Mary Versus the Movies

In a world where dancing is banned, only one boy has the courage to stand up to the religious fanatics denying his magical feet. Or something. I guess. Starring Kevin Bacon, John Lithgow, Lori Singer, Diane Weist, and Christ Penn. Written by Dean Pitchford. Directed by Herbert Ross.

Bored suburban kids get into trouble, hassled by the cops until it turns deadly, and ending in an orgy of destruction--a pretty familiar American story. Sitting somewhere between low-budget exploitation films and more thoughtful, nervy fair, this cult movie pulls off having its cake and eating it, exploring the root causes of juvenile delinquency while having some awesome explosions. Starring Michael Kramer, Matt Dillon, Pamela Ludwig, Vincent Spano, and Harry Northup. Written by Charles S. Haas and Tim Hunter. Directed by Jonathan Kaplan.

A gambler's cousin shows up from Hungary and suddenly turns his dirtbag life upsidedown, sending them on a roadtrip around America. Starring John Lurie, Eszter Balint, and Richard Edson. Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch.

We return to Camelot with a look at the 1967 film production of the Lerner & Loewe musical, again starring Richard Harris as King Arthur. At three hours, it's an overly-long production that loses steam in its third hour, but the first two are lush and often inspired, and possibly the best-looking movie we've covered for the show. Starring Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero, David Hemmings, and Lionel Jeffries. Written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Directed by Joshua Logan. This is a preview of our Patreon-only series Hollywood Avalon: An Arthurian Film Podcast. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

A black comedy about a sexually-repressed couple who fund their dream of opening a restaurant by posing as sex workers and robbing and murdering Los Angeles swingers. When a local thief worms his way into the scheme, everything goes haywire, jeopardizing their chance at the American Dream. Starring Paul Bartel, Mary Waronov, Robert Beltran, Susan Saiger, Buck Henry, Ed Begley Jr., John Paragon, and Edie McClurg. Written by Paul Bartel and Richard Blackburn. Directed by Paul Bartel.

A mysterous boy is adopted by a couple and soon shows himself to be unnervingly perfect. Is he really a robot? Maybe even a secret military project? Yeah, of course he is, this is the 1980s. It's not great. Starring Barret Oliver, Michael McKean, and Mary Beth Hurt. Written by David Ambrose, Allan Scott, and Jeffrey Ellis. Directed by John Heyman

We welcome back Alana Phelan to the show to talk about a Corey Feldman-Corey Haim fantasy with weirdo philosopher Jason Robards inhabiting Feldman's body as he tries to romance Meredith Salinger. It's a very weird movie loved by this weeks' guest. Starring Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Meredith Salinger, Jason Robards, Piper Laurie, and Harry Dean Stanton. Written by Marc Rocco, Daniel Jay Franklin, and D.E. Eisenberg. Directed by Marc Rocco.

Dan Ackroyd's misguided take on the copaganda classic Dragnet was a huge disappointment when Dennis saw it in theaters back in 1987. Does his opinion hold up? Or is the film even worse than he remembers? Should he have talked Mary out of covering this at all? But at least we finally get to cover a Tom Hanks movie for the show, right? Starring Dan Ackroyd, Tom Hanks, Christopher Plummer, Dabney Coleman, Alexandra Paul, and Harry Morgan. Written by Dan Ackroyd, Alan Zweibel, and Tom Mankiewicz. Directed by Tom Mankiewicz.

We start the first of a two-part series examining the musical Camelot, the Broadway hit based on T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, which I recently re-read in preparation. For part one, we look at both the original cast recording from 1960, as well as two clips from the Ed Sullivan show, featuring Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as Guenevere. Unfortunately, this is all we could find of that particular version of the show. We were, however, able to find a 1981 stage revival starring Richard Harris and Meg Bussart and filmed for HBO. The 1981 production differs from the original production, streamlining some elements, cutting some characters, but largely is the same show. In both cases, the effort to condense a 700-page novel into a two and a half hour musical greatly simplifies some of the driving philosophy of the book—as much a meditation on politics and the rise of fascism as it is a consciously-anachronistic fantasy and elegy for a dying world (very much reading like Lord of the Rings meets A Connecticut Yankee). However, focusing on the love triangle and Arthur’s conundrum of balancing justice and mercy, might and right, makes for an effective musical, one which even influenced the popular culture conception of the then-current Kennedy administration. In our next episode, we will examine the 1967 film production of the same musical. 1960 Broadway Original Cast Recording: Starring Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, Robert Goulet, David Hurst, Robert Coote, Roddy McDowall, and Robin Stewart. 1981 Revival: Starring Richard Harris, Meg Bussert, Richard Muenz, James valentine, Barrie Ingham, Richard Backus, and Thor Fields. Music by Frederick Loewe. Lyrics and Book by Alan Jay Lerner. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

We finish "Dennis versus the movies" with a very silly Canadian hair metal horror movie wherein Jon Mikl Thor battles a rubbery devil. It's the kind of goofy trash they used to show at 3 a.m. when we were a proper country. Starring Jon Mikl Thor. Written by Jon Mikl Thor. Directed by John Fasano.

