Latest / All The Right Movies / An American Werewolf In London (1981) | Ep. 11 - Part 1

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An American Werewolf In London (1981) | Ep. 11 - Part 1 · All The Right Movies

0:04
All their old movies. Jack, we better go.
0:09
Are you kidding? I'm starved.
0:10
There's no food here. Shall we go, Jack?
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Apparently so. You can't let them go.
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How much do we owe you? Nothing.
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Let's go. Got to be with you.
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Thank you. Wait.
0:30
You just can't let them go. Go stay on the road, keep clear
0:36
of the Moors. Beware the moon, lads.
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Americans David Kessler and Jack Goodman's European trip is cut
0:45
short in the North England Moors when they fall foul of a
0:48
Lycanthorpe. David awakens injured in London
0:51
and quickly begins to lose resistance to his carnivorous
0:54
lunar activities. Reception to John Landis's An
0:57
American Wolf in London was a mixed bag.
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Popular at the box office but dismissed by critics, it went on
1:02
to have a huge influence on the genre thanks to its deaf mixture
1:06
of horror and comedy and its groundbreak and Oscar win and
1:08
makeup effects. My name is Luke and Roman the
1:11
countryside with me are Matt a naked American man.
1:14
Storm up, balloons and Westie you.
1:17
Made me a miss. All the Right Movies are here to
1:21
talk 5 pointed stars and full moons, but we will not be
1:24
threatened by a walking meatloaf.
1:45
Hi everyone, you're listening to All the Right Movies, a Fang
1:48
sprouting all over Body Head podcast on classic and hit
1:50
films. Nice.
1:52
On this episode we're talking about John Landis's Groundbreak
1:55
and horror comedy classic and American Werewolf in London.
1:59
This is our 55th episode actually, which means that we're
2:02
now celebrating 2 years of ADRM podcasts.
2:06
How about that from my house? That's excellent.
2:09
Big stuff. So before we get going, I've
2:12
just got a few stats for you. A quick summary of the last two
2:15
years. Love a stat.
2:16
You fucking love a stat. Yeah, yeah, I love.
2:18
A stat stat or abandoned? Oh man.
2:30
Our first two episodes were Jaws and Ghostbusters, and they're
2:33
released on the 4th of July 2019.
2:37
And we've released a classic episode every two weeks ever
2:39
since, right? And in that time, we've been
2:42
listened to in a load of different countries around the
2:45
world. Do you want to have a guess at
2:47
how many we've been listened to? For context, just before you
2:50
start, there are just under 200 recognized countries in the
2:53
world, 100 and 95196, depending on your source.
2:56
So Matt, do you want to go first?
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Yeah, sure. I will go with 45. 45 Oh, what
3:05
about USD? I will go with 48.
3:08
Oh, I tell you what fellas, you're way off 134.
3:13
Wow, that's amazing. Wow, yeah.
3:15
Huge, yeah, a worldwide share of 68%.
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So we're covering the globe where we are.
3:21
Globetrotting. How long?
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Globetrotting even. We can't even understand each
3:24
other, so it's an absolute mystery to me.
3:28
Our top five countries are typically the US, the UK,
3:32
Canada, Australia and Ireland, but we're also big in India, the
3:36
Netherlands, France, Spain and Germany.
3:38
So a big shout out to everyone around the world who's
3:41
listening, wherever you may be. Yeah, massive.
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I'd love to say thanks in foreign language, but I don't
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know any. You don't know any question, do
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you know? Thank you.
3:49
Bonjour. No, that's hello.
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There you go. And there's the difference.
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There we go. Oh yeah, that's that's been not
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being racist. Danka, Sean.
3:56
There we go. German.
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There's France turning straight off.
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Danka, Yeah, thanks. Cheers.
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That's universal, isn't it? Yeah, yes, it is.
4:07
We'd also love to hear from you. If you think you're in the most
4:09
remote or unlikely place in the world that you're listening to,
4:12
get in touch. Yes, yeah, absolutely amazing.
4:15
If you can't. Well, if they're listening, they
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must have the. Internet.
4:21
Well, I think so, yeah. It would sound like a carrier
4:22
pigeon out. I didn't do all of that.
4:26
We started our Patreon account in June last year.
4:29
We put out a number of exclusive episodes on there, starting with
4:32
our conversation on the James Bond films.
4:34
That's the one where you called everyone Pricks West, Do you
4:37
remember? I do remember vividly, yes,
4:39
yeah, yeah. Although that does happen quite
4:41
a lot, but it's cut out so it's fine.
4:45
So we did a similar thing at the end of the year on a period
4:47
episode. But do you fellas want to have a
4:49
guess at how many films that we've covered across all formats
4:52
in the last two years, but not including that Bond one?
4:55
Because we didn't really talk about specifics, so it was just
4:57
in general. OK geez.
5:00
Oh, this is fast, fast maths isn't it?
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Fast maths terrible at 205. 205 Matt A. 187.
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Oh, Matt, yeah. I mean, you're closer, but
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you're both way off. It's.
5:12
What can help 128 films? That's all right.
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I mean, that's on average it's more than one a week.
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So I think we're doing all right.
5:20
Yeah, and the amount of times we'll watch them, watch them
5:22
like four or five times, it does feel about 300 films.
5:27
So that's including this episode.
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It also includes 4 rank and episodes where we talk about 10
5:31
films each in each episode. So yeah, big boy stuff.
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Yeah, lots to get your teeth into if this is the first one.
5:38
Lord, Oh yeah, yeah. Or you've just turned off
5:41
because we'd just be dribbling on for the last five minutes.
5:44
They're absolutely classes. Maybe you got this one.
5:49
And while we're on the subject of that, you've heard us talking
5:51
about it before, I'm sure. And if you're a new listener,
5:53
then listen up. If you want to support us on
5:56
what we do here, you can help keep us going by signing up to
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be in All the Right Movies Patron.
6:00
You'll get access to those 128 films that we've covered, and we
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add to that every month with our Patreon exclusive double
6:06
features show. So please everyone go to
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patreon.com/all the Right Movies to show you support.
6:12
Thanks. Yes, please do.
6:13
Yes. Please please gracias.
6:20
Now go back to the matter at hand, Westie.
6:22
Why do you want to talk about An American Werewolf in London?
6:25
This film has got a lot to answer for.
6:27
This is, you know, when you when you're too young, we always say
6:30
this, but this is the one, this is the one, the definitive one.
6:33
And I've had to have like a word with my mum about it.
6:35
So I get my facts right. So I was nine years old, it was
6:39
over my cousins. He talked about it.
6:41
My mum came in and he actually said, well, you know, it'll be
6:43
fine for him to watch it. It's not that bad and obviously
6:46
he was, he was taking the piss. So my mum got it on VHS, went
6:49
home and my dad had watched it on night shift and he came in
6:52
and he saw the VHSI got off my cousin and he said son this is
6:56
completely up to you. If you want to watch it then you
6:58
have to watch it all the way through.
6:59
You can't turn it off. Did he give you 20 fags as well?
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20 fags and a cuddle of bats kind of skull over me head.
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He's like, no, if you want to watch it, you gonna have to
7:13
commit to it. You watch it all the way
7:14
through. And I was like, yeah, fine,
7:15
okay, no problem. And it's affected us ever since.
7:18
This is the reason I am the way I am.
7:20
I think it was deeply, deeply horrifying and it wasn't funny.
7:25
It was just horrifying and it's taken a lot for us to come back
7:30
and watch it again, like me later teens and even watching it
7:32
for this, it just brings back all of these memories of just
7:36
being so desperate to watch it and then so regretful almost
7:39
immediately. It was just like, it was places
7:42
we used to visit. We used to go for long weekends
7:44
in like Yorkshire Dales and it looks the same.
7:48
It was just too close to home for us and it just felt very,
7:51
very real. Whereas like Texas Chainsaw, you
7:53
know, America, you can kind of put yourself a distance between
7:56
that. But this was like in my backyard
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and it was it wasn't comfortable at all.
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So I'm exercising demons here more than I am talking about a
8:04
film I really enjoy. So I want to see what you guys
8:07
get out of it. But for me, it's still like
8:09
really deep down gives us triggers this anxiety.
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But I can really appreciate it for what it is now.
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But it's still fucking hell. It was terrifying at the time.
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Fantastic. What about you, man?
8:20
Complete obstacle because it's just so much fun, isn't it?
8:26
It's just an absolute right, this film and it's a film I
8:28
would recommend absolutely anyone and everyone.
8:30
And I'm very, very confident if I did that, they would enjoy it
8:33
because if you want to get the scares out of it, the scares are
8:36
really well done. If you want to get the comic
8:38
aspect out of it, the jokes are really funny.
8:41
And it's a film that when I watched it for the first time,
8:43
and I was a bit older than Westie, I think when I did, I
8:45
was already like, well aware of its reputation.
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And it wasn't a case of one of these films for how to watch it
8:51
a few times to get it. As soon as I watched it, I was
8:53
like, right, I can see why people love this film.
8:55
I can see why it is so adored by so many people.
8:58
And I think in that horror comedy genre, this one is still
9:01
top level. Like if you didn't have this,
9:03
would you have Sean of the Dead? Definitely don't know if you
9:05
would, you know, huge inference on that.
9:07
So yeah, it's a firm that's got law degree aspects to it and it
9:11
should be a good one to get into.
9:12
Yeah, I'm pretty much my story is the same as Westies, really.
9:17
Really. Yeah, pretty much.
9:18
I mean, I wasn't like at your cousins or anything like.
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That I was going to say like, we met in therapy when we were 10.
9:26
But the film's like really, really deep rooted for me.
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It's one of the first films that I remember from a very young
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age, but not that I watched it that young.
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But we had it at home on VHS and I just remember that title, An
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American Werewolf in London. What a title.
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And the cover's great as well. That VHS cover's fucking
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brilliant, yeah. Brilliant.
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And I think I saw the opening on the Moors when I was very young,
9:47
and this was around the time that Thriller was big as well.
9:50
Yeah, Yeah. And I was fucking terrified of
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Jackson in that music video, and he was a werewolf and I knew
9:57
that word from somewhere else. So I was just very, very wary of
10:00
this film for that title alone, that really deep rooted.
10:05
And in the years since I've watched it loads times.
10:07
I love it. It's got a real special place in
10:09
my heart because as far back as I can remember, it's always been
10:12
there in one way or another. Yeah.
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And also, the film celebrates its 40th anniversary in a few
10:17
weeks time, so it's definitely the right time to talk about.
10:19
It. Wow.
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Really. Yeah.
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Luke, I thought for a minute there, you want to say as far
10:23
back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a werewolf.
10:27
Slams the boot. That sounds like one of those
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like 50s B movies. I was a Teenage Werewolf.
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An American Wolf in London was written and directed by John
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Landis, produced by George Foley Junior for Polygram Pictures,
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distributed by Universal and released on the 21st of August
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1981. Filmed on location in Wales and
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London, it stars David Norton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agatha and
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John Woodfine. Strap yourselves in.
10:56
Our torture journey starts on the North York movies.
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Blue Moon. You saw me standing alone,
11:11
without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.
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Blue Moon We open on a typically called Yorkshire Movers.
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Jack and David are on foot having hitched a lift and after
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some chat about Debbie Klein's body they make their way to the
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Slaughtered Lamb pub. So Matt, the opening Slaughtered
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Lamb and the subsequent wolf attack on the movers.
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What do you think? I think it's great and firstly
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it does make me laugh because Jack kind of alludes to it that
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these two, they've taken 3 months to two around Europe and
11:58
on their list of places to go is the Yorkshire Moves.
12:01
I mean, you know, no disrespect to any of our listeners from
12:04
Yorkshire, it's a beautiful place, but it is it's very kind
12:09
of desolate kind of beauty. So it does make me laugh at this
12:13
is where the one to go on this three month tour.
12:16
But what I really love when you get to the slaughtered lamb is a
12:18
really reminds me of Hammer horror films because I'm a huge
12:21
fan of those. And for me, it's totally got
12:24
that vibe. You've got the suspicious locals
12:26
who are harboring the dark secrets in this remote location.
12:29
And it's just got such a great atmosphere to it already.
12:31
And it's a bit like a western when Jack asks what the
12:34
pentangle is. It's like a western when like
12:36
the stranger walks into the Saloo and everyone just stops
12:38
dead. Like you almost expect he like a
12:40
record scratched on. Yeah.
12:41
Yeah, of course you do. Yeah, fantastic.
12:44
If you're from this country and you're watching this and you of
12:46
a particular age, it's just got so many recognizable faces in
12:49
there. You've obviously got Brian
12:51
Glover with his Alamo joke, which is amazing.
12:54
The guy that Wesley quoted at the beginning, I love that guy
12:57
playing darts. He saw furious that he's missed
12:59
for the first time and it's like.
13:01
David Scofield. That's David.
13:02
Scofield. Yeah, he's in law to things.
13:05
And even better, Rick Mail, like very, very young Rick Mail.
13:08
And there it's always great to see.
13:09
It was a nice surprise to see his face in it.
13:11
It is, yeah. Did you know Adrian Edmondson
13:13
was supposed to be in because John Landis saw them on stage,
13:16
but Adrian just thought you'd take the piston.
13:17
Didn't show up. So that's why he's not in the
13:19
film. Yeah, but Rick, Rick Mail showed
13:20
up, so that's why he's in there spitting beer everywhere.
13:22
Brilliant. He is, yeah.
13:24
Yeah. It's a great splitter, isn't it?
13:25
Like does, Yeah. That's great, and that's why
13:28
Frank Oz is in the film, because Frank Oz took him to that comedy
13:31
show with me. All right.
13:33
Nice, right. I mean, I'm so glad he's in it.
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And all those actors together, I think they help really bring
13:39
home the sense that David and Jack are so out of place.
13:42
And it is like when, when you turn 18 and you can legally
13:45
drink. I'm sure we've all done it.
13:46
You just think you can go anywhere.
13:48
You can just stroll in any pub. But then I'm sure we've all
13:51
done. We've all gone in one.
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And within 10 minutes you think, yeah, this is not the place for
13:55
me. You know, I'm not a regular.
13:57
I really shouldn't be here. And that's what I love about the
13:59
slotted lamb. It's totally got that bike to
14:01
it. Yeah, and I love the attack on
14:03
the move as well because that's so well done.
14:04
You get that sinking feeling in your stomach when David and Jack
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realize that the sore lost and they've wandered off that path
14:11
and you hear that howling in the background and you can just see
14:14
the nerves start around at the voices.
14:16
And all these strokes have the talent.
14:17
But like Heathcliff on the moves, the jokes sort of become
14:20
a bit nervous as well, and the anxiety just builds and builds
14:23
and builds. I love that camera shot where it
14:25
just circles around them. Fantastic.
14:28
Totally disorientated. Yeah, disorientated to them as
14:30
well. And it just brings home that
14:32
horrible feeling of being lost somewhere where you really,
14:34
really, really shouldn't be. So a great bit of the solid lap,
14:39
but this sequence on the moves, I think it's really excellent to
14:42
me. All the more effective because
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there isn't any music to it either.
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Yeah, yeah, I love that. I do like what anybody would do
14:49
in that situation of fear. They start to make light of
14:51
things. And David singing like happy
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songs, a lovely stroll on the moves.
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Try la, la, la, la. Isn't this fun?
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Yeah, it's not fun. No.
14:59
It's not like that. Right at the opening.
15:01
Just want to, I want to mention that for a for a moment.
15:04
There's just something about that that taps into what I was
15:06
seeing earlier. It just means so much to me that
15:09
I can't quite explain. The dialogue between Jack and
15:12
David, the typically British location that you talked about,
15:15
Westie, and that long lingering shot of the fellas walking in
15:19
the distance with the camera behind them as they do in the
15:21
knock knock thing. Yeah, just amazing.
15:23
And that dissolve when The Walking across the moon is and
15:26
it's getting darker just stirs up so much of me.
15:28
And I think it goes down to it's about an hour from where we
15:31
live. I know it's not filmed in North
15:33
Yorkshire, but I didn't know that as a kid.
15:35
And it's just really relatable, recognise the landscape based on
15:37
my family trips when I was a kid.
15:39
So it's just built into me, this, this opening scene, it
15:43
just means so much. Yeah.
15:45
Nice little bit of foreshadowing at the start when Jack and David
15:47
are boxed in with the sheep. Literally lambs to the
15:50
slaughter. Lambs and slaughter Lovely or
15:52
wolves in sheep's clothing? Yeah, yeah.
15:54
Oh, very nice. Yeah, very nice.
15:56
What about you, Wesley? Yeah, it's great.
15:58
Like you've said, look, it's very familiar.
16:00
The setting, the guys in the pub, the actual pub itself, like
16:03
they've got that spot on. It's just brilliant.
16:06
Like to the point where what Matt was saying, we used to use
16:08
that for going anywhere and it was like that.
16:09
We've got fucking outside. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:13
No matter where you go, if you go to a nightclub or something
16:15
and there's nobody in there fucking outside the slot.
16:17
But like, the sign outside is really badass.
16:22
Looks class, you kind of associate with your characters
16:24
straight away. They're very likable straight
16:26
away and you know that you're on their side.
16:28
But I mean, they don't have much to do, do they?
16:30
Fucking watch for the moon and stay off the off the Moors.
16:34
That's it then. The fuck?
16:35
Disregard everything. Absolutely.
16:38
Well, all 2 rules and that's it. You can't do anything about the
16:40
moon anyway, so be aware what the way the moon that's really
16:46
vague, don't know what to do with that.
16:47
But stay off the Moors. I can definitely do that.
16:49
That's not a problem. But it's the way that they get
16:52
lost. It just you get lost as well
16:54
because you're in the conversation and you're walking
16:55
around and you kind of just go, oh shit, yeah, I've got lost in
16:58
the same the way that they have. And Landis does that really
17:00
well. You don't see that close up of
17:02
the foot leaving the tarmac and hitting the grass and going on
17:05
the moon as making. The disorientated by the rain as
17:07
well. Yeah, exactly.
17:09
Which works really, really well. But I do I love the the
17:11
performances in the pub. It's just to me it feels a
17:13
little bit old now. It hasn't really aged very well.
17:17
It's very stereotypical. It's very much a film of its
17:19
time. And I think the British are
17:22
portrayed a little bit too kind of common, you know, flat caps,
17:25
Yorkshire. It's got and it's it's really on
17:28
the nose. It's like an episode of Bottom
17:30
almost in there, especially with Brian Glover just being the same
17:34
and everything. But the plane was still too
17:37
heaven. But it's still too.
17:42
Heavy. And that attack is fucking
17:45
savage. I hadn't seen it for a couple of
17:47
years and I watched it back and like, yeah, David running away.
17:50
I never understood that when I was a kid, but I fucking get
17:52
that now. Get no chance out of there.
17:56
But then, you know, he's he's got that, that remorse kicks in
17:59
and he goes back and you think, don't go back now when you see
18:01
that shot effects shot. Amazing.
18:03
Yeah. And he's just lying there, just
18:04
covered in blood. And I was always confused about
18:07
the dead naked guy because I didn't know the theory of right
18:10
or anything behind it at the time.
18:12
So I think, well, who the fuck's this guy?
18:14
And not that I just ignored that for a good couple, couple of
18:16
years until got me head around the whole kind of mythos behind
18:19
it. Oh, yeah, that's actually the
18:20
werewolf. But I like the way that that's
18:22
not embellished at all. It's just there.
18:24
If you don't get it, you don't get it, you know, that's it and
18:26
the story. But he just keeps it dead
18:27
simple. There's werewolf, the shot that
18:29
he's dead. He's been bitten, he's dead now,
18:31
Right? We're going to London.
18:32
Fantastic. Dunn's face.
18:35
Griffin Dunn's face when he's being attacked.
18:37
He taught me. Sells the shit out of it.
18:39
He's awesome, screaming and shouting and swearing.
18:41
Really, really goes for it. Amazing.
18:44
When they were filming it, Rick Baker, the makeup effects
18:46
artist, he told Griffin Dunn to be careful with the head because
18:49
it was quite delicate. Yeah.
18:50
And dismissing his request, Dunn tore the form rubber.
18:53
Well, wolf face off it in the first take.
18:56
Baker was really fucking pissed off that he was.
18:58
He was thinking about giving the wolf head hard teeth just to
19:01
battle the shit out of him. The film was shot sequentially
19:07
to give Rick Baker enough lead up time to get the make up
19:09
effects right for the the monster moments later on in the
19:12
film. So this wolf attack in the
19:14
opening scene was just half a wolf on a wheelbarrow just
19:17
smashing. Imagine if the camera just
19:22
panned back with him screaming. So the wheelbarrow overtime.
19:26
I think you can tell knowing that, I think because every time
19:29
the wolf attacks all the way through the film, it always just
19:31
comes in sideways and hits somebody on.
19:33
The on a wheelbarrow it's amazing that like.
19:37
Your howl in the credits there Westie was fantastic.
19:41
Yes, and. That that was recorded live as
19:44
well. Yes, it was the.
19:46
Wolf howl in this film that was made-up of a few different
19:49
elements, John Landis said. I wanted a weird, eerie ambience
19:52
for the night sounds, so that wolf howl you hear was actually
19:55
made-up of about nine different sounds, including a wolf, lie in
19:59
a Panther, and even a locomotive.
20:01
I heard it was an elephant backwards.
20:02
Yeah, and then they played it backwards, I think.
20:04
Well, he said nine things, so an elephant will be in there as
20:06
well. Well, amazing.
20:08
Yeah, and it sounds just like a wolf howl.
20:10
Somehow. I can't believe any of those
20:12
things but. Yeah, I've got all these things
20:14
in the room and I just walked around kicking them on at a
20:16
time. That's why it worked so well.
20:18
Elephant was a nightmare. Nobody talks about it.
20:35
Well done. That isn't encouraging people to
20:41
sign up for parent. I don't know what is.
20:43
I know boom boom where? That came from.
20:49
Pretty good. That scene with the wolf attack
20:54
that was filmed just outside Windsor Castle.
20:56
Griffin Dunn said. We were in the Queens backyard.
20:58
I kept picturing her trying to get to sleep while hearing this
21:01
kid being savagely murdered take after take after take in our own
21:05
backyard. I just want to go back to the
21:07
slaughtered land for a moment. You mentioned Brian Glover, I
21:10
just love how much he is enjoying telling that Alan more
21:14
joke. Oh, it's his spotlight, isn't
21:16
it? He loves.
21:16
It he's cold and caught and there's so much protest from
21:19
everybody, like they've heard it like a million times.
21:22
All right, I shan't tell it then.
21:26
But then as soon as the punchline comes, they're roaming
21:28
around like drunken sailors. They fucking love it.
21:32
There's always a guy like that in your logo, isn't it?
21:35
There's always that guy sits at the end of the bar, quiet, and
21:37
then all of a sudden he gets about 5:00 to 10:00.
21:39
I got off of books. Here's Terry.
21:47
And while we're on the Slaughtered Lamp, we've got our
21:50
first question from one of our patrons.
21:52
And that's another benefit of being an ATRM patron.
21:54
You can be part of the show and ask us a question.
21:56
Our first is from Kenny Morrison.
21:58
Hello, Kenny. Hello, Kenny.
22:00
He asks or he says first American wealth and London
22:03
features famously The Slaughtered Lamb.
22:05
Which movie pub would you guys like to have a night out in?
22:08
Great question. Matt, do you want to go first?
22:10
Great question. So Pope, to me, that's obviously
22:13
a British thing. So I disregard like bars from
22:16
American films I'm seeing in this country for this question.
22:18
And the first thing that like occurred to me is like, more
22:21
often than not, pubes are seeing this like quite threatening
22:23
places to be. Like this one.
22:26
There's a coupling with Neil and I, they get threatened in both
22:28
of those pubs and I was tempted to go with the Green Ponds.
22:38
Fucking legs are out the door. Amazing.
22:40
Which fucker said that? I was tempted to go with the
22:46
Green Man from the Wicker Man because you've got Britt Eckland
22:48
in there. Obviously is the bomb.
22:50
Is fantastic, yeah. Yeah, but then she'll be banging
22:52
the walls all night. When you're trying to get a good
22:53
night, Skip, that's going to be having that just, you know,
22:56
leave it alone for one night. Come on.
23:00
But it also occurred to me Edgar Wright really loves pubs in his
23:03
films. You know, Hot Fuzz, you've got
23:05
The Crown. That looks like a really lovely
23:07
country pub. Yeah, obviously The World's End,
23:09
that's got 12 of them. But the one I'm going to go for
23:11
is the Winchester from Shaun of the Dead.
23:13
Because purely because John has a Breville out the back and he
23:16
can do me a toasty. Whenever he wants.
23:19
And our bloody love and toasty. They've got some hug lump behind
23:21
the bar as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:23
I'm the shooter. I'm the rifle, Yeah, Shooter.
23:26
We can talk about dogs not looking up so.
23:29
Yeah, that's true. Jukebox on random.
23:38
Very nice. What about you, Whisty?
23:40
Like what Matt said they were going pubs or can I go a little
23:42
bit further? Because I definitely could have
23:44
guessed both of yours. Like I wish I'd done that
23:48
because I knew Matt was going to go for the Winchester.
23:50
But I would say, are you going to go for Pat's Place or
23:53
Cocktails of Dreams from Cocktails?
23:55
I'm actually going to go with Cellblock from Cocktail.
24:07
I fucking knew you would. I can't believe you guessed it.
24:14
I guess the film I got the wrong.
24:16
That was good. All right, I'll go.
24:21
I've got I'm really torn. I'm really torn, but I would
24:25
want a really good night and I'd want it to last a long time and
24:29
I'd want to be entertained, so I'd probably go for the titty
24:31
twister out of dustal tone. This is my kind of place.
24:39
Or the double deuce. Yeah, the double deuce.
24:41
I was thinking that as well. Very good.
24:43
Yeah, Yeah, as you called it out then, Westie, I'm shamed into
24:49
seeing that it is Cellblock from Cocktail.
24:57
So would have got the Winchester for Matt as well.
24:59
I wish I'd have done that at the start.
25:02
I mean, for anybody who doesn't know, not that it's really
25:06
important, no, there's like a key point that you need to know
25:09
about. Fucking backpedal this now.
25:11
It's fine. Leave it.
25:12
You don't need an explanation, just leave it, it's good enough.
25:15
I'm a big fan of cocktail. Oh God.
25:29
I mean, it is an awful place, but it's where Brian Flanagan
25:33
and Douglas Coghlan get their first gig and they're trying to
25:36
make it big. But also Gina Gershon's in there
25:39
as well, and she's an absolute. Fantastic.
25:41
But let's let's be honest. Let's let's be honest, people
25:46
who really like American Wheel of London don't like cocktails.
25:49
So let's just get off of the get off the subject you do.
25:54
You're a fucking. Freak.
26:00
Wow, back to this film then. Yes, despite being set in the
26:07
North York movies, this sequence was actually filmed in the Black
26:10
Mountains area of Wales. The fictional village of East
26:13
Proctor was actually a place called Cricketing, around 20
26:16
miles north of the Black Mountains, and the pub that was
26:18
in the village was a pub, but it wasn't called the Slaughtered
26:21
Lamb. And the interior shots were in
26:23
the Black Swan in Surrey. That's just outside London as
26:26
well. The continuity, because it's all
26:28
over the place, I still think it's great.
26:30
Yeah, that's fantastic. The the plane is still too
26:34
heavy. So, having survived the attack,
26:37
David wakes up in a London hospital.
26:39
We're introduced to Doctor Hirsch and Nurse Price and
26:41
things start to get very, very strange.
26:44
David has some vivid nightmares, the worst of which involves the
26:48
home invasion by some Uzi Totten Nazi zombies and then Jack
26:52
Pierce. David a little hospital visit as
26:54
well. So, Westy, what do you think of
26:56
this sequence? This is the one, isn't it?
27:00
Nazi werewolf, Zombie pig bastards with fucking oozies.
27:04
Horrible bastards. The the wolf stuff I could
27:07
probably deal with, but they stayed with me for a very, very
27:09
long time. Just that image of them and it
27:12
was just so unrelenting. It was just, it's probably
27:15
overly lit. It's like almost like an
27:17
American sitcom when I watch it now, like that 70 show or
27:19
something. Yeah, especially that, that wide
27:21
angle when he answers the door and it's just blown them away
27:24
and it's like Jesus Christ is absolutely ridiculous.
27:27
And when he shoots the kids? Savage.
27:29
You don't see it, but then it cuts them on the floor in front
27:32
of the fire and they're absolutely covered.
27:34
It's like what? And then finally, like slits
27:37
David's throat. It's like, fucking hell.
27:39
Absolutely unbelievable. But that was Rick Baker in that
27:42
mask by David Slitney's throat, and he couldn't see anything, so
27:45
everyone was a little bit nervous.
27:48
It's fucking madness, but it works really, really well.
27:51
Totally. It jars you out with the full
27:54
film, but it doesn't knock the film off course.
27:56
It's kind of really entertaining, but you never want
27:59
to see anything like it again. No, it's just, it's shocking.
28:01
It's it's shocking and it's it stays with you at the same, but
28:04
at the same time. Now I fight.
28:05
I do find it quite funny, but at the time I really didn't.
28:09
And then, you know, you've got the really, really great scene
28:13
when it goes to the hospital, but you've got that orderly
28:15
who's brilliant when he's describing the breakfast.
28:17
He's like good stuff there. Now you'd go up and I'll be back
28:19
for the dishes when you're finished.
28:20
And he's like over the top. You got eggs, you got big nose.
28:22
Lovely guy. He's a lovely guy.
28:24
And then Jack appears. The words that are coming out of
28:27
his mouth don't make any sense to the way that he looks.
28:29
He's just so effervescent. He's just so happy.
28:32
He wants a bit of toast. And he's like, David, it's just
28:38
really, really good. You heard of my feelings that
28:40
dipped it straight in the egg. Fantastic.
28:42
And then you kind of think, yeah, is he losing his mind or
28:44
is he not? Or is this now taking a bit of a
28:46
turn? So it's a bit more metaphorical
28:48
or is this real? Because what I'm saying, I don't
28:49
understand. But that makeup, when you first
28:52
see that like flaps of skin that.
28:54
Flappy skin is absolutely stuff that is the stuff of nightmares.
28:57
Yeah, and Landis had a scene where he ate the toast and it
29:00
came out of his throat, but he had to cut that to make it an
29:02
RA, which that would have been great.
29:04
Devastating that that needs. To be in there, doesn't it needs
29:07
to be in there. Everything you cut out to make
29:08
in our needs to be back in my family.
29:10
But totally, we've just gone through this dream sequence that
29:14
we don't quite know what the fuck's going on, and it fits
29:16
perfect because it drops you right into that world and you
29:19
are part of it, and you want to see more.
29:21
Yeah, amazing. That sequence with the Nazi
29:24
zombies, I mean, it's just absolutely bananas.
29:27
They're, they're in there swiftly, absolutely no mercy
29:30
whatsoever, Spray and gunfire everywhere.
29:33
And within a flash they're setting fire to the house with
29:35
everybody dead like within 20 seconds, and David's only spared
29:39
momentarily just to see his entire family annihilated.
29:42
Yeah, classic Nazi behaviour. Yeah, bastards.
29:46
Unfortunately. So on the surface, I mean, it's
29:50
just this amazingly bonkers nightmare.
29:52
But looking at it from a different angle, a Jewish family
29:54
being terrorized by a gang of murderous Nazis, Not not a
29:58
stretch to think that that thought is buried in the
30:01
subconsciousness of a 20 something Jewish fella.
30:04
We know he's Jewish thanks to Nurse Gallagher's Peep and Tom
30:07
Act in the hospital. And this is 1981, not 40 years
30:11
before this. This was a reality for for so
30:13
many, not, not a nightmare. So because David's transition
30:16
into this other being, the Wolf, has grabbed a hold of this deep
30:19
rooted fear in Jewish culture and manifested itself into
30:22
fucking rabid zombie Nazis. It's terrifying.
30:25
Stuff. Yeah.
30:26
It is terrifying. I mean, he would have heard the
30:27
stories from his parents and his grandparents that it would have
30:30
been, would have been deep seated just in his, in his
30:31
psyche. Yeah.
30:32
Definitely. What do you think, Matt?
30:35
I've always had the feeling that these sequences came to land us
30:38
really, really early on, and he was just looking for the right
30:41
project we can fit them into. Yeah.
30:43
Because, like, they're just great concepts to have, like, a
30:46
nightmare, but it's a nightmare within a nightmare.
30:48
You know, that's an amazing idea he just executed so well because
30:52
you guys see it. It's just an absolute what the
30:54
fuck moment, you know? It's nothing to do with where
30:56
we'll see it. It's Nazi zombies.
30:58
And like, he's a kind of saying, the first few times I've totally
31:01
missed the Jewish connection. Like what's like, what's this
31:04
got to do with anything? But once you you realize that I
31:07
from the dialogue or I think you can see a menorah in the house
31:10
at one point. Yeah.
31:11
And once you make that connection, it just adds a
31:13
little bit to it, but it's not over the top.
31:15
It doesn't like come at that point home.
31:16
And I really like that about that.
31:19
But the whole thing, it just feels like the worst kind of
31:21
nightmare where everything just feels and looks really normal
31:24
and safe and suburban and homely where you're safe.
31:27
And then just these awful things are just out of nowhere.
31:31
And the noise I have to make, that screeching, the absolute
31:35
carnage that the release, like how bloody this scene is always
31:38
surprises me, no matter how many times I've seen it.
31:40
I'm like, shit, this really goes really dark, especially with the
31:44
kids and that and so because it's so nasty, you're just so
31:47
relieved to wake up from that nightmare along with David.
31:50
So then that sucker punch where you're in another nightmare and
31:52
Alex just gets it in the chest. You're just like, shit, fucking
31:55
hell, you know, where's this film going to take me?
31:58
It's like all better off. I think it's absolutely
31:59
brilliant Do. You think he's lifted that from
32:01
like the end of Curry? Yes, yeah, he said.
32:04
It was. He was inspired by Curry and
32:06
also the Lewis Bunel film from 1972, The Discrete Charm of the
32:09
Bourgeoisie. He said there was a lift and
32:12
drop from that film. Right, right.
32:13
It really works like fantastic. When Alex gets stabbed and her
32:17
body's like convulsing with the knife going in and out, that's a
32:20
great touch that. Yeah, massive.
32:23
It is. It's all great and so and so is
32:25
Jack coming back to corpse again.
32:26
It's just a great concept and it's one you can imagine he
32:29
thought of quite early on. Like that would be quite funny
32:31
and a quite interesting way to do.
32:33
Now I've just got to get the film around it and it works so
32:36
well. The make up is incredible, all
32:38
those like deep gouges in his neck.
32:40
But I just love how Jack's character hasn't changed one
32:43
bit. He's still Jack.
32:45
He's still so laid back, asking for that toss, talking about his
32:48
funeral and, you know, talking about Debbie Klein, like who she
32:51
slept with afterwards. He's like Mark Levine, that
32:53
asshole. Like.
32:56
All the things that's happened to him, this is like the most
32:57
offensive Debbie Klein. You slept with someone else, not
33:00
the fact he's been brutally murdered.
33:02
Think about that as well as when he says like your parents came
33:05
to my funeral so they're not bothered about David.
33:07
Then I'll go to I'll go to his mates funeral who he's
33:10
travelling with and then just not not bother getting in touch
33:13
with him. It's fine.
33:14
Yeah, yeah. But I like how then balances all
33:16
these strokes, these funny bits with the sea we suffer.
33:19
You know, he's straight in there telling David you've got to kill
33:20
yourself. That's the only way out of it.
33:22
There's no other way out. You know, He doesn't give him
33:24
any other options. It's straight in his face.
33:26
Yeah, two great sayings. A bit of exposition, but the
33:29
exposition works really well and it's funny at the same time.
33:32
It's been really, really dark and.
33:34
Horrible. I know that the transformation
33:37
sequence that we'll talk about later, that's the one that's
33:39
talked about and quite rightly, but I think you can tell that
33:42
that is fake. I think it's clear to see,
33:44
really. But this makeup job on Griffin
33:46
Dunne in this scene is outstanding.
33:49
Yeah, I've never seen better. It doesn't look like makeup.
33:52
It just looks so real. Yeah, and the way this is lit as
33:56
well, he's not like in a dark corner of the room.
33:57
Just about to see it. It's really heavily lit so
33:59
there's no hide in place. No, see everything.
34:02
Outstanding piece of makeup work.
34:04
It's unbelievable and it's close-ups as well.
34:06
It's like it's a real like headshot.
34:08
Amazing. So while we're here, we're going
34:11
to talk about our first cast member.
34:13
That's Griffin done as the decaying undead and bored Jack
34:17
Goodman. Matt, what do you think about
34:19
Griffin doing as Jack in the film?
34:22
It's one of the best performances in the film for me.
34:24
I think he's so memorable even with fairly limited screen time.
34:28
I think, I mean, he would be memorable just as that concept
34:31
alone. But it could be a case if you're
34:32
like, Oh yeah, American Werewolf, his friend comes back
34:35
from the dead. But it's more than that.
34:36
You remember Jack as a character and I think you get like enough
34:40
details early on that that he feels really real and
34:42
three-dimensional. And so even though he's
34:45
obviously the first victim in the film, he gets killed early
34:47
on. Yourself feels sorry for him
34:49
because you think, oh man, I was starting to really like this guy
34:51
and he's straight out. Then.
34:52
I think a lot of that is to do with what Griffin done brings
34:55
with it. And I think he's got real
34:56
tangible chemistry with David Norton that do seem like these
35:00
are really two best friends you tell that just enjoy each
35:03
other's company so much. And he's just so relatable and
35:07
he's really funny. And that makes his constant
35:09
repayments is all the more funnier because, like, say, his
35:11
demeanor doesn't change at all. He's always the source, still
35:14
laid back and nice about it all. And he's just got that whole,
35:18
yeah, I'm a ghost now to bit shit dealing with it.
35:22
He's just got that deadpan laid back all to him, which I really
35:25
like. So yeah, he's definitely one of
35:27
the best things in the film for me.
35:28
And that's a story, which is great.
35:30
Where when they were filming on the movers there was only one
35:33
trailer which had a toilet. So he went on use at one time
35:36
and for some reason a driver like didn't realize it and he
35:39
hooked the trailer to a pickup and just drove off with himself.
35:42
Stuck in the toilet? Like banging on the wall trying
35:45
to get him to stop. Brilliant.
35:48
Like you were saying there, Matt, like he's really upbeat
35:51
considering he's like dead and decaying.
35:53
Yeah, Landis's direction to him in these scenes as a corpse was,
35:56
no matter what you do, don't ever sound in anything else but
36:00
a great mood. Does it?
36:02
Nails it. Perfect.
36:04
Brilliant. Yeah.
36:05
It's funny when they're at Alex's apartment and he takes a
36:07
great interest in her possessions.
36:09
He sniffs the flower. He looks like a closet, and I
36:12
look like he's just completely green.
36:15
Even his clothes. Yeah, he says.
36:18
I'm not having a nice time here. No shit.
36:20
What do you think, Wesley? Yeah, I think he's great.
36:24
Like Matt said, one of the best performances.
36:25
But for me he is the best performance in this film.
36:27
Totally ties it all together, totally keeps you engaged.
36:30
He hasn't got a lot of screen time, but what he does have, he
36:32
does perfectly. When he pushes that mirror,
36:35
which is classic, in the bathroom, yeah, you see him
36:38
there, That's that jump scare and he's just smiling and he's
36:40
just like, brilliant, isn't he? Fucking brilliant.
36:46
He reminds me of like Martin Short and Dudley Moore smashed
36:49
together. Great, great support and
36:52
character. Great support and actor.
36:54
And yeah, I think he's absolutely fantastic and he's
36:56
really, really likable and really funny when you see him
36:59
standing on the street just waving outside that porno
37:01
theorem and it's fucking magic. Absolute magic.
37:04
Brilliant, brilliant performance.
37:05
Best best in the film for me. Yeah, yeah.
37:08
I wouldn't, wouldn't argue with that.
37:10
The casting process for the film was pretty easy really, we don't
37:14
have too many alternatives that we usually like to talk about.
37:17
Mcgriffin Dunn got the gig after a 10 minute conversation with
37:20
Landis. In a brief run through the
37:22
script. The only thing that Landis asked
37:23
him was are you claustrophobic and he never quite understood
37:27
why he was asking it until the make up job started and he was
37:30
just thoroughly miserable during his time because it took hours
37:33
to apply the make up. And at the end all it did was
37:35
make him realise what he would likely look like if he was dead
37:39
and it just psychologically really affected him.
