Tony Maietta:
Hello, I'm film historian Tony Maietta.

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

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

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

Tony Maietta:
As does your self delusion. Welcome to going Hollywood.

Brad Shreve:
Tony. I appreciate you running the show all alone. Or mostly alone while I'm gone with your guest hosts and that sort of thing. But I'm really. I'm hurt. I'm more hurt than I ever imagined that you could possibly hurt me.

Tony Maietta:
How are you hurt?

Brad Shreve:
Well, when I said I was gonna take some time off to move, we agreed that you could have a little dalliance, like with Brandon. But you had a second date with Brandon.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, the rules, the rules. But he's out of town.

Brad Shreve:
A fling is one thing.

Tony Maietta:
He's in. He's in Illinois though. Is that okay? He's in Illinois because we're out of town. It's okay, is it?

Brad Shreve:
It's a long distance thing. Okay, I'll let it slide.

Tony Maietta:
It's long in the same city. I thought it was. I thought that was the thing. Oh. Because I got one coming up soon with someone in the same city. Uh. Oh. First of all, who the hell are you? I'm sorry, have we met? You look vaguely familiar.

Tony Maietta:
You look like someone I used to know with. Are those cast in that 20? Oh, my God, listeners, Brad's back. Can you believe it? I can't believe it.

Brad Shreve:
Hola.

Tony Maietta:
I have missed you so much. I missed you so much. I loved my guest co hosts. I love doing it by myself, I'll admit. But it's just Not. You know what? It's just not the same. It's just not the same. I'm.

Tony Maietta:
I'm. I'm so happy to see you on the other side of the screen and to know that you guys are. Tell us, tell, tell everybody. How are you doing? You're in Spain now.

Brad Shreve:
We are doing so fantastic. You know, there was very little reservation on my part to move and very little on Maurice's move. We knew this was the right move. And I gotta tell you, granted, we're in the honeymoon phase, so, you know, we're willing to admit that things could change, but we really can. It's better than we ever dreamed.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, wow.

Brad Shreve:
Amazing here. The lifestyle fits us. It's so laid back. The town we love is a cute little town on the Mediterranean and life is good. Life is good. It was a good decision.

Tony Maietta:
Your environment looks fabulous. I love those. I love that ceiling. That looks great. It's fabulous.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah. Here in our 300 year old. Here in our 300 year old townhouse, I should say.

Tony Maietta:
That looks beautiful. That's beautiful.

Brad Shreve:
And we're in the new part of town, you know, because this was part of an urban renewal that took place.

Tony Maietta:
In the early, what, 1600, as opposed to 1400, is that the new part of town is 1600.

Brad Shreve:
Around the corner from us is the oldest street in town, which is built around the 1400, 1400s, 1500s, somewhere around there. And when I say the oldest street in town, I mean the oldest existing street in town.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, wow.

Brad Shreve:
A lot of the old city wall is nearby here. The castle up on the hill, you can kind of see near us. The castle's not much left of it, which is actually a very interesting history.

Tony Maietta:
I have a castle up the hill from me, by the way.

Brad Shreve:
Magic castle.

Tony Maietta:
The magic castle. So we both have castles right behind us. Sandcastles.

Brad Shreve:
If you come to Spain to tour the castles, you do not want to come to our little town of Oliva to see the castle because there's not much left of it, but it is very cute. Incredible views from up there. And as I always say, it's the best view of a castle that I ever had. Better than I ever had in Los Angeles, because there are at least two.

Tony Maietta:
Walls left up there besides the magic Castle. What's that one that Phil Spector lived in? That castle in Alta. Whatever the hell that is.

Brad Shreve:
Altadena.

Tony Maietta:
Was it Altadena? I don't know. Somewhere over there.

Brad Shreve:
Altadena. Yeah, I think it was somewhere east.

Tony Maietta:
Well, I'm so happy that you're Back for two more episodes. One, two. Done. Then we're done with the season. No, I've been talking about this a lot. We are back for two more, and then we're done with our second season of Going Hollywood, which I'm really excited about, because, frankly, I need a break.

Brad Shreve:
I'm sure you do. You must be exhausted running the show.

Tony Maietta:
I'm exhausted.

Brad Shreve:
Whoa, whoa. I gotta say something, Tony. This is something that really drove me crazy. So every week when we record, we have this debate, okay, who has more time to edit this week than the next? And we have to figure out how are we going to fit this into our personal schedules and that sort of thing. Yeah, you did this all by yourself. And not only did that, you did a major production with sound effects and music effects. And I'm like, jesus, when did he have time to do all this? When we normally can't even get us to normal edit this show.

Tony Maietta:
Well, that was.

Brad Shreve:
I was quite impressed. It was very good.

Tony Maietta:
Thank you. That's your schedule, not mine. I am waiting for you. I'm like, brad, are you done yet? Are you done yet? No. Well, the Valley of the Dolls one was the only one I had sound effects with because I was like, I'm by myself. I have to have some kind of fun sound effects. And I'm like, crossing my fingers that the Internet spiders don't hear that music. But you know what? I don't think they.

Tony Maietta:
I don't think it's a big deal. I don't think they will notice it. I really don't. Maybe they will. I don't know. We'll take it out next year. It's hit or miss.

Brad Shreve:
It's hit or miss. If advantage is we know they caught it. You never know.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, no, it was. It was a lot of fun. I truly. And I thank, thank, thank my guest co hosts and my guests. While Brad was gone, it was so much fun to talk to you and get different perspectives. But I am, as I said, I'm very glad that Brad is back to close out our second season. And I'm very excited to talk about this movie because it's Brad's choice. I thought, you know what? He's been gone for what, five years now? Six years? How long are you gone? You should at least have a choice for your return.

Brad Shreve:
Yes. And I have talked about this one for quite some time. And actually, before we continue, one last thing I want to say is thank you for your guest hosts. You guys did a great job. Thank you for filling in. And it certainly Gave me a nice break to move without added stress that I needed.

