Father Malone's Weekly Roundup - Guest Co-Host HP - Here, Clue, Hardcore Henry

Weird.

We welcome back Midnight.

You was Father them Alone's weekly round Up. I am Father Alone and with me as always, it's a miss

Thank you.

I'm just sitting here making my famous sharks Fin soup and listening to Shake, Rattle and Roll, and I'm happy to be here.

Thanks for having me.

Oh my god. It's a foretelling. It's a forbearance. It's a harbing joke of things. Yeah, I love it.

Trend it around on you.

Now listen, Rip, you don't get first pick. Technically HP is getting first pick here and and I am along with him. We are starting with a branded new film. We're gonna be talking about this one, probably for the majority of the episode. This is probably going to be a longer episode than usual. Nevertheless, probably worth it because if you hate baby boomers, oh man, you're my people,

Margaret, Nice to meet you.

Mister young.

Tom sure does find on that.

Sure does take a straight, too strong a course to the corner of.

Beloved make qun so fast. She hasn't gotten time to make you Stop time time we your time business is chch.

Right.

Here is where we want to be. You know, if you like, you could spend the rest of the night here, I could spend the rest of my life here.

Stop time. Time we do business is couch.

This was our home. We lived here HP you saw here I did, and we're both here.

You're there and I'm here, I'm.

Here, You're there.

Oh well, then either way it's better.

Than the movie we just saw. What was your opinion on the movie? Not to not to bury the lead?

So I may be in the minority father alone, But I really I always loved the movie Forrest.

Come.

Like I said, I know that's maybe an unpopular opinion.

Excuse me these days. So I was actually rather.

Looking forward to hear and when I saw the trailer, I figured I knew.

What to expect.

We've talked about Robert Zemeckis and his sort of flights of fancy. I don't know how else to describe them. His he loves pushing the envelope some.

Good and bad ends.

So I was looking forward to it, but I have to unfortunately I did not love this movie.

There were I did think.

There were some good points and some bad points, which I'm sure we'll go into, but if you're looking for like a capsule like review from me, it was rather disappointing.

Rather when I first saw the trailer and we first talked about the very first five the Malone's Weekly Round

So?

Oh, how coincidental that Benjamin Franklin was dropping by that particular bit of property. Well, anyway, I hope the gift shops open.

And I can see in my mind's eye the exhibits you're talking about, where you'd go up to it and maybe you'd press a button and the button would make the lighting inside of this exhibit change, and maybe a recorded voice would say, here's to nineteen fifty kids, and then maybe they play a little bit of Howdy duty and then you know.

But the karauselo progress thing.

I kind of had that in the back of my mind when I went in to see this movie. But no, I, like I said, there were some All the good points that I think we're going to go into are all technical in nature. There's nothing for me st wise, acting wise that I can really recommend this picture, which was really disappointing, because these are some fine actors.

Let's talk Robert Samkis for just a moment, shall we. Now you mentioned we've talked about it off air a lot. Robertson Mekis has always been a filmmaker, pushing the technological envelope of what you can do with filmmaking, what you can do with cameras, what you can do with other equipment. Let's do this animated film, and we'll make it look photo realistic. Let's make a movie about a guy on a desert island and he has to get thin, so

Ooh, that is a very very good question. Probably Forrest Gump. I guess Castaway came after Forrest.

Okay, so that's pretty good. I agree Castaway is a good movie. Take that back, and I like what lies beneath That movie got me. I responded to everything they were doing in that movie speaking of technological innovation, like there's so much wonderful like stuff that, you know, like the way Hitchcock would innovate with the camera, like Zamecas was like really firing as a filmmaker with that film.

I agree, And actually I can't help but agree with you that I'm actually I confess. I pulled up a list of his credits and yeah, Castaway for me is the last movie that I can say with any assurance that I thought was a good movie from Robert Samackis Bealo Wolf was that right after that Polar Express, he made this movie The Walk, which was a fictionalized telling of that that the story. There's a documentary Man on Wire about the Frenchman.

Who oh, yes, World Trade Center.

I saw that in the theater The Walker or.

Man on Wire, both Man and Wire was amazing. I loved Man on Wire. I did not think The Walk was necessary.

But what have you?

Welcome to Marwin, which was another fictionalized.

Version of a fucking fantastic documentary.

Yes, mar another, Yeah, exactly, another great documentary that they made a movie out of. He did Pinocchio, which I think was that over COVID whatever, over the pandemic, I.

Think maybe that sure, And here's the thing. It's completely unnecessary film. I didn't really respond to it all that much. But the ending is a better ending than Pinocchio, better than the centuries old Carlo calode original Fairies. They have a better ending in this movie. In that movie, it's not good. Don't watch it, but maybe check out the last ten minutes.

I agree, I agree, so, but that is stunning to as you dig into this, the fact that we have to reach back some what fifteen years or so to his last excellent, you know, agreed upon excellent movie.

When did he do Contact? I'll count contact.

Contact would have been nineteen ninety seven.

That's almost thirty years.

Now. That's a long time, and he's made a lot of movies in the interim, and none of them have been very good or memorable.

Yeah, and I'm gonna I'm going to chalk this one up as another beautiful failure from robertszamachas a plus on AFT as always.

