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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema Rewind. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 1: This is gonna be an episode that published 4-23-2021, so

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Speaker 1: much older. It is our silent era double feature in

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Speaker 1: which we discuss both the 1921 film, The Mechanical Man,

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Speaker 1: and the 1922 film, Cinderella. Now, if you enjoy revisiting

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Speaker 1: this episode or listening to it for the first time,

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Speaker 1: and you're like, hey, why don't they do more silent

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Speaker 1: era films? Why don't they do more 1920s movies on

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Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema? Well, if that is what you would like,

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Speaker 1: write in and let us know, because certainly we could

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Speaker 1: discuss Caligari or Nosferatu or Metropolis or something a little

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Speaker 1: more obscure. We just, for various reasons, haven't returned to

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Speaker 1: the 1920s of late. But yeah, we're game for whatever

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Speaker 1: if you were interested in it. So let's go ahead

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Speaker 1: and jump right into that episode.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And I'm Joe McCormick, and today's going to be the

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Speaker 3: first time on this show that we are going to

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Speaker 3: be looking at films of the silent era. Rob and

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Speaker 3: I were talking about this, and we think maybe this

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Speaker 3: will be a recurring episode type where we look at

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Speaker 3: a couple of short films that from the silent era,

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Speaker 3: because most films of this time are not very long.

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Speaker 3: They maybe would be hard to talk about for an

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Speaker 3: entire episode on their own. So we're doing a double

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Speaker 3: feature today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Boy, already there's a lot to unpack though, because yes,

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Speaker 1: it's true. There are a lot of short silent films,

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Speaker 1: but there are also a fair number. When I was

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Speaker 1: looking around at possibilities for today, some of them are

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Speaker 1: longer than you'd expect them to be. And add to that,

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Speaker 1: that they are also silent films. which if, you know,

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Speaker 1: unless you're dealing with very certain high standard silent films,

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Speaker 1: you know, true classics of the time period, it could

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Speaker 1: feel a lot longer than it actually is, you know?

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Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, totally. I mean, I was thinking about this

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Speaker 3: before we got started. I was thinking about that quote

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Speaker 3: from Videodrome where Professor Brian Oblivion is talking about television

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Speaker 3: and he says, The television screen is the retina of

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Speaker 3: the mind's eye. Therefore, the television screen is part of

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Speaker 3: the physical structure of the brain. Therefore, whatever appears on

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Speaker 3: the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who

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Speaker 3: watch it. Therefore, television is reality, and reality is less

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Speaker 3: than television. Now that's turned up a little bit past

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Speaker 3: the 10 marker to get it into the weirdness of

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Speaker 3: Cronenberg territory. But essentially, there's a nugget of truth in that.

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Speaker 3: And what I mean by that is that the films

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Speaker 3: of the silent era have generally not yet breached the

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Speaker 3: raw experience threshold. They're works of art that have to

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Speaker 3: be appreciated across a kind of mental distance and with

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Speaker 3: effortful dedication of attention, more like a painting or a

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Speaker 3: work of fiction in text, like reading a book, you know.

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Speaker 3: It takes a certain amount of sustained, effortful attention to

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Speaker 3: read a story. But at a certain level of development,

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Speaker 3: the techniques used in film and television, especially once you

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Speaker 3: introduce synchronized sound and really good film editing techniques and

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Speaker 3: good acting and all that, at a certain point they

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Speaker 3: become so well honed that no effortful dedication of attention

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Speaker 3: is required and no distance must be crossed. Like the

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Speaker 3: films of today are generally automatically engrossing, even if they're

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Speaker 3: not good. As soon as you're aware of them, they're

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Speaker 3: simply happening in your mind.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point. So it's in a way

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Speaker 1: interacting with a silent film or even a challenging piece

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Speaker 1: of stationary art. It's like one of those scenes in

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Speaker 1: Cronenberg's Scanners. where you're staring intently at another thing and

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Speaker 1: your brain is beginning to like boil and swell in

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Speaker 1: your head as you concentrate and force yourself to merge

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Speaker 1: your consciousness with the art before you?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, totally. And so while I would say I really

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Speaker 3: enjoy a lot of silent films, but for me, they

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Speaker 3: are not as easy, not as automatic, not as magical

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Speaker 3: as the films of the modern era are. that are

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Speaker 3: automatically engrossing like that. They're more like the way I

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Speaker 3: have to appreciate written fiction as text, you know, that

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Speaker 3: there's something that can be very rewarding to pay close

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Speaker 3: attention to, but it takes work.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And, you know, when you mention films of the

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Speaker 1: modern era, it is worth noting just how quickly the

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Speaker 1: technology and the craft evolved, because I think both of

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Speaker 1: our films that we're going to focus on at length

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Speaker 1: today are from the 1920s. And as an experiment, I

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Speaker 1: looked at the year 1925, and there's a silent film

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Speaker 1: titled The Lost World from that year, based on the

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Speaker 1: story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with dinosaurs in it. So,

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Speaker 1: of course, it has pioneering stop-motion dino animation in it

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Speaker 1: that looks really cool, but it is still a silent film.

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Speaker 1: There's still all these barriers to being able to properly

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Speaker 1: immerse yourself in it. You fast forward just one decade

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Speaker 1: and you have 1935, that's the year Mad Love came out,

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Speaker 1: which despite very much being an older film, you can

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Speaker 1: watch it and you become immersed in it and you're

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Speaker 1: feeling the characters and you feel like you're a part

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Speaker 1: of this world. And it illustrates just how far it

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Speaker 1: came in those 10 years, just how much the craft

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Speaker 1: and the technology changed, enabling you to tell different types

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Speaker 1: of stories and bring the viewer closer, you know, truly

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Speaker 1: creating this Videodrome situation that you described earlier.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I would say there are a couple of

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Speaker 3: things there. I mean, I would say, like you're pointing out,

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Speaker 3: one of the main technological differences is synchronized sound. I mean,

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Speaker 3: that's a game changer on its own. But on top

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Speaker 3: of that, I'd say with Mad Love, you have a

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Speaker 3: really exceptional example from its era as well. Yeah. The

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Speaker 3: exceptional photographic techniques of Karl Freund, you know, behind the camera.

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Speaker 3: You've got the exceptional charisma of the actors on screen.

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Speaker 3: Of course, the incomparable Peter Lorre. Then you have the

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Speaker 3: hyper-nervous energy of Colin Clive in it. And so all

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Speaker 3: of that is true. But yeah, as time goes on,

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Speaker 3: it's funny how much the techniques just like get developed

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Speaker 3: and become sort of self-referencing and industrial automatic cliches, right?

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Speaker 3: where even the bad movies of today are typically very

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Speaker 3: engrossing automatically. Like, if one's playing in the room, you

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Speaker 3: so easily just start watching it, and then it's just

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Speaker 3: in your brain. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, and it is worth— no, you mentioned Karl Frohn, the

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Speaker 1: director of Mad Love. He, of course, was cinematographer on

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Speaker 1: 1927's silent masterpiece Metropolis. So— The great work that would

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Speaker 1: come with the talkies, I mean, it very much emerges

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Speaker 1: from the silent era. The silent era is the period

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Speaker 1: in which the tools were coming online. The sort of

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Speaker 1: substructure of our cinematic legacy was being built.

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Speaker 3: That's a very good point. And I would say for me,

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Speaker 3: Metropolis is probably the most engrossing silent film I've ever seen.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one of the all-time greats. We have to

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Speaker 1: mention Nosferatu. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, A Trip to

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Speaker 1: the Moon. And I believe we talked about A Trip

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Speaker 1: to the Moon a little bit in our Invention series

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Speaker 1: on filmmaking and photography, where we discussed more of the

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Speaker 1: technological side of the silent film era.

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Speaker 3: Oh, that's a very good point. If you want to

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Speaker 3: get some background before the rest of this episode, you

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Speaker 3: could pause here, go listen to our entire series on

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Speaker 3: the Invention podcast that we did. I think we did

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Speaker 3: one that started with the history of photography, beginning with

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Speaker 3: the camera.

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Speaker 1: And Oh, I think we started with the camera obscura.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, even going back to there, but then going

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Speaker 3: into photography and then going into motion pictures. And so

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Speaker 3: if you want more context, probably a lot of things

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Speaker 3: that at this point I don't even remember that we

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Speaker 3: talked about. So I may have lost some really good context.

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Speaker 3: So if you want, go listen to that and then

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Speaker 3: come back and listen to the rest of this. But

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Speaker 3: so today we are going to be talking about a

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Speaker 3: couple of silent films. I think, are they both from

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Speaker 3: the early 20s? Mine's from 1922. Is yours from 21?

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Speaker 1: It is indeed from 1921. Yes.

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Speaker 3: Okay.

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Speaker 1: However, we are not doing any of the classics we

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Speaker 1: discussed earlier. I think both of these are harder to

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Speaker 1: come by. They're maybe more obscure. So, you know, I

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Speaker 1: think they're both very fun choices. And in a way,

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Speaker 1: they're choices that circumvent your expectations of the silent era,

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Speaker 1: unless you, of course, are already just versed in the

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Speaker 1: silent era and, you know, know a lot of the

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Speaker 1: history and the culture of what was going on at

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Speaker 1: the time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: All right, Joe, do you want to go first and

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Speaker 1: roll right into your selection?

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Speaker 3: Sure, I'll go first. The film I selected for this

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Speaker 3: episode is an early animated film by a German filmmaker

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Speaker 3: named Lotte Reiniger. And it is the 1922 short film Cinderella.

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Speaker 3: The German title is Aschenpudel. Now, my main source of

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Speaker 3: biographical information about Reiniger comes from the 2019 New York

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Speaker 3: Times retrospective by Debbie Lockwood, which is part of a

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Speaker 3: series called Overlooked, which seems to be sort of post

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Speaker 3: hoc obituaries for remarkable people who originally didn't get obituaries

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Speaker 3: in the times when they passed away. So Lotta Reiniger

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Speaker 3: was born Charlotte Reiniger. I think Lotta is a German

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Speaker 3: shortening of the name Charlotte. She was born on June 2nd,

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Speaker 3: 1899 to Carl and Eleanor Reiniger and lived in Berlin.

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Speaker 3: And when she was in school, she learned about something

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Speaker 3: called Scherenschnitte. which means scissor cuts in German. And this

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Speaker 3: was similar to a Chinese art form that dated back

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Speaker 3: hundreds of years, but it had become popular in German

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Speaker 3: art at the time, I think in Swiss art too.

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Speaker 3: And essentially it consisted of making art by cutting silhouette

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Speaker 3: images out of paper and with fine shears. But Lotta

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Speaker 3: Reiniger enjoyed this art form when she was young, cutting

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Speaker 3: out silhouettes of people she knew, not just to mount

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Speaker 3: them on the wall or press them in an album,

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Speaker 3: but she would make them move and act out scenes

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Speaker 3: in a homemade shadow theater to do scenes from the

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Speaker 3: plays of Shakespeare. And as she got older, she became

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Speaker 3: interested in the, at this point, blossoming art form of film.

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Speaker 3: originally thinking of becoming an actress, but she soon discovered

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Speaker 3: the possibilities of animation as an art form that's unique

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Speaker 3: to film. And of course, this would have been still

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Speaker 3: during the silent era. And she ended up studying at

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Speaker 3: the Max Reinhardt School of Acting under the German filmmaker

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Speaker 3: Paul Wegener, where she showed off her talent for silhouette cutting,

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Speaker 3: cutting out these figures in paper. And then to read

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Speaker 3: from Debbie Lockwood's article, quote, Wegener soon enlisted her to

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Speaker 3: help with his 1918 film, The Pied Piper of Hamelin,

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Speaker 3: an adaptation of the folk legend about a man who's

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Speaker 3: hired to play his magic flute to lure away rats

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Speaker 3: from a German town. When the town refuses to pay

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Speaker 3: him for his services, the piper plays another tune to

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Speaker 3: hypnotize the children and lead them out of the town,

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Speaker 3: never to be seen again. Wegner had Reiniger help him

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Speaker 3: animate wooden puppet rats for the film. And after this,

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Speaker 3: she had the bug. She wanted to make films for

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Speaker 3: a living. So she later met and married an art

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Speaker 3: historian named Carl Koch, who she would collaborate with on

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Speaker 3: a number of her films. And her career would go

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Speaker 3: on at this point to span 60 years, including over

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Speaker 3: 70 films animated by this silhouette cutout technique, where she

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Speaker 3: would cut figures out of paper with scissors and then

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Speaker 3: film them moving on a transparent surface to create the

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Speaker 3: action that you see on the screen.

