The Review Review
Hosts Ben and Paul welcome special guests from all walks of life to watch, rate, discuss, and RERATE the films close to their hearts. You'll laugh (hopefully), you'll cry (maybe), you'll reconsider everything you have ever known! Welcome, to "The Review Review"
The Review Review
HH 11 - The Shop Around the Corner / Sniffable Snow? (Guest Cohost: Rachael Fosket)
Guest co-host Rachael Fosket ("The Librarians," "Midway" - 2019 ) joins Paul for a little trip to "The Shop Around the Corner" (d. Lubitsch 1940). Starring: Margaret Sullivan, and Jimmy Stewart. Budapest, 3 o'clock in the morning, and were looking for a thousand brown M&Ms to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night. So, Jeff Beck ("Twins") pops his head 'round the door, and mentions there's a little sweets shop on the edge of town. So - we go. And - it's closed. So there's Paul, Rachael, and Keith Moon, and David Crosby, breaking into that little sweets shop, eh. Well, instead of a guard dog, they've got this bloody great big Bengal tiger. Rachael managed to take out the tiger with a can of mace, but the shop owner and his son... that's a different story altogether...nasty business, really. But, sure enough, we got the M&Ms, and Ozzy went on stage and did a great show. It's really just a nice holiday movie though. 12/9!
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More with Rachael:
More holidays:
**All episodes contain explicit language**
Artwork - Ben McFadden
Review Review Intro/Outro Theme - Jamie Henwood
"What Are We Watching" & "Whatcha been up to?" Themes - Matthew Fosket
"Fun Facts" Theme - Chris Olds/Paul Root
Lead-Ins Edited/Conceptualized by - Ben McFadden
Produced by - Ben McFadden & Paul Root
Concept - Paul Root
Because that's a good move.
SPEAKER_02:I like that. You're so squiggly.
SPEAKER_05:Just imagine that we're dancing and it looks cool.
SPEAKER_02:I'm dancing. This is fun.
SPEAKER_05:And I use my shoulders.
SPEAKER_02:Hello, everyone. The dog running above me, I think, is a great name. But this is the voice of Paul, one of your standard co-hosts that's here like all the time. Do something, guy. Jesus H. But I have the fabulous, the matchless, the wonderful, the effervescent, amazing Rachel Fosca is back with me.
SPEAKER_05:Say more.
SPEAKER_02:Continue. Continue, please. We're doing this for 90 minutes. Go on. Rachel is joining me here on the review review yet again from our Friday the 13th episode. Her egg? Huh? She's she's here. She's actually right here. You let her in.
SPEAKER_03:Her? Oh. She's yeah. She is the bell of the ball. Stop being such an adhog.
SPEAKER_02:Here on the review review, what do we do? We take a film suggested by a guest, or in this case, a co-host that is seven years old or older. We just barely hit that mark. Barely made the seven years. Two hours and 22 minutes or less. Not part of any major franchise.
SPEAKER_03:And uh there's another thing. Who knows? Is this technically a franchise at this point? Because there's been so many like reiterations of this story.
SPEAKER_02:That is an excellent question. Are we breaking the rules?
SPEAKER_05:Does this one count?
SPEAKER_02:I think it counts. I think it counts. I'd say it can't. This is the only one that's been done with this title.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It went to the little sweet shop around the corner to get some brown MMs, or else Keith Moon wouldn't go on stage that night.
SPEAKER_05:Where's Pa?
unknown:What have you done with Pa? Pa, who are you?
SPEAKER_02:The first time he actually pulled off an accent. What the fuck is going on here? Rachel is joining me for her suggestion. The reason is the season. The shop around the corner.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, there it is.
SPEAKER_02:Rachel, other than cramming ourselves with knowledge of all of the things that exist around this, yeah. What you've been doing.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, you know what's really funny about that? Of like cramming like with knowledge? I think that this is the a distraction. This is to not tell you what I've been doing, but um, I was just I listened to a lot of Edgar Wright talk things, and I'm always really impressed with his ability to remember facts and figures and and whatnot. And I wonder how you would do up against him.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I'd get crushed.
unknown:Are you sure?
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely annihilated.
SPEAKER_05:You have very weird, you have that skill too, of being able to be like, I'll be like, that 1980s movie, and you're like, Yeah, with so-and-so, and I'm like, so-and-so, and I'm saying so-and-so because I have no idea the 1980s movie or the name of so-and-so, and you always seem to be able to do it, but maybe it's only 1980s movies.
SPEAKER_02:You flatter me. It's 80s and 90s. Well, I'm Edgar Wright would absolutely destroy me. The man is a genius.
SPEAKER_05:Um, yeah, I've been fighting cancer, which has been great. It's actually a weird best of times and worst of times sort of um thing, because like the best of times is like, oh my goodness, I have amazing friends and family, and you guys are amazing and so cool, and it's really overwhelming. It feels like the end of um uh what is the movie Facts and Figures? Uh, it's a wonderful life. Yeah, like everybody comes and is like, oh, did you need help? We're very helpful, and we can give you all this money.
SPEAKER_02:Another Jimmy Stewart movie, Rachel. This is the thing. I hate to tell you, you're very easy to love. So people are going to sh want to show up for you. Thank you. When we can in ways we can.
SPEAKER_05:And cancer is going, it's a funny thing. Cancer is a funny thing. I always thought that uh it would be you'd be like sad and sick and like withering away, and I and I and then that's what I was really scared would happen.
SPEAKER_02:And what I realized is you just kind of are always either gonna poop yourself or poop or tired or maybe sleep on the toilet. I don't know.
SPEAKER_05:It it it's a hilarious amount of of me talking to doctors about my pooping habits and that or or set them free.
SPEAKER_02:As someone who's like, if I'm at the mall or the movie theater or whatever, I'm like, no, I have to go home. We have to go home now. Like, I can't, no, no, no. Being able to talk about that with strangers that obviously are wanting to assist you, still, the amount of anxiety I cannot imagine.
SPEAKER_05:So, so much. The first couple months of it, I was like, I don't, I really this is humiliating for me. I really don't want to tell you about this. And they were like, You're gonna have to get used to it. And I did. Here, I'm on public radio. This is public radio, basically.
SPEAKER_02:National, yeah, national public radio.
SPEAKER_05:National public radio talking about my pooping habits, national podcast review.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, now it's just all the time. All like now it's just like filters gone.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:What movie? I want to talk about my pooping habit.
SPEAKER_02:Um shop around the corner. Do they have a bathroom?
SPEAKER_05:I don't think that they did. I never saw one.
SPEAKER_02:There's a sink in their locker room, which I found interesting, but made sense. But I thought the same thing where I was like, There's a sink there. Is there a toilet any? I you know what? I think that dude probably makes them leave.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Not you're not supposed to do that stuff in a shop around the corner.
SPEAKER_03:No.
SPEAKER_05:You go around the corner corner to do that. Yeah. You do that, you do that at Fox Books, where there's a cafe and a coffee shop.
SPEAKER_02:Dave Chappelle will show you the way, or Tom Hanks, whomever. But that's a seasonal person, that's probably me.
SPEAKER_05:So thank you, everyone. I love you all.
SPEAKER_02:Um we love you. And just so people know, as this has come up on this program, and we'll be linked below as per usual. If you are able in assisting, there's a link below that shows you how to do that.
SPEAKER_05:Um thank you guys. That was really overwhelming, and um, that is very overwhelming. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:I'm sure you're probably quite sick of just being generally overwhelmed. So nah. We'll do our best. Uh, me, what have I been doing? Well, I've got, I told you this would happen.
SPEAKER_05:If you guys can't see, I'm describing this very cute kitty. I want to say it's a Siamese.
SPEAKER_02:She's a Burmese. Yeah. Oh my gosh, she's cute. She's the best. Sand Kat's here, as per usual.
SPEAKER_05:That's what I do with my cat. When I I haven't been able to see her for a very long time, but uh my little Nora baby, what Paul's doing right now is he has his kitty up on his shoulder and is like holding like a baby and just giving little light pats. That's what my cat likes to do. That's her favorite thing.
SPEAKER_03:Rocking her ever so gently. She also likes to eat me, but who'd want to hurt me? I'm the centuries, Dennis the Messiah. Is everyone okay? No, I I made it about me.
SPEAKER_05:Go back to you. Is she a biter? Is Nora a biter? Oh, is she a biter? She is. Of course. She is a biter. She's the devourer of souls. She's a little monster from hell.
SPEAKER_02:Must be why I like her so much. We we seek out, we smell our own. Uh, me, what have I been doing? It is very rainy. In the state of Denmark. I got, I think, maybe the worst haircut of my life today. I was in the chair for six minutes. I don't have much hair. That's weird. I'll cop to that. But I was like, I'm done. It's done. You're you're all set. And I was like, so this is like a two with a fade? And they're like, Yeah, and I look at the lady and I'm like, it's a two with a fade. She's like, Yeah, and I go, Okay, people say so. And I just paid for it and I didn't make a fuss, and I left. Can I see it? You're wearing a hat.
SPEAKER_03:It looks like hair. A little bit. There's some.
SPEAKER_02:This is a tufter two there.
SPEAKER_05:A two with a fade. So interesting that you can just say a two with a fade. I always have to give like a lookbook, and well, actually, I don't because I have right now I have a very wonderful hairstylist, Cynthia. Uh she's great.
SPEAKER_03:Chefs to Cynthia.
SPEAKER_05:Normally uh it you you do for for female haircuts, you kind of have to give them like a like a layers and inches off and texturing and like all of the people all of the famous people that I would like to look like, and um different shots of their hairstyle, and black and white photos and color, and it's like this is how it's textured. Like it's like a whole lookbook. And you can just say two with a fade.
SPEAKER_02:I find it interesting though that you told me the last couple times that you went in that no, that joke's not gonna work. I'm gonna let that joke go. I want the Steve Martin or the Martin short. Like, give me the Martin short.
unknown:Starting.
SPEAKER_05:Can't they tell the two part?