But the stunning part for me is the fact that the acting was so overly melo dramatic and just didn't suit the caliber of actors that were on screen. That I'm sure a lot of that is down to the writing, but I think a lot.

A lot of that is down to this was a melodrama.

But I guess I don't know, it just didn't.

I guess if this movie were made in the eighties, let's say, maybe this style of acting would have suited the material a.

Little bit more. But I was and that's I guess.

It's part of it is me coming in with my own expectations about what I was going to experience. So maybe shame on me to a certain degree. But I mentioned this to you offline. There's this scene where I knew that there was no saving this movie was There's a scene where Paul Bettany's character is Tom Hanks's father, and he's this bit war veteran who is his dream

What did you think?

I couldn't agree with you more, particularly in the context of had this come out in nineteen eighty eight, then it would be perfectly in line with how the movie would have been acted then, but which makes no excuse for how it's acted now. And yes, Paul Bentany is terrible here, but guess what, there's a lot of terrible

Which is taken directly from the graphic novel. Though that has to be said, so I was expecting that, and I was anticipating it. But what I will say is, well, let me ask you, have you read the graphic novel Father alone. I have not, So I did an anticipation of seeing this movie, and it's no shock for me to tell you that it's much better than what we got.

It's just because it's easier.

The form allows you to do some interesting things that you can't you just can't convey you have to a movie. You can't have such a fractured narrative. It's already pretty fractured as it is. But in the book you get those little rectangles, and what they do in the book that they don't necessarily do as well here is there'll be a page where, let's say it's a woman and a man dancing in the room, but they will have boxes to show in every timeline some sort of frivolity

House will be no more.

The polar caps will melt, everything's going to be under water, and this will be effectively the end of time. Which I actually like that aspect of it because it gives you this idea that isn't so well conveyed in the movie, that is, this is only an infinitesimal period of time that these people are occupying this space and land, and eventually none of that's going to matter anyway, because it's all going to be water come in the twenty three hundreds.

Okay, I'm not shocked to know that these sort of rectangle motif was in comic book. I mean, they're the ones who chose to have one single point of view for their entire books, so they were obviously going to innovate in that regard. It's also the technique in the film that made me make the connection of this would fit easily into a museum, just as a this is how the Life of a house that kind of thing.

This movie could have very easily been a theatrical production. It could have been a play with maybe some projections. I could see them doing the boxes as projections around the actors. But I actually I was like you. When I went into this, I was hoping for a lot more. I thought all the other stuff would be preamble to the story of Tom Hanks's family, and that's what I was hoping for, because I knew that it was going to be a somewhat of a tear jerker, and I

You mentioned you're in the minority likeing Forrest Gump. I like Forrest Gump. I'm on record is loving Forrest Gump. That's I think it's a perfect Robertsonmenka's film. I think it's the perfect baby boomer film. I think this film is a pale imitation of that movie.

From it it was shocking because it's everybody. It was billed as a Forrest Gump reunion, and that's not what we got at all.

HP.

Like you said, did you connect to any character in this movie?

Not really?

No, Okay, I did. I connected with the couple from the nineteen thirties.

Well.

Connected, meaning I'll say this scratch that. I think they gave the movie its only spark. I will agree with you. There the movie became bright and fun and lively, and

Part of it I actually rather enjoyed.

But the other stuff, the stuff with Hanks's family in particular, was so telegraphed and so obvious that I kind of checked out of that. I should have been identifying, excuse me, with Tom Hanks's character, because he's this artist who had to make other plans in life to support his family and so forth.

But I didn't. But I agree with you.

The lazy boy developer and his wife, they were maybe the best part of the whole film.

Yeah, the some plot for the nineteen thirties is the sort of bohemian couple and he is an inventor and he's slowly working on this marvelous looking chair. I wish I had that instead of a lazy boy with dials and it spins and little turnstyle type stuff. I agree.

It's sad that the biggest marquee actors in this movie are the things that drag it down the most. In terms of story, we haven't really gotten into the technical aspects of this.

Obviously.

The big thing here is that they've deaged Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. I will go on record as saying I thought that Tom Hanks stuff was fine. I didn't have a problem with his daging at all. His voice obviously is not young Tom Hanks, but he's okay. He's good enough to kind of paper over some of that. But Robin Wright, I thought looked really bad. The aged It was like this plasticky sheen and a lot of the time they brought her into the hard foreground, so

The two white teeth, I'll say that about Robin Wright. She's smiling a lot in this movie. And by the way, Robin Wright is not a warm human being. She worked as Jenny because Jenny was damaged and needed to get away from everything here it's supposed to be mom. She's not mom. She's mom in a really that character is sweet until she's no until she can no longer stand being buried in this life, right, and by then she should be hard and cold. But I don't buy Robin

Yeah, I don't know why filmmakers haven't figured out that that's the way you should do it. You find an actor who maybe kind of resembles Tom Hanks or whoever we're dealing with, and deage them like they did in The Mandalorian, and just put the face on that actor and you've got it.

Because you're right.

He wasn't moving like bosom buddies Tom Hanks and that scene definitely you wanted him to because he's supposed to be playing like games.

With his daughter and what have you.

