Speaker 1: Hey kids, it is what is it Monday November eleventh?
Speaker 2: It is Monday, November eleventh. We just wanted to come
Speaker 2: in here before the episode and say we've gotten a
Speaker 2: lot of messages this week saying that our podcast gave
Speaker 2: people a little lefter, a little light, a little whatever.
Speaker 1: There's a particular review we got.
Speaker 2: Yep, we got a great review. This is from You
Speaker 2: Must Be an Angel Food and they say look for
Speaker 2: the love and they write longtime listener, first time reviewer.
Speaker 2: I thoroughly enjoy that age wel podcast, particularly when they
Speaker 2: discuss a beloved movie or one I've never seen, but
Speaker 2: never did I realize how therapeutic it could be. I
Speaker 2: listened on election day to escape the stress, and boy
Speaker 2: did they deliver with some like it Hot. The Madonna
Speaker 2: Bakery mashup was creative and hysterical and had me crying
Speaker 2: from laughing so much. You saved me a trip to
Speaker 2: the therapist and now I want to think of more
Speaker 2: Madonna cake related songs. Thank you for doing what you do.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see what comes next. So this
Speaker 2: is just one of the messages that we've gotten this This.
Speaker 1: That's so nice. Also, can we just pour one out
Speaker 1: for all of our therapists. Yeah, yeah, they're about to
Speaker 1: have the fucking worst year of their lives.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we just wanted to say we're sure everyone's
Speaker 2: feeling a lot of emotions.
Speaker 1: Rage, we're feeling emotions. It sucks, It really fucking sucks,
Speaker 1: and we're sorry. And yeah, heartbreak, we're here with you.
Speaker 1: We're in it with you. The show is going to
Speaker 1: continue to try to.
Speaker 2: Entertain and I think entertainment is worth something these days.
Speaker 2: So we hope we can keep you laughing. We hope
Speaker 2: you hear the light in our voices when you listen
Speaker 2: to Rope, because it was it was recorded months ago.
Speaker 1: I was recorded months ago, so we just wanted to
Speaker 1: acknowledge that stuff has happened since since we recorded it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. We really appreciate that you're here.
Speaker 1: And as you must be, an angel Food says, look
Speaker 1: for the love because I think we're gonna need it
Speaker 1: in the next few years. So thank you for listening
Speaker 1: and enjoy.
Speaker 2: Rope was in LA a little while ago, visiting the
Speaker 2: in laws. Had a weird thing happened.
Speaker 1: In Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: In Los Angeles never so we're at the hotel and
Speaker 2: I always get up crazy early when I'm on the
Speaker 2: West Coast because I'm an early riser here, and then
Speaker 2: like for onally there for like three days, it's like
Speaker 2: I don't even care, Like three in the morning. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm up at like three or four o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2: So I'm at like three or four o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 2: which means I'm like lying in bed, like doing the
Speaker 2: New York Times Crossford puzzle on my phone, or my
Speaker 2: husband is asleep next to me. Find whatever. I'm getting
Speaker 2: up and I luckily I'm dressed at this point, and
Speaker 2: someone knocks on the door, and for some reason, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: I guess it's housekeeping. I'll just tell him to go away,
Speaker 2: even though I knew we had put a do not
Speaker 2: disturb on the door, and it is four four o'clock
Speaker 2: in the fucking morning, and I did. I don't even look.
Speaker 2: I just opened the door, and this kid is standing
Speaker 2: outside the door. He's dressed in as like a teen
Speaker 2: teen would be.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, it.
Speaker 2: Is clearly a situation where neither one of us was
Speaker 2: expecting to see the other person when the door opened.
Speaker 1: Wait, how old is this person?
Speaker 2: I'm going to say somewhere between sixteen and twenty.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, okay, okay, yeah you said kid, and
Speaker 1: I was concerned.
Speaker 2: Oh you forgot how old we are?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah I was. I was like, I was like,
Speaker 1: this this either a child or like something sketchy is happening. Okay,
Speaker 1: and like, I mean something sketchy.
Speaker 2: Something sketchy is definitely happening. But so I like, look,
Speaker 2: and he looks at me, and I was like, hi,
Speaker 2: can I help you? And the kid just ran.
Speaker 1: Away, like full ran, not.
Speaker 2: Full ran, but like moved hurriedly in the other direction.
Speaker 2: I do not wish to have this interaction anymore. Goodbye.
Speaker 2: Like I was like, that feels like a drug delivery
Speaker 2: gone incorrect.
Speaker 1: Is that what you're thinking?
Speaker 2: That was my thought?
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, because four am does imply a drug delivery,
Speaker 1: I think because my first thot we're given the age
Speaker 1: of this person is a legitimately like missus Robinson situation. Oh,
Speaker 1: he's expecting his older lady lover to answer the door. Indeed, Yeah,
Speaker 1: like she slipped away from her husband.
Speaker 2: For the night and Bancroft is in there slowly rolling
Speaker 2: down her her stocking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but again that's a that's a that's an eleven
Speaker 1: PM activity, maybe even a one am activity. But four
Speaker 1: ams a little.
Speaker 2: Is rough for a drug thing. Frankly like, no, it's not.
Speaker 1: If you have been out all night and you're like,
Speaker 1: I need I need to pick me up, I need
Speaker 1: to get to work. You know, you should have stopped.
Speaker 1: You should have stopped. The kid been like, what do
Speaker 1: you have?
Speaker 2: What do you have?
Speaker 1: What do you got?
Speaker 2: I'm cool, I'm hip.
Speaker 1: Are you selling drugs or sex?
Speaker 2: Is this a cash grass or ass situation?
Speaker 1: If it is sex, no, thank you, thank you, because
Speaker 1: I cannot verify your age. And America and this is
Speaker 1: that aged well, yesterday's culture today.
Speaker 2: And we are in classics month. It is November. We
Speaker 2: are doing classic movies, movies from before the eighties.
Speaker 1: Yes, this is the month where you want to get
Speaker 1: on the couch with a warm apple cider.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a shawl, that's right. I love a shawl. I
Speaker 2: love a drap. A throw for hacks, yes, a nice
Speaker 2: soft throw, a nice.
Speaker 1: Throw awaited blanket maybe, and just turn on turn your
Speaker 1: classic movies, huh, and have yourself a day, watch something
Speaker 1: in black and white.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: Either have a laugh or a cry.
Speaker 2: Our younger listeners are going, wait, our eighties movies not classics. Now.
Speaker 2: It's like when you turn in the classic rock station,
Speaker 2: they play like Melissa Ethridge and you're like, fuck everyone.
Speaker 1: The first time I turn on the classic rock station
Speaker 1: and it was legitimately like Rick Astley even, I was like, whoa,
Speaker 1: that's from nineteen eighty eight. That's not that old.
Speaker 2: Hey now, hey, now, don't dream.
Speaker 1: It's also the classic rock station.
Speaker 2: You love it? You love it? Erica, we have a
Speaker 2: five star Apple podcast review. Shall I read it for you?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: This is from Bizollina. Okay, okay, all right five Erica
Speaker 2: hahs they right. I came upon that aged well when
Speaker 2: I was looking for discussions about while you were sleeping.
Speaker 2: Erica and Paul have been keeping me entertained for the
Speaker 2: last few weeks while I care for plants in San
Speaker 2: Francisco offices. What a cool job I've had, the exact
Speaker 2: What an interesting job. Yeah, you must see an incredible
Speaker 2: cross section of humanity. Many times already I have averted
Speaker 2: my face to keep from being seen laughing in an office,
Speaker 2: walking between accounts, or on a bart train riding two
Speaker 2: slash from my car. The Bubba Gump shrimp play had
Speaker 2: me losing it in front of the Salesforce tower.
Speaker 1: I love the specificity of the location. I know that tower. Busilina.
Speaker 1: I am visualizing you now laughing in front of that tower.
Speaker 2: You know, you know what Bisilina was was at that moment,
Speaker 2: they were a Bubba Gump shrimp jump.
Speaker 1: I hope it was Wednesday, because then it was Gum's
Speaker 1: room hump day.
Speaker 2: There you go, There you go, There you go. Erica
Speaker 2: and Paul, unlike other movie discussion podcasts, get detail slash
Speaker 2: quotes accurately.
Speaker 1: I don't know about that.
Speaker 2: I correct you. I find myself correcting other podcasts thinking
Speaker 2: how closely were you watching? Dummy?
Speaker 1: I love this person.
Speaker 2: I can identify with their cultural references, being slightly older
Speaker 2: than them. They genuinely enjoy each other's company, diplomatically disagree,
Speaker 2: have pleasant voices, and never stray too far from the
Speaker 2: topic for too long. I've heard other podcasts repeatedly bring
Speaker 2: up something completely unrelated. One podcaster constantly brings up the
Speaker 2: Will Farrell movie kicking and screaming, no matter what movie
Speaker 2: he's reviewing.
Speaker 3: Why.
Speaker 1: I am very curious as to what podcast that is.
Speaker 2: If you ever do a recording tour, come to San
Speaker 2: Francisco to reviews. So I married an axe murderer until
Speaker 2: that happens. Thanks for keeping me entertained and loling in
Speaker 2: some quiet public places.
Speaker 1: Love it?
Speaker 2: Yes, so much?
Speaker 1: Busy already covered. So I married an axe murderer.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: If we do come to San Francisco, we will do vertigo.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it is a classic of San Francisco cinema.
Speaker 2: There you go. See you had another poll because immediately
Speaker 2: was like I had that in Missus Doubtfire and I
Speaker 2: can't wait another one. Uh, Basilina, this is a delightful review.
Speaker 2: It's thought out, it's well reasoned. There's a thesis statement
Speaker 2: and then supporting points.
Speaker 1: There's a there's a sensational burn at another podcast for
Speaker 1: some reason, which I fucking love.
Speaker 2: I loved it. I loved it. Don't be afraid to
Speaker 2: tear down other podcasts in your review lifting us up
Speaker 2: just so you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have no qualms about making other people feel bad.
Speaker 2: That's right. You know what podcasts we like, We've talked
Speaker 2: about them. Anyone else's fair game, Basilina. If you would
Speaker 2: like that age bel Tope Bag, please let me know.
Speaker 2: I will send it off for you, Erica. What is
Speaker 2: the what is the film classic we are discussing today?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so excited. Today is the nineteen forty eight
Speaker 1: psychological thriller Rope.
Speaker 2: Rope was requested by Sharon ma Luis Anika and Kay,
Speaker 2: Kay I want, I want, Kay, this is for you.
Speaker 2: Kay has requested this movie multiple times?
Speaker 1: Did he bringing it up?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Request Rope yet requested in gay month, requested in
Speaker 2: classics month. I think may have come through a Halloween month.
Speaker 1: Once follows a lot of you can go any of those, Patty,
Speaker 1: it can fit into.
Speaker 2: Any of those can And Kay was like, do this
Speaker 2: movie and frankly, K, you were right. This movie is fun.
Speaker 1: This movie slaps yeah all right.
Speaker 2: Rope was written by Arthur Lawrence, based on the nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty nine play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton.
Speaker 2: It was directed by A One Alfred Hitchcock and stars
Speaker 2: James Stewart, John Dall, and Farley Grainger.
Speaker 1: While the play on which the film is based has
Speaker 1: its leads being explicitly homosexual.
Speaker 2: Deep throating on stage in nineteen twenty nine, people.
Speaker 1: Ha fisting all the way up to the elbows.
Speaker 2: We've got bent over.
Speaker 1: Loube as far as the guy see.
Speaker 2: The audience had to sit on tarps.
Speaker 1: The film, however, only implies their relationship still. Arthur Lawrence,
Speaker 1: who the writer who is gay, has said he thought
Speaker 1: their relationship was quote unquote apparent and suspected he got
Speaker 1: by the censors because they just didn't have a fucking clue.
Speaker 1: He didn't say the fucking part I did, but that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: from what I know of.
Speaker 2: Arthur Lawrence, it was definitely implied. Yeah, he said it.
Speaker 1: By the way. Crazy. He used to live in the
Speaker 1: West Village and I happened to have known which house
Speaker 1: he was living in when he was still alive, and
Speaker 1: I saw him going in and out of his house
Speaker 1: every once in a while, like the guy the fucking Yeah,
Speaker 1: I used to be in New York City tour guide.
Speaker 1: I don't have ever mentioned that on the show.
Speaker 2: He definitely have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it. He was on one of the streets
Speaker 1: that I used to stop at.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's interesting. Do you have a favorite moment of
Speaker 2: homosexual implication, because I definitely do in this film.
Speaker 1: In this film, the very first shot is very frankly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like they are murdering their lover. That is a
Speaker 1: their third, they are during their third. I'm convinced.
Speaker 2: I didn't even think of that. Okay, I have a
Speaker 2: different one, but I'll let you know when we get to.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, homosexual implication six years abound.
Speaker 2: So Hitchcock filmed rope, using long takes and attempting to
Speaker 2: disguise as many cuts as he could. To accomplish this,
Speaker 2: furniture and walls were constantly being moved mid take to
Speaker 2: make room for the camera. James Stewart was not a
Speaker 2: fan of the process and commented the important thing being
Speaker 2: rehearsed is the camera, not the actors.
Speaker 1: I love James Stewart. You can't really, you can't get
Speaker 1: me to not love James Stewart. I don't care.
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to get you not love him. I am.
Speaker 2: I have nothing against James Stewart. I am, I am not.
Speaker 2: It's a wonderful life.
Speaker 1: Pilm You just you just have nothing for him either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think he's the most like a compelling actor.
Speaker 1: Disagree. I don't think he's a good actor, but he's
Speaker 1: compelling fair, he's not He's not great, but he is
Speaker 1: charismatic to like tense degree.
Speaker 2: Yes, that that that I agree with. Maybe I should
Speaker 2: say I should say good as opposed to comp I
Speaker 2: was trying to say it nicer. I don't think he's
Speaker 2: a great actor. He's fine. He's not terrible at all,
Speaker 2: but he's fine.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of my take on Jimmy Stewart.
Speaker 1: It's so funny too, Like, so the movie is meant
Speaker 1: to look like a play. Yeah, basically, like that's what
Speaker 1: that said. Gets a gimmick that Hitchcock was going for,
Speaker 1: and I think it works. It looks it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like you're watching a film.
Speaker 2: Oh definitely, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Quite a bit of it. It also like it takes place
Speaker 1: in one location. It's extremely dialogue heavy. There's there's almost
Speaker 1: no actual action in the movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a bottle episode of a movie in the.
Speaker 1: Story exactly like they could have filmed in other locations
Speaker 1: if they wanted to, like let's go down to the garage,
Speaker 1: but they didn't do that. They were like, let's lean
Speaker 1: into the fact that we are filming a play. And
Speaker 1: I really liked it. I think it works.
Speaker 2: It also gives the air of like a pressure cooker,
Speaker 2: which is what's happening, Like they can't escape this space.
Speaker 2: It's no exit, but with homosexuals.
Speaker 1: With more homoseexu Affair Rope has a ninety three percent
Speaker 1: critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a ninety percent audience score.
Speaker 1: I think that's fine.
Speaker 2: I think it's fine. I think the movie watching it now,
Speaker 2: it does come off as a little funny because the
Speaker 2: performances are big, Like you mentioned this off mic that
Speaker 2: they're almost pitched as if they were performing in the theater.
Speaker 1: I feel like John Doll and Farley Granger were theater
Speaker 1: actors and Jimmy Stewart is a movie actor, and you
Speaker 1: can tell the difference. Yeah, because have you ever seen
Speaker 1: a movie where Jimmy Stewart is giving the smallest performance?
Speaker 2: No, visit the one.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, how is Jimmy Stewart the most
Speaker 1: subtle actor on my screen right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, But I greatly enjoyed it, and it's it's
Speaker 2: it's a lot of fun. Yeah. When did you first
Speaker 2: see the movie, Erica?
Speaker 1: I want to say I was probably in high school. Okay,
Speaker 1: Paul's gonna make fun of me again. You know that thing,
Speaker 1: that typical thing on a Sunday afternoon when you're seven
Speaker 1: eight years old, PLoP yourself in front of the old
Speaker 1: TV and watch her.
Speaker 2: You get a hot mug of apple cider, and you
Speaker 2: you make sure your bones are wrapped up in a
Speaker 2: nice afgham.
Speaker 1: So I went through a Hitchcock phase when I was
Speaker 1: in high school. Apple sauce because your teeth hurt. That's right,
Speaker 1: you have to take your dentures out to eat your food.
Speaker 2: I went.
Speaker 1: I think we talked about this in Psycho, I'm sure,
Speaker 1: but I obviously love Alfred Hitchcock films, and I don't
Speaker 1: remember the first one I saw. I think it was
Speaker 1: probably Psycho or Rear Window. And so I went through
Speaker 1: a phase where I was just watching all the Hitchcock
Speaker 1: movies and obviously this is in there. Is it the
Speaker 1: best Hitchcock movie? No, but it's you know, I'd make
Speaker 1: it top ten. I would put it in the top
Speaker 1: ten easily.
