Mother Nature really pulled a fast one on us this week, going from a lovely 70 degrees back down to freezing in a snap! I mean, what gives? It's like she decided to give us the cold shoulder right after I finally took my first morning walk since last fall. Seriously, I'm not impressed. Speaking of things that can leave you feeling frosty, we dive into the world of Girl Scouts and their cookie sales, sharing some hilarious anecdotes about the lengths we go to for those sweet treats. Plus, we’ve got a classic movie on deck—1978’s “Foul Play”—featuring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase, where a shy librarian gets caught up in a wild assassination plot. So grab your favorite snack and get cozy as we explore the highs, lows, and laugh-out-loud moments of this delightful film!

Takeaways:

1. Winter's unpredictable weather can really throw a wrench in our outdoor plans, right?
2. It's Girl Scout cookie season, and ordering cookies has become a high-tech affair, with digital payments now involved.
3. Mother Nature sometimes acts like a moody artist, changing her canvas from sunny skies to freezing temperatures overnight.
4. In the film 'Foul Play', Goldie Hawn's character navigates a wild conspiracy while being hilariously oblivious to the dangers around her.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Girl Scouts
2. Etsy
3. Goldie Hawn
4. Chevy Chase
5. Dudley Moore
6. Burgess Meredith
7. John Travolta
8. Christopher Reeve
9. Warren Beatty
10. Marilyn Sokol
11. Eileen Brennan
12. Jack Lemmon
13. Walter Matthau
14. Barbra Streisand
15. Farrah Fawcett
16. Neil Simon

Oh, well, I thought that winter was going away.

I actually took my first morning walk since last fall.

And then.

Then Mother Nature decided to give us the cold shoulder.

Within days, we went from 70 back down to freezing temperatures.

And I am not impressed.

Talk about not being on speaking terms.

It might as well be a late 70s Hitchcock spoof.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Well, the whole.

I think one of your problems is you keep going back to that area, that whole thing, like the outside.

You just have to stay inside and you'll be fine.

I was gonna say I've been avoiding those dark alleys.

Except for when you and I talk about movies.

I know that's where you saw the Albino and ye.

Well, don't forget it's Girl Scouts cookie season soon.

Oh, they make you order them and then deliver them.

They don't just have them.

I'm like, what is your problem?

If I give you my $20, I expect my half a box of cookies now because those things are getting expensive.

Right?

Well, I mean, and Hector is going to be coming in here and.

Don't you let him fool you.

Those are from his sister, not him.

Right.

Well, I mean, it takes me back because if you dig into the archives of this show, I. I discussed True Beverly Hills in a past episode.

I love that film.

And it's all about cookie time.

And yeah, I was just surprised.

A co worker recently promoted his daughters cookie sales.

And of course, being as.

Ingenuous.

Is that even a word that is ingenuous?

In.

Ingenious.

Inventive.

I guess whatever future thinking.

Their.

Their troop head has everything all like, electronic.

They have like a referral code and everything.

You can.

You can even Venmo them for your cookies.

Because, I mean, I don't carry cash.

Yeah, don't you love that when you're like, I'm sorry, I don't have any money on me.

And they're like, here's my venue Venmo code.

I'm like, really?

Wow, you are desperate for that money, aren't you, honey?

Right.

Well, I mean, I'm aging myself.

I remember living in a bigger city, not having a car.

I had a cell phone, not a car.

And somebody at a bus stop asked to borrow my phone, and I'm just like.

Or writing over there.

Go get yourself one.

Yeah, I have only done that once, and thankfully it didn't go wrong there.

Yeah.

Hey, did you hear about the big Easter event coming up?

No.

It's a helicopter egg drop.

Oh, no.

That sounds like it'll go well.

Oh, look at all the little kids down there.

We're gonna drop all the eggs.

Yeah.

I swear, I thought turkeys could fly.

Right?

I was gonna say, at least not turkeys less Nessman.

Right.

That just sounds like a tragic waiting to happen.

Yeah, it is cute how Lula May's got the kids all decorating the baskets and their dying eggs, even though Easter isn't as soon as St. Patty's Day.

Right.

That what she's really doing is she's getting them to do all the work so that she can go sell them by the roadside and make all.

Like she's not already a millionaire girl.

Come on.

Roadside?

What?

She's too lazy for that.

She's got an Etsy.

Oh, no, she'll have.

She'll have Hector standing out there selling.

Yeah, yeah, she's got to pay him not to ask everyone who's their daddy.

Well, yeah, because they actually need to know.

It could be construed very wrong.

I mean, Mother's Day is coming.

Maybe they should know that first.

Well, I think I know the mother anyway.

Well, there's a.

There's a man in the basement who seems to think we need to do things besides rewinding tapes.

Yes, and I told him no.

Not unless he tastes better anyway.

Well, I mean, we either have to board up the door or change the lock.

He's coming up again.

I hear him glare.

This.

Okay.

All right.

Make sure you're standing on the rubber mat and touching something metal because you got to be grounded before we do this here.

Okay.

I'm gonna put it in the machine.

Alrighty.

Well, I made me feel wild Wibbly.

I mean, I. I have a feeling that it's not the 80s anymore.

Not with this smell.

No.

Although it is coming from the basement.

Maybe he's running another operation down there.

The cars have gotten older that are parked outside there.

And there are more people smoking than usual.

Hey, look, bell bottoms.

They're.

They're bad.

No, thank you.

Oh, and.

Oh, that car that just drove by.

I hear some disco music.

I'm thinking that we might be a little bit before the 80s.

Let's let the man in the machine tell us.

Yeah.

Good afternoon, time travelers.

Oh.

World events swung between hope, upheaval, and tragedy.

A landmark moment for peace came with the signing of the Camp David Accords brokered by US President Jimmy Carter between Egypt and Israel.

Meanwhile, the election of Pope John Paul II made history with the first non Italian Pope in.

In more than 450 years.

Tragedy struck late in the year with the Jonestown Massacre shocking the world and reshaping conversations around cults and power.

The year also brought the loss of screen legend Charlie Chaplin.

Amid the turbulence, new cultural voices were born, including Usher and Katie Holmes.

Reminders that even in uncertain times, the next generation is already arriving.

1978.

I certainly can smell those fumes from outdoors there because we didn't have unleaded gas then.

Everyone was cutting the smog with a

knife, that's for sure.

Yeah.

And.

And we didn't quite have lead paint removed from the store shelves.

And they might have still been trying to decide.

They might have been on the fence, quote, unquote, about the old asbestos things.

And women only had the right to have, like, their own bank accounts and credit cards for like, four or five years.

Oh, geez.

Some little girl who is just getting old enough to go in school is going to be the first generation of her family to be able to have a bank account.

Well, yeah.

Without having a husband or father, like, male, sign off on it for her.

Oh, my.

You mean to tell me that some little girl that was starting the school in the late 70s when she.

She gets old enough to vote isn't going to have to stay home if she doesn't want to?

Yeah, there was that, too.

Oh, I would have been.

