To Watch or Not to Watch Hamlet, it is really no question.

We all did our best to get through Hamlet--and we all did it!  But what a chore.  Luckily we had each other's good company to discuss the 21st Oscar winning best picture 1948's Hamlet. Sir Laurence Olivier does it all and something is rotten in the State of Denmark and in this show.  We discuss.

Kate makes some great hamburgers and we enjoy a yummy spring cookout as we hear about Diya's prom and all of our past proms as well.  It is good to know that Dan was almost a delinquent due to his prom antics. 

We hope you enjoy our time at the dinner table--even if we did watch Hamlet!

#DinnerwithDan

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Alright, we're recording.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

What?

SPEAKER_03 0:26

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? What tributaries follow him to Rome to grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things. Oh you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome. Knew you not Pompeii? Many a time and off have you climbed up to the walls and battlements, to towers and windows, yea, two chimney tops, your infants in your arms, and there have set the lifelong day with patient expectation to see great Pompeii pass the streets of Rome. I'd like to welcome everybody to episode 30 of uh Dinner with Dan for all our dear listeners across the continent and around the world. Uh we are recording this episode on April 12th, 2026 from Roe Avenue, the heart and soul of Dayton's historic Five Oaks neighborhood. We were off last Sunday, which was the Western observed Easter. But I want to say hello to all my Greek friends who observed the Eastern calendar Easter. He has risen, and my wish for you and yours is to enjoy a happy and peaceful Easter, especially to our dear friend Eleni, who was on the podcast back when we did the Greek uh dinner, food, the Greek festival. And to Stacy from the old days at Legacy, and even before that, when her and her husband Nick ran the Chili King on North Main Street. So I wish those two wonderful Greek ladies a happy Easter. At the table tonight, we have table regulars, Nan Whaley, Sam Braun, Dea, Paul Robinson, Kate Evans, and Eddie Garris, and I'm your host, Dan Garris. So what's for dinner tonight, Kate?

SPEAKER_04 2:27

We have burgers, cheeseburgers, um, veggie burgers as well. Uh we have all the good things that Dorothy Lane has to offer: potato salad, broccoli salad, cucumber salad, fruit salad. It's a salad smorgasboard.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

And good buns.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

And good buns, and we have Carlsberg beer at your request.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Okay, because something is rotten in the state of Denver.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Something is rotten.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

And I know that our listeners, we haven't yet figured out how to do video, so I will tell them what I'm wearing.

SPEAKER_04 3:05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I have on a shirt that has a very large polar bear chasing a very small president. And it's entitled Greenland Defense Fund. So since uh Green Defense Force, okay, yeah. Greenland Defense Force. Since uh Greenland is still part of uh Denmark, and tonight we're going to eventually review Hamlet, although everybody's dragging their feet to do that. That's why I have that on. Uh just as a shout out to corporate sponsors that we don't have yet. The uh the steak burgers are from the Oklahoma or the Omaha Steak Company. Oh, yeah. And our dessert is a Kringle from the Wisconsin-based Danish Bakery, a fourth-generation family bakery located in Racine, Wisconsin. Although the vast majority of my bakery orders are local, at Christmas and Easter I like to order specialty items from the Danish bakery. And for the gluten-free among us, they have an excellent assortment of gluten-free goodies. My oldest son, Franklin, loves their gluten-free coffee cakes and chocolate chip cookies. So sometime you may want to check out the Danish bakery in Racine, Wisconsin. Okay, as I said, the menu tonight is loosely based on the Oscar picture we are reviewing tonight, 1948's ham.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

As in like the loosest it could possibly be.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Get it as in hamburgers. And something is rotten in the state of Denmark, thus the Kringle from a Danish bakery, and cold Carlsburg beer, also from uh Denmark. Okay, so that's how we get the stretch.

SPEAKER_08 4:55

This food is not rotten. No, but the movie, we'll see.

SPEAKER_05 5:00

We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

And spoiler.

SPEAKER_08 5:04

Rotten. Spoiler. Oh rotten.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Okay, and uh before we go on around the table with two weeks of what we've been doing, I do want to give a couple shout-outs uh to three loyal listeners and perhaps a new one. First to Barbara in Paris, Texas, and Eleanor Jean in Wichita Falls, Texas. So glad that you are part of the dinner with Dan World. Next is my good friend uh Ava Kay from my hometown of Van Wert.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

Who we met. Who said she'd come to visit and be on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

She's going to. Just this past week, she introduced me to a person who I hope will soon join us in person at the table.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

Who's that?

SPEAKER_01 5:51

His name is Brian Hess, and that would be Dr. Brian Hess. So if he would join us at the table, we'd have two doctors. Since I've got a jurisdictor, I'm Dr. Garrett. He's a PhD doctor.

SPEAKER_05 6:06

I'm not calling you doctor. Does he have a gavel also?

SPEAKER_01 6:10

He no, he's a PhD, not a J D. He is a new columnist in the Friday edition of the Dayton Daily News. And his column is about music entitled Forgotten Record Review. His first one was just in this past Friday. I like music, especially everything by Richard Harris. Oh God. Singing songs written by Jimmy Webb. But what has really excited me, uh and I think I think I got this right, his PhD has more to do with movies than with music.

SPEAKER_09 6:43

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

And I can't wait to schedule him for a Saturday brunch at Legacy for a music discussion with FM, Eleni, Loretta, John, Jan, and Steve, and a podcast uh with our table regulars about a movie.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

How'd you meet Dr. Hess?

SPEAKER_01 7:00

I haven't met him. It's Ava Kay.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Oh, Ava Kay's connected you to Dr. Hess. Okay, I got it.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

So we've been texting Dr.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Does he live in Dayton?

SPEAKER_01 7:07

No, in Van Wert.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

Oh, he lives in Van Wert. So okay, so he has to make the check.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

I think he was the newspaper editor up there, and yeah, now he's gonna do a weekly column for the Dayton Daily. Nice. So Ava Kay uh got me put up with him. So, anyhow, that's all the shout-outs I wanted to give. So, I'm gonna turn it over to go around the table. Nan.

SPEAKER_03 7:31

Well, um, I don't know, Dan, you didn't mention much about our great last Saturday. No, no, no. Well, that's why we're going around the table. So I didn't know if you wanted to say that. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

You go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

Uh well, I thought it was amazing Saturday. It um the musical, the players were excellent. Um Well, you have to tell people what it was. Oh, SUFs. So we went to see Stuffs last Saturday, and then we had our after party at Joy Wine Bar. Votes I thought went off without a hitch, really. And the votes for women's sashes were so nicely done. Um people wanted to buy them off of us. Uh, and then the wine bar was great too. Uh, everybody had a great time. Uh, and we're glad Eleni's doing fine, so that's good. You're doing fine.

SPEAKER_05 8:18

The Meredith Moss article.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

Oh, yeah, and then we got the Meredith Moss article. Did you like it, Danny?