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
Or that I didn't need, I should say. And so, yeah, thank you for allowing me to do Miranda. As you know, this is very near and dear to my heart. This is a movie I'm very passionate about, though I've never seen it before.

Tony Maietta:
Wait a minute. What? Wait. Come, come. Ken. What?

Brad Shreve:
Glynis Johns. As you know, Glynis was a friend of mine, Glynis Johns, who most people know as the mother on Mary Poppins. She and I met in the early 2000s, and Glynis was one of the most conservative, cantankerous, demanding individuals you'd ever meet in your life. And I absolutely loved her to death. And we hit it off instantaneously, and we had so much fun together.

Tony Maietta:
But you've never. Say what now? But you've never seen this film.

Brad Shreve:
No. We hung out together. We chatted together. We were gonna go through her entire library. She wanted me to organize it for her. And in the process, we were gonna sit down and watch every single one of her films, which, you know, she didn't have a huge catalog, but she had a good sized catalog, and it was just one of those things we never got around to doing. And so I never have actually seen this film.

Tony Maietta:
So how did you know you wanted to watch it? How did you know that it would be any good?

Brad Shreve:
Well, I didn't know that it was going to be any good or not. I just knew Glynis, and I love and adore Glynis, and I miss her. She died last year, and I was very sad when she passed away 100.

Tony Maietta:
100 years old.

Brad Shreve:
She made it to 100, which doesn't surprise me, because, as I said, she was cantankerous. And if anybody was going to hang on, it was Glennis. And here's the thing I'm going to say about cantankerous. She's the kind of type, if people didn't know her, they probably think, oh, this is a woman that was entitled or felt entitled. But that is not true. Glynis demanded people behave in a manner that she expected of herself.

Tony Maietta:
Ah, right.

Brad Shreve:
She was a true professional that expected the best of herself and therefore did expect nothing less from anyone else. So if somebody did not meet her expectations, man, she let them know it.

Tony Maietta:
Just like me. Just like me. You know what? I don't ask any more of you, Brad, than I ask of myself. Hello.

Brad Shreve:
You don't ask much of yourself, I'll say that. No, Glennis is one of Those man. When she'd let somebody have it, you'd be like, brown your head, like, oh, no, no, no, I'm not with this woman. I mean, she had no patience whatsoever.

Tony Maietta:
Well, she was quite, quite, quite a woman. Quite a woman. I mean, I didn't know her, but.

Brad Shreve:
You know, she was quite a woman. And she. I didn't even recognize her at first. We were talking and somebody said, oh, don't you know who that is? And I'm like, no. And I can't say why we hit it off so well, other than she and I just really connected. And I was doing a lot of sketching at the time. I found out that she loved frogs. And so I started sketching her frogs and she started hanging my frogs up around.

Brad Shreve:
She loved my frogs. And I didn't know, whatever. We just connected. We just had this really. It was not very long lived because she did. She did leave the area.

Tony Maietta:
So you met her back here? Better. Where'd you meet her?

Brad Shreve:
Better. In la. I met her in LA before she. Yeah, when she was in the LA area. I know she did eventually end up in a assisted living care, which is where she died. But I believe she went to Palm Springs, if I remember correctly. And that's when we lost touch, like.

Tony Maietta:
All us old gals do. Eventually we end up. Unless we end up in Spain. Unless it's Spain. It's either Palm Springs or Spain. And sometimes we go from Palm Springs to Spain.

Brad Shreve:
Exactly. Yes, exactly. No, I chose to come to Spain.

Tony Maietta:
So that's so cool. Well, that's amazing. No, I. Well, I had never. And this is. Yes, hold on to your phones. I'd never seen this film before. I had never seen it.

Tony Maietta:
I had heard of it, but I'm trying to think if I heard of it because you told me about it or someone else. But I had never seen it, so it was really. And here I thought this was like one of your favorite movies. I was like, oh, I have to watch this movie because one of Brad's favorite movies. Am I gonna like it? Am I not gonna like it? And then I'll just say I thought it was so charming. I loved this film. I thought it was a fun, sweet, charming, very, very, very, very British film. I thought it was wonderful.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, it was incredibly British. I have a lot wrong with this film and I still loved every second of it. It is, as you said, I'm not surprised, just plain charming. By the way.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Before we go on, I gotta tell you something.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, is it about George Stevens? Because I don't want to hear it. Watch it.

Brad Shreve:
You're gonna. You're gonna hate to hear this.

Tony Maietta:
I'm sure.

Brad Shreve:
Absolutely gonna hate to hear this.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
Because when this is gonna. We're gonna backtrack, and then we're gonna come back to this film. When you and Brandon were talking about the film.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And you were talking about the George Stevens film, and I was actually sitting in a cafe overlooking the Paseo and having my coffee in the morning, and you're talking about this film. I'm like, God, that really sounds familiar. And then you start talking more, and I'm like, oh, my God, this is a George Stevens film. I love this film.

Tony Maietta:
Wait a minute. So you had seen. The more the merrier.

Brad Shreve:
I had seen it, and not only had I seen it, I. I love the film.

Tony Maietta:
See, you just never know.

Brad Shreve:
And I'm like, oh, my God. Here is a George Stevens film that I love. And Tony was talking about it without.

Tony Maietta:
Me again, because you didn't know George Stevens directed it. It's like Giant. If I had told you that George Stevens direct this, you'd be like, I hate it. She looks like a witch.

Brad Shreve:
No, it is one of his better films. Anyway, back to Miranda.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, back to Miranda.

Brad Shreve:
Back to Miranda. I really enjoyed this film a lot. It was a lot of fun. It was very charming, very whimsical. The production was. Was a little odd. It was very choppy, as I'm sure you noticed.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
There were scenes that were only five seconds long and were nothing more than a glance. And I'm like. It kept. You know, it happened at the beginning, and then it kept happening and happening. Like, in the first nine minutes, I think I counted 10 scenes.

