Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Rewind: Mini-Episode #3: Biopics and Reserved Rod Steiger

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

In another topic-focused GGACP mini-episode, 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: Bad biopics! Neil Simon reboots “Bogart”! Lee Marvin bests Rod Steiger! And Mike Myers borrows from Quincy Jones! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit Wayfair.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Hi, this is Gilbert Godfried, and this is Gilbert and Frank's amazing colossula. Colossula. That's a Yiddish term, Colossiel. Put on a... This is a colossal obsession.

And I want to, for all our Jewish friends out there, I hope you have a very happy colossal holiday. Where we tie weights around our necks and make ourselves suffer. Wow. In many ways. Doesn't sound like much of a holiday. Yes. Well, these are Jewish holidays.

You make yourself suffer more. So. You want to reestablish for people what these are? Well, what this is, amazing colossal obsession. Now I messed up colossal. That's okay. No one's listening. Yeah, that's fine.

It's just movies that you may have heard of, may not have heard of, but me, Gilbert Gottfried, and my partner, Frank Santopadre. And when I say partner, it doesn't mean... You don't mean that Cynthia Nixon as a partner. Yes. Yeah. It's not a rosy old Donald partnership going on here. I wish.

Yeah. Believe me, I take it at this point. So what's your movie for this week, Gilbert? I'm sure they're all wondering. Okay. Uh, my movie this way, it's funny, last time we spoke, yeah, I mentioned a, uh, Sydney Lament film. Oh, bye, by, by Braverman. Yeah.

Yes. And so that got me thinking about Sydney Lament, not in the way I think about you. Of course. Sydney's gone. Oh, that's going to be tough. Every night. You need a bouquet of roses and a shovel. So, and I thought, you know, I mean, not just that I think.

thought he was one of the great new york directors oh absolutely and i mean you want to see like old new york sidney lamette is one of those serpico dog day afternoon yes uh prince of the city yes all all of them great films and um so another film uh was the pawnbroker with rott steiger Very good. And Rodstiger plays a German Jew who's a survivor of the concentration camps. And now he works as a pawnbroker in Spanish Harlem. And he's Saul Naziman, and he plays this character who can only survive by blocking out life. He has like no feelings, no memories.

nothing. He's like blocked out from the world. And it's, I think it's, without question, Rod Steiger's greatest performance. And Rod Steiger. Because he could overact in some films. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He could choose some scenery. As a matter of fact, Sydney Lamet didn't want Rod Steiger in it at first. Really? Yeah. Because he said, I think what Sidney Lamett said, Rod Steiger is talented, to be sure, but a tasteless actor. Interesting.

I wonder who he wanted for the part. Yeah, he wanted James Mason. Oh, really? Yeah. He wanted James Mason as Saul Naziman, which would have been an interesting choice. Very different movie. Yeah.

But Steiger wanted to work with Sidney Lamet, because Lomette had directed him, a TV production of some play. And he liked him and trusted him. And so he allowed Sidney Lamett to pull him back to rein him in. Who else is in the picture? Okay. It's Geraldine Fitzgerald.

She was great. Brock Peters. I remember Brock Peters. They'll kill a mockingbird. Oh, yes, yes. And also. What was that? Oh, the incident.

That's right, the incident. Martin Sheen. Right. Tony Musante in the incident? Yes, yes. Very good. And I think Ed McMahon is in that. I think he is.

Yeah. And also in it, Raymond St. Jacques. Sure. And someone who's best known as Poppy in the Seinfeld episode. Reni Santon. Yes. From Enter Laughing. Yes.

Yes. Yes. And the music was done by Quincy Jones. And Quincy Jones wrote a song in it called Solbasa Nova, Nova or something. And I can't really hum it, but it went like something like, you know, da da da da da da, ch. And that became the Austin Powers. Are you serious?

They took Quincy Jones theme music for the pawnbroker and made it the theme music for Austin Powers. Incredible. Yeah. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. Visit BetMDMDM, Casino. And check out the newest exclusive, the price is right fortune pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager.

