I remember him, on Princey's Honor, I remember him saying, Daddy, come over here. Let me show you something. What is it? He goes,

you see that man over there? I go, yeah. He goes, it's a Steadicam. Wow. What does that mean? And he goes, well, the camera's attached to the man

and I don't have to lay any tracks. And it just all happens magically, and it doesn't cost me too much time. Isn't it wonderful? I was like, wow, yeah, that's great. And so he loved all the new, he loved the new equipment. I see.

I'd love to see what he'd be up to now as far as, you mentioned censorship earlier. You know, these, and Wells, see what he'd be up to now as far as, you mentioned censorship earlier. And Wells, I mean, they were just so avant-garde, so active mentally and it's still a big

loss. Making films at the time that they were being restricted by the Hayes office in many ways. Yeah. And it made them use their imaginations more back then of sneaking stuff in. It was always fascinating to watch movies then. Well, like you say, the caressing of the cane, I mean, that sort of stuff is just wonderful,

and it's so much fun to sneak it in, and it gives the film layers. I like your dad's offbeat films. I like Wise Blood. I like Fat City. I mean, people don't talk about them as much as they talk about even the list of Adrian Messenger. I don't know what he thought of that one. It's problematic, but so much fun.

No, absolutely. And in between Wise Blood and Under the Volcano, he slips in Annie. And then he makes Fat City and does Escape to Victory. One for the company store. Yeah. He just, he danced around. And Annie's a great film. Not to put it down in any way,

but it's not what you'd quantify as being a John Huston film. Now, on the subject of Lista Badrian Messenger, I think his name's Jan Merlin, who was an actor who was in it, who died recently, and this, hope it's true too, from Alan Asherman told me, that all of the characters in heavy makeup

in that movie that at the end reveal themselves as Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster were actually this one actor. And they showed up for that one day of pulling the makeup off, but they weren't actually in the movie. That's fascinating. It makes complete sense. I don't have any proof of that, but It makes complete sense. I don't have any proof of that, but it makes complete sense. It would be a lot cheaper

to only have to have Burt Lancaster for a day. And these guys were so much about trickery and stuff like that, so it makes complete sense. They said even the scenes with Kirk Douglas in makeup were a lot of it, this Jan Merlin. Right, right, right.

It would make sense. I find it interesting, too. Now, is it fair to say that you, not that you backed into acting, but that wasn't the original goal? No, not at all. It was a happy accident, in a way. Yeah, I was very committed to directing and only directing. And I remember, again, as a teenager, being in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco while my father was making a film called Man Who Would Be King.

Another great one. And there was my father and Michael Caine and Sean Connery, Christopher Plummer, Kipling book, of course, and Atlas Mountains in Morocco, The Blue People. I was just having the time of my life. And I remember going into the makeup trailer and Michael Caine, because his eyelashes were very fair, was putting mascara on.

And Sean Connery was just a little balding in the back so he had a little patch of hair that they were gluing on the back of his head and I thought, oh, I don't ever want to be an actor. No, no, this is not something I want to do. I want to do what my father does. I want to be there in the director's chair and conducting this sort of majestic film.

And so I not resisted acting, but it was just something that I never had in my sights at all. And when I lost my father, I was in L.A. in a sort of rather seasonless state. The years were going by, and I thought I was staying active, phone calls and meetings and all that kind of stuff, but nothing was getting made. So fellow directors, friends, out of the kindness of their hearts, started offering me small roles. And my first role was Waiter No. 2 in Leaving Las Vegas, directed by Mike Figgis. Good filmmaker. And this gave me an opportunity to see how other people,

other than my father, how they worked. Maybe slightly more experimental films, but stuff that was of the moment. And that excited me. It was an opportunity for me to steal from them, really. I remember seeing an interview where I think your father said he originally wanted to do that movie with, they would be kings, with Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable. You are absolutely right. That's how long it took to get off the ground.

