WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: The Telephone Box 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:06.359 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:12.960 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:15.760 This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.239 last week on Weird House Cinema we talked about the 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.880 nineteen eighty four fantasy short film Quest, directed by Saul 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:26.239 and Elaine Bass, and that was a real good time. 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:28.600 If you haven't heard that episode yet, I recommend you 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:30.960 go back and check that out. But this week I 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.440 kind of wanted to stick to the theme of short films, 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:38.960 especially weird short films. In the thirty minute run time zone, 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.400 that's about how long Quest was. So today we're going 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:44.400 to be talking about a picture that I've had on 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:48.680 my list for a while, the surreal genre Defying nineteen 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.960 seventy two made for TV Spanish short film La Cabina 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:58.440 or The Telephone Box, directed by Antonio Mrcero. Now, much 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.160 like Quest, The telephone Box you can really do in 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.360 a one sentence plot description. It is very light on 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:09.319 plot machinations, not a lot of dialogue, not a lot 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:13.680 of information to process except for weird little images and 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.280 things to kind of wonder how you should read as 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.440 the situation develops, but instead of a plot per se, 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.080 this movie really does have more of a situation, and 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:28.800 that situation is a man gets stuck inside a telephone 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:32.480 booth and he can't get out. And warning, before we 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.440 say anything else, this movie does have some major twists 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:37.760 and surprises, and we're going to be talking about all 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.200 of that. So if you want to watch it unspoiled, 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.520 you should pause here and go do that. The film 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.240 is available to stream for free online, including in what 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:49.320 looks to me like an official upload on YouTube by 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.440 the television station that owns the rights to it, which 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:54.720 I think is RTVE out of Spain. 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:00.920 Yeah, yeah, RTV Archivo. That's how I watched it. And 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.200 outside of that, I'm not aware of an actual physical 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.520 release for this film, though of course sometimes short films 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.200 like these do get included as extras on the release 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:14.880 of full features, but this seems to be the best, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:16.800 if not only, way to watch it right now, at 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:17.720 least internationally. 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.200 So again, the situation that takes place in this film 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.000 is a man gets stuck in a telephone box and 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.560 he can't get out. Now, what's really interesting about this 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:32.320 story is the way the situation develops, both in terms 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:36.919 of tone, and I would say, ultimately in terms of genre. 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.360 I said at the top this was a genre defying film, 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.639 and I think you could quite reasonably ask how one 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:46.440 would classify it if you were going to have to 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.160 shelve it at the video store. Where does this go? 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.960 I've seen write ups that do classify it as a 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.920 comedy and write ups that classify it as horror. I 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:58.680 think it's a lot easier to say it is horror 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.799 if you had to pick one, but a lot of 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.200 writing about this notes that it is both. And while 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.760 I think it certainly is both, I think it would 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:11.880 be quite misleading to call Lacabina a horror comedy. That 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.920 would give the wrong impression, because horror comedy is a 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:19.840 well established hybrid genre. But in thinking about this question 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.480 of what to call Lacabina, I realized that almost all 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.000 so called horror comedy movies are built the same way, 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.600 and that is, the bones are horror and the flesh 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.560 is comedy. So in a horror comedy movie, the plot, 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:40.480 the setting, the characters, and situations will almost entirely be 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:44.040 those of the horror genre. And then what makes it 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.600 a comedy is that we get ironic reversals on the 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:52.520 expected imagery or tone, maybe through dialogue or the behavior 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:56.760 of the characters. You will get changes that twist the 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.880 basic horror situation and make it funny. When I make 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.800 a mental list of horror comedy movies, I think this 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.840 basic format applies to all of them, all the ones 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:10.360 I can think of Evil Dead, to Grimlins, Grimlins to 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.400 Sean of the Dead, Cabin in the Woods, etc. It's 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.080 really hard to think of a movie that people think 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.479 of as horror comedy that doesn't basically work like that, 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.320 built like a horror film, but then furnished and decorated 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:24.000 with comedy. 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:26.760 I think Trimmor's is a great example of this. Tremors 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.080 is a film that doesn't do anything in its structure 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.840 and plot that really screams comedy, but the characters are 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.520 fun and funny yes at times, and therefore you get 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:39.400 plenty of chuckles in there, and you can, I think, 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.080 accurately call it a horror comedy to some degree. 