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

i thought they smelled bad on the

outside

welcome to vintage video where we're

re-watching the 80s so you don't have to

we'll be reviewing every major film

release of the 1980s in real time i'm

patrick o'reilly

i'm jesse bayless and i'm richard wells

and today marks the 40th anniversary of

the release of kearney on may 23

1980 it was written by phoebe and robert

kaler

robbie robertson and thomas baum

directed by robert kaler

and released by united artist

director robert kaler originally wanted

a much smaller film starring harvey

keitel

and robert mitchum and apparently harvey

was at one point attached but obviously

that didn't go through

which character do we know which

character um i would guess that harvey

keitel would have been the gary busey

that's where i would put him i i could

totally see him playing that character

yeah and the robert robertson would be

the

macmillan guy running the oh really i

would have thought mitchum would have

been the patch character well maybe

i don't know co-screenwriter and star

robbie robertson spent

some of his teenage years working

traveling in the carnival circuit

that's as much background as i could

find on this one we start the film

with gary busey as frankie applying

clown makeup in a tent

as creepy carnival music plays yeah i i

thought that

this movie was going to go a completely

different direction like a gay c movie

you mean casey right not gay c movie

right

it seemed like you had a longer pause

between casey the only gay c movie i can

think of is

his boat trip with cuba gooding jr and

horatio sands

was one of them gay no but the whole

cruise was

they were pretending to be gay on a

cruise and then they fell in love with a

woman

and then it was like a three to tango

situation like roger moore was in that

movie as well

was he like he was aware but just like

being friendly with them anyway

yeah how do we get onto this subject gay

c

this is your fault we get a quick

carnival montage

we see the zipper ride which i've been

on many times

and it hucks all the change out of your

pockets full speed into the crowd

that's pretty wonderful which one the

zipper

the zipper oh that was that's a terrible

my sister and i oh no we loved that ride

i did too until i was old enough to have

change in my pockets and then i hated it

because it would just rattle around in

the cage with me and smack me in the

face and then eventually fly through the

cracks and

we used to my sister and i used to like

grab on the bar and like

hurl ourselves back and forth to get the

thing to

flip you know while it was turning all

the way around

i distinctly remember the last time i

went on one of those because i was just

slamming my head into the

fence in front of me the whole time and

mikey was with me and he wasn't big

enough to

to push that far on the bar but he was

just the whole time like are you okay

are you okay and then when we got out he

was like we don't have to go on that one

again i was like yeah

zipper was my second favorite ride the

first favorite ride

was the gravitron yeah

i would always flip myself upside down i

was too chicken

and then i would be upside down when the

thing stopped and that was

that was difficult to deal with and

that's why you're in that coma for a

while

i was always a tilde world guy well

that's just

that's joe dante's fault right yeah

pretty much

that explorer's ride yeah there's a guy

doing a trick where he swallows objects

that seem to be volunteered from the

crowd right now he's swallowing a watch

which he's just dropping behind his face

um

away from camera i think okay doesn't

look like he's actually swallowing it

here

but then uh he sees patch in the crowd

and he says 100 for anybody who finds

something that i can't swallow

and he walks up to the front of the

crowd and gives him a straight razor

he's like all right fine here's 100

bucks and then he shows the crowd the

straight razor because he's trying to

show oh it's a legitimate game like

he could have brought this up but he

brought it up so he wins he continuing

to walk through

the the midway he finds a game where you

guess the state that's going to light up

and then he spins a wheel

and uh he gets it right because the game

is rigged

and they want to show people that the

game isn't rigged and that people can

win but

they don't know that he works there

frankie as

this bozo the clown character is in a

dunk tank

harassing carnival goers donna and her

date show up

and uh her date is immediately calling

out some of the games on the midway

as being rigged and he's trying to be

like macho about it like he's

like he's protecting her from some sort

of danger or

he's too smart for these guys right but

he walks up to the pick a state game

which to be clear there are 50 states so

you have a two percent chance of winning

and he calls out the state that he wants

and then when the guy spins the wheel he

pushes a button under the counter

and the guy's like whoa hold on why'd

you have to push that button and he's

like i didn't push any button what are

you talking about and then he

starts shouting at him so he's like fine

we'll just roll it again you only have a

two percent chance of winning anyway

yeah and he loses the game and he's like

yeah see you should have just

should have just lost it the first time

patch walks with frankie from the dunk

tank

to his trailer and he's coughing he's

hidden under a blanket because they

don't want him to get insult

assaulted by the people who he's been

making fun of yeah because uh

donna's date uh mickey was

being especially harassed yes her

boyfriend

actually after this volunteers for

like a strip show like they're taking a

volunteer from the crowd

yeah and they call him up for it so he

leaves her outside while he goes to this

stripping show

and she walks up to one of the games and

out of his makeup now

frankie sees her standing there and

she's sort of getting bothered by this

older gentleman

who uh isn't making a lot of sense when

he talks to her it seems like he's

demanding information from her

yeah but then frankie walks up and he

calls the guy dad

i don't think it's his actual father but

i think it's like yeah

his his credit is on the mark yeah

and i think they sometimes call him the

mark yeah they call them both of those

things later in the film

but i think i think that this was just

maybe

an affectionate term for an older guy

exactly yeah but

uh right away he's coming to her defense

by getting in between her and this

this crazier old guy and he guesses her

age and her birth month and her name

correctly which

impresses her because this isn't like a

psychic act he just walks up and

makes these observations the the

age and birth month thing isn't as

impressive as the name thing

because she tells him in advance that

her name

starts with a d and that it's five

letters long and then the old man leans

in and says

if i had all night i'd be an astronaut

mickey comes back that's the boyfriend

and he starts to pick a fight with

frankie because he thinks

that he's harassing his girlfriend

beyonce

oh fiance right and uh then frankie

kind of tries to defuse the situation

for a while but the guy really wants to

pick a fight so frankie switches into

his like creepy bozo voice

you want to mess with my lady you better

be ready to mess with me buddy get up

don't [ __ ] with me

get up mickey let's go i think we got us

here a big iron steel man she's gonna

iron and he's gonna steal uh

oh what happened to your belt buckle

goofy

[Laughter]

