June 4, 2025 • 50 mins
Listen, mister man! We don’t want to get all “oogly” about it, but Kathy Bates went from a relatively unknown, but respected, stage actress to an Academy Award winner when she portrayed one of cinema's most unforgettable villains in 1990's "Misery." Meanwhile, James Caan, who had disappeared from Hollywood's A-list during the 1980s, found himself back in the spotlight playing the bedridden writer forced to resurrect his killed-off character.
Join us as we explore the film that remains Stephen King's favorite adaptation of his work and the only one to win an Oscar.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Clip (00:00):
And you better hope nothing happens to me, because
if I die, you die.
I'd like for you to be in oneverything, annie, not just the
finished book, but how it'swritten.
And I'm absolutely certain, themain reason I've never been more
popular is because of my temper.
I figured that if I can't findPaul Sheldon, at least I can
(00:22):
find out what he wrote about.
What do you expect to find Astory about a guy who drove his
car off a cliff in a snowstorm?
You see, it's just that kind ofsarcasm that's given our
marriage real spice.
I thought you were good, Paul.
But you're not good.
You're just another lying olddirty birdie, and I don't think
(00:44):
I'd better be around you for awhile.
Must get lonely, living out hereall by yourself.
Well, I always say if you can'tenjoy your own company, you're
not fit company for anyone else.
He didn't get out of thecock-a-doodie car.
Tony Maietta (01:02):
Hello,
Brad Shreve (01:20):
And I'm Brad Shreve , who's just a guy who likes
movies.
Tony Maietta (01:23):
We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's
golden age.
We go behind the scenes andshare our opinions too.
Brad Shreve (01:30):
And, of course, being the average guy, my
opinions are the ones thatmatter.
Tony Maietta (01:35):
As does your self-delusion.
Welcome to Going Hollywood.
Brad Shreve (01:40):
Okay, hit record.
Tony Ready to go.
Tony Maietta (01:43):
Oh wait, wait a second, wait a second, let me
get something.
Okay, okay now.
Record, tony, you ready to go?
Oh wait, wait a second, wait asecond, let me get something.
Okay, okay, now I'm ready.
What?
Brad Shreve (01:49):
are those?
What are you putting those onfor?
Tony Maietta (01:51):
What do you mean?
They're my eclipse glasses.
You have to wear glasses whenyou watch an eclipse.
Brad Shreve (01:58):
When is there an eclipse, eclipse at five, Brad.
Tony Maietta (02:03):
What are you talking about?
Eclipse at five, Brad?
What are you talking about?
Eclipse at five?
Brad Shreve (02:07):
What are you talking about?
Tony Maietta (02:11):
Don't do this to me, Brad.
You know an accident can be apodcast.
Co-host's best friend, that'sall I'm saying.
You told me to watch the KathyBates Stephen King movie.
Brad Shreve (02:22):
Yes, Misery Ugh.
Tony Maietta (02:25):
Stephen King movie .
Yes, misery, oh, do you mean totell me I watched the?
Brad Shreve (02:34):
wrong cock-a-doodie movie, Mr man.
Tony Maietta (02:41):
Heavens to Betsy.
Yes, it's Misery.
It's Misery.
It's not Dolores Claiborne,it's Misery.
Brad Shreve (02:43):
But I personally like Dolores Claiborne, so I had
to get those quotes in.
Tony Maietta (02:45):
But yes, today we are talking about misery from
Columbia in 1990.
And, dear listeners, believe itor not, this is Brad's choice.
I actually let Brad choose amovie.
Brad, why did you?
Brad Shreve (03:02):
choose misery.
Well, this is not one that Tonyturned me down immediately, he
just kept putting it off.
But here we're finally doingMisery, and there are numerous
reasons why I wanted to watchMisery.
I just watched it recently, asa matter of fact, I don't know
why it just came into my viewand I watched it.
I'm like, oh, we have got to dothis.
Tony Maietta (03:39):
So there are many reasons, but the most obvious
reason is the relatively unknownwoman of our air quotes
criteria for the content of thisfilm.
You know it's 1990.
We always say we're going tocut off.
With a few exceptions we'regoing to cut off in 1990.
But I'm glad you did this.
I you know.
Watching Misery again after notseeing it for so many years, I
was reminded what an amazingperformance she gives and also
(04:03):
reminded, as you just said,we're so used to Kathy Bates.
Now Kathy Bates is just in likethe fabric of our lives, our
cultural lives.
I mean, she's on television,she's got this new Matlock show,
she's in everything Ryan Murphydoes.
You know she pops up in films.
Still, there was a time whennobody knew who the hell Kathy
Bates was, unless they visitedoff off off Broadway shows or a
(04:26):
New York-based television series.
So it's really amazing thatthis one film brought her to the
forefront.
And not only that, but, as yousaid, she won the Oscar against
some pretty stiff competitionthat year.
Brad Shreve (04:39):
So yeah, you mentioned that Kathy Bates is so
much of a part of her life.
I don't know if you've watchedMatlock my family watches it.
No, and it's an entertainingshow and it's all because of
Kathy Bates.
It's really not that wellwritten.
The other cast members there'sat least two of them that are
terrible actors in my opinion,but it's good only because of
Kathy Bates.
Well, and it's an enjoyablewatch for that reason.
Tony Maietta (05:01):
She's often the only reason to watch something,
or one of the very, very goodreasons to watch something, in
my opinion.
You know I have troublewatching Matlock because the
original one was one that myfather watched all the time, so
I'm saturated with Matlock, nomatter who Matlock is.
But I hear it's pretty good andI'll watch it.
But the amazing thing aboutMisery and the fact that she was
(05:24):
just thrown on the moving,going public with this.
It's a very, very, very braveperformance and she could really
I mean, this could have goneeither way.
This could have been her careerbeginner and her career ender.
Oh, yeah.
Because the role of Annie Wilkesis very, very tricky.
(05:44):
She walks the line of hatingher or having sympathy for her,
and there's some things that RobReiner and William Goldman did
to be sure that we did not hateher, which we'll talk about.
But first I think we shouldtalk a little bit about.
I want to talk about this.
Who's in it?
We should probably tell peoplewho's in it besides Kathy Bates.
I mean, we've got James Caan,who also did a brilliant job he
(06:08):
did.
This was kind of a comeback forJames Caan.
He'd been off the screen formost of the 80s due to personal
problems and he came back.
We have the delightful FrancesSternhagen as Deputy Virginia,
who we know Frances Sternhagenmostly from Cheers, from playing
Cliff's mother on Cheers, butwe know Frances Sternhagen
mostly from Cheers, from playingCliff's mother on Cheers.
But what a wonderful actress.
Theater actress, film actress.
Richard Farnsworth as SheriffBuster who meets his untimely
(06:33):
end.
Oops, spoiler alert.
Brad Shreve (06:35):
Oh, actually, whoa, whoa, whoa.
We need to do a spoiler alertbecause I did get a complaint
about this once.
We are talking about the movie,but we will discuss the book,
and there are changes, becausewe talked about a movie once,
but we will discuss the book,and there are changes, because
we talked about a movie once butwe also discussed the book, and
I'm like somebody said why didyou give me spoilers on the book
?
so obviously they know we'regoing to get spoilers on the
movie.
But just a heads up, we'redoing spoilers on the book
because it will come up now.
(06:56):
Go on one kind of follows theother.
Tony Maietta (06:58):
But okay, richard Farnsworth as Sheriff Buster and
special appearance by MissLauren Bacall as Marcia Sindel.
And every time I see thatcredit I laugh.
I'm like I've never understoodhow anyone gets a special
(07:18):
appearance in a film.
Everybody's cast in a film.
I know it's contractual, I knowit's, you know it's in her
contract.
Somewhere she says I need tohave special appearance by
Lauren Bacall.
Every appearance by LaurenBacall is special as far as I'm
concerned, but I just, I justlove that little tagline and
special appearance by LaurenBacall.
So these are the main people inmisery in the film misery.
(07:41):
But I think we need to talk,brad, about the man who wrote
this, the novel that this movieis based on a bit, don't you
think?
Brad Shreve (07:50):
The guy that's kind of famous for writing novels.
Tony Maietta (07:52):
Yeah, just a little bit.
A little bit, what's his nameagain?
Brad Shreve (07:54):
Well, his name is Stephen King, though originally
he was going to write this novelunder Richard Bachman, his
pseudonym for when he writesnon-horror films or frequently
uses when writing non-horrorfilms and the reason he didn't
do it with this one is the wordgot out that he was Richard
Bachman.
Tony Maietta (08:13):
I wonder why Paul Sheldon didn't do that when he
was writing his Misery series.
Why didn't he?
He didn't use a nom de plume,you know, he's just Paul Sheldon
, which is kind of interesting.
Brad Shreve (08:22):
Well, he says in the movie that he didn't expect
Misery to become his life.
For all we know, it could havebeen a one-off.
Right, right and it was just sopopular, it took over.
So I think that would be a goodguess as to why I don't know
what he normally wrote.
That's never really told.
Tony Maietta (08:37):
So the film Misery is based on, as Brad just said,
Stephen King's 1987 novel ofthe same name, and I'm going to
give a little background abouthow it came about.
Do you mind that?
I know this is your baby and Idon't want to step on anything
that you want to talk about, butI'll just give a little
background on how it came about.
Okay, so Stephen King said inhis memoir that in the early
(08:59):
1980s he and his wife went toLondon on a trip a combined
pleasure, business trip and hefell asleep on the plane and had
a dream about a popular writerand he said it may or may not
have been me, but it sure to Godwasn't James Caan.
That was very interesting andStephen King, you know, can be
(09:20):
curmudgeonly about some of hisfilm adaptions we've talked
about.
He's not crazy about theShining, for sure, but this is
one of his favorite adaptions ofhis books, right, brad?
Am I correct in that?
Brad Shreve (09:33):
That is correct and it's really miraculous because
Annie Wilkes is his favoritecharacter that he's written, so
Kathy Bates was really upagainst him, yeah that's amazing
.
Tony Maietta (09:43):
That's amazing.
And the book was number.
It rose number four on the NewYork Times bestseller list and
producer Andrew Scheinman wasalso on a plane ironically,
everything happens in a plane inHollywood Reading Misery and he
later recommended it to hisfriend Rob Reiner at Castle Rock
Entertainment.
Now Rob Reiner had already donea Stephen King adaption.
(10:06):
He had done Stand by Me in 1986.
So people are like Rob Reinerseems like an odd choice to do
this because we think of RobReiner, we think of when Harry
Met Sally, the Princess, bride,meathead, but All in the Family.
But he's a really interestingchoice and this was the sixth
film he made.
So he made when Harry Met Sallyright before this and it was
(10:28):
such a huge hit.
I think he probably could justdo whatever he wanted to and he
wanted to do this book.
He wanted to make a film ofthis book.
Brad Shreve (10:36):
It was a good choice and we I don't know if
you want to get into it now, butthere were choices made for
this film that I think were sogood and I think improved the
story that I do want to get intothat well, yes, and I think we
should.
Tony Maietta (10:51):
We should get that .
But I mean, here's anotherspoiler alert.
You know how I feel abouthorror films and that leaks into
books, so I don't think it'sgoing to surprise anybody out
there that I've never read thebook Misery, nor do I ever
intend to.
The scariest book I've everread is Mommy Dearest, and I'm
going to keep it at that.
(11:12):
I also read Valley of the Dolls.
Brad Shreve (11:14):
Pretty scary too.
I stopped saying that I don'tcare for certain genres because
as a role I don't watch horrorfilms.
I've watched them in the pastbecause with friends and that
sort of thing films I've watchedthem in the past because with
friends and that sort of thingas a role, I don't like horror
films, but I don't say I don'tlike genres, because if I had to
tell you I really dislike acertain genre, it would be
Westerns.
But I love High Noon and I loveSilverado.
(11:35):
So I've really realized thatit's not a genre, it's a
well-made movie and that isanother reason why I really love
Misery is because so many ofStephen King's novels turn into
real garbage on the film Forexample you mentioned, he didn't
like the Shining.
A friend of mine went to afundraising dinner and was sat
(11:55):
next to Stephen King and shesaid I heard good things about
Firewalker and he said pleasedon't go see it.
Tony Maietta (12:03):
Yeah, get an opinion, steve, Get an opinion.
