Bonus Episode: The Screening Room – Woman of the Hour
This week in the Screening Room, Zeth is breaking down Anna Kendrick’s 2024 directorial debut Woman of the Hour, which tells the story of serial killer Rodney Alcala appearing as an eligible bachelor on The Dating Game TV show, as seen through the eyes of the show’s “bachelorette,” Sheryl Bradshaw. Plus we make a mixtape inspired by the film with songs by St. Vincent, Aimee Mann, the Kinks, and more. Become an All Access member and get ad-free listening by visiting disgracelandpod.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Speaker 1: Hello, good people of Hollywood land. My name is Seth Lundy, writer, showrunner,
Speaker 1: and good doctor here at Double Elvis. And let me
Speaker 1: ask you, Is it possible to get a guy in
Speaker 1: this town who's not a maniac? Welcome in once again
Speaker 1: to The Screening Room, our weekly episode of The Pod
Speaker 1: in which we watch a movie that has something to
Speaker 1: do with our main episode subject and themes of the week,
Speaker 1: and then we talk about it. This week, our fully
Speaker 1: scripted sound design episode from our archive was all about
Speaker 1: the dating game killer, Rodney Alcala, the infamous serial killer
Speaker 1: who appeared on the ABC game show, The Dating Game,
Speaker 1: while in the midst of a killing spree. So the
Speaker 1: movie that we watched this week is called Women of
Speaker 1: the Hour. It came out just a few years ago
Speaker 1: in 2024. I think this is the most recent film
Speaker 1: we've covered here on the show. It was directed by
Speaker 1: the actress Anna Kendrick. That was her directorial debut. It
Speaker 1: was written by Ian McDonald, and it stars Kendrick along
Speaker 1: with Daniel Zavado, Tony Hale, and Nicolette Robinson. Again, this
Speaker 1: is a movie about Rodney Alcala, the serial killer, and
Speaker 1: his unlikely and improbable appearance as a contestant on the
Speaker 1: 1970s TV game show, The Dating Game. But it's also
Speaker 1: about Cheryl Bradshaw, the female contestant on that show, who
Speaker 1: picked from three eligible bachelors that she could talk to,
Speaker 1: but she could not see. Back in 2017, the script
Speaker 1: for this film, the Ian McDonald script, It was featured
Speaker 1: on The Blacklist. The Blacklist is this annual list of
Speaker 1: the best unproduced screenplays floating around Hollywood any given year.
Speaker 1: If you know Hollywood history and you know the inner
Speaker 1: workings of Hollywood, you know that it can take a
Speaker 1: while for a script to actually get produced. A lot
Speaker 1: of times, scripts don't get produced at all. But there
Speaker 1: is this annual poll of development executives, I guess people
Speaker 1: in positions of power when it comes to developing projects
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, And out of this poll comes a list
Speaker 1: of the most liked unproduced screenplays. So anyway, in 2017,
Speaker 1: this script, which at the time was not called Woman
Speaker 1: of the Hour, but instead was called Rodney and Cheryl,
Speaker 1: was on the blacklist. And a few years after that,
Speaker 1: four years after that, in 2021, Netflix acquired the script
Speaker 1: with Anna Kendrick attached as its star and Chloe Acuno
Speaker 1: to direct. Production was only six weeks out, when Akuno
Speaker 1: dropped out. And I'm not sure why she dropped out,
Speaker 1: but Anna Kendrick saw her opportunity, I believe. She threw
Speaker 1: her hat in the ring, said she was up for
Speaker 1: the challenge, making the leap from acting to directing. You know,
Speaker 1: at this point, she's in like, I think her mid-30s
Speaker 1: or so. She's been acting since the early to mid-2000s.
Speaker 1: She's got this diverse filmography of like, you know, Twilight
Speaker 1: films and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and of course,
Speaker 1: the Pitch Perfect franchise. and A Simple Favor. But still,
Speaker 1: this was something of a left turn for her, not
Speaker 1: just going from an actor to a director, but there's
Speaker 1: this perception, and maybe it's my personal perception, of Anna
Speaker 1: Kendrick as being in a lot of low-stakes comedies and
Speaker 1: musicals and rom-coms and Paul Feig thrillers. And I don't
Speaker 1: mean that pejoratively at all. It just strikes me that
Speaker 1: a film about a serial killer is not necessarily one
Speaker 1: that I would instantly associate with Anna Kendrick wanting to make.
Speaker 1: But I think, ultimately, she brings this really unique POV
Speaker 1: to this project, to this movie. She's got a lot
Speaker 1: of great ideas for how things look and how to
Speaker 1: piece together a story, which, you know, if this particular
Speaker 1: film is not executed correctly, it could be really confusing,
Speaker 1: because timeline-wise, it jumps around a lot. But Kendrick has
Speaker 1: a lot of these great mnemonic devices that to help
Speaker 1: keep you grounded. And so the chopped up feel of
Speaker 1: the film helps make this story that we know, we
Speaker 1: know the deal with the dating game killer, we know
Speaker 1: how it's going to end, but it makes the story
Speaker 1: feel that much more fresh and unexpected. This film slots
Speaker 1: into a couple of robust sub-genres of film history. It's
Speaker 1: a movie about TV, and it's a movie about a
Speaker 1: serial killer. So it's in the great tradition of films
Speaker 1: like Quiz Show, the 1994 Robert Redford film about the
Speaker 1: 21 quiz show scandal back in the 1950s. There's Paul
Speaker 1: Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, which features in one of its many
Speaker 1: plots a boy genius competing on a TV show, but
Speaker 1: doing so while he has to pee really, really bad.
