WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Devil's Express 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.400 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:15.159 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.919 Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. In. Today we're addressing 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:24.320 the nineteen seventies six genre mash up film Devil's Express 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.159 also known as Gang Wars. Did you know about this 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.360 alternate title? Rob? Yeah, yeah, I'd run across some sort 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.120 of alternate trailers for it. I guess you see this 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:35.559 a lot with with with films that came came out, 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.360 especially back in the in the nineteen seventies, where it 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.080 comes out, maybe it doesn't play as well, or maybe 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:43.199 something else happens in the zeitgeist and you want to 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.000 you want a second shot at it, so you just 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.440 retitle it and put it out there again and see 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.559 if you catch any any viewers. So the claim that 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.519 I came across, uh, we should maybe it's best to 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.680 start with the elevator pitch. The elevator pitch here is 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.680 that when an ancient Chinese demon is released the subway 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:04.200 tunnels of New York, a saintly master of the martial 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.520 arts named Luke Curtis must summon all his courage to 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:11.560 defeat the Underground Evil. So it is a martial arts 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:16.080 demon horror movie, but it also has elements of like 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.240 gang fighting in the streets. And according to a write 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.679 up by Code Red, which I think did the Blu 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.640 ray rerelease of this movie, that they said that when 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.680 The Warriors was released theatrically, which I think would have 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.320 been in nineteen seventy nine, so three years after this 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.120 movie came out, they say, the distributor of Devil's Express 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:38.360 re titled it Gang Wars essentially to make it look 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.320 like a Warrior's type movie. Of course, if you haven't 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.160 seen The Warriors, that's just it's a movie about all 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.680 these weird, different little gangs in New York that have 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.480 their their own interesting costumes and quirks, and they're running 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:53.760 around fighting each other and all that. And I think 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:58.080 they wanted to cash in on that that Warriors magic. Yeah, 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:00.520 I mean, The Warriors is is a fabulously weird film 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:02.760 in its own right, because when we say weird gangs, 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:04.400 we mean if you haven't seen it, it's like there's 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.480 a baseball gang, there's the Baseball Furies. That's right. The 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:10.360 first time I saw that, that was the funniest thing 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.240 about it. To me, they were wearing baseball uniforms and 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:15.840 they have bats, I think. Yeah, so it's like it's 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.680 it's as if it's said in an alternate reality where 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.040 you just have a bunch of wacky, wacky gangs with 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.960 all these wacky themes. Uh. So it's definitely worth worth 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.200 checking out superior movie to what we're talking about here today. 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.320 But the one we're talking about here today, Devil's Express, 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:35.840 is just a wonderful mash up of of different genres, 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:39.680 uh that they all kind of slammed together awkwardly, uh 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.160 you know, uh, scraping up against each other sometimes jack 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.880 knifing around each other in a way that that is 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:50.720 ultimately quite entertaining. Yeah. So they retitled at Gang Morris 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.240 and there are gangs in this movie, and the gangs 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.480 do fight, but this movie really has more to do 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:01.480 with its star Warhawk ten Zania down a demon to 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:04.760 fight in the subway tunnels. Yes, and you know, we 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:09.440 can we can introduce war Hawk Tanzania all day and 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:11.280 and we're going to get into war Hawk Tanzania in 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:12.880 a minute. But why don't we go ahead and listen 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.600 to the trailer. The original TV trailer for the film 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:21.400 because you really need a narrator's voice to introduce Warhawk 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:25.000 Tanzania to the world. To take a ride on the 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:31.240 Devil's Expressed. What happens when two thousand years of evil 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:36.720 strike a city see Warhawk Tanzania match blows which the 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:42.800 Devil and those the Devil has possessed to Ford monsoon 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.240 take a ride on the Devil's Express. It may be 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:54.240 your last star rated R. See now, are aren't you 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:58.440 completely on board with