Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini-Ep #9: The Boys From Brazil & Where's Poppa?

Episode Date: May 18, 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: Gregory Peck channels Ming the Merciless! Robert De Niro watches (and enjoys) "Problem Child"! And George Segal and Carl Reiner go ape! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I think we should just end right now. Well played. Good night. Yeah. Okay, so let's see. Who'll start this week? Well, your turn. And I know that a comedy is not...

No, no, it's not a comedy. You're a serious man. Yes. It's like picking movies with Cesar Chavez. In fact... Applied to the migrant workers. In fact, going serious, this one even has to do with Nazis. Wow.

Go all the way. And this was a movie. It got mixed reviews when it came out, but I've seen it a few times. Whenever it pops up on TV, I have to watch it. And that's Boys from Brazil. And this movie, it's funny because the movie should have been absolutely terrible when you listen to the premise. Yes. And the casting of the main part. The premise of the movie was that a group of Nazis want to clone Hitler.

And this is kind of harks back to that science fiction. They saved Hitler's brain. That's what I was thinking of. So right out of the box, it sounds like a B movie. Yeah, it sounds like it'll be laughably bad. And yet it turns out great. I mean, the cast is amazing. I mean, Gregory Peck, Lawrence Olivier, James Mason, and Uta Hagen.

Uta Hagen. Yes. Oh, and Anne Meara from Still Her and Meara. That's right. Yeah. That's right. And my old Bad Medicine co-star, Steve Guttenberg. It's Steve Guttenberg and the boys from Brazil?

Wow. Yeah, I thought you were going to say Steve Guttenberg. Is Steve Guttenberg in The Boys from Brazil? Wow. Yeah, I thought you were going to say, is Steve Guttenberg alive? No, I know Steve. You should get him on the show, actually. Talk about your working with him. And Gregory Peck, it's part of the fun of watching the movie for me, is Peck

was always the hero. He was always a holy figure in all of his movies like uh to kill a mockingbird gentleman's agreement yes he was always like this uh just always good a good person and now he plays real life nazi uh joseph mengela and uh peck seems like he's having real-life Nazi, Joseph Mengele. And Peck seems like he's having the time of his life. Chewing the scenery. Oh, he plays it like an old-time movie villain. Like someone cast Lionel Atwill as Joseph Mengele.

It's like he's Ming the Merciless in this. And he's having so much. You could see he's having so much fun playing someone evil. And Laurence Olivier plays what is basically supposed to be real life Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. And so they kept Mengele's name, and they changed it. Simon Wiesenthal gets changed to Ezra Lieberman. And Gregory Peck said in an interview, he said,

we changed Simon Wiesenthal's name because we were afraid he'd sue. We kept Mengele's name because we were hoping he'd sue. I love that. And yes, Simon Wiesenthal and Mengele supposedly were still alive. Yes. At the time. Yeah, he was living out a long life in South America. Right, right, right.

I'd be interested to see your impression of Gregory Peck having a conversation with James Mason, because the impressions are similar. Oh, well, they're both in this together. And they're both in the film. Because in the movie, he says, Dr. Mengele, your plan has been canceled. And he goes, canceled? I am not canceled. You are canceled.

That's great. And I remember a pic says in the movie to this little boy and i don't know just the way he says it he goes with a an evil smile on his face he goes hello puppy i remember that and and there's a great scene where lawce Olivier is talking to this woman, played by Uta Hagen, who was a Nazi camp guard. And he's trying to find out information. And she's, like, putting him down the whole time and making insults. And, you know, she says, you know, if you're looking for some long lost jewish relative

you won't find him here and then they're talking and finally uh olivier she's not giving him any And Olivier goes, I may live here empty-handed, but you are going nowhere. I remember that very well. We should do this on stage where you do every part. Yes, I do. I act out. The Boys from Brazil starring Gilbert Gottfried. And I think it may have been Casino, but I know Martin Scorsese has a TV on in one of his movies, and it's a scene from Boys from Brazil.

Fascinating. He also had a scene from Problem Child. Did he? Yes. In what movie? Yes. That was in the one, Cape Fear. Oh, in Cape Fear.

