Before Eminem created Stan, there was Annie Wilkes. This week on King Me, Paul Sheldon used to write for a living, now he's writing to stay alive. We are talking about misery. There, King Me.
Ooh, ha! What, what, words to the theme song? Under the arm of a withered steamboat? Something like that.
I don't know. This is welcome to King Me, I'm Daggley already. I'm probably wrong. We're talking about...
what? Boop. Nope, that's not my voice. That's not how I enunciate.
We're talking about misery. Oh, baby. Sweet, sweet, sweet misery. Sweet misery.
1990s Misery, directed by Rob Reiner, or second Reiner Join. Yeah, it's thrilling. Starting with James Con and Kathy Bates. Who wrote the damn thing?
Let me tell you. William Golden wrote the screenplay, obviously. It was adapted from the novel by Stephen K. I-N-G.
That's Stephen King. You might know William Golden as the writer of... Pardon Atlantis. Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid.
Chaplin. He's got a best bride. He's on a couple of real strong Reiner pictures. Hey, it's solid stuff.
So you know you're in good hands. Good job, Bill. You know it's crazy. It's the mark of a good writer to me because Stephen King did not write the Sting Play.
Yeah. A Sting Play goes on... A Sting Play goes on for eight hours and there's no climax. Uh...
You're like, I was like shut up, I have to get this. Wait, wait, wait, wait. The moment's gonna go. It's like the mark of a good screenwriter I think.
Stephen King did not write this screenplay, but it feels so Stephen King-ish in the best possible way. Yeah. I enjoyed myself watching this movie. Yeah, I have not had that pleasure in so long.
Yeah. So, okay, have you ever seen this movie before? No, this is your first time. My first time.
It was so good. So, it's great. I don't know what else to say. Do you, uh...
Okay, going into it, did you know anything about the movie? I knew that Kathy Bates hated while your hangers. No, I knew, I knew like the premise I knew there was hobbling. Yeah.
Everyone knows about the hobbling. Yeah. My most, like the most familiarity I had with this was they parodied the whole writing in the wheelchair at the desk on the typewriter on Neon Joe Werewolf Hunter. Okay.
I think John Glaser adults in a miniseries. Yeah. Which was basically, he just wrote romance novels. What was the character's name?
It was like Sunglass's Joe or something called that. It was wonderful. But no, I only knew like the basics of this. And I was really delighted to see that there isn't much more to this movie than the basics of that story.
Yeah. Like it's pretty cut and dry. Yeah. We were talking about it a little bit before recording.
Again, we have to start recording sooner. There's only one story that's really going on. Yeah. There's like the A story and then if you want a B story, it's the detective trying to figure out what happened to James Con's character.
So in case somehow you don't know, I feel like this is pretty seeped into the cultural consciousness. But in case you don't know the set up of this movie, James Con plays a successful writer as one actor does in every scene of the movie. And he's retreating to his writing den in like Colorado or some such shit. Right.
Apparently he always writes in this one cabin. Yeah. It's his ritual. He's made a ton of money writing these trashy romance novels about a character named Misery Chastain.
And while he's on his way to or from the cabin, he writes his first novel that departs from the Misery series. He just finished writing it. Yeah. And kills off Misery at the end of it.
No, no, he actually that book has already been, it's already in published. Oh, yeah. Oh, I thought that's why he managed the Misery series. No, no, he, this happens like over the opening credits basically, but he just finished up his first writing his first book that wasn't Misery related.
Right. So he just killed off the Misery character. That was his last book. It's coming out like now is.
Yeah. What a good bit of dramatic irony to reveal that right at the beginning. Yeah. So then like once he's locked up in this house.
Oh, yeah, the dread is mounting. I'm going to go buy the book. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're going to hate it. You're going to hate it.
Don't read the book. Don't. So yeah, he's coming back from his cabin and crashes his car and is rescued in air quotes by Kathy Bates's character, Annie Wilkes, who is a nurse by trade. Yep.
And then some as we come to find out. She's a nurse with a past which she, this is like, Kathy Bates had been in movies before, but this was like her first. This is a breakout role. Like after this everybody was like, oh, yeah, she and she, she comes corrected.
Yeah, she brings it all to the table. It's great. It's like her, I don't know, her and James Con, like this is the first movie and so long where I felt like the actors were playing off of each other. No, you're right.
Well, yeah, because you have like, like Kathy Bates is so good in this movie, right? Truly. And James Con, he's a veteran actor. He's been in film like the Godfather elf.
