112 – The Wicker Man: The Summerisle Cut

The climax of The Wicker Man (1973)

Tim and Jen welcome a special guest to discuss a fan edit of a beloved horror classic, The Wicker Man: The Summerisle Cut! Listen for yourself and decide if you want to leave angry comments on archive.org!

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

View the Summerisle Cut at the Internet Archive.

Visit the Wicker Man site mentioned by our guest, which describes all of the different cuts of the film in detail.

For more great British horror, try our episode on the BBC’s controversial Ghostwatch!

110 – Cool World

Cool World is not cool. Emma Bowers (@hyenasandgin) returns to commiserate with Tim and Jen about a very bad animated feature. Turns out this movie did significant psychological damage to young Tim.

Watch Emma’s Full Metal Alchemist video!

BAWWWWW!

Compare and contrast: this interview with Ralph Bakshi, and this one with writer Michael Grais. Bakshi claims malfeasance from producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. (to the point of violence). Grais calls Bakshi a liar, essentially. What’s the real story? Who knows?

The Tex Avery doc Tim alluded to is called Tex Avery, the King of Cartoons.

Bakshi puts in this pissing stuff, and toilet stuff. I didn’t like that sex attitude in it very much. It’s like real repressed horniness; he’s kind of letting it out compulsively.

R. Crumb on Ralph Bakshi and the Fritz the Cat feature film

If we haven’t dissuaded you, you can watch Ralph Bakshi’s most recent animated work, The Last Days of Coney Island, on YouTube.

For more animated shite, listen to our episode on Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure!

109 – M.A.N.T.I.S.

Newspaper ad for broadcast of the TV movie M.A.N.T.I.S.

What if Black Panther had been the pilot for a TV show, but when they went to series they took out Wakanda and most of the black people? You’d have M.A.N.T.I.S.! HYST superfan mugrimm joins Tim and Jen to talk about what was lost when the Sam Raimi/Sam Hamm/Rob Tapert pilot became a politically toothless show with white sidekicks.

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

The documentary Jen couldn’t remember the name of is Call Me Lucky, and it was directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. It’s an account of the life of satirist and activist Barry Crimmins.

Want to hear about a more inept superhero telefilm? Why not listen to our episode about Captain America with MST3k and Rifftrax alum Bill Corbett?

104 – Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Screenwriter Josh Olson returns to share the Russ Meyer phantasmagoria Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and to make it clear that he did NOT write Gigli. The film was a hit when it arrived in 1970, but it was too strong for the studio and effectively ended Meyer’s career as a mainstream filmmaker. Meyer followed BTVOTD with the leaden legal drama Seven Minutes before going back to making titty flicks, thank god. In the episode Josh holds forth on Roger Ebert’s wonderful script, and we all weigh in on “fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke” filmmaking (we all think it’s good).

Josh previously joined us to bring to our attention the little-loved Martin Mull-starring satire, Serial.

As we mentioned in the episode, you can also see John Waters enthusing about Beyond the Valley of the Dolls at Criterion.

BTVOTD star Edy Williams was married to Meyer and also had a career sideline in appearing partially dressed at the Oscars. She did this until at least 1999. What a queen.

“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” See the Roger Ebert(!)-penned line here, in the Sex Pistols’s last ever show.

If you like a more incoherent brand of 60s freak out, try our episode about Ted V. Mikels’s incomprehensible exploitation movie Astro-Zombies.

097 – Disco Godfather

Sean Morris joins Tim and Jen to talk about an underseen movie from Dolemite himself, Rudy Ray Moore! Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

Disco Godfather is easily viewable for free, and via a very nice transfer, courtesy of our favorite streaming service, Tubi.

For more on the Disco Godfather himself, Rudy Ray Moore, put yo’ weight on his official website.

And if you can’t get enough of the voluble Sean Morris, check out our episode on the unfairly forgotten Livin’ Large!

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!

093 – The Sleeping Car

Jen welcomes special guest Keenan to discuss an ineffectual answer to Jason and Freddy. It’s The Sleeping Car, from 1990!

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

VHS cover for The Sleeping Car (1990)

As a bonus, here’s a look at Jeff Conaway’s role in the film as the most loathsome human being to ever draw breath.

If you love Kevin McCarthy as much as we do, listen to our episode on UHF!

092 – Christian the Lion

Jen welcomes animal expert Emma back to the show to discuss the documentary that spawned a surprise viral clip.

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

Emma is one of our favorite guests, and stopped by a while back to talk about Tippi Hedren and Noel Marshall’s incredibly misguided film, Roar! Listen to that episode here.

More About Christian the Lion

Ace and John’s memoir, A Lion Called Christian, is available cheap at Alibris.

Ace and John’s website pays tribute to their lion friend and has lots of photos and information.

You can also visit a very Web 1.0 site with info about the remarkable George Adamson.

087 – Serial

Screenwriter Josh Olson brings us a movie that he swears is actually funny and good! It’s the little-seen Serial from 1980! Featuring Martin Mull, Tuesday Weld, violent gay bikers, Sally Kellerman’s boobs, casual homophobia, Tommy Smothers in a headband, hot tubs, est probably, psychologically disturbed children whose acting out is played for laughs, etc.

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

For the curious, here is the full Kevin Thomas review of Serial from 1980 that we mentioned on the episode:

Kevin Thomas shreds Serial

You can also hear more of Josh with Dave Anthony on The West Wing Thing, or with Joe Dante on The Movies That Made Me, or check out our episode on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls!