Sept. 16, 2024

Frank Capra - Arsenic and Old Lace

Frank Capra - Arsenic and Old Lace
Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Goodpods podcast player badge
Pandora podcast player badge
Amazon Music podcast player badge
iHeartRadio podcast player badge
Castbox podcast player badge
Deezer podcast player badge
TuneIn podcast player badge
Podcast Addict podcast player badge
Podchaser podcast player badge
Spreaker podcast player badge
JioSaavn podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconGoodpods podcast player iconPandora podcast player iconAmazon Music podcast player iconiHeartRadio podcast player iconCastbox podcast player iconDeezer podcast player iconTuneIn podcast player iconPodcast Addict podcast player iconPodchaser podcast player iconSpreaker podcast player iconJioSaavn podcast player iconCastro podcast player iconRSS Feed podcast player icon
Season 5A Film By...

Arsenic and Old Lace celebrates its 80th anniversary this week! "The Authority on the Golden Age of Cinema" Robert Burnett returns for an in-depth conversation about Frank Capra's macabre comedy!

For exclusive episodes and content, check out A Film By... Podcast on our Patreon with a FREE 7-day trial. You can also sign up as a free member! 

Check out www.afilmbypodcast.com/ for more information.
Email us at afilmbypodcast@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.
Find us on Instagram, X, and Facebook @afilmbypodcast.

This episode is sponsored by MaiRo & Co Dog Treat Bakery

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:02.399
This episode is brought to you by the Mayroe and Co.

2
00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:06.839
Dog Treat Bakery, a full service bakery for your dogs,

3
00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:12.560
providing classic treats, cookies, doughnuts, custom cakes, and more. Their

4
00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:16.239
treats are baked with only the highest quality, locally sourced ingredients.

5
00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:19.440
Baking just a pound of treats at a time ensures

6
00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:22.399
that their treats are the best and the ones your

7
00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:26.559
best friends deserve. Mayroe and Co. Dog Treat Bakery has

8
00:00:26.600 --> 00:00:30.760
been treating Cincinnati's dogs to tail wagon goodness since twenty twelve,

9
00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:37.079
and now they're available online at Mayroanco dot com. Today

10
00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:40.000
we're going to talk about a film by Frank Capra,

11
00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:48.640
his nineteen forty four crime comedy classic Arsenic and Old Lace.

12
00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:21.040
This week, Arsenic and Old Lace celebrates its eightieth anniversary. Therefore,

13
00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:24.640
it's fitting that my guest today be an expert on

14
00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:28.280
the stage and screen of yesteryear. I like to think

15
00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:31.120
of him as the authority on the golden age of cinema.

16
00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:34.280
Earlier this year, he was a guest on our limited

17
00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:38.200
nineteen ninety six series when we talked about Billy Zane

18
00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:41.480
in The Phantom, and I think today's film is certainly

19
00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:45.239
in his Willhouse. Robert Burnette, Welcome back.

20
00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:47.519
Sir, Thank you so much for having me.

21
00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:52.239
I've been looking forward to this conversation today, and you

22
00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:53.599
were the only one I was like, this is It's

23
00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:56.239
got to be Robert that I talked to you about

24
00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:59.519
this this film. Now I understand you know we're talking

25
00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:02.120
about a movie nineteen forty four. So I know we've

26
00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:04.239
got some cinophiles that are listening to us and they

27
00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:06.719
probably have seen this. They own it, they love it.

28
00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:09.840
I also know we have a group of people that

29
00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:13.240
probably are like what is arsenic and old lace? So

30
00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:16.360
for those that have not seen it, will the brief

31
00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:20.439
synopsis I would offer you is Mortimer Brewster, a Brooklyn

32
00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:24.000
theater critic and writer of books on the futility of marriage,

33
00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:27.759
risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot

34
00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:32.039
moments before absconding on his honeymoon. He discovers the surprise

35
00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:35.159
of his life when he learns that his beloved maiden

36
00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:41.319
aunts Abby and Martha are serial murderers who target bachelor's Robert.

37
00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:44.719
This was actually this was a first time watch for me.

38
00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:48.800
Do you recall the first time you saw this film?

39
00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:51.719
Truth can be told we're all good friends. This is

40
00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:56.520
the first time I watched it, and somehow what I

41
00:02:57.120 --> 00:02:59.879
thought I had seen it. It's like, I know the clips,

42
00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.319
i know the story, I'd read the play. You know.

43
00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:04.439
It's it's one of those things that's just kind of

44
00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:07.199
in our culture, you say, our Sniffle Old Lady date,

45
00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:09.840
the Little Old Lady, the alder Berry wine. You know,

46
00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:12.919
it's it's all known, if you know. But but once

47
00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:15.199
it started, I was like, Oh, to your god, I

48
00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:18.080
don't think I've actually seen all of this except for

49
00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:22.199
little excerpts in tributes to carry Grant or whomever. So

50
00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:24.719
it was a delight. I've watched it three times now

51
00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:27.159
in the last two weeks, so I'm catching up.

52
00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:29.719
Yeah, you and I were talking about Capra off Mike,

53
00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:32.960
you know, because he's got an extensive filmography, but you

54
00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:36.800
just you know, they're kind of he doesn't have a

55
00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:39.159
distinct style. Is that Is that fair to say?

56
00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:44.159
That absolutely fair to say. Yeah. He would generally come

57
00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:46.240
up with what he wanted to do and do it,

58
00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:49.120
and usually it might even just be one take, uh,

59
00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:52.639
and then he would move on, you know. So uh,

60
00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:56.520
some actors loved it. Some actors would get frustrated because

61
00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:58.759
they wanted to do different takes for different things. But

62
00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:03.039
he also said he did it in part because then

63
00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:06.199
the studio couldn't mess with his films because he only

64
00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:09.719
had enough coverage to do what he wanted to do.

65
00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:11.879
He didn't give them a lot of shots to edit

66
00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:14.319
or you know, do reverse angles or anything like that.

67
00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:17.720
Very clever, very clever of him. One thing we were

68
00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:20.639
talking about, you know, because I told you like that,

69
00:04:20.759 --> 00:04:23.319
I you know, this was not what I was expecting,

70
00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:26.160
and you made the comment, You're like, yeah, well, it's

71
00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:30.519
not the typical Jimmy Stewart au Shuck's film that were

72
00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:35.680
used to from Frank Capra this one. Yeah, I know

73
00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:37.560
it's weird to say it's a breadth of fresh air

74
00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:40.279
given that it came out nineteen forty four, but it

75
00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:44.759
wasn't what I was expecting, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

76
00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:49.199
Yeah, let's tell tactic and if Kapa wanted to make

77
00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:52.040
this movie because he did feel like he was getting

78
00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:55.720
stuck in a rut of kind of you know, flag

79
00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:59.560
waving Americana, you know, comedies with a little bit of drama,

80
00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:02.120
and when this came up to the studio, he thought

81
00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:03.600
it would be a great chance for him to just

82
00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:06.279
flex a little bit and try something different than what

83
00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:08.680
he was becoming kind of overly known for.

84
00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:13.120
Yeah, so the role, the lead role of Mortimer Brewster

85
00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:17.199
was intended for Bob Hope. He was under contract and

86
00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:20.639
unavailable at the time, and so we get Carry Grant.

87
00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:24.560
Robert your thoughts on Cary Grant in this film or

88
00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:25.120
in general.

89
00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:28.319
Carry Grant is one of my favorite Golden Age stars

90
00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:31.759
because he's really versatile. I mean, he can do Hitchcock,

91
00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:35.199
he can do light comedy, he really just can do everything.

92
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:38.199
And this film is it was super fun to watch

93
00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:39.920
because it was one of the last films where he

94
00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.040
really went with the physical comedy, some of the pratfalls

95
00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:46.920
and the double takes, which he started with early in

96
00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:49.399
his career, and in fact, prior to film, he was

97
00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:52.800
a circus acrobat and did all kinds of stunts and

98
00:05:52.839 --> 00:05:55.399
somersaults and things like that. So you see him in

99
00:05:55.439 --> 00:05:57.680
some of his early films with Hepburn. But by the

100
00:05:57.720 --> 00:06:00.319
time the forties came along, and of course, as well mentioned,

101
00:06:00.360 --> 00:06:02.360
this film came out three years after it was filmed,

102
00:06:03.240 --> 00:06:04.920
he was getting to the kind of the more mature,

103
00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:10.600
sophisticated Hitchcock hero or anti hero, and and kind of

104
00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:13.000
a different phase of his career. So it was fun

105
00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:17.120
to discover him making faces and doing double in triple

106
00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:19.240
takes and all that fun stuff. So I think, I

107
00:06:19.240 --> 00:06:21.120
think it's a great role for him. I'm glad they

108
00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:23.759
glad they got him. Bob Up would have been fine,

109
00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:26.920
But I think a little more, a little more one dimensional.

110
00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:27.759
M h.

111
00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:31.519
Carry Grant in this role. Like as you said, I

112
00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:36.959
I reck I connect with him as the debonair Hitchcock lead.

113
00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:41.079
So to see him in this film and the physical

114
00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:45.600
comedy and the facial expressions, forgive me for saying it, Robert,

115
00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:48.480
but I almost felt like, is this what chevy Chase

116
00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:52.639
was watching to become chevy Chase? Because Yeah, watching carry

117
00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:54.720
Grant in this, I felt like I was watching Clark

118
00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:57.560
Griswold from the National Impuons movies.

119
00:06:57.920 --> 00:07:01.079
There's a real through line there because chevy Chase was

120
00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:06.040
not an unhandsome man. I mean he was not. He

121
00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:08.040
wasn't George Clooney, but but he was not like so

122
00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:11.519
many of our comic actors in old and new films

123
00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:14.040
are not going to be the boy who could the

124
00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:16.040
girl necessarily at the end of the film, but you

125
00:07:16.120 --> 00:07:18.959
can imagine it with Chevy Chase. So I think that

126
00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.560
makes the humor of them falling down and you know,

127
00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:24.920
taking pies in the face or whatever silly thing they're

128
00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:27.000
doing even funnier.

129
00:07:27.639 --> 00:07:31.720
Absolutely, one thing I really was, I gotta respect Carry

130
00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:34.079
Grant for this. I was doing a little research on him.

131
00:07:35.879 --> 00:07:39.600
So his salary is in excess of one hundred thousand

132
00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:44.000
dollars for the film, and he donates most, if not

133
00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:47.639
all of it to various Allied wartime charities. We gotta remember,

134
00:07:47.639 --> 00:07:51.319
it's nineteen forty four, World War two is happening. So

135
00:07:51.399 --> 00:07:54.600
I really, I really respect him for doing the right

136
00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:55.360
thing with this money.

137
00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:58.800
I love that you love that, and he certainly didn't

138
00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:01.399
have to do it. The flip side of that story

139
00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:04.560
is two of the pictures he'd done back to back

140
00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:08.560
before this. He was the highest paid actor in Hollywood

141
00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:13.560
at that time, and his taxes were immense, and now

142
00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:16.399
throughout his career he was always very generous and gave

143
00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:20.800
back and did things that were not publicized. But part

144
00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:23.000
part of the idea of this give all the money

145
00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:26.720
away salary thing with this is it gave him tax credits.

146
00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:32.279
So he was a shrewd, shrewd businessman throughout his life,

147
00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:34.320
which is partly why he was able. He was never

148
00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:37.679
assigned to one studio after he left Paramount in the

149
00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:40.159
early nineteen thirties. He was a freelance, which was almost

150
00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:42.639
unheard of in that era, but people were tied to

151
00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:45.559
with studio, could ask his own salary and really picked

152
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:48.360
and chose what he can do, which is why so

153
00:08:48.440 --> 00:08:52.799
much of his filmography is we still know because he's

154
00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:55.000
you know, he's working with Catherine Hepburn, then he's working

155
00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:58.200
with Hitchcock, then he's working with Audrey Hepburn in some

156
00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:01.440
of those later films. I mean, he always was a

157
00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.080
top door star take commensurate to it. So so loved

158
00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:07.759
the charity, but it was also a smart business move

159
00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:09.159
its part as well.

160
00:09:10.759 --> 00:09:14.879
Let's let's talk about his leading lady, Priscilla Laine plays

161
00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:18.240
Elaine Harper, his neighbor that he ultimately falls in love with.

162
00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:23.559
I gotta be honest, Robert, I I can't recover seeing

163
00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:27.440
her in another film from from this this era. You know,

164
00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:29.519
I know she's not a Hitchcock girl. I know, I

165
00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:30.919
just I've never seen she was.

166
00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:35.799
She was once. I think she was, what was it notorious?

167
00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:37.759
I can't remember when she was. She had a small

168
00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:42.320
part in one of the Hitchcocks. Okay Heims a delight

169
00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:45.120
though she is, and if you want to want to

170
00:09:45.159 --> 00:09:47.519
spend some time, its more time with her. The best

171
00:09:47.559 --> 00:09:50.080
movies she did she did three movies. It was kind

172
00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:53.080
of an early early uh you know, success with lots

173
00:09:53.080 --> 00:09:57.159
of sequels. The first one was called Four Daughters, and

174
00:09:57.240 --> 00:10:00.200
it's about four young women. Part of the stunt the

175
00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:02.799
movie was the studio had hired her and two of

176
00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:06.000
her sisters, who were all very young and talented and

177
00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:09.279
mostly just photogenic, and so they put them in this

178
00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:13.240
movie called uh, well sorry, four Daughters, I said, sisters.

