Tag: Darren Herczeg

224 – Valentino

The Lothario Valentino was a Casanova

Jen welcomes Darren Herczeg to help her rhapsodize about a movie even director Ken Russell didn’t like, Valentino!

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The wonderfully-named Phallic Frenzy gives Russell his due as an audacious filmmaker, and describes Valentino in complimentary terms.

See Nureyev fully commit to the bit by dancing “Swine Lake” on the Muppet Show in 1978.

The book on Fatty Arbuckle that Jen mentioned is called Room 1219: The Life of Fatty Arbuckle, the Mysterious Death of Virginia Rappe, and the Scandal That Changed Hollywood, and it’s well worth a read for anyone interested in early Hollywood.

Can’t get enough Darren? Check out our collection of his appearances on the show!

191 – Sorcerer

For audiences clamoring for Star Wars, Sorcerer was a bridge too far

Tim and Jen finally give the departed William Friedkin a proper sendoff with a discussion of his once-maligned masterpiece, Sorcerer. Guest Darren Herczeg provides his usual able assistance.

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To clear up an anecdote Jen related during the episode: she says that Paramount president Charles Bluhdorn freaked out when he spotted himself in the group photo of oil company executives in a scene from Sorcerer. The source of this story is screenwriter Walon Green, who describes Bluhdorn as having had a “shit hemorrhage” during the screening. However, a review of the offending scene reveals only other Gulf+Western execs, not Bluhdorn.

“To me, they looked like a bunch of thugs,” Friedkin said (as quoted in Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls).

Catch the documentary Friedkin Uncut on Tubi, where the man himself evokes Hitler in the first five minutes. We’ll miss you, Billy.

Want to hear about another Friedkin flop? The Guardian very much fails on its own merits.

168 – Body Slam

Sam Fatu and Roddy Piper in Body Slam (1986)

With Tim AWOL (Absent With Overabundant Lego), Jen invites wrestling expert Darren Herczeg to discuss a half-assed wrestling comedy, Body Slam!

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 80 other bonus episodes!

You can read Dirk Benedict’s idiotic whining about the female Starbuck over at the Internet Archive. 

For a peek into the primordial soup of reactionary mass media, read this piece about Wally George and his UHF televison show, Hot Seat. More proof that the worst place God created is not the Nefud desert, but Orange County, California.

Speaking of shock TV, watch a representative clip of The Richard Bey Show! Bey later claimed that his show was cancelled because he aired an interview with Gennifer Flowers, one of several women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault. #ClintonBodyCount

Finally, don’t forget to follow the world’s greatest Instagram account, a veritable museum of weird gimmicks and jobbers, @hamandeggers. Our special guest Darren does, so shouldn’t you?

159 – Blonde

Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominik's Blonde (2022)

Jen and Tim welcome returning guest Darren Herczeg to go to bat for an almost universally loathed Netflix feature, Blonde. Naturally, the trio revel in the film’s grotesque and overt misogyny while twirling their mustaches.

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Jessica Kiang’s review of Blonde over at Film Comment sums up the critical reaction well:

Dominik’s film is a technical marvel, but it’s cold and not a little sinister. It’s also an utterly heartless hoodwink.

There’s no word on whether or not the French documentary that revealed the identity of Marilyn’s biological father will screen in the US. However, according to Variety, an English-language version exists and has been sold to international distributors.

Darren previously appeared on the show to talk about the film Michael Mann refuses to talk about, The Keep!

126 – The Keep

Gabriel Byrne confronts Michael Carter's Molasar in THE KEEP (1983)

Jen and Tim are joined by Darren “Sebebe” Herczeg to reassess Michael Mann’s profoundly flawed fantasy/horror film, The Keep! Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50+ bonus episodes!

Kit Rae’s exhaustive fansite may be the definitive document on The Keep at this point, but there’s also a documentary more than ten years in the making on the same subject. You can follow the filmmakers for updates on Twitter! 

Read Michael Mann’s original screenplay for The Keep!

Watch the ending cut from the theatrical release and inexplicably appended to TV versions of the film.

And after you’ve done that, watch Mann’s wonderful telefilm The Jericho Mile so Jen will finally shut up about it.

When you’re sick of The Keep, join Sebebe for the online I Swing, You Swing game.

095 – Crash (the good one)

Jen and Tim welcome back Darren Herczeg to discuss one of the most controversial movies of the 90s— David Cronenberg’s arresting 1996 film, Crash.

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

For the record, J.G. Ballard wholeheartedly endorsed the film:

A journalist from Finland spoke up and attacked us in a novel way. Rather than excoriating us for making a film “beyond the bounds of depravity” (per Alexander Walker of the Evening Standard, who actually shook a schoolmaster’s disapproving finger at Jeremy from the back of the packed hall), he said that the movie completely betrayed the book, was a pathetic and weak skimming of a powerful work. Jim answered him: “The movie is actually better than the book. It goes further than the book, and is much more powerful and dynamic. It’s terrific.” An astonishing thing for an author to say. Abashed, the Finnish journalist sat down.

David Cronenberg

If you’re a Darren stan, be sure to listen to our episode on the musical white elephant Lost Horizon!

042 – Romeo & Romeo

Jen and Tim welcome a mysterious podcast newbie to praise a magnificent work of queer cinema to the skies: Romeo & Romeo. We’re not kidding, you need to watch this movie, and how fortuitous that it’s on YouTube!

No seriously, you absolutely have to watch this movie. Here’s a clip:

For more outsider cinema, why not try our episode on Canadian horror classic Things?

036 – Lost Horizon

Tim wouldn’t be caught dead watching the musical version of Lost Horizon from 1973, so Jen entices friend of the show Darren Herzceg to visit Shangri-La!

Here are a few of the links mentioned in the show, for enthusiasts (mostly Jen):

Ken Anderson’s discussion of the film

DVD Talk review which includes some memories of the film as screened during the original run in Westwood in 1973

And don’t miss the often-exquisite Bacharach/David soundtrack

For more of Darren, check out our episode on David Cronenberg’s Crash!

019 – Aria

Jen and Darren revisit a misfired art film from 1987, Aria! It’s an omnibus film with segments directed by giants of the industry like Godard and Altman and genteel hacks like…Bruce Beresford. Who the hell is Bruce Beresford?

Watch the trailer for Aria:

If you’re REALLY curious, you can watch the whole film on Tubi.

For more Darren, listen to our episode on Prince’s Under the Cherry Moon!