Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 63. Leonard Maltin

Episode Date: August 10, 2015

Movie fanatics Gilbert and Frank place a call to one of the world's most recognized authorities on cinema -- author, critic and historian Leonard Maltin, who shares his thoughts on everything from the perils of fraternizing with filmmakers to the long-rumored "Curse of the Little Rascals." Also, Leonard remembers Hal Roach and Forrest Ackerman, gushes over Groucho and Jerry Lewis and tells us why "Casablanca" is the "perfect movie." PLUS: "Island of Lost Souls"! Wayne and Shuster! "Famous Monsters of Filmland"! Leonard shares the dais with Uncle Miltie! And "The Man Who Would Be Buckwheat"! If you've got a car and a license, put 'em both to work for you and start earning serious, life-changing money today. Sign up to drive with Uber. Visit http://www.DriveWithUber.com This episode is brought to you by Casper Mattresses. Go to http://Casper.com/GILBERT for 50 dollars towards any mattress This episode is brought to you by the FOSCAM 1 HD 720P Indoor WiFi Security Camera. Go to foscam.us/c1 and use the code GILCAST1 to get $10 off each C1 that you purchase. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Tennessee sounds perfect. Today's episode is purchase by visiting www.casper.com slash Gilbert and using promo code Gilbert. Hey, you like making great money, right? You sound like Chico Marx. Yeah. Hey, you like great money. Hey, boss. Well, well you gotta get the book with horses in it and then you get the book with the writers you're picking a subpar marks brothers

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Then I can make a joke that offends me and fire myself. Absolutely. And cut out the middleman. And that still may happen. Also, I hear they make great money. They do. They do. It's easy to start.

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Yes, yes, exactly. Well, with me, I do them both badly. Yeah, and it's a risk-free trial and return policy. Try sleeping on a Casper for 100 days, you have to decide, with free delivery and painless returns. It's true. They sent us a mattress, we should point out. They were very generous to us, the Casper company. And the mattresses are made in America. Here's the prices.

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Well, you can't do any of those things. No, no. But we're talking to somebody who understands basic technology. Yeah, but like a three-year-old would have to explain it. A three-year-old needs personal security. And they're like small and versatile with a super wide viewing angle. That's true. versatile with a super wide viewing angle that's true with hd 720 as we said 720p video feed resolution um also up to 26 feet of night vision motion detection alerts go right to your phone

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Your purchase will also get you a lifetime support and 30-day money-back guarantee and a one-year warranty on every purchase. It's a great deal. just go to www.foscam.us slash c1 and you'll be linked to the c1 amazon page where you can use the code gilcast that code is g-i-l-c-a-s-t-1 and get ten dollars off each c1 that you buy that's foscam f-o-s-c-a-m dot u-s slash the letter c and the number one foscoscam. Watch what you love anywhere. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast. I'm here with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. Our guest this week is a historian, journalist, author, TV host, and one of the most respected film critics of our time. His books include the Disney films of

Mice and Magic, the great movie Comedians, the best 151 Movies You've Never Seen, and, of course, Leonard Moulton's Movie Guide, a best-selling and invaluable resource since it was published in 1969. His articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Playboy, American Film, TV Guide, and Variety since 1982. He's been the movie reviewer for the long-running show Entertainment Tonight. running show entertainment tonight, please welcome a man who panned both

Problem Child and Problem Child 2, Leonard Moulton! Thank you. Thank you. That is a unique introduction. I've been introduced many times.

But that's the first time that the movie Problem Child has ever entered into the introduction. And rightly so, by the way. So that leads me to my first question. Also, I have to correct you because I did have an incredible 30-year run on Entertainment Tonight, but I'm no longer on Entertainment Tonight. Oh, okay. All right, we'll edit that out. But however, it was while I was working at Entertainment Tonight, but I'm no longer on Entertainment Tonight. Oh, okay. All right, we'll edit that out. But, however, it was while I was working at Entertainment Tonight

that I met a very nice young woman named Debbie Alexander, whose husband, Scott, co-wrote Problem Child. Yes! He's been on the show. And Scott and his partner, Larry, and I have been friends for many years. They're great guys. In spite of my review of Problem Child. Yes.

And so, because of your Problem Child review, that leads us to my first question. Would you please go fuck yourself? Well, you know, herein lies the problem. Yes. And it is a problem. I grew up in the New York area. I was born in Manhattan. I grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Spent most of my adolescence in and around New York and haunting all the revival theaters at the time and the Museum of Modern Art, going to the memorabilia shops, being part of the underground film societies of the day, all of that. And then I, out of the blue, and it really was out of the blue, I got this job as a movie critic on a brand new TV show called Entertainment Tonight. And at first I commuted from New York to L.A. I did that for a year and a half.

And then ultimately I moved out here with my wife and ET moved physically to the Paramount Studio lot. So now not only was I a movie critic living in Hollywood in the midst of the movie industry, I was even at a movie studio. And this caused some occasional problems and conflicts. Not as many as I anticipated. But one of the things I learned early on was that I really couldn't be friendly with people who made movies. I had to keep an arm's length because nobody likes to be criticized. And that includes me. Interesting.

And so you can't be palsy with somebody that you're going to say something negative about. It just doesn't work. Now, you said in an interview when you see someone in a horrible movie and then you meet them the actor or director that there are these things you have to say something right and that there are these things you say when you're meeting someone whose movie you hated well i've collected these phrases gilbert over the years the problem is i never have the nerve to actually use them. But the things that you can say are things like, nobody enjoyed it any more than I did. That's good.

Or, I can't tell you how much I liked it. So because you had to Pam the problem child. There's one that you do with a little punch on the arm. You say, you've done it again. Oh, that's funny. But the truth is, when I run smack into somebody, like after a screening, and I'm staring them in the face, and I know them, and they know me, I get, I thumper, and I get tongue-tied.

And the best that I can come up with is, congratulations on your film. That's funny. and the best that I can come up with is congratulations on your film. That's funny. Now, the truth is making a film is a big deal, right? It is a big deal to get a movie made. So you've made a movie. Congratulations. Now, how they want to interpret it is up to them.

Well, it's like they always say it takes as much work to make a bad movie as a good movie. Sure. Now, here's something. Nothing drives me crazier than when I see a movie that I hate, and then I read all the reviews, and every single reviewer loves it. Have you been in that position a bunch of times where you hated a movie? I've been on both sides of that fence. I've been the only one or seemingly the only one who disliked a movie everybody likes. And conversely, I've been the champion of a film that nobody seems to like. That's happened many times, too. Now, do you remember offhand the films you hated that got great reviews?

