Special Report: Timon Singh on Born to Be Bad

Special Guest: Timon Singh

Timon Singh of the Bristol Bad Film Club joins Mike to talk about his book, Born To Be Bad: Talking to the Greatest Villains in Action Cinema and the documentary, In Search of the Last Action Heroes, which he's producing and Oliver Harper is directing.

Pre-Order your copy of In Search of the Last Action Heroes

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Listen to "Timon Singh on Born to Be Bad" on Spreaker.

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Special Report: The Last Movie (1971)

Special Guests: Craig Rogers, David Marriott, John Buck Wilkin, Jessica Hundley, Nick Ebeling, Satya de la Manitou
Guest Co-Hosts: Ben Buckingham, Nick Dawson

On this special episode of The Projection Booth we’re looking at Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie. Barely released by Universal Pictures in 1971, the film stars Hopper as Kansas -- a man as middle-American as his name. He’s in Peru as a stunt man for a Western. When the cast and crew packs up and goes back to Hollywood, he stays behind where the natives form a sort of cargo cult around movie-making, holding up Kansas as their god, savior, and their sacrifice.

Mike talks to Craig Rogers and David Marriott from Arbelos Films who have restored The Last Movie and have re-released the film. He speaks to author Jessica Hundley, editor of Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967, John Buck Wilkin who performed music on both The Last Movie and Lawrence Schiller & L. M. Kit Carson's The American Dreamer. Finally, he speaks with Nick Ebeling, the director of Along for the Ride and its subject, Satya De La Manitou.

Nick Dawson and Ben Buckingham join Mike to discuss the film as well as its fascinating history.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Special Report: The Last Movie (1971)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy the Along for the Ride book
Be sure to LIKE Along for the Ride on Facebook
Read My uneasy ride with Dennis Hopper by John Buck Wilkin
Read When Westerns Were Un-American by J. Hoberman
Read Hip Hopp: Dennis Hopper, Protest, And Popular Music by Dominic Preston
Read DENNIS HOPPER’S “THE LAST MOVIE” | THE FILM THAT BURIED A VISIONARY by JP

Music:
"Easy Rider, 1970" by Chris Sikelianos

Watch:

SCENE MISSING from Alex Cox on Vimeo.

Episode 377: The Parallax View (1974)

Special Guests: William Daniels, Bonnie Bartlett, Barna William Donovan, Shane O’Sullivan
Guest Co-Hosts: Chris Stachiw, Jess Byard

Alan J. Pakula's, The Parallax View (1974) stars Warren Beatty as reporter Joe Frady. After a mysterious series of deaths, Frady gets embroiled in an investigation that leads him to The Parallax Corporation, a shady company that finds and recruits sociopaths in order to use them as assassins.

Interviews this episode include actor William Daniels and his wife Bonnie Bartlett, author Barna Donovan (Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious), and filmmaker Shane O'Sullivan (RFK Must Die).

Clip of Lorenzo Semple Jr. from Television Academy Foundation.

Jess Byard and Chris Stachiw join Mike to discuss the Loren Singer book, the Lorenzo Semple Jr. script, the David Giler rewrite and the eventual final product.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 377: The Parallax View (1974)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Parallax View on DVD
Buy The Parallax View by Loren Singer
Buy There I Go Again: How I Came to Be Mr. Feeny, John Adams, Dr. Craig, KITT, and Many Others by William Daniels
Buy Confirmation: Investigations of the Unexplained by Barna William Donovan
Buy Who Killed Bobby? : The Unsolved Murder of Robert F. Kennedy by Shane O'Sullivan
Listen to our Executive Action episode
Listen to our Blow Out episode

Music:
Original Soundtrack by Michael Small

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Special Report: The Piano Teacher (2001)

Special Guest: Christian Berger
Guest Co-Hosts: Jared Bauer, Chris Stachiw

Based on the 1983 book by Elfriede Jelinek, Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001) stars Isabelle Huppert as our titular pedagogue. She’s a woman trapped in a harrowing relationship with her mother. She is abused and belittled at home only to turn around and do the same to her students. Things change when she meets Walter Klemmer (Benoît Magimel ) who is a bit obsessed with his prickly piano teacher, leading to a mutually dissatisfying relationship between the pair.

Jared Bauer (Show Me The Meaning) and Chris Stachiw (The Kulturecast) join Mike to discuss this harrowing film. In an interview, Director of Photography Christian Berger talks about his career, the Cine Reflect Lighting System, and working with Michael Haneke.

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Listen to "Special Report: The Piano Teacher (2001)" on Spreaker.