SPEAKER_02:Uh that's what I was trying to do.
SPEAKER_05:Why is he different? Why is he different?
SPEAKER_03:Steve Martin Martin short something. And they gave me this Lena Gomez for some reason. It was so weird.
SPEAKER_05:Fun the bitches. Funza bitches.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you for making that joke work, Rachel. I couldn't figure it out for some reason.
SPEAKER_05:I got you.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we have talked about what we've been doing. Will you tell me what you've been watching?
unknown:What am I watching?
SPEAKER_04:What am I watching?
SPEAKER_05:So many things. Oh, okay. But this is the thing about chemo, is I can't remember a lot of my life because I get you get like brain fog. Um, I watched a really amazing Spencer Tracy, Catherine Hepburn, keeper of the flame.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I've never heard of this.
SPEAKER_05:It is really interesting. Um, spoiler alert, I mean, it was made in like the 1940s, I think, or 1950s. Okay. Whatever. Spoiler. It kind of does like a blueprint of like Project 2025. Like they stop it from happening, but they like it's a Project 2025, and they're like, oh no, our political leaders and like the different business billionaires of the world are trying to basically Project 2025 us. And but but then Katherine Hepburn did something uh that I won't tell you because I really don't want to spoil it about. Okay. And she basically stopped it from happening.
SPEAKER_02:Of course, Katherine Hepburn did.
SPEAKER_05:And yeah, and Spencer Tracy. I'm realizing I haven't really watched a lot of Spencer Tracy, but he I think all of our like Harrison Ford heroes and like Michael Michael Sheen?
SPEAKER_03:Michael Yeah, Michael Sheen. Charlie Sheen. One of the Sheen's of course Carly, Charlie Sheen.
SPEAKER_05:Like all of those like really like gruff dudes that were like the the hero guys from the 90s that were like, but had like an undercurrent of kindness. They got that all from Spencer Tracy. He was a very he had a very kind soul to him on screen. It was very interesting to watch him and be like, oh, that's where Harrison Ford got it.
SPEAKER_02:A Spencer Tracy movie that I love, that maybe you've seen, I don't know, is Inherit the Wind. What's that about? It is about the Scopes monkey trial and uh teacher Bertram Cates, who was teaching evolution in a classroom where that was not allowed, and he ended up going to jail and being put on trial. And Spencer Tracy plays the righteous attorney that's representing him. That's so cool. It's good. It's good.
SPEAKER_05:I'm gonna watch some more Spencer Tracy, I think.
SPEAKER_02:So keeper of the flame for me, inherit the wind for you.
SPEAKER_05:Got it.
SPEAKER_02:And how many billionaires were there back then? Like two, two or three?
SPEAKER_05:When I say billionaire, I mean that's adjusted for 2025. Like I'm gonna say like a thousandaire.
SPEAKER_02:It's just we it's just really weird to as we're talking about this. It's like, you know, Bernie many years ago would be like, We have to stop the millionaires, and now he's a millionaire. Yeah, and he says, We have to stop the billionaires, and it's like, yeah, it's that's where we've gotten to. I know there were billionaires back way back.
SPEAKER_05:No, I know Elon Musk is a trillionaire now.
SPEAKER_02:I think his pay package got approved, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_05:Anyways, enough about him.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so you've been watching. I have watched I Love LA on Max. It's with Rachel Sennett and a few other folks that I'm not super aware of. It's it's definitely got like a through line that's happening. She is an aspiring talent representative that has some kind of like messy friendships and relationships with bosses and various other people. It's light enough, it's fun enough. I'm a couple episodes in. I'll continue on this journey. Special K is enjoying it somewhat as well. So we'll see how that goes. And then and I wanted to mention that I re-watched Misery. And it's just so good. Yeah. Kathy Bates is so good, and this is gonna sound messed up, but there's a level of satisfaction I get. I'm gonna ruin this for people. Spoiler alert if you haven't seen Misery from 92 or read it, not read it, the website listeners. Again, guys, it's a book. It's a book. Read read misery the book. Our listeners don't read.
SPEAKER_03:So they watch this.
SPEAKER_02:When James Kahn, he's like this author is being kept captive, people that haven't seen this or read it. And he is trying to get his strength back because he was in an accident, and he's lifting a typewriter over his head, an old royal typewriter to gain his strength back. And when he smacks her in the head with that thing, there's like a level of satisfaction because she's so insanely evil and insane in that movie, and the payoff when they finally come at odds. It reminded me of this movie because they're at odds the entire time, and there's a different kind of payoff than in misery.
SPEAKER_05:I thought you were gonna say when she got his uh little little feeties.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, when she with the sledge. I'll leave that out. Oh no, I said it already, didn't I? Well, I guess it's probably time to talk about the facts.
SPEAKER_03:Archaeology is the search for facts.
unknown:I don't care.
SPEAKER_02:Rachel, tell me about the shop around the corner.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, so the shop around the corner was MGM approved, which is fun. Uh uh, another fun fact is Lubitch, he actually was trying to, he was shopping this around for a very long time. And the studios didn't want to buy it because they didn't think that people would want to watch anything about the middle class.
SPEAKER_02:That's such a bummer, and how wrong they were.
SPEAKER_05:They were so wrong. Well, not entirely wrong. Um then uh MGM only approved it. It was uh so MGM approved one hour 39 minutes long. Uh Lubich agreed to do um, I forget what the name of the it's like Nanovich or something, some other Oh yeah, I saw that when I was looking through his filmography.
SPEAKER_02:I couldn't pronounce it either.
SPEAKER_05:That's not the name of it. I have no idea. Okay, so budget. 500,000 estimated, which has been adjusted to 11.6 million. Opening weekend was January 12th, 1940. Uh, I found the like final gross on Wikipedia, which you know, take that with what you want, was uh 1.3 million worldwide.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, made some money.
SPEAKER_05:13 million today, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, did it so it did pretty well overall.
SPEAKER_05:Hypothetic, maybe if if Wikipedia is telling the truth. We don't know.
SPEAKER_02:First time for everything.
SPEAKER_05:Um, other releases this weekend. Uh, I think it was The Invisible Man Returns.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_05:Mm-hmm. Top five. It wasn't a blockbuster, so they don't really have top fives back then, or they didn't track it. Yeah, but other other films from 1940 specifically was the Disney version of Pinocchio, Fantasia, Rebecca, Road to Singapore, The Philadelphia Story, The Great Dictator, The Seahawk, His Girl Friday, and The Invisible Man Returns.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. A little extra credit there. Okay. Stamp of approval.
SPEAKER_05:Thanks. Letterbox averages of what? 4.2 out of 5 is pretty good. That was out of a higher score.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, out of like 10, like IMDB style.
SPEAKER_05:So Letterbox is a 4.2. That's great. Um, you can and then the follow-ups thing, if you want to follow us on Letterboxd, you can follow Paul at Paul X Baldly, baldly, badly. And um uh Ben at Run BMC, and me at Rachel Foscett. La la la la la. Ebert.com recommended it. Well, good, good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And uh uh Ron Tomatoes gave it a 99%. Wow. Um, 91% popcorn, Metacritic, 96%.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_05:And uh it is national film registered film from it was registered in 1999. And another fun fact, uh, Liebitch did say uh out of all of his films, this was his favorite.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I saw that, which is like pretty hefty filmography, a lot of stuff there, or whatever. This seemed like it was not, and maybe it was, not super laborist to direct. Like a bunch of dialed-in actors, like people hitting marks, people that are really in the zone in terms of the movie, so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_05:So he said it uh everybody kind of talks about him, uh uh Ernst Lubitsch. I'm saying Lubitch, but it's Lubitch. He was sort of an Edgar Wright director. Like he was he his like pre-production was so involved and so detailed oriented, and he was so on top of actual production that it it was like a joy to make.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that it was like his baby.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Who's the director?
SPEAKER_02:I'll tell you about some people. This gentleman that we've been talking about, Ernst Lubitch. Heaven Can Wait, The Merry Widow, Angel. Writers were Samson Rafelson, Suspicion, Ben Hecht, apparently was an uncredited writer. He wrote Scarface from 1932. And Miklos Laszlo wrote on the screenplay, as well as the play Parfumery, where this is based from. Music was Werner Heyman. This had music. Emergency Wedding, Tell It to the Judge, Kiss and Tell. Cinematography was William Daniels, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Harvey, and one that I hope we get at some point in like Flint. That would be fun.
SPEAKER_05:God, what a great cinematographer.
SPEAKER_02:Right?
SPEAKER_05:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Producer, wouldn't you know it? Ernst Lubitch. Ah, Lubitch. As Rachel had noted, Desire, Monte Carlo, and that uncertain feeling.
SPEAKER_05:And shoot, what is the other film, the other film? To be or not to be.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, to be or not to be. So many of these movies that we're going to be talking about, so many of these people worked together on various productions.
SPEAKER_05:Like Samson, the writer, uh worked with uh Lubish a lot.
SPEAKER_02:So Margaret Sullivan played Clara. Next Time We Love, Appointment for Love, and I Loved A Soldier. Jimmy Stewart. Oh, Jimmy Stewart. Oh Jimmy.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know. Hold on.
SPEAKER_02:Jimmy Stewart, who sounds like Don Knott's Alfred Vertigo. It's a Wonderful Life, Anatomy of a Murder. Frank Morgan played Hugo, the Wizard of Oz. He was the wizard. The cockeyed Miracle. That was my nickname in high school. And tortilla flat. She is speed.
SPEAKER_03:I heard that the kitty just had her like little zoomies. Poop zoom. Poop zoom. Oh, like me.
SPEAKER_02:We can't get off the subject.
SPEAKER_03:This is fucking too hard.
SPEAKER_02:Rachel, I hope when you get done, especially at the doctor's office, you just start running around. Every time.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, that's Rachel down the hallway, zoomies. Look at her go. That's a good one.