I would have been seven in this year.

I'm out there somewhere.

Well, I've got a sister that would have been, oh, about 12 or 13.

She would have been part of that generation.

Yeah.

Well, Matt, there are people that still like to go on the outside and.

Thank you, town Red.

Tell us what was going on back in 78 for good time.

Where were they heading?

What were they.

Well, of course, he.

You go to the local theater and hang out.

Of course.

Actually.

Actually, if you're one of the cool kids, you'd be going to the Drive In.

Ah, down at the Drive in, where you could find.

Here it is.

Movies.

All right.

Where you could find Grease playing with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John down at the Drive in, which was actually the biggest box office hit of that year.

That's pretty crazy.

Dockard Channing had a bun in the oven in that movie.

Oh.

And she just turned, like, 82, I think.

Wow, she was good.

I wouldn't cry in front of her.

And then Superman with Christopher Reeve, like the original one, which was one of the movies that actually is kind of, what they say, kind of kicked off the modern superhero movies.

Oh.

So.

Yeah.

And then National Lampoon's Animal House.

National Lampoon had a lot of movies that was with John Felucci and it actually became what they say it was, one of the most influential comedies ever made.

I don't know.

Yeah, okay.

I think the name National Lampoons is actually like a magazine.

Yeah.

Oh, did you ever read.

Oh, you're probably too young.

I remember reading it as a kid.

Yeah.

I didn't understand anything in it, of course, because it was all like a kind of higher brow humor.

Like Mad tv.

Mad TV was part of, I think, the, the National Lampoon stuff.

But yes, it was like Mad TV for yuppies.

Well, yeah, because like mad.

The.

The Mad.

Whole Mad series and stuff I think was connected to national anthems.

Don't quote me.

All right.

Oh, oh.

Every which Way But Loose.

Oh, my goodness.

Ruth Gordon was in that and she was the sweet old lady on a porch with a shotgun.

Yes.

Which was probably the best thing about that movie.

Yeah.

He was a bare knuckle fighter traveling around with an orangutan because that would happen.

Right.

And then.

Oh, heaven can wait.

Yeah.

Warren Beatty, where a man accidentally is taken to heaven before his time and then he plays incarnated.

His character's like a football player that dies before his time, I think.

Yeah.

A horn Beatty back in the 70s.

Tragic.

I wonder what we're going to be watching today.

Because I would go.

I'd go see Superman and Greece.

Oh, Animal House on the big screen.

I've never really seen it since 40 years ago,

actually.

I think it was.

I will see if I can connect to the future.

Wi Fi and.

Yeah.

Yes.

John Belushi, Karen Allen.

Yeah.

Kevin Bacon.

Oh, Tom Hul.

See a bunch of other people.

Don.

Donald Sutherland.

Dude.

Mr. Orange Juice himself.

Right.

Anyway, yeah.

Animal House, it is still considered a classic and we should go back and watch that at some point.

That's.

I, I have.

I.

Like I said, probably when VHS first came out and we could rent it.

I probably saw an House.

I haven't seen it since then.

It's been a while.

Speaking of movies that we might watch now, we all know that with what Lula May is paying, we are.

We aren't going to be seeing anything in the new releases.

Nope.

We might see something somewhere in the Returns there.

Let's find out from the man in the box.

What are we gonna watch today?

You're watching a romantic comedy thriller about a shy San Francisco librarian who becomes entangled in a bizarre assassination plot after a mysterious stranger passes her a roll of film containing hidden clues as danger closes In a bumbling, charming detective helps her unravel the conspiracy.

Blending suspense, slapstick comedy, and romance, the film delivers quirky twists, memorable humor, and.

And a lighthearted take on Hitchcock style intrigue.

Now, up to the point where he said bumbling and charming, I was thinking to myself, depending on who plays it, they might.

They might pull off one more than the other.

Well, I'm sorry, I gotta say, when he said Hitchcock style, what movie did they watch?

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay, Chip, you're talking about Chevy Chase.

I get it.

No, thank you.

Not charming.

And I. I feel like I'm being chased because there's some guitar going me down the alley here.

Rewind through time into movie night.

Blockbusters, indies in black and white.

From 80s thrills to silver screen dreams trapped in the past by a time machine.

Each time, the door for DJ and Ma to explore the lore, the past, his presence.

And you're gonna want.

Lisa, can I have some more?

Man, that is like the best theme song of any podcast out there.

I. I just don't know where we came up with it.

I mean, foul Play, as.

As we watched this, it was very charming and poignant because one of the scenes is the.

The main character played by.

Well, later we'll discuss her.

But this.

This.

This pretty lady who's got brains and knows the business because she eventually went behind the camera for work.

Yes.

Driving the Pacific coast there and just got this beautiful view.

Yeah.

It's just like.

All right, where are we going with this?

Let's actually set some expectations here since this is a.

A movie and we talked about a TV show before.

Let's remind folks how the format works here.

It's kind of like Shakespeare, if you want to think about it.

At theater, we have acts.

1, 2, 3.

In each one is sort of a chapter of the story.

Yes.

Called Chocula here, brought to you by Saturday morning.

And in the first act, we have the setup.

The problem.

Matt, tell us, what is the problem?

The problem was Chevy Chase was in this film.

No.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Okay.

To be fair, if you're anybody who's not fond of Mr. Chase like us, if you could almost blink and miss him and, well, you wouldn't really miss him.

Yeah.

And I mean, he was, I have to be fair, was not horrible in this film.

Anybody else could have played it.

Yeah.

List of actors that we.

We might actually play a fun little game later on.

Who else could have played it?

But let's get Us started.

Matt, how does this town basically.

Foul play begins when this, when this sweet, lovely character, Gloria Monday.

Don't you love that name?

And she's basically shy and lonely because she was divorced from like, a real Jack.

A bad guy, maybe in our basement.

Anyway, she's a San Francisco librarian and she decides that she is going to give a ride home to a mysterious hitchhiker because all of her friends are all like, oh, Gloria, you need to get married again.

You need to find a man.

And she's like, okay, I'm gonna take a chance and give this stranger a ride home.

And then he ends up like, slipping a thing of cigarettes, which actually has.

Well, it.

No, it's not even microfilm.

I don't think it looks like just an undeveloped roll of film.

Yeah.

And slips that into her purse and she ends up, like, carrying it for him.

And they're supposed to meet at a movie theater later.

And then they do and basically he dies on top of her.

And she's all like, oh, my God.

She's.

Oh, my God.

And she goes and tells like, the, the, the manager and they come back and the body is gone.

And apparently nobody in this packed theater saw a thing here.

Gloria Monday is a sweet and innocent looking gal.

She's being shamed into being.

Are shamed about being single because her friend has gotten.

Getting married.

That's the whole.

That's the whole crux of the beginning.

She's been invited to an engagement party and she's being shamed for being single.

Now, caution to the wind.

She.

She doesn't take to.

She doesn't shine.

Take a shine to Chevy Chase's character.

No, that's at the party.

Which is weird, right?