He does one, I don't know if he does one thing, but he's got like a thing. No, he's got a thing, but he's also like, he's, he's, he's an actor. He's like, he knows the craft and shit. He's got it down.
Yeah, he can sweat on command as we find out. Yeah, exactly. You're right to see them like sort of play off of each other and some is phenomenal. It's a light.
It really, it's a romp to be sure. So he wakes up after the car accident to the sound of this woman muttering your number one fan over and over again, which is, it's got some like weird 90s reverb on it, which took me out. I was like, oh, no. All right.
Is this what it's going to be? A lot of reverb, the whole movie. Yeah. Luckily, no.
And you find out she's nurse. She's taking care of him. The roads are supposedly closed. Right.
And just until it just hang tight until then. That's our setup. Right. His legs are bad.
His legs are all fucked up. Yeah. They look like a so pro sauna. They're just like, they're just like, yeah, they're just blotchy and shiny and bad.
I have here my notes. Jimmy Khan's games. I was wondering if they were his legs done up or if they were just like fake legs made to look bad. I think I think both.
I think in some shots, it's his legs made up. Probably not his legs in the hobbling shot. Probably those are not him. You can tell.
But it's still very upsetting when it happens. Yeah. There wasn't anything about that hobbling scene that I was like, oh, well, those are clearly fake legs. Like obviously they're fake legs.
Yeah. Just because of the way they react. Right. But you're like, yeah, real leg would do that too.
So I think it's okay to jump ahead to the hobbling because it's the most iconic thing from this movie. Yeah. I mean, we're going to now want to. You want to save it in case no one knows what we're talking about.
Yeah. Well, yeah. Let's save a little bit. Let's do a little bit more.
Let's do a little bit more. Feel like we're all business right now. Yeah. Should we do a goofy voice?
Let me tell you where I'm coming from. Okay. No, I was chewing gum. I didn't swallow it though.
I spit it out. Yeah. If I have to run out of here to throw up, I might do that. And what happens when you're not here and I'm left to the mic by myself?
Probably some bullshit. Probably nothing gets done. If I had to guess, nothing gets done. Yeah.
So I am not feeling great right now. I'm so sorry. Yeah. So right.
So we meet Annie Wilkes and she keeps saying to James Gunn, I'm number one fan. Your legs are all busted up. It's fine. I'm a nurse.
We got this. And there it's really it's just like, this is basically like a whole set is Annie Wilkes house. We do get the sheriff in town and he's sort of like investigating where I'm from. I fucking love his wife.
Oh, yeah. His wife. The two of them together. Oh my God.
This is such a good movie. I know. Sorry. Sorry to cut you off.
No, but you just get the old woman. She they're driving and the wife is driving the car and she reaches her hand over and touches his eye. Are they our county profile? I just want to hear the drop.
You know what? Maybe our county profile. Well, yeah. We have the sheriff and his wife and we have Annie's tippy, the innkeeper.
That's right. But here comes big and then. I wonder how much they pay for it at the college. Right.
Pools. Baseball. There's about fine smell the world. They don't cut the outsiders and they probably won't have a phone either.
Looney looney looney. What is it? What's your water? What's a variety?
Last town report said you were in a rear is in your taxes, Andy. They're just starting. I'll never be lucky. Hell, I married anyone.
Days to me. That's a baby doggy style. I'm a little bit of a kid. I'm a little bit of a kid.
I'm a little bit of a kid. I'm a little bit of a kid. I'm a little bit of a kid. I'm a little bit of a kid.
Hell, I married anyone. Days to me. That's a baby doggy style. Welcome to Towney Profile.
What are their names? Our towney is for this film. Besides Horny and Old. Buster and Virginia.
No last names necessary. Buster, Virginia, Libby. That's it. Yeah.
I guess Libby is like the Towney Supreme because he wields no power. The most powerful Towney wields no power. I should say the most potent. The most Towney per cubic centimeter.
He's dense. He's dense. He's a dense with having a live there. He's a dying star.
Exactly right. Yeah. So we write there. Buster and Virginia.
Buster is our chief of police slash several other things. Yeah. It's a small town. Yeah.
We're many hats. Yeah. There's a scene where James Conne's agent calls him. Like, call her, but call.
Yeah. That's what I say. I love the way they credited her. Yeah.
Special appearance by Laura. That's special. Yeah. Like she was just in the movie.
Lord of the call. Musical. Musical. I don't understand why, like was she retired at this point?
No. Well, maybe. I don't know. That's a good question.
Yeah. Anyway, yeah. It is weird because it didn't have to be Lauren. It didn't.
