This Had Oscar Buzz - 286 – Something for Everyone (with Chris Schleicher!) (70s Spectacular – 1970)

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

It’s time to kick off our May miniseries – the This Had Oscar Buzz: 70s Spectacular! For 1970, television writer Chris Schleicher joins us for a forgotten tale of wealth, deception, and Bavarian castles. The directorial debut of stage legend Hal Prince (and with a screenplay by his frequent collaborator Hugh Wheeler, from the novel … Continue reading "286 – Something for Everyone (with Chris Schleicher!) (70s Spectacular – 1970)"

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Compared to them, the Macbeths were just plain folks. and the Borgias were a nice Italian family. Angela Lansberry. Michael York. Something for everyone. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that will make you sing karaoke even though your throat shouldn't. Every week on This Had Oscar Buzz we'll be talking about a different movie

that once upon a time had lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died, and we are. here to perform the autopsy. And this May all month, we are diving into the Oscar buzz of the 1970s. So we are kicking that off today and get ready because we've got a good one. We've got a busy month ahead. We've got a doozy to start with. So I'm your host, Joe Reed. I'm here as always with my silly old bitch of a friend, Chris File. Hello, Chris. I'm so glad my introductory joke had nothing to do with Nazi paraphernalia.

Yeah, you're clear. You're clear on that one. Without further ado, because I get very nervous when we keep the guests not talking, I feel like a bad host. Bad hostess, bad hostess. I feel like it's stressful for listeners, too. You know, when you're listening to a podcast episode and you're just waiting for them to introduce the guests. So, yes, get into it. Especially when it's like, are they in the room or did they record this ahead of time? And you never really know. But anyway, without further ado, we've got to, Two Chris is for the price of one this week.

We are welcoming, for the first time to this head Oscar buzz, TV writer for such shows as The Mindy Project, Champions, Never Have I Ever, Saved by the Bell, truly some of my faves, and they should be your faves, too. Also, a figure skater of some renown in the storied history of the Ivy League. Chris Schleiker, welcome to this head Oscar buzz. Hello, thanks for having me. great to be here amongst such lovely company. And for the listeners, I was listening the whole time in anticipation to jump in.

Nodding and being polite. Yeah. When we sort of plotted out this particular miniseries and we're trying to find movies that had Oscar buzz from the 1970s. And we've talked about a little bit in our intro episode, just how tricky of a challenge that is, especially because the further you go back, The movies that you remember, almost all of them got Oscar nominations, especially in the 70s when the Oscars were being like pretty daring about some kind of stuff.

So we like, we delved into the Golden Globes and the Cannes Film Festival and whatever. And in one little corner of the Golden Globes, there was an Angela Lansbury nomination. And for a movie called Something for Everyone. And when I read the plot description, I was like, well, there's a certain quality of guests. we need for this one. And Chris, you and I became friends several years ago, and one of the things that I, like, turned to you for is, like, Chris knows, Chris knows Oscar stuff, but Chris especially knows Oscar stuff from, like, if you need a best actress nominee from, like, 1962, I'm, I'm, I'm looking to you, I'm looking to Louis Fertel, I'm looking to my, like, this is my, this is my go-to

sort of corner. You guys are, I imagine, uh, trivia champions of the West Hollywood, circuit. Yeah, we, like, love to just, like, find a nominee that's, like, really far back and watch it. Like, the other day I was bored, so I watched Come to the Stable, because it had a best actress nomination and two best supporting actress nominations. I'm like, what's this? It's like silly French nuns. Oh, who was the best actress nominee? I know you were on a very much a nun kick, uh, recently because I watched the nun story as well. I watched the nun story the other day, too. Yeah. It is, um, God, the supporting our Elsa Lancaster and Celeste home. and the lead was, oh God, she won, Loretta Young.

Oh, nice. I feel like the first time we ever had drinks and met in person, you name dropped Marie-Christine Barreau, and I was like, well, then this is the level that I'm working with, Chris. Cousin cuisine is essential. Yeah. A movie title that I had used as a punchline for many a reference, but still have never seen. I should watch Cousin Cazin. But anyway, I want to know when we presented this particular film to you, Chris, first thoughts, had you heard of this movie? I had not heard of this movie.

I had never. No. I'm surprised. I mean, it's almost out of print. Like, it's, I was surprised I was able to actually, like, track it down. I think I got it on eBay. God bless the good folks at Kino Lorber. I managed to get a copy on eBay.

And I saw today that there is a YouTube. of it. YouTube, which is also how I watched, um, oh, what the hell did I watch the other day? Um, Love Story. Um, I think one of the one of the night, I tried to watch as many of the 1970s movies as possible. I watched five EC pieces on Pluto TV. I watched, uh, I think it was YouTube that I watched Love Story. I watched, um, uh, MASH today. I watched women in love, which I had been meaning to watch forever and ever. So like, I did a whole binge. But something for everyone, I feel like if it was more widely available, and people knew that there was a movie in which Angela Lansbury plays a sort of Dowager Countess type who can't live in the castle she wants to live in, so she has to live in, like, the in-in-law's cottage. Blanche de Bois before she loses Belle Reve.

Right. And then Michael York from Cabaret, like, sexually schemes his way through her entire family to get access. to the sweet life. Like, I feel like more people would watch. If it was the 70s and you needed a bisexual man in Germany. This is what I'm saying. You went to Michael York, yeah. Don't go for the bargain. Go for the prime cut.

And that's, yeah. Michael York in the shortest yet billowyest shorts you ever did see. Like, the architecture of those short pants was really something, I feel like. I think that's like a two-inch inseam he's wearing. It is. It is too much in-scene, but also, like, they sort of float out from the sides a little bit. They're a bit diapery. Yeah, yes.

And it's also simultaneously Dr. Ellie Sattler cosplay. A little bit, a little bit. Yeah, the khaki, there's a lot of khaki going on. We'll definitely get into the sort of aesthetic appeal of this movie, the location shooting, which was half of the appeal of this movie. The Angela Lansbury of it all, certainly. But in general, I think what we want to do with our guests for this mini-series in particular is to sort of ask you to take a little trip back to the 70s, well before any of our eras, but still, we are citizens of the world, we are connoisseurs of art from before our time. Is there any, what are your thoughts on sort of the Oscar nominees and winners of the 70s in general? I mean, you've got some like fire ones in there.

I was like tempted to say my favorite is like Louise Fletcher because she gives like my favorite Oscar speech. Yeah. But I was thinking of like what's a hot take I could have. And I realized I was thinking about like Norma Ray, which I love. And I love that it goes like it goes, one best original song over Rainbow Connection and through the of love. I think it's a beautiful song. It gets a really bad rap because people prefer them Muppets or whatever. I, as somebody who is friends with Lewis Ritell as you are, I of course have heard the advocacy for It Goes Like It Goes. So I finally listened to it this week, and you're

totally right. It absolutely like, it's a very good song. It's not particularly available is part of the problem. I think why, you know, people stump for things like Rainbow Connection, and because Rainbow Connection, you know, one of the, you know, most available songs in the American Songbook, basically. And I think, how did you listen to it, Joe? Did you have to go to a YouTube clip? Whenever I've listened to it, that's the only place I can find it. Yeah, I found it on YouTube. It's definitely not on Spotify.

Yeah. It's also so, like, explicitly pro-union in a way that, like, oh, I just assumed that this would be sort of like a love ballad, like, a lot of these ones from the 70s were. But, no, it's really, it's not. overly flowery. It's lovely, but it's not overly flowery. It tends to get wrapped up in the other sort of winners from the 70s, which are the, oh, who's the woman who sings both the Poseidon Adventure song and the Towering Inferno song? Oh, my God, I just watched it too. Is it most of Manchester? It's, it's, no. No, it's, um, give me a second. Uh, bah, blah, blah, blah, bah, Maureen McGovern. Yeah. Morin McGovern, who performs, we may never love like this again. And there's got to be a morning after. And two of, now, you know I love an adult contemporary Diane Warren-penned, like movie ballad or whatever, two of the most insipid songs I maybe have ever heard.

They're just really, really, like, brainless and heartless, and there's just no, there's, there's nothing to grab onto with them. And I don't know. I think when you talk about the Oscars as a transitional. time, both for movies and the Academy, those two song nominations slash wins. Yes. Because she wins for the towering inferno are very emblematic of that because it's old-fashioned snoo but it's also like prestige cheese.

Yes. But also like, is you light up my life in the 70s? You light up my life is got to be, right? I think it's the late 70s. I think that's like 78. Yes. Yes. And in fact, right, because I think maybe the morning after isn't Maureen McGovern. No, morning after is Maureen McGovern.

Who is Light Up? Oh, Light Up My Life is Debbie Boone. Yeah. Yeah, that is also the 1970s. So it's those three songs in general. And you light up my life from a movie that just absolutely did not exist even in the year that it won that Oscar. Yeah. Yeah, I dare anybody to talk about the Didi Khan epic you light up my life.

The interesting thing about the 70s and best original song is, so the 70s is this like legendaryly great Oscar decade. They had great movies every year. There are some lineups in the 70s that are just like all bangers, all legendary. And their best original song lineups are really, really comparatively really bad. And the 1980s is known as like this. terrible decade for the Oscars. They were going for like really like cheap, you know, sort of British costume drama and, and bad American sort of like, you know, issue movies and whatever.

But the best original song category in the 80s is nonstop hits. The whole thing is just like every single category. It's like hits on hits on hits. It's just, uh, it's the only way or it's the only area that the Oscars really succeeded. Even they're like, again, They're cheesy ballads. We're stuff like Up Where We Belong, which is a really solid song. Or, well, I'm not going to defend say you, say me. But like, take my breath away. Great song.

I've had the time in my life. Great song. Let the river run. Great song. So. I have heard the theory before that, like, as the musical started to fade out, like, the soundtrack had to rise, the thing. So maybe that's something that's coming in there.

And, like, those types of songs are becoming more important to movies. Totally. Totally. The original song winner for the year. that we're talking about is as immortalized 30 years later by Ruben Stuttered for all we know from the motion picture everyone remembers love and other strangers

Lovers and other strangers which was B. Arthur Bonnie Bedelia I should watch this movie. Okay. Glores Leachman. Yeah, yeah. Why not? Wait, Diane Keaton's in this thing? Shit, Anne Mera? Okay. I'm going to find this. on YouTube or wherever the hell it is.

The other four nominees genuinely I've never heard before in my life, except I do think I've seen that Scrooge musical. Oh, interesting. Yeah, what did the other nominees? Yeah, I have not heard of any of these. Darling away the dark from Darling Lily. Till love touches your life from Madrone.

Pieces of Dreams from, what else, but pieces of dreams. And thank you very much from Scrooge. Yeah. All, all classics. I will say, something for everyone could have used a love ballad or something from the Allen and Marilyn Merlin Bergman collection. It would actually make a pretty solid musical. Well, because...

Which is why it's so funny that so many musically, at least from the theater, obviously Angela Lansberry, it's the directorial debut of How Prince, I mean, even Michael York with Cabaret. Oh, yeah. I mean, it could have ended with him dancing through the castle naked to murder on the dance. Okay, we're definitely going to get into the saltburn of it because, like, there is definitely a lot to talk about there. This movie is absolutely pre-Tumbler saltburn. It is saltburn, but instead of menstrual blood, there's Nazi paraphernalia. You know, it's, uh, and almost kind of from the jump, too, because it's Michael York, dressed like Laura Dern in Jurassic Park, seeing a Bavarian castle.

in the distance and being like, that should be mine. Yeah, yeah. And then he ends up having sex with everybody and taking over the family. Though different than Saltburn, he is not the one that necessarily wins at the end of the room. Right. Well, we'll get into it when we sort of get on the other side of the plot description, but we can have a conversation about who actually does win in this movie. But yeah, you're totally right. Oh, wait, I was going to go someplace.

