Transcript
Speaker: It's bad to be bad. It's bad to be bad.
Speaker: And you know that you should. Yes, you know that you should.
Speaker: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. It's the only podcast that's brave enough to ask the question, if this miniseries is so bad, why do you like it so much?
Speaker: We're your hosts. My name is Chris Anderson, and I'm obviously the Jack Stump of the show. Okay. Okay. Yeah. All right. I'm the Jack Stump.
Speaker: People have had to chase you out of the woods frequently. Yeah. Yeah, I'm always out there, you know, working that mouth, trying to to hustle and jive. In the woods.
Speaker: Yeah, non-sexual. ah My co-host is obviously... Mr. Greg Bossy. Greg, I'm going to say you're the worthy of the show. Yes. Good. I was hoping kind of that I would. I mean, I don't want the same outcome that young woman has. But if you could give me some money, I'm going to join the Navy.
Speaker: And I would. Don't join the Navy, Greg. Please don't join the Navy. ah We unfortunately do not have my lovely wife, Anna, here tonight, but we do have with us a very special class special guest, two special guests. What am i saying? They're coming to us from New York City out here with us freaks, so they have to be the Constantines of the show, yeah but they're brother and sister. They're not married, so it's a little different. You might know them as artists and musicians or just wonderful people. It's Angela Carlucci and Toby Goodshank.
Speaker: Happy to be here. So happy to see you and so happy to be talking about your choice, which is the dark secret of... Harfei.
Speaker: Harvest Harvest. that This has been happening to me nonstop for the last two weeks. I've been like the dark harvest and then I get lost. Yeah. Like, no, it's not the dark harvest.
Speaker: It's the dark secret of harvest home listeners. If you haven't seen the dark secret of harvest home, here's just a short summary to hold in your mind.
Speaker: a family of three moves away from New York City to start fresh in rural Connecticut. Unfortunately, rural Connecticut is full of weird freaks.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. ah That's the gist. that's That's the big picture. That's the book. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Now, Toby was telling me a little bit about your history with this miniseries before the show, but tell the audience, why did you pick the dark secret of Harvest Home?
Speaker: So ah our our mom growing up what was a ah big horror movie buff. And she would also, you know, because she would work from home, she was a painter. Okay. And ah she, so she would constantly have ah VHS tapes on like on loop, basically just watching her favorite things over and over. Nice. um And ah one of them was, was the dark secret of Harvest Home taped off the TV. Yeah.
Speaker: And I would catch occasional glimpses of it as a kid and it would really freak me out. Yeah. um I remembered the ah the sort of church outburst scene in particular and also yeah the mouth thing.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Two very, you know, intense scenes in this miniseries. But yeah, I wanted to revisit it as an ah as an adult, and ah this seemed like ah the perfect opportunity to subject others to it.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Nailed it. Like a fantastic idea. Angela, do do you have any specific memories? I don't remember anything, although I think I wanted to. Like in watching the second half, because it is so long, I was...
Speaker: really thinking i remembered some of the things toby did but unfortunately i don't so excited to watch it okay for this reason i had never seen this one we had done i think maybe one other made for tv movie on the show before we the pyromaniac with um yeah yeah Yeah, the different strokes. Yes, that one. Gary Coleman. Tom Bridges? Gary Coleman. oh yeah Yeah, Playing with Fire with yeah wonderful Gary Coleman.
Speaker: wonderful little picture. Yeah. and Seriously, it's worth out. It's worth checking out, definitely. There's a lot of arson in it. Yeah.
Speaker: But ah yeah, i I had not seen this one. Greg, did you have any background with this one? No, I'd never heard of this film before. And I feel like I'm kind of a fan of folk horror and it has never crossed my plate. So this was a bit of a surprise to me. I would also like to take this opportunity to say that ah because it was so long, I decided that I would break it up over two nights. i kind of just had to realistically, but I just decided that I would watch it like a miniseries.
Speaker: So I like waited until as close as I could to eight o'clock within reason to start it. And I found them on YouTube in two halves. And so once the first one ended, i was like, we we stop now. It doesn't matter how long the second part is. We're starting that tomorrow.
Speaker: And I wanted to try to get into that headspace and that experience. Yeah. Yeah, we broke it up as well. ah Not one night after the other, and we did one in the afternoon, but we did not watch it all in one chunk. It does end in a very strange spot. it's it's it's intriguing.
Speaker: And at the time i remember thinking like, Oh, interesting. And then the next day I was like, in all honesty, if it like came on at eight o'clock tonight and I had something else to do, I may, it may have, it may have gone past me at this point. I may have forgot to tune. Uh, but like if you went just a half an hour further, I would have been like, yeah, I got to get back. I got to get back.
Speaker: It was an interesting choice. strange Yeah. How did you guys watch it? Did you watch it all at once or did you break it up? Two parts. we Yeah. Yeah. That's definitely the play. There is a shorter cut. There's like a two hour and 20 minute cut. The one that we watched was what, like three hours, 45, something like that. Three 47, something like that.
Speaker: ah But there's like a two hour 20 cut that was released on VHS. And I think also we already named to the same problem that the copies that we all saw were very bad. like Like when I was looking at reviews, a lot of people were saying like I could only watch a really terrible quality that was captured from TNT, which is definitely what I saw. And I'm assuming it's what everybody else saw. It seems like there's like one copy of it readily floating around.
Speaker: wow Yeah. About five minutes into it, we we I thought we might have to bail. yeah Yeah. But then but then we we ah utilized the ah like those auto-generated closed captions. All right.
Speaker: It was helpful. It was world of difference. Even though they were often wrong, it still was. Okay. Yeah, it gave you at least direction. I thought about turning those on at first, but then I was like, I can't. Once we got into all the many different accents that you hear.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, for me, it was more just like, I'm just going to let it wash over me. What I get, I get. What I don't, I don't. It's fine. i'm sure I'll get the big idea, you know?
Speaker: ah But I did find out a little bit about the making of The Dark Secret of Harvest Home. Do you guys want to hear what I found out? Please. All right, then I'm going to play the context bumper.
Speaker: I wish I had some context About the background of the film Script director, actors on set What was going on on screen I wanna hear some details Gossip stand to all that shit Can't imagine all the time
Speaker: All right, so The Dark Secret of Harvest Home originally aired on NBC January 23rd and 24th, 1978. It's a Monday and a Tuesday, just FYI.
Speaker: Yes, and I think winter is probably a good time to watch this. There's a lot of summary stuff in here, but it's still like you want to be at home under the blankets watching this. Your director? Oh, and we know that it also aired at least once on TNT at some point.
Speaker: But beyond that, it's broad. And I think it aired on NBC one more time I read, but its broadcast history was not, you know, there's not a lot, which is why it's so hard to find this original full cut.
Speaker: So the director was Leo Penn. There were no taglines, a rare no tagline situation for us. So who is Leo Penn?
Speaker: Leo Penn was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1921. a During World War ii he served as a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator stationed in England. Then after the war, he became an actor.
Speaker: He studied acting at UCLA before the war and in the actor's studio afterwards. In 1945, he was signed to a contract with Paramount Pictures, but they did not renew that contract in 1950 because he was blacklisted.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Who knew? So ah Penn had long been a supporter of Hollywood's ah trade unions, and that brought him to the attention of the House Un-American Activities Committee as they continued their crusade to rid Hollywood of communist influence.
Speaker: When Leo was brought before the HUAC, he refused to testify and was consequently blacklisted and could no longer work as a film actor. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker: But it wasn't all bad, though. He was able to get some work as a TV and theater actor and director in the 1950s. This is also when he met his second and final wife, Eileen Ryan.
Speaker: The two of them would go on have three sons. The first, Michael Penn, is a musician whose hit single No Myth won him the 1990 MTV Music Video Award for Best New Artist.
Speaker: Okay. What? That's the song that goes, ah What if I was Romeo in black jeans? Oh, my God.
Speaker: That song has been stuck in my head for the last two weeks since I learned that. ah hu ah But his other two sons, you're probably more familiar with. They are actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn.