Can you imagine? How about that? 30 some odd years. It makes you wonder what that movie would have been with those two. Yes. I would have loved to have seen it

with those two. Having said that, Kane and Connery were just perfect casting. And of course, they were probably more authentic casting, a piece of casting. But films at different periods of time are more forgiving in that regard.

Sure. I would have loved to see the other guys do it. I think the 30-year wait served him in a way in terms of the casting. Because he didn't have to cast Hollywood movie stars. Right, right. Yeah. But even though I'm sure that he and Bogart would have had some great take on it.

I remember him saying about Bogart, this is a little bit off your, I'm not answering your question in this particular moment, but thinking about Bogart, they used to talk about how awards, and the Emmys the other night, talking about how awards, there's a sort of, I remember him saying there's a certain vulgarity to it. A sort of cheapness and celebrating yourself, and it feels like a political campaign of sorts. It doesn't seem to have much to do with art.

And they were both agreeing with each other. It doesn't seem to have much to do with art. And they were both agreeing with each other. But then he said when Bogart won his first Academy Award, he seemed inordinately proud. That's hilarious. And Frank brought up, and this is something we both are fascinated by, and that was that horrible period of the blacklist. Yes.

Now, I guess my father's one of the first famous people in the film business to renounce his American citizenship. Yep. So he basically tore up his American passport, went to Ireland, bought a beautiful home in Ireland, and became Irish. Moral rot. Yeah.

That was his quote. Yeah. And, I mean, there was, one was his disdain, what was happening in America. And the other was that artists don't pay tax in Ireland. I see. So slight ulterior motive. Yeah. Wasn't all righteous.

Well, he formed the Committee for the First Amendment, which I urge our listeners to research and read about. It's fascinating. It's fascinating what he went through. And certain friends turned. Absolutely. I mean, it broke his heart what was happening in this country, and he was a patriot. But what he had to deal with, I mean, he paid the price in a way. He did.

He did. And in classic John Huston style, he was able to walk away from it feeling good within himself and create another life which was a really magical life in Ireland he had this great home it took people forever to get to it so when they arrived

they would stay at least a couple of days and he created his own magical world for himself and he created his own his own magical world for himself um and he he was master of the galley blazers and he completely embraced uh uh that life and um and it was it was it was it was wonderful and growing up there was just was just great and then he because he had emphysema and the winters in ireland were a bit tough and uh I think he was in wife number five or six, so he was kind of feeling a bit of a dent in his wallet. He moved to Mexico, just outside of Puerto Vallarta, where he'd originally made a few films, A Night at the Iguana.

A Night at the Iguana, yeah. And it was a place that you could only get to by boat. And it was a place to that you could only get to by boat uh and um and it was wonderful he sort of found his solace there and uh and was able to uh spend time quiet time um but without any possessions he literally he'd have he had a side table and and whatever book he was reading and mosquito nets as walls that's like a scene out of a movie it truly is a larger than life character yeah yeah yeah i i i've i've mentioned this a few times one of the jobs i had pre uh having a career in show business was working the concessions in the Broadway theaters. Uh-huh.

And one play was A Matter of Gravity with Katharine Hepburn. And she would talk to us, and I remember her saying, Oh, during African Queen, we had a horrible time in that movie. Do you remember your father saying anything about that? Yes, I remember one of the tales was that basically everybody was getting sick. They were in the middle of the Belgian Congo. Everybody was getting dysentery. And they were concerned that they'd have to stop working and start again.

And the only people that weren't sick were my father and Humphrey Bogart. So they studied them for a couple of days to see what they were doing differently. Now, of course, the answer was they were drinking no water. Not even ice cubes. not even ice cubes that's fantastic but yes but I think Catherine Hepburn complained

they were being immature I think from time to time she'd complain but one of my favorite stories of economical piece of directing was Catherine Hepburn didn't quite, she didn't feel completely comfortable with her character. So she plucked the courage and she spoke to my father. She said, John, I just don't get it.

