The Retros
We discuss the best picture decisions made by the Academy and whether they were right or wrong...we decide! We also discuss the many different categories and movies of the particular Oscar year we are reviewing and add a few new categories ourselves.
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The Retros
Episode 40: 1953 Intermission
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This week we look back at our 1953 episode and see if it needs any mistakes rectified or omissions told.
In this episode:
We made some mistakes. We hold ourselves accountable for those mistakes! Sometimes there are no mistakes; let us know if we missed something! We're not ALWAYS perfect...
Why did Peter Pan get so overlooked in 1953? We ask the hard questions. Like, why did ostensibly a children's animated movie have half naked mermaids, or why was TInkerbell getting spanked? Times were different, we suppose.
We were interested in the lengths of movies, and what they added to a movie to make it long enough to be worth it like short films and animations. We also talk about gonzo government propaganda short films like singing and dancing for the mayor by women in skimpy fire-fighting costumes. We're not kidding. There were a lot of wild shorts in the golden age of cinema.
This intermissions' outro music, the finale of Melody!, a Disney short from 1953 directed by Ward Kimball and Charles A. Nichols.
All this and more, inside a compact thirty minutes!
Thank you for listening and watch more movies!
Okay.
SPEAKER_01Alright, it is the retros. I gotta wait for the big sweeping orchestra to come in before I step forward to the microphone. So this is Cord, and this is Carlos. And this is the Retros, where we look at the Academy's choices for uh its awards for the Oscars, but we also look at films in general. And normally we're doing them by the year. But sometimes when we do a regular show about the a year of film, we miss some stuff, or we come across things we want to discuss further and return to and spend more time on. And that's when we do an intermission show. And that's what we're doing today. So the today is an intermission for 1953. So we're going back to 1953, of course. Uh if you haven't heard the 1953 show, you should go back and listen to it, and there'll be plenty of stuff that we do talk about. But tonight we're gonna go, or this show, we're gonna go through and cover some of the things that came up uh from that show that we really didn't get into, or things that after the fact we thought, that's an interesting film, and I should go back and spend more time on that. So now we're spending that time. And before we move on and get into the show itself, I just want to say you can always reach us at the Retros Podcast. Again, that is the Retros Podcast. Squish it all together into one long word. And any social media you want to use, we're pretty much there. Just the Retros Podcast at X, at Twitter, at well, I guess not X and Twitter. Just use one of those, and you'll be right half the time. But use your social media, look for the Retros Podcast, and we should be there. And you can communicate to us through that, or of course you can go to the website at the retros.buzzsprout.com. All right, that's the retros.buzzsprout.com and buzzsprout, buzz like a bee, B-U-Z-Z-S-P-R-O-U-T.com. All right. So 1953, we're gonna go back and cover some of the things that came up from 1953 that we wanted to spend a little more time on. So, Mr. Carlos. Yes, I understand you have something you'd like to discuss that was uh came to you from the 1953 show.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's uh there's a couple things, but one of the big things that uh I noticed when we were doing the 1953 show was uh one movie just did not seem to get uh any mention or traction in in in the Oscars for for that year, and that was Peter Pan. The you know animated movie based on the uh The Disney film.
SPEAKER_01The Disney film based on the book by uh it wasn't no, it wasn't Roll Dahl.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_01Uh and I don't know that I can't come up with the first name, but the last name starts with a B. Uh it was kind of like Mary. I think he went by initials for the first. Oh yeah. Uh and then it's a bee like Mary, or fairy, which is of course more applicable for Peter Pan. Or Neri. Neri any other word. Nary the other word was said about Peter Pan. Or Sari. What is a Sari? I don't know. But Terry, Terry is a word.
SPEAKER_00Like Terry. I have I have the name right here. I just want to see how far you'll go. What do you got? JM Barry.
SPEAKER_01There you go. And I was right, JM. JM Barry, JM Smokers. A lot of JMs out there. JM Smokers. It makes all the James and Jillians. Ah, yeah. JM Smokers. For the name like JM, it's gotta be good. Okay. Alright, so Peter Pan, Disney film, uh a classic. They've got rides for Peter Pan and had uh Captain Hook and Smee. Smee, right? Yep. Um had the Indians, that's not problematic.