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Speaker 1: Now, Paul Wegener, who you mentioned earlier, for anyone out

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Speaker 1: there who's just wondering who that is, he was one

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Speaker 1: of the directors and writers on the 1915 film, The Golem.

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Speaker 1: You've probably seen images of this, the clay golem figure

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Speaker 1: in black and white, very haunting. And he also played

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Speaker 1: the golem.

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Speaker 3: Yes, that is correct. So in 1919, Lotta Reiniger and

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Speaker 3: Carl Koch together created a silhouette animated short film called

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Speaker 3: The Ornament of the Heart in Love, which is, in

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Speaker 3: the words of Debbie Lockwood here, about two lovers, both

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Speaker 3: ballet dancers, and a morphing ornament between them that represents

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Speaker 3: their emotions.

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Speaker 1: Now, one thing I really love about that description is

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Speaker 1: that that description sounds like it could easily describe a

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Speaker 1: current or upcoming Pixar short. You know, an area of animation,

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Speaker 1: of mainstream animation, where we often think of, like, this

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Speaker 1: is where the really inventive ideas and formats are going

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Speaker 1: to be explored, you know? And we think of it

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Speaker 1: as kind of a— at times we can think of it

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Speaker 1: as a place that we can only come to after,

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Speaker 1: you know, a century of animation and filmmaking. But here

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Speaker 1: we are in 1919, and there's just as much ingenuity

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Speaker 1: and creativity here. in using different formats to tell a

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Speaker 1: story with visuals.

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Speaker 3: That's a very good point.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Early on, there was a lot of elasticity about what

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Speaker 3: a film could be, what should be the contents of

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Speaker 3: a film.

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Speaker 1: So while today it's more like, what can we break

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Speaker 1: to create something new? Like this is an age where

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Speaker 1: a lot of stuff was unformed. You know, it was

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Speaker 1: the amorphous age of filmmaking. Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 3: So her most famous film is the 1926 silent movie

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Speaker 3: The Adventures of Prince Ahmed, which is an adaptation of

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Speaker 3: the Arabic classic One Thousand and One Nights, which was

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Speaker 3: one of the first feature-length animated films in history. And

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Speaker 3: to quote from Lockwood here, describing her technological and creative process, quote,

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Speaker 3: She and her crew used just over 100,000 in the film,

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Speaker 3: which ran for an hour and 21 minutes, each second

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Speaker 3: requiring 24 frames. It took three years to complete, and

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Speaker 3: premiered in Volksbühne, or People's Theater in Berlin, when Reininger

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Speaker 3: was 27. The film showcased the fantastical potential of animation.

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Speaker 3: A prince defeated an army of demons to win over

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Speaker 3: a princess. Birds battled witches and sorcerers. horses flew. The

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Speaker 3: French film director Jean Renoir saw Prince Ahmed on its

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Speaker 3: opening night in Paris and later recalled that he wanted

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Speaker 3: to tell her, you have fairy hands. Reiniger designed a

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Speaker 3: complex process to make her films. She cut each limb

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Speaker 3: of each figure out of black cardboard and thin lead,

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Speaker 3: then joined them together with wire hinges. For research, she

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Speaker 3: spent hours at the Zoo Berlin watching how the animals moved.

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Speaker 3: And then I was reading later in this article that

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Speaker 3: she also pioneered new technology for creating animated films, including

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Speaker 3: a device called a tricktish, or trick table. And this

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Speaker 3: involved a camera that would be hanging in the air,

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Speaker 3: facing down onto a table made of layers of glass,

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Speaker 3: which would form the stage for the silhouette cutouts to

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Speaker 3: play upon. and then you would have a bright light

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Speaker 3: underneath that would cause the wire hinges used at the

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Speaker 3: joints of these figures to disappear. And it was basically

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Speaker 3: stop-motion animation. They would take a photo of a scene

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Speaker 3: that she had set out, and then she would advance

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Speaker 3: the figures slightly in their movement to advance the action,

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Speaker 3: and then take a photo again, building the film frame

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Speaker 3: by frame. Now, as with any German filmmaker working in

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Speaker 3: the first half of the 20th century, you end up wondering, okay,

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Speaker 3: did they get did they end up within the Hitler machine, right?

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Speaker 3: Because of course, Nazi Germany was big on using film

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Speaker 3: as propaganda. So I was reading about this and it

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Speaker 3: seems like after Hitler came to power, Lotte and Karl

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Speaker 3: left Germany and tried to make a life in other

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Speaker 3: countries like France and Italy and England. Apparently they were

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Speaker 3: politically opposed to Hitler, but they could not get visas

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Speaker 3: or they couldn't get the visas they wanted to stay

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Speaker 3: permanently in the other countries they went to. So it

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Speaker 3: seems like they were essentially taking long vacations in other

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Speaker 3: countries where they were working, and then having to come

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Speaker 3: back and then leave again. They were eventually forced to

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Speaker 3: move back to Berlin in 1944, apparently to take care

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Speaker 3: of Lotte's mother, who was very sick. And I can

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Speaker 3: only find evidence that she worked on one film in

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Speaker 3: this period called The Golden Goose, which I have seen

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Speaker 3: described as a propaganda film, but I can't find much

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Speaker 3: about it, so I don't know. But together they moved

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Speaker 3: to England in 1948, and she made some children's films

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Speaker 3: for the BBC. And she passed away on June 19, 1981,

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Speaker 3: at the age of 82. So the film that we're

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Speaker 3: going to be looking at today is from her early period,

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Speaker 3: from 1922. And it is an adaptation of the Cinderella folktale.

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Speaker 3: I was reading about this in Lockwood's article where apparently

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Speaker 3: the Cinderella adaptation was reviewed by the New York Times

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Speaker 3: in 1928, where the author Charles Morgan wrote, the small

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Speaker 3: black shapes laugh at you from a world of their

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Speaker 3: own into which naturalism makes no laborious entry. And I

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Speaker 3: really like phrasing it like that because I think this

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Speaker 3: little animated film is wonderful. And, uh, and I see

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Speaker 3: what he meant by that with, uh, naturalism makes no

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Speaker 3: laborious entry. Something about the animation style feels so free.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes. This is a beautiful picture. And for anybody

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Speaker 1: who wants to see the two films that we're discussing here,

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Speaker 1: I'll make sure that I include links to them or

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Speaker 1: embedded versions of them on the blog post that accompanies

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Speaker 1: this episode at samudamusic.com. But yeah, the style of this

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Speaker 1: is so divorced from from reality. It just comes out of,

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Speaker 1: it's like, it's a reality that is passed from fairytale

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Speaker 1: book to fairytale book, you know? There's a quote that

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Speaker 1: you included in our notes for this episode from A.O. Scott,

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Speaker 1: where he describes, quote, dreamy images that seem to tap

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Speaker 1: right into the collective unconscious that suggest both an antidote

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Speaker 1: to Disney and a precursor to Tim Burton. And it's

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Speaker 1: interesting that Scott mentioned Disney here because In 1922, Disney,

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Speaker 1: Walt Disney, the animator, also put out a Cinderella animated short.

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Speaker 1: But it is very much connected to the real world.

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Speaker 1: Like you see, I didn't even watch it in its entirety.

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Speaker 1: I just kind of flipped around and got a sense

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Speaker 1: of it. But like there are scenes of like flapper culture,

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Speaker 1: you know, and stuff like that. And it like it's very.

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Speaker 1: it's hitched to the real world of the time. Whereas, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this one is, it seems to exist in an artistic

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Speaker 1: unreality that is so much more engrossing. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So it is the story of Cinderella. The story element

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Speaker 3: is fairly straightforward, but it's the animation that really sings here.

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Speaker 3: It is an animation based on these silhouettes, these cutout,

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Speaker 3: these paper cutout figure silhouettes and stop motion animation. And

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Speaker 3: as for the plot content, It is decidedly more in

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Speaker 3: the Brothers Grimm direction than the sanitized versions that would

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Speaker 3: come later, like in the full length animated Cinderella by Disney.

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Speaker 3: And so in that version, and so that means That

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Speaker 3: in this version, it is a magic tree instead of

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Speaker 3: a fairy godmother, a creepy magic tree on a hill

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Speaker 3: in a cemetery.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's as if nature itself is the force that

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Speaker 1: answers her call as opposed to any particular humanized force.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. You also get that Cinderella's wicked stepsister absolutely does

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Speaker 3: chop off part of her own foot in order to

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Speaker 3: fit into the slipper and get with the prince.

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Speaker 1: Oh, yes.

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Speaker 3: But the slipper fills up with blood and it doesn't work.

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Speaker 3: And then there's a really funny scene where the other

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Speaker 3: sister tries, she's about to chop off her own foot

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Speaker 3: to fit in the slipper. And the prince is just like, no, no.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is such a fun silent film. Like when

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Speaker 1: I told my family, I'm like, hey, guys, we're going

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Speaker 1: to sit down and watch a silent film together. And

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Speaker 1: the boy didn't really even know what I meant by

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Speaker 1: that because he doesn't have much exposure to silent films.

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Speaker 1: My wife was hesitant. But then I'm like, don't worry.

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Speaker 1: It's animated and it's Cinderella. And it's really delightful. It

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Speaker 1: has kind of a shadow puppetry look to it. And

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Speaker 1: so they're like, OK. And we sat down. We watched it.

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Speaker 1: The bits of humor generated laughter from all of us.

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Speaker 1: The toe cutting made us all scream out loud, you know,

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Speaker 1: in a fun way because it's, you know, the style

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Speaker 1: divorces it enough from reality that you're not legitimately horrified.

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Speaker 1: But you're like, ah, don't do that. So, yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: just tremendous fun.

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Speaker 3: Now, one choice about this movie that I found very

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Speaker 3: interesting was the choice to include the animation method as

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Speaker 3: part of the narrative. So I don't know, Rob, did

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Speaker 3: the version you watched have title cards or what language

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Speaker 3: were the title cards in if it did?

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Speaker 1: Oh, well, the version I watched, it did have some

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Speaker 1: title cards, but I believe they were, no, they were

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Speaker 1: in English. Maybe I just didn't read them. Maybe I

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Speaker 1: was just getting set up at the time. But For

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Speaker 1: the most part, yeah, it's just a visual presentation. And

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Speaker 1: I guess it helps to know the story. So as

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Speaker 1: we watched it, we were kind of taking it apart

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Speaker 1: a little bit. We're like, oh, yeah, I guess she's

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Speaker 1: doing this now. Oh, yes, this must be instead of

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Speaker 1: a fairy godmother, it's this tree. Oh, and now the

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Speaker 1: birds are involved, that sort of thing.

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Speaker 3: Well, I meant the intertitle cards, yeah, between the action.

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Speaker 1: Well, you know, now that you mention it, though, Joe.

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Speaker 1: The version that I watched with my family was on Vimeo.

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Speaker 3: Okay.

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Speaker 1: And I don't think that one had title cards in it.

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Speaker 1: I think that was just the animation. But I've been

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Speaker 1: playing the YouTube version in the corner of my screen

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Speaker 1: as we record here. And, yeah, I'm getting some dialogue

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Speaker 1: that was not present in the version we screened.

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Speaker 2: Yes.

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Speaker 3: So at the beginning of the version, there are different versions.