37:41
He was in. And his mum, his mum as well,
37:43
his mother was dead bad because of it.
37:45
Like that's terrifying. When Landis was researching the
37:48
film, he found out that in history the most number of
37:51
people who were executed for being werewolves were in France
37:55
and in Wales. So Landis didn't speak French
37:58
and because of the tax breaks in the UK, he thought that would be
38:01
a good place to go. So the crew of the film is
38:03
largely English and there's only four Americans that came over
38:06
Landis, Rick Baker, Norton and Dunn.
38:09
But it was really difficult to get Dunn a work permit because
38:12
the actors union Equity got involved and argued that a
38:15
second class member should be English based right there's.
38:18
Orlandis threatened to relocate the film and even scouted
38:21
locations for his newly titled An American Werewolf in Paris.
38:25
Oh, right, nice. OK.
38:27
Equity backtracked and thankfully we were spared that
38:30
terrible sound in the film. But you're going to see his new
38:33
film. See you next Wednesday.
38:35
Just play that instead. So with Jack wandering around as
38:40
the undead, David refuses to heed his warning despite his
38:43
carnivorous urges. The director.
38:51
The director of An American Werewolf in London is John
38:54
Landis, director who we haven't talked about on this show, but
38:57
we have talked about him on our Trading Places Patreon podcast.
39:01
So. Sign up to listen to that
39:03
because we had a blast in we met.
39:05
Yeah, that was a great one though that.
39:06
Was really good. So, Matt, what do you think of
39:09
Glance's work specifically on An American Werewolf in London?
39:13
His work here, it strikes me as something that you can tell he
39:16
came up with this idea when he was 19 and he sat on this idea
39:20
until he had the clout in the industry to make it.
39:23
Because everything feels very, very precise and extremely well
39:27
thought through. And it's a strange because I'm
39:30
so I'll watch a film where I know that the directors wanted
39:32
to make a particular film for years and finally go around with
39:35
it. And quite often I'll find like,
39:37
it doesn't work because it's like they've made the film so
39:39
many times in their own head, they've kind of lost their
39:41
impetus to do it for real. But don't get the feeling with
39:45
this he he brings a real vibrancy to it and real love for
39:48
the genre. And you can tell this is the one
39:50
that you really wanted to make. And I can't say for sure, but it
39:54
does feel like there wasn't one moment on set where Landis
39:57
didn't turn up 100% sure and what he wanted to do with every
40:01
shot mapped out and said it feels like this wasn't a film
40:03
where anything was improvised at all.
40:05
I mean I could be wrong, but it doesn't feel like it if so.
40:08
And I think the most impressive thing is obviously the balancing
40:10
of the comic and the horror aspects in here, because if he
40:13
makes it too funny, that's going to dilute the horror.
40:16
If he makes it too horrific, then the joke's going to feel
40:18
out of place and they're not going to land.
40:21
So the way that he goes between the two of those, the way he
40:24
really leans into the horror, but then he'll pull back and
40:27
he'll land these jokes with like a real well timed touch.
40:30
That's really impressive. And particularly how he just
40:32
balances them throughout and he goes from one to the other.
40:35
And like for me, Landis, it's a weird one in general, a little
40:38
bit him for me, because I know he obviously had quite a few
40:41
hits throughout the 80s. But this one to me, it's it's
40:44
the only one where I feel I can like understand him as a person.
40:48
And I feel his personality is in this film that I don't get with
40:51
his with his others. And you can tell what he loves
40:54
about cinema. He you can tell that he really
40:56
understands and loves the mythos of the werewolf, but he's got
41:00
this ability to make a contemporary and he does it in a
41:03
way that had never been done before.
41:05
No one had seen anything like this before.
41:07
And to do that with some great individual sequences, with great
41:10
jokes, some moments of real suspense and fear, and he just
41:14
makes a really entertaining and complete package out of all of
41:17
it. I think it's easily the best
41:19
thing he's done as a director. Yeah, I would certainly agree,
41:22
although I do like a lot of his earlier stuff as well.
41:26
Yeah, glad you said earlier there not Beverly Hills Cop 3.
41:28
No, not cop. I mean, that's a travesty.
41:30
I don't know how I can't fathom in me head, Beverly Hills Cop
41:34
Three was what, 12 years after this?
41:36
What, what happened? Well, I suppose we know what
41:38
happened, but just on this I I love the authenticity with how
41:43
he's captured 80s England, the punks on the tube, the stiff
41:47
upward libbedness of characters like Doctor Hirsch and the and
41:50
the village mentality of East Proctor.
41:52
He's clearly got an affinity for the country, for England.
41:56
I love that. I also like that David's
41:58
circumstances are multi layered as well.
42:00
He's like a fish out of water in London.
42:02
But that's not the only thing. He's a fish out of water in his
42:04
own body as well. And I suppose you could also add
42:07
into that the Jewish subtext that we talked about burrowed
42:11
into the subconscious of Jewish people looking around their
42:13
shoulder at every turn, feeling like outcasts in society.
42:16
Or certainly that's potentially what it was like during the war.
42:19
And David feels that more and more as the wolf begins to take
42:22
hold. So I think on the surface,
42:24
Landis, of course, like you said, Matt, he, he does a
42:27
fantastic job mixing that horror and comedy, Probably one of the
42:30
best examples of it. But there's also, if you're
42:33
looking for it, if you want to look for it, there is something
42:35
deeper going on as well, which I I really do like because like
42:38
you said, Matt, it's not that obvious.
42:40
I think you said it always. He said it.
42:41
Both of you man said it, but it's not that obvious.
42:43
It's not like a slap in the face, but it's it's there and I
42:47
really like that about it. What about USD?
42:49
Yeah, I kind of believe that this was after the Blues
42:51
Brothers. It just feels like it's such a
42:53
small scale film and that why it's one that he's just made,
42:57
because he really wanted to make it.
42:58
Not that he's got an audience to make it for.
43:01
He did Schlock didn't in 1973. I haven't seen that.
43:03
Have you seen that, Luke? I've seen bits of it.
43:06
I did start to watch it like years and years ago and I turned
43:09
it off It's awful, don't bother. Well, I put it, I put it me know
43:12
what it was like because he's not very accustomed to the
43:15
genre, especially the horror genre.
43:17
I mean, he matched action and comedy really well in The Blues
43:20
Brothers and he's done that. He's done that throughout.
43:22
But you know, to make a horror film about the classic horror
43:25
monster. At that time I thought you only
43:27
had schlock. Which I've read the I've read
43:28
the tagline for and I don't think I ever want to watch it.
43:31
What a tagline. An ape that falls in love with a
43:33
blind girl and thinks he's a giant dog.
43:41
Brilliant. Terrible.
43:43
I can't decide from the, you know, from starting off with
43:48
what, Kentucky Fried Movie, then do an Animal House, then doing
43:50
Blues Brothers, then doing this. Yeah, like Blues Brothers to me,
43:53
seems like it's on such a massive scale, especially the
43:55
chasing at the end. It's just.
43:56
Huge. Really big production.
43:58
This feels like he's just got sick of everybody.
44:01
So right, I'm just going to go to rural Wales and just shoot it
44:04
like by and yourself with a couple of members of the crew
44:05
and just show off what Rick Baker can do.
44:07
And it's just a really personal film.
44:09
And I think a lot of these humours in this, Matt says a lot
44:11
of his personality, but I think a lot of this is John Landis
44:13
humor and I think he's really stuck to his guns.
44:16
Even if someone said that's not funny, he'd probably do it twice
44:20
just to piss them off. And I think he's did this real
44:22
bravado and there's this real cockiness to this film.
44:25
It's like if you don't like it, I don't care.
44:27
And I think that's why I really like it.
44:28
It's really self assured, especially in its direction.
44:31
And like you mentioned, Matt Landis tried and failed to get
44:33
the film made for for quite a while.
44:35
He was sitting on it for well over a decade, and he was told
44:38
that it was either too scary to be funny or the other way
44:40
around. Too funny to be scary.
44:42
Nobody wanted it. One rejection he got was from
44:45
Bond producer Kobe Broccoli. Landis had made someone credited
44:48
rewrites on The Spy Who Loved Me, so he knew him.
44:51
Broccoli's reply was very simple.
44:53
Hell no. It's fucking weird.
44:58
That's just the Nazi sequence. Yeah, because it makes Moon.
45:02
Waker, though, doesn't. He yeah.
45:07
Which, you know, is really grounded, isn't it?
45:09
Yeah. But after his string of hits
45:12
that Westie mentioned there, Landis had much more pull in the
45:14
industry and got the attention of John Peters and Peter Guber.
45:17
It's Polygram. But this wasn't the only
45:19
werewolf film released in 1981. The Howlin, Wolfen and Full Moon
45:24
High were all released the same year, and Landis said no one
45:27
would make this fucking movie. There hasn't been a werewolf
45:30
movie for years. When I finally got the
45:31
opportunity to make it, there were like 6 werewolf movies in
45:35
one year. Yeah, yeah.
45:37
And upon release, after test audiences were terrified, Landis
45:41
snipped out a few frames from some of the more grizzly scenes.
45:44
Wester, you mentioned the one about Jack the toast falling out
45:47
of his throat. Yeah, yeah.
45:49
Another scene was where the three homeless fellas get
45:51
attacked. That was pretty much removed.
45:54
The wolf comes down, grabs 1, takes him out a shot, his body
45:57
gets dropped onto a car but he's missing like loads of body
46:00
parts. Grizzly.
46:01
Amazing. Brilliant, that would have been
46:04
amazing. Landis has since said that he
46:05
regrets making these cuts, and he also trimmed down the sex
46:08
scene between David and Alex, and we will get to that later.
46:11
Yes, we will. But despite his work on The
46:14
Cutting Room, Landis had a battle with the exec producers.
46:16
When he screened the film, he asked for some further cuts, and
46:19
he said, give me a week, 10 days.
46:21
I'm going to go away. I'll come back with a trim
46:23
version. And he came back, showed them
46:24
another cut at the film, and they said, yeah, yeah, much
46:27
better, like it, release it, print.
46:30
And little did they know that Landis hadn't made any changes,
46:33
and they'd just passed the cut that they bought that a week
46:36
ago. Amazing idiots.
46:39
We've talked about horror movies before.
46:41
Quite a few on the podcast, but not specifically werewolves.
46:44
So Westie, where does this sit? Best werewolf film?
46:47
I don't think it's the best werewolf film.
46:49
Not for me anyway. OK.
46:50
Because, I mean, I like the Howlin.
46:52
I like In the Company of Wolves just because of the cover used
46:55
to scare the shit out of it. I used to go to like, Asda with
46:57
your mom. It was just there, this wolf
46:59
coming out of a face, massive. And I like, I like Ginger snaps
47:03
as well. Ginger Snaps.
47:04
Yeah. Talk about that as much.
47:06
I think that's really good. But for me, it's Neil Marshall's
47:08
Dog Soldiers. It wins for me.
47:10
This is for me that that cut. It feels like this is like Alien
47:14
and his is like Aliens. It's still got the humor.
47:17
It's still totally inspired by this film.
47:20
It's just taken it and ramped it up, added more werewolves.
47:22
It's in a similar set and it's still just as funny.
47:24
It's really fucking violent. It's really, really well acted.
47:27
So for me, I'll put Dog Soldiers up there just because I would
47:30
watch it more often than I'd watch this.
47:31
One Really. Wow.
47:32
Yeah. What about you, Matt?
47:34
Yeah, Dog Soldiers is a lot of fun.
47:35
I'm a big, big fan of that one. I've got a real soft spot for
47:38
the only werewolf film that Hammer did, which is Cursed the
47:41
Werewolf, right, I'm seeing now. That's really good.
47:43
It's got Oliver Reed in there, one of his early well.
47:45
Fantastic. Oh, that's mentioned in.
47:47
That what he mentioned in the film.
47:48
In the film Alex is is that the one with Oliver Reed?
47:51
In yes, of course, yeah. No, the old one.
47:53
It's the Wolfman. Brilliant, yeah.
47:55
Yep, that's one. So yeah, I'm saying I'll check
47:56
that one out. And then obviously the Howlin is
47:58
a massive 1 as well. Yeah, I think the Howlin is
48:00
scarier than this. I find the Howlin quite a
48:02
disturbing watch for like if you face reasons.
48:05
Particularly the start. It's really psychological.
48:08
Yeah, yeah, yeah. When she's in the the kind of
48:10
porn theater, yeah, with a bird about really disturbing.
48:13
Yeah, it is. But I don't think some of the
48:15
effects work in the Holland hasn't stood up as well as some
48:18
of the effects work here. And actually the other night it
48:20
went back and I did watch like the original 1, the Universal 1,
48:23
the Wolfman, which you know, it's iconic.
48:26
But I think it's like when you go back, watch the original
48:28
Dracula. Like it looks amazing, but it's
48:30
quite creaky and very slow pierced and there's not too much
48:33
in terms of story. So for me, I would go for this
48:36
one. Actually, I do think American
48:37
well from London is the best way I will film it.
48:39
It's the one I would watch the most.
48:41
But like, say, Dog Soldiers is a whole lot of fun.
48:44
That's great. You mentioned the Wolf man
48:47
there, Matt. It's absolutely outrageous on
48:49
Cheney's got that massive telescope and then he goes
48:53
straight over and starts seeing that she's got earrings in her
48:56
room. What a purpose.
48:59
Fucking crazy, isn't it? But I think I'm with you, Matt.
49:05
This one for me, it's the one that I've watched the most by a
49:08
by a mile, and obviously owes a lot to the mythology laid out in
49:11
the Wolfman, which Landis knows and that's why he references a
49:14
couple of times. And I've never been that much of
49:17
a massive fan of the Howler, maybe only watched it a couple
49:20
of times, but one that you didn't mention there that came
49:23
out the same year was Wolfen and.
49:26
Wolfen yeah. That is just spectacular.
49:29
It's a great film. Really, if you haven't seen it.
49:31
Watch it, it's great. It doesn't get the love that it
49:33
deserves and it's got a great lead performance from Albert
49:36
Finney as well. He's amazing in it.
49:38
Oh lovely, you haven't mentioned Wolf with Jack Nicholson, I see.
49:41
No, for for good reason. And what was that Benicio del
49:47
Toro one? Was that the Wolf man?
49:48
The wolf man, The wolf. Man, yeah.
49:50
Dismissed. Yeah, yeah, there's a new one
49:53
recently called Werewolves Within.
49:55
It only came out very recently and that's really that's.
49:58
A good reviews. Yeah, really good.
50:00
I've read a few good reviews, I'll have to check on that as
50:02
well. But this one will always be my
50:04
go to. Landis was riding the wave of a
50:07
creative peak. He had a string of successes
50:09
before and a few after, but Werewolf is possibly his career
50:13
best, certainly from a technical point of view.
50:19
The cast. In the cast, we're starting, of
50:24
course, with David Norton, who plays Leighton Werewolf, David
50:28
Kessler, Westie. What do you think about Norton
50:31
as David? Worst performance in the film
50:33
for me, hands down from an acting point of view.
50:35
He's acting like he's acting and it's very, very hammy and just
50:39
very, you can just see straight through it.
50:41
I think it's really, this film really works and it's it's got
50:43
its legacy because I because he was in nothing else.
50:46
So he just exists as this character and that's it.
50:49
And that works for me. That's great.
50:51
That's fine. But like, he's not a good actor
50:53
when he's there with Jack, Jack's just totally showing him
50:55
up and he just feels like every line of dialogue is just really
50:58
heavy. Like he just waited a blow and
51:01
it's like you can tell he's just, he's a little bit creepy
51:04
with Jenny, good eyes, just a little bit.
51:06
Like you can tell he kind of fancies her a little bit and
51:09
doesn't know what to do. And it just feels a little bit
51:11
off for me. So his whole performance, I
51:13
mean, the transformation scene is amazing.
51:15
That's why I'm quite conflicted with it.
51:17
It's not really about the act and other performances are
51:20
necessarily the characters of the back story.
51:22
It is about it's a vehicle for Rick Baker.
51:25
This is how good this could be if you give us a chance to do
51:28
it. But The Thing does that as well.
51:30
But what the Thing does is it has, you know, that story and
51:32
that character, and everyone can act in The Thing, which I think
51:34
is really important for a film. Yeah, that helps.
51:38
Does help? Yeah, so I think it's just, it's
51:41
just, I'd say him and some bits are all right, But you know,
51:44
when he's waiting in the queue and he's got that quote on and
51:46
he's just supposed to be like having these little whimsical
51:48
bits of dialogue, it doesn't really work.
51:50
It works when he's really panicky and he's really over the
51:53
top because that's really over the top acting.
51:55
But what you don't need is really over the top acting when
51:57
you're standing waiting for a bus or pulling faces on the
52:00
tube. I just think it's just a bit
52:01
cringy. So for me, he's probably the
52:03
worst one in the film. He's a really bad human, but a
52:06
great wheel. Wow, controversial views and
52:11
looking at Matt's face, I think he agrees with you, but I I kind
52:14
of tend to disagree. It doesn't stick out.
52:16
I don't think he's fantastic, but it doesn't stick out that
52:18
he's a terrible performer. I think the film hinges on us
52:21
relating to David as an individual.
52:25
If he, if he was just a prick, we'd just dismiss his emotional
52:28
turmoil. But it's, I think it's
52:30
heartbreaking when he finds out from Alan Ford's Taxi Driver
52:33
about the six mutilations the previous night.
52:35
In his heart of hearts he knows he's responsible, but I suppose
52:38
he doesn't want to admit to it. And I think Norton plays that
52:41
really well. Like you said, it's in those
52:43
dramatic moments and he skirts that fine line between the
52:46
comedy and tragedy of it throughout the film, I think.
52:49
Not amazingly, but that the film needed to to make it a classic.
52:53
When he when he's trying to get arrested and he realises it's
52:56
futile, it's really emotionally affected.
52:59
His reaction to It's a Great piece of acne tells Alex that he
53:02
loves her, and then he flees the scene.
53:03
You know what them they really over the top runaways that they
53:06
do. And they're like, I'm not doing
53:07
it with you anymore. I love you, bye.
53:09
And the arms are flailing as they're running over the road.
53:11
Do you know what I mean? The pigeons are better in that
53:13
scene. He always needs something else.
53:16
He needs something else to reinforce his performance.
53:17
When he runs through them pigeons, you're like, yeah.
53:19
And then he shouts, I mean, we will, fuck sake.
53:21
And it's yeah. But it's if without that
53:23
setting, without the pigeons, if he was just in a room with Alex
53:25
doing that performance, it would just be like, Nah, he needs
53:28
something else to kind of weigh it down.
53:30
Come on then, Matt, what do you think?
53:32
I am more with Westie on this but one thing I would say is
53:36
that. Keep going, man.
53:40
The one thing I would say is that like anywhere will film for
53:43
the really work. One of the key things about it
53:45
is it's got to have a tragic ending because that always
53:47
happens in the world. So once someone's bit, it's the
53:49
end of the road for them, you know, you know what's going to
53:51
happen. And I do think that the film
53:53
does have an emotional impact at the end for me.
53:55
And I think Norton just have to take some credit for that.
53:57
I do feel his tragedy and his nature and the scene that I do
54:03
like a lot from him is a team where he's ringing home and he's
54:06
saying his goodbyes and he's speaking to his sister on the
54:08
phone. He can't to get across what he
54:10
really wants to say to her. And she's going on about Max,
54:12
the other brother, and he's just telling her to behave and they
54:15
get on. And you know, I do feel his
54:17
anguish because he's trying to say his goodbyes, but his sister
54:20
just can't comprehend what's going on at all.
54:22
So I think he does well there and that's very effective.
54:26
But other than that, he does tend to annoy me a little bit.
54:29
Like he does get over Jacks death quite quickly for me, like
54:34
too quickly. Yeah, exactly.
54:36
And then when you see him just mucking about on the tube,
54:38
pulling faces, having a bit of a lock around, I hate that.
54:42
That doesn't sit well at all for me.
54:44
And I think as an actor, Norton doesn't have enough about him to
54:48
compensate for that. And that party is like because
54:51
of where the script puts him as a character and makes him do
54:54
that, but Norton can't compensate for that.
54:56
But I will still stick up from a little bit in that he does make
55:00
the engine work for me and I do feel his trauma and the
55:03
emotional impact at the end. But overall I would agree with
55:06
Wesley and that pretty much everyone else in the film is
55:08
better than him. Yeah, I wouldn't disagree with
55:11
you on that. The casting of Norton was
55:13
similar to that of Griffin done a quick chat and a run through
55:16
the script. But Landis knew him through his
55:18
work on the Doctor Pepper ads from the 70s that are on YouTube
55:22
if you want to check them out. It's got a strap line that goes
55:25
you're a pepper, I'm a pepper. And after their conversation,
55:28
Landis said to Norton, You're a werewolf.
55:30
I'm a werewolf. Initially, Caston went through
55:35
around 300 people for Jack and David, and Norton and Dunn
55:38
weren't the studios first choice.
55:40
Producers John Peters and Peter Guber were pushing for none
55:43
other than Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in the lead roles after
55:47
John Landis had worked with him on Blues Brothers.
55:49
That. Would have been so good.
55:50
Landis pushed back because he wanted unknowns for the film.
55:53
And I wouldn't change the casting choices, but there's
55:56
definitely a part of me that wants to see Belushi as a walk
55:59
and Meat Loaf doing backflips. I want to say Ackroyd in that
56:02
make up talking really fast about the undead.
56:04
That would be incredible, you know that.
56:07
That club would be gone. Yeah, it'd be amazing.
56:11
Great. Food Fight Landis specifically
56:17
shot in February and March because he wanted bad weather.
56:19
But the cold weather was tricky for Norton, particularly in the
56:22
dream sequences where he's romping through the woods fully
56:25
nude. He said it's cold and you've got
56:27
no shoes on. And that's the hardest part,
56:29
running in the wooded areas on slick paths, trying not to go.
56:33
Oh, and the crews saying, come on, it's warm, this is a dream.
56:36
You're leaping through the air like a deer.
56:40
You can see that shot where he's taken that literally and he
56:43
literally. Leaves like a deer, it's.
56:46
Graceful. That's exact.
56:48
No, it's just someone tells him to do it and he's just like,
56:49
right, I'll do that exact thing. I really love those tracking
56:54
shots and and the POV shots are fantastic.
56:56
The dream sequence through the woods, that zombie bed sequence,
57:00
that's genuinely terrifying. Yeah, even now it's it's.
57:04
Horrible. It is.
57:05
You know, it's coming. Absolutely horrible.
57:06
There's like a really eerie presence in the sound design.
57:09
I can't quite put my finger on it, but it it just makes the
57:11
whole thing really unsettling. Yeah.
57:13
He said that that was the most difficult scene to shoot because
57:15
he had to wear glass contact lenses for the zombie.
57:18
Effect. It's just something about that
57:20
bed in the middle of the wood and it's really heavily lit and
57:23
it's just like idyllic. It's.
57:25
Yeah. It is.
57:25
Yeah, it is. It's awful.
57:27
Another issue Norton had without his clothes were the scenes in
57:29
London Zoo when David awaits from his first night of killing.
57:33
He's in that cage with real wolves and that, that's a nice
57:36
touch. Obviously David is a werewolf
57:37
taking refuge with his own kind. But added to Norton's discomfort
57:41
was the wolf trainers were all women and he's all there letting
57:44
it all hang out. But Landis had to avoid any full
57:47
frontal nudity because unlike his character, Norton was not
57:50
circumcised. That's that's the only reason.
57:53
Not like decency or anything like that.
57:55
Just wondered. Didn't want any continuity
57:56
errors. Rick Big I could have sorted
57:58
that out, truly. Just get some Paddy.
58:08
Yeah, give it here. Give it here.
58:22
Three hours in make up. Fantastic.
58:27
The trainers told Norton that the wolves weren't dangerous and
58:29
that's because they've just been fed.
58:31
But was a good job they didn't throw the Patty in there.
58:37
What a great shot. But he was recommended not to
58:40
make any sudden movements or loud noises.
58:42
And he was thinking, OK, like, let's just get this done.
58:44
One take, boom, boom, boom. We'll move on and production
58:47
overran beyond the 9:00 AM cut off time.
58:49
And Norton looked up at one point, noticed that there were
58:52
loads of extras around and he was told by the trainers, No,
58:55
no, no, they're not extras. The zoo's open for business.
59:00
You can tell when he's climbing out they shitting himself as you
59:04
would be I. Think that kid asked some very
59:07
pertinent questions as well. Why would a balloon thief want
59:10
to give Me 2 lbs? It's a fair.
59:11
It's a fair cough, and because of the nudity in the film,
59:17
Norton was dropped as the face of Doctor Pepper like the mad
59:20
killings weren't a problem. You.
59:24
Really scared me, you shit head. Next up on the cast list is
59:28
Jenny Agatha, who plays the sympathetic nurse Alex Price.
59:32
Matt, what do you think of Agatha as Alex?
59:35
I've said it before and I'll say it again, God bless the NHS.
59:37
They. Do a great job.
59:41
They do. What a fantastic job, Angels.
59:43
Every single one of them. I mean, she's lovely, isn't she?
59:47
She's. Really creepy this mate.
59:49
Really creepy. Useful.
59:52
Turning that to David Norton. Well, I know Norton had known I
59:56
could a while, or you'd known her previously before this, and
59:59
he had a big crush on her back then.
1:00:00
So, you know, and that totally comes across the film.
1:00:02
You do buy that, you know, he doesn't have to do much acting
1:00:05
in that sense. Yeah.
1:00:06
But I could, I think along with Griffin doing, I think she's
1:00:09
easily the best performer in the film for me.
1:00:11
And you know, she, she absolutely makes up for the idea
1:00:14
that a nurse would. Actually take a patient home
1:00:16
with a like this, you know, I'm pretty sure that's like frowned
1:00:18
upon in her job. You know that's.
1:00:21
Morally she's on dodgy ground. Oh totally, yeah.
1:00:24
But I think like Agathas performance is totally
1:00:26
compensates that and she brings like a real warmth, a real
1:00:29
compassion to the film, like for everyone.
1:00:31
And I think on the page the thing that character is a bit
1:00:34
cliched and a bit unbelievable, you know, the hot nurse with a
1:00:38
cut glass accent. But I think Agatha just breaks
1:00:40
through all that and she makes out a really human part of the
1:00:43
film. And I think what she does is she
1:00:45
ends up representing us because at the start, but with David, we
1:00:49
feel for him in his predicament and his confusion.
1:00:52
But once she realizes the truth of what's going on and what's
1:00:55
happening to David and how it's going to end, and she realizes
1:00:57
she can't do anything to help him or to stop it, I think that
1:01:00
becomes us because we become onlookers as well.
1:01:03
We just have to like, step back and just say, you know, the
1:01:05
end's coming. And we can't do anything to help
1:01:07
David. And I think I could do this a
1:01:08
really good job of bringing all that up on screen and the end of
1:01:13
the film, like, say, it's got to be a tragic end.
1:01:15
And I think she contributes so much to that end.
1:01:18
Do I think she does put a lot of anguish on screen?
1:01:21
So I mean, that goes for saying this.
1:01:23
I think she covers up a lot of shortcuts that the film makes in
1:01:25
the writing, which which we'll get to in a bit.
1:01:28
But ultimately, I think she does bring a lot of this film and and
1:01:31
so much of that end and in particular works because of her.
1:01:34
Yeah, I agree. And and I totally agree with
1:01:37
you, Matt. She's an absolute delight.
1:01:39
Jenny Agatha. She is.
1:01:42
She is wonderful with an open middle class accent and a slow
1:01:45
vowels. Very nice.
1:01:53
Tips for anyone going on a date this evening?
1:01:55
You just slow vowels. Can I have a glass of water
1:02:00
please? Mick Jagger.
1:02:03
I'm not going out with Mick Jagger.
1:02:06
Bread. Sugar.
1:02:14
I mean, I wouldn't mind being bedridden and being force bed by
1:02:18
Nurse Price, certainly, Despite that meat looking tough as old
1:02:21
boots, I wouldn't mind it. But I mean, for a working girl,
1:02:23
she's got like a swish pad, hasn't she?
1:02:26
Yeah. Oh yeah.
1:02:27
I do like it when she threatened, like the scenes in
1:02:29
in the hospital when she's talking to the orderly, when she
1:02:32
threatens the kid in the hospital who says just says no
1:02:34
all the time. She says, Benjamin, have you
1:02:36
ever been severely beaten around the face and legs?
1:02:38
No, she plays a completely straight in the final scene,
1:02:44
going back to what you were saying, Matt, But when she's
1:02:46
looking at the werewolf, telling it that she loves him, I mean
1:02:49
that in the wrong hands, that could have been awful.
1:02:51
But I'm bored into her pain. I think that comes from her
1:02:53
desperation to get to him and the fight that she puts up to
1:02:56
get through the crowd of police. And I think she plays it
1:02:59
straight throughout. And I don't think it would have
1:03:01
worked if she played it with a nod and a wink throughout her
1:03:05
performance. Like Griffin done very good.
1:03:07
But David's increasingly bizarre behaviour does make me wonder
1:03:11
why she would continue to associate with him.
1:03:13
Yeah, yeah. He turns up to a flat in an old
1:03:15
lady's court claiming that he woke up in the zoo.
1:03:17
She's known him for three or four weeks.
1:03:19
Get rid of him. Get rid of him.
1:03:22
What about USD? Yeah, exactly the same.
1:03:25
I think she's great. She brings a real element of
1:03:27
class. Wonderful.
1:03:29
That's a very theatrical performance.
1:03:30
I'll try not to be as pervy as you do.
1:03:35
I mean, she's just, she's just a delight.
1:03:37
She's just wonderful. She is a delight.
1:03:39
Good grief. And like you said, look, I mean,
1:03:44
as a character, she's very, very plainly written, isn't she?
1:03:48
She's got no real sense of self, sense of threat at all.
1:03:53
And it's like when he's being playful and he's in a very good
1:03:56
mood. He's very effervescent and all
1:03:57
we've got to go to the hospital because we don't know what's the
1:03:59
Tony. Oh, that's fine.
1:04:01
I will get a taxi, guys, and get out there.
1:04:03
Where did you get that code? That's what she says to she sees
1:04:05
when old ladies caught and she says, oh, where did you get that
1:04:08
coat? Fucking hell, what?
1:04:10
Get rid of them, get rid of them.
1:04:13
But it just it baffles me that she's just so understanding of
1:04:16
everything. But I've got theory of how this
1:04:19
film could be completely improved in my eyes, which I'll
1:04:22
wait for the end. I'll wait for the end not coming
1:04:25
yet. It's not coming yet.
1:04:26
Drum roll. But yeah, just just it's a great
1:04:28
performance, but I wish she'd had a little bit more emotional
1:04:31
depth and a little bit more to play with.
1:04:32
I think it would have been, you see it at the end and you see
1:04:34
she's capable of it. But I wish she'd just had a
1:04:37
little bit more and their story or their relationship was a
1:04:40
little bit more complicated. It's a it's a bit of a split for
1:04:42
me. But yeah, she's just fantastic
1:04:44
in the film. Yeah, very good.
1:04:46
Our unlikely relationship with David culminates in a shower sex
1:04:50
scene, all scored by Van Morrison, whom dance.
1:04:53
This brings us to our second question from one of our
1:04:56
patrons. This time it's from Anna
1:04:58
Randall. Hello, Anna.
1:04:59
Hello, Anna. No surprises here.
1:05:01
She's. Anna's question is this Is this
1:05:06
the least sexy sex scene in a film ever?
1:05:09
And does it need to be so long? She says they look freezing in
1:05:13
that shower. But she does love Van der Mann,
1:05:15
and this is in her top five favorite films.
1:05:18
Definitely her favorite horror film.
1:05:19
She's sending big thanks for covering.
1:05:21
This lovely pleasure. Pleasure.
1:05:24
Yeah, Westie, do you want to? Just give it some elegance.
1:05:27
Yeah, yeah. Set the tone before we puncture
1:05:30
it. Class it up.
1:05:31
This was what like one of the very first ones I saw.
1:05:33
Like I say, I saw it young, saw it all the way through and I
1:05:35
thought, well, this is this is how you do it, isn't it?
1:05:37
You just, you go in the shower with someone, bite them on the
1:05:39
shoulder a bit, roll around a little bit.
1:05:41
That's their job done. Absolutely.
1:05:43
It's absolutely amazing. I've got two kids.
1:05:49
After a day we'll come back. You want to come upstairs?
1:05:51
It comes upstairs. I just turn the shower on.
1:05:56
What the fuck are you doing? Well, that's how it starts,
1:05:58
isn't it? It's an American way over
1:05:59
London. That's.
1:06:00
How it goes isn't. It that's how it begins, isn't
1:06:02
it? That's where this is born.
1:06:04
But yeah, yeah, it's it's cringy as fuck.
1:06:07
It's really hard to watch. It's really fucking like he's
1:06:10
spent more time directing a porno and then can't direct a
1:06:13
normal sex scene. It's outrageous.
1:06:16
So yeah, I think she's right. It's probably one of the worst.
1:06:19
And if I'm watching it with anybody else, it's that moment
1:06:22
where I kind of go, oh, this is a bit fucking crap.
1:06:25
I'm going to put the kettle on. Yeah, I'll just stick the shower
1:06:27
on. So I agree with Anna to answer
1:06:34
the question. And fucking hell, he cut it as
1:06:37
well. God knows what he cut out when
1:06:38
they do have a bath source, then a shower cup of tea.
1:06:41
Rope down. Little rope down there.
1:06:45
What about you, Mad Bring in the bring the tone right down.
1:06:50
Oh God, yeah, Yeah, here we go. Well, it's funny that Anna asks
1:06:54
this because she knows full well disappear on that she voted
1:06:58
maybe not her personally but collectively a few months ago
1:07:02
voted to make me watch Basic Instinct 30 episode.
1:07:06
Unforgivable. It is unforgivable because I
1:07:08
have to sit and having to watch Michael Douglas rot his way
1:07:11
through that like a stuck pig. But for me, I would still safely
1:07:21
say it is a much worse sex scene than this.
1:07:23
But in general, I think she's absolutely on the money.
1:07:26
It is extremely cringe worthy. Yeah, ridiculously awful long.
1:07:29
And it's definitely, definitely been written by a 19 year old
1:07:33
American in the fantasy about a hot Britishness that he gets to
1:07:36
hook up with. That's where this comes from.
1:07:39
Wow, Yeah. I mean, I don't know why it's so
1:07:41
long. I don't like it when you like
1:07:44
you said Westy while Alex is nibbling on David's shoulders.
1:07:48
What the fuck? That.
1:07:56
That is not sexy. Well, maybe if it's actually
1:07:58
doing it. It actually is.
1:08:01
In a cold cellar. But that is not sexy and I don't
1:08:04
know what the relevance this has to the plot.
1:08:07
That means that this scene has to be two minutes long.
1:08:09
Yeah, crazy. I also dislike the way that Moon
1:08:12
Dance is edited. The song, it jumps around, it's
1:08:14
really choppy. I think Landis has butchered the
1:08:17
song. It sounds terrible, and it is.
1:08:19
It is a favorite of mine. But yes, Anna, I think this
1:08:21
scene is definitely down there as one of the worst sex scenes
1:08:24
ever. But it doesn't come anywhere
1:08:25
near close to Leah Thompson having sex with Howard the Duck.
1:08:32
I quite like that. That is, that is, that is a
1:08:35
giant Hollywood misstep. That's.
1:08:37
Yeah, that's not going to misstep.
1:08:39
I don't even think they took a step.
1:08:40
It's disgusting. Plunge and I mentioned how cold
1:08:45
they look and Norton said at the time that there weren't a lot of
1:08:47
showers in London, so one had to be built for this scene and the
1:08:50
struggle to regulate the water temperature.
1:08:52
They were really cold, so much so that Griffin Dunne was on set
1:08:56
as well, and he suggested it was clearly obvious that Norton was
1:09:00
cold. Rick Baker can sort that out,
1:09:03
man. And Agatha said that the film
1:09:07
crew doubled in size for the scene, she said.
1:09:10
All of a sudden there were men I've never seen before around
1:09:13
pretending to do things. Outrageous behavior,
1:09:15
objectifying a wonderful woman like that.
1:09:17
Sorry that it is disgusting. Now to be fair, that's fucking.
1:09:20
That is so bad. That is.
1:09:22
It's just, Nah, I don't like that at all.
1:09:24
I think it's fucking pointless. I think as soon as they found
1:09:26
out there was no showers, Perfect.
1:09:28
Cut it. Yeah, then you've got something
1:09:30
that's perfectly possible. It's rolling around in the dark.
1:09:32
That'll do for me. Nice little touch as well.
1:09:34
Some of the scenes filmed around Alex's flat was shot on Lupus
1:09:37
St. in Pimlico. Lupus is Latin for wolf.
1:09:40
Nice. Ah, yes.
1:09:41
Lovely. As with the cast in most horror
1:09:43
films, An American Werewolf in London remains a high watermark
1:09:46
in the careers of David Norden and Jenny Agatha.
1:09:48
However, Agatha has remained a consistent acting presence in TV
1:09:52
and film, certainly in the last 40 years.
1:09:58
The middle. We're into the second act of the
1:10:03
film up to this point. Alex moves David into a flat and
1:10:06
he gets acquainted with English life.
1:10:07
They confirm their romantic feelings before Jack pays David
1:10:10
in another visit with a warning. Doctor Hirsch, intrigued by
1:10:14
David's werewolf claims, visits the village of East Proctor,
1:10:17
where his suspicions are heightened.
1:10:19
We're looking at the scene where the wolf finally takes hold of
1:10:22
David and we see his painful transformation.
1:10:24
Matt, do you want to take it away?
1:10:27
The thing that makes it so effective for me is that it's
1:10:30
not set in the middle of the night out in a back street on
1:10:33
empty park somewhere. It's in the flat, it's fully
1:10:36
lit, there's nowhere to hide. And I love how Landis, he just
1:10:40
smashes us right into this scene with like little build up or
1:10:44
preparation. You just get that brief shot of
1:10:46
Alex in the hospital and the full moon shining through the
1:10:49
window over shoulder. There's no like soul build up of
1:10:52
David, like feeling unwell or thinking something's up.
1:10:54
He's just straight into this, like looks like this massive
1:10:57
like migraine headache that he's got and he's just absolute agony
1:11:02
and he's drenched in sweat. And I think that's a really
1:11:04
great touch. And I think to be fair, we've
1:11:06
not been like showering him with Chris so far, but thing this is
1:11:09
one of Norton's better moments in the film.
1:11:11
Just convincing you he's in so much pain he.
1:11:14
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He does do a really good job
1:11:16
here, but it's so confidently shot by Landis because he knows
1:11:19
he's got this amazing work by Rick Baker that he's got to show
1:11:22
off. Yeah.
1:11:23
Which is why he doesn't feel the need to hide it.
1:11:25
And there's that moment in it where where they break the 4th
1:11:27
wall when David, just like, reaches out of the camera and
1:11:29
looks. Yeah, that's a bit.
1:11:31
Terrifying habit it is, and that could have just been the first
1:11:34
thing you could that could have worked so badly.
1:11:36
But it doesn't. It's so good.
1:11:38
I love the. Pleading with the audience.
1:11:41
As well. It gives out, yeah.
1:11:43
Jesus Christ, I absolutely love that bit.
1:11:46
It's a bit like the attack on the moves for me, because it's
1:11:48
so much more effective that you don't have any original
1:11:50
soundtrack over the top of this. You got Blue Moon in the
1:11:52
background, but no, like, stereotypical horror music
1:11:55
accompanists. And I think that makes it all
1:11:57
the more effective. So it's one of the most iconic
1:11:59
horror scenes for a good reason. And another little bit of love
1:12:02
just for the sheer randomness of it is when Landis cuts away free
1:12:05
reaction shot to that little Mickey Mouse toy.
1:12:07
Yeah, that's just like looking. It's so random, but it just fits
1:12:11
so well the whole scene. It's iconic for a reason.
1:12:14
Yeah, I agree. This is the scene, isn't it?
1:12:16
It just turns the whole thing up to 11.
1:12:18
And it just really does, you know, it reinforces the film and
1:12:21
everything you've been watching up to this point.
1:12:22
And you, Steven, now, when I'm watching that, I still can't
1:12:24
believe what I'm saying. And it's just the sound design
1:12:26
and the bone stretching and Emily's face stretches.