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Episode 376: The Mack (1973)

Guest Co-Hosts: Jon Cross, Moe Porne

Michael Campus's The Mack (1973 ) stars Max Julien as Goldie, a man who was set up and goes to jail only to come out and fulfill his dream of becoming the baddest pimp in town. He’s got the mob, the cops, black nationalists, and fellow pimps to contend with... it’s a rags to fur and velvet story.

Jon Cross (The After Movie Diner) and Moe Porne (No-Budget Nightmares) join Mike to discuss this classic blaxploitation film.

Links:
Buy The Mack on DVD

Music:
"The Mack" Soundtrack - Willie Hutch

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Listen to "Episode 376: The Mack (1973)" on Spreaker.

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Episode 375: Society (1989)

Special Guest: Brian Yuzna
Guest Co-Hosts: Terry Frost, Jay Bauman

"I thought it was going to be number one at the box office but then again I was delusional." -- Brian Yuzna

Terry Frost and Jay Bauman join Mike to look at the 1989 film from director Brian Yuzna, Society. The film stars Billy Warlock as Bill Whitney, a suburban teen who feels that things are amiss in his life.

Music:
"Eat the Rich" - Motörhead
"Sirotinja Uvijek Najebe (Kill The Poor)" - Kud Idijoti

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Listen to "Episode 375 - Society (1989)" on Spreaker.

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Episode 374: Kings and Desperate Men (1981)

Special Guests: Andrea Marcovicci, Arden R. Ryshpan
Guest Co-Hosts: Daniel Kremer, Jonathan Marlow

Two terrorists -- Daniel Kremer and Jonathan Marlow -- break into The Projection Booth to discuss the 1981 Canadian thriller Kings and Desperate Men .

Produced by, directed by, and starring Alexis Kanner, the movie is the story of an arrogant talk show host -- played by Patrick McGoohan. He and his family are taken hostage by a handful of gun-wielding terrorists. The main terrorist -- played by Kanner -- goes on the air with McGoohan’s character and they engage in tense battle of words.

Written for the screen by Edmund Ward, the film's Christmas setting and terrorist plot caused Kanner to sue the makers of Die Hard for damages.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Kings and Desperate Men (1981)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Kings & Desperate Men on VHS
Visit the official Andrea Marcovicci website
Read a review of Kings & Desperate Men
Read Daniel's interview with Andrea Marcovicci
Read more about Kings & Desperate Men

Music:
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" -

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Special Report: Mission Caligula (2018)

Special Guests: Kelly Holland, Alexander Tuschinski
Guest Co-Hosts: Maitland McDonagh, Rob St. Mary

On this special episode Maitland McDonagh and Rob St. Mary join Mike to discuss the latest developments to the continuing story of Tinto Brass & Bob Guccione's Caligula (1979) uncovered in the recent documentary Mission: Caligula (2018).

Director Alexander Tuschinski, working with Penthouse CEO Kelly Holland, have made some startling discoveries about the film that promise to thrill film fans.

Links:
Discover Maitland McDonagh's work at Riverdale Ave. Books
Give to Rob St. Mary's Detroit Punk Archive project

Music:
Score by Bruno Nicolai

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Special Report: Mission Caligula (2018)" on Spreaker.

Listen to the Caligula episode:
Listen to "TPB: Caligula" on Spreaker.

Watch:

Mission: Caligula from Alexander Tuschinski on Vimeo.

Special Report: Rock Steady Row (2018)

Special Guests: Trevor Stevens, Bomani Story

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks to director Trevor Stevens and writer Bomani Story about their film Rock Steady Row (2018).

Playing with the Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars tropes, it's the story of a Freshman-with-no-name who comes to Rock Steady University only to have his bicycle stolen. He finds two rival fraternities control the illegal bike trade and he sets the two against one another.

Links:
Read Slamdance Interview: ROCK STEADY ROW And The Justice Of The West (Side Of Campus) by Bears Fonte

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Special Report: Rock Steady Row (2018)" on Spreaker.

Listen to an interview with Tom McLoughlin:

Listen to "TPB: Tom McLoughlin's Strange Idea of Entertainment" on Spreaker.

Music:
"End Theme" - Joshua Mosley

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Episode 373: Yojimbo (1961)

Guest Co-Hosts: Jordan Blossey, Eric Cohen

Released in 1961, Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo was an international sensation and put jettisoned star Toshiro Mifune into the pantheon of cinematic badasses. It’s the story of merchants who manipulate two factions of gangsters in a small town. Our main character -- a man with no name -- comes to the town and after sizing things up decides that he’ll make a bit of money playing both sides against one another. Along the way we discover that perhaps he’s not the unscrupulous amoral bastard he pretends to be.

