Episode 6: Collection Complete (Tales From The Crypt s1e6)

speaker-0: Children, have you ever met the bogeyman before? No, of course you haven't, for you're much too good I'm sure. Don't you be afraid of him if he should visit you? Make sure you have So you can burn all of that stuff. Especially all the fleshy bits and like the organs. Because that's gonna be the dead giveaway. And we're really all the DNA giveaway. ⁓ hello! Welcome ⁓ to It Hails from the Crypt. I'm ⁓ your co host, Fred. And I'm joined by my co host,
speaker-1: Tim. Should we give our last names? We keep mystery being mystery mysterious with it. I love it though.
speaker-0: ⁓ I think we gave our we gave our last names the other time. We go back and forth. Yeah.
speaker-1: That's true. Yeah. Well, you guys can do the research. Welcome to the podcast where we talk about the episodes of Tales from the Crypt, newly released on Shudder as of a month or so ago, and we're going through each episode one by one and discussing the comic that was adapted into the television episode from the nineteen eighty nine to nineteen ninety four five question mark series.
speaker-0: And we're on today to episode six Collection Completed. This is a pretty fun episode. It originally aired as the final episode of the first season on June 28th, 1989. Yeah, very short season, and because they aired.
speaker-1: ⁓ yeah. Short season, six episodes.
speaker-0: Three episodes at once for the premiere. It ⁓ it was pretty much all done in June. They started, I think the first episode aired at the beginning of June, and the last episode of the season aired at the very almost the end of June. So very quick summer scares.
speaker-1: Summer scarce. I don't know if they use that in their ads, but they should have.
speaker-0: Definitely. But before we get into the episode, let's talk about the original comic that this was based on, which appeared in Vault of Horror 25 from 1952, and was written by Bill Gaines and Alfelstein and drawn by the great ghastly aka Graham Ingalls, who ⁓ I mean, what do you think of this artwork from the very first page on?
speaker-1: I clipped it out for discussion because I ⁓ first of all, is this the first time we've done a comic that had the old witch featured as our sort of narrator?
speaker-0: Yes, this is the first of the old witch. Usually he she's getting bagged on by the other hosts. Vault keeper. Vault keeper especially.
speaker-1: Yeah. But here she is like pulling her eyeball out, like grabbing it and yanking.
speaker-0: Yes, so Graham Ingalls, this was his signature character, you know, like how some some of the artists had their person. He really gravitated towards the old witch and really designed her to be his own thing. Graham was born in 1915 in Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio. ⁓ his dad died when he was 14. And that's when he had to start working ⁓ during the Great Depression. He got married at age twenty and then went to ⁓ went to war, World War II, like most people. man. ⁓ he ended up actually they they found he was such a good illustrator. He basically was transferred out of ⁓ combat duty into doing like ⁓ illustration of mural work for the Navy, I believe. And so he did that during the war.
speaker-1: That's kinda cool. So he would have drawn C Captain America for for sort of, you know, to get people inspired or was he or aren't me. When you just you're just nodding at me.
speaker-0: No. No, these would be like these would be official art for the armed services. You know, Captain America was was created by Jack Kirby and and Joe Simon and was like
speaker-1: Yeah, no, I was just creating a a regul a multiverse for for him to have done that. ⁓ like should they go back and redo ⁓ Captain America the
speaker-0: Yeah, he would he would be in the background. ⁓ he he'd be in the background like painting a ship or something. Yeah. So he gets out of the army or the navy, I think, and then gets into comics out of illustration. And he was originally he did a lot of Western comics and was the first guy to hire Frank Frazetta. He was The first guy to discover that guy. The definitive fantasy artist Frank Fizzetta.
speaker-1: Every D fans. Death Stalker? Wait, what's the what's the f yeah famous piece of art? Is it Death Stalker? Yeah. It's
speaker-0: Dealer, the death dealer with the big axe. He got hired on to EC Comics and drew a title called Gunfighter for them originally. And then at a certain point they changed Gunfighter and turned it into the Haunt of Fear. And so they brought him on to the Haunt of Fear. And that's where they discovered: ⁓ this guy was sort of made to draw.
speaker-1: Death Dealer, sorry. Yeah.
speaker-0: horror comic books because his illustrations are are really like his moniker. He he he would not put his real name on the comics. He was a very devout ⁓ Catholic and I think was a little conflicted about doing horror comics. And so his ⁓ his nom de plume was ghastly on all of his comics, which it is here.
speaker-1: Yeah, this old witch though is just so awesome.
speaker-0: All this line work, I mean, really influenced a lot of artists to come after him, especially Bernie Reitson, I think, was really influenced by this guy. Bernie Reitson is most famous for doing ⁓ the Frankenstein illustrations that inspired Guillermo de Toro's latest version. He also did
speaker-1: Bernie Rights and what? Okay.
speaker-0: Graphic novel adaptation of creep show and did the ⁓ cycle of the werewolf ⁓ illustrations and the illustrations for the stand for Stephen King. Yeah. So big guy ⁓ in the horror comics land also like Swamp Thing, like did created Swamp, co created Swamp Thing. So big illustr Bertie Wrightson's a huge giant and was ⁓ definitely influenced by Graham Ingalls. Who was a really tortured guy. He was ⁓ had a lot of demons in him. He was a ⁓ kind of a terrible alcoholic. Bill Gaines said he would disappear and they wouldn't see him, but he was routinely listed as the favorite EC comics artist. Whenever fans would do polls, he was the famous one crazily after the the Senate committee and the when EC Comics was sort of banned, he had a lot of trouble finding work because he was his work was so identified with horror, and suddenly horror comics weren't around. Right. People really didn't know where to put him. He ended up doing ⁓ some comics for the Catholic Church, ironically. ⁓ a comic called treas treasure chest for the catholic church and then he got out of comics ⁓ altogether and got into teaching he was a teacher for the the famous artist correspondence course that was famous in the in the 50s and 60s and then the crazy thing that happened with him is in 1962 he disappeared and no one could find him He like his wife, his wife and kids. No. ⁓ he basically abandoned his his family and disappeared. no. Yes. We talked about last episode, George Evans, who was the nicest guy at EC Comics. And he just he was the only person who sort of kept in touch with ⁓ Ingalls and his family. He said Graham was just a horrible alcoholic and It finally just took its toll and he in nineteen sixty two just di up and left and no one heard from him again until
speaker-1: And even the public, like the ⁓ okay, here we go. Here we go. I hear the until
speaker-0: The public until in the 70s, ⁓ all the kids that you know were kids reading EC comics started growing up, people like Stephen King and you know all the baby boomers and they started, you know, becoming huge fans and having conventions and there was a resurgence of EC comics and they started reprinting the comics. And ⁓ this guy Russ Russ Cochran was sort of ⁓ the famous person who put these giant red ⁓ hardcover collections of the EC comics out. And everyone, when they would get together and and Bill Gaines would host these conventions, everyone would be like, We love Graham Ingalls. What happened to Graham Ingalls? He just disappeared. And they finally tracked him down in 1972. And found him in Florida where he had relocated and wanted nothing to do with the past of with his horror comics. He was like, That was a shameful part of my life. ⁓ I don't wanna talk to this. Yeah, and they because they were reporting. I think he connected the two, conflated the two. Yeah.
speaker-1: Leave me and your wife and child.
speaker-0: At this point, they're reprinting the comics and Bill Gaines is like, you know, we're making money again off of these and I want to pay you. And Ingalls is like, I don't even want payment. Don't contact. And finally, Bill Gaines was, if I don't pay you, it's gonna like fuck up my accounting and I'm not gonna be able to like balance my books. So just give me your address and I'll send you checks. Send you these checks or whatever. So he stu he starts sending them ⁓ these checks and that they're They're not a small amount of money because they're also selling the original art. Unlike a lot of comic publishers from the golden age, Bill Gaines saved all the original artwork. Most of the time they would just throw it away or that people would like use it for something else and draw on the back of it or whatever. But Bill Gaines was such a fan of the art and the artist that he had this huge, you know, safe basically full of all the original art. And then fans in the 70s started buying it for hundreds of dollars. ⁓ wow. At that point, Ingalls, he started doing a few commissions because he had moved into just oil painting and was a art teacher. He ended up marrying one of his students and getting sober and did ⁓ these really elaborate, kind of beautiful, horrifically beautiful paintings of the old witch that
speaker-1: Okay.
speaker-0: ⁓ I can send you sh show you what those look like. But they were really great. He reconciled with his daughter with the help of George Evans, but his son never forgave him for abandoning the family in 1962. He unfortunately got stomach cancer from probably his alcoholism and died in nineteen ninety-one. Fascinating guy, ⁓ very very trouble.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: He did. Right. I don't think he I don't think he watched any of this stuff. ⁓ and I think he was kind of ashamed of it, but he was a very tortured guy. I think maybe some of that comes out in his in his artwork because it is truly I think he's the most grotesque artist working at EC. Like if if Johnny Craig and you know those guys are on one side, he's on the
speaker-1: Mm Emmett Wallace.