179
00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:17.039
I think it's four daughters, and they played four sisters,

180
00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:19.639
uh somebody else with the four sister It was a

181
00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:22.279
huge boss office sests, and it was just success. It

182
00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:25.360
was just you know, they're they're they're dating, and their

183
00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:28.759
travails and and and falling in love and adventures and

184
00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:31.320
all this. It was such a huge money maker for

185
00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:33.639
its studio that they brought them back the next year

186
00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:36.559
for four Wives, and then then they brought them back

187
00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:40.399
the next year for four mothers and yeah, I mean

188
00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:43.879
so franchise. They had to do it in that order

189
00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:46.399
because it was the forties. They couldn't have mothers before wives.

190
00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:49.399
That would have been you know, a thing. But no,

191
00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:52.919
but they're they're they're charming, charming films. They're they're kind

192
00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:57.240
of middle middleweight, middle brow, studio fair from from the forties.

193
00:10:57.279 --> 00:11:00.200
But she's good in all of them. And and then

194
00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:02.200
I think she just kind of stepped away from it

195
00:11:02.200 --> 00:11:05.200
because she never quite got top billing, but she certainly

196
00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:08.799
worked a lot when they needed a pretty blonde.

197
00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:11.440
Yeah this, and I don't know, I just I thought

198
00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:14.120
that was unusual that this was kind of like her

199
00:11:14.200 --> 00:11:17.320
last big, big role. You know, she does a couple,

200
00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:19.000
she has a handful of films after this, and then,

201
00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:21.799
like you said, she kind of faded, faded from the limelight.

202
00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:25.039
I think that's a shame, because I loved her in this.

203
00:11:25.159 --> 00:11:26.919
I thought she was she was just fantastic.

204
00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:30.159
There were a lot of them in that era because

205
00:11:30.200 --> 00:11:33.720
there was a constant, you know, search for some the

206
00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:36.399
new face or the new name or the new star,

207
00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:39.480
and so they brought out so many young men and

208
00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:42.960
women in the late thirties or early forties especially and during

209
00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:46.720
the war years too, and they just a lot of

210
00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:50.279
them walked away from it or you know, did didn't

211
00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:53.759
love it, or just didn't click with the audiences. And

212
00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:57.840
I'm looking. Yeah, her film for Hitchcock was Saboteur, which

213
00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:01.200
was filmed after this film we're talking about, but came

214
00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:02.360
out a couple of years before.

215
00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:05.519
Yeah, I know, I know you mentioned that they you

216
00:12:05.559 --> 00:12:07.320
know this this is released in nineteen forty four, it

217
00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:10.120
was actually shot three years before. We'll get into that

218
00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:12.759
when we when we talk about the film's background. And

219
00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:18.200
obviously we've got three three actors here that I don't

220
00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:19.679
want to step on, you know, I know you've got

221
00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:22.480
some great stuff to tell us about the the the

222
00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:26.360
origin of this film and where where it comes from.

223
00:12:26.919 --> 00:12:32.120
But Josephine Hall as Abby, she's one of the one

224
00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:36.080
of the old maid Aunts. I you know, we we know,

225
00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:38.759
we'll just you know, just not to keep people in suspense.

226
00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:41.039
This is obviously this is a stage production that becomes

227
00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:45.080
a film. She's she's in the stage production, correct.

228
00:12:45.240 --> 00:12:48.919
Yeah, absolutely, both both both the sisters, uh Teina Daria

229
00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:52.679
and Josephine Hole both both recreated their parts for the film,

230
00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:55.639
which is what's unusual then in this still unusual?

231
00:12:55.720 --> 00:12:58.360
Now all right, well we'll hold off on on on

232
00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:01.519
the stage talk for just a minute. But uh, watching

233
00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:05.440
these two bounce bounce around the set, I know these women,

234
00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:08.240
these I know the these are my aunts, like I

235
00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:12.120
you know, I had, I had, I grew up with

236
00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:15.240
these women. So this was was really fun to just

237
00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:18.639
watch them until you until the big reveal that, oh wait,

238
00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:21.200
they're serial killers. Let me be clear, my aunts did

239
00:13:21.240 --> 00:13:22.600
not murder anybody.

240
00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:27.120
But I mean, did you actually ever checked the basement.

241
00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:28.240
I never checked the basement.

242
00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:32.240
Now never expected you never would have suspected these ladies either,

243
00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:32.600
you know.

244
00:13:32.759 --> 00:13:35.480
So yeah, Well it's because they're just so they're so

245
00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:39.440
they're so endearing, you know, even when even when they

246
00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:43.240
explained to carry Grant what they're doing and why they're

247
00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:46.159
doing it, they're very dismissive about it, like it's not

248
00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:46.679
a big deal.

249
00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:50.840
Well, and I think that that's part of the charm

250
00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:52.799
of this film, and so much of the humor is

251
00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:57.080
how dead pan, no pun intended they are about everything.

252
00:13:57.159 --> 00:13:59.799
It just like, oh when we plais in their line

253
00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:02.080
with cyanide and oh would you like some cake, deer?

254
00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:04.679
It's kind of everything is kind of just just you know,

255
00:14:05.159 --> 00:14:09.240
nothing is pushed, nothing, it is shocking, it's just and

256
00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:12.840
so I think their their delivery is just so matter

257
00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.679
of fact that it makes it that much more funny

258
00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:18.360
than if there had been a big secret for a big,

259
00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:21.720
big reveal or you know, a big tight close up

260
00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:24.919
on you know, Justine Hoole's face. It's it's not it's

261
00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.360
just like, oh, past as salt and we killed another

262
00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:30.639
one today, both kind of yeah, part of the conversation.

263
00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:32.919
And it it brings the humor out.

264
00:14:32.759 --> 00:14:36.159
So well, it does, it absolutely does. Uh, you can't

265
00:14:36.200 --> 00:14:38.919
talk about the humor of this film without talking about

266
00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:44.519
John Alexander, who's playing Teddy. This guy is off the

267
00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:49.519
charts and doing a bit that I think some people

268
00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:52.440
might perceive it could get tiring for some people, but

269
00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:55.480
I gotta tell you, his antics did not get old

270
00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:58.440
with me at all. I loved him from the first,

271
00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:00.000
his first scene to his final scene.

272
00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:03.600
He's a wild man, he was, and he was the

273
00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:06.360
other actor who came from the Broadway play. They brought

274
00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:08.840
him over from Broadway because he was just so indelible,

275
00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:11.879
because yeah, he could get it annoying really fast. His

276
00:15:12.039 --> 00:15:16.799
character and his stick. But he just so delightful and

277
00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:20.919
funny himself that you don't mind it. And he actually

278
00:15:20.919 --> 00:15:25.000
played the role of Teddy on and off till I

279
00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:27.919
think through the nineteen sixties, like when he died. I mean,

280
00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:30.399
it was like his bread and butter. He played many

281
00:15:30.440 --> 00:15:34.399
other roles. He'd done some other films too, but he

282
00:15:34.440 --> 00:15:37.679
did every time they needed Teddy for revival or you know,

283
00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:40.759
a show anywhere in the country, he would show up

284
00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:42.799
and charge right up those stairs. You know.

285
00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:47.440
Yeah, the idea that this you know, he's obviously he's

286
00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:53.399
mentally ill. He believes himself to be President Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt.

287
00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:56.080
I think he might be the best performance in the

288
00:15:56.080 --> 00:16:00.799
film because when he is just listening to another another actor,

289
00:16:01.240 --> 00:16:05.360
or he's reacting to something that's being said to him,

290
00:16:05.399 --> 00:16:07.639
just everything he's doing with his body language and his

291
00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:13.799
his his face. I believe that he believes he is Roosevelt.

292
00:16:13.879 --> 00:16:15.960
He's doing such an amazing work here.

293
00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:20.679
Especially they give him the wiremrim glasses and they give

294
00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:23.480
him a mustache. But he doesn't know even look like Roosevelt. Really,

295
00:16:23.519 --> 00:16:26.120
he doesn't try and bully, he said, he doesn't try

296
00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:28.399
and look like him. He doesn't try and sound like him,

297
00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:33.440
and I love the absurdity of him was saying things like, oh,

298
00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:36.159
that's why I don't recognize you. I haven't met you yet.

299
00:16:36.519 --> 00:16:38.879
I don't meet you until I So it's not even

300
00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:41.480
like I mean, he believes he's Roosevelt, but it's this

301
00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:45.320
very chill hear way where he kind of like has

302
00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:47.759
read all the books and just can kind of cherry

303
00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:49.759
pick what he wanted to do. There was a line

304
00:16:49.799 --> 00:16:52.279
in the play that was fantastic that got left out

305
00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:54.039
of the film because they thought it would have been dated,

306
00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:55.759
and with the three year delay it would have been

307
00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:59.919
more dated. One of the cops, I think it's the newer,

308
00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:02.799
younger cop says, oh, he thinks he's Roosevelt. Why would

309
00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:06.599
why would anyone want to be FDR? And the other

310
00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:09.920
cop says, well, nobody would want to be him. He's

311
00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:14.160
he's Teddy Roosevelt. And that line did not survive the play.

312
00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:16.799
It got got cut out for the film version, but

313
00:17:17.480 --> 00:17:20.680
it was a little little FDR bashing back in the

314
00:17:20.759 --> 00:17:21.680
day from Broadway.

315
00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:25.480
I'll tell you watching this too, because I saw this

316
00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:29.599
a couple of times, and watching this performance, I was thinking,

317
00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:33.720
like what modern actor would just chew the scenery in

318
00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:36.720
this role, And Nathan Lane came to mind.

319
00:17:37.079 --> 00:17:40.079
See, I thought you'd say that when you started off.

320
00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:42.839
I see, I kind of disagree, because I think part

321
00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.839
of what makes what makes this guy so funny is

322
00:17:46.039 --> 00:17:49.200
he's he underplays same thing with with our our our

323
00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:53.599
two Maiden ants. He isn't trying to be wacky and

324
00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:57.039
over the top. He's just this nice guy who thinks

325
00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:00.680
he's Roosevelt and he's not. He never pushes it, He never,

326
00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:03.359
you know, is kind of milking it or winking at

327
00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:07.799
the audience. He is a very realistic portrayal in the

328
00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:12.160
kind of bubble of a nineteen forties movie. But I

329
00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:16.279
think funny if Nathan Lane is Nathan Lane is always

330
00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:19.720
so over the top. And I think that, I mean,

331
00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:22.039
I think Robin Williams, who I think you know, has

332
00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:25.920
already played or already did play. Yeah. Yeah, But Robin

333
00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:28.640
Williams could have pulled it off because he knew when

334
00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:31.240
to rein it in. And I don't think Nathan Lane

335
00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:35.240
has like anything lower than eleven on his dial for performances.

336
00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:39.079
So love him, love you, Nathan, but I think he

337
00:18:39.079 --> 00:18:41.599
wouldn't have had the nuance or and he would have

338
00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:42.359
thrown the tone off.

339
00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:47.400
All right, that's an interesting take this movie. It takes

340
00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:53.039
place on the afternoon of Halloween, and it's got the

341
00:18:53.079 --> 00:18:57.240
set designs a little spooky without going overboard, obviously, but

342
00:18:57.799 --> 00:19:01.720
it is not without its creepy characters. So tell me

343
00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:04.599
what you thought about Peter Lorie as Doctor Einstein.

344
00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:09.680
Oh loved Peter Lourieu. He is an unsung, unsung hero

345
00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:14.240
of film. He just is so strange and so again

346
00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:17.160
in this. I mean, he could be menacing. If you've

347
00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:19.680
ever seen m his kind of breakthrough thing where he

348
00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:24.960
plays a serial killer, creepy, creepy, creepy, but he could

349
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:28.319
play humor realiantly. And I thought his line reading is

350
00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:33.359
in this were fantastic. He could be menacing, you could.

351
00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:36.680
You could see his fear of you know, the car

352
00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:40.160
of off want to be but his humor. The scene

353
00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:42.319
where he where he and Roosevelt are going down to

354
00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:46.160
the basement to see Panama in the basement and uh,

355
00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:49.880
Laurie turns and goes bom voyage and it did. It's

356
00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:53.559
hilarious and it's not necessarily a funny line, but he

357
00:19:53.799 --> 00:19:56.799
just made it funny. So I think it's great, and

358
00:19:56.839 --> 00:20:00.000
he he brings that that cachet because he was always,

359
00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:02.759
you known at this point for being kind of othered

360
00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:06.039
and kind of creepy and kind of off putting, so

361
00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:10.079
it fits for his character. But I think he plays

362
00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:13.680
the humor really well, which makes him kind of lovable

363
00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:17.160
almost even though he's with this psychopathic maniac.

364
00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:21.559
Well. And the thing is, I think my favorite scene

365
00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:26.039
with Peter Lourie is at the end when the police

366
00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:29.920
captain is in the background talking to the people at

367
00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:32.920
the sanitarium and he's like, all right, the description of

368
00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:36.599
the of the accomplice, and Peter Laurie's standing there, he's

369
00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:39.720
inches from the door. He knows he's caught, and the

370
00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:44.400
guy is just giving these physical descriptions and every time

371
00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:47.200
he's you know, five foot three, you know, speaks with

372
00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:49.960
a German accent, Like every time he says something, Peter

373
00:20:50.039 --> 00:20:53.160
Lourie kind of shrinks a little bit and winces a

374
00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:56.039
little bit. Yeah, and then they're like, oh, this is

375
00:20:56.039 --> 00:20:58.480
the doctor that's on the papers. And then the second

376
00:20:58.519 --> 00:21:00.640
he knew, he realizes that he's off, got free, and

377
00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:03.480
he hits the door. I gotta be honest, I was

378
00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:06.039
rooting for him to get away. I wanted I wanted

379
00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:08.079
him to get away. He's he's a villain in the

380
00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:11.039
in the piece, but he he's just he's he's so fun.

