WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Venom (1981) 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.400 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:15.520 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.000 Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it is the 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:23.560 Serpentine our here on Weird House Cinema. Because today, Rob 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:25.840 am I right that this is our first snake movie. 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.360 It is. I mean, we've we've certainly had some snakes 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.560 and even killer snakes pop up in some of our 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:36.400 Florida movies that we did, including z and Frogs. But 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.960 Venom is going to be our first true snake movie. Now, 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.640 this movie is called Venom, but no, it's not that Venom. No, 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.960 it's not that other one either. It's this is Venom 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:51.479 nineteen eighty one, the original Venom, or well, one of 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.760 the original Venoms. I noticed that they are multiple films 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.120 with the title Venom, so I'm not sure if this 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.360 one is the true originator, but it's the one that 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:02.280 we're talking about here today. Man. I love a good 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.880 snake romp uh. You know, a snake movie really it 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.160 just gets you by the guts sometimes. So I love, 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:14.000 as we've discussed before, the the camp uh Supernatural Pleasures 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:16.920 of the Layer of the White Worm um to to 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:19.800 even what I would argue is maybe the best creature 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:26.039 feature of all time, the n Amazon snake hunt movie Anacondah, 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:29.319 in which the cardinal rule of great snake movies is observed. 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:31.720 And this is what I would argue. The rule is 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:37.440 any creature movie featuring an unusually large or unusually deadly 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:42.520 reptile must also contain at least one human actor who 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.960 is more reptilian than the creature itself. Now, in the 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.760 case of Anaconda, the You've got your giant c g 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.520 I reptile, but it is being constantly upstaged by John 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.280 Voight delivering one of the most bizarre performances I have 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.800 ever seen in any movie. Uh. You know, you just 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.280 at him. You can tell his blood is room temperature. 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.400 When he blinks his eyes they go horizontal. Uh and uh. 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:09.920 And his accent is just radioactive weirdness. He sounds like 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:14.080 he's trying to sort of be Peter Lorie doing a 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.919 like Spanish Count Dracula kind of thing, but also as 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:22.040 a ruthless jungle poacher with a ponytail. So that movie 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.240 definitely adheres to the rule. But I think today's pick 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:30.600 also observes the rule. That's right. Venom is very interesting 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:34.120 film in a large part because it features not one, 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:40.959 but two notoriously difficult actors, Oliver Read and Klass Kinsky. 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:46.360 Um uh and and there's actually another reportedly difficult actor 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:48.799 in this as well. Uh So you can really up 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.560 that to three. But it's especially evident with Reid and 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.200 Kinsky based on some of the stories and the fact 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.519 that they share a lot of screen time in this film. 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:00.400 Um So, you can imagine if they were constantly shouting 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.000 at each other, uh and almost coming to blows, it 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.520 would it would have been a particularly terrible working environment 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.960 for everyone on the picture. You can feel the bad 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:12.799 vibes through the screen. Yes, Now, I mean luckily they're 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.560 both playing villains and the characters are also supposed to 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:18.920 somewhat hate each other, so on the screen, uh, you know, 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.400 putting a setting aside anything we know about the making 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.919 of and these these actors themselves, you know, it ends 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.280 up working. But yeah, both Kinski and Read were kind 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.079 of larger than life figures. Both were noted hedonist in 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.440 their own ways, and they were they were both highly 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.680 talented actors whose careers were damaged by their difficult behavior. 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.280 So I think it's fair to say that, you know, 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.720 at the very least, they were both very problematic figures. Well, 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.160 if you're talking about their personal lives, I think, especially 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:48.400 in the case of Kinsky, that's sort of an understatement. 