then spins around on the chair and it

freaks the guy out and he's like what

the hell

and then suddenly patches there with the

straight razor that he gave to

the swallower and he's holding it to

mickey's neck oh it's holding it to his

eye

oh to his eye yeah it's like she and

andre lou stuff

yeah yeah i mean i know it's a prop at

least i hope it's a prop

yeah but uh it's still very frightening

donna is mad at her boyfriend for

escalating this into a big fight when it

didn't need to be it was just her

talking with a guy

but they walked back to the car and

she's just pissed off at him

frankie and patch find two random girls

uh to take back to their trailer for the

night and in the morning they're leaving

as frankie and patrick having breakfast

with each other but they seem to kind of

know each other because he says i'll see

you next season

right like i guess the regulars yeah

and i kept thinking that this cough was

gonna be some kind of looming thing that

he's like ill

or that he's got a pneumonia from

getting dunked all the time yeah but

like that this is gonna be like

something where he's gonna be like

getting sicker throughout the movie uh

but this is the sickest that we will see

him

yeah it's all over but it kind of comes

back

it comes back around later does it maybe

gary busey was actually sick on set

because it never plays a part in the

story right it does later okay i don't

remember

i don't remember that either we'll get

there okay

uh patch asks frankie about his hairline

because he worries that

it's starting to recede as he ages uh

frankie sees donna outside that's the

the girl whose name starts with d

that's five letters long she came back

to the park

i think looking for him specifically but

this time without her boyfriend

and uh dad and a couple other carnies

start harassing her until frankie shows

up she asks him to explain some of his

tricks how he guessed her birthday and

her name and

he says her engagement ring had her

birthstone on it

and that he could tell by looking at her

what her age was but that

he assumed that she would be turning 19

in december and her name he guessed

because there's only about 12 d names

that are five letters long and he's like

memorizing

girls names and letter count and

everything they walk past the fat boys

trailer

which is a pretty small trailer for the

fat boy um he must be filling

more than half of this thing by himself

but frankie makes a few jokes about him

and how he never comes out because

if he falls over he can't get up on his

own

as they're walking around uh the

carnival grounds we see fred ward

chasing a guy down and uh the guy goes

to hide inside of a truck and slams the

window shut

but right as he slams the window shot

fred is able to put like a big piece of

wood right through the window yeah and

just like price the glass right out

yeah apparently this guy was somehow

connected to the mayor

and fred ward yeah yeah and uh he says

we're gonna get this place

because like another person comes up

like an aide comes up and

says we're gonna shut this place down

and uh the guy in the truck is

trying to like say that you know hey i

didn't pull any scans he actually

lost the money legitimately yeah but

patch just keeps saying shut your clam

how much you yeah uh two hundred dollars

that's crazy

hey set your clamp i didn't take him for

a smear sonny he blew it man

you shut your clan i'm telling you shut

your clap all right

he says it probably five times i was

like just shut your clam

it's like i don't i don't know if i've

ever heard that one i like

but then uh to prevent this from

escalating out of control they

they pay the guy fred ward his money and

then they even pay

the the guy from the mayor's office with

a bunch of tickets for kids to come back

to

the carnival for free so that there's no

trouble because they're only going to be

in town for a couple days anyway

we cut directly to after sex between

frankie and donna

yeah this already happened she's in

the uh the tent where he applies his

makeup and he's putting it on here

and she's asking about how it sticks to

his skin and everything

and he says the easiest way to take it

off is with other skin and then

they kiss and he rubs his makeup all

over her face

she's like oh i'm beautiful just like

you she says she wishes

she could leave town because she feels

like she's stuck here she's a waitress

and she lives with her parents and

frankie says well you know we

we go from town to town like you're

welcome to join us when we when we go

back on the road

and the next night we see her sneaking

all of her stuff

out in a suitcase to run away and join

the circus

i guess this was like the last kind of

decade where you could do that

yeah this is the last like running away

and joining the circus decade

yeah i guess this is in the 90s i feel

like maybe you could run away and join

this

cirque du soleil cirque du soleil maybe

you'd have to be really terrible

probably not yeah it's because it had to

be really

yeah there's a long waiting list the

next day we have uh

what is the uh the guy that runs the

place heavy st john

heavy st john uh the next day we have

heavy st john

walking the uh what will be the carnival

grounds

and he's basically like drawing the map

in his head of where each stand is going

to go

they talk to him a little bit about how

they have a friend that's going to be

joining them on the next leg

and he says he wants to they're going to

talk about it later

he's worried that she's young yeah and

he convinces her no no

she's she's old enough but they also

they say something like

we confirmed that she's old enough and

it's like did you confirm beyond just

asking her how old she was because i

kept thinking the twist was going to be

that

she lied and that she was actually 17

going on 18 and they just assumed that

his guess was correct

and that that was going to be a problem

later on like when they transported her

across state lines

but it never comes back and and i think

they're more concerned is anyone going

to come looking for you

right and and she says no yeah when when

he asks her if anybody knows where she

is she says no and that's

that's actually the answer they wanted

was that nobody knew you were running

away with the circus

it starts to rain on the carnival that

night frankie's in the dunk tank but

there's basically nobody here at the

carnival so patch is the one throwing

the balls because he's just

bored and he sinks him but the two of

them joke about it

i don't really understand this game

anyways like it's there's

you can't win anything aside from

dunking the guy who's insulting you in

the tank

that's the whole point it probably makes

the most money out of the whole carnival

because you get angrier and angrier and

you're like well i can't just walk away

now the guy's making fun of me in front

of everybody

yeah but but the angrier you get too and

the the more you miss yeah

i guess i mean i don't know if dunking

him is really

accomplishing anything yeah it's not

really they just have to hope that they

get it

like every time they're throwing it but

either way it's just playing off

people's egos

i i feel like the dunk tank is more of a

thing that you see

at a charity exactly like it's like the

principal

right yeah when people want to give up

money to

because it's funny to dunk this person

but like in this situation

like his whole job is to just make

people angry

in order to get them to pay money to try

to get him

dunked and i guess it just takes a

certain type of guy to react to that but

it just seems i think it takes the kind

of guy that goes to a small town

carnival to react to that

especially if he brought a girlfriend

along because all you have to do is make

fun of him in front of his girlfriend

and then

he has to prove something in front of

her and the only way he can do it is by

buying balls and sinking you

i guess patch and frankie return to

their trailer where donna has prepared

some

coffee and food and she's cleaned up a

little patch is upset about it at first

because

some of his paperwork has been moved

from sitting on a desk to like a shelf

somewhere

there's a line in here at some point

where she says

something about him you know like

catching his death a cold or something

like that

so she's you know acting all

motherly or wifely you know and trying

to take care of him

in a way that he's not been taken care

of before so i think this is where it

kind of comes in that it's like

hey without you he could be sick and

dying but she's coming in to take care

of him and that's what that's what that

whole thing was about

okay um and then uh here patch basically

like reprimands her for touching his

stuff and says you know

just leave my stuff out and she's like

well i just wanted to clean up it was a

little dirty and he's like

that's fine i i like it dirty it's great

just leave the stuff where it is please

but the way he says it i felt like was

the first indication that he might

actually be in love with frankie

and upset about her like interrupting

their relationship well he's definitely

regardless of how he feels about frankie

he uh as far as romantically

he is she is definitely interfering with

his relationship with

him yeah because usually it's just the

two of them having fun and coming here

and joking around at night yeah and

and it's at this point that he's really

starting to realize that

what he thought was just going to be a

fling that he she might stick around for

a little while

yeah and then she would get tired of

frankie like everyone would

uh but it's clear to him now that she's

gonna be sticking around for a little

while longer right and he closes this

door that

can't be remotely sound proof to like

have a private conversation

with frankie about it like so what is

this like your girlfriend now and it's

like she

obviously hears you saying this in this

other room but yeah

he's upset about it well he says she's

our girlfriend

right yeah which which leads me to

wonder about what happens later but

yeah while they're in the trailer here

they notice outside that there are

people

i think having sex on the carousel and

this is a carny marriage yeah where

these people have sex for one go around

on the carousel and it means that

they're married for a season

it's obviously not a legal binding

marriage

but it's a way that people declare a

relationship

in this community we have a party to

celebrate the marriage

and fat man sings a song

[Music]