SPEAKER_00That wasn't problematic at all. Well, is it? Had the mermaids at the time, though.
SPEAKER_01That's not problematic. Or, you know I was very surprised. I've seen Peter Pan in the fairly recent past. I think I don't know if it was for the 53 show or or not, but in the in fairly recently. Because I hadn't, I don't know if I'd ever seen it before. I mean, I knew stuff about it, but I think it's one of those things where you could know stuff about a movie just because it's in the zeitgeist and it's in the culture. Right. So even if you haven't seen it, you've seen parts of it and you've heard about it. But I was surprised by the mermaids.
SPEAKER_00Why were you surprised by that?
SPEAKER_01Topless with their hair coming down. I mean, I know they had, in one case, I think starfish or shells. Oh, yeah. But there was other scenes where I'm pretty sure they were covered by their hair. So I was surprised by that, that there were topless mermaids in 53 in what is definitely a kid's film. It just struck me as I don't think this would fly now. And there's plenty of things like that where you could go back and say this wouldn't fly. But there's things like the Indians, uh-huh where you would look at that and that's not going to fly because it's can easily be seen as a negative stereotype or a negative portrayal of Indians. And that's that's what's happened now, essentially. But there are also things like the mermaids, which you would have a problem with now, not because they're giving a bad look to mermaids, but because we're in some ways more sensitive to to things than we were back in the fifties or back in the sixties, which is surprising, I think, that you don't think of or or back in the 30s, um, that I I don't think of those eras being more permissive. I think so it's it's surprising when there's something that you see from the fifties or earlier that strikes you as well. This is not something that would fly today, and it's not an issue of a negative stereotype. It's just this is something that we just don't like. It's usually, I think, how you're presenting something that could be seen as sexual, that it would not go the pick you would not do it now because you'd be too sensitive about we can't show just a mermaid with her hair covering her breast. That's or that's too sexual. Spanking pixie dust out of uh Tinkerbell's bottom, but you know, whatever you're into. Uh so yes, that also I think would not fly now. That I don't think that scene would be included. So I it just it and I hadn't thought of that, but yes, that's absolutely the same sort of case that I think that's much more likely to have not been an issue. Obviously, when the film came out in 53, it was not an issue. I don't think anybody was was talking about Tinkerbow being spanked. I don't think anybody was talking about the mermaids being topless.
SPEAKER_00No, nobody cared.
SPEAKER_01It was just a thing, yeah, and it wasn't a big deal. We're now absolutely we would hear all about it.
SPEAKER_00The thing that you hear most about is just the lost boys. You know, how how the portrayal of uh of Native Americans in that movie was very stereotypical. Oh, okay, you're right, you're right, you're right.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, the Native Americans definitely the Lost Boys to uh, of course, the vampires from California.
SPEAKER_00But it it was also well the thing that fascinated me is this movie had been around or or the conception of this as a motion picture, an anime motion picture, has been around since the 30s, and it just took a long time to get to this point. Uh well part of it was World War II, but also it didn't get a turnaround until 1949. So for many years, it took a while for this movie to be made. It also was the last Disney movie that had the original nine old men, the the the original animators that all took part in doing the uh the movie. So, with that much production power and that much time, why does it seem like it was just ignored in 1953 for the Well, I don't think it was ignored.
