Bob Clark - Black Christmas

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It is Christmas time, and we
would be remiss if we weren't going to

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talk about a real Christmas classic today, So we're going to talk about a

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film by Bob Clark, his nineteen
seventy four underrated horror classic Black Christmas.

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to
a film by podcast. I'm Jeff Johnson.

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Happy to be joined today by one
of our favorite listeners, Amanda Janek.

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Amanda, how are you? I'm
good? How are you? I

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am great? Listen? We gotta
we got to talk a little bit about

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your origin story because I kind of
knew you through Surely You Keep Me Serious

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Podcasts, which is an awesome podcast. How did you get the attention of

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Dean Jason over there? Well,
I actually only discovered them about a year

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ago maybe, and I was one
of my favorite bands is Alison Chains,

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and I was researching podcasts to listen
about the history and stuff because once I

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get going on something, if you
ask my husband, I get kind of

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obsessive about it. So I was
listening to everything I could about Alison Chains.

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I listened to an obscene amount of
podcasts due to work and stuff,

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and that's how I found Surely You
Can't be serious, and I have an

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offbeat sense of humor, kind of
sarcastic, and I noticed that a lot

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of the memes that they post and
stuff on their Facebook page kind of trend

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towar on the same type of humor
that I have. So I would occasionally

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send them memes and stuff, and
we got a dialogue going back and forth,

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and occasionally would make show reck on
Theys to them, and I really

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desperately wanted them to cover my favorite
band of all time, The Cure,

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that was completely out of their wheelhouse
completely, But I was fortunate enough to

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see The Cure live in Minnesota back
and I think it was June, and

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I just printed up a sign and
held it up in public, just begging

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people to ask the Shirley you Can't
Be Serious podcasts to cover The Cure Disintegration

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versus Depeche Mode, which is kind
of funny because I'm not a huge Depeche

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Mode fan, but I thought it'd
be a great matchup. And you know,

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once that went, you know,
live on Facebook and hit the internet

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and stuff, they kind of couldn't
say no to me when they when you

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shared that. When I saw that
on their Facebook page, I remember talking

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to Jason, thinking, oh,
you got to do this, you know

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that, right, And he was
like, oh, it's happening. You

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wait and see it's happening. So
you know, and you know, I

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was happy because first off, you
did an excellent job on that episode with

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them. Oh thank you. You
helped me rediscover a love for the cure.

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Nothing makes my heart happier. Yeah, well except for horror films,

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right, because you are a bona
fide fan of horror films. I'm a

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little ridiculous. And it's to clarify, it's not all horror. I'm not

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this horror you know, you know, blanketed horror fan here. I have

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a very special niche that I like. I'm a slasher girl. I don't

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get into the paranormal. I don't
get into the haunted houses. Although I

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will say Haunting of Hillhouse I really
liked that, but that was very outside

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of my wheelhouse, my box.
I'm a slasher girl. I'm an edie

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slasher girl. I grew up with
it. I started way too young.

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You know. My parents. My
mom was a horror fan, and we

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would start out with like Dracula and
Frankenstein and all that stuff, and that

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just grew with. I grew up
outside of Chicago, so Spengali, you

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know, Spengholy excuse me, yeah, started with all that whatever, and

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that just kind of grew obsessed with
Freddy Krueger when I was younger, that

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Greuno, my love of Jason,
which still to this day lives on.

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You know, I absolutely adore the
eighty Slashers. There's something just I find

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comforting about them, and I think
that's weird to a lot of people,

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but it's what I love. Don't
give me a rom com I'm not a

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rom com girl. I'm a horror
I'm a slasher girl, which makes you

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the ideal guest host for an episode
like this. We're talking about Bob Clark,

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who, if you know the name, you immediately know this is the

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guy that wrote and directed one of
the biggest Christmas movies of all time,

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A Christmas Story. You'll shoot your
eye out, Ken, You'll shoot your

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eye out, kid. But what
a lot of people don't realize is that

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before he's doing this wonderful Christmas film, he's doing a different kind of wonderful

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Christmas film. Nineteen seventy four,
he does Black Christmas. Amanda. For

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the listeners, that don't know Black
Christmas? Can you? Can you let

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them know? Like what is Black
Christmas all about? So a brief synapsis

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of Black Christmas. As winter break
begins, a group of sorority sisters,

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including Jess and the often inebriated Barb, begin to receive anonymous, lucidious phone

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calls. Initially, Barb eggs a
caller on, but stops when he responds

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threateningly. Soon, Barb's friend Claire
goes missing from the sorority house and a

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local adolescent girl is murdered, leading
the girls to suspect a serial killers on

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the loose, but nobody realizes how
near the culprit is. Thank you,

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And I got to say right off
the bat, I don't know if there

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are slasher films without this one.
I think it might be fair. I

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think it's fair to say this might
be This is probably the blueprint that Carpenter

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uses for Halloween, and you know
Cunningham uses for Friday thirteenth. This is

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I mean, think about This is
nineteen seventy four, So this is preceded

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only by the Texas Chancel massacre.
You know a few months earlier in Psycho

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in nineteen sixty and Peeping Tom Peeping
Time in nineteen sixty. Yeah, I

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forgot about Peeping Tom. Well that's
what they you know, the even Carpenter

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gave credit to Peeping Tom for the
POV shots that were showed in Yeah,

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and you know, I like you
mentioned the POV shots. So this one

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opens with a POV shot of the
killer spying on people inside a house before

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sneaking in to kill him. And
you know it's four years later that Carpenter

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does that in Halloween. I do
like the story and I'm sure I'm sure

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you know. This Being a horror
of ficionado, Bob Clark allegedly revealed that

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his original follow up to Black Christmas
was in fact going to be called a

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movie called Halloween, which he shares
with John Carpenter, and then John Carpenter

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goes on and does it himself.
Yep. Well, apparently Carpenter and asked

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Bob Clark if he was ever going
to do a sequel to Black Christmas,

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and Bob Clark had no interest in
that because apparently he had other projects to

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move on to. So he kind
of shared with Carpenter his idea that you

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know, after the events of the
original Halloween Michael Myers was captured, he

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went to an institution, then escaped
and stalked a bunch of girls, you

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know, in a sorority house,
and they apparently had that conversation. Well,

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Bob Clark then ran with it.
Somebody had asked Bob Clark, hey,

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do you feel like Carpenter ripped off
your ideas? You guys had this

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conversation, you know, and a
quote from Bob Clark, you know,

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a few words and an idea are
hardly a screenplay in a finished movie.

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And I think that's just really really
cool, really cool. That's a cool

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way that Yeah, I like that. You gotta wonder though, what he

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thinks. There's another trope that we
see in Black Christmas where we've got a

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killer making menacing phone calls to young
co eds, and we would see this

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done five years later in seventy nine
when a stranger calls mm hmm. Again,

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this movie is like a blueprint.
It's like all the greats that we're

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seeing in like the late seventies and
early eighties, nineties, it kind of

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all stems back to Black Christmas in
my opinion, absolutely, absolutely. There's

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a in the horror community kind of
a statement that people make that Black Christmas

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walked so that Halloween and others could
run. I love that. I absolutely

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love that. I'll tell you what
else I love. Let's talk about this

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cast a little bit. Amanda.
Margo Kidder plays Barb. So she takes

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this role because she loves the character
and the idea that this character is very

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wild and very out of control.
And man, I mean she's drinking,

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she's smoking, she's speaking her mind. I kind of feel like she's workshopping

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Lewis Lane in this movie, even
though she hasn't been offered Lewis Lane at

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this point. I mean, she's
tough, right, What do you?

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What do you do? You?
What do you think of Barb? I

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can't say anything about Superman because I'm
not Yeah, well Verst you know,

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I didn't grow up Superman though,
But I do know, obviously the character

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of Lewis Laane that Margot Ketner portrays
and what I do remember of her from

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when I was younger and stuff.
Yeah, i'd say maybe she kind of

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channeled that. All right, Well, you might not know Lois Lane all

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too well, but I gotta believe
you know another famous Margo Kitder role.

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Talking about nineteen seventy nine, The
Amityville Horror. Yes, I mean she's

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Margo Kidder. A lot of people
know her as Lewis Lane, but I

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think a lot of us know her
as a bona fide screen queen, a

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scream queen. Yeah, I guess
I never considered her that, But yeah,

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I suppose once you take a couple
of these roles in horror movies like

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that, you know Jamie Lee Curtis
isn't the only screen queen. No.

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No, I'd say Margo's in there, someone who you wouldn't think of as

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a screen queen because she does not
like doing horror films, has always said

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they scared her. She had no
interest in them until she took on this

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role. Let's talk about Olivia Hussey
as the final Girl. Jin interesting that

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she would play a role like this
because obviously she's famous for a role as

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Juliette in the sixty eight film adaptation
of Romeo and Juliet. I think she's

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fantastic in this, though. You
gotta wonder, like, how does she

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get hooked up with Bob Clark?
Though, well, the bad story with

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that is and it's kind of an
odd one. Apparently she had told a

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co producer that she had gone to
see a psychic. I don't know if

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she was really into that or just
did it this one time or whatever,

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but apparently the psychic told her that
she was going to be in a movie

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that was produced and filmed in Canada
and it would make a lot of money.

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So, since Black Christmas was filmed
in Toronto, she believed that this

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was the film that the psychic was
telling her to make. That is some

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oddly specific advice to get from a
from a psychic, I think, don't

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you know any more detail than that
would probably be like someone telling you to

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go find your bike in the basement
of the Alamo across country if you're pee

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wee Herman. Yeah, a psychic
tells her to take this role. That's

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crazy. I'm glad. I'm glad
the psychic did because she's fantasy. I

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am because then we got to hear
her say it's him again, it's the

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Mona. She is not trying to
hide her accident, is she? No,

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No, not at all. I'm
fine with it, you know,

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I mean, it's it's college.
Maybe she got a scholarship to come across

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the ponds, as they say over
in England. Yep, who knows someone

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that you don't expect to see in
this movie. And he does a great

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job, mind you, But here
do la who he plays Peter, he

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plays the boyfriend that's a little unhinged
at points. You know, obviously we're

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meant to see him as like a
Red Herring, like is he the killer?

