Bonus Episode: The Screening Room – River of No Return
This week in the Screening Room we’re taking a ride down a raging river with Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum while talking about the 1954 Otto Preminger film ‘River of No Return.’ Plus we make a mixtape inspired by the film with songs by Taj Mahal, David + David, the Escape Club, and more. Become an All Access member and get ad-free listening by visiting disgracelandpod.com.
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Speaker 1: Dudes, dudets, discos, good people of Hollywoodland. My name is
Speaker 1: Zeth Lundy, writer, showrunner, and good doctor. Here at Double Elvison.
Speaker 1: We're here together in the screening room our weekly episode
Speaker 1: of the Pod, in which we watch a movie that
Speaker 1: has something to do with our main episode subject in
Speaker 1: themes of the week, and then we talk about it.
Speaker 1: This week was the sixty fourth anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death.
Speaker 1: We ran part two of our two part Maryland episode
Speaker 1: earlier this week, and then I got into Marylyn's Disclosure Day,
Speaker 1: as it were, the conspiracy theory that she was going
Speaker 1: to blow the lid on aliens back in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 1: I talked about that in the wrap party with Jake.
Speaker 1: Check that out if you haven't already. So, in keeping
Speaker 1: with our Maryland theme here, I wanted to get into
Speaker 1: another Marilyn Monroe film. We did Niagara last week, and
Speaker 1: just like Niagara, I wanted this to be something different,
Speaker 1: you know, something unexpected, something that's not some like It
Speaker 1: Hot or The Seven Year Itch or The Misfits, and
Speaker 1: a listener a disco here recommended we check out River
Speaker 1: of No Return, a nineteen fifty four film directed by
Speaker 1: Auto Preminger. Now Auto Premiger is the guy who you
Speaker 1: may know from directing Anatomy of a Murder. He also
Speaker 1: made The Man with the Golden Arm, among many others.
Speaker 1: He was one of the big names in nineteen fifties cinema.
Speaker 1: Nineteen fifties cinema is a decade that gets shit on
Speaker 1: a lot, especially got by guys named Quentin Tarantino. But
Speaker 1: this is the decade of Rear Window and Vertigo and
Speaker 1: Touch of Evil and Sunset Boulevard and the Searchers and
Speaker 1: the Seventh Samurai and the four Hundred Blows and the
Speaker 1: Seventh Seal. I would go on and on, but I've
Speaker 1: made my point. I don't know what Qt's talking about. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the film we're going to be talking about today, River
Speaker 1: of No Return, is not quite in the same league
Speaker 1: as any of those other films I just mentioned. But
Speaker 1: it's a fascinating film nonetheless, for a number of reasons
Speaker 1: that I'll get into in just a moment. So again.
Speaker 1: River of No Return nineteen fifty four, directed by Otto Preminger,
Speaker 1: a screenplay by Lewis Lance and Frank Fenton, starring our
Speaker 1: Girl Marylyn along with Robert Mitchum, Tommy reddig and Rory Calhoun.
Speaker 1: Shot in luminous, technicolor and cinema scope. The idea for
Speaker 1: this originally was to make well to remake Vittorio Deseika's
Speaker 1: The Bicycle Thief aka Bicycle Thieves, but do it as
Speaker 1: a Western kind of like what they did with The
Speaker 1: Magnificent Seven and Curasow's Seven Samurai. The Daseca film is
Speaker 1: one of the pillars of Italian neorealism. Made six years
Speaker 1: earlier in nineteen forty eight. Please see this movie if
Speaker 1: you have not. The premise is that there's a father
Speaker 1: who needs to find his stolen bicycle because he needs
Speaker 1: it to work and to provide for his struggling family.
Speaker 1: The intention of this hollywood Ized version of Bicycle Thief
Speaker 1: aka Bicycle Thieves was that it would be a b picture.
Speaker 1: It would be cheaply shot for twentieth Century Fox. That
Speaker 1: is until Daryl Zanak, who was president of twenty century Fox,
Speaker 1: decided that he wanted the biggest actress at that moment,
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe, to be in the movie. She was in
Speaker 1: the process of totally blowing up in nineteen fifty three,
Speaker 1: the year that Niagara came out. We talked about this
Speaker 1: last week. That's the time when this film went into production. Okay,
Speaker 1: So getting Marilyn on board increased everything for the film,
Speaker 1: its notoriety, its budget, its stakes. It was decided that
Speaker 1: it would be shot in CinemaScope, and then it was
Speaker 1: at that time that Robert Mitchum also came on board.
