Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini-Ep #94: ”Harper" and "The Friends of Eddie Coyle"

Episode Date: January 12, 2017

This week: James Wong Howe! Movie tag lines! The cinema of Peter Yates! And the Coen brothers send up Raymond Chandler! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That's the sound of unaged whiskey transforming into Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around 1860, Nearest Green taught Jack Daniel how to filter whiskey through charcoal for a smoother taste, one drop at a time. This is one of many sounds in Tennessee with a story to tell. To hear them in person, plan your trip at tnvacation.com. Tennessee sounds perfect. This episode is brought to you by FX's The Bear on Disney+. In Season 3, Carmi and his crew are aiming for the ultimate restaurant accolade, a Michelin star.

With Golden Globe and Emmy wins, the show starring Jeremy Allen White, Io Debrey, and Maddie Matheson is ready to heat up screens once again. All new episodes of FX's The Bear are streaming June 27, only on Disney+. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried and this is Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And where are we, pray tell? Uh, we're at Nutmeg with our engineer, Frank Ferdarosa.

We gotta get Frankie's plug in there. Hi, Frank. Such a fan. We're also here with our researcher, Paul Rayburn. Oh, okay. Because Gene Rayburn is dead. Yes. How much time do I have?

To get you a long phallic microphone like Gene Rayburn. So here's something. We haven't done this in a long time on Colossal Obsessions. People, you know, we get a lot of social media. We get a lot of people reaching out to us and making requests. And some people, a lot of people like the new format where we went. We started doing everything from Bond films to people born in 1916 to, my God, we did everything under the sun.

We did robots. Oh, that's right. We did man-on- on the Run TV shows. Of course, we did the One Hit Wonders, which took us in a whole other direction. And we've lost three episodes. Might be an omen. Yes. But the original way we started doing this, the original format for the mini episodes,

way back in the day when we weren't in a high school. When we were still doing it at Gilbert's dinner table. Yeah. I love that there's some people write and they say, is Nutmeg real or is that just now the name for Gilbert's kitchen table? Nope. It's a real place. And the original format was we would do movies. I would pick a movie. Gilbert would pick a movie. Gilbert would pick a movie.

And a couple of people, I won't say it's been a lot of people, but a few listeners have written and said we've missed the old format. Can you guys occasionally trot out an old one? It was one guy at 3 a.m. It really was one guy at the Port Authority. So Frankie just suggested we could call this a Throwback Thursday episode. So this is a throwback to the original format that we started with, which was Gilbert and I picking a film. So what do you got?

I have one from 1973. 1973. Called The Friends of Eddie Coyle. I know it. Yeah. I rented it recently. Robert Mitchum. Yep.

Peter Boyle. Yep. And Stephen Keats. Yes. I believe our friend Alex Rocco turns up in that one. Oh, yes. Yes. And Joe Santos.

Joe, the late Joe Santos, who passed last year. And Stephen Keats was also played Charles Bronson's son-in-law in Death Wish. Correct. Very good. And I think he commits suicide, Stephen Keats.

In real life? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Yeah, see you next week. That brings us up.

Now we're just ready to laugh. Go ahead. I just want to say as a writer, we wouldn't have movies if we didn't have people who wrote movies. You bet. And this was adapted from the great novel by George V. Higgins. Yes. Who I think, didn't he write for the Boston Globe at some point? It's a name I know, but I'm sorry to say I don't know much about him.

But he wrote a bunch of Eddie Coyle books, and he was very successful. There were more than one Eddie Coyle story. There were other stories, similar setting, you know, with like small-time hoodlums. Well, that was set in Boston, wasn't it? Yes, yes. They were all doing their New England accents. I remember the opening with Alex Rock. Is it Alex Rocko and Joe Santos in the car, and they put on the masks?

Oh, yes. And they go in to knock off the little bank? Yeah. Do you do a New the masks? Oh, yes. And they go in to knock off the little bank? Yeah. Do you do a New England accent? Uh, yod. Yeah. He says yod. Yeah.

