The World's Only Podcast™ about bizarre, overlooked, and misbegotten media
Jen welcomes back Julie to discuss a criminally under-seen coming-of-age film directed by Adrian Lyne, Foxes.
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Read an interview with Kandice Stroh, in which she talks in detail about playing the part of Deirdre in the film.
“I learned it from watching you!”
Watch a 2003 documentary on the Camarillo State Hospital, made shortly before its closure. The grounds now make up California State University, Channel Islands.
Tim and Jen spend a LOT of time picking over a mid-tier Ridley Scott-directed actioner: Black Rain from 1989!
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Errata: Jen says “Tanpei Monogatori” when she meant “Tantei Monogatari,” the detective TV show starring Black Rain’s antagonist, Yūsuku Matsuda. All those wasted years as a weeb and she still can’t pronounce Japanese words properly. Sad!
For a much clunkier (read: Cannon Films) take on East-meets-West culture clash, listen to our episode on Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects.
The historical swordsman neither of your hosts could think of the name of is, of course, Miyamoto Musashi. The Historian’s Hut has a nice compact rundown on his astonishing life.
Tim and Jen look at the creepiest Charles Bronson film not directed by Michael Winner, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects.
For just $5 a month, hear it and over 80 more episodes on our Patreon!
Regarding Jill Ireland leaving then-husband David McCallum for Bronson, longtime rumor says that Bronson reportedly told McCallum to his face, “I’m going to marry your wife.” However, McCallum disputes this, and apparently didn’t hold a grudge:
“‘I never hated him, Charlie was always a good friend,’ he says. ‘I find that when problems come along, worrying about them and getting anxious and negative is quite unnecessary. You can solve them, usually amicably. That’s what happened.’”
McCallum to the Daily Mirror, 2016
Whatta guy!
CBR has the rundown on Cannon’s ersatz entry in the Macross/Robotech saga, the optimistically titled Robotech: The Movie. This archived Robotech fansite goes into even further detail on what went wrong. Please direct any further questions to our Robotech expert, Tim.
For more Cannon/Bronson (and J. Lee Thompson!), listen to our episode about 10 to Midnight, the movie with a nude serial killer.
Tim and Jen host Jacques of the Seeking Derangements podcast so they can hold forth about a personal favorite: Fatal Beauty starring Whoopi Goldberg!
Jacques somewhat confused the timeframe of Whoopi’s brief relationship with Ted Danson. They had an affair on the set of the 1993 film Made in America, and the infamous Friars Club blackface bit occurred in the fall of that same year. Ted and Whoopi dated until 1994; they moved on with Mary Steenbergen and Frank Langella(!), respectively.
Several stories exist on the origin of Whoopi’s stage surname, incidentally. The anecdote about “Goldberg” being her mother’s suggestion so she could appear Jewish enough to succeed in show business has not been confirmed. Hilariously, noted treat boy John Podhoretz once wrote an editorial for the New York Post demanding that she drop her adopted surname, in light of some wild-ass comments about the Holocaust Whoopi made on The View.
If you don’t recall the story of Big Lurch, we told it on our Disco Godfather episode.
Tim and Jen get locked in with a raw adaptation of Miguel Piñero’s sensational play, Short Eyes!
Hear the whole thing on Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
Go here for a bio of Piñero, the trailblazing Nuyorican playwright, as well as a list of his works.
BTW, there’s a documentary called The Survivor’s Guide to Prison that is slick, well made, and narrated by Danny Trejo as well as many other cultural icons. You can watch it for free with ads on Tubi, or on Kanopy with a library card. In other words, it’s perfect for sending to your normie friends who haven’t been hipped to the cause of prison abolition yet!
NYC Urbanism has historical information on the setting of Short Eyes, the Manhattan Detention Complex, aka The Tombs.
If you missed our episode on The Jericho Mile, why not give it a listen? It’s free!
Tim and Jen effuse about an early Michael Mann joint for television, the prison story The Jericho Mile!
You can buy a beautiful blu-ray of the film from Kino Lorber, but if you just can’t wait to see it, it’s on YouTube. And we highly recommend it!
The 1977 film Short Eyes, based on Miguel Piñero’s incendiary play, is free with ads on Tubi.
For more Michael Mann, check out our episode on The Keep!
Jen and Tim enlist favorite guest Bitter Karella to explicate the inexplicable Dan Aykroyd/Gene Hackman buddy cop comedy, Loose Cannons!
Not to get all fact check dot org on you all, but the Dissociative Identity Disorder website has science-based information on what was misrepresented as “multiple personality disorder” in the movie.
Busy Inside is a compassionate documentary about people with DID.
Read an article about the Southern California Sorcerers, a writer’s group which included future Loose Cannons scribe Richard Matheson and some other guys like Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison. Excelsior!
Jen and Tim discuss Donald Cammell’s posthumous thriller, Wild Side from 1995.
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
Wild Side went straight to video. Sadly, director Cammell committed suicide in 1996. However, while some have connected his death to the failure of his last project, we found that the story wasn’t quite so pat.
We were indebted to the only definitive biography on the man and his work. Get a copy of Donald Cammell: A Life on the Wild Side by Rebecca Umland on Alibris.
For another frank flick from the 90s, try our episode on David Cronenberg’s Crash!
The delightful Chapo dad joins us for Death Wish 3, possibly the simultaneous nadir and high point of the Death Wish series.
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
According to Danny Peary in his book Guide for the Film Fanatic, “when director Michael Winner complained that Death Wish III [sic] was given an X rating because it had 63 killings while the R-rated Rambo [: First Blood Part II, 1985] had 80 killings, the woman at the Ratings Board explained that most of those killed in Rambo are Vietnamese.”
Paul Talbot, Bronson’s Loose!: The Making of the Death Wish Films
For more Will, listen to our episode about the controversial Friedkin film Cruising.
Put on your mirrored shades! Jen and Tim welcome back Will Menaker to talk over the often-unfairly-maligned Cruising!
Will also joined us to talk about a St. Francis of Assisi biopic starring Mickey Rourke (!). Listen to our Francesco episode!