Speaker 1: So after the cast is set, that's when Otto Preminger
Speaker 1: was brought in, not because he wanted to, but because
Speaker 1: it was a contract job. This was the age of
Speaker 1: actors and directors under contract. Premonger was under contract to
Speaker 1: twentieth Century Fox, and Darryl Zanak told him, in no
Speaker 1: uncertain terms, you're going to make this movie. Even though
Speaker 1: Premonger had never made a Western up until this point,
Speaker 1: and I don't think he really wanted to. I think
Speaker 1: this is the only Western he ever made now from
Speaker 1: the jump, this was an issue because there were many
Speaker 1: people at the studio who didn't think that Auto Preminger
Speaker 1: was the right guy for the job. More importantly, perhaps
Speaker 1: Robert Mitcham had a problem with Auto Prevenger because the
Speaker 1: two of them had worked together a few years prior
Speaker 1: on a film called Angel Face and The tension on
Speaker 1: that set got so high that Robert Mitcham actually slapped
Speaker 1: the director Auto Prevenger in the face. But on the
Speaker 1: set of this film River of No Return, Preminger clashed
Speaker 1: more with Marilyn Monroe than Mitcham or anyone else. She
Speaker 1: brought along her acting coach with her because she was
Speaker 1: really really determined, she really wanted to be a serious
Speaker 1: actor and was really determined to get this right. Brought
Speaker 1: her acting coach, and it really pissed Premonger off because
Speaker 1: the acting coach was having her do things that ran
Speaker 1: contrary to what Premonger wanted her to do. Marilyn's friend,
Speaker 1: Shelley Winters, said that Preminger terrorized her into immobility was
Speaker 1: the word she used, and that she was constantly worried
Speaker 1: that she was going to be fired or that she
Speaker 1: was going to be made to do some dangerous stunt
Speaker 1: and get swept away by the rapids on set, which
Speaker 1: almost happened if the story is to be believed. The
Speaker 1: film's elevated production status meant that they traveled from Idaho,
Speaker 1: where they were originally going to shoot this up to Canada,
Speaker 1: to Alberta, to Jasper and to Bamff on the Bamf Springs,
Speaker 1: the Bow River the Rocky Mountains. So there's a scene
Speaker 1: in which Marilyn, Robert Mitcham, and the child actor Tommy
Speaker 1: Reddig who plays Mitcham's sung are going down the rushing
Speaker 1: river on a wooden raft. Apparently the scene was so
Speaker 1: dangerous that their stunt doubles refused to do it. So
Speaker 1: Preminger lied to his actors and told them that they
Speaker 1: had to do this with them, the actors, because he
Speaker 1: was going to be shooting and close up. And he
Speaker 1: told him this by leaving out the part about the
Speaker 1: stunt doubles backing out. So as they were shooting this
Speaker 1: scene and heading downstream, the rafts started to split apart.
Speaker 1: Mitcham was tossed into the water. The whole thing was
Speaker 1: a complete catastrophe. But one of the most told stories
Speaker 1: from this set is when Marilyn almost drowned, Or so
Speaker 1: the story goes, she was expected to do a lot
Speaker 1: of her own stunts here. As I've kind of laid
Speaker 1: out already, it's been said that she slipped in the
Speaker 1: rushing water of the river during a take. She fell in,
Speaker 1: she got stuck, and so Robert Mitcham and a few
Speaker 1: others jumped into save her and pull her out, and
Speaker 1: in doing so, she broke her ankle. Her publicist at
Speaker 1: a field day. With this, she had Look magazine come
Speaker 1: up to Canada to take a bunch of pictures for
Speaker 1: an upcoming issue, which all show Marilyn looking ravishing in
Speaker 1: a black bikini while hobbling around in crutches. These are online.
Speaker 1: You can find these if you google them. But something
Speaker 1: else that Shelley Winter said was that this whole broken
Speaker 1: ankle thing was just for show. Maybe it was for
Speaker 1: show to drum up some sympathy from the hard nosed
Speaker 1: Auto Premenger, or maybe it was an excuse for Maryland
Speaker 1: to have a little r and r with her fiance
Speaker 1: Joe DiMaggio, who visited the set around this time. The
Speaker 1: shoot eventually moved back to la for scenes to be
Speaker 1: shot on sound stages, and it was around this time
Speaker 1: that Auto Premenger just kind of pieced out. He left
Speaker 1: in another director, Jean Nigolesco, who had previously directed Marylyn
Speaker 1: in How to Marry a Millionaire, took over and wrapped
Speaker 1: things up, although he never got a credit. The movie
Speaker 1: was a hit at the box office at least enough
Speaker 1: of a hit for twentieth Century Fox to turn a profit,
Speaker 1: but in the eyes of the actors, it was no good.
