Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Those details are what made me fall in love with
films and being a film nerd. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Absolutely, And is it really is a film school of
all the different ways of being able to do special
effects prior to computers doing anything. Gretchen, Hey, welcome back, Thanks,
(00:33):
and welcome everyone to the Checking Gay podcast where Gretchen
and I watch a movie and we start to talk
about it, and then who knows where it's going to
go from there, depending on if somebody shows up in
the studio and gets a little bit grumpy and we
have to write it out for a bit. But here
we are, we're finally talking about it, and Gretchen, I
think you should introduce this.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Movie, Oh my gosh, nineteen sixty eight Mario Vava Danger Diabolic.
I just happen to watch this film. My valentine showed
it to me and I just completely was enamored with it.
I had seen excerpts of it, not knowing what it
(01:11):
belonged to, just I think I thought it was like
like James a James Bond movie, because like, this has
that similar vibe and I really hadn't paid much attention
to it, and i'd heard it got an MST three
K treatment but again one of those things that's just
like I did. It was not in my purview, so
I just didn't happen to see it the uh, but
(01:32):
I did watch. When I finally watched it, I was
completely enamored with this film. Oh my god, this has
so many good things. I mean, even as Kaiju nerds
like for us, like this even has elements of that
in it. But that being said, nineteen sixty eight's Mario
Bava's Danger Diabolic. It's from a based off of a
(01:56):
or not a manga, but like a comic series that
our book series. That was from these two women who
had seen a copy of Phantomas, which was another Italian
magazine that was kind of like about a crime, like
a gentleman crime character like this. Yeah, and so I
(02:18):
think this was kind of their version for the for traveling.
It had a smaller ratio of design, like for like
kind of sitting on the subway and reading. I mean,
and like women today we live our crime in our
like our serial killers. I think that's what this kind
of appeal was in the like in the early sixties.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, yeah, so I had never seen, yes, a Mario
Bava film.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Which shocks me that you've gone this long.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I know there's so many films out there in the world, right,
but I don't want them to slip by. So that's
why this is so fantastic watching this film, being able
to have ourselves, you know, put to each other under
pressure to go and watch something new and be outside
of our box. Yes, I don't know that I would
have chosen this film had it not been chosen for
(03:07):
me and someone said go very specifically watch it. This
is like, this director isn't even on my radar and
the only really yeah, and the only thing that I
was actually really familiar with that I would have wanted
to watch, which is uh, I think it's the I
think it's Black Sabbath. Isn't Black Sabbath.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
The film Funny Sunday, the one that has a like
Barber Steel in it.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
There's a there's a Bloody Sunday. There is a bay of.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Bloody planet vampires.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, there's like a whole bunch of stuff in there
which are not even close to being like this film
at all.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
No, I think the closest thing that I mean he
did also did some some westerns as well, Yeah, which
is Italy did a lot of.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
News making films's just making films.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
It's like the forties, like he has he's I would
almost say he's prolific. I don't think he gets enough attention,
at least in America. We we seem to be focus
more on like dar Argento and like you know Fulci
and I'm or Freazzy if Fulcy. Yeah, and I always
get Fabio Frizzy because he did his music. Wait those
(04:12):
Italian guys. But yeah, this this director has so many credits,
so many.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Oh yeah, he is a ton of stuff as a writer,
a director, a cinematographer. Yeah, like he was just making stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Him and dilaarentis like working in those studios, like they
just pumping out films of that era. Like I feel
like it's kind of a it's kind of a tragedy
that is Americans. Our singular focus is on these like
like I mean I get Giallo's importance, like absolutely, but
like the I feel like the focus we miss so
(04:53):
much not focusing on those by by missing out, like
we miss out on like westerns that are tacular, that
are even ghost stories, which are kind of my favorite
like type of western. I mean, go figure, I'm I'm
the person who wants to watch anything, any genre, but
of a supernatural element that always makes me happy. Yeah, yeah,
(05:13):
like across the board, well and so, but this doesn't
have it.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
This doesn't have that, And I just wanted to throw
this out there since that's the way our discussions can go.
We could go wherever. I was talking with somebody the
other day and I forget who it was. We were
talking about films and they were talking about this one
film that they really loved, and I was like, oh,
that is uh I said. It was like what was like,
uh diim Gene and all of this other stuff that
(05:38):
is a that's a Yokai film, And they're like, what's that?
I said, Yokai film, Japanese ghost stories and there's all
these different realys the Great Yokai War and dim Gene
I think kind of falls into that because it's like
sort of a spirit that comes back alive, that that
has revenge. And I think there was three of the Daimijene.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Movies we watched at least one.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
But like all these Yokai films and they were like, oh,
I've never even heard of that, And I'm like, well,
now you've got something new because you love this film.
Japan has an entire genre of its own that does
these that punched them out for years. So go and explore.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Well, I think that's like the trait of like being
a film nerd in general is like you're like, oh,
you like this thing, Well, hell yeah, let me open
this treasure chest of other films that are in that purview,
but also other countries and whatnot. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Well, and to expand on what you said, because uh
Bava doesn't get the attention. There are a lot of
Bava's out there in the world from various countries who
don't get recognized for the influence they have. I mean,
so we watch this, what's the most obvious, at least
to me? I'll say it to me, there's a very
obvious influence. You told me.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I started laughing. I believe it.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, what's the most obvious influence that you are? The
one I'm thinking of? The one I mentioned?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Well, you should mention it. I love power, right, I
was all gene Bond and you're.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Like, yeah, this is it's an unaware So it's and
where and the difference is where Austin powers is this
uh spy and international amount of mystery and he's a
photographer and an astronaut, he does all these other things.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It was you know, it's danger diabolic.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And that's the thing. Danger diabolic is all of these
things without being the super spy it is. It is
if Austin Powers were not self aware and was a
cat burglar.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
The and the crazy thing about this film is that
there's no real solid plot and there's there's kind of is,
but it's like what thirty or forty minutes into it
before we actually get to Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That's the thing is we feel like at the very
beginning of this film, there's this beautiful shot of all
these like police officers in like leather motorcycle gear that
are kind of parading down the street. And it's what's
so interesting is like, first of all, like, oh my god,
the attire that they that the Italian place from nineteen
(08:08):
sixty eight have is gorgeous, like sotal leather daddy. Yeah,
Like they just it's very like zipped up like motocross
jacket with like a leather hat. It's spectacular everything about
this film. But there are these moments that I've just
like kind of drawn me in, and that scene you
feel like you're that you're coming in mid something.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Absolutely, it's like on the ground, well, the world is.