SPEAKER_02:Joseph Schildkraut played Ferr Ferenc? Fernk? Ferrts? Ferrants? Meet the Wildcat Northwest Outpost, The Cheaters. Sarah Hayden was Flora. Captain January, The Bishop's Wife, which is a movie that was remade into The Preacher's Wife, starring Denzel Washington. Betrayed Women. Felix Bressert was Pirovich. Comrade X, to be or Not To Be. Song is Born. I didn't know that that was a I thought it was just the star. I didn't know the song had its own thing. Yeah. William Tracy was Peppy. Tobacco Road, one too many. Angels with Dirty Faces. Not to be confused with the fake faces. Which is also great. Not to be confused with Angels with Filthy Souls. Oh. The fake movie from Home Alone. By the way.
SPEAKER_05:This is what I was talking about. That was what I was talking about with Paul's all the 80s and 90s with these weird facts that are just like who has that in their brain.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, people that have the same problems that I do, I assume. By the way, I want to say this really quick. I like William Tracy. I think William Tracy is a heck of an actor.
SPEAKER_05:He did great in this. He was one of my favorites in this.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it's a small cast, but whenever Peppy wasn't on screen, I was exclaiming, Where's Peppy? The Not Identical Twins. Inez Courtney was Ilona, Loose Ankles, Sonny, five of a kind, Edwin Maxwell was Lady Customer, Air Hostess, California Firebrand, my current nickname, and Shadowed. Rachel, we've talked enough about the people. Let's have some more fun. Okay. Fun facts, fun facts, everybody. It's fun fact time.
SPEAKER_05:Margaret Sullivan. Do you know she was married to Henry Fonda?
SPEAKER_02:I did not know that they were married.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, for like a year, and then she was like, never mind. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh my goodness, she is going crazy with the zoomies. She really is. I feel it. Hey, when you gotta poop, when you get to poop, when you have a chance to poop. Celebrate.
SPEAKER_03:Celebrate the little wins. Just gotta.
SPEAKER_02:By the way, your your video is frozen. I assume it will unfreeze at some point.
SPEAKER_05:Oh yeah, you've been doing the same thing too.
SPEAKER_02:Oh okay.
SPEAKER_05:It's it's I'm uh I'm currently live living at the base of a mountain, which is fun fact, Twin Peaks. Right!
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, oh damn good cherry pie.
unknown:Damn good cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I may say Diane. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Margaret Sullivan was infamous for her quick temper and disdainful attitude towards Hollywood. Fair. Jimmy recounted working with her as one of his great joys of his professional career. He was actually very much in love with her.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I did not know that.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, he he was the fun like thing about this movie is you're watching a man truly in love with the woman that he's talking to.
SPEAKER_03:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_05:Which is which is great. Yeah. It's not cool when Ben Affleck does it, but when Jimmy does it, it's fine.
SPEAKER_03:Not okay, Ben Affleck.
SPEAKER_05:Um, and because Jimmy knew her so personally, they were in the players' group together. Uh, he was usually really equipped to work with apparently when she got in a bad temper. Although it's really funny that that they would say that because um Lou Bitch commented that she was like her in-between scenes, like her just goofing off with the cast, made her it was just a joy to work with. Like she just kept the attitude of the entire cast up the entire time. But studios were scared of her. The Louis B. Maire of MGM Studio was actually afraid of her.
SPEAKER_02:So I'm really glad that you brought this up because there it's like a quote from I didn't write down who it was attributed to frequent and volatile emotional outbursts. And then I read what you're saying as well. Yeah. Where it's like, well, apparently on this movie, she was a fucking joy.
SPEAKER_05:Well, I think she was.
SPEAKER_02:I think she truly was. So I just find it the fact that this is documented, but you added context too with I'm like, I don't know how extreme that is.
SPEAKER_05:His wives. Um, which is fine. You can have multiples. It's fine.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. I prefer to have multiples. Oh, not I was talking about something else.
SPEAKER_03:Uh uniques.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, this is also I keep going off script, but some attribute the death of Sam Wood, an anti-communist, to a fight he had with her a week or like a couple days previously.
unknown:What?
SPEAKER_02:I am so glad you're adding all this context, Rachel. I'm not shitting you because I was just like, I'm watching her on screen and I'm and I'm doing the sheet or whatever, and I'm like, none of this adds up to me. Like no one is that good of an actor.
SPEAKER_05:Well, apparently she was. Well, I think she I think she just didn't, she just didn't have time for people to think that they owned her. Yeah, well, she didn't suffer fools, it sounds like didn't suffer fools, and Jimmy loved her for it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, and of course, as well as he should. And also, like in 1937, apparently, you know, being like, maybe you shouldn't be an asshole is a violent and emotional outburst or whatever. I don't know.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Let's see. Uh so Jimmy and her met on when they were in the company of the university players, um, and that's where Stuart realized he wanted to be an actor, and he followed Sullivan because he was in love with her and fellow player member Henry Fonda to New York in an acting career. And Henry Fonda is actually Stuart's best friend. They were best friends to Leon. This was the first of several adaptations of the Miklos Laszlo play, parfumery.
SPEAKER_03:Parfumery? I don't know.
SPEAKER_05:Parfumerai. I don't know. In 1949, a musical film adaptation in the uh oh, it's called In the Good Old Summertime, starring Judy Garland. Oh, was released in 1963. A Broadway version, She Loves Me, was produced to much acclaim, but little in box office. In 1993, Revival met the same fate as did the third in 2016. MGM planned a film remake in the 1960s retitled She Loves Me with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_05:To star, it was ultimately scrapped because we were robbed. Because MGM decided to rob us of that. Because they robbed us. And love and happiness and all that is good in the world. Right. A third film version, You've Got Mail, updated the plot to embrace current tech replacing letters with emails. The plot turned up most recently as the Hallmark Channel movie Return to the Office. I wanted to say something, but I can't remember what it was. It's fine. Uh on one rare, uh one of the rare occasions where the film was shot in sequence from the beginning of the script to the Oh, oh yeah, that was so cool. That was what I was saying earlier about how Lubic was like, we're gonna do this in consecutive order because we're gonna. And I think, I mean, you rarely get to do that with film, but when you do get to do that with film, um, it's so special because you do just get to basically feel the emotions authentically and build up.
SPEAKER_02:I think that the aim of Lubitch there is like we're gonna watch you fall deeper in love, like as this goes, but apparently that was pretty easy because that was already the case. I I think that what you're saying makes a lot of sense in terms of like if you're shooting a movie where people are falling in love with each other, if you start at the end and then go back to the beginning, it's probably a little more difficult for all parties.
SPEAKER_05:And also just the because they were only given Lubic wasn't given a lot of money to make this film, that that they tried to keep it all in one location was also like for the most part, was also really special. Also, oh wait, there's one more fun fact. I have one more fun fact! Do it, do it. Okay, it was very important for Lubic to have real snow. So that scene, that like one of the the Christmas Eve scene, yeah, it's all real snow.
SPEAKER_02:That's amazing. I was going to ask about that, talk about that, because at times I'm like the the way that it falls, I was like, there's no way, there's no way that this can't be real. Like so beautiful mean cold, hypnotic was very gorgeous.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, cocaine.
SPEAKER_02:We don't have uh uh a guest here, we're both hosts.
SPEAKER_05:I was gonna ask you what the log line to this film is.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. Uh a sales clerk. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:This is so terrible that we do this to people. Hey, why not two sales clerks?
SPEAKER_02:Two sales clerks at a store unknowingly that hate each other, right? Unknowingly correspond their true feelings until all of it hits critical mass, and you gotta kiss. Just do it. Just kiss, damn it. How bad was that, Rachel?
SPEAKER_05:That was really great. I'm not gonna look at it either, and I'm gonna try to do it as well. Oh, okay. Okay, two employees at a leather goods shop um hate each other until they finally realize that they may be too in love with each other as pen pals.
SPEAKER_02:I think yours will be way better than mine.
SPEAKER_05:I also kind of gave it away so people don't have to watch it now.
SPEAKER_02:Um I mean, they've had some time. Great. They've had a minute or two. I think they just want our thoughts more than anything, Rachel.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I think so.
SPEAKER_05:Do you want me to read the actual log line?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, please do. Okay.
SPEAKER_05:If it didn't, if we didn't do it justice, which I think we did. I think so. Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pals.
SPEAKER_02:That's I think that's maybe the best log line that we have ever had. Yeah. That's because it's so it's so so vital without realizing that they are falling in love, and then that then maybe the letters don't really matter so much. It's hard to say. Hard in the end. I mean it matters, but it does, you know, we're gonna talk this through. This episode is brought to you by Deep Thoughts.
SPEAKER_05:By Jack and Oh, wait, Deep Thoughts? Who who's Deep Thoughts? Who's deep thoughting? You? Me?
SPEAKER_02:Jack Candy. Jack Candy Jack Candy is what we're saying. Jack Candy. Jack Candy, man! Like a candy box. I'm saying ja and candy. Yeah, it's it's what we're all saying. So everybody, stay tuned, listen closely, and go poop. Take a poo break. We'll see you in a minute.
SPEAKER_04:Boom.
SPEAKER_02:Folks, if you have any idea the amount of deep thoughts we just exchanged for several minutes.
SPEAKER_05:We should not have gone on break. We should have just probably the real truth that we had.
SPEAKER_02:We digress. We digress. Everyone, Ben's not here. Ben has the Cinephile cards almost always in his nature's pocket, because if we get the cards, he can be slain. We will get the cards, Ben.
SPEAKER_05:We just need to find where he hides them. The last place was a little too specific and a little too obvious.
SPEAKER_02:We checked. It was just nature's pocket. Uh, Rachel, I'm gonna just bite the bullet here. Okay. I had not seen this movie until today.