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Oh, I loved it. So we definitely want to give a shout out to Meredith for that excellent article.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Yeah, Meredith did a great job on the article that they wrote. I think it was in Monday or Tuesday's paper.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Uh Wednesday.

SPEAKER_07 8:33

May I have the food paper?

SPEAKER_03 8:34

Oh, Wednesday's paper. Um, so and that was just great. And the wine bar was perfect, the site was perfect, the owner wasn't there, but she sent me like a nice note on how much it meant for us to be there. And um, you know, just was great. The staff was great there, and the musical was excellent. Um, as someone who has seen it for the third time there, I will see it for the fourth time next month in Cincinnati.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

You've seen it three times?

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Yeah, I saw it with Sam in May of 24. Then I went back and saw it with Virginia and everybody in November of 24, and then I've seen it now.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

But you've seen it on Broadway twice. Twice. Way cool.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

Yeah, I love it. Um and it actually meant more to me in the November, like right after the election. Yeah. I got a lot more out of it that trip. And probably just because, I mean, I love Sam, but like we were I was with I was with Kate, I was with Virginia, I was with my mama, you know. So it was much better. Um so that was excellent. Um yeah, so I think that's I had a tough week this week, you all though, because I had um I had an arsonist come to the Cincinnati clinic and try to set us on fire. So uh that was I'm still catching up on my sleep from Thursday night to Friday morning. Uh but I Cincinnati's been great. Cincinnati police, I want to give a shout out to Cincinnati Police and Fire. They've been amazing and all over it, and the community's been great down there. So um, yeah, extremists fucking suck. You can charge me five dollars for that one.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Okay, that's a five dollar one.

SPEAKER_03 10:10

Five dollars. Um, and that's been my week. And Dia had prom.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Well, just a minute. Yeah, tell us about what you and Sam did for Easter.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Oh, we went to the club. Dia, Sam, and I went to the club for with mom and dad and David and Emily and Teddy and Abby. And then I think I watched Hamlet. Did I do that Sunday?

SPEAKER_07 10:35

The club?

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Oh, yeah, St. David's one of David's country clubs. They have a really good lamb.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Is that what you had? Lamb?

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Yeah, they have this huge brunch on Eastern Mother's Day. Yeah, and the lamb. Yeah. Excellent. So that's what I did.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

That's been my week. Sam.

SPEAKER_08 11:01

Well, uh, yeah, I'll second everything that was that was said about soft. So it was a great, great time at the musical, great time at the after party. Um, just just just lovely. A great uh remembrance uh of Virginia. Um so that that was that was that was great. Uh uh this week uh or the last two weeks, I got out and played tennis outdoors for the first two times this year. So that's been really nice. Um Dia had prom.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

She looks so pretty.

SPEAKER_08 11:40

Yeah, and we also went to Columbus today, where uh Dia got a reward for some of her photographs were selected.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_08 11:50

For yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

The governor's award.

SPEAKER_08 11:53

For the governor's award for art, so that was awesome. And um I think Nan probably covered everything else we did. Um Thursday Thursday night was rough. Uh Nan really Nan did not Nan slept an hour, I guess. And I I slept uh a few hours. I was I was out checking buildings and dating and kettering at 2 a.m. to make sure there wasn't an attack at some of the other buildings. So but uh I'm caught up and uh it could have been much worse. Yeah, and they're still open, and that's great.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Deal spill the tea about the home.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Well, I'll start with SUFs. I had I had such a good time, and I the play was really wonderful. I don't think I've seen them in front, too. We were, we were in the third row, I think. I don't think I've seen like any play like that before. It was a lot of fun, the musical was a lot of fun, and so was Joy. And um Easter was great. I have too much candy. Oh, thanks to everybody, how many? Including Dan. Four.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Wow, pretty good.

SPEAKER_08 13:12

Four, that's a good haul. Yeah, well, she's smart. She she put the candy in her room where her host parents we don't have to talk about that on the podcast. I'm talking about us.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Well, it's downstairs now.

SPEAKER_08 13:29

That's smart though.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Well, I didn't know you wanted candy. You could have just had it. Okay. Yeah, but I had a good week of school, good two weeks, and then um prom was fun.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Oh, you gotta do better then. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

It was at scene seventy five. So I've been asking about the scene. So I I got ready and then I got photos clicked, and then I did not go to dinner because we didn't have time because everybody was running late because we're teenagers. And so I just because we just talking about it. Because we did so we just I just went to scene 75 and I just like we danced for a lot of it. It was a lot of fun. And then we went on roller coasters, did lazy tag, played games. So yeah, I had a really good time. I came home at like 2 30. And then I woke up. It was.

SPEAKER_07 14:27

That's where we can.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

It wasn't okay. It was not that bad. It was pretty good.

SPEAKER_08 14:35

Scene 75 is probably better. Yeah, way better.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Um, but yeah, and then I went to bed and woke up and went to Columbus, which was which was good. I liked it. I liked the exhibition more than the award ceremony, but yeah. So I had a good week. And I I just want to say that I was like just seeing Nan work this week was so inspiring. The way she just like got up in the middle of the night and acted like everything was like okay. And just it's just inspiring to see like her how to deal like dealing with that. And how how nicely she does it.

SPEAKER_04 15:17

That is so sweet. Thanks, Dia.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Now, since we got to Diaz prom, Dan, what about your prom? What?

SPEAKER_03 15:30

What? What prom?

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Did you go to prom? In like when you were in high school.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

No, last week. Did Sam take you to prom last week?

SPEAKER_03 15:42

I did go to my senior prom at Oldenburg Academy for the Immaculate Conception. I think Dia probably had more fun than I did at my prom. Who was your date? St. Peter? Who was my date? This guy named Kevin was my date. I think he's friends with my brother. Um I had like a dress that was a hand-me-down from my cousin Kristen. Uh I was the, of course, like, I don't think I went to senior prom, I think I just went to junior prom actually. And I was in charge of junior prom because I was the class president. And we had to decorate the whole gym. It was also at the gym, and the prom was in the still of the night was the theme.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

What about yours, Danny?

SPEAKER_01 16:27

We're gonna get to one now. Okay, okay. Sam? Good turn in the table. Right. Sam.

SPEAKER_08 16:32

Uh yeah, I so zenior high school. So I went to prom my senior year. I had a girlfriend at the time.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

We call her English patient.

SPEAKER_08 16:42

So I took her and um uh my you know, my dad did commercials for Bow Towns and Ford, so he'd gotten us like a Mustang convertible. Oh, and it was it was at the uh Dayton Convention Center, and the afterprom was at Kettering Rick Center. And we had a pretty good time.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Eddie, what did you do these past two weeks?

SPEAKER_07 17:09

Um Garden did that on a partial differential equation exam. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_08 17:20

Yeah, the rest of us would have aced that.

SPEAKER_07 17:23

I know, geez. Was uh a lot of uncle time, and that's about it.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Oh yeah, you had all the kids in. A lot of uncle time. You have a favorite Freddie.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

Freddie! Why? Because he's still little and cute and a boy. Can't talk back yet.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

He just giggles and smiles and laughs.