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:50.760 Oh yes, yeah, I feel like every time I learned 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.520 something new about Kinsky, I I regret it. Now. You know, 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.080 we're not going to focus that guess too much on 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.640 their personal lives. But you know, I admit that I 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:00.480 don't necessarily have the stomach for too much of that 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.200 sort of thing. But in know, some argue that read 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.840 sort of played up this hell raiser image for the press, 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.840 though there seems no denying his his alcoholism and is 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:14.600 also kind of like brute, macho demeanor. Um. Kinsky, on 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.560 the other hand, was prone to two outbursts and tantrums, 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:22.000 it seems, and seems to have suffered from mental illness. Um. 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:26.200 He also was apparently just reviled by many people who 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.760 had to work with him, and I think Werner Herzog 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:31.600 kind of stands apart is really the only filmmaker to 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.359 have been able to work with him multiple times for 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.719 a total of five different films. It's interesting to me, though, 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.599 that that Kinski played a vampire in two different nons 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:45.200 Ferato films um and Read played a werewolf in one 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:49.400 Hammer film. So, um, you know, in to a large extent, 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:53.000 we have vampires versus werewolves, um in this movie and 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.360 behind the scenes on this movie. Um, the vampire and 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.800 the werewolf really do seem like monstrous reflections of the 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.040 individual energies of these two actors. Okay, so we know 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.880 we're dealing with Klaus Kinski and Oliver Read both in 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.680 a snake movie. But the weird thing is, it's not 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.680 just a snake movie. Really. What this is is a 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:21.880 a genre hybrid. This is a realistic crime thriller plus snake. Yes, 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:25.160 another elevator pitch on that give it is a deadly 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:29.400 game of cat and mouse but mostly snake. Yeah, or 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.919 home alone but with Snake. All all good ways of 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.000 summing it up. Another way you could sum it up 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:39.920 is bad at crime, good at dying by Snake. Yeah. 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.000 The bad at crime note is is good. And this 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:46.040 is one of those where those films where the criminal 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:50.640 enterprise is perhaps not entirely well thought out and or 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.200 bad or and or mistakes are made um that just 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.599 lead to catastrophe. So it's it's uh, you know, in 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.880 a way, it's more in sort of the Fargo realm 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.800 of of crime cinema, like these are guys who really 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.800 screw up and uh and and and make mistakes that 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:09.760 are just catastrophic for their venture. I also want to 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.800 note that in terms of of boom mechanics, uh, I 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.800 think there are basically two kinds of snake movies. So 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:19.320 you could have like a big snake movie and a 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:23.400 stealth snake movie. So big snake movies would be more 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.040 like anaconda. They focus on the scale of snake in 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.240 order to intimidate, and this is either by having a 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.719 single very large snake or by having a large quantity 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.560 of regular sized snakes. But your stealth snake movies have 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.560 a snake instead that is regular sized, maybe especially deadly, 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.479 but it hides in places you don't expect and pops 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:47.599 out at you. And this is a film in the 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.200 latter camp. This is a stealth snake movie. This is 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.520 a movie about opening up the liquor cabinet and oops, 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.680 there's a black mamba and it bits you on the face. 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.080 Though it would be hilarious to try to imagine doing 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.040 the same premise, is this movie, like a realistic crime 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:06.159 thriller involving a kidnapping plot plus snake with like a 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:11.160 giant snake or a million snakes. Yeah, I mean, I 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:13.600 guess you could do a million snakes. It could be 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.720 like the million snakes are set loose in the house. 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.200 I mean, isn't snakes on a plane essentially that It's 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.040 like there's something else going on, right, It's not just 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.040 snakes on the plane. Isn't there like a hostage scenario 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.800 or something? Can I confess something? I've never seen all 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:31.600 of Snakes on a plane. I started watching it and 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.640 never finished it. I have to assume there's something else 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.880 going on besides snakes. So yeah, I think there's I 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.400 think there is a perfunctory crime element, like somebody it's 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.920 like a witness in a mob case, or something is 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.840 being transported on a plane. But I would say snakes 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.280 on a plane goes big snake because the issue is 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.760 there are many snakes on the plane. This film, with 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.160 the with the single snake um threat, it reminds me 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:00.679 a lot of the Sherlock Holmes adventure UM the Adventure 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.960 of the Speckled Band, which concerns like a very deadly 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.280 venomous snake that is responsible for a death, and I 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:09.040 wouldn't be surprised if that was ultimately one of the 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.400 inspirations on this story. Well, I think it's got a 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.240 lot of actors who were in Sherlock Holmes movies and 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.560 TV series in Britain. Right, Yeah, Yeah, we have more 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.120 than more than one Sherlock Holmes connection here for sure. 