Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
Be Serious podcast and Happy Halloween.
Speaker 2: Today we are talking about the top five movies to
watch on Halloween from the seventies.
Speaker 1: From the seventies, this is another top five list because
we love them so much. Next episode we will be
talking about the top five movies to watch around Halloween
in the eighties. Yes, and so I'm excited.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: What's interesting about this particular scenario is we were both
born in the seventies, right, so there wasn't a lot
of slasher flicks that I was allowed to see between
the ages of zero and five.
Speaker 2: I know it's a little bit tricky here, and we're
gonna have some horror people out there that'll be like,
how could you possibly leave this movie off your list? Well,
we were too little, yeah, and we haven't really gone back.
This is not our best genre.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So neither one of us are big horror fans.
Like we appreciate them and we're familiar with them to
some degree. But I mean, there are multiple podcasts devoted
exclusively to horror, and if you're into that, you should
go listen to those podcasts because we're not at But
if you're just kind of into horror and you want
to have some fun Halloween movies to talk about. We're
the podcast for you.
Speaker 2: Hey, listen, I want you to go back in time
with me, d to October thirty first, nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 1: Ooh okay, hell, are you like I would have just
turned three? Three? Okay, yeah, then let's go to seventy
nine US four as a whole three.
Speaker 2: Just imagine with me, You're downstairs and your dad says,
come downstairs, We're watching a scary movie. Lights are out,
tells you to go manually turn the knob. These are
the type of movies we're talking about today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, back then, I think that our TV was still
black and white, Like, we still had a black and
white TV that we would watch. And I'll tell you this,
one of my earliest memories. It didn't even dawn on
me until you just said that just now. One of
my very earliest memories is of going and watching a
double feature in the seventies. Yeah, remember the seventies version
of Dracula that came out. Yes, the guy had his
face like when he was in the sun. It was
like peeling off at the end.
Speaker 2: It was Franklin je it was it was him the
bad guy from Dave Yes, and so I can remember
seeing that as a Yes, younger than five year old kid.
Speaker 1: This was seventies, but it was a double feature with
the movie that is going to be one of my
picks tonight, and so I'm excited to talk about that.
Speaker 2: You know, I was a big fan of the Universal movies.
So I watched the old Dracula, the old you know,
Brida Frankenstein, you know, Creature from Black Lagoon, that type
of stuff.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that there was like a movie about
those universal movies, like and it had Dan Aykroy and
Gilda Radner and a whole bunch of the Saturday Night
Live and John Landis. I think Mike was all.
Speaker 2: Love that it's called it came from Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, And so a lot of like I
would see those things. I want to watch that movie.
I want to see the Blob. I want to see
the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I might see those,
but they weren't talking about movies from the seventies at
that point, right.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed creature feature movies. So you may notice there'll
be less slashers and more creature featured type of stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, our criteria does not require that it be a
scary movie or a horror movie or a slasher movie.
It's just movies you watch around Halloween. That's right now. Interestingly,
in that there are a couple of movies that I
eliminated that you might be considered good slasher or monster
movies of the seventies. I'm not putting Alien on my list,
even though it's sci fi horror, because to me, it's
more sci fi than it is horror. And I'm not
putting Jaws on my list because even though it's a
monster chasing them for the entire movie, it's a summer movie.
It's a blockbuster, it's a beach movie. I told you
it's a July fourth movie exactly. That's not Halloween movie. Yeah,
so come with us, dive in, because we're about to
tell you our top five movies to watch around Halloween
for the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 1: Put your footy pajamas on. Remember the floor is lava. Okay,
we're gonna tease this up, just like yeah seven in
the past. I defer to you you may go first. Okay, guys,
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Speaker 2: All right, d this is my number five movie to
watch around Halloween from the seventies.
Speaker 1: Five.
Speaker 2: George Romero was originally supposed to direct this movie, but
Toby Hooper got the job instead. All right, so this
was I'm gonna call it a movie, but it was
actually released as a television mini series. Oh okay, now then,
the author of this movie or story is one of
the most prolific important authors of our time. When you're
talking bullseye of Bullseye for you and I growing up? Okay, yep,
all right, the head bad guy from this TV mini
series is on screen for less than ninety seconds.
Speaker 1: Okay, you think coming to you so far? I have
an idea. I have an idea. Okay, keep going.
Speaker 2: The plot of this movie is very autobiographical. It's about
a professor who moves to a new England town and
is kind of an outcast and kind of a weirdo
and realizes that the giant mansion up at the top
of the hill is actually possessed by a vampire.
Speaker 1: So is this movie have a name that reminds you
of burning, which is at the stake it does. All right,
this has got to be Salem's Lot.
Speaker 5: The vampires are creating vampires.
Speaker 6: The shadow of Death.
Speaker 2: So Sale's Lot was Stephen King's second book that he
ever published, and it's his favorite book that he published
up into you.
Speaker 1: Know, through the eighties. Yeah, so I've read this one.
It's fantastic. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Bonnie Bidelia from die Hard is the love interest.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Okay, got a kind of a cool plot twist at
the very end involving her. You get one of the
guys from Starsky and Hutch as the main guy in
this movie. Okay, And you've got Clint Eastwood's buddy from
any which way you can and every which way you
but loose running around.