SPEAKER_03:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:First experience. I do not have a massive amount of knowledge or hours put in of not only just black and white movies in general, but movies from the 30s through the 50s. Got it. It's kind of a blank spot for me. Okay. Other than some of the like really, really well It's a Wonderful Life. Okay. Inherit the Wind. Okay. So some of these other things I do, but most of it's just modern stuff for me. I thought this movie was so charming. Oh I really do feel like the love story. I think they're both so good at being like, that hurt, and then throwing it away a moment later and getting back into the moment. Uh, it was just two really great actors being able to do all this rapid fire shit. This is part of the reason why I love they came together because, and I know you know that movie, but like, because I find it very charming, and those two actors can just like bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. And so could Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, and so excellence in casting. I think the sets and the art direction and stuff is great. I really love the look of it. Yes, it's a black and white movie, it is lit very, very well. The a lot of the technical aspects of this movie are are wonderful. Yeah, some of the stuff about the story or the cadence and the language and stuff like that. I'm like, hmm, or was just like a little old timey for me or would take me out. Okay, I have thoughts. Continue. And I'm I look forward to hearing them. I do like some of the old like you ratfink pigeon stool, this, that. Like, I like a lot. And I feel like the kid in kindergarten cop, I like the way they talk. I think some sometimes, but sometimes I'm a little thrown by it. I'm also a little thrown by, and this is a thing that I think happens in older movies, and I think you and I know that there are times to do it and not to do it. I felt like nobody blinked. Nobody blinked? I was like, somebody blink, somebody blink. They're just very locked in. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just something I noticed.
SPEAKER_05:Maybe they're all aliens.
SPEAKER_02:Could be. But I've also found out that that's a that's something to think about deeply.
SPEAKER_03:I can't talk about it anymore. It's giving me a head.
SPEAKER_02:Um, the internet's been dead for at least 10 years. Is this movie even real? Yeah. Here, take two and these. I think also seeing people's reverence for this movie a little bit as I was doing some research and stuff.
SPEAKER_05:Ah, newprint.
SPEAKER_02:I think bled over to me and got me in a really good gear to get going in this movie.
SPEAKER_05:Ask a question.
SPEAKER_02:Please.
SPEAKER_05:Did you look in did you research this movie before you watched it or after?
SPEAKER_02:I usually try to do it after, but I have recently been like, I just need to knock out a bunch of these fact sheets uh for Ben. Ben does them. So I need to knock out a bunch of these. And this was one of those ones that like I had to knock it out before I could watch them, and that's just the way the day went. I'm glad that that happened though. I don't think it's a bad thing to go into something with like a positive vibe with the riz and feeling like it's it could slap up around the corner. Yeah. Yeah, man. Yeah. Or he's not gonna go on stage that night. But I I'm at a soft, so I could I can't I can be swayed with one way or the other with just a little bit of just a little shove. I'm at a soft four out of five sock garters. Wait, what? Sock garters, the things that hold your socks up that wrap around your legged.
SPEAKER_05:Fun fact.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, we'll get we'll get to that at a at another point, but I I I almost went with the weird little tie that Peppy has on. I almost went with cigarette boxes. I guess you could put a lot of things. But I rewatched the mask not too long ago, and Jake Harry's wearing one of those weird little ties as the mask at a point, because I think he's supposed to be a character almost from another time at times. Uh, and I was like, oh, it's the mask tie. Peppy has it on.
SPEAKER_03:Another weird fact that Paul has.
SPEAKER_02:You don't want to get into my deep thoughts.
unknown:You don't.
SPEAKER_02:Uh four sock arters, though. I I really thought it was really charming. I thought it was well acted. Uh, there's not like a crazy amount of camera style because that didn't exist as much at that, but the way that the movie is so thoughtfully framed, especially at a point where you look inside the mailbox and this very slow push on the mailbox. And oh my god. I think Lubic and the cinematographer William. Daniels, I think. Yes. They there was so much care that went into all of that. And because it's a movie that's based on a play, you know, it can be extremely precise like that. And I thought it was really well executed.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Rachel, yeah. You've heard my deep thoughts for quite a while now.
SPEAKER_05:I gave it a one out of five. No skin.
SPEAKER_03:Liar! I hate this movie. Liar! I'm poop zooming out of here.
SPEAKER_05:Um, I was introduced this to this movie by actually the rom com gents, which is another podcast.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:They were like, You, Rachel, you have to watch this movie because it's a classic.
SPEAKER_02:They hate they came together and they're wrong. So go back to the club. It's a wrong thing.
SPEAKER_05:Are they?
SPEAKER_02:They are wrong. And if you think that, you are wrong.
SPEAKER_05:Well, they have a podcast about They Come Together. Have you guys reviewed They Came Together?
SPEAKER_02:We haven't yet, and I it's on my little cheater list. I would love somebody to bring it.
SPEAKER_05:You should invite one of them to the podcast, and you guys should because it would be one of like the review the review like uh combat zone.
SPEAKER_02:Give me, I'm gonna rename it that. You review combat zone. Please give me Ryan or someone's info or whatever, and I would love to have them on, and I will go round for round. I think that movie is a love letter to the rom-com.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, they would disagree. I and I and I don't care. I have to go both ways. You tell me how much you love it, I'm like, great. They're like, this is horrible. I'm like, yay, and it's fine. Um, so for this specific film, I fell in love with their description of it so much. It was that thing. I heard so much about it before I went to watch it. I was so intrigued by people's love for it that I was like, oh, I have to see this movie that the director names it as his favorite film. Yeah. That he ever did. And I I mean, I it's a funny thing that I come onto your podcast to review things because I always am like, five out of five. This movie, five out of five. Aliens three, five out of five.
SPEAKER_02:Alien three should be I David Fincher's least favorite movie that he's never seen. And it's brilliant. It's it's brilliant.
SPEAKER_05:But yeah, no, I would give this probably, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:The heck of a rooney is this, Mrs. Blake.
SPEAKER_05:Five.
SPEAKER_03:It is a candy dish, Ned. Five uh five by five.
SPEAKER_05:What is the what are the musical boxes that they have?
SPEAKER_02:Deep in thought. It's a cigar, it's a leather, like a faux leather cigarette box. Just candy, Ned.
SPEAKER_05:$90. Something, some classical music.
SPEAKER_02:Dostaevsky or something.
SPEAKER_05:Five sing cigarette boxes. Five sing cigarette boxes.
SPEAKER_02:Which you get for someone if you hate them. Oh shit. If you want to annoy them.
SPEAKER_05:Which brings back to my one-star rating.
SPEAKER_02:Why the five? You were saying like rom com gents, like really what pushed you that high to that score? Is there anything we haven't talked about?
SPEAKER_05:Uh yeah, I so I work in um before before cancer, I worked at in a with an events team for this restaurant, Redbird. And all of those characters pretty much ring true for the events. We have the tattletale, we have like we're all super close. We're the way that we talk in our shorthand, our group chats, which we would go to prison for if anybody ever released them. It's just this very tight group of family that is kind of true in sort of this um there is no uh middle class anymore. But, you know, if there was, we it would it would be us. And just the way that, you know, as I was watching it and I was like, that's me and my guys. That's like me and my team. They're getting it. That's exactly, you know, every single time um somebody wants an opinion, I would skedaddle.
SPEAKER_02:But there's you like there's an authenticity you feel in terms of that. Yeah. I agree, I agree with you somebody who's worked service industry jobs or retail jobs or whatever through life.
SPEAKER_05:And they're like your best friends, they're your family. And I actually had not really felt that until starting to work with this group of people. But then the other truth that I just love is what got me was Jimmy Stewart looking at her through the window.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I think I know which moment you're talking about.
SPEAKER_05:If you considered me like that, I would just be a puddle. And that sort of him beginning to unspoken, they call it the Lubitch touch of film by being like bringing comedy, sexuality, and wit and unspoken wit to a scene is called is like the the Lubitch touch. And so to be able to have your characters some while one character is speaking, the other one is like thinking five steps ahead, and you're watching it sort of authentically in real time, and and the amount of comedy and wit that's still happening and like playing kind of in the for in the in the front to to see while all this other stuff is kind of happening in the mental background and the audience can see it. But then also like the real sad thing of like this is a comedy and a love story, and there's like a guy tries to kill himself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Off camera, luckily.
SPEAKER_05:And and his, you know, his errand boy is there to protect him because he loves him.
SPEAKER_02:I I think you know what?
SPEAKER_05:I'm gonna get ahead of myself. I am I'm already too. I'm giving you all the reasons. I'm just basically like detailing the entire movie why I love it. I love every I love every every single every bit of screen time and every word and every every character flaw of this movie. I just think is just so sweet and delicate and beautiful and imperfect.
SPEAKER_02:And that's why you give it a five.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So we're at a five cigarette boxes, that play that song that you hate every time you open it. It is a kid. And I'm at four sock garters. Ninety gallons.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:We're gonna start the movie.
SPEAKER_03:I think you could put a lot of nice things in there.
SPEAKER_02:Such a good 90 gallons!
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, movie!
SPEAKER_05:It's good. I love your wait, wait, wait, wait, pause. Sorry, Paul. I have to say, I love your needle drops. Like Matt and I live for this podcast because of the needle drops of this podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Okay. Well, I'll keep up, I'll keep up the hard work in terms of mixing all the crazy shit in.
SPEAKER_05:I I can't wait to hear what's happening now.
unknown:It can only happen.
SPEAKER_02:Me too.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, we'll continue.
SPEAKER_02:No, I'm just saying, like, I don't add those things in until the edit. So it would be nice to just have a button or whatever, you know. Um, not that advanced. It could only happen. The first person that we meet, I want to say, is Peppy with his little tie and all of his energy and everything. And and everybody like you would if you worked in the service industry at a coffee shop or a retail store or wherever, everybody's kind of gathering outside, chit-chatting, waiting for the boss. Yeah. And who is it that's wearing that fox fur, by the way? Is that why they called it fox books? Because that woman is wearing that fur that she should not be wearing.
SPEAKER_05:I think it's Flora. Yeah, I think you're right. But it could be Elona or whatever her name is.
SPEAKER_02:Jimmy Stewart starts going into the dinner that he had at the bosses. Yeah. So his boss invited him.