Speaker 1: There's Martin Scorsese's King of Comedy, of course, not a
Speaker 1: TV game show, but about a man who's desperate to
Speaker 1: get on a late night TV show to taste his
Speaker 1: 15 minutes of fame, I suppose. An adjacent addition to
Speaker 1: this list would be Joker. There's that newish movie about
Speaker 1: Press Your Luck, the TV show Press Your Luck. The
Speaker 1: dude who kind of gamified that show in the 80s,
Speaker 1: starring Paul Walter Hauser and Walton Goggins. I have not
Speaker 1: seen this, but I love both of those dudes. And
Speaker 1: then on the serial killer side, movies about real serial killers,
Speaker 1: no Hannibal Lecter's here. You've got David Fincher's Zodiac and
Speaker 1: Spike Lee's Summer of Sam. Patty Jenkins made that 2003
Speaker 1: film Monster with Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos. Henry, Portrait
Speaker 1: of a Serial Killer. Zac Efron made that Ted Bundy movie.
Speaker 1: But what's special about Woman of the Hour, and I
Speaker 1: think the closest of all those movies I just mentioned
Speaker 1: that comes to this now that I think about it
Speaker 1: is Zodiac. But what's special about Woman of the Hour
Speaker 1: and what made Zodiac special as well is how it
Speaker 1: splits the narrative. It's not entirely, it's not from this
Speaker 1: POV of the killer. It splits the narrative between Rodney
Speaker 1: Alcala on the one hand and Cheryl Bradshaw on the other.
Speaker 1: Much Like Zodiac focuses more on Robert Graysmith and his
Speaker 1: obsession with the Zodiac rather than it does on the
Speaker 1: Zodiac killer. And here in this film, we don't get
Speaker 1: Alcala's motivations or his past offenses. We just get him
Speaker 1: as this force of evil that's moving through the world.
Speaker 1: targeting women with this false modesty and false kindness, how
Speaker 1: he uses this facade of being an ally almost to
Speaker 1: then subvert and exploit and assault and murder these women.
Speaker 1: He's less Ronnie Alcala, he's less the dating game killer,
Speaker 1: and he's more just this inevitable reality of male toxicity
Speaker 1: and the male threat out there in the world at large.
Speaker 1: And so what we do get to experience that is
Speaker 1: through this women's perspective, the Cheryl Bradshaw character in this
Speaker 1: world of men. She's the struggling actor who's working her
Speaker 1: ass off to break into the industry in Hollywood. She's
Speaker 1: being beaten down by this experience. She's cornered by this
Speaker 1: neighbor played by Pete Holmes, who is practicing scenes with
Speaker 1: her on the side and is also apparently sleeping with
Speaker 1: her on the side as well. And when she's ready
Speaker 1: to throw in the towel and go back to wherever
Speaker 1: she came from, she gets this professional lifeline thrown to
Speaker 1: her from her agent, But it's this bullshit meat market
Speaker 1: show where these douchebag guys make double entendre jokes to
Speaker 1: this woman who's asking them questions, and the whole audience laughs.
Speaker 1: You know, she's facing down this other male trope, the
Speaker 1: controlling and chauvinistic TV host who wants her to do
Speaker 1: things his way. So she's expected to dumb herself down,
Speaker 1: to be silly, to be submissive. In a way, the
Speaker 1: TV show itself exploits her and demeans her long before
Speaker 1: she is put in physical danger put in harm's way
Speaker 1: with Rodney Alcala. It's funny because I watched this film
Speaker 1: for the first time the other day in preparation for this,
Speaker 1: and I watched it the day after I watched David
Speaker 1: Cronenberg's latest film, The Shrouds, for the first time. I
Speaker 1: know you're thinking, what the hell does The Shrouds have
Speaker 1: to do with Woman of the Hour? But hang on,
Speaker 1: I'm going to make my point here in a minute.
Speaker 1: I was really looking forward to The Shrouds, and I
Speaker 1: was only half kind of looking forward to this film
Speaker 1: because I'll admit to some of my bias. I'm a
Speaker 1: proud Mainer, and I'm proud to claim Anna Kendrick as
Speaker 1: one of our own. But I've never really anticipated an
Speaker 1: Anna Kendrick film or role before. And at the same time,
Speaker 1: I'm on this inspired new Cronenberg kick. Cronenberg is a
Speaker 1: huge blind spot for me that I'm trying to rectify.
Speaker 1: And so I'm endeavoring to watch a bunch of Cronenberg films.
Speaker 1: And I started my journey with The Shrouds, because honestly,
Speaker 1: it's streaming on the Criterion channel. And my wife was
Speaker 1: going to watch it with me, and it's easier to
Speaker 1: get her excited about new movies than it is about
Speaker 1: older movies. And I'm even talking about movies from, you know,
Speaker 1: the 80s or the 90s, unless they have some sort
Speaker 1: of nostalgic attachment to them. So we watched The Shrouds,
Speaker 1: and in the end, I was really disappointed with The Shrouds.
