Talking Matthau: Hopscotch and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three with Joe Palmer

 In this episode, Joe Palmer joins the podcast.  He joins Marty and Clif for an episode of Walter Matthau movies with Hopscotch and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. 

 Joe Palmer joins Marty and Clif for a Walter Matthau-themed double feature, diving into Hopscotch and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. It’s Talking Matthau, a celebration of one of Hollywood’s sharpest, funniest, and most surprising leading men.

 The trio explores Matthau’s incredible range, from charming CIA agent to wisecracking transit cop, while unpacking what makes both films such perfect showcases of 1970s filmmaking.

 #TalkingPondo #WalterMatthau #Hopscotch #TheTakingOfPelhamOneTwoThree #MoviePodcast #FilmDiscussion #RobertShaw #SpyMovies #ClassicCinema #MovieReview #FilmNerds 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:01

You know, I knew that conductor guy was going to get shot when he started marching down there. You know, it's just like, oh dude.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

You can help me out. Ha ha ha ha. I don't want to help you out. How do I help you out?

SPEAKER_05 0:13

By dying. I spent the whole movie trying to guess who you know the undercover cop was. You know, because I'd seen it years before, but it was so I don't remember anything, so it was like a fresh viewing, so it was like, who is that guy?

SPEAKER_04 0:30

Welcome to season three of Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where Cliff and Marty give each other a film to watch and talk about them in detail. Some episodes will include a special guest.

SPEAKER_05 0:49

Walter Mathall drives a tractor to Wisconsin will not be seen this week, so we may bring you the following abduction.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

No, it's not the straight story, but it's a it's uh I like how you mix. Oh, okay. I see where you're getting that. Okay, alright. I like that. That's funny. Um well, right on. So back again. We're here.

SPEAKER_05 1:11

It finally happened, Talking Math Al. Talking Math Al. So we had a prototype of a Talking Kilmer episode a few months ago, but this is the first actual themed official two movies by the same actor on Talking Pondo, where we started with Mathal. And who knows, maybe one day there'll be a Talking Lemon. But for today, that would be great. Yeah, that would be great. Talking Math Al. And it's we're back. It's me, it's Cliff, it's I'm Marty, and we have our special guest for today. And uh, yeah, let's go ahead and bring him on. It's Joe Palmer. You may know him as the guy who sold Billy Shaw his badge and the love song of William H. Shaw. We know him because he works with Tuscon and helps us out with that every year. So welcome to the show, Joe. It's good to have you on board.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Yeah, this is fun.

SPEAKER_05 2:06

Remember doing a couple panels with you, and we were, you know, bullshitting about movies, and it just felt like, well, he'll be a natural to come on and talk about movies with us on the pod, because kind of what the panels are in a way, kind of like live podcasting.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

So yeah, in many ways.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Um, so yeah, so we got a couple good episodes, uh, or a couple good movies. I think this episode is probably gonna happen more than once, is my guess. Like this episode. Math out had some great movies. I was already plotting the next one. Yeah, I was looking at his whole uh filmography. I was like, ooh, that you like you, that one, that one, like he was in charade. He was in so many great movies. And um I looked up I looked up up a bit about him ahead of time, and apparently he uh uh you know born a uh a kid of immigrants, uh a Russian immigrant mother and a and a Jewish father, and he went to kind of Jewish camp when he was a kid, and then went to high school, and then when he got out, he he went into he went into he was in the war. Uh was in a bomber division in World War II as a uh radio man and a gunner. Uh and I think it was a B-25. Uh and then when he got out of the he just kind of got caught a bug, I guess, for theater. And when he got out, that's when he started his film career, which I found found interesting. He didn't really start filming things until kind of you know, he had, I don't know, he's in his mid-20s, late 20s or something like that. Um, and then of course does some theater and all this stuff and does, you know, gets wins two Tonies for Oscar Madison and then fucking you know, charade right away. And you know, he did a Western with fucking Mike uh Kirk Douglas, which I was just like, shit, I have got to see that. Mathow and Western? It just he seems like such an urban dude. Like I just can't imagine Mathow in a fucking Western.

SPEAKER_05 3:47

Yeah, the more I learn about him, the more I see how diverse he was. Because we grew up with the odd couple, so I saw him as the schlub. But then you go back and you're like, oh, he was kind of the ladies' man in some of these movies. Yeah, you go for it.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Very sophisticated and funny and charming. Like he's it did we'll get to it, but in in one of my notes with um is with Topscotch is this motherfucker is charming as shit. Like a charming fucking dude. Like, anyway.

SPEAKER_05 4:12

I do think these are the first Mathal films we've covered, right? Yeah. I I uh I think at all.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

I think at all. I don't think he's been in anything else that we've covered.

SPEAKER_05 4:23

Straight straight, strange and crazy, you would think it would have happened by now. But yes, we do have men or some shit. Yeah, we do have a piece of uh viewer mail to start with. We had two pieces. I don't know where the other one is. I'll find it, we'll do it next time. But this one is a little delayed. This is from the episode on Tar a few weeks ago. And uh Dylan J. Schlinder, you you know him, listeners, he wrote in and he said, I really enjoyed this episode. We got to talk about Tar on Reels of Justice, which is his podcast, and there's a lot to unpack. There is not a lot of overlap of my passions of debating movies and classical music, so we have to take them where we can find them. And then you wrote back to them and and told him, I really enjoyed it. Todd Field is a great filmmaker, so tough. Yes, tar is still making discussion there.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

That's nice. Um uh I would say I listened to that episode. Dylan did a really good job because I mean he was talking to a the guy who was prosecuting is a freaking conductor.

SPEAKER_05 5:25

Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

So it's like how you know, I mean, you're literally talking to a con you're arguing with a conductor about a movie about a fucking conductor, so you had better bring your A game. Oh nope, didn't do the research. Yeah, and I and I also kind of felt like maybe Dylan hobbled himself because like why play the conductor's game? Like, why get into the tall grass with him? You know, take a different route and maybe try a different tact with it and be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Maybe it isn't the most accurate conductor thing, but look at what it did, you know what I mean? But it was still a great episode. I highly recommend people listen to that episode.

SPEAKER_05 5:57

Check it out. It's a challenging movie, but it's it's it's worth a look.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

It's great. It's like Marty said, my favorite part about that movie is for the first 45 minutes, you you you stop and you go, is this a real fucking person? And you Google it. Because you're like, this is is this is about a real person, right? Just like today's movies, they could have been about real people, right? Hopscotch in particular, man, a CIA agent writing a book, a tell-all book about the CIA. Come on.

SPEAKER_05 6:22

So we got one movie about getting over, and the other one's about not getting over, right? Because I'm gonna get back at them. Oh okay, I'm gonna get back at them. Uh no, you're not. Which one should we start with?

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Let's let's have our guest pick since he's been he's been so quiet.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Let's put him on the spot. Let's go chronology. Start with with Pelham.