Speaker 1: Town as a vampire. Jeffrey Lewis. Jeffrey Lewis yep. Okay,
So I haven't seen that one. Like many horror movies,
it would catch my eye in the video store and
the vampire is displayed prominently on the cover and he
looks like the nos Faratu vampire. Yeah. Yeah, which again
another scary movie from the seventies that was a remake
of a really old like black and white silent movie.
That's correct, but I have not seen either one of those.
Speaker 2: Sale that's great, and it was made for television, so
if you want to watch it with your kids. Definitely creepy,
definitely scary, but not gory, and you know, no sex,
no cussing, that type of thing, and you can get
it from the library whatever.
Speaker 1: It's really great. Yeah. They remade it in the two
thousands with Rob Lowe as the main character. Wow. Yeah, okay,
Stephen King's Salem's Lot okay, so ready for my number five?
Ready for your number five? Number five? Okay. Before writing
and directing this movie, the director and writer asked Bob
Clark about a movie that he had just finished up
a couple of years earlier called Black Christmas. Okay. He
asked him, hey, did you ever think about doing a
sequel to Black Christmas? Black Christmas involved like these sorority
killings where it was a serial killer and you never
really saw who it was. And Bob Clark said no,
because these aren't really the kind of movies that I
came to Hollywood to direct. So the director of this
movie says, well, if you did, what would you do?
And He's like, Oh, I'd have my guy escape from
a min to losylum and come and come back and
recavoc in the same place that he was at before.
That's about all he gave him. Now, I've said the
name Bob Clark a few times. Do you remember who
that is?
Speaker 2: That is the same guy who directed A Christmas.
Speaker 1: Story, Yeah, exactly. The game is one of the funniest
movies in the eighties. Yes. One of his big movie
to come out in the seventies was Black Christmas, which was,
of course a horror movie that takes place on Christmas.
And then he comes out with a Christmas movie that
takes a place on Christmas in the eighties, which is
one of the best Christmas movies of all time. I
gl god Dario. So, the director of this movie decides
that it needs to also be set on a holiday, okay,
and so he gets together with his girlfriend and they
start writing a script. They had been propositioned by some
producers who had seen his first movie, which was called
Assault on Precinct thirteen. Got it, Let's kick it down
the road. Okay, let's kick it down. I was gonna say,
if if our listeners have got it, you keep it
in your mind, because I think it must be higher
on Jason's list. It is all right.
Speaker 2: By the way, do you mentioned the John Carpenter movie
Assault on Precinct thirteen? Yes, the film by Guys covered
that not too long ago.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, that was a good episode.
Go back and check out that episode.
Speaker 2: It's one of Carpenter's early movies. You gotta check out,
all right. So number my number four.
Speaker 5: Four.
Speaker 2: This was narrated by a popular sitcom actor in the
nineteen eighties, and he was paid with a marijuana joint.
Speaker 1: For his time and effort. This one. The director wanted.
Speaker 2: A PG rating, okay, and because of that, he shows
very little blood, very little gore, almost no gore.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: But instead it had the opposite effect. Because of the
minimalization of what you actually see, your mind races and
you go crazy. Instead, it becomes like the most horrific
thing you've ever seen in your life.
Speaker 1: Gosh, Okay, Okay, I don't know what it is, Okay,
keep going, all right.
Speaker 2: So this is an allegory for the Vietnam War. The
director got the idea for this movie while he was
holiday shopping in a crowded department store. I could see
the recognition on your face.
Speaker 1: I know where you're going with this one, and it
is appropriate because it is also my number four. Okay, great.
So yes, he is in a very busy store and
he's thinking to himself, how could I speed through this crowd?
He turns and looks to his left, and because it's
a hardware store, he sees a chainsaw and thinks that'd
be a good way to get through this crowd. Hey,
that might be a good, great idea. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, we've talked about Psycho before, which Psycho is based
on the actual killer ed Geen. Some aspects of Silence
of the Lambs were based on ed Geen.
Speaker 1: Yes, they actually really pushed this movie as true based
on a true story. The movie even starts off with
the line the film you were about to see is true?
It really was? It was no, not at all. Like
It has some relationship to the ed Geen story, which
if you want to hear more about that, check out
our m versus Psycho versus Silence of the Lamb, two
of those heavily influenced by ed Gene's story as well.
It also is bears some relationship to a serial killer
out of Texas called Elmer Wayne Henley, who would recruit
young men to go to this guy who was killing
them go to his house, and so partially based on that.
But the movie, if you haven't guessed it yet, after
the clue of Chainsaw and in Texas, is the Texas
Chainsaw Massacre.
Speaker 4: What happened was true the most bizarre and brutal series
of crimes in America.
Speaker 2: Of course, of course I found this quote awesome. Edwin O'Neil,
who plays the hitchhiker, the guy one of the guys
at the dinner scene said filming the dinner scene was
one of the worst experiences.
Speaker 1: Of my life. And I had been in Vietnam where
people are trying to kill me. Yeah, that's yeah. It
is an intense and uncomfortable scene. And all to try
to get a PG rating on a movie that you're
calling the Texas chains On Massacre. So this movie came
out in October of nineteen seventy four. The budget for
the movie was one hundred and forty thousand dollars. It
would go on to gross thirty million dollars. I mean,
it's a pillar in the horror genre. Yeah. So this
stars Marilyn Burns as Sally Hardesty, the one who's the
last girl, as s dollar Is. It has Paul Partain
as the wheelchair bound Franklin Hardesty, who had just come
off a Sidney Lumet movie actually when he got this one.
