Scene Missing Mike North

My Buddy chicago rado legend and my forer partner Mike North joins me for some movie talk about old Hollywood 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 1 (00:18):
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Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey everybody, before we get started.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
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(00:55):
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(01:15):
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Speaker 2 (01:39):
How are we doing? Everybody? Welcome back.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's word Balloon, A scene missing edition the comic, book
and Movie Conversation Show, among other things. John Sutras Here,
I'm joined by I wouldn't call my co pilot.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
I was the co pilot.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
I was. I was the lunar Command module pilot to
his commander Mike North. Everybody from the Score and from
ESPN one thousand and a good friend. Good to see him, Mike,
Good to see you. John and I love the open.
I loved us as as gangsters. I felt a little
film narwish if you will uh with that. So it's

(02:16):
absolutely outstanding. You know, we love movies, We love to
do the things that we do.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
We had a lot of interest besides, you know, the
sports talk that we did over the years. We talked
about I'd say mostly half of our conversation, if not more,
were about movies and about actors and comedians and stuff
that you have here. So I'm looking forward to it absolutely. Man.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Maybe I've cast us as Pat O'Brien and Jimmy Cagney.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Look ah, here we are. The sports talk radio was. Yeah,
James Cagney one of the great actors. Pat O'Brien I'm
not a big fan of. Although he did nail a
couple of movies like New Rockney All American. They couldn't
have picked a better guy. Some roles were generic roles
where he played the you know, the the active in
charge of finding so and so. He was best friends

(03:05):
with James Cagney and through some of the wildest parties
in Hollywood history. From what I understand, he liked the party.
They had an Irish pregade of actors back then, led
by Cagney and him. So I just it's fascinating to
see how you'll like certain actors and some things, and
then the same actors you'll say, I don't feel like

(03:27):
watching this. But that's that's the way it was back then.
Because even Cagney made some stinkers that he didn't want
to make.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Oh god, especially in that thirties period. Oh absolutely, that's why,
you know, that's why he left Warner Brothers, because you know,
he was under contract. He had to do what they
told him. And that that shot of us in the
navy reminded me of one of those movies where O'Brien
is a navy guy and agne some guy on the
street like heckling him.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's pre war. Well yeah, and you know he also
they also had one an army one like that, you know.
So it was the Fighting sixty ninth. I mean, they
did the same type of movie in two or three genres,
if you will, during the war years and during the
more dangerous years, if you will. Although you know, most
people would argue today it's more dangerous than it was

(04:17):
back then. But I'll tell you what, it's interesting that
you didn't hear O'Brien just knew I think himself. I
don't think I'm like gonna be the greatest actor on earth,
but I can make a solid book, you know, keep
my nose clean, make friends. A lot of it is

(04:38):
like networking that they call now getting to know each other.
You see it now with Will Farrell, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock,
David Stade. They they're all together when they were poor
and now they stick together, which I admire. And they
help each other out when they make movies.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah, yeah, they're gangs. Even Clooney and uh oh, you
know his guys like Pitt and Hue.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Sinatra, Boguard, you know, but called the original rat Pack.
Uh it just just as the same type of situation
where you know they they were buddies. The original rat
Pack was was I don't believe I think it was
Bogart first, if I'm not mistaken. And then Sinatra and

(05:23):
the boys jumped in sort of didn't steal it, but
sort of inherited it when Bogie died in fifty seven,
and then they became even bigger. They took what was
like a group of guys, a group of drinkers, a
group of people and said, let's try to transcend this
thing into something bigger. And hell, I just watched Ocean
eleven Oceans eleven the other day. I never get tired

(05:44):
of it. I never said, yeah, I like Oceans eleven one.
I can watch Oceans eleven one with Clooney in them,
no doubt about it. There's no doubt about it. It's
but I love the old Vegas. I went there in
the seven and I remember how it was in the
eighties when the boys ran it and stuff like that.

(06:05):
So you know, it's a lot different now. I haven't
been out there for a few years, you know, but
I remember you could sit down for a prime rib
meal for two twenty five with potatoes all grotten in
a salad, for God's sake, and they said bring back
your five thousand to lose after they have a free
meal on us. Thanks, take care now, So they knew
how to do it. You look at you. Look at

(06:26):
this poster I made for you. Oh it's awesome. Look
at it and you see Sick crunch Nick is playing
live at the lounge. Absolutely Sid Krunchnick was, of course,
uh taken from a crusty old reporter I John did
a character which I'm sure he'd be happy to say,
how you doing said, I'm doing good.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
I'm very happy to be back on their lives thing.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
It's been years since we all worked together. Yellow my
little variation on yeah, and that's and that. You know,
I always tried to incorporate when we work together, Uh,
your your bits. I really did. And even when you
worked at with the monsters, there were some some bits
that did well and some bits that that maybe felt
they didn't fall short, they just were almost today. I

(07:13):
don't think they'd be allowed on the airwaves.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Oh my god, yes, Mike, our friend radio girl Margaret Larkin,
some of the bits I'm like, under the advice of
my lawyers, I don't think I can because oh we
would have. I would have been canceled all minute. Some
of that stuff went to the air, Mike, I screwed up.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
We are live. I will uh, but I put it
on Twitter.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
On Twitter. Let's go to one now. But yeah, here
a couple of couple of people saying, hello, my my goons,
but uh.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
What's up? I love the goons? Is that is that
the nickname your goons? No? My my league of word willing.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Listeners is you're doing well with the John. You've been
sticking with what you do. But you mentioned Ocean's eleven.
I was watching and I found it on YouTube. Sergeants three,
they're Gunna dinn as a Western, but directed by directed
by John Sturgis.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Mike, Yeah, the best. That's Grammy Davis Junior. I remember
like it was yesterday. My dad took us to see it.
Sergeant's three. Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis was a rat
pack on horseback. I mean basically, that's what it was.
They were cavalry guys. Uh. I loved it. I love
dropping in the Seven Hoods. I loved anything with those guys.

(08:27):
They were effortless. Uh well, Sinatra he would just do
one take, which would piss off all the directors. I
don't know how Sturgis got along with them, but Sinatra.
The director would go, we got to do another take,
and Sinatra would go, that's that's fine the way it is,
and they just got the next sight. So uh. But
Dean Martin and these guys, they'll go down in history.
They'll be remembered one hundred years from now for the

(08:49):
stuff that they did. Because movies don't all away now
I'm watching nineteen thirty movies now on TCM and they
look fresh as daisy. It's the way that they restore
them now and make a good make a good presentation
of him. And I love a lot of old movies,
like Christmas in Connecticut, coming up with Barbarus Stanwick, Dennis Morgan,
the Be the B Movies, Ben Crosby, if you will,

(09:10):
Them and Jack Carson were best buddies. They grew up
together in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They ended up doing movies together.
How cool is that? So you know, yeah, all the
Christmas movies are coming out now.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, they were like The poor Man's Road The poor
Man opened Crosby because Carson was the wise ass, right
and Dennis was the singer.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, that's how they tried to In fact, they are.
They consciously tried to do that, make them the B
movie Road two guys, if you will, and they did
a pretty good job. My wife and I love Jack Carson.
Jack Carson's one of the best character actors. He was really.
I mean, even in Mildred Pearce, He's got the smaller

(09:53):
role and he just comes out and delivers every single time.
He plays all sorts of different characters. He died tragically
young at a pancreatic cancer. Yeah, so he died early
in his forties. He dated Doris Day for a year
or two, which was nice. I mean she was They

(10:16):
had a body that won't quit. People don't talk about it,
but you could see it. I mean, she was a knockout.
She loved her craft. That's the difference between her and
Judy Garland, because if you read doors Day anything about her,
she says, we worked fourteen to sixteen hours and you know,
we just went home, got our rest. And you read
Judy Garland, they worked me to death. I had to