The world is extremely defined. They know exactly what the
world is, but we don't. And they don't give you
a date or anything. We have no idea where we're
starting out. So I had actually thought it was sort
of like a like a futurist concept of some fascism,
(08:54):
which maybe that was what, but it's never defined. They
never make that point in dialogue or story, which.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Is probably the appeal of this is that it's you
can have you have this like gentleman like gentleman criminal
who is sexy and well he murders the hell out
of people, but like, yeah, you know, it's all the
fun of like getting the getting the prize for Eva
or himself.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Right yeah. Well, and because the whole thing feels they
don't ever give us any kind of real dates, so
we don't have any solid feel for what kind of
a time period we're in, and we really don't have
anything that is like a plot. Nothing feels like we
have a solid direction on where we're going for like
the first thirty or forty minutes, I think, right.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Like we're already have this established background, right that they
they kind of expect us to be able to pick
up pretty quickly that this is a uh, that there's
a crime in progress or that has happened multiple times,
so they're prepared for it. So we have like we
the great leather Daddy police Force coming in, and then
(09:58):
it cuts to where they're putting fake money in a
sleeve and going, this is the biggest delivery of daytime money.
You're like, wow, that's for shadowy. Immediately we know something's
gonna go awry.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, yeah, well, and you're right that it does. We
start with something that's already going, like we're jumping in
the middle of I think it's.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
People who've read the books or read those comics.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Probably, and this is the first film of that, because
there's been a whole bunch of Diabolic well three later.
There were three more later, yeah, not until.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Like the like twenty twenties.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Oh okay, there were nothing between that one and the
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
There's some Pantomus stuff, but those are like again kind
of lynn, they're like parallels, but they're not stories that cross.
I don't think they may cross in the magazine or
comic or whatever, Okay, but I don't know about them
like in the in the series. I don't know if
Diabolic makes an appearance in fantom Us okay, but yeah,
but kind of in the same realm though.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah. But for those of us if you haven't read it,
then it does start as in this being the first film,
you know, despite the the you know, the gap for
thirty years, forty years for any kind of sequels or
somebody jumping back into it. So for us, yeah, it
does it it again, like that look and that feeling
of jumping into this kind of pseudo fascistic futuristic world
(11:20):
leather daddy and very sterile and clean, like there's no
planters know anything. But we're like we're jumping in the middle.
Like you said, we're jumping into a thing that's already happened.
Diabolic is already an issue, and we don't know what
the issue is, like we know, and we don't even
have do we have diabolics name? I don't even think
we have diabolics name for like the first five or
(11:40):
ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
But they don't say his name. They just kind of
they talk about crime in general. And then what I
thought was also really interesting. A key point about this
film is that there isn't a giant political statement about
the Italian I mean, other than like the silliness of
Italian police in general. But like, there's no over ouring
political statement to be said about this film. It's purely entertaining.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Oh absolutely, yeah. I don't. I don't think there's any
idea of like trying to go back to like a
World War two, right, right, any kind of commentary or
anything like this. I think it was more like I
think leather Daddies is the perfect way to do it.
It was like, these guys look like a bunch of
leather daddies in a crazy fascistic future that's you know,
(12:28):
that's very sterile and cold and concrete. Yes, go go go. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
But no, so we also get introduced to our main,
our main foil, which is Kinko, Like the police chief.
I Like, there's a scene afterwards where they are setting
up the money scene and whatnot, and then he's talking
to two police officers and they're supposed to be kind
of like uh like decoys and that there are supposed
(12:56):
to be diplomats, and there's this.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Little yeah like that, Yeah, there is this little like bit.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Where he's like, God, put your gun in your hat
and like stand up straight being being dignified. You're supposed
to be big dignitarians or diplomats.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
It's the only one who looked was the guy who
was driving the car, who was also a police officer,
but like he had zero fox and he was just like, no,
I'm gonna smoke my cigarette, have my jacket half unbuttoned
with my hat tilted, and.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It's like a little tight, a little tight around the leet.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Exactly driving around these rich guys you know, who.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Are like look like like they look like monoponous, the
Monopoly guys.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
They their top hats. Yeah they are bird game caricatures
of of diplomats.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, but what I just love that how and also
those shots they're so beautiful. And then of course, you know,
Diabolic gets in, he gets the money, and then he
makes it back to his layer, and there is when
we get this spectacular scene. Because we're both Kaiju fans,
we immediately were like, oh my god, the miniatures. They
(14:05):
have a like a shot that's set up where the
lever of the the layer.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Lever lifts up right.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, and then they're driving behind it and we both
fell out laughing. You and I watching this because it's
such a a perfectly shot, uh, perfectly composited where it's
like you know in Gunzil. Sometimes you're like, oh, I
can see those seams like these. The only reason why
we knew it was there is because we.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Are you know, we are Kai Force perspective miniature. But
they did it was flawless. It looks like the hillside
is opening up and this car is driving off the
road into this hidden little cavern, even though there would
be tracks in their dirt road that just disappear into
a hill.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
But yeah, that's that's a suspension side.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Exactly, yeat. And there was a bunch of that throughout
the film.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
He this is a layer. Wow. I mean, look at
our layer today.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I know, with our little hidden mystery lady in the
yeah yeah, the shower.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
See wow. Yeah, I wonder like if that I mean,
I know obviously clear that it was intentionally that piece
of art being a square where she's in the shower.
So our main our girl. Afterwards, we'll talk about our girl.
But yeah, this layer futurism, right, that's what that era
(15:30):
of nineteen sixty eight, early seventies. I think this might
be my favorite, Like I like that whole. There's two
eras of like the late sixties early seventies. I really
dig and I think this futurism and that like Renaissance,
the New Renaissance revival is also very like spectacular, but
(15:55):
this Varcus focused more on on the the futurism look,
which is these steel piping and like a spaceship looking
thing inside of the layer, right right.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, it's again it's very much like the Austin Powers thing.
And yes, and it's crazy with so doctor Evil has
the layer.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
You're right, this is kind of like that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Like in a cave and in Austin Powers. It's it's
very much like like this looks like a set. They're
not trying to pull one over on you, which is fine,
it's great for the film, and I love the Austin
Powers films, but you know that is clearly not this
extremely beautiful, expensive chromed over ducting and piping and all
(16:43):
of this other stuff. And in this one, it's like,
this looks like somebody's billionaire cat burglar layer that they
literally built into all of the stone under there, and
there's these shiny pieces and the steps and I mean
there was a built set that they also then did
some forced perspective miniatures on for some other parts of it.
But then they also they did that kind of rotoscoping
(17:09):
cell removal and had other stuff in the back, like
him driving in when they drive in, true the doors
open up and they're driving into this massive cave system
in there, and he's clearly moving toward a screen on
a stage. But it shot really well.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And all the matte paintings, all the matt Oh my gosh,
this movie, I just I love it, like it it
just those moments are what I love about filmmaking in general.
