1
00:00:02,470 --> 00:00:05,550
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:13,060 --> 00:00:16,060
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

3
00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:17,579
Speaker 3: And this is Joe McCormick.

4
00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:21,440
Speaker 2: Each October for Weird House, we bust out a lot

5
00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:24,540
Speaker 2: of different sorts of horror films here on the show.

6
00:00:24,900 --> 00:00:27,490
Speaker 2: And I think we generally pick at least one film

7
00:00:27,550 --> 00:00:30,530
Speaker 2: that feels a bit like a Halloween party. You know,

8
00:00:30,590 --> 00:00:34,190
Speaker 2: something that leans a little more into horror wackiness, maybe

9
00:00:34,210 --> 00:00:38,430
Speaker 2: horror comedy. And I think we have a really good

10
00:00:38,490 --> 00:00:42,349
Speaker 2: selection for this category of Weird House October offerings for

11
00:00:42,390 --> 00:00:46,379
Speaker 2: you here today. It is 1981's The Monster Club. Not

12
00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,900
Speaker 2: to be confused with Monster Party, Mad Monster Party, or,

13
00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:53,860
Speaker 2: you know, any other derivative thereof. This is 1981's The

14
00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:56,800
Speaker 2: Monster Club. And I think it's pretty special.

15
00:00:57,660 --> 00:01:02,060
Speaker 3: What was the... game for the original NES where you

16
00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:05,180
Speaker 3: went around with a baseball bat whacking monsters. Was that

17
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:06,220
Speaker 3: called Monster Party?

18
00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:07,480
Speaker 2: That might have been.

19
00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:09,330
Speaker 3: Yeah.

20
00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,190
Speaker 2: This is one of those titles that suggests various other things,

21
00:01:12,250 --> 00:01:16,990
Speaker 2: including the Monster Squad. But the Monster Club refers to

22
00:01:17,069 --> 00:01:20,270
Speaker 2: a particular... We're supposed to be in London when we

23
00:01:20,290 --> 00:01:22,819
Speaker 2: get into the plot here. Is this London? Or is this...

24
00:01:22,780 --> 00:01:23,880
Speaker 2: Where are we in this film?

25
00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:29,060
Speaker 3: I think it's supposed to be London, especially because a

26
00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:31,800
Speaker 3: lot of the anthologies are set in, or I think

27
00:01:31,900 --> 00:01:34,560
Speaker 3: all of the anthology segments are set in England or

28
00:01:34,580 --> 00:01:40,030
Speaker 3: around London. But the framing narrative, yeah, good question. There

29
00:01:40,090 --> 00:01:43,290
Speaker 3: is an exterior shot on what's supposed to be a

30
00:01:43,670 --> 00:01:48,170
Speaker 3: street with storefronts that the movie opens with. And I

31
00:01:48,230 --> 00:01:50,910
Speaker 3: think that is supposed to look like a London street.

32
00:01:51,780 --> 00:01:55,400
Speaker 3: Though none of the characters really have British accents, do they?

33
00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:56,500
Speaker 2: No, no, they do not.

34
00:01:57,520 --> 00:01:59,340
Speaker 3: So they go to maybe it's like they go to

35
00:01:59,410 --> 00:02:02,290
Speaker 3: a monster club, but maybe it's like an American expat

36
00:02:02,530 --> 00:02:03,310
Speaker 3: monster club.

37
00:02:03,930 --> 00:02:06,370
Speaker 2: Maybe so. Maybe so. Or a mix, you know, maybe

38
00:02:06,450 --> 00:02:09,590
Speaker 2: monsters under themselves are just an international group, you know,

39
00:02:09,660 --> 00:02:13,640
Speaker 2: and it's a global club. They just have chapters in

40
00:02:13,660 --> 00:02:16,990
Speaker 2: different cities. Uh, we'll, we'll get more into what all

41
00:02:17,010 --> 00:02:19,930
Speaker 2: of this means and fails to mean as we proceed.

42
00:02:19,970 --> 00:02:21,690
Speaker 2: But this is a, I think this is a good

43
00:02:21,730 --> 00:02:23,530
Speaker 2: selection because this is a film that sets out to

44
00:02:23,570 --> 00:02:27,399
Speaker 2: be several different things at once. And we can discuss

45
00:02:27,460 --> 00:02:30,060
Speaker 2: to what degree it succeeds or fails. But, uh, first

46
00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:33,220
Speaker 2: of all, it is a horror anthology film featuring three

47
00:02:33,300 --> 00:02:37,889
Speaker 2: adaptations of horror fiction, uh, from the writings of British

48
00:02:37,970 --> 00:02:42,780
Speaker 2: horror author, Ronald Chetland Hayes, um, And in fact, it's

49
00:02:42,820 --> 00:02:47,580
Speaker 2: actually based on a collection of the same name, The

50
00:02:47,620 --> 00:02:50,930
Speaker 2: Monster Club, which actually features more than three tales, but

51
00:02:50,940 --> 00:02:54,130
Speaker 2: they adapt three of them for this. And also, while

52
00:02:54,190 --> 00:02:56,970
Speaker 2: it's not an amicus and it's not a Hammer picture,

53
00:02:57,350 --> 00:03:00,889
Speaker 2: it has various connections to those rival 60s and 70s

54
00:03:00,930 --> 00:03:04,919
Speaker 2: British film studios, including in its director, Roy Ward Baker,

55
00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:07,480
Speaker 2: who directed notable films for both.

56
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:10,300
Speaker 3: Uh, but let's see, did he do, did he do

57
00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:11,859
Speaker 3: the train movie we watched?

58
00:03:12,580 --> 00:03:14,200
Speaker 2: Uh, no, I don't believe he did. He did, um,

59
00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:17,140
Speaker 2: Quatermas in the Pit. Okay. Yeah.

60
00:03:17,460 --> 00:03:17,780
Speaker 3: Yeah.

61
00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:21,820
Speaker 2: Uh, but, you know, solid director, you know, this was,

62
00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:25,410
Speaker 2: I believe his last feature film. Um, but yeah, he

63
00:03:25,430 --> 00:03:29,169
Speaker 2: had worked for both amicus and horror. And, uh, also

64
00:03:29,210 --> 00:03:31,450
Speaker 2: I would say that the tales in particular, uh, as

65
00:03:31,470 --> 00:03:35,050
Speaker 2: they're told, they have much of that atmospheric Brit horror vibe, uh,

66
00:03:35,490 --> 00:03:36,120
Speaker 2: particularly of the 1970s.

67
00:03:36,110 --> 00:03:36,270
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.

68
00:03:38,180 --> 00:03:41,620
Speaker 2: But in its framing narrative, the Monster Party is indeed

69
00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:46,080
Speaker 2: a goofy Halloween gathering that features just a weird mismatch

70
00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:51,390
Speaker 2: of classic horror actors, full musical performances by a handful

71
00:03:51,590 --> 00:03:55,090
Speaker 2: of up-and-coming bands and also bands who were maybe just

72
00:03:55,230 --> 00:03:57,530
Speaker 2: keeping it even keel or would shortly vanish.

73
00:03:58,170 --> 00:03:59,150
Speaker 3: Up-and-going bands.

74
00:03:59,430 --> 00:04:02,510
Speaker 2: Up-and-going. Going somewhere. We're not going to say what direction.

75
00:04:03,150 --> 00:04:05,990
Speaker 2: And also what feels... It feels like at the time

76
00:04:06,030 --> 00:04:10,410
Speaker 2: a desperate and cheap attempt to grab younger viewers to say, hello,

77
00:04:10,470 --> 00:04:14,060
Speaker 2: fellow kids. Yeah. Won't you join the monster party at

78
00:04:14,090 --> 00:04:15,220
Speaker 2: the monster club with us?

79
00:04:15,690 --> 00:04:18,120
Speaker 3: One of the weirdest things about this movie is the

80
00:04:18,210 --> 00:04:23,159
Speaker 3: time warp sensation that it creates where one moment or

81
00:04:23,339 --> 00:04:27,220
Speaker 3: exchange and it feels like something from I'd say the

82
00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:32,240
Speaker 3: mid 60s with like the comedy sensibilities of Bobby Boris

83
00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:36,040
Speaker 3: Pickett or the Adam West Batman show. And then you

84
00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,820
Speaker 3: will cut immediately from that kind of joke or shot

85
00:04:39,940 --> 00:04:43,800
Speaker 3: or moment to a nightclub with a guy playing keytar

86
00:04:43,860 --> 00:04:47,100
Speaker 3: and people in neon spandex or like black leather. And

87
00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,510
Speaker 3: it's obviously the 80s. So the movie is at the

88
00:04:50,550 --> 00:04:56,310
Speaker 3: same time pre-Woodstock 60s and post-disco 80s. Yeah. Yeah.

89
00:04:56,390 --> 00:04:58,529
Speaker 2: And it's for anyone out there who's like, I really

90
00:04:58,589 --> 00:05:02,690
Speaker 2: like horror anthology films, but I wish they used more

91
00:05:03,110 --> 00:05:06,370
Speaker 2: British white guy reggae. Well, this is the film for you.

92
00:05:06,430 --> 00:05:11,110
Speaker 2: You have found it. Look no further. Yeah. Yeah.

93
00:05:11,130 --> 00:05:15,350
Speaker 3: The musical performances are an especially strange choice in this

94
00:05:15,390 --> 00:05:17,990
Speaker 3: movie because you get full songs. Like you watch a

95
00:05:18,029 --> 00:05:21,630
Speaker 3: band do a whole song and you can tell they're

96
00:05:21,670 --> 00:05:24,670
Speaker 3: just trying to, it feels like it was shot by

97
00:05:24,710 --> 00:05:28,680
Speaker 3: people who are not used to doing concert footage or

98
00:05:28,740 --> 00:05:31,390
Speaker 3: music videos or anything like that. Because you can see

99
00:05:31,410 --> 00:05:35,090
Speaker 3: them just kind of desperately making cinematography choices to try

100
00:05:35,130 --> 00:05:38,550
Speaker 3: to make the musical performances more interesting. In one case,

101
00:05:38,630 --> 00:05:41,220
Speaker 3: just zooming in and out on the singer like a

102
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:42,420
Speaker 3: hundred times.

103
00:05:42,460 --> 00:05:47,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. It is a lot to take in at times,

104
00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,580
Speaker 2: for sure. But, you know, never boring, I will say,

105
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:56,219
Speaker 2: The Monster Club. And that's true. It doesn't matter how

106
00:05:56,260 --> 00:05:57,770
Speaker 2: you're enjoying the film. If you put it on in

107
00:05:57,790 --> 00:06:00,200
Speaker 2: the background, this is going to entertain you. But if

108
00:06:00,220 --> 00:06:02,920
Speaker 2: you sit down and have a devoted couple of viewings

109
00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:06,630
Speaker 2: like we did, I think it's still richly rewarding. So

110
00:06:06,670 --> 00:06:08,469
Speaker 2: I think it's a gas, as they say.

111
00:06:08,890 --> 00:06:11,450
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't think this is one of the best

112
00:06:11,510 --> 00:06:14,930
Speaker 3: Halloween season movies we've covered, but I'd say throw this

113
00:06:15,029 --> 00:06:16,690
Speaker 3: on with some friends and you'll have a good time.

114
00:06:18,420 --> 00:06:21,140
Speaker 2: All right. Well, my elevator pitch is your two oldest

115
00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:24,840
Speaker 2: horror grandpas are sharing spooky stories and dancing to UB40.

116
00:06:25,140 --> 00:06:26,000
Speaker 3: Yeah.

117
00:06:26,339 --> 00:06:28,200
Speaker 2: That's pretty much the vibe of the whole picture.

118
00:06:28,690 --> 00:06:32,350
Speaker 3: And it really literally ends with Vincent Price and John

119
00:06:32,410 --> 00:06:34,050
Speaker 3: Carradine dancing in a club.

120
00:06:34,070 --> 00:06:37,270
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So I believe a UB for, well, at

121
00:06:37,290 --> 00:06:38,570
Speaker 2: that point it may be one of the other songs,

122
00:06:38,610 --> 00:06:43,060
Speaker 2: but there is definite UB 40 of a needle drop

123
00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:44,000
Speaker 2: used in this picture.

124
00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:44,540
Speaker 1: Yeah.

125
00:06:45,500 --> 00:06:45,860
Speaker 2: All right.

126
00:06:46,260 --> 00:06:47,059
Speaker 3: If, if at this.

127
00:06:46,980 --> 00:06:49,740
Speaker 2: Point you're, you're tantalized and you want to experience this

128
00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:53,830
Speaker 2: film for yourself, well, it's widely available. Including, as of

129
00:06:53,870 --> 00:06:57,409
Speaker 2: this recording, streaming in full on YouTube via Shout Factory.

130
00:06:57,510 --> 00:07:00,810
Speaker 2: So not like some sort of, you know, suspicious upload,

131
00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:05,800
Speaker 2: but presumably completely on the level via Shout Factory. There

132
00:07:05,820 --> 00:07:09,760
Speaker 2: was also a Scorpion releasing Blu-ray. And I had to

133
00:07:09,780 --> 00:07:11,360
Speaker 2: watch this one on an airplane, so I did a

134
00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:13,570
Speaker 2: digital rental. So that's also possible as well.

135
00:07:14,650 --> 00:07:16,750
Speaker 3: How was it on the airplane? Good airplane movie?

136
00:07:16,770 --> 00:07:20,740
Speaker 2: This is a solid A-plus airplane movie. In part because

137
00:07:20,770 --> 00:07:24,540
Speaker 2: there's really nothing at all that makes you wonder what

138
00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:26,340
Speaker 2: the people behind you are going to think of your

139
00:07:26,420 --> 00:07:31,220
Speaker 2: viewing habits. There's nothing even halfway skeezy in this. It's

140
00:07:31,420 --> 00:07:33,060
Speaker 2: just a solid viewing experience.

141
00:07:33,430 --> 00:07:35,770
Speaker 3: Did we ever talk about the time that I tried

142
00:07:35,790 --> 00:07:37,650
Speaker 3: to watch Mutant Hunt on an airplane?

143
00:07:38,770 --> 00:07:39,670
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.

144
00:07:40,410 --> 00:07:41,550
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a weird one.

145
00:07:41,810 --> 00:07:44,750
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I watched that one on an airplane. Yeah. So,

146
00:07:44,950 --> 00:07:48,690
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes it's a daring experience, but that can

147
00:07:48,710 --> 00:07:49,670
Speaker 2: be rewarding as well.

148
00:07:50,790 --> 00:07:52,770
Speaker 3: We did that one while we were traveling for work.

149
00:07:52,910 --> 00:07:53,300
Speaker 3: That was it.

150
00:07:53,530 --> 00:07:56,650
Speaker 2: That was it. Yeah. So if you're traveling for work

151
00:07:56,670 --> 00:07:58,910
Speaker 2: as well, yeah, seek this one out.

152
00:07:58,990 --> 00:08:00,800
Speaker 3: Or just watch Mutant Hunt again. Either one.

153
00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:13,100
Speaker 2: Yeah, both good. Double feature, right? Now, before we get

154
00:08:13,140 --> 00:08:14,940
Speaker 2: into the connections here, I want to note this is

155
00:08:15,060 --> 00:08:17,160
Speaker 2: an anthology picture, and we haven't really done a lot

156
00:08:17,180 --> 00:08:20,640
Speaker 2: of anthology pictures on Weird House Cinema. We're going to

157
00:08:20,660 --> 00:08:22,500
Speaker 2: approach this one a little bit differently. We're going to

158
00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:26,580
Speaker 2: approach the framing narrative of the film when we're discussing

159
00:08:26,620 --> 00:08:29,700
Speaker 2: the cast initially, like it is the movie, and then

160
00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,589
Speaker 2: we're going to introduce additional credits as we get into

161
00:08:32,660 --> 00:08:37,390
Speaker 2: each segment. Also, as anthologies are typically a bit uneven,

162
00:08:37,750 --> 00:08:40,230
Speaker 2: we might end up focusing a bit more on certain

163
00:08:40,270 --> 00:08:43,510
Speaker 2: segments other than others. But we'll see how it all

164
00:08:43,550 --> 00:08:43,950
Speaker 2: shakes out.

165
00:08:44,370 --> 00:08:44,650
Speaker 3: Okay.

166
00:08:45,210 --> 00:08:47,990
Speaker 2: All right. Well, let's just talk about the framing narrative

167
00:08:48,010 --> 00:08:51,730
Speaker 2: here at first and, you know, overall picture. So, again,

168
00:08:51,790 --> 00:08:56,660
Speaker 2: Roy Ward Baker, director here, lived 1916 through 2010. British

169
00:08:56,700 --> 00:08:59,079
Speaker 2: director that we previously talked about in our episode on

170
00:08:59,100 --> 00:09:02,280
Speaker 2: 63's Quatermas in the Pit. He made a number of

171
00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:06,179
Speaker 2: films in his native UK and in the US, including...

172
00:09:07,150 --> 00:09:10,500
Speaker 2: the 1953 3D film Inferno, 58's A Night to Remember,

173
00:09:10,740 --> 00:09:14,560
Speaker 2: a Titanic film, and several Hammer pictures, including 69's Moon

174
00:09:14,580 --> 00:09:19,520
Speaker 2: Zero Two, that's the mod space adventure, 1970's The Vampire

175
00:09:19,580 --> 00:09:24,280
Speaker 2: Lovers and Scars of Dracula, 71's Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde,

176
00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:28,420
Speaker 2: as well as the 74 Hammer Shaw Brothers co-production, The

177
00:09:28,490 --> 00:09:32,990
Speaker 2: Legend of the Golden Vampires. Ah, yes. So strong Hammer

178
00:09:33,010 --> 00:09:36,590
Speaker 2: credentials here. And then on the competing Amicus front, he

179
00:09:36,630 --> 00:09:40,540
Speaker 2: did Asylum in 72 and The Vault of Horror in 73,

180
00:09:40,540 --> 00:09:45,360
Speaker 2: both anthology pictures, as Amicus was pretty famous for having done.

181
00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:48,140
Speaker 2: And then he was active as a TV director into

182
00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:51,100
Speaker 2: the 90s. But again, this was his last feature film.

183
00:09:52,140 --> 00:09:53,590
Speaker 3: I just had to look this up because it was

184
00:09:53,630 --> 00:09:56,590
Speaker 3: driving me crazy. But the movie that I mistakenly thought

185
00:09:56,730 --> 00:10:00,900
Speaker 3: Baker directed was The Horror Express, the train horror movie

186
00:10:00,920 --> 00:10:05,060
Speaker 3: with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee and Telly Savalas. That

187
00:10:05,140 --> 00:10:07,380
Speaker 3: one we did, I think, maybe a couple of Octobers

188
00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:07,920
Speaker 3: ago now.

189
00:10:07,940 --> 00:10:08,870
Speaker 2: I believe so, yeah.

190
00:10:09,140 --> 00:10:11,310
Speaker 3: That one's a lot of fun, but that was not

191
00:10:11,590 --> 00:10:15,090
Speaker 3: Roy Ward Baker. That was Eugenio Martin or Martine, maybe.

192
00:10:16,010 --> 00:10:17,730
Speaker 3: Just thought I had to close that out since I

193
00:10:17,750 --> 00:10:18,130
Speaker 3: raised it.

194
00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:22,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, fun film. Helga Linnae, also in that one. All right,

195
00:10:22,600 --> 00:10:26,739
Speaker 2: so mention that this is based on a book. The

196
00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:30,740
Speaker 2: stories told in the anthology are based on the stories

197
00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:34,470
Speaker 2: of a particular British horror author, and that author is R.

