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Columbia House Wildcard: The Haunting (1963) · Fumbling Through Film

• 0:00
  Gathered together from the cosmic reaches of the universe, here in this great screening room with comfortable recliners, are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled.
• 0:10
  Keith.
• 0:11
  Oh, see, I was thinking Pinhead and Pumpkinhead.
• 0:13
  Terry.
• 0:14
  I was thinking the Dark Souls character with the big onion armor.
• 0:17
  Derek. When I saw Onion Head, the first thing I thought was Eraserhead, and I thought Cuphead. I'm like, it's gotta be somewhere between those two. And the power twins, Zap and Jordan, with their magical lemur snort dedicated To fumbling their way through movies one forgotten gem at a time. This week, we spend time with 1963's The Haunting. This is Fumbling Through Film. Mark, if this is your idea of a joke, this is what living in a haunted house has done to your sense of humor.
• 0:47
  Start with this room and then the whole house, even if we have to tear the place apart. You can't do that. Well, if we don't find her, the police will be around quick enough, and then there'll be trouble.
• 0:55
  I'm coming apart a little at a time. A little at a time.
• 1:02
  Now I know where I'm going.
• 1:05
  I'm disappearing inch by inch into this house.
• 1:09
  We killed her. You and I, Ukraine.
• 1:21
  You and I. You and I.
• 1:24
  Hello and welcome to another one-of-a-kind, genre-defining, brand new episode of Fumbling Through Film, the only show that dares to bring together 3 dudes to talk about movies. These, however, dear listener, they are not just any movies.
• 1:48
  Not at all. But if they were, it would be supernatural in origin, and I can't believe in that.
• 1:54
  I mean, it's divine. It'd be divine intervention because it could be any.
• 1:57
  I ain't afraid of ghosts because these are the ones we missed, overlooked, or feel are simply worth revisiting. And that is in a movie by definition. I think it is.
• 2:09
  Hmm. I guess that doesn't include ghost films though, like dead movies that came back from the grave.
• 2:15
  Like movies that are literal ghosts.
• 2:16
  Oh yeah. I don't think it includes those.
• 2:19
  Well, I think I would have missed that. I definitely overlooked them.
• 2:22
  Yeah, I guess that's true. That's like the ultimate overlooked movie.
• 2:26
  Is that like, uh, was it the Batgirl from DC where they, they put the whole movie together and then they, they shelved it?
• 2:33
  That definitely wouldn't be any movie.
• 2:35
  No, Batgirl? No, it wouldn't be.
• 2:37
  No, that'd be a specific— that's a specific, that's a specific movie.
• 2:41
  Would fall under the we missed it. We didn't overlook it.
• 2:45
  Well, we can't miss what doesn't exist.
• 2:48
  Well, I mean, it exists somewhere.
• 2:50
  Multiverse.
• 2:51
  I guess that's true. Someone has a final cut of it somewhere.
• 2:54
  Yeah, it's in a landfill in Arizona somewhere with all those E.T. Atari cartridges.
• 2:59
  Let's just start digging, see if we can find it. Yeah, that'd be a big exclusive for Fumbling Through Film if we could review the Batgirl film.
• 3:08
  That would be— that would put us on the map. But until that day comes, my name is Derek. I'm not off the map, but I'm a fumbler. Joining me here in the Fumbledome, where we have maps but we are not on them, is the Prime Minister of Fumbling and Film, Keith.
• 3:26
  Hey, hey, what's up everybody? KG Fumbler extraordinaire. And I like to podcast in the night, in the dark.
• 3:34
  Is that why you're in a separate room than us and it's just all the lights are off?
• 3:37
  I'm over in the town next door to the Fumbledome.
• 3:41
  Oh yeah, he doesn't—
• 3:42
  he refuses. Yeah, Keith doesn't come to the Fumbledome.
• 3:44
  The last few weeks he's refused.
• 3:47
  I do during the day, but not at night.
• 3:50
  Not in the dark. Nope. Keith clears at 10 and puts on lunch at 1.
• 3:56
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:57
  I'll be back in the morning to put on some breakfast, but, uh, clears at 10.
• 4:01
  Yeah. He makes sure to lock us in. He makes us— he locks us in the gate outside. We can't— he has the only key, so. Oh yeah.
• 4:10
  He's Mr. and Mrs. Dudley.
• 4:11
  It's like a Mrs. Doubtfire type— Mrs. Doubtfire type situation.
• 4:15
  It is Miss— it is a Mrs. Doubtfire situation.
• 4:18
  It's a try-by fruiting.
• 4:20
  And our own Mr. Mom situation is the Dodge Drave of Kansas, Terry.
• 4:25
  Hey everybody, it's me, Mr. Mom.
• 4:29
  Or maybe you're more like a Tootsie type.
• 4:31
  Hold on, Terry, have you ever seen Mr. Mom?
• 4:33
  Do you even know what that is? I assume it's Mrs. Doubtfire style.
• 4:37
  Well, it kind of— I wanted to— I was going to say our very own Tootsie, but that kind of sounded weird. And that was Dustin Hoffman dressing up as a woman.
• 4:47
  Mr. Mom is Michael Keaton.
• 4:48
  And yeah, he's Batman being—
• 4:50
  yeah, he's gonna be a stay-at-home dad.
• 4:53
  And okay, I like that.
• 4:54
  The COVID the poster of the movie is, uh, Keaton holding like a 1-year-old.
• 5:03
  Yep.
• 5:03
  Uh, up to, you know, those hand dryers in the, in the bathroom.
• 5:08
  Yep.
• 5:08
  Like with the nozzle turned up and it's like got his bare butt over it because he doesn't know how to take care of the baby.
• 5:15
  Not Michael Keaton's.
• 5:16
  Yeah, he's not drying his ass. He's trying the baby's ass.
• 5:21
  Okay.
• 5:21
  Yeah.
• 5:23
  Why not both? There's probably multiple hand dryers.
• 5:25
  Well, he— well, you're right. But the moral of the story is he's a man. He doesn't know how to take care of a baby.
• 5:33
  I see.
• 5:34
  That's not a man's job.
• 5:37
  Yeah, we can all agree. That's why he's Mr.
• 5:39
  Mom.
• 5:40
  Yeah, Mr. Mom. What a ground— a groundbreaking film to show that Maybe men— wow, they don't know how to do that. They have to learn.
• 5:49
  It was like the precursor to— was that Nate Bargatze movie that just came out where he's the breadwinner? He's a Toyota dealer. He runs a Toyota dealership, and his mom— his wife— I mean, his mom and his wife have to go out on the road or something like that, so he takes care of the kids. Yeah, The Breadwinner. Yeah, you got it. It's just like that. It's a classic.
• 6:09
  It's the classic trope. The guy just is clueless.
• 6:13
  Yeah, dudes, they don't— they babysit the kids. They don't take care of kids.
• 6:18
  The, uh, the movie is actually supposed to be pretty good if I remember right.
• 6:21
  Mr. Mom or Nate Bargatze?
• 6:23
  I don't— Mr.
• 6:24
  Mom. Nate Bargatze is not the name of the film.
• 6:26
  No, I don't know if The Breadwinner is any good or not. I don't think it had very good reviews, but, uh, I think Mr. Mom—
• 6:33
  I have no interest in Nate Bargatze in any capacity.
• 6:35
  The film or the man?
• 6:39
  Yeah. Yep. Mr.
• 6:42
  Mom, the casual interest.
• 6:43
  Oh, you know what else has casual interest?
• 6:46
  Listeners to this podcast.
• 6:49
  This podcast. Uh, so we should know, we should let those casually interested know what it is we do here. Every week we watch movies, but not just any movie. Every month one of us chooses a theme, a genre, a guiding light. Some sort of pounding on the walls.
• 7:12
  You have to follow the sound of the pounding.
• 7:14
  Yeah, you have to adhere to— like, if we make noise in the room, then the pounding is going to know someone's in there.
• 7:23
  Yeah, it makes podcasting really hard when you hear that pounding at the door. First of all, the mics are picking it up constantly, but if we try to do our jobs and still podcast, that thing is just never going to leave us alone.
• 7:37
  Yeah, it's trying to figure out what part of the Fumble Dome we're in, and it just—
• 7:40
  I keep sending the thing, whatever it is, a link to join. That way he can have his own audio track of pounding, and I could just not have to cut it out every week.
• 7:52
  But yes, digital pounding is much better than like physical pounding.
• 7:56
  Yes.
