PODCAST: 113 - "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988) w/ SimonUK, Jamie and yours truly

Watched:  08/23/2020
Format:  HBOmax
Viewing:  Unknown
Decade:  1980's
Director:  Charles Crichton, John Cleese

For more ways to listen

Jamie, SimonUK and yours truly revisit the 1988 favorite about a barrister, an animal lover, a moron, and Jamie Lee Curtis - all caught up in the fallout from a heist. Simon and Jamie can quote it, Ryan quite likes it, and we do our best not to talk about what makes something funny. And Ryan insists on further discussing JLC.

The Signal Watch PodCast · 113: "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988) - Jamie, SimonUK and Me

Music:
A Fish Called Wanda Suite - John Du Prez


Playlist:

The Signal Watch PodCast · Jamie's Cinema Classics

Don't Judge Me Watch: Making Mr. Right (1987)

Watched:  08/02/2020

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  Unknown.  At least second.

Decade:  late 80's

Director:  Susan Seidelman

I had only vague memories of Making Mr. Right (1987), a movie I watched on cable as a kid.  And this is the part where I talk about women and their appearance and probably get in trouble.  But I essentially had two memories of Making Mr. Right, aside from very, very broad strokes of the plot of a woman getting mixed up with a scientist and the robot who looks just like him and the robot/doctor is John Malkovich in a role you'll be like "what? why?"

Happy Birthday, Jean Hagen

TCM social media reminds me today is the birthday of actress Jean Hagen.  

Happy Birthday Myrna Loy

Today would be the 115th birthday of Myrna Loy

Wilford Brimley Merges With The Infinite

Wilford Brimley, a man I think it's safe to say all of us had a multi-faceted fondness for, has passed.

From the NYT.

I can't say how I became aware of Wilford Brimley.  I knew who he was by the time I saw Cocoon in the theater.  Maybe he was doing oatmeal commercials by then.  I can't say.

He was always a lot younger than he looked - he was only 50ish when they filmed Cocoon.  He would have been about 45 when he did The Thing.  One of his craziest coups was playing the Postmaster General of the USPS for about one minute on Seinfeld and doing that thing he'd done in The Firm where Grandpa-is-low-key-threatening-me that was bizarrely terrifying.

The last few years, Brimley discovered twitter and was hilarious and a cheerful spot.

Watch Party Watch: Psychomania (1973)

Watched:  07/31/2020
Format:  Amazon Watch Party
Viewing:  Second
Decade: 1970's
Director: Don Sharp

SimonUK and I already did this one as a PodCast.  Check it out.

The Signal Watch PodCast · 023: "Psychomania" - Halloween 2018 Ep. 1 w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Friday Amazon Watch Party: PSYCHOMANIA

I've suffered through this movie, and now you should too.

It's "Psychomania" - a movie British people love and Americans will find baffling.

The leader of a biker gang in a small, British municipality makes a deal with the devil for power or immortality or both (I can't remember) and returns to life to wreak havoc.  And by havoc, I mean - kind of upsetting old ladies and people on ladders.

The final film of famed actor George Sanders, this one plays with life, death, and life again.  And frogs.  and motorcycles.  And very, very bad music.

Day:  Friday 07/31/2020
Time:  8:30 Central
Amazon Watch Party (link here)

Happy 80th Birthday, Bugs Bunny!

in which I argue this is a hero of the people

Because parents are now largely concerned their children will experience any joy that doesn't have bumpers on it,* I don't think kids really know about Bugs Bunny.  Which is a shame.

Being a 1980's latchkey kid who had a Zenith for a babysitter, like most of my generation, I had WB cartoons blasted at me day and night for my entire youth.  From my earliest memories straight through college, Looney Tunes were not just a staple, but a constant.  In a way, the cheap programming of a thousand UHF channels and basic cable options may be the truest common denominator for 2-3 decades of Americans.  All of us know "Rabbit Season/ Duck Season".  We all know the weird, hilarious poetic tragedy of Michigan J. Frog and those who find him.  We all know the best thing to do when pursued is to dress as a coquettish young blonde and flirt with our pursuer.

It's printed on our DNA.

Olivia de Havilland Merges with The Infinite

Olivia de Havilland has passed at the age of 104. 

With an astounding career that spanned the Golden Age of Hollywood into the post-studio system Hollywood, Olivia de Havilland was the last, living player from some of the great pictures of the early sound era.  She was in Gone with the Wind, but I prefer her and the movie of The Adventures of Robin Hood, in which she co-starred as Maid Marian. 

Just last week, during my lunch break, I watched her in part of Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte.

She had remarked in her last decades that being one of the last living actors from a bygone era of Hollywood was like being from a place no one else could remember.  That always struck me as remarkably sad.

She'd lived in France for the past six decades, returning to the US for various events and film roles. 

Here's to a grand actress.

Regis Philbin Merges with The Infinite

How odd.  I always thought of Regis Philbin as.. a permanent fixture.  He'd seemed sort of ageless all his years on TV. 

But he seems to have passed. 

For the kids - Regis was a sort of gadfly of the media industry who had his greatest success with "Regis and Kathie Lee" back in the 90's, a softball morning show where he drank coffee and met celebrities and clearly had no idea who they were or what they were pitching.  He was a great default guest for late-night talk shows (I always suspected he was on speed dial when they had a cancellation) because he'd been a sort of Jiminy Glick for so long that he had tons of crazy stories. 

Anyway, he was someone I always found pretty funny.  He had a certain joie de vivre that made him a kick to have on.  And, when he hosted the game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, our own Nathan Cone got to meet him as a contestant.