Clip: 0:00

And you better hope nothing happens to me, because if I die, you die.

Clip: 0:07

I'd like for you to be in on everything, annie, not just the finished book, but how it's written.

Clip: 0:13

And I'm absolutely certain, the main reason I've never been more popular is because of my temper.

Clip: 0:19

I figured that if I can't find Paul Sheldon, at least I can find out what he wrote about.

Clip: 0:24

What do you expect to find A story about a guy who drove his car off a cliff in a snowstorm?

Clip: 0:30

You see, it's just that kind of sarcasm that's given our marriage real spice. I thought you were good, Paul.

Clip: 0:38

But you're not good. You're just another lying old dirty birdie, and I don't think I'd better be around you for a while.

Clip: 0:46

Must get lonely, living out here all by yourself.

Clip: 0:52

Well, I always say if you can't enjoy your own company, you're not fit company for anyone else.

Clip: 0:57

He didn't get out of the cock-a-doodie car.

Tony Maietta: 1:02

Hello,

Brad Shreve: 1:20

And I'm Brad Shreve, who's just a guy who likes movies.

Tony Maietta: 1:23

We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's golden age. We go behind the scenes and share our opinions too.

Brad Shreve: 1:30

And, of course, being the average guy, my opinions are the ones that matter.

Tony Maietta: 1:35

As does your self-delusion. Welcome to Going Hollywood.

Brad Shreve: 1:40

Okay, hit record. Tony Ready to go.

Tony Maietta: 1:43

Oh wait, wait a second, wait a second, let me get something. Okay, okay now. Record, tony, you ready to go? Oh wait, wait a second, wait a second, let me get something. Okay, okay, now I'm ready. What?

Brad Shreve: 1:49

are those? What are you putting those on for?

Tony Maietta: 1:51

What do you mean? They're my eclipse glasses. You have to wear glasses when you watch an eclipse.

Brad Shreve: 1:58

When is there an eclipse, eclipse at five, Brad.

Tony Maietta: 2:03

What are you talking about? Eclipse at five, Brad? What are you talking about? Eclipse at five?

Brad Shreve: 2:07

What are you talking about?

Tony Maietta: 2:11

Don't do this to me, Brad. You know an accident can be a podcast. Co-host's best friend, that's all I'm saying. You told me to watch the Kathy Bates Stephen King movie.

Brad Shreve: 2:22

Yes, Misery Ugh.

Tony Maietta: 2:25

Stephen King movie. Yes, misery, oh, do you mean to tell me I watched the?

Brad Shreve: 2:34

wrong cock-a-doodie movie, Mr man.

Tony Maietta: 2:41

Heavens to Betsy. Yes, it's Misery. It's Misery. It's not Dolores Claiborne, it's Misery.

Brad Shreve: 2:43

But I personally like Dolores Claiborne, so I had to get those quotes in.

Tony Maietta: 2:45

But yes, today we are talking about misery from Columbia in 1990. And, dear listeners, believe it or not, this is Brad's choice. I actually let Brad choose a movie. Brad, why did you?

Brad Shreve: 3:02

choose misery. Well, this is not one that Tony turned me down immediately, he just kept putting it off. But here we're finally doing Misery, and there are numerous reasons why I wanted to watch Misery. I just watched it recently, as a matter of fact, I don't know why it just came into my view and I watched it. I'm like, oh, we have got to do this.

Tony Maietta: 3:39

So there are many reasons, but the most obvious reason is the relatively unknown woman of our air quotes criteria for the content of this film. You know it's 1990. We always say we're going to cut off. With a few exceptions we're going to cut off in 1990. But I'm glad you did this. I you know. Watching Misery again after not seeing it for so many years, I was reminded what an amazing performance she gives and also reminded, as you just said, we're so used to Kathy Bates. Now Kathy Bates is just in like the fabric of our lives, our cultural lives. I mean, she's on television, she's got this new Matlock show, she's in everything Ryan Murphy does. You know she pops up in films. Still, there was a time when nobody knew who the hell Kathy Bates was, unless they visited off off off Broadway shows or a New York-based television series. So it's really amazing that this one film brought her to the forefront. And not only that, but, as you said, she won the Oscar against some pretty stiff competition that year.

Brad Shreve: 4:39

So yeah, you mentioned that Kathy Bates is so much of a part of her life. I don't know if you've watched Matlock my family watches it. No, and it's an entertaining show and it's all because of Kathy Bates. It's really not that well written. The other cast members there's at least two of them that are terrible actors in my opinion, but it's good only because of Kathy Bates. Well, and it's an enjoyable watch for that reason.

Tony Maietta: 5:01

She's often the only reason to watch something, or one of the very, very good reasons to watch something, in my opinion. You know I have trouble watching Matlock because the original one was one that my father watched all the time, so I'm saturated with Matlock, no matter who Matlock is. But I hear it's pretty good and I'll watch it. But the amazing thing about Misery and the fact that she was just thrown on the moving, going public with this. It's a very, very, very brave performance and she could really I mean, this could have gone either way. This could have been her career beginner and her career ender. Oh, yeah.

Tony Maietta: 5:39

Because the role of Annie Wilkes is very, very tricky. She walks the line of hating her or having sympathy for her, and there's some things that Rob Reiner and William Goldman did to be sure that we did not hate her, which we'll talk about. But first I think we should talk a little bit about. I want to talk about this. Who's in it? We should probably tell people who's in it besides Kathy Bates. I mean, we've got James Caan, who also did a brilliant job he did. This was kind of a comeback for James Caan. He'd been off the screen for most of the 80s due to personal problems and he came back. We have the delightful Frances Sternhagen as Deputy Virginia, who we know Frances Sternhagen mostly from Cheers, from playing Cliff's mother on Cheers, but we know Frances Sternhagen mostly from Cheers, from playing Cliff's mother on Cheers. But what a wonderful actress. Theater actress, film actress. Richard Farnsworth as Sheriff Buster who meets his untimely end. Oops, spoiler alert.