Like those those details are what made me fall in
love with like films and being a film nerd.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yeah, absolutely, And it's it is. It really is a
film school of all the different ways of being able
to do special effects prior to computers doing anything. Just
all of the different ass that they pulled into the
only thing that they didn't have in there really was
stop motion.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
They did use stop motion. Remember the when they're showing
the map of the police map.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
There is and it wrecked. You are totally right. So
they had the stop motion too, because they wanted to
have the map populate itself as if they were in
some kind of a futuristic computer system looking at a map,
and they were like, you know, detail all these lines with.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
The drawing, the facial recognition.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
The facial recognition drawing. That's right. That was a kind
of a stop motion animation piece that they did. They
were they were feeding the computer information for it to
build out a profile of the woman. So it did
have stop motion. That's that is correct.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
So we're using all the skills, all the skills available
at this time.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Really was and effectively.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Agreed, like you were saying, going back to the layer,
like the the spinning, I mean you know that there
is when the car gets on to the an, it
drives into the layer and the two of them are
making out in the car and like, oh my god.
First of all hot. Second of all, you know some
stage hand is like rotating this like right, they're on
(19:14):
the bottom, like yeah, this is my job on the
field that are probably sliding open the doors. Yeah, they're
like on the side like pulling it.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Oh yeah. And just so for all of you to
know that there is like you know, going back, I
know where Austin Powers got all of this stuff. It's
so it's so clearly obvious because yeah, it's this giant
and not only is it a giant bed, but it's
kind of a multi layered bed. It kind of has
like a little bit of a spiral feel with some
things that are all kind of attached. Yeah, and then
(19:44):
it's kind of got its little platform around there and
the whole thing is rotating and spinning with a set
of offset stares to it. Yeah, build that whole thing out.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
It makes you wonder like did they use it for
other films or if it was like used for possibly like
a James Bond thing, or it has to be I mean,
or I mean, this could be like they just go
all out, you know, I mean honestly. And one of
my favorite scenes is like the waking up the well.
So they take a shower. Yeahs the showers like the
(20:16):
drain shower, right, it's like plants in there, and then
there's this big it's ryant, like a like a rainfall
type thing. And then she has in her shower, she
has a circle for like her booby's area, and then
there's this long square to cover up her like lower regions, right,
and it's like a piece of sculpture that she stands
(20:38):
in front of.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Really strategic it's like glass art instead of the little blur.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, it's perfect, just a little bit of like frosted
glass there happening. And then uh, let's see the well
we forgot to talk about how the fact that they
pulled off their stunt. I mean they stole the car
that had the real money. Yeah, and there that's what
they drive into or she drives into, meets him up
(21:05):
with him, and then she gets in the car with
him with the money.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And then they did the car swap, the car swap. Yeah,
and then the did they didn't they pitch one like
they when they did the car swap, they rigged the
first car that he is in to go over the
cliff to like crash into the Dino Dealer reentes gravel pit.
That's in like every day films.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
That's everything I swear to God owns a quarry.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Exactly, and that's just like it's just littered with card.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Everything from like what Evil did or Army of Darkness.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Darkness, Yeah, anything that he ever had his fingers. There
is a quarry out there, and it's just littered with
explosions and car parts.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
They have to like redress it every time, exactly like
the throw some more gravel out.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
All right, Yeah, yeah, but they did the car swap.
That thing goes over the side and they drive away
on it in a different.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Jaguar because he's a Jaguar, which I really can't quite understand,
maybe because I'm missing something culturally, but there's they talk
about a jaguar often, but I know that he's always
driving one, right, And then there I mean even the
modern movies there's jaguar, like is one of the main
(22:19):
like you even like a movie poster has like a
picture of diabolic and then the jaguar and there's those and.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Then that's that's the status for him. Yeah, like that's
where his taste is. Yeah, jaguars and yeah, or.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
He's he's like a jungle cat something like.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
That, and that's good metaphor too. He is, yeah, he's
the cat burglar they can't.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Get right, so he's like he's the jaguar. And then
there's like there's one kind of like that moment like
later with the tiger tail thing, and we were both
like what the hell. We figured it was like an
Italian like reference that we're both kind of missing. Yeah,
my favorite part was like after the whole shower thing
is like we have a we cut to like the
(23:00):
beautiful score again and them and waking up in a
bed full of money that they obviously just fucked in all.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Night, right. I was like, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That is, but I think that is the appeal like
ultimately for this, like in general, like the whole he
is sexy, he is mysterious, he's got hot girlfriend on
his side.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
He's not Robin Hood.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
He's not Robin Hood in any way, shape, form or fashion.
But he is a just kind of a he's but
he's kind of sticking it to the man in his
own way. But he's also the man too, because he's
incredibly wealthy, like foundlessly wealthy. At this point, it seems
like yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
And it's and that's the thing too, because it does
almost feel like there is an attempt at a little
bit of a statement of I'm taking from uh, you know,
the crooked cops or the mob or like I don't
know it because it's never really fully clear, but it's
it's Baba is not painting him as the bad guy.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Or yeah, he's not even he's also not painting the police,
is to but maybe the commissioner, the one who's got
the one who has the gap in his front teeth.
That's I could not remember his name.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Oh that's a yeah, that's a famous British act been
in a ton of stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Whatever is the is like the Italian chief of police
or the police commissioner.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yeah, he's like or the finance commissioner or something like that.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Right, Finance, you're correct, which is like Finance Commissioner of Italy,
who is very much a person from Liverpool.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
And very like public facing. So I guess in Italy
again one of those things that I'm like, is this
an Italy thing or is this a you know, uh,
maybe this film thing that where he's having a public
facing official that is a finance commissioner treasurer. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Well, and if they're is a statement. So we have
this this whole the whole beginning where he does do
the robbery, and it's like you said, we were jumping
in in the middle of the whole thing. There's this setup.
They're trying to transport a bunch of money. They're setting
up a ringer. They're thinking the ringer is going to
be the one that he tries to get, which is
a bunch of blank paper. He actually finds the proper
one and gets it, and so we're kind of dealing
(25:22):
with all of that. We again, we're still not at
a plot point. We're just watching this whole thing play
out and it spoils of it. But then there is
a news conference. Yes, so we still don't have a plot,
but there's a news conference to discuss the fact that
the money was all stolen.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And then what and they they laughing gas.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Which which again one of those like mcguffin things that
were spectacular. Well, that's only a mcguffin, but it's like
a a like a gizmo or whatever, like it was
a gaff I guess, right, would that be what it be?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Well, it's a I don't know what to call it,
because that's the thing is, we're still not at a
place where a point has been defined or a plot
has been defined. We've seen we've jumped in kind of
mid actions like that with the gadget stuff. Yeah, definitely,
like they had these crazy gadgets that were kind of
James Bond esque, but there being used by this cat burglar.