But yeah, he was a little bit slow, but it was so much more egregious in Robin Wright's case. I thought it was kind of unfortunate because it took me out of it, and once you see her, you can't think of anything but the fact that the deaging is just a complete fail. So now you're out of the movie completely and now you're just critiquing the effects, which I'm sure that wasn't Zemeckis's intention when he made this movie.

No, And I kept reading reviews saying, well, you settle into it very quickly. No, you do not. Not ever, not ever, once did I go to just buy it, honestly, unless they were deep in the background.

Well you've got to make you you can, but just the fact because I kind of forced myself to bury that cynicism about the whole technical aspect of it. But again, I shouldn't as a as an audience member, I shouldn't have to bury, you know, my feelings about what's happening on screen and kind of knuckle down and say, you know, stop at HP.

You just enjoy the movie, and don't.

I can't because it's staring me in the face every time it moves into the foreground of this movie.

I can't get over that fact.

So it was unfortunate that I thought the effects were going to be better based on the trailer, but they were just marginally.

So I guess in some cases, HP.

We're having this conversation standing here, let's instead move to the center of the room and look off toward the kitchen, because this is going to be an important moment. And I really want to be facing the kitchen and not that beautiful bay window while we do that. Yeah, contrived and contrived, I'll say.

Very contrived.

And again I keep returning to this notion that this would have probably been just.

As effective as a stage play, and.

That actually was one of the things that got me kind of excited for the experiment that I was about to watch, which is, I don't mind a stagey movie once in a while, and one of my favorite movies of all time is Twelve Angry Men and that is very stage bound by its very nature. But that's the point of it. In this case, that should have been the point of it. You're in this room and things

Maybe it would work better.

Do you think, oh, they're definitely going to do that. I guarantee there's there's some college right now mounting a production of it. At least in theory, they're they're they're plotting it right now, and and good on them, because that would be a much more immediate experience and you might be able to relate to some of these people, whereas I could not. It was it was to call this story cliche is just offensive to cliches. It was just the most rote you know what it is too.

Well, I knew even from the trailer that the trailer, if you remember at climaxes with elderly Tom Hanks and Robin Wright coming back to the home and he leans over to her and says, this is our home.

We lived here.

So I knew just from that little bit that, Okay, she's probably going to get Alzheimer's in the course of this movie. It just seemed like why else would he have said that to her. But in terms of that, it's so badly telegraphed. There's at least two or three occasions in the movie where they'll be at a Thanksgiving dinner or a birthday party, and apropos of nothing, Robin Wright will turn to Tom Hanks and say, you know,

Isn't that funny? And I'm thinking to myself, God, I.

Know Forrest, listen, I have a disease. They don't know what it is yet. Robin Wright must be punished. And here, you know what. In there, she's punished for being kind of the underground, sort of alternate lifestyle, a liberal kind of life that she's leading. And here she's punished because she rankles so much at this domestic fucking nightmare that's been thrust upon her. That spoiler al everybody. She leaves

And I actually give them, kind of give them credit for the fact that they went for it. You would figure a movie where Tom Hanks is the husband and she's the wife, they wouldn't have had even the guts to say, well, she's actually gonna leave him. You figures she'll threaten to leave him and they'll come back together and they'll decide to no, she You're right, she leaves him and that's it. To my knowledge, they never really reunite.

He just lives alone.

His father eventually passes, and they make allusions to the fact that he's distant from his daughter. That part I actually thought was kind of good. Because it's Tom Hanks. Of course you would expect him to be super dad, but at least that part of the movie might have been somewhat truthful, where you know, maybe the parent isn't so close with the daughter, maybe he won't get the

They had happy memories there, but maybe they could have had happier memories elsewhere, maybe had they gotten an apartment together and not lived with his parents and lived their life which wasn't even the life that they wanted. We kept getting that over and over again, everyone's dissatisfaction with this house. Only the bohemians seemed to be enjoying themselves in the place, So again I just want to follow them and once more about this sort of dementia aspect

That is such a good point, Father Malone, because she's railing throughout the movie. She really is kind of the George Bailey of the picture. Forget about Tom Hanks. She's the one who wants.

To get out of that house.

She keeps getting dragged back in because the father has surgery and has to live with them, and he leaves them the house and she doesn't even have the possibility of getting her own house. And the final indignity through all of this is that she gets dragged back into the house like a child at the end when she doesn't have any her memory is gone, and that's when Tom Hanks's character, I think his name is Richard, I keep saying Tom Hanks's character is it Richard? Is that

It's for him where we live, it's not for her. For him, she's demented. I bet if I take her there, she'll remember something and tell me that it was all worth it, because otherwise it wasn't. And I'm going to die lonely and broken. And here's the thing. I'm all for that ending, but that's not at the ending they're giving us. They're giving us the forest gump ending with the tinkling Alan Silvestrie's score, and now the camera's moving. Oh my god, we're panning back for the first time.

What they should have done is as they pick, because they pan out and you see the house, and you see the house is the neighborhood of the house, and it keeps panning. What they should have done is what I described earlier, which is, as they're panning back, you see the tidal wave from the melting polar ice caps approaching the house, and you know that they don't have much time left. It's about to be wiped off the face of the earth. Maybe that's the final message of the movie.

I don't know.

It might have worked better, you know, he should have directed this movie. Who do you think, Darren Aronofsky. Obviously it would have been brutal.