Well, I think one of thereasons why he liked this
adaption so much was because ofthe man who wrote the screenplay
, none other than WilliamGoldman.
And for people who don't know,william Goldman's kind of a
mythic, another one of thesemythic Hollywood writers.
He's a novelist, a playwright,a screenwriter, and Rob Reiner
(12:24):
asked him to write thescreenplay to this.
He had worked with him on theprincess bride in 87, which is
is based on goldman's book.
So I mean, you know, goldmanalso wrote butch cassidy and the
sundance kid all thepresident's men.
He won oscars for both of those, and he also wrote with reiner,
as I said, princess Bride.
So I mean, this guy is truly,truly top of the line up there
(12:49):
when we're talking aboutscreenwriters.
So I think that's a big reasonwhy this film works is because
you have a really brilliantwriter crafting the screenplay.
Brad Shreve (12:58):
Yeah, I mean obviously his listing of movies
is not shabby in any way.
Tony Maietta (13:03):
No, he was a mythic, mythic writer, you know,
and he did make some changes tothe screenplay which I think
helped, which we can talk about,but when they decided to get
this going, I'm curious do youknow?
There's a list as long as twoof my arms of the actors who
turned down this role of Paul.
(13:23):
Do you know some of them?
Brad Shreve (13:25):
I do.
I know there was Dustin Hoffman.
Jack Nicholson said no, oh myGod, the list is long.
I'm sure you know off the topof your head more than I.
Do you want?
Tony Maietta (13:33):
me to read it.
Yeah, go ahead.
Who was big in 1990, basically,is who we got here.
We got Kevin Kline, we gotMichael Douglas, we got Harrison
Ford, dustin Hoffman, as yousaid, de Niro Pacino, richard
Dreyfuss, gene Hackman, robertRedford and William Hurt turned
it down twice.
They weren't satisfied with oneno from William Hurt.
(13:58):
They had to go back to himagain and I think that's because
Paul.
Paul is such a reactionarycharacter.
Paul is in bed for most of thisfilm.
So a lot of actors want alittle more action and it's a
very challenging thing for anactor to play a totally
reactionary character and I'mnot talking politically
(14:20):
reactionary, I mean the guydoesn't move, he's in bed, he's
got two broken legs and adislocated shoulder.
So Warren Beatty was actuallygoing to do it and they signed
Warren Beatty, but then he hadto drop out when post-production
on Dick Tracy went too long,because this is the same time as
Dick Tracy.
So someone eventually, I thinkthey went through the Screen
Actors Guild listing and theywent oh, they got this, you.
(14:40):
They're like James Caan.
Whatever happened to James Caan?
Where's James Caan?
So James Caan was in a bit of afallow period in his career.
As I said he'd taken a breakfrom acting in the early 80s to
some personal problems.
He called it Hollywood burnoutand accepted it, and it really
did cause a career resurgencefor Caan.
I mean, he worked prettysteadily after Misery up until
(15:02):
his death in 2022.
Brad Shreve (15:05):
And there was a very big change for James Khan
to play a role where he spent 15weeks in bed.
Tony Maietta (15:11):
Oh yeah, I mean, my God, think about some of the
things that the films James Khanhas done.
I mean, I think everybodythinks of Sonny Corleone.
I mean, talk about a kineticactive guy.
You know what I mean.
One of my favorite James Caanearly films Okay, this is kind
of funny.
So, one of his very firstappearances he plays a hoodlum
(15:37):
punk in Olivia de Havilland'sgrand guignol hagsploitation
film, lady in a Cage.
That is the one with the famousline help, help, I am trapped
in a small private elevator.
So yeah, she's trapped in thisprivate elevator.
But yeah, it was really achallenge for Khan and he said
that was one of the reasons whyhe actually wanted to do it,
(15:59):
because it was definitely achange of pace for him from his
usual hothead kinetic type guys.
Brad Shreve (16:06):
And to me it takes a lot of skill because he did a
great job.
You can really feel for Paul,my God, you can feel for Paul he
does.
And part of that was the camerashooting, because they did
great jobs with those close-upslooking up at Kathy Bates.
But just his facial.
He did a lot of acting with hisface and just great.
Tony Maietta (16:26):
Well, he brings that tough guy even though he's
in bed, and we talk about thisall the time.
Actors bring their own personalqualities to any role they play
.
So he brings that.
You know, if he could move he'dhave no problem.
That woman would be down in aminute, because this is Sonny
Corleone you're fucking withhere.
Brad Shreve (16:42):
Annie Wilkes here anyway, I mean come on but he's
not, he's in bed.
Tony Maietta (16:46):
so he he brings that to the role and I'm really
glad that he did this becauseyou know he went on to make um
honeymoon in vegas for the boys.
You know elf I mean, you seeelf every year now so it's he
had quite a career resurgenceand I've always been a fan of
james conn.
Um, he's, he was reallywonderful.
Not only was he a great hero inthis kind of like action hero,
(17:08):
but he was also a very fun-likecomedian and he had a great
voice.
You know he could also sing.
So this guy was really talented.
He did Funny Lady, he did thesequel to Funny Girl and he was
in For the Boys.
He sang with Bette Midler andso a great actor and it's really
nice that this film brought himback into prominence.
Brad Shreve (17:25):
I mean, I would love to curl up on his hairy
chest.
But what was the movie he madewith Sally Field?
It wasn't a great movie, but hewas a really good character in
it.
Tony Maietta (17:36):
Oh, Kiss Me.
Brad Shreve (17:36):
Goodbye.
So yeah, and I was surprisedabout the song and dance part
because he was in that moviewith Sally Fields and so yeah,
and I was surprised about thesong and dance part because he
was in that movie with SallyFields and it's Kiss Me.
Goodbye.
Not a great movie.
I really liked it the firsttime I saw it.
Tony Maietta (17:49):
Oh it's cute, and later I watched it.
Brad Shreve (17:51):
It is a cute film.
It's a little slower than Iremember, but he was so good in
that film he's great.
He really made the film for me.
Tony Maietta (17:58):
You know I have issues with Funny Lady,
(18:19):
no-transcript, and Bette Midlerplays a character based on, kind
of based on Martha Ray At leastMartha Ray thought so, because
she sued Bette Midler.
Go is about saying that he's avery, he has a great variety of
roles.
But speaking of Bette Midler, Iwas wondering if you're going
(18:43):
to do that.
Brad Shreve (18:44):
See how I did that, see how I went in there.
Tony Maietta (18:46):
Yes, what are you going to say?
What am I going to say aboutBette Midler?
Brad Shreve (18:49):
She turned down this role and regretted it.
Tony Maietta (18:53):
Because she had to make scenes from a mall.
I mean, come on Scenes fromwhat?
She had to make scenes, exactly, exactly.
You know poor Bette, yeah, shedoesn't have the best choicing
skills when she picks her films.
But another actress who wasoffered this role and turned it
down, angelica Houston.
Which.
Can you imagine, angelicaHouston towering over you in a
(19:16):
bed?
I mean, good God, that's afrightening thought.
Brad Shreve (19:21):
But I can't picture her doing it physically.
Tony Maietta (19:24):
Well, I don't know .
I think she could overpowerJames Caan, even if he was fully
healthy.
Brad Shreve (19:28):
But she doesn't look physically the role Stephen
King.
Tony Maietta (19:32):
that was fairly important to Stephen King.
I can see that.
I can see that, yeah, I can seethat.
But you know, william Goldman,who had a little hand in some of
this, had a suggestion and hesuggested this actress he knew
from New York and her name wasKathy Bates.
You know, kathy Bates,unfortunately a little bit like
Tallulah Bankhead, people werealways doing her roles on film
(19:52):
and she was in a play calledFrankie and Johnny, in the
Claire de Lune, which was doneby Michelle Pfeiffer, which
Michelle Pfeiffer, kathy Bates,I'm not sure how you make that
connection, you know, but theydid it, and that was a lot of
criticism of that film.
She was in the production ofNight Mother, which Sissy Spacek
did as a film.
So Misery was really a great.
(20:13):
It was just a great opportunityfor Kathy Bates, and boy did
she take that opportunity andrun with it.
Because I think one of thethings I love most about Misery
is it gave us Kathy Bates and itgave us wonderful performances
in Fried Green Tomatoes, oh yeah, in the one she did, primary
Colors I was just trying tothink of the one that she did
(20:37):
with Richard Jewell.
I mean, there's just one, theTitanic.
She played Molly Brown.
For Christ's sake.
Brad Shreve (20:57):
So, yeah, it really really put her on the acting
map so people could know abouther, and of course, you know
that I thought was handledreally well.
So kudos to her again.
She was fabulous in that film.
I laugh every time I watch her.
And the great thing about AnnieWilkes is and this was
important to both King and tothe filmmakers is she's not a
monster.
You actually have somewhatsympathy to her because she
(21:20):
clearly has mental illness.
But I do want to comment onthis because a lot of people
talk about her bipolar disorder.
They never say what she has.
But you know, I have bipolardisorder.
Tony Maietta (21:32):
I'm very open about the fact of that.
Brad Shreve (21:34):
And I do get not to be defensive, but people get it
wrong Every time there's acharacter that is quirky or
changes their temperament.
A lot people immediately saybipolar disorder, and that
concerns me is because, first ofall, I have what's called rapid
cycling, where I go from manicto depression pretty frequently.
Most people with bipolardisorder will go months in
(21:57):
depression and then months manic, so it's not like every five
seconds.
The TV series Black Box, whichwas terrible.
The woman would forget her medsone night.
The next day she was sleepingto every man in town.
I mean, it's been so poorlydisplayed.
You know, I can skip my medsfor a few days and I'm still
normal, well as normal as I canpossibly be, People that are
(22:22):
bipolar are rarely dangerous.
They are impulsive, so they canbe.
But, when it comes to bipolardisorder and I'm getting on a
high horse here for a moment Ijust want people to understand
the disease.
People with bipolar disorderare dangerous to themselves.
Right, I was going to say that,yeah 60% of people with bipolar
disorder have attempted suicideand 20% have succeeded.
(22:43):
That is astronomical comparedto the rest of the country.
So just to give some peoplesome empathy, and every time you
see somebody act a little kooky, please don't just say they're
bipolar.
Tony Maietta (22:53):
Don't immediately say bipolar.
Brad Shreve (22:55):
There I'm done.
You know how not to go on aCarrie Fisher tangent.
Tony Maietta (22:59):
But this is a Going Hollywood podcast.
You know, carrie named her twomoods.
Her mania was rollicking Royand her depressive side was Pam,
which meant piss and moan,which I always thought was.
I mean, she named her twostates.
It's just Carrie Fisher.
What a genius, carrie Fisher.
Brad Shreve (23:19):
When you're diagnosed with it and you live
with it, you just for lack of abetter term you embrace it.
I mean, it's just Well, it'spart of you, it's just part of
who I am and, like I say manytimes, the day I was diagnosed
was the best day of my lifebecause, oh my God, it had a
name.
So anyway, moving on, that wasmy little PSA.
Tony Maietta (23:35):
No, but it was really important to Reiner to
make sure that the character ofAnnie Wilkes did have sympathy.
In fact, and this is what I wassaying, in his screenplay
Goldman kept the scene in whichAnnie severs one of Paul's feet
with an ax.
Now people who are listeninggoes, wait a minute, that
doesn't happen in the movie.
Well, no, it doesn't happen inthe movie.
(23:57):
She instead breaks his ankles,which I'm sorry, I still cannot
watch that scene.
I don't care if she cuts them,I just can't.
Every time I can't watch it.
Hobbling, no, thank you.
But anyway, goldman reallyfought to keep the axe in to
have him sever his foot, butReiner said no, that he felt
that the visual depiction wouldjust make the audience hate
(24:19):
Annie too much.
So, you know, instead ofsympathizing with her madness.
So I guess okay, you know, Iguess with hobbling we're only
slightly irritated as opposed tototally hating her for cutting
off his feet.
But it's still a very difficultscene to watch.
Brad Shreve (24:35):
It is a very difficult scene but I think it
was a great decision by RobReiner because people watch that
hobbling scene and every timeI'm with people that watch it,
everybody just cringes.
Oh yeah, just see their wholebody tense, because we can
relate to it.
If it was cut off first of all,people are more removed from it
Because it's hard to imagineyour foot being cut off.
They would be grossed out,right.
