Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Mini-Ep #29: Petrified Forest and Day of the Jackal

Episode Date: October 1, 2015

Each week, comedian Gilbert Gottfried and comedy writer Frank Santopadre share their appreciation of lesser-known films, underrated TV shows and hopelessly obscure character actors -- discussing, dissecting and (occasionally) defending their handpicked guilty pleasures and buried treasures. This week: Paging Sidney Poitier! Bogie's big break! And Hugo Drax hunts a killer! MeUndies is offering you TWENTY PERCENT off your first order at meundies.com/gilbert. That’s a special offer just for GGACP listeners. Make sure you go to meundies.com/gilbert to get twenty percent off your first order of underwear in tons of styles and colors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm sold. The Gilbert Gottfried Amazing Colossal Podcast Producer of the Month is DFA Records. Thank you, DFA Records. Be just like DFA Records and get rewarded for supporting our podcast. Head over to patreon.com slash Gilbert Gottfried. For a set amount each month, you can get some colossal benefits, such as access to new podcast episodes before anyone else, early access to tickets to live podcast tapings, exclusive video hangouts, and just added, I will record a personalized roast of you and only you so you can share with your friends me telling you what a schmuck you are. Well, I don't have to join Patreon for that. And you don't have to pay me either because you are a schmuck. That I do for free. I want no money. You don't have to pay me either because you are a schmuck.

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And thank you, DFA Records. Okay, this is Gilbert and Frank's Amazing, colossal obsessions. It is. And so the film I'm picking is Humphrey Bogart yet again. Ooh. And this is Petrified Forest. You know, I've never seen it. Is this where he's Duke Mantee? Yes.

Yes. Yeah. I know the film and I've never seen it. I'm ashamed to say. He holds this like roadside diner in the middle of nowhere hostage. He escapes from jail. And Petrified Forest was originally on Broadway. It was a Broadway show.

And it had Humphrey Bogart and Leslie Howard. Oh, yes. English Jew. Leslie Howard was Jewish? Yes. That is a scoop. I did not know that. That's a scoop.

Do you get all this information? Do you get a newsletter? How do you get this sent to the house? Yes, and Bogard was married to a Jew. Lauren Bacall. Lauren Bacall. But how do you know that each one of these actors... Where is this information compiled?

The only one I'm not sure of is alan king right yeah he could be jackie mason but yeah theodore mckell is still in question yeah lou jacobi but so the play was a big hit right And they wanted to make it into a movie. And they definitely wanted Leslie Howard because he was a big star at the time. And Bogart wasn't that wasn't known. And so they said, we want a big actor for this part. We don't want Bogart. And Leslie Howard stood up for Bogart. I did not know that. That's

cool. Yeah. And he said, well, I won't do it unless you cast Humphrey Bogart as Duke Manthe, unless he reprises his role. And Humphrey Bogart wound up naming one of his children Leslie. Wow. Yeah. Good trivia. After Leslie Howard. Yeah. You would look at a sort of a cream puff actor like Leslie Howard and a tough guy like Bogart and not think that they had anything in common, that they shared anything.

Because Leslie Howard played Dandies. Oh, yes, yes. Light leading men. Fops, yes. Light leading men. Oh, and Leslie Howard died tragically. Did he die in a plane crash? Yeah. Yeah.

I think he was doing a mission. I believe he did. During World War II. Yeah, that's true. And the Nazis shot the plane down. Yeah, yeah. Well, most people would know him if they haven't seen The Petrified Forest. His most famous role was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind.

Oh, yes, yes. But he was in Py famous role was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. Oh, yes. Yes. But he was in Pygmalion. He was in a lot of stuff. And I remember in Petrified Forest, there's one part where there's some old man talking and Leslie Howard tells him to shut up. And Bogart, who's the escaped killer, stands up and he he goes why are you talking to an old man like that you do that

again I'll slug you and then he shakes his head as he's walking away going talking to an old man like that it's almost as good as Bud Abbott saying put your arms down but yeah It's almost as good as Bud Abbott saying, put your arms down.

But yeah, Petrified Forest. Well, that's sort of put... And Betty Davis. Yeah, Betty Davis, right. And that's sort of put Bogart on the map, but also kind of, some people say, put him on the road toward playing gangsters and hoods. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the tough guy part. Yeah, yeah. I like High Sierra, too.

Oh, yes. By the way. Yeah. Petrified Forest I have never seen. I know Bette Davis is in it, Leslie Howard. I can't remember the director. Nothing is coming to mind, but I have to see that one. Irving Lipschitz.

No, Irving Lipschitz. Yeah, yeah, it was the turret. He also did Gone with the Wind. You've recommended, I think now, three Bogart movies. You've done African Queen. Did I recommend African Queen? You did. I did?