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe, for one, said quote, I think I deserve
Speaker 1: better than a Grade Z cowboy movie in which the
Speaker 1: acting finished second to the scenery and the CinemaScope process unquote,
Speaker 1: while Robert Mitcham, in his typically misanthropic way, called it
Speaker 1: quote the picture of no Return. And I have to
Speaker 1: say I agree with mister Mitcham and Ms Monroe for
Speaker 1: reasons that I'll get into shortly. For the moment, however,
Speaker 1: just know that this is a film about raging rivers
Speaker 1: and broken rafts, about backstabbers and saloon singers, about gold
Speaker 1: rushers and farmers out in the wild wild West, and
Speaker 1: we're going to get into it right after this, Okay,
Speaker 1: So what is River of No Return all about? This
Speaker 1: film is set in the wild wild West, the gold
Speaker 1: Rush era. I suppose somewhere way out west. First in
Speaker 1: a boomtown where prospectors and dream chasers are blowing off
Speaker 1: steam inside shift tents, where they gamble, they drink, and
Speaker 1: they watch Marilyn Monroe entertain their lustful hearts by playing
Speaker 1: guitar and singing while wearing an incredible red and black
Speaker 1: dress designed by William Travilla, build here simply as Travilla,
Speaker 1: the costume designer who made clothes for Marylynd for something
Speaker 1: like eight of her films. Maybe it's Trivia, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing it's Travilla. Into this town wanders Matt Calder
Speaker 1: played by Robert Mitcham, with his baby I don't care
Speaker 1: charisma cranked up to eleven. He's looking for a nine
Speaker 1: year old boy, his nine year old boy, Mark Calder,
Speaker 1: who has been brought here by someone so that Matt
Speaker 1: can pick him up. We don't know where Matt has
Speaker 1: been or why he hasn't been able to be with
Speaker 1: his son, not yet at least, but we learn when
Speaker 1: he finds the boy that the two haven't seen each
Speaker 1: other in years, but now they're back together and all
Speaker 1: they have is each other. Kay, who is the showgirl
Speaker 1: character played by marily Monroe, has been looking after Mark
Speaker 1: in the interim, so they say goodbye to her before
Speaker 1: taking their leave from this boomtown. Mitcham takes the boy
Speaker 1: back to his homestead, where he leads a modest life
Speaker 1: as a farmer. He's got great hair for a farmer,
Speaker 1: roughing it in the wild. By the way, a big
Speaker 1: part of the Mitcham character at this moment is what
Speaker 1: we believe to be his modesty, how he chooses this
Speaker 1: simple life of farming and getting by instead of going
Speaker 1: on a wild goose chase for gold like all the
Speaker 1: other fortune hunters running around. And I got to pause
Speaker 1: and shout something out here, And it may seem little,
Speaker 1: but it's such a big deal to me. Kudos to
Speaker 1: Robert Mitcham and this kid for drinking real coffee out
Speaker 1: of real cups. You can see them pour the liquid
Speaker 1: from the pot into the cup. Then you can see
Speaker 1: the steam rising out of the cup as they bring
Speaker 1: the cup to their lips. My number one biggest pet
Speaker 1: peeve I swear to God in a movie is when
Speaker 1: someone brings someone else a cup of coffee from the
Speaker 1: coffee shop down the street, and you can tell by
Speaker 1: the way they're holding it that there's nothing in there.
Speaker 1: There's no weight to it when they hold it and
Speaker 1: they move it around, there's no weight to it when
Speaker 1: they pretend to sip it. The performative nature of the
Speaker 1: sip and the weightlessness of the cup. It drives me crazy.
Speaker 1: Philip Seymour Hoffman used to say that cigarettes were good
Speaker 1: for an actor because it gave you something to do
Speaker 1: with your hands, and I think that coffee cups can
Speaker 1: function much in the same way. But when you undermine
Speaker 1: the prop with nothing but air inside the cup, it
Speaker 1: takes me out. I'm out anyways. Sorry, I'm very passionate
Speaker 1: about empty fucking coffee cups in movies. I'd like to
Speaker 1: think that Philip Seymour Hoffman would agree with me. The
Speaker 1: next time I watch one of his films, I'm going
Speaker 1: to see if his coffee cup appears to be full
Speaker 1: of actual liquid or not. Okay, rant finny, all right,
Speaker 1: So these two drink a lot of coffee. Don't worry
Speaker 1: that the kid's only nine. He's built tough. Okay, It's
Speaker 1: not long before Marilyn and her bow this real piece
Speaker 1: of shit guy here come rolling rolling rolling down the
Speaker 1: river near Mitcham's place, obviously weigh in over their heads,
Speaker 1: practically crashing the raft that they're riding on. So Mitcham
Speaker 1: and the kid grab some rope and they help to
Speaker 1: haul them into shore. Turns out the happy couple is
Speaker 1: on their honeymoon, or so they say, and they're headed
Speaker 1: for a big gold score down the road. A piece.
Speaker 1: Mitcham treats them to some decent, humble hospitality, only for
Speaker 1: this hairy character to grab Mitcham's rifle and steal his
Speaker 1: horse in the process. There's a fight. Harry knocks Mitcham
Speaker 1: out with the butt of the gun. He tells Marilyn
Speaker 1: that he'll be back for her after he finds what
Speaker 1: he's looking for, and then he's gone, leaving Marylyn to
Speaker 1: nurse Mitcham back to the living. Now, beyond all the
Speaker 1: questions you're asking yourself right now about these characters and
Speaker 1: how big of a piece of shit they all are,
Speaker 1: you can probably see where this is going. Right. Marylyn's
Speaker 1: going to fall for Robert Mitcham, and Robert Mitcham's going
Speaker 1: to get his revenge on this dude who wronged him.
Speaker 1: And that's mostly right. But it's a little bit more
Speaker 1: complicated than that. First of all, we slowly learn about
Speaker 1: Mitcham's character's backstory why he wasn't around to take care
Speaker 1: of his son for a while. It's because he was
Speaker 1: doing time in prison for shooting a man in the back. Okay,
Speaker 1: He justifies this by telling his son that it was
Speaker 1: a bad, bad man that he shot, and that while
Speaker 1: sometimes a bad man needs shooting, I guess we slowly
Speaker 1: learn that this character, Matt Calder, is not the good
Speaker 1: man we perhaps thought he was, and it's not just
Speaker 1: the whole shooting a man in the back business. At
Speaker 1: some point, alone in the woods, Mitcham makes a pass
Speaker 1: at Marylyn. He takes her in his arms, he tries
Speaker 1: to kiss her, and when she struggles to break away
Speaker 1: from him, he only goes after her harder, eventually knocking
Speaker 1: her to the ground and forcing himself upon her. And
Speaker 1: who knows what would have happened had the boy not
Speaker 1: suddenly called out for their help, because there's a big
Speaker 1: mountain lion who has descended upon their camp, and it's
Speaker 1: time for Mitcham to play the hero again. In addition
Speaker 1: to the mountain lion attack, there's an ominous visit from
Speaker 1: a pair of strangers who try to kill Mitcham and
Speaker 1: assault Marylyn. There are perilous trips down the river. There
Speaker 1: are attacks by Native Americans. More on that shit in
Speaker 1: a minute. There's Marilyn's character nearly getting hypothermia, and more.
