Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / We're No Angels (1955) - Michael Curtiz | Houselights #265

Transcript

We're No Angels (1955) - Michael Curtiz | Houselights #265 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the ned Palty.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to House Lights, our discrector discussion show here
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: on the Nerd Party Network. This week, we're finishing our
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: look at the selected works of Michael Curtiz with the
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: VistaVision holiday comedy We're No Angels, starring Humphrey Bogart, Peter
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Ustinoff and Al doy Ray as three escape convicts on
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Devil's Island. This play to movie to adaptation is filled
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: with humor and wit. I'm your host this evening, Darren Moser,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: one of three escape convicts, and I'm joined again by
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: general store owner who's just in the back, Tristan Riddell,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: and his cousin business Empire owner John Mills. Oh, it's
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Christmas Eve, eighteen ninety five. Time to give our ratings.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: As soon as we wash the dishes, of course, let's
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: discuss We're No Angels, so John, Yes. Unfortunately Tristan, the
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: shop owner in the back, is going to stay in
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: the back the rest of this recording as he was
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: unable to join us tonight. But I'm really excited about
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: talking with you, and maybe we'll find a scribbled note
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: or two on the receipts with his input towards the end.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: You know, we'll have to go through these books, Darren,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and we'll have to see what those bread crumb he's left.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: You know, he said he found the small colorful necklace
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: in his uncle's bed shirt. But he didn't get bitten.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: It was just he got a little missed. Okay, okay,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Nick on his finger.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Well, if you haven't seen that movie, that's that's very bad.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: But no, yes, so yes, indeed.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: This one. I mean we joke often about Riddell family favorites,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: and this is a a Moser family favorite as far
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: as my immediate family, like not saying my parents, but
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: our family. My wife and I h this is one
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: of our favorite Christmas movies to watch each year. You know,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: she's a huge Humphrey Bogart fan was very offended when
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Tristan gave Casablanca for last week, so she shouldn't be. No,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: we're not gonna we're not gonna let him forget that.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: But now this movie, I mean, we go from Casablanca
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: to this in like three years, like a matter of years.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: It is such a change for uh, for Helpy Bogarten
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: or sorry, like a decade a decade.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: What I said I was gonna be like, yeah, wait,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I'm bad at math, but I'm not there.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Forty two to fifty five. You're right, a decade plus,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: but still it it gives you that sense of when
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: you give an actor something that they can chew on,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: like Humphrey Bogart is enjoying the comedy of this. His
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: dry Martini humor is so well played in this. So
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: all that for setup. I've watched this movie dozens of
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: times every Christmas for a long while. But John, I mean,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: do I even have to say what you thought going
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: into this? Did you even know this movie existed before
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: I revealed it?
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: So okay, No, I was familiar. There's another movie. I
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: haven't seen this one either, but there's another movie from
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the eighties I want to say eighty eight or eighties, yeah,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: starring Robert de Niro and Sean Penn called We're No
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Angels about two crooks who disguise themselves as Catholic priests
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to try to make their getaway or something like that.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And of course hijenks and Sue. If I remember the commercials,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Name and the loosest of threads is all that connects.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: It is really not remotely close to this, so you're
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: not missing anything watching trying to compare.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: This is a This is a very It's interesting because
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: for me it's a very closed movie, but I knew
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: nothing about it going in. It's very obvious that it's
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: a set the whole time, which is interesting because of
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the fact that it opens up and goes VistaVision and
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, wow, vista vision, and then I
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: don't think that they really it is a colorful.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Use of it, but not like you know, Spartacus or
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: you know anything. There's no vista, right, there's vision.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: There's some vision, not too much vista in this one.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: But I think that to you know, to your point,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I think this is very much something that Bogart felt
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: comfortable getting back into because he started on the stage, right,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and this very much plays like a filmed stage play.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: It's very obviously a play story that is told with cameras.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing is I didn't find this specifically.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: But was this a play before? Was this an adaptation
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: or was this originally written for the screen?