I guess maybe Chris Filed, do you want to settle us into the sort of the 1970s? Or actually, before, maybe let's knock out our Patreon section before you do that. Let the listeners know why they should sign up for our Patreon. Listeners, you already know this had Oscar Buzz Turbulent Brilliance is over on our Patreon for $5 a month. You're going to get two bonus episodes every month. One of those are what we call exceptions, which are movies that fit our rubric, but somehow manage a nomination or two.

Movies like Vanilla Sky, Molly's Game, Pleasantville, The Lovely Bones, The Mirror Has Two Faces. Second bonus episode every month is what we call an excursion. These are deep dives into Oscar ephemera. We love talking about on the show. We've done EW. Fall Movie previews. We've recapped M. TV movie awards. We've talked about Hollywood Reporter roundtables. Most importantly, if you want

the full experience of the May miniseries, you're going to want to sign up for this month because our exception, we will be discussing 1975 and The Who's Tommy. And then for our excursion, we're going to be doing 1978, and we are going to be doing our very first commentary track to none other than Eyes of Laura Mars. Go sign up at Patreon. Trion.com slash this had Oscar buzz. Eyes of Laura Marr is a movie that could have had a best original song nomination. Should have had a best original song win. We'll get into it.

We'll talk about it then. Yeah, for sure. I wanted to say before we, when we were talking about the, you know, what kind of song they could have accommodated in this, biggest gag of this movie for me was that it was not a period piece at the time. Or, like, if it was, it was, like, maximum, like, 10 years. Like, it was pretty contemporary to the times, which is so funny when you're talking about a movie that they're like, we have to, like, live in this castle. And we have to, like, you know, supply the dowry to such and such family or whatever.

I think it's taking place in, like, the late 50s, which is almost like as old as Saltburn as to now. Yes. Salper being said in 2006 is longer ago than, yes. It's said in 1954, but all of the songs that appear in this movie are actually from 1956. Never have I been more furious that trying to figure out the timing of when time to pretend was actually a thing. I will say, it took until the butler who loves his Nazi dad for me to realize that it was contemporary in this movie because it's just kind of. Floating, you know, I mean, I guess this is just what rich people are. They're distilled. They're free in time. It takes place in like Epcotts Bavaria. It also does that. Yes. Yes. Well, you know that

castle. So I did a little Wikipedia dive on the castle that they used. And like the castle is the one that they used as the model for the one in Sleeping Beauty and Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty. There is there is sort of a rich history to that castle because it does look like a, it looks like a castle. of a cartoon. It looks like the most sort of like, give a seven-year-old prompt to like, what does a castle look like? And they would tell you, like, exactly that. And it's on, it's on like this like rock formation. It's like so

inaccessible. It's crazy. The movie kind of like edges you and like doesn't deliver the promise of the premise because like, look at this beautiful castle. We're going to go to the house next door. To the next door. And like even when we get there, we see like a tiny room in it. The

interior our direction. I think they might have run out of money when they were like, well, we need to have enough money to like shoot this whole thing by this like, you know, reservoir in the midst of the Alps on the border of Germany and Austria. Lord knows which governments they were, you know, greasing palms for and whatever. And, and I imagine they might have just run out of money when it came time to like, we only have interiors for like one and a half rooms. And one of them is going to be fucking lodging. room who you know and all we can set decorate it with is all of these antlers speaking of saltburn there's just a ton of antlers in the main room of this house the prop master's trunk was just antlers and nazi memorabilia they really really got a sideways look at the at customs when they were trying to leave uh germany for this one um all right chris schliker for the first time You are our first time guest here, so you are going to have to deliver a 60-second plot summation on something for everyone. I keep trying to say something for everybody, and I know that's sort of... It is the most unavocative title, and they used a different title in the UK, right?

Oh, is it? Is it something else? The UK title is Black Flowers for the Bride, also super vague. Also, yes. It makes a lot more sense, I guess, by the end of the movie. but um but something for everybody feels like a um or everyone i keep saying it wrong it feels like a neil simon play and like it's a little rom-com in new york or something well and the tagline is like the tagline feels like it was come up with by somebody who only got the the plot points but didn't see the movie because the tagline uh as i'm saying on the DVD that i got from ebay compared to them the macbeths the macbeths were just plain folks and the borgias were a nice italian family like that's not quite the vibe that's going on here. No, they're like Patsies. Like, they're stupid rich people, like once again, Saltburn. Well, and it's like Michael York is trying to infiltrate this family.

He's not part of the family. Like, Angela Lansbury doesn't scheme with her, you know, children. Like, they are all sort of at cross purposes. And I don't know, guys. I guess the idea of this scandalous family, which he's really the only scandal that's brought into this family is gayness? Like, you won't believe this family that has a gay son. Classic scandal.

A new butler and he's bisexual. I mean, I feel like that's maybe the winkingness of the title is something for everyone. Literally, Michael York gives something to everyone. Yeah, he's got something for every one of these family members. But even, like, yeah. This isn't my favorite genre. Like, Ripley is just out of Netflix. Now I'm telling Mr. Ripley is one of my absolute favorites.

Like, here guy who will do anything to get what he wants from the rich. Well, watching this, you know, some months after Sulturn, but also, like, then I watched Women in Love immediately. And I was like, women in love isn't quite so schemy, but it also has that same air of, like, honestly, if you're rich and you're handsome, you might as well just, like, dabble in the homosexual arts because, like, what else are you going to do with your time? So the nude wrestling in that, like, I'd like mop my brow. I could not believe that was happening.

Yes. It's very like men, like actors in 2024, what's stopping you from doing this in new movies? Also, I finally understand. It's not like I didn't know what, oh, what's his name? Shit and what we do in the shadows. Matt Barry. Now I really get what Matt Barry is doing and what we do in the shadows is that he's doing Alan Bates. It's like, it's, it's, it all become so clear. Alan Bates and women in love.

And he's incredible in that movie. And my one sort of dissatisfaction is I walk out of that movie and it's like, I don't not like Glenda Jackson, but it's weird that she won best actress when she's like the third most interesting performance in the movie. She's such like a towering actress and both of her wins, I find to be like strange. It is strange. I kept being, I kept waiting to be like, oh, this is like, when does it become her movie? And it like does, I guess, for a little bit towards the end, but like... The Bulls, the dancing with the Bulls is... Yes, I guess. Yeah, but it's, it seems like the stuff of a supporting win more than anything, but today she probably would be supporting, but Alan Bates will get into it when we, yeah, okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. I have my stopwatch. Any questions before we begin your plot? Okay, wow. I I thought we were doing, like, just loosely a minute. I have one minute. Okay, so I'm going to bridge this. Oh, no, here's the thing. Chris and I have never kept it to a minute since, like, forever. Also, I have a whole, like, boilerplate for the movie I have to go for. So, like, give yourself a minute.

Everybody listening, we are talking about the 1970 film, something for everyone. Directed by Harold Prince, written by Hugh Wheeler, who was Harold Prince's, I'm bad at musical theater terminology. Would you say librettist? just say writer for, because he wrote what was it? Fiddler, when Hal Prince directed Fiddler, and he wrote, like, he wrote the adaptations for a lot of the musicals that Prince directed. Anyway, I guess he wouldn't be because they were all

adaptation. But at this point I don't think they had worked together. What's interesting is they have this creative partnership that would yield things like A Little Night Music. A Little Night Music, that's what it was. Yes. But this is the first thing that they have together. Yes, which is wild. Anyway, the film starred Angela Lansbury, Michael York, Anthony Higgins, Jane Carr, I'm going to get into that. This woman's name is Heidelin de Weiss, is how I'm going to deliver that Germanically, and we'll hope that I'm correct, premiered on July 22nd, 1970. All right, Chris Liker. Again, the last time Chris

or I kept it to actually 60 seconds would have been years ago. So, like, don't sweat it. But I am going to start the stopwatch. And I will begin now. Okay, so Michael York is this guy called Conrad, who is in Germany. We don't know why he's there. He doesn't have a job. And he happens upon this castle that he's suddenly obsessed with, like, and has read about

castles in children's books growing up, and he just, like, needs to have it. And he finds out that it's the Ornstein family castle, and they've fallen on hard times and don't have the money to keep it open anymore. And they live in the small house nearby. And Angela Lansbury is the countess of this family. He tries to get a job from her. There's like a stern butler who doesn't want to let it happen. And he meets like the footman in town who loves to get drunk.

And he gets him drunk and pushes him in front of a train so that he can take his job. And then he's like insinuated in this family that has a horny daughter, Lata, and a gay son helmet. 10 seconds. Um, uh, who he, he kind of pushes off the daughter a bit, but he does seduce the son. Uh, and slowly works his way into going up and up. The butler who, uh, wanted him gone, he gets him turned in by, because he discovers he's a secret Nazi who carries Nazi paraphernalia in his room that no one gets to go in as a salute to his Nazi father. Anyway, he gets, the authorities get rid of him. Then he's like the head butler of the whole place. He finds this young, rich woman. in town with a rich family, he's fucking her. He comes up this plan where the gay son, who he's also having sex with, is going to marry her. They can use that money to open the castle again. But then the woman finds him kissing the son and she's shocked and she starts

screaming in a car with her parents. So he tucks and rolls out of the car, drives off a cliff and kills all of them. So the family still has their money now, the whole family's dead. And then in a weird twist, like Angela Lansbury's now horny for him, and they're going to get married. But the daughter who's gross with glasses, she blackmails him by saying, I know all your crimes. I sent a letter to my friends saying to open this if I die. So in the final scene of the movie, we reveal that he has to marry her instead of Angela Lansberry to achieve his dream of having this castle. Honestly, not a bad gag at the end there, where I kind of, because they, set it up for a second, like it might be a funeral procession and you're thinking he might

have killed her, even though she did say that she had all of these secrets in a lockbox that would be unlocked if in the event of her untimely demise. I always feel like when people spring that trick in, by the way, you were like a minute and a half over, it's fine. Very well done. A lot of stuff happens. A lot of stuff happens. And also you have to explain like the ins and outs of sort of castle ownership and like what it you know what it takes to be able to it's one thing to own a castle it's another thing to open and operate the castle like the the operational budget is just it was giving down abbey both with the mtail and what a burden it is to have a large beautiful house it was giving hollywood arc light it's you know won't won't a consortium of

movie stars just get together and buy Castle Laurenstein so that Angela Landsberg can't they buy the dome I'm saying I'm saying you all have so much money like get it together sorry I didn't mean to bring Los Angeles

local source subjects source subjects yeah yeah yeah yeah so yeah they can't open the castle they can the best they can do is garden parties outside of their own also like the social politics within

the town are interesting because whenever you sort of follow Michael York out into the town it is by the way the most stereotypical like once again Epcot Center vision of Germany where it's like and I understand that like in beer halls they dress up it's like Hooters you expect the waitresses at beer halls to be dressed up like

Brunhilde or whatever and it's just like okay but like they're passing by people in the fields who have fucking like ricola horns and laterhosen and Heidi pigtails and whatever and they're sort of just frolicing and someone's playing a harp and I'm just like I don't know whether like and again this is all happening in the swing in 50s in you know in Europe meanwhile Angela Lansbury's in like Mackey the whole movie Angela Lansbury with a collection of turbans that would make anyone jealous and hats yeah I think I was actually scandalized by the end when she's wearing that slip, and we get Angela Lansbury side boob. Side boob, I wrote that down. I wrote that down. I said Angela Linsbury side boob.

