SPEAKER_03 0:00

You talked about your work on the film Passenger 57. And the comment you sent to me, you texted me, you said, hey, uh Passenger 57 just got released, and you can now not see me in 4K.

SPEAKER_04 0:11

That's right. Now I remember. I said, now you can see not see me in stunning high definition.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

You're listening to the O Brother Podcast. Real Brothers, Real Talk. Welcome to the O Brother Podcast. I'm your host, Dan Smith. Alongside me is always my brother from the same mother, Mike Smith. It's totally Halloween Fest. Literally Halloween Fest. You can see inching ever closer to sort of a complete digital. Complete digs here, yeah. So still working things out.

SPEAKER_04 0:46

I got three iterations of Halloween two, which is what we're gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

We finally can let the cat out of the bag, which you you've been sporting those posters, which I love. So yeah, Halloween two, nineteen eighty-one. This came out October 30th, 1981. It didn't really sit with me or or resonate or or hit me that we're talking about the 45th anniversary at this point. I didn't even think of it. I don't think we acknowledged that when we decided it. We just No, we've done Halloween Fest, we've done something from the franchise almost every year, I think.

SPEAKER_04 1:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

And uh so this is no different. And and we landed on this one, I think, you know, after seeing it again and diving into it, I think it was the perfect choice.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

And did you was this the iteration? Of course.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

So here I am committing the same sin as you, like going off the audio script and just holding things up. But this is the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray collector's edition. This is really the only one you need. Yeah. It has everything from all the other iterations in this package, including the television version. Yeah. You know what I couldn't find, which is odd. So if you look at the supplemental features on the back, and there's three discs in this set, it's one of the things it says is new interview with production manager Jeffrey Chernov. I cannot find that anywhere on the actual discs. I didn't find it either. And there's even like an old-fashioned Easter egg. You remember how in the menus of DVDs you would like do like a barrel?

SPEAKER_04 2:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

And it would like all of a sudden some obstacle or uh object would appear.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

Oh, I know. You're talking about the little pumpkin, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

There's like the pumpkin skull.

SPEAKER_04 2:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

Which is interesting, you don't have that poster, but and when you click on it, it plays like a one-minute Halloween and Halloween two thing. Trailer thing or something. Yeah, it's pretty funny. So that was brought me back a little bit. I found that by accident. But this I hadn't opened this yet. So I unsealed. Unsealed it for this purpose. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

How many copies do you think between the two of us? Of Halloween. What Halloween movies do we have? Oh, Halloween movies once. Oh, not the franchise Halloween.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Gotta be at least 40.

SPEAKER_04 3:17

Me alone?

SPEAKER_03 3:19

Yeah, 45. 47. Do you really? So we gotta have over 60. Now you can't see. Now you notice behind me, I finally got some. I bought one of these other. See the stand behind me, the blue stand? Yeah. Uh get out of the way here. So I've got two of them in the in the room here. And you can see that you see some physical media up there, Mike? That's all criterion 4K collection. Nice. Below that you see the Michael Myers Funko Pop. You see those collector's tins for four and five, Halloween's four and five. That do you have those or just me?

SPEAKER_04 3:53

I I do, but they don't fit on a shelf very good, so they're kind of under my TV.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

And and so in the other rack I have all of my Halloweens, which take up, so to your point, two shelves. Yeah. So I probably have that many too and just don't realize it. You lose track. So it's crazy. It's amazing. But it's my let me ask you this. So so I was recently asked this, and I'm gonna ask you, why do we love the character of Michael Myers? Have you ever stopped for a minute to kind of think about that? What is it about this franchise? Because we love it good and bad, Season of the Witch, Halloween six, whatever. I like it all.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

I don't know. I you know, I think it's kind of a kind of a comfort movie when it comes to slashers, which the first one didn't have a lot of slashing in it. Now this one came out the same year, Friday the 13th, part two came out. And all those movies, the Freddie movie, and they were all derivatives of this. And there was all this slashing going on. So Halloween was like, well, we're gonna do it too.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

Well, they yeah, they all had to start up in the ante. And and and this one definitely you see a lot more of that because of John Carpenter, who of course didn't direct this. It was Rick Rosenthal, who which was his first directorial uh feature. And, you know, there's a story there which I'm sure you could tell us why. So John Copper and Deborah Hill, who we've talked about numerous times in the podcast, any Halloween fans will uh obviously know them. Uh why is it that Carpenter doesn't direct this film? But he ends up but he writes the film. He he wrote it.

SPEAKER_04 5:47

That was a whole just a money thing. You know, he found out, because this was before a couple of years ago, this was the most lucrative independent film of all time. But he wasn't getting back-end money from the first one. So he wrote the second one and negotiated a deal to get some of the back end money from the first one, but he wanted it to be completely devoid of one. So Halloween two would be like what people know of as Halloween three. It would be something like that, a totally different story.

SPEAKER_03 6:28

Well, he didn't want to do it at all. No, he didn't want to do it at all. And and there was this whole thing with Erwin uh you know Blands, who, you know, producer, who wanted to work with him. He gets into a beef with embassy pictures and Carpenter's getting ready to do the fog, also with Jamie Lee Curtis. Correct. And so there's this like beef that's going back and forth between them, and they finally settle it. Your blonde sues them, yeah, and what ends up happening is they they compromise and say, okay, we get the fog, and then he gets rights to the next Halloween film. And I think Carpenter felt, well, okay, if they're gonna do it without me, regardless, right, then I'm gonna at least make sure that the story is is good. But he talks not like this movie. He doesn't, and he talks openly about how he literally just like was drunk the whole time while he was writing it.

