Our Favorite Movies As Kids | Episode 5

FavoriteMoviesAsKids_Export

CLIP PLAYS: Oh no, not again.

CLIP PLAYS: Hi, I'm Adam. And 

Charlotte: I'm 

Adam: Charlotte. Welcome, 

Charlotte: welcome to Perfect, Perfect Damage, The Weekly podcast hosted by a movie obsessed husband and wife team who work in the film industry. 

Adam: We'll share stories of film production and restoration. We'll review and recommend. We'll examine the minutia of sub genres and even micro genres, and most importantly, we will tackle the art of the double feature.

Charlotte: Just remember all our opinions are our own and do not represent those of our employers. 

Adam: Thank you for joining us. Welcome 

CLIP PLAYS: and welcome 

Charlotte: back another week. 

Adam: Yeah, welcome back to Perf Damage. 

Charlotte: Yeah, this week we've got some fun stuff coming up. Back to school time for a lot of kids. We thought, hey, let's talk about our favorite movies when we were kids.

Adam: Yeah. Uh, not necessarily kids movies, but our favorite films when we were kids. Right. Because 

Charlotte: I think that would probably be different now as an adult. My favorite kind of kids movies. Or maybe not. No, 

Adam: I think, you know, one would probably be the same for you. Yeah, it would. It would. Oh, Also, we have some special guests this time 

Charlotte: too.

Charlotte: We do. We have two special 

Adam: guests this week. Yeah. Our first phone interview as well. Yes. Someone's calling in on the phone. Can't wait to see. Very exciting technology. Ooh, that mystery person 

Charlotte: on the phone is gonna be . 

Adam: Oh. But first though, we have a new installment of Charlotte's movie Tropes.

CLIP PLAYS: There's 

Charlotte: nothing like a good scream in a film. 

CLIP PLAYS: They're eating her and then they're going me.

CLIP PLAYS: Oh my God.

Charlotte: Some screams are so iconic that they've taken on a life of their own. I can't seem to find my 

CLIP PLAYS: toothbrush. Sure. Pick one up when I go out today. Other than that, I'm in good shape.

Charlotte: But there's one scream that's probably been in more films than any other, and you may have never noticed that Scream is known as the Wilhelm Scream Academy Award. Sound designer Ben Burtt, whose work concludes Star Wars and Indiana Jones came across the scream in the Warner Brothers stock audio library.

Charlotte: While he was a student at USC. The effect was labeled man being bitten by alligator, and Ben fell in love with it. He started putting it in everything he worked 

CLIP PLAYS: on.

CLIP PLAYS: So 

Charlotte: if the effect was named man being bitten by alligator, how did it become known as the Wilhelm scream for a while, the 1953 film, The Charge at Feather River was the oldest film that Ben could attribute. The Wilhelm scream being used in in the charge at Feather River, the scream occurs when the character private will helm gets shot in the leg with an arrow.

Charlotte: Hence the name, The Wilhelm scream. Ah, Ben finally located the Scream in the 1951 film, Distant Drums, where you guessed it, a man is attacked by an alligator and the scream ensues. Oh, there were six variations of the screen recorded 

CLIP PLAYS: oh,

CLIP PLAYS: oh oh. 

Charlotte: But the most famously used takes are takes four and five 

CLIP PLAYS: oh oh. 

Charlotte: Although this can't be explicitly confirmed, the most likely voice of the Will Helm scream. Is Sheb Wooley whose name appeared on the call sheet on the day of the screen was recorded. She is probably most famously known for his song, The Purple People Eater.

CLIP PLAYS: 

Charlotte: For 20 years, few people noticed that this now infamous Wilhelm Scream was popping up in movie after movie, but that all changed when the internet came along. By the early two thousands, use of the Wool Helm scream sword as everyone wanted to be in on the joke.

Charlotte: It's not uncommon to hear people complain about its use now because like many film tropes, once you hear it, you can't unhear it.

Charlotte: It's now become a pop culture icon in its own way. It's inspired band names. Song titles and even a craft beer. Look. Look 

Terri: at what you're doing now. Stop, suck. Move me outta the

CLIP PLAYS: oh.

Charlotte: So the next time you're watching a movie and a character is in peril, pay close attention because the next screen you hear may just be the Will Helm. 

CLIP PLAYS: Ah.

Charlotte: We have a special guest this 

Adam: week. Very excited. My mom, Sharron. Hello. So thematically we thought since it's back to school, the end of summer and your mom's here. And my mom's here, we thought that we kind of talk about films that we liked as kids. 

Yeah. 

Charlotte: And then to make it a little bit more exciting, we thought.

Charlotte: I wonder if the films that we think of as our favorites as kids are the ones that our parents would think of. Are they the same or do they match up? Yeah. Yeah. So we thought that one might be kind of fun, so we're gonna do that too. 

Adam: So Charlotte and I both selected two films, 

Charlotte: which was 

Adam: hard to just pick two, and there were two of our favorites, but we're selecting from hundreds of movies that we were watching as kids, and some that you probably didn't think of.

Adam: Don't expect you to get this. Okay. Yeah. 

Sharron: Well, I'm pretty sure I 

Charlotte: won't, so you don't expect her to guess what two You picked 

Adam: specific movies I picked as my favorites. We're 

Sharron: talking hundreds of movies. 

Charlotte: Although think about, I think probably your favorite, you're not gonna talk about just because. 

Adam: Yes. Okay.

Adam: We'll also put that criteria out there too. I wouldn't select Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark, even though those were, Even though they were on heavy rotation and they were some of my favorite films, just because they're giant franchises they've been talked about to death. So no, these are more.

Adam: Kind of smaller films that stuck out in my head from when I was a kid.

Adam: So mom, what do you think my favorite films were from the time that I was around 12 years old? 

Sharron: Okay. Well, besides the obvious of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, I picked Gremlins cuz you watched that a lot. Oh, that's a very good choice. So good. Back to the Future was another 

Adam: one. That would probably fall in that, that franchise category though.

Adam: Oh, Giant franchises. That's 

Sharron: Oh, that's right. It is a franchise. I, I didn't even think about it like that. I love that one too. It's such a We watched it a lot. We did. Yeah. That's my two. Those were your two. I have, 

Adam: You have an extended list? Well, yeah. 

Sharron: What else? What else you got? Yeah. I know that you really enjoyed Weird Science, which I also enjoyed.

Sharron: Yeah. Yeah. Adventures in Babysitting was really funny. There was also, So I married an ax murderer. Yeah. You, you loved that 

Adam: movie. I was more around the time when Kate was a little kid. Oh, was it? I was a little, Was younger sister? I was a little older. Yeah. On that one. I'll give you a hint. Okay. My first choice is a movie that I would always cry in at a certain point.

Adam: I know you. 

Sharron: Oh my goodness. Maybe 

Charlotte: that doesn't help narrow it down. It doesn't 

Sharron: help narrow it down. So cry baby. Yeah. Because you had a really tender heart and you, if anything was the least bit 

Adam: sad. Well, if it had anything to do with animals, I would always cry. Absolutely. My first choice was Swamp Thing, 1982.

Sharron: Oh, Swamp Thing Direct. That is one that, that you 

Adam: would cry at. Yep. Yes. Whenever Swamp Thing got his arm cut off in the film, even though I knew that he was going to grow it back in like five minutes, I would cry. For some reason. I do not know why. It makes no sense. Hmm. But I would ball and Mom would always be like, It's okay.

Adam: He's, He's not hurt. It'll grow back. But every single time I would 

Sharron: try. I do remember that now. Yeah. See now I would've never come up with that. Yeah. 