SPEAKER_05 6:47

Pelham, good call. The Taking of Pelham 123. Back when we did an episode on Assault on Precinct 13 a season or so ago for some reason. Well, it's funny. And it ties into some future episodes too, where uh I think Cliff got a copy of Taking of Pelham 123 the same week. He got a copy of Assault on Precinct 13, and he watched that movie. Correct. And so we went to do the the podcast. He was like, You're kidding me, right? No, we watched Pelham. And I'm like, we didn't watch Pelham, we watched Assaultham. And so I was like, you know what? Hold on to that. We will do that one. And then it became part of the talking master. And I dug up my old notes.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

I actually saved them and I dug them in the shredder. Good. No, but I but what I did was I made all new notes, and then I dug up my old notes. Maybe I'll just go through them and see if there's anything worth it.

SPEAKER_05 7:37

So what is this movie that's been remade not once, but twice? Twice? Yeah, there was a TV version of it. Yeah, I made for TV version.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Oh shit, I did not know that. Okay, so the taking of Pelham 123 from 1974, it's rated R. It's an hour and two oldest minutes. Yeah, it's uh it's a one-year-old one year younger than I am. So four armed men hijack a New York City subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. The city's police are faced with a conundrum. Even if it's paid, how could they get away? It's directed by Joseph Sargent. It's written by John Godey and Peter Stone, stars Walter Mathau, Robert Shaw, Malton Balsam, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo. It's a stunner of a cast.

SPEAKER_05 8:16

And the director did did he make Poseidon Adventure as well.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Let's see, that's Jose Joseph Sargent. He made Jaws the Revenge. Uh, let's see here. Going down his list. Give me just a sec.

SPEAKER_05 8:28

I think it might have been the director of the other film that made Poseidon, then the director of Hopscotch.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yeah, I think you might be right. He did he directed the Lassie TV series, Bonanza.

SPEAKER_05 8:39

Um it makes sense that he's a TV director because this has a Star Trek.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Yeah, he's he's got he it does have a TV feel to it. I agree. And he did a lot of TV movies, a ton of TV movies. Then he does Sunshine in 73, and then he gets taking of Pelham 123 in 74 and goes right back to TV movies.

SPEAKER_05 8:57

Um he made col he made the Forbin project, right? Correct. Okay, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Yeah. Um, and mainly just a TV movie director who got a shot at kind of a bigger film. Um I think it's a uh definitely a shot at a bigger film. But, anyways, your storyline. Let me get to your storyline real quick here. Um, your storyline, four seemingly unrelated men board a subway train, Pelham 123 at successive stations. Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Gray, Mr. Brown are the same.

SPEAKER_05 9:26

I'm not reviewing reservoir dogs.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

You're reading the wrong thing. Fucking beat me to it. I got that note. Same, are heavily armed and overpowered the motorman and novice conductor to take control of the train. Between stations, they separate the front car from the remainder of the train, setting passengers in the back cars and the motormen free. The four demand $1 million ransom with exactly one hour for the remaining 18 hostages, including the conductor. If their demands are not met in time or their directions are not followed precisely, they will begin to shoot hostages dead one every minute the money is late. Wise cracking Lieutenant Zach Garber of the Transit Police ends up being the primary communicator between the hijackers and the authorities, which includes transit operations, his own police force, the New York Police Department, and the unpopular and currently flu-ridden mayor who will make the ultimate decision of whether to pay the ransom. Unknown to Garber, what may be working on their side is the disparate nature of the four hijackers, including methodical and unbending blue, trigger happy gray, and also under the weather green, who may pass out before the whole paper is concluded. What Garber doesn't know is that there is a plain coased plain closed New York police department officer among the 18 hostages. What Garber has to try to figure out is how the four hijackers can possibly get away as they're in a tunnel and have to remain with the train since it is a has a dead man mechanism which requires a motorman at the controls at all times. It's a great storyline, probably one of the better ones I've seen, although it's a little wordy. But yeah, that's your movie, basically. Except for the end.

SPEAKER_05 10:53

A movie that's a primarily kind of like the cat from outer space, where it's just shots of people talking on microphones and phones to each other. They do a really good job of heightening tension and making you feel like what's really going on. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

That was one of my notes. I mean, this might be one of the most radio movies ever. Like actors are almost never in the same room.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yeah, yeah, you've got you've got um Mathow and Shaw screaming at each other over a you know, that they're never in the same room, but it's still fantastic. Well, up until the end. The very, very end.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Up until the very end.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

You gotta have them face each other at the very end of the movie.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Yeah. Well, of course, all those radios help set that up too. But always the radios between the various parts of the cops and calling the mayor, and it's like just I wonder like if they were actually doing the the proper thing of the actor who's not on camera being there. Or did they use this to be able to just slide it in making it right? Because I mean 70s guys, they just worked, right? This is one of three movies Mathown made in 73. So they might have just used that as leverage to Charlie Varrick and we got four weeks with Robert Shaw. All right, let's film Robert. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

That's oh that's an interesting take. I yeah, I do you do wonder because uh normally actors if if they can, they like to be off camera to help the other actor, right, give a good performance. That's that's considered that's considered to be good etiquette, good acting etiquette, right? So I wonder about that. Yeah, that's a good point. Um this is old New York. This is not like current New York. This is old, dirty, dangerous, exciting. Uh, you know, uh who knows what you're gonna run into around the corner type of New York, and I kind of miss it.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Like I kind of and the look too. That's my first note.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

This is that there's that mid-70s New York City, early 70s New York City. What are we talking about? That's what I'm talking about. Shaft and and French connection. Yes, exactly. Even the I don't know if it was the pollution in the air and what it did to the film stock, but there's this distinct look that you know immediately.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Everything's gray and drab and fucking you may die around any corner, there's no telling, you know. That's fucking great. Um, Elzondo, you right away in this movie, you can tell that Elzondo's gonna be a fucking problem. Oh yeah, wild card. Right away, you're just like, okay, there's your wild card, like licking the lips and harassing a woman while you're on the job. Yeah, like you don't have enough to do, like you're gonna be over here kind of, you know, it's like, uh-oh, this guy's this guy, you know. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_05 13:34

We'll see. So it would be you'd rob a stagecoach, but then they're robbing the subway train. So it felt like there was western elements in it in a way. Yeah. The guy did Bonanza episodes and stuff, right? Yeah. The director.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

Jerry Stillers just shows up in this motherfucker all of a sudden. Jerry Stiller.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Yeah. Well, it's so much disgust, right? I mean, it's it's the suspects from the 1970s, right? These guys are just in all the movies.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Fucking Baron Harkonin from Dune is in this motherfucker. He's the he's the captain of the police force. I mean, come on, dude.

SPEAKER_05 14:08

It's a Nexus film, too. You know, I knew that conductor guy was gonna get shot when he started marching down there. You know, it's just like, oh dude. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Hey, you know, you can help me out. I don't want to help you out. How do I help you out by dying?

SPEAKER_05 14:27

I spent the whole movie trying to guess who you know the undercover cop was, you know, because I'd seen it years before, but it was I don't remember anything, so it was like a fresh viewing. So it was like, who is that?