Speaker 1: I won't go into detail about that here, because this
Speaker 1: isn't the time or the place for that. I did
Speaker 1: not really like The Shrouds. And then conversely, the thing
Speaker 1: I was less looking forward to, Woman of the Hour,
Speaker 1: I was pleasantly disappointed. surprise to discover that I really,
Speaker 1: really liked it. And I probably liked it even more
Speaker 1: because I was so hesitant going into it. But this
Speaker 1: is a film about game shows and struggling actors. It's
Speaker 1: about drifters and double entendres. It's about eligible bachelors and
Speaker 1: the women who have to ask them dumb questions. And
Speaker 1: it's about a serial killer seen through the eyes of
Speaker 1: his would-be next victim. And we're going to get into
Speaker 1: it right after this. Wyoming, 1977. San Gabriel, 1979. New
Speaker 1: York City, 1971. The LA Times, 1977. These are all
Speaker 1: the places and times that Woman of the Year bounces
Speaker 1: between while always coming back to Hollywood and the San
Speaker 1: Fernando Valley in 1978, the year that Rodney Alcala appeared
Speaker 1: as a contestant on The Dating Game. Anna Kendrick pulls
Speaker 1: no punches here. We open on this grand vista out
Speaker 1: west in Wyoming, a mythic slice of Americana, some John
Speaker 1: Ford coated shit. And then we see this guy, the
Speaker 1: guy we know to be Rodney Alcala, if we know
Speaker 1: the story, and he's taking photos of a girl. And
Speaker 1: we're seeing what he's seeing through the camera's viewfinder, the
Speaker 1: male gaze, as it were. Rodney Alcala is played by
Speaker 1: Daniel Zavado, who's been in It Follows and The Pope's Exorcist.
Speaker 1: and a bunch of other stuff. He's in the upcoming
Speaker 1: Paul Schrader film, The Basics of Philosophy. Here, he's throwing
Speaker 1: off some major Vincent D'Onofrio vibes, like a young Vincent
Speaker 1: D'Onofrio with really long hair. Or maybe even better, he's
Speaker 1: rocking a War on Drugs look. He looks like the
Speaker 1: guy from the War on Drugs, Adam, the lead singer
Speaker 1: of that band. But anyways, when at last the Alcala
Speaker 1: character does the inevitable... You know, when at last he's
Speaker 1: done with this ruse of picture taking and it's time
Speaker 1: for him to go after the girl and he grabs
Speaker 1: at her neck and she backs away in a horror.
Speaker 1: When she runs and he gives chase, Kendrick cuts to
Speaker 1: the interior of the car that's parked there and we
Speaker 1: watch this unfold through an open window of the vehicle
Speaker 1: from a distance, but not for long because quickly we're
Speaker 1: right in the brutality of this attack. We go from
Speaker 1: this distance to being incredibly uncomfortably up close, you know,
Speaker 1: Alcala's strangling her. And at some point it appears that
Speaker 1: the girl is dead only for Alcala to give her
Speaker 1: mouth to mouth to resuscitate her so that he can
Speaker 1: essentially kill her again. It is brutal. And then there's
Speaker 1: a hard cut from this girl screaming out in the
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere as this killer squeezes the life from
Speaker 1: her to Anna Kendrick as Cheryl Bradshaw auditioning for some
Speaker 1: role in this very funny scene with these ridiculous and
Speaker 1: aloof producers or talent agents or whoever they are. And
Speaker 1: the juxtaposition of this intense scene of fear and violence
Speaker 1: to one of uncomfortable comedy is really something. Because this
Speaker 1: film could have easily been all about violence and it
Speaker 1: could have been all seriousness, no levity at all. But
Speaker 1: there is something about reminding us that this story takes
Speaker 1: place in this absurd world of auditions and casting and
Speaker 1: dreams squashed daily. This world in which, you know, for
Speaker 1: an actor, your every move and every word is already
Speaker 1: being scrutinized and evaluated. There's already this dehumanizing element there
Speaker 1: in place. So as we bounce back and forth in time,
Speaker 1: as Cheryl's arc moves forward, you know, as she gets
Speaker 1: the spot in the dating game and as she prepares
Speaker 1: and we get closer to go time, and then even
Speaker 1: when we get to the live taping of the show,
Speaker 1: we're being shown these other scenes from the past and
Speaker 1: the future of Alcala preying on other women. There's a
Speaker 1: drifter outside a laundromat. There's a young woman who needs
Speaker 1: help moving her stuff into her apartment. And at some point,
Speaker 1: a woman there in the studio audience panics when she
Speaker 1: realizes that she recognizes Rodney Alcala from somewhere. This woman,
Speaker 1: a character named Laura, played by Nicolette Robinson, remembers Alcala
Speaker 1: as this random stranger who was with one of her
Speaker 1: friends shortly before that friend was sexually assaulted and murdered.
Speaker 1: And so she's freaking out and wants to inform someone.
Speaker 1: And when she leaves the audience to go find somebody
Speaker 1: to tell, the security guard there says that he'll help
Speaker 1: her and we'll get one of the producers to come
Speaker 1: talk to her. So he just leaves her like in
Speaker 1: this waiting room to wait. Now, look, this Laura character
Speaker 1: is fictional. There was no one named Laura in the
Speaker 1: crowd that day who clocked Rodney Alcala. There was nobody
Speaker 1: who clocked Rodney Alcala, period.
Speaker 2: In reality.
Speaker 1: I'll call him merely made people severely uncomfortable. Like people
Speaker 1: sort of like after the fact were like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that dude was a creep. Like the other bachelors there
Speaker 1: in the green room before they taped the show or
Speaker 1: weirded out, you know, Cheryl was skeezed out by him
Speaker 1: after the show. But Laura is clearly written in here,
Speaker 1: not only for some dramatic stakes, but also because we
Speaker 1: come to find out that the security guard didn't go
Speaker 1: to get a producer to come talk to her, but
Speaker 1: instead He just gave her the name of a janitor.
Speaker 1: So he basically just like, you know, blew her off.
Speaker 1: It's this whole believe women, you know, believe victim thing
Speaker 1: that clearly was not being adhered to in 1978, right?
Speaker 1: And what this does is it nicely dovetails with what's
Speaker 1: happening with Cheryl, who is being told in no uncertain
Speaker 1: terms by the show's host, Ed Burke, played by the
Speaker 1: great Tony Hale. To not worry about appearing to be smart,
Speaker 1: that she just needs to smile and laugh at the
Speaker 1: guy's dumb jokes and ask the dumb questions that are
Speaker 1: written on the cards. But, I mean, the questions are dumb.