Charlotte: All right. So tell us about Swamp Thing. All right, 

Adam: so my first choice is Swamp Thing, 1982, directed by Wes Craven starring Adrian Barau and Louis Jordan. And Ray Wise, a t r t 91 minutes.

Adam: And this is the tagline, Science changed him into a monster. Love changed him even more. After a violent incident with a special chemical, a research scientist is turned into a swamp plant monster. So Swamping is a DC comics character created in the seventies by Lynn Ween and Bernie Wrightson. Were there more Swamping movies?

Adam: Yes, interestingly enough there 

Sharron: is. So you violated the franchise thing? 

Adam: Oh, oh yeah. No, it was made seven years later though it, Yeah, 

Charlotte: that's like high five, Sharon. 

Adam: So, yeah, basically it's just an origin story. It sets up who he is, Dr. Al Colin, what he's doing, his change. And then he falls in love with Adrian Barb's character, but he's a monster.

Adam: It's very Beauty and The Beast esque. Mm-hmm. . And then meanwhile, there's this guy, Dr. Arcan, he's like Dr. Mureau. He's trying to create animal human hybrids and he wants to use the plant formula to do that. It's a super cheesy early attempt at a superhero movie. It had like a two and a half million dollar budget.

Adam: So it's very early in Wes Craven's career. So it's, it falls between Deadly Blessing and before he hits it really big with Nightmare on Elm Street

Charlotte:  So why is this considered a superhero movie? 

Adam: It's not technically what I would consider a superhero movie, but at the time they called it a superhero movie because it was based on a comic book.

Adam: And that's, that was sort of the catchall for anything. That was, Yeah, that was the only thing movie. That's what I was wondering. Yeah, they classify it as a superhero. now because comic books have been adapted so much. We know that there are lots and lots of genres within comic books that aren't superhero.

Adam: Right. And people are used to that. Wes Craven really kind of approached this as a very realistic type of film and, and wanted to present it as if it was reality the first time. Any sort of superhero film had been kind of a approached that way. Small budget. Well, I know what spoke to me as a kid. I just was obsessed with monsters and I identified with monsters and I think that's why I would cry when he got his arm cut off.

Adam: I didn't identify with the people in the film, but I identified with the monster in the film, which was intended 

Sharron: really for the audience too. Identify with them just like in the old Frankenstein 

Adam: movie. Yeah, it's just fun. It's kind of Louis Jordan's super arch in it, kind of over the top bad guy. If he had a mustache, he would definitely be twirling it.

Adam: I have given the privilege of taking the first dose of our formula to our guest of Anna. It deserves the privilege foreign it is you, dear Bruno, who will tell us whether or not the formula 

CLIP PLAYS: works.

Adam: The pig monster at the end is ridiculous looking. It, it's, it's ridiculous. Yeah. It's obviously a mask cuz it doesn't articulate at all. It's, it was West Craven. What had 

Charlotte: he done prior to this? 

Adam: He did Hills Have Eyes. He did Last house on the left. And then the only other feature he had done was that a cult movie.

Adam: Deadly Blessing. I don't think I've seen that. Yeah, we, we haven't, Of course we do. . It's, Yeah. The most famous scene in that is that this and deadly blessing. And Deadly Blessing is that this girl's having a nightmare and Tar Angel is crawl on her face and as well, like even now, that freaks me out. Yeah. In a big way.

Sharron: You've always had a Iraq and phobia? 

Adam: Yes. Big time. Always. Big time. Especially when they're giant. Yeah, this movie was a massive bomb when it came out and really hurt Wes Craven's career. He didn't work again for two years. I took him two years to put another movie together and the only movie that he could get done was a sequel.

Adam: Hills have House part two, but because of the success of that film on home video, he got Nightmare Elm Street. So despite this being a massive bomb, it spawned a sequel seven years later called Return of Swamp Thing. And then that was directed by Jim Monorski and it basically was made straight to video.

Adam: At that point. It had about the same $2 million budget and it starred Lou Jordan as Arcane returned. And the guy that played Swamp Thing, Dick D, also returned. That's cool. And then Heather Lale plays the Love Interest. Yeah, she plays Art Carne's daughter and she falls in love with Swamp. So you have his nemesis, his daughter falling in love with him.

Adam: But this one's played super tongue in cheek, lots of funny one liners and weird fruit jokes where he's fruiting and she eats the fruit off of him. And it's just weird stuff like that. And then there was a syndicated television series from 1990 to 1993 called Swamp Thing, 72 episodes. It was very popular.

Adam: I think it was on USA when I was a kid, but it was syndicated everywhere. And then they tried to spin off an animated series that lasted only five episodes, but that animated series then spawned a, an Nintendo video game in 1992. And then again, they tried another television show in 2019, just recently. Oh, cool.

Adam: That James won, produced. And it was more of like a horror oriented series. Yeah, he did. 

Charlotte: And what all did James won do? He 

Adam: did the Insidious series. He directed Aquaman. 

Charlotte: Oh yeah. So he has a perfect tone for that sort of 

Adam: thing. So it was like a really dark take. It only lasted 10 episodes, but it had a great cast.

Adam: Virginia Madson, Kevin Duran, Will Patton Jennifer be where? Where was it? I know that you can watch it right now. Hbo. Yeah. HBO Max. Yep. 10 episodes. So going back to the original Swamp thing, 1982, the West Craven one, while he was shooting that the producers made West Craven create a European cut that was two minute longer and featured nudity for the European market.

Adam: Mm-hmm. . So it was funny because he didn't want to do. And while he was on set, he talked to a reporter and said, They're making me do this. It's just gratuitous blessedness is what he said. And in that there are two scenes that are not included in the American Cut. There's, there's a scene where Swamp Thing watches Adrian Barbo bathe nude.

Adam: And it's just hinted at in the PG version. But in this one, there's like, you know, full on scene, Breastness, Breastness, lots of Breastness. And then there's another scene at AR Kane's Mansion. There's a party when he gets the formula and there are two gypsies stripping for no reason. But interestingly enough, the Americans had never seen this cut, but when this movie got released on dvd, the European masters were accidentally sent and authored and released as the dvd.

Adam: Oh, no way. A parent rented a blockbuster and complained about all the nudity in the film, and that's how they found out. And they recalled all of the DVDs and had to repress them all. So now it's a collector's item. Of course you have a copy of it and we, of course we have a copy of it. I had never even heard of this European cut prior to that, so.

Adam: Mm-hmm. . Oh, and then you'll like, There is a Wilhelm Scream in this film. Really? 55 minutes in when Swamp Theme throws this thug out of an airboat. You hear the Wilhelm? Oh, it's like not even a doctored version.

CLIP PLAYS: You've 

Adam: seen this movie, right? 

Charlotte: I'm not sure if I have to be honest. 

Sharron: You gotta put it on the must watch. Rewatch. 

Adam: Some rewatch. Yeah, rewatch sometimes. There's a lot of movies. We have the American Cut on Bluray now, so. Mm-hmm. But we kept our dvd of course, collector's, item collector's, item 

Sharron: Adam's. Two 

Adam: favorite words.

Adam: Collector's item or no. Limited. 

Charlotte: Limited edition. Oh, that's also there. Yeah, that's on. And it's, 

Sharron: it's always been that way ever since it was a little kid. So 

Adam: you remember this movie, right? It was on HBO constantly as a kid. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. , all. Let's do double features. We haven't done that in a little bit. Oh, that's a good idea.

Adam: Yeah. What would you pair. With Swamp Thing as a double feature? 

Charlotte: Well, I would go with the Shape of Water. 

