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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is

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Speaker 1: Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it is the

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Speaker 1: Serpentine our here on Weird House Cinema. Because today, Rob

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Speaker 1: am I right that this is our first snake movie.

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Speaker 1: It is. I mean, we've we've certainly had some snakes

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Speaker 1: and even killer snakes pop up in some of our

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Speaker 1: Florida movies that we did, including z and Frogs. But

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Speaker 1: Venom is going to be our first true snake movie. Now,

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Speaker 1: this movie is called Venom, but no, it's not that Venom. No,

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Speaker 1: it's not that other one either. It's this is Venom

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, the original Venom, or well, one of

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Speaker 1: the original Venoms. I noticed that they are multiple films

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Speaker 1: with the title Venom, so I'm not sure if this

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Speaker 1: one is the true originator, but it's the one that

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Speaker 1: we're talking about here today. Man. I love a good

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Speaker 1: snake romp uh. You know, a snake movie really it

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Speaker 1: just gets you by the guts sometimes. So I love,

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Speaker 1: as we've discussed before, the the camp uh Supernatural Pleasures

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Speaker 1: of the Layer of the White Worm um to to

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Speaker 1: even what I would argue is maybe the best creature

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Speaker 1: feature of all time, the n Amazon snake hunt movie Anacondah,

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Speaker 1: in which the cardinal rule of great snake movies is observed.

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Speaker 1: And this is what I would argue. The rule is

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Speaker 1: any creature movie featuring an unusually large or unusually deadly

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Speaker 1: reptile must also contain at least one human actor who

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Speaker 1: is more reptilian than the creature itself. Now, in the

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Speaker 1: case of Anaconda, the You've got your giant c g

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Speaker 1: I reptile, but it is being constantly upstaged by John

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Speaker 1: Voight delivering one of the most bizarre performances I have

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Speaker 1: ever seen in any movie. Uh. You know, you just

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Speaker 1: at him. You can tell his blood is room temperature.

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Speaker 1: When he blinks his eyes they go horizontal. Uh and uh.

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Speaker 1: And his accent is just radioactive weirdness. He sounds like

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Speaker 1: he's trying to sort of be Peter Lorie doing a

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Speaker 1: like Spanish Count Dracula kind of thing, but also as

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Speaker 1: a ruthless jungle poacher with a ponytail. So that movie

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Speaker 1: definitely adheres to the rule. But I think today's pick

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Speaker 1: also observes the rule. That's right. Venom is very interesting

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Speaker 1: film in a large part because it features not one,

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Speaker 1: but two notoriously difficult actors, Oliver Read and Klass Kinsky.

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Speaker 1: Um uh and and there's actually another reportedly difficult actor

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Speaker 1: in this as well. Uh So you can really up

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Speaker 1: that to three. But it's especially evident with Reid and

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Speaker 1: Kinsky based on some of the stories and the fact

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Speaker 1: that they share a lot of screen time in this film.

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Speaker 1: Um So, you can imagine if they were constantly shouting

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Speaker 1: at each other, uh and almost coming to blows, it

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Speaker 1: would it would have been a particularly terrible working environment

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Speaker 1: for everyone on the picture. You can feel the bad

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Speaker 1: vibes through the screen. Yes, Now, I mean luckily they're

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Speaker 1: both playing villains and the characters are also supposed to

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Speaker 1: somewhat hate each other, so on the screen, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: putting a setting aside anything we know about the making

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Speaker 1: of and these these actors themselves, you know, it ends

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Speaker 1: up working. But yeah, both Kinski and Read were kind

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Speaker 1: of larger than life figures. Both were noted hedonist in

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Speaker 1: their own ways, and they were they were both highly

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Speaker 1: talented actors whose careers were damaged by their difficult behavior.

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Speaker 1: So I think it's fair to say that, you know,

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Speaker 1: at the very least, they were both very problematic figures. Well,

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Speaker 1: if you're talking about their personal lives, I think, especially

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Speaker 1: in the case of Kinsky, that's sort of an understatement.

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Speaker 1: Oh yes, yeah, I feel like every time I learned

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Speaker 1: something new about Kinsky, I I regret it. Now. You know,

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Speaker 1: we're not going to focus that guess too much on

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Speaker 1: their personal lives. But you know, I admit that I

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Speaker 1: don't necessarily have the stomach for too much of that

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Speaker 1: sort of thing. But in know, some argue that read

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Speaker 1: sort of played up this hell raiser image for the press,

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Speaker 1: though there seems no denying his his alcoholism and is

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Speaker 1: also kind of like brute, macho demeanor. Um. Kinsky, on

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Speaker 1: the other hand, was prone to two outbursts and tantrums,

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Speaker 1: it seems, and seems to have suffered from mental illness. Um.

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Speaker 1: He also was apparently just reviled by many people who

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Speaker 1: had to work with him, and I think Werner Herzog

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Speaker 1: kind of stands apart is really the only filmmaker to

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Speaker 1: have been able to work with him multiple times for

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Speaker 1: a total of five different films. It's interesting to me, though,

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Speaker 1: that that Kinski played a vampire in two different nons

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Speaker 1: Ferato films um and Read played a werewolf in one

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Speaker 1: Hammer film. So, um, you know, in to a large extent,

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Speaker 1: we have vampires versus werewolves, um in this movie and

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Speaker 1: behind the scenes on this movie. Um, the vampire and

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Speaker 1: the werewolf really do seem like monstrous reflections of the

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Speaker 1: individual energies of these two actors. Okay, so we know

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Speaker 1: we're dealing with Klaus Kinski and Oliver Read both in

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Speaker 1: a snake movie. But the weird thing is, it's not

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Speaker 1: just a snake movie. Really. What this is is a

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Speaker 1: a genre hybrid. This is a realistic crime thriller plus snake. Yes,

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Speaker 1: another elevator pitch on that give it is a deadly

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Speaker 1: game of cat and mouse but mostly snake. Yeah, or

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Speaker 1: home alone but with Snake. All all good ways of

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Speaker 1: summing it up. Another way you could sum it up

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Speaker 1: is bad at crime, good at dying by Snake. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The bad at crime note is is good. And this

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Speaker 1: is one of those where those films where the criminal

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Speaker 1: enterprise is perhaps not entirely well thought out and or

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Speaker 1: bad or and or mistakes are made um that just

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Speaker 1: lead to catastrophe. So it's it's uh, you know, in

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Speaker 1: a way, it's more in sort of the Fargo realm

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Speaker 1: of of crime cinema, like these are guys who really

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Speaker 1: screw up and uh and and and make mistakes that

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Speaker 1: are just catastrophic for their venture. I also want to

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Speaker 1: note that in terms of of boom mechanics, uh, I

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Speaker 1: think there are basically two kinds of snake movies. So

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Speaker 1: you could have like a big snake movie and a

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Speaker 1: stealth snake movie. So big snake movies would be more

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Speaker 1: like anaconda. They focus on the scale of snake in

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Speaker 1: order to intimidate, and this is either by having a

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Speaker 1: single very large snake or by having a large quantity

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Speaker 1: of regular sized snakes. But your stealth snake movies have

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Speaker 1: a snake instead that is regular sized, maybe especially deadly,

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Speaker 1: but it hides in places you don't expect and pops

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Speaker 1: out at you. And this is a film in the

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Speaker 1: latter camp. This is a stealth snake movie. This is

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Speaker 1: a movie about opening up the liquor cabinet and oops,

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Speaker 1: there's a black mamba and it bits you on the face.

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Speaker 1: Though it would be hilarious to try to imagine doing

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Speaker 1: the same premise, is this movie, like a realistic crime

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Speaker 1: thriller involving a kidnapping plot plus snake with like a

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Speaker 1: giant snake or a million snakes. Yeah, I mean, I

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Speaker 1: guess you could do a million snakes. It could be

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Speaker 1: like the million snakes are set loose in the house.

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Speaker 1: I mean, isn't snakes on a plane essentially that It's

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Speaker 1: like there's something else going on, right, It's not just

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Speaker 1: snakes on the plane. Isn't there like a hostage scenario

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Speaker 1: or something? Can I confess something? I've never seen all

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Speaker 1: of Snakes on a plane. I started watching it and

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Speaker 1: never finished it. I have to assume there's something else

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Speaker 1: going on besides snakes. So yeah, I think there's I

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Speaker 1: think there is a perfunctory crime element, like somebody it's

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Speaker 1: like a witness in a mob case, or something is

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Speaker 1: being transported on a plane. But I would say snakes

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Speaker 1: on a plane goes big snake because the issue is

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Speaker 1: there are many snakes on the plane. This film, with

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Speaker 1: the with the single snake um threat, it reminds me

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Speaker 1: a lot of the Sherlock Holmes adventure UM the Adventure

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Speaker 1: of the Speckled Band, which concerns like a very deadly

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Speaker 1: venomous snake that is responsible for a death, and I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if that was ultimately one of the

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Speaker 1: inspirations on this story. Well, I think it's got a

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Speaker 1: lot of actors who were in Sherlock Holmes movies and

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Speaker 1: TV series in Britain. Right, Yeah, Yeah, we have more

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Speaker 1: than more than one Sherlock Holmes connection here for sure.

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Speaker 1: Well let's go ahead and jump right into the trailer here.

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Speaker 1: Venom the kidnap that became a murder, that became a siege,

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Speaker 1: that became a death trap. Venom. The fear explodes, trapping

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Speaker 1: bath hostages and kidnappers in his grip. The panic spreads,

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Speaker 1: sending an entire police force into action. But this is

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Speaker 1: a terror unlike anything anyone has ever faced, and when

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Speaker 1: it uncoils to strike, your blood will run cold. Venom,

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Speaker 1: whatever you feel, you will cheer m dude. This is

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Speaker 1: classic creature feature narration trailer narration. I absolutely love it.

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Speaker 1: What does he say? Venom the kidnap that became a murderer,

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Speaker 1: that became a siege, that became a death trap venom. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they do a really good job to sell on this

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Speaker 1: new in that trailer. Uh, huh and uh. What he

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Speaker 1: also says this line? I kept thinking about it was like,

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Speaker 1: what does it mean? He says, whatever you feel you

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Speaker 1: will fear. Does that mean that once you start thinking

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Speaker 1: about snakes, like anytime something touches your body, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: you brush against the door frame as you're walking through it,

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Speaker 1: or I don't know, like a leaf falls on your shoulder,

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Speaker 1: You're always going to think it's a snake. I guess

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Speaker 1: so if we're being generous, I guess that that's maybe

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Speaker 1: what the ad copy here is trying to say. What what

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Speaker 1: what else would it mean? That's a weird line. Whatever

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Speaker 1: you feel you will fear? I don't know. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: really make much sense within the context of the film,

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Speaker 1: like yeah, I feel happy. Oh no, maybe it was

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Speaker 1: the director of the The actors they just said like

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Speaker 1: they're like, well, what's my character, what's my motivation? And

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Speaker 1: the director says, I don't know, whatever you feel you'll fear. Uh,

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Speaker 1: And they're like okay, because it does seem like, for

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Speaker 1: the most part, a lot of these actors were just

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Speaker 1: kind of turned loose to just do their their thing

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Speaker 1: with the character. Uh. And there's not really necessarily a

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Speaker 1: great sense of who the underlying character is supposed to be.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember how did you come across this movie? What? What?

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Speaker 1: What's the origin story here? Um? I have a couple

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Speaker 1: of different Blu rays of just trailers from like the

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Speaker 1: seventies and eighties, and I was watching a compilation and

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Speaker 1: this one popped up and I was like, oh, now

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Speaker 1: this this looks interesting. I suspected that because this is

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Speaker 1: very much one. If you see the trailer, you're like, yep, okay,

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Speaker 1: I gotta see that one. Well, let's jump right in

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Speaker 1: and talk about the various humans and the snakes involved

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Speaker 1: in this film. So the director is Piers Haggard born

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine. Interestingly enough, Toby Hooper was going to

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Speaker 1: direct this picture originally, and I think may have been

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Speaker 1: working on it a little bit, but then he had

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Speaker 1: to bow out for some reason, and I think they're

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Speaker 1: varying accounts as to why. Uh. And then enters Haggard here,

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Speaker 1: who had previously directed the one British horror film The

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Speaker 1: Blood on Satan's Claw, a Divorce, the Quartermass Conclusion, also

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Speaker 1: the Peter Seller's comedy the Fiendish plot of Dr Fu Manchu,

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Speaker 1: which which everyone seemed to Hate in nineteen eighty and

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Speaker 1: it's still very much hated today, uh, seemingly with good reason.

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Speaker 1: And he also directed various TV episodes. He went on

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Speaker 1: to do more TV and potentially interesting looking sci fi

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Speaker 1: um uh film TV film titled The Life Force Experiment

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Speaker 1: in nineteen. Another interesting thing about him is he was

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Speaker 1: dialogue assistant on the nineteen sixty six film blow Up,

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Speaker 1: so he did the Life Force Experiment and he was

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Speaker 1: he came in to direct a movie that Toby Hooper

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Speaker 1: was going to direct, and Toby Hooper directed Life Force. Right.

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Speaker 1: I don't know that there's any connection between Life Force

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Speaker 1: and the Life Force Experiment, but uh, certainly the names

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Speaker 1: are similar. Now, this is an adaptation of a novel.

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Speaker 1: It's worth stressing. Um. The original novel, Venom was written

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Speaker 1: by Alan Schullfield, who lived nineteen thirty one through two

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Speaker 1: thousand seventeen, a South African author who I think lived

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Speaker 1: most of it, may have lived most of his life

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Speaker 1: in England. I think he was like, you know, London

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Speaker 1: based or something. But this book came out in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy seven and it still seems to be in print.

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Speaker 1: You can you can go obtain this book and read it. Uh.

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Speaker 1: I've never read any of his novels, but he was

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Speaker 1: quite prolific. He also one horror novel called Cat's Eyes

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Speaker 1: under the name Lee Jordan's and it seems like he

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Speaker 1: was simply he was reasonably well regarded and often worked

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Speaker 1: African history and culture into his works. Um apparently best

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Speaker 1: known for his McCrae and Silver novels, which were London

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Speaker 1: based detective books. Now, the screenplay was written by Robert

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Speaker 1: Carrington born eight who wrote such films as Wait Until

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Speaker 1: Dark and Fear Is the Key, and he was active

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Speaker 1: in the sixties, seventies and eighties. All right, let's move

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Speaker 1: on to the actors. So um, our reptilian humanoid h

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Speaker 1: in this film is of course Klaus Kinski m who

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Speaker 1: lived nine through one. He plays the character Jack mel So.