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: No, this was was a play before. There's actually a
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: little bit of legal trouble, so this came out, you know,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: in fifty five, and there was a well known play
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: that came out in fifty three that was called My
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Three Angels, and that was based on a short story
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: kind of treatment that came from you know, many years
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: before that, and basically the writers of We're No Angels,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: the movie we just watched, tried to get the rights
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: from the original play, did not succeed, made the movie anyway,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: and said, oh, we're referencing the original story, but we
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: took like ninety percent of what you had in your
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: play and then got a nice lawsuit. So yeah, yes,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: it is also based on a play. But even if
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: they didn't admit it.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: You know, it's it's fascinating, like sort of the way
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: that things worked back then was like people would just
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: be like, I ask for forgiveness.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: It is very much an ask for forgiveness. State.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Well, it's just it's so interesting because nowadays, I know
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: from some of my own exposure to some conversations, lawyers
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: are much more skittish.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: I don't think that this gets made today.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Like not without the approach.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: See that sort of thing happened, right, There's no way
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: this gets greenlit without it. And it's so funny to
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: go back to Hollywood and just see them say screw you,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? That'd be like, and then
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: the person saying like, well, as a matter of fact,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: I will.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: It's like Wicked just came out and they couldn't get
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: the rights to the play, so they said, oh, well,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: we're basing it off of the Wizard of Oz. Even
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: though the Wizard of Oz has nothing like the story
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: of Wight. It's exactly like that and it probably blew
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: up in their face. But yeah, they mean, this movie
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: made three million and fifty five. I've I have no
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: idea what its budget is it. I don't even know
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: if it was successful pre or post video release or
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: anything like that. But that doesn't matter. We're not We're
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: a director podcast, not a box mojo podcast.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: And that's but that's that's the question, right, is like,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: where do you see the director in things?
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: That's what we're always looking for.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: So I look at The Adventures of Robin Hood and
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I look at Casablanca, and I think Casablanca looks even
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: though even though it's in black and white, Casablanca looks
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: more beautiful. There are more shots that I look at
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, that's gorgeous. That's absolutely beautiful the way
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: that it's lit, and I think that it's a work.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: And so now we're seeing Curtiz back in color, because
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: he's in color with the Adventures of Robinhood. Now he's
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: in color here, and I I'm beginning to think that
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: he was meant for black and white film as opposed
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to color film, because there's you know, I know that
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: some of it is the processing and stuff like that,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: but it feels like a lot of opportunity for shadow
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: and effective lighting is lost in the name of light
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: it well enough that the color comes across and it's difficult.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: No, I think you're onto something because this is a
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: very flat movie color and lighting wise, it does not
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: have very much depth. I can't even think of a
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: single shallow depth of field shot in the entire movie.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: And that's not necessarily a bad thing that that's how
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: it goes. But it's definitely, like we said, not there's
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: no vista for all of this. So ultimately, I think
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: the strongest suit, even though it's not visually, is the
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: is the writing. The dialogue. It is so snappy. I
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: often will say a comedy is real memorable to me
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: if it has those quotable lines. It has to have them.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: I don't know a single comedy I don't love that
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: doesn't have and there there's just so many lines delivered.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think one of my favorites is from
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Joseph who is you know, Humphrey Bogart. He's like, you know,
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: we came here to rob them. That's what we're gonna do.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Beat their heads in guyage, their eyes out, cut their
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: throats as soon as we wash the dishes. Like it
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: is just it all these like bits where these are
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: not good men, but they're kind of leaning into the
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: heart of gold aspect.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I guess, you know, I think that this is an
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: old trope where it's like it's the we're willing to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: forgive them being murderers and thieves because they killed other
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: bad people, right, so we always make this sort of
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: moral agreement with ourselves as an audience to say, well,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: they didn't kill the nice people, so that's fine. Oh,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: it's like and it skirts that line as we go through.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: But although, I mean, although Ray's character he killed his
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: uncle just because he wouldn't give him money, But it's like, okay,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: you know, like for some reason there's I think there's
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: a cultural part of us. It's like, well, yeah, somebody
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: won't share. So there's almost like that childish part of
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: us where I'm gonna slug him on the playground because
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: he didn't share, sort of thing. I'm not saying that's
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: good kids. I'm not saying raise your kids that way.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying there's sort of a primal aspect to that.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: But you know, you talk about the dialogue. My question
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: to you would be is do you think that the
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: editing supports the snappiness of the dialogue, because that is
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: definitely something I struggled with where You're right, there are
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: good lines like that, but there are times where the
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: joke you could have landed a plane in the amount
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: of time it took you to get to the punchline,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and it's like, it really feels like the editing does