Sharron: That's exactly what I would've 

Adam: said. Yeah. Oh, that's a good one. That that's a really 

Charlotte: good one. That's exactly what I was gonna say. Thematically, I think they're very similar. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Absolutely. And Shape of Water's a great 

Adam: film.

Adam: Cata a world 

Charlotte: winner. Yeah. Caramel Del Doro. Kind of returning to form. And 

Adam: that's a very human monster in that film too. . Absolutely. Well, I said keep the, uh, double feature swampy as well. And I went with Gator Bait 1974, the classic, uh, exploitation film starting Claudia Jennings. I think 

Charlotte: you just wanted to recommend Gator Bait.

Adam: Well, let's be honest. I try to recommend Gator bait whenever I can. 

Charlotte: Yeah. That's sort of a franchise in a way too. Well, there is a 

Adam: sequel. Claudia Jennings is not in the sequel. I've never even seen 

Sharron: that movie. Gatorade. 

Charlotte: Well that really belongs in the trash of the week section. Trash of the week 

Sharron: section.

Sharron: Sure, it sounds like it. And knowing my son, I know that's what he likes. This 

Adam: trash. I compare double feature with anything I want. Call me trash. 

Sharron: No, not you. You're probably the only thing that he, that he loves that isn't trash

Charlotte: So Adam, what would be your second pick or your favorite movie as 

Adam: child? Well, do you want me to say or should we give mom a couple more shots to try to grab this one too? Oh, you want her 

Charlotte: to try to guess 

Sharron: what it is? I'm just not gonna do it, but I mean, I won't get it, but go 

Adam: ahead try. Yeah. A very hint it is set in a high school.

Adam: Okay, Grease. It's not Grace. No, that's not Grace. I know it's not Grace that not be on my list. It's 

Charlotte: not the Breakfast Club Mean Girls 

Adam: Breakfast Club is a good guess because I was a huge fan of that. But it's about a bully. Heather's. Oh, that would be a good choice. Cause I did watch that movie a lot.

Adam: Mm-hmm . But that would be a great double feature with this. Well, I'll just say it cuz I don't think we're gonna get it. Okay. Yeah. Ger rule, drum rule please. It is three o'clock high. Oh yes. 

Sharron: 1987. Oh wow. I should have been able to get 

Charlotte: that one. I love the tagline for that one too. Tagline 

Adam: on here says Jerry Mitchell just bumped into Buddy Rebel.

Adam: Now Jerry isn't thinking about math or English because at three o'clock he's history . That's a good one. I like that. So this is the scene. Nerdy high schooler. Jerry Mitchell is assigned to write an article for the school paper about the infamous new delinquent transfer student Buddy Revell. When Jerry accidentally invades Buddy's personal space buddy challenges Jerry to an afterschool fight in the parking lot, which Jerry tries to avoid at all costs.

Adam: Which is actually a very good synopsis. It is exactly. Whole movie that exactly what happens in the movie. Yeah. Mm-hmm. , we say this every 

Charlotte: week. Yeah. Oh, it's a good 

CLIP PLAYS: synopsis. 

Adam: A great synopsis. . Good job. No, this movie's amazing. Directed by a music video director, Phil Joo. This is his feature film debut. Prior to this, he'd only directed music videos, but I think that that energy and that style, he brings it into the feature film.

Adam: Mm-hmm. in a way that a lot of people don't like. This could have easily been a very pedestrian film, but it's really about the style. Yeah. It's got a lot of style and really sharp writing, but the style is what really makes this movie stand out. But he was really influenced by Martin Scorsese's after Hours 1985, which is I think one of Martin Scorsese's most underserved films.

Adam: So basically when Phil Joo signed on for this, Steven Spielberg produced the film and he wanted like a Karate kid type of feel. Good movie. Mm-hmm. . But Phil Joo. Delivered high noon set in a high school. That's 

Charlotte: such a good description of the film because the clocks are ever present. 

Adam: Yeah. Structurally, this movie is just like High Noon.

Adam: It is. It's kind of set in real time. You watch the clock tick and it creates tension throughout. And as Jerry becomes more and more desperate to get out of this, Because he knows he's just gonna lose. He does more and more outrageous things to try to get detention, and that desperation is just absolutely hilarious.

Adam: I also really like the myth making in this film, the very opening scene of the high school, you zoom in and you're hearing bits and snippets of conversations between all these different kids, and they're talking about Buddy Revell and all the things that he's done. And as you zoom past them, the first person's like, Oh yeah, he beat up this kid.

Adam: And then you zoom past another conversation and it's like, Yeah, he put him in the hospital. He may never get out . And then you zoom past someone else, and then they're like, Yeah, he's been in a coma for three years. And then the last conversation snippet that you hear is, Yeah, the kid is dead. He died. . And so they're creating this myth around this character.

Adam: And when you finally see him, he looks the part. Richard Tyson's amazing as this character. He looks tough and scary. But at the same time as Jerry becomes more and more desperate, he's making his own myths because he's lashing out at teachers trying to start fights. And so in the end, his myth is actually even bigger than Buddy Ravel's.

Adam: And so the last shot of the film is than pulling out past all these conversations and all the conversations are now about Jerry instead of Buddy. And he becomes the topic and every person is adding a little bit more and a little bit more until his myth is actually even bigger than buddies. Right. It's really great.

Adam: That's so good. 

Sharron: It really is a good movie. And I should 

Adam: have thought of that one. Yeah, well, I mean, that's one we watched a lot. This is really interesting. Director Barry Sonnenfield, the guy that directed Adam's family movies. Men in Black. He was the cinematographer on this movie. 

Charlotte: You know, I didn't know he started out as a cinematographer.

Charlotte: Yeah, that's, yeah, he, That makes so much sense because his movies are shot. 

Adam: Visual style is, they're incredible. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think that was like a perfect storm for this film too. So you have this music video director and this kind of cutting edge cinematographer working together. Had they worked 

Charlotte: together previously?

Charlotte: No, no, no. 

Adam: This is this guy's first. First one, and what about Barry Feld? Oh yeah. He'd shot a bunch of other movies. Yeah. So that's why Spielberg paired him with his first time director. Never knew that 

Charlotte: about him. That's so cool. 

Adam: You don't have any shot in this film that is just a static shot or a flat shot.

Adam: Mm-hmm. , everything Cant, everything moves. This movie has so much. My favorite scene is when he's in English class. Mm-hmm. . And he has to give his book report. And the English teacher is like this cat lady with glasses and her hair's all tied up. And, uh, he goes up and on his way up to give his book report, he grabs a pair of sunglasses off of one person's desk and grabs some cigarettes out of this other girl's purse.

Adam: And so he's creating this bad boy character. He's actually embodying the buddy rebel character that he's so afraid of. And he gets up there and he starts talking about some porno that he watched. As he's talking about it, he's turning the teacher on and they get closer and closer together until he actually kisses the teacher in front of the entire class, making him the most epic person.

Adam: Well, he's spoken a cigarette too. Yeah. He, Oh yeah. He lights up. Mm-hmm. as he's telling the story. Right. And then her hair comes down. Yeah. And she starts getting flushed. It's such an amazing scene. Yeah. But of course, after he kisses her, he faints. Because no matter how much posturing he does, he's not that person.

Adam: Jerry never escapes who he truly is. 

CLIP PLAYS: In fact, I gotta tell you, kind of made me think of you as Farmer.

CLIP PLAYS: There was in bed reading my book, Honey's Adventures. Gripping my imagination. I just knew I had to tell you about a book. That was good.