381
00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.920
Well. That the beauty for me of old films in general.

382
00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:17.799
And I'll drop a few more names later, but I

383
00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:21.440
love character actors. And Laurie was a star in Europe

384
00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:23.359
early in the Silent Era, in the early thirties. When

385
00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:25.400
he came to America, he was always a character actor.

386
00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:28.640
I mean, good Heavens, he was in Casablanca and all

387
00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:31.480
those other films as well. They're so well known, and

388
00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:35.559
he'd become kind of a cultural thing where people like,

389
00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:37.839
they know his voice, they know what he looks like.

390
00:21:38.599 --> 00:21:41.319
Even after all these years, he still you know, known.

391
00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:45.480
But but he was so versatile, and I think I

392
00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:48.119
think in this film in particular, I'm sure when he

393
00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:51.279
came on screen, as audiences would with other actors in

394
00:21:51.319 --> 00:21:54.720
this film, they like, oh, it's him, and they already

395
00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:57.000
kind of know, Okay, probably gonna be humorous, it's probably

396
00:21:57.000 --> 00:21:59.240
gonna be maybe a little of cob It's gonna be

397
00:21:59.319 --> 00:22:01.519
you know, and uh. And that's kind of the beauty

398
00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:03.680
of character actors. Is to come on and you're just like,

399
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:05.920
you know what you're getting and it makes you happy.

400
00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:13.799
Well, definitely not humorous, but definitely Macobb is Raymond Massey

401
00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:17.960
playing Jonathan Brewster. Yeah, wow, this is the the you

402
00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:20.079
know when we keep talking about the Karloff look alike,

403
00:22:20.920 --> 00:22:25.079
which I thought was clever with the film's writing. This

404
00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:29.160
guy was absolutely he was. He was creepy on to

405
00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:29.960
like level ten.

406
00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:33.799
Yeah, and it's so fun because this movie starts off

407
00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:35.680
and you don't really know what you're getting with that

408
00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:38.920
point was baseball scene, and then then we get into

409
00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:42.319
the Brewster house and it's kind of this dienectic comedy

410
00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:44.640
with Terry Grant and the girlfriend and the wacky ants,

411
00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:46.039
and then all of a sudden, it takes this right

412
00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:48.079
turn and we're like, we've got a body hidden in

413
00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:50.720
the window seat and then all then then you know,

414
00:22:50.759 --> 00:22:54.240
so it's it's it's shifting from from light comedy to

415
00:22:54.759 --> 00:22:57.119
kind of mystery to this to that. And then he

416
00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:00.240
shows up. Yeah, Jonathan shows up, and it's almost like

417
00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:04.079
horror slash noir all of a sudden, which and and

418
00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:08.720
tonally it all works though the scene where he as

419
00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:12.079
the one sister is showing the other where she hid

420
00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:15.519
the body. Uh, he burst through the windows. I mean

421
00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:18.680
it's one of those like gasp out loud, you know,

422
00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:22.519
scares and and there's some wonderful Kiaro's hero and kind

423
00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:25.119
of noir shots later where he and Laurie are moving

424
00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:27.319
another body because there's lots of bodies and it's just

425
00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:31.720
all shadows and silhouettes and darkness and sound and so

426
00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:35.799
different from maybe what you were expecting at the beginning

427
00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:39.880
of the film. But Capra and and and the cast

428
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:43.079
pulled off where you don't notice these really weird shifts

429
00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:45.559
in moods or tone. It all kind of comes across

430
00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:48.880
as one one, one big take with lots of layers.

431
00:23:49.240 --> 00:23:51.680
That's that moment you you just mentioned where he burst

432
00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:54.200
through the window. I mean I I kind of jumped

433
00:23:54.200 --> 00:23:57.319
a little bit on my couch. I could fully believe

434
00:23:57.359 --> 00:24:01.039
that that was the moment in uh theaters in nineteen

435
00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:03.240
forty four where popcorn is flying through the air because

436
00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:04.519
people weren't.

437
00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:07.279
Ready for it. So yeah, it was great. But then

438
00:24:07.480 --> 00:24:10.400
you know Massey who I only really know him besides

439
00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:15.319
this film for Abraham Lincoln, because he played Lincoln very

440
00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.079
famously and won prizes and it was kind of his thing.

441
00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:22.680
But he does humor too. The line the line where

442
00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:25.000
he meets Teddy, and Teddy says, I'm Teddy Roosevelt, and

443
00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:28.440
his character says, I'm would Row Wilson go to bed,

444
00:24:31.119 --> 00:24:35.640
deadpan and funny and just so sharply delivered. So Massey,

445
00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:39.440
it was kind of a thankless part, but he even

446
00:24:39.480 --> 00:24:41.160
gets a few jokes out of it, which I thought

447
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:41.680
was nice.

448
00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:45.200
Robert, let's take a quick break and when we return,

449
00:24:46.359 --> 00:24:51.119
I know you've got some interesting conversation about the creation

450
00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:58.480
of this film or there welcome back. We are talking

451
00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:03.799
about Frank Capra's Arsenic and Old Lace. Robert, I know

452
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:08.200
you know quite a bit about how this film came

453
00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:10.519
to be. What can you tell us about Arsenic and

454
00:25:10.519 --> 00:25:10.920
Old Lace.

455
00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:15.440
It has a really interesting background and a little bit

456
00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:17.920
of mystery to it, just like in the film itself,

457
00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:21.920
and it is still a modern day classic. Still performed

458
00:25:21.960 --> 00:25:25.440
a lot, and it was one of the first big,

459
00:25:25.559 --> 00:25:31.000
big Broadway successes of that kind of horror mystery comedy

460
00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:34.559
that we saw years later in the movie and play

461
00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:37.599
Sleuth in Death Trap, which was a player in the film.

462
00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:41.039
It's a great genre. It's one of my favorites. But

463
00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:43.400
this was one of the first, one of the earliest ones.

464
00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:47.079
Gas Light was before it, when it was still called

465
00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:50.240
Angel Street in the in the theater. It ran for years,

466
00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:53.480
but it was not funny. Gaslight is is a lot

467
00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:56.359
of things. It's not a laugh riot. This dis managed

468
00:25:56.440 --> 00:25:58.960
to meld the humor with the shocks and thrills the

469
00:25:59.000 --> 00:25:59.680
audiences love.

470
00:25:59.759 --> 00:25:59.920
Now.

471
00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:05.039
Kesterer Ring is a footnote in theater history because he

472
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:07.440
wrote lots of things, and this is the only thing

473
00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:11.240
he's known for, probably because he just mostly wasn't a

474
00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:13.720
very good writer. He was a hack. He wanted to

475
00:26:13.720 --> 00:26:16.759
write plays, he wanted to be famous. He ground them

476
00:26:16.759 --> 00:26:20.440
out like sausages, and most of them just weren't great,

477
00:26:21.720 --> 00:26:25.119
and initially this one wasn't either. Now, he had not

478
00:26:25.160 --> 00:26:27.240
really done a lot of comedy prior to this. He

479
00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:31.319
mostly wrote traumas and thrillers and things, and so he

480
00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:34.440
thought he kind of pulled on the Villian idea of

481
00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:38.799
that kind of humor and sticks. So there was a character.

482
00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:42.400
There were several more mad characters in the Brewster family.

483
00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:44.799
And because he was trying to rip off, you can't

484
00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:48.880
take it with you. The wacky family claimed to come

485
00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:52.359
out a few years before, but so he had one

486
00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:55.599
of the mad characters would fall on the ground and

487
00:26:55.799 --> 00:26:58.400
bite the floor and we're all like a three stooges

488
00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:02.400
after anytime anybody said the word pickles, so of course,

489
00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:04.440
and that was like the height of his humor, was

490
00:27:04.839 --> 00:27:06.319
you know, one of the ants would say, oh, would

491
00:27:06.319 --> 00:27:07.920
you care for some more pickles? And then this character

492
00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:09.680
would drop to the floor and spin around and go

493
00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:13.279
whoo and like fite things. You know, that was his humor.

494
00:27:13.319 --> 00:27:16.200
He was not quite a sophisticated as this. He also

495
00:27:16.839 --> 00:27:21.000
had this weird kind of political streak where his version

496
00:27:21.240 --> 00:27:23.519
of this play and it exists in manuscript. I've never

497
00:27:23.559 --> 00:27:24.920
been able to get a copy, but I'd love to

498
00:27:24.920 --> 00:27:29.839
read it. His version of this play was very political

499
00:27:29.880 --> 00:27:35.440
in that the it was ostensibly about the old, rich

500
00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:41.240
white ruling class versus the up and coming immigrants and

501
00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:46.480
poor people and what modern America was becoming. And so

502
00:27:46.519 --> 00:27:49.079
he was going to write thiscathing takedown of how if

503
00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:51.680
you are rich and powerful, you could just murder people

504
00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:53.720
and hide them in your basement and it wouldn't matter

505
00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:56.160
if you were one of the old families and one

506
00:27:56.200 --> 00:27:59.759
of the rich people. But here's all these new younger

507
00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:03.839
peopleople so so that their name was Brewster. And in

508
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:06.119
the play it's mentioned that a Brewster came over in

509
00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:10.279
the Mayflower. And so there was all this stuff about that.

510
00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:14.160
The two cops that we meet early in the film, Uh,

511
00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:17.519
one of them in the play was was Jewish, and

512
00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:21.279
they changed him to Irish for this this ersion. But

513
00:28:21.559 --> 00:28:24.759
and so there was quite a bit about the Brewster

514
00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:28.319
family was like taken aback. Why a Jewish policeman. We

515
00:28:28.359 --> 00:28:30.680
didn't know that was possible? And are you sure he's

516
00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:33.200
met for our neighborhood? And I mean it was he

517
00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:35.920
was trying to be very very you know, modernistic in

518
00:28:35.960 --> 00:28:40.920
his but but but the idea of the ants killing

519
00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:44.480
people and bearing them in the basement was an intriguing idea,

520
00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:46.599
and in fact he got it from a real life

521
00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:50.200
incident that had happened several years years earlier. There was

522
00:28:50.599 --> 00:28:54.119
a woman who was burying people and killing them and

523
00:28:54.119 --> 00:28:57.119
then burying them, uh, and got away with it for

524
00:28:57.240 --> 00:28:59.359
years and it was finally discovered. But so he write

525
00:28:59.400 --> 00:29:01.799
this play. He's had a bunch of other plays that

526
00:29:01.880 --> 00:29:03.839
have run a week or two on Broadway and kind

527
00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:08.240
of bomb and the producers Russell Kraus and Howard Lindsay

528
00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:11.480
get a hold of this and they look it over

529
00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:13.279
and they can see the bones of it, and they

530
00:29:13.319 --> 00:29:16.880
realize it need to be funny, not a social indictment.

531
00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:21.000
And so they came to an agreement with him. And

532
00:29:21.039 --> 00:29:22.759
it's a long story, but they basically came to an

533
00:29:22.799 --> 00:29:26.440
agreement with him where they said, we'll produce it, We'll

534
00:29:26.519 --> 00:29:28.160
let you keep your name on it, so you'll get

535
00:29:28.200 --> 00:29:30.519
the royalties and the credit. We're going to rewrite the

536
00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:35.160
whole thing. And so they basically did. They rewrote almost

537
00:29:35.160 --> 00:29:39.400
the entire play. What you hear now is like ten

538
00:29:39.440 --> 00:29:43.319
percent Kessing dialogue, and everything else is Prows and Lindsay.

539
00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:45.240
And they had a great track record. I mean, they

540
00:29:45.240 --> 00:29:47.640
wrote anything Goes with Cole Porter in the thirties. They

541
00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:49.319
were working all the way up through the Sound of

542
00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:53.960
Music in the nineteen fifties. They wrote musicals, they wrote plays,

543
00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:57.839
They were writers mainly also producers. They were a crack team.

544
00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:01.480
They got ahold of his kind of half baked idea

545
00:30:01.640 --> 00:30:03.359
and turned it into what we saw today.

546
00:30:04.920 --> 00:30:09.599
Now my understanding now, now my understanding is part of

547
00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:13.519
this deal that the producers are working out with the

548
00:30:13.559 --> 00:30:18.880
stage production, is that you cannot release the film until

549
00:30:18.920 --> 00:30:21.160
we've finished our our run.

550
00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:22.640
Yeah, I was.

551
00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:24.880
It's wildly popular, right, I.

552
00:30:24.799 --> 00:30:27.759
Would come into that. Yeah that that was so. Yeah,

553
00:30:27.880 --> 00:30:30.480
the play gets on, it's been rewritten, it's it's been

554
00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:33.880
cast tremendously. With Josephine Hall and Ginadare who we see

555
00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:36.440
in the film, and with the actor playing Teddy Roosevelt.

556
00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:42.160
He comes, he's in the play, and Boris Karloff plays

557
00:30:42.200 --> 00:30:44.319
the part that was played by Raymond Matthews. So Boris

558
00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:47.599
Karloff plays a man who looks a lot like Boris Karloff.

559
00:30:48.440 --> 00:30:49.319
I love I love that.

560
00:30:49.400 --> 00:30:52.079
And the play one of the things that Kroleson Lindsay

561
00:30:52.079 --> 00:30:54.079
added to it that makes it really special, and they

562
00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:56.960
got rid of most of it for the film, which

563
00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:01.799
rightly so. It was very kind of meta before meta

564
00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:04.559
was a thing. So all through the play, there's only

565
00:31:04.599 --> 00:31:06.079
one line of it they keep in the film, but

566
00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:09.880
they talk about, gee, if this were a play, this

567
00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:12.319
is where the part where this happens, and they mentioned

568
00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:14.559
it in the film when Carrie Grant gets tied up

569
00:31:14.599 --> 00:31:20.319
with the extension cord or the like. Yeah. Yeah, But

570
00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:25.480
but throughout the play Uh, the the Grant character. The

571
00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:28.960
Mortimer is not a best selling author about a book

572
00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:32.160
about being anti marriage. He is just a dramatic critic.