198
00:10:34,590 --> 00:10:40,189
Speaker 2: Chetwin Hayes, who lived 1919 through 2001. Author of some,

199
00:10:40,230 --> 00:10:44,569
Speaker 2: I believe, like 200 short stories, nine novels, very prolific.

200
00:10:44,650 --> 00:10:48,800
Speaker 2: An award-winning author who enjoyed solid commercial success, and won

201
00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:52,280
Speaker 2: various awards within his genre. I don't think he is

202
00:10:52,380 --> 00:10:56,920
Speaker 2: directly parodied in Garth Marenghi, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, but

203
00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,380
Speaker 2: I suppose given his time frame and his popularity, there

204
00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:02,580
Speaker 2: might be a bit of him in the general DNA

205
00:11:02,620 --> 00:11:03,180
Speaker 2: there somewhere.

206
00:11:03,679 --> 00:11:06,720
Speaker 3: I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards.

207
00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:10,640
Speaker 2: I get the impression, I've been looking into this guy

208
00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:13,109
Speaker 2: and I read just a little bit of the sample

209
00:11:13,179 --> 00:11:15,210
Speaker 2: for the book this is based on. You can get

210
00:11:15,250 --> 00:11:17,920
Speaker 2: it as an e-book and get used copies of it

211
00:11:17,980 --> 00:11:21,119
Speaker 2: pretty easily. I didn't have time to really read it

212
00:11:21,179 --> 00:11:22,439
Speaker 2: in full, but I might pick it up for some

213
00:11:22,740 --> 00:11:25,320
Speaker 2: travels ahead of me because it seems like he does

214
00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:29,559
Speaker 2: have a real sense of humor. This is not a

215
00:11:29,580 --> 00:11:33,530
Speaker 2: situation where we have a horror comedy movie based on drier,

216
00:11:33,610 --> 00:11:36,189
Speaker 2: more serious work. I think the comedy is in the

217
00:11:36,250 --> 00:11:41,810
Speaker 2: source material as well. To what extent it's an accurate translation,

218
00:11:41,830 --> 00:11:44,310
Speaker 2: I don't know. I can't speak to that yet. But

219
00:11:45,990 --> 00:11:49,250
Speaker 2: I don't think this guy took himself as seriously as

220
00:11:49,450 --> 00:11:51,430
Speaker 2: the fictional Garth Marenghi takes himself.

221
00:11:51,870 --> 00:11:55,210
Speaker 3: Well, the different components of this movie have different levels

222
00:11:55,270 --> 00:12:00,000
Speaker 3: of self-seriousness. So the framing narrative is just a full goof-em-up.

223
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:07,360
Speaker 3: It's just goofy times with jokes about talking about blood

224
00:12:07,400 --> 00:12:10,980
Speaker 3: in the club like it's wine. Oh, I prefer type B,

225
00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:15,120
Speaker 3: that kind of thing. So it's just silly. Uh, the,

226
00:12:15,140 --> 00:12:19,080
Speaker 3: I would say one of the three anthology segments is

227
00:12:19,540 --> 00:12:22,939
Speaker 3: basically a comedy. The, the one about the kid whose

228
00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:25,850
Speaker 3: dad is a vampire. And then the other two are

229
00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:28,730
Speaker 3: mostly serious. One is just straight serious. Like the one

230
00:12:28,750 --> 00:12:31,830
Speaker 3: with the ghouls is just serious. The one with the

231
00:12:31,890 --> 00:12:35,929
Speaker 3: Shadmach is mostly serious or it's sort of written as

232
00:12:35,950 --> 00:12:39,450
Speaker 3: a written straight, but has irony in the concept, in

233
00:12:39,470 --> 00:12:40,130
Speaker 3: the concept.

234
00:12:40,309 --> 00:12:40,530
Speaker 2: Yeah.

235
00:12:40,929 --> 00:12:41,109
Speaker 1: Yeah.

236
00:12:41,170 --> 00:12:44,580
Speaker 2: I think that's a, that's a strong read. So, yeah,

237
00:12:44,620 --> 00:12:46,780
Speaker 2: if time allows, I think I may pick that up

238
00:12:46,820 --> 00:12:50,020
Speaker 2: in the future. As far as other adaptations of Chet

239
00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:53,790
Speaker 2: Wynn Hayes' work go, his tale Something in the Woodwork

240
00:12:53,830 --> 00:12:57,530
Speaker 2: was adapted for Night Gallery back in 73, followed by

241
00:12:57,570 --> 00:13:01,209
Speaker 2: the adaptation of his novel From Beyond the Grave in 74.

242
00:13:01,210 --> 00:13:04,690
Speaker 2: That was the first directorial credit for Kevin Conner, with

243
00:13:04,730 --> 00:13:09,160
Speaker 2: a great cast that included Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, David Warner,

244
00:13:09,550 --> 00:13:12,170
Speaker 2: Ian Ogilvie, and Angela Pleasance as well. So you get

245
00:13:12,210 --> 00:13:14,530
Speaker 2: two Pleasances for the price of one there.

246
00:13:14,970 --> 00:13:18,710
Speaker 3: Double your Pleasance. Yeah. I was actually looking at this

247
00:13:18,790 --> 00:13:22,530
Speaker 3: movie in particular while I was researching for this episode.

248
00:13:22,550 --> 00:13:25,340
Speaker 3: It almost looked to me like this movie is kind

249
00:13:25,380 --> 00:13:29,520
Speaker 3: of a comedy spin from Beyond the Grave because it's

250
00:13:29,540 --> 00:13:32,640
Speaker 3: like the same author, some of the same cast.

251
00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:37,280
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. There's several bits of connective tissue there.

252
00:13:38,270 --> 00:13:41,890
Speaker 2: On the short story adaptations front, let's see, his work

253
00:13:41,929 --> 00:13:44,589
Speaker 2: was also adapted on a few different TV shows, a

254
00:13:44,630 --> 00:13:48,330
Speaker 2: few different horror anthology shows after this, including 1980's Spine Chillers,

255
00:13:49,110 --> 00:13:54,800
Speaker 2: 83's Spooky, and 2001's Night Visions. It's a prolific author.

256
00:13:54,820 --> 00:13:58,760
Speaker 2: He also wrote the novelization of a 1979 film, Dominique,

257
00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:01,100
Speaker 2: which we'll come back to because that's another one that

258
00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,680
Speaker 2: kind of connects into some of the other people involved

259
00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:07,650
Speaker 2: in the movie here. Oh, and then he also wrote

260
00:14:07,670 --> 00:14:11,689
Speaker 2: the novelization of Mike Newell's 1980 film, The Awakening, a

261
00:14:11,710 --> 00:14:12,270
Speaker 2: mommy film.

262
00:14:13,970 --> 00:14:16,720
Speaker 3: Wait, is that the one also known as Time Walker?

263
00:14:18,140 --> 00:14:22,840
Speaker 2: It's the one loosely based at least on a Bram

264
00:14:22,860 --> 00:14:26,970
Speaker 2: Stoker piece. So maybe a different one. Not the one

265
00:14:26,990 --> 00:14:29,610
Speaker 2: they did on Mystery Science. No, no, no. But at

266
00:14:29,630 --> 00:14:31,330
Speaker 2: some point, I might come back to that. Next time

267
00:14:31,370 --> 00:14:35,470
Speaker 2: we get the appetite for a Mummy movie, that might

268
00:14:35,510 --> 00:14:39,230
Speaker 2: be a good selection. All right, let's see. Screenplay credits

269
00:14:39,310 --> 00:14:44,000
Speaker 2: go to Edward and Valerie Abram. They were a married couple,

270
00:14:44,100 --> 00:14:47,460
Speaker 2: and they worked together on a number of different projects,

271
00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:53,760
Speaker 2: both screenwriters. And Edward also was at least a one-time director.

272
00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:59,360
Speaker 2: He was active from 61 through 85, I believe, born

273
00:14:59,460 --> 00:15:03,580
Speaker 2: in 1929, and I think still around. His other credits,

274
00:15:04,140 --> 00:15:06,160
Speaker 2: I mean, all these credits are with his wife, Valerie,

275
00:15:06,180 --> 00:15:12,200
Speaker 2: who lived 1933 through 2006. 79's Dominique, starring Cliff Robertson

276
00:15:12,220 --> 00:15:17,280
Speaker 2: and Simon Ward. 85's Murder Elite, starring Allie McGraw. with

277
00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:21,870
Speaker 2: Don Henderson. And then in 62, he wrote with his

278
00:15:21,930 --> 00:15:24,510
Speaker 2: wife and then directed an adaptation of Poe's The Pit

279
00:15:24,530 --> 00:15:27,450
Speaker 2: and the Pendulum, simply titled The Pit. I think that's

280
00:15:27,530 --> 00:15:30,350
Speaker 2: like something of a short film. I want to say

281
00:15:30,350 --> 00:15:31,680
Speaker 2: 20 to 30 minutes, but I have not seen it.

282
00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:35,840
Speaker 2: So that's the writing end of the spectrum. Let's get

283
00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:40,060
Speaker 2: into the main cast members, our horror grandpas, who are

284
00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:43,740
Speaker 2: going to be our narrators and our main characters throughout

285
00:15:43,780 --> 00:15:46,490
Speaker 2: the framing narrative here. First of all, we have the

286
00:15:46,530 --> 00:15:51,860
Speaker 2: vampire Eramis, played by Vincent Price, from 1911 through 1993.

287
00:15:51,850 --> 00:15:53,910
Speaker 2: This is our ninth Vincent Price film.

288
00:15:54,630 --> 00:15:58,479
Speaker 3: Very difficult not to keep thinking of this guy as Erasmus.

289
00:15:58,530 --> 00:16:02,140
Speaker 3: And in fact, the Word document kept trying to autocorrect

290
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:05,300
Speaker 3: me when I was writing his name to Erasmus. But no,

291
00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:06,140
Speaker 3: it's Eramis.

292
00:16:06,460 --> 00:16:09,180
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll inevitably say it wrong at some point. So

293
00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:13,260
Speaker 2: just roll with us when that occurs. Yeah, we've talked

294
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:15,880
Speaker 2: about Vincent Price many times. We've talked about the different

295
00:16:15,950 --> 00:16:19,350
Speaker 2: sorts of roles that he played. Here we certainly get,

296
00:16:19,490 --> 00:16:24,230
Speaker 2: and this is completely appropriate, we get maximum swagger, late

297
00:16:24,290 --> 00:16:27,790
Speaker 2: career Price. This is the version of Vincent Price we

298
00:16:27,810 --> 00:16:30,930
Speaker 2: get on The Muppet Show, leaning into his comedy and

299
00:16:31,230 --> 00:16:34,800
Speaker 2: playing a vampire, I think, for the only time ever

300
00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:35,480
Speaker 2: in a film.

301
00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:36,160
Speaker 3: Really?

302
00:16:36,180 --> 00:16:38,280
Speaker 2: Though he did play a vampire in a skit on

303
00:16:38,300 --> 00:16:39,710
Speaker 2: The Muppet Show in 1977. Hmm.

304
00:16:42,220 --> 00:16:45,880
Speaker 3: I'm honestly surprised this was his only vampire voice. Yeah.

305
00:16:46,380 --> 00:16:48,580
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I don't know if that's just happenstance or

306
00:16:48,660 --> 00:16:51,660
Speaker 2: if he just didn't really want to play a vampire.

307
00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:53,380
Speaker 2: I don't know how that came together. But as it

308
00:16:53,420 --> 00:16:56,000
Speaker 2: works out, this is the only film in which Vincent

309
00:16:56,020 --> 00:16:59,620
Speaker 2: Price plays a vampire, as far as I'm aware. All right.

310
00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:02,910
Speaker 2: And then the other character is a fictional version of

311
00:17:02,970 --> 00:17:07,390
Speaker 2: the author of The Monster Club, R. Chetwin Hayes, played here.

312
00:17:07,990 --> 00:17:13,209
Speaker 2: by the legendary John Carradine, who lived 1906 through 1988.

313
00:17:13,210 --> 00:17:15,540
Speaker 2: We mentioned John Carradine a lot on the show because

314
00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:19,720
Speaker 2: he was in literally everything. And so he often pops

315
00:17:19,780 --> 00:17:22,500
Speaker 2: up in Connections. But I think the only films we've

316
00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:26,020
Speaker 2: watched for Weird House that he appears in are, what,

317
00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:30,179
Speaker 2: 1935's Bride of Frankenstein. He has a bit uncredited role as, what,

318
00:17:30,220 --> 00:17:32,920
Speaker 2: one of the hunters or something. And then he's in

319
00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:36,379
Speaker 2: 77 Shockwaves doing what he does best and always did best,

320
00:17:36,859 --> 00:17:39,620
Speaker 2: playing a grumpy old man. Yeah.

321
00:17:40,470 --> 00:17:43,520
Speaker 3: You know, there's a weird magic to John Carradine, which

322
00:17:43,619 --> 00:17:47,699
Speaker 3: is that he forces us to think about reality as

323
00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:52,159
Speaker 3: fully contiguous, that like all the realities are in fact connected.

324
00:17:52,180 --> 00:17:55,480
Speaker 3: So he was in John Ford movies. He was in

325
00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:59,700
Speaker 3: like Stagecoach with baby John Wayne in 1939 or whatever

326
00:17:59,740 --> 00:18:03,120
Speaker 3: that is. And he's also in Jacko from the year

327
00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:07,920
Speaker 3: 1995 with Linnea Quigley, which was released years after his death.

328
00:18:08,330 --> 00:18:11,689
Speaker 3: So it's like making you, it's forcing you to accept

329
00:18:11,730 --> 00:18:14,689
Speaker 3: that these films do actually come from the same dimension

330
00:18:14,710 --> 00:18:15,970
Speaker 3: and Carradine is proof.

331
00:18:16,369 --> 00:18:19,190
Speaker 2: Yeah. There are all these different sets of different sizes,

332
00:18:19,230 --> 00:18:22,670
Speaker 2: different budgets, and John Carradine walks them all.

333
00:18:23,630 --> 00:18:24,669
Speaker 3: He's the time Walker.

334
00:18:24,690 --> 00:18:26,570
Speaker 2: Yeah.

335
00:18:26,609 --> 00:18:26,810
Speaker 1: Yeah.

336
00:18:27,770 --> 00:18:29,949
Speaker 2: Um, I love John Garrity and I think he is,

337
00:18:30,190 --> 00:18:32,540
Speaker 2: he is, it's great to see him in various pictures.

338
00:18:32,580 --> 00:18:36,340
Speaker 2: And I think nobody plays a crusty grizzled old man better. Um,

339
00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:39,780
Speaker 2: I do think he's a bit lost in many of

340
00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:40,660
Speaker 2: these scenes here.

341
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:42,300
Speaker 3: I don't know.

342
00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:44,090
Speaker 2: I mean, part of it is he's in there with

343
00:18:44,119 --> 00:18:51,090
Speaker 2: Vincent Price. Vincent Price is playing the charismatic, otherworldly character,

344
00:18:51,210 --> 00:18:54,510
Speaker 2: and he is playing the normal world character. He's playing

345
00:18:54,590 --> 00:18:59,090
Speaker 2: a normal human who has thus far only dreamt of

346
00:18:59,130 --> 00:19:02,189
Speaker 2: the monstrous realm. And I don't know, he's just kind of,

347
00:19:03,609 --> 00:19:06,310
Speaker 2: at times I just feel like he's sitting there. And

348
00:19:06,330 --> 00:19:09,250
Speaker 2: I wonder if someone like a Roddy McDowell or a

349
00:19:09,310 --> 00:19:12,540
Speaker 2: Malcolm McDowell or any McDowell really would have maybe worked better.

350
00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:13,480
Speaker 3: Andy McDowell, yeah.

351
00:19:13,500 --> 00:19:15,540
Speaker 2: Yeah, like someone who could maybe play up a little

352
00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:18,979
Speaker 2: more like fear and nervousness, which is not really what

353
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,700
Speaker 2: I was getting off of Carradine's performance here. He's still

354
00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:26,109
Speaker 2: a lot of fun, but yeah, definitely overpowered by the

355
00:19:26,150 --> 00:19:27,190
Speaker 2: Vincent Price qualities.

356
00:19:27,700 --> 00:19:32,439
Speaker 3: Yeah, mostly what this character does is receive storytelling and

357
00:19:32,500 --> 00:19:36,200
Speaker 3: receive lore and kind of shrug or nod his head

358
00:19:36,290 --> 00:19:36,830
Speaker 3: at jokes.

359
00:19:37,070 --> 00:19:37,310
Speaker 2: Yeah.

360
00:19:38,910 --> 00:19:39,970
Speaker 3: And dances at the end.

361
00:19:40,109 --> 00:19:42,270
Speaker 2: It does dance. So if you've been waiting.

362
00:19:42,550 --> 00:19:45,870
Speaker 3: It's subdued dancing, but it happens.

363
00:19:46,609 --> 00:19:50,660
Speaker 2: Yeah, Vincent Price definitely cuts a much deeper. better rug.

364
00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:53,420
Speaker 2: So we'll get to the dancing here in a bit.

365
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,159
Speaker 2: I will point out that the production designer on this

366
00:19:56,180 --> 00:20:00,200
Speaker 2: film was Tony Curtis, the great British production designer who

367
00:20:00,220 --> 00:20:05,550
Speaker 2: lived 1937 through 2021, whose other credits include 83's Krull. Obviously,

368
00:20:05,570 --> 00:20:09,020
Speaker 2: a much smaller budget to work with here. Uh, but

369
00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:11,340
Speaker 2: you know, it's probably one of the reasons that, you know,

370
00:20:12,119 --> 00:20:14,639
Speaker 2: things look as good as they do in this picture.

371
00:20:14,660 --> 00:20:17,100
Speaker 2: And I will say that in the monster club itself,

372
00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:20,540
Speaker 2: you know, there are some obvious budgetary constraints here, but

373
00:20:20,820 --> 00:20:22,679
Speaker 2: you know, I like the lighting. I like the general

374
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,080
Speaker 2: sort of feel of it. I bought into its own

375
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,859
Speaker 2: self-contained reality. All right. And then, uh, as far as

376
00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,119
Speaker 2: music goes, I'll, we'll have more score credits as we

377
00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:34,980
Speaker 2: proceed through the anthology bits, because at least a couple

378
00:20:35,060 --> 00:20:39,680
Speaker 2: of them have very distinctly different, um, scores. But I

379
00:20:40,020 --> 00:20:42,080
Speaker 2: just will point out, we also just have a fairly

380
00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:47,200
Speaker 2: diverse selection of needle drop tracks in this as well. Again,

381
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:51,709
Speaker 2: I mentioned UB40. We have UB40 playing in the background

382
00:20:51,730 --> 00:20:55,090
Speaker 2: in the club. We get classical guitar from classical guitarist

383
00:20:55,130 --> 00:20:58,210
Speaker 2: John Williams. So it's kind of all over the place.

384
00:20:58,450 --> 00:21:01,760
Speaker 2: And that's in addition to our featured artists who we'll

385
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,720
Speaker 2: get to as we get to them in the plot.

386
00:21:13,340 --> 00:21:15,500
Speaker 3: Well, would you like to start talking about the beginning

387
00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:17,200
Speaker 3: of the framing narrative?