SPEAKER_07 17:47

He's a chunk.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Big boy.

SPEAKER_07 17:50

Doesn't ogio, doesn't whine, doesn't cry, doesn't throw things, doesn't throw things, doesn't bite.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

He isn't a prier. He's just he seems very watchful and observant and just like taking it all in.

SPEAKER_08 18:03

Yep. Eddie. He needs to hang out with Izzy more. I know. I know.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Isabel. She's a horse to be reckoned with. How about your problems, Eddie? Bad habits.

SPEAKER_07 18:17

Uh I don't speak of days of y'all.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

What a cop out. I know.

unknown 18:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Paul.

SPEAKER_05 18:29

Um, wow, the last two weeks. The one comment I'll make about SUS is uh Mia thought my 20 20, almost 21-year-old daughter thought it was really interesting to see all the sashes, particularly because we weren't all seated together. She thought it was like really because we were in the a balcony, and so we were able to look down and see all the sashes. So she really got a kick out of that. That's cool. Yeah. Um, and you can see us all through the exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

It was it worked out really well that we had that. I didn't really even think of how that would have an impact on the show.

SPEAKER_05 19:00

Yeah, so you she because at first me was like, well, I don't I don't feel like there's a hundred of us here. I was like, oh no, there are. I mean, obviously the shoes are big and we're all scattered, so like you could see the people, you know, that were next with us. So she got yeah, like I said, she got a kick out of it. Uh Easter, Easter um brunch uh with Charlemia was at BizTeka downtown. Um so that was that was pretty good. And then this past week, um, I had lunch with uh one Dan Garrett. Uh lunch meaning I came over here and brought Jimmy Johns and uh spent six hours with Dan Garrett, and uh two and a half hours were taken up by Hamlet, which I know we'll might get to tonight. Um and then uh Friday night I spent five hours at the Cincinnati Curling Club uh instructing people in curling. And then this weekend was spent in Columbus. Um I ran in the uh Ohio State four-mile race four-miler race this morning. And um, you know, that with the big attraction is that you end up you end the race on the 50-yard line of Ohio Stadium, and so uh if you're a big uh Ohio State fan, you know, there's nothing better than being on the actual field. And they have some of the football players in there to give you like you know, high fives. Um a lot of people. Um but yesterday me and I had dinner in uh the German village at a place called Mohawk. Oh that was good. Yeah, so that was good. And then I went to uh Men's lacrosse game uh between Johns Hopkins and my old my my all hour in uh Ohio State, which Ohio State won. I cannot I didn't try the.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

You went to Johns Hopkins?

SPEAKER_05 20:32

Yeah. Yeah. The Johns Hopkins.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Oh like in Baltimore.

SPEAKER_05 20:36

Yeah, in Baltimore.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

I guess I knew that boy.

SPEAKER_05 20:39

I don't know. But uh um Mia and I uh went last year for women's lacrosse, and I could not uh I I didn't try very hard, but I didn't try to convince her to go to men's lacrosse because Mia played uh you know women's lacrosse versus Shamron Juliet. Um so she went last year when it was like the Hopkins women versus the always you know Ohio State women. But this year I went on my own uh since I was gonna be in Columbus, and uh very nice day, but uh Ohio State won, which is fine. Um yeah, so that was my weekend kind of adult prom on tour there, but uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

How about your prom?

SPEAKER_05 21:12

Uh so I went to an all-boys school, uh, and we do not have the old boy Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

It wasn't like Oldenburg Academy of the Immaculate kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_05 21:22

Oh no, meaning like I missed a promise. She got an old one. Yeah, yeah. Um so just a little uh several uh north of Springfield. Um so yeah, no, I don't have to.

SPEAKER_04 21:32

There was no like girls' school that you guys partnered with for a prom?

SPEAKER_05 21:36

Not nearby. For dances, for dances, yes, but not for not nearby.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

So you'd have dances but not prom? Correct. That is weird.

SPEAKER_05 21:46

That's strange. Now's a co ed school, so I'm sure they have a prom. Well, I shouldn't say I'm sure. Did you wear blazers? We wore blazers and ties. Oh but the funny thing is like that was really all there was. The rule. So, like you could wear shorts. Um, there wasn't a lot of as long as you wore the blazer and tie, like it was uh everything else was kind of up in the air. You could wear whatever else.

SPEAKER_08 22:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

So you're schooling in the we had a uniform, um, a shirt, a tie, a belt, a skirt, or pants, and a blazer when it's cold.

SPEAKER_05 22:19

Now, when I say blazer, it was not like a a school prescribed blazer. I mean, you just wore whatever you would, you know, buying it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was not a school uniform, just a dress coat, but not a uniform.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

At Oldenburg Academy of the Immaculate Conception, we had wool, uh, tartan plaid skirts, white turtleneck or white shirt, and vests or cardigans in navy that said Oldenburg Academy.

SPEAKER_05 22:49

So Dan, there is no like school like seal or you know, like patch or whatever. It's like whatever blazer you want. Um, you know, tie, whatever tie you want.

SPEAKER_08 23:00

Yes, apparently Kate and I are the only ones that went to public school here. We also went to some fancy pants private school.

SPEAKER_05 23:12

Me too. So depending on how you look at it, Dave, I didn't have the trauma of prom or the good experiences of prom. Either way. Didn't have any of it.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

Can I just say how shocking it is that Mia.

SPEAKER_05 23:25

Well, you can have a bad experience.

SPEAKER_03 23:26

You can have a bad prom. I mean, in the summer I turned pretty, she had a really bad prom. Hello. Okay, I mean, that's her life. IRL. IRL. Uh Mia being 21 is rocking my world. Mia being at the bar having a glass of wine at Joy. Rocked my world.

SPEAKER_05 23:49

So although that that what you just said in was not an event per se of my last two weeks. I have gotten more comments about that. Marty, like, spent thank you, Marty, for spending time with her at Jouy. He talked to her. Like, I had oh, I had uh I had uh breakfast with Jason on Friday at the Ugly Duckling in St. Ann's Hill. Jason said the same thing, you know, etc. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

It's really wild. Yeah. It makes, I mean, I don't know how she got so old as I am the same age. Tough to believe. That's what I gotta say about Paul's past two weeks.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Catherine? The past two weeks.

SPEAKER_04 24:29

Um, let's see. I think it's pretty normal. Up to SUFS, which was a great day. Wasn't it great? It was a great, great day. I so I enjoyed seeing the play again. Um you went to New York. I went to New York with the group and it was great. I just I loved seeing it again. Um it got me really back into the music. I've been listening to the music again like pretty heavily. Um and yeah, in the after part, I like it was just so nice to share that moment with so many people who kind of felt the same way and loved Virginia and like loved, you know, people we care about. And that was it was nice. I got to share with my sister, and she had a great time. Um, and then we had Easter at my house, Easter brunch. You know, it was kind of a traditional Easter with ham and doubled eggs and those sorts of things at my house. Um and then the week was fairly normal. Um my insurance company finally has settled with Roto River. Oh, some three months after the event of the great flood of January 2026. They have finally settled and that's over. I think I can finally say that it's over.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

Um, I want to say something else we did this week. Yeah. We purchased our LA 2028 Olympic tickets. Thanks for Lily Garrett for telling us that they were even an opportunity. I know. What did you get? Um, Sam, what did we get?

