Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini-Ep #6: Charade and The Conversation

Episode Date: April 21, 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, Frank recommends the Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant classic CHARADE while Gilbert...well...does he pick a comedy this time? Also, evil Walter Matthau! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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and this is Amazing Colossal Obsessions, or Colossal Obsessions, which is the Yiddish way of saying it. It's a trademark, that. Colossal. Do you want to go first? You go first. No, you go first. Okay, I want to talk. You're holding out on me. Yeah, yeah. Why do you have to go first? You go first. No, you go first. Okay, I want to talk. You're holding out on me. Yeah, yeah.

Why do you have to go first? Most of the films I've been recommending have been from the 70s and the 80s. And I'm going to go back to the 60s for this one. A movie called Charade. Last week, we talked about The Great Race. Yes. And I neglected to mention that the score was by the great Henry Mancini. Oh, yes. So I want to by the great Henry Mancini. Oh, yes.

So I want to bring up a Henry Mancini score. It's a great score, but it's also a great movie directed by Stanley Donnan, who was not known for directing these kind of pictures. He directed Singing in the Rain. He was mostly known as a musical director. Did he direct that one, that road picture? Yeah, Two for the Road. Yeah, Two for the Road.

Yeah, with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. I love that one, too. We'll talk about that one on another show. But Charade, interestingly, came out in December of 63, a couple of weeks, actually, after the Kennedy assassination. And I was reading an article about it online about how Pauline Kael, the critic, fell in love with the film, but she couldn't get anybody to go see it because it was old Hollywood. It was kind of one of the last films of what they used to call classic Hollywood, and she felt the taste had changed,

that people were more cynical about American movies at that point. And Bogart had died, Gable was dead, Marilyn Monroe died, Grace Kelly had retired. The old stars really weren't making films anymore. Cary Grant himself only had two films left in him at this point. And you've seen it. It's about a woman,

Audrey Hepburn plays a woman vacationing in Paris, and she's being pursued by crooks who are trying to get their hands on this money that her husband stole, and she meets Cary Grant, and a love story happens between them in spite of the fact that he was 25 years older. And is Walter Matthau in this? Walter Matthau.

He's playing a villainous guy. Yeah, Walter Matthau's in it, Ned Glass is in it. Yes, Ned Glass, I remember him. How can you go wrong james coburn um james colburn in this that what i remember is him confronting her and lighting matches correct and throwing at her correct them at her tauntingly correct um it was's a terrific picture. It's basically, I don't know what you would call it, it's kind of a screwball suspense film. Yes. There was a 25-year age difference between Grant and Audrey Hepburn, and he went to the screenwriter, Peter Stone, also famous for

writing The Taking of Pelham 123. Yeah, also Matthau Matthau. That's right, which we've talked about. Yeah, Walter Matthau and Jerry Stiller. That's right. And supposedly Grant went to the writer, went to Peter Stone, and he felt awkward that he was 25 years older than Hepburn. So he said, I would feel more comfortable if her character did the pursuing. And, you know,

write me a couple of lines about our age differences. About our age difference. A couple of jokes. Which they did. And as I said, Grant only made two extra movies, two more movies after that. It's a terrific film, great Paris locations. I saw it recently. It holds up beautifully.

I remember there's a part where I think it's Matthau is following Audrey Hepburn, and it's outside behind these pillars. That's right. And I remember Matthau saying... Don't give anything away to people who haven't seen it. I was shown in that prison camp, and there was nothing to kill the pain.

That's right. That's the one. And it's funny. He was a great dramatic performer. Absolutely. But now when you see Matthau, you laugh. You think of Oscar Madison and the Fortune Cookie. Yeah, and the Sunshine Boys.

And the Sunshine Boys, right. He's very good in the part. And it's got a great cast, great locations. Like I said, great Henry Mancini score. And Henry Mancini, he also has a past of doing like the kind of movies we talk about on the Amazing Colossal podcast, which is he used to do scores for these crappy sci-fi movies. And that's where he got his whole beginning. That's true.

Yeah. That's true. Now, there's a Criterion edition of this DVD on DVDGetIt. It's really the way to see the picture. Don't watch the remake, which was made by Jonathan Demme. I love Jonathan Demme, but it was remade as The Truth About Charlie

with Mark Wahlberg. Yes. And Mark Wahlberg is not Cary Grant. In fact, Peter Stone, the writer, hated the remake so much that he took the screen credit

Peter Joshua, which was Cary Grant's character. Yes. Because he didn't want to put his name on it. Oh, wow. What else can I tell you about it? It's just a terrific film.