Tony Maietta:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
Some of them were, like, very, very quick. And the production company, which I'll have to look up. I don't remember the name of it right now.

Tony Maietta:
Gainsborough. Gainsborough production.

Brad Shreve:
Apparently, that's what they were known for doing.

Tony Maietta:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
Like.

Tony Maietta:
Yes.

Brad Shreve:
Like, they would have all these clips and just a glance at something. They're like, okay, let's stick it in right there. And I'm like, well, it's sure dead.

Tony Maietta:
It's a hallmark of these British films. Like Ealing Studios. Remember we talked about. I always want. I want to do the Lady Killer sometime. Ealing Studios, Gainsborough Productions. That's British cinema. That's the way British films were.

Tony Maietta:
Don't forget. They just. We just fought a war. And they. You know, they almost were decimated in World War II. So a lot of these films are. They seem to be quickies. But that's one.

Tony Maietta:
I think that's one of the charming things about this movie. It moves. It's so fast. It's like less than 90 minutes. So it's an enjoyable ride. And the scenes just go, go, go, go, go. And charming. Charming.

Tony Maietta:
And it's fast and I love that. No big, long exposition. I guess we should say she plays a mermaid in this film. And you know, and she. I mean, he meets her, she pulls him under. Next thing you know, she's in London and the plot is on.

Brad Shreve:
That's the thing. It opens up with him, he and his wife and they say, okay, let's take separate vacations.

Tony Maietta:
Boom.

Brad Shreve:
All of a sudden he's on a boat. Boom. All of a sudden he's in the water.

Tony Maietta:
Boom.

Brad Shreve:
All of a sudden he's in the cave. And she says, I want to go London. And boom, he's back with his wife, with the mermaid.

Tony Maietta:
And she has a baby.

Brad Shreve:
No time to worry about it. What?

Tony Maietta:
Where did this mer baby come from? I know we're jumping way ahead.

Brad Shreve:
I had to do research at the end of the.

Tony Maietta:
Well, let's wait. Let's save that.

Brad Shreve:
Yes, we'll save.

Tony Maietta:
I'll remind you. I'll remind you to the end. Let's not forget.

Brad Shreve:
I was so confused by that, I had to deep dive into where this baby came from.

Tony Maietta:
Let's not forget about the mer baby.

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, no, we won't forget about the mer baby.

Tony Maietta:
So should I give the brief synopsis of this? Because it's real. It's like three sentence. Like the. Like the film. Please do it says. And this is from IMDb I'm doing what Brad usually do is. I just. I just put what Brad usually do's.

Tony Maietta:
But Brad usually does. Suddenly you're back and I've lost all grasp of English language. A young married physician discovers a mermaid and gives into her request to be taken to see London. Comedy and romantic entanglements ensue thereafter. That's the kind of synopsis you want. Okay, Don, that's what happens.

Brad Shreve:
Hey, that's pretty much it.

Tony Maietta:
That is it. That is it. But okay, first things first. So it's about a mermaid. Glynis Johns plays a mermaid. And Glynis Johns at this point. So she was born in 23. 24.

Tony Maietta:
23. This is 48. So somebody quickly do the math for me. What? She's 20?

Brad Shreve:
Was it 25?

Tony Maietta:
5. She is stunningly beautiful.

Brad Shreve:
And she's adorable too.

Tony Maietta:
But she's gorgeous. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

Brad Shreve:
Cute as can be. Cute as a Button.

Tony Maietta:
I think we should tell people. You know, for people who don't really know. Who's Glynis? John's trying to put a face to the name. She plays Winifred Banks in Mary Poppins. She's the mother. She's sister suffragette, cast off the shackles of Y. So that's Glynis Johns. And she's beautiful in Mary Poppins, don't get me wrong.

Tony Maietta:
But at 25, stunning. She puts Daryl Hannah to shame. I'm sorry, but she does. She is stunningly beautiful in this. And you believe she'd be a mermaid and all these men would fall in love with her. You would. She's gorgeous.

Brad Shreve:
And if you were watching this movie and didn't know who she was to begin with, if you've ever watched Mary Poppins, you would know right in, right away from her voice.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, absolutely. It's the same voice.

Brad Shreve:
Send in the clowns.

Tony Maietta:
Yes. And she also is the first person to record, because she was the original Desiree in the first production of Little Night Music. And Sondheim wrote Send in the Clowns, you kind of say for her. But he wrote it definitely with her voice in mind because it doesn't do a lot. There's not a lot of octaves sending the clowns. That's just, you know, a couple notes. And he wrote it with her voice in mind. And I think she gives the definitive.

Tony Maietta:
I like Streisands, too, but of course I do. But she gives a definitive performance of Send in the Clowns, and so does Judy Collins.

Brad Shreve:
And she was quite proud of that, I will say.

Tony Maietta:
I think she should be. She won a Tony Award for that. But not only. Now, here's something that I was like, what? This is so crazy. What? Also in this film, in Miranda is David Tomlinson, who plays Mr. Banks in. In Mary Poppins. So you see the future.

Tony Maietta:
There's, like, their backstory. You're like, oh, I love when they do shit like that. I love when you say when actors work together, then work together later. It's kind of like when you're watching BEA Arthur and McClanahan and Golden Girls, and then you see a clip of them from Maude, and you're like, oh, that's Dorothy and Blanche years ago. You know what I mean? So you have David Tomlinson, Mr. Banks, and Glynis John's Mrs. Banks, much younger and in black and white. And you're like, that's how they met.

Tony Maietta:
And they had those two little brats.

Brad Shreve:
So Mary Poppins was magical. After all, she Was.

Tony Maietta:
This is a black and white film, and it follows Miranda Truella. Truella. Truella. Like Cruella De Vil Truella. Miranda Truella. She's a beautiful mermaid. And it's basically her effect on every single man she comes in contact with, who she basically seduces. She's an outrageous flirt, and she basically.