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.240 I think that's a great example, and I think there's 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:47.520 a reason that horror comedies are usually built like this. 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:52.560 Comedy by nature works by subverting expectations. So I think 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:56.479 the laugh moment in a comedy routine comes from your 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.839 brain recognizing some kind of incongruity. I think that's not 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.760 how that works, or that's not what's supposed to happen, 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.240 or that's not the right way to respond, and so forth. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.719 So when you merge comedy with another genre of storytelling, 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.240 the script to follow is pretty clear. You change or 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.640 subvert the expectations of that other genre in amusing ways. 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.680 So maybe you play with the tone like it's a 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.560 horror situation, but the moment, the moment where things would 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:29.560 normally be very serious, something silly happens. Or maybe you 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:33.159 satirize the genre itself, like you invert horror tropes in 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:37.040 a way that reveals something about the reason that writers 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.600 invoke them, which undercuts their power. So in you know, 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.200 this is what you get more of in movies that 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.880 are satires on horror itself, like Happin in the Woods. 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:49.680 So I think that's the way it almost always works. 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.000 The other element in the genre hybrid, be it horror 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:56.160 or fantasy or whatever, is the setup, and then the 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.800 comedy is by its very nature. The twist on that. 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.120 The short film we're going to be talking about today 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:07.760 is I would argue the extremely rare inverse of this 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:12.040 blueprint in lack of beina, the bones are comedy and 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:13.520 the flesh is horror. 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:18.480 Yeah. I think that is a very valid point. Yeah, 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.320 because everything about the premise even just screams comedy. You 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.240 hear it and you're like, all right, I'm ready to 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.560 hear this joke. You don't know that the joke's punchline 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:32.080 is going to be so bleak and horror centric. But 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.240 it initially seems to have the structure of comedy, the 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:34.800 structure of. 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:39.040 A joke exactly right. So it's a comedy situation. In fact, 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.039 we could explore more about this as we go on, 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.919 but it feels to me like a very old, classic, 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:48.200 almost silent film era style of comedy situation. It makes 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:49.520 me think of Charlie Chaplin. 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.880 Oh absolutely, yeah, it's very mind too, of course, like this, 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.000 the mind act is oh, I'm stuck in a box, 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:00.680 and that's the basic plot here. Yeah. In fact, I 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:04.400 believe the filmmakers when they were casting it, initially one 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.360 of them was pushing for them hiring a mind like 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.480 let's get somebody who can who can do that level 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.680 of wordless pure body acting. 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.640 And the main actor that is cast in the film 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:18.440 is the guy who gets stuck in the box does 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.680 have a lot of mimelike skills. So the setup of 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.520 the plot is an absurd, humiliating physical situation where there's 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.000 like a mechanical problem to solve. Again, this is like 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.120 a Charlie Chaplin scene. So you're stuck in a box 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:36.880 and we watch various stereotyped characters come along and try 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:41.400 and fail to solve the problem in amusing ways. However, 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:44.760 if this movie had just been a comedy that delivered 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:46.600 on that premise, I don't think it would be all 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.200 that well remembered. Not like the comedy elements are not good, 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.520 but it just wouldn't stand out in the way that 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.760 it actually does. This movie made a big impression on 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:57.360 a lot of people. We can talk more about its 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.280 cultural impact in a bit, but I think it is 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.000 the horror twist that really makes this movie memorable to 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.800 people and is what makes it kind of masterful. So 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:11.520 as the comedy scenario drags on, there is a very gradual, 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:18.760 almost imperceptibly increasing tone of menace and despair, and moment 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.800 by moment, the situation just becomes less funny and a 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.760 little weirder. And more ominous, until by the final moments 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:31.240 we are in full throttle nightmare territory. And I honestly 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.360 cannot think of another film that pulls off this kind 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.160 of revolution in genre and tone across its run time. 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.079 It's a really interesting project, has a very unique effect 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.480 on the viewer, and I can't think of anything else 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:45.160 quite like it. 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.520 The only picture that's coming to my mind that does 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.640 something even kind of like this is Terry Gilliams Brazil 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:57.360 with of course it's actual ending, not the fairy tale ending, 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.240 but the right bleak ending that that we get in 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.280 that picture, which is one of the things that makes 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:07.160 it so memorable. Like there's so much in Brazil that is, 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:12.080 you know, stupid and absurd and outright comedic, but we 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.880 land in a very dark place, in a very contemplative place, 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.000 and I think it's one of the reasons that Brazil 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.760 resonates so strongly with everyone. 