• 7:56
  Or I mean, maybe if you get the link, then there's no pounding. They actually just tell us what's on their mind.
• 8:01
  Possibly.
• 8:03
  Oh, did they ever think just to ask? They ever think just to ask what's wrong? Hey, you okay, buddy? Why pounding on the door?
• 8:09
  Because we saw what 3 movies you picked from Columbia House.
• 8:15
  He saw 2 of them and was upset.
• 8:17
  One of them was really good, but he will never tell us which.
• 8:20
  Nope. Oh, speaking of Columbia House, this month is DTF, Down to Fumble. Y2, year 2, M10. The M stands for month.
• 8:34
  Wow.
• 8:35
  And that's a me month. This month we chose, I chose to be nostalgic. I got us a Columbia House advert from 1992 and we each picked movies off of that to fill out our initial 3 LaserDiscs for a dollar apiece order form. In week one, I chose some combination of numbers. I don't remember what it was, but it was The Day the Earth Stood Still from 1951. And then Keith followed that up with The Wizard of Oz from 1938.
• 9:10
  Their oldest film to date.
• 9:11
  Whatever. It's our oldest movie.
• 9:13
  Who's counting?
• 9:13
  We don't even care about it. I wasn't counting at the time, but I guess since you brought it up, it's kind of cool. I've got the oldest movie we've listened to.
• 9:19
  Nice.
• 9:19
  You are such a lying sack. And then the Third week, Terry, who thought long and hard, and he chose our most dance-filled movie we ever picked: Dirty Dancing. It is our most dance-filled movie.
• 9:35
  Whoo!
• 9:35
  And then last week we spun the wheel, and we got The Haunting from nineteen.
• 9:43
  Sure, sure.
• 9:45
  Nineteen sixty-three.
• 9:47
  Yep. All right.
• 9:49
  Before we talk about our viewing from The Haunting of the Haunting from 1963, before we deep dive The Haunting of 1963, did any of us have any previous knowledge, history, and/or experience with The Haunting from 1963?
• 10:08
  So I read the book it's based on. And didn't Netflix do a short-run limited series of this also?
• 10:15
  Yep. Yep. Mike Flanagan directed it.
• 10:17
  Yeah. And I watched that, uh, before and that was actually really good. I like Mike Flanagan stuff.
• 10:23
  But nothing to do with the movie, this movie?
• 10:25
  No, just the source material really of, of, of what it— yeah. Yeah.
• 10:30
  I'd heard of it. Um, but never watched it. I'm familiar that it's based off a book and I'm semi-familiar with the series. Never finished it, but I really liked it. Yeah. Never really, never seen this. Never. Never.
• 10:41
  I think because it only calls itself The Haunting, I probably never associated it.
• 10:46
  There's no Hill House mentioned in the title. Uh, yeah, I'd never heard of it and/or seen it. The first I heard of it was in the deep dive for The Day the Earth Stood Still.
• 10:57
  And what, what was the connection again on it? That was the, the writer?
• 11:01
  We'll get there. We'll get there.
• 11:03
  It's a twist.
• 11:04
  Because Keith, just chill. Just relax.
• 11:06
  Don't worry.
• 11:07
  Terry, you too. Because I'm gonna take you both closer to the haunting than you could ever imagine. The haunting from 1963.
• 11:13
  This dome is talking to me. It doesn't want me to leave.
• 11:16
  Keith stared at the statues again, the statues of the founders of Tumbledome. What do you mean?
• 11:21
  That statue is of us?
• 11:22
  Keith the dog.
• 11:25
  Yeah, well, symbolic. Each of us is represented on there as a different character.
• 11:31
  Yep.
• 11:33
  And I'm gonna take us closer than y'all could ever even imagined. With another Patton Penning Fumblers deep dive. The Haunting. This son of a bitch premiered in New York City and Los Angeles on September 18th, 1963. That is the same date, just 12 years later, that The Day the Earth Stood Still premiered in New York City.
• 12:00
  Whoa, really? That's cool.
• 12:01
  Isn't that weird? It is rated G, but I'm assuming that means approved at the time. It runs an hour and 52 minutes. Hill House has stood for about 90 years and appears haunted. Its inhabitants have always met strange, tragic ends. Now, Dr. John Markway has assembled a team of people who he thinks will prove whether or not the house is indeed haunted. It gets a 7.4 on IMDb, an 88% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, It earned about $1.2 million-ish at the box office during its theatrical run on roughly a $1.4 million budget. This is good enough for 43rd on the year.
• 12:46
  Wow. 43rd.
• 12:48
  8 spots behind Jason and the Argonauts. Excellent movie. And 1 spot above The Raven with Vincent Price and Jack Nicholson.
• 12:59
  Jack Nicholson's in that? Yes.
• 13:01
  Interesting. So you're probably thinking, well, it was good enough for 43rd, but was good enough for the top 10 in 1963?
• 13:10
  I was just thinking that.
• 13:13
  Number 10, The Sword in the Stone, Disney animation classic. King Arthur. Yeah. Number 9, The Pink Panther, starring David Niven and Peter Sellers. Number eight, it's a mad, mad, mad, mad world starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney.
• 13:30
  Okay, I've seen that.
• 13:32
  Number seven, Irma La Douce starring Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. Don't know that you call me Irma La Douce. Number six, Keith's gonna get excited about this. From Russia with Love starring Sean Connery.
• 13:47
  Oh, it's not too bad.
• 13:48
  Number five, Charade starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Number four, The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Classic.
• 13:59
  Ooh, like that one.
• 14:00
  Number three, Hud, starring Paul Newman and Melvyn Douglas.
• 14:05
  Hud. Hud. Hud was number three.
• 14:09
  Number three. Number two, The Great Escape, starring Steve McQueen. And then number one, also the Academy Award winner for that year for Best Picture, Tom Jones.
• 14:21
  That's the movie? Tom Jones? I don't want this to be the first one.
• 14:24
  The romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted bastard Tom Jones in 18th century England, starring Robert Finney, Susanna York, and George Devine.
• 14:35
  Why would they call him an adopted bastard?
• 14:38
  Because that's what he was. He was a bastard. He was adopted. There's not like— it's not like that, that adopted bastard. No, he's a bastard. was a dad.
• 14:47
  You shouldn't say that.
• 14:49
  Come on, no need to call it out. That's—
• 14:53
  it's not, it's not unusual to do that.
• 14:55
  I mean, it is not unusual. What's new?
• 14:58
  I go to the, I go to the orphanage and I just start doing that. It's not unusual, kids, you adopted bastards.
• 15:04
  Terry didn't— Terry didn't get Keith's joke.
• 15:07
  Oh no, I didn't.
• 15:09
  It's not unusual to be a love By anyone. Ba-da-ba-da-ba-da. That's a Tom Jones song.
• 15:17
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:18
  It's not unusual to me.
• 15:21
  Is Tom Jones a real man?
• 15:23
  Yeah, he's a singer. You don't know who Tom Jones is?
• 15:26
  What's up, pussycat?
• 15:28
  Is he known for being an adopted bastard or something?
• 15:31
  Is that like his thing? That's Tom Jones. Tom Jones? You don't know who Tom Jones is? That's really— I find that alarming in a way.
• 15:40
  I don't know him.
• 15:40
  But anyway, yeah, so there was a, there was an adopted bastard, uh, in the 18th century England.
• 15:47
  Oh, it's old, like old days.
• 15:50
  Yeah. And that's Tom Jones. There is a Tom Jones that's been around in the common era, Tom Jones, and he's a singer. He's the thing. He's still alive and still doing— he might be an adopted bastard for all I know.
• 16:02
  Or he's got a few of his own.
• 16:04
  Um, yeah, possibly adopted bastards. This movie is directed by Robert Wise, who also directed The Day the Earth Stood Still.
• 16:12
  Thank you.
• 16:12
  Legendary director.
• 16:14
  We talked about him.
• 16:16
  He broke into movies as the editor of Citizen Kane. Remember, he directed bangers like Star Trek, West Side Story, Sound of Music.
• 16:22
  Wow.
• 16:23
  He basically directed The Sound of Music as a favor after the movie had been abandoned by William Wyler. Don't know who that is. He agreed to direct on the condition that 20th Century Fox would finance his next movie, The Sand Pebbles.
• 16:40
  Okay.
• 16:41
  The Sand Pebbles came out in 1966. It is 3 hours long.
• 16:45
  Oh.