Well, hated is too strong a word in this case. But, I mean, for instance, I was not just as a for instance. I didn't like Foxcatcher last year. Foxcatcher left me cold. I could respect it and admire it. Steve Carell certainly did a good job. Everybody in it is good. Mark Ruffalo. I mean, they're all Channing Tatum. They're all good admire it. Steve Carell certainly did a good job. Everybody in it is good. Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum, they're all good in it. It's not the actor's fault. But the

film just didn't play for me. It didn't work for me. And yet it was, of course, very highly praised and an awards contender. And so sometimes, listen, it's just an opinion. As I say over and over again to nobody's open ears, apparently, because no one ever seems to pay attention, it's just an opinion. And, you know, also I wonder wonder about now what has happened now? Like, I remember years ago before the Internet, we had our movie reviewers. Wait a minute. There was a time before the Internet?

Yeah. Believe it or not. Yeah. We had our movie reviewers, our columnists, our writers, and those were the ones you went to. And now every single person in the world is a movie reviewer and a columnist. And a musician and a filmmaker and an artist and a comedian and a voiceover person. It's the age of the amateur. Now, you know, there are a lot of very talented people out there, and some of them, and the line is completely blurred now between amateur and professional.

I don't even know how you determine one from the other in many ways. But you're right. I mean, there used to be people that you relied on in a certain way, and now all bets are off. It's why a lot of my colleagues are losing their jobs. Who did you rely upon, Leonard, yourself in those days? Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, those type of people? Well, I read them.

I tried never to rely on anybody in the sense that I'm not a typical reader. I'm also going to be writing a review and giving my opinion. So I would never read anybody ahead of time. if I'm reading a review it's after I've seen the movie and what I'm looking for is a thoughtful interesting provocative good piece of writing I if it's a film that I didn't quite get maybe the reviewer helps explain it to me or perhaps they illuminate something that I didn't fully understand or they helped me appreciate it more. There are all sorts of things I can derive from a really good review, but I'm not looking for just a thumb up or a thumb down. Sure. And speaking of that situation you just spoke about

where you didn't have the right words or you were looking for something to say, wasn't there a Kevin Costner story? Well, that was one of the most awkward moments of my professional life i got when i was working for et i got a call one day uh hey uh tomorrow afternoon you're going to go see the new kevin costner movie they're having a special uh sneak screening at warner brothers in burbank and you'll see the film at 1 o'clock, and then you'll immediately go to Kevin's office on the lot and interview him.

Okay, fine. The film is called The Postman. I knew nothing about it, which is the way I like to see movies. I don't like to know anything. Yeah, you don't like trailers and all that stuff. No, I don't. I try to avoid them. So, okay, fine.

So I show up at Warner Brothers in their biggest theater, a 500-seat theater on the studio lot. And there's maybe a dozen people scattered around this theater. And I find an isolated spot by myself. And Kevin is introducing the movie. And he waves hello to me and welcomes everybody in and says, I put my heart and soul into this movie. I really hope you like it.

Here it is. Okay, so the movie begins. And it's a big epic scale film, you know, set in the West and all this. And it goes on and on and on and on. I actually got to a point, I mean, this is very, very rare for me, but I think by the third hour, I was actually muttering, audibly muttering to myself.

I was saying, oh, jeez. Oh, please. Oh, jeez. It was pretty excruciating. So now picture this. The film's over now. And I stay and watch the credits. The film isn't over for me

until I've been threatened with civil and criminal prosecution. That's when the film is over, not a moment earlier. I go to the men's room. It had been three hours after all. I go to the men's room and then i walk maybe a hundred yards to an office that kevin costner has on the warner brothers lot where the et crew is

already set up they've got two cameras the lighting is all set and there's kevin hi nice to see you how you doing i sit down now of course, all I'm praying, praying is that he's not going to say, how did you like the movie? Because I've been in this situation before, and many, many, many actors and even filmmakers are smart enough not to ask that question. At that moment, I'm not wearing my critic hat. I'm wearing my interviewer hat, right?

So I'm there to do an interview with him. How'd the movie come about? What was the inspiration? You know, what was it like having to direct yourself? All those things. And in the middle of, and so we're going along and we're having an okay conversation.

And I've interviewed him before and all that so so we're getting along fine and in the middle of it he says and you know he says i you know i like big movies i like big epic movies he's on that he says in my home theater i got posters on the wall for films like ben-hur and how the west was won big movies movies. He says, and that's the kind of thing I was trying to emulate here, and he says, and I hope it worked for you. And I say, in one of my rare moments of inspiration, I say, well, it looked great on that big screen. And he bit.

He said, exactly. Exactly. That's an idea. Nice save. Now, to be fair, I ran into him about six months later. And by this time, of course, the film had been panned and pilloried by everybody. So it's not like I was a maverick opinion. It's a post-apocalyptic drama, right?

I mean, I've never seen it. Yeah, whatever. I've tried to forget it. But he saw me, and he was not unfriendly, and he said, you know, I still like that movie. I said, well, you put a lot into it. I understand that. So he didn't bear a grudge.

Now, I think the last time we were together, unless I'm totally in a daze now, I think it's when they were releasing the Aladdin DVD. It was an Aladdin reunion. Yes. And it was me, some of the other voiceover people, and the animators. Yeah, and John Muster and Ron Clements

and the directors and Eric Goldberg, one of the animators, a lot of those folks. Yes, that was a nice occasion. And because you wrote a book about Disney films. Yes, and another on the history of animated cartoons. Now, most importantly, can you review the parrot in Aladdin? Was it his best work, Leonard?

Gilbert, that's a hell of a parrot. Looked great on the big screen. It it was a very colorful pirate it sure was no well that's the film i like very much and i'm not alone yeah and speaking of cartoons leonard you you grew up you said you grew up here and you watched what we watched you watch channel Channel 11, watching cartoons, Laurel and Hardy, The Stooges. All of that. I had the unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime experience when I was either 12 or 13 years old of going with a friend who was very friendly with him at the time to Chuck McCann's,

one of his live shows one day, his daily show on WNEW at the time, to Chuck McCann's, one of his live shows one day, his daily show on WNEW at the time, and standing there and watched him do Little Orphan Annie and Dick Tracy. Oh, cool. I never laughed so hard in my life. I never laughed so hard in my life. We love Chuck. And the idea that years later I would become friendly with Chuck, who I see all the time, is just mind-blowing.