The Rankin-Bass adaptation of Peter S. Beagle's fairy tale about the last unicorn in the world and the small band of humans who help her is a melancholy story gorgeously animated by the Japanese studio Topcraft. This was a favorite movie of Mary's as a kid, but completely unknown to Dennis. This month, we fix that. Starring Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, Tammy Grimes, Jeff Bridges, Christopher Lee, Keenan Wynn, Rene Auberjonois, and Angela Lansbury. Written by Peter S. Beagle. Driected by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.

"Dennis vs. the Movies" continues with a look at Martin Scorsese's black comedy about a yuppie who meets the wrong woman, is stranded overnight in Soho, and hunted by an angry mob. It's a comedic take on the country's feelings about New York, expressed in other film of the period--a terrifying, lawless place, Escape from New York, The Warriors, "the Bronx is burning" and all that--and stands it on its head. Forty years later, it's hard not to feel nostalgic for a world where artists could squat in warehouses and diners were open all night, even if it came with a side of vigilantes and home invasions. Starring Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Verna Bloom, Cheech and Chong, Linda Fiorentino, John Heard, and Catherine O'Hara. Written by Joseph Minion, story by Joe Frank. Directed by Martin Scorsese.

We kick off "Dennis versus the movies" month with a viewing of the second Muppet movie, The Great Muppet Caper, in which the Muppets go to England and get tangled up with Charles Grodin and a jewel heist. Joining us is our special guest, Zach Woliner, a puppeteer and children's entertainer. Starring Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Charles Grodin, Diana Rigg, John Cleese, Robert Morley, Peter Ustinov, Jack Warden, and of course Peter Falk. Written by Tom Patchett, Jay Tarses, Jerry Juhl, and Jack Rose, and directed by Jim Henson.

David Lynch's violent romantic drama plays like William Faulkner had written The Wizard of Oz starring Elvis Presley--a strange, campy, Southern Gothic road trip through America that Lynch described as "a love story in Hell". Starring Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, Diane Ladd, Harry Dean Stanton, and Isabella Rossellini.

Neil Jordan's neo-noir romance about a jailbird driver, a high-priced escort, and the mob boss running everything is a bleak, sometimes-funny look at duplicity, delusion, and the seedy side of London. Starring Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine, Robbie Coltrane, and Clarke Peters. Written by Neil Jordan and David Leland, and directed by Neil Jordan.

From the nadir of Disney filmmaking comes yet another spin on Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee, this time featuring Dennis Dugan as a NASA engineer accidentally sent back in time with his android twin Hermes. It's not the worst movie we've covered for the show--the supporting cast of English comedians as Arthur's court are fine--but it's not exactly Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Starring Dennis Dugan, Sheila White, Kenneth Moore, Ron Moody, and Jim Dale. Written by Don Tait and directed by Russ Mayberry. This is a preview of our latest episode from Hollywood Avalon. Join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this entire episode and the series Hollywood Avalon, where we watch Arthurian films: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

Omar, a young Brit from a Pakistani family, and his boyfriend Johnny, a former skinhead, attempt to open the nicest laundromat in London while tackling issues of family, race, class, sex, crime, and Thatcher-era austerity. Starring Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gordon Warnecke, and Shirley Anne Field. Written by Hanif Kureishi and directed by Stephen Frears

Merchant-Ivory's lush adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel of romantic struggle against Edwardian repression is the best possible version of those PBS dramas your mom likes to watch--better, even, because this one has full frontal male nudity. Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, and Simon Callow. Written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and directed by James Ivory.

New York's hottest club is Liquid Sky. This club has everything: heroin, David Bowie impersonators, aliens, necrophelia, shrimp, cocaine, a Fairlight CMI synthesizer, Germans, murder, and anorgasmia. (A UFO causes havoc in the New York downtown art scene, where sex and drugs mix together with casual cruelty and sometimes murder. It's pretty cool.) Starring Anne Carlisle, Paula E. Sheppard, Susan Doukas, and Otto von Wernherr. Written by Slava Tsukerman, Nina V. Kerova, and Anne Carlisle. Directed by Slava Tsukerman.

It's a cyberpunk body-horror story of sex and violence, shot through with the kind of late 1980s indie movie aesthetics that we seriously miss, sitting somewhere between David Lynch and MTV. Starring Shinya Tsukamoto, Tomorowo Taguchi, and Kei Fujiwara. Written and directed by Shinya Tsukamoto.