Christi Dodge  0:00  

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Brennan  0:30  

You’re listening to Dodge Movie Podcast. Your hosts are Christi and Mike Dodge the founders of Dodge Media Productions. We produce films and podcasts. So this is a podcast about films. Join them as they share their passion for filmmaking.

Christi Dodge  0:46  

Welcome back, everybody to the Dodge Movie Podcast. This is episode 140 And we’re talking about the 1983 film training places. This was directed by John Landis, who also brought us the 1970 Animal House Woop! Eugene pride! And 1980s blues brothers and 1983 is Twilight Zone. We also talked about John Landis in Gil, June or July when we when we had Dustin Morrow on and he was talking about his Yuppie films he directed one of those that is slipping my mind right now John Landis did not Dustin. Yes, John. Yes. But doesn’t talk to us about it. Correct? Yes. Okay. It stars Eddie Murphy, Dan Ackroyd,  Jamie Lee Curtis, Ralph Bellamy, and Don Ameche. The DP was Robert Paynter who did 1980s Superman 2 and 1983 Superman 3. And 1986’s A Little Shop of Horrors. 

Mike Dodge  1:48  

He was busy in the 80s. 

Christi Dodge  1:51  

The writer for this film is Timothy Harris, who did one of your I don’t know if this is a favorite of yours, but falling down in 1993. Yeah. Would you call it a favorite?

Mike Dodge  2:03  

No, but it is certainly a good film and a noteworthy film.

Christi Dodge  2:07  

Yes. And actually, there were pardon me there were two writers Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. And they both were part of Falling Down in 93. The previous writer Timothy was also in wrote 2009 Astroboy. And Herschel wrote 1988 My Stepmother is an Alien. 

Mike Dodge  2:30  

Gina Davis. Yeah, and Goldbloom

Christi Dodge  2:32  

I believe so yes. The synopsis for this film is a snobbish investor and a wily Stree con artists find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires. Were they? They were brothers? They were brothers. 

Mike Dodge  2:49  

Yeah, the Duke brothers. Yeah. 

Christi Dodge  2:51  

Okay, I have three taglines for you to choose. Right. The first one is “They’re not just getting rich.  They’re getting even.”

Mike Dodge  3:03  

 Okay. Okay. 

Christi Dodge  3:04  

So speaking of the investor and con artists, 

Mike Dodge  3:07  

Right, 

Christi Dodge  3:08  

Some very funny business.

Mike Dodge  3:11  

Not so much. Okay.

Christi Dodge  3:14  

Take two complete strangers make one of them rich and the other one poor. Just watch the fun while they’re trading places. From a marketing perspective, that definitely.

Mike Dodge  3:28  

I think it’s little to worry. For the first one, I think is probably your best bet there.

Christi Dodge  3:32  

Yeah, they’re not just getting rich. They’re getting even. Eddie Murphy was only 21 years old when he made this movie, which when you think about it is so young.

Mike Dodge  3:44  

That is insanely young, right?

Christi Dodge  3:47  

I mean, when I saw this, I was much younger than him. I was like, what? 12? So, to me, he just seemed like a grown up. 21 is just that’s a baby. 

Mike Dodge  3:59  

Okay, so this film was made when 83 Let me make sure but so he was born in 62. So that means that was it? Was he like 24 for delirious? Is that right?

Christi Dodge  4:13  

I have to look up Billy.

Mike Dodge  4:14  

But again, yeah, well, no, I’m just saying at that era, I would have thought he was in his 30s series. Yeah, I know. Of course. We didn’t see him in person. So we didn’t know he’s he’s a fellow of shorter stature and smaller build.

Christi Dodge  4:29  

I think he’s average height. Wow. 

Mike Dodge  4:31  

Oh, I hope so. Because in this movie, he doesn’t maybe they cast a lot of big burly guys to stand next to him.