(10:38):
lose weight and I wanted to take drugs, you know
what I mean. So the difference, but both talents, but
I'm more of a door stay person. She loved the profession.
She never took acting lessons, and yet you know, I
can watch for a brief time her musicals because Gordon
McRae is one of the more underrated singers who've ever lived.
I'll ever lived a Nebraska guy who would go home

(11:01):
after making the movie to Nebraska, would settle down in
Nebraska after he left, never lived completely in Hollywood. But
her I watched on Moonlight Bay the other night for
about half an hour, just to settle, just to set
alone inside a studio where they have a town fascinates me.
The movie making in the thirties, forties and fifties for

(11:24):
no special effects will never be better. Ever.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Well, I want to I want to stick on Doorstead
for a second, because I always loved how, you know,
all of her movies. She's you know, Peaches and Cream,
innocent and stuff, and it's like girl singer on the
road with the band. Yeah, during the Warriors she got around.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Man, Oh, come on, I mean, you know, and those
poor girls. You know, some girl would be come out
and sing. You know, one of the girls singers would
come out and sing, and there'd be thirty eight guys
in the band. You know what I mean? You know, so,
you know, but I had to. I'm sure it was
good for her ego, and I'm sure she knew how

(12:02):
to do it. How she seemed pretty oll wise beyond
her you That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Like she wasn't she wasn't like taking advantage of Joe's
going uh and God bless her.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
She was amazing. No, I mean, I mean Peggy Lee
and a lot of these Peggy Lee. I never saw
a move except her lips. She was the clutch cargo
of female singers. For he sake, she would just stand
on dud Sullivan, you give me thieve or you know
what I mean. But these are people that traveled with

(12:32):
the bands, and I mean you were with maniacs like
Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller and Lartie Shaw.
The drummers were always a little nuts. You know. You
had Artie Shaw, you had Gene Krupa, you had Buddy Rich.
I mean, these guys actually gotten fist fights even you
know they talk about the rappers now, they there were
Vendetta's back in the forties with big band guys. I mean,

(12:55):
one guy reportedly, a big singer was gonna get never
get a job in uh you know, it was gonna
get snuffed out, you know, the band leader if he
didn't give the contract over called Frank Sinatra, which The
Godfather was based on. No doubt about that, No, I
hear you, man.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
The Pelly Lee I like her and Jack Web movie,
Pete Kelly's Blues about the Yeah, oh yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Like Pete Kelly's Blue Pete Kelly's Blues is Dragnet in
just another genre. It's it's it's Jack. Jack web knew
my way in is to do something different, and I'll
narrate even some of the movies I'm in. So very
smart guy Dragnet. Uh, I mean there was something about Dragnet.

(13:41):
There was hardly ever any action. It was two just
regular detectives driving around. But the characters were so solid
Ben Alexander and Uh and of course Jack Webb. These
two guys even before Harry Morgan, they just knew how
to do it. I thought Dragnet are rich before Harry
Morgan came on, was better, no doubt about that. I

(14:04):
thought they had better chemistry and everything. But Jack Harry
Morgan did a good job also.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Oh yeah, and I mean the and I love the
sixties Dragon and his all, but it's fun to watching
in the forties one he's one, excuse me, the.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Fifth absolutely, I mean they were both good, but he
just had that the way to succeed is if you
can find a formula and do it is good, if
not better than somebody else. And that's what he did.
He was a good narrator, did his own films. He
was a hustler, no doubt about it. I don't think
he was the best looking guy. He was going to
be a throwback type of guy and uh, but yet

(14:38):
he succeeded. And that's what it's about, trying trying to
find a niche and trying to make make something of
yourself and trying to succeed. And Jack Webb is well
known today. And they made a movie Dragonet So that's
how big that series was. With actually they made two movies. Well,
the second one was a TV movie, right, Harry Morgan
won before the series came back. Yeah, I don't remember

(15:01):
that one, but I do remember the show with Ackroyd
and Hanks. They tried to pull it. They tried to
pull it off. I'm sure it didn't work out for me.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
I mean they have they have Tom Hanks and Ackroyd
doing a letter perfect, Jack Web and even Harry Morgan
back and everything. But yeah, and Daddy Colebman was one
of the bad guys but great, one of the greats.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Me well, I love Dabney Coleman. I love Buffalo Bill,
the short lived series with him and Geena Davis. I thought,
and in fact, when I ran into him at PJ.
Clarks in New York. We were at a I think
you and I were together. We were at a fight,
I think at Madison Square Garden. But I went as usual.
I went for a run and I ran into him

(15:47):
and we started talking. I said, man, I loved you
a Buffalo Bill, And you know, we stuck around for
like five ten minutes. He was waiting for somebody, but
he was happy that I remembered Buffalo Bill because they
did everything they couldn't get rid of Buffalo Bill, and
they did eventually. It was a great joke.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
My favorite celebrity encounter we had was in Vegas and
I came We were staying at the Old Vegas Hilton.
I came down in the afternoon and you're sitting at
one of the non playing blackjack tables, right, and John
Santucci character actor I remember Michael Man Films and TV
was on Crime Story and on my Device and thief

(16:25):
and uh and yeah, and You're like, hey, you know
this guy, and I'm like, yeah, of course, John Santucci.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
And it was weird.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Although I get it, Mike, because I think a lot
of these celebrities they get mistaken or people remember the
wrong movies and they just roll with it. And he's
well youth that thought. He was in the firm with
the part the big heavy set character.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Actor.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
I can't remember his name, but he's in the analys
this movies and he kind of.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Oh I remember he was in Jelly. They caught him Jelly.
Yeah he was. Yeah, he was tremendous actor. Died about
a few years back. Analyzed this. He was just a
tremendous that was a great movie put together. I'll tell
you one of my favorite celebrity encounters, and I had
a million of them, but was Kevin Pollack, who's a

(17:14):
working actor. Uh. Do you'll see him in an independent
picture or you'll see him in a Few Good Men? Uh.
And he was walking down the hallway at Caesars and
I was walking towards him, and he had a fedoron
like a straw hat on with a suit jacket. And
I walked by him and I went, Kevin Pollack, Hey,

(17:37):
how you doing, man? And then we just kept on walking,
you know, just a natural guy. And then I got
to interview him later on and he he was I
love guys like that. A tremendous actor and grumpy old
men in a Few Good Men. Anything he acts in
he's very, very good in very pritty.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
He made a movie where he is the president and
they're often like, uh, the Southwest during a snowstorm and
all of a sudden the Soviets attack. It's like called
Resistance or something, and he's sitting with the football, with
the nuclear football.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Do we attack or not?

Speaker 3 (18:15):
And it's really great and it's like you said, it
was a little movie. I don't think you've made theatrical
release and everything, but you can find it on streamers
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Played in Casino. He played the president, the fake president
of the Tangiers, you know. And he was great in that.
I mean, anything he gets he just goes to work on.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
All right, I got I got some old time all right,
old time character actors, because we're going through good character
actors absolutely all right. Uh Eugene Pullette, yea or nay.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
I love Eugene Poullette. And you know what's great about
me and shaky you'll get with other people. You can
name these guys off and they got to look them
up on Wikipedia. Yeah, all over their head lately, I mean.
And and Eugene Poulette as Friar Tuck in Robin Hood
was one of the great roles. In fact, one of
the great casting achievements is Robinhood with Ero Flynn, Allen

(19:12):
Hale Senior, Eugene Paulette, Basil Rathbone, Olivia de Havlin. You can't,
my god, who is the great Claude Rains? Are you
kidding me? Oh? Yeah, he's the He's there like two
or three great character actors in one movie in Robin Hood,
Eugene Pulette, I give up. I give him a B plus.