Brad Shreve: 6:35

Oh, actually, whoa, whoa, whoa. We need to do a spoiler alert because I did get a complaint about this once. We are talking about the movie, but we will discuss the book, and there are changes, because we talked about a movie once, but we will discuss the book, and there are changes, because we talked about a movie once but we also discussed the book, and I'm like somebody said why did you give me spoilers on the book?

Brad Shreve: 6:51

so obviously they know we're going to get spoilers on the movie. But just a heads up, we're doing spoilers on the book because it will come up now. Go on one kind of follows the other.

Tony Maietta: 6:58

But okay, richard Farnsworth as Sheriff Buster and special appearance by Miss Lauren Bacall as Marcia Sindel. And every time I see that credit I laugh. I'm like I've never understood how anyone gets a special appearance in a film. Everybody's cast in a film. I know it's contractual, I know it's, you know it's in her contract. Somewhere she says I need to have special appearance by Lauren Bacall. Every appearance by Lauren Bacall is special as far as I'm concerned, but I just, I just love that little tagline and special appearance by Lauren Bacall. So these are the main people in misery in the film misery. But I think we need to talk, brad, about the man who wrote this, the novel that this movie is based on a bit, don't you think?

Brad Shreve: 7:50

The guy that's kind of famous for writing novels.

Tony Maietta: 7:52

Yeah, just a little bit. A little bit, what's his name again?

Brad Shreve: 7:54

Well, his name is Stephen King, though originally he was going to write this novel under Richard Bachman, his pseudonym for when he writes non-horror films or frequently uses when writing non-horror films and the reason he didn't do it with this one is the word got out that he was Richard Bachman.

Tony Maietta: 8:13

I wonder why Paul Sheldon didn't do that when he was writing his Misery series. Why didn't he? He didn't use a nom de plume, you know, he's just Paul Sheldon, which is kind of interesting.

Brad Shreve: 8:22

Well, he says in the movie that he didn't expect Misery to become his life. For all we know, it could have been a one-off. Right, right and it was just so popular, it took over. So I think that would be a good guess as to why I don't know what he normally wrote. That's never really told.

Tony Maietta: 8:37

So the film Misery is based on, as Brad just said, Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name, and I'm going to give a little background about how it came about. Do you mind that? I know this is your baby and I don't want to step on anything that you want to talk about, but I'll just give a little background on how it came about.

Tony Maietta: 8:56

Okay, so Stephen King said in his memoir that in the early 1980s he and his wife went to London on a trip a combined pleasure, business trip and he fell asleep on the plane and had a dream about a popular writer and he said it may or may not have been me, but it sure to God wasn't James Caan. That was very interesting and Stephen King, you know, can be curmudgeonly about some of his film adaptions we've talked about. He's not crazy about the Shining, for sure, but this is one of his favorite adaptions of his books, right, brad? Am I correct in that?

Brad Shreve: 9:33

That is correct and it's really miraculous because Annie Wilkes is his favorite character that he's written, so Kathy Bates was really up against him, yeah that's amazing.

Tony Maietta: 9:43

That's amazing. And the book was number. It rose number four on the New York Times bestseller list and producer Andrew Scheinman was also on a plane ironically, everything happens in a plane in Hollywood Reading Misery and he later recommended it to his friend Rob Reiner at Castle Rock Entertainment. Now Rob Reiner had already done a Stephen King adaption. He had done Stand by Me in 1986. So people are like Rob Reiner seems like an odd choice to do this because we think of Rob Reiner, we think of when Harry Met Sally, the Princess, bride, meathead, but All in the Family. But he's a really interesting choice and this was the sixth film he made. So he made when Harry Met Sally right before this and it was such a huge hit. I think he probably could just do whatever he wanted to and he wanted to do this book. He wanted to make a film of this book.

Brad Shreve: 10:36

It was a good choice and we I don't know if you want to get into it now, but there were choices made for this film that I think were so good and I think improved the story that I do want to get into that well, yes, and I think we should.

Tony Maietta: 10:51

We should get that. But I mean, here's another spoiler alert. You know how I feel about horror films and that leaks into books, so I don't think it's going to surprise anybody out there that I've never read the book Misery, nor do I ever intend to. The scariest book I've ever read is Mommy Dearest, and I'm going to keep it at that. I also read Valley of the Dolls.

Brad Shreve: 11:14

Pretty scary too. I stopped saying that I don't care for certain genres because as a role I don't watch horror films.

Brad Shreve: 11:20

I've watched them in the past because with friends and that sort of thing films I've watched them in the past because with friends and that sort of thing as a role, I don't like horror films, but I don't say I don't like genres, because if I had to tell you I really dislike a certain genre, it would be Westerns. But I love High Noon and I love Silverado. So I've really realized that it's not a genre, it's a well-made movie and that is another reason why I really love Misery is because so many of Stephen King's novels turn into real garbage on the film For example you mentioned, he didn't like the Shining.

Brad Shreve: 11:52

A friend of mine went to a fundraising dinner and was sat next to Stephen King and she said I heard good things about Firewalker and he said please don't go see it.