1:12:30
All of this is in camera. All of this is happening in
1:12:32
front of everybody's faces. So how good of an actor do you
1:12:34
need to be? Not very much.
1:12:37
So he does do really well here. But I think it's just honestly,
1:12:41
it's just Rick Bakers time here and he just top of his game.
1:12:44
It's still now really, really difficult to watch.
1:12:47
And like Matt said, it's the set up.
1:12:48
You've got credence bad moon rise and he's just walking
1:12:51
around the flat and he's just bored and I'm not hungry and
1:12:53
don't know what's going to happen.
1:12:54
Then he just opens the door and all of a sudden you're overhead,
1:12:57
you're going to see everything and then when it finishes, you
1:12:59
just think, Oh God, please don't let me see that ever again.
1:13:03
So affecting. It's fucking brilliant it.
1:13:05
Is yeah, I like that you mentioned it.
1:13:07
I like that David shuffling around the flat and he's waiting
1:13:10
for something that he can't believe is possible, but he kind
1:13:13
of knows in the in his heart of hearts, but he doesn't because
1:13:16
it's an irrational and you've got bad moon rising plane and
1:13:19
he's trying to keep himself occupied looking in the fridge.
1:13:22
And when it comes to it, my God, I can feel like every contorted
1:13:25
muscle, every bone crack, every cracked fingernail.
1:13:29
I can feel the hair coming through the follicles.
1:13:31
And he looks in absolute agony. And like Jack in the opening, he
1:13:34
sells this pain very, very well. And that final moment when that
1:13:39
wolf snout expands is more shocking and awe inspiring and
1:13:43
equal measure. I cannot believe it was done in
1:13:46
bright light. And all this combined great
1:13:49
editing, close-ups and the blocking in the scene just makes
1:13:52
it just totally iconic. For the special effects, Landis
1:13:56
turned to his old pal, effects guru Rick Baker.
1:13:59
We had work together on Landis's first movie schlock that Westie
1:14:02
mentioned earlier, which is where Landis should be the
1:14:05
script for this film. And he was on board straight
1:14:07
away. But because it was taken so long
1:14:09
to get off the ground, he committed to do an effect work
1:14:11
for another werewolf movie, the Howlin.
1:14:13
And Landis was pretty furious about this that he jumped ship
1:14:16
and he used some of his American Werewolf ideas for that film.
1:14:19
So conflicted. Big got out of the Howling gig
1:14:22
by drafting in his protege Rob Bortin, and Baker is just
1:14:25
created as a consultant on that film.
1:14:27
The difference between the two, the Howlin is it's the
1:14:30
transformation. It's dark.
1:14:31
It's nowhere near as accomplished as as this film,
1:14:34
no. No.
1:14:35
Landis had no idea how he was going to do the work required to
1:14:37
get it right for this film. He said it was the worst
1:14:40
possible thing for an effects artist.
1:14:42
It specifies that it happens in bright light and I wanted to
1:14:44
show it all he does. Yeah.
1:14:47
Well, you would. Yeah.
1:14:48
So Wesley, what do you think of Rick Bakers effects work in the
1:14:50
film? It makes a film, doesn't it?
1:14:52
It makes it, yeah. I mean, I think it makes what it
1:14:54
is. I think to be honest, it would
1:14:56
be very, very poor film without that level of work.
1:15:00
I think it's good. The scripts grip.
1:15:02
The only reason that the dialogue works for Jack
1:15:04
especially is because of the makeup.
1:15:06
And the only reason that you keep watching is because of that
1:15:08
transformation. It's just at the right point of
1:15:10
the film. Landis knows what he's doing.
1:15:12
It's like he's just got these, like gold bars that he's got
1:15:15
three of them and you can place them like start, middle, end, do
1:15:19
a crash in Piccadilly Circus. That's a great when we get lost
1:15:21
on them, was going to get tap out, we will and have this bit
1:15:23
in the middle when he transforms.
1:15:24
Yeah. And it just feels like that
1:15:25
anchored on them. Three points, 10 poles and this
1:15:27
one. Yeah.
1:15:28
And this one just really, really does not disappoint.
1:15:31
I can't imagine this being any better.
1:15:33
No, no. There's, there's not a shot, I
1:15:35
think, oh, that's, that's a bit half assed or that doesn't
1:15:39
really work. Everything works and it's, it's
1:15:41
almost like he knows exactly what angle it's going to be shot
1:15:43
at. I think the way that it cuts
1:15:44
between the wider angles and then the real close-ups.
1:15:47
I think Rick Baker's really, he's got a lot of work to do and
1:15:50
he does it really, really well. Like everything's flawless.
1:15:52
You could just imagine he'd spent most of his time on that
1:15:55
face extending. So that's basically what you're
1:15:57
going to get is like the money shot, but all the shots in this
1:16:00
sequence, all because of Rick Baker's work, are all money
1:16:03
shots. That's not a bad shot.
1:16:05
You put the camera anywhere in that room and it's going to look
1:16:07
fucking outrageously good. Yeah, it's one of those things
1:16:10
where it's difficult to say like anything new about it, isn't it?
1:16:12
Because it obviously it transcended the genre and it's
1:16:16
so different at everything else that had been seen before.
1:16:18
And I think along with what Rob Bortin did in the thing, it's
1:16:21
still the benchmark for. I think those two back-to-back
1:16:25
still shine in Pillars of effects work in the 80s.
1:16:29
Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. It's difficult to see how the
1:16:31
could be proved on. So I think what I do find
1:16:34
interesting or is when you compare to what had been done
1:16:36
before, and they've obviously made the decision that when
1:16:39
David turns, he is going to turn into an actual wolf because the
1:16:43
difference is in the past, it was almost that hybrid between a
1:16:45
man and a wolf. So that meant it was just a case
1:16:48
of putting makeup on the hand and on the face.
1:16:51
And obviously at the time, that was still really like impressive
1:16:53
and it looks iconic. But this is just something else
1:16:56
entirely because they've all thought it through anatomically.
1:16:59
So it's like, well, how would a human hand turn into a claw?
1:17:02
What would happen to the bones? How would the legs change shape?
1:17:05
You know, how does how would a human face turn into a snout?
1:17:12
And they've not backed away from any of it.
1:17:14
They've not gone, oh, you know what?
1:17:15
That would be too hot. So, so we'll skip that.
1:17:17
It's like, no, we'll show everything.
1:17:19
So it's just incredible. See this body literally twisted
1:17:22
out of all recognition, so good I don't even wonder that much
1:17:25
how it manages to get out of a flat in the 1st place without
1:17:29
destroying the door or something.
1:17:30
Well, he opens the door because he says he's hot, so he does
1:17:33
open the door first before he changes.
1:17:35
So it's already open for him to get out.
1:17:36
So I did look at that. Do you think it would fit
1:17:38
though? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:17:39
He just, he would just saunt her out.
1:17:41
Just like Sideways on. Just pot her out.
1:17:45
Excuse me, Baker said that the reason he was able to make the
1:17:49
effects better than it had gone before it is that he was given
1:17:51
time and money to be able to do it.
1:17:53
He worked for around six months before filming started and the
1:17:56
film, like we said, was shot sequentially to give him more
1:17:59
time to get it right for this transformation sequence.
1:18:02
And this period of time was arduous for Dun and Norton.
1:18:04
Norton particularly was in the studio from 5:00 AM and sat for
1:18:08
10 hours straight while Baker and his team did their magic.
1:18:11
And he said it was like a long flight that never gets there.
1:18:14
Bit conceived of the werewolf has been on two legs, kind of
1:18:17
what you were saying Matt. But Landis had this clear vision
1:18:20
and he said I want it to be a four legged hound from hell.
1:18:22
And he thought that the transformation should show how
1:18:24
painful the transition was. Not like the wolf man wear a
1:18:27
launcher and he just sits calmly in a chair and like the laps
1:18:30
dissolve SHOT Show him just gaining hair on his legs and
1:18:33
he's fine. Some of the show pieces of the
1:18:36
transformation were done really simply.
1:18:38
The expanded hand was rubber with four syringes in it, and
1:18:41
when they were plunged, the hand expanded.
1:18:43
Same thing with the feet. The hair growth was just a piece
1:18:46
of fake flesh with clumps of hair just pulled through it.
1:18:48
And the footage was then played backwards for the film.
1:18:51
Yeah. The popping of the spine is just
1:18:53
air being blown through tubes and for the shots where David is
1:18:56
on his back, Norton was in a hole in the floor with only his
1:19:00
head peering out and the rest is just puppetry.
1:19:02
I mean, it does look fantastic. Oh, looks flawless, yeah.
1:19:05
Flawless. Very good.
1:19:08
Genius man. Didn't even think about that.
1:19:11
The expanding head was the most complex.
1:19:13
It's a plasticized animatronic rubber head that had different
1:19:16
moving parts that could be manipulated separately.
1:19:18
So this allows for the head to expand in different areas at
1:19:21
different times. And there were loads of
1:19:23
different heads that were used in various states of expansion
1:19:26
as well as one could happens when the next one comes in.
1:19:29
The transformation itself took six days to complete, applying
1:19:32
and removal of make up taking a large percentage of the time
1:19:36
being. I said in those six days, a 60
1:19:38
hour period, they showed only 30 minutes of footage.
1:19:41
Wow. And he was questioned in the
1:19:43
amount of 10 that he put in six months work for this scene,
1:19:46
which is all the really quickly, and he didn't think it was worth
1:19:48
it until he saw the finished article.
1:19:50
But Landis now has reservations about the length of the scene.
1:19:52
He said he was so taken by Baker's work that he wanted to
1:19:55
show as much as possible, and now he thinks it's too long.
1:19:58
No, I disagree. I do perfectly judge.
1:20:01
You want to see that stuff? Yeah, I agree.
1:20:04
For his groundbreaking work on the film, Rick Baker won the
1:20:06
very first Academy Award for make up.
1:20:08
There had been a couple of honorary ones given in the past,
1:20:11
but this was the first time it was a legit category, and he
1:20:14
would go on to be nominated a further 10 times, picking up six
1:20:16
more awards. Big stuff.
1:20:18
Yeah, wow. That was all because of the
1:20:20
uproar with the Elephant Man and all the make up on that. 1980,
1:20:23
wasn't it? That's right category.
1:20:24
And then Rick Baker was the first to win it, and deservedly
1:20:26
so. It's fucking absolutely.
1:20:27
Yeah, it's massive. Our third and final Patreon
1:20:30
question comes from Ryan Chipo. Hello Ryan, he says if you would
1:20:34
make a monster movie, what would you dream?
1:20:36
Pixby for director and special effects guru combination.
1:20:40
So, for example, he gives Alfred Hitchcock and Ray Harryhausen
1:20:43
nice little combination that, Yeah.
1:20:45
Matt, I think you'd have to pick a director who really just knows
1:20:48
his, like, cinematic history and understands the, like history, I
1:20:52
guess, of practical effects or, you know, Scorsese and Tarantino
1:20:56
jumped to mind, first of all. And I think I'd go with
1:20:58
Tarantino for the director just because you, you know, he'll
1:21:01
have seen so many obscure horrors or science fiction with
1:21:05
some, you know, pretty good makeup effects that he would
1:21:07
have remembered and he could do something with.
1:21:10
And then I guess Harry Housing is the obvious one.
1:21:12
But I've gone a bit further back.
1:21:13
I've picked Jack Pearce, who was working at Universal, and he
1:21:17
came up with Frankenstein's monster, that look and the
1:21:20
iconic look for Dracula and the Wolfman.
1:21:23
And you know, his work is still lasted.
1:21:25
It's still really recognised well today.
1:21:26
So I think if you put him with Tarantino, I think you would end
1:21:29
up with something really interesting.
1:21:31
Wow, a clash of styles and cultures there.
1:21:34
I love it. And eras.
1:21:36
What about you, Westie? See, I'm the same with you, Matt
1:21:40
for director, but I think it'd be just far more interesting and
1:21:43
far more fun if we had Tarantino and Rob Bortin together, even if
1:21:47
they're just having a conversation that's entertaining
1:21:51
enough. So I'd love to see him do
1:21:53
something like The Thing. I'd love to see Tarantino go in
1:21:56
with that horror genre. But again, he really appreciates
1:21:59
the history like Matt was saying.
1:22:00
So that's why I've chosen him. Very similar.
1:22:02
But I'd love the fun of Rob Bortin and they I think they
1:22:04
would come up with fucking ridiculous stuff.
1:22:06
Brilliant. Very nice.
1:22:08
Well, I've always been a fan of Dick Smith's effects work.
1:22:11
He worked on The Exorcist, but that was one of his few horror
1:22:14
films that he worked on His other credits were things like
1:22:16
like The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Marathon Man.
1:22:18
So I'd like to see him go back into the horror genre in the 70s
1:22:21
or 80s working with Dario Argento.
1:22:24
That's. My big fucking hell.
1:22:26
Yeah, very cultured young man. Yes.
1:22:30
Oh, gentle for me. Well, I'll go with what Matt
1:22:36
said. And I'll just copy off you and
1:22:38
put Boutine in there because I've just heard his name 20
1:22:40
minutes ago. There are always big, garish,
1:22:45
memorable death scenes in giallo horror films, and I think Smith
1:22:48
would be in his element, spraying blood everywhere and
1:22:50
lopping heads off Fantastic. Well, tell him I'm out.
1:22:53
Tell him I've passed away. An old wall.
1:22:56
Just tell him I'm dead. Having transformed into the
1:22:59
Wolf, David goes on a kale rampage and takes out a young
1:23:02
couple in Hampstead Heath before tearing up three tramps in the
1:23:05
shadow of Tower Bridge. We're looking at the scene where
1:23:08
the Wolf moves N to Tottenham Court Road tube station, where
1:23:11
he stalks an unsuspecting commuter.
1:23:13
Westie. Yeah.
1:23:14
What do you think of this scene? I think it's great.
1:23:16
I really, really love it. I love the way that the tube
1:23:19
stations been shot. I think you need an American
1:23:21
director to come in and see that from like a fresh point of view.
1:23:24
Like it's cool for a chase sequence.
1:23:26
Like we would never have thought that because it all just seems
1:23:27
very familiar. But he does make it look cool.
1:23:30
And I think all the posters that around there, have you noticed
1:23:32
how many film posters are there? There's absolutely loads from
1:23:35
classics like close Encounters, Empire Strikes Back, Airplane,
1:23:38
Prom Night, Battle Beyond the Stars, Glory, a Raging Bull.
1:23:41
Fucking brilliant. Just putting all them in.
1:23:42
Yeah. And he's just as he's running.
1:23:44
I just love this as a sequence for the Steadicam.
1:23:48
And I don't think it's talked about as much as Rocky or the,
1:23:52
you know, even Bound for Glory. The use of the Steadicam here is
1:23:55
brilliant. And I love it how you see it
1:23:56
from the creatures point of view.
1:23:59
Yeah, just scattering at his feet.
1:24:01
Lovely. I think the performance here is
1:24:04
is fantastic. I know this is over 60 takes, so
1:24:06
you'd have been fucking knackered.
1:24:08
But just when he finally jumps on that escalator, like me, Mum
1:24:11
used to warn me when we used to go out in the the shopping
1:24:13
centre and you had the escalator and you were just warned.
1:24:15
Stand there, don't move. If you get your feet caught in
1:24:18
it, you're going to. Die.
1:24:19
Yeah, Yeah. And they're just so intent on
1:24:22
like, you've just got to respect the escalator.
1:24:24
Every time he dives on it, I'm like, well, you just respect it.
1:24:27
You're going to get caught. You're going to get your finger
1:24:29
and I totally forget the fact that he's getting followed by a
1:24:31
fucking wheel. I'm more worried about him
1:24:33
getting his tie caught an escalator or something.
1:24:36
But that shot's amazing when you just see it at the bottom when
1:24:40
he's fantastic, so fucking good. And the sound design's great on
1:24:43
that sound design through the whole thing as the use of
1:24:46
Steadicam. I would put that up here with
1:24:48
the likes of Rocky, the likes of The Shining.
1:24:49
I think it's really, really well done.
1:24:51
Perfect use of the of the system.
1:24:52
I think it's grip. Yeah, I also like the shot when
1:24:55
he's running for his life and it's in front of him.
1:24:57
He leaps over the Yeah yeah, the metal fence.
1:25:00
Leaves his umbrella. Yes, yeah, great.
1:25:03
But that shot at the top of the escalator with the wolf just
1:25:05
coming into view at the bottom. Masterful stuff, that.
1:25:08
Oh, brilliant. Yeah.
1:25:09
What do you think, Matt? Much like you do, guys.
1:25:11
I think it's fantastic. I think anyone who's a fan of
1:25:13
this film, it is getting like a train late at night and they
1:25:16
might be the only person on the platform.
1:25:18
This has to come to mind every time, doesn't it?
1:25:20
Definitely. But I love this guy.
1:25:21
I love how pompous he is. You know?
1:25:23
I shall report this. Yeah.
1:25:26
Yeah, I can assure you. And I think it's a sequence that
1:25:31
it could have sunk the film in some respects, because I think
1:25:34
Landis knows that, yeah, this wolf puppet is good for the
1:25:37
time, but I think it's more effective the less you see of
1:25:40
it. Yeah, definitely.
1:25:41
So he's got to compensate for that.
1:25:43
And he does that really well. Like Wesley says, with the
1:25:45
steady count with those POV shots is it's chasing them, like
1:25:48
through the corridors and then up to the escalator.
1:25:50
Because if he doesn't pull that off, then the film's not going
1:25:53
to work because this is one of the scariest sequences in the
1:25:55
film. So it's got to have that effect.
1:25:57
I think it does. It is.
1:25:58
It's really memorable, it's really threatening.
1:26:00
The only issue I've got this a little bit if this film that
1:26:03
takes me out a little bit. I don't have views of notice,
1:26:05
but if you look at the clock, it says it's one in the afternoon.
1:26:09
So there's no way it would be that empty that time of day.
1:26:12
That spoils it for you. Yeah, just every time I've seen
1:26:15
all that 20. Oh really?
1:26:16
I've never noticed. Yeah, I've never noticed.
1:26:19
Way to fucking ruin it. Sorry, I'll.
1:26:21
Usually let everyone see it either.
1:26:23
It reminds me of a film from 1972 called Deathline of Raw
1:26:27
Meat with Donald Pleasants in it.
1:26:28
Have you seen that? It's got a very similar kind of
1:26:31
vibe, like it's really creepy and it's got that kind of.
1:26:33
It reminds us of that. Yeah, it's really good.
1:26:36
Yeah, it's really good. Fucking horrible, yeah.
1:26:39
I mean, it's your worst night. They're in these places, They're
1:26:41
unnerving anywhere, particularly at night or 1:00 PM whatever,
1:26:45
Matt. But when you're alone and
1:26:47
there's nobody else around, I think this scene strikes a chord
1:26:50
with people just because it's totally relatable.
1:26:52
A lot of people have have had these fears living in London and
1:26:55
beyond. And on that, one of our patrons,
1:26:58
Matt Lum, had this to say about the scene.
1:27:00
He feels very passionate about it, he said.
1:27:02
What's more terrifying about London's Northern Line, One
1:27:05
being haunted alone at night by a werewolf then being gruesomely
1:27:08
mauled to death? Or using the Northern Line at
1:27:10
8:00 PM Monday to Friday, He says give me the fucking
1:27:13
werewolf every day. But you mentioned Deathline
1:27:18
there, Westie. And that was Landis's
1:27:20
inspiration for the film, was it?
1:27:22
Yeah. I did not know that.
1:27:24
Lovely. And this guy, Gerald Brinsley,
1:27:27
is played by Michael Carter. For Star Wars fans, he is Bib
1:27:31
Fortuner in Return of the Jedi. There you go.
1:27:34
Obviously you don't know who that is, Luke.
1:27:36
He's the guy. He's the guy with the the snake
1:27:39
coming out of his neck and round his.
1:27:40
It's it's, yeah, it's not a snake, but we'll close it.
1:27:43
Looks like this. Finally, David has realised he's
1:27:48
calling it the behest of a full moon, leaving a trail of bloody
1:27:51
destruction in his wake. The crew.
1:28:00
First on our crew list is writer John Landis.
1:28:04
That guy. That guy.