(19:33):
He played in some gangster movies. Also played a heavy
and stuff like that. He's good.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
And mister Smith goes to Washington as one of the
political fixers.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Fabulous. Yeah, Eugene Poulette is great. I mean one of
my favorites is Edmund O'Brien. I mean he's a solid,
just solid character actor. In fact, played some lead roles,
but I like them better as a character actor. Uh.
Just just the White Heat, you know, he's in White

(20:03):
Heat with James Cagney, is the FBI undercoverage and in
the prison there. Uh, Liberty Valance, Liberty Valance, he's unbelievable.
And as a publisher in Liberty Valance, I mean the newspaper. Yeah,
he's uh and seven days in May, seven days in
mayne seven days in May is the uh. It's basically

(20:25):
the the guy that represents the government to trying to
find out what's going on behind the scenes at the
nuclear site or whatever they were doing. Yet he's a
military the just a tremendous uh. One of my favorite people. UH.
My wife and I I got bb into watching these
old movies. So now it's great to hear her say, yeah,

(20:47):
I love this guy and stuff like that, when she
never even kicked you know, she grew up an off
sister house. They didn't watch certain movies. In fact, she
never saw John Wayne. She told me a story because
I we watch John Wayne. I go anybody that says
he was a bad actor, don't believe him. You don't
finish in the top ten for twenty five years if

(21:09):
you're a bad actor. If you're a bad actor, you
might get lucky for a year or two when you're
leading the box office for twenty five years, okay, twenty
five you could be briefly great like Burt Reynolds was
for five years, as good as anybody, if not the best.
But to stay up there for twenty five years top ten,
don't ever, let anybody tell you that it's the people

(21:30):
in New York that are Marlon Brando, Lee Strasburg, you know.
And I respect all of them. Okay, anybody that can
knock out Hyman Roth like Lee Strasburg did, I'm all four.
But John Wayne was a hell of an actor and
he did some wonderful things too. And with character actors,
I noticed he followed the same group followed him for

(21:51):
every movie. Woody Strode, Harry Carey, you know, Junior, Yeah,
Harry Carey Junior. A lot of different guys. Some you
won't even recognize their names, but you'll recognize their faces.
But John Wayne was solid. No, I'm with you, man.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
And also, you know, when I do scene missing, and
especially when we do westerns, my buddy Gab Hartman and
I we do stuff and I put together a montage,
and you're right because there are so many guys they
tried to make cowboys stars, oh please, and they made
dozens of movies but didn't have the stickiness like Bust

(22:29):
Your Crab and Lash LaRue and you know, these guys
that made a ton of these movies and stuff, and
it's like, you know, you're you know, failed after the
Big Trail. That was a bomber's first leading role, and
the guy toiled in B and C movies for another
eight or nine years before stagecode.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
So he paid his dues. Now, the Big Trail, which
was one of the most epic put together movies of
all time. It was back in the thirties. It costing
them three four million dollars. They had hundreds of extras,
thousands of horses, cattle. There was no trick photography. They
had to go down hills with covered wagons, go through

(23:08):
the water. I appreciate the fact that people have taken
another look at The Big Trail and now appreciate John
Wayne for what he did in that movie. He I
watch a lot of his movies. And BB we were
watching The War Wagon, you know, and we're what, but

(23:29):
she had never seen and we watched it the other night,
The Sons of Katie Elder, okay, with one of my
favorites Earl Holloman of all time. Yes Martin, oh yeah,
And then you had, of course Dean Martin, and then
you had John Wayne. And she goes, god, this is good.
It's John Wayne. Your family went to the movies to

(23:51):
see John Wayne, and they knew how to put it together.
They found the greatest locations, beautiful locations, the best scripts.
There was always humor in it. There was never overly
sexual stuff. But with Angie Dickinson or with Marien O'Hara,
he got the message across, you know. Even in Grant

(24:11):
Again he tried it, you know what I mean, flirting
with the girl in the car. A little shaky on
that one, but John Wayne didn't start to linger. She
never saw John Wayne until she saw true Grit, I mean,
not true Gret Rooster Cogburn. Second one. Yeah, she goes,
I never saw John Wayne before. I go, are you
out of your mind? She goes, well, I grew up

(24:32):
with sisters. We watched Little Women, we watched this and that.
I go, okay, She says, the first movie I ever
saw in him in was with Katherine Hepper, because she
loves Katherine Hepburn. They were both great in it for
older folks, grueling. Shoot, they were unbelievable. Man. And she said, man,

(24:53):
I knew then that he was good. And she said
she didn't know he had won the Academy Award. I
said he was better than Rooster ca. I think then
he wasn't Drue grid.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
Well, it's kind of it's kind of a we scattered Uglia. Absolutely,
and it's kind of an African queen as Absolutely, they
ripped it off.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
I get it. Yeah, that's nice. I did not know this.
I saw Paul Anka's documentary the other night. Very good friend,
very good man. We went backstage with him, he said,
asked me the same things that Rickles asked me when
we went Was I good? Was I all right? Are
you kidding me? You know? So? Uh? You know, you

(25:33):
watch these guys and you see what they do, and
and Paul Anka was in the longest day. You know
what John Wayne knew what to do was get Ricky
Nelson here, Get and Margaret there, get all young singers,
Bob Bobby Vinton here. What he did was he brought

(25:57):
the kids in. He he wasn't crazy. He goes, all right,
I'm forty five years old. I'm fifty years old. Let's
get Ricky Nelson with Dean Martin and they make a
video together basically in the movie when they sing together.
I mean. So, he was just a smart guy, and

(26:17):
he kept and he kept his nose clean for the
most part. Isn't is it? Frankie in the Alma, Frankie Evelyn,
absolutely every damn fifties idol Fabian every time. We'll asking
right right with an Ernie Kovax. Don't go there? Or
was it stut Ranger? Was it Steorge Granger?

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (26:37):
Hello, Hello, Yes, we're going to Yolin together and prospecting.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Sure you're a cowboy, Sure you are, Absolutely you are.
Although I was telling you I.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Can't watch his movie King Solomon's Mind. I want to
blow him. Give me a break.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
I could kind of like that movie because he's he's
Allen Quarterman and he's like a pulp here. He's like
Indiana Jones before Joe, you know, before before.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Indiana Jones was born. Hilarious. Yeah, absolutely, How good are
you right now? We're covered it all? Oh no, we're no.
I want that's why we get the frame. That's what
we get the film frame around this man. Movies a
little bit off on the left side. Here. I'm on
with here. So this is the one I got to
pay attention to the one. All right, there you go,
no worries, You're all right good. I don't want to

(27:21):
want to screw things up here. All right?

Speaker 3 (27:23):
Another character actor that I think vastly underrated, but you
got to pay attention the great James Gleason.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Let me tell you something about James Gleeson. Hel a
boxing promoter type of guy. Uh uh uh A talker
for the big shots. Hey, you know you don't want
to was a was a manager wise guy type. Uh
was almost like a Ted Who is the guy that
discovered a Ted Healy type? James Gleason Ted Heally, you know,

(27:53):
I mean skinny ball, you know, but he was. He was.
I don't have him in my time. I have like, yeah,
I have Claude Rains, I had Edmund O'Brien, guys like
Dad in my top five. But yeah, he was a
top ten for sure.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
I'm pretty sure he's in Suddenly with Sinatra and Sterling Hayden.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
What a movie that is. In fact, I think he
plays the father if I'm not miss right. So yeah, yeah,
I tremendous. I'm not knocking to believe me, because you
had thirty character actors and Hollywood back then that could
act with anybody. Now he got maybe five. There's no identification.
There's no guys that want to be B or C

(28:38):
movie guys anymore. I think John Cassell is one of
the great character actors who ever lived being in five movies,
and they were all acclaimed, whether it be the conversation,
whether it be Godfather One, Godfather Too, Dog Day Afternoon
or Deer Hunter? Are you kidding me? I'm gonna pick
five movies, you know, which is interesting because sometimes actors

(29:02):
get unlucky. That guy, he had a good casting agent.
I mean, I try to think who could have played
for Ado better than him? Nobody. I try to think
who could have played the psychic sidekick to al Pacino
on Dog Day Afternoon? Nobody? A deer Hunter, the Weasley

(29:23):
pushed around buddy of Robert de Niro and and you
know the other guys and nobody, nobody, I mean, and
then he was on top of that banging Meryl Streep
they were dating for like they were gonna get married.
So yeah, it's that tragic, Yes, yeah, tragic that he
died as tragic, but he had so much more to

(29:44):
give as far as an actor. But if you're gonna
leave five movies, but sometimes you look at actors for
turning down pieces, and then they ridiculed him. And I
just saw a beautiful cut of Jack Nicholson. Uh. Jack
Nicholson was asked to play Michael Corleone at the beginning.