What it would have done is madethis movie a little more in the
(24:57):
horror genre.
Tony Maietta (25:03):
And by not doing that, it stayed in psychological
thriller.
Oh, that's a good point.
I like that.
I like that.
So do you think it's time thatwe should tell people a little
bit about the plot of this filmthat we've been talking about
for about, uh, 25 minutes now?
yeah, because if they don't knowabout it, they're probably a
little lost right now well, Iwill give you a quick breakdown
of the plot of this um and thisis just touching the the
highlights.
So james kahn plays pauleldon.
He's a famous author who writesVictorian romance novels.
(25:26):
I think they're also calledbodice rippers.
Back in my generation therewere bodice rippers that was my
generation, catherine Coulter,you know.
So those kinds of things andthe books featured a character
named Misery Chastain Not to beconfused with Jessica Chastain,
(25:48):
but anyway.
So he's really tired of writingthese series of books and he
longs to write seriousliterature.
So what he's done is he'sbasically ended the Misery
series, but this book has notcome out yet.
While he's waiting for it tocome out, he sequesters himself
(26:09):
in a remote hotel in Coloradoand he writes a manuscript.
He just finishes a manuscriptwhich he hopes will be the next
step in his career.
Once Misery is done.
This book is released.
Where Misery is dead, he's nowgoing to have a new career, but
as he's leaving the hotel, hegets caught in a bad blizzard
and crashes his car.
So luckily or not, depending onhow you feel about this he gets
(26:32):
saved by a young woman who isnot only a nurse, but she's
Paul's what, brad.
What is Annie Wilkes, biggestfan, number one fan Annie Wilkes
, number one fan, number one fan.
Brad Shreve (26:43):
Annie Wilkes, number one fan.
Tony Maietta (26:45):
So she carries him to her home, which is very
remote, she takes care of himbecause he has two broken legs
and dislocated shoulder, whichshe pops back in, and she tells
him that kind of, because of thestorm they're a bit landlocked,
the roads are closed, the phonelines are down, so she's taking
care of him and all seems fine,until Paul's last misery book
(27:08):
is released, in which miserydies and that's when her true
psychotic nature begins toreveal itself.
So she basically holds Paulhostage and demands that he
(27:31):
write a new Misery novel whileshe takes care of him.
And I always think that's kindof like the writer's nightmare,
isn't it?
It's actually whatscreenwriters used to go through
in Hollywood.
They're like sit right, youknow, and I was like wow, but he
does it.
He does it, he creates a brandnew misery novel.
Brad Shreve (27:51):
There's some great lines in this film that she
delivers incredibly, and I wantto quote some of it.
When she gets done reading thebook and she comes into his room
and that look in her face Aftershe's been sweet as sugar, even
though there were definitelysigns of there's something with
this woman yeah, she comes in,she goes.
You, you dirty bird.
How could you?
Tony Maietta (28:12):
Dirty birdie she can't be dead.
Brad Shreve (28:13):
Yeah, dirty birdie, she can't be dead.
Misery Chastain cannot be dead.
I don't want her spirit, I wanther.
And you murdered her.
You did it, you did it, you didit.
You murdered my misery.
I thought you were good, butyou're no good, you're just
(28:33):
another lying old dirty bird.
Heavens to Betsy.
Tony Maietta (28:38):
My favorite was always Mr man.
Listen to me.
Mr man, I used to say that allthe time.
Mr man, yeah, she's got quite acolorful vocabulary, but she
doesn't swear.
Brad Shreve (28:48):
So that's why we get the cockadoody she swears
once she does swear, once sheblames it for it.
Yes, she does.
Tony Maietta (28:53):
Yes, she does.
You're absolutely right aboutthat.
Brad Shreve (29:06):
I also love the fact that she's got the Liberace
album.
She's got the Liberace picturesall over the place.
Oh my God, that's very funny.
And the fact that she saidshe's going to be playing
Liberace, I guess, nonstop whilehe works, I thought, if
anything would have been moremiserable than anything she's
done to this man.
It's playing Liberace all thetime no-transcript and that's
(29:42):
going to leave me to talk aboutanother difference between the
book and the novel.
And it's not because I think thenovel is wrong, but I think it
was a good decision for themovie.
Part of the decision was madebecause obviously you have to
cut things out when you make amovie.
You only have two hoursActually that's an hour and 47
minutes to capture a very thickbook, and that difference was in
(30:02):
the book.
There were a lot of state copsand what they did was made
amalgamum and came up with thecharacter Buster.
Ah and in the book the statepolice.
She was the obvious number onesuspect through the whole novel
and they visited her severaltimes and I like both of those
changes because it made the bookmore claustrophobic.
(30:25):
I mean, I'm sorry, it made themovie more claustrophobic.
Tony Maietta (30:28):
The movie yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brad Shreve (30:29):
Because it was just him and her, except for when
Buster showed up.
That's very true.
Tony Maietta (30:33):
In the house.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely,absolutely so.
Brad Shreve (30:36):
I like that, I did like that, they did that.
But she tells him that shecalled everybody, she called his
uh daughter publisher played bylauren lauren mccall, she
called his daughter because Iget.
She must have said she went totown no, she went into town.
Tony Maietta (30:51):
To call laura, yeah.
To call betty, yeah.
Brad Shreve (30:53):
Yeah, to make the call yeah, but she tells them
that you know nothing's clearbecause of the roads, and that's
where they went.
Then that's actually a lie anduh, which I will say was one of
the dumbest moves he made.
Paul would have known not todrive down the mountains in a
blizzard, but then we wouldn'thave the movie In a Ford Mustang
.
Tony Maietta (31:08):
In a Ford Mustang?
Yes, exactly, you think you'dhave four-wheel drive.
Not too smart there, ryder, youthink you'd have four-wheel
drive.
You're up in the mountains inColorado.
Brad Shreve (31:20):
It makes me think of the movie the Martian, which
Neil deGrasse Tyson said it's abrilliant movie.
He loves the movie.
The only thing wrong with themovie is there are no storms on
Mars.
It just does not happen.
There's no storm, he said.
But I accept it because that'sthe whole premise of the film.
So I accept this, with PaulSheldon driving down the
mountain during a blizzard.
(31:40):
So anyway, what he does is he'sworking.
The novel that he finished ishis first non-misery novel, or
his first non-misery novel sincestarting that series.
I think he wrote five or sevenof the misery novels While he's
up.
She asked if she can read hisnovel.
Now in the book she had to fightwith him, but in the movie he's
(32:02):
grateful for her for takingcare of him.
So he says, of course you canread the novel.
And she's reading it and she'sloving it.
And then when she finds outthat he killed off, misery is
when she comes in the room andmakes that little speech and
that's only part of the longspeech that she makes and she
(32:23):
lets him know.
Right then I have not calledanybody, nobody knows you're
here, everybody thinks you'redead and if you want to get out,
you're going to write the nextmisery novel and bring her back.
Tony Maietta (32:36):
And how about.
But what she also does is shemakes him burn the novel, the
book that he's been working onthis whole time, his new life,
the book he was writing afterMisery and you know, as you can,
I love that about James Caan isyou feel that this is the only
copy he has.
And as a creative person, I'msure you know, I know I feel
(32:57):
that way.
You know, think how you feelwhen you accidentally delete a
file on your computer.
You're like, oh shit, I hope Isaved it, I hope I saved it, I
hope I saved it.
Or computer crashes orsomething that is.
The ultimate pain to a creativeperson is to destroy what you
just spent all your time andenergy working on.
Brad Shreve (33:17):
Oh it's painful I agree, I that is actually one of
the most horrific scenes in themovie to me.
I feel that that pain, it's ahorrific yeah, it really is.
That is, yeah, that is horrible, just horrible to watch him do
that James Caan's performance isso layered.
Tony Maietta (33:32):
I mean you get the sense of this tough guy who is.
I mean he should be able tothrottle this woman instantly
but he can't.
And you get that frustrationand you get that rage and you
get him underplaying and pushingit down so she doesn't suspect
it and it's a really.
I think it's probably one ofhis greatest performances.
I really do.
I mean, kathy Bates gets allthe glory as well she should,
(33:55):
but James Kahn truly gives agreat performance.
Brad Shreve (33:58):
And, unfortunately, because Kathy did such a
brilliant job, it does getoverlooked.
I think a lot of people misshow well he did.
A lot of people miss how wellthe, the filmography was in this
, that the whole story ingeneral, because it wasn't just
kathy bates, it was this film ingeneral, that and, like I
mentioned, the, the, the filmingthat was done.
They had so many scenes oflooking up at her face where
(34:23):
you're looking at it from hisviewpoint, mm-hmm, and the look
in her eyes as you see her goingfrom one personality to the
next and getting scary, creepyas she uses cock-a-doodie and Mr
man and things like that.
Right, it's just so well donein so many levels, yeah.
Tony Maietta (34:43):
I agree, and I think a lot of it has to do with
Rob Reiner.
I mean, rob Reiner was really agreat choice to direct this.
Because, rob Reiner, what doesRob Reiner know?
He's the son of Carl Reiner andEstelle Reiner.
Okay, he knows comedy,no-transcript horror film.
(35:17):
It makes it all the morehorrific because you're laughing
one moment and then you'restunned the next moment and then
you're scared the next momentand then you're laughing the
next moment and then you'rescared the next moment and then
you're laughing the next moment.
And Reiner does thatbeautifully.
Reiner handles this all with a.
Even when she's hobbling hislegs, it's handled with a very
light touch.
One might almost say it has aslightly humorous edge.
Brad Shreve (35:36):
Some of her most scary scenes are then turned
around with a very lighthearted,funny reaction that she has
your emotions are all over theroller coaster, like hers are.
Tony Maietta (35:46):
Heaven to Betsy, oh, oh when she burns the
manuscript.
Oh heaven to Betsy, oh dear, oh, oh.
And she's just like.
This woman is insane.
Brad Shreve (35:56):
This is after she has poured lighter fluid all
over him, it's just yeah.
Tony Maietta (36:00):
after she, it's just great.
So Paul eventually starts toget better and he makes.
He's able to get out, climb outof bed in a very, very long
scene.
Maybe it took 20 minutes forher to go into town and then
come back, but at that time hewas able to drag himself and
jerry-rig a bobby pin to be ableto unlock the door and get out
(36:20):
into her house and realize whata nut job she is.
Into her house and realize whata nut job she is.
And then she comes home and hehas to really quick drag himself
back in his wheelchair this guyhas two inoperable legs Pull
himself up and that damn bobbypin, get the door locked again
and get in bed just in time forher to come in and open the door
.
She eventually, of course,finds out and that's when things
(36:44):
start to really go crazy.
Brad Shreve (36:47):
They made it very obvious because when he's out
and about while she's gone, heknocks over this figurine a
penguin and when he puts it back, he puts it back too.
Obviously wrong.
It's turned completely around.
So, everybody immediately knowshe's going to get caught.
But I think people forget thatBecause it is quite a bit later
when she realizes it and shecomes in and says I know you've
been getting out Right, and thatis when she hobbles its legs
(37:10):
and when Buster.
First let me go talk aboutBuster and Virginia.
Oh, please, yes, yes yes, my God, what a wonderful couple.
Everybody loves this couple.
You know I've seen this moviemany times, but it's been ages
and ages and that's why it wasrefreshing when I saw it again.
You can't help but love thiscouple.
I want to see a movie aboutthese two.
(37:30):
Buster is the sheriff andAnnie— Unfortunately you can't
see one anymore.
I know Buster is the sheriffand Virginia is his wife, who
they also call his secretary.
They are such a wonderful— ordeputy?
yes, I'm sorry they are such awonderful or deputy.
Yes, I'm sorry.
They're such a wonderful coupletogether.
They are funny.
(37:50):
Their chemistry is great.
The biggest mistake I thinkthey made is killing buster off,
and here's the reason why.
There's a thing in movies thatthey kind of they always feel
like they have to kill aprominent character so the
audience will feel less safe forthe main character.
In the movie Top Gun, I went infive minutes into that movie I
(38:11):
looked at a friend next to meand I said Goose is there to die
.
That's exactly what I said.
And sure enough I was right andI think that's overdone and I
think it was absolutelyunnecessary in this case.
And the reason why is I don'tthink it added anything to the
film except it made peoplereally angry Because they made
him so likable if it was done ina different situation, but at
(38:34):
that time when they did it there, I don't think it was necessary
.
