Episode 44 Insomnia and His Girl Friday

Dave & Christopher review the 2002  neo-noir psychological thriller "Insomnia" starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hillary Swank and Maura Tierney and directed by Sir Christopher Nolan-- a remake of the Norweigian film of the same name

They also review the 1940 screwball comedy "His Girl Friday"  starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart and directed  by Howard Hawks.  The screenplay was adapted from the 1928 play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. 

"Ride Captain Ride "© writers: Mike Pinera, Frank "Skip" Konte  performed by Blues Image

Transcript

Insomnia

SPEAKER_09 0:24

But sure. If you're looking for a good movie or two to inhale you've come to the right place, let's get started. For this week, I picked Insomnia. I did it because you picked His Girl Friday, and that's not going to ruin anything. Right. I like the dynamics of this movie. Let me get to the Insomnia is a 2002 American neo-noir psychological thriller directed by Christopher Nolan. It's actually a remake. Sir Christopher Nolan. Sorry, Sir Christopher Nolan. It's actually a re- yeah, it's a remake of a 1997 Norwegian film with the same name. When did he become a sir?

SPEAKER_10 0:58

That means you're a knight, right?

SPEAKER_09 0:59

Yeah, fairly recent. Yeah. The film stars Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hillary Swank. There she is again. And with Mora Tyranny, Martin Donovan, Nikki Kat, and Paul Dooley in supporting roles. It follows two Los Angeles homicide detectives investigating a murder in Nightmute, Alaska. After the killer witnesses an accidental shooting committed by one of the detectives, the detectives, they create a plan for both parties to mutually avoid prosecution. I did this because the dialogue in it is really dynamic. Al Pacino is phenomenal. He plays it very un and I think Hillary Swank is like a hidden gen in this film. Yeah. I think she uh holds more than her weight going against. It's not even going against, it's collaborating with Pacino. Right. She has this idol idolization of detective um Dormer or something like that? Yes. Will Dormer.

SPEAKER_10 1:56

Yeah. So they well, this small Dormer means sleep, by the way, or Dormir in the French. That's the irony because of insomnia, right?

SPEAKER_09 2:04

Yeah. This town is a like a small town in Alaska where the at that point when Dormer and his partner um get there, which is played by Martin Donovan Hap Eckhart. It's the point in the summer where the there is no sunset. So it's literally 24 hours is constantly. Right. And there's a a murder of a local teen who gets murdered, and they they can't solve it, so they call in the experts. And Will is like this phenomenal detective. Right. He's written books, he's even given, I want to say, seminars on some of his, you know, techniques, his procedures. And even Hillary tells him, Oh, I I studied you at when I was in the academy, and you know he's kind of like, okay. I mean, it's kind of like ha ha. But him and Hap are having a disagreement because something happened before they come onto this case.

SPEAKER_10 2:58

Well, let's just say something a little more than that. Is these there's an investigation going on involving and Dormer.

SPEAKER_09 3:05

Right. And Hap is telling Dormer, well, I'm gonna have to I have to give I have a family, I can't I have to cooperate with the authorities.

SPEAKER_10 3:13

Right. And and he We don't know what what's happened.

SPEAKER_09 3:16

Well, I'm not gonna give it away because that's something that you should.

SPEAKER_10 3:18

Well, I mean we do know later, but I'm saying at this point in the movie you don't know. So it is even that's a mystery.

SPEAKER_09 3:22

Well, they do allude to it because there's little flashbacks like it doesn't tell you, you're right. And it's like what? And then we get there and and Pacino takes that as like, oh, you're gonna stab me in the back.

SPEAKER_10 3:32

Right. Right. I thought we were partners. We that whole cop thing if we don't squeal on each other or whatever.

SPEAKER_09 3:36

Right. So that's hanging over him, right? And because at first they're they get there, they introduce themselves, they go, and later on and by the way, the some of the local cops aren't really happy to see them.

SPEAKER_10 3:50

Yeah, so that throw that in too.

SPEAKER_09 3:52

Especially Nikki Kat.

SPEAKER_10 3:53

He gets really like we could have done this ourselves.

SPEAKER_09 3:57

But Paul Dooley, who plays the captain,'s like, come on in, well, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_10 4:01

Let somebody else handle it.

SPEAKER_09 4:03

Well, they haven't really I I get where Nikki, like it's our first case. We can handle this. We're cops, we were trained for this. But that's like kind of a disrespect. Can you though? We don't know because you know, um, and as I said, Hillary Swank, who's I think the uh underdog in this film, really shows, yeah, what she really she's smart, sure. Like I was saying, when they get there and they go to their hotel, because at first they're like, it's sunny, and you're like, Oh wow, what time is it, right? Because they go, What time do the kids get out of school? Well, it's about well, let's go. Uh Mr. Dormer, it's 10 o'clock at night. But it looks like it's literally afternoon. Yeah, afternoon. So they're like, Oh, yeah. You know, so that kind of is a recurring theme for shadowing because everyone adapts to it, but he has to adapt like that.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Right.

SPEAKER_09 4:51

And I understand I can't have any sunlight because it will literally I'll doze off.

SPEAKER_10 4:57

Go through your eyelids and yeah, it it keeps me awake. Yeah. So I can relate. He what you're basically alluding to is the fact that he tapes up the windows and later, right? Yeah. But he So that there's so that there's fake darkness. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 5:12

Should have bought the uh the sh then.

SPEAKER_10 5:14

Oh yeah, the little thing you wear. The mask.

SPEAKER_09 5:17

But anyway. But I guess the locals think that because it's a young girl. Um I guess her name's Ellie Burr. No, that's uh Hillary Swank's name. Uh K there's a young girl Kay, who Kay Connell is found, yeah. Is beaten to death. And they suspect it's her boyfriend, Randy Stets, because something there was a party, and there was something that happened at the party, some argument, so they he's automatic uh suspect number one.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Right.