That's good. I can't understand why you weren't in that movie. There's a rat in the department. Yeah, sure. Wow. Just like Ethel Kennedy. They missed a bet there. Wow. Something else. The thing about that movie, also another actor I like who's in that movie, It was just like Ethel Kennedy. They missed a bet there.

Something else. The thing about that movie, also another actor I like who's in that movie is Richard Jordan. Oh, yes. I think any character actors in that movie that are nobody's left. Oh, no. You've hit the highlights. Richard Peter Boyle, of course, is the boyle. And I remember the blurb, the slogan was something like, it's a dirty, violent world, but it's the only world that Eddie knows, and these are the friends of Eddie Coyle. Yeah, that's right.

Is that the tagline? It's a grubby, violent, dangerous world, but it's the only world they know, and they're the only friends that Eddie has. Wow. I used to love blurbs on movie you don't see them much anymore yeah those i used to love we got to do an episode about that well because on the horror films the classic they were always exclamation points and big letters across the thing well like in in one of the uh jam Curtis ones, I guess Terror Train, I think it is.

The boys and girls are Sigma Phi. Some will live and some will die. I love it. What's the other one you liked? The by pick? Oh, that was, I think, the mangler or something. The mangler. By pick, by axe, by knife, by bi.

By bi. Wow. something by pig by axe by knife bye-bye well yeah well the harpsilver pulitzer prize winner right there always get to have the most fun with us and for halloween it was just the night he returned yeah yeah yeah yeah we should do an episode i mean people know the most famous ones and they know just when you thought it was safe to go back to the beach was that that Jaws 2, I think? And in space, no one can hear you scream from Alien. But we should dig up some obscure ones. Oh, yeah. There were some

great ones. Taglines or blurbs? What do they call them? I wouldn't call them blurbs, but they might be taglines. I always think of blurbs more as sort of like a critic's writing on the poster. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of like menu writing.

You know, you get in three or four words, you got to make the dish sound delicious. And that's what they're doing here. And in Taxi Driver, I think it was on every street and every city in the world, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody. Like that. Yeah. That, man. Yeah. That's creepy. That is seriously creepy.

What I remember about Eddie Coyle, he's a hustler. He's like a two-bit. Yeah. And he's trying to save money and get out of the game. Oh, yeah. And they pull him back in for, is it one last job? Yeah. I'm piecing it together.

I saw it about two years ago. He's an aging delivery truck driver for a bakery. That's right. And a low-level gunrunner for a crime organization in Boston. It's interesting because Mitchum's at the twilight of his career, so he's not playing a super tough guy anymore. He's playing a kind of a loser. He's not trying to suck in his stomach anymore. Well, it's not Night of the Hunter or Cape Fear.

Well, who's in the rest of that cast? And as I was saying to Gilbert, there are British directors, and this is one, Peter Yates. Yes. Who capture American life very well. And Peter Yates also made Bullet, another great. And what was the other one? Oh, well, because Jacqueline Bissette was mentioned last night on the podcast. With one of our guests, The Deep.

Yes. He put Jackie Bissett in that wet t-shirt. He did. She's Jackie to you? You guys are close. Yeah, Jackie. They're tight. They ran a car wash together in Encino. And Robert De Niro's Bobby.

Don't forget Dusty Hoffman. Dusty Hoffman. Dusty Hoffman. Alan Pacino. And Gaj. When you work with Kazan, right? Oh, yes, Gaj. Gaj, yes. Peter Yates made some really good films.

Now, who did The High Rock? That was Peter Yates. Yes. There's another one. I thought so. Yeah, and The Dresser, Albert Finney movie. Oh,ates. Yes. There's another one. I thought so. Yeah. And The Dresser, Albert Finney movie. Oh, yeah.

Very, very good. Oh, that's a great movie. Yeah. He had a great career. And people don't talk about him. I think we talked about a little bit with Ron Liebman when he was in here about The High Rock. But Friends of Eddie Coyle. Yeah, it's good.