SPEAKER_08 26:18

We've got uh four tickets to the soccer game in Columbus. Then in LA, we have tickets two nights to track and field. Oh, right. Uh fastest man, fastest woman in the world finals on those nights. That's expensive. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Sam Smith's a ball. Oh, I thought it was our money.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

Yeah, it is our money. Sam spent it all right.

SPEAKER_08 26:41

And then uh quarter final to the baseball, Dodger Stadium. And another night we have uh women's basketball. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

So would you like to know how much it's good stuff done?

SPEAKER_08 26:53

Don't no let me guess.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Double that $6,800. It's about right.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

That's about right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Well, uh, as Eddie will let you know, uh on um Wednesday night, no, Thursday night, when we had a dinner here, uh, I brought up about you guys need to get uh Olympic tickets. And uh the Garris family has purchased 12 tickets to uh one of the women's games in Columbus.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Oh good.

unknown 27:31

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

So we've got uh 12 tickets for that. So those are still fairly easy to get. The uh because they're playing soccer all over the city. And we also they let you buy 12.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Yeah, yeah. Our um our we actually got in the lottery before Lily did, and so we talked to Lily, Sam talked to Lily yesterday, and you purchased what for Lily?

SPEAKER_08 27:55

Four soccer tickets in San Jose for Lily. So we did that for Lily too.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

And I know her time comes up. The 17th, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

So we get we got an early slot.

SPEAKER_08 28:06

Yeah, uh looking at it, the the gymnastics are sold out, and and the swimming, maybe except for prelims, yeah, was sold out, and the men's basketball was sold out. But most of the other things you can get.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

So I guess we're going to LA in July of 28th for the Olympics.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

I never regretted taking my family to Atlanta. Eddie was two and a half years old. Oh yeah. Marty got uh medical attention at every facility.

SPEAKER_09 28:34

Of course. Of course.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

And you don't regret any of it.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

We were escorted out of the Georgia Dome by the Secret Service because they were trying to clear the place so it could be bomb swiftly. Because the UN the bomber got because no, because uh uh Clinton was coming with Chelsea to watch women's gymnastics that night.

SPEAKER_09 28:55

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

You know, they put a big curtain halfway down. They had basketball on one side and gymnastics on the other. Oh, yeah. Marty tried to get Eddie, and Marty ended up falling down like eight or nine rows of seats, and we had to take him to triage, and these armed guys came in terrible and they said, You have to leave now. And the doctor's like, this kid needs medical attention, and they're like, he needs to leave now. And uh we they got uh Marty patched up and they escorted us out.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

There you go. Anyway, I wanted to mention our LA tickets.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Have you said what you've done this past week?

SPEAKER_03 29:36

No. She didn't talk about her prompt.

SPEAKER_04 29:38

Well, I didn't talk about my prom. No, this past week was pretty normal, I think.

SPEAKER_03 29:44

She worked.

SPEAKER_04 29:45

Yeah, I don't think it was amazing to our own.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

And you settled with uh your insurance and wrote a race.

SPEAKER_04 29:50

Yeah, that was that they've literally been fighting by email for like a month and a half.

SPEAKER_05 29:56

Did you get copied on this?

SPEAKER_04 29:57

Yeah, I got copied, and I'm like, oh boy, what's happening? At one point I was gonna have to pay money because they couldn't come to an agreement, and then they it was like watching an arms race happen in real time.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

Like the closing of the straighter moves. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 30:14

It was like watching, you know, the gamesmanship, and you're just like, I don't know, but I'm caught in the middle. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I am in the middle of it. Um and then yeah, I've your prom my prom. I went to my junior prom and my senior prom.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Alright.

SPEAKER_04 30:34

And they were both really nice. I had a good time. I went with um a guy named John the first year, who's very sweet. He played soccer and um ran across country. He was very nice. And then I went with a guy named Dave, who is now married and has been for a long time now, to one of my really good friends from high school. And so I had a really good time. I know one year the pro the theme was like under the sea. I can't remember what the other one was. It was I feel like my that was my junior year, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

Because you plan at your junior more, right?

SPEAKER_04 31:12

Yeah, but I wasn't really involved in the planning. But I just remember under the sea and then like I don't know, it was like starry night or something for seniors.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Ours was Bridget. Oh, that's right. I don't think we should be watching, but Brid Bridgerton.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

Bridgerton, that soft porn? Yeah, no kidding.

SPEAKER_05 31:31

Well, under the sea the uh theme of the Back to the Future when they go back.

SPEAKER_04 31:36

Oh, was it?

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Deep cut.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

That is a deep cut. I just remember, no, I remember it was fun. So, but this is this will be fun for all of you. My prom, both years, was held at the Hera Arena. Oh, yeah!

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Gone.

SPEAKER_04 31:56

And it's gone. Gone, gone, gone. And after prom was at the high school. So yeah, was back at the high school. But yeah, the ball arena with us no more.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

With us no more. Soon to be Mike DeWine's uh mental hospital.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

That's right. He's opening a mental hospital over there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Yeah, oh yeah, Trotwood's all upset about it.

SPEAKER_08 32:19

But he's yeah, that's what's gonna be on that site.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Yeah, he bought the property and they're gonna build it, and that's that.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

Yeah. How funny? Didn't we have a mental hospital in Dayton 20 years ago that they closed?

SPEAKER_01 32:29

It's where uh Town Wilmington is. I used to do herrings out there.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

All right. Well, uh, my two weeks were very busy, uh consumed with uh anxiety about uh stuffs.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

Anxiety?

SPEAKER_05 32:45

I have good hands.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Uh yeah, come on. I want to give a tremendous shout out to Ann Charles Watts and to Nan Whaley for making it such a signature event. Yeah. Uh I want to thank my children, uh Lily, Frank, uh Marty, and Eddie for getting the old man through it. And uh I really had a great time. I thought it was just a wonderful tribute to Virginia. I think she was uh definitely smiling, oh yeah, smiling down on us. She was there. She loved it. This was right up her wheelhouse, yep. Um so yeah, Lily came in uh with uh Shackleton and Juni. Uh we had a great visit. They got to go to Legacy with me one day. Uh they went to Boonshaft. We did uh uh the Platt Family Easter uh down at Larry's house in Goshen. Uh and uh we got up and went to Mass at Corpus Christi. Woo! Wow nine o'clock on Easter Sunday. So we had a really good time. Um and uh then uh Lily left Tuesday. The guys that are doing my gutter showed up Tuesday, and Paul showed up Tuesday with Jimmy Johns, and we watched uh Hamlet Hamlet straight through. And uh we got through it.