Tony Maietta: 12:03

Yeah, get an opinion, steve, Get an opinion. Well, I think one of the reasons why he liked this adaption so much was because of the man who wrote the screenplay, none other than William Goldman. And for people who don't know, william Goldman's kind of a mythic, another one of these mythic Hollywood writers. He's a novelist, a playwright, a screenwriter, and Rob Reiner asked him to write the screenplay to this. He had worked with him on the princess bride in 87, which is is based on goldman's book. So I mean, you know, goldman also wrote butch cassidy and the sundance kid all the president's men. He won oscars for both of those, and he also wrote with reiner, as I said, princess Bride. So I mean, this guy is truly, truly top of the line up there when we're talking about screenwriters. So I think that's a big reason why this film works is because you have a really brilliant writer crafting the screenplay.

Brad Shreve: 12:58

Yeah, I mean obviously his listing of movies is not shabby in any way.

Tony Maietta: 13:03

No, he was a mythic, mythic writer, you know, and he did make some changes to the screenplay which I think helped, which we can talk about, but when they decided to get this going, I'm curious do you know? There's a list as long as two of my arms of the actors who turned down this role of Paul. Do you know some of them?

Brad Shreve: 13:25

I do. I know there was Dustin Hoffman. Jack Nicholson said no, oh my God, the list is long. I'm sure you know off the top of your head more than I. Do you want?

Tony Maietta: 13:33

me to read it. Yeah, go ahead. Who was big in 1990, basically, is who we got here. We got Kevin Kline, we got Michael Douglas, we got Harrison Ford, dustin Hoffman, as you said, de Niro Pacino, richard Dreyfuss, gene Hackman, robert Redford and William Hurt turned it down twice. They weren't satisfied with one no from William Hurt. They had to go back to him again and I think that's because Paul.

Tony Maietta: 14:03

Paul is such a reactionary character. Paul is in bed for most of this film. So a lot of actors want a little more action and it's a very challenging thing for an actor to play a totally reactionary character and I'm not talking politically reactionary, I mean the guy doesn't move, he's in bed, he's got two broken legs and a dislocated shoulder. So Warren Beatty was actually going to do it and they signed Warren Beatty, but then he had to drop out when post-production on Dick Tracy went too long, because this is the same time as Dick Tracy. So someone eventually, I think they went through the Screen Actors Guild listing and they went oh, they got this, you. They're like James Caan. Whatever happened to James Caan? Where's James Caan? So James Caan was in a bit of a fallow period in his career. As I said he'd taken a break from acting in the early 80s to some personal problems. He called it Hollywood burnout and accepted it, and it really did cause a career resurgence for Caan. I mean, he worked pretty steadily after Misery up until his death in 2022.

Brad Shreve: 15:05

And there was a very big change for James Khan to play a role where he spent 15 weeks in bed.

Tony Maietta: 15:11

Oh yeah, I mean, my God, think about some of the things that the films James Khan has done. I mean, I think everybody thinks of Sonny Corleone. I mean, talk about a kinetic active guy. You know what I mean. One of my favorite James Caan early films Okay, this is kind of funny. So, one of his very first appearances he plays a hoodlum punk in Olivia de Havilland's grand guignol hagsploitation film, lady in a Cage. That is the one with the famous line help, help, I am trapped in a small private elevator. So yeah, she's trapped in this private elevator. But yeah, it was really a challenge for Khan and he said that was one of the reasons why he actually wanted to do it, because it was definitely a change of pace for him from his usual hothead kinetic type guys.

Brad Shreve: 16:06

And to me it takes a lot of skill because he did a great job. You can really feel for Paul, my God, you can feel for Paul he does. And part of that was the camera shooting, because they did great jobs with those close-ups looking up at Kathy Bates. But just his facial. He did a lot of acting with his face and just great.

Tony Maietta: 16:26

Well, he brings that tough guy even though he's in bed, and we talk about this all the time. Actors bring their own personal qualities to any role they play. So he brings that. You know, if he could move he'd have no problem. That woman would be down in a minute, because this is Sonny Corleone you're fucking with here.

Brad Shreve: 16:42

Annie Wilkes here anyway, I mean come on but he's not, he's in bed.

Tony Maietta: 16:46

so he he brings that to the role and I'm really glad that he did this because you know he went on to make um honeymoon in vegas for the boys. You know elf I mean, you see elf every year now so it's he had quite a career resurgence and I've always been a fan of james conn. Um, he's, he was really wonderful. Not only was he a great hero in this kind of like action hero, but he was also a very fun-like comedian and he had a great voice. You know he could also sing. So this guy was really talented. He did Funny Lady, he did the sequel to Funny Girl and he was in For the Boys. He sang with Bette Midler and so a great actor and it's really nice that this film brought him back into prominence.

Brad Shreve: 17:25

I mean, I would love to curl up on his hairy chest. But what was the movie he made with Sally Field? It wasn't a great movie, but he was a really good character in it.

Tony Maietta: 17:36

Oh, Kiss Me.

Brad Shreve: 17:36

Goodbye. So yeah, and I was surprised about the song and dance part because he was in that movie with Sally Fields and so yeah, and I was surprised about the song and dance part because he was in that movie with Sally Fields and it's Kiss Me. Goodbye. Not a great movie. I really liked it the first time I saw it.

Tony Maietta: 17:49

Oh it's cute, and later I watched it.

Brad Shreve: 17:51

It is a cute film. It's a little slower than I remember, but he was so good in that film he's great. He really made the film for me.

Tony Maietta: 17:58

You know I have issues with Funny Lady, no-transcript, and Bette Midler plays a character based on, kind of based on Martha Ray At least Martha Ray thought so, because she sued Bette Midler. Go is about saying that he's a very, he has a great variety of roles. But speaking of Bette Midler, I was wondering if you're going to do that.

Brad Shreve: 18:44

See how I did that, see how I went in there.

Tony Maietta: 18:46

Yes, what are you going to say? What am I going to say about Bette Midler?