I just don't get her. I don't understand the character I'm playing. So he paused and then he said, Eleanor Roosevelt. And she went, oh, okay, I got it. Thank you, John. Oh! Yes.

That's one of my favorites, too. That makes total sense. Yeah, and sometimes that's all you need as an actress, that one little key, just a click, click the box open for you to understand. I find it, a couple of questions too. You mentioned Scorsese before, and you made The Aviator with him. He must have been trying to pick your brain about, because he's such a film buff.

Yeah, I told him the Bible story with my father, the voiceover of God, and Noah. And then my mother is in it. She plays Haga, and there's a kid, and the kid is not me, and she's in the desert. And Marty was going, oh, my God, oh, my God. But you get so deep into these characters. I was watching an interview with you, and particularly playing bad guys. And you mentioned before you like to play, I think, douchebags was your word. Yeah.

No, I believe it was your word that I then took. Oh, okay. Thank you. He said scumbags. You said douchebags. Douchebags, okay. I feel like a court stenographer. But playing villains, playing bad guys, like General Ludendorff in Wonder Woman, who was a real Nazi. And you do psychological profiles of these people before you get inside them, which I find so interesting.

Yeah, you kind of have to. And the more despicable they are, the further you have to investigate. Because otherwise it's impossible to perform them. However arch or whatever the final result is, and with Wonder Woman, you're fulfilling a certain universe. So you have to be aware of that. But yeah, General Ludendorff was a real guy, and there was a lot that I could draw from. He was humiliated by the First World War. He knew Hitler, but didn't particularly like him.

He lost a son in the trenches, was very disturbed, very pragmatic, very stuffy, kind of, I mean, an awful, awful guy. But as you investigate, you sort of start to understand him a little bit. And it's this awful thing of, you know, after a certain amount of humiliation, then there's, you know, nationalism and them and us starts to occur. And it's something which is relevant, as relevant today, in a sense. And then I saw photographs of him and his lips were always turned down like some sort of abused child, in a sense. And his posture and his stance and it just all starts to gel together and you're like, okay, I think I got him now.

And Patty Jenkins, she's so excitable and wonderful as far as bringing something new or maybe going a little bit off book with stuff. And then it becomes something which is enjoyable and you can maybe play in a more arch way. But it's, I think, very important to know the truth of the man. You try to find a little heart and a little empathy, even though they're monsters, just to humanize them? Yeah, I don't know about the heart, really, but more the machination,

more the reasoning about how they got there. I worked on a film called The Constant Gardener, and the character says about these patients that are dying in Africa that they're experimenting drugs on them. And he says, they would have died anyway. And I found that line so chilling and horrific that, again, I was trying to, how is he reasoning this?

You know, more jobs in Wales and this and the other. And there is, however horrific it is a logic terrific movie by the way well constant gardner you don't want to be great in it yeah you don't want to be like a cartoon villain no especially when especially when you're getting close to that with something like wonder Woman. You know, you're touching that, and you want to honor that. But it's got to come from somewhere else, I believe. Or Striker and Wolverine. Striker and Wolverine.

Similar challenges. Yeah, I mean, there he's more of a sort of, again, he lost his son. And that's where a lot of the sort of desire to create these mutants comes from. So, yeah, there's interesting logic to Striker. And, of course, your father played one

of the sleaziest, most disgusting people of all time in Chinatown. Oh, one of the great screen heavies. I think one of the great screen villain performances ever. He played it with glee, I might add. He played it with glee. And when he eats that fish and pokes his fork into the fish's eye,

you really feel the richness of his character. And now, I didn't prepare a script for this, so I wonder if you remember your father's lines, and I'll do Nicholson for it. What does he say, Mr. Gibbons? Yes, yes. He goes, how much are you worth? Ten million dollars?

And then your father goes, why, yes. And he goes, well, then why do you do it? How much better can you eat? What can you afford that you can't already buy? Do you remember your father's line? What does he say? I'll tell you the line and you'll repeat it after me. Please.