Speaker 1: There are these male fantasies, you know, intended to make
Speaker 1: these female contestants look subservient. And, you know, as the
Speaker 1: dude says about porn czar Jackie Trehorn to treat objects
Speaker 1: as women, man. And during a break and shooting, when
Speaker 1: Cheryl is complaining to some of the female staff about
Speaker 1: having to read Ed's questions, one of the makeup women says,
Speaker 1: fuck Ed, do what you want, be yourself. So on
Speaker 1: the one hand, you've got Cheryl here rewriting the rules,
Speaker 1: taking control, matching and then overpowering the bachelor's mental prowess,
Speaker 1: a woman who is wielding some power, while simultaneously Laura
Speaker 1: is not being taken seriously. She's a woman without power.
Speaker 1: So over on our Patreon, disgracely on all access on Patreon,
Speaker 1: one of our members over there, Davina, commented, I am
Speaker 1: glad that you will be covering Woman of the Hour
Speaker 1: on Friday. There is a scene in this movie, the
Speaker 1: part where they're in the lonely parking lot after going
Speaker 1: out for drinks, the uneasiness of that scene as a woman.
Speaker 1: I have felt that discomfort before, and I find that
Speaker 1: feeling more terrifying than any slasher film. It just feels
Speaker 1: too real. The scene that Davina is talking about here
Speaker 1: is towards the end of the movie. Rodney Alcala has
Speaker 1: been chosen by Cheryl as the bachelor she's going to
Speaker 1: take on this all-expenses-paid weekend trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea. You know,
Speaker 1: Rodney has successfully charmed or at least duped her. And
Speaker 1: they run into each other outside the TV studio and
Speaker 1: they go to grab a drink. And it's there that
Speaker 1: Cheryl starts to get an uneasy feeling about him. And
Speaker 1: this uneasy feeling begins to grow as they leave And
Speaker 1: they go out for drinks. And then they're walking through
Speaker 1: this dark, empty parking lot. It's late. She is lit
Speaker 1: very well. Her entire face is brightly lit. But he
Speaker 1: is mostly in shadows. So right there, that tells you
Speaker 1: everything you need to know. And he's trying to get
Speaker 1: her number. She's trying to casually give him the slip.
Speaker 1: And at some point, she's like, I'm not going on
Speaker 1: this trip with you. I'm not going anywhere with you.
Speaker 1: So then she starts to walk away and the camera
Speaker 1: follows her, walks with her. She's shot from the side.
Speaker 1: So she's walking through this parking lot and the camera's
Speaker 1: at a good distance, right? So as she's moving away,
Speaker 1: he falls out of the frame. But then as she
Speaker 1: keeps walking, suddenly he appears. Now he's walking. He comes
Speaker 1: in from the right. He's up in the top right
Speaker 1: of the frame and she's like more towards the bottom left, right?
Speaker 1: He's further back in the distance, but he's clearly tailing
Speaker 1: her and her breathing escalates And again, you know, this
Speaker 1: is from her POV. So you hear her more than
Speaker 1: you hear him. So you hear her breathing, you hear
Speaker 1: her anxiety. Then the camera cuts to a tighter shot
Speaker 1: of the two of them walking with Kendrick in the
Speaker 1: foreground and Zavada in the background. And this is what
Speaker 1: Davina was talking about over on Patreon. It's this real
Speaker 1: moment of terror that I'm sure every woman watching this
Speaker 1: movie can relate to. And if a dude made this movie,
Speaker 1: I'm not convinced that you would get this scene this way.
Speaker 1: I think there would be more emphasis on the Alcala character,
Speaker 1: whereas here, as Kendrick shoots it, Alcala is more of
Speaker 1: this specter that's haunting her from the shadows. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's more than Rodney Alcala. He's every single creep who
Speaker 1: has ever haunted her from the shadows, who's ever followed
Speaker 1: her through a parking lot, right? It's a great film. Again,
Speaker 1: I was pleasantly, pleasantly surprised. I really, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: I think Anna Kendrick is a super talented filmmaker. And
Speaker 1: I'm psyched to see what comes next from her. What's
Speaker 1: next for us is, of course, throwing together a imaginary
Speaker 1: old school cassette mixtape. If we were to make a
Speaker 1: mixtape right after watching this movie, and we made a
Speaker 1: mixtape that was inspired by this movie. Let's do that,
Speaker 1: shall we? We're going to do that right after this break.
Speaker 1: So don't go anywhere. Hey gang, Dr. Lundy hanging out
Speaker 1: with you here in the screening room in Hollywood land,
Speaker 1: and it's time to make a hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially
Speaker 1: possible mixtape based on the 2024 film Woman of the Year.
Speaker 1: I just got to say this. I saw a comment
Speaker 1: the other day. It may have been on Spotify somewhere.