And then you've got a guy named Gunner Hanson, who
you might know better as Leatherface.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: So this movie, as cheap as it was, set the
stage for so many horror movies to come. Was the
first movie to use power tools as a murder weapon. Yeah,
and one of the very first ones to use large
masked men as the killer.
Speaker 2: I watched it just the other day in preparation for this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they'll last. The dinner scene is torture.
Speaker 2: The watch she does this scream for like six minutes
and then pointing at her and poking here and trying
to get Grandpa a banger in the head with a hammer.
And so I was gonna tell you also, while they
were shooting this totally miserable middle of summer in Texas,
and we know we live in southern Oklahoma, it's freaking hot. Yeah,
it is triple digits the entire shoot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then I mean to talk about it being
a cheap budget, like one hundred and forty thousand. He
was trying to get it done as fast as he
could so that he didn't have to keep renting the equipment.
And so they're not only out there in the heat,
they're out there for like the whole day. You know,
wake up, start shooting until you can't stand anymore, and
then fall asleep. Yeah, the misery you see on every
one's face is real.
Speaker 2: I did hear that Marilyn Burns while she was running
through the junglely area of Texas, a lot of those
burrs would cut her and she ended up bloody from that.
So much of the blood you see on screen blood
real blood.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, so that was my number four. Also my
number four. Let's hear your number three, all right, three, My.
Speaker 2: Number three has been called the scariest movie of all time.
Speaker 1: Okay, why don't we push that one down the road.
Let's push that one. Okay, yes, okay, to your number three, sir,
all right. My number three involves an author's first book
and first movie to be made out of his book.
He sold the movie rights for twenty five hundred dollars.
He's twenty six years old. Never been asked to have
a book made let alone. His first book turned into
a movie and the director had gotten the book on
the request of a friend read it and I was like,
this is great. Let's see who's got it, and he said,
nobody's got it. So he went to these studios and
said let's buy it. Yeah, heard tickets for six months
and then finally a bite. You know what it is?
I do know what it is.
Speaker 2: Okay, this has to be Carrie by Stephen King.
Speaker 1: You got it.
Speaker 7: Yes, it's the night of the senior from the Bates
High School gym is alive with excitement. Everybody is there,
even Carrie White, the girl no one likes.
Speaker 5: We're well, sorry about this incident Cassie.
Speaker 4: If carry.
Speaker 1: And everyone makes fun out of that. So Carrie came
out just after Halloween nineteen seventy six. Came out November sixth,
nineteen seventy six. Now this is one of the bigger
budgets for the movies of the seventies. This one had
started off at one point six million, got bumped up
to one point eight million. But you have a star
studded cast including this is interesting. The wife of the
art director who said you should skip that commercial audition
that you're doing tomorrow and go condition for this movie
that I'm about to be a part of. The art
director's name was Jack Fisk, and his wife's name is
Sissy Spacek, whoa she had totally like and she's in
her twenties. Yeah, but she's supposed to play a teenager.
So instead of going to this commercial shoot that she's
supposed to do, she gets vasolene and slicks her hair
down and then wears this little like sailor outfit that
she had from whenever she was a little kid, and
totally looks like this pubest teenager. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fantastic. You know, it's got Nancy Allen and
John Travolta in it.
Speaker 1: I mean, so Nancy Allen we know from RoboCop. Yes,
because we talked about RoboCop versus Predator. Predator. That was
a good episode. Yeah, that's really a good one. She
ends up marrying Brian de Palma. They were married from
nineteen seventy nine to nineteen eighty four. Wow. It also
has William Kat mister Greatest American hero in it. It
also has John Travolta in one of his art earliest
movie Roles, who comes becomes the movie guy for the
next decade after that. Yep, it's got a lady named
p J. Souls in it, who's in another movie that's
going to come up here talking about it in a minute. Yeah,
it's got Amy Irving in it, who is so pretty,
so pretty, and ends up marrying Steven Spielberg ten years later.
Who Steven Spielberg, he's a director?
Speaker 2: Oh okay, thank you. I mean, it's just nuts all
the people that were involved in this. But it all
started from this novel by Stephen King that he threw away.
He literally was writing the novel.
Speaker 1: His wife had said, you know, you should try something
from a female perspective. He gave it his best shot
and he thought this is terrible, watted up, threw it
in the trash. His wife dug it out of the trash,
read it and said, you need to keep going. This
is good.
Speaker 2: You know, they really did a great job with this.
The pig blood scene at the very end you talk
about scared was she flips at ther on the movie
and the door slam shut and she's like, that's it.
Speaker 1: I've had it. Everybody's going down. It is scary. Even
the teacher that was kind of nice to her. Yeah, sorry,
you are getting it just like everybody else who's inside
this building right now.
Speaker 2: You know, the scene that stands out to me is
the one of they're throwing tampons at her in the shower,
going plug it up, plug it up.
Speaker 1: I watched it.
Speaker 2: It's just heartbreaking, you know, they just bully her and
then her mother's a wacko.