SPEAKER_05 34:12

Which we almost created a problem because you didn't answer your phone and I thought something was wrong. Yeah, but you jumped to conclusion. Almost jumped to the conclusion. True that almost needed a wellness check.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 34:22

Oh okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Yeah. But uh yeah, so it was it was a busy week, but a very uh meaningful week uh for me. Now, prom my junior year, I was a committee chairman. I was in charge of procurement. If you were a committee chairman, that meant you didn't have to go to school that week.

SPEAKER_04 34:45

No, uh what? Are you kidding? What?

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Everything I tell you is gonna be true. And nobody can fact check that. Can Ava Kay?

SPEAKER_04 34:54

I know Ava Kay, if you're listening, which I think you probably will be, please fact check. Please fact-check this.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

I was in charge of procurement. If you were committee chairman, you did not have to go to school that week.

SPEAKER_04 35:08

It was that's not fair. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Did it matter what you I'll tell you what wasn't fair. You could get drafted and go to Vietnam, but you couldn't vote and you couldn't buy a beer. That wasn't what was fair to me. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

So, anyhow, uh I was a I was a committee chairman, uh, and there was, I don't know, eight or nine committees. Uh, each one had a chairman or a chairwoman. Our theme, interestingly enough, I didn't see Shakespeare, Midsummer's Night's Dream.

SPEAKER_04 35:44

Oh, oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

We actually painted the sophomore women blue as fairies.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

Oh my gosh. We body painted in blue as fairies.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

With day glow uh butterflies on their face. Because we, you know, that was back in the day.

SPEAKER_03 36:03

So we had uh we had uh Dee is dying over here.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

I got pictures of all this.

SPEAKER_04 36:11

I bet.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

We had uh uh uh black lights all over the place. So, anyhow, I was on the committee, so I knew how it worked. It was in the gym. They had fire codes back then, but nobody enforced them. So every door fire codes now.

SPEAKER_04 36:29

Every door but one sleeping well at night.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

Every door but one was chained shut.

SPEAKER_04 36:35

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Every door but one was chained.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

So I knew that someday I may have the ability to have that mean something in my life. So I took copious notes, I drove 30 miles or no, 60 miles up to somewhere in Indiana to a paper store because we made it like it was we were in a forest. So we hung all these big leaves from the great for the fire code.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Adding on the black light, blue we don't need no stinking fire code.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

You did this while you would normally have been in school.

SPEAKER_05 37:16

Huh? You did this while you were normal, you drove Indiana while you'd normally have been in school.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Yeah, because I was a committee chairman. And he was off for a week. And we couldn't we couldn't get this paper delivered.

SPEAKER_05 37:27

I feel like the reality is that you got Friday off of school.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

No. No. You know when it started? We we got we locked the gym down at the close of Friday.

SPEAKER_04 37:40

The week before?

SPEAKER_01 37:41

The week before, and the prom was on Saturday. Okay. So we we we we locked it up for eight days, and uh so anyhow, it was a great time, and we would work on it until like two or three o'clock in the morning, you know, and I knew from the pacing of it how you know you really start, but then people get worn out. And so I knew by like Wednesday that was gonna be the off day, but then everybody was gonna panic Thursday. No, no, it's Tuesday. Tuesday was gonna be the off day. People would realize, oh my god, prom is Saturday. So they would start really doing it Wednesday, but Thursday and Friday would be the real panic days. So, anyhow, I got through that. We had a great prom at my 45th high school reunion. I apologized to the young girl that I took to prom. I did it publicly in front of everybody, all 200 and however many people. I apologize to her for what had to be the worst date in her entire life.

SPEAKER_05 38:47

Because you're still in committee chair mode.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

I'm still in committee chair mode. I got a bright, light blue, powder blue uh tux with frilly for their photos. Yeah, yeah. That would have got me photos somewhere. And I got my beard is actually acne.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Yeah, oh yeah. So I I double dated with a very good friend of mine, and I encouraged him to also apologize to the woman that he took with Eden. But I did.

SPEAKER_05 39:22

Was the apology accepted?

SPEAKER_01 39:25

Yeah, I think so. Okay, I think so. Uh, and so I was always been a terrible dancer, just ask my my late wife, she'll tell you. Um although I was good on uh the the wedding night, too, as time goes by. We talked about that a couple podcasts ago. So at the back then there was no such thing as after prom.

SPEAKER_09 39:46

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

After prom was have somebody that's older. Yeah, I know what this is. Buy you some beer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:54

Wouldn't that be a normal Saturday night?

SPEAKER_01 39:57

Uh yeah, but normal Saturday night you weren't with a girl. Or dressed up. Or dressed up. So, you know, so even though, you know, you could drink 3-2 beer in Ohio when you were 18, but we're juniors, so we're still like basically 17. But, you know, at that age, everybody. So I got two six packs of beer, and we drive around all night long drinking beer. That's what you should do. Drive while you're drinking. Yeah, yeah, because you don't want to get caught.

SPEAKER_04 40:32

Don't do this at home, kids.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

Oh man. Well, it's 3-2 beer.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

You can't get too drunk on 3-2.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

Well, it says not more than 3.2. It could be a lot less than 3.2. But anyhow, it was looking back on it in retrospect. I really feel sorry that I put her through all this. But anyhow, we got through it. So the next year, a football coach made the mistake of having me move his car one day. So I rewarded him by taking his pass key that opened every lock in the Van Wert County or in the Van Wert Public School system, driving nonstop to Lima, Ohio, to a key place that never asked anything about keys, even though it said on it, do not copy. That's right. And I made three or four copies and got back in time before practice was over.

SPEAKER_04 41:35

So never noticed the miles you put on this.

SPEAKER_05 41:37

Why did this coach think that you were trustworthy? Because you're committee chair?

SPEAKER_01 41:43

No, this is my senior year. Yeah, this is not committee. You're with people. I'm a football manager. Oh, there we go. And so, anyhow, I knew how it was going. And in Van Wert, the big thing was if you were a senior, you tried to find it was very secret on what the theme was going to be. We never said Midsummer's Night's Dream. You know, that was the big thing. You can't tell anybody.

SPEAKER_03 42:08

Yeah, you so they knew something was up because you were painting all these sophomores blue, but so anyhow.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

So, anyhow, I had these keys, these past keys, to the school. And me and another guy, the night the people left about two o'clock in the morning. We left our houses, we met, we had our undercover gear on, black sweaters and everything. And I opened the door that I knew. Well, we were kind of ninjas. I love the reactions too. I opened I opened the door that I knew would not be changed, and we had made signs uh with stencils, so they couldn't do our handwriting, uh, that said class of 71 says hi to the class of 72. And we pushed the scaffold to the center of the gym, and we hung up from the rafters, all these signs. And if you're probably gonna water too. Have you guys ever watched uh Home Alone? Yeah, maybe sticky bandits, wet bandits.

SPEAKER_04 43:22

The wet bandits, the wet bandits are best.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

That part rang so true to me because what's good committing a crime if you don't have proof you did it?