Audrey Hepburn is great. Grant is great. Again, it was one of his last pictures. Charade. Also called, it's referred to as the best Hitchcock picture that Hitchcock never made. Yes. And most importantly, Cary Grant was Jewish. Is he? Yes. This I didn most importantly, Cary Grant was Jewish. Is he?

Yes. This I didn't know. Cary Grant was Jewish. This I did not know. Yeah. One of the handsomest Jews. How did this not come up when we had a tell on the show and we were talking about who was Jewish and who wasn't Jewish? It would have been in our chart.

Yes. Cary Grant. Wow. A little unknown English Jew. Reggie, what was his name? Archibald Leach. Yes. Yeah.

And your film this week, sir? Okay. Also a film I talked about on Turner Classic Movies. Oh, yeah. When you were doing The Essentials. And that's a great 70s film. The Conversation. Ah, yes.

Starring Gene Hackman. the conversation starring Gene Hackman. And if I remember the poster correctly, I always love the blurbs on posters. And I think the poster said, Harry Cole is the best in the business. Right. Three people are already dead because of him. Right.

Harry Cole. C-A-U-L. I remember. I remember Cindy Williams and young Cindy Williams and Harrison Ford. Yeah. A very young Harrison Ford. Right. Harry Cole. C-A-U-L. I remember. I remember Cindy Williams and young Cindy Williams and Harrison Ford. Yeah. A very young Harrison Ford. Right. Playing his part a little effeminately.

Yes. I just saw it. Yeah. That was Harrison Ford's idea. That he works for this company and he wanted to play it effeminately. And he says. Interesting. You know know try some of those cookies i bake them and also in the movie well it's also uh brian garfield oh alan garfield

who became alan gorwitz yes yes yeah he was in a lot of 70s pictures. And also, John Casale. That's right. And it's funny, John Casale made like five movies in his career. All iconic. Yes, he died young, but the five movies were The Conversation, Godfather 1, Godfather 2 2 Dog Day Afternoon and Deer Hunter and the Deer Hunter

right what a run yeah I mean every film were major terrific actor died young very sad

and so the conversation has to do with the whole paranoia the whole Watergate idea of things because he's a bugging expert. That's right. And it's like Gene Hackman can only deal, it's like he's antisocial and can only deal

with people that he's listening in on. Right. That's his only connection. Right. He's sort of a prisoner of his profession. Yes. He's trapped, and then the story becomes a question about his conscience. Yeah, and there's a bit of film noir in it.

Oh, yeah. Certainly. Robert Duvall turns up. Oh, yeah. Robert Duvall. Yeah. Of course, it was a Francis Ford Coppola picture. It's a creepy picture.

Very much. And it holds up. I just saw it. And it's one of those, as you say, one of those paranoia thrillers of the 70s, like Three Days of the Condor and All the President's Men, Parallax View, which is one I love. And oh, yes. And it gives you, there's that chilling feeling. I can't talk about it too much without giving stuff away.

But, I mean, just incredible. A wonderful picture. Yeah, and when Coppola was really on a roll, that he directed that and the two Godfather pictures, and Apocalypse Now, all in the same decade. And I think this one came out the same year as Godfather 2. That sounds right. I'm going to say 74.

Yeah, so Godfather 2 knocked this out of the ballpark because that was major. But Conversations definitely worth seeing. Terrific picture. So this week, The Conversation, Francis Ford Coppola, and Charade. And they're both available. I mean, TCM runs The Conversation all the time. Oh, yeah. Was Robert surprised by your picks?

Oh. Did you pick The Conversation? Again, you didn't pick a comedy. Yeah, they mentioned that on it. They said, I picked all these films. The Swimmer, right. Of mice and men, freaks, and the conversation. Right. Nothing

with even a giggle. That's you. Nothing with even a smirk. Each one ending tragically. You're such a tragic figure. Anyway, so it was charade with

Cary Grant. And Audrey Hepburn. Cary Grant the Jew. That shocks me. I'm going to have to do a little internet research now. I'm a Jew. Judy. Judy. Judy. Judy. I'm a big Judy. The things I learned from you.

Oh, yes, I did. Hey, I do. I say me. That's Cary Grant. That's a canter. Hey, you do. Hey. Hey.

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