They're watching Problem Child. They're watching Problem. So they said for the purposes of that scene, pick a scene because De Niro's laughing out of place. Give us a really unfunny comedy that we can slap up on the screen because he'll be the only one in the theater laughing. Boys from Brazil. Yes. screen because he'll be the only one in the theater laughing boys from brazil yes and and of course olivier would had played a nazi himself earlier in in marathon man and and and a character also maybe loosely based on mengela yes yeah because he was a dentist this time and and olivier And Olivier also says in the movie, when he finds out Hitler's being cloned, he goes,

Who would believe such a preposterous story? That is excellent. Yeah. So, boys from Brazil. And that was, oh, Ira Levin. Ira Levin, you had Rosemary's Baby yeah yeah

once again you've gone from you've gone from a film last week about people with deformities

circus freaks to a to a Nazi hunter picture the very deeply troubled and very serious Gilbert Gottfried. Still waters run deep. As usual, I will

pick a comedy and throw this a very black comedy and a movie I know you've seen and know directed by Carl Reiner called Where's Papa? Oh, yes. Which is the blackest of black comedies about a lawyer played by

the great George Segal, who was making a lot of funny movies in those days. And he was also in a movie I picked, Bye Bye Braverman. That's right. Yes. That's right. And I neglected to mention when you brought up Bye Bye Braverman that it was written by one of my comedy mentors, Herb Sargent.

So I want to set the record straight on that. The great Herb Sargent. Where's Papa was a favorite of my dad's. This is another reason that I'm picking it this week. Just – I don't know if you could see a darker comedy, if there are any darker comedies out there. Ron Liebman. Ron Liebman's the brother. Yeah.

Yeah. Let me just set the storyline. George Segal's a lawyer who's got a mother that's 87 years old, played by the great Ruth Gordon. Yes. And she is an albatross around his neck and ruining his life. And he can't date. He can't fall in love. And he can't even bring a woman home.

And the movie opens with him putting on a gorilla suit to try to jump on her bed and give her a heart attack, a fatal heart attack. And that's the tone of the rest of the film. Ron Liebman, who you bring up, is just wonderful as his brother, who puts on the gorilla suit and runs through Central Park. Do you remember this scene? Oh, yes.

Basically, he's trying to make his way home through Central Park from George Segal's apartment, and he's accosted by a bunch of muggers who strip his clothes off and make him run naked, and he has to run back to George Segal's house,

and he has no clothes. And then you see him in the gorilla suit trying to hail a cab. There are small parts by... Robiner, turns up in the end. The great character actor we talked about, Vincent Gardigna. Oh, yes. Has a wonderful scene.

And Barnard Hughes. Do you remember that actor? Oh, my God, yeah. Who's absolutely wonderful. I don't know how many times Barnard Hughes has been an Irish priest. Well, and probably most famously on All in the Family. Yes. As the Reverend Fletcher or Felcher.

A very funny movie, very black, very politically incorrect. As I say, directed by Carl Reiner and written by a writer named Robert Klain, who, K-L-A-N-E, who became famous not really for this film, but more famous and more successful,

financially successful anyway, for writing Weekend at Bernie's. Oh, wow. Yeah. And C wears Papa. Garrett Morris turns up in a small part as one of the muggers. Trish Vanderveer, George C. Scott's ex-wife,

is the nurse that George Segal hires to take care of his mother and winds up falling in love with. Paul Servino turns up. And there's an alternate ending. There was an ending that the film was originally released with that was too dark for audiences of the time, and they changed the ending. And I won't give it away. But if you go online and you look it up, you won't believe the original ending. It was actually changed, I think, either by Reiner or by the studio,

because it was just too strong. So see Where's Papa, and you'll laugh. But see it if you have a very, very, very dark sense of humor. Or see The Boys from Brazil. Yeah. So the two movies are Boys from Brazil and where's Papa. Right. And you will never recommend a comedy,

will you? No. We're eight. What are we? Eight weeks into this. I'm going to see as far as I can go. 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.

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