Tony Maietta:
They all fall in love with her.

Brad Shreve:
And what I love about her is it's all a game to her. It's just. It's like she loves that power of just manipulating them and doesn't even care after that.

Tony Maietta:
Well, it's her power as a mermaid, I think that's the whole. The siren song of the mermaid, you know, it just. She can't help it. The girl can't help it. You know what I mean? She's a mermaid. Men are gonna fall in love with her. But I love how she pulls. Nigel.

Tony Maietta:
Is it Nigel? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Griffith Jones plays Paul, right?

Brad Shreve:
Yes, yes. Who? I'm not really familiar with him, but I really like him as an actor. I probably would know him if I know more.

Tony Maietta:
Very handsome. Very handsome.

Brad Shreve:
Yes.

Tony Maietta:
She pulls him off the boat and she pulls him into her undersea cave, I think. I guess it's called undersea cave. And she wants to keep him there forever. And she's like, okay. And I think he's there for like a week. And he's like, finally he forgets about his wife. He's like, okay, I'll. You know.

Tony Maietta:
I'm like, okay, you got to. This is a little strange. And the only reason she lets him go, she's going to keep him captive. And he's okay with it because she's so gorgeous. The only reason she lets him go is because she wants to go to the world. She's like. She's like, Ariel. She wants to be where the people are, you know? But she can't get legs.

Tony Maietta:
She's got to have her. She still has her fin. So he brings her up to London, and the entire time they have to. She has to have these long couture dresses made to hide her tail and her fin. And everybody has to carry her around everywhere. It's. So I was thinking. I don't know if this film.

Tony Maietta:
Now, there was a censor board in Britain, in the uk, Obviously, you can see when this movie starts. It says it was passed by the. By the censor board. There was not the same kind of production code that we had here in the United States. And I'm just wondering if it would have passed in the United States. Because the looks and the fact that they're touching, I mean, it's really very, very sexual.

Brad Shreve:
Well, especially later in the movie where the women were talking about that she never wears panties. I'm like, oh, no, this would never have been in the United States. Well, of course she doesn't wear panties. She has a fin, for God's sakes. But they don't know that.

Tony Maietta:
They don't know that.

Brad Shreve:
They're shocked that she never wears panties.

Tony Maietta:
But she seduces all these men. And these men are absolutely enamored with her. They're just. You know, it's incredible. It's incredible the fact that this actually flew in Britain, in the uk, when it never would have flown in the United States. But here's what's interesting. You know, there was another mermaid story in 1948. And one of the reasons why, I think probably you're thinking that this thing looks kind of slipshod, like it was put together really fast, is because it was because Miranda is based on a play.

Tony Maietta:
And when they started to make the film, they. They got wind of another mermaid movie being made in Hollywood called Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, which is also a 1948American romantic film fantasy with William Powell and Ann Blythe. So they were kind of like, you kind of had your competing mermaid. Remember that year when we had competing capotes? We had the two Capote films. Well, this is the year of the two mermaid films. And it was kind of put together very, very quickly. And I've never seen Mr.

Tony Maietta:
Peabody and the Mermaid, to tell you the truth. But I can't imagine it's any more charming than this is. I just can't imagine it.

Brad Shreve:
I've heard the film, and I have never watched it. This film, it was. It's extremely charming. And, you know, I made the comments about how choppy it was, and I wouldn't say that detracted from it. It just was, like, odd. And it took me a minute to get used to that. But once I accepted, okay, that's the way that they made this film, and that's the way it is. I was okay with it.

Brad Shreve:
It just was kind of caught me off guard in the beginning.

Tony Maietta:
It's a different style of filmmaking that's just.

Brad Shreve:
It's very uneven.

Tony Maietta:
It's the British style. It's Fast and Furious. And if you watch any film, as I said, I just said about the lady killers, it's the same kind of a style. In 1945, there was production of Blythe Spirit. Now this. This Film. I want to say this starts very. No, Coward.

Tony Maietta:
It's very, very. It's very, very Noel Coward in the beginning. Because they're out there having cocktails on the terrace on the veranda and they're talking about how bored they are with their marriage. And so he's going to go off on his little holiday and that's how he meets Miranda and he gets pulled under. But it's so. They're so. They're so blase. They're so frickin blase about everything that happens in this movie.

Tony Maietta:
It doesn't matter. All these men are falling in love with her and all of their fiance's. And all the wives are like, oh, dear. Oh, that Miranda. But she is pretty. She is. It's so funny because they're so blase about everything. And if this was a murder, they would be up in arms about all this shit, don't you? Yeah, absolutely.

Tony Maietta:
I mean, you know, this was Bette Davis, and in any Bette Davis film from the 40s there'd be so much trouble. But no, they're also blase about it. And then she leaves and like, all right, let's go on with our lives. Oh, you're forgiven. Let's go. I mean, it's just. That's the way it is.

Brad Shreve:
I can't wait to go out and see how she handles with your husband. I mean, like, what?

Tony Maietta:
Exactly. I hope he doesn't leave you for her. Oh. Oh. I mean, it's just. Okay, okay. It's just. That's the British way.

Tony Maietta:
That's the Noel Coward British way. So, yes, this was based on a play written by Peter Blackmore, who also wrote the script for this. So I can imagine this is very theatrical. This, this film is very. I think one of the reviewers said a lot of funny fish jokes, which there are. There's a lot of funny fish jokes in this movie.

Brad Shreve:
I can't count the number of times they said something's fishy about this.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, yeah, it's. It's very funny. It's very funny. It was directed by Ken Anakin, who was actually the second director. And as I said, it was based on the play Miranda by Peter Blackmore. So it was. I don't want to get into if it was a hit or it was a hit, by the way. P.S.

Tony Maietta:
and there was a sequel. Did you know about the sequel?

