The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Mondo returns to talk about one of the greatest films in the history of cinema, The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp, produced and directed by “The Archers,” Michael Powell and Emerick Pressburger.

 

Right out of the gate, I’ll mention that the “Let’s Franchise This, Baby” segment is one of the ages; that is to say, the film we suggest be made is one I would give anything to see. No, really.

 

We should probably have gushed a little more about Deborah Kerr’s performance. She was only twenty years old when Blimp was filmed and the actress played three different women who were all distinct. 

 

If you’ve never seen this film, it is currently on YouTube for free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3RyouSN1YE

 

Here is a link for a YouTube video of the incredible Thelma Schoonmaker talking about Powell and Pressburger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sC_zOAsZTQ

 

Our HQ : https://studiopropertyshow.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
You're listening to Radio Free Reinkliffe.
Welcome to Studio Property, the cinema podcast for people like you.
I'm Doug Wartell.
I'm Devin Irby.
And this week we are discussing the life and death of Colonel Blimp circa 1943.

(00:22):
And I'm really excited because I know it's one of your favorites and I've never seen itbefore.
you don't hate it and you don't hate it.
And I don't hate it.
I don't hate it.
I even enjoyed it so much.
I watched it and then I watched it again with the commentary.
I like, you know, I know stuff.
liked it a lot.
Yeah.
Well, I have to correct something that happened last week when we were talking about goinginto this episode, we announced that we're doing this movie.

(00:50):
Right.
And then I told a story that I either misremember or was operating on bunk information.
And honestly, I think it's somewhere in the middle.
Right.
But the story of Thelma Schoonmaker meeting Michael Powell.
Mmm goes as follows.
This is the accurate stories came out her mouth.
So got it.

(01:10):
Okay, so She was working on raging bull in 1979, right?
Starting the edit on it and she was given the day off because Scorsese had gotten her intoall the Powell and Pressburger movies But now because we went from a 90 minute cut to the
actual of the 106 minutes.
It was showing at MoMA So we said get down to MoMA and see the complete cut

(01:35):
Well, Michael Powell and Emrick Pressburger were there and Emrick was social.
He was all excited.
I'm here to see my movie.
He's all like hot, hot and being a funny guy.
But Michael Powell was carrying how she described it.
It's just really heavy weight of sadness about him.
And it was because of all of the loss that he felt personally between Roger Livesey wassort of his alter ego.

(02:04):
when he worked on films with them and in their friendship as well.
And he was in love with Deborah Carr.
They had been together for a long time.
They were supposed to get married, but just broke up.
So that movie means like 90 things to him, right?
So she introduced herself.
Hi, I'm Thelma Schoomaker, Martin Scorsese's editor.

(02:27):
And I'm a huge fan of the films and they just hit it off from there in 79.
They get married in 84 and he passes away six years later.
they were together 10 years in total, he passed away six years after that, into theirmarriage.
So that's the real story.
Yeah, that needed to be corrected.

(02:48):
I'm glad you did that.
I'm so happy you don't hate it.
Right?
Me too.
You only hate Jesus.
That's why you didn't like last week, because you hate Jesus.
I mean 110%.
You
After explaining all that, now I gotta read all this copy.
Okay, yes please.

(03:09):
There was a brief pause when Michael Powell reached the podium after screening of thereconstituted cut of a film both he and his partner, Emrick Pressburger, long considered
to be their best work.
That was 40 years ago during the spring of 1985.
Both Powell and Pressburger were being honored at the International Film Theater, not onlyfor the movie itself, but for being one of the most important collaboratives in the

(03:32):
history of cinema.
The life and death of Colonel Blimp was released on June 10th, 1943.
It wouldn't even be heard of in America for another two years because the Britishgovernment, mainly its Ministry of Information under Winston Churchill, didn't take kindly
to how British soldiers were portrayed.
It was barely a year after the Nazi bombing of London, so speculation on whether Churchillhimself was being lampooned was a sensitive issue to say the least.

(03:57):
The Prime Minister's staff had already gotten him so worked up over the initial script,
that the production was denied any cooperation by the British military.
They wouldn't be lent uniforms, military vehicles, and were even denied their first choiceof lead actor, Laurence Olivier, who was serving at the time.
When asked where the uniforms and vehicles used in the film were acquired, both Powell andPressburger would answer with a sly grin, they were borrowed.

(04:23):
I like to think about that pause back in 1985 after Michael Powell saw his masterpiecerepaired and appreciated by a new generation of filmmakers and lovers alike.
This was of course after he leaned in and spoke the very same words our protagonist CliveCandy spoke when he was submerged in the Turkish bath water of time.
Quote, it was 40 years ago.

(04:45):
Now 40 years almost to the day from that moment I get to ask my cousin Devon, could youplay the goddamn theme song?
Yes.
You
R
Don't
So that's studio property, your studio property.

(05:09):
Hey!
Shut your mouth.
So we have a guest this week.
Welcome back, Mondo.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me back.
Well, you're very welcome, sir.
You're wonderful at this.
We love Mondo.

(05:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.
How about I have you back?
I don't take compliments well.
No, he doesn't, though.
He doesn't, though.
He like shuts down.
Yeah.
My daughter was laughing at me about that the other day because I was just like, you know,they said such nice things.
I was just like, yeah, yeah.
That's happened.
She teased me for like half an hour.

(05:51):
And you have to get used to if you're going to be on the show.
We are very complimentary of each other and our guests.
Not all of them.
Not all of them.
But what did you guys think of the film overall?
Let's start with Devon.
I loved it.
I really loved everything about it.
So I thought all the film work was fantastic.
The camera work, the way they handled lighting, the costuming was fun.

(06:17):
I even thought they did a good job with the old makeup, which you can't always say that ina film of that age.
And also I really liked how they just sort of seemed to lean into the painted sets.
Cause clearly, you know, films of that era, a lot of it's just gonna be fake.

(06:37):
So if you can make the fake look beautiful, I think that's impressive.
And I thought all that was great.
And there were so many just like lovely shots.
But also, I really liked the story.
I thought the story was brilliant.
I liked the flashback.
I liked the way it was told.
I liked the significance of the content of the story.

(06:59):
And the characters, the characters were so interesting to me too.
I liked that your protagonist was a bit of a douche.
You really hit the D.
He was.
know, when candy's kind of a, he's a windbag.
Well, how gorgeous is British Technicolor in particular?

(07:22):
so beautiful.
It's the chemical that's in the bath that washes that negative is what gives it that look.
That's why their Technicolor looks way different than American Technicolor of that age.
So, but yeah, it's gorgeous film.
I'm sure that chemical causes like mesothelioma or something, but it is beautiful.
How about you, Mondo?

(07:42):
What do you think?
I also love
I think I have seen this once before, like probably a really long time ago on TV in blackand white.
Yes.
There were a couple of scenes like I definitely recognized.
I mean, if it didn't say that it was like filmed in Technicolor, like, you know, rightthere in the beginning, I would have been like, what they do colorize this?

(08:05):
because 19, you know, the early 40s, I mean, how many color films were there?
Wizard of Oz, the only one I can mention off the of my head.
Right.
Like even The Great Dictator, right?
Wasn't color.
Nope.
That was black and white.
were still, you know, most films are still filming in black and white until like...
Yeah, that was 1940.
Again, I only remembered like a couple of scenes.