the cops interrupt the carnival one day

to tell them that

freak shows are illegal in the state and

uh they try to

they're like oh well we can bribe you

more and they're like well no it's a law

and there's there's not much we can do

about it and they said oh well we could

get rid of

the other two things that were bothering

to bribe you for and then you wouldn't

get any money would you rather have that

and the cops say look you can set up

your shop and it's fine just don't

employ any freaks here while you're in

town

and so frankie's the one who has to

break the news to the freaks

that they uh they just have to forego

their paychecks for this leg of the trip

well heavy st john said he would carry

them right

so at least he's paying them for it but

they don't get to work for it yeah

uh heavy thing john like i i always like

i kept couldn't figure him out i thought

he was going to be like the

the mean camp counselor or something

like that but i was like actually no he

really genuinely cares

yeah about all these people he's coming

to the wedding with like he's the one

the nicest dressed person at the wedding

but it comes with a full bouquet of

flowers for the bride

yeah well i always feel that way about

these carnival movies is that it's like

as much as they're really mean sometimes

like brutal to

the outside world they are a like

very protective community and they're

they're really very much in love with

each other

that they just care about um everyone's

well-being and they care about each

other

first harry the hat tries to set patch

up with a pair of twins

who according to the credits are not

related

what they have different last names and

they have different married

well if they were married before this

movie but i thought they were young to

be married already i guess it's possible

but in the credits of this movie they

have two different last names so

and they don't look exactly alike so i'm

not sure

frankie tells patch that he's on his own

with the girls

uh because patrick was like oh this is

sweet we've always talked about having

sex with twins

like you have a girlfriend twins

but he's like i have a girlfriend she's

right over there like what am i supposed

to do with my girlfriend

and uh and he's like okay

so i'm just supposed to have them by

myself then and then he's like yeah man

it's my gift to you you can have the

twins just just go and see him on your

own and he basically like walks away

from that opportunity like he doesn't

we don't see him flirting with the twins

after that point he sits at the table

with them for a second but yeah

well he he he becomes more upset that on

your mark

is announcing his retirement right he's

going to ride with him to one more city

and

that's going to be it he's retiring to

gibbtown after 50 years on the job

yeah and i think this is this kind of

brings patch's mood down yeah um and

that night he's

hanging out in the trailer when he sees

uh it starts raining really hard and he

looks out the window and he sees the fat

man

walk out into the middle of a field to

shower in the rain i thought there was

going to be more to that scene but

it was still interesting frankie patch

and donna

hit a trucker diner in the morning and

they have like a truckers only section

of the diner

yeah that they sort of walk into because

they are moving with large vehicles

and uh and the truckers start calling

them out like oh you guys aren't

part of our crew and what are you doing

here and donna starts

pitching insults right back at the rest

of them right but she's also the first

person to mention that they're with the

carnival

which i feel like they wouldn't have

mentioned on their own right and that

causes problems because

well they actually lied when they went

in they said they were truckers well

i think conceivably you could call them

truckers because they're moving in a

caravan

moving large equipment from city to city

i guess i mean the guys

the the truckers were heckling them

saying like what company you work for

yeah and they made up a company that's

true yeah but it wasn't until donna

admitted that they were with the

carnival that people really started

getting into them because they're like

oh you're a bunch of freaks you got to

get out of this town you freaks

one guy like literally just walks up to

the table and tells them they have to

leave right now

and uh they decide to get into a big

fight and basically completely destroy

this diner

in a matter of seconds yeah they like

take out a whole wall the dividing wall

between the trucker section and the

and the normal people section of the of

the diner because we all know truckers

aren't normal people

have you met a trucker they probably

listen to podcasts huh

we love you guys and girls they probably

listen to a lot of podcasts be nice

patches tells frankie to lose donna

she's causing problems and it was a fun

fling for a while but you gotta end it

because we're having real world

complications because of it

and uh frankie basically tells her that

hey we gotta keep moving along and this

isn't really working out so

maybe it's time for us to head our

separate ways and she basically says

well no i'm not gonna leave maybe i'll

join the circus and i'll be a part of

this trip show or something

and he's like would you really want to

do that she's like well yeah and we'd

have extra money coming in and

so she actually joins up with the

dancers to to become a part of the strip

show and they have uh

st john comes in to like verify that

everything's on the level then

and to tell her what her paycheck is

going to be which one

one of the strippers correctly predicts

it's going to be 90

a week which i got the impression is

kind of a generous

yeah offer for her because she's younger

and

maybe more attractive than some of the

other girls but she's also just

she's only supposed to be a background

dancer right but she also lies about

having had

experience yeah doing this but that's

part of why she's going to be background

dancers because he can tell that she

doesn't have that experience and he's uh

also because she looks young and he

doesn't want to get shaken down by the

cops

patches as like kind of vengeance

against her for not leaving when he

wanted her to

talks to the guy running the strip show

and tells him

to put donna on that she said she's

experienced and she can run a show by

herself

so the guy agrees to do it and uh

after the first like strip number when

all the girls walk off stage he

says all right now we're gonna have this

next girl come on and he points at donna

like all right it's your turn

and she barely steps out on stage before

the crowd is kind of going insane one of

them is like jumps up on the stage

already

and uh well i think they were they were

getting antsy from waiting yeah

right but she had barely been standing

out there for like five seconds before

there was a guy already on stage because

he was he was flirting pretty hard with

the dancer before her

too but then like everybody's going

crazy and pushing and shoving through

