Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini-Ep #23: Broadcast News and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Episode Date: August 20, 2015

Each week, comedian Gilbert Gottfried and comedy writer Frank Santopadre share their appreciation of lesser-known films, underrated TV shows and hopelessly obscure character actors -- discussing, dissecting and (occasionally) defending their handpicked guilty pleasures and buried treasures. This week: High praise for one of Frank's (and Judd Apatow's) favorite films, the genius of Albert Brooks and Sidney Lumet gets the nod yet again! If you've got a car and a license, put 'em both to work for you and start earning serious, life-changing money today. Sign up to drive with Uber. Visit http://www.DriveWithUber.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And the love. Yes, yes. Pure love. The love of performing. Well, here's a really cool opportunity that I want to share with you today, and that's driving with Uber. Now, you know Uber. I know you and Daryl use it a lot. Yeah, that's where you get on the phone.

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You've got a car and a license. Put them both to work for you and start earning serious, life-changing money today. Sign up to drive with Uber. Visit drivewithuber.com. That's drivewithuber.com. Drivewithuber.com. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and I'm here with my co-host Frank Santopadre, and this is Gilbert and Frank's amazing, colossal obsessions. You get better every week. Yes, one day I'll get right. And we're in the Friars Club, we should also point out.

Oh, yes. Through the good graces of Paul Elitzer and the Friars Club, where we interviewed Kelly Carlin, George Carlin's daughter. I think I'm going to pick a movie and go first this week, if you don't mind, sir. Okay. I'm going to connect it to last week's, where I talked about The Great Polly Platt. This was another film that she

produced, because she worked with Bogdanovich early in her career, and later in her career, she worked with James L. Brooks, another director that I like a lot, on movies like Say Anything and Terms of Endearment. And this movie I know you know is Broadcast News. Oh, yes. Which we just

talked about with Judd Apatow. Oh, yes. And, yeah, with Albert Brooks. You bet. And William Hurt. Oh, yeah. And Nicholson. And one of your favorite character actors turns up, Robert Prosky. Oh, yeah. And Nicholson. And one of your favorite character actors turns up, Robert Prosky. Oh, yes. This, and Judd called it

a perfect film when he was on, and I agree. And it's certainly the best movie Albert Brooks has done. Oh, yes. He's a lot of fun in This Is 40, and his own movies. I love Lost in America. But I think this is his great... And Modern Romance. Love Modern Romance. I love Real Life with Grodin.

Oh, that's, yeah, real life was like the first of the films making fun of reality TV. Right, it was loosely based on The Loud Family, which was the first reality show family. Yeah. And so, yeah, definitely see the movies of Albert Brooks. Lost in America is a scream, and Gary Marshall has that wonderful cameo as the casino owner.

But this is broadcast news written and directed by James L. Brooks as his follow-up to Terms of Endearment, which was a hard act to follow because it won a ton of Oscars. But this is based on his own experience working in TV news. And it's essentially a love triangle. Albert Brooks is the competent reporter who loses out at every turn to William Hurt, who's the less competent but pretty. Yeah, and he's like one of those anchormen. Right. Very handsome.

Right. And a great performer. Yes. On the news, but doesn't know a thing. Right, he's vapid. Yeah. And Holly Hunter is the woman in between them

who's very dedicated to her job, and she's a different kind of movie heroine. And she loves what she does, and she has a great respect for the news and for journalism, which is why she's so conflicted when she falls for this good-looking guy, this character played by William Hurt. And there's that great scene, of course,

where Albert Brooks' character finally gives in, and he wants to know what it takes so that he can actually anchor the news. Oh, yes. And Hurt gives him the tips, sit on your jacket, and then he has that attack of flop sweat. Oh, yeah. I don't want to give too much away. If you haven't seen the movie, it's a

wonderfully funny scene. But it's about a lot of things. And what you just alluded to, it's about how news turned into showbiz. And he revealed some of the tricks of the news.

Right. You mean when Heard is giving him the rape story? Oh, that's right. Yeah, we don't want to give that part away, but that's a significant part of the film. Deborah Winger was supposed to play Holly Hunter's part and got pregnant and was replaced. Interesting trivia. got pregnant and was replaced. Interesting trivia.