SPEAKER_01I mean, obviously, not taken seriously or well, I just think it it wasn't it wasn't nominated for anything. Yeah, I mean that you know it's sort of like there was no best animated movie back then. Right. And so if you're we're looking at, you know, we're looking at the primarily at what a w films got awarded. So if it's not, then that's sort of you know it's it's just among the other films. But if you're going through all the films of 53, you're certainly gonna see that and know, oh I know Peter Pan. It's there, and it's like I say, we both know the film. And if you go to a Disney park now, I think most, if not all, have a Peter Pan ride. Oh yeah. And if you go to the one in uh The Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney World, they've done this line, this the cue for the ride. They made a big deal about changing that up and doing something that's much more involving, and there was a lot of talk about that. The basically the line you wait in before you get on the ride. Right, right. Anyway, Peter Pan is out there, and certainly Disney is taking advantage of it. I mean, Tinkerbell is almost an industry in and of itself. Yep. Because they went back, that character became more popular, and then they created like the fairies, and it's a whole you know, basically a whole little franchise of Tinkerbell and the fairies kind of things, where Tinkerville doesn't isn't necessarily involved in that. You've got these other characters in this other world that they've come up with just for fairies that started with her. So I think it's there, uh I think you know, we're old men. The chances of us being really tight. And, you know, if you didn't have certainly if you didn't have a girl from the nineties up to now, you're missing you know, you're not getting exposed to that because you don't have a child who things are being geared for that child, you know. So if you didn't have a girl in any in that period of time, you haven't had one, then you're not being touched by that. You know, that's not your it's not my worldview, yeah. Right, right. So I think it's I think it's I think it's largely that that it's just it's out there, they're doing it, they're doing promotions, it's but it's not they took their kids to see it and then moved on with the real movies. Well, it's I think it's a matter of for Disney now and and since then, it's we do a movie every year, every other year, that's you know, this is our big animated film for this year, and they move on to the next one, and they move on to the next one. So that was a big one for 53, probably the next big one, maybe Sleeping Beauty, you know, and then at you know a year or two years later. So for them it it's they're they're moving on to the next film, but then they've they're going back to it and they do the ride when you know when they're at the park, and then going back to it again to do all the stuff with Tinkerbell. I don't think they're really promoting Peter Pan, that character, so much. I think it's much more a case of Tinkerbell is really the representative of Peter Pan, and that's really where they've they've done a lot with that, but it's focusing on her rather than on Peter Pan or on the story of Peter Pan, you know. Yeah. I know you're not happy about it.
SPEAKER_00I'm not, but uh uh it there was also, like I said, a different time. There was no animated movie. Even though there's a lot of animated movies being made, they weren't like, I guess, in the minds of the Academy at the time, those aren't Oscar-worthy. Those are kid things, those are kids' movies.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's like you know, you've got the at the time, you've got cartoons at the beginning of the film, so it's also uh that plays into it of well, this is something that you have before the film. This is one of the things that you put in. It's entertaining, but you know, it's not the movie, it's not the reason you're going. And then if you've got you know a Disney film, uh Peter Pan or whatever, that well, that's clearly for children. So that that's not that's not real art. Right, right. That's not a serious film. That's not something that we would ever even nominate for an award. Are we gonna go nominate a teddy bear for some other award? I don't know what award a teddy bear might conceivably be up for, but but you know, it's just that's a kid thing, and kids are they do their own thing, but they're not that's not the serious world, that's not the real world, it's the kid world, and it can stay in the kid world. Right, right. But having said all that, I think you would look great in a Peter Pan outfit. Okay. Little hat, little shoes.
SPEAKER_00Never say that to me again. I'm gonna send you a picture to get the AI on the outside. Oh, I get the AI going. That's right. I'm gonna put you in a Tinkerbell outfit and somebody's getting spanked.
SPEAKER_01No, fairy desk.
SPEAKER_00Look at all the fairy desks. The length of time for Peter Pan, or the the movie length, was 76 minutes, which even when I saw Peter Pan, I was like, this is a short movie. There are a lot of movies in that time period that were 80 minutes or under. Now, the industry standard is like 90 minutes, and that was kind of like scientifically calculated as this is the perfect amount of time for a movie. Because before or or if you go too much longer, people start worrying about bathroom breaks, they their mind starts to wander. Now, I I don't think that's the case, maybe bathroom breaks, but you know, as far as if a movie is like two hours or even longer than that, if it's a good movie, it'll it'll capture your attention. I mean, Benjamin Button was like a three-hour movie, I was riveted the entire time.
SPEAKER_01Well, and The Godfather.