CLIP PLAYS: I hope this is going somewhere. It's gone 

Adam: somewhere. I have a couple other little things here. Both Kirk Cameron and Corey Feldman were considered for the role of Jerry Mitchell, and this was shot in Ogden, Utah at an active high school during high school hours, which is kind of interesting. So they would shoot while all the kids were in class.

Adam: And then have to stop every hour. When they change classes. When they change classes. Yeah. Well, that also add to the reality of it, they, they shoot a lot of the extras in, Those are actual. So, Mom, you remember this movie, right? Oh, yes. 

Sharron: Mm-hmm. ? 

Charlotte: Yes, I do. You know what's funny is that Casey Siemaszko, he goes from being the kid that's bullied to the kid that's bullying in Back to the Future too.

Charlotte: He plays 3d. Oh, is 

Adam: he really? Yeah, he's one 

Charlotte: of those. I didn't know that. Yeah, he's, he's a character that runs around with the 3D glasses part of Biffs Gang. Oh yeah. 

Adam: Oh, that's awesome. I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, what would you double feature with this 

Charlotte: one? Well, I think by trying to guess what your film was, I already came up with a perfect one.

Charlotte: Heather's. 

Adam: Yeah. I think Heather's is also a very stylish film. Mm-hmm. and it would be a nice progression so that you take that bullying to the eighth degree at that point. Yeah. I think, uh, that's a great double feature. What would you pair with it? 

Sharron: Uh, risky 

Adam: business. 

Charlotte: Oh, good one. Oh, you know, the great tie in there is that Tangerine Dream did the music for three o'clock high and also did the music for risky business.

Charlotte: I did not know that. The soundtracks are very similar. 

Adam: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. That's another element. Yeah. We should actually kind of talk about that for a second. Well, I just brought it up. Yeah, that's great. Great point. Charlotte, don't you wish you thought of that? I do. I honestly do. Tangerine Dream. Their score really brings a whole nother element.

Adam: It's like a character in itself in this film. Well, 

Charlotte: their music is so kind of pulsing. Yes. So it, it really kind of adds to that dread of the clock ticking. 

Sharron: Well, now that you mention that, I can remember that in, in risky business. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. as he's in trouble and all this stuff is starting 

Adam: to fall in on him.

Adam: They're the perfect choice for the score. I think this was their ninth movie score. Wow. Uh, and ninth to be exact. Yes. I, I read this. This is not something I'm just pulling up. Okay. Yeah, I know. And it was their 31st album. Overall they did legend. They did do legend Tom Cruise. Yeah. Famously, I think there's a Jerry Goldsmith version of Legend as well, But the producers threw the Jerry Goldsmith out because Tangerine Dream was so popular at the time.

Adam: But I think you can watch the movie with both of them now, which is kind of cool. That is cool. 

Charlotte: Yeah. They did tons of soundtracks in the eighties. Scores? Scores, Yes. Near dark 

Adam: they said. Oh, they did? 

Near 

Charlotte: dark. Really? Mm-hmm. . They did the 

Adam: key fire starter. All right. Well, I'll, I'll let you know my double feature that I would para no.

Adam: Well, nobody asked . I don't care. I'll just interject it. No one has to ask. 

Charlotte: What would your double feature 

Adam: pick be? Mine's gonna be a high school bully trauma double feature. Ah, with the new kids 1985 directed by Sean S. Cunningham, the guy that did Friday 13th. Okay. He's that ask, I know that movie. Yeah. He did this movie where Lori Laughlin and her brother, their parents die and they move in with their uncle who owns this rundown amusement park.

Adam: It's great. How do 

Charlotte: you've 

Adam: seeing that? You start with that one. No, you, you start with three o'clock high. and then you go to this one cuz it's a little darker. 

Sharron: Okay. I don't think I've ever 

Adam: seen that one. Well, we have it on Bluray if you'd like to watch it. . 

Sharron: Imagine that we have a copy. I would've never guessed.

Adam: Let's go back to the 

Charlotte: library and select it. All right. So we've shared our favorite movies as a kid. Sharon, do you have some to share? 

Sharron: You know, I actually do, but when you mentioned that you wanted to do something like this, I thought to myself, it depends on how old I was. Yeah. And I'm sure that you had the same experience of mm-hmm.

Sharron: Wow. There's so many movies that you watched and so many that you loved and, but it was all at different ages. Mm-hmm. , because we had a large family, we rarely, rarely went to the movies, so they would have wonderful black and white movies on tv. So it was all the old black and white movies. And I started to really love old actors.

Sharron: Like Carrie Grant. Oh, yeah. Oh, one of my favorites. Oh, I loved, And Jimmy Stewart and I really liked Humphrey Bogart too. But most of all, I loved Katherine Hepburn and I loved her movies and, but two of my very favorite Katherine Hepburn movies were bringing up Baby. And then I liked his Gal Friday too, very much.

Sharron: In fact, I like Katherine  so much that I named my daughter after her. What'd you 

Charlotte: love about Katherine Hepburn? I 

Sharron: think that she had a, a really smart persona and I really, really enjoyed that. I think that she helped me to understand that a woman didn't have to just be a housewife. Not that there's anything wrong with that if somebody wants to do that, but if you had aspirations to become something 

Adam: else, you always played a strong, very strong female, smart female that was career oriented.

Adam: Yes. 

Sharron: And with a sassy mouth. Mm-hmm. . And I just loved that sassy mouth of hers, sassy. The other thing that I remember from that period in my life was our Saturday night horror movies. We moved a lot when I was a. And every place we went, there was a Saturday night horror shows on, which was something that was very comforting to me, because I really like to be scared.

Sharron: And my favorite movies that I can remember from then was, of course, the birds. Oh, yeah. I really thought that was a good one. I remember when we watched the Birds that particular night, my sister had gone upstairs to go to the bathroom, and as she was coming down the stairs, we had a turn in our stairs. My father creeped up the stairs, and as she came around, he threw a sweater at her and it was like a bird flying on her.

Sharron: She screamed and screamed and screamed. It was great. I just always remember that, that he, he scared her to death with a lying sweater. And then I, I liked Mo. It scared me because I always had a fear of moths and this big old moth monster really bothered me. And then I liked anything vampire back then.

Sharron: Christopher Lee was the major vampire. Mm-hmm. and I liked any of his movies. And I remember when I started dating my husband, we would go see some vampire movie that he was in at the drive in, in a convertible. And that's scary just sit there watching a 

Adam: vampire and the Maybe I could just come up and get your name.

Adam: That's right. 

Sharron: I know you're so exposed. And I would think about that and it would just make the movie even better because I knew I was susceptible. So let's take a song into my senior years. Then the classic date was a, a movie and a milkshake. So we always went out to the movies. That's when I discovered Paul Newman.

Sharron: And I really liked Paul Newman and my two favorite Paul Newman movies are Cool Hand, Luke and The Hustler. 

Adam: What we have here is a failure to communicate. To 

Sharron: communicate is. And during that time I was introduced to Tennessee Williams and I read every one of his plays. And my three favorite movies that were made from his plays were Cat on a Hot Tin Roof starring All Newman and , Elizabeth Taylor.

Sharron: She was hot in that movie and he was really hot too . And then there was a street card named Desire. I mean, that movie is. Perfect St. Yeah, And then the Glassman Adri. I really liked that too. So pretty much that's, That's my favorite movies or types of movies from when I was a young person. Many, many, many moons ago.

Adam: I have you to thank for my obsession. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. 

Charlotte: And the horror films too, cuz your mom likes horror. Mom loves horror 

Adam: films. Yeah, I do. Thanks, Mom.