SPEAKER_02 14:37

What I what I absolutely adore about the undercover cop is that he didn't try to do some hero bullshit. You know what I mean, and get killed. Like they were smart about in the yeah, in the story, they were smart about like, no, he would stay quiet, keep low, and the you know, and then he jumps off the train at the last minute, of course, like an idiot and does a terrible job of it.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

But it but that's the type of thing you would expect rather than 52-foot or what 50-foot deade shot with the 22 caliber snub. That's that's a great shot. Yeah, it's very, very true.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Well, it's probably yeah, but but well, you know, even maybe it was a 38, who knows? But the point being, jumping off the jumping off the train and then damn near killing yourself is like yeah, come on, bro. You were so smart up until that point.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

Well, it makes me wonder if in the book there's more of an internal monologue of that character, perhaps, you know.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Nine minutes and 40 seconds in, we finally get Math Al.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Fuck yeah. Woo-hoo!

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Yeah, anyway. I'm a big fan of Math Al. I think he's one of my favorite actors, but um, right through here is our operations lieutenant Mr. Rico Patron, while on uh who on weekends works for the mafia. I fucking there are so many good one-liners that he's just throwing out throughout this movie while he's doing a killer job acting, he's just really crushing his part in this movie.

SPEAKER_05 15:56

I and all those guys actually speak English, and it's like, oh yeah, that's a great gag.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

That's a great gag. All the all the Japanese uh the Japanese uh people from the subway from Japan have come over to look at what New York's doing, and then of course they speak English. That's so great. And he's just making fun of what'd you get these monkeys out of here?

SPEAKER_03 16:14

And we know the way out.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

We know the way out. This this movie's so old that they're bitching about having to hire a woman. That's how old this movie is. Yeah, but they're bitching about see, we hire a woman and everything goes to shit a month. She should and this whole thing where it's he's like, Why are you putting your uh hand with your ring on it in the toilet? And she's like, It wasn't in the toilet. And it's like, dude, what? I don't want to talk about this. Can we move on? Anyway, uh, and again, in word with the hard R from Elizondo, like you're like, whoa, that's the 70s for you right there, bro. Yeah, uh yeah, early.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Yeah. Although interesting, also in the early 70s, there's actually a lot of black people in the cast. It's one of the things I notice when they go back. Very true. Very true.

SPEAKER_05 17:08

Oh, that's very true. More ways than one with the uh yeah, I like that Methouse got the wise cracks, but it's not a comedy.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Like it's you know, it's just but he's there to kind of he that's just his character, and calling a kidnapper an animal or a lunatic probably isn't great negotiating. Like, this is probably before they started giving them negotiating classes on how to hostile people, you know.

SPEAKER_05 17:37

Like so at different times, you know. Yeah, totally different. It wasn't gonna rile them up any further, you know. Yeah, it's like it reminds me of like how movies like Speed probably wouldn't exist without movies like this first, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah. Even though it all boils back to the Western, I think.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

He's got an English accent, could be a fruitcake. Like that's how old it's fucking movie.

SPEAKER_05 18:03

He's so buried in that part you almost don't even know that it's it's like, oh shit, that's Robert Shaw.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

It's so different from from Brusher with Love or Jaws, you know. Or Jaws, yeah, he's so good in this. I I really enjoyed his performance in this.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

See, of course, that voice of his, and Jaws is my favorite movie, and I've watched it, I don't know, 20 million times. So as soon as his voice is clicks, I'm there. And actually, late in the movie, like I actually broke out when they start moving the train, and he says steady, steady as she goes, exactly the same word. That's great. Does anybody say that better than Robert Shaw? I don't think so.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

So he probably made this right before Jaws? Is that correct in the timeline? Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Yeah, I think so. Jaws 76 or 77?

unknown 18:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:53

I thought it was 75. Well, either way, it's it's still bunched up pretty close around there, right? Yeah. Which means more than likely he shot this one first.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Yeah, 75 for sure, yeah. 75. So this is this is 74, so he goes from this to Jaws, but okay. Well, with some probably some little bit of work in between.

unknown 19:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

It's it's fucking Mrs. Archie Bunker. At one point, I just they just turned the camera in and fucking and the mayor's wife is fucking Mrs. Archie Bunker. You're just like, Edith, what the fuck are you doing in the mayor's office?

SPEAKER_03 19:26

And given the mayor's serious.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

I thought that was uh one of the Seinfeld parents. I think I'm pretty sure it was Mrs. Archie Bunker. Well, let's let's go to the IMDB.

SPEAKER_05 19:39

Let's see.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Let's go to the IMDB.

SPEAKER_05 19:41

I know we got very stiller, and I thought it was interesting that they had another person in the movie who was a Seinfeld parent. And I was wondering, hmm, did they know each other before this? Did they meet there? Oh, no, you're right. Doris Roberts. Yeah, no, you're very right.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Well, she sure looked like sure looked like Mrs.

SPEAKER_05 19:57

Well, it's that 70s look, it's the hair color, too, I think. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 20:02

Either way, that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Yeah, it's just neat, right? Um the movie keeps bubbling up star after star from the 70s. You know, it's just like new scene, boom, star, new scene, boom. You're just like, gee, it's just all the great character actors from the 70s and the 80s are in this fucking movie, it seems like.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

Yeah. One of the things I found interesting is it's not as a 70s-paced movie. Like, I mean, the hijacking happens, what, nine minutes in?

SPEAKER_06 20:34

Right.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

And really, the first minute and a half is black screen credits. So, really, you're looking eight minutes in. It's not really a 70s pacing. You know, they're usually more laconic and ease you into things. And this movie's like, nope. All right, let's start the hideous. Right, we haven't even seen Walter Math out yet, the star of the movie, and they've already gotten the train.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Nine minutes in, you get to the star, and everything's already happened. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's good, that's a good point. It it it it feels um uh faster and grittier, I think, because of that. Like it's super, it's a super to me gritty movie. It feels very re it feels very grounded in realism uh for the 70s. It feels like maybe something like this could have possibly happened or did happen, and they wrote a story about it, you know. Yeah, really, really uh I enjoyed this movie quite a bit, re watch rewatching it. I really did. Yeah, I watched it again, of course, with with the whole fiasco of Takey Pell Hum123 Assault on Precinct 13. I still went ahead and honored the process and rewatched it. And I probably enjoyed it even more the second time, to be completely honest.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

Yeah, yeah. Well, once you see it, it's so tightly wound all the all the beats. And one thing I did notice it it actually goes faster than real time. Like they they this it takes about forty five minutes to go through the hour. I wondered about that afterwards, and then I started taking notes, and there's one it's a time skip of about fifteen minutes. But other than that, it's it's keeping On the pace, which I always like when movies do that.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Yeah, yeah. If you say it's an like speed or something, if you're gonna, you know, if you say it's an hour, it's gotta be an hour. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:08

And I was like, 47 minutes, what's gonna happen then? We have more movies. And it's like, oh, now the second set of instructions happen.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

And that sneeze. The one thing about this movie that I was kind of like the second, the the first sneeze, I was like, hmm. And then the second one, I was like, oh, that's the giveaway. That's gonna be his tell.