Speaker 2: It's also just very like you can feel the experimentation
Speaker 2: in it, like the fact that the long cuts like
Speaker 2: that you can see the director trying to do something
Speaker 2: interesting yep, and lots of times I don't like movies
Speaker 2: where you can like feel the director's thumb. I kind
Speaker 2: of feel like the director's job is to allow me
Speaker 2: to fall into the story without feeling all the machinations
Speaker 2: around it. But maybe because it's so much like theater,
Speaker 2: which is so much less realistic than a movie is
Speaker 2: meant to be or a movie can be, it didn't
Speaker 2: bother me here, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so how about you? When did you first
Speaker 1: see Rope?
Speaker 2: I first saw it yesterday. This is not when I avoided.
Speaker 2: This is not when I honestly hadn't heard about it.
Speaker 1: Until it's a third tier or second tier Hitchcock. It's
Speaker 1: not like when you think Hitchcock, you think of the Vertigo,
Speaker 1: rear window, Psycho, north By Northwest, like the birds even
Speaker 1: maybe and then this falls in. This falls in with
Speaker 1: the other ones with notorious suspicion, like like you know,
Speaker 1: Trouble with Harry, like those movies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I had heard about it a lot. Is
Speaker 2: just a queer cinema classic for lack of electorate, It
Speaker 2: is definitely queer cinema. Alfred Hitchcock was, as we've discussed,
Speaker 2: I believe it seemed to have an eye out for
Speaker 2: the for the blonde ladies, for the blonde ladies, yes,
Speaker 2: but also an interest I think in marginalized communities. I
Speaker 2: think you know something there, So I like Arthur Laurence said,
Speaker 2: like they knew that they were filmed. This was a
Speaker 2: gay couple that was at the center of this story.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but I think even when I was
Speaker 1: a kid and I was watching this, I mean I
Speaker 1: wasn't a kid kid, I was probably seventeen or whatever,
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, they're gay. Like I think, even
Speaker 1: though it's not overtly experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the only way I could think that you would
Speaker 2: interpret this and not see them as gay would be
Speaker 2: if you literally, I'm not even saying this to accuse
Speaker 2: anyone of this, but like, if you don't view gay
Speaker 2: relationships as a just a fundamental reality.
Speaker 1: Of the world, as a possibility, as.
Speaker 2: A possibility yet, like if you are either so sheltered
Speaker 2: or whatever that you literally don't realize that a man
Speaker 2: can be with a man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's also maybe you think because of the timeline,
Speaker 1: you're like that wouldn't possibly be allowed, and like, but
Speaker 1: it can be.
Speaker 2: Erica. The tagline for Rope was the guest to Who's
Speaker 2: dead on time? Oh? I like that. That's good.
Speaker 1: It's wordplay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's wordplay and it's pithy. That is six words,
Speaker 2: done that, and it tells you.
Speaker 1: Everything work with that hemingway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no one got paid by the word here.
Speaker 1: Charles Dickens, Shall I read the synopsis?
Speaker 2: Please deal?
Speaker 1: James Stewart, Farley Granger, and John Dall star in this
Speaker 1: Macabres spellbinder, which was inspired by a real life case of.
Speaker 2: Murder murder, most foul.
Speaker 1: Two thrill seeking friends Granger and Doll friends friends, quote unquote.
Speaker 2: Friends, sisters, We're close, close.
Speaker 1: Strangle a classmate and then hold a party for their victims,
Speaker 1: family and friends, serving refreshments on a buffet table fashioned
Speaker 1: from a trunk containing the lifeless body. When dinner conversation
Speaker 1: revolves around talk of quote unquote, the perfect murder, their
Speaker 1: former teacher, Jimmy Stewart, becomes increasingly suspicious that his students
Speaker 1: have turned his intellectual theories into brutal reality.
Speaker 3: Mm.
Speaker 1: Excellent, that's good. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Paul, do you have
Speaker 1: an actual synopsis for Rope?
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm glad you asked, Erica. The actual synopsis for
Speaker 2: Rope is two fancy boys attempt to plan the perfect murder,
Speaker 2: but they can't stop stepping on Rakes. I have to say,
Speaker 2: when I first watched it, I was expecting something really
Speaker 2: tense and really gripping, kind of in the way that
Speaker 2: Psycho is. And the fact of the matter is these
Speaker 2: two Jabbronis are terrible at this.
Speaker 1: You know, they're so bad at crime that they should
Speaker 1: like this is embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for book.
Speaker 2: This is not their calling. This is not their calling.
Speaker 2: John Dahl should be playing a gossip columnist that everybody hates,
Speaker 2: and Farley Granger should just go be aiano player like
Speaker 2: that actually is his calling. Quietly sit in the corner
Speaker 2: by the piano. That's where they would be happy.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel bad that they it went so
Speaker 1: wrong the first time because they're never going to get
Speaker 1: a second shot at crime now, that's right, they're going
Speaker 1: away for life. By the way, just a heads up,
Speaker 1: this is based loosely on Leopold and Loeb right, very loosely,
Speaker 1: very very loosely. But if you if you're curious about that,
Speaker 1: because I know it was brought up earlier, just google it.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a bummer of a story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I and yeah, if you don't know, maybe enjoy
Speaker 2: your ignorance. It's not a happy tale.
Speaker 1: They were gay too, though, right they were Oh okay, so.
Speaker 2: Well they were lovers. I don't know they were.
Speaker 1: Well, this is true, just because you never know, you
Speaker 1: never never know. It does make a little bit of
Speaker 1: sense that the play from the jump has them as
Speaker 1: lovers totally, because you know what, finally we have real
Speaker 1: representation when you can show queer people being terrible.
Speaker 2: Look, we cannot forget that gay people can be assholes.
Speaker 1: Gay people can be bad at things too, including crime.
Speaker 2: Including crime. They can be nasty bitches, and we have
Speaker 2: to remember that even though they deserve equal rights. But
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean they're good people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're equally terrible.
Speaker 2: From all of us. All right, everyone stick around. If
Speaker 2: you are a patron, you can you're just gonna slide
Speaker 2: right into the next section of the podcast. But if
Speaker 2: you're not, you're gonna hear a couple of ads. If
Speaker 2: you don't want to hear those ads, you can join
Speaker 2: our Patreon at the three, five or ten dollars dollar
Speaker 2: level and you won't have to hear them. Everyone, just
Speaker 2: stick around. We're gonna come right back, and we're gonna
Speaker 2: take you through rope and we're back We open with
Speaker 2: a shot on a Manhattan street far below, and the
Speaker 2: camera starts to pan and we realize that we're on
Speaker 2: the roof of a building. And suddenly we hear a
Speaker 2: scream ring out and the camera finds the covered windows
Speaker 2: of a penthouse apartment. We cut inside to witness the
Speaker 2: final moments of young David Kent as he strangled to
Speaker 2: death with a rope by two of his former prep
Speaker 2: school classmates, Brandon Shaw played by John dol and Philip
Speaker 2: Morgan played by Farley Granger. Twas Philip and Brandon in
Speaker 2: the penthouse with a rope, the titular rope. Yeah you will,
Speaker 2: thank you. As Philip twists the rope, Brandon checks for
Speaker 2: a heartbeat and feels none. David collapses and the two
Speaker 2: load his body into a large antique wooden chest a
Speaker 2: casone if you Will, in the center of their living
Speaker 2: room slash crime scene. One of my favorite little things
Speaker 2: about this movie is that it's a play, right, so
Speaker 2: it's a fourth wall situation, but it seems like that
Speaker 2: chest is just sitting like in the center of their
Speaker 2: living room.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's against the wall at all, because people, I think, no,
Speaker 1: no one crosses, no.
Speaker 2: One crosses in front of it.
Speaker 1: But the way it feels like you could And.
Speaker 2: There's one long shot where it's held very tightly and
Speaker 2: it's kind of looking past it and you can see
Speaker 2: that the room continues. Yeah, so it's not there's not
Speaker 2: a fourth wall there. It's not leaning up against the wall.
Speaker 1: It's a loft apartment, huge space, but a giant credenza
Speaker 1: in the middle of the I think anthropology Cellsy's. Actually
Speaker 1: they probably give buy it with or without David Kentley's
Speaker 1: body inside.
Speaker 2: I frankly expect better decor from my fancy boys.
Speaker 1: It is ugly.
Speaker 2: It's ugly.
Speaker 1: It's maybe look, maybe it's an antique.
Speaker 2: Sure, you know he does say found it while he
Speaker 2: was antique in Italy.
Speaker 1: You know, you know how the sissies love antique.
Speaker 2: If you have it, if you have an antique shop
Speaker 2: and a Nancy is inside of it, it's actually not
Speaker 2: an antique shop.
Speaker 1: It's not even an antique shop.
Speaker 2: You need one of us.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you asked me earlier, what's the most overtly
Speaker 1: homosexual moment in the movie. I am telling you this.
Speaker 1: The look of ecstasy on their faces, even the look
Speaker 1: of ecstasy on David the victim's face.
Speaker 2: Oh you think it's an autoerotic asphyxiation. No, I don't.
Speaker 1: I really really don't. Although I'm sure Hitchcock knew his
Speaker 1: way around that too, I wouldn't be surprised. But it's
Speaker 1: almost like an act of like sexual arousal gone crazy.
Speaker 2: Ah okay, I think.
Speaker 1: There's something there. I don't know if I'm making it up,
Speaker 1: but I feel like less so Philip. But Brandon and
Speaker 1: David look like they are in a moment of ecstasy.
Speaker 2: Like they're coming locked.
Speaker 1: I'm being classic, I'm not, and they're shooting ropes, and
Speaker 1: so to me, it's so funny. Like again, seventeen year
Speaker 1: old me is like.
Speaker 2: Huh huh, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm picking up on some I'm picking up on a
Speaker 1: vibe here, you guys.
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, because you definitely get it from Brandon. Like
Speaker 2: Brandon spends the majority of this movie painfully erect, Like
Speaker 2: he should.
Speaker 1: Call a doctor into that his erection has lasted more
Speaker 1: than four hours.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he has to contact his PCP immediately. But like,
Speaker 2: I didn't get that from I mean, I didn't really
Speaker 2: look at deep not out of To be clear, this
Speaker 2: is not gory. It's not realistic looking, like it's not
Speaker 2: it's not scary, it's.
Speaker 1: So unrealistic looking that I swear to god, David looks
Speaker 1: alive until the moment he like he falls limp.
Speaker 2: He's like, oh yeah, yeah. But I didn't get that
Speaker 2: so much from Philip, who is who looks almost horrified
Speaker 2: while he's doing it, like he can't.
Speaker 1: If you don't look horrified, are you even doing it right?
Speaker 2: Why else do you keep the lights out?
Speaker 1: If you don't look deeply ashamed, then what are we
Speaker 1: even doing here?
Speaker 2: Oh that's really interesting. I'm going to think about that
Speaker 2: as we as we chatt.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are others, for sure, but I get
Speaker 1: there's something about this opening tableau that just screams sure
Speaker 1: eroticism in a way that it's not supposed to be,
Speaker 1: like like you know, like an old painting of a
Speaker 1: fucking like saint being like torture. You always have this
Speaker 1: look of face on their face like they're coming yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's like the ecstasy of Saint Aloysius or.
Speaker 2: Whatever it's it's it's uh, it's Margaret White and Carrie one.
Speaker 1: Hundred and so it has that. And so I got that,
Speaker 1: like kind of.
Speaker 2: David came for a petite more and he got a big, more, deeply.
Speaker 1: Catholic take on all of this nonsense.
Speaker 2: Gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 1: In the immediate aftermath of the murder murder, a division
Speaker 1: between the two immediately shows Brandon is exhilarated. He lights
Speaker 1: up a cigarette again.
Speaker 2: I mean again, I one on Brandon, brash.
Speaker 4: Brandon, he lights a cigarette. He's like, oh, I've never
Speaker 4: felt so Alie. Yeah, Philip is anxious. He's like, can
Speaker 4: can can we stay hidden in the dark for a
Speaker 4: few more minutes because Brandon wants to open the windows
Speaker 4: right away, and Brandon gives him a moment, and then
Speaker 4: he opens the penthouse curtains, letting the sunshine in this
Speaker 4: set is stunning.
Speaker 1: It's not real. I understand, it's not even filmed in
Speaker 1: New York now till my brain just went, oh, I
Speaker 1: want that apartment.
Speaker 2: There's such a painted backdrop. Because the clouds don't move
Speaker 2: the entire.
Speaker 1: Time, the clouds that move, the buildings are not where
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be. The Empire State Building is not
Speaker 1: in the right place, and I'm like, I don't care.
Speaker 1: Brandon goes on to talk about how they should make
Speaker 1: the glass that David took his last drink from a
Speaker 1: museum piece. I guess if you're going to commit a murder,
Speaker 1: be excited about it.
Speaker 2: I didn't think I could nut again this quickly, But
Speaker 2: here I am nutting in my pants.
Speaker 1: Two nut boys. I'm gonna invent newgates Lang today, nut
Speaker 1: boys works. Two nut boys. These two, these two nut boys,
Speaker 1: these Macadamias are out here committing murders. But like, you know,
Speaker 1: it would be insulting if you murdered me and weren't
Speaker 1: and weren't like this, This is the last soda Erica drank.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I bet I better not fucking be an incidental murder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, this is Paul's last toothpick. You can still
Speaker 1: see the food he picked out of his teeth with it.
Speaker 1: There's a great line here where where He's like, this
Speaker 1: is his last whiskey glass, and Brandon's like it was
Speaker 1: out of character for Javid to drink whiskey. It's almost
Speaker 1: as if he knew, and then Philip just chimes in
Speaker 1: with was also out of character for him to be
Speaker 1: murdered too. Best line in the movie.
Speaker 2: Philip's a real Debbie Downer.
Speaker 1: The best line in the movie is wasted in the
Speaker 1: first minute. It's excellent. Yeah, he really has a you mind.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to enjoy my murder here.
Speaker 2: So Philip can basically only stare at the makeshift coffin
Speaker 2: in the center of their room. He laments that the
Speaker 2: lock on the chest doesn't work. He wishes they had
Speaker 2: chosen a different victim. Okay, so these performances are big. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't think they're bad. I think they're big. I
Speaker 2: prefer the Philip performance because I think he kind of
Speaker 2: like finds a slightly different mode the branded performance. John
Speaker 2: Doll is playing so evil. It is doctor Doom at
Speaker 2: all time. He is ready to like Monola is Magneto
Speaker 2: like like it is, it's Miranda Priestley. It is comic
Speaker 2: book super villain level of evil. He's so happy. And
Speaker 2: John Dahl has resting villain face like he just has.
Speaker 2: He has those high arched yeah, and he looks the
Speaker 2: part and he is so delighted in himself. Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1: I think before we started, I knew you hadn't seen
Speaker 1: the movie before, so I was like, Farley Granger Warning
Speaker 1: gives a terrible performance. And then I watched it again
Speaker 1: this week. I watched this movie recently. I probably watched
Speaker 1: it maybe six eight months ago or something like that,
Speaker 1: and I just remembered Farley Granger not being good in it,
Speaker 1: And then I watched it again, like yesterday for this
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm wrong. He's jarringly over the
Speaker 1: top in the first five minutes of the movie. But
Speaker 1: then I feel like he finds a rhythm because I
Speaker 1: think as a consequence of the style in which it's filmed,
Speaker 1: it's filmed in order, and so I think he settles
Speaker 1: into the performance. It's almost like it really is a
Speaker 1: theatrical performance they're giving, and so he's pitched it like
Speaker 1: the cheap seats for the first minutes of the movie,
Speaker 1: and then he pulls it back. I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: not a hundred percent on John Dahl, but I know
Speaker 1: Farley Granger came from theater. Yeah, so it was is
Speaker 1: shocking because he's so beautiful. I'm like, you have a
Speaker 1: face for movies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what are you doing? He's gorgeous?
Speaker 1: Are you wasting your time in the theater? But I
Speaker 1: agree with you. I think he gives an excellent performance.
Speaker 1: I remembered it wrong. I remembered it as like terrible,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, it's actually quite good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, So Philip laments he wishes they had
Speaker 2: chosen different victim, and Brandon sneers, and Phillip says, maybe
Speaker 2: it should have been you, Brandon, and the look on
Speaker 2: Brandon's face it makes him back off this position immediately.
Speaker 2: He stammers an apology. He protests that he was always
Speaker 2: scared of Brandon, even when they first met in prep school,
Speaker 2: and he asks if he can have a drink. He
Speaker 2: asks permission to have a drink from Brandon, and Brandon says,
Speaker 2: by all means this is an occasion it calls for champagne.
Speaker 1: Wit way. This is their shared apartment. Yeah, it makes
Speaker 1: it very clear from the beginning these two are quote
Speaker 1: unquote their roommates, Paul.
Speaker 2: Their roommates, their roommates. They are roomies.