But I guess because it was, they were like, we better flaunted if she got it. She was in a lot of things. So strange. She's just like working.
She's a journey man actor. I hear she takes all the punctuation out of her script. Yeah. All the greats.
All the great pains of the ass. How old do you think she was in this? The call? Yeah.
Maybe mid 60s? Yeah. I was super into her. Yeah.
Old Bacall. She has that voice. Wonderful voice on that one. Let's do a little bit.
Yeah. Yeah. 66. Sign me up.
Yeah. I'm on board. She's a beautiful woman. Just agreed to double team Lauren.
Yeah. Just high fives. Jesus. How do we take our friendship to the next level?
We go to town. Yeah. We go to town on classic Hollywood starlets. Oh my God.
Yeah. All right, damn. We go to town on the pack. Before the summer to go in high school.
Yeah. We both. Fuck. Silent film, ever stars.
Uh, so, Lauren Bacall is on the phone with, uh, Buster. Yeah. Uh, and yeah, there's just like a real charming moment where she's like, I'm not going to say to the chief of the latest news. Yeah.
Well, you're short of r. Yeah. Well, I'm the chief of police. The deputy and the, uh, well, uh, yeah.
And the, uh, and the, and the. Yeah, and the, yeah. And the aldermen, yeah. Yeah.
Uh, the ombudsman. Yeah. It's a small town. His deputy is actually his wife.
Right. Right. We get that scene where the drive in and she's around the car. She reaches over and touches his leg and he's like, Virginia, when you're in.
Hop off my dick. When you're in this car, you ain't my wife. You're my deputy. And then she's like, well, this deputy just wants to go home and fuck the chief of police.
In so many ways, it's like rolling bed with the chief of police. It's not subtle. It's not. It's just horny old people.
It's very cocoon. Yeah. I'm assuming I've never seen cocoon. They're all horned up, right?
They are horned up, right? All right. Cool, cool, cool. That's great.
You get into it. You're like, why is this movie called Misery? And then you watch these two elderly folks fuck for a few hours. Yeah.
I feel like this is miserable. No, I feel like I would be more into this episode if I just threw up right now. Yeah, you want to go throw up real quick? I think I feel like I should.
I don't know. I don't know. Now that we have any social responsibility, we don't have enough listeners. But I feel like we're sending out a bad message.
You're like, hey, just go make yourself throw up. Are you physically ill? I can't. OK.
All right. I mean, we get to edit this part out. But we shouldn't. No.
Why am I going to edit this part out? All right. We go throw up. Should I?
I don't know what to do. You're scratching. You're breaking out in hives. Yeah.
You ate that much. I didn't. I just don't feel well. Someone's just not sitting well with me.
A bad pork? Maybe. Should we plug the restaurant that you ate at? I usually love that pork over there.
Yeah, Robbie at that pork over there. It's a restaurant out behind a barnyard. I feel like if I laugh too hard right now, I might induce vomiting. Well, luckily I'm your co-host.
So that won't be an issue. I'll just try to be funny. And then you'll smooth sailing. All right.
All right. OK. So we have our two elderly folks in Buster and Virginia. Yes.
All right. Buster's trying to, he gets a call from Lauren McCall. And he's like, well, that's kind of weird. And he just starts like, sort of, it's kind of casual the way he's investigating.
It's like he's not like. He's got a hunch. Yeah, it mostly hunches that he's going on. And he's like, sort of stumbles onto some things, like here and there.
And then the passage from the book. Yeah. At one point he's like, it's weird that we can't find this guy. Let me just say that he's like, I'm not going to do this.
He's like, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do this way. We can't find this guy.
Let me read all of his misery books and see if there's anything mayor. I don't know. And that's kind of his whole storyline. Is he like looking for James Con?
He's just reading eight books. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
That's like going to see a movie about Colombo reading the Harry Potter series. Right. But then you get, so what Kathy Bates is like, that's the juice. She flies off the handle in no time.
No time at all. What's her first malfunction? Her first meltdown is, well, she's there. He's there for a little while, maybe like a week or so.
And she brings up the, like, you know, I saw your leather satchel here. You know, what's in there? That kind of thing. And he's like, it's my new book.
It's my first one without misery or whatever. And he's like, would you? She's like, oh, she asked to read it. And he's like, I have very strict rules.
I only let my publisher read. My publisher and my people. My publisher, my agent and my number one fan. And people that saved my life.
Oh, yeah, yeah. He's real charming. Yeah. Jimmy Con is a, he's a drummer.