SPEAKER_04 43:33

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

So I had a little portable black and white swinger camera.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

Preparing and proof.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

So we took pictures of ourselves in there.

SPEAKER_04 43:41

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Selfies before selfies. So I had all these pictures. So the next day at school, it was a panic. Everybody, the juniors were all upset about it, everybody's yelling and screaming about it, and the art teacher.

SPEAKER_08 44:00

Wait, why are they upset about this sign?

SPEAKER_01 44:02

Because it's supposed to be secret.

SPEAKER_08 44:05

Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_01 44:07

The signs. That meant the class of 71 had got in when we shouldn't have been in there.

SPEAKER_07 44:12

Right. The juniors do the prom for the seniors.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Yeah, juniors do the prom for the seniors.

SPEAKER_07 44:17

I see, I see. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

So the art teacher, who the year before had been the advisor for prom, she was also the advisor. And I think she was smarter than the average bear, and I think she was looking me up and down, going, uh-huh. Uh-huh. And of course, I'm walking around with these pictures, showing them to seniors. And everybody's like, Yeah, we got you guys. So that afternoon, one of my good friends, he's not a listener, but uh he lives in Columbus, Ohio, and he'll verify this, begged me to give him my key. And I'm like, I ain't gonna do it. It's a one and done. Begged me, begged me, begged me. I relented.

SPEAKER_04 45:03

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

I gave him the key. They went in like at four o'clock in the morning. And instead of leaving signs, they basically took down all the scaffolding.

SPEAKER_04 45:20

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 45:21

And hit it all over the gym. Now they didn't they never removed it from the gym. But you know, it takes a while to put the scaffolding up and stuff. So the very next day, I'm there before I know what has all happened. And I'm out there showing people the pictures. And the art teacher runs by, sees them, grabs one of them, and runs in to the principal's office.

SPEAKER_03 45:45

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

And I had this vice principal, Don Miller. I was Roadrunner, he was Wiley Coyote. For four years he tried to get me in jail. For four years he was on my trail. For four years he connected acme rockets to his back, trying to chase me down the hallway.

SPEAKER_04 46:07

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Next thing I know comes on the internet. Will Daniel Garris please come to the principal's office? And I'm like, okay. So I walk in there, and the first thing Don Miller says to me, you did it this time. You're 18. We know you did it. That's breaking and entering. You're going to jail. You're 18, you're an adult.

SPEAKER_04 46:27

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

And I'm like, okay. I guess I'm going to jail. And I'm sitting there waiting for the Van Wert police to show up. The guy who went in with me, there's a moral to this story. There's a lesson in this story. The guy who went in with me, who ended up being a public defender in San Francisco, came in and said, I went with him. The principal said, call the police, we don't need the police. The deal was worked out that neither he nor I could go to the prom. We were off. And I had to give him the key back. And I said, Well, the key's at home. It was in my pocket. The key's at home. And I live real close to the school. I was living like from here to Corpus even closer than that. And they said, We want the key. And then you guys are going to have to do like a week of cleaning up around the building for community service and da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And all this. You can't go. And so I walked home, came back, gave him a key. I still had four or five keys. I know. I still have them. I'm sure you do somewhere in your house.

SPEAKER_04 47:57

Somewhere in this house. And there were the pictures of the house.

SPEAKER_05 48:02

They're with the picture of you and a blue tox.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

Yeah, oh yeah. And the moral of the story is if you're in a small town like Vanwood, Ohio, and you're from not on the other side of the tracks, but Eddie will tell you, my house was maybe 30 yards from the tracks. If you're going to get in trouble, do it with a doctor's kid. Because in small town America, doctor's kids don't get in trouble.

SPEAKER_05 48:36

I want to back up though, Dan.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

Doctor's kids do not get in trouble.

SPEAKER_05 48:41

Dan, you said what's the fun unless you have the proof? Is that your like professional advice as a judge and an attorney? Like to have proof of committing crimes?

SPEAKER_01 48:48

Sticky bandits. Wet bandits.

SPEAKER_08 48:52

Alright.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

And believe it or not, I still have the rush of those pictures. I never got the one back. I asked for it back, and they said, you've got to be kidding. So that's why I did not get to go to my senior prom. Wow. But I did apologize to the lady, young woman who deserved better than getting driven around Van Wert in a 1967 Dodge Cornet. Drinking by a drunk driver. Drinking three, two Wiedemann's beer. Oh, Wiedemans. Wiedemann's nice. Wiedemann's. Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_05 49:26

Okay, so have we filibustered Hamlet enough tonight? I know, right? I tried hard. We tried hard. I tried hard.

SPEAKER_07 49:35

Okay. This does protest too much. Nice. Wrong movie. No? Same one. Same one.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

Okay, so now we are on to the movie. Okay. We're going to watch the 19th, we're going to talk about the 1948 Best Picture. It won four Oscars. The Best Picture, it was up against Johnny Belinda, The Red Shoes, The Snake Pit, and The Treasure of Sierra Madres.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

So really a really bad year of movies. Never heard of any of those other movies either. Have you kidded?

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Oh, The Treasure of Sierra Madres is a magnificent film with Bogart and Walter Houston. He should have won. Directed by John Houston.

SPEAKER_05 50:10

Probably the Citizen Kane category, right?

SPEAKER_04 50:12

But yeah, it probably should have won the first time.

SPEAKER_01 50:17

It also got Best Actor for Sir Sir Lawrence Olivier. It got uh Oscar for art direction for black and white. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

Even that's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

And it also got uh Oscar for costume design.

SPEAKER_03 50:33

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

And this was a uh black and white costume design. This was a year that England dominated the Oscars, as two English-made films, Hamlet and the Red Shoes, won a total of six Oscars.

SPEAKER_03 50:46

Ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 50:47

As a special note before we get into talking about the substance of it, uh, and this goes out as a shout-out to my Star Wars fan base, uh, the role of Ostrich is played uh to a comediate relief by Peter Cushing, who 27 years later, 29 years later, in 1977, appeared as Grand Moff Tarkin and ordered the Death Star to blow up Princess Leia's home planet of Alderon.

unknown 51:18

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

So from Shakespeare to a galaxy far, far away. That's uh really good acting. So I started off tonight with something that I've known how to say for uh for wrote memory, because in I think junior English we had to learn memorize 14 lines of a Shakespeare play. And I did that Wherefore Rejoice, What Conquest Brings Young from Julius Caesar. So that's why I wanted to start with that. Nice. Okay. So before we do it, you know, I do like to read some of the liner notes, yeah. Okay. So I think for us to have an intelligent reasonable conversation about this, don't read the whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 52:09

Don't read the whole liner notes.

SPEAKER_01 52:11

Uh I'm not going to read the whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 52:14

It's long, it's long.