388
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:18,680
Speaker 2: Let's do it. Let's jump into the picture.

389
00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:22,160
Speaker 3: So it opens in the street outside of a bookshop. Again,

390
00:21:22,180 --> 00:21:24,110
Speaker 3: we think this is supposed to be London.

391
00:21:24,750 --> 00:21:25,510
Speaker 2: I think so, yeah.

392
00:21:25,750 --> 00:21:31,650
Speaker 3: Cobblestone-y street. But again, I'm pretty sure that this bookstore

393
00:21:31,730 --> 00:21:34,230
Speaker 3: and the storefronts we're seeing, I think this is not

394
00:21:34,369 --> 00:21:37,629
Speaker 3: really storefronts on an actual street. I think this is

395
00:21:37,650 --> 00:21:38,500
Speaker 3: a soundstage.

396
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:38,700
Speaker 1: Yeah.

397
00:21:39,380 --> 00:21:44,440
Speaker 3: It looks like those streets in House of Wax. So

398
00:21:44,980 --> 00:21:47,660
Speaker 3: we look in the window of this bookshop where the

399
00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,620
Speaker 3: display is a buffet of all things R. Chetwynd Hayes.

400
00:21:51,700 --> 00:21:55,460
Speaker 3: It's got horror story collections, a skull on a stick, posters,

401
00:21:55,540 --> 00:21:59,040
Speaker 3: except the pictures of Chetwynd Hayes are of John Carradine.

402
00:21:59,780 --> 00:22:02,160
Speaker 3: And then John Carradine wanders up, looks at the John

403
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:05,880
Speaker 3: Carradine poster, gives it a good smirk like, yep, that's

404
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:09,310
Speaker 3: what I look like. That's really me. And as he

405
00:22:09,369 --> 00:22:13,580
Speaker 3: is walking away, suddenly Vincent Price leans out of an

406
00:22:13,650 --> 00:22:17,680
Speaker 3: alleyway begging for help. Carradine offers to buy him some food,

407
00:22:17,740 --> 00:22:22,820
Speaker 3: but Price says, can't keep food down. Never could. So

408
00:22:23,020 --> 00:22:26,440
Speaker 3: Price then rears up and reveals his fangs and bites

409
00:22:26,500 --> 00:22:28,939
Speaker 3: Carradine on the neck. And then we fade out and

410
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:32,159
Speaker 3: then cut to later when Carradine, who now appears to

411
00:22:32,180 --> 00:22:37,260
Speaker 3: be completely fine, no apparent side effects of the vampire bite,

412
00:22:38,030 --> 00:22:41,470
Speaker 3: He's sitting on the corner, straightening his tie. Doesn't really

413
00:22:41,550 --> 00:22:44,510
Speaker 3: even seem upset that this has happened. He's just kind of,

414
00:22:44,530 --> 00:22:48,490
Speaker 3: you know, whatever. And Price is going through Carradine's wallet

415
00:22:48,590 --> 00:22:51,770
Speaker 3: and figures out his identity. And this changes his whole tune.

416
00:22:52,390 --> 00:22:57,210
Speaker 3: He introduces himself to Carradine as Eramus. Again, it's hard

417
00:22:57,270 --> 00:23:00,929
Speaker 3: not to read this as Erasmus, but it's Eramus. And

418
00:23:00,990 --> 00:23:04,500
Speaker 3: he explains that he is a vampire. There's a little

419
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 3: bit of mechanical discussion about how vampires work in this story.

420
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:12,020
Speaker 3: The fangs are, quote, retractable when not in use. Eramis

421
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:14,909
Speaker 3: tells Chetwynd Hayes he shouldn't worry about turning into a

422
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:19,050
Speaker 3: vampire because it was a shallow bite. This also will

423
00:23:19,090 --> 00:23:22,610
Speaker 3: play into the middle anthology segment in the movie where

424
00:23:22,650 --> 00:23:25,330
Speaker 3: they discuss how a shallow bite means you don't turn.

425
00:23:25,350 --> 00:23:29,210
Speaker 3: It's just a feed, you know, feed and you'll be fine.

426
00:23:29,230 --> 00:23:30,720
Speaker 3: You walk away from it. I guess it's like a

427
00:23:30,740 --> 00:23:33,540
Speaker 3: blood draw at the doctor's office. but a deep bite

428
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 3: means you turn into a vampire. Uh, so this was

429
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:40,619
Speaker 3: a shallow bite. He's not going to transform himself. Aramis

430
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:42,980
Speaker 3: also says, by the way, uh, your blood's the best

431
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,160
Speaker 3: I've ever tasted. Really delicious blood. Uh, I don't know.

432
00:23:46,220 --> 00:23:47,600
Speaker 3: Do you, how do you take news like that? Is

433
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:48,439
Speaker 3: that a compliment?

434
00:23:49,740 --> 00:23:51,560
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it is a compliment to his

435
00:23:51,619 --> 00:23:55,050
Speaker 2: skills as a horror writer. That's what I'm to take care. Uh, yeah,

436
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,790
Speaker 2: I will say in the original novel, I did read

437
00:23:57,850 --> 00:24:01,100
Speaker 2: enough of the sample to, to, to get to this part. Um,

438
00:24:01,780 --> 00:24:05,379
Speaker 2: Chetwin Hayes is not a character within his own book.

439
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:09,280
Speaker 2: So in the book, Aramis seems to be like a

440
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:13,570
Speaker 2: very British vampire. And then his victim, this guy, I

441
00:24:13,570 --> 00:24:15,790
Speaker 2: think his name's Donald in the book, is like very

442
00:24:15,810 --> 00:24:19,869
Speaker 2: much just a working class British guy. So that's the

443
00:24:19,910 --> 00:24:22,010
Speaker 2: whole vibe. And then maybe that plays into where we

444
00:24:22,050 --> 00:24:25,389
Speaker 2: ultimately go with the idea that he's, in many respects,

445
00:24:25,450 --> 00:24:26,389
Speaker 2: a typical human.

446
00:24:27,490 --> 00:24:30,250
Speaker 3: Oh, I see. Well, yeah, there are a couple of

447
00:24:30,510 --> 00:24:33,570
Speaker 3: kind of contradictory things about how it handles the idea

448
00:24:33,609 --> 00:24:35,510
Speaker 3: of a horror writer. We can talk about those in

449
00:24:35,550 --> 00:24:39,619
Speaker 3: a minute. One of the first halves or the first

450
00:24:39,700 --> 00:24:43,020
Speaker 3: part of one of these contradictions is that Aramis is

451
00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,560
Speaker 3: a huge fan of Chet Wenday. He loves his stories

452
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,180
Speaker 3: in his books. You know, thinks they've done a lot

453
00:24:49,220 --> 00:24:51,980
Speaker 3: to promote the cause of monsterdom. And he's like, everyone

454
00:24:52,020 --> 00:24:55,869
Speaker 3: loves to read about themselves. But in books, aren't the

455
00:24:55,910 --> 00:24:58,609
Speaker 3: vampires always the bad guys? I guess they like it anyway.

456
00:24:59,030 --> 00:25:01,090
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I guess one of the themes

457
00:25:01,150 --> 00:25:03,490
Speaker 2: here with this book, or at least the stories that

458
00:25:03,530 --> 00:25:06,330
Speaker 2: are adapted here, is that all of them are stories

459
00:25:06,369 --> 00:25:09,950
Speaker 2: in which we feel at least some amount of sympathy

460
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:13,460
Speaker 2: for at least some of the monsters.

461
00:25:13,540 --> 00:25:18,260
Speaker 3: That's true, yeah. So Chetwynd Hayes tries to leave this encounter,

462
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 3: but Aramis appeals to him. He's like, hey, hang out,

463
00:25:21,060 --> 00:25:23,760
Speaker 3: you know, hang out with me tonight. He says, I'll

464
00:25:23,780 --> 00:25:27,220
Speaker 3: take you somewhere. You can get lots of new material

465
00:25:27,300 --> 00:25:30,430
Speaker 3: for your books. It's a place called the Monster Club.

466
00:25:30,490 --> 00:25:32,490
Speaker 3: And he makes a pitch. He's like, you'll see every

467
00:25:32,550 --> 00:25:36,129
Speaker 3: kind of monster and ghoul and vampire there and you'll

468
00:25:36,150 --> 00:25:38,230
Speaker 3: get to learn all about us. So so you can

469
00:25:38,430 --> 00:25:42,200
Speaker 3: get whole books out of this. So Chetwynd Hayes agrees.

470
00:25:42,619 --> 00:25:45,510
Speaker 3: We go there next. So Aramis and Chetwynd Hayes arrive

471
00:25:45,550 --> 00:25:49,110
Speaker 3: at the club. And before we follow what they're doing there,

472
00:25:49,170 --> 00:25:51,530
Speaker 3: I think we should talk about the first of several

473
00:25:51,770 --> 00:25:55,810
Speaker 3: musical performances in the film, the first of which happens here.

474
00:25:56,430 --> 00:26:03,530
Speaker 3: And it is the song Monsters Rule Okay by The Viewers. Yes, yes. Monsters.

475
00:26:03,730 --> 00:26:09,150
Speaker 2: It goes, Monsters rule okay. And it's like, cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha. And it's...

476
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:12,260
Speaker 2: And you will feel, as is the case with all

477
00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 2: of the musical numbers, you will hear the entire song.

478
00:26:16,140 --> 00:26:20,540
Speaker 2: They are performed in their entirety. And I love a

479
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 2: good novelty monster song, but I have to say this

480
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:24,540
Speaker 2: one is a lot. This one's a lot to take.

481
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,020
Speaker 3: I like the verse better than the chorus in this one.

482
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,640
Speaker 3: The verse has some good nervous energy and an emotional

483
00:26:31,700 --> 00:26:34,379
Speaker 3: chord progression. I was thinking the verse sounds like it

484
00:26:34,420 --> 00:26:37,570
Speaker 3: could be an Elvis Costello song. But then the chorus

485
00:26:37,609 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 3: hits and the chorus just I mean, I love, you know,

486
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,800
Speaker 3: a monster celebration, but it feels like a placeholder that

487
00:26:44,820 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 3: they never came back to, you know?

488
00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,850
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I think that's a good read on it.

489
00:26:50,660 --> 00:26:52,820
Speaker 2: I was not familiar with the viewers, but they were

490
00:26:52,900 --> 00:26:57,060
Speaker 2: a UK new wave slash punk slash ska band that

491
00:26:57,100 --> 00:27:01,300
Speaker 2: put out a single EP titled Accident in 1980. And

492
00:27:01,340 --> 00:27:05,619
Speaker 2: then the lead vocalist here, Alan Jari, went on to

493
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:09,220
Speaker 2: be in the post-punk band Perfect Zebras. And I think

494
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,550
Speaker 2: perfect zebras are still around. As will be the case

495
00:27:12,570 --> 00:27:14,490
Speaker 2: with any of the musical acts that we're referencing in

496
00:27:14,510 --> 00:27:16,730
Speaker 2: this film, listeners, if you were a fan or you

497
00:27:16,750 --> 00:27:19,010
Speaker 2: know more about them than we do, write in and

498
00:27:19,030 --> 00:27:21,790
Speaker 2: we'll hash it out in future listener mail episodes.

499
00:27:22,530 --> 00:27:25,850
Speaker 3: Almost all of the musical performers in the club seem

500
00:27:25,890 --> 00:27:29,750
Speaker 3: to be human, but the people in the club, like

501
00:27:29,790 --> 00:27:32,230
Speaker 3: the people that are dancing on the dance floor and

502
00:27:32,390 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 3: working as servers and the maitre d' and all that,

503
00:27:35,380 --> 00:27:37,980
Speaker 3: so the customers and the workers apart from the band

504
00:27:38,060 --> 00:27:41,820
Speaker 3: are all monsters. Um, though I will say there's very

505
00:27:41,900 --> 00:27:44,780
Speaker 3: little effort on a lot of the monster costumes in

506
00:27:44,820 --> 00:27:47,680
Speaker 3: the club. Uh, some of them are just rubber Halloween

507
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:52,110
Speaker 3: masks that look like Frankenstein or maybe a snaggletooth zombie. Yeah.

508
00:27:52,130 --> 00:27:53,630
Speaker 2: They look store-bought for sure. Yes.

509
00:27:54,210 --> 00:27:56,550
Speaker 3: Uh, so I don't know. I mean, you could read

510
00:27:56,609 --> 00:27:59,050
Speaker 3: that as they are supposed to be, those are their

511
00:27:59,090 --> 00:28:02,230
Speaker 3: real faces and it's just kind of low effort. Or

512
00:28:02,470 --> 00:28:04,359
Speaker 3: it could be that these are supposed to be people

513
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:07,240
Speaker 3: in Halloween masks who have snuck into the club. I

514
00:28:07,260 --> 00:28:09,120
Speaker 3: don't know which one it is. Yeah.

515
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 2: Um, It's, I mean, maybe they're monsters underneath cheap monster masks,

516
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:17,979
Speaker 2: but the end result is it does look cheap AF,

517
00:28:18,140 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 2: as the kids would say. And yet not at the

518
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:24,980
Speaker 2: same time. Like, it's a weird mix because the lighting

519
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,449
Speaker 2: is nice and it doesn't, I mean, I get, I

520
00:28:28,630 --> 00:28:31,609
Speaker 2: kind of buy into this environment, but it's hard to

521
00:28:31,650 --> 00:28:33,690
Speaker 2: get past those monster masks. I've seen a lot of

522
00:28:33,730 --> 00:28:36,990
Speaker 2: people reference this in their reviews saying it's like a

523
00:28:37,030 --> 00:28:38,770
Speaker 2: spirit Halloween party or something.

524
00:28:38,790 --> 00:28:38,870
Speaker 1: Yeah.

525
00:28:40,220 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 2: And then, yeah, a lot of the people attending are,

526
00:28:42,380 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 2: I guess, supposed to be monsters, but they just look

527
00:28:44,140 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 2: like people. One of them credited as Buxom.

528
00:28:47,100 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 3: Sometimes with purple hair.

529
00:28:48,180 --> 00:28:50,940
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Sometimes they do have different hair colors, which

530
00:28:51,060 --> 00:28:53,630
Speaker 2: I guess gives them some sort of monster status. I

531
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:57,110
Speaker 2: don't know. One of them is credited as Buxom Beauty.

532
00:28:57,670 --> 00:29:02,250
Speaker 2: And she just looks otherwise human. She's played by Fran Follenweider,

533
00:29:02,350 --> 00:29:06,930
Speaker 2: who lived 1945 through 1997. Her other credits include the

534
00:29:06,970 --> 00:29:09,240
Speaker 2: Rocky Horror Picture Show. in which he plays one of

535
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:10,300
Speaker 2: the Transylvanians.

536
00:29:10,740 --> 00:29:13,180
Speaker 3: Well, speaking of Rocky Horror, did you notice the coat

537
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:17,150
Speaker 3: check lady with the vampire fangs looks like magenta? Yeah, yeah.

538
00:29:17,390 --> 00:29:20,830
Speaker 2: There are some strong comparisons to be made. Actually, we

539
00:29:20,870 --> 00:29:23,770
Speaker 2: just watched Rocky Horror as a family the other night.

540
00:29:24,390 --> 00:29:27,610
Speaker 2: We figured it was time. And yeah, there are some

541
00:29:27,630 --> 00:29:30,630
Speaker 2: interesting ways that what they're going for here seems to

542
00:29:31,590 --> 00:29:36,470
Speaker 2: aspire for what came together so organically in the Rocky

543
00:29:36,490 --> 00:29:37,210
Speaker 2: Horror Picture Show.

544
00:29:37,990 --> 00:29:41,620
Speaker 3: Though it's a tamer, little, it's a little tickle of

545
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 3: Rocky Horror and not much more. So, but yeah, the

546
00:29:45,540 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 3: coat check lady looks like Magenta, takes their coats. She

547
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 3: kind of, she spins out of a hidden passageway in

548
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,250
Speaker 3: the wall and then gives Carradine's neck a good look

549
00:29:54,290 --> 00:29:56,630
Speaker 3: while she's taking the coat. So that moment also feels

550
00:29:56,690 --> 00:29:58,750
Speaker 3: kind of Rocky Horror somehow, like the way she just

551
00:29:58,810 --> 00:30:02,030
Speaker 3: comes out of the wall. But anyway, Eramis is a

552
00:30:02,130 --> 00:30:05,270
Speaker 3: regular here. So the maitre d' Wolfgang shows them to

553
00:30:05,350 --> 00:30:08,940
Speaker 3: his table. The table is a green glowing coffin up

554
00:30:09,060 --> 00:30:13,420
Speaker 3: on legs. And Wolfgang keeps trying to bite Carradine, by

555
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 3: the way. And Eramis has to be like, no, no.

556
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:20,100
Speaker 3: So you get the impression maybe sometimes Eramis brings humans

557
00:30:20,140 --> 00:30:22,220
Speaker 3: here with him and then they just feast on them.

558
00:30:22,500 --> 00:30:27,000
Speaker 2: Yeah. And Vincent Price is great in these sequences. I mean,

559
00:30:27,020 --> 00:30:29,900
Speaker 2: he's really driving the car. Yeah. And he does a

560
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 2: good job.

561
00:30:31,830 --> 00:30:34,210
Speaker 3: When they order drinks, there are some yuck yucks about

562
00:30:34,330 --> 00:30:38,150
Speaker 3: Aramis's snooty preferences about blood type. Like he wants type B,

563
00:30:38,210 --> 00:30:39,850
Speaker 3: but they don't have it. So he's like, well, I'll

564
00:30:39,890 --> 00:30:43,460
Speaker 3: have to settle for a common type O. They never

565
00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 3: do tasting notes on the blood, though. And then they

566
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 3: suggest that Chetwynd Hayes drink tomato juice so as not

567
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:54,610
Speaker 3: to appear conspicuous. Yeah. And then somewhere around here is

568
00:30:54,650 --> 00:30:57,330
Speaker 3: where the Monsters Rule OK song finishes. And then it

569
00:30:57,390 --> 00:31:00,250
Speaker 3: goes into soft reggae. Was this UB40?

570
00:31:00,330 --> 00:31:02,550
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure this is the UB40 track.

571
00:31:03,510 --> 00:31:06,430
Speaker 3: There's a bit of comedy chatter here. Aramis goes on

572
00:31:06,450 --> 00:31:09,210
Speaker 3: a rant about how it is hard to get fresh

573
00:31:09,290 --> 00:31:13,290
Speaker 3: blood from the source these days because people are too

574
00:31:13,510 --> 00:31:18,210
Speaker 3: educated about how to protect themselves from vampires. Everybody knows

575
00:31:18,290 --> 00:31:22,690
Speaker 3: about garlic and wooden stakes and all that stuff. Uh,

576
00:31:22,710 --> 00:31:25,130
Speaker 3: and so he's, he's kind of upset. It's like, you know,

577
00:31:25,490 --> 00:31:28,930
Speaker 3: these horror writers and the horror movies have, have given

578
00:31:29,020 --> 00:31:31,180
Speaker 3: out all of their secrets and now they can't ply

579
00:31:31,220 --> 00:31:34,340
Speaker 3: their trade correctly. I know it's foolish to look for

580
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:38,020
Speaker 3: consistency here, but wouldn't this conflict with the monster's love

581
00:31:38,220 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 3: of the horror author as stated earlier? Like, aren't people

582
00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:44,770
Speaker 3: like Chetwynd Hayes blowing the vampire's cover?