Christi Dodge  4:38  

Okay. Ralph Bellamy as we talked about very early in. When we started the podcast Bellamy became known. He was the you should explain this because you know it…

Mike Dodge  4:51  

But yeah, the Bellamy is a shorthand for the guy in the romantic comedy who has nothing wrong with him. He’s just not Write for Meg Ryan. Right? Right the lead. So you like him? He’s He’s not an ass or anything. He’s just not right for her. And so you kind of feel for the guy because he doesn’t belong with the girl. Yeah. 

Christi Dodge  5:14  

So I believe in him. It was his first movie that he got that he portrayed the role that gave that nickname of a Bellamy.

Mike Dodge  5:24  

right? And he may be played it more than once is why Billy Merlot, coined the phrase.

Christi Dodge  5:31  

And this was his last film. Oh, bookend. Yeah, right. And we’ve talked about it.

Mike Dodge  5:37  

I will say, also, I think his character Bellamy’s character is Randolph, the older brother. Yes, it is. And I think he had the better agent because that character is more redeemable. Mortimer is pretty universally evil.

Christi Dodge  5:55  

Well, he’s the one in the bet that is rooting for them to succeed, I think or I mean, it will rooting thinks that you can redeem someone he’s betting that they can, quote unquote, redeem.

Mike Dodge  6:09  

Right. And he has the line. mother always said, You are greedy, which you can tell he’s means that as an insult, and then Mortimer, played by Don Ameche says she meant it as a compliment. So we see that Randolph is a bit of an oddball in his family. He’s not quite as money obsessed as the rest of them.

Christi Dodge  6:34  

And this film was kind of a little bit of a second jumpstart for Don Ameche. He hadn’t been in a film since 1970. Called suppose they gave a war and nobody came. And he had been doing some television guest appearances, but this movie really jumpstart it. Well, like read jump started his career and he returned to theatrical films, including he got the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Cocoon.

Mike Dodge  7:01  

I was gonna say, Yeah, I associated him most with cocoon. Yes.

Christi Dodge  7:05  

So that’s kind of exciting. That’s the one of the good things we can hang our hat on this movie we’ll talk about in a little bit, some of the more troubling things.

Mike Dodge  7:16  

We have a lot under the couldn’t be made today category due.

Christi Dodge  7:20  

In 2010. As part of the Wall Street transparency and accountability act, which was to regulate the financial markets, a rule was included, which barred anyone from using secret insight information to corner markets, similar to what the Duke brothers tried to do in this movie. And since the movie inspired this rule, it has since become known as the Eddie Murphy rule. Well, good for Edie. I know I would consider that a feather in my cap if rain, you know, an act was made and named if it was a good reason. Like, if I was the reason they had to create the rule to prevent other people from doing things wrong. That wouldn’t be so cool. 

Mike Dodge  8:01  

It was say anybody who believes that that had any effect on insider trading, send me your credit card and PIN number.

Christi Dodge  8:10  

Okay, my last little bit of trivia and then you can kick us off with your pickup line is according to John Landis, Jamie Lee Curtis was a hard sell for Paramount he told this story, because they didn’t believe that she could carry or you know, be in a film and be kind of in this top billing, because all she had done previous was horror films. And Landis kind of said, Nope, I want to, you know, make it so she’s the actress for me. So she credits John Landis for her career, because after all of the horror film, she did this and then she got the string of other hits in the 80s. And then, you know, I mean, she has huge career right now. So she credits John Landis for kind of helping her out of that trope of horror films.

Mike Dodge  8:55  

This is like a year or two before A Fish Called Wanda. I think that was a comedic role.

Christi Dodge  9:01  

Yes. And John Cleese saw her and this and appreciated her comic timing and wrote the part for her in a fish called oneness. So that’s further evidence of land as being a huge part. Okay. I have a bit of trivia for when we get to can’t be made today. But I think you should kick us off and we’ll start talking about other aspects of filmmaking in this film training places.

Mike Dodge  9:26  

“Your breakfast, sir”, which is Coleman when Thorpe’s Butler doesn’t really…

Christi Dodge  9:33  

It doesn’t really explain. I mean, it’s a definitely a show of I

Mike Dodge  9:39  

guess you could say your breakfast, sir says that it’s a domestic servant giving you stuff so maybe, but I’d say this doesn’t support my theory as well. 