Speaker: Never heard of them. you ever see a little movie called Reservoir Dogs? Yeah. Yeah. ah So by the time the 1960s rolled around, Leo Penn was largely able to put the blacklist behind him. Still, rather than returning to acting, he found that he enjoyed directing television and he stuck with it.
Speaker: Over the course of his career, he would go on to direct over 400 hours of primetime television. Wow. His resume includes episodes of Dr. Kildare, Lost in Space, I Spy, Star Trek, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, Bonanza, Mannix, Little House on the Prairie, The Bionic Woman, Kojak, Mrs. Columbo, and Columbo.
Speaker: Okay. Really? I'll have to look up those Columbo's. Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea. i should find out which Columbo that was. Well, I don't want to scroll through IMDb right now. Listeners, you look it up. I bet you'll be really fascinated when you find out.
Speaker: Yeah. So in the midst of his 30 plus years of directing, he was offered the job of directing a little mini series called The Dark Secret of Harvest Home for nbc It was an adaptation of a folk horror novel called Harvest Home that was written by Tom Tryon five years earlier.
Speaker: Anybody read Harvest Home? I have not. No. Dying to. Stephen King said that it was like a solid book. He's like, this is a real, this is a fine book to read. Okay.
Speaker: Well, his quote was more complicated, but that was, it seemed to be, I didn't quite follow it. Uh, now it might not be a coincidence that, uh, the same year, uh, the very similar folk horror classic film, uh, the wicker man came out, you know? yeah So maybe he saw the wicker man. He's like, what if I did an American wicker man? That'd be a cool book.
Speaker: That would make a lot of sense. Yeah. One fan of harvest home was apparently Betty Davis, who said in 1977 interview that she had wanted to play widow fortune since she'd read it.
Speaker: Wow. Okay. and So that's how they got Betty Davis on the job. That and Betty Davis just like to work. Good for her. Yeah. Audiences responded well.
Speaker: On its Monday, January 23rd premiere, it got roughly 18.9 million viewers. Okay. And when part two aired the next day, that number went up to 19 million.
Speaker: Wow. So it must have gotten some good buzz around the water cooler.
Speaker: So what else could Fright fans go and see? I didn't look up other miniseries, but I got horror movies of 1978. Sure. You could go see Dawn of the Dead.
Speaker: Okay, that's a good one. Yeah, yeah, we all love Dawn of the Dead. You got Halloween, the classic. oh That's another good one. Yeah, I mean, the the foundation.
Speaker: Yeah. ah You got the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Donald Sutherland one. Oh, love that. Yeah, yeah, classic. Love the vibe.
Speaker: yeah ah Martin, George Romero's Martin. Busy year for George Romero, apparently. okay Greg, you're a vampire fan. You seen Martin? I haven't. I should, but I have not.
Speaker: Well, yeah, that's I hear it's good. You got I Spit on Your Grave. okay Oh, yeah. Our mom liked that. i Your mom liked I Spit on Your Grape. yeah Yeah, I've never seen it. Same. it's ok I don't recommend it. I've not i've not seen it. I i ah have not really been that intrigued.
Speaker: Yeah, rape revenge is, yeah it's a tough genre to recommend. I do recommend the trailer where the ah the voiceover guy does enunciate the title, I spit on your grave. That's pretty good. Making sure you know who's who in this situation. I'm the spitter. And who's doing the spitting, yes.
Speaker: yeah ah You also got Piranha out this year. Check out our episode about Piranha 3D if you're a piranha head. Very fun movie.
Speaker: ah You got the Toolbox Murders. Never seen it. And you got a Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Okay. Always fun. my gosh. Great year for horror. Yeah. Right?
Speaker: Yeah. Wow. Impressive. Well, do you guys want to talk about the plot of this movie? Because we got a lot of it to talk about. Yeah, let's let's get it going. Oh, we did, yeah. yeah yeah Let's start shucking that corn. Bring it on.
Speaker: I hate to say it, but buckle up, listeners.
Speaker: Plot bumper, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the plot summary. Come on, baby. Here's the synopsis.
Speaker: Plot bumper, plot bumper.
Speaker: All right, so obviously I'm to have to skip over a lot of detail in this. If there are any special details you want to call out, anything that you feel is worth mentioning, please holler at me. But otherwise, I'm going to keep this train rolling. Yeah, let's go. Let's go.
Speaker: All right, so we get our opening credits over a kaleidoscope footage of Betty Davis standing in front of a stained glass window before entering into our first chapter. Chapter one, Plowing Day. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: We get our first glimpses ah glimpses of Cornwall Coombe, Connecticut, a rural farming community with old-fashioned ways informally led by the widow fortune as played by Betty Davis. Love Betty Davis in this movie. Let's talk Betty Davis for a second. yeah She knows what she's doing.
Speaker: Pretty great. Yeah. I feel like ahley the accent kind of, I think the sound quality of the poor transfer plus the accent really, I found alarming at first, but then i eased into it. Yeah. She's awesome.
Speaker: She like really, ah yeah, she did a great job. And she has a really iconic look in here, too. Yes. feel like just with her like little white wimple and her like Harry Potter glasses, you know. It's also nice. Mm hmm.
Speaker: She she's always in the same outfit. So it's like she's more of a character than everyone else in a way, because it's like she's always going to look like that. She's kind of frozen in time in a way. hmm. But she's also sort of.
Speaker: in that In that same way, she's also like the least backward of her community. Like she clearly is the smartest person in town. right Yeah. And yeah, she's she's fantastic. And I love the setting of Cornwall, Coombe, Connecticut. Three of the people on the call are from Connecticut. Yeah. We knew you'd like that. Yes, I do love the finest of the 50. Shout out to Connecticut. Yeah. Uh, and this does sort of like, we grew up along the sort of Metro North corridor where was all just like commuter towns to New York. And that was sort of the culture. But if you headed, you know, 15 miles in any direction, you could hit towns that had this sort of vibe. And I never went there cause there was no reason to, but I knew that they were out there.
Speaker: Uh, yeah. And yeah, and I think when I saw the zip code of the post office in this, I looked it up and they were that would have put this out on ah the east side out in Swamp Yankee territory near the Rhode Island border. Swamp Yankee. All right. nice What's the Swamp Yankee?
Speaker: Swamp Yankee are like rural Connecticut people. They tend to live on Hilljacks, et cetera. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever your state calls rural people, Swamp Yankee is what Connecticut calls those people. Okay.
Speaker: oh Getting some jargon. It's nice. Yeah. Yeah. Never heard it used. Only ever read that online. Once again, we know. No, actually, I heard one guy in class when he went to college. was like, oh, there's another guy from Connecticut here. You probably think I'm a swamp Yankee. And I was like, John Hamm in The Mean was like, I don't think about you at all.
Speaker: You know? Well, anyway, anyway. We also meet a Manhattan family of three, the Constantines. The father is Nick, a frustrated artist turned ad man. The mother, Beth, a neurotic addicted to therapy. This is a very 70s take on therapy. It's a very weird, fun touch. It's also great a great moment to put a lot of exposition in.
Speaker: Yes. Cover a lot of ground therapy. Very quickly. Very quickly. And they also have daughter Kate, an asthmatic who is also neurotic and played by Rosanna Arquette, the other person you might recognize from this. It took a while for me to realize that. Like I kept looking it. like, she seems vaguely familiar to me somehow. And then I remembered Rosanna Arquette and then it all clicked. And I was like, this is crazy.
Speaker: Yeah. She does look very much like a 15 year old Rosanna Arquette. Yeah.
Speaker: So one night after coming home drunk and unsuccessfully putting the moves on Beth, Nick admits that he quit his job to pursue art full time. Uh, the two of them argue about it, which stresses out Kate enough to trigger an asthma attack. Then they get a phone call.
Speaker: Beth's father is dead.
Speaker: The good news is he left a sizable chunk of cash to them. and One of the first things they buy is a fancy new station wagon that they bought like a luxury station wagon. Yeah. It's like something out of a fairy tale.