(08:25):
This must have been a million years ago.
I probably wasn't paying attention.
It was probably the middle of the night and it was probably on like Channel 9 in New Yorkor something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember that first, that initial run like in probably...
What I saw was like the for the first time I probably saw part of it in the 80s because Itoo recognized like moments and the moments I remembered were in black and white as well.

(08:51):
Yeah, but until I saw those moments, I thought this is completely the first time I hadever seen this.
Yeah, no, I loved it and everything about it.
I love the scenery as well.
For a couple of different reasons, there's like a Scooby Doo scene and that was like thefirst and only thing I could think of watching that one scene.
We can talk about that later if we want.
But
You know, the score is fantastic and interesting.

(09:19):
A lot of it is very...
A lot of genre hopping.
Yeah, but it's a lot of genre hopping as well.
The first piece that begins the film when the motorcycles are going to do that exercise orto plot the exercise has jazz in it.
Yeah.
There's also like a lot of marching band stuff.

(09:42):
And the score was written for the film as opposed to being like just like an overallsweeping thing with a common theme like you find in a lot of stuff today.
Everything's got the same theme.
This was specifically written, parts were written for certain scenes and it's obvious.
But a lot of it is yeah, very upbeat jovial stuff.

(10:02):
At times I even like said, that's an interesting choice.
So the score was arranged by Alan Gray and recorded by Charles Williams.
Okay.
And you can actually, if you are a streamer, there's an album available.
I know this because I was listening to it today called The Music from the Films of Powelland Pressburger.
So you'll have Pieces of the Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death, SlashDayway to Heaven.

(10:27):
They're all on there.
So that's a really good record if you just want to hear some cool movie music.
That sounds nice.
So here's a challenge to you both.
And we'll start with Devin.
Tell me what it's about.
So I think it's more about General Wynn Candy.
I think it's about him evaluating his life.

(10:50):
And I think it's done through the lens of several things.
One, we use that lovely flashback because basically the majority of the film is aflashback.
which helps him come to terms with acknowledging he's an old man in a modern world, whichI think at some point everybody deals with.
Shit, I'm dealing with that now.

(11:10):
Me too, me too, But, you know, so I think the lens of even though it is also about Taeho,I think really it's how that friendship comes to exist and what it means to each other,
because it's not a day to day friendship, it's a lifetime friendship.
But also under underline all of it is the fact that it's two men with military careersliving through massive active military conflict.

(11:43):
I mean, because the film essentially covers four, five conflicts, essentially.
mean, it covers a lot.
two of them are World Wars.
So to me,
you're following along, somebody is evaluating his life.
We're using the lens of the friendship, this very important, significant friendship, andthen also this lifetime of military service and how he comes to terms with everything

(12:12):
that's ever happened to him and he's done, I suppose.
Really.
Mondo, what is this movie about?
For me, the movie's about like change and resistance to it.
I mean, everything is.
Yeah.
Everything about this movie is about how things change as you get older.
Things change, life changes, the world changes around you.

(12:35):
And some people are very resistant to that.
And that's not always a bad thing, but it's definitely not a good thing.
Devin and I are nodding like bobbleheads.
We're just, we're hard of agreeing, but you can't hear that over the shoulder.
Change is a really big theme here.

(12:56):
Like the world is changing.
Yeah.
And some people don't change with the world.
Like I said, not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not necessarily a good thing to stay sorigid in your, in your worldview.
You know, you need to adapt.
Yeah.
In this case, in the face of hard ass evil.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.

(13:16):
Yeah.
Definitely in the face of hard ass evil, but also just, just the way the world works.
I think things change.
Yeah.
You got to get with the times or, you know, life's going to pass you by.
What was it Ferris Bueller said?
Something along those lines.
Life is pretty quick.
But I mean, you know.

(13:37):
I don't disagree with that at all with either assessment of what the film is about,because it's not easy, right?
Because you have to explain.
It's not easy to explain to someone who isn't used to these sort of films, right?
Like, it's not one linear story.
It's not.
just the adjustment, the adaption to the times.

(13:58):
It's not just about friendship.
The melancholy in this film is palpable because of the loss that happens as it goes on,but it's also sweet and tender.
It says a lot about rules and has a lot to say about the sort of ceremony and pomp andcircumstance that we build around rules.

(14:19):
Like I think
Mondo comes close by saying like, it has a lot to do with not adapting.
think if you're going to tell someone what it was about, it's about like 90 things.
Right.
It's about a man who falls in love and then sees that woman in every woman.
Yes.
Right.
Mm It's about a 40 year relationship with time.

(14:40):
It really is.
Is it too early to mention a scene that kind of like not really interesting?
All right.
So near the beginning of the flashback.
Yeah.
when he hears it like, know, this guy, Konitz is spreading this anti-British propaganda,you know, he gets the letter from Edith Hunter and he's just like, hey boss, I would like

(15:03):
to go to Germany and confront this guy.
And they're just like, absolutely not.
It's not the way things are done.
Leave it to the diplomatic corps.
And he's just like, this and he goes anyway.
So right there, it's like he,
early on in his life, he was willing to go against the way things are.

(15:24):
And the result of that is that part of the reason why he was just like, know, maybe Ishouldn't go with the flow.
I shouldn't change because I did that once.
I got dressed down and that dressing down was like hardly anything.
But the one time he stepped out of the rigid

(15:47):
military roles and stuff.
Like, yeah, I mean, kind of, well, it had consequences.
Yeah, he got scarred up in his mouth, but he also got to fall in love.
Right.
But his heart broken.
Right.
Because that was because even then he didn't break protocol by going back for Edith.
Right.
Right.
Like true.
He just, you know, so where he very well could have.

(16:10):
And she more than let him know that he could have.
Yeah.
I mean, I think
When we get into that, I think there's a bit of nuance about the realization of theromance and all that.
But before we get there, we probably ought to talk about who these people are.
All right.
So roll credits, Devin.
All right.
So Roger Livesey.

(16:33):
Is it Livesey or is it Livesey?
It's Livesey.
Livesey.
Thank you.
Roger Livesey is Clive Wincandy, who ultimately becomes General Clive Wincandy.
Anton Walbrook is Theo Krechmer-Schuldorf.
Anton Walbrook we also saw in the original cut of Gaslight, 1940.

(16:56):
we did.
Also something I learned just a little aside, Anton Walbrook was also in the originalVictor and Victoria.
So before Julie Andrews and James Garner and Victoria, there was a German version, he's inthat.
He was the James Garner character.
wow.
I know, right?

(17:16):
I was all excited.
That's one of my favorite movies of all time.
So I would be really interested to see the original.
Me too.
Me too.
Yeah.
And then our other big character is Deborah Carr.
And she plays three different characters over the course of that 40 years, essentially.
So we've got Edith Hunter, who's first, then Barbara Wynn, and then towards the end,Angela, a.k.a.

(17:42):
Johnny Cannon.
And then of course the other really significant actors in this film Michael Powell'sGolden Cocker span spannials Eric and Spangler in this movie just for one scene But
they're also in a matter of life and death.
I think they are in fact.
I think they're a little bio says this is their second film Do they have their own IMDBpage I I did a fine behind DB page, but I pretty sure it exists if we look it up

(18:13):
The other little tidbits that I think we need to know from a cast and crew standpoint,obviously this is our first foray into Powell and Pressburger.
Our cinematography is by Georges Pernal and as you said earlier, music and scoring by AlanGray and Colonel Blimp is a cartoon character.