speaker-0: opposite end of just the most yeah, you know, there's so many lines and like details and grotesque, like just this first image of the old witch is so detailed right and gross.
speaker-1: Right. See that one tooth.
speaker-0: Yeah, and she's like literally pulling pulling her eye out. Yeah. So we get to this issue. He ended up doing like 101 stories for EC comics. He did all the covers for the haunt of fear from issues 11 through 28. And the and the old witch was really his his character that he specialized in and did a lot of her ⁓ stories like this one. Collection completed.
speaker-1: This one's a skin pimpler, she calls it.
speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yes, it's not a a Yelp yarn. This is a ⁓ skin pimpler with a spine tingling finish. Yes. And every image here is sort of grotesque. Like I think every panel
speaker-1: I was gonna say like every image of the husband and wife just their faces towards one another are they these these two should not be married. This is not the this is not the perfect couple.
speaker-0: He's sort of just terrible from the beginning. Yeah. Mean. It opens with her finding a cat and bringing him in. And his first reaction is, Anita, what in blazes are you doing? You know, it is immediately yelling at her for and it's saying that for being his description is that he Jonah, he's called Jonah in this one, and they changed the name to Jonas in the T V show. And just talks about how he thought animals he despised animals, thought they were pests, parasites, that leeched upon human beings for food and shelter without giving anything in return. Sounds like some people I don't.
speaker-1: Yeah. But it's all about, you know, having a hobby. You know, she's takes care of animals, but she she's, you know, demanding like, hey, you should get a hobby too to this guy. ⁓ and he's he uses that as a a moment to threaten, like, I fine, I'll get I'll do a hobby. You'll see, you'll see the hobby I do. and we kind of go right into him just picking up this hobby, which is like the like this is page like two, I think.
speaker-0: Yeah, there's no surprise he goes right into taxidermy and it seems like the most mean spirited thing you could possibly do. Yeah. Terrible, terrible guy.
speaker-1: Spite spite hobby. Yeah. It's it we we do have Mew Mew in here, Mew Mew the Cat who will be we'll see Mew Mew the Cat make an appearance in the in the ⁓ live action as well. But yeah, he just says he's got his cellar and his secret hideaway and it it's like he he just is taunting her the whole time, you know?
speaker-0: He not just taunting, he seems to be like genuinely torturing his wife for the from from the first panel we see him on. That seems like his whole reason for being is just like gleefully, sadistically torturing his wife.
speaker-1: And the sort of dialogue bubbles are kind of interesting too, because like the one where he is basically talking about his first victim, which is gonna be the a mouse that lives that's running through the walls, sort of the the the sort of dialogue bubbles all like wavy. He's like, You know that mouse we hear at night running through the walls? And then she's like, The poor thing, I leave little cheese for it, the nibble on. And that he just takes that to kind of just keep digging that knife into her. That's gonna be my first specimen. See? A trap. This will catch him without squashing him.
speaker-0: ⁓ so yeah, on this page four where he starts his spite hobby and then ends with I'm going to work now, Anita. When I come home, I'm gonna stuff him. You you'd better not let him go if you know what's good for you.
speaker-1: Yeah. ⁓
speaker-0: And then this is the first time I think we've encountered one of the hosts interjecting in the middle of a story.
speaker-1: Yes. The interlude, the old witch.
speaker-0: Yeah, the witch comes back, but Dona did leave the mouse in the trap all day. Anita had to take her kitten and run out of the house because she couldn't stand the poor thing squealing. This sounds awful.
speaker-1: That sounds this is some psyops. Yeah. This is this is horrible. And then when we come back to him, he is reading from the taxidermy manual to really dig in at Anita. Lenorie's like, listen to this, Anita. You slit the animal to be stuffed from a point between the front legs to the rear. Work the skin down each side of the body, cutting away the flesh close to the skin. Then
speaker-0: Yeah. You're disgusting and runs out of the room.
speaker-1: And then he keeps going. Listen, the tail is removed in one piece by pulling it from the skin. Like just this enthusiastic student of taxidermy torturing his wife with the book.
speaker-0: Again, just another just awful person in in E C comics, just specializes in highlighting terrible people and the expressions on his face in that second panel and then on the third panel, a monster. He looks like
speaker-1: He looks like the MyPello guy kind of.
speaker-0: He kind of looks like my pellow. He reminds me of, I don't know if you remember we talked about Bernie Wrightson doing the illustrations for the stand. Did you ever have that edition? The book, the anniversary, when he released like that 1,000-page version, it came with illustrations that were done by Bernie Reightson. And one of them was a giant bloated corpse that was seen in New York.
speaker-1: I didn't, but I re I read the book.
speaker-0: And that's what he looks like, I feel like, in all of this, is he looks like this giant bloated corpse through the entire ⁓ issue, let alone what happens to him at the end of the issue.
speaker-1: She yells you're disgusting and he keeps reading and then she's leaves the room and he's like Good night, Anita. These these two should not be married at all.
speaker-0: He shouldn't be married to anybody. He's like a monster and she's just a nice lady who takes in stray animals. Like what
speaker-1: Exactly. She's just being tortured. And then ⁓ we have the moment where ⁓ Jonah comes up to show his sort of work in progress of a mouse tacked to a board. ⁓ we've got that sort of like mortuary vibe coming from someone who's being checked out insides.
speaker-0: I finished Anita. What did you think? I hate you. I hate you.
speaker-1: I mean it's good. We don't have we only have seven pages, it just cuts to the chase.
speaker-0: Yeah, it's just a it's kind of just a montage of all the animals he's killing, you know, which is yeah. This is the whole story is just watching this guy do worse and worse things to animals.
speaker-1: Yeah, with the goal of the fact that he's trying to collect 'cause they live in the city, it's all city animals like a blue jay, a mouse, a cat, a squirrel, a chipmunk is kind of what where he's like his collection is kind of going for.
speaker-0: Until finally he gets a dog. What are you doing with that dog, Jonah? Didn't have a collar on it. It's astray. It's tough building up a collection when you live in a city. And then there's just like this terrible view of his basement with knives and skulls and poison. Yeah.
speaker-1: In the foreground and we got that mouse that's on the on the his s display diorama situation. And ⁓ she again, I hate you, leave me alone, leave me alone.
speaker-0: Yes, after the old witch lists all the animals that he's done, where soon he had one mouse, one rat, one blue jay, one robin, one sparrow, two pigeons, one squirrel, and one dog.
speaker-1: I mean I ⁓ do you think they're going to bed in the same room each night after they have these outbursts?
speaker-0: I do not know what's going on with their life, but I'm glad they are a childless couple.
speaker-1: But then we get to sort of the the crescendo here. It's a pretty simple story.
speaker-0: What do you think about this the name of a cat Mew Mew, by the way? What is going on there? It's I ⁓
speaker-1: I I I thought that sounded more like a Pokemon, but there's like
speaker-0: ⁓ Mewtwo and Pokemon.
speaker-1: Yeah. But I do appreciate that when we get to the adaptation, they retain Mew Mew, the cat, as a central figure.
speaker-0: Yes, I think that kind of name, not to throw aspers I don't know, but it sort of indicates how infantile she is. Like it sounds like the name that a three year old would come up. Child. Yes. Nothing. Exactly. I think gives you the indications there and then the TV show kind of runs with that, I think. But
speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah. Anyway, the name ow struck me even in the comic as like, What? Who names their cat W? I don't know.
speaker-1: Yeah, and I think again when we get to the episode it does kind of create a whole world ⁓ and the animals all have identities that you don't really get to experience in this one, where it's just a guy collecting city critters that he wants to turn into a a collection.
speaker-0: Yeah, it's just torturing his wife with taxiderby. It's just like Yeah. Hey, look what I'm doing now. Look at this.
speaker-1: It all started because she demanded I have a hobby. Yeah.
speaker-0: It's just pissed about like saying that I I don't I have too much free time on my hand. By the way, I love the artwork this on page six, that lighting in the second to last panel that that puts her in a frame. Like she's a ⁓ basically a caged animal there is really great work. And then that yeah, very foreboding dramatic shot from the floor looking up is really great with all the
speaker-1: She she looks ghastly here, like she's turned a corner and is you know, she's c she's knows what she's gotta do in order to kind of wit get back her like agency ⁓ in this relationship. And it's not gonna go well for Jonah.
speaker-0: ⁓ I don't think so. I think she Jonah finally breaks her and drives her insane. I mean, clearly. Like I don't think sh she really gets agency back.
speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. I mean that's obvious. I want her what she may Yeah. I mean she's broken. I just I like that she makes the decision to ⁓ you know, alter the course of her life at least for the better.