And there's what a lot of people called an audience unfriendly ending, which I saw an interesting term I saw today. Oh, yeah. But don't let that scare you away from the film if you haven't seen it. It's super smart. There are a lot of layers to it. The performances are great.

I alluded to the flop sweat scene. And Jack Nicholson shows up oh yes as a I guess he's kind of supposed to be like a Cronkite like a jaded old anchorman

and Albert Brooks has that scene where he refers to William Hurt. As the devil. He's the devil! Right. There's so many great moments in the movie,

and it was a very worthy follow-up to Terms of Endearment, and a film a lot of people talk about. I think there's a Criterion edition, too. So see if you can get your hands on that one. Broadcast News, one of my favorite movies, and I was glad Judd liked it. The Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast Producer of the Month for August is Kate Jones. Thank you, Kate.

is Kate Jones. Thank you, Kate. Be just like Kate and get rewarded for supporting our podcast. Head over to patreon.com slash Gilbert Gottfried. For a small amount each month, you can get some colossal benefits, such as access to new podcast episodes before anyone else, exclusive video hangouts, shoutouts from me on Twitter. I will even read something that you send me, and it'll sound just like this. Go to patreon.com slash Gilbert Gottfried. That's Patreon. P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash Gilbert Gottfried. We thank you for your generosity.

And you're going to surprise me with what you pull out. I'll surprise you. Randy Quaid and Lon Chaney Jr.? Ah, yes. In the road to Morocco, the little-known musical comedy. Oh, I would kill. I would kill to see that. Well, here's a movie

that, once again, I guess we're gonna have to go, hey, this Sidney Lumet was a good director. Oh, I can't imagine where you're going now. Yeah, because we named so many Sidney Lumet films. Yeah, I stole one out from under you.

Yeah, yeah. There was The Verdict, The Pawnbroker, Prince of the City. You did Bye Bye Braverman. Oh, Bye Bye Braverman. Right. Yeah. We've probably alluded to Serpico and some of the other ones without talking or a network without actually recommending them. Well, this one is also keeping with a theme.

Like you recommended uh treasures the sierra madre which is a classic bogart film sure and i recommended a simple plan oh sam ramey's movie about the uh right the people find the money they find money and that makes everything unravel oh i know where you're headed with this. Yeah, and what's that guy's name? Is it Bob Bill Paxton? Bill Paxton. Yeah.

In Simple Plan. Yeah, Bill Paxton, and I think Bridget Fonda. Yes, Billy Bob. And Billy Bob Thornton. Right. And that's very chilling. That's a good one. And keeps moving.

Yeah. And that's very chilling. That's a good one. And keeps moving. Yeah. And this one's keeping up with that same theme of finding money or thinking you've got a great plan of getting money. And this is Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. I think it's his last movie.

Yeah. Yeah. And it's got Philip Seymour Hoffman. Right. It's either Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke. Marisa Tomei. Topless. Topless.

Yes. Yes. I didn't forget. Okay. I didn't mean to steal your- You don't have to remind me of that. That's always more important than the plot. Of course.

Whose tits you see in the movie. Oh, and Albert Finney. Albert Finney, yes. And this is another one of those films where they've got it all figured out in the beginning. Yep. For Get Rich Quick and things start unraveling. The web starts to close in on them. Yeah.

Yeah. And it just in on them. Yeah. And it just unravels immediately. Yeah. And lives are just being destroyed. It's one of the darkest examples of that kind of genre too. Yeah. And Hoffman's great in it. The cast is wonderful. Oh yeah. Yeah.

And it's one of those, I remember it was one of those films I knew nothing about. And I just... Did you see the movies? Yeah. No, I was on a plane. Uh-huh. And I had one of those things, you could pick a certain amount of movies that you could

choose from. And the others I knew sucked. And this one I thought, eh. Were you in the other one yeah yes yes i'm child eight house party three something with a monkey how to be a player and funky monkey you would have been great in how to be a player uh and and um it it's and i And I just started watching this, and within a minute, I go, okay, I'm hooked. I got to see what's going to happen. Because it opens with a sex scene.