SPEAKER_00I mean The Godfather, there you go. So movies that fell under that 90-minute mark, usually, from from what I from what I understand, that that's like considered kind of like a cinematic like failure in a way. You didn't make the movie the perfect length, therefore your movie is like subpar. However, there are a list of movies that were made under under 90 minutes, hell, under 80 minutes that were pretty good. They had a lot of good reviews, they were very popular with uh with audiences. So, and there are movies up even up to now that kind of fell, maybe not right now, I don't think about 2025, but there are movies in the past that I have seen that were much shorter in time, so that hasn't really left. However, is a movie under 90 minutes is that a failure? Is that something desirable? Should movies be padded to make that time, or is if a movie is like 76 minutes, it's 76 minutes. That's then that's it.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think so okay. I also have the idea of 90 minutes is how long a movie is supposed to be. Right. That it may certainly go longer than that, but I also is if it's shorter than that, it feels like that's not right. There's something wrong with that film because it wasn't long enough. But again, you can actually watch a film, and yes, it's great, and it it's fine at whatever length it is. But I also have that understanding of film, I guess, and I don't know where exactly it comes from, but yes, it seems like, well, this is the industry standard. It's 90 minutes. You can go beyond that, but generally that's what they're looking for, is 90 minutes of film. I think for older films, it's a little more understandable because you had or more likely to have other features before it. So you'd have a cartoon, you might have maybe the 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00How far do you back?
SPEAKER_01Right. That that you've got that it might be only 70 minutes, but you've got a cartoon and that's eight minutes, and then you've got the newsreel, and that's five to ten minutes, and then you've got maybe a short that's put in there, and that's 20 minutes. So you could have something that ends up being closer to two hours or at least an hour and 45, because you've got this other things that are happening before the actual, you know, here's the film that's advertised that you've come to see. I think that once you get out of certainly out of the 50s, that you're getting away from that, I think all that stuff starts to drop off in a big way. I think it does still happen because I know I've seen like short promo films done in the 60s and late in the 60s that I have to assume that these were done to be shown in a theater as kind of a preview in a way for a film that was coming. I'm thinking specifically of uh the film Grand Prix, and I've seen something that was like 15 to 20 minutes long that talked about the filming of Grand Prix and did all that. And this say 20-minute long feature was shot on film and is clearly promoting the film Grand Prix, and so my assumption is that was shown in theaters as something before like a trailer, but a longer version of that, so that would be in front of whatever film you were seeing. So you're still getting short films and you know cartoons and that sort of stuff up into the 60s. It may have been few and far between by that point, but I think that was still an aspect. But I also get the feeling of if it's less than an hour and a half after, once you get into the 60s, then I think it is that you've got not quite enough content there. And I think you get into padding the film, and plenty of films where you where plenty of padding. Yeah, plenty of padding. But you know, if it gets to the point where you're seeing stuff where this is clearly this is extraneous, this is not necessary. If you're seeing we need to watch this guy park his car, and this isn't about a guy who parks cars and isn't something about how he parked the car or where he parked the car that's plays into the story, then it's I've seen those movies too. So, you know, it's just okay, you're just filling up, you're trying to get past the 60-minute mark any way you can. Yes, that that's no good because you're just wasting my time now, and you didn't have enough story to go to to make a full film. Something like Peter Pan. I mean, you've got it's short, but it's it's a full story, and it you know, tells a film, and tells a story. So it's not it's not the same thing. That you I don't feel like they really they're there's I kind of got ripped off. Like yeah, you got shorted, you know, 14 minutes. 45 minutes of content, but it took them 60 minutes to get there. And so I got 15 minutes of just crap that I didn't want. But having said all that, I think you can do a shorter film if you do if you went into it and you knew I've got a film that is a story that's gonna be about an hour's worth of film time. So it's too long to be a short film, a short film, sorry. Right, right. Because that's you know, it's past 30 minutes, but it's not enough, and I can't pad this thing enough to get it up to an hour twenty or or much less an hour thirty. So I'm stuck at right about an hour for this. I think if you knew that going in and then you did something about it, and we're gonna put in a short film to begin with, and the last time I remember something like that was when Monty Python did The Meaning of Life, that the opening of that was it was like pirates that were attacking insurance companies. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Right. And I think they had a callback in the film to that, but primarily that was a standalone thing, and that was uh five or ten minutes long before the the film. Then you get into the meaning of life, and it does the opening and the opening credits and everything. It was clearly distinct from the story of the actual film. Right. I think you could do something like that of we're gonna do a short, it's not connected to the the film that we're doing, it's a standalone thing, but we're gonna package it with the film so that we can get to that.
SPEAKER_00That that definitely worked for Monty Python because it was it was like a comedy anthology almost in a way. I mean, you can expect that kind of weirdness from a Monty Python film. Right. But let's say you're you're you're making a Vietnam War movie, and oh, I just came in at 75 minutes, I gotta figure out how I'm gonna get 15 more minutes out of this, and all the B-roll of the movie wasn't gonna cut it, you wouldn't be able to like have it. Yeah, you can't do the financial pirates in that in a movie like that.