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: not do anything to that delivery.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: I think with certain characters. I think for Felix, the dad,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: he is a very slow delivery guy, like he's his
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: trope is kind of the bumbling I'm kind of childish.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not really there. You know, I'm doing my best,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: but everything is kind of just happening to him. He
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: doesn't really instigate anything in this movie. So yeah, there's
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: not much in his lines. I think. I think Bogart
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: is the best deliverer of lines in the whole thing.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: But but I see your point that there are times
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: where you know, I just read that quote, and I
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: read it rather quick, but it doesn't necessarily guarantee that
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: if you watch that quote, it's going to come across
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: the same speed. And and you're right, half of a
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: joke is the timing and how it lands well.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: And I think that there are also moments where the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: like the uh, there are moments where it's like, oh,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: somebody came in up front, and it takes just as
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: long for somebody to walk to go to interact with
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the old woman that came into the store as it
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: would to watch them walk from one side of stage
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: of the stage to the other. And I'm sitting there
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: in my brain practically screaming, you could edit this. You
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: can just say there's somebody out front, cut he's walking in.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: You've saved And I know this sounds silly, but you
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: saved three precious seconds of my time to get me
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to land there quicker. And the thing is the editor
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Arthur Schmidt, he worked on films by Billy Wilder. He
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: produced on seven Jerry Lewis movies. So I think the
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: issue you might be that he's editing for a certain
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: type of film, comedy, where there's a lot of visual
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: energy going on in frame. I don't think that visual
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: energy exist in this blocking because it is a lot
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: of dialogue humor. It's dialogue humor that's missing the slapstick
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of the three stooges to sustain the dialogue, and that's
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: where the cut sort of lets it down, I think.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: And who knows this? That could have been a direction
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: to oh, we this is a play. It's like a
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: thirty five minute play and we have to stretch it
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: out to you know, an hour forty six or something
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: like that. Maybe not that much of a stretch, but
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: you know where the editing is looser to kind of
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: make it feature length feel. But maybe there's not enough
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: meat on that story bone that if it had been
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: edited a little quicker, you lose like thirty minutes of runtime,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden you're like, well, then why
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: did we spend all this time when it's not even
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: long enough.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: That But that's exactly right. It's one hundred and six minutes.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: And there's one cardinal rule of comedy, is it fast? Yeah,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: you know, don't give the audience time to ponder a joke.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Just just move quick. And the thing is, I know
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: this film is special to you. I know you love it.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: So I'm not like trying to numb're on it here.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying like, there are definitely moments one hundred
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: and six minutes. I would bring this down in ninety minutes,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and I think that solves all of the issues I
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: have with it if you just.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Trim it the way.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: And there are definitely moments where you feel like you
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: hear the the walking across the stage, like it feels
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: like you're feeling every step, whereas hey, it's not a play.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: You don't have to wait for your actor to get across.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: You can cut or trim. Yeah, it's and especially for
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: a movie that relatively takes place in one location, the
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: shop like it is, you know, and the and the
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: house outside and the roof on top. But besides that,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: you know, we're up at the front port maybe a
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: handful of minutes. But it's a very singular location type
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: of movie. U. Now, there are some other actors you
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: know in this obviously, Humphrey Bogart is the big name,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: you know, Alder Ray. I hadn't seen anything besides this,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: but Peter Eustenoff name caught my eye that he has
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: been in in lots of things. He's been parrot in
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: a couple of movies. He's and he's got also one
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: of those voices that just I think he's done lots
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: of animation as well.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: Yep, he has, he absolutely has.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: And although I think Although Ray was in Secretive Nim
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: as one of the characters for some reason, Yes, I
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: think he was, uh and actually, uh, there's one of
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: his kids was Eric de Ray, who was a He
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: played Leo Johnson in Twin Peaks, one of my favorite
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: TV shows of all time. So you know, go figure.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: So there's Hollywood Royalty line on that. But yeah, I
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: think he was in Secretive Nim. But Eustonof was like
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: every time, yeah, yeah.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: No, he he definitely had a big peak and I
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: like his delivery in this. Uh. It's interesting though, you know,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: let's circle around to Basle Rathbone for a moment, because
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: I think that's another maybe not large name, but a
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: known name like and this is one of the first
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: films that he had done after kind of rounding out
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: his tenure as Sherlock Holmes, And so he's kind of
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: getting back into the I can play other things, you know,
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: besides he played He's playing the battie, He's playing the
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh. I mean, you know, he dies, but I
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: don't feel sorry for him at all. Like he is
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: such a despicable person, greedy and scrooge like and manipulative.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: But see, isn't that the thing that gets back to
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: we're willing to forgive him because they murdered bad people.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: He was, you know, the snake they happened to not