Speaker 1: There are roomies the one bedroom apartment. But like it's
Speaker 1: so in his own apartment. He's like, may I have
Speaker 1: a cocktail please?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The two of them head into the kitchen to retrieve
Speaker 1: a bottle, and the camera follows them. I love the
Speaker 1: camera work in this. Its like you can they don't
Speaker 1: have steady cams back then. You can literally see it
Speaker 1: bounce a little bit as the camera guy has to
Speaker 1: like move it across the track. Brandon wax is on
Speaker 1: about he always wished for a more artistic talent, the
Speaker 1: way the way Philip has later Philip is a great
Speaker 1: classical pianist. Right, he's a real pianist. I knew that
Speaker 1: would make you laugh. I knew it. It's so dumb,
Speaker 1: It's so dumb. Is that another euphemism for gay?
Speaker 2: Is there a real pianist.
Speaker 1: A classical pianist, Yeah, classical classical pianist. If you're by
Speaker 1: you're a jazz pianist.
Speaker 2: Which way it's gonna go? Aventure?
Speaker 1: It uses all of the notes.
Speaker 2: Yes, right at the same time. So he says, if
Speaker 2: you're straight, vagina.
Speaker 1: If you're straight, you're a kazoo. You just have one note.
Speaker 2: Not so.
Speaker 1: Brandon's like, I wish I'd always had a more artistic talent.
Speaker 1: But maybe this is it. Maybe my my talent for
Speaker 1: killing is just as satisfying as a talent for creating.
Speaker 1: It's basically the same thing. It's like I gave birth
Speaker 1: to David, but in reverse.
Speaker 2: Okay, surege Anne spinning. Brandon is a sociopath and so entertaining,
Speaker 2: a completely unrepentant sociopath in every way.
Speaker 1: In every way, and so bad at it. That's that's
Speaker 1: why it's funny. He would be terrifying if he was
Speaker 1: good at it, if he was, but he's bad at it.
Speaker 2: I was, we were talking. I was like, if they
Speaker 2: pitched these performances down, the movie could get really scared.
Speaker 2: What happens in this movie is horror, Like, like, ye,
Speaker 2: what the plans?
Speaker 1: They actually do an.
Speaker 2: Act absolutely stomach churningly horrifying. And I don't know if
Speaker 2: this is maybe a consequence of the style or the
Speaker 2: performances or certain choices being made. If they took these
Speaker 2: down and made these two good at crime and good
Speaker 2: at covering this up, they would be two of the
Speaker 2: most terrifying characters ever put on screen. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I would have loved to have seen Hitchcock do a
Speaker 1: second version of this without the gimmick of the one
Speaker 1: shot where he actually uses cuts and he gets in
Speaker 1: close ups and like, really he does use close ups here,
Speaker 1: but like using all your usual tricks of the trade,
Speaker 1: like not hamstringing himself with this. Again, I like that
Speaker 1: it's filmed this way, but I think you're right I
Speaker 1: think it's a different movie if they're given an opportunity
Speaker 1: to play small.
Speaker 2: And to be good, to be good at crime. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but like, I wouldn't be against a remake of this
Speaker 2: movie with a really strong different take on it. To
Speaker 2: make these two.
Speaker 1: Good lesbians, I want lesbian Oh my god, and.
Speaker 2: Stuart and Sarah Paulson.
Speaker 1: Oh no, Sarah Paulson has to play the Jimmy Stewart part.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's right.
Speaker 1: She would be she would be amazing in the Jimmy
Speaker 1: Stewart part.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 1: Ariana Debo's perfect. And Kristin Stewart uh huh. It's the
Speaker 1: problem with the David role as there's no you don't
Speaker 1: get a line. But I think you could have really
Speaker 1: fun stunt casting here.
Speaker 2: Yeah they kill Drew Barrymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you could you get really fun stunt
Speaker 1: casting here. They killed Rene.
Speaker 2: Rap Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1: An all lesbian production, yeah, of rope, Please God make
Speaker 1: this happen. Please. I don't ask for much.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: I really don't, I really don't. But but I want
Speaker 1: an all female just a gender swapped rope, yes, but
Speaker 1: also actually queer actresses in every role.
Speaker 2: Give it to Luca Guadanino or something like or give
Speaker 2: it to Brian fall Yes, yeah, it would be the
Speaker 2: most fucked up thing you ever saw.
Speaker 1: Give it. Give it to Lisa Chilladenko. Sure, get her,
Speaker 1: get her filthy omits on this. I want I want
Speaker 1: to see it.
Speaker 2: I want to see it.
Speaker 1: You know what, I'm breaking my rule. If Kate Blanchette
Speaker 1: wants to be in it, she's allowed.
Speaker 2: Kate Blanchett is always allowed to be in it.
Speaker 1: Always a looved she is an honorary lesbian.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're about to hit Erica. My favorite gay implication,
Speaker 2: homosexual implication of the movie. They get the champagne bottle
Speaker 2: and they're just standing and because of the way it's
Speaker 2: shot and it's it's a tight frame, all of these
Speaker 2: conversations that we're going to describe for the rest of
Speaker 2: the movie. The people are going to be so close
Speaker 2: to each other but they're talking, but they're they're standing
Speaker 2: like shoulder to shoulder, and in between them is this
Speaker 2: champagne bottle. And Brandon John Doll is just like fondling
Speaker 2: this and down. I mean he's quote unquote trying to
Speaker 2: open it. I've never seen anything look less likely to
Speaker 2: open a champagne bottle. He's he's jerking off that champagne.
Speaker 1: At one point, Farley Grainger grabs it from it. It's like,
Speaker 1: I'll open this, wasting everyone's time. No, you are one
Speaker 1: hundred percent right, he is. So he's so aroused. Hitchcock
Speaker 1: was like, how far we go with like the implications
Speaker 1: and the like insinuations before I have to pull it
Speaker 1: back where I'm like, well, now we're gonna get shut down.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So he fondles the champagne and celebrates the murder. They've
Speaker 1: just killed David for the sake of danger and killing,
Speaker 1: and it came off perfectly. Sure did, Bob, Sure did.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you ever heard that saying about
Speaker 2: putting the cart before the horse. Uh huh yeah, counting
Speaker 2: your chickens prior to them breaking out of their shells,
Speaker 2: all that stuff.
Speaker 1: All that, Oh that, all that is happening. Brandon asks
Speaker 1: Philip if he's still frightened, and Philip says no. Then
Speaker 1: the champagne pops release and they toast, and Brandon says
Speaker 1: to David, of course, with a gleeful smile on his face,
Speaker 1: I'm really into this movie. I like these evil queers.
Speaker 2: Me too, Philip, And this is a real twist. Philip asks,
Speaker 2: do you think the party is a mistake?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 1: I think they might be straight. This might be, he
Speaker 1: might be. He's wait, you don't want to have a party.
Speaker 1: Hang on, hang on, there's a theme and everything.
Speaker 2: We have a we have we built the whole day
Speaker 2: around it. A Brandon assures Philip that having it is
Speaker 2: like the signature of the artist, but he does lament
Speaker 2: how boring the party guests are. But they had to
Speaker 2: invite the kent Ley's. They are, after all, David's mother
Speaker 2: and father, and David is the guest of honor.
Speaker 1: Amazing, right, that line is so chilling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like, what the fuck? Plus they invited Janet,
Speaker 2: who has set her sights on marrying David, and Brandon
Speaker 2: can barely contain his laughter when he comments that he
Speaker 2: doesn't think she's gonna succeed in getting him. Now, I'm
Speaker 2: doing my Prince John laugh from animated Robin Hood. You
Speaker 2: won't get this, but the listeners will.
Speaker 1: Ah ah, I am still amused, thank you.
Speaker 2: And then he has an idea he hasn't. He's like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, just got better. I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 2: nut again.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cash you all over this place.
Speaker 2: He tells Philip to take the other candlog u and
Speaker 2: follow him. That may be the gayest sentence I've ever
Speaker 2: said in my life. Take the other candelabra and follow me.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2: Everyone grab the candelabra.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think even ever said that these
Speaker 1: men are gayer than Liberaci. Brandon leeds Philip back to
Speaker 1: the main room, and they set the two candelabras on
Speaker 1: the wood chest that contains David's corpse on the west elm,
Speaker 1: on the anthropology off oak chest that contains their best
Speaker 1: friend slash slaves corpse. This is my canon.
Speaker 2: David was their slave, gotcha sex slaves save to be clear, consensually.
Speaker 1: Until then it went, it went. How how long do
Speaker 1: you think David was like? Okay, when they were like,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna put this rope around your neck.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I'm gonna tell you Erica, it was a
Speaker 2: long time because he screams and then he's dead in
Speaker 2: the space of five seconds.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: They put on gloves and he's like, this is gonna
Speaker 1: be fun.
Speaker 2: This is gonna be awesome. This The marks all over
Speaker 2: my body for me smacking me are gonna be so
Speaker 2: much better with Swede.
Speaker 1: If you think about it, truly, this man, sorry what
Speaker 1: you said.
Speaker 2: Just hit me. Spanking is so underrated these days.
Speaker 1: Just just like just hitting himself with a Swede cat
Speaker 1: of nine tails, just if you think about it. David
Speaker 1: walked into this apartment where the blinds were all closed
Speaker 1: and these two put gloves on, and he was like, yes,
Speaker 1: let's party. He definitely was there for sex.
Speaker 2: Yeah, honestly, you're selling me on it. You are selling
Speaker 2: me on it for.
Speaker 1: So okay, Brandon is now is sexually aroused by another idea.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,
Speaker 1: Phil up, let's serve dinner on the chest with the
Speaker 1: corpse on it. Philip is like that's gross, but he's like,
Speaker 1: at least it will reduce the likelihood of someone opening
Speaker 1: the chest during the party, being like what's in here,
Speaker 1: and like wa, He's like, fine, we'll put the fucking
Speaker 1: dinner on the chest, even though that is the grossest
Speaker 1: thing ever. And Brandon's like, I'm coming, shut the fuck up, wait,
Speaker 1: give you a second. Okay, Yeah, the two hurry and move
Speaker 1: things into the living room.
Speaker 2: I'm about to blow the back out of these pants.
Speaker 1: I'm about to almond joy all over this place. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna stick with this nut name until please do.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, So they're like, we have to hurry before missus
Speaker 1: Wilson gets back right now, we're hearing about a lady,
Speaker 1: Missus Wilson. Brandon says, they'll layout the books, which was
Speaker 1: the excuse they had for inviting mister Kentley over anyway,
Speaker 1: dog David's father a bunch of antique books. They are
Speaker 1: in their house. Not gay man at all, you know,
Speaker 1: not gay at all, not gay at all, just but
Speaker 1: just two guys living together, two bachelors or.
Speaker 2: A collection of first editions.
Speaker 1: With the collection of antique books.
Speaker 2: And that's what's behind the candelabra set of antique fucking books.
Speaker 1: Haha. So they put the books on the dining table
Speaker 1: and the food on the chest.
Speaker 2: Yep, the bell rings. Brandon goes to answer it while
Speaker 2: Philip gathers the books, and while gathering them, he sees
Speaker 2: the murder weapon, the titular rope is hanging out of
Speaker 2: the chests. This is the first rate. You're like, Okay,
Speaker 2: you didn't think this through. Why Why is the murder
Speaker 2: weapon still with the corpse?
Speaker 1: Yeah, like around his neck.
Speaker 2: The number one you would think, where's the murder weapon?
Speaker 2: That's like problem Numero uno. After you murdered someone, how
Speaker 2: did we do it? Let's figure out how to clean.
Speaker 1: That up, how to get rid of that murder weapon.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know if you ever played the game
Speaker 2: Clue or seen the movie Erica I am, but the
Speaker 2: murder weapons play an enormous role.
Speaker 1: So it's missus Wilson in the kitchen with a candilabra.
Speaker 2: Candelabra gay clue one of the the murder movie a kindleabra.
Speaker 1: I think actually in regular clue, that's a candlestick. It's oh,
Speaker 1: let's gay understood. Yeah, gay clue would have a kind
Speaker 1: of labra. The wrench would be.
Speaker 2: The lead pipe is a dildo. The wrench is a
Speaker 2: butt plug. Uh huh uh huh right. I don't know
Speaker 2: why people reduce gay people to the sex they have.
Speaker 2: I don't know. So it's so like basic.
Speaker 1: I think the wrench is a Stanley cup, the pistol
Speaker 1: is a thoroughgun.
Speaker 2: And the rope is a golden girl's throw.
Speaker 1: The rope is a boa used once back in Pee
Speaker 1: Town during that party.
Speaker 2: Will do lesbian clue later.
Speaker 1: The lesbian clue is still a lead pipe and a wrench.
Speaker 2: That's true, that's true.
Speaker 1: The rope is a tool belt, the gun is a dildo.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: It all still kind of trucks.
Speaker 2: It works, it works, yeah, okay. So Philip sees the
Speaker 2: rope hanging out of the of the cassone and he
Speaker 2: starts to panic. He is holding on by a thread.
Speaker 2: Brandon stalks over. He yanks the rope out of the
Speaker 2: chest and he tells Philip to get a hold of himself.
Speaker 2: He reminds Philip that they agreed the only crime either
Speaker 2: of them could commit would be making a mistake, and
Speaker 2: weakness is a mistake. And Philip asks, is that because
Speaker 2: it's human? And Brandon snaps back, no, because it's ordinary.
Speaker 2: I love that exchange. Excellent, That like shows you everything.
Speaker 2: Brandon genuinely believes he is a superior being. Uh huh,
Speaker 2: and Philip is so enthrall of him that he just
Speaker 2: wants to live up to this person who has enraptured him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I bet you. Ten minutes before the murder,
Speaker 1: Philip was all in.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Philip was like, this is great. We are better than everyone.
Speaker 1: We're smarter, yeah, we're you know, we were just fundamentally
Speaker 1: better than our idiot friends. And then the minute it
Speaker 1: was over, he was like, well, that didn't feel as
Speaker 1: good as I thought it would. Frankly, title of My
Speaker 1: Sex Safe. Missus Wilson played by Edith Evanson, the men's housekeeper.
Speaker 1: Very cool housekeeper, it's.
Speaker 2: So chill cool. She knows they're living together, and she
Speaker 2: must be aware of the bedroom situation. Fine, yeah, they
Speaker 2: because they later referred to it, the phone is in
Speaker 2: the bedroom.
Speaker 1: Really, I did not.
Speaker 2: Catch that my bedroom. It's not in Phillip's bedroom. It's
Speaker 2: in the bedroom the bedroom.
Speaker 1: Interesting. So Missus Wilson enters. She's completed an errand they
Speaker 1: sent her off on the errand was to buy pet.
Speaker 2: She she keeps calling Patty, which I'm I'm assuming is
Speaker 2: just how they said it back then.
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's like, I went to that
Speaker 1: good Jewish bakery downtown, Jewish jelly downtown to get it right.
Speaker 1: She is none too pleased to see that her carefully
Speaker 1: laid table has been moved to an antique chest in
Speaker 1: the living room. She says, it now looks just downright peculiar.
Speaker 1: A buffet in the living room, a buffet growth gross.
Speaker 2: Pete, pete, and the certainly not.
Speaker 1: Brandon is basically mister Burns at this point, right, he
Speaker 1: is like rubbing his hands together and being like, it
Speaker 1: looks like a ceremonial altar for I don't know, sacrificial feasts,
Speaker 1: and Missus Wilson's like, I guess, okay. She goes off
Speaker 1: to complete her pre party tasks while Brandon takes the
Speaker 1: murder weapon, the rope, and stores it in the kitchen drawer.
Speaker 1: This is my favorite shot in the movie.
Speaker 2: Incredible shot.
Speaker 1: It is so cool. So the camera follows Brandon as
Speaker 1: he walks into the kitchen. The kitchen has a swinging door.
Speaker 1: He goes into the kitchen and he's talking to Missus
Speaker 1: Wilson the whole time. The door's kind of closed, and
Speaker 1: then it swings open. Only the audience can see it,
Speaker 1: and we see Brandon just like dropping the rope into
Speaker 1: a kitchen drawer and closing the drawer. So he's not
Speaker 1: like he was holding the rope in front of Missus Wilson.
Speaker 1: He had it in his pocket, and so you know this,
Speaker 1: this slight crisis has been now been averted.
Speaker 2: Oh, he's not in his pocket. He's swinging around. Well,
Speaker 2: he's talking to her.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, Yeah, he is. Of course, why would
Speaker 1: hid it? He doesn't have to hide it. He's committed
Speaker 1: the perfect crime, Paul.
Speaker 2: Of course. Missus Wilson is surprised that they're putting out
Speaker 2: the champagne. After all, they only have champagne at mister
Speaker 2: Cadell's at very high occasions. So that this a little
Speaker 2: more backstory. She used to work for a man named
Speaker 2: mister Cadell, and now she works for Brandon and Philip. Right,
Speaker 2: Brandon says that mister Cadell is actually joining them that evening,
Speaker 2: and Missus Wilson, oh, she is excited. She loves mister Cadell.
Speaker 1: Everyone loves mister Cadell. He's a hoot.
Speaker 2: He's a hoot. Philip, on the other hand, is not pleased.