Christi Dodge  9:49  

And kind of as a show, that, that Butler or how staff the Dukes employed, it appeared mostly African Americans owe their house staff.

Mike Dodge  10:05  

Yeah, they’re I think Coleman is the only non Black House staff we see in this film.

Christi Dodge  10:13  

Yeah, so the Dukes definitely have an opinion. And that is known that they make that known of how they feel.

Mike Dodge  10:21  

Without jumping too far ahead. My question is when I watched it this time, how realistic that was for the mid 80s. Right in their city? Yeah, I don’t know, is my question. Now my guess is if there are still people who have domestic help in, in the United States, whether it be Manhattan or Philly, or what have you, my guess is they would be immigrants from other countries, perhaps from Africa, but I would think, you know, Philippines and other places in Asia, perhaps. So it when I first saw the film, it didn’t, it didn’t strike me. So maybe that was, you know, still realistic at the time.

Christi Dodge  11:04  

Yeah, it’s hard to say since the when I was grew up in New York, and and I didn’t grow up with the Mexican I was just Yeah, and I personally grew up in a state where we just didn’t have a lot of diversity. So I think it’s difficult for us to kind of say if that was, but it feels accurate. You know, New York is a very diverse culture, you probably definitely had the lower class. You know, I mean, this has been history, right. The lower classes are the servers and how staff for the upper class and yeah, yeah, like I said, I grew up in an area with more of a melting pot. And like, yeah, you know, yeah, you are nobody you knew had domestic help. 

So no, I had no Alright, let’s move on. Since we don’t know we’re talking Well, about that.

Mike Dodge  11:53  

If we stop talking, when we don’t know, we’re talking about the podcasts gonna be really short.

Christi Dodge  11:58  

Alright, so the only thing I have for cinematography is when they’re explaining to Billy Ray, about the commodities and how they work. They’ve dumbed it to me, they were trying to like dumb it down. Probably maybe for the audience also, because this is before The Big Short before, maybe too many people knew how Wall Street work, but they have basically breakfast in front of him. They have bacon, and they have eggs, and they have toast, which represents wheat. Then they have orange juice, which represents the orange prices and everything. They’re breaking them down explaining him and they kind of come to a point where they’re like, see, so do you understand and Edie breaks the fourth wall and looks straight into the camera? 

I was I wrote in my notes, not sure why, like, what was that moment? And was it? What do you think that? Why did why did he break the fourth wall there?

Mike Dodge  12:49  

I think it was supposed to be a nod to the audience like can you believe these guys are asking that, but I don’t know. It’s kind of odd.

Christi Dodge  13:00  

Maybe just because the whole concept back then I just don’t feel I mean, once again, I was a kid. So I didn’t know how the stock market worked. But I feel like if I asked grownups around me, I don’t know if they could have really fully explained especially this whole idea of like the speculation, because that’s kind of what they were doing, although they were cheating and getting insight information.

Mike Dodge  13:24  

Right. I mean, I think the one sentence summary of how the stock market works is rich people get richer. And they were giving this slide the next you know, in your pyramid style of journalism, the next level down of detail, but it was still very hand wavy. But this is a comedy, right? So get lost in the week, that’s about as much as they as much time as they could spend in the film to establish what was going on. Now, I did make a note while watching it to look up and I didn’t sorry, listeners, whether or not frozen orange juice concentrate is actually something that they that they speculate on. 

But I did notice that when they were doing that explanation, they shot both Randolph and Mortimer from below, given them a very authoritative look. And there’s a painting of one of the founding fathers Washington, Jefferson or somebody, it’d be better if it was Hamilton.

Christi Dodge  14:19  

I feel like I remember that. The the camera angle. That’s good that you noted that because I think that definitely speaks to, I think from them from above, not only we’re supposed to think of them as authorities, but also we feel diminutive to them like Billy Ray because I believe he was sitting in that scene. 

Mike Dodge  14:42  

Yeah. And they had him sitting down in front of the breakfast items.