It would have been bruising. Yes, it would have been a searing.

You would come staggering out of it. You would, you would be you'd be crying for the halcyon days of the bohemian hipsters.

Would have had it, I would have been crying for another reason. It would have been crying for a life lived and loved. It would have been crying because we're all in this alone and there's just no meaning to any of this. Maybe that's the message of the should take away from the movie.

If not within one they were peddling. I would be one hundred percent endorsing this. That is the message they're peddling. It's just that they're once again gussying it up in some sugar coated falsehood.

I think, and I think that's maybe the final triumph of the graphic novel over the movie is the graphic novel doesn't traffic in sentimentality.

It's really just showing you.

I mean, you kind of bring a little bit of that to the book, but ultimately it's not you. You're not so greatly attached to any one family, and you're not supposed to root for them. It's just, hey, this is history, good, bad and everything in between.

And I didn't get that from the movie.

Clearly, maybe they could have see that. Everyone keeps talking about how experimental the movie is, and all I keep thinking is, well, it's just based on the comic book, so they're not really innovating there. The one innovation that I thought was an innovation these panels within the frame that are showing us the other timelines. That's not even an innovation from the movie. So what was the innovation

Yo.

I mean, look, it's a mechas back to the future. We've talked about all the other movies, so I will continue to hope for the next movie that it'll be the one that returns him back to greatness.

But this wasn't it.

No, I'll never count him out. Yeah, but you know who does count HP? And thank god you're here in the studio because it's time for Ribs picks. Yeah, thank you, HB once again got you in studio performing Ribs picks. So thank you for that. Rip, thanks you as well.

Awesome. I love thank you.

I'm so happy to be here with RIP. I'm such a fan RIP. I love her picks. I can't wait to hear what pick she gives us.

The Screek.

Oh, it's a doozy. It's a fan favorite. It's a favorite of yours and mine. I'm assuming it's from nineteen eighty five by Jonathan Lynn. It is a the very first adaptation of a board game into a feature film. We're talking about clue. Every person in this rule as the motive stand back, So murder.

Who do you mean?

Murder?

But only one of these suspects. Is the murderer? Is it the timid mister Green?

Why are you screaming? Because I'm not screaming?

Or the militant Colonel Mustard? Why was the killer?

I would kill you? Next, said deaf Missus White, who helped her husband on his way.

What's a matter of.

Life after death?

Now that he's dead?

I have a lie, Missus Garlett, who's helped many men along the way. Practice makes perfect hun.

Professor Plumb, who's looking for a way. I'm lucky.

I'm lucky.

Missus Peacock.

I have absolutely no idea what we're doing here.

But I am determined to enjoy myself.

Or did the butler do it?

Yeah?

How Amount Pictures invite you to an evening of misstery.

Murder?

This is getting quite soon and mad in the movie that makes a scene of the crime. Clue, it's not just a game anymore.

Clue.

Oh, we're talking about gimmicks, I guess, aren't we here? Rip? That was the That was the brief for this week, and you picked one of the best. We're talking about a movie that had three potential endings. Depending on what movie theater you went to, you would have three potential outcomes. I remember I went in nineteen eighty five. I went to the Revere Showcase Cinemas to see this. I got number, I got B, I got the second ending. HP. What was your first encounter with Clue?

So I am, well, my first encounter with Clue wasn't really even the movie. Now this is going back aways. My mom was an avid reader of People magazine back in the eighties, and occasionally they would have a a movie preview and I would look at it because I was, you know, eighty five was I was just getting into movies around that time, and I remember they had articles

They had a picture of.

Tim Curry as Wadsworth, and I was super excited because I knew Clue. I thought it sounded like an interesting idea. But having said that, I regret to inform you that I did not see it in the theater at the time. I think the reviews, honestly at that time were not very kind to the movie, and I just couldn't I couldn't muster the enthusiasm at that time. And I'm not happy about this attitude because I since I discovered the movie on in home video and on cable after the fact, so I'm not as.

Cool as you as usual.

But that's where I first probably Cable, I think probably the first time.

I'm not saying it to be and I understand your attitude of the movie at the time, my pick at the end of the at the end of the program, I had the same sort of attitude about that movie. So I understand where you're coming from. And I also remember at the time seeing the trailer in the theater and people laughing, not because it was a funny comedy,

And that was forty years ago.

I mean this, it seems every year there's somebody.

Else who says, well, Hollywood has run out of ideas.

They've been running out of ideas for hundreds of years at this point. But I think for me, if I'm thinking back, it was probably the gimmick of it that probably turned me off at the time, because that was the heavily trafficked idea in the commercials was you could get one of those three endings depending on where you saw it, and it just didn't really it didn't tick any boxes for me at the time.

I wish I did, because I didn't know what I was missing.

Well, there was nothing that was going to stop me from seeing this movie because Tim Curry was in this movie. You know that very same year he was Darkness in the Legend. He was the guy from Rocky Horror. He was the guy from that worst Witch special that we watched. Not to mention, Lenny from Lenny and Squiggy was among the cast, and Madeline Kahn Lilly van Stoop. In fact, I at nothing could keep me from seeing anything Madeline Cohn was in because Madeline Kahn was a hometown girl.