SPEAKER_04 7:24

He had to drink a six-pack every night just to get it written.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

And he came in towards the end to really salvage it in a sense, because they didn't care for the cut that Rosenthal provided them. They didn't feel that it had enough gore in it, quite frankly. And so he comes in and actually ends up directing a couple of pivotal scenes.

SPEAKER_04 7:47

Yes. And also, while Rick Rosenthal was directing two, he was working on a television cut for the first one. Carpenter, you mean was working. Carpenter. Right. And then he kind of got involved with two, and you know, in the past, I've always he's always talked negatively about this. He's kind of divorced himself from it, but he's making a shitload of money from it.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And all of them. All of them. Yeah, exactly. So it's a cash cow for him. And I'll I gotta say, Mike, right up front, I always have liked Halloween 2. I love it even more now. And it just it has its loyal fan base. Yeah. And and I attribute that in large part to, well, there's a number of things, but one of the things that stands out is not only what the great Dick Warlock does as the shape in this film, and I'll have you talk about that, because I want you to talk about Dick Warlock and his relationship to Kurt Russell, and in particular the film The Computer That Wore Tennis Shoes. Oh, I know. You've mentioned that mentioned on the podcast. I have. But him, and then this, you know, supporting cast, which to me is really the starring cast, because although Jamie Lee Curtis is in it as Lori Strode, Donald, the great Donald Pleasants is back, right? The key characters are back. And Charles Cyphers is even in it briefly. And actually, his daughter Annie makes a brief appearance in anything.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

Dick Warlock has two kids that are in it. That's right. Billy and Lance, I think, uh the kid that people will know. Yes. The boombox scene. That's Dick Warlock's kid. He goes to conventions signing that picture and getting paid.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

Which yeah, the the son, you mean, yeah. Yeah. And that's a pivotal pivotal scene because it it is how it's how Michael Myers knows that they've taken Laurie Strode to the hospital. Because we should say, for those that don't know, Halloween two picks up like a minute after the first one ends. Right.

SPEAKER_04 10:04

In the first one, there was no indication that there was a relationship between Jamie Lee Curtis's character, Laurie, and the shape or Michael.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

Yes. Okay, thank you. So but but it's it's Dick Warlock who we'll talk about. And then this other cast of Leo Rossi and Lance Guest and Pamela Susan Schupe and all of these others, Gloria Gifford, they they're they all bring something to the the film that I don't know. It it's and I was nine when this came out, so I was very young. Wow. And I didn't see it in the theater, of course, but I would see it certainly. I probably saw it when I was nine, to be honest, because it was things on, as we've talked about, in the house that I had no business being privy to, but between you guys and dad.

SPEAKER_04 10:54

I was a senior when it came out, so yeah. I don't know if I saw it in the theater. I probably didn't.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

You went down to the showcase cinemas and you probably snuck in or something, didn't buy a ticket.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Well, I didn't have to sneak in, although we did often go in the door. They never really figured that one out.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Yeah, there's something about the I don't know, the the innocence of those characters and uh Well, the TV cut for those who are fans will like it even better because there's more content with the side character.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

Well, talk about Shout Factory. What is Shout Factory? They're like a a branch of God, I can't think of the name.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

Slash Scream Factory.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

Yeah, Scream Factory. That's the one I was trying to think of. They do all sorts of special editions of films that were released, and they make them into special editions. They've done it with Dead Zone, Carrie.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Things in this genre, obviously.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

In the genre, yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

Yeah. And they do a nice job here, and there's another one of the extras is the I forget the guy's name. He's very familiar with Shout Factory. If you have any of those discs, he goes out on location to the places where they film the the movie.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

Oh, right. The the Sean something.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sean. Yeah. But but so it's it's it's Warlock and then and then that cast. But but talk about Dick Warlock and how he gets to to be in the film here.

SPEAKER_04 12:29

Well, he was he he was working with Kurt Russell. I went dead there for a second. Yeah, he yeah. And in fact, you haven't seen Once Upon a Time in America, but this is a perfect example of that.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

Where if you hired Kurt Russell, you also got Dick Warlock in the package because he was the exclusive stunt double, which was a thing back then. He was the exclusive double for Kurt Russell.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:02

So he was on, and and they were gonna make him uh what stunt coordinator, which he was, stunt coordinator. And then he kind of talked to the director, Rick Rosenthal, and said, Hey, you mind if I play Michael? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

I don't care. Well, it's so wild. He goes in to meet to have a meeting with Rosenthal. Right. And Rick's in his office and and Dick's making his way to the office, sees the meeting Rick, sees the mask, which is the original mask that Nick Castle uses in the first film, and it's been through the ringer by now, which is why it looks the way it does. Right. And he slaps on the mask and goes in, and Rick is like, Who are you? And he won't say anything. He's just being silent. And he's like, Who the hell are you? And then he pulls it off. But yeah, that's that's an interesting story behind how he gets the job. And you mentioned this whole thing with Kurt Russell. I didn't realize Dick Warlock worked on a Disney contract for like 10 years.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

10 years. Well, at one point in the commentary, he says eight, and then he says ten. So I guess it was somewhere in that room.

SPEAKER_03 14:09

Mike Walt Disney was gonna make him a big star. Right. Mickey Rooney fans.