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Is he not the killer? Right? He's a He gets this job

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because Bob Clark loves him in two
thousand and one A Space Odyssey, when

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he played the main astronaut Dave.
Oh, okay, yeah, So if

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you're wondering, like this guy,
he looks a little too old to be

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playing a college student in Olivia Hussey's
you know, boyfriend, But that's because

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he was thirty eight at the time
and she's twenty two, right, And

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in the seventies, a lot of
his actors, you know, were portraying

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people younger than them, you know, in those roles. And they just

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didn't have skincare back then either,
so everybody just looked older. Here's not

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looking too bad, I'll mean,
let's be fair, you know, he's

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he's looking good. He's not looking
as good as Claire's boyfriend. And that

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first co no, no, that
guy. That guy hadn't going on.

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I'll tell you els who has it
going on? One one one character actor

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that I always loved talking about John
Saxon. He plays Lieutenant Fuller. I

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love him. Going back to like
I said, when I was younger and

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I was getting into the slasher genre
and stuff, I was originally a Freddy

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Kruger girl, you know, and
John Saxon, you know, as lieutenant

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you know, what was his last
what was that to the dad you kind

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of wanted like good looking, had
authority, you know, just I loved

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him ever since I was little.
He's fancy, and you know, I

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dig the fact that he shows back
up and at marylm Street three Dream Warriors

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to reprise the role and kind of
help kill Freddy. Yeah, it's amazing.

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Though. Nineteen seventy four he's he's
you know, Lieutenant Fuller, he's

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you know, he's handling the investigation
in Black Christmas. And then ten years

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later in nineteen eighty four, he's
Lieutenant Thompson right taking care of the investigation.

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Yep, he's awesome because I initially
I always loved him. In Enter

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the Dragon, you know, he
plays Bruce Lee's friend and he's awesome and

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entered the Dragon. I know it's
probably not your cup of tea, but

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if you're a John Saxon fan,
you got to check it out because he

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is super bowling it. But the
first choice for that role in Black Christmas,

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right, yeah, so let's let's
talk about this. He's he's he's

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Bob Clark's first choice. But there's
some miscommunication and studio gets an Oscar winner

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they get Edmund. I think it's
Edmund O'Brien. Yeah, but sadly he

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shows up the set. He's clearly
too ill to perform. Yeah, and

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his Alzheimer's was really rare, and
it's hot at that time Saxon. You

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know, Once they see that it's
not going to work out with O'Brien,

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Clark calls Saxon, says, hey, you've got two days to get the

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Canada. Make it happen, and
he does with authority because he's awesome in

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this movie. Yep, yep.
And there Clark had said that if John

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Saxon could not make it, because
the day he landed he had to start

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filming that day. If he couldn't
make it within that two day time frame,

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they may have had to shut production
down. See that that is loyalty

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to an actor. And I think
that's really cool because after seeing this movie,

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I don't know, I don't know
who you get in nineteen seventy four

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that's going to do a better job
and a more believable job too, because

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Saxon, you know, Amanda,
you know this. You know horror films,

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when it comes to the police departments, either they are incompetent or they're

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showing up at the very last possible
second, right and we're wondering who called

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him. But I love the fact
that even though these girls are like doing

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their due diligence, they're reporting like, hey, we're getting some creepy phone

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calls our friends missing. Initially the
police are like, ah, it's I'm

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sure she's fine, and kind of
dismissive. You know, there's a little

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misogyny there, but it's it's John
Saxon who takes commands like, hey,

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hold on, I want the file. Let's let's get into this. Let's

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find out so loving Saxon in this. Uh, let's talk a little bit

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about this background of this film.
It's really I have a few other things

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about casting. Can we please we
are DEFINITELYNN thought casting. Who do you

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got Phil Phyllis in the film?
Okay, Gilda Radner was initially cast to

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play the role of Phil You're killing
and Jean Gene Wilder's wife. Yep,

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he was originally supposed to play that
role, but I had to back out

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last minute. And there's differing opinions
on why that happened. Some people say

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she just decided that, you know, it wasn't the role for her and

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she didn't want to be typecast.
Other people are saying she just started at

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Saturday Night Live in conflicts for that. So they found Andrea Martin for that

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role, and she's fantastic, just
absolutely fantastic in this role. I just

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think that's really interesting because then you
know, as you eventually go up to

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the remakes and stuff, Andrew Martin
is the only actor who was in the

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original to also appear in one of
the remikes. Okay, yeah, because

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she's in the two thousand and six
remake, she is. We'll get into

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that later. But Gilda Radner,
Yeah, I'm gonna agree with you.

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I think Andrew Martin is the right
way to go because I think I think

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Gilda Radner, who was an incredibly
talent actress. Maybe the movie gets a

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little too too much comedic flair,
right point right, you already have one

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over the top personality with Margol Kidder's
character. I feel like Gilda Radner.

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It would have been an interesting balance. Yeah, I agree with that.

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Who else you got? What else
you got for me? Okay, So

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the role of Missus Mack the house
mother, the alcoholic house mother, that's

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hide boom her. I love her, like, maybe next time, if

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you're gonna store booze in the toilet, put it back. I mean,

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just a little friendly advice there.
That's creepy. But originally was offered to

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Betty Davis, Betty Davis, Ben
Davis, and she flat out turned it

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down. No thank you, hard
stop, no thanks. This would have

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been this would have been after a
baby Jane, right, I think yep.

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So maybe she just didn't want to
do another scary movie. But probably

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Missus matt played Betty Davis. Those
actresses at the time, you know,

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we're falling out a favor and stuff
and falling into a lot of tropes and

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stuff. You look at Joan Crawford
and some of the movies she took on

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and stuff too, and I think
she just maybe didn't. I don't know

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what's pure speculation, but yeah,
flat out turned them down. You know.

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The thing? The thing with that
is if Betty Davis takes that role

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and I under and understandably, you
know, missus Mac obviously gets gets killed

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as well, But I would I
would almost consider her like another Red Herring

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00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:59.440
character, Like is she the killer? Because Betty Davis walking around looking all

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menacing like Baby Jane style. Yeah
yeah, speaking booze out of library books

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and toilet tanks. Yeah, I
absolutely love it. Let's talk about how

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this movie gets made. So Rory
Moore originally writes the script. He says

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he's inspired by the nineteen forty three
Westmount murder. Do you know about this

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one, Amanda? This murder?
No tell me about it? Fourteen year

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old George Webster bludgeoned his mother to
death with a baseball bat, and then

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proceeded to do the same to his
brother, sister, and a family friend.

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All three of them is the saint
serious head trauma, but they survived.

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Webster was deemed criminally insane and sent
to live the reminder of his days

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in a mental hospital. So that
is where he gets the idea that and

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obviously, you know, this story
obviously takes inspiration from the urban legend about

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the babysitter and the man upstairs,
which again you know when a stranger calls,

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so you know, but you know, And the script's called stop Me.

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And this is based off of the
messages that are being left from another

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serial killer named William William Hyron's do
you know about the lipstick killer? No,

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00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:22.400
yeah, lipstick killer. He was
famous. He killed several women and

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he was He was known for leaving
messages at the crime scene written in their

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lipstick, basically telling the police you
have to catch me. I can't stop.

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I can't help myself. So my
goodness. So that's where we get

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Stopped Me. But Bob Clark is
not a fan of that title. He

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decides on Black Christmas to poke fun
at the popular Christmas song White Christmas and

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to play upon the irony of a
dark event occurring during an otherwise festive time

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Black Christmas. Okay, so we've
got Black Christmas, We've got Stop Me.

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We've got one more title, which
I know we'll get to here in

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a minute. But uh, your
thoughts stop me, your Black Christmas?

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What do you what are you heading
to theaters Christmas? I love the juxtaposition

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between White Christmas and Black Christmas,
even though White Christmas isn't the most uplifting

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movie either, you know, but
no Black Christmas all the way. Yeah.

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Well, the third title this movie
gets, I'm sure you've probably heard

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00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:30.160
yep, Silent Night, Evil Night. Silent Night, Evil Night obviously has

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nothing to do with Silent Night,
deadly Night. This is, yeah,

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not to be confused with another one
of my favorites at Christmas themed, that

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Massacre movies. Yeah, not to
be confused with another Christmas slasher film featuring

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a killer named Billy. But Silent
Night, Evil Night. There is such

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00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:55.960
a weird reason why Warner Brothers goes
with this title though, because he delivers

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Black Christmas and they say, Nope, not doing it. And it's because

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00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:06.319
they're afraid that audiences are going to
be misled into thinking that it's a black

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00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:10.599
supportation movie, correct, like like
Blackula or you know a lot of the

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00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:15.799
Pam Pam Greer films. That's ridiculous
as far as I'm concertain, But I

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mean, it's it's seventy four,
so maybe they got there onto something.

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00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:22.839
I don't know. I think at
the time frame they were on something,

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you know, a concern that not
a concern, that's not the right word,

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00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:32.519
but what people led to think the
movie would be about. Yeah,

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but Silent Night, Evil Night,
Like I it's terrible. That is an

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00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:41.079
awful name. Black Christmas definitely the
way to go, Amanda. This thing

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00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:49.279
is released theatrically three times, Okay, so he shoots the picture. They

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00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:55.079
released it in October of nineteen seventy
four in Canada. Now this is perfect

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00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:59.720
because tell me, like, are
you just bothered by the fact that we

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get great horror films but they release
them in like June and July and February,

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00:22:03.480 --> 00:22:08.079
Like, shouldn't horror movies come out
in like say, mid September so

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they can run through September and like
most of October. It's ridiculous. It

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00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:18.559
always boggles my mind, absolutely boggles
my mind when they do things like that.

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00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:22.319
I think it was each two old
maybe from the Halloween franchise that was

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00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:29.240
released in August. Yeah, and
it's literally a Halloween movie. It makes

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00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:33.279
no sense. We were we did. We did a review of a film

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00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:37.279
called Last Voyage of the Demeter,
which came out this year about the the

306
00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:42.680
the infamous ship that Dracula takes over
to America. It's awesome, and no

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00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:45.559
one went and saw it because it
came out in like I think, July,

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00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:49.279
okay, and it would have made
a killing if it just they just

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00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:52.119
would have released it at the right
time in fall. I don't know why

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00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:55.279
studios do this, but I don't
know. One of the one of the

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remakes of Black Christmas came out either
the day before or the or Christmas Day.

