we're on a mission from god

wendy so i got that going darling

looks like i picked the wrong way to

quit sniffing blue light

of my life we enjoy your films

[Music]

welcome to vintage video where we'll be

reviewing every major film release of

the 1980s in real time

and by real time i mean as they turn 40.

i'm patrick o'reilly

i'm jesse bayless and i'm richard wells

and today marks the 40th anniversary of

the release of fatso

on february 1st 1980 it was written and

directed by ann

bancroft and released by 20th century

fox

this is ann bancroft's first and only

writing and directing it was originally

developed as a short film

apparently ann bancroft was a student at

afi

and was a part of their directing

workshop

and so it was going to be a short but

she wrote the whole script

to do it as a feature did she write the

short she wrote the short but

ended up writing a full-length thing out

of it did she make a short

i don't think they ever produced a short

now at the time of filming bancroft was

one of 10 working female directors in

the u.s

the dp on this film was also the first

female dp to work on a theatrically

released

studio film and it was the first film

produced by mel brooks's company brooks

films

which obviously she was married to mel

brooks at the time

there's also the regulars of mel brooks

yeah there's a few people this is the

first producer credit for stuart

kornfeld who

comes back to produce another brooks

film in 1980 the elephant man

um saul samatino the film's prop master

prepared all the food that was made on

set he collected authentic italian

recipes from the families of the entire

cast

and that was how they decided what they

were going to be eating that's an

interesting tidbit

yeah it did make me want to eat the food

it did

some of it i could vouch for that i was

like i want a big

hunk of lasagna especially when he's in

that cake shop that was when i was like

i want to eat some of these right now i

feel like

her hand as a female director is evident

in the very first shot

which is of a baby breastfeeding which i

feel like

at the time probably wasn't something

that you saw very often in film

yeah happening like head-on and center

frame yeah totally the

i mean the only the only thing i don't

like about that

moment like i'm okay with that they

included it but i don't like the

implication

that breastfeeding is bad breastfeeding

is bad

for sporting your child i mean the the

idea of like the montage of shots that

they go into is like all these shots of

him as a boy

like using food as like a comfort

right and stuff like that so like but

the breastfeeding is yes comforting your

child but

it's necessary to life so i don't think

it's pretty associated with like bad

habits

i think it's like medically proven to be

impossible to over

breastfeed your child as long as like

that's what they're

having exclusively yeah um

but i did like though in that montage

when his brother frankie pees all over

his face and then they like

just half-assedly wipe wipe it off a

little bit and then just jam a pastry in

his mouth

um and then we go from this montage

we we touch on it a little bit his

relationship with his cousin

um sal sally yes um who

is like sneaking in food in church when

they were kids but now

sal's dead so we're starting the movie

at his funeral

and and at this point i'm

i get i get like the the whole opening

credit montage and i see

okay the humor in this is that he keeps

he keeps gaining weight and being fed

food

right but then we spend so much time on

this grieving mother

at the casket yeah for so long and

there's there's

not there's not any comedy to this scene

no it's just people sobbing and

just dripping with tears and once the

mother is done

going crazy and losing it the sister

starts to or

yeah another kind of sister starts to go

crazy

and and none of it like i can't tell if

if

they were aiming for like oh we're going

to be so over the top that it's going to

be funny but it's just sad

yes it just stays i mean i think this

movie is just supposed to be

i don't know if they were going for this

but it's just a string of like

italian stereotypes yeah like

excessive mourning and you know and and

the

in the eating and stuff like that and

like it's just but all the screaming and

crying is so like loud and abrasive for

this whole funeral that it's just like

none of it is played to comedic effect

it's all just like

ugh this is uncomfortable i don't want

to be here

the the first line that i laughed at was

when

uh dom was telling talking it's weird to

say dom because it's both for dominoes

and for dominic yeah he's playing

himself uh when he's talking about

salvatore he's like he was like a mother

to me

yeah and i also feel like you know i

don't know that that was really a joke

because

they they say that his mom's dead so

right like he but he

was like a mother but he could have said

brother he could have said so many other

things but like

but he makes the point though that it

wasn't just a brotherly relationship

that he was constantly feeding him and

bringing in and that's what his mom did

was constantly feed him and he was

blaming

he blames his mom for constantly feeding

him and that's what sal was also doing

and he also um i felt like they were

trying to be funny

when he said oh you know he always had

he always had something to eat with him

and she's like he always did and he's

like he always did he always did he

always did but they only do it like

twice back

and forth and i was like if they'd have

kept that going i might have thought it

was a joke but otherwise it just feels

like

the way that conversation might have

actually gone and to me that is

what this whole movie is a missed

opportunity

for something funny to happen yeah yeah

and so many times i was just like

i could have written a joke right now to

make this

just a little bit funnier yeah did you

notice the um

in the funeral scene there was a the

outdoor part of the interior

both there was a uh there was a floral

clock

yeah like i didn't see that like there

was yeah so it was like it was a flower

it was gigantic it was huge it was this

huge flower arrangement that looked like

the face of a clock and it had a

particular time on it

and i tried googling this i don't know

if this is some sort of italian

like funeral tradition or something like

this but like

i could i don't understand why there's a

clock with the time on it like is this

the time of death like why is

this why is there a clock of flowers

at a funeral i honestly didn't notice

that i think i was just too distracted

by the performances but

i don't know what that would be about i

i assumed time of death

but why would you want to create like

commemorate that yeah

i write that in flowers i don't know i

mean maybe i i ever

every culture has their own funeral