the tent

and two guys like pick her up yeah they

they pick her up some guy takes his

shirt off

yeah and and it it's just like she's

screaming well these people are

manhandling her

definitely escalated quickly yeah and

these two guys like

when they're like all right put this

girl down instead of putting her down

they just huck her off to the side of

the stage and she like

smacks her head hard enough to bust it

open and she's bleeding from her temple

on the side of her head and everybody's

freaking out there's like alarms going

off people are getting kicked out of the

room

and she doesn't throw patches under the

bus when she has the opportunity to

frankie comes in and he's like what

happened and she's like oh i lied and

said that i was

more experienced and i was able to do

the show and i just screwed it up and so

people got upset about it

he's like oh well why why'd you say that

like he's like trying to be

comforting and and caring about what

happened to her

but then after the show patches is like

you didn't have to lie for me

like that wasn't you didn't have to do

that to protect me and she's like i

wasn't trying to protect you i didn't

want to hurt

frankie's feelings to have him know that

you screwed me over like that

and i get the impression that this is

like the beginning of them becoming

friends

um on the road to the next town donna

to try and entertain patch puts a bunch

of shaving cream all over frankie's face

while he's asleep

and the two of them share a laugh over

that uh when they get to the next town

there's a new guy in control of this

territory

and uh he runs like the massage parlors

and

um he's like a local crime boss right so

he has

gambling and sex stuff that uh he it's

his territory and

they're like well yeah that's fine like

we're not trying to take your territory

we're gonna be here temporarily

and the way this works is we give you a

cut of what we're doing

so that there's not any problems is it

the way we've always done it we paid the

guy before you

and this guy says okay well what are you

going to pay me and they offer them what

they were offering they have for

probably a little bit less intending to

bargain and uh

he asks for way more than they're

interested in paying him

and then they're like okay fine well

good luck enforcing it because

we're not going to pay that much we it's

we can't even afford that much it like

eats into our overhead

so they basically leave it at that um we

have this scene where

donna is flirting very hardcore with a

girl and her friend

yeah the greta v uh so she works at a i

guess

i don't know what you call the the game

like pull the strings yeah i've never

seen this carnival game before

where you have like a whole bundle of

strings and you have to pull one that's

attached to a prize but

only some of them like i guess the the

trick is that most of them do not go

anywhere right

and uh even the ones that do are like

buried you have to know where they are

right and so she

you know when they want someone to win

they can bring them out towards the

front

but yeah this the this pair of women

greta like says hey these two chicks are

into you

yeah like later on donna is working in

this booth now because

of the attack at the strip show they're

like okay maybe you should be doing

something else if you're going to work

at this carnival well patch does

pat that's what's important pat patch

feels guilty and gets her this job with

greta

yeah but uh what i thought was funny

that this

both of these women are just credited as

lesbians

i was like well i mean probably okay

but can't you call them like give them a

name or something like that is this like

let's see you would be like who was

who was nina i have no idea i don't know

who half the names of the people were

but you were able to identify them in

the credits because they're credited as

lesbians

split the difference let's call it nina

the lesbian

well i wanted to to start with an l also

then

okay lisa the lesbian and they were

okay and they were getting very handsy

yeah like

like touching her hair and her arms but

she was

totally letting them do it in order to

get them to to spend more money she even

lets people like put money directly into

her pocket

yeah and then at the end of that whole

uh interaction they tell her that

they're gonna meet her in the parking

lot

um and she just smiles about it before

inviting more people to

try the game she's really proud of

herself at this point though because she

goes back and tells

patches that she's getting a feel for it

she can read people

yeah and she seems just really over the

moon and enthused like hey

like i it was exciting and i found my

calling

yeah and i think uh she's also a little

bit horny from that interaction with

those two girls and it leads to her

making out with patches here

hey it's our girlfriend patches but

patch is the guy's name but yeah

it's like the patches patches of

houlihan

you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a

ball

but yeah they start kissing and uh

really aggressive kissing

and then doing more than kissing yeah

there was like some like hair grabbing

that had me worried for a second i was

like what is happening here

are we gonna start yanking each other

around at the same time as this is

happening in their cabin

or their trailer there's uh

circus patron that is being roped into

losing a lot of money at a game

basically he misses a target once in

this ball throwing game where you knock

a thing over

and then the guy running the stand says

oh well here here's a free ball try it

again and he knocks the thing over he's

like there see you did

you won a prize like hey i have an idea

do you want to help me

like trick a bunch of other people into

losing some money and so the guy puts a

bunch of money on the line

and the guy running this stand basically

lies to

him and says like oh it looks like you

lost all that money and he's like well

hold on you said that this was a thing

that we were doing together and i was

gonna get a bunch of money out of it

he's like dude i don't know what you're

talking about

so when he gets really confrontational

the the carney pulls a gun on him

from under the desk and the guy pretends

immediately that he's cool with being

had he's like oh haha you got me i've

been had all right

all right guys come on let's go and he

tells all of his friends like yeah i

just lost that money we're just gonna

let it go

um and they all walk away together but i

knew even then like

this is this is terrible yeah that's

over the line and this guy's for sure

coming back

then after we see uh donna and patch

making out the guy that had the gun

pulled on him comes back with

a bunch more friends and now they're

literally just

waiting for someone to leave a stand

unattended or not even waiting for that

and just jumping over the counter and

pulling all the toys off the wall and

just handing them out to

people at the carnival they're just

trying to bankrupt this whole

this whole event they're getting more

and more aggressive with it

