Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Rewind: Mini-Episode #10: "Bang The Drum Slowly" & "Murder By Decree"

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

In a series of topic-focused mini-episodes, Gilbert and Frank share their love of unheralded films, underrated TV shows, underappreciated pop songs and (often) unknown performers, discussing, dissecting and (occasionally) defending their handpicked guilty pleasures and buried treasures. This week: Gilbert sings again! Death on the baseball diamond! And Captain von Trapp hunts Jack the Ripper! https://www.gilbertpodcast.com/mini-ep-10-bang-the-drum-slowly-murder-by-decree/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Go to patreon.com slash Gilbert Gottfried and support the podcast. What a love of all that is holy. This is Gilbert Gottfried. And I think this is Gilbert and Frank's, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, compulsive. No. No. No, no.

That's something else. This is how we keep switching the light switch. Watching your hands a lot. Counting to seven and then switching it back on. It's our obsessive, compulsive behavior. I like that title better. Yes.

I, I open, I take off the cap of the milk bottle with my left hand and put it in my right pocket. Show me the blueprints. Just show me the blueprints. We're going to get emails now. We're going to get emails and calls. Amazing colossal obsessions.

Yes. Oh, that's it. That was going to be my second guess. And what, pray tell, is your movie pick for this week? Well, I had to, like, try extra hard to stay away from recommending a comedy. Which you're just doing to piss off our listeners at this point. I'm going to start naming dramas I absolutely hated. Just.

Just a bunch of people. Now, surprisingly, this week, the movie I'm recommending, does not have a Nazi in it. Really? Yeah. That's a breakthrough in itself. Because you did the pawnbroker, the boys from Brazil, and, okay. Yeah, yeah. Nazi free.

Yes. This is progress. I get, I drink Nazi free Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola. It's sugar-free and Nazi-free. As opposed to when Coca-Cola puts out their product in Germany, and then it's now with extra Nazi. So this would not be the soda recommended by Dr. Zell.

No. You guys can figure that reference out for yourselves. Okay. I'm, I'm, this is a very strange recommendation because I don't follow sports. Oh, whatsoever. And, and I don't know a thing about sports. That's right. I just know that baseball players have very odd names.

Really? Yeah. There's who's on first, what's on second. I don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out. The names of the place on the St. Louis team. Now, you, you know some. sports movies? We've talked about the Babe Ruth story. Yes. I know about sports from movies.

Like, I know that Anthony Perkins used to play baseball. Fear strikes out. Yeah, and he went nuts. That's right. And then he decided to go into acting. Right. Okay. So you're not completely ignorant on the top. And I know William Bendix was supposedly a great ball player. About Bay, Ruth's story. It's a terrible movie. So the movie that I liked was, it was remade from a TV production starring Paul Newman and George Pappar. And that's, I'm already forgetting the name of the movie. I see, that's, that's, this, this is Hollywood Babylon. Gilbert Gottfried started slipping. at this point.

No, it was bang the drum slowly. Oh, very good. Robert De Niro and Michael Moriarty. I didn't know that started as a Paul Newman. Yes, yes, I saw it. No idea. Paul Newman played the Robert De Niro part. No idea.

Of a baseball player who's not too bright. Right. And it also finds out he's dying. Right. And it was made then into a. movie with Robert De Niro, Michael Moriarty. And I think also our pal Danny I yellow is in it. I think Vincent Gardini is in it somewhere.

Vincent Gardini from Death Wish. Right. And all in the family. Right. And, oh, Marshall Brickman, who used to be a humorist or whatever. Well, sure, he co-wrote Annie Hall. Yes. Yeah.

So. And that movie was, it's a very sad film. Yes, young De Niro. Yeah, yeah. And back when De Niro was when you'd say, oh, wow, a De Niro film is coming out. And didn't Iiello tell us that he had to teach or somebody had to teach De Niro? It was a lot of man hours teaching him how to throw a baseball, how to swing a bat. I mean, of course, with Danny.

Right, right. You don't know if it actually happened. You grade the story on a Danny I yellow curve. Yeah, Danny was teaching Lawrence Olivier had an act. Right. Barishnikov had a dance. He thought Patty Duke had to play Helen Keller, I think. And I think Joe Franklin had John Barrymore and Henny Youngman.

On the same show. John Barrymore and Drew Barrymore. He had them on the same show, which is really impressive. So bang the drums slowly. Yes, and I remember, well, the music, it doesn't have a song, they do have that song, you know, Streets of Laredo. Yep, yep. That they, you know, while riding one morning, I met a young cowboy.

And then there was, their theme music was, de, didy, diddy, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee. You amaze me. Didi, Didi, Dedee, and there's a part where the ball players

are asked to go on the show and perform a musical number. I remember this. I remember the musical number. Wow. Please excuse my tears because I've been on the road to tribulation

and I find no consolation here. What good is a love? If the words are second hand, they don't belong to anyone I can get near I cause I live on the outside of your joys and laughter you gave me a good time but I can come after holy said and done yeah I'm not the one you really took me And so you better look before you leap. So you better look before you we. Incredible.