Speaker 2: The two men carry plates into the living room, and
Speaker 2: Philip chides Brandon for inviting Rupert Cadell, the person most
Speaker 2: likely to suspect them, and brand responds that actually Rupert
Speaker 2: is the person most likely to see the events of
Speaker 2: the day from their perspective. He even thought of inviting
Speaker 2: Rupert on their little adventure, but eventually concluded that he
Speaker 2: didn't have the courage to carry it through like they did.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 2: Interesting, who is this Rupert? Who is this Rupert Cadell?
Speaker 1: The bell rings and Brandon in tones? Now the fun begins.
Speaker 2: Okay, if I got murdered and someone later was like,
Speaker 2: now the fun, he wasn't fun.
Speaker 1: You didn have fun before?
Speaker 2: Fuck you?
Speaker 1: We're having fun now, aren't we.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm gonna haunt your ass.
Speaker 1: First to arrive is Kenneth Lawrence, played by aptly named
Speaker 1: Douglas Dick.
Speaker 2: There's a few shots in this where I know it's
Speaker 2: it's not the actor. It's it's like the technicolor, the hair,
Speaker 2: the hair, and like his skin tone. I think it
Speaker 2: happens when he's in shadow. I don't know if he
Speaker 2: has like maybe he has like a really olive skin
Speaker 2: tone or something, but he almost looks.
Speaker 1: Gold yes gray or gray.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, like like the skin tone is wrong, and
Speaker 2: it's not all the time. There are times where he
Speaker 2: just looks like a normal blonde boy. Yeah, it's totally fine,
Speaker 2: but sometimes the color just goes off and also.
Speaker 1: The hair turns like orange in certain lighting is not
Speaker 1: good for poor Douglas Dick this film. I mean, I
Speaker 1: get it, like they had to light everyone right, It's
Speaker 1: not like they had specific lighting to make certain skin
Speaker 1: tones and like certain air colors look good. And he
Speaker 1: is the only like blonde ginger guy in the whole.
Speaker 2: Movie, and he's paying the price.
Speaker 1: So Kenneth is an old classmate of theirs. He's also
Speaker 1: surprised at the champagne and asks if someone is celebrating
Speaker 1: a birthday, and Brandon says, it's almost just the opposite. Excellent.
Speaker 1: He covers it by saying, fill up. The pianist is
Speaker 1: headed upstate for a while to rehearse in peace for
Speaker 1: a big concert he has coming up. So it's a
Speaker 1: going away party that we're having today for Philip. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why hence the champagne and the revelry. Kenneth asks
Speaker 1: who else is coming, and Brandon liss off David Kentley,
Speaker 1: his parents, and Janet Walker.
Speaker 2: And he practically looks at him and he's like, do
Speaker 2: you have your response to that? But Janet Walker, this
Speaker 2: is a messy bit. This is the apotheosis of a
Speaker 2: messy bitch who loves drama. It is not enough for
Speaker 2: him to murder somebody and then like gleefully have people eat.
Speaker 1: Like his parents eat off the and.
Speaker 2: He has to stir the pot to entertain himself additionally
Speaker 2: on top of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Kenneth gets very sober, very quickly, and Brandon's like,
Speaker 1: what's wrong, Kenneth, don't you I thought you'd be excited
Speaker 1: to see Janet.
Speaker 2: He strokes his chin, and Kenneth is like, yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you know that Janet and I are in fact
Speaker 1: broken up, We're no longer seeing each other, and and that,
Speaker 1: in fact she is now seeing David the other person
Speaker 1: coming to this party. And Brandon is like, WHOA, I
Speaker 1: had no idea, but I have an odd feeling your
Speaker 1: chances are going to improve with Janet after tonight.
Speaker 2: Can't help him, cannot help him, sir. If he's not
Speaker 2: stepping on a rake. He takes a rake, he puts
Speaker 2: it down, he steps on it, the worst criminal. But
Speaker 2: as we're talking about it, it does kind of make
Speaker 2: sense because arrogance is his is his fatal hill. Heels
Speaker 2: right like because he actually some of the things he
Speaker 2: says is right. He's like when Philip is freaking out
Speaker 2: about the rope. He's like, why would we worry about
Speaker 2: the rope. It's just a piece of rope. It's a
Speaker 2: perfectly normal thing to have in the house. It's not
Speaker 2: like a gun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't fastens into a noose. By the way,
Speaker 1: It's just a piece of rope.
Speaker 2: It's just a piece of rope. So it he's some
Speaker 2: of his instincts aren't bad, but he can't stop bragging
Speaker 2: about what he did. He wants people to know that
Speaker 2: he's pulling it off. And that's like the fatal flaw. Anyway.
Speaker 1: It's like when you walk into a party with a
Speaker 1: terrible outfit. No one says anything you like, but I'm
Speaker 1: pulling it off.
Speaker 2: Look.
Speaker 1: So anyway, Oh, this this thing, this whole thing. I
Speaker 1: got it at a consignment shop. I think it used
Speaker 1: to belong to Jackie, Oh, Jackie O'Leary.
Speaker 2: Perhaps perhaps if you're lucky. All right, So, next to
Speaker 2: arrive is Janet Walker played by Joan Chandler. Joan Chandler
Speaker 2: is in the dress. The color of the dress stunning
Speaker 2: on her maroon claret. It has big shoulder ruffles, which
Speaker 2: I actually will allow.
Speaker 1: It's nineteen forty eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's totally fine. I have to draw the line
Speaker 2: at the elbow ruffles. It's too much.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of ruffles. Ruffle. She is also it
Speaker 1: is like a high neck tight dress. Like poor woman
Speaker 1: probably was sweating balls off in this.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: This is a famous costume designer. His name is Adrian.
Speaker 1: He specifically made like glamorous gowns for films for leading actresses.
Speaker 1: That was his whole thing.
Speaker 2: What a fantastic job.
Speaker 1: I know. He yeah, like Edith Head, but a guy
Speaker 1: and specifically just like glamorous gowns. It's like, okay, kid,
Speaker 1: he didn't do all the costumes.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So this miss Chandler's gown. I saw that credit.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, okay. So she comes in. She's thrilled to
Speaker 2: meet her favorite gaze until she spots Kenneth and her
Speaker 2: face drops. The two exes attempt to make small talk
Speaker 2: until Janet has a chance to pull Brandon into the
Speaker 2: foyer and she snaps at him that his sense of
Speaker 2: humor is malicious. He knew very well that she was
Speaker 2: no longer dating Kenneth and is now dating his best
Speaker 2: friend David, and Brandon just smiles that evil devil grin
Speaker 2: and he says, well, it's hard to keep up with
Speaker 2: your romances now, Eric, I don't know if you know this,
Speaker 2: but that is how you say your being a whore
Speaker 2: is not my problem, and frankly, it's exhausting. In nineteen
Speaker 2: forty eight, your horrors ways are your problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's yeah. You're being a whore is simply not
Speaker 1: my concern. Yeah, frankly, yeah.
Speaker 2: He asks her why she dumped Kenneth, and she said
Speaker 2: David was nicer and Brandon sneers he certainly was richer,
Speaker 2: Which is how you say you being a cheap whore
Speaker 2: is exhausting and not my problem. In nineteen forty eight, did.
Speaker 1: You catch in this scene that these two used to
Speaker 1: date for a minute?
Speaker 2: Yep, for a minute.
Speaker 1: For a minute. She's like, He's like, well, how can
Speaker 1: I recall you threw you threw me over for Kenneth,
Speaker 1: and then Kenneth over for David, who can keep tracked.
Speaker 1: And then she keeps calling everyone in this film chum.
Speaker 1: She's like, Hi, chum, I chum this bitch.
Speaker 2: Nos.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's just out here like bearding for the bearding
Speaker 1: for the whole crew.
Speaker 2: She is an asexual woman who just wants to marry
Speaker 2: a rich gay man who will never bother her, So
Speaker 2: we'll let.
Speaker 1: Her live in her beautiful designer addresses forever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fine. Uh so, Janet says, that's a new
Speaker 2: low chum even for you, and she stalks back into
Speaker 2: the living room.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, back in the living room, the four discuss Rupert Cadell.
Speaker 1: They're housemaster from prep school who is now a publisher.
Speaker 2: He's a publisher of philosophy. Oh, small print, big words,
Speaker 2: no sales, excellent, much.
Speaker 1: Is made over. I don't know Brandon's relationship to Rupert
Speaker 1: at this point, and how much in Rupert's thrall Brandon
Speaker 1: was while in school, so clearly in love. Yeah with
Speaker 1: this Rupert Jenneral, it's older, brilliant man.
Speaker 2: And this is a this is this is when I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: that's the third. There's there's a line in here that
Speaker 2: no gay man is going to write unintentionally where they
Speaker 2: say he would spend all night at his master's feet. Yes, yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, okay, yes, yes, yes, there's not a
Speaker 2: gay man in the world who would write that. There
Speaker 2: are gay priests who would write that and know exactly
Speaker 2: what they were writing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's submissive. I see it. I see it now too,
Speaker 1: I see it. So Brandon tells them how talked about
Speaker 1: how murder is a crime for most men, and then
Speaker 1: he looks meaningfully at Philip and then Philip finishes the sentence,
Speaker 1: but a privilege for the few. Just like that. Philip's
Speaker 1: like not having it. He's like, stop playing this game somehow.
Speaker 2: Neither Kenneth nor Janet is like, you know what, you
Speaker 2: two are weird? Yeah, we're gonna go.
Speaker 1: There's a vibe, right, this is a weird vibe. There's
Speaker 1: a vibe at this party and I hate it.
Speaker 2: The two of you need to go into the bedroom
Speaker 2: and fuck it out and then come back so you
Speaker 2: can be fun again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, OK, because this is awful.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The buzzer sounds again and Brandon welcomes in mister
Speaker 2: Henry Kentley, who's played by Sir Cedric Hardwick, and Missus
Speaker 2: Anita Atwater played by Constance Collier. It turns out that
Speaker 2: Missus Kentley isn't feeling well, so Kentley brought his sister
Speaker 2: and said, so this is this is David's father and
Speaker 2: his aunt. Yes. They head in, and Missus Atwater immediately
Speaker 2: mistakes Kenneth for David, which causes Philip to squeeze the
Speaker 2: glass he's holding so hard it breaks and cuts his hand.
Speaker 1: Be cool, Philip, Be cool, buddy.
Speaker 2: The two newcomers also get to go to Greek Janet,
Speaker 2: who Missus Atwater excitedly tells about how she's saw on
Speaker 2: Janet's horoscope that a marriage was just around the corner.
Speaker 2: There is a line in the scene where someone, I
Speaker 2: think Brandon or Philip, asks shall I get you some
Speaker 2: champagne Missus Atwater, and Missus Atwater says, oh, I should
Speaker 2: have done some. Daddy used to have a glass every
Speaker 2: morning at eleven.
Speaker 1: Love, okay, love everything about your life. Lady, lady, teach
Speaker 1: me will I will be at this master's feet forever?
Speaker 2: Yeah, forever and ever.
Speaker 1: She's my favorite character in the movie.
Speaker 2: She's fun.
Speaker 1: She's so much fun.
Speaker 2: She's also playing enormously big for the cheap seats, but
Speaker 2: the character definitely calls for it. Yes, so it kind
Speaker 2: of even though it's big, it feels a little more
Speaker 2: realistic than some of the other stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's the fun party and she came to have
Speaker 1: parties and to like look the other way while the
Speaker 1: kids smokes cigarettes. You know, what I'm saying. Yeah, she's delightful.
Speaker 1: And I was wondering at first, I'm like, why did
Speaker 1: they Why did the writer have like the ant and
Speaker 1: not the mother show up? And I realized it's because
Speaker 1: for so long, the aunt is going to be this
Speaker 1: like buoyant character in this even when things get weird,
Speaker 1: and I think a mom would have picked up on
Speaker 1: things a lot faster. I think that's maybe why the
Speaker 1: character was made the aunt instead of the mother.
Speaker 2: And I also think it's it's too it's gruesome already.
Speaker 2: You have to you need some like if it's the
Speaker 2: mother and the father there and like they're getting more
Speaker 2: and more worried, and like they also have the father
Speaker 2: be like the voice of reason, like I'm sure he's
Speaker 2: fine the whole time, Like he doesn't ever really dip
Speaker 2: into really worried. So they have the mom off screen
Speaker 2: worrying deeply about where the where their son is, but
Speaker 2: the father is being like the stoic ones. So it
Speaker 2: allows the movie to float above the the gruesome horror
Speaker 2: of what's going on.
Speaker 1: Yep, absolutely absolutely, And it also it gives you an
Speaker 1: excuse to have this very fun, like effervescent female character
Speaker 1: that's like, oh wait, who's missing? Was how Yah, I've
Speaker 1: cheered for a party. I'm just trying to hit on
Speaker 1: Jimmy Stewart. I don't know what the rest of you
Speaker 1: are doing. Mister Kentley asks if David is already there,
Speaker 1: and Brandon's like, wait, I was expecting him to come
Speaker 1: with you. Mister Kentley responds that David had phoned him
Speaker 1: earlier to say he would meet him here at the party,
Speaker 1: and that his mother wants him to call her. Janet
Speaker 1: decides to phone missus Kentley to let her know that
Speaker 1: David has been detained. Right, so there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of like just table setting here.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Brandon sends her to the bedroom as Paul right here,
Speaker 1: I did not clock that well done the bedroom to
Speaker 1: use the phone, and he pours her a refill and
Speaker 1: sends Kenneth to deliver it. Why don't you go send
Speaker 1: Why don't you go into the bedroom with Janet and
Speaker 1: give her this champagne.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a great line here where Kenneth is like,
Speaker 2: I know what you're doing and Brendon's like what am
Speaker 2: I doing? He's like, you want me to take this
Speaker 2: drink into Janet in the bedroom and then you want
Speaker 2: David to walk in, and Brenda says, oh no, that
Speaker 2: would be too much of a shock.
Speaker 1: Funny, Dave Brandon is having the best day of his life.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Missus Atwater talks to Philip about his horoscope and
Speaker 1: he asks about the upcoming concert, his big debut, and
Speaker 1: she says she looks at his hands, and she goes,
Speaker 1: these hands will bring you great fame. She's not wrong,
Speaker 1: She's wrong, not wrong about that.
Speaker 2: Nope. Philippears the potential double meaning and starts to play
Speaker 2: the piano nervously. Right, he just needs to do something
Speaker 2: because why are we doing this? Why are we doing this?
Speaker 2: Why was this the plan? Right? Just in time for
Speaker 2: Rupert cadell One mister James Stewart to make his entrance
Speaker 2: and to compliment his playing. Rupert makes his way through
Speaker 2: the room. He's greeting everyone and when he comes to Brandon,
Speaker 2: who brings him champagne. We see Brandon nervous for the
Speaker 2: first time. He starts stammering and stuttering through his greeting.
Speaker 2: He starts nervously fondling the champagne bottle again. The way
Speaker 2: he interacts with Rupert is wildly different from the way
Speaker 2: he interacts with everybody else. Yeah, these two absolutely were fucking.
Speaker 1: These are two brazil nuts if I ever. I don't
Speaker 1: know much Paul, but I know two pecans when I
Speaker 1: see one.
Speaker 2: Haha.
Speaker 1: Missus Wilson brings out the final bit of food, and
Speaker 1: dinner is served just on top of the corpse. As
Speaker 1: everyone starts to like get some food, fix a plate,
Speaker 1: find a place to sit, Philip mentions to Janet that
Speaker 1: he doesn't eat chicken, and she wonders why, and he
Speaker 1: insists there's no reason, no reason at all. Janet, stop
Speaker 1: asking such dumb questions. Philip, you have to chill.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Ruper comments that he remembers the funny story about Philip
Speaker 1: and his reason for not eating chicken, and Brandon's like,
Speaker 1: that's right, there is a great story, and then Brandon
Speaker 1: starts to relate a story about how once Philip was
Speaker 1: trying to, you know, strangle a chicken for dinner like
Speaker 1: a normal person, and then like Lazarus, the chicken rose
Speaker 1: from that.
Speaker 2: That's a lie. They're so chill, they're keeping their cool perfectly.
Speaker 1: No one in the rest of the party thought, even
Speaker 1: though the story is weird, and macabre. Everyone was going
Speaker 1: with it, yeah, even smiling, and then Philip was like,
Speaker 1: shop lying about me.
Speaker 2: Monster. To be clear, in this story, they are on
Speaker 2: like a farm with chickens for dinner. He's not just
Speaker 2: you know, running out, running out with a live chicken
Speaker 2: strangled on Fifth Avenue.
Speaker 1: He's thirty first Street, to be like anyone wants chicken.
Speaker 1: The two of them start sniping at each other, and
Speaker 1: Rupert is looking on with interests because Rupert is a
Speaker 1: smart man.
Speaker 2: And he wants to fuck both of them, so we're told.
Speaker 1: And so he yeah, he's like, what's happening here? How
Speaker 1: can I use this to my advantage? The moment is
Speaker 1: broken when Janet laughs about how silly they're all being
Speaker 1: acting out about an old, dead chicken. God bless you, Janet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's move on because this party is awful. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I need this to not be as awful as it
Speaker 1: is being right now.