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00:23:00.279 --> 00:23:03.279
See, I don't get it.
I just he got you got the

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00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:07.759
month right? Yeah, okay,
but I don't think after anybody has done

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00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:14.039
eating their ham and opening presents that
they're gonna go see Black Christmas. Likely

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00:23:14.119 --> 00:23:17.680
not. It's very weird. I
don't get I don't get it. So

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00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:22.559
they bring it out the right month
October in nineteen seventy four in Canada.

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Does it has a good run?
And then Warner Brothers releases it in December

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00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:32.240
in the US, and again they're
probably thinking, like, hey, it's

319
00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:36.759
Christmas movie, Christmas time, we'll
get some people. The only the only

320
00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:40.039
thing they didn't count on was the
fact that they released it against The Godfather

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00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:42.880
Part two and The Man with the
Golden Gun, So it got slip.

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00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:48.720
Seriously. Yeah, Black Christmas is
going up against Yeah, Black Christmas is

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00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:53.240
going up against the Godfather and James
Bond, and there's no chance that it's

324
00:23:53.240 --> 00:23:59.039
gonna make it. So why not
leave it Billy versus the Godfather? Yeah

325
00:23:59.079 --> 00:24:03.680
exactly, Yeah, I mean Billy
the Corleones. Yeah, yeah, I

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00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:07.240
know what you're gonna go see.
But the rest of the United States they

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00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:11.640
had a different idea. But so, hell, let's try it. Let's

328
00:24:11.640 --> 00:24:15.359
try it one more time. So
now it's the following year. It's August

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00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:18.519
in nineteen seventy five and Los Angeles
and they say, hey, we're going

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to release this because nothing says Christmas, you know, Slasher films at Christmas.

331
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Then the month of August. You
know. So again I don't get

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00:24:29.799 --> 00:24:33.960
it, but you know, it
does have enough popularity. It kind of

333
00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:37.079
hangs on throughout the rest of the
year and it ends its run fittingly.

334
00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:41.880
It ends its run. It's theatrical
run in December. I think the only

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00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:48.680
thing stranger than the release date strategy
for the theaters is the controversy over the

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00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:52.160
television premiere. I'm guessing you know
a little bit about this one, right,

337
00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:57.279
Yes, I do, so It's
scheduled to premiere on NBC's Saturday Night

338
00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:02.079
at the Movies on January twenty eight, nineteen seventy eight. And a man

339
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:04.000
correct me if I'm wrong, But
it has another name change, right,

340
00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:07.039
Yes, it does. At that
point in time, they changed the name

341
00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:12.119
to Stranger in the House Stranger in
the House, which also it's fitting.

342
00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:15.240
But I mean, come on,
we're sticking with Black Christmas. I think,

343
00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:18.400
yeah. But a few days before
this happens, the governor of Florida

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00:25:18.599 --> 00:25:22.720
calls the president of NBC asking him
not to do it on the grounds of

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00:25:22.759 --> 00:25:27.599
good taste. Now I get it, it's a horror film around Christmas,

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00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:32.359
but come on, good taste.
Well, it goes deeper than that,

347
00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:37.200
because two weeks prior, an all
too similar situation happened at the Kyomega sorority

348
00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:44.079
house on campus at Florida State University, where a man sneaks in, murders

349
00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:48.480
two women while they slept, and
then tries to murder two others, who

350
00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:52.240
thankfully survived. This is right out
of the movie as far as I'm concerned.

351
00:25:52.279 --> 00:25:56.400
But Amanda, you want to tell
us who that individual was that did

352
00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:04.319
this. That was Ted Bundy,
serial killer Ted Bundy living out Black Christmas.

353
00:26:04.359 --> 00:26:08.839
That is really creepy as far as
I'm concerned. Absolutely chilling. Now,

354
00:26:10.359 --> 00:26:14.359
yeah, it's definitely chilling. And
you got to hand it to NBC.

355
00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:18.880
Now, they do. They do
offer the affiliates in Florida an option.

356
00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:22.160
They say, hey, look,
you can play Black Christmas or you

357
00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:25.640
can play Doc Savage. Your call, and I think a lot of them

358
00:26:25.640 --> 00:26:29.640
went with Doc Savage. But I
think that's the right thing to do in

359
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:33.759
this city, given this situation,
I'd say that absolutely. I'll tell you

360
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:37.480
what, Let's take a quick break
and when we come back, we will

361
00:26:37.480 --> 00:26:41.279
talk. Pivotal scenes in Bob Clark. Okay, Jason's test of our friendship?

362
00:26:41.279 --> 00:26:45.519
Which is better Van Halen or Van
hagar Man? Honestly, I think

363
00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:47.640
Vana hagar has better music. No, no, no, no no,

364
00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:52.319
it's what about Michael Jackson's bad album
versus Michael Jackson's Thriller album Thriller obviously bestseller

365
00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:56.680
ever. No no, see,
people trick themselves into believing that it's actually

366
00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:00.000
bad. Okay, Trading Places versus
Coming to America. Tray you play.

367
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.200
This is the funnier movie all of
this. Now, no Coming to America.

368
00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:07.599
It is the funniest movie of all
time. So if you find yourself

369
00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:10.319
backing one of us or the other
of us, you need to be listening

370
00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:11.920
to the Shirley you Can't Be Serious
Podcast. That's right. We have a

371
00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:15.920
friendly discussion. De and I are
best buddies and we take a deep dive

372
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:18.839
and look at the behind the scenes
stuff, the history and the fun facts

373
00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:22.000
of all these wonderful movies and music
from our youth. It's really just an

374
00:27:22.039 --> 00:27:25.680
opportunity for us to geek out about
the things that we really loved growing up.

375
00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:27.960
For example, do you know the
actor that was in Star Wars,

376
00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:30.839
Batman eighty nine and Raiders of the
Lost Ark, Yeah, sure is Harrison

377
00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:33.000
Ford. Harrison Ford wasn't in Batman? Oh yeah, Billy d Williams.

378
00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:36.480
Billy D Williams was not in Raiders
of the Lost Dark. Who was it?

379
00:27:36.519 --> 00:27:38.200
Well, you've got to tune in
to the Sureley you Can't Be Serious

380
00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:41.920
Podcast. When we discussed Raiders of
the Lost Dark versus Back to the Future

381
00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:48.440
to find out the answer, we
are back. We are talking with Amanda

382
00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:55.240
Janek about Black Christmas. Amanda,
Yes, it's a slasher film, but

383
00:27:55.799 --> 00:27:59.079
I think there's a pivotal scene here
there. But I'll tell you what.

384
00:27:59.079 --> 00:28:03.000
I'm gonna give you the op give
me what you think is a pivotal moment

385
00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:08.160
in this movie, or give me
a memorable murder. Okay, So when

386
00:28:08.200 --> 00:28:18.160
you say pivotal, Jeff, how
would you describe pivotal Like I would say

387
00:28:18.799 --> 00:28:25.440
necessary to the film's story, or
necessary to the development of the plot or

388
00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:29.880
the characters, but not necessarily like
the climactic moment or the moment you're gonna

389
00:28:29.880 --> 00:28:32.720
see in the trailer. Right.
Sure, I feel like a lot of

390
00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:40.119
people would say the eyeball scene because
it's so creepy and so unnerving. But

391
00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:44.960
by the definition that you've just given
me a pivotal it doesn't it doesn't fit

392
00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:47.759
that, and that wouldn't be what
I would describe as a pivotal scene.

393
00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:51.440
Anyways, It's the most probably the
most memorable, okay, the most pivotal

394
00:28:51.480 --> 00:28:53.960
scene, one hundred percent. And
I just don't know how, but hey

395
00:28:53.960 --> 00:28:59.880
can argue this, but maybe you
will. Claire's death. Without Claire's death

396
00:29:00.119 --> 00:29:03.279
right in the beginning, none of
this happens because we don't just have a

397
00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:10.319
slasher movie, a nameless, faceless
killer walking through the house stocking these girls,

398
00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:14.359
killing them. We also have a
you know, a procedural drama.

399
00:29:15.319 --> 00:29:21.079
We have a you know, police
case unfolding before our eyes. We have

400
00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:25.960
a drama. We've got all this
and it all hinges on Claire's death.

401
00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:29.599
We have her dad coming into the
picture, which, okay, let's also

402
00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:33.640
talk about this for a second.
Her dad in the film was fifty years

403
00:29:33.640 --> 00:29:37.440
old. This is what I'm talking
about, skincare and taking care of yourself.

404
00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:41.000
He was fifty years old death.
I am forty six. Okay,

405
00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:45.160
Like, I don't feel like that
man looks four years older than me.

406
00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:48.880
And maybe I'm just being you know, boastful missus Max too, she was

407
00:29:48.920 --> 00:29:55.039
only fifty Wow, No way,
right, right, eat your vegetable.

408
00:29:55.079 --> 00:29:59.079
It's your vegetable, kid, Okay, like take your vitamins. But no,

409
00:29:59.160 --> 00:30:02.599
anyways, Claire's without that, we
have none of this. If we

410
00:30:02.680 --> 00:30:04.440
skipped Claire's death and we just went
to the other sisters and stuff, we

411
00:30:04.480 --> 00:30:08.400
don't have our dad. We don't
have John Saxon investigating stuff. I mean,

412
00:30:08.519 --> 00:30:11.200
the whole movie, even though Claire
is in it only for the first

413
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:15.599
what four minutes before she gets you
know, strangled with the bag. We

414
00:30:15.640 --> 00:30:22.319
don't have the rest of the movie. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I'm

415
00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:26.519
glad you said Claire because I had
for the pivotal scene I'm talking about Claire,

416
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:29.000
uh you know. And then I
was like, you know what,

417
00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:30.640
she's gonna She's probably gonna pick that. So I was like, you know

418
00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:36.000
what, I'll go memorable murder.
But for me, the most memorable murder

419
00:30:36.039 --> 00:30:41.440
is Claire. It's and it's not
it's not over the top gore. It's

420
00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:45.480
not really discussing. It's a simple
suffocation with like a plastic piece of plastic.