The future, Mr. Gitz. The future, Mr. Gitz. Excellent. Oh, that's spooky. Excellent. That was spooky, Danny. Fantastic. Gilbert, you'll appreciate this particularly.

Danny plays a character, a very evil character, in a show called Magic City, Ben Diamond. Do I have this right? You based, in part, the character on Edward G. Robinson's character in Key Largo? Yes, yes, very much. Wow. And Edward G. Robinson, we're talking about McCarthyism. Actually, I think that there were problems there between my father and Edward.

Oh, interesting. But yes, very much. The scene when he's introduced and he's in the bathtub and there's the fan and he's smoking a cigar for me was very much how I wanted to enter into that series, Magic City, kind of like that.

And he just had this swagger about him, but also a fear, and insecurity, which I thought was great and something that I could always draw from. Yeah. Again, not playing the villain in too obvious a way. And the sort of Meyer Lansky-esque kind of world that Ben Diamond was in.

kind of world that Ben Diamond was in. I felt in a way that I would just give up all that thing about analyzing villains and trying to see where they feel and prodding them with a scalpel and trying to understand them. I thought, I'll just give all that up. How about I just play him as a really clear man in regards to what is the right thing and the wrong thing. And it's a sort of honor amongst thieves that Ben Diamond has, however grotesque or appalling his actions are.

And he is appalling. Yeah. However, he believes that he is doing the right thing, that it quantifies to something in regards to respect, but also honoring your habitat. I always thought Claire Trevor was the thing making him insecure in that movie.

Yes, yes. She's the thing eating at him. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And he's scared of the storm. And he's afraid. That's right.

He's afraid of the storm. Yeah. That's another hell of a movie. Yeah. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast after this. You know, you made a Frankenstein picture. We were talking before about the Wolfman. And Gilbert, you're going to watch this movie.

You and your friend Bernard Rose, who you've worked with many, many times, I watched this picture. A very, very bold, audacious kind of approach to Frankenstein, telling it from the monster's point of view. And just when you thought you'd seen Frankenstein covered every way it could possibly be done, you

guys found a new way in. And boy, is that a disturbing movie to watch. It is. It is. And don't forget that Bernard Rose comes from, you comes from he directed films like Candyman and stuff like that I like his Beethoven movie

very much yeah I loved it Immortal Beloved Immortal Beloved I absolutely loved it and we worked we've done about four or five

Tolstoy adaptations the first one was one called Ivan's Ecstasy based on the death of Ivan Illich and that really was my calling card

in a sense as far as acting but I loved working with Bernard. He's like a sort of punk rocker. He has an unapologetic approach. He just starts, makes it, doesn't ask anybody for anything. And then it all sort of comes together because he believes it. Somebody asked you in an interview if you were a fan of the genre.

And you cited Ken Russell's The Devils as a film that scared you. And that's a terrifying fucking movie. Yes. But also The Exorcist. Yes. And it's... Yeah, go on. Well, with Ken,

I remember my mother with The Devils, I remember her covering my eyes in the movie theater and me sort of peeking through her fingers, and it made it all the more terrifying. I'm sure. I'm sure. Gilbert, you'll appreciate it because, and this is fascinating, Danny, the movie's made in 2015,

and yet it's respectful to the Shelley source material. You have the blind man. You have the little girl who he throws in the water. It's a real punk. What did you say about Rose it's a punk rock take on Frankenstein and yet it's faithful to the story

I believe it is yes I mean the interesting thing that Bernard does is his adaptations are very faithful but in a way because of necessity they're made in his backyard and so anything that's changed

is changed really because of wardrobe or location or something like that so it's not that much of a conceit we're trying to do everything right but within the limitations that we have Gilbert you're going to love it and I dare say I know he's seen the James Whale pictures.