Speaker 2: Rupert comments that it seems like the two of them
Speaker 2: might have been strangling each other in a few more moments,
Speaker 2: but he supposes that a chicken is as good a
Speaker 2: reason for murder as a mattressful of money or a
Speaker 2: beautiful woman. What a fun party guest.
Speaker 1: Actually, I think it is fun. The writing is a
Speaker 1: little on the nose here, but like everyone loves that
Speaker 1: party guest that's like, okay, would you rather, and then
Speaker 1: just comes up with something weird.
Speaker 2: I will give Jimmy Stewart this. I think in the
Speaker 2: beginning of the scene he does an excellent job of
Speaker 2: kind of pitching this, so you're like, oh, he is
Speaker 2: trying to be funny. Maybe he's a little socially awkward
Speaker 2: or whatever, but he has an incredibly incredibly dry sense
Speaker 2: of humor. Yes, and he's pitching it that way. It
Speaker 2: it flips soon and I have thoughts later, But in
Speaker 2: this case I will give him like this, does I
Speaker 2: think come off like he's kind of joking.
Speaker 1: I think he comes off as joking the whole time.
Speaker 2: I disagree.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, let's get to it.
Speaker 2: So Janet scoffs that he can't really approve a murder,
Speaker 2: and he says he does think of the problems it
Speaker 2: would solve, unemployment, poverty, standing in line for theater tickets.
Speaker 1: Your husband has said almost the exact same thing to me,
Speaker 1: by the way, fair, Yeah, so don't go saying you
Speaker 1: wouldn't want this guy at your party, you fucking married him.
Speaker 2: The party enjoys his dry macab humor, and then eventually
Speaker 2: Missus Atwater wonders if this would not just mean that
Speaker 2: everybody would be murdering each other all at the time,
Speaker 2: and Rupert assure so that murder would be an art
Speaker 2: and as such the privilege of committing it should be
Speaker 2: reserved to only a few superior individuals. Basically, Missus Atwater
Speaker 2: is like, we're not gonna do a purge, right, we
Speaker 2: don't want.
Speaker 1: People invented the perge. Yes, canonically, Rupert invented the purge,
Speaker 1: and everyone seems to be pretty much on board with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's nineteen forty eight, by the way, mm hmmm, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying World War two has happened. Yeah, so this
Speaker 1: particular talk at a party seems dicey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And to the movie's credit, it does call it out.
Speaker 1: If this party were nineteen twenty eight, or or nineteen
Speaker 1: eighteen or nineteen fucking eighteen thirty two, it would be
Speaker 1: a little less like, Okay, didn't we just all have
Speaker 1: this happen? Like, could we just like stop this conversation.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because the play where it came from was
Speaker 2: written in nineteen twenty nine. Yes, so it was before
Speaker 2: all of that, and now this is adapted after that,
Speaker 2: and they call it out they have to, they have to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so how could you know it was even in
Speaker 1: my head into twenty twenty four. I can't imagine an
Speaker 1: audience in nineteen forty eight not being like, I feel
Speaker 1: really uncomfortable with all of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Brandon, who he can only get so erect, and
Speaker 2: this is he is at the apex.
Speaker 1: Of erections, this full champagne bottle. It is, it is is, yeah,
Speaker 1: Shandon and Moway.
Speaker 2: It is straining to unzip the zipper by itself from
Speaker 2: the inside.
Speaker 1: Haha. He chies is boof click going all over the room.
Speaker 1: His dam isn't pairing you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: He's pro sechoing. Brandon chimes in with his agreement. He
Speaker 2: says the victims should be inferior beings whose lives don't
Speaker 2: matter anyway, and Rupert agrees. So this is where it
Speaker 2: loses me, Like Brandon is not kidding, and Rupert continuing
Speaker 2: to agree with him, is where I'm like.
Speaker 1: Hey, I because there's no situation in which none of
Speaker 1: these people could conceive of what has actually happened, so
Speaker 1: they think they're just playing along to Brandon also playing
Speaker 1: along to Rupert's joke. He's less good at it.
Speaker 2: Sure, I actually agree. I think that's what the movie intends.
Speaker 2: I don't think it does not play for me, oh really,
Speaker 2: because it's like someone has to someone will eventually call
Speaker 2: a stop to this and call it out for being
Speaker 2: as deeply unsettling as it is. But Brandon is not
Speaker 2: attempting to joke, and he's not even trying to pretend
Speaker 2: like he's joking. He is practically jerking himself awfull. He
Speaker 2: talks about this and maybe, look, maybe that's an actor.
Speaker 2: That's an actor problem. Maybe that's a Johnt or a hitchcut. Like, no, John,
Speaker 2: you have to, like, you have to at least pretend
Speaker 2: that you're joking. You have to soften it, because to me,
Speaker 2: it's like it's him being an open sociopath and no one.
Speaker 1: Being like, well, maybe that's part of it too. For
Speaker 1: the movie, what you see in front of you, and
Speaker 1: like the daily evils you witness and choose to ignore
Speaker 1: or choose to like, No, that can't possibly be what
Speaker 1: I thought.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: The denial of evil right in front of you. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm giving the movie a lot of credit. I agree
Speaker 1: with you. If I were directing the film, I would
Speaker 1: tell him to like back it down, attach Yeah, because
Speaker 1: what I think is happening is he's being extra and
Speaker 1: everyone thinks he's joking because he's being so extra and
Speaker 1: they're they're going along with it. The performance isn't quite
Speaker 1: right for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jimmy Stewart manages it in the first half of
Speaker 2: the scene, and this half for me, it doesn't work.
Speaker 1: Oh see for me, Jimmy, I can still see a
Speaker 1: smile on Jimmy Stewart's face. He is joking, and it's
Speaker 1: to me very clear he is joking.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: He's also kind of flirting with missus Atwater in that
Speaker 1: way that.
Speaker 2: Like gay men flirt with older women to give themselves
Speaker 2: a beard.
Speaker 1: Whatever, whatever I do to get through the weekends, all
Speaker 1: that is none of your goddamn business. But no, he
Speaker 1: is like he is. He's flirting with her in a
Speaker 1: way that like he's a younger man too than she is,
Speaker 1: not much, but like he is a younger man, like
Speaker 1: the way like some men flirt with older women because
Speaker 1: you're being fun and charming you're a party. So he's
Speaker 1: got this kind of like thing going.
Speaker 2: I see your point. I think he to me, there's
Speaker 2: an element missing. It doesn't play like that for me
Speaker 2: at this point. Once once Brandon chimes in, it just
Speaker 2: gets weird real fast, and anyone with any kind of
Speaker 2: brain would be like, okay, thank you, moving on.
Speaker 1: Ahha, No I disagree, okay, fair enough, free to disagree.
Speaker 2: Yep. Mister Kentley finally speaks up and he says he
Speaker 2: doesn't find the conversation amusing. Thank you, mister Kentley, and
Speaker 2: Rupert says any humor was unintentional, and mister Kentley doesn't
Speaker 2: believe they're serious. But Brandon wonders, why wouldn't we be serious?
Speaker 2: And kent Lee wonders, who is going to decide who
Speaker 2: is superior and who is inferior? And Brandon says the
Speaker 2: privileged few who get to commit murder, and would decide
Speaker 2: himself Philip possibly Rupert the three gay men in the room.
Speaker 1: Do you think that was intentional?
Speaker 2: I think it is a rightly choice to list those three.
Speaker 2: And my interpretation of the film was like, those three
Speaker 2: men are gay. You were kind of joking about You're
Speaker 2: thinking maybe David and kind of joking also about maybe Kenneth, Like, like,
Speaker 2: all four of these men are just having a good
Speaker 2: time with each other.
Speaker 1: What a lucky dorm room that was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, truly, Oh God, the dream. But I didn't view
Speaker 2: those two as as gay because they because they were
Speaker 2: looked down upon so much by the other three, not
Speaker 2: so much Rupert, but by the two the two confirmed homosexuals.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you think Brandon's conception of superiority comes from
Speaker 1: the fact that he's gay? Ye?
Speaker 2: Other he is not ordinary?
Speaker 1: Oh that's interesting. Yeah, that's fucking evil.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and that is what we all think.
Speaker 1: That is why all Disney villains are gay? Are gay men?
Speaker 1: I can see that because the one absolutely right, those
Speaker 1: three are the three that he names. He's not like
Speaker 1: missus Wilson.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's. One of the truest lines he says
Speaker 2: in the movie is when Philip says, why because being
Speaker 2: weak as human? He becays, no, because it's ordinary, Like
Speaker 2: he does not want to be ordinary. Yeah, he wants
Speaker 2: an artistic talent. He wants people to know he pulled
Speaker 2: off this perfect crime. He wants all of this, and
Speaker 2: he wants being ordinary is the worst thing so being normal,
Speaker 2: being straight. You listen to me straight people.
Speaker 1: We're coming for You're coming for you. We're coming for
Speaker 1: you straight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was how I interpreted it. But I can't
Speaker 2: remember if you said this on micro off Mike. No
Speaker 2: one knows. There's no like like it could be anything
Speaker 2: any how anyone interprets it like what you're saying about
Speaker 2: about like all four of them being like, I mean.
Speaker 1: There's really no there's nothing in the film to back
Speaker 1: up my claim on Kenneth. Frankly, I think there's a
Speaker 1: little bit more to back up my claim on David Well.
Speaker 2: When you lay it out, like what did he think
Speaker 2: was happening like ecstasy of.
Speaker 1: The last of his last moment in life. But like,
Speaker 1: that is such an interesting interpretation. I'm going to think
Speaker 1: about that. I'm gonna marinate on that because I think
Speaker 1: you're right. I think that I think Arthur Lawrence maybe
Speaker 1: slip some of that in there too.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 2: So basically he lists off these three people, Brandon and
Speaker 2: he says we are people so superior to the average
Speaker 2: man that we are above basic moral concepts, and Kentley
Speaker 2: comments that Brandon's words of Oke Hitler and Brandon says
Speaker 2: Hitler's a paranoid savage, and kent Ley finally shuts him
Speaker 2: down by saying, I don't want to hear any more
Speaker 2: of your contempt for humanity.
Speaker 1: This party sucks. Imagine going to a party. Someone's like,
Speaker 1: Someone's like, there is an uberman, Jesus Christ. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about theater.
Speaker 2: Are there tostitos anywhere? Is there a Check's party mix
Speaker 2: that I can just dive face first into and get
Speaker 2: the fuck out of this room?
Speaker 1: Can someone put the game on tv? This is the
Speaker 1: worst Super Bowl party I've ever been to.
Speaker 2: I'm dying for nachos. Can we order nachos? Brandon apologizes
Speaker 2: for getting carried away, and most of the party departs
Speaker 2: the living room to see the books in the dining room. Man,
Speaker 2: we were short on entertainment in nineteen forty eight. Let's
Speaker 2: go look at books at this party. That'll be fun.
Speaker 1: This party is so bad. Let's go look at books,
Speaker 1: not open them, just look at them.
Speaker 2: And Brenda's like they're candelabras too. Follow me.
Speaker 1: This is the word party ever. Okay, we've talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot. You know that game we play with
Speaker 1: where we're like which party. Are you movie history would
Speaker 1: you want to join?
Speaker 2: Not this one?
Speaker 1: Possibly dead fucking last.
Speaker 2: So most of the people depart, leaving Janet and Kenneth alone.
Speaker 1: Janet and Kenneth have a heart to heart where we
Speaker 1: learned that, despite Brandon accusing Janet of dumping Kenneth for
Speaker 1: David's money, Kenneth actually broke up with her. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: my case is building.
Speaker 2: Is building again, Katies.
Speaker 1: And gentlemen of the jury.
Speaker 2: In the case of Kenneth v. Homosexual in the case
Speaker 2: of Kenneth v.
Speaker 1: Friends of Dorothy.
Speaker 2: In the case of the heaviness of Kenneth's loafers.
Speaker 1: So Janet wishes that Kenneth and David could be friends again,
Speaker 1: just as they were before romance got in the way.
Speaker 1: I'm not even to touch that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: They quickly realized that Brandon was playing dumb about not
Speaker 1: knowing about their whole situation to inviting them both to
Speaker 1: the party, right, So she's like that son of a
Speaker 1: bitch is just stirring the pot for no fucking reason.
Speaker 1: Of course, they know something that even Brandon doesn't know,
Speaker 1: right that, like Kenneth dumped Janet. Yeah, Janet's being slutshamed
Speaker 1: for no fucking reason. She's not about to have it.
Speaker 1: She calls Brandon in and asks, what the fuck is
Speaker 1: your game? I wish they could curse in this movie.
Speaker 1: She can't, So she just asked what his game is?
Speaker 2: I wrote down the response. Can I give it to you?
Speaker 1: Brandon? What the fuck is your game?
Speaker 2: Some women are quite charming when they're angry, Janet, Unfortunately
Speaker 2: you're not. That is varsity level hunch. I'm sorry. It's
Speaker 2: like he knows why he's angry and he's still gonna
Speaker 2: just like Shanker in the stomach.
Speaker 1: I feel like Sasha Valor just called me a whore,
Speaker 1: not in a good way. So Janet snaps that she
Speaker 1: doesn't think David is coming after all, and she doesn't
Speaker 1: even think.
Speaker 2: He Oh he came. He wasn't the only one.
Speaker 1: Who if when we turn on the black light, this
Speaker 1: room is a fucking painting Jackson Pollock painting.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: She's like, did you even invite David to this party?
Speaker 1: Or did you set all of this up just to
Speaker 1: get me and Kenneth back together? And Brandon's like, I
Speaker 1: have bigger fish to fry, yeah than your whole drama. Uh,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: So Janet and Kenneth stalk away, and Rupert approaches to
Speaker 2: also wonder where could David be.
Speaker 1: David must be fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine a party where like someone's ten minutes
Speaker 1: late and everyone's like, where are they?
Speaker 2: Where I hear you? I presume that's what happens when
Speaker 2: I'm ten minutes late to a party.
Speaker 1: Is that You've never been ten minutes late to a party?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: If you do have me there, I dare you to
Speaker 1: be thirty minutes late to something one day.
Speaker 2: I would literally show up and I would have sweat
Speaker 2: all the way down. You know those tank tops where
Speaker 2: like they like the sweat stain. I cannot handle being late.
Speaker 1: I understand because when I'm late for something with you,
Speaker 1: which is often most of the time, when I'm late
Speaker 1: to something, I don't care. But when I'm late to
Speaker 1: something with you, I get nervous on your behalf. I'm like,
Speaker 1: he is going to be so nervous that I am late.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, this is somehow your anxiety has hit me.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. That's awful.
Speaker 1: It's not awful, you know what, bitch, Beyond time of things,
Speaker 1: that's my problem for being ten minutes late to everything.
Speaker 2: All right, So Brandon says, I'm also wondering, and he
Speaker 2: just goes to get dessert, leaving Rupert alone in the
Speaker 2: living room. Rupert, by the way, is carrying the most
Speaker 2: fifty dessert fifties dessert ever, which is like ice cream
Speaker 2: pyramids with chocolate sauce on them and a Maraschino cherry
Speaker 2: and then I guess maybe a piece of short bread.
Speaker 1: I think it's merangue, is it morene? I thought they
Speaker 1: were like merengue puffs like pre funerals, but the ice
Speaker 1: cream is on the outside for some reason.
Speaker 2: Or maybe that was whipped cream. It's wild whipped cream.
Speaker 1: It's probably whippcream because obviously it's a movie, so most
Speaker 1: people aren't eating their food, and so it has to
Speaker 1: sit out for a while and it doesn't quite melt.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so maybe those are like mringe.
Speaker 2: It's probably actually shaving cream or something to make it
Speaker 2: make it total had because.
Speaker 1: Actors are eating, oh they are.
Speaker 2: Actors are eating during the.
Speaker 1: Show during the movie. There's some Instagram account that I
Speaker 1: follow called seventies Cookbook, which is one of my favorite
Speaker 1: Instagram accounts, and it's just someone posting about horrible old
Speaker 1: cookbook recipes like hot dog salado, which is basically hot
Speaker 1: dogs in a gell mold with like I don't know
Speaker 1: sour cream on it. I don't even know what it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but like it's that kind of shit. This is You're
Speaker 1: absolutely right. This is so nineteen fifties terrible.
Speaker 2: All right. So missus Wilson enters and she confides in Rupert.
Speaker 2: Remember we learned earlier that missus Wilson like used to
Speaker 2: work for Rupert before she worked for Brandon and fell up.
Speaker 2: She's just flitting from gay.
Speaker 1: Look, she's got a niche and she's filling it. That's right,
Speaker 1: just like David and brand just like.
Speaker 2: It's like Philip and Brent. So she comments to him
Speaker 2: immediately starts gossiping, right, the help always has all the
Speaker 2: best gossip, right, And she says, Brandon and Philip have
Speaker 2: been worked up all day. There was a last minute
Speaker 2: change in the dinner setting, and now I have to
Speaker 2: clean off this wooden chest and replace the books inside
Speaker 2: of it where they originally were stored, rather than just
Speaker 2: simply having them on the chest in the first place,
Speaker 2: and eating in a dining room like a civilized blah
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah. And Philip hears her complaining and
Speaker 2: he tried her to serve the guests and don't lecture.
Speaker 2: Philip says that not Brandon.
Speaker 1: No I know, because Phillip's like, do not shut up,
Speaker 1: shut up, shut up, You're blowing up our spot. He
Speaker 1: says it in the worst way. He's like, servant girl,
Speaker 1: continue to serve and don't keep your mouth.
Speaker 2: Excuse me, beer wench. So Rupert takes all of this
Speaker 2: in with a contemplative expression. He's gathering information.
Speaker 1: Philip flounces over to the piano and starts to play
Speaker 1: a flounce of gaze.
Speaker 2: A flounce of gaze.
Speaker 1: Oh, this movie features a flounce of gays. Rupert follows
Speaker 1: and asks him what's going on. He's like, why is
Speaker 1: the vibe so fucking weird at this party? What is happening?
Speaker 1: This is the worst Christening I've ever been to.
Speaker 2: I know that a brisk can sometimes be a little
Speaker 2: bit weird, okay, but this is odd.
Speaker 1: This is the this is heavy. It's a heavy brisk.
Speaker 2: If there's too many boys at the brist they get
Speaker 2: real squirreling. Ah.
Speaker 1: Philip tries to avoid the question, But then Rupert presses
Speaker 1: and he and Philip snaps on him. He's like, say
Speaker 1: what you mean, Rupert? Yeah, and Rupert goes, where's David?
Speaker 1: Point blank? Philip says, I don't know, how would I
Speaker 1: know what? I'm just like the piano party? What my
Speaker 1: David's keepert.
Speaker 2: I would say that they had him keep playing faster
Speaker 2: and faster, like by the end he's doing like the
Speaker 2: Flight of the Bumblebee.
Speaker 1: Rupert is like, what is Brandon trying to accomplish with
Speaker 1: Janet and Kenneth? So I like that they get that
Speaker 1: something's a fo they're so so deeply wrong about what
Speaker 1: it is. Philip laughs. He's like, oh, okay, okay, So
Speaker 1: you think it's about nothing's going on, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: It's just normal Brandon shit, just.
Speaker 1: Normal Brandon trying to set people up. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: And then Rupert comments that this is the second time
Speaker 1: you've lied to me tonight, Philip, and the first time
Speaker 1: is when it said you never strangled chicken. Philip's like what,
Speaker 1: and Rupert's like, I remembered the story about you strangling
Speaker 1: the chicken. You've told it before. And then Philip stops
Speaker 1: playing and turns away in a burst of anxiety.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, the first thing and already flustered Philip sees when
Speaker 2: he turns away is Kentley leaving with some books tied
Speaker 2: together with the titular rope. Ouch Brandon is such a
Speaker 2: fuck wad, just the worst. He goes white as a sheet.
Speaker 2: Philip to be clear, and Rupert presses him as to
Speaker 2: what's wrong, and he just says, well, I just I
Speaker 2: think it's a clumsy way to type those books.
Speaker 1: It's just weird, perfect save Philip, no notes, nailed.
Speaker 2: It, just say just say that the cold pheasant isn't
Speaker 2: agreeing with me. I have to go shiit my brains out, and.
Speaker 1: Like gues you then are serving cold pheasant. That is
Speaker 1: a very easy thing to be like cold pheasant and
Speaker 1: whatever fucking dessert this is.
Speaker 2: And this gelatinous mass.
Speaker 1: Is currently creating a storm system in my lower bowels.
Speaker 2: And everyone's gonna want to leave real quick.
Speaker 1: Katee patteras look, look out, a storm's a bruin.
Speaker 2: So Philip slips away from Rupert. As the older man
Speaker 2: looks at the bundle of books, He's like.
Speaker 1: We're a weird thing to be freaked out about here's
Speaker 1: acting awful weird. We've never we should do Jimmy Stewart's
Speaker 1: fair up.
Speaker 2: Tell me what's going on?
Speaker 1: Are you acting so weird?
Speaker 2: Philip, Mine sounds like agent double panties.
Speaker 1: I don't know what mine sounds like. It's perfect.
Speaker 2: It sounds like Jimmy Stewart, the.
Speaker 1: Perfect Jimmy Stewart. I have the perfect Jimmy Stewart.
Speaker 2: That's not bad. You have watched It's a wonderful life
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: It's terrible, thank you? Why why are you being so squorely? Brandon?
Speaker 2: You told the story about strangling the chicken before, Brandon,
Speaker 2: it was.
Speaker 1: A euphemism for masturbation. Everyone knew what we were talking about.
Speaker 2: Brandon. I love the way you fondled that champagne bottle.
Speaker 1: I think I'll stay the night.
Speaker 2: Get out the whips and change. It's gonna be a
Speaker 2: fun one kids.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Bedford Falls. Everyone. Philip and Brandon start another
Speaker 1: hushed argument. Right God, these two yeah, stepping on rates
Speaker 1: every fucking chance they get. But we committed the perfect murder.
Speaker 1: No one can hear me. I'm whispering.
Speaker 2: This living room is at least twelve by twelve.
Speaker 1: Rupert walks over and interrupts their hushed, weird fucking conversation.
Speaker 1: He says, there's something that is upsetting you both, and
Speaker 1: I am here to get to the and then he
Speaker 1: is interrupted by Missus Wilson with word that Missus Kentley
Speaker 1: is on the phone and would like to speak to
Speaker 1: any member of her family. Missus Atwater goes to take
Speaker 1: the call, and I do miss her presence when she's
Speaker 1: not in the room, as the party goers continue to
Speaker 1: talk about David's mysterious absence. Seriously, he has been gone
Speaker 1: for ten minutes. Missus Wilson, in the meantime, goes about
Speaker 1: cleaning off the wooden chest from the remains of the dinner,
Speaker 1: and she gets all the way to bringing the books
Speaker 1: back in and starts to open the chest with Rupert's help.
Speaker 1: They're carrying books back into the chest when Brandon rushes
Speaker 1: over and insists that Missus Wilson can replace the books
Speaker 1: in the morning. Do it in the morning, don't do
Speaker 1: it now.
Speaker 2: She does ow great line here. She's like, I wasn't
Speaker 2: planning on being here in the morning. He's like, bitch,
Speaker 2: change of plans one hundred percent. Missus Atwater returns with
Speaker 2: the report that Missus Kentley is now frantic about David
Speaker 2: and wants to call the police.
Speaker 1: Helicopter much David is a grown ass man. If we
Speaker 1: didn't know he was murdered, these people would seem in.
Speaker 2: Sane, insane insane.
Speaker 1: He is, He's thirty. Calm the fuck down, everybody.
Speaker 2: So mister Kentley, Missus Atwater, Janet, and Kenneth all head
Speaker 2: back to the Kentley house to wait for David, and
Speaker 2: Rupert also prepares to depart, and as everyone is saying
Speaker 2: they're goodbyes, Missus Wilson grabs Rupert's hat for him, because
Speaker 2: again she has a little crush on him, right, but
Speaker 2: she grabs the wrong one and he looks inside the
Speaker 2: hat and he sees the initials d Kay. Inside it's
Speaker 2: a Donna Karen hat. Y'all. Oo so exciting, so exciting.
Speaker 1: Okay, boys, oh Paul, I see no problem with their
Speaker 1: otherwise perfect murder.
Speaker 2: Nut boys, Listen to me. You murdered them and you
Speaker 2: didn't remember to just take all of the possessions he
Speaker 2: brought in with him and put it in the coffin
Speaker 2: with him. Come on, come on, this is basic Paul.
Speaker 1: They're geniuses. They're better than us. They don't need to
Speaker 1: be good at this.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: They're just a couple of pistachios murdering people at will.
Speaker 2: So missus Wilson gets him in the right, and then
Speaker 2: she heads back into the kitchen as Brandon closes the
Speaker 2: door on all of their guests and he lights another
Speaker 2: post coital cigarette. Flying high from the experience, he.
Speaker 1: Heads back to the living room, where a far more
Speaker 1: anxious Philip pours himself another drink. Very worried that Rupert's
Speaker 1: starting to suspect. Yeah, I don't know why he would suspect.
Speaker 1: You've both been acting so normal. The two of them
Speaker 1: start fighting again, with Philip snapping at Brandon he only
Speaker 1: ever thinks of himself. Brandon changes the subject and proposes
Speaker 1: a holiday for them. Once you know David's disappearance is
Speaker 1: blown over.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's just go.
Speaker 1: Let's go to on vacation together. Nothing gay about that,
Speaker 1: not at all. By the way, we.
Speaker 2: Covered let's go to sit Let's go to Palm Springs.
Speaker 1: Way earlier in the movie, Let's go to the Pines
Speaker 1: way earlier in the movie. Philip's going away like Philip
Speaker 1: is going out to the country to go practice his
Speaker 1: piano for his big debut. Do you remember where he's going.
Speaker 2: He's going to Brandon's mother's house.
Speaker 1: Brandon's mother's house. Yeah, these two are come in law married,
Speaker 1: and everyone goes yeah. Phillips starts to saying, I keep
Speaker 1: praying that I'll just wake up and find we haven't
Speaker 1: committed the murder, that this was all a bad, horrible dream,
Speaker 1: and Brandon's like why, And Philip's like, I'm scared to
Speaker 1: death that we're gonna get cut, and Brandon assures him
Speaker 1: there's no chance of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Trust to me, we have this covered. We have
Speaker 2: made zero mistakes.
Speaker 1: I if I know anything, and I do, is that
Speaker 1: we have committed the perfect murder.
Speaker 2: Missus Wilson heads out and Brandon calls the garage to
Speaker 2: send their car around. Philip's hair, by the way, is
Speaker 2: now must, which in the late forties means that one
Speaker 2: single curl has escaped from the shellacking that his hair
Speaker 2: is usually done to hair on the head, and he
Speaker 2: now just looks like Superman. He's so hot, he's very,
Speaker 2: very good looking. Before they can proceed, the bell rings again. Oh,
Speaker 2: by the way, so before the bell rings, they're like
Speaker 2: getting ready to like take the body downstairs. How are
Speaker 2: these two Jabbroni's going to get the body down stairs
Speaker 2: and into their car in Manhattan without anybody seeing them?
Speaker 1: May, okay, it's nineteen forty eight. Cars are huge, Okay,
Speaker 1: do we think that trunk would fit in the car.
Speaker 2: Oh, so they're just gonna take the whole trunk out.
Speaker 1: I was okay, either they were gonna take the trunk
Speaker 1: out or they're gonna do the old roll them up
Speaker 1: in a carpet. Yeah, this is why I can't commit murder.
Speaker 1: I don't have carpet's big enough, fair enough, Oh, never
Speaker 1: mind living room carpet. You know what I can commit.
Speaker 1: I could kill a very slender person and it'll be fine.
Speaker 2: It would be fine, good, I'm safe. I forgot.
Speaker 1: That's my theory. The movie doesn't get that far. Is
Speaker 1: that they were planning something.
Speaker 2: You know, but that is that is bringing the whole
Speaker 2: chest down would be would suck. It would be very heavy,
Speaker 2: But it does make sense. Okay, So the bell rings again,
Speaker 2: sending Philip into a tailspin, and Brandon is like, answer
Speaker 2: the fucking call, and Phillip's I can't Brand's like, answer it,
Speaker 2: so he goes over there. He answers it. It's Rupert
Speaker 2: who claims he left a cigarette case there, and Philip
Speaker 2: starts to panic and Brandon slaps him, telling him shut up,
Speaker 2: and he goes over and he tells Rupert, come on up,
Speaker 2: of course, come get your cigarette case.
Speaker 1: Rupert is hearing that conversation is ring ring ring ring. Hello,
Speaker 1: Oh hi Philip, I as seem to have misplayed. Now
Speaker 1: he's a muppet, It's still better than my Michael came.
Speaker 1: Oh oh hi, Philip, I seem to have lost my
Speaker 1: cigarette case in your apartment. Can I come and pick
Speaker 1: it up?
Speaker 3: Um?
Speaker 2: Shut up?
Speaker 1: Sure, come on up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's accurate.
Speaker 1: That's that's what he heard. And he's like, well, they
Speaker 1: definitely committed a murder.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Brandon fortifies Philip with a drink and tells him that
Speaker 1: no one, not Rupert, not even Philip, is going to
Speaker 1: get in his way or get him caught. Do you
Speaker 1: understand me. He puts a loaded pistol in his jacket
Speaker 1: pocket and he lets Rupert in. Rupert enters plans his
Speaker 1: cigarette case on the wooden chest right, because he didn't
Speaker 1: leave one behind, he should have left one behind earlier,
Speaker 1: but didn't think they are both staring right at him.
Speaker 1: I don't know how they didn't see him.
Speaker 2: It's not particularly surpitious.
Speaker 1: But the camera can see he has it behind his back,
Speaker 1: and then he asks for another drink. He heads back
Speaker 1: to the chest and he's like, where could I have
Speaker 1: put my Oh? There it is, and he find he
Speaker 1: quote unquote discovers his cigarette case. He takes the drink,
Speaker 1: and he settles down in an armchair. You know that
Speaker 1: thing of when when you have people over and you're
Speaker 1: so ready for them not to be there, and you
Speaker 1: have that one guest who just won't leave your owne
Speaker 1: deaf motherfucker who's like, well, anyway, let's just settle in
Speaker 1: for the night. Bring the bottle.
Speaker 2: I have a story about that, where our dear friend
Speaker 2: Adam and his husband Barry were staying with us and
Speaker 2: we had a friend who would not leave. And to
Speaker 2: this day Adam will be like, Barry could not believe
Speaker 2: that person would not leave the apartment. He's still offended
Speaker 2: years later. It wasn't even barry apartment. He was a
Speaker 2: stay with us, and he was like, this person's gotta
Speaker 2: go there go.
Speaker 1: They are overstaying they're welcome, So Brandon and Philip just
Speaker 1: sort of loom over Rupert like, Okay, I guess we're
Speaker 1: doing this, motherfucker, and Rupert equivocates and stalls. He slowly
Speaker 1: SIPs his drink. He says he hates to leave a party,
Speaker 1: especially when an evening has been strange. That might be
Speaker 1: the gay thing anyone, says, even gayer than.
Speaker 2: Grab the cuttle follow me.
Speaker 1: He's like, I love when the vibe is weird. Let's
Speaker 1: make it weirder.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Philip demands to know what he means, and Rupert says,
Speaker 1: it's just been the strangest evening, and isn't it queer?
Speaker 1: How David never arrived? Brandon surreptitiously moves his hand into
Speaker 1: his pocket with the gun. Yep.
Speaker 2: Rupert says Janet thought that maybe Brandon in some way
Speaker 2: kidnapped David or otherwise prevented him from attending, and Brandon says,
Speaker 2: I am not interested in Janet's prattle, but Rupert, Rupert,
Speaker 2: you're always interesting. Brandon is at this point inches away
Speaker 2: from submitting a manuscript entitled If I Did It right.
Speaker 2: He's so there, so he asks Rupert, do you think
Speaker 2: that I can nap David, and Rupert says it's the
Speaker 2: sort of thing that would have appealed to him at school.
Speaker 2: So now we know that Brandon was just always a sociopath. Yeah,
Speaker 2: always an evil, evil person. Brandon asks him what Rupert
Speaker 2: would have done if he wanted to get David out
Speaker 2: of the way, and Rupert paints quite a specific picture
Speaker 2: of what he might do. He'd greet David at the door,
Speaker 2: he'd take his hat, he'd offer small talk, he'd give
Speaker 2: him a drink, he'd knock him out.
Speaker 1: He has figured this out. It's also answers the question
Speaker 1: that I had from the beginning of the movie is
Speaker 1: what the fuck did David think he was there for? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but if he's been if he's been poisoned in some way,
Speaker 1: so he's weakened. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense.
Speaker 1: Is because even though there's two against one, how come
Speaker 1: David just dies so easily?
Speaker 2: Yeah? At this point, just you know, because I did
Speaker 2: not know how this movie ended, really, I was kind
Speaker 2: of thinking this is going to be really fucked up.
Speaker 2: If if Brandon and Rupert decide they're gonna murder Philip
Speaker 2: and run off together, and that's the end of the movie.
Speaker 1: That would be a better movie.
Speaker 2: That's a better movie, and it solves the problem the
Speaker 2: discussion we had earlier. I had one interpretation, you had
Speaker 2: the other one, because this is weird. His whole thing
Speaker 2: in this whole scene is weird because he's like I
Speaker 2: eventually be I never knew how to interact with the world,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, okay, sure, sure, jan like whatever. I
Speaker 2: actually thought that it was gonna be like He's like
Speaker 2: amazing at one point and like yeah, flow clap, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's how the lesbian version ends.
Speaker 1: Well done, boys, you've done it.
Speaker 2: But do you know a secret shared amongst three is
Speaker 2: no secret at all? And then they just both turn
Speaker 2: to Philip, and Philip tries to run.
Speaker 1: And they get you they won't, but he can't because
Speaker 1: he's been poisoned.