SPEAKER_01You might be able to do it if you're doing something like a Vietnam thing, if you I mean specifically that, if you set it up as a newsreel kind of thing, of we're now we're in the field and we're gonna do we're gonna interview Interview the soldiers, the soldiers, yeah, and it's the same soldiers that are in the film itself, so it's kind of like a um a lead-in to the film itself. It's separate, but if you I think in a case like that, it's sort of like you say, you get to it, I just don't have enough, I need to get uh another 10 minutes, another or possibly more to fill this up. I think that would be the way to get around that. Of um using the same characters, it's clearly connected to that film, but it's also separate, and it's kind of this this prelude to the actual film. I think you do that with some stuff, but I think there's all plenty of stuff where you don't have that. You know, there's not something that you can do. I mean, I think if you start picking through a film that maybe you can find something, you've got something about a composer, maybe you do a lead-in about the music scene in 1870 or something when this guy was up.
SPEAKER_00There is an interesting uh concept, and that's for the Oscars short film categories, one of the big main criteria is 40 minutes or less, including credits. So you could technically it'd be easier with a comedy, but I guess you couldn't do it with with any kind. You could like start doing, you know, when you start doing closing credits, and then start adding like outtakes of stuff. I'm sure there have been movies that have used that element. I personally love that kind of thing. Uh-huh. And that kind of added the extra five or ten, you know, that extra five minutes that they need because they added uh outtakes during the closing credits. So rather than just rolling a list of names, they had a bunch of like you know, short videos essentially. Right.
SPEAKER_01Then they're stopping the credits and then you're going back to credits. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that would yes, and that could add a couple minutes that way. Right, right. Yeah, it's like you probably give it away. So I think that's only works with a comedy. You know, Marvel has done that of having a post-credit sequence and occasionally a an in-credit sequence. Uh but again, that's they're going into that knowing this is what we're gonna do at the end.
SPEAKER_00I've mostly only seen that in comedies. Yeah. Yeah, that that that bulking that up that way. Right. Or you know, a couple of action adventure movies, if it's like comedic in value, you know, like you're not gonna see a real hardcore drama all of a sudden, you know, you're gonna you're gonna see like the can all the actors laughing at a at a botch scene. You're like, uh, I don't think people will go. Sophie's choice doesn't have Merrill breaking up at the Schindler's List doesn't have a you know, what's his name? Tripping over something, Ralph.
SPEAKER_01Ray Fines is stumbling over some other soldier. But I like the I mean I like the idea of of shorts and bringing shorts back in, so it's something that I think wouldn't be so competitive as a short film because you're looking at a time of of something closer to ten minutes rather than thirty or forty. But as a standalone thing, and I bring this up because I've just seen on TCM they do, of course, all sorts of films, but they also do a lot of of that other stuff of the shorts that were made. They don't really do serials that I've seen, um, but there's just a wealth of shorts that have been done. Some comedics, some like this brand pre thing, which is really like a glorified uh trailer. Uh but I saw one the other day, and it was uh some dancing guy dancing guy, alright. It said, I think it was in 34. Not said, but it was like it took place in 30. It was like shot in 34. Um and they were talking about the umpire straight building. See if you can figure out what that's based on, where that comes from. The umpire straight building, as opposed to another building that was made, a famous building made in the 30s. Oh, okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00I gotcha. I gotcha now. Empire.
SPEAKER_01There we go. Yeah. I had to make sure you knew it. Anyway, so they that's their premise is uh that these guys, when they stop, they're people are coming to look at the build of the building of the building, the construction of the building, right? Which I think was happening with the Empire State Building, because they got this is gonna be the biggest building in all. Uh so that was their jumping off point, and they this guy comes in and we we need to do entertainment. We've got these people that are coming to watch the building being built. We gotta do uh some sort of show bed, some sort of thing for the people that are standing around during lunch hour. They just this guy's just eating lunch. We gotta do something for these people that are standing around watching the building being built. So he goes out and they do this. He does a uh a tap dance routine, they've got women in white gowns that are dancing around in circles and doing stuff. It's insane. And then it expands from that, they go back to the mayor and well, you know, what can you do for me in the taxation department? How can we improve people paying their taxes? And so they send out the female lead who's a singer, and she just walks in on somebody's house while they're playing their bridge game, because apparently everybody plays their bridge game at the same time. So she just walks into the house and says, You need to pay your taxes, you're back on your taxes. And then she sings the song about how sad the city is that the city can't do everything because it doesn't have your taxes. Oh my god. And they've oh, they're crying, they're covering their eyes, they're so sad, and they're stroking out a check to her for this for those back taxes. And the then she goes into the two of them go into other departments and do some sort of singing or dancing which makes life better and makes the city operate better. Uh, so that's completely insane. And uh just sort of staring agog at this thing.