Did you recommend African Queen? I don't think. No, no, no. We didn't talk about African Queen. We talked about The Heart of They Fall. Oh, yes, yes. And you recommended Treasure recommended Sierra Madre. Yeah. I don't know where I got African Queen from.

Well, I think where we started talking about African Queen, yet another Jew, Theodore Bacall. That's right. We were eulogizing Theodore Bacall. And when we had Mario Cantone on the show, you were doing Bogart to his Hepburn. We did a little African queen. Now, Gilbert, we all know how sexy confidence could be. Yes, with me, it's a curse. The sexy confidence that I have. It's, you know, it looks like a gift, but it's a curse.

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It's a thriller called The Day of the Jackal. You know this picture? Oh, yes. It's about Edward Fox, who's a British actor, plays an assassin called the Jackal, who's been hired to assassinate Charles de Gaulle, the French president. And it's a meticulous thriller. It's a long film, but it's very, very rewarding. And it's a meticulous thriller.

It's a long film, but it's very, very rewarding. I don't want to say a lot about it because to talk about it is really to give a lot away. Michael Lonsdale, who I mentioned played, and I'll show you his picture after we're done, and you'll say, oh, that guy. Yes. Probably most famous, a British actor, probably most famous for playing Hugo Drax, the villain in Moonraker, for our Bond fans, is sort of the genius detective that's on his trail. And it's one of these cat and mouse stories. Oh, yeah. Where the brilliant—have you seen it?

Years ago. Yeah. It's a really Cracker Jack film. Did they remake Day of the Jackal with Richard Gere? They made it poorly with Richard Gere and Bruce Willis. He's like an Irish terrorist. Yeah, they changed the story. The original Day of the Jackal was based on a novel by Frederick Forsyth, an author of thrillers. And he wanted nothing to do with the Jackal remake.

the Jackal remake. And there's a story that Zinnemann actually fought the studio to prevent them from using the title The Day of the Jackal. Oh, yeah. The second film is not very good. I remember being very... Yeah, and Sidney Poitier is in it. I think it's one of his last film appearances. I think so.

Yeah, Sidney Poitier must have retired. I don't see him in anything. Yeah. He's been retired for years now. I rented Sneakers recently, which was a caper movie with Robert Redford and Sidney Poitier. And that actor, David Strathairn, you know that actor? Oh, yes. Yes. And my wife and I were saying whatever happened to Sidney Poitier, he must have retired. But Day of the Jackal is very good. And it falls into that sub-genre of assassination movies. Now here. Yeah. You're

not going to tell me Sidney Poitier was a Jew. No. But Sidney Poitier told a story when he was a struggling kid. He worked as a busboy in a restaurant. And one day he was looking at a newspaper and this Jewish waiter walked over to him and said, what are you reading? And he found out that Poitier really couldn't read at that point. And he said that this Jewish waiter would sit with him, take time out of the day and sit with him and teach him how to read. So that's a touching story. And ultimately it's about someone else being a Jew. So it all comes back.

Poitier wasn't Jewish, but his tutor was Jewish. Yes. Yeah, I'm a big Sidney Poitier fan, but I digress. Day of the Jackal, it's a taut thriller. There's really a lot to like about it. Like I said, it's long, but it's very, very rewarding. And it takes its time. It's very smart.

One of Zinnemans, I think, last films, probably one of his two or three last films. And as I was saying, I like smart films about assassinations. There's the Manchurian Candidate. Oh, yeah. There's the Sinatra one, Suddenly, with, I think, Sterling Hayden. I don't know if you've seen Clint Eastwood's In the Line of Fire with John Malkovich as the assassin. Oh, yeah. Which is also very good.

And now I can't think of – our listeners will write in and name more. But when those films, they're like prison escape movies. When they're done well, they're really done well. So Day of the Jackal. Edward Fox, it's a British cast. I think the year, hold on, I'm going to look it up. I think the year is 1973. Describes it as an Anglo-French political thriller.

Derek Jacoby turns up, as I said. It's very, very smart. Do not watch the remake, The Jackal. And mine again, Petrified Forest, which, you know, you could tell is like basically a film play when you see it, but it doesn't hurt it. Yeah, I love those. Was it a Warner Brothers gangster movie? I don't know. I know Bogart was like the star of Warner Brothers.

Yeah, I watched Roaring Twenties. But this was before. I watched Roaring Twenties recently, and it was so good. Yeah, oh, great. And White Heat. Yeah. And all of them. And yeah, but Petrified Forest is a lot of fun to watch.

Shame on me. I haven't seen that one. So Petrified Forest and the Day of the Jackal. Yeah. By the way, Charles de Gaulle, not Jewish. Well, that's in question. Yeah. way. Colossal Obsessions Colossal Obsessions