1:28:06
Yeah, that guy. What do you think about him,
1:28:08
Westie? I think he's right in here, like
1:28:10
we've said before, when we're talking about, you know, his
1:28:12
direction, it's very, it's very personal.
1:28:15
It's obviously been stored up with from different experiences.
1:28:18
It feels like there's a few different ideas here that could
1:28:21
have been different films, especially the dream sequences
1:28:23
and then flashbacks. I think it works really well.
1:28:25
I think some of the dialogue is a bit clangy.
1:28:28
It is a bit stereotypical. It is a bit obvious.
1:28:31
But the premise of the film, I mean, it couldn't be any simpler
1:28:34
really, could it? It's it's really good.
1:28:36
And in its simplicity, he almost embraces that simplicity and he
1:28:39
can add, you know, these extra layers onto it, which is very
1:28:42
much his personality and where he's coming from.
1:28:44
So I think as a writer, there's the really good ideas and they
1:28:49
are really well directed, really well shot, but when it comes
1:28:52
down to a script, I don't think it's particularly well written
1:28:55
as a fully formed script. Right.
1:28:58
That's all I've got to say about it.
1:29:03
What about? You, Matt.
1:29:04
Yeah, I'm, I'm kind of on a similar track, I think because
1:29:07
it is very similar to the direction in that the writing is
1:29:11
very well horned at parts. You know, those strokes are
1:29:14
really sharp. The horror sequences are really
1:29:16
well thought through. And all these individual
1:29:19
sequences, if you take them individually, they're all really
1:29:21
great standalone scenes. But I think it gets to the point
1:29:25
where everything starts to feel a little bit too neat and tidy.
1:29:28
The more I come back to this film, the more that this strikes
1:29:30
me is that I don't think the writing is as impressive as I
1:29:35
thought it once was. And it's kind of like what I
1:29:37
mentioned with Ageda. I think it's it takes some
1:29:39
shortcuts which do stand out to me.
1:29:42
And I think there's some like big potholes in here as well.
1:29:45
Like David has attacked and injured in Yorkshire, but he's
1:29:48
taking the London to recuperate. Yeah, I don't know why.
1:29:51
Yeah, no idea why that happens. I mean, that makes no sense.
1:29:54
That's not something to do with the wouldn't have the
1:29:58
necessities in a small town, in a rural small town, hospital or
1:30:01
whatever. And plus the fact you're not
1:30:03
thinking you need to be next to the American embassy, it
1:30:05
wouldn't be an American citizen. Wouldn't like his safety be more
1:30:08
more paramount than being next to the but also I mean like
1:30:11
Manchester is. An hour away.
1:30:14
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For any American listeners or
1:30:16
anyone outside the UK, to get from Yorkshire, London, you have
1:30:19
to travel through about 5 different counties.
1:30:21
You know, it's not like it's like right next door.
1:30:24
And it's like 3 hours or something like that, 3-4 hours
1:30:27
in the car. Exactly.
1:30:28
At least and you know what to compare to American mean, I
1:30:31
don't know. America is obviously vastly
1:30:32
bigger than the UK, but it's like if you got injured in
1:30:35
Texas, in particular Washington to a hospital there, you know,
1:30:39
travelling through the same amount of states.
1:30:41
So that doesn't really work, and we've kind of touched on it a
1:30:44
little bit already, but Alex and David's relationship, her
1:30:47
decision to take him in quite randomly, this guy who's been
1:30:49
through this horrific ordeal is suffering God knows what kind of
1:30:52
trauma, and they fall in love. I mean, that happens because the
1:30:55
film needs that to happen, rather than it feeling
1:30:58
particularly logical or reliable.
1:31:01
I don't understand, really, Alex's feelings, why they've
1:31:04
known for David because he's bizarre.
1:31:07
That's somebody who you would just like, yeah, yeah.
1:31:09
Will discharge you from a hospital and I'll never see you
1:31:12
again. But often the script by just she
1:31:14
just says that he's very attractive all the way through
1:31:16
the film. You're very attractive.
1:31:18
Yeah, weird. It doesn't work at all.
1:31:21
So ultimately, yeah, those bits for me that just don't work.
1:31:24
And I think it is quite thin. It's a piece of writing.
1:31:28
It does have these great individual moments in there, but
1:31:30
everything that links those moments together, they need to
1:31:33
be more flesh on the bone. They need to work better.
1:31:35
They need to be stronger. Like, I know you'll hear this
1:31:37
look, but to be honest, for me, I think the film could be about
1:31:40
20 minutes longer to work on those bits, to make those bits.
1:31:44
Well, not to go. Sorry, I know you.
1:31:45
Like. Yeah.
1:31:48
So yeah, ultimately I think it's a very good script in part, but
1:31:51
I don't think it comes close to being great.
1:31:54
I think I've got similar issues. I think the concept is very
1:31:57
good. I think the big set pieces mask
1:32:00
over the deficiencies in the writing.
1:32:02
I've got the same issues with you guys about Alex's
1:32:05
motivations in this relationship.
1:32:07
But to be quite honest, because I hold that close to my heart,
1:32:11
the film, I'm more than willing to give that a bit of a pass.
1:32:14
Maybe because I've just seen it in familiarity is meant that I
1:32:17
don't question it anymore? Well, yeah, yeah.
1:32:19
We've already said the way that he balances out the the comedy
1:32:23
and the horror is really impressive.
1:32:24
I think that's the most impressive thing from the
1:32:26
script. Mentioned it on the Midnight Run
1:32:28
episode that a mob comedy is really hard to pull off.
1:32:31
And I think a horror comedy is harder still because you've got
1:32:34
2 extreme emotions that you're dealing with, fear and joy,
1:32:37
which never ever sit well together for obvious reasons.
1:32:41
The horrors are extreme in the film, but I think what Landis
1:32:44
does as well is that he doesn't fall into the trap of the making
1:32:46
the comedy extreme. There's no like apparent sight
1:32:49
gags or visual comedy. Nobody's fallen over.
1:32:52
But honestly, you know, there's no gross out comedy or anything
1:32:55
like that. The comedy's in the right, which
1:32:57
I think is a lot harder to do, but he pulls it off really well
1:33:00
and I think he's written one of the finest examples in the genre
1:33:03
for horror and comedy. I think the only film that comes
1:33:05
close to that since in that terms of that balance is Shaun
1:33:08
of the Dead. Yeah.
1:33:09
So, yeah, writing. I mean, it could have been
1:33:12
better, but kind of. I'm easy to skirt.
1:33:14
You don't. You don't care.
1:33:14
I don't care. I.
1:33:15
Don't care. Landis got the idea of the film
1:33:20
and wrote the screenplay way back.
1:33:21
We've alluded to it in 1969 when he was working as a production
1:33:25
assistant on Kelly's Heroes and Yugoslavos.
1:33:28
Yeah, yeah, He was 19 at the time.
1:33:30
That's impressive that he was that young and he's wrote a a
1:33:33
script like this and that's possibly a reason why there are
1:33:35
holes in it. Yeah.
1:33:37
I think so. He saw a man being buried feet
1:33:39
first in Yugoslavia, wrapped in cloth, rosaries and garlic.
1:33:44
And he found out that this strange ritual was for a man
1:33:46
who'd committed this heinous crime, like rape or murder.
1:33:49
But he was buried at a crossroad, and the burial method
1:33:51
was to ensure that he didn't come back on an undead killing
1:33:54
spree. Because that happens all the
1:33:57
time. Landis said.
1:34:01
I was very taken by this idea. How would I react if that fella
1:34:05
did Chloe's way to the surface and pull himself out of the
1:34:07
grave like Peter Cushion? What would you do in that
1:34:10
situation? Because if you're a rational,
1:34:12
educated person, you know it's bullshit.
1:34:14
It doesn't exist. So how do you deal with
1:34:16
something that doesn't exist when it's standing right in
1:34:18
front of you? I think that question gets posed
1:34:20
throughout the the film. Yeah, yes, like the driving
1:34:23
force, isn't it? Yeah, it is.
1:34:24
From a movie point of view, Landis took particular
1:34:27
inspiration from the Wolf Man 1941 star in LON Chaney, Claude
1:34:30
Rains, Bela Lugosi, other influences, the 1925 film
1:34:34
Werewolf of London, which was also the inspiration for the
1:34:37
Warrens Yvonne song. And he chose London as a setting
1:34:40
because he called it horror central.
1:34:42
He said it was the home of Jack the Ripper, Jekyll and Hyde.
1:34:44
So I wanted all that Victorian gothic, but I also wanted to
1:34:48
show the real London of the 80s. I think he does that.
1:34:52
Yeah, yeah, that. Comes across well.
1:34:54
Benjamin, have you ever been severely beaten about the face
1:34:57
and neck? Yeah, Finally, we're going to
1:34:59
talk about the music in the film.
1:35:01
Pop songs play throughout that other thematic thread, and
1:35:03
there's a great Elmer Bernstein score as well.
1:35:06
So Westie, what do you think about the music in the film
1:35:08
score and soundtrack? The score's great.
1:35:11
I really like the score. I love how ominous it is and how
1:35:14
how unsettling it is in places. And then it's quite quirky.
1:35:17
So I think it balances that mix of humour and horror and it does
1:35:21
it really well with the instrumentation in the score.
1:35:23
I think it kind of it just lingers almost like, you know,
1:35:27
the wolf on the Moor, That's how this music feels.
1:35:29
It's just there and even when the when the piano comes in,
1:35:32
it's quite, it's quite loud in the mix, but then the the
1:35:34
melodies are quite happy and then you've got them really
1:35:37
darked our strings and it just kind of pulls everything
1:35:39
together. And I think it's great because
1:35:41
it is it is quite understated. You wouldn't say, oh, the score
1:35:44
for America Move London's just blows you away.
1:35:46
It doesn't. It just does what all great
1:35:48
scores do. And what we always talk about on
1:35:50
the podcast is just how well that suits the visuals.
1:35:53
And I think this really does suit the visuals.
1:35:55
And As for the pop songs in it, well, if it's got Moon in the
1:35:57
title, it's fucking straight in there.
1:36:00
That's pretty much it. There's there's three iterations
1:36:02
of Blue Moon in this one by Bobby Vinton, Sam Cooke, and
1:36:05
then the Marcel's at the end. It's got Creedence by Moon
1:36:07
rising. It's got Moon dance.
1:36:09
Like we said by Von the man we are what was a London?
1:36:11
Why was that in there? Because it didn't have Moon in
1:36:13
the title, that's why. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's great.
1:36:17
I love the I love the pop songs that are chosen for it.
1:36:19
Like I say, it is a bit on the nose, but it really works.
1:36:22
It's just got this real like ironic sense to it, especially
1:36:26
Blue Moon, the way that's played out through the three separate
1:36:28
times. Then especially, you know, when
1:36:30
it goes to the credits and you've got the Marcells version,
1:36:32
It's just, hey, you're, it's alright.
1:36:33
It's on your film, you know, enjoy yourselves.
1:36:36
Fantastic. So yeah, I think from a music
1:36:37
point of view, it's pretty, pretty strong.
1:36:39
Yeah, Sam Cooke's version of Blue.
1:36:42
Moon. I want to forget about it.
1:36:43
Oh, it's insane. Forget it.
1:36:45
Sweet, sweet vocals, beautiful. And I've always thought that
1:36:47
you've mentioned that there was here, I've always thought, and
1:36:50
it was brought up by George Emerson as well.
1:36:51
George is one of our patrons. I could never fathom why.
1:36:54
Like for years and years I could never fathom why Warren Stevens
1:36:58
Werewolves of London doesn't feature in the film.
1:37:00
Doing research for the shorts, it pops up all the time.
1:37:03
David Norton Griffin don't also question why it wasn't in there.
1:37:06
But you're right, Westie, it hasn't got the word moon in the
1:37:09
title. That's why it's not in there.
1:37:11
That's the only reason. And putting in Werewolves of
1:37:13
London, that's far too on the nose.
1:37:15
It's. Massively on the nose.
1:37:17
It would have been great over the Piccadilly sequence though,
1:37:19
wouldn't it? It would have been, but yeah, I
1:37:21
mean, it's in me. Every one of my favorite songs.
1:37:23
I love it. But it just, it would be too
1:37:25
obvious. Far too obvious.
1:37:27
Yeah. What do you think, Matt?
1:37:29
Very much in agreement with you fellas on this one, to be
1:37:31
honest. Yeah, it could have been really,
1:37:33
really two on the nose. It could have been like the
1:37:35
Nafis aspect of the film, putting all the pop songs in
1:37:38
with Moon in the title. But they already work.
1:37:40
I love like Bobby Vinton's version.
1:37:42
It's got this really kind of dreamy, lush quality to it.
1:37:45
It's really kind of romantic in a way.
1:37:48
And the thing that makes it all more effective when you took
1:37:50
suppose that with obviously what's going on within the film
1:37:53
itself. And most of them are obvious,
1:37:55
but I think the work because Landis has got a really, really
1:37:57
good judgment on when to use them.
1:37:59
I think his ability to place a song is absolutely spot on
1:38:03
because Syme's really funny so and I'm just really creepy.
1:38:06
I mean that version by them ourselves that just should be
1:38:10
the most inappropriate song for that moment.
1:38:13
And yet it works. You can't think of like a better
1:38:15
song to end on than that. It really does work.
1:38:18
And I think the sound rock was so I'll use.
1:38:20
I tend to forget that there is an original score of this as
1:38:22
well, so I'm always a bit surprised when I see Alma
1:38:24
Bernstein's name pop up. I wouldn't say like it's anyway
1:38:27
his best work, but I do really like his werewolf theme.
1:38:30
I think that's really creepy. So the original soundtrack, that
1:38:33
is a very effective job. But for me, it's all about those
1:38:35
pop songs, and I think they're both well chosen and well placed
1:38:39
within the film. Yeah, Albert Bernstein recorded
1:38:42
in a London church. It's like a really eerie,
1:38:44
ominous presence during the scenes, particularly on the
1:38:47
movies. I really like that.
1:38:48
Yeah. Do you know how much music he
1:38:49
recorded for the film? But in terms of minutes,
1:38:52
minutes, an hour and a half, Matt?
1:38:56
57. 7. 7 Straight in, straight out.
1:39:02
He did the opposite of Rick Baker's job.
1:39:07
There's some wonderful facts about some of the songs that
1:39:10
Landis wanted but he couldn't get a hold of.
1:39:12
Landis wanted Dylan's cover of Blue Moon, but he declined
1:39:15
because of his religious beliefs.
1:39:17
He was in the midst of his Born Again period early 80s and
1:39:21
Landis wanted Moon Shadow by Cat Stevens to play over the opening
1:39:24
titles, but Stephens said no because he thought werewolves
1:39:28
were real. Well, what difference would that
1:39:36
make you say? Yeah, it's.
1:39:38
Not going to come after you, Yeah.
1:39:40
Without Rip Pickers outstanding effects we wouldn't be talking
1:39:43
about the film, but huge credit must also quote the John
1:39:46
Landis's script, the song choices and the score by the
1:39:48
ever dependable Elmer Bernstein. Indeed.
1:39:51
Yep. The end.
1:39:58
After David's kill and Spree wakes up fully nude in London
1:40:01
Zoo, he makes it back to Alex's flat and feels great.
1:40:05
That is, until he finds out about last night's mayhem.
1:40:08
Now frantic, David tries to get himself arrested in Trafalgar
1:40:11
Square before making an emotional phone call home.
1:40:14
We're looking at the scene where David is beckoned into the Eros
1:40:17
Theatre by a reanimated Jack to see the cinematic classic See
1:40:21
you Next Wednesday, where he's joined by a few familiar faces.
1:40:25
Matt, you want to take us through this?
1:40:29
Yeah, I mean, it's it's the last really, truly great joke in the
1:40:33
film. Isn't when they're watching that
1:40:34
porno and the guy bursts in and you assume it's the woman he's
1:40:38
accused of cheating on him, but it's the man.
1:40:40
Completely wrong foot. Yeah, that is so funny.
1:40:44
That is just absolutely, what are you doing here?
1:40:47
You promised you'd never do this kind of thing again, and this is
1:40:51
a feat. Guy whose voice is completely
1:40:53
out of place for the film and out of place in the midst of
1:40:55
this sexual trust, he says. I never promised you any such.
1:40:58
Thing that's so good. That's so funny.
1:41:04
It is. I love it because you don't see.
1:41:06
It not you your Twitter. It's also from this moment on
1:41:14
that all the humor starts to kind of drain out the film a bit
1:41:18
and it starts to get quite a bit darker because this is the
1:41:21
point, you know, David accepted his face.
1:41:23
You know, there is definitely going to be no way out for him
1:41:26
here. No, there's no queue coming.
1:41:28
There's nothing like that. And even when Jack reapies and
1:41:31
yeah, I think that's always going to be, like, inherently
1:41:33
comical, but it's not quite the same kind of laugh that you got
1:41:36
from it before. It's just more and more the
1:41:39
sevens. Obviously, he's getting more and
1:41:40
more decomposed. The bit really stands out for
1:41:42
me. And it is still funny is how
1:41:44
polite the dinner party gets. Saw here, those guys, like,
1:41:47
hello, hello. Like, particularly when, like,
1:41:50
the discussion gets on how David should kill himself.
1:41:53
And she's like sleeping pills. Car crash a gun.
1:41:58
Just so incredibly polite that. But it's still really funny.
1:42:01
But it's that balance, isn't it? Because yeah, it is funny, but
1:42:04
it's about something really, really horrible.
1:42:06
And I love the other victims. And they saw how well they work.
1:42:09
You know, Brinsley, he's still so pompous.
1:42:12
And those tramps, the sore, pissed off with what happened to
1:42:14
them, but you start to see the humanity behind them a bit.
1:42:17
And like Brinsley, I think early in the film he set up as a bit
1:42:20
of a joke character who you don't really care, gets killed.
1:42:23
But like when he reminds David that you know, he's left his
1:42:26
wife, a widow, his children and our fathers, that starts to hit
1:42:30
home. The bits of humor are just
1:42:32
really expertly handled because they turn dark quite quickly.
1:42:35
But it still really works. And the last bit of love about
1:42:39
it is like Jack still standing up for David when like the
1:42:42
tramps sort of have like a bit boredom.
1:42:44
He's like, do you mind some? Adds a friend of mine.
1:42:48
Yeah, I like that throughout the scene, during the conversations
1:42:51
with Jack and the people he's recently killed, when he turns
1:42:53
into a wolf and mutually it's again, it's all scored by this
1:42:56
ludicrously sleazy synth pawn score, complete with OHS and
1:43:01
ARS. Really funny that.
1:43:04
Yeah. What do you think, Wesley?
1:43:06
It's one of your favourites in the film.
1:43:08
Part of the transformation seems.
1:43:09
I think this is excellent. And I think all the characters
1:43:11
are really, really funny. It's just the way the characters
1:43:14
introduced just want to tell them there's just more.
1:43:16
And this is such a thing. And it's the great Trump sitting
1:43:19
in front of him. It's just brilliantly done.
1:43:21
And I really like the dialogue here.
1:43:22
I think it's excellent. I don't like that that guy's
1:43:25
just standing over him and he tells him to go away.
1:43:27
What's that guy doing? Yeah.
1:43:28
Just standing this. Staring at him it's like a porn
1:43:32
playing and the batter and the guy just standing leering at
1:43:34
you. I'd want to turn into a wee wolf
1:43:36
as well. Take that guy's head off.
1:43:37
What a creep. Yeah, I love it how this
1:43:40
escalates. He's made his choice.
1:43:41
He's made his decision. You know, he's accepted he's
1:43:44
fate. And then you get another
1:43:45
transformation sequence, which is a lot faster.
1:43:47
But I love the carnage in there. I love when the police come in
1:43:49
and they decide, Jesus Christ, shit everywhere just destroyed
1:43:53
the whole thing. But that film is still on.
1:43:56
Turn it off. Put the house lights on.
1:43:58
The fact that he made this see you next Wednesday.
1:44:00
And it was actually an hour and a half long, right?
1:44:03
Full length. And I made the crew watch it and
1:44:06
they didn't actually want to go out and shoot the scenes because
1:44:07
we're like, it's not finished yet.
1:44:10
The crew, what's the whole thing?
1:44:11
Which is apparently very, very funny.
1:44:13
Then I mean, like, the effects work as well.
1:44:14
I mean, I know they didn't need Griffin done in the scene with
1:44:16
it being nanometronic, but it does look fucking excellent.