And thank God too, because it's going to save his ass later on. So she reads the book. And this, they, I think she's only like 50 or so pages in. This is the manuscript, right?
Yeah, this is the manuscript. Yeah. So she's like 50 pages in and feeding him soup. And he asks what she thinks.
And she's like, not into the language. And here's what I have. Oh, do you have that whole thing? I have, I have, a large chunk of it.
Christing? Do you have Christing in there? Yeah. All right, good.
These are some kids. I was a some kid. Everybody talks like that. They do not?
What do you think I say when I go to the feed store in town? Oh, no, Wally, give me a bag of that every big feed. Ten pounds that bitch like Alcorn. And a bank to my home Mrs.
Bollinger. Here's one big bastard to my check. Give me some of your Christing money. There, look there.
See what you made me go. Wally, give me a ten pound bag of that fucking big feed. Yeah. So that's the first time we got like a glimpse of Annie, like, and I think she immediately walks it back, right?
She's like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, OK.
James comes like, I'll bust it up. All right. So yeah, no, you're right. Like, what do you do?
Yeah, what do you do? And it, I don't know, this Stephen King has come out to say that, like, for, I guess it was a couple of decades before he would talk to anybody about what this story was actually about. And it turns out to be about his substance abuse issues. Really?
And Annie Wilkes is like a physical manifestation of that. That's so interesting, just because of how like, prescient ends up being like the Devin Farochi article, which I feel like we have to touch on at some point. Yeah. But that's so weird that that's what it's about.
Right. Because it's such a good, like, on the nose commentary about what it seems to be about, which is just like a relationship of a fan to the author, the artist, or whatever. Yeah, I think it works in that. It's also like, it's an abusive relationship.
Yeah. It keeps coming up. There's a lot of like, like that scene we just heard, where she starts off like kind of sweet, and then she like, she snaps. But then like she reels it back in.
And then the next like scene or two, she's like super sweet. Super sweet. It's like textbook abuse. Yeah.
Right. Exactly. Right. Right.
You know, you're like, the abuser hits the person, but then they back it up. And they're like, you know, it's really interesting. Because it's like, and so much of her language toward him is like, you know, I love you. Right.
And it's about not sharing him with anyone else. Yeah. So yeah, it's all very, you know, Stephen King in the book, which we won't talk about. No.
But maybe that's what he meant in the book. I feel like Rob Reiner though, in his interpretation, is I think it's much more of an abusive relationship kind of. Definitely, yeah. Which it works so fucking well.
Because like, it's Kathy Bates being the abuser to James Kahn. And like, we've seen James Kahn like in other movies. And he's kind of a badass. He plays like, he plays like, in the guy's mother really well.
Yeah. In the godfather, he's like, he's a tough guy. Yeah. And we don't know who Kathy Bates is.
But we see her. She's like, sure. She's wearing a cross. Yeah.
The first thing you notice on the other. Yeah. She's very like maternal looking, embehaving. Right.
She's a nurse. Yeah. She's maternal by profession. Right.
So for her to be James Kahn's abuser. Yeah. It was like a nice switch up, I think. You know?
It was very empowering to women. Yes, queen. But we get a lot of stuff like that. She swings way too hard and then reels it back in.
Yeah. Oh, and she like, shatters the chair on the wall or whatever. That's a wonderful scene. Yeah.
So we get. So she's not into the new book. And then she actually picks up the latest misery book. And it just came out.
Hot off the presses. They have set aside a copy for her at the general store. Right. And they do every time one of these comes out.
And she's already like, talk about how much she loves the character and how her husband left her. And she read these misery books to sort of like. Yeah. She was working nights at the hospital.
Yeah. And they helped her get through those like lonely times. Yeah. Yeah.
So we know she has like a strong connection here. And we already know that James Kahn has killed off the characters. But nobody else knows that. Yeah.
So she's like, I got a new copy of your book. And we sort of saw her lose it a little bit. And we're like, I don't know what happens to someone. Yeah.
She lost it because someone said Christing Pig or whatever. But yeah. So we can only imagine. There's a countdown running in the corner of the screen to the next Bates meltdown.
Yeah. At this point, James Kahn is he's uneasy in the situation. It's not like he knows. I think it's not like it's not like a super sweet lady.
But I got to play along here. I have no other option. So the scene with the pig. The pig comes in.
That's so funny. Yeah. Oh my god. It's so fucking funny.
I have a clip from that. But I don't know. There's such a strong visual component. Yeah.