SPEAKER_04 14:14

You know, he knew Walt, and then of course Walt dies.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

So Walt's brother didn't feel the same about Dick as Walt did, apparently. But but he would go on to double for Kurt all the way up until 2002, I think when they did Tango and Cash. That was that was back earlier. No, that was his last one. Was that that late? Was 2002? Really? Was Tango and Cash that seems like late. But anyways, so he worked with all through that film. And then he put on weight or something and and and didn't feel he could represent him as a double any longer. And he tells Kurt Russell this, and Kurt's like kind of finding it unacceptable. And he's like, I can't do it. He's like, Well, can you find me someone that can? He connects him with somebody else, and then they basically, according to Dick Warlock, never speak again after that. He reached out to him through agents and stuff. That was odd.

SPEAKER_04 15:09

Yeah, there's a lot of that when you f you find out in the commentary that Rosenthal wasn't him and his relationship with Carpenter wasn't great. Right, right. And then Warlock, apparently, he gets I like his walk. He's the one who gets that slow, maniacal walk and the head tilt that becomes famous in many Halloween films.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Well, but Nick Castle laid that down in the first one with the tilt. Right. He picked it up. He what that was just Yeah, it was it was one of the things he stole from Nick Castle. So that when you see him rise up in Lori's in that bedroom where after she stabs him in the the through the closet with the You're talking Halloween with the knitting needle and all of that, and then the famous scene of him rising up and then turning very robotically, yeah. That was really all that Warlock had to go with. And he took that, he took the tilt and brought that back and a few other things. But yeah, I now I haven't heard so much criticism about it. I know it's spoken about in the in the in the commentaries and things, but I love it. I love what he's me too.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

And yeah, he was undersized. Like when you first see him, you're like, who's this skinny guy? Well, and also he's only 5'9. 5'9.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

But he ends up wearing lifts in his shoes and things, right?

SPEAKER_04 16:38

You know but he does, I think, embodies Michael as good as anyone. You look at the zombie films, and they that's when they just went gigantic.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

And even you look behind you, right, and the and the the mask, it does look very different than it did in the first one. And it because of his stature and because of the way it had been beaten up, and it was under Deborah Hill's bed for like 10 years. She was a smoker, so it turned yellow, dusty, right? It sat on his face in a different way than it did with Nick. Nick was a much taller guy. Right. And so, but it but it brings something extra creepy. And and you have that famous image in a poster to that walk. You see him right there taking a step forward. He's got the scalpel in his hand. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great one.

SPEAKER_04 17:27

And then that famous ending where he's swiping a hundred times. Which he doesn't he didn't like.

SPEAKER_03 17:33

He does not care for that. And I think it's one of the coolest shots in the film. Now, you know, we said this picks up right after Halloween one, the original, ends. And Loomis shot him six times. I think seven, if you count. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:53

And in the TV cut, if you watched it, they trimmed it to six.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

That's right. That's right. So we get this whole thing, which would become central in the franchise going forward, this idea that Lori is related to Michael Myers, and that's motivation, where others felt, and I think Rick himself, nah, it's actually more creepy and and and and unsettling if he's doing it for no particular reason.

SPEAKER_04 18:23

Yeah. And if you watch Halloween and Halloween too, you might as well just say Halloween, the whole bloody event. Right? Yeah. Because it's literally the same movie. It's really one movie, one long movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

And I think that's a good thing. I really like it. It's it's it's low-rated. I don't really understand the hate for the film. I think honestly, in some ways, I like it better than the original. Yeah. I really do. And a lot of that you're talking Dick Warlock was Nick Castle was not a stunt man. Right. So you're you there's this epic scene in Halloween 2, of course, when he does the firewalk. Back then, when you it's it's a it's so more advanced nowadays, right? And with these stunt men and women that are doing it, but back then they were in these big bulky suits. It always seemed goofy, although it fits here because he's wearing the overalls and you can kind of cheat it a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 19:22

Yeah. Like I I didn't have an issue with it. I didn't have an issue at all. And they did it three times in a row, which makes it seem longer than he was actually on fire.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

And that was a set that they built for that sequence, and it is it's intense. One of my favorite shots is Michael arrives at the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, and this is later, this is towards the climax of the film. And Lori and Dr. Pleasant, or Donald, you know, Dr. Loomis, Dr. Pleasant's Sir Doctor. By now he's earned it. He has earned it. Yeah, he's got the honorary degree. They're, you know, taking refuge in the hospital. And this shot of, I think it's right, I think you have it in the poster. That's right after he just walks directly through this plate glass door of the hospital. Very cool. Awesome shot. I love that sequence. Now, there's a lot of there's much more POV in this than we get in the original Halloween. That's something Rick Rosenthal brings to this. It's a much different perspective. Right. Um, a lot of long tracking shots. There's a this lens flare effect that you see in various sequences throughout. I think these are little touches that Rick brought to it. And the soundtrack, the score, even though at the core, you have the bass score that Carpenter created, right? Right. But then you have Alan, is it Howarth or Howorth, who does the Halloween 2 score, and he adds this organ on top of it, this synthesizer. It's so creepy. But again, that is something that's a unique flavor of Halloween 2 that I appreciate about it. It's it's the same but different, you know? And that that's why I love it so much. Now, what do you think? Loomis, Mike. We just did an episode on Dracula and uh the 1991 Gary Oldman Dracula. Do you see Dr. Loomis as a Van Helsing type character to, you know, Van Helsing to Dracula and Loomis to Myers? Is that a similar relationship?