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Speaker 3: Different ones have different title cards, inner titles. And the

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Speaker 3: version that I was watching had the English titles that begin–

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Speaker 3: What Cinderella suffered from the two sisters and her stepmother,

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Speaker 3: how she grew into a fairy princess here is seen

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Speaker 3: told by a pair of scissors on a screen. So

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Speaker 3: they're like, including the fact that this is made by

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Speaker 3: scissors and it's in the animation too. It begins with

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Speaker 3: black silhouettes on a blue background of a small pair

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Speaker 3: of scissors kicking around in the void, almost like a

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Speaker 3: frog paddling in the water. And then a pair of

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Speaker 3: hands comes in and they chase the scissors around. they

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Speaker 3: catch them and then they use them to cut a

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Speaker 3: figure out of a piece of paper. And that figure

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Speaker 3: will be our heroine, Cinderella, which I thought was a

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Speaker 3: very interesting choice. One totally unrelated side note about the intertitles.

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Speaker 3: If you're watching this with kids, you might want to

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Speaker 3: check the version you're watching first, because one of the

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Speaker 3: intertitles in one of the ones I saw had a

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Speaker 3: word in it that used to have a different connotation.

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Speaker 3: Now it has, now it is a pejorative term used

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Speaker 3: for women, but it, you know, I think was previously

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Speaker 3: a pejorative term used for women, but with different connotations.

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Speaker 1: Yes. Fortunately, that was not in the version that I

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Speaker 1: watched with my family. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So check which version if you're going to show it

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Speaker 3: to kids.

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Speaker 1: But I do love the visual opening of watching the

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Speaker 1: hands cut out a character with the scissors. It reminds

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Speaker 1: me of some of the differences you see in puppetry where,

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Speaker 1: you know, sometimes it's about hiding the fact that it's puppetry,

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Speaker 1: hiding the puppeteer. and letting the figures take on a

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Speaker 1: life for themselves. Other times you have very visual puppeteers,

430
00:24:15,410 --> 00:24:18,909
Speaker 1: and part of it is about acknowledging the role that

431
00:24:18,950 --> 00:24:22,129
Speaker 1: the puppeteer plays in bringing this to life, and it

432
00:24:22,190 --> 00:24:24,690
Speaker 1: not mattering that you can see that it is not real.

433
00:24:24,770 --> 00:24:26,690
Speaker 1: And it's in the story, you know you're not looking

434
00:24:26,710 --> 00:24:31,149
Speaker 1: at real people. You're looking at a very stylized form

435
00:24:31,170 --> 00:24:34,530
Speaker 1: of paper cutting and then animation, but that's part of

436
00:24:34,550 --> 00:24:34,970
Speaker 1: the magic.

437
00:24:35,430 --> 00:24:39,470
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally. And it's very creepy at the beginning, actually,

438
00:24:39,510 --> 00:24:42,210
Speaker 3: with the scissors and the figure. Because when the hands

439
00:24:42,310 --> 00:24:45,619
Speaker 3: finish their work, there's this moment where the figure of

440
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 3: Cinderella is created. And then she's posed dangling with the

441
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:54,639
Speaker 3: scissors attached to her head and splayed open. And it

442
00:24:54,740 --> 00:24:58,450
Speaker 3: resembles a kind of torture device or something. I don't know.

443
00:24:58,930 --> 00:25:01,370
Speaker 1: I didn't get that so much. I thought it was more...

444
00:25:01,890 --> 00:25:04,290
Speaker 1: she was manipulating it with the scissors. So it's just

445
00:25:04,330 --> 00:25:06,909
Speaker 1: the artist and her tools. Now I do want to,

446
00:25:07,070 --> 00:25:10,540
Speaker 1: this is a great place to discuss this though. The creepiness,

447
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:15,359
Speaker 1: quote unquote, of this short film. The version that you

448
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 1: sent me had some added music. Music is a whole

449
00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:23,240
Speaker 1: separate issue in silent film because sometimes you have specific

450
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,340
Speaker 1: works that are passed down where we can look at

451
00:25:25,359 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: the sheet music and reproduce it. Other times we don't

452
00:25:28,020 --> 00:25:31,139
Speaker 1: know what music, if any, was associated with it. particular

453
00:25:31,260 --> 00:25:35,139
Speaker 1: silent film. A lot of times music from that era

454
00:25:35,460 --> 00:25:39,699
Speaker 1: can sound herky-jerky and kind of annoying. And you can,

455
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:42,149
Speaker 1: of course, always play your own music on top. And

456
00:25:42,170 --> 00:25:45,770
Speaker 1: there have been numerous cases where someone has composed new music,

457
00:25:46,510 --> 00:25:48,830
Speaker 1: you know, be it rock or electronic or what have you,

458
00:25:49,190 --> 00:25:53,470
Speaker 1: for classic silent films. So the version you initially sent

459
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:56,190
Speaker 1: me had some added music. I don't know if it

460
00:25:56,250 --> 00:25:58,669
Speaker 1: was composed by him for this or someone who just

461
00:25:58,730 --> 00:26:01,450
Speaker 1: picked a track by them, but it has music by Vangelis,

462
00:26:02,290 --> 00:26:04,990
Speaker 1: the composer, of course, probably most famous for his work

463
00:26:05,030 --> 00:26:09,430
Speaker 1: on Blade Runner. And I love Vangelis, but it's kind

464
00:26:09,450 --> 00:26:12,770
Speaker 1: of creepy music. And it was kind of leading to

465
00:26:12,810 --> 00:26:15,430
Speaker 1: a creepy interpretation of what I was seeing. So just

466
00:26:15,470 --> 00:26:18,810
Speaker 1: a minute or two into it, we switched to some

467
00:26:18,830 --> 00:26:25,570
Speaker 1: more upbeat music to play over it. We I found

468
00:26:25,609 --> 00:26:29,650
Speaker 1: that lighter tone hit almost immediately and was ultimately more fun.

469
00:26:29,690 --> 00:26:33,010
Speaker 1: But the music that we choose or is chosen for

470
00:26:33,070 --> 00:26:34,910
Speaker 1: us with silent films like this, they can have such

471
00:26:34,950 --> 00:26:37,110
Speaker 1: a huge effect on how we interpret them.

472
00:26:37,390 --> 00:26:40,350
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're exactly right about that. And it's

473
00:26:40,369 --> 00:26:44,330
Speaker 3: funny because the animation has both elements. Like the animation

474
00:26:44,470 --> 00:26:47,750
Speaker 3: is a little bit creepy, but it's also funny. It's

475
00:26:47,810 --> 00:26:50,879
Speaker 3: both at the same time. And so you can easily

476
00:26:51,130 --> 00:26:54,510
Speaker 3: lean more in one direction or the other By adding,

477
00:26:54,770 --> 00:26:56,820
Speaker 3: you know, the right tone in the sound.

478
00:26:57,230 --> 00:26:59,660
Speaker 1: Yeah, because again, it has some laugh out loud moments.

479
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:00,159
Speaker 2: Yeah.

480
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll get to them here in a minute.

481
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:04,379
Speaker 3: So I'm obviously not going to spend a lot of

482
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,919
Speaker 3: time explaining the implied plot. Like, it's Cinderella. You basically

483
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,260
Speaker 3: know the plot. I love the cutouts of the Wicked Stepsisters.

484
00:27:11,500 --> 00:27:14,700
Speaker 3: One is very thin and very tall, and the other

485
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:17,840
Speaker 3: one is very short and stout. Uh, and so we

486
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,219
Speaker 3: see the wicked step sister is being mean. We see

487
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:23,369
Speaker 3: the wicked step mother abusing Cinderella. She's like poking her

488
00:27:23,410 --> 00:27:27,260
Speaker 3: with a cane while Cinderella is cleaning the stairs. And, uh,

489
00:27:27,310 --> 00:27:30,870
Speaker 3: then you get more references to scissors and, and cutting

490
00:27:31,090 --> 00:27:33,730
Speaker 3: intertwined with the plot in the inner titles. So, uh,

491
00:27:34,340 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 3: there's an inner title that says, uh, snip and we

492
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:40,850
Speaker 3: have the King's RSVP. Snip and the magic birds have

493
00:27:40,910 --> 00:27:41,609
Speaker 3: set her free.

494
00:27:41,630 --> 00:27:44,250
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of fun is had with the magic

495
00:27:44,290 --> 00:27:44,970
Speaker 1: birds in this.

496
00:27:45,150 --> 00:27:45,730
Speaker 3: Oh, I love the magic birds.

497
00:27:45,770 --> 00:27:48,230
Speaker 1: Magic birds are perfect for this kind of cutout technique.

498
00:27:48,530 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 3: Yes. And so according to the story, Cinderella cannot go

499
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,409
Speaker 3: to the prince's ball, but she has to help her

500
00:27:55,450 --> 00:27:58,440
Speaker 3: wicked stepsisters get ready to attend. And this is a

501
00:27:58,460 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 3: good comedic scene. She has to comb their hair and

502
00:28:01,100 --> 00:28:04,940
Speaker 3: lace their corsets. For one of their sisters, the very thin,

503
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,629
Speaker 3: very tall one, There's a moment where you see Cinderella

504
00:28:07,770 --> 00:28:12,070
Speaker 3: dumping household objects into her bodice, presumably to fill it out.

505
00:28:12,109 --> 00:28:14,610
Speaker 3: So she's like throwing, I think like pots and pans

506
00:28:14,690 --> 00:28:15,810
Speaker 3: in there. It's very funny.

507
00:28:16,170 --> 00:28:17,990
Speaker 1: Yeah. This is a, this is a lot of fun. Um,

508
00:28:18,910 --> 00:28:20,590
Speaker 1: and you know, another thing worth driving home, you mentioned

509
00:28:20,609 --> 00:28:24,950
Speaker 1: how we didn't really have to, to describe the plot of, uh, of, uh, Cinderella.

510
00:28:25,210 --> 00:28:26,760
Speaker 1: One of the reasons is that like, this is pretty

511
00:28:26,780 --> 00:28:30,680
Speaker 1: much a universal story. The basic story of Cinderella exists

512
00:28:31,180 --> 00:28:35,090
Speaker 1: in various cultures. You know, it's just it's it's that

513
00:28:35,630 --> 00:28:37,530
Speaker 1: important of a trope, you know, this idea of the

514
00:28:37,570 --> 00:28:43,250
Speaker 1: downtrodden and the oppressed rising up in this in this nature.

515
00:28:43,650 --> 00:28:46,170
Speaker 1: There's a there's an old Chinese version of this as well.

516
00:28:46,630 --> 00:28:47,550
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't think I knew that.

517
00:28:47,810 --> 00:28:50,100
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And there are various other versions of it

518
00:28:50,130 --> 00:28:53,720
Speaker 1: from just around the world. Like it's interesting how how

519
00:28:53,780 --> 00:28:57,740
Speaker 1: such a potent fairy tale like this, you just find

520
00:28:57,780 --> 00:28:59,340
Speaker 1: versions of it throughout human culture.

521
00:28:59,700 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure that does help with getting it. And

522
00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:05,180
Speaker 3: the other thing is you mentioned earlier the idea of

523
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:09,410
Speaker 3: like nature itself sort of being the thing that helps

524
00:29:09,450 --> 00:29:12,530
Speaker 3: Cinderella in this version. It's not like a single fairy godmother,

525
00:29:12,570 --> 00:29:15,489
Speaker 3: but it's the birds and it's the tree. And it's

526
00:29:15,510 --> 00:29:19,420
Speaker 3: really interesting the way she's got this pre-existing connection with

527
00:29:19,460 --> 00:29:22,260
Speaker 3: the birds. Like they're just on her side from the beginning.

528
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:22,360
Speaker 1: Yeah.