other people are starting to riot and uh

people are closing down their stands one

by one to try and get

everything closed down before things get

completely out of hand

frankie walks in on donna and patch to

announce what's going on because it's

kind of patch's job to shut this stuff

down he's like

the enforcer for the circus we get the

this cool pov shot from the zipper ride

of

the carnival raid going down as these

people are kind of destroying the stands

one by one

frankie gets into bozo mode because he

decides what he's gonna do is

distract them away from all the damage

that they're doing by

trying to piss them off from inside the

cage well he's also

kind of heartbroken yeah and angry about

what's happening

even though he seemed very willing like

to share donna yeah earlier

i didn't know if when he said our

girlfriend if he necessarily meant

romantically or if it was like she made

coffee and food for both of us like

the things that you're complaining about

as girl friendly are things that she's

doing for both of us

but yeah he he starts harassing these

angry customers

and he's channeling all of his anger at

patch and donna into

these guys and patch keeps telling him

to stop it because he's going to get

killed

he's driving these people into a frenzy

and they're going to do more damage to

the circus as a result of it

but eventually this mob of angry hicks

knock over the whole dunk tank

and uh start driving their truck through

the middle of the carnival

yeah just through stands and over

equipment and eventually they run over

on the mark

he's the guy that we earlier yeah that

frankie had called him dad

and uh and was one day away from

retirement yes

actually he was a one one day past

retirement because he

said he retired a couple days ago but

he's still here um maybe they're still

on their way to gibbtown that's where he

was gonna

hop off gibson to florida so a couple of

other

carnies come over including the guy that

pulled the gun on them in the first

place

to verify that he's dead and to feel

super guilty about it

but he was like i was just trying to

make some money it's not my fault like

yeah it's like

well okay it's not your fault

technically but

this wouldn't have happened if you

didn't do that basically once once this

cage gets tipped over i

i thought that the the crazy guys were

gonna pull him out of it

but when we see him getting pulled out

of it it's patch pulling him out of it

and then uh they identify the body and

frankie sits with

the the corpse for a second and then

suddenly he's arguing

with frankie about the cage and whose

fault it is that all this stuff happened

neither of them seems to be mourning him

as much as i thought they would be

yeah well i think they're just they're

just too angry at each other and maybe

they're still like

in shock about it but uh it seems like

they're mostly arguing with each other

and frankie's like what are you so upset

about like i don't understand why you're

so mad and it's like

uh a friend of ours dead over there but

the local muscle that was trying to rip

them off in the car earlier

for a higher percentage of their take uh

reveals

to st john that he is friends with the

the group of men that destroyed the

carnival yeah and killed one of their

employees and he says so i think you're

gonna

you're gonna take another shot at paying

me what you owe me

and heavy saint john slides a box across

his desk to him

with money in it and he says that's

still not enough money and he says

you're gonna make up the difference with

donna as part of the payment that uh

my henchman character here saw donna

when he was here earlier destroying the

circus

and he would like to sleep with her as

as part of our payment

here heavy st john agrees to this

arrangement but then when he goes to

donna to talk about it he says

like i need you to do this um so that we

can avenge on the mark basically

he doesn't specify what else he plans on

doing here but he tells her

that this isn't just him like letting

her have sex with this guy well

he i think he was going to go explain

the plan to her

but when he saw she was packing up to

leave he had to kind of change his

tactic

up a little bit yeah like he says yeah i

mean you're welcome

to go if you want but this is our only

chance yeah these guys are going to

you you're the bait to get these guys to

come back yeah uh donna goes to see

this creepy hick guy that destroyed the

carnival

and he pushes her into the back room of

this tent

and ties her down to a bed and then he

gets up on top of her on the bed and

rips all of her clothes off

or not all of them yeah but a lot of

them

and suddenly patch and frankie are in

the room and show up and basically stab

the guy in the chest from behind

yeah like the patch brings the razor up

to his neck and it looks like he slides

the razor across his neck and blood

comes out

yeah and i thought did he just kill him

yeah did he just kill the guy

and then they pull him into the shadows

of this room and we're like oh my god

what just happened to this character

then uh we see the the local boss guy

that

that wanted his money meets with

st john again and he says hey i hope

you're taking good care of my man

he says oh yeah right through this way

and then he goes into the room where the

guy was supposed to be and it's just the

bed now

and we see someone sitting in it but we

can't see their face their face is

obscured and they're keeping looking

away from camera i thought this was

going to be either patch or frankie

wearing a wig but the the guy sits down

on the bed next to

this character and reaches into this

person's creature region

and finds more than he bargained for

because this is the half-man half-woman

from

the freak show so he only finds half as

much as he burns

which half he gets freaked out

by this uh unexpected change of events

and uh he runs out of the the trailer

where this is happening

but he runs headlong into frankie

outside who's like oh hey why don't i

take you on a tour of the whole carnival

and he's like what why

what is happening like i should just be

angry take me to

saint john so i can be angry and yell at

him i say okay cool well

uh here's where we have these rides and

here's where we have these games he's

like i don't know why you're showing me

any of this

but he takes them into this large tent

the big top i guess for

for this show um and there's a lot of

freaks in there

and sword swallowers and everybody's

doing their best to

disorient him with their weirdness um

and then

he walks him through the to the back

room and he says

hey go on in there your friend's in

there and he goes into the room

and there's just a headless corpse

twitching twitching in a chair and he

and he recognizes the clothes

as the clothes that his friend was

wearing when they arrived here at the

carnival

and the guy just freaks out and runs off

and leaves the carnival

it's like he's not going to leave

forever he's just going to leave for

today yeah

this is where i texted you guys yes holy

[ __ ] [ __ ]