583
00:31:45,190 --> 00:31:47,130
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right.

584
00:31:47,650 --> 00:31:47,770
Speaker 1: Yeah.

585
00:31:48,610 --> 00:31:50,410
Speaker 3: I was thinking about this and it kind of reminded

586
00:31:50,470 --> 00:31:54,180
Speaker 3: me of how in The Sopranos, all the mafia guys

587
00:31:54,340 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 3: love watching The Godfather and the mob movies and they're

588
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,820
Speaker 3: quoting them all the time. But also they constantly deny

589
00:32:00,860 --> 00:32:04,820
Speaker 3: that the mafia exists. It's kind of going against each

590
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:10,970
Speaker 3: other there. Anyway, so from here, the movie goes into

591
00:32:11,030 --> 00:32:16,130
Speaker 3: this bizarre genealogical subplot where Eramis refers to a chart

592
00:32:16,310 --> 00:32:20,050
Speaker 3: on the wall. And starts explaining all of the hybrid

593
00:32:20,130 --> 00:32:23,820
Speaker 3: monsters that you get when you crossbreed different types of monsters.

594
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 3: So a werewolf and a vampire, you know, they have

595
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:31,580
Speaker 3: a child and that's a werevamp. A vampire and a

596
00:32:31,660 --> 00:32:35,100
Speaker 3: ghoul make a vamgu. And on and on. And there

597
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,000
Speaker 3: are like 10 or 12 of these things and they

598
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,180
Speaker 3: all get explained. And it's pretty funny.

599
00:32:40,410 --> 00:32:43,410
Speaker 2: Now, checking out the full text that this is based on,

600
00:32:43,450 --> 00:32:47,910
Speaker 2: there are stories in it about multiple monsters off of

601
00:32:47,990 --> 00:32:51,760
Speaker 2: this chart. So the full text includes the following stories,

602
00:32:51,820 --> 00:32:55,860
Speaker 2: the werewolf and the vampire, the mock, the humgu, the shadmock,

603
00:32:56,540 --> 00:33:00,060
Speaker 2: and the fly-by-night. I'm not sure which monster is the fly-by-night.

604
00:33:00,100 --> 00:33:04,950
Speaker 2: But yeah, these are some wonderfully, I think, intentionally humorous

605
00:33:05,030 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 2: monster names for these different. subcategories i was fully expecting

606
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 2: the zaddy to be one of them based on the

607
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:11,340
Speaker 2: way they sound.

608
00:33:11,340 --> 00:33:14,300
Speaker 3: Yeah they have a shatty and a maddie i think

609
00:33:14,540 --> 00:33:17,300
Speaker 3: and uh and but it's spelled like it would be

610
00:33:17,340 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 3: pronounced hum goo but they actually say it hum.

611
00:33:20,530 --> 00:33:23,350
Speaker 2: Goo and oh yes yes the hum goo because humans

612
00:33:23,410 --> 00:33:26,450
Speaker 2: are humes yes right um we're also told this was

613
00:33:26,490 --> 00:33:28,210
Speaker 2: in the i got this right out of the book

614
00:33:28,330 --> 00:33:30,890
Speaker 2: and i believe they stress this as well that vampires

615
00:33:30,970 --> 00:33:37,910
Speaker 2: sup werewolves hunt ghouls care shatties lick Maddie's yawn, Mok's blow,

616
00:33:38,290 --> 00:33:39,670
Speaker 2: and Shadmok's only whistle.

617
00:33:40,610 --> 00:33:43,750
Speaker 3: Right. So they start talking about this last element here,

618
00:33:43,810 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 3: the Shadmok's whistle. Apparently the whistle of a Shadmok is

619
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:50,620
Speaker 3: one of the most terrifying powers of the monster world.

620
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:54,840
Speaker 3: And Aramis says, I heard of a man once who

621
00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:57,940
Speaker 3: saw the results of a Shadmok's whistle. And then it

622
00:33:57,980 --> 00:34:00,960
Speaker 3: cuts to a padded room, guy in a straight jacket

623
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:04,240
Speaker 3: inside the room. And this sets up the anthology segments

624
00:34:04,620 --> 00:34:06,280
Speaker 3: that will make up the bulk of the film. This

625
00:34:06,340 --> 00:34:09,359
Speaker 3: is the first one. Is it just called The Shadmock,

626
00:34:09,430 --> 00:34:09,720
Speaker 3: I think?

627
00:34:10,469 --> 00:34:12,170
Speaker 2: I believe so, yes, The Shadmock.

628
00:34:13,550 --> 00:34:14,630
Speaker 3: Let's see, how are we going to do this? Are

629
00:34:14,650 --> 00:34:16,880
Speaker 3: we going to talk about the cast of each one?

630
00:34:17,010 --> 00:34:19,730
Speaker 3: And then we'll do a brief plot summary?

631
00:34:19,930 --> 00:34:21,770
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just kind of treat them as like mini

632
00:34:21,810 --> 00:34:25,009
Speaker 2: weird houses within weird houses here. So the cast here,

633
00:34:25,070 --> 00:34:27,839
Speaker 2: first of all, we have Angela. and Angela is played

634
00:34:27,900 --> 00:34:32,710
Speaker 2: by Barbara Kellerman. Born 1949, British actress best known to

635
00:34:32,790 --> 00:34:35,030
Speaker 2: many of us as the White Witch, and then later

636
00:34:35,050 --> 00:34:38,430
Speaker 2: the Hag and the Green Lady from the 1980s TV

637
00:34:38,489 --> 00:34:42,569
Speaker 2: adaptations of the C.S. Lewis Narnia books. So for many

638
00:34:42,610 --> 00:34:45,589
Speaker 2: of us, before Tilda came along, this was our first

639
00:34:45,650 --> 00:34:49,710
Speaker 2: White Queen crush right here. Her other credits include an

640
00:34:49,750 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 2: episode of Hammer House of Horror, let's see, 69's The

641
00:34:53,739 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 2: Oblong Box, 76's Satan's Slave, and 79's Equator Mass Conclusion.

642
00:35:00,940 --> 00:35:05,939
Speaker 2: Here she plays the conflicted wife to a devoted con man,

643
00:35:06,300 --> 00:35:08,469
Speaker 2: arguably not as conflicted as she could have been at

644
00:35:08,510 --> 00:35:11,509
Speaker 2: certain times. But I would say that she's great in this.

645
00:35:12,290 --> 00:35:15,430
Speaker 2: She's making some bad choices, but you feel a fair

646
00:35:15,450 --> 00:35:16,480
Speaker 2: amount of compassion for her.

647
00:35:17,070 --> 00:35:20,350
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, she's really being used by her boyfriend, George,

648
00:35:20,530 --> 00:35:23,370
Speaker 3: played by Simon Ward. George is always, he's making her

649
00:35:23,430 --> 00:35:26,149
Speaker 3: do all the hard work and he's just complaining about

650
00:35:26,190 --> 00:35:28,260
Speaker 3: her efforts the whole time. He's like, you go out,

651
00:35:28,780 --> 00:35:31,279
Speaker 3: you scam this guy, you do the stealing for both

652
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 3: of us. It'll be our big score. And he's just

653
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:34,300
Speaker 3: sitting home watching TV.

654
00:35:34,340 --> 00:35:37,440
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. He's doing nothing. Yeah. So, yeah, Simon Ward

655
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:41,940
Speaker 2: plays the boyfriend, George. He lived 1941 through 2012. British

656
00:35:42,020 --> 00:35:45,739
Speaker 2: actor of stage, screen, and TV. Easily recognizable by his

657
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 2: wide-set penetrating eyes, which made him a great villain or

658
00:35:49,700 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 2: otherwise dangerous character, you know. But he also played Winston

659
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 2: Churchill in the 1972 film Young Winston. His other credits

660
00:35:57,700 --> 00:36:02,310
Speaker 2: include 69's Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, 74's Dracula. That's the

661
00:36:02,950 --> 00:36:06,350
Speaker 2: Palance one. Uh, 73 is the three musketeers and its

662
00:36:06,390 --> 00:36:12,110
Speaker 2: sequel 79 Zulu Don 84 Supergirl and 92s, uh, Wuthering Heights.

663
00:36:12,570 --> 00:36:15,340
Speaker 2: So yeah, he's great here. Uh, very slimy character.

664
00:36:15,700 --> 00:36:15,899
Speaker 1: Yes.

665
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:19,779
Speaker 2: And then we also have our Shadmock. Uh, we're going

666
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,859
Speaker 2: to learn that this Shadmock's name is Raven and he's

667
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:27,700
Speaker 2: played by James Lawrenson who lived 1940 through 2024, New

668
00:36:27,739 --> 00:36:30,319
Speaker 2: Zealand born stage and screen actor who enjoyed a long

669
00:36:30,340 --> 00:36:34,089
Speaker 2: career in the UK, very active in Shakespearean theater. His

670
00:36:34,150 --> 00:36:38,210
Speaker 2: film credits include 69's Women in Love, 82's Pink Floyd,

671
00:36:38,250 --> 00:36:41,170
Speaker 2: The Wall. He plays Pink's father in that. And he

672
00:36:41,210 --> 00:36:43,719
Speaker 2: also has at least a small role. I saw this,

673
00:36:43,739 --> 00:36:47,500
Speaker 2: but I don't really remember him in it. 2022's Matilda,

674
00:36:47,540 --> 00:36:48,120
Speaker 2: The Musical.

675
00:36:49,380 --> 00:36:52,700
Speaker 3: He's got some things working against him in this role,

676
00:36:52,900 --> 00:36:56,960
Speaker 3: including his ridiculous makeup and haircut, which is supposed to

677
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 3: be horrifying, but instead is somewhat comical. But yeah, I

678
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:02,989
Speaker 3: give this guy credit. He's making it through.

679
00:37:03,530 --> 00:37:06,110
Speaker 2: Yeah, he plays a monster that is supposed to be

680
00:37:06,219 --> 00:37:11,600
Speaker 2: hideous to behold, like unlovably hideous, but basically looks just

681
00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:17,020
Speaker 2: like a pale British guy in a funny haircut. You know,

682
00:37:17,060 --> 00:37:20,739
Speaker 2: it does not look hideous. But, you know, he's a

683
00:37:20,780 --> 00:37:23,420
Speaker 2: great actor. He leans into it. He makes you believe it.

684
00:37:23,590 --> 00:37:25,109
Speaker 2: And as do the other performers here.

685
00:37:25,510 --> 00:37:25,650
Speaker 1: Yeah.

686
00:37:26,350 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 2: Now, allegedly, Pat Roach, the British big man pro wrestler

687
00:37:31,780 --> 00:37:35,180
Speaker 2: who's in all sorts of films, including Indiana, all three

688
00:37:35,219 --> 00:37:39,320
Speaker 2: Indiana Jones films, I believe. Oh, really? Yeah, he's on IMDb.

689
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,360
Speaker 2: He's credited as being in this playing great uncle Uriah.

690
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:45,240
Speaker 2: I don't remember him. And I look for him again

691
00:37:45,260 --> 00:37:46,739
Speaker 2: and it's like, I don't know where he's supposed to

692
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:47,640
Speaker 2: fit into the plot here.

693
00:37:47,820 --> 00:37:50,180
Speaker 3: Well, he looks very different. I'm used to thinking of

694
00:37:50,260 --> 00:37:54,110
Speaker 3: Pat Roach as very is very sure and very hairless

695
00:37:54,130 --> 00:37:56,510
Speaker 3: because I think of him as the big, bald Nazi

696
00:37:56,550 --> 00:37:59,609
Speaker 3: that fights with Harrison Ford and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

697
00:37:59,630 --> 00:38:02,110
Speaker 3: You get squashed by the propeller blades of the airplane.

698
00:38:03,200 --> 00:38:05,759
Speaker 3: But in this, the great uncle Uriah guy is the

699
00:38:05,780 --> 00:38:07,920
Speaker 3: guy with the big beard and the long hair who

700
00:38:07,980 --> 00:38:11,219
Speaker 3: comes to the party later and dances with. That's right.

701
00:38:11,890 --> 00:38:13,660
Speaker 3: Dances with Angela. Yeah.

702
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:17,230
Speaker 2: So that's that's that's Pat Roach. Pat Roach gets in

703
00:38:17,270 --> 00:38:21,230
Speaker 2: there and has his cameo. And then we also have

704
00:38:21,410 --> 00:38:24,770
Speaker 2: the musical score here is of note. Douglas Gamley or Gamley.

705
00:38:25,489 --> 00:38:31,030
Speaker 2: lived 1924 through 1998. Australian-born composer whose other credits include

706
00:38:31,469 --> 00:38:35,940
Speaker 2: 1960s Horror Hotel, the 1972 Amicus Tales from the Crypt,

707
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 2: 73's The Vault of Horror, 74's Madhouse, From Beyond the Grave,

708
00:38:40,980 --> 00:38:43,779
Speaker 2: and The Beast Must Die, as well as The Land

709
00:38:43,820 --> 00:38:47,330
Speaker 2: That Time Forgot. So I would say effective horror score

710
00:38:47,390 --> 00:38:50,490
Speaker 2: here on the more traditional sort of, you know, hammer

711
00:38:50,530 --> 00:38:51,810
Speaker 2: horror format.

712
00:38:52,610 --> 00:39:03,810
Speaker 3: Cool. All right, you ready to do the plot?

713
00:39:04,070 --> 00:39:05,380
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because this is the fun one.

714
00:39:05,910 --> 00:39:07,469
Speaker 3: So for these segments, I think we're not going to

715
00:39:07,510 --> 00:39:09,950
Speaker 3: go as granular on the plot as we sometimes do

716
00:39:09,989 --> 00:39:12,590
Speaker 3: for Weird House movies. I'll try to give a higher

717
00:39:12,630 --> 00:39:14,609
Speaker 3: level summary, and then we can come back and talk

718
00:39:14,650 --> 00:39:18,980
Speaker 3: about any details that strike us. But the story goes,

719
00:39:19,140 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 3: a young couple in London named George and Angela are

720
00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:25,460
Speaker 3: looking for a way to score some money. George is

721
00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:28,870
Speaker 3: the type who views working or making money a bit

722
00:39:28,910 --> 00:39:31,899
Speaker 3: at a time as beneath him. Uh, he he's like

723
00:39:31,940 --> 00:39:33,660
Speaker 3: the only way to do it is to get the

724
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,569
Speaker 3: one big score, the one big scam that will set

725
00:39:36,610 --> 00:39:40,089
Speaker 3: you up for life. And so they find a, they're

726
00:39:40,110 --> 00:39:42,410
Speaker 3: sort of looking for a sucker that they can con

727
00:39:42,790 --> 00:39:45,900
Speaker 3: and they find a classified ad in the newspaper. Where

728
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,700
Speaker 3: a man named Raven, who lives at a vast old

729
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:52,450
Speaker 3: manor house, wants to hire somebody to help catalog antiques.

730
00:39:52,510 --> 00:39:56,009
Speaker 3: He's an antiquities dealer. And obviously he seems like a

731
00:39:56,050 --> 00:39:59,130
Speaker 3: rich guy, so George convinces Angela to take the job

732
00:39:59,210 --> 00:40:01,630
Speaker 3: so that they can steal from this guy or scam

733
00:40:01,670 --> 00:40:06,009
Speaker 3: him somehow. Angela goes to the house. She discovers that

734
00:40:06,050 --> 00:40:09,090
Speaker 3: the man is hideous to look at. Again, he's not

735
00:40:09,250 --> 00:40:12,410
Speaker 3: actually as hideous as the writing would suggest. He's like

736
00:40:12,489 --> 00:40:16,049
Speaker 3: pale and has a very weird looking haircut, not actually monstrous.

737
00:40:16,630 --> 00:40:19,910
Speaker 3: I think what they're going for with his face is

738
00:40:20,170 --> 00:40:24,029
Speaker 3: a very toned down version of Lon Chaney's Phantom of

739
00:40:24,070 --> 00:40:24,730
Speaker 3: the Opera.

740
00:40:24,750 --> 00:40:27,510
Speaker 2: Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, I think you're right.

741
00:40:27,590 --> 00:40:31,480
Speaker 2: I think that was maybe the target they were going

742
00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:35,700
Speaker 2: for here. Yeah. And let's achieve that without any additional makeup.

743
00:40:35,739 --> 00:40:38,680
Speaker 2: Let's base it as much on a human face as possible. Right.

744
00:40:39,469 --> 00:40:43,390
Speaker 3: So despite being initially repulsed, Angela starts working at the house.

745
00:40:43,590 --> 00:40:47,969
Speaker 3: And over time, Raven, who, of course, is the titular Shadmok,

746
00:40:48,330 --> 00:40:51,330
Speaker 3: starts to trust her. And then eventually he falls in

747
00:40:51,410 --> 00:40:55,609
Speaker 3: love with her and proposes marriage. Now, we should talk

748
00:40:55,630 --> 00:40:57,770
Speaker 3: about how there are some parts in the story where

749
00:40:57,810 --> 00:41:01,930
Speaker 3: you see his Shadmok powers. Angela doesn't quite witness them,

750
00:41:01,989 --> 00:41:04,709
Speaker 3: or at least not directly. But there's one part where

751
00:41:04,790 --> 00:41:07,569
Speaker 3: we see him taking care of some pigeons in his

752
00:41:07,610 --> 00:41:10,029
Speaker 3: yard or maybe some doves. He's a fan of these

753
00:41:10,130 --> 00:41:13,410
Speaker 3: birds and he feeds them. And a cat sneaks into

754
00:41:13,469 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 3: his big lawn and kills one of the birds that

755
00:41:16,780 --> 00:41:20,040
Speaker 3: he loves. And then he finds the dead bird and

756
00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:23,399
Speaker 3: he's distraught. And then he sees the cat sitting there

757
00:41:23,500 --> 00:41:27,450
Speaker 3: licking its lips, and he begins to whistle. And then later,

758
00:41:28,010 --> 00:41:31,990
Speaker 3: Angela comes outside after hearing this blood-chilling whistle from far away,

759
00:41:32,070 --> 00:41:34,910
Speaker 3: and she just sees a puddle of cat on the ground.

760
00:41:34,930 --> 00:41:36,230
Speaker 3: Just the cat is melted.

761
00:41:36,250 --> 00:41:40,739
Speaker 2: Yeah, this creature's whistle is so powerful that it can

762
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,359
Speaker 2: just straight up melt a cat into nothing in just

763
00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:47,779
Speaker 2: a matter of seconds. And it's, I mean, it sounds

764
00:41:47,820 --> 00:41:51,379
Speaker 2: kind of funny, but it's played straight, and it's terrifying because...

765
00:41:51,940 --> 00:41:57,240
Speaker 2: In this scene, especially, the Shadmach is a timid monster.

766
00:41:58,290 --> 00:42:03,230
Speaker 2: You know, he seems full of anxieties. And this whistle

767
00:42:03,270 --> 00:42:06,090
Speaker 2: seems a very deadly weapon that he doesn't have a

768
00:42:06,130 --> 00:42:08,669
Speaker 2: lot of control over. It seems as much, it's almost

769
00:42:08,690 --> 00:42:12,220
Speaker 2: like an unconscious response to not only like physical threats,

770
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:13,820
Speaker 2: but just like emotional threats.

771
00:42:14,739 --> 00:42:17,850
Speaker 3: Yeah, we never see him use it in a predatory way.