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: tell him that. It was not a bad idea, No, it's.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: But but what you're saying is like, we don't feel
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: pity because he was a nasty man. And it's like, sure,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: he was a nasty man, but you know, you flip
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: it around to his perspective. I mean, because we love
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: doing that now. We love playing sympathy for the villain.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Look at Wicked, which you mentioned earlier. Okay, this is
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: a dude who's poured a ton of money into this
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: store and his inept relative is just losing money left
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: and right.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: And getting robbed blind. I'd be pretty pissy too, like
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: I'd show up people like, okay, this is.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: This The story gives him enough negative characteristics that we
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: feel justified for sure passing. But no, but you're right,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: they're on paper on the printed receipt that comes like
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: a fruit roll up out of the role. You know,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: he's not wrong. He's he's a businessman in the eighteen hundreds,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Well, but his you know, his son, Yeah, his son's
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: a total dbat. Yeah, absolutely, that guy's just try Paul.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Or well John Barret. But yes, Paul was and and
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: again you have it's very you know, we say comedy,
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: but it's also a little romance. It's a little you know,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: coming of age, a little story, but it's a very
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: interesting Like I even said, it's kind of a Christmas
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: movie because it kind of takes place at Christmas, but
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: it's kind of a little bit of everything. It doesn't
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: neatly fit in any category.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, you know, taking place on Christmas in
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: the Islands, so you get this sort of vibe going
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: with it, which is, you know, you know, they were
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: prefiguring the cruise industry of the modern world, where everybody
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: goes to the Islands for Christmas on a cruise. I
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: think that I think that setting it on Christmas is interesting,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: but to your point, doesn't ever really play into it,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: except unless you want to shit really really hard and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: be like, oh, look they're using their evil powers for
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: good because they're redeeming.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I wish I could remember the explanation fully,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: but I found an article years ago that talked about
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Christmas movies and it had classified them as different like levels.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Like a level one was literally about Christmas, like almost
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: biblical like the you know, the christ story, you know,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: or or something like Santa Claus. And then as it
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: gradually got farther and farther from that, you eventually reached
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: things that like happened to take place at Christmas, like
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: like Gremlins. Like Gremlins is technically at Christmas, but I
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: wouldn't call it a Christmas movie in that regard. So
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: and then you have Diehard somewhere in the middle, and
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: you know, stuff like that. So, uh, this this one
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: is it takes place at Christmas, but yeah it is not.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: You know, I happen to watch it seasonally at Christmas
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: time just because that's what we do. But it is
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: that level for Christmas movie that is in name only.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I love that there are levels to Christmas movies because
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: that explains a lot about life and why there are
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: so many things where somebody's like, that's not a Christmas movie?
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: What are you talking about? But you know that's fair enough.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: I think that there's like you can twist yourself into
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: reasoning why it's Christmas. I just wish there was more direct,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: sort of some way to tie it that, just something
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: a little bit more direct about it, like that the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: family forces them to go to church with them, right,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and they're sitting in there and they realize, oh, and
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: we've been doing things the wrong way. Okay, well we'll
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: kill these people and then we'll turn ourselves in at
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the end. Because I honestly think that this movie gets
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: away with what it does, especially in this era of film,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: because at the end, they decide to go back to prison, right,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: So there's no escape there. They're scott free, they're going
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: to get away, and they choose to go back for
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: their punishment, granted with snake in hand, right, but what
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: are you going to do?
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, you're right. And again, this is definitely a
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: nostalgia one. For me, it's you know, it's fun, it's comforting.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: You know, I know all the lines it pops up
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: and is just replaying in my mind as I'm watching it.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm not like, oh, that's right, I forgot
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: about this now. I don't forget anything about this movie.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: It's so simple and straightforward. But it's also just it's
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: a chuckle movie. It's a movie where you know, they
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: say the different lines and you get a little bit
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: of laughs in there. It's definitely not a take it
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: too serious movie. That's that's for sure.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Yes, that is for sure.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I think that the the one part of the movie where,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: like you know, I'm talking about I bring it down
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to an hour and a half, is I really Gloria
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Talbot doesn't seem completely.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Look, I'm not just Gonn Isabelle the Daughter.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Isabelle the Daughter, but also aldough Ray. Those are you know,
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: those are the.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Two performers in this film where it feels like they're
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: there because their contract demanded it, where it was like, look,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: you're gonna do this movie, You're gonna do this other movie,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and they were both like, oh, well, Bogart's going to
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: be in this one. Yeah, okay, we'll do this one right.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like a And there are a lot
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: of movies like this from this time period where it's
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: like their contract, Oh, this is studio, they're going to
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: be in something, and it's like that's just it. They're
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: got to be in something, kid, So which one is
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: it gonna be?