• 16:46
  In 1926, a U.S. naval engineer gets assigned to a gunboat on a rescue mission in war-torn China. Stars Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, and Richard Crenna. It was also nominated for Best Picture.
• 17:02
  This guy's on a roll with these Best Picture nominations.
• 17:04
  Yes, but I think it's awesome. So 20th Century Fox needs somebody to direct this, this little musical called The Sound of Music.
• 17:12
  Yeah, just a little thing, you know, it's kind of just floundering. Nobody wants to do anything with it.
• 17:18
  Robert Wise is like, you know what, I'll do it, but you have to finance The Sand Pebbles. They're like, fine, do it. He wins, he wins the Academy Award for The Sound of Music. And then puts together a 3-hour-long war epic on 20th Century Fox's dime. I love it. And that gets nominated for Best Picture. Robert Wise.
• 17:41
  This guy, he's like, uh, he's a hitmaker.
• 17:43
  Yeah, this is officially a Robert Wise stan account. I'm all for it.
• 17:48
  He's throwing West Side Story as well as between that and like The Sound of Music. I mean, that's 2 of the biggest like movie musicals of all time.
• 17:55
  He's done a little bit of everything and he does it all, you know, he seems like he's done it well.
• 18:00
  This movie is written by Nelson Gidding. It's based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Nelson Gidding has 40 writing credits in TV and film going back to 1949. He did an episode of The Kate Smith Hour, an episode of Johnny Jupiter, 2 episodes of The Schlitz Playhouse, and movies like The Hindenburg. Oh, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. Beyond it, a sequel to the Poseidon Adventure, which I'm sure was awesome. He wrote the 1994 The Mummy Lives. That was his last movie.
• 18:41
  He wrote that?
• 18:42
  Yes. And he also wrote this movie from the '60s. He's got lots of— not that many writing credits, but he spanned several decades.
• 18:50
  How did he write that? I don't know. That's what I'm thinking.
• 18:53
  With a pen is my assumption.
• 18:54
  Oh my God, yeah. And written, probably.
• 18:57
  In 1958, he wrote the screenplay for Onion Head. I saw this, I'm like, this is gonna be awesome.
• 19:05
  I like this.
• 19:06
  In 1941, an Oklahoma college graduate joins the U.S. Coast Guard and serves as a cook on a ship based in Boston.
• 19:15
  Oh, he's not the literal Onion Head, is he?
• 19:18
  No.
• 19:19
  Huh. That's a little bit of a letdown.
• 19:21
  Directed by Norman Taurog. Stars Andy Griffith and Walter Matthau.
• 19:27
  You know, Onion Head's a great name and I lose interest slowly from—
• 19:31
  Yes. When I saw Onion Head, the first thing I thought was Eraserhead. And then I thought Cuphead. And I'm like, it's gotta be somewhere in between those two.
• 19:40
  Oh, see, I was thinking Pinhead and Pumpkinhead.
• 19:43
  Oh God, not even close to those.
• 19:45
  I was thinking of the Dark Souls character with the big onion armor.
• 19:49
  Shirley Jackson wrote the novel The Haunting of Hill House. She was an American author known for her works of horror and mystery and some comedy in there too. A lot of social commentary. Over 2 decades, she composed 6 novels, 2 memoirs, and more than 200 short stories. She unfortunately passed away in 1965 at the, uh, all too young of age of 48 from heart conditions. Oh, I was reading her biography and I— she was a really heavy smoker, and then she started having medical conditions. They just started doping her up with a bunch of stuff and she just declined.
• 20:23
  Hey, yikes.
• 20:25
  She is a horror and suspense icon, undoubtedly. Her 3 best-known works, at least that I think, are her short story The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House that this movie is based upon, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which is her last novel and was published in 1962. And she continued to write even though she was like falling apart physically. That story follows an isolated family living in a secluded estate after a tragic arsenic poisoning kills most of their relatives.
• 20:57
  Oh, that is tragic.
• 21:00
  It has themes of isolation, persecution of outcasts, and a sharp critique of the patriarchy.
• 21:07
  Hmm.
• 21:08
  I'm a big fan of Julie Jameson.
• 21:09
  Always a good combination there.
• 21:10
  I agree. This movie stars Julie Harris as Eleanor. She has 103 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1948. She did an episode of The Love Boat, an episode of Columbo, 4 episodes of Tarzan. She played Raz Kar in Gorillas in the Mist. She was Helen Cooper in The Truth About Women. She played Abra in East of Eden. But from 1980 to 1987, she played Lily Mae Clements in 165 episodes of Knots Landing. Now, if you're like, what's Knots Landing? That's a good movie. It was a primetime soap opera on CBS that followed the lives of 4 married couples living in a cul-de-sac called Seaview Circle in a fictional coastal suburb of Los Angeles. And you're like, how did this come to exist? It was a spinoff of Dallas.
• 22:06
  Whoa.
• 22:07
  Okay.
• 22:08
  Really?
• 22:08
  I didn't know that.
• 22:09
  One of the Ewing boys moved to Los Angeles and then became Nuts Landing.
• 22:15
  Wow. What ripe potential for storytelling.
• 22:18
  I agree. Call the sex. I live on one.
• 22:21
  They're full of— oh, full of whatever. You're living a soap opera life there.
• 22:26
  I do. I mean, the true house husband of Franklin. This movie also stars Claire Bloom as Theodora. She has 128 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1948. She played the Woman in 2 episodes of Doctor Who. Uh, they— it was a 2-parter, uh, Series 9 Eccleston I think it was the last 2 when he dies or whatever, or he— what's it called? Regenerate?
• 23:01
  Oh yeah, he becomes a new Doctor.
• 23:03
  Yeah.
• 23:05
  She was in 5 episodes of Brideshead Revisited, 4 episodes of Family Money. Movies like— she was Queen Mary in The King's Speech. She played a character called Eleanor in Kalamazoo.
• 23:23
  Okay.
• 23:23
  There's a question mark at the end of that. She played Lulu Fraker in Wrestling with Alligators.
• 23:29
  Whoa. Okay. I like the sound of this.
• 23:32
  Yeah. She played Honor Klein in A Severed Head.
• 23:38
  The movie's called A Severed Head?
• 23:42
  Yes.
• 23:42
  Where is— why, why aren't these popping up? How do we always get some of these ones that have some really cool ones during the wheel?
• 23:49
  Uh, absolutely.
• 23:50
  But in 1981, she played Hera, the wife of Zeus, in Clash of the Titans.
• 23:56
  Oh, dang.
• 23:58
  Perseus must battle Medusa and the Kraken to save the Princess Andromeda. Stars Laurence Olivier, Harry Hamlin, and Claire Bloom.
• 24:06
  One of my all-time favorite movies.
• 24:08
  I know. I knew you were gonna get excited. That's why I made that the last one.
• 24:11
  But then I was like, buddy, and it's the wheel, so we're never gonna get brought up again.
• 24:16
  Never get brought up again. But then I was like, what's a severed head? Well, Severed Head was released in 1971. And get prepared to be disappointed. Wine merchant Martin navigates a complicated love life between his demanding wife Antonia and his mistress Georgie. Things get messier when his best friend Palmer, who happens to be Antonia's therapist, falls for her too. Stars Lee Remick. And really, return appearance by Richard Attenborough.
• 24:48
  There's no like satanic possessed head they found buried in the lost forest?
• 24:53
  That's the only reason I looked it up. It's on the list because a severed head has like evil connotations.
• 24:59
  Yes, it sounds menacing.
• 25:01
  I would demand my money back if I saw this in theaters. There was no real severed head.
• 25:06
  Yeah, maybe they just chopped that guy's head off. He's cheating on his wife.
• 25:11
  This love triangle is too intense. Off with his head!
• 25:14
  The therapist decrees that he must die.
• 25:17
  Yep.
• 25:18
  Which they have that power, so.
• 25:20
  They do. They did have the power of death.
• 25:23
  They are judge, jury, and executioner.
• 25:26
  Finally, this movie stars Richard Don't Call Me Dick Johnson. I assume that's his nickname. He's like, please don't call me Dick, because his name is Richard Johnson.
• 25:38
  Oh yeah, that would be unfortunate, wouldn't it?
• 25:40
  Yeah. Dick Johnson, that's a tough name. As Dr. Markway, in the book he was Montague. For some reason this movie kept like the character, like Eleanor in this movie, she was Eleanor what? I can't remember. Lance. In the book she was Eleanor Vance. What? Like, what's the point?
• 26:01
  Why change that?