Speaker: And they drive it out to Connecticut and to drive through the countryside. And they get a flat tire right by an old covered bridge that leads straight to Cornwall Coombe. Chapter two, planting day.
Speaker: There are 11 chapters total. Okay. ah
Speaker: Once Nick replaces the tire, the Constantine's drive over the bridge to check out Cornwall Coombe. They find an idyllic farming community, friendly but set in their ways. Nick takes tons of photos inspired by the town's simple beauty.
Speaker: They find a beautiful brick two story house that has fallen into disrepair and ask the blind man named Roger Robert, who lives across the street with his beautiful wife. If they know if that house is for sale, they say, to I would like to say that they just, they just, they just walk into that house.
Speaker: They don't even think twice about it. They're like, let's just check it out real fast. It's like, that's yeah you're just in a town and that's just a house. This is an interesting choice. This is how horror movies begin.
Speaker: i think I think if our resolution was better on this, it would be more clear that the house had fallen into disrepair. Okay, that might be true. That might be true. okay ok That makes sense. That makes sense.
Speaker: Yeah, the only sign that I saw was like overgrown bushes on the outside. Yeah, I guess it was pretty dusty in there. Yeah, and once they were on the inside, it was pretty clear that yeah no one lived there.
Speaker: yeah But anyway, the the blind guy and his hot wife, they say that the house is probably not for sale. ah But they agree to pass on Nick's contact information to the owner.
Speaker: Later, Nick develops photos, the photos that he took, and realizes that the same old woman dressed in black is lurking in the background of all the photos. It's the widow fortune. That's suspicious. Yeah, let's go that's kind of creepy. That was kind of a nice spooky moment. That was a good touch. I loved it.
Speaker: I thought it was weird that Nick had a dark room in his house. He's an artist. Yeah, I guess maybe he set it up in their bathroom. don't ah
Speaker: Anyway, he points that out to Beth and just then they get a phone call. It's Maggie from town, the the hot wife. And she says that the homeowner is willing to sell. When they get out there, it turns out that the owner is the widow fortune and she's willing to sell them the two story fixer upper for $30,000, which is about $160,000 in today's money.
Speaker: Not bad for Connecticut. No. For a fixer upper, brick. Absolutely. All day. ah They hash out the details and the widow shows them around town and tells them about their old timey ways. And the Constantines are on board. And Nick has even started work on a coffee table book of sketches of rural Connecticut life. I'll be honest. I'd buy that coffee table book. That sounds nice.
Speaker: I don't, I don't, I don't know that I would necessarily. Well, I mean, if it was the right price. Sure. That's fair. I'd buy it used. The sketches really grabbed me, you know.
Speaker: Yeah. And the sketches that they had in this film were not bad. hu they're fine. Yeah, they're pretty good. Yeah, I thought they were nice. um So ah they move in and they start repairing the place and the country air starts doing wonders for Kate's asthma. Everything's coming up constant. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah I still feel like it's a weird move to move to this small community that has no electricity and everything. And just like, yeah, it's just what we Do they have electricity? They have electricity. The dude across the street is a record player. Right, right. But I mean, like.
Speaker: I had that vibe, though. It feels like you've got to know. You're like, like what are they? It feels closer to Mennonite than to Amish. But it's just weird. It's like we came from the city and now we live in this kind of rural farming community.
Speaker: It's like, that's a strong move. Very strong move. Well, you know, city folk, they fantasize about that kind of stuff all the time. Especially back then and when the city was so nasty in the night. Like, I'm sure getting out there would help that gal's asthma. That's fair. Yeah. yeah yes ah So ah Kate befriends a local boy named Worthy who dreams of leaving the Coom. And I love the way they all say Coom.
Speaker: Coom. Yeah, Coom. Call it all Coom. I love the the musicality of this deep New England accent. I'm sure it's all like fake as hell, but I love it.
Speaker: um Let's see.
Speaker: ah Even Beth and Nick, whose marriage had been rocky, began to sort of rekindle their old flame a little bit. Nick starts exploring the town to gather inspiration for his coffee table book.
Speaker: Meets an old church bell ringer named Amos, a horny and sexual post mistress named Tamar and a friendly hobo named Jack.
Speaker: You can guess which one of these was my favorite character. Uh,
Speaker: ah Jack was played by René Auberginois. It's worth mentioning. The guy that played Odo on Deep Space Nine. It's interesting see him do this. Really interesting to see him be this guy.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. He's a good actor. Oh, yeah. You know. He also learns that there's only one person buried outside the cemetery. Her name is Gracie Everdeen.
Speaker: She was buried on unhallowed ground because she died by her own hands. yeah She's going to become a very complicated B-plot that I did not follow at all. some of Some of the plot elements of this are a bit tricky to track.
Speaker: And once again, maybe a cleaner copy would help. Maybe. It would help me lock in but And once again, maybe this two-hour, 20-minute cut would also help me focus up.
Speaker: ah Chapter three, Agnes fair. There's a carnival. There's contests. And during one of them, worthy takes a fall that hurts his shoulder.
Speaker: And Kate sees that. And it freaks her out so bad that she has an asthma attack. The widow of fortune treats her before Nick can grab Kate's inhaler, emasculating him.
Speaker: Chapter four. Yeah. I also love that they cut away from this. like I gotta get the inhaler. When he comes back, she's like, I'm just breathing just fine. It's like, what did she do? She's giving her like a shoulder rub. Yeah, yeah. yeah yeah It's like, after the past, like, you're fine now. It's like, what did she what was her magic? How did she do it? but Rub some dirt on it. It's fine.
Speaker: Chapter four, choosing the young lord. A little girl smears some lamb's blood on Worthy's face, appointing him the new young lord. This I could see being one of the moments that you catch as a child and being like, ugh.
Speaker: Yeah. Right. ah Everyone is very excited for Worthy, but Worthy is not. he's and that He's pretty pissed. No, he doesn't want to be the young lord. He wants to be Worthy.
Speaker: That night, ah Nick is ah wound up about the weird day he's had watching a little girl smear blood on a guy's face. He tries to spend the evening with Beth getting drunk in a canoe, but she tells him she wants another baby.
Speaker: And then the two of them have a fight about it. yeah Chapter five. I'm so sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to mention that we noticed that the the little girl with the blood smearing... ah later in later years portrayed the the middle child of of the show Growing Pains. Tracy Gold. She recognized her right away even though she was blurry. That's crazy. blur She's great in this. She's just always like deeply upset, like kind of like really just like angry, just like, what is this? What is this to everything? It's fantastic. One of my favorite characters in the whole thing. Yeah.
Speaker: Understandable. Yeah. Yeah. I hadn't locked in on her enough. Anytime. Like I said, this is, I just sort of let it wash over. yeah Sure. Sure. I mean, it's very vibey. Yeah.
Speaker: Now, uh, chapter five, the days of seasoning. Hmm. After church, Nick bellies up to the bar with some menfolk. He asks if they know anything about Gracie Everdeen, and they all give him the silent treatment.
Speaker: Then some moonshiners beat up Jack the Hobo for looking at a ghost in their woods. There's a ghost going on in here. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Looking at the ghost.
Speaker: How dare he? You ain't supposed to be in them woods looking at them ghosts. No, they should be New England moonshiners. I'm sorry. You ain't supposed to be in them woods looking at that ghost. Yeah.
Speaker: ah So Worthy talks to Kate about how he wants to leave the Qum instead of being the Harvest Lord. And Kate tells him that being the Harvest Lord is a great honor, even if it effectively makes him a prisoner.
Speaker: And at this point, we can tell that Kate's gone native. She's bought into this Qum lifestyle.
Speaker: So Nick goes to a nearby town to get some roofing tiles. And he talks to the lady there about Gracie Everdeen, who just coincidentally happens to know her. And we get some more Gracie at at any time. Like you see Nick talking to someone, imagine he's like, what I heard about Gracie Everdeen is this. And then the person he's talking to says, no, it's not like that. It's like this. And then he goes and he talks to the next person. He's like, well, I heard it was like that. and they're like, no, no, no, it's not like that. It's like this other thing. This is that iterations of that over and over.