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: All right?
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I'll take this one. And it's just like you know,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I was available. I just don't think that her character
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: gives her a lot of opportunity to do anything interesting.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: No, she's very scenery and propish in that a lot
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: of stuff is happening to her. I mean this is
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: also I mean we're I said at the beginning, this
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: is our selected works of Curtiz, because my goodness, like
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: that man put out like six movies a year for
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: like decades like that. He was just cranking them out.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: So this is just another one that I happened to
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: be familiar with. And you know, it would take us
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: a year to cover the entire collective works of this man.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: So we're picking and choosing for sure.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: No, but what's interesting is that, like the actor's name
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: is John Smith. I mean, wow, to be the guy
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: in Hollywood that had that name, congratulations sir. And he
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: plays the medical officer that they some like he exists
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: just so Isabelle can have a happy ending with guy.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: And what's crazy is he has more screen presence in.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: His soul, much screen presence.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: But in like thirty six seconds than all, I'm like,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: I would rather had Aldough Ray be this dude and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: have this dude in I think he would have brought
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: real life to Eustonov and Bogart. I honestly, I honestly
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: feel in my heart that although Ray was just not
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the right actor in this trio, and I think the
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: movie suffers because of it. I think Bogart is definitely
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: he's showing up and he's playing a stage play. Eustonov
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: is being Houstonov, which is just I'm British charming, cool,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: that's work. And although Ray it's almost like you can
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: see him and I'm not making any comment against the
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: guy or anything like that, but in this specific instance,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: he very much comes across as a guy who's waiting
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: for his line. He's like, Okay, I'm gonna wait, Yeah,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna wait. This is what I say now, and
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: then he's done, and it doesn't. He's he never feels
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: comfortable with what he is expected.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Like there's even one line I don't remember where it
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: takes place, but I reckon I remember, you know, Albert
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Aldo Rey where he's kind of like, I don't I
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: don't even know what to do in this moment, like
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: and it almost feels like a flub, Like it's the
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: most natural sounding he's been in the entire movie, and
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: it's probably a mistake.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah he was.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: He's actually asking Curtiz for reaction, right, and Curtiz was
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: just like, you know what, we're gonna keep because it didn't.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Just break the fourth wall, but it the way he
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: delivered it was so oh, that's what it was. It
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: was like when they're unsure if they should tell Felix
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: about or not Felix, no, not Andre tell him about
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: the snake and he's like, why don't I tell him?
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: Like it felt very yeah, different than every other line,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: and he delivered in this.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: Right well.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: And that's and that's also like when they're sitting at
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the table debating what to do about telling Andre about
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: the snake, like that just takes too long, Like that
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: could have been that scene could have been shrunk down
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: to like a minute tops, and instead it's just like
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: we get it there, Okay, let's heighten the reality here
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and find some other way to soak up the time,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: you know, with everything.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: And it's.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: What's difficult, is I get why this becomes a holiday classic.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: I get it. I understand.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying we'll find out at the end of
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the episode where I landed with it, but like I
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like taking my own self out of it,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: you can look at this and you can see why
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: somebody would be like, oh I get to see Bogie
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: in a comedy. Oh cool, Right, this isn't you know
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: a treasure of this Pierra Madre or Casablanca or anything heavy.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Is the lightest Bogart movie I've seen him ever be in.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Right, So that, in and of itself, I think, is
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: where the movie is trying to really lean where it's
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: like Humphrey Bogart, like you never see him anywhere else,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: And it's like, well that is a plus because I
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: love Bogee and I like sometimes you just like seeing
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: an actor stepping out of his element and doing something
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: completely different, Like you know what, this is not a
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: one to one, but like Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: The whole joy of that is figuring out that it's
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Tom Cruise and going oh wow, oh that is the
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: last thing I would expect Tom Cruise.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: To do well. And yeah, I think for me or
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: this is definitely the type of Christmas movie where it
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: is very important if you were raised on it, meaning
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: like if it was something you grew up on, or
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: it was a classic or something like that, are you
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: in part that bit of nostalgia? It goes a long way.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: So for that, you know, that's my wife like watching
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: it over and over, you know, growing up and then
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: carrying that through to our family. I think for me
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: it makes me think of like a Christmas Story. Christmas
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Story is a great movie, but I have no personal
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: connection to it. We didn't watch it growing up, we
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: didn't own a copy. I watched it super infrequently, so
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: I do not have a nostalgic draw to that movie.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: And I think it's one of those movies that a
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: nostalgic draw helps. I'm not saying it's flat without it,
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: but it definitely rounds the sharp corners.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: It's the type of thing that can take an amusing
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: film to a tradition. I get that absolutely, and it's
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: you know, that's a fair point because this is a
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: movie that's been around for so long that how can
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: you possibly, you know, begrudge something like that. But you know, additionally,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: there are certain things that are vestiges of the time
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: that I wanted to ask about, Because have you shown
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: this movie to your kids?