• 26:01
  Yeah. Why would you change it? Uh, and in the book it was Dr. Montague, in the movie is Dr. Markway. I don't understand.
• 26:09
  Like, Unless you already credited the book as your inspiration, like, so you could legally— I think legally you're covered. You can just use the name. You don't have to change it, you know.
• 26:18
  But maybe they didn't have the rights because it's called The Haunting, but they didn't want to rest by the book. Yeah. Anyway, uh, Richard Don't Call Me Dick Johnson, he has 142 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1950. He did an episode of Armchair Mystery Theater. He did an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He did an episode of Orson Welles' Great Mysteries. 3 episodes of Tales of the Unexpected.
• 26:49
  Wow.
• 26:49
  He played Judge Larcher in Jump! Exclamation point at the end. He played Dr. Menard in Zombie.
• 26:58
  Ooh.
• 26:59
  He was Dimitri in Beyond the Door.
• 27:02
  Oh, really?
• 27:03
  Yeah, I've heard that's good.
• 27:04
  He played Sergio Logan in The Witch. Not the, not the V-V-I-T-C-H Witch, but something from like the '70s. But in 1979, he played Edmund Rackham in The Island of the Fishmen.
• 27:23
  Whoa.
• 27:25
  First of all, The Island of Fishmen, that's a crazy title, but what Ed Edmund Rackham. That's a crazy name.
• 27:32
  I'm just waiting, like, you're gonna tell me, okay, The Island of the Fish-Man. A lone, uh, divorce attorney has met up with his client and falls in love with her, and complications ensue when the fire department comes to save him from a burning building and falls in love with his client too.
• 27:51
  Prepare to be amazed and disappointed at the same time. Aquatic creatures threaten the existence of a mysterious island. This is one of several Italian exploitation films that Richard Don't Call Me Dick Johnson did in the late '70s. In 1980, about 30 minutes of this movie was cut out and replaced with original film and material for international release. This version was first given the title Something Waits in the Dark. It was re-edited. Edit. It was remade up and re-released in 1981 as Screamers. The poster said, you will see a man turned inside out, which does not happen in the movie. And Gene Siskel gave the Screamers version a half a star.
• 28:41
  Oh, that doesn't surprise me. He doesn't like that kind of stuff usually. There's a— he wasn't like the— like you said, zombie. That's— some of these movies are very gory. I wouldn't be surprised if a man got like inside out. Yeah.
• 28:55
  Y'all ready for some haunting fun facts?
• 28:58
  Yep, I'm ready.
• 28:59
  Absolutely.
• 29:00
  Most of the film was shot through lenses that add a curvature to the walls, making the house seem even more strange.
• 29:08
  That's cool. Good effect. Subtle.
• 29:10
  There's a couple times I was like, oh, look at that. It's a like a fisheye lens type thing. But then like, I think on one of them, like, she's actually just running up to the mirror. So they—
• 29:20
  yeah, I like that.
• 29:21
  They really used the mirror doing it. So to hear that they did some other, you know, crazy actual like camera type stuff is pretty cool.
• 29:27
  Every member of the cast enjoyed working with Robert Wise, who had a long-standing reputation as a strong director with great instincts and no ego. Julie Harris remembered him as a calm gentleman who never got ruffled by anything. And Claire Bloom found working with him marvelous.
• 29:47
  Not only is he an award-winning director, but he's a nice man.
• 29:51
  And a gentleman. He's a scholar and a gentleman. I like this guy. He was also the last living member of Citizen Kane's production team.
• 29:59
  He was?
• 30:01
  Yes.
• 30:01
  He was a young man when he probably got pulled on to edit.
• 30:05
  He was like 19, I think. Yeah. The famous sharp contrast of the house against the dark sky and the clouds was created by the use of infrared film stock.
• 30:15
  That's cool.
• 30:16
  Julie Harris agreed to do the film in part because the role was complex and the idea of the house taking over Eleanor's mind was interesting. But she also chose it because she had a longstanding interest in parapsychology.
• 30:31
  Well, what a perfect role for her then.
• 30:34
  Yeah, it was the role she was born to play. Robert Wise said it was his favorite filmmaking experience.
• 30:41
  Really? That's interesting, huh?
• 30:43
  Yeah, considering all the bangers that he made and this was his favorite to make.
• 30:46
  Maybe because of the fact that it's such a small cast and it's like such a, you know, there's no real big giant, you know, uh, person like singing as they run over the mountains and everything like that. It, you know, nice and tight. He probably get— because of the small, uh, cast as well, you know, he got to really kind of connect with them. They all seem to have liked him. Yeah, so that seems to have made a good experience on both halves.
• 31:09
  I imagine so. And then finally, final fun fact. In 2013, Martin Scorsese released a list of his 11 scariest movies.
• 31:19
  Oh.
• 31:20
  Are you ready for these 11?
• 31:22
  Yes, I want to know this.
• 31:23
  It's a nice round number of 11.
• 31:25
  It is. Number 11, Psycho.
• 31:28
  Okay, good movie.
• 31:30
  Number 10, The Innocents.
• 31:32
  Don't know what that is.
• 31:33
  Me neither. A lot of these movies are old. Like from the '30s and '40s.
• 31:38
  Like Marty himself. Yes.
• 31:41
  Number 9, Night of the Demon.
• 31:43
  Oh, I think I've heard of that. I have not seen it.
• 31:45
  Number 8, The Exorcist.
• 31:47
  Of course, of course.
• 31:49
  Number 7, The Shining.
• 31:51
  Yep, don't surprise me.
• 31:53
  Number 6, The Changeling.
• 31:56
  I've heard that's good too. I've not seen it.
• 31:58
  Number 5, Dead of Night.
• 32:01
  Don't know what that is.
• 32:02
  Me neither. Number 4, The Entity.
• 32:05
  The Entity sounds cool. I don't know what that is either though.
• 32:09
  Me neither. Number 3, The Uninvited.
• 32:12
  The Uninvited?
• 32:13
  The Uninvited.
• 32:14
  Interesting. Okay.
• 32:16
  Number 2, The Isle of the Dead.
• 32:20
  I think I have that on Blu-ray, but I have not watched it.
• 32:23
  Is that a Dawn of the Dead sequel also? No, no, that's not tied into that.
• 32:28
  And if you're scoring at home and know that this is the Haunting deep dive, we have one spot left. Number 1, The Haunting.
• 32:38
  Wow.
• 32:40
  These are his 11 scariest movies in 2013. Now granted, in the last 13 years, we've gotten things like Talk to Me.
• 32:49
  And yeah, I feel like, like I respect his list. It's very historic, but honestly, like Yeah, none of these are that scary.
• 32:58
  I think he's working on a movie right now that's going to be his first horror film.
• 33:04
  He is?
• 33:05
  Yeah, I think that's what his next project is.
• 33:07
  Interesting.
• 33:11
  The house has stood for 90 years and probably stand for at least another 90 more.
• 33:15
  It might.
• 33:17
  And we dove into it headfirst.
• 33:20
  Headfirst. And hopefully none of us got possessed or lost our way.
• 33:25
  No.
• 33:25
  Hopefully not. We'll find out by the end of the episode.
• 33:28
  We will find out because we're going to talk about our viewing of The Haunting from 1963, as directed by Robert Wise, based upon the Shirley Jackson novel.
• 33:38
  That's right. We will talk about our viewing experience of this film.
• 33:41
  I'm gonna, I'm gonna preface this with, I really love The Haunting of Hill House.
• 33:48
  The book?
• 33:49
  The book. The character Eleanor is, for me, I just, I loved Eleanor. She's very fragile, very broken character sort of thing. Just, I really liked the book quite a bit.
• 34:04
  Well, how does it compare to the movie? Because I've never read the book.
• 34:08
  I like the movie too. Not as much as the book.
• 34:12
  Does it follow the book like plot-wise?
• 34:14
  Pretty loyally. There's some scenes that were missing that I really liked from the— but everything stays in the house in the movie.
• 34:24
  Okay.
• 34:25
  Uh, in the book, they kind of go out on the, the grounds during the day, and there's like some creepy weird stuff that happens out there too. I don't know, the Eleanor of the movie was a little bit much at times.
• 34:39
  Yeah, I kept flip-flopping back and forth between whether she was annoying me or whether I was really enjoying her.