SPEAKER_09 5:45

And someone finds a backpack and they look through it, and then Dormer tells them, let's put it out in the news thing so they can attract the killer, right?

SPEAKER_10 5:55

Yeah, put out put out this bait for the killer that we found this thing that you left behind. Right. If anybody has any information, then the killer's gonna like But I think that all transpired.

SPEAKER_09 6:04

I'm kind of skipping, is that they question Randy because that that the that's the backpack comes in after.

SPEAKER_10 6:10

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_09 6:11

And Will's already like, no, it's not, it's not him. He says he knows it's not.

SPEAKER_10 6:15

He just has that sense that cops get or whatever.

SPEAKER_09 6:17

Right. Especially him.

SPEAKER_10 6:19

Right. There's just something that he says something like the cops here know you're you're too stupid to shit.

SPEAKER_09 6:27

Well, Randy thinks he's being this hard ass by playing this tough guy.

SPEAKER_10 6:31

He's and he's from LA.

SPEAKER_09 6:32

He's pulls him closer and goes, All right, enough of this bullshit. Don't you can't, you're not fooling me, kid. This tough bravado.

SPEAKER_10 6:39

Exactly. I I've seen way worse than that.

SPEAKER_09 6:41

But I love how all of a sudden, because Randy's all then he gets all you can see him like shrinking, like oh shit, he's on to me.

SPEAKER_10 6:48

Right. This usually works with the adults around here.

SPEAKER_09 6:51

Right. And this guy, oh shit. Now I mean that to your point, maybe the locals can't handle it because they would have we know you're lying, Randy, you know.

SPEAKER_10 6:58

And he's like, but Or he could just, you know, stonewall him or whatever. That's it, right. But he'd do it. But Will's like, no. I don't put up with that shit. Yeah. I eat guys for you like for for breakfast, you know.

SPEAKER_09 7:08

So he tells uh you know, Ellie and the rest that I don't but Nikki and them, no, we think it's Randy. They're still adamant, right? Because then Will, like you said, after all.

SPEAKER_10 7:16

Because it does come out that he did punch her or something. He abused her.

SPEAKER_09 7:20

Well, even Will says, I know he's guilty of something. He's hiding something, but right, I don't think he killed her.

SPEAKER_10 7:25

Right. Right. But they're like, Well, he hit her, therefore he must have killed her. Right. That's all that's what they're on, the locals. And they probably don't like him. He's probably done some teenage shit or whatever. They probably, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 7:35

Right. He's just disrespectful.

SPEAKER_10 7:36

Yeah, spinning his tires or whatever the fuck.

SPEAKER_09 7:38

But then they discovered the backpack.

SPEAKER_10 7:40

Right.

SPEAKER_09 7:41

And that's when Will's like, Oh, we gotta there's another killer. They still believe it's Randy, but they're like, let's put a something out that we found and then in the book, there's all a little foreshadowing inside this. That's you know. Anyway, to keep this going, uh, he does get a phone call at his hotel.

SPEAKER_10 7:58

Well, in the backpack, though, you find uh novel.

SPEAKER_09 8:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_10 8:02

And you don't think about it at first until later on the show. But it's a mystery novel by a certain author, and you just don't think about it. It's like, oh, that she just has a bunch of books and stuff in her bag, which people do.

SPEAKER_09 8:16

To trap the killer, they send this thing and they're gonna meet him at this cabin, remote cabin. And that's when things really go awry. I don't want to give that away either, because I think that's important to the movie, and um but things don't go as they're supposed to. Right.

SPEAKER_10 8:32

And um someone gets shot and killed, and you're I mean, I think I know what happened, and I'm not gonna, like I said, Well, in order to follow the rest of the plot, you kinda have to know that he kills his partner on accident, or you don't know whether it's an accident or not. At first. That's the that's the the rest of the movie. Did he do it on purpose or did he do it on an accident and how it plays into the actual killer or whatever?

SPEAKER_09 8:56

Right. Cause then the killer being Rob Williams, that's not really hidden, that comes out.

SPEAKER_10 9:01

Yeah, it comes right out. He actually calls there's also the investigation thing, so you're like, did he do it on purpose to get rid of him as a witness? Right.

SPEAKER_09 9:08

Right. And uh well, hold on.

SPEAKER_10 9:12

And it's and to be clear, we're saving the spoiler, we're trying not to spoil the movie, but this is one of those ones where it really could go anyway. I mean, I watched it last night and I was like, I and I've seen the movie before, and I was like, Did he do it on purpose? I I mean he was pretty mad at him. Oh yeah. And he's you know he's shady because Well, there's a point where he goes, Why do you care? He snaps at him, and he's like and we actually see him. I won't give that away. You do see him do some shady stuff, so you know he's not above it. So you're like, Did he do it on purpose?

SPEAKER_09 9:43

So Well, Robin Williams, who plays Walter Finch, calls him at his hotel. That's what I mean. That's what got me because the movie you picked, the dialogue between the two is dynamic, right? That little cat mouse.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Right.

SPEAKER_09 9:56

And and Walter plays on it. He goes, Well, and he knows about all that thing and that happened in LA, and he tells him, Did you really mean to do it? I mean, right. And then he they can cock this plan like I read in the synopsis of trying to get them both off, right? Right. I'll say this and all of them go, you know, and it's like this elaborate plan.

SPEAKER_10 10:14

And right.

SPEAKER_09 10:15

And Will's like, going along, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 10:18

But again, you don't know, is he agreeing to go along with this plan because he's trying to catch Robin Williams, or is he thinking about, yeah, well, I I've done shady shit, so I mean, I can do my interpretation, but again, I don't want to ruin it for anybody. So that's the thing, anybody can interpret it any way they want. Right.