(26:19):
So we have this kind of impassable technology. Yes, well,
and even before the laughing gas remember he had the
smoke machines that would set out the colored smoke that
would block the road when they were driving that because
I think that was how he shot his car over
the cliff and they got all confused and they got
lost in the smoke, you know, so because they did
(26:41):
the car swap and then drove out of there in
the other car. And uh yeah, so many cars in
this movie, so many cars and so many right and
and again without a plot, nothing has been set up
for us. We're literally just watching a bunch of stuff
play out that we don't even know why. You just
know that's happening. We don't know the reason why Diabolic
(27:02):
is taking any of this money just because he can,
and he is.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
He never explains why.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
He never there's never He barely speak this whole film.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I mean, in the modern ones. I I can't say
I like him as much as I like him in Well,
he's not very nice, like he's the first one is
the is a kind of a prequel of how he
meets Eva, because we're just i mean automatically in this film,
we're already like introduced to Eva, and she's you know,
(27:33):
hot and amazing and like his partner in crime, whereas
and then modern ones this we have a he was
married and he cheated on his wife, and he was
using her kind of as like a like a to
have a like a like a double life. She was
like his cover wife, and that poor woman just loved
(27:55):
him so much.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Trying to create more character.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
And yeah, I don't like him as much like I
think I like the fact. What I love about this,
honestly is probably the fact that there isn't much story
about him. There isn't much backstory. I don't need there.
I don't need that, and I don't think the audience
needed that at the time, right, But I think that
modern audiences tend to be more motivated by like a
(28:19):
character driven story, where like, these are characters and they're
moving the story along, but it's there's not we don't
have an empathetic attachment, Whereas I feel like the more
modern stuff is trying to create an atmosphere or well,
I mean they got three films out of it, Yeah,
but I don't. I don't really know the specs of
how successful those are. But the uh, I feel like
(28:43):
those the character of diabolic and that is to me
less interesting because he's not very nice and he's kind
of a jerk and the way he talks to people,
and she's not very interesting either. I mean, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yeah, well, and I think so, I think there's kind
of two things that can kind of come with some
of the modernization of how we look at films, because
you know, they're not worrying about footage anymore of celluloid
if they're shooting it digitally, so you can get a
bunch of takes. But if you have more exposition and
you have these deeper characters, you try to do more
and stuff. It also gives you a chance to cut more.
(29:19):
And there's a lot of parts of this film where
they are they are they're not trying to go for
like big Spielbergian wonners, no, no of these complex moves
and shots. But they're long shots.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Hey are long shots, and.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
There's enough interesting stuff going on that you're not losing
track or or getting disinterested, and you're not distracted by
a bunch of stuff, you know. I think it's older
movies tend to have that. They don't cut, you know,
they don't do the what is it like the the
taken maneuver where you got to do fourteen cuts to
get Liam Nissan over a fence while he's in a chase,
(29:55):
because you had to shoot this thing from so many
different angles to look like Liam Neese is actually running
and jumping over the fence. You know, they're they're keeping
the frame interesting and active long enough this where it's
a fun film and it's interesting to watch, and you know,
I don't have to have a deeper connection with them
because I'm not having to keep my attention going from
(30:18):
cutting back between camera.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Angles, and I think I get bored, honestly, or I
feel like those I get a little add watching sometimes
watching those overcuts because I'm I know they're not supposed
to be as perceived, but because again, we watch a
lot of films, You and I specifically, we watch a
lot of films, and we talk about films, and so
I feel like we were sensitive to those angles and
(30:40):
those cuts, so we appreciate those longer stretches, and honestly,
like if going back to even like the we're talking
about before, with the scene where we're at the conference
and or the news press and they're they're shooting like
they're using their laughing gas gadgets and anti laughing gas pills.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Right, that was so good.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Which yeah, yeah, well I but it.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Wasn't laughing gas, wasn't it. They call it like hilarious.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Like yeah, or like, uh.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
It was something like it wasn't laughing gas. They did
something else where it was like, oh, this is this
is hilarious, this is so good, like oh.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Gosh, I can't remember the name of it. I can't
seen it my head. It's like on the tip of
my tongue too, or like anti hilarity or something like that. Yeah,
something silly, but yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
And then label it dude because they weren't smart enough
to know what their own little pill.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
They might have a lot of pills. They might have,
like because we learned discovered later there's other pills for
other things. That's true, and tech tantric techniques and things
like that. But no, I mean even well, even that scene,
like we're talking about the long Shot, there are so
many people in the background, and when they when they
(31:56):
were at the we're at the press conference we're having
talking about like and the criminal element known as diabolic,
and the two of them look at each other. I'm like, wow,
if I was somebody that hasn't been like these two
must clearly they obviously know something. They're like looking at
each other like ry eyeing, and like right, like wait.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
And there it's completely serious filmmaking too, and you're just like, yeah,
it's gonna bug me up.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Well, remember in the middle of the episode, I'll be
like it's anti something. Yeah, no, it's so good. Oh,
I just it's so much charm in this, And I
hate I hate when I say this, but I'm like,
they don't make films like this anymore.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
They don't. Oh what was the gas dispersal on this
one too? They're so they're in the press conference the camera, That's.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
What I'm saying. The key did like he's also a photographers.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And he's a photographer. He's got all this fancy photography gear,
and this camera is rigged.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
To put off a guest, right, this laughing guest through
the flash clarity, nobody notices turning into gas in front
of them, which is you know again, I love this
suspension of disbelief in this. I mean, and it's not
completely crazy like suspension of disbelief, it's it's enough that
(33:17):
it's still keeps this fun, which is what ultimately I
think these films are about, is or this film is
about is to be like, it's to have that high drama,
high criminal to these I mean because like even like
the rising score, the way people are dressed, everything is
like up to an eleven, I mean. And then so
(33:39):
then we shifted like when we're happening in the club
scene where we actually start to get into our main plot.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
The club scene that wacky to wacky.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
We're watching this and.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And how long does that play out?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
That plays out way too long? That would be the
only thing I would have cut back, was like there's
this gorgeous scene of where everybody is smoking this aim
also crief covid vibes man like again decades.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
And sixty eight. So it's fine, but.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It's like I I personally have a little like I'd
be like, I don't want to sure, I don't want
to share? Can we you can? I not? Can you
do a filter thing for my mouth? Because I mean,
like there's.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Harpies, Yeah, there's all sorts of things sixty eight that
could be with that.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah, but the passing there's this and then so there's
this passing.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Like literallyff past totally, but it's set behind glass that's
lit and it's set behind this spectacular like like.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Panels of art and so like the part of the
sixties that I'm not into, which is like the hippie stuff.