It's of that kind of the 70s, gritty. Yes. The kind of movies that you and I like to talk about. When was French Connection around that time? Or was it earlier than that? I think it was 72. 72? Yeah.

And it did have that wonderful grittiness of like a low-level gangster who wasn't Godfather. Yeah. These were like bottom-of-the-barrel stupid. Just to see those actors. Just to see Peter Boyle and Rocco. Who else was in there? Who filled out that cast? Well, I think you got everybody. Mitchum, Boyle, Richard Jordan, Stephen Keats. Right. Alex Rocco, Joe Santos and Mitchell Ryan. Oh, Mitchell Ryan. Sure. But the character names are great too. Eddie Fingers Coyle and Jimmy Scalise is the head of the gang. What a great, that's a classic Italian name.

I love that. My dad, who grew up in East New York and Brooklyn, used to tell my sister and I bedtime stories that weren't typical bedtime stories. They were stories about guys in the neighborhood. Yeah. He'd say, did I ever tell you about Harry Potts and Pans? Tell us that one. Tell us that one. We didn't that one we didn't get sleeping beauty yeah or uh or or rapunzel yeah now my dad my dad used to tell you grew up in toronto and they'd

have these big italian picnics with hundreds of people you know and then a couple of black limousines would pull up and a couple of guys would get out in white suits walk around say hello to everybody and nobody everybody knew who they love that. They kind of make their rounds, get back in the car and go. Wow. Yeah. Well, I think my favorite nickname, when my dad grew up, everybody got a nickname, all the Italian guys. And my favorite one was Handsome Pills.

I said, what was the origin of Handsome Pills? And somebody, apparently he was a, he was a vain guy and he walked into a diner one day and he was admiring himself and reflective surfaces and one of the guys in my dad's circle said look at this guy looks like he just took a whole bottle of handsome pills and so that became his nickname which i always wanted to use in something but i never did yeah those are the stories we used to get my sister and i we will return to gilbert godfrey's amazing colossal podcast after this and now back to the show i remember in sleeper yeah woody allen says about diane keaton's boyfriend he asked where he is and he goes he must be out taking his handsome lessons. His handsome lessons.

My dad had Louis the Louse. There was Louis the Butcher. Joe the Nose. Harry Potts and Pants. And Handsome Pills. And I think there was a woman named Triple Ass. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I don't want to be sexist. There should have been. But there should have been. Now, my movie is stars an actor that Gilbert and I just like to talk about. And we have no reason at all to bring him up, but we bring him up all the time. And I think that I think I've actually recommended two movies that this actor made on this show. We talked about The Verdict, and I talked about Road to Perdition, if I'm not mistaken. And these are later in his career, but you know who I'm talking about. Wait, the Italian guy? No. What Italian guy?

Wait, what's the guy who died recently? What guy died recently? Was he in? What guy died recently? The guy who was in Big Eyes. Definitely Polito. Oh, John Polito. Yeah.

No, no. He wasn't in this? No, I'm talking about Paul Newman. Paul Newman. Yes. Oh, my God. I was going to say that to just show how little I knew about all this, but I would have been right. I should have said it.

Yeah. Well, any excuse to talk about Paul Newman on this show and I'll take it. He's got really great blue eyes, I hear. That's the rumor. And he was a Jew, most importantly. That's right. As were, and we were just talking to, what's his name? Dick Gutman.

Gutman, Dick Gutman. We had Paul Newman's publicist. I forgot to mention it, but both Cary Grant and Lawrence Harvey were Jews. I didn't know that. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. You know, I think Italians are not getting their fair share of time on the podcast.

Well, I did my three minutes about Harry Potts and Pan, so he felt compelled to. Yeah. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Also a Jew. Also a Jew. Also a Jew. Yes. Not many people know that. Right.

LaGuardia Airport. That's... The things you learn on this show. That's right. I'm changing the name of this show to Also a Jew. Enrico Caruso? The great tenor? Ashkenazi.