772
00:42:17,989 --> 00:42:22,049
Speaker 3: He uses it when he is overcome with emotion after

773
00:42:22,090 --> 00:42:29,100
Speaker 3: having been wounded. Yeah. So George suggests that Angela accept

774
00:42:29,180 --> 00:42:31,919
Speaker 3: this wedding proposal from the Shadmach so that she can

775
00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:34,780
Speaker 3: get closer to him and get an opportunity to steal

776
00:42:34,860 --> 00:42:37,219
Speaker 3: money that they know this guy has stashed in his

777
00:42:37,260 --> 00:42:40,049
Speaker 3: safe because this guy has got big rolls of cash

778
00:42:40,090 --> 00:42:44,130
Speaker 3: that he uses to buy these antiquities. So Angela says

779
00:42:44,230 --> 00:42:47,590
Speaker 3: yes to the marriage proposal. Raven throws a party to

780
00:42:47,630 --> 00:42:51,070
Speaker 3: celebrate their engagement in the form of a masquerade ball.

781
00:42:51,130 --> 00:42:53,469
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of the guests we see

782
00:42:53,530 --> 00:42:55,950
Speaker 3: here at the masquerade are also people we see in

783
00:42:55,969 --> 00:42:57,990
Speaker 3: the Monster Club, but I can't be sure of that.

784
00:42:58,330 --> 00:43:01,850
Speaker 2: Yeah, that would make sense. They have different costumes, though. Here,

785
00:43:01,930 --> 00:43:05,489
Speaker 2: they're wearing all these masks that they all have kind

786
00:43:05,510 --> 00:43:09,430
Speaker 2: of a plexiglass or clear plastic kind of appearance. And

787
00:43:11,590 --> 00:43:14,750
Speaker 2: It has a creepy effect because, I don't know, it

788
00:43:15,850 --> 00:43:20,250
Speaker 2: reminds me of a particular mask that I think Hannibal

789
00:43:20,310 --> 00:43:23,330
Speaker 2: wears at some point in the Hannibal TV show. Everything

790
00:43:23,370 --> 00:43:27,009
Speaker 2: feels very unsettling. And again, it's kind of like, what

791
00:43:27,050 --> 00:43:30,570
Speaker 2: kind of faces are under there? Presumably monster faces, but

792
00:43:30,660 --> 00:43:31,900
Speaker 2: we don't get a great look at them.

793
00:43:32,420 --> 00:43:36,180
Speaker 3: Yeah, because the masks are creepier because they're not masks

794
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:41,320
Speaker 3: of anything. It's not a witch mask or a... vampire mask.

795
00:43:41,380 --> 00:43:47,580
Speaker 3: It's just a clear plastic mask that obscures your actual features. Okay,

796
00:43:47,620 --> 00:43:49,919
Speaker 3: so in the middle of the party, Angela sneaks away

797
00:43:49,940 --> 00:43:53,140
Speaker 3: to Raven's study to open the safe and steal his money,

798
00:43:53,340 --> 00:43:56,390
Speaker 3: but he catches her in the act, and he is

799
00:43:56,469 --> 00:43:59,390
Speaker 3: devastated by this. He tells her, you know, I would

800
00:43:59,430 --> 00:44:01,290
Speaker 3: give you whatever you want. I would give you the

801
00:44:01,330 --> 00:44:03,730
Speaker 3: money in the safe, but could you still love me?

802
00:44:04,610 --> 00:44:07,790
Speaker 3: And she makes a kind of bad move here. Instead

803
00:44:07,870 --> 00:44:10,660
Speaker 3: of just like getting out of there. She decides she's

804
00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:13,070
Speaker 3: really got to tell this guy how ugly he is. Uh,

805
00:44:14,050 --> 00:44:17,469
Speaker 3: so she's like, you're horrible, horrible, horrible. I could never

806
00:44:17,530 --> 00:44:21,290
Speaker 3: love you. And so he is overcome and then he

807
00:44:21,350 --> 00:44:24,630
Speaker 3: puts his lips together and we zoom in as the

808
00:44:24,690 --> 00:44:28,750
Speaker 3: whistle begins and then cut to later, uh, George Angela's

809
00:44:28,770 --> 00:44:31,090
Speaker 3: good for nothing. Boyfriend who never seems to leave the

810
00:44:31,130 --> 00:44:34,239
Speaker 3: apartment is at their apartment and there's a knock at

811
00:44:34,260 --> 00:44:37,020
Speaker 3: the door. Angela comes home with her face hidden when

812
00:44:37,060 --> 00:44:39,410
Speaker 3: she comes in. She goes to the corner of the

813
00:44:39,469 --> 00:44:43,069
Speaker 3: room and then turns around and uncovers her face to

814
00:44:43,140 --> 00:44:46,900
Speaker 3: reveal that the whistle has turned her into a melt zombie.

815
00:44:47,340 --> 00:44:49,760
Speaker 3: So now she's got like her, you can see her hair,

816
00:44:49,820 --> 00:44:52,430
Speaker 3: but it looks kind of muddy and her face is

817
00:44:52,530 --> 00:44:56,170
Speaker 3: just a melted mask, you know, kind of depressions where

818
00:44:56,190 --> 00:44:58,880
Speaker 3: the eyes were. but not much of a face left.

819
00:44:58,980 --> 00:45:03,739
Speaker 3: It's just goo. And then she mutters through the gooeyness.

820
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:06,540
Speaker 3: She kind of says, you could still love me. You

821
00:45:06,620 --> 00:45:08,020
Speaker 3: could still love me.

822
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:11,140
Speaker 2: And then it's just straight to the insane asylum for

823
00:45:11,180 --> 00:45:13,520
Speaker 2: George here. And, you know, I have a lot to

824
00:45:13,580 --> 00:45:17,940
Speaker 2: say about this film regarding the special effects and saying

825
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:21,319
Speaker 2: the makeup effects don't go far enough. This one looks

826
00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:23,379
Speaker 2: really good, though. Maybe this is where all the money

827
00:45:23,420 --> 00:45:26,140
Speaker 2: went for practical makeup effects. Yeah.

828
00:45:26,830 --> 00:45:28,450
Speaker 3: Yeah. It's pretty nasty. Yeah.

829
00:45:28,550 --> 00:45:31,190
Speaker 2: And I would say that this is, in my view,

830
00:45:31,210 --> 00:45:33,990
Speaker 2: I think this is the strongest of the three entries, um,

831
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:37,779
Speaker 2: engaging plot characters you're rooting for. Like I'm rooting for her,

832
00:45:37,820 --> 00:45:39,180
Speaker 2: but I'm also kind of rooting.

833
00:45:38,980 --> 00:45:39,759
Speaker 3: For the Shadmock.

834
00:45:39,820 --> 00:45:42,399
Speaker 2: Like he's a lonely monster that I feel some amount

835
00:45:42,420 --> 00:45:47,020
Speaker 2: of sympathy for. He doesn't want to be this whistling murderer,

836
00:45:47,060 --> 00:45:50,040
Speaker 2: but it's just his nature and the way he reacts

837
00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:54,200
Speaker 2: to threats. Um, Yeah, I think my main notes here

838
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:56,950
Speaker 2: are that, you know, come back to, well, shouldn't the

839
00:45:56,989 --> 00:46:00,790
Speaker 2: Shadmach look a little ghastlier? Maybe he needs to have

840
00:46:00,810 --> 00:46:03,590
Speaker 2: been done up more with his special effects makeup of

841
00:46:03,650 --> 00:46:06,870
Speaker 2: his own. But again, the actors do everything they can

842
00:46:06,950 --> 00:46:09,469
Speaker 2: to convey all of this on their own, and they

843
00:46:09,489 --> 00:46:10,049
Speaker 2: do a good job.

844
00:46:10,450 --> 00:46:13,840
Speaker 3: I agree. I think it is often the case in

845
00:46:13,900 --> 00:46:17,380
Speaker 3: anthology movies that the first segment is the strongest. Not always,

846
00:46:17,460 --> 00:46:20,500
Speaker 3: but a lot of them go that route. This one

847
00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:23,010
Speaker 3: is the strongest of the three. I think it would

848
00:46:23,030 --> 00:46:28,029
Speaker 3: be even stronger if the Shadmok looked a little less goofy.

849
00:46:30,690 --> 00:46:33,210
Speaker 3: It's really close. But I agree that it works on

850
00:46:33,250 --> 00:46:36,340
Speaker 3: a lot of levels. Angela is a very tragic character.

851
00:46:36,410 --> 00:46:40,180
Speaker 3: You really feel for her, especially the way she's just

852
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:43,719
Speaker 3: being used by George. George is the real villain here.

853
00:46:44,380 --> 00:46:47,719
Speaker 3: The Shadmok is portrayed as a kind of pitiable monster,

854
00:46:47,739 --> 00:46:51,860
Speaker 3: a creature, just a squalid creature. um, abject creature of

855
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:56,800
Speaker 3: loneliness and self-loathing George is just a real piece of work.

856
00:46:56,860 --> 00:46:59,730
Speaker 3: And he's always complaining. Like there's this scene where Angela

857
00:46:59,770 --> 00:47:02,750
Speaker 3: steals this gold artifact and brings it back for him.

858
00:47:03,290 --> 00:47:05,290
Speaker 3: And he just reacts like this kind of thing is

859
00:47:05,330 --> 00:47:08,750
Speaker 3: impossible defense. There's no pleasing you, dude.

860
00:47:08,770 --> 00:47:11,390
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's like, yeah, she's already risked her life, whether

861
00:47:11,410 --> 00:47:13,730
Speaker 2: she knows it or not to bring this back. And

862
00:47:13,770 --> 00:47:15,810
Speaker 2: he's like, yeah, this, this doesn't work. I need something else.

863
00:47:15,850 --> 00:47:18,180
Speaker 2: Does he have cash? Aren't there like great piles of

864
00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:20,640
Speaker 2: cash around? Figure out how to bring that to me.

865
00:47:22,060 --> 00:47:22,259
Speaker 3: Yeah.

866
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:26,060
Speaker 2: And oh, man, the scene, too, where after the Shadmach

867
00:47:26,100 --> 00:47:29,460
Speaker 2: has unleashed his terrible whistle on her, the other monsters

868
00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 2: at the party, they kind of like gather around him

869
00:47:31,700 --> 00:47:34,460
Speaker 2: as he weeps. And there's this sense like, you know,

870
00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,560
Speaker 2: they're sympathetic towards him. They're like, oh, we really on

871
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:39,680
Speaker 2: some level, we thought this one would work out for you.

872
00:47:40,300 --> 00:47:42,710
Speaker 2: But they're also maybe not surprised because I don't think

873
00:47:42,750 --> 00:47:44,070
Speaker 2: things work out for the Shadmach.

874
00:47:45,010 --> 00:47:48,100
Speaker 3: Do you notice a recurring theme in, I think all

875
00:47:48,140 --> 00:47:52,500
Speaker 3: of these stories is about, um, the potential for monsters

876
00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:55,900
Speaker 3: of various kinds. Like it, it, it doesn't always work out,

877
00:47:55,960 --> 00:47:58,840
Speaker 3: but the potential for monsters of different kinds to fall

878
00:47:58,900 --> 00:48:01,300
Speaker 3: in love and even reproduce with humans.

879
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:03,799
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And I guess that goes back to the

880
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:08,360
Speaker 2: whole genealogy chart. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, and, and if

881
00:48:08,420 --> 00:48:10,410
Speaker 2: I ever, if I get around to reading this book, um,

882
00:48:11,050 --> 00:48:13,710
Speaker 2: It would be interesting to see just how that's carried

883
00:48:14,050 --> 00:48:15,240
Speaker 2: on in each of the tales.

884
00:48:17,060 --> 00:48:18,880
Speaker 3: It's kind of a strange theme, but yeah.

885
00:48:18,980 --> 00:48:22,040
Speaker 2: Well, it's a sad note, and you know what that means.

886
00:48:22,120 --> 00:48:26,540
Speaker 2: It's time to get back to our bridging narrative and

887
00:48:26,580 --> 00:48:28,960
Speaker 2: also have another musical performance. Yes.

888
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:32,680
Speaker 3: Okay, so this next song is called Sucker for Your Love.

889
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:34,440
Speaker 3: I think that is a vampire joke.

890
00:48:34,620 --> 00:48:34,880
Speaker 2: Yeah.

891
00:48:34,900 --> 00:48:37,779
Speaker 3: It was performed by, I don't know this guy otherwise,

892
00:48:37,820 --> 00:48:42,450
Speaker 3: but named B.A. Robertson. This is the one where most

893
00:48:42,530 --> 00:48:45,310
Speaker 3: of the video of the performance is just of this

894
00:48:45,370 --> 00:48:48,250
Speaker 3: guy singing the song and zooming in and out on

895
00:48:48,290 --> 00:48:50,469
Speaker 3: his face, like really getting up in there, getting up

896
00:48:50,510 --> 00:48:53,969
Speaker 3: in the nose and the mouth, uh, turbo zooming in

897
00:48:54,010 --> 00:48:54,390
Speaker 3: and out.

898
00:48:54,860 --> 00:48:57,160
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah. This, I tried to, I was showing parts

899
00:48:57,200 --> 00:48:59,379
Speaker 2: of this to my wife and this scene, she's like, no, Mike,

900
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:03,020
Speaker 2: I can't, this is too much because it keeps going

901
00:49:03,040 --> 00:49:06,660
Speaker 2: because again, it is full performance, the full number. Sucker

902
00:49:06,700 --> 00:49:09,980
Speaker 2: for Your Love, yeah, performed by B.A. Robertson. Robertson is

903
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:13,960
Speaker 2: a Scottish rock, pop, new wave musician who I believe

904
00:49:14,020 --> 00:49:17,400
Speaker 2: is still active. He's had a very long and presumably

905
00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:20,379
Speaker 2: fruitful career. I wasn't super familiar with him. Best known

906
00:49:20,420 --> 00:49:23,860
Speaker 2: for such hits as 79s bang, bang and 79s knocked

907
00:49:23,900 --> 00:49:28,870
Speaker 2: it off. Um, yeah, this is the, here he's made

908
00:49:28,989 --> 00:49:33,090
Speaker 2: up in vampire makeup and, uh, he's getting into it.

909
00:49:33,110 --> 00:49:36,390
Speaker 2: Like he's a, he is a charismatic performer, but we

910
00:49:36,430 --> 00:49:37,750
Speaker 2: just keep zooming in and out.

911
00:49:37,670 --> 00:49:37,969
Speaker 3: Of his face.

912
00:49:38,489 --> 00:49:39,649
Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh, yeah.

913
00:49:39,790 --> 00:49:42,910
Speaker 3: And he, do you think he's supposed to be a vampire?

914
00:49:43,010 --> 00:49:44,009
Speaker 3: I did not think so.

915
00:49:44,030 --> 00:49:47,000
Speaker 2: I mean, his makeup is like as good, if not

916
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 2: better than some of the makeup we see in the,

917
00:49:50,540 --> 00:49:51,760
Speaker 2: the main story pieces.

918
00:49:51,860 --> 00:49:54,279
Speaker 3: So he doesn't have fangs, but then again, they say

919
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:57,720
Speaker 3: they're retractable in this world. Um, if he is actually

920
00:49:57,739 --> 00:50:01,410
Speaker 3: a vampire that would challenge my, the performers are human rule,

921
00:50:01,489 --> 00:50:05,529
Speaker 3: which is, seems generally true for most of the movie. Uh,

922
00:50:05,550 --> 00:50:08,710
Speaker 3: but yeah, the, this song is, this song is cheeky.

923
00:50:08,730 --> 00:50:11,330
Speaker 3: It has a lot of jokes in it. Uh, there

924
00:50:11,570 --> 00:50:13,870
Speaker 3: are lines. I wrote it down a couple of the lyrics.

925
00:50:13,930 --> 00:50:17,569
Speaker 3: He says, you're so vain. You come from Pennsylvania. Well,

926
00:50:17,630 --> 00:50:21,830
Speaker 3: I'm from Transylvania. And then there's another line where he says,

927
00:50:21,890 --> 00:50:25,150
Speaker 3: something is like making love to a colander. And that,

928
00:50:25,290 --> 00:50:28,340
Speaker 3: that genuinely got a laugh out of me. Yeah.

929
00:50:28,489 --> 00:50:31,540
Speaker 2: I was thinking as I was re-listening to this song,

930
00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:34,120
Speaker 2: I was thinking, man, it's so close to something I

931
00:50:34,140 --> 00:50:37,340
Speaker 2: could imagine the cramps having done. It's not a Psycho

932
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:41,810
Speaker 2: Billy track, but I could imagine the cramps performance of it.

933
00:50:41,820 --> 00:50:45,759
Speaker 2: I could imagine leaning into that Psycho Billy energy and

934
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:48,360
Speaker 2: it still being basically the same song, same lyrics and

935
00:50:48,469 --> 00:50:56,009
Speaker 2: all with that sleazier Psycho Billy kind of vibe to it. Here,

936
00:50:56,910 --> 00:50:59,469
Speaker 2: I'm not exactly sure how I would even classify this song.

937
00:50:59,550 --> 00:51:02,630
Speaker 2: Is this just pop rock of the early 80s?

938
00:51:02,680 --> 00:51:07,660
Speaker 3: I don't know. Yeah, monster rock. It's kind of sui generis,

939
00:51:07,700 --> 00:51:11,560
Speaker 3: isn't it? Yeah. Okay, you ready to talk about the

940
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:12,720
Speaker 3: next anthology segment?

941
00:51:12,820 --> 00:51:15,299
Speaker 2: That's right, because if you don't check out during this

942
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:19,640
Speaker 2: musical number, you get the second installment. You get The Vampires.

943
00:51:20,430 --> 00:51:24,330
Speaker 3: This one has a lengthy prelude where they bring in

944
00:51:24,370 --> 00:51:26,029
Speaker 3: a guy who I think is supposed to be the

945
00:51:26,150 --> 00:51:31,069
Speaker 3: monster alter ego of this film's actual producer. That's right.

946
00:51:31,590 --> 00:51:35,009
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're told that this is the childhood story

947
00:51:35,690 --> 00:51:41,219
Speaker 2: of a Hollywood producer, Lintem, played in the bridging narrative here,

948
00:51:41,610 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 2: an adult version by Anthony Steele, who lived 1920 through 2001,

949
00:51:45,080 --> 00:51:49,040
Speaker 2: but it's going to be played by the then child actor,

950
00:51:49,460 --> 00:51:54,719
Speaker 2: Warren Sayre, who was born in 68, and went on

951
00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:57,939
Speaker 2: to be a grown person actor as well in Lady

952
00:51:57,980 --> 00:52:02,060
Speaker 2: Jane in 86, Salome's Last Dance in 88. Also the

953
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:07,210
Speaker 2: TV series Sharp in 96. But yeah, he presents it like, hey,

954
00:52:07,670 --> 00:52:11,310
Speaker 2: now I'm a successful Hollywood producer. And there's some vampire

955
00:52:11,330 --> 00:52:14,109
Speaker 2: jokes about Hollywood producers to be had here. And he's like,

956
00:52:14,130 --> 00:52:15,790
Speaker 2: this happened to me when I was younger. Here's the

957
00:52:15,810 --> 00:52:17,870
Speaker 2: film version. Yeah.

958
00:52:17,969 --> 00:52:20,989
Speaker 3: Okay. So he sets up the film to watch and

959
00:52:21,010 --> 00:52:23,279
Speaker 3: then everybody in the club watches it and then we

960
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:26,620
Speaker 3: watch it too. So the cast, well, let's talk about

961
00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:27,620
Speaker 3: the cast. Okay.