Warhawk Tanzania the either the next 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:02.720 big thing or the cur big thing based on the 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.480 salesmanship in this uh, in this particular trailer. One thing 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.360 about the trailer is the trailer really plays it up 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:12.240 as a horror movie. I think, what do you think 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.240 about that? They definitely stressed the monster movie aspects of this, 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.039 which I think is I mean, that's what brought me 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.760 to it. I realized, Oh, this is not just a 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.960 New York City martial arts gang war movie. No, there's 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.080 also some sort of a subway monster in it. There's 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:31.520 a demon and um and I'm a sucker for any 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.159 any film that that puts monsters in a subway, especially 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:39.480 the New York subway system. Um. I'm just instantly enthralled. Oh, 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.000 of course there. But stylistically this film has a lot 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:45.200 of things in common with a lot of these sort 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:48.640 of crime exploitation movies of the nineteen seventies. I've seen 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.000 a lot of people online uh saying that it has 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.120 elements similar to black exploitation films, which are a a 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.800 genre that has has a very complicated legacy. Of course, 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:01.800 these were films that came out in the early seventies, 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:05.200 especially they're they're often said to have been inspired by 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.599 a couple of seminal works. One was Melvin Van Peeble's 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.280 Sweet Sweet Backs Badass Song, which I think came out 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.000 in nineteen seventy one, and another big one was Gordon 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:19.680 Parks movie Shaft. And it's debatable whether those are whether 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:23.040 those should actually be thought of as black exploitation movies themselves, 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.640 but they certainly are are thought to have inspired this 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:29.040 genre of films that had sort of larger than life 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:33.000 black heroes, but that also tended to deal with themes 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.600 of of crime. And we're often said in New York 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.839 City and have this complicated legacy because on one hand 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:43.120 that they had these larger than life black heroes. I've 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.080 read about some scholars talking about how you know, finally 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.720 you could have like a black hero on the level 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.720 of James Bond, that kind of like superhuman nous uh 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:54.960 in a movie starring in a movie of his own. 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.200 But then also like the term black exploitation actually was 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.600 coined by a member of the Double a c P 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:04.520 who is very against the genre, who because basically, I 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.159 think he thought that it perpetuated negative stereotypes about the 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.400 black communities in America. Yeah, because these were often movies 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:13.880 about crime, so that you know, you had you had 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.880 gangs in them, they had they had would feature uh, 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:21.800 prostitution or drugs and violence. Um. And and if you 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.479 just if you're just watching these films of this genre, 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:27.840 you know, it makes you think like this is all 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.000 there is, this is all there is to um to 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.400 two black culture into black life in America at the time. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.560 And in a similar way, of course, you also have 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:40.800 kung fu exploitation films, and this is also the kung 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.480 fu exploitation film where if you watch films of this caliber, 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:50.120 you see um, basically Asian characters, Asian cultures, and certainly 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.120 uh in this case like Asian American life as being 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.200 just martial arts like, this is a movie that features 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:01.120 several different Asian actors, or at least Asian stuntman and 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:05.440 Asian martial artists, but there's not a single Asian character 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.760 of any depth. I like, I do not know any 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.280 of the Asian characters names in this film. I don't 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:13.760 know that they're given names. Yeah, that's right. And of 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:15.480 course this movie would not be the only one that 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.560 sort of mashed up the the seventies martial arts exploitation 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.040 style movie with black exploitation aesthetics. These two things had 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.880 collided in other films as well, but in this case 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.200 it also brings in horror, which is a very interesting 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.720 third element here, third rail. It's the third rail that 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.320 drives the train, you could say that. So of course 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:39.480 this is a This is a grimy seventies grindhouse film, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.880 but it also borders on one of our favorite genres 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.600 that we've discussed before. Of course, this other genre we've 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.320 talked about was the supernatural wrestling movie, such as the 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:54.360 film starring El Santo, where the noble luchador hero must 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.000 confront a mummy or a dracula. The one we talked 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.960 about on the show was Santo and the Treasure of Dracula, 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.720 which it was a really fun movie to talk about. Uh. Here, 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:04.880 this is not exactly the same thing, but it's kind 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:09.320 of close. Because this is essentially a supernatural martial arts movie. 