1:44:19
And I like the way that this is dark.
1:44:20
And now I'm quite happy that it's dark.
1:44:22
And now I don't want to see him at that stage like fully lit.
1:44:25
And. I think seeing the other guys as
1:44:28
well in that light really works because you don't get the full
1:44:30
kind of impact. And this focuses more on the
1:44:33
comedy side of it, even though it's really horrific.
1:44:35
But I think this is this is like the funniest scene in the film,
1:44:37
easily. Yeah, yeah.
1:44:38
I mean on on that Landis did not need to make a full 90 minute
1:44:43
film for this. Not at all.
1:44:44
Four minutes. Not.
1:44:45
At. All It was the first thing he
1:44:47
shot of the film. This film, of course, we've got.
1:44:51
Half the budget on it. It stars Lindsay Drew, who was a
1:44:55
page three girl at the time, and Page 3 for our overseas
1:44:59
listeners were topless models that could be found in daily
1:45:02
tabloid newspapers, usually The Sun.
1:45:04
Yeah, and building sites. Yeah, building sites.
1:45:07
Yeah, garages. Yeah, if you look harder, if you
1:45:11
can find them. I looked into this and started
1:45:14
in the 70s. Do you know when it finished?
1:45:16
Early 90s. Matt Nice.
1:45:18
I would say 96. I was his son.
1:45:20
I'm this century, I think he was still going well into the 2000s
1:45:23
or 2000 and. Ten Oh Matt, you're very close
1:45:25
2015 Outrageous. This is like a 30 pence
1:45:29
publication that anybody in England can buy.
1:45:33
Of course Matt knows that. I'm.
1:45:35
Miles away, pervy pervison over there.
1:45:37
That was swell into this. Actually, I remember.
1:45:40
I remember using that in about 2015.
1:45:42
Well, that's where my collection goes up to.
1:45:48
But Lindsay drew in this film, she went on to have a porn
1:45:51
career, something that Landa seemed very happy about.
1:45:54
Do you know what her character name is in See You Next
1:45:56
Wednesday I. Really don't don't have a clue.
1:45:59
Brenda Bristol's do. You want to explain that for the
1:46:08
American? Listener, look it up.
1:46:09
Look it up. Copy, rhyme and slag, See You
1:46:13
Next Wednesday is something of an in joke for Landis throughout
1:46:16
his career. He first encountered the
1:46:17
dialogue in Kubricks 2001 and it stuck with him for some reason
1:46:21
and he fashioned this fictional film in his head and even made
1:46:24
pauses as early as 1973. And these posters show up in
1:46:27
Ophelia's apartment in Trading Places.
1:46:30
And the film it shows up in one guys or another in the Blues
1:46:33
Brothers Kentucky Fried Movie. Coming to America thriller loves
1:46:36
it. That's what I think of when I
1:46:38
say 2001 porn. Yeah, Brenda bristles.
1:46:42
Yeah, Brenda Bristles. Get Brenda Bristles out of this
1:46:44
Kubrick forever the influence. Lovely.
1:46:49
And just going back to Griffin Dunne, he's had to suffer the
1:46:51
misery of additional layers and make up to show that he's the
1:46:54
key in state. But like you said, Wester, he's
1:46:57
a puppet and it may well be a puppet.
1:46:59
And I think subconsciously I knew it, but it was only after
1:47:02
doing research of the show that it became fully apparent.
1:47:05
I mean, of course he is, but it's so well put together, it
1:47:08
fits seamlessly with this scene that I just didn't question it.
1:47:11
Yeah, yeah, same. And he was a bit bummed out that
1:47:14
he didn't feature in the same, but he is behind the public
1:47:16
control and the mouth to lip sync with his dialogue.
1:47:19
Oh, right, that's. Parker Landis said that he was
1:47:21
working in London in the 70s and these theatres around Piccadilly
1:47:25
were showing cartoons and that was his original idea to have
1:47:28
Roadrunner playing on the big screen.
1:47:30
When he came back to London 1980, a lot had changed and all
1:47:33
these theaters were now showing all the smut, so he changed it
1:47:36
to reflect the times. Well, that's better.
1:47:38
Imagine that a cartoon that's like full of kids.
1:47:42
That's horrible, that. Friend of Bristol's Before we
1:47:49
get to the final scene, we're going to talk about our final
1:47:51
cast member. He shows up at the end and is
1:47:54
the voice of reason throughout the film.
1:47:55
Matt, what do you think of Jordan Woodvine as Doctor
1:47:58
Hirsch? He's.
1:47:58
Someone from our neck of the woods isn't he, which I only
1:48:01
found out recently. Specifically Westies is from
1:48:03
Tyne Dog. Yeah, are they?
1:48:05
I'm not from Tyne Dog. You're about 5 minutes away.
1:48:08
I'm closer than you guys are unfortunately.
1:48:10
About 5 minutes away. It's a lovely, it's a lovely
1:48:12
place, Tyne Dog. You don't ever go.
1:48:15
I mean, yeah, he's not a main character such, but I still
1:48:17
think he manages to bring a real weight to his performance, I
1:48:21
think, and a real weight to that character.
1:48:23
And I think he becomes quite integral, to be honest, in terms
1:48:25
of the believability of the situation.
1:48:27
He's one of those characters who, because he's taken it
1:48:30
seriously, the audience takes it as seriously as he does instead
1:48:33
of completely dismissing of what could be happening to David.
1:48:37
And he just brings that gravitas to him which the film really,
1:48:39
really needs, I think. And that almost entirely comes
1:48:42
through him. So I think he works particularly
1:48:45
well in the scenes with Agada when they have their scenes
1:48:47
together and he's got that kind of presence where I can imagine
1:48:50
him being in like a Hammer horror film from the 60s,
1:48:52
probably in a similar kind of role.
1:48:55
He's just got that kind of vibe to him.
1:48:56
So he fits really, really well with the tone of the film, but I
1:48:59
also just feel a bit sorry for him and he he slept all the way
1:49:02
up to Yorkshire from London and barely gets the sip of his
1:49:05
Guinness for him. Yeah, I adore that scene where
1:49:09
he goes to East Proctor. He's got his own little
1:49:12
investigation going on. It's possibly my favorite scene
1:49:14
in the film. I just love the little hush
1:49:16
secrets in that sense that there's something very strange
1:49:19
going on and that the doctor could never rationally come to
1:49:22
the conclusion that David's a werewolf, but the evidence is
1:49:24
that he uncovers points to the contrary.
1:49:26
I also like that he orders a Camparian soda in this Laurian
1:49:30
soda. Brilliant.
1:49:33
Just looks at him, haven't even got tape.
1:49:40
What do you think, Westie? Yeah, he's great.
1:49:43
Second best performance in the film for me.
1:49:45
I think he's just, he does add this sense of maturity that it
1:49:48
doesn't need in the film. Somewhere.
1:49:49
You do need a character like that to kind of anchor the story
1:49:51
and give it a real sense of threat and to know what David's
1:49:54
capable of. And he does that.
1:49:56
Just lets it fester just behind the scenes, just he's trying to
1:49:59
investigate this, He's trying to stop it.
1:50:01
You could see him as that kind of Doctor Who has that
1:50:04
curiosity. This could be something that he
1:50:06
wants to look at medically or scientifically, which is why
1:50:09
he's trying to get David back to him.
1:50:10
I think that might have been a good twist if he then could use
1:50:13
it for his own gain or whatever else.
1:50:14
Very much like aliens. Yeah.
1:50:17
But he would have been able to pull that off.
1:50:18
I think if you'd see him, like, turn into something nasty.
1:50:22
Yeah. Yeah.
1:50:23
Like tied down to like an operating theatre and he's just
1:50:26
that he turns on the operating theatre or something would have
1:50:28
been pretty fucking sweet. But yeah, he adds that element
1:50:31
to it. He adds a real weight to the
1:50:33
film. And he's really believable.
1:50:34
And when he wants to be, like you say, Campari and Soda, he's
1:50:37
he's really funny and looks, looks great in the rain with an
1:50:40
umbrella. Fantastic.
1:50:41
Yeah. Knocks it out the park.
1:50:43
Hilarious when he's on the phone to his wife and he says, if I
1:50:46
survive Rommel, I'm sure I can survive another excruciating
1:50:50
evening with Roger Menson. And then that's coupled with the
1:50:56
call that he gets with telling them that Matheson is on the
1:50:59
phone in Scotland Yard. Are there?
1:51:00
He says, well, tell him I'm out. Tell him I passed away an old
1:51:03
wound. Just tell him I'm dead.
1:51:10
Great. John Landis favorite line in the
1:51:12
film is said by John Woodvine. He's talking to David in the
1:51:15
hospital and he says please remain sane, at least until
1:51:18
you're no longer our responsibility.
1:51:21
It's something that Landis said to Norton and done throughout
1:51:23
production. Yeah, brilliant.
1:51:25
Let's go to Doctor Hurst. I'll be rational, sure.
1:51:28
I'm a fucking werewolf for Christ sake.
1:51:31
So finally, David, now in full wolf mode, busts out of the Eros
1:51:34
and causes pandemonium in Piccadilly Circus.
1:51:36
Westie, what do you think of this scene?
1:51:38
Brilliant. Yeah.
1:51:39
Just brilliant slanders, having a really, really good time.
1:51:42
He's got to smash cars into other cars because that's what
1:51:44
he's used to doing now with the Blues Brothers, so let's do it
1:51:46
in Piccadilly Circus. It's just absolute.
1:51:49
Car it's. Really good.
1:51:50
Good beheading. I enjoy it.
1:51:52
I like it as much as I like the one in the almond.
1:51:54
Yeah, good. I think it's a really strong
1:51:56
head bounce off the car. Wonderful.
1:51:59
I think the wolf leaves a little bit to be desired.
1:52:01
You can tell it's kind of on a wheelbarrow.
1:52:03
You just say it's like it's front legs kind of, you know,
1:52:06
pouring across it lets us down on them levels.
1:52:09
But when you see how everyone's reacting to it is brilliantly
1:52:11
done. It's say it's not what you see,
1:52:13
it's what you don't see. And it's all quite subliminal
1:52:15
apart from you see and you know the carnage that's going on, but
1:52:18
you're not necessarily focusing on what's causing it.
1:52:20
And so it's almost like people's reactions to it are making it
1:52:23
fucking far worse than it is. Like, if everyone just backs
1:52:26
off, you can stop, like, driving your fucking bus and be, like,
1:52:29
different people. That's Victoria Armstrong, isn't
1:52:32
it? The stunt double?
1:52:33
It is, yeah. The stuntman, yeah.
1:52:34
He's driving the bus. And that's when that car spins
1:52:37
around and kind of pins the guy in between two cars.
1:52:39
That's amazing. It's brilliant.
1:52:41
It's like, how the fuck did they do that?
1:52:42
Like, that looks absolutely real.
1:52:44
This is what I was talking about earlier for how to make this
1:52:46
film 100 times better. Listen W, he's talking, OK?
1:52:51
Have you ready get? Paramount on the phone.
1:52:53
Get him on the phone. She goes down the back alley,
1:52:56
stands in front of the werewolf. That werewolf gives that
1:52:58
reaction. It's just slight, isn't it?
1:53:00
You see it's eyes kind of just get a little bit soft so you can
1:53:03
see David's in there, but it kind of takes over him and
1:53:06
pounces. There's a firing squad almost
1:53:08
behind her. They're miles away.
1:53:10
Yeah. He should have pounced forward.
1:53:12
They should have shot, everyone should have shot and then she
1:53:15
should have turned. I still expect it now.
1:53:16
I expect it the first time I'd seen it if she had been shot.
1:53:19
And then when you just see her crying and looking down at
1:53:21
David, and then the camera could pan down.
1:53:23
She'd been shot through the stomach and then falls on top of
1:53:26
them and then blood starts to pool around both of them.
1:53:29
Cut the blue moon there. That would have been fucking
1:53:32
massive. She needed to die at the end.
1:53:34
I think that would have been amazing.
1:53:35
And I could have done another subplot where she's pregnant
1:53:38
with his werewolf child, which would have explained the sex
1:53:40
scene. And then as she's lying bleeding
1:53:42
on the floor, she's kind of like the turn her over and then jumps
1:53:45
out onto the cop and like rips his face off Jesus.
1:53:48
Christ, that's alien. Doesn't jump out of her stomach.
1:53:55
Yeah, I mean, it's not, it's not bad.
1:53:57
And I don't know how she doesn't get hit.
1:53:59
It's a very narrow pathway. Yeah, I think it would have been
1:54:03
so much better if you just panned down and she'd been shot
1:54:05
and you just say, oh, no, it's almost like, you know, it was,
1:54:08
it was a meant to be kind of thing.
1:54:09
It would have explained like how her attitude was just so up in
1:54:12
the air and she was just like believing that they're supposed
1:54:15
to be together or something. It would've just, I don't know,
1:54:17
it would've worked better for me if she died at the.
1:54:18
End. I think that's maybe a bit too
1:54:20
tragic. Alex doesn't deserve that.
1:54:22
Yeah. Yeah, she does.
1:54:23
What? Trust in this absolute maniac
1:54:26
and then what? No one is a werewolf and then
1:54:28
going after him and trying to stop him when he's a werewolf?
1:54:30
She deserves to get shot for it. Wow, wow.
1:54:33
Wesley's Law. It's pretty harsh.
1:54:34
Yeah, yeah. Don't listen to him.
1:54:37
I'm with you, Jenny. It's not her in real life, Luke.
1:54:44
Matt, what do you think? I think it's fantastic.
1:54:47
I think every scene you've had with the werewolf, it's really
1:54:50
carefully managed by Landis and staged because like I said, with
1:54:54
the tube station attack, he doesn't want to give too much.
1:54:56
The effects work. We're like Westie, if you look
1:54:59
at it too carefully, yeah, it's not great.
1:55:02
So that's why I think Landis is very careful how he stages it.
1:55:05
And you know, it's exactly how much to show and how much to
1:55:09
leave the imagination. So I love that bit where they've
1:55:11
just slammed the shooter door short and it's just pounded on
1:55:14
the side, but you don't cut do it.
1:55:16
All you need is is the shot from outside the shooter door and
1:55:19
that pound and you get the sense of how big and powerful this
1:55:22
thing is. That's all you need.
1:55:23
So I think that's really well done.
1:55:25
And I think he does do a good job of putting together that
1:55:27
puppet and the POV shots. It's not too much and it's not
1:55:30
too little. It's judged just right.
1:55:31
What I really like about the it's all just so short and it's
1:55:35
all really brutal, you know, heads ripped off, car slamming
1:55:38
into people, people going through windscreens.
1:55:40
It's absolute carnage. And you feel it all.
1:55:42
It all feels really impactful. I do wonder though, if he'd had
1:55:46
more money, would he have come up with a more complicated, more
1:55:49
like elongated final sequence for us?
1:55:52
It does feel a little bit short. It does.
1:55:55
Yeah, it does a bit and I do one if that's to do like budgetary
1:55:58
concerns and if if he'd had the money would have done something
1:56:01
a bit different. But to be fair, I don't feel I'm
1:56:04
missing anything from it, even though it does feel a bit short.
1:56:07
I'm not like dissatisfied with what I guess it kind of sums up
1:56:11
the the ethos of the film for me by the fact that as soon as he's
1:56:13
shot and you see it's David Bum was stating of the credits.
1:56:17
No hanging around, no reaction shots from anyone, just straight
1:56:20
out of there. And I've mentioned this already
1:56:22
with Agatha and her importance to the end of I think it's just
1:56:25
worth mentioning again just how good she is in this bit,
1:56:28
essentially convincing you that she does have this love for this
1:56:31
big puppet that's kind of hidden in shadow.
1:56:34
It's almost entirely down to her that I'm as good at by this
1:56:37
ending as I am. So ultimately I think it's
1:56:39
really short. It's really sharp.
1:56:41
A bigger film would have had a bigger end and I think, but I
1:56:44
don't think that would necessarily be for the best.
1:56:47
Yeah, I do love that moment where you said Westie, the
1:56:50
werewolf, I suffer the snarl of its softens and you think for a
1:56:55
second maybe he's recognising and then it goes back in.
1:56:57
I love that. And I also love I know that it
1:57:00
doesn't look too fantastic, the werewolf when he's set loose on
1:57:03
the streets, but that snap sound of its teeth and its jaw is
1:57:06
fantastic. Yeah, yeah.
1:57:08
Bodies being ran over, policemen being crushed, cars colliding
1:57:12
with each other, that bus doing the 360 and people just flying
1:57:14
out the window. That's incredible.
1:57:18
And it's John Landis, the bloke who busts through the storefront
1:57:21
window. Oh.
1:57:22
Is it? Oh, is it?
1:57:24
Oh yeah, he. Used to be a stuntman.
1:57:26
I think it's blackly funny when Hirsch tells Alex that there's
1:57:29
been, like, a disturbance in Piccadilly involving a Mad Dog,
1:57:32
and Alex instantly says, David, great.
1:57:39
What I like about the very end of the film is that Alex is
1:57:41
grieving and we've seen a dead David, which is not a nice sight
1:57:44
because, you know, we've grown attached to him.
1:57:46
Sympathetic character. But in the height of all this
1:57:48
emotion, bang, it ends. And the credits come in the
1:57:50
Marcel's Doo wop version of Blue Moon.
1:57:52
Landis is seeing. Ha, ha, ha.
1:57:54
It's only a movie and you fell for it.
1:57:56
I got you. Yeah.
1:57:57
Yeah. Love that.
1:57:58
Going back to what you were seeing earlier, Matt, it was
1:58:01
very difficult to get permits to film in Piccadilly Circus.
1:58:03
Nothing had been filmed there for 15 years and Landis got
1:58:06
around this by setting up a free screen of the Blues Brothers for
1:58:09
the Met Police force, 300 people, Landis said.
1:58:12
They loved it and what do you know, suddenly had permission to
1:58:15
shoot Piccadilly Circus. Blues Brothers is massive.
1:58:19
But the film between 1:00 and 4:00 AM across two nights and
1:58:22
give them permission to block traffic three times per day for
1:58:25
a maximum of two minutes. So that's why it's short and
1:58:27
snappy. Right.
1:58:28
OK. If you go into the like,
1:58:30
frequently asked questions on IMDb of you do you look at that
1:58:32
much where people kind of ask questions about the film, then
1:58:35
other people chip in and try to put the answers in.
1:58:37
It's it's really good because some of these big questions are
1:58:40
how does the the wolf get out of the door?
1:58:41
And is it there? And people try to answer it the
1:58:43
best they can. And I came across this one and I
1:58:46
was fucking pissing myself. It's amazing.
1:58:49
So really articulate. Imagine just reading it and
1:58:51
thinking, yeah, this is actually really good.
1:58:53
And what you've got to do is you've got to Click to reveal
1:58:55
the answer on the drop down box, right?
1:58:57
So it just leaves you quite open to like, it's oh, this is good.
1:58:59
I wonder what they're going to say, so I've set it up OK.
1:59:02
Brilliant. Was David actually a werewolf or
1:59:06
was it all in his head? You know, metaphorically from
1:59:08
suffering a traumatising, shocking experience from Witness
1:59:11
and his friend Jack get killed. And when he's killed at the end,
1:59:14
there's no real transformation about the humans.
1:59:16
It's not shown. So it's just he's lying there.
1:59:19
Was he just going crazy? Was this all in his head?
1:59:22
And then the answer is he was actually a werewolf.
1:59:31
Fuck off. I don't know if you've noticed
1:59:36
in the credits there's a congratulatory message to Prince
1:59:39
Charles and Lady Diana's recent wedding.
1:59:41
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I've seen that, yeah.
1:59:43
But the reason that it's in there is because David shouts
1:59:46
someone savory, shall we say, language about Prince Charles
1:59:49
when he's trying to get arrested in Trafalgar Square.
1:59:51
So sorry, didn't mean it. Congrats.
1:59:54
Well done, Hope that lasts. So the film ends with a bang,
2:00:01
David a bloody corpse and Alex a blubber and mess.
2:00:25
There was an initial mixed reception for Cinema Goes when
2:00:27
American World War first released, the tagline reads from
2:00:30
the director of National Lampoon's Animal House.
2:00:32
A different kind of animal, which led some people to think
2:00:35
it was a straight up comedy. Mature mode.