SPEAKER_05:And this is what's so brilliant because it sets in the like in you don't know that it's happening, but basically, you're seeing the boss's point of view of who's there because there's an underlying story of somebody's cheating, somebody is sleeping with the boss's wife.
SPEAKER_02:And he it's funny when he tries to go about like figuring it out, and you get this inkling right at the first moment of the movie that there's this one guy there that is just like down talking people and pulling the rug out from people where he's like, Oh, so it wasn't good goose liver or whatever. And Jimmy Stewart's like, No, I ate too much of it because it was good.
SPEAKER_05:Everybody knows that if they that if they say anything slightly derogatory, uh, what's his name?
SPEAKER_03:Uh oh man, Mat Matashek? Matashek. Or Vasquez. Oh, yeah, Vasquez. Yeah, the bad is gonna tell the boss.
SPEAKER_02:The the quote unquote bad guy. This is something that I like about this movie and some other movies I've seen, you know, recently, even where it's like there's not really a bad guy, there's not like an outward antagonist, it's just people living life.
SPEAKER_05:There's that guy that you work with that you're just like, uh this guy fucking drives me insane. I said that. Yeah. And so and so sleeping with the boss's wife.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and Jimmy Stewart explains this thing that he's in with who's his confidant co-worker that I can't remember everyone's names. I don't know why it's Pirovich, Pirovich Pirovich. I don't know why they insisted on having this take place in Hungary and people having these Hungarian in I don't understand why that choice happened. It makes it that's one of the things where I'm like, where like part of the the rating comes down where I'm like, this is too I can't my brain can't.
SPEAKER_05:I think it was so um the director no, it's a French play. But the director came to came to Hollywood to like start his he was a famous director in Germany, and then he comes to Hollywood and is just like shut down, like just torn to pieces for being um Jewish, leaves and eventually comes back. But I think it was sort of an FU to oh you can't say this name?
SPEAKER_02:Which Hollywood that's that's if that's the choice he made for whatever reason, good for him. There's a level of it though for me where it's just like they're all speaking English, they have everything about them in terms of their fashion and whatever it all feels kind of American. Because that's Hollywood, and and I understand that, but it's one of the it's it's like the Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie, where everybody's speaking German for a moment and then they're like, okay, everybody's not doing that now. But then we all still have these names and this and this, and it's just like, all right, there's there's a level for me, and and again, if that's his fuck you to people like me, then I'm fucked, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_05:But it wasn't it wasn't a as you know, I wouldn't say he would never do an F you, he would be like uh he would be like a happy, like flip you the bird, but like with a smile. Like he'd probably like do like one of these, like and you'd be like, oh, you're right.
SPEAKER_02:Either way, that's part of the reason why it's just like I had trouble keeping up with who was whom. And I understand, like it if I I guess maybe paid more attention or uh knew the language, or those names were more familiar to me, it would be easier for me, but I'm just a dipshit American, and so it was just like a little difficult to keep up with who everybody was at times, except Matashek. Matashek. That was always very clear, and uh Jimmy Stewart is gets these letters from this woman, unbeknownst, box 237. Nobody knows who's talking to whom, but there's correspondence going on between Jimmy Stewart and a mystery woman. And Jimmy Stewart is very well read and uh is now also ready to start reading the encyclopedia, which I found very funny.
SPEAKER_03:Adorable.
SPEAKER_02:There's that moment early on in the movie where Matashek takes Jimmy Stewart into the office and is like fishing for things about if Jimmy Stewart is the one stupping his wife. And I'm like, does this guy want to be cucked? Like I'm confused as to is Matashek like uh what are they? This is uh I have a hot wife. She she does the thing, she entertains also, and I'd like you to be one of the ones. Like that sounds like that's not that it wasn't.
SPEAKER_05:I think that he he like Jimmy Stewart grew up in this store. Yeah, like he this he's beloved by this man, and this man eventually is like brings him up to like a uh shop steward. No, what is the what is his title?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he's he's like a the head sales clerk or whatever.
SPEAKER_05:And he's like, I'm so proud of you. Come to dinner, like this is the ultimate thing. But then he starts noticing that his wife is doing some shady business and that Jimmy Stewart sent his wife's flowers, and so he's like, No, not not the guy that I love, not Jim, not not Jimmy. Jimmy couldn't be doing this to me, right?
SPEAKER_02:It couldn't be Jimmy, not Jimmy. Oh no, thing of the movie Roadhouse, and I'm gonna try to not start going off on a tangent.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, we always go on Roadhouse tangents, and we just it just Hey, I love you, Miho.
SPEAKER_02:So they start this whole dynamic. Jimmy Stewart and Margaret start this, and I want to say their names that are Clara Clara, Clara and Alfred. Very hard to pronounce names, very easy, but they don't call him Alfred, they call him by his last name a lot, which is another K name.
SPEAKER_03:What do they call him?
SPEAKER_02:What is his name?
SPEAKER_03:What is his name?
SPEAKER_02:I swear he has a K name, like uh Krolik, Krenik. Yeah, but they all have these k names in a lot of cases or cause in the names.
SPEAKER_01:So forget about it, cuz.
SPEAKER_02:They're they're having this back and forth like immediately, like she's looking for a job and gets the job when she's able to sell this cigarette box that Jimmy Stewart was like, we should not carry this. Her being suddenly helpful when she wants to leave early to meet up with the mystery man that she's been corresponding with. I find that so delightful.
SPEAKER_05:Oh my gosh. Well, just like to take you back, the magic of Margaret Sullivan in this film is that she is a word, like uh masseuse or magician or something. Like she just the way that she can just turn on the charm for people. So when she's she her character is introduced by like coming into the shop desperately needing to find work. And Jimmy's like, There's no work for you here. We can't possibly hire someone else. And she cons the boss into hiring her because she's is able to sell a singing cigar or a singing cigar box to a customer saying that it's a candy box, and it's just like she's just so beautifully, like delicately charming in this film.
SPEAKER_02:It's very effortless.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:A lot of the time. I mean, with a lot of the cast, but especially with the two of them and when they're with each other. I think the guy who plays uh Matichek or whatever is also, I think, pretty just a lot of really good acting in this movie. So good. Clara's very helpful all of a sudden after being super combative, the time that she's worked there. Yeah. And the other thing too is like it's sometimes it's hard for me to keep track of the timeline where she's been there for I think weeks or months at a when we get to the city. So basically, okay. Maticek and Krennick get into this big fight, like pretty early on in the movie because Krennick wants a raise, Krenik is Jimmy Stewart, and doesn't want to ask for it because he's too afraid, and then is suddenly like, well, then I quit and then gets fired. Gets voluntarily quit fired.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, so all of it leads up to like so. Basically, like the whole film is like throughout the course of the year that she manages to get hired, and then she's like kind of tries to like mean flirt with Jimmy Stewart, and he's like, ow, don't do that. And she's like, Fine, you're jerk. And they like basically build up into this adorable angst against each other. And throughout the course of the year, Jimmy's boss is being like, Is Jimmy the one that's sleeping with my wife? And then he hires a private detective, and then it gets to this point where Jimmy's just like, I'm doing everything, I'm bending over backwards for you. If you can't, you know, love me, boss dude, then then I can find work somewhere else. And the boss dude's like, Yeah, I think you're sleeping with my wife, so uh go.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and that like the sleeping with the wife thing is internal still at that point, but that is the motivation for letting him go because he thinks he's sleeping with his wife. And then the investigator shows up like right after uh Jimmy Stewart's let go, and he's like, Oh no, it was that guy.
SPEAKER_05:It was the really creepy guy that everybody in the audience is like, wow, that guy's super creepy and he's really slimy. This and he's and all of a sudden, like he's like he's a kiss ass, but he's also making somehow way more money than everybody else, even though they're all making the same amount of money. He's suddenly getting diamond rings and like fur coats and things, and you're like, obviously, can't the boss tell that like it's this guy that's sleeping with his wife?
SPEAKER_02:Do you think the money that Maticek was getting to his wife that he mentions at points? It's like, didn't I give you money recently? Or she's buying him stuff.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, she's acting like he's a pimp. Yeah. Yeah, well, no, no, sorry, uh Jigglo, Jigglo. Yeah, exactly. Same thing, right?
SPEAKER_02:The Peppy impression of Elona or Flora or whatever, where he's like telling the wife, nope, Peppy's not. Oh, I'll give him a scolding. I'll give him a scold. Hi, I'll give him a scolding.
SPEAKER_05:And you're like, that's not a female voice, that's like a mouse voice.
SPEAKER_02:That is something not of this world, as we've discussed, Rachel. Some of these people may be aliens. But this is also where Matichik, wife's cheating on him, his main dude has left him via him firing him and whatever, and he's like, I'm done. And Peppy saves him.
SPEAKER_05:Well, like the and then going back to the suicide part of that, it's like he says in the in the moment, he says, Um, 20 years I I love my wife, and it just turns out she didn't want to grow old with me.
SPEAKER_02:So heartbreaking.
SPEAKER_05:And then also he realizes that he is um put out of work, possibly like his best employee, like a good man. He's just thrown in the streets because of his own jealousy, and he's just wrecked by that, and he's wrecked by like he doesn't have a home. He's like at the end of the movie when he's desperately trying to get people to like socialize with him and and have a family with him. And this is a man that's never gonna have a family again.
SPEAKER_02:It's the unheralded so far by us in this moment, and I think that's gonna change. That performance is so key to the movie. That character storyline outside of who's writing whom letters and the banter and the really good stuff between um Jimmy and Margaret. Man, the guy who the Wizard of Oz really brings it. He waves the wand and really does it. So she Clara.
SPEAKER_05:Yes, so wait, so wait, wait, we have to say we. Have to say, so he the boss was like keeping everybody late to like do like decorate for Christmas, and everybody's like, Oh no, and Clara is supposed to meet her mystery man, this pen pal, this beautiful, amazing person that she doesn't know what he looks like, but they're gonna wear carnations, and she has like they're supposed to bring a specific book, and yeah, and and suddenly Jim Jimmy's also supposed to meet his like imaginary pen pal girl, but they have to work late. But then when the boss gets the notification that he's gonna find out who his wife's cheating on him with, he fires Jimmy and he lets everybody leave early.