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Yeah, there's obviously a relationship there, especially as it gets later in the series. What was his last one? Was his last one H2O? Or did he even make it to that one?

SPEAKER_03 21:48

Well, he was in it, but remember that whole opening in the beginning. Wasn't that, didn't they use somebody doing his voice? And then also they use some archival footage or something.

SPEAKER_04 21:59

Yeah, I think that's what happened in H2O.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Go back and check out that episode. We did a whole episode on H2O.

SPEAKER_04 22:04

Right, which Rick Rosenthal, a director of this film, also directed. So somebody liked him. I guess Mustafa Akkad. Oh, that's right. That was Rick that did that one.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Yeah. No, no, no. Wasn't it Rick Minor? Not Rick Rosenthal. No, it was Rick Rosenthal.

SPEAKER_04 22:20

Or he talks about it in the comments.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Was Rick Minor the shape? Is that what I'm thinking of? In one of them, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:28

The uh I was gonna mention when you say shape, people might be confused because the shape is what Michael Myers was called in the script. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

I I have to do it's not that I don't, but it's just I I gotta settle for myself. So we're talking? No, no, it isn't that. Uh I I would never doubt, you know, my co-host and brother from the same mother. Now, what year are we talking, Mike, again? To let's see, 20. H2O was 20 years, so yeah, it's 93 years old. So I'm looking 2000. No, he he he didn't do that, Mike. I told you I knew that he didn't. I'm looking at his filmography. He didn't do oh wait. No, I'm telling you. He didn't do it. Go to Halloween 2. We're gonna go to H2O. H2O. Going to H2O.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

I know I'm right.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

H2O.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

Because his wife is in it too.

SPEAKER_03 23:26

Nope. Steve Minor directed it. Yeah, I knew it. I knew it. So I confuse, I I mashed up Rick with Steve. And I got Rick. So where because he did too. Rick Rosenthal did too. Yeah, you're just going down a confusing rabbit hole. That's all. It's I think the confusing thing is the relationship he has with uh uh is it Nancy. Well, now I gotta clean that up now. Huh? Dropping F-bombs. Oh, I didn't I didn't drop it though. Oh, I heard it stopped. I heard it. Yeah, I'm not sure what you're doing. Are you thinking of Tommy Wallace or something? Uh who did Season of the Witch? Wallace did three. He did three, correct.

SPEAKER_04 24:09

But Rick Rosendahl in the commentary I just listened to said he came back and did H2O. Maybe he was talking about his wife, but maybe. I've always thought it was him. And I think he's the only one that's done two.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Yeah, yeah. No, Steve Minor. Steve Minor. Give give him his due. Give Steve Minor his due. Another great uh another great film. So the now the budget on this one, Mike, what was the budget on Halloween two? Because we talked a lot about that with the original.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

It did not make as much money as Halloween one, but I don't remember what the budget was.

SPEAKER_03 24:49

All right. So the budget was estimated at 2.5 million. It made 25.5 million bucks. Like in 1981? You know. Yeah. That's a decent take.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

Yeah, and you hear if you listen to the con there's two commentary tracks. One's with Dick Warlock and that guy Sean that does the visits to locations, and the other one's with Rick Rosenthal and Leo. What's what's his last name? Leo.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

Leo Rossi.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

Leo Rossi.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:27

Because the and and the we find out the whole cast was basically in an acting class together. Right. That's how they knew each other.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

Yeah, through AFI, I think. And I didn't realize this opening kill scene of this old woman. This is quite funny. And um it's it what I didn't pick up on was in the background on the television that the uh husband is watching. He well, he fell asleep too, his night of the living dead. Yeah, right. Which you see it later too at the hospital. One of the security guards, you know, they always have the dopey security guard that's not paying attention, and he's doing a crossword or something. And you know, and meanwhile, Michael Myers is coming into the hospital and so forth. It's just it's so goofy. By the way, Mike, I wanted to mention something. While we're doing this episode of Halloween 2, the penultimate Halloween fest episode, Mike. I did want to uh mention some sad news, but Richard Riley passed away yet to a couple days ago. And he was he was famously in office space. And uh I I did read that, yeah. Well, Mike, he also played a shack guard, a security guard, if you will, in Rob Zombie's Halloween 2. Yeah. So I just thought it was wild that we're talking about the original Halloween 2, and then he passed away. And so uh rest in peace. You know, an actor that had affiliation with the Halloween franchise, so I just wanted to mention that on the podcast. But so what's your take on this? What was your has this been one that you go to often if you're gonna p pull out a Halloween film? Or where does this land in the pantheon for you of Halloween?

SPEAKER_04 27:08

It's uh you know, good question, because I don't watch this one a lot. I don't know why. Um because it's it's you and I have talked about this for forever, for like years and years. When we go to see a sequel, we like when it starts right where the last one left off. And this one does that so well. I mean, it's it's really we couldn't be closer. It like I said, it's the basically the same movie.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

Now, okay, so we went we were at Spooky Empire, the O Brother podcast went to Spooky Empire a few years ago, and you can find that on the YouTube channel, by the way. Go out there, there's a playlist, and you can see uh events of our time at the convention, which was a lot of fun, a little stressful getting set up, and we were pickering as we often do on the podcast, but it was a great time. Pete and and Gina, who run that, were incredible uh uh hosts and whatnot. And so this year, ironically, Mike, and again, I don't know that I knew this or we knew this as we were leaning into choosing this for this year's Halloween film. The cast of Halloween 2 is going to be at Spooky Empire.