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Ah, I'm trying to recall now I think we have. Yeah, no,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: we've shown it because it's you know, it's tame, is
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: all get out like there's it is. Yeah.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, though, although y does a couple
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: of that is true. I think we showed the jokes
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: and also a couple of like physical touch moments where
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: it's kind of like, oh, if I had a son,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I'd be like, hey, you don't don't behave like that guy.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: That is it's played for humor.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: It's been a couple of months since Christmas, and I'm
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: trying to recall if we we have, so I can't
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: definitively remember if we've shown it to them.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: But but but but to your point, that stuff is
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: all played in such a way.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, kids will it would go over their head.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they won't get it at all. So I guess
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: that's to its advantage whatever. And you know, and the
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: thing is, there are things that I legitimately enjoy, Like
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I think Ustinov when he's doing a safe cracking bit
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: where he runs his hands up, he's sensuously running his
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: hands over.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Here to strike a spot.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: He does a little karate chop very lightly, and the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: thing just whatever it is, whether it's a door, a safer,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: a suitcase, it just opens for him. That's very cute. Yeah,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: it's a very cute bit.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: It's like, man, we're safe that bad back then, because
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: you know he's not even picking it. He's just like thump,
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: yeah yeah, no, not at all, not at all. No, Yeah,
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: he's you know, forging documents and you know all of that.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Like they they were interesting. I think that was also
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: what kind of hurt Aldo raised characters. He was kind
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: of the the dumb muscle. I guess, like if I
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: had to define him as a as a role, there
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: was just nothing else, you know, the womanizer, the there
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: wasn't a lot to chew on with like that character
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: that made it comical.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: It was he was just kind of there, yeah he
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: will yes. I think he was trying to play for comedy.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: I think that this is one of those instances where
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I will wind up siding with Roger Ebert. I think
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: that Kurtise was the wrong director for this. Honestly, I
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: think that this is not playing to Curtiz's strength as director.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: And I think that there are other directors. I mean,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: we mentioned Billy Wilder was you know, Arthur Schmidt worked
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: with him. There are certain directors that know how to
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: get comedy out, and there are certain directors who know
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: how to get drama out. And I think that Bogart
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: knows how to just do stage comedy easy because he
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: remembers it. It's a muscle and he's just flexing it here.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: And Ustinov is just naturally you know, he's that guileless,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: britt right archetype.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: And those are always going to be your one in
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: your your number one and your number two. You're you're
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: going to give Bogart the number one lines, the best lines,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: the best bits. Ald Rey is not going to get
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: that role, wouldn't want it, just wouldn't work with his ability.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: But also just I don't think a Bogert would be
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: on a movie where he's not like the best parts.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, no, no, I mean Bogart. I mean this
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: is sadly only what this is only what two years
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: away from Bogart getting ill.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: It wasn't too far.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: It was it was like fifty seven or fifty eight
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: where Bogart because he was getting ready to do a
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: film with Lauren MacCall and he was having trouble eating
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and he had a persistent cough and then they found
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: out the.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he died January fifty seven, And so if this
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: came out in fifty five, that's only a matter of years.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, this came out in July of fifty five,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: which makes the Christmas thing even weirder, right, Okay, yeah, Like,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: come on, guys, but if that's in.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: The story, I mean, I think they were less about
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: it's a Christmas movie and we have to release it.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: Was more like, we made the movie, why would we
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: not release it?