Yeah, I was kind of wondering. I would assume they just had one print per theater, so there's no way you could see Clue in the same theater and hope to get more than one ending.

Oh no, shame your theater was getting that ending.

Was maybe not as well thought out as it should have been.

It would have been nice to have that random aspects.

What's crazy is this was the time of multiplexus. Like the theater I saw it and was like at least a ten screen, So three of those houses could have been Clue and you could just decide which one you were gonna go see. I mean, that makes no sense financially at all split your split it that way, but you could just do Yeah, I don't know, it would be cross prohibitive. I guess to give multiple prints and you just play them at different times during the day.

I remember when Clue finally came out on DVD. I think sometime in the late nineties they had Knops and where. Because it was this DVD this technology, you could have it randomly select an ending for you as you're watching the movie, and it would, you know, seamlessly. I thought that was kind of neat, although by that point I was so used to the ending that was on the vhs, which is they just go through all three of them and say it could have happened this way, but here's how it really happened.

But I appreciate. Yeah, how could you not be happy?

The music, everything? It makes me smile just thinking about it. Actually, fun fact, I have several fun facts about Clue, as it turns out, Father Malone. My first fun fact that I'm going to present to you is so famously Clue was a hard movie to crack for screenwriters. I mean, how do you make a movie out of this silly kids game?

Right?

One of the many writers that took a stab at writing the screenplay. I only recently found this out, the team of Anthony Perkins and Steven Sondheim.

Did you know this? They took a stab at writing it.

It only makes sense because they wrote the last of Shila, which is a fucking great.

The Last of Shila.

The problem with them was, I as I understand it, they wanted a lot of money to write the movie. And John Landis, who was at a certain point he was supposed to direct the movie and he was putting all the pieces together, he said, no, we can't do that. I think Tom Stoppard also was one of the people that took a stab at writing. I mean, there's a lot of people for Jonathan Lynn, who eventually was the writer, but Tom Stoppard. What I understand with him is he

On the gig.

That's fascinating. You didn't know that about it, Yeah, I mean I knew. Tom Stoppard was honestly the guy for rewrites.

One of the stories that I had heard about was it was actually going to be not strictly clue related, but it was going to be this I think it was a cop and he was going to start receiving these clue cards in the mail, like one might say it was Mustard in the study with the wrench, and then there'd be a murder that would be someone named mister Mustard in the study with the wrench, and it was a serial killer who was basically providing these clues to this detective or this.

Cop or whatever.

And that's I mean, I'm so glad we got what we got, I guess, is my point. I think that just a wonderful script, you could.

Well.

The other thing that I understand is they've been trying to get a a remake of Clue off the ground for several years now.

Were you aware of that too, Well, not specifically, but I'm not in any way surprised because they're just trying to remake anything that they can.

Yeah. I think Brian Reynolds is attached.

Of course, because he is, but I don't. The thing about this movie, the reason that we're talking about it as fondly as we are, is there's some sort of alchemical reaction going on here. It's this script, it's this setting. Making this a throwback to the old dark House trope was the best thing that they could have done with this, and getting all of our characters there immediately. There doesn't need to be a rambling story of that anywhere.

Right, And the fact that's it ended up as a farce, which is I think it's one of the most wonderful aspect Because as a I was eighty five, so I was about twelve years old. I didn't know what farce really was at that point, but I knew that I love the rhythm and the speed of the acting.

And the cast. That's the other sort of part of this brew is that not only do you have this right director and this right setting and all of the right crews giving that, but then this cast of disparate powerhouse character actors, how can you go wrong?

Did you know here's another fun fact. Did you know who was originally supposed to play Miss Scarlett?

I bet you know she's you know what I think I did at one point, But please tell me so I can bemoan her not being in it, because the one problem in this movie is Leslie Anne Warren.

And that's exactly rights it was.

Carrie Fisher was a right Oh my god.

She would have fucking been awesome.

She would have been fantastic. She would have had that that that droll attitude that's been there seeing everything the problem with And I've seen interviews where Jonathan Lynne tells a story many many times.

Where he hired her.

They when he told people that he was going to be hiring Carrie Fisher at the time, she was she had a very serious drug problem. It's no secret. She's written about it many many times. She was an open book. But he got this warning, you got beat to watch out. She's got a drug problem, he said.

Whatever. He says.

He met with her and as she was walking to the table, she fell. He said, this is a little weird. It's an accident. She was he as he says, puts it. She was sniffling through the whole lunch, and he's, that's a little weird. And so he went to go talk to Deborah Hill and say, what do you think about Carrie Fisher. I think she's on Is this a good casting? And then he says, well, I think everybody that I

The studio.

She could not get insured was the problem because her problem was so severe with drugs she could not get And this was only I want to say, three or four days before they would start they were supposed to start shooting the movie. She had to drop out because she went to rehab. So enter Leslie and Warren, who I'm actually surprised to say that you didn't like her.

I thought she was fine in this I.

Thought she's supposed to be a little bit older, a little bit wiser, a little bit more street wise.

I thought she was fine. What didn't you like about her?

Her performance? It's terrible. It's she's the most actorly of the bunch. When I say that, it's this is peopled with hard hitting character actors, not her. She's outclassed by every single person in this movie. She's outclassed by Jane Weedland, who doesn't have an actual line of dialogue.