Truly a milestone moment for homosexuality. Once again, if the gaites... It's like a year removed from bed knobs and broomsticks giving sideboob. I feel somewhat like, obviously it was just Easter, so I just watched the Ten Commandments on ABC recently. And I do feel somewhat of like Moses coming down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, except I'm like, the three of us are coming down. from the mountain being like, there's a movie in which Angela Lansbury shows Sideboob and Michael York

fucks his way through an entire, you know, quasi-aristocratic family. And what a... All right. Interested in to hear your sort of take on this, because they definitely, like, textually in the movie are like, what's the son's name? Helmut? Helmut. Helmut.

Helmut is underage. And yet, Michael York and Anthony Higgins look the same age. Like, maybe there's a little bit more of, like, a, but, like, Michael York does not have, like, a blemish of age on his race. You know what I mean? Like, New York looks younger. Yes, there's, yes. I confuse them for each other in early scene, because they both have the same crazy small body. I, like, people in the 70s were just, like, smaller.

Like, their skeletons looked small. Their skeletons were smaller. Yes, that's absolutely true. But so I think it, and I don't know whether that was sort of intentional on the movie, but it's not like they're adapting this great work of literature where they couldn't get around the fact that like Helmut was was underage, but it's supposed to be, you know, scandalous. And yet it's like, oh, no, they can just like, they look like they went to school together. So I don't understand what's going on. At most, Michael York is like on the older side of 18 and Anthony Higgins is just on the younger. of 18. So it's like, I'm not really quite feeling the scandal there. Also, again, it's just like, this is 1970. The scandal is that they're gay. Yeah. Well, yeah. Also that. Even a year removed from Midnight Cowboy, you know, which I mean, Midnight Cowboy had the X rating, basically, because it's like, they're gay.

Here's another question. And maybe this is the way I view things through my own sort of me-centric perspective. But whenever I watch a movie that has this kind of, of thing where it's like bisexual love triangle, you know, he's sleeping with the son, he's sleeping with Angela Lansbury, he's sleeping with Annalise, the new money, the woman who he wants to marry to Helmut. And yet, I'm watching this and I'm being like, yeah, but like, Helmut's the one he's like really sleeping with. You know what I mean? It's just like, all this other stuff is scheming, but like, no, with Helmut, like, that's the one who he at least, he's scheming Helmut, but he also like, that's the one he really wants to have sex with. And I sort of, I think I

enter into all of these sort of threesomes and fiction through that same lens. And that's just like me being like queer-centric or whatever, male homocentric. Yeah, I mean, I think Helmut's also the most attractive one. You like, don't for a second think he's into Angela Lansbury. No. No shade to her. And the woman in town is just like so desperate to his purpose, even though she's beautiful, that like it doesn't really seem to that.

Well, and it's, yeah, it's, yeah. The thing where he's like, he's supposed to be sort of like diddling her behind the car. And, but like, we never quite see, like, nothing goes below the skirt at any point, but we're supposed to sort of like, he's just sort of like touching her outside the skirt, which can like, you know, whatever. That's hot in its way. But we don't quite get enough of maybe the two of them. together to sort of really sell any real betrayal when he throws her and her parents off on the side

of the mountain the way he does? Well, and when Annalise walks in on Conrad and Helmut kissing and she gives this like open mouth silent scream that's out of like the haunting. It's Donald Sutherland in that

invasion of the body snatchers thing where he's just like pointing. I thought for a second she'd be sent to an asylum. Oh, like Suddenly last summer kind of a thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to send her off to the sanitarium because she saw two men hooking up.

Yeah. As they did back then. Another thing about Michael York in this is I don't feel like he does that much seduction. Just like everyone is drawn to him immediately. Like that rich girl like heaps a bunch of caviar onto a plate. It's like throwing herself at him immediately. Everybody's super into him. Just by putting his hand on his shoulder.

Even like platonically heterosexual. Like the footman. is just sort of like just decides that this guy's going to be his best friend now or the only person who doesn't like him is you know hair furor with his closet full of you know iron crosses or whatever yeah don't make a side with a nazi but that's the thing that keeps it from being like a tom ripley thing is that tom ripley is such an ingratiating character he's charming he knows how to tell people what they want to hear so that he can get close to them Everybody just kind of gives it to Conrad. Right. You don't ever feel like they're being taken advantage of because, like, they're fully willing participants. Even by the end, it's like, what is he trying to do? He's trying to get them their castle.

He's trying to partake of it. But it's not like Saltburn, where he then wants to, like, murder them all so he can have it all by himself. They're totally aimless, like, around their own estate, not doing anything to save it, just, like, living in decadence as. things peter out. So it's like, yeah, why shouldn't someone come in and mess them all up? That's true. They're not lifting a finger to help themselves. He really is the most altruistic person in this movie because what he's doing. Well, Lansbury, as the countess, isn't really even involved in the plot for the first hour of the movie. It's just every once in a while, Angela Lansbury shows up and does some weird, like, Blanche Dubois monologue for no reason.

It is weird to see Angela Lansbury in a small town where multiple people die of the suspicious circumstances and she does nothing, she's doing absolutely not her fault. Not her fault. Not this time, folks. I also find to set this in the 50s like immediately after like Naziism, they like deal with it in such a weird way. They're like, oh, things used to be so great and then they ruined all the fun. I'm like, remember how. Okay, some bigger things happen than that. Remember the big deal in Luca Guadino's Asperia about how it's like, this is going to deal with the aftermath of, the Nazis and the, you know, the reckoning of an entire country. And this movie kind of tries to do that in a little bit, but ultimately, they're like,

you know, this is a bummer. We're not going to talk about the Nazis anymore. This is no longer about, like, you know, Germany after the war. And it's in Austria, by the way. Like, the whole thing is said in Austria. So, like, they have this, like, plausible distance anyway. A lot of the audition for that Susperia Ballet School, but she didn't get him. She was waiting.

Lottie calls Hitler, like, that awful painter who was, like, Zigiling his way around. Like, I was like, okay, I know they're going to treat this, like, glibly from the rest of the movie. Lottie very much is, um, gay guys watching drag race coded. Like, everything is a comment. Everything is rude and thoughtless and, uh, you know, uh, whatever. She's, she's a piece of goddamn work. They literally in the Wikipedia description, they describe,

her as, wait, give me a second, a plain and annoying girl is how they describe her. I mean, she has glasses on, so you know you're supposed to hate her. Oh, 100, and like real big glasses, too. So she's played by a British actress named Jane Carr, and I'm like, what do I know her from? And finally, I realized there was a sitcom on NBC in the late 80s, early 90s called Dear John that starred, what's his name, Judd Hirsch, and post-taxie Judd Hirsch, and the whole premise was that he was a man named John who went home one day and got a dear John letter from his wife who left him. And so he had to move into an apartment and went to a support group of single people who maybe were all jilted lovers, but like whatever. So he goes to the support group and she's like, she leads the support group.

And she's this sort of like daffy British lady, but it's Judd Hirsch and the principal from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. and um the old lady from home alone with the earrings dangly ones like like it's all like these very like 80s character actors and this show was just sort of like on in reruns during the afternoon when I would just be like in front of a television and I absolutely probably watched the entire series passively just sort of like because it was on television after another thing that I watched and so this woman's like face is imprinted somewhere in the recesses of my brain so at one point in the movie, I realized, oh, it's

the lady from Dear John, so she's kind of... Well, I was surprised to realize she's the girl from the Prime of Miss Dean Brody. Oh, yes, also. She's the one that gets blown up. Man, she had a rough go of it in the... She's drawn to fascism, yeah. The span of, like, two years. Yeah, drawn to fascism

and some interesting fates. She kind of rules in this. She's so... She makes Lada so... ostentatiously objectionable. Because, like, also, Angela Lansbury is just absolutely dragging this girl from Pillars the entire movie. Every single thing she does. It's just like, oh, I wish you wouldn't wear that color. It looks terrible on you. Oh, what does she say about when she's planning the wedding dress? She's like, I was thinking pink for the bridesmaid's dresses,

but then I remember that, like, you look terrible in pink or something like that. It's just um dragging like a real creep like she comes up to Michael York she's like I love to see men's naked bodies I sometimes spy on my brother it's like what oh yeah she's not like normal she's not normal

like you you can't ever feel too bad for her because she's also like she's mean to the servants and she's just like she says these awful things and she's like genuinely um bad like He's always trying to make her seem gross in the weirdest ways. Do you remember the scene where she has the most gigantic glass of milk I've ever seen in my life?

Is that the same scene as the cake where she's trying to feed him cake? Yeah. I thought that was going to be a plot point. She was feeding that dog all that chocolate, but I guess he was fine. Then the dogs, I did keep waiting for the dogs to be a plot point, the big giant Dalmatian Great Danes, which is a great sort of like, I think, shorthand for excessive wealth, and that, like, they really didn't have anything to do. So they decided to take these two species of dogs who just absolutely should not be, you know, blended together.

And now we have Dalmatian Great Danes. Great. Like, good job, rich people. Two probably incredibly fragile species of dog that can't survive anyway. And now you've crossbred them together. And now they're probably weaker. What else is going on in this movie? It's a lot. How this would work better as a musical. Like, everything is so broadly drawn, like, the, like, the Epcot Bavarianist I could see on the stage being, like, so fun and silly, and each character would definitely have their cute little song about their wants and their desires. And, like, I wonder if Hal just, like, succumb to his, like, impulses here in a way that doesn't quite work cinematically. Or, like, one is definitely not a film director as much as he is a legend of the stage. Have either of you seen the adaptation of a little night music that he did? No, I hear it's terrible, though. It's, I mean...

Elizabeth Taylor, right? Yes, and of course, we know that she can't sing, and it's just, it's maybe the most inert movie I have ever seen. And I love a little night music. I mean, you know, and that's already worked on the screen because it's adapted from something else. And it is just so visually flat and no plotting pacing pacing, he's just. just one of those directors where it seems like he doesn't know where a camera is supposed to go or what information we're supposed to be getting at different times

vis-a-being cutting and, you know, capturing a performance, even though the performances in it are not good, that I was really nervous about watching it because I was thinking it would be as unwatchable as his A Little Night Music film is, and it's not. Like, I don't think he has a grasp on all of the comedy in this movie, but it's still a very fun watch. It's a romp. It's a fun little romp. I would definitely recommend it to people.

I don't think it's this great movie, great, like, undiscovered gem from the 70s. I think one Golden Globe nomination that it loses is probably the right level of appreciation for this movie. We should say in terms of like, where did this, I think with these 70s movies, I think we're going to probably want to spend a little bit more time making the case for the Oscar buzz. than we normally do because it's not just like, oh, we were there, we remember it. We definitely, you know what I mean? Right. This was also the case of why we don't, I mean, like, we're starting off this miniseries

with this movie, too, and it kind of makes the case for why it's hard. Why we don't do older movies so much, because it's, we're sort of stepping outside of our expertise in a way. But so. Well, but also so many of the, so many of the movies that would have been in the conversation had a nomination somewhere. We'll talk about that. And you're also talking about a lot of Oscar ceremonies that had more categories.