Speaker: okay Then he sees a ghost in the moonshiners wood and it freaks him out He goes home and he talks about how weird everything in town is, especially the whole Gracie Everdeen situation.
Speaker: Beth says that he should not write about it in his book and he should just try to fit in. Just go along to get a along. So she's now into what they're doing. She's turning. Yep.
Speaker: For sure. e Nick, though, doesn't care about what his wife thinks or says. And he continues his investigation. He soon goes back to the woods where he ran into the bootleggers, and there he finds a human skull.
Speaker: It's big. Yes, it's apparently big. I didn't clock that at the time. I thought it was weird, and then when I found out facts later, I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker: Oh, could it? Okay. We don't want to spoil anything, but... I mean, we're it's all getting spoiled sooner or later. And if this helps me tie something together. Excellent point. point.
Speaker: Toby made the connection just now. Oh, just that. and Yeah, i didn't I also did not understand that it was a an above average sized skull. yeah and But yeah, it was meant to be ah Gracie Everdeen's skull.
Speaker: because she has gigantism which is for some reason something I don't I don't know how or why that's in this plot but she does really grow larger she does grow larger yeah I feel like that this thread went off the rails it really does yeah really hard to track yeah Specifically, and it's just there as like MacGuffin to get him to like explore the town.
Speaker: And I, I'm not sure how it ties back into all the corn shit, but anyway, um, yeah. Uh, he finds a human skull. He calls the local constable and the constable tells him to stop sticking his nose into stuff.
Speaker: Then he goes and he talks to the Widow Fortune about it. She says the exact same thing before wandering off into the woods. End part one. Roll credits. ah
Speaker: We're getting there, everybody. That's right. Oh, we're doing great. You're really good. yeah Actually, you're doing a commendable job. Yeah, I'm surprised. I'm slam dunking this one. So ah part two starts with no previously on and no chapter name.
Speaker: They don't cut us any slack on that front. No. We just get the exact same kaleidoscope credits from episode one. Things were different in 1978. I tell you what. Sure were, man.
Speaker: And, you know, 100,000 people tuned in for this that didn't see part one. It's just crazy. Yeah, that's, what did they think? Yeah. Did they watch the whole thing? wonder if that number is for watching the whole thing or just like, if you watch it for like five minutes, that counts.
Speaker: Who knows? So Nick drives to a nearby farm to drop off a portrait he drew of the lady of the house, Sophie. The man of the house is Justin, a friendly local farmer and a current reigning harvest lord.
Speaker: So let's take a moment here. So they pick a young lord. Yes. And at that point, the person who used to be the young lord becomes the harvest lord, correct?
Speaker: Or at some point shortly before. I have no idea. That's how I was reading, and I guess. I was a little lost. At some point, the young lord becomes the harvest lord. And I don't know if it's a period of seven or 14 years or how No, the harvest lord is for seven years. Right.
Speaker: And in the seven years, everybody goes and works on his farm. They're all like, they do whatever you want. I thought that was the young lord. That might be the young lord. i think God damn it.
Speaker: the The details of this gets squidgy, I don't fully understand why plot-wise they do that, but it seems like you're a young lord for seven years, everybody helps you, and then they pick another young lord and you become the Harvest Lord. that's my That makes a lot of sense. Based on the concept of like rituals and the passing of cycles and things, that seems to be the way to read it.
Speaker: But based on what happens to the Harvest Lord, it seems like that didn't happen, because I feel like Justin was Harvest Lord... 14 years ago, not seven years ago, but that really lost me a little bit.
Speaker: So let's not dwell too much on that. We also wanted to mention, uh, the, uh, the character, the Justin hook character was played by another favorite, uh, actor of ours.
Speaker: It's dude, uh, John Calvin. who had a bit part in another favorite movie, Back to the Beach, from the 80s. Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon. Oh, all right. sure Oh, now that would be an excellent movie to bring here. Anyway, yeah maybe another time, but...
Speaker: No, he's got a beach build. He's a big dude. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah and his part in this movie's great. Yeah, it just plays a total sleaze, tries to get Annette Funicello drunk. Oh, nice. seeds Maybe, but he doesn't. He's trying to... They don't bang. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker: Thank goodness. sam Family movie. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Speaker: Thank goodness. Yeah. That'd be weird to have a Frankie and Annette movie where they show full penetration. Wow.
Speaker: ah So ah Sophie asked for a portrait of Justin and Nick asked for more information about Gracie Everdeen. And they're like, oh, Gracie Everdeen? It's not like this. It's like that. he's like, oh, okay.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. ah That night at home, Beth pours them both a glass of mead from a bottle given to them by the widow fortune.
Speaker: Perfectly normal. Yep. at It instantly makes them both very drunk and very horny. ah Beth goes inside to slip into something more comfortable. And while Nick grabs their glasses, he sees a man and a woman dancing in the corn wearing only capes.
Speaker: Nick and Beth then go make love yeah so i love. one thing I love about the scene is like he takes a drink and as soon as he takes a drink it's like... bomb but do um but umbo like You just hear drums and you see like some visions and then it kind of goes away and you're like, okay, that was weird.
Speaker: and then he like pours himself some more meat and he takes another drink it's like boom bubble bla bu boom boom and and it's just like so it's like it's really fast acting and also has like a very short time frame in which it acts unless you consume a lot of it I guess but I like that it went away and then came back which is not something you typically see in a ah I've drugged myself with a drink scene so that was interesting that was an interesting move and is it important to mention that he was having trouble in the bedroom for this drink.
Speaker: Yes. i think I think that is important to mention. yeah note that we took The note that we took down says Nick Constantine could not get it up to save his life.
Speaker: No, that's fair. He's doing much better now. He's psyched. yeah ah And yeah, they they reconnect physically. You love to see that in a married couple. Good for them.
Speaker: And then that night, in the middle of the night, he wakes up and he sees a scarecrow. the next day, Nick is happy because he's finished his manuscript. And also, I guess he's probably happy because he made love to his wife. And ah he did put all the witch stuff that he saw in there at Agnes Fair, despite Beth's protests.
Speaker: He brings the post the package over to Postmistress Tamar's house for some reason, where her spooky daughter traps him in a cat's cradle. It's great. Tamar. Yeah.
Speaker: Great moment. The part is so odd. But, you know, foreshadowing of him being trapped, you know. and of course, Tracy Gold is just ah ah terrified the entire time and just screaming.
Speaker: Yeah. ah Tamar tells her to go and grab a chicken that they can kill for dinner and then invites him in to cut him loose. And then she starts talking about how beautiful his hands are. And then he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. whoa She's also like on the floor in between his legs staring at him. She's pouring a drink um down by his knees. Amazing yeah move. Yeah. No, yeah. yeah Very strong.
Speaker: It makes a statement. Yeah. Well, she doesn't take the rejection well. Obviously, she was very vulnerable in that position. So in response, she kicks him out just in time to see her daughter toss a chicken into the street in the path of Kate's approaching horse.
Speaker: The horse bucks, tossing Kate, which triggers an asthma attack. Nick rushes Kate home. They call a doctor, but he can't help, and Kate dies, lying on their couch.
Speaker: Very shocking stuff. Yeah, yeah, real surprise. But then the widow Fortune breaks in and gives her an emergency pocket knife tracheotomy. You love to see a pocket knife tracheotomy in a movie.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. ah The pocket knife tracheotomy saves her life. ah Seeing this makes Nick feel absolutely fucking insane.
Speaker: After this, Kate gets plenty of bed rest. She and Worthy end up fighting when Worthy says he'd rather run away from the coom than be the young lord. ah Worthy goes to grab the cash he's been saving up, but then he finds out that his mother stole it because she knew he was planning to go against the ways.
Speaker: People say this a lot. They're just like, you bet that's against the ways. Yeah. The ways. Yeah. They're big on the ways in Cornwall. Say it a lot. They say they talk about the ways a lot the coom.
Speaker: They sure do. good Thank you. They should have called this movie The Ways. More memorable. yeah Yeah. yeah And that also could have been the title of his coffee table book.