421
00:30:45.640 --> 00:30:49.039
But there's no gore in this movie
really to speak of. There is.

422
00:30:49.240 --> 00:30:55.160
I mean, and the actor who
played Claire, actually, I don't

423
00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:57.359
know if you know this, but
she was, when she was younger,

424
00:30:57.400 --> 00:31:02.440
a professional swimmer. And all the
scenes they have of her with the bag

425
00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:06.000
around her, with the actual intake
of the bag into her mouth, and

426
00:31:06.279 --> 00:31:08.799
that's actually her just holding her breath. Oh wow, Okay, because see

427
00:31:10.440 --> 00:31:15.279
that that look of terror that's frozen
on her face is one of the scariest

428
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:18.480
things I've seen in the horror film. And think about this, this is

429
00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:21.279
this is on the poster, this
is on the box, you know,

430
00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:25.519
the VHS for the DVD for the
Blu Ray. It's it's famous, you

431
00:31:25.559 --> 00:31:29.559
know, yep, and her just
rocking back and forth. It's it's not

432
00:31:29.559 --> 00:31:32.319
that we see at one time.
We go we we kind of revisit this

433
00:31:32.359 --> 00:31:36.000
moment several times throughout the movie.
We start the movie, we end the

434
00:31:36.039 --> 00:31:40.839
movie with it, Yes, bookend. Yeah, it's terrible and I'm just

435
00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:44.759
sitting everyone. Look can lead to
a discussion about as much as we love

436
00:31:44.839 --> 00:31:48.240
John Saxon and we got some shoddy
police work going on here. But you

437
00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:51.759
know, well she's right there in
the window. But yeah, she's a

438
00:31:51.799 --> 00:31:56.200
professional swimmer and just holding her breath. That's amazing. And uh, because

439
00:31:56.200 --> 00:31:57.200
I'm sitting here watching, like,
look, I know the I know the

440
00:31:57.240 --> 00:32:01.000
effects in seventy four, the makeup
isn't that good that that's just a dummy,

441
00:32:01.720 --> 00:32:05.039
that's a real person. The fact
that she can hold that look and

442
00:32:05.079 --> 00:32:07.599
she can keep her eyes open like
that and be still, Yep, that's

443
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:12.160
off to her. Can you imagine
this movie if we had Tom Savini the

444
00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:15.680
effects? Oh gosh, I met
him a couple of weeks ago. He

445
00:32:15.799 --> 00:32:19.759
is no, he is he is
the kindest, He is the most awesome

446
00:32:19.759 --> 00:32:25.720
guy. You'll you'll talk to sign
I'm signing off the podcast now. Well

447
00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:29.640
listen, next next time we meet, we'll we'll we'll invite you, We'll

448
00:32:29.640 --> 00:32:35.400
we'll take you with us. He's
he was cool. But yeah, that's

449
00:32:35.400 --> 00:32:37.359
definitely for me. That's that's the
moment. And uh, I want to

450
00:32:37.400 --> 00:32:42.960
say some you know, just just
before we move on Claire's dad. You

451
00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:46.480
know the comment you made about how
he looks. I'm watching this. I'm

452
00:32:46.519 --> 00:32:52.119
rewatching this and it's been like decades
since I've seen it. Probably Okay,

453
00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:55.160
as soon as I see the dad
show up, I'm immediately reminded, Uh,

454
00:32:55.200 --> 00:32:59.640
did you ever see Stephen King Silver
Bullet? Oh my gosh, I

455
00:32:59.680 --> 00:33:02.559
loved Sober Bullet when I was older. Awesome movie. Right, Okay,

456
00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:08.920
So, uh, Corey Haym's friend
that gets murdered, Grady his dad has

457
00:33:08.920 --> 00:33:13.759
that famous line, you know,
private Justice. He looks just like this

458
00:33:13.799 --> 00:33:17.400
guy. He does no thin,
bald, gray hair, business suit,

459
00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:22.200
clearly way too old to be the
father of a young child. I get,

460
00:33:22.279 --> 00:33:23.720
I get, I totally you what
you're saying, Like, I look

461
00:33:23.720 --> 00:33:27.359
at this guy, I'm like,
this is not Claire's dad, right,

462
00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:31.079
or this is Claire's stepdad because her
mom married an older guy. I don't

463
00:33:31.119 --> 00:33:36.440
know, but uh, all right, well we'll stop picking on him.

464
00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:38.960
Oh I'm not picking on him at
all. I mean I say that to

465
00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:43.839
myself. I said that I found
him very endearing, Like you could just

466
00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:45.640
tell the inks he had in his
heart. You know that he couldn't find

467
00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:49.920
his daughter. And when they're at
the park and they find that young girl

468
00:33:49.960 --> 00:33:52.039
and he's so scared, it's going
to be clear, and you can just

469
00:33:52.559 --> 00:33:54.920
that, you know, a good
moment. It's it's all off, but

470
00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:58.799
you know that. I also chuckle
the relief he has on his face when

471
00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:00.519
they realize it's not his daughter,
but it's a thirteen year old girl,

472
00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:04.559
not related to him. But he's
like, WHOA, Yeah, don't worry,

473
00:34:04.599 --> 00:34:08.039
not you, not your college a's
daughter. It's it's a young girl.

474
00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:14.199
Okay, it's fine, We're good. I mean, let's talk a

475
00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:15.639
little bit about Bob Clark. There's
not a whole lot to know about this

476
00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:22.320
guy, but here's what I'll tell
you. Benjamin Robert Clark was born in

477
00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:27.079
August of nineteen thirty nine. He
grows up in Alabama, moves to Fort

478
00:34:27.159 --> 00:34:31.000
Lauderdale, and would end up in
Michigan on a football scholarship, playing quarterback

479
00:34:31.039 --> 00:34:37.840
for Hillsdale College. He then studies
theater at the University of Miami. And

480
00:34:37.880 --> 00:34:42.400
here's what will blow your mind.
He turns down several offers to play pro

481
00:34:42.519 --> 00:34:47.159
football in the NFL so that he
can pursue a career in film. Seriously,

482
00:34:47.480 --> 00:34:53.320
that's unbelievable, right, fascinating Think
about that fascinating football scholarship. You're

483
00:34:53.320 --> 00:34:59.400
a quarterback, the NFL is calling, and you're like, I think I'm

484
00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:01.840
gonna try this this movie business out. And it's not like he had like

485
00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:07.639
an en you know, he's legitimately
gonna you know, he's gonna hustle on

486
00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:09.920
grind and make his way into into
movie. So wow, I thought that

487
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:15.119
was really cool. That is very
interesting. You want to talk about his

488
00:35:15.119 --> 00:35:19.320
filmography because he I gotta tell you, he's all over the map. Mm

489
00:35:19.360 --> 00:35:23.840
hmm. Okay, so let's uh, I gotta tell you. Like.

490
00:35:23.880 --> 00:35:27.679
He does a short film I've never
seen it, never heard of it in

491
00:35:27.719 --> 00:35:31.239
nineteen sixty six called The Emperor's New
Clothes, which I'm assuming is based off

492
00:35:31.320 --> 00:35:36.800
the classic story. Okay, does
a weird film in sixty seven called She

493
00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:43.880
Man, which didn't get a lot
of uh press, But here's one.

494
00:35:44.360 --> 00:35:49.679
I've seen this. I'm hoping you've
seen this. His first horror film,

495
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:53.719
nineteen seventy two, Children Shouldn't Play
with Dead Things, with Jed saying have

496
00:35:53.760 --> 00:36:00.920
you seen this? I haven't seen
that movie and probably oh forty years he

497
00:36:00.960 --> 00:36:05.880
wrote it, he directed it,
he produced it. Get out. I'm

498
00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:07.599
writing it down right now. Yeah, no, I need to revisit.

499
00:36:08.320 --> 00:36:13.719
Yeah, this is one of those
low budget zombie movies. I remember like

500
00:36:13.840 --> 00:36:16.719
when the Mama Pop store Mama Pop
video stores were everywhere on the corners,

501
00:36:17.119 --> 00:36:20.920
and you were going in just like
I don't know about you, but I

502
00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:23.800
was just grabbing any box that looked
looked cool and like or had a cool

503
00:36:23.880 --> 00:36:29.079
name. And when I found Children
Should Play with Dead Things at five Star

504
00:36:29.159 --> 00:36:31.920
Video, I was like, oh, I'm written this. It doesn't That's

505
00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:37.239
how I ended up renting three on
a meat Hawk because he's just like boh

506
00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:43.280
and run like whatever you could find. But that's so crazy, because oh,

507
00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:46.400
you just sparked a big memory for
me. That's really this is insane

508
00:36:46.440 --> 00:36:50.519
to me right now. My mom
and I used to go to the video

509
00:36:50.519 --> 00:36:52.480
store. We drove my dad nuts
when we were younger, because we would

510
00:36:52.480 --> 00:36:57.719
go to Palmer Video. And then
when Palmer was shut down, Palmer Video

511
00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:00.599
in Arlington Heights. Oh no,
when that was shut down, we go

512
00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:05.039
to Blackbuster. But when we were
at Palmer, we would just every Saturday

513
00:37:05.039 --> 00:37:09.079
go and grab three or four VHS's
whatever, and my mom picked out children

514
00:37:09.199 --> 00:37:13.679
shouldn't play with dad things. Wait
your mom picked it out. You didn't.