573
00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:36.039
So there's all these little zings about, well, this is ridiculous,

574
00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:38.279
you can't hide somebody in the window box in a play.

575
00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:40.960
No one would believe that, you know, and things like

576
00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.759
that that were the kind of meta references that audiences

577
00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:46.319
then would have laughed at the whole thing about, like

578
00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:49.920
just like Boris Karloff was hilariously funny, because at that

579
00:31:50.319 --> 00:31:50.720
it was.

580
00:31:51.920 --> 00:31:54.359
So let me ask you this, Robert, ye, if we've

581
00:31:54.400 --> 00:31:57.039
got if we've got you know, we've got three of

582
00:31:57.079 --> 00:32:02.119
the main stars from the the production, the stage production,

583
00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:07.759
they're in the film. Why why isn't Boris Karloff playing

584
00:32:07.799 --> 00:32:08.559
Jonathan Brewster.

585
00:32:09.480 --> 00:32:12.680
That's the deal. The play was a huge success, it

586
00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:16.960
was It ran ultimately for four years and then was

587
00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:21.359
in stock. It's been revived forever. They bought the film rights,

588
00:32:21.400 --> 00:32:25.680
as often happened Kraleston Lindsay, the ostensible producers of the

589
00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:28.799
play who actually did write it too, sold the film rights.

590
00:32:29.200 --> 00:32:31.039
And it was a big hit. No one thought Chestering

591
00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:32.480
was going to have a hit. No one thought this

592
00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:35.599
kind of weird o tre thing about murdering ants was

593
00:32:35.640 --> 00:32:37.680
going to be a big hit. It hit just right

594
00:32:37.720 --> 00:32:41.480
on Broadway. It was a huge success. So the deal

595
00:32:41.559 --> 00:32:44.680
was worked out that they could have some of the

596
00:32:44.759 --> 00:32:48.880
cast for eight weeks. That was it. They could shoot

597
00:32:48.920 --> 00:32:52.599
the film for eight weeks. So the two Ants, yeah,

598
00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:56.000
the two It was troublesome. Later the Two Ants and

599
00:32:56.079 --> 00:32:59.559
Teddy get flown to Hollywood. They have eight weeks to

600
00:32:59.640 --> 00:33:03.119
film go and the writer was the film could not

601
00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:06.319
be released until the play close and everyone thought, well, great,

602
00:33:06.319 --> 00:33:08.480
we're filming it in late forty one, it'll come out

603
00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:11.039
in summer of forty two. The play ran for almost

604
00:33:11.079 --> 00:33:13.759
four years. Ultimately they finally relented and in forty three

605
00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:15.559
they let it come. They let the film come out,

606
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:18.119
even though they play was still running. But by that

607
00:33:18.119 --> 00:33:20.559
point they had tours going but no. The reason Carlofs

608
00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:24.559
stayed was they needed to have at least one name

609
00:33:24.640 --> 00:33:27.640
to keep the Broadway production going. With the rest of

610
00:33:27.680 --> 00:33:30.440
the cast gone, audiencely would not have wanted to go

611
00:33:30.519 --> 00:33:35.599
see this Broadway smash. A couple months after it opened

612
00:33:35.640 --> 00:33:37.480
with none of the stars of the play in it,

613
00:33:37.799 --> 00:33:40.599
and Gina Dare and Josephine hol were big names in

614
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:43.359
theater at that time. The play was a smash hit,

615
00:33:43.640 --> 00:33:46.960
so Carloff. The deal was that Carloff would stay and

616
00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:50.759
do the play while the rest of them came out

617
00:33:50.839 --> 00:33:54.920
to California the film. Carloff was also an investor in

618
00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:58.839
the play, and so that was part of the thing too,

619
00:33:58.960 --> 00:34:01.119
is they were like, well, if you you leave too,

620
00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:04.279
that's gonna probably lose money. It might even close. But

621
00:34:04.319 --> 00:34:06.640
you're Borrows Karloff, You're the biggest name because you're a

622
00:34:06.640 --> 00:34:10.320
movie star. You stay in. The play will run for

623
00:34:10.360 --> 00:34:13.679
the eight weeks, they'll all come back, It'll all be fine.

624
00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:17.000
And in fact that the royalties from the play and

625
00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:20.239
the residuals he got from being a producer on it,

626
00:34:20.760 --> 00:34:23.039
Carloff was basically set for life, which is why he

627
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:24.400
did not do a lot of film work in the

628
00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:27.239
forties and fifties because he had all the money he

629
00:34:27.280 --> 00:34:27.880
needed from this.

630
00:34:29.239 --> 00:34:32.159
But yeah, so they he made he made. He made

631
00:34:32.199 --> 00:34:34.320
the right call then, because it's I gotta imagine, if

632
00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:37.159
you're Boris Karloff, It's like, I'm either going to lose

633
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:41.440
money by walking away from this stage performance, or I'm

634
00:34:41.480 --> 00:34:44.440
gonna lose money from not being in this Hollywood picture.

635
00:34:45.320 --> 00:34:46.760
But it sounds like he made the right where he

636
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:47.440
made the right call.

637
00:34:47.639 --> 00:34:49.599
Yeah, he with nobody's pool because yeah, I mean, the

638
00:34:49.599 --> 00:34:51.559
film would have paid him X amount of dollars and

639
00:34:51.559 --> 00:34:53.280
he would have got that money and it would have

640
00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:57.599
been done. The play is still being produced. I expect

641
00:34:57.639 --> 00:35:00.440
his estate is probably still getting ten cents every time

642
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:02.320
my high school does our snickel old lace. You know,

643
00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:06.360
so good for him. Do you know the funny story

644
00:35:06.360 --> 00:35:08.000
about what happened when the play went on tour?

645
00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:09.559
No, but please tell me.

646
00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:11.360
I will tell you this. So the play was a

647
00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:14.320
big hit, as as often happens with hit Broadway shows

648
00:35:14.679 --> 00:35:17.880
then and now, it went on the road. So they

649
00:35:17.960 --> 00:35:20.199
took it to Chicago and it went all over the country,

650
00:35:20.519 --> 00:35:24.559
and Carlos stayed with the New York productions. As that's

651
00:35:24.599 --> 00:35:26.960
what I was saying earlier. It ran for ultimately for

652
00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:29.239
four years. The movie came out a couple of years

653
00:35:29.239 --> 00:35:31.800
in it was dwindling, but it was still popular. At

654
00:35:31.840 --> 00:35:34.039
that point, Carloff was not in it. It was different cast,

655
00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:36.360
but it was still popular on Broadway. But they sent

656
00:35:36.440 --> 00:35:39.719
out a tour on the road and Initially the tour

657
00:35:39.880 --> 00:35:43.519
had the two sisters that were so well known from it,

658
00:35:44.440 --> 00:35:46.519
and Carloff did not want to do the tour. I

659
00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:48.599
forget if he was getting married or just whatever it was.

660
00:35:48.639 --> 00:35:50.960
He didn't want to, you know, do two months here,

661
00:35:51.039 --> 00:35:54.039
two months there. So they decide, in a bit of

662
00:35:54.079 --> 00:35:58.280
fun stunt casting, they will get Bela Lugosi to play

663
00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:03.800
after Jonathan for the tour. He was a big name draw.

664
00:36:04.079 --> 00:36:08.599
Everybody knew Bogosi's name, and they did, in fact change

665
00:36:08.599 --> 00:36:10.559
the script to say, oh, a man who looks like

666
00:36:10.599 --> 00:36:14.840
Bela Lagosi, which I thought was kind of funny. I

667
00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:18.760
guess early on, early on in the run, one of

668
00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:22.079
the two elderly ladies, because she'd done the show for

669
00:36:22.159 --> 00:36:26.039
hundreds of performances, she would occasionally say something about Boris

670
00:36:26.119 --> 00:36:31.239
Carloff and usually at that point, Lagosi would just basically

671
00:36:31.239 --> 00:36:33.280
turn and stare out at the audience, which is like,

672
00:36:33.559 --> 00:36:35.840
you know what the hell face, and it would get

673
00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:38.280
a huge laugh. But there was a debate about whether

674
00:36:38.360 --> 00:36:41.239
leaving in the carlaf reference or or to take you know,

675
00:36:41.599 --> 00:36:45.440
deliberately uh. They chose not to, but and then the

676
00:36:45.480 --> 00:36:48.960
ghostie left, and then later on Eric bon Stroheim, the

677
00:36:48.960 --> 00:36:52.159
the director who's best known to us today from Sunset

678
00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:56.639
Boulevard where he played Max the Butler to Crazy Norman

679
00:36:56.679 --> 00:36:59.840
Desmond von Stroheim did it, and at that point it

680
00:36:59.880 --> 00:37:03.400
was an actor who looked like Eric won Stroheim, So

681
00:37:03.400 --> 00:37:06.159
they kept changing the text to whoever bit the thing,

682
00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:09.559
and again it brought out that kind of meta joke

683
00:37:09.800 --> 00:37:13.280
of yes, it looks like him, it is him. For

684
00:37:13.400 --> 00:37:15.480
the film, they decided to stay with Karloff, even though

685
00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:17.599
he was not in it. They had to get permission

686
00:37:18.320 --> 00:37:22.039
from Universal Studios to do the makeup though, because of

687
00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:25.599
course Boris Karloff did not look like frankent Dyne. He

688
00:37:25.719 --> 00:37:28.199
portrayed him beautifully, but there was a lot of Jack

689
00:37:28.239 --> 00:37:30.760
Dwan's makeup on there, and a lot of moody lighting

690
00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:34.480
and all that. They didn't want the actor to necessarily

691
00:37:34.519 --> 00:37:37.480
look massy, to look like, you know, man on the

692
00:37:37.519 --> 00:37:40.440
street Boris Karloff. They wanted to look like Frankendin's monster.

693
00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:44.800
So there were a lot of negotiations with Universal Studios

694
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:48.239
about how much forehead and what shape head and how

695
00:37:48.280 --> 00:37:50.920
much you know of this and that, and they ultimately

696
00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:52.719
came to some kind of compromise where there's a lot

697
00:37:52.719 --> 00:37:56.239
of scars and a few few appliances, but not a

698
00:37:56.280 --> 00:37:56.840
whole bunch.

699
00:37:58.239 --> 00:37:59.800
But yeah, I love how tho I love how they

700
00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:02.639
I love how they explained that away with Peter Lourie's

701
00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:06.599
character being like this plastic surgeon who is working to

702
00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:09.960
you know, disfigure his face so he's not recognizable since

703
00:38:09.960 --> 00:38:11.800
you're on the run. That is brilliant.

704
00:38:11.840 --> 00:38:15.360
That is that is from the play as well itself.

705
00:38:15.360 --> 00:38:19.400
That was kept. They made some smart choices adapting this

706
00:38:19.480 --> 00:38:24.000
from this date to screen, and uh, primarily they they

707
00:38:24.159 --> 00:38:28.840
beefed up the rules of Mortimer carry Grant and uh

708
00:38:29.159 --> 00:38:32.599
Priscilla Lane's character the fiancee and then and the wife

709
00:38:33.440 --> 00:38:37.000
towards the end, because if you're gonna have carry Grant,

710
00:38:37.079 --> 00:38:40.400
you want to use him more. Uh So the entire

711
00:38:40.480 --> 00:38:44.119
scene at the beginning, whether at the marriage registry, uh

712
00:38:44.159 --> 00:38:46.719
and hiding and all of that because he's the noted

713
00:38:46.880 --> 00:38:51.000
bachelor and all of this, and several of the scenes

714
00:38:51.039 --> 00:38:55.679
where Grant and Priscilla Lane are running around the tree

715
00:38:55.760 --> 00:38:58.719
out in the cemetery and chasing each other and kissing

716
00:38:58.719 --> 00:39:01.079
and whatnot. They build a lot of that up to

717
00:39:01.119 --> 00:39:04.119
give both of them more to do. Uh, because they

718
00:39:04.119 --> 00:39:08.320
had carry grant. The play is just only set in

719
00:39:08.360 --> 00:39:12.199
the house. There's one set, nothing else. So they did

720
00:39:12.239 --> 00:39:14.400
they made some nice changes to open it up a

721
00:39:14.440 --> 00:39:16.800
little bit. That being said, I have to dog on

722
00:39:16.840 --> 00:39:18.239
the baseball scene at the beginning.

723
00:39:19.519 --> 00:39:21.119
I don't need it.

724
00:39:21.239 --> 00:39:22.599
They were, no, we.

725
00:39:22.519 --> 00:39:23.719
Absolutely don't understand it.

726
00:39:24.599 --> 00:39:29.159
Traditionally, when you bring theater to film, you open it up,

727
00:39:29.199 --> 00:39:31.840
they call it. And it's because most plays have one

728
00:39:31.880 --> 00:39:33.960
set or two sets. In this case, it literally was

729
00:39:34.360 --> 00:39:37.239
one set the whole night. And to make it more filmmaxed,

730
00:39:37.320 --> 00:39:40.599
they want to take you other places and move around

731
00:39:40.599 --> 00:39:44.039
a little bit. We have some contemporary filmmakers who can

732
00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:46.960
do amazing things in one room or one set. It's

733
00:39:47.039 --> 00:39:49.440
usually kind of a twitterive force. But back then they

734
00:39:49.440 --> 00:39:51.519
wanted to like get outside a little bit, do a

735
00:39:51.519 --> 00:39:55.760
little bit of stuff. And Capra being Capra, said well Brooklyn,

736
00:39:55.800 --> 00:39:58.559
like nobody knows anything about Brooklyn except their baseball team.