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Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapeed denim wide leg. Also, the pawnbroker was, I think, the first legitimate film to have nudity in it. Really? Yeah. Oh, and it was written by Irving Wallent, and I actually read the book. I read the pawnbroker. And he also wrote, I think, boys at the gate and tenants of moon bloom.

Wow. Can our crack team, our research team who's here look up, say his name again? Irving Wallens. I must say that is a new one on me. And, you know, see, like last time I told, I was talking about the swimmer with Bert Lancaster. and I said written by John Cheever. I never read that one. But at least you knew who the author was.

Yes, but I did. I was just showing off. I was just saying that to get laid. I work out for you. Well, any day now. Okay. Just. Cheever groupies. No sense rushing.

What? Another Seinfeld reference, John Sheever. Oh, yes. The Cheever letters. Yes. Reni Santoni, what a reference. Now, in spite of knowing all of those people that you rattled off, I have not seen.

the pawnbroker. Oh, terrific movie. Because last week I hadn't seen, the last time we brought up the swimmer, I had not seen the swimmer. So now I need to see the swimmer and the pawnbroker. And the pawnbroker. And Steiger did the movie for $50,000, which was way beneath. It was like a low-budget film.

But he just felt strongly about it. And he did feel that was his greatest performance. Grotz Steiger, his greatest performance was not in the heat of the night, which I believe he won the Academy Award for. You know, that's interesting because he was up

for the pawnbroker and lost out to Lee Marvin in was it Cat Ballou? Cat Ballou. Wow. And people feel, although he gave a great performance

in Heater of the Night, they feel like the award that he won for Heater of the Night was really meant for the pawnbroker. That's fast. Well, sometimes the Oscars do that. They make up for, you know, they give the award for a previous performance.

So I might win this year. You could. Because I lost out on how to be a player. I was a problem child too. How was Rod Steiger not nominated for W.C. Fields and me? Oh, gosh. With Carlotta. That was written by Carlotta something.

What was her name? Remember Valerie Perrine. Steiger in his later years started to talk like W.C. Field. Really? It was weird. Well, during the making of that movie, he forbid anyone to do a W.C. Fields imitation, which makes sense. Sure, sure. Screw him up.

But when Stiger would give performances late in life, his voice became like that. That's interesting. Yeah. I never, I never connected those two things. Yeah. That was around the time that you could see a lot of those bad biopics, like Abel and Lombard, and there was WC. Fields in me.

And there was one about Valentino. Yes. With the dancer, Rudolph Nurev, I think. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then TV started after they did the late shift. Was that the late shift, the late show? Which one?

That was about Leno and. Oh, the late shift. Late shift. TV started to do all those TV shows. Right. Like Robin Williams' life story. Well, they did behind, was it behind the laughter, the Freddie Prince story? Oh, yes, yes.

I prefer the feature versions of bad biopics. But what I love about biopics is that they got to put the information in. Right. And they got to have like a terrible part. Oh, the bad exposition. Yeah. So in the one with Kevin Spacey about I think Bobby Darren. Yes, about Bobby Darren.

John Goodman plays his manager. And Kevin Spacey says, oh, my career is a waste. I haven't done anything. And John Goodman has to say, what are you talking about, Bobby? you've already won 17 Emmys, which broke the record. 500 Grammys. You are picked in 1968 as top performer in Vegas. It's only because audiences, modern audiences,

won't stand for like spinning newspaper headlines. That's a way to do bad exposition. I want to talk about something that's just a little bit lighter than the pawnbroker. And this is not what you would consider necessarily an obscure film because it was a popular film of its day. And the lead actor won the Academy Award. The movie is the Goodbye Girl. And we were talking recently with our guest, Craig Bierke, about Richard Dreyfus. There's a very funny Richard Dreyfus story, so listen for that episode.