I you're singing, that's like the best That part of the movie is great.

That's that was the best joke in the movie.

Yeah, because it's almost like at that point the movie kind of stops and you kind of take a breath because they go room to room looking at all the new the fresh corpses that have appeared.

And they were right to have that much air in the room. It's all silent for that because I remember in the theater when Jane Whedland gets shot, I hate saying, man.

I are you're singing? Tarletgren.

The laughter lasted basically until the dialogue started again.

Smart but I don't know.

I mean, I guess I don't disagree with you that Leslian Warren isn't of the caliber of certainly not a Madeline Khan or an Eileen Brennan.

I mean, how could she be? She was fine. I didn't she didn't affect the movie negatively. For me. I'm fine with her.

I don't know, but I'm a little surprised that you didn't like her performance at all.

She's over acting in every way, and you know, who knows. Maybe it's that she feels like she's up against it, like, if not powerhouse character actors, powerhouse comedians, they're all fucking hilarious people. It's Martin Maull, Michael McKean, Tim Curry.

I don't blame her for feeling probably outclassed by everybody, because it is.

It's a murderer's row of like.

You said, all timer comedians and comic actors. It's so it's funny to me that this movie just became this little cult movie, because by all rights, this should have been like boffo box office because these are amazing players in it.

Yeah, and she doesn't add up to them. She doesn't get their level at all. She's very pretty. I mean, she's very sexy. I like looking at her certainly, but she's not my favorite part of this movie at all.

What is your favorite? Who is your favorite?

I think I know mine, obviously, I think I know yours. But who's your favorite player in this movie?

Michael McKean is my favorite player in this movie. He's so fucking subtle. All yes, all, every line reading of his just sticks out in my head because it's so nuanced, like every Here's the thing what Lesley and Warren isn't getting is that these people aren't being funny by overplaying anything. Everyone is playing it deadly, seriously, and no more than Michael McKean.

That's very good. Mind.

I'm a little bit generic, But my favorite has always been Tim Curry. I think he's like a force of nature in this movie. That the fact that when he goes and has to explain how the murders happened, and it's ten minutes of breathless exposition and running from room to room picking people up, slapping them, pushing them down. He's I don't know how you compete with that. He's tremendous in this movie. In a career filled with tremendous roles.

This is Sorry Sudden, Hello Sudden, a cameo of by producer Foxy Brown.

So, yeah, I call me.

Maybe it's an obvious choice, but I adore Tim Curry in this I think he's fabulous.

Everyone's fabulous in it. I was about to say this movie only works because Tim Curry is in it, but and that's true. If you didn't have him inte, this movie wouldn't work. But then if you didn't have modelincon it wouldn't work either. If it didn't have Michae McKain, it wouldn't work. If you didn't have lee Ving with somebody else's voice, it wouldn't work.

That.

I have to give you credit because in last week's roundup, you casually threw out the idea that Leeving's voice was re dubbed in this movie. I've been watching this movie for close to forty years.

I never knew that.

And now I can't stop thinking about it. Every time I want to go back and rewatch it. That's how where did you learn this?

I don't even remember, honestly, But but what's funny is once you once that knowledge entered your mind, it made sense. Right then when you started thinking about mister Body and how he was talking. You're like, yeah, that is that guy.

Tell the listeners father, m alone, who that voice belongs to?

Oh, Rennie Santoni. I think most people know him as Poppy from Seinfeld. He's the He's the gentleman who leaves the embarrassing stain on the couch. And I said it in the last round of I'll say it here again. It's a fucking crime that that's the only thing people are going to probably recognize him from. But it's the easiest sign and signifier of who that man was. I remember him from the Dirty Harry movie. He was Harry Callahan's partner there for one movie, and he certainly had

No, And I actually in doing a little more legwork, I actually so it's interesting to learn that.

Did you know why Leaving.

Was cast as mister Body? Have you ever chased that information up? No, enlighten me, what's fascinating is the studio wanted Leaving. The studio pushed for him to play mister Body because knowing that he was this musical icon, they figured that that would actually bring people to the theater that Leaving. I just think that's I mean, I can't say that at twelve years old, or however old they was,

They did that plan work for Universal with Streets of Fire because he's the number two guy to Willem Dafoe in that movie.

That's right, he was in Streets of Fire?

Did it work in nineteen about that? Did it work in nineteen eighty three and Get Crazy? Alan Arkish's comedic masterpiece? Did it work then? Who was thinking Leaving was a bankable star? Did it work in Dudes?

Well, like Jonathan Lynn said, there was a lot of hay fever going around Hollywood at the time, so maybe they were a little clouded by their medication to know. But yeah, that's fascinating because I didn't. It wasn't until much later that I even knew who Leaving was.

As a kid.

I'm just thinking this is just some actor who's in this movie. Then come to find out later seeing him on SNL, the famous you Know Fear episode of SNL, it was kind of a mind blower to me that this guy was a punk rock icon.

I thought it was cool.

You know, New York's all right if you like Saxophones, I love I love that song.

Oh I love it so so yeah, there's all right if you want to freeze to death. So I found a quote attributed to Michael McKean that he basically said that Forrest is what happens on your worst day, something to that effect, and I and just thinking about that's kind of that's the key to this whole movie, right, I mean, that's you can't say that any one of

I did know that.