Speaker 1: Oh Piper Laurie, Oh my gosh, what an incredible job
she does. Is the psycho realig scary? Yeah? Oh my goodness,
so good.
Speaker 2: Excellent choice, excellent choice. That was your number three, yes,
number k all right, oh white. By the way, one
quick nugget. Yes, they tried to make a musical out
of things it was. It was supposed to be on Broadway.
I think that they did like sixteen previews, all of
which tanked. They ran it for like five days.
Speaker 1: And they said, no, that's just it's not gonna work.
Oh that thinks.
Speaker 2: The big climactive moment with Hawker dumb blood on the
audience real quick.
Speaker 1: The last scene in the movie, the scene, Yeah, they
film it backwards to give it the kind of ghost theory,
ghost kind of thing. That was inspired by the movie Deliverance.
Speaker 2: Interesting, okay, very good. All right, on to my number
two two. This is a movie that was inspired by
the old universal movies. Okay, the star of this movie said,
I will star in it, mister director, as long as
you don't star in it.
Speaker 1: I know what movie you're talking about, and we should
push it off until a little bit later. Let's push
it off. Okay, all right, you're a number two, sir. Okay,
so my number two you just referred to earlier as
you're number three. You said it was referred to as
the scariest movie of all times. Yes, there are some
incredible stories behind this one. I mean, just trying to
dip my toe in was hard because there's so much
surrounding the making of this movie, let alone the movie itself. Right,
But let me just start at the beginning, because at
least that's a little kind of happier story. You know
who Blake Edwards is, right?
Speaker 2: I love Blake Edwards. Yeah, mister pink Panther, Mister Pink Panther,
and so one of his earliest TV shows that he
did was Peter Gunn. Yeah, okay, you'll know the theme
if you don't know the spy hunter right exactly.
Speaker 1: Exactly, yes, yeah. So at some point he decides I
want to bring back the Peter Gunn character in a movie,
and so he gets this guy who's helped him write
some scripts, Blake Edwards, presents it to William Freakin and says, hey,
look at the script and tell me what you think.
And William Freakin looks at it and says, I don't
think this could be worse if your worst enemy wrote
it for you. Woa what Like? He was like, I mean,
it could not have been more blunt. And and we've
as we find out later, William Freakin is that guy.
I mean, he's the guy who will he will do whatever. Yes,
he's a nut, he wackle Willie. And so he just
passed away, by the way, like two months ago, just
passed away August seventh. Okay. So anyway, after that little meeting,
the script writer who had also helped Blake Edwards write
a Shot in the Dark. That's the second in the
Inspector Clues. Oh movies, Yes, right after the Pink Panther. Yeah,
get a Shot in the Dark. So this screenwriter, whose
name is William Peter Blattie comes up after this meeting,
and he says, I'm the guy who helped him write
that script, and you're right, it was terrible. This is
an important meeting. Yeah, Because later that writer is giving
up on screenwriting, he decides I'll give novels a try,
and he writes this novel about an event that occurred
in nineteen forty nine. This kid, who at the time
was just known as Roland Doe or Robbie Mannheim as
a pseudonym. Later they would determine his real name was
Ronald Edwin Hunkler. But in nineteen forty nine he was
believed to have been possessed by the devil and required
an exorcism, And so William Peter Bladdie then writes the
book The Exorcist.
Speaker 5: Got It. Something beyond comprehension is happening to a little
girl on this street, in this house. A man has
been sent for as a last resort to try and
save her.
Speaker 1: So he writes this book and it doesn't even sell
that well to begin with. It's not until he goes
on the Dick Cavot Show and gets involved in this
conversation about whether the devil exists or not, and for
some reason that slights the Spark and literally within the
week he is on the New York Times bestseller list.
Speaker 2: It's incredible. You know, this movie was so scary the
people in the theaters threw up, passed out. The Washington
DC police said they were going to arrest any adult
who was bringing a child in to see this movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even.
Speaker 2: Now you and I are both like, man, that's scary.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: Oh dude, it is terrifying. Like I said, we need
to do a full episode on this. Jason Miller, the
guy who plays the young priest in the movie. At
some point while the movie is being filmed, an actual
priest stops him, unaware that they're this movie, but just
stops him in his apartment building, hands him a Catholic
medal you know the little necklaces that you can wear
some Saints medal and says to Jason Miller, if you
reveal the devil for the trickster that he is, he
will seek retribution against you, or he will even try
to stop what you're doing to unmask him. Whoo, So
he gets this medal. Two days later, he's walking through
his apartment building. He goes by the door and he's like, whoa,
what did I just see leans back and there is
a coffin inside of the apartment. The priest that gave
him the medal two days earlier is dead in the casket.
And that's just one of three or four deaths associated
with the making of this movie. It's crazy.
Speaker 2: Hey, I'll tell you something else. I don't know if
he came across this or not. Yeah, on screen in
this movie is a killer, like an actual serial killer.
Speaker 1: The guy who plays the radiologist and she's in the
hospital later gets convicted of murder. Two of the actors
in the movie die before the movie is released. Both
the main female characters in the movie break their back
during the production of the movie. The behavior of William
Friedkin during this entire movie is nuts, And had he
not just come off winning the Academy Award for the
French Connection, no one would have let him even do
the movie, let alone do the crazy stuff that he
was doing. Oh my gosh, this one is just amazing.