Eric Cohen and Jordan Blossey join Mike to discuss Yojimbo, it's sequel Sanjuro and a few other "Yojimbo movies" as well as Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, Walter Hill's Last Man Standing and a raft of other similar films.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 373: Yojimbo (1961)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Yojimbo & Sanjuro on Blu-Ray
Buy the Man with No Name trilogy on Blu-Ray
Buy Red Harvet by Dashiell Hammett
Read more about Hammett's Corkscrew
Buy Hammett: A Life on the Edge by William F. Nolan
Read about Machibuse: Incident at Blood Pass
Four Artists and a Man with No Name by Scherpschutter
West Meets East by Alexander Sesonske
A Comparison of 'Yojimbo', 'A Fistful of Dollars' and 'Last Man Standing'

Music:
Yojimbo Score - Masaru Satoh
A Fistful of Dollars Score - Ennio Morricone

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Episode 372: Figures in a Landscape (1970)

Guest Co-Hosts: Cullen Gallagher, Heather Drain

Robert Shaw and Malcolm McDowell are two men on the run from mysterious forces in Joseph Losey's Figures in a Landscape (1970). Adapted by Shaw from a novel by Barry England, the film is something of an artsy action movie.

Heather Drain and Cullen Gallagher join Mike to discuss the film... and learn a bit about themselves along the way.

Links:
Buy Figures in a Landscape on Blu-Ray
Buy Figures in a Landscape by Barry England
Learn more about The Ghost of Peter Sellers
Watch Popeye in Goonland

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Listen to "Figures in a Landscape (1970)" on Spreaker.

Music:
Score by Richard Rodney Bennett

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Special Report: 7 Splinters in Time (2018)

Special Guests: Gabriel Judet-Weinshel, Edoardo Ballerini

On this special episode of The Projection Booth, Mike talks to writer/director Gabriel Judet-Weinshel and actor Edoardo Ballerini about the sci-fi film noir 7 Splinters In Time, a movie nine years in the making.

Available via iTunes on July 13, 2018, keep up with the film at their official Facebook page.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Special Report: 7 Splinters in Time (2018)" on Spreaker.

Music:
"Order Out of Memory" - Max Gabriel

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Episode 371: Scarecrow (1973)

Special Guests: Jerry Schatzberg, Garry Michael White
Guest Co-Hosts: Bill Ackerman, Jamey Duvall

The crows are laughing at our episode about 1973's Scarecrow. The film stars Al Pacino and Gene Hackman as two drifters who join forces to head to Pittsburgh by way of Detroit to start a car wash.

Jamey Duvall (Movie Geeks United) and Bill Ackerman (Supporting Characters, From the Neighborhood) join Mike to discuss the film. Special guests include director Jerry Schatzberg and writer Garry Michael White (no relation).

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 371: Scarecrow (1973)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Scarecrow on Blu-Ray
Visit the official Jerry Schatzberg website Visit the official Garry Michael White website
Read The Queer Subtext of New Hollywood Era Buddy Movies by Caroline Madden
Listen to Movie Geeks United
Listen to Supporting Characters
Listen to From the Neighborhood
Listen to our Puzzle of a Downfall Child episode

Music:
"Scarecrow" - Fred Myrow

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Guest Spots: The Shining and Trouble Man

Shining 2:37
Mike was a guest on the Shining 2:37 episode which looks at Stanley Kubrick's The Shining in 2 minute 37 second chunks. On this episode Jack gets some advocaat spilled on his jacket...

Kulturecast
It was Blaxploitation month on Chris Stachiw's Kulturecast when Mike joined the fray to discuss Ivan Dixon's Trouble Man:

Listen to "Trouble Man" on Spreaker.

Episode 370: The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)

Special Guest: Susan White
Guest Co-Hosts: Paula Guthat, Ken Stanley

Max Ophuls's 1953 film The Earrings of Madame de... revolves around a pair of earrings, the titular woman who owned them (Danielle Darrieux), the man who gave them to her (Charles Boyer), and the man who gives them to her again (Vittorio De Sica).

Ken Stanley and Paula Guthat join Mike to talk about this beautiful and heart-breaking film. Susan White, author of The Cinema of Max Ophuls, discusses Ophuls's career.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 370: The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy The Earrings of Madame de... on Blu-Ray
Buy Max Ophuls in the Hollywood Studios by Lutz Bacher
Watch Lucy Meets Charles Boyer

Music:
"Madame de ...: L'amour m'emporte, Walzer (arr. P. Bonneau)" - Veronika Kincses

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Episode 369: Detroit Rock City (1999)

Special Guests: James Campion, Tim Sullivan, Carl V. Dupre, Lin Shaye, Adam Rifkin
Guest Co-Hosts: Heather Drain, Josh Stewart

Detroit Rock City (1999) from director Adam Rifkin is the story of four friends and their desperate quest to get from Cleveland to Detroit to see KISS play live at Cobo Arena in 1978. They're faced with a series of challenges that threaten to keep them from seeing Gene, Paul, Ace, and Peter play the hits.