Christi Dodge  14:45  

Yeah, I think underwriting I have one of the first scenes we meet Dan Ackroyd’s character and he’s brought breakfast in bed. He has a barber chair in his apartment and his butler, I assume Were his what do they call it a man servant or whatever anyway, is giving him a custom shave in that chair, His clothes are picked out for him. We’re very much learning about his character and that he pretty much doesn’t have to do any household tasks. He just wakes up and kind of is is handled.

Mike Dodge  15:21  

I am curious to what degree that is. Realistic, right?

Christi Dodge  15:28  

Because he that all that, like, Get out of my way, just let me get ready. 

Mike Dodge  15:34  

I can’t even imagine someone putting my socks on for me. I mean, that’d be ridiculous. But I just wonder how much time that that person would actually have to devote to keeping that amount of money. Right? Because as we’ve talked about before, when you have that level of wealth, you attract people who would like to separate you from that wealth. So I just I’m very curious. We see it as a life of luxury. But there could be social obligations and other things. It might be a very busy life, not actually waking up whenever you want. And getting a custom shave. I don’t know. 

Christi Dodge  16:11  

Absolutely. The first interaction between Louis and Billy Ray, he runs into Duke and Duke the to run from the police. It’s kind of a very silly Chase, because they’re kind of running around. I believe the Duke brothers are there’s kind of this a little bit of a 

A Benny Hill style to it. 

Yes. And I just thought that interaction was very, like Billy Ray’s wrongly accused for a whole list of crimes that almost just seemed completely trumped up, which I’m sure you know, we’ve heard about nefarious police departments kind of it just seemed like he he was panhandling and I believe he accidentally ran his little cart into one of their legs, but it was like, you know, larceny? And and what’s it called? When you like when you hit somebody? Assault and Battery? Yeah, like it was assault charges, and all this laundry list. And I was just like, oh my gosh, she just kind of had a, an unfortunate run and just let the guy go on but you know, and that’s where the idea of the bet ensuing.

I felt very bad for Coleman, who makes tableside crepe, Suzette, and then, and it’s quite an involved process. It’s a decent size scene, and I’m just the whole time watching him, make these crepes and then Lewis just goes, Oh, no, we’re not interested. And it shows him throwing them in the trash. And that hurt my heart.

Mike Dodge  17:41  

First of all, I wondered why he wouldn’t eat them himself. Now, I have known several people who worked in the food service industry, and they assure me that waitstaff does eat the food that is not not consumed. 

Christi Dodge  17:57  

Well I’ve even heard stories from waitstaff who like a good portion of a steak is still on the plate,

Mike Dodge  18:03  

And you cut off the slobbery part and you have your way the rest of the stage. So, but I also think of the actor because you could tell he actually had cooked that crepes is that he had to learn that skill. Yeah, and perform it and then dump his handiwork in the trash can.

Christi Dodge  18:19  

Yes, exactly. So the Doobie Brothers offer Billy Ray a program for that because they have the bet and then a program for culturally disadvantaged people. And I love it. Billy Ray leans forward to ask the black driver, the chauffeur, what’s going on? Is this legit? What’s happening? Right? You know, if he had the verbiage Am I being punked So anyway, the rest of the movie ensues. You guys know how it goes? Do you have? How about this? Do you have any other things in under the cinematography or writing category that I didn’t hit on?

Mike Dodge  18:54  

Well, in case our our listeners were not familiar with this film, it is a comedy made in the 80s. So that means that there must be at least one scene of gratuitous boobs. However, Landis was not satisfied. He’s an overachiever. There were two scenes of gratuitous boobs. The cinematography was pretty straightforward. The only real note that I have outrageous is there’s an aerial shot of a sailboat at the end of the film. And this is before drones, so they had to get their helicopter.