Sweet guy. And you are a big fan of the Warner Brothers cartoons. Oh, yes, absolutely. And again, I mean, I've just been so, you know, timing is everything. I've been so lucky

to meet so many of my heroes. I mean, people who really helped, well, in the case of those cartoons, shaped my sense of humor, shaped my outlook on life, my sensibilities, not just entertained me, in addition to entertaining me. not just entertain me, in addition to entertaining me, to be able to spend time with all those people. I met Mel Blanc. Oh, wow.

And Chuck Jones and Frizz Freeling and Bob Clampett and so many of the people who made those great cartoons. I've been so, so lucky. And you said as a kid because i remember the same reaction of watching the cartoons and saying oh bugs bunny acts different and looks different and daffy duck uh looks different in this well that was just was just that there was no place to read about that stuff. You know, I was a precocious reader as a kid, and I grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, and I lived within walking distance of the public library,

and I spent an awful lot of time there. And there was one book on Walt Disney, one, a good one by Bob Thomas called The Art of Animation. But there was nothing written about anybody else. And there was no place to read anything about who made these cartoons, when did they make them, why, you know, did they change in certain ways? All of that. And it was only in the 70s that some fanzines, as we used to call them, amateur magazines started coming along and interviewing some of these guys and starting to set the record straight. And that's when I was inspired to try to write something myself.

And then I also started teaching a course on the history of animation at the New School in New York. I remember being freaked out as a kid. The early Bugs Bunny with the extra, extra big buck teeth. Who talked like that? Right. And Elmer Fudd was this roly-poly guy. Oh, yes, yes. With a clown nose.

Yes. All of these things evolved. All the characters evolved. Nobody was hatched, fully formed all at once. I think Bugs Bunny, they basically designed after Groucho Marx, the classic. In part. But that was Chuck Jones' attitude toward Bugs Bunny, they basically designed after Groucho Marx, the classic. In part. But that was Chuck Jones' attitude toward Bugs Bunny. But some of the other writers and directors had a different outlook on Bugs Bunny.

But that's what's so fascinating about those characters is, I used to do this in my class. I would show five or six cartoons, five or six Bugs Bunny cartoons, each by a different director. And he was clearly identifiably Bugs Bunny in each one of those cartoons, and yet he was slightly different in each of those cartoons. That's an amazing thing. Yeah. I guess you fall in love with the one from your childhood, you know, the one you know best. And mine was the Chuck Jones version. Yeah. Now, how come they've they've since then made a million remakes of the Warner Brothers cartoons, whether in feature films or on new series, and they always screw it up?

and they always screw it up. I guess, you know, well, first off, they've got an awfully, they've got a tough act to follow, right? I mean, we're talking about trying to come up to a level of greatness that those guys maintained for decades and that we've all got embedded in our brain oh yeah you know so i mean this is this is very hard to compete with and and he and frankly if we're going to talk candidly even chuck jones in his later years couldn't do it and And I adore Chuck and I respect him no end. But even he had a hard time recreating the same spirit and pace and zip and pizzazz and Chris Freeling, too. And frankly, they

were older men by that time. And I think part of what made those cartoons so great is that in their heyday, the guys who were making them were young. They were young and full of beans and very irreverent, and they were kind of bucking the system. The studio was kind of the establishment, and they were the anti-establishment. Well, it's the old problem with comedy. I mean, you know, you can only be avant-garde for so long. Listen, I remember seeing the Three Stooges make a personal appearance

at the Oratani Theater in Hackensack, New Jersey, when they were promoting the Three Stooges in Orbit. Should I just stop there, or should I go on? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. What year is this, Leonard? That was a Joe Dorita era. Yeah, exactly.

You're talking about the early 60s. You said it without saying it. And I took a lot of heat from some of my friends and classmates for, you're going to do what? You're going to see what? But I was kind of imper going to see what? But I was kind of impervious to those taunts. I was going.

So we're sitting there in a packed theater and an offstage voice who within seconds is recognizable as Mo is announcing them. He says, now, boys and girls, please welcome those three silly billies,

the Three Stooges. And out they come wearing very garish outfits. And we all go nuts because it's the Three Stooges. Yeah. But they're older. They're older men. And of course, it's not Curly. We want it to be Curly.

Now, little do I know, Curly is dead. Now, we don't, you know, this is not something that computes very easily to a kid. Yeah. That Curly is gone. Even Shemp is gone, for crying out loud. And poor Joe Dorita. Talk about tough acts to follow. Exactly.

And so there's Joe, Curly Joe, as they call him, doing the best he can. There's Joe, Curly Joe, as they call them, doing the best he can. And, you know, they're not going to come out and do one of their routines from 1936. You know, they did a little stick and, you know, and some silly stuff back and forth and a little bit of a patter. And it was just neat to see them. But at the same time, it was a little disappointing because we put them on such a pedestal. And they couldn't be those guys anymore. And also with the Stooges, like so many comedians,

when they start slapping each other and punching each other, you're going, oh, my God, it's old men hitting each other. Let's talk about that. They shouldn't do that. That's so sad. Yes. They can get hurt. Yeah, pretty much it's a young man's game when you're talking about that kind of comedy. I mean, there were some who managed to survive it, but it's tough.

I'll tell you, on the other hand, the first time I met Jerry Lewis, when I was a kid, I thought the sun rose and set on Jerry Lewis. Oh, yes. One of the first movies I remember seeing as a kid, I clearly remember seeing in a movie theater, was his first solo movie without Dean Martin, The Delicate Delinquent. Oh, yes.

Which has a great, great opening. Great opening scene where it's a serious opening scene. It's an alleyway and there's going to be a rumble between two gangs of juvenile delinquents. And the music is building and you're cutting back and forth and these two gangs who are looking very menacing and getting closer

and closer to each other. All of a sudden, all of a sudden, in the middle of this alleyway, out from a doorway comes Jerry Lewis knocking over a stack of garbage cans, the loudest garbage cans in movie history, completely disrupting their rumble, of course. That's the Jerry I fell in love with.