• 34:46
  Like, yeah, I think she does good. I like her character. Her character is the most interesting of all of them. It's me. It's the one that they focused on, obviously. But it's, uh, sometimes, yeah, she's a little— I don't know what the right word is— extra, you know? Yes, I did it. Yes, we have problems. I feel like this is a little overly dramatic at times, I guess. Like, there could be a more subtle way to show her, like, um, losing her mind a little bit and stuff, I feel like. Because it doesn't help that there's, like, the inner monologue we hear a lot. I feel like if we could Lose that. We could still get what she's thinking by looking at her face, I think, half the time.
• 35:19
  Yeah. Also, the whole reason she's brought there is for some kind of paranormal incident that then she claims was just the neighbors and never happened. And they don't really ever— like, it doesn't come back around again at all. Like, there's no other— like, it doesn't get brought back up again with a better explanation. Like, you know, once she's there for a couple days, maybe she then like breaks down, explains the whole thing. They just They kind of bring it up as that being why she's there, where, um, the other girl, uh, makes sense. She's, she's, she's a psychic. And like every now and then, like, she's kind of like the thermometer of whether there's something weird going on, cuz she gets really cold every time there's some kind of like weird activity going on. Cuz they even look at, they're like, are you warm yet? She goes, no, still cold. And they're like, all right, it's still here then. That ties into that. And the other guy's there because it's eventually going to be his house.
• 36:13
  It's kind of interesting. Yeah, I'm not sure why she gets invited. I mean, I, I guess he's like, you're the only one who's experienced this kind of thing before, so that's why. But like, he's a professor and I thought he was going to be recruiting like students of his, but it seems to me like he just recruited some randos.
• 36:29
  And also, so I haven't read this book in a while, so Derek, is in the book, did, are there any more people?
• 36:38
  No.
• 36:38
  Or is it just those?
• 36:39
  Well, there's those that are initially there, Eleanor, Theodora, and, uh, Luke, right? Along with Dr. Montague. And they go. And then after they've been there for only like 3 or 4 days, his wife shows up with this guy. is like her bodyguard, but it kind of— the story gives the impression that it's a little bit more than that. But he also runs this boys' school. Like, she— he drives her there and he's like her bodyguard sort of thing.
• 37:15
  Hmm.
• 37:15
  But she, in the book, is very into ghosts. That's why she's there. She's there to take over. And she's a very domineering, very commanding individual that I really disliked. So her and dude, I can't remember what his name is, are there to study ghosts and find ghosts. They have this whole ritual, the Ouija boards and stuff.
• 37:39
  Oh, so they like did that reverse with her character in this.
• 37:42
  Yes. And in the book, the doctor is more of a skeptic, but he wants to, wants to prove finally if ghosts are real, right? And Eleanor in the book The whole supernatural encounter when she was a child, it's about the same involvement in the book as well. But she's very much like a codependent sort of personality, and she was stuck caring for her mother, and her mother kind of sounded like a domineering individual that ran her life. And while her sister got away and Always looks down on her and whatnot.
• 38:25
  I like that part of her character, and I think it's kind of interesting. Like her first, like strike out on her own is like I'm going to this house and I'm gonna do my own thing. Oh, vacation. Then she gets sucked back into like that, but with the house, like the house is what's starting to like make her codependent. And I mean a little bit with the doctor guy as well. But yeah, she's like she's trying to like you know become free again, but at the end she can't. help but get sucked back into her old ways, I guess, in the more sinister sense.
• 38:54
  In the movie, they kind of like— with Eleanor, they gave her like this weird obsession with the Doctor in a, like, a romantic sort of way, like she's fallen in love. But in the book, her and Theodora and Luke kind of have a thing, but Eleanor has a thing for Luke as well. And There's a lot there too. Hmm.
• 39:19
  In this, I thought Theodora and, and Eleanor had a thing going on.
• 39:23
  That's kind of in the way the book is as well.
• 39:25
  You know, it would make more sense if both of the ladies were interested in, in Luke with some of the stuff they do, because Theodora like keeps setting her up for stuff. Like, she's like, oh, you know, I should do your hair for— like, I got a good style of mine. And then the next day she's like, oh well, you're just obviously trying to get attention with that haircut and, you know, that hairdo and all. She's like, what?
• 39:46
  I—
• 39:47
  you did this.
• 39:48
  It was your idea. Yeah.
• 39:49
  Yeah. She does that a couple, uh, all that kind of stuff.
• 39:51
  Yeah.
• 39:52
  Yeah. A couple different times she sets her up. So that would make sense more if they were both kind of— if she's trying to like, uh, you know, make her look bad in front of Luke as opposed to just, you know, this little thing with the doctor, which there do seem to be some vibes there for that. I, I forgot he had a wife for most of the movie until she showed up, even though he explains, like, you know, at the beginning he explains some of it. Theodora did that a couple times where she tried to help her and then like the next day like called her out on some shit. She's like, wait, that was, that was us, that was like confidence, like we were just hanging out, you and me.
• 40:26
  Yep, she's that kind of person. She's kind of annoying in that way, I feel like. And like, I kind of like that character where she, yeah, she's like, I want— she's hot and cold, you know? Or at first she's like, Oh yeah, I can help you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the next day she's like, why would you do that? You're so stupid. You know, like, I like, I kind of, I like that kind of tension she brings because she's just kind of this— she, you can't trust her, I feel like.
• 40:46
  Yeah.
• 40:46
  No, but she's the only one who has any sort of power, I guess.
• 40:51
  You know, that's— you nailed 19 of the 20 cards without even seeing him.
• 40:56
  That's pretty good, right?
• 40:58
  Yeah. And I like that, that, uh, they, they talk up Luke like he's the Card shark kind of guy, and then like he plays against her, just gets dominated easily, and is pissed.
• 41:07
  And she's like, "Look, I don't need to cheat to beat you." Yeah, yeah.
• 41:10
  I like the. I think the psychological horror is the best part about this. I don't think the ghost stuff's all that scary. Obviously, it's an older movie, so it's not really. You know, we've got a lot more intense stuff nowadays. But like, for sure, it really is pretty like. It's all off screen, you know, it's just sounds basically the entire time and creepiness. Sometimes the camera does some cool stuff, which I like, but I do wish there was a little more creepy imagery in it rather than relying on like sound. I wish there was like hints of, you know, you maybe get a little see the shadows or, you know, something weird like that would be nice. Um, I just feel like it's kind of, uh, isn't as engaging when all I'm hearing is, yeah, like the pounding on the door, like laughter and stuff like that.
• 41:56
  Yeah. And especially because like most of the time it's— they're separated like into like 2 groups. Usually like the doctor and Luke, you know, go their way and the, and the 2 ladies go their way for the evening. And then you get this stuff happening, it's like, okay, well there are, there are 2 people that are like right outside the door who like, you know, as soon as they open the door they're standing there, uh, we're chasing the dog.
• 42:16
  Yeah.
• 42:17
  It always seemed convenient that maybe they were setting, you know, they were messing with Eleanor, um, and, and trying to set her up. They, they do lean into that a little bit because, well, there's always like, you know, especially like the writing on the wall part. Like, get— these 2 guys weren't in the room with you, and— or, you know, or one of them was, then, you know, Theodora was not there. Like, it easily could seem like they were playing a game on her the whole time.
• 42:41
  Yeah, either could have— they could have played that up a lot more. Um, I like the, the level-headedness though of the doctor, like the guy being like, all right, look, Obviously the ghost is trying to split us up. Like, we gotta think about all this stuff, you know? Like, I think that I like the way he's trying to like piece everything together, and he is kind of being smart about it, even though they just still split each other up all the time. Like, I would be like, all right, we're all staying in the same room, or, you know, like, I don't know. He doesn't do a really good job of addressing the problems that are happening, but, um, I love that like trope of like the science trying to explain like the supernatural kind of thing, where he's like All right, well, we can expect this. Okay, it looks like Eleanor's the chosen one, so we gotta watch out for that, you know?
• 43:22
  Like, and, and he's also doing like this experiment just based on like, hey, let's just hang out in the house and like report what, what's happening.
• 43:28
  I thought he'd have like scientific readings or something.
• 43:32
  You know, like, yeah, they don't have any like, you know, wires, you know, you know, um, things like track them like while they sleep and stuff like that, like you would imagine they would, so you could like pick up on if stuff was happening. Maybe, maybe to make sure it wasn't just all in her head or something like that. He's just like, yeah, like, tell me what happened. Um, I was there, I couldn't— I didn't hear anything, but then you tell me about what happened.