CLIP PLAYS: That 

Adam: was a lot of fun. Didn't embarrass me too bad. No she 

Charlotte: didn't. Well, I'm sure my mom will embarrass me. Which leads us to our next guest, My mom. Terry, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Great to be here. So we were talking about our favorite movies as kids and we thought it might be fun to ask our parents what movies they would think of and if they were the same as the ones that we think of as our favorites.

Charlotte: So 

Adam: yeah, no pressure cuz my mom did not get either of mine. . Oh, . 

Charlotte: Yeah. So if I said what were my favorite movies as a kid, which movies do you think of? 

Terri: Well, there's two that come right off the bat. The me Back to the Beach, which I dunno how many times that was watched along with the soundtrack to it, Singing in the car, and I guess maybe you are very first movie as a child that I think continued on was a Disney movie, A Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Terri: So those are the two that come to mind. 

Adam: I think you nailed them. Yeah. Spoil it. Alert . So tell me about Back to the Beach. Did you guys have that on vhs? Is that how you watched it over and over? Yes, 

Terri: we did have it on VHS and you know, I really don't remember how we even came about watching it the first time cause it seemed like it was always around

Terri: It just appeared. Uh, I don't remember the first time with that particular movie. I dunno if we saw it on tv. Maybe. I dunno. Unless we saw it went to blockbusters. Not to be confused with Rose video, but we used to go rent movies. Cause living in, uh, rural area we didn't have cable. Probably Charlotte never had cable living at home.

Charlotte: I don't think we had HBO for like two years with that really big satellite. We did have that, but yeah. 

Adam: So you think you maybe saw it on HBO and then just bought a copy of it or 

Charlotte: afterwards? I think the copy we had was recorded, so I think we recorded it off of something off ago maybe. I think so. Okay. I feel like it was on a table.

Charlotte: Yeah. With other things, which normally they were. But I can't remember what else would've been on the tape, so maybe it wasn't anything I was interested in. I love compilation tapes. Yeah. Yeah. One of my favorite tapes that we had was Hairspray, followed by Beetle Juice. Nice. And I think there was a third one on there too.

Charlotte: But those two got a lot of play. That was a good tape. So there any other films that come to mind that were favorites of mine as a child? 

Adam: Yeah, when you were narrowing it down, what was on the long list? 

Terri: Oh wow. Let think of some of the other ones. A lot of Disney movies. I tried to keep it wholesome for the kids, but Charlotte always found a way to things.

Terri: It all depends on the age. Cause her brother, he wanted his due with wrestlers. Rh. Yeah. He let loves that one. 

Adam: Million times. We watched that one recently and it really holds up. It's It does. It's a really funny movie. That was not one I had seen, I don't think, until you 

Charlotte: showed it to me. Yeah, probably not.

Charlotte: Well, what's funny is that Rustler's Rhapsody is a parody of all the Western films of fifties and sixties. Back To the Beach is also a parody of films from another era. So kind of funny that our favorites were both parody. 

Terri: Yeah, that's true. Another one of your favorites was Sword and the Stone. 

Charlotte: I always loved that wolf.

Charlotte: I remember as a kid that wolf was kind of scary. It was always chasing after the boy in the woods. Yeah. It would always almost bite him and then miss or fall off a tree or something. Yeah. Like literally nipping at his heels. Literally. Yes. And then you watch it as an adult and it's like a bumbling wolf that looks mangje and like it's not gonna hurt anybody.

Charlotte: Yeah. It's not scary . But as a kid, that was, That was pretty scary, that wolf. Yeah. I really liked that one. I guess I like, you know Mary 

Terri: Poppin? Oh yeah. Yeah. I got do to Mary Poppin The Nightmare before Christmas. Oh my gosh. That was, That was when you were getting 

Charlotte: older? Yeah, and we wore that tape out. We liked it before It was cool.

Charlotte: Yeah, because when that came out, that was not a big hit. Yeah, 

Adam: that was initially a bum. Yeah. At the 

Charlotte: box office. I was a little older and maybe slightly too old for that movie, but I don't know that 

Adam: really well. When I met you, you knew every lyric to every song, so guess what? I still do. . . All right. Well, let's talk about bed knobs then.

Charlotte: Mom, why do you think I liked bed knobs so much? 

Terri: You were four, five years old, I guess, when you first exposure to that. Go around and do your glasses up like Ms. Price in Angela Lansbury's character and I, I don't know, maybe it was the magic and you start thinking about those two movies, they're both musical, so maybe you The Nut didn't fall too far from the trees with like the musical.

Terri: Yeah, I do love a music. 

Adam: But yeah, , I think you nailed it with the magic aspect 

Charlotte: too. Yeah. Cause Sword in the Stone is 

Adam: magic too. Yeah. And you're still interested, interested in movies that have magic as an element. Am I, Yeah. Fantasy stuff. Think about your favorite franchise of all time is Filled with Magic.

Adam: He's 

Charlotte: talking about Lord of the Rings. . I don't really think of that as being magic for some reason. I don't, I know at its core, yes. But I guess you just don't really think of it as being on the Harry 

Adam: Potter films. We always, you know, when I met you, we went to see all of those together, so. Wow. Like magic.

Adam: Yeah, You like magic 

Charlotte: stuff. It's weird when you find stuff out about yourself. You had no idea . 

Terri: So if you just take for granted, you never 

Charlotte: think about it. Yeah. So you were a fan of bed knobs and broomsticks when you showed it to me, right? Yeah. I 

Terri: remember seeing it as a kid myself. We saw it as a double feature at the drive In what?

Terri: Yeah, We 

Charlotte: love Double feature, 

Terri: Just love Double features. Double features. And now it's like, ok. What would you be, What would be Poppins Mary Poppins bedknobs and broomsticks. Nope. It was not a Disney movie. It was, The other feature was not Disney. 

Adam: Was 

Terri: it a musical? It would not be classified as a musical. That was early seventies.

Terri: And are you ready for. I'm sitting down with six. You get Egg Roll Doris Day movie. Oh 

Adam: wow. You're free. Oh, . 

Terri: Yes. Does it get much better than a double featured Doris Day? 

Charlotte: Angela Lansbury. My mother is obsessed with Doris 

Terri: Day. Yeah, I remember seeing it at the drive-in and thinking, Oh, and then it would be a good movie for you and your brother to watch when I had 

Charlotte: you.

Charlotte: Well, it was a great choice cuz it still, Yeah, sticks with me. It's still one of her faves. Yeah, it's a great movie. Yeah. . So let me just read the synopsis really quick for anybody that's never seen it. So the synopsis for Bednobs and broomsticks. An apprentice witch, three kids, and a cynical magician. Conman search for the missing component to a magic spell to be used in the defense of Britain in World War ii.

Charlotte: So bednobs and broomsticks. Basically you've got these three kids displaced from the war, and they move in with a witch, or at least a witch in training. Is a witch. A witch be . They find out, they see her flying and it's a two girls and a boy, and the boy tries to blackmail her because they saw that she was flying and then they know something's up.

Charlotte: So he's like got a list of demands, like, We need better food, we need better this lollipops. Yeah. To sort of appease them. 

Adam: She can, She kind of just lets 'em in on the whole like witchcrafty type thing. Yeah. It's like, okay. She's like, All right, you're, I'll just include you, you know, already. I might as well just include 

Charlotte: you.

Charlotte: So she be, which is. Bedknobs and they put the bed knob back on the bed frame and they twist it and they tap it and they say where they wanna go and this bed will take them anywhere and every time they go somewhere, it looks like a total acid trip. It's just all kinds of crazy colors coming in and the bed lies anywhere they want it to go.