737
00:39:59.039 --> 00:40:02.280
So they divide. It was all Capra, the scriptwriter didn't

738
00:40:02.320 --> 00:40:04.679
even do it. They found some stock footage and they

739
00:40:04.679 --> 00:40:07.159
devised this whole thing was set up of here we

740
00:40:07.159 --> 00:40:10.920
are in Brooklyn and then meanwhile coast the river. Here's

741
00:40:10.960 --> 00:40:14.519
what's happening at the brewster house. I think it's kind

742
00:40:14.599 --> 00:40:16.920
of clumsy and kind of lame, and it doesn't even

743
00:40:16.920 --> 00:40:19.679
have a payoff, Like I kept waiting for a baseball

744
00:40:19.800 --> 00:40:22.719
comes through the window later or something, so.

745
00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:25.760
The payoff for me. And I thought, if we filmed

746
00:40:25.760 --> 00:40:29.639
this whole Brooklyn Dodgers uh set up just for this

747
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:31.840
one line, it's that was it was kind of a waste.

748
00:40:31.880 --> 00:40:34.400
But at the end, when the when the ants are

749
00:40:34.639 --> 00:40:38.559
ready to you know, they're willingly being committed, uh to

750
00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:43.679
go to what is it Happy Dale Asylunce the one

751
00:40:43.920 --> 00:40:46.480
the one makes a statement, well, this neighborhood hasn't been

752
00:40:46.519 --> 00:40:49.280
the same since that Pennant thing, you know, and she's

753
00:40:49.280 --> 00:40:51.800
referencing the Brooklyn Dodgers winning winning the World Series. But

754
00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:56.039
it's like, that's a long stretch to get to, you know,

755
00:40:56.119 --> 00:40:59.039
to to land that that that joke, and I'm with you.

756
00:40:59.119 --> 00:41:01.960
I I think you cut the entire Brooklyn Dodgers thing

757
00:41:01.960 --> 00:41:02.480
at the beginning.

758
00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:06.280
And I don't know if we even need the marriage

759
00:41:06.320 --> 00:41:09.199
license scene either, except it does give us a chat

760
00:41:09.239 --> 00:41:11.480
to meet Carrie Grant and meet for Solwan because to

761
00:41:11.480 --> 00:41:15.360
play is ostensibly the sitters are the main characters Yea

762
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:19.280
and Mortimer is kind of the normal one the audience

763
00:41:19.320 --> 00:41:22.639
can connect to and who gives us our exposition. But

764
00:41:22.679 --> 00:41:24.360
he's not the star by any means.

765
00:41:24.559 --> 00:41:26.920
I'll tell you. So you mentioned the Dodger scene, I'll

766
00:41:26.920 --> 00:41:30.880
give you one that it was. It bothered me a

767
00:41:30.880 --> 00:41:33.199
little bit. And I know I'm nitpicking here because I'm

768
00:41:33.239 --> 00:41:37.039
assuming that in the if you see this live, if

769
00:41:37.039 --> 00:41:39.599
you see a you know, stage performance, it probably works

770
00:41:39.719 --> 00:41:43.880
really well. But there's that moment where the lights are

771
00:41:43.880 --> 00:41:48.679
out and we're just listening to things happening. Yeah, I

772
00:41:48.679 --> 00:41:51.559
think it went a little long in the film and

773
00:41:51.599 --> 00:41:55.280
it got a little a little frustrating. If I'm being honest.

774
00:41:55.599 --> 00:41:57.599
I understand why we're doing it because I love the

775
00:41:57.639 --> 00:42:00.400
set design, like the fact that they built this house

776
00:42:01.239 --> 00:42:05.039
like every room in detail, and this isn't just like set,

777
00:42:05.079 --> 00:42:06.719
you know, just like a you know sets that are

778
00:42:06.719 --> 00:42:09.760
going to roll away. I love the setting of this house,

779
00:42:09.800 --> 00:42:12.400
but I just that that that that moment where everyone's

780
00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:15.199
kind of stumbling around the dark and you're just listening

781
00:42:15.239 --> 00:42:18.400
to people's voices and you're hearing things land and crash.

782
00:42:18.440 --> 00:42:20.440
I was like, okay, we can let's let's speed this

783
00:42:20.559 --> 00:42:21.119
up a little bit.

784
00:42:21.159 --> 00:42:24.800
I think, yeah, it's funny about that house too, because

785
00:42:24.920 --> 00:42:27.840
it was such a great set that they kept it

786
00:42:28.119 --> 00:42:31.920
for years and I forget now, but it was used

787
00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:35.519
in another classic film and they either like burn it

788
00:42:35.599 --> 00:42:38.559
down or tear it down on film, but the house

789
00:42:38.719 --> 00:42:41.760
was the house set was used again later because it

790
00:42:41.800 --> 00:42:42.920
was such a great set.

791
00:42:43.119 --> 00:42:44.440
I don't have to look that up. I'd love to

792
00:42:44.480 --> 00:42:45.119
see the movie.

793
00:42:44.960 --> 00:42:47.679
Though, I am, I am, I'm pulling it up now.

794
00:42:47.800 --> 00:42:51.400
It was George Washington Slept Here, which is a fun

795
00:42:51.440 --> 00:42:55.559
comedy with Jack Benny about he and his wife buying

796
00:42:56.000 --> 00:42:58.800
a old colonial home. It's kind of a hot mess

797
00:42:58.840 --> 00:43:02.440
and all this, and yeah, George Wathington's Left Here came

798
00:43:02.480 --> 00:43:05.840
out in forty two, so filmed a year later, and

799
00:43:05.880 --> 00:43:08.639
then they also you did in another film after that,

800
00:43:09.400 --> 00:43:13.440
so the studio system works for that. I also did

801
00:43:13.639 --> 00:43:15.760
mentioning the studio system because I do love it so much,

802
00:43:15.800 --> 00:43:18.199
those old movies. I got such a kick out of

803
00:43:18.239 --> 00:43:21.880
this movie. In this scene at the marriage registrar seeing

804
00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:25.800
Charles Lane, he was one of the two reporters, the

805
00:43:25.840 --> 00:43:28.280
fella with the red glasses kind of bolding head. Where

806
00:43:28.280 --> 00:43:30.719
do I know him for you you know him from everything.

807
00:43:30.719 --> 00:43:34.639
He made over two hundred and fifty films. Yeah, he

808
00:43:34.719 --> 00:43:37.880
worked pretty much steadily from the early nineteen thirties up

809
00:43:37.960 --> 00:43:41.159
until the seventies. He lived to be over one hundred

810
00:43:41.199 --> 00:43:44.320
and one years old. He was on I Love Lucy

811
00:43:44.480 --> 00:43:46.760
and he transitioned to TV. So if you ever watch

812
00:43:46.840 --> 00:43:49.159
I Love Lucy or Make Room for Daddy or any

813
00:43:49.159 --> 00:43:52.639
of those fifties sitcoms, he did those. He was never

814
00:43:52.679 --> 00:43:54.719
a star, he never he never had more than a

815
00:43:54.719 --> 00:43:57.440
few lines, but he always would play the salar puss

816
00:43:57.440 --> 00:44:00.360
and he was the night desk editor, or he was

817
00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:03.840
the restaurant manager, or he he was, you know, the

818
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:07.719
judge at the trial. If you look into filmography, I

819
00:44:07.719 --> 00:44:10.679
mean he went doing no lie like twenty to thirty

820
00:44:10.679 --> 00:44:15.880
films a year for the studios and just and so like.

821
00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:18.280
But as soon as I saw him, I'm like, it

822
00:44:18.280 --> 00:44:20.159
makes you made me smile, and I'm like, oh, it's him.

823
00:44:20.519 --> 00:44:22.679
I love that about old movies where you get to

824
00:44:22.719 --> 00:44:26.199
see Edward Everett Horton, who in this one plays the

825
00:44:26.239 --> 00:44:29.119
asylum director, and these characters come out and you know

826
00:44:29.159 --> 00:44:31.039
what you're gonna get. They're gonna do their bit. They're

827
00:44:31.039 --> 00:44:33.840
gonna do their their sour puss thing or their fussy thing,

828
00:44:33.920 --> 00:44:36.280
or their whatever, their whatever, their their stick is. They're

829
00:44:36.320 --> 00:44:39.079
gonna do it, and you're gonna love it, and it's

830
00:44:39.199 --> 00:44:41.079
it's so fun to kind of see those kind of recurring,

831
00:44:41.360 --> 00:44:43.239
recurring actors. So I knew I was in good hands

832
00:44:43.239 --> 00:44:43.880
when I saw him.

833
00:44:44.480 --> 00:44:47.360
Well, we are good hand. We are in good hands

834
00:44:47.400 --> 00:44:50.719
with the sponsors you're about to listen to. Uh, We're

835
00:44:50.719 --> 00:44:52.440
gonna take a quick break, and when we get back,

836
00:44:53.079 --> 00:44:55.480
I'm gonna tell you a few things about Frank Capra,

837
00:44:56.079 --> 00:45:00.440
and then Robert is gonna give us his recommendation on

838
00:45:00.480 --> 00:45:03.800
which Capra films we should be watching. We'll be back,

839
00:45:06.920 --> 00:45:11.000
Welcome back. It is time to talk about Frank Capra. Robert,

840
00:45:11.079 --> 00:45:15.840
I know that you know these things, but for our listeners,

841
00:45:16.320 --> 00:45:19.880
I got two things and an interesting quote from mister Capra.

842
00:45:20.760 --> 00:45:23.360
This one. Let's start off with something a little, a

843
00:45:23.360 --> 00:45:27.559
little humorous. So when Frank Capra was nominated for his

844
00:45:27.599 --> 00:45:31.360
first Best Director Oscar in nineteen thirty three, a movie

845
00:45:31.400 --> 00:45:36.000
called Lady for a Day, the presenter was Cowboy star

846
00:45:36.079 --> 00:45:40.760
Will Rogers, who opens the envelope and says, come and

847
00:45:40.760 --> 00:45:44.519
get it, Frank, Well, Capra was halfway down the aisle

848
00:45:44.559 --> 00:45:46.960
to the stage before he realized it was meant for

849
00:45:47.000 --> 00:45:52.360
Frank Lloyd, who directed Cavalcade. So a little bit of

850
00:45:52.360 --> 00:45:56.119
an embarrassing moment for Frank Capra at the capsule.

851
00:45:56.239 --> 00:45:58.800
I love my old movies. No one ever needed to

852
00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:04.440
watch Cavalcade to us it is. Yeah, it was the

853
00:46:04.480 --> 00:46:09.199
wrong the wrong winner. Sorry, sorry other Frank. But Capra

854
00:46:09.280 --> 00:46:10.800
made up. But though, did I think he got what

855
00:46:10.920 --> 00:46:14.880
four Best Director wins all together for the Oscars?

856
00:46:14.880 --> 00:46:16.519
So I believe you're right.

857
00:46:17.199 --> 00:46:20.519
Yeah, So that that kind of amazing. So I guess

858
00:46:20.559 --> 00:46:22.239
I guess he could let ones this time.

859
00:46:22.719 --> 00:46:26.880
Yeah, tell you what's also amazing. So obviously this film

860
00:46:26.920 --> 00:46:32.000
is in production. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on

861
00:46:32.039 --> 00:46:35.840
December twelfth, nineteen forty one, with a week to go

862
00:46:36.440 --> 00:46:41.159
before he was done editing this picture, Frank Capra enlisted

863
00:46:41.159 --> 00:46:45.639
in the US Army Signal Corps as a major. You know,

864
00:46:45.679 --> 00:46:48.519
a lot of a lot of our Hollywood stars, Hollywood directors,

865
00:46:48.559 --> 00:46:50.559
they're signing up, They're they're going to join the fight.

866
00:46:51.480 --> 00:46:54.960
But he received an extension on his order to report

867
00:46:54.960 --> 00:46:57.320
for active duty in mid January so he could finish

868
00:46:57.440 --> 00:47:01.280
editing the picture. He stayed to complete post production and

869
00:47:01.320 --> 00:47:05.400
then reported on February eleventh, nineteen forty two, this would

870
00:47:05.400 --> 00:47:09.159
be his last film, his last feature film until It's

871
00:47:09.159 --> 00:47:12.960
a Wonderful Life in nineteen forty six. Yeah, and speaking

872
00:47:13.239 --> 00:47:15.960
about the appeal of directing a film like Arsenic and

873
00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:20.480
Old Lace, Capra said, the film is no great document

874
00:47:20.519 --> 00:47:23.920
to save the world, no worries about whether John Doe

875
00:47:23.920 --> 00:47:27.159
should or should not jump. It's just good old fashioned

876
00:47:27.159 --> 00:47:29.519
theater and Robert, as you know. He would go on

877
00:47:29.599 --> 00:47:32.840
to admit that making the film was the first time

878
00:47:32.920 --> 00:47:39.480
he had enjoyed directing since making It happened one night. Yeah, Robert,

879
00:47:39.639 --> 00:47:45.400
He's He's got fifty nine credits to his to his filmography.