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: I have but but but but I'll counter that by
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: saying in the pre home release days and the pre
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: television craze, like tell TV's just catching on now, it's
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: not fully entrenched the same way. Although of course I
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: know Vista Vision was an answer to TV and Tristan,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: you know, from the back room he's probably melting down
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: with some obscure fact that he's angry that I'm not
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: in possession of or whatever. But like, you know, this
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: is one of those things where I think it would
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: have been more important than ever. You know, like this
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: is the time where it's important to release it around
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Christmas because it's said at Christmas, and people aren't going
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: to be able to go to their local Blockbuster or
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Netflix and just be like, yeah, you know what, I'm
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: gonna watch that this Christmas like you got to strike
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: while the iron is hot sort of thing. I mean,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: that's that's just my take on it. But to think
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: that he's he's dead only you know, this is July
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: of fifty five, he's dead in January fifty seven, that's.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: I mean he made dream movies in fifty five or
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: that were released in fifty five and one in fifty six,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: so I mean he was still making two to three
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: movies a year back then. Yeah.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's but I would argue, like what's interesting
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: is that you can definitely see Bogart is not the
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: same Bogart that he was in Cost of Life. Oh No,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: but you know, I'm look, I'm not being I'm not
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I'm not like contracting, but it is obvious, right, But
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: I think, honestly it might be sitting in the back
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: of my brain that I knew he was going to
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: punch out shortly after this movie. So I'm sort of
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: looking at him with a more critical eye, as like,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: do I see signs here that that he might not
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: know he's ill yet? And I think that if you
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: really look at it, you can kind of he looks
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: a little he looks a little too wan, he looks
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: like almost unhealthy thin for his frame at certain points.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: So you know, but that could very easily just be
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: me with that extra knowledge looking behind sight. Yeah yeah,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: and being like trying to find it. But it's you know,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: I think that.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, this movie is seventy years old, so which
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: is crazy.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know that. But that's another thing too,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: It's like that that is what's nuts is had I
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: encountered this as a kid, my dad would have pointed
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: out although Ray's behavior definitely and sort of been like,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, I just chuckled, but it's because that's
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: not cool. I'd have taken that guy out if I'd
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: seen him do something, you know, like that sort of thing.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: And it's like, what's tough is a movie like this
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: needs a parental not necessarily a parent, but an older sibling,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: a cousin, an uncle and aunt, a grandparent, a parent,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: whomever to do that sort of course corrective thing. I
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: think it would be disorder for somebody to see a
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: seventy year old movie like this that is considered so
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: tame and be like, well, why is that funny what
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: he does?
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: And it's like, I think that's some important I think
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: that's important for.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: Me, especially since the all those parts we're talking about
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: are attributed to the protagonists. I'm not gonna say heroes
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: or even good guys, but like they are they are
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: definitely not the black hats. They are definitely not you know,
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: they don't die, they're not you know, killed. So yeah,
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: it and maybe we're reading a bit into emulation because
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: obviously that's not the ultimate goal of this. It's entertainment
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: and all of that. But right, you know, we the
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: come up and we get from uh, you know, we
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: you know, we talked about not feeling like Andre shouldn't
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: have died, but we're also again in a I think
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: back to the play environment of like, oh he's the Yeah,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: you know, of course he gets his come up and
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: then he and in a comical way where he does
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: it to himself because he's just such a terrible person.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: If anything, and this is me being some people might
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: think I'm being too generous, but if anything, it's Shakespearean
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the way this movie is put together. And by that
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: I mean I don't mean that it's on the level
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: of the immortal works of the Bard. I mean that
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: it's the same sensibility as his low humor that he
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: puts in there, where it's like it's purposely, you know,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: to borrow phrase, playing to the cheap seats, and it's
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: it's constructed in such a way that like, yeah, you're
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: going here, and it's this odd sort of Catharsis, Like
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I go to a drama to cry at the end
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: because that's going to get that out of me. And
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: I come to this movie and they are the three convicts,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: but I'm seeing that they're maybe a little more charming,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Like these are guys that I might be like the
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: wife where I'm like, don't hang around with those people,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: but you find out that they're not necessarily the worst
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: people in certain circum stances. Sort of thing, and it's like,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: you know, okay, and we've seen.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Movies where you know, criminals have a code, you know,
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: have something where they won't cross their line. And even
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: though they talk a big game, you know, there is
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: kind of a code implied in how they act where
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: they they don't kill the family. They don't you know,
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: get what it gouge their eyes out and rob them,
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: you know, beat their heads in. Now, granted, it's left
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: very ambiguous as if like maybe they would have like
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: it's it's very unknown, but on this day, on this
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: Christmas day, you know, they chose chose peace and to
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: turn themselves in for some reason. But well, I think