speaker-0: With murder, which is yeah, but really look how gross like the cat is and Jonah. You I mean that's he completes his collection by killing the cat. It's like he all the animals in a city, I guess you could find. He ends with that. But that's where the story gets the title. You know, see now I have a complete collection, all the animals found in a city, all stuffed. And her response is, not all, Jonah. You forgot one type of animal. Anita, but put down that knife. You you couldn't. Couldn't I, Jonah?
speaker-1: That's a sharp knife too.
speaker-0: Yes. Yeah. It's it must be a skinning knife.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: And then ⁓ and then Jonah is is left with his fate.
speaker-1: Yeah. And I guess his head his head's like on a post or something. It's not like ⁓ right? Is that what's going on? On his under his chin.
speaker-0: going on? Yeah, it's like Yeah, it's like propping him up. There's you know, an unnamed neighbor in silhouette there at the top of the stairs that
speaker-1: ⁓ we'll get that neighbor character in the show too.
speaker-0: Yeah, so they ex expand that out as we we get ⁓ a pretty graphic description by the old witch about what's been done to Jonah, and then that ⁓ eventually she's discovered by a neighbor. Because he says, I'm not sure. I think it was a neighbor who found them. Anidia sitting on the floor, babbling incoherently. Look at her face here, like
speaker-1: Yeah, her face here is crazy.
speaker-0: In insane insane person. Her eyes going every which way. Yeah. Yeah. The stuffed form of Mew Mew in her arms, stroking it gently. Jonas stood stood above them. So the the wooden prop, I guess, is propping up his body to make him stand. ⁓ Anita's job had been crude one here and there. The stitches showed, the glass eyes didn't exactly set right. To a professional taxidermist, it may have been considered a poor job. To Jonah, it didn't matter, for Jonah had been stuffed and mounted.
speaker-1: ⁓ justice, sweet taxidermy justice.
speaker-0: And then ⁓ we get a lot of puns here by the witch at the end, which is I'll let you take the lead.
speaker-1: Yeah, he goes, heh, yep, Anita completed Jonah's collection for him by making him part of it. Anita may have seemed a bit stuffy to Jonah at times, but in the end it was he who was the stuffed shirt. Jonah just got under Anita's skin once too often. So she finally got under his left him in stitches too. By the way, if anyone's interested in a mounted human figure, hehehe, there's a statue of General Jackson in the park. Well that's enough horsing around. Bye now where we going with the general
speaker-0: Jackson? I have no idea.
speaker-1: Is that like is that like everyone knows General Jackson figure?
speaker-0: I'm assuming it's Stonewall Jackson. ⁓ I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. It it's I'm not sure what's going on there with the writing.
speaker-1: But that collection is completed.
speaker-0: Ponder that one. Is and what a collection it is. What a collection it is.
speaker-1: We have the the episode to now discuss. Wha haha.
speaker-0: Interesting adaptation. So we have Mary Lambert directing who
speaker-1: Pet Cemetery, which I think I have to look at the timeline. Did it come out before or after this?
speaker-0: So Pet Cemetery came out in April of the same year. So I'm assuming she's shooting this probably ⁓ at the time of its release or maybe a little bit before Pet Cemetery comes out. Right. If this is airing if this is airing in June schedule wise, sh she's probably in post production on ⁓ Pet Cemetery. ⁓ Yeah. Now this was a big year for Mary Lambert because this is also the year she directed. She comes out of art school originally. She was a ⁓ an abstract painter, actually, first, then got into music videos and specifically Madonna's music videos, did you know borderline and some of the very early earliest music videos. But this year she did the Like a Prayer. Music video for which was huge because this was also the year that Madonna signed a big sponsorship deal with Pepsi. And it was supposed to tie in with the Like a Prayer ⁓ music video and Pepsi. Mary Lambert and Madonna do this video that features Jesus in it being crucified.
speaker-1: Yes, I remember that one. Yeah and coming to life.
speaker-0: Right? Well, he like comes off of the cross and he's an African American man and that was controversial for some reason too, because of racism. But I think ⁓ this that ended up like Pepsi sort of cut the deal short. It got a huge press. I think it was like the most viewed music video ever at that point. It was it was hu it was huge in nineteen eighty nine. So she does that the same year. She does ⁓ Pet Cemetery, which was made for I think ⁓ around eleven million dollars and made like fifty-four million dollars. It was like the biggest gross that a female director or or a woman director had had ⁓ for a horror film. She I think still is the I think she still has the record for like the highest. Grossing or the biggest return on a horror film of any woman horror director. You know, so so she's huge, a good get for Tales of the Crypt. You know, you have this legacy, bring in like the essentially like the new blood of horror is Mary Lambert. Yeah. So Pet Cemetery, I think maybe Stephen King's best book. It's certainly one of his most frightening novels.
speaker-1: And I think it comes with like as a father, like it like the emotion I I read it as an ad kid and I read it as an adult. And when I read it as an adult, it hits stronger, obviously, when you have a child. But you you really get into the main character's head and it really I found a lot of emotional like I was like crying reading that book when like every thought that he has when his child dies is like, you know, it's real, you know? And I thought that the adaptation was awesome. I thought it was a great adaptation.
speaker-0: Yeah, so Stephen King wrote the screenplay, you know, was huge at the time. So he had director approval. And actually he was the one who chose Mary Lambert to direct the movie. She had done I think one other movie before this, which is a very strange movie called Siesta with Ellen Barkin. Do you know this movie? It's Ellen Ellen Barkin, Martin Sheen.
speaker-1: No, no.
speaker-0: Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands. It's it's an insane movie. It opens with Ellen Barkin is a what do you call that? Who what do you call people that jump out of airplanes for fun? She's a skydiver who wakes up having skydived in the middle of like Mexico somewhere with no memory, wearing like
speaker-1: Solid eighties cast. Skydiver.
speaker-0: this red dress and attached to a like parachute. And she's like, where did my life come from? And is in this crazy Yes. It's a very visually stylish movie, which I think was, you know, what Mary Lambert was known for was is being very visual, very visual director and but is crazy. It kinda the movie kind of it's all fractured storytelling and I don't know if it makes a whole lot of sense, but it's fun to look at and bizarre and Ellen Barkin is Ellen Barkin in it. Right. Anyway, she's coming off of Pet Cemetery, which becomes a huge, huge hit. She brings on her director of photography from Pet Cemetery, Peter Stein, who shot Pet Cemetery one and two, which she also did.
speaker-1: Yeah, some of the in that cemetery are frightening.
speaker-0: There's a lot of frightening imagery in that film.
speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, the the the the ghost biker that gets killed. Like that movie scared the hell out of me. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah. And she did a great Fred Gwynn performance. And all about all about animals, which she's br and a cat. Yeah. Which she's makes her a perfect fit for this episode. Which after Yes. And it but it's writ but it's written by these two guys, the Battle brothers, Randolph Davis and his brother, Battle Davis, who
speaker-1: A tea. Casting on this end.
speaker-0: One one of them is is a film editor mostly. He famously edited the Elvira Mistress of the Dark movie and doesn't really have a lot of other writing credits and then you have a very strange edition of A Whitney Brown from Saturday Night Live fame and the Daily Show.
speaker-1: Do a weekend update segment on Saturday Live and it was I think one of the first correspondence for the Daily Show, too. Yes. When it first premiered.
speaker-0: A really funny guy. I remember his his segments on Snark Live and they were always funny and like he had like a real wit, you know, for and a character that he's playing. Very I think and kind of r responsible for that daily show vibe, that you know, that fake news kind of thing that the daily show sort of turned into with ⁓ with the when John Stewart took over. ⁓
speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah.
speaker-0: Well Killbourne when it was Killbourne it was like a different show. It was like not really a news show. It was more a traditional talk show with him sort of trying to like bring back the vibe of like the Playboy show with Hugh Hefner. Like everything was like leather and like you know, you would have a cocktail if I remember and stuff like that. ⁓
speaker-1: And he was coming off was this before ESPN? He ca he was coming off SportsCenter, I believe, right? Sports kinda like the cool when all those Sports Center casters were totally cool, hip and fun.
speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, I think around the same time that they tried to like make Dennis Miller a NFL sportscaster for a little while. To bring it back to Tales of the Crypt, where you know, because Dennis Miller will later star in Bordello Blood. Which we should get to that. We should do a special episode with Bordello Blood. Yeah. Anyway, we have ⁓ a Whitney Brown who I think makes this a very, very funny episode.
speaker-1: Monday night football. Diana Bordello of U.S.