Speaker 1: Someone was complaining about how there's too much music in
Speaker 1: Music Conversation in Hollywoodland, which should be a show about movies,
Speaker 1: I guess. And just as a reminder, I mean, y'all
Speaker 1: know this, but here at Double Elvis, we kind of
Speaker 1: view the world through the lens of music. Our flagship
Speaker 1: show is Disgraceland, which is all about musicians and getting
Speaker 1: away with murder and behaving very badly. And so here
Speaker 1: at Hollywoodland2, yes, this show is about Hollywood and true crime,
Speaker 1: but we always have music top of mind. That's why
Speaker 1: our video podcast on Patreon, this film should be played loud,
Speaker 1: is this juxtaposition of music and movies. It's kind of
Speaker 1: our sweet spot. And so while it's not the focus
Speaker 1: focus here of Hollywoodland, I do like to spend a
Speaker 1: little bit of time here in the screening room each week,
Speaker 1: and also in the wrap party when Jake joins me
Speaker 1: for recommendations, finding a way to talk about music and
Speaker 1: movies and true crime, okay? So that's what we're doing
Speaker 1: here in this section with this hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially
Speaker 1: possible mixtape. First song I thought of is this killer
Speaker 1: song from 1965 called The Game of Love by Wayne
Speaker 1: Fontana and the Mindbenders. I believe it was from their
Speaker 1: album of the same name. I will admit the lyrics
Speaker 1: to this song are a little old-fashioned now. They're a
Speaker 1: little dated, you know, lyrics like, the purpose of a
Speaker 1: man is to love a woman, and the purpose of
Speaker 1: a woman is to love a man. But I love
Speaker 1: this song. It's got this, like, it's got a great groove, and,
Speaker 1: you know, all these, like, lower-tier, quote-unquote, British Invasion bands,
Speaker 1: you know, so to speak, the ones that, you know,
Speaker 1: that didn't become super famous, are so great. These guys
Speaker 1: were from Manchester. I heard this song for the first
Speaker 1: time on the soundtrack to Good Morning Vietnam, which has
Speaker 1: long been one of my favorite soundtracks, one of the
Speaker 1: first albums I ever bought with my own money on vinyl.
Speaker 1: I still have my copy, actually. It's got a couple
Speaker 1: more of these under-the-radar tunes from the 60s as well,
Speaker 1: like Liar Liar by the Castaways and Five O'Clock World
Speaker 1: by the Vogues. But it's also got these big hits
Speaker 1: by James Brown and Martha Reeves and the Beach Boys,
Speaker 1: and all of it elevated by great snippets of dialogue.
Speaker 1: Robin Williams as the Armed Forces radio DJ, Adrian Cronauer.
Speaker 1: Just a very unique one-of-one soundtrack that, you know, they
Speaker 1: just don't make these kinds of things anymore, and it's great.
Speaker 1: So check out that soundtrack if you don't know it.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if you can stream that on
Speaker 1: Apple and Spotify with copyright stuff. I'm not sure, but
Speaker 1: You can find it on vinyl at your local used
Speaker 1: record store, I'm sure. The Game of Love by Wayne
Speaker 1: Fontana and the Mindbenders. All right, second song here on
Speaker 1: our mixtape. This one's called Games People Play by The Spinners,
Speaker 1: great R & B group. This is from their 1975
Speaker 1: record Pick of the Litter, produced by Tom Bell. This
Speaker 1: is some classic Philly soul with its laid-back groove and
Speaker 1: those luscious strings. This was a crossover hit onto the
Speaker 1: park chart. And it has this decidedly like mid-70s vibe
Speaker 1: to it. The horns, the strings, the like easy listening
Speaker 1: vibe of it all. These chords that are like big
Speaker 1: fluffy duvet covers. You know what I'm talking about, right?
Speaker 1: It's this kind of song that if you don't know it,
Speaker 1: if you don't like know, if you can't, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: games people play, I can sing you this song. If
Speaker 1: you're Gen X like me, this is one of those
Speaker 1: songs that's just kept deep in your bones somewhere. Like
Speaker 1: you live through it. It's part of you. And listening
Speaker 1: to it unlocks things that you've forgotten about for a
Speaker 1: long time. It's one of those kind of songs. Games
Speaker 1: people play, The Spinners, all right? All right, next on here,
Speaker 1: I got to pick something. I mean, this movie involves
Speaker 1: these eligible bachelors on this game show. So we got
Speaker 1: to pick something from Amy Mann's album, Bachelor No. 2,
Speaker 1: her great kiss-off record to the music industry, her greatest
Speaker 1: record period in my mind, a record that was written
Speaker 1: at the same time that she wrote all those incredible
Speaker 1: songs for PTA's Magnolia film. I guess I'll do It
Speaker 1: Takes All Kinds because that opens with the line, as
Speaker 1: we were speaking of the devil, you walked right in.
Speaker 1: There are shades of Burt Bacharach in the melody and
Speaker 1: the chord progression on this song, which is funny because
Speaker 1: she name checks Bacharach in the lyrics. The full title
Speaker 1: of this album, by the way, is Bachelor No. 2
Speaker 1: or The Last Remains of the Dodo. Radiohead would basically
Speaker 1: pull this same move when they left their label and
Speaker 1: and released in Rainbows on their own. That was 2007,
Speaker 1: which was seven years after this record. It was kind
Speaker 1: of a big deal for Amy Mann to sort of
Speaker 1: be like, fuck you to the labels and go her
Speaker 1: own way, which took a lot of balls and was
Speaker 1: pretty dope. There's this new edition of this record that
Speaker 1: came out a couple of years ago that includes all
Speaker 1: the songs from Magnolia as well in the running order,
Speaker 1: like Save Me and Momentum and Build That Wall. I
Speaker 1: love the sequencing of the original albums, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite albums, but those other songs are just so undeniable
Speaker 1: that I think this new edition is kind of the
Speaker 1: definitive edition for this. So It Takes All Kinds by
Speaker 1: Amy Mann from Bachelor No. 2. All right, I think
Speaker 1: we need a murder ballad on here, and so I'm
Speaker 1: going to go with Where the Wild Roses Grow, which
Speaker 1: is by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds off their
Speaker 1: 1996 record Murder Ballads. This one is, of course, Nick
Speaker 1: Cave duetting with Kylie Minogue, maybe just because I didn't
Speaker 1: know enough about Kylie Minogue. But when this came out,
Speaker 1: it was like, this is weird because Kylie Minogue is
Speaker 1: such a, you know, she's a pop singer. And for
Speaker 1: her to do a duet with Nick Cave was just
Speaker 1: kind of left field, I thought, and very, very cool.