Brad Shreve:
I do know about the sequel, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to talk about this film, because of the way Glenn has talked about this film and the way she talked about the sequel is one of the reasons why it really stuck in my head.

Tony Maietta:
Let's hold on to the sequel and hold on to the mer baby.

Brad Shreve:
I will hold on to it because.

Tony Maietta:
There'S somebody else we have to talk about. Because the minute she walked on screen, I screamed. Because she's one of my favorite, favorite. Who in the world. Margaret Rutherford.

Brad Shreve:
I never dreamed that's who you were going to be bringing up.

Tony Maietta:
Who did you think I was going to bring up?

Brad Shreve:
Her.

Tony Maietta:
Margaret Rutherford. Oh, okay. Okay, okay.

Brad Shreve:
Of course.

Tony Maietta:
I'm sorry. I'm not used to. I'm not used to. I haven't had sarcastic comments for five weeks. So I have to get back in the groove of this. Oh, Brad is faking me out again. Okay, okay. All right.

Tony Maietta:
Yes. Margaret Rutherford. Ms. Marple herself. I love Margaret Rutherford. She always plays the same character and she is brilliant at it.

Brad Shreve:
She was especially kooky in this one.

Tony Maietta:
Did you ever see when we were talking about Death on the Nile way, way back when the world was young, on this season, and I talked about that there was a series of 60s Miss Marple films that featured Margaret Rutherford and they had very bossa nova, cool beats. And she played Miss Marple. She was Agatha Christie's favorite Miss Marple. She didn't like the movies, but she loved Rutherford. And you can see Rutherford's kind of is a very. Earthy. Is not even the right word for Margaret Rutherford. I mean, she is a.

Tony Maietta:
She's a big woman. You know what I mean? She's taken the world on and she's very British and she's very, you know, matter of fact and very. But very funny and very kooky and very quirky. She's gotta be. She was one of these dames who was born at 45 and stayed 45 or 55, I think, with Margaret Rutherford and. Because she looks exactly the same in the Miss Marple films in the 60s as she does in this film from 1948.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, that doesn't surprise me. She looks like the type that would be the same age from, you know, like Ben Kingsley has looked the same since the 70s.

Tony Maietta:
Yes, yes. It's that kind of thing. She's so wonderful in this. She plays the nurse. And what I love most about her because. Because they need a nurse to take care because basically, Glynis Johns, she's a mermaid. You know what I mean? So she's supposed to be underwater. It's not good for her to be on land.

Tony Maietta:
Okay, so Griffin Jones, who plays Paul Martin, the guy that Miranda pulls under and then brings her into London, hires Margaret Rutherford as her nurse. And I love the fact that Margaret Rutherford is so excited when she sees that Miranda is a mermaid. When she sees the tail, she goes, oh, mermaid. I've always wanted. I always believed in mermaids. And she's. She's like her cohort.

Brad Shreve:
Not the least bit shocked.

Tony Maietta:
Not shocked. Not. She's. Because she's. She's British. She's very matter of fact. Oh, she's a mermaid. Of course she's a mermaid.

Tony Maietta:
Excuse my British. I'm sorry. But it's. It's so funny because she's so much fun in this. She's so kooky. She's so quirky. She's so Margaret Rutherford. Did you ever see Margaret Rutherford? And she won an Oscar in 63 for the VIPs.

Tony Maietta:
Did you ever see her in the VIPs?

Brad Shreve:
That doesn't ring a bell? No, I don't believe so.

Tony Maietta:
She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. It was the first movie that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor made after Cleopatra. And they're like, we gotta capitalize on this. So they made the VIPs. And it's one of those omnibus films where there's a bunch of characters all converging on an airport. It's kind of like airport. And they all. They all have different stories, except there's no bomber on a plane.

Tony Maietta:
And so Mark Rutherford plays an elderly woman who's very rich. She's just like this. Everything Mark Rutherford does, whether it be Ms. Marple, whether it be this nurse, whether it be the VIPs, this is her character in this. She just did Blithe Spirit. And she played Madame Arcady again, Noel Coward. And she's very much matter of fact, you know, knows to the grindstone, pull yourself up by your bootstraps type of character. And she's so wonderful in this because she's a great foil for Gwyneth Johns and for Griffith Jones, who plays Dr.

Tony Maietta:
Martin. I loved her.

Brad Shreve:
I did too. I loved her as well. We kind of danced around a little bit. This movie does something that actually, we didn't dance around it. This movie did something that Splash danced around. Where in Splash, Daryl Hannah's character Madison develops legs when she's on land.

Tony Maietta:
Right.

Brad Shreve:
They had the extra challenge in this film that Miranda's legs did not grow. She never had legs, ever.

Tony Maietta:
Never got legs.

Brad Shreve:
An invalid wrapped up in a blanket where people carried around. Now men were carrying around and nobody noticed that they were Finns.

Tony Maietta:
But whatever it was, still, she had very long couture. That was it. Nobody thought, why am I making an eight foot dress for this woman who appears to be about five foot two? And so she's got these long flowing robes. She carries it and then she's put in the wheelchair. And she left the scene at the park. So she gets David Tomlinson, who plays the chauffeur, to drive her to the park. And they're feeding the seals at the park. And of course, she goes right up to the front, to the gate, and she's.

Tony Maietta:
They're throwing the fish to the seal and she just keeps washing the fish, watching the fish. And then it's cut. The fish goes up in the air, the people look at her, and suddenly she's got a fin in her mouth and she swallows the fin and then she talks to the seal.

Brad Shreve:
She goes, oh, oh, oh, I love that.

Tony Maietta:
It was great. It was so funny because it was so economic. It was just. You got the idea you knew what was happening there. And everybody's just like, what? That woman just ate a fish, you know, but she's in. She's in a wheelchair, so they don't pay attention to her. I also love the fact that she.

