S2E4 - In Cold Bud w/ Touch of Evil (1958) & Lost Highway (97)

Bob, Cory, Philena and Greg are back for the first time this season! Yes. This is only S2 episode with all the OMFYS co-hosts. Greg hasn't been here since our season premiere, but Cory wasn't around for that one, and the Psychedelic Kaiju ep had no Franklins whatsoever. We did get a little chatty with the joyous reunion and all, and our movies this time gave us a lot of psychological baggage to unpack, so this ep is, um, expansive. However, Cory tells Bob that "people really like long podcasts," so have at enjoy the 88 minute binge. This week we explore criminal justice and murder with two f--d up movies from directors we should have covered a lot sooner. First, we have Orson Welles pulling off the mother of all crane shots in TOUCH OF EVIL, his ACAB masterpiece from 1958--a film so brilliant that even Charlton Heston in brown face can't ruin it. Welles is Hank Quinlin, a grotesque American cop in a sleazy border town who never found a piece of evidence he didn't manufacture. Heston is Vargas, an upstanding Mexican official who clashes with Quinlin when an American businessman is blown to bits by a car bomb that was planted on the Mexican side of the border. The movie is a technical marvel with a banger of a Latin jazz meets rock and roll score by Henry Mancini. And the cast is pretty amazing too, with Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, Joseph Cotten, Akim Tamiroff, Joseph Calleia, and the Queen of Outer Space herself, Zsa Zsa Gabor. Cory gives it the stony seal of approval. Next, we come dangerously close to the 21st Century with David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY (1997). At the time Lynch and Barry Gifford wrote this film, they were both obsessed with the OJ Simpson murder trial and how dissociative fugue allowed The Juice to maintain his breezy demeanor despite his horrible crimes. Lynch takes his exploration of murder, guilt and fugue states to an appropriately absurd level here as Bill Pullman plays a jazz saxophonist who murders his wife, goes to jail, and wakes up as an auto mechanic played by Balthazar Getty. Making things even creepier is the casting of Robert Blake as the movie's "Mystery Man," a few years before he was the defendant in a sensational murder trial of his own. Also starring Patricia Arquette and Robert Loggia in dual roles plus Natasha Gregson Wagner (Natalie Wood's daughter), Gary Busey, Richard Pryor (his last film role), and Marilyn Manson as a porn actor to make things even more problematic. Co-hosts: Bob Calhoun, Philena Franklin, Cory Sklar, and Greg Franklin Theme song: Chaki the Funk Wizard Twitter: OM4YStoners Instagram/Facebook (Meta): oldmoviesforyoungstoners Mastadon: [email protected] Contact: oldmoviesforyoungstoners AT gmail DOT com