Yeah. Because you see Marisa Tomei's tits. That's why you were hooked. And I think the plot is about, I don't know, a robbery or something, but you do see her tits. Yeah. Don't their parents own a jewelry store? Yes. Yeah.

They're piecing it together. And Sidney Lumet had directed Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express before this. I was going to recommend that one one of these weeks. Yeah. Well, you still can. I still pull it out. We're going to go through the whole Sidney Lumet canon. I'm running out of movies to recommend.

I'm telling you right now. It's going to be Ern it out. We're going to go through the whole Sidney Lumet canon. I'm running out of movies to recommend. I'm telling you right now. It's going to be Ernest Goes to Cannes next week. I suggest you invest in Leonard Maltin's TV movie guide and go through the 60,000 films in there and try to pick one. You have to draw the line at some of the Lumet pictures before we get to the whiz. You could stop. Well, that one had Nipsey Russell. That Nipsey!

That Nipsey is a robot. Or is it Tin Man? I like the Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. It's sexy, it's creepy, and it's one of those movies where when the thing starts to close in on them, it actually makes your skin crawl. You're terrified for them.

Yeah. It's one of the darkest, most depressing films you'll see. Well, that's your specialty. Yes. On this show. Someone sent me a note and said, tell Gilbert he actually did recommend a comedy, and that was By By Braverman. Oh, yes. So you broke with your...

Yes, I did. Yeah, so you broke with your. So what do we got this week? Okay. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Yes. And Broadcast News. Yes.

Yeah, and Marissa Tomei topless. Yes, Marissa Tomei's tits. You know she was in Salome on Broadway. Yes. Marissa Tomei. And the gimmick that they used to sell the show, and I hope I'm not wrong about this, I think I'm right, was that some nights she was going to take her top off, and other nights she left it on.

Oh, damn. At her discretion. So, you know, if you bought a ticket and you went to this show to see Marissa Tomei topless, you would have felt very cheated. Oh, man. And very angry if you happen to pick one of the nights that, I think I have that right. And of course, there's that Hollywood legend, when she won the Academy Award. Oh, I know this. Yeah.

It was that... Was it Betty Davis who was reading it? No, Jack Palance. Jack Palance. Right, Jack Palance. And so, according to legend, Jack Palance was just supposed to read her name as one of the nominees. And they say he was drunk. Right.

And he said, and the award goes to Marisa Tomei. Because she was up. What fueled that rumor was that, yeah, it was for my cousin Vinny. But she was up against four other very accomplished actresses. I think Judy Dench or Geraldine Page. And she was hot off A Different World. Right. Yeah.

Where she co-starred with such greats as Lisa Bonet. That's right. She was in Baboon Heart, which they changed the name to Untamed Heart. They changed it to Untamed Heart. They changed it to Funky Monkey. Funky Monkey.

I started. Okay, so we've started a rumor about, it's actually an old rumor. Yes. Do you believe it? Do you believe it actually? I want it. I don't care if it's true or not. I say it's true.

Wasn't there some kind of story of Betty Davis reading an envelope, trying to read an Oscar envelope? Yeah, I got to look into this. And there's also a rumor that both Danny Kaye and Olivier shoved their fingers up Marisa Tomei's head. Really? At an airport. How did you get through an entire interview with Kelly Carlin with three Danny Kaye references and not a single?

And a Cesar Romano. And a Cesar. I tried to set you up. Yes. So before the devil knows you're dead, and I already forgot my movie, Broadcast News. Broadcast News. 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, Liza Schleichinger. Schleichinger, I've been friends with her for 10 years. One of the funniest people out there, and I still have a hard time with the last name, Liza. Our very own Owen Benjamin, that's me, takes you on a musical journey down internet rabbit holes and much more. You don't have to wait any longer. Just go to youtube.com slash wait for it comedy. There's no need to wait for it anymore because it's here and it's funny and I love you. And it's funny. And I love you. A few days ago, Brooke Tudine posted an inspirational quote on her wall that got 17 likes and 3 comments.

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