I mean, we.

I think it's pretty clear how we feel about Chevy Chase.

Yeah, she doesn't warm up to the guy who's been invited to this party because you have to be.

You have to have friends to have been willingly invited to a party.

No, that's not good enough for her to even have a conversation with the guy.

She's got to pick up a stranger on the highway.

Right.

Well, I mean, okay, to be completely fair, he was kind of.

He did say something that was kind of jerky to her.

Like, it was kind of like, okay, I kind of understand why she was all like, shut up, dude, to him at the party.

Yeah, it's like, oh, I'm.

I'm going to take my, my friend's advice, Vice, and be more accepting of the opportunities with men by picking up some stranger on the highway.

It's like, what.

I mean, he was kind of a little bit cuter than Chevy Chase at the time.

Yeah.

Until he was dead, you know.

Right.

That is the beginning of the story.

That's the setup.

And.

Well, the problem is she's been handed this pack of cigarettes, and as you said, before long, the guy that she picked up on the highway there is now dead in the movie theater.

And nobody believes her, because when she goes out to get the manager and comes back, he's gone.

It's like, yeah.

If nobody saw a thing.

It's like all the murder mysteries that involved organized crime, the body has been taken from the scene when she returns.

Right.

So everybody thinks she's crazy, and then she goes home, and then they try to kill her again.

And then.

No.

And she stabs people with, like, a knitting needle.

And.

And.

And then, like, nobody.

And then nobody believes her again.

Like, come on.

But we would be remiss if we did.

Oh, yes.

Discuss the fact that the beginning of the movie at the movie theater frames the character of Gloria, played by Goldie Hawn.

Spoiler.

We're going to talk about that perfectly.

Because she's this innocent, sort of clueless person who picks up a hitchhiker, basically.

Right.

She's in the movie, and the guy is dying next to her, and he says to her, beware the dwarf.

And instead of paying attention to the dying man next to her, she says, oh, Scotty, I don't think there is a dwarf in this movie.

Yeah, she's so enraptured in the movie that everything he says just goes right over her head.

She's like, there's gonna be a murder.

It's like, well, yes, we're watching a murder mystery anyway.

And we.

We also have to say that this started the whole movie, even before that part started off with this religious leader being, like, killed in his, like, quarters.

And then suddenly he shows back up alive a little bit later, which is really confusing until we figure things out.

The whole thing, basically, it ends up getting her involved in this plot where she's got.

She's.

She's running from the dwarf, which leads to this whole thing with poor Billy Barty.

That was just.

I actually think that was probably my.

The part where I actually laughed.

Yeah.

And then there's the.

Oh, my God.

And I'm being chased by an albino.

Which.

That whole thing was like, okie dokie.

I don't know.

Albinos that have, like, bright, glowing white eyes.

Okay.

Yeah.

That whole.

I mean, that's your Typical old style murder story.

Yeah, you've got a policeman or detective type, and they don't actually name the people by name.

They have a profile.

Oh, you've got Scarface.

Yeah, or.

Or Still Skin.

Like she kept.

They kept saying 21 named still skin.

And I was waiting for somebody to be like, well, Rumpelstiltskin.

Nope, nobody said that at all in this film.

And that's part of the joke because you hear about the dwarf, you're about Stiltskin, and you're wondering if this is one of the same person.

Yeah, we get to that a bit here.

So how did you feel about Gloria being pulled into a dangerous conspiracy simply because she helped a stranger?

Did it make this story feel exciting, frightening, or was that implausible to you?

Actually, I hate, I hate that.

I hate that because it's like it makes you, the world afraid to help anybody because you just like.

I hate when people do good things and then it ends up being awful.

But it worked for the movie just fine.

I mean, helped because she was so clueless.

Oh, my goodness.

And then when she wasn't clueless, everybody else thought she was clueless because they're like, oh, you're just.

Oh, you're just a crazy little fragile woman.

You know, you must be going off the.

Going around the bend because you're single at 36, you know, or.

I don't know how old she was.

She's probably in her 30s at least.

They're just like, oh, you're.

Yeah, you're crazy.

You're crazy.

She's a tragic tale.

Oh, they tried to make Chevy Chase's character out to be like this crazy guy who got, like, suspended and does all these weird things and is like this rebel.

And yet he was so milquetoast.

Oh, yeah, he was.

He was supposed to be unconventional, like.

Yeah, right.

That's supposed to be.

Make his character more stand out.

Yeah, I'm sorry, girl.

You ain't Ernie Murphy crossing the country to go to Beverly Hills and meet Bronson Pinchot.

I mean, this is actually.

And we'll.

We'll discuss the other part of this in a bit.

This is his first time on the silver screen.

Yeah, yeah.

For me, I certainly believe that they played on the stereotype of Gloria being sweet and innocent.

And I think that that made the story more interesting because.

Yeah.

Because she was so likable.

She.

She didn't really.

You got the impression that this is Somebody that's going to be taken advantage of.

It's like the accident that you can't help watch happening.

Right.

The only question I had, though, was, did they have her number?

What do you mean by that, Gloria?

Oh, I think they have your number.

They never had her number.

Taking it back to misfits of science here.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, we've.

We talked that out.

So many songs.

Oh.

I have a question for you, unless you want to.

Unless you still want to elaborate more.

No, no, no.

Okay.

How did you feel about the relationship that develops between Gloria and the detective as they begin uncovering the plot together?

Well, I mean, not saying as much about the character as the actor, I. I think that the character wasn't really deserving of Gloria because she was a smart person.

Yeah.

Who had been.

Who had been taken advantage of.

And clearly she wasn't interested in this detective played by Chevy Chase because she turned him down at the party.

Now, it could be the fact that he was coming on too strong and he was using pickup lines.

Right.

Because anybody will tell you the worst thing you can do to interest somebody is to use a quote unquote line, you be yourself, because that's who they're going to meet in the end anyways.

Yeah.

And, yeah, I just, I agree with you that, that the.

There was no chemistry.

And then even.

Even when they tried to make chemistry where I. I was actually glad that when he was there to kind of give her some bit of protection and actually believe in what she was saying.

I'm like, finally.

Because she's kind of getting herself out of situations and stuff.

The first night that he actually believes her and tries to protect her.

Well, he left her alone.

Then the second night, they went to the boat and they ended up having sex.

And I'm just like, there is no chemistry between them.

And.

And then this was just kind of forced into, like, I don't know, it's 70s.

We're.

We're on the lamb.

What do we do?

We have sex.

Okay.

Right.

What are they?

I mean, it's a.

It's after the fact.

Because.

Yeah, it was like the generation before we in the 60s would have called it free love, because the entire suggestion is supposed to be, now that we aren't encouraging people to necessarily be in traditional relationships.

Yeah.

You can.

You can wear short skirts and stuff.

Yeah.

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

Right.

I think that anybody else who played the part.

Well, it may have just been the way the character was written.

I would like to think that if they had somebody more along the lines of Robert Redford, which maybe they couldn't afford because Goldie was their headliner and they couldn't.