traditions but like this was one i had

never

seen before the first shot that i feel

like had a blatant

joke in it was the exterior yeah which

is a

pretty high up like yeah it's got a

crane shot yeah

it's a crane shot overhead and the

casket looks like

so like a normal casket would be like

ben hurst aspect ratio

like a 2.76 situation but this is

just straight up four three like it's

acceleration

it's enormous and uh and the hole in the

ground is a regular hole

and there's one like pretty i'm pretty

sure it's an 80 yard line

where someone just says goddamn box is

too big for the hole

well they have it like tilted at an

angle

to accentuate how it will not fit

and when the procession's driving they

have it being pulled on like the back of

a

of a trailer rather than inside the

hearse

because there's no rehearsal that's

gonna hold it it's like freddie lafart

from uh

last action hero

that was his name right freddy lafart

something yeah it was something like

that

it was like he's gonna the triggering

was pulling his finger

yeah theodophod is gonna pass gas one

more time

and that was gonna set off the the gas

bomb inside of him at the

at the fake la brea tar pits

you know we're talking about yeah um

we cut right from the funeral to uh he's

making breakfast for his brother frankie

in his apartment

he keeps trying to give him bread yeah i

don't like bread

i like you like bread i don't like bread

um there's a weird part though

when frankie leaves and i didn't know if

you saw this too i don't know if it's

just the youtube video or if it's the

film print yeah

it it it dom starts eating but then

it loops him back and forth like two or

three times yeah it rocks

it rocks the shot because they didn't

have enough

coverage there's a few times in this

movie that i think they were just

stretching for time well even that whole

like

even the whole montage at the beginning

there was just a lot of moments

and i know the 80s editing was different

too yeah it's true but there was just a

lot of moments where we just freeze

frame and

hold things but he literally goes to

turn on the radio and it's playing some

commercial about some strawberry dessert

thing

and he's just rocking back and forth in

a seat and it's clearly just playing

forward and backward over and over again

um and this is at least the only way we

could find this movie was on youtube so

it might be like

from some like you know formatted to fit

your tv screen

version of the movie but i think that

they they literally just rocked the shot

because because they added the audio

later and they really

realize how long the audio was though or

they wanted the shot longer and like a

boom

dipped into it and they were like okay

well we'll just roll back and forth on

this part

yeah um i had to watch it two times like

yeah we

backed it up too yeah i was like whoa

what was that yeah

because it's like you see that so often

and usually it's with like some weird

music or

or some weird animals reaction shot

where they couldn't get the animal to

behave so they just

looped it back and forth like they had

yeah so the dogs were those robots on

macgyver

that mcgiver episode oh they only

designed it to turn one way so they just

played it

reverse um but yeah

uh so after that he uh dom goes

downstairs

is it like it's the same building right

his sister lives downstairs with her

family

or like they're in yeah they think yeah

they think they live in some kind of

some kind of larger house yeah it seems

like sort of like an apartment-esque

building where he's got a section of it

and they have a section of it

but it's a little like a duplex type

thing yeah um but on the street it just

looks like stoops

but he goes downstairs to to see the

rest of his family

and uh he's like pretending to shoot

guns with his

nephew and his nephew is like oh yeah my

teacher said i could bring these guns to

school today

so that's something that's changed a

little bit

um and i think we were we were also

talking about

at first i was like did he lose weight

for this role and i realized like

i think this is just before he got

really big yeah like in his later work

like

this is actually the thinnest i've seen

dom it's a movie about him being an

overeater it's about him being fat and

it was like he's

actually pretty thin in this film and in

fact he's

you know by far the thinnest of all the

people who are

called fat in this movie oh yes

absolutely

yeah um then he so he leaves the

their house and and walks down the

street to the shop that he runs

it's a i guess i would call it a

stationary store but i guess it's purely

just like

cards and gift gift wrappings and things

oh but he does see

lydia on the way there so yeah he's

walking from his sister's house to an

awkward moment

yeah he goes to he goes to like get some

street meat from a vendor

and uh he's holding this hot dog up to

his mouth and then he notices

lydia this girl and she's just cleaning

a circle

in the middle of the her storefront

window so the whole rest of it is like

all fogged up but there's just a circle

where her head is

which i think is supposed to look like

she's like haloed in like this majestic

light

but um he's just staring at her for a

while and then he decides he's gonna eat

his hot dog anyway

and then he goes to work yeah well okay

but that wasn't what that moment really

was it was

i'm gonna eat it i'm not gonna eat it

i'm gonna eat it

i'm not gonna eat it it's like he was

embarrassed yeah well yeah it's like

he's embarrassed but like

literally they held on that moment for a

very awkwardly long time and it never

really

just wasn't rewinding and playing but it

never really had a funny payoff like it

was just like

you know they they held that for the

long time i'm gonna eat it i'm gonna eat

it and then he walked on but like it

didn't really it didn't

really read as funny yeah so he gets

into work

um and there's a woman looking for a

birthday card for

her son yeah well i like how passive

aggressive she is

yeah he's like oh for a moment i thought

it was you who died yeah because they

had a sign in the window that said death

in the family

so like the store wasn't open yet yeah

yeah but now they're back from the

funeral

he's ready to run the shop but she's

like oh i thought it was you and he's

like

no it wasn't me i'm fine figaro figueroa

figaro

and then uh and then she's like oh so is

your sister then

it's like no it wasn't my sister it was

my cousin that died but uh it's okay the

store's open and i'll help you find a

card

and she won't she just wants a a

birthday card for her son

and he keeps like accidentally reading

these super sad

like i miss you so much son i wish you

were here with me now

like that are clearly like sorry for

your lost cards well i think it's

interesting

that she presumes and i guess he does

know what all the cards in his store say