(18:35):
It's a satirical cartoon character that first appeared in 1934 in the Evening Standard,the London Evening Standard.
What by David Lowe?
He was a cartoonist.
From what I understand it was it's kinda their Uncle Sam ish.
It's sort of it's Uncle Sam.
If you're making fun of how inflated and ridiculous he is.

(19:00):
Uncle Sam was a bit of a doofus.
Oh, OK.
They're kind of making fun of like the British military industrial complex.
Oh, OK.
So when they're like, Oh, I don't know why Winston Churchill thought we were making fun ofhim or the British government.
It's, you know, I kind of think you did.

(19:21):
think you knew basically because you know, Yeah.
But yes.
Well, let's get into scenes and I think we're going to start with Mondo.
All right.
So there's a couple of scenes I want to talk about briefly.
Well, one of them, not maybe not so briefly.
The first scene I really want to talk about.
and this has a lot to do with with makeup.

(19:41):
All right.
So watching this movie, I watched it twice.
And the first time I watched it, I was constantly pausing the film because I was like,there is no way in hell this is the same actor.
And it absolutely was.
know, and then when I'm looking at the when I'm looking at the cast, because I'm like, no,no, let me let me pull up the cast.

(20:03):
I see period blimp Spencer Trevor's period blimp.
I have still have no idea who that is.
Oh my goodness, me too.
I was wondering the same thing.
I'm like, who's period blimp?
So I'm like, that must be old blimp.
That must be old blimp.
But no, it's not.
is always Roger Livesey.
Yeah.
You know, now fully understanding that this is the same actor.

(20:25):
Yeah.
When he goes into when, you know, when he's fighting spuds and they go into the bath,know, my assumption was that there is a cut there and, you know, just beautifully done.
And then Roger Livesey
steps out of the pool.
First of all, the makeup though, absolutely fantastic.
mean, with Teo getting older, I mean, that's like, I could do that.

(20:50):
Not as well, not as well.
It was still great the way they aged Teo.
But I mean, like when you see them make people older in films today, this was fantastic.
You're absolutely right.
So in my head, Canon, it was one long shot and they designed that makeup to wash off ofhim.
So it's just like, so he goes in in the fat suit and the bald wig and it's just like, itjust like, it just falls off.

(21:15):
And then he just kind of steps out of the pool young and vital.
And I was like, I was like, I'm sure that's not how it happened.
There must've been a cut, but in my head, that was what happened.
That just washed away.
I love that he turned the beginning of a 1943 film into the daredevil hallway fight.

(21:37):
It's all one continuous shot.
It's Birdman.
It's one.
Because yeah, we don't really see his face when he goes into the pool with spuds.
I'll put some color on that real quick.
So like I said, when Thelma meets Michael Powell, they were working on Raging Bull.
Well, by then he was already friends with Scorsese.

(21:58):
I think he was friends with him during New York, New York and King of Comedy.
So they all met at the apartment, is Martin Scorsese's mom's place, which is where it allgoes down.
You'd see like Cassavetes and Peter Falk, like, you know, just making sandwiches withMartin Scorsese's mom.
Like it was, you know, like just probably an amazing place.

(22:20):
Right.
Anyway, Michael Powell was there and he's like, wonder, I understand I'm to meet Bob DeNiro and Bob is, you know, very unassuming person.
And he happened to be sitting right next to Mike.
and now they're picking his brain and interrogating him, almost like a prisoner.
How did you do the makeup?
How did this happen?
Because they are very interested in this for raging bull.

(22:41):
Because if you remember, De Niro has to put on 60 pounds and play older Jake LaMotta.
And he said, well, yeah, there was makeup and he shaved his head, but it's acting.
It's acting.
It's really that simple, right?
And when you look at that performance,

(23:02):
That performance escalates.
It's not just old, young, right?
Like when his hairline begins to recede, he's almost, he starts to put on the blimpaccent, right?
Like you see that you hear the beginnings of it, right?
So like his mannerisms become a little different and he becomes a little bit like, like hegets a little bit more of that.

(23:26):
douchebaggery.
Yeah, well, it's in his character.
Yeah, what's all this?
Yeah, right.
Right.
Right.
Before he, you know, reaches his final form.
You know, so go ahead, I'm sorry.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, they age him over the course of 40 years to most of the time.

(23:48):
And like, yeah, you'll see, like, this is him when young.
This is old.
I mean, they age him like so believably is great.
I want to talk about that scene because of makeup.
You another scene that really it just got in my head and stayed there is, oh, goodness,where the heck were they?
It's in my notes.
They're somewhere after the duel has been requested.

(24:09):
And there's a long hallway and there are people back and forth in this door, out thatdoor.
And all I could think was Scooby Doo.
Yes.
And I was like, this was where this is like this is where it came from.
This is like 1941.
Nobody has done this before.
This is.
This is where this came from.
To your point, a lot of cartoons borrowed a lot of things from this period of film, right?

(24:31):
Like the hunting heads.
That's been done in Bugs Bunny.
was taken directly from this film, right?
To show the passing of time in a short amount of time, right?
You you get a lot of Marx Brothers stuff, right?
You get a lot of Charlie Chaplin stuff in the early Bugs things.
But yeah, a lot of things were taken from this movie.
But you know, the scene I really want to talk about the most is the duel itself.

(24:53):
know, Candy has insulted the entire German army.
By accident.
By accident.
But with his whole chest.
Yes.
Yeah.
So everybody in the German army wants to duel him.
They have to draw lots.
it's a matter of diplomacy.

(25:14):
he can't.
can't back down from the duel.
Yeah, he's got to do the duel.
He's cool with that.
He's cool with that.
Teo wins the lot there.
So he's gonna do the duel.
And I mean, they even tell him like, you know, the man's not fond of dueling.
Yeah, you know, he's a man of honor.

(25:35):
And this is this is where he's at.
And I know you're gonna want to talk about this, Doug, after I mentioned it.
It's like, so you got the whole there's the rules of the duel.
It's a whole long sequence leading up to the duel.
And then they they get in the ring, just so to speak.
You see the first few taps of the sword, you know, not actually like really getting intoit.

(25:57):
They're like, you know, tapping the sword.
I've never dueled.
I don't know what that's about, but that's what they're doing.
And then we pan away and we're outside and it's snowing and Edith is in the car and weeventually see an ambulance leave.
That's the duel.
And that's, I love that.

(26:18):
Yeah, it's a C and action sequence.
So the origin of that is Emmerich Pressberger found a book on the rules of dueling andfound them preposterous and also hilarious, right?
So he builds up the tradition, the ceremony of the weight of the swords and where they arein distance to each other, the checking of the duelists to make sure there's no protective

(26:45):
bandages under their shirt.
That is a Danish aristocrat who's playing sort of the referee character in that beautifuluniform who says to him like, know, like, are you going to cut your sleeve or roll it up?
And he's like, which is better?
And he's like, I'm not permitted to say.
And he's like, I'm going to cut it.
And he goes, well, that's definitely better.
Right?

(27:06):
So it's a wonderful glance that's exchanged between Livesey and Anton Wohlbrook, whereWohlbrook is very nervous and very serious about this duel.
And Libzy's almost like looking at him like, isn't this absurd what we're doing?
Like, it's like, and he's conveying this with a look like, this is, what are we doing?
He went, I got to my foot in the rosin?