Charlotte: Whether that be Portobello Road in London to try to search out Professor Emelius Brown, who is a snake oil salesman, not a professor . 

Adam: Basically, he was committing mail fraud by giving spells that he thought were completely worthless. 

Charlotte: We found part of a book and he sort of rewrote them and threw his own words in there to make 'em sound more flashy.

Charlotte: And that's why this is, Prices spelled sometimes don't always go as planned. They're traveling around trying to look for the last page of the book of Aster off, which leads them into an animated world 

Adam: too. Naboombu. The island of Naboombu , where everything is animated and the animals talk. 

Charlotte: There's an interesting story with that because the animals talk because a 

Adam: magician called Astaroth actually.

Adam: Yeah, His name was Astaroth. 

Charlotte: He wanted to make the animals more like humans, and he was experimenting on them. And I think the legend is that they killed him and took over the island, and humans are not allowed on that island. Yeah. They killed him 

Adam: and took his power 

Charlotte: for themselves. There's a lion that assumed the position of the king, and he's the one that's got this medallion, which holds this last spell of astaroth.

Charlotte: Aren't they 

Adam: playing soccer for their lives in a really glorious scenes, a pretty dark 

Charlotte: movie. Well, when 

Adam: you think about it on the underlying themes are dark, but yeah, the, the film doesn't come off that way at all. Yeah. And it all ends in a big giant battle with animated armor against the Nazis. Yeah.

Charlotte: Substitutionary. Locomotion. Yeah. 

CLIP PLAYS: 

Charlotte: so I love this. Film. I love the music in it. I love Angela Lansbury. I also loved all the little cockney accent kids. I don't know, maybe that was why I got really obsessed with London and was always fascinated by that. 

Terri: And Mary Poppins, you know, nobody can do a good English accent like dyke 

Charlotte: to tie Mary Poppins in.

Charlotte: Julie Andrews was originally offered the role of Eglantine. And she turned it down. Really, I did not care that. And after a while, she started to feel guilty because she had Disney to thank for her career. And so she called back and she said, You know what I, I've changed my mind. I'll do it. But Angela Lansbury had already accepted and they decided to stick with her.

Charlotte: And I'm glad that they did because it would be a completely different film with Julie Andrews. It would probably still be great cause she's 

Adam: great, but yeah. Yeah. I think it would feel like an extension of Mary Poppins. It 

Charlotte: would. And one of the songs in the film at the Beautiful Briny Sea, written by the Sherman Brothers who did music for a lot of the really great Disney films of that era.

Charlotte: Was written for Mary Poppins and it didn't end up getting used. And if you listen to it, it feels like a Mary poppin song, 

CLIP PLAYS: 

Charlotte: So this is a mix of live action and animation and the live action, much like in Mary Poppins interacts with the animation done really, really well. Angela Lansbury apparently did not like working on this film because she called, what was it, Acting by the numbers, because you had to stand in a certain place and do this and do that, and you couldn't really vary your performance, and it wasn't as freeing as she was used to.

Terri: Is that because of the adding the animation to 

Charlotte: it? Yep, yep. Because of all that? Yeah. Yeah. 

Adam: All the different special effects and things. 

Terri: Oh, wow. Wow. I'm learning all kinds of things about that movie. 

Adam: Yeah. Charlotte does her 

Charlotte: homework. So as a kid I didn't, I don't think I really focused on the war aspect too much and didn't realize how crucial that was to 

Adam: the plot.

Adam: I agree with you. I think when I was a kid and I saw this, I did not realize that those were Nazi. Yeah. At at the end. 

Charlotte: No. You know the bad guys, They're bad guys. You can't understand what they're saying. They're mostly speaking in German. And another thing, when you watch this movie as an adult, there's a couple things that I didn't catch as a kid in Eglantine's House, The room that has the bed.

Charlotte: The children stay in that, that has the magic bed knob. There is a picture of Hitler on the wall and it was her father's room. So I guess trying to say that he was a Nazi sympathizer or was part of the 

Adam: army. Yeah, 

Charlotte: that's never clear. And I always wondered if maybe that was her tie into fi. I, I don't know.

Charlotte: It was weird thinking what her motivation is. Well, her 

Adam: father isn't there anymore. No. So did, Did he die during the war or, Yeah. I mean they never really outright say, I think she says 

Charlotte: her father had passed. She's doing a college of witchcraft over male order and she's got one more spell to get from the course that she's waiting for when she gets a letter from Professor Emilius Brown that the school's being closed because of the war and she won't be getting any more of the spell.

Charlotte: This is the one spell that she had been taking the course for. So the interesting thing though about this, they're looking for a book book. 

Adam: It's called the Book of 

Charlotte: aau. Yeah, so it's a book about Astaroth and  is a Demon who is part of the unholy Trinity, ruling the Kingdom of Hell. I mean, she's looking into Demonology to get this spell.

Charlotte: It's Black Magic, which is for a Disney film. You wouldn't think they would go so dark to think that 

Terri: movie could be done again? No. Remake it. Uhuh 

Charlotte: not, not in the same way. Not with it would be 

Terri: a made up spell, you know, World War ii, but having a more of a more recent war and. It would be interesting to see.

Terri: Got just to think about could, could it be done? Yeah. You could 

Adam: adapt it. I think if they remade it, it would have nothing to do with war. That she would, she would wanna do something else. Uh, smaller. Smaller. It would be smaller. It would be, Or something more like, Oh, I wanna clean up pollution or something.

Adam: I, I don't think it would have anything to do. Well also, 

Charlotte: your lead character probably would not be the age that Mrs. Price was. It would be one of the. It wouldn't be the adult, which is one thing that's kind of cool about those older Disney films is that the leads are often the adults and you know, the kids are there, but they're not really driving the story.

Charlotte: And it would be online class . Yeah, it would would be online. The Portobello road scene is another thing that's fun to watch as an adult, thinking about it as a child, because it's a nine minute number that originally it was actually cut down to I think four minutes. And in the nineties when they restored the film, they actually found most, if not all, of the original number and put it all back.

Charlotte: There's a lot of different cultures that are represented within that dance number. You see Indians,

CLIP PLAYS: Scottish. You see Scott,

CLIP PLAYS: Let 

Charlotte: me see. Jamaica.

Charlotte: So they spotlight them doing dances on Portobello Road. And as a kid I just thought, Oh cool, look, all these different cultures, but having no idea that all of these places were under British rule at the time and they're all there fighting the army with them. So, you know, you're just not thinking about that.

Charlotte: You think, Oh look, different things. Yeah. 

Terri: The, The Sun never sat on the British 

Charlotte: Empire. Yeah. Another thing, there's a lot of prostitutes on Portobello Road that are highlighted that come in and out of the frame, which is another thing. They 

Adam: were just colorful ladies when they 

Charlotte: were When you were young. Yeah.

Charlotte: Well, they're so pretty. Yeah. Pretty colors of their 

Adam: dresses. 

CLIP PLAYS: Yeah.

Charlotte: So, yeah, this movie's got great for Watchability. I love the 

Adam: time capsule of all the special effects too. They're, Yeah, they're so of their time. Mm-hmm. and they're done so well 

Charlotte: for, They're really done well. They really hold up. It 

Adam: won 

Charlotte: an Academy Award. It did for best visual effects. Oh. I think it only had one other film up against it that year.

Charlotte: Okay. 

Adam: So another thing we've been doing, Terry, is we have been saying, Okay, if you're going to watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks and you wanted to do a double feature, what would you pair it with? 

Terri: Pair saw egg. Just make in

Terri: then pretend like I was at the drive in again. 