But if I can just give you a little trivia
on the guy who wrote the music, because the music
is iconic.
Speaker 2: As well, it's as least as important as some of
the special effects.
Speaker 1: The composer's name is Jack Nietzschee and he started his
career as the right hand man of mister phil Spector himself.
He played with the Rolling Stones, He played with Neil Young.
He wrote the song which won him an oscar. By
the way, up where We Belong? Oh live does up?
Wel mister Joe Cocker himself? Wow? Is that that same
man is the guy who wrote the music to this
incredibly scary movie? A little bit of trivia for you go.
The woman is who sings that song up where We Belong?
She's been featured in one of our other episodes, was
it the dirty Dancing episode? That's right, Jennifer Warrens, who
also sang with the Righteous Brother Bill Medley. Bill Medley,
thank you for the I had the time of my life,
Time of my life. Wow. By the way, A couple
more trivia bits. Yes, for the part of the little
girl that ultimately went to Linda Blair. Yes, Jamie Lee
Curtis wanted to play the part, but her mother Janet Lee,
wouldn't allow her to do it. Wow. Another person who
was a prime consideration for playing this part laid Violet
Buregard in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Mister Denise Nickerson.
Who I mean, can you imagine violet? You're turning violet? Yeah,
I can't repeat anything. That can't repeat anything that Linda
Blair says in the movie.
Speaker 2: But yes, you know, the Demon was voiced by a
woman named Mercedes McCambridge, who Orson Wells called the world's
greatest living radio.
Speaker 1: Actress at one point.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, yeah, Now she smoked forty packs a day.
Speaker 1: And you know since the radio days her voice changed
a little bit, right, perfect for the Demon. Perfect yep. Okay,
So at this point in the podcast, we are to
our number one picks, which are different number one picks, right,
and both of us had it as a movie in
our you know, I had yours as a movie in
my past list on my number five and you had
my number one. Is your number two. But we're not
going to get into any of that yet. First, we're
going to tell you about our honorable mentions. And I
will just tell you, boys and girls, lady and gentlemen.
As a kid who was zero to four years old
during the seventies, these are not movies that I've seen
because I just didn't see that many scary movies that
many Halloween movies. I had a guy the other night
when I mentioned this, he goes, oh, Charlie Brown The
Great Pumpkin. I'm like, oh, perfect. I'm like, oh, now
that's sixties sixty six. Oh yeah, that would have been
a perfect one, because that's the kind of Halloween movies
I was watching. Sure, But as I went through these things,
there were a few movies that I was like, oh, man,
I really, at this stage in my life, I do
actually want to watch those movies. Even though I'm not
a scary movie guy, I would like to watch those movies.
So my two honorable mentions, I'm not gonna give you
any trivia on. I'm just gonna tell you. I'm gonna
tease me up. Come on, movie. I don't have the
tri trivia. Sorry, bro. So one of my honorable mentions
is another Brian De Palmer movie, and it's stars a
guy that we've talked about before when we did our
Smoky in the Bandit episode. A guy who wrote Rainbow
Connection for the Muppet movie. Yeahlus because he's thirsty dummy.
Mister Paul Williams is the star of a Brian De
Palmer movie, which was described to us as a cross
between Phantom of the Opera and the Rocky Horror Picture
Show a movie called Phantom of the Paradise. WHOA, I've
never seen this movie. I haven't. I had again, I
was familiar with the cover of the VHS tape or whatever,
but it's not one I ever saw. But it's I mean,
it's got a seven point three on the IMDb. It
looks like a worthy watch. I just have never seen it,
And based on Jeff Johnson's recommendation, I think I need
to probably correct that this month.
Speaker 2: Anybody who writes a song as good as Rainbow Connection,
this has to be good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, Jason, Before we keep going, there is a
podcast you and I just discovered which is fan freakantastic
that I wanted to tell everybody about. Yeah. It's called
Famous and Gravy. Yeah. A couple of guys very much
like ourselves, same generation. They have that kind of same
talking back and forth chemistry. Michael Osborne and am At Kapoor.
They have this really awesome format and it just keeps
you engaged in the podcast the whole freaking time. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So they talk about a person who is dead and
whether or not you would want to have their life
it's kind of a cool thing. They're they're inspirational, they're
very positive, thought provoking.
Speaker 1: I enjoy this. They break it up into like ten
or eleven different categories. First one is the obituary of
this person, right, and then the last one is the
James Vanderby category of I Don't want your life and
it's fantastic. And they've got a Malcovich category in there,
which is my absolute favorite. But you guys should totally
go check these guys out. They cover athletes, they cover
rock stars, just I mean anybody and everybody.
Speaker 2: I mean, they've covered any money. Luke Perry, I forgot
he died, Brad Willard, Gene Wilder, Bill Paxton, Hank Aaron,
Alan Rickman.
Speaker 1: You told me you found a Bill Paxton nugget in
one of their podcasts.
Speaker 2: From them, According to their podcast, I learned this stuff, ye,
Bill Paxon, do you know the song fish Heads.
Speaker 1: Fish Fish Fish Yeah.
Speaker 2: Bill Paxton was the director of that music video.