• 43:54
  There really isn't anything visual in the book either as far as like haunting goes, except for like the statues turning their heads when you're not looking. And that's pretty much it. The rest is the idea that the that the house takes over your brain, right?
• 44:13
  Okay. Because I guess I'm thinking like, I've seen part of the Flanagan series and there's a lot of like creepy stuff in that, like with the visuals. And it's just hard to, you know, it's like in a book I could see that working really well where it's like the, you know, because you can read it and stuff. But as a video, a video medium, it's a little tougher to— Yes, it is tougher to nail that, I think, unless you really do a good job with it. I don't know if they do a great job with it. It's a little creepy sometimes.
• 44:39
  Yeah, I think for 1963, this probably creeped people out a ton.
• 44:42
  I imagine it probably did. I mean, it left an impression on Martin Scorsese, number one on his list. To call it the most frightening or the scariest movie ever, I don't know if I'd go that far.
• 44:54
  No, no, I don't think I would.
• 44:58
  But the thing that really frustrated me, uh, about this movie is The sheer volume of voiceover.
• 45:06
  It's annoying.
• 45:07
  Yeah.
• 45:07
  For like internal thought, you know, like she's thinking to herself, the house is coming down, you know, there's a lot of that going on.
• 45:14
  It's just unnecessary. Like, it's cool stuff that she's saying, like, like written, like, wow, that's a cool line. It sounds like something maybe they took from the book even, I don't know. But like, it could be implemented better, like through her talking with other people, or like, you know, they could have interviews. Like, the doctor should be talking to them about their experiences. She telling him this stuff, you know, um, instead of just like staring off into space and going like, hmm, once again I feel myself drifting away, you know. It's like, yes, yes, we get it. As you're like staring off into space, I can tell you're drifting away. We get it, we get it.
• 45:46
  But she is definitely extra. She lays it on thick.
• 45:59
  I think so.
• 46:00
  Can we get through The Haunting from 1963?
• 46:05
  We survived.
• 46:07
  I think we survived. What do we think of The Haunting from 1963?
• 46:10
  It's okay. I liked it. It's just, uh, you know, it is an older movie, so it's not gonna be as scary, um, as modern stuff, obviously, and you gotta keep that in mind. But I just think that there's a few things that, you know, it's got creepy imagery. I like the, the house looks cool. Like, they got— it has kind of that gothic imagery as well with like the shots of like the sky in the background, like you're saying with the infrared cameras. That all looks really cool. But I think it just, it relies too much on like just sound as your scary elements. And it sounds like that's in the book too, but I just, I don't know, it just kind of got old. I think like it would be nice to have a little payoff or something, you know? I guess. I mean, all with the payoff we get in the movie is, uh, His wife like peeking right out of the— yeah, that's not that scary. Like, I don't know, it's a— it's a— it's an okay film. I don't think it's amazing, but I, I didn't think it was bad either.
• 47:04
  I was— I was surprised, uh, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Um, I know we watched a lot of these older black and white movies where I'm like, ah man, it's a movie at the time, so, you know, I'm trying to, uh, enjoy it for like the special effects and stuff that they had at the time. But this one I thought just had a lot of really Cool parts. So I really enjoyed the opening when they did kind of like the history of it, and ran through the whole thing and kind of explained everything that happened up until then, up until this point. There's a couple spots where like it seems like they're maybe it's just kind of like they're repeating. Okay, this is what's happening, and we kind of get it. So they could have maybe trimmed it down a little bit. But for the most part, I mean, again, for 1963, I'm pretty sure people were like. really found this to be like a really good, uh, psychological thriller type horror film.
• 47:51
  I think it still is a pretty good psychological type horror film. I don't know, I liked it. I did. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't 5 stars amazing, but it wasn't like bad. Like, I did enjoy it. I love the camera work in a lot of the spots. Some of the weird effects, they didn't have a whole lot. They probably had more visual effects than The Day the Earth Stood Still. than they did in this one.
• 48:16
  Oh yeah, they didn't have the cool title card though.
• 48:19
  They did the cool title card. I did like that, that one shot where they're looking at the door and like the panels of the door were like popping in and out. I thought that was cool.
• 48:29
  That was really cool. That was one of the best parts of the movie.
• 48:32
  Immediately that Luke is like, I'll sell it to you for a song right now.
• 48:35
  Yeah, I wish they would have done more with the statues, like making them turn their heads and stuff or look or whatever. For the most part, yeah, it was really good. I liked it.
• 48:46
  It was all right.
• 48:46
  It was all right.
• 48:47
  I don't know.
• 48:48
  Uh, I do like the book immensely though. I, I got my daughter reading it, but there's a line early on where Eleanor is like so excited to get this invitation. She's bought new clothes. She's like, even bought slacks. And then I realized for the time it was probably like a lot for a woman to wear pants, right?
• 49:09
  Yeah. It's like, whoa.
• 49:11
  Yeah.
• 49:11
  Now it's like, wow, great.
• 49:13
  Good job.
• 49:15
  Yeah. So it made me chuckle. Well, we know what we thought. What did the internet have to say? Well, on April 18th, 2021, Steve1701, Steve1701 had this to say. Utterly frightening. I have to admit that the first time I watched this, it frightened the life out of me. The suspense, the score constantly making you look over your shoulder expecting something to be stood behind you. Dot dot dot. The pounding in the film is relentless, making you fear for the very people you are watching. A testament to Robert Wise's direction. There's no one being chopped up, no one dying horribly. Well, Eleanor dies at the end pretty horribly.
• 50:11
  True.
• 50:12
  Just a constant sense that you are going to meet a terrible end at any moment. Julie Harris as Eleanor, always seemingly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, is exceptional, as in fact are all the actors. Even now, Almost 57 years later, it still knocks anything we remotely class as horror into the bin. Into the bin with you horror movies. There have been several versions of the Hill House haunting, but this beats them all for sheer edge-of-seat terror. If you don't watch another horror, Then you must watch this! 3 exclamation points at the end there. 3 found it helpful, 1 not so much. 10 out of 10.
• 51:05
  High praise, high praise. Knocking modern horror films. Maybe they're not that scary. I don't know. Yeah, what do I know?
• 51:14
  But not to be outdone, on May 28th, 2000, Lionel M. Had this to say: An overhyped, obsolete waste of film.
• 51:30
  Okay, come on.
• 51:32
  I fail to understand how anyone can say that this is one of the best horror films ever made. The mood was weak. The characters, except for Dr. John Marquay, Richard Johnson, were idiotic, and the story was slow-paced and bland. Just like Shirley Jackson's novel.
• 51:50
  Wow, that's big on the novel too.
• 51:54
  Yeah.
• 51:54
  Richard Johnson's cold narrative at the beginning did manage, did manage to send chills down my spine, but it was the only thing that did. The rest was just a waste. After I finished watching it the first time, I was unsatisfied. I thought it was just me, but I rented it again and watched it all the way through, and again, I still was unsatisfied. With that in mind, I knew it was not me. The what?
• 52:21
  Uh, that does not tell you anything.
• 52:23
  It's not my fault. The movie was simply put weak. I imagine if Alfred Hitchcock directed this movie instead of Robert Wise, it would have been a lot better. But don't misunderstand me. I like Robert Wise. I thought he did fine on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That film, I think, was more spooky than The Haunting.
• 52:45
  There's some spooky parts in that, though. That's true.
• 52:49
  Claire Bloom's presence was the only other aspect of the movie that was good. That woman could grace just about anything. I could watch her read the phone book and still be aroused.
• 53:02
  Yeah. Oh, oh. Fitty what? Does he mean it that way?
• 53:06
  Yeah, that's what he wrote.
• 53:08
  I mean, what part of the phone book are we talking about?
• 53:11
  The kind with lots of words in it. 51 found that helpful, 49 not so much. 1 out of 10.
• 53:21
  Well, you know what, I'll commend the person for watching it twice. Good on you. You thought maybe you were wrong the first time, you try again, same opinion, obviously.
• 53:32
  Usually get the ones where like I watched the first seven minutes and turned it off.
• 53:36
  That would yeah, honestly, yeah, way more respect for this person. I hated this so much, but maybe it was just me. I'll do it again, which doesn't answer your question. Just because you didn't like it a second time doesn't mean it's not just not you. Yeah, you're obviously it isn't just it might just be you because you've talked about how people said it's a horror classic.
• 53:56
  Yeah, and maybe if you're Connection to the world is reading the phone book.
• 54:00
  I mean, yeah, get arousal.