Christi Dodge  19:27  

Right. So speaking of the topless scene, Jamie Lee Curtis told People magazine in March of 2022, that she knows she looked good, and she entered the scene fully aware of what was, you know, entailed in the scene. But having done it was quite a source of much embarrassment for her afterwards, she said that she was 21 years old nuts like Eddie, and the part required her character Ophelia to take her dress off. Did she like doing it? No. Did she feel embarrassed that she was doing it? Yeah. Yes. Did she look okay? She said yes. Did she know? Blow hard self energy?

Mike Dodge  20:05  

Yeah, I heard that.

Christi Dodge  20:07  

Did she know that what she was doing? Yeah. Did she like it? No. And was she doing it so so that she could have a job? She said, Yes. She added later that it did that she did perform nude in a couple of other films. When asked if she would do it again, she said, it’s the last thing in the world she would do now. So I think unfortunately, like a lot of actors, you do feel early in your career like that is something that is expected or that you don’t have the quote, unquote, right to say, No, I’m not going to do that.

Mike Dodge  20:42  

Well, also, it’s a way to compete for a role to be quite honest, when you don’t have his bigger body of work. You’re trying to find anything that will stand you apart from the crowd, perhaps I am not sure that that nudity was required for the story. Yet she did look fantastic. So from that perspective of the business of show, maybe putting butts in seats, that was good for some word of mouth, no pun intended. But yeah, it just like I said, it’s an 80s film. It’s gratuitous boobs. I don’t mind seeing her naked but I don’t know if we needed to.

Christi Dodge  21:17  

Yeah. I think as far as sets go, I thought it was a good touch that the in here we are in 83, like we keep mentioning and the photo of Ronald Reagan on the Dukes desk in their office was right, I think they would have been a big fan. 

Mike Dodge  21:34  

Yeah. So there’s at one point, beaks played by the actor who was a vice principal and Breakfast Club for those following along, right. He’s reading a G Gordon Liddy book. There’s also a bunch of what I call, like, disapproving founding fathers in the heritage club. And I don’t think it’s exactly the same. But when Thorpe’s desk reminded me of the famous desk in the White House that JFK Jr. was playing under Yeah, so I’m sure it was intended, at least if not a copy to evoke that sense of old money.

Christi Dodge  22:10  

Yeah, I think you’re totally right. In the opening titles, it’s a very famous, or I should say, a recognizable tune. We both were like, I know, I’ve heard this song. And I, and as we were talking, when the movie was opening, I remember, you know, just feeling like, I feel like this tune evokes that that air of the upper crust of the, you know, 1%, and along with images of the city, and it would bounce between images of poverty and wealth. So it would show like, you know, the Plaza Hotel, and then you would see, you know, like queens or something, and it would bounce back and forth. 

We tried to use a famous song listening app that failed us. So luckily, in the trivia, it is The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as Lewis is leaving the building, he is whistling it, he’s whistling the beginning of the aria from the opera. In that ARIA Figaro declares that he plans to turn the tables on his master just as Louis and Billy Ray eventually did to outwit the Duke brothers. So I mean, I love the layers of filmmaking when just kind of in a way, you could just say, Oh, just put in some classical music there. But there’s so intentional, no, let me find the one that that mimics the storyline of this film.

Mike Dodge  23:39  

That’s actually a really good note. I didn’t know about The Marriage of Figaro, I will say without mentioning the name of this app that it is shameful, that they couldn’t recognize this song because it’s one of easily the 10 top 10 classical music pieces recognizable by the layperson. There’s no reason they shouldn’t have been able to recognize it. Yeah. When you mentioned that as well. Obviously, they choose those classical music songs, because they’re outside copyright. They’re easier to license, right. But it also it has the same era of wealth. Right? And that’s a good question. I have, why do we who are not super wealthy associate classical music with super wealthy people? Right, perhaps they like to listen to Eminem?

We don’t know. I don’t know why that is. Is it like a sense of the classics? Like they have the the leather bound books in their library, you know, like, oh, they don’t actually read all that stuff. But it’s kind of the trappings? I don’t know.