515
00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:16.679
You didn't have to beg mom it. No, that's awesome. No,

516
00:37:16.800 --> 00:37:20.440
I can't tell you a single thing
about the movie. I don't remember

517
00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:22.559
watching the movie. I don't remember
any of that. I just remember that

518
00:37:22.760 --> 00:37:27.360
moment in my life going, my
mom kind of kicks ass. This is

519
00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:30.159
pretty cool. That is that's very
cool. Let's take a quick break,

520
00:37:32.880 --> 00:37:37.400
sparked them. I'm kind of my
mind's kind of bo right now. Wow,

521
00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:40.679
awesome. Well r I P Laura
and I have to I have to

522
00:37:40.679 --> 00:37:45.760
wonder, is this is this maybe
like this is how you get to introduced

523
00:37:45.760 --> 00:37:49.280
into scary movies? Maybe? Is
it? Mom? That's that kind of

524
00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:52.719
introduces you to this because the Saturday
mornings, you know, watching like I

525
00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:57.480
said, Dracula, Frankenstein, The
Mummy, all this stuff and graduating to

526
00:37:57.960 --> 00:38:00.320
you know, Spengouli and all this
and then and oh the holy grill of

527
00:38:00.360 --> 00:38:06.840
everything Usa off all night you know
with Bler godber God, you know who

528
00:38:06.920 --> 00:38:12.000
every other week would play Dawn of
the Dad. You know, like yes,

529
00:38:12.360 --> 00:38:15.960
yeah, it goes way back,
way back. Yeah, all right,

530
00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:21.559
now, you know, two years
later he's doing Black Christmas. We've

531
00:38:21.559 --> 00:38:25.039
been talking about that a year later. Now. He doesn't write this movie,

532
00:38:25.039 --> 00:38:28.039
he doesn't direct this movie. This
is a bit of a cheat,

533
00:38:28.039 --> 00:38:30.960
but I gotta, I gotta call
this one out. He's an executive producer

534
00:38:31.400 --> 00:38:39.800
on a movie called moon Runners.
It's this Canadian movie about moonshiners and ultimately

535
00:38:39.920 --> 00:38:45.599
will become the basis for a show
you probably do know a little bit about

536
00:38:46.039 --> 00:38:52.480
because we all did the Dukes of
Hazzard. They take they take moon Runners

537
00:38:52.519 --> 00:38:55.000
turn it into a TV show called
Dukes of Hazzard where he's one of the

538
00:38:55.079 --> 00:39:00.039
one of the main writers. So
huh how crazy is that? Very cool?

539
00:39:01.400 --> 00:39:06.239
Uh? Again? Like wait,
like we said, his his his

540
00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:08.159
pimography. He's like kind of all
over the map. He you know,

541
00:39:08.760 --> 00:39:13.880
does a movie called Breaking Point in
seventy six Murdered by Decree in seventy nine,

542
00:39:14.119 --> 00:39:21.920
which is a Sherlock Holmes movie tribute
in nineteen eighty but makes it big

543
00:39:22.159 --> 00:39:30.159
when in nineteen eighty one he writes, directs, produces what many would say

544
00:39:30.199 --> 00:39:36.119
is the the godfather, you know
of all teen sex comedies. Right,

545
00:39:37.800 --> 00:39:43.400
he does Porky's. Yes, it
does. I think the guy that gave

546
00:39:43.440 --> 00:39:46.360
us a Christmas story is also the
same guy that gave us Porky's. Let

547
00:39:46.360 --> 00:39:51.000
that well, they both let that
for a minute. They both feature a

548
00:39:51.039 --> 00:39:54.239
hole in the wall to spy on
people. So, oh boy, they

549
00:39:54.280 --> 00:40:00.880
do as we think it is.
That's interesting, that's interesting. Yeah,

550
00:40:00.920 --> 00:40:02.280
Porky's. I don't know, I
don't know what you can't say. Here's

551
00:40:02.280 --> 00:40:07.199
what I will say. I don't
think Porky's is getting made in today's today's

552
00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:10.320
world. Oh god, not a
chance, chance, no chance, right,

553
00:40:10.920 --> 00:40:15.800
not a chance for its time.
Oh, here's what's a little.

554
00:40:16.199 --> 00:40:22.000
Here's what's a little concerning though,
Porky's was like a lifelong dream of his

555
00:40:22.199 --> 00:40:27.239
to do, and he actually a
lot that you see in Porky's is based

556
00:40:27.280 --> 00:40:30.440
off of things that happened in his
childhood. Like I see a young guy

557
00:40:30.480 --> 00:40:37.280
growing up, so he never he
never really you know, zeroed in on

558
00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:40.519
what was real and what wasn't.
But again, the fact that this guy's

559
00:40:40.559 --> 00:40:45.079
life is turned into Porky's is that
says something about Bob Clark. I think

560
00:40:45.599 --> 00:40:52.880
that's so funny. Obviously it explodes
in popularity. So we get Porky's Two

561
00:40:52.079 --> 00:40:58.039
the next day, which he also
writes, directs, and produces, and

562
00:40:58.119 --> 00:41:00.480
it's at this time the studio is
like, hey, let's keep going Porky's

563
00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:04.920
three, and he says, absolutely
not not doing it. Well, they

564
00:41:04.920 --> 00:41:07.360
wanted him to do a sequel to
Black Christmas, and he's like, I'm

565
00:41:07.400 --> 00:41:09.679
not interested in doing sequels. Yeah, but then he does Porky's and they

566
00:41:09.679 --> 00:41:12.360
were like, hey, I about
Porky's too. He's like, yeah,

567
00:41:12.360 --> 00:41:14.639
I'm on I'm on board. Well, you know money, I think money

568
00:41:14.639 --> 00:41:21.119
talks at this point. But thankfully
he turns Porky's Three down because he wants

569
00:41:21.159 --> 00:41:25.599
to do a little Christmas movie about
a young boy obsessing over a red rider

570
00:41:25.639 --> 00:41:30.159
beby Gun and nineteen eighty three we
get a Christmas story, Yes we do.

571
00:41:31.559 --> 00:41:36.960
How uh is this is this on
your list? Your You're a Christmas

572
00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:40.960
movie list everywhere? Right, always, always, And it's like it's funny

573
00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:45.880
because especially like people of our generation
or are you know, roughly our age

574
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:51.480
or whatever. There's not a lot
we can identify with the period, the

575
00:41:51.559 --> 00:41:53.920
time of which it takes place.
You know, no, no, there's

576
00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:59.960
nothing majestic about it. And still
that childhood longing for that one gift,

577
00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:02.320
that one thing you remember from when
you were younger, you know, be

578
00:42:02.440 --> 00:42:06.480
it, you know, for my
age, be it a cabbage patch kid

579
00:42:06.719 --> 00:42:12.000
or you know, a game Boy
or whatever the hot toy was at the

580
00:42:12.039 --> 00:42:14.480
time. It's just you spent all
year thinking about, this is the only

581
00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:16.239
thing I want. I hope Santa
brings it or home my parents give it

582
00:42:16.239 --> 00:42:21.920
to me. They nailed that whole
esthetic in that movie so so much that

583
00:42:21.960 --> 00:42:24.440
it didn't even matter that I couldn't
identify with the nineteen forties, I couldn't

584
00:42:24.480 --> 00:42:30.519
identify with the depression era. I
couldn't identify with you know, my dad

585
00:42:30.599 --> 00:42:34.880
tinkering with the furnace. You know, it can identify with the bumpuses next

586
00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:39.880
door, that's you know, but
it just it transcended age gap, it

587
00:42:39.960 --> 00:42:46.000
transcended generation everything. It's just it's
just a fantastic movie, just fantastic.

588
00:42:46.239 --> 00:42:50.480
Yeah, because and you're you're right
on, You're right on with it.

589
00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:53.920
It's it's not that you see this
time period and go oh yeah I remember

590
00:42:53.920 --> 00:43:00.239
that or I know what that's like. But Ralphie wonting this one thing we

591
00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:05.199
all had that. Yeah, yeah, I'll have to say, uh forever,

592
00:43:05.239 --> 00:43:10.000
thank you to my mom who made
the Nintendo, the original Nintendo entertainment

593
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.880
system. She made that happen for
us. And this was this was at

594
00:43:14.880 --> 00:43:17.159
a time when there was no internet, there was no phone sales. My

595
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:22.760
poor mother drove out of state to
get that thing, you know, not

596
00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:28.440
knowing, not knowing if she'd succeed
or not. Sony Connie. So eternally

597
00:43:28.440 --> 00:43:31.840
grateful to Connie for you know,
Connie, you were a great Christmas.

598
00:43:31.960 --> 00:43:37.000
I'll never forget that. That's amazing. One thing. One thing I will

599
00:43:37.039 --> 00:43:42.760
forget, or I try to forget. Nineteen eighty four, he does the

600
00:43:42.760 --> 00:43:47.039
movie called Ryanstone. Have you seen
this one? Unfamiliar? Sorry? Oh,

601
00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:50.480
I want to say you're one of
the lucky ones in but I was.

602
00:43:50.559 --> 00:43:54.000
I kind of want you to experience
the awfulness this is. This is

603
00:43:54.079 --> 00:44:02.159
Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone in a
singing cow boy movie. Yeah I love

604
00:44:02.199 --> 00:44:09.480
me, but listen, Dolly Parton
is a magical, magical individual, but

605
00:44:09.559 --> 00:44:15.199
not even not even she can can
save can save this movie. It's I

606
00:44:15.199 --> 00:44:17.400
mean, it just is it bad? Or is it so bad it's good.

607
00:44:19.960 --> 00:44:23.079
That's an interesting comment. I want
to say, it's it's just so

608
00:44:23.239 --> 00:44:28.719
it's so bad that it's bad.
But I don't know. Maybe maybe if

609
00:44:28.719 --> 00:44:31.079
you're not that I'm condoning this to
our listeners. But if you're, if

610
00:44:31.079 --> 00:44:36.480
you're under the influence of something,
maybe maybe you do like Laurent Stone.

611
00:44:36.480 --> 00:44:39.239
I don't know, but uh,
I think I would have to be drinking

612
00:44:39.280 --> 00:44:43.840
something or smoking something if I was
gonna watch I've got it written down.