(30:08):
Now you got to remember Robert Evans didn't want Pucino.
Robert Evans is main man till the day he died,
is Jack Nicholson. Robert Evans made nothing but money. So
now Jack Nicholson is sitting in on this interview, folks,
this is stuff you can't get anywhere else. Okay, I mean,

(30:31):
I sit on the couch and listen. All I'm gonna
tell you is Jack Nicholson said, well, they offered me
the role of Michael Corleone, and I said, you know,
I got a better movie, I think, and they were
as good as those. I had two movies pending. One
was The Last Detail, which is a great movie if

(30:52):
you've never seen it, Folks, Jack Nicholson one of his
most underrated movies is The Last Detail, and the other
one was China Town. So I don't think I made
bad choices. They said, well, why did you turn it down?
And this is what he said, straight out, you got
to have an Italian guy play that role. I didn't.
I didn't think I was going to be able to

(31:13):
pull off the which he tried to do in Princey's
honor if you watch it. I like I like him
in Princey's Out of Thought. I like it, but I
know he's It's Jack Nicholson, one of the great actors
of our time, but I know he's faking that.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
Accent every every I'm sorry, please continue, and I'll say
that Sting.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
He was offered The Sting as Robert read Robert Redford's role,
and he said, yes, Well, you know you got to
remember Jack Nicholson was as big as Redford, if not.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
No, I realized that I just you need to you
needed a well why they ended up?

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Well, what he said was, I thought Chinatown would be
a better vehicle. I knew The Sting and The Godfather
would be great movies, but I thought mine were too,
And he was right, and Robert Redford ended up doing
the Sting and everybody was happy. Okay, It's interesting. They
don't always turn see Burt Reynolds just stupid. He turned
down great movies when he didn't have other great movies

(32:06):
waiting for him. Were Jack Nicholson turned down two movies.
Who could turn down? Why? Yeah, I turned down Godfather,
but I Chinatown. I watched it the other night. It
holds up it's the best film noir of all time period.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
It's maybe well I would call it a neo noir,
but it is a great seventies movie.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
And but yeah, you know what the Polanski and them
would love to call they loved the film noir and Jabe.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
It was it was you know, it was a tribute
to the old noirs. All that you're going to mile
a minute. I love Jack for Fritzy z Honor. I
just love Nicholson the whole time. Anytimes he wants to say,
you know, to kill somebody, he's got an edge to it.
You want me, it's zots irene zots. That's how I
kill as Kathleen Turner of course. But but also the

(32:54):
U and I love this things things amazing.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
That me and Boebe went on our first date and
we saw it, and it's our favorite movie and it
holds up to this day. And Paul Newman and Redford
were better together than they were in Butchcastle and The
Sun Dance Kid. Different genre. I thought Redford was still green.
I still think even though he started in sixty two
sixty three, I still I thought Newman basically in that

(33:20):
movie was you knew he was the number one had
the better lines, but in the sting they were equal.
Oh yeah, they were equal as far as acting ability.
And I love Paul Newman. He's still When people tell
me Marlon Brando is the greatest actor of all time,
I go, I'll name you ten. Better leave me alone,
Please cut it out. Even Jane Fonda, who I can't

(33:43):
stand for obvious reasons, said they asked her about Marlon Brando.
Do you think Mylon Brando was a good actor? And
she goes, good, Marlon are bad. That's all you need
to hear. Right, No, that's true, you claud In some
movies you didn't give a shit and then a sudden boom.
You know. I love Paul Newman.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
It was great discovering Brando. And David Niven did the
original Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Shirley Jones as bedtime story
movie for Brando.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
He does fine in it.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
But no, you're right. There is good Brando and there's
bad brand and that's.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
And that was. And Christopher Reeves has nothing good to say.
If you ever well, he's gone. God, yes, I've seen that.
It's he said, what a piece of you know what?
So I've never a Brandle guy who's pushed by the
New York media, and that's fine. I love from Libertyville, Illinois,
for God's sake, lived on a farm there. So I

(34:40):
still like him. In the Wild Ones, I like him,
and Godfather. I like him in a couple of other movies,
but my God, the body of work. I liked him
in The Freshman, but he had the place to say. Yeah. Man,
But but I put him up against guys like Paul Newman.
I mean, really, he could have played in the fifties
Marlon Brando few cat on a hot tin roof instead

(35:03):
of instead of Paul Newman. And for some reason Newman
after James Dean died, Newman was really the second guy.
He was going to be the second guy in Hollywood.
In fact, somebody up there likes me. Okay, the movie
about the Great Box of Rocky Graziano that was originally
a James Dean vehicle. And then he gets killed, okay,

(35:27):
right after they've done almost finished Giant, which they had
to get then Nick Adams to play him from a distance. Uh,
And I love watching it how they figured it in. Uh.
But but Dean was supposed to play that role, and
it was a good role. Paul Newman, I got to
give him credit. Knocked it down. I thought he knocked

(35:49):
it down. He was in JA ready to go period
and the.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Absolutely I'm with you, I'm with you, the uh no,
and much like we were saying about Kazell. Obviously, Dean
only had the four movies, but they were all great movies,
you know, or ages state movies at the very least
all Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
I mean, well here, I've always looked at it this way.
I watch his movies East of Eden and Rebel Without
a Cause and Johnny and I go, h, I like Giant,
but I like that a lot. But my argument is
if Richard Gear, who I think at a young age

(36:31):
was as accomplished as James Dean, believe me, and is
good looking, and he was fading off, so you're and
a gentleman, breathless, an American jigglow, and if you get
in a car accident, Richard Gear is considered yeh, wow,
oh my god. This guy just died. He did these

(36:51):
three four movies. I know you like this guy, Mike,
and he's kid. I was saying, he was the twenty
first century James Dean Chadwick Boseman. Yeah, you know Jackie
Robinson absolutely, yeah, answer, Yeah, you know, I like Kids Brown.
His get up is James Brown movie. Yeah. I always

(37:11):
thought I think it's important for certain actors to get
away after you do a couple of bios, you know,
do other other types of work. He did the Black Panther.
He took took it to the next level. But he
does the two bios Jackie Robinson, James Brown. You knocked
it downb don't do any more bios for a while.
Grab but we've gone I mean, but you know what

(37:31):
I'm saying, Uh, but there.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Could have been two more different people to do biography
movies about.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
I agree. That's what Well, that's called range and that's
why he's just what I'm saying that. And Jerry told
me I got chance. How did you and Nick Naughty?
I love Mholland uh drive or uh mohonond falls mohaland
falls with with with Nulty almentary, my good friend Michael Manson.

(37:58):
I love Duddy Jan Peterson, yeah all and Melanie Griffith
as good as they come, right, And I asked him, Michael,
when they have the argument him and Nulty in the
after Naughty gets mad because he's got to tell Chaz
that he messed around with the dead girl, which was

(38:19):
Jennifer Conley, And what's wrong? Max? Come on, talk to me.
You know the acting between them, And I go, how
did you guys pull that off? He goes, We're professionals,
That's what he said. We're professionals. And when you see that,
I mean, they take their craft serious. I'd love to
see Chazz do more stuff he hasn't done stuff for.