SPEAKER_04 28:24

Yeah, that's why we picked it. See, I could not remember. Okay. That is exactly why.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Now, what okay. Now, what I didn't know though was that Dick Warlock, Mike, is going to be there. So guess who's going to Spooky Empire?

SPEAKER_04 28:39

Yeah, you got it. Yours truly.

SPEAKER_03 28:41

Gina Davis will be there too. Gina Davis, uh Gina Gershaw. It's a really good Billy Bain. It's a good one. But Pamela Susan Schu, Leo Rossi, Lance Guest, Dick Warlock, Gloria Gifford, they're all going to be there. And I may or may not be laying down some scratch to get a cast photo with the Halloween two cast, because I think we have to, I have to do it in for the podcast. But so I'm excited about that because you mentioned earlier Dick Warlock and the conventions. The funny story he tells in one of the commentaries is he has no idea that these things even exist. Right. Until one of the other, I think Michael Myers, says something to him about, oh, are you going to be over in Utah, whatever? And he's like, What are you talking about? What conventions? And then he starts, and he loves them. He loves the opportunity to get the remote.

SPEAKER_04 29:28

And they're not only in the United States, they're international, which I never knew.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

Well, which he hasn't participated in yet, though, himself. That's a funny story, too. Check out the uh the supplemental features. I love this box. I mean, there's something about this set. It it the texture of these cases for those that are into physical media, these are pristine. They did a nice job. They did a really nice job. And then, you know, you've got the three discs in here. One is missing because I was, you know, doing my homework. Uh, but I love this set. And we have every one of the films in this, not every one of them, but almost of the original. What does it go through? Six, Mike, or H2O? How far does this set go? I think.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

Resurrection comes after H2O. One of the funny things is Jamie Lee Curtis.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

You're right.

SPEAKER_04 30:21

Jamie Lee Curtis has played this character in six decades. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Who does this remind you of, Mike? I'm gonna do my best impression. That's Warlock's. It's Dick Warlock's kid doing the scene with the yeah, Mike got me. This is a functional boombox, by the way.

SPEAKER_04 30:42

I mentioned this to you. There's a there's a film called Passenger 57.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Okay, this is great, because I don't know if you've ever told a story on the I don't think I have. And your comment to me in the text, you have to end the story with that comment that you told me about.

SPEAKER_04 30:58

Which I'm not even positive. Well, it has to do with 4K. So it's coming out on 4K. And just this week, I read this article that is glowing about how Passenger 57 should have made Wesley Snipes an action star. Like a bigger, he should have been as big as like Stallone and blah blah blah. Well, I'm hearing about all these conventions and Warlock's kid going to the convention. I'm this close. You're there to be at one of those conventions. Why is that? Because I was a featured extra in Passenger 57. The opening sequence of the film, the bad guy is about to have a go under facial reconstruction, whatever. He jumps out the window, which was a huge stunt in Orlando.

unknown 31:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

And then he's chased by three SWAT members. The the lead guy is a real SWAT guy, and then it's me and this other featured extra. There it is. And I was hoping there'd be a like a director's cut of the film because I go to the theater, which it's funny because Dana Carvey is in a Halloween too.

SPEAKER_03 32:21

Yes, he is. And he had a much bigger part and got cut out of a lot of it.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

He did exactly what I did. He took his friends and went to go see it in the theater and he got cut out.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

Right.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

So the issue was we made a trio and we we were running down orange av time after. I mean, it must have been 50 takes.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Right.

SPEAKER_04 32:45

And we're sprinting. And I was not slow back then.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

No.

SPEAKER_04 32:49

But what happened was the SWAT guy had Reebox on. Me and the other extra had these boots that they literally put in cement, washed them with cement to make them hard. So we couldn't run as fast as him. So the shot was supposed to be a pyramid, but instead you go to see the movie. It's just one SWAT guy. And I'm like, I'm right there.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

You're right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:20

Right there.

SPEAKER_03 33:21

The difference two inches, the difference between you and a convention circuit that would pay your bills potentially. Yeah. Convention career. It's interesting. Mike, did you remember seeing Tom Sizemore? Was he there that that day? Or was it one day of filming that you did on that that sh that production?

SPEAKER_04 33:39

Um no, I did more than one, but that was the only day I was a featured. And the other ones, I I I was like a waiter. Did you see anybody in the cast? Yeah, the the the villain, and I forget his name. Bruce, maybe? The villain. Bruce Payne. Yeah, Bruce Payne. Bruce Payne. He was there. Because we were chasing him. No, Elizabeth Street.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

Elizabeth Hurley was in that film.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

Yes. You were this close to the convention circuit with Elizabeth Hurley. But yeah, I I didn't get Elizabeth Hurley. It's interesting, Mike.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

I'm looking at IMDB. I don't see any, even uncredited Mike Smith. I know. Now, can you technically have an IMDB page with an uncredited role in Passenger 57? Is that we could set you up.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

Yeah, maybe hook me up.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Maybe we could parlay this into a convention gig still. Hey. The man who wasn't there, we call it. We'll reshoot it. We'll get the iPhone out. Yeah. Reshoot it. The man who was edited out. I mean, it's so funny because you've got like Tory Winter, businessman slash plane passenger, uncredited. You couldn't even beat him out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:51

We got me and the other guy Travis got cut out. Got double pay. Like back then, you know, an extra got anywhere from 60 to 120 bucks. We got like 300 bucks to do it.