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:23.720 Well let's go ahead and jump right into the trailer here. 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:32.800 Venom the kidnap that became a murder, that became a siege, 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:41.040 that became a death trap. Venom. The fear explodes, trapping 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.960 bath hostages and kidnappers in his grip. The panic spreads, 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.240 sending an entire police force into action. But this is 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.800 a terror unlike anything anyone has ever faced, and when 0:08:51.840 --> 0:09:00.240 it uncoils to strike, your blood will run cold. Venom, 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:13.640 whatever you feel, you will cheer m dude. This is 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:18.400 classic creature feature narration trailer narration. I absolutely love it. 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.960 What does he say? Venom the kidnap that became a murderer, 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:28.280 that became a siege, that became a death trap venom. Yeah, 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:29.640 they do a really good job to sell on this 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.640 new in that trailer. Uh, huh and uh. What he 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:34.600 also says this line? I kept thinking about it was like, 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.160 what does it mean? He says, whatever you feel you 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.240 will fear. Does that mean that once you start thinking 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.800 about snakes, like anytime something touches your body, I don't know, 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.440 you brush against the door frame as you're walking through it, 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.559 or I don't know, like a leaf falls on your shoulder, 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.120 You're always going to think it's a snake. I guess 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:57.840 so if we're being generous, I guess that that's maybe 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.600 what the ad copy here is trying to say. What what 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:04.200 what else would it mean? That's a weird line. Whatever 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.439 you feel you will fear? I don't know. It doesn't 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.040 really make much sense within the context of the film, 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:15.040 like yeah, I feel happy. Oh no, maybe it was 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:19.040 the director of the The actors they just said like 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.280 they're like, well, what's my character, what's my motivation? And 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.600 the director says, I don't know, whatever you feel you'll fear. Uh, 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.760 And they're like okay, because it does seem like, for 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.559 the most part, a lot of these actors were just 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.199 kind of turned loose to just do their their thing 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:36.040 with the character. Uh. And there's not really necessarily a 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.920 great sense of who the underlying character is supposed to be. 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.200 Do you remember how did you come across this movie? What? What? 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.760 What's the origin story here? Um? I have a couple 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.320 of different Blu rays of just trailers from like the 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.560 seventies and eighties, and I was watching a compilation and 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.160 this one popped up and I was like, oh, now 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.120 this this looks interesting. I suspected that because this is 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.360 very much one. If you see the trailer, you're like, yep, okay, 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:05.760 I gotta see that one. Well, let's jump right in 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:09.720 and talk about the various humans and the snakes involved 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:13.920 in this film. So the director is Piers Haggard born 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:18.360 nineteen thirty nine. Interestingly enough, Toby Hooper was going to 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.240 direct this picture originally, and I think may have been 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:23.000 working on it a little bit, but then he had 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.080 to bow out for some reason, and I think they're 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:29.360 varying accounts as to why. Uh. And then enters Haggard here, 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.080 who had previously directed the one British horror film The 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:39.160 Blood on Satan's Claw, a Divorce, the Quartermass Conclusion, also 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.600 the Peter Seller's comedy the Fiendish plot of Dr Fu Manchu, 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.320 which which everyone seemed to Hate in nineteen eighty and 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.520 it's still very much hated today, uh, seemingly with good reason. 