Speaker 1: Before they reach their final destination, this gold rush town,
Speaker 1: where Mitcham gets his revenge and the man who screwed
Speaker 1: him over, with a little help from his son, who
Speaker 1: was picked up on some of his dad's tricks along
Speaker 1: the way. Here's the thing, though, this film wants Robert
Speaker 1: Mitcham and Marilyn Monroe to end up together happily, but
Speaker 1: it does so without fully acknowledging Mitcham's character as a
Speaker 1: problematic anti hero. He is, without a doubt, an anti hero,
Speaker 1: and I don't fault the character for that. That's what
Speaker 1: the character is, but the film seems to view his
Speaker 1: actions as heroic. The final scene, after they've filled their
Speaker 1: foe full of lead, Mitcham walks into the saloon where
Speaker 1: Marilyn is performing, and he grabs her, throws her over
Speaker 1: his shoulder, throws her onto his horse with his son.
Speaker 1: She's like, where are we going to? Which he says, home, right,
Speaker 1: and then she smiles and gladly throws her expensive dancing
Speaker 1: shoes on the ground to go live this humble, modest
Speaker 1: life with this guy and his kid. But this guy
Speaker 1: is a brute. He's already assaulted her out in the woods.
Speaker 1: He's forced himself on her, and now he's forcing himself
Speaker 1: on her again with this whole Tarzan act. I'm shocked
Speaker 1: he didn't grab and pull her by the hair to
Speaker 1: get her on the horse. It definitely strikes me a
Speaker 1: bit as a Searchers esque or taxi driver esque, and
Speaker 1: that this anti hero is, you know, thinks he's saving
Speaker 1: this woman from a life that she doesn't want or
Speaker 1: a life that he thinks she shouldn't have. And while
Speaker 1: this is a few years before the Searchers, it also
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be aware of Matt Calder's real character
Speaker 1: in the way that john Ford and the Searchers are
Speaker 1: definitely aware of Ethan Edwards's real character. Like Ethan Edwards,
Speaker 1: Matt Calder is also a racist. You can see him
Speaker 1: tense up early on as a few Native Americans right
Speaker 1: their horses into the Boomtown tent village, and he's always
Speaker 1: watching out for these quote unquote, so called savages. I
Speaker 1: want to make sure you're hearing the quote unquote and
Speaker 1: the so called. I'm putting before that word because this
Speaker 1: film has a problem that a lot of these classic
Speaker 1: westerns have. One of the problems that some revisionist westerns
Speaker 1: would later address, which is a racism problem. Other problems
Speaker 1: this film has. Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitcham have zero chemistry.
Speaker 1: If we're supposed to buy that she would willingly go
Speaker 1: with this brute after he's snatched her from her place
Speaker 1: of work, we've got to buy that they're into each
Speaker 1: other and there are no sparks at all. How is
Speaker 1: that even possible. Marilyn Monroe is the greatest thing about
Speaker 1: this film. She is absolutely radiant, and I don't just
Speaker 1: mean her beauty, but her aura, her essence, her being.
Speaker 1: It's practically alien her just being her. It is wild
Speaker 1: to watch. Another issue I have is that while this
Speaker 1: was shot on location, a lot of the bigger action
Speaker 1: set pieces were obviously shot on soundstage in la You know,
Speaker 1: you get the raft rocking back and forth in front
Speaker 1: of a big screen. And while there are some gorgeous,
Speaker 1: breathtaking shots of the Canadian Rockies for real, there are
Speaker 1: an equal number of Matt painting backgrounds that just fall
Speaker 1: a little flat. And it makes a movie like the
Speaker 1: aforementioned The Searchers stand out even more because the action
Speaker 1: scenes in that film were conceived and shot in a
Speaker 1: way that you believe them and I think the river
Speaker 1: concept here maybe was just too much at this point
Speaker 1: in time. You know, It's something that Ford didn't attempt
Speaker 1: in The Searchers because he knew he couldn't do it,
Speaker 1: and the only way to do it is to do
Speaker 1: it in this fake way. You know, perhaps at the
Speaker 1: time it worked for audiences. Perhaps at the time, all
Speaker 1: audiences needed was Marilyn. I may not have liked this film,
Speaker 1: but I enjoyed it for Marilyn, for the radiant alienists
Speaker 1: that she brings to an otherwise elevated quote unquote grade
Speaker 1: Z cowboy movie, as she herself called it. And with
Speaker 1: all this in mind, what I really want to do
Speaker 1: is make a mixtape inspired by this film, which is
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do right after this. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: we're back in the screening room, doctor Lundy, hanging out
Speaker 1: here with you to make a hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially
Speaker 1: possible mixtape based on the nineteen fifty four film River
Speaker 1: of No Return. I'm gonna go hard into the paint
Speaker 1: on this first pick, guys. I'm warning you, okay, you ready?