Speaker 2: He isn't poisoned. He falls to the ground and they
Speaker 2: both loom over him.
Speaker 1: The last thing we see is them putting gloves on.
Speaker 1: That's right, as we see from Philip's of you, everything
Speaker 1: go black.
Speaker 2: That's right. End of movie.
Speaker 1: Call us Hitchcock, we have notes, call us we'd have
Speaker 1: a better movie.
Speaker 2: Okay, sorry, back to this movie, which is also quite good.
Speaker 1: And moral and upstanding, and Jimmy Stewart can't play a killer.
Speaker 1: You just can't.
Speaker 2: So as Rupert keeps talking about how he would do it,
Speaker 2: if he was going to do it, Brandon circles around him.
Speaker 2: His hand is on the gun and the pressure is
Speaker 2: too much for Philip, who throws his drink on the
Speaker 2: ground and shouts cat and mouse, cat and mouse only,
Speaker 2: which is the cat and which is the mouse?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Keep jokey given Philip state, Brandon suggests Rupert leave unless
Speaker 2: he has something else he needs to clear up.
Speaker 1: Because Philip is now turned into a deaf poet. Rupert
Speaker 1: says he doesn't think Brandon kidnapped David. He wouldn't even
Speaker 1: have mentioned it except for the fact that Brandon is
Speaker 1: carrying a gun in his pocket. Brandon laughs, He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: he takes the gun out, and he's like this old thing.
Speaker 1: So from the jump, Rupert's like, is that a gun
Speaker 1: in your pocket? Or oh, no, gun, that's a gun
Speaker 1: in your pocket.
Speaker 2: Pocket.
Speaker 1: You are not happy to see me.
Speaker 2: I know what it looks like when you're happy to
Speaker 2: see me and you actually have a curve to the left.
Speaker 2: That's not you.
Speaker 1: Brandon tosses the gun on the piano, which is not safe.
Speaker 1: Don't do that.
Speaker 2: Don't do that.
Speaker 1: He says, Oh, I'm you know, we're driving up to
Speaker 1: the country and I need to have a gun at
Speaker 1: hand as there have been burglaries in the region and
Speaker 1: mother is quite concerned. And I'm like, you're going up
Speaker 1: to the country. Bears just say, Bears, man, why are
Speaker 1: you inventing burglaries in Connecticut? So Rupert walks to the
Speaker 1: window and says, well, I'll be going, and he pretends
Speaker 1: to gather his things, and Rupert takes the rope out
Speaker 1: of his pocket and he turns around so they can
Speaker 1: see him holding it. He's sort of swinging it around
Speaker 1: the same way Brandon was earlier in the film. Philip
Speaker 1: loses it. He shouts, he's got it, he knows. Philip
Speaker 1: grabs the gun. He lashes out at Brandon, saying he
Speaker 1: just as soon shoot him as Rupert. You got me
Speaker 1: into this, this fucking mess, and now I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: this all out of it. Brandon made me do it.
Speaker 1: I hate him. I hate both of you. Rupert grabs
Speaker 1: for the gun. The gun, the gun.
Speaker 2: The both reach the gun, the gun, the gun, the gun,
Speaker 2: the gun. The gun, the gun, the gun, the gun,
Speaker 2: the gun. Both reached for the go.
Speaker 1: Rupert grabs the gun and the two men struggle silently
Speaker 1: until Rupert manages to wrest the gun away from Philip.
Speaker 1: This is the most hilarious choreography. This fight choreo is
Speaker 1: so funny. Yeah, because it's all one shot. There are
Speaker 1: no cuts, so they have they have really pigeonholed themselves
Speaker 1: into this moment with the awkwardest fucking fight you have
Speaker 1: ever seen.
Speaker 2: And they want it there. The gun goes off and
Speaker 2: fires into the floor, so they also want a fake
Speaker 2: gun shot in the middle of it too. It's just
Speaker 2: just take out the gun, Alfred, like, it's just just
Speaker 2: let these two guys actually, because they don't speak either,
Speaker 2: it's totally silent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yea, it is so awkward to watch.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: So Rupert manages to get the gun and Philip collapses
Speaker 1: on the piano bench. Yeh, he's got the vapis Why
Speaker 1: is it not a sheds when one needs one.
Speaker 2: Brandon apologizes for Philip's behavior. He says he's becoming a drunk,
Speaker 2: and Rupert holds onto the gun and tells Brandon, I'm tired.
Speaker 2: Brandon and I don't want to fence anymore. He's gonna
Speaker 2: open the chest, and Brandon snarls at him, go ahead
Speaker 2: and look. I hope you like what you see. And
Speaker 2: Rupert throws the chest open and freezes in horror. And
Speaker 2: Brandon tells Rupert to listen to him. Let me explain.
Speaker 2: You'll understand because you agreed that the lives of inferior
Speaker 2: beings are unimportant. And Rupert is all, how dare you
Speaker 2: listen to what I said and repeat my exact words
Speaker 2: back to me and then act upon the ideas that
Speaker 2: I posited in the class I was teaching you? How
Speaker 2: dare you? Sir?
Speaker 1: Also? What class was this?
Speaker 2: This? This was the class all night at his feet.
Speaker 1: Like psychopathy one on one?
Speaker 2: Look, you tell Brandon to choke on it enough, he's
Speaker 2: eventually gonna project. Okay, okay, So he tells Brandon that
Speaker 2: Brandon's given his words a meaning he never dreamed of.
Speaker 2: He twisted them into a cold, logical excuse for murder,
Speaker 2: which is exactly the thing I was doing. And you
Speaker 2: twisted them somehow into the words that I said, meaning
Speaker 2: what the words I said meant?
Speaker 1: Brandon, I never wanted you to kill anyone. I'm Jimmy Stewart.
Speaker 2: He has made Rupert ashamed of his previous concepts of
Speaker 2: superior and inferior human beings.
Speaker 1: It's almost like I was wrong, he gets. It's almost
Speaker 1: like I was I was being hitler.
Speaker 2: It's almost like this was Nazism breshed up in a
Speaker 2: Jimmy Stewart package.
Speaker 1: Like, look, do I agree with Nazis? Yes, but that
Speaker 1: doesn't make me a bad person.
Speaker 2: He gets real righteous for someone who figured this out
Speaker 2: ten seconds ago when he actually saw a murdered body.
Speaker 2: Now Rupert knows that each human is a separate being
Speaker 2: with a right to think and live and work as individuals.
Speaker 1: Unless you, I want theater tickets here, and fewer people
Speaker 1: alive would help me get them. Rupert promises both Brandon
Speaker 1: and Philip that they're going to die. I would have
Speaker 1: been great if he shot them. That's how it's about
Speaker 1: to happen. He goes to the window and fires three
Speaker 1: shots into the air. He doesn't call the police, Nope,
Speaker 1: he just fires three shots and then walks slowly to
Speaker 1: sit next to the wooden chest. So, okay, four shots
Speaker 1: have been fired, so there's two shots left in this gun.
Speaker 1: I'm liking these boys' chances if they just run for it.
Speaker 1: Here's no way he's going to hit both of them
Speaker 1: with just two two bullets left in this gun.
Speaker 2: What you don't know is that Rupert was also the
Speaker 2: advisor to the Sharpshooters Club ha ha ha at their
Speaker 2: prep school.
Speaker 1: That's not what happens. Philip stands by the piano in shock,
Speaker 1: and Brandon fixes himself one last drink before his freedom
Speaker 1: is taken away. Sirens sound, and Philip and tones, they're coming.
Speaker 1: And what's funny is you hear like adr background noises
Speaker 1: where someone's like.
Speaker 2: Was that a shot?
Speaker 1: Those were shots?
Speaker 2: Those are shots?
Speaker 1: Called the police, Someone call the police. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: have actually heard gunshots. And then like, I bet someone
Speaker 1: will call the police.
Speaker 2: I don't have to worry about that.
Speaker 1: This is not my problem, not my problem. This is
Speaker 1: absolutely I don't know where they came from. I don't
Speaker 1: know who shot what what? If I even called the police,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't fucking matter. So, you know what, not my problem.
Speaker 1: That is how New Yorkers think. So Philip sits down
Speaker 1: and he starts to plunk out notes on the piano
Speaker 1: as Brandon SIPs his cocktail end of movie.
Speaker 2: All right, I still think our ending was better.
Speaker 1: Our ending is far more interesting. Honestly, Brandon and Rupert
Speaker 1: double crossing David, sorry, double crossing Philip would have been excellent, chilling,
Speaker 1: like absolutely excellent. You know it's not gonna happen as
Speaker 1: they cast Jimmy Stewart, and Jimmy Stewart would absolutely absolutely
Speaker 1: never agree to play a homicidal homosexual.
Speaker 2: Too bad. All right, so everyone stick around. We're gonna
Speaker 2: come right back with our random observations and final rankings.
Speaker 3: For Rope, and we're back.
Speaker 1: Paul tried not to murder me for five minutes because
Speaker 1: I'll try you be you being a devious homosexual at all?
Speaker 2: Uh huh yeh.
Speaker 1: Yeh yep, but h and give me some random observations
Speaker 1: on roupe.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, when when Brandon and Rupert are having their
Speaker 2: circle jerk about how they should kill inferior beings, one
Speaker 2: of the little riffs that Rupert says, He's like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, missus atwater, is there ever a time that
Speaker 2: you want to get into a restaurant and you couldn't
Speaker 2: well think how quickly a knife could solve that problem?
Speaker 2: Just a quick flick of a knife. You just have
Speaker 2: to step over the head waiter's body. Now we have
Speaker 2: to think about these things. Murdering the headwaiter ain't gonna
Speaker 2: get you a table.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not gonna get your food to you.
Speaker 2: To murder a diner, the matre d perhaps, maybe maybe
Speaker 2: if they're being an asshole about it, but you're really
Speaker 2: you want to murder a patron.
Speaker 1: Yeah, murder a fellow died, obviously, obviously.
Speaker 2: The problem with that, of course they're of your class
Speaker 2: and you want to murder the lower classes.
Speaker 1: That actually goes really, I would say beautifully, but with
Speaker 1: another one of mine. Sit in that riff. He starts
Speaker 1: talking about people who deserve death by slow torture. Did
Speaker 1: you catch who they were? It's the most random fucking
Speaker 1: assortment of people. Bird lovers.
Speaker 2: Wow, Jesus, I thought, I was like, I can't believe
Speaker 2: I missed that. Well because a he kind of did famously.
Speaker 1: Did die by slow torture? No, no, no, He mentions
Speaker 1: bird lovers, small children, tap dancers, and Paul hotel employees. Wow,
Speaker 1: that hits you hard.
Speaker 2: It hurts I am both a tap dancer and a
Speaker 2: former A former tap dancer and a former hotel employer.
Speaker 1: And I was once a small child.
Speaker 2: And I actually loved birds when I was a small kid.
Speaker 1: He is coming for me, He is coming for you.
Speaker 2: Oh fuck you, Jimmy Stewart, Now to kill you, Paul Kola.
Speaker 2: This is a really short one. It just made me laugh.
Speaker 2: When Janet first walks in, she makes I can't remember
Speaker 2: what the initial line is, but she makes some comment
Speaker 2: and they all laugh. She's like, oh, I'm funny. I'm
Speaker 2: never funny when I'm trying to be, I always fail
Speaker 2: at jokes. And later I think Brandon is like, well,
Speaker 2: what would you say to some champagne? And she goes,
Speaker 2: hello champagne and no one laughs, and I'm like, that
Speaker 2: was funny. She deserved to laugh on that because Joan
Speaker 2: Chandler has this very old, tiny way of speaking. So
Speaker 2: it's like hello champagne.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then there's like pause. She's like, see told you,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not funny. There's a bit of like
Speaker 1: a little easter egg that I really appreciated. They're talking
Speaker 1: about just some movie they saw, you know, something, something
Speaker 1: they don't want to name titles and like something something
Speaker 1: they had Ingrid Bergman and Carrie Grant in It Something Something,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, they are one hundred percent talking about
Speaker 1: Hitchcock's movie right before this one, Notorious, starring Ingrid Bergman
Speaker 1: and Carrie Grant, Excellent.
Speaker 2: It's a whole riff that go on with Atwater and
Speaker 2: Rupert really about like they can't remember the tell Something Something.
Speaker 2: It's the something with the Something, It's it's very it's
Speaker 2: very Who's on first?
Speaker 1: They're basically naming old Hitchcock films, And I think, because
Speaker 1: you know how he has this thing where he puts
Speaker 1: himself in his movies, there's always a cameo. He obviously
Speaker 1: can't do it in this one. Although it would have
Speaker 1: been amazing just Hitchcock walking by on the balcony for
Speaker 1: no reason, or like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day float, but
Speaker 1: it's Hitchcock flying by the way.
Speaker 2: The only opportunity have been the very first shot of
Speaker 2: the movie, when they're looking down on the street. It's
Speaker 2: the only time is.
Speaker 1: A person crossing the street. I don't. I don't think
Speaker 1: it was Hitchcock. I think it's I think it's a woman.
Speaker 1: In my brain, it's a woman with kids.
Speaker 2: I yeah, I agree, Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: That would have been. I think this is his way
Speaker 1: of putting himself in the movie. He's like, let's let
Speaker 1: me do self referential things about my Oh sure.
Speaker 2: Yeahh okay. So we did skip over one telling moment
Speaker 2: about Brandon. It's not really I left it out of
Speaker 2: the recap because we just need to talk about it,
Speaker 2: but I'm going to put it in here. When Rupert's like, oh,
Speaker 2: I remember you used to love to tell stories chests
Speaker 2: in school. And then they go into this like this
Speaker 2: myth about how, oh, there was this one time you
Speaker 2: loved this story, Brandon, about how this young bride as
Speaker 2: a lark locked herself in a chest, only it was
Speaker 2: a spring latch, and then fifty years later they found
Speaker 2: her skeleton. And I'm like, what you know?
Speaker 1: That hilarious story.
Speaker 2: That hilarious story, and you loved it. You would tell
Speaker 2: it every chance you got that it was so funny.
Speaker 2: This person got locked in a chest and then no
Speaker 2: one found her or smelled her or mister her until
Speaker 2: she had decomposed to a skeleton.
Speaker 1: Fifty years later, two years later. This is why we
Speaker 1: shouldn't have all boys schools.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: This is what happens when you send boys to prep school,
Speaker 1: they get fucking weird, correct weird? All right, there is
Speaker 1: a moment that that is very nineteen forty eight and
Speaker 1: the best way Joan Chandler, I just needed this needs
Speaker 1: to be said. Joan Chandler is a very slender, slender woman.
Speaker 1: She is. She has one hundred pounds. If she is
Speaker 1: anything at the bust.
Speaker 2: She might weigh as much as the gown she's wearing,
Speaker 2: but she might not.
Speaker 1: She it's brocaded. It weighs more than her.
Speaker 2: I know that.
Speaker 1: So she's having like a little bit of snacks at
Speaker 1: the party and Missus Wilson just walks up to her
Speaker 1: and goes go easy on the patent. Dear calories, bitch,
Speaker 1: mind your business. Let this woman needs some pataee if
Speaker 1: she wants to.
Speaker 2: But you know what, this actually dovetails perfectly into my
Speaker 2: next one, because this is a proof that bitchery trickles down.
Speaker 2: Because when missus Atwater walks in, they're talking about how
Speaker 2: missus Kentley has a cold or whatever, and Missus Wilson
Speaker 2: has the nerve to be like, oh, be careful. Having
Speaker 2: a cold in the summer is awful. And the look
Speaker 2: on Constance Collier's face or Collie. I don't know how
Speaker 2: to say her last name. That this this servant woman
Speaker 2: is offering an opinion and daring to speak to her.
Speaker 2: It's like she smells dog shit. Missus Wilson, to her credit,
Speaker 2: completely doesn't even notice. Yeah, but like the offense she
Speaker 2: is taking at this woman is hilarious. All right, Erica,
Speaker 2: how are we going to rank rope? One to ten?
Speaker 2: Fondled champagne bottles, fondled to completion?
Speaker 1: Honestly, is there a better metaphor for like male masturbation
Speaker 1: that because it's like you fondle it and then it
Speaker 1: pops and it's praise.
Speaker 2: Everywhere, praise everywhere.
Speaker 1: That is actually kind of brilliant.
Speaker 2: It's perfect.
Speaker 1: It's perfect. One to ten. You know, fruity little nut boys.
Speaker 2: There are trail mix. It's fruit and nuts, raisins and cashies.
Speaker 1: Those two little pine nuts.
Speaker 2: Those two little coca nuts.
Speaker 1: Oh, those two little coconuts.
Speaker 2: Coconuts.
Speaker 1: I know a coconut when I see one.
Speaker 2: One to ten flounces of homosexuals.
Speaker 1: That is the actual like, that is ten or more
Speaker 1: homosexuals at a party.
Speaker 2: You have a flound, you have a flounce.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one to ten perfect.
Speaker 2: Murders with no errors.
Speaker 1: Perfect crimes committed by two geniuses.