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:14.600 Like Warhawk, Tanzania must confront not just corrupt cops and 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.040 rival gangs on the gritty streets of nineteen seventies New York, 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:22.520 but the denizens of hell itself. Absolutely. Yeah, and I mean, 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:25.760 and it's ultimately it's it's a Baowolf and Grendel story. 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.640 You know. It's the story of the hero who must 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.680 travel down into the depths, into the dark realm where 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.080 the monster lives, in order to defeat it. Uh and 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.240 uh and you know that's exactly what happens in this film. 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:40.680 Speaking of which, is this our first martial arts film 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.800 on Weirdhouse Cinema? Have we done another pure martial arts film? Uh? 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.160 So many movies have elements of martial arts in them. 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.080 I would find it hard to believe we haven't touched 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.400 on anything there. But this might be the closest thing 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.040 to a pure martial arts movie. Yeah. All right, Well, 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.480 let's go ahead and talk about the people who made 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.800 this possible. There's a there's some several fun connections in 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.600 this film. Um At first glance, it might look like 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.720 a you know, with these z pictures from a casting standpoint, 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.600 where where nobody goes on to to do anything else 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:13.559 or has any kind of interesting connections for the rest 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.000 of the world. But that is not the case. Let's 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.280 start at the top with the director and also one 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.440 of the screenwriters, Barry rosen bore N six. He only 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.719 directed a couple of pictures, but he was a producer 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.040 on the nineteen seventy five film Black Force, where he 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.640 apparently met some of the stars of that that he 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.320 would utilize in Devil's Express And as a producer, he 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.200 went on to work on some at least a couple 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.360 of really fun projects, including Highway to Hell in he 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.120 was line producer on that. This is the the Wonderful 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.920 Hell Cop Movie, starring Patrick Bergen and the entire Stiller family. 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.400 Like Ben Stiller's in it, Ben Stellar's mom is in it, 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:55.720 Ben Stellar's dad is in it. Yeah, weird, so weird. 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.480 It is a weird film. Gilbert Godfrey shows up playing 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:03.080 Hitler uh because it's hell Uh. There's all these bizarre 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.880 elements in it, So that's that's definitely. Um. I haven't 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:08.079 seen it in a while, but that was one I 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:13.079 finally remember catching on like USA Network back in the day. Okay, 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.720 and then Rosen also produced twenty two episodes of Highlander, 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.439 the series, so uh, kudos on that. I can just 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.160 see him sending the dailies back being like no, no, 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:27.720 gotta have more juice in these quickening scenes. Now I 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.840 mentioned that Rosen was one of the writers on Devil's Express. 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.000 There are four other screenwriters that are credited, so this 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.480 is basically Rosen at all. Um. I'll list their names 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.160 quickly here, but but they didn't really I don't think 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.240 any of them really went on to do much else. 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:46.600 But uh, still, the people that made this possible Nicky Patton, Uh, 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:52.760 Pascal Vacuire, Ceotis Robinson, and Bobby Saberstein. These are the screenwriters. 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.840 Moving on, let's get to the main event here. Let's 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.079 get to our to our star, the man who and 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.720 this plays Luke. But it's hard to imagine anybody with 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.000 a name like this just playing someone with a name 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:09.160 like Luke. But we're talking about war Hawk Tanzania. You know. 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.000 I read some reviews saying like, uh, sort of deriding 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.920 the film for trying to rely on the what they 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.000 claimed was non existent star power of war Hawk Tanzania. 