Yeah.

But have a budget for two people.

If you had played it more old fashioned where the detective became sweet on her and actually romanced her.

And I'm sorry, I'm going to reference another of my favorite movies that I discussed in the past and this had Marcia Mason in it with Donald Sutherland.

Max Dugan returns.

She's a school teacher in that one.

And he, he romances her by buying her flowers and inviting her out to dinner.

That's something that Chevy Chase's character should have done.

Then again, he is a policeman who's trying to investigate this still.

Right.

It was just.

Yeah.

It didn't.

Go ahead, finish.

If he's going to be interested in her, make it less.

Wham, bam and make it more.

How do you like your eggs?

Yeah.

And that's the thing is that her character wasn't.

Didn't seem to be written as the type of character who's just going to fall into bed with someone.

It was much more like she was, she was somebody that.

Yeah.

If a little bit more romance or somebody that had like this like Robert Redford type.

Oh my God.

You know, like I, I'm gonna make an exception because you're amazing and you're, you know, you're my hero when you're trying to save me.

And oh, I'm just, you know, with, you know, it's like, here, let's go to my houseboat.

And what kind of houseboat was that?

Oh my God, that was like.

That was gigantic.

I mean, and we, we saw it wasn't you.

You're pretty much banking on there being a water bad because it's.

Well, I think she probably slept with him because his dog was cute.

Right.

I mean, we could both be wrong.

It could be the fact that Gloria, Monday's ex was the Robert Redford type.

And now this, this quick little fling is her rebound.

Right.

That Monday.

Monday, Gloria.

Yeah.

So there was somebody behind the camera.

There were, there were a few scenes in this that there was a figure in the shadows.

The actual director was the person that put this whole effort together.

Well, you won't believe that this was actually Colin Higgins who was with us.

He was actually born in, I'm not even going to say that, New Caledonia, which.

And raised in Australia and then California.

And he studied at Stanford University and UCLA and gained his first.

And gained recognition for actually co writing.

You will not believe this.

We had brought this up many times recently.

The screenplay for Harold and Maude.

Oh yeah, and we all know that Harold, the actor who played Harold sadly passed away just a couple weeks ago.

But anyway he gained recognition for that which became of course a cult classic.

And then he went on to write and direct other comedies including Foul Play of course and nine to Five.

Oh, I know, right?

Like that is.

Wow.

Okay.

And then of course that became a box office hit.

He's known for writing of course, witty dialogue, having strong female characters, which is great, especially at a time when other Hollywood didn't give female characters any strength.

And his work actually still remains influential in, in the film community.

He was only 47.

Imagine what he could have given us if he had not.

If he had been.

That hadn't happened.

I, I've never figured this out.

I think Stanford is on the east coast and then ucla.

One could say that Colin Higgins was bicoastal.

Well, you never know.

I mean things happen.

Speaking about strong female characters, we're not going to have much time to discuss her.

One of my favorite people in this whole movie was Gloria's well intentioned friend Stella, who Raven, black hair and she just had a bag of tricks.

Let's just say that she was trying to teach her how to take care of herself.

Do you remember what was in her bag of tricks?

Well, let's see.

Okay, it started out okay.

The first one was this little box that made this ear piercing screeching noise that apparently everybody in the park was like covering their ears like they were horrified.

And I'm just like I'm horrified just watching this on screen.

It was basically a high tech version of a rape whistle.

Right.

And then she, her second thing was a, a hairspray sized can of mace, which I've never seen mace that big.

Good for her.

And then, and then.

Okay, and, and, and then brass knuckles which were far too big for their hands.

Now here's the thing though.

When, when she finally got Gloria to take those things to protect herself and they did come in handy and Gloria was very smart about it.

When Gloria wakes up in this room all alone after being chloroformed, where did she get those.

Like they, they didn't like bring her purse with her.

They didn't like, like she did she have these giant things stuffed down her bra, which was very small.

Like, where did she get those?

Yeah.

And if I didn't mention Stella was played by Marilyn Sokol, I don't have much time to talk about her.

She had the best line in the movie because when she was trying to get Gloria to take these things from her, she said to her, without these, you're a light bulb waiting to get screwed.

Yeah, that was a good line.

Although it seemed to come out sideways.

Yes, that was a great line.

As we know, we've been talking about her already.

Time to peel back the curtain here and do our reveal.

Our leading lady was played by the legend herself, Goldie Han, who is just turning 80 later this year.

Yeah, she, Dolly Parton and Liza share, share.

All share the same decade together there.

Yes.

And Goldie, of course, is an Academy Award winning actress.

Also went on to become a producer.

And she started as a comedian known for effervescent charm and comedian timing.

She was bubbly and she first rose to fame on the television sketch show Rowan and Martin's Laughing because the catchphrase then was suck it to me.

And that's what her character said in her little appearances there.

So sweet.

She's scantily clad and often wore body paint.

And Han won the Academy Award for best supporting actress in a film at the beginning of her career called Cactus Flower, which she starred in with Walter Matthaus, who would later on star with Barbra Streisand in Funny Lady.

That's where Goldie got the start of her career.

And she also went on to do such films that were hits, such as Private Benjamin, which had Eileen Brennan in Overboard, which starred her life partner, Mr. Kurt Russell, and of course, the movie we're discussing now, Foul Play.

Now, Goldie was born in Washington, D.C. and trained as a ballet dancer before acting, which is kind of funny because she often plays characters that are awkward and not very graceful.

Right.

She's been in a long term relationship, as mentioned, with Kurt Russell since 83.

They've been together 40 years and is the mother of actors Tate Hudson and Oliver Hudson.

And wow, through the Han foundation, she promotes mindfulness and emotional education programs for children worldwide.

Now, Matt, Goldie has been a busy lady, whether she's been behind the camera or in front of it.

How many films has she turned out?

Well, you will not believe this.

She has only been in 37 films.

I thought she had much More than that, one of the amazing things is that a lot of the films that she was in became such hits that.

I mean, it's.

Yeah, believe it or not, her number one film that she's recognized for is called Cactus Flower, where she won an Academy Award for Best supporting actress.

Yeah.

And then in the 80s, she was.

Well, yes.

Oh, go ahead.

In the 80s she was in Private Benjamin, which was quite a.

A different film for the time because she was a woman in uniform.

Yes.

Considered her signature role for the time.

And it earned an Oscar nomination for Beck to actress.

And it paired her, of course, with Eileen Brennan, which.

That's such a household name.

I just can't help drop it every time I can.

Right.

We love her.

And what movie?

What, what one?

What's one of her other top five movies, Matt?

Well, it was Overboard, where she actually played with a part with Kurt Russell, her longtime partner, and she was a rich heiress who fell over, who fell overboard and lost her memory.

And then they said, oh, you're my wife.

Take care of my kids and my.

In my little shack with no money, and.

Yeah.

While I go shovel fish poop at night.

Right.

And then they tried to make a remake and I'm like, girl, you can't remake Goldie Hawn.

Sorry.