But it's such a terrific picture. You know, they make a lot of romantic comedies. This is a good romantic comedy. It's not dumb. It doesn't insult your intelligence. Maybe with the possible exception of the Sunshine Boys or the odd couple, I think it's the best Neil Simon movie. And it's a terrific, smart picture.

Herbert Ross directed it, who directed the Sunshine Boys and played again, Sam, and My Blue Heaven and The Turning Point. And you and I were talking about the history of this movie, which people might not know about. Yeah, this is so strange. It started as a movie called Bogart Slept Here. which was a Simon screenplay. And it was his wife at the time,

Marsha Mason, was co-starring with Robert De Niro, of all people. And Mike Nichols was the director. And I don't know if it was in rehearsals that it broke down, or they actually shot footage. But at some point along the line, De Niro wasn't doing the comedy the way they expected it, or he was doing a different kind of comedy, but they just shut it down.

And Neil Simon went off, and in six weeks rewrote the thing. and Richard Dreyfus was brought into the project, and it was retitled the Goodbye Girl. By that time, Mike Nichols was gone, and they had a new director, and it turns out to be a terrific picture, and it's one of those movies that has this weird history where you think it's all falling apart.

The director leaves, the star leaves. Yes. You know, the star is not clicking with the director, the star's not clicking with the writer or the material, and this thing is pulled out of the scrap heap, or like I said, he put it together and say, weeks. And it's a terrific picture that works on so many great levels, so many levels. Dreyfus wins the Oscar. He's terrific. And whatever happened to Quinn Cummings. Do you remember

Quinn Cummings? Was the little girl? Oh, wow. She was the acid-tongued girl, and it was such a big deal back then that you could have a child actor, use profanity on screen, and it was so shocking. She's probably living with Donna Butterworth. Who? She. Who's Donna Butterworth? Someone who will have to have on the podcast. She was the little girl in the family jewels with Jerry Lewis.

Oh, what a reference. And I think she also worked like 75% of our guests with Elvis Presley. Did she work with Jack Benny? Someone tweeted me that every one of our guests worked with Jack Benny. Or Danny Thomas. Or Danny Kay. So again, the Good Bar, it was remade not very well with Jeff Daniels.

There was a TV movie version of it. Do not watch that one. Watch the original. Paul Benedict, who was a funny British character actor, who you guys would know as Bentley from the Jeffersons, plays a crazy director. Okay. Here's a Paul Benedict story.

Joe. Paul Benedict, I heard, was once doing a play, and someone said, oh, I'd like to talk to you after the play. They sent him a note. And he said, you know, he was figuring he'll just tell him, oh, I really enjoyed it. Can I have your autograph? And the guy said, I'm a doctor. And I was looking at you on stage. And I think you might have acromegal. heard this story. Yeah. Which is one of those diseases used in several of the old horror movies. And he turned out to have Agro Megaly. Yeah, because he noticed like these people, they're grown out of proportion. They're usually very big as he was. And big hands, a big chin, like stuff out of proportion.

I had, that is why. That's the second Acromegaly reference because we brought up Rondo Hat. Rondo Hatton, yes, the most famous acromegaly. Or as they called it in the movie, Gherentula, they refer to it as acromegalia. Wow. Yeah. That is way off.

So Paul Benedict, just to wrap it up, Paul Benedict plays the crazy director who makes Richard Dreyfus' character, Elliot Garfield, play Richard III gay. He makes him play a mincing, which is timely because they just buried Richard the 3rd. They just found his remains. So see the picture.

It's a hilarious film. It's touching. It's just, it's a romantic comedy that works on every level. And as I said, not an obscure picture, but really one worth revisiting. So, so this week we have Sidney Lametz film, Rod Steiger, in the pawnbroker. And the goodbye girl. Which also has some nice footage of New York in the 70s since you brought it up. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll see anything said in New York in the 60s or 70s just to watch the, just to see the cigarette machines on the subway platform. So I guess that's it. And Quinn Cummings, if you're out there, phone wall. Call us. Call us. For God sakes.

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