SPEAKER_09 10:32

Yeah, and that's when they go back and they find out Randy was cheating on Kay's girlfriend or cheating on Kay with his her best friend. Right. Because Al takes the friend and they go and she confesses, and he he knew. I mean, the locals still think Randy She confesses to cheating, not the murder, yeah. No, no, not sorry, kids, yeah. And he already knows that they're not it's not them. Right. He has a killer, but he isn't really divulged. I mean, he has told them certain things.

SPEAKER_10 11:01

He thinks that Kay was cheating on the Stets kid or whatever, right, with the person who is the real killer. So she wants he wants to find out from the girlfriend what's what's the you know, you got your girls talk. Well, she goes, What's his name?

SPEAKER_09 11:14

She goes, She wouldn't tell me.

SPEAKER_10 11:15

Right.

SPEAKER_09 11:15

And he even Randy goes, she wouldn't tell me. Right. Even after I beat her, he wouldn't tell me. I mean, I've been funny, but you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_10 11:23

No, that's that that line was funny in the movie. He says, I tried really hard, and he kind of has a smirk in his face, and he's like, What a dick.

SPEAKER_09 11:30

Right. But yeah, uh that that little dynamic between Robin Williams and Al Pacino, two craftsmen at their You know, the funny thing is that Pacino is the actor by this time.

SPEAKER_10 11:43

He's had a legendary career, but Robin Williams, not dramatic, right?

SPEAKER_09 11:48

Yes. Goodwill hunting won his Oscar. Okay.

SPEAKER_10 11:51

I mean not like this is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_09 11:53

No, no, yeah, this is totally different. Right.

SPEAKER_10 11:55

I mean that's what I mean. So it's not like two peers, it's not like heat where it's like De Niro and Pacino, like two heavyweights. It's like Pacino, a heavyweight versus this guy who's not done this before that I'm aware of, and he held his own. I thought it was really good.

SPEAKER_09 12:08

It's more of a sociopath, right?

SPEAKER_10 12:10

You don't expect it from it's kind of like when I saw Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love, it's like, whoa, where'd this performance come from?

SPEAKER_09 12:17

And that's why I think about Robin in this film, it's such an understated but a powerful performance.

SPEAKER_10 12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 12:22

And he plays it so well. Right.

SPEAKER_10 12:24

He's very smart.

SPEAKER_09 12:25

It's a menace that you're like, damn, he's so smart, right? But he is menacing.

SPEAKER_10 12:29

Right. You there's that underline. He's not physically imposing, but the brain.

SPEAKER_09 12:33

But there's an underline to that.

SPEAKER_10 12:34

Right.

SPEAKER_09 12:35

That um uh intellectual, right? Right. He's not a dummy. Right. He plays it well. Yeah. Even the part where he's talking, they actually meet face to face on that ferry, right?

SPEAKER_10 12:46

Right. After he's chasing him around.

SPEAKER_09 12:47

He's chasing him around, and all of a sudden he he's leaving and he goes, he shows him the tape recorder taping their message. Basically, Will confessed to certain things, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Right.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

Yeah. This is always the worst time of night for me. Too late for tomorrow. Yesterday. Too early for tomorrow. What do you want? I'm sorry about the tape recorder. I had to make sure you'd follow through. I know this is hard for you. I'll follow through. I've been thinking it over. I should tell him about Randy. I think that's a bad idea, Walter. But he's the Patsy Will. And besides he deserves it. You should have heard the shit Kay told me about him, how he abused her. Yeah, but these are cops, you know, Walter. They're not children. You don't just throw something like that in your lap. Leave Randy to me. I'll push him toward Randy when the time is right. You understand? Yeah, but we don't have the gun. Well, how are we gonna convince him he's guilty if we don't have that? I mean, unless I tell him. Did you keep the dress? Dress? Kay's dress. Her nail clippings. What'd you do with those things? That's great. Dress. We could use that. That's even better than the gun. We just have to think of a place where we could have taken the body. What'd you take? I mean, she died in the cabin, right? So what'd you take for the climbing? You don't want to think about that. Will this is tough enough for you? But it was an accident, right? I didn't mean to kill her, Will. You know that, don't you? I know. And what happened? She called and said that she and Randy didn't get a fight. And she wanted to come over and talk. Meet me at our place. It's the cabin at the beach. He comes over, she's distraught and a little drunk. She starts telling me about how Randy and Tanya are carrying on. I wanted to comfort her. Hold her. I kissed her and got a little excited. She started laughing at me. She wouldn't start laughing. You ever had somebody laugh at you when when you're like that? Well when you're really vulnerable. Laughing their ass off at you. Someone you thought respected you.

SPEAKER_10 15:04

I just wanted to stop her laughing, that's all. And he has it on tape now, as an insurance, you would think.

SPEAKER_09 15:10

Right.

SPEAKER_10 15:10

But then we won't get into that. But then Will makes his own insurance policy similar. Anyway, they both they have mutual dirt on each other, let's put it that way. Right. Right. So they're you don't know whether they're gonna like help each other to clear each other's names or whether they're gonna try to double cross. That's the tension, too. So there's all this tension. Beautifully played. And I I was like gonna give Nolan his props of the story, but then I remembered it's a remake.

SPEAKER_09 15:37

But but I mean giving props because doing a remake as good as he as masterfully as he did it.

SPEAKER_10 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 15:42

I mean, we've seen remakes that's true.

SPEAKER_10 15:45

So I'm just saying, I mean it does it does take some skill to do it, but I'm but ultimately whoever wrote the story is like that, that's the way they did this is genius.