Speaker 1: Track one, Cybe One. Track one is a song called
Speaker 1: Wild Wild West by the Escape Club from the album
Speaker 1: of the same name, released in nineteen eighty eight, the
Speaker 1: London band's second album. Do you guys remember this The
Speaker 1: Escape Club? I know some of you do. I always
Speaker 1: thought these guys were Australian actually because probably because I
Speaker 1: was listening to a ton of Midnight Oil and in
Speaker 1: Excess around this time, So for whatever reason, I lumped
Speaker 1: The Escape Club in with them. This song was a
Speaker 1: huge hit and I remember seeing the video on MTV,
Speaker 1: so I bought this album on cassette. This was the
Speaker 1: transitional period for me in which I was coming out
Speaker 1: of my fascination with like oldies radio. I was a
Speaker 1: huge like oldies like old rock and sol Kid when
Speaker 1: I was younger, and this this was the bridge, you know,
Speaker 1: the Escape Club, Midnight Oil in Excess. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know one should not lump in the Escape Club with
Speaker 1: Midnight Oil or in Excess. They're nowhere near as good.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying this is the kind of stuff. It
Speaker 1: was like, more modern, almost pop oriented stuff. This is
Speaker 1: when I got into Prince as well. That Batman soundtrack
Speaker 1: was my true entry to Prince Than the following year,
Speaker 1: and this was the bridge into you know, my later
Speaker 1: obsessions with like you know, Pixies and Tom Waite' and
Speaker 1: Elvis Costello and all those dudes. Yeah, guys, Wile wild West.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it up for the songs. I think
Speaker 1: this is their only big hit. They may have had
Speaker 1: a smaller hit from this album. And I can barely
Speaker 1: remember any of the songs from this record, but I
Speaker 1: remember playing it a ton back in the day, all right.
Speaker 1: Next song here on our mixtape is After the gold
Speaker 1: Rush by Neil Young from the album of the same name,
Speaker 1: the third studio album from Neil nineteen seventy, recorded with
Speaker 1: members of Crazy Horse as well as members of Crosby, Stills, Nash,
Speaker 1: and Young, including it here for the gold Rush connection.
Speaker 1: This is the second track from this record, and such
Speaker 1: a baller way to start this album. He before he
Speaker 1: lays into any hard rockin' stuff like Southern Man, you know,
Speaker 1: he starts with tell Me Why, which is just this
Speaker 1: acoustic guitar and voice thing, and then it's just this
Speaker 1: fragile piano ballot. It's piano and Neil's voice. This song
Speaker 1: feels like the collective hangover that the peace and Love
Speaker 1: hippie movement was having in this very moment, and it's
Speaker 1: got some of my favorite favorite Neil lyrics from this time.
Speaker 1: Here's an excerpt. I was lying in a burned out
Speaker 1: basement with the full moon in my eyes. I was
Speaker 1: hoping for replacement. When the sun burst through the sky,
Speaker 1: there was a band playing in my head and I
Speaker 1: felt like getting high. So fucking good, all right the
Speaker 1: next time? Here on our mixtape, inspired by River of
Speaker 1: No Return, is a song called River's Gonna Rise by
Speaker 1: David and David off their nineteen eighty six album Boomtown.
Speaker 1: This is the only record these two guys made together,
Speaker 1: these two singer songwriters, David Barwald and David Ricketts. Ricketts,
Speaker 1: for one, would go on to assist Ryl Crowe with
Speaker 1: her debut album Tuesday Night Music Club, and also Robbie
Speaker 1: Robertson with Storyville. You see a record like this David
Speaker 1: and David in the stacks at your local used record
Speaker 1: store all the time for like a buck by it.
Speaker 1: If you haven't, it has a really dated of its
Speaker 1: time production style. But if you're like me in your
Speaker 1: gen X and you are around for this era, it's
Speaker 1: actually now a comfortingly come for Tinley. It's dated of
Speaker 1: its time. Sound is comforting. Okay, this is kind of
Speaker 1: like a Springsteen Heartland kind of thing here. But this track,
Speaker 1: River's Gonna Rise is heavy, heavy tune. Man, there's a
Speaker 1: curfew out. God ain't in his heaven. Something ain't right.
Speaker 1: They're killing a man from the inside out in the
Speaker 1: broad daylight. It's this portrait of a town and a
Speaker 1: culture at war with itself that is as relevant today
Speaker 1: as it was back then. And it's got a killer
Speaker 1: chorus along with a guitar solo that sounds like David
Speaker 1: Gilmour if he cut his teeth in the no Way
Speaker 1: of New York scene. I'm including this song because it
Speaker 1: checks two boxes, one the river and two the boomtown.