We already felt Paul Sheldon'spain.
Tony Maietta (38:40):
Yeah, I mean, I agree with you the fact that I
hated to see Buster die, but youhave to realize that then.
But what happens is, becauseshe shoots Buster, because
Buster comes, sheriff Busterfinally comes to the house.
He's finally figured out.
Maybe I should check, I shouldtalk to Annie Wilkes, because we
didn't say this.
But when Paul was roamingaround the house he found a
scrapbook of all of Annie's pastexploits and she was accused of
(39:03):
killing babies in a hospital.
So we know this woman isdangerous.
So he shows up and, yes, shecomes home and she shoots him in
the back and he falls down thestairs.
So, yes, it's sad that he getsshot, but that has to happen
because it brings about theconclusion of the film.
If you didn't have her shootingSheriff Buster, then there'd be
no reason for her to suddenlyget scared and say the time has
(39:27):
come for me to kill you and killmyself, and that's the
conclusion of the film.
So it brings about the climax,basically.
So I get what you're saying,but then what would bring about
the climax, what would be thecrisis that would bring about
the conclusion of the film if itwasn't Sheriff Buster being
blown away by Annie?
Brad Shreve (39:46):
I think just his being obvious that he knew
something was going on couldhave been enough.
I will say, one very happychange that I'm glad they did
was, though in the novel it wasa state police officer who was
killed, and it was very gruesome, let's just say.
It involved a lawnmower.
Tony Maietta (40:02):
I Ooh, I didn't hear that, yeah.
Brad Shreve (40:06):
So I'm glad they made that change.
Tony Maietta (40:08):
I see what you're saying, but I also think it was
necessary because it drives up.
You can't go back from this.
This is now the point of noreturn.
Yes, you're correct, we're atthe point of no return.
So we know this movie is goingto be ending soon and the ending
of the movie is very I don'tknow.
Here's my one issue with thismovie, and I feel the same way
(40:29):
about Fatal Attraction.
Now, fatal Attraction wasfamously reshot to give that
violent ending of Glenn Close'scharacter being blown away by
Michael Douglas's wife In theoriginal filming of it she kills
herself.
(40:49):
Alex in Fatal Attraction, hiswife in the original filming of
it.
She kills herself.
Uh, alex, failed attraction.
And there's just.
Yes, we hate annie, but it'sjust, you know the way that he
he hits her with the pig and thetypewriter and yeah, it's, I
don't know.
I just I, the feminist in me,gets my gets my eye up a little
bit.
I don't like the fact thatthey're just degrading this
woman.
Yes, kill her, fine, but wedon't have to degrade her by
(41:13):
putting, you know, taking theashes from this manuscript and
rubbing him in her face andhitting her with the typewriter
and hitting her with the pig.
I get it, you know she's dead.
Okay, it feels to me to be alittle too, a little too much
testosterone there, a little tooJames, too much James Cullen
coming through, that's myopinion.
Brad Shreve (41:33):
The feminist in me says I'm glad they didn't treat
it with kit gloves, that she gotthe just desserts that they
would have given a man.
I guess that's she was just asevil as a man.
That was a change from thenovel and I'm only going to
bring it up because I think thenovel would.
It probably was very scary inthe novel but it would have been
a pretty boring end to themovie.
In the novel, after he hits herwith a typewriter, she climbs
(41:58):
out the window to go get achainsaw to kill him and dies in
the barn.
She dies in the barn, yeah,dies in the barn.
She dies in the barn, yeah.
So I mean that would be prettydull in a movie that was lying
there and then she just grows inthe barn and dies.
Tony Maietta (42:10):
They have to have this over the top testosterone
fueled ending, um, okay I hatethey did the cliche, she's dead.
Brad Shreve (42:17):
Oh, she's not dead.
She attached him again.
Tony Maietta (42:19):
He's not really dead please, why did you go
there?
But you know it's uh, it iscathartic.
Yes, just like you know, thereare arguments that the fatal
attraction ending, the reasonthey changed it was because it
wasn't cathartic.
The audience needs to feelcatharsis.
Okay, I get it, but at the sametime I'm not a huge fan about
it.
But it doesn't matter, becauseaudiences were, because Misery,
(42:43):
when it was released, was a hugehit.
It was a huge hit.
It was a huge hit.
It was a budget of what?
$18 million?
And it made $61.3 million.
It is the 10th highest grossingfilm of a Stephen King novel so
far.
Now that's going to changebecause the more Stephen King
novels that get made, the lowerand lower it's going to go, and
(43:04):
some of these Stephen Kingadaptions like it.
I mean it made $200 million, Imean.
So I don't think it's going tohold that record much longer
when the next Stephen Kingadapts, because he's definitely
getting more and more popular aswe go on.
But yes, kathy Bates was prettymuch blown into the stratosphere
(43:24):
when this movie was releasedand she was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress.
And do we want to know thelineup of the people that she
beat when she was awarded, whothe Oscar went to, who the Oscar
didn't go to that year.
Did you want to take the honors?
We have Joanne Woodward in Mrand Mrs Bridge, which is a
really wonderful film.
It's a small film with herhusband, paul Newman, and it was
her last Oscar nomination.
(43:45):
Julia Roberts in Pretty WomanNow there's a flashback for you.
Can you imagine when I meanPretty Woman?
So this is 1990.
Yes, julia Roberts breakoutrole.
You know, at the time we kindof look at that and like really
she got nominated for an Oscarfor this.
But you have to understand itwas kind of like Audrey Hepburn
in Roman Holiday.
I mean, this was like JuliaRoberts was exploded.
(44:06):
So you can kind of see why andshe's actually a very charming
and pretty woman.
Angelica Houston in theGrifters have you ever seen the
Grifters, brad?
Brad Shreve (44:16):
No, I'm familiar with the novel, but I did never
see the movie.
Tony Maietta (44:19):
I love this movie.
I would love to talk about theGrifters sometime.
It's her and Annette Bening, ohmy God.
And James Cusack what awonderful fun.
It's a great movie and she'sbrilliant in the Grifters and,
(44:41):
last but never ever least,especially at a going Hollywood
podcast.
Yes, the goddess herself, merylStreep in Postcards from the
Edge.
This is the year Meryl wasnominated for Postcards and
Kathy Bates beat her, so I don'tthink Meryl should have won for
Postcards, as much as I lovePostcards it's number five on my
list.
I do believe that Kathy Bateswas the correct choice, I agree.
(45:02):
I think that this for thesimple reason that it set her on
a career path and it showed shehad a great film career ahead
of her.
You know this wasn't a one anddone, like it is sometimes with
these when people come out ofnowhere and get an Oscar and
then they're gone.
Brad Shreve (45:16):
Cuba.
Tony Maietta (45:16):
Gooding Jr.
Well, he continued to makefilms that just weren't any good
yeah that's the problem.
Brad Shreve (45:21):
yes, she didn't disappear.
Tony Maietta (45:22):
She continued to make films and what's also
interesting is this is the onlyfilm based on a Stephen King
novel to win an Oscar thus far.
So I mean, there were a lot ofnominations.
Obviously, there werenominations for Carrie and Stand
by Me and Shawshank Redemption,but this is the only win.
So that's really kind of cool.
I like that about Misery.
Brad Shreve (45:41):
And she was also the first woman to win an Oscar
for a horror thriller film.
Tony Maietta (45:46):
So there you go See.
So there's a lot of firsts withthis.
Brad Shreve (45:49):
And I also want to talk about other movies that
year.
Please do.
Even though it was a box officesuccess, it made three times
what it cost to make.
It was only number 19 that year, but if you look at the other
movies that came out that year,it makes sense.
Number one that year was makessense.
Number one that year was homealone.
It grossed 476 million dollarsthat that pales in comparison
(46:10):
when you think, oh misery, made61 million to do it really well
again, home alone 476 millionand do you know, I only watched
that movie last year for thefirst time.
Oh my god, I never had a desire.
I didn't.
You know, it wasn't like Iwould.
I just never had desire and Ifinally watched.
I'm like my God, this thing isfunny.
Tony Maietta (46:27):
For Catherine O'Hara alone.
Brad Shreve (46:30):
I'm thrilled Home Alone came out.
Other movies that year wasGhost Dances with Wolves, as you
said, Pretty Woman, Huge eater.
Teenage Mutant, ninja, turtles,hunt for Red October.
The list goes on and on.
Tony Maietta (46:46):
So now we know why it was super 19 out of the list
, despite it being a greatsuccess.
The fact that home alone danceswith wolves, ghost were all in
the same freaking year, that'samazing.
Brad Shreve (46:53):
It's amazing, yeah yeah, didn't know that was a big
year for movies, but obviouslywas huge year, huge year well, I
think that that's, um, I mean,that's all I have to say about
misery.
Tony Maietta (47:03):
Is there anything else that you need to say about
misery?
And uh, or you'd like to sayabout Misery, brad?
Brad Shreve (47:07):
Well, first of all I want to talk about how it did
on Rotten Tomatoes.
Oh, please, yes, it did kind ofwell.
The critic score, thetabulation of the critic score,
is 91% and this is one of thecases where the audience agreed.
The audience score is 90%.
So they're not always neck andneck like that.
Sometimes those critics in theaudience disagree and the only
(47:28):
other thing I want to say isthat, again, I love this movie
so much because let me give youmovies Carrie, christine, some
people are going to hate it.
I'm going to say the Shining,children of the Corn,
firestarter, the Langoliersthose are all Stephen King
novels that I think wereabsolutely dreadful films.
Now, the TV movie the Shiningwas a lot better.
(47:49):
I agree with Stephen King.
I think the Jack Nicholson onepeople love and adore that film.
I think it's terrible andmisery is in there.
So most of his movies don'tturn out well, but he does.
If he gets the right director,such as Stand by Me with Rob
(48:09):
Reiner, they can do it justice.
Tony Maietta (48:12):
Such as Misery with Rob Reiner.
Brad Shreve (48:13):
Yeah, misery with Rob Reiner and a lot of his
movies I think fail because theyare hard to translate into
movies.
And let me give you an examplethe Shining.
I kept hearing how good thebook was, so I finally read it
after seeing the movie and notbeing thrilled with it.
And the book is terrifying.
But one of the movies they cutout the book was I think they
put it in the TV series.
But it was a good decision inthe 70s was there is a scene
(48:35):
where they're walking throughyou remember the hedges that
they walk through in the Shining?
Of course they had the topiaryanimals.
In the book the animals come tolife and they are terrifying.
Well, they chose not to do thatin the movie because they didn't
think they would do it well andI think with the poor CGI at
that time it probably would havebeen laughable.
And I think the right decisionswere made with some of the
(48:59):
changes they made with Miserythat they wouldn't have
transferred well from, forexample, the cutting off the
foot.
I think it would have detractedfrom the film.
Oh yeah, I agree To kind of goon a tangent here.
Did you know that during theGladiator times, gladiators did
product endorsements?
Tony Maietta (49:15):
No, I didn't know that they were huge celebrities.
Brad Shreve (49:18):
They did product endorsements and they were going
to put that in the movieGladiator and they said we
better not.
People won't believe it andthey didn't, and I think that
was a good decision, thoughhistorically it would have been
accurate.
Tony Maietta (49:30):
Well, that's wow, there you go.
That's pretty interesting.
Brad Shreve (49:34):
So anyway, I don't know why I went off of those, I
just found it all interesting.
Tony Maietta (49:37):
What products would they be endorsing in Roman
times?
Brad Shreve (49:40):
Oh, sandals, bombatoriums.
Yes, exactly sandals.
Yes, exactly so.
Anyway, that's all I have tosay.
Obviously, I really love thisfilm.
I think it's the best adaptionStephen King.
I'm glad we did it.
Thank you for allowing me to doone for a change.
Now we're going back to the wayit's supposed to be we have
(50:02):
more coming up folks, but Ican't tell you how soon they'll
be.
Tony Maietta (50:05):
I really, really loved watching it.
Again, thank you for suggestingit.
I think it's.
It was a.
It's a fun movie.
It really is, and again it's.
It's nice to see kathy bates.
Uh, finally, finally, uh,breakthrough.
So well, brad heavens to betsy.
I guess there's only one thingleft to say, but I don't want to
cock-a-doodie say it.