SPEAKER_00But I love it in the 30s radio voice. It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. We're gonna fix it out, Vat. Yeah. Uh 23 Skanoo. So and the guy was a weird-looking guy. He had these pants that I think I think he was like, I don't know, seven, six, I mean, just a roll-tall guy. But the pants I were just they went up to the nipple, and then there were one-really short tie? Yeah, oh, of course a short tie. Um to like to elongate the legs, but elongated them to a point that it was unsettling. Because they're just way too long. And he's got like, I think of like sailor pants, so they're real wide, uh, but they're wide all the way down, so it's not like flares that they come out, you know, are boot cut. It's they're wide all the way down, just voluminous, and he's dancing around in them, and it just looks unsettling.
SPEAKER_00And what is he doing it for?
SPEAKER_01Like, what's is what is he this is still the painting to entertain the people that are there to watch the building being built.
SPEAKER_00Oh, so it's no more taxes or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01It's just no, he wasn't doing the taxes. That was his cohort, okay, Miss Dorothy Dare. Oh, okay, which I'm sure was her god given birth name. Probably. Uh so she was doing the singing, he was doing the dancing, and like I say, uh, so there'd be women dancing around doing you know, like do a twirl, and then they sort of kick their feet. Oh, the fire department. Say, what can we do about the fire department? How can we make the fire department pass dancing line? Exactly. They get a bunch of women and again going back to a previous discussion about what was okay then, which is not okay now. So they're in essentially like a variation, a fancy variation of a firefighter's jacket. Right, right. The big jacket that comes just below the waist, not quite all the way down to cover the back. So they've got some little panty, like a uh bikini bottom kind of thing down there. Okay. And so the jacket is just short enough to make sure you can see that. So they're and they've got tall boots on, so they're hitting you from a couple different directions. And they go and they're climbing ladders up to the fire, and they've got like eight ladders, and the the women are coming up and they're coming down and in in you know, syncopated rhythm. Oh, and it was the mayor of syncopation or syncopation city or something. Syncopation was an aspect of this. But the point of all this is cocaine fever dream. Oh, you got it. That this was insane, but you could not pull your eyes away from it.
SPEAKER_00What's the next I would watch the crap out of that?
SPEAKER_01What's the next crazy thing they're gonna do? Because this the premise is so just outlandish of how how does your head work to get to this is what we'll do for our little movie, is we'll do singing and dancing for the mayor for the town so he can get re-elected, and we can bring in back taxes, and we can get the fires fought, and people will be happy about fighting fires, like they're not happy about fighting fires already.
SPEAKER_00These are creative directors that were ahead of their time making these things.
SPEAKER_01Sure. Whatever, man. But I just think that I want to see that. Like, I think that if you did something that was just bonkers and just this little 10-minute piece, you can do whatever the hell you want. You know, obviously you've got limits as far as this is gonna be in front of a a PG 13 film, an horror film, whatever. So though your only limits are the limits of the ratings board, and put it so you could do just wild things. So that's what I want to see. I think that also is addressing that you could then do shorter films. If you've got a film that's too long to be a short film, but not long enough to really qualify as a regular film, then you could do something like this, not connect it at all to the film itself, but the same director could do it. I mean, you could basically be, I've got this nutty idea that I want to explore, but there's hardly anything to it.
SPEAKER_00Let me show you the costumes, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I just need a couple gals to walk across screen in this number, I think I'll build something else around it to flesh this out to eight minutes, and we're golden. So I I just I'd be interested in seeing that happen. Of sort of capture, you've got this tight time limit that you gotta work with, and what can you do with it?