Speaker 1: And to that end, this is like, you know, a
Speaker 1: Beauty and the Beast kind of thing, like a Lee
Speaker 1: Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra duet with these like beautiful strings,
Speaker 1: the kind of murder ballad that we talked about in
Speaker 1: our Dolly Parton episode over in Disgraceland, RIP Dolly Parton,
Speaker 1: a man who's murdering a woman because he loves her
Speaker 1: too much, I guess, or he thinks he loves her
Speaker 1: too much and he wants to possess her in some
Speaker 1: fucked up way. And this is the only way he
Speaker 1: thinks he can do it or whatever the fucked up
Speaker 1: psychology is behind this. Now, of course, Ronnie Alcala wasn't
Speaker 1: loving anybody. He wasn't bringing roses to the object of
Speaker 1: his affection for days before committing this act of murder.
Speaker 1: But But I wanted a murder ballad here in the mixtape,
Speaker 1: and I figured this was a good one because it's
Speaker 1: got the male and female voices in it. Where the
Speaker 1: Wild Roses Grow by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Speaker 1: with Kylie Minogue. Okay, next song here. This is a
Speaker 1: song by St. Vincent from her 2009 album Actor, and
Speaker 1: it's called Actor Out of Work because that is Cheryl
Speaker 1: Bradshaw's character. She's an actor out of work. This came
Speaker 1: out before St. Vincent really blew up, and I think
Speaker 1: it was the first St. Vincent album I ever heard.
Speaker 1: I believe I reviewed it for somebody somewhere. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I got the advanced copy from whoever and really fell
Speaker 1: in love with it. I think she said, Annie Clark,
Speaker 1: AKA Sam Vincent, I think she said she was inspired
Speaker 1: by music from Disney movies in part for this one,
Speaker 1: which is fascinating because knowing that now, and you listen
Speaker 1: to this record, it really feels like this strange intersection
Speaker 1: of like Disney Fantasia. And I don't mean the film Fantasia,
Speaker 1: but sort of that idea of like free flowing music.
Speaker 1: musical composition and free-flowing Disney-esque ideas compounded with 90s era
Speaker 1: indie rock, if that makes sense. And I know that
Speaker 1: we've mentioned it here before, but it bears repeating. Here
Speaker 1: at Double Elvis, we've got a connection with St. Vincent.
Speaker 1: We did the show called History Listen over on Audible
Speaker 1: about rock and roll history that is narrated by St. Vincent.
Speaker 1: So if you guys have not heard that, You can
Speaker 1: check that out on Audible. I think Audible may have
Speaker 1: done something with Spotify recently too, so you may be
Speaker 1: able to hear that on Spotify if you subscribe to Spotify.
Speaker 1: But anyways, history, listen, great little show if I do
Speaker 1: say so myself, if you guys have not heard that.
Speaker 1: And Actor Out of Work by St. Vincent is on
Speaker 1: our mixtape. Okay, next song here. Oh yeah, okay. Celluloid
Speaker 1: Heroes by The Kinks. This is from 1972, the Everybody's
Speaker 1: in Showbiz album. Ray Davies of the Kinks has said
Speaker 1: that this is a song about the duality of Hollywood,
Speaker 1: about how success walks hand in hand with failure. People
Speaker 1: who worked and suffered and struggled for fame, as the
Speaker 1: lyric goes. And I know this is only 1972, but
Speaker 1: for me personally, this is where the Kinks start to
Speaker 1: get a little less interesting for me. The album just
Speaker 1: before this, Muswell Hillbillies, is incredible. But for me, the
Speaker 1: real juice is the 60s for the Kinks, specifically the
Speaker 1: streak of face-to-face, something else by the Kinks. The Kinks
Speaker 1: are the Village Green Preservation Society, which is hands down
Speaker 1: on my top five records of all time. And Arthur.
Speaker 1: You can also throw in the Kink Controversy at the
Speaker 1: start of that run, and then Lola versus Power Man,
Speaker 1: and Muswell Hillbillies at the end of the run too.
Speaker 1: But that run is as good as any run from
Speaker 1: Rock History. and it does not get enough love. My
Speaker 1: dad has talked a lot to me about, he went
Speaker 1: and saw the Kinks back in the day in the
Speaker 1: 70s when he was in his early 20s, very early 20s.
Speaker 1: This is before I was born. And they were like
Speaker 1: the oasis of their day in that Ray and Dave
Speaker 1: Davies were at each other's throats all the time. And
Speaker 1: this hatred that they had for each other affected things
Speaker 1: like their ability to show up on time. So dad's
Speaker 1: Talks about how they were like hours late to this gig.
Speaker 1: This gig started like two hours late and everybody was
Speaker 1: pissed off and angry at them. And I think he
Speaker 1: has a hard time enjoying the kinks now to this
Speaker 1: day because of the experience he had at this show.
Speaker 1: Celluloid heroes, of course, choosing this because of, you know, again,
Speaker 1: Cheryl Bradshaw's character as this actor who's struggling in Hollywood
Speaker 1: to make it work and to potentially become one of
Speaker 1: those celluloid heroes, you know? And she ends up becoming
Speaker 1: famous or infamous, I guess, for all the wrong reasons.