Brad Shreve: 18:49

She turned down this role and regretted it.

Tony Maietta: 18:53

Because she had to make scenes from a mall. I mean, come on Scenes from what? She had to make scenes, exactly, exactly. You know poor Bette, yeah, she doesn't have the best choicing skills when she picks her films. But another actress who was offered this role and turned it down, angelica Houston. Which. Can you imagine, angelica Houston towering over you in a bed? I mean, good God, that's a frightening thought.

Brad Shreve: 19:21

But I can't picture her doing it physically.

Tony Maietta: 19:24

Well, I don't know. I think she could overpower James Caan, even if he was fully healthy.

Brad Shreve: 19:28

But she doesn't look physically the role Stephen King.

Tony Maietta: 19:32

that was fairly important to Stephen King. I can see that. I can see that, yeah, I can see that. But you know, william Goldman, who had a little hand in some of this, had a suggestion and he suggested this actress he knew from New York and her name was Kathy Bates. You know, kathy Bates, unfortunately a little bit like Tallulah Bankhead, people were always doing her roles on film and she was in a play called Frankie and Johnny, in the Claire de Lune, which was done by Michelle Pfeiffer, which Michelle Pfeiffer, kathy Bates, I'm not sure how you make that connection, you know, but they did it, and that was a lot of criticism of that film.

Tony Maietta: 20:09

She was in the production of Night Mother, which Sissy Spacek did as a film. So Misery was really a great. It was just a great opportunity for Kathy Bates, and boy did she take that opportunity and run with it. Because I think one of the things I love most about Misery is it gave us Kathy Bates and it gave us wonderful performances in Fried Green Tomatoes, oh yeah, in the one she did, primary Colors I was just trying to think of the one that she did with Richard Jewell. I mean, there's just one, the Titanic. She played Molly Brown. For Christ's sake.

Brad Shreve: 20:57

So, yeah, it really really put her on the acting map so people could know about her, and of course, you know that I thought was handled really well. So kudos to her again. She was fabulous in that film. I laugh every time I watch her. And the great thing about Annie Wilkes is and this was important to both King and to the filmmakers is she's not a monster. You actually have somewhat sympathy to her because she clearly has mental illness. But I do want to comment on this because a lot of people talk about her bipolar disorder. They never say what she has. But you know, I have bipolar disorder.

Tony Maietta: 21:32

I'm very open about the fact of that.

Brad Shreve: 21:34

And I do get not to be defensive, but people get it wrong Every time there's a character that is quirky or changes their temperament. A lot people immediately say bipolar disorder, and that concerns me is because, first of all, I have what's called rapid cycling, where I go from manic to depression pretty frequently. Most people with bipolar disorder will go months in depression and then months manic, so it's not like every five seconds. The TV series Black Box, which was terrible. The woman would forget her meds one night. The next day she was sleeping to every man in town. I mean, it's been so poorly displayed. You know, I can skip my meds for a few days and I'm still normal, well as normal as I can possibly be, People that are bipolar are rarely dangerous.

Brad Shreve: 22:24

They are impulsive, so they can be. But, when it comes to bipolar disorder and I'm getting on a high horse here for a moment I just want people to understand the disease. People with bipolar disorder are dangerous to themselves. Right, I was going to say that, yeah 60% of people with bipolar disorder have attempted suicide and 20% have succeeded. That is astronomical compared to the rest of the country. So just to give some people some empathy, and every time you see somebody act a little kooky, please don't just say they're bipolar.

Tony Maietta: 22:53

Don't immediately say bipolar.

Brad Shreve: 22:55

There I'm done. You know how not to go on a Carrie Fisher tangent.

Tony Maietta: 22:59

But this is a Going Hollywood podcast. You know, carrie named her two moods. Her mania was rollicking Roy and her depressive side was Pam, which meant piss and moan, which I always thought was. I mean, she named her two states. It's just Carrie Fisher. What a genius, carrie Fisher.

Brad Shreve: 23:19

When you're diagnosed with it and you live with it, you just for lack of a better term you embrace it. I mean, it's just Well, it's part of you, it's just part of who I am and, like I say many times, the day I was diagnosed was the best day of my life because, oh my God, it had a name. So anyway, moving on, that was my little PSA.

Tony Maietta: 23:35

No, but it was really important to Reiner to make sure that the character of Annie Wilkes did have sympathy. In fact, and this is what I was saying, in his screenplay Goldman kept the scene in which Annie severs one of Paul's feet with an ax. Now people who are listening goes, wait a minute, that doesn't happen in the movie. Well, no, it doesn't happen in the movie. She instead breaks his ankles, which I'm sorry, I still cannot watch that scene. I don't care if she cuts them, I just can't. Every time I can't watch it. Hobbling, no, thank you. But anyway, goldman really fought to keep the axe in to have him sever his foot, but Reiner said no, that he felt that the visual depiction would just make the audience hate Annie too much. So, you know, instead of sympathizing with her madness. So I guess okay, you know, I guess with hobbling we're only slightly irritated as opposed to totally hating her for cutting off his feet. But it's still a very difficult scene to watch.

Brad Shreve: 24:35

It is a very difficult scene but I think it was a great decision by Rob Reiner because people watch that hobbling scene and every time I'm with people that watch it, everybody just cringes. Oh yeah, just see their whole body tense, because we can relate to it. If it was cut off first of all, people are more removed from it Because it's hard to imagine your foot being cut off. They would be grossed out, right. What it would have done is made this movie a little more in the horror genre.

Tony Maietta: 25:03

And by not doing that, it stayed in psychological thriller. Oh, that's a good point. I like that. I like that. So do you think it's time that we should tell people a little bit about the plot of this film that we've been talking about for about, uh, 25 minutes now?