You know, we're not in the years of black and white and color craft categories. Right, right. There's, this is the era of best song score, yeah. Music Oscars. Right, right. Best black and white foreign makeup. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So going into this movie, Angela Lansbury was a three-time Oscar nominee.

I didn't look up how many Tonys she had won by the. this point. She'd already had two. She just won for Dear World probably right before filming this movie, and she had also won for what was her, oh, her first Tony was for Maine. Oh, okay, there we go. So she was nominated, she had three total best supporting actress nominations. I sometimes only remember the Manchurian candidate. That was the sort of most recent. But her first one, she was nominated for Gaslight, lost to Ethel Barrymore for a movie, called None But the Lonely Heart. Other nominees, Agnes Moorhead for Mrs. Parkington.

There was a second where I thought Annalise's mother in this movie was Agnes Moorhead, and I got so excited. And I was like, oh, it's not. That would have been fun. Let's see. Eileen McMahon for a movie called Dragon Seed and Jennifer Jones for Since You Went Away. I've seen none of these movies, including Gaslight. I know I should see Gaslight, though.

How is she in Gaslight? How is Angela and Gaslight? It's such a weird nomination. She's like a sassy maid. She's kind of outside of the story, like, always, like, commenting on things. I feel like Sassy Made was a very reliable genre for supporting actress nominees throughout a lot of Oscar history, including, like, you know, up and through, when was, what would have been the last Sassy Maid nomination at the Oscars? Well, I mean, famously, like, the help type sort of. Right.

That's why I'm wondering. It's like, has there been anything sort of since? But anyway, then she was nominated for the picture of Dorian Gray, lost to Anne Revere for National Velvet. National Velvet, one of those movies that I always think I've seen, but I don't really remember anything about it, so maybe I haven't. Probably because there's several National Velvets. Maybe true.

But, like, this has to have been the Elizabeth Taylor one, I would think, right? I think, yeah. Yeah. Anne Blythe and Eve Arden for Mildred Pierce And Joan Loring for The Corn is Green Were the other nominees that year Who do we who do we think probably should have won And Blythe? I mean that's like

Yeah that's sort of the Peter's an iconic film role Yeah That makes sense that makes a lot of sense But I feel like it's one of those ones that sometimes people don't like voting for someone who's so mean Yeah well Especially a woman Especially in the actress categories.

In the 40s. Let's see. And then 1962 is the Manchurian candidate. I sort of took a breath when I realized this was the whatever happened to Baby Jane year, where Joan Crawford was busy, you know, running all around, trying to get people to vote for anybody but Betty Davis. And also trying to tell everyone else who was nominated, she would accept their award if they won. Yes. Oh, yeah. The 70s were still very much in the era of anybody can accept your award if you're not there. And the 1970 Oscars, which we'll get into shortly. We'll talk about it for the ceremony. Definitely took advantage of that. So Patty Duke won for the miracle worker that year, where she was quite young. Lost to, this was sort of the, because Mary Baddham for To Kill a Mockingbird is also the kid, right? From To Kill a Mockingbird. Shirley Knight for Sweet Bird of Youth. Oh, right, this was the Bird, Bird, Bird. This is the Bird, Bird, Bird. This is. to kill a mockingbird, sweet bird of youth, and then Thelma Ritter for Birdman of Alcatraz.

It's also how I remember the nominees from 1987, because it's Olympia Dukakis, and then is it four women named Anne, or it's three? And Southern, and Archer, Anne Ramsey, and then. I think it's three. And then maybe like Norma Alejandro or something like that, but no, who would it have been, 87? broadcast news broadcast news no no no no no i don't know we'll figure it out but yeah it's three ands that year it makes it easy to remember those ones um but uh

i've definitely seen the miracle worker i've definitely seen to kill a mockingbird i have not seen either sweet bird of youth or birdman of alcatraz sweet bird of youth is good shirley knight is good too i mean i love shirley night from like other things so that's one of the Geraldine Page nominations, too. And Geraldine Page is so good in that movie. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Um, so Angela Lansberry, three-time Oscar nominee comes into this movie. So there's the degree of prestige there. Hal Prince by this point has won a fuckload of Tonys already for a pajama game and damn Yankees and funny thing happened the way on the forum and Fiddler and Fiorello. And I, I'm not quite sure how much that would have played into Oscar buzz back then. I think now, I think there's a degree of prestige. If like a six-time Tony winner was making his first movie, I think there would at least be some degree of hype around that.

I mean, well-making movies kind of made buzz for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally, absolutely. Lansbury alone kind of makes the case on how, you know, she's top build in this movie that she's not really in that much of the first hour. Right, right. So she gets the Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress

in a Musical or Comedy, correct category for this, loses to Carrie Snodgrass for Diary of a Madhouse wife that isn't, I desperately tried to watch that, but it's not even available on YouTube. It's available in parts, but not all the parts are available, so

you can't watch it, which is too bad. If I had a little bit more time. I might have been able to try and track down a DVD. I only know her as, like, a frequent guest star on TV shows. Like, she's one of those people who it's like, oh, her. Like, I saw her, you know, pop up in a TV show here or there. But, like, I don't really know her much as famous because of this movie. And she really kind of backed away intentionally because she didn't want to be famous. Interesting. She pointedly, she's one of the many that don't go to the Oscars this year.

Yeah. She apparently, because of course, are, you know, indispensable couldn't be doing this miniseries without Inside Oscar. Inside Oscar says that she's quoted as, she only went to the Golden Globes because she thought that she had to. Well, and she won. Maybe they told her. You've got to show up because you're winning. The plot of that movie, it's her and Richard Benjamin are married. She unhappily. And he's very, very. sort of like benignly awful to her just from like watching the trailer he's like like joking to the kids about how like your mother can't make a four minute egg or something like that and all this sort of stuff um and so i think it's one of these like you know the woman can't take it and she

breaks free and she breaks out by having an affair seemingly with frank langela which i sent you that photo of frank langella and his shag haircut uh straight out of the Florence Henderson collection and, um, looking quite jaunty. But so I imagine this was sort of a, you know, the, the women's lib sort of mood of the nation around then was beginning to filter into movies and, um, is Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman a reference to Diary of a Mad Housewife? I would imagine so. I would think yes. Wow.

Yeah, right? Like, again, it would seem similar to my Alan Bates thing. I'm like, oh, all right. You know, another piece of the puzzle falls into place. The photo you did send a Franklin Jello with hair. I mean, truly hadn't seen the man with hair before. It does conceivably look like a unit. Yeah, maybe he just went bald very, very early, and he was, like, cycling through wigs.

He's the one who has, like, all those crazy sex stories in his memoir, right? Was this the look that was getting him all that? Very possibly. Very, very possibly. I've never seen Darling Lily. This is the Julie Andrews, Blake Edwards, one of the many Julie Andrews Blake Edwards movies. She was nominated for that. She was also nominated for the Oscar for that, yes? No. No, she wasn't. Okay. And then other nominees besides Julie were Sandy Dennis in The Out of Towners. And then Barbara Streisand in The Owl and the Pussy Cat. Chris File, what does Barbara say about the owl and the pussycat in her? I don't think Alan the Pussy Cat shows up much in the memoir understandably so because you watch that movie and it's not very good

she's fine in it Sandy Dennis and out of towners though I don't like the out of towners but Sandy Dennis who I adore is very funny in that movie Is Alan the Pussy Cat the one that was going viral recently because Barbara Storms and starts calling that guy a faggot

a ton of times? Is that true? Yes yes Oh, fantastic. Is this George Segal, I imagine? Yes. Fantastic. We're doing a different... She plays a sex worker in that movie.

She ends up, like, crashing in his apartment, and then it becomes a love story. What else was I watching? Oh, because we were doing prep for one of our other years, and auto playing after... I can't remember what it was. Oh, I had watched... um the fortune cookie and so right after the fortune cookie whatever i think it was also pluto tv shout out to pluto tv it auto played um uh uh your miladuce and which is two and a half fucking hours long it's such a long movie i like i literally at some point checked the time code

i'm like this has got to have like 25 minutes left and it's like you have an hour and a half left in your movie sir and i was just like okay um but that was another one where it was just like, man, like, Hooker with a Heart of Gold trope, like, didn't come from nothing. Like, they really love to make a movie about a... Sassy. Shipper prostitute. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. This miniseries will be 100% sponsored by Pluto TV, and now an ad for arthritis medication. Yeah. Chris Liker, have you seen Diary of a Mad Housewife at any point? I have not. That's what I was going on my list to see, but... It feels like, yeah, it feels like, yeah, it feels. it's one of those things where it's like if you are a completeist to try and see as many best actress nominees is that this is probably a tough one to find. For this, I think actress I've just seen Glenda and Miss Allie McGraw. Oh, okay. So we, Chris's file, get into like the story of the 90, or the 1970 Oscars,

and I'm going to load up and get ready to fire upon the bloated corpse of love story because I mean, if you, if you want to. to talk the big story of the 1970s Oscars. It's George C. Scott and his you know, not just his refusal to attend, but he's already

prior to Patton been outspoken about the Oscars being basically a horse and pony show or as he said, a two-hour meat parade. Meat parade was the phrase that sort of stuck in my head. Yes. You know, and

just very anti the awards the whole award circus. He doesn't even go to the New York film critics, even though Colleen Dewhurst's actress wife, when she accepts it, his award, she said that George says this is the only film award worth having. And it just kind of creates this atmosphere again of the Oscars being in this kind of transitional place

of these people who probably began their careers before the Oscars were even televised, let alone, you know, becoming what they were becoming at this point in the 60s and 70s. But you also have people like Dustin Hoffman being very outspoken about it, even though behind the scenes people were like, Dustin Hoffman's full of shit.

He absolutely wants an Oscar. Well, remember when like Joaquin Phoenix was doing the same thing where he was like, the Oscars are a sham? And, you know, it forces actors to be competitive with each other and yada, yad, yad, I hate it. And, like, he showed up to every one of those ceremonies, including, like, not just the Oscars. He was at the Golden Globes. Like, if you are that principled, I'm sorry, you're not showing up at the Golden Globes.

In the flip side, you got your Monique's who just, like, did nothing and won every single award. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. See? Well, and the same is true of George C. Scott, too. The, listen. Among the top tier of Oscar presenters, of course, is Goldie Hawn.

And we maybe on this show, because we constantly mock her weird pronunciation or delivery of 12 years of slave, her whole presentation leading up to giving George C. Scott his Oscar while he's not there. She does, like, a lick her lips and she's like, I can't wait as she's opening her envelope. This is very much loving era, or sorry, not loving, she's a laughing era of Goldie Hawn, where she's very much sort of like, you know, the ditsy blonde thing is, is, you know, her bread and butter. But she does the, like, I can't wait to find out. And then she sees the name and she just sort of like, her face sort of crumbles and she's like, oh my God, George C. Scott. And it's, it's very hammy in the best way.

But yeah, I like the fact that she acknowledges it. Like, we all know the story here. We all know how awkward it's going to be if George C. Scott wins and he wins. What I find especially interesting after the fact is, like, yeah, Patton was sort of the front runner for Best Picture, you know, rah-rah, you know, America, yada, yada, yada. America's in a time of transition. We are, we are, we just awarded Midnight Cowboy. We have to maybe like take a step back and do Patton. But like, watching Five Easy Pieces for the first time this weekend.

it's my favorite Jack Nicholson performance of all time. And, like, you... I love that. You feel that strongly about it. It's so good. And, like, I don't not like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but, like, I would much rather Nicholson of One for Five Easy Pieces than One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I think it's a much more complex performance.