(50:25):
So let's not say goodbye, let'ssay au revoir.
Brad Shreve (50:30):
No, Mr man, let's say goodbye.
Tony Maietta (50:38):
I want to go see that eclipse now.
Brad Shreve (50:42):
Goodbye everybody.
That's all folks.
And you better hope nothing happens to me, because
if I die, you die.
I'd like for you to be in oneverything, annie, not just the
finished book, but how it'swritten.
And I'm absolutely certain, themain reason I've never been more
popular is because of my temper.
I figured that if I can't findPaul Sheldon, at least I can
(00:22):
find out what he wrote about.
What do you expect to find Astory about a guy who drove his
car off a cliff in a snowstorm?
You see, it's just that kind ofsarcasm that's given our
marriage real spice.
I thought you were good, Paul.
But you're not good.
You're just another lying olddirty birdie, and I don't think
(00:44):
I'd better be around you for awhile.
Must get lonely, living out hereall by yourself.
Well, I always say if you can'tenjoy your own company, you're
not fit company for anyone else.
He didn't get out of thecock-a-doodie car.
Tony Maietta (01:02):
Hello,
Brad Shreve (01:20):
And I'm Brad Shreve , who's just a guy who likes
movies.
Tony Maietta (01:23):
We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's
golden age.
We go behind the scenes andshare our opinions too.
Brad Shreve (01:30):
And, of course, being the average guy, my
opinions are the ones thatmatter.
Tony Maietta (01:35):
As does your self-delusion.
Welcome to Going Hollywood.
Brad Shreve (01:40):
Okay, hit record.
Tony Ready to go.
Tony Maietta (01:43):
Oh wait, wait a second, wait a second, let me
get something.
Okay, okay now.
Record, tony, you ready to go?
Oh wait, wait a second, wait asecond, let me get something.
Okay, okay, now I'm ready.
What?
Brad Shreve (01:49):
are those?
What are you putting those onfor?
Tony Maietta (01:51):
What do you mean?
They're my eclipse glasses.
You have to wear glasses whenyou watch an eclipse.
Brad Shreve (01:58):
When is there an eclipse, eclipse at five, Brad.
Tony Maietta (02:03):
What are you talking about?
Eclipse at five, Brad?
What are you talking about?
Eclipse at five?
Brad Shreve (02:07):
What are you talking about?
Tony Maietta (02:11):
Don't do this to me, Brad.
You know an accident can be apodcast.
Co-host's best friend, that'sall I'm saying.
You told me to watch the KathyBates Stephen King movie.
Brad Shreve (02:22):
Yes, Misery Ugh.
Tony Maietta (02:25):
Stephen King movie .
Yes, misery, oh, do you mean totell me I watched the?
Brad Shreve (02:34):
wrong cock-a-doodie movie, Mr man.
Tony Maietta (02:41):
Heavens to Betsy.
Yes, it's Misery.
It's Misery.
It's not Dolores Claiborne,it's Misery.
Brad Shreve (02:43):
But I personally like Dolores Claiborne, so I had
to get those quotes in.
Tony Maietta (02:45):
But yes, today we are talking about misery from
Columbia in 1990.
And, dear listeners, believe itor not, this is Brad's choice.
I actually let Brad choose amovie.
Brad, why did you?
Brad Shreve (03:02):
choose misery.
Well, this is not one that Tonyturned me down immediately, he
just kept putting it off.
But here we're finally doingMisery, and there are numerous
reasons why I wanted to watchMisery.
I just watched it recently, asa matter of fact, I don't know
why it just came into my viewand I watched it.
I'm like, oh, we have got to dothis.
Tony Maietta (03:39):
So there are many reasons, but the most obvious
reason is the relatively unknownwoman of our air quotes
criteria for the content of thisfilm.
You know it's 1990.
We always say we're going tocut off.
With a few exceptions we'regoing to cut off in 1990.
But I'm glad you did this.
I you know.
Watching Misery again after notseeing it for so many years, I
was reminded what an amazingperformance she gives and also
(04:03):
reminded, as you just said,we're so used to Kathy Bates.
Now Kathy Bates is just in likethe fabric of our lives, our
cultural lives.
I mean, she's on television,she's got this new Matlock show,
she's in everything Ryan Murphydoes.
You know she pops up in films.
Still, there was a time whennobody knew who the hell Kathy
Bates was, unless they visitedoff off off Broadway shows or a
(04:26):
New York-based television series.
So it's really amazing thatthis one film brought her to the
forefront.
And not only that, but, as yousaid, she won the Oscar against
some pretty stiff competitionthat year.
Brad Shreve (04:39):
So yeah, you mentioned that Kathy Bates is so
much of a part of her life.
I don't know if you've watchedMatlock my family watches it.
No, and it's an entertainingshow and it's all because of
Kathy Bates.
It's really not that wellwritten.
The other cast members there'sat least two of them that are
terrible actors in my opinion,but it's good only because of
Kathy Bates.
Well, and it's an enjoyablewatch for that reason.
Tony Maietta (05:01):
She's often the only reason to watch something,
or one of the very, very goodreasons to watch something, in
my opinion.
You know I have troublewatching Matlock because the
original one was one that myfather watched all the time, so
I'm saturated with Matlock, nomatter who Matlock is.
But I hear it's pretty good andI'll watch it.
But the amazing thing aboutMisery and the fact that she was
(05:24):
just thrown on the moving,going public with this.
It's a very, very, very braveperformance and she could really
I mean, this could have goneeither way.
This could have been her careerbeginner and her career ender.
Oh, yeah.
Because the role of Annie Wilkesis very, very tricky.
(05:44):
She walks the line of hatingher or having sympathy for her,
and there's some things that RobReiner and William Goldman did
to be sure that we did not hateher, which we'll talk about.
But first I think we shouldtalk a little bit about.
I want to talk about this.
Who's in it?
We should probably tell peoplewho's in it besides Kathy Bates.
I mean, we've got James Caan,who also did a brilliant job he
(06:08):
did.
This was kind of a comeback forJames Caan.
He'd been off the screen formost of the 80s due to personal
problems and he came back.
We have the delightful FrancesSternhagen as Deputy Virginia,
who we know Frances Sternhagenmostly from Cheers, from playing
Cliff's mother on Cheers, butwe know Frances Sternhagen
mostly from Cheers, from playingCliff's mother on Cheers.
But what a wonderful actress.
Theater actress, film actress.
Richard Farnsworth as SheriffBuster who meets his untimely
(06:33):
end.
Oops, spoiler alert.
Brad Shreve (06:35):
Oh, actually, whoa, whoa, whoa.
We need to do a spoiler alertbecause I did get a complaint
about this once.
We are talking about the movie,but we will discuss the book,
and there are changes, becausewe talked about a movie once,
but we will discuss the book,and there are changes, because
we talked about a movie once butwe also discussed the book, and
I'm like somebody said why didyou give me spoilers on the book
?
so obviously they know we'regoing to get spoilers on the
movie.
But just a heads up, we'redoing spoilers on the book
because it will come up now.
(06:56):
Go on one kind of follows theother.
Tony Maietta (06:58):
But okay, richard Farnsworth as Sheriff Buster and
special appearance by MissLauren Bacall as Marcia Sindel.
And every time I see thatcredit I laugh.
I'm like I've never understoodhow anyone gets a special
(07:18):
appearance in a film.
Everybody's cast in a film.
I know it's contractual, I knowit's, you know it's in her
contract.
Somewhere she says I need tohave special appearance by
Lauren Bacall.
Every appearance by LaurenBacall is special as far as I'm
concerned, but I just, I justlove that little tagline and
special appearance by LaurenBacall.
So these are the main people inmisery in the film misery.
(07:41):
But I think we need to talk,brad, about the man who wrote
this, the novel that this movieis based on a bit, don't you
think?
Brad Shreve (07:50):
The guy that's kind of famous for writing novels.
Tony Maietta (07:52):
Yeah, just a little bit.
A little bit, what's his nameagain?
Brad Shreve (07:54):
Well, his name is Stephen King, though originally
he was going to write this novelunder Richard Bachman, his
pseudonym for when he writesnon-horror films or frequently
uses when writing non-horrorfilms and the reason he didn't
do it with this one is the wordgot out that he was Richard
Bachman.
Tony Maietta (08:13):
I wonder why Paul Sheldon didn't do that when he
was writing his Misery series.
Why didn't he?
He didn't use a nom de plume,you know, he's just Paul Sheldon
, which is kind of interesting.
Brad Shreve (08:22):
Well, he says in the movie that he didn't expect
Misery to become his life.
For all we know, it could havebeen a one-off.
Right, right and it was just sopopular, it took over.
So I think that would be a goodguess as to why I don't know
what he normally wrote.
That's never really told.
Tony Maietta (08:37):
So the film Misery is based on, as Brad just said,
Stephen King's 1987 novel ofthe same name, and I'm going to
give a little background abouthow it came about.
Do you mind that?
I know this is your baby and Idon't want to step on anything
that you want to talk about, butI'll just give a little
background on how it came about.
Okay, so Stephen King said inhis memoir that in the early
(08:59):
1980s he and his wife went toLondon on a trip a combined
pleasure, business trip and hefell asleep on the plane and had
a dream about a popular writerand he said it may or may not
have been me, but it sure to Godwasn't James Caan.
That was very interesting andStephen King, you know, can be
(09:20):
curmudgeonly about some of hisfilm adaptions we've talked
about.
He's not crazy about theShining, for sure, but this is
one of his favorite adaptions ofhis books, right, brad?
Am I correct in that?
Brad Shreve (09:33):
That is correct and it's really miraculous because
Annie Wilkes is his favoritecharacter that he's written, so
Kathy Bates was really upagainst him, yeah that's amazing
.
Tony Maietta (09:43):
That's amazing.
And the book was number.
It rose number four on the NewYork Times bestseller list and
producer Andrew Scheinman wasalso on a plane ironically,
everything happens in a plane inHollywood Reading Misery and he
later recommended it to hisfriend Rob Reiner at Castle Rock
Entertainment.
Now Rob Reiner had already donea Stephen King adaption.
(10:06):
He had done Stand by Me in 1986.
So people are like Rob Reinerseems like an odd choice to do
this because we think of RobReiner, we think of when Harry
Met Sally, the Princess, bride,meathead, but All in the Family.
But he's a really interestingchoice and this was the sixth
film he made.
So he made when Harry Met Sallyright before this and it was
(10:28):
such a huge hit.
I think he probably could justdo whatever he wanted to and he
wanted to do this book.
He wanted to make a film ofthis book.
Brad Shreve (10:36):
It was a good choice and we I don't know if
you want to get into it now, butthere were choices made for
this film that I think were sogood and I think improved the
story that I do want to get intothat well, yes, and I think we
should.
Tony Maietta (10:51):
We should get that .
But I mean, here's anotherspoiler alert.
You know how I feel abouthorror films and that leaks into
books, so I don't think it'sgoing to surprise anybody out
there that I've never read thebook Misery, nor do I ever
intend to.
The scariest book I've everread is Mommy Dearest, and I'm
going to keep it at that.
(11:12):
I also read Valley of the Dolls.
Brad Shreve (11:14):
Pretty scary too.
I stopped saying that I don'tcare for certain genres because
as a role I don't watch horrorfilms.
I've watched them in the pastbecause with friends and that
sort of thing films I've watchedthem in the past because with
friends and that sort of thingas a role, I don't like horror
films, but I don't say I don'tlike genres, because if I had to
tell you I really dislike acertain genre, it would be
Westerns.
But I love High Noon and I loveSilverado.
(11:35):
So I've really realized thatit's not a genre, it's a
well-made movie and that isanother reason why I really love
Misery is because so many ofStephen King's novels turn into
real garbage on the film Forexample you mentioned, he didn't
like the Shining.
A friend of mine went to afundraising dinner and was sat
(11:55):
next to Stephen King and shesaid I heard good things about
Firewalker and he said pleasedon't go see it.
Tony Maietta (12:03):
Yeah, get an opinion, steve, Get an opinion.
Well, I think one of thereasons why he liked this
adaption so much was because ofthe man who wrote the screenplay
, none other than WilliamGoldman.
And for people who don't know,william Goldman's kind of a
mythic, another one of thesemythic Hollywood writers.
He's a novelist, a playwright,a screenwriter, and Rob Reiner
(12:24):
asked him to write thescreenplay to this.