Speaker 1: All Right, River's Gonna Rise, David and David. Next song
Speaker 1: on our mixtape here is one by Taj Mahal called
Speaker 1: Fishing Blues. This is because there's a lot of talk
Speaker 1: about fishing as this leisurely thing that Mitchem and the
Speaker 1: Kid are going to do. That's before they are sabotaged
Speaker 1: by this asshole who's money hungry for gold. Taj Mahal
Speaker 1: Fish and Blues. This kicks off his nineteen seventy one
Speaker 1: double live album The Real Thing. I'm sure there's a
Speaker 1: studio version on another album that I have, but this
Speaker 1: is the version I really know. This is this old
Speaker 1: country blue song that my uncle actually used to play
Speaker 1: and sing for us when we were kids. I learned
Speaker 1: this first from him. My uncle taught me all about
Speaker 1: Mississippi dealt the blues and Chicago blues guys like Sonny
Speaker 1: Terry and Brownie McGhee and all that. And I actually
Speaker 1: used to sing this song to my son when he
Speaker 1: would go to bed at night to help him go
Speaker 1: to bed. It was either this song or Saint Judy's
Speaker 1: Comment by Paul Simon, where the lullabyes I sang to him.
Speaker 1: This is one of my favorite live albums of all time,
Speaker 1: by the way, The Real Thing by Taj Mahal. It's
Speaker 1: so good and fish and blues. You can't go wrong. Okay.
Speaker 1: Next song here on our mixtape is a song by
Speaker 1: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds called People Ain't No
Speaker 1: Good from The Boatman's Call, which is a nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: seven record. This is the album that's known for Into
Speaker 1: Your Arms, the song that I believe Nick Cave wrote
Speaker 1: for PJ. Harvey and then later played at Michael Hutchinson's funeral.
Speaker 1: At least one of those facts is correct. This song
Speaker 1: is what you think it is. It's you know people
Speaker 1: did just Ain't No Good? Okay, and Harry Harry Weston
Speaker 1: Marilynd's bow in this film He's no Good. And you
Speaker 1: can make the argument that Matt Calder, the Robert Mitchum character,
Speaker 1: he's no good too. I think Shrek used this song
Speaker 1: in one of the many Shrek movies. I believe, but listen,
Speaker 1: Shrek stole it. We're stealing it back, just like Bono
Speaker 1: and you two stole Helter Skelter back from Charles Manson
Speaker 1: People Ain't No Good by Nick Cave. Speaking of you two.
Speaker 1: The next song I'm gonna put on here is called
Speaker 1: if You Wear That Velvet Dress from U Two's album Pop.
Speaker 1: This is their much maligned record from nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 1: and I'm just here, guys, Yes, I'm just here seeking
Speaker 1: justice for Pop. This is an incredible record. Don't believe
Speaker 1: anybody tells you, and I'm gonna have the wild take
Speaker 1: here that this record ends their unimpeachable run. They're great,
Speaker 1: great period. In my eyes, Yes, before you come at me,
Speaker 1: I know that all that you Can't Leave Behind comes
Speaker 1: after this, But there's something that strikes me as so
Speaker 1: meat and potatoes about that record. It's the start of
Speaker 1: them settling, do you know what I mean? They're settling
Speaker 1: for the broadest version of themselves. Pop, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: ends this run that is truly inventive and reinventive right
Speaker 1: for over a decade. It starts in eighty four with
Speaker 1: the Unforgettable Fire, then there's the Joshua Tree, then there's
Speaker 1: Rattle and Hum, Octum Baby, Zoo Ropa, and then finally Pop.
Speaker 1: It was so exciting to be a youtwo fan in
Speaker 1: the nineties because every record was a sharp ninety degree turn.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how exhilarating it was to hear
Speaker 1: the Fly for the first time on the radio in
Speaker 1: the fall of ninety one or whenever that was released
Speaker 1: as the first single for Octumbaby, because it was it
Speaker 1: sounded nothing like the Joshua Tree at all. And then Zoopa,
Speaker 1: the single numb that the Edge sings was like, didn't
Speaker 1: selling anything off Octumbaby. And then here comes Pop, which
Speaker 1: right off the bat became this redheaded stepchild that people
Speaker 1: sort of half acknowledged because I think I think the perception,
Speaker 1: if I recall correctly, was that you two became the
Speaker 1: thing they were lampooning. They were sort of lampooning this,
Speaker 1: this sort of big headed, too big for their bridges
Speaker 1: stadium band with the whole Zoo TV tour, the Zeropa thing,
Speaker 1: and then you know, they become this big block rock
Speaker 1: and beat band with pop and yes disco tech and
Speaker 1: mofo or big electronic club inspired bangers. But this record
Speaker 1: also has great songs. It has Staring at the Sun,
Speaker 1: It has do You Feel Loved? It has Please and
Speaker 1: Wake Up dead Man, two of you Two's all time
Speaker 1: greatest songs period. And if you like guitars, this has
Speaker 1: some of the Edge's coolest sounding guitars ever. For me,
Speaker 1: it's a lights out misunderstood record. Anyway, why is this
Speaker 1: song on here? If you wear that velvet dress? Well, Marilyn,
Speaker 1: I don't think she wears a velvet dress in this film,
Speaker 1: but she wears at least three different I think, three
Speaker 1: different dresses that are all stunning. And one of the
Speaker 1: dresses that she wore was later auctioned off for five
Speaker 1: hundred and ten thousand dollars in twenty eleven, so that's
Speaker 1: going on the mixtape for that reason. Okay, next song
Speaker 1: here is gonna be I need a coffee song. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of coffee drinking in this movie, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with One More Cup of Coffee by
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan off his nineteen seventy six album Desire. I
Speaker 1: thought about cigarettes and coffee by Otis Redding, but shockingly,
Speaker 1: there's barely any cigarette smoking in this film. That's perhaps zero,
Speaker 1: so I didn't include that. I thought of coffee and
Speaker 1: TV by Blur, but there's no TV in this movie.