SPEAKER_01 52:15

It's long, but I do want to read a couple. Uh reviewing Lawrence Olivier's 1948 film, Hamlet, James Agey, then a critic at The Times, wrote, The man who brings Hamlet, his friends, and his antagonists to life, has tackled one of the most fascinating and most thankless tasks in show business. Very likely there will never be a production good enough to provoke less argument than praise. This Hamlet, on its release, seemed to be that unlikely production. The reviews were mostly universally uh uh rhapsodonic, and the film won four Oscars, including Best Actor and Best Picture. The whips and scorns of time, however, have unjustly diminished the stature of this great film. The consensus nowadays is that Hamlet is the most problematic of Olivier's three self-directed Shakespeare movies, that Henry V, 1945, is a more vibrant and imaginative piece of filmmaking, and that Richard III, 1954, records a more memorable performance. By comparison to those Clear Triumph, this Hamlet, once so celebrated, has taken on the quality of a forlorn and nearly forgotten thing like Yorick Skull. So, with that, Nan, your turn.

SPEAKER_03 53:41

This movie was terrible. Um terrible. Go to the nunnery. Go to the nunnery. Um the I watched it the Sunday of Easter, and I think no less than a dozen times did I have to say to Sam, what is happening? What is going on? The design of the castle, both Dea and I feel like they could have put some furniture in the place.

SPEAKER_04 54:14

I know. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_08 54:16

Wasn't there like an idea down the road?

SPEAKER_04 54:18

I know the set design.

SPEAKER_03 54:20

The set design was awful. Um everything was overacted because it was Shakespeare, and I felt like they had to overact. Um Dea smartly watched it with subtitles.

SPEAKER_04 54:34

She gave me that protest, which was so good. She stopped by my house before on her way to prom and I was just getting started, and I said, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to stick with this. And she goes, put on the subtitles. And she was right. It did help.

SPEAKER_03 54:48

Smart.

SPEAKER_04 54:48

It did help.

SPEAKER_03 54:49

I had Sam as my subtitle. What is happening? What is happening?

SPEAKER_01 54:54

Did he tell you in his native French?

SPEAKER_03 54:56

No, he just would be like, I like had a hard time. So so let me say this. I'm not like I like I respect Shakespeare. I'm not a big Shakespeare person. I have read Romeo and Juliet. I think I read Caesar, and I've read um Much Ado About Nothing. Okay, so those are like the extent spans of my Shakespeare. And as you all know, like I like English literature starting in like 1750. I think if it's before 1750, I don't know what they're saying. Like it's it's not, I'm sure it was beautiful, but it's not beautiful anymore. It's an old language. I don't like Chaucer, like it's too hard. It's just like just too tough. And I respect it in the the arc of history and the arc of art, but like that doesn't mean I need to enjoy it. And then like this was just like a root canal of terribleness. It was so it was so tough. I mean, I knew Ophelia died because of the Taylor Swift song. So The Fate of Ophelia.

SPEAKER_09 56:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 56:03

So I knew what was gonna happen there, but like I could have just guessed everyone dies. Like, my god.

SPEAKER_09 56:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:10

And I couldn't figure out through the I kept on asking Sam during the movie, is he really mad or is he pretending to be mad? To which Sam would be saying unclear.

SPEAKER_08 56:21

Well, that's what they want you to think. Yeah, they're what it wants you to think about.

SPEAKER_03 56:27

And then I mean, indecisive, that's the whole point of Hamlet, you know, like in politics, they say, oh, they're pulling a Hamlet. I mean, also they're pulling it's boredom. Like this is boredom. So I mean, yeah, I don't have anything good to say about this show. I don't, I don't think there was anything. I mean, besides like picking up the famous lines, like the one thing that's amazing about Shakespeare is like there are still lines 500 years later, like there's something rotten in the state of Denmark. Get thee to a nunnery, to thine own self be true. Never a borrower or a lender be. I mean, I heard all of those in this play.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

To be or not to be?

SPEAKER_03 57:09

To be or not to be, that is the question. So, like, that's impressive that 500 years later those statements are still doing. But I mean, there's a lot more said that is not being done in this movie or show. So that's what I got to say about it. Um, this wind, I think we're on show number 21. 20?

SPEAKER_01 57:28

21st, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:30

21. Worst one yet. Yeah. Worst number 21. Going down past Cavalcade. Cavalcade and Gone with the Wind. Yeah. Because at least Gone with the Wind, I could watch the racism on my show and stay in case.

SPEAKER_04 57:47

And you understood it.

SPEAKER_03 57:48

I understood what was going on very deeply.

SPEAKER_08 57:52

I was like, what is happening? Gone with the Wind's a very well-made movie.

SPEAKER_04 57:55

Right. It's just the subject matter.

SPEAKER_08 57:57

Yeah, it's the right, right. That's right. It's the okay it's the message. Um I think I'll I'll second a lot of what she said. I I did not hate it quite probably quite as much. I think it's one of the weaker ones we've watched.

SPEAKER_03 58:15

Um you still think Zigfeld, I mean, uh Broadway Medley is worse.

SPEAKER_08 58:21

I don't know. It's they're just such different kinds of movies. It's because he didn't have a bowl of chopsui because that solves everything. Uh I don't know. It's it's in the bottom three of what we've watched. I'll definitely put it there. And I didn't really hate the play, but they they made some interesting choices. Uh the narration at the beginning, I really hated. It's it's like telling you the theme and the conclusion and what you're supposed to think. I'm like, well, why are we watching it? If you're gonna tell me that in the opening minutes, yeah. I really didn't like that.

SPEAKER_03 58:57

I was grateful for that because I didn't know what the fuck was going on.

SPEAKER_08 59:01

Well, apparently, apparently, audiences liked it.

SPEAKER_03 59:04

So thank God.

SPEAKER_08 59:06

Audiences or the Academy Award voters?

SPEAKER_03 59:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 59:10

Well, would was it a flop at the box office? I did I didn't really check.

SPEAKER_04 59:15

Good question. I don't know.

SPEAKER_08 59:16

No, I mean, well, I'll I'll I'll wait to my comments. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah, so you didn't like that. You know, they it seemed very long, but you know, he cut an hour and a half out and he cut out like some key characters, if you remember the play, like Rosencrantz and Gil Gilbert and Stern. So so they it took a lot of shortcuts with it. Um, you know, I the yeah, the the castle, I mean, I guess they're trying to set this this melancholy brooding air, but like it is supposed to be a castle with like the richest people in the country. No. Yeah, I mean, it looks like a prisoner something.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:02

Well, I am thinking it looked a little bit like the castle in um Wizard of Oz. Oh, the witch's castle. The witch's castle. Yeah, we're gonna be able to. The Wizard of Oz in black and white. Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:17

Yeah. Uh I I I felt like he was overacted at at a lot of points. Um I had trouble with that. Uh I mean the best part about it is the psychology. Like, you you are supposed to like think about like, is he mad? Is he really is he pretending to be mad? Is he somewhere in between? Is he pretending, you know, because like he's pretending to be mad, actually make him mad. Right. Like, like, I mean, I think the biggest point on that is when he kills Polonius, and he's like, oops. Right, because it wasn't who he thought, right? Yeah, yeah. Like he mistake like you've mistakenly killed a man, yeah, and then you're like whatever.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:59