And God, I just idolized him. And many, many years later, we used to shoot interviews in a conference room at Entertainment Tonight. And I saw on our call board that Jerry was going to be there doing a quick interview

about something or other. And it was not my shoot and it was not my interview, but I sort of snuck into the room while they were setting up and just went over and shook his hand and introduced myself. And he was very gracious and very nice. And we made small talk for a minute or so and then I excused myself. And that night, I'm not exaggerating, I started shaking that night. I had a physical reaction because, my God, I just met Jerry Lewis.

It was overpowering almost. Well, a couple of years went by, and I had a chance to interview him backstage at Bally's in Las Vegas after he had just done a performance with Sammy Davis Jr. They were working together at the time as a double act. I mean, they each did their own act and they did a little bit of stuff together. So I'm backstage with Jerry and a local camera crew in Vegas that we used that he knew. We did the interview, and he was very serious. He was very nice to me. But during the interview, he was very serious.

I think he felt he knew I was a film critic, and I think he wanted to be sort of the serious filmmaker Jerry Lewis during this interview. He didn't want to fool around. But at the end of it, the camera guy, who was a well-known guy around Vegas, did a lot of different work, had

asked Jerry if he would do a greeting for a testimonial dinner that was coming up for Allen and Rossi. I know you recently interviewed Marty Allen. Oh, yeah. This was going to be a testimonial for Allen and Rossi, and would Jerry do a little

greeting? And he said, sure. So they set the camera, and my wife is with me, and there are a few other people in the dressing room. And Jerry addresses the camera and says, I've been asked to say a few words

on this anniversary for a couple of friends of mine who've been asked to say a few words on this anniversary for a couple of friends of mine who've been in show business a long time, Alan and Rossi. And I've been asked to sum up what I think about Alan and Rossi. And he just stares at the camera. And stares.

And stares. And stares. It gets funnier and funares and stares. It gets funnier and funnier and funnier. He's doing nothing. And then finally he starts falling asleep and snoring.

And we're all covering our mouths muffling our laughs so we don't ruin the take. So funny. So funny.

He could still do that. And I saw him, not one year, he can still do that. He can still do that. I introduced him one time at the, this is years ago, there used to be an annual video dealers convention in Las Vegas. That's when there were video stores. You remember those, Grandma? Video stores?

Oh, God, yes. They used to have an annual convention. All these mom and pop video store owners, I mean, thousands of them would show up. And one year they gave Jerry their, you know, whatever, star of the year award. their, you know, whatever, star of the year award. So, and of course, Jerry did not attend the dinner beforehand because once you put on the tuxedo, you do not sit down. This is old school show business. So he was there, perfectly dressed, perfectly clothed,

standing in the wings with me. And I introduced him. They had a clip reel, which got a big reaction. And then he goes out and he says, I want to thank you all for this wonderful honor. It's great to be here. I appreciate what you guys are doing, keeping my films alive on home video and selling them. And congratulations to the distributor. They're doing a great job.

He says, and you know, he says, when I say it's an honor, I mean it because I've had a lot of great honors in my life. I've performed before heads of state. I performed before royalty in Europe and in Asia. I've met five United States presidents. And he goes on like this, and he's going on. And he's going on, and it's like it's starting to get a little boring and a little kind of like he's kind of self-absorbed

and just going on prattling about all of these people that he's entertained in his life. And just at the moment that you're saying, get on with it, Jerry, he says, and yet, no matter where I go, anywhere in the world, all people really seem to want me to do is to say, waiting! All people really seem to want me to do is to say, waiting. But he says this, he leans into the microphone and says this at like 10,000 decibels. Hilarious. Need I say, the whole place just fell apart.

He absolutely pulverized that audience. That's what he can do. What did you think, though, when he came back with Hardly Working and Smorgasbord? Oh, Smorgasbord. Oh, well, what can you say? What can you say? It's hard. You know, I love him.

I'll always love him. I wish he hadn't made some of those movies. What can I say? But I've also had that same exact feeling. I'll do jokes about Jerry Lewis, about him being too overly serious and self-important and stuff. But when I met him a few times, and every time I meet him, I'm a kid and I'm meeting Jerry Lewis.

That's right. That's right. That's fun. Because he appeals to that in all of us, I think. He always says he's a nine-year-old kid. That's his persona. But I think he turns us into nine-year-old kids. Oh, yeah.

And Gilbert does one of the best Sherry Lewis's in the business. Yeah. I even know I'm on the team with the passion with all Mr. Floydelman. There's a couple episodes of the podcast, Leonard, where you can get about 10, 15 minutes of that in a stretch. Now, not to bring the room down, but since we're talking about Martin and Lewis and you wrote a book about comedy teams, you can see where I'm headed with this. What would you consider the worst comedy team? Oh, that's not fair. Oh, not fair?

We were trying to lead you down a Sammy Petrillo. What would you consider the worst comedy team? Oh, that's not fair. Oh, not fair? Oh! We were trying to lead you down a Sammy Petrillo road. Oh, no, they're not the worst at all. Really? Oh, no. Wow. One of my all-time favorite movies is Bela Lugosi meets the Brooklyn Gorillas. I love that movie.

It's a freakish film. It's so strange. It's almost beyond description, that movie. It's almost beyond description. You go, he looks and sounds exactly like Jerry Lewis, but something is wrong. And you knew that even when you were six. Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. Yeah, yeah.

Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. Oh, yeah, yeah. Now, how come that, like, for years there were comedy teams, and now there are no comedy teams? Well, I think because that era we're talking about was sort of a hangover from vaudeville. From vaudeville, and the last gasp of vaudeville was, that moved into nightclubs of course the nightclub era in the 40s and 50s and uh and what they used to call the presentation houses the movie theaters that still had five six live acts especially in big

cities like new york and and then that Larry Gelbart, the late great comedy writer, had one of my favorite quotes of all time. He said, when vaudeville died, television is the box they buried it in. Wow. And it's true. And so I grew up, as you guys did, watching the Ed Sullivan show and the Dean Martin show and the Perry Como show and the Dinah Shore show and the Hollywood Palace and all of these shows that were trotting out

the last surviving vaudevillians and the people who came out of that era. There were so many comedy duos. I mean, in Alan and Rossi, there was Rowan and Martin. Oh, yeah, and Noonan and Marshall. Noonan and Marshall, we just talked about, yeah. And a little later generation, Patchett and Tarsus. Remember them? Burns and Schreiber.