(27:27):
What, what?
And then as we built up this whole ceremony, this whole preparation for this big duel,once they start dueling, the shot pulls away up into the rafters and outside.
And you don't see it.
Scorsese takes that verbatim in Raging Bull and it's the championship fight.
because each fight was different in Raging Bull and they didn't know how they were goingto handle the championship fight.

(27:50):
You've only been hearing about it since the first moment that the movie starts.
I got to get my shot.
I got to get my shot.
Well, he gets a shot.
It's the same structure.
He's preparing, you know, with his brother and punched him while he was wearing thepadding.
They're getting ready.
They go out to that amazing stadium shot with the big crowd and then he gets to the ringand no fight.

(28:13):
You know, you don't see the fight.
He takes that right from.
right from blimp.
that's, yeah, the dual scene is a big one.
It's one of the shots the movie's most known for.
Which is unsurprising because it's really beautifully put together.
Yes.
Yeah.
And for a movie that is about more than war, but it's about a man who's gone through thesewars, there is no too little war in the movie whatsoever.

(28:37):
Any other
Any other film, there would be action sequences, there'd be gunfire as people are hunkereddown in a trench or something.
And instead, all the war is glossed over.
And I don't mean glossed over like in a bad way, just like, you blah, blah, blah.
But the scene with the heads is World War I.
So it's like with the animal heads, it's like, you know, he's obviously also a big gamehunter, like most British Army officers probably were, especially if they had served in

(29:03):
Africa and India.
And so we keep getting the bang heads.
Here's an elephant, bang.
Here's a weasel, bang.
Here's a the dates underneath.
Yeah, with the date and the location.
Which one was it?
And then for World War I, we get bang, hun.
And there is a German officer's helmet.
That was World War I.

(29:24):
You know, you could say the same about the death of both wives.
Right?
Like you don't see Edith die and you don't see Barbara die.
No.
So like, her name Barbara, right?
The second one?
Candy's wife is Barbara.
Yeah.
So you don't see either of those deaths, but you see the repercussions, right?

(29:46):
So same thing when the war ends.
This is a great little tiny moment.
And as many times as I've seen this movie, I only noticed it like after it was sort ofpointed out in one of the commentaries.
Murdoch, he's in the Jeep with Candy when he tells him that the war is over, right?
And this is very brief.
He was like, you know, that woman you keep talking about, she must've been unremarkable.

(30:11):
And he was like, what do you mean?
She was an incredible woman.
Right.
And he was like, well, you see her and everyone, like you've seen her like a milliontimes.
She must've been common looking, which is interesting because we're, we're privy to threeidiots, quote unquote.
Right.
But there had to have been a lot of them.
So.
Which is such an interesting idea.

(30:31):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So go ahead, Devin, what do you got?
Well, Edith is who I really kind of want to talk about.
So one of my favorite moments is post-dual them in the hospital.
So as you say, the duel itself, we don't get to see any of the action, but we see all ofthe pre-work, which ultimately is that era's diplomacy, right?

(30:56):
So it's that era.
That's what's happening.
It's, nope, this is how we have to handle this.
This is diplomatically, this is what we need to do.
So when we end up in the hospital, poor Edith, essentially they have to explain to her,no, we have to kind of quietly hush up what actually happened.
So the story is they were fighting over you.

(31:17):
So you can't leave now, you have to hang out.
You have to stick around, you can't go anywhere.
Which one again, is kind of part of that diplomacy, this little cover story.
And it seems so absurd and silly, but she just agrees to it.
But then it clearly gives us this little montage because obviously the whole time in thehospital, we know it's a lot longer than what we see.

(31:39):
And so it's Edith and Clive becoming friends and with their little cover story and as he'shealing.
So Clive, who is Wind Candy, he gets a giant slash across his lip and ultimately settleson growing a mustache to cover it up, which I think is brilliant.

(32:00):
And then Teo.
The German officer gets a giant scar across a giant slash across his forehead.
So they're in the same hospital, this German hospital in Berlin.
And ultimately when they've healed enough, they decide they're going to say hello.
So Clive and Edith invite Teo and the young lady with him, you don't necessarily get thefeeling that she's a romantic person, but potentially she could be, but it's like a lady

(32:29):
friend.
Yeah, it's a lady friend who's a countess.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So basically, they come together and we have this, like lovely beginning.
This is where we get to see kind of where the the the non romance romance between Edithand Clive happens, and also how the friendship between Clive and Tao happen.

(32:50):
So what I love first off is Tao can't speak much English, and Clive can't speak German.
But Edith does, she does speak German and then the Countess also speaks English.
So essentially the ladies are sort of translating for these two guys and all Teo can sayis very much.
And so it's like they had a whole practice speech where the Countess is like, he's tryingto explain something.

(33:14):
And then she kind of paused and he'd go, very much.
That whole interaction was just cute as a button.
But also right before all of that plays out, we realize Clive and Edith have this momentwhere romance could bloom.
And Clive is clearly too oblivious to realize that it's there.
So then when Teo and the Countess come in, Teo immediately takes to Edith.

(33:41):
And so suddenly romance starts to bloom there.
And so it's this very lovely little light, light flirting, and Clive just misses it.
he has this kind of shot at romance, and it just is completely oblivious to it.
And so then we kind of
towel along.
And when we get to the point where everybody's healed enough that they're leaving thehospital, Clive thinks he's going back to London with Edith.

(34:08):
And Teo comes in who clearly has better English now.
And that whole conversation I enjoyed because of the whole half English half German.
Because honestly, it sounds like when I try to speak German, like there was a lot of unddes, right?
There's just like all this back and forth.
And they're like, what is that word again?
Yeah.
And basically, so Teo's trying to be proper again.

(34:30):
He thinks Edith is Clive's fiance, because clearly that's the story he's been led tobelieve, but he's fallen in love with Edith and he wants to marry her.
And so I love when he's like, we have to duel again.
Yeah.
Clive's like, two pages of your English dictionary, of your dictionary must've stucktogether.

(34:50):
Cause that's not right.
Right.
Right.
It's like, no.
And then he's like,
I'm in love with with Miss Hunter.
I'm in love with Edith.
And then Clive is just like the way that whole reaction plays out, because he still hasn'tfigured out that he is in love with Edith.
So he's super stoked because he thinks his new best buddy is marrying this great gal.

(35:13):
He's like, this is awesome.
it's it is so wonderful and really just really supportive.
He's like, congratulations.
And he's really just really sweet.
Right.
That's a really cool.
Yeah.
And, and I love that we get to revisit this moment so much later in the film.
They're much older men.
They're both widowed at this point.

(35:34):
And Clive finally gets to say, yeah, I was in love with her.
And Tae was like, why didn't you say something?
He's like, because I didn't know until after the fact and I clearly wasn't going to goafter her.
You guys were already engaged to getting married.
I'm not going to go after her because I didn't realize it.
I didn't figure it out.
I like

(35:55):
When he hugs Edith to congratulate her, mean, like you can see she also loves Kenny.
I'm sure she loves Teo as well.
But I mean, she's got this look she's really not sure.
Yeah.
And I think she might even be a little upset that like maybe she was hoping he would belike, well, hang on a second, buddy.
I love her, too.
Maybe we should or something.
But yeah, just he's so ecstatic for them.