Tony Maietta: 25:11

yeah, because if they don't know about it, they're probably a little lost right now well, I will give you a quick breakdown of the plot of this um and this is just touching the the highlights. So james kahn plays pauleldon. He's a famous author who writes Victorian romance novels. I think they're also called bodice rippers. Back in my generation there were bodice rippers that was my generation, catherine Coulter, you know. So those kinds of things and the books featured a character named Misery Chastain Not to be confused with Jessica Chastain, but anyway.

Tony Maietta: 25:49

So he's really tired of writing these series of books and he longs to write serious literature. So what he's done is he's basically ended the Misery series, but this book has not come out yet. While he's waiting for it to come out, he sequesters himself in a remote hotel in Colorado and he writes a manuscript. He just finishes a manuscript which he hopes will be the next step in his career. Once Misery is done. This book is released. Where Misery is dead, he's now going to have a new career, but as he's leaving the hotel, he gets caught in a bad blizzard and crashes his car. So luckily or not, depending on how you feel about this he gets saved by a young woman who is not only a nurse, but she's Paul's what, brad. What is Annie Wilkes, biggest fan, number one fan Annie Wilkes, number one fan, number one fan.

Brad Shreve: 26:43

Annie Wilkes, number one fan.

Tony Maietta: 26:45

So she carries him to her home, which is very remote, she takes care of him because he has two broken legs and dislocated shoulder, which she pops back in, and she tells him that kind of, because of the storm they're a bit landlocked, the roads are closed, the phone lines are down, so she's taking care of him and all seems fine, until Paul's last misery book is released, in which misery dies and that's when her true psychotic nature begins to reveal itself. So she basically holds Paul hostage and demands that he write a new Misery novel while she takes care of him. And I always think that's kind of like the writer's nightmare, isn't it? It's actually what screenwriters used to go through in Hollywood. They're like sit right, you know, and I was like wow, but he does it. He does it, he creates a brand new misery novel.

Brad Shreve: 27:51

There's some great lines in this film that she delivers incredibly, and I want to quote some of it. When she gets done reading the book and she comes into his room and that look in her face After she's been sweet as sugar, even though there were definitely signs of there's something with this woman yeah, she comes in, she goes. You, you dirty bird. How could you?

Tony Maietta: 28:12

Dirty birdie she can't be dead.

Brad Shreve: 28:13

Yeah, dirty birdie, she can't be dead. Misery Chastain cannot be dead. I don't want her spirit, I want her. And you murdered her. You did it, you did it, you did it. You murdered my misery. I thought you were good, but you're no good, you're just another lying old dirty bird. Heavens to Betsy.

Tony Maietta: 28:38

My favorite was always Mr man. Listen to me. Mr man, I used to say that all the time. Mr man, yeah, she's got quite a colorful vocabulary, but she doesn't swear.

Brad Shreve: 28:48

So that's why we get the cockadoody she swears once she does swear, once she blames it for it. Yes, she does.

Tony Maietta: 28:53

Yes, she does. You're absolutely right about that.

Brad Shreve: 29:06

I also love the fact that she's got the Liberace album. She's got the Liberace pictures all over the place. Oh my God, that's very funny. And the fact that she said she's going to be playing Liberace, I guess, nonstop while he works, I thought, if anything would have been more miserable than anything she's done to this man. It's playing Liberace all the time no-transcript and that's going to leave me to talk about another difference between the book and the novel.

Brad Shreve: 29:46

And it's not because I think the novel is wrong, but I think it was a good decision for the movie. Part of the decision was made because obviously you have to cut things out when you make a movie. You only have two hours Actually that's an hour and 47 minutes to capture a very thick book, and that difference was in the book. There were a lot of state cops and what they did was made amalgamum and came up with the character Buster.

Brad Shreve: 30:10

Ah and in the book the state police. She was the obvious number one suspect through the whole novel and they visited her several times and I like both of those changes because it made the book more claustrophobic. I mean, I'm sorry, it made the movie more claustrophobic.

Tony Maietta: 30:28

The movie yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brad Shreve: 30:29

Because it was just him and her, except for when Buster showed up. That's very true.

Tony Maietta: 30:33

In the house. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely so.

Brad Shreve: 30:36

I like that, I did like that, they did that. But she tells him that she called everybody, she called his uh daughter publisher played by lauren lauren mccall, she called his daughter because I get. She must have said she went to town no, she went into town.

Tony Maietta: 30:51

To call laura, yeah. To call betty, yeah.

Brad Shreve: 30:53

Yeah, to make the call yeah, but she tells them that you know nothing's clear because of the roads, and that's where they went. Then that's actually a lie and uh, which I will say was one of the dumbest moves he made. Paul would have known not to drive down the mountains in a blizzard, but then we wouldn't have the movie In a Ford Mustang.

Tony Maietta: 31:08

In a Ford Mustang? Yes, exactly, you think you'd have four-wheel drive. Not too smart there, ryder, you think you'd have four-wheel drive. You're up in the mountains in Colorado.

Brad Shreve: 31:20

It makes me think of the movie the Martian, which Neil deGrasse Tyson said it's a brilliant movie. He loves the movie. The only thing wrong with the movie is there are no storms on Mars. It just does not happen. There's no storm, he said. But I accept it because that's the whole premise of the film. So I accept this, with Paul Sheldon driving down the mountain during a blizzard. So anyway, what he does is he's working. The novel that he finished is his first non-misery novel, or his first non-misery novel since starting that series. I think he wrote five or seven of the misery novels While he's up. She asked if she can read his novel.