SPEAKER_02:So Clara gets to go meet her mystery man, and so does Jimmy because he's been fired, and he wasn't gonna go and check it out at all. But the homie is like, Come on, man, you've already had a bad day. You've been doing this pen pal thing. Let's let's check this out. And when Jimmy Stewart kind of after the guy kind of reveals, he's like, Oh no, it is Clara.
SPEAKER_05:And oh, kind of looks of the same disposition as Clara. Oh no, not Clara. He's like, Well, if you're not gonna like Clara, you're not gonna like this girl because it's Clara. Because it happens to be her.
SPEAKER_02:When the the friend goes and looks and says she has cake and coffee and she's dunking it, and Jimmy Stewart being like, What's wrong with that? Like, where he's like, That sounds fucking awesome. Like that very first moment of like, yeah, she dunks her cake in coffee. He you can tell in that moment, he's like, Oh, same. We're the same.
SPEAKER_05:We're the same person, and like it's so cute because his friend is like, Ew, she's dunking her cake. That's so rude. And Jimmy's like, Yeah, she's dunking her cake.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, get that cake, girl.
SPEAKER_05:I love this movie.
SPEAKER_02:They're so nasty to each other at times in that moment. Like, Jimmy's definitely is definitely a little bit more like fishing and like trying to be kind, and she's suit, she's understandably like very defensive, and like, dude, get the fuck out of here. You're gonna scare away like my dream man. Yeah. And so the the writing just all adds up. It's just very tightly written.
SPEAKER_05:At that moment, there's a moment before where Jimmy decides not to see her. That moment before.
SPEAKER_02:Sorry, I'm getting in my zone.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, and now you're feeling my moment. I'm ready to hear. Um and so objective. I'm a monkey. Okay. And that's how Jimmy Stewart got his voice was because he was not actually trained at the University of Players. He did Strasbourg and he studied um animal exercise and came up with that uh gorilla type animalistic uh good things.
SPEAKER_02:He's also good, he's a good physical actor. A lot of this stuff from this point in time that I've seen, people are acting, like they're indicating, and I don't see a lot of that in this movie, and especially not from him. I've always it's like Mr. Smith goes to Washington and a couple of the Hitchcocks, and I I've seen a few of his movies specifically.
SPEAKER_05:Oh. Can I tell you? No, you go, you go, you go. No, not well versed. No, please tell me. Okay. So the other thing, the other reason why I love this movie so much is that um I feel robbed that we had World War II.
SPEAKER_02:Dude, yeah. Because sorry, do that I I'm sure most people do. Covers everybody.
SPEAKER_05:Dude.
SPEAKER_02:Dude.
SPEAKER_05:But um we kind of lost that Jimmy Stewart.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he entered the Air Force, he flew bombers during WW2, yeah, and still was in the reserves for a long period of his life. And Rachel, I would love for you to put the cherry on this if you know what rank he retired at.
SPEAKER_05:Court-martial. Dishonorable discharge. Dishonorable discharge. He was a brigadier general, he was a one-star general in the Air Force, as well as one of the but so when he came back, he came back, he he saw a lot, and it was. I mean, a lot of people in World War II, I'm guessing a lot of people in World War II saw online. Not to make light of that, but it it is the thing of watching a really beautiful young talent in in art, in just an art form. And then he went to war and he came back and he he came back and he I don't know if I can do it's a wonderful life. I don't know if I see love that way.
SPEAKER_02:I like m movies from dip from the period before the war as well as after the war, but it it is a different person to a degree. I I agree with you.
SPEAKER_05:I I would have I love I think he's a very, very talented actor. I just wish I could have seen more romantic Jimmy Steve.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that he didn't go that he didn't make a brave and heroic choice to go through something awful.
SPEAKER_05:Really awful, really truly horrendous. World-breaking.
SPEAKER_02:And well, on that note, Matic has a nervous breakdown after he attempts suicide. And I I said this movie doesn't have a ton of like style as we define define it now. There is, I feel like, a stylistic choice or feel, the way that the door frame is and the wall and the light cracking when Matichik attempts that. It's very style, it there's like a Hitchcockian kind of thing, too. Just a few of those the very seldom dark moments in this movie that happen, yeah. You feel them.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. And you don't need to see them.
SPEAKER_02:No, you don't. There it's just as effective. Because why would you want why would a film yeah, so when when why would you want to see anything on a film? Yeah, you wouldn't steal a download a film. You wouldn't download a house. So Peppy goes to see Matich at the doctor. Phony doctor, you should the doctor's like, what are you doing? He's like, Oh, I'm a distribution and uh logistics specialist with a minor and whatever, whatever. And the guy, the doctor, whatever, goes, Oh, so you're an errand boy. And Peppy's like, dude, fuck you. What did I say? Did I call you a pill peddler? Yeah, which was I died at that.
SPEAKER_05:Everybody is equal in the eyes of Lubic.
SPEAKER_02:This is the next day, correct? After Jimmy Stewart's fired and the suicide attempt, and Jimmy Stewart comes to visit and is promoted the next day, and Pepe's promoted, and Matichik, I think, has this nervous breakdown and comes to his senses very quickly, realizing that it wasn't these people and comes back to himself. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:He said that it's Var Vagnish, Vajnish, Vash, Vach Vachnik, Vachush.
SPEAKER_02:Varshnikeman. Varnish? Vaskush? Special Varnish. Varnish is fired outside of a bunch of threats that he makes, and he's gonna call his lawyer and you assaulted me and all this other stuff. And like most people that do that shit, we never hear from him again. Goodbye. Goodbye and bad luck. Yes. No Novak? Novak is Clara? Clara. Because people say Miss Novak and people are proper and calling people minor last names.
SPEAKER_05:I don't know how it is at now at New Now. What is it? Uh Novak from um Down with Love. I kept thinking of Kim Novak.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, Kim Novak.
SPEAKER_02:Oh.
SPEAKER_03:I couldn't help myself.
SPEAKER_02:Jimmy Stewart and Novak. Meet in this in the manager's office. Jimmy's telling her, like, I'm the fucking guy now. So, like, you know, we're everything's gonna be good. We're gonna be gangbusters here. I'm gonna take care of everybody. I'm a cool guy. And uh she doesn't believe him, and a call comes through. And on official business, Jimmy Stewart's like, I'm the fucking guy, and she faints.
SPEAKER_05:She can't believe that her bully at work is now her boss, and she just can't handle it. But his little voice, oh Clara.
SPEAKER_02:Oh Clara! Well, it's funny, you say bully, it's like to me, it's like a per is is he like a perceived bully or a bull? Like, I feel like they it's tete.
SPEAKER_05:They both are on the wrong, they they both just weren't seeing each other for the long. They weren't they weren't seeing each other, they weren't seeing each other for who they were, and so she was seeing him as a bully, and he was seeing her as uh irresponsible at work.
SPEAKER_02:I love the way you said that because I really felt, and I think I can articulate it now. You two clearly have defenses up or whatever, because you like each other, you're clearly compatible, and you just don't want it to be that for whatever reason, because he's just a clerk, as she puts it, a point as an insult to him. She's an old maid, and she he calls her an old maid. But this is one of the moments that I really, really like when he goes to visit Clara because she's sick, she fainted, she can't work, and she's distraught because she's her love is lost, she's not gonna meet this guy that has been writing the letters she believes. Yeah, Jimmy Stewart shows up to her bedside to make sure she's okay and that she's better and can come back to work, delivers a new letter.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:About that boy I saw in the cafe when I walked by, because this is a part of the whole trick, is he's playing two parts the unknown love interest and the actual known love interest that he actually is, and like he's selling himself through the letter.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, no, I love that. Well, because it's like suddenly he's decided, I think he's decided the moment he walked into the cafe and started fighting with her that he loves her. And he at this moment when he gets his aunt, the the aunts come in with another letter from the mystery pen pal guy to her to her sickbed after she's fainted, and Jimmy's come in to check as a boss to make sure that she's okay. Starting to orchestrate both to let her see him. He's directing it, yeah. And and also to kill But who'd want to hurt me to put away the the fantasy of him.
SPEAKER_02:He's trying to yeah, put out that flame, sorry.
SPEAKER_05:So the pen pal guy has to become ruined and a bad person in her eyes, and she has to start seeing Jimmy for who he is, and he starts seeing her because he's so as much as I love it when he's like, You put me down in such a beautiful way, like the way that he's just like the way you talk about me because he wants that, he wants somebody to to talk to and to to fight with and to have discord with beautiful and to be plain, and to be articulate and well read, mm-hmm, and just be direct and plain.
SPEAKER_02:It it's it's a thing that he does about the sit with the cigarette box where he's like, Don't buy these, these are terrible to his boss. Yeah, and then she sells one as she's kind of she can kind of turn on, they can both kind of turn on the BS and turn it off. Yeah, and the moment when she's in bed and says, I'm gonna get my love interest, one of those cigarette boxes, because we can't sell them and all this other stuff, and Jimmy Stewart's music's romantic, and it's romantic, and and he's like, the music is terrible, the box is terrible, it'll fall apart any moment. Get him a wallet. That's romantic because when he opens it, when I open it, it'll have you know this on this part and a picture on this part, and a letter from me, and it's like it's like, dude, yeah, Jimmy Stewart, take me, yeah, take me home, pal.
SPEAKER_05:Great, yeah. She does like, no, I'm still gonna get him the cigarette box, and then she goes back to work the next day, and he gets his friend at work to convince her in a very funny way to do the wallet instead as a present for her pen pal love interest.