And that was the big sort of, like, critical sort of darling of that year, too, right? In 1970? Yeah. It won a bunch at New York Film Critics. except for lead actor, obviously, that went to George C. Scott. Yeah. My takeaway from Five Easy Pieces, both times I've seen it as always all of the actresses in that movie. I mean, not to sound like, it's a movie about young male on we.

And here I am, the raging homosexual being like, but the actresses. Because they're all so good. They are all so good. I mean, Lois Smith should have been nominated with Karen Black. I love Lois Smith in this. I love a surprise Lois Smith, where all of a sudden it's just like, you're binding your own business watching a movie. The best surprise Lois Smith is East of Eden. Is East to be in like two scenes.

She's so good. Yep. Yep. Yep. You really don't expect her to show up in there at all. Yeah. Chris Schlecker, thoughts on the women of Five Easy Pieces. I weirdly is one of the ones I haven't seen.

Oh, I would, let me know once you do. I would really, particularly the Karen Black of it all, which feels like a character very tailor-made to appeal to contemporary gay men where it's just like what a mess what a mess this lady is but man she's not appreciated by the men in her life like that kind of thing but of those actresses Karen black is also very much in the Oscar mold of what's the character and the performance that they're going to respond to it's the one who's maybe on the brink of tears at all moments and is the mess but yeah and like Lois Smith who we talked about but I would also say Susan Ansbach who who is that I I've never...

Exactly, but she's great. She's so beguiling. She's like a perfect foil to Jack Nicholson, who's this like live wire, reinventing the whole art of acting. And then she's just so direct and plain spoken in a way that's so incredibly effective in the movie, I think. There's also the two sort of counterculture ladies that they pick up. One of whom is Tony Basil of Hey, Mickey, You're So Fine, Fame. She's the one who sort of speaks less. The other one is very, very much like giving Karen Black a hard time for being a waitress because you're like serving, you know, contemporary society or whatever.

It's not counterculture enough. They're on their way to Alaska, because Alaska's uncorrupted. And they're the other ones in the scene, the famous sort of chicken salad sandwich scene. It's those two on the other side of the booth from Nicholson and Karen Black. But she's sort of a trip, too, because when you, when they pick them up and she's sort of, of like pontificating in the backseat of this car, and everybody's just like, Jesus Christ, shut up. And Nicholson sort of doesn't have any time for her. And he ultimately, he tells her to shut up in the chicken salad sandwich scene or whatever. And then by the end of the movie, he's sort of like

internalized at least some of what she was saying, because he ends up going to, we think, Alaska by the end of that movie. So really, really good movie. I was glad I finally was able to watch it. Less of a good movie is Love Story, which was another Best Picture nominee that year. That had to have been like a big narrative going to the Oscars Love Story with such like a juggernaut in pop culture. It was a big financial hit.

It was like, yeah, it was a huge hit movie. And Ryan O'Neill will like do a parody of that line a couple years later in the Barbara Streisand movie. Oh, right. In What's Up Doc? In What's Up Doc? I never heard something so stupid in my life.

And what does he say? He says it's a stupid thing to say. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's really bad in love story. Everyone's bad in love story. Allie McGraw is also really bad. Allie McGraw's terrible. I sent you the 200 cigarettes scene. Brian is very nice to, is very handsome. He's like the epitome. He's like, that's why you cast him, right? You cast him as this like Ivy League golden boy, you know, Harvard, you know, Harvard Square with the, with the varsity jacket on. With the brown jacket with the shearling collar, quintessential. Yes. The movie starts. Also,

This is the thing I notice about a lot of these movies. Women in Love, I think, also. It's just like, the movie just starts. Sometimes in, like, seemingly in the middle of a scene, this one does. We're like, this movie starts. So does something for everyone. And they're in the middle of a scene where she's given him a hard time at the library, which I immediately am like, oh, Lisa Simpson in the flash forward from the Simpsons or whatever.

In the middle of her giving him a hard time at the library, she's already sort of started calling him preppy. there's no ramp up to either one of these characters. They just, like, are yelling at each other. And the movie, like, never takes it down a notch from that temperature, the entire movie. Even when they're falling in love, it's a lot of just, like, they're kind of shouting all their dialogue at each other. I'm not, I feel like, I imagine to make this much money, they must have charmed the American public. I kind of don't see how, because I find them both. One of those movies that gives people permission to cry in a way.

It's so, like, the score is so over the top that, like, it's trying to, like, is matching that the whole way. It's so aggressive, Chris. It's so aggressive, yeah. Your first, the first line is, like, what do you say about a girl who died? That she loved Mozart? Yeah. It's, like, so over the top that, like, I think you kind of just have to, like, let it roll over. You're like, I'm watching a different genre of thing here.

Yeah, yeah. Genuinely, one of the worst best picture nominees I have ever seen. It's, it's, like, yeah. tragedy porn. I also watched MASH this morning, which I'd never seen before. I didn't have time to re-watch MASH. That might be my teenager, yeah. MASH is very funny.

I think the thing, comparing MASH and Five Easy Pieces is they both are coming from the same sort of perspective, this sort of like counterculture perspective. I imagine it's those two movies sort of butted up against Patton and Airport as the sort of like old school movies. And then there's love story there for. you know, the, you know, wet-eyed among the voters or whatever. Well, both MASH and Five Easy Pieces, as you mentioned, as like the counterculture. Counterculture probably also going to be one of the buzzwords of at least the beginning of this miniseries.

One hundred percent. Both of them somewhat at a disadvantage because of the Academy rebounding from Bidnight Cowboy. From Midnight Cowboy. The thing about MASH, though, I think Five Easy Pieces wears that counterculture better now from a decades later perspective. I think MASH is a lot more sort of in your face about the way that they are sort of posturing against authority. It's also, I mean, I hate being this person. I genuinely feel like movies are of their time and, like, grain of salt. It really, really hates women that movie in a way that is not like a comment on, you know, anything in that way.

Like, they're having a lot of fun, um, doing some really awful things to Sally. Lewis Fertell is a big MASH skeptic. He's like, it's about watching soldiers, like, torture women and, like, say, I think it's, like, hilarious. I wouldn't necessarily disagree. I guess I should have rewatched it before. I'm like, well, maybe MASH is my winner, but I don't love this best picture lineup. I even have reservations about Five Easy Pieces just because. Sure.

It's my run away. So many movies like Five Easy Pieces since Five Easy Pieces. And Five Easy Pieces at least. has the benefit of being skeptical of its own protagonist. It is. It is. Yeah. In a really satisfying way.

In the end, I don't think it fully is, but... But you saw Airport, and I'm dying to hear your thoughts on Airport. Again, in my mind, not by any stretch a good best picture lineup. Maybe one of my worst opinions is that I had a great time watching Airport. Airport is terrible. I wouldn't begrudge you that. It sounds like a fun time. It looks bad.

Everything looks so fake and phony. And, like, Airport got shit for getting all of the nominations that it did. Like, even Burt Lancaster is like, this is the worst movie ever made. Why are we here? Helen Hayes, Helen the Scammer, what a fun performance. Did it need an Oscar? Probably not. But I had fun the entire time she's on screen.

basically what is the plot is it like mechanical failure is it like a terrorist what's what's happening to the plane there's like five disasters going on simultaneously it's uh you know there's a snowstorm at the airport there's a potential bomber helen hayes is scamming the airlines uh there's love affairs and like uh potential divorce going on. It's so antiquated, but in a way that I found very soothing and comforting for two hours and 20 minutes. And it's also kind of ushering in the area. The decade of the disaster movie. But the disaster movies getting like prestige and best picture nominations. Right.

Can you imagine like the day after tomorrow? being a Best Picture nominee in the 2000s, like that's kind of amazing. Well, day after tomorrow doesn't have enough famous people in it. It's just like airport is all famous people led by Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin. And it's very smooth brain.

I don't trust my own taste now that I say that I really enjoyed my time with it. But any, contract, we'll get into Towering Inferno when we do that year. but compared to Towering Inferno, which is, like, a full volume of a movie. Airport's at least silly. I like how fascinating we were by airports as, like, a sexy location back then.

Like, I finally saw the VIPs with, like, Liz Taylor. It's, like, all at an airport, and everyone's, like, so dressed up, and all the most dramatic things happen at an airport. Well, yeah, I mean, talk about, like, a signpost for where we've gone. Now we have literally just, like, the parts are flying on. off of our airplanes and, like, airports, even the good, even the nice ones are this sort of like, you know, antiseptic owed to fast capitalism where it's just like, what's going to get you in and out of the Hudson News at like the quickest sort of like flow of traffic possible?

What's going to like, like shoot you through the line at P.F. Chang's, you know, one stop fast food outlet, like quickest. And in airport, Lancaster has like a full sex office in this airport. Burt Lancaster, who his vague job is running the airport. He's like, Mr. Airport.

Couldn't make less sense. And then his secretary is Gene Seberg. Sure. Is it right that I'm reading here that Maureen Stapleton plays a character named Inez Guerrero? Here's the thing. Helen Hayes fully Judy Dench and Belfasted Maureen Stapleton, because

Maureen Stapleton won the Golden Globe. Oh, no, okay. Who hadn't had her Oscar yet. Right. Because that's not until Reds. But she has like the serious arc. She's the wife of the potential terrorist who has to reach out to Mr. Airport to say, I think my husband has a bomb.

And she's bereft and not giving the most more, you know, when you think of Maureen Stapleton, you think of Maureen Stapleton in like interiors where she's like, flighty and uh it's you know it's it's it's giving wife on the phone uh oh no but morin stapleton doesn't get nominated for it and helen hayes ends up winning kind of out of nowhere helen hayes sneaks onto the plane is that the deal or scams her way onto the plane helen hayes has been scamming the airline um basically and she basically is constantly scamming people the whole time they have to send her back on a plane she is

escapes from her, like, basically an airline cop that they, babysitter, that they give her with. Helen Hayes is a good goddamn time in this movie. Nice. Helen Hayes also, with this win, was the first actress to win in lead and supporting in the history of the Oscars. That's interesting. Can I read you an interesting tidbit about Helen Hayes that I'm just reading on her Wikipedia page? Helen Hayes delivered a seconding speech to George H.W. Bush's nomination during the roll call at the 1988 Republican National Convention. Helen!

I lied. Maureen Stapleton was nominated for airport, but totally just usurp by Helen Hayes. I'm trying to wait. It took so long for someone to win lead and supporting. And do you think it's because it was seen as like less than to be nominated for supporting? Like if you tried to nominate Catherine Hepburn for supporting, she would have like hit you with a golf club. she would have absolutely spit in your eye. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was very much like a different type of actress. You had genres of actresses. You had leading ladies. Well, it's like that, remember Chris when, did you ever see the clip of Rita Moreno when she won for the Ritz at the Tony's? And she's like, I am, well, Schleiker, you and I, when I first saw that movie, I remember texting you throughout it. And her Tony speech where she gets very indignant about winning for featured actress because she's not a featured actress. She's the leading lady. I am the leading actress of the Ritz. Yeah. And as my character

Gugi Gomez would say, I am the leading lady of the Ritz. I'm not a supporting actress. I mean, if it was up to Gugi Gomez, who is the character I play in the Ritz, she would say, Lising Honing. The only thing I support in that show

is my bids. The only thing I support in this show is my beads. It's my beads. Yeah. God bless. We'll be looping back to the speech on our episode on the Ritz coming this month. Yes. No surprise I own a Rita Moreno memoir, and I did flip to the part where she talks about regretting that speech. Oh, does she really?