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.080 And he also directed various TV episodes. He went on 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.920 to do more TV and potentially interesting looking sci fi 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.680 um uh film TV film titled The Life Force Experiment 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:05.679 in nineteen. Another interesting thing about him is he was 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.920 dialogue assistant on the nineteen sixty six film blow Up, 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.280 so he did the Life Force Experiment and he was 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.160 he came in to direct a movie that Toby Hooper 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:20.120 was going to direct, and Toby Hooper directed Life Force. Right. 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.600 I don't know that there's any connection between Life Force 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:25.960 and the Life Force Experiment, but uh, certainly the names 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.760 are similar. Now, this is an adaptation of a novel. 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:34.360 It's worth stressing. Um. The original novel, Venom was written 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.800 by Alan Schullfield, who lived nineteen thirty one through two 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.320 thousand seventeen, a South African author who I think lived 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:43.839 most of it, may have lived most of his life 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.280 in England. I think he was like, you know, London 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.280 based or something. But this book came out in nineteen 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:51.600 seventy seven and it still seems to be in print. 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:54.920 You can you can go obtain this book and read it. Uh. 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.240 I've never read any of his novels, but he was 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:02.760 quite prolific. He also one horror novel called Cat's Eyes 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.200 under the name Lee Jordan's and it seems like he 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.520 was simply he was reasonably well regarded and often worked 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.280 African history and culture into his works. Um apparently best 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.640 known for his McCrae and Silver novels, which were London 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:21.160 based detective books. Now, the screenplay was written by Robert 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:25.160 Carrington born eight who wrote such films as Wait Until 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.040 Dark and Fear Is the Key, and he was active 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.960 in the sixties, seventies and eighties. All right, let's move 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:36.839 on to the actors. So um, our reptilian humanoid h 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:41.320 in this film is of course Klaus Kinski m who 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.880 lived nine through one. He plays the character Jack mel So. 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.360 This is one of our main trio of criminals. Yes, 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:54.400 I guess he's kind of the mastermind. Um, he's uh, 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:56.920 he's supposed to be. I think we've we've mentioned at 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:01.439 one point that he's a member of the German under Underworld. 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.560 He's like a German Underworld figure and he has of 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:09.439 course flown in to London to uh to mastermind this 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:11.880 sort of. I'm not sure if he's the mastermind or not, 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:13.920 but anyway, he's going to be one of the main 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:17.640 operatives in this kidnapping plot. Uh yeah, I think he's 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:19.440 played as the mastermind because there are a lot of 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:21.960 scenes of him pointing a gun at Oliver Read and 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.720 being like, remember, you know you you don't drink whiskey 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:29.800 until I tell you to, alright. So Kinsky, of course, 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:32.520 the German born actor, perhaps best remembered today for his 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.880 smoldering presence and some of Werner Herzog's best known works 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:41.000 such as Geary, The Wrath of God, woyzeck Um, nos Ferrato, 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:45.120 The Vampire, Fitzgeraldo, and Cobra Verde. He also had a 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:51.000 small but memorable role in Dr Shivago In and accounts 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.160 of anyone who had to work with Kinsky, they tend 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.360 to run evolve around two different things. His raw talent, 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.200 you know that, undeniably like there's something electric in a 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:05.720 Klaus Kinsky performance, but also intense difficulty and displeasure of 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.120 working with him. It seems to be a common theme. 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.800 Um Herzog managed it, but also had a just legendarily 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.840 explosive relationship with Kinsky and at times, uh from from 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.560 you know stuff I've watched documentaries and so forth, it 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:22.400 seems like he was able to get his the best 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:27.160 stuff out of Kinsky by uh by sort of manipulating 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.920 him like, for instance, um, wearing him out with takes. 