And he's such an adorable little pig. He has a really cute pig. He's got a good pig for this movie. And she, the pig walks into the room and sort of hops up on the bed.
He just starts snorting at a wink-a-ink-a-ink. Yeah, yeah. And James Kahn is like, what? What?
What? It is like there's very surreal to just have a pig walk into the room. And Kathy Bates comes in and she's like, oh, this is my pig. Misery.
Sure. And she got the new book and she's reading it and she loves it. Loves it. I've got two chapters left, I believe she says at the end of that scene.
Yeah. And so this is the end of that scene. What's the ceiling that day go painted? It's the scene chapel.
Yeah. That and Misery's child. Those are the only two divine things ever in this world. For the listener that is Kathy Bates.
Yeah. It goes on forever. But it's the director's. It's the only difference.
Yeah. It's more like, yeah. But it's so good. She's really crass.
She's like, what's that day goes name? Yeah. And you're like, oh, Jesus Christ. Yeah.
And your book and the Sistine Chapel are the only two divine things in this world. Only going, going, going. It's loony too. Yeah.
It's so good. Yeah. That scene feels like a fever. Yeah.
Yeah, definitely. So she finishes the book though. And then she comes in. And I just have the beginning of that scene.
OK. You. You dirty bird. How could you?
That's a you dirty bird. Yeah. So she finished the book. And at the end of the book, misery dies in childbirth.
And she is not happy about that. I love the discussion. They have where they have to treat it like a real person. Yeah.
I thought that was really interesting. You killed her. Yeah. And he's like, no people die in childbirth all the time.
No, she just faded away. Yeah. And Kathy Bates loses it. It's really interesting.
She's doing so much like, I don't know, like the switch back and forth. It's like, it's so good. And to sell them both. Yeah.
So effectively. Yeah. Like, you know, everybody knows what Kathy Bates looks like. Not like physically imposing person, but she's fucking scary.
Yes. Oh my god. And they do so much good shit with the lighting and stuff. Yeah.
Is this the scene where he wakes up and she's standing there, right? Yes. Yeah. Oh fuck.
Yeah. Like genuinely scary. Like, you know, it's coming. They're right.
And you're still like, no, no, no, no, no. Don't let me see her cast in that horrible moonlight. Yeah. It's the it's that the lighting is perfect.
It's also like, we're getting like low angles. So it's also the physically she looks like. Yeah, we give her the Hagrid treatment. Yeah.
Yeah. So she's like a little roby Coltrane special. But like, it just adds to like the psychology of like the movie itself, like watching it and experiencing it. It's real good stuff.
It's like, they give her the same camera angles that Sam Jackson gets in whole fiction when he's giving like these e-gill-point-fies. Yeah. Yeah. It's the same just like larger than life looming guide.
Yeah. It's Kathy Bates and Sam Jackson. Two sides of the same fucking coin. Yeah.
Explicit. Oh man. Just kidding. Christing coin.
I'm going to start hanging on to that. But then like, then it switches back again. She keeps you like a pendulum. She keeps you like the next day.
And she comes in with the grill. That's that scene. And she's like, OK, I get it. You know, she's way sweeter now.
But she's like, this book is garbage that you've written. Yeah. She's basically like, I think we both know that you've made a huge mistake. Right.
So she has a grill with the only copy of his manuscripts for the new book. And she's like, you have to burn this. And you have to bring misery back to life. And he's like, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to do that. I don't want to do it again. And you're like, yeah, we kind of glance over it. Not that it's super important in the grand scheme of things since he's being held hostage.
But sort of like the insult to injury is that he kills off misery because he's sick of writing those novels. Right. Like that's the set up of the movie. My next book is for me.
I'm done with the commercial stuff. I'm going to finally get some critical acclaim. He wants to be like a legitimate writer. Not just writing.
Basically trash. Yeah. Yeah. Smarty Victorian romance novels.
Exactly. And right. Right. They're like fodder for abates.
Yeah. Fodder for abates. Mine are still a little bit stripped down. It's just me.
No band. But that scene where she's got the grill, she's got the manuscript, and she starts pouring lighter fluid on it. And he's like, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it.
And then she starts like hosing him down with lighter fluid. Yeah. He's like, all right. Yeah.
Oh, why didn't you say so? Yeah, exactly. And she basically like, exactly. So he eventually, he concedes, and he burns up the book.
And he's not. He's obviously very upset about it. And is that when she gets him the typewriter? Not long thereafter.
Right. I'm trying to remember if there's something in between for them. That might be like, it might be detective stuff. Right.