(36:18):
And I feel she's a little she's a little hurt and let down.
I'm sure she's very happy with Teo.
She loves Teo, too.
she's probably been very confused and, know, Candy made it very easy for her.
Exactly.
And it's all done with looks and glances.
There's no audible cue as to what they're actually feeling.

(36:38):
You just sort of pick up on their body language.
And that's not very common in a lot of films in 1943.
I don't even know how common it is in films today, especially because the romance is doneso chastely.
so innocently, it really is, I'm gonna marry this guy, but not in an aggressive way, in areal, I like this guy.

(37:04):
I don't think he likes me back, but this guy, but I like this guy too, and he really likesme, so I think this is gonna work.
And then they're married for 30 years or whatever.
It is really nuanced and smarter than most films communicate those sort of like triangles.
Another film would have turned it into a whole, know, or would have made it
much more obvious or just one note all the way through.

(37:28):
even just a bit salacious.
I love that it didn't need to be.
There was no need.
It was very sweet and was very innocent and very true.
I love that scene because it is so subtle and sweet and to your point, like really cute asa button and not at all salacious.

(37:51):
Like a lot of different directors, especially now.
been like, look, he would had his like, director hands and like, let's be dirty birdiesand action.
You know what I So it is really sweet.
And it does establish so much, again, but just body language.
Michael Powell famously said, don't insult your audience, never talk down to your audiencebecause they're always ahead of you.

(38:17):
And this is a brilliant example of how neither of them talk down to their audience.
I'm going to be honest with the audience myself for a second because we were having atechnical difficulty here, in which case, and the post credits, I'll play you the
conversation that was going on during the post credits in which Devin came for the DeborahCarr's patent leather belt, like the fashion police, making an 80 year old arrest.

(38:49):
My age.
I was making an year arrest.
In fairness though, I wasn't going after Deborah Carr.
I was going after the costume lady.
Cause clearly it wasn't Deborah Carr's pick.
Whoever, I don't even know who the costume lady was, whoever she was.
But you're assuming it was a lady.
you know what?
You're right.
You're such a misogynist.
I'm so sick of your sexism.
God.
Yeah.
I'm awful.

(39:10):
Awful.
Well, the scene I want to talk about, there are two and I'll be brief about one becauseI'll show emotion, right?
But like when Wilbrook, tail is in the back of the car that Johnny's driving.
Now this is the third woman that Deborah Carr is playing and he'd already been told thatCandide had been in love with his wife and that his own wife is just sort of a carbon copy

(39:39):
of Edith, you know, physically looks like her, know?
So when the light hits Johnny, Johnny's, you know, of her nickname,
Right?
When the light hits Johnny and he realizes why she was hired and why and that she looksidentical to both Edith and Barb, I well up like because his reaction to back the little

(40:01):
smile, the knowing smile while she's talking about what are the chances that I would behired is that's one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie.
One in seven hundred, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
One in seven hundred.
It is one in seven hundred.
Yeah.
But.
I'm going to play a scene.
We had talked earlier about adapting, which was a big theme in the film, right?

(40:27):
But mostly adapting to people who fight dirty, right?
In this case, it's the Nazis.
And this is Teo after decades of friendship, being really honest with his friend.
If you let yourself be defeated by them just because you are too fair to hit back the sameway they hit at you, there won't be any methods but Nazi methods.

(40:56):
If you preach the rules of the game while they use every foul and filthy trick againstyou, they laugh at you.
They think you're weak, decadent.
I thought to myself in 1919.
I heard all that in the last war.

(41:17):
They fought foul then, and who won it?
I don't think you won it.
We lost it, but you lost something too.
You forgot to learn the moral.
Because victory was yours, you failed to learn your lesson 20 years ago, and now you haveto pay the school fees again.

(41:38):
Some of you will learn quicker than the others.
Some will never learn it because you've been educated to be a gentleman and a sportsman.
There's a whole ass political party in America that needs to listen to that speech.
Yes.
Because that is some spot on truth telling right about there.
Yeah, it is.

(41:59):
Candy is so attached to the old way of things that he's not even seeing the present.
And it takes a German man to tell him you didn't win the last war.
We lost it.
And that's why we came back.
Right.
And that's covered like earlier too.
You know, when he first goes to see him at the POW camp, which is a very nice POW camp,it's, know, as far as like, I mean, it's like, know, that's the way, because that's the

(42:25):
way things were done.
took care of these officers.
So they had concerts and everyone's sitting on the grass listening to an orchestra play.
And when he first goes up to Tao Tao, like completely like snubs him.
Because for Candy, this is just like,
no hard feelings.
This is war and we're still friends.
No hard feelings, buddy.
And Teo obviously has some hard feelings.

(42:47):
And then he comes around a little bit, they have dinner.
But on the train back, I mean, he's telling his other German officers, he's just like,these guys are morons.
He doesn't say it like that.
But he's just like, you know.
But that's what he's saying.
Yeah, they think that this is the way things are gonna be.
When we get back, they are now lulled into just thinking like, that's it.

(43:10):
War's over, everything's cool.
He's just like, you know, he's predicting like the rise of the next German power.
And unfortunately for him, it is not what he was probably hoping it would be.
Well, his sons fall victim to it, because sons become Nazis and he loses touch with themafter Edith passes.

(43:32):
No, I think he loses.
Remember, I think he loses touch before she passes away because when she passes away, theydon't show up for her funeral.
Right, you're right.
You're right.
Yeah.
Which again, feels very relevant not showing up to your mother's funeral because youdisagree about politics.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, you ever have so many things you want to say that it forms almost like an icecream headache behind your third eye?

(43:58):
Yes.
Yeah.
Family members are listening this.
I'm talking to you.
You don't talk to you.
Also, f*** yourself.
yeah, my.
Ditto.
So the movie has a really beautiful ending because it goes back to the beginning, right?
Where we first come to the exercise that led that home, what is it?

(44:22):
The home defense?
Home?
The home defense.
And we get to see the opposite viewpoint of the exercise.
Yeah.
And that viewpoint is that the rules were the war starts at midnight.
Well, there's no rules in war.
So we can kidnap you now.

(44:43):
We can capture you now.
And that's the way war goes, buddy.
And that's a hard lesson for Gandhi to learn.
The line we hear from spuds in both of these bookends of the both points of view of likethe, you know, the war starting at midnight and starting early.
You know, the first time in the beginning, I wrote it down because I thought it was kindof like not a funny line, but a funny line.

(45:05):
Brute force and ruddy ignorance.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Is what he says.
That's what we're doing.
And then after watching this movie, when he repeats the line, you know, when we see himsay it again at the end, that hit me so much differently because that is not the way they
would have done stuff in the past.

(45:27):
And I didn't really think of it.
thought it was like a funny line.
Brute force and ruddy ignorance.
Woo.
And then at the end of this like brute force and ruddy ignorance.
Yeah.
That's not something candy approves of.
You know, because there are rules.
again, it's the sort of wearing of the rules, isn't it?
Like, you know, like you're putting on a like one of Devon's husband's sweaters.

(45:54):
those rules fit him in a way.
That isn't exactly appropriate for nine 10 PM, but at three in the afternoon Rico's slav.
Yeah.
So what I love about that ending is his home was destroyed, right?