Brad Shreve:
And actually, I expected her to swallow the. You could tell that the fish was gonna go flying in the air and she was gonna swallow it.

Tony Maietta:
Right?

Brad Shreve:
Her talking seal was the one that caught me off guard.

Tony Maietta:
That was hysterical. How about that siren song? So she's a mermaid, so she has a siren song. And it's the strangest sound. This in no way, shape or form could this sound have come out of Glynis John's. This kind of weird siren song.

Brad Shreve:
They didn't even try to make it pretend like it did come out of Glynis John's.

Tony Maietta:
They didn't even try. It was just like, okay. And everybody's, of course, enamored with this voice. So he takes her to the opera because she wants to go to the opera because she's a mermaid and she has the siren song. And that's the one thing I thought was kind of interesting. So they go to the opera twice. And one of the times, of course, she falls in love with or she seduces a friend of theirs who just got engaged, Nigel, who is played by John McCallum, who. Adorable, adorable guy.

Tony Maietta:
And he leaves his fiance for her. Everybody's leaving their fiances, their intendeds, their wives for Miranda. And then she goes back to the opera the second time, and she. Do you think that's when she's got it in her Mind that she has to go back into the sea. And this is my question for you. Did you get the fact. Because she knew she was going to have a mer baby. Did she? She was.

Tony Maietta:
We got to talk about the mer baby. She has a mer baby.

Brad Shreve:
How?

Tony Maietta:
I don't understand that. How is that possible?

Brad Shreve:
I had to look it up because. Good. Okay. Was this the product of an affair that she had once? One of these men? How it is in the production notes?

Tony Maietta:
She's got a tail. And I mean that literally. I mean it literally.

Brad Shreve:
It makes no sense. In the film, Margaret Rutherford talks about her grandchild or her nephew, one of the two.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And at the end of the film, that is who Miranda is holding. No explanation. You're supposed to just know this. But that is what the production notes say. Who that child was.

Tony Maietta:
Wait a minute. Does the production notes say whose child is it? It's Margaret Rutherford's grandchild.

Brad Shreve:
Margaret Rutherford's grandson or nephew. One of the two.

Tony Maietta:
But she's a. But he's a mer baby. He's got a tail.

Brad Shreve:
I'm not trying to explain that one. I'm just merely telling you what. They wanted it to look whimsical and fun. So they had her with this baby at the end. But no, there was nothing unseemly that happened. She had this mer b.

Tony Maietta:
Well, how. How could there be, physiologically. Let's think about this for a minute. It could not have happened. Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
I don't want to.

Tony Maietta:
But. So here's the thing, though. You got some tail from a mermaid, but so what happens is that people start to get suspicious that of course all these men are leaving their fiances and their wives for this gorgeous woman named Miranda, this gorgeous invalid named Miranda. And what happens is that Paul's wife, Claire, becomes suspicious and she reads an article about mermaids and she figures out that Miranda is a mermaid. And she confronts her. And Miranda takes off. She gets in her wheelchair because Claire is going to tell everybody, they have to tell everybody that this is a mermaid. Gets in her wheelchair and wheels herself down to the Thames and jumps in the Thames and is on her way to Mallorca.

Tony Maietta:
She says she has to be in Mallorca by the spring for some reason. And I took that meaning. She wants to be in Mallorca, where it's warm when she gives birth to this mer baby. That's the way I took it. Did you. Did you take it that way?

Brad Shreve:
No, I didn't really know why she went. I just. Honestly, when she kept talking about going to My Arca, she's like, oh. I kept thinking, oh, she's coming over my neck of the woods. That's all I kept thinking of.

Tony Maietta:
I'm looking for Ingmar Bergman motives in this thing. And it's not death playing chess.

Brad Shreve:
They're not there.

Tony Maietta:
It is simply the story of this mermaid. So she jumps in the Thames. They're like, oh, she's gone. Let's go. You know, I'll never go fishing again, or, I want to go fishing with you. And she's like, I'll never go fishing again. And they're happy. They're off in their Noel Coward world.

Tony Maietta:
And then the film cuts to Miranda with her mer baby doing that. That siren song on a rock. And that's the end of the movie, folks.

Brad Shreve:
And again, that is one of these weird, choppy endings. It's like, okay, so they're there, and all of a sudden you see her wheeling out towards the river. And there's like this very brief. Oh, where did she go? Miranda. Miranda. And she jumps in the water and it's like over. I mean, it's not like this huge ordeal. It's like she jumps in.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, she's gone. And then we see her sitting there with her mer baby.

Tony Maietta:
There's a very, very slight moment of crisis when Claire threatens to tell the world that this is a mermaid. And then she's gone and it's over. I kind of like that. I mean, you know, we're dragging it out. We're not doing any car chases. Let's get the mermaid quick before she gets to the pier. You know what I mean? It's like, no. She wheels herself, she gets in that wheelchair, she wheels herself down to the Thames, jumps on the Thames.

Tony Maietta:
Next thing you know, she's in Mallorca. It's, you know, it's the only way to travel as far as I'm concerned.

Brad Shreve:
And you know what it reminds me of? When we were talking about. Oh, my God, I can't think of the name. Keeping Up Appearances.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah.

Brad Shreve:
You know how each episode of that show there wasn't like this wham, bam, wrap up at the end. It just kind of, you know, pop her head out of the water with a flower in her head, looking whimsical, and boom, that was the end of the episode. It wasn't like there had to be this major wrap up, like, we're efficiency today. And this, that was the way this was. Boop. We're done.

Tony Maietta:
That's the Brits. You're, you're. You're over there. Now, those are the Brits. You know, efficiency. That's the way it is. You know how I feel about the uk, how much I love the UK and. And how much I adore the uk.

Tony Maietta:
And that's one of the things I love about. They're just efficient. They're like, this is the way it is. Moving on. That's it. Done.

Brad Shreve:
Movie over television here. But I am watching Spanish television to try and learn Spanish better. And let me just say, I have no clue what the. Is going well.