He had worked with him on theprincess bride in 87, which is
is based on goldman's book.
So I mean, you know, goldmanalso wrote butch cassidy and the
sundance kid all thepresident's men.
He won oscars for both of those, and he also wrote with reiner,
as I said, princess Bride.
So I mean, this guy is truly,truly top of the line up there
(12:49):
when we're talking aboutscreenwriters.
So I think that's a big reasonwhy this film works is because
you have a really brilliantwriter crafting the screenplay.
Brad Shreve (12:58):
Yeah, I mean obviously his listing of movies
is not shabby in any way.
Tony Maietta (13:03):
No, he was a mythic, mythic writer, you know,
and he did make some changes tothe screenplay which I think
helped, which we can talk about,but when they decided to get
this going, I'm curious do youknow?
There's a list as long as twoof my arms of the actors who
turned down this role of Paul.
(13:23):
Do you know some of them?
Brad Shreve (13:25):
I do.
I know there was Dustin Hoffman.
Jack Nicholson said no, oh myGod, the list is long.
I'm sure you know off the topof your head more than I.
Do you want?
Tony Maietta (13:33):
me to read it.
Yeah, go ahead.
Who was big in 1990, basically,is who we got here.
We got Kevin Kline, we gotMichael Douglas, we got Harrison
Ford, dustin Hoffman, as yousaid, de Niro Pacino, richard
Dreyfuss, gene Hackman, robertRedford and William Hurt turned
it down twice.
They weren't satisfied with oneno from William Hurt.
(13:58):
They had to go back to himagain and I think that's because
Paul.
Paul is such a reactionarycharacter.
Paul is in bed for most of thisfilm.
So a lot of actors want alittle more action and it's a
very challenging thing for anactor to play a totally
reactionary character and I'mnot talking politically
(14:20):
reactionary, I mean the guydoesn't move, he's in bed, he's
got two broken legs and adislocated shoulder.
So Warren Beatty was actuallygoing to do it and they signed
Warren Beatty, but then he hadto drop out when post-production
on Dick Tracy went too long,because this is the same time as
Dick Tracy.
So someone eventually, I thinkthey went through the Screen
Actors Guild listing and theywent oh, they got this, you.
(14:40):
They're like James Caan.
Whatever happened to James Caan?
Where's James Caan?
So James Caan was in a bit of afallow period in his career.
As I said he'd taken a breakfrom acting in the early 80s to
some personal problems.
He called it Hollywood burnoutand accepted it, and it really
did cause a career resurgencefor Caan.
I mean, he worked prettysteadily after Misery up until
(15:02):
his death in 2022.
Brad Shreve (15:05):
And there was a very big change for James Khan
to play a role where he spent 15weeks in bed.
Tony Maietta (15:11):
Oh yeah, I mean, my God, think about some of the
things that the films James Khanhas done.
I mean, I think everybodythinks of Sonny Corleone.
I mean, talk about a kineticactive guy.
You know what I mean.
One of my favorite James Caanearly films Okay, this is kind
of funny.
So, one of his very firstappearances he plays a hoodlum
(15:37):
punk in Olivia de Havilland'sgrand guignol hagsploitation
film, lady in a Cage.
That is the one with the famousline help, help, I am trapped
in a small private elevator.
So yeah, she's trapped in thisprivate elevator.
But yeah, it was really achallenge for Khan and he said
that was one of the reasons whyhe actually wanted to do it,
(15:59):
because it was definitely achange of pace for him from his
usual hothead kinetic type guys.
Brad Shreve (16:06):
And to me it takes a lot of skill because he did a
great job.
You can really feel for Paul,my God, you can feel for Paul he
does.
And part of that was the camerashooting, because they did
great jobs with those close-upslooking up at Kathy Bates.
But just his facial.
He did a lot of acting with hisface and just great.
Tony Maietta (16:26):
Well, he brings that tough guy even though he's
in bed, and we talk about thisall the time.
Actors bring their own personalqualities to any role they play
.
So he brings that.
You know, if he could move he'dhave no problem.
That woman would be down in aminute, because this is Sonny
Corleone you're fucking withhere.
Brad Shreve (16:42):
Annie Wilkes here anyway, I mean come on but he's
not, he's in bed.
Tony Maietta (16:46):
so he he brings that to the role and I'm really
glad that he did this becauseyou know he went on to make um
honeymoon in vegas for the boys.
You know elf I mean, you seeelf every year now so it's he
had quite a career resurgenceand I've always been a fan of
james conn.
Um, he's, he was reallywonderful.
Not only was he a great hero inthis kind of like action hero,
(17:08):
but he was also a very fun-likecomedian and he had a great
voice.
You know he could also sing.
So this guy was really talented.
He did Funny Lady, he did thesequel to Funny Girl and he was
in For the Boys.
He sang with Bette Midler andso a great actor and it's really
nice that this film brought himback into prominence.
Brad Shreve (17:25):
I mean, I would love to curl up on his hairy
chest.
But what was the movie he madewith Sally Field?
It wasn't a great movie, but hewas a really good character in
it.
Tony Maietta (17:36):
Oh, Kiss Me.
Brad Shreve (17:36):
Goodbye.
So yeah, and I was surprisedabout the song and dance part
because he was in that moviewith Sally Fields and so yeah,
and I was surprised about thesong and dance part because he
was in that movie with SallyFields and it's Kiss Me.
Goodbye.
Not a great movie.
I really liked it the firsttime I saw it.
Tony Maietta (17:49):
Oh it's cute, and later I watched it.
Brad Shreve (17:51):
It is a cute film.
It's a little slower than Iremember, but he was so good in
that film he's great.
He really made the film for me.
Tony Maietta (17:58):
You know I have issues with Funny Lady,
(18:19):
no-transcript, and Bette Midlerplays a character based on, kind
of based on Martha Ray At leastMartha Ray thought so, because
she sued Bette Midler.
Go is about saying that he's avery, he has a great variety of
roles.
But speaking of Bette Midler, Iwas wondering if you're going
(18:43):
to do that.
Brad Shreve (18:44):
See how I did that, see how I went in there.
Tony Maietta (18:46):
Yes, what are you going to say?
What am I going to say aboutBette Midler?
Brad Shreve (18:49):
She turned down this role and regretted it.
Tony Maietta (18:53):
Because she had to make scenes from a mall.
I mean, come on Scenes fromwhat?
She had to make scenes, exactly, exactly.
You know poor Bette, yeah, shedoesn't have the best choicing
skills when she picks her films.
But another actress who wasoffered this role and turned it
down, angelica Houston.
Which.
Can you imagine, angelicaHouston towering over you in a
(19:16):
bed?
I mean, good God, that's afrightening thought.
Brad Shreve (19:21):
But I can't picture her doing it physically.
Tony Maietta (19:24):
Well, I don't know .
I think she could overpowerJames Caan, even if he was fully
healthy.
Brad Shreve (19:28):
But she doesn't look physically the role Stephen
King.
Tony Maietta (19:32):
that was fairly important to Stephen King.
I can see that.
I can see that, yeah, I can seethat.
But you know, william Goldman,who had a little hand in some of
this, had a suggestion and hesuggested this actress he knew
from New York and her name wasKathy Bates.
You know, kathy Bates,unfortunately a little bit like
Tallulah Bankhead, people werealways doing her roles on film
(19:52):
and she was in a play calledFrankie and Johnny, in the
Claire de Lune, which was doneby Michelle Pfeiffer, which
Michelle Pfeiffer, kathy Bates,I'm not sure how you make that
connection, you know, but theydid it, and that was a lot of
criticism of that film.
She was in the production ofNight Mother, which Sissy Spacek
did as a film.
So Misery was really a great.
(20:13):
It was just a great opportunityfor Kathy Bates, and boy did
she take that opportunity andrun with it.
Because I think one of thethings I love most about Misery
is it gave us Kathy Bates and itgave us wonderful performances
in Fried Green Tomatoes, oh yeah, in the one she did, primary
Colors I was just trying tothink of the one that she did
(20:37):
with Richard Jewell.
I mean, there's just one, theTitanic.
She played Molly Brown.
For Christ's sake.
Brad Shreve (20:57):
So, yeah, it really really put her on the acting
map so people could know abouther, and of course, you know
that I thought was handledreally well.
So kudos to her again.
She was fabulous in that film.
I laugh every time I watch her.
And the great thing about AnnieWilkes is and this was
important to both King and tothe filmmakers is she's not a
monster.
You actually have somewhatsympathy to her because she
(21:20):
clearly has mental illness.
But I do want to comment onthis because a lot of people
talk about her bipolar disorder.
They never say what she has.
But you know, I have bipolardisorder.
Tony Maietta (21:32):
I'm very open about the fact of that.
Brad Shreve (21:34):
And I do get not to be defensive, but people get it
wrong Every time there's acharacter that is quirky or
changes their temperament.
A lot people immediately saybipolar disorder, and that
concerns me is because, first ofall, I have what's called rapid
cycling, where I go from manicto depression pretty frequently.
Most people with bipolardisorder will go months in
(21:57):
depression and then months manic, so it's not like every five
seconds.
The TV series Black Box, whichwas terrible.
The woman would forget her medsone night.
The next day she was sleepingto every man in town.
I mean, it's been so poorlydisplayed.
You know, I can skip my medsfor a few days and I'm still
normal, well as normal as I canpossibly be, People that are
(22:22):
bipolar are rarely dangerous.
They are impulsive, so they canbe.
But, when it comes to bipolardisorder and I'm getting on a
high horse here for a moment Ijust want people to understand
the disease.
People with bipolar disorderare dangerous to themselves.
Right, I was going to say that,yeah 60% of people with bipolar
disorder have attempted suicideand 20% have succeeded.
(22:43):
That is astronomical comparedto the rest of the country.
So just to give some peoplesome empathy, and every time you
see somebody act a little kooky, please don't just say they're
bipolar.
Tony Maietta (22:53):
Don't immediately say bipolar.
Brad Shreve (22:55):
There I'm done.
You know how not to go on aCarrie Fisher tangent.
Tony Maietta (22:59):
But this is a Going Hollywood podcast.
You know, carrie named her twomoods.
Her mania was rollicking Royand her depressive side was Pam,
which meant piss and moan,which I always thought was.
I mean, she named her twostates.
It's just Carrie Fisher.
What a genius, carrie Fisher.
Brad Shreve (23:19):
When you're diagnosed with it and you live
with it, you just for lack of abetter term you embrace it.
I mean, it's just Well, it'spart of you, it's just part of
who I am and, like I say manytimes, the day I was diagnosed
was the best day of my lifebecause, oh my God, it had a
name.
So anyway, moving on, that wasmy little PSA.
Tony Maietta (23:35):
No, but it was really important to Reiner to
make sure that the character ofAnnie Wilkes did have sympathy.
In fact, and this is what I wassaying, in his screenplay
Goldman kept the scene in whichAnnie severs one of Paul's feet
with an ax.
Now people who are listeninggoes, wait a minute, that
doesn't happen in the movie.
Well, no, it doesn't happen inthe movie.
(23:57):
She instead breaks his ankles,which I'm sorry, I still cannot
watch that scene.
I don't care if she cuts them,I just can't.
Every time I can't watch it.
Hobbling, no, thank you.
But anyway, goldman reallyfought to keep the axe in to
have him sever his foot, butReiner said no, that he felt
that the visual depiction wouldjust make the audience hate
(24:19):
Annie too much.
So, you know, instead ofsympathizing with her madness.
So I guess okay, you know, Iguess with hobbling we're only
slightly irritated as opposed tototally hating her for cutting
off his feet.
But it's still a very difficultscene to watch.
Brad Shreve (24:35):
It is a very difficult scene but I think it
was a great decision by RobReiner because people watch that
hobbling scene and every timeI'm with people that watch it,
everybody just cringes.
Oh yeah, just see their wholebody tense, because we can
relate to it.
If it was cut off first of all,people are more removed from it
Because it's hard to imagineyour foot being cut off.
They would be grossed out,right.
What it would have done is madethis movie a little more in the
(24:57):
horror genre.
Tony Maietta (25:03):
And by not doing that, it stayed in psychological
thriller.
Oh, that's a good point.
I like that.
I like that.