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:32.800 In the case of a gear a like a Kinsky 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:35.960 has this monologue at the end of it, and Kinsky 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:40.440 thought he needed to rage through it, and Herzog reportedly 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.160 just had him do it over and over again until 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.120 he was just worn out and could only deliver it 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:49.840 at the energy that Herzog wanted. Um. So, uh, you know, 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:54.640 I thought I was an insightful story about about working 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:59.000 with Kinsky. It seems like he was raging a lot. Yes, yes, um, 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.080 certainly behind the scenes. Uh so. Kinsky did a number 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.320 of spaghetti westerns as well, including for a few dollars More, 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.920 as well as various European genre films. He played a 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.960 vampire in Herzog's nineteen seventy nine Nosferatu film, as well 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:17.120 as the nineteen eighty eight film Vampire in Venice. This 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:19.360 was supposed to, I think be a sequel to nos 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:23.960 Ferrato in some respects, but um, Kinski reportedly refused to 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.680 wear any any vampire makeup for it, and so he 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.720 doesn't look like nos Ferrato in it per se. After 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.720 a career of butting heads with various directors, he finally 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:37.760 directed himself in nineteen nine Paganini, which he also wrote, 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.960 and this was his final film. Now a couple of 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:46.280 interesting facts. Um Allegedly, Kinsky turned down the role of 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.280 Major Taught in Raiders of the Lost Arc because he 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.400 hated the script. Uh, and Venom is the picture he 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:57.280 did instead. Oh, both snake centric movies. Yeah. Yeah, And 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.400 of course Ronald Lacey wound up doing the character of 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:03.040 Major Todd, which I think he's so great in it. 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.400 This is the best thing that could have happened. As 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.840 for Kinsky's performance in Venom, here, I'd say he's he 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.120 what we see on the screen is is very good. 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:15.119 He's menacing, he exudes evil very much. Plays to his strengths. 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:17.200 Though there is a scene where he has to fight 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.160 a rubber snake, and let's be honest, that's a tall 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.560 order for any actor. I think his snake wrestling scene 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.520 is is a highlight of the film, especially because it 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.840 turns into a gunfight with a snake. Yes, yeah, a lot. Hap. Yeah, 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.399 that's a it's a it's a great climax. You just 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.080 wouldn't think that if a snake is wrapping around you 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.120 and you're trying to fight it off, the the solution 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.439 you would come to is trying to shoot the snake 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:46.080 in the head with the pistol. Right, Yeah, it's it's 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.440 a wonderful scene, though, I'm I think Herzog could have 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.040 gotten a better, better take out of him. He was 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.359 just like warn him down until he got the right energy. Okay, 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:58.360 So Kinsky is playing our our like lead reptilian criminal 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.120 in this, but then we've also got a a more 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.200 brutal criminal, right that is Dave, the chauffeur played by 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:11.879 Oliver Read. Oliver re lived through English actor with piercing eyes. 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.320 Really his as far as like eyes first acting goes um. 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:18.760 Read was a master of this. You know, he's just 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.920 setting there smoldering and looking at you with murder eyes. 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:24.760 Oh he uses the murder eyes in this. Part of 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.880 the problem though, is like there's there's really not any 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.560 surprise so as the plot has revealed because we first 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.960 see all of a Read, I don't know, thirty seconds 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.400 into the film, just acting in his capacity as a chauffeur, 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.840 and he already looks like he is not just getting 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.439 ready to do murders, but has already done them. He 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:45.719 looks like he just came back in a hurry from 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:50.920 doing murders. Yes, absolutely, Um. He always had a knack 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.399 for playing brute, macho characters. UH and of course he 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.120 increasingly earned a reputation for hell raising, drinking, and being 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.880 difficult to work with. He had his first big leading 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.159 role in the Hammer film Um The Curse of the 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:08.000 Werewolf from Terence Fisher from UH came out in ninety one, 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.439 and he landed some huge roles in such films as 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.000 nineteen sixty eight Oliver and which he plays the villain 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:17.200 Bill Sykes. He played Athos and Three Musketeers in seventy 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.200 three and its sequel in seventy four, and he continued 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:22.159 to do a lot of villain roles and roles in 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.800 horror films. He worked with Ken Russell several times, including 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.640 Women in Love and of course The Devil's in which 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:32.960 he really delivers a memorable performance. He played the god 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:36.159 Vulcan and Terry Gilliams The Adventures of Baron Muchausen and 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.960 other notable roles at least to me include Disney's Condor 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:44.960 Man in one, in which he plays this the villain 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:50.760 in this ridiculous kind of superhero James Bond kind of film. Uh, 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.440 he plays the I guess he's the hero, and David 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.520 Cronenberg's The Brood is not the hero. He's not the hero. 