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.280 But I kind of disagree. I mean, war Hawk Tanzania 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:25.080 is clearly not a not a super experienced actor, but 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.240 I do kind of think he has star power. Yeah, 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.480 I think he absolutely has star power. I mean, he 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.240 he has the looks, he has this, this this really 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:37.000 righteous afro hairstyle. This, he's he's got this cool mustache. 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.079 He's he's lean, he's mean, he can throw some kicks 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:43.120 and punches. And yes, he only has I think two 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.240 different delivery styles for his dialogue, but you feel it 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.480 when he delivers those those lines like he's still he's 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.960 still connecting with you. But but yeah, to think about 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:57.480 the trailer, especially a couple of trailers that I watched 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.280 for this, is that they really do sell war Hawk 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:04.439 Tanzania as if he is either the you know, the 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.800 the current big thing or the next big thing in 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:11.280 martial arts cinema. Like he is exploding. The war Hawk 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.160 Tanzania train is about to leave the station. Are you 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.200 going to get on board? Yes? I'm on board. Yes, 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:20.640 I have my tickets right here, first class. Because I mean, 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.319 if nothing else. It's also just an amazing name. War 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.520 Hawk Tanzania just undeniably cool, and we see that in 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.200 his character too, Like I feel we call him Luke, 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.680 but I feel like the characters war Hawk Tanzania as well. 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.640 I should also stress war Hawk Tanzania had one, I 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.760 think one film credit prior to this and no film 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:43.160 credits after this. Uh. He was in that that exploitation 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.960 film Black Force that I mentioned earlier that came before this, 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.720 and then he he just does not appear in anything else. Um. 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.439 And I don't think anything is really publicly known about 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.240 the man. I would say that it probably went one 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.200 of two ways though. Either after this film he has 0:12:58.200 --> 0:12:59.920 decided that he was just going to live a private 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:01.920 life and be a private citizen, and if so, you know, 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:06.040 more power to him, or war Hawk Tanzania has spent 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:10.079 the decades since this movie battling actual demons and monsters 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.720 around the world, taking the fight to the forces of 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.160 evil as only war Hawk Tanzania can. He is a 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.480 he is a martial arts exorcist of your mass transit systems. Yes, 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:24.880 he's a fighter. He's a lover. Uh, he's a demon hunter, 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:28.079 He's a peace broker. He brings it all to the table. 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.240 Totally agree and believe it or not, there are other 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:33.320 actors in this film. I mean it seems like like 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.400 maybe they at first they thought we we'll just cast 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.520 war Hawk. We don't need anybody else. War Hawk Tanzania 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:40.240 is enough to fill up an entire film. But then 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:41.800 they as well, we have to catch all these other 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.040 roles too. Uh huh, Well, I don't know if I 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:49.280 know anybody's name except Rodan. Well, first there's uh, we'll 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.280 get to well, let's go ahead and hit Rodan, because 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.560 Rodan's his but Rodan's is his his companion. They're on 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:57.600 the same course, they're on the you know that they 0:13:57.640 --> 0:13:59.280 seem to have the same mission in life, but it 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.560 becomes clear as we'll discuss that they do have different 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:06.880 agendas going on. There there's some conflict between them. Oh yeah, 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.040 there's totally conflict. But I mean, so Rodan is Luke's 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.960 student in the movie, his student of martial arts, because 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:16.960 Luke is a martial arts master. But whereas Luke is 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.760 you could argue pretty much lawful good. You know, he's 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.760 in many ways sort of a paladin or presented as such, 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.960 viewed as such by the creators of the film. Rodan 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:29.160 I would say is more in the sort of chaotic 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:33.720 neutral territory. Yeah, yeah, he's you know, he'll he'll be good, 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.440 especially if he's there with Luke, if you know, he 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:38.880 has that that war hawk energy keeping him in line. 