Conspired to kill his father.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:02

No, no, no. I'm talking about Polonius.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:05

Yeah, he probably was involved in the You just made that up. No, he's like he's like the Alright, alright. You'll have your turn. Throughout the whole thing, uh Busybody.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:26

He's establishment guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

Establishment guys. All right. Since Sam brought this up, let me just read it real quickly. In cutting the immensely long play to a running time of just over two and a half hours, thank God. Olivier and his screenplay collaborator, uh Alan Dent, eliminated some fairly prominent characters, notably Rosencranz, Gildred Stern, and uh Fortenbras, and even sacrificed a couple of Hamlet's most famous soliloquies, Oh, What a Rogue and Peasant Slave Am I, and how all occasions do inform against me, and thus made themselves vulnerable to charges of butchering the bard. Olivier, in answer to such criticism, took to characterizing his film as merely, quote, a study in Hamlet, and some detractors focused on the central performance, noting gleefully that the star at 40 was rather long in the tooth for the role. Olivier left himself wide open to that attack, too, as Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, he cast an actress, Elaine Hurley, who was in fact 13 years his junior.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:34

Ah, gosh.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:36

Yeah, and there's some weird sexual tension among them.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:40

Oh, yeah, there is. Weird wow.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:44

Yeah, yeah. So that's interesting. I think actually, like the the Queen's like the more interesting character in this. And like when she drinks the wine at the end, I mean, does everyone think like she kind of knew?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:56

But your comment, yeah, room from the liner notes. That's what made me think this is almost like a theater play that happened to be filmed because you're you're you're you're casting for the theater, you might not really worry about that age difference because the people can like play into those roles.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:10

Yeah, it didn't feel very theatery.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:12

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:13

Okay, now yeah, it's much I like the play in the in the theater. You know, it's dark.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:18

I don't think I would like it.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:19

Well, when I was a little long maybe, but I didn't like how this translated. You need two intermissions.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:25

When I taught yeah, when I mentioned this to Dia, she told me, and I think I remember this, that you read this when you were 10.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

Oh, yeah. I was I was forced, and it wasn't very successful because I don't remember anything. You were 14. No, I was forced to read it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:42

Forced to read it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

My English teacher thought I was bright. Clearly, I wasn't bright enough to read it. Yeah, not giving it to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

Okay, so you've read it and you've seen the movie. Your turn.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:55

Um, I think the language was pretty spot on from the actual play. But I I think they tried to just it was basically a play, but the only difference was that it was being shot. It didn't feel like a movie at any point. And which is also like the age difference that comes with it. Um so if you are someone who enjoys that language, you'd probably be fine with it and probably like it. And I found it fine because I like that language, but it's like, you know, if you don't really understand it, it is a little hard to sit through a two-hour 45-minute movie. Um and I would like and I would apply like a similar analogy to like K-pop or like new things that are coming up that are in different languages, you know, so I think it you need to be a little bit more wide in terms of your perspective and just have a little bit more patience. And I think it can be slightly enjoyable. Um it was shot poorly, in my opinion. It seemed very dull and gray, and it the castle looked like a prison. But the one one shot that I did like was um before they said the line to be or not to be. It went from like his head to the sea and back to his head, and that was kind of cool. I didn't see that like in any of the movies before this.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:21

Paul and I both thought of Rebecca. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:23

No, yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:26

Yeah, Hamlet. Yeah, and reminded of Rebecca when he's the same actor. Yeah, same actor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:34

And I feel like all uh the only thing like Ophelia really did was like run in the hallways.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:40

Um poor Ophelia.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:42

Yeah, she was downplayed. I think her character could have been better.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:47

Just imagine if they were playing the Taylor Swift song while I was going to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:50

It'd probably be a little funny to do that.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:52

But one of the few advantages of being a movie is that we saw Ophelia die, where in the play in the play you don't see that because it's referred to. Oh yeah, it's off stage.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:02

Do they show it as a suicide or as an accident?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

And also the ending's a little different. We talked about this before the podcast. Um Go ahead. I I don't remember the guy, but like the successor is different.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:22

They it was Fortinbrass who says the lines, right? Yeah. Not Horatio. Yeah. It was in the movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:30

Yeah. Um another thing that really helped me watch this movie was watching Hamnet, which I think should have won Best Picture. Like I would vote for that movie. It was amazing. I think everybody needs to see it, and it really gives an insight into um William's life, William Shakespeare's life, and how he wrote this play.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:50

So you watched Hamlet before watching Hamlet's life?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:53

Because it is about the making of Hamlet. Who was Shakespeare's son?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:00

I did the same thing. I watched Hamlet before I watched this one.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:05

Is it a teardrop jerker, Hamlet? Oh, it definitely is.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:08

I cried for like half of it. And it really makes like Shakespeare so much easier to understand. They do a really good job at it. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:19

Just water.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:21

Eddie. I will preface this with my son Eddie. It's okay. After he heard Paul and I talk about the movie, was like, oh hell no. But he did the even harder thing. He read it. Because Eddie, who's always aspired with me to be a father-son team on Jeopardy, knows if you're going to go far in Jeopardy, you have to know opera and you have to know Shakespeare. So Eddie bought what's right in front of me, the complete works of William Shakespeare. So over the past three or four days, Eddie has read Hamlet.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:56

Oh, two days.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:57

Two days. Okay. So your turn, Eddie.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:59

Did you read the whole play?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:00

He read the whole play.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:03

Wolds, woads, woes. But yeah, I liked it. Uh, I mean, I don't think your English skills can ever be good enough to understand things going on in that movie. Oh, that book, right off the cuff. I mean, it's because it's written to be vague and confusing and has multiple interpretations for each of each line. And it's, you know. It's a silly book.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:33

Well, and there's words now that we don't use that haven't been used for 200 years.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:39

Should? Whatever that means. Yeah, right. Yeah. Shut. To enjoy or humiliate. Yeah, it's just yeah. I liked it though. It was interesting, but Ophelia dies out of nowhere. Um it kind of reminds me about Rebecca. It's much about to do about nothing. It's just nothing there. The plot never really moves.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:05

It's just so you liked it, but then you had all those bad things to say about it?

SPEAKER_07 1:09:12

I mean, just because there's bad things to say about something doesn't mean I can't like it.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:17

Well, I mean, usually when you like something, then you say good things about the thing, typically. Do you have anything good to say about it since you liked it? I don't know. Just curious. When you say you liked it, was it the read was it the play that you read or was it the actual movie? Huh?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:35

When you say you liked it, was it the play that you liked? Playing the role of Virginia. Okay. Yeah, he reads the. He liked reading the play, not so much the movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:46

But like he complained about all the things on the play, like still reading that. I was like, what did you like? Hello?

SPEAKER_07 1:09:55

Sometimes you can't like things you don't like, okay? That doesn't make any sense. Did you learn nothing from Hamlet?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:03

No, I didn't. If you looked at the video, you would understand. I didn't like it and I listed all the ways that I did not like it