529
00:29:23,370 --> 00:29:26,390
Speaker 3: So the Wicked Stepmother is having Cinderella clean up spilled

530
00:29:26,470 --> 00:29:29,590
Speaker 3: lentils from the floor while the Wicked Stepsisters go off

531
00:29:29,630 --> 00:29:32,610
Speaker 3: to the ball. But then a flock of birds come

532
00:29:32,650 --> 00:29:35,390
Speaker 3: by to help her out. And we get a title

533
00:29:35,450 --> 00:29:39,110
Speaker 3: that says Snip, and she gathers from her apple trees

534
00:29:39,210 --> 00:29:43,470
Speaker 3: the golden gaffes. of the Hesperides the silver coach but

535
00:29:43,820 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 3: when the clock strikes one warn the bird voices Cinderella

536
00:29:47,500 --> 00:29:51,320
Speaker 3: run and so we see the magic tree and Cinderella

537
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:55,300
Speaker 3: goes out to this creepy lonely hillside with a tree

538
00:29:55,340 --> 00:29:57,580
Speaker 3: at the top of it it's kind of sad drooping

539
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,830
Speaker 3: tree And the tree ends up granting her wish for

540
00:30:00,870 --> 00:30:03,110
Speaker 3: a gown and a coach to take her to the ball.

541
00:30:03,670 --> 00:30:05,610
Speaker 1: I like how this was pre-code so she could stay

542
00:30:05,650 --> 00:30:06,130
Speaker 1: out to one.

543
00:30:08,950 --> 00:30:12,090
Speaker 3: And Cinderella's gown, I have to say this, looks sort

544
00:30:12,130 --> 00:30:15,660
Speaker 3: of like a cyberpunk pressure suit like Bruce Willis is

545
00:30:15,700 --> 00:30:19,020
Speaker 3: wearing at the beginning of 12 Monkeys. I guess maybe

546
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:21,420
Speaker 3: she's going to work in the prince's virology lab. But

547
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 3: it's very puffy and it's covered in these lines around

548
00:30:24,840 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 3: the top that could be gas hoses.

549
00:30:27,370 --> 00:30:29,530
Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks like it's just made out of nature.

550
00:30:29,610 --> 00:30:32,390
Speaker 1: Like she's coated in mycelium and stuff, you know, it's

551
00:30:32,850 --> 00:30:33,430
Speaker 1: pretty cool looking.

552
00:30:33,750 --> 00:30:36,530
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really good. So Cinderella goes to the ball.

553
00:30:36,910 --> 00:30:39,670
Speaker 3: She dances with the prince. The stepsister is very jealous.

554
00:30:39,730 --> 00:30:42,170
Speaker 3: The prince falls in love with Cinderella and kisses her.

555
00:30:42,710 --> 00:30:44,580
Speaker 3: But then, of course, she has to flee at midnight

556
00:30:44,620 --> 00:30:46,900
Speaker 3: and the prince loses her. And then comes the search,

557
00:30:47,100 --> 00:30:49,160
Speaker 3: you know, from the story based on the slipper that

558
00:30:49,220 --> 00:30:52,040
Speaker 3: she drops while she's running out. And so you see

559
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 3: this royal parade go out to find the owner of

560
00:30:54,940 --> 00:30:58,210
Speaker 3: the slipper. They're putting it on people's feet. And and

561
00:30:58,250 --> 00:31:00,590
Speaker 3: when the prince comes to the house, Cinderella is made

562
00:31:00,630 --> 00:31:03,150
Speaker 3: to hide in the cellar because the wicked stepmother does

563
00:31:03,210 --> 00:31:05,850
Speaker 3: not want her to be seen by the prince. And

564
00:31:05,950 --> 00:31:09,410
Speaker 3: the wicked stepsisters are trying to they're trying to snag

565
00:31:09,450 --> 00:31:11,610
Speaker 3: the prince. So one of them. Yep. She chops part

566
00:31:11,630 --> 00:31:13,730
Speaker 3: of her own foot off. And and that part was

567
00:31:14,030 --> 00:31:15,990
Speaker 3: seriously hilarious.

568
00:31:16,110 --> 00:31:18,729
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Again, we were all just going, ah, when

569
00:31:18,750 --> 00:31:20,730
Speaker 1: it happened. And, you know, I know that that's a

570
00:31:20,750 --> 00:31:23,010
Speaker 1: part of, you know, the grimmer versions of this tale.

571
00:31:23,670 --> 00:31:25,670
Speaker 1: But I guess I wasn't quite expecting it. It happens

572
00:31:25,710 --> 00:31:27,490
Speaker 1: so suddenly too, it catches you off guard.

573
00:31:27,770 --> 00:31:29,730
Speaker 3: Yeah, she just reaches down with a knife and just

574
00:31:29,810 --> 00:31:31,470
Speaker 3: chops off the front of her foot. And then she's

575
00:31:31,510 --> 00:31:33,890
Speaker 3: still trying to put the mutilated foot into the slipper,

576
00:31:33,950 --> 00:31:37,130
Speaker 3: but it fills up with blood. So this is the

577
00:31:37,250 --> 00:31:40,970
Speaker 3: X-rated version. But eventually, of course, the magic birds tell

578
00:31:41,020 --> 00:31:43,410
Speaker 3: the prince that Cinderella's hiding in the cellar and he

579
00:31:43,450 --> 00:31:45,460
Speaker 3: goes down and he gets her out and he lifts

580
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:49,040
Speaker 3: her up and it's a happy ending, true love. And

581
00:31:49,140 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 3: then there's a great moment where I don't know how

582
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:56,540
Speaker 3: else to describe this. The wicked stepmother is so mad

583
00:31:56,700 --> 00:32:01,370
Speaker 3: about Cinderella getting to marry the prince that she literally

584
00:32:01,590 --> 00:32:05,350
Speaker 3: cracks in half like a fissure runs down the middle

585
00:32:05,390 --> 00:32:08,570
Speaker 3: of her. And she looks like a Venus fly trap

586
00:32:08,750 --> 00:32:09,300
Speaker 3: opening up.

587
00:32:09,770 --> 00:32:11,770
Speaker 1: That's interesting. It was interesting because it made me think

588
00:32:12,090 --> 00:32:14,270
Speaker 1: of one of her recent episodes. We were talking about

589
00:32:14,850 --> 00:32:19,570
Speaker 1: changes to fairy tales. And there was one in particular

590
00:32:19,830 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: in which somebody gets so mad they basically explode. which

591
00:32:24,100 --> 00:32:26,340
Speaker 1: I so I guess it was an idea that existed

592
00:32:26,420 --> 00:32:30,760
Speaker 1: sort of in the fairy tale storytelling world at the time. And,

593
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:33,900
Speaker 1: you know, though I and perhaps it occurs in a

594
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:37,580
Speaker 1: written version of Cinderella. But it was it was a

595
00:32:37,620 --> 00:32:41,450
Speaker 1: delightful surprise here that you're having sort of Mortal Kombat

596
00:32:41,490 --> 00:32:46,510
Speaker 1: type fatalities occurring in this children's tale. Oh, but on

597
00:32:46,550 --> 00:32:51,390
Speaker 1: the speaking of violence in this animated short on the footcutting.

598
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:55,640
Speaker 1: The first foot cutting was fabulous and shocking and hilarious.

599
00:32:55,900 --> 00:32:58,190
Speaker 1: But the second one was even better. Oh, yes. The

600
00:32:58,250 --> 00:33:00,709
Speaker 1: second sister goes to put on the shoe and it's

601
00:33:00,750 --> 00:33:02,950
Speaker 1: not fitting either because her foot is like too plump.

602
00:33:03,430 --> 00:33:06,310
Speaker 1: And then you see her hand come down with the

603
00:33:06,370 --> 00:33:08,380
Speaker 1: knife because she's going to do the exact same thing

604
00:33:08,620 --> 00:33:10,660
Speaker 1: and cut off part of her foot. And the prince's

605
00:33:10,700 --> 00:33:13,100
Speaker 1: hand slaps it out of the way. It's like, nope, nope,

606
00:33:13,140 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: you're not doing that trick. Not allowed.

607
00:33:15,220 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 3: Against the rules. No foot cutting.

608
00:33:16,860 --> 00:33:16,940
Speaker 1: Yeah.

609
00:33:17,870 --> 00:33:21,290
Speaker 3: And I love the implied sneakiness with the knife. She's like, oh,

610
00:33:21,330 --> 00:33:22,890
Speaker 3: I think I dropped something.

611
00:33:22,910 --> 00:33:26,510
Speaker 1: Yeah, let me saw through the bones of my foot.

612
00:33:27,090 --> 00:33:29,790
Speaker 3: So yes, in the end, this movie is definitely worth

613
00:33:29,830 --> 00:33:32,360
Speaker 3: checking out. You can find different versions of it online.

614
00:33:32,380 --> 00:33:35,560
Speaker 3: I think they have different title card situations and different

615
00:33:36,060 --> 00:33:39,900
Speaker 3: levels of restoration. But I absolutely love her animation style.

616
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:43,260
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tremendous. I'm really glad you turned me on

617
00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:46,280
Speaker 1: to this one. Yeah, so if you want to see it,

618
00:33:46,350 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: I just recommend... You know, you can find it on

619
00:33:48,620 --> 00:33:51,500
Speaker 1: the blog, but just go to something like YouTube or

620
00:33:52,700 --> 00:33:55,720
Speaker 1: any other streaming video site. And if you just do

621
00:33:55,790 --> 00:34:00,330
Speaker 1: a search for Cinderella 1922, this will turn up. You'll

622
00:34:00,370 --> 00:34:03,190
Speaker 1: probably also turn up the Walt Disney version as well.

623
00:34:03,230 --> 00:34:06,330
Speaker 1: But this is the one to watch. Choose your own music, though,

624
00:34:06,350 --> 00:34:08,790
Speaker 1: whatever you want, really. You want to listen to Nurse

625
00:34:08,810 --> 00:34:11,090
Speaker 1: with Wound while watching it, then that's going to create

626
00:34:11,110 --> 00:34:14,840
Speaker 1: a certain feel. But you can also put on something

627
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:15,920
Speaker 1: upbeat and peppy, you know.

628
00:34:16,420 --> 00:34:19,420
Speaker 3: You could put on the hair metal band Cinderella.

629
00:34:21,219 --> 00:34:23,560
Speaker 1: Why, yeah. Why not? I mean, that's ultimately the fun

630
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:26,730
Speaker 1: about this stuff. Do what you will with the music

631
00:34:26,790 --> 00:34:30,890
Speaker 1: on a silent film. I noticed in the Psychotronic book

632
00:34:30,930 --> 00:34:33,290
Speaker 1: by Michael Weldon, he pretty much had the same advice.

633
00:34:33,670 --> 00:34:37,029
Speaker 1: He was like, the music often sucks. Turn it off

634
00:34:37,070 --> 00:34:39,630
Speaker 1: if you don't like it. And then realize you're going

635
00:34:39,650 --> 00:34:40,910
Speaker 1: to have to put in a little bit of work

636
00:34:41,469 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 1: sometimes to enjoy these films, but it's worth it.

637
00:34:53,430 --> 00:34:55,570
Speaker 3: All right. Are we ready to look at our second

638
00:34:55,610 --> 00:34:56,450
Speaker 3: silent film today?

639
00:34:56,469 --> 00:34:59,390
Speaker 1: Yeah. And again, this is one that I think a

640
00:34:59,430 --> 00:35:01,310
Speaker 1: lot of people are not going to be that familiar with.

641
00:35:01,590 --> 00:35:03,569
Speaker 1: I was not familiar with it until I started looking

642
00:35:03,590 --> 00:35:06,430
Speaker 1: around for something to cover. And, you know, again, I

643
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:09,460
Speaker 1: wanted to cover something that it wasn't one of the

644
00:35:09,500 --> 00:35:12,060
Speaker 1: classics that we're all somewhat familiar with, you know, that's

645
00:35:12,100 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 1: not Nosferatu and so forth. And so I came across

646
00:35:16,670 --> 00:35:22,380
Speaker 1: an Italian science fiction action comedy from 1921, The Mechanical Man.