SPEAKER_09 15:53

Yeah. And in Hillary Swank, I'm heard she digs up more dirt, and she actually finds another piece of evidence at the crime scene.

SPEAKER_10 16:00

Right. Right? And it doesn't match up. At the second crime scene.

SPEAKER_09 16:05

Well, the one where the where the killer went and the Martin.

SPEAKER_10 16:09

Not where the lady got where the girl got killed, but yeah, so thank you.

SPEAKER_09 16:13

Where the cop got killed, his partner accidentally.

SPEAKER_10 16:16

And she is actually a wildcard that the neither of the two main protagonists, antagonists, count on. They didn't count on her like doing her own little investigation or whatever. So that's another one. That's what I mean.

SPEAKER_09 16:26

She's she's brilliant.

SPEAKER_10 16:28

Right.

SPEAKER_09 16:28

Because she adds so much to that movie. I think without her and that performance, it would have been good, but not as great.

SPEAKER_10 16:36

Yeah, she's good.

SPEAKER_09 16:37

That's what I mean when you have a stellar cast, and she wasn't really, yeah, she'd won an Oscar, but still she was still trying to.

SPEAKER_10 16:43

She won by then? Right.

SPEAKER_09 16:45

Well, 1999, Boys Don't Cry.

SPEAKER_10 16:48

Oh, this was this was what year? 2002. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 16:51

Yeah. So I think this is precedes Million Dollar Baby Two.

SPEAKER_10 16:54

Yeah, I'm pretty sure. So but anyway, um And there's a just if I can interject, there's a this little thing, a little little current of like um condescension amongst the males toward her, which is ironic. I guess probably women will probably won't think it's ironic, they'll probably won't think it's very funny, but uh they probably experience it a lot. But yeah, she's the most knowledgeable, the smartest of all of them, but they kind of look at her like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever little lady, you know, blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_09 17:20

But that's why it's so brilliant.

SPEAKER_10 17:21

Right.

SPEAKER_09 17:22

Because she takes it upon herself to do this side investigation, and that's when she uncovers this.

SPEAKER_10 17:27

And it's almost like just human nature to her. It just comes like she just has a feel for it, you know.

SPEAKER_09 17:33

Right.

SPEAKER_10 17:33

That the other cops don't. And they're in frankly, they're off. They're just like, oh, you know, caveman, like this guy's ill, let's go kill him, or whatever, you know. She's like more uh cerebral with it.

SPEAKER_09 17:44

That's another subplot in the movie is that Will gets no sleep for like six, seven days. Right. And you start, he even tells him, Walter tells him you're gonna start have to halluch after three days. There's a point where he's about to fall asleep and it's off. All bets are off. I mean, you feel for him because now that goes to your thing, and I'm not gonna get too heavy-handed. Did I, didn't I? Did I mean it? Did I not mean it? Because you're so you're out of it. And there's I'm just gonna say that you're so fucked up from lack of and you need sleep.

SPEAKER_10 18:19

Yeah. To have brain function. Well, you can't. So how can you be detective here?

SPEAKER_09 18:23

Right.

SPEAKER_10 18:24

Yeah, to if your brain is addled and you're you know anyway, there's scenes where they do it with cinematography where like there's flashing lights and like these off-kilter kind of angles or whatever to depict that he's not getting his sleep. And then there's one scene where the the um alarm clock goes off like really loud, like it seems like really loud. They probably boosted the volume or whatever.

SPEAKER_09 18:43

It's purposely done, right?

SPEAKER_10 18:44

Yeah, so it's like very you can't sleep.

SPEAKER_09 18:47

Well, to accentuate his lack of sleep, right? Thank you, right. But yeah, I I really love the movie. I think it still holds up. I mean, Robin Williams, those two, like you said, and this I always think have thought Robin Williams is a phenomenal actor. This performance to me, I you know, people always say one hour photo. I'll take this one over that one. One hour photo is great, yeah. But this is more menacing, it's because of his intellect.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Right.

SPEAKER_09 19:14

Whereas that one he plays that kind of weirdo.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Yeah, but that's for another time. Right.

SPEAKER_09 19:21

And Al Pacino was phenomenal. Like I said, he understates his performance, which is brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 19:27

Comes across, and it just proves like he's fallible too, you know. Even though he's just he's Ellie's idol.

SPEAKER_10 19:36

Right. He's this big uh um well-known detective, famous across, I guess, multiple states and jurisdictions or whatever, they they look to him as the the guy or whatever.

SPEAKER_09 19:47

I want to say he's probably a cop that goes and does seminars.

SPEAKER_10 19:49

Right. Right, and he's renowned. That type of but he's still working actual cases, which is odd, but Right.

SPEAKER_09 19:57

So it was budgeted for 46. It made 113.8 million. That's not bad. Yeah. I mean, being that it was a remake, I mean still Yeah. I like I said, huge thumbs up for me. I think it's a very brilliant film. Yeah, yeah. As a remake, even as a remake, I need to watch the original, and in all fairness to the Norwegians who made it, but I think Nolan did a phenomenal job. Sir Christopher Nolan, sorry. You get it right. The three, I mean, Hillary's more of a supporting, but all three of them are phenomenal. Yeah. Even Nikki Cat, who plays one of the detectives, like you were saying, like, why do we need this guy?

SPEAKER_10 20:39

Right.

SPEAKER_09 20:39

What am I, Chap Liva?

SPEAKER_10 20:40

And it turns out he does actually need him.

SPEAKER_09 20:43

Right.

SPEAKER_10 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 20:44

And like I said, I didn't want to we're I purposely was vague at the end because I think you need to see that.

SPEAKER_10 20:49

It's a mystery movie, so by definition, uh, we have to, you know, be vague about the details. So that's the whole point.

SPEAKER_09 20:55

It's like we don't want to ruin not knowing where it's going.