Returning from the Never Too Young To Die episode are co-hosts Josh Stewart and Heather Drain join Mike on this deluxe episode of the show which features director Adam Rifkin, screenwriter Carl V. Dupré, producer Tim Sullivan, actress Lin Shaye, and James Campion author of Shout It Out Loud: The Story of Kiss's Destroyer and the Making of an American Icon.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 369: Detroit Rock City (1999)" on Spreaker.

Bonus Interview with Adam Rifkin:
Listen to "TPB Special Report: Adam Rifkin & Penn Jillette building Director's Cut" on Spreaker.

Links:
Buy Detroit Rock City on DVD
Watch Adam Rifkin's Director's Cut
Listen to James Campion's podcast
Read Detroit Rock Sissies from "Mad Magazine"

Music:
"Detroit Rock City" - Flies on the Square Egg
"Detroit Rock City" - Mattias IA Eklundh
"Detroit Rock City" - Piano Dreamers Perform
"Detroit Rock City" - Dem Brooklyn Bums
"Detroit Rock City" - Hayseed Dixie
"Detroit Rock City" - KISS

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Episode 368: Twelve Monkeys (1995)

Special Guest: Dahlia Schweitzer
Guest Co-Hosts: Jedidiah Ayres, Tony Black

James Cole (Bruce Willis) may or may not be a time traveler sent from our future to learn about our present. Inspired by Chris Marker's La Jetée, Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys (1995) is based on a script by David Webb and Janet Peoples.

Tony Black and Jedidiah Ayres join Mike to discuss this twisted time travel story. Dahlia Schweitzer -- author of Going Viral: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World -- discusses the prevalence and significance of the disease narrative at the time of Twelve Monkeys's release.

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Twelve Monkeys (1995)" on Spreaker.

Links:
Read the original Twelve Monkeys screenplay
Listen to Tony Black's The X-Cast
Buy Peckerwood by Jedidiah Ayres

Music:
"Introduccion" From Suite Punta Del Este - Paul Buckmaster
"Sleepwalk" - B.J. Cole

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Special Report: 25th Chicago Underground Film Festival

Special Guest: Bryan Wendorf

Mike talks to Bryan Wendorf, director of the Chicago Underground Film Festival, about the history of the fest and the events surrounding their 25th anniversary where Mike will be one of the judges.

Visit https://cuff.org.

Links:
Read Twenty-Five Years of the Chicago Underground by David Hudson

Music:
"Chi-Town" - The Cribs
"Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night" - Hold Steady

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Special Report: The 25th Chiago Undergound Film Festival" on Spreaker.

Episode 367: Wanda (1970)

Guest Co-Hosts: Jordan Blossey, Roxy MacDonald

Jordan Blossey and Roxy MacDonald join Mike to discuss Barbara Loden's Wanda. Released in 1970 the film was written by, stars, and was directed by Loden. It's the personal story of a woman at wits ends who seems adrift in her own life.

Links:
Buy Wanda on DVD
Buy Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Leger
Read Who Was Barbara Loden? by Kate McCourt
Read Conversation on Wanda by Barbara Loden
Read Barbara Loden: “A Woman Telling Her Own Story Through That of Another Woman” by Richard Brody
Read "Fictions and Realities: On The Margins Of Barbara Loden's Wanda & Nathalie Léger's Supplément À La Vie De Barbara Loden" by Judit Karácsonyi
Listen to The Projection Booth episode on The Swimmer
Listen to the "Dead Blondes: Barbara Loden" episode of You Must Remember This

Listen/Download Now:

Listen to "Episode 367: Wanda (1970)" on Spreaker.

Music:
"Is that all there is?" - Peggy Lee

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Episode 366: The Dark Crystal (1982)

Special Guest: Brian Jay Jones
Guest Co-Hosts: Kat Ellinger, El Goro

Jim Henson and Frank Oz's The Dark Crystal (1982) is a dark fantasy story of Jen, one of two remaining gelflings in the world of Mithra. He goes on a quest to reunite a shard with the titular Dark Crystal in order to restore balance to his world.

El Goro of the Talk Without Rhythm podcast and Kat Ellinger of Diabolique Magazine discuss all the various versions of the revolutionary film with Mike while guest Brian Jay Jones -- author of Jim Henson: The Biography -- talks about Henson's career from his early days of puppeteering to his experimental films and beyond.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Buy The Dark Crystal: The Ultimate Visual History by Caseen Gaines
Download The Darker Crystal fan edit
Download The Dark Crystal workprint
Read about The Third Eye TV series
Read about Lidsville

Music:
"Overture" - Trevor Jones
"Trip Like I Do" - The Crystal Method

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