speaker-0: And it essentially becomes a sitcom starring, you know, a huge sitcom star, Audra Lindley, who, you know, is most famous as Mrs. Roper. Mm-hmm. And then
speaker-1: Mrs. Roper. Those of you who don't remember that there was this show called Three's a Company in the early eighties, late seventies, and
speaker-0: Did just call it Three's Three's a Company? There's a show There's a show. It's a called Three's a Company. It's a Star Company. It's a Star DeMario. And the Princess of Peach. He'll fall down a lot. Okay. And this also stars the great character actor MM Walsh. The best.
speaker-1: Company, sorry. Without Walsh as Jonas.
speaker-0: Yeah, they changed the name from Jonah to Jonas. You notice they do that a lot in these episodes, that they just change a name by one letter. I don't know why they do that.
speaker-1: Is Jonas isn't Jonas like a kind of a curse on like a on like a boat? Isn't that what you call something? Like a Jonas, or is that a Jonah? I don't know.
speaker-0: Shona from being from the Bible. Come on, Tim. You you heathen.
speaker-1: Then maybe they're referencing the Weezer song My Name is Jonas, which would come out five years later.
speaker-0: Yeah, they clearly use that time machine to ⁓ incorporate that. I love that your your Weezer fandom is still strong and all that material is still at your fingertips for
speaker-1: It is. I'm just I gr I grapple with a lot being an OG fan today and and
speaker-0: Because they've changed yes.
speaker-1: They've changed and gone through a lot. And I remember sidebar here, going to a Virgin Megastore in nineteen ninety five, and I saw Matt Sharp, the original bassist, shopping there, all by himself, but picking out CDs and I went up to him as like a sp you know, young Beezer fan and was like, Love your music. Just wanna say hi. And he was I think he might have been stoned, but he was really nice. He was he was incredibly nice to me. And I told him I was a fan of the Rentals too, and he's no longer their basis, which makes me sad because I got to see him perform with them and he had an awesome stage presence and I just want everyone who listens to this podcast to know that. The Rentals too.
speaker-0: We'll have to do it. This might be a side episode of Are We l still listening to Weezer? That may be our That may be our side podcast. Are we still listening to Weezer Weezer?
speaker-1: Bring up that Saturday live sketch with Matt Damon and ⁓ and Leslie Jones where they go at it over over the blue album. Yeah. Yeah. But but Jonas is the name of MM at Walsh who deserves his own like five minutes of discussion because of what joy he has brought cinema lovers for generations. I first saw him, I think, in Fletch, where he was the doctor and he ⁓ gives ⁓ sh
speaker-0: ⁓ over Weezer versus Yeah. Yeah yeah. That's
speaker-1: Chevy Chase a proctology exam, I believe. And his delivery of his lines is amazing. And then Raising Arizona, where he is the mechanic working with Nicholas Cage's character, and he just in that section of Nicolas Cage's life and he keeps calling people mother scratchers. This mother scratcher over there said that mother scratcher. Yeah. I fell in love with Walsh.
speaker-0: Amazing amazing actor. You know, I think I remember him first from Blade Runner as the lieutenant from Blade Runner who who coins the term. Yeah, it's another skin job.
speaker-1: Hey, skin job. Skin.
speaker-0: Good job. There we go. And of course, I think maybe his best role is Blood Simple as the detective, private detective who is the villain. He's maybe one of the one of the all-time great villains, I think, in cinema in that role. And ⁓ I used to watch like everybody growing up.
speaker-1: Saving that one for you. Thank you.
speaker-0: in the eighties, Siskel and Ebert and I think Roger Ebert had a term that he called the Emmett Wal the Walsh Stanton rule, which was if ⁓ Emmett Walsh or Harry Dean Stanton were in a movie, then the movie was not all bad. And it's true. Whenever they yeah, whenever those two guys Jack Warden Jack Warden's great.
speaker-1: I think it's accurate there too. Who? Yeah. Jack Warden. I love Jack Warden. He's got a voice. I liked his voice. Yeah, we you know, this this week's segment of Going Down the Character Actor Road, ⁓ MM Walsh is I think he has a chem character actor award that was awarded to him by Harrison Ford ⁓ when he got it. I was looking up twenty sixteen or twenty seventeen, but there's there's a there's some people that have gotten this award and I don't think it's like I don't know how it's sanctioned by an academy or anything like that, but it's it's just an award for the character great character actors of our of our of the cinematic world. And he deserved it. And then like he used to go into a coffee shop in Culver City all the time when I lived there, and he was like just the nicest you could tell he was just a nice, nice guy. So it's so weird for me to rewatch this, and obviously Blood Simple and to see him like in this case comically bad, like on purpose. There's a lot of humor to his like sort of over sort of chewing of scenery. Literally at one point when he's pruning. But the the ⁓ obviously Blood Simple he's a more nuanced villain.
speaker-0: Yeah, and this is a real I think unlike a lot of the other Tales from the Crypt, this is a very contained episode. It's a very sitcom like episode. It feels like something that would actually be you'd find on Tales from the Dark Side more than Tales from the Crypt for some reason.
speaker-1: set that set is super duper like specifically a sitcom set. It's just the backyard main part of the house in the basement and you could tell the trees are fake. Like when he starts pruning them, you could feel like a PA off screen is holding it up.
speaker-0: Yeah, and then they and you only have th these two characters and then their neighbor, Roy, played by the great another great character actor, Martin Gardner. Gardner, yeah.
speaker-1: Gar Mark Martin Garner from I remember him from the Twilight Zone.
speaker-0: Yes. As as one of the old guys, yeah, yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah. Steven Spielberg directed that episode. And he was a nursing home resident who, you know, gets turned back into a child. And yeah, I loved he's just got a a face you recognize, you know.
speaker-0: Yeah, I remember him from Barney Miller episodes. He played about I used to love Barney Miller, the old sitcom. ⁓ yes. with Hal Linden as police detective. ⁓ my god. A Vagoda's in it. It's terrific. Wojahoitz is the name of one of the detectives. It's great, but he played about five different people. They kept bringing him back as a different
speaker-1: A pagoda. ⁓
speaker-0: Character, but he's basically playing the same character. But it was like, yeah, what's going on, Mr. Blah blah blah, this time? And so he was like a familiar regular of you know that era of of TV and movies and stuff. So yeah. Anyway, we start the episode. It seems like very on a dark and stormy night, we're going around the house seeing all the Pets in cages, the the aquarium sets, all this stuff as
speaker-1: Those fish in that aquarium are like big mouth bass. Those things are huge. Those aren't like little goldfishes. They they are like scuzzy pond fish.
speaker-0: Yeah, and the aquarium is huge. I feel like a significant amount of the production design budget went to this giant ass aquarium that's in the middle of their house. Yeah. But it's yeah, and it sets her up as kind of insane from the get go. Like she's a little off in this and
speaker-1: A dark and stormy night. She's fantastic in this role. We should give her like her due credit here. Cause she is she has always kind of like a wavy voice, ⁓ a little bit mousey, a little bit creaky, but you know, she totally nails the type of person that would talk to animals. Yes. As if they were humans. Right.
speaker-0: Right. And so it opens with her preparing for this party. T w we think she's telling people to get ready for his surprise retirement party in the kitchen. Yeah. Quiet. And then the the stray cat shows up and she picks up the stray cat and slams the door in Emmett Walsh's face. And he is just and I think that's his first line as she opens the door.
speaker-1: Talking to the other room.
speaker-0: You slammed the door in my face. He's like sitting there in the rain with his box of stuff like he's just been yeah f more like he's just been fired more than than he was retired.
speaker-1: Entrenched coat. Yeah, this wasn't a happy retirement. It doesn't seem like he was maybe beloved at his work, but
speaker-0: Well, but he had gotten he had gotten the top sales sales award six years in a row or something. Sixteen years in a row or something. That's true. Yeah.
speaker-1: It's true. And that is a gold hammer. That's someone who worked at
speaker-0: So I love I love the discovery I love the discovery of the so he comes home with this box of stuff and she's go he immediately trips over the cat in this ridiculous fall and like what the hell? He falls down and they're picking up the box that's fallen and she's like, ⁓ what's this? This look at this is gorgeous. What is it? And she has a great delivery, discovering this hammer, and that's what he's been given. As his retirement gift. Not even a clock.
speaker-1: Yes. Someone who worked at Blizzard Entertainment and did five years there, I got a sword. So I have a a a r a real sword. So should I ever take up taxidermy, I can have that above my workshop. And I have a mug for two years. So like, you know, company gifts are kind of fun. I think a gold hammer's pretty sweet. Thought it was pretty cool.
speaker-0: He's pissed about it. He says it doesn't even tell time. But then later he puts it up, you know, sort of lovingly in his workshop. And of course this is another, you know, Chekhov's hammer situation where you're like ⁓ they're making a big deal of this prop. It's probably gonna cut become important somehow later. But it sets up yeah a different a totally different dynamic from the comic in that this guy has been you know, pushed out of his job and is now forced seems he's like have had to force to retire from his job.