Christi Dodge  24:45  

Yeah. When we pick this film, I will just say I was picking it from my 12, 13 year old memory of it. The idea of the low class getting one up on the upper class and also fit within our theme for the month. And it wasn’t until we watched this film that we realized, holy cow, there is a ton of just downright racist horrible things in this film. So we’ll go through them under our category could not be made today, or it would need a heavy rewrite if it was. Because I think the spirit of you know, the little guy getting one up on the big powerful dudes is an inspiring storyline and theme. But we clearly don’t condone a lot of what well, yeah, the filmmaking storytelling aspect.

Mike Dodge  25:43  

This is a really, I think, interesting question. Because, as we talked about, not just people of color, but also our gaze also don’t do so well in the slur department. But Is that realistic for 1984 in the United States, and 1984 in wealthy people in the United States, I think definitely for wealthy people. So they use a couple of words that you probably shouldn’t use, and they use the one word you definitely should never use in your movie. And I think it’s consistent with the character though, as I mentioned before, Mortimer or which one’s the Don Ameche character? more numerous than me. Yeah, he is not a good person. So I believed that he would use that language. 

But then Eddie Murphy, uses some slurs for gay people, and has a general I would say, kind of. He expresses a fear of gay folk. That was, I think, realistic in that era, at least in terminology. I noticed that, but I can’t excuse the filmmakers, because there were a credit for big black guy and even bigger black. Yeah, like and all actors, regardless of race, gender orientation, they like to have a character named Kevin, not just random guy. So I don’t see that there is any reason that it couldn’t have been Kevin and Mark, right? That’s, or even prisoners, right, prisoner number one, prisoner number two. Yeah. So I do feel like Landis perhaps had had some, he was comfortable with describing people based on race and stuff. And again, that that era, maybe people didn’t think it was quite as wrong. 

But I was surprised. I didn’t remember this film being racist now. And so again, is that because I was a young person, and I was just generally kind of clueless about things. Different era. I don’t know. But I was stunned when we saw some of this stuff.

Christi Dodge  28:02  

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I’m just, I’m still in shock. Not only the language, but then, when we saw Dan Aykroyd character Lewis come in on the train, and he’s obviously he’s in blackface. And it was like we both kind of I think had like a, you know, a physical reaction like we were coiled like, Oh, my God, I can’t believe this. Like, I totally forgot this part. And then we realized that in the storyline, it’s not even necessary, right? Because Jamie Lee Curtis is portraying kind of your, I guess, stereotypical Swedish girl. She’s got the little Dutch girl outfit. She put her hair and braids. 

Mike Dodge  28:43  

I think she’s in lederhosen. Yeah. And Coleman comments like, if you’re Swedish. Why are you wearing German? German? Yeah. So they’re kind of making fun of the stupid, like Rastafarian.

Christi Dodge  28:55  

So Louis could have been, he could have been another German guy, which would not have been as great wouldn’t been as…

Mike Dodge  29:04  

Well, he could have been an American guy. Right?

Christi Dodge  29:08  

Right. He just needed to know. Eddie.

Mike Dodge  29:11  

But they put Coleman into a priest garb and had him do the over the top Lucky Charms Irish accent the drunk. So the Irish didn’t get away. Free either in this one, right? That’s just it. Then not to harp on this, but they have this bit where Clarence speaks the bad guy goes undercover as a gorilla. The male gorilla has his way with Mr. beaks. That to me, there was an undercurrent there, again of the fear of the gaze. So that just there’s a lot of it that felt to me. Very adolescent. Yeah. And maybe because I saw it when I was an adolescent, right? It just it landed and I It didn’t notice.

Christi Dodge  30:00  

Right? Yeah, no, that’s a really good point that it had to have been not okay. It was not okay when oh now Al Jolson wore blackface and the jazz singer in like the 20s and 30s. It wasn’t okay. In 1993 When Ted Danson wore blackface to his girlfriend, Whoopi Goldberg’s roast, like, we knew it wasn’t okay in 83.