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: I think we're about spent on this movie because not
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: only is it so short, there's only two of us,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: and I feel often when there's only two of us
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: to carry the conversation, we round third a little sooner
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: than the normal.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: But you well, let's be honest, we round third sooner
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: when the talker isn't here, and when Tristan isn't here,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: the show just moves a little more quickly. But that's okay,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: uh no, because he's still going to edit this one.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: But I think that you know, like it's one of
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: those things where you know, Tristan, we love you and
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: we want you to get better. We're gonna put up
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the big safe farrest sign here as our show art,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: so you know.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: You can just go. One knows, yes, he's absolutely fine.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: And in fact you might not even hear this conversation
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: because he he might edit it out. But I actually think,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: Darren that the the person best to go first is
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: the person that isn't here. I agree, and so I
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: am going to give actually, because he is communicated by
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: the long receipt. He's handwritten everything in his forged his
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: uncle's hand, and uh, this is These are Tristan's final thought. Michael,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: you know what, let me read this dramatically enough. Michael
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Kurtiz directs Humphrey Bogart in a technical or Christmas comedy
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: about convicts doing bookkeeping, which is roughly as coherent as
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: it sounds. The total discord is jarring. Bogart scowls through
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: his scenes about profit margins like he's being held hostage.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Ustinov performs as though auditioning for a different movie. This
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: film cannot decide whether it's noir or an off Broadway play,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: so it splits the difference, it becomes neither. Curtiz has
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Vista Vision at his disposal and uses it to film
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: people standing at a counter watching Rick Blaine do his taxes.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Add off the vipers. Literally the deis ex machina, except
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: the machine is a reptile that conveniently bites whoever the
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: script needs dead. It's the laziest dramatic device I've seen
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: outside of a tornado killing Ah Kent. At least commit
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: to the absurdity, or don't do.
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: It at all.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Two stars, one for the snakes Agent, one for Bogart's
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: barely concealed contempt for the material, and that, Wow, pladies
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: and gentlemen, is Tristian Medell's final thoughts and rating for
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: we are Knowing.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: You sounded just like him. I thought he was here
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: in the room with us.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: You know, I've been honing my impersonation of Tristan, and
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: I feel that right now you nobody could tell the difference.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Right now, our listeners, you could have made all that up,
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: and is so convincing that they would believe you.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: I was not reading from a piece of paper. I
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: was channeling Tristan.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: That's what I was doing, all right, Well, I'll give
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: my rating second, even with nostalgia, even with enjoying this movie. Yes,
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: it has a lot of its flaws. It is not
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: a Christmas classic by any means, but it is enjoyable,
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: especially maybe on repeat viewings. Especially with the dialogue. I
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: think it maybe softens the pacing a bit as you're
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: just kind of playing it back. And this is definitely
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: a watch in the background movie. You could just put
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: it on and still get the same amount of enjoyment,
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: you know. I'm just thinking of Tristan's Gnar versus versus
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: Christmas or split the difference. Sheesh. Yes, so I'm giving it.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: I'm giving you a three again. I will still watch
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: this movie every Christmas. I know, I enjoy watching it
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: with my wife, but it's getting a one star bump
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: for the nostalgia and familiar connections.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: For me, I will come in with a two like Tristan,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: simply because I don't think that this will ever become
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: a holiday classic for me. I think that, like I
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: was saying earlier, I get why it works for some people,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: and that.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying that is like for some people. I'm
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: not being.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: Dismissed the way that maybe Tristan would be. I'm saying that,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: like I see where this could work, it just doesn't
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: work for me. And I think that the part I
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: struggle with the most is I think that the whole
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Daughter's subplot could be cut completely. I don't think it
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: adds anything. I think it's sixteen minutes too long. And
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: I think that although Ray God Bless Him is just
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: not right for this part. And I think those things
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: combined to take something that I feel like was within
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: reach of becoming like a two and a half or three,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: and just rooting it to a two. It's just those
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: two things I can't get past. So you know, that's
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: that's all three of us.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: I agree, although I will also add that if we
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: were to ask Tristan, I'm pretty sure how he felt
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: about the editing of this movie. I could just picture,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: oh guys, oh no.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Actually, strangely enough, I forgot no, no, there's actually a
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: paragraph that I was cutting for time. Tristan actually wrote
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: a whole pair about how he thinks that this editing
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: deserved an Oscar and like the film doesn't deserve an
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: editor this good. We'll have to ask him next week
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: why he feels next time. Next time, next time.
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, that rounds out this small chapter of
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: Michael Curtiz again, the man directed so so many movies.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: But next week we have an exciting adventure. We're beginning
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: here on Houselights the wing of Sherlock Holmes as we
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: journey through many different iterations of the famed character, starting
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: with nineteen thirty nine's The Hound of the Baskervilles, where
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: Sherlock is played by Basil Rathbone. Next on house Lights,
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: Join the Revolution, Join the net Party,