That did not go over well. No. That's funny, and she never won a Tony again. All right. What else about the 1970 Oscars should we... I want to talk a little bit about, especially when we say that it's hard to do movies in this I think the big, you know, this had Oscar buzz movie probably for this year, like the top line one is one that won multiple Oscars, and that's Ryan's daughter, David Lean, follow up to Dr. Chavago. Have you seen this movie, Chris? I know one fact about it, and it haunts me, which is that Sarah Miles said she drank her own urine for 30 years.

Wait, what? Yeah, as like a health thing. As a health benefit or whatever? Yeah, I was like, just going around with it. What is Ryan's Star? It's a long movie, won these Oscars or whatever. And then it's like click on her page, go through. And now this is the one thing I think about when I hear Ryan's daughter.

Okay, here's what I'm just going to say. And like, at the risk of being controversial, Sarah Miles died at the age of 82. If I'm going to drink piss for the health benefits, I better live to be fucking 100. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to do that. Healthy. I'm not doing that shit for paltry ass 82. Like, get the fuck out of here.

Are you kidding me? Ryan's Daughter was a movie that was like critics hated, but it made it through. It was a Dr. Doolittle type of a thing where it's like big bloated, nobody liked it, but they had to nominate it essentially because the studio like had so much behind it. Well, and on top of that, you know, it ultimately did make money, but it didn't make Javago, Lawrence of Arabia money. It's an awful movie. It is a thoroughly terrible movie. John Mills's supporting actor performance, he plays someone on the audience. to some spectrum who is also nonverbal and it is wow when you watch it it is it's a retelling of

madam bovary i'm reading on the kind of yeah um but it's also it's also partly about the town and robert mitcham you know not wanting to have sex with sarah miles who's his wife who's much younger and it's it's as long as lawrence of arabia yeah it's super long and just holds maybe a fraction of that movie's interest. I watched the trailer, and the trailer is literally like David Lean's most sweeping epic ever, and it's like, we can't just say thing. You can't just say that after Lawrence of Arabia. Like, my God, Jesus Christ.

So, like, it is definitely the one going into this movie year with those type of definitely Oscar-y expectations. And it also got bad press because of how apparently aggressive the campaign was for it. And that aggressiveness included 20 ads in the trades. Literally, that's the number that is thrown out and inside Oscar. They paid for 20 ads to get Oscar nominations. That was too much. That was beyond the pal, 20 ads. Yes.

Wow. John Mills winning his Oscar, though. He is in an arm cap. I can't think of anybody else who won an Oscar with a broken bone. I'm trying to think if there was anybody, nothing that, nothing springs to mind. That'd be funny if somebody had like a walking boot on or whatever and just had to sort of like hobble up to the stage. We did almost have Jennifer Lawrence roller ankle during an ascent to the stage. That almost happened.

Jody Foster gave away an Oscar in a cast with Jennifer Lawrence. Oh, did she have a cast at that point? I thought she was on crutches. Oh, that's funny. That's interesting. Wasn't she on crutches for that? I am going to have to go back and watch that again, because I mostly remember just that, like, remembering that they're presenting together. Not because they were, that Jennifer was in The Beaver as directed by Jody Foster, but that was the fact that, like, jumped to my mind.

And I couldn't get that out of my head. And we had Liza in a wheelchair for well-coded. Lies in a wheelchair, yes. Well, that's the sort of the genre of like, you know, very old, you know, performers who are, you know, incapacitated in some way. Poor Kirk Douglas getting menaced by Melissa Leo when she won her Oscar. Or the thing is, was that the Globes of the Oscar with Zeta, where she was, like, doing a back and forth with him that was, like, a little flirty? Oh, I do kind of remember that. Yeah, he was having trouble speaking, and she was, like, post, I imagine even post-stroke, I can imagine Kirk Douglas sort of, like, chasing Catherine around the Douglas state.

Yeah. Sarah Miles also presented in a costume that she wore previously while playing Mary Queen of Scots. also James Earl Jones is currently at the time of this award ceremony while he is nominated performing Othello literally down the street and he shows up to present in the during the ceremony still in costume from that production Oh, that's interesting. Fashion is also at a transitional time for the Oscars.

Did I read in your research, Chris, that they did not allow Petula Clark to perform? No. So Robert Wise, a film director famously of like West Side Story, et cetera, he's the producer of this Oscar ceremony and because at the time the Oscars were considered getting competition from the Tonys. The Tonys were heavy competition for the Oscars. That tells you the point that the Oscar ceremony is at. Wow. Robert wise mandated that only movie names could present on the show. So any of the musical performances, they had to be performed by people who were famous for being in movies. So, like, the carpenters were the performers of one of the songs. For all we know. Yeah. Yeah, for all we know. And he

wouldn't let the carpenters perform on the Oscar ceremony because they weren't movie fans. They were music, people. They were music fans. Wow. Music people to get ratings. Like, Beyonce will sing three of the songs. Yes. Now exactly. That's exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I understand that like gatekeeping is bad and we've sort of settled upon that as a, as a truism in our culture. But part of me very much sort of longs for like bring back gatekeeping. Bring back TV actors versus movie actors. Like bring back this sort of sense of,

you know, there are movie stars. And if you are a movie star, you are not. lowering yourself to do any of these other, you know, chicken shit gigs and flip side. When you see a TV star like Chrissy Metz perform the song from a Christian movie about the kid who drowned, it's a weird

That's when you leave the room. Man, okay, Chris Schlecker, of the recent spate of bad Diane Warren Best Original Song nominees, what's your like bottom, like your, your worst three.

Okay. The one from the movie that basically didn't exist about like women, stand up. Stand up. Give yourself some applause. Yeah, applause, right. Appause, yeah. You did it, girl. EOC, I can't remember to save my life. Uh-huh. Yep. Yep.

And. Like, the Chrissy Metz one, I think you're on to something. Yeah. I did like the Cheetos song. I got to say. The Cheetos song was like in the top. tier of that last like stretch run of seven it's the best diane warren nomination since pearl harbor yeah yes also not so bad is the one that rita ora sang from um uh beyond the lights yeah yeah yeah not terrible that's at least passable song the rbg one is really bad that one that's another one that's like stand up parentheses sit down it's

stand up parentheses as you were um yeah yeah yeah uh please retire um and we're allegedly getting a diane song for a diane documentary right yes so i literally chris it's so funny that you bring that up so i was writing uh Nate Jones and I at Vulture tag teamed on a piece about like after the Oscars like where do we stand in terms of like who are the most overdue like now that like You know, Lily Gladstone has jumped up the list of, like, overdue actresses after this year, you know, read of Gerwig. You know, what is, what have the narratives become now? And so obviously on the list was Diane Warren. She has the documentary, there's a documentary about her that played South by Southwest. And so I was seeing conflicting, or not conflicting, but like imprecise reports that there wasn't an original song in it. And I'm like, well, that seems wrong. She would never. Diane Warren will not let that stand.

So I literally, 20 minutes in a tambourine, she'll have something for you. So I put in, I sort of put that in the thing. I was like, from what we're seeing from interviews, there isn't an original song.

And I put that note in the draft for my editor. And I'm like, that's what I'm seeing. But like, it's not like I can just like get Diane Warren on the phone. And she's like, here's the publicist's number for this, like get in touch with them.

And so I reached out. And they said that, yes, there is an original first of all they were like they were very insistent on finding out like what kind of piece that I was doing which I think feels like you know you're not writing a hit piece on Diane are you because she had just allegedly freaked out on the producers at the Oscars for not reading the names of the best original song nominees so like I think they were wary of bad press but we're like no it's just like this is literally like a stray mention and she's like yes there is an original song in the movie and it's performed by Kesha so I'm like well That is news, and I am very interested to see if the one that finally wins it for Diane Warren is the one performed by Kesha. Probably not, but, you know, we'll be interesting. Very interesting because she's been given, like, the Please Stop Honorary Oscar. Yes, and it has not deterred her one big.

Because Diane knows, as we all do, that honorary Oscars do not count as much as competitive Oscars. So, Diane gets it. For as much as Diane is a nightmare, Diane also gets it. I love seeing people who really want it. I hate people who pretend like, my pet peeve, people being like, I didn't even know nominations were this morning. And so, well, then you have a bad agent because, like, you definitely should know. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I like, I woke up to all these messages on my phone congratulating me.

I'm like, you're a liar or you're a psychopath, like one of the two. No, it's the one thing that's endearing to me about this current iteration of Bradley Cooper is how much he wants it. It's the only thing that currently I'm holding on to with Bradley right now. Everything else seems very annoying. People quickly forgot the narrative with Starsborn was that he wasn't campaigning very hard. Right. Right. Yeah.

Because how could you with Gaga there? Like, you got to make your question. That one piece that was right before the movie opened and then he did no press. Well. That one piece that did not go well. And that was, well, it's so funny because the narrative both times, the narrative then was he doesn't want to do press, because he doesn't want anything to come out about his personal life. And in this one, he's doing so much press,

but it's frustrating because he won't talk about his personal life. I got naked with my dad. Sometimes you don't love your kid. That was very funny. Sometimes. I just can't imagine, like, the best, it wasn't just like that. It was just like, no, but like, it's not that. But it's like, if I imagine that, like, somebody invaded my home and was like,

had a gun, I just don't think I'd, like, jump in front of the kid to, like, save her. And it's just like Brad. Yeah, it went a bit. Crying about how much he missed Leonard Bernstein in front of Leonard Bernstein's living children. Who also all seemed very annoying. Anyway, I just want to get, before we close the door on the 1970 Oscar ceremony,

I just want to give a list of the people who didn't show. It's not just George St. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Give the no shows. Uh, this is winners and nominees, basically. Glenda Jackson Winner Winner

She said she couldn't afford a plane ticket And they The United Artists wouldn't pay For her plane ticket Yes But wait it was There was somebody who accepted On her behalf

It was Fuck Oh you wrote this in here Someone from Passions Oh yeah Juliet Mills Juliet Mills who played Tabitha The Witch on Passions

Yes Accepted on her behalf It reminds me of when what's her face from designing women accepted somebody's Oscar. The woman who played Bernice on Designing Women, Alice Ghostly, accepted shit, I'm going to forget it now, but accepted somebody's Oscar. I don't know if I want to bring back those days and encourage people to not show up, but the creative use of proxies to accept Oscars is a real interesting rabbit hole to go down.

I also will never forget in California suite. Wait, wait, wait, wait, what are you saying, Schlecker? I'll never forget in California Suite, Maggie Smith's character being like, Glenda Jackson's nominated every year, and she never shows up. Speaking of actresses, barking the F slur in movie. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Did anybody want, I thought we were going to talk about best actress and Glenda Jackson's win.

I think that that's a pretty... Sometimes the Oscars will let you know they do have good taste sometimes. It's good taste. She's very good in it, but I like... It's a weird... I don't know. It's a bizarre, like, sexual film that I'm like, ooh.

I'm glad that we have a best actress winner who played a character named Gudrun, where, you know, we finally... That box can be checked. I'm glad we have a best actress winner who intimidatingly dances with bulls. Yeah.

I'm also kind of surprised if they loved Love Story that much. I am kind of surprised that Allie McGraw didn't win. Because, like... I'll respect to Allie McGraw, but we dodged that bullet. We did dodge that bullet. But, like, narrative-wise, it just, like, there's something amiss there, where I'm just, like, you know, what was all this fuss about with Love Story if you were going to give the... you know, artsy

Bacchanalian, you know, bob-cutted British lady, the Oscar, who's, like, really a supporting performance over your big, loud, weepy, and she dies, you know, character.