Mike Dodge  30:28  

Yeah, that’s the thing to me when Al Jolson did it. I mean, I wasn’t alive back then. So I can’t comment, but I definitely think by 83, we should have no matter. Yeah, I think, Well, you brought up dancing, which was, admittedly 10 years later, but still, I think everyone was stunned. Yeah, I would argue is, yeah, even people like Ricky Gervais, who are known for incredibly edgy humor would have said, Oh, that’s just that’s not funny, right? Like, let’s not do that. So, and but in this film, I really I struggled to see the reason for that. Other than, like I said, I mean, I guess a certain style of comedy, adolescent boys maybe think it’s funny. I don’t know.

Christi Dodge  31:17  

Right? But it’s just sad that there weren’t enough people in the powerful positions saying, hey, that goes too far. This isn’t okay. We need to reshoot that scene and make him from Italy or, you know, I mean, or anywhere, or like you said, the anak rights character could be an American. Yeah, put him make him older. Make him you know, I mean, there’s a ton of things they could have done. 

Mike Dodge  31:42  

Although, as I stop and think about the fact that he’s a Rastafari in well, maybe should just been a stoner.

Christi Dodge  31:50  

He could have been, like you said, and he could have been a surfer dude, or some hippie Stoner. Yeah. Then when I read in the trivia that at around an hour and 40 minutes into the film, Winthrop and Valentine arrive, which is Louis and Billy Ray, they arrived to the World Trade Center, and he’s walking in and he says, in this building, it’s either kill or be killed. This line has been removed from some television broadcast after 2001 Out of respect for the victims of the September 11 2000 2001 terrorist attacks.

I was like, wait, they took out this line, but they didn’t take they don’t take out like the scene in the train car with this egregious blackface or the n words that you talked about? Before. It’s like, it’s just, I cannot believe that that’s the thing that we censor Well, if we’re going to choose,

Mike Dodge  32:49  

And this film doesn’t have a reputation as being that edgy, which I would have thought you know, it may have so Sacha Baron Cohen’s Barat. I think he’s probably more known for being inappropriate than this film. And I would argue that it’s not right. So that’s, to me, it was kind of odd that that neither one of us remembered this film as being being super outrageous. And look, I mean, you know, it’s hard in his comedy, like, it’s hard for me to say that Landis at that time couldn’t do this film. You know, that’s a weird position. But I certainly think it should have been extremely notorious, right? You would think it…

Christi Dodge  33:36  

Who would remember, like, for example, we were talking the other night with the family. And somebody had forgotten the Mickey Rooney character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. And everyone else at the table. Were like, oh, we know that scene. Right. And so like you said, we’re so we were surprised by ourselves that we did not remember. Right. And sadly, that could be that at that time. A we were children. Yeah. So I give us a little bit of a past there, but we weren’t as evolved as humans. Well, I mean, I feel like somebody should have been though.

Mike Dodge  34:10  

Well, you know, it’s like I said, I have a hard time judging people 40 years ago by current, you know, standards of what’s what’s appropriate. So perhaps at the time, it wasn’t considered that edgy, but I find it odd that it wasn’t right. Yeah. Looking back on it. I’m like, How could this have not been a talking point, like, oh, I can’t believe how edgy this was, how much race stuff was in there. Right. And I would think the black community at the time, you know, maybe they had a problem with Yeah, you would think they would look at this and say…

Christi Dodge  34:44  

And much like Jamie Lee not being comfortable to say like, Hey,does she have to be topless? My first thought was, well, was Eddie okay with it. And then when I found out he was 21, I thought, well, that’s unfair to put it on him and just say He wasn’t in the power position in this movie. He was grateful to have a job. And probably not one to…

Mike Dodge  35:08  

Again, if he had said, I have a problem with some of these parts of the script, they’d say, thank you very much. Mr. Murphy will let you know.

Christi Dodge  35:16  

Right, we’re gonna go. Richard Pryor. Yeah, exactly.

Mike Dodge  35:20  

To be honest, no, no, I agree. What would have happened? And, and, you know, he has said in the past, you know, they’re just movies and I mean, he made the clumps. So he’s not, Orson Welles, but so like I said, it’s real hard for me to say, you can’t make a comedy that’s edgy. But wow. I always done yeah, yeah, this was real. It was is difficult to watch with our current sensibilities, right.