Yeah, I have not seen it.

They.

They apparently gender swapped.

Yeah, I haven't seen it either.

Yeah, it's, it's not a total remake.

It's.

It's a twist.

My Overboard was easily one of my favorites because even though Goldie herself has done well for herself financially, I have it on good authority that she's a very down to earth person.

Yes.

An old roommate of mine had a family member that worked in construction and was fortunate enough to do work on someone's vacation home in the mountains.

And the homeowner was not expected to be home while they were working on this person's deck.

Well, how.

It came time for their lunch break, and supposedly, according to this third party, Goldie Hawn came out and served the construction men lunch herself.

Oh, that's sweet.

No employees, no servants, no domestics.

Right.

Herself.

That's so sweet.

I. I hear that Reba is another person like that who's just really down to earth and very sweet and very charming, like who she really is.

So the other top five films include the one we're talking about today, Foul Play, and then what's one of the others, Matt?

Well, none other than the First Wives Club with Bette Midler and Diane Keaton, who sadly passed just a few and this, this film is like so iconic, so perfect.

Like, and that's why I said the Private Benjamin, Overboard, the First Wives Club.

I mean, just hit after hit after after hit.

And she just.

It's brilliant.

And of course, it's basically a cameo.

Dockard Channing plays the friend they went to school with, they lost touch with in the beginning of First Wives Club.

And, and in the end they name the charity that they formed in her.

Their friend's name.

There is that.

Yes.

First Wives Club and those others are Goldie's top five of her 37 films of, of the 37 films that Ms. Goldie Hawn has appeared to date because she still occasionally does things for like, Netflix.

I've seen 14 quite a bit and it's fair to say that the ones that I haven't seen are on my list to see.

I would say that my top favorites include Overboard, mostly because she gets to share the screen with her real life life partner, Kurt Russell, because the character is also so down to earth.

I mean, she goes from being this, this rich woman who couldn't stand the carpenter and even referred to the town that they're from as Elk Snout.

I also find the other movie that's my close favorite, tied with Overboard is a movie with Steve Martin, which, I mean, I'm not a huge Steve Martin fan.

I like him better than Bill Murray.

House Sitter is a really good movie for Goldie Han fans because she plays a character that's basically a habitual liar.

You go through this whole movie and she's coming up with stories to justify her actions and it's just something you have to watch to believe, right?

Yeah.

Well, I have seen 11 of them and First Wives Club, my favorite.

And then Private Benjamin is my second favorite.

I actually, like, went out of my way to buy that film because I loved her and Eileen Brennan much.

It's just an amazing iconic film.

House center was pretty good too.

I actually forgot about that until you had it listed.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember that now.

I did see that.

It wasn't bad.

All right, the middle of the action here, the sandwich center, the conflict, and the rising action.

As strange figures pursue her and bizarre incidents escalate, Gloria realizes she has stumbled into a complex assassination plot involving powerful conspirators.

With the reluctant help of a skeptical police detective played by, played by Chevy Chase, of course.

Gloria begins piecing together the clues while dodging increasingly dangerous, dangerous attempts on her life, drawing her deeper into the unfolding conspiracy.

So it should be noted that this is where Stella's advice comes into play.

Right.

She has been given the tools, so to speak, to survive, and she does make use of them.

She's being held somewhere, basically an apartment that later on people deny being rented.

Basically.

There's some organized crime going on.

There's some palms are being greased.

And of course, we have convenient memory.

Gloria, played by Goldie Hawn, has to figure out how to get out of her situation.

And she eventually ends up sneaking out the window after she has.

Well, let's just say she has disarmed her cap door.

Yes.

With these tools that came out of nowhere.

I guess she just conjured them.

This.

That part right there is.

Is just.

It shows how well that her.

They wrote her character because she didn't.

You would look at this character as somebody who needs a man to save them.

Typically, like, that's what you would expect.

I mean, because she's a tiny little thing.

She not only knocks out this great big guy after using all three of her tools, she climbs out a window and then down a fire escape and then drops herself into a truck full of sand or something, which just happens to be going by at night time in the rain.

She.

I mean, that's.

That's pretty awesome of her.

Usually it would have to be some man that like saved her or she just magically managed to get by them.

She just.

Well, the hysteric.

I love that.

The hysterical part about it is that the whole time that she's proving that she doesn't need a man, she manages to survive the incident by only losing one shoe.

Right, Exactly.

And I love that how she, like, not only does she, like, climb down the fire escapes up, she takes her shoes off and holds them as she's.

She's going down in the rain and then trying to get those two little old dirty ladies attention to the window.

And please explain that because if somebody's not sure if they want to watch foul play, this is easily a moment to soften the blow.

Stay.

And there are so many of these wonderful little moments like this in this film where it's these two little ladies.

Gloria is trying to get their attention through the window.

Yeah.

That they can, like, open the window.

She can come in because otherwise she has to jump, like a story and a half to the ground and she would hurt herself.

And these two little old ladies can't see her at the window because they.

They're using magnifying glasses just to see the Scrabble board in front of them as they spell out dirty clues like.

And they don't actually show the words, which I thought was funny.

One of them puts down the F word and then tries to build on it by putting mother in front of it.

Spelled with a U.

It was.

And I'm like, this is hilarious.

Now the scene did go on a little long for humor's sake.

And then they're just chatting away about the most crazy things until they're like, oh, I don't think that's right.

I think there's a hyphen in that word.

I was waiting for Gloria to throw her shoe and break the window or

kick the window or bang on it or something.

That never happened.

She ended up saving herself despite the those nasty little old ladies.

I mean, and if you think about it too, Gloria was probably considering that she might shock the two old ladies and give one of them a stroke.

She just didn't throw her shoe.

Even though it might have saved her life.

Right.

She still ended up dropping it.

I love that.

I it was, it's scenes like that that make this movie where you understand why it, it is still considered a really good film.

Let's see here.

I wrote that.

How did you feel about the way the clues slowly reveal the larger assassination plot?

I I, I, I, that's a good question.

I, I think that the, the smaller clues that the schwints that you're like, okay, that's logical.

Why aren't you looking at that?

Because that would make a they, the bigger clues just had to kind of smack them and hit them in the face.

They didn't how they felt.

Found them.

I thought it was fine.

I thought it was a little heavy handed.

It's a broad comedy.

It worked just fine.

And that's not a play on words either.

I mean there is a woman in the league.

It's not that kind of broad.

Well, it should be noted though, that the identity of the man that Gloria picks up earlier in the movie is eventually explained to be a fellow undercover cop working for the same precinct as Chevy Chase's character.

Supposedly the, the evidence that was planted on Gloria, the cigarette pack with the roll of film, was not just some random person.

This was a policeman who probably knew what they were doing and what they were taking pictures of.

Right.

Which was basically an assassination plot that and the whole time we're hearing who's gonna get assassinated in the background and I'm like, okay, that has to be significant for something.

What does, why do we keep hearing that?

And then finally we know.

No spoilers because in the beginning, the, the religious leader is offed in his own office.