Brad Shreve: 31:57

Now in the book she had to fight with him, but in the movie he's grateful for her for taking care of him. So he says, of course you can read the novel. And she's reading it and she's loving it. And then when she finds out that he killed off, misery is when she comes in the room and makes that little speech and that's only part of the long speech that she makes and she lets him know. Right then I have not called anybody, nobody knows you're here, everybody thinks you're dead and if you want to get out, you're going to write the next misery novel and bring her back.

Tony Maietta: 32:36

And how about. But what she also does is she makes him burn the novel, the book that he's been working on this whole time, his new life, the book he was writing after Misery and you know, as you can, I love that about James Caan is you feel that this is the only copy he has. And as a creative person, I'm sure you know, I know I feel that way. You know, think how you feel when you accidentally delete a file on your computer. You're like, oh shit, I hope I saved it, I hope I saved it, I hope I saved it. Or computer crashes or something that is. The ultimate pain to a creative person is to destroy what you just spent all your time and energy working on.

Brad Shreve: 33:17

Oh it's painful I agree, I that is actually one of the most horrific scenes in the movie to me. I feel that that pain, it's a horrific yeah, it really is. That is, yeah, that is horrible, just horrible to watch him do that James Caan's performance is so layered.

Tony Maietta: 33:32

I mean you get the sense of this tough guy who is. I mean he should be able to throttle this woman instantly but he can't. And you get that frustration and you get that rage and you get him underplaying and pushing it down so she doesn't suspect it and it's a really. I think it's probably one of his greatest performances. I really do. I mean, kathy Bates gets all the glory as well she should, but James Kahn truly gives a great performance.

Brad Shreve: 33:58

And, unfortunately, because Kathy did such a brilliant job, it does get overlooked. I think a lot of people miss how well he did. A lot of people miss how well the, the filmography was in this, that the whole story in general, because it wasn't just kathy bates, it was this film in general, that and, like I mentioned, the, the, the filming that was done. They had so many scenes of looking up at her face where you're looking at it from his viewpoint, mm-hmm, and the look in her eyes as you see her going from one personality to the next and getting scary, creepy as she uses cock-a-doodie and Mr man and things like that. Right, it's just so well done in so many levels, yeah.

Tony Maietta: 34:43

I agree, and I think a lot of it has to do with Rob Reiner. I mean, rob Reiner was really a great choice to direct this. Because, rob Reiner, what does Rob Reiner know? He's the son of Carl Reiner and Estelle Reiner. Okay, he knows comedy, no-transcript horror film. It makes it all the more horrific because you're laughing one moment and then you're stunned the next moment and then you're scared the next moment and then you're laughing the next moment and then you're scared the next moment and then you're laughing the next moment. And Reiner does that beautifully. Reiner handles this all with a. Even when she's hobbling his legs, it's handled with a very light touch. One might almost say it has a slightly humorous edge.

Brad Shreve: 35:36

Some of her most scary scenes are then turned around with a very lighthearted, funny reaction that she has your emotions are all over the roller coaster, like hers are.

Tony Maietta: 35:46

Heaven to Betsy, oh, oh when she burns the manuscript. Oh heaven to Betsy, oh dear, oh, oh. And she's just like. This woman is insane.

Brad Shreve: 35:56

This is after she has poured lighter fluid all over him, it's just yeah.

Tony Maietta: 36:00

after she, it's just great. So Paul eventually starts to get better and he makes. He's able to get out, climb out of bed in a very, very long scene. Maybe it took 20 minutes for her to go into town and then come back, but at that time he was able to drag himself and jerry-rig a bobby pin to be able to unlock the door and get out into her house and realize what a nut job she is. Into her house and realize what a nut job she is. And then she comes home and he has to really quick drag himself back in his wheelchair this guy has two inoperable legs Pull himself up and that damn bobby pin, get the door locked again and get in bed just in time for her to come in and open the door. She eventually, of course, finds out and that's when things start to really go crazy.

Brad Shreve: 36:47

They made it very obvious because when he's out and about while she's gone, he knocks over this figurine a penguin and when he puts it back, he puts it back too. Obviously wrong. It's turned completely around. So, everybody immediately knows he's going to get caught. But I think people forget that Because it is quite a bit later when she realizes it and she comes in and says I know you've been getting out Right, and that is when she hobbles its legs and when Buster. First let me go talk about Buster and Virginia.

Brad Shreve: 37:14

Oh, please, yes, yes yes, my God, what a wonderful couple. Everybody loves this couple. You know I've seen this movie many times, but it's been ages and ages and that's why it was refreshing when I saw it again. You can't help but love this couple. I want to see a movie about these two. Buster is the sheriff and Annie— Unfortunately you can't see one anymore. I know Buster is the sheriff and Virginia is his wife, who they also call his secretary. They are such a wonderful— or deputy?

Brad Shreve: 37:44

yes, I'm sorry they are such a wonderful or deputy. Yes, I'm sorry. They're such a wonderful couple together. They are funny. Their chemistry is great. The biggest mistake I think they made is killing buster off, and here's the reason why. There's a thing in movies that they kind of they always feel like they have to kill a prominent character so the audience will feel less safe for the main character. In the movie Top Gun, I went in five minutes into that movie I looked at a friend next to me and I said Goose is there to die. That's exactly what I said. And sure enough I was right and I think that's overdone and I think it was absolutely unnecessary in this case. And the reason why is I don't think it added anything to the film except it made people really angry Because they made him so likable if it was done in a different situation, but at that time when they did it there, I don't think it was necessary. We already felt Paul Sheldon's pain.