Oh, yeah, I love Burns and Schreiber. And what I remember about shows like It's Sullivan, it was like maybe as a kid you wanted to see the comedian or the rock group, and you were forced to experience other forms of showbiz. Well, exactly, you know, and that's what's missing today, you know, in this world of specialization and narrow casting and all that. Now, mind you, at the time, I don't think we appreciated that we had to sit to Roberta Peters doing an aria from Puccini in order to get to Senor Wentz. Yeah, or Myron Cohen.

Exactly. But we did. So at least you could say, well, I know what opera is. Yes. I may not like it, but I've heard it. But I've heard it. And the same with all the other kinds, not to mention the animal acts and the acrobats and the jugglers and whoever else. Or they would have. Oh, and let us not forget Wayne and Schuster.

Oh, Wayne and Schuster. Oh, my God. That's right. Who I think made more appearances than anybody on the Ed Sullivan. And I remember they would sometimes have actors doing dramatic monologues. Yes, yes. The the works you name it that really was vaudeville but it's like you you you were better off uh having seen all those other people yes now as i say we didn't always feel that way at the time well we were impatient you know to

get to the stuff we wanted to see. To get to the Marky Chimps. Yeah, exactly. You go back and you look at the Beatle episode, and you've got Frank Gorshin's on there. Oh, yeah. And Mitzi Gaynor and her dancing boys. Mitzi McCall and Charlie Brill, I think, are on that episode.

And Jack Wilde, was it Jack? It was Davy Jones and a live production of oliver oh yeah i mean so so much variety and i have to get to this is something i don't know if it's all urban legend or what's true i've always you always hear it that the little rascals always wound up, each one, a horrible end. No. No, that's easy exploitation hype, and it comes up at least once a year on one of the tabloid-type shows, The Curse of the Little Rascals or something like that.

And for every one of these unhappy stories, like Carl Schweitzer, Alfalfa, you know, who died by gunshot and who had a kind of a, kind of a miserable life right from the start. He had a, came from a bad, had a bad family background. You know, nothing good to say about, about his, his, his young life, sorry to say, except that he was wonderful in those movies. And he had a little bit of a career afterwards, but not a lot. Well, he turns up and it's a wonderful life.

Right, exactly. And Frank Capra used him and William Wellman used him several times. But so he came to a sorry end. But the kid who played Buckwheat, Billy Thomas, he just got out of show business and had a normal life and and lived to a decent age and i heard you know spanky mcfarland who i got to know a little bit uh he tried to stay in show business i had had his ups and downs but he married a wonderful woman they stayed married for many years. They were very happy.

He had a bit of a revival, you know, during the nostalgia wave of the 70s and used to tour college campuses and did lectures and did the nostalgia conventions. And so, you know, he derived some latter-day satisfaction from being spanky and made a few bucks at it, too. And, you know, Dickie Moore is still alive. Still with us. He's not well right now, but he's still alive. You know, there are a number of others who turned out okay.

The Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast producer of the month for August is Kate Jones. Thank you, Kate. Be just like Kate and get rewarded for supporting our podcast. head over to patreon.com slash Gilbert Gottfried. For a small amount each month, you can get some colossal benefits, such as access to new podcast episodes before anyone else, exclusive video hangouts, shoutouts from me on Twitter. I will even read something that you send me and it'll sound just like this. Go to patreon.com slash Gilbert Gottfried. dot com slash Gilbert Gottfried that's Patreon P-A-T-R E-O-N

dot com slash Gilbert Gottfried. We thank you for your generosity. Now our mutual friend Drew Friedman, Leonard, said you've got to ask Leonard, and this was news to me, there were apparently fake little rascals?

Oh, yes. Gilbert and I were endlessly amused by the thought of a fake buckwheat. I have a bulging clipping file of people who could, uh... of of people what what it would usually start with convincing a local reporter and uh... this is you know this is one newspaper who will more active and vital than they are today before the internet they'd convince somebody

be at a local reporter be at somebody in a nursing home you know uh... family member who then reported upon their death that they were the original Stinky in The Little Rascal, or this was my uncle was the original Freckles in the R-Gang comedy. And I can't tell you how many phone calls I fielded over the years from the New York Post and from the Associated Press and all sorts of people asking if this was true. And, of course, if you would say no, I mean, the reporter was happy to accept the no, but sometimes the people or the families weren't.

And the weirdest thing I ever had happen was I helped host a nostalgia convention in the, let's see, about 1980 in New York at the old Commodore Hotel, now long gone, on 42nd Street near Grand Central. I remember the Commodore. They had early Comic-Cons there. That's right, exactly. Well, they had a lot of conventions there. Clayton Moore was at that convention, and Spanky was at that convention. So I was interviewing Spanky on stage, and as I'm interviewing him, in the middle, and they have a pretty good turnout, and in the middle of the conversation, a guy walks up the aisle and calls out, hey, Spanky. Now, I can't remember what he said at the time, but he said, Hey, Spanky, it's Freckles. Remember me? And Spanky, who'd been through this before, said,

Hey, how you doing? And that seemed to satisfy the guy, and he didn't interrupt any further. You know, it was some guy. The worst, though, was that one night on ABC 2020, they actually did a profile of a guy in Phoenix, Arizona, who was bagging groceries at a local supermarket who said he was buckwheat. And how this got on a national news television show. I'll never know. And, in fact, somebody got fired over this, and rightly so, because there's some reason to believe that before it went on the air, someone found out that it wasn't true, and they ran with the story anyway. And he was not.

And the thing about the Rascals is that by this time, by the time Dick Bannon and I wrote our book on the Little Rascals, it was we identified the actual names of every single member of that troop over the years, from the silent movie era right to the end of the 1940s. So there's no question who Darla Hood was. It was a young woman named Darla Hood. So the fact that 17 different people said I was the original Darla Hood was. It was a young woman named Darla Hood. So the fact that 17 different people said, I was the original Darla. Sorry. Yeah. You're wrong. There's only one. And her name was Darla

Hood or that I was the original Buckwheat. No, Buckwheat's name was William Thomas, Billy Thomas. He's the only guy who was ever Buckwheat. So it was not hard to prove these things, and yet people were all too willing to accept. Because, again, what you just said, Frank, early on, and Gilbert, who would do that? Who would pretend to be a little rascal? That's perversely funny. I mean, I remember a story about somebody impersonating Dennis DeYoung,

who was the singer in the band Styx. I can see pretending to be a rock star, but pretending to be Buckwheat is bizarre. Or a descendant of Alexander Hamilton or Thomas Jefferson. I've done that. Now, you wrote about the Island of Lost Souls. Yeah. I remember. And it's like, because I just recommended that film.