SPEAKER_10 20:58

I I I have no problem ruining shit, but I know that you do, but but I'm saying for this movie specifically, the point is you don't know where stuff goes. We know now because we've watched it.

SPEAKER_09 21:08

Right.

SPEAKER_10 21:09

So it would be a real dick move to like be, oh yeah, and this happens, this happened, blah blah blah. Then there's no point in watching it.

SPEAKER_09 21:14

I don't mind ruining it. I just feel like if we get people who have never seen this movie and they're going by what we say, I want you to be surprised. It's easy to give away stuff. I mean, you can look up the stuff online, for God's sakes.

SPEAKER_10 21:25

Oh, yeah, I just mean like I don't know. Just like a regular like smokey in the band, and if I give away how it ends, who cares? Because it's like it's yeah, yeah. But this specifically, you have to you have to go in blind. Right. Or else you there's no point in watching it.

SPEAKER_09 21:38

But like I said, the dynamics between those two and their dialogue is brilliant.

SPEAKER_10 21:42

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_09 21:42

Even Hilary Swank and some of her little things, her banter between, and you can see her she realizes they're giving her the pat, like yeah, okay, whatever, right? Right.

SPEAKER_10 21:52

But she knows I think even Pacino, right? Because he's doesn't he say, like, oh, you want to write that down?

SPEAKER_09 21:57

Like kind of like, and then she jokes later, Oh, you want me to write? That down. I got you.

SPEAKER_10 22:02

Right. It's nice. I mean, that's a nice little another arc.

SPEAKER_09 22:06

Oh yeah. But uh again, I own the film. That's how I watched it, and you watched it on uh Amazon. Okay. Yeah. So all you kids. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 22:15

That's there you go. But that's my money to Amazon.

SPEAKER_09 22:17

So you would give it a big thumb down.

SPEAKER_10 22:19

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I remember this movie when it came out, and there's something about for me about the fact that Vicino was 50, 60 in this?

SPEAKER_09 22:31

I think this is what, 24 years ago? So he's 80 now, so maybe late.

SPEAKER_10 22:37

He's roughly our age, I guess. No. You're right. I guess my point is he's an older guy and he's still out there running around chasing, and that itself is suspenseful. Yeah. Because I don't I think he's gonna have a heart attack, is he gonna fall and hurt his knee? Or like, you know, I can't get up.

SPEAKER_09 22:55

Life alert.

SPEAKER_10 22:57

So seriously, yeah, there's some scenes where there are you know there's things that are uh environment specific, like they're running across these logs.

SPEAKER_09 23:05

Oh, that was a good intention. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 23:07

And you think if it's like, you know, if it's a Dolph Lungren or something, you think, oh, he just threw the logs out of the way.

SPEAKER_09 23:11

But this guy's like, oh shit, is he gonna But it's real because you feel like, oh my god, is he gonna Yeah, exactly?

SPEAKER_10 23:16

That's what I mean. It it adds that little the fact his age adds that little he's got like a leather jacket on too. It's like, oh my god. Right. That could that could go the wrong way. Yeah and then he gets, you know, oh well, I won't say that. That that's what I mean. There's so many of these scenes it's like I can't say them because it gives away the suspense or whatever. Right. So that's a great scene.

SPEAKER_09 23:37

Definitely, kids. Two big thumbs up.

SPEAKER_10 23:39

Two thumbs up, and it's by uh Sir Christopher Nolan. That was the not the beginning of the legend, probably, because he had stuff before that.

SPEAKER_09 23:46

I think Memento is before this.

SPEAKER_10 23:48

Is it yeah?

SPEAKER_09 23:49

I want to say this might be a uh second or third film. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_10 23:54

Well, he did following, which is a kind of a short as far as like I know that my um I don't know criticism is kind of a strong word, but this was number 12 three, but because following I know it was like a 70-minute widely released, yeah. So proper commercial movie, this is the second. There you go. Um his he says a streak there where his movies the plots get really, really complex. And this is not that. It's it's complex, but not right like wait, what happened?

SPEAKER_09 24:26

That they're walking backwards and what it's not time is doing this, and it's not like the prestige, it's not like Inception or Interstellar. Right.

SPEAKER_10 24:33

Oh, those are where you have to like figure out what wait. Wait a minute. Yeah, you gotta have a spreadsheet in order to this is just like it keeps you on your toes, it's it's it's cerebral, especially Robin Williams' character. Oh yeah, it's beautiful, but it's not above you where you can't, and it does have action too, so yeah. It's a good mix of everything. I would say definitely a thumbs up,

His Girl Friday

SPEAKER_10 24:53

go watch it.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

From the Columbia Studios in Hollywood comes an exciting new film trial. A companion hit to Mr. Smith comes to Washington. Here's Girl Friday, hosting a fellow new pair of screen lovers. Tell us my career, Kevin Grant, and ravishing Rosland Russell. Let's listen in to one of their tender idyllic love scenes.

SPEAKER_07 25:20

I am fond of you, you know. I often wish you weren't such a stinker.

SPEAKER_10 25:25

Alright, so for mine, let's see if I can hold this off here.

unknown 25:29

You can.

SPEAKER_10 25:29

Mine is uh I did His Girl Friday, and the that was from 1940. The reason I picked this movie is because, as I was telling you, there's a I believe it's a book by Roger Ebert that has like the 500 movies you have to see or something like that. I think it's 500. Yeah, that's a lot of movies.

SPEAKER_09 25:48

I've seen a thousand people wrote a thousand movies you should see before you die. I've seen five hundred, I've seen Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 25:53

This is well, this is Roger Ebert specifically. Right. And his picks, and it was written later in his life, so because I know that some movies he first panned them and then went back and said, Oh no, I was wrong about that. So this is later on. This is presumably when he's like, Okay, this is the final thing. Anyway, this movie was I want to say it was like number four or something like that. Wow. And they were in sequential order, like you have to see this, this, this, all the way down to 500.