Tony Maietta: 38:40

Yeah, I mean, I agree with you the fact that I hated to see Buster die, but you have to realize that then. But what happens is, because she shoots Buster, because Buster comes, sheriff Buster finally comes to the house. He's finally figured out. Maybe I should check, I should talk to Annie Wilkes, because we didn't say this. But when Paul was roaming around the house he found a scrapbook of all of Annie's past exploits and she was accused of killing babies in a hospital.

Tony Maietta: 39:05

So we know this woman is dangerous. So he shows up and, yes, she comes home and she shoots him in the back and he falls down the stairs. So, yes, it's sad that he gets shot, but that has to happen because it brings about the conclusion of the film. If you didn't have her shooting Sheriff Buster, then there'd be no reason for her to suddenly get scared and say the time has come for me to kill you and kill myself, and that's the conclusion of the film. So it brings about the climax, basically. So I get what you're saying, but then what would bring about the climax, what would be the crisis that would bring about the conclusion of the film if it wasn't Sheriff Buster being blown away by Annie?

Brad Shreve: 39:46

I think just his being obvious that he knew something was going on could have been enough. I will say, one very happy change that I'm glad they did was, though in the novel it was a state police officer who was killed, and it was very gruesome, let's just say. It involved a lawnmower.

Tony Maietta: 40:02

I Ooh, I didn't hear that, yeah.

Brad Shreve: 40:06

So I'm glad they made that change.

Tony Maietta: 40:08

I see what you're saying, but I also think it was necessary because it drives up. You can't go back from this. This is now the point of no return. Yes, you're correct, we're at the point of no return. So we know this movie is going to be ending soon and the ending of the movie is very I don't know. Here's my one issue with this movie, and I feel the same way about Fatal Attraction. Now, fatal Attraction was famously reshot to give that violent ending of Glenn Close's character being blown away by Michael Douglas's wife In the original filming of it she kills herself.

Tony Maietta: 40:49

Alex in Fatal Attraction, his wife in the original filming of it. She kills herself. Uh, alex, failed attraction. And there's just. Yes, we hate annie, but it's just, you know the way that he he hits her with the pig and the typewriter and yeah, it's, I don't know. I just I, the feminist in me, gets my gets my eye up a little bit. I don't like the fact that they're just degrading this woman. Yes, kill her, fine, but we don't have to degrade her by putting, you know, taking the ashes from this manuscript and rubbing him in her face and hitting her with the typewriter and hitting her with the pig. I get it, you know she's dead. Okay, it feels to me to be a little too, a little too much testosterone there, a little too James, too much James Cullen coming through, that's my opinion.

Brad Shreve: 41:33

The feminist in me says I'm glad they didn't treat it with kit gloves, that she got the just desserts that they would have given a man. I guess that's she was just as evil as a man. That was a change from the novel and I'm only going to bring it up because I think the novel would. It probably was very scary in the novel but it would have been a pretty boring end to the movie. In the novel, after he hits her with a typewriter, she climbs out the window to go get a chainsaw to kill him and dies in the barn. She dies in the barn, yeah, dies in the barn.

Brad Shreve: 42:07

She dies in the barn, yeah. So I mean that would be pretty dull in a movie that was lying there and then she just grows in the barn and dies.

Tony Maietta: 42:10

They have to have this over the top testosterone fueled ending, um, okay I hate they did the cliche, she's dead.

Brad Shreve: 42:17

Oh, she's not dead. She attached him again.

Tony Maietta: 42:19

He's not really dead please, why did you go there? But you know it's uh, it is cathartic. Yes, just like you know, there are arguments that the fatal attraction ending, the reason they changed it was because it wasn't cathartic. The audience needs to feel catharsis. Okay, I get it, but at the same time I'm not a huge fan about it. But it doesn't matter, because audiences were, because Misery, when it was released, was a huge hit.

Tony Maietta: 42:45

It was a huge hit. It was a huge hit. It was a budget of what? $18 million? And it made $61.3 million. It is the 10th highest grossing film of a Stephen King novel so far. Now that's going to change because the more Stephen King novels that get made, the lower and lower it's going to go, and some of these Stephen King adaptions like it. I mean it made $200 million, I mean. So I don't think it's going to hold that record much longer when the next Stephen King adapts, because he's definitely getting more and more popular as we go on.

Tony Maietta: 43:22

But yes, kathy Bates was pretty much blown into the stratosphere when this movie was released and she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. And do we want to know the lineup of the people that she beat when she was awarded, who the Oscar went to, who the Oscar didn't go to that year. Did you want to take the honors? We have Joanne Woodward in Mr and Mrs Bridge, which is a really wonderful film. It's a small film with her husband, paul Newman, and it was her last Oscar nomination. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman Now there's a flashback for you. Can you imagine when I mean Pretty Woman? So this is 1990. Yes, julia Roberts breakout role. You know, at the time we kind of look at that and like really she got nominated for an Oscar for this. But you have to understand it was kind of like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. I mean, this was like Julia Roberts was exploded. So you can kind of see why and she's actually a very charming and pretty woman. Angelica Houston in the Grifters have you ever seen the Grifters, brad?

Brad Shreve: 44:16

No, I'm familiar with the novel, but I did never see the movie.

Tony Maietta: 44:19

I love this movie. I would love to talk about the Grifters sometime. It's her and Annette Bening, oh my God. And James Cusack what a wonderful fun. It's a great movie and she's brilliant in the Grifters and, last but never ever least, especially at a going Hollywood podcast. Yes, the goddess herself, meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge. This is the year Meryl was nominated for Postcards and Kathy Bates beat her, so I don't think Meryl should have won for Postcards, as much as I love Postcards it's number five on my list. I do believe that Kathy Bates was the correct choice, I agree. I think that this for the simple reason that it set her on a career path and it showed she had a great film career ahead of her. You know this wasn't a one and done, like it is sometimes with these when people come out of nowhere and get an Oscar and then they're gone.