We're breaking news here. As I said, I'll take any excuse to talk about Poland. Famous Italian Chico Marx. That's right. Chico Marx. Okay, the movie. Let's see if you know it because I'm going to stump you by giving you the movie. Let's see if you know it because I'm going to stump you by giving you. I'm going to give you the cast.

Uh-oh. Paul Newman, I said. Lauren Bacall. Wait, was this that, like, Harper? Wow, he got it from two actors. Wow. I was going to give you Janet Leigh and Shelley Winters and Stephen Webber. Was Robert Wagner in that one?

Robert Wagner, Robert Webber. Thank you for giving me the first name. Oh, Robert Webber. Yeah, Robert Webber, who's from 10. Yeah. And lots of SOB. Well, I heard Blake Edwards loved using Robert Webber. He used him all the time.

You've seen Harper based on the... Yeah. Based on, what was the original one called? Archer. Archer. Based on the Archer novels by Ross McDonald and written by the great William Goldman, who wrote Butch Cassidy.

Yes, oh yes, and Marathon Man. And Princess Bride. But was that the name of the movie? They changed it to Harper because the studio did not option all of the books. Oh, okay. All of the stories. That's one version of the movie they changed it to harper because the studio did not option all of the books all of the stories that's one version of the story the other version of the story and i don't believe this one particularly was that they changed it to an h because of the success of hud and the hustler yes yeah and i guess ombre was another one but yeah but i don know. I had heard that story too. Well, it was kind of like with Stallone, everything was an R.

Rocky Rambo. Right. Rhinestone. Rhinestone, yes. His biggest hit. Rhinestone. Okay, here's the blurb. You ready?

Yes. Harper. Harper looks for trouble. See ready? Yes. Harper. Harper looks for trouble. See Harper look. See Harper. It's right here on the poster I have on my paper. That's it. Yeah.

Directed by Jack Smite, who directed one of your favorites, No Way to Treat a Lady. Oh, my God. Yes. How about that? And The Illustrated Man. Wow. Both Rod Steiger pictures. Two Rod Steiger pictures.

And the music was done by, little callback, Johnny Mandel. Johnny Mandel. Oh, geez. And shot by the great Conrad Hall, the late great Conrad Hall, who shot Cool Hand Luke and American Beauty and Marathon Man and Butch Cassidy and the list goes on and on. It's a... Go ahead.

This is 1966. You bet, buddy. Did we cover this in our 66 show? We did not. We did not, okay. I don't believe we did. In the UK, it was released as The Moving Target. Yes, which I believe was the name of the book.

Yeah. Ross McDonald's novel, The Moving Target. That's right. Where did Archer come from? Archer was the character in The Moving Target? Archer was the character. Yeah. I remember in one part, Robert Wagner.

Yeah, he's very young in the picture and very, very handsome. And he does like, for one part, is a joke, a James Cagney imitation. I believe he does. And when I was watching that, my first thought was, wow, no one watching this remembers who James Cagney was. wow, no one watching this remembers who James Cagney was. And then I thought, even more scary, people nowadays don't know who Paul Newman is.

Right, or Robert Wagner. Yeah. Yeah, that's depressing. So here's another interesting tidbit. The film pays homage. Uh-huh. Homage. I'm studying with Gilbert. Homage. I'm studying with Gilbert. Pays homage to the Humphrey Bogart, Sam Spade, and other detective films by featuring Bogart's wife, Lauren Bacall.

That's right. Who plays a wounded wife searching for her missing husband. A role similar to General Sternwood in The Big Sleep. The whole film evokes The Big Sleep, really. It's kind of, you know, it's a movie. It's not, I want to say it's not an entirely successful movie. Yeah. But one thing, it's over long.