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.120 I think that's a really good point of comparison, though 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.320 I would say it's different because I think the bleak 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.160 and ominous stuff is there from the beginning in Brazil, 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.480 but throughout the runtime it's also like earlier on especially, 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.280 it's a lot funnier, and then it just ends in 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.680 like its bleakest point, whereas this is a movie that 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.040 starts it's not scary or bleak at all at the beginning. 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.640 It starts off completely lighthearted and then ends where it does. 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.440 Now we've mentioned absurdity a couple of times, and I 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.840 think absurdity is also key to understanding The Telephone Box. 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.400 I think it makes wonderful use of absurdity in multiple ways, 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.440 and I think we are generally primed to in interpret 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:04.360 absurdity in terms of comedy, at least at first. Maybe 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.200 there's some sort of scenario though, where if absurdity, if 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:11.040 you're continually bombarded with absurdity, it eventually becomes horror. I'm 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.120 not sure, but I think one of the film's great 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.760 merits is that on the whole as even though we 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.440 have an absurd premise, from the get go, it's pretty 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:24.240 much played straight. We have some goofy moments, some physical comedy, 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:28.200 but even those goofier moments I think are played with 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:33.280 a realistic air and deliberately avoid going full cartoon on anything. 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.600 And we'll touch on some examples of this when we 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:37.640 get into the plot later, and then of course at 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.720 the center of it all, our unfortunate man, our gray 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.360 man trapped in the phone booth played by Jose Lewis 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.120 Lopez Vsquez, who we'll get to here in a minute, 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.800 is portrayed just very believable, very relatable. It has this 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:55.720 quiet dignity and frustration and embarrassment that just steadily gives 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:57.800 way to these darker emotional states. 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:00.319 Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right, And I think I'm 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:01.800 not the first to point this out. You know, people 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:06.120 have written before about the kind of surprising overlap between 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.400 comedy and horror and the way I think they can 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:13.640 both stem from absurd situations that you know, the genres 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:15.480 do have a lot in common, Like they both deal 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.439 with the with the building and then the release of tension. 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.960 That's the structure of a joke, and that's the structure 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.120 of a scare in a horror movie. And as you 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:25.760 were just pointing out, with like the situational absurdity in 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:29.280 the film, a lot of times the difference but like 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:33.679 the same events could be shown as comedy or as horror, 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.720 And really all that it takes to make a difference 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:38.240 between the two is your perspective. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.000 Yeah, absolutely, So. 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:43.400 Another thing I wanted to bring up about Lacabino or 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:47.280 the telephone Box is that this is not an obscurer movie. 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.959 Actually certainly not obscure within Spain. You know, we on 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:55.280 a weird House. We cover stuff most people have never 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:57.760 heard of, and we cover stuff that's pretty well known. 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.640 This is actually sort of both because I think many 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.360 English speaking listeners will probably never heard of it. But 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:08.360 in Spain, I think lots of people saw this on TV, 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.800 certainly back when it came out. Lots of people who 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.600 are adults now saw it on TV when they were kids, 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.080 having no idea what it was, and it left a 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:19.400 powerful impression on them. This is one of those movies 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:22.520 where there's like a lot of Internet search traffic of 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.800 people asking what was the horror movie where the guy 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:27.920 gets stuck in a phone box? And then they come 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.000 across this and find these web pages about it. Yeah. 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:32.680 I think, as we've discussed before, that's one of the 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:37.400 brilliant things about broadcast horror television is that so many 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.880 of us watched something or part of something and it 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:42.640 just stuck in our heads and we had no idea 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.520 what it was. And it's only much later via the 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:47.840 Internet that were able to find out. Oh yeah, I was, 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.760 that's what it was. It was in my case like Nasaka, 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.480 it was Nasica or various horror movies that I saw 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:53.960 parts of. 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:56.400 We may have mentioned this on the show before, but 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.120 I remember having a conversation with my dad about this 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.439 where he was remember from when he was a kid 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.280 seeing something on TV that really scared him, and just 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:07.480 talking through it, we were able to figure out what 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.199 it was, and it was an episode of Boris Karloff's 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.640 thriller that was an adaptation of the story Pigeons from Hell. 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.520 Oh yes, yes, the short story by Robert E. Howard. 