SPEAKER_09 26:20

I'll still see that, look up that book. But anyway.

SPEAKER_10 26:22

Yeah, and I was like, oh shit, that's nice. And so I just I'm not buying the book, but I'll just take some notes of some of these titles that I might want to see. Sure. And that's what I did. His Girl Friday was at the top of the list, so I made it to the top of my list, even though I don't always agree with Roger Ebert, frankly. And in this case, I don't.

SPEAKER_09 26:41

I had a feeling you would.

SPEAKER_10 26:42

Yeah, uh this it's not a bad movie, and it has some good qualities to it. Um, I'm gonna let you give me your your impression of it first.

SPEAKER_09 26:51

I like the repartee between Rosen Russell and Kerry Grant.

SPEAKER_10 26:56

That's very specific. It's brilliant, right? Specifically done.

SPEAKER_09 27:00

Right. But it's yeah, it's the whole reason to repartee. That's why I said that. And because Ralph Bellamy, who's like lost in their conversation, they're going back and forth, right?

SPEAKER_10 27:09

Right. It's that well, just to give some little bit of groundwork, so they wanted to have the the fastest dialogue, something like that. So they actually literally had them say these lines really fast to kind of to mimic real speech, they would kind of talk over each other a little bit. Right. And then the director had it sped up a little bit, the film. Yeah, it was sped up. So it was that's cool.

SPEAKER_06 27:30

Well, like about ten years apiece for you two birds. That's it.

SPEAKER_08 27:33

Now if you think you've got the morning post, like it's time for you to get out of film. We're sling in the dark.

SPEAKER_06 27:37

But that isn't gonna help you this time. The last man is sent down to me was oh she leaves just a week before he came to change the name for yesterday.

SPEAKER_04 29:10

This unfortunate man has really been reprieved. I'm personally taking a death.

SPEAKER_08 29:14

You'd hang your own mother to be realistic.

SPEAKER_10 29:21

So that's what he's talking about. It's for talking about this reparte, these quick one-liners that are just like zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing, zing. And you're almost like, wait, what did he say? What did he say? There's one line that I really liked where they ask him, What does this guy look like? Oh, he looks like that uh actor, Walter, you know, Ralph Bellamy. Yeah. I was like, oh, okay, I got that one. But they were talking so fast, it was like hard to like, wait, what did he say? What was that? What was that? Go ahead, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_09 29:44

No, no, I I love that because that's that's the one time they include the actor's real name, right? Because I think the thing's Walter.

SPEAKER_10 29:51

And then even later on He looks like Ralph Bellamy, and it was Ralph Bellamy.

SPEAKER_09 29:55

Right. And later on he goes, yeah, they're looking for that guy, Archie Leach.

SPEAKER_10 29:58

Yeah, and that's his real name. That's Cary Grant's real name, right? So that's what I think he looks at the camera sometimes. So it's it's you know, little wink wink.

SPEAKER_09 30:05

Yeah, it's it's I like it a lot. I mean, I remember watching it, and I've always I mean uh you know I love older films. Yes. And this one specifically when I were first watched, because of that repartee, but them going back and forth, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_09 30:20

And you're right, it's done these zingers, and you really have to listen.

SPEAKER_10 30:23

Yeah. You know, but it's done But as soon as you as soon as they say something, they're on to the next one. It's like, wait, wait, what was that? It's like, you know.

SPEAKER_09 30:29

But it's purposely done, like you said. It's supposed to be. We're like, what? And you get the gist of it.

SPEAKER_10 30:34

Right. Well, you didn't even go over the synopsis if you want. Yeah. Okay. So uh His Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy. It is comedy film directed by Howard Hawks. It stars Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, who I'd before this never heard of, and featuring Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart, who I also never heard of, but Ralph Bellamy is one of the Mortimer brothers.

SPEAKER_09 30:57

Trading places, I knew, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 30:58

That's like the Jacksons, right? Randy Jackson. It was released by Columbia Pictures when that was a thing. Are they still around? Probably not. Or maybe they've been bought up by somebody.

SPEAKER_09 31:08

That's a good question. I don't know.

SPEAKER_10 31:09

The plot centers on a newspaper editor named Walter Burns who's about to lose his ace reporter and ex-wife Hilda Johnson. I do know that originally this is based on a play. That's another thing that I didn't necessarily care about. It's like I I'm not a big fan of plays that movies that are based on plays that still look like plays, where the staging and stuff like that is still like I could see this as a stage play, and I'm not really a big play person. That's just me.

SPEAKER_09 31:33

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_10 31:34

Uh but what I was gonna say is I guess it was originally two men. And not like they were gay or anything like that, but it was no, it was like he the guy Kerry Grant's character was afraid of losing his ace reporter, and that was mostly a male industry.

SPEAKER_09 31:46

Kind of interject, yeah. And that makes sense for that era, right? Right. Women weren't really looked at as reporters. Anything really in any kind of field, right? Uh employment. There was some secretary, yes.

SPEAKER_10 31:58

Secretary, teacher, yeah. There was probably some in there.

SPEAKER_09 32:01

But nothing where you're like, This was men, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 32:04

Right. So that's I was it was intriguing, I'll give it that. Like when I first saw her, and the impression that I got from Rosalind Russell when she appears on the screen is that she's one of the guys, quote unquote. She's a matter of fact, probably better than the guys. She's like the star reporter. And I was like, did they have women reporters back then? Then I kind of like researched a little went into it a little bit, and then watched the rest of the movie. So it's like, okay. And then now when I heard about the gender switch, I was like, okay, now that makes sense. Right. Because that may or may not have actually happened in real life, but if it was two men, it's like, okay, well, that not saying that's right. I'm just saying for that time. That's what it would have been. Anyway, the plot centers on the editor named Walter Burns, but loses Ace Reporter and ex-wife, Hilde Johnson. She is engaged to another man played by Ralph Bellamy. Burns suggests they cover one more story together, getting themselves entangled in the case of murder Earl Williams as Burns desperately tries to win back his wife.