Speaker 1: Shut up, Yes, dude. I love these guys. They are
fantastic guys. If you have not checked out the Amous
and Gravy podcast, definitely go check that out. Definitely. And
then my other honorable mention is a movie that I
want to see. So it also stars Martin Sheen and
it has got a The plot of the movie is
a thirteen year old girl who lives with her absentee father,
the friends a disabled teenage amateur magician, and eventually invites
him gradually into her tenuous struggle against a predatory local neighbor.
This movie is called The Little Girl who Lives Down
the Lane. Came out in nineteen seventy six and got
a seven point zero on IMDb. Okay, gotta be a
good movie, yeah, Jennie Foster, are you kidding? Yeah? Awesome, Okay,
all right, I got a couple for you. These are
my honorable mentions.
Speaker 2: And I have seen these, okay, and I've got I've
got a kind of a tender spot in my heart
for these corny, really cheesy seventies type of movies.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, I'm gonna tease this.
Speaker 2: One up for you a little bit, just to see
if there's anything there for you. Okay, So this one
is basically a copy of the movie a Rachnophobia.
Speaker 1: It stars William Shatner. I was gonna say it can't
be a copy because Rachnophobia didn't come out until like
the nineties.
Speaker 2: Well, excuse me, A rachnophobia basically steals the entire plot
from this movie.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, oheah, yeah, gotcha. Okay, it's a spider movie.
It's a spider movie. Okay.
Speaker 2: William Shatner is the uh protagonist.
Speaker 1: Uh huh yeah, I don't know what this says.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's basically about this Arizona town that's invaded by
tarantulas for no reason, like they don't.
Speaker 1: Talk about it. Why, Just they're migrating, that's it. Oh
that's great, Okay, I love it.
Speaker 2: Not only are they translists, but they're tranelists who spin webs,
which is, you know, not possible. I don't think that's
the way it works. But okay, here's the deal. Producers
for this movie offered ten dollars for each live tarantula
that the handler's captured, so they came back with five
thousand tarantulists.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's fifty thousand dollars. Aulus. Here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Tarantula's they're spiders, but they're also so cannibalistic and territorial.
So you have five thousand translates. You can't just toss
them all in a bucket.
Speaker 1: So they ended up with like fifteen hundred and they're
really fat. Hey, you watched the movie Man. Their tarantula
is everywhere. This movie is called Kingdom of the Spiders.
I don't like spiders touching me. I would not enjoy
that movie. I'm with Robert Smith on this one. No, sir,
you will not be I think that spider on me,
Thank you very much.
Speaker 5: Hey.
Speaker 2: The funny thing is is that they are cut like
these actors all cover with spiders the entire time, and
Shatner is flicking these things off of stuff, and they
say the worst injury that anybody suffered was there was
minor irritation due to their hairs, the translate hairs that
are bugging.
Speaker 1: Them more than a minor irritation.
Speaker 2: Kingdom of the Fighters nineteen seventy seven. Wow, starring William
freaking Shatner. Okay, yeah, all right, my other honorable mention
and tease this one up for you a little. Okay, Okay,
this whole movie was shot with one camera. Nineteen seventy two.
You have Bernie Casey, who played Felix Lider and Never
Say Never again. He was also the head guy of
the Black Fraternity in Revenge of the Nerds.
Speaker 1: He's been a bunch of other stuff.
Speaker 2: Scott Glenn, who played the main FBI guy in Silence
of the Lambs, he's in it.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Then you have this young actress named Jennifer Salt who's
smoking hot for nineteen seventy two, running around this whole time.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's the thing that.
Speaker 2: Really struck me when I watched this again yesterday for
the first time since nineteen ninety. Okay, the end of
this movie is very similar to Aliens from nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: This is what I mean. Okay.
Speaker 2: There are eggs where these gargoyles are hatching from what's
laying these eggs, We're not really sure. So the good
guys go in there, they pour gasoline over him and
they're burning out these eggs. I'm like, this looks just
like Aliens.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: This movie is called Gargoyles Gargoles. This was a CBS
TV movie.
Speaker 1: Look at you a two different CBS, two different Hey
made for TV movies on your list. I go with
what I saw, right, that's fantastic.
Speaker 2: And Bernie Casey is, by the way, is the head gargoyle.
Speaker 1: There you go all right, Okay. Now we're going to
talk about your number one and then we're gonna talk
about my number one.
Speaker 6: One.
Speaker 1: Okay, And since we both know what they are at
this point, because they've come up previously on our list, yes,
we'll tease it up for the audience a little bit.
Al Right, sounds good, all right, all right, all right,
all right, here you go. You ready for You're ready
for this? Okay? Ready? So now, one of the key
characters in this movie. His name was also the name
of a character in the movie Psycho. It would later
on be the name of a character in Scream five,
but for now, let's just stick with Psycho. Okay, And
the star of the movie Psycho, her daughter is in
this movie. Yeah, as the main last girl. She is,
no doubt, and it's her first movie because her mom
wouldn't let her audition for The Exorcist. I know what
this is, Oh, of course you do. This is Halloween.
Speaker 3: Fifteen years ago. I met this six year old child
with this blank, pale, emotionless face, the blackest eyes, the
death size.