In this movie, you all seem to love so much, so. I also did not attend, previously mentioned Carrie Snodgrass nominated in the same category. Orson Wells who got an honorary Oscar did not show Helen Hayes didn't show. She was performing Long Day's Journey and Tonight at quote unquote Catholic University.

Here's my thing. They just always have a production of Long Day's Journey and Tonight going at Catholic University. Here's my thing. If you're getting an honorary Oscar and you're not going to be there, then you don't get the honorary Oscar. Then you'll get it the year that you decide to show up and get it. If you're alive and able-bodied and are able to travel and you don't show up. up, then, okay, we'll punt it to next year, friend. Like, sorry, Orson.

Ingmar Bergman, he was working. Franklin Chase Schaffner, also working. Francis Ford Coppola, not only working, but filming The Godfather. We'll get into it soon. And also, the Beatles. What was Francis Ford Coppola nominated for? Francis Ford Coppola was he had the screenplay for Patton. Oh, right.

He won. Which won? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will say, I do think Patton's pretty solid. Patton I saw in school. It's solid. Yeah, it is. I did save it for when I was working through all the best picture winners.

It was the final one I saw. So I have a soft spot for like, ah, yes, it's all. A completion. Accomplishment. Very good. Patton is interesting in the scope of it. It's just like George C. Scott was so beloved for that. movie, even though he hated the movie and didn't like his own performance, but truly kind of a

performance elevating a movie to a Best Picture win and several Oscar wins. So it's like that, you know, that was a hit movie, but partly a hit movie on the back of George C. Scott's performance and the popularity of it. But also just a weird, you know, time in the culture with Vietnam going on, it kind of was a soft play down the middle because the URA America people could get behind it, but also because, you know, they promoted it as Patton as kind of a rebel to the establishment. It appealed to the anti-war movement as well. The previous year they've gone so conservative with John Wayne, like, they were going for some. Right. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I also mention we, I know it's been several minutes since we mentioned lovers and other

strangers. But the one thing I had forgotten to mention is that, and, you know, this is a screenplay nominee. One of the writers of that movie was Renee Taylor, aka Fran's mom and the nanny. Oh. Tidbit. Yeah, one of three writers on lovers and other strangers. All right, do we want to go back to something for everyone before we close up shop? Any... I think we should discuss we just said early on, like, who wins? Because the ending is so, like, oh, yes. So, right, the, the idea is that

Angela Lansbury wants to marry Michael York, because, like, who the hell else is there in this little umpapa town where everybody dresses up to, you know, go to the beer hall. And then rubs her daughter's nose in it

while this is all, happening too, which is probably her worst mistake. The son, who initially, you imagine, is going to, like, go off the deep end because his lover is marrying his mom, which haven't we all been there, ultimately feels like he's made his peace with it. And I wonder if he's just like, listen, every other time somebody married someone kooky, I still got to keep fucking this guy. So, like, I don't see any reason why this is going to stop now. He gives him a soft pitch, like, how are you going to live as, like, a gay guy? Like, this will actually make things easier.

Right, exactly. At least he'll be in the house all the time. So that's fine. And then Lottie, Lata follows Michael York into his bedroom. And you think she's going to like pounce on him or something and finally like be the final person in her family to have sex with him. But no, she's got she she she's like a housewife at a reunion where all of a sudden she like brings out the like binder full of like, like printed out text messages and whatnot, where she's like, here's all the receipts I got on you. I was peering. No, I know the waitress at the beer hall, so she knows that you walked off with the footman when he was drunk and, and, you know, died in front of the train. I was peering, peeping at you fucking my brother. She, whatever, like, all this stuff she knows about that. She knows she's figured the whole thing out with Annalise. And that that was a sham thing.

She's figured out that he, you know, suspiciously survived the accident, which, by the way, good dexterity on Michael York's part for getting out of that car. Like, that's not, that's not easy. So she's figured it all out and she's put it in this safety deposit box. And if anything happens to her, she'll, you know, someone will unlock it. So he's fucked. And you wonder what, you know, will happen. And then they cut to, again, I feel like a plausible. funeral procession where the music's all cut out and everybody's there and you're following the car

and you're like, wow, that's bold of him to kill her even though she said that, you know, he'd be fucked if she did. But no, the wedding is going on as seemingly scheduled because there's Angela Lansbury. And I literally had the thought of like, that dress is a little mother of the bride, hon. But we did see her design it and be like, no, it needs to be cut off here. She literally drew the line where she said cut it off at the knee. So I was like, so I was literally being like this dumb faggot, like, you know, criticizing her. Just be like, honey, that's ugly. I don't know, man.

And no, lo and behold, she was pretty mother of the bride because the bride turns out to be Lata in her glasses because I imagine contact lenses. Contact lenses existed in the 1950s, right? When did they invent contact lenses, I wonder. I mean, contact lenses were probably full glass at that time. They were made of wood. Yeah. And you had to attach into her eyeballs.

No, but like, it's just the sight of her in this, like, you know, when you like want to make fun of somebody in a movie in a wedding dress, you just like up the volume on the dress so much that they just look like they're like in the middle of a sort of like cheap drugstore lufa thing? Like that's sort of the look for her. And then the glasses peering out. But she married him. And so, okay, yeah, who has won in this situation? is the SAT question I'm posing you guys in this scenario. Who has won? Like, they're positing a sort of joke way, like the least of them all, the grossest one has won, but like, Michael York is such like a psychopath. He's going to find a way out of this, I feel like, we've seen

in trickier spots. Well, also, she does mention, maybe I'm a little bit too devious for my own good. When she mentions, like, in the event of my death, this box will be opened. And it's like, you didn't say anything in the event of your, like, long-term disappearance. Like, maybe just like, you're going to go on vacation to fucking Brussels and never return or something like that. You didn't say anything about Michael York fucking the person that you gave that box to. Also that.

I thought maybe that was going to happen but he says like specifically this person is the one who has, like that was a real bad thing to tell of him. The box is in possession of some person somewhere on the globe. The box is in possession of Josh S.

And at first National Bank, it's like, okay, we got this guy. got him. Um, that's a smart thing. But also, it's like, if the prize is to, like, live in the house and enjoy the spoils of the money and fuck the haughty down the hall, we're, we're doing all of it, right? It doesn't matter. He didn't want to marry Angela Lansbury anymore. You know what I mean? Like, maybe, like, marginally more. It almost felt like he'd won from the second. Remember when he, like, lights one million candles and it's just, like, sitting there like, ah, what a beautiful They were all gone for the weekend, and what did he do?

That was his version of murder on the dance floor, is he just put on, he lit all of the candles. This is very, okay, so watching this in the wake of saltburn, I was, it literally was that thing of just like, person who's only ever seen saltburn and you watch another movie and you're like, this is giving me, it's giving me saltburn vibes. But it really, like, tracking the, the advancement of from then to now, it's like, Now we have to add this element of class strife. And, like, I don't know, Schlecker, I don't know how you feel about Saltburn. Sorry that I'm calling you Schleiker, like, you're on my softball team, but, like, it's just easier. There's two Chris's. Um, I, I enjoyed Saltburn for all it's trashy.

I know a lot of people, like, really hated it. I don't understand the huge vitriol online. Like, I really enjoyed it. I think the ending's a little, like, Pat and like, uh... Yeah, the, the unraveling of the plot is silly and dumb, and it's sort of, like, it makes me wonder what movie they all thought we were watching. But I feel like people were criticizing, like, Emerald knows this is crazy, guys. She knows it's maxed out. Like, it's not like you're catching her in that. Right.

Right. Okay. I'm glad you feel that way because, like, it was getting to the point where, like, so many people were being like, this movie is trash. Like, don't talk to me about Salt Burn because that movie is the worst. And it's like, I don't know, guys. Like, I was kind of living. So, um, yeah.

Once again, my favorite genre of movie, Ripley, this, someone infiltrates a family, fucks everything. Have you started watching the Ripley show, the Andrew Scott Ripley show? I've watched the first episode, and I like it, it's very different from the movie that I love deeply. So is it telling the story of the talented Mr. Ripley? Because I know that that character goes on after the... He's being sent to go find Dickie and Italy is like the same thing. Oh, interesting. Okay.

I haven't started watching it, but like a lot of people seem to really like it and, like, people whose opinions I respect. I'm digging. So I'm going to have to jump into that. I also might have to watch this Colin Farrell show, because now I'm hearing that, like, there's this, like, big twist, and I'm like, fine, I'll go watch it and find out what the big twist is. But I guess the comparison to Saltburn at the end is we need, like, him to win as, like, a class thing, even though he's, like, middle class, whereas, like, this one, like, the rich girl kind of has the power in the end. And that was the sort of thing about watching saltburn. And I was like, it feels like we're being a little too overdetermined about making sure that we are aligned correctly along the lines of like the right person is winning for, you know, class, like correct class reasons. And I think that's what a lot of people sort of have problems with Emerald Fennell.

Like they really don't like the idea of this like privileged person writing the story. But it's just like at some point, like, we're, you know. we're coming from where we're coming from. But something for everyone seems a little bit less, it's less encumbered with that, but it's also like it's kind of empty-headed about it, where it's just sort of like vague about the whole thing, about just like,

so what kind of message are we getting out of this? And just like, I don't know, like, oops, the awful girl got, you know, what she wanted in the end? Like, okay, like, isn't that a gag? Sure. Yeah, it's like weird comedy ending. It's not about it. Maybe that's just like a romp, but like, it didn't, like, pretend to be about anything other than, like, this interesting thing that, like, the aristocracy was getting hollowed out in Europe, like.

I could have done with maybe a little more, a few more tendrils from the rest of the aristocracy. Like, who are these other people at this garden party, these awful people? Like, what's their social circle? They made such a big deal about the Plishkes being awful Nouveau-Riche sort of, like, you know, uncultured or whatever. They had a good time of, like, That awful woman who, Angela Lansbury calls a silly old bitch, the way she sort of like yells at the mom, at Annalisa's mom, when she like approaches the table or whatever, I was like, oh, okay, we could do a lot more with this sort of class of post-war, we are going to sort of try and recapture the, you know, Germanic aristocracy without, and that's where you could like bring your, you know, Nazi subtext back into it or whatever. Gave Angela that one sort of monologue about, like, the indignity of her, like, husband had, like, cried in her arms about, like, everything falling apart. Yeah, that's, yes, yeah.

I don't love Angela's character in this. I feel like there's a vagueness to that character that I think hurts the movie. Well, by nature of it being her in the role, you expect something bigger than what we're ultimately given. So it's like, why is Angela Lansbury, two Tony's in, three Oscars? nominations in in this role. Right. You thought she was going to catch on to him or something, be smarter than she was, but she does.

Right, that it would turn into some, like, kind of a cat and mouse or something. Like, she just doesn't have a ton of, she's not very dynamic. She doesn't have a ton of stuff to do beyond just sort of like the little digs and barbs at her daughter, which, God love him. And then ultimately sort of like taking Michael York to bed,

which... nice work if you can get it but um yeah there's just not a ton to that character in the musical version she would have fun songs and you would like see this is it this is it right right that's why hell next time was like i'll be damned if i don't make this a musical even if it is elizabeth taylor who can't sing and um yeah alas all right um chris file anything else we want to mention before. Oh, Michael York had played Tybalt in the 1968, Zeparelli, Romeo, and Juliet.