SPEAKER_06 33:03

It's the first time I ever dub across the governor. What can I do for you?

SPEAKER_08 33:07

Would you mind if I sat down?

SPEAKER_06 33:09

There's been a lamp burning in the window for you, honey. Here.

SPEAKER_08 33:47

Seems like yesterday to me.

SPEAKER_05 33:50

Maybe it was yesterday, Hillary.

SPEAKER_08 33:54

No, Mama doesn't dream about you anymore, Wally. Wouldn't know the old girl now.

SPEAKER_06 33:57

Yes, I would. I'd know you any time, any place.

SPEAKER_08 34:01

Anyway. You're repeating yourself. But that's the speech you made the night you proposed.

SPEAKER_06 34:05

Yeah, no, that you still remember it because.

SPEAKER_08 34:07

If I didn't remember it, I wouldn't have divorced you.

SPEAKER_06 34:09

Yes, I wish you hadn't done that, Hillie. Divorce. Divorce me. Makes a fella lose all of faith in himself. Gives him a almost gives him a feeling he wasn't wanted.

SPEAKER_08 34:18

Oh, now look, Junior. That's what divorces are for.

SPEAKER_06 34:21

Nonsense. You've got an old-fashioned idea. Divorce is something that lasts forever. Divorce doesn't mean anything nowadays, Hilde. Just a few words. Mumber over your bad judge. We've got something between us, nothing can change.

SPEAKER_08 34:34

Well, I suppose you're right, Mr. Walter.

SPEAKER_06 34:36

Sure, I'm right. Let him, I suppose. You must come up and meet my mother.

SPEAKER_08 34:40

He'd be like, why on earth did you promise not to fight the divorce and do everything you possibly could to come up the whole works?

SPEAKER_06 34:45

Yeah, I meant to let you go, Hilde, but you know how it is. You never miss the water, Taylor Will runs drunk, right?

SPEAKER_08 34:50

Delayed a hundred twenty minutes while the judge went off the water.

SPEAKER_06 34:53

I don't want to brag, but I've still got the dimple end in the same place. Look, Hilde, I know he acted like any husband who didn't want to see his home broken in the house. Don't you remember the home I promised you?

SPEAKER_08 35:04

I do. That was the one we were to have run after the honeymoon. Honeymoon.

SPEAKER_06 35:09

Was it my fault? Did I know that Coleman was gonna have another cave in? I intended to be with him on the honeymoon, Hilday.

SPEAKER_08 35:16

All I know is that instead of two weeks in Atlantic City with my bridegroom, I spent two weeks in a coal mine with John Kripsky. You don't deny that, do you, Walter?

SPEAKER_06 35:24

Denise. I'm proud of it. We beat the whole country on that story.

SPEAKER_08 35:32

What I came up here to tell you is that you must stop phoning me a dozen times a day, sending me 20 telegrams.

SPEAKER_06 35:38

I write a beautiful telegram, John. Everybody says so.

SPEAKER_08 35:40

Are you gonna listen to what I have to say?

SPEAKER_06 35:42

Look, look, what's the use of fighting, Hilde? I'll tell you what you do. You come back to work on the paper. If we find we can't get along in a friendly fashion, we'll get married again.

SPEAKER_10 35:50

I didn't get that he was. I mean, I guess I did from the dialogue that he was broken up about his divorce, that fact that he had been divorced. But I just kind of got he's more of a scoundrel, which I think I was right about that in my interpretation.

SPEAKER_09 36:04

No, you're right.

SPEAKER_10 36:04

Yeah, because it's well, I won't say the end, but um I was gonna say the end. But through the movie, he reveals himself to be kind of a scoundrel. He but you're supposed to look at it as he does love her maybe in his own way. Is that am I getting that right, I guess? Okay.

SPEAKER_09 36:18

But and she goes along with it. She doesn't realize it until with Bruce. That's who I I said Walter, but Bruce is Ralph Bellamy.

SPEAKER_10 36:26

Ralph Bellamy's kid. He's the epitome of the better well, you know, he's like uh he's an insurance salesman, right? He's got this more steady He's he's on paper the better choice for her. Sure.

SPEAKER_09 36:37

But he's and and uh Boring. And uh average.

SPEAKER_10 36:40

Boring.

SPEAKER_09 36:42

Same thing. Average, boring. But we're we mean the same thing.

SPEAKER_10 36:45

Right.

SPEAKER_09 36:45

And she thinks she's looking for a stability.

SPEAKER_10 36:49

Right. He's got he's got a good job. He talks about insurance for fun, which is weird, you know.

SPEAKER_09 36:54

So But you see when the banter between when it's Bruce, I mean Hildi's already like Walter, already five steps ahead, right? Right. And Bruce is like, oh, you you know, he's now he has to catch up.

SPEAKER_10 37:07

He's more slow down. Slow down, let's yeah.

SPEAKER_09 37:09

Right? And she's like, she's already used to that. She doesn't realize it. Right. She thinks, oh, I need to get away because he is a a cat, a scoundrel.

unknown 37:16

Right.

SPEAKER_10 37:17

Walter. And it she tells herself at least that this is the guy that I need to be with. And she's again denial, maybe convincing herself that, yeah, I really do love him, but you know, we we I question that as the movie goes on.