(46:18):
And Murdoch is who becomes his Butler passes away in that shelling, right?
And the repaired home.
is there's flooding all around it, right?
And there's a conversation that he apparently had with his wife, Barbara, who said to him,you know, don't ever change the, you know, even when the floods come now it's now the

(46:40):
floods are there.
And he's like, I didn't change any smiles and he salutes the present.
He salutes what happened to him.
And it's a very optimistic salute at the end, matter all the things he's lost.
all the things that he was forced to evolve in during the passing of time.
He salutes and smiles at the end and that's that's a salute that stays with you long afterthe movie's finished.

(47:06):
Yeah.
But has he changed maybe a little somewhere?
No, honestly, when he did the whole duel and gets back to London and gets dressed downagain, hardly addressing down my daughter talks meaner to me.
like on a daily basis.
But he's invited to dinner.

(47:26):
After he's dressed up, he's invited to dinner, he doesn't go.
And he does talk about like, you know, before the final scene, he talks about how hedoesn't want Spuds to get in trouble, despite the fact that he should be brought up before
the board and, you know, there should be some trouble had.
He doesn't want Spuds to get in trouble.
And he would like to invite Spuds to dinner, wants him to not...

(47:49):
miss the opportunity like he did.
And he kind of lets Johnny know, know, kind of make, make sure your boyfriend shows up fordinner.
So it's like, while like, while he hasn't changed, mean, maybe even though he's not goingto change, maybe there's like a bit of understanding somewhere, maybe.
During the first word, when the scene with the prisoners, right?

(48:12):
He's deluded himself into believing that they were fighting fair this time around and they
clearly were it.
That's another scene in the avoidance of gratuitous violence.
We don't see what really happens in the wars.
He's just like, tell me what you know, man.
And they're just like, I don't know nothing.
And then he's got to split.

(48:32):
And then the other guy is just like, well, you're going to deal with me now.
And later, we get the information that they gave up.
So the torture and brutality is only implied.
It happens.
But in the film, it's just, hey, we see the guy as kind of like, you know.
He's not on the up and up.
The guy was about to question him after Candy leaves.

(48:55):
And he got the information.
Yeah.
I'm sure they didn't think he was a nicer guy than Candy.
I'm sure they didn't just, well, yeah.
mean, there was.
And he even doubts, if you remember, he doubted that information and it turned out to betrue.
Yeah.
We were made to be as oblivious about the torture as he was.
Right.

(49:15):
Right.
They sort of rush him away, too.
Like he's this old fossil.
Like, get out of here, buddy.
But we were talking about a composition earlier.
When he gets to the monastery, when he meets Barbara, right?
There is a beautiful piece of camera work there when all the nurses are going upstairs andhe's trying to find out who that woman was that looked like Edith.

(49:38):
And they're behind him on that staircase, all going up that staircase.
That is one of the most beautiful pieces of filmmaking I've ever seen.
I just needed to bring attention to that.
Interestingly, he does never find out who she is.
So he stages a benefit to find out who she is once he's back in England.

(50:02):
It's like he never found out.
And it's like he kind of admits that.
And everybody seems partially horrified in that British way.
It's just like he had an ulterior motive.
It still did a lot of good.
Yeah, but that's the main reason he did it was so that he could find out who Barbara was.
He's Bob Gildorf his way into finding his wife.

(50:25):
He's like, I'm going to throw a big old festival because I know she's from this town.
She should show up.
Also, the fact that Barbara's not offended by that at all.
She's like, it's adorable.
Right.
This guy who's like.
A dozen years my senior thought I was so cute, he had to figure out who I was.

(50:48):
She's not offended at all or creeped out.
We come from a generation where a guy in a trench coat can hold a radio over his headunder her window and play a lackluster Peter Gabriel song.
And this was romance, not stalking.

(51:10):
Romance.
romance.
Gen Z is going to see that a little differently.
Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah.
I mean, I know we're getting to the end of our discussion, but can I just say this filmalso had one of the best lines I've ever heard in a movie ever, which was from the Ant.
Yes.
Yeah, I knew the line.

(51:31):
I wasn't I wasn't going to forget this time because we there was a line in Omely that noneof us mentioned and I was like, damn, how do we not mention it?
But yeah, this was
It's in the show notes of that episode guys.
Okay, so yes when Clive has goes to the opera with either sister hoping that the sisterMartha will be a lot like Edith and she isn't but he runs into two friends and Finds out

(51:59):
they've gotten married.
So he's telling the aunt afterwards.
He goes home and he's like, yeah, they got married and the aunt says you know, yeah, it'svery suitable match
He has money and she has land and neither of them has any brains.
And she just says it so quickly and fastly.
he's kinda like, uh-huh.
And then on they roll.

(52:19):
Yep.
Except British way.
Right?
And I was like, oh, that lady didn't have enough scenes in this film.
No, we could have used a whole spin-off with just her.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
But you know what?
Let's move on to America's favorite segment.
And by that, I mean, let's franchise this comma baby.

(52:44):
If you are just tuning in, this is the part of the show where we repurpose the content wewere just discussing for the purposes of art, darling, but also money, money, money,
money, cash, money, hoes.
So we're going to decide whether we're going to make a remake or a sequel.
How do we make money?
Assuming we have bought this studio property or acquired it by some means.

(53:10):
My idea this week is that
we make a movie about the making of this movie because it parallels not only the filmitself, but the Powell and Pressburger story is in this film.
Emmerich Pressburger had to go to police check-ins because he was, even though he madeEnglish propaganda films to further the war effort, he was considered an alien enemy.

(53:41):
He had that speech that he made
beautiful monologue that Anton has in the film where he talks about coming back to hiswife's country.
That's a beautiful scene in itself.
But that's the Emmerich Pressburger story is right there in that monologue.
If we made a film that was perhaps like directed by the Cullen brothers, because I thoughtthis through and it had the tone of this film, the sort of the pacing of this film.

(54:12):
And it maybe is the story of the British government trying to shut them down just byreading the script and then working up Winston Churchill, who didn't have a lot of
information to act on, but he acted on it anyway, because he did end up preventing theexportation of the film for a couple of years.
So as they're trying to get this movie made, have the, the enemies would be the Britishmilitary.

(54:40):
You would have his romance with Deborah Carr and eventually break up.
But also you can can fictionalize some of it like Roger Livesey, right?
Like maybe is the one who gets them uniforms and the vehicles because he worked inmunitions.
So maybe he still had the keys to a warehouse or something or other.

(55:03):
So, by the the title for my movie is War Starts at Midnight.
perfect.
Directed by the Cullen Brothers.
Nice, you know.
Something like the till the floods come didn't have the same.
You know, jazz hands.
Yeah, about it.
No, starts at midnight is definitely jazz hands.
So who do we cast as Winston Churchill?

(55:23):
OK, this is because that's probably one none of us have thought of.
No, well, and it's tough because.
He's been portrayed so many times, so do we just go with somebody who's already done it?
Like Gary Oldman, yeah.
Do we just kind of do this simple sort of listen?

(55:44):
Can you do a slight?
It's It's canon.
It's canon.
Yeah.
Your Churchill now.
But also can you do a slightly less serious version and almost a ever so slightly comedicversion?
Because I feel like this version of the story, he's got to be a blowhard.
This is who I was going to cast as actually Candy in my musical.

(56:05):
Oh, you were going to make a musical.
Yeah, nice.
But my
instead of candy for this Cohen Brothers film as Winston Churchill, Matt Berry.
he would be good.
I love Matt Berry so much.
He is.
He's fantastic.
New York City.
Love Matt Berry.
OK, yeah.