like he's like oh i know there's one

over

here that's about you know sons that are

far away

right well and the woman here playing

her

the character's name is mrs goodman um

but this is estelle reiner

who is the the wife of carl reiner

mother of rob reiner

and good friend of mel brooks right good

friend of mel brooks and also has the

famous line

in uh when harry met sally i'll have

what she's having

well i think this is like a funny moment

in the store that well

i mean it's not really funny it's

actually quite cruel because she's

basically goes on to tell him

that oh your cousin was too fat yeah

well he's sitting there like

sobbing she's like oh he's fat you know

like that well she does say like

you know i'm sorry to say it but i think

he was too fat or

like she does preface it with like a

semi-apology

you can't just say i'm sorry and then

say terrible things she's like you know

what happened i think he was too

fat and he's like yeah yeah i think

you're right but she also

will later will say that you can't be

afraid of the word fat

right yeah that is her whole spiel she's

trying to pitch him on this

it's like a chubby combination of weight

watchers and alcoholics anonymous called

chubby checkers

like oh you're grieving let me try to

sell you on this

you know this i did like though when she

says

have you ever heard of chubby checkers

and he's like the singer

this is like the program yeah

and then this weird woman named malooch

comes in

who has uh one eye and no two teeth

and she just comes in to take people's

numbers to buy them lottery tickets

that's her whole character arc yeah she

does nothing else in this movie well and

that she might get her teeth

and then get her glasses fixed because

she's like taking money off the top of

people's lottery

uh winnings yeah but they seem glad to

do it yeah

but they're like oh my looch and uh

yeah so she takes their money and leaves

she gets the numbers from from dom and

from antoinette

um then and antoinette is played by anne

bankrupt

yeah his sister antoinette is is being

played by the writer director of the

film

um who is very mad at him because she

thinks he's like

still eating too much and he keeps

forgetting to go to the diet doctor that

she wants to set him up with

because she thinks that he's going to

die too but

um he tells her he's very much alive and

to prove it he starts dancing and

singing with her and the song that he's

singing is actually the score of the

film

um but then she starts dancing and

making the

weirdest sense and i i actually think he

goes

into this film yeah i think some of her

screams are getting repeated

like it seems like there's like stuff

that plays and then it plays

which is you know going along with the

theme of there's so many parts of this

movie that feel artificially extended

but yeah so they're dancing around as

he's just like vocalizing the

theme song of the movie

and then suddenly he like it gets short

of breath and like almost passes out and

then he's like okay i'm serious i'm

going to go to that doctor now

so then we have a scene of the doctor's

office where the doctor's like

smoking a cigarette while he's talking

to him yeah every he's just constantly

coughing and hacking as he's smoking the

cigarette but again there's so many

missed opportunities like

they do one site gag with the reflexes

yeah and it's like

okay so you did one gag but there was no

like when he's on the scale and she's

like keeps pushing it over

it would have been such a great

opportunity like she keeps pushing it

over over over then she has to slide all

the way back to move the next one

yeah and then he keeps moving it you can

have her do that he just shoves a bunch

of them over

yeah just okay okay let's just get this

over with yeah yeah

because nothing happens she just moves

it over and then

she gets the weight and they they have

like i

i hate to say it like the least funny

proctology scene i've ever seen this

literally just bends over and he's like

no

no i'm not constipated no i don't have

diarrhea right now no

and it's just like no this is funny this

where's the moon river

you know yeah so he sees the doctor

and uh the nurse basically gives them a

huge list of everything that italian

people eat

yes and it's like slow pushing it on his

face as a tear is like

rolling down his cheek um i mean i think

that the list was

a little weird too sure some of it and

and maybe it's just that our our

dietary standards have changed since the

age that's one thing that i really like

in the movie her when they're getting

into the

into the elevator with um with the main

guy

and he's like no no no you steam your

vegetables you

you blend your fruits or something like

that and it's like

see they're they're finding out now that

all the nutrients and it's just like i

love that

in 100 years we'll be having these same

dumb conversations where it's like

no no it turns out we've been doing it

wrong for all of recorded history and

now the way you're supposed to do it

but she's like don't eat canned fruits

don't eat dried fruits and it's like

what is what's wrong with dried fruits

like is that worse than a regular fruit

yes it's concentrated sugar that's

processed sugar

okay well there you go yeah you're not

supposed to do that but like she

actually said don't eat any fruits

except grapefruit

so it was like what no fruits i think

fruits are okay in moderation

but she says no grapes but she has a

bowl full of grapes right there

right as an example of what you can eat

um

so we cut to him back at the house

making food for frank again but this

time

on his side of the table it's like a big

kale salad

yeah it's just the go-to joke of like

food i don't want to eat

broiled chicken yeah and he's just

looking at it like he's disgusted

and he's basically like cutting off a

big hunk of bread for frankie because

that's what he wants to eat so he's just

making the plate he wants to be eating

on the opposite side right but frankie

doesn't like bread

yeah and he's told him this many times

so without even saying anything he just

picks it up and throws it on the ground

knacks

uh and his brother is uh played by ron

kerry who's again

a mel brooks another uh history of the

world high anxiety

uh so he's he's you know high anxiety

i forgot that mel brooks was making so

many movies even in this at the same

time yeah

uh but uh he's also pat

and johnny dangerously i don't know who

that is but i'm assuming it's just a

member of the game yeah

um uh but uh i've always liked the

character

uh brophy and high anxiety okay who's

like the

the chauffeur kind of assistant to moe

brooks at the mental hospital

yeah who's always like trying to like

comfort mel brooks

yeah like i was like oh sure it was

probably just that probably just that

and as he walked away it wasn't that

[Laughter]