SPEAKER_02:All the dynamics that have changed when he takes over, like when Peppy gets promoted and he calls and he's like, I need a new errand boy, blah blah blah, and he's just like fast talking, like real professional, like and hires this this new errand boy, and Pier Pier Pirovich, Petrovic Pik Pika Pak pick a pick pickle peeple peep Peter Piper. Peter Piper picked a pick a pick a pack a pack pepper. Thank you. He plays cupid, like you were saying, with the cigarette box, and he's like, Oh, I'm gonna get this for someone I fucking hate.
SPEAKER_05:And she's like, Wait, you you give this to somebody you hate? And he's like, Yeah, you would only give this to somebody you hate. This is a piece of get him a wallet. And then Pierovic goes to Jimmy Stewart and he's like, I got you the wallet.
SPEAKER_02:I'm trying to get somebody to do a successful Murkovich, whatever is like Kirkkovich, yeah, matchek, matchek. I'm trying to get Peter's trying to get his uncle or whatever he is to do a successful Matichik, and he's gonna use that cigarette box to do it and talks her out of it pretty quickly. So the Christmas rush happens because the store's been pretty slow for the most part.
SPEAKER_05:There's a customer here or there, but under Jimmy's management, suddenly it starts to do very well.
SPEAKER_02:The biggest day they've had in 12 years, we find out at the end. Yeah, Maticek kind of gets caught being clever about this Christmas rush thing or whatever, and trying to act like he's like, Wow, great prices. Oh no, no, no, when he gets caught trying to get people to go in.
SPEAKER_05:I love about you, Paul, because everything that you're finding so sweet and endearing about this like this movie is all of the weird little unique, like just like the the kaleidoscope of little pieces that bring this, tie this everybody together and all the characters together.
SPEAKER_02:I I didn't want to say it because I I feel like sometimes people take it as an insult or whatever, but I like I'm a weird person.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And uh I certainly hope you feel that you're a weird person. It's so much more fun that way. And I was like, this movie's kind of weird. I like this.
SPEAKER_04:It's so weird.
SPEAKER_02:It's not quite arsenic and old lace. There's another old movie I've seen. It's not it's not a full-on, all the way out farce like that or what have you, but it has like little elements that are so quirky, like it's just so charming. And are so true.
SPEAKER_05:Like, I can't tell you, as somebody that's worked in like customer service for my entire life, the moment there's a moment where Jimmy Stewart, a woman comes in, she's like, excuse me, sir. And she's like, he's like, Yes, how can I help you, ma'am? And she's like, These ties for$2.95, how much are they?$2.95. Ah, that's way too expensive.
SPEAKER_02:What's going on? I worked in, you know, retail or what have you, and somebody would pick something up and say, How do I use this or how does it work? And I would just turn it around and read the directions to them.
SPEAKER_05:Or that would happen where you just be like, they'd be like, What's in the almond pistachio cookies? Almond pistachio. It's like, ew, I'm allergic. You're like, okay.
SPEAKER_02:Where do the almonds come from? Were the almonds happy? Were they raised ethically? Were they organic? Who was their mother? How much sun did they get per day? But we find out the Christmas rush that they get is like it's like 10 grand.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:On Christmas Eve. And Matichik adjusted 10 and can I was gonna say, can white, can went from 500,000 to 10. No, I can't do that. Minus the square. Add a three to the third power. Alien three. Divided by three. The answer is Alien Three. Got it. But Matic is now essentially turned into you know, Ebenezer Scrooge, where he's like had this rough experience for most of the movie, and then he's like, Come in and you'll feel know me better, man, or whatever. And he's just like super jovial and giving people bonuses and super thrilled. And you were talking about this where Matic walks out, I think before everybody, when the store's closing that night, and everybody's got stuff to do. Yeah. Except Rudy, the new errand boy.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. And it's that moment because it's like everybody loves it. Like he calls Maticek calls whatever his name is, calls everybody that works at the store his family. But then the truth is they all have their lives, and he doesn't have a life anymore until this little errand boy that they've just hired that he doesn't really know comes out, and the errand's boy is like, No, I don't have a life either. My family, I don't have a family. And the two of them bond and they go and they get have Christmas dinner together, and you're just like, Oh, okay, everybody's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and it's like with all the trimmings and shit, too. When Madichek like breaks down, I was like, damn.
SPEAKER_03:You get so excited.
SPEAKER_02:Clara, I'm sorry. I'm going with that guy.
SPEAKER_03:Matic, wait, have a great time.
SPEAKER_02:So everybody's left. Except I want to know his name. I know it's Alfred Claring, Clarinick, Clarinet.
SPEAKER_05:I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it. And Clara. I got it. It's Alfred Krolik.
SPEAKER_02:Krollick and Clara are the last two left. Why why is it in this moment do you think that I mean he has her try on this necklace that he bought for her and all this stuff? Why does she tell him in this moment? I've been so attracted to you at times, essentially from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_05:Because she's about to get married, she thinks she's about to get married. So she thinks she thinks she's like, I gotta like, I gotta just I gotta clear the air here. And also he's been so charming and so wonderful and so kind to her. And he's he's turning this new leaf, and she has to admit she's like, Look, I'm going with this other guy, but in another life, I would have gone with you, which was his plan all along.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, that's the big thing, is like it's all his plan kind of unfolding. I I guess there's a part of me that's like, oh, I see for whatever reason that you're compelled to tell him this, like to get to be decent to him, this nicety. Now that it's yeah, yes. But there's a uh another part of me that's like I wish you would have done this earlier, but I'm so glad you didn't, because I want the pa I have never, never in my life watched a movie and just been like, kiss, kiss for so much of a movie.
SPEAKER_05:Same. That's like the whole that's like the moment that he sees her in the cafe and he he like he walks past the window and then he comes back and looks at her. I'm like, uh, I'm in trouble. I need them to kiss now. And then they like just like the dog and pony show of just like them kind of like will they or won't they keeps happening and then he like cares, like she faints and he like runs to her and then he looks after her when she's not feeling well, and then yeah, like all of this stuff is happening, bubbling up until they're both alone together and it's dark. And Jimmy Stewart, and this is why I'm telling you, I really wish we had more of this, Jimmy Stewart. Has a way of looking at women that he's in love with.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_05:That is just so like I don't know if he's gonna eat her or kiss her.
SPEAKER_02:She prefers multiples too, I hear. So it's not just me.
SPEAKER_05:So lovely. It is such a lovely, hesitant, like he knows that he might do either.
SPEAKER_02:And he is a little scared. I I think there's a level of him, I agree that I see on him being like, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but whatever I'm gonna do, I'm gonna go all the fucking way.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Like when it happens, it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_05:And 100% in. Like he grabs her at one point, and she's like, she's freaking out. She's like, Why are you grabbing me like this? And he's like, I can't, I have to grab you.
SPEAKER_02:The moment when she fully breaks down, too, when she says what her strategy was. She was like, I was gonna treat you like a dog and treat you like garbage. And instead of licking my hand, you barked. You barked, you barked back. Reminds me of Special K. Maybe that's part of the reason why I like it so much because I like to bark. Part of this complete breakfast.
SPEAKER_04:And that too.
SPEAKER_03:It's a good way to start the day. And eating special K Special K.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Novak.
SPEAKER_02:And the Jimmy Stewart talking about the non-existent fiance that's actually him walking in and still trying to talk himself up and saying the guy doesn't have a job and he doesn't have that or this.
SPEAKER_05:Let's just bring it down. Let's let's tell the people that don't know already.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:He tells her as she's about to go on her date to meet the love of her life and possibly get married and engaged. He's like, Oh, by the way, I met him. And she's like, What?
SPEAKER_03:He's like, Yeah, and he came in the other day.
SPEAKER_05:He's jobless, he's fat, he's uh not well read. It turns out he was copying pasting all the letters that he mailed you.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, Victor Hugo. Oh yeah. And he just throws him under a bus.
SPEAKER_05:Destroys like the love, like this imagined love of her life, and she's just torn apart, and as she's just broken there on the floor, he's like, I like you.
SPEAKER_02:When she kind of gives him the signal of the like, I've always been into you, and his I understand where he's like, I I wanna. I think there's a level of him wanting to like soften the blow of the non-existent guy to a degree before he just is like, fuck it, I'm the guy. Yeah, I don't know if he just buys a red carnation every day, or if he was planning glue, or yeah, and maybe he was gonna do it on Christmas Eve no matter what. But finally, the red carnation that she had. Oh, we had somebody with Cardenias and somebody with this and that.
SPEAKER_05:No, no, he he planned it because he he planned the date.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's right. You're 100% right. So he brought the carnation of doy. Again, I said this movie's so tightly written, and then I fucking oh Paul. So he he pops out the carnation and she's like, holy shit.
SPEAKER_05:And they finally But before they do, have a moment before they do her being like, he's like, so it's me, and she's like, What? And he's like, Yeah, is that okay? And she's like, psychologically, I'm very confused.
SPEAKER_02:I love that, and I love that they're uh because you yes, you would be confused and upset and frustrated and happy and like the flood of emotions that would happen in that moment, and I think she really fucking nails it.
SPEAKER_05:Personally, I'm very pleased when she breaks it the like the nuance of it breaks it down like her like her worried face to her happy face is like just a like just a ray of sunshine. And then she go, then the last bit that she does before they before we we're we're as an audience, we're just ready for it, and I think this is brilliant, brilliant writing. So you think they're about to kiss, and she's like, Remember when I said that you were bow-legged?
SPEAKER_02:You have to have your pants tailored weird. I've never been to a tailor. Well, must be nice.
SPEAKER_05:And so he has to prove, and so he raises this, which is making the movie weird. It's that thing that we were talking about. I'm not sure if we were talking about it on air or off-air, but we're talking about how there needs to be the weirdness. The weirdness needs to be in New York.
SPEAKER_02:Him pulling up his pants in that moment and showing her his sock garters.
SPEAKER_05:Not attractive.
SPEAKER_02:But not everything is attractive. Like when you're married to somebody with somebody long-term, people they wear sock garters, they sniff instead of blow their nose, they don't flush the toilet every time, whatever it is. That it's one of those things. The fact that Lubitch and everybody else involved was like, so they kiss and it's over.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Perfection.