(56:26):
No argument, man.
No argument at all.
Yeah.
Matt Berry would be perfect.
Yeah, I like that way better.
That's good.
Yeah, that's way good.
Which movie, Devon, do you remember what movie we turned into a musical?
It was absurd too.
I don't remember.
Yes.
Oh, House of Yes.
Right.
turned House of Yes into a musical.
Right.

(56:46):
Oh, man.
That's, that Barry is perfect.
Let's see for.
Yeah.
Now I want that.
I want this so much more than I did now.
Like I kind of like, oh, this will be a good idea.
Now I want to see this made so bad.
All right.
So the war starts at midnight.

(57:07):
I have Christian Bale as Michael Powell.
okay.
I buy that.
Because he transformed himself in that American gangster, not American gangster.
What was it?
American hustle.
The one where Amy Adams had all the gray outfits.
Yes, American hustle.
Yeah.
So he like transformed his body there.
Like he can, he can become older.

(57:29):
Be really great to make him look almost like lips he didn't blimp, but
Michael Powell isn't a heavy set guy, but it'd be really fun to do that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I got Pedro Pascal is in Willbrook.
Yes.
I like that.
with that.
Yes.
I love that.
All right.

(57:49):
This next choice is going to be controversial, but you got to remember, I got to sell thismovie.
OK.
Right.
All right.
I I can't even want to look at you guys.
What is it?
Deborah Carr.
hmm.
Ariana Grande.
Dude in my musical!
Really?
Yes.
And is it because she codes white girl?

(58:11):
Is that why?
I disagree so hard you two.
Soul.
To quote Tayo, I disagree very much.
Very, much.

(58:36):
I love it.
That's all I have so far.
That's all I have so far.
right.
Well, I okay.
So obviously, I picked my people based on if we were going to like remake the film, but Istill think my Roger lives, Lizzie works.
Who is it?
Benedict Cumberbatch.

(58:57):
yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Because he can give you that sort of like a little bit of a blowhard.
But you know,
Yeah, like when he's doing like the acting like the blimp acting portions, but then couldactually be like a regular Yeah, right.
Yeah, that's great.
I think that would be really good.

(59:17):
Who did you have Mondo?
Matt Barry in the music.
he was gonna buy for free for your film He's I think he's gonna be greatest Churchill.
Okay, right for my musical Matt Barry, who doesn't have to talk like
this right right but you know you make sound series he was in right yeah he makes his oldseries he was in he's still ridiculous in this series but in the it crowd no no because

(59:45):
he's ridiculous in the it's beyond mighty mighty bush mighty bush no it was like it waslike a soap opera in a hospital kind of thing and like the main character
is like, you know, he's like a doctor, every man who takes himself like way too seriously.

(01:00:06):
Richard Ayoade is also in it.
Oh, wow.
And I had never seen it before.
It popped up on something and I was just so I started watching it.
It's it's it's really bizarre.
You got to find out the title in Texas to me.
I definitely want to see.
Yeah, definitely.
will.
But man, I want this so bad now.

(01:00:27):
I want this movie so bad.
I wanted Richard Ayoade as Teo in the musical.
okay.
I wouldn't want him outside of the musical.
I want him in the musical.
And again, Armando Grande because musical.
And that's all I really had for casting as well.

(01:00:47):
You know, a lot of these people, I was quite often mistaking one for the other.
Like, you your major characters, yes.
Your big secondary characters, yeah.
Murdoch, I know who Murdoch is.
Other guys are just like, wait, that's the guy from before.
And I'm like, no, no, this is like some new guy.
Yeah.
cause they're all just so very British.

(01:01:10):
They're all very British.
Well, can we, can we Nick, Richard Iota for Burdock?
that might be good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I have to tell you, even though I'm wholly opposed to Ariana Grande, I just say, justgotta be clear about that.
I don't think my Deborah Carr selection works because you know what I did was my thoughtprocess was if we were remaking the movie of Colonel blimp, we just need three actresses

(01:01:41):
who look similar.
It shouldn't be the same lady over and over.
Because the point is that it's I don't know, I just I was like, that just doesn't feelnecessary.
So I was gonna do a whole
Christina Hendricks, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain to play the three differentladies.
I see.
But like it could like, like enough to be like, it's, don't know, because I felt like it'stoo, it's too on the money to try to do the same actress today.

(01:02:07):
But of course, now in your film, we have to use one actress.
I don't know, you said Amy Adams before, I feel like we should go with somebody like AmyAdams.
I think she'd be, I don't know.
How do I say, maybe too old for the part?
OK.
Without how does the car getting jumped in the parking lot?

(01:02:27):
What's that?
How does Deborah Carbone?
This movie is made 20.
OK, that's why I went Ariana Grande, because, well, I mean, honestly, because she'll sellthe movie.
I mean, is there a 20 something British actress that we feel like would sell it?
Make the soundtrack on the cheap.

(01:02:48):
Well.
Do we, mean, but does this, is this- Do I need a single?
Do I need a single to move this mo- Yes, I do.
You do?
Cash Money Hoes.
Yeah.
Is Millie Bobby Brown doing music yet?
Maybe.

(01:03:08):
I'm just picturing.
Well, I can't wait for that Millie Bobby Brown record to drop.
I don't know.
Yeah.
mean, she would be good.
mean, hold on.
Yeah.
If we go that route, we have not cast, our, our dumb private Colonel, whoever he is, spudWilson, maybe we pick a musician for spud Wilson and he does the soundtracks and provides

(01:03:37):
cash money house.
And then we can do something like Millie Bobby Brown, which probably works.
Yeah.
I don't know that I like.
I mean, I don't know that I love her more than Ariana Grande, but.
All the lessons that we learned about foundation garments in the commentary of the film.
feel like we can change Ariana Grande's shape as the film goes on.

(01:04:03):
And she'd be playing opposite, whoever it is has to play opposite Christian Bale in thereal life romance.
OK.
Right.
Can we go more like Sophie Turner?
Yeah, I'll give you Sophie Turner.
Yeah, that's the redhead right from Game of Thrones.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nobody say Dark Phoenix.
That didn't happen.

(01:04:23):
No, it did not happen.
Right.
No.
But yeah, I feel like I.
OK.
I mean, I was going to say Sophie Turner via my to live and let die remake, but I stillfeel like it works.
Why are you making live and let die?
sorry.
Sorry.
No, no.
To live and die in LA.

(01:04:43):
To live and die in LA.
That's what I meant.
My remake of To Live and Die in LA from however many episodes ago.
When you were young.
Thank you for correcting me because I would hate if that had gone out and everybody waslike, why is she remaking To Live and Die?
No, To Live and Die in LA is what I meant.

(01:05:05):
That's what she meant.
You know you did.
You know you did.
You know you did.
The other white beat.
Oh, this is terrible.

(01:05:25):
OK, so I'm going to ignore all of that shenanigans and I need you guys to come up withsomebody for Spud Wilson.
We need a singer.
We need a pop star, a British pop star to be Spud Wilson.
British, I don't know much about British pop stars.
really don't.
Me either.
mean, there's that, there's that Harry kid.
I think we've already cast, haven't we cast him in something already?