880
00:47:45.440 --> 00:47:47.079
I know we don't have time to talk about all

881
00:47:47.119 --> 00:47:50.039
of them, but I do want to mention a couple

882
00:47:50.239 --> 00:47:53.239
to get the Robert Burnett take, so that our listeners

883
00:47:53.440 --> 00:47:56.960
who are discovering Frank Caepra for the first time or

884
00:47:57.119 --> 00:48:00.800
rediscovering Frank Capra, they'll know which one to check out

885
00:48:00.840 --> 00:48:04.800
based on your recommendations. I'm gonna jump ahead, if that's

886
00:48:04.800 --> 00:48:06.440
okay with you, sir. I'm gonna jump ahead, because I

887
00:48:06.480 --> 00:48:08.840
know he does. He does a lot of silent films

888
00:48:08.880 --> 00:48:11.800
in the twenties. Can we just start. Let's start with

889
00:48:11.880 --> 00:48:14.440
nineteen thirty four. It Happened One Night.

890
00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:18.880
This is a classic. This is a pre code comedy.

891
00:48:19.000 --> 00:48:22.719
It is hilarious. We've got Clark Gable and Quadette Colbert.

892
00:48:23.440 --> 00:48:26.639
It's kind of a road picture. It was a template

893
00:48:26.719 --> 00:48:30.519
for so many other other movies and those kind of

894
00:48:30.599 --> 00:48:34.159
mismatched pairings, you know, all the way up through Pretty Women,

895
00:48:34.800 --> 00:48:38.679
Pretty Woman with Richard Gear and Julie Roberts, all the

896
00:48:38.880 --> 00:48:41.760
kind of mismatched couple thrown together and look what happens

897
00:48:41.880 --> 00:48:44.280
and they fall in love. This is one of the

898
00:48:44.280 --> 00:48:48.039
first and one of the best. It was considered pre

899
00:48:48.119 --> 00:48:52.800
code because it was kind of scandalous. The real fun

900
00:48:52.840 --> 00:48:55.519
fact about this film is that Clark Gable appears in

901
00:48:55.599 --> 00:49:01.559
his undershirt and that was shocked, shocking, shocking. There's also

902
00:49:01.599 --> 00:49:05.239
a scene where they are in a train compartment and

903
00:49:05.239 --> 00:49:08.159
they have to change out of their wet clothes and

904
00:49:08.280 --> 00:49:10.920
she's on one side of I have a little line

905
00:49:10.960 --> 00:49:13.599
across the compartment with some sheets hanging on it, and

906
00:49:13.679 --> 00:49:16.440
she's getting undressed one one side and he getting undressed

907
00:49:16.480 --> 00:49:19.000
on the other and you know, get the smelling salts

908
00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:23.639
because this is practically pornography for nineteen thirty four. So yeah,

909
00:49:23.679 --> 00:49:27.840
but it holds up. It is absolutely sharp and funny.

910
00:49:28.960 --> 00:49:31.920
I think it's Colbert's best film. And she wasn't really

911
00:49:31.960 --> 00:49:33.920
known for her comedy. It's a shame because she was

912
00:49:33.960 --> 00:49:36.679
great in this. And this is one of the earliest

913
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:40.440
films that Clark Gable broke out of just being the

914
00:49:41.119 --> 00:49:45.400
hunky leading man opposite a female star and said his

915
00:49:45.840 --> 00:49:48.000
career moving to where we would end up gone with

916
00:49:48.039 --> 00:49:50.760
the wind a few years later. Kind of his persona

917
00:49:50.800 --> 00:49:54.800
and his charm were honed in this film. Capra, as

918
00:49:54.800 --> 00:49:57.800
I mentioned before we started recording, is not one of

919
00:49:57.800 --> 00:50:01.760
my favorite directors, but gosh, he could get great performances

920
00:50:01.840 --> 00:50:03.559
out of some of these stars and kind of give

921
00:50:03.639 --> 00:50:07.039
them signature roles. And it happened one night for both

922
00:50:07.119 --> 00:50:10.480
Copet and Gable. Is a signature film. Well, we're seeing.

923
00:50:10.960 --> 00:50:15.519
Your thoughts on mister Deed's Goes to Town nineteen thirty

924
00:50:15.559 --> 00:50:19.400
six place by Adam Sandler. No scratch that, Gary Cooper.

925
00:50:20.280 --> 00:50:26.360
I know we got that terrible remake with with Sandler,

926
00:50:26.400 --> 00:50:28.000
but mister them.

927
00:50:27.880 --> 00:50:30.239
Confused all the time. I mean, you think of Adam Sandler,

928
00:50:30.239 --> 00:50:34.519
you immediately think or Gary Cooper. They're interchangeable. Yeah, and

929
00:50:34.599 --> 00:50:37.639
one's like six ' four, you know, broad shouldered and

930
00:50:37.679 --> 00:50:40.840
all this, and the other one is Adam Sandler. Yeah,

931
00:50:41.159 --> 00:50:43.480
this is kind of the first of one of the

932
00:50:43.559 --> 00:50:47.840
kind of Americicana things. I think you could have subbed

933
00:50:47.880 --> 00:50:50.639
out at this point. You could have subbed out Cooper

934
00:50:50.719 --> 00:50:54.119
for Jimmy Stewart in this film. It is a nice

935
00:50:54.199 --> 00:50:57.960
chance to see Jean Arthur, who is really not known

936
00:50:58.119 --> 00:51:00.320
today at all, but she worked with Coup Bir she

937
00:51:00.440 --> 00:51:04.159
worked with Carry Grant in a couple of films. Had

938
00:51:04.239 --> 00:51:07.880
kind of a tragic life. But it's a fun film,

939
00:51:08.039 --> 00:51:11.320
but it is kind of the beginning of what later

940
00:51:11.360 --> 00:51:16.880
became known as Caprakorn in Hollywood, these kind of corny

941
00:51:17.880 --> 00:51:22.440
flag wave in a Shuxi Americana films. This one, though,

942
00:51:22.679 --> 00:51:26.239
is it's fun to watch, but it's not one of

943
00:51:26.280 --> 00:51:28.679
my super favorites. But it's kind of where he hits

944
00:51:28.719 --> 00:51:32.079
his stride as the Frank Capra that we think of

945
00:51:32.119 --> 00:51:36.679
when we think of a Frank Capra movie. So yeah,

946
00:51:36.960 --> 00:51:39.960
it's a fun one to watch, but I don't think

947
00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:41.320
it's a fun one necessarily to have.

948
00:51:41.280 --> 00:51:45.760
To rewatch, all right, The nineteen thirty seven Lost Horizon.

949
00:51:47.320 --> 00:51:51.039
This is a minor classic of the era, based on

950
00:51:51.079 --> 00:51:55.360
a very famous book, got made into a horrible movie

951
00:51:55.440 --> 00:51:59.320
musical in the nineteen seventies that gave me one of

952
00:51:59.360 --> 00:52:03.559
my favorite bitch equips of all time with this musical

953
00:52:03.639 --> 00:52:07.599
had George Kennedy in it and leave Olman and people

954
00:52:07.639 --> 00:52:10.320
that should not have been a musical. Bert Baccarack of

955
00:52:10.400 --> 00:52:14.880
all the sixty seventies pop hits wrote the score and

956
00:52:14.920 --> 00:52:18.360
the equip that I just treasured about this. At the

957
00:52:18.400 --> 00:52:22.039
Academy Award, someone asked Bett Middler about lots of Yzon

958
00:52:22.079 --> 00:52:26.480
and she said, I never miss a live Almond musical. Almond,

959
00:52:26.519 --> 00:52:29.880
of course known for her intense Bergmann dramas and very

960
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:33.920
heady artistic things. But this lotter Rizon is actually not bad.

961
00:52:34.159 --> 00:52:37.639
And Ronald Coleman, again not as well known today, gives

962
00:52:37.679 --> 00:52:40.440
a very strong performance. It's a great adaption of the book.

963
00:52:41.559 --> 00:52:43.920
If you like Edward ever at Horton and Art nicol

964
00:52:43.920 --> 00:52:45.960
Old Lace, he shows up in this one as well,

965
00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:49.039
playing basically the same character he will play for his

966
00:52:49.159 --> 00:52:54.360
forty five year career, the kind of diithering, nervous, you know, guy.

967
00:52:54.400 --> 00:52:57.760
But it's it's it's a really nice adaption. The only

968
00:52:58.239 --> 00:53:02.400
kind of flaw on this one really is it's set

969
00:53:02.440 --> 00:53:08.320
in this sort of mountainous Himalayan thing, and the backdrops

970
00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:11.239
and the sets are kind of cheesy, certainly by what

971
00:53:11.239 --> 00:53:14.599
we're used to today. But a solid film again, kind

972
00:53:14.599 --> 00:53:18.239
of a solid B picture of the era and one

973
00:53:18.280 --> 00:53:20.840
of Kapa's better known, better known movies.

974
00:53:21.320 --> 00:53:23.280
Well, he's starting to hit his stride where he's about

975
00:53:23.320 --> 00:53:25.119
to crank out, like one a year, it seems now

976
00:53:25.360 --> 00:53:27.880
nineteen thirty eight. You can't take it with you.

977
00:53:28.599 --> 00:53:32.440
Here's Geane Arthur again and Jimmy Stewart and so we're

978
00:53:32.480 --> 00:53:34.360
starting to really, I really get in the groove. This

979
00:53:34.480 --> 00:53:37.760
is also based on our Broadway play, like our nicol

980
00:53:37.760 --> 00:53:41.159
Old Lace was, and the play is a classic. The

981
00:53:41.159 --> 00:53:45.239
film is a classic, just kind of mad cap, crazy

982
00:53:45.280 --> 00:53:51.119
family and their shenanigans, but great, great cast. Everybody down

983
00:53:51.159 --> 00:53:55.800
the line is a solid performer and lots of great

984
00:53:55.880 --> 00:53:57.880
names from the nineteen thirties. So if you're like me,

985
00:53:57.920 --> 00:54:00.440
you got me. Lionel Barrymore is in this and Mish hour,

986
00:54:01.360 --> 00:54:04.400
very young Anne Miller, who later became a cap dancing

987
00:54:04.639 --> 00:54:08.159
thing for the nineteen fifties with Gene Kelly Spring Byington.

988
00:54:08.239 --> 00:54:10.199
All these kind of faces you will know if you

989
00:54:10.280 --> 00:54:14.360
watch thirties movies, appear in it. And it's it's really solid.

990
00:54:14.559 --> 00:54:18.480
It's funny, it's screwball. It's a kind of about a

991
00:54:18.480 --> 00:54:23.760
wacky family and all their different shenanigans. Stuart being introduced

992
00:54:23.760 --> 00:54:26.760
in the family through a love interest is with the

993
00:54:26.800 --> 00:54:31.039
trope at the time, but very solid. Definitely one of

994
00:54:31.079 --> 00:54:31.920
Capra's best.

995
00:54:32.239 --> 00:54:36.199
I think you can't talk about Capra's best without having

996
00:54:36.880 --> 00:54:40.360
his next feature, nineteen thirty nine's mister Smith goes to Washington.

997
00:54:40.519 --> 00:54:41.840
In the conversation right.

998
00:54:41.920 --> 00:54:44.559
Right, and here's Jean Arthur again. You can see that

999
00:54:44.880 --> 00:54:47.400
Capra had his stock company, he had people he liked,

1000
00:54:47.679 --> 00:54:50.800
of course Jimmy Stewart. Then we add in Claude Rains

1001
00:54:50.840 --> 00:54:53.039
in the mix and some other people. Yeah, this is

1002
00:54:53.519 --> 00:54:56.199
not only a great Capra film, like it definitely a

1003
00:54:56.199 --> 00:54:57.559
great American film.

1004
00:54:57.840 --> 00:55:00.159
This is a Americana right, Yeah.

1005
00:55:00.199 --> 00:55:05.280
Absolutely. And the very famous speech that that Jimmy Stewart

1006
00:55:05.280 --> 00:55:08.639
gives to the Senate gets in every AFI list of

1007
00:55:08.840 --> 00:55:11.639
Best Speeches and Best Film Moments and all of this.

1008
00:55:13.320 --> 00:55:16.599
And what's funny about it is it was a big,

1009
00:55:16.639 --> 00:55:20.760
big success at the box office, and it was won

1010
00:55:20.840 --> 00:55:23.800
some awards, although not as many as it was nominated for.

1011
00:55:24.000 --> 00:55:27.119
Was nominated for a bunch of Oscars, uh just one

1012
00:55:27.159 --> 00:55:30.159
for the original Story, but is now on every top

1013
00:55:30.239 --> 00:55:34.960
hundred list you see. This film is up there. Later

1014
00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:38.119
on in his career, Jimmy Stewart like despised this film

1015
00:55:38.719 --> 00:55:43.960
because he thought he was He thought the movie was capricorn,

1016
00:55:44.519 --> 00:55:48.480
and he thought that he was unbelievable in it. He

1017
00:55:48.519 --> 00:55:52.400
thought his performance was not great. But I think that

1018
00:55:52.480 --> 00:55:55.880
Jimmy underestimates himself. This is a really great movie.

1019
00:55:56.280 --> 00:55:58.639
I disagree with him on that. It's it's fantastic film.

1020
00:55:59.320 --> 00:56:01.000
Yeah, well, I think it came back to haunt him.

1021
00:56:01.039 --> 00:56:03.119
You know, when you have a career that ranges from

1022
00:56:03.159 --> 00:56:07.280
Westerns to musicals to Hitchcock to be you know, known

1023
00:56:07.320 --> 00:56:11.039
at your Lifetime Achievement Award for this quip and then

1024
00:56:11.079 --> 00:56:15.239
also wonderful life and probably probably rear window, you know,

1025
00:56:15.639 --> 00:56:17.400
he's like he has more to offer than just that.