Brad Shreve: 45:16

Cuba.

Tony Maietta: 45:16

Gooding Jr. Well, he continued to make films that just weren't any good yeah that's the problem.

Brad Shreve: 45:21

yes, she didn't disappear.

Tony Maietta: 45:22

She continued to make films and what's also interesting is this is the only film based on a Stephen King novel to win an Oscar thus far. So I mean, there were a lot of nominations. Obviously, there were nominations for Carrie and Stand by Me and Shawshank Redemption, but this is the only win. So that's really kind of cool. I like that about Misery.

Brad Shreve: 45:41

And she was also the first woman to win an Oscar for a horror thriller film.

Tony Maietta: 45:46

So there you go See. So there's a lot of firsts with this.

Brad Shreve: 45:49

And I also want to talk about other movies that year. Please do. Even though it was a box office success, it made three times what it cost to make. It was only number 19 that year, but if you look at the other movies that came out that year, it makes sense. Number one that year was makes sense. Number one that year was home alone. It grossed 476 million dollars that that pales in comparison when you think, oh misery, made 61 million to do it really well again, home alone 476 million and do you know, I only watched that movie last year for the first time.

Brad Shreve: 46:18

Oh my god, I never had a desire. I didn't. You know, it wasn't like I would. I just never had desire and I finally watched. I'm like my God, this thing is funny.

Tony Maietta: 46:27

For Catherine O'Hara alone.

Brad Shreve: 46:30

I'm thrilled Home Alone came out. Other movies that year was Ghost Dances with Wolves, as you said, Pretty Woman, Huge eater. Teenage Mutant, ninja, turtles, hunt for Red October. The list goes on and on.

Tony Maietta: 46:46

So now we know why it was super 19 out of the list, despite it being a great success. The fact that home alone dances with wolves, ghost were all in the same freaking year, that's amazing.

Brad Shreve: 46:53

It's amazing, yeah yeah, didn't know that was a big year for movies, but obviously was huge year, huge year well, I think that that's, um, I mean, that's all I have to say about misery.

Tony Maietta: 47:03

Is there anything else that you need to say about misery? And uh, or you'd like to say about Misery, brad?

Brad Shreve: 47:07

Well, first of all I want to talk about how it did on Rotten Tomatoes. Oh, please, yes, it did kind of well. The critic score, the tabulation of the critic score, is 91% and this is one of the cases where the audience agreed. The audience score is 90%. So they're not always neck and neck like that. Sometimes those critics in the audience disagree and the only other thing I want to say is that, again, I love this movie so much because let me give you movies Carrie, christine, some people are going to hate it. I'm going to say the Shining, children of the Corn, firestarter, the Langoliers those are all Stephen King novels that I think were absolutely dreadful films. Now, the TV movie the Shining was a lot better. I agree with Stephen King. I think the Jack Nicholson one people love and adore that film. I think it's terrible and misery is in there. So most of his movies don't turn out well, but he does. If he gets the right director, such as Stand by Me with Rob Reiner, they can do it justice.

Tony Maietta: 48:12

Such as Misery with Rob Reiner.

Brad Shreve: 48:13

Yeah, misery with Rob Reiner and a lot of his movies I think fail because they are hard to translate into movies. And let me give you an example the Shining. I kept hearing how good the book was, so I finally read it after seeing the movie and not being thrilled with it. And the book is terrifying. But one of the movies they cut out the book was I think they put it in the TV series. But it was a good decision in the 70s was there is a scene where they're walking through you remember the hedges that they walk through in the Shining? Of course they had the topiary animals. In the book the animals come to life and they are terrifying.

Brad Shreve: 48:47

Well, they chose not to do that in the movie because they didn't think they would do it well and I think with the poor CGI at that time it probably would have been laughable. And I think the right decisions were made with some of the changes they made with Misery that they wouldn't have transferred well from, for example, the cutting off the foot. I think it would have detracted from the film. Oh yeah, I agree To kind of go on a tangent here. Did you know that during the Gladiator times, gladiators did product endorsements?

Tony Maietta: 49:15

No, I didn't know that they were huge celebrities.

Brad Shreve: 49:18

They did product endorsements and they were going to put that in the movie Gladiator and they said we better not. People won't believe it and they didn't, and I think that was a good decision, though historically it would have been accurate.

Tony Maietta: 49:30

Well, that's wow, there you go. That's pretty interesting.

Brad Shreve: 49:34

So anyway, I don't know why I went off of those, I just found it all interesting.

Tony Maietta: 49:37

What products would they be endorsing in Roman times?

Brad Shreve: 49:40

Oh, sandals, bombatoriums. Yes, exactly sandals. Yes, exactly so. Anyway, that's all I have to say. Obviously, I really love this film. I think it's the best adaption Stephen King. I'm glad we did it. Thank you for allowing me to do one for a change. Now we're going back to the way it's supposed to be we have more coming up folks, but I can't tell you how soon they'll be.

Tony Maietta: 50:05

I really, really loved watching it. Again, thank you for suggesting it. I think it's. It was a. It's a fun movie. It really is, and again it's. It's nice to see kathy bates. Uh, finally, finally, uh, breakthrough. So well, brad heavens to betsy. I guess there's only one thing left to say, but I don't want to cock-a-doodie say it. So let's not say goodbye, let's say au revoir.

Brad Shreve: 50:30

No, Mr man, let's say goodbye.

Tony Maietta: 50:38

I want to go see that eclipse now.

Brad Shreve: 50:42

Goodbye everybody. That's all folks.