Speaker: It all would tie together. Oh, well. New coffee table book. Yeah. That you write. Time for me to go start illustrating rural Connecticut. You said a mouthful, and I think you're absolutely right.
Speaker: God, you're... Chapter 6, Tithing Day. yes Worthy tells Nick that he's going to run away and join the Navy. And Nick gives him $70. Boom.
Speaker: boof He then takes his wife and daughter to church where every household gives the widow fortune two ears of corn. For a tithe. Yeah. My favorite move a tithe. was like, yep, hard corn. You know, it's symbolic. Oh, it's absolutely symbolic.
Speaker: But she does end up with a lot of corn, too, which isn't bad. You know, she's an old lady. She can't grow corn anymore herself.
Speaker: Worthy busts in and says, God bless the corn and God damn the mother. And everyone's very upset. He blesses the corn. Yeah. God cursed. the Oh, God cursed the corn. OK. Yeah. i Once again, hard to hear.
Speaker: ah
Speaker: Chapter seven, sheaving tide. the town discusses how they're going to use, uh, they're going to need a new young Lord as they cut down some corn stocks.
Speaker: Nick asks around about this mother that Worthy mentioned and nobody gives him a straight answer. So now this dipshit detectives on the case of who is this other woman then? Who's the mother? Can't figure out Gracie Everdeen. Who is mother? I also love that everyone's like, did you not figure it out? Did you not figure it out yet?
Speaker: so was like, I don't have any idea. I don't have any possible idea what they could be talking about. Though I did eventually figure it out. Yeah, it's it's not that tricky. No.
Speaker: but So Nick, he goes to my visit with Jack the Hobo, only to learn that someone has cut out his tongue. Very freaky. Yeah. Ooh. So bad. It's awful.
Speaker: He's also illiterate, so he can't explain how it happened either. And he also seems pretty shell-shocked by the whole affair, understandably. Luckily, the widow fortune has been showing up and she explains that she's been taking care of him.
Speaker: So he's doing all right.
Speaker: Could be worse. That night, Beth tells Nick that she's pregnant, and he realizes that it must have happened the night that they drank the widow's mead.
Speaker: The next day, the town chooses a new young lord. He's some other guy. Yep.
Speaker: Nick gets a letter from Worthy saying that he's holding up in Hartford. And also, Nick thinks someone at the post office is reading his mail. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Inappropriate. Definitely a federal offense, as I understand it. Chapter 8, The Husking Bee. i love The Husking Bee.
Speaker: Yeah, it sounds like a good old-fashioned get-together. Mm-hmm. There's another festival in Cornwall Coombe. It's the Cornhusking Bee.
Speaker: There's lots of corn husking, of course. But there's also square dancing. yeah And ar rousing sing-along of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. This is the fifth movie. i was just going to say, this is getting kind of... I love this. I love this as a trend.
Speaker: come on This is the fifth time we've covered a movie and ah it has featured the song Row, Row, Row Your Boat. The other four were... Let me think. Manos, The Hands of Fate. Troll 2.
Speaker: Troll 2. Dante's Peak. Star Trek V, The Final Frontier. And now we can add Myth of Cornwall Coombe to the list that's roughly one 24 ah want to say. Wow. Crazy.
Speaker: yep Yeah.
Speaker: Meanwhile, the town constable is located worthy very quickly. Yeah. ah And he's in his shitty Hartford apartment. If I remember right, they never say what happened to Worthy, and he never appears again.
Speaker: He does. Oh, yeah. nobody pick that up? I missed that. We saw his corpse. Yeah, and you see burning the corpse in the fire later. Oh, okay, I missed it.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. R.I.P. Worthy. Yeah. he sleeps He sleeps with the comm.
Speaker: Chapter 9. Corn play. I just have after this just written yes all in caps with two exclamation points.
Speaker: I love the corn play. No, it's understandable. Yeah, there is a great corn play. ah It's the conclusion of the husking bee and clearly the high point. It's sort of a Christmas pageant, but about their mystical relationship with corn and the harvest lord. Explains a lot of harvest lore.
Speaker: Harvest lord lore. Harvest lord heads lock in for corn play. You're going to love it.
Speaker: You learn all about the corn maiden. there are a bunch of little kids dressed as corn. It's narrated by the blind neighbor, Robert. Always great to see Robert.
Speaker: I also realized I did afterward also write perfect 10 out of 10. So again, i I love the corn play. loved it. Nice. Good. I mean, great folk horror stuff. Oh yeah. It's perfect.
Speaker: So Nick eventually gets wasted on corn liquor. And passes out. When he wakes up, he sees his daughter seductively dancing for the young lord.
Speaker: She will be the new corn maiden, perhaps. Who can say? ah He leaps up and slaps her for her lascivious dancing. And so all the men grab him and drag him outside and pelt him with rocks and stones until he passes out.
Speaker: It's corn. They're throwing corn at them. Oh, it's corn? Yeah, they're throwing corn cobs at them. We thought they were rocks. Yeah, we could not figure that out. Yeah, it's corn. Okay, corn is much better. also Because those were big rocks. yeah forgot I forgot about this. During the husking bee, someone is very excited because they found the neck. I got the one with the neck. And I was immediately i immediately like, neck of corn. I got no results. I have no idea what they're talking about. It's very corn-based movie that really loses me. couldn't tell.
Speaker: Yeah, it looked like when you um husk an ear of corn and the top bit is like missing. Have you ever gotten? Where there's like no corn on it. It's all like shrug.
Speaker: Yeah. I'm not sure if that's what the neck is because it doesn't seem like a thing you would be excited about. No. Yeah. But they're a weird town. they They get excited about weird stuff. They like what they like.
Speaker: You're right. It takes all types to make a world. ah Let's see. Let's see. Yeah. They pelt him with corn cobs, turns out. ah When he wakes up, he stumbles into a nearby stream where he runs into Tamar, the horny postmistress, who smears herself with mud and tries to make out with him again. yeah.
Speaker: Successfully. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. they He does indeed get to first, but then he freaks out and runs away. Yeah. and
Speaker: The next day he apologizes to his wife and daughter before doing some more investigating into Grace Everdeen. And no one can agree if she drowned or cracked her head, if she was short or if she had gigantism, if she was buried in her grave or if Amos the bell ringer has been keeping her coffin in a tunnel.
Speaker: And at this point I was kind of really over the Gracie Everdeen stuff. i was I was clocked out when Gracie Everdeen thread was followed. couldn't believe how many times her name was mentioned. yeah Yes, any time i heard her.
Speaker: Yeah, full name every time. Full name, yeah yep. Gracie Everdeen. What was coffin, by the way? did some corn. Did anyone make that out? Just some corn. Corn? Yeah, just like just a few ears of corn, yep.
Speaker: I couldn't tell. It was very blurry. think that's what it was. I thought it was just entirely empty, but maybe there was corn. I think there were like two ears of corn in there. There was not a dead body. That much I know. it was empty. Right, right. And it was also just like, this is too small. She was supposed to be a big girl.
Speaker: He also finds out that his wife isn't actually pregnant and that it must be a hysterical pregnancy. That's not a thing. That's not like an actual thing that happens, right? I think not very often.
Speaker: Okay. ah I wouldn't be surprised. The brain can do a lot of crazy things. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. And especially if she's only like, thinks she's like two, three months long. That's fair. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Because it turns out that she's sterile or something like he, like the doctors, he's sterile. Oh, okay. damn But she's like, um, she's a little, maybe on the cusp of being a little too mature to have a child. So, okay.
Speaker: I just love that he's like talking to a doctor. He's like, it's a bit unethical, but I will tell you their information. It's like, okay. He's like, look at these x-rays. I kept them on hand. It's like, okay, sure.
Speaker: I like the part where he finds out that he's sterile. And so he's like, well, then my wife can be pregnant. Right, right. Perfect.
Speaker: Guess what, baby? That's a hysterical pregnancy. You look like an idiot. Yeah.
Speaker: Chapter 10, Kindling Night. Nick tells Beth she's not actually pregnant and accuses the widow fortune of cutting out Jack's tongue and killing Gracie Everdeen.