1026
00:56:18.199 --> 00:56:19.960
All right, I don't know about this next one because

1027
00:56:19.960 --> 00:56:22.320
I've never seen it, but tell me your thoughts on

1028
00:56:22.519 --> 00:56:25.239
nineteen forty one's Meet John Doe.

1029
00:56:26.440 --> 00:56:30.239
Well, I'm for it. Barbara Stanwick is another great actress

1030
00:56:30.480 --> 00:56:34.000
of her era that is not a common name now

1031
00:56:34.519 --> 00:56:38.199
like she should be. Normally. She played like tough broads

1032
00:56:38.280 --> 00:56:42.440
and newspaper gals and you know, these kind of big

1033
00:56:42.440 --> 00:56:46.159
shoulder pad women. But she was great in comedies, and

1034
00:56:46.199 --> 00:56:49.920
this one is another political comedy drama comedy drama like

1035
00:56:50.920 --> 00:56:54.480
the last several have been. But Stanwick is great in this.

1036
00:56:54.800 --> 00:56:57.119
I think After Ball of Fire is probably her best

1037
00:56:57.119 --> 00:57:00.119
performance because I think she was a better comedian, and

1038
00:57:00.159 --> 00:57:03.159
then she was a tough gal, which was kind of

1039
00:57:03.159 --> 00:57:06.320
how she got shoehorned. But this is a great film.

1040
00:57:06.400 --> 00:57:08.880
And then Gary Cooper again is back. His little stock

1041
00:57:08.920 --> 00:57:13.400
company of people show up again. The only downside of

1042
00:57:13.400 --> 00:57:16.840
this one is after you've seen some of the earlier

1043
00:57:16.880 --> 00:57:20.280
films we talked about, it starts feeling like Kapa is

1044
00:57:20.320 --> 00:57:24.159
going back to the well one time too many. Now,

1045
00:57:24.199 --> 00:57:27.320
Now that being said, this is also from nineteen forty one.

1046
00:57:27.360 --> 00:57:30.320
The world is it war, America is coming out of

1047
00:57:30.320 --> 00:57:32.599
the Great Depression. There's a lot of stuff going on,

1048
00:57:33.280 --> 00:57:37.559
so I think maybe some patriotism and some even jingoistic

1049
00:57:38.119 --> 00:57:40.960
ra ra America. You know, we may have our problem,

1050
00:57:41.000 --> 00:57:43.639
but we're the best country in the world. Cheer it

1051
00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:47.280
might be needed out there for audiences. They certainly did

1052
00:57:47.280 --> 00:57:53.159
well at the box office. But of this, and mitter

1053
00:57:53.280 --> 00:57:55.239
Smith goes to Washington. If you have to watch one

1054
00:57:55.320 --> 00:57:56.199
go with mister Smith.

1055
00:57:57.960 --> 00:58:04.199
Well, I know, he cranks out several uncredited small shorts

1056
00:58:05.400 --> 00:58:09.199
and then we've been talking about Arsenic and old lace

1057
00:58:09.400 --> 00:58:14.599
this hour, which comes out nineteen forty four, and then

1058
00:58:14.679 --> 00:58:16.760
back to a lot of you know, this is I'm

1059
00:58:16.760 --> 00:58:18.760
assuming this is his work during World War Two where

1060
00:58:18.760 --> 00:58:21.719
he's doing a lot more of these uncredited shorts. You know,

1061
00:58:21.719 --> 00:58:24.199
we got titles like War Comes to America and here

1062
00:58:24.239 --> 00:58:27.320
is Germany and your Job in Germany. But when he

1063
00:58:27.360 --> 00:58:31.559
gets back home, now it's nineteen forty six and he

1064
00:58:31.599 --> 00:58:35.519
does his probably his most memorable film, right talking about

1065
00:58:35.519 --> 00:58:36.440
It's a Wonderful Life.

1066
00:58:36.880 --> 00:58:39.840
Yeah, everybody's seen this movie. If you haven't seen it,

1067
00:58:39.880 --> 00:58:45.199
you should see it. I think it's got flaws. I

1068
00:58:45.239 --> 00:58:49.360
think for me, the tone is very uneven, and people

1069
00:58:49.440 --> 00:58:53.000
remember it it's this warm, magical Christmas movie and oh

1070
00:58:53.079 --> 00:58:54.159
dear god, it is not.

1071
00:58:55.119 --> 00:58:58.360
Anything but that. I think when you're younger, when you're young,

1072
00:58:59.000 --> 00:59:01.000
you don't think about what it's really going on with

1073
00:59:01.039 --> 00:59:03.880
George Bailey. But yeah, the fact is this is a

1074
00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:07.400
very dark story about a man who's ready to take

1075
00:59:07.440 --> 00:59:10.559
his own life and needs needs a guardian angel to

1076
00:59:10.599 --> 00:59:14.119
show him, well, here's here's why white life is worth living.

1077
00:59:14.519 --> 00:59:17.079
It's you know, when you when you become an adult,

1078
00:59:17.079 --> 00:59:19.320
I think especially, and you start to see the movie

1079
00:59:19.360 --> 00:59:21.119
for what it really is. It's it's a little it's

1080
00:59:21.119 --> 00:59:23.880
a lot more depressing, it's a lot darker. It's still adult.

1081
00:59:23.880 --> 00:59:25.280
You're wrong. It's still a great film tho. It's still

1082
00:59:25.280 --> 00:59:27.159
a great film with a great message. But wow.

1083
00:59:27.800 --> 00:59:31.559
Yeah, it's interesting because Stewart also served in the military

1084
00:59:31.639 --> 00:59:33.840
for several years. A lot of the Hollywood stars did,

1085
00:59:34.079 --> 00:59:38.679
and directors like Capra. Uh and the way he got

1086
00:59:38.719 --> 00:59:40.440
pitched this by Capra because he didn't want to do

1087
00:59:40.480 --> 00:59:42.360
any more Capra stuff because he felt like he just

1088
00:59:42.800 --> 00:59:47.679
had taken that path. I'm looking at IMDb and Charles Lane,

1089
00:59:47.719 --> 00:59:50.000
my my reporter from the first film with the real

1090
00:59:50.039 --> 00:59:54.760
estate salesman in this movie. Of course he's in this movie. Anyway.

1091
00:59:55.119 --> 00:59:59.280
The pitch was from Capra to why why Stuart should

1092
00:59:59.280 --> 01:00:01.440
do it and why Stewart kind of the performance he

1093
01:00:01.480 --> 01:00:05.280
did was what we would call now like PTSD, like

1094
01:00:05.440 --> 01:00:10.519
post traumatic stress, you know, where it was this idea of, well,

1095
01:00:10.639 --> 01:00:15.119
your character is is suicidal and and you know, draw

1096
01:00:15.199 --> 01:00:18.960
on what you saw in the war and and all

1097
01:00:19.000 --> 01:00:21.199
the lives that were locked and all the kind of stuff.

1098
01:00:21.280 --> 01:00:25.360
So it isn't it isn't in the text of the

1099
01:00:25.440 --> 01:00:28.199
movie necessarily, but but it was in the subtext, and

1100
01:00:28.239 --> 01:00:31.039
it was why Stewart decided to come back and do

1101
01:00:31.079 --> 01:00:34.000
this because he and Kapra both served both knew that,

1102
01:00:34.719 --> 01:00:36.719
you know, America is still the best country in the world,

1103
01:00:36.760 --> 01:00:39.519
but we have some issues. And the war was a big, big,

1104
01:00:39.719 --> 01:00:42.320
long you know, cost a lot of lives, cost a

1105
01:00:42.320 --> 01:00:45.320
lot of money, set the country back. So the film

1106
01:00:45.320 --> 01:00:47.559
does take a darker turn. But Stewart had to be

1107
01:00:47.599 --> 01:00:51.519
talked into playing playing his character because George Bailey was

1108
01:00:51.559 --> 01:00:54.679
not something he wanted to do. Especially for Capra. He

1109
01:00:54.760 --> 01:00:57.360
thought it was going to be more, not not a

1110
01:00:57.440 --> 01:01:01.840
romp exactly, but a little more. And it just between

1111
01:01:01.840 --> 01:01:03.920
the two of them it kind of got darker and darker.

1112
01:01:04.639 --> 01:01:07.159
Well, let's have the let's Head the Other Way Away

1113
01:01:07.199 --> 01:01:11.639
from the Darkness. Nineteen forty eight, Spencer Tracy Catherine Hepburn,

1114
01:01:12.199 --> 01:01:13.199
State of the Union.

1115
01:01:14.039 --> 01:01:17.199
Yeah, Capra was a director to hire on Higher. He

1116
01:01:17.760 --> 01:01:21.239
did the scripts they gave him. This is not their

1117
01:01:21.320 --> 01:01:23.760
best movie. I don't think it's his best movie either.

1118
01:01:24.760 --> 01:01:27.239
It does have the young Angela Lansbury in it. They

1119
01:01:27.280 --> 01:01:28.800
didn't know what to do with her back then, so

1120
01:01:28.800 --> 01:01:31.480
she's kind of went from movie to movie. Tracy and

1121
01:01:31.519 --> 01:01:34.920
Hepburn are Tracy and Hepburn as always. The film is

1122
01:01:35.440 --> 01:01:38.559
well done, but it is not one of their better films.

1123
01:01:38.559 --> 01:01:41.400
It's just kind of kind of perfunctory, kind of assembly

1124
01:01:41.480 --> 01:01:46.079
line ish. It's well made. If you liked them, well,

1125
01:01:46.119 --> 01:01:48.440
we're seeing you get to see the young angel Lansbury,

1126
01:01:48.519 --> 01:01:54.760
you get to see Charles Lane again. But this is

1127
01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:57.320
low on my list of Hepburn Tracy films for sure.

1128
01:01:57.880 --> 01:02:01.639
Okay, well, let's enter the nineteen fifty He teams up

1129
01:02:01.639 --> 01:02:03.280
with Bing Crosby and riding High.

1130
01:02:04.280 --> 01:02:06.880
I have not seen this movie. You'd think I would.

1131
01:02:07.159 --> 01:02:09.760
I like being a lot, but I did not see

1132
01:02:09.760 --> 01:02:12.440
that one, so I can't say nothing about it.

1133
01:02:12.800 --> 01:02:17.159
We'll move on. How about nineteen fifty one, he's back

1134
01:02:17.199 --> 01:02:20.079
with being again with Here Comes the Groom.

1135
01:02:21.000 --> 01:02:21.960
Utterly forgettable.

1136
01:02:22.239 --> 01:02:24.440
I say that utterly favable.

1137
01:02:25.039 --> 01:02:29.079
I saw it and I literally do not remember anything

1138
01:02:29.280 --> 01:02:33.599
about it at all. It was just a studio filler.

1139
01:02:34.199 --> 01:02:37.639
As far as I'm concerned, I'm glancing glancing at the movie.

1140
01:02:37.639 --> 01:02:40.559
If folks are going, Nope, don't remember a thing about

1141
01:02:40.559 --> 01:02:41.119
this movie.

1142
01:02:41.280 --> 01:02:42.840
I love the way you said that. I could I

1143
01:02:42.840 --> 01:02:46.840
could just see like critics are not raving, you know,

1144
01:02:47.360 --> 01:02:50.519
utterly forgettable. Robert Burnett, Docking Base seventy seven.

1145
01:02:51.159 --> 01:02:53.800
Yeah, I hate, I hate to sell sell it short,

1146
01:02:53.960 --> 01:02:56.840
but yeah, in fact, if you would not mentioned it,

1147
01:02:56.880 --> 01:02:59.480
I would never even have remembered that this movie existed.

1148
01:03:00.280 --> 01:03:02.480
And I love my fifties musicals, but this is not

1149
01:03:02.559 --> 01:03:03.840
one that I am a fan of.

1150
01:03:04.400 --> 01:03:06.800
Yeah, So he does over the next Over the next

1151
01:03:06.840 --> 01:03:09.440
couple of years, he does a couple of TV movies.

1152
01:03:09.519 --> 01:03:12.719
He's he's kind of fading away from the from the big,

1153
01:03:12.880 --> 01:03:17.360
big tentpole films. Nineteen sixty one, he does a movie

1154
01:03:17.360 --> 01:03:21.599
called Pocket full of Miracles. Are you familiar with that one, Robert, Oh,

1155
01:03:22.119 --> 01:03:25.079
guy Davis, Yeah, it.

1156
01:03:25.119 --> 01:03:27.440
Is another one that is not good.

1157
01:03:28.079 --> 01:03:30.039
Oh, okay, they went back.

1158
01:03:30.159 --> 01:03:34.679
Well, they went back to David Runyon short stories and

1159
01:03:34.920 --> 01:03:38.079
took a couple of his short stories. He's best known today,

1160
01:03:38.199 --> 01:03:40.400
was a hugely popular writer in the twenties and thirties

1161
01:03:40.719 --> 01:03:43.679
of kind of there was a whole language they called

1162
01:03:43.760 --> 01:03:47.079
run Yannies because his characters were all card sharks and

1163
01:03:47.079 --> 01:03:50.360
mobsters and showgirls and things and all the kind of catchy,

1164
01:03:50.559 --> 01:03:54.039
zippy slang they would use. But he tried once in

1165
01:03:54.079 --> 01:03:57.079
a while to write warm hearted things. This was one.