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.000 But if he's off on his own, uh, you know, 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.240 he's he's running games all over town. As we find 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.840 out now. Rodan is played by the actor and martial 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:51.600 artists Wilfredo roll Dan, who lived I think nine through 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.520 so he did pass away last last year. Um Lower 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.960 East Side resident and apparently like regional at least regional 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.960 martial arts legend. Uh. He was born in Puerto Rico, 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.880 and he moved to the continental United States at a 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:10.080 young age. His acting career seems to have consist of 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:12.920 two different periods. He did some exploitation films when he 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.600 was very young, including this one, and then some other 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.920 film work later in his life after he retired from 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.600 a career as a as a pe teacher for the 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.080 for the New York City Board of Education. He you 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.440 can look him up there in his their websites about 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.360 him and memorials to him. He apparently sang he was 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.920 a much beloved uh master, I think a grand master 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:39.120 of a particular system of martial arts. Uh that he 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:41.120 did not I don't think he did not found this. 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:44.600 The school of Martial Arts was founded by a guy 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.080 in the name of Frank Ruez. But yeah, he was 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:52.200 an accomplished martial artist and like sort of a regional celebrity. 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.280 You know, you'd hear to talk about like New York 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.160 City people, you know, uh, the sort of characters that 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:59.800 that fill up the city that might not necessarily be 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:03.040 no own by people who are not themselves New Yorkers. 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.960 What seems like Wilfredo was one of those individuals. And 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:09.080 he's a he's he's pretty good in this movie. You 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:11.240 see him that I was throwing some amazing kicks and 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:13.360 he's he's not bad. As an actor. I feel like 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.000 he's got as a sort of a natural chrisma as well, 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.160 but also a kind of uh something you don't trust 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:21.440 about him. He's got a meanness to him, and of 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:23.520 course that comes out in the character as well. Now 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.680 there's another martial arts really partial martial artist character that 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.160 shows up earlier on and that's a cop character by 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:34.000 the name of Chris and Chris was played by Larry Fleischman. Uh, 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.520 this is another like Warhawk age unknown. Don't know when 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.680 this guy was born. Um, presumably still alive. British born actor. 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.320 He popped up in nine Johnny Got His Gun. He 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.000 was on All My Children, Law and Order, a couple 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.640 of video games. He's perfectly fine in this. Now another 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.800 really interesting and weird actor that shows up in this film. 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.360 Not very much like he basically shows up for two scenes, 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:01.560 almost as if you wander into the shot and they 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:05.879 decided to pay him. Um. But a wonderful, wonderful actor 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.800 that many people probably know by his his stage name, 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.879 his performance name. Talking about brother Theodore. Oh, his scene 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:14.520 in this movie was one of the best parts of 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.680 the whole thing. Yeah, um, I think is it two scenes? 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:19.720 Is he also? Is there a scene where he's looking 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:21.520 at a dead body in a subway with some police 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:26.680 officers for no real reason. Uh? If so, I missed, 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:28.600 don't recall that one. I remember the one where he's 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.160 preaching to the crowd, and we'll get to that later. Yeah. 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.960 He mainly just has a ranting scene. So yeah. Brother 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.159 Theodore also known as Theodore Gottlieb. He was born in 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.399 nineteen o six, died in two thousand and one, and 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:42.399 I read, I've read that he improved all of his 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:46.399 lines in this as well. Um, he was a German 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:50.200 American actor who performed a kind of stream of consciousness 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:54.320 stand up and he has a fascinating life. I was 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.439 reading the New York Times, Oh bit for him by 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.840 Douglas Martin, and the whole thing's worth reading. Fascinating character. 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:02.600 But I want to read just these, these, these two 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.360 snippets from it quote. Born to great wealth in Germany, 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.920 he ended up in Dachau, only to be released when 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:13.480 he signed over the family's great fortune for a single mark. Einstein, 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.360 said by some of Mr Gottlieb's friends to have been 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.480 his mother's lover, helped him get to the United States. 