Speaker 2: I'm babysitting the Doyles, the Wallaces leave at seven.
Speaker 1: What about the Boogieyman?
Speaker 3: The Boogieman is coming.
Speaker 1: There's no such thing. How can we have best movies
of the seventies to watch over Halloween if we don't
actually mention the movie Halloween? How can this not be
your number one?
Speaker 2: When you talk about movies on Halloween from the seventies,
You got to start with Halloween, don't you.
Speaker 1: No, I don't, because we'll time you number one if
you're a number two. So don't give me anything, right,
sounds good? Sounds good.
Speaker 2: So for those of you who don't know, this is
common knowledge, but the mask worn by Michael Myers is actually.
Speaker 1: William the Shad Shatner, Hey, the main star of Kingdom
of the Spiders. Turned it inside out, painted it white,
stretched it out, cut the eyes out. That's all very
well known at this point, right, yep, Okay, here's some
tidbits about this movie that you that you may not know. Okay,
all right, yep. We mentioned that PJ. Sols, Pamela Souls,
was also in Carrie. She is in this movie as well.
She's one of the babysitters. This movie was heavily influenced
by the movie Psycho. The writer who was also the director,
and his girlfriend who was also a writer who was
also a babysitter named the Sheriff Lee in this movie. Yeah,
as a obvious direct connection. Okay, and I mentioned earlier
that John Carpenter, the director of this movie, had talked
to Bob Clark about doing a sequel to Black Christmas. Yes,
Escaped from the Mental Institution was Bob Clark's suggestion on
if he did it, this is what he would do.
But Bob Clark has said that is that's John's movie,
That's not my movie. We just had a conversation, right,
So John Carpenter and his girlfriend Deborah Hill wrote the
script for this in three weeks. They knew that they
were going to make the movie because after he had
his film shown at a festival movie Assault on Precincts thirteen,
two producers approached him that worked together a guy named
Irwin Yoblems and then Mustafa a Cod. So tragically, Mustafa
a Cod he gets killed back in two thousand and
five during the remember the three hotel bombings that they
did the Al Qaeda did in two thousand and five,
they called him the a Mom bombings. Yeah, the three
hotels they had him at the same time. He was
in one of those hotels with his daughter and was
killed in that attack. Oh my gosh. But thirty years
earlier he had funded this movie, which funding for the
movie was about three hundred to three hundred and twenty
five thousand dollars. This movie went on to make seventy
million dollars, which is the the largest profit comparison that
any mood movie had until Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came
out twenty years later.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, wow, Okay, here's what I know about this movie.
It was set in Illinois, but it was filmed in Pasadena, California.
The Meyer's House was an abandoned house. It was set
to be kind of destroyed or whatever, and they were like, no, no, no,
we'll film it there.
Speaker 1: They fixed it up. Later, like twenty years later, they're
going to demolish it. They had actually moved it off
the property set to be destroyed, and an investor came
in rescued it.
Speaker 2: And now you can go visit the house. Now it's
not on the same piece of land that it you know,
the movie was shot in, but you can actually go
visit the Myers House.
Speaker 1: Wow, you know if you want to do that. I
don't know why anyone, but I love that time. I
know I was gonna say you would you would probably
go to do it. But what a great opening scene,
by the way, the kid looking through the holes of
his mask and his sister getting her makeup on, and yeah.
Speaker 2: The POV of Michael, Yeah you as a little six
year old psychopath. John Carpenter said when he was filming
this he wanted the audience to not relate to Michael
at all in any way.
Speaker 1: By the way, the character that I mentioned before is
Sam Loomis. You got doctor Sam Loomis played by Donald
Pleasance in Halloween. They're the boyfriend character from Psycho. His
character's name was Sam Lewis as well. I think the
actor's name was John Garvin if I'm remembering.
Speaker 2: Right, and he is Janetly's boyfriend. I remember when we
talked about Psycho. I think it was kind of very
risky for her to be shown in a bra and yeah,
all that with.
Speaker 1: His shirt off like that was very very risky for.
Speaker 2: Nineteen Really they were having a nooner, huh, and that
was a big deal.
Speaker 1: Yep. So this movie came out October twenty fifth, nineteen
seventy eight. It is forty five years old this year.
I think it's about time go watch it again.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're onto your number one, sir, which happens to
be my number two.
Speaker 1: But the way, The Exorcist was the first horror movie
ever nominated for Best Picture for an Oscar. Okay, so
for my number one. Yes, there was a guy named
Kenneth Strickfadden, and he was known as the electrical special
effects guy in Hollywood from his first movie in nineteen
thirty one until his last movie in nineteen seventy four, Wow,
both of which share a significant history. I know right.
He was the electrical guy for the Wizard of Oz.
He was the electrical special effects guy for the Mask
of Fu Manchu. He was the electrical special effects guy
for the Munsters on TV Wow. But his first job
was the effects of nineteen thirty one's Frankenstein and his
last job was on my number one movie for nineteen
seventies movies to watch it Halloween, Yes, Young Frankenstein with
mister gen Wilder by mister Melbrooks. It's coming from the
deep dark recesses of the mind of mel Brooks. Young
Frankenstein can Yeah.
Speaker 3: This guy means business.
Speaker 4: Starring Gene Wilder as doctor Frankenstein.