613
00:44:43.840 --> 00:44:46.320
I'm gonna talk it out. One
you should check out a year later in

614
00:44:46.360 --> 00:44:52.079
nineteen eighty five if you haven't seen
it. And uh, this one it

615
00:44:52.119 --> 00:44:53.679
didn't do well at the box office, you know, kind of bombed,

616
00:44:53.679 --> 00:44:59.039
but I think it's just a really
cool movie. It's called do you ever

617
00:44:59.039 --> 00:45:04.440
see that one? It's fantastic.
Uh. Timothy Hutton, Kim Cattrall,

618
00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:09.960
ring a Bell the Kid. Okay, so Timothy, I know both the

619
00:45:10.039 --> 00:45:16.599
actor and the actresses, so he's
kind of yeah, absolutely, And she's

620
00:45:16.679 --> 00:45:21.880
kind of like Bob Clark's mused anybody. She's in Porky's She's in Turk one

621
00:45:22.159 --> 00:45:24.039
two. So he's he's you know, he he calls her up off and

622
00:45:24.199 --> 00:45:28.760
when he's got a movie, it's
this. It's kind of a it's kind

623
00:45:28.760 --> 00:45:30.639
of comedy, but it's also kind
of a drama. Uh. Timothy Hutton's

624
00:45:30.639 --> 00:45:36.440
older brother who's played by Robert Yerick. He's a firefighter who is off duty.

625
00:45:36.519 --> 00:45:38.760
He's at a pub building catches on
fire. He goes in to save

626
00:45:38.800 --> 00:45:44.840
a little girl. He gets horrifically
injured in the process of doing this,

627
00:45:45.639 --> 00:45:50.480
so like the city won't pay for
his medical bills or his or anything.

628
00:45:50.559 --> 00:45:52.280
Was like, oh, well,
he was drunk. He was he was

629
00:45:52.280 --> 00:45:54.119
off duty and he was drunk even
though he's a hero. Okay, So

630
00:45:54.400 --> 00:46:00.800
Timothy Hutton, to get the mayor's
attention, starts doing this really creative graffiti

631
00:46:00.920 --> 00:46:06.559
all over town and he's spray pa. He's spray painting Turk one E two,

632
00:46:06.559 --> 00:46:09.840
which that's his brother's nickname and his
his uh, his badge number for

633
00:46:09.920 --> 00:46:14.800
the fire department. Okay, and
it just kind of spik like Kim Catrall's

634
00:46:14.960 --> 00:46:16.280
you know, she's kind of playing
the same character she played in Big Trouble

635
00:46:16.280 --> 00:46:21.199
Little China where she's trying to investigate, but also she's fallen for Timothy Hutton

636
00:46:21.239 --> 00:46:23.519
and she's trying to stop him and
save him, and it just and it

637
00:46:23.599 --> 00:46:29.599
just keeps escalating, like the what
he does to like get the mayor's attention,

638
00:46:29.679 --> 00:46:31.199
and and you know, the city's
like behind their rooting for him because

639
00:46:31.199 --> 00:46:35.719
he's doing all this crazy stuff.
I don't know, it's pretty cool.

640
00:46:35.920 --> 00:46:37.400
Interesting. It's one of those.
It's one of those like Showtime played it,

641
00:46:37.480 --> 00:46:39.960
like, you know, three or
four times a day, Monday through

642
00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.400
Friday, So it's one of those
like I just would watch it all the

643
00:46:44.400 --> 00:46:46.800
time, you know, interesting,
interesting, check it out. I think

644
00:46:46.800 --> 00:46:50.039
I think you would like that one. Well. I liked Timmothy hot And

645
00:46:50.079 --> 00:46:52.679
a lot, and I actually forgot
how much I liked him because circling back

646
00:46:52.719 --> 00:46:55.880
to the beginning of the episode Haunting
at Hillhouse, he was in there.

647
00:46:57.199 --> 00:47:00.719
I watched watch that series. I
loved it. I'm a big fan of

648
00:47:00.760 --> 00:47:06.039
Mike Flanagan, anything he does.
I watched half that season before I realized

649
00:47:06.079 --> 00:47:09.880
that was tim Timothy Hotton. Really
yeah, okay, half of it all

650
00:47:09.960 --> 00:47:13.599
right? Put put turkway to on
your on your on your homework list,

651
00:47:13.639 --> 00:47:19.360
because if you liked, you're gonna
like it. Yeah, Ryan Stone,

652
00:47:19.400 --> 00:47:22.400
when you just want to, you
know, have something ridiculous, I guess

653
00:47:22.599 --> 00:47:28.880
I don't know. Eighty seven he
does from the Hip. Not sure about

654
00:47:28.880 --> 00:47:31.719
that one. Uh. Nineteen ninety
he does Loose Cannons, which this one

655
00:47:31.719 --> 00:47:37.760
should have been really good because it's
it's Gene Hackman and Danny dan Aykroyd.

656
00:47:37.199 --> 00:47:42.480
Okay, kind of like one of
those buddy cop movies where one I'm a

657
00:47:42.519 --> 00:47:46.440
serious guy and one's a goofball and
it just wasn't that good. Okay,

658
00:47:46.480 --> 00:47:51.320
I'm being I'm being fair, but
I'm being firm when I say that.

659
00:47:51.360 --> 00:47:53.800
I guess talk. Well, now
let's go, let's go back to your

660
00:47:53.800 --> 00:47:59.480
favorite genre. Nineteen ninety one,
he does this really kick ass movie called

661
00:47:59.480 --> 00:48:04.440
Popcorn. Have you seen this one? Yeah? Not a fan of popcorn.

662
00:48:04.960 --> 00:48:07.639
I don't know. I've tried.
I tried. I I haven't seen

663
00:48:07.639 --> 00:48:10.199
it since it first came out,
and maybe I'm remembering it wrong or maybe

664
00:48:10.239 --> 00:48:15.159
like younger, J just really feel
like I should like. But I think

665
00:48:15.199 --> 00:48:19.280
it suffers from a lot of movies
did at that time, where you know

666
00:48:19.320 --> 00:48:22.039
how the first year or two of
a new decade. Still are the previous

667
00:48:22.079 --> 00:48:27.679
decade, oh yeah, but trying
to figure themselves out to go into the

668
00:48:27.719 --> 00:48:31.239
new decade. I remember the last
time I tried to watch Popcorn was probably

669
00:48:31.760 --> 00:48:37.679
maybe like three years ago, and
had that syndrome to it or it didn't

670
00:48:37.719 --> 00:48:39.599
know. I felt like it didn't
quite know where it fitted. It still

671
00:48:39.599 --> 00:48:43.039
wanted to be an eighties slasher,
but it wanted to be something different.

672
00:48:43.360 --> 00:48:45.320
I might have to revisit though,
Yeah, I mean, and to be

673
00:48:45.320 --> 00:48:50.159
fair, it's not his direction.
He's he's an executive producers. And I

674
00:48:50.159 --> 00:48:52.760
had to sneak it in because it's
it's a scary movie, you know,

675
00:48:52.880 --> 00:48:57.519
and you're you again, You're right, it's it's nineteen ninety one, so

676
00:48:57.559 --> 00:49:02.480
it's trying to be new, but
it's also there's a lot of eighties tropes

677
00:49:02.679 --> 00:49:06.880
from horror films in it. But
I'm not gonna lie. You know.

678
00:49:07.079 --> 00:49:09.320
It takes place at an all night
movie like movie marathon, which I thought

679
00:49:09.360 --> 00:49:14.400
was cool. And Dee Wallace is
in it. You know, she's everything.

680
00:49:14.880 --> 00:49:16.800
She's the nineteen eighties. She's the
world's best mom nineteen eighties. Yeah,

681
00:49:16.840 --> 00:49:21.079
you know, Yeah, so's everybody's
mom. Yeah, and she's also

682
00:49:21.320 --> 00:49:22.800
I'm not don't don't get up and
walk away in anger. But she is

683
00:49:22.880 --> 00:49:27.079
one of the sweetest women you ever
meet. The dad got to meet her.

684
00:49:27.760 --> 00:49:30.119
Dee Wallace, you know, great
hugs. Give me give me the

685
00:49:30.199 --> 00:49:36.519
nickname baby Cakes, which I will
own because Dee Wallace. That next thing

686
00:49:36.559 --> 00:49:38.159
you're gonna tell me you met Keane
Hotter, And then I'm just signing off

687
00:49:38.199 --> 00:49:45.079
again. We met Kane Hotter three
weeks ago. He's awesome, by the

688
00:49:45.079 --> 00:49:49.679
way, real quick, real quick, Kanehunter story. You know. We

689
00:49:49.719 --> 00:49:52.960
talked to him, had some you
know, took some pictures with him at

690
00:49:52.960 --> 00:49:53.800
his table. But then I had
I had to do a photo op,

691
00:49:53.840 --> 00:49:58.599
like a real photo op with him. I walked back there and I'm like,

692
00:49:58.639 --> 00:50:00.880
listen, He's like you again,
So yeah, I said, well,

693
00:50:00.920 --> 00:50:02.559
you know, let's do a real
one. I said, uh,

694
00:50:02.599 --> 00:50:07.559
would you mind? Like can you
can you strangle me? And he goes,

695
00:50:08.079 --> 00:50:12.039
I'm not allowed to do that anymore. I'm like, oh really,

696
00:50:12.239 --> 00:50:15.480
and then he looks at me deadpan, like no smile. He goes,

697
00:50:15.679 --> 00:50:19.920
how about if I punch in the
face? And I go sure, thinking

698
00:50:20.639 --> 00:50:22.199
like I'm about to post for this
photo. I'm like, I don't know

699
00:50:22.199 --> 00:50:25.519
if he's kidding or not, but
he's posing. He posed, he decides

700
00:50:25.519 --> 00:50:30.840
to pose, he jams his fist
up against my jaw with enough force,

701
00:50:30.920 --> 00:50:35.599
Like I'm sitting there going this hurts, like but but it's but it's super

702
00:50:35.599 --> 00:50:37.719
cool because it's Kane Hotter. Like
Kane Harter's fist is hurting my face right

703
00:50:37.719 --> 00:50:40.280
now. So I'm I'm totally okay
with that. Yeah, he wonderful guy.

704
00:50:40.280 --> 00:50:45.480
Though. Oh that's so cool.
Yeah, he was super cool.

705
00:50:45.599 --> 00:50:50.119
Love, but I'm like ninety happy
for you, only ten percent jobless.