I'm not a fan, but you know whatever, this part
was had that kind of hippie like element. But then
we realized this is also like are were our criminals
are at because we've got to be by you know,
the drugs and whatnot. This is where we start.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Our or at least our counter culture. I don't know
about our our our criminals.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
But well that's that's where the Valmont lives.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yes, that's right, this is where our plot drops. So
we've got, yeah, we have our counterculture peeper but people,
but then we also have that the mob influence that's yes,
pushing that. So you're right, that is our criminal underground
because I.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Mean, wacky Tobeggy is illegal, right, right. I think there's
more than cigarettes in that, or more than sigaweed in that. Yeah,
because definitely everybody was like kind of like chasing the
dragon vibe is what I was getting from that. Yeah,
But maybe they just couldn't show that kind of element
or something like that. I don't know, I don't know.
(35:52):
I'm only I'm speculating it what nineteen sixty Italy is like.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Right now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that is you're right,
that's our introduction to our mob. Yeah, and our and
one of our henchmen who ends up calling the mob
boss and kind of setting everything up. They got raided, yep.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, and then we this is where they kind of
pat each other in the back. Right, this is where
we're setting I'm not sure exactly. I can't remember where
we jumped to from here. We jump to the oh yeah,
we jumped back from the Valmont thing, and we meet
Valmont and whatnot, and he talks about Diabolic, and then
(36:32):
we jump to the gold.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Oh yeah, well have we have we got Well there's
a there is an establishment first, because they've been raided, right,
and that was when they so the mob calls the
police to say, hey, we'll give you diabolic. Yeah, if
(36:56):
you let.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Up on us, like kind of chill out, we'll bring this,
will make this happen. That's right. Because we get to that,
we have that moment of where the mob is like
reducing their numbers and he's like got them all on
an airplane and he's talking about how like this is
supposed to be unanimous.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
And again back to the Austin Powers thing with the
hole in the floor.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
He says, there's head of you, and I wanted this
to be unanimous, and then he shoots a couple of them, and.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
They're in an airplane. So that's the thing is they're flying,
so they're trying to remain off the ground and away
from the police and conduct their business. So they're correct.
They're in the mob boss's airplane up in the air.
He shoots a couple of them. That then the herd.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
But then and then the other guy begs for his life.
He says, please don't shoot me. I will give you
my vote. I'll give my vote, and then he's presses
a button and the floor drops out, and he says,
I told you I wanted to shoot you.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Right, yeah, you got the boat. But then yeah, and it's.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
Now it's unanimous, right, It's so good, yea, And everybody
nobody is affected by the floor dropping out, like you
would think that the pressure would be.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Right, there's not the classic airplane like sucking all that
air around.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
But the thing is there was right before them, because
I remember when the bullet strays and he takes his
gum out and puts it in the hole and you're like.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
It's making the noise. But yeah, they don't have like
a wind machine and they're like blowing everybody's hair around.
They've got a death sound effect.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
What.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, so the bullet hole does it. But the giant
like four by four hole in the floor.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
That's what's so charming about this. And I love that
because it's like, yep, okay, absolutely, we're all on the
board with this. We're all on board. Yeah, legit, legit.
And I love that Like his dumb girlfriend, bless her heart,
she's like she just walks and she's just got like
(38:57):
not particalarly nothing on and the door the floor drop.
She's just like kind of smiling and laughing, and I'm like,
man alive thiss Oh boy this I love this movie.
I will say that ultimate multiple times throughout this is
that how much I love this movie. I Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
The so they make the deal with it, and they
and they set a trap and that's where that that
big gold.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
This was their first intention to set a trap, right,
because there's a second trap they try to set as well.
But yeah, the first trap is they're going to take
all the gold and and what a plan to right,
they're going to sink it.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
They're going to take all the gold in the reserves, right,
and they're gonna melt it all down into one giant ingot.
They're going to seal it up in a casing that
can't be opened, like they said it'll this.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Will take days two days.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, forty eight hours. It would take anybody. It would
take forty eight hours to be able to get into
this thing. And then they're transporting it somewhere. Now I
forget why they're transporting it as the but this is like,
this is the trap, and it's like it's one of
those things where it's like, wait a minute, you're taking
Italy's gold reserve to put into one giant bar and
(40:20):
drive it around so that you can bait him out. Yeah,
they really want to catch him, They really do.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
They really want to catch him.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah, it's so yeah, And at first I was like,
I don't understand what's happening here. Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Little it's a little convoluted, right to explain it, Yeah,
they don't because they don't give much exposition as to why.
They actually never give any expeditions why they decide to melt.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Down why this is the good idea.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
This is yeah, this is the best idea because you know, cash,
it's harder to transport gold, that's what it was. It's
harder to move yeah, because it's all one big giant block.
How could he do it without them seeing it exactly?
Speaker 2 (41:01):
And how could he?
Speaker 1 (41:02):
How?
Speaker 2 (41:03):
Oh? Oh, because this is it's being that that big
gold ingot is being transported by train. Yes, oh my goodness,
it's so good because this is where we have more miniatures. Yes,
we've got the whole train set up.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Which gives them an advantage that they wanted.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Right, because that takes the train over.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
The bridge where they can put it in the water.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
And we come to our our bigoture of a train track, right,
and a whole trestle over a river that they then
blow up.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Makes you wonder how big deep that water was? Right, Well,
it's a it's so because they do stunts under the water.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
They do well. And this is the crazy thing, because
the whole idea is that the train is going across
the trestle, the trestle blows, the track comes apart, the
train falls, all of its cars start to go, and
the and the trustle starts to kind of fall apart.
Back at so all of these different cars are falling
off of the tracks because of the explosion and the
trustle coming apart, and in our car with our giant
(42:11):
gold ingot goes off of it. But our police chief
is there too and he's okay. Who survives it completely? Fine,
who's you know? Doesn't bounce around inside the car or
anything like that.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Nothing.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
So here we are in Italy blowing up a bridge.
We've used our bigatures back to these great special effects.
Our ingot is in the water, and how does our
anti hero get the ingot?
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Well, we get some people that kind of look like
the two of them to h.
Speaker 5 (42:41):
In scuba gear, which again, like the scope of this film, right,
like the use of every element in this is what
makes this so ding dang charming.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
Yeah, I mean it is, Yeah, And we get we
have to get our I mean I want to go
through every beat of the but we got to get
the in get out of the water, and we get
it back to our layer. And the idea is that
we're going to how to remove it because we can't
remove the casing, right, have to melt it down.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Well, but we're but we're not there yet to melt
it down, because how does he move that thing in
the water? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Boat? Yeah, because they're wearing their scuba gear. While it
reminds me of Johnny Quest almost a little bit, there's
some elements like that. When I say Scooby Doo, I
should say Johnny Quest. Yeah, because that's what I remember.