And eventually we realize that he has sort of a double, and it's in.

We won't explain how he comes to have a double.

It's very convenient, let's just say.

I mean, I. I think that they used it in a Leslie Nielsen Naked Gun movie or two.

Right.

Like, how ruthless do you have to be as.

As a.

As killers to be able to kill that?

Right.

I'm like, wow, I guess you really mean it.

Yeah.

The.

The clothes slowly revealing themselves.

I think it actually made it more believable that people didn't think she was telling the truth.

It's like these things connect.

And now, of course, that makes sense when you have all these random facts.

It's like, well, what does that have to do with the other.

Right.

And the fact that the cigarette pack was sitting on her land.

Or actually, I keep confusing it because it's the same building.

She and her landlord live above or below each other.

Right.

The sets are pretty much the same because, I mean, it's a duplex.

In other words, the cigarette pack is sitting on Gloria's end table, and her landlord comes upstairs at some point, and he's got his pet snake with him, which we could talk about in a minute.

It's really not a big thing.

It's.

It's one of those moments where you're like, pretty big.

Oh, my goodness, there's a snake.

It turns out it's the landlord's legit pet.

There's a pack of cigarettes, and Burgess Meredith's character, who's the landlord, is concerned that his pet snake is going to go after the cigarettes because it was going to go after cookies he was offering to his tenant earlier.

Right?

Here we are.

This girl is being chased through the whole movie over a piece of evidence that was planted on her unknowingly when her.

A hitchhiker basically said that he needed his cigarettes to be kept for safe keeping because he was trying to quit.

Now, those are no longer part of the deal because what did the landlord do with a cigarette pack when the snake seemed to be on them?

Okay, here's another scene.

Let's take a moment with.

Okay, It's Burgess Meredith and his character, the landlord and the.

One of the cops.

Right?

It was the cop at that scene.

Okay, they're looking.

The whole thing revolves around this pack of cigarettes, which the cop knows about.

They.

Then the.

The snake starts to go after the cigarettes because apparently it loves cigarettes for some dang reason.

And.

And then Burgess Meredith is all like, I know Karate.

I'm gonna go with you to save Gloria.

And it's like, okay, little old man who knows karate, sure, you can come with me to save Gloria.

And then.

Which is just like way out of left field, right?

And then he says, he's like, talks about the cigarettes.

The cop knows about the cigarette, doesn't pick up on it at all, right?

And then Burgess is like, well, let's get rid of these.

He throws him in the fireplace, right?

The cigarettes with the film in it ends up getting burned to bits.

Nobody pays attention.

And how is there a lit fire in Gloria's place with Gloria being kidnapped a long time ago?

And.

And nobody puts the fire out.

Before everybody leaves, we are at about

the halfway mark in our show.

We're going to take a brief break for some ads, some jingles, some nostalgia, something that says late 70s.

And we know that there was still smoking in media because that's part of the plot.

She's got a pack of cigarettes in this movie.

Interestingly enough, her character doesn't smoke, which is not a regular thing.

Then I mean, it's like you're refusing a sponsorship possibility here, right?

Urban butter Rice a Roni.

Wow.

Savory rice pilaf.

Rice a Roni.

Great.

Large.

I just tried the new rice a Roni flavor.

I just tried it too.

Isn't savory rice pilaf terrific price, Bill.

It's urban life butter.

Come over.

Let's try them.

You know something?

They're both delicious.

The San Francisco treat.

Hey, this Christmas party is getting a little too quiet.

I think it's time we liven it up with my favorite Christmas gift, Mr.

Microphone.

Hey, what's that?

Well, you set the dial on your FM radio and.

Testing, testing.

These kids are having a fabulous time with Mr.

Microphone.

The cordless microphone that actually puts your voice on the radio.

There are no attaching wires, so you're free to move around.

Broadcast over any FM car radio.

Hey, good looking.

We'll be back to pick you up later.

You can broadcast in Mono or with

a two more radio, this is Sarah.

Professional entertainers use Mr.

Microphone for rehearsing.

And you can too.

It's practical and great fun for the whole family.

And for only 12.88, they really make great Christmas gifts.

The perfect Christmas gift at Walgreens, Woolworth, Woolco, Osco Venture, Weibulls, Montgomery Ward.

When you're into perfection, keep on your toes.

You have to be quick.

Cause here's how it goes.

Push the plunger down, set the timer, fit the pieces in place.

Don't be slowing.

Perfection.

You gotta move on fast, move on fast or the pieces pop up before

you put in the lats.

And then perfection.

Perfection.

Complete with playing box, mechanical timer, and 25 geometric shapes from lakeside.

Okay, and we're back.

Because you just leave our doors unlocked and we keep our fires burning.

Speaking of Burgess Meredith, that was another thing that was funny is because he actually did end up taking on like the woman, the bad guy assassin woman who also knew karate.

And like everybody else is just standing there watching while he, while they beat the heck out of each other.

And finally, thankfully, Burgess wins.

Like, that was awesome.

I love that they did that.

It was weird.

I mean, only in a Goldie Hawn film will you see Burgess Meredith going after the captor who just happens to be a woman.

He doesn't care.

They, they the old fashioned values.

Hit a woman, okay?

Unless she's trying to hit you.

Yeah, well, and they were trying to karate chop.

And they both, they both knew they were really good at it.

It was a fun scene.

It was serious business.

When she took her shoes off, right?

She's like, I'm gonna get you.

And he said, no, you're not.

Speaking of Burgess Meredith, I think you've got a thing or two to tell us about him.

Yeah, he played the landlord in Foul Gloria's Downstairs, Sweet as Pie Old men Landlord.

Yes, with the creepy pet.

Basically, Burgess was, he was such a versatile actor.

He also did directing, he was a producer.

I mean, his, his career spanned like six decades or more.

And he actually earned an Academy Award for roles like the, the boxing trainer Mickey Goldman Goldmill in Rocky and its sequel.

Now he's been married.

He was married four times, including to actress Paulette Goddard.

And he had two children and remained very active in film and television into his later years.

I mean, much, much later years.

Yeah.

Let's talk about his top films, shall we?

He kept busy, it looks like.

Oh yes, he did.

And he had, I mean, it was crazy.

In fact, he did one of the first versions of Mice and Men that there were out there and where he played George Milton.

And then of course he was in Rocky and Rocky 2.

Rocky got him an Academy Award nomination.

And he was in Clash of the Titans which is one of my favorites.

Like the first one of course, where he played the witty poet Amon and he was in Grumpy Old Men and he basically stole scenes because he played like the crazy foul mouthed father of Jack Lemmon.

And he was like way up there in age when he was doing that.

And he just kept active the whole time.

I loved him.

And another one of our favorites, the Martian.

My favorite Martian.

Oh yes.

We just talked about him.

Yes, those two.

After I figured out they weren't the same person.

Yeah, I love those two.

They were so cool.

Yeah.

So how many scenes have you seen?

How many movies have you seen?

How many cards do I have?