SPEAKER_05 22:28

I thought he was gonna be connected to the mare because the mare was sick, right? Right. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

But no, I could tell by the second one, I'm like, oh, that's it's like it's like um it's like it's like Teddy KGB and fucking rounders eating the Oreos. Like, you know that. Okay, that's his tell. That's how you get busted. That's how you lose. Pay him his money.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

How lucky they were that the only survivor of the kidnappers was the hijackers, was the one they actually could track. Because the other three I would have just walked away. But well, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 23:00

That's very fucking true.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Yeah, they had absolutely nothing on any of the other guys.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Not fucking plot convenient. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's a whole YouTube channel about those kind of things, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:14

It's it's it it one of the things that I take away from this movie that in the early 70s, New Yorkers were a bunch of fucking smart mouths. Oh, yeah. Everybody in this fucking movie's got a smart ass mouth, got some smart comment to make, you know.

SPEAKER_03 23:26

Yeah, got some smart's Frank, the the train guy who's just like, I don't care. Let them kill the hostages, just get them the fuck off my train.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Yeah. Uh-huh. What do they expect for the 35 cents to live forever? Yeah, it's like, holy shit, bro. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Like my trains are backed up. Get it over with.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

God forbid. I'm so sorry. If I can't curse, how am I supposed to do this job? Yeah. This is the same. This is this is the same guy who plows his truck through like demonstrations that go onto the highway. He's just like, oh fuck, fuck you, I'm late for work, plunge. I'm going. I'm going. Fucking Martin Balsam from Mitchell is in this. I'm still dealing with that. That's uh we all saw him in On the Waterfront. That's right. That's right. Wow. But I'll he'll always be uh Nestretta. Nestretta or Gennano or Lozano, whichever one.

SPEAKER_05 24:24

I was just watching that last night, actually. Spotted Cuckoo Bird is flying backwards. And Jodon Baker is not in this movie, although he could have fit in.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

We do get an F-bomb an hour and two minutes in. I mean, other than that, I I I mean maybe the sh maybe the shooting. I can't I didn't I didn't pick up any others. I maybe I missed it.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

Yeah, we saved those for the other movie.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Yeah. But uh, you know, I I don't think of it. I can't really on this film, I can't think of much else that would give it an R.

SPEAKER_05 24:55

Yeah, just a little violence for the time or yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

Yeah, I don't know, but 1973 things were kind of loose. I guess probably just the violence.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

That's that's and I think the F-bomb, I think the cursing.

SPEAKER_05 25:06

Because there was no PG 13, so more than one F bomb is an R back then. So I probably missed the second one. Is the remake PG 13, the Denzel one? No, I just don't know about that shit.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

I never saw it. Hang on a second, let me look it up.

SPEAKER_05 25:22

And the TV one it's Vincent D'Nofrio and uh I forget who plays Math Al on that one. D'Anofrio? Well, that's a good choice.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

They say that one closer to the book. 2009. It's Travolta and Denzel. That's right. Rated R. That's R. Denzel likes to see. Oh shit. Written by Brian Helgeland. He wrote, you know, you know which movie he did. One of our early ones, um Night's Tale. Oh, really? Oh. Yeah, that's him. Damn, that's a big gap. Yeah. Well, he was he when he doesn't direct movies or make movies, he's writing them. He's he I think he wrote LA Confidential, if I'm not mistaken, and a couple others. He's Helgeland's uh he's quite a quite a great writer, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_05 26:08

Anyway, confidential from the director of losing it, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Yeah, he wrote Man on Fire, also. So Night's Tale, Payback, Man on Fire, Um, The Order.

SPEAKER_05 26:17

Those are why wasn't Denzel on the Knight's Tale? But anyways, I would fucking love to have seen Denzel in a Night's Tale.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Are you shitting me? That would have been amazing. Make Denzel the bad knight. I would have watched the shit out of that over and over. Sorry. Yeah, that would have been great. He also wrote Nightmare on Um Street 4. Oh, we want to hold that heart. Would that one have a script?

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Story and screenplay by is uh the claim is. Anyway, back back to Pell.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Um if my kids laughed at my kidnapper stutter, I'd smack the shit out of them too. Shut your fucking mouth. The fucking wrong dude. We want to play. You know, the kid, the this kidnappers all and the kids are all smack, smack, smack, shut up.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Shut up.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

You're gonna get you.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Idiot. I love the the smart criminal, smart cop chess game of this movie. Yeah, very smart criminal, very smart cop. It is a chess game. They're trying to outthink each other. And he does eventually, he figures it out. He's like, turn back around, they're not they're not fleeing, go back to the go back to the 17th station, that's where they are. Um it's yeah, I I like that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 27:35

Yeah, and it's a very clever plan. I in reading out I saw that what the New York Transit Authority made them change the dead man switch and how to get around it before they'd cooperate with the filming of the movie. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 27:48

That yeah, that makes a lot of sense, sure. Yeah. And the remakes in Toronto, right, or the TV one. So they're like, we're not even gonna bother with New York.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

New York Transit Authority, forget them. Yeah, the director was like, you know, smart criminals wouldn't do this, but nut jobs just might think this was a good idea. So yeah, yeah, we'll change it so how you beat a dead man switch is completely bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

This movie has that classic uh I've been shot roll around on the ground, you know, he shoots the the undercover cop and the guy rolls two fucking complete revolutions to the right and then dies.

SPEAKER_03 28:27

Yeah. It's like he's still alive.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Well, that's true, he's still alive. He just doesn't have any dialogue.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Yeah, yeah, he just runs out of things to say.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

And Walter Mathow telling you to drop a gun just doesn't sound right. Like that just doesn't I don't know why that's uh like the minute he goes, would you do me a favor and drop the gun? I'm like, no, no, yeah. I don't that doesn't I don't know why that doesn't sound very authoritative, but no.

SPEAKER_03 28:52

Yeah, but I mean he played into Walter Mattho's time, right? He's not an authoritarian kind of guy. He's the kind of guy who'd be nice anyway. He doesn't use bullets.

SPEAKER_05 29:01

Oh, that's the other movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

Did you did you notice the tie? This did you know that this movie has a uh a tie to Fandango? One of the movies that you hate. Did you notice that what was the connection to that? Fucking sleeping old lady. She sleeps through the whole movie and then wakes up at the end.

SPEAKER_05 29:16

Yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah, yeah. That's that never knew anything happened. I love her. This is the movie.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

That's Joe's spirit animal. Yeah. I'm just gonna sleep through the whole hijacking.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

Well, might as well. Yeah, there's so many great comedy beats in this movie, I think.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

One of the one of the things that I don't I think is is a weakness of this movie is dude gets off the subway. He knows that two, possibly three of the people that he did this job with have are dead, right? And he's got two or three hundred thousand dollars in his fucking pockets.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

Yeah, why go and goes to his apartment. Why go home?