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.000 I guess I've forgotten most of that film. He's the villain. 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.439 Is a manipulating psychiatrist sort of. Yeah. He plays an 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:10.119 unorthodox psychiatrist who has like a retreat where he leads 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:15.080 people through these strange exercises and gets them to um 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:18.080 uh to sort of like turn their their their psychic 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:23.280 pain and trauma into like physical external manifestations. So like, 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:26.560 I don't know, he leads people through these exercises where 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:28.840 like their pain is turned into in the case of 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:32.520 one character, like a physical tumor, but in the case 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.680 of other characters like like literal like little like beings 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:39.800 or monsters that run around. The Brood is a gross movie. 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.800 Before warned if you're gonna if you're gonna venture there. Yeah, 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:45.119 Samantha Egger is in that and I have to I 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:47.040 have to look it up. Let's see what Oliver Reads 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:51.359 character's name. What was his weird cronenbergie and character Dr 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.840 hal Raglan not not that weird as far as cronenberg 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:57.879 names go. Yeah, my memory is just that he's like 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.800 a weird, sort of unethical orthodox psychiatrist who's doing a 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:06.280 combination of something like you know, like scientology auditing at 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:11.480 the alongside, like creating tulpas and stuff. Okay, it's been 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:13.359 been a while, so I've seen that one. Oh, we 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.760 should also mention. Oliver Read was, of course in Ridley 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.040 Scott's Gladiator in two thousand and This was his final film. 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:22.399 He died during the filming of it in Malta, I believe. 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:25.920 Now here's the fun fact. Venom is not the only 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:29.440 Oliver Read snake movie. He also appeared in nine three 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:33.800 Spasms alongside Peter Fonda. And this one Joe is a 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:39.680 giant snake movie. Okay, big snake instead of stealth snake. Yeah, 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:42.639 so um that you can look up. Various stories about 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:46.359 the production of Venom. Basically, Read and Kinsky famously did 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.640 not get along on the film, reportedly hated each other, 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:55.280 and Read allegedly kept intentionally setting Kinsky off. Um. Which 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.080 sounds absolutely dreadful. You know, you already have Kinsky, who 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:02.320 is you know, has a reputation for being Satan, Yes, Satan, 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:04.960 and then you have and then you have Oliver Read 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:09.199 provoking Satan and like, uh, pranking Satan and you know, 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:11.080 just to get a rial out of him. So yeah, 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:14.280 this sounds absolutely dreadful for everybody else in the production. 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:17.400 That being said, much like we said with Kinsky Read, 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:19.239 I feel like he's good in this. I don't know, 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:22.920 I feel like at times maybe they weren't sure exactly 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:25.040 who this character was supposed to be. Sometimes he just 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:28.320 seems to be like loud and abusive because he needed 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.560 to do something in the scene. Um. But but also 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:35.560 I guess the better parts of the performance they drive 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.359 home that this is a guy who yes, has signed 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:40.680 on to be part of a kidnapping plot, but also 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:44.280 has misgivings about it. And there are times where you 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.879 see like, maybe, um, his gentler nature shine through just 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:50.760 a little bit, as if to give you hope that 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:55.120 he might turn good guy and strangle Kloskinski's character Jock 0:22:55.200 --> 0:22:57.720 mel Uh, though of course that doesn't come to pass. 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:00.879 He remains a bad guy throughout, never really has the 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:04.240 face turn. Uh. Mainly you get the idea that the 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:07.560 moments where he's showing misgivings are actually just like when 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:09.560 it would it would be bad to go to prison. 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:12.800 I don't want that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he doesn't have 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:15.880 a true change of heart. I will say this as well, though, 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:20.080 um Reid has a wonderful mustache in this film. Often 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:23.000 often he had wonderful mustaches and uh, and this is 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:34.280 no exception. But actually the star power in the movie 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:37.359 doesn't really stop there with with the criminals, because this 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:40.000