for some reason they put dom in charge

of going to get the birthday cake for

their son

right it's like the guy who they're all

complaining that he eats too much and

they're like go down to the cake shop

and get a birthday cake for our kid

specifically his sister's child and

she's the one that has had the most

complaints about his weight it's like

okay go

stand in a shop full of sweets pick up a

birthday cake and bring it back here

i mean you could argue that she's

challenging him to like deal with this

situation

but at the same time it's like it's just

mean yeah it just feels cruel to make

him do it

and then he's so on his way back with

the cake he like eats some of it right

yeah yeah well

they show up and there's just a slice

missing from it it's like you ate the

oni

yeah and then they're like okay go get

another cake like you're in charge of

this go get another one and he's like

well what are you gonna do with that why

did

i'm gonna do this it just starts

smashing it on the counter so many

moments where she just goes like

full out for this film look like she is

just

over the top with her i feel like there

might have at the time been

an audience that went nuts for this but

it wasn't

me it wasn't now

but i feel like this maybe maybe it's

just a matter of like

the time difference that this was really

really funny then or it was obvious that

they were trying to be over the top

whereas now it just reads like these

people are just mentally handicapped

um but yeah i don't know why you keep

sending him to go get the cake

um so he decides he's gonna join chubby

checkers

right uh before that though he meets uh

lydia

right she comes into the store because

she needs she needs wrapping paper or

she ordered wrapping paper that never

arrived

or it wasn't gonna come fast enough

right right and then she's trying to

describe what kind of wrapping paper she

wants

and they don't keep all the wrapping

paper in the same place in the store

it's like every other corner yeah

so he keeps going like oh well we have

this stuff over here oh well we have

this over here

and then she's like well no i was hoping

for something like this and then

anthony's like oh we got a bunch of that

in the back

i'll go get it and uh and she's gone for

a very long time so they can get a

chance to like sit down

they can talk chit-chat for a little bit

but uh

you know they discover that they're both

catholics

right there's a lot of really again more

awkward pauses here

where she says something to the extent

of like you remind me of my father

and then he says oh yeah and she says i

loved my father

and he says you loved your father yeah

and just stares at her for like

eight full seconds and nobody says

anything and they're just smiling

back and forth at each other and i was

like cut this

this is ridiculous but also like i don't

even know what they're implying by that

line like

is does she have daddy issues is like

well it's a movie so every female has

daddy issues

uh like is he think this is a good thing

or does he think it's a bad thing like

judging from his initial reaction

he's he thinks it's a good thing he

thinks it's a good thing yes okay

like oh i'm like your father and

therefore you're

like me in a sexual way right

but then we kind of cut to well first

she because she's pointing out that she

has the necklace

that's how they like kiss it which is

just like

is that weird is that a thing that

people do i think that

kissing like you know religious relics

and stuff like that yeah that's a thing

is it for good luck or something she's

just like oh you notice my jesus you

want to kiss it

and he's like yeah yeah i want to kiss

your cleavage

jesus and then he like leans forward to

kiss it

and right as his sister comes out with

all the wrapping paper they have to stop

um but then we just cut immediately to

him delivering the action right

right stuff to her weird that she like

she came there because she needed stuff

immediately because she ordered stuff

and it wasn't gonna get there in time

and like i get

it it's not like amazon like you're not

going to get stuff tomorrow

but he offered to bring stuff on

wednesday i don't know what day of the

week it currently is

yeah but like absolutely wednesday is a

couple days away

yeah because otherwise he would have

said tomorrow right exactly so it's got

to be a few days away and it's

like didn't you order some and do you

really think you're going to need

10 rolls until your next order comes

yeah

we should also mention that this lydia

character looks like she's wearing like

a harpo

mark's wig yeah the whole time i just

thought it was an interesting choice

well it it she reminded me of like a

bleached blonde

bernadette peters from uh the jerk

honestly it reminded me more of like

estelle getty

she's not like she's i wouldn't call her

like an extremely attractive woman she's

not conventionally attracted no

and i think they did that to pair her

with dom oh okay

because if if a man had directed this