Speaker: In response, she declares him bane. townsfolk grab him and they toss him in a locked room in the basement of the post office. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: His neighbor Maggie, the blind man's wife, brings him some food and tells him that all the womenfolk went out to the woods for their secret ritual. and he's like, we got to get out of here. You got to help me and grab your husband and my wife and daughter. And she's like, you forget?
Speaker: I was born in the pool. Oh, I know. Dun, dun, dun. I didn't forget because that was literally the only other thing she ever said about herself. That was the the only other scene she was in. She like, i was actually born in the pool. was like, okay, she was born. Yeah, true.
Speaker: There's one thing I knew about Maggie is that she was born in the cool.
Speaker: ah Meanwhile, Justin's wife, Sophie, has killed herself for reasons that are unclear. ye ah In any case, Justin is going to need a new corn maiden.
Speaker: So the ladies agree to take a vote and see who it will be. Nick, left to his own devices, finds a secret tunnel in the floor of his post office prison cell.
Speaker: Chapter 11. Harvest Home. And everybody's pointing at the screen. Let's go. Yeah, we're going to find out dark secret. It's time for the dark secret.
Speaker: We made it. The widow fortune leads a church service where she distributes hoes and white dresses to all the women. Literal like the farming implement hoes. Yeah. just yeah Nick emerges from the tunnel into the church, climbs a ladder up to the church bell tower, then climbs a rope down to the outside of the bell tower for absolutely no reason. He could have just walked out the door. I don't understand why that happened I liked his approach, though. I liked what he did.
Speaker: I mean, he kept himself busy, I guess. Yeah. um ah but but but bu but He runs home only to learn that his phone is dead.
Speaker: Then he runs across the street to blind Roger's house to let him know that the whole town is freaky. okay Roger says he knows that the town is freaky because he was blinded as punishment for investigating.
Speaker: Yeah. And Nick's like, well, I better figure out what the fuck's going on then. I like that he's like, don't do it. He's like, I'm still going to do it. It's like, all right, that's fine. Dude, i look at my white eyes. Or what was that? Was it white skin? It was tough to tell. he Whatever happened, they fucked him up.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I would listen to him. Yeah. I don't want that to happen. How about I just don't investigate and I leave tomorrow? Yeah.
Speaker: Right. Okay.
Speaker: So Nick runs out into the woods to find all the ladies chanting as Justin makes love to his new corn maiden, who turns out to be Beth. Nick is being cuckolded in the woods in front of all the town's women.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. This enrages Nick, ah and he's soon captured, and the widow fortune forces him to watch as Beth fucks and then kills Justin.
Speaker: Yep. So great climax to the movie. It is But what I like is everyone's like, we don't know what happens out there. It's like, so if I have this straight, we pick a young Lord and then seven to 14 years later, he's the harvest Lord.
Speaker: And then there's a night where nobody knows what happens. But the next day, the harvest Lord is gone. And nine months later, the corn maiden gives birth to a baby. I would think people would be able to put together pretty clearly what happens out there in the woods. Right.
Speaker: Well, yeah, but, you know, they don't talk about it. You know, no one's allowed to talk about But I love that everyone everyone's like, we don't know. We don't know. we don't know Nick or whatever the main character's name is. We don't know. And it's like, it seems really easy to deduce.
Speaker: Yeah. that's We were deeply into the chant. that Oh, yes. Yes. Come on, give it. Yeah, that was pretty good. And yeah, I liked when ah the widow fortune yelled out. Hang on. Let me grab my notes. I want to get it right.
Speaker: You wanted to see, didn't you? o Guess what? It's somebody fucking your wife.
Speaker: Got his ass. ah Nick makes a break for it. And then ah we cut away to several months later. The widow fortune visits a very pregnant Beth and a very happy Kate.
Speaker: Beth is going out for a picnic. And so she says goodbye to Nick who has been blinded and has had his tongue cut out the end. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: he is He is also listening to like an audio book of like a classic, like throughout the whole movie, Robert or Roger, whatever his name is, is listening to The Great Expectations. i don't know what Nick is listening to, but I love that when I looked at the credits ahead of time, it's like, Donald Pleasence is the voice of the narrator. It's like, okay, cool. And then it turns out that that's a narrator within the world who is narrating a book that he reads to certain characters. And was like, that that's an interesting take on the role of narrator, which is something I feel like you'd never say in a film.
Speaker: But he also crushes it. Oh, he does. And that's, is is he a three-timer now? ah Yeah, yeah. For, what have we got? Watch Out, We're Mad. And...
Speaker: ah but the Chillers and Thrillers. Oh, Compilation. Terror in the Isles. Yes, yeah. Fright films. Yes.
Speaker: Final thoughts. Five-star ratings. Where do people land on the dark secret of Harvest Home? Greg, kick us off. Yeah. So this is a really difficult one for me to rate on our unique weirdness and watchability scale as far as watchability goes. Because...
Speaker: it feels like it's probably too long. It's three hours and 47 minutes or whatever. It's probably too long, but it's also a television miniseries. So it can't realistically be much shorter because that's just how they work.
Speaker: I also feel like it should probably be more creepy and maybe a little more sexual and maybe a little more gory. But again, It's a made-for-TV movie that came out in 1978. I also feel like it is doing what a lot of other folk horror movies have done. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy myself, but what I'm saying is in its current form.
Speaker: Well, I would rate it with a watchability of like, say like a three or maybe a three and a half, it becomes difficult to recommend yeah to the average watcher because it's like, this feels more like a, I've seen a lot of folk horror. I want something interesting now or a forgotten gem, or you're interested in like television curios. It gets weird that this was on TV in all honesty, because it is like very sexual. pretty dark. I'm sure at the time, like ah it makes sense that your mother was into this movie and that it left an impression because like to watch this on TV is a really shocking way, a really shocking context to see this kind of story and imagery. But it is also like if you've not seen the Wicker Man or the witch, you should definitely watch those movies before you watch this movie.
Speaker: um Yeah. If you like bad movies, there's probably other bad movies you could watch that are a little more entertaining than this one. So it's just like this is for people, but you you know if you are that person or not, I guess. And you're probably going into it yeah and you're going to appreciate it no matter if you like it or not because you're not there necessarily to be entertained, but you're there to be like kind of informed and to experience something that people experienced in 1978, if that sense. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: if that makes sense um Yeah. It's pretty weird. I would say it's weirdness goes down. So I'm going to do watchability. We'll say three. It's weirdness goes down in that it's within the context of other folk horror. Like if you've seen the Wicker Man, you kind of know how weird this movie is already. It's as weird as the Wicker Man, but maybe a little weirder because it's on TV. So they're not, they can't be as explicit. And it's also a little confused at times. So maybe it's a little, but it's like, again, it's a hard one for me to rate. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Weirdness wise, I'm going to say like it's weird that it was on TV. going to say two and a half. I think it's a little less within the context of like folk horror. ah But if you've never seen anything like this, it's probably going to be pretty weird for you. But again, if you've never seen anything like this, I would I would highly suggest The Wicker Man.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. This is it did sits in an odd place because it's something that's more interesting to watch as a scholar than as an audience. Exactly. Exactly. Anthropological watching is what I typically call it.
Speaker: And it's like that. Yeah. It's it's a great example of that. But as far as entertainment goes, it's it's a hard one to evaluate. Yeah. Yeah. I gave it a watchability of two.
Speaker: ah It's a bit of a time commitment, if I'm being honest. And all the Gracie Everdeen stuff just felt like spinning my wheels. I still don't understand why she had to be a giant or whatever that was about. No, I don't understand anything that happened with Gracie Everdeen. I have no idea.
Speaker: ah so And also the copy that I saw was degraded to the point where it was like a genuine problem in terms of watching it. That said, there is plenty of decent folk horror in here. And with some fun 70s details, you know, I liked the the station wagon with the big radiator grill on the front. I liked the therapist scenes that were like written from the point of view of someone who doesn't believe in therapy. You know, and i thought that was all kind of fun stuff. And I think...