962
00:52:27,680 --> 00:52:30,469
Speaker 2: So we mentioned the kid. And then his father is

963
00:52:30,530 --> 00:52:34,050
Speaker 2: played by Richard Johnson, who lived 1927 through 2015. A

964
00:52:34,210 --> 00:52:37,950
Speaker 2: British actor. His other credits include 63's The Haunting and

965
00:52:38,410 --> 00:52:42,050
Speaker 2: Lucio Fulci's Zombie in 1979. I think he plays a

966
00:52:42,170 --> 00:52:45,779
Speaker 2: doctor in that or a scientist of some sort. He

967
00:52:45,820 --> 00:52:48,200
Speaker 2: did a lot of British TV. He did an episode

968
00:52:48,219 --> 00:52:50,459
Speaker 2: of the British season of the Tales from the Crypt

969
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:54,859
Speaker 2: series in the 90s. Obviously playing a Dracula character here.

970
00:52:56,100 --> 00:52:59,220
Speaker 2: They're not beating around the bush. Dad is just straight

971
00:52:59,260 --> 00:52:59,940
Speaker 2: up a Dracula.

972
00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:03,000
Speaker 3: Well, and it's played for comedy. This is the one

973
00:53:03,060 --> 00:53:04,740
Speaker 3: segment that's just straight up a joke.

974
00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:08,020
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I mean, it and it doesn't was looking

975
00:53:08,100 --> 00:53:09,839
Speaker 2: into I wasn't sure that it was going to be

976
00:53:09,860 --> 00:53:11,900
Speaker 2: a complete joke at first. There are moments where it

977
00:53:11,940 --> 00:53:15,239
Speaker 2: feels like it's getting into some serious territory. But then

978
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:19,030
Speaker 2: at the end, just fully a joke. So that's Dad.

979
00:53:19,130 --> 00:53:23,330
Speaker 2: And then the mom is played by Brett Eklund. born

980
00:53:23,330 --> 00:53:25,730
Speaker 2: 1942 yes it is willow from the wicker man uh

981
00:53:25,790 --> 00:53:28,250
Speaker 2: it is good night from 74 is the man with

982
00:53:28,270 --> 00:53:31,109
Speaker 2: the golden gun uh swedish actress that we've talked about

983
00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:34,739
Speaker 2: on the show before um she is is she doing

984
00:53:34,780 --> 00:53:36,560
Speaker 2: it is she just using her own accent right she's

985
00:53:36,580 --> 00:53:38,839
Speaker 2: not like playing up a romanian accent.

986
00:53:38,580 --> 00:53:40,340
Speaker 3: Is she no yeah i think she's just doing her

987
00:53:40,380 --> 00:53:43,980
Speaker 3: normal accent and she she's got a weird energy here

988
00:53:44,100 --> 00:53:46,419
Speaker 3: but uh i don't know i i usually find brit

989
00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:50,300
Speaker 3: ecklund likable and she is here though it um I

990
00:53:50,320 --> 00:53:52,140
Speaker 3: don't know. I was kind of thinking about it like

991
00:53:52,360 --> 00:53:55,990
Speaker 3: the story is supposed to be I've got I'm having

992
00:53:56,050 --> 00:53:59,670
Speaker 3: trouble because my father is a vampire. But the subtext

993
00:53:59,750 --> 00:54:02,049
Speaker 3: really of it was more like I'm having trouble because

994
00:54:02,090 --> 00:54:03,290
Speaker 3: my mom is Britt Eklund.

995
00:54:04,830 --> 00:54:06,350
Speaker 2: Now, is she a Hume or is she a vampire?

996
00:54:06,390 --> 00:54:09,569
Speaker 3: She's a Hume. Yeah, I think so, because you see

997
00:54:09,610 --> 00:54:12,810
Speaker 3: the part where. The dad, who's a vampire, goes to

998
00:54:12,870 --> 00:54:15,129
Speaker 3: kiss her goodbye as he's going out for the night,

999
00:54:15,190 --> 00:54:16,930
Speaker 3: and he almost bites her on the neck and then

1000
00:54:17,010 --> 00:54:17,890
Speaker 3: catches himself.

1001
00:54:17,930 --> 00:54:18,399
Speaker 2: There you go.

1002
00:54:18,420 --> 00:54:20,500
Speaker 3: He's like, sorry, sorry, honey, and then gives her a

1003
00:54:20,500 --> 00:54:22,180
Speaker 3: little peck on the cheek and walks out.

1004
00:54:23,080 --> 00:54:25,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's mom, that's dad, that's the kid. The

1005
00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:28,660
Speaker 2: other casting element, and the one that might lead many

1006
00:54:28,700 --> 00:54:31,510
Speaker 2: people to check out this segment or even this film entirely,

1007
00:54:31,930 --> 00:54:34,210
Speaker 2: is that Donald Pleasance is in it, and he plays

1008
00:54:34,570 --> 00:54:37,899
Speaker 2: a character by the name of Pickering. We've talked about

1009
00:54:37,940 --> 00:54:40,520
Speaker 2: Pleasence before on the show. We've talked about his range

1010
00:54:40,580 --> 00:54:43,680
Speaker 2: and also sort of the more stereotypical roles that he plays.

1011
00:54:44,020 --> 00:54:46,739
Speaker 2: This is kind of like standard Pleasence villain mode. He

1012
00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:50,180
Speaker 2: is not going to surprise you with anything here on

1013
00:54:50,219 --> 00:54:53,710
Speaker 2: the whole. You may be able to identify some key

1014
00:54:53,750 --> 00:54:56,270
Speaker 2: nuances that he brings here. I'm not saying he's coasting

1015
00:54:56,330 --> 00:55:00,710
Speaker 2: or anything, but it is more of a standard Donald

1016
00:55:00,750 --> 00:55:04,049
Speaker 2: Pleasence performance playing what we're going to find out is

1017
00:55:04,180 --> 00:55:07,690
Speaker 2: a government vampire hunter, the leader of something called, what,

1018
00:55:07,730 --> 00:55:09,470
Speaker 2: the Blini or the B Squad?

1019
00:55:09,489 --> 00:55:13,410
Speaker 3: The Blini, or I truly could not tell if they

1020
00:55:13,430 --> 00:55:17,450
Speaker 3: were saying the B Squad or the Beast Squad. It

1021
00:55:17,510 --> 00:55:18,469
Speaker 3: could have been either one.

1022
00:55:18,489 --> 00:55:24,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's some sort of governmental agency that's tasked

1023
00:55:25,040 --> 00:55:32,450
Speaker 2: with seeking out seemingly immigrant vampires, And brutally enforcing the

1024
00:55:32,489 --> 00:55:34,910
Speaker 2: law against them or working outside the law. I mean,

1025
00:55:34,950 --> 00:55:37,390
Speaker 2: maybe it's I don't know if it's extrajudicial if you're

1026
00:55:37,570 --> 00:55:40,430
Speaker 2: if you're staking a vampire. But these are definitely the

1027
00:55:40,489 --> 00:55:41,330
Speaker 2: villains of the piece.

1028
00:55:41,630 --> 00:55:44,350
Speaker 3: I think they're supposed to be government agents. Yeah.

1029
00:55:45,090 --> 00:55:45,200
Speaker 2: OK.

1030
00:55:45,469 --> 00:55:47,560
Speaker 3: OK. Well, so should we do the plot here?

1031
00:55:47,680 --> 00:55:48,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do the plot.

1032
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:51,319
Speaker 3: So the young boy in this story lent him he's

1033
00:55:51,340 --> 00:55:54,470
Speaker 3: having a tough time. He feels lonely and sad. And

1034
00:55:54,530 --> 00:55:57,430
Speaker 3: he is being bullied at school. And so there are

1035
00:55:57,450 --> 00:55:59,790
Speaker 3: some moments early in this segment where it feels like

1036
00:55:59,810 --> 00:56:02,270
Speaker 3: it's going to be serious, especially in the scenes where

1037
00:56:02,310 --> 00:56:05,790
Speaker 3: he is dealing with brutal bullying. Yeah. I don't know

1038
00:56:05,810 --> 00:56:07,549
Speaker 3: where this comes from, but I do think there's kind

1039
00:56:07,570 --> 00:56:12,490
Speaker 3: of a stereotype of these like high bullying English primary

1040
00:56:12,550 --> 00:56:15,330
Speaker 3: schools where, you know, they're just like calling, yelling at

1041
00:56:15,370 --> 00:56:19,410
Speaker 3: the other kids and coward, you know, shrimp. And they're

1042
00:56:19,430 --> 00:56:21,650
Speaker 3: trying to get him to jump over this mud puddle

1043
00:56:21,710 --> 00:56:23,549
Speaker 3: and they're like, you can't do it. And then he

1044
00:56:23,630 --> 00:56:26,430
Speaker 3: jumps and lands in the mud and they all mock him.

1045
00:56:27,830 --> 00:56:30,870
Speaker 3: And so part of his sadness comes from being bullied

1046
00:56:30,910 --> 00:56:33,370
Speaker 3: at school, I think, because he's small for his age

1047
00:56:33,450 --> 00:56:36,569
Speaker 3: and he's a little bit shy and timid. But part

1048
00:56:36,590 --> 00:56:39,690
Speaker 3: of his sadness also stems from his relationship with his father,

1049
00:56:39,730 --> 00:56:42,529
Speaker 3: who is not presented as a bad guy. Like he's

1050
00:56:42,570 --> 00:56:45,610
Speaker 3: presented as like a kind and loving father. But he

1051
00:56:45,670 --> 00:56:48,350
Speaker 3: works nights and he sleeps during the day. So Lintum

1052
00:56:48,390 --> 00:56:51,509
Speaker 3: sees very little of him. Now, why does his dad

1053
00:56:51,570 --> 00:56:54,080
Speaker 3: work at night? Well, it's because he's a vampire and

1054
00:56:54,140 --> 00:56:56,719
Speaker 3: they're not subtle about it. He's just dressed up like a,

1055
00:56:57,100 --> 00:56:59,219
Speaker 3: you know, he's like Count Chocula. He's got the high

1056
00:56:59,260 --> 00:57:04,239
Speaker 3: collar and everything. And Brit Eklund, again, is not a vampire.

1057
00:57:04,280 --> 00:57:07,779
Speaker 3: So just dad is a vampire, not mom. And the

1058
00:57:07,820 --> 00:57:10,500
Speaker 3: father is, he explains what he does to the son.

1059
00:57:10,540 --> 00:57:14,820
Speaker 3: He's presented as a careful, moderate vampire. He says, quote,

1060
00:57:14,989 --> 00:57:19,290
Speaker 3: feed without greed. That's my motto. And he focuses on

1061
00:57:19,330 --> 00:57:23,110
Speaker 3: the after theater crowd. In fact, he, he, he almost

1062
00:57:23,150 --> 00:57:25,980
Speaker 3: frames it like he searches out people who have more

1063
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:28,440
Speaker 3: blood than they need and removes a little bit of

1064
00:57:28,500 --> 00:57:29,080
Speaker 3: it from them.

1065
00:57:29,420 --> 00:57:29,660
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1066
00:57:31,100 --> 00:57:34,650
Speaker 3: So. The young boy in this early scene is warned

1067
00:57:34,790 --> 00:57:37,230
Speaker 3: about a group of dangerous men to avoid. These are

1068
00:57:37,270 --> 00:57:41,350
Speaker 3: the Bellini or the B squad or the Beast squad.

1069
00:57:42,270 --> 00:57:45,919
Speaker 3: He says these are men in suits who carry violin cases.

1070
00:57:46,020 --> 00:57:50,320
Speaker 3: Beware of men with violin cases. Well, one day after

1071
00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:54,120
Speaker 3: being bullied at school, young Lintem is approached by Donald

1072
00:57:54,180 --> 00:57:58,060
Speaker 3: Pleasance playing a character named Pickering. In this first scene,

1073
00:57:58,100 --> 00:58:01,530
Speaker 3: he's disguised as a priest. He comes up and starts

1074
00:58:01,630 --> 00:58:03,970
Speaker 3: asking him questions about his father. And the kid's like,

1075
00:58:04,010 --> 00:58:07,490
Speaker 3: I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. And Donald Pleasance,

1076
00:58:07,570 --> 00:58:09,690
Speaker 3: this creepy voice, he's like, but I am the clergy.

1077
00:58:11,910 --> 00:58:15,170
Speaker 3: And so Pickering is hunting for evidence that Lintem's father

1078
00:58:15,270 --> 00:58:18,820
Speaker 3: is a vampire. Eventually one day while Lintem's mother is

1079
00:58:18,860 --> 00:58:21,440
Speaker 3: away at the shop, the Bellini break into the house.

1080
00:58:21,820 --> 00:58:24,600
Speaker 3: They find the father's coffin in the basement and they

1081
00:58:24,740 --> 00:58:27,740
Speaker 3: stake him. They drive a stake into his heart. But

1082
00:58:27,820 --> 00:58:30,680
Speaker 3: right after they stake him, the father in his death throes,

1083
00:58:31,110 --> 00:58:34,730
Speaker 3: Bites Pickering on the neck. Bites Pickering, the boss of

1084
00:58:34,750 --> 00:58:37,470
Speaker 3: the squad. So now they realize he's going to turn.

1085
00:58:37,550 --> 00:58:40,170
Speaker 3: And Britt Eklund has to explain this to the Blaney.

1086
00:58:40,510 --> 00:58:42,710
Speaker 3: You'd think they'd, they know how it works, but she's like,

1087
00:58:42,790 --> 00:58:45,290
Speaker 3: you are doomed. He bit you deep. And now your

1088
00:58:45,370 --> 00:58:48,430
Speaker 3: own men will have to stake you. And the men

1089
00:58:48,490 --> 00:58:53,450
Speaker 3: are like, she's right, boss. So this part is definitely

1090
00:58:53,490 --> 00:58:55,890
Speaker 3: played for comedy, but these guys in the bowler hats

1091
00:58:55,910 --> 00:58:59,280
Speaker 3: have to chase down Donald Pleasance and drive a stake

1092
00:58:59,320 --> 00:59:02,180
Speaker 3: into his heart. And then they take their boss away

1093
00:59:02,240 --> 00:59:05,290
Speaker 3: and leave in their truck. But once the squad is gone,

1094
00:59:06,010 --> 00:59:08,670
Speaker 3: Lentim and his mother, they're mourning their father's death when

1095
00:59:08,730 --> 00:59:11,940
Speaker 3: suddenly he pops back up. He's fine after all, and

1096
00:59:11,980 --> 00:59:15,600
Speaker 3: he reveals that he was wearing a steak-proof vest filled

1097
00:59:15,660 --> 00:59:19,800
Speaker 3: with tomato ketchup. So how did the steak go in?

1098
00:59:19,820 --> 00:59:22,560
Speaker 3: Because you see it sink in when he hammers it.

1099
00:59:22,590 --> 00:59:26,170
Speaker 3: What did it go into? Yeah.

1100
00:59:27,170 --> 00:59:34,110
Speaker 2: This is I obviously this is the weakest of the three. Yeah. Yeah.

1101
00:59:34,150 --> 00:59:37,650
Speaker 2: By the time the tomato ketchup joke was unleashed, I

1102
00:59:37,690 --> 00:59:39,620
Speaker 2: was I had just given up on caring about it.

1103
00:59:39,750 --> 00:59:42,730
Speaker 2: But to even ask these sorts of questions, because I felt,

1104
00:59:42,750 --> 00:59:44,820
Speaker 2: you know, it has a solid cast. And despite the

1105
00:59:44,950 --> 00:59:49,200
Speaker 2: obvious comedic elements to it with the dad being Dracula, essentially,

1106
00:59:50,040 --> 00:59:51,660
Speaker 2: I was thinking, well, you know, it does have maybe

1107
00:59:51,680 --> 00:59:55,040
Speaker 2: there's some commentary taking place here about like the working

1108
00:59:55,080 --> 00:59:58,580
Speaker 2: class immigrant experience in the UK, you know. The horrors

1109
00:59:58,660 --> 01:00:03,840
Speaker 2: of aggressive immigration enforcement or something, you know? And I

1110
01:00:03,860 --> 01:00:05,860
Speaker 2: was like, okay, maybe we're going to get into somewhere

1111
01:00:05,900 --> 01:00:08,230
Speaker 2: kind of poignant, you know? Kind of how we landed

1112
01:00:08,250 --> 01:00:12,890
Speaker 2: the last installment. But then it just ends in cheap

1113
01:00:12,950 --> 01:00:16,950
Speaker 2: laughs at the end. It's just the lamest tomato ketchup

1114
01:00:17,010 --> 01:00:19,880
Speaker 2: is blood joke I think I've ever heard in my life. Yeah.

1115
01:00:21,120 --> 01:00:22,320
Speaker 3: It's pretty silly. Yeah.

1116
01:00:23,580 --> 01:00:27,200
Speaker 2: But it's over pretty quickly. What can you say? All right.

1117
01:00:27,240 --> 01:00:29,060
Speaker 3: You want to talk about the next musical performance?

1118
01:00:29,340 --> 01:00:31,500
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Cause this one is, this one's pretty power.

1119
01:00:31,580 --> 01:00:34,160
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, I guess the, not to say

1120
01:00:34,180 --> 01:00:36,340
Speaker 2: that the lyrics are all that great, but the, it's

1121
01:00:36,360 --> 01:00:39,320
Speaker 2: a great performance. Uh, we get this song, the stripper

1122
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:43,890
Speaker 2: performed by a group called night and the vocalist here. I,

1123
01:00:43,920 --> 01:00:47,820
Speaker 2: sometimes I see this presented as with vocals by Stevie Lang. Um,

1124
01:00:48,100 --> 01:00:50,530
Speaker 2: I think she was their vocalist, at least on some

1125
01:00:50,550 --> 01:00:53,350
Speaker 2: of their tracks on their first album, but maybe she

1126
01:00:53,370 --> 01:00:54,950
Speaker 2: didn't work with them all the time. I'm not sure.

1127
01:00:55,270 --> 01:00:55,410
Speaker 1: Hmm.

1128
01:00:56,430 --> 01:01:01,930
Speaker 2: So Knight released two albums in 79 and 80, Knight, self-titled,

1129
01:01:01,950 --> 01:01:04,970
Speaker 2: and then one called Long Distance. And then Stevie Ling,

1130
01:01:05,030 --> 01:01:09,490
Speaker 2: also known as Stevie Van, the Zambian-born British singer and

1131
01:01:09,570 --> 01:01:14,040
Speaker 2: vocal coach. And I have to say, pretty powerful performance here.

1132
01:01:14,100 --> 01:01:17,400
Speaker 2: She's got some real pipes. She's not dressed up as

1133
01:01:17,440 --> 01:01:21,439
Speaker 2: any kind of a monster. She's just up there, you know,

1134
01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:25,340
Speaker 2: belting out these power vocals. And it's a pretty rocking number.

1135
01:01:25,990 --> 01:01:27,930
Speaker 3: Yeah, the performance is pretty strong. I was trying to

1136
01:01:27,970 --> 01:01:30,290
Speaker 3: think what it reminded me of, and the closest thing

1137
01:01:30,330 --> 01:01:33,550
Speaker 3: I could think of was the band Scandal sings, like,

1138
01:01:33,630 --> 01:01:37,060
Speaker 3: Goodbye to You, or they sing The Warrior, I Am

1139
01:01:37,100 --> 01:01:39,380
Speaker 3: the Warrior. Oh, yeah, yeah.