SPEAKER_03 35:07

I love Wesley Snipes. And I agree with that. I think, yeah, he could have. And then he had a little problem with the IRS, and they took a left turn for him.

SPEAKER_04 35:16

Yeah, left turn to uh cell block C.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Yeah, I always liked he served his time. He did his, you know, and uh I've always liked Wesley Snipes. So yeah, I I you know, Demolition Man and so forth. He's great in that. He was great. Yeah, he I like him. I'm a fan.

SPEAKER_04 35:33

And Passenger 57 for the B film it is, isn't all that bad.

SPEAKER_03 35:40

And I have to admit, now it's okay for me to say this because you're not credited on IMDb. I've never seen the film. I don't think you could see it. That was the IMDB. What? That was the IMDB. I thought you were holding up the case. No, no, no. That was a picture from IMDB. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that was a famous shoot. And then of course Lethal Weapon 4, they had the when they blew up City Hall down there, the old City Hall was a big thing.

SPEAKER_04 36:02

Now I wonder if I should get the 4K because there's a commentary track.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

Well, it would be interesting to maybe just hear them talking about maybe that day of filming, maybe. Right. You should. I mean, it's the opening of the film. Yeah, you should have it in your collection of all things. I don't have that. I mean, you got closer than I did, although I think I was closer to the celebrities when they filmed Instinct. I mean, I met Sir Anthony Hopkins, for God's sake.

SPEAKER_04 36:28

So Yeah, I had the DVD at one point, but there were zero extras. Yeah. And again, like right after that sequence, I'm not I knew I wasn't filmed on film anymore.

SPEAKER_03 36:41

Yeah, geez.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

Even though we went out to a fairground somewhere and shot out there for a couple of days. But I was just like a background.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

What was worse, Mike? The shooting of that sequence or working at UPS?

SPEAKER_04 36:57

Oh, UPS. Because that would over although if I did that every day running in those boobs. But but at least you were in great shape at that time. But at least you got paid at UPS and they didn't cut me out the terminal.

SPEAKER_03 37:13

They had plenty of work for you. Oh my god. I keep looking over because I'm uh how many iterations, Mike, of Halloween two do you have? Just Halloween two.

SPEAKER_04 37:23

I have the Blu-ray, the 4K, and I think I have a steel book. No, I have two steel books, so four.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

I think I have it on DVD. I think I have it on DVD. Yeah. I don't have any of the DVDs. Yeah. It's it's the collection that I have the most of. Yeah. You know, like we said, I would say the same thing.

unknown 37:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:46

Isn't that interesting? Of all the films you have, and you know, and your taste for cinema is a bit right up here.

SPEAKER_04 37:55

But yet that's I mean like Orson Wells, Stanley Kubrick, and I've got more Halloween films than any other film. Which by the way, that Kubrick said 600 bills, dude. Well, it's 300. Well, now I traded. I traded for it.

SPEAKER_03 38:13

For those in a timely way listening or watching, do the service that you do here on the O'Brother Podcast, but the criterion.

SPEAKER_04 38:20

By the time this gets published, it'll be over because it's only a 24-hour sale. However, November, Barnes and Noble will have the whole month 50 off criterion, and Amazon almost always matches them. Sometimes, like you got one for 60% off. Are you going to pick up the secret agent? I don't I don't think so. I'm I'm trying to pick up the electric bill right now. So pick up the heating for the winter. Yeah. I know you're you got the heat. Do you have the heat on right now? You know, like the fake fire.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

What is the temperature up there right now?

SPEAKER_04 39:03

It's today the high was 56. So it's cold. It's chilly.

SPEAKER_03 39:09

So you can see as I sit at the top, the studios are coming along slow but sure. I get a little artwork. A little shout out to the man sliced alone. Tulsa King, new season just premiered. And you know, this picture that I have with the famous quote from Rocky V, which is just gives me chills every time I watch that scene. It is some of the best acting you'll ever witness. I still think he, although he's an Oscar winner, of course, he hasn't gotten his due for some of it. Just the ending sequence in First Blood Alone was Oscar worthy.

SPEAKER_04 39:42

His Oscar win is for writing? It's for writing, I believe, right? On I I didn't think he had one.

SPEAKER_03 39:51

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's his all that. Remember the picture that we had on the podcast in that one episode of him with the huge Yeah. The huge Oscar, you know.

SPEAKER_04 39:59

He should have.

SPEAKER_03 39:59

Yeah. But it's just it coincidentally just the colors, it's it's muted, it's gray and whatever. It just kind of pulls out the blue in the studio, and I love that. So I don't know what else I'm gonna put up, but I like that right now as a start.

SPEAKER_04 40:13

So you need something light to brighten you up a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

You mean so eating better and going to being in the sun or something? Oh, you mean just the wall, yeah. Yeah, I'm getting there. I just again it's gotta be right, you know. So, but Mike, this again, I've just always had an affinity for Halloween too. Yeah. And and I'll be honest, you've heard me on the podcast too. I'm a fan of Rob Zombie's Halloween 2, and I don't know ashamed to say it. But this is the only Halloween 2 in the debate here, is this one. And uh I I again I argue it's I would say it's as good as the first one. I think it's gotten some short shrift given all of this. You know, some of the things surrounding it, Carpenter had to come in and save the film.