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Speaker 1: This is one of our main trio of criminals. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I guess he's kind of the mastermind. Um, he's uh,

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Speaker 1: he's supposed to be. I think we've we've mentioned at

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Speaker 1: one point that he's a member of the German under Underworld.

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Speaker 1: He's like a German Underworld figure and he has of

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Speaker 1: course flown in to London to uh to mastermind this

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Speaker 1: sort of. I'm not sure if he's the mastermind or not,

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Speaker 1: but anyway, he's going to be one of the main

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Speaker 1: operatives in this kidnapping plot. Uh yeah, I think he's

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Speaker 1: played as the mastermind because there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: scenes of him pointing a gun at Oliver Read and

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Speaker 1: being like, remember, you know you you don't drink whiskey

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Speaker 1: until I tell you to, alright. So Kinsky, of course,

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Speaker 1: the German born actor, perhaps best remembered today for his

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Speaker 1: smoldering presence and some of Werner Herzog's best known works

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Speaker 1: such as Geary, The Wrath of God, woyzeck Um, nos Ferrato,

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Speaker 1: The Vampire, Fitzgeraldo, and Cobra Verde. He also had a

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Speaker 1: small but memorable role in Dr Shivago In and accounts

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Speaker 1: of anyone who had to work with Kinsky, they tend

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Speaker 1: to run evolve around two different things. His raw talent,

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Speaker 1: you know that, undeniably like there's something electric in a

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Speaker 1: Klaus Kinsky performance, but also intense difficulty and displeasure of

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Speaker 1: working with him. It seems to be a common theme.

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Speaker 1: Um Herzog managed it, but also had a just legendarily

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Speaker 1: explosive relationship with Kinsky and at times, uh from from

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Speaker 1: you know stuff I've watched documentaries and so forth, it

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Speaker 1: seems like he was able to get his the best

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Speaker 1: stuff out of Kinsky by uh by sort of manipulating

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Speaker 1: him like, for instance, um, wearing him out with takes.

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Speaker 1: In the case of a gear a like a Kinsky

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Speaker 1: has this monologue at the end of it, and Kinsky

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Speaker 1: thought he needed to rage through it, and Herzog reportedly

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Speaker 1: just had him do it over and over again until

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Speaker 1: he was just worn out and could only deliver it

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Speaker 1: at the energy that Herzog wanted. Um. So, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: I thought I was an insightful story about about working

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Speaker 1: with Kinsky. It seems like he was raging a lot. Yes, yes, um,

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Speaker 1: certainly behind the scenes. Uh so. Kinsky did a number

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Speaker 1: of spaghetti westerns as well, including for a few dollars More,

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Speaker 1: as well as various European genre films. He played a

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Speaker 1: vampire in Herzog's nineteen seventy nine Nosferatu film, as well

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Speaker 1: as the nineteen eighty eight film Vampire in Venice. This

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Speaker 1: was supposed to, I think be a sequel to nos

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Speaker 1: Ferrato in some respects, but um, Kinski reportedly refused to

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Speaker 1: wear any any vampire makeup for it, and so he

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Speaker 1: doesn't look like nos Ferrato in it per se. After

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Speaker 1: a career of butting heads with various directors, he finally

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Speaker 1: directed himself in nineteen nine Paganini, which he also wrote,

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Speaker 1: and this was his final film. Now a couple of

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Speaker 1: interesting facts. Um Allegedly, Kinsky turned down the role of

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Speaker 1: Major Taught in Raiders of the Lost Arc because he

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Speaker 1: hated the script. Uh, and Venom is the picture he

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Speaker 1: did instead. Oh, both snake centric movies. Yeah. Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: of course Ronald Lacey wound up doing the character of

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Speaker 1: Major Todd, which I think he's so great in it.

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Speaker 1: This is the best thing that could have happened. As

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Speaker 1: for Kinsky's performance in Venom, here, I'd say he's he

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Speaker 1: what we see on the screen is is very good.

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Speaker 1: He's menacing, he exudes evil very much. Plays to his strengths.

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Speaker 1: Though there is a scene where he has to fight

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Speaker 1: a rubber snake, and let's be honest, that's a tall

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Speaker 1: order for any actor. I think his snake wrestling scene

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Speaker 1: is is a highlight of the film, especially because it

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Speaker 1: turns into a gunfight with a snake. Yes, yeah, a lot. Hap. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's a it's a it's a great climax. You just

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Speaker 1: wouldn't think that if a snake is wrapping around you

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Speaker 1: and you're trying to fight it off, the the solution

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Speaker 1: you would come to is trying to shoot the snake

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Speaker 1: in the head with the pistol. Right, Yeah, it's it's

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Speaker 1: a wonderful scene, though, I'm I think Herzog could have

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Speaker 1: gotten a better, better take out of him. He was

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Speaker 1: just like warn him down until he got the right energy. Okay,

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Speaker 1: So Kinsky is playing our our like lead reptilian criminal

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Speaker 1: in this, but then we've also got a a more

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Speaker 1: brutal criminal, right that is Dave, the chauffeur played by

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Speaker 1: Oliver Read. Oliver re lived through English actor with piercing eyes.

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Speaker 1: Really his as far as like eyes first acting goes um.

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Speaker 1: Read was a master of this. You know, he's just

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Speaker 1: setting there smoldering and looking at you with murder eyes.

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Speaker 1: Oh he uses the murder eyes in this. Part of

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Speaker 1: the problem though, is like there's there's really not any

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Speaker 1: surprise so as the plot has revealed because we first

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Speaker 1: see all of a Read, I don't know, thirty seconds

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Speaker 1: into the film, just acting in his capacity as a chauffeur,

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Speaker 1: and he already looks like he is not just getting

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Speaker 1: ready to do murders, but has already done them. He

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Speaker 1: looks like he just came back in a hurry from

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Speaker 1: doing murders. Yes, absolutely, Um. He always had a knack

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Speaker 1: for playing brute, macho characters. UH and of course he

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Speaker 1: increasingly earned a reputation for hell raising, drinking, and being

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Speaker 1: difficult to work with. He had his first big leading

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Speaker 1: role in the Hammer film Um The Curse of the

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Speaker 1: Werewolf from Terence Fisher from UH came out in ninety one,

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Speaker 1: and he landed some huge roles in such films as

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight Oliver and which he plays the villain

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Speaker 1: Bill Sykes. He played Athos and Three Musketeers in seventy

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Speaker 1: three and its sequel in seventy four, and he continued

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Speaker 1: to do a lot of villain roles and roles in

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Speaker 1: horror films. He worked with Ken Russell several times, including

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Speaker 1: Women in Love and of course The Devil's in which

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Speaker 1: he really delivers a memorable performance. He played the god

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Speaker 1: Vulcan and Terry Gilliams The Adventures of Baron Muchausen and

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Speaker 1: other notable roles at least to me include Disney's Condor

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Speaker 1: Man in one, in which he plays this the villain

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Speaker 1: in this ridiculous kind of superhero James Bond kind of film. Uh,

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Speaker 1: he plays the I guess he's the hero, and David

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Speaker 1: Cronenberg's The Brood is not the hero. He's not the hero.

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Speaker 1: I guess I've forgotten most of that film. He's the villain.

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Speaker 1: Is a manipulating psychiatrist sort of. Yeah. He plays an

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Speaker 1: unorthodox psychiatrist who has like a retreat where he leads

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Speaker 1: people through these strange exercises and gets them to um

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Speaker 1: uh to sort of like turn their their their psychic

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Speaker 1: pain and trauma into like physical external manifestations. So like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, he leads people through these exercises where

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Speaker 1: like their pain is turned into in the case of

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Speaker 1: one character, like a physical tumor, but in the case

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Speaker 1: of other characters like like literal like little like beings

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Speaker 1: or monsters that run around. The Brood is a gross movie.

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Speaker 1: Before warned if you're gonna if you're gonna venture there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Samantha Egger is in that and I have to I

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Speaker 1: have to look it up. Let's see what Oliver Reads

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Speaker 1: character's name. What was his weird cronenbergie and character Dr

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Speaker 1: hal Raglan not not that weird as far as cronenberg

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Speaker 1: names go. Yeah, my memory is just that he's like

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Speaker 1: a weird, sort of unethical orthodox psychiatrist who's doing a

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Speaker 1: combination of something like you know, like scientology auditing at

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Speaker 1: the alongside, like creating tulpas and stuff. Okay, it's been

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Speaker 1: been a while, so I've seen that one. Oh, we

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Speaker 1: should also mention. Oliver Read was, of course in Ridley

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Speaker 1: Scott's Gladiator in two thousand and This was his final film.

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Speaker 1: He died during the filming of it in Malta, I believe.

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Speaker 1: Now here's the fun fact. Venom is not the only

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Speaker 1: Oliver Read snake movie. He also appeared in nine three

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Speaker 1: Spasms alongside Peter Fonda. And this one Joe is a

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Speaker 1: giant snake movie. Okay, big snake instead of stealth snake. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so um that you can look up. Various stories about

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Speaker 1: the production of Venom. Basically, Read and Kinsky famously did

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Speaker 1: not get along on the film, reportedly hated each other,

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Speaker 1: and Read allegedly kept intentionally setting Kinsky off. Um. Which

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Speaker 1: sounds absolutely dreadful. You know, you already have Kinsky, who

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Speaker 1: is you know, has a reputation for being Satan, Yes, Satan,

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Speaker 1: and then you have and then you have Oliver Read

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Speaker 1: provoking Satan and like, uh, pranking Satan and you know,

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Speaker 1: just to get a rial out of him. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: this sounds absolutely dreadful for everybody else in the production.

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Speaker 1: That being said, much like we said with Kinsky Read,

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Speaker 1: I feel like he's good in this. I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I feel like at times maybe they weren't sure exactly

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Speaker 1: who this character was supposed to be. Sometimes he just

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Speaker 1: seems to be like loud and abusive because he needed

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Speaker 1: to do something in the scene. Um. But but also

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Speaker 1: I guess the better parts of the performance they drive

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Speaker 1: home that this is a guy who yes, has signed

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Speaker 1: on to be part of a kidnapping plot, but also

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Speaker 1: has misgivings about it. And there are times where you

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Speaker 1: see like, maybe, um, his gentler nature shine through just

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Speaker 1: a little bit, as if to give you hope that

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Speaker 1: he might turn good guy and strangle Kloskinski's character Jock

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Speaker 1: mel Uh, though of course that doesn't come to pass.

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Speaker 1: He remains a bad guy throughout, never really has the

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Speaker 1: face turn. Uh. Mainly you get the idea that the

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Speaker 1: moments where he's showing misgivings are actually just like when

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Speaker 1: it would it would be bad to go to prison.

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Speaker 1: I don't want that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he doesn't have

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Speaker 1: a true change of heart. I will say this as well, though,

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Speaker 1: um Reid has a wonderful mustache in this film. Often

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Speaker 1: often he had wonderful mustaches and uh, and this is

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Speaker 1: no exception. But actually the star power in the movie

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Speaker 1: doesn't really stop there with with the criminals, because this

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Speaker 1: movie has a number of other actors who are well

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Speaker 1: known and uh and quite respected that. This is something

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Speaker 1: I remember. I watched the Ciskele and Hibert review of

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Speaker 1: this movie in which Hubert did not like it, but

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Speaker 1: Ciskell did, and he, you know, occasionally, Jeane Ciskele, you

406
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Speaker 1: could see there was like a ridiculous creature horror movie

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Speaker 1: and you could just tell he just kind of liked

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Speaker 1: it and had a hard time explaining why, but he

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Speaker 1: just liked it, and he just will like, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I thought Wes Craven's Shocker it was fun. You know,

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Speaker 1: it was interesting. Maybe it's not interesting, but you liked it.

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Speaker 1: Come on, admit you liked it, um and he I

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Speaker 1: don't know why I'm talking like that, because he did.

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Speaker 1: He recommended it on the show, Um and he did

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Speaker 1: with like I think he also liked Roger Corman's Carnosaur

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Speaker 1: and and stuff like that. So occasionally he just had

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Speaker 1: a soft spot for creature films. But one thing that

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Speaker 1: a lot of critics talked about was how wow, you

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Speaker 1: really got an a level cast in this movie. And

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Speaker 1: so the casting goes on with Sterling Hayden. Yeah, Sterling Hayden.

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Speaker 1: Oftentimes it looks like he has top billing. I don't

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Speaker 1: know why. I don't really know how billing order goes

423
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,600
Speaker 1: and especially over the decades of a film that's come out.

424
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 1: But yeah, Sterling Hayden plays a Grandpa Howard Anderson, Hey

425
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:58,600
Speaker 1: k Grandpa Safari. That's what I kept thinking of him as. UM.

426
00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 1: But he this is this was guy was a big name.

427
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,480
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean Sterling Hayden. He was in Uh.

428
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,359
Speaker 1: He was a villain in the Godfather. He plays a

429
00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:10,399
Speaker 1: a corrupt police chief who is helping one of the

430
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 1: other families with their with their schemes. He gets shot

431
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:17,119
Speaker 1: in the forehead by al Pacino. Oh yes, and that

432
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:21,040
Speaker 1: that very memorable scene in the restaurant, right, yeah, yeah.

433
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 1: But he also he also plays a great villain role

434
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:27,720
Speaker 1: in Doctor Strange Love. He is that he plays General

435
00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 1: Jack d Ripper. He's the guy who initiates the uh,

436
00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:34,120
Speaker 1: the sneak attack on the Soviet Union that sets off

437
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:36,200
Speaker 1: the whole chain of events on the plot because he

438
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 1: has quite clearly consumed a lot of anti communist propaganda

439
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,639
Speaker 1: and lost his mind. He's the character who believes that

440
00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:48,000
Speaker 1: Fluora Nation is stealing our precious bodily fluids. Um. He

441
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,720
Speaker 1: was also in Asphalt Jungle. He was in Robert Altman's

442
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: The Long Goodbye Now. He lived nineteen sixteen through six

443
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:58,639
Speaker 1: and this was his last feature film role, but it

444
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 1: kept off a long career full of a lot of

445
00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:06,399
Speaker 1: leading man roles, especially westerns and noir films. Um he is.