(38:42):
But another guy, Bullet's Over Broadway. Uh you love that movie? Oh?
One of the great Mooody Allen movies of all time,
you know, I mean, just a lot of If it
wasn't for movies, man, I mean, everybody thinks you know,
I love sports, believe me, but more movies too, I mean,
and I and what's great about the old movies because

(39:03):
of TCM. These people live forever. Man. You know, you
don't think they've been dirt napping for fifty years. I
look up some of these people, you know, I look
up some of these people and I say, you know,
some of them just died in twenty fifteen, and they
were making movies in the sixties and seventies, you know,
So it's amazing, it really is.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
I'm worried about the fate of Turner Classic movies Mike
with Warner Brothers for sale because I mean, hell, the
guy that's been in charge of Warner Brothers tried to
shut it down, yes, and it took Spielberg and a
couple other actors in filmmakers Togo, are you nuts?

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Don't you realize what you have?

Speaker 3 (39:41):
And also on DVDs they have Warner Home Archive where
they dig up obscure TV shows in film that's gonna
go away, Mike, because and in fact, they've already made
cuts to that because if Netflix bies it, they don't
want DVDs that they're there. It's against their ironically, because
they were a DVD rental company before there was they

(40:01):
were a streamer. But yeah, I mean the old movies
will survive and somebody else will pick up the mantle.
And of course all the free streamers show a lot
of great classic movies. But I just love the way
Turner curates movies and makes that makes the documentaries, and
I mean, god, they do you know they do their

(40:22):
version of Comic Con every spring, where you go to
La and it's a bunch of screenings or you go
on a cruise with them.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
You go on a cruise with them, and you're you're
you're walking to the buffet and there's Stephanie Powers exactly. Yeah,
you know, And so I agree with you wholeheartedly. TCM's
got the formula down. And if they change it, if
they ever go to commercials, if they ever get rid
of even look, do I like every one of their

(40:50):
on your people? No do, I do they do. I
think they do a good job. Yes, so you can,
you could say, but they still do a credible jazz. Okay.
I love Ben Manwitz Okay. Uh. The guys that does
film Noirs as good as anybody, Eddie Muller, these people,

(41:11):
all of them, they do a great job. They got
good behind the scenes people, and they've taken these I mean,
Eva Maurice Saint's still alive, you know what I mean,
And I think she's close to one hundred now. And yeah,
so I just think it's the best. And if they
ever go to commercials like A and He did with Theirs, uh,

(41:32):
you know, then they'll ruin it. It will be ruined,
and I'll never go back. I sit I don't even
want to sit through football games of commercials. That's why
I have the remote and I switch around. Commercials are
the worst. I'm watching the other night on Sony. Okay,
I'm watching on Sony mister Roberts, and all of a sudden,
Henry Fonda and Cagney are going to get into an

(41:55):
argument and then they go to a commercial for Christ's sake. Yeah,
so that's lower on the direct TV movie list, folks,
five fifty five, five sixty, because I got off the
movie channels. But that's what I don't like, and that
it breaks up a movie period.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
I understand, but also like that's that's the downfall of streaming.
They all went for the short money, hoping for subscriptions,
and now it's killed the theater audience. I was telling you,
I think I told you. There's a new movie called
Blue Moon, and it's Ethan Hawk as Lorenzo Hart, Richard
Rodgers' first composer partner. Sure, and it's the movie is fantastic,

(42:35):
and it's set the night that Oklahoma debuted on Broadway. Wow,
and here's this massive hit for Rogers and Amberstein and
Lorenzo Heart's there at Sardi's and literally the little guy
that the forgotten man, right, and it's a fantastic But
Barbie Bobby Connivals in the movie is we love Bobby?

Speaker 2 (42:54):
I love Bobby Connervell is one of.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Them because there's no reason to see in the theater.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
I mean, are no, that's over with John. The days
of a theater being every one mile in Chicago are done.
I mean I grew up in my area alone. They
Uptown Theater, the Riviera Theater, Grenada. If I wanted to
go the other way down on Broadway talking Chicago for
the folks out of town, sorry about that, but I

(43:22):
went back. I sixty four. I could remember sixty five
daytime summer mattinees at the Uptown Theater. I went to
see Girl Happy with Elvis in Shelley Fabrace. Took the
bus myself and went down there and say it in
the movie theater because I love Elvis, you know, and
I loved for Shelley Fabrae still do. So those were

(43:42):
magic times. Those times are gone. And Netflix and all
these people, and I do like them. I go to
some of their movies. I see a lot of their
comedy things. I saw the Eddie Murphy thing on Netflix.
I saw John Candy on Amazon. I just watched a
Bastion Man of Scalcow on Hulu. That's what I liked,
those things for the documentary in the comic specials I'm
with You, I'm with You. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
Old movie theater in Chicago, the patio on her own Yeah,
and my my fam my distant cousins owned it.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
And my dad had his pizzeria at Irving in Austin
where Jim Donald say, is now sure and uh, and
we would go. We would visit my dad and then
my aunt would take me to the patio because she
knew that the owners were relatives and they'd let us say.
And that's as you remember, because I'm a little younger,
but not much. But uh, this is when people would
walk in the middle of a movie and it wasn't

(44:33):
a big deal.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
They did it all the time, and they'd wait for
the second movie to play or something like that. Uh. Yeah,
the pornage theater. There were just all sorts of great
boo Lakers, State Lake on the Oriental.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
When you could say right, Oriental fine arts. Yeah, I mean,
just just tremendous. Those days are gone. I mean a
lot of the my mom tells me all the time.
She's ninety six. She goes, that was they things aren't
what they used to be. I go, things aren't what
they were last year. I go, I understand, my god.
One minute, you're going in for a place for coffee.

(45:08):
They go see you next week, and then the next
the next week he come into the places flat they're
they're building a new joint.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
You never see him. But yet it's funny that way
things have changed. Corporate America has changed things more than
any entity and anything that you want to talk about. Uh.
Whether it be because Jack Warner was in corporate Warner
brothers were brothers, although Jack Warner screwed his family, but yeah,
big time. Uh, But corporate ownership, whether you're talking Las Vegas,

(45:39):
whether you're talking media, whether you're talking movie theaters, whether
you build anything you want to talk about, anything that
that they've decided that they want to get into, it
has not become better. Period.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
They've Yeah, they destroyed it. No mom and pop businesses
are stores. Amazon killed brick and mortar stores.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
It's all you know, I mean, you know, so it's
a whole different ballgame. Now. I don't mind it because
I don't go out that much anymore, you know, I mean,
I just think that, you know, you see, I mean
out here, they build a Walmart where I live now,
and everybody acts like Disneyland's opening, so you know, I mean,
it's just it's a big thing now. So that yeah,

(46:20):
they they essentially, But I used to have a hot
dog my hot dog stands were I always took the
overflow from McDonald's. But it still hurt me to see
my food ten times better. And they have a drive through.
We didn't have drive foods. We had three joints and
we built them all by McDonald's. I figured, hey, if
they did the survey and they said this was a

(46:41):
busy area, let's find the store front because then we'll know,
and then we'll serve different food. And we did fabulous.
But it bothered when I saw seven people in my
place and twenty people in their place eating that garbage. Okay,
I said, wow, you know, we had homemade stuff and
everything else. So you can't battle the conglomerates, just can't.
You got to just do the best you can and

(47:02):
figure it out.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
Now, I'm with you, man, absolutely. How about did you
ever encounter George Hamilton?

Speaker 1 (47:09):
No?

Speaker 2 (47:10):
I thought that, Uh I give him credit though, Oh yeah,
I give the guy credit. I saw him play Hank Williams. Yes,
you know, I thought he did good. I mean, but
who was gonna The guy died when he was twenty
sixth Hank Williams. Williams the shortest biography of all time.