SPEAKER_09 37:30

Right. And I think it's she wants to believe she loves him.

SPEAKER_10 37:33

Right.

SPEAKER_09 37:33

Because she wants to believe I need that.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Right.

SPEAKER_09 37:36

But as we see the story unfold, the all there's a killer, right? There's a story that's being unfurled.

SPEAKER_10 37:43

Earl Williams, he is the guy who killed a black police officer.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_10 37:49

Yeah, that's why part of the reason I didn't enjoy this movie. Uh the uh uh premise was that they the people in the newspaper want to f prove him innocent because they feel like he's only being prosecuted because the powers that be want the black vote. Oh, which is not a thing. For the 50s or whatever, which was with 20, 40s, whatever. That's not a thing. But um he did it. He admits he did it, but they're like, ah, that's fine. So that's the comedy for me. The script was written by Charles Letterer, with the biggest alteration being the change of Hilly Johns Johnson's gender. Yeah. Uh filming began in 1939 and finished in November, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so anyway, um, skip forward. So basically, they're the premise of the movie is this guy, uh, what's his name? Burns or whatever? Earl Williams. Oh, the Earl Williams is the killer. Right. He killed the black sheriff or whatever. Uh they're trying to um they're trying to do an interview about him to show that he's not and he's not insane or something like that, so that he won't be hanged or whatever the next day. That's another thing, too. It's like, so he's gonna die tomorrow and you're gonna whatever.

SPEAKER_09 39:08

Right.

SPEAKER_10 39:09

Um, but that's the point. They and then the rest of the movie is uh Hilde trying to get an interview with him, and he escapes from his custody through some political macinations or whatever.

SPEAKER_09 39:20

And then incompetence, too.

SPEAKER_10 39:22

Right.

SPEAKER_09 39:22

The police chief or whatever.

SPEAKER_10 39:24

Gives the guy his gun or whatever. Show me how it happened or whatever. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So and then she does that great scene where she's running after the guy. Oh, and she cackles him, it's like three stooges. Oh wise guy. Um but that's basically the gist of I mean, you probably have more about it than that, but that's the gist of it. They're trying to get this guy off so he doesn't get murdered. And also they're news people, so they're trying to get the scoop over other that's a thing too. It's like there's multiple newspapers, that's not a thing anymore in the city. Back then, yes, but yeah, that was very common, I guess.

SPEAKER_09 40:00

Well, they even give you a little thing at the beginning, right? How this is depiction of this is what it's like to be in the news business, right? Right. Right.

SPEAKER_10 40:07

I mean, I'm sure there to some extent there was a lot of people. That was the internet of that time. So that gives you an idea of the importance of information back then.

SPEAKER_09 40:14

That's it. You know, people literally would get their paper like we gotta get the news.

SPEAKER_10 40:18

If I get the news fastest and most accurately from this company, I'm gonna give them my money. Well, that's the importance of it.

SPEAKER_09 40:25

We'll get the facts later. We gotta get the story out now. Right, right. Because we that's how we get our sales, that's how people keep coming to our paper. Right. Right. And that's that's really the gist of it. Walter is all about, you know, trying to what, they're trying to call the governor? Where is he? He's out. Well, get it, get him.

SPEAKER_10 40:42

Well, yeah, the powers that be the governor, I guess the mayor, they want the guy executed so they can get the black vote and and uh Carrie Grant and Rosalind Russell trying to go against that, or we get the guy off or whatever.

SPEAKER_09 40:54

Right. Well, I don't want to ruin that part. There is a part where the governor does give that letter.

SPEAKER_10 41:00

He gives a reprieve. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_09 41:02

But then there's There's that one guy in the we see the mayor tries to blackmail him. Well, I'll give you a job. Not blackmail, but seduce him with more money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 41:12

Um To bribe him is the word, yeah. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_09 41:14

Well seduction bribe, basically.

SPEAKER_10 41:18

Um yeah, then it's a race to like see who can get that story out and who can shape it in their own way before.

SPEAKER_09 41:23

Well, the hygiene's also happens. Earl gets hidden inside this rolled down desk, right? Yeah. And then they're they're in the basically the hub of the newsroom where all the guys are on the phone. I mean, that's the big thing. Phone back then, what's that? I mean an actual landline, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 41:38

And you know, and she's like, uh, why what what are you hiding? Or you know? And then Walter comes in because she calls him, Hey, I have Earl Williams, he's in the desk, he's here, and I need you to come up here.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 41:49

And then they're like, then Walter comes in, like, how are we gonna get the I need a team of guys to get and in the meantime, poor Bruce, right? Because Hilde keeps telling him, just wait in the cab, it'll be three minutes, it'll be 20, you know.

SPEAKER_10 42:03

And Cary Grant's character keeps framing him for they send like she sends he sends like a prostitute or something. One of his moment they call it mashing, honey, or whatever.

SPEAKER_09 42:11

It's like that's a lot of terms this one guy who you can tell is very unsavory, right?

SPEAKER_10 42:16

Right, he's a thug, yeah. Right. And go down there and give him some what do you know, counterfeit money or something? How much you have on you? Yeah, it's and he happens to have some on him, it's like Jesus.

SPEAKER_09 42:25

And then well, they what are you in there for? I have counterfeit Yeah, you keep setting up poor uh Bruce, right? Right. In the in the ensuing hijinks, even the mother-in-law comes. Yeah. Oh mother, you know, and it's I like I said, I love the movie. You like it, I would say. And that's kind of strong, maybe saying like. Yeah, it's a movie. Yeah, that's what we have today, kids. And we'll we'll we'll see you next time. Thank you for listening. That's it. That's a wrap for today's movie reviews. Thanks for listening. And remember, if you like what we've heard, make sure you like, subscribe, and rate our show. And then let's go get some ice cream.