647
00:35:23,219 --> 00:35:26,780
Speaker 1: And it's especially worth discussing on Weird House Cinema because

648
00:35:27,180 --> 00:35:31,049
Speaker 1: this is the grandfather or even the great grandfather of

649
00:35:31,130 --> 00:35:35,009
Speaker 1: films like Robot Jocks and Gunhead. Not only is it

650
00:35:35,090 --> 00:35:39,089
Speaker 1: a film about robots battling each other, it is seemingly

651
00:35:39,370 --> 00:35:42,220
Speaker 1: the first film about robots battling each other.

652
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:42,980
Speaker 3: Whoa.

653
00:35:43,550 --> 00:35:45,910
Speaker 1: So the elevator pitch on this one is a remote

654
00:35:45,930 --> 00:35:49,770
Speaker 1: control robot man with exceptional speed and strength is captured

655
00:35:49,790 --> 00:35:52,410
Speaker 1: by criminals and forced to do evil. And this eventually

656
00:35:52,469 --> 00:35:55,780
Speaker 1: culminates in an all out battle between two different robots.

657
00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:59,299
Speaker 3: Now, from what I understand, the robots are definitely what

658
00:35:59,420 --> 00:36:02,000
Speaker 3: drew us in to watch this. And they're a major

659
00:36:02,060 --> 00:36:05,900
Speaker 3: part of the section of the film that remains in

660
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:10,719
Speaker 3: the archives. But if I understand correctly, the majority of

661
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 3: the original film was really focused less on the robots

662
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:18,850
Speaker 3: and more on sort of the exploits of the lead

663
00:36:18,989 --> 00:36:20,729
Speaker 3: villain or antagonist, right?

664
00:36:21,489 --> 00:36:23,770
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that very much seems to be the case.

665
00:36:23,810 --> 00:36:28,430
Speaker 1: This was a second film in a proposed trilogy that

666
00:36:28,750 --> 00:36:33,930
Speaker 1: revolved around a cunning female criminal as opposed to the robots.

667
00:36:33,950 --> 00:36:36,560
Speaker 1: The robots, I am to understand, were not in the

668
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:37,080
Speaker 1: first film.

669
00:36:37,530 --> 00:36:40,700
Speaker 3: Right. And this criminal lady is named, do you call

670
00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:43,680
Speaker 3: it her? It's M-A-D-O. Is it Mado or Mado?

671
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:46,900
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. You know, they never say it out

672
00:36:46,950 --> 00:36:50,950
Speaker 1: loud in the film. So I read it as Mado

673
00:36:51,050 --> 00:36:53,730
Speaker 1: in my head and kept thinking of it as such. Yes,

674
00:36:53,790 --> 00:36:57,880
Speaker 1: Mado is described as an evil countess. And the first

675
00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:03,670
Speaker 1: film was a human document from 1920. and there's not

676
00:37:03,690 --> 00:37:06,170
Speaker 1: really much I could find out about it. It's possibly,

677
00:37:06,610 --> 00:37:09,860
Speaker 1: probably a lost film in its entirety, so I don't

678
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:12,320
Speaker 1: think there's any of it that remains. But it featured

679
00:37:12,340 --> 00:37:15,360
Speaker 1: many of the same characters as this film does, and

680
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:19,580
Speaker 1: perhaps deals with the same central conflict between Maddo and

681
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:25,860
Speaker 1: the Diara family, which is centered around a Diara patriarch

682
00:37:25,900 --> 00:37:27,640
Speaker 1: who is a brilliant inventor.

683
00:37:28,030 --> 00:37:30,690
Speaker 3: OK, yeah. But so throughout this film, or at least

684
00:37:30,890 --> 00:37:33,219
Speaker 3: the parts of it we were able to see, Maddow

685
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:36,660
Speaker 3: is running around doing evil with her identity hidden behind

686
00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:39,740
Speaker 3: a mask. So she's got like a thing wrapped around

687
00:37:39,780 --> 00:37:42,000
Speaker 3: her face and head. And then at the end, she

688
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:44,739
Speaker 3: is unmasked and it is revealed that she is this

689
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:45,739
Speaker 3: Russian countess.

690
00:37:46,300 --> 00:37:49,250
Speaker 1: Right. And she's also electrocuted at the end. But I

691
00:37:49,270 --> 00:37:51,230
Speaker 1: guess she wasn't supposed to die because there was a

692
00:37:51,270 --> 00:37:54,310
Speaker 1: third film planned, but it just didn't come together in

693
00:37:54,370 --> 00:37:57,040
Speaker 1: the post-World War I period. So I thought we might

694
00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 1: just look at some of the people involved in this one,

695
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:02,620
Speaker 1: since Cinderella did not have people in the actual film.

696
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:06,180
Speaker 1: It was animated and largely revolved around a singular individual.

697
00:38:06,820 --> 00:38:09,890
Speaker 1: This one had multiple people involved that are worth mentioning.

698
00:38:10,310 --> 00:38:12,590
Speaker 1: First of all, the director was a man by the

699
00:38:12,630 --> 00:38:18,170
Speaker 1: name of Andre Deed, who lived 1879 through 1940. He

700
00:38:18,190 --> 00:38:20,489
Speaker 1: was a French actor and director who made a name

701
00:38:20,530 --> 00:38:24,480
Speaker 1: for himself in this series of comedy shorts called uh,

702
00:38:24,580 --> 00:38:26,860
Speaker 1: called the, the fool's head comedies. And they all had

703
00:38:26,930 --> 00:38:30,690
Speaker 1: titles like fool's heads holiday or fool's head has lost

704
00:38:30,750 --> 00:38:33,670
Speaker 1: a needle. So, you know, just little comic adventures centered

705
00:38:33,710 --> 00:38:35,870
Speaker 1: around this one ridiculous individual.

706
00:38:36,150 --> 00:38:37,370
Speaker 3: Fool's head scared stupid.

707
00:38:37,650 --> 00:38:39,850
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. You know, these were the earnest movies of

708
00:38:39,890 --> 00:38:44,600
Speaker 1: the day. Um, and these were apparently internationally successful during

709
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:48,600
Speaker 1: the 1900s and the 1910s. Like these, these were, you know,

710
00:38:48,660 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 1: big money as much as anything was big money, uh,

711
00:38:51,060 --> 00:38:56,489
Speaker 1: cinematically in those days. Um, They're mostly forgotten today, and

712
00:38:56,670 --> 00:38:58,870
Speaker 1: certainly Deed is, I think, mostly forgotten today by the

713
00:38:58,910 --> 00:39:00,630
Speaker 1: public at large. But he was a big deal at

714
00:39:00,650 --> 00:39:03,950
Speaker 1: the time. But his career was somewhat disrupted by the

715
00:39:04,010 --> 00:39:07,190
Speaker 1: outbreak of World War I, in which he was conscripted

716
00:39:07,230 --> 00:39:10,340
Speaker 1: into the reserves, and he may have served in the trenches.

717
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:14,060
Speaker 1: It seems a little foggy on that. And afterwards, he

718
00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:16,860
Speaker 1: returned to direct just a few more movies. And The

719
00:39:16,900 --> 00:39:21,600
Speaker 1: Mechanical Man was his final directorial effort. He continued to

720
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:26,009
Speaker 1: act through 1938. And he acts in this as well.

721
00:39:26,070 --> 00:39:30,900
Speaker 1: He plays a comic character named Saltarello. who pops up

722
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:34,200
Speaker 1: at one point. But for the most part, he's the

723
00:39:34,219 --> 00:39:36,920
Speaker 1: director of this. This is his baby, his mechanical baby.

724
00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:38,960
Speaker 3: Do you know if he was the guy who was

725
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,140
Speaker 3: bouncing his butt up and down on the chair in

726
00:39:41,180 --> 00:39:42,739
Speaker 3: that scene that I couldn't understand?

727
00:39:43,150 --> 00:39:47,290
Speaker 1: I think he was, yes. A very physical comedy. I

728
00:39:47,310 --> 00:39:49,529
Speaker 1: guess it would be like Because I think he played

729
00:39:49,570 --> 00:39:52,290
Speaker 1: Fool's Head in the Fool's Head movies. So it's like,

730
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:55,480
Speaker 1: you know, if Ernest were to direct a film, like

731
00:39:55,520 --> 00:39:57,400
Speaker 1: he'd have to go in there for a cameo just

732
00:39:57,420 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 1: to keep the crowd happy, that sort of thing.

733
00:39:59,420 --> 00:40:03,359
Speaker 3: Okay. Yeah, yeah. So I enjoyed the parts of this

734
00:40:03,430 --> 00:40:05,830
Speaker 3: movie that we were able to see that remain. I

735
00:40:06,210 --> 00:40:08,730
Speaker 3: will say I don't think this guy is quite on

736
00:40:08,750 --> 00:40:12,090
Speaker 3: the Buster Keaton level as far as physical comedy of

737
00:40:12,110 --> 00:40:13,110
Speaker 3: the silent era goes.

738
00:40:13,430 --> 00:40:17,900
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Now, the main star of this, again, this

739
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:21,500
Speaker 1: is ultimately about, yes, the robots, but also it's about Matto,

740
00:40:21,620 --> 00:40:25,840
Speaker 1: this villainess that we've been discussing here. And she is

741
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:32,730
Speaker 1: played by Valentina Frascaroli, who lived 1855 through 1957. She

742
00:40:32,770 --> 00:40:35,370
Speaker 1: also played the role in the previous movie. She has

743
00:40:35,370 --> 00:40:38,610
Speaker 1: 86 film credits on IMDb, including a bunch of Fool's

744
00:40:38,650 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 1: Head shorts. According to Marianne Lewinsky, writing for Il Cinema Ritrovata,

745
00:40:44,940 --> 00:40:47,720
Speaker 1: She was a versatile leading lady actor of the day.

746
00:40:48,100 --> 00:40:50,980
Speaker 1: She starred in both comedies, like clearly The Fool's Head

747
00:40:51,020 --> 00:40:53,799
Speaker 1: movie and this to a large degree. But she was

748
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:57,330
Speaker 1: also in serious films as well. She was in a

749
00:40:57,330 --> 00:40:59,770
Speaker 1: 1922 film about Dante. I believe it had a title

750
00:41:00,250 --> 00:41:03,629
Speaker 1: that translated to The Life and Times of Dante. And

751
00:41:03,830 --> 00:41:07,230
Speaker 1: she was also in an interesting looking puppet themed film,

752
00:41:07,550 --> 00:41:12,380
Speaker 1: The War and the Dream of Momi from 1917. Now,

753
00:41:12,420 --> 00:41:16,180
Speaker 1: as I learned in a Bruce Sterling article about this,

754
00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:20,640
Speaker 1: it's a 2012 piece for Wired magazine. This was the

755
00:41:20,700 --> 00:41:23,719
Speaker 1: second film in what Deed planned as a Maddow trilogy,

756
00:41:24,460 --> 00:41:26,839
Speaker 1: which he says explains why Maddow is given so much

757
00:41:26,900 --> 00:41:31,600
Speaker 1: screen time. Maddow is the adventurous. She is a, quote,

758
00:41:31,660 --> 00:41:37,299
Speaker 1: scheming white Russian exiled countess. So you get the impression that, again,

759
00:41:37,340 --> 00:41:39,779
Speaker 1: the first film, I think, is entirely lost. You can't

760
00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:41,489
Speaker 1: find in really any details about what it was about.

761
00:41:41,980 --> 00:41:44,279
Speaker 1: But she seems like she's always on the run, always

762
00:41:44,340 --> 00:41:47,980
Speaker 1: escaping and falling into more schemes. Even in this film,

763
00:41:48,060 --> 00:41:50,299
Speaker 1: I think she like escapes a couple of times, once

764
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:54,089
Speaker 1: from a prison infirmary by setting it on fire. And

765
00:41:54,489 --> 00:41:57,850
Speaker 1: this scene is also interesting because it contains some mild nudity,

766
00:41:58,870 --> 00:42:01,490
Speaker 1: like some side nudity, but you can't really make anything

767
00:42:01,550 --> 00:42:03,390
Speaker 1: out of it given the quality of the film. Like

768
00:42:03,530 --> 00:42:05,670
Speaker 1: you really have to squint to even tell that there

769
00:42:05,690 --> 00:42:07,570
Speaker 1: was maybe some mild nudity in this scene.