2:00:37
Yeah, yeah, truly. After the first attack, there
2:00:40
were reports of almost half the audience running out of theatres
2:00:43
in fear. When it was finally unleashed on
2:00:45
the public, it was a big hit. On a budget of $5.8 million, it
2:00:49
returned 62,000,000 worldwide, making it the eighth highest
2:00:52
grossing film of the year. $5.8 million.
2:00:55
That's ridiculous, isn't it? What Small.
2:00:57
Big. No, for for the budgets, Tiny.
2:01:00
Yeah. For for what you see on the
2:01:01
screen. I I would have just given all of
2:01:03
that a Rick Big, yeah. Certainly didn't give it to
2:01:07
David Norton. Well, thankfully not.
2:01:11
From a critical point of view, the film didn't fare
2:01:13
fantastically at the time. Roger Ebert gave it two out of
2:01:16
four, and he said An American Werewolf in London seems
2:01:19
curiously unfinished, as if director John Landis spent all
2:01:22
of his energy on spectacular set pieces and then didn't want to
2:01:25
bother with things like transitions, character
2:01:27
development, or an ending. I.
2:01:29
Kindly see where he's coming. From fair points, but I think
2:01:31
the scores a little bit too hard, yeah.
2:01:33
Scores harsh, but somebody's in. Janet Maslin, writing in the New
2:01:37
York Times, said when the movie backfires, which it finally
2:01:40
does, it's because too much grizzly footage has been used
2:01:43
too lightly. Yeah.
2:01:45
So I kind of see where they're coming from.
2:01:47
But I mean, we watched it at a time where we didn't really care
2:01:49
about, you know, all that kind of structural narrative and
2:01:52
things. Link and each.
2:01:53
It was just fun. It's just when you see it at
2:01:55
that age, it's great. Yeah, but a critical RE
2:01:58
evaluation now sees An American Werewolf in London with a Rotten
2:02:01
Tomorrow score of 88% and an IMDb rating of 7.5 out of 10.
2:02:07
In most recent reviews, Time Out magazine wrote not just gory,
2:02:10
but actually frightening, Not just funny, but clever.
2:02:12
American Werewolf has its flaws, but these are outweighed by the
2:02:15
film's many mighty strengths. And Empire magazine said
2:02:19
carnivorous lunar activities rarely come anymore entertain
2:02:22
and this agreed. Yeah, I think so, yeah.
2:02:25
Carnivorous lunar activities. Yeah, it's very.
2:02:27
Specific, very specific, but yeah, it's great.
2:02:29
Yeah, werewolf films. As mentioned, it was the first
2:02:33
recipient of the Best Makeup Award of the 1982 Oscars, and it
2:02:37
also won the Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film and Best
2:02:40
Makeup. Accolades and success don't
2:02:42
always equate to critical greatness.
2:02:44
That will come later for An American Werewolf in London,
2:02:46
whose place in the annals of the genre is firmly cemented.
2:02:49
Yes. Sequels and influence.
2:02:57
The influence of An American Werewolf in London was far and
2:03:00
wide in the years that followed. It had an immediate influence on
2:03:02
the horror genre with comedy horror movies like Evil Dead 2,
2:03:06
Gremlins, Night of the Creeps being some highlights.
2:03:08
I think this along with A Thing a year later really a high point
2:03:11
in makeup effects and LED to a slew of gross out makeup in
2:03:15
horror and science fiction in the 80s.
2:03:17
Yeah. Influence of future generations
2:03:19
movie directors. We mentioned Edgar Wright and
2:03:22
outside of movies, Michael Jackson was a huge fan, so much
2:03:25
so that he drafted in Werewolf team.
2:03:27
John Landis, Rick Baker, Elmer Bernstein and cinematographer
2:03:30
Robert Painter to make the video for his hit song Thriller.
2:03:33
Released around a year after the album, the same name.
2:03:35
It was instrumental in popularising the long form music
2:03:38
video and in making the Thriller album one of the biggest selling
2:03:41
records of all time. It played.
2:03:42
People went crazy for it. Yeah, yeah.
2:03:44
There was ABBC radio adaptation made of an American well within
2:03:48
London and has anybody listened to this?
2:03:51
Definitely not. No, no.
2:03:53
No. Well, well, it runs longer than
2:03:56
the film and and some of the themes and plot threads are
2:03:58
expanded upon. Brian Glover, John Woodvine,
2:04:01
Jenny Agatha return to voice their characters but sadly done
2:04:04
and Norton did not. And that is the adaptations undo
2:04:07
and the guys that they got in as replacements are awful actors
2:04:11
and all they have to do is speak.
2:04:13
They'll do that badly. How do they do the
2:04:16
transformation on the radio? Just a lot of a lot of noises
2:04:20
and the sex scene is just like saxophone and do do do music.
2:04:27
The. Shower on in the backroom.
2:04:30
There's no who's and ours. It's just all right.
2:04:31
They're having sex now, are they?
2:04:36
And all the humours lost in the translation as well.
2:04:38
It's it's just not very good. Norton and Dunn told Landis that
2:04:41
Knuckle and David with a silver bullet could turn the film into
2:04:44
a franchise, and Landis replied in no uncertain terms that there
2:04:48
wouldn't be a sequel. But little did he know that
2:04:50
after years of talk, we finally got one.
2:04:52
Released in 1997, An American Werewolf in Paris was made
2:04:56
without the involvement of any of the original cast and crew.
2:04:59
It stars Tom Everett Scott Zandy, an American who travels
2:05:02
to Paris with his Dick head buddies.
2:05:08
It's just the first thing, what you think of the film, Luke.
2:05:11
No, I'm just giving a summary of that and just this is a copy and
2:05:14
paste job from Wikipedia, right? OK.
2:05:16
Right, probably a diary. And Andy is beguiled by the
2:05:21
Parisian charm of Surah fame, played by the usually delightful
2:05:25
Julie Dalby. The plot involves some nonsense
2:05:28
about David's bloodline and WB and his daughter Westie.
2:05:32
Yeah, take her away. When I first saw this, I'm at
2:05:35
the cinema to see it, and I did enjoy it when I first saw it.
2:05:38
And then I watched it back again for this.
2:05:39
Well, it was 97, right? It's because of break.
2:05:42
So it was what, like 1516? So at that point it's like,
2:05:46
yeah, it's quite exciting. You know, it's horror film
2:05:48
goods. Well, yeah, it's nice.
2:05:50
I've seen the original. All right.
2:05:51
Yeah. And then I was just.
2:05:53
I've matured slightly since then and bought a pile of shit.
2:05:57
Well, this. I watched it the other day and I
2:05:59
thought, my Christ, this is really bad.
2:06:02
I don't think there's a scene in it that I actually enjoy.
2:06:06
I think Tom Everett, Scott's pretty good in it, but he kind
2:06:09
of overhands it, doesn't quite know what he's supposed to be
2:06:11
doing. He's got zero direction.
2:06:13
He's good because I love him in that thing you do.
2:06:15
I think he's great in that. I do actually like him in this.
2:06:17
Like, he's a good actor, but he hasn't got a fucking clue what
2:06:19
he's doing, so he's not a clue what she's doing.
2:06:22
The supporting cast are just annoying, really annoying them.
2:06:26
You know, the gang of werewolves, they're just so
2:06:28
stereotypical and fucking stupid.
2:06:31
Not scary, not funny, and yeah, just an utter, utter pile of
2:06:34
stinking shit. Yeah, being polite.
2:06:37
Yeah, I really hated it. I've just seen it recently just
2:06:40
for this, and I wish I hadn't. It's terribly written and
2:06:44
directed. The performances are
2:06:45
excruciating. Yeah.
2:06:48
Particularly the three male leads.
2:06:50
I just wanted rid of them as soon as I saw them.
2:06:52
And the CGI wolves are crap. Yeah, crap.
2:06:56
It embarrassed itself at the box office, where it just broke even
2:06:59
of its $25 million budget 20. 525,000,000.
2:07:03
What the 1st? I won't be fiver back.
2:07:07
From 24 years ago. Yeah.
2:07:12
Critically, it's got a score of 5.1 out of 10 on IMDb, 7% on
2:07:16
Rotten Tomatoes. John Landis said that he thought
2:07:18
the film was lousy. Agreed.
2:07:20
Well, that's that's polite. Agreed John.
2:07:22
What did you know he nearly did make a sequel.
2:07:24
He was tempted in writing a treatment for one.
2:07:27
Really despite him saying it was never going to be a franchise,
2:07:29
he did get as fast doing a treatment because someone quite
2:07:32
high up asked him to and just out of interest he did it.
2:07:35
So if all people that had sat around it's it's sat around a
2:07:38
couch. Who only gets a passing mention
2:07:40
in the film Debbie Klein. Really.
2:07:42
Yeah, she becomes a central character because, you know,
2:07:45
when David's and Alex's flat by himself?
2:07:47
Yeah, apparently he took the time to write her a letter.
2:07:50
What, telling her, telling her about Jack's feelings for him.
2:07:53
So then later, when she graduates college, she becomes a
2:07:56
literary agent and gets a job in London.
2:07:58
So she takes the opportunity to investigate their deaths.
2:08:01
And there's a scene where she finds out Alex is still living
2:08:03
in London, and she gets a number for her.
2:08:06
She rings. There you go, straight answer
2:08:08
phone. And then apparently you would
2:08:09
cut and it would just be. David and Jack sat on the couch
2:08:12
listening to this message and watching the TV in Alex's
2:08:14
apartment. What the fuck?
2:08:17
What? The bloodline's been severed
2:08:19
though, hasn't it? Unless he's.
2:08:20
Oh see, the twist is Alex is the werewolf now that twist.
2:08:24
Nice, I like it. Yeah, yeah.
2:08:26
But it got absolutely nowhere. Yeah.
2:08:29
That's good every time, and she's still got a mediocre body.
2:08:33
It's not the mediocre about David Klein's board.
2:08:40
Oh my God, well I'm glad we didn't get that.
2:08:41
That sounds terrible. A remake has been talked about
2:08:44
for a number of years as well. Most recently, John Landis's son
2:08:47
Max Landis was said to have written a script and was going
2:08:49
to direct. That was maybe 3-4 years ago,
2:08:52
with some unpleasant, really unpleasant stories coming out
2:08:55
about his despicable behaviour in the last few years.
2:08:58
That iteration looks unlikely to happen.
2:09:00
Definitely for the best. Yeah, good, good.
2:09:02
Yeah, it's likely not the last time we'll hear about a remake.
2:09:05
And when it finally gets here, you want to hope and pray that
2:09:08
we don't have another An American Werewolf in Paris on
2:09:10
our hands. That's for God damn sure.
2:09:15
All the right movies ranking. Much like the ending of An
2:09:20
American Werewolf in London, we've got a killer ending for
2:09:22
you here as well. This is where we summarise our
2:09:25
thoughts and give the film a score out of 10.
2:09:27
So Westie, take her away. It's not, I mean, I, I
2:09:30
definitely don't have the, you know, the affinity for it that
2:09:33
you do, Luke. It doesn't sit with me as you
2:09:36
know, one of them that I, I find comfort in.
2:09:38
That's the shining for me and kind of always will be.
2:09:40
So I understand your love for it and that, you know, you don't
2:09:44
really care about plot holes or it moves at a pace.
2:09:47
You just don't give a shit. It's fine.
2:09:49
Even even Dave Norton's performance, you're not holding
2:09:51
that under the microscope like you'd normally would with.
2:09:53
Every other film. That you've watched.
2:09:56
It's so out of character. You love this so much to the
2:09:59
point where you just say, I don't even care who thinks it's
2:10:01
shit. But like, that's how it was
2:10:03
made. It was made to be seen like
2:10:04
that. So I'm pleased it got to you and
2:10:07
it got you in the way that it was meant to get to somebody.
2:10:09
And I really appreciate that it did for you, but it didn't for
2:10:11
me. And watching it again after a
2:10:13
fair few years, I mean, it was very, very entertaining.
2:10:17
It is loads of fun. It's a great horror film.
2:10:19
It's funny, it's violent, but it is a film of its time and it
2:10:23
kind of stays where it was made. I don't really think it's views
2:10:27
very progressive. I definitely don't think it's
2:10:29
future proof. I think there's some stuff on
2:10:30
there that's quite lazily written and not very well acted.
2:10:34
But for folks sake, if you just just watch it for what Rick
2:10:38
Baker brings to it, to be honest, because that's absolute
2:10:41
master work. It's a master the class and just
2:10:44
for that reason alone is why it goes to the higher end of the
2:10:46
end of the scales because of Rick Big has held this up.
2:10:49
And like we've said, you know, there's some really, really good
2:10:51
set pieces that have been really well directed, but it feels a
2:10:54
bit muddled. It feels a little bit lost.
2:10:56
It feels like there's too many things that just don't get
2:10:58
wrapped up and the ending does feel like it was kind of tacked
2:11:02
on and just these down the back alley.
2:11:04
All right, shoot them no problem.
2:11:05
So for me I'm going to give it an 8.5. 8.5 What about you,
2:11:11
Matt? Shut up, man.
2:11:14
Look your your face. Do you like Westies?
2:11:16
And there was absolutely amazing.
2:11:18
Cheers. What?
2:11:19
Just twisting into contempt. Yeah.
2:11:24
Why didn't I get Pi on this one? I could have gone on.
2:11:27
I could have done that for another half an hour.
2:11:28
Just watching his face contort like he's changed into a
2:11:31
werewolf himself. Furious man, Sorry.
2:11:35
No, hey, that's your opinion. Well, hey, you don't like Barry
2:11:37
Linden, so in your face. No, I don't.
2:11:44
I think it's impossible to not be entertained by this film.
2:11:47
There's so much you're enjoying here, whether you want the
2:11:49
scares, whether you want the laughs, the both razor sharp.
2:11:53
And it's very easy to see and understand why it's so
2:11:56
influential and why it's so beloved by so many people.
2:11:58
And I think it does a great job of understanding this mythos of
2:12:02
this legendary creature and putting a fresh spin on it, put
2:12:06
it in a contemporary setting and it really makes it work.
2:12:08
Like I said, when I talk about Landis directness, it feels like
2:12:11
this is his film and out of everything he's ever done, this
2:12:14
is the one film. I just can't see anyone else
2:12:17
directing it in quite the same way with what he brings to it.
2:12:20
And what he brings to it is some wonderful ideas and sequences,
2:12:24
brilliant soundtrack, and there are a couple of really good
2:12:26
performances in there. But there's also David Norton in
2:12:30
there, and he's just not the most likable or interesting of
2:12:33
protagonists. And I don't think the writing
2:12:35
does hold up to great scrutiny. And it's a film that I think I
2:12:39
could watch. All the best bits of this film
2:12:41
in sequence on YouTube. Skip all the middle stuff and I
2:12:44
wouldn't feel like I've missed an awful lot out of it.
2:12:46
And that's where I am with it. It's a film of some really great
2:12:49
moments that don't quite come together as something excellent
2:12:51
all the way through, but it is really enjoyable all the same.
2:12:54
I'm always happy to watch it. Those big moments really, really
2:12:58
work. So I'm giving this one A9.
2:13:00
Nine. OK, very nice. .5 difference to
2:13:04
mine. It's a wolf whistle than I could
2:13:06
have been. Absolutely ridiculous.
2:13:08
For a .5 years. Fuck it.
2:13:10
Hell. I think Matt was just a little
2:13:13
bit more kind with his comments, that's all.
2:13:16
Oh, OK. OK, I don't want to repeat
2:13:18
myself. I, I, you know, you know how I
2:13:20
feel about the film. It's great.
2:13:22
I'm not even bothered about the niggles that we've already gone
2:13:24
through. And I've been on a role of given
2:13:26
films top marks recently and I'm really conscious of that, which
2:13:30
made me question what my score for this would be.
2:13:32
The reason that I've given 10s recently is because we've
2:13:34
covered some of my favorite films, so this is no different.
2:13:38
It's deep rooted and I think it always will feel like that for
2:13:41
me. It's probably a big reason why
2:13:42
I've got a such a fondness for the horror genre as well-being
2:13:45
there so early on. So it's a 10.
2:13:48
No surprises. No, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
2:13:51
I mean, that's outrageous, but that's fine.
2:13:54
I know like objectively it's, it's probably, I would probably
2:13:56
say 99.5, but it just means something a lot more personal
2:14:01
than just looking at it from a critical lens.
2:14:04
Well, you've got to have that. That's lovely.
2:14:05
Yeah, yeah, that's fine. Just like you and Gremlins Matt.
2:14:08
I knew you were going to bring that up.
2:14:09
Thank. You.
2:14:11
I'll Sydney think that if I can get through this I'll look
2:14:14
bringing up gremlins again, it'll be a massive victory.
2:14:21
And with our presence on Twitter temporarily on hold, we've
2:14:24
turned to our trusted patrons to score An American Werewolf of
2:14:27
London out of 10. And here are some comments that
2:14:29
I picked out first. Mark Shufflebottom said one of
2:14:32
the first X or should that be 18 rated films that I saw at the
2:14:35
cinema, even though I was only 14 at the time.
2:14:38
It scared the crap out of me, made me piss myself laughing at
2:14:41
the same time at 10 all day long.
2:14:43
And with you, Mark, right there with you, I.
2:14:45
Wonder why you picked that one out?
2:14:51
Gee, Les said I was earning when this came out.
2:14:53
I love that it didn't take itself too seriously.
2:14:56
The humour was that British understatement with impeccable
2:14:59
logic. I think the sudden change in
2:15:01
tone were too ahead of its time in 1981 and it has aged very
2:15:04
well. The times have caught up to it.
2:15:06
And Jenny Agra, well, excellent choice.
2:15:11
Agreed, agreed. You write well done write these.
2:15:18
And finally, Kim Jackson said, inventive and unusual.
2:15:21
Today I remember it fondly as a film which made this Foreign
2:15:24
Service kid homesick for London. 9 out of 10 wonderful words Kim.
2:15:29
Nice. Yep, 3 nice positive reviews
2:15:31
there. So on Patreon, an American world
2:15:34
from London got an average score of What do you think, chaps?
2:15:38
9. 9 1/2. 9 1/2 It's Wester, you're on the money.
2:15:42
It's 99 out of 10, right? So that gives it a combined
2:15:46
score of 36.5 out of 40. Bit low for me that go to I'm
2:15:51
just going. To fix that.
2:15:59
All of these calculators are broken.
2:16:00
OK, I need some new ones. Batteries are gone.
2:16:03
Go to alltherightmovies.com/leaderboard
2:16:06
to see how it's doing against the other films that we've
2:16:08
covered so far. As we mentioned at the top, to
2:16:10
support what we're doing here and get access to exclusive
2:16:13
podcasts, you can sign up to be an ATRM patron.
2:16:16
You can download the Patreon app or go to patreon.com/all the
2:16:20
Right Movies. We would really appreciate that.
2:16:22
Yes, definitely. For all show notes, credits and
2:16:24
references that we used in production of the podcast, you
2:16:27
can visit alltherightmovies.com/podcast/and.
2:16:31
Hyphen American hyphen Werewolf hyphen in hyphen London.
2:16:34
But we need to change that. Need to fix that hyphen thing?
2:16:39
Join us next time in all the right movies when John, Pi and
2:16:42
Matt will be going behind the scenes on Clint Eastwood's Oscar
2:16:44
win and revival western The Unforgiven.
2:16:47
Should be a good one, Matt. Should be love me a western so
2:16:50
can't wait to get stuck in that one.
2:16:51
Yeah, lovely. Nice.
2:16:52
And in between now and then for our patrons, 23rd of July sees
2:16:55
the release of the fourth episode of our Double Feature
2:16:58
podcast, where the three of us here will be honouring the
2:17:01
recently departed and sadly missed Richard Donnerby talking
2:17:04
about The Omen and The Goonies. Bang Bang.
2:17:08
Looking forward to that. Yeah, be funny.
2:17:10
In the meantime, you can catch our content across social media,
2:17:13
but not on Twitter, obviously. On Instagram we are at all the
2:17:16
under score right movies. Search all the right movies in
2:17:19
Facebook and our website is all the right movies.com.
2:17:22
And finally, some advice. Stay on the road.
2:17:24
Keep clear of the movers. Beware the moon, do all of that,
2:17:27
and we'll see you next Wednesday.
2:17:29
Oh, very nice. Look at that.
2:17:32
Sally likes this one. Sally like get about, get about.
2:17:36
Thanks for listening guys. See you later.
2:17:38
Thank you.