SPEAKER_00We don't see that nowadays at all. Like you don't like you say, we don't we don't see shorts anymore before the movie. Right. Very rarely have I seen something like that, maybe in like an animated movie or a kids' movie. There might be a short. I think I remember one I can't not off hand, I remember the name, but I do remember there was like a short that was shown right before the movie. But yeah, if I if I'm gonna go see Dune, I'm not gonna get like a 15-minute uh you know Ranger Rocket uh adventures uh show or anything like that. I I'm just gonna just gonna go straight to Timothy Chalamet.
SPEAKER_01Right. Well, I think you just I think it would have to be it has to be in front of the right film. So like, and either connected to the film or completely separate, but it has to be the right kind of film. I think the same genre is sort of well I wouldn't even say that. I mean, yes, I mean that helps, I think, but something like Dune, I don't think it would work with that because it's the nature of that film that is more serious. Something like Starship Troopers came to mind. So you could do something that was tied to Starship Troopers, like because he was already doing things in that film that were cutting away, and here's this newsfeed. You could do a eight-minute newsfeed before the film to sort of set things up. And I think there are plenty of other films that as long as it's not too much of a straight drama, certainly if it's a comedy, certainly if it's a lighter touch, like a romantic comedy, you could do something not connected to it, but that would stand alone, that wouldn't freak people out. Okay, well that was weird and interesting. I think also it's you would have to sort of prime the pump on that of when you're advertising it, it's gonna be you're here to see falling waters, and as an opener, this other thing.
SPEAKER_00And I think that it probably would almost exclusively have to be comedic, a comedy or comedic in nature, because you don't want a heavy downer drama right before your movie and bring people down before they get to be brought down by their drama movie. You know, like oh cra before Kramer versus Kramer, uh are you gonna watch like another kid die or something? No, yeah, you're you watch you want to watch some funny things. You want to watch Bugs Bunny and shoot the duck in the face, you know.
SPEAKER_01That's what Well, yeah. I mean, if you do a cartoon, an actual animated cartoon, that works with anything because it's just so very different. So wildly different from the film. I think anything else, with the exception of a straight drama, you can get away with a lot. You know, if you're doing an action film, if you're doing a horror film, if you're doing like I say, like romantic comedy or a straight comedy, that you can do something. I think you can't go too far against I think comedy works with a lot of stuff. If you're doing something other than comedy, I think then you're getting to match it up. Like you can't do a 10-minute crime thriller and then it's gonna be a comedy.
SPEAKER_00You know, that that doesn't that might work, but you can't go the opposite direction. You can't have a 10-minute comedy right before a crime, you know, thriller or or a horror.
SPEAKER_01I think that would work. I think in that order it would work. So it's sort of the the we're gonna clenge your pal, give you something just to get you open, and then we're gonna get to seriousness. But we're gonna give you something light to start with. Like that's it, that's what I'm trying to say.
SPEAKER_00Light to start, you can't go heavy and then try to make it go light.
SPEAKER_01That's right. I think that's that you yes, you can't do like a crime thriller and then go into a like comedy or romantic comedy. Right. Are you are you ending the show? Is that what's happening? Well, I guess uh I guess my co-host there has spoken. He's killing the show now. So my apologies, first of all, to all our listeners that Carlos has decided to end the show. He doesn't want to uh embarrass himself by any of the other wonderful thoughts and feelings that I have about the movie industry, especially the movie industry of 1953. We might be able to do another show. So this is Cord apparently signing off. So you can hear if you want to hear Time is a relentless mistress. I'll tell you other shows. Time waits for no one. No favors has he. So there's plenty of other shows which are longer. So if you want one a longer, more fully fleshed out show, you can certainly see that. And you can reach out to us uh at the retrospodcast. Again, it's the retrospodcast. One word uh at X, at uh Facebook, at Instagram, Instagram, thank you. Um any number of other you can certainly uh join us up on uh Patreon. We've got a number of shows up there. We also do some uh special shows that we don't do obviously for the general feed. Uh we focus on specific categories on a specific year uh and do a little more uh a little more sort of investigation discussion of a very specific category that's not one of the big ones. So, having said all that, thank you for listening. This is Cord. Say thank you.
SPEAKER_00This is Carlos, thank you again, and watch more movies.
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