We do a mini episode on Thursdays now, Leonard, where we just dust off films that we like. Oh, well, the newest DVD release from Criterion is so fantastic. The quality of the – it's never looked this good. They pieced together this print from like four different sources. And it's more complete than it's ever been. And it looks breathtakingly beautiful. And it's such a creepy movie. What a creepy film.

It's so funny. And every attempt to remake it, most famously the Brando one, has failed so miserably. And that is like, it is a nightmarish film. Oh, yes. It's a spooky film. I mean, once you see it, you'll never forget it. And it was photographed by one of the greatest cameramen

in the history of Hollywood, a man named Carl Struess, who was a master of lighting. And there's a scene with Charles Lawton where it's almost completely dark, and all you see is Lawton lighting a cigarette, and the tip of the cigarette just barely illuminates his face, ever so slightly. Oh, it's just, it's incredible.

And all the views of the monsters are very quick. Yes. And it's like, it's not like later on, it was like, hey, look at the great makeup we have. Well, the Burt Lancaster one's not very good either. No, that one, I remember the ads. Michael York in that, I think. lancaster one's not very good no that one i remember the york and that i think the ads for the burt lancaster one were just a poster showing all of the monsters right and the brand you know you know marion c cooper the the the genius behind king kong uh said he he always subscribed to the

theory he called the three d's when it came to a monster or something like King Kong. I think I'm getting this right. Keep it dark, distant, and dangerous. In other words, don't reveal. Don't show it in close-up. Don't dwell on it. Keep it as mysterious and as obscure as you can, and that maintains that aura, that mystique. Well, like what was famous and what was ultimately successful about Jaws.

I was just going to say the same thing, the first Jaws. The shark didn't work, and it looked goofy on screen, so Spielberg was forced to make the ocean the villain. And it was like there was something underneath the ocean. Keep him off screen. Yeah, and that scared you. It's the anticipation that builds the suspense. And that makes it so compelling and so exciting. Speaking of the rascals, Leonard, we have to ask you about a favorite of Gilbert's and mine.

And forgive me if I don't have my facts right. The kid from Borneo was taken out of circulation? Yum, yum, eat him up. Was that one that was edited heavily or taken out of circulation? Well, what happened was the company that owned the distribution, the TV rights to the package of the Little Rascals. It was in circulation for years. We all grew up watching them every day on television. that either stimulated by some complaints or maybe by just wanting to dodge some possible complaints from viewers or from TV stations

who might not want to renew their rights to the package. They decided to edit the films. They pulled, I think, about a half dozen titles out of the package completely, including The Kid from Borneo, and also the one with Step and Fetch it in it. Oh, yeah. You know, and so they took some of them out completely

because they felt they were just too... And then others, they edited. They cut scenes, they cut lines of dialogue, and they didn't do it gracefully. They used a meat cleaver. It was, you know, not done with any kind of subtlety. And this was, I mean, this was a well-meaning attempt to keep the films alive without showing something that could be offensive.

And let's face it, some of that stuff, you know, is, I mean, if anything is politically incorrect, it's some of that material. Well, it's of its time. It's, you know, but the difference here is that it's being shown to kids. Right. So I understand it. I understand the motivation behind it. And I understand why they wanted to do that. But then later on, in later years, when people wanted to do stuff with the films and try to put them in the right context and show them in a proper way and present them responsibly and explain

what was going on and warn parents and all of that, they still didn't want to let them go. They still didn't want them to be shown. So it's remained a hot potato ever since. I see. I tell you, the kid from Borneo, when you're a kid, is one of the strangest things you've ever seen in your life. Very weird.

And doesn't he end up getting shot in the ass with a Roman candle? Oh, yeah. I remember the ending of it. What? Subtle they weren't. Say that again, Leonard. I said subtle they weren't. Subtle they weren't. But you know, the thing is, this may seem out of context, but I hope it isn't. Years ago, when I was talking to Chuck Jones, the great animator and cartoon director, he used to take some heat at one time over the violence in the Roadrunner cartoons.

And CBS used to run the Warner Brothers cartoons on Saturday mornings for like 20 years. You know, they were hugely popular, but they started editing them. They would cut out all gunshots. They would cut out all explosions, anything that was seen to be violent. And Chuck Jones used to say when people would say, you know, what do you think about the accusations of violence in your cartoons? He turned to someone like me, he said, well, you grew up watching them. Did you turn out to be an ex-murderer?

You know, and of course, you know, the answer was no. You know, I mean, when I was a kid, the apocryphal story when I was growing up was always, I grew up watching the Adventures of Superman with George Reeves. Oh, and that every kid, yeah. Every kid was told the same thing. You know, some kid put a blanket over his shoulders and jumped off a roof because he thought he could fly like Superman. My mom told me that, you know, well, you know, you cannot protect everybody from everything and you cannot protect people who are who don't get it or who are perhaps, you know, mentally impaired, you know, from from taking the wrong message from something that has no no intention of sending a wrong message. Well, it's just like when they accuse models and actresses,

like, well, this is the reason there's anorexia, and girls are starving themselves because of you, and you figure, no, that's a disorder. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Now, before we... We're totally going down a fun path of conversation here. that's a disorder yeah yeah exactly now before we we're going down a fun path of conversation here well

now we get to we need a Henny Youngman segue here or an Artie Johnson falling off a tricycle sound effect now okay well that leads me into my next thing. Because there has to be a Milton Berle reference in each of my podcasts.

Oh, certainly. Did you ever see Milton Berle's dick? No. There's a more interesting path, Leonard. No. But I did have the pleasure and honor of being on a dais for a friar's dinner out here in Los Angeles honoring Hal Roach. Oh, great. And Milton was the toastmaster.

Yes. And I was very flattered to be one of the guest speakers. And it was quite a night i mean you know i this is this is something you do all the time gilbert but it was a real novelty in fact a unique situation for me i got called by a guy one day at entertainment tonight asking if i'd be willing to to participate i said absolutely i said who else have you got on the panel? And he said, I think we have Ricky Lane and Velville. They just came up on the show. And he named some other people.