446
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: I was not prepared to enjoy his performance as much

447
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:11,639
Speaker 1: as I did, but I feel like he he's a

448
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:15,359
Speaker 1: lot of fun as Grandpa Safari here in part because

449
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:17,359
Speaker 1: maybe it comes down to the fact that I do

450
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,640
Speaker 1: feel like most of the actors in this film, we're

451
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 1: just kind of turned loose in the house, much like

452
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 1: a wild beast and just like do whatever. And I

453
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 1: like the strange energy he brings to this performance at times.

454
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 1: I yeah, I agree. So the other two characters we've

455
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,879
Speaker 1: talked about already are are criminals and and uh and

456
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 1: bring a lot of menace. Uh. Grandpa Safari here is

457
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:42,120
Speaker 1: he's just like a big old ball of fun. He

458
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:46,199
Speaker 1: plays this character like a uh an old rough and

459
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 1: tumble rascal. Yeah, and also I mean he's he's the

460
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,560
Speaker 1: grandpa and the grandson is one of the main characters there.

461
00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:55,280
Speaker 1: And like the grandsons, seems to suffer from some severe

462
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 1: form of asthma which requires the house to be at

463
00:26:57,600 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 1: a constant seventy five degrees and he has to have

464
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 1: like a committed fire. And his mom seems very much

465
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:03,960
Speaker 1: of the mindset like he needs to be kept in

466
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:06,639
Speaker 1: the house. But Grandpa was like, Oh, what you need Sonday,

467
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:08,920
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get you a cab right across town to

468
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,640
Speaker 1: buy yourself a new snake. Get to do it all

469
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,639
Speaker 1: by yourself. And of course that becomes central to the plot. Now,

470
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:17,679
Speaker 1: maybe we should specify in the plot that there is

471
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: a mix up. Grandpa did not buy his grandson a

472
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:24,119
Speaker 1: black bomba on purpose. Yeah, I thought that's where it

473
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 1: was going because I knew that a black mamba was

474
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:28,240
Speaker 1: going to be introduced into the house and I was like, oh, man,

475
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:31,359
Speaker 1: Grandpa's this is a bit reckless. But now it was

476
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:33,960
Speaker 1: supposed to be a normal, like non venomous snake, some

477
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:37,919
Speaker 1: sort of acceptable pet species, and there is a mix up,

478
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: but the a list cast continues. Yes, because we've we've

479
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:44,399
Speaker 1: talked about the criminals, we also have to have a

480
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 1: representative of law and order, and in this case we

481
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:52,440
Speaker 1: have Scotland Yards Commander William Bullock, played by Nicole Williamson,

482
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 1: who lived nineteen thirty six through two thousand and eleven.

483
00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:57,879
Speaker 1: I knew him best, and I think that a lot

484
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:00,119
Speaker 1: of a lot of listeners, a lot of viewers of

485
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: films would probably know him best as Merlin in the

486
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:10,320
Speaker 1: endlessly Shiny Camelot film ex Caliber, which is a super

487
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:13,480
Speaker 1: fun performance. As I remember, I've never seen it. Oh,

488
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: it's it's good. It's very shiny, like the armor gleams

489
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 1: um like it's you know, it's reflecting the light of

490
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 1: the sun at all times. So it's very stylish and

491
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: has a wonderful cast. He also plays a similar role

492
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:32,959
Speaker 1: in Spawn. Uh. He plays this character Cagliostro, who's kind

493
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:35,439
Speaker 1: of like I think, basically portrayed as like a wizard

494
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 1: character that helps spawn. Um helps him fight demons, trains

495
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 1: him or something. He's kind of his mentor character and

496
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:45,080
Speaker 1: that was his final film role. He's kind of like,

497
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 1: what does he wear, like a cowboy hat and a coat?

498
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,920
Speaker 1: Kind of yeah, I remember correctly they wanted him to

499
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 1: grow a beard and he's like, no, I'm not doing that.

500
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: Like they wanted him to be more of a wizard.

501
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,240
Speaker 1: But he was a highly regard an actor um on

502
00:29:01,320 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: the stage and screen. Other credits include The Exorcist three. Uh,

503
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 1: The Seven Percent Solution. He played in that. He played

504
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:12,160
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes. This is the film adaptation of the Nicholas

505
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 1: Meyer novel. Uh. And uh, you know Nicholas Meyer we

506
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 1: talked about in terms of time after time. Uh. Well,

507
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,120
Speaker 1: you know we mentioned that he wrote the novel The

508
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 1: Seven Percent Solution and it was made into the film. Well,

509
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 1: this was the Sherlock he was in. So Williamson was

510
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 1: also in Robin and Marion. He was in ninety nine

511
00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:35,680
Speaker 1: Hamlet playing Hamlet. He was in a TV movie version

512
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 1: of of Mice and men playing Lenny, and while very

513
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 1: talented on both stage and screen, he was also known

514
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: to be a bit erratic, was a heavy drinker later

515
00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 1: in life, and was said to be difficult to work with. So, uh,

516
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:51,640
Speaker 1: so you know we have so, we have Read, we

517
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,800
Speaker 1: have Kinsky, and we also have Williamson, though I guess

518
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 1: the situation is Read and Kinsky. We're working together together,

519
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,080
Speaker 1: like they shared so much screen time, and for the

520
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: most part, Williamson's character is just standing outside like shouting.

521
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 1: We're not even quite shouting. It's one of those movies

522
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,719
Speaker 1: where where his character is using just a normal speaking

523
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 1: voice but can be heard inside a house a good

524
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:18,520
Speaker 1: distance away. Yeah, they spend a lot of uh. There

525
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: are multiple scenes where they're negotiating like, uh, we need

526
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: a car and we need money, and then he goes

527
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 1: away and then he has like a meeting with all

528
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:28,960
Speaker 1: his little police lieutenants, and then he comes back and

529
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 1: they talk again about how they need a car and

530
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 1: they need money. Yeah. I'd say, well, Williamson is good

531
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:38,080
Speaker 1: in this, but there's not a lot to this particular character.

532
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,640
Speaker 1: He's just that sensible British cop on the scene. You know,

533
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: he's our he's our embodiment of British working class law

534
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 1: and order. Yeah, he's got a he's got a nice

535
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 1: accent in it. I mean, but this character doesn't have

536
00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:53,760
Speaker 1: a whole lot to do. Now. The next character, I

537
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:57,719
Speaker 1: would say, though, brings a surprising amount of weird energy

538
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 1: that also makes this movie come alive, and that is

539
00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:04,640
Speaker 1: Sarah Miles playing the snake expert Dr Marion Stow. I

540
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,880
Speaker 1: really liked her. She she had a certain um uh,

541
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:12,000
Speaker 1: kind of distracted electricity kind of coming off of her

542
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 1: head in all of her scenes, if you know what

543
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: I mean. Yeah, yeah, she was good in this um uh.

544
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:22,680
Speaker 1: Sarah Miles was born one and another connection to nineteen

545
00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:27,240
Speaker 1: sixty six blow Up, So Miles had actually had a

546
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 1: major role in uh in this adaptation of Julio Cortazar's

547
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 1: story Uh. I can't remember the Novello short story offhand,

548
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 1: um that has adapted into this film in nineteen sixty six.

549
00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 1: Other titles on her filmography include Ryan's Daughter, Hope and

550
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,080
Speaker 1: Glory White, Mischief and more. There are a lot of

551
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:49,160
Speaker 1: good scenes of her talking to the police about snakes

552
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 1: and so, you know, Coppled, She'll just be like, I

553
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: am a toxicologist in the and the copp will be like,

554
00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 1: what's that poisons? Yeah, she's she's good. Uh. The other

555
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:06,959
Speaker 1: great performance in this, in my opinion, is our third kidnapper.

556
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:12,360
Speaker 1: Um who the character is uh Louise Andrews, played by

557
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 1: Susan George. Uh So. George was born nineteen fifty, probably

558
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 1: best known for playing Amy in Sam Peck and Pose

559
00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:24,720
Speaker 1: straw Dogs. Other titles include Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry Man, Dingo,

560
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 1: and Enter the Ninja, as well as uh Tintorea, Killer Shark,

561
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:34,320
Speaker 1: The Sorceress starring Boris Coral Karloff and Dr Jacqueline mr

562
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: Hyde from nineteen seventy two, a musical starring Kirk Douglas. Yes,

563
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:41,959
Speaker 1: Susan George is good in this, she's so. Yeah. Like

564
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,160
Speaker 1: you said, she's our third criminal in the trio. So

565
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: you got Kinsky, you got Oliver Reed, and you've got

566
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:49,400
Speaker 1: Susan George and they're scheming to do this kidnapping plot

567
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: to get a bunch of ransom money. Uh. Of course

568
00:32:52,440 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: the criminals in this movie are bad at crime, so

569
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 1: they keep failing. But you can Uh, I don't know.

570
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:00,400
Speaker 1: It's fun the way you see her, like st uggling

571
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:02,760
Speaker 1: with things not going their way and she also, I

572
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:05,480
Speaker 1: gotta say, really sells a snake bite to the face

573
00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:09,680
Speaker 1: death scene quite well. Yes, I would say, uh, perhaps

574
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:13,479
Speaker 1: the greatest death by snake bite scene in any motion picture.

575
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 1: It's a tour de force in which she she used

576
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 1: thrashes around, she cries out and basically goes just full

577
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 1: exorcist towards the end, like you know, all the way

578
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:26,040
Speaker 1: into the into like wheel pose or you know, a

579
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 1: reverse crab or something. She turns blue. There's a lot

580
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,240
Speaker 1: of blood coming out of her mouth. Yeah, so she's

581
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 1: she she's a lot of fun um in passing. I'll

582
00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 1: say that the mother in this so this would be

583
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:43,360
Speaker 1: Grandpa Safari's um daughter or is it his daughter in law?

584
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:46,760
Speaker 1: I can't remember at any rate. Ruth Hopkins played by

585
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 1: Cornelia Sharp, probably best known for Serpico Uh. She also

586
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:55,120
Speaker 1: appeared in the Reincarnation of Peter Proud, The Next Man

587
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:59,720
Speaker 1: opposite Sean Connery, Open Season, and Hey, The Adventures of

588
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: Blue Oh Nash. She's just sort of in the beginning

589
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:05,760
Speaker 1: and the end of this movie, though, because a lot

590
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 1: of it's like she's gone and the sun has been

591
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:11,719
Speaker 1: left there with Grandpa played by Sterling Hayden and that's

592
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 1: when the crime is supposed to take place. Yeah, I

593
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:16,680
Speaker 1: mean the whole thing. It's it's kind of a home

594
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: alone movie. It's also it's it's weird. I don't know

595
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,399
Speaker 1: if you had this experience, but I felt like this

596
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 1: movie felt like an adaptation of like a Simpsons Treehouse

597
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:31,400
Speaker 1: of Horror episode that doesn't exist, you know, like, or

598
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 1: maybe it's just that a Treehouse of Horror episode would

599
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,240
Speaker 1: be perfect based on this film. You could have Grahanamba

600
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:40,040
Speaker 1: Simpson in there, you have have Bart and uh, I

601
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,719
Speaker 1: don't know who else would would be involved? Who you

602
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:46,320
Speaker 1: would cast as our our kidnappers? Oh? Yes, so I

603
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:50,680
Speaker 1: guess kis Snake? Oh Snake, I mean, let's see to

604
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:52,839
Speaker 1: play for Oliver Read, he would need to be sort

605
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: of a cross between Snake and groundskeeper Willie. Um. Oh yeah,

606
00:34:58,200 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly how would work out? Was so

607
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:02,200
Speaker 1: Ski is sort of Mr Burns, But I guess he

608
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:04,120
Speaker 1: wouldn't need the money, but I don't know he'd want

609
00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 1: it anyway. Um yeah, yeah, it would work out somehow.

610
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,480
Speaker 1: Oh but hey, this movie also has Michael Goff in it.

611
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:20,680
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, in a strange role because Okay, so So,

612
00:35:20,719 --> 00:35:23,759
Speaker 1: first of all, if you're forgetting who this actor is, uh,

613
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:27,920
Speaker 1: it's it's Alfred from Tim Burton Batman film and the

614
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 1: Batman sequels through Batman Forever. Um. He's a guy who

615
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:34,319
Speaker 1: did a lot of work prior to that, including performances

616
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,800
Speaker 1: in The Boys from Brazil, Satan's Slave, Crucible of Horror,

617
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:42,200
Speaker 1: trog Women in Love, How, Horror of Dracula, and titles

618
00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:44,719
Speaker 1: going all the way back into the nineteen forties. And

619
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:47,920
Speaker 1: in this he plays what like an expert snake catcher

620
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 1: who never does anything. Yeah, he he shows up later

621
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 1: in the movie. So this movie has multiple snake experts.

622
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:57,840
Speaker 1: There's the one played by Sarah miles Um who is

623
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,759
Speaker 1: the toxicologiston and you meet her early on, but then

624
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:05,319
Speaker 1: she eventually also gets taken hostage by the criminals. And

625
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 1: then so the police after that are working with this

626
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 1: character played by Michael Goff. But he he's just got

627
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:12,520
Speaker 1: sort of like one of those snake hooks and he's

628
00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,600
Speaker 1: standing there beside the police as they're like trying to

629
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:18,560
Speaker 1: bust into the house. Yeah, and you you keep thinking, well,

630
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:20,960
Speaker 1: he's going to be called upon for more than his expertise,

631
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:25,040
Speaker 1: but no, he's not Uh. The fun part of this, though,

632
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:29,080
Speaker 1: is his character's name is David Ball, and the real

633
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,319
Speaker 1: David Ball, an overseer of reptiles at the London Zoo,

634
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:35,800
Speaker 1: was the snake wrangler and snake advisor on this film.

635
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:38,680
Speaker 1: So I guess Golf's character is kind of just a

636
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 1: nod uh to his his help with the film. I

637
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:44,800
Speaker 1: was reading about this in a New York Times article

638
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 1: about um about the snake wrangling in Venom, and it

639
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:52,480
Speaker 1: was titled In Venom, the Snake Steals the Show and

640
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:56,880
Speaker 1: it shares a number of interesting production facts. I love

641
00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 1: that there is an article in the New York Times

642
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: in night eighty two about Venom that is not just

643
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:06,360
Speaker 1: a review of the movie. It's like, yeah, our readers

644
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:10,600
Speaker 1: need more Venom content. Yeah, but it did just here

645
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:13,239
Speaker 1: some fun stuff, like apparently they shot ten hours of

646
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:15,400
Speaker 1: snake footage for the film, and of course that gets

647
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 1: you know, reduced down to just you know, very little

648
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:22,240
Speaker 1: of that, just minutes of footage. Um, they used five

649
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:26,160
Speaker 1: different actual black mambas in the picture, So when you

650
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 1: see black mamba's striking at the camera and and slithering about,

651
00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: it's the real thing. That's that's the real snake um

652
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:36,680
Speaker 1: for the most part. They also apparently had one non

653
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 1: venomous rat snake that they used for some scenes. They

654
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:44,920
Speaker 1: had plastic snakes made from actual casts of of mamba's

655
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:47,960
Speaker 1: that's of course with Klaskinski winds up fighting at the end.