Adam: Yeah, there you go. That, I mean, that's, that's a really good one to actually pair it. . And 

Terri: when you look at the beatnik hippies that's in it, Jamie FARs in it there. I mean, there's all these mash people that are in this movie that at the time you didn't know who they were.

Terri: But looking at it now, having seen these people in their first supporting roles and then now have become famous. 

Adam: Yeah, when I think hippy, I definitely think Jamie. Do 

Terri: day is a a widow. Imagine that her playing a widow with children. And I don't think I've seen a bad do Stay movie just saying . 

Adam: No, that's great.

Adam: So you would pair it with the one you initially saw it with. That's great. I think so what would you pair it with? Yeah, 

Charlotte: I think you'd go two ways. You could pair it with Mary Poppins because the music and elements are really similar, but really long movie and that would make for a really long double feature.

Charlotte: So yeah, of those are really long movies. Yeah, so I think I'd actually pair it with one of my other favorites, The Secret of Nimh. And the reason being because both of them, the plot of the movie is them seeking out dark forces to help them with a good cause. So secret of nimh. You've got field mice who are seeking out the help of these escaped lab rats who are really smart because she needs to get her whole house moved before they plow the field where she lives because her son is sick with pneumonia and he can't move, so they need to move the whole house or else he's not gonna make it.

Charlotte: And then in Bedknobs and broomsticks, they're looking for this dark art spell to help with the war. So maybe 

Terri: shitty, shitty bang bang would be a good one to pair with 

Charlotte: if you want flying. That's, That's another really long one though. That's 

Adam: another long one. But yes, it would be another, I honestly think that Mary Poppins and bed knobs and Shitty, Shitty Bang, bang are all related and they're all done in that time period.

Adam: They all feel so similar in a lot of ways that they would all be really good together. The three of them. Mm-hmm. For my double feature, I'd do the craft, I'd keep it witch. about young people learning spells. And 

Charlotte: it's also are, you're talking about the craft from the 

Adam: nineties? Yes. I would. The Good Craft, not the remake.

Adam: That one was terrible, but I mean it, you know, it just is a similar themes. It's also kind of a fun movie in a different way. And that one I would watch after. You're gonna have to, Yeah. 

CLIP PLAYS: So,

Adam: all right, let's go for 

Charlotte: your second one, Charlotte. All right, So my second one, as my mom guessed back to the beach. Yes. I watched it a ton back to the beach from 1987, and it's a parody of all the beach blanket bingo movies that came out. Let me read the 

Adam: plot. But the cool thing is that it's actually starring the stars of most of those films.

Adam: Yeah. It's Frankie and 

Terri: Annette . Annette. Yeah. And they're taking their kids back to the beach. 

Charlotte: All right, so the official synopsis back to the beach finds Frankie and Annette, middle-aged married and living in Ohio. Frankie, the former big kahuna on a surfboard is now a stressed out car salesman in route to Hawaii.

Charlotte: The family stops off in Malibu where they discover that their daughter is living with a surfer. Jealousy, Misunderstandings. A surfer takes all contests and reuniting, ensue. It's just like the old times. There's a host of cameos in this one. You've got Fish Bone does a song on the beach. Got got the band.

Charlotte: Don Addams, who plays the Harbor Master. So you like 

Adam: sailing, 

CLIP PLAYS: Huh? Like sailing, Like sailing. Sailing is my life. Would you believe that? I own the biggest yacht in the world. I find that hard to believe. Would you believe the biggest tugboat? I don't think so. How 

Adam: about a Broken, or, 

Charlotte: Bob Denver is in this with Allen Hale, Jr.

Charlotte: Bob Denver is a bartend and skipper like Gilligan, 

Adam: Gilligan and the Skipper. 

CLIP PLAYS: Yeah. Five Hatter. No. Drink a little bye. Don't call me that. I hate being called back. Get Ben look familiar. Me? Are we met? 

Adam: I don't think so. I've been away for a long time. Oh, Fresno. No worse than that. There were chicks, but you couldn't touch 'em.

CLIP PLAYS: You wanna hear about it? Mm. No. You got 

Adam: OJ Simpson, Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow. Yep. Peewee Herman. Yep. . Yeah. It's a goofy film, but it's a lot of fun. 

Charlotte: It doesn't take itself seriously. It knows that it's cheesy and it goes with it. The movie did not do well when it was released. It had no preview screening, so it came out without any fanfare.

Charlotte: But Roger Ebert gave it three and a half outta four stars, and he said, and I quote, Oh, this movie absolutely blindsided me. I don't know what I was expecting from back to the beach, but it certainly wasn't the funniest quirkiest musical comedy since Little Shop of Horrors, who would've thought Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello would make their Best Beach Party movie?

Charlotte: 25 years after the others now comes back to the beach. A wicked satire that pokes fun at Frankie Annette, and the whole genre, but does it with a lot of good humor and the full cooperation of the victims, Avalon and Frankie do a better job satirizing themselves than anyone else possibly could. No, that's 

Adam: good summation actually.

Adam: Yeah. Yeah. I think Tongue is firmly in cheek, absolutely. But because all these people were in the originals, It comes off as fun loving as opposed to mean spirited. Yeah. 

Charlotte: They actually couldn't get the rights to the original film, so they couldn't use the names of the characters. Fortunately, Annette was never Annette in those movies.

Charlotte: She was Dee or something else. But Frankie Avalon, on the other hand was Frankie, so. In this movie, if you notice, everybody calls him the big Kahuna. Oh yeah. He's credited as either the big Kauna or just Annette's husband. That's how he is in the credits, actually. Oh, really? Annette Annette's husband, Orion Pictures spot, whatever company had been putting out the films, and they refused to sell the rights.

Charlotte: Frankie and Annette had actually been trying to put this movie together for a couple decades, and originally it was conceived as just sort of a movie of the week kind of thing. So it ended up at Paramount Pictures and it sat there for a while. But all that changed one night when Frankie Avalon and his wife went to dinner at this place called Nicky Blairs famous restaurant on Sunset Boulevard.

Charlotte: It was an old celebrity hunt. It's not there anymore, but they went to dinner. Across the room was Frank Mancuso, then the head of production at Paramount, and his wife Faye, who as it turned out, was a huge Frankie Avalon fan. In fact, she had been brought on stage at a concert when she was a teenager. So when Frankie walked over to say hello, because he's been trying to get this movie off the ground, when Mancuso's wifey asked Frankie what he was working on, and Frankie.

Charlotte: Well, we're trying to negotiate with Paramount for back to the Beach. So Faye turns to her husband and says, Frank, you've gotta make this picture . So that's how the movie actually got going and got into production all because of the wife. At least that's how the story goes. It's a good story. It's a good story.

Charlotte: So this film had a ton of screenwriters on it. Well, cuz it was in 

Adam: development 

Charlotte: for so long. Yeah. In 1981, a screenwriter named Steve Silver was hired to write the original one and they called it The Last Beach Party. And that was scheduled to start shooting in 1982, but it never really went anywhere. And then a couple years later, the title was changed, a beach party reunion, and then in 84 it was changed, a beach party and it got a 3 million budget.

Charlotte: But still the project just could not get started until. 1986 when Frank Mancuso Jr. Came on board as a producer, and that's when the film really got kind of going. So he came on and it got a 10 million budget and they hired Lyndal Hobbs to come and direct it, and she's actually the one that turned it into a musical Originally.

Charlotte: It was not a musical, There were not all these songs or dance numbers. And it's really hard to imagine this movie without all the songs because they're so good. 

Adam: Yeah. It's what kind of makes the movie stand out. 

CLIP PLAYS: Bird is the word. You knows the bird Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word, the bird, the.