they they cut this guy's head off

stuck them in a chair no this is where

they kind of like a-team it

like a bit it's like uh it's all smoke

and mirrors he's not actually dead they

just drugged him

and they put like a fake stump on his

neck and pull his head

literally mirrors they put like a mirror

over his face yeah

but i felt like wait so justice doesn't

get served

i wanted them to kill him yeah no joke

no joke

this would be my number one movie if

that was real

this would be on the top of my letterbox

list if that was real

because i would have loved for this

movie to be like oh it's like a slice of

life kearney story

but then at the end they do this brutal

murder

barney justice i mean that's why i like

the movie freaks so much just because at

the end of the movie they basically like

decapitate that person they like they

like stitch them onto a freak

at the end of the movie but yeah it was

so

horrifying and i was like oh my god i

cannot believe the turn this movie just

took

but then they reveal that it's all fake

and

frankie says to patch hey you know i've

been thinking about

leaving the carnival and i don't know i

know you don't want to come with me to

do our own thing so

you stay here and you run the big one

and uh and i'm gonna go do this on my

own

and then patch says nah i'm coming with

you we're gonna we're gonna do good

things

and they walk around the carnival for a

while and patch offers to get in the

cage

and frankie bets that he won't last very

long in the cage

and that's the end of the film but uh

yeah yeah it it i i really needed that

powerful ending

to make this movie like better

i mean it's it's still okay

um but i really wanted that if that was

the last shot of this movie

and then credit yeah and then the guy's

freaking out and just cuts the black

yeah yeah that would have been correct

like i'm honestly going to edit the file

on my computer so that when i find this

after my alzheimer's sets in i think

that's how this movie ends

but that's it really would have been no

joke at the top of my list if that was

how this ended because

it just looks so great like the the

visual effect of it looks so great

and uh man what a missed opportunity

i mean i get it that this wasn't that

kind of movie they wanted to feel like a

real

it was it's basically the sting with

freaks yeah

but it just would have been amazing if

they'd decided to just end it that way

the uh the director and uh his wife who

he co-wrote with

don't have a lot of other credits uh

thomas baum

who is also a credited screenwriter um

he co-wrote the manhattan project with

marshall brickman

and he had a story credit on simon

earlier this year

gary busey was frankie uh i think he got

an oscar nomination for buddy

holly the buddy holly story uh he'll be

back later this year for fooling around

he was joshua and lethal weapon uh drake

savage and black sheep which i think was

the beginning of him playing complete

psychopaths

was at the beginning i'm trying to think

of something before that where he played

like a stereotypical crazy person

he's a little crazy here yeah i didn't

think he was that crazy

i thought he was charming but um

he's pretty crazy in dc cab even though

he's he's one of the good guys

i haven't seen but he is super crazy

actually joshua and lethal weapon is

pretty crazy too

yeah but he's a bad guy yeah like but

drake savage is like this

insane like military guy out in the

middle of nowhere

in uh in black sheep and it's a it's a

great character

hold your tongue winch he also played a

character called

coach red harris on tom goes to the

mayor which is when

i encountered him first and uh

it was a very uh very weird day at time

goes to the mayor

if for those who aren't familiar it was

an old adult swim show that was um

it was basically like a slideshow

animated like it would take a bunch of

pictures of people and apply a filter to

it

and then like act out a story almost

like storyboards

but every episode would have like a

guest celebrity

so like jeff goldblum would be in an

episode but he would drive himself

in his own car or like in a rental car

because he didn't even live here

and uh and gary busey demanded a

limousine that was the first step of

this

yeah he demanded a limousine he demanded

a specific brand of

pineapple juice or something that had to

be in the limousine

and one of our pas had to go with the

limousine because they weren't convinced

that he would actually bring it to

our studio or that he would even

remember how to get here or anything

so the pa went with him and they knocked

on the door at the time that he was

supposed to get there

and they're paying for this limousine by

the hour right and when he knocks on the

door gary busey answers it in his

underwear

and invites the pa in and then goes and

sits on his porch

on his back porch and reads the

newspaper for like another hour and a

half before he even comes out

but eventually he gets dressed

and he gets in the limousine and they

drive

um about halfway back to our offices

when he asks for the pineapple juice and

it's like the wrong brand even though

it's not

for it's for sure not the wrong brand

but he said it was the wrong brand

and made them stop at like multiple

places to find the right brand

and then he brought it all in he finally

gets to the

to our studio like a few hours after he

was supposed to be there it probably

cost

three times more than they were

intending to spend because we were in

hollywood and he lives in malibu it was

not that long of driving

that long a drive but he uh he comes in

and he tells

tim and eric the two guys that wrote the

show that it's like the worst writing

he's ever read in his entire life and

he's not going to read anything that

they wrote

and he spends hours in their office with

them lecturing them

about how it should go and suggestions

for the character and

he he just keeps trying to change

everything and then finally at the end

he's like

you know what i'm just gonna read it how

you wrote it i'm just gonna read it

right the way it is on this page

and then they're like okay yeah that'd

be great and he did that and that's what

ended up in the episode

but uh it was just the weirdest

situation ever and he also like while he

was in their office

like he kept spilling his drink on the

carpet and he would just

put his foot on it and rub it into the

carpet instead of like

oh can we get a paper towel i spilled

this it was just like stepped on it and

grinded into the floor but uh he's an

odd duck

gary busey he's not playing a character

when you see him being crazy and stuff

i don't know if you ever saw the show

i'm with busy