SPEAKER_02 29:57

Yeah. Yeah. So go to the nearest train station or bus station, get a ticket. Even if they, even if they come and look for you, you're still gonna be so far ahead of them at that point. Then all you got to do is just get a plane to friggin' you know, like Tijuana or San Diego, walk across the border into Mexico, get a flight somewhere else, and you're off and running, right? Like, why especially because that apartment's so crappy? I mean that apartment.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

As Frank would tell him, but you know, there's really nice hotels, and you you got a quarter million dollars in your pocket. Go to the nicest hotel in New York City. Yeah, exactly. Chill for a couple days and then pay cash. Yeah, pay cash. Because it's the 70s, nobody takes credit cards for that anyway.

SPEAKER_05 30:43

Fuck, they're not gonna check your ID, they're just gonna ask your name and take cash. Well, fine. I mean, when he opens the door at the end and gives him that look, the soundtrack should have been wonk, wonk, wonk. And it's what it's all we got trombone, yeah. We gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

Oh and I love the mayor.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

The mayor Oh god, he's the best.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

I love how much well that the how much ghost is. He's still Mayor College.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

He's still Mayor Ed Koch, too. Like he like, I don't know if Mayor Ed Koch watches and like, that's who I'm gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

Yeah, that was one of the other ones that made me laugh when when uh the mayor's wife convinces him to do it on 18 surefire votes. I'm like, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters. Think about it, Lenny. Millions of registered voters. It's like that's so good.

unknown 31:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

Um is the guy, okay. So you know when they get to the inn and there's a guy that guy Latimer at the toll booth? Oh, is that the fucking Dunkin' Donuts time to make the donuts guy? I think it is. I think I'm like, is that the fucking time to make the donuts guy? Holy shit.

unknown 32:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

I'm looking for my old notes. I can't seem to find them. But uh, I really enjoyed this film. I think it's I don't know. I think it's really well made. It's a lot of fun to watch. It the pacing, like you said, is is gorgeous. It's not normal 70s, it's really good. Yeah, I hate FC. Yeah. They've trimmed all the um all the fat off of it. It's nice and lean, but it's also got it's also got a like everybody's got a purpose and a reason. Everything happens for a reason. There's motivation behind everything, it's not just sort of oh well, then the kids go running around. Now there's a breeze and you know, the old Jewish man, all that stuff all comes together really nicely. Um I feel like it would stop.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

I love how much he knows about the trains. Oh, there's a red button. All right. It's like they should have sent him in. He probably wouldn't have known how to about the dead man switch.

SPEAKER_05 32:55

Yeah, I thought he was the undercover cop, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:59

Or the cops if you know the oldest transit authority undercover cop ever.

SPEAKER_03 33:05

It was all makeup, you know, he rips off the fake face. It's funny, the hijackers all get on at different stations. You know, it's it's that classic thinking when you're up to something. Like, you know, no one else is gonna be at all concerned that at two o'clock four people get on the train at the same time. Like, right. Well, yes, of course they do. It's the New York City subways, but no, no, no, they all get on at different stops. Well, it's cool, it's cooler that way. Yeah, yeah, it gives you that chance to kind of introduce everybody to you.

SPEAKER_05 33:40

Yeah, I like the foot traffic cop who goes to investigate and he's just kind of stuck there the whole time, you know. Oh, yeah. You better tell them that I'm over here so they don't shoot him.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Oh, that's right. Yeah, he's just sitting in the dark, just a black guy sitting in the dark the entire time. I'm not easy to spot in the dark. I'm not easy to spot in the dark. Like, oh, that's that's fun. That's a way to self-deprecate. What a good self-deprecation. Um, can we talk about the weird lift that Tarantino did with the Mr. Brown, Mr. Blue?

SPEAKER_05 34:10

He only steals from the best, you know. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

That's exactly it.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

Yeah, and I hadn't seen this movie in a long time. And as soon as I'm like, oh, because you know every line of every Tarantino from something else. It's like, oh, that's where I got this from.

SPEAKER_05 34:27

Yeah, he just did a different swirl with it. He took a piece of this, a piece of Django, a couple other movies, put it all together, and he got Reservoir Dogs. He knew exactly how to swirl things up at just the right time. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

He's like a he's like the world's greatest, he's like the world's greatest mashup artist. You know what I mean? Like take a little bit of prints, take a little bit of journey, boom, new music. You know. So um what do you what do you guys give it out of curiosity? Out of a scale of one to five. One to five stars, you know, we can you know, double that is a gentleman's score. So it you know, a two, uh one out of a two out of five is a four, a gentleman's four.

SPEAKER_05 35:10

And I guess I'm saying gentleman's seven, because I give it three and a half stars.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Well done. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Uh yeah, I got it. I think it's five or gentlemen's ten. I think it's just a great, amazing movie.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Wow, okay. I'm right in the middle. I think four. I think a it's a solid four. Like it's just really well made. Tension's good. I love me a Math Al movie, anyways. I reserve the right to possibly go four and a half under review uh at the end of the at the end of the season review, but it's there aren't a lot of movies that are this good. Like it heist movies. This is a this is a fucking perfect example of a I mean kidnap, it's a kidnap movie. It's a kidnap and ransom movie, it's a heist movie, but it's done so well and it's so sharp and it moves, it just continues to move. I I I loved it, absolutely loved it. Yeah, a great heist movie. Yep, which brings us to hopscotch, which is not a heist movie.

SPEAKER_05 36:10

No, but it's uh it's uh similar because like I was saying, you have people are like the system screwed me over, I'm gonna screw over the system. Not not in that movie, you're not, but in this movie, oh, the system's firing me for basically doing my job. I'm gonna fuck with you for 90 minutes straight. What is baby Sam Watterston in Hopscotch?

SPEAKER_03 36:32

Oh my god, that was like my my first note. It's like Sam Waterson was young? Yes, I did not know.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Hopscotch 1980, rated R, an hour and 46 minutes. Grounded with a desk job by incompetent superiors, a clever CIA agent, retires and writes a tell-all memoir that will embarrass his bosses, prompting him to go on the run and elude them. It's directed by Ronald Neem, written by Brian Garfield and Brian Forbes, stars Walter Mathau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Watterson, uh Ned Beatty, and a host of others. That's great. Another great cast. It seems like Walter only worked with some of the best. Like it just seems like he always had a great uh cast behind him. So anyway, storyline. CIA CIA agent Miles Kendig decides to get out of the game, and to ensure he's left alone, he threatens to send his memoirs to the world's intelligent agencies. When the CIA doesn't believe him, he calls their bluff and starts writing and sending out chapters one by one. Realizing that their operations would be compromised, the CIA, led by Meyerson and Cutter, set out to put an end to Kendig's plans by whatever means necessary. The heart of the movie follows a game of cat and mouse between a fumbling CIA and an artful Kendig. And that's that's the movie right there. It's fucking great. I just I enjoyed the shit out of this. I it just the movie's just like, hey, how you doing? It's charming as shit, man. So charming.

SPEAKER_05 37:53

So to start with, I think the only reason this movie's rated R is because of the multiple F bombs. It kind of reminds me of later on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, where he's like, give me my fucking car to the fucking bomb. And it's like this one has they like to use the F-word repeatedly for that, because otherwise it would be just PG. There's really nothing too crazy in it. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

Uh Joe, I heard you go, eh?

