Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to the podcast that knows its limitations!
This week: heavenly horses; pat down; anti-trans; neato and the damage done; helicopter husband; mash back; miniature mysteries; hosed; dirt sleep; beyond the pale; EC does it; the house that GI Bill; we want to know about; door-to-dour; Dave checks out The Innkeepers; the ghost dilemma; unbeatable characters; don’t hang onto your ego; prospectus clients; multi-level monkeying; young suckers; after the flood; life lessons on the job; dispense with your troubles; all about the ‘views; pre-intervention; cocaine nowadays; passive-aggressive production; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; short cut; triumph of the Willow; we take no for an answer; diamond dogs; and, finally, one last question.
Question of the Week: Have you ever bought anything from a door-to-door salesman?
Sub-question of the Week: What’s a movie that got lambasted by critics, but you love it still?
Thanks for listening.
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The only thing I ever bought from someone going door-to-door was school fundraiser candy. You had to be careful back then because there were schemes where the box or wrapper would say “support a student” but the only student you were supporting was the one hired to sell the candy by some shady entrepreneur.
Speaking of cautionary tales, a flop that I liked was Thief of Hearts from 1984. It was in the vein of earlier neo-noir movies like American Gigolo and Body Heat. I’d classify it as a guilty pleasure as it is literally about guilty pleasure. A thief (played by Steven Bauer) reads the private journals of a married woman (played by Barbara Williams) whose house he’s robbed. He then poses as a rich business man who “gets” her more than her neglectful husband (John Getz). A young David Caruso plays the thief’s volatile accomplice. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (between Flashdance and Beverly Hills Cop). Directed and written by Douglas Day Stewart (An Officer and a Gentleman.) With a synth-heavy soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer. Soooo 80s.
1984. High school senior year. I remember it well.
We never owned a set of encyclopedias and I don’t think we ever had anyone selling them on our doorstep either, I would borrow them from my friend’s house if I needed to. We didn’t have all that many door-to-door sales folks coming around, if there were it was like Louise said about the kids selling candy for some fundraiser. Sometimes it was a magazine subscription or those big thick coupon books called The Entertainment Coupon Book which seemed like a good deal if you could use ALL the coupons inside. I think my folks bought one of those Entertainment Coupon Books once for $20.00 or $30.00 and we struggled to use it before the coupons expired. Do you remember those big, thick coupon books?
One year my Dad bought a Lowery Organ at the State Fair! He never bought anything like that before and I guess Dad thought it was a deal…but here’s the kicker, NOBODY in our house played an organ or keyboard of any kind, but I think he was encouraging us to learn. No, this was all for my Dad’s enjoyment, he bought this organ for himself and struggled to learn it. I think Dad thought it would be easy since musicians ran on his side of the family but he really tried hard to play that thing and never really got past the cardboard keyboard markers coded to the easy sheet music. Damn, he really tried though.
I also learned about 20 years ago that you never, EVER tell a person selling newspaper subscriptions that you get your news from the internet. NEVER. This guy lit up so hot I thought he was going to kill me when I told him I read the internet for news, I guess I was that last straw for him that day. The poor guy was stuck in a hot entrance vestibule of a Toys R Us and probably had a quota he had to meet, then along comes my smart ass.
You guys know what an easygoing film lover I am, so it’s no surprise that I’ve liked or even loved a movie that’s been critically condemned. I do have my own personal reasons for liking these films though, how about the Tim Story directed “Fantastic Four” films? I loved those because I was able to take my young son to see them at the time, the same goes with “John Carter”, I loved that movie. My son and I still talk about seeing those when he was a kiddo, the choices were limited back when he was too young to see Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The X-Men or Superman Returns so luckily we had the Fantastic Four at the time which made sense as a family alternative. Personally I’m still fighting on a hill for “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” until I die, I don’t care what anyone says, I love that stupid movie.
I’ve been telling everyone to go outside and enjoy the outdoors as I’ve signed off here. Now I must switch to telling everyone to be careful outside, it’s getting hot! Stay cool all my beloved Sneakers!!
PS! By the way, I was interviewed on the podcast “Brush with Creativity” hosted by a lifelong friend of mine (I used to babysit this guy!). You asked me to post it here once it was available. I go on for almost two hours and I told these guys how brave they were because nobody has ever asked me to talk for more than one hour, which is barely cutting it close. So there.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brush-with-creativity/id1734327235?i=1000659436422
The last door to door salesman we had was hawking a scam. “We’re working for your neighbour and wondered if you wanted your driveway jet washed”. At that moment the neighbour in question appeared and confirmed no, they weren’t. I understand these rogues quote a reasonable price which they later reveal to be per square metre… at which point things get threatening. I shooed them off.
More recently we’ve had people knocking on the door selling chocolate-box-eternal-paradise care of the Lord, and a zero migration utopia care of the far right Reform Party LLC. We aren’t in the market for either.
Quickly:
I’d like to beat the drum for the charming ‘Minuscule’ movies,which seem to have been ignored by both critics and public. Gorgeously photographed French countryside is overlaid with the silent antics of various animated bugs. The range of emotions expressed with a pair of googly eyes on an otherwise lifelike bug is astonishing.
Another film that fell between the cracks is Peter Chelsom’s comedy-drama Funny Bones – featuring an acerbic Jerry Lewis, a hapless Oliver Platt, a damaged Lee Evans, the eternal Leslie Caron, and Oliver Reed. The film has a middling Tomatometer score, and was clearly shredded in the edit, but I love it to bits.