656
00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:51,160
Speaker 1: And they also had a hundred thousand dollar robots snake

657
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:54,319
Speaker 1: that apparently looked terrible, so we barely see it in

658
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:56,759
Speaker 1: the final film. Yeah. I think the sentence in the

659
00:37:56,880 --> 00:38:00,440
Speaker 1: article is something like the robot snake could ear up

660
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:03,200
Speaker 1: and open its mouth. It cost a hundred thousand dollars

661
00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:05,399
Speaker 1: to make, and it appears for one third of one

662
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:09,400
Speaker 1: second in the final cut. Now, according to u uh

663
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:13,160
Speaker 1: to David Ball in this article, black mambas are very

664
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:15,880
Speaker 1: high strung and they feel threatened by anything within six

665
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:18,399
Speaker 1: ft of them. They have really potent venom and they're

666
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:22,279
Speaker 1: very effective at delivering it, usually via multiple bites, which

667
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 1: is something we see in the film. Uh and and

668
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:27,440
Speaker 1: it's it is a very impressive snake. There's one at

669
00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:30,520
Speaker 1: Zoo Atlanta and I've seen it many times. They can

670
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 1: they can reach lengths of fourteen feet. Yeah, they tend

671
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 1: to be nervous. They packed tremendous venom. It's the largest

672
00:38:36,640 --> 00:38:40,280
Speaker 1: venomous snake in Africa and the second largest venomous snake

673
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,480
Speaker 1: in the world, right behind the keen cobra. It's not

674
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 1: actually black, but the inside of its mouth is black

675
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:50,799
Speaker 1: and that's what it flares as a warning to, you know,

676
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:54,080
Speaker 1: anyone who makes it nervous. Now a bit of monster

677
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 1: science on this. The the the movie repeatedly emphasizes that

678
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 1: the black Mamba is the most I think it actually

679
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 1: uses the word poisonous I think you would want to

680
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 1: say venomous instead. But whichever one they say poisonous or

681
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:11,919
Speaker 1: venomous snake in the world, which uh, I mean, it's

682
00:39:11,920 --> 00:39:14,239
Speaker 1: difficultly there are different ways you can measure that, but

683
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:17,319
Speaker 1: just by your standard like pure LD fifty ratings of

684
00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:20,480
Speaker 1: snake venom and mice, this is not true. I should

685
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:23,440
Speaker 1: also point out, as with pretty much any snake, reptile,

686
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:27,480
Speaker 1: amphibian sort of movie, it's always worth going to California

687
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:31,240
Speaker 1: herbs dot com. They have a section about snake films

688
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:34,880
Speaker 1: and which they weigh in on different on different snakes

689
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 1: and different films, and they have a they have an

690
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 1: article on um on on venom here and uh. Basically

691
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:44,600
Speaker 1: they applaud the use of real black bombas and that

692
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:47,200
Speaker 1: they add quote oddly enough, the snake doesn't try to

693
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:49,520
Speaker 1: get out or hide as you'd expect a snake to do.

694
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:53,960
Speaker 1: All it wants to do is kill people. It sort

695
00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:56,520
Speaker 1: of hunts the people in the house. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.

696
00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:00,880
Speaker 1: It's one of the most alluded Chris things about this

697
00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:04,920
Speaker 1: movie is that, yes, I I totally believe everything I've

698
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:08,720
Speaker 1: read about the black Mamba being a potentially dangerous snake

699
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:12,840
Speaker 1: that you absolutely don't want running around in your house. Um,

700
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 1: you wouldn't want to, you know, go poking around haphazardly

701
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:19,360
Speaker 1: where you knew they might be. But on the other hand,

702
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:21,400
Speaker 1: I mean it's implied in this film where like if

703
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 1: you were to call the police and say there's a

704
00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 1: black Momba in my house, the police would just be like,

705
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:29,240
Speaker 1: we are legally declaring everyone in the house dead because

706
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:32,399
Speaker 1: there's no way you're going to survive. Yes, So, though,

707
00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:34,879
Speaker 1: as you're saying, I do want to re emphasize, given

708
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,120
Speaker 1: what I said a minute ago, by these like LD

709
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 1: fifty charts, that is not necessarily the most venomous snake

710
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:43,400
Speaker 1: in the world. But as you are correct that you

711
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:46,120
Speaker 1: absolutely don't want to be bitten by one. These are

712
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:59,719
Speaker 1: people do die from black mamba bites all the time. Now,

713
00:40:59,719 --> 00:41:03,399
Speaker 1: we always mentioned the cinematographer on films, but on this

714
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:09,200
Speaker 1: film we have Gilbert Taylor, who lived nineteen fourteen through UM.

715
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:13,280
Speaker 1: He was the cinematographer on such films as Star Wars, Flash, Gordon,

716
00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 1: the Omen, The Frank Angela Dracula Film, Polanski's Macbeth and Repulsion,

717
00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:22,680
Speaker 1: Hitchcock's Frenzy, Doctor Strange Love, in various other titles. UM.

718
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:24,839
Speaker 1: He also did a bit of TV, including episodes of

719
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 1: The Avengers. This movie doesn't really stand out to me

720
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:32,080
Speaker 1: in in terms of a lot of cinematography choices. Uh,

721
00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:34,960
Speaker 1: but though there is something that happens quite a bit,

722
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,520
Speaker 1: which is mamba cam where you are seeing from the

723
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:40,360
Speaker 1: snake's point of view. Is it like crawls through heating ducks?

724
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 1: And uh and so yeah, okay, that's fun. Well, and

725
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:48,280
Speaker 1: then you know, we do have I guess the shots

726
00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:52,840
Speaker 1: of the snake often feel very well executed. Uh. You know,

727
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:55,239
Speaker 1: at times they're basically doing the Raiders thing I think

728
00:41:55,239 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 1: where they have some sort of plexiglass screen so that

729
00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:01,239
Speaker 1: the snake can can jump out, can leap at the

730
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:03,840
Speaker 1: camera and you don't have to worry about it actually

731
00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 1: biting anyone. As for the music on this picture, it

732
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:12,440
Speaker 1: is Michael Common, who lived through two thousand and three.

733
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:15,200
Speaker 1: We've mentioned him on the show before because he scored

734
00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:18,480
Speaker 1: Free Jack and Tales from the Crypt Demon Night, as

735
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:23,160
Speaker 1: well as such movies as Highlander, Robin Hood, Prints of Thieves, Brazil,

736
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:26,640
Speaker 1: The Dead Zone, Event Horizon, which he did with the

737
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:31,800
Speaker 1: orb uh so uh, a known commodity in various genre films.

738
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 1: I'd say that the for me, anyway, I felt like

739
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 1: the score in this movie was was traditional. It was fine.

740
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:41,840
Speaker 1: It did everything you want a score to do. It helped,

741
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:44,480
Speaker 1: you know, drive home these thrilling moments and uh and

742
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:47,520
Speaker 1: snake scares. But other than that, it's not the kind

743
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:49,839
Speaker 1: of thing I would want to seek out. I thought

744
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,319
Speaker 1: there were some strange choices in terms of scoring, not

745
00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:54,759
Speaker 1: because the music was bad, but I thought like sort

746
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 1: of oddly placed. Maybe we can talk about those a

747
00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:00,000
Speaker 1: little bit when we break down the plot. Well, let's

748
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:01,920
Speaker 1: go ahead and get into the plot, all right. So

749
00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 1: the movie begins with a shot of a schoolhouse. Kind

750
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:09,360
Speaker 1: of a weird choice for a crime thriller. Plus Snake movie.

751
00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:12,719
Speaker 1: But uh, I guess you know it's about an attempted

752
00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:15,239
Speaker 1: kidnapping of a rich boy, so we we gotta see

753
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:16,840
Speaker 1: the boy getting out of school. I guess there's an

754
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:19,840
Speaker 1: American flag flying out on the balcony in front of

755
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:22,919
Speaker 1: the school, but it's clearly in Britain. And we see

756
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:26,040
Speaker 1: a sign later saying it's the American Academy of London.

757
00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:28,880
Speaker 1: So I think this is a school for American children,

758
00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:32,920
Speaker 1: the children of diplomats and stuff like that, uh, in London.

759
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:36,160
Speaker 1: And so Philip is going to the school and we

760
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:39,239
Speaker 1: meet him on the stairs reading a book and his

761
00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:41,560
Speaker 1: mom runs up to him saying, oh, this is the

762
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:45,719
Speaker 1: limit you'll catch cold, and he's you know, he's clearly like, oh,

763
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 1: I don't want to be safe. I don't want to

764
00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:51,360
Speaker 1: bundle up. I want adventure. So you know, he's like, oh, mom,

765
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:54,759
Speaker 1: I will say that the actor they have playing the boy,

766
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:57,759
Speaker 1: um Lance Holcom. Uh. He was really good in this,

767
00:43:57,920 --> 00:43:59,880
Speaker 1: Like he has kind of a kind of a Charlie

768
00:43:59,880 --> 00:44:03,080
Speaker 1: and Chocolate factory sort of vibe to him. Okay, But

769
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 1: so his mom takes him away to a waiting sedan

770
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:10,839
Speaker 1: where Oliver Reed is just looming nearby in a comically

771
00:44:10,920 --> 00:44:14,719
Speaker 1: brutish fashion, And I love the very first time we

772
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:16,720
Speaker 1: see him, it's less than a minute into the movie.

773
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:20,080
Speaker 1: He is dressed in a formal chauffeur's uniform with a

774
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 1: cap and everything. And even in this goobery outfit, he looks,

775
00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:27,719
Speaker 1: I mean like he often does, like he just came

776
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:30,240
Speaker 1: back in a hurry from doing a series of things

777
00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:34,279
Speaker 1: that are all illegal. Um, you know, he looks like, oh,

778
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 1: he just ran a bunch of errands, including purchasing illegal

779
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:41,439
Speaker 1: whale gonads on the black market, and like getting into

780
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:43,640
Speaker 1: a fight, like you know, somebody looked at him wrong

781
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:46,120
Speaker 1: and he kicked them in the neck. And now he's

782
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:48,640
Speaker 1: back here to drive this kid home, do you know

783
00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:51,279
Speaker 1: what I mean? Like he's got this. Even apart from

784
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:54,000
Speaker 1: whatever he's acting out in the scene, he just almost

785
00:44:54,040 --> 00:44:57,560
Speaker 1: always looks kind of sweaty and like he has just

786
00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:01,440
Speaker 1: been caught or almost been haught to doing something he

787
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:04,880
Speaker 1: wasn't supposed to. Yeah, and constantly like if he were

788
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:07,319
Speaker 1: a Dungeons and Dragon's character, it would be constantly doing

789
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:11,560
Speaker 1: intimidation checks on everybody around him. He is constantly busting

790
00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:16,800
Speaker 1: out that that cold intimidating stare, and like I said earlier,

791
00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:18,960
Speaker 1: there's really no suspense about what's going to go on

792
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:21,920
Speaker 1: with this character, because as soon as the mother and

793
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:24,680
Speaker 1: son get into the car, we just see Oliver Read

794
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:27,560
Speaker 1: looking at them in the rear view mirror with absolute

795
00:45:27,719 --> 00:45:30,640
Speaker 1: murder eyes. I mean, he looks like he should be

796
00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 1: weeping blood. But then so after that we just cut

797
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:36,400
Speaker 1: to a driving scene. Gotta love a driving scene at

798
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:38,719
Speaker 1: the beginning of a movie. So we're just watching the

799
00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:42,319
Speaker 1: car navigate the streets of London. The title comes up

800
00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:44,840
Speaker 1: and the music gets all hopeful and Peppie, do you

801
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:47,960
Speaker 1: remember this? I thought this was a weird choice because

802
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:49,920
Speaker 1: the opening music makes it sound like it's going to

803
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:53,759
Speaker 1: be a movie about a jaunty sea voyage and teamwork

804
00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:57,440
Speaker 1: and friendship. Yeah, it has. It has strange energy. This

805
00:45:57,520 --> 00:45:59,640
Speaker 1: was I think the point to where I really didn't

806
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:01,000
Speaker 1: know what the score was going to be, and I

807
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:03,680
Speaker 1: was still maybe holding out hope that it would be, um,

808
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:05,840
Speaker 1: you know, electronic or something, and I was like, oh, no,

809
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:08,239
Speaker 1: it's it's not gonna be it's gonna be very traditional.

810
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:11,240
Speaker 1: But whatever they're going for, it has a funny effect.

811
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:13,520
Speaker 1: So we get this driving scene at the beginning, Philip

812
00:46:13,520 --> 00:46:16,160
Speaker 1: and his mom getting driven around London by all of

813
00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:19,520
Speaker 1: a read he's just like drilling holes into them through

814
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:22,279
Speaker 1: the rear view mirror. And then the music is just

815
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:25,680
Speaker 1: rousing strings and brass. It's trying to warm your blood.

816
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:29,839
Speaker 1: And then they get home and they meet Louise, the housekeeper,

817
00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:32,520
Speaker 1: and and she's like, ah, young Master Philip, two whole

818
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:35,800
Speaker 1: days off school A. And of course this is Louise

819
00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:38,719
Speaker 1: is played by Susan George. And so we we learned

820
00:46:38,719 --> 00:46:41,200
Speaker 1: a bit about the situation that these are Americans living

821
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:44,799
Speaker 1: in London, that the boy's father has been gone for

822
00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 1: a while, and that he is there with his mother, Ruth,

823
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:51,840
Speaker 1: and his grandfather. And so we learned that Ruth, the

824
00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:54,800
Speaker 1: mother has to leave town soon. But Young Master Philip

825
00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:57,920
Speaker 1: wants to go see his zoo. That's what he calls it.

826
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:01,160
Speaker 1: He's like my zoo. And so what does this mean. Well,

827
00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:04,000
Speaker 1: he gets up to his room and oh my god,

828
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,400
Speaker 1: his bedroom is straight out of Dante's Inferno. It's is

829
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 1: like a dungeon for small animals. It is just crates

830
00:47:12,239 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 1: and cages stacked up to the ceiling with rabbits and

831
00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:19,560
Speaker 1: hamsters and and god knows what else. Yeah, I mean

832
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:22,920
Speaker 1: he's definitely they're definitely overdoing it here in my opinion.