Okay, yeah, I will say before you say that he did almost the same same amount in of TV shows as movies.

I mean he was active his entire life.

I mean, anyway he had kids.

I mean I'm sure that they got their college paid for.

He must have done it in between

Oh, I actually have only seen eight of Burgess his films.

Hubby is actually more well versed in the.

The Batman appearances.

Hobby was a Batman fan and he's very familiar with Penguin.

And of course it should be noted that part of the Persona of the Penguin with that sort of nasally laugh was actually to cover the penguins coughing fit fits.

So they invented that to cover the penguins coughing fits.

Of all the movies that I've seen with Burgess Meredith, it's, I'm not sad to say, it's just kind of timeliness for me.

My introduction to Burgess Meredith included foul play which I saw on HBO one winter on, on a rerun or whatever.

Grumpy Old Men is one of my favorite favorites because it introduced me to the likes of my.

Some of my dad's generation's favorites, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

I mean everybody knew Jack Lemmon from the original movie of the Odd Couple, but Walter Matthau I'd only known of from being in Funny lady with Barbra Streisand.

You got those two together and it was such a perfect balance because they threw in Ann Margaret into that mix and then in the sequel they brought us Sophia Loren because one of the aging bachelors lost his.

Or no, I'm sorry, in.

In the first Grumpy Old Men, Ann Margaret became Jack Lemmon's wife.

And then in the second film, Sophia Lorenzo became Walter Matthau's New wife.

Anyways, Burgess Meredith was in both.

I adored him because as you said, he was the foul mouthed dad of Jack Lemmon's character.

And although he didn't have many speaking parts in the movie, he was a formidable presence.

And everybody remembers him talking about wanting a bacon sandwich because that's not something he was supposed to, to have at his age.

Understandable.

I would want one too.

Yeah.

I've seen nine of his films.

My favorites are Clash of the Titans and Rocky.

And I think that Rocky because of however people think of Sylvester Stallone.

Stallone actually wrote the film, he directed the film, it won awards.

It was an amazing film for, and I don't want to say for its time because I think that it still stands up, I should say, for its.

For who, for who it represented, which was the.

Very much of a class.

I still think it's an amazing film that holds up and Burgess did, did a wonderful job as the, as the trainer, the coach in that.

So, you know.

Yeah.

Yes.

All right.

Getting into the third act, the climax and the resolution.

Oh my.

Yes.

Well, I mean, there, there, there had to be a climax because eventually Gloria decided he, he was good enough for her.

Or at least that night anyway.

In the climax of Foul Play, Gloria Mundy and Detective Tony Carlson.

Sounds like a travel agency.

Yes.

Finally uncovered the assassination plot targeting a visiting religious leader during a performance at the San Francisco Opera House.

Now of the Mikado.

Yes.

It should be noted that actually some of the scenes that were filmed for that were not of an actual opera house.

They were of the historical San Francisco City Hall.

Ah.

As the cons, as the conspirators move into position, Gloria helps identify the killer and prevent the attack.

Just in time, of course, because it's getting to be the end of the movie and people want to go home.

The danger is stopped, the criminals are exposed and order is restored.

Having survived the chaos together, Gloria and Tony's unlikely partnership turns into a budding romance, bringing the adventure to a playful, satisfying conclusion.

When in reality she just realizes that she left her keys at his place.

Yeah, pretty much now.

Okay, didn't, did you love the part where they're like shooting people?

Right.

And two of the bodies, first the cop and then the, the albino bad guy, both fall off the rafters, get stuck in the set of a ship at the.

And then the ship goes down at the end of the play and there's just these two dead people hung in the right.

Hung there on stage.

Nobody knows what's going on.

The actors are like, what the hell?

There's all sorts of double entendres there.

Because they went down with a ship.

Oh, yeah.

Didn't even think of that.

And the number two, the ship didn't even belong to the play that was being performed.

That should have been glaringly apparent that something was wrong because they've had a set change in the midst of the play being performed.

Matt, please explain to our listeners who may be on the fence about watching this movie, what happens when these two men are dangled?

That just makes the scene continue just like the movie theater.

When the guy died, nobody batted an eyelash.

What happened?

What happened to make everybody think that this was just normal?

It was part of the performance.

Well, first, I didn't even realize you just answered my question, because I'm like, what the hell does a ship have to do with this?

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's probably from Pirates of Penzance or something.

Everybody's just stunned and staring.

All the people in the audience.

And then none other than the Pope starts clapping.

Like, and, like the whole time in the.

In the show, which.

The Mikado is like a very special.

Like, their music is a little weird.

He's just toe tapping along and he's having a grand old time.

And then he just starts clapping.

And everybody else is like, oh, well, the Pope's clapping.

We better clap, too.

I mean, historically, the Pope has often been an older person.

I'm assuming that he probably drifted off during this, and he wasn't really present in the moment to notice that there's two bed bodies dangling there.

He just thought, oh, bravo, Bravo.

Yeah.

It's like, probably everybody.

The audience was like, what is the symbol.

Symbolism of a ship coming down in this Japanese play and two people in modern clothing just hanging there, not moving.

What is the symbolism?

The symbolism is they're dead.

Yeah.

And shots fired.

And none of the actors stop what they're doing at all.

They just kind of glance around like, what was that?

And then continue singing.

I had to.

I have to admit that not being somebody who's lived on the west coast and maybe have been more exposed to some of this, Their culture, perhaps.

I was not aware that the Mikado was an actual theatrical presentation, and I thought that this was totally made up for the purposes of the movie.

Nope.

No.

In fact, it's funny because one of my favorite lines from it is during the.

The three little mates from school are we.

And then I. I still remember there's this British show where they were doing it, and.

And somebody says, oh, and I was younger.

I was known for my Yum Yum.

Oh, I bet you were, Nancy.

Because.

Because one of the characters is named Yum Yum.

Because in.

In today's media there is something that we call cultural appropriation, right?

And of course, we avoid things like having a Caucasian person wearing dreadlocks because that's considered cultural appropriation.

And we never, ever, even if it's historically accurate, use blackface now.

Absolutely not.

This is its own version of that because we have Caucasian people presenting a play as if they were people of Asian descent.

I suppose it's historically accurate because this is the way that it's always been presented.

Before we had the red light go on here and we were recording, Matt and I were discussing the fact that you would have expected more people of Asian extraction to have actually been in the cast of a historically Asian tail like the Mikado being performed.

And I looked it up because we love our AI here.

One of the most cringe worthy.

That's the.

The.

The phrase that the kids are using these days.

Cringe worthy.

Cringe, yeah, cringe.

One of the most cringe moments in modern cinema.

Modern being my use of modern in that it was like before the 90s.

Tony Randall, most well known for being on TV's version of Odd Couples, did a film called the Seven Faces of Dr. Lau and it is noted as being the.

One of the most cringe moments in portrayal of Asian persons because his character is made up to be an Asian person.

Now, it should also be noted, though, that one of the other most offensive representations of this sort of cultural appropriation is it had Mary Tyler Moore and.