• 54:02
  Yeah, yeah. Maybe you got more problems on whether or not this movie's you know good or not.
• 54:08
  Yeah, yeah.
• 54:09
  He didn't like the novel, which yeah, that's pretty harsh. I mean, like he's already got things going wrong. If he didn't like the novel, then he watches the movie. You might not like the movie either.
• 54:18
  Yes, if you thought the novel was slow paced and bland. Yeah, I don't know.
• 54:23
  Did he reread the novel before he rewatched the movie just to make sure?
• 54:27
  Maybe.
• 54:28
  Maybe it's not— it's not just him.
• 54:31
  Yeah, you're putting 3 hours of time on this movie and you still didn't like it.
• 54:36
  So that's a commendable, commendable, commendable, commendable effort. I just don't like the arousal part. That's a little weird. Yeah, it's like, seriously, it's a 1 out of 10 and you love this person so much that they could read in the phone book and you'd be aroused? You You watch this movie and that's more exciting than reading a phone book. Surely that means at least a 3 out of 10 or something.
• 54:56
  Yeah, that gets you 3 stars automatically if the lead— or not the lead, if one of the actors can get you, uh, if you think they get you aroused while reading the phone book, you gotta give at least the 3.
• 55:08
  Like, it sounds like her sheer presence is enough to like add points to anything. So like, I think— yeah, it sounds like he's a— yeah, I don't get why it's a 1 out of 10, but you know what?
• 55:18
  It's Lionel for you. Classic Lionel.
• 55:21
  You know what, but you gotta love him.
• 55:24
  Do gotta love him. All right, boys.
• 55:27
  That, that orphanage bastard. What was that guy's name?
• 55:33
  Tom Jones, the orphan bastard. Yeah, orphanage bastard.
• 55:37
  I don't remember what he's called. Just cut that out. I don't want to call Lionel an orphanage bastard. That seems mean. Sorry, Lionel.
• 55:47
  What if he is? What if Lionel Lamb just heard that and he's like, boy, my review—
• 55:51
  You've really got me with that one.
• 55:54
  Really opened up a window into my life that I wasn't expecting.
• 55:57
  I guess I am an orphanage bastard.
• 55:59
  I gotta watch the movie a 3rd time. Maybe it's gonna change everything this time.
• 56:03
  Maybe. Oh, all right. Well, we did it. We got through M10, month 10. And I've sent off the order form to Columbia House.
• 56:15
  Uh-huh.
• 56:15
  I guess they wait like 4 to 6 weeks for processing and delivery.
• 56:19
  Oh, they don't have 2-day shipping?
• 56:21
  No, it's Columbia House, man. It is in Indiana though, Terre Haute, Indiana, I believe.
• 56:26
  So you may just drive down there, pick it up.
• 56:28
  Actually, well, potentially just, you know, the mail getting tossed, you know, the order form getting tossed like through a little slot in the door on top of a pile of envelopes that are sitting there.
• 56:38
  Oh, people are still trying to. Dear God.
• 56:41
  Columbia House still has a storefront. Uh, they're still paying for that.
• 56:45
  Yeah, they signed a really big lease back in the day. This is gonna be great.
• 56:50
  We're gonna be running the— running things for the next 50 years.
• 56:54
  Yeah, there's nothing that can stop. What about streaming? Ah, don't worry about that.
• 56:58
  They had no idea what streaming was back then.
• 57:00
  Physical media is going to be where it's at all the time.
• 57:03
  Why would you not think that? 1992.
• 57:06
  It was hip. It was new. Just like us.
• 57:10
  Sips to be square.
• 57:12
  Well, now that we've done this, we've, we've filled out the order form.
• 57:15
  Yep.
• 57:16
  We need to rank our movies.
• 57:18
  We need to fill out a spreadsheet.
• 57:20
  Yeah, fill out that goddamn spreadsheet. So Keith busted out—
• 57:22
  Let's recap for everybody. We've got—
• 57:25
  Oh yeah, Keith, recap our month.
• 57:26
  The Day the Earth Stood Still.
• 57:28
  Correct.
• 57:29
  Yep. Uh, the oldest movie we watched to date, The Wizard of Oz.
• 57:32
  Oh yeah, yeah.
• 57:34
  Uh, the most, uh, dance Happy movie we watched so far, Dirty Dancing.
• 57:39
  Yep, that's true.
• 57:39
  Dance happy indeed.
• 57:41
  It is dance happy, yeah. And dance sad at times.
• 57:44
  And then The Haunting, 1963.
• 57:47
  Yeah. Interesting month. I got my one.
• 57:51
  Yeah.
• 57:52
  Not at all what you expected. No. And we'll go over some things that are on the list that didn't get picked after we rank here.
• 58:03
  Well, I've got my ranking.
• 58:04
  Go ahead, Keith, you do your ranking.
• 58:06
  I've got, uh, number 1, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Number 2, The Wizard of Oz. Number 3, The Haunting. And Dirty Dancing, Bringing Up the Rear. Wow.
• 58:19
  Okay.
• 58:20
  Um, I'll go ahead and go— I'm gonna do Keith style, number 1 to last. So, okay, The Earth Stood Still is also my number 1. And then it's Wizard of Oz.
• 58:30
  Uh-huh.
• 58:31
  And then we're going Dirty Dancing as number 3.
• 58:34
  Uh-huh.
• 58:35
  And then The Haunting.
• 58:36
  All right, I'm having a real hard time with this because my number 1, Day the Earth Stood Still.
• 58:43
  Yes, it's an easy pick.
• 58:45
  Easy pick. Here's the thing, I don't like The Wizard of Oz.
• 58:50
  Well, you have—
• 58:53
  why?
• 58:54
  Come on.
• 58:55
  I don't. I went over it in depth why I don't like it.
• 58:59
  That was a couple weeks ago. We have no idea about that.
• 59:03
  Did you watch it again to see if it was just you maybe?
• 59:06
  No. So for me, it goes The Day the Earth Stood Still. The Wizard of Oz is then last. I'm going bookend style here. I think The Wizard of Oz is at the bottom. I just don't like that movie. Not that it's— I don't think it's a bad movie. I just have personal problems with that movie. I don't like it.
• 59:31
  Okay, that's fine.
• 59:34
  Now here's my middle. I think then it goes Dirty Dancing at 2.
• 59:39
  Wow.
• 59:41
  Whoa, nice. I like this.
• 59:43
  And then The Haunting at 3. And I was having a hard time. Is The Haunting at 3?
• 59:48
  Dirty Dancing at That's a tough one.
• 59:50
  Then Terry with his, like, it just wasn't as scary, like, kind of knocked The Haunting from 2 to 3.
• 59:59
  Oh, I swayed you?
• 1:00:00
  Yeah, a little bit. I think you did. Yeah, I did enjoy The Haunting.
• 1:00:04
  It's not bad.
• 1:00:05
  And I do enjoy Dirty Dancing too, for what it is. Yeah.
• 1:00:09
  Hey, look, you know what, they're dancing, you get a lot of dancing.
• 1:00:13
  You do, and it's dirty.
• 1:00:16
  Oh, now talk about everything they everything they advertised it for.
• 1:00:21
  I want to see what this what was that guy's name? The reviewer. Oh, Lionel M. Yeah, what's Lionel M's review? How's the level on Dirty Dancing?
• 1:00:29
  I can watch Jennifer Grey read two phone books and a Chinese takeout menu. It's still one out of two. All right. I, I could read all 80-something movies off this list.
• 1:00:47
  I don't know if we have to do that. Let's hit some of the bangers though.
• 1:00:51
  I'm gonna hit the 6 highlighted bangers that are at the top. Okay. Die Hard 2, Home Alone, The Godfather, Star Wars, Ghost, and Dances with Wolves. Those are the 6 that Columbia House said, we gotta put those on top.
• 1:01:08
  Those are big ones. Those are big ones.
• 1:01:10
  But all 3 Star Wars movies are on here. The first 2 Godfathers are on here. All 3 Indiana Jones movies are on here. The first 2 Die Hards are on here.
• 1:01:23
  Yep. Yep.
• 1:01:24
  Things like Alien and Aliens.
• 1:01:28
  Oh yeah.
• 1:01:30
  The Back to the Future trilogy is on there, right?
• 1:01:32
  The Back to the Future trilogy is on here.
• 1:01:34
  Which I really almost gave that a good— I thought about that because we had watched the other one and I was like, oh, well, that would tie into something we've done previously. But then at the same time, I was like, no, that other one sucks so bad. I don't want to watch it.