speaker-1: 'Cause the only thing he's really known his entire life is his job. It doesn't seem like he even really knows his wife that well. About it in a later season
speaker-0: Yes, that becomes becomes clear. And then he doesn't want the party. He's pissed that he sits down on a squeaky toy and he goes to bed. God damn it, I'm going to bed. And then
speaker-1: Well I says to him though, when he sits on that chair though and sits on the toy, she like defends the cat and says, Like, the cat's your chair
speaker-0: No, that's I don't understand that was happening. They wouldn't do that. It's not the case. Yeah. And so then we finally go back to the kitchen where the party is, and it's a ridiculous shot of of pets and party hats that are getting ready. Which again is like, how much time did this guy spend at the office? Did he not Live did he just sleep and have no interaction with his wife? Because clearly he seems like he does not know what's going on in his house and for for many, many years that she has this many pets and is this devoted to her animals, which is totally bizarre. What's been going on in this house for forty years or however long they've been?
speaker-1: Yeah. What's so kind of fun about this adaptation is it's totally playing into the sitcom ridiculousness of it, where, you know, this escalation that keeps happening and sending him over the edge to where he will become a what what the comic has on page two, we'll see in the last like two minutes where he spirals out of control. But it's all the build up of like his relationship and these animals being more important and better friends to his wife than he ever was.
speaker-0: Right. So yeah, this is almost like the prequel to the comic story. If the you know, it's like this is what led Jonah or Jonas in the to become a monster is like all of this insanity because she is pretty crazy throughout this.
speaker-1: She's but she's like it's a quirky It's it's all it's a positive thing. It's like she's loving and showing love to these animals. And I think she even says, like, these animals are my friends. but but that next day, first day of retirement, you get a really fun scene where you ask Yes, or he is afraid to tell his wife that he needs to take a shit.
speaker-0: With the toilet? So how long have they been married and what how how have they been using the bathroom? Like what's been going on in this house? I mean this long.
speaker-1: The honeymoon phase ends. You still can love someone. It's inevitable that you're gonna smell the dirty. You're gonna smell that dirty. And the fact that they haven't gotten there yet.
speaker-0: I just wanna know how it how it's been functioning. Like has he just been going to work and ta doing it all there or like I guess he sleeps in, so he's been getting up way This was the first day. Yeah, so he's been getting up way earlier than she has. So my idea my yeah, my idea is that he's gone from like the crack of dawn till
speaker-1: He didn't sleep in. That she takes
speaker-0: Late evening and he just like probably shuffles in from work and collapses on the bed and has no idea what's been going on with his wife or whatever for forty years of marriage or however long they've been married.
speaker-1: Yeah. Forty seven years was how many years he had at the company. So I'm assuming he was gainfully employed at the time of his marriage, but you know, whatever. But like it's just it's it adds to the sitcom element. It it it is a very good workaround on the adaptation too to like build this as his character.
speaker-0: It's such a weird scene, them struggling in the bathroom and like hitting heads. It's like almost three stooges like that he drops his glasses. So strange. You're gonna take a bathroom
speaker-1: It's it's yeah. Yeah. I love it. And then he goes in for breakfast and ⁓ nice steak. I I love steak. I love a good steak. I don't really like it in the morning, but you know, whatever, I'll take it.
speaker-0: Is excited originally. Yes. Hey steak steak and steak and eggs. That's a that's a thing. So he thinks he's gonna get the it's not for him. No.
speaker-1: Thanks. Yeah. Jonas. Not for Jonas. He gets Oat Bran. And I love his reaction to like that, which is like such a even though he's not a father, but it is a good father angry old guy thing. What the goddamn hell is going on?
speaker-0: Pretty fantastic.
speaker-1: The crow comes in and he he again escalates at the crow. Just but which which is funny because like the crow, I think the crow tapping at your window is a harbinger of death, right? Yeah. Isn't that kind of like a like a like like a harbinger of death?
speaker-0: Not a good thing. Not a good thing. Yes. Go ahead.
speaker-1: We then meet our his neighbor in the next scene. He knows he has to get a hobby or ⁓ do something. Well
speaker-0: Who's wearing it? ⁓ I love that the neighbor's wearing this amazing outfit. The USA pack suit that's maybe two sizes too small, not hiding anything. And then the first thing he brings over is a giant airplane model. I f is this like I love. Okay.
speaker-1: USA tracks it. I used to do that when I was a kid. I when I was like eight, I used to build jet models. It was like the greatest thing for me. It was I loved it. So I'm kinda jealous that he that he's got a neighbor bringing him model kits to play.
speaker-0: I think this was a more common hobby, like the airplane models. It's maybe morphed into like robots and Gundam stuff, maybe new Warhammer. Warhammer things. Modern day, but it was like a standard thing. It was like older men make models or trains or something like that. It was like a traditional thing. My dad tried to get me into model airplanes because he made them as a kid.
speaker-1: For
speaker-0: And he gave me the SR seventy one spy plane, which the X-Men would fly around with in as well. And he gave that to me one Christmas and I never opened it. So he wrapped it again and gave it to me for a second Christmas. And I opened it and didn't open it. And then it became a running joke where he would give that to me every year. But he would put like a real gift in there with it.
speaker-1: The black
speaker-0: You know, would just rewrap the same SR seventy one every year and I would I would get it. I got that probably about eight or nine times in a row. I a after my father passed away, I still had it and I actually opened it and I finally put it together. I gonna say and it's ⁓ in my my ⁓ room at home at ⁓ at my mother's house. So it's there.
speaker-1: Actually have Because you have
speaker-0: It and I did kind of a shitty job with it, I guess. I was not it w I was like, This can't be that hard and I was like, I don't know how to do it.
speaker-1: Hey, just like we'll find out later with the other Jonas, you don't hit home runs your first at batch.
speaker-0: No. ⁓ so he's given this model that's like I guess he's not very happy with with Roy suggesting he needs a hobby. This is the first like tidbit of like I guess anger or dissatisfaction. It seems like he already has a hobby because he's got a whole like workshop down there. So he's obviously working on stuff.
speaker-1: He's got his pruners. So he takes Joy and and Roy joins him outside while he aggressively prunes. And they make a joke of this later, which I think is good, because like when it first happened, you're like, What the fuck is he doing? He's just not there's no artistry to his pruning at all. It's just gut the tree and just leave it to to a twig. Yeah. Which I'm laughing at, obviously, the whole time.
speaker-0: He's just taking the tree out and I I also was thinking like how many of these fake trees did they have and how many takes did they do of him? 'Cause he just like obliterates this tree. Like it's like one yeah. It's got like one branch left at the end of the scene.
speaker-1: And as he's he's doing this, he's talking about how hobbies are a waste of time. And then the little the little Jonas, the bulldog, kind of walks in and he calls him a maidengy mutt, which I love. Again, this is just MM at Walt Walt just chewing the scenery while he's chewing the hedges with his with his hedge clippers. And then we next get another wife moment with him being fed. Yes. And ⁓ this time it to me I was like, What's going on, lady? 'Cause she gives him tuna, that's real cat food.
speaker-0: Yeah. It's not it's not tuna, it's cat food. And yeah, it's also like, ⁓ that's something an insane person you know, like that's not
speaker-1: Normal. She this is when I go like hmm, maybe she is she's adjusting as well to this new to this new sort of sort of
speaker-0: Yeah, she doesn't know how to she doesn't know how to hang out with human beings. Like her only friends are the animals. And that's where we discover that the bulldog who comes in is named after Jonas. And there's a ma some an amazing series of sound effects with that dog as it comes in because made me laugh as well.
speaker-1: Like ASMR?
speaker-0: Yeah, it's just ridiculous. And you know, he's like, Don't apologize and make it worse by saying you're sorry. Like, yeah. Beyond the pale.
speaker-1: Again, but later that night he is coughing and she thinks he has a hairball. And that again, that's another like, Are you cat or human? ⁓ and he asks for an aspirin and she delivers an aspirin to him, like as a nice partner in life would do delivery.
speaker-0: But the way that you would give the way that you would give it to an animal. You would wrap it in a treat for him. He's like, What the hell are you doing? I'm not an animal. And then he yeah, he does say that elephant man line. I'm not an animal. I'm a human being. And
speaker-1: I love it and and I love MM Walsh just at his wit's end with this relationship and and ⁓ just saying this I am not an animal, I'm a human being, Anita human being.
speaker-0: It's great. And the next day he again meets with with Roy, the neighbor. And that's where we get a the new new amazing outfit. And that's where we get a sense of what his wife has been like this whole time. Because he says, Well yeah. Roy's like, Well, you know, she's she has squirrels on her head and that she talks to. Like she's I think the neighborhood crazy animal lady, like obviously. Yeah. And is Her husband, Jonah, has no idea, has w has just been oblivious to this like for forty years.