I said, well, do you have anybody who has anything to do with Hal Roach? He said, like who? I said, like Jackie Cooper, maybe. He said, oh, that's a great idea. So he booked Jackie Cooper, who, of course, had been in our gang. Of course. And who was happy to come in and be part of the evening.

And they got a few other people like that, too. So it was a wild, wild night. And Milton was using file cards at the time as his kind of, you know, close up cue cards. And, uh,

and he was great. He was just great. And one of the highest compliments I ever had, I think was I had a few notes on cards and I made, I, I was not there to be a comedian notes on cards, and I was not there to be a comedian. I certainly wasn't going to compete with professional comics.

Although I did say that the dais looked a little like the green room for the Joe Franklin show. Which you were once on. But at one point I said something or other, and Milton reached up and took my file card.

Like he was going to save it and use it at another time. That is flattering. He was just great. He was great. Years ago, Steve Allen wrote a great book back in the 50s called The Funny Men, which is still a wonderful book about comedy and comedians. And he said nobody could ever beat Milton in a cutting contest because while comedian A would be trying to think of something funny to say, Milton would be remembering something funny he already said 20 years ago. And it was true.

One night, my dad was visiting from New Jersey, and my dad's brother, my late, late uncle, who died when I was just an infant, had been a pianist and songwriter who had had some modest success, never big, big success, but he had some songs that got performed by some fairly famous people, and he wrote a song with Milton Berle in the 1930s.

So one night while my dad was visiting, I was going to do pledge breaks for the local PBS station here in Los Angeles, and I knew that Milton was also going to be on that night. So I brought my dad along because I thought he'd enjoy meeting Milton. And Milton, who had a steel trap mind and remembered everything and everybody, gave me a big hello and was very friendly to my dad. And my father said, you won't remember this, but many, many years ago, he wrote a song with my brother. He said, what was your brother's name? He said, Bernard

Malton. And in a nanosecond, Milton said, Bernie? This is like a 40-year flashback in a nanosecond. Yeah, he supposedly had a steel trap mind. Unbelievable. I met him one time, and I had just done a story on E.T. about the movie Sun Valley Serenade, which had just come out on video, an old musical with Sonia Henney and John Payne and Glenn Miller and his orchestra, and Milton, among others. And I said, hey, Milton, I just did a story about Sun Valley Serenade. He said, you know, I'm the only one still alive. I'm the only one left from that movie.

He said, they're all gone. Glenn Miller, Sonia Henney, John Payne. I said, well, the Nicholas brothers. Featured act. Featured act. I'm talking about leading players. I love that. I'm a leading player.

I love that. Now, you also became friends with or were a fan of someone who we love here. Oh, you're still there? Yeah. Oh, yeah. You also, I'm a big fan. I only unfortunately got to visit him twice, and that's Forry Ackerman. Oh, well, I grew up on Forry Ackerman, like everybody my generation.

Famous Monsters of Filmland. I went down to my local candy store on the corner where I bought my comic books and eagerly awaited each new issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Oh, I doted on that, absolutely. Couldn't wait, couldn't get enough of it. And when I moved out here, I did get to meet him on a couple of occasions. I went to visit the Acker Mansion. Oh, yes, I was there. I saw a lot of his wonderful memorabilia.

And I can't say I was a friend of his or friendly with him, but he was very nice to me, and I got to meet him at least, and that was really fun. Leonard, tell us about, I was listening to an interview with you online, and you met a lot of people when you first went to L.A. and were doing interviews. You met a lot of people that had worked in silence. I mean, you interviewed Grady Sutton and Joan Blondell and Ralph Bellamy

and Reuben Mamoulian. Mamoulian I saw in New York City. Oh, was that New York? Mamoulian was the first director I ever saw in person. In the late 60s, a notorious character named Raymond Rohauer ran the film program at the Huntington Hartford Museum. Oh, I know. Yeah, I know that place. And Rohauer has a tarnished and justifiably tarnished reputation.

Because although he did do some good things, he restored the films of Buster Keaton and put them back in circulation. That's probably his greatest claim to fame. But he also bullied a lot of people and claimed to have rights that he didn't really have. But he put on some wonderful shows at that museum. And he brought in Groucho Marx, and that's how I got to meet Groucho.

He brought in Ginger Rogers. He brought in all sorts of wonderful people. Hal Roach did a long, long tribute to Hal Roach one summer. Some great shows that I'll never forget. But the first person he brought in that was a director was Ruben Mimogu. And at the time, I was a kid. And, you know, all I thought about were the performers, you know, the actors, the comedians. That's who I was interested in. I'd never heard a director speak before about his work and talk about what went into it and the decisions and the creative choices and all of that.

And Mamoogian was an extremely eloquent, gracious fellow, fascinating to listen to. And I just kept going back day after day to hear him because he was so fascinating. So it was sort of a life-changing experience for me. I owe a lot to that experience. He directed the Jekyll and Hyde picture, right, with Frederick Marsh? With Frederick Marsh, yes. And that was the movie where everybody wondered about the transformation scene,

how he achieved that. Yeah. And I'm not the one who can tell you because I don't remember. Now, tell us a little about Groucho. I just had a brief... Well, I'll tell you what. There was a tribute to him at that museum, and I was lucky enough to be invited to opening night.

And they had a... On the top floor, they had a cocktail lounge, a reception area. And that's where Groucho was going to be after the program itself. So I was there with my best friend and I brought my copy of the Groucho letters, which had just been published,

a hardcover book collection. I had that. Oh, sure, yeah. And what I wanted was that I wanted to get his autograph. And I noticed off to the side, Cindy Adams was there with the TV crew from Channel 7. So the elevator was right in the middle of the room. I said to my friend, look, here's the elevator. There's the TV crew.

He's got to walk this path. If we just stay on this path, we can't miss him. So that's where we planted ourselves. And he was there with his brother Zeppo. Wow. Well, they walked right by us, and we didn't recognize them because they were these two little old men. We got them on the way back.

Wow. And he did sign my book. we got them on the way back well and he did find my book but but it that what the other instance uh... clash of reality versus you know what what you what you have in your your head although that night when bro har was introducing him

and bro har was not a great public speaker uh... he was kind of the pump ring and think and and and and and where we're here to get to pay tribute to a very special law committee. Groucho pushed his way on stage, shoved Raymond away from the microphone, said, that's enough of that. Got a big laugh, got a big laugh, and asserted himself as Groucho. Now, Frank and I were talking before. You have a story about Eddie Murphy and Ralph Bellamy?