Christi Dodge  35:46  

All righty. Was there any head trauma in this film there?

Mike Dodge  35:50  

There? There was a fair amount of head trauma. A mortar murder beats Billy Ray about the head and shoulders while Billy Ray’s begging as part of his a guy’s little knee cart thing. Then Billy Ray runs into Winthrop and knocks him down. Clarence Beeks throws a passerby down on the sidewalk. Nice guy. He didn’t pistol whips the gorilla, which is really Jim Belushi in costume. And then the real gorilla hammer fists clearance beak, so a decent amount of head trauma.

Christi Dodge  36:20  

Yeah, boink!

Mike Dodge  36:22  

How about a smoochy? Yes. Winthorpe and Ophelia kiss at the train station. Oh, to to love.

Christi Dodge  36:33  

And we mentioned the show first, was there a driving review?

Mike Dodge  36:38  

Well, there’s basically three rich people cars, right. So we see that winter played by Danny McRae drives a black Mercedes been 604 door sedan. And so that says that it’s it’s functional wealth, right, because it’s a relatively new vehicle. Mercedes is a decent maker, but the Duke brothers, they have a black 68 Rolls Royce Phantom. And so not only is older, but it’s substantially less functional. It’s really just a rolling living room, because they’re rich guys, they don’t have to worry about that. And then Penelope has a 76 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine, says shows that she’s got some money, but she’s not really playing quite at that level. So again, they inform us about the characters with their choice.

Christi Dodge  37:24  

And those Duke brothers, they had a computer in the car that was tracking the stock prices. How realistic was that?

Mike Dodge  37:30  

I think not in the slightest. Okay.

Christi Dodge  37:32  

I was like, I don’t think in 1983, we had this ability. 

Mike Dodge  37:37  

We barely had mobile phone technology. And we certainly did not have Wi Fi or satellite technology. 

Christi Dodge  37:45  

Yes. Thank you. All right. Shall we go to the numbers?

Mike Dodge  38:12  

 Let’s go to the numbers. 

Christi Dodge  37:50  

This film, like I said, came out in 1983 had a budget of $15 million dollars. Domestically, it made 90 million so that it was a huge hit. Adjusted for today. That would be like a film making 302 point 2 million. It got a 7.5 out of 10 on IMDb critics love this movie, they gave it a high be at 88%. And audiences followed suit at 85%. So I think people have memories of this film as being funny. And like I said, I think that the quality of the one upsmanship or the, you know, kind of getting one over on the people in power is what makes this because when people when I when people saw that we were talking about it, they got really excited. 

You know, so I think it has fond memories for those of us who maybe watched it that first time in 1983. It’s just under two hours at an hour and 56 minutes it is rated R it is a comedy. It did win a couple of awards. Jamie Lee Curtis won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress and Eddie Murphy one and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding actors. So that is ironic that even at the time, I would think the NAACP would have had a problem with this scene but definitely wanted to give one of their own, you know, a nod to say you did well, you were very funny in this film.

Mike Dodge  39:20  

Especially at 21. That’s impressive. 

Christi Dodge  39:24  

Let’s see. Denholm Elliot won the BAFTA. I can’t remember who that was.

Mike Dodge  39:28  

He’s Coleman, the butler. I liked his work.

Christi Dodge  39:31  

And John Carlo Esposito is in this. 

Yes, yes, we noticed. 

The filming locations for this movie were Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York City and then at the very end, we get a shot from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. You still have time to put in a guest for what you think the theme of this month is. You will find the email in the show notes it’s Christi@Dodgemediaproductions.com And never forget,

Mike Dodge  40:01  

Dodges never stop and neither do the movies.

Brennan  40:04  

Thanks for listening to Dodge Movie Podcast with Christi and Mike Dodge of Dodge Media Productions. To find out more about this podcast and what we do, go to dodgemediaproductions.com Subscribe, share, leave a comment and tell us what we should watch next. Dodges never stop, and neither do the movies.