speaker-1: Yeah. And Roy's being a good friend here. And it's like, maybe, you know, and and and you know, Jonas is expressing his frustrations as well. And Roy's like, Maybe you should talk to your wife. Like that would be a way, ⁓ I shouldn't have to tell you this, but like, maybe do this and you can find some common ground here. And I he actually takes it to heart. So we get some, you know, he goes in to maybe have a conversation with his wife, but he witnesses her her his wife already apologizing to someone.
speaker-0: What's what happens to their what's g what's going on?
speaker-1: She's apologizing to Mew Mew the cat for something and he watches that happen and is like, No, my wife is crazy. I can't even engage. I cannot engage. So I'm gonna go back to pruning and engaging with my engaging with my ⁓ my prune, my hedges.
speaker-0: Yeah, more of just like destroying something. Like that's my that's my new joy in life is just destroying something, which then leads him to try to go after the cat with the shears, right? Like there's
speaker-1: Yep. The cat knocks over his lemonade.
speaker-0: Yeah, and he's and he's like, I'm gonna kill this flea bitten thing. And he falls into their pond? What is this thing?
speaker-1: Yes. I had questions. Like this thing was just kind of hidden this scum pond. It was like in the corner and it's like shaped like an L. It's not even like a circle and there's no koi and beauty to it. It's just
speaker-0: Never established at all. It's just like all of a sudden there's also this weird pond in this suburban backyard that it makes no sense that he falls into and is covered in mud.
speaker-1: Right. Tries to get in the shower, but Anita is is cleaning the
speaker-0: those gigantic bass in the in the that are swimming around in his feet and that is that's kind of the last straw for for Jonah right that's what breaks him yeah make makes him
speaker-1: But the next day he wakes up happy. He's he's excited. He's dressed up in his like you know, his his racetrack hat and his checkered blazer and he is he's he tells his wife he's he's excited ⁓ to to he's found his hobby and he slips on a dog belt. Yep.
speaker-0: Now I don't know if he has the same amount of spite or anger. Like, I don't know if there's as much maliciousness to his behavior from this point on as the comic. Right. I get the sense that he just kind of went insane and is oblivious that what he's doing is bad. I that's the sense I got from this. Like The way that that Walsh plays it is not like I'm gonna get my revenge on my wife. Is more like ⁓ I'm f this is what I'm gonna do is become a taxidermist and stuff these animals and why don't you why don't you think this is great?
speaker-1: Too. He becomes a cereal animals. Yes. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yes, but he's like excited about it. It's not like Yeah. That's a sense I got. Maybe I'm
speaker-1: Not he screaming to his wife what he's doing. You know, it's it's more just like he is finding joy and we'll talk about that we don't know what he's doing, but he's down in that basement and Roy's over yeah having tea with Anita. I love this. It's almost like he's retired. I don't know, would they have a thing? Who knows? Could they have had a thing? I don't know. But I do like that they're just out there.
speaker-0: We don't know what he's doing. I think Yeah, I think we I think we can all agree that they would have been better off together than with Jonah who it still blows my mind that he has no I he what has been going on for forty years this house where you just do not know the person you're married with that what do they do on the weekends? Is he working on weekends too? I guess.
speaker-1: I I don't know. He does mention he works six days a week though for forty seven years. ⁓ okay. And fifty two weeks a year. Well implying that like he
speaker-0: There you go. Doesn't even take Christmas off, yeah. Just
speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. But he does he goes looking for Jonas and finds Jonas, I guess, 'cause like later on we have a we rev she comes down into his workstation and asks where Jonas is and he says that Jonas is out back.
speaker-0: Yes. And it's not just Jonas back there, it's the dog Jonas, who now has robot eyes and he's hooked him up to a little RC car remote control to the best. It's that revealed.
speaker-1: It's night time. ⁓ Derby job is so amazingly bad and those eyes are totally like just g Teddy Ruxman glow eyes. And he's got a RC remote control car that he's gleefully like opening and closing the eyes.
speaker-0: Yes. And she's horrified by this and he's kind of like amazed. He's like, Why are you horrified? I think I've made this better. Like I think I've made improvements, I feel he's just like oblivious.
speaker-1: Yeah. Like the Yeah, he's like the dog won't get in anyone's way and it's still a precious dog for you to admire. Just so yeah, it's a little bit of column A and column B for what he gets out of what he's trying to say, I think.
speaker-0: Then we go through and what happens after that?
speaker-1: She just wants to make sure that Mew Mew is okay. You know, Mew Mew is the cat that she rescued at the beginning. Yeah.
speaker-0: So that's a little strange. I know it's consistent with the comic, but wouldn't she care more about the dog that she's had for apparently years than the latest installment? I think the I guess the implication is that Mew Mew is her favorite, even though it's the most recent addition to the collection.
speaker-1: New favorite. It's almost like the baby, the latest orphan to join her sort of crew. So I think she's like, ⁓ don't touch that one. She he the Yu Mu's so innocent and pure. Right. I named it Yumiu because it's a childish name. ⁓ obviously maybe she's like seeing the stuffed Jonas as like, you know, she named Jonas after her husband. So now maybe just seeing Jonas stuffed is what gets her excited to stuff Jonas later.
speaker-0: Well right. I mean she goes crazy. When she discovers Mew Mew, that's like in the comic, you know, her brain breaks, she grabs the
speaker-1: Mew Mew Yeah. Well the when you when you when she goes back down into the ⁓ the works area in the in the basement, he's just like fondling the hanging is is Mew Mew one of them? I thought he was fondling a rabbit, but the way that Walsh is doing this is just like so hilariously creepy. And he describes the joy of the taxidermy that he's found in his new hobby, which is like he even mentions like I chloroform them because the muscle comes off the bone quick. You are a psycho. But a psycho with a hobby.
speaker-0: Anyway, she her brain breaks when she sees Mew Mew, grabs the the golden hammer that we established from beginning and ⁓ kills Jonah.
speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Off screen, which was good because we didn't really need to see that sequence, did we? Of him being skinned and all that. But we get a great reveal. And Roy gets a great reveal.
speaker-0: Roy does.
speaker-1: Powder blue leisure suit get a great reveal.
speaker-0: Yeah, what is he we the outfits on this are amazing.
speaker-1: Again, everyone is on the same page with this sitcom world that they're crafting and the outlandishness of it also. I'm I'm all in.
speaker-0: Yeah. So Roy Roy comes in, takes a look at what's going on and is horrified to see horrible looking ⁓ at Wall ⁓ at Walsh with scars and fake eyes placed into it. And then gives this amazing, you know, EC horror comics reaction, but it's a silent scream. I I wish he had been screen I feel like they they needed a scream, an actual scream. Yeah. He just sort of mouths a scream. ⁓ we should talk about what what ⁓ Jonah is wearing because it's a
speaker-1: Like his facial expression, his he's got the fake eyes, and then his he's got the stitching and this suit, which I'll let you describe because it's it is glorious. Those patterns and Joanne's fabrics must have been fun to pick out.
speaker-0: Yeah, so it's it's a full on suit with just animals all over it and it looks ridiculous. It looks like children's sheets that have been made into a suit.
speaker-1: Peach suit with like dogs and
speaker-0: Again, I think, you know, if she wasn't insane before, but this is also like what a child would choose to dress their doll right in to to match with the animals. So the collection is complete with Jonah. Right. Yeah.
speaker-1: Jonah's collection is complete. I guess they don't really need to nail it on the head like the comic did with like sort of the collection complete 'cause the man was the last thing in the city that was part of the collection. It was more just like the idea.
speaker-0: Yeah, they kinda Yeah, they kinda lose that whole theme of like collect 'cause there's no like city really shown. Yeah. You know, so
speaker-1: And honestly, don't care. MM Walsh, Lindley doing such a great job. And and then Mary Lambert knowing the assignment and and and sticking to it is great. So overall a lot of fun. I enjoyed that episode. It's a good one to close out the season with.
speaker-0: Yeah. You don't need it. Yes, I agree. I think it's one of the more fun episodes. It's very unique.
speaker-1: That was awesome. Hey, five stars. And this ends season one. So when I we pick up our next episode, we're going into season two. Does HBO have more money?
speaker-0: Well they may have this they may have they may have a bigger star in the next episode, that's for sure. One of the bigger
speaker-1: They are starting to get one of the biggest stars from the era in the next episode, I believe. Yep. So yeah, I'm excited to
speaker-0: And Demi Moore. You're s I'm assuming you're s I'm assuming you're talking about Jeffrey Tambour, right?
speaker-1: I am because I was a huge Mr. Mom fan and Tambor was a supreme villain in that in that show and you know, yeah. No, I'm talking about Denny Moore.
speaker-0: Yes. Huge star, Jimmy Moore.