Speaker 5: That's Frankenstein, Peter Boyle as the monster, Marty Feldman as.
Speaker 6: My goal, my bandfather used to have field grandfather.
Speaker 2: I'm sure we'll get along splendidly. This movie is not
only a great movie to watch at Halloween, it's also
one of the funniest movies of the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: Absolutely hysterical. So Gene Wilder is filming Blazing Saddles with
mel Brooks right right right, and they're having tea one
day and Gene Wilder says, I think there needs to
be another Frankenstein movie. And mel Brooks is like, oh
my gosh, no, Well we've got we had the Son
of Frankenstein, and we had the cousin of Frankenstein, and
off all of these movies. And Gene Wilder's like, okay,
but imagine it's his grandson and he wants nothing to
do with the family because they're all a bunch of wackos.
Uh huh. And Milbrook's ghost now that's funny.
Speaker 2: Hey, I watched the bloopers on this because I had
read like Chloris Leachman and Terry Garr and mil Brooks
had said Gene Wilder could not keep it together while.
Speaker 1: He was doing this movie.
Speaker 2: Right funny, Yes, it's so funny, and so that even
they would they would do stuff like Marty Feldman is
like chewing on Madeline Kahn's you know being, and he
said he just could not stop laughing. Yeah, and so
I'm like, well, there's got to be some great bloopers
out there. I laughed and laughed and laughed, and.
Speaker 1: They would get mad at him. They're like, Jeane, that
was such a great take. He's like, I'm sorry, I
can't stop.
Speaker 3: Me.
Speaker 6: Oh, does that include the key to the laboratory?
Speaker 3: Who means that.
Speaker 1: You don't laugh?
Speaker 6: Now? Listen to me very carefully.
Speaker 1: So said a give.
Speaker 2: But the interesting thing, so while they're making this, he's
laughing his butt off. He can't keep a straight face.
It's very hard. They show the raw cut that's like
two hours and forty five minutes something like that, and
it bombs. Oh, it absolutely bombs. And so they went
back to the drawing board. They're like, man, I thought
we had a really good one. This audience is not laughing.
It's not funny.
Speaker 1: So they cut it all down.
Speaker 2: They trimmed it all up, and they ramped the pace
and the comedy, and of course it's now.
Speaker 1: It's a classic, absolute classic. And I think we've mentioned
this a few times now, the inspiration for one of
the greatest rock hits of nineteen seventy how about that well,
walk this way.
Speaker 6: Walk this way, this way.
Speaker 1: By the way, Marty Feldman, Yeah, it was his idea
to switch which side the hump was on from time
to time. It's a viley Gene Welder to kind of
improv the bits like, wasn't that is your hump on
the other side? What hump?
Speaker 5: Hey?
Speaker 2: We still quote this today, right, there's and when you're
having a bad day and I'm like, hey, could be worse,
could be raining.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, my mother in law has a dog named Abby.
Every time I see that dog, I'm like, Abby Normal.
Speaker 2: We just did a Patreon episode on the Taco song
Putting on the Ritz, which is featured prominently in this movie.
Speaker 4: If you're blue and you don't know where to go to,
why don't you go where?
Speaker 7: Fashion?
Speaker 1: That was the one scene that mel Brooks and Gene
Wilder got in a fight about because mel Brooks said,
this is too ridiculous. Mel Brooks, Wow, so this is
too ridiculous. It's not gonna work. Gene Wilder stuck to
his guns and obviously I mean comedy gold, comedy gold,
comedy goal. Have you heard about that fight? So they
had this knockdown, drag out fight and they're good friends,
like screaming match. As soon as mel Brooks leaves, he
calls Gene Wilder and he says, who was that mad man?
Sorry and just like apologizes profusely. That's awesome. So that
is awesome. Yeah, so like we've done vampire movies, We've
done werewolf movies. Yeah, we have got to do a
Frankenstein episode. I'd love to cover this one. Well, this
is a great I mean, I've suggested it. I don't
know if this is the right matchup, but I mentioned
Kenneth Strickfadden being the electrical guy. Yeah, they use the
same lab equipment in Young Frankenstein that they did in
the original nineteen thirty one version. A fun matchup.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, hey, I'll tell you this too. Gene
Hackman and Gene Wilder were tennis buddies.
Speaker 1: Huh and you know, what do you up to?
Speaker 2: What do you have to And he's like, well, I'm
working with mel Brooks on this comedy in Young Frankenstein,
Gene Hackman's like, hey, I would love to try comedy
and basically he worked for free and he plays as
a blind man and that scene is hysterical.
Speaker 1: Absolutely love it. And connection again French connection. That was
William fried Quin's. They wouldn't even take him as the
director until he won the Oscar and they're like, okay, well,
I guess we'll go ahead and take that because Bladdie
was caught. He was firm, this guy has to be
our director. Wow. All from that meeting that they had
where he knew where he was honest and said, your
script couldn't have been worse. If you're worse, enemy wrote it.
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's gonna do it for our movies to
watch around Halloween in the seventies. Come back next week
when we talk about movies to watch around Halloween the eighties.
Speaker 1: Guys, thank you much so much for tuning in. We
hope you all have a happy Halloween season. Be safe
out there, and we will see you next week.
Speaker 5: M