SPEAKER_03 38:21

I wasn't. I think it's better the second time around when I understood what it was. It's uh it's a very casual walk in the park of a movie. It's kind of aimless. It's fun. It's not super funny, it's not super dramatic. It's uh it's there, it exists.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

That's funny. I found it, I found it pretty fucking funny. Like, I I don't know. Maybe uh I f the first thing I I'll say is they don't make movies like this anymore. And what I mean is certainly not in the theater.

SPEAKER_05 38:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

No, this is this is a an adult comedy. This is not something for kids to watch.

SPEAKER_05 39:00

Like kids are they maybe make sense to me when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Yeah, no, it wouldn't make any sense. I watched it when I was like eight, and I was I didn't know what was going on. Uh yeah, but like, you know, you might like when he's driving the truck with the barrels of oil and they do the Looney Tunes, you know, spin out or whatever, but for the most part, you're not really gonna understand or dig this movie. This movie makes me miss the Cold War, to be completely fucking honest with you. I was just like, oh, you remember when we had like an enemy we could point at and go, fuck them, but now the enemy is everywhere and it may even be us, there's no fucking telling.

SPEAKER_05 39:32

He's like a slabby James Bond kind of, right? It's like skilled as James Bond. You just don't expect him.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Even better. I mean, it's what I love about the movie is that he's fucking two steps ahead of he's two steps ahead of his boss, he's two steps ahead of his protege, he's two steps ahead of his girlfriend, he's two steps ahead of everybody.

SPEAKER_05 39:49

It also reminds me of like Real Genius, I feel, to another movie with the guy from Ghostbusters, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

There's two people from Real Genius in this movie.

SPEAKER_05 39:59

Oh wow, because you know, the popcorn that blows up the guy's house in this movie, he shoot gets the guy's house shot up. So it's like, oh, you fuck with me, I'm just gonna, you know, do a little sabotage thing. So I felt like it led to that in a way.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

It's funny you mentioned that scene because one of the one of the people from Hopscotch in Real Genius is you remember the senator that they drag out to witness the house. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:21

The kids he's in hopscotch.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Yeah, and no, that's the professor. Oh, okay. The kids like it when I verbally get down with him. That's the other dude. Oh, okay. So you've so you've got the senator and the professor, those are the two guys from Hopscotch, which was yeah, I was like, holy shit, two people from Real Genius? That's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_05 40:39

You know, I have uh memories of seeing this on cable on the movie channel when I still lived in Virginia. And what I really remembered with just him uh Math Al at the typewriter, yeah, the movie being this bizarre pan and scan where it was so squished, like the people's faces look elongated. Oh, because it's four by three. Yeah, because it's four by three.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

I like the look of the film. It's got those old lenses, so there's a bit of there's a bit of there's a bit of uh those old lenses that usually the center's pretty sharp, and I kind of bitch about this sometimes, but for me, I it it makes it feel like it's connected to its time period where the the pieces in the middle are real sharp, but sometimes you'll get some I don't know, I don't necessarily call it boca, but you'll get some kind of just the edges are sort of out of focus, right if that makes any sense.

SPEAKER_05 41:34

Um, the 30s or something.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Yeah, kind of a cinematic flair to it. But um my one of my early favorite early quotes is I don't remember you being this short. How'd you get so short? And he's like, Would you shut the fuck up?

SPEAKER_05 41:47

You know. I really like how you know he he gets fired just for basically doing his job, you know. Well, you're supposed to kill that guy. What? And and so he walks out like, is this a joke? And then he's like, you know what? Fuck it. He turns around, he goes in there, and he grabs his file and changes it and shreds it and shreds his file off and he's off and running. Yeah, you know, he's he's right off there.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Yeah, uh lady, yeah. Oh yeah. I think I found interesting is the poster, which is really a piss poor advertisement for the movie, but you could tell so much that that was post Bad News Bears. Yeah. Because the poster for this movie, he looks well, he looks like Buttermaker. He looks completely drunk, he's wearing a bathrobe. Even the tagline is he's going to expose himself. It's like, oh yeah, because I mean, you know, Bad News Bears made huge money because it's an excellent movie. But that really did follow him for like the next 10 years. Like in this movie, which is about as far away from Bad News Bears as you can get. They're like but three years earlier, he made a shitload of money being a drunk. And he drinks beer in this, so close enough.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Yeah, no, that's a great point because he does he does look like Boilermaker in the in the poster, but he doesn't he doesn't drink, he doesn't, he's nothing like that character in his wine aficionado.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

He drinks, but yeah, not like not like not like Buttermaker. Yeah, I mean he has a beer in almost every scene, but he never gets sloppy.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

So I like that moment where he's talking to the Russian after he's left the CIA and the Russian's like, what are you gonna do? Write your memoirs? And the and the camera kind of pushes in, gets that nice push in, and he goes, Fuck, that's exactly what I'm gonna do. Yeah, I'm like, Yes, go there, go. I I they don't make comedies like this anymore. I grown ass, clean adult comedy. Like they just this would turn into they would have some tits in it. There would be some wild if you did this nowadays, they'd be like, Where's the nudity? Uh you know, adults want to see more. There's gotta be some more of this. And this is just kind of an intelligent comedy about a guy taking his revenge on his employer. You know, it just happens to be the fucking CIA, you know, and that's that they don't do stuff like that much anymore. It at least not like. This. Everything's kind of infantilized or turned into some kind of teen comedy, or it's ridiculously gross, or it's um or catch me if you can. Right. That's or yeah, yeah, catch me if you can is kind of close to that. You know, that I mean, I that's a good movie. I don't mind that one, but that i I'm not saying that they don't ever make them, they just don't make them with the with the um the frequency that they used to, right? Like I don't know why. Because this is a this is a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

It is very rare that they actually be adult like that. And on one time, like catch me if you can is that's Spielberg, right? Yeah, yeah, right. And of course he has the money to do whatever the hell he wants. So I'm gonna remake my side story. Nobody's gonna watch it, and I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

Yep, exactly. I made Jurassic Park, kiss my ass. I made Raiders of the Lost Art, Kiss My Ass. I made AT, kiss my ass. Do I need to get going down the list? Kiss my ass. I love to make a movie.

SPEAKER_05 44:52

You can tell so much about the characters by their settings. Like he's looking around Ned Beatty's office, and you see him shaking hands with Richard Nixon, and you automatically know who this guy is, you know. And also when he's you know trying to rent his house out with the whole no cats, no kids, no democrats. You know, it's like oh shit, man.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

No Democrats, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 45:16

And they close the Democrat, are you? Oh, no, no. That old-fashioned uh right filmmaking. They actually close the loop. The real estate agent asks, Are you a Democrat? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

No, no, no, no, ma'am. I love that he rents the guy's own house. Yes, he rents his boss's house and convinces the fucking FBI to destroy it. It's fucking brilliant. It that's such a good one one more shot, please.