but uh i think it got canceled because

people thought he was pretending to be

crazy

but he's like that all the time he also

is apparently uh

i didn't i thought he was only in the

first ginger dead man movie

but he does mostly like super low budget

horror movies now

and he wasn't in any of the sequels to

ginger dead

until the eighth one which is called

bunker of blood colon chapter 8 colon

butcher's bake off

colin hell's kitchen that's the eighth

installment of the ginger dead man

series

so didn't uh didn't he get crazy after

his

motorcycle accident he was crazy before

that too

yeah but he like he he landed on his

skull

without a helmet yeah i mean i think

there's

if jake busey has any indication i think

that there was some genetic crazy

and then there was some drugs crazy and

then there was definitely some

motorcycle accident crazy but yeah he

was like

notoriously fighting legislation that

was trying to

make it illegal to ride without a helmet

and then he

flew off his motorcycle and busted it

open on a curb on like

pch or something like that yeah yeah

he's fractured his skull yeah

and they managed to put it all back

together because he didn't he didn't

have a helmet on so he needed to go into

surgery immediately

and then he came out of the hospital

immediately saying we need to make sure

that

helmets aren't forced on people like he

didn't change his might at all

well he's not a flip-flopper yeah you

can't say that about him

jody foster was donna here she's in taxi

driver buggy malone foxes

before this um and after this she's in

silence of the lambs contact panic room

bunch of stuff

robbie robertson was patch he was the

lead guitarist and songwriter for the

band

this was his first of two fictional

character acting credits

before the crossing guard and the rest

of them are all concert films for the

band

he reminds me of a cross between benicio

del toro

and like a young tim curry that was the

feeling i was getting from him

in terms of his look yeah i guess he i

don't feel like he has the charisma of

either of those people

i think he has benicio charisma young

benicio charisma

no not at all in fear and loathing he

has that

he kind of reminded me of uh jan michael

vincent

a lot of it no don't say that that's

mean

jim michael vincent sucks robbie

robertson was at least compelling i

thought

meg foster was girda that's the woman

running the pull the string

game she plays holly and they live

she plays evil lynn in masters of the

universe

uh she also plays a really weird

character that i from a stupid movie

that i love

uh called leviathan not the

movie that came out within the last

couple years but yeah a 1980s crazy

genetics horror film in the wake of

uh the abyss so after the abyss came out

like everyone was like we're gonna do

underwater movies

yeah um so uh leviathan and deep star

six are these two crazy like

underwater horror films that came out

leviathan is about

like they find this russian sub

underwater research facility that

has this genetic material just starts

mutating the crew

and it becomes like this lovecraftian

like monster at the end i feel like

there is a lovecraft story about a

submarine like that yeah well this might

have been based on that

but it's got peter weller ernie hudson

richard crenna

um it sounds awesome i want to watch

this yeah but meg foster plays this

woman who's like

she's like the the wayland yutani of

this of the oh okay

the facility she she's on the surface

telling them it's gonna be all right

we're gonna get you out of there don't

worry

yeah like the like the corporate

ownership in congo that are just like

just do what we said

yeah exactly she was also hera on

hercules and xena

yeah i don't i mean i only remember one

episode

with hera in it and it was the one where

she kills hercules family

yeah it hera was always the looming

threat but it was always like just like

the peacock cry and the eyes

in the sky whenever they mentioned her

she also played cagney for the first

season of cagney and lacey

and then she got fired for being too

easily mistaken for a lesbian

what that was that was cbs's reasoning

kenneth mcmillan was heavy saint john

here we just had him as marzetti and

hide in plain sight he was also

somebody in uh little miss marker the

cop that was trying to find the girl and

yeah um and he's the baron and dune uh

elijah cook jr was on your mark

or alicia i mean that's pronounced

elijah

alicia elisha elisha is not a name it's

elijah right

elijah cook jr as on your mark he plays

harry jones in the big sleep

he was mr nicholas and rosemary's baby

wilmer cook in the maltese falcon

we had we had him in tom horn right uh

but yeah wilmer cook

uh he was the one that ran the the where

he kept his horse right

in tom horne yeah yeah but uh in the

maltese falcon he's

uh sydney greenstein street's kind of

like

uh henchmen oh okay because peter laurie

is trying to do his own thing

uh and sydney greenstreet has this guy

this kind of enforcer guy

uh that humphrey bogart keeps getting

bet the best of

yeah and really embarrassing him he also

his last few credits were as a character

a recurring character on magnum pi

called ice pick

woodrow parfray which is a fun name

plays w.c hannan but he plays uh

he'll be back for bronco billy and used

cars later this year

and he was mr jaffee in dirty harry

tina andrews is sugar sugar ray sugary

sugary she was one of the strippers

she has a bunch of television acting

credits but she also wrote

why do fools fall in love with halle

berry and vivek fox

and she had some other screenwriting

credits too for tv movies one about uh

sally hemmings is that right yes and

another one

about jackie onassis i think

that both came out in like 2000. craig

wassen was mickey that was

donna's boyfriend when she got to the

carnival he plays neil gordon

in nightmare on elm street 3. he's jake

in body double next year

and later this year he will be back for

schizoid

i don't know who flame was in this movie

imagine he's the guy the fire eater oh

maybe i mean i'm just guessing

that's possible uh the actor's name is

jordan kale

and he plays a juror in philadelphia and

a hostage in quick change

oh then probably not him well there was

that one hostage that's always eating

fire

but uh the fire eater was a was a little

person yeah

i i don't think that that's who you

can't have a little hostage well you can

but i don't think there was one in the

movie

uh fred ward was jack uh fred ward is

great

yeah he was in tremors the right stuff

he's joe dirt's dad

um he played henry and henry in june and

he was remo williams

in the long series of remo williams

films yeah

that started and ended with remo