SPEAKER_05:Kiss done.
SPEAKER_02:Because that's what the entire movie is clearly building to. And I've all I don't know how many times I again I felt more excitement or need or what have you, of like, I need this to happen in a movie. And there are things that I watch, and I don't know if you do this, Rachel, where you watch something and you're like, oh, this is happening, or this is gonna happen. And it's like there's a it's predictability.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, yeah. I did that with the running man where I was like, Oh, I know where he is.
SPEAKER_02:Sure.
SPEAKER_05:I know where he's hiding.
SPEAKER_02:And that's gonna happen from time to time. There's a difference between something that is predictable and unsatisfying, and predictable and satisfying, and the difference in the execution, and this is perfection and execution.
SPEAKER_05:Because I think it's that thing where you the writer is telling you it's going to happen, and then keeps finding ways to keep it from happening. There you go. And they're going to get you're gonna get there, and you know you you trust the writing to get you there. You know it's a romantic comedy, you know that they're gonna end up together, you know that they're gonna kiss.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe it's just delaying pleasure, though. It's delaying that. Yeah, so many of these movies, by the way, that I've mentioned from this time period that I haven't seen a lot of, they're horny. They're horny in a way.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Like they have to be innocent because of the time. But they're horny.
SPEAKER_05:Lubic was pre-code. When Lubic was pre-code, apparently he was a like some of his stuff after what is it, after code? What is it called? After code, post-code.
SPEAKER_02:Did he do Debbie Does Dallas 2 or 3?
SPEAKER_05:X.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, okay. The 10th one. Yeah, that was the best one.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, it was. So, but like uh some of his films were like not allowed, like, people wouldn't put them in the film archives. I think one of his films refute they like weren't allowed to make it into a video cassette. Oh. I might be long.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, but like no, either because it was unfindable or okay. Unfindable or risque, etc.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Rachel, this is the other crazy thing about this movie. We have gone through this entire movie. This movie goes at such a fucking clip.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. 39 minutes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and we're at almost an hour and 39 minutes of recording. That's awesome. We usually go way over long. I and that's a good thing. That's gonna be so happy. I could talk more fucking Matt. I'm not playing your director's cut of any of your songs, ass. So not this time anyway. I could sit here and talk to you about this movie for another hour, is the thing. There are things that I clearly was a little bit nitpicky about, and things that like confused me at times. Thank you for making some of those things a little easier. I mean, being like, I am pretty sure, and I don't mean to put you on the spot to go first, you don't have to. I cannot imagine that I talked you down in any way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_05:No, it's really hard to you'll I believe you'll do it someday, but not this day.
SPEAKER_02:But this was this was also like not my goal. True in this case.
SPEAKER_05:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:So you're at a five.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It's his favorite film, Paul.
SPEAKER_05:I'm gonna say Oh, wait, wait, wait, before you say, before you say it, before you say it, before you say it, before you say what your thing is, before we get to the minute 30.
SPEAKER_02:Stanley Kubrick's favorite movie, too, like White Men Can't Jump. That's how I swayed Ben with White Men Can't Jump.
SPEAKER_05:When leaving Lubitch's funeral, William Wilder Wilder said, No more Lubitch, and Billy Wilder responded, worse than that, no more Lubitch pictures.
SPEAKER_02:Oi. I do have a desire to visit more of his filmography sooner than later. I'm gonna tell you what, and I'm gonna take a partial L on this because I think part of it is just like as we were talking about, so much of my film knowledge or what's in my wheelhouse, what I really like, has a tendency to be um in the excess decades of the 80s and 90s, and there's a little bit of something as a perfect decade, the 80s.
SPEAKER_05:I agree, nothing went wrong.
SPEAKER_02:Not not a thing filmically trickle-down economics is still benefiting us to this day. So I'm gonna move to a very, very solid four. Very solid four. No, I'm not I think outside of Johnny Demonic in black and white and Max Fury Road in black and white, it's a wonderful life is something very singular in that black and the large black and white era for me. And that's it about that. And I I'm at the four now, but I'm gonna tell you this, Rachel. I'm gonna watch this movie again probably next Christmas.
SPEAKER_05:That's what I think.
SPEAKER_02:And if I change my mind, I will tell you and I will say it on this podcast, assuming it survives.
SPEAKER_05:I and actually, and I'll I'll let you know this other bit. Um, there was another thing Lubic once said that um to think that you've reached perfection is what um is the voice of mediocrity.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's good. Yeah, it's that'ubris.
SPEAKER_05:That's and so he himself would probably um can he would be like, Yeah, give my fucking film a four. It deserves a four, it's a solid four.
SPEAKER_02:I feel a little bit a little better about my four now, and I want to say, as we've said many times on this podcast, for me anyway, when I say four, that means if this movie won an Academy Award in whatever category, that movie was deserving of that. Best picture or best actor or best writing, whatever. It's in rare air. I know people have a tendency to bring really fucking good movies to this podcast. This happens to be another one of them.
SPEAKER_05:Yay! I gotta bring, I wanna bring something awful or something that I hate. What?
SPEAKER_02:Come into the combat zone, the combat arena. I'm gonna come into the combat zone. Combat zone! That's what we're calling it. Rachel, is there anything that we didn't go over in this movie or about this movie that you would like to say?
SPEAKER_05:Um, I think the thing is, and this is what this is the magic of holiday films, is I'm not sure if you're supposed to give a holiday film a critic a critic score. Like it's a wonderful light elf. Those movies aren't ever going. I mean, it's a wonderful light. Gremlins. Yeah, gremlins. Oh, actually, we should do gremlins at some point. Eyes wide shut. We have done gremlins. I know, but I don't know if I like gremlins as much as the world does.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, well, our other guests didn't either, but I am happy to try to change your mind too.
SPEAKER_05:I'd love to throw to someone in Gremlins because what I've noticed about Gremlins is that people who I trust as really good uh film lovers love that movie. Like Edgar loves that movie.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's a very special and important movie that is saying a lot of things from an angry point of view about animal trafficking and animal safety and animal abuse and mistreatment. I think it's saying a lot of things about consumerism and American consumerism specifically, and the ignorance uh in terms of Americans and world culture. Wow. And I I think the movie. I think the movie is saying a lot, and it's crazy to watch the second one. I love it probably just as much. It's not as good of a movie, but the second one uh is clearly made being made by a director that's like, I fucking hate that I'm making this movie. I hate every reason that exists for me to be making this movie, and I'm just gonna do whatever the fuck I want.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and I saw that I I watched it as a very oh wow, the writing and the script and the dialogue of this film are wanting. And I and I will happily go back on that with fresh eyes now that I know that it's uh it's a pita film. I didn't realize not a pitophile, it's not a pedophile. It's not a Diddy film. A Diddy film.
SPEAKER_02:No Diddy, denied.
SPEAKER_05:But but yeah, uh love, I love this movie. So what I would say about like holiday movies is that it it they are meant to be enjoyed and watched over and over and over again. Like I did not like The Family Stone the first time I watched it. I actually really didn't like it. Okay. I love that movie now. Like it's yeah.
SPEAKER_02:My holiday movie that the first time or two, and part of it I think was because I was young and didn't understand or was confused or upset by it. But like I watch Eyes Wide Shut every year. Really? I love Eyes Wide Shut.
SPEAKER_05:That's going that's more of a Diddy film. Diddy do that! I don't know about that. I'm not sure if I like when we went that. I'm like, it's a wonderful movie. Yeah. Um Elf, the Family Stone. Shop around the corner, and Paul's like, yeah, I'm extreme.
SPEAKER_02:I'm just like thinking, I'm like, what's just that like you were saying, it's a holiday movie. It's fucked up. I think the holidays can be a really difficult time for a lot of people, and I think that that movie really puts it like in your face that the holidays are fucking hard, and for some people harder than others for whatever reason. But we're not talking about eyes wide shut.
SPEAKER_05:We just talked about the shop around the we're gonna pause and we're gonna start talking about eyes white shut right now.
SPEAKER_02:You have nine hours, everyone. Um as well you should. So we ended this episode with a four from myself and a five.
SPEAKER_05:But to be fair, I give five to all my films.
SPEAKER_02:I hey, I I don't hate the game or the player. I like it all. It's all good. Our themes on the bookends are by Jamie Henwood. What you've been doing and what are you watching are by the aforementioned ass Matt Foskett.
SPEAKER_05:Look at that ass. Look at that ass. It's okay to say that because I'm married to the man, but exactly. It's fine. I'm not a dick.
SPEAKER_02:Fun facts. Fun facts is Chris Olds and our interstitials are Ben McFadden. You can listen to this on any platform you like. Please rate, share, subscribe, text us. It's super easy. Check out the links in every episode description and uh get more information about all sorts of things that you can know and learn and contribute and be a part of society. Uh that is the review review society, the combat zone as we call it.
SPEAKER_03:Combat zone! Combat zone.
SPEAKER_02:But good pods is one that we have a tendency to like quite a bit. You'll hear an ad for them in a moment. We have to go. Okay, we have to get into some deep thought about eyes wide shut and get back to it maybe next year.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, Tom Cruise did not get AIDS and Eyes Wide Shut. That was my takeaway.
SPEAKER_03:But also, that's it for another episode. Wow. In the movie! In the movie! Merry Christmas, everyone.
SPEAKER_05:Hi, Paul and Tom and Rachel, who gave you a sweet and Paul wants to ruin your life.
SPEAKER_00:Bye. Hi, everyone. This is JJ, the co-founder of Good Pods. If you haven't heard of it yet, Good Pods is like Goodreads or Instagram, but for podcasts. It's new, it's social, it's different, and it's growing really fast. There are more than two million podcasts, and we know that it is impossible to figure out what to listen to. On Good Pods, you follow your friends and podcasters to see what they like. That is the number one way to discover new shows and episodes. You can find Good Pods on the web or download the app. Happy listening.
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