SPEAKER_05 45:37

He shoots like one last rocket. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

That's awesome.

unknown 45:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

And and look, I'll say this: a decent, a decent portion of this film is just Mathau by himself. That's you know, where the largest single shots of everybody. And he's he's engaging. You can't take your eyes off of him. He keeps his presence on screen keeps you focused on the movie. You know, where like you know, with with may possibly with another actor, you may have drifted here or there, but you're watching Mathow do he's got such great face in this film. He gives such great face, some of his reactions are so good that you know I was just laughing at some of his reactions, just different things. I love when he drives up fucking singing opera to the dude at the border.

SPEAKER_03 46:21

Oh, yeah, you know, and just almost all Mozart uh soundtrack, but and yeah, I'm singing the the opera. But then we also get the tag on that where like this was apparently really a ploy to make sure that they actually knew where he was going. Yeah, because then the Russians are like, oh, well, of course, agents spotted him going through customs singing Figaro. It's like uh really brilliant. Yeah, when he wants to be remembered, then he makes sure he is. Yes. Uh yeah, and I I do actually really enjoy the bit that he's so terrible with American accents.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

Yes, or the you know, with English accent, you can quit the accent, it's fucking awful.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

Especially at the end where he shows up as the Indian dude. I hear that this movie is this book is oh the 80s.

SPEAKER_05 47:06

This one all 80s comedies. This one almost got away without any cringe moment until you get to that last part and you're like, oh shit. Oh, it's fine. It's there's not cringy, it's fine, it's fine, but it's still that's the 80s for you, right? This this doesn't this is just trying to be in disguise, he's not trying to be, but it's still like you look at it, you're like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

This movie still feels like late 70s. I mean, this movie to me still feels late 70s. I mean it came out in like a dozen eight.

SPEAKER_03 47:34

It's really filmed in 79, and and and and it has that languid taste that Pelham avoids, too. It's it's in a much more it's like something Peter Sellers would have made almost. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

Oh, that's a good point. Yeah, yeah. I love when he puts the money on the table and a dude just sweeps the cash directly into the drawer, and his fake and again his facial reaction is so good that I just started laughing at stare because he's just like uh the money uh can I make clip, please? Can I clip back? And the guy's like, yeah, here, and like you're not getting that money, it goes right back into the fucking drawer. It's so good.

unknown 48:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:09

And they're like, oh, he's right here in Washington.

SPEAKER_05 48:11

What? It's like it's like he's just hiding under your nose at all times.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

I I wonder if the lead singer of that band was maybe sleeping with a producer, because that band was god-awful in the oh, that was one of the worst bands I've ever heard in a movie.

SPEAKER_05 48:26

And apparently that track actually made it to the top 100 of some sort of chart at the time.

SPEAKER_02 48:31

No, you're full of shit.

SPEAKER_05 48:33

Supporting Wiki, it's like 90 something on some kind of dance thing. But I mean, that was the disco era, sir. But oh man. Watch this movie just for that note that that woman hits alone. Wow. I forgot about it.

SPEAKER_01 48:51

It's not good at all. This is not good.

SPEAKER_05 48:54

But once again, you wouldn't see that in a movie now. That's more realistic.

SPEAKER_03 48:59

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a 70s European cover band. Gee. Anybody at all surprised they sucked? Not really. Wow. I forgot about that. And the plane is fun, although I I don't think he really should have sacrificed a really cool biplane for that. Yeah. Yeah. You can buy a shitty plane? That's a World War I biplane. That's a cool.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Uh let's see here. Let's see. I I I I did appreciate that it seemed to like once it got to the wrap-up phase, it seemed to push that wrap up pretty quickly. You have a, you know, he gets over there, he buys the plane, suddenly he's remote controlling the plane, boom, it's over. South of France for two weeks, yep, we're out of here.

SPEAKER_05 49:49

Yeah, it's one of those where it almost feels like it's meandering, and then the next thing you know, another 20 minutes has passed.

unknown 49:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 49:55

And then it keeps doing it, and you're suddenly like, oh, that felt like it's kind of laxadaisical, but then it was over.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

It's very, it's it's very villa villa new vehic. It's very that's like that's what he does, where you're like, What am I watching? And then 20 minutes goes by, and you're like, What the fuck? What am I watching? Just with more 20 minutes goes by. Absolutely. But there were moments of that that style in their life. And then the Dune guy was in the other movies, so I you know, maybe it stayed over its welcome just a little bit. Maybe you could have cut five or six minutes out of it, you know, kind of kind of tightened it up a bit. Yeah, but movies back then, you know, I can't see there were there was any bad scenes or anything, you know, maybe just a little too much.

SPEAKER_05 50:36

And I like how Sam Waterson is the only person who's like, I know what he's doing. Everybody else is just incompetent running around like they're Sergeant Studenko or something, and he's just like, no, he's he's playing. He's fucking with you. He's just fucking around.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

Why are we chasing this guy? I don't want to chase this guy. Yeah. The house is on fire, and the and Ned Beatty's looking at the house and whether or not he's chasing goes, I'll call the fire.

SPEAKER_05 50:59

Ned Beatty apologizes to him. This is over. If he's just like, look, I was being a dick, sorry, it's over, but that's you know.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

Ned plays a good dick, too. I'll say that. He's he's real good at that role.

SPEAKER_03 51:13

And actually, when um in the credits, he gets the with Ned Beatty, so it tells you timing, right? So he's a rising star at this point. Like, oh, oh you might know him. With Ned Beatty.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

Well, Lottie Dah. Yeah. Uh and I love Ned. I think he's one of the great characters. Oh, Ned's one of the great 70s actors.

SPEAKER_05 51:35

We dropped his name in uh Love Song, right?

SPEAKER_02 51:37

Wasn't he the uh he's the he's uh in Love Song, he's the uh he's the um he's the safe word for John and Jen. She leans in, she leans into John and goes, the safe word is Ned Beatty, and he kind of looks back at her and goes, Ned Beatty?

SPEAKER_03 51:53

She goes, Ned Well, that not something you're gonna say in the heat of the moment.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

And now now take off your pants. Mal strength is on Fossum. Fossum, Tubi, Zumo, and Hoopla. A love song of William H. Shaw. Watch more films.

SPEAKER_00 52:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 52:15

That was our John Borman reference, Cliff.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Yes, I I deliverance, yeah. 1972, I gotcha. John Borman reference. We're out there, Jeff. Here we hear you. John Borman.

SPEAKER_03 52:30

Um just wanders through it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 52:34

Yeah, yeah. I don't have any other notes. I I it's an hour 45. It's a bit I think Pelhom's just a little bit shorter, but they're about the same length.

SPEAKER_03 52:42

Yeah, I think I think Pellm's one four-four or something.

SPEAKER_02 52:45

But the hopscotch feels a bit longer though, I think pacing wise. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:50

It meanders a bit.

SPEAKER_02 52:52

Still fun. I I do like seeing I do like seeing old Europe. Like the you know, the old German Oktoberfest and in, you know, the some of the south of France and that stuff's real pretty.

SPEAKER_05 53:03

And Mathel's son is in the movie too. He's one of the agents. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

That's right. I think someone whose passport he steals. Yeah. So that's the one he that's the one he uh holds up in the woods when the house is burning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's good shit.