Speaker 1: One last thing I want to throw on here, just
Speaker 1: because it's funny, is Get Back by the Beatles, which
Speaker 1: of course is on Let It Be, but I want
Speaker 1: the version from the rooftop concert, the last show the
Speaker 1: Beatles ever played on the rooftop of the Apple offices
Speaker 1: there in London. Because at the very end of that song,
Speaker 1: you can hear John very cheekily say, I'd like to
Speaker 1: say thank you on behalf of the group, and I
Speaker 1: hope we passed the audition. Hearing that for the first
Speaker 1: time as a kid when you were discovering the Beatles
Speaker 1: was so funny because John was just so funny. And again,
Speaker 1: here with the auditions, all the auditions happening in this movie,
Speaker 1: I think it just works. So we're going to throw
Speaker 1: that on the end of the mixtape here. Let me
Speaker 1: know if you guys have any thoughts about songs to
Speaker 1: get this hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical, potentially possible mixtape going. Maybe
Speaker 1: you've got some additions, some songs about TV game shows
Speaker 1: or serial killers or bachelors or struggling actors.
Speaker 2: 617-906-6638.
Speaker 1: Leave me a voicemail. Send me a text. You can
Speaker 1: send me an email at disgracelandpod at gmail.com. And while
Speaker 1: you're doing that, I'm going to take one more quick break,
Speaker 1: but don't go anywhere because I'm going to be back
Speaker 1: in just a moment. Okay, guys, it's just about time
Speaker 1: for me to get out of here to wrap up
Speaker 1: another Screening Room episode of Hollywoodland. Before I go, something
Speaker 1: worth mentioning about this film, Woman of the Hour, that
Speaker 1: I didn't mention yet. Anna Kendrick actually didn't take any
Speaker 1: money for her performance or her direction. She actually donated
Speaker 1: her salary to two charities, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest
Speaker 1: National Network, or RAINN, and also to the National Center
Speaker 1: for for victims of crime, which is very cool. And,
Speaker 1: you know, this film already elevated my appreciation of Anna Kendrick,
Speaker 1: but this selfless and empathetic gesture does so even more.
Speaker 1: And so I am looking forward, I think for the
Speaker 1: first time here, to what's coming down the pike for her.
Speaker 1: She is starring, she's one of the stars in Chris
Speaker 1: Rock's upcoming A24 film, Misty Green, which looks awesome, by
Speaker 1: the way. The trailer looks great. Chris Rock wrote and
Speaker 1: directed that. I'm psyched for that. And then it was
Speaker 1: just announced that she is going to direct again, this
Speaker 1: time an adaptation of the popular novel, The Seven Husbands
Speaker 1: of Evelyn Hugo, which I have not read, but my
Speaker 1: wife just read that, and I know she dug it.
Speaker 1: This will be another film for Netflix, by the way.
Speaker 1: Speaking of films, stuff I've watched recently that I haven't
Speaker 1: talked to you guys about in some capacity already. I
Speaker 1: just watched this new film called Is God Is? Prime, Hulu,
Speaker 1: I forget what, it's on a streaming service, just hit streaming.
Speaker 1: It was originally released in theaters earlier this year. This
Speaker 1: is written and directed by Alicia Harris, who is a
Speaker 1: playwright by trade. This is her first feature film, and
Speaker 1: it's based on a play of the same name, Is
Speaker 1: God Is, from a few years back. It's about these
Speaker 1: two twin sisters, Racine and Anaya, who were horribly disfigured
Speaker 1: as children in a fire by their father. And they
Speaker 1: essentially find out details about this as adults from their mother.
Speaker 1: who was also disfigured as well, and she reveals to
Speaker 1: them that their father had tried to kill her, the mother,
Speaker 1: and in the course of this, you know, set her
Speaker 1: on fire, and the girls were badly burned as well.
Speaker 1: And it's the mother's wish here that the kids, the girls,
Speaker 1: go and avenge, get revenge against their father. So it's
Speaker 1: this road trip film of these two adult twin sisters
Speaker 1: who were going out to get revenge from their horrible father.
Speaker 1: It's really, really good. That sounds very dark, and it
Speaker 1: is a dark film in many ways, but it's also
Speaker 1: very funny. There's this great stuff about the twins, like,
Speaker 1: communicating telepathically with each other and just making sort of
Speaker 1: facial expressions, and there's, like, text on the screen of
Speaker 1: what they're saying to each other, which is really funny.
Speaker 1: And the two performances by the leads, Kara Young and
Speaker 1: Mallory Johnson, are fantastic. It also features Vivica A. Fox,
Speaker 1: Sterling K. Brown, and Janelle Monae. And at times, it
Speaker 1: almost feels like Tarantino-esque in the way that it's shot
Speaker 1: and the way it moves. But it's not derivative in
Speaker 1: that way. It's just a very modern or postmodern kind
Speaker 1: of film and deserves a wider audience. So if you
Speaker 1: haven't seen this, Is God Is? Check it out. It's
Speaker 1: really quite good. All right, let's look into our crystal
Speaker 1: ball here. Coming next week on Monday, our fully scripted
Speaker 1: and sound design episode from the archive on Sharon Tate,
Speaker 1: parts one and two. Actually, both episodes... will be dropping
Speaker 1: in your feed. This is one of those stories that
Speaker 1: sort of looms large over Hollywood history, continues to resonate
Speaker 1: throughout movie history and movie culture. And these just happen
Speaker 1: to be some of my favorite Hollywoodland episodes. And if
Speaker 1: you want to have a really unique experience listening to these,
Speaker 1: it was this experiment that Jake and I did where
Speaker 1: we wrote these crossover episodes that we did with our
Speaker 1: Mama Cass episodes over in Disgraced Land. Jake was writing
Speaker 1: a two-part episode on Mama Cass, the Mamas and the Papas,
Speaker 1: and telling that story through the lens of the Manson murders.