1140
01:01:39,420 --> 01:01:41,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know the track.

1141
01:01:41,100 --> 01:01:42,480
Speaker 3: You're talking about. Patti Smith, I think.

1142
01:01:42,500 --> 01:01:42,680
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1143
01:01:42,700 --> 01:01:44,459
Speaker 3: Another Patti Smith, not that Patti Smith.

1144
01:01:44,620 --> 01:01:46,460
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, The Warrior. That's a great song, yeah.

1145
01:01:46,580 --> 01:01:49,200
Speaker 3: Yeah. Shooting Out the Walls of Heart.

1146
01:01:49,260 --> 01:01:52,010
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, so that kind of, like, you know, female

1147
01:01:52,050 --> 01:01:54,050
Speaker 2: power ballad kind of a thing, you know, that kind

1148
01:01:54,090 --> 01:01:57,330
Speaker 2: of energy going on here. The other thing that this track,

1149
01:01:57,390 --> 01:01:59,830
Speaker 2: this performance has going for it is that unlike the

1150
01:01:59,870 --> 01:02:02,390
Speaker 2: other performances, it doesn't have to rest purely on the

1151
01:02:02,450 --> 01:02:07,680
Speaker 2: strength of the club and the actual performance, because we

1152
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:11,160
Speaker 2: get really one of the highlights of the picture as

1153
01:02:11,240 --> 01:02:14,620
Speaker 2: part of the sort of the illustration of this particular track.

1154
01:02:14,960 --> 01:02:18,120
Speaker 3: Right. So this track has an animated segment that goes

1155
01:02:18,200 --> 01:02:21,580
Speaker 3: with it, which is an animated. It starts off with

1156
01:02:21,700 --> 01:02:25,830
Speaker 3: a dancer doing a striptease, but then the human dancer

1157
01:02:25,990 --> 01:02:31,050
Speaker 3: turns into an animated dancing silhouette and continues the striptease.

1158
01:02:31,570 --> 01:02:35,390
Speaker 3: But then it reaches this amazing climax where it turns

1159
01:02:35,610 --> 01:02:39,800
Speaker 3: into a skeleton that strips to remove its flesh and

1160
01:02:39,840 --> 01:02:43,600
Speaker 3: then keeps doing a burlesque dance as just a skeleton,

1161
01:02:43,680 --> 01:02:47,260
Speaker 3: which is very funny. And I like the animation. It's great.

1162
01:02:47,490 --> 01:02:48,110
Speaker 3: It's wonderful.

1163
01:02:48,170 --> 01:02:52,290
Speaker 2: This may be the highlight of the picture. If you

1164
01:02:52,390 --> 01:02:54,810
Speaker 2: watch nothing else, it's worth just seeking out this clip.

1165
01:02:56,010 --> 01:02:58,270
Speaker 2: This clip gets shared a lot on socials. I saw

1166
01:02:58,370 --> 01:03:02,210
Speaker 2: Amy Sedaris share it just the other day. I think

1167
01:03:02,230 --> 01:03:03,910
Speaker 2: maybe she shares it every year as part of her

1168
01:03:03,970 --> 01:03:10,600
Speaker 2: regular Instagram activity. But yeah, it's hand-painted animation. The gimmick

1169
01:03:10,660 --> 01:03:13,460
Speaker 2: is really cool. This is basically what Robbie Williams would

1170
01:03:13,500 --> 01:03:17,340
Speaker 2: do later on. in the music video for 2000's Rock DJ,

1171
01:03:17,820 --> 01:03:21,710
Speaker 2: but there's absolutely no beating the hand-drawn animation that we

1172
01:03:21,730 --> 01:03:23,490
Speaker 2: get here in this Monster Club segment.

1173
01:03:23,850 --> 01:03:26,610
Speaker 3: I mean, it is the logical conclusion of the striptease

1174
01:03:26,690 --> 01:03:28,490
Speaker 3: art form. Yeah, exactly.

1175
01:03:28,990 --> 01:03:30,310
Speaker 2: So, yeah, absolutely.

1176
01:03:30,350 --> 01:03:42,440
Speaker 3: Strip off that flesh. Okay, you want to talk about

1177
01:03:42,460 --> 01:03:43,140
Speaker 3: the third segment?

1178
01:03:43,610 --> 01:03:48,330
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's talk about the ghouls. And this one is

1179
01:03:48,550 --> 01:03:52,140
Speaker 2: going to concern ghouls, but also the hume goo that

1180
01:03:52,160 --> 01:03:53,200
Speaker 2: we talked about earlier.

1181
01:03:53,460 --> 01:03:54,000
Speaker 3: That's right.

1182
01:03:54,800 --> 01:03:57,800
Speaker 2: So this one, we kind of also continue the theme

1183
01:03:57,860 --> 01:04:01,220
Speaker 2: of it being somehow connected to movies, because this one

1184
01:04:01,260 --> 01:04:06,020
Speaker 2: is going to be about an American film director filming

1185
01:04:06,060 --> 01:04:08,420
Speaker 2: some sort of horror movie in the UK.

1186
01:04:08,760 --> 01:04:09,470
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right.

1187
01:04:10,020 --> 01:04:12,040
Speaker 2: And the director's name is Sam, and he's played by

1188
01:04:12,160 --> 01:04:16,360
Speaker 2: Stuart Whitman, who of 1928 through 2020, an American actor,

1189
01:04:16,380 --> 01:04:20,600
Speaker 2: you know, kind of like rugged Western, you know, good looks,

1190
01:04:21,540 --> 01:04:24,280
Speaker 2: slightly stocky, reminded me, who's he reminding me of?

1191
01:04:24,300 --> 01:04:25,740
Speaker 3: Reminded me of Oliver Stone.

1192
01:04:25,760 --> 01:04:28,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess maybe they were kind of

1193
01:04:28,500 --> 01:04:30,680
Speaker 2: like patterning him a bit on Stone. I don't know.

1194
01:04:31,220 --> 01:04:32,220
Speaker 2: Off the top of my head, I don't remember what

1195
01:04:32,260 --> 01:04:34,110
Speaker 2: Stone looked like at the time. He was much younger,

1196
01:04:34,120 --> 01:04:37,670
Speaker 2: I guess. But yeah, I think that's a solid comparison,

1197
01:04:37,710 --> 01:04:41,300
Speaker 2: at least from our vantage point. But yeah, American actor

1198
01:04:41,480 --> 01:04:44,640
Speaker 2: nominated for an Oscar in 62 for his leading role

1199
01:04:44,680 --> 01:04:47,500
Speaker 2: in the drama The Mark. And his many film and

1200
01:04:47,520 --> 01:04:50,760
Speaker 2: TV credits include both 1972's Night of the Lepus, the

1201
01:04:50,800 --> 01:04:56,970
Speaker 2: giant bunny movie, and 81's Demonoid. So I think he's

1202
01:04:56,990 --> 01:04:59,970
Speaker 2: pretty solid here. He basically played one of these roles where,

1203
01:05:00,730 --> 01:05:03,450
Speaker 2: to the limited extent you can develop this in an anthology,

1204
01:05:03,470 --> 01:05:08,150
Speaker 2: you know, short form format, an unlikable guy. but he's

1205
01:05:08,190 --> 01:05:10,550
Speaker 2: put in a dire situation where you can't help but

1206
01:05:10,590 --> 01:05:12,170
Speaker 2: root for him. And maybe you see a little bit

1207
01:05:12,190 --> 01:05:15,560
Speaker 2: more of his humanity emerging in that situation. Yeah.

1208
01:05:16,220 --> 01:05:19,020
Speaker 3: Yeah, they don't really go deep with this character. It's

1209
01:05:19,080 --> 01:05:21,080
Speaker 3: more just like a guy trying to survive in a

1210
01:05:21,100 --> 01:05:22,180
Speaker 3: crazy scenario.

1211
01:05:22,540 --> 01:05:26,070
Speaker 2: Yeah. And that crazy scenario is going to include a

1212
01:05:26,110 --> 01:05:29,690
Speaker 2: village full of ghouls, as well as a humgu by

1213
01:05:29,710 --> 01:05:33,200
Speaker 2: the name of Luna, played by Leslie Dunlop, born 1956-1950.

1214
01:05:34,660 --> 01:05:37,200
Speaker 2: British actress best known for her role as Nora in

1215
01:05:37,240 --> 01:05:41,940
Speaker 2: David Lynch's 1980 film, The Elephant Man. Her other credits

1216
01:05:41,980 --> 01:05:46,510
Speaker 2: include 1977's A Little Night Music, 78's Red Shift, and

1217
01:05:46,530 --> 01:05:51,910
Speaker 2: 74's Haunted the Ferryman, a rare Jeremy Brett horror picture.

1218
01:05:51,950 --> 01:05:54,070
Speaker 2: There are only a handful of these. This one about

1219
01:05:54,090 --> 01:05:57,860
Speaker 2: a horror author, played by Brett, whose fictional creations begin

1220
01:05:57,880 --> 01:06:00,100
Speaker 2: to come to life. So I haven't seen it, but

1221
01:06:00,120 --> 01:06:01,240
Speaker 2: it's definitely going on the list.

1222
01:06:01,680 --> 01:06:01,980
Speaker 3: Okay.

1223
01:06:03,280 --> 01:06:06,080
Speaker 2: I think Dunlop is wonderful in this. I think Luna

1224
01:06:06,300 --> 01:06:08,260
Speaker 2: is a lot of fun here. We can talk a

1225
01:06:08,280 --> 01:06:10,720
Speaker 2: little bit about the Tarzan speak.

1226
01:06:10,740 --> 01:06:13,970
Speaker 3: The writing, yeah. Yeah, the writing. She's got a difficult

1227
01:06:14,010 --> 01:06:16,230
Speaker 3: job ahead of her delivering some of these lines.

1228
01:06:16,770 --> 01:06:20,110
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, really, all sorts of credit to all

1229
01:06:20,150 --> 01:06:23,370
Speaker 2: of our main actors in these anthology segments, because I

1230
01:06:23,410 --> 01:06:26,110
Speaker 2: think they all really do a great job of elevating

1231
01:06:26,130 --> 01:06:29,180
Speaker 2: the material and bringing it to a place where even

1232
01:06:29,220 --> 01:06:32,970
Speaker 2: with the budgetary constraints, you can enjoy it. Yeah. Let's see.

1233
01:06:33,010 --> 01:06:35,970
Speaker 2: We also have a horror staple in the form of

1234
01:06:36,050 --> 01:06:39,170
Speaker 2: Patrick McGee in this. He plays an innkeeper and I

1235
01:06:39,430 --> 01:06:43,450
Speaker 2: think probably a ghoul. He lived 1922 through 1982. We

1236
01:06:43,470 --> 01:06:45,640
Speaker 2: previously talked about him in our episode on Corman's The

1237
01:06:45,680 --> 01:06:48,560
Speaker 2: Mask of the Red Death, but his many credits include

1238
01:06:48,600 --> 01:06:52,900
Speaker 2: all sorts of stuff, including pictures like 71's A Clockwork Orange,

1239
01:06:53,120 --> 01:06:57,050
Speaker 2: 75's Barry Lyndon, and 81's Chariots of Fire. He's also

1240
01:06:57,170 --> 01:07:01,090
Speaker 2: in the Amicus Tales from the Crypt movie. Hmm. We

1241
01:07:01,150 --> 01:07:05,430
Speaker 2: also have, I didn't ID him in this, but Vic Tablian,

1242
01:07:05,510 --> 01:07:08,540
Speaker 2: who played two different roles in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

1243
01:07:08,580 --> 01:07:13,220
Speaker 2: He played the monkey man. And then also some other villain.

1244
01:07:13,240 --> 01:07:15,480
Speaker 2: I forget where else he is in the film. But

1245
01:07:15,500 --> 01:07:18,020
Speaker 2: he plays the monkey man. He's one of the villagers here.

1246
01:07:18,520 --> 01:07:21,220
Speaker 3: He pulls a gun on Indy in the opening, in

1247
01:07:21,260 --> 01:07:23,080
Speaker 3: the prologue. Oh, yeah, yeah.

1248
01:07:23,460 --> 01:07:24,280
Speaker 2: That's it, yeah.

1249
01:07:25,420 --> 01:07:26,980
Speaker 3: I think. I'm not positive.

1250
01:07:27,240 --> 01:07:29,870
Speaker 2: So he's just in there somewhere. They're between... And so

1251
01:07:29,890 --> 01:07:33,530
Speaker 2: we have a couple of Raiders references just walking around

1252
01:07:33,570 --> 01:07:37,280
Speaker 2: in the background. The music, though, in this segment is

1253
01:07:37,320 --> 01:07:41,700
Speaker 2: pretty alarming because I wasn't expecting it. Because up until now,

1254
01:07:41,740 --> 01:07:44,460
Speaker 2: we've had our pop and our rock and our reggae.

1255
01:07:45,120 --> 01:07:48,160
Speaker 2: And we've also had more traditional sort of hammer type scores.

1256
01:07:48,500 --> 01:07:52,290
Speaker 2: And then this particular segment goes full synth. We get

1257
01:07:53,810 --> 01:07:58,830
Speaker 2: this really crazy and enjoyable electronic score from Alan Hawke.

1258
01:07:59,150 --> 01:08:03,570
Speaker 2: hawkshaw who lived 1937 through 2021 he worked a lot

1259
01:08:03,610 --> 01:08:06,320
Speaker 2: in british tv and library music for media he was

1260
01:08:06,390 --> 01:08:10,620
Speaker 2: a pianist keyboardist and producer whose music credits span a

1261
01:08:10,680 --> 01:08:13,500
Speaker 2: number of genres from pop rock to disco and he

1262
01:08:13,540 --> 01:08:15,920
Speaker 2: worked as a sessions musician for such artists as david

1263
01:08:15,960 --> 01:08:18,930
Speaker 2: bowie cliff richard and olivia.

1264
01:08:18,620 --> 01:08:23,120
Speaker 3: Newton john hmm Okay, so the plot of this one. Again,

1265
01:08:23,200 --> 01:08:26,060
Speaker 3: as we've said, Sam is the horror movie director. He's

1266
01:08:26,100 --> 01:08:30,240
Speaker 3: working in London. He's dissatisfied with the locations that his

1267
01:08:30,310 --> 01:08:33,130
Speaker 3: scouts have found for him to film a scary scene

1268
01:08:33,170 --> 01:08:37,050
Speaker 3: in his current movie. So he's like, if you want

1269
01:08:37,070 --> 01:08:39,189
Speaker 3: something done right, you've got to do it yourself. So

1270
01:08:39,229 --> 01:08:42,310
Speaker 3: he decides to drive out into the country and find

1271
01:08:42,370 --> 01:08:46,020
Speaker 3: a creepy-looking village to shoot. So he's going on down

1272
01:08:46,060 --> 01:08:48,620
Speaker 3: the motorway and at one place he pulls off to

1273
01:08:48,660 --> 01:08:51,479
Speaker 3: the side and finds an old wooden sign indicating a

1274
01:08:51,530 --> 01:08:55,210
Speaker 3: place called Luffville. To reach it, he has to drive

1275
01:08:55,290 --> 01:08:58,009
Speaker 3: over an old stone bridge and through a bank of mist.

1276
01:08:58,470 --> 01:09:00,970
Speaker 3: And when he gets there, the buildings are shabby and

1277
01:09:01,030 --> 01:09:03,930
Speaker 3: decrepit and all the local people are squalid and they

1278
01:09:03,990 --> 01:09:07,480
Speaker 3: behave strangely. They talk about the elders who will be

1279
01:09:07,530 --> 01:09:11,139
Speaker 3: here soon when the elders arrive. Things will happen then.

1280
01:09:11,850 --> 01:09:14,220
Speaker 3: Sam gets freaked out and he tries to leave, but

1281
01:09:14,300 --> 01:09:16,560
Speaker 3: he is prevented by the locals who seem to have

1282
01:09:16,600 --> 01:09:19,759
Speaker 3: disabled his car. I think they pulled out the spark plugs.

1283
01:09:20,770 --> 01:09:24,790
Speaker 3: So eventually he seeks shelter in a room at the

1284
01:09:24,830 --> 01:09:27,230
Speaker 3: local inn. The innkeeper is like one of the first

1285
01:09:27,270 --> 01:09:31,260
Speaker 3: guys he talks to when he gets there. And the

1286
01:09:31,300 --> 01:09:33,540
Speaker 3: innkeeper says, oh, you shouldn't drive at night. You should

1287
01:09:33,600 --> 01:09:35,220
Speaker 3: stay here for the night. And then he tries to

1288
01:09:35,260 --> 01:09:37,260
Speaker 3: go back out to his car. That fails. And then

1289
01:09:37,300 --> 01:09:40,790
Speaker 3: he is just mobbed by all of these locals dressed

1290
01:09:40,850 --> 01:09:44,060
Speaker 3: in gray who chase him inside. And they follow him

1291
01:09:44,200 --> 01:09:46,130
Speaker 3: all the way up to his room. It's really funny

1292
01:09:46,170 --> 01:09:48,910
Speaker 3: the way they're just constantly pushing and grabbing at him

1293
01:09:49,330 --> 01:09:51,130
Speaker 3: as he makes his way up the stairs and up

1294
01:09:51,189 --> 01:09:53,650
Speaker 3: another flight of stairs and then to his door. But

1295
01:09:53,729 --> 01:09:56,400
Speaker 3: once he finally gets into his room, okay, now he's okay.

1296
01:09:57,660 --> 01:10:00,639
Speaker 3: And there in his room, he gets some room service

1297
01:10:01,439 --> 01:10:05,000
Speaker 3: from a girl named Luna, who again speaks like Tarzan.

1298
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:10,040
Speaker 3: She's very me, Luna, me, hume, goo. The other villagers,

1299
01:10:10,120 --> 01:10:13,600
Speaker 3: it turns out, are ghouls, which are undead monsters who

1300
01:10:13,660 --> 01:10:17,080
Speaker 3: live by eating grave flesh. They eat the flesh of

1301
01:10:17,160 --> 01:10:21,229
Speaker 3: the dead. So normally we find out they live by

1302
01:10:21,510 --> 01:10:25,190
Speaker 3: digging up corpses and consuming them. But it seems the

1303
01:10:25,229 --> 01:10:28,830
Speaker 3: local graveyard has now been fully exploited and they're out

1304
01:10:28,850 --> 01:10:31,210
Speaker 3: of supplies. So they've got to find new flesh to

1305
01:10:31,250 --> 01:10:34,250
Speaker 3: feed on. And there are some funny things in the

1306
01:10:34,330 --> 01:10:37,849
Speaker 3: revelation of how we find out about this through Luna.

1307
01:10:38,479 --> 01:10:41,220
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love how, again, with sort of the Tarzan speak,

1308
01:10:41,260 --> 01:10:43,639
Speaker 2: she talks about how, oh, yeah, we get our clothes

1309
01:10:43,680 --> 01:10:47,470
Speaker 2: from the boxes. The boxes have food. The boxes have clothing.

1310
01:10:47,810 --> 01:10:49,630
Speaker 2: And we realize, oh, she's talking about caskets.

1311
01:10:50,010 --> 01:10:50,330
Speaker 3: Yes.

1312
01:10:50,729 --> 01:10:54,030
Speaker 2: These ghouls are ripping the caskets out of the ground

1313
01:10:54,070 --> 01:10:58,300
Speaker 2: and then scavenging all the nasty meat inside and also

1314
01:10:58,400 --> 01:11:00,689
Speaker 2: putting on the grave clothes that they pull out of it.