movie it would have just been like

a supermodel and it was like oh you look

like my father

now yeah yeah okay but yeah so he takes

all the

wrapping paper to her store on the

wednesday and they realize they have all

this other stuff in common

too much other stuff it's too many

things that's weird is she his sister

yeah i thought they were going that way

at some point because she's like wait a

minute both of our parents are dead we

both have a little brother named frankie

we're both like at least half italian

yeah um but yeah no it's just a just a

weird coincidence

and she runs this little antique shop

and she knows the name of everything

that's in there

just like he knows every card in his

store right

connections so the things that she shows

them like they start realizing the

coincidences that they have in common

when she

picks up a big bottle of like she just

calls it polish water

this is a bottle of polish water um but

he's like oh you're polish i'm italian

like

we'll fit together like polish and

italian people

um but then the one thing that when

they're realizing all these coincidence

is she's holding a

candle snuffer outer i don't i don't

think that's the right term

well that's what she calls it um

but yeah and then uh it was really weird

because when they're talking about it

and he says oh yeah what

so your mom's dead too right and she's

like yeah what about you

and he says yeah and then like six

seconds later he goes

dead and then they just stand there and

look at each other for a while until the

scene's over again

oh the candle snuffer as they're

actually called

was invented in 1776. like i feel like

that should be older than that i would

think so too actually

if only we had some way of putting these

candles out just gotta let them burn

there's no such invention so then we are

at the first official meeting of for dom

for the chubby checkers

right uh and it's just a bunch of people

yelling

fast yeah it's like it's supposed to

start with like i am fat or people

acknowledging their own fatness but it

devolves into

people just chanting the word fat and

there's nothing to get comfortable with

yeah some girl is crying in the

background she's like not ready to admit

it or he doesn't want to say the word

and dom is like just barely getting into

it but there's people just

shouting it like they're at an italian

funeral just

excitedly shouting the word fat over and

over again the guy running the whole

thing looks like

gene charlotte and norm peterson had a

baby

that's basically all we get from this

meeting right other than he gives a list

of phone numbers to call of duty

yeah and he gets that guy who was

leading the meeting's phone number

right he's that that is him and his i

guess his son

yeah or his friend or friend or his

chubby checkers

and so they lock up all the food at

dom's house yeah instead of just getting

rid of all their crappy food they

literally just put chains up to hold all

the cabinets closed

and uh but domino louise has a moment of

weakness in the night

and pulls a gun on his brother yeah this

this movie makes a hard left

like one moment we and we have like

another like funny bit he's like

just about to fall asleep and he turns

on the tv to get like a little something

entertaining

and it's just food commercial after food

commercial after food commercial and

then suddenly he's just

shouting at his brother with a gun in

his head and he chases him into the

kitchen he's like give me the case to

the cabinets give me the key

and he's like that's that's your

nephew's gun that's not real and he's

like

all right this is real he grabs this

like 10 inch knife

yeah and he's just like give me the keys

now and they look like he's

like he's literally that crazy that he's

gonna right that he's gonna kill

him and later in the scene we find out

he ate an

entire pizza like six hours ago by

himself

a large pizza six hours ago and he's

already hungry enough

to murder his younger brother for the

keys to his kitchen cabinet and the

scene goes on for a really long time and

the knife changes hands a couple times

not it's not

funny like it's really kind of like it's

legitimately terrifying

especially when he's like breaks down

like oh my god i'm so sorry and then his

brother puts the knife down and he picks

it up again yeah

and it's like oh my god like how can you

believe him

any of the future times in the scene

that he stops but see i think

what that scene needed was a few more of

those

because because then it becomes funny

and absurd yeah right now it's just

scary it just felt very real because

because when the brother gets it he's

like

oh yeah now i got the night you're like

it's like he's like

i'm so sorry that they both are crying

then he grabs the knife again and it and

you just think that needs to happen at

least one one more change yeah

because then it's absurd and funny that

they keep dropping the knife

and apologetically hitting each other

only to draw the knife no you know what

they say comedy comes in twos

[Laughter]