Because you could just see that there's little moments of homage. Yes, yes, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Another interesting character. I mean, to think that you've played Samuel Adams, Baron Frankenstein, Orson Welles, and my favorite, Robert Evans.

Yeah, I hope, I hope, I hope the old man would be proud. I hope so. What range? Did you approach Robert Evans about playing him when you did, you did this in London? I very much did. It was, um, I, I went to his house and, his house, and he looked me over up and down and said, I think, yeah, I think you could play me. And we spent a little time talking about his experiences,

and he showed me lots of photographs. And he showed me lots of photographs. And I started to examine or enter into the man's memory, really. And Simon McBurney, who directed the play, used a glass box, which the glass would turn opaque or you could project different images on it. And it starts with a man telling his life story. And he's talking about when he was a kid. And a young actress plays Evans as a kid. And I'm kind of looking down from the box at my life, in a sense. And as the story progresses, the box slowly creeps closer and closer to the front of

the stage. And then finally, my character, who's basically a shadow, becomes clear and we're in the present day. And then he's sitting and he's watching television and he realizes that all these characters are no longer there and um and um you know he looks at ava and tyrone power and dick sanic and that they're all gone and and uh but he's he's the last one there um he's he's still in the picture how interesting i was i've seen the documentary of course and i wondered how are they going to do this as a stage show. Yeah, it worked mainly because of Simon McBurney's insanity. The way that he staged it was very reckless, and there were people filming at the same time, and the actors were coming back and forth, changing their wigs and their costumes. And it was told at high speed.

I'd love to see it. Was it recorded? It was recorded, yes. Barbara Broccoli produced it. She recorded one of the scenes. I'd love to see it. I love the documentary. Before we let you get out of here, Danny, can I ask you just a couple of quick questions from listeners?

Certainly. This is something we call Grill the Guest. Mark Davidoff, which of Danny's father's films would he have loved to direct, not just in terms of the quality, but just for the sheer experience, and a great question, of making that film? Wow. Well, my favorite film of my father's is really more for it's it's more for emotional reasons but it is a great film we mentioned that treasure the sierra madre um and one of the reasons is that my father directed it he's in it um and and my grandfather as as as we said earlier is in it and he gives a fantastic performance. I would like, I would like

to be involved in that film but maybe, maybe not, not directing it, just making all those guys drinks. Wow.

That's a great answer. You know, Stanley Kubrick, you know this, you must know this, that was one of his know this. You must know this. That was one of his Desert Island films when he was asked. Oh, really? Ten films you could take.

Treasure the Sierra Madre. Yeah. He had good taste. Yeah. Quick one. Well, I guess you'd have to choose one of his. One would have to. 2001, you'd have to.

You'd have to. Or Strangelove. Yeah, or Strangelove. Yeah. Teresa Campman says, As a director has danny picked up techniques or ideas from some of the directors he's worked with like scorsese for instance well i guess you know when i was when i was really really young and i got i got

myself a super 8 camera and i was filming everything and And my father said, Danny, Danny, stop that. Stop that now. Stop that. What, what, what? And he goes, okay, when you look from left to right and right to left, what is it you do? So I look from left to right, right to left. I don't know.

I give up. What is it that I do i look from left to right right to left i i don't know i i i give up what what is it that i do he goes you blink that's a cut concentrate on what it is that you're trying to say and don't don't film all that nonsense in between and that was not only a good lesson as far as filming is concerned because you really can tell the difference between somebody who's shooting from the hip and doesn't know what they're doing to somebody who's actually looking for a specific thing to fulfill his vision or his take on the material. But it's also a good lesson in life, really. Concentrate on what it is that you're trying to tell and what it is that you're looking at rather than all the nonsense in between. That's rather profound.