833
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:27,239
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, uh, my son has a

834
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:29,800
Speaker 1: leopard gecko, and I know that like just having a

835
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:32,160
Speaker 1: leopard gecko that means, oh, well, you don't just have

836
00:47:32,160 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 1: a pet leopard gecko. You also have pet crickets. And

837
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:38,320
Speaker 1: some people actually go to the level of like raising

838
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:40,680
Speaker 1: their own crickets. So maybe that's part of what we're

839
00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:42,120
Speaker 1: seeing here. It's like, well, he's got a bunch of

840
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:44,880
Speaker 1: snakes and so forth, Well that means he's also raising mice.

841
00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:47,600
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't think about that. But so you think

842
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:52,640
Speaker 1: the mice in his room are there to feed his snakes? Uh?

843
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:54,319
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe, but then again, yeah, he has

844
00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:56,960
Speaker 1: things like rabbits in there, so um, I guess it

845
00:47:57,040 --> 00:48:00,840
Speaker 1: is just an extended uh you know, zool logical collection

846
00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:04,839
Speaker 1: here and not just about feeding the animals. I keep

847
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:08,440
Speaker 1: these rabbits to feed to my pet hyena. Well, anyway,

848
00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:11,359
Speaker 1: we meet Sterling Hayden, we find out he is Ruth's dad,

849
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 1: and he's staying with him. I think because of some

850
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:17,160
Speaker 1: kind of injury. Am I am I right about that? Um?

851
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:20,560
Speaker 1: I was a little foggy on this. Um. I mean

852
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:22,960
Speaker 1: we we've we've learned that he's let some sort of

853
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:27,720
Speaker 1: like great explorer safari type guy. Yeah, and a photographer.

854
00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:31,080
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I guess. So you know, he's kind of

855
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:34,080
Speaker 1: you know the uh, you know safari guy in the

856
00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:37,320
Speaker 1: classic sense where he's he's studying uh you know the

857
00:48:37,800 --> 00:48:41,560
Speaker 1: world and probably writing about it and taking photos. But

858
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 1: there's a sense that like his adventuring days or perhaps

859
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:47,239
Speaker 1: over right, yeah, sort of. I mean I think they're

860
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:51,399
Speaker 1: trying to give him earnest hemingway energy. Okay, he has

861
00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 1: enormous shotguns on the wall, yes, yes, uh yeah, with

862
00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:58,960
Speaker 1: like shells the size of soda cans, and so I

863
00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:01,759
Speaker 1: think these are meant for l offense or something. Um.

864
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:04,520
Speaker 1: But so after we meet these characters, oh and and

865
00:49:04,560 --> 00:49:08,279
Speaker 1: of course, uh, Grandpa and and Ruth talk about how

866
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:10,640
Speaker 1: she's got to leave town soon, and she's worried about

867
00:49:10,719 --> 00:49:14,000
Speaker 1: leaving leaving the young boy there with him because she's like, oh,

868
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 1: he's got asthma. Um, but I don't know, it seems

869
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be fine. So so she's like, Okay,

870
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 1: I gotta head out, um. And then things immediately start

871
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:28,040
Speaker 1: getting juicy because we start seeing the conspiracy. Oliver Read

872
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:31,560
Speaker 1: and Susan George, you know, the housekeeper Louise, when they're

873
00:49:31,560 --> 00:49:37,680
Speaker 1: talking in private, Um, she is washing Ruth's jewelry. That's interesting,

874
00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:39,880
Speaker 1: washing the jewelry. I don't know if that's supposed to

875
00:49:39,920 --> 00:49:43,640
Speaker 1: say something about about Ruth being really really fussy about

876
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:47,560
Speaker 1: fancy things or something. Um, but that's what she's doing.

877
00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:50,680
Speaker 1: And then, uh, they're talking about something coming up. They're

878
00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:53,880
Speaker 1: they're plotting in secret about something, and Oliver Read appears

879
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:56,759
Speaker 1: to be having misgivings. He's like, look, this isn't just

880
00:49:56,840 --> 00:49:59,480
Speaker 1: stealing cars. If something goes wrong, they're going to lock

881
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:02,480
Speaker 1: us up in throw away the key and uh, and

882
00:50:02,520 --> 00:50:07,360
Speaker 1: he's wondering, will Jack Mell come through, and Louise assures

883
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:10,200
Speaker 1: him yes, Jack Mell will come through. Now, there was

884
00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:12,200
Speaker 1: a thing I noted. I don't know if you noticed this,

885
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:15,760
Speaker 1: but as Ruth is leaving the house, she's giving instructions

886
00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:19,160
Speaker 1: to Louise and she's saying, Okay, while I'm out of town,

887
00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:22,320
Speaker 1: the house must be kept at no less than seventy

888
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:25,520
Speaker 1: five degrees. So he always turned up to seventy five

889
00:50:25,600 --> 00:50:30,400
Speaker 1: or higher. Um, which I don't know. Maybe my senses

890
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:32,760
Speaker 1: are off, but obviously they'd be normal in the summer.

891
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:35,000
Speaker 1: But like turning the heat in the winter up to

892
00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:38,319
Speaker 1: seventy five, that sounds insanely high. Yeah, I mean I

893
00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:40,759
Speaker 1: feel a little guilty if I said, I said it

894
00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:43,600
Speaker 1: for seventy you know. Uh, And I feel really guilty

895
00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:45,759
Speaker 1: if I'm like, that's it, I'm going up to seventy one.

896
00:50:46,760 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 1: But even that'll be like but just for a few minutes,

897
00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:50,920
Speaker 1: just so I so I start feeling my you know,

898
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:54,440
Speaker 1: my toes again that sort of thing. Seventy five seems

899
00:50:54,440 --> 00:50:55,759
Speaker 1: like it would be just like it would be like

900
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:59,120
Speaker 1: a jungle in there. Yeah. Yeah, because yeah, like heat

901
00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 1: or heat feels very very different than natural heat. Like

902
00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:04,520
Speaker 1: if it's seventy five degrees outside, that's nice weather, but

903
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:07,480
Speaker 1: if it's seventy five degrees from a heater or that's like,

904
00:51:07,600 --> 00:51:09,960
Speaker 1: you know, you're going under the gates abandoned. I'll hope

905
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:12,160
Speaker 1: you who enter here. Well, I think we see don't

906
00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:14,440
Speaker 1: now that I think about it. It looks like it's gas, right,

907
00:51:14,440 --> 00:51:17,359
Speaker 1: so they're probably just completely dried out in there, which

908
00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:19,400
Speaker 1: I guess is why we also see the reliance on

909
00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:22,200
Speaker 1: the humidifiers. Oh that's right, yes, so they keep it

910
00:51:22,239 --> 00:51:24,640
Speaker 1: at seventy five. But also the kid sleeps with the humidifier.

911
00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:27,480
Speaker 1: The humidifier, I think the idea is he's got asthma

912
00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:30,920
Speaker 1: and the humidifier maybe delivering some kind of medication in

913
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:34,759
Speaker 1: the steam. Yeah, because there is that, I would say,

914
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:39,000
Speaker 1: effectively creepy scene where we see that Jock Mel jumping

915
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:41,840
Speaker 1: ahead a little bit here, but where Jock Mel checks

916
00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:43,840
Speaker 1: on the house that they have set up the place

917
00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:46,120
Speaker 1: they want to take the boy after they kidnap him,

918
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:48,840
Speaker 1: and they have the same machinery. They're like, they're intended

919
00:51:49,080 --> 00:51:52,240
Speaker 1: to have like a long stay at the kidnapping house,

920
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:55,279
Speaker 1: which which was creepy, right, But of course they never

921
00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 1: get to that house because the criminals in this movie

922
00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:01,919
Speaker 1: are bad at crime. Uh So, Oliver Read takes Ruth

923
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:05,319
Speaker 1: to the airport so the mother leaves town, and then

924
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:08,400
Speaker 1: at about eleven minutes into the movie, the two devils collide.

925
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:12,239
Speaker 1: Oliver Read meets Jack Mel, who is klaus Kinski. They

926
00:52:12,280 --> 00:52:14,839
Speaker 1: meet at the airport. They come face to face. It's

927
00:52:14,880 --> 00:52:17,040
Speaker 1: clear from the very first moment that they do not

928
00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:20,040
Speaker 1: like each other, but they're they're locked into this conspiracy

929
00:52:20,120 --> 00:52:23,600
Speaker 1: together now, yes, And Louise is the sensual glue holding

930
00:52:23,600 --> 00:52:26,839
Speaker 1: the whole thing together. Um, And of course that's gonna

931
00:52:26,840 --> 00:52:30,520
Speaker 1: be one of the great complicating um situations in the plot,

932
00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 1: is that she is the one who dies first, right,

933
00:52:33,080 --> 00:52:35,040
Speaker 1: and I think it's implied that she's been having love

934
00:52:35,040 --> 00:52:38,120
Speaker 1: affairs with both of them, right. Oh. And as soon

935
00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:39,560
Speaker 1: as they get in the so they go off to

936
00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:42,279
Speaker 1: the car and and of course Oliver Reid has a

937
00:52:42,320 --> 00:52:45,120
Speaker 1: gun for Jack mel and he drops him off at

938
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:47,520
Speaker 1: a house in the country that they've rented ahead of time,

939
00:52:47,560 --> 00:52:50,000
Speaker 1: and this is where they're gonna stash the kid while

940
00:52:50,040 --> 00:52:52,319
Speaker 1: they're holding him for ransom. So we get to see

941
00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:55,520
Speaker 1: Jack Mell going around the house, pulling the curtains aside,

942
00:52:55,880 --> 00:52:59,640
Speaker 1: inspecting the rooms and uh and when oh, and then

943
00:52:59,719 --> 00:53:01,480
Speaker 1: Louis he shows up at the house and the two

944
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:05,160
Speaker 1: of them are conspiring. So klaus Kinski and Susan George are,

945
00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:07,760
Speaker 1: you know, checking in on how the plot is coming along,

946
00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:11,040
Speaker 1: and and Jack Mell says he doesn't trust the chauffeur.

947
00:53:11,200 --> 00:53:15,040
Speaker 1: He says his hands sweat, which I love. It's like, oh,

948
00:53:15,160 --> 00:53:19,800
Speaker 1: he's not cool like you. Yeah, yeah, you get the

949
00:53:20,160 --> 00:53:23,239
Speaker 1: sense that Kinski's character jack Nell, does not sweat at all.

950
00:53:23,640 --> 00:53:27,200
Speaker 1: But so jack Mell lures Sterling Hayden out of the house.

951
00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:30,560
Speaker 1: I think that they're trying to get there, trying to

952
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:32,480
Speaker 1: find a way to get him away so that they

953
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:35,799
Speaker 1: can take the kid. And so they lure him away

954
00:53:35,840 --> 00:53:39,520
Speaker 1: by pretending to be a filmmaker who wants Grandpa's help

955
00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:42,200
Speaker 1: on on a film shoot in Central Africa, and he

956
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:44,319
Speaker 1: tells him to come meet for a cocktail at the

957
00:53:44,360 --> 00:53:48,440
Speaker 1: Tower Hotel. But of course Grandpa goes to meet with

958
00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:50,920
Speaker 1: the filmmaker who will in fact never show up because

959
00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:53,600
Speaker 1: it's Klaus Kinsky just pretending to be somebody else, is

960
00:53:53,640 --> 00:53:56,360
Speaker 1: just a ruse to get him out of the house. Meanwhile,

961
00:53:56,600 --> 00:54:00,239
Speaker 1: Philip is often a taxi to the pet show up,

962
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:03,840
Speaker 1: and here is the scene where things finally really kick off,

963
00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:07,080
Speaker 1: I think because he acquires his snake. Yeah, supposed to

964
00:54:07,120 --> 00:54:10,080
Speaker 1: get just a normal non venomous pet snat snake. I

965
00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:13,080
Speaker 1: forget what variety was supposed to be, but there's a

966
00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:15,560
Speaker 1: mix up. The black mamba that is supposed to go

967
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:19,239
Speaker 1: to what the London Zoological Society or something. Um, it's

968
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:22,880
Speaker 1: gonna end up being studied or something. Yeah, it instead

969
00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:25,480
Speaker 1: goes to this boy. It's put in a box for

970
00:54:25,560 --> 00:54:28,600
Speaker 1: Philip and he has taken it home on a taxi. Right,

971
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:31,839
Speaker 1: So and then we we the plot is exposed when

972
00:54:31,840 --> 00:54:35,040
Speaker 1: we cut to it's the London Institute of Toxicology and

973
00:54:35,080 --> 00:54:39,640
Speaker 1: that's where where Sarah Miles works. So they're checking on

974
00:54:39,719 --> 00:54:42,640
Speaker 1: their She and a couple of researchers there are checking

975
00:54:42,640 --> 00:54:45,360
Speaker 1: out their new live specimen of of the black mamba.

976
00:54:45,440 --> 00:54:49,520
Speaker 1: This this would be Dendaro Aspis poly lepis and they're like,

977
00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:52,320
Speaker 1: this isn't the right snake at all, so something's wrong

978
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:56,440
Speaker 1: here and uh. And on closer inspection they discover it

979
00:54:56,480 --> 00:54:59,200
Speaker 1: as a harmless species of snake commonly sold as a

980
00:54:59,239 --> 00:55:01,799
Speaker 1: pet and there must have been some kind of mix up.

981
00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:04,080
Speaker 1: So they quickly trace this back to I don't know

982
00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:07,160
Speaker 1: why they were getting a black mamba from a London

983
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:12,040
Speaker 1: pet shop, but they were, and so they trace it

984
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:14,120
Speaker 1: back to the pet shop and they realized there must

985
00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:17,080
Speaker 1: have been a mix up there and she immediately calls

986
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:20,799
Speaker 1: the police and she's like, hello, I'm calling from you know,

987
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:24,960
Speaker 1: the Toxicology Institute, and the policeman is like toxicology. That's poisons,

988
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:28,439
Speaker 1: isn't it. And she explains that there's been this mix

989
00:55:28,560 --> 00:55:30,719
Speaker 1: up and some kid must have just walked out of

990
00:55:30,719 --> 00:55:33,319
Speaker 1: the shop with a black mamba. And they really play

991
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:35,279
Speaker 1: up the danger of the snake. It is the most

992
00:55:35,320 --> 00:55:37,520
Speaker 1: deadly thing on the planet. It might as well be

993
00:55:37,560 --> 00:55:40,279
Speaker 1: a nuclear bomb. Yeah, I mean there are moments later

994
00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:42,600
Speaker 1: in the film where it's like, there's a black mamba upstairs.