Speaker 1: I thought of You're So Vain by Carly Simon. You know,
Speaker 1: clouds in my coffee. That could have actually worked. But
Speaker 1: one more cup of coffee for the road is like
Speaker 1: this recurring motif in this film, Robert Mitcham and the kid,
Speaker 1: they're always sharing coffee or Mitchum in Monroe. Mitcham's like, here,
Speaker 1: drink this, it'll make you feel better. I don't know
Speaker 1: how coffee you're supposed to make you feel better when
Speaker 1: you're dragging your ass down an unforgiving river. Probably a
Speaker 1: shot of jack would have been better, but you know whatever.
Speaker 1: As much of an anti hero as this guy is.
Speaker 1: He's also a detO layer. So there we go. One
Speaker 1: more cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan. Now listen. I
Speaker 1: started asking you guys in advance for your picks for
Speaker 1: songs that we can include on this mixtape. On these
Speaker 1: mixtapes every week, and last week I asked you if
Speaker 1: you had any ideas for any songs and over in
Speaker 1: Patreon Disgraceland All Access. Over on Patreon, I got a
Speaker 1: response for Jackie over there. Jackie said we should include
Speaker 1: take Me to the River, and we could include either
Speaker 1: Talking Heads or the Al Green version. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: with Al Green because as much as I love the
Speaker 1: Talking Heads cover of this, the original is so funky.
Speaker 1: Co written by Al's guitar player Teeny Hodges, comes from
Speaker 1: his nineteen seventy one album Al Explores Your Mind, which
Speaker 1: is an incredible album title. I remember I DJed this
Speaker 1: wedding back when I in one of my prior lives
Speaker 1: when I DJed a little bit. I DJed this wedding
Speaker 1: for a friend and this grandmother came up and requested
Speaker 1: Al Green, and I think it was Love and Happiness
Speaker 1: that I played. You know, Love and Happiness has that
Speaker 1: sort of that quiet intro before it does the boo
Speaker 1: doo do do doo. When they all come the band
Speaker 1: comes in. So as soon as like the intro hit
Speaker 1: and the band comes in, the grandmother who was very
Speaker 1: old way in the back, she like shot up out
Speaker 1: of her chair and she was like, whoa Agreen. That
Speaker 1: was awesome. It's the best. So thank you Jackie for
Speaker 1: that take. If any of you have any additions for
Speaker 1: this hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially possible mixtape about River of
Speaker 1: No Return, or you want to get ahead of the
Speaker 1: game and send me options for next week, you know
Speaker 1: how to do it. You get at me on the
Speaker 1: telephone six one seven nine oh six six six three eight.
Speaker 1: You can leave me a voicemail, you can send me
Speaker 1: a text. You can email me at disgrace slampod at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. And while you're doing that, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pause real quick, but stay put. I'll be right back. Okay, guys,
Speaker 1: it's a about time for me to get out of here,
Speaker 1: But before I go, I want to share with you
Speaker 1: something I did the other night. The end of the
Speaker 1: screening room here is a good place for me to
Speaker 1: sort of This is sort of like a I don't know,
Speaker 1: Ephemerara miscellanea department here right for us. Just last night,
Speaker 1: in fact, I went out to see David Sedaris read
Speaker 1: at a local venue. It was actually an opera house,
Speaker 1: and it was an incredible night. He's an incredible writer,
Speaker 1: and he's one of the few writers you know. I
Speaker 1: don't listen to audiobooks. I prefer to read off the page.
Speaker 1: But David Sedaris has such a cadence. He has such
Speaker 1: a unique voice and such a cadence in the way
Speaker 1: that he speaks that he actually elevates his own material,
Speaker 1: or the material is elevated for you as the reader,
Speaker 1: slash the listener as you're listening to it. So I'm
Speaker 1: there listening to him. And the way in which he
Speaker 1: works well, first of all, you know, I guess some
Speaker 1: people call him a humorist, and I feel like that
Speaker 1: sort of like degrades what he does because he's not like, no,
Speaker 1: no offense to Dave Barry or anyone like that. But
Speaker 1: he's not Dave Barry. David Sedaris, to me, is a
Speaker 1: lot more of a deeper writer than that. But he
Speaker 1: is very funny and the way that he works is
Speaker 1: very much like a comedian and I kind of got
Speaker 1: to witness that in the first person. So here's the deal. Like,
Speaker 1: he just put out this new book, right, and one
Speaker 1: would think that he's going to be reading essays from
Speaker 1: this new book. But the way he explained it is
Speaker 1: that he tours. He tours NonStop. He tours at least
Speaker 1: one hundred dates a year, he said, even more so
Speaker 1: when he's put on a new book, and as he's touring,
Speaker 1: he's basically reading new material that he's written. And every
Speaker 1: city that he goes to, he'll sort of like edit
Speaker 1: the essays based on the audience reaction and that sort
Speaker 1: of thing and kind of like get them really perfect
Speaker 1: and then once they're perfect, they go into his next
Speaker 1: collection of essays. So this new book he put out,
Speaker 1: he was just sick and tired of reading these essays,
Speaker 1: so he wanted to read new shit that he had written.