Now, that would bring up another question. Like, what do you think are the telltale signs of a bad director? Bad director. Well, you know, every director has their own universe, and that universe has its own rules. And so it's really difficult to give that as a sort of general, to have a general opinion on that, because also a lot of people that look like they don't know what they're doing actually do know what they're doing or later later you see it cut and you don't understand what was actually happening it's all in the director's in the director's head and that's

why the direction director needs to be a a visionary it's it needs to be his vision and and when people interrupt that vision or or or or don't or don't follow that lead, that's when things become murky and sometimes they don't turn out the way that they should be. so that I can do that. I can support them 100%, no matter what they may be doing that looks like it may be completely incorrect or wrong. And I've worked with people that you hardly even feel them directing. They're just there and they're sort of stealing.

So everything has a different approach. We're the opposite, really, Danny. We look like we know what we're doing. We have no clue. Tell us about the new film, The Last Photograph. The Last Photograph was brought to me by a friend of mine called Simon Astaire.

And it's a really simple concept. It's a man who loses a photograph, or maybe it's stolen. And he starts to spiral. And you don't really understand why this means so much to him. And as the story is told in a sort of tapestry of memories, And as the story is told in a sort of tapestry of memories, breaking chronology, you realize what this photograph symbolizes. And that links us to 1988, December 21st, when a Pan Am plane exploded in the sky over Lockerbie. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing it. Is it going to be distributed widely? No, it was released in one theater nationwide at the Lamley in Santa Monica and now it's on

all digital platforms. Okay. Which is basically iTunes, Hulu, Amazon, et cetera. Okay. Well, look for it. This I found,

this is the last question I have, and this is, you found a trunk script of your dad's going through his papers years ago? Yes, yes. A film about a, is it about a Mexican prostitute? Yes. Do I have that right? Yes, that's correct.

And any intentions of making that? Have you tried to make it? Oh, absolutely. It's a story called Amparo. And it's about a writer in Mexico who's got a writer's block. And he meets this young Mexican prostitute. And that causes him some problems, including

being followed by the pimp and causing complete madness in this little town. And it's a beautifully told story, practically within four walls. So it wouldn't have to cost too much. And I would love to make it someday. I think we would love to see a Danny Houston picture made from a John Houston screenplay. Oh. Wouldn't we? God.

Gilbert? That'd be something. Yeah. It really was a treasure chest that I found. I found that amongst other projects. One last thing about Sierra Madre, too, is the real-life mystery of B. Traven, which we will let people look up. Yes. Which I learned about in your dad's memoir yeah

i i i lauren bacall told me the story of where where he he he called her over and he and he pointed and he said be traven if in fact it was be traven yeah yeah a man of mystery who wrote the original uh treasure the sierra madre story story and we won't go into it here but it's a fascinating mystery about the making of that film that your dad changed his point of view about over the years. Yes, yes, yes.

Again, these guys are such, they're real smoke and mirrors, aren't they? My father, Wells and characters like B. Traven, I mean, they just love to play into that. Yes, men of intrigue. Yes. And rascals. Rascals. Mavericks. Mavericks.

Gil, you have anything else for this entertaining fellow? Why did you drive around one summer singing the Addams Family theme? Oh. I wasn't ready for that question. An homage to your half-sister. I mean, that's incredibly good research.

And it's true. It was, we were driving a pickup that my sister has on her ranch near Sequoia National Park. has on her ranch near Sequoia National Park. And it was my sister, myself, my nephews, Jack, Laura, Matthew, and the Adams family had just come out. And we were feeling quite boisterous. So we changed the melody to you can do what you want to do, however it goes.

Do what you want to do. Say what you want to do. Say what you want to it goes because we're the Houston family luckily we weren't shooting bullets up in the air as well she's wonderful in that picture both of them, both pictures that and the sequel was there a falling out

it seemed like you said between your father and Edward G. Robinson. Yes. I believe it was during the whole McCarthyism period. Yeah. Bogie's sympathies shifted around a little bit too. It's a delicate business. It's a very delicate time. And it's without wanting to point any fingers at anybody because there were some great film directors, writers, and directors, actors that in hindsight are easy to condemn.

But fear, guys, I guess. Fear is what makes these sort of things happen. And when you have a family and a profession and a job and you feel that you're going to lose it, it's shocking how weak and spineless we can sometimes be. Yes. We've had several guests on this show directly affected by, Lee Grant was here, Josh Mostel, Sarah Mostel's son. So it's a subject that's come up

repeatedly on the show and no easy answers. Yeah. I remember hearing a quote from Paul Newman who said, it's very easy now to say what you would have done back then.

Yeah, that's right. And yet your dad is to be credited for taking a stand and doing something about it. And forming a committee and protesting and putting his weight behind it. Yeah, I mean, they don't make men like my father often, that's for sure. Yeah, I mean, they don't make men like my father often, that's for sure. Yes. And he was an incredible gentleman and had a very strong moral fiber, even though he'd been through all the marriages and was a drinker and a smoker and lived life to its fullest.

But he had a very strong sense of what was right and wrong. And it's hard to come across men like that. I remember with Ronald Reagan, he was friends with Nancy, but Ronald Reagan, he wasn't a big fan of Ronald Reagan. And then when Ronald Reagan became president, he said, a far better actor than I thought he was. Wonderful. Danny, as a representative of the family, we thank you for all the generations and the decades of entertainment. Thank you.

Thank you very much. What a wonderful, wonderful legacy. We'll urge people to see the new movie, The Last Photograph. I want people to see this Frankenstein movie that was made in 2015. Gilbert, you'll love this. Yes, I definitely

want to watch it. And I've an ecstasy, which is a real performance, another in its way hard film to watch. It is. It's a study of a man's death,

but it's also a great satire of Hollywood and a bit of a sort of poison letter. It makes the player look like a Walt's death. But it's also a great satire of Hollywood and a bit of a sort of poison letter. It makes the player look like a Walt Disney picture. It's a real poison pen letter to Hollywood. But very, very

well made. Thank you. We'll tell people to look for that as well. Just quickly, we want to thank Krista Rose and our friend Dave Seidel here. And AJ. We want to thank AJ Feuerman for setting this up. AJ. thank AJ Fuhrman for setting this up. AJ, thank you AJ

for setting this up. I hope you had fun. I did. I had a great time. Great talking to you guys and great talking to people that are knowledgeable and that know so much

about the films that I love. Thank you. We care. And you'll never hear a better Casper Gutman. Impossible. If there's a film that has problems with its soundtrack, we know what characters you can play.

He's going to get extra work looping old Mr. Moto pictures. Danny, thanks so much for your time and for this. Oh, you're very welcome. Our listeners will love it. I hope so. Good your time and for this. Oh, you're very welcome. Our listeners will love it. I hope so. Good spending time with you guys. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And we've been speaking to one of the Houston dynasty, Danny Houston, a man who's done basically everything.

He has. in show business and so we want to thank him and we want to close out with his grandpa Walter Houston singing September Song

good choice thank you Danny thank you when I was a young man courting the girls Good choice. Thank you, Danny. Thank you. Thank you. When I was a young man courting the girls, I played me a waiting game. If a maid refused me with tossing curls, I'd let the old earth take a couple of whirls. While I plied her with tears in place of pearls. And as time came around she came my way

As time came around she came But it's a long, long while From May to December And the days grow short When you reach September And the autumn weather Turns the leaves to flame And I haven't got time

For the waiting game And the days turn to gold or the waiting game. And the days turn to gold as they grow few. September, November and these few golden days I'd share with you. These golden days I'd share with you. And the wine dwindles down to a precious brew.

To a precious brew September November And these few vintage years I'd share with you These vintage years I'd share with you. This podcast is produced by Dara Gottfried and Frank Santapadre, with audio production by Frank Verderosa. Web and social media is handled by Mike McPadden, Greg Pair, and John Bradley-Seals. Special audio contributions by John Beach.

Special thanks to John Fodiatis, John Murray, and Paul Rayburn.