Speaker: if you know somebody found a restored edition of this i'd be like okay then then it's worth checking out then i would say you could sit down and watch this as like a two night experience and have fun with it for weirdness i'm gonna give it three stars uh the two-part miniseries is a weird format uh you know we don't really have a good analog for that with our modern yeah viewing ecosystem you know so i don't really know how to watch it um And it ends up feeling like someone trying to tell you an amusing anecdote, but they keep on getting distracted by unnecessary details. So by the time they get to the end, you forgot why they were telling you the story in the first place. It has that kind of vibe.
Speaker: Angela and Toby, in terms of watchability and weirdness, collectively or individually, however you feel, where did you land on this one? Let's do it together. Yeah, we're going to do it together.
Speaker: I mean, you know, on the one hand... It's a real piece. Let's be honest. It's it yeah not. No Citizen Kane. But I think for me, I feel like ah that we watched it together, i think added to the fun and maybe the watchability meter and that, you know, a little bit, you know, Wicker Man, of course, was like also like a staple in our home.
Speaker: So, you know, this And certainly this was like for like this is like up our alley for sure. And like we saw things that we were like, oh, no one, you know, our mom was like obsessed with like old timey Connecticut type shit and antiques and stuff. So it was like, you know, we had a great time watching it, even though it's like far from perfect.
Speaker: Yeah, and I was also into the slow, um it reminded me of a, like a 70s soap opera, which I feel like maybe is why it had ah also had a high rating for viewers.
Speaker: It's probably lot of like- Yeah, and think the lead David Ackroyd? Yeah. Somebody, he was a soap actor. okay Okay. It very much reminded me of like the flow of it, like just slow, ah real life, but you know, just in its movement.
Speaker: one Oh yeah. I would say yeah. Okay. Okay. I'll take, we, we, uh, you know, of course would love to see, you know, sure there's no chance in hell, but we'd love to see it re-released in some better transfer.
Speaker: But weirdness-wise, I feel like it was pretty dang weird. um And yeah, to your point, Greg, like the and not you know there's nothing here that wasn't done better and weirder in Wicker Man. Most definitely. But yeah, I think considering like it was a TV event in the late 70s and yeah, just the way everyone's behaving.
Speaker: Yeah, the we found the the accents seemed a rate like very bizarre and all over the place. We felt like they like like Tamar's accent was like something else. Yeah. yeah Checked out. She didn't even try. And like, yeah, anyway. yeah Anyway, weird.
Speaker: Good.
Speaker: You give her a number because I think we have the same thought. No. Four for again. All right. Fours across the board. car This is a Carlucci Goodshake film, I guess. Yeah, totally. thanks no I really appreciate y'all checking it out.
Speaker: I know. No, it was a lot of fun. I'm glad that I did. Well, we've still got plenty of show left to go. Well, not plenty, but we've got show. Anyway, you guys ready for the segment? Because I'm talking about TV.
Speaker: Yeah. Oh, yeah. TV. We talk TV. You talk some Bye, bye.
Speaker: Talking about TV. Talking about TV. Talking about TV. Oh, can't you see? We're talking about TV.
Speaker: So I was curious, what else was on TV? The two nights, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home aired. Oh, okay. Very nice. So on NBC at eight, it was little house on the Prairie, an episode called i remember, I remember where Caroline recalls how she met and fell in love with Charles origin story stuff.
Speaker: And then at nine, after the kiddos had gone to bed, it's the dark secret of harvest home. Part one. Now ah on the competition, you've obviously got ABC and CBS. That's what I found.
Speaker: ABC led off with Roots one year later, a documentary about the cultural impact of the miniseries Roots. Okay. Wow, cool. Yeah, I bet that'd be an interesting watch.
Speaker: ah That was followed by the NFL Pro Bowl. The NFC beat the AFC 14-13, and your MVP was Walter Payton. Okay, good for Payton.
Speaker: Yeah, sure. CBS was showing reruns of the animated specials You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, great lineup. yeah This was followed by a TV movie called The Defection of Simas Kudyrka about a Lithuanian sailor that came to America looking for asylum and the asylum was denied and he was sent to a Soviet labor camp.
Speaker: oh Oh. Wow. It starred Alan Arkin and Donald Pleasance. Okay. Whoa. Pleasance had a lot of presents on that yeah this evening.
Speaker: You couldn't avoid them if you wanted to. Yeah. I mean I guess unless you're a football fan. Yeah. So the next night, Tuesday the 24th, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home Part 2, it started an hour earlier, presumably because it's an hour longer. Yeah.
Speaker: To compete, ABC relied on their stable of sitcoms, starting off with an episode of Happy Days that featured special guest star Susie Quattro. Okay. Ooh.
Speaker: Yeah, i check that out. Love the music. sick Then you got ah Laverne and Shirley, Three's Company, and Soap. All classics. Pretty good.
Speaker: Yeah, that's not a bad lineup. CBS countered with their news magazine show, CBS reports with Bill Moyers reporting on the economics of the new South followed by the season six, episode 18 of mash.
Speaker: That was then followed by something called the craft 75th anniversary special. The description I read was simply a salute to the world of broadcast entertainment and one of its pioneer sponsors. Yeah.
Speaker: Sounds like content. Yeah. You got in there Bob Hope, Bob Crosby, and Milton Berle. Hmm. Okay.
Speaker: So just just some a good old-fashioned TV. Yeah. But yeah, I think out of those, Harvest Home would probably be my pick. Yeah.
Speaker: I think so. I think so, too. I mean, maybe they Happy Days with Suzy Quattro, but...
Speaker: Well, you guys want to play a game? Absolutely. Yes. We're going to play a little Guess the Title.
Speaker: Let me tell you about this brand new game where you guess the movie's name. You just tell me what the title is prove you know about showbiz.
Speaker: Guess the title. Whippa, whippa, whippa, whippa. Guess the title. Gooby, gooby, gooby, gooby. Guess the title. Guess the title.
Speaker: Come on, honey. the title. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: That's right. We're playing Guess the Title, and we're doing it with the TV movies of Bette Davis. Nice. oh Very nice. What I'm going to do is I'm going to give you a plot description, and then I'm going to give you three possible titles. I want you to buzz in and tell me which one you think is the real title. You'll buzz in by saying your own name. If you get it wrong, your opponents will have the chance to steal. Is everybody ready?
Speaker: Yeah. Ready. Yes. Okay. Question number one. A woman who left home 20 years ago under
Speaker: acrimonious circumstances returns when she finds out she's terminally ill, hoping to reconnect with her mother before she dies. Is that Strangers, the story of a mother and daughter?
Speaker: Reunited, or I'll always be your daughter. Greg. Greg? Greg? Strangers, the story of a mother and a daughter.
Speaker: That's correct. You're on the board, Greg. Oh, my gosh. Thank you.
Speaker: Plenty of game left to play. Question number two. A poor elderly white woman living in a black ghetto is befriended by a neighborhood boy. Is that two sides of the same coin?
Speaker: The Forgotten Ones or White Mama?
Speaker: Toby. Toby? the Forgotten Ones. No, it's not The Forgotten Ones. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I blew it.
Speaker: Greg or Angela, can you steal? What were the two choices again? Well, there's two sides of the same coin. Or White Mama. It can't be. Greg. Greg.
Speaker: Two sides of the same coin.
Speaker: Angela, you've got it. It is white mama. Good job. yeah yeah Question number three. Yeah. It's a crazy world. And when I saw that, was like, okay, I gotta, I gotta build a game around these TV movies so I can ask about white mom.
Speaker: Question number three. In 1926, a famous evangelist named Amy Semple McPherson disappeared. She claims she was kidnapped in Mexico, while others say she was carrying on an affair.
Speaker: A court hearing gets to the truth. Is that the disappearance of Amy? Unfaithful, the Amy Semple McPherson story?
Speaker: Or the devil of Guadalajara?
Speaker: Greg. Greg? The devil of Guadalajara.
Speaker: No, I'm sorry. It's not the devil of Guadalajara. Angela. Angela? The disappear the first one, the disappearance of Amy? You're absolutely right.