Oh, I thought I was listening to Victor Mohn. Oh, and I'll just say one more part of the movie where they're talking about De Niro's character dying. And one of the characters says to Michael Moriarty, she says, says she or he says to knowing he's going to die. Why isn't he out just partying and celebrating every night? And Michael Mariarity says, well, I don't know why. I don't know why we're all not doing that. Oh, it's poignant.

Yeah. It's sort of a little bit, it's a little bit like a baseball equivalent of Brian's song. Yes. You know, which came out. not too long after or around the same time. Also, a sports figure dying. Right, right. But you amaze me.

It's funny that you don't play a musical instrument because you are very musical. And especially, you know, Dara's here and she's nodding in agreement. He sings the song. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement. And nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display

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You have to be the only person walking around on the planet that remembers all the words to a musical number in Bang the Drum slowly and the theme song and every one. word of it from the lords of Flatbush which he's saying to Henry Winkler. Yeah. Hey, hey, what do you say? It's incredible. Looks like it's going to be

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This is a movie, a Jack the Ripper picture, one of two that I'm going to recommend. I'm going to save one until next week and let people guess what it is. But this is called Murder by Decree. It's a Sherlock Holmes movie made in 1979. You're nodding. I know you know the movie. Yes. And 1979, by the way, excuse me, doing a little research.

A pretty damn good year for American movies. Apocalypse Now, Hair, breaking away, alien, all that jazz. Kramer versus Kramer. It was a good year. And this movie, a Holmes picture that's very smart, a different kind of Holmes picture, it's a little bit dark and harsh. Somebody called it like a Hammer film, like if Hammer made a Holmes film. And I agreed with that. It's one of the best Holmes pictures made.

Christopher Plummer plays Holmes. James Watson. James Mason plays Watson, and he's a funny Watson. He's not quite a bumbling Watson like Nigel Bruce. I remember. see now Nigel Bruce is still my favorite. Yeah, yeah, mine too.

Mine too. Even though like anyone who's read a Sherlock Holmes book, which doesn't include me. Right. I wouldn't. You were reading a study in Scarlet when I walked in here.

What are you talking about? To me, Sherlock Holmes and Watson, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Yeah, to most people. Yeah. Yeah. But I remember in the movie, Well, because I remember Nigel Bruce used to be like the bubbling.

He was. He was. Yes. He was the comic relief. But I remember James Mason in here has a scene, and I saw this years ago, he has a scene where he's trying to eat a pee. And then finally Sherlock Holmes takes his fork and smashes his peas. And he goes, you smash my piece. I was eating this piece and you smashed them.

It's brilliant. That's exactly the scene. That scene stayed with me too because it's a great comic moment for Mason. It's got a great cast. Genevieve, we were talking about Jean-Villev, Bourgeois. It's my wife's name. I should be able to pronounce it. Donald Sutherland.

It's sad, right? This is going to cause a lot of trouble when you get home to this. Yes. David Hemmings, the British actor from Blow Up. and John Gilgood. Susan Clark, who people knew, she played, speaking of sports movies, you didn't watch.

She played Babe Deidrexon Zaharius in Babe. And she was the star of Webster. She was married to Alex Caris. Oh, my God. Yeah, Susan Clark, who was the director's sister? Bob Clark, this is relevant. Bob Clark, who was known for Porky's movies, directed this picture.

And it's a wonderful movie. Check it out if you're a Holmes fan. If you're not a Holmes fan. It was released around the time a little later at the end of the 70s, but two other memorable Holmes movies that I want to mention from the 70s is Billy Wilder's private life of Sherlock Holmes. And one I know you know the 7% solution. With Alan Arkin. Right, with Alan Arkin.

One of our favorites. Alan Arkin. Alan Arkin and was it Nicole Williamson? Nicole Williamson, right, who has a little part in the goodbye girl. Yeah. Alan Arkin plays Freud. He does. He does.

It's where Sherlock Holmes meets Freud. And the hell we'll recommend all three. a private live of Sherlock Holmes. And the 7% solution, which is great. And really watch murder by decree, which is a great Holmes picture, smart and satisfying. And it's also about Jack the Ripper. And oh, yes, with Malcolm McDowell. Well, that's a second movie that we'll talk about next week. Yes. Okay. And bang the drum slowly. You want to take us out on a little bit of the... Oh. Who sings, by the way? De Niro doesn't sing in the movie. De Niro and all the other...

Well, it's supposed to be funny. Right. That they're bald players that are thrown on a show to start singing because they're like... Right. And De Niro's there. And he is singing off key and his dance steps... Wow. ...are out of step with the other.

I've got to watch this. I just love it when you sing. Please excuse my tears, but I've been on the road to tribulation, and I find no consolation here. That's so musical. If you like listening to comedy, try watching it. On the internet. The folks behind the sideshow network have launched a new YouTube channel called Wait For It. It's got interviews with comedians like Reggie Watts, Todd Glass, Gleyser, Slicinger,

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