Something that's a better description. Yeah, yeah, yeah Quest, which which.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Doesn't happen until what this like seventy two seventy three,
is when Johnny Quest somewhere I know absolutely. So they've
got their little manta ray boat is pulling this thing
through the water to the layer.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
And then we get to the layer, and then we
discover which is where you can jump in. We discover
how they're going to get it out of the well.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
The idea is that they're going to warm up the
gold and distribute it into the bars. And he has
all those materials set up, and he's dressed and he
puts on his little like aluminum oil outfit and tells
you the step back, which again is like five feet
and she's like half naked. He's like this wipe, get warm.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
But he's but he's got a laser cutter and he
cuts into the case.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Yeah, so we could feed the warming the tube.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah, essentially, Yeah, he cuts through the whole thing and
then sticks this heating element into there that liquefies the gold.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
If you're able to make.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
You should be able to cut the whole thing. Like
he makes a big enough hole to put that whole
heating element in there and turn it all the gold.
So he could have just like kept or was.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
He using the same area that they used to Did
he cut a hole or did he.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Yeah, he cut a hole. Okay, he cut a hole
in it with a laser cut.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
I was like, I know, they had to melt the
ingot down to get it to that shape.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
He melts the whole thing down and then he's got
like the tube rigged up to it as well, so
that he can as it liquefies, he can suck the
liquid gold out of the tube and then blow it
into the molds.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
But again, this is not our plot. No, that's that's
what's so, it's another heist that happened. This is this
is the second heist.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
This is it's not really a mcguffin, but this is
definitely part of the gold bar. Is part of the
gold ingot the giant thing is part of the whole
convoluted trap to try to get him. This is just
the way it's going to be. I'm just gonna say it, like,
because there is no solid plot to this thing and
there and we're never given any type of real direction
(45:35):
as to what the cat burglar Diabolic wants. Everything is
really just this crazy set of circumstances and heists.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
But they're like and that's what makes them they're.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Very high stakes heights. But it's but we were never
given a directive that Diabolic wants. It really is a
set of they want to catch him. He wants to
steal stuff. They set up things for him to steal,
thinking they're gonna catch him. They don't, And then we
and then rinse and repeat. Bring in the mob, who
are also trying to like catch him, to give him
(46:10):
to the cops so that they don't chase the mob anymore.
I mean, really, that's the.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
Take another player off the table too.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Write to take right, because they don't want him taken
from the things that they could be taking, and they
don't want the cops to be coming after them for
the things that they're taking. So if they can give
him that they can give the cops Diabolic, that'll give
them a break. And I mean, that's really it, but
there's like so many other moving parts going on with
no direct reason that it's just it's crazy awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
But one thing we haven't talked about that is the
most dynamic thing about this is the way that Diabolic
looks is the like the give suits like the Widow's
Peak have an anything wow molded ears. I mean, yeah, the.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Whole time that he is pulling off his his burglary
stuff is his he's in. He's in a kind of
a latex.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
Latex leather leather.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
It's a combo. And you're right, he's got a hood
that comes over with the Widow's Peak that's in there,
and and that's but then but then he's got the
face piece that has a strap to it so it
keeps his eyes and kind of his forehead open around
that it.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Looks like it's like a pullover like one of those
like one of those like bankruber masks, but it's made
of like rubber molded like yeah, because there's no like
mouthholes and somehow we're clearly here and speaking right, But
he's definitely got his mouth covered. It makes you wonder,
like because I don't remember like seeing nose holes either. No,
(47:46):
so like does that actor.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
Like yeah, and then like I want.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
To see that meta that's the kind of sausage I
want to see being made.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Yeah, I really like.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
To know that guy.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
It's crazy and he was obviously.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
They suffered than Derek actors back home.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Oh man, that Mediterranean heat of all that, right, doing
all of these stunts.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
And they look they don't look warm. They look flawless.
I mean there are some some of the non important
characters are like you're like, wow, sweating, but our main yeah,
our main cast is like they are flawless in every
way I could.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
I really want to watch this one, like a couple
more times to just really take it in, because again,
it does feel like it feels like film school all
the things that they applied to this and going back
with some of that stuff too. It's even like some
of the early days where you go and look at
the breakdown of some of the things with Buster Keaton,
(48:43):
with how they made it look like he's roller skating
around and almost tips over a thing, and then they
pull the whole thing apart and they have this glass piece,
and they painted this, and they did all of these things,
and they added all of this stuff in, but it's
all lined up so meticulously where he's never really in
danger of falling over the side, or he was actually
in a lot of danger because they really did these
things that are in there, and they pull off these
cool practical pieces and and you know with with him
(49:09):
scaling the side of that that mansion up parapet wall, oh,
it's totally it's totally laying on there, but they did
such a good job of making it feel like he's
because he's doing it. He's climbing up rocks with a
with suction cup handles. Like clearly the suction cups are
not hooking on there.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
But it could be.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
They could be, but you wouldn't get very far. But
they did very much give it.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
How much for that would take, oh.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
My goodness physically. Yeah, and you know they try to
have the harrowing moment of where the one suction cup
fails and he falls a little bit and catches it
on it again. Yeah, you have to build the tension
on there for sure. But the fact is is it's
shot in such a way where it does feel like
he is hanging there, even though he's not like they
(49:58):
did such a good job of compositing those shots together
that it's just really great.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
Yeah, yeah, I liked how he gets the necklace. Honestly,
there's so in modern like films we see these like
there this one trope which is spectacular, which is full
of the camera and right.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
There's security cameras in the room where the where the
necklace is setting.
Speaker 1 (50:27):
And he stakes photograph of like of polaroid and sticks
it into a candle and puts it in front of
the camera and then the camera sees what the room
look like at that moment. Now, what's funny is that
the security guys are off like our Ginko and his
trooper off like another room, watching through this painting like
hidden camera. So it's he's got this's what he found
(50:48):
was a secret. I don't even think the couple even
knew that that camera was right, Yeah, but it's the
trope of the keep the canvas stag that camera, like
they gotta gotta to get the necklace out of the room.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
But it was weird too because he had it was
never explained he has a camera. He's got an electronic
device that disrupts the camera because they go, wait, what
just happened to the camera? Oh and it's back, Oh
everything looks fine. And he slid the picture in front
of the camera and then.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Candlestick, which I thought was like, exactly.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Yeah, he just he just happened to have a camera
that he was able to take his picture really quick,
but he didn't have the means which to stick it
in front of there. He was so he was prepared.
He was prepared to disrupt the camera. He was prepared
to take a picture to hold up in front of
the camera, but he wasn't prepared for how he was
going to mount the picture to the wall. So he
improvised and use the candle.