(47:30):
For Christ's sake, Godfather three. I thought it was a
mistake casting. Uh.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
Sure, No, He's had more missus than hits, only because
Duval wasn't authored the job that was the Francis Ford
Coppola can tell me how smart he is and how
great he is, and he is there's no doubt he's
an Italian.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I'm Italian. I'm proud of the guy. But to not
recast Robert Duval at any expense was one of the
dumbest things you could have ever done, period. And you know,
they try to redo it now, and I've watched it
since I first saw it, but after one and two
it was too hard to top. Big disappointment. It's Pachino

(48:09):
looked like a football coach. He had his hair in
a butcher aircut. For Christ's sake. Yeah, he started talking
like this.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
You know, he was still stuck in set of a
woman mode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Michael, No, I agree with you.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
But but the thing that they did with the Godfather
there was the smartest thing of all time. Is they
did it, and then two years later they did the
second one. Oh, they waited, They waited too long, just
like Chinatown. They waited too long to make the remake
for China. Jakes for sixteen years. Do it two years later,
you're set.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Well, I'm a little I agree with you. Certainly, Godfather
three is nowhere near as great as the first two.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
But it's no good. But yeah, it's it's good. It's okay,
it's all right, okay for Poozzo and for for for
Copola and those guys. You know, I don't know what
Coppola thought he was going to do. I thought I
think he said, I gotta go completely different here, you know.
I think it's funny all money they were for years. Everybody. Look,

(49:10):
I love the guy, and I think Godfather and Godfather too.
They've been playing it so much lately. I got all
the lines memorized. I know every line of I know
the lines to Casino. I think I just celebrated my
five hundred viewing of Casino some parts of it. If
you I don't watch the whole movie five hundred times.
But when you're flipping you'll stop. You know what did
What did.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
You think of a now Alto Alto Knights. It's Lobel
Levitson and Denio in the two and the playing the
two different roles.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
Yeah, I like that. At my buddy calls me as
Italian as it can get. Did you see that crap?
I go, what do you mean? The Alto Knights? I go,
what's that? And he goes, it's the the movie with Demiro. Oh.
I said, fuck, I'm gonna see it. You know, yeah,
I saw it. First of all, pretty accurate, Okay. I

(50:01):
love de Niro as Frank Costello. Uh, he was great
as game, as Gambino or whoever the hell he was.
I was trying to think of the other mob boss
was yeah, it's and then uh no, no Vito, Vito
Genevie's okay, okay, sure. And and then the guy that

(50:24):
played the guy that got killed in the barber shop. Uh,
I love that guy as an actor, okay.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
And I thought the movie was great. I thought that Costello, Uh,
the guy that played the chin was awesome. You know.
I thought the whole thing. And then they described what
happened in Upper New York perfectly. It went along with
all the accomplished reports. I don't DeNiro was great. I
thought he was good man he plays.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
When when The Irishman came out on Netflix, I'm a
big fan of that as well. No, oh, Mike, I
love The Irishman. Oh yeah, no, no, no, you're not Italian.
You can't be hilarious. I love that because really, Pesci
was incredible in that.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
I love Pesci and everything. Number one, he out asked
a narrow in a couple of movies. Don't get me started,
I'm sorry, Joey.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Yeah, Reggie, he's doing the heavy lifting in Reggie bo
Jack Jack a.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
Little less even a little more fucking you know what
I mean. So, uh yeah, I thought, I'm sorry. I
love Jimmy Hoffer. Uh Jack Nicholson nailed him, and when, oh,
I agree with that. That's the problem I had because
haff is a big part of that. And to pick

(51:47):
al just to get Al in, I'm sorry they could
have picked because Jack Nicholson in the movie Hoffa is
Jimmy Hoffer with Jimmy goddamn all right. Yeah, and that
and de Niro trying to play a younger guy. You
could see the hair dye, you know what I mean.
I just thought scorse. Sacy said, we got one last chance,

(52:09):
we got one last chance to do one more get
up there. Yeah, that's right, that's right. So I didn't
like it as much, but I thought Alto Knights was fantastic.

Speaker 3 (52:18):
Oh when when they're in jail and uh Pesci is
dipping dipping the Italian bread in the wine.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
I mean you and I know a million old men
that you know that's what they did. Man, you know,
and I've done that myself, and I'll tell you what
back in the day. And I just think that Joe
PESHI he's very understated. You don't know nothing about him.
You don't know if he goes to bed with a
different girl each night. But he could, even at his
advanced age. I think he comes and pops up in

(52:47):
certain areas, doesn't I think As far as being a
well rounded actor, I mean, Home Alone, all you have
to do is see Home Alone and see Joe Pesci
do a three Stooges type of comedy. Okay, and he's
so good at it, and uh so I think he
had good range. De Niro's got great range. Denil. I
think the best movie Daniro might have ever made his

(53:07):
midnight run in my attention there it's my god. I
mean Charles Groden, what happened to read? To read about?
When he came in to read with them? And Charles
Groden was the only guy that made him laugh And
that's how they picked him, because they had a ton
of guys and they couldn't make him laugh. And when
he made him laugh and then they got along great,
which made for a great buddy movie. Well and Grodon

(53:30):
another vastly underrated I just watched I just watched uh
what's the name of that movie? Uh? With Warren Batty.
I haven't come wait, I just yes, oh, yes, yes,
run this. He's in the Yeah he's no, he's he's
he's like assistant or whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
Well yeah, well he's he's supposed to be the rich
guy's assistant and he doesn't know that it's now Warren
Baty instead of the Richards.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
It's so good. Oh, James, he was such a sick
on I read on these guys, James Mason, have you
ever read about him? Yes? Hello, Jerr one of the
weirdest guys ever. Doesn't talk to nobody walks around very
sullen with a very depressed guy all the time. I mean,
I read about this guy and then I see him

(54:16):
on the on the screen and he's tremendous, just absolute,
O my god.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
Yeah, one of the few English actors, one of the
few English actors I like. I mean that him and
Newman in the Verdict as the two lawyers come on,
tremendous and and yeah, I mean he is of course,
uh north By north north By northwest low Leaf.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
I mean he's at and.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
I'm looking at Sue Lyon in a bikini right now,
and Cherry Winters wants me to try it.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Sherry tie well. He he did that one movie later
on with James Colburn and Richard Benjamin Duran a yacht, uh,
Raquel Welch and Tyrol. Yeah, take a look, I see
if you can find uh uh. It was about a
scandalous affair they start that ended up on a boat,

(55:12):
a yacht, and Raquel Welch was my girl. So I mean,
oh my god.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
I'm always interested in these British movies that Lord lou
Grave made, and they're from the late seventies and early
eighties before these guys died and they're all like, uh,
there's you know, this is David Niven and Roger Moore,
Roger Marr when he's not playing James Bond, were like, uh,
the sequel the Guns have never own Forced ten from Navarro. No, no, no,

(55:43):
I agree, Like they're not great movies, but it's interesting
watching these guys when they're all bent the wild geese,
where they're all old guys getting together.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
Right. I just watched Roger Moore DC and the thing
that he got Manverick is a miracle. Okay, because well,
you know what happened. Well, they had trouble. First of all,
they didn't like the writing. After season three or four,
Garner got tired of filming the whole thing. Every every
he was getting shipped money, that's the problem, and they
were throwing him around. He was he was doing a

(56:15):
lot of his own stunts back then, and I was.
I watched the first and second episodes now and the third,
the third seasons. The writing is impeccable. Then they brought
him man Jack Kelly, who me and Bee didn't like
at the beginning when we started watching Maverick, Great grow
Up just grew on us absolutely. I agree, Great the
two of them were great together. And you can find

(56:36):
Jack Kelly in other movie in other parts. And he's
been very accomplished actor, right, very accomplished. But he says, well,
they paid me enough. I wanted to live. He was
a playboy. Roger Moore back then he had there's a
documentary out of Folks if you could find it, check
it out. Roger Moore just.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Tremendous, well as I understood it. You know, he had
been under contract for Warners and he wanted out, so
he agreed to do that. Those nine or ten episodes
of the fourth season of Maverick. He gets out and
then he goes to London and he starts doing the
Saint and he always part of the name Roger.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Before that, he did before any of this, he did
a serial of Ivan Hall, Yes with Flash Gordon on
Sunday Mornings, Commander Cody Sky Marshall of the University, Flash Gordon.
All of a sudden one Sunday, Ivan Hole, Ivan Hole,
and I'm looking and it's Ivan Hole and it's it's him.