Speaker: Oh, phew. Nice. Lucky guess. Lucky guess, people. Hey, it's it's it's a again smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart.
Speaker: Question number four. A successful engineer tires of his high-tension job and quits to start his own mail-order company, much to his mother's chagrin.
Speaker: Is that the catalog king? Hello, mother, goodbye. or cash on delivery? Greg. Greg? Hello, mother, goodbye.
Speaker: You're correct. Okay. Nice. ah guys Well played. Question number five. A sculptor hires young college girls to take care of his elderly mother and his supposedly insane sister, both of whom live in the old family mansion with him.
Speaker: Is that psychotic? Scream pretty Peggy? Or the house on Knife Hill?
Speaker: Toby. Toby? yeah The house on Knife Hill. No, I'm sorry. It wasn't the house on Knife Hill. was going to guess that too.
Speaker: Greg? Psychotic.
Speaker: Nope. Angela gets the point. Oh, wow. By default. Thank you. yep Scream pretty Peggy. Wow. I want to see that based off of that synopsis.
Speaker: Yeah, it sounds good. Question number six. A retired lady judge runs a private detective agency helped by an ex-con and various parolees.
Speaker: Nice. Is that Justice of the Peace, Old Lady Incorporated, were the judge and Jake Wyler?
Speaker: Greg. Greg? Greg? It's just crazy enough, I think it might be it. The Judge and Jake Weiler. You've got it, Greg. Nice. nice thank you Wow, what a battle. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And you can see this being like a backdoor pilot that could have launched Betty Davis into her own sort of murder she wrote. that would be great.
Speaker: Question number seven. A CIA agent is used as a pawn in an insane woman's plot to steal a Polaris submarine. he Is that a beautiful death?
Speaker: Madam Sin or the little lady?
Speaker: I want it to be all three, Frank.
Speaker: Angela. Oh, Angela. Madam Sin. You've got it, Angela.
Speaker: Yeah. and yeah ah Betty Davis does play Madam Sin. I'm very curious about that one. Me too. Yeah. that I mean, what a title.
Speaker: Question number eight. An aging lady flight instructor teaches a wheelchair using high school girl how to fly a plane. Okay. Is that Skyward?
Speaker: Ready for takeoff? Or winging it?
Speaker: Toby. Toby? Skyward? Toby, you're on the board. Yay! All right. Good job. Very good. Question number nine.
Speaker: A dying woman and her husband agree to a joint suicide pact, whether others like it or not. Is that it's our time to die?
Speaker: Leave it all behind? Or right of way?
Speaker: Greg. Greg? Right of way.
Speaker: You're correct, Greg. Wow. Okay. Thank you. was a bit of a gamble. Paid off. Well, we've got a tie That means we've got to go to the tiebreaker. Uh-oh.
Speaker: What? Angela and Greg, hands on buzzers. Greg always won. Okay. and okay Okay. Greg rarely wins. Really? Well, 50-50, I'd say.
Speaker: I never compete. I just play.
Speaker: Who played Betty Davis's husband in Right of way take guesses uh and uh no i'm okay i'll give you three choices
Speaker: gregory peck james stewart or james cagney we don't know the year it came out we haven't been told this no but they are an elderly couple in a suicide pact okay sure um
Speaker: I'm going to say, did you say Cary Grant? No. What say? I said Gregory Peck, James Stewart, or James Cagney. James Stewart. I'm say James Stewart.
Speaker: Okay. All right. Angela, do you have a guess? Gregory Peck. Well, congratulations to Greg. It was James Stewart. You're a big winner.
Speaker: All right. Okay, cool. Greg, congratulations. Thank you.
Speaker: yeah. All right. Oh, it's the Batty Awards.
Speaker: Now you're messing with us. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
Speaker: Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
Speaker: Congratulations to all the nominees.
Speaker: That's right. Congratulations to all the nominees. It's the Batty Awards. Those little awards that we give out to all those moments, places, things, details, stuff that makes a bad movie so good.
Speaker: Greg, hit us with your Batty Award. So my Batty Award is going to go to the the graphic that they put behind the credits after both segments were done.
Speaker: It was kind of hard to like read it, but it's just like, it's like the circle of the sun, I think. And then Betty Davis kind of overlooking Nick and Beth very ominously. and it's like this old style, like when they used to paint people for promotions to take photos of them. It's like, let's get a painting of that. It's like very classy, very nice. Like seeing it at the end of the first night, it's like, Ooh,
Speaker: And at the end of the second, I was like, yeah. So it's like, good work, graphic. All right. A fine choice. I'm going to give my Batty Award to my favorite part of the opening credits, which is when I saw, and the voice of Donald Pleasance, because for just like five seconds, it made me think that maybe he was going to be a cartoon mouse.
Speaker: like I would have been so excited.
Speaker: Angela and Toby, do you have a baddie award? Or two? After you. Okay. You two are our politest guests.
Speaker: I want to change mine up last minute. oh That's fine. Yeah. Yes. um i I think it's during the after the corn play, there's a lot of very like knowing looks between ah Beth Constantine and the widow.
Speaker: it's like they're plotting something but it's also seemingly like sexual it's very weird anyway I think i that popped into my mind while we were talking tonight and i was like their weird flirty vibe yeah they were just like and like they hadt they just had it we're exchanging looks and I think they were plotting against Nick but it was the intimacy of a secret quickly could turn sexual yeah as they say That's how they do it in the cool.
Speaker: Toby? My baddie award goes to ah yeah the actor that played post-mistress Tamar. just Yeah, over-the-top performance throughout. and really Yeah, real vamp.
Speaker: yeah The one that got me was just like in in the home, kind of getting on the floor to have a drink with Nick. I thought that was hilarious. yeah and Very strange choice.
Speaker: That was Lena Raymond. Putting it all out there, Lena Raymond. Doing excellent work. Also known for an episode of Knight Rider, an episode of The Incredible Hulk. Okay.
Speaker: Not... Work on TV actors. Toby, Angela, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been so great to see you. Thanks for having us. Great to see you both. We love your show.
Speaker: Oh, thank you so much. Yes, thank you very much. I know. Thank you for your time. time you spent. No, it was a blast. it was a good time. This was a fun excursion. and And Anna wanted to send their best and say they enjoyed it as well. They're also a big folk horror fan. So everybody had a fun time. Don't feel guilty about that. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker: And it's nice that Anna's always here with the music. yeah Yes. Couldn't do it with that. And speaking of music, you guys are in a band called Double Deuce.
Speaker: Obviously, that's something that you do. Do you have other things that you want to plug or talk about that? Talk about anything you want to talk about, please. What do you want me to plug? Oh, your music. In general? Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, all of it. Tell them to find your band camp. Oh, well, yeah i so i would I would steer you to our, check out me and Angela's music. week We play under the name Double Deuce.
Speaker: We put an umlaut over the U in Deuce to help differentiate us from the many, many other Double Deuces that are out there. Smart. That we knew about. when we knew The Double Deuce. We call ourselves Double Deuce anyways.
Speaker: And ah yeah, we have we have an album that we made a couple years back called Warm Ham in a Foreign Home that you can find on all the streaming platforms and on Bandcamp.
Speaker: And a couple of funny, fun videos. Oh yeah, there's videos. Okay, we'll link to all that stuff. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker: Thank you. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It's great to see you. Thank you, listeners. you both. Yeah. Yes. Thank you both of you.
Speaker: Thank you, listeners, for tuning in. And come back next week when we're going to be joined by another nutmegger, Mr. Ethan Saretsky. We're going to be talking about Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace. It's going to be wild. but it's Yeah.
Speaker: it It ought to be a hell of a talk. I'm very excited. And I hope that you hit that follow or subscribe or whatever your platform calls it so that you, you know, know about the show coming around next week.
Speaker: Come check it out. Come on back. Leave us five stars. Yeah. Find us on social media. Yes. Come on. I'd do it for you. And ah until next week, be good and goodbye.
Speaker: Goodbye.
Speaker: that you would, that you could, and you know that you should, yes you know that you should.