CLIP PLAYS: Love going out west. Where I belong

CLIP PLAYS: are,

CLIP PLAYS: and again and again, we live on. Mom, you 

Charlotte: got anything to say about those? One? I'm learning more about that movie that I, Well, we do 

Adam: the research on like the production aspect. Well, 

Charlotte: this was research I did when I was working on the film. 

Adam: What brought you to this movie? I loved 

Terri: musicals and I just loved all the singing in it.

Terri: I remember watching the Old Beach movies as a kid, you know, that wasn't my very favorite movie, but I just reminiscing of the old movies from the sixties. So music and goofiness. I do like a goof 

Adam: movie. I can't imagine this. This movie not as a musical. Well, that would've made it a very boring movie.

Adam: During 

Charlotte: the film, Annette Funicello was diagnosed with ms, but she kept that to herself and she didn't call anybody in. The casting crew was that her last movie? And it was, It would prevent her from doing a proposed sequel to Back to the Beach in the sequel. The characters were going to go on a safari in Africa.

Charlotte: Oh, see, that would've been fun. Yeah. Unfortunately it was her final 

Adam: film. Really. It did well enough that they were gonna do a sequel. Well, it was a proposed, They proposed a sequel. Yeah. Okay. That's probably producer's wishful thinking. Yeah. Cause I don't think it made any money. Right? 

Charlotte: No, cuz they didn't advertise it.

Charlotte: They just sort of dumped it in theaters and, 

Adam: Oh, that's because there was a big brass change at Paramount during it, and this was one of the movies that, mm-hmm. was considered to be part of the former group of executives, and so the new group of executives just kind of dumped. It probably happens a lot.

Adam: It happens all the time. 

Charlotte: You could easily pick this movie apart, but if you do that, you're really doing a disservice to yourself because it's just a fun ride. Yeah. Yeah. Probably one of the reasons why there's all these little plot things in the movie that don't make sense is because there were a total of 17 writers involved.

Charlotte: By the time this movie was shot, 2 million had been spent on writers and all 17 of those writers wanted onscreen credit. Well, of 

Adam: course box off as 

Charlotte: bonuses. Yeah, so it went into arbitration at the wga and there were only three people that received credit. There were some others that got a story by credit.

Charlotte: Mm-hmm. . I do have to plug that this was just released on Bluray and it looks fantastic and it sounds better than ever before. It was only on dvd. 

Adam: This is the first time it's in its 

Charlotte: original aspect of ratio 25. Yeah. So really great. Sounds amazing. Crank it up. Brand a brand 

Adam: new 

Charlotte: 4K scan. Yeah, Brand new 4K scan from the original negative from negative.

Charlotte: So it looks great. Highly recommend that purchase of that Bluray. 

Adam: So I know you're just putting it off. Double feature. What's your double feature? 

Terri: What would your double feature 

Charlotte: be? Adam? Yeah. Adam. What would your double feature be? 

Adam: My double feature would be Surf two. What? Is that Surf Two is a beach movie from 1983.

Adam: It's about a company called Buzz Cola when imbibed by the surfers, turns them into kind of like zombies. They don't eat people, they just eat trash. All right. Eddie Deeson is one of the stars of the 

Charlotte: film, so he's like, Jerry Lewis for me, I, I can't stand that guy. I really can't. I don't. 

Adam: It is an Eddie Deon vehicle, so nope.

Adam: Pass. He plays the Mastermind. 

Charlotte: That's a hard pass. . 

Terri: I was thinking pee's. Big adventure. 

Adam: Yeah, I think that's actually a really good one. That's good. Yeah. And it's not like that's a beach movie, but it kind of has that same feel. It kinda does the same. Yeah. the 

Charlotte: vignette. Well, and you've got the peewee tie in too, and then you 

Adam: have Peewee.

Adam: That's a good one. Very good. Yeah. All right, Charlotte, that leaves you All 

Charlotte: right. I'm gonna say weekend at Bernie's. 

Adam: Oh yeah. That's a good one 

Charlotte: too. Yeah, it's just a fun comedy. It would be good to pair with anything so. Now we've shared our favorite movies. Mom, do you have some that were your favorites? Oh, 

Terri: well, as you know, when I was a kid, we didn't have VCRs to watch movies over and over and have your favorite one to watch continuously.

Terri: But as a kid is when I first became a big barber Strikes and fan. So I would see her movies, but I didn't see them multiple times. There were a few movies that I saw more than once at the theater. One was, I don't know how many times I went to the theater and saw Grief. That was just something about that movie that spoke to me.

Terri: Yeah, 

CLIP PLAYS: tell me about it, Stu. 

Terri: Another movie. The Rose. Oh yeah, another musical. 

Adam: Batt Midler. 

Terri: Yeah. And as kids in the summertime, they would show movies at one of the malls had on Wednesdays, I think 50 movies, and we would get dropped off. To see movies and one movie. I couldn't tell you all the movies I saw there, but there's one that I remember.

Terri: And that was the Bon Doctor five . Oh, that's nice. That's a 

Adam: great one. 

Terri: Surprise. That's a yeah. Yeah. And it's, and I don't know, I remember going to see that movie as a kid and I dunno what its about it that, um, 

Charlotte: You don't really like who Or Scary movies though. I 

Terri: don't. And for some reason that one, I remember that one being grossed out.

Terri: What? 

CLIP PLAYS: Lovely Music 

Adam: For a Murder 

CLIP PLAYS: or two or three or Nine. 

Terri: And Tommy, that's another movie, another musical that I had Tommy. 

Adam: Oh wow. Yeah. 

Charlotte: Yeah. All right, well thanks for chatting movie. 

Adam: For us. Thanks for joining us Anytime and being our inaugural phone interview. Yeah. We would rather have you here too. It's easier to talk to people when you see, Yeah.

Adam: When you can 

Charlotte: actually see them, and we'll 

Terri: have to,

Terri: Thanks for your time.

Adam: All right. Well, thank you. 

Charlotte: No. That was my mom that just stopped talking. Oh, that wasn't your mom. 

Adam: All right. Well, thank you Terry . 

Charlotte: Yeah, thanks Tom. Thanks for coming on the podcast. It was great hearing that. I think you're a secret Vincent Price fan. Yeah. With the Dr. 

Adam: Fives. I think we didn't know you had a secret 

Charlotte: love of horror.

Charlotte: I know. She always says she doesn't like the scary movies, but maybe we're onto something here. . Anyway, it, I love that you guessed what my favorite films were. I guess maybe I did watch them one or two times. 

Adam: You know, Mom, I don't fault you for not getting mine. Yeah. My, my mom, it was probably a much harder, uh, choice on that.

Adam: Yeah. I don't, We had tons of movies at 

Charlotte: our house, you know, even now I think I would have a hard time guessing what your favorite movies are now. 

Adam: Yeah, I don't, I would have a hard time guessing my favorite movies right now. . 

Charlotte: Yeah. All right, so thanks again to all of our, you know, both of our special guests today.

Charlotte: Thanks Sharon. Thanks Ma. 

Adam: Yeah, thanks for sharing those stories about your childhood. Thanks for sharing, Sharon, because mom, that story about up throwing the sweater that's 

Charlotte: funny. Oh, on her sister on the stairs. Yeah. That was fun. Yeah, that, That was pretty good. That was pretty good. 

Adam: What movies did you guys like as kids?

Adam: Yeah. 

Charlotte: If you wanna get in contact with us, you can shoot us an email. We're at perf damage podcast gmail.com. Can also follow us on Twitter. We're at perf damage. Hope to see you again next week 

CLIP PLAYS: here on.