995
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 1: You should absolutely not go upstairs. Like going upstairs, there's

996
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:48,520
Speaker 1: just a no go. You will die if you go

997
00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:52,000
Speaker 1: up there. Now. Meanwhile, the crime plot is already getting

998
00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:54,520
Speaker 1: screwed up. As we said, this is a movie about

999
00:55:54,520 --> 00:55:58,080
Speaker 1: criminals who are quite bad at crime. So Philip was

1000
00:55:58,120 --> 00:56:00,600
Speaker 1: supposed to stay home so louis Is could put him

1001
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:02,600
Speaker 1: in a car with Jack Mel who would kidnap him

1002
00:56:02,600 --> 00:56:05,120
Speaker 1: for ransom. But he didn't stay home. He went to

1003
00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:08,520
Speaker 1: the store to get his snake. So eventually he comes

1004
00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:12,760
Speaker 1: back with his snake and she is frantic and she's like, hello,

1005
00:56:12,960 --> 00:56:15,120
Speaker 1: I need you to get directly into a car with

1006
00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:17,680
Speaker 1: this man who you've never met before and is klaus

1007
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:21,840
Speaker 1: Kinski and the and the kid is like, uh no,

1008
00:56:22,120 --> 00:56:23,879
Speaker 1: I will not be doing that. I have to put

1009
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:27,360
Speaker 1: my snake into its vivarium. So he runs inside to

1010
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:30,520
Speaker 1: do that, and then Oliver Read is there, and Oliver

1011
00:56:30,560 --> 00:56:33,160
Speaker 1: Read is just angry. He's angry at this child for

1012
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:36,200
Speaker 1: failing to be kidnapped. Uh. And then he's just like

1013
00:56:36,239 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 1: insulting the child, which which was weird. He's like, he's

1014
00:56:39,520 --> 00:56:41,359
Speaker 1: like he's such a brat or something, you know. It's

1015
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:46,319
Speaker 1: like the total outburst. Yeah, and then Louise chases Young

1016
00:56:46,360 --> 00:56:49,560
Speaker 1: Master Philip up to his room where they opened the

1017
00:56:49,600 --> 00:56:52,480
Speaker 1: snake box and she is just immediately bitten in the

1018
00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:55,920
Speaker 1: face a bunch of times by the black mamba. Frightening

1019
00:56:56,000 --> 00:56:59,000
Speaker 1: scene to yeah, yeah, and then the snake slithers away

1020
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:03,680
Speaker 1: into the shadows. Meanwhile, Sterling Hayden arrives back home so

1021
00:57:03,800 --> 00:57:05,920
Speaker 1: the route. I guess he's given up on waiting for

1022
00:57:05,960 --> 00:57:09,480
Speaker 1: the German filmmaker at the at the cocktail lounge. He

1023
00:57:09,520 --> 00:57:12,440
Speaker 1: wasn't supposed to be there, but he arrives and Philip

1024
00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:15,680
Speaker 1: still there. Louise, who has been bitten on the face

1025
00:57:15,719 --> 00:57:17,240
Speaker 1: by the snake a bunch of times, is like, I

1026
00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:20,320
Speaker 1: am dying and everybody's like, ah, you'll be fine. It's

1027
00:57:20,360 --> 00:57:23,680
Speaker 1: just a harmless house snake, and then Oliver Reed just

1028
00:57:23,720 --> 00:57:27,560
Speaker 1: starts punching Grandpa and Jack Mell points a gun at

1029
00:57:27,640 --> 00:57:29,840
Speaker 1: him and is like, you know, I'm in charge. It

1030
00:57:29,920 --> 00:57:32,120
Speaker 1: is not time to punch Grandpa until I say it's

1031
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:36,280
Speaker 1: time to punch grandpa. So they lock Sterling Hayden in

1032
00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:38,880
Speaker 1: the cellar, and then we see Oliver Read loading a

1033
00:57:38,960 --> 00:57:41,040
Speaker 1: gun and this is the one you were talking about earlier,

1034
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:43,120
Speaker 1: Like it must be an elephant gun or something because

1035
00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:46,840
Speaker 1: the shells are enormous. And then the badness at crime

1036
00:57:46,920 --> 00:57:50,760
Speaker 1: just continues, like a policeman arrives and knocks at the door,

1037
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:54,960
Speaker 1: I guess because the toxicology lab uh figured out that

1038
00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:57,280
Speaker 1: this is the address of the boy who accidentally took

1039
00:57:57,320 --> 00:58:02,600
Speaker 1: home the super snake, and the policeman Knox Philip, shouts

1040
00:58:02,640 --> 00:58:05,760
Speaker 1: for help from inside the house, and then the officer

1041
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:09,720
Speaker 1: opens the front door to just see this tableau of

1042
00:58:09,720 --> 00:58:13,640
Speaker 1: of Oliver Reed holding a shotgun, klaus Kinski clutching a

1043
00:58:13,720 --> 00:58:17,600
Speaker 1: terrified child, Susan George with her face turning purple and

1044
00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:21,200
Speaker 1: she's gasping for air. And then Oliver Reed just shoots

1045
00:58:21,240 --> 00:58:24,600
Speaker 1: the police officer and the kid in and so like

1046
00:58:24,880 --> 00:58:27,720
Speaker 1: everything is screwed up. Now, so now they are in

1047
00:58:27,800 --> 00:58:31,440
Speaker 1: the house, having shot a police officer outside, and they

1048
00:58:31,480 --> 00:58:33,919
Speaker 1: are not going to escape to their hiding place with

1049
00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:36,160
Speaker 1: with the kid for ransom. Now they're just in the

1050
00:58:36,200 --> 00:58:47,600
Speaker 1: house with the cops outside, and it's a siege. Yeah.

1051
00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:50,640
Speaker 1: So at this point we're very much and like they say,

1052
00:58:50,680 --> 00:58:53,600
Speaker 1: the best laid plans of mice and men, uh, and

1053
00:58:53,720 --> 00:58:56,160
Speaker 1: so you know, and go stray. This was not a

1054
00:58:56,240 --> 00:59:00,120
Speaker 1: very well laid plan and it has definitely gone astray. Uh.

1055
00:59:00,120 --> 00:59:02,040
Speaker 1: But but this is a common feature in a lot

1056
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:05,080
Speaker 1: of crime shows and crime stories. You know. It's like

1057
00:59:05,120 --> 00:59:07,680
Speaker 1: the the heighst doesn't go as as it's supposed to,

1058
00:59:07,760 --> 00:59:09,520
Speaker 1: and now we have to deal with the consequences of that,

1059
00:59:09,800 --> 00:59:12,200
Speaker 1: and then here come the police. That's gonna be our

1060
00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:15,080
Speaker 1: next big movement in the plot. And I will say

1061
00:59:15,120 --> 00:59:17,560
Speaker 1: that one of the things I liked about the film

1062
00:59:17,600 --> 00:59:19,480
Speaker 1: that I thought made it very watchable is that it

1063
00:59:19,480 --> 00:59:23,160
Speaker 1: has very strong procedural bones. You know, Um, you're laying

1064
00:59:23,200 --> 00:59:26,080
Speaker 1: out like what the the the the the you know,

1065
00:59:26,120 --> 00:59:29,880
Speaker 1: poorly thought out criminal enterprise, uh, seems to be like

1066
00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:32,440
Speaker 1: what their plan is. And then there's a lot in

1067
00:59:32,480 --> 00:59:36,280
Speaker 1: the film about the police officers responding and getting advice

1068
00:59:36,360 --> 00:59:38,520
Speaker 1: and trying to figure out like what is the proper

1069
00:59:38,560 --> 00:59:43,320
Speaker 1: strategic move to make? And it really helps to you know,

1070
00:59:43,440 --> 00:59:46,120
Speaker 1: drive the film along, you know, in a way that

1071
00:59:46,160 --> 00:59:49,480
Speaker 1: I thought was ultimately entertaining. Like I was reading Ebert's

1072
00:59:49,480 --> 00:59:52,760
Speaker 1: review of the film, and Ebert was like, despite all

1073
00:59:52,800 --> 00:59:55,000
Speaker 1: these actors, this film is boring. And I disagree. I

1074
00:59:55,240 --> 00:59:58,680
Speaker 1: don't think this film is ever boring. It falls short

1075
00:59:58,720 --> 01:00:02,120
Speaker 1: in some notable areas, but um, but it's never boring. Oh,

1076
01:00:02,160 --> 01:00:05,439
Speaker 1: i'd agree, And yeah, you're right about the procedural step. Wait,

1077
01:00:05,720 --> 01:00:07,800
Speaker 1: you made this comparison off Mike. Did you say it

1078
01:00:07,840 --> 01:00:09,880
Speaker 1: on Mike that it's kind of like Shin Godzilla in

1079
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:12,920
Speaker 1: that regard. Yeah, yeah, it's it's kind of like the

1080
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:17,000
Speaker 1: Shin Godzilla of Loose Snake movies. Uh, in that you know,

1081
01:00:17,040 --> 01:00:18,760
Speaker 1: there's a lot of well, let's talk to the expert

1082
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:20,800
Speaker 1: and see what they think we should do. Okay, let's

1083
01:00:20,800 --> 01:00:23,760
Speaker 1: talk to another expert. What did they think? And uh

1084
01:00:23,760 --> 01:00:26,640
Speaker 1: and so forth. Shin Godzilla is the best movie ever

1085
01:00:26,680 --> 01:00:30,800
Speaker 1: made about meetings, and uh, this is this is a

1086
01:00:30,880 --> 01:00:33,880
Speaker 1: very good movie about Yeah, a little little strategy sessions

1087
01:00:33,920 --> 01:00:38,280
Speaker 1: where people are talking out their next plans. Oh oh,

1088
01:00:38,400 --> 01:00:40,680
Speaker 1: I should have mentioned after all that last stuff happens

1089
01:00:40,720 --> 01:00:43,040
Speaker 1: like around the you know, the one third of the

1090
01:00:43,080 --> 01:00:46,400
Speaker 1: way into the movie, Louise dies, so you know, they

1091
01:00:46,400 --> 01:00:48,600
Speaker 1: thought she'd just been bitten by this harmless house snake,

1092
01:00:48,640 --> 01:00:51,360
Speaker 1: but then she turns completely blue. There's blood coming out

1093
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:54,080
Speaker 1: of her mouth and she's dead. And the other crime

1094
01:00:54,120 --> 01:00:57,280
Speaker 1: boys are like, oh, whoops, maybe there is something bad

1095
01:00:57,320 --> 01:01:01,520
Speaker 1: about the snake and uh. And so then the police

1096
01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:04,400
Speaker 1: arrive and this is when we really meet Nicole Williamson.

1097
01:01:04,560 --> 01:01:06,960
Speaker 1: He arrives, he sets up outside, he's trying to do

1098
01:01:07,040 --> 01:01:11,600
Speaker 1: negotiations with Jack mell uh. These negotiations will continue for

1099
01:01:11,840 --> 01:01:15,280
Speaker 1: throughout the middle third of the movie. Of course, of course,

1100
01:01:15,320 --> 01:01:18,080
Speaker 1: klaus Kinsky he wants a car and money in exchange

1101
01:01:18,120 --> 01:01:20,120
Speaker 1: for the kids safety, and they're not going to get

1102
01:01:20,160 --> 01:01:22,120
Speaker 1: that yet. So the Act two set up is complete,

1103
01:01:22,120 --> 01:01:24,440
Speaker 1: and from here it goes on to a lot of

1104
01:01:24,560 --> 01:01:26,440
Speaker 1: you know, the standard fun and game as part of

1105
01:01:26,480 --> 01:01:29,040
Speaker 1: a creature movie, where there's a lot of mamba cam

1106
01:01:29,200 --> 01:01:31,560
Speaker 1: and like hunting around for the snake. There. They send

1107
01:01:31,640 --> 01:01:34,080
Speaker 1: Grandpa up to to hunt for the snake and he's

1108
01:01:34,120 --> 01:01:37,520
Speaker 1: holding like a lamp with the shade taken off, and

1109
01:01:37,560 --> 01:01:41,280
Speaker 1: there's some some some false positives in his search for

1110
01:01:41,320 --> 01:01:44,360
Speaker 1: the snake that worked pretty well on the screen. But

1111
01:01:44,480 --> 01:01:46,840
Speaker 1: he knows what it is because he's, uh, you know,

1112
01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:50,240
Speaker 1: from all his safari experiences, he's familiar with black mambas

1113
01:01:50,280 --> 01:01:52,480
Speaker 1: and and the fact that they can be dangerous. So

1114
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:55,680
Speaker 1: he's like, Okay, well, you know, we're we're really in

1115
01:01:55,720 --> 01:01:58,680
Speaker 1: trouble with this thing in the house. And you know,

1116
01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:00,800
Speaker 1: one scene I thought was pretty good was the one

1117
01:02:00,880 --> 01:02:03,360
Speaker 1: with Sterling Hayden hunting around for the snake in the

1118
01:02:03,560 --> 01:02:06,280
Speaker 1: in the empty room. I wonder if this is perhaps

1119
01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:09,280
Speaker 1: something that maybe worked better in the book, Like if

1120
01:02:09,320 --> 01:02:12,720
Speaker 1: the book allowed the author more room to sort of

1121
01:02:13,040 --> 01:02:16,520
Speaker 1: ruminate over like tales of the mamba from from Africa

1122
01:02:16,640 --> 01:02:19,800
Speaker 1: that Grandpa would be familiar with, and maybe Grandpa thinking

1123
01:02:19,840 --> 01:02:23,480
Speaker 1: about like just how intensely dangerous the situation is. Like

1124
01:02:23,520 --> 01:02:26,680
Speaker 1: maybe it was able to drive home this idea of

1125
01:02:26,720 --> 01:02:29,400
Speaker 1: the momba being such a threat in ways that the

1126
01:02:29,440 --> 01:02:32,120
Speaker 1: film may be struggled to do at times. Yeah, I

1127
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:34,400
Speaker 1: mean a lot of what we know about the mamba

1128
01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:37,520
Speaker 1: in the movie gets filled in by the scientists, so

1129
01:02:37,640 --> 01:02:39,960
Speaker 1: like it around like you know, there's a lot of