(57:39):
It's Roger Moore. I goes shit, you know. So he
he earned his stripes, no doubt about it. Then he
was I thought the second best Bond ever. Uh yeah, yeah,
I got. I got of course Sean number one, okay,
and of course Roger Moore number two. What's funny is
BB you know women back, if you listen into the

(58:00):
sixty scripts on James Bond, it's awesome. Oh but if
you're a woman and you're watching, and that's so awesome.
So even and she goes, yeah, it's okay, you know,
I go gold fingers, okay, no, yeah, but it's not
I get it.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
I mean basically and it's Thunderball. I think where he's
in the health spot and he and he basically takes
the woman and kind of rapes her in this.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Yeah, yeah, she's not. But then something remarkable happened. She
saw The Untouchables and she goes, this guy's one of
the best actors I've ever seen. That's what we were
talking about before, about scripts and about different genres. And
I agree. Sean Connery in The Untouchables was a knockout.

(58:53):
He rollout.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
I know you're not a sci fi guy, but have
you ever seen Connery's movie Outlett.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
No, And I know you're not maybe a war guy
or a prison guy, but I'm not a prison guy,
have you ever seen Sean Connery's movie when he's an
inmate in a military prison in Britain. No, No, and
he's got to run up a hill they got They
torture him by making him run up hills. You can
maybe look it up. I don't remember the name of it,
but is.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
It, Donna? Do you think we're talking about the Last
of Sheila?

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Is that? The Last of Sila is the movie that
Raquel Welch was in with James Colburn in them. It's
a crap movie, but Raquel's in it, you know, Diane
Cannon's in it. James Colburn, who to me was every
bit as good as Steve McQueen. I get in this
argument all the time. I go Steve McQueen connect. Steve

(59:45):
McQueen was no what was cool about him?

Speaker 1 (59:47):
You know?

Speaker 2 (59:48):
I mean, like Colburn is in like Flint was cooler
than anything. Steve McQueen never did. Sorry, you know, well
I mentioning those guys. Yeah I didn't.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
I don't watch you A lot of British TV from
the sixties and Donald Sutherland before Clute and before Kelly
Ciro's is in a.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Of the Great Train Robbery and the Great Train Robbery too. Yep, yep.
Sutherland never got nominated for an Oscar. I believe if
two guys that were overlooked in my lifetime, well not not.
He made the one guy made the movie before in
my lifetime. Ero Flynn, who I thought made two three

(01:00:32):
really good movies. I thought Wayne deserved more than one
nomination making all the movies he made one more askers,
he got some nominations, But Donald Sutherland tremendous actor and
uh overlooked. He was great and the great Train Robbery
with Sean Connery. They were great together. He was great
even in the little stuff like Animal House. You know,

(01:00:55):
I agree, no question, And as deep throat mentioning James
Coburn my high school lovely Jim Truefrost played with Coburn,
Noughty and himself. It was called Affliction. Affliction is a
very hard movie for me to watch. He's the grandson
in that movie. Got Jim, well, you tell him that

(01:01:18):
movie's tremendous. James Auburn finally got what he did. He
was so good in that. But the movie is so
dark and if you were ever abused as a kid
by your parents, you won't want you could watch this
and say, yeah, this guy might have had it worse
off than me, you know what I mean, because Nick
Nolty was great. You know, he's got Nick Nolty had stones.

(01:01:42):
He did movies like I mean to do Prince of Tides,
you know, as Nick naughty to play the opposite role
in Cape Fear, when yes, he could have played the
Robert Mitcham role, he played the Gregory and sold it. Okay,
that's how great an actor I think Nick nolteus. I
love him in almost everything that he does. You know,

(01:02:05):
you've let himself go. John. I didn't want to tell
you that, but Nick, no, you know, he's tremendous in
with that he I mean, they're tremendous.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
No, I I was gonna say, I'm talking about movies
with tough subjects. Connery came back to do Diamonds Are Forever.
If they let him make that movie The Offense, which
is about child murder and molestation. I didn't see it,
Oh well nobody did, and then really united artists basically

(01:02:36):
made it as they all right, well you know you're
coming back, you're saving bond and he's like, I want
two million dollars put in the bank. Of Scotland because
they're hurting and they need the finances and you're gonna
let me make this movie. And they're like all right,
and hey, I was a little low budget movie, but
it's this intense police drama.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
It was It was cool that diamonds are forever. He
ate they got to age them. He didn't come through
with the black to pay. He had the Grayish to pay.
He knew he was getting older. And then you see
Carrie Grant who originally they stay turned it down, Yeah
down James Bond and uh, maybe that was the right
thing to do. But I watched him. One of my

(01:03:14):
favorite movies of him, it's playing James Bond in Charade
with Audience Loman. Yeah, I think he's James Bond and
he shows you what he could have done maybe at
a younger age, had he done it once or twice.
I love that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
I always imitate him at that gunfight moment, Reggie, I
beg you, I'm telling you that, Trim.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
You know I love him. In north By Northwest, he's
look the guy. I've grown to like him. But he
wasn't in my type of guy growing up. He wasn't
you know, he wasn't my type of guy. But everybody
but the women love him. I mean, you know, you
can't you get an argument about Cary Grant. You're in trouble.

(01:03:52):
You're in trouble. If you you know my wife, if
I me and be talk about him, she loved them.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
But he could you know, he really the only thing
he couldn't is tough guy, but funny in comedies, funny
in romance movies. And that that auction scene in north
By Northwest when he's trying to avoid the killers, that's
the That's one of the funniest movies.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Let me give you my synopsis of Carry Grant God smooth, smooth,
no doubt. Yeah looking guy, no one clean, no marks, clean,
always looks impeccably dressed. Even his father Goose they love.
And it's still Carry Gret. You can't the mud heagles.

(01:04:36):
What's it's Kerry Grant as a sailor. You know what
I'm saying. Don corrected me. It's the hill was with
Connery thing. That's it. That's the one, the hill that
he has to go up. The guy's fantastic get showed
all his athletic prows. He's a big soccer player back
in the day, carry carry carry Grant to me, Uh,

(01:04:57):
when he did h the movie with Tony Curtis, Uh yeah, yeah,
Operation Petticoat or whatever. Yeah, that's what it was. When
he did other movies, get rid of the English accent.
You want to be considered an actor to me, get
rid of the English accent. You can't be a captain

(01:05:18):
in a submarine, an American sub Hey you don't. No,
you can't be carry Grant in every movie. And that's
what his failure was to me, that he was carry
grant And that was not a failure to him. And
I don't blame him. He had the recipe down. There
was nobody that could stay with him outside of being graceful.
Maybe a stare and a stair was a different genre. Yeah, John,

(01:05:42):
he had the English accent. And we've seen Australian actors
like Russell Crowe and other people out there. Yeah, and
they come in and they do the American accent. So
that's what I've always had against them.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
Well, I respect that to me any right, And he
obviously was born in England. It came up to me
the way Catherine Hepburns did in that what they called
the mid Atlantic rather yeah, right, Well she she sounds.

Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
Like she's from England and she grew up in Connecticut
or something. Yeah, you know, she never really changed either.
But tremendous actress. There's you know, I'm a big Barbara
Stanwick fan. I used to like Betty Davis. Now I
think Barbara Stanwick's better. The more you watch these people
and you try to drink them in of what they did.
Betty Davis did dark movies, did I'm I'll stab you

(01:06:29):
in the back when you're not looking movies all about
ev is great. But Barbara Stanwick I think had more
range and she was more pleasant to be honest with.