(01:05:48):
Everybody's cast him in something.
Well, I mean, that's fair.
Hold on.
feel like- Yeah, he's never going to get around to making that superhero thing.
No, he's not.
He's not going to do that.
I believe Cody cast him in The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Yeah.
I mean, it's not that we can't use him twice.
I'm just saying.
Yeah, yeah, let's cast him.
Let's see.
Let's get that Harry kid.

(01:06:09):
All right, let's get Harry Styles.
The one from the war picture.
There we go.
Yeah.
To play a minor character.
I don't know.
His manager ain't gonna go for that.
That's a lot of money.
just blew up our budget.
No, no, no.
He'll go for it because he'll get extra money because he's doing the soundtrack.
He's gonna.
yeah.
Right.
Yeah.

(01:06:30):
So he can do the music.
And then also, let's be honest, anybody would happen to be Spud Wilson because that
That character, although small, is ridiculous.
And remember, you bookend the movie and you get to come at it from two very differentplaces.
Right.
Yes, that's true.
He's in the beginning and he's in end.
Yeah, that is a significant role.

(01:06:51):
Yeah, it's pretty fun.
Because I think somehow.
OK, I know I'm really diving in.
I know it's your movie, but I'm diving in, even though it's about.
Well, it's our movie, right?
So we to troubleshoot it.
OK, yeah.
Even though this movie is about the making of the movie, I think we could still start andend the movie with those two scenes.

(01:07:12):
I think it has potential to be kind of delightful.
And besides, we also have to have Mondo's version of now, Benedict Cumberbatch going intothe water in the old makeup and coming out current Benedict Cumberbatch.
Yeah.
Okay.

(01:07:33):
It melts away.
He pops out of the Turkish bath and he's, he's himself now.
Like, like he's like Alka Seltzer Cumberbatch.
It just comes out.
Okay.
This is happening now.
No changes to that.
no.
And also like I, now I, I'm seeing it a little clearer now with the, with the Harry Stylesthing, because it would be like a, first of all, if the Korn brothers.

(01:07:59):
They're already like in the process of reuniting on a project, but let's say that fallsthrough.
If we got this to be the film they reunited on.
yeah.
That sells the film by itself.
And who wouldn't want to be a part of that?
No, I mean, like I can't think of anybody who would say no.
In fact, I'm pretty sure Ariana Grande is going to be upset when she finds out you bothwanted her and I went double thumbs down.

(01:08:23):
Yeah, that's right.
And she's going to spend her whole career.
Seeking revenge.
She is.
She'll be like, God.
Her name is Devin Irby.
Devin Irby ruins my career.
She's going to lick all your doughnuts.
my.
Yeah.
All right.
So that sounds like a euphemism.
It does sound like a euphemism, which is why it should be now.

(01:08:46):
Yeah, it is.
He's she's going to lick your doughnuts.
Do you have a cinematographer?
Because...
I don't.
I don't.
Who shot Lewin Davis?
Hold on.
I know the answer to that.
just...
Let me check my old notes, please.

(01:09:11):
That's Bruno Debenhol.
Oh, doy.
Oh, yeah.
The guy who shot Amelie.
The guy who shot Amelie.
Yep.
OK.
I mean...
Bruno!
Let's get Bruno!
All right.
I like it.
Bruno it is.
Yeah.
Bruno.
also Harry Styles clearly can't handle the scoring.
So who's going to be able to work with him to score it?

(01:09:31):
Ariana Grande says she ain't busy.
Now that you sidelined her.
All right.
So I feel like this is a big this is our first like blockbuster.
I agree.
Right.
I agree.
This is probably my favorite of the of the films we put together.
Although House of Music, House of Yes, the musical is.

(01:09:51):
How's the musical is gonna, it's gonna be popular, but this is like our first blockbuster.
Cause this is a big deal.
It's the making of a movie.
We're going to use the beginning and end of the movie from the original movie to likebookend our making of.
if it does what it's supposed to, then everyone seeing it will become interested in theactual movie.

(01:10:16):
Exactly.
And we don't get killed by a mob of
film students.
Correct.
But yeah, so I think that's our film and I love it and I love this movie.
I love that you both loved it.
It was great.
Yeah, it was very good.
I can't wait to I can't wait to watch the commentary.

(01:10:37):
It's great.
And also you have the Criterion Channel, right, Mondo?
So there is also Thelma talking about color timing the film and talking about her marriageto Michael Powell.
But I'm actually going to include a YouTube video in the show notes of this episode ofThelma talking about the career of Powell and Pressburger that everyone should see.

(01:10:59):
then I again, I hope that if you've never seen the film and you got this far into thisepisode, which I sure thanks, but I hope you become interested in the film and actually
see it yourself.
It is one of the greatest films ever made.
Agreed.
Well.
That is our episode this week.
What are we doing next week, Dev?

(01:11:20):
next week we are doing Polish film, Ida.
wow.
In honor of Kazmir Pulaski Day.
So for any of you non Midwesterners, Chicago, Illinois has the largest population ofPolish individuals outside of Poland itself.
And when I was a child, we got Kazmir Pulaski Day off from school.

(01:11:45):
That's amazing.
I just learned that just now with the rest of the audience.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we decided to do a Polish film to celebrate Kashmir Pulaski Day.
So we're going to see Ida next week.
Ida.
I'm very excited about that.
Who stars in this film?
Do we know?
Ida from 2013 stars who?

(01:12:06):
Stars Agata Kuleca and Agata Trubukowska.
Her name is my name too.
Yep, yep, that I my apologies.
Looking forward to meeting those people.
Yep.
You know, like sometimes I don't want to name names, Frank will say to me, you know, youguys sometimes cover movies I never heard of and I don't care about.

(01:12:32):
then, you know, and I tend to pick some of more obscure ones.
But Devin, you win this.
You win.
So, very excited about Ida.
That's gonna be really cool.
I look forward to those comments also, but that'll be an extraordinary episode no matterwhat we cover because my cousin and I got going on dance, dance, dance, now make a beat.

(01:13:04):
So I think, we are your studio property.
My name is Doug Wartell.
am Devin Irby and I was Mondo and
Studio Property is a production of Spillway Street content in Red Hook, New York andsyndicated on Radio Free Reinkliffe.
Theme song by The Corner Bodega.

(01:13:25):
Visit studiopropertieshow.com to get all up in our beeswax.
Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week.
Okay, since we're not like, since we're in a little break here, kind of just say one ofthe only things I hated about the whole movie in that scene, that whole when Edith is

(01:13:51):
going to go back to London with Clive, she's wearing like a freaking patent leather belt.
It looks like a plastic patent leather belt.
I'm like, girl, it's like 1902.
Who thought this belt was acceptable?
The rest of the outfit is on point and gorgeous.
And she's gorgeous.
And every hat she wears, every outfit is perfect.
That belt freaking killed me.
Yeah, you know, I think I was drawn to that belt, I like I was just like belt.

(01:14:15):
mean, I didn't really think beyond that.
was just like, oh, yeah, no, I couldn't handle it because I was just like, oh, you'rewrong.
I love like the outfit was perfect.
And she needed a tight belt to like set off the top and whatnot.
But I was like, who did that?
That fabric is inexcusable for 1902 or whatever year we start.

(01:14:37):
So just give me a couple minutes.
But I love listening to you come for this lady's accessories.
You're like, yeah, 80 years ago.
Right.
are you thinking?
And that hat, girl.