Speaker 1: And so what happened was Jake wrote those episodes, and
Speaker 1: then I read them, and I used basically his outline,
Speaker 1: his template, to write the Sharon Tate episodes. And so
Speaker 1: if you listen to these back-to-back, it's like you're getting
Speaker 1: the same story but from different points of view. And
Speaker 1: there are places where the storytelling overlaps, and then there
Speaker 1: are places where it diverges off into separate streams, and
Speaker 1: then it comes back again. It's very cool. There's nothing
Speaker 1: else like it in our catalog. It's the one and
Speaker 1: only time we've done this. I don't know if we'll
Speaker 1: ever do it again. So check that out when you
Speaker 1: listen to these Sharon Tate episodes. Go search up the
Speaker 1: Mama Cass episodes in Disgraceland and listen to those as well,
Speaker 1: back to back, and let us know what you think.
Speaker 1: And then Friday next week in the screening room, I'm
Speaker 1: going to do a deep dive into the 2019 Quentin
Speaker 1: Tarantino film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio,
Speaker 1: Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie, which tells a story that
Speaker 1: overlaps with the Manson and Sharon Tate story. Speaking of that,
Speaker 1: that film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it was
Speaker 1: just announced earlier this week that the sequel of sorts
Speaker 1: to that, the film that Quentin Tarantino wrote and David
Speaker 1: Fincher directed, and which will be out on Netflix in December,
Speaker 1: has an official title. It's called The Further Misadventures of
Speaker 1: Cliff Booth. They gave us this announcement with a stupid
Speaker 1: little 10-second teaser that has like one shot of Brad
Speaker 1: Pitt driving in his car. So I say Netflix Fincher,
Speaker 1: give us just a little bit more. I know we
Speaker 1: already got that other teaser that ran during the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: but I want a little bit more. Not too much.
Speaker 1: I hate when trailers just show you the whole movie.
Speaker 1: And I've actually stopped watching a lot of trailers for
Speaker 1: new movies because it just drives me fucking crazy. I
Speaker 1: don't want to see the movie. And the other thing
Speaker 1: too here, sorry, I just pulled my soapbox out and
Speaker 1: I just stepped on top of it.
Speaker 2: You know, you go to the movie theater now, and
Speaker 2: you sit down, and, like, before the movie starts, they're like, oh, hey,
Speaker 2: here's a little behind-the-scenes five-minute video we're going to show
Speaker 2: you about the movie you're about to watch, which has
Speaker 2: all this fucking footage from the movie. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: I don't want to fucking see this. Don't show me
Speaker 2: this right now. I want to watch the movie, like,
Speaker 2: with fresh eyes. I don't want to see all this
Speaker 2: shit before I see it.
Speaker 1: Anyways, I'm putting my soapbox away. Sorry, guys. I'm calming down.
Speaker 1: All right. Also... Also, also, also, speaking of good movies
Speaker 1: by great directors, guys, this film should be played loud,
Speaker 1: our video podcast over on Patreon, Disgraceland, all access on Patreon. This,
Speaker 1: of course, is the video podcast co-hosted by yours truly
Speaker 1: and Jake Brennan of Disgraceland. We talk about the great
Speaker 1: music in some of our favorite movies, needle drops, soundtracks, scores, right?
Speaker 1: All of it. Our brand new episode on licorice pizza
Speaker 1: just came out this week, just a few days ago.
Speaker 1: We are currently running a discount for membership that ends
Speaker 1: this Sunday, I think at like 11.59 p.m. Eastern Time.
Speaker 1: It says it right there on Patreon. You can get 20%
Speaker 1: off a monthly or an annual membership at the Sound
Speaker 1: and Fury tier. That's the video tier to watch. This
Speaker 1: film should be played loud. We have numerous tiers. You
Speaker 1: can be a member for free. You can be a
Speaker 1: member for a dollar a month. You can be a
Speaker 1: member for $ 5 a month. The $ 5 a month gives
Speaker 1: you ad-free listening options. The $ 10 tier, which is the
Speaker 1: video tier, gives you, this film should be played loud
Speaker 1: once a month. It also gives you not only the
Speaker 1: exclusive section of the discreet, Land after party every week,
Speaker 1: which I guess the $ 5 tier gives you that as well,
Speaker 1: but the video tier gets you the unedited video version
Speaker 1: of that exclusive section, along with, of course, ad-free listening
Speaker 1: for both shows. And you can help us shape the
Speaker 1: editorial vision of upcoming episodes of Disgraced Land. We actually
Speaker 1: just put a call out there on patreon to our
Speaker 1: sound and fury tier members to try to find a
Speaker 1: time that we can all get together online and talk
Speaker 1: about what artists we're going to cover coming down the
Speaker 1: road all right if you are not a member of
Speaker 1: disgraceland all access and you want to get in on
Speaker 1: this uh licorice pizza this film should be played loud
Speaker 1: action just go to disgracelandpod.com okay i hope you guys
Speaker 1: have a great weekend lined up maybe there's some movies
Speaker 1: in your future i know there's some movies in my
Speaker 1: future and I'll talk to you guys about those next week.
Speaker 1: Give me a holler. Let me know what you saw
Speaker 1: and what you thought of it. 617-906-6638. Perhaps I'll play
Speaker 1: or read your message in the wrap party next week.
Speaker 1: But until then, I'm going to leave you guys here
Speaker 1: with this. This is what America was watching at the
Speaker 1: movies in October 2024, the month that Woman of the
Speaker 1: Hour was released on Netflix. Number one, The Wild Robot,
Speaker 1: directed by Chris Sanders. Number two, Venom, The Last Dance,
Speaker 1: directed by Kelly Marcel. Number three, Joker, Folia Deux, directed
Speaker 1: by Todd Phillips. Number four, Terrifier 3, directed by Damian Leung.
Speaker 1: Number five, Smile 2, directed by Parker Finn. Number six,
Speaker 1: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, directed by Tim Burton. Number seven. Quit talking
Speaker 1: and start mixing.