SPEAKER_04 41:01

And then Deborah Hill complaining about Castle being too slow, and she was on the set though the whole time. You mean Dick Warlock. Dick Warlock, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. Like and you you see him in an interview say, you know, I was she just I went up to her and said, Am I doing okay? And she was like, Yeah, you're doing great. I think a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes, man, that comes out in these commentary tracks that you'd never know.

SPEAKER_03 41:29

It's great. The supplemental features on this set are great.

SPEAKER_04 41:32

Let me just give one last one. When this has a famous scene in a steam room.

SPEAKER_03 41:39

Yes, it does.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

With Leo Rossi and Pamela Susan Shoop.

SPEAKER_04 41:44

Yeah, any teenage boy knows that scene very well. And grown adults, that water scene very well, which looks to be steaming hot, is actually ice cold. And Leo talks about getting out of it. And he was like, he literally said, I had a raisin behind my under my waist.

SPEAKER_03 42:07

Yes, yes. He did talk. Yeah, he's a very, you know, he just tells it like it is. The funny story about that sequence, the the steam room sequence at the hospital, which you know, okay, there's some goofy scenes where like they're just gonna run off to the steam room and you know, she's on, she's the nurse on call, and nobody for kids. It's a bit silly, but but it's a great sequence. And this is this is where the genius of Dick Warlock as both Michael Myers and a stunt coordinator comes in handy, right? Because there's this is one of the this is I would say it's the most gruesome kill in the entire film. Yeah, and it it's so controlled. And it reminds me, coincidentally, Mike, of the one in Rob Zombie's Halloween 2, when Michael confronts this uh bar owner at a strip bar, and this woman who dances there comes out and he has an encounter with her, and she meets a pretty ugly demise. A pretty bruise and doubt.

SPEAKER_04 43:10

It's similar to this one in some ways, but the thing about the sequence is I'm so blown away still by the Rick Rosendahl thing. Oh, really? Yeah, Steve Myers. I would have bet money. No. Good thing you didn't re-directed.

SPEAKER_03 43:24

Yeah, because you need to pay the heating bill. But as I said, as I was saying, so Michael comes into the Steam Room and Pamela Susan Schupp who plays Karen, this character, Karen, thinks that it's it's Leo. Yeah. And so, and it's great because he plays a character named Bud. Right. And he's very New Italian.

SPEAKER_04 43:46

He's very East Coast guy living on the West Coast.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Yeah. Versus Lance Guest, who very nice, prim, and proper young guy. But Myers comes in, puts his hand on her shoulder, and she's like just gotten out of the steam. She's putting her towel on, and she feels his hand, and she's like And she takes his hand and she puts his finger and thumb in her mouth sensually. Right. And on the commentary, Dick Warlock says, I had to apologize to her after this scene because my hands were filthy rotten. And he didn't know she was going to do it. It was an ad lib in the moment. But yeah, they were troopers to to do that sequence, and they bring us one of the greatest mature sequences of a Halloween film that you could think of. And I and I think it's great.

SPEAKER_04 44:31

But watching the TV cut is really funny because you just see your head go down and then it cuts to the temperature.

SPEAKER_03 44:39

That's it. Right, exactly. It's a lot more tame. You know, you only have to invest an hour and 32 minutes. These are the golden days, and uh when you know, an hour and a half, you were in, you're out. But highly recommend Halloween to 1981 for all the reasons we've talked about. Again, I I don't think Rick Rosenthal gets his due here with what he did. Given the pressure that this presents, right? You've got you're coming off a film that's now a cult classic and super successful given the shoestring budget, which is being generous, that they filmed it on.

SPEAKER_04 45:14

All of the issues getting no support from the city.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Getting no support. Carpenter hates it. He's you know, drinking his Budweiser, trying to crank out the scene. He doesn't really care about it. He's got an ego, man, Carpenter. He really does. He really does. I mean, yeah, yeah. He's but he's kind of burned to write, frankly, with his pedigree. Like you can't deny his pedigree. No. We love all his films. I've got frankly. Probably half a dozen. And we've done a number of them on the podcast. Christine, you know, we've done I think we did The Fog as well, one Halloween fest early on, if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure we did because we talked about that and the connection to Halloween three at the time.

SPEAKER_04 45:57

Yeah, because uh isn't Jamie Lee's mother in that? Or no, that was Adrian Barbo.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

Yes, but her mother's in H2O. Yeah. So what are you recommending Halloween two? Of all the Halloween films.

SPEAKER_04 46:13

Definitely. I I like I said, I think if you watch one, watch two.

SPEAKER_03 46:18

What are your desert island Halloween films? What's that? What are your desert island Halloween films? You can only take three.

SPEAKER_04 46:29

I I think the original H2O in the 2018.

SPEAKER_03 46:35

That's a solid, that's a solid trio. I can't argue with that. I would take here's a weird thing. I would take Halloween 2 over Hello the original Halloween. Wow. And then I would take Rob Zombie's Halloween. And geez, this is tough. I I want to say the 2018, because I was so impressed with with what David Gordon Green did with the first one.

SPEAKER_04 47:00

Yeah, with the first one.

SPEAKER_03 47:02

But Daniel Harris and Four and Five, either of those for me, because of when they the age I was, when I saw those, and I did see those in the theater, and it just resonated with me. I'm very nostalgic for those those films. But H2O is that's a great pick. That's a good one. That that would be hard, didn't it?

SPEAKER_04 47:22

It took them 20 years to get a a really decent sequel. There's some real junk in there. Yeah. With the man in black and the Sam Hain silliness.