Oh, yeah. So if I'm recommending it to our listeners, but I mean, check it out anyway for the performances. This is not one of those movies that's really about the plot any more than those bogey movies were about the plot. Well, The Big Sleep, everybody admits it's one of those movies that the writers themselves said, we don't know what the plot is. Which is amazing. I've always wanted to go back and read the book

and see if the problem is in the book too, or if the book gets it right. Yeah, maybe. But yeah, that's one of those rare things. It's one of those movies, The Big Sleep, that makes no sense through large portions of it, but yet is so much fun to watch. It's a lot of fun. It's a great ride. I think when the Coens made The Big Lebowski, and I mean, I think I've read this somewhere, that that's part of the Shaggy Dog joke.

Part of what they were doing was the plot that doesn't make any sense. Right. As kind of an homage. Right. They took out the detective and put a stoner in the center of a mystery that's intentionally convoluted. That movie grew on me. I spent some time, I was teaching in Florida and I had two DVDs. Oh, The Big Lebowski.

It grows on everybody. I watched it about 10 or 15 times over a couple of months, and I just grew to love it. I mean, it's a great, great movie. I saw it in the movies when I was living in L.A. the first time, and I thought, what the hell was that? Which was a lot of people's reaction. Of course, I appreciated Jeff Bridges and those actors, John Pulido, David Huddleston, Julianne Moore, so many of them. But it's one of those pictures, the more you see it, and now it's just beyond a cult movie. I mean, there are entire conventions devoted to it.

I heard something on NPR the other day, somebody from the American Cremation Society. Oh, yeah. That's a great scene, too. And they said, oh, yeah. Yes, it has been pilloried in popular culture. Did you ever see it? Because I know it's a... Oh, yeah.

That one I had seen. But you wouldn't admit to Buscemi that you'd seen it. No, no. Shut the fuck up, Donnie. My good friend Jenny Nigro pointed out to me the other night that shut the fuck up Donnie may be a useful meme over the next couple of years. Perfect. And start it right here. Start it right here on the podcast.

It may come in handy. Let's talk a little bit more about Harper for people that haven't seen it. And it is a little bit like The Big Sleep. It is one of those stories. And we like movies that show you cities and what they used to look like. Oh, my God, yeah. So it's a great look at L.A. in the 60s. But this is about the actors.

It's about Shelly Winters plays a boozy ex-star. Janet Leigh is his wife that he's estranged from. Arthur Hill, know that actor? Oh, my God, yes, yes. Plays his friend Arthur Graves. Robert Wagner we talked about. Robert Weber. Harold Gould.

Oh, jeez. He shows up as Sheriff Spanner, and you're going to love this one. Claude, the phony holy man. Yeah. Do you remember this? He goes to a mountain, there's a mountaintop holy retreat. Oh, wait, is this Strother Martin? Strother Martin.

Yes. Right out of Cool Man Luke. Yeah. What we got here is a failure to communicate. Yeah. A great voice and a great character actor. Yeah. Strother Martin.

So I've got a trivia question for you guys, either one. In 1975, Newman reprised the role in... Yes, he did. Too easy. I've seen that one, too. Ask Gilbert if he knows it. There was a follow-up. Yeah, well, I was trying to remember the name of the other.

Joanne Woodward is in that one. The Drowning Pool. The Drowning Pool. The Drowning Pool. Okay. It's a totally different tone in The Drowning Pool. The Drowning Pool is directed by Stuart Rosenberg. A much more serious take on the material.

This one is goofy. He goes around conning people. He's kind of a sleaze. Yeah. There are parts of the movie where he doesn't really take the case very seriously. It's got a strange light touch. Do you remember the cast? Of The Drowning? I remember Joanne Woodward's in it. got a, a, a strange light touch. Um, do you remember the cast? Of the Drowned?

I remember Joanne Woodward's in it. Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa. Oh yeah, Tony Franciosa. Murray Hamilton. Love Murray Hamilton. Gail Strickland and somebody we were talking about just before we came into the booth, Melanie Griffith. Oh yes.

Oh jeez. Yes, a young Melanie Griffith. Um, the other thing I want to say about Harper is William Goldman. You can get William Goldman's script if you go to a website called Cinephilia and Beyond, which is a script, a great movie site that I discovered while doing research for this. By the way, the follow-up I just have, there are not many cinematographers I can name unlike you guys. Yeah. But I know this one, Gordon Willis.