I had completely forgotten that until I had done this little research. He's so British that I think he sounds foreign sometimes. He kind of does. Like how Swedish people sound like British people?

I mentioned the castle. Wait, let me go through my notes and make sure I'm not forgetting anything. The turban on Angela. Oh, the daughter eating that comically huge piece of bread the first time we see her where they're in the dining room or whatever. And she's got this like half a baguette just in her hand, just like chowing down on it. Very funny. The castle had been used. Oh, the castle, not only the inspiration

for Sleeping Beauty, it had been, it was also that castle's like right on the border of Germany and Austria, which is kind of funny because it's set in Austria, but they filmed in Germany. I think it's a stronger story if it's in Germany. Like, I don't understand the point of making it technically austria especially because it's not based on anything else i don't know um but it's used in chitty chitty bang bang the great escape and space balls so it's the it's the stand-in for druidia in space balls which is fun um oh claus like the boys let the boys have their fun Klaus and his Nazi memorabilia Oh, the pan to the dogs while they fuck

While Michael York and Annalise have sex Is very funny Angela Lansberry is one line that I really liked I wrote down When he gives her, Michael York tells her the plan To marry off helmet to Annalise And she says, Shameless, outrageous and utterly immoral And then she just pauses

and she says, is she really pretty? Good line, Angela. The castles... I said this is this movie's bathtub-com scene, but it's more of the murder-on-the-dance-floor scene, I've decided. Okay, the crash of the Plushki family over the ridge, and then that...

One take to get that shot, and that car just kind of slides down the hill. And then the smash cut... to the three graves. Yeah. Which also feels like a thing. If Emerald Fennell didn't watch this movie, she should now and, like, talk about it.

Because, like, there's a few things that salt burns sort of takes it. But that smash cut to the three graves was very funny. Come on Angela Lansbury side, boob. Oh, the one line that Lata says, Who else in Ornstein can boast of so sexy a stepfather? Creephers. She also later says, like, ooh, your legs are so nice. I remember my father's legs were, like, skinny.

It's like, you're so horny for your own family. It's such a creep. She's such a creep. I love it. All right. All right, Chris, do we want to play the IMDB game? Let's do it. Every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game,

where we challenge each other with an actor or actress to try to guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are television, voice-only performances, or non-acting credits, will mention that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release ears as a clue, and if that's not enough, it just becomes a free-for-all of hints. That's the IMDB. That is the IMDB game. So, Chris Schleiker, as our guest, you will get the privilege of deciding whether you want to go first or last, and in which direction you'll be sending the clue, whether to Chris or to me.

Okay, I'll go last. Okay. So who would you like to get a clue from? I'll get a clue from you. Okay, so Chris's file, you will give to me. I'll give to Chris Liker, and he'll give it to you. Okay. All right, so who do you got for me?

Oh, I'm giving to you? Yes. Okay, so from the lineup of the Golden Globe nominations, which Angela Lansbury was nominated for something for everyone, among them is Julie Andrews. I have chosen for you, Julie Andrews. Okay, Julie Andrews. I imagine Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music are both there.

Both correct. Okay. The question to me is, does the Princess Diaries show up on this? And I'm going to say yes, the Princess Diaries. Correct. We've been trying to hype up getting a perfect score soon. If you get a perfect score at the beginning of the May miniseries. I know.

It's setting it off on a really nice note. So now it's do I guess the other Princess Diaries movie, or do I guess something like Victor Victoria or I guess that's the only other sort of like major one? She was Oscar nominated for that. They do often reward that. I'm going to say Victor Victoria. Perfect score. Julie Andrews. Very good. All right.

We did it. We made it happen. We made it happen. Good start. been so mad if I had said a royal engagement. It would have been wrong. Okay. Good. All right. So, Chris Schlecker, for you, I went down the road. I just clicked on to Angela Lansbury and went, clicked on to Murder She Wrote, and just sort of scrolled down

the list of guest stars on Murderish Rote all through the years. I'll give you a choice because I can't choose between these two. Would you like to guess Elliot Gould or Beth Grant? I'll do Beth Grant. I used to work with her. Did you really? And what? Mindy, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I adore Beth Grant. Oh, my God. All right. Well, this is even more perfect. I need to see whatever episode she was on murder she wrote. Yeah, yeah, look it up. Okay, so Beth Grant, all of these are films, no television. Okay.

Beth Grant has been in several best picture winners. So I think someone might show up. But I think she's her most famous line in movies in Donnie Darko, probably. Correct. Donnie Darko is one of them. of them. Yes. Okay. She's in, I'm not guessing as yet. She's in the artist. She's in Rain Man and she's in No Country for Old Men, I think. Maybe it's the third best picture nominee she's in. I'm going to guess all three of those. Okay. So you said what,

Rain Man? The artist and no country for old men. No country for old men is correct. The other two are wrong. So I'll give you the years for the other two. Ninety-94 and 2006. What were you in? She's so funny, such a cool person. I wrote for Vulture a couple years ago, they did their character actors week, and I wrote the blurb on Beth Grant, and that's why I looked up all of her credits. I'd not remember that she was in Rain Man until I did that. And then after it published, she wrote this really sweet thing on Twitter about how much, you know, it meant to her and how nice it was. So she seems like a lovely person.

She's a little hard to guess because I can truly backwards make up part for her in any movie. Does she show up in, like, Forrest Gump? Not in Forrest Gump. At least that's not the known for. Let me see if she's in that. I kind of don't think so. But, like, yeah, you're right. You can almost, like, insert her in anything.

But, yeah, it's not the, that's not the 1994 on her known for. Oh, weirdly, her murder she wrote episode was in 19. She's not in Forrest Gump. What's that? The other one was O6, yes. 06. Oh. So it's a Best Picture nominee.

Yeah, one of these is the Best Picture nominee. Okay. One of these, I think, won an Oscar for like a below the line category. Both of these movies have two Oscars. There you go. Okay. So, in 94, we got four weddings in a funeral, I'm a picture. being because it's British.

Quiz show Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump and I went to name all of them. Shawshank. Is she in Shawshank? She's not in Shawshank. Hmm. Try the other year. The 94 has two below the line Oscars.

O6 has two above the line Oscars. Okay. So, oh six, we've got the departed, Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, letters from Iwo Jima and the Queen. Yes. Is she in Babbel? Not Babel.

The Departed? I'd love to see Beth Granted in a video movie. Little Miss Sunshine. Yes, she's the pageant. She's the pageant official in Little Miss. That makes so much sense. Yes. So the one from 1994, it did win two below the line Oscars. It's on TV all the time.

she has a small but very memorable part in it she has a death scene that is very memorable in 94 it went below the line Oscars Did it win what both sound Chris sound and sound effects editing Sound and sound effects oh speed Yes there you go speed

Love her in speed No she's great in speed how could I forget Should not have tried to get off that bus. Yeah, very good. Love Beth Grant. Absolutely love her. Okay. I've held that Oscar before.

Have you really? Yeah. My friend Jordan's stepdad did the sound for speed. Get out of here. You are all sorts of connected. That's fantastic. Wait, Jordan, who's in the learned league? Jordan Ardeno, yeah.

He keeps beating me in. He kicked my ass this past season. I'm going to come back. All right. So now you will quiz Chris's file. Okay. Chris on Chris. Someone who I want her to get more better roles and she's starting to get some good TV stuff, but Naomi Watts.

Oh. Our beloved Naomi Watts. Mohan Drive. Yeah. Okay. So I do think Naomi Watts has the potential to be someone who their Oscar nominations are not on their known for. Are any of these TV? They are all movies

Okay, good King Kong Yes Good guest Of the Oscar nominees I kind of I'll say The Impossible

Yes No Three for three Ooh I should be getting a perfect score On Naomi Watts Um Fine I'll just say I'll say 21 grams

No Not 21 grams It would be that Okay, so We just did Fair Game I don't think Fair Game is there I doubt that any of the movies that we did Because what else do we do for her for the miniseries

We did The Little Divorce We did Diana, we did The Painted Vale And The St. Vincent Oh, I do think St. Vincent is there I think it's St. Vincent No

Not so now I give you the year Yeah 2014 Okay, so this is after... Is this Vice? No. No, that's not 2014. Uh, 2014.

Who would... Who in the Bush administration would Naomi Watts have played in Vice? She would have played... She is in Vice. Wait, is she... She's like... That Shakespeare's here, right? She's like a TV person.

Oh, okay. This is around the time of St. Vincent, so what other... Oh, it's Birdman. It's Birdman. There you go. It's one of the... I don't want to forget that she was there, but she was. Yeah, she is kind of the...

I think she's good in Birdman, actually, but... I think everybody is kind of good in Birdman. I just... I like that movie. I know, that movie sort of rubs me the wrong way, but it's not bad. It's a good movie. We had a little bit of Cinematrix controversy when we had something where somebody was trying to argue that Birdman was the character name in the title, and I'm like...

Like, it works for, like, because we have it count for, like, Batman and Spider-Man to put those, but, like, he's the actor in that. Like, Birdman is within story. I know that movie sort of, like, blends those lines a little bit, but, like... But you do see him as Birdman talking to himself. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I wonder if he's credited. If you count that, you also have to count Batman and Robin.

Well, we do count Batman and Robin, is the thing. Like, if you have, like, a superhero alias that counts. But those usually are credited in the credits as, like, whatever, Bruce Wayne slash Batman. Whatever, whatever. I think we counted it for that person because we are generous. Chris Leaker, thank you so much. This was a really fantastic conversation. A great start to our 70s miniseries.

Listeners, we are only just beginning throughout this month, you are getting eight main feed episodes. and two Patreon episodes for a grand total of 10, one for every year in the 70s. Coming up next for 1971, Chris File, remind me. We're recording these out of order. So who do we have? Harold and Mod. Harold and Mod, of course.

We will have a tremendous guest for that one. Hey, Wals. Oh, we're announcing guests beforehand. That's right. Yes, Kate Walsh will be with us to talk about, Did I say Kate Walsh? Like Gray's Anatomy? We love both of them. Katie and Kate Walsh, the meeting that you've all been waiting for.

All right. Anyway, Chris Schleiker, where can our listeners find you? What are you doing these days? You know I adore every TV show you write for. So what's up? You can just find me right now on Instagram and Twitter at C-S-L-E-S-C-H-L-E-H-S-R-U-N. It was my AIM handle when I was a kid, and I stuck with it, and I regret it. Can I tell you, I'm only now hearing you say it out loud, putting it together, that that's what that is?

I never quite like, I'm a person who just like, will just gloss over my friends, like, it's just like, oh, I'm sure that means something. Okay. Seish likes around. I like it. All right. Thank you for that. Chris File. Where can the listeners find you?

You can find me on Twitter and Letterbox at Chris V File. That's F. E.I.L. I am on Twitter and Letterbox at Joe Reed. read-spelled, R-E-I-D. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork, Dave Gonzalez, and Gavin Muvius for their technical guidance. Please remember, oh, sorry, also Taylor Cole for his theme song. I forgot to write that down.

Please remember to rate, like, and review us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get podcasts. A five-star review in particular really helps us out with Apple Podcasts visibility. So take a break from your two-hour meat parade and write something nice about us. Two-hour. Why did I say that? I think he said it a quote. He called it a two-hour for me-parate.

George, tell me you don't watch the Oscars without telling me you don't watch the Oscars. That is all for this week, but we hope you'll be back next week for more Buzz. Not even next week. We hope you'll be back in, what, three days for more buzz? We'll be back soon. Yeah, soon. Bye. Thank you.