speaker-1: We'll talk about that next episode though because I'm excited to dig into it.
speaker-0: This episode is brought to you by Anita's Animal Rescue.
speaker-1: I'm Anita, just a local good Samaritan who started my own rescue out of my home after my husband well my neighbor Roy and I started it to rescue cute, pathetic lost animals like our new three-legged schnauzer Gerald. Quiet, Mew Mew. Now don't get jealous. What else have we got for you folks? We have birds, lizards, a centip We have a raccoon who got into the ceiling in twenty twenty during the pandemic. At this point we consider her staff. We have llamas, emus, a mere cat named circumstances 'cause that's how he arrived. We recently took in what we believe is a black bear, though Roy says it's a very large humanoid dog, but I don't believe him. He's more into his model planes. We also have begun accepting what I can only describe as regional entities. For instance, if you're looking for a special new friend who could really use a soft landing, we have something in Jonas' old basement that leaves fifteen inch footprints and smells like a pine forest after a hard rain. He's a little shy. Big heart though. Big Just needs the right home, ideally with a yard, a large yard, possibly several acres. And last Tuesday something with a ten foot wingspan and red glowing eyes landed on the roof, looking directly at Roy, and he's been locked in his room building an F-14 Tomcat since then. And as a new addition, just today we have a squonk I'm calling Jonas too.
speaker-0: Big heart.
speaker-1: He has warty skin that doesn't fit him correctly and he is very aware of this. Say hi to the people at home, Jonas too. Anyway, we are no kill shelter. At least so far. Yep. Roy and I are still alive, as is our Lorak speaker of the trees. So come on down to Anita's animal shelter today and pick up whatever this is.
speaker-0: Anita's Animal Rescue, we take in everything. Everything. Open seven days a week or basically whenever a stray lands on our porch.
speaker-1: This is the time when Fred and I jump into our next segment, our final segment of the day, and we share something that this episode may have inspired us to just share to one another, whether it be any form of media. And boy, we can go crazy as we wanna be. Are you ready for it? What's the segment called, Fred?
speaker-0: The Vault of Moor. Yeah.
speaker-1: Is it ⁓ A ⁓ O A R or ⁓ O R E? Because like M-O-A-R is like what the kids say, I think. No. Yeah. Yeah. I think send us your comments and thoughts on that at it hails from the crypt at gmail.com or follow us on Instagram. All right, but Valtimore, I think I started off last time, so I'm gonna let you go first.
speaker-0: Maybe it's both. There you go. Did you okay. I have kind of a do I I have kind of a doozy here as I creak in my chair. Apologize to the listeners for that.
speaker-1: I don't know. ⁓ yeah. Mine is not a doozy. Mine is you're gonna get in ⁓ mine will explore the psyche of eight year old Tim when I reveal what my vault of moor is.
speaker-0: Sounds sexy. So my recommendation is a movie called The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales from Mexico, 1960. it's an amazing. The Spanish title is El Escuelto de la Senora Morales. And it came out in 1960s.
speaker-1: ⁓ my
speaker-0: It's a a dark black comedy based on the Arthur Macon short story from nineteen twenty-seven, the Islington mystery. Now, if you don't know who Arthur Macon is, he was the pro probably the biggest influence on HP Lovecraft with his sh his kind of cosmic horror short stories. He did one called The Great God Pan. But
speaker-1: Yes, which I've read and I loved it.
speaker-0: Yeah, fantastic. One HP Lovecraft described it as like the greatest horror short story ever written. Yes. But
speaker-1: His stories were adapted into like British Christian ghost stories? 'Cause he did ghost stories too, right?
speaker-0: Yes. Yes, yes. Did a lot of ghost stories, but this is kind of a true crime story based on the real crime of Dr. Crippen, the Dr. Crippen case, if you're aware of that. So there's three things I'm sort of recommending here: the actual true crime, the short story, and then this amazing movie.
speaker-1: Wait, sorry, sorry. You're recommending the true crime?
speaker-0: I'm recommending you research the true crime because it's bonkers. So the the movie itself, I I thought of this movie because it's about a husband and wife. The husband is a taxidermist. His wife is a kind of religious zealot who tortures her husband in the neighborhood. And it's this very it I thought of this with Walsh and Blood Simple because It feels like a Cohen Brothers movie, but made in the 1960s, Mexico. Takes place in Mexico City. This wife is like torturing her husband, who's sort of like beloved by the neighborhood. He's like all the kids love him, all the animals love him, surprisingly. He has a a giant carrion bird in his basement. And she is like become super religious. So she has the this. Priest over and like is trying to give all of her money to the church and then is disgusted by his profession. She's she won't have sex with him anymore. Makes him like you you smell like disgusting animals. Like, and he's he comes home from work and is excited to eat this steak that his cook has made for him. And she goes, I So disgusted by you eating meat after you like destroying these animals all day and it makes him like he can't even eat his and enjoy his own steak. She pretends a job. Yeah, it's a job. And and he's supporting her. She also has like a one leg is larger than the other, which will come into play with the with the skeleton. Okay. The aforementioned skeleton. She she
speaker-1: Not a hobby, right? Yes. ⁓
speaker-0: tries to turn him into the pariah of the town by saying like she like beats herself up and then says he's beating me, gets her wife's husband to come over and threaten him with a gun, like you have to like, you know, take better care of your wife and all these things.
speaker-1: Yeah. So this is another happy couple.
speaker-0: Another happy couple situation, but he is more the nice guy and she's presented as the like demonic woman and his he's been saving all of his money up for this camera. He finally buys the camera, she goes down and breaks the camera, and that's what is the breaking point for him. And then he, you know, goes the k Spoiler. Yeah, spoiler murders her and then uses his taxidermy skills to break her down into a skeleton that he then puts on display and sells to the local medical college. And then they notice like, ⁓ wait, this skeleton has a a fucked up leg. So it's probably the and so he goes on trial for this crime. It's
speaker-1: trial. I thought that was the ending because I'm all these Tales of the Crypts would be like that's the ending.
speaker-0: No, he goes to trial and spoiler alert, just watch the movie. It's fantastic, but spoiler word, he gets away with it. He gets away with the crime and but then is punished by God at the end. Like it's a great
speaker-1: So she gets it because she had a close relationship with God. So she he gets it in the end in a way.
speaker-0: It's a re it's a very interesting movie. It's written by the screenwriter who wrote Lewis Cons, I think is how you pronounce his name, but he wrote movies for Lewis Brunwell, the surrealist filmmaker. And so there is a undercurrent of like subversion of normals and sort of poking fun at the church and like pious people. But then also it comes around. It's like a really fascinating movie. It's one of Guilma de Toro's favorite films on the list of best Mexican films. It came in as like the 19th best Mexican movie of all time. It's like a very unique, interesting movie. Like I I highly recommend it as a film. Now, the original short story by Arthur Macon, he was obsessed by this true crime that happened, Dr. Crippen. this crime happened and he wrote this short story that is a kind of fake true crime story. He's like, I know you're all familiar with the Dr. Crippen case, but here is another case about this taxidermist who, you know, had this horrible wife that he killed and then got away with murder. ⁓ the real case, Dr. Crippen, is considered by a lot of people like the first modern True crime case because it was the first case that was sort of solved by radio technology and like the fact that p people had wireless radios. So Dr. Crippen was this American guy who lived in England and he had a wife who was a former music hall ⁓ star. Like she was and he was a kind of a quack doctor.
speaker-1: ⁓ really?
speaker-0: Like he was a homeopathic doctor who would like put put powders together and like cure yes, would like cure you know, I have a cure a lot of tonics, like pour this in your ear and you won't be deaf anymore and all this stuff. Apparently had a sexless relationship with his wife and then started dating his young, I think she was like 19 year old typist.
speaker-1: Homeopathy. Tonics, electonics.