SPEAKER_05 53:18

Traveling on your passport, and the woman that takes him in the plane, she was like his daughter-in-law or something, I think. So it was this whole family package. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:30

One of the weird amphibious planes that you'll ever see is that weird engine engine sitting on top of the plane.

SPEAKER_03 53:37

And the hoverboat ferry to get across the channel, too.

SPEAKER_00 53:39

So, whoa.

SPEAKER_03 53:41

Sorry, we screwed around with some weird things in the 70s.

SPEAKER_05 53:43

In fact, the movie was gonna wrap up real easy, and then it was gonna like, no, we gotta throw one last wrench in there to make it tricky for him to have to catch the plane.

unknown 53:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:53

And somehow his secondary plane with our plan, not plane, plan, of getting on that other plane, get it being chased around, and then somehow getting back at just the right time. Well, he was always two steps ahead of him.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

So that's the that's what makes it believable. You know, if he had been if he had been running the entire time and he pulls it off at the end, you're like, meh, but he's so in control of everything from the minute that he decides from the minute he decides to burn the CIA, it's over for him. He's he's a he's every he's a step ahead of him every time.

SPEAKER_03 54:26

Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna go do this at the fountain, and they're gonna take my picture and whatever. This is just gonna piss him off.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

I want to be see, I want to be seen with you because I want to piss, yeah, I want to piss them off. I want to piss you the Russians off, too.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

You know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

Good stuff, good shit.

SPEAKER_05 54:45

I also like uh Glenda Jackson. Glenda Jackson, yeah. She's like, will you please just stop following me? You know, and the the dog, and then she leaves and leaves him in the house with a dog. The dog is great.

SPEAKER_02 55:00

The dog is awesome. Yeah, yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_03 55:03

And the uh wonderful little slam of Americans in her drink case when she goes to get the ice, right? Because that's one of the things. Oh, that's right. Europeans like to rag on Americans for, so you always put everything on the rocks. Yeah. Well, I mean it's a warm country, okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Oh shit. I mean, I was gonna about to say Europeans are dying because they're you know, it's suddenly having a heat wave in the high 80s. So I I mean maybe you should get some ice. I don't know what to tell you. Put your scotch on the rocks. Get some fucking air conditioning. It's wonderful. Just a window unit will save your life.

SPEAKER_03 55:32

Yeah, and it's really clean storytelling, too, right? I mean, uh the dog gets uh well established and well used, and it's it's really good writing.

SPEAKER_02 55:41

I think that's also what I mean by like adult comedy. It's like there, I don't I don't think there were a lot of writers able to produce this type of script anymore, where it's just you know, sharp, sharp idea, sharp jokes, it doesn't uh do too much, it does enough, it's funny, it's engaging, it's intelligent, it's kind of clever. And then it gets out of there.

SPEAKER_05 56:02

And like when we watched Sneakers a few weeks ago, this is the movie that I wish sneakers would have been more because sneakers has a few moments where it's like, oh, they're they're doing the thing, but this movie is nothing but he's doing the thing, pulling it over for him. So yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 56:18

Exactly. Give me the box, give me the box, Marty. Give me your score, Marty.

SPEAKER_05 56:28

Uh I went back and forth all week because I really like the movie, and then I get to the end and I'm like, man, why is he gotta show up in brown face at the end of the movie? Then I realized, okay, don't let that you know that's a different ending in the book. I think it's another book. I'm gonna give it four. Four stars. Okay. I can see why it's part of the criterion collection. It's it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

I think I think the re the reason the brown brown face is kind of sells in okay is and is okay, is because it's disguise. He's just yeah, it one it's a disguise. He works in the CIA, and there's no he's not trying to do a he's bad at it, and he's also not trying to do a an Indian accent, right? He's doing an English accent. So I think I feel like it's not really culturally appropriating or or I know you gotta look into the 1980 eyes, but you look at it now and you're like, oh fucking 80s. Well, no, but even even looking at it now from 1980, I I don't I can see a lot more shit that would be much more problematic.

SPEAKER_05 57:21

Well, of course, but I was saying we almost got out of this movie with just the fagalod and that's true, that's true too. But compared to a lot of 80s comedies, it does not have a bunch of that. Joe?

SPEAKER_02 57:34

Uh give it a three.

SPEAKER_00 57:35

Give it a three. All right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 57:36

That's a gentleman's six. Gentleman's six. Okay. I'm going gentleman's nine. Um, I like this better than Pellham. I've seen it three times now in the last year. Every time I watch it, it's funny. Every time I watch it, it's enjoyable.

SPEAKER_00 57:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:50

Four and a half.

SPEAKER_00 57:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:52

Yeah, yeah. I just I again show me another comedy Cold War movie that's this good, other than maybe Doctor Strange Love, which is you know, right up there with. Peter Sellers, okay. Peter Sellers, and you know, this thing does some really cool shit, and it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_05 58:08

Well, your movie next week is Best Defense with uh Dudley Moore.

SPEAKER_06 58:12

Okay, fine.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

Bring it on. Yours is the Philadelphia experiment, the one with Michael Paret.

SPEAKER_05 58:19

Oh that's a joke, people. Maybe we will get to those movies. I like that our ratings are it's a nice spectrum, you know. Kind of evenly balanced today. So, no, your movie next week is actually Star Wars from 1977, as we uh had established on last week's. And I gave you Heller Hot Hell or Hell High Water. Two movies that strangely go together. No, not really, but it's an interesting episode.

SPEAKER_02 58:47

It's not like necessarily peanut butter and chocolate, but it's more like peanut butter and chili. If you like hot things and chocolate, might work for you. Chocolate and peanut brittle or something. Yeah, if you don't, then it's probably not gonna be that great. But yeah, that's next week. Well, Joe, thanks so much for coming on, buddy.

SPEAKER_03 59:05

Um yeah, thanks for inviting me.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

Yeah, man. Um, we'd like to have you back for sure. Um we'll we're definitely doing more talk and math house. There's just too much of his there's just too much of his uh filmography not to cover. He did so many good movies.

SPEAKER_03 59:18

Yeah, yeah. Well the 70s guys, man. He was I mean you looked at the page, but he averages like two movies a year through what from about 64 to about 1989.

SPEAKER_02 59:29

I really I really want to talk about Charlie Varrick. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I really want to talk about Grumpy Old Man. And Buddy Buddy, yes. And Grumpy Buddy, and Grumpy Old Men. Fuck yes. They should watch this. So many, and I really want to talk about the odd couple. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:43

We should do odd couple one and two on the same episodes.

SPEAKER_02 59:46

Oh, that's a good idea. Let's talk about that. But that's that's some iconic comedy shit. That that's that's that's much good stuff. Anyway, um, quotes. What do you got for me?

SPEAKER_05 59:58

No cats, no kids, no democrats.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

Come on, kiddig. He was Australian. He was Austrian, so was Hitler.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:09

Yes. Uh I'm going with Pell uh Pellin. She's moving. What's moving? How many trains do we have hygiene?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:20

Beautiful, beautiful. I love it. All right, let's get out of here, guys. Thanks again, Joe. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:27

All right, have fun later.