SPEAKER_03 47:34

Which is in this too. We get the Sam Hain in this as well, and you know, all that. And it just to see Donald Pleasant's back in this is great. And he was a big he was a Bond villain.

SPEAKER_04 47:46

He's like a big actor at the time.

SPEAKER_03 47:49

Yeah. Yeah. He really gave it the gravitas that it that it needed to catapult it into a different stratosphere. So the fact that he came back and he embraced the character so much is great.

SPEAKER_04 48:00

And to point out it it was Halloween 2, where Laurie Strowe, Jamie Lee Curtis, gets introduced by Leo Rossi to her still husband, Christopher Guest. Yes, that's right. We were on the softball team together. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

That's another good story. You talked about your your work on the film Passenger 57, which and the comment you sent to me, you texted me, you say, hey, uh, Passenger 57 just got released in and so you can now not see me in 4K.

SPEAKER_04 48:36

That's right. Now I remember. Yeah that was so good. I said now you can see me in stunning, not see me in stunning high definition.

SPEAKER_03 48:44

Yeah, that's right. But I do think you should pick it up because who knows? Yeah, I mean I think it's an arrow release. Okay, and they do a nice set. Can you imagine if you hear Wesley on there going, yeah, well, there was this whole sequence happening, and there were these three guys. I remember this one guy, you know, and he's and all of a sudden it's you he's talking about. The director's give me some advice about my taxes that I I still know the director's name.

SPEAKER_04 49:10

It was Kevin Hooks. And there was an issue where we were running down, you know, a dozen times, and and the director says, and he's pointing to me and the other guy. And he says, you know, when you're when you're point, we had these like fake machine guns that we were pointing. He said, when you point the gun, make sure you're not laughing. And I would be laughing. Did you laugh? Yeah. And he's like, no, we're we're totally confused by that. But I'd love to hear the commentary. This one guy, he kept laughing, he ruined every take.

SPEAKER_03 49:50

Yeah. That's why we did it 20 times. Funny story, too. He also did Wesley Snipe's taxes. I it's just that's hilarious. Well, anything else to say about Halloween 2, Mike? I just I love this one out. It's a real sequel. 45 years this film came out. 45 years ago. That's incredible. October 30th. So, you know, we're we're we're just days away as of this recording uh to celebrate the actual 45th anniversary of its release. And uh again, Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance, Charles Cyphers, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Schupp. There's so we didn't mention Hunter von Lear, who plays he was in the original too, plays uh one of the sheriffs named Gary Hunt. And he's really good in it. And he says how he he chose to play it as a sympathetic Midwestern sheriff, you know, and uh he's really good in it. He's he's very good in it. Leo Rossi, you mentioned his bud, Gloria Gifford, who went on to be an acting teacher. And I I cannot get over the fact that I always laugh because when I think of her, I also think of the fact that she was the woman who played a security officer herself in Spine, and is the one that that gets uh Harry Shearer to unveil the uh famous cucumber out of the pants. And and then we mentioned Nancy Stevens as Nurse Marion, and I do lastly want to say Tawny Moyer, who plays a character named Jill, because she's in this epic scene where Michael stabs her with the scalpel and like literally lifts her up into the air. Right. And like her shoes fall to the ground. It's pretty intense.

SPEAKER_04 51:28

Great great shot. I wonder how different this would have been if Tommy Lee Wallace, who was the original director, didn't pull out of the film.

SPEAKER_03 51:36

Yeah, because he was the production designer on the original.

SPEAKER_02 51:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 51:40

And he comes back to the season of the witch.

SPEAKER_04 51:43

Yeah. And he was the director. He he was named the director, and then he backed out when he found out the story was so close, according to him. But it's just a continuation.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

Yeah, and and again, kudos to Rick Rosenthal. Thank you for bringing us this film. Uh thoroughly enjoyed it. Love what John Carpenter brought to it too. I mean, the the things that he brought to it were I'm glad that he did. I do I don't think it would be quite as good without those sequences. And and certainly the the story uh tied a bit of the story together. He did. He really did. And if you're going to purchase this film, which I recommend that you do, purchase this collection right here. This is the only one you need. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's just uh everything they put out is is incredible. And we have all of it. It was three or five. I it might have been five. Yeah. I think it was five, and then the next one was a three pack. You're right. And that is the one that has H2O and Resurrection and whatever the other one is. So well, there you go, Mike. 1981 Halloween 2, 45th anniversary here on the O Brother Podcast Halloween Fest. The penultimate episode, Mike. We have one episode left in this year's Halloween Fest. It's kind of a bummer. I'm a little bit bummed. Yeah. Um, but you know, Halloween Fest will live on in our hearts and our minds. And we'll, I'm sure we'll do a horror movie somewhere between now and well, because we've done a lot of first looks on ones that don't even come out until the spring. So we certainly will, I'm sure. But that's going to do it for this one. And and thanks again for folks that are supported the podcast. Make sure that you subscribe to the YouTube channel, like our videos, and uh you can listen to the podcast on all major podcast platforms. Leave us a comment, write us a review, you know, anything you can do to support the podcast. We appreciate that. And again, continue to get some good engagement out on the YouTube channel. So appreciate all the support there. Continues to grow and grow and grow. But right now, Mike, we have to go and go and go because that's going to do it for another episode of the Over Brother Podcast. I've been your host, Dan Smith. Alongside me as always, my brother from the same mother, Michael Smith. And we will see you next time. Bye, everyone.