770
00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:08,780
Speaker 3: It's very European.

771
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:12,670
Speaker 1: Very, very European, yes. And also, I mean, it speaks

772
00:42:12,710 --> 00:42:14,509
Speaker 1: to like what this movie was trying to do. It

773
00:42:15,190 --> 00:42:18,470
Speaker 1: did not have as much of a high minded artistic purpose.

774
00:42:18,510 --> 00:42:20,029
Speaker 1: This was about I mean, this is a film in

775
00:42:20,050 --> 00:42:24,489
Speaker 1: which giant robots ultimately battle each other. It it has

776
00:42:24,550 --> 00:42:26,670
Speaker 1: the same sort of appeal that it's always had to us,

777
00:42:26,710 --> 00:42:30,870
Speaker 1: you know, which, again, I think it speaks to the

778
00:42:31,730 --> 00:42:35,010
Speaker 1: certainly the creativity and the, you know, the science fiction

779
00:42:35,050 --> 00:42:38,529
Speaker 1: dreams that were present even in the 1920s, but also

780
00:42:38,590 --> 00:42:41,100
Speaker 1: the fact that like people went to the cinema. to

781
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:43,600
Speaker 1: be entertained. And this was a film that was trying

782
00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:47,710
Speaker 1: to entertain people. Now, again, Deed never got to make

783
00:42:47,730 --> 00:42:51,430
Speaker 1: that third Matto picture, but we can only wonder what

784
00:42:51,489 --> 00:42:55,569
Speaker 1: could have transpired in it. Again, she's electrocuted at the

785
00:42:55,590 --> 00:42:57,610
Speaker 1: end of this film, though perhaps isn't dead, so I'm

786
00:42:57,630 --> 00:43:00,350
Speaker 1: guessing she would have escaped authorities again and she would

787
00:43:00,370 --> 00:43:04,259
Speaker 1: have come back after the Diara family. The Diara family, again,

788
00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:07,820
Speaker 1: being the family of the inventor who creates giant robots.

789
00:43:08,590 --> 00:43:11,910
Speaker 3: So the version of this that I saw had Italian intertitles,

790
00:43:12,270 --> 00:43:15,170
Speaker 3: and there were a lot that I went by and

791
00:43:15,210 --> 00:43:17,029
Speaker 3: I did not have time to translate them, so I

792
00:43:17,070 --> 00:43:18,779
Speaker 3: don't know what they said. But there was one I

793
00:43:18,860 --> 00:43:23,820
Speaker 3: recognized multiple times, which was where it just said, corto circuito.

794
00:43:26,020 --> 00:43:27,140
Speaker 3: Short circuit, of course.

795
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:32,030
Speaker 1: Short circuit. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Now, as we've

796
00:43:32,050 --> 00:43:34,410
Speaker 1: alluded to already, this was for a long time a

797
00:43:34,910 --> 00:43:38,620
Speaker 1: lost film. and today we do not have all of it.

798
00:43:38,780 --> 00:43:41,390
Speaker 1: This is another sad fact about films from this period

799
00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:45,110
Speaker 1: is that they are not always complete if they did survive,

800
00:43:45,489 --> 00:43:47,690
Speaker 1: and in many cases we've lost everything. There are some

801
00:43:47,830 --> 00:43:53,910
Speaker 1: really notoriously lost or partially lost films. Probably the gold

802
00:43:53,969 --> 00:43:59,320
Speaker 1: standard being Todd Browning's 1927 horror film London After Midnight,

803
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:04,299
Speaker 1: which starred Lon Chaney. I feel like even though you

804
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:06,950
Speaker 1: haven't seen it, You've seen images from it. You've seen

805
00:44:06,989 --> 00:44:12,520
Speaker 1: those stills of Lon Chaney in this brilliant, frightening get

806
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 1: up as this kind of ghoulish vampire in a tall hat.

807
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:18,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, we talked about this, I know, in our invention

808
00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:21,790
Speaker 3: episodes about the early days of film. Like I think

809
00:44:21,830 --> 00:44:24,410
Speaker 3: when we were discussing Alice Guy Blaché, we talked about

810
00:44:24,430 --> 00:44:26,890
Speaker 3: how a huge number of her films are lost.

811
00:44:27,350 --> 00:44:27,549
Speaker 2: Yeah.

812
00:44:27,890 --> 00:44:29,830
Speaker 1: And it's crazy to think about this, especially with films

813
00:44:29,910 --> 00:44:32,830
Speaker 1: like London After Midnight, because this was a film that

814
00:44:32,930 --> 00:44:37,489
Speaker 1: grossed over a million dollars in 1927. But, you know,

815
00:44:37,510 --> 00:44:40,620
Speaker 1: the last known copy of it was destroyed in a

816
00:44:40,620 --> 00:44:44,020
Speaker 1: 1965 MGM vault fire. So the only thing that survives

817
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:46,799
Speaker 1: today are our images from it. And we do have

818
00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:50,020
Speaker 1: a lot of images from London After Midnight. But that's

819
00:44:50,060 --> 00:44:53,260
Speaker 1: what what some people have used to reconstruct the film

820
00:44:53,300 --> 00:44:57,910
Speaker 1: in its entirety, just making remaking the film with still images. Now,

821
00:44:57,950 --> 00:45:03,210
Speaker 1: it's a similar case with The Mechanical Man, except we

822
00:45:03,430 --> 00:45:05,350
Speaker 1: were able to bring back some of it. So the

823
00:45:05,410 --> 00:45:07,910
Speaker 1: original film is thought to have been 60 to 80

824
00:45:07,910 --> 00:45:11,029
Speaker 1: minutes in length, but it was a thought completely lost

825
00:45:11,070 --> 00:45:15,390
Speaker 1: for many years until reels from the Portuguese version turned

826
00:45:15,469 --> 00:45:19,500
Speaker 1: up in Brazil. And this amounts to about 26 minutes

827
00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:22,780
Speaker 1: of film total. And luckily, it's footage from the later

828
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:26,010
Speaker 1: portions of the film. Because it's a giant robot movie.

829
00:45:26,650 --> 00:45:28,860
Speaker 1: You know how giant robot movies go. They're going to

830
00:45:28,940 --> 00:45:31,739
Speaker 1: really have most of the special effects in the back end.

831
00:45:31,780 --> 00:45:34,520
Speaker 1: It's kind of like if RoboCop 2 were a lost

832
00:45:34,580 --> 00:45:37,000
Speaker 1: film and you got to reclaim half of it, which

833
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:40,180
Speaker 1: half would you get? Which half would you want? You

834
00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:42,430
Speaker 1: would want the later half in which the robots battle

835
00:45:42,469 --> 00:45:42,790
Speaker 1: each other.

836
00:45:43,130 --> 00:45:45,770
Speaker 3: I guess then you would miss most of that stuff with, like,

837
00:45:46,170 --> 00:45:49,830
Speaker 3: the 12-year-old drug dealer hitman or whatever. Right.

838
00:45:49,910 --> 00:45:51,890
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would lose a lot of interesting stuff. And

839
00:45:51,930 --> 00:45:54,109
Speaker 1: more to the point, you would lose stuff that helps

840
00:45:54,150 --> 00:45:56,670
Speaker 1: you make sense of the later stuff. And certainly that's

841
00:45:56,710 --> 00:46:00,670
Speaker 1: one of the cases with the mechanical man. Watching the

842
00:46:00,710 --> 00:46:05,779
Speaker 1: fragments that remain, it's very interesting. The robots are fabulous looking.

843
00:46:06,110 --> 00:46:09,180
Speaker 1: There are these— oh man, they're just like, they, they're,

844
00:46:09,219 --> 00:46:13,319
Speaker 1: you know, they're obviously costumes, but they have this cool mechanical,

845
00:46:13,380 --> 00:46:15,279
Speaker 1: like steampunk kind of look to them, or I guess

846
00:46:15,300 --> 00:46:18,560
Speaker 1: it would be diesel punk. Um, and, uh, you know, they're,

847
00:46:18,780 --> 00:46:22,319
Speaker 1: they're sort of mean faced and violent and, oh, it's,

848
00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:26,049
Speaker 1: they're just fabulous, but you're often confused as to what's

849
00:46:26,110 --> 00:46:28,730
Speaker 1: going on. You know, I, I had to, I had

850
00:46:28,770 --> 00:46:32,069
Speaker 1: to look back at, um, at some write-ups to really

851
00:46:32,110 --> 00:46:35,049
Speaker 1: make sense of what, what was happening and how this

852
00:46:35,090 --> 00:46:38,459
Speaker 1: would have how this would have factored into the full

853
00:46:38,500 --> 00:46:39,279
Speaker 1: version of the film.

854
00:46:39,800 --> 00:46:42,069
Speaker 3: Well, with those limitations in mind, would you like to

855
00:46:42,110 --> 00:46:42,950
Speaker 3: talk about the plot?

856
00:46:43,550 --> 00:46:47,090
Speaker 1: Yeah, such as it is, this is the plot. Basically,

857
00:46:47,210 --> 00:46:50,810
Speaker 1: a professor, Diara, creates a super fast, super strong remote

858
00:46:50,830 --> 00:46:53,770
Speaker 1: control robot that is going to help out humanity, but

859
00:46:53,810 --> 00:46:58,750
Speaker 1: then enter the criminal mastermind, Mado. She has the scientist

860
00:46:58,810 --> 00:47:01,670
Speaker 1: killed and tries to steal the plans for the mechanical man.

861
00:47:02,969 --> 00:47:06,399
Speaker 1: The criminals, she and the criminals are caught, but she escapes. Again,

862
00:47:06,460 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 1: by setting the infirmary on fire, kidnaps the scientist's niece

863
00:47:10,340 --> 00:47:13,830
Speaker 1: and obtains the plans. So she builds her own mechanical man,

864
00:47:14,190 --> 00:47:16,710
Speaker 1: goes on a rampage with it, just sort of like,

865
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:20,040
Speaker 1: I don't know that there was any like grand criminal plan.

866
00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:22,899
Speaker 1: It was just sort of like. crime in general. Like, wow,

867
00:47:22,940 --> 00:47:25,080
Speaker 1: now that I have the robot, I can do crime,

868
00:47:25,739 --> 00:47:29,219
Speaker 1: more crime and faster crime than ever before. So that's

869
00:47:29,239 --> 00:47:33,360
Speaker 1: what happens. But the scientist's brother, who survives, uses the

870
00:47:33,420 --> 00:47:36,859
Speaker 1: original mechanical man to stop her. So it all culminates

871
00:47:36,910 --> 00:47:39,630
Speaker 1: in a big robot battle inside an opera house that

872
00:47:39,670 --> 00:47:41,990
Speaker 1: ultimately destroys the opera house. Yes.

873
00:47:42,830 --> 00:47:44,270
Speaker 3: Now, I was making a few notes as I was

874
00:47:44,310 --> 00:47:46,930
Speaker 3: watching this. One is that I really liked Maddo's escape

875
00:47:47,010 --> 00:47:50,690
Speaker 3: from prison or the hospital or wherever she is, because

876
00:47:50,770 --> 00:47:55,540
Speaker 3: she It's a multi-stage procedure where she injects something and

877
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:58,860
Speaker 3: fakes out the orderlies and then starts a fire and

878
00:47:58,900 --> 00:48:04,180
Speaker 3: then gets out. It's a good sequence. But beyond that,

879
00:48:04,700 --> 00:48:07,020
Speaker 3: as I was saying earlier, I tried my best, but

880
00:48:07,060 --> 00:48:09,190
Speaker 3: there were some scenes where I had no idea what's

881
00:48:09,230 --> 00:48:13,009
Speaker 3: going on on screen. So the main thing I wanted

882
00:48:13,050 --> 00:48:15,570
Speaker 3: to ask about is what's going on with the dude,

883
00:48:15,630 --> 00:48:20,370
Speaker 3: possibly the director, frantically bouncing on the armchair? Could you tell?

