Mary Versus the Movies

31/12/2024

Here it is, John Boorman’s epic retelling of King Arthur’s conception, Camelot, the Holy Grail, and his final betrayal by his own son. It’s mostly Thomas Malory’s 15th century romance Le Morte Darthur, mashed up with bits of Jessie Weston’s 1920 book, the Grail study “From Ritual to Romance” and with a heavy dollop of 1960s Neopaganism. It has plenty of s*x, violence, swords, and sorcery to grab the attention of any young teen watching HBO in the 1980s, and enough Before They Were Stars for the rest of us.

Starring Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nichol Williamson, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi, Gabriel Byrne, Patrick Stewart, Paul Geoffrey, Robert Addie, and Liam Neeson. Written and directed by John Boorman.

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

Hollywood Avalon, Episode 20 - Excalibur
https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/hollywood-avalon-ep-20-excalibur-1981

20/12/2024

It’s the musical version of A Christmas Carol, featuring one of the more surprising diss tracks in all musical cinema. Join us as we dissect Dickens’ classic one more time.

Starring Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans, Kenneth Moore, and Laurence Naismith. Directed by Ronald Neame. Written and with music by Leslie Bricusse.

Episode 168 - Scrooge
https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/episode-168-scrooge-1970

13/12/2024

The gangs of New York come together for a conclave, only for the charismatic leader Cyrus to be assassinated, and Coney Island’s Warriors to be falsely accused. Can they make it home before the rest of the city tries to kill them?

Joining us is a special guest, the writer and cartoonist Michael Kupperman, creator of Snake ‘n’ Bacon and author of All the Answers.

Starring Michael Beck, James Remar, David Patrick Kelly, and Deborah Van Valkenburgh. Directed by Walter Hill. Written by Walter Hill and David Shaber, from Sol Yurick’s novel.

Episode 167 - The Warriors

https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/episode-167-the-warriors-1979

06/12/2024

The ultimate himbo pursues his dancing dreams during one of the worst periods of New York City’s history, and ends up a cultural icon—off-screen, of course.

Starring John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller, Paul Pape, Donna Pescow, and Martin Shakar. Written by Norman Wexler. Directed by John Badham.

Episode 166 - Saturday Night Fever

https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/episode-166-saturday-night-fever-1977

29/11/2024

A Sicilan boy in post-war Italy is taken under the wing of the local projectionist, and begins a life-long love of the movies, while watching how the world changes around him. Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, this is a funny, moving film about love, art, and community.

Starring Philippe Noiret, Salvatore Cascio, Jacques Perrin, Antonella Attili, and Agnese Nano. Written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

Episode 165 - Cinema Paradiso

20/11/2024

We don’t have a show this week—we’re only just back from an overseas trip—so listen to us talking to Josh instead! It’s a very fun conversation on everything from Hal Needham movies, to Charlie Brown being a Lars Von Trier character, to the mystery of Phang, the Philadelphia Union mascot.

Josh picks up a cool new habit and then talks with Mary and Dennis from your favorite movie podcast Mary Versus the Movies about outsider art, Lars Von Trier's favorite cartoon, and the world's best and worst sports mascots.  --- Check out , or wherever you download podcasts. The theme song for...

18/11/2024

New episode will probably come out next week, as we’ve only been home about a day. But! Appropriate for our recent trip to Italy, we will be watching 1988’s Cinema Paradiso, which I’m very excited about.

08/11/2024

Short hiatus, will be back when we come back from vacation.

31/10/2024

An evil Irish toymaker is plotting a mass child sacrifice using his Halloween masks, and it’s up to one alcoholic doctor to stop him. There’s no Michael Myers, but there is a pretty baroque and silly plot here under a lot of early 1980s grime.

Starring Tom Atkins, Stacy Nelkin, and Dan O’Herlihy. Written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace.

Episode 164 - Halloween III: Season of the Witch

https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/episode-164-halloween-iii-season-of-the-witch-1981

31/10/2024

The evil grimoire the Necronomicon sends Ash Williams—chainsaw hand all—back to the Dark Ages where he helps King Arthur battle the forces of the Undead.