Tony Maietta:
Don't be watching those telenovelas, please. So there was a sequel to this, to this film called Mad About Men in Color, and it featured Glynis Johns and Mark Rutherford. And you said you had to come back. She was the only one to come back. And you said you had some stuff to say about it.

Brad Shreve:
There's two things that I really remember about Glennis. Two stories that she told me about all the time. One was about Dennis, Larry, because one of her very last films.

Tony Maietta:
Really? Oh, okay.

Brad Shreve:
One of her very last films was the Ref. I think was like the second to last film she did. And there was a scene in the Ref. I don't even know if I've seen the film. I think I did one time where she jumps on his back and she shocked the director and the entire cast, shocked them all when she insisted that she was going to do that on her own and not have a stunt double. So she jumped on Dennis's back. And she was so proud of that story. She told it over and over again.

Brad Shreve:
I don't know why that may be, because it was the most recent thing that she remembered, but she loved to tell that story. That and the other thing that she used to tell me about was how much she loved Miranda and was so proud about Miranda, how much she despised Mad About Men.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, really?

Brad Shreve:
It's funny because if you look at Rotten Tomatoes, and if you look. Rotten Tomatoes doesn't have the critic score, but it does have the audience score. And if you look at other sources and look at critics score, both the critics and the audiences liked Mad About Men much more than Miranda. Glynis was a much different person. She loved Miranda, first of all. It was her big break in British film. She never really made the big break she ever wanted to in the US But Miranda was her big break in the uk she hated Man About Men. She only did it because the studio made her do it.

Brad Shreve:
She felt it was tacky. She felt it was trashy. And that's probably why the audience liked it more. It was Probably a little less British.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, okay.

Brad Shreve:
Well, it was still very British. I watched a little bit of it to kind of get an idea, but it wasn't this. It was a little more polished than what we saw.

Tony Maietta:
Well, it was also later.

Brad Shreve:
A little more.

Tony Maietta:
It was later. You know, it was in color again. Audiences.

Brad Shreve:
It was a little more silly.

Tony Maietta:
Britain from the war, still in 1948. So the films improved. And, you know, you got. You didn't. You got. I think you got a little more expedition. You probably got a lot more storytelling elements than this. Kind of very.

Tony Maietta:
Here's the basic story. Here's the bare bones of the plot. We're done. Bye. See you later. You know, like this movie is.

Brad Shreve:
But she. She didn't want to do the film. The studio made her. She had to play two characters. So she had twice the screen time, which I'm sure didn't make her happy. She didn't want to make.

Tony Maietta:
Doesn't she play an identical cousin?

Brad Shreve:
Yeah, her identical cousin who was human.

Tony Maietta:
Identical human cousin. Shades of the Patty Duke Show. You look just like me and you're my cousin. Yeah, yeah.

Brad Shreve:
And just like in this. I did watch the beginning and just like this film where the main character, the actors character. I can't think of his name.

Tony Maietta:
Paul.

Brad Shreve:
Where he is. Yeah, with Paul. He is in the cave with her. And there's like 30 seconds of. You're a mermaid. This is weird to. Instantly, he's accepted.

Tony Maietta:
He's fine.

Brad Shreve:
I'm hungry. I'm hungry.

Tony Maietta:
I'm hungry. Not like, how am I going to get. There's about five seconds of I got to get the fuck out of here. And then he's like, oh, no, you're beautiful. Okay, I'm okay. I'm hungry. Let's eat. It's just that fast.

Brad Shreve:
I watched Mad About Men where the human Glynis character is talking to Miranda and there's like 10 seconds of how curious. You're a mermaid. How can we be related? Oh, we're from different parts of the family. Oh, okay. And then they go on with the rest of the story. It's like, wait a minute. Life isn't that easy.

Tony Maietta:
Oh, but isn't it? But maybe we just look too deeply into these things. They should just be that simple and that quick.

Brad Shreve:
It really should. Why question? It just is. Move on.

Tony Maietta:
We know. I think that you said that she never really made the big splash in the US that she wanted to, which I can kind of see that. I mean, but she did. You know, Mary Poppins was a huge Hit. Granted, she wasn't Mary Poppins, but still, it was very, very. A huge hit. She had her own sitcom in 1963. Did you know that? Called Glynis.

Tony Maietta:
Did you know about that?

Brad Shreve:
Didn't last very long, though. And did she have a talk show?

Tony Maietta:
No.

Brad Shreve:
Maybe. I'm thinking of the sitcom.

Tony Maietta:
Yeah, I don't think she had a talk show, but so she worked. I mean, she worked up until you just said she was in the movie with Dennis Leary. So she worked and worked and worked. I can understand she was upset that she didn't become Julie Andrews or she didn't become, you know, Julie Christie or any of the Julies who became hot in the 60s from the UK, but she still. I mean, it's pretty. Pretty impressive that she introduced Send in the Clowns and won that Tony Award for Little Night Music and basically, yeah, I think her body of work is perfectly respectable. I get it. I can see why she was upset.

Tony Maietta:
But this movie, so charming, so beautiful. I highly recommend anybody to watch this movie if they just want a good Sunday afternoon. Let's watch something cute. It's less than 90 minutes. I mean, come. Come on.

Brad Shreve:
It is. It's a perfect Sunday afternoon. Get some good giggles out. Very cute. Every. Everybody in this film is absolutely charming. It's just a lot of fun. And I will say, you know, Glynis was disappointed that she never was.

Brad Shreve:
Never made the big cheese in the US but she was never bitter about her. She always spoke very, very lovingly of her career. She was very, very happy about her career. And I think just naturally, she would have liked to have been bigger, like anybody did, but I don't think there was any ever bitterness that she never got bigger.

Tony Maietta:
That makes me happy. I'm glad to hear that, because. Yeah. Because, my God, you know, you just got to be. You have to just have a certain perspective on this. And I think it's charming. She's wonderful. I've always been a big fan of Glynis John's, and I'm an even bigger fan now after watching this delightful, delightful movie.