• 1:01:50
  2001: A Space Odyssey.
• 1:01:52
  Wow.
• 1:01:53
  Total Recall.
• 1:01:55
  Oh God. That would have been awesome to watch.
• 1:01:57
  Now, much like the 1,001 movies to what? before you die, how many previously viewed Fumble movies are on here? Quite a few as well.
• 1:02:09
  That's a good question. Yeah.
• 1:02:09
  Bull Durham.
• 1:02:11
  Oh, yep, yep.
• 1:02:11
  Romancing the Stone.
• 1:02:13
  Oh, yeah.
• 1:02:14
  Excalibur's on here.
• 1:02:16
  We could have just done a rerun, Fumble reruns.
• 1:02:18
  RoboCop is on here.
• 1:02:20
  I'd like to watch that again.
• 1:02:22
  Yeah, I would. They would have probably been number 1 on the month.
• 1:02:27
  Uh, There's like ones we've even mentioned, like, yeah, where we like comes up in our deep dives. We've mentioned a lot of these too.
• 1:02:33
  Oh Christ, The Exorcist is on this as well.
• 1:02:36
  I mean, it's like Columbia House really picked any movie.
• 1:02:38
  They did. Any movies on there. There are so many options and so many that we've already seen too, which is amazing. No Zardoz on there though, unfortunately.
• 1:02:48
  Zardoz really should be on there.
• 1:02:50
  So Zardoz should be on every list.
• 1:02:52
  Yeah, I think that's a fact.
• 1:02:55
  From now until eternity. Doesn't even matter what the list is.
• 1:02:58
  It's a list of ingredients on how to make a cake.
• 1:03:00
  Yeah, Zardoz. Egg, flour, Zardoz.
• 1:03:04
  You have to have that on the background for best flavor.
• 1:03:08
  Well, this cake's got a healthy dose of Zardoz in it.
• 1:03:13
  Well, it makes a big difference, I think.
• 1:03:15
  Oh, you know what else makes a big difference?
• 1:03:17
  I'm noticeably silent.
• 1:03:20
  Keith, I'm assuming this next month is the Zardoz month.
• 1:03:26
  Yes, we watched Zardoz.
• 1:03:28
  But next month is spooky season month. It's, it's M11.
• 1:03:32
  Yeah, that would be a horror movie for Keith.
• 1:03:35
  It would be. And it's a Keith month.
• 1:03:37
  So he can choose his own fate.
• 1:03:39
  Fingers crossed for Zardoz, but we'll see what Keith is giving us. Keith, what's M11? What's spooky season?
• 1:03:45
  Well, let me get my PowerPoint out.
• 1:03:47
  Do you have a PowerPoint?
• 1:03:48
  No, I'm kidding. I don't have a PowerPoint. I thought about it, but then, uh, you know, I, I'll boil this down to like really kind of focusing in on, on the 3 of us.
• 1:03:59
  No.
• 1:03:59
  And, uh, for spooky season, I think we've already kicked it off nicely here with this one closing out, uh, M10. Pick a movie from when you were younger that scared you and that you think might still scare you.
• 1:04:12
  Oh, that might still scare me.
• 1:04:15
  Oh, okay.
• 1:04:15
  And then we're gonna watch that.
• 1:04:17
  Movie that scared me and might still scare me. Okay.
• 1:04:20
  Yeah. From when you were like, uh, let's say, you know, you know, uh, you under 18.
• 1:04:25
  Okay.
• 1:04:26
  Under 18 that scared me. Now see, I'm actually, you know what?
• 1:04:31
  Oh, actually, you know what? Let me, let me take that back because I, um, I don't know if I was 18 at the time the movie I'm picking came out. So I, I take that back. Let's just say, I don't know, but I picked the movie that came out a long time ago. And I'll be honest, I turned it on once in like the last 6 months. I turned it off because I just— it got me right away. Oh, um, but basically, pick out a movie that, uh, you can word it better, I guess.
• 1:05:01
  A movie from your youth that like really scared you and you think it might still frighten you.
• 1:05:07
  Or even if you don't think it's gonna scare you as much, you just remember it was really good because it scared the crap out of you when you were younger.
• 1:05:14
  Scary movie as a kid. Haven't visited it.
• 1:05:17
  Uh-huh.
• 1:05:17
  What happens?
• 1:05:18
  Okay.
• 1:05:18
  Yeah.
• 1:05:19
  So, um, we are going to watch from 1990. It's actually a dark horror comedy, Arachnophobia.
• 1:05:26
  Oh, Arachnophobia. Interesting.
• 1:05:29
  A new species of South American killer spider hitches a lift to a California town in a coffin and starts to breed, leaving trail of death and puzzle to terrify, uh, young Dr. Ross.
• 1:05:40
  Death and puzzles.
• 1:05:42
  Yeah. Stars Jeff Daniels, Julian Sands, John Goodman.
• 1:05:46
  Oh, John Goodman's in this, huh?
• 1:05:49
  And I put this on a few months back and spiders creep me out, so I turned it off.
• 1:05:56
  I ain't never seen it.
• 1:05:57
  I've never seen it either.
• 1:05:59
  Spiders creep me out. And there's some spider stuff just at the very beginning that just kind of put me on edge. And I was like, you know what? I think this may bug me a bit as we go throughout the movie.
• 1:06:10
  It'll bug you, you say? I'm excited for this. Movies I've seen as a kid that scared me, how will it hold up now?
• 1:06:19
  I've— I had a couple that, uh, as a kid scared the crap out of me, but they've already been crossed off the list because I watched them again and they don't scare me.
• 1:06:26
  Yeah, I got one that we just watched this last month, The Wizard of Oz. Yeah, wouldn't that be something?
• 1:06:37
  Wizard of Oz. No, it'd be tricky to think of one that I haven't revisited. Hmm.
• 1:06:42
  I got one.
• 1:06:43
  Time Bandits, probably, right?
• 1:06:45
  That may have scared me. I don't know. That scared me so bad I forgot all about it.
• 1:06:48
  God, I wish that would have been on the Columbia House slot.
• 1:06:51
  It'll never happen, Keith.
• 1:06:53
  Oh, it's, it's, I do believe it's on the wheel for later in the year still.
• 1:06:56
  Yeah. Are we doing, uh, vetoes? For the end of the year wheel, we should.
• 1:07:04
  Yep, I think we should, just in case.
• 1:07:07
  Just in case.
• 1:07:09
  Well, yeah, Terry, you and me are gonna need to use them to get rid of, uh, Madame Web and Green Lantern. Green Lantern. Then Derek gets to mess with us for at least one of them.
• 1:07:19
  So yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens.
• 1:07:21
  We got time to figure this out.
• 1:07:23
  We do. We got plenty of time. About, uh, 2 months.
• 1:07:26
  That's actually not that long.
• 1:07:28
  Yeah, no, it isn't that long at all.
• 1:07:30
  No, it'll be here in like a week.
• 1:07:31
  Feels like it. All right, boys, we did it. We got all the way through M10. We're on to M11, which is things that scared you shitless when you were a youth. Don't eat too much because they might scare the shit out of you still. That sums it up, right?
• 1:07:49
  I think that sums it up.
• 1:07:50
  Yeah, yeah. I mean, Even if you don't have— even if you don't have to tell your boss, just something that scared you a lot.
• 1:07:55
  We'll see what happens. All right. Well, I guess that leaves us with nothing to do other than to end this the way we end everything.
• 1:08:06
  Indeed.
• 1:08:07
  Here is, from Wales, Tom Jones, and he's magnificent. It's not unusual to be loved by anyone. It's not unusual to have fun with anyone. But when I see you hanging about with anyone, it's not unusual. It happens every day. No matter what you say, you find it happens all the time. Thanks for listening to Fun Fumbling Through Film. New episodes drop every Thursday. Got feedback or questions? Email us at fumblingthroughfilm@gmail.com. You can see our films to fumble before you tumble into the grave and other musings on Letterboxd at Fumble Through Film. The through is T-H-R-U. You can also follow Keith on Instagram at KG3030Lives and on Letterboxd at KG3030. Terry is on Letterboxd at Terry2099. Derek is on Letterboxd That's Derek, the number 9, and then the word 9. All original music is done by the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry, so hit him up for them bangers. Our new podcast logo is done by the delightful and talented Sanjay Vicky Nayak. You can find her on Instagram @eikstein. That's Einstein with a K in there. We'll see you next week as we keep on fumbling.