I didn't know that.

Sorry to switch topics very quickly, but that was another thing.

Oh, we're not going to switch topics. I don't like that movie.

Let me ask you this.

I don't know if we're far enough into this yet, but let me ask you what your favorite ending is.

Oh, it's the one where they all did it.

Me too.

I was pulling for the one where Wadsworth is the hero because I like I said, I like the fact. I just like that he's a good at least you think he's a good person.

Did you know?

Here's my final fun fact of the of the episode. Did you know there was a fourth ending?

I did not.

You did not know this.

In fact, this ending was obviously he not never I don't know if it was shot, but it was certainly never produced. It was in the novelization by Michael McDowell. Did you know there was a novelization to Clue?

No, And it's by Michael McDowell.

It is by Michael McDowell.

Said by Michael McDowell or Michael Cube McDowell.

The book just said Michael McDowell.

Oh my god, The creator of Bubble Juice.

There's no bio. It just says Michael McDowell. So I don't know if it's the same Michael McDowell's beetlejuice, but take that for what it is.

So this fourth ending, what is the fourth ending? What is the miss four? The mystery of Clue?

So the fourth ending is Wadsworth. He just basically Wadsworth did it all, okay? He he wanted to be the perfect husband, but his wife killed herself. He wanted to be the perfect butler because but he was driven to kill his employer because he was being blackmailed. So in an effort to attain perfection, he decided to try to commit the perfect crime by killing his boss, to which all of the other players say, well, how is this the perfect crime? Because we're all we know what you did.

You all into this mansion.

You will all die here, and I will leave having committed the perfect crime. So he goes to the door. He opens the door, the Howard Hessman evangelist character is there. He bursts in all the g men come in, they take control of the situation.

We hear that one more time, right.

So they then they say to him, well, what how did this all happen? How did this all come to be? And he starts to reenact. Wadsworth starts to reenact the crime or the sequence of events again. When he gets the part where he opens the door for Colonel Mustard, he opens the door and dashes out of the house. Okay, he steals a police car and starts driving away, thinking that he's gotten off Scott free. He hears a snarling sound.

And that's the end.

It's a terrible, terrible Don't get me wrong, this is a terrible ending. Jonathan Lynn said as much.

Huh, I don't like that ending.

It's bad. It's bad.

And that's precisely why Jonathan Lynn didn't actually produce it for the movie. But anyone who can find a copy of this Michael McDowell book, it is one of the endings in the book, So technically it's cannon. I guess if you're gonna be particular, HP.

I'm going to describe my favorite moment in the movie please do. And it is a movie filled with favorite moments, but the favoritest of the favorites is when early on they've they're all in the drawing room for the first time and wants Worth has to correct they had to kill me in public?

Want kell you in public?

I think he's threatened in public to kill her. And then he rolls his eyes, and that eye roll is everything. It makes me laugh every single time. That is what I aspire to if I ever roll my eyes, it's to be as perfect as that ideal that Tim Curry presents in this movie.

During that scene, he's amazing. He's in it. I mean he has for sure.

He probably has twice as many lines as some of these other actors in this movie. But he it's so breathlessly delivered, but it's so cleanly delivered. And he's funny, he's slapstick, he's energetic, he's everything that you want him to be to He's the glue that holds this movie together. As you said, despite the fact that this movie's filled with ringers that are just knocking it out of the park. It would not have worked nearly as well if you didn't have Tim Curry there.

It's tremendous, and it maybe well.

Obviously Rocky Horror is iconic and there's no getting around that, but this may be my favorite of his other movies. I think this performance, I think it's just it's remarkable. Every time I watch it, I'm just I'm transported. It's awesome, and I've The thing is, I took my family to see a stage production of Clue. I know, was it maybe two or three months ago. It came to Boston, and it was a wonderful production. But it's hard, in Wadsworth's case in particular, not to hold up that performance

React to Clue. He loved it.

He could not this is your typical seventeen year old kid who's video games online everything. He loved the farce aspect of it, he loved how fast everything worked. He loved the physical comedy. He's probably watched Clue the movie now another three or four times since then, and that says something I think this is it's timeless when you think about it, because it is. It's that his Girl Friday feel to it. It doesn't date it as much as a straight narrative might have from that period.

No, the film got piled on because it felt old fashioned and gentle in its comedy, and then, as it turns out, that's what gave it its longevity exactly exactly.

And I might have, to a certain degree, I might have been reprogrammed to really enjoy Clue because I was already a big fan of a movie called.

Murder by Death.

It was a Neil Simon picture with Truman Capoti, and it's another murderer's row. It's not the same movie as Clue, not nearly, but it is a wonderful tweak of the mystery genre.

And there's some amazing actors.

James Coke goes in that and Peter Fowk plays like a Humphrey Bogart type.

That's the closest analog I can think of.

And I could watch those two as as a double feature I think they'd work beautifully.

Triple feature with Murder Can Hurt You, the television version of Murder by Death, the television ripoff of Murder by Death where it was act television actors playing famous television detectives, but not the people who played it initially, so it was other just like Murder by Death, where it was other actors playing the old famous screen screen detectives. This was a terrible, horrible television special.