Speaker 1 (51:41):
He's good with improv.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Improv, I guess improv even though I planned all these others.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
He's just like a boy scout of criminals exactly.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
But they didn't know that he had stolen the necklace
until the couple came back into the room and she
the wife is.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Gone, because they had really told her to put her
necklace on the table so they could watch it, but
they didn't tell her that there was this camera in
the room. They just said that it'll be safe and
be safe for security measures. We want to keep it
out in the open. Yes, there are so many things
like that that are so like ridiculous, And those are
(52:20):
those moments that were like, all right, we accept this.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
Really very easy to get lost. Okay with it?
Speaker 1 (52:24):
Okay with it? Yeah, own this, and I'm moving on
with the story. Like this progresses.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
So he gets the necklace, Yeah, makes his escape. Police
are hot on his tail. He takes his clothes off,
puts him in a catapult because they have a catapult
at the mansion on the roof. He catapults his clothes.
Why catapult and they go to chase down his catapulted
clothes while he sneaks off with the emeralds. Yeah the
(52:52):
emerald necklace. Yeah yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
That's when she gets hurt.
Speaker 2 (52:58):
Right, that was that might have been part of the
escape where he takes that that mirror that rolled up
mirror across.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
Yes, yes, I think that's why that escape. So she
gets hurt, and then we cut to where the they
have somehow found out that their doctor is like that
they have a doctor.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
Knows how they did it. They found out that that's
the doctor that.
Speaker 1 (53:21):
Well, based on a composite sketch or something.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
I mean, like the kind of But she had a
wig on and was and was pretending to be a
lady of the evening out there to get some information
on something. And someone saw her drive away and they
were getting gas at a gas station and saw her
in a Jaguar and phoned it in at a phone booth.
Phone booths were around back then. Look into it. You
(53:46):
can google what a phone booth is.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
Well, though, she was going to the doctor that time.
That's why she was driving to the gas station. That's
what the whole like. We put a tiger in your tank,
you want to tail and she's like, I'm not superstitious.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
But she had the she had the Oh wait, that
is that's what she's going to the doctor. Because she
doesn't have the wig on at the time. Her hair
looks short and but this person can still identify who
she is from It doesn't look like her looks like.
Speaker 1 (54:14):
A cartoon comic book character, like a Stanley Mary Jane.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
We're off the rails as rails. Yeah, well, let's start
bringing it home and start talking about this ending where
he where diabolic? We've got diab.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Wait, Valmont has his woman captures this woman, and basically
he somehow like I figure that I can't, so waiting
for a phone call from Diabolic, and Diabolic calls him
and they agree on these terms of like swap the
emeralds for girlfriend.
Speaker 2 (54:48):
Swapping the emeralds for the girlfriend with the mob. But
the mob is setting him up with the police, so
the police are going to be there to take that's.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
Where we get our pills.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
That's right, that's right, that's absolutely right. So we've got
we've got cops closing in, got mob closing in.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
Mob saves her, loses the necklace.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
Lets her go because we're in that little cabin. That's right.
She's handcuffed in the cabin.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Where I was like, oh, please, don't do something terrible
to just some.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Random cabin that's out there near we're back at the
at the quarry, yeah, where all the cars have been driving.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
Off right, And then we we lose We get the girl,
We lose the necklace to Valmont, and.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
Then we he hands off the necklace of Velmont, gets
the girl.
Speaker 1 (55:35):
And then they go back and.
Speaker 2 (55:38):
He sends her back to the cabin. He says, go
back to the cabin. You'll be safe there. I'll draw
him away and he gets into a gun battle with
the mob, Valmont and the.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Police, and then he takes the pill at some point
when we don't I don't think we see it, do we.
Speaker 2 (55:54):
He takes the well, we see him take the pill.
But he does something else too. He pulls out the
clip of his gun and he's cutting he's and he's
counting his bullets. And that's where I was getting confused,
because I was like, wait, what is he doing because
he starts fidgeting with all of his bullets and he's
and he's messing with stuff, and I'm like, I don't
know what's going on here.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
That's right, And then the car ends up going off
the side and that's where his body starts laying or
was it?
Speaker 2 (56:19):
Like no? He first he's he's messing with his bullets
and his gun, and then he shoots Valmont. But he
shoots Valmont, Yes, kills Valmont. So now our mob guy
is dead. He's out of bullets, yeah, and he has
and now he's put himself into a trance and made
himself look dead. He doesn't have any bullet holes any
(56:40):
but he's dead. And that's when the cops close in
and find his corpse.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
That's right, that's right, And they take him into the
autopsy and our girl also a master of disguise, that's right,
assisting nurse for the for the for the the autopsy,
and they pull out the drawer and they're looking him
over and they're like this is diabolic, yes, blah blah
(57:04):
blah blah, and his eyes open and right.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
And she's there. They've left, but they've positively identified the body.
He's dead, but she's there knowing that he's going to
come back to life.
Speaker 1 (57:14):
Right yeah, And he goes into a minor explanation that
he has this tantric skill set right that he's able
to it's like some kind of chivasna and comes back
to life. And then we cut to where he's in
(57:35):
another costume.
Speaker 2 (57:36):
He puts on a disguise, now goes to the and
he goes and he talks to the mortician right the
morgue to get.
Speaker 1 (57:43):
The cremated ashes of his departed nephew who was so
good to his mother.
Speaker 2 (57:49):
Right Valmont the Mobster, We're going to get the remains.
And they go over to the crematorium and it's like, oh, yeah,
it's just finished up. Let me, let me get all
of that.
Speaker 1 (58:00):
He knocks out the as soon as he opened the door.
We see the the the emeralds in.
Speaker 2 (58:06):
What is that that's sparkling in their yeh.
Speaker 1 (58:10):
He knocks out the more mortician and or corner or
whatever and then takes the emeralds home with her.
Speaker 2 (58:19):
That's where we learned, because they give us in this
flashback where we see him. He's so he has shot
up Valmont, and what he did is he replaced the
lead bullet and shot Valmont's body with the emeralds is dead.
They think he's just been shot. Valmont is then cremated.
So he's cremated and all the emeralds are in his ashes.
Speaker 1 (58:41):
And so now our guy who that's really forgot his.
Speaker 2 (58:44):
Own death is there to now collect the emeralds that
were lodged in the body of our mobster.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
Which I guess emeralds melt down.
Speaker 2 (58:54):
They don't. Yeah, apparently there that's you know, it's a
the fire is enough to burn the body, but not.
Speaker 1 (59:00):
To hurt the emeralds and the jewelry part of it too, right, Well,
he doesn't have any that's because he puts them in
the bullets.
Speaker 2 (59:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he handed off the empty necklace of Velmont,
and because he goes to unrolling and the emeralds aren't there.