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.800 But anyway, coming back to the telephone box, something quite 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:25.200 interesting about this was that it was something of a 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:27.360 cultural sensation. It was kind of the talk of the 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:30.680 town in Spain when it first aired in December nineteen 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:34.120 seventy two, and I was reading an article about this 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:38.760 movie called Lacabina Creating Horror from the Absurd. This was 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.480 published in an online magazine called The Artifice, written by 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.880 a contributor just called Amius. I guess that's like a 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.880 pseudonym or something. But in this article, which is definitely 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:50.599 worth a read for a lot of the background on 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.520 the film. The author talks about how the movie gave 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.319 rise to so it was not only talked about a lot, 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.840 it gave rise to a kind of urban legend in Madrid. Basically, 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.960 I think the idea was that people in Madrid were 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.960 becoming trapped in phone boxes and later being kidnapped by 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.320 sort of agents in shadowy uniforms, and nobody knew where 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.520 they were taken, and so this actually would cause people 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.240 to be afraid. And maybe whether or not they'd actually 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:20.600 seen this short on TV, maybe they just heard about 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.520 the kind of rumor of this thing happening secondhand, and 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.320 so they go into a phone box to make a 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.680 call and leave their legs sticking out to keep the 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:28.560 door from shutting. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.080 I love that they made phone boxes scary, which we should. 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.520 This would probably is probably a good point in the 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:40.680 podcast to mention for our younger listeners high zoomers. A 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:46.000 phone box or a telephone booth is a is a compartment, 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:50.360 sometimes open on one or more sides, but sometimes it 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:52.440 can be sealed with a door, and there is a 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.080 pay telephone in there, a telephone that you would put 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.480 money into in order to place calls and could receive 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:03.880 calls if you've watched enough older films, especially like noir films, 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:07.120 you know, payphones off and feature into the plot. So 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:10.320 I'm half joking and having to remind everyone what it is. 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.760 But I also found it an interesting experience to watch 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.240 this film that is so centered around a phone booth 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.840 and really asking myself, have I ever actually used one 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.440 in my life? And I'm not sure that I have 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.280 ever used a fully enclosed phone booth before. 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.960 Yeah, I'm not sure I've used payphones when I was younger, 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.000 but I don't know if they were ever the kind 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.000 that were enclosed in a glass box. 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:36.080 Yeah, there is something just unique about the idea that 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.040 I must seal myself into this space in order to 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:44.160 then have this disembodied conversation with another place. There's almost 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.560 kind of a magic act going on there, which I 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:48.240 think they're tapping into a little bit here. 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:52.240 Well, you want privacy for your call, but I mean, 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:54.760 does it feel private when everybody can see you from 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:55.560 all sides? 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.600 I don't know. I mean I nowadays with everyone. I mean, 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:03.160 it seems like this was a national expectation for folks. 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:05.600 People are gonna have phone calls out in public. They 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:09.120 want privacy, but now we know they don't really want privacy. 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.880 People have all sorts of hyper sensitive phone calls out 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.200 in front of tons of people. So it turns out 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:16.200 it really didn't matter. 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.560 Okay, I got another bizarre cultural legacy of this movie. 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:24.480 Also mentioned in that same article on the Artifice, in 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.160 what seems to me like a quite bizarre marketing choice, 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:34.239 there's a Spanish telecom company called Telefonica which actually released 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:39.280 TV ads after this special that were a parody of it, 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.440 using the star of the movie in the ads. That 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.240 will seem even more bizarre to you after we discuss 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:46.960 the whole plot. 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:50.640 Yeah, as that Artifice article kind of gets into, it's 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:52.840 really kind of brilliant. It's like, uh oh, they've made 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.000 telephone booth scary. What do we do? We embrace it, 0:16:56.080 --> 0:17:01.160 We turn it into a commercial. Even though from angles 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.359 that seems a little tone deaf, it actually reminds me 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.000 of some of the Severance branded ads out there right 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:10.760 now for stuff like zip Recruiter, where they're just like, Yep, Severance, 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.879 that's great, let's attach our brand to that. When Severance 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.840 is in many ways like a really cutting look at 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.639 workplace culture and and you know what it does to 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:22.240 us and what we do to ourselves there. 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:26.560 So I'm a surfboard company. Let's make a Jaws themed commercial. 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.440 Yeah, yeah, I don't know, But then again, I guess 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:31.439 any publicity is good publicity, so they go for it. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:34.800 Now. Actually, the story of the ad for this telephone 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.800 company gets even stranger because that article talks about how 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.400 the movie itself, the short film may have been in 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:46.479 part inspired by a telephone company ad that aired in 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:50.200 the nineteen sixties and also had the star of this 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:54.320 film in it. So, so there was a phone ad, 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:56.919 and then the guy from the phone ad was in 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.879 a movie that turned a telephone box into horror, and 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.840 then the telephone company made another ad that was a 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:04.359 spin off of the horror movie. 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:07.040 Right, And I think there's also some possible connection to 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.800 a nineteen sixty spy movie that had somebody in a 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:11.399 phone booth in the phone booth gets put on the 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:13.600 back of a truck, that kind of thing. But the 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:19.760 ultimate finished product here goes in original and terrifying directions. 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:24.080 Yeah. Also this in the not obscure category. This movie 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.320 won awards. It won an International Emmy in nineteen seventy 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.119 three for Best Fiction. This was apparently the first Emmy 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:31.600 ever for a Spanish director. 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.960 Yeah, and as we'll get into, many of the people 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.720 involved in this picture were top notch professionals who were 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.800 recognized certainly within Spain but also internationally. 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:47.399 Yeah, so major cultural legacy. There's some kind of there was, 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.760 at least at some point a kind of campaign to 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.760 get a monument put in place that's like a phone box, 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:57.480 you know, in Madrid, to recognize this movie. There's like 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.800 telephone booth graffiti that people have found for somebody like 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.320 illustrates the man from the movie being trapped on the 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:04.520 inside of a phone booth. 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:07.320 Yeah, and it's rather telling. The article points out that 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:12.879 Charlie Brooker of Black Mirror fame was inspired by this 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:15.919 short film, which should tell you everything you need to 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.440 know about the ultimate trajectory of this piece. 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:24.160 This is very nineteen seventy two Black Mirror. Okay. Now, 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.600 we would normally play some trailer audio here, but I 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:28.840 don't think this thing ever had a trailer, at least 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:30.080 as far as I can tell. 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.159 Not that I could tell. So in a lieu of 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.840 a trailer, go watch it. Just go watch it and 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:37.720 come back, or if you know you're not going to 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:39.480 watch it, or you don't like to go into films 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.600 without full spoilers, then carry on and watch it later. Joe, 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:44.600 what's your elevator pitch? 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.919 Here? Well, if the tagline for Jaws was You'll never 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:50.280 go in the water again, this is gotta be You'll 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:51.840 never go in a phone booth again. Right. 0:19:52.960 --> 0:20:00.560 I think that works. I think that works. 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:04.760 All right? We talk about the connections. 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:09.480 Yes, So let's start at the top with the director 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.439 who also has a writing credit on this. As we 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:17.479 mentioned earlier, it is Antonio Marcero or Marciro. I'm not 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:23.000 sure which pronunciation is most accurate here, but he lived 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:26.400 nineteen thirty six through twenty eighteen Spanish film and TV 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.920 director whose work was well regarded domestically and internationally. His 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:34.639 directorial work spanned from nineteen sixty through two thousand and 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.160 seven and included such acclaimed films as nineteen eighty eight's 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:40.920 Wait for Me in Heaven, about a man selected against 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:44.320 his will to serve as Franco's double, nineteen eighty eight 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:47.119 It's a Time for Defiance, a romance set during the 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.280 Spanish Civil War, and two thousand and three's The Fourth 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:54.600 Floor about seriously ill youths at a Spanish cancer ward. 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.000 As for his other genre films, there's nineteen seventy five 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:00.959 Bloodstains in a New Car, a kind of follow up 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:03.240 to this film, I think in some ways has the 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.320 same lead actor. Oh and then there is a nineteen 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:09.520 eighty three kids monster mash film, a monster mash in 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:12.600 that it has a franking stense monster, has a dracula, 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.080 a were wolf, and so forth. It's titled good Night 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.960 Mister Monster, and I'm glad to report that it does 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:21.919 feature Paul Nashi as the were wolf. I'm also to 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.480 understand that it is a disco musical with some rocky 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:26.720 horror aspirations. 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:29.840 Oh wow, I gotta see that. Well, I should have 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.640 thought of it when I picked this movie. But there 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.760 have to be multiple Paul Nashi connections, right, We're gonna 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:36.600 get several, aren't we? 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.360 There are yes? And also that's I mean, for better 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.119 or worse, That's how I end up grounding any Spanish cinema. 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.240 I'm like, okay, how many decrease the separation are we 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:46.560 from Paul Nashi? 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:49.800 So I found a quote of Antonio Mercero's where he's 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.720