706
00:50:51.239 --> 00:50:53.519
Okay, Well, well I'll stop
talking about who we've met then, but

707
00:50:53.639 --> 00:50:55.400
you know, you just you keep
dropping these names. I'm like, what

708
00:50:55.480 --> 00:51:00.599
we Okay, I met Michael McDonald, the Michael McDonald. Yeah, do

709
00:51:00.679 --> 00:51:05.800
be brothers fan? Yeah, okay, okay, so we're getting somewhere now,

710
00:51:05.800 --> 00:51:07.519
all right, So it's kind of
the same, right, it's kind

711
00:51:07.519 --> 00:51:15.239
of the same. Yeah, shine
sweet Freedom and came home. I'm with

712
00:51:15.280 --> 00:51:19.760
you, all right. Nineteen ninety
four. Did you happen to see Bob

713
00:51:19.800 --> 00:51:24.719
Clark's follow up to a Christmas story
called My Summer Story? Years and years

714
00:51:24.719 --> 00:51:30.639
ago? I remember I did not
like it. I gotta be I gotta

715
00:51:30.639 --> 00:51:35.119
be honest. Never saw it.
It just I never associated it as the

716
00:51:35.199 --> 00:51:38.719
sequel to a Christmas story because you
know, enough times passed, none of

717
00:51:38.719 --> 00:51:42.679
the same people are in it.
You know, you don't have that great

718
00:51:42.760 --> 00:51:49.320
narrator, right, I don't know, but you're saying thumbs down, not

719
00:51:49.400 --> 00:51:55.719
great. All right, we'll move
on then. I'd like to say we're

720
00:51:55.719 --> 00:52:00.239
gonna move on to something great.
But nineteen ninety he takes some time offnineteen

721
00:52:00.280 --> 00:52:05.039
ninety nine he does. He just
Baby Geniuses, he does, he does.

722
00:52:06.360 --> 00:52:10.800
It was just come back. Uh
sure, I guess we you know

723
00:52:10.840 --> 00:52:17.000
if you say so, okay,
well look it's it's got Kim Kim Control's

724
00:52:17.039 --> 00:52:22.800
back and Christopher Lloyd's in it.
So yikes, yeah, I'm yeah,

725
00:52:22.840 --> 00:52:27.840
I'm not going I'm not going back
to that one. I'm certainly not trying

726
00:52:27.880 --> 00:52:31.719
out super Babies Baby Geniuses two in
two thousand and four. Oh my god,

727
00:52:32.239 --> 00:52:40.760
that that, sadly is the last
thing that he directs. So rip

728
00:52:42.920 --> 00:52:47.199
yeah. Now, yeah, we
typically we like to talk about like what

729
00:52:47.239 --> 00:52:51.599
we'd like to see next, But
as you said, sadly he did pass

730
00:52:51.639 --> 00:52:54.920
away. In two thousand and seven, drunk driver killed him and his son,

731
00:52:55.159 --> 00:53:02.599
which is absolutely tragic. But let's
talk about the whether or not we

732
00:53:02.679 --> 00:53:10.400
recommend his other excellent Christmas film,
Black Christmas. Amanda, your thoughts do

733
00:53:10.440 --> 00:53:15.199
you recommend this one? Yes?
One hundred percent percent? Is this a

734
00:53:15.199 --> 00:53:20.880
perfect movie? No, it's not
a perfect movie, And then there's very

735
00:53:20.920 --> 00:53:24.360
few movies out there that are perfect. You know, you can point to

736
00:53:24.400 --> 00:53:29.320
the glaring plat holes, the you
know, the cops who just leave,

737
00:53:30.239 --> 00:53:35.039
just leave Olivia Hussey's character there,
but the dad faints and they rush into

738
00:53:35.079 --> 00:53:38.280
the hospital. You know, poor
Claire, Claire, Claire baby is just

739
00:53:38.280 --> 00:53:43.960
sitting in the attic for all there
too. Yeah, but like Claire's in

740
00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:47.480
the window. Yeah, right there, there's cops standing on the sidewalk.

741
00:53:47.920 --> 00:53:52.519
Sorry I'm getting a little loud,
but it's very upsetting to me. But

742
00:53:52.599 --> 00:53:55.679
there's cops standing on the sidewik that
can just look up and go there's Claire.

743
00:53:55.920 --> 00:54:00.800
You know, why is somebody in
the attic? She is a window

744
00:54:00.880 --> 00:54:06.239
dressing at this point? Absolutely absolutely, you know, it's it's just not

745
00:54:06.360 --> 00:54:09.400
a perfect movie. There's a lot
of things wrong with it, but it

746
00:54:09.480 --> 00:54:14.880
did so many innovative things, absolutely
innovative things. You know, we talked

747
00:54:14.920 --> 00:54:17.199
about the casts and stuff, but
you talk about you know, the guy

748
00:54:17.199 --> 00:54:22.840
who did the voice of it,
you know, did different things. He

749
00:54:22.880 --> 00:54:30.480
actually did some of his voice work
upside down to make Yeah. Yeah,

750
00:54:30.559 --> 00:54:32.079
him and Bob Clark are just doing
all kinds of weird stuff to get this

751
00:54:32.199 --> 00:54:36.960
voice on the phone, right yep. And the sound design, you know,

752
00:54:37.079 --> 00:54:39.119
the guy who did the score and
the music, you know, put

753
00:54:39.159 --> 00:54:44.199
forks and knives on the piano so
that when they would play these different notes,

754
00:54:44.719 --> 00:54:47.480
there was weird tingy sounds behind it
and stuff. They're just playing with

755
00:54:47.519 --> 00:54:52.199
all these different facets of film and
sound and stuff. The steady camp wasn't

756
00:54:52.199 --> 00:54:57.000
invented yet, you know, but
we get this POV. They literally strapped

757
00:54:57.000 --> 00:55:01.280
a camera to the actor's shoulder.
Everything you saw was first person, so

758
00:55:01.320 --> 00:55:06.800
we had both hands free and stuff. You know. You know again,

759
00:55:07.000 --> 00:55:10.360
you know the cops, you know, just the ineptitude there. It's not

760
00:55:10.519 --> 00:55:15.840
a perfect movie, but when you
sit back and you watch it, it

761
00:55:15.960 --> 00:55:19.559
is, Jeff and I am not
saying this lightly, one of the most

762
00:55:19.840 --> 00:55:24.559
disturbing movies I have ever seen in
my life. My son is eighteen years

763
00:55:24.599 --> 00:55:29.840
old, technically an adult, you
know, like he shares my love of

764
00:55:29.880 --> 00:55:32.400
some of these weird movies and stuff. I will not, even though he's

765
00:55:32.400 --> 00:55:37.000
an adult, sit down and watch
this movie with him. The content of

766
00:55:37.039 --> 00:55:40.360
those phone calls, even when I'm
by myself. Oh, I have a

767
00:55:40.599 --> 00:55:49.639
very hard time listening to what this
character, you know, in quotes Billy

768
00:55:50.239 --> 00:55:53.400
is saying. It's disturbing, it's
awful, it's unhinged. You know,

769
00:55:53.480 --> 00:55:57.920
this is coming from somebody that you
really need to fear. You know,

770
00:55:58.159 --> 00:56:00.480
in the beginning, that first phone
call that we hear, and Margot Kidder,

771
00:56:00.639 --> 00:56:04.320
you know, gets all up in
her sass, you know, when

772
00:56:04.360 --> 00:56:07.800
she's talking to him, and you
know, if firing back at him,

773
00:56:07.800 --> 00:56:10.559
thinking he's gonna relent, and he
stops talking in that creepy voice and just

774
00:56:10.599 --> 00:56:15.519
goes, I'm going to kill you. Yeah, in a perfectly normal voice,

775
00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:21.440
chills up and down. I am
well versed in horror, very well

776
00:56:21.519 --> 00:56:24.280
versed. This is one movie,
Jeff, that I have a very hard

777
00:56:24.280 --> 00:56:30.039
time sitting through by myself or with
anybody else. It's very uncomfortable. It's

778
00:56:30.079 --> 00:56:35.440
not perfect, but damn is this
movie effective. So yes, I totally

779
00:56:35.480 --> 00:56:38.440
recommend people see it. You'll probably
only watch it once if this isn't your

780
00:56:38.440 --> 00:56:44.480
thing from Shirley, you know the
Shirley Podcast, isn't I gonna like this

781
00:56:44.599 --> 00:56:50.000
movie? Dee will definitely not like
this. Jason Jason hears this episode,

782
00:56:50.039 --> 00:56:52.159
He's like, all right, I'm
watching it mcause. Yeah, Jason,

783
00:56:52.199 --> 00:56:58.239
Jason will be giving us a reaction
here after he hears this and he sees

784
00:56:58.280 --> 00:57:00.880
it, He'll he'll hit us both. I think I agree with you.

785
00:57:01.280 --> 00:57:05.800
This is a must watch for any
fan of Slasher's, any fan of horror.

786
00:57:06.360 --> 00:57:09.519
And let's not forget this movie.
Yeah, it laid the groundwork.

787
00:57:09.760 --> 00:57:13.079
You know, I love what you
said. This This movie walks so that

788
00:57:13.159 --> 00:57:16.480
Halloween could run. But think about
this, this is the very first film

789
00:57:16.480 --> 00:57:22.239
we get in what's called the seasonal
slasher like it's you know, the subgenre

790
00:57:22.320 --> 00:57:27.320
in a subgenre, because you know, let's just run through these movies.

791
00:57:28.119 --> 00:57:32.880
After Black Christmas we get We're gonna
get Halloween, Friday, thirteenth, prom

792
00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:38.119
Night, Mother's Day, Graduation Day, my bloody Valentine, Silent Night,

793
00:57:38.159 --> 00:57:43.360
Deadly Night, which we referenced,
and one of my favorites from nineteen eighty

794
00:57:43.400 --> 00:57:47.320
six, April Fool's Day. This
movie, this movie kicks off this movie

795
00:57:47.360 --> 00:57:52.400
kicks off the whole killer during a
holiday situation. Yeah, I love it.

796
00:57:52.440 --> 00:57:55.000
I love it for that, Absolutely
love it for that. Yep.