The third film in the Evil Dead series gets even further away from the original film’s horror, being more firmly rooted in fantasy and comedy. There are no trees s*xually assaulting young women, no dead wives in the basement, possessed by the forces of evil—this is purely a fantasy, combining A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and Gulliver’s Travelswith an Iron Maiden album cover. Unlike the pure horror of the first Evil Dead, this is more along lines of classic adventure films like the Ray Harryhausan-designed Jason and the Argonauts, and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and cockeyed references to Spartacus and Ben Hur, not to mention The Day the Earth Stood Still, all filtered through Three Stooges slapstick.

Starring Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, and Ian Ambercrombie. Written by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi. Directed by Sam Raimi.

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

Hollywood Avalon episode 18 - Army of Darkness

https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/hollywood-avalon-ep-18-army-of-darkness-1992

25/10/2024

A s*xy gerontologist falls in with an Egyptian/French vampire and her thin white duke in this gothic—and we do mean gothic—erotic horror set in New York City.

Starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, and Cliff De Young. Written by Ian Davis and Michael Thomas from Whitley Strieber’s novel. Directed by Tony Scott.

pisode 164 - The Hunger

https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/episode-163-the-hunger-1983

25/10/2024

Technical difficulties—we do have an episode this week, for some reason it’s not uploading yet, will be released by morning.

18/10/2024

Our friend Jen has brought us a semi-forgotten Rankin-Bass Halloween movie that features racially-tinged zombies, s*xual harrassment, and a bad Jimmy Stewart impression. Maybe there’s a reason this doesn’t often show up on TV.

Starring Boris Karloff, Phyllis Diller, Allen Swift, and Gale Garnette. Written by Arthur Rankin Jr., Len Korobkin and Harvey Kurtzman. Directed by Jules Bass.

Episode 162 - Mad Monster Party?

https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/episode-162-mad-monster-party-1967

03/10/2024

An L.A. private eye investigating the murder of a local businessman uncovers a corrupt world of s*x, money, and violence. Also, every major American cartoon character from the 20th century shows up at some point. Heavily influenced by films like Chinatown and The Big Sleep and featuring special effects that fully realize the potential of earlier films like Anchors Away and Mary Poppins that mix live acting and animation, this might be the greatest film of the 1980s.

(This episode is a little bit of a cheat—we’ve both seen this film many, many times, but we needed a fill-in episode, and as this was playing in a theater near us this summer, we jumped at the chance to cover it.)

Starring Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloydd, Charles Fleischer, Kathleen Turner, Joanna Cassidy, and Stubby Kaye. Directed by Robet Zemeckis. Written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman.

Episode 160 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit

https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/episode-160-who-framed-roger-rabbit-1988

02/10/2024

This month, we check out the pilot for the British tv show Merlin from 2008, which rewrites the Arthurian story in some pretty significant ways, some of which really rub us the wrong way. Why is Merlin so young? Why is Arthur living with Uther? And why does the dragon look so terrible?

Starring Colin Morgan, Bradley James, Angel Coulby, Anthony Head, Richard Wilson, and John Hurt. Written by Julian Jones. Directed by James Hawes.

This is a preview of the latest episode of our series Hollywood Avalon. To hear the entire episode, join the Mary Versus the Movies patreon for $3/month to hear this and the entire series Hollywood Avalon: https://www.patreon.com/maryvsmovies.

Episode 17 - Merlin: the Dragon’s Call (2008)
https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/hollywood-avalon-episode-17-merlin-the-dragons-call-2008

27/09/2024

Oh my god, we left Reggie at home.

27/09/2024

A biker gang kidnapps an ex-soldier’s rock star girlfriend, and he gets revenge through the power of Jim Steinman power ballads and giant hammers in a delirious “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fable” from the guy who gave us The Warriors.

Starring Michael Pare, Diane Lane, Willem Dafoe, Rick Moranis, and Amy Madigan. Written by Walter Hill and Larry Gross. Directed by Walter Hill. Music by Jim Steinman, Ry Cooder, and others.

Episode 159 - Streets of Fire

https://sites.libsyn.com/398906/episode-159-streets-of-fire-1984

20/09/2024

Sorry folks, no episode tonight, hoping to have a bonus episode out this weekend about our visit to Space 1026’s movie night “Space Melt Power Hour”, and back to regular programming next week (fingers crossed).