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:25.400 And then we also here, always an aristocrat, he suddenly 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.080 found himself working as a janitor at Stanford University, where 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:34.479 he managed to defeat thirty professors at chess simultaneously. So 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.520 I don't know, Okay, I don't know anything about this guy. 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.320 So I admit I'm coming from a place of ignorance. 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.879 But I feel incredulous at reading these sentences the thirty 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.320 I mean also knowing that he is very much a 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:51.520 performer and um uh and and kind of a professional weirdo. 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.600 I mean, I don't doubt him on the on the 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:58.600 core backstory here, but the chess thing raises my suspicion. 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.920 Maybe he really was a brilliant chess uh player? And 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.119 and which is you know, wiped up the matt with 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.560 a bunch of Stanford University professors. But I don't know 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.240 either way. I like them the myth building though, because 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.919 he seems this is one of those weird characters you 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:16.800 see show up in some stuff and um, yeah, it 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.480 seems like it's hard to tell where the mythology ends 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:24.320 in the real life begins with him. But anyway, he 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:26.280 he ended up in the United States eventually got into 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:28.960 acting in comedy. He had a small part in Orson 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.840 Wells The Stranger in nineteen forty six, which was his 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.440 first role, and many of our listeners probably know him 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.600 from his final picture. He shows up in nine the Bourbs. 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:43.200 Do you remember the Bourbs? Joe? Um? Is that the 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:45.880 one with Tom Hanks. I'm not sure that I've seen it. 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:47.960 It's it's one I saw when I was a kids. 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:50.320 I haven't seen it as an adult. But you have 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:54.160 a number of of weird character actors playing weird neighbors 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:56.760 in that. I think Bruce Dern is in it as 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.960 well a couple other people that you know, people would 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.280 viewers would recognize. But yeah, but yeah, Brother Theodore, isn't 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.520 it playing one of the neighborhood weirdos and it's pretty 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.119 pretty good. I'm sorry, does they have vampires? I don't 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.800 think it has vampires. I think it's just weirdos. It's 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:15.919 got while since I've seen it. I don't remember what 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:18.240 the payoff was, but there was a lot of like 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:22.399 creepy goings on and like suburban basements. May be confusing 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:26.560 the bourbs with the money pit. Yeah, different movie, but 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:31.120 some very similar era, I think now. Brother Theodore has 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:36.600 two excellent voice actor performances on his um filmography from 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:40.040 the animated films of Drunken and Bass. So he uh 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.160 he played Have you ever seen two? Is the Last Unicorn? 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:48.320 Joe No, I haven't Okay? Fabulous film score by America, wonderful, 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.640 wonderful vocal of voice acting performances throughout. But Brother Theodore 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:58.440 places character Rock Uh Hunchback who attends the witch Mommy Fortuna, 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:02.080 who runs this, uh, this I Joe of of magical 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.679 creatures and monsters, and so he's this, uh, he's this 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:08.560 really fun character and not a not a huge character 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.080 in the film, but a memorable one. Another character you 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.280 played in the Ranking and Bess animated films. He voiced 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.960 Gollum in nineteen seventy seven The Hobbit and in nineteen 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:22.200 eighties The Return of the King. Both great roles, both 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.480 great performances. Um, I have to say, I've i've I've 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:29.199 fallen back in love with the original animated Hobbit in 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.040 the last couple of years, and I think i'm I 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:34.119 can without a doubt. I can say, brother Theodore is 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.000 my Gollum. Can you sing the songs? No? I can't 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:39.560 sing sing the song, but has good songs in it too. 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:43.560 Seven The Hobbit also one movie. It's it's it's brilliant. 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:45.840 They managed to fit that that entire short book into 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.399 one short film. I don't think you could do it 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.879 in less than for six hour movies. Yeah, somehow they 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:55.280 did it. Ranken and Best. Okay, who else we got 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:58.000 in this? Alright? So we have some The next one 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:01.520 I want to mention because it's it's a weird uh credit. 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:05.679 On the the cast for this, there's somebody that is 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:11.320 referred to as um Uh Skagi Tanzania or as uh 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:16.040