And Julie Andrews.

And it actually had Pat Morita as their cultural consultant on whether or not this was okay to portray people of Asian descent this way.

I'm sure back then it was a paycheck.

He was like, yeah, I'll take your money and oh, that's okay.

But yeah, seven faces of Dr. Lau.

So don't ever show that in your home if you have any friends of Asian extraction, because you won't anymore anyways.

All right, let's get back on the.

On the train tracks here.

How did you feel about the way the assassination plot was ultimately revealed and stopped at the opera house?

Did the ending.

Did the ending feel satisfying or predictable?

I think that was satisfying.

Yeah.

I think they did a good job getting them there and figuring it all out.

Now you want to talk about.

Okay, another little part that we cannot Leave out.

And this is another part that is both.

One of the things that make this movie, like the little things that it adds that we've talked about, that make it fun, and yet at the same time was slightly kind of like racially like, that fine line was when they were on the way to the Mikado to stop them from doing all this stuff.

They get in this car, this limo with these two people who'd been.

Who's their first time in the country.

They speak no real English at all.

They don't know what's going on.

And of course, it's two little Japanese people, old, like, senior citizen Japanese people, first time in America.

And then they're all of a sudden in a big cop chase going through the streets of San Francisco.

And let me tell you.

And they speak no English until one of them says, what's the magic word?

Was it.

Well, they were Kojak.

Yes.

They're being spoken to and they agreed on the words and.

Right.

Oh, and Goldie Hawn's character, Gloria, was sort of the diplomat in this sense, because.

Yes.

While her policeman friend Tony is just focused on getting them there.

She's concerned that here we have two people who might be getting the wrong impression as their first impression of America.

Right.

She's worried about that.

Just once they're.

They start going.

And they were just laughing the whole time.

And the little old guy just kept saying Kojak.

And the.

His wife just laughed hysterically, and she was so funny anyway.

And that's one of those things.

Like, this part is, like, amazing and funny, and yet you're also like, what does this movie have to do?

Like, do they have something against Asian people?

Like, why.

Why is it?

I. I don't get it.

Well, we might as well rewind for a moment on the.

Rewind through time

because one of the token scenes in this movie that is a special moment for anybody who hasn't seen.

Should be no surprise there's a little person in this movie.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

And I can say that because I'm of Irish American descent.

I am, too.

Less than I thought I was.

Oh, yeah.

St. Patrick's Day is coming up and we got a little person in this movie.

The little person is actually not written to be a stereotypical little person.

No.

And it's refreshing.

In fact, if you read up on the Truvia about Foul Play, one of the actors in Foul Play is a man named Billy Barty, who has had many roles in his career that included characters that were a stereotype of A little person.

However, the character that he plays in Foul Play is a traveling salesman, and he just happens to be a little person.

The timing is very poor when he shows up at Gloria's door because what did her dying date say on their only date before he passed away, what did he say to her?

To beware the dwarf?

And here he comes, and he has this big suitcase.

Then he barges his way in to her place and then starts talking about how she feels about the afterlife and how he's going to help her be at peace about going to the afterlife.

And it's all like this dialogue that you're just like, okay, I don't know where this is going.

I think this might be a setup.

If not, he's like a real bad guy, right?

It's like an old Western.

It's like, do you feel lucky, punk?

Every time she said, beware the dwarf, he said, actually, we were for little people.

And then.

I don't know.

This is one of those scenes where I almost hate to spoil.

Let me tell you, it's one of the few ones that I laughed.

Actually laughed out loud during this movie.

Because Billy Barty is such a.

Was.

Was such a fun actor.

And he did this part and the two of them together and the things that happened.

Oh, my gosh.

Well, and then after, when she, like, goes and visits him, and then she's, like, gonna smack him with a noose.

He's like, no, like, the one part of him that isn't damaged.

And she's gonna smack it because there's a fly on him.

Well, what's hysterical is she's come to bring him flowers.

You realize that she really feels bad because he's already been visited once and he already has flowers, presumably from her.

Yes.

Several times.

She sent, like, a whole bunch of flowers and brought in more because she felt bad.

Well, I would, too, after you beat up this little person and practically kill him.

Dropping him out the window and rolling, oh, my God.

I'm just a single white female.

Please don't sue me into bank bankruptcy.

That's what I was thinking.

He was so nice about you.

He's like, well, I'm just gonna consider that this was a career change.

I was expecting him to say, look, I am gonna.

He could have had her, like, life ruined after that.

But, yeah, I mean, this is sort of borderline spoiler.

I think it's essential, because here she's been told to beware the dwarf.

Right.

What makes you feel like a total crap when you've hurt someone?

When you when you find out they are, like, the most innocent person that you could hurt.

What was.

What was j.

His name was J.J. mcEwan.

What was Mr. McEwen's occupation?

Matt.

He was a traveling Bible salesman.

He was a Bible salesman.

Like, literally, like, what are the odds that you're like one day, you've never.

Probably never seen a little person in real life at that or whatever she may have.

She's San Francisco.

And then she's told, beware of the dwarf.

And then there's a little person at your door.

Oh, and don't you love the way that she didn't think it was a little person when she opened the door because he was standing on his suitcase to, like, be looked at.

They're the peephole.

Oh, my gosh.

Anyway, it was just.

It was.

There are moments of brilliance in this.

She beat up a Bible salesman.

I am a little person Bible salesperson.

And she just beats the crud out of him.

And they said, they said to themselves, oh, she's going to hell.

Well, and not.

It just kept going.

Like, once she finally beat him up and threw him out the window.

He lands in the trash can, rolls down like an entire block of stairs, and that doesn't even stop.

He then gets flung out through the air and down through a manhole into the sewer.

That was brilliance.

And supposedly, according to the trivia that I've read, that was a highlight for Billy Barty because of course, as we mentioned, his character was not a stereotype of a little person.

He was an everyday person who just happened to fall into bad circumstances, literally.

Yeah.

And that's the thing is I love.

I love when Pete, when stuff like that is.

Is cast.

Yeah.

I felt I was sort of in between on the predictable and the satisfying.

You knew that they had to draw a conclusion at some point.

I was also happy to know that Gloria's character was going to be safe.

Now, that's up to interpretation, too, because she is in the arms of Chevy Chase's character.

Her.

If.

If trouble comes to trouble there, she's always got her umbrella, I think.

Oh, yes.

She could smack the heck out of someone with.

That was good.

Let's see.

How did you feel about Gloria's role in helping expose the conspirators after everything she had gone through?

I. I thought it was pretty kickass.

I mean, she really was the kick ass in this whole.

Everybody else was just Kind of hangers on.

She was the one who everything's happening to and she just keeps, keeps going through it, keeps making it happen.

And I think it just goes back to what you're saying is that there are people who don't trust others.

And so it's like she was telling the truth the whole time and you didn't believe her.

Right.

I mean, who's going to make some of that stuff up, right?

I mean, there's, there's like being made up.

Oh, they're listening to me.

And then they're like, like, who's gonna make up?