884
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 1: I could not tell. This was a scene that I'd

885
00:48:24,620 --> 00:48:26,980
Speaker 1: have to chalk up to maybe being just a wink

886
00:48:27,020 --> 00:48:31,580
Speaker 1: for the audience that involves like a beloved comic actor

887
00:48:31,620 --> 00:48:34,320
Speaker 1: who also directed the film. Kind of a cameo maybe

888
00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:37,210
Speaker 1: that means nothing to modern viewers.

889
00:48:37,630 --> 00:48:42,029
Speaker 3: It's the 1921 version of Jim Carrey going, all righty then.

890
00:48:42,050 --> 00:48:46,670
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, maybe so. Yeah, it would be like if

891
00:48:46,710 --> 00:48:50,120
Speaker 1: Jim Carrey directed a robot movie, but also showed up

892
00:48:50,219 --> 00:48:51,890
Speaker 1: and did one of his old bits just in the

893
00:48:51,930 --> 00:48:55,490
Speaker 1: middle of it. But the other thing about confusing moments

894
00:48:55,530 --> 00:48:58,590
Speaker 1: in this film, we can chalk a lot of it

895
00:48:58,650 --> 00:49:02,790
Speaker 1: up to the fragmentary nature of what remains, but we

896
00:49:02,830 --> 00:49:05,640
Speaker 1: can also point to possible shortfalls in the state of

897
00:49:05,660 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 1: the medium at the time or even filmmaker capability, because ultimately,

898
00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:12,760
Speaker 1: Deed will not be the last film director to craft

899
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:16,709
Speaker 1: an incoherent action picture or to struggle transitioning from short

900
00:49:16,750 --> 00:49:21,609
Speaker 1: form laughs to longer form dramatic storytelling. So I don't know.

901
00:49:21,790 --> 00:49:24,850
Speaker 1: It's hard to tell exactly where all the blame levels out.

902
00:49:25,370 --> 00:49:28,180
Speaker 3: Yeah. So there's some of that disconnect in movies that

903
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:30,910
Speaker 3: we've looked at. You remember with Dr. X, there was

904
00:49:30,969 --> 00:49:34,719
Speaker 3: this strange mixture of creepiness and comedy and not the

905
00:49:34,860 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 3: kind of comedy that usually goes along with creepiness in

906
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:45,020
Speaker 3: movies today. a very wet kind of slapstick, goofy goobery

907
00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:50,540
Speaker 3: comedy alongside the synthetic flesh. Synthetic flesh.

908
00:49:51,060 --> 00:49:51,320
Speaker 1: Yes.

909
00:49:52,060 --> 00:49:54,859
Speaker 3: But I will also say, to give the director credit here,

910
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:57,500
Speaker 3: I mean, we're dealing with a number of limitations. We

911
00:49:57,520 --> 00:50:00,840
Speaker 3: are dealing with time distance. This was a long time ago.

912
00:50:00,980 --> 00:50:04,250
Speaker 3: Things just, you know, cinema felt different then. We were

913
00:50:04,270 --> 00:50:06,870
Speaker 3: dealing with a language barrier. We were not watching this

914
00:50:06,969 --> 00:50:10,150
Speaker 3: in translation. This was in a language we don't speak.

915
00:50:10,870 --> 00:50:15,030
Speaker 3: And we were dealing with– like watching only a fragmentary

916
00:50:15,140 --> 00:50:19,500
Speaker 3: part of the second half of a silent film. So

917
00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:20,960
Speaker 3: there's a lot of stuff getting in the way of

918
00:50:21,020 --> 00:50:21,779
Speaker 3: us understanding.

919
00:50:22,180 --> 00:50:25,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. But I'm glad that this much of it

920
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:30,660
Speaker 1: has survived because– especially the scenes where– Well, yes, when

921
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:33,239
Speaker 1: the robots are battling each other, it's awesome. But all

922
00:50:33,260 --> 00:50:36,490
Speaker 1: the scenes of robot mischief are just excellent.

923
00:50:36,750 --> 00:50:37,150
Speaker 3: Oh, yes.

924
00:50:37,390 --> 00:50:37,589
Speaker 1: Yes.

925
00:50:37,690 --> 00:50:40,450
Speaker 3: I love– so there's one part with a cocktail party

926
00:50:40,969 --> 00:50:43,770
Speaker 3: where they're playing some kind of Marco Polo type game.

927
00:50:43,830 --> 00:50:46,170
Speaker 3: They tie a napkin around a man's face and they

928
00:50:46,190 --> 00:50:48,360
Speaker 3: spin him around and he's chasing all these women in

929
00:50:48,380 --> 00:50:52,440
Speaker 3: the party room. And then a giant mecha man just

930
00:50:52,540 --> 00:50:55,140
Speaker 3: bursts through the window and is like, I am here

931
00:50:55,540 --> 00:51:00,080
Speaker 3: to cause panic. And he puts a dude inside a wardrobe,

932
00:51:00,420 --> 00:51:03,100
Speaker 3: carries him up to the roof of a castle. And

933
00:51:03,140 --> 00:51:05,680
Speaker 3: I think he's going to throw him off the castle tower.

934
00:51:06,070 --> 00:51:06,320
Speaker 1: Yeah.

935
00:51:06,530 --> 00:51:08,830
Speaker 3: Then I guess the guy gets away and climbs down.

936
00:51:08,850 --> 00:51:10,230
Speaker 1: He kind of like falls out of it and then

937
00:51:10,270 --> 00:51:15,310
Speaker 1: repels down the tower. It's elaborate and ridiculous. Yeah. There's

938
00:51:15,370 --> 00:51:18,010
Speaker 1: also the wonderful scene where it's like a dinner party.

939
00:51:18,570 --> 00:51:22,890
Speaker 1: And I had to rely on Sterling's write-up in Wired

940
00:51:23,110 --> 00:51:25,450
Speaker 1: to make sense of what was happening. But I mean,

941
00:51:25,510 --> 00:51:29,390
Speaker 1: fully happening, because apparently the idea is the robot has

942
00:51:29,450 --> 00:51:34,780
Speaker 1: shown up controlled by Mado at this at this party.

943
00:51:35,239 --> 00:51:38,239
Speaker 1: And it's but it's pretending to be a person in

944
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:42,000
Speaker 1: a robot costume. Yes. Yeah. And so they're all like, oh,

945
00:51:42,060 --> 00:51:45,110
Speaker 1: it's a wonderful, wonderful costume. Come on in, have some champagne.

946
00:51:45,150 --> 00:51:48,090
Speaker 1: And so it's like calling for champagne and having a

947
00:51:48,110 --> 00:51:50,850
Speaker 1: lady sit on its lap and things get out of hand.

948
00:51:51,090 --> 00:51:55,259
Speaker 3: Yes, the robot sexually harasses a female partygoer and then

949
00:51:55,780 --> 00:51:58,920
Speaker 3: the woman's husband gets mad at the robot and punches it.

950
00:51:59,460 --> 00:52:02,460
Speaker 3: And then he pulls out a pistol to duel the

951
00:52:02,500 --> 00:52:04,319
Speaker 3: robot and the robot crushes him.

952
00:52:04,940 --> 00:52:07,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's more than one scene in which somebody pulls

953
00:52:07,460 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 1: out a pistol and fires a bunch of shots point

954
00:52:10,600 --> 00:52:13,920
Speaker 1: blank into the robot to no avail. And then the

955
00:52:13,940 --> 00:52:15,030
Speaker 1: robot just like swats him.

956
00:52:15,430 --> 00:52:17,390
Speaker 3: So there's chaos at the opera, but then in the

957
00:52:17,469 --> 00:52:20,450
Speaker 3: midst of all this, you end up with a Mecha

958
00:52:20,469 --> 00:52:23,410
Speaker 3: Man versus Mecha Man. Because there's, I think as you

959
00:52:23,590 --> 00:52:27,330
Speaker 3: already said this, but the dead scientist's brother makes his

960
00:52:27,469 --> 00:52:28,430
Speaker 3: own Mecha Man.

961
00:52:28,910 --> 00:52:31,069
Speaker 1: Or he uses the original, I think, to battle the

962
00:52:31,250 --> 00:52:34,370
Speaker 1: new one that the criminals have made. Either way, you

963
00:52:34,410 --> 00:52:37,290
Speaker 1: end up in the same place. Good robot versus bad robot.

964
00:52:37,890 --> 00:52:39,190
Speaker 1: You know, a time-tested formula.

965
00:52:39,530 --> 00:52:42,049
Speaker 3: Right, but they're having to be controlled. Like, Matto is

966
00:52:42,320 --> 00:52:47,490
Speaker 3: actively controlling the robot in real time. By like turning

967
00:52:47,610 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 3: wheels and operating steam vents and things. This is going

968
00:52:52,100 --> 00:52:55,560
Speaker 3: to get a very low score on intuitive controls. But

969
00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:58,140
Speaker 3: the other thing that I thought was interesting was as

970
00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:03,180
Speaker 3: Maddo controls her Mecha Man during the duel, unless I'm misunderstanding,

971
00:53:03,219 --> 00:53:07,020
Speaker 3: it looks like she's watching the duel live on some

972
00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:11,360
Speaker 3: kind of TV screen as she controls her robot fighter.

973
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:14,140
Speaker 3: And this was in 1921. There's no such thing as

974
00:53:14,180 --> 00:53:16,330
Speaker 3: CCTV at this time. Right.

975
00:53:16,370 --> 00:53:19,989
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was a complete glimpse into the future. Sterling

976
00:53:20,110 --> 00:53:23,729
Speaker 1: wrote that at the 22 minute, 29 second mark, quote,

977
00:53:23,770 --> 00:53:28,490
Speaker 1: Matto watches the mechanisms battling through a flat, wall-mounted, remote

978
00:53:28,550 --> 00:53:33,080
Speaker 1: surveillance televisor screen. So, I mean, that's awesome. I mean,

979
00:53:33,300 --> 00:53:36,840
Speaker 1: this is a great example of early science fiction in

980
00:53:36,860 --> 00:53:40,500
Speaker 1: that it gets something phenomenally right, while also, you know,

981
00:53:40,560 --> 00:53:43,839
Speaker 1: it maybe doesn't properly predict the way that controls will

982
00:53:43,890 --> 00:53:46,330
Speaker 1: work in the future for things like this. You know,

983
00:53:46,370 --> 00:53:51,120
Speaker 1: it's a wonderful mashup of actually pretty spot on digital

984
00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:54,480
Speaker 1: technology to come and then also a reliance on very

985
00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:55,900
Speaker 1: mechanical control systems.

986
00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,600
Speaker 3: Another thing that's interesting is that the screen she's watching

987
00:53:59,920 --> 00:54:02,509
Speaker 3: things play out on is not from the point of

988
00:54:02,620 --> 00:54:03,890
Speaker 3: view of the robot.

989
00:54:04,370 --> 00:54:04,589
Speaker 1: Right.

990
00:54:04,610 --> 00:54:06,050
Speaker 3: So what's sending the image?

991
00:54:06,830 --> 00:54:09,150
Speaker 1: Yeah, it would have to be like a robotic drone

992
00:54:09,290 --> 00:54:11,549
Speaker 1: that is also part of the operation that is not

993
00:54:12,070 --> 00:54:14,950
Speaker 1: presented in the film. I don't know, something of that nature. Yeah.