He but and so that's why Valmont's like he's been
double cross there we go, right, and that's why they
get into the gun battle with each other. He shoots
Valmont with the emeralds that we that's what he's fidgeting
with when I'm like, what is he doing there? Ye,
(59:27):
because we go a flashback. He does a flashback, right,
I know. Some of his emeralds are like inches long
and they're and like they don't go like I know,
but he shot Valmont with those things. So now he's
collected those. At the crematorium, he's still in his uh,
in his disguise, and he's got a cane and he's
walking away past some folks who were waiting on the creams.
(59:51):
We're waiting. Oh, he's busy right now, right, And he's
walking past them, and the sets his cane down and
then he goes running away and out of the morgue
with his.
Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Oh man.
Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
One thing I did forget to mention about this, even
though I kind of kind of trapes over the top
of it, is who did the score for this?
Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
You got to talk about the score.
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Oh you know, ol Marcone or Marcone I always say
with the Japanese accent is messing me up anyways. But
he he did everything. This guy's musical scores are the thing,
like he has done every.
Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
He was the classic Spaghetti Western composer.
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
So again, this is like a major trifecta of like Delarentis,
Bava and Maroni or Marconi or maconetur that words I
know it is. I know his music.
Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
Yeah, but and the ugly he is. He's the person
that did the classic good and the bad and the
ugly music. And I think one of the final things
that he ever did was the score for The Hateful Eight.
Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
He did and this all these ones ring true of this,
Like you can hear these elements in this particular score too,
beyond the little like DDDA thing that I keep making
fun of, but like, there are just these spectacularly haunting
musical elements that are happening where there's nobody talking or
there's just sound effects that are happening, and you can
(01:01:24):
hear this score playing in the background. It is just spectacular.
Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
That's really great.
Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
There's so many people love about this film. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
And it's so because we've kind of talked about like
Italian cinema and uh, you had brought up Jallo's Jallo
films and that kind of thing. You know, it's like
Suspiria and the Goblin soundtrack and all of that. That's
like an experience. I've seen it in the theater in
thirty five millimeter, the original Suspiria with that soundtrack. Like
(01:01:53):
it's an experience. It's not one that I necessarily want
to watch over and over again. It doesn't have that
same playability for me on it, but it's clearly like so, uh,
it's very intentional and specific and it's crazy and it's
wild and all of that, and uh, but you know
(01:02:16):
that's that. I don't know why that gets so much
more attention than what Bava does and what this film
does and the music and how it plays, because I
feel like this music informed so many other styles, because
he is recognized for his Spaghetti Western music, but nobody
(01:02:37):
really gives the credit for what he does. For James
Bond scores for decades, all sorts of action films or
spy films for decades are really informed by this music
and how it plays and it's so perfect in here
because it never feels uh.
Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
It's not ridiculous, it doesn't. There's nothing. And that's the
thing is, it's I have trouble with that. It's great
that people treat this like. That's why I was surprised
that I got an MSc three K, because I'm like,
there's nothing hokey about this. It's completely like I mean,
I know, I'm not gonna say it's earnest, it's charming,
and it has these I think it's meant to be dynamic,
(01:03:17):
and that's what everybody brings to this table. Like, like
I said, all the acting was like, you know, dialed up.
Everybody was dialed up because it was it's supposed to
be dynamic. It's supposed to be kind of like a
not a cartoon, but like like an action novel, but
without the campiness. There's no to me, there's no camp
(01:03:39):
to this. It's not so good good it's bad, or
so bad it's good or whatever. This has no camp
to me. This is feels like a spectacular film.
Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
And it's at a time when some of these folks
were making you know right now, one one director could
take three or four years to make a film and
back then.
Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
I mean, have you seen Planet Vampires.
Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
I haven't, and I really want to.
Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
I mean, Boba is a great churcher, but he doesn't.
Not everything is like this, I mean, honestly, year sometimes
I mean, right during this film, Delarenti Studios is being
used for Barbarella, and then so and so is he's
from Barbara Barbara.
Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
Right he was. He was Barbarella's sidecake boyfriend guy through
the whole time. Oh he was busy, Yeah, I know,
they were. They and that's the thing is they were busy,
they were making stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
But this was a bus because it came out like
unfortunately because of having Barbarella being like spectacularly budgeted and whatnot,
this was a bus in comparison. So I think that's
why it's like like some redhead step child of like
Italian cinema. I think this was This is sadly under scene,
and hopefully people will like this. I mean, I want,
(01:04:47):
I hope I challenge people to watch these and at
least maybe do a little research about it there because
there are a lot of fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Is really really great.
Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Yeah, thanks for watching it with me, well.
Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
And thank you for introducing me to Bava. Yeah, this
film with this pot because I want to go watch
more of his stuff now.
Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
I think you'll like his horror stuff is pretty good.
I mean, I love I'll also love lusterns like two. Yeah,
I gotta, I gotta weakness. I like films to watch lots.
Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Yeah, it was pretty great. I'm excited for that. And
not only am I excited that, I am excited for
the next film that we're going to watch. Oh is it?
Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
Well?
Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
My pick? It was both of our pick. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
It was one of those ones we talked about making
this show. We're like, this is one of the things
we definitely want to put on the list of things.
Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Definitely, Yeah, definitely And yeah, definitely my heavy lean because
I talk about this film a lot. And again going
back to that, I love kung fu films and watching
kung Fu theater at our local one of our local
art houses, the Hollywood Theater, And so I've seen this
one twice in the theater. This is the first time
I've seen it on a small screen. This is uh
(01:05:53):
the Boxers omen which is absolutely completely bonkers. It's an
offshoot of the show. Others studios making things and this
is a nineteen eighties film where they were making black
magic kind of almost like wizardry. I don't want to
say sword, but sorcery. They were into this whole like sorcery,
(01:06:15):
kung full occult mash up stuff. And this thing is
it is Tibetan mysticism mixed with martial arts kung fu.
That is so off the rail. There is no film
that I have ever seen ever that is even close
to this movie. It's crazy. And I'm so excited for
(01:06:38):
us to get into it and watch that film. I know,
and just so everybody knows too, Gretch and I have
decided to watch two movies a month as opposed to
one movie a month. So every two weeks we're planning
on having something come out. So middle of March is
when you're gonna get to see our episode of Boxer Zone.
Actually this will be first of this will be the
beginning of April. Yeah, so beginning of April this film
(01:06:59):
will come out. We're gonna launch this one. You're gonna
be seeing this one right now, which hopefully is the
middle of March. So I am so excited. This is
so really great and I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
For this thanksving.
Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
The check. The Gate podcast is hosted by Martin Vabra
and Gretchen Brooks. The show is directed, produced and edited
by Martin Vabra. Produced by Galaxy Sailor Productions twenty twenty five.
The show is filmed and recorded at the Propulsion Zone
Studio in downtown Portland, Oregon. Special thanks to Adam Carpinelli
and Aleandro Barragon