Of course. The Drowning Pool. Yeah, Gordon Willis. That's a major talent. Well, he shot The Godfather pictures. a name unlike you guys yeah but i know this one gordon willis of course the drowning pool yeah gordon willis major talent well he shot the godfather pictures yeah now uh oh god i now this is to get a block on this one uh the chinese cinematographer key luke yeah no james wong how james wong how I heard a story. Jewish? Yeah, Jewish. He shortened it from James Wong Horowitz. Yes.

He was Sephardic. Yeah. A Sephardic Jew. Uh-huh. I heard, you know, he was already like a world-renowned cinematographer he was worshipped and at one point just like for fun or an investment he opened a chinese restaurant that he would go there and supervise and one time outside of his restaurant, there were people filming something. So he decided to go out and say, you know, I think to get a better shot, you should use this lens and go back a little.

And he was telling them, you know. And the guy looked at him. He goes, hey, look, I'll direct. You go in there and bake your fucking noodles. Who said that to him? Yeah, some guy directing. Unbelievable. Where did you hear that story?

I don't know. I read that somewhere. You know, it's never too late in the show, Paul, for a little bit of racism. Yeah, we almost got out. We almost got out. Yeah, almost. There's a documentary. James Wong Howe and others, Conrad Hall and I think Gordon Willis, are featured in a documentary.

I think it's called Visions of Light. You can look that up quickly as we run out of time. James Wong Howe apparently won two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography. The best. What were they? Oh, God. I got to get you guys here before we're done. Oh, well, well. Okay. 1955. HUD was one of them. Yeah, God. I got to get you guys here before we're done. Oh, well, well.

Okay. One of them was HUD. HUD was one of them? Yeah, HUD. Yes, HUD. Ding, ding. That's one. Yeah.

And the other was 1955. You're going to smack your forehead. What do you think? Drama? Yeah, the rose tattoo. Oh, yeah. On a Magnani. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's not bad. Nope, nope, nope. And look up the documentary. Is it called Visions of Light? Because it's a great documentary released about a decade ago. He said something.

James Wan House said something like he doesn't look for explanations of where the light is coming from. That's interesting. Yeah. He just, whatever looks good to him. Maybe we'll do a future show about's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. He just, whatever looks good to him. Maybe we'll do a future show about cinematography. Yeah. Our favorite cinematographers.

So, yep, he's pointing to the time. So check out Harper and also this website. We get nothing from recommending these websites,

but they're fun. Cinemaphilia. I'm sorry, Cinophilia. Boy, I added a syllable like Homer there. Homer Simpson. Saxophone. Cinophilia and beyond. And you can see the screenplay for Harper. And there's a great interview with William Goldman, who we should get. Oh, absolutely. Geez, we got to get on that. Yeah. And your movie was? Oh, what's that? Oh, The Friends of Eddie Coyle. The Friends of Eddie Coyle. So there you go to the people who wanted us to revisit the old format.

Sir? Yes. Okay. This has been Gilbert and Frank's Amazing Colossal Obsessions. Bye-bye. Give me that fractal obsession. Give me that fractal obsession. Give me that fractal obsession. Friends, why not take a trip to Spontaneanation, where hours of listening pleasure await you.

Hours made up of moments. Moments like these. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so glad I won that lottery where you got to come to a celebrity's funeral. Well, certainly. We're glad to have you here. This is your program, and you'll sit in the front row with the family. Oh.

How you doing? I'm John Wayne's son. Oh, my God. And I'm John Wayne's daughter. I'm so sorry for your loss. Well, congratulations on winning the contest. Yeah, well done. I've never been to a celebrity funeral before.

Are there any tips? Just keep quiet and hold on. It's going to be a wild ride. Be respectful. We're talking about the Duke here. Listen to Spontaneanation with me, Paul F. Tompkins, on Earwolf, iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.