um but yeah so he decides okay we gotta

call your chubby checkers

um and so he he phones up the chubby

checkers he says hi ms little brother

you gotta come down here you gotta help

us

and they say okay go boil some water

yeah

okay why am i going to boil water and

he's like they said you got to drink hot

water it's like i don't think you should

drink boiling water

um but then he admits like yeah i i

literally

i after i left her store earlier today i

didn't have the guts to ask her out so i

ordered a large pizza and satinated by

myself

it's like earlier today i did that and

then i just tried to murder you

um then when the chubby checkers get

there they all just get like

they sit in a circle with their watering

mouths talking about

they're trying to like console each

other and you know and for some reason

to do that they start talking about like

all of their favorite foods

right but these are supposed to be like

experts at weight loss that would know

better than to have this conversation

right like isn't this guy like

in charge of the group right but also

earlier when

uh mrs uh goodman was in the store

telling them about chubby checkers she's

like eating snacks the whole time she's

doing it

she's like oh it's so great you just got

it and it's like clearly this whole

thing is a scam because none of these

people are really into it

but but i like the i did like this bit

where while they're talking they keep

asking for progressively more and more

stuff to be put in their hot water

like lemons yeah you want a lemon in

there and he's like could you just

squeeze an orange in there he's like how

about honey just just a drop i'll take a

drop of honey

it was like he's like where's the

honey's in the cabinet i can't but then

gene charlotte goes crazy and rips all

the cabinet doors off

and then it's just a hard cut to an

overhead shot of them just

cooking everything that they have and

dom's on the phone ordering like

delivery ice cream

and donuts like i don't know who they're

calling it 3 a.m that's delivering ice

cream and dough yes

definitely not instacart like back then

so who's getting them

all of this food yeah who's enabling

this

um but then the the party slowly fizzles

out as everyone's food comas take over

and uh frankie tells antoinette what's

going on so she's like watching them

through the door

but both of them are like oh this is so

funny that this is happening

it's like this is supposed to be a

family tragedy and you guys are cracking

up about

him relapsing and doing this terrible

stuff to his body i i think that

we weren't supposed to see them smiling

i think that they just forgot to cut but

they were like we have to use every

frame i shot

yeah i think sometimes twice

i think that they were supposed to be

looking concerned but they broke

halfway down the stairs but then you

know they just just kept going with it

yeah because she's clearly laughing just

blatantly laughing at how ridiculous

this is that this has happened to him

again

um that he's killing himself that her

brother is dying

and that's pretty funny to her so she

runs into lydia

she decides she's gonna go get lydia out

of her store and drag her into his

bedroom to embarrass him

right but he even asked like oh did you

know when she brings it brings me it's

like oh did she

did she tell you what's like why i'm

sick and

you know and she's like yeah so it's

like she she knows

everything that's going on but she also

she brought the

the snuffer router to his bedroom which

i thought she was going to say something

about like

don't snuff out your life or something

like that yeah but

the there's no symbolism to it literally

just brought you a tiny cone on a stick

because i'm weird um she tries to

comfort him for a while

and she's like look i understand what

you're going through let's go eat a

bunch of chinese sausage

at a fair and he's like yeah that sounds

like a great idea

yeah yeah because then it's just a

montage of of dates

him on dates for a while eating yeah and

eating in front of his sister

like suddenly nobody cares that they're

going on dates and eating constantly

we do see a little malooch at the street

fair collecting money from people buying

their lottery tickets

yeah there's some weird moments in the

in like the dating montage though

that it's just like you know how they

had the sort of creepy

awkward moments of all the things that

they had in common well they sort of

extended that here where they're like

making out and plotting which mass

they're going to the next day

yeah you know and he's like oh we're

going to go to this one it's like oh no

no that's a high mass we don't want to

go to that one then

he also keeps winning prizes for her at

all the booths

like he's just like oh i got you

this stuffed animal and this hat and

this big dinosaur from a booth that my

brother is inexplicably running

all of a sudden um but yeah so they

they get all the way back to her house

and they're very lovey-dovey

um and did you see the shot in that

montage too where they're like making

out in front of like

just a pile of rubble like in the street

like destroyed building yeah like what

was that there's also one where they're

completely blocking the stairwell to

like just some apartment complex it's

not the building that he lives in and

it's not her building

the next day he's talking to frank or

he's he's like getting dressed in the

morning

and he realizes that his clothes feel

bigger on him

and he's like oh where'd you get these

clothes they don't fit me right like

it's like that's the same clothes i

always get you because he's actually

losing weight apparently somehow like

even though

he hasn't changed his eating habits he's

still just eating with her all the time

um but he shows him this ring that he

got her

because he decides he wants to he wants

to propose to her

and i liked the joke that the ring was

the mineral

was appetite yeah that was yeah but then

it's appetite and marcosite

which like his name's not marcus like i

don't understand the point of including

marcus i just

just give her an appetite ring that's

the joke yeah

but um but he can't reach her because

apparently his plan was to propose to

her over the phone

well he he was going to call her because

he was running late because

he couldn't decide what to wear oh okay

um but then

she didn't pick up right and so he went

down there but there was no sign of her

yeah and now he's looking all over

meanwhile a bunch of families just

gathering at their

house oh your girlfriend's gone missing

let's have a party

well do they i think the only person

that knows that she's missing is frankie

yeah everyone else is just like we got a

bunch of people

uh who should we get to go pick up all

the food how about that fat guy who we