Oh, this is a third hand. It's not an original story. I'll tell it. But when Eddie Murphy made Trading Places, they were on location, I think, in Philadelphia, if I'm remembering correctly. That sounds right. And the two co-stars were, of course, the two great movie veterans, Ralph Bellamy and Don Amici. Amici hadn't been working at that time for quite a while. He later had his career

got a second wind in the later years of his life. Well, Bellamy was a very talkative, garrulous guy, very sweet man. And he's chattering with the makeup trailer with Don Amici. And he says, Don, how many pictures do you figure you've made? And he says, well, he says, I think I've made about

49 or 50. And Bellamy says, I've been counting, he says, I believe I've made 99 films altogether. And Eddie Murphy, over his, he says, hey, between us, we've made 150 movies.

I like that. You know what's interesting about those two names, Leonard, is both of them, Amici and Bellamy, became kind of expressions because my mom said people used to refer to the Amici as the telephone. Hand me the Amici.

Hand me the Amici because he played Alexander amici. Oh, yes. Because he played Alexander Grimm. And, of course, the Bellamy is the guy that doesn't get the girl. Yes. Now, Gilbert loves Casablanca. That's my all-time favorite movie. We've talked about it. I know it is. And we've talked about it on the show.

And he does little bits from the movie. I mean, it's one of those pictures where... As I'm sitting here talking to you, I'm looking at a little sampler pillow that I purchased at the Warner Brothers store, which I'm still in mourning over, that they closed 15 years ago. Because I was their best customer i remember that store they made this sampler pillow and it has my all-time favorite line of dialogue i was misinformed oh great because bogart came there for the waters right and i i heard in Casablanca, a lot of like in the tiniest parts, like extra parts or one line or or the Nazis hanging out in a casino.

It was these European Jewish actors who were all stars in their country before they had to leave. Well, they weren't all stars, but they were all émigrés, and you couldn't have invented those faces. These were all refugees and émigrés who had fled from the Nazis and wound up in Los Angeles. So if you wanted to cast a room full of people

who looked like refugees, you didn't have to put makeup on them. There they were. And it's one of the things I love about the film is that everyone who speaks, even one line, there's no one in that film who isn't colorful and interesting. From the tiniest part to the you know to the leading roles uh it's so perfectly cast all the way up and down the line wasn't that one of those films that while they were making it they thought uh-oh we're in trouble because they kept changing the script each yeah well it was you know it well, it's been pretty well documented now that they kept rewriting and tampering and tinkering.

And had they been able to, they would have changed the ending. Because by the time it was coming out, they were making it... Remember, we only entered the war after Pearl Harbor at the very end of 1941. And they were making this movie in 1942. So Hollywood wasn't yet fully geared up for wartime propaganda.

They were trying to get on that bandwagon as quickly as they could. And they seriously thought about having a closing shot of Bogart and Claude Rains in uniform on a troop farm in Pennsylvania, and it was very hard to get transportation in those days. Everything was on a priority basis, and train travel was very difficult. Plane travel was even worse, and just the logistics didn't work, or they decided it wasn't worth the time and effort and money to do it. And they ultimately left it alone. Thank goodness. And they also wanted to call Ingrid Bergman back for some possible retakes. But she was making For Whom the Bell Tolls, and she cut off her hair.

If you remember For Whom the Bell Tolls, she has a very severe boyish haircut. And I remember that there's that great scene where the Germans are singing one of their songs very proudly, and then Bogart nods his head to the French, and they start drowning them out with the French national anthem. And I heard that the crying in that scene was real, because the war was starting, and no one really knew how it was going to end. That's why I say the emotions on the faces of all of those people, all those European emigres, a lot of that was not acting.

I mean, some of it was acting from a very real place in their hearts, and some of it wasn't acting at all. They were just responding to the situation. That's why the film is unique. That's why it really is one of a kind. Even Warner Brothers couldn't make it happen again. You know, they tried reteaming. They did Passage to Marseille.

They did all these other films trying to recapture the spirit of Casablanca. In the old days, as opposed to today, they didn't do sequels very often. What they did was clones, which is a slightly different approach. Instead of making Casablanca II, they made Passage to Marseille, which also took place in Europe. It was also during the war. It also had Peter Lorre. You know, they would take as many of the same ingredients as they could and try

to fashion something new that resembled the original as closely as possible. But even then, it wasn't easy to do. And it almost happened with Ronald Reagan. Yes. No, that's baloney. Oh, really?

That's a myth. That's absolute baloney. That's good stuff. Now, Leonard, I hate wrapping up this show because we have, like, loads of things. Probably 10 cards we didn't get to. We haven't scratched the surface with you. So you're going to have to come back whether you want to or not. I'll do that if you will let me do my two plugs. Oh, yeah, do them now.

Go right ahead. Tell us. Well, my website is LeonardMalton.com, and that's where I review current movies, but I also write about things that interest me and film festivals I attend and revivals, write about things that interest me and film festivals I attend and revivals and it's where

when somebody I care about, like the same people you care about, passes away I try to do a tribute or a memorial and we keep a lot of, we have a huge, huge backlog in archives. So that's LeonardMalton.com. The other is

my podcast, which is called Malton on Movies with my partner, Baron Vaughn. I know Baron. Funny guy. We're on the Wolf Pop Network, and we're on iTunes, and give us a try. I've seen the show. It's great. Thank you. So, once again, I'm Gilbert Gottfried. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast with my co-host Frank Santopadre.

And we've been talking to a writer, critic, all-around expert on movies, Leonard Moulton. And I just want to throw in one more thing, Leonard. I am heartbroken, as I'm sure many fans are, that you are no longer going to be publishing the essential, indispensable movie guide, which saddens me deeply. Thank you, Frank. You know, it's a big change in my life. I've been doing it since I was 18 years old. We had a 45-year run with that book, which is just extraordinary.

It's been a Bible. I cannot complain. So many people have said so many nice things to me. And, of course, the book still is there, still stands. But what we are doing, I'm happy to tell you, is a new edition of my classic movie guide. Good. Which will be out in late September,

which we've added 300 more old movies to and made a lot of corrections and additions and changes. I'm very proud of it, and that'll be out September 29th. Good news. Good news. Thanks for doing it. Thank you again, Leonard Malt. Come back and talk movies, just movies with us. Anytime you say.

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