Was that the one with Telly Savalis? Was he in that?

Probably because the name.

Is familiar, But I can't say that I've actually watched it.

I want the Cheap I have to chase it up now.

There was also a picture that Peter Fowk did called The Cheap Detective, which I've heard is it swims in the same waters as Clue in all these other great pictures.

Now, speaking of Rocky Horror Picture Show, this movie has a Frankenfurter moment. I've noticed in every other role that Tim Curry has played. If he has a Frankenfurter moment, then that movie is going to be really good. And here, during one of his explanations of the crime, he starts off in the far side of the room where the chandelier has crashed, and as he's describing what happened, he stalks across the room, and the way he's moving is

I know the scene you're talking about it, but I never thought in those terms.

But I'll have to check that out. I guess.

I just want to say that once again, Ripley has proven her infinite wisdom and picking a movie that she couldn't have picked a better movie for me, for for anyone really, this is anyone who hasn't seen Clue.

Yes it is the theme of this show is gimmicks. Correct. Yeah, this is a Yes, this.

Is gimmicky, but it works because the sheer force of the talent involved in the creativity involved in making this. So if maybe you've heard yeah, it's clue. It's a stupid kids king. Why would I no go see this?

You will laugh? I promise you will enjoy it.

Well, Ripley is a smart dog. She always seems to pick the most interesting potential theme related that choice very easily. I could have chosen Wicked Wicked as a gimmick film. Do you remember that movie from the nineteen seventies. It's a movie that's entire it's entirely in split screen.

Oh, like a DiPalma thing.

Yes, exactly, like a to Palma thing. In fact, if de Palma could have sued I think and one. It's like a thriller set in and around that Coronado Hotel in San Diego, that old, that rambling, Floridian looking thing. And so yeah, the entire film takes place from two points of view at the same time. It's maddening.

But is it a good movie?

Oh no, it's a terrible movie.

It could be maddening and maybe that's the point of it. But if it's no good, then it's not good, I guess.

But comparatively, if you were to say, do you want to watch here or Wicked Wicked, I'm going with Wicked Wicked just for the audacity of a two hour split screen film.

Yeah no, I'm not a again, maybe I'm just a chump for gimmicks. I don't mind a gimmick if it's pulled off well, and if it's in service to a good story and a fun time at the movies.

And these two couldn't need more polar opposites.

Here is just a failure on so many levels. But Clue transcends the gimmickry of its theme, and it's it's genesis, and it's just it's it's a marvelous time. I mean, it's you can't get any better. It's funny, it's great. So create Oh there is Ripley.

Here, she is in the flesh. Yes, good choice Ripley. Yeah. Well no, you couldn't get in on here. You don't. You're only one. You don't have any life experience. You don't have enough hatred for the baby boomers.

Sorry, irony is I know we're talking a lot about boomers and how Forrest Gump is. Let me be very clear, neither Father Malone or myself are boomers. We are firmly gen X. So I've seen some things online that people lump the boomers in with gen X.

Don't do that, Please, don't do that.

Are people lumping us in with fucking boomers?

I think I've seen stuff online about yemy.

What are they talking about?

Well, but I think when you cross a certain threshold and age, I think it's just natural that.

Oh now you're just an old dude. I don't really buy that. I mean both very distinct.

I'm out here fighting the fight, baby, don't don't give me that. I'm fighting them and the younger generation. I'll take on all comers. HP. Thank you so much for joining us here from midnight. Doing the Final Choices is one that you cannot comment on as you have not seen it. But thanks for joining us. And where can people find you they want to get a hold of you.

Oh well, when I'm not when I'm not repping for Ripley, you can find me on the Night. Mister Walter is a taxi podcast along side my erstwhile.

Co host You're Father Alone.

Of course, I'm an occasional guest on the Culture Cast with Chris Dashu and I have a band camp site hpmusicplace dot band camp dot com.

You can feel free to check that out.

But thanks so much, Father, Malone. I always it's always great to talk to you and chop it up a little bit.

My pleasure. And you heard him, you heard his website there. If you are a listener who seems interested in HP and his work, head on over alone at last. Yes, he's very nice. But we're not about being nice right now, rip, We're about being edgy and in your face and mortal combat. No, not quite that far. Instead, we're taking a look at

Henry, Hello, Henry, do you remember how you got here?

This next part might her.

Squeeze you and I were We still are, husband and wife.

I love you, Henry.

Henry?

Do you want your technology? I you my bad. You're capable lot more than you think. It's all right, I'm here to help you. Is your speech module installed? But at least we know you're not death?

Okay?

What the good news is that you're going to live a wife.

The bad news is there's an army standing between you and your wife. So let's go get up. Not gonna have myself whoa whoa.

Through the sky.

And by the low rather.

The stopping me.

I'm sting.

You lad, blood your mouth.

You gonna stand up and go spill this? I want to stop.

I actually have less of an excuse than HP for not seeing this flick. He was twelve when Klue came out. Even if he had been interested, he'd have had to finagel some ticket money and some candy money and negotiate a ride to the theater. When Hardcore Henry came out,

I killed it.

I hated her so much.

Flame flames, flames on the side of my face, breathing breath, heaving breaths, s