797
00:57:55.400 --> 00:58:00.079
Do you want one more interesting fact
here? Because absolutely? Okay. So

798
00:58:00.800 --> 00:58:06.159
what I think is very interesting in
settling for most people in this movie is

799
00:58:06.159 --> 00:58:09.440
we know nothing about the killer nothing, thank you. Okay. There's no

800
00:58:09.599 --> 00:58:14.199
resolution. That's what makes it even
more upsetting at the end. There is

801
00:58:14.239 --> 00:58:19.000
no conclusion to this, like,
no conclusion whatsoever. We have no idea

802
00:58:19.320 --> 00:58:22.679
who he is, we have no
backstory, we haven't you know nothing.

803
00:58:22.280 --> 00:58:27.679
Bob Clark refuted that, and he
said, absolutely there's a backstory. Now,

804
00:58:27.719 --> 00:58:30.880
grant, he doesn't tell the backstory
in the movie, so this is

805
00:58:31.000 --> 00:58:34.400
on the sidelines. We have to
go with what we see on film.

806
00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:39.719
But according to Bob Clark, Billy's
backstory is that Billy is abusive and abused

807
00:58:39.719 --> 00:58:45.440
by his little sister and was abused
himself and probably killed his parents, probably

808
00:58:45.519 --> 00:58:49.880
locked her up in the basement for
five or six years, and I think

809
00:58:49.920 --> 00:58:52.639
she escaped. And Billy doesn't like
girls, and it turns out Agnes doesn't

810
00:58:52.800 --> 00:59:00.400
like boys. Yeah, it's it's
one of those movies where you're not gonna

811
00:59:00.440 --> 00:59:06.280
get like this exposition dump on you
and here's this terrible backstory, or here's

812
00:59:06.960 --> 00:59:09.920
here's the killer's motivation. This is
this is Psycho, this is Halloween.

813
00:59:12.559 --> 00:59:16.280
It's it's happening and we don't know. Why do you think that Jess Olivia

814
00:59:16.360 --> 00:59:20.800
Hussey's character. Do you think she's
alive or dead at the end. That's

815
00:59:20.800 --> 00:59:24.320
a great question because this is one
of the greatest ambiguous innings to a horror

816
00:59:24.400 --> 00:59:30.960
movie. I want to say yes
and here's why, okay, or I'm

817
00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:36.760
gonna go with yes, she's alive
because do you know about Bob Clark's idea

818
00:59:36.960 --> 00:59:42.000
that he had right before he passed
away. No, shortly before he passes

819
00:59:42.039 --> 00:59:49.400
away, he gets with Olivia Hussey
and John Saxon and wants to do a

820
00:59:49.440 --> 00:59:54.519
true sequel to Black Christmas where it's
present day and Olivia Hussey is now the

821
00:59:54.559 --> 00:59:59.000
house mother. Get out? Are
you serious? That's that's what was on

822
00:59:59.039 --> 01:00:04.599
that That was that was the cards
following. You know, we we kind

823
01:00:04.639 --> 01:00:07.280
of mentioned, you know, this
movie has a couple remakes. Two thousand

824
01:00:07.320 --> 01:00:13.079
and six, Bob Clark executive produced
that remake and it bombed. I mean,

825
01:00:13.079 --> 01:00:15.480
it did not do good at the
theaters, and when that happened,

826
01:00:15.519 --> 01:00:17.280
he was like, that's it.
I'm doing a sequel the right way,

827
01:00:17.719 --> 01:00:22.559
and Hussy and Saxon are like,
we're in let's do it. I didn't

828
01:00:22.559 --> 01:00:25.960
read anything about that. That's fascinating. Interesting. Yeah, in production,

829
01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:30.599
he was in pre production. He
was working on it, and then you

830
01:00:30.639 --> 01:00:35.360
know he got killed that car wreck. So, yeah, Jess is alive.

831
01:00:35.480 --> 01:00:37.719
I'm gonna say, you know,
the hopeful person of me says,

832
01:00:37.800 --> 01:00:39.480
yes, is alive. The Bob
Clark fant of me says, yes,

833
01:00:39.559 --> 01:00:44.199
Jess is alive. Do you feel
that she's left alive? All right,

834
01:00:44.239 --> 01:00:47.119
I'm gonna go a wild fan theory
on you here. Okay, I think

835
01:00:47.199 --> 01:00:53.320
she is dead, totally, Dad, Okay, so rewatch the movie sometime.

836
01:00:53.880 --> 01:01:00.639
Mm. Every time Billy or whatever
his name is, because we don't

837
01:01:00.639 --> 01:01:05.119
even know that for sure, we
don't. Every time he kills somebody,

838
01:01:05.280 --> 01:01:09.840
he makes a phone call. Oh, you're right at the end. At

839
01:01:09.960 --> 01:01:15.199
the end, she's alone, and
the phone starts ringing. He knows there's

840
01:01:15.239 --> 01:01:22.119
nobody alive in that house. Oh
that's brilliant, because we're left outside.

841
01:01:22.400 --> 01:01:25.239
There's that one cop on the on
the stoop. He hears the phone he

842
01:01:25.280 --> 01:01:29.519
looks up and knows I'm not gonna
go inside and answer it. I'm gonna

843
01:01:29.519 --> 01:01:32.400
stay right here. Every single time
he murders somebody, he makes a phone

844
01:01:32.400 --> 01:01:37.599
call right after that is a great, great point. And now you got

845
01:01:37.599 --> 01:01:43.000
me wondering. When you rewatch it
with that in your head and the movie

846
01:01:43.119 --> 01:01:46.360
changes, I think, I think
you're onto something, so uh, we'll

847
01:01:46.360 --> 01:01:51.559
have to let the answer. Well, that's that's the great thing. Yeah,

848
01:01:51.840 --> 01:01:53.599
that's a great thing about ambiguous endings
in movies. You'll kind of get

849
01:01:53.639 --> 01:01:57.920
to it's your thoughts like, well, did this happen or did that happen?

850
01:01:57.960 --> 01:01:59.920
But now you got me, you
got me tetering. I don't know

851
01:02:00.079 --> 01:02:04.119
from I don't know if she's living
now or not. But we'll have to

852
01:02:04.199 --> 01:02:08.840
let the listeners give us their thoughts
on that. This movie is streaming,

853
01:02:08.880 --> 01:02:13.599
It's on Peacock, It's on Prime
if you want to watch it for free,

854
01:02:13.639 --> 01:02:17.400
it's on YouTube, Pluto, TV
two, B Crackle, there is

855
01:02:17.679 --> 01:02:23.199
You have every opportunity to see the
nineteen seventy four Black Christmas. And we

856
01:02:23.360 --> 01:02:29.519
definitely say yeah too, Amanda.
It has been a pleasure talking about Black

857
01:02:29.599 --> 01:02:32.000
Christmas with you. I want to
thank you, Jeff for inviting me onto

858
01:02:32.079 --> 01:02:36.280
the episode. It was an honor
and absolutely just made my day. When

859
01:02:36.320 --> 01:02:39.960
I opened up my messenger messenger and
saw you wanted me to come on,

860
01:02:40.119 --> 01:02:44.400
I had the best time. I
love your podcast. I love your hoop

861
01:02:44.599 --> 01:02:50.119
viewpoints. I love all your different
guest hosts and semi permanent hosts and stuff

862
01:02:50.119 --> 01:02:52.199
and all your topics. I love
the idea behind your podcast. I think

863
01:02:52.239 --> 01:02:57.440
you do a great job, and
I appreciate all the work you put into

864
01:02:57.480 --> 01:03:01.079
it because just this one podcast and
one pagere an episode stressed me out all

865
01:03:01.119 --> 01:03:04.239
week. So I don't know how
you do this week and week out.

866
01:03:04.639 --> 01:03:07.559
But we're not done yet. Correct, Correct? You want to You want

867
01:03:07.559 --> 01:03:14.119
to let the listeners knows what's what's
coming their way. Absolutely. So Jeff

868
01:03:14.159 --> 01:03:17.000
reached out and asked if I'd be
interested in talking about Black Christmas, and

869
01:03:17.039 --> 01:03:22.480
I said sure, Black Christmas seventy
four. And I said sure, And

870
01:03:22.519 --> 01:03:25.559
then he said, how about we
talk about the two remakes too? Okay,

871
01:03:25.719 --> 01:03:29.760
all right, let's do it.
Yep. So we are following this

872
01:03:29.920 --> 01:03:35.119
up with a discussion on the two
remakes, which both are incredibly polarizing.

873
01:03:35.800 --> 01:03:38.360
Oh yes they are. I don't
want I'm gonna hold my cards close.

874
01:03:38.400 --> 01:03:40.800
I don't want to give you any
idea of what I think about the two

875
01:03:40.840 --> 01:03:45.239
thousand and six or the twenty nineteen
versions yet, but I'm gonna go ahead

876
01:03:45.280 --> 01:03:52.440
and tell everyone Black Christmas, I
gave you my heart, which is what

877
01:03:52.760 --> 01:03:55.880
Amanda suggested for the title, which
is brilliant. We will be discussing that

878
01:03:57.000 --> 01:04:02.800
on Patreon. It's available now,
so head on over to www dot patreon

879
01:04:02.880 --> 01:04:09.760
dot com. Backslash a film by
podcast, Subscribe or sign up for our

880
01:04:09.800 --> 01:04:14.840
free seven day trial to hear Amanda's
thoughts on the Black Christmas remakes and a

881
01:04:14.880 --> 01:04:17.320
whole lot more. Amanda, again, thank you so much for joining us

882
01:04:17.320 --> 01:04:23.440
today. Thank you so much,
and I'd like to follow this up with

883
01:04:24.719 --> 01:04:30.639
my favorite barber quote, You're a
gold plated whorer. On that note.

884
01:04:33.559 --> 01:04:39.360
Quote, Oh, on that note. Next week, our friends from the

885
01:04:39.400 --> 01:04:44.840
Shirley You Can't Be Serious Podcast will
be stopping by to discuss the last film

886
01:04:45.079 --> 01:04:49.159
in our nineteen seventy six series,
Logan's Run. Thanks for listening. Happy

887
01:04:49.159 --> 01:05:16.119
Holidays, everybody, Agness is me
beyond mhm