1130
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:42,280
Speaker 1: the sort of cat and mouse games in the middle

1131
01:02:42,320 --> 01:02:45,040
Speaker 1: third of the movie, and somewhere like an hour in

1132
01:02:45,160 --> 01:02:49,400
Speaker 1: there's this meeting between Nicol Williamson and uh and Marian Stow,

1133
01:02:49,600 --> 01:02:52,120
Speaker 1: the snake scientist, and this is where they talk about

1134
01:02:52,160 --> 01:02:54,840
Speaker 1: you know, He's like, how dangerous is it because she's

1135
01:02:54,840 --> 01:02:56,959
Speaker 1: finally gotten the information to him that there's a killer

1136
01:02:57,040 --> 01:03:00,720
Speaker 1: snake inside and uh and she says it's most dangerous

1137
01:03:00,720 --> 01:03:03,440
Speaker 1: snake in the whole world. Uh and she but she

1138
01:03:03,880 --> 01:03:07,200
Speaker 1: gives it all these sort of anthropomorphic qualities. She says,

1139
01:03:07,280 --> 01:03:09,400
Speaker 1: like they're they're very aggressive, but they tend to be

1140
01:03:09,400 --> 01:03:14,000
Speaker 1: a little awkward, paranoid really um. And she says they

1141
01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:16,760
Speaker 1: happen to be the fastest snake in the world. And

1142
01:03:16,840 --> 01:03:20,840
Speaker 1: she says unless the bite victim gets antidote immediately or

1143
01:03:20,880 --> 01:03:25,280
Speaker 1: anti venom immediately, mamba bites are one fatal. But she says,

1144
01:03:25,320 --> 01:03:27,760
Speaker 1: if you get the antidote to the venom, it's a

1145
01:03:27,800 --> 01:03:30,840
Speaker 1: fifty fifty chance, provided that the victim is not allergic

1146
01:03:30,880 --> 01:03:33,560
Speaker 1: to it. I'll go ahead and mention again that California

1147
01:03:33,600 --> 01:03:38,480
Speaker 1: Herb's website reminds us that there are some some some

1148
01:03:38,600 --> 01:03:43,040
Speaker 1: suspect mamba facts in this movie, So don't watch Venom. Uh,

1149
01:03:43,280 --> 01:03:47,760
Speaker 1: just for your education on black mambas, go to other sources. Right.

1150
01:03:47,840 --> 01:03:50,360
Speaker 1: But also, I mean, it is certainly true that the

1151
01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:52,880
Speaker 1: black mamba is one of the more dangerous snakes on

1152
01:03:52,920 --> 01:03:55,560
Speaker 1: Earth in terms of interactions with humans. Like, if you

1153
01:03:55,600 --> 01:03:57,720
Speaker 1: see one, don't go anywhere near it. You know, that thing,

1154
01:03:58,360 --> 01:04:00,240
Speaker 1: It probably doesn't want anything to do with you, but

1155
01:04:00,280 --> 01:04:02,400
Speaker 1: you do not want to be bitten by it? Right?

1156
01:04:02,520 --> 01:04:05,480
Speaker 1: But can it smell crime? Does it own the night? Um?

1157
01:04:05,640 --> 01:04:09,200
Speaker 1: I mean these are these are questionable. Yeah. Now there's

1158
01:04:09,240 --> 01:04:12,720
Speaker 1: a there's a fun scene where they send out Sarah

1159
01:04:12,760 --> 01:04:16,040
Speaker 1: Miles to deliver a snake science lecture to the people

1160
01:04:16,040 --> 01:04:18,960
Speaker 1: in the house. So, you know, the house is besieged

1161
01:04:19,000 --> 01:04:21,440
Speaker 1: by cops and she just goes out in front of

1162
01:04:21,480 --> 01:04:25,160
Speaker 1: it to like tell them about the mamba and it's venom.

1163
01:04:25,160 --> 01:04:27,560
Speaker 1: So they do keep saying poisonous snake. By the way,

1164
01:04:27,600 --> 01:04:31,680
Speaker 1: the pedantic part of my brain couldn't let that go. Uh,

1165
01:04:31,720 --> 01:04:35,920
Speaker 1: And through some devious trickery, klaus Kinski eventually manages to

1166
01:04:35,960 --> 01:04:39,000
Speaker 1: get the snakes scientist or the the toxicologist Dr Stowe

1167
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:42,960
Speaker 1: into the into the house by pulling a gun on her.

1168
01:04:43,720 --> 01:04:46,400
Speaker 1: Um Uh. He tricks her into thinking that she can

1169
01:04:46,480 --> 01:04:49,320
Speaker 1: administer an antidote to someone who has been bitten. But

1170
01:04:49,400 --> 01:04:51,640
Speaker 1: really it's just him pointing a gun in her face.

1171
01:04:52,000 --> 01:04:54,920
Speaker 1: So she's a hostage and now as well. Uh. And

1172
01:04:54,960 --> 01:04:58,320
Speaker 1: I love how basically Jack Mell is approaching this situation.

1173
01:04:58,360 --> 01:05:01,360
Speaker 1: It's like, what got us into this problem kidnapping? Love,

1174
01:05:01,400 --> 01:05:07,440
Speaker 1: We'll get us out of this situation more kidnapping, right exactly. Um.

1175
01:05:07,480 --> 01:05:09,200
Speaker 1: And so there's a bunch of stuff with the police

1176
01:05:09,240 --> 01:05:12,160
Speaker 1: scheming about maybe back entrances to the house. This I

1177
01:05:12,200 --> 01:05:14,600
Speaker 1: think is part of the shin Godzilla quality. You were

1178
01:05:14,600 --> 01:05:17,400
Speaker 1: talking about little strategy sessions where they're like consulting the

1179
01:05:17,440 --> 01:05:19,720
Speaker 1: building plans of the house. They're like, there used to

1180
01:05:19,760 --> 01:05:22,720
Speaker 1: be a back entrance, we can maybe bust through there. Uh.

1181
01:05:22,800 --> 01:05:25,919
Speaker 1: And then meanwhile inside the house, there's a great scene

1182
01:05:25,920 --> 01:05:28,440
Speaker 1: where everybody's just sitting around. It's it's Oliver Read and

1183
01:05:28,480 --> 01:05:31,800
Speaker 1: Sarah Miles and Oliver Reid's like, I'm thirsty. I fancy

1184
01:05:31,840 --> 01:05:34,520
Speaker 1: a drink? How about you? Yeah? And uh, this is

1185
01:05:34,680 --> 01:05:38,280
Speaker 1: I love this moment because um Read's character Dave, he

1186
01:05:38,360 --> 01:05:41,240
Speaker 1: kind of enters into this comfort zone offering the drink,

1187
01:05:41,280 --> 01:05:43,440
Speaker 1: and he's listing all the different liquors that are available,

1188
01:05:43,440 --> 01:05:46,560
Speaker 1: and he's like, we've got most things. Um, and uh.

1189
01:05:46,600 --> 01:05:49,920
Speaker 1: It puts you completely at ease because then when he

1190
01:05:49,960 --> 01:05:52,120
Speaker 1: opens up the drink cabinet and you find yourself just

1191
01:05:52,440 --> 01:05:55,160
Speaker 1: you know, like, well, I want to see these bottles. Umm,

1192
01:05:55,240 --> 01:05:57,160
Speaker 1: I am curious. Maybe I'll have a drink too. Oliver

1193
01:05:58,000 --> 01:06:01,440
Speaker 1: He's gonna make a white Russian. Yeah, But then he

1194
01:06:01,480 --> 01:06:03,880
Speaker 1: opens it up and what is in the liquor cabinet

1195
01:06:04,360 --> 01:06:07,520
Speaker 1: but the mamba there you go. It's it's a snake

1196
01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:10,240
Speaker 1: pop out scare. It's a great snake pop out scare.

1197
01:06:10,240 --> 01:06:14,120
Speaker 1: I gotta say, I really enjoyed it. And the special

1198
01:06:14,160 --> 01:06:17,040
Speaker 1: horror of like Oliver Reed realizes that the snake is

1199
01:06:17,160 --> 01:06:20,040
Speaker 1: in there with the alcohol. Yeah, and at first I

1200
01:06:20,080 --> 01:06:21,920
Speaker 1: thought that was gonna be the thing. It's almost like

1201
01:06:21,920 --> 01:06:24,640
Speaker 1: a Simpsons moment, like, oh no, the beer is locked

1202
01:06:24,720 --> 01:06:27,400
Speaker 1: up with the snake. No one can get the beer now, uh,

1203
01:06:27,440 --> 01:06:29,280
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. But then yeah, there's this scene

1204
01:06:29,280 --> 01:06:32,160
Speaker 1: where they then pull the liquor cabinet away from the

1205
01:06:32,200 --> 01:06:36,360
Speaker 1: wall and we see the snake slither through like a

1206
01:06:36,480 --> 01:06:39,720
Speaker 1: crack in the back of the liquor cabinet into the wall.

1207
01:06:39,880 --> 01:06:42,960
Speaker 1: It's a duck. Did you understand this? There is a duct.

1208
01:06:43,120 --> 01:06:45,320
Speaker 1: I did not know. Well, I mean I think I

1209
01:06:45,400 --> 01:06:48,640
Speaker 1: understood what I was looking at. But it's so it's

1210
01:06:48,640 --> 01:06:51,120
Speaker 1: not like built into the wall. It's a liquor cabinet

1211
01:06:51,160 --> 01:06:53,360
Speaker 1: that is a separate piece of furniture. It's like a

1212
01:06:53,440 --> 01:06:55,920
Speaker 1: chest or a wardrobe kind of thing, almost as a

1213
01:06:55,960 --> 01:06:58,520
Speaker 1: cabinet opens up. It's got all the liquor inside. But

1214
01:06:58,640 --> 01:07:00,560
Speaker 1: there is a hole in the back of it where

1215
01:07:00,560 --> 01:07:03,640
Speaker 1: there's a duct leading into the wall, like connecting it.

1216
01:07:04,360 --> 01:07:07,120
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know what that was supposed

1217
01:07:07,120 --> 01:07:09,480
Speaker 1: to be or if that's normal. I mean, do you

1218
01:07:09,560 --> 01:07:12,360
Speaker 1: normally have a duct going from the wall to a

1219
01:07:12,440 --> 01:07:16,400
Speaker 1: separate piece of furniture containing liquor bottles? I can't imagine

1220
01:07:16,400 --> 01:07:19,920
Speaker 1: you would. But then again, it's necessary for this scare

1221
01:07:19,960 --> 01:07:23,200
Speaker 1: to work because otherwise the snake is just stuck in

1222
01:07:23,240 --> 01:07:25,200
Speaker 1: the liquor cabinet. Now and okay, he's in there, and

1223
01:07:25,240 --> 01:07:27,680
Speaker 1: now now we've won. Now we can just nail the

1224
01:07:27,720 --> 01:07:31,200
Speaker 1: liquor cabinet shut. But now it gets away. It's back

1225
01:07:31,200 --> 01:07:33,640
Speaker 1: in the walls. It goes wherever it wants to in

1226
01:07:33,680 --> 01:07:37,320
Speaker 1: this house. Now, so the police are scheming about ways

1227
01:07:37,400 --> 01:07:40,040
Speaker 1: to breach the house to get in there and and

1228
01:07:40,080 --> 01:07:42,920
Speaker 1: save the hostages. But I think the funny thing is

1229
01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:45,760
Speaker 1: that ultimately the police fail in this regard, and it

1230
01:07:45,880 --> 01:07:49,120
Speaker 1: is the snake in fact, that defeats the criminals. Yeah,

1231
01:07:49,160 --> 01:07:52,800
Speaker 1: the snake is ultimately the hero of the picture, dispensing

1232
01:07:53,560 --> 01:07:57,280
Speaker 1: with all three kidnappers. Uh. And and never I mean threatening,

1233
01:07:57,280 --> 01:08:00,320
Speaker 1: I guess, but never actually harming any of the non

1234
01:08:00,360 --> 01:08:03,280
Speaker 1: criminals in the picture. Yeah, it's a lawful good snake

1235
01:08:04,320 --> 01:08:07,760
Speaker 1: can smell crime, I think. Yes. I don't know how

1236
01:08:07,840 --> 01:08:10,640
Speaker 1: much detail we want to go into about the particular

1237
01:08:10,720 --> 01:08:15,480
Speaker 1: demise of Oliver read or klaus Kinski's characters Oliver Reed. Uh.

1238
01:08:15,560 --> 01:08:18,479
Speaker 1: He they're like down in the basement and suddenly the

1239
01:08:18,520 --> 01:08:22,479
Speaker 1: police bust in through the wall and uh, and they're

1240
01:08:22,520 --> 01:08:24,680
Speaker 1: having a standoff. They're shooting at each other, but then

1241
01:08:24,720 --> 01:08:27,920
Speaker 1: there's a snake and the police are like snake and

1242
01:08:27,960 --> 01:08:30,519
Speaker 1: they have to run away and go back out the broke,

1243
01:08:30,640 --> 01:08:33,240
Speaker 1: you know, the breach in the wall. It was like

1244
01:08:33,400 --> 01:08:35,800
Speaker 1: you were more scared of the snake than the gun.

1245
01:08:36,280 --> 01:08:39,080
Speaker 1: I know. It's like a xenomorph in this thing. But

1246
01:08:39,080 --> 01:08:42,840
Speaker 1: but h Reid's character Dave is shot. He's like shot

1247
01:08:42,840 --> 01:08:46,679
Speaker 1: in the shoulder, so he's he's heavily injured. He can't

1248
01:08:46,720 --> 01:08:49,880
Speaker 1: quite crawl up the stairs. And that's when the mamba

1249
01:08:49,920 --> 01:08:53,479
Speaker 1: comes for him. In a In a quite gratuitous scene

1250
01:08:53,520 --> 01:08:57,160
Speaker 1: of like creature revenge against human evil, Oliver Reed is

1251
01:08:57,200 --> 01:08:59,880
Speaker 1: bitten in the crotch by the snake and and goes

1252
01:09:00,080 --> 01:09:02,719
Speaker 1: right up the pants leg. And now I'm just Jock

1253
01:09:02,800 --> 01:09:06,280
Speaker 1: mel right, but I'm imagining, like the writing that scene,

1254
01:09:06,360 --> 01:09:09,640
Speaker 1: it was you know, like what did that look like

1255
01:09:09,680 --> 01:09:13,240
Speaker 1: on the page? The snake slither slowly up his thigh.