keep picking on for being fat and eating

all the food that he picks up for us

so they tell dom like here's a and this

is the second from 1980 so far

to refer to chinese food with a slur for

chinese people

and so he collects this huge like forty

dollar chinese food order which i guess

forty dollars there's a lot of chinese

food in 1980 yeah making forty dollars a

lot of chinese food now

so in 1980 that was a lot well i mean it

was two big foods

did you notice though when he like two

big brown bags worth of food

in his arms none of the takeout

containers were closed they were

literally

all open in the top of these brown bags

after he broke down and ate them though

no it was before like literally when the

guy

he was in the restaurant he's like oh

what's this and it's like oh it's the

chinese sausage and what did he say

there i heard the word chinese sausage

but then he says words after that

and i couldn't hear what he said and

then dom repeats him

and is even more like mushmouth like i

couldn't hear

i heard him say chinese sausage but that

was all i heard oh i thought he just

said something like oh that smells good

or something

yeah that smells good what's that the

chinese sauce

chinese sausage but then he takes out

these

big brown bags full of containers that

are all open and i'm like

if these bags are all full of food are

all of these containers open or just the

ones on the top not close

just lazy prop work but then he just

gets in the car and cries the whole way

back to the apartment because he doesn't

know where lydia is and she's not

getting back to him

um and he eats all the food and pulls

over and like throws his bags into

alley to like hide the evidence but it's

like no you're showing back up in an

apartment without two bags of food that

you were supposed to bring in

yeah there's a lot of evidence here

that's a problem also

he apparently walked in and just threw

his keys down the hall

to outside and laid them down gently

yeah inside their doors but it's like

went upstairs

what was the point of that to give the

guy his car keys back i don't think it

was his name yeah he borrowed it he

borrowed a guy's car

okay well it just seemed weird to me

that he like left them on the floor

there

well and that was a kind of weird moment

too because they come out and i was like

oh did he leave the car there and then

like went to a bridge to like jump off

it no he's just upstairs being sad in

the dark

yeah and i thought that like uh

it would have made more sense if it was

like no no i didn't eat all the food i'm

just really sad because i can't find

lydia and all the food's in the car i

just couldn't bring myself into the room

or something like that but no they were

just like no he just has another relapse

and eats all the food

yeah and there's no consequence for it

right but then his sister goes upstairs

and finds him up there

and then like in the dark up there she

starts

hitting him with like a switch like

another moment where she goes like full

bore like she's

going to town hitting him really hard

with a switch i'm like this is

this is a little excessive and then the

moral to this whole scene seems to be

guess what guys i'm fat and i eat a lot

and you guys just have to deal with it

right you have to accept me for that

and once again as jesse pointed out

really not that fat

yeah he's he's maybe overweight i don't

think he's

i wouldn't say fat well maybe he's 1980

standards fat but like nowadays

he's average well now he's very skinny

oh he's all skin bones

no skin i guess after he finally reveals

actually you guys just need to leave me

alone and let me eat things and be fat

and then lydia calls

yeah and it turns out that her brother

cut his finger off or something

right and she had to be with him in the

hospital for a blood transfusion and

he's been in a coma

or or unconscious and uh

that's why she's been incommunicados

because she had to give blood for her

brother

right and then cell phone this is

obviously before cell phones so

yeah and then uh

he goes to meet her at the hospital

where she asks him to meet her

and they go on a little walk through the

hospital and they

walk past a nursery and they get excited

to look at the baby

baby yeah and a nurse just picks it up

and points it at them like it's their

baby

like why are you picking that baby up

and pointing out check out this pack

honestly it's a record that actually

makes more sense like

holy [ __ ] guys look at this fat baby

well laugh at it

i think the joke is that that oh here's

one of these here's a fat guy this must

be this must be his baby

oh that's funny okay i can see that

actually being the joke

um but then he like whispers in her ear

to propose to her

yeah well we don't have any of their

audio yeah she just literally leans in

her ear and whispers something and then

she goes

yeah yes yeah i will or something like

that and they freeze frame

right and then they cut to a bunch of

pictures of them like

with children like growing throughout

the years but it just i mean i feel like

this is a really weird way to end it

because

you know like like you said the moral

that we got to at the end is like just

accept me for who i am i'm fat

and and it wasn't like he

changed for her and he turned his life

around because

of like there but honestly i felt like i

was getting that message a lot earlier

in the film even

when like she says something along the

lines of like it seems like the harder i

try the worse things get and it's like

yeah it does seem like that it seems

like when he can eat cake

to his heart's content that he's a very

nice guy and when you

only give him one whole pizza a day he

tries to murder his own siblings

i guess it's about learning to love

yourself yeah

which he comes to terms with at the end

and he says literally when they're in

the hospital she says like

i love you and he's like yeah i do too

like

like he loves himself well i you know i

kind of disagree with the

the imdb like summary where it's like he

meets this girl and he has to choose

between food and love and it's like

she's never made him yeah

she never really cares she does tell him

when they first meet like you should

take care of yourself if

if like you have right obesity-related

let's go get salads she says let's go

get chinese sausage whatever that even

means

i've never heard of chinese sausage oh

you haven't heard of chinese sausage you

haven't lived

anyway if you're not familiar with don

deluise

i feel like you probably are but who

knows maybe you're 12.

um he was in fail-safe directed by

sydney lumet which we talked about

uh in the first movie it's the one that

was like same story as

doctor strangelove but uh not

technically adaptable from the same book

failsafe and it came out the same year

64.

um he was also in blazing saddles silent

movie

uh one year previous to this he appeared

in the muppet movie yeah um

and uh obviously after this he was in

the cannonball runs and the smokey

bandits

and a lot of voice acting and ann

bancroft

one of her first credits was on climax

with an exclamation mark which is the

show where

they they had the first the jimmy bond

prior to

sean connery playing james bond the

first uh

live-action interpretation of ian

fleming's books was on an episode of

climax which

just adapted a different book every week

or a couple

every week wait but this isn't the same

as the made for tv

james bond movie or is this the one this

is was a tv show climax yeah

okay climax was a series and

they would just do like a drawing right

but wasn't there a made for tv

james bond movie no that it wasn't a

movie

it was only an episode it was the length

of an episode so this is the one that

was like the casino royale

one right it was yeah i think it was

casino royale yeah

and anne bancroft also played annie

sullivan in the miracle worker

she was obviously probably most famous

for mrs robinson and the graduate

she was also in blazing saddles and

silent movie uncredited

and she played ursula von rugen in

hindenburg

which is a fun movie yeah and she will

also come back later this year for

elephant man the other brooks film

that we talked about um who else did we

have in here that we didn't talk about

there's a character named pat mannarino

yeah uh because

rudy deluca i obviously know from the

watermel brook stuff but i don't know

who he was in this movie

my guess would be the only other guy

that we saw

talk which uh there's a person at the

funeral at the beginning

who he's trying to give flowers to put

them on the coffin

and the woman has to like wrench them

out of his hand because he won't let go

of them

and then he's also very drunk when they

ordered the chinese food

and is shouting um because robert

costanzo

uh was also in it and yeah and so

because another actor that i like but

right um

like as far as people who who had

speaking parts so i don't even know if

rudy

had a speaking part yeah if he did i

think that's the character they would be

but he's he's obviously

he wrote a lot of mel brooks movies and

um

he's uh in many brooks movies but

i always think of him as vinnie the

assistant to

pizza the hut in spaceballs which i

remember the first time i saw that movie

i was like that's probably bill murray

it wasn't yeah yeah well but it's funny

because dom deluise is doing the voice

of

right of piece of the hut along with

vinnie

dom deluise was also in uh johnny

dangerously because he plays the pope

i'm pretty sure

he literally like comes to town and

blesses johnny on his way to work one

day

but yeah i think that's about it for

this one it's not it's not terribly

funny now i mean

in terms of like is it worth watching no

no

probably not thumbs down for me yeah i

mean

i love dom de louise and i love

minecraft but

i feel like this one i'm not gonna tell

people to go rent delgo or anything

yeah i i just feel like this movie

was missing something yeah and it was

jokes well i also think like story-wise

there wasn't anything that was really

particularly special about the story

is there an example of dom leading a

movie

and it being good because he works

really really well as a sidekick but i

can't think of something with him

in the lead besides this maybe he's just

not

the right person to be the centerpiece

uh i can't i mean i'm looking at his

credits and there's a lot of credits but

i don't

know everything that he's done on here

so i don't know how much of those

when he was just a part of all right

well why don't we go into the

letterboxed

um where does this go

i think it's it's definitely

i would rather watch this than just tell

me what you want but i'd rather watch

just about anything

than watch that movie again uh so you're

gonna go

to all a good night this just tell me

what you want

yeah i think so i think that's the way

it goes what do you think

uh yeah i guess it's the same for me all

right i'm putting fatso on the bottom

really yeah all right wow yeah i think

this is

this is not not for me

and uh it just feels

uh like kind of a mess i'm wondering

if this which situat which of these two

situations

it was was it because mel brooks isn't

on the producer's list right now not a

writing credit or anything

and was wondering if this was and

bancroft wanted to do something on her i

think it was a personal story for her

right but wouldn't you go if you're

trying to make a movie that's funny

and your husband is a legendary comedy

writer

and director even at this point because

he had written first at caesar

for a long time wouldn't you say hey can

you help me punch this script up

i don't think so i don't think she would

i think that

though i think the point for her was to

say this is my movie that i did without

his help

if people want to think of me as his

wife then that's their

loss but i can make a movie without

running it by him and i think that was

probably he was like no do your own

thing

i'm not trying to take over any creative

credit for this

but it also doesn't feel like they

risked a lot of money on it

it looks like the whole thing every

every exterior

is a back lot um it looks like it's all

the fox lot with and even the interiors

of the shop i think

are all on the fox back lot

so i i really don't think it cost much

of anything it wasn't a huge risk for

probably probably had everybody doing

them a favor to be i mean she was

obviously not taking a big salary and

maybe they were shooting this and

elephant man at the same time or at

least in pre-production on elephant man

yeah well and and again because mel

brooks is

close friends all involved yeah playing

playing roles

and they're all people that she's worked

with too through his films so right

like she obviously knew dom personally

but like

she literally put her name in the movie

like her her um

her maiden name is dinapoli so that's

the name that she gave to these

characters in the movie

um so yeah i think it was supposed to be

about actually her and her family or

maybe her extended family but

i wouldn't be surprised if someone

actually died from some obesity related

illness somewhere in in the family

history so was this supposed to be like

her feature film psa kind of

because then i think it's got the it's

got a weird message at the end if that's

really what it was like it's not like

oh i found i found this woman who

was meant so much to me that i changed

my life it was no

just accept me for being fat and i'll do

what i'm gonna do because even in the

pictures at the end like he was getting

fat again

yeah yeah it's a it's a weird moral

based on the first two-thirds of the

movie to just end it with

and then he got fat again and who cares

but he also like dom himself did get big

again

and lived a pretty full life

i mean how old was he when he died in

his 70s 75 75

so that's not that's not it's not like

he died at 39.

um like like like salvation or these

39 or 29 i think it was 39 39 yeah

because he was supposed to be 39 in the

movie too right yeah they were supposed

to be pretty similar age

um but yeah i think that's everything

for this one

um if you guys have any thoughts you'd

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thank you so much for listening and i

hope you'll join us next time when we'll

be discussing

my brilliant career no not my brilliant

career

the movie my brilliant career uh which i

think is

this big sweeping australian drama

starring sam neil

oh sam neil yeah let me just

double checking yep sam neil all right

i'm in

i know you would be and judy davis

ooh judy davis yeah she's all right

she's got judy davis eyes

that's true i've always thought that

about her a young

independent woman who lives with her

grandmother and aunt in the countryside

rebels against being pressured into

marriage and chooses

to solely focus on having a career as a

writer

nevertheless two suitors proposed to her

we leave you now with the audio from the

trailer for that film

analysis films proudly presents a

brilliant new motion picture

my brilliant career jack kroll of

newsweek says

judy davis is like a summer storm sam

neil is dashingly handsome

kathleen carroll daily news my brilliant

career blazes with life and vitality

judy davis is simply a jewel says

cosmopolitan

a sparkling movie a film of shining

pleasure

nbc tv this film is simply wonderful

abc tv a film of extraordinary appeal

you leave the film applauding her

courage strength and hope

and exceptional work rex reed stanley

kaufman exclaims

her raw for them all it's hard to

imagine a film filled with more quiet

integrity

intelligent passion realistic drama and

genuine entertainment than jillian

armstrong's my brilliant career

the boston globe exhilarating

says mademoiselle the san francisco

herald american calls it

an exuberant and exalting movie

brilliant a delicious pillow fight far

more erotic in its connotations than

most

r-rated movies managed to be new house

papers

a glorious romance the new york times

judy davis could not be more appealing

as the high spirited sevilla

her freckled face and cheerful impudence

reminded me of another much cherished

actress

catherine hepburn daily news no wonder

the audience cheered

andrew sarris village voice my brilliant

career

at analysis films release