Speaker 1: So it was really cool. Had this giant folder, guys,
Speaker 1: this big ass folder with a bunch of printed out
Speaker 1: essays that were all like paper clip together, but you know,
Speaker 1: one essay after another, and he would take them out
Speaker 1: and he would read them and as the audience was reacting,
Speaker 1: he had like a pen or a pencil in his hand.
Speaker 1: He was like striking stuff out, he was adding stuff in.
Speaker 1: He was doing this all without missing a beat. He
Speaker 1: was wasn't messing up his cadence or his flow or anything,
Speaker 1: but he was obviously reacting to how we reacted to
Speaker 1: these stories, these essays, and very much like a comedian
Speaker 1: works how a comedian goes city to city performs material
Speaker 1: jokes that don't work. They take out stories that are
Speaker 1: too long, they shorten stories that need more set up.
Speaker 1: They add to it, and they get to a point
Speaker 1: where the material is so good and solid that then
Speaker 1: you know, they record like a one hour special of
Speaker 1: that material. And it was exactly what he was doing
Speaker 1: when he was when he was reading, and it was
Speaker 1: just fascinating to sort of get, you know, not only
Speaker 1: did you get to hear him read his own writing,
Speaker 1: which is just one of the most pleasurable things I've
Speaker 1: ever experienced as as a writer myself, but you got
Speaker 1: to sort of watch the wheels turning in his head
Speaker 1: as he was doing so, and it was super special.
Speaker 1: Which is all to say, if you guys get a
Speaker 1: chance to ever see David Sedaris near you, please do it,
Speaker 1: because it's you won't be disappointed. It's great, all right, guys.
Speaker 1: So with that said, we're going to do this again
Speaker 1: next week. Next Friday, we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three film Star eighty, directed by Bob Fosse
Speaker 1: and starring Maril Hemingway and Eric Roberts. This is the
Speaker 1: biopic on the model and actress Dorothy Stratton, who was
Speaker 1: the subject of next week's fully scripted in sound design episode.
Speaker 1: Next week is the anniversary of Dorothy Stratton's shocking murder
Speaker 1: back in nineteen eighty at the age of twenty. Maybe
Speaker 1: you've seen this, Maybe you want to watch it this
Speaker 1: week with us sort of, you know, with us in
Speaker 1: a general sense, and maybe you want to send me
Speaker 1: your picks ahead of time for Friday's mixtape. Any songs
Speaker 1: you think could be inspired by the film Star eighty
Speaker 1: give me a shout six one seven nine oh six
Speaker 1: six six three eight. You can email me at disgracelampod
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com, or if you're a member of
Speaker 1: Disgraceland All Access over in Patreon, just jump in the chat.
Speaker 1: And if you are a member over there, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for your support. You guys are the best.
Speaker 1: You guys mean the world to us. You guys already
Speaker 1: know if you're over there, that we have a brand
Speaker 1: new episode of our video podcast. This film should be
Speaker 1: played loud about do the Right Thing. That's live, along
Speaker 1: with seven or eight other episodes so far more to
Speaker 1: com We've got one on Licorice Pizza coming out at
Speaker 1: the end of this month. You won't want to miss that.
Speaker 1: So if you're not a member of Disgraceland All Access
Speaker 1: on Patreon, you want to check out the video podcast,
Speaker 1: plus get all kinds of other perks like ad free
Speaker 1: listening of both Hollywood Land and Disgraceland and twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven chat with Me, Jake Matt and all your
Speaker 1: fellow discos. Just go to disgracelampod dot com for more
Speaker 1: information and to sign up Today Tuesday. Next week, our
Speaker 1: sister show, Disgraceland, brand new episode on the Smashing Pumpkins
Speaker 1: and about whatever the hell's going on with Billy Corgan
Speaker 1: and the shapeshifter that he had not one, but two
Speaker 1: interactions with If you're not subscribed to Disgraceland not listening
Speaker 1: to that show, you can do so on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. I
Speaker 1: hope you guys have a great weekend lined up. Maybe
Speaker 1: there's some movies in your future. If so, give me
Speaker 1: a holler, let me know what you saw, what you
Speaker 1: thought of it. Six one seven, nine oh six six
Speaker 1: six three eight. Perhaps I'll play or read your message
Speaker 1: in the wrap party next week. But until then, I'm
Speaker 1: going to leave you with this. Here's what America was
Speaker 1: watching at the movies in nineteen fifty four, the year
Speaker 1: River of No Return was released in theaters. Number one,
Speaker 1: White Christmas, directed by Michael Curtiz. Number two, The Knemutiny
Speaker 1: directed by Edward Metric directed by George Number three, Twenty
Speaker 1: Thousand Weeks under the Sea directed by Richard Fleish directed
Speaker 1: by William Number four directed by the Glenn Miller. Story
Speaker 1: seven directed by Anthony. Number five, The Country Girl William
Speaker 1: A directed by George Seaton. Number six directed by The
Speaker 1: High and the Mighty George directed by William A. Wellman.
Speaker 1: Number seven The Story Worker Quit Talking and start mixing