williams the adventure begins

it was supposed to be like the american

james bond uh i think i will always

my always go to was going to be tremors

yeah uh for fred ward

yeah i do like joe dirt's dad though

um it's a funny character and that scene

is great when they go back to

he goes to interview them on tv and he

realizes that they left him there on

purpose

but that's everything i had for this one

i wanted to uh mention

two people just because of their names

are amazing yeah uh they're accredited

as

tough three and tough two okay

but the first guy's name is jack howard

kitchens jr

beautiful and the second is charles

christian levi

senior seems like they made those names

up on set

yeah uh i was like those are two amazing

names

uh i wanted to also mention that the

music

is by alex north he uh is

a 15 time oscar nominee

really uh he won

for let's see uh well he won an honorary

oscar uh in 86.

so i guess he's never won an actual no

no if i you've never won a real oscar no

honorary counts

uh he was uh nominated for musical

scores for things like

streetcar named desire uh uh

rainmaker spartacus cleopatra

uh who's ranger vision new wolf dragon

slayer

an 81 which i mentioned uh previously uh

so you know he was no slouch uh i didn't

think the score was anything

too crazy in this and i thought for the

most part it was fine but

i think it it fits that opening scene

wrong because it's setting you up for

like a psychological horror movie

it yeah was but then it wasn't but i

just thought it was interesting that

the 15 15 oscar nominations

that's impressive good work alex north

that's what you said his name was

yeah all right jess up or down

uh you know it wasn't terrible

but i don't know that i would uh tell

anybody to go out of their way to watch

it

all right so i guess it's down richard

i'm gonna give it up uh it it falls flat

for me uh but i was

pretty invested in the simple story of

it all um

i think i was reading like some reviews

about it

i know i don't think i was reading i was

reading some reviews about it

i don't know why i phrased it that way

well you know uh

i think therefore i am you know you can

only be sure that you exist

yeah uh i think roger ebert was the one

who

i was trying to say was the review or

who i read that said

it seems like it's almost like a

documentary

or that there's a documentary hiding in

the story correct yeah that

that it's like all these it seems like

there's a whole bunch of

carney lore of oh the

the stuff about having to pay people off

or the about

grifting people and about people who get

killed

or the way they have weddings and get

married and all their little

cliquey kind of things that they do yeah

uh so i found that kind of interesting

uh just yeah it wasn't all there but

i'll still give it

up yeah um i love carnival stuff um i

feel like if i grew up in like the 50s

or 60s i would have run away to one

because it just seems like an awesome

thing

and i i always love that the very tight

family structure that forms in

in movies about carnival uh carnival

people

carny folk but this is a down for me

just because

they showed me something that could have

been amazing and then they

they took a couple steps took it away

yeah i

i think i would have approved of this

movie more

two ways one they leave the guy's head

off

or two they just show him stabbed on the

ground

like that's i just needed that guy to

die and if that guy didn't die

for killing someone else killing one of

their friends if the only punishment

that he gets for killing one of their

friends

is to fall asleep for a second and scare

someone else yeah

then that's not enough for me i wanted

this guy to be dead

well also i don't think it's enough to

accomplish what they want to accomplish

because

next year when they come back to this

town that dude's just gonna be pissed

yeah well he might not even wait till

next year uh he might send people after

them immediately

as soon as the boss guy finds out that

his henchman's still alive and finds out

what they did to him he's gonna be more

mad than ever yeah

so i i think it's a down for me just

because

i thought for a second this was the best

movie of the year and then they were

like just kidding

richard what do you think litter boxed

um i'm going to put this

uh just above fame

but just below folks just above fame

and below folks got it

sorry jess go ahead go ahead jess

where do you put it on letterbox so for

mine uh i have it in a similar

position it's a few above fame for me

but uh

i have it between uh simon

and uh tom horn

simon and tom horn okay that makes sense

same writer as uh simon and some cast

from tom horn

yeah there you go right in there i think

for me this might go also between fame

and folks

i think it does so that's where i put it

i think that's everything for this one

if you guys have any thoughts you'd like

to share with us we are vintage video

pod on twitter facebook instagram and

letterboxed

or as i've said before you can find each

of our full movie rankings for the year

we can also be found at

vintagevideopodcast.com

please consider rating us on itunes to

help people find the show and if you

take the time to leave us a review

we will thank you personally in an

upcoming episode if you're feeling

especially generous you can support the

show through patreon.com

vintage video podcast thank you so much

for listening and i hope you'll join us

next time

when we'll be discussing die laughing

which imdb

summarizes thusly a san francisco cab

driver

finds himself in possession of a monkey

that is carrying

a formula for turning atomic waste into

a plutonium bomb

he finds himself framed for murder and

chased all over town by people trying to

get the formula

we leave you now with the trailer for

die laughing

five years we've been playing 15 bucks a

night club dates in places like

modesto and redwood city and you really

think you have a chance

to win we're gonna be up there on that

stage in the finals

pinsky daniel height six feet

weight 150 pounds occupation

part time and a cab part time on a stage

love is why i live full time

on the run

[Applause]

[Music]

and

[Applause]

[Music]

forever find pinsky

[Music]

everybody's killing each other for a

monkey precisely

[Music]

but for pixie over hill over dale

over every dusty trail the halls of the

cow palace

to the shores of sausalito

[Applause]

then find them who are you what is this

place who are those goons out there why

can't i go what's going on here

[Music]

[Music]

now at last the motion picture that

shows the world how to succeed in rock

and roll

without really dying what does

anything mean without

love