Speaker 3 (01:06:38):
Well, we just did Martha Ivers okay on our show Okay,
and yeah it's a no, it's again.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
She's so great in them, Yes she is. She's so
good at what she does. Barbara Stanwick's Fantastic Christmas in
Connecticut is great. Sydney streets in it and if you're
there's a dance scene there that you'll love. Uh, they're
just laughing. They hid their laughter as their after doing it.
It's sort of like one of those waltzes at the
end of the movie, and it's it's fantastic, So Barbara

(01:07:08):
Stanwick and Double Double Indemnity, and she's just so good
in all those stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
I'm with you the uh another movie where they break
character and start laughing. I love in White Christmas when
Danny Kagan and Big Crosby are imitating Rosemary Clooney and
Vera Allen's act and Kay starts swatting Big Crosby with
the feather boa and Crosby absolutely loses it and that's real.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
And I just love that. Christmas in Connecticut, Sidney Green
Streets almost runs over this woman and they laughing. And
by the way, he's another John Cassell type. Sidney Green Street,
Holy christ I love that guy. We love him in
the first three movies he made, Rock Hue, Casa Blanca,
was he was in that Vault, Walty's Fault, The Maukee Falcon,

(01:07:57):
Christmas in Connecticut, the Guy's guy had he made like
ten movies, ten twelve movies, so uh yeah, he had
lupus and all this ship. He didn't look like a
very healthy guy, so no big heavy stick guy. That's
why everybody had it down. And then that's how he laughed.
He always like, yeah, I like to talk, man who

(01:08:17):
likes to talk? Yes, good stuff. Well, there you go, Mike.
I wanted to bullshit about movies with you for an hour. Yeah,
if we start talking boxing, be another hour. We don't
have to talk about boxing. Now what it? It's gone joint.
Jake Paul almost wanted horrible? Horrible? Did you enjoyed Jake
paulk getting his ass kicked by Jack? By Jack?

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
Mike, I also think, all right, we'll talk a minute
about because it's all right. I think it was almost
by a design where he's a smart marketer, Jake Paul,
and he knows, yeah, well he's he's he's a he's
enough of a marketer that he knows he's got his fans,
but he also has people that that want to see

(01:09:00):
Mike Tyson destroy him. So he was willing to take
a beating at the hands of Anthony Joshua because he
knew that a lot of us were happy to watch
him get the hell kicked out of him.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
And everybody now knows, whether you like him or not,
who Anthony Joshua is, and Anthony Joshua dat punch Dad
had bad intentions, folks, bad And if Tyson wanted to
and didn't want, I lost respect for Mike I'm sorry
I went down with face. You can't fix a fight.
I kind of think it was more performance than actual sport. Yeah. Yeah,

(01:09:32):
because he killed Jake Paul. I don't care how how
old he is now. Mike Tyson would kill Jake Paul.
Trust me. Marciano before the plane crash would have killed
Jake Paul. Trust me. Lennox with his beard looking like
Grady would have killed Jake Paul.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
Well again, I know of real accounts where Jack Dempsey
in his late seventies stopped two muggers and Billy Kahn
in his seventies stopped a robbery from half.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
Oh. Yeah. The never lose their punch. They never lose
their punch. There's no doubt Tyson would have killed if
he wanted to Jake Paul. He held that they're on
the street. Jake Paul lasts thirty seconds because then you
got to throw everything in.

Speaker 3 (01:10:14):
But he got what he wanted even through the I mean,
he's gonna be eating Christmas dinner through a straw bust
in his jaw. The way as kicked it was great,
but he has two highlight punches that now moving forward,
if he and I think he will continue to fight
that they will put on his highlight rail of him
throwing overhand rights and clocking a former heavyweight champion that's

(01:10:36):
still close enough to his prime that it looks good.
It's one punch, but that's all you need for a promo,
that's all.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
I'm not saying. I would to me, You're right, it's
entertainment the boxing game needs. We've always talked i'd need
somebody to run it. I don't care. Yeah, when the
boys ran it in the forties and fifties, it was
a well run sport period.

Speaker 3 (01:10:58):
Our friend, but Bert sure is to say the same thing.
The Mob ran boxing better than you know.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
Everything the Mob ran Vegas, Okay, the fights, Everything the
Mob run has run has done well, and then other
people take it over and they screw it up. That's Vegas, absolutely.
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:11:21):
My my favorite story about the Mob is you know
the jukebox business, and you know the story about Kyrol
Lawrence Singer was some mobster's daughter and they would have
guys because for people who don't know pop songs, jukebox
plays were as important as radio.

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
They were huge, just like this, bigger, bigger than this.
You better have a jukebox and every bar you go
into because the people walk right back out period.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
Right and this, and they would have they would hire
guys to go into restaurants and bars and literally with
with the roller quarters and play Carrol Lawrence records to
keep her popular, and they kind of helped her career.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
Yeah, I don't understand. You know, you see the boys
now they're fixing poker games. You know, first of all,
I just want to say on behelf of my hair
and thegit wait, they have the Five Families back. Everybody
told us they were gone in the eighties, nineties. What
have you? All of a sudden, there's basketball players fixing
games and being in front of the hell what the hell?

(01:12:24):
So why didn't they make that boxing they had X ray.
They were bringing in their players that make millions and
and and throwing them to the wolves. I mean, it's awesome.
It's America, America, God bless all right, Johnny, all right, Michael,
well done. That's what I look for. Mary Christmas, Mary Christmas,

(01:12:48):
and I love you, and uh, you know, it's always
great to see you. And we'll have to get together
after all these Jesse Rogers, Jeff Schwartz, you know, the
four horsemen of the pot Jerry Ryles, of course, I
remember Jerry and everybody else that was with us on
the Bostapasta shows, which are guys if they ever re
ran them, you know, uh you, I don't know. I'm

(01:13:13):
too late. I haven't gotten them converted. I got lazy.
I'm a little lazy. I'm thinking me and beerre thinking
of writing a book. Yes, yeah, how we did it?
Uh and seriously, how we did yeah because you know, well,
you do it because you have un conditional love. But

(01:13:33):
there's a lot of things you gotta overlook and stuff
like that. I mean, you know, and uh, you know,
we were out a lot, you and me and everybody.
We we partied. I mean that was it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:44):
And me, Uh, let me promote your your odds show
that you do. And this isn't the title of it, everybody,
but I know it's couple.

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
It's on. Uh we're on. We're doing a taping tomorrow
for the Christmas holidays, so I'm happy about that. And
then it's not Saraday morning at seven o'clock on the
ESPN Radio Am one thousand. I do Also, somebody big
just died, uh you know, and uh yeah, we had
some people. It was cold for a while. It was.

(01:14:13):
It was, but you know, unfortunately Rob Reinder took care
that we have the Rob Rander. Somebody big just died. Yeah,
we could talk all day about did Anthony Gary from
General Hospital make the cutter? No honorable mention? All right? Fair?
All right? So did Mike White the Illinois football coach?
You led us to the rose? Well what happens is
you got to stay big, and you know a lot
of these people fall unless you were a legend. Like

(01:14:35):
when Connie Francis died. There was no way she was
getting it. When Rickles dies, but they they're legendary. You
knew who these people are. Anthony Gary, I s b.
That's how I go. Who's Anthony Gary? She goes, I
don't know. I go remember Luke and Laurier. Oh yeah,
but that's all they did. So they didn't make it.
But Rob Reiner, shame, But what are you gonna do?
That's a weird situation. We talked for another hour about that.

(01:14:59):
Forget about that rather not honestly, it's still it's leave
on a good own and wish everybody a merry Christmas
and a happy New Year. Granny there you go, exactly.
Thank you for how many takes. I think she holds
her fist in that one too, I mean her risk.

Speaker 3 (01:15:16):
You know, all right, Dan, thanks a lot, Mike, everybody.
Uh more great stuff this holiday week here on Word Balloon.
Make sure you join us