So do you think it's time thatwe should tell people a little
bit about the plot of this filmthat we've been talking about
for about, uh, 25 minutes now?
yeah, because if they don't knowabout it, they're probably a
little lost right now well, Iwill give you a quick breakdown
of the plot of this um and thisis just touching the the
highlights.
So james kahn plays pauleldon.
He's a famous author who writesVictorian romance novels.
(25:26):
I think they're also calledbodice rippers.
Back in my generation therewere bodice rippers that was my
generation, catherine Coulter,you know.
So those kinds of things andthe books featured a character
named Misery Chastain Not to beconfused with Jessica Chastain,
(25:48):
but anyway.
So he's really tired of writingthese series of books and he
longs to write seriousliterature.
So what he's done is he'sbasically ended the Misery
series, but this book has notcome out yet.
While he's waiting for it tocome out, he sequesters himself
(26:09):
in a remote hotel in Coloradoand he writes a manuscript.
He just finishes a manuscriptwhich he hopes will be the next
step in his career.
Once Misery is done.
This book is released.
Where Misery is dead, he's nowgoing to have a new career, but
as he's leaving the hotel, hegets caught in a bad blizzard
and crashes his car.
So luckily or not, depending onhow you feel about this he gets
(26:32):
saved by a young woman who isnot only a nurse, but she's
Paul's what, brad.
What is Annie Wilkes, biggestfan, number one fan Annie Wilkes
, number one fan, number one fan.
Brad Shreve (26:43):
Annie Wilkes, number one fan.
Tony Maietta (26:45):
So she carries him to her home, which is very
remote, she takes care of himbecause he has two broken legs
and dislocated shoulder, whichshe pops back in, and she tells
him that kind of, because of thestorm they're a bit landlocked,
the roads are closed, the phonelines are down, so she's taking
care of him and all seems fine,until Paul's last misery book
(27:08):
is released, in which miserydies and that's when her true
psychotic nature begins toreveal itself.
So she basically holds Paulhostage and demands that he
(27:31):
write a new Misery novel whileshe takes care of him.
And I always think that's kindof like the writer's nightmare,
isn't it?
It's actually whatscreenwriters used to go through
in Hollywood.
They're like sit right, youknow, and I was like wow, but he
does it.
He does it, he creates a brandnew misery novel.
Brad Shreve (27:51):
There's some great lines in this film that she
delivers incredibly, and I wantto quote some of it.
When she gets done reading thebook and she comes into his room
and that look in her face Aftershe's been sweet as sugar, even
though there were definitelysigns of there's something with
this woman yeah, she comes in,she goes.
You, you dirty bird.
How could you?
Tony Maietta (28:12):
Dirty birdie she can't be dead.
Brad Shreve (28:13):
Yeah, dirty birdie, she can't be dead.
Misery Chastain cannot be dead.
I don't want her spirit, I wanther.
And you murdered her.
You did it, you did it, you didit.
You murdered my misery.
I thought you were good, butyou're no good, you're just
(28:33):
another lying old dirty bird.
Heavens to Betsy.
Tony Maietta (28:38):
My favorite was always Mr man.
Listen to me.
Mr man, I used to say that allthe time.
Mr man, yeah, she's got quite acolorful vocabulary, but she
doesn't swear.
Brad Shreve (28:48):
So that's why we get the cockadoody she swears
once she does swear, once sheblames it for it.
Yes, she does.
Tony Maietta (28:53):
Yes, she does.
You're absolutely right aboutthat.
Brad Shreve (29:06):
I also love the fact that she's got the Liberace
album.
She's got the Liberace picturesall over the place.
Oh my God, that's very funny.
And the fact that she saidshe's going to be playing
Liberace, I guess, nonstop whilehe works, I thought, if
anything would have been moremiserable than anything she's
done to this man.
It's playing Liberace all thetime no-transcript and that's
(29:42):
going to leave me to talk aboutanother difference between the
book and the novel.
And it's not because I think thenovel is wrong, but I think it
was a good decision for themovie.
Part of the decision was madebecause obviously you have to
cut things out when you make amovie.
You only have two hoursActually that's an hour and 47
minutes to capture a very thickbook, and that difference was in
(30:02):
the book.
There were a lot of state copsand what they did was made
amalgamum and came up with thecharacter Buster.
Ah and in the book the statepolice.
She was the obvious number onesuspect through the whole novel
and they visited her severaltimes and I like both of those
changes because it made the bookmore claustrophobic.
(30:25):
I mean, I'm sorry, it made themovie more claustrophobic.
Tony Maietta (30:28):
The movie yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brad Shreve (30:29):
Because it was just him and her, except for when
Buster showed up.
That's very true.
Tony Maietta (30:33):
In the house.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely,absolutely so.
Brad Shreve (30:36):
I like that, I did like that, they did that.
But she tells him that shecalled everybody, she called his
uh daughter publisher played bylauren lauren mccall, she
called his daughter because Iget.
She must have said she went totown no, she went into town.
Tony Maietta (30:51):
To call laura, yeah.
To call betty, yeah.
Brad Shreve (30:53):
Yeah, to make the call yeah, but she tells them
that you know nothing's clearbecause of the roads, and that's
where they went.
Then that's actually a lie anduh, which I will say was one of
the dumbest moves he made.
Paul would have known not todrive down the mountains in a
blizzard, but then we wouldn'thave the movie In a Ford Mustang
.
Tony Maietta (31:08):
In a Ford Mustang?
Yes, exactly, you think you'dhave four-wheel drive.
Not too smart there, ryder, youthink you'd have four-wheel
drive.
You're up in the mountains inColorado.
Brad Shreve (31:20):
It makes me think of the movie the Martian, which
Neil deGrasse Tyson said it's abrilliant movie.
He loves the movie.
The only thing wrong with themovie is there are no storms on
Mars.
It just does not happen.
There's no storm, he said.
But I accept it because that'sthe whole premise of the film.
So I accept this, with PaulSheldon driving down the
mountain during a blizzard.
(31:40):
So anyway, what he does is he'sworking.
The novel that he finished ishis first non-misery novel, or
his first non-misery novel sincestarting that series.
I think he wrote five or sevenof the misery novels While he's
up.
She asked if she can read hisnovel.
Now in the book she had to fightwith him, but in the movie he's
(32:02):
grateful for her for takingcare of him.
So he says, of course you canread the novel.
And she's reading it and she'sloving it.
And then when she finds outthat he killed off, misery is
when she comes in the room andmakes that little speech and
that's only part of the longspeech that she makes and she
(32:23):
lets him know.
Right then I have not calledanybody, nobody knows you're
here, everybody thinks you'redead and if you want to get out,
you're going to write the nextmisery novel and bring her back.
Tony Maietta (32:36):
And how about.
But what she also does is shemakes him burn the novel, the
book that he's been working onthis whole time, his new life,
the book he was writing afterMisery and you know, as you can,
I love that about James Caan isyou feel that this is the only
copy he has.
And as a creative person, I'msure you know, I know I feel
(32:57):
that way.
You know, think how you feelwhen you accidentally delete a
file on your computer.
You're like, oh shit, I hope Isaved it, I hope I saved it, I
hope I saved it.
Or computer crashes orsomething that is.
The ultimate pain to a creativeperson is to destroy what you
just spent all your time andenergy working on.
Brad Shreve (33:17):
Oh it's painful I agree, I that is actually one of
the most horrific scenes in themovie to me.
I feel that that pain, it's ahorrific yeah, it really is.
That is, yeah, that is horrible, just horrible to watch him do
that James Caan's performance isso layered.
Tony Maietta (33:32):
I mean you get the sense of this tough guy who is.
I mean he should be able tothrottle this woman instantly
but he can't.
And you get that frustrationand you get that rage and you
get him underplaying and pushingit down so she doesn't suspect
it and it's a really.
I think it's probably one ofhis greatest performances.
I really do.
I mean, kathy Bates gets allthe glory as well she should,
(33:55):
but James Kahn truly gives agreat performance.
Brad Shreve (33:58):
And, unfortunately, because Kathy did such a
brilliant job, it does getoverlooked.
I think a lot of people misshow well he did.
A lot of people miss how wellthe, the filmography was in this
, that the whole story ingeneral, because it wasn't just
kathy bates, it was this film ingeneral, that and, like I
mentioned, the, the, the filmingthat was done.
They had so many scenes oflooking up at her face where
(34:23):
you're looking at it from hisviewpoint, mm-hmm, and the look
in her eyes as you see her goingfrom one personality to the
next and getting scary, creepyas she uses cock-a-doodie and Mr
man and things like that.
Right, it's just so well donein so many levels, yeah.
Tony Maietta (34:43):
I agree, and I think a lot of it has to do with
Rob Reiner.
I mean, rob Reiner was really agreat choice to direct this.
Because, rob Reiner, what doesRob Reiner know?
He's the son of Carl Reiner andEstelle Reiner.
Okay, he knows comedy,no-transcript horror film.
(35:17):
It makes it all the morehorrific because you're laughing
one moment and then you'restunned the next moment and then
you're scared the next momentand then you're laughing the
next moment and then you'rescared the next moment and then
you're laughing the next moment.
And Reiner does thatbeautifully.
Reiner handles this all with a.
Even when she's hobbling hislegs, it's handled with a very
light touch.
One might almost say it has aslightly humorous edge.
Brad Shreve (35:36):
Some of her most scary scenes are then turned
around with a very lighthearted,funny reaction that she has
your emotions are all over theroller coaster, like hers are.
Tony Maietta (35:46):
Heaven to Betsy, oh, oh when she burns the
manuscript.
Oh heaven to Betsy, oh dear, oh, oh.
And she's just like.
This woman is insane.
Brad Shreve (35:56):
This is after she has poured lighter fluid all
over him, it's just yeah.
Tony Maietta (36:00):
after she, it's just great.
So Paul eventually starts toget better and he makes.
He's able to get out, climb outof bed in a very, very long
scene.
Maybe it took 20 minutes forher to go into town and then
come back, but at that time hewas able to drag himself and
jerry-rig a bobby pin to be ableto unlock the door and get out
(36:20):
into her house and realize whata nut job she is.
Into her house and realize whata nut job she is.
And then she comes home and hehas to really quick drag himself
back in his wheelchair this guyhas two inoperable legs Pull
himself up and that damn bobbypin, get the door locked again
and get in bed just in time forher to come in and open the door
.
She eventually, of course,finds out and that's when things
(36:44):
start to really go crazy.
Brad Shreve (36:47):
They made it very obvious because when he's out
and about while she's gone, heknocks over this figurine a
penguin and when he puts it back, he puts it back too.
Obviously wrong.
It's turned completely around.
So, everybody immediately knowshe's going to get caught.
But I think people forget thatBecause it is quite a bit later
when she realizes it and shecomes in and says I know you've
been getting out Right, and thatis when she hobbles its legs
(37:10):
and when Buster.
First let me go talk aboutBuster and Virginia.
Oh, please, yes, yes yes, my God, what a wonderful couple.
Everybody loves this couple.
You know I've seen this moviemany times, but it's been ages
and ages and that's why it wasrefreshing when I saw it again.
You can't help but love thiscouple.
I want to see a movie aboutthese two.
(37:30):
Buster is the sheriff andAnnie— Unfortunately you can't
see one anymore.
I know Buster is the sheriffand Virginia is his wife, who
they also call his secretary.
They are such a wonderful— ordeputy?
yes, I'm sorry they are such awonderful or deputy.
Yes, I'm sorry.
They're such a wonderful coupletogether.
They are funny.
(37:50):
Their chemistry is great.
The biggest mistake I thinkthey made is killing buster off,
and here's the reason why.
There's a thing in movies thatthey kind of they always feel
like they have to kill aprominent character so the
audience will feel less safe forthe main character.
In the movie Top Gun, I went infive minutes into that movie I
(38:11):
looked at a friend next to meand I said Goose is there to die
.
That's exactly what I said.
And sure enough I was right andI think that's overdone and I
think it was absolutelyunnecessary in this case.
And the reason why is I don'tthink it added anything to the
film except it made peoplereally angry Because they made
him so likable if it was done ina different situation, but at
(38:34):
that time when they did it there, I don't think it was necessary
.
We already felt Paul Sheldon'spain.
Tony Maietta (38:40):
Yeah, I mean, I agree with you the fact that I
hated to see Buster die, but youhave to realize that then.