994
00:54:15,469 --> 00:54:17,200
Speaker 1: Or maybe it's a telescope. I mean, there's so many

995
00:54:17,280 --> 00:54:20,640
Speaker 1: different directions you could go in. And then ultimately, given

996
00:54:20,660 --> 00:54:22,080
Speaker 1: the nature of the film, I guess they don't really

997
00:54:22,120 --> 00:54:24,640
Speaker 1: have to explain it. But it is interesting, too, that

998
00:54:24,680 --> 00:54:27,380
Speaker 1: they didn't explain it. There's so many films I can

999
00:54:27,420 --> 00:54:31,910
Speaker 1: think of where the film is at pains to really

1000
00:54:32,650 --> 00:54:35,970
Speaker 1: elaborate and describe to the audience what sort of technology

1001
00:54:36,150 --> 00:54:38,790
Speaker 1: is being used and how it works and what the

1002
00:54:38,830 --> 00:54:43,219
Speaker 1: rules are. And yet this film is rolling out you

1003
00:54:43,239 --> 00:54:46,609
Speaker 1: know to your point CCTV on a flat screen and

1004
00:54:47,090 --> 00:54:48,609
Speaker 1: They don't seem to have to explain it at all

1005
00:54:48,670 --> 00:54:50,910
Speaker 1: unless it's explained in the last portion of the film,

1006
00:54:50,950 --> 00:54:51,430
Speaker 1: of course.

1007
00:54:51,590 --> 00:54:54,109
Speaker 3: Well, it's funny because it's a concept that is it's

1008
00:54:54,150 --> 00:54:57,590
Speaker 3: immediately apparent what you know what its function is like.

1009
00:54:57,489 --> 00:55:00,370
Speaker 1: You yeah It probably comes back to the video drum quote, right? Yeah,

1010
00:55:00,890 --> 00:55:02,950
Speaker 1: she is doing what you were doing right now and

1011
00:55:02,989 --> 00:55:05,790
Speaker 1: watching this screen So in a way, it's kind of brilliant.

1012
00:55:06,110 --> 00:55:09,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, the televiser screen is the retina of the mind's eye.

1013
00:55:09,660 --> 00:55:14,210
Speaker 3: Yeah Whatever robots appear on it emerges raw experience.

1014
00:55:16,330 --> 00:55:18,790
Speaker 1: Let's see other things to mention about this film. I

1015
00:55:18,810 --> 00:55:22,210
Speaker 1: would say that the special effects are pretty cool. There's,

1016
00:55:22,370 --> 00:55:24,950
Speaker 1: you know, in addition to robots like breaking through gates

1017
00:55:25,010 --> 00:55:28,439
Speaker 1: and pulling out safes and whatnot, there's a scene where

1018
00:55:28,580 --> 00:55:31,840
Speaker 1: a speeding robot chases after, I believe it's a car,

1019
00:55:32,540 --> 00:55:36,960
Speaker 1: and tears, you know, so it creates this wonderful illusion

1020
00:55:36,980 --> 00:55:38,989
Speaker 1: that you don't you don't instantly think of as being

1021
00:55:39,210 --> 00:55:41,690
Speaker 1: even possible at the time in filmmaking, and yet they're

1022
00:55:41,710 --> 00:55:44,700
Speaker 1: pulling it off. And then I think the other thing

1023
00:55:44,719 --> 00:55:46,989
Speaker 1: that was surprising about this is on one hand, you

1024
00:55:47,010 --> 00:55:49,779
Speaker 1: just don't expect to see a giant robot battle in

1025
00:55:49,820 --> 00:55:54,500
Speaker 1: a film from the 1920s. But mech fiction has basically

1026
00:55:54,540 --> 00:55:57,000
Speaker 1: been around, had been around for decades at this point

1027
00:55:57,060 --> 00:56:00,140
Speaker 1: with such titles as The Steam Man of the Prairies

1028
00:56:00,200 --> 00:56:04,299
Speaker 1: by Edward S. Ellis from 1868, or Jules Verne's The

1029
00:56:04,360 --> 00:56:09,350
Speaker 1: Steam House from 1880. So, again, it's just neat and

1030
00:56:09,410 --> 00:56:13,310
Speaker 1: worth remembering that people in the 1920s were also really

1031
00:56:13,430 --> 00:56:17,069
Speaker 1: into cool sci-fi concepts, many of which still enthrall us

1032
00:56:17,110 --> 00:56:20,390
Speaker 1: today and, you know, are still going to keep making them.

1033
00:56:20,410 --> 00:56:23,370
Speaker 1: We're not going to stop making giant robot battle movies.

1034
00:56:23,969 --> 00:56:26,569
Speaker 1: There's just something about them that is wonderful. You know,

1035
00:56:26,610 --> 00:56:29,379
Speaker 1: there's the the idea of, you know, the small made

1036
00:56:29,430 --> 00:56:33,339
Speaker 1: large of things that are echoes of the human form

1037
00:56:33,380 --> 00:56:37,560
Speaker 1: or animal form and mechanical construction battling each other. And

1038
00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:39,980
Speaker 1: then also we have to consider that this film came

1039
00:56:40,060 --> 00:56:43,239
Speaker 1: out after World War I, and the deed himself was

1040
00:56:43,620 --> 00:56:48,100
Speaker 1: apparently witness to the European conflict, perhaps directly. So despite

1041
00:56:48,140 --> 00:56:50,760
Speaker 1: the fact that this is totally not a serious film,

1042
00:56:51,120 --> 00:56:55,120
Speaker 1: that it has a very farcical feel to it, it

1043
00:56:55,280 --> 00:56:57,640
Speaker 1: still may have something to say, no matter how shallow,

1044
00:56:57,989 --> 00:57:00,629
Speaker 1: about the new age of warfare in which machines like

1045
00:57:00,730 --> 00:57:04,649
Speaker 1: tanks and warplanes have just utterly changed the landscape of war.

1046
00:57:05,120 --> 00:57:06,819
Speaker 3: I think it was around this same time that we

1047
00:57:06,860 --> 00:57:11,760
Speaker 3: talked on invention about remote-controlled robots as something that people

1048
00:57:11,820 --> 00:57:15,800
Speaker 3: were claiming to have invented at this time, whether or

1049
00:57:15,860 --> 00:57:17,750
Speaker 3: not they were actually very effective.

1050
00:57:18,130 --> 00:57:18,370
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1051
00:57:18,730 --> 00:57:20,790
Speaker 3: I don't recall the details on that.

1052
00:57:21,090 --> 00:57:24,930
Speaker 1: Yeah, but certainly it's an idea that's been knocking around

1053
00:57:24,950 --> 00:57:28,640
Speaker 1: the human imagination for quite some time. So it shouldn't

1054
00:57:28,660 --> 00:57:30,930
Speaker 1: come as a surprise to see it in the 1920s.

1055
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:34,030
Speaker 1: But I guess on some level— I feel like I

1056
00:57:34,090 --> 00:57:37,470
Speaker 1: have been kind of reprogrammed to think of the 1950s

1057
00:57:37,970 --> 00:57:40,910
Speaker 1: as the birth period of the sci-fi robot, you know,

1058
00:57:40,970 --> 00:57:43,450
Speaker 1: because maybe in part because of there being a lot

1059
00:57:43,490 --> 00:57:47,930
Speaker 1: of images from that time period. And, you know, if

1060
00:57:47,990 --> 00:57:49,790
Speaker 1: you had to like if you were to quiz me

1061
00:57:49,830 --> 00:57:52,700
Speaker 1: before this and say, when was the first sci-fi robot?

1062
00:57:52,740 --> 00:57:55,300
Speaker 1: I might just instantly think to the 50s, even though

1063
00:57:55,320 --> 00:57:58,940
Speaker 1: there are definitely examples from prior to that decade. And,

1064
00:57:59,240 --> 00:58:01,080
Speaker 1: you know, here is one of the prime ones right here.

1065
00:58:01,490 --> 00:58:03,060
Speaker 3: By the way, I think that thing I was just

1066
00:58:03,100 --> 00:58:05,540
Speaker 3: talking about is in our episodes of Invention on the

1067
00:58:05,600 --> 00:58:07,640
Speaker 3: death ray, if you want to look that up.

1068
00:58:07,660 --> 00:58:07,880
Speaker 1: Oh, okay.

1069
00:58:08,260 --> 00:58:11,560
Speaker 3: But yes, I agree with you on all that about fiction.

1070
00:58:11,600 --> 00:58:13,540
Speaker 3: I mean, it's going to be robot jocks forever.

1071
00:58:15,520 --> 00:58:19,530
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. We just keep doing it. And I will

1072
00:58:19,550 --> 00:58:22,910
Speaker 1: keep watching them, apparently, no matter what era they're from.

1073
00:58:23,710 --> 00:58:24,990
Speaker 1: All right. Well, I hope this was a lot of

1074
00:58:25,010 --> 00:58:27,310
Speaker 1: fun for everybody. Maybe we introduced you to a couple

1075
00:58:27,330 --> 00:58:30,780
Speaker 1: of new silent shorts that you weren't familiar with. Maybe

1076
00:58:30,820 --> 00:58:33,600
Speaker 1: you did. know of these films already and would like

1077
00:58:33,660 --> 00:58:37,520
Speaker 1: to share your take on them certainly go out watch

1078
00:58:37,560 --> 00:58:40,260
Speaker 1: them and let us know also let us know if

1079
00:58:40,280 --> 00:58:42,420
Speaker 1: you like this kind of format because obviously there are

1080
00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:44,800
Speaker 1: a lot of short films out there it might be

1081
00:58:45,200 --> 00:58:46,720
Speaker 1: kind of neat to do this from time to time

1082
00:58:47,660 --> 00:58:49,880
Speaker 1: like maybe you know to come back to Cronenberg maybe

1083
00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:51,160
Speaker 1: we do one where we look at a couple of

1084
00:58:51,200 --> 00:58:55,060
Speaker 1: short films early films from David Cronenberg crack those open

1085
00:58:55,880 --> 00:58:59,100
Speaker 1: you know tackling things that you know otherwise wouldn't make

1086
00:58:59,120 --> 00:59:00,930
Speaker 1: for a full episode of Weird House I.

1087
00:59:00,860 --> 00:59:03,689
Speaker 3: Don't know about that one in particular, but in general,

1088
00:59:03,690 --> 00:59:04,070
Speaker 3: I'm game.

1089
00:59:04,070 --> 00:59:09,670
Speaker 1: Um, let's see. Uh, so yes, weird house cinema. If

1090
00:59:09,690 --> 00:59:12,590
Speaker 1: you want to catch other episodes, this airs every Friday

1091
00:59:12,790 --> 00:59:15,050
Speaker 1: in the stuff to blow your mind feed. It is

1092
00:59:15,110 --> 00:59:17,300
Speaker 1: a place for us to step away from the science

1093
00:59:17,340 --> 00:59:19,930
Speaker 1: for a little bit and talk more about just a

1094
00:59:19,970 --> 00:59:22,840
Speaker 1: weird movie or in this case movies. Uh, but as

1095
00:59:22,860 --> 00:59:24,720
Speaker 1: you can see, we often find ways to tie it

1096
00:59:24,760 --> 00:59:28,710
Speaker 1: into other pieces of content that we've put out. Um, And, oh, yeah,

1097
00:59:28,750 --> 00:59:30,740
Speaker 1: and of course we'll be back next week. And I'm

1098
00:59:30,760 --> 00:59:32,030
Speaker 1: not going to tell you what the film's going to be,

1099
00:59:32,340 --> 00:59:35,160
Speaker 1: but I will say it is another Florida movie. So

1100
00:59:35,200 --> 00:59:35,900
Speaker 1: be prepared.

1101
00:59:36,120 --> 00:59:40,440
Speaker 3: Cue up that Lion King song. Huge thanks, as always,

1102
00:59:40,500 --> 00:59:43,960
Speaker 3: to our wonderful audio producer, Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you

1103
00:59:43,980 --> 00:59:46,180
Speaker 3: would like to get in touch with us with feedback

1104
00:59:46,240 --> 00:59:48,780
Speaker 3: on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic

1105
00:59:48,800 --> 00:59:50,770
Speaker 3: for the future or just to say hello, you can

1106
00:59:50,970 --> 00:59:53,930
Speaker 3: email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

1107
01:00:02,140 --> 01:00:04,590
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

1108
01:00:04,970 --> 01:00:08,290
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple

1109
01:00:08,310 --> 01:00:10,650
Speaker 2: Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.