Brad Shreve:
And the one thing I will tell you about Glynis, even though she did not play Mary, when you talk to Glennis, probably every other sentence started with as Mary Poppins would say. And then she would either quote from the movie or from the book. She was always doing that.

Tony Maietta:
You would really. That's interesting.

Brad Shreve:
Played Mary herself. Yes, she did that all the time.

Tony Maietta:
No bitterness.

Brad Shreve:
It was so adorable. And she did not. The fact that she would. That movie was what people Thought of her. Obviously, it never bothered her because she quoted from that all the time.

Tony Maietta:
I love it. I love it.

Brad Shreve:
She took great pride in that.

Tony Maietta:
Well, thank you for suggesting this movie, even though you didn't see it. I was like, what?

Brad Shreve:
Well, like I said, it's really weird over all these years that I never got around to seeing it. But, you know, after Glynis and I lost touch, I really enjoyed my memories of her. But I had. You know, it just was never like I had to see it to make my connection with her. They were two very different things. And I'm glad I finally did. You know, part of it was because she and I had always talked about sitting down and watching all her films together, and it never happened. So it wasn't like I hurtful that it wouldn't happen that if I did, it just didn't.

Brad Shreve:
It just wasn't as big of a draw to me anymore because that extra excitement was lost. Yeah, I'm glad that we finally did sit down and watch this together. And it made me miss her. And I. I do miss Glynnis. Like I said, she was a very unique individual and easy to hate and easy to love.

Tony Maietta:
Well, you can ask for more than that. You really can't.

Brad Shreve:
No, you can't. You can't.

Tony Maietta:
So at this point in the podcast, what I've been doing is, have you? And we've listened. So I usually say whatever Brad says, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you're back. I'm so happy to say this, finally. Is there anything else you want to say about the film, Brad, or the podcast?

Brad Shreve:
I would. I'm almost speechless. I'm so happy to be back and be saying these things.

Tony Maietta:
So good, because I'm tired of saying blah, blah, blah.

Brad Shreve:
I know the fact that I've been gone for numerous weeks has made it difficult to continue to listen to this podcast, but I'm glad you hung on. And if you did hang on through all of this, it means that you do love the show. And so please rate and review this podcast so others can enjoy it as much as you do. And I am joking, of course, because Tony did a tremendous job. And thank you to all the guest co hosts. And so please rate and review the show, and more than anything, tell your friends about us, because that's the really important part. Get more people listening to us.

Tony Maietta:
So true. It's so true. And by the way, did you ever find the name of that wonderful listener who suggested Valley of the Dolls?

Brad Shreve:
You know, he didn't listen to that episode. And I thought, I need to look her up, but I have been so insanely busy getting used to my new town and trying to get around in a place where I can't even speak the same language that, no, I have not looked her up. But I will do it for next week.

Tony Maietta:
Well, or. Here's the thing, listener, we plead you. We plead with you. If you're listening to this, let us know. Send us an email to goinghollywoodpodmail.com Texas. I want to thank you for that because I had a hell of a lot of fun talking about Valley of the Dolls, both episodes, the one by myself and the one with Brad. And I wanted. We want to be able to thank you.

Tony Maietta:
And I feel terrible about the fact that we can't say your name. Maybe you don't want to say your name, which is fine. Just. Then email us and say, I don't want you to say my name. But it was a lot of fun.

Brad Shreve:
We're going to ask two things of you. One, forgive us, and two, let us know who you are.

Tony Maietta:
I guarantee you, when we get these reviews, now, I'm always looking for them, because now that I know how it works, now that I realize you can leave reviews, I'm always looking for them. So we appreciate it. I read some while you were gone. I read some of the reviews during the Valley of the Dolls episode, which were. They were some wonderful, wonderful. We need to do a Disney movie. Maybe we should do Mary Poppins.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, that would be fun.

Tony Maietta:
Because a fan of Disney, someone who left us a wonderful review, is obviously a fan of Disney, so we should do that. But. Yeah, but you know, I have real.

Brad Shreve:
Issues with Mary Poppins.

Tony Maietta:
We'll save him for the next. I don't need to hear him now.

Brad Shreve:
Jesus.

Tony Maietta:
He's back for 45 minutes and already from Spain. So, anyway, I'm so happy Brad is back, and then we're done, so I'm happy about that, too. So we have one more episode before we wrap up our song Second season of Going Hollywood. And it's not really our Christmas episode, but if all things go according to plan, it's gonna drop on Christmas Eve, I believe. So you can kind of think of it as a. As a Christmas episode, but what I like to think about it is it's a suggestion. And who suggested this movie?

Brad Shreve:
Brad, My husband.

Tony Maietta:
Yay, Maurice. Yay. We're gonna do it. Finally. We're going to talk about. Fingers crossed. We're gonna talk about the women. And you know what? George Stevens didn't direct it.

Tony Maietta:
So I think we're okay. However, who knows? Who knows with this guy? He's in Spain. He's off the charts. Who knows how he's gonna appeal? How he's gonna find this? I have no idea. There's a lot of things to say about it. There's a lot of things to say about it because it's very much of its time, of its era. But that's one of the reasons why I love it.

Brad Shreve:
Oh, I've got lots of things to say about with it regarding his time.

Tony Maietta:
I'm sure you do. It's gonna be a Christmas stocking full of all kinds of goodies that we're gonna have for you for our season finale. Wow. Well, I guess that was Miranda. And I guess there's nothing more. There's only one thing more left to say, Brad. But I don't. You know what? I haven't seen you so long, and I wanna say it.

Tony Maietta:
So let's not say goodbye. Let's say au revoir. No.

Brad Shreve:
Let's say adios.

Tony Maietta:
I knew you were gonna do that. Goodbye, everybody. Adios.