1166
01:03:57.119 --> 01:04:00.119
It was based on his story called Apple Annie and

1167
01:04:00.239 --> 01:04:05.599
another story called Madame Lagimp And it's it's just we

1168
01:04:06.079 --> 01:04:10.679
and kind of unwatchable. Betty Davis plays this sweet old

1169
01:04:10.719 --> 01:04:15.000
apple seller whose daughter falls in love and there's a

1170
01:04:15.039 --> 01:04:17.599
wedding and she had to get herself out of her

1171
01:04:17.800 --> 01:04:20.280
apple cellar rags and be the mother of the bride,

1172
01:04:20.320 --> 01:04:24.519
and it just it's all. All the worst excesses of

1173
01:04:24.679 --> 01:04:29.559
nineteen fifties films that are bad are in this. If

1174
01:04:29.559 --> 01:04:33.920
you are a fan of character actors, we do get

1175
01:04:34.519 --> 01:04:37.960
like Ellen forby Grandma Walton is in this movie. Peter

1176
01:04:38.159 --> 01:04:41.039
Fox early in his career as a very small part

1177
01:04:41.079 --> 01:04:43.880
in this movie. My favorite, though Edward ever at Horton

1178
01:04:44.239 --> 01:04:48.400
is back. I loved him and very very young, and

1179
01:04:48.639 --> 01:04:52.880
Margaret swivels in for a few minutes and is I

1180
01:04:52.920 --> 01:04:55.840
remember right, she's a friend of the bride. But so

1181
01:04:55.880 --> 01:04:58.840
it's kind of this crazy lots of people in it,

1182
01:04:58.880 --> 01:05:02.239
but it just trying so dang hard to be warm

1183
01:05:02.280 --> 01:05:04.480
hearted that you kind of just can't stand it. The

1184
01:05:04.480 --> 01:05:06.760
the ad line was you have to see it to

1185
01:05:06.840 --> 01:05:10.239
believe it, and I'm not going to disagree with that.

1186
01:05:11.400 --> 01:05:13.480
Well you weren't. You weren't selling me on it, so

1187
01:05:13.599 --> 01:05:15.599
you said that, and Margaret was going to swivel in

1188
01:05:15.679 --> 01:05:20.239
so I might check it out. But Roberts first pictures given,

1189
01:05:20.480 --> 01:05:23.639
Given this filmography, I gotta ask you, and I'm gonna

1190
01:05:23.639 --> 01:05:26.960
put you on the spot here two part question. What

1191
01:05:27.239 --> 01:05:31.079
is Frank Capra's best film? And what is your favorite

1192
01:05:31.719 --> 01:05:32.599
Frank Capra film.

1193
01:05:32.920 --> 01:05:35.599
I'm gonna say his best film in the sense that

1194
01:05:35.679 --> 01:05:40.440
it is probably the most representative as well is going

1195
01:05:40.519 --> 01:05:46.360
to be Mister Deeds Goes to Town. But my favorite

1196
01:05:46.440 --> 01:05:49.519
is a two way tie. Now, thank you for writing

1197
01:05:49.639 --> 01:05:52.920
mean tonight, Urs nicol old Lace and it happened one

1198
01:05:53.000 --> 01:05:55.480
night I hadn't If I hadn't done this pod, I

1199
01:05:55.480 --> 01:05:59.000
would have said it happened one night, but Arsnick is

1200
01:05:59.039 --> 01:06:03.079
really funny and I really enjoyed watching it, so it's

1201
01:06:03.119 --> 01:06:03.920
on my lift as well.

1202
01:06:04.480 --> 01:06:07.760
Okay, what did you what did you catch Arsenic and

1203
01:06:07.800 --> 01:06:09.320
Old Lace? Do you have a copy of this or

1204
01:06:09.320 --> 01:06:10.519
did you did you stream something?

1205
01:06:10.960 --> 01:06:15.599
I got the Criterion Collection DVD from the library. As

1206
01:06:15.719 --> 01:06:18.519
we often say on docu Base seventy seven, physical media

1207
01:06:18.639 --> 01:06:22.079
is better, so I had a beautiful pristine print from

1208
01:06:22.239 --> 01:06:25.000
Criterion Collection and there was some nice bonus features on

1209
01:06:25.079 --> 01:06:28.840
it as well. Normally I don't listen to audio commentary

1210
01:06:28.880 --> 01:06:32.559
because it's not my favorite thing always, but this one

1211
01:06:32.599 --> 01:06:34.280
is great. There's a guy who wrote a whole book

1212
01:06:34.440 --> 01:06:38.119
about Arsenickel Old Lace and his journey from play to

1213
01:06:38.480 --> 01:06:44.119
film to you know, Staple, and he decides he does

1214
01:06:44.199 --> 01:06:47.400
like character voices, so when he's talking about Carry Grant,

1215
01:06:47.719 --> 01:06:50.199
he tells the stories with a Carry Grant voice, and

1216
01:06:50.559 --> 01:06:53.280
he uses a Boris Carlov voice at one point, Peter Lorie.

1217
01:06:53.719 --> 01:06:56.039
He's not a good mimic or anything, mind you, but

1218
01:06:56.119 --> 01:06:59.880
it's certainly made for very fascinating listening. It's just kind

1219
01:06:59.880 --> 01:07:04.639
of dry. Author is trying to entertain us with Hollywood impersonations.

1220
01:07:05.039 --> 01:07:08.920
Well, I for one did not expect the zany ride

1221
01:07:08.960 --> 01:07:11.960
that I was taken on. But for a story involving

1222
01:07:12.000 --> 01:07:15.800
serial murderers, escape maniacs, and a seller full of bodies,

1223
01:07:16.519 --> 01:07:19.639
it's absolutely charming. Check it out the next time you

1224
01:07:19.679 --> 01:07:22.239
want to take the old Hollywood approach to your movie night.

1225
01:07:22.320 --> 01:07:24.639
And I think this is a fun one for Fall

1226
01:07:24.800 --> 01:07:27.800
or for Halloween. Wouldn't you agree, Robert Oh?

1227
01:07:27.840 --> 01:07:29.320
Absolutely? Yeah.

1228
01:07:29.519 --> 01:07:32.920
Well, listeners, what do you think of arsenic and old lace?

1229
01:07:33.599 --> 01:07:36.840
Let us know on social media. You'll find us on Facebook, Instagram,

1230
01:07:36.880 --> 01:07:39.800
and x. You can check out a Film by Podcast

1231
01:07:39.880 --> 01:07:43.360
dot com for film and TV articles and our entire library,

1232
01:07:43.400 --> 01:07:46.039
which is streaming free on the platform of your choice.

1233
01:07:46.840 --> 01:07:48.440
As always, you can write to us at a Film

1234
01:07:48.480 --> 01:07:51.880
by Podcast at gmail dot com with your questions, comments

1235
01:07:51.960 --> 01:07:55.119
and concerns. We may just read your response on the

1236
01:07:55.159 --> 01:07:59.480
show and send you some a film by swag. On Friday,

1237
01:07:59.599 --> 01:08:03.039
are limited series of Film at forty five returns with

1238
01:08:03.159 --> 01:08:06.360
special guest Jason Colvin of the Shirley You Can't Be

1239
01:08:06.440 --> 01:08:10.239
Serious podcast. Jason joins us to celebrate the forty fifth

1240
01:08:10.239 --> 01:08:14.079
anniversary of The Jerk, starring Steve Martin in one of

1241
01:08:14.119 --> 01:08:18.720
his most memorable roles. Speaking of memorable Robert, it's always

1242
01:08:18.880 --> 01:08:21.560
great to hear from you on an episode of Docing

1243
01:08:21.560 --> 01:08:24.760
Based seventy seven, and it's an absolute pleasure to have

1244
01:08:24.800 --> 01:08:26.560
you join us. I hope you're I hope you're gonna

1245
01:08:26.560 --> 01:08:26.960
come back.

1246
01:08:27.079 --> 01:08:30.319
I really do oh anytime, absolutely well.

1247
01:08:30.359 --> 01:08:32.680
Speaking of docu Based seventy seven, anything coming up that

1248
01:08:32.680 --> 01:08:35.039
you can share with us, anything you're doing.

1249
01:08:35.880 --> 01:08:38.720
Yes, we've got two episodes I'm gonna be on, as

1250
01:08:38.720 --> 01:08:41.079
well as of course many others that I am not on,

1251
01:08:41.159 --> 01:08:44.760
so way that as you will. But the Yeah, we're

1252
01:08:44.760 --> 01:08:48.199
doing a top seven favorite Walt Disney World things. It's

1253
01:08:48.199 --> 01:08:51.000
gonna be very contentious. I'm sure we've got some special

1254
01:08:51.039 --> 01:08:55.199
guests and a lot of opinions will be had on

1255
01:08:55.239 --> 01:08:57.880
that one, so it should be good fun. And then

1256
01:08:57.920 --> 01:09:00.640
I'm especially looking forward to an episode I'll be hosting

1257
01:09:00.840 --> 01:09:04.800
that'll be dropping in November. I believe it is favorite

1258
01:09:04.840 --> 01:09:07.720
song by a fictional band. So if you are into

1259
01:09:08.600 --> 01:09:12.159
Spinal Tap, or you are into the Archeese or the

1260
01:09:12.199 --> 01:09:15.039
Partridge Family, if you are into that thing, you do

1261
01:09:15.600 --> 01:09:18.760
any of those movies or TV shows, whether it is

1262
01:09:19.239 --> 01:09:22.600
a pretend band or a pretend singer singing songs. We're

1263
01:09:22.640 --> 01:09:26.000
gonna pick those terrific songs and count them down for you,

1264
01:09:26.119 --> 01:09:28.840
So it should be fascinating to hear what we are

1265
01:09:28.880 --> 01:09:32.479
able to pull out of that kind of box, within

1266
01:09:32.520 --> 01:09:34.840
a box of fictional fictional Robert.

1267
01:09:34.840 --> 01:09:36.680
I'm gonna tell you real quick, because I know you're

1268
01:09:36.720 --> 01:09:40.319
a big fan of Billy Zane like I am. I

1269
01:09:40.319 --> 01:09:43.199
gotta shout out a song called Power of the Night

1270
01:09:44.119 --> 01:09:47.039
from nineteen eighty six when Billy Zane was in Critters,

1271
01:09:47.359 --> 01:09:51.680
the fictional band an awesome song called Power of the Night.

1272
01:09:51.760 --> 01:09:54.800
So check that when I made I may a spot

1273
01:09:54.840 --> 01:09:55.439
on my list.

1274
01:09:55.560 --> 01:09:56.640
I'm writing that down.

1275
01:09:58.560 --> 01:10:01.199
Well, and here's the other thing. I can't you. I

1276
01:10:01.199 --> 01:10:03.159
can't let you leave because I definitely want to hear

1277
01:10:03.479 --> 01:10:05.119
can you. Can you tell our audience a little bit

1278
01:10:05.279 --> 01:10:06.960
about Mayro and Co.

1279
01:10:07.800 --> 01:10:12.000
Yeah. May Row and Co is our dog treat bakery business.

1280
01:10:12.680 --> 01:10:15.880
We named it after our first three dogs, Mazie, Rosie

1281
01:10:15.920 --> 01:10:20.279
and Coco, So may Row and Co. In hindsight, we

1282
01:10:20.359 --> 01:10:22.359
never would have picked such an unusual name. We thought

1283
01:10:22.399 --> 01:10:24.479
it was catchy. No one knows what it is, but

1284
01:10:24.560 --> 01:10:27.640
it is Mayro and Co. We sell dog treats and

1285
01:10:28.159 --> 01:10:30.439
really anything you can find in a bakery for people,

1286
01:10:30.520 --> 01:10:32.680
we make it for dogs. We do waffles, we do

1287
01:10:32.920 --> 01:10:36.079
custom birthday cakes and Gotcha Day cakes, but we're best

1288
01:10:36.119 --> 01:10:39.840
known for our cookies and our classic treats. You can

1289
01:10:39.880 --> 01:10:42.640
find those at Red Dog Pet Resorts around town here

1290
01:10:42.640 --> 01:10:44.960
in Cincinnati. And I'm excited to announce that we have

1291
01:10:45.119 --> 01:10:49.279
just joined Jungle Gyms, which is super well known here

1292
01:10:49.279 --> 01:10:51.920
in the Cincinnati area but kind of known all around

1293
01:10:51.920 --> 01:10:54.279
the country. Is a wonderful tourist stop if you're heading

1294
01:10:54.319 --> 01:10:56.960
on our way. So we've just joined with them. We've

1295
01:10:57.000 --> 01:10:59.560
been doing it for gosh about ten years now, and

1296
01:11:00.319 --> 01:11:02.359
love the people we meet and all the fun dogs

1297
01:11:02.359 --> 01:11:03.319
we get to give treats to.

1298
01:11:04.399 --> 01:11:06.479
What about the website, because like that's where I first

1299
01:11:06.520 --> 01:11:09.319
saw you guys, and like I just on the way,

1300
01:11:09.640 --> 01:11:10.319
what do you got for me?

1301
01:11:10.720 --> 01:11:11.319
Well?

1302
01:11:11.399 --> 01:11:11.680
Thank you?

1303
01:11:11.800 --> 01:11:15.439
Mayrowanco dot com. That's m A I R O A

1304
01:11:15.600 --> 01:11:18.000
N d c O dot com.

1305
01:11:18.159 --> 01:11:21.159
If you have a furry friend that could use a

1306
01:11:21.760 --> 01:11:26.640
very delicious and nutritious treat, check out Mayro and co. I. Actually,

1307
01:11:26.880 --> 01:11:30.159
there'll be a link to the website in the show notes,

1308
01:11:30.199 --> 01:11:31.840
so check those out and they'll take you right to

1309
01:11:32.039 --> 01:11:35.479
UH Mayro and Co. Again, Robert, thank you, and UH

1310
01:11:35.640 --> 01:11:38.159
to those of you listening to us each week, following

1311
01:11:38.199 --> 01:11:41.479
us on social media, and subscribing to our Patreon, we

1312
01:11:41.600 --> 01:11:42.000
thank you.