1256
01:09:13,320 --> 01:09:15,720
Speaker 1: Oliver Read's great in this scene though he totally sells it.

1257
01:09:16,080 --> 01:09:18,080
Speaker 1: But then of course the snake in the end also

1258
01:09:18,160 --> 01:09:21,479
Speaker 1: has to attack the one remaining criminal, Jock mel Uh.

1259
01:09:21,520 --> 01:09:25,559
Speaker 1: We see it like creeping up through curtains behind him

1260
01:09:25,600 --> 01:09:28,719
Speaker 1: as the music builds, and then it's like it springs

1261
01:09:28,760 --> 01:09:31,639
Speaker 1: out and attacks him and and literally like the final

1262
01:09:31,720 --> 01:09:34,800
Speaker 1: conflict of the movie is is klaus Kinsky wrestling a

1263
01:09:34,880 --> 01:09:38,040
Speaker 1: snake and engaging in a gunfight with a snake. Yeah,

1264
01:09:38,160 --> 01:09:41,479
Speaker 1: like thrashing around in the like the living upstairs, living

1265
01:09:41,560 --> 01:09:44,240
Speaker 1: room or whatever it happens to be. Um. Yeah, trying

1266
01:09:44,280 --> 01:09:47,800
Speaker 1: to shoot the snake's head off with his own gun. Um.

1267
01:09:48,000 --> 01:09:51,000
Speaker 1: Eventually the fight goes out onto the balcony, and the

1268
01:09:51,040 --> 01:09:53,839
Speaker 1: whole time like it's clearly a rubber snake. It's Kinsky

1269
01:09:54,080 --> 01:09:57,559
Speaker 1: battling this rubber snake. And then especially when he fires

1270
01:09:57,600 --> 01:10:00,400
Speaker 1: the gun, that's when the snipers start firing. The police

1271
01:10:00,400 --> 01:10:05,000
Speaker 1: snipers start firing, So Kinsky's character and the snake die

1272
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:10,160
Speaker 1: in a hail of bullets and then fall off the balcony. Um.

1273
01:10:10,240 --> 01:10:13,280
Speaker 1: And uh, my only criticism is that the body does

1274
01:10:13,320 --> 01:10:16,920
Speaker 1: not become impaled on the like the spiked fence at

1275
01:10:16,920 --> 01:10:18,760
Speaker 1: the bottom that I think would have been would have

1276
01:10:18,760 --> 01:10:20,400
Speaker 1: made it a little more perfect. But maybe they thought

1277
01:10:20,400 --> 01:10:22,519
Speaker 1: that would that would just be overdoing it. I don't know.

1278
01:10:22,800 --> 01:10:25,560
Speaker 1: I thought it should have ended with the snake slithering

1279
01:10:25,720 --> 01:10:29,240
Speaker 1: down klaus Kinski's throat and biting him from the inside,

1280
01:10:29,680 --> 01:10:33,360
Speaker 1: like going right to the heart. Yeah. Yeah, coils around

1281
01:10:33,360 --> 01:10:37,839
Speaker 1: his heart and bites at a hundred times. But basically

1282
01:10:37,880 --> 01:10:40,559
Speaker 1: that's the big finish. Um. Yeah. That now all of

1283
01:10:40,640 --> 01:10:44,880
Speaker 1: the kidnappers are dead, the Black Bomba itself is dead,

1284
01:10:45,320 --> 01:10:50,439
Speaker 1: and everybody is safe once again? Or are they? Oh

1285
01:10:50,479 --> 01:10:53,800
Speaker 1: that's right, because we get a delightful stinger in which

1286
01:10:53,840 --> 01:10:56,360
Speaker 1: you go into the heating ducks and you see some

1287
01:10:56,360 --> 01:10:58,840
Speaker 1: some eggs, some snake eggs up in there. I guess

1288
01:10:58,840 --> 01:11:02,240
Speaker 1: they're being incubated by the by the gas heat. Not

1289
01:11:02,320 --> 01:11:05,320
Speaker 1: only that they've hatched, there's like a baby mamba crawling

1290
01:11:05,320 --> 01:11:08,280
Speaker 1: out of one. So it's it's not only mamba time

1291
01:11:08,320 --> 01:11:11,080
Speaker 1: once more in this uh in this house, but it's

1292
01:11:11,080 --> 01:11:14,120
Speaker 1: also going to be like double mamba's. Uh so, you know,

1293
01:11:14,280 --> 01:11:16,360
Speaker 1: set up for the sequel here, I guess is that

1294
01:11:16,439 --> 01:11:21,640
Speaker 1: like it's Miller time, it's Mamba time. Yeah, yeah, I

1295
01:11:21,680 --> 01:11:23,120
Speaker 1: mean they could have done a sequel. I mean they

1296
01:11:23,120 --> 01:11:25,759
Speaker 1: were able to make all those um taken movies. It's

1297
01:11:25,760 --> 01:11:28,240
Speaker 1: it's I think you could come up with another scenario

1298
01:11:28,320 --> 01:11:32,560
Speaker 1: in which you have kidnappers or terrorists or something to

1299
01:11:32,600 --> 01:11:35,360
Speaker 1: kind of taking over the house, the exact same family,

1300
01:11:35,400 --> 01:11:38,320
Speaker 1: the exact same house, and it's two snakes this time

1301
01:11:38,880 --> 01:11:41,320
Speaker 1: two snakes. Yeah, okay, who would have to play the

1302
01:11:41,320 --> 01:11:45,400
Speaker 1: criminals in the sequel? It would be how about how

1303
01:11:45,400 --> 01:11:50,120
Speaker 1: about Gary Busey and Robert Mitchum who yeah, was well

1304
01:11:50,240 --> 01:11:52,519
Speaker 1: was Robert Mitchum still alive at that point. I can't

1305
01:11:52,560 --> 01:11:58,120
Speaker 1: remember when he died. Okay, yeah, he could have done it. Sure. Um,

1306
01:11:58,240 --> 01:11:59,479
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know if I want to

1307
01:11:59,479 --> 01:12:03,240
Speaker 1: see like mid eighties Robert Mitchum wrestling a snake, though,

1308
01:12:03,280 --> 01:12:07,519
Speaker 1: I don't know I want to see that at any rate.

1309
01:12:07,520 --> 01:12:09,519
Speaker 1: It never came to be. We never got a sequel

1310
01:12:09,560 --> 01:12:12,280
Speaker 1: to Venom. Uh. But you know, like I said, I

1311
01:12:12,479 --> 01:12:14,720
Speaker 1: feel like it's a it is a movie that is

1312
01:12:14,920 --> 01:12:17,680
Speaker 1: essentially ludicrous. Like the premise at the center of this

1313
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:20,759
Speaker 1: movie is he is just ridiculous. I mean, the idea

1314
01:12:20,840 --> 01:12:24,080
Speaker 1: that this snake is just so dangerous and wants to

1315
01:12:24,160 --> 01:12:27,080
Speaker 1: kill people, wants to kill criminals or you know, or

1316
01:12:27,120 --> 01:12:31,080
Speaker 1: anybody that gets near it. Um, you know, it's just ultimately,

1317
01:12:31,280 --> 01:12:33,519
Speaker 1: I never I never really bought it in the film,

1318
01:12:33,600 --> 01:12:37,200
Speaker 1: you know. Uh, Like I'm quick to give something credit

1319
01:12:37,240 --> 01:12:39,160
Speaker 1: if it works within the context of the film, and

1320
01:12:39,200 --> 01:12:41,600
Speaker 1: this never quite did that. But we still have some

1321
01:12:41,680 --> 01:12:45,880
Speaker 1: great snake scares. Uh, we have some fun performances, and

1322
01:12:45,920 --> 01:12:48,960
Speaker 1: we have this procedural energy kind of driving things along.

1323
01:12:49,680 --> 01:12:52,360
Speaker 1: All right, Well, you're probably wondering, well, where can I

1324
01:12:52,400 --> 01:12:55,800
Speaker 1: watch Venom? Well, Lucky for you. It's widely available for

1325
01:12:55,840 --> 01:12:59,760
Speaker 1: digital rental or purchase, and also Blue Underground put out

1326
01:12:59,800 --> 01:13:02,040
Speaker 1: a nice looking blu ray of it as well with

1327
01:13:02,160 --> 01:13:05,720
Speaker 1: restored two K transfer um, so you can you can

1328
01:13:05,760 --> 01:13:09,040
Speaker 1: watch this movie yourself via those means. Also, I'll stress

1329
01:13:09,080 --> 01:13:12,880
Speaker 1: again the novel is out there in digital and physical form.

1330
01:13:13,320 --> 01:13:16,000
Speaker 1: So uh. I would love to hear from anyone who's

1331
01:13:16,040 --> 01:13:18,519
Speaker 1: read the novel Venom and can chime in on it.

1332
01:13:18,760 --> 01:13:20,640
Speaker 1: And you might be wondering, well, I haven't read it,

1333
01:13:20,680 --> 01:13:23,120
Speaker 1: but could I read it and then tell Robin Joe

1334
01:13:23,160 --> 01:13:25,320
Speaker 1: what it's all about and give my review. Yes, you

1335
01:13:25,320 --> 01:13:28,640
Speaker 1: can absolutely do that. I would love to have some

1336
01:13:28,680 --> 01:13:32,360
Speaker 1: insight into the novel that came before here. Now wouldn't

1337
01:13:32,360 --> 01:13:34,759
Speaker 1: it be great if Venom was one of those films

1338
01:13:34,800 --> 01:13:37,439
Speaker 1: that had a novel and then a movie and then

1339
01:13:37,439 --> 01:13:40,559
Speaker 1: a novelization of the movie separate from the original novel.

1340
01:13:41,040 --> 01:13:43,720
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you see that sometimes for me, the most

1341
01:13:43,760 --> 01:13:48,919
Speaker 1: notable example being um Francis Ford Coppola's Brown Stoker's Dracula

1342
01:13:49,240 --> 01:13:51,760
Speaker 1: and which, of course it is an adaptation of Dracula,

1343
01:13:52,000 --> 01:13:56,320
Speaker 1: but there is also a novelization of the film Genius Yeah,

1344
01:13:56,320 --> 01:13:59,040
Speaker 1: which I al was found outrageous because it's not like Dracula.

1345
01:13:59,360 --> 01:14:02,400
Speaker 1: The original is an unreadable text, like did it really

1346
01:14:02,439 --> 01:14:05,439
Speaker 1: need to be updated? Uh? You know, in terms of

1347
01:14:05,479 --> 01:14:08,760
Speaker 1: the written version, I don't know. Uh no, I mean

1348
01:14:09,120 --> 01:14:11,840
Speaker 1: so it was so it could say, uh, you know,

1349
01:14:12,280 --> 01:14:16,479
Speaker 1: Jonathan Arker, who looked like the American actor Keanu Reeves

1350
01:14:17,080 --> 01:14:22,160
Speaker 1: arrived in Where Does He Go? I don't you know, Oh,

1351
01:14:22,280 --> 01:14:26,479
Speaker 1: doesn't Dracula have a mustache in the original bron Stokers Dracula.

1352
01:14:26,520 --> 01:14:29,000
Speaker 1: Maybe that was it in the movie or in the novel.

1353
01:14:29,280 --> 01:14:32,160
Speaker 1: In the novel, I don't recall. I don't recall how

1354
01:14:32,200 --> 01:14:35,240
Speaker 1: it described. I could be wrong on that, but wouldn't

1355
01:14:35,280 --> 01:14:37,240
Speaker 1: it have been funny though? If they were like, okay,

1356
01:14:37,280 --> 01:14:40,040
Speaker 1: standard operating procedure, we need a novelization of this film

1357
01:14:40,080 --> 01:14:42,240
Speaker 1: and they assign it to somebody, and what if they

1358
01:14:42,439 --> 01:14:46,120
Speaker 1: just turned in a copy of bron Stokers Dracula and

1359
01:14:46,160 --> 01:14:48,840
Speaker 1: they're like, it was just it was such a great adaptation,

1360
01:14:49,040 --> 01:14:53,120
Speaker 1: like as it just as it worked out, the novelization

1361
01:14:53,160 --> 01:14:56,120
Speaker 1: of the film is the original novel. That's just smart. Yeah.

1362
01:14:56,400 --> 01:14:59,519
Speaker 1: I didn't even realize that I had completely reproduced the

1363
01:14:59,520 --> 01:15:04,920
Speaker 1: original brom Stoker's Dracula. I was just adapting the film. Well,

1364
01:15:04,920 --> 01:15:06,479
Speaker 1: if you're gonna do it with any film, I would

1365
01:15:06,479 --> 01:15:10,639
Speaker 1: say the Coppola adaptation is unusually faithful to the novel,

1366
01:15:10,920 --> 01:15:14,000
Speaker 1: much more so than, uh, than most other adaptations I

1367
01:15:14,000 --> 01:15:16,400
Speaker 1: can think of. Yeah, and I also have some really

1368
01:15:16,400 --> 01:15:19,719
Speaker 1: fun performances in it. Yeah. All right, Well, we're gonna

1369
01:15:19,720 --> 01:15:22,759
Speaker 1: go ahead and close the liquor cabinet on this serpent,

1370
01:15:23,479 --> 01:15:25,559
Speaker 1: but we will be back with other episodes of Weird

1371
01:15:25,600 --> 01:15:28,760
Speaker 1: House Cinema. They publish every Friday. In the Stuff to

1372
01:15:28,800 --> 01:15:32,800
Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind podcast feed were primarily science and culture podcast,

1373
01:15:32,840 --> 01:15:36,439
Speaker 1: with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have listener

1374
01:15:36,439 --> 01:15:40,640
Speaker 1: mail on Mondays and artifact episodes those their shorties on Wednesdays.

1375
01:15:41,280 --> 01:15:44,120
Speaker 1: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth

1376
01:15:44,200 --> 01:15:46,719
Speaker 1: Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch

1377
01:15:46,760 --> 01:15:48,880
Speaker 1: with us with feedback on this episode or any other,

1378
01:15:48,960 --> 01:15:50,840
Speaker 1: to suggest a topic for the future, or just to

1379
01:15:50,920 --> 01:15:53,679
Speaker 1: say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff

1380
01:15:53,720 --> 01:16:03,200
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your

1381
01:16:03,200 --> 01:16:06,120
Speaker 1: Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts

1382
01:16:06,160 --> 01:16:08,240
Speaker 1: for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,

1383
01:16:08,400 --> 01:16:11,160
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,