speaker-0: And I don't think his wife was happy about that. And she suddenly disappears. He tells the neighbors the one story and they don't believe it. So they bring the police and he tells the police a different story that, ⁓ my wife was also having an affair and she left with this guy. Apparently, she this was true that she du was actually having an affair with someone else. And She left and they searched his house, they don't find her. And you know, they're like, Okay, we believe you. Her sister is is very persistent and also knows all the music hall stars and gets publicity about this and ha right is like she is not excuse me, she has not absconded with this man. She has like been murdered by her husband. Instead of waiting around for this case to resolve, Dr. Crippen and his new wife abscond to the continent and she dresses he dresses his new wife as a teenage boy, and they get on a ship. 1890 something. This was when did this happen? This is like 1910. 1910. So they go search the house.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: Four times. In the fourth time that they search the house, they dig into the basement and they find the skeletal remains of a body and some flesh left behind. And the flesh, the piece of flesh has a scar on it. They say a scar that is like, ⁓ that's a dedifiable scar that his wife had. We're gonna charge him for murder. They use the ra they use the radio for the first time. The wireless radio is a new invention. Right. And ⁓ put the word out that be on the lookout for this TB for this guy and his wife. And they apparently traveled first class on this steamer ship. And the because of that, the captain greets all the first class people. And I guess the his new wife was kind of too beautiful and shapely to pass as a teenage boy. And so he's immediately like, that's not a teenage boy. That's a beautiful woman. Like, what's going on here? And so he transmit, he radios that, you know, these people are on board my ship. This Scotland Yard detective gets on a faster ship and sails and meets the ship and arrests Dr. Crippin and goes, you know, basically meets him as he comes off the gang plank and is like, Dr. Crippen, I presume. And Dr. Crippen's like, ⁓ thank God. I was so worried. I couldn't handle all the anxiousness of not being caught. I'm so glad it's over. Goes back to trial, is found. They're both charged with murder. He professes his innocence the entire time, keeps telling his story. No, my wife, you know, got left with this man and like, You know, I don't know who what this body was. It was probably from the person who owned the house before me, blah, blah, blah. His new wife but he also says, like, but my new wife had knew nothing about this. She's acquitted and he is hanged and murdered. Now, cut to may when is cut to 2007. So he's murdered he's executed in nineteen ten. In two thousand seven, they still have the body ⁓ of Mrs. Crippin. The bones and remains are kept because it was such a sensational case. Like everyone it was like the cause to left. It was in some it was in some creepy British museum. They do a DNA test on the remains. It's a man's body. It was not his wife's body found in there.
speaker-1: Estonian?
speaker-0: So we don't know what happened to his wife, if he actually murdered her, and who this body was. They have no idea. So the the
speaker-1: Is it the man that his wife was with? I don't yeah, that's crazy. And was I I was just looking at this. Did Eric Larson's was Thunderstruck? Because I was thinking of like the Lusitania, like the ship, and then Devil in the White City, and I was like, ⁓ is that it? And I I thought I vaguely th remembered that. And that's what Thunderstruck the A C D C song.
speaker-0: Do a book? Yes. That's what Thunderstruck is. It's not the ACDC song or the incredible, incredible early art slash pornographic film Thunderstruck, which I would recommend if you are it's one of John Waters' favorite films. And I I would ⁓ really? I would recommend it if you want something that's just insane. Along the lines of siesta. Anyway.
speaker-1: Deep pull.
speaker-0: That is my recommendation, is the movie, The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales, but all this other stuff as well, I think is fascinating.
speaker-1: Spider webbed out into a bunch of other th that we can explore and viewers, listeners can explore as well. Mine's not gonna be as amazing of a deep dive as you, but it was a bit of an epiphany for me in the sense that I guess I could I can thank Mary Lambert for awakening my love of women because I didn't know that she directed the video for Material Girl and I remember seeing like I'll always love hearing stories where people were like, you know, gay, straight, bye, where like there's something that like was the moment that they that was captured that they saw and they're like, I like I like women, I like men, I'd like this. And for me, as a kid who didn't understand anything and hadn't gone to like a sex education class or anything like that, I remember seeing the music video for Material Girl. Where Mad and I wasn't even like a huge Madonna fan. I just remember seeing that video like on silent in at my uncle's house as a kid and being like, I just thought she was gorgeous, and I didn't even know that she was like they were aping the sort of gentleman prefers blondes, diamonds or girl best friend song. But I just remember like a light bulb going off in my head as like a six, seven year old when that video came out and going like I like. Girls and finding out that she d not only did Pet Cemetery, which was like I think my favorite Stephen King adaptation, I think I I was just amazed that she directed all these Madonna videos and so I rewatched the video not only just saying no. But there's an opening before the song kicks in that is two fine actors of the day, Keith Carradine and our very own
speaker-0: How many times repeat?
speaker-1: Circus Barker himself, Robert Wall, are talking about the material girl in the movie because like he's like Mr. Big Shot Hollywood producer who who wants to get that girl. And there's a story to the I'm gonna go down to the story here. You know, listeners can go and watch this themselves and enjoy the song and enjoy the sort of 80s-iness of this sort of like crazy romantic comedy that happens between Madonna and Keith Carradine as he tries to use all of his money and power of a big Hollywood sh big shot producer to try to woo Madonna, but she finds out through the course of the ⁓ music video that she's just like, you know, a regular guy. And in the end, Keith Carradine pulls up in that pickup truck, dusty looking, you know, something out of a John Steinbeck novel, woos her off into into true love. True love is is not about money and material stuff.
speaker-0: She was she wasn't a material girl after all.
speaker-1: She wasn't. That's the story Mary was trying to tell us, Mary and Madonna, in this sort of collaboration. I didn't go down any other Mary Lambert music videos, but that one was just felt like a big epiphany for me because I remember just seeing that first as a kid and going like, Gee Wilakers, methinks I like the ladies and and I have Mary Lambert to thank for that. Take that as you will, but and and thank you for enjoying sort of this ⁓ psychological episode of me Talking about these moments of my childhood.
speaker-0: I think we've learned a lot about Tim today and what makes Tim tick from model airplanes to the Material Girl Donald music video. We've kind of covered the entire gambit as yeah, along with more my insane research heavy rabbit hole after watching the skeleton of Mrs. Morales again after with this and being like ⁓ I didn't know it was based on this short story. ⁓ I didn't know this short story is based on a true crime. And ⁓ my god, this true crime thing is an insane story. This could be ⁓ a whole thing. Now I've now have to read Thunderstroke. A Pan's Labyrinth. I should mention some people have been asking where to or how to read the comics, the original EC comics.
speaker-1: There's so many layers here. Yeah. Labyrinth for us.
speaker-0: And I wanna put a shout out to Dark Horse Comics has collected a bunch of the Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Shock Suspense, and these great hardcover and softcover editions that are pretty the softcovers, at least, are pretty affordable and a great way to read the comics. And then they're good. And then Fantagraphics, another comics company, has put these very prestigious hardcover.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: black and white versions of the EC comics that are sort of curated by the artist. So you'll get a whole they one on Graham Ingalls that collects just his work or George Evans. And that's they have great introductions and afterwards, and that's where I'm getting a lot of the information that I'm sharing with the audience from this collection. So two great ways to enjoy your Tales from the Crypt. Experience. There's also ⁓ in October a giant omnibus coming out of all the Tales from the Crypt comics, which maybe we'll do episode when that comes out about that. So if you just want the Tales from the Crypt, that comic alone, maybe wait for that to come out. If you want to experience all the other stuff, vaults the vaults of horror, the shock system.
speaker-1: Yeah, the one I have I think John Carpenter does a forward for as a fan as well. And yeah, I'm a big John Carpenter fan.
speaker-0: Yes, they have great Who isn't? You gotta love John Carp. Yeah. So yeah, I think they've the Dark Horse collection have tapped a lot of great ⁓ people to do their introductions and the Fantagraphics have leaned heavily on to more like historians and comics, museum curators and whatnot to do their stuff. Is it's you get kind of two two versions of the same material. Right. So it's it's out there though. So you get Enjoy it because those comics are fantastic. I still think they were the the height of comic art at the time, you know, just the best ⁓ people working. Yeah. Much like this podcast, which has the best quality host and best ⁓ material. And if you want to reach out to them, you can now like and subscribe our YouTube page.
speaker-1: Podcast. We know what they're doing. We have a YouTube channel, it hails from the crypt at YouTube. We have an Instagram, it hails from the crypt at ⁓ Instagram. and then a TikTok, it hails from the crypt, which hopefully we're doing a ⁓ justice and feeding all of these outlets for you to like and ⁓ listen and all that fun stuff. You can email us it hails from the crypt at gmail.com if you have any questions or anything you wanna tell us.
speaker-0: Yes. And apparently Yeah, apparently it helps a lot to a review, to leave a nice kind review or a five star review is great for helping people to find us. If you don't like us, please don't leave us a bad review. Just keep that to yourself. Or or you know, blog about it in your own time. But please don't hurt our show because we're tiny and please don't
speaker-1: Please don't we're just this is not our day job.
speaker-0: Yes, this is we're not getting paid for this, so please be kind for the free entertainment and not be like these guys got all these facts wrong, two stars.
speaker-1: They mispronounced this, two stars. Yeah. They flubbed a line.
speaker-0: Sorry really sorry about all the mispronunciations 'cause there's a ton when it comes to me. So there you go.
speaker-1: Well, it's common. Hey, everyone, we enjoyed you being here today and we love ya and we wanna just say we'll see you next time.
speaker-0: But until then, we remain.
speaker-1: Yeah. In the crypt. In the crypt. In we remain in the crypt. That's what we do. Okay.
speaker-0: Okay, let's wrap it up. Yeah. All right, let's wrap it up. All right, that's it. All right.
speaker-1: Goodbye, guys. ⁓