1315
01:11:01,160 --> 01:11:05,559
Speaker 3: Yeah, so everybody's dressed like in coffin clothes, too.

1316
01:11:05,600 --> 01:11:05,740
Speaker 2: So.

1317
01:11:06,220 --> 01:11:08,099
Speaker 3: they're going to eat Sam. Uh, we learned they're going

1318
01:11:08,120 --> 01:11:11,200
Speaker 3: to eat Sam and, uh, Sam figures out that he

1319
01:11:11,260 --> 01:11:14,420
Speaker 3: can protect himself with crosses and by hiding at the

1320
01:11:14,479 --> 01:11:17,140
Speaker 3: local church. I think Luna tells him that she says that,

1321
01:11:17,200 --> 01:11:20,939
Speaker 3: you know, ghouls cannot go in church. They fall down. Uh, so,

1322
01:11:21,020 --> 01:11:24,360
Speaker 3: you know, they cannot tread upon Holy ground. Eventually they

1323
01:11:24,400 --> 01:11:26,559
Speaker 3: go to the church. Uh, Luna ends up there as

1324
01:11:26,620 --> 01:11:30,600
Speaker 3: well because the ghouls attack her. And Sam, uh, learns

1325
01:11:30,660 --> 01:11:33,690
Speaker 3: the history of Luffville, uh, how long ago it was

1326
01:11:33,750 --> 01:11:36,790
Speaker 3: taken over by ghouls. First, there was one ghoul, but

1327
01:11:36,870 --> 01:11:40,350
Speaker 3: the local priest took pity on this creature that was

1328
01:11:40,430 --> 01:11:43,470
Speaker 3: crouching and squatting in the graveyard and tried to clean

1329
01:11:43,490 --> 01:11:45,530
Speaker 3: it up and civilize it. He thought he could give

1330
01:11:45,570 --> 01:11:49,650
Speaker 3: the ghoul a bath, put it in bed, read from

1331
01:11:49,689 --> 01:11:52,590
Speaker 3: the Bible, I guess, and thought that would really straighten

1332
01:11:52,610 --> 01:11:54,370
Speaker 3: the ghoul out, but it didn't work. And then the

1333
01:11:54,410 --> 01:11:57,330
Speaker 3: ghoul just started eating the dead from the village. So

1334
01:11:57,370 --> 01:11:59,830
Speaker 3: the people chased it away, but then it came back

1335
01:11:59,890 --> 01:12:02,820
Speaker 3: with many more like itself. And eventually the ghouls just

1336
01:12:02,860 --> 01:12:03,920
Speaker 3: took over the village.

1337
01:12:04,600 --> 01:12:07,429
Speaker 2: Now I have to add that as we're learning about

1338
01:12:07,439 --> 01:12:10,810
Speaker 2: the ghoulish history of the town, we're treated with illustrations.

1339
01:12:11,130 --> 01:12:11,390
Speaker 3: Yes.

1340
01:12:11,590 --> 01:12:15,750
Speaker 2: The fabulous illustrations by British comic book legend who worked

1341
01:12:15,790 --> 01:12:18,849
Speaker 2: a lot in horror, John Bolton, still around, still working,

1342
01:12:19,150 --> 01:12:25,260
Speaker 2: born 1951, but just amazing kind of Bernie Wrightson-esque images

1343
01:12:25,320 --> 01:12:28,940
Speaker 2: of these horrific yet carnal ghouls. Like these are perfect

1344
01:12:28,979 --> 01:12:31,890
Speaker 2: ghoul illustrations. And I am something of a ghoul connoisseur.

1345
01:12:32,350 --> 01:12:35,450
Speaker 2: And I feel like these illustrations just capture the spirit

1346
01:12:35,470 --> 01:12:39,930
Speaker 2: of the ghoul perfectly. And this is, of course, not

1347
01:12:39,970 --> 01:12:42,140
Speaker 2: what we see with our human actors in the live

1348
01:12:42,189 --> 01:12:45,460
Speaker 2: action sequences. All of the villagers look like peasants from

1349
01:12:45,500 --> 01:12:49,480
Speaker 2: a Monty Python sketch at best. So again, this is

1350
01:12:49,540 --> 01:12:52,940
Speaker 2: definitely a moment where they clearly had great pre-production art,

1351
01:12:52,960 --> 01:12:58,809
Speaker 2: but could not realize something like that through their special

1352
01:12:58,870 --> 01:13:00,929
Speaker 2: effects budget so they just show the images as well

1353
01:13:01,210 --> 01:13:03,130
Speaker 2: i'm glad we got to see the images uh so

1354
01:13:03,150 --> 01:13:05,860
Speaker 2: the illustrations do you know they work to some extent.

1355
01:13:06,030 --> 01:13:08,560
Speaker 3: Yeah the the villagers really are they're like what do

1356
01:13:08,600 --> 01:13:11,100
Speaker 3: we burn apart from witches more witches.

1357
01:13:10,700 --> 01:13:12,700
Speaker 2: Yeah they look like that what.

1358
01:13:12,580 --> 01:13:15,940
Speaker 3: Do we eat apart from corpses more corpses uh but

1359
01:13:16,280 --> 01:13:18,990
Speaker 3: i like your bernie wright's in comparison too because these

1360
01:13:19,070 --> 01:13:22,280
Speaker 3: illustrations they they kind of remind me of um Did

1361
01:13:22,310 --> 01:13:26,309
Speaker 3: you ever see Bernie Wrightson's take on Frankenstein? He did. Yeah.

1362
01:13:26,470 --> 01:13:26,930
Speaker 2: Very much.

1363
01:13:27,330 --> 01:13:31,170
Speaker 3: Kind of looks like that. Yeah. But anyway, eventually in

1364
01:13:31,210 --> 01:13:35,030
Speaker 3: the church, the ghouls start throwing rocks through the windows.

1365
01:13:35,070 --> 01:13:39,750
Speaker 3: These are rock throwing ghouls. And Luna and Sam make

1366
01:13:39,790 --> 01:13:41,929
Speaker 3: a break for it. They're trying to escape the village.

1367
01:13:42,710 --> 01:13:45,889
Speaker 3: The ghouls chase them, throwing rocks. Eventually, a rock hits

1368
01:13:45,950 --> 01:13:48,220
Speaker 3: Luna in the back, and Luna is killed. She has

1369
01:13:48,270 --> 01:13:51,360
Speaker 3: a not-super-convincing death scene, you know, one of those scenes

1370
01:13:51,400 --> 01:13:53,300
Speaker 3: where somebody's laying on the ground and is like, I

1371
01:13:53,340 --> 01:13:54,340
Speaker 3: die now. Yeah.

1372
01:13:54,680 --> 01:13:58,400
Speaker 2: I guess Hume Goose have much thinner skulls or something.

1373
01:13:58,439 --> 01:14:01,520
Speaker 2: I don't know. Their backs are highly susceptible to ranged

1374
01:14:01,580 --> 01:14:03,080
Speaker 2: rock fatal injuries.

1375
01:14:03,120 --> 01:14:07,260
Speaker 3: I'm not sure. Yeah. She says, like, back broken. You know,

1376
01:14:07,380 --> 01:14:09,250
Speaker 3: Dada throw rock at Rabbit. Rabbit die.

1377
01:14:09,260 --> 01:14:09,380
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1378
01:14:12,570 --> 01:14:14,970
Speaker 3: So anyway, Luna is killed, and then Sam makes it

1379
01:14:15,189 --> 01:14:17,570
Speaker 3: out onto the highway finally and is picked up by

1380
01:14:17,590 --> 01:14:20,600
Speaker 3: a policeman. So he's safe. He's made it back to civilization.

1381
01:14:21,020 --> 01:14:23,540
Speaker 3: Gets in the back of the police car. Wouldn't you

1382
01:14:23,580 --> 01:14:25,960
Speaker 3: know it, these are ghoul policemen. So they just take

1383
01:14:25,979 --> 01:14:28,439
Speaker 3: him back to Luffville, and he's going to be eaten.

1384
01:14:28,660 --> 01:14:31,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're escorting the elders in. The elders are

1385
01:14:31,640 --> 01:14:35,300
Speaker 2: in some sort of black-tinted window vehicle. So we don't

1386
01:14:35,320 --> 01:14:37,760
Speaker 2: get a lot of additional info on exactly how the

1387
01:14:37,820 --> 01:14:40,360
Speaker 2: elders work, other than I guess they're like the leading ghouls.

1388
01:14:40,990 --> 01:14:43,690
Speaker 2: who are carrying on business, I guess, maybe in London

1389
01:14:44,290 --> 01:14:47,070
Speaker 2: and then coming back out here, um, on the weekends.

1390
01:14:47,110 --> 01:14:48,910
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know exactly what their arrangement is,

1391
01:14:48,970 --> 01:14:50,510
Speaker 2: but we keep it nice and mysterious.

1392
01:14:51,370 --> 01:14:54,810
Speaker 3: So after this segment, we get a final framing segment, uh,

1393
01:14:54,850 --> 01:14:58,400
Speaker 3: where we come back and Vincent price. Um, he, he

1394
01:14:58,460 --> 01:15:00,880
Speaker 3: makes the case that John Carradine should be allowed to

1395
01:15:00,920 --> 01:15:03,480
Speaker 3: join the monster club. Why not? You know, he's, he's

1396
01:15:03,520 --> 01:15:06,520
Speaker 3: a horror author, but not just because he's a horror author.

1397
01:15:07,060 --> 01:15:09,269
Speaker 3: He should be allowed to join the monster club. Uh,

1398
01:15:09,780 --> 01:15:13,340
Speaker 3: price says, Because Humes are in fact the most terrible

1399
01:15:13,400 --> 01:15:16,450
Speaker 3: monsters ever to exist. And here he runs through a,

1400
01:15:16,439 --> 01:15:18,720
Speaker 3: this is a speech that gets clipped out of the

1401
01:15:18,760 --> 01:15:19,640
Speaker 3: movie sometimes.

1402
01:15:19,780 --> 01:15:20,120
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.

1403
01:15:20,140 --> 01:15:24,460
Speaker 3: Because it's basically a speech. I don't mean removed. I mean,

1404
01:15:24,479 --> 01:15:26,900
Speaker 3: like it's a, it's a clip people watch in isolation

1405
01:15:27,560 --> 01:15:29,979
Speaker 3: because it's just Vincent Price giving a speech about how

1406
01:15:30,040 --> 01:15:32,930
Speaker 3: humans are the worst monsters ever created. And he runs

1407
01:15:32,990 --> 01:15:37,150
Speaker 3: through this itemized list of like human terrors and crimes

1408
01:15:37,250 --> 01:15:41,120
Speaker 3: and mass murderers. and the awful technologies humans have created,

1409
01:15:41,180 --> 01:15:44,370
Speaker 3: and all the execution methods we've come up with, and

1410
01:15:44,450 --> 01:15:47,190
Speaker 3: so on and so on. And then finally, I believe

1411
01:15:47,250 --> 01:15:50,710
Speaker 3: the club secretary, who is a kind of werewolf creature, says,

1412
01:15:50,770 --> 01:15:54,320
Speaker 3: I didn't realize Humes were so talented. And Carradine says,

1413
01:15:54,360 --> 01:15:59,160
Speaker 3: we don't like to boast. And so there you go.

1414
01:15:59,340 --> 01:16:02,280
Speaker 2: It's pretty fun. Obviously, Vincent Price is having a tremendous

1415
01:16:02,340 --> 01:16:06,250
Speaker 2: time delivering this monologue. And yeah, it makes sense that this,

1416
01:16:06,350 --> 01:16:09,710
Speaker 2: along with the skeleton stripper segment, is one of the

1417
01:16:09,750 --> 01:16:11,130
Speaker 2: things that gets shared around a lot.

1418
01:16:11,670 --> 01:16:15,390
Speaker 3: Yeah. So that's the end. It seems like John Carradine

1419
01:16:15,430 --> 01:16:17,490
Speaker 3: is going to be allowed to join the Monster Club

1420
01:16:17,530 --> 01:16:21,670
Speaker 3: because humans are, in fact, quite monstrous. And then we

1421
01:16:21,729 --> 01:16:25,950
Speaker 3: get a final song where we're just watching everybody dance.

1422
01:16:26,020 --> 01:16:27,660
Speaker 3: It's called Welcome to the Monster Club.

1423
01:16:28,060 --> 01:16:31,500
Speaker 2: Yes, performed by the Pretty Things, English R & B band,

1424
01:16:31,660 --> 01:16:36,900
Speaker 2: active band. on and off from 63 through 2019, multiple albums.

1425
01:16:37,040 --> 01:16:39,200
Speaker 2: Dick Taylor was one of the founding members, and he

1426
01:16:39,220 --> 01:16:42,700
Speaker 2: was actually, I'm to understand, a very early founding member

1427
01:16:42,860 --> 01:16:45,120
Speaker 2: of either the Rolling Stones or what would become the

1428
01:16:45,160 --> 01:16:48,729
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones. And then the lead singer here that we

1429
01:16:48,750 --> 01:16:54,090
Speaker 2: see performing is Phil May. He lived 1944 through, I believe, 2020.

1430
01:16:54,090 --> 01:16:56,110
Speaker 2: For my money, this is a pretty solid number. This

1431
01:16:56,189 --> 01:17:00,380
Speaker 2: is total English white guy reggae. That was my read

1432
01:17:00,420 --> 01:17:04,660
Speaker 2: on the genre anyway. But it's a snappy little... I

1433
01:17:04,700 --> 01:17:06,479
Speaker 2: don't know. I had it stuck in my head all morning.

1434
01:17:06,540 --> 01:17:09,479
Speaker 2: So I have to agree. There's something working with the

1435
01:17:09,520 --> 01:17:11,010
Speaker 2: Monster Club by the Pretty Things.

1436
01:17:11,250 --> 01:17:14,290
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a shuffling soft reggae. It's the kind of

1437
01:17:14,330 --> 01:17:17,210
Speaker 3: thing John Carradine could dance to. Yeah, you get to see.

1438
01:17:17,650 --> 01:17:21,070
Speaker 2: Now, Price definitely cuts a rug to this one. Price

1439
01:17:21,110 --> 01:17:24,700
Speaker 2: has some moves. Carradine, this is the most animated I've

1440
01:17:24,740 --> 01:17:27,580
Speaker 2: ever seen him at any age. Oh, I don't know.

1441
01:17:27,620 --> 01:17:29,460
Speaker 3: What about Night Train to Mundo Fine?

1442
01:17:29,939 --> 01:17:33,240
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Well, I need to revisit it. I need

1443
01:17:33,260 --> 01:17:37,500
Speaker 2: to revisit it. And that's the Monster Club.

1444
01:17:37,620 --> 01:17:38,080
Speaker 3: There you go.

1445
01:17:38,140 --> 01:17:42,320
Speaker 2: They send us home dancing, send us home happy with

1446
01:17:42,560 --> 01:17:45,990
Speaker 2: some mixed messages throughout. Like humans are bad or they're great.

1447
01:17:46,610 --> 01:17:49,170
Speaker 2: Monsters are to be feared or to be celebrated. I

1448
01:17:49,189 --> 01:17:50,390
Speaker 2: don't know. It's all of the above.

1449
01:17:51,030 --> 01:17:54,729
Speaker 3: A lot of ambiguities here, yeah. Are the monsters the monsters?

1450
01:17:54,850 --> 01:17:57,250
Speaker 3: Or as Vincent Price makes the case, are humans the

1451
01:17:57,290 --> 01:18:00,140
Speaker 3: most monstrous of all? In which case, why are the

1452
01:18:00,160 --> 01:18:03,380
Speaker 3: humans generally not in the monster club? Why is only

1453
01:18:03,400 --> 01:18:07,599
Speaker 3: Archette Windhays in? I don't know. Also, yeah, the question

1454
01:18:07,660 --> 01:18:10,420
Speaker 3: remains for me, do monsters want to be known about

1455
01:18:10,479 --> 01:18:12,809
Speaker 3: or not? Do they like the fame they get from

1456
01:18:12,890 --> 01:18:16,830
Speaker 3: horror stories? Or do they want to keep things hidden

1457
01:18:16,970 --> 01:18:17,910
Speaker 3: and keep their secrets?

1458
01:18:18,510 --> 01:18:19,030
Speaker 2: Unclear.

1459
01:18:19,390 --> 01:18:19,790
Speaker 3: Uncertain.

1460
01:18:20,650 --> 01:18:23,150
Speaker 2: We have to pick up the book. But hey, listeners,

1461
01:18:23,439 --> 01:18:25,280
Speaker 2: maybe some of you have read the book already and

1462
01:18:25,300 --> 01:18:26,880
Speaker 2: you can write in and let us know. Maybe you

1463
01:18:26,920 --> 01:18:30,740
Speaker 2: have some takes on these questions that we've been asking.

1464
01:18:31,479 --> 01:18:32,960
Speaker 2: Either way, we'd love to hear from you. If you've

1465
01:18:33,000 --> 01:18:38,000
Speaker 2: watched even just the dancing number from this movie, write in.

1466
01:18:39,270 --> 01:18:41,830
Speaker 2: The Monster Club. Pretty fun. I would say a pretty

1467
01:18:41,870 --> 01:18:45,830
Speaker 2: fun Halloween party. All right. We're going to go ahead

1468
01:18:45,910 --> 01:18:49,010
Speaker 2: and sign off here. But yeah, we just want to

1469
01:18:49,050 --> 01:18:51,310
Speaker 2: remind you that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily

1470
01:18:51,330 --> 01:18:53,670
Speaker 2: a science and culture podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays

1471
01:18:53,729 --> 01:18:56,189
Speaker 2: and Thursdays. But on Fridays, we set aside most serious

1472
01:18:56,229 --> 01:18:58,510
Speaker 2: concerns to just talk about a weird film on Weird

1473
01:18:58,550 --> 01:19:01,950
Speaker 2: House Cinema. If you're on Letterboxd.com, look us up there.

1474
01:19:02,010 --> 01:19:04,090
Speaker 2: We are Weird House, and you'll find a nice list

1475
01:19:04,130 --> 01:19:04,910
Speaker 2: of all the movies we've.

1476
01:19:04,810 --> 01:19:05,610
Speaker 3: Covered over the years.

1477
01:19:06,120 --> 01:19:08,540
Speaker 2: Wherever you get the show, though, if you're watching on

1478
01:19:08,600 --> 01:19:11,860
Speaker 2: Netflix or you're listening, wherever you get your audio podcast,

1479
01:19:12,160 --> 01:19:15,059
Speaker 2: just rate, review, subscribe. If you're on Netflix, give us

1480
01:19:15,080 --> 01:19:17,139
Speaker 2: a couple of thumbs up and ask to be reminded

1481
01:19:17,500 --> 01:19:18,459
Speaker 2: about new episodes.

1482
01:19:19,200 --> 01:19:22,650
Speaker 3: Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, JJ Posway.

1483
01:19:23,110 --> 01:19:24,490
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1484
01:19:24,530 --> 01:19:26,950
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1485
01:19:26,990 --> 01:19:28,990
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1486
01:19:29,050 --> 01:19:32,210
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

1487
01:19:39,660 --> 01:19:42,099
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

1488
01:19:42,479 --> 01:19:45,810
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple

1489
01:19:45,830 --> 01:19:48,190
Speaker 1: Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.