Speaker 2: Due to a perfect crime that is so perfect you
Speaker 2: can actually tell people that you did it and they
Speaker 2: still can't prove it. So perfect thought out plan to
Speaker 2: the nth degree.
Speaker 1: Absolutely flawless.
Speaker 2: Yep. One to ten candelabras.
Speaker 1: Grab a candelabra, follow me.
Speaker 2: That is that's the battle cry for a gay army
Speaker 2: the beaches.
Speaker 1: Grab a candelabra. This one, this one, this one for sure?
Speaker 2: Do you want to go first on this one? Or
Speaker 2: shall I go first on this one?
Speaker 1: Why don't you go first? Since I think this is
Speaker 1: more your milieu.
Speaker 2: My milieu, my midiu.
Speaker 1: Indeed, it certainly doesn't pass the Bechdel test.
Speaker 2: I'll give you.
Speaker 1: I will give except for that moment where she fat
Speaker 1: James were about calories. They're never not talking about David.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. And I was gonna say, missus Atwater does
Speaker 2: talk to Janet about her horoscope, but that is technically
Speaker 2: about a man, because it's just about it. You're gonna
Speaker 2: marry my nephew. Yeah, yeah, so it doesn't count. It
Speaker 2: doesn't pest the Bechdel test. No one should be surprised
Speaker 2: to hear it. Okay, So again we have to kind
Speaker 2: of grin on a curve here, this is nineteen forty
Speaker 2: eight or something like that. There are no people of
Speaker 2: color in this movie. I suppose it can be viewed
Speaker 2: as maybe good that the lone person of color isn't
Speaker 2: these isn't Missus Wilson. Absolutely, yeah, it's also I will say,
Speaker 2: to the movie's credit, Missus Wilson has a character. Every
Speaker 2: single character, Every single character in this film is an
Speaker 2: individual who has their own take on things. Even Kenneth,
Speaker 2: who I think is probably the smallest role. Yeah, Like
Speaker 2: he's a real person with wants and needs. So like,
Speaker 2: if it was the case that the sole person of
Speaker 2: color was Missus Wilson, she would have stuff to play
Speaker 2: that actors would have stuff to do, and would have
Speaker 2: takes on things, and would have would get at least
Speaker 2: the chance to act, as opposed to simply be set dressing.
Speaker 2: But it's not. So this is really a hypothetical conversation
Speaker 2: that we're having. Everyone in the cast is white, white, white,
Speaker 2: except sometimes for Douglas Dick, who is gray's silver. Like
Speaker 2: he looks like one of those robot people on the street.
Speaker 2: That's like a living robot very odd. Again, it doesn't
Speaker 2: pass the Bechdel test. But the female characters I think
Speaker 2: are well drawn, and I think of the characters that
Speaker 2: aren't the three leads, Janet is actually the one who's
Speaker 2: kind of taking the most actions, Like she is confronting
Speaker 2: Brandon repeatedly. She does get to have a little hutzpah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and Missus Atwater is really funny and very well performed.
Speaker 2: So they're not like nothing characters.
Speaker 1: No, they're great characters.
Speaker 2: Actually. The gay stuff this is interesting because we do
Speaker 2: have gay villains. The two leads of the movie are gay. Clearly,
Speaker 2: it's possible third lead is gay. I think it's I
Speaker 2: think it's very clear that the Jimmy Stewart character is
Speaker 2: also homosexual. I don't know. Other people may disagree with
Speaker 2: me on that. It is less apparent than with the
Speaker 2: other two.
Speaker 1: Wait, he's not actively living with another man, But I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I think it's pretty clear. I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty clear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we do have a case of like two
Speaker 2: gay men being one of them is a sociopath and
Speaker 2: the other one is just so weak that he can't
Speaker 2: stand up to his sociopathic boyfriend, essentially, which isn't a
Speaker 2: great portrayal of the gay experience, but I do think
Speaker 2: we are far enough a lot, Like I didn't watch
Speaker 2: this and feel offended because of like like this is
Speaker 2: what they're saying all gay men are like that. I
Speaker 2: didn't have any of that. And in my interpretation, Jimmy
Speaker 2: Stewart is also a gay man in this movie. I
Speaker 2: am not yes, you are, yes.
Speaker 1: Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. Come on, Jimmy, come.
Speaker 2: On, Jimmy, you knew what you were doing.
Speaker 1: Swish Jimmy, swish swish bish is that how you say it?
Speaker 2: So, like the ostensible hero of the movie, he's also
Speaker 2: a gay man in that interpretation. I don't think he's
Speaker 2: a particularly intelligent gay man because he had all these
Speaker 2: lofty ideas and ideals and never once like thought about
Speaker 2: the actual like carrying out of them, and then taught
Speaker 2: kids about them and they did them, and then he
Speaker 2: was like, whoops, wasn't me? You know. So I don't
Speaker 2: think he's not a huge hero either in this film.
Speaker 2: But you know, I am certainly not left defended as
Speaker 2: a gay man. And from the movie, it's very silly
Speaker 2: at this point, like even though it is one of
Speaker 2: the most horrifying on its face things that we have
Speaker 2: ever seen. If you just say what happens the movie itself,
Speaker 2: it's so big and kind of campy and a little
Speaker 2: bit silly. The horror of that does not penetrate for
Speaker 2: me when I was watching it. At least maybe other
Speaker 2: people have a different experience. Ranking it on a curve,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna rank it fairly high. It has gay representation.
Speaker 2: It's not good gay representation, but does have it. In
Speaker 2: nineteen forty eight, we are saying these people exist and
Speaker 2: they can be accepted. They just shouldn't be because they're murderers.
Speaker 2: A six. All right, I'm gonna The funny thing is,
Speaker 2: I really don't know where Eric is gonna go with this.
Speaker 2: She may be like, two, you.
Speaker 1: Absolute monster, Are you trying to murder me?
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna give it a six out of ten.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: Candelabras, candelabras. I think it's a well made movie. I
Speaker 2: wasn't offended by the gay portrayals because they are so
Speaker 2: over the top that it's fine. It's like scar like basically,
Speaker 2: which is more offensive because being pitched to kids, and
Speaker 2: it's it's under the covers kind of whereas this is
Speaker 2: I think as out of the covers as they could
Speaker 2: be in nineteen forty eight. They're not trying to hide it.
Speaker 2: It feels like a specific story about these people, not
Speaker 2: about gay men at large. Maybe the fact they never
Speaker 2: call them gay men is what's also helping with that.
Speaker 2: No one's ever like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: You know, I think in nineteen forty eight too, your
Speaker 1: average audience member would maybe not pick up on a thing.
Speaker 2: It could conceive it like like Arthur Laurence said, like
Speaker 2: the people at the rating it didn't get it. The
Speaker 2: sensors didn't get it.
Speaker 1: It flew over their heads. So I think that's possible
Speaker 1: that like, if you want to see yourself up on that.
Speaker 2: Screen, yeah, if you want to If you.
Speaker 1: Want to see yourself up on that screen like a
Speaker 1: fucking psychopath, yeah, then sure.
Speaker 2: Barley Granger is very good looking and available to you.
Speaker 1: And exactly exactly. I have a question, actually, I was
Speaker 1: just thinking about this. Would it have been more creepy
Speaker 1: if we hadn't seen David. If we hear a scream
Speaker 1: and we hear like a thump, right, and then the
Speaker 1: camera cuts it inside the apartment and you have like
Speaker 1: Brandon like like over the chest, going we've done it.
Speaker 1: We've killed him, and now we've put him in this chest.
Speaker 1: I think that the kind of goofiness of seeing the
Speaker 1: murder takes a lot of the teeth out of the movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he's not that I would want to see this,
Speaker 2: but like his lips aren't blue. He looks like someone
Speaker 2: who has a tie on who fell asleep.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so I kind of wonder if we had
Speaker 1: never seen the dead body, if it would actually be creepier,
Speaker 1: not even if we hadn't seen the murder or whatever,
Speaker 1: if it would actually be creepier. I think it would
Speaker 1: actually one thing, also, there is something to be said
Speaker 1: for and this is very insider baseball. A lot of
Speaker 1: people who watch this movie maybe wouldn't know this, but
Speaker 1: like there's something to be said for, like understanding like
Speaker 1: who is making the project, huh, and like kind of
Speaker 1: feeling comfortable in their hands. And so we'd said Arthur Lawrence,
Speaker 1: the writer is gay. Farley Granger, the actor who plays Philip,
Speaker 1: look him up. He is a very interesting.
Speaker 2: Our bisexual King.
Speaker 1: Farley Granger, openly bisexual in the forties and fifties, did
Speaker 1: not give a fuck who knew about his proclivities. I
Speaker 1: just love everything about him. The more I read about him,
Speaker 1: the more.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god, I love I agree. I
Speaker 2: enjoyed his Wikipedia page A great deal, a great deal.
Speaker 1: And he's, like I said, very very good looking. So
Speaker 1: it's it's it's just really fun. And then John Dall,
Speaker 1: the actor who plays Brandon, was closeted. Probably we don't
Speaker 1: know for sure one way or the other, Like casting
Speaker 1: them can't can't be a full accident, right, like Hitchcock
Speaker 1: and Lawrence and whoever else worked in the film produced
Speaker 1: it must have been like I want actors who kind
Speaker 1: of get it, get what we're doing, cos.
Speaker 2: Like, well, Arthur, I want to know. Arthur's like, I
Speaker 2: got it. Don't worry about I have a whole list.
Speaker 1: Actually who had a really strong British ox. It was jollyy,
Speaker 1: but it was also it was also a bit of
Speaker 1: British and so yeah, I think there is something to
Speaker 1: be said for who they cast. Now then they need
Speaker 1: a star, right, and they get Jimmy Stewart, and Jimmy
Speaker 1: Stewart's like, I will absolutely not play a homosexual. Don't
Speaker 1: worry about it.
Speaker 2: He's not.
Speaker 1: He's just a confirmed bachelor. Jimmy wink wink, and Jimmy's like, fine,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I feel really comfortable with this crew
Speaker 1: of people, and I feel like they under they get it.
Speaker 1: Very insidery baseball. Most people watching the movie would have
Speaker 1: absolutely no idea about any of that. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you a five. Okay, I'm gonna give a five
Speaker 1: out of ten. Grab a Candola brun follow me. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I think our podcast age is worse than this film.
Speaker 1: I think I think I am one more gay joke. Okay,
Speaker 1: from getting canceled.
Speaker 2: We are reclaiming. We are reclaiming.
Speaker 1: I am a gay man everywhere, Like bitch, we gave
Speaker 1: you twenty and you cash them all in?
Speaker 2: No gayment everywhere? Like do more?
Speaker 3: Do more?
Speaker 1: This Valley of the dolls all over again?
Speaker 2: It sure is?
Speaker 1: It?
Speaker 2: Sure is? Do you want to offer a palate cleanse? No?
Speaker 1: I the only thing I could think of off the
Speaker 1: top of my head. It's another Hitchcock film. No gay
Speaker 1: undertones that I can think of, But Farley Granger is
Speaker 1: in it, and he's far better in it. And so
Speaker 1: if you want to just do more with Farley Green,
Speaker 1: because who wouldn't want to do? Who would want to do?
Speaker 3: All?
Speaker 1: Go all the way with Barley Granger. He's in Strangers
Speaker 1: on the Train and Strangers on a Train. Strangers on
Speaker 1: a Train is fan fucking tastic. Okay, it's a great
Speaker 1: another great. It's actually a far far better thriller than
Speaker 1: this movie. Yeah, and it's got some like actually very
Speaker 1: chilling thriller moments where you're like, what's going to happen? Okay,
Speaker 1: So would I would recommend Strangers in a Train?
Speaker 2: Fair enough?
Speaker 1: If you're into this, how about you?
Speaker 2: No, I think you can watch Rope. Hey, it's we
Speaker 2: didn't even mention this hour and twenty minutes. Yeah, in
Speaker 2: and out, bing bang boom. I love it all right,
Speaker 2: So that is Erica. As they say, the end of
Speaker 2: our show.
Speaker 1: That is the end of it.
Speaker 2: That's the end of it. Everyone listening can follow us
Speaker 2: on Twitter, on threads, and on Instagram, which is the
Speaker 2: only platform where I post the monthly themes before they
Speaker 2: come out, and we accept request specifically on those themes.
Speaker 2: We have a tea public shop you can pick up
Speaker 2: podcast swag if you are a Spotify user. Spotify now
Speaker 2: allows for comments that I can respond to, so comment away,
Speaker 2: and we would love but if you would leave a
Speaker 2: five story of you on Apple Podcasts or on any
Speaker 2: podcasting platform that you may use. If you do that,
Speaker 2: just like Bizzolina from the top of this episode, and
Speaker 2: let us know that you did, we will send you
Speaker 2: a that age Well tote bag.
Speaker 1: That age Well is produced and edited by Paul Kola.
Speaker 1: A real brazil nut if I ever saw one, that
Speaker 1: was it? That was it? Cancel buttons are being pushed
Speaker 1: like we're done. We're done with you.
Speaker 2: Only because you repeated brazil nut.
Speaker 1: That's true. If I used to say a real macademia,
Speaker 1: real cash, you are not sure real cash you have
Speaker 1: ever saw one?
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 1: Canceled me.
Speaker 2: I deserve it.
Speaker 1: I deserve it. We would like to thank Sharon Kay,
Speaker 1: Matt Luis and Anika for reaching out and letting us
Speaker 1: know what they want to hear. If you want to
Speaker 1: have a say in the topics we discussed, you can
Speaker 1: join our Patreon. Every patron gets to vote in an
Speaker 1: exclusive monthly poll to determine one of our subjects. We
Speaker 1: have Diva versus a Diva up right.
Speaker 2: Now, not right now, it's already done well.
Speaker 1: But it's up there on the Patreon people could have
Speaker 1: voted for it. Yeah, yeah, I am in the past.
Speaker 1: I'm not in the future yet. I don't know who's
Speaker 1: gonna win, but I am dying to see if it's
Speaker 1: a born Burner. I think it will be.
Speaker 2: I think Saliah.
Speaker 1: So head on over to patreon dot com slash that
Speaker 1: Aged Well podcast to find out more.
Speaker 2: Speaking of which, certain tears in our Patreon come with
Speaker 2: a thanks for a podcast character and little public service announcement.
Speaker 2: If you are at the five or ten dollars level,
Speaker 2: we do owe you a thank you, and you have
Speaker 2: a message in Patreon asking you to let us know
Speaker 2: how you would like to be thanked. So please let
Speaker 2: us know what you would like so we can do
Speaker 2: that for you. But today we are hearing from a
Speaker 2: grand Dame, a figure so towering that the Tower of
Speaker 2: Babel itself crumbles at her feet. I don't know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying anymore. This is our third one in two days.
Speaker 1: Guysopy, my friend, we.
Speaker 2: Are hearing from one Miss Catherine Hepburn.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Pepe. Hello, everybody, it's me Pal Catherine Heppen.
Speaker 1: I am here to thank Jeff for listening to that age. Well,
Speaker 1: you have excellent taste in podcast, Jeff, just like I
Speaker 1: have excellent taste in cocktails. Oh, I see a cocktail
Speaker 1: being brought over to me. Now, my good friend Jimmy
Speaker 1: Stewart is here in lieu of Spencer. Spencer threw out
Speaker 1: his back and has been laying prostrate all morning. Hello Jimmy,
Speaker 1: Hi Catherine, it's me Jimmy Stuart. I've brought you a
Speaker 1: Backdoor lemonade, which is a fully real drink that Paul
Speaker 1: and Erica found on the internet. It's made with moonshine,
Speaker 1: sour mix, ginger syrup, and lemon wedges and joy. Oh,
Speaker 1: I thank you, Jimmy. This reminds me of the time
Speaker 1: we were making the Philadelphia Star and you and Folly
Speaker 1: Granger visited me and my trailer and we drank backdoor
Speaker 1: Lemonades all day long, and then you and Folly had
Speaker 1: your away with me. Catherine. Don't share that story. Oh
Speaker 1: forget it, Jimmy. It's the nineties. Anything goes. I guess
Speaker 1: Jimmy's right, It's a story for another time. Just suffice
Speaker 1: it to say that Folly really knows how to granger
Speaker 1: a gal. Well, I'm off, thank you for listening, and
Speaker 1: thank you to Jimmy for his excellent bartending. You're welcome, Catherine, Catherine,
Speaker 1: take your hand off my crotch.
Speaker 2: You know what, anytime you think you've found the bottom
Speaker 2: of her stories, you haven't.
Speaker 1: No, she is a well of history, my friend. She
Speaker 1: is a well of classic Hollywood history.
Speaker 2: True story.
Speaker 1: We will never get to the bottom of never ever, never, ever, ever,
Speaker 1: no matter how much we try.
Speaker 2: From your lips to God's ears, as they say, Erica,
Speaker 2: any final thoughts on rope, cat.
Speaker 1: And mouseball, cat and mouse.
Speaker 2: Grab your candelabrun follow me.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Paul and America and this is Tuberculosis Corner.
Speaker 2: This is Nicole kidman in the middle of Mulan Rouge.