But what happens is, becauseshe shoots Buster, because
Buster comes, sheriff Busterfinally comes to the house.
He's finally figured out.
Maybe I should check, I shouldtalk to Annie Wilkes, because we
didn't say this.
But when Paul was roamingaround the house he found a
scrapbook of all of Annie's pastexploits and she was accused of
(39:03):
killing babies in a hospital.
So we know this woman isdangerous.
So he shows up and, yes, shecomes home and she shoots him in
the back and he falls down thestairs.
So, yes, it's sad that he getsshot, but that has to happen
because it brings about theconclusion of the film.
If you didn't have her shootingSheriff Buster, then there'd be
no reason for her to suddenlyget scared and say the time has
(39:27):
come for me to kill you and killmyself, and that's the
conclusion of the film.
So it brings about the climax,basically.
So I get what you're saying,but then what would bring about
the climax, what would be thecrisis that would bring about
the conclusion of the film if itwasn't Sheriff Buster being
blown away by Annie?
Brad Shreve (39:46):
I think just his being obvious that he knew
something was going on couldhave been enough.
I will say, one very happychange that I'm glad they did
was, though in the novel it wasa state police officer who was
killed, and it was very gruesome, let's just say.
It involved a lawnmower.
Tony Maietta (40:02):
I Ooh, I didn't hear that, yeah.
Brad Shreve (40:06):
So I'm glad they made that change.
Tony Maietta (40:08):
I see what you're saying, but I also think it was
necessary because it drives up.
You can't go back from this.
This is now the point of noreturn.
Yes, you're correct, we're atthe point of no return.
So we know this movie is goingto be ending soon and the ending
of the movie is very I don'tknow.
Here's my one issue with thismovie, and I feel the same way
(40:29):
about Fatal Attraction.
Now, fatal Attraction wasfamously reshot to give that
violent ending of Glenn Close'scharacter being blown away by
Michael Douglas's wife In theoriginal filming of it she kills
herself.
(40:49):
Alex in Fatal Attraction, hiswife in the original filming of
it.
She kills herself.
Uh, alex, failed attraction.
And there's just.
Yes, we hate annie, but it'sjust, you know the way that he
he hits her with the pig and thetypewriter and yeah, it's, I
don't know.
I just I, the feminist in me,gets my gets my eye up a little
bit.
I don't like the fact thatthey're just degrading this
woman.
Yes, kill her, fine, but wedon't have to degrade her by
(41:13):
putting, you know, taking theashes from this manuscript and
rubbing him in her face andhitting her with the typewriter
and hitting her with the pig.
I get it, you know she's dead.
Okay, it feels to me to be alittle too, a little too much
testosterone there, a little tooJames, too much James Cullen
coming through, that's myopinion.
Brad Shreve (41:33):
The feminist in me says I'm glad they didn't treat
it with kit gloves, that she gotthe just desserts that they
would have given a man.
I guess that's she was just asevil as a man.
That was a change from thenovel and I'm only going to
bring it up because I think thenovel would.
It probably was very scary inthe novel but it would have been
a pretty boring end to themovie.
In the novel, after he hits herwith a typewriter, she climbs
(41:58):
out the window to go get achainsaw to kill him and dies in
the barn.
She dies in the barn, yeah,dies in the barn.
She dies in the barn, yeah.
So I mean that would be prettydull in a movie that was lying
there and then she just grows inthe barn and dies.
Tony Maietta (42:10):
They have to have this over the top testosterone
fueled ending, um, okay I hatethey did the cliche, she's dead.
Brad Shreve (42:17):
Oh, she's not dead.
She attached him again.
Tony Maietta (42:19):
He's not really dead please, why did you go
there?
But you know it's uh, it iscathartic.
Yes, just like you know, thereare arguments that the fatal
attraction ending, the reasonthey changed it was because it
wasn't cathartic.
The audience needs to feelcatharsis.
Okay, I get it, but at the sametime I'm not a huge fan about
it.
But it doesn't matter, becauseaudiences were, because Misery,
(42:43):
when it was released, was a hugehit.
It was a huge hit.
It was a huge hit.
It was a budget of what?
$18 million?
And it made $61.3 million.
It is the 10th highest grossingfilm of a Stephen King novel so
far.
Now that's going to changebecause the more Stephen King
novels that get made, the lowerand lower it's going to go, and
(43:04):
some of these Stephen Kingadaptions like it.
I mean it made $200 million, Imean.
So I don't think it's going tohold that record much longer
when the next Stephen Kingadapts, because he's definitely
getting more and more popular aswe go on.
But yes, kathy Bates was prettymuch blown into the stratosphere
(43:24):
when this movie was releasedand she was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress.
And do we want to know thelineup of the people that she
beat when she was awarded, whothe Oscar went to, who the Oscar
didn't go to that year.
Did you want to take the honors?
We have Joanne Woodward in Mrand Mrs Bridge, which is a
really wonderful film.
It's a small film with herhusband, paul Newman, and it was
her last Oscar nomination.
(43:45):
Julia Roberts in Pretty WomanNow there's a flashback for you.
Can you imagine when I meanPretty Woman?
So this is 1990.
Yes, julia Roberts breakoutrole.
You know, at the time we kindof look at that and like really
she got nominated for an Oscarfor this.
But you have to understand itwas kind of like Audrey Hepburn
in Roman Holiday.
I mean, this was like JuliaRoberts was exploded.
(44:06):
So you can kind of see why andshe's actually a very charming
and pretty woman.
Angelica Houston in theGrifters have you ever seen the
Grifters, brad?
Brad Shreve (44:16):
No, I'm familiar with the novel, but I did never
see the movie.
Tony Maietta (44:19):
I love this movie.
I would love to talk about theGrifters sometime.
It's her and Annette Bening, ohmy God.
And James Cusack what awonderful fun.
It's a great movie and she'sbrilliant in the Grifters and,
(44:41):
last but never ever least,especially at a going Hollywood
podcast.
Yes, the goddess herself, merylStreep in Postcards from the
Edge.
This is the year Meryl wasnominated for Postcards and
Kathy Bates beat her, so I don'tthink Meryl should have won for
Postcards, as much as I lovePostcards it's number five on my
list.
I do believe that Kathy Bateswas the correct choice, I agree.
(45:02):
I think that this for thesimple reason that it set her on
a career path and it showed shehad a great film career ahead
of her.
You know this wasn't a one anddone, like it is sometimes with
these when people come out ofnowhere and get an Oscar and
then they're gone.
Brad Shreve (45:16):
Cuba.
Tony Maietta (45:16):
Gooding Jr.
Well, he continued to makefilms that just weren't any good
yeah that's the problem.
Brad Shreve (45:21):
yes, she didn't disappear.
Tony Maietta (45:22):
She continued to make films and what's also
interesting is this is the onlyfilm based on a Stephen King
novel to win an Oscar thus far.
So I mean, there were a lot ofnominations.
Obviously, there werenominations for Carrie and Stand
by Me and Shawshank Redemption,but this is the only win.
So that's really kind of cool.
I like that about Misery.
Brad Shreve (45:41):
And she was also the first woman to win an Oscar
for a horror thriller film.
Tony Maietta (45:46):
So there you go See.
So there's a lot of firsts withthis.
Brad Shreve (45:49):
And I also want to talk about other movies that
year.
Please do.
Even though it was a box officesuccess, it made three times
what it cost to make.
It was only number 19 that year, but if you look at the other
movies that came out that year,it makes sense.
Number one that year was makessense.
Number one that year was homealone.
It grossed 476 million dollarsthat that pales in comparison
(46:10):
when you think, oh misery, made61 million to do it really well
again, home alone 476 millionand do you know, I only watched
that movie last year for thefirst time.
Oh my god, I never had a desire.
I didn't.
You know, it wasn't like Iwould.
I just never had desire and Ifinally watched.
I'm like my God, this thing isfunny.
Tony Maietta (46:27):
For Catherine O'Hara alone.
Brad Shreve (46:30):
I'm thrilled Home Alone came out.
Other movies that year wasGhost Dances with Wolves, as you
said, Pretty Woman, Huge eater.
Teenage Mutant, ninja, turtles,hunt for Red October.
The list goes on and on.
Tony Maietta (46:46):
So now we know why it was super 19 out of the list
, despite it being a greatsuccess.
The fact that home alone danceswith wolves, ghost were all in
the same freaking year, that'samazing.
Brad Shreve (46:53):
It's amazing, yeah yeah, didn't know that was a big
year for movies, but obviouslywas huge year, huge year well, I
think that that's, um, I mean,that's all I have to say about
misery.
Tony Maietta (47:03):
Is there anything else that you need to say about
misery?
And uh, or you'd like to sayabout Misery, brad?
Brad Shreve (47:07):
Well, first of all I want to talk about how it did
on Rotten Tomatoes.
Oh, please, yes, it did kind ofwell.
The critic score, thetabulation of the critic score,
is 91% and this is one of thecases where the audience agreed.
The audience score is 90%.
So they're not always neck andneck like that.
Sometimes those critics in theaudience disagree and the only
(47:28):
other thing I want to say isthat, again, I love this movie
so much because let me give youmovies Carrie, christine, some
people are going to hate it.
I'm going to say the Shining,children of the Corn,
firestarter, the Langoliersthose are all Stephen King
novels that I think wereabsolutely dreadful films.
Now, the TV movie the Shiningwas a lot better.
(47:49):
I agree with Stephen King.
I think the Jack Nicholson onepeople love and adore that film.
I think it's terrible andmisery is in there.
So most of his movies don'tturn out well, but he does.
If he gets the right director,such as Stand by Me with Rob
(48:09):
Reiner, they can do it justice.
Tony Maietta (48:12):
Such as Misery with Rob Reiner.
Brad Shreve (48:13):
Yeah, misery with Rob Reiner and a lot of his
movies I think fail because theyare hard to translate into
movies.
And let me give you an examplethe Shining.
I kept hearing how good thebook was, so I finally read it
after seeing the movie and notbeing thrilled with it.
And the book is terrifying.
But one of the movies they cutout the book was I think they
put it in the TV series.
But it was a good decision inthe 70s was there is a scene
(48:35):
where they're walking throughyou remember the hedges that
they walk through in the Shining?
Of course they had the topiaryanimals.
In the book the animals come tolife and they are terrifying.
Well, they chose not to do thatin the movie because they didn't
think they would do it well andI think with the poor CGI at
that time it probably would havebeen laughable.
And I think the right decisionswere made with some of the
(48:59):
changes they made with Miserythat they wouldn't have
transferred well from, forexample, the cutting off the
foot.
I think it would have detractedfrom the film.
Oh yeah, I agree To kind of goon a tangent here.
Did you know that during theGladiator times, gladiators did
product endorsements?
Tony Maietta (49:15):
No, I didn't know that they were huge celebrities.
Brad Shreve (49:18):
They did product endorsements and they were going
to put that in the movieGladiator and they said we
better not.
People won't believe it andthey didn't, and I think that
was a good decision, thoughhistorically it would have been
accurate.
Tony Maietta (49:30):
Well, that's wow, there you go.
That's pretty interesting.
Brad Shreve (49:34):
So anyway, I don't know why I went off of those, I
just found it all interesting.
Tony Maietta (49:37):
What products would they be endorsing in Roman
times?
Brad Shreve (49:40):
Oh, sandals, bombatoriums.
Yes, exactly sandals.
Yes, exactly so.
Anyway, that's all I have tosay.
Obviously, I really love thisfilm.
I think it's the best adaptionStephen King.
I'm glad we did it.
Thank you for allowing me to doone for a change.
Now we're going back to the wayit's supposed to be we have
(50:02):
more coming up folks, but Ican't tell you how soon they'll
be.
Tony Maietta (50:05):
I really, really loved watching it.
Again, thank you for suggestingit.
I think it's.
It was a.
It's a fun movie.
It really is, and again it's.
It's nice to see kathy bates.
Uh, finally, finally, uh,breakthrough.
So well, brad heavens to betsy.
I guess there's only one thingleft to say, but I don't want to
cock-a-doodie say it.
(50:25):
So let's not say goodbye, let'ssay au revoir.
Brad Shreve (50:30):
No, Mr man, let's say goodbye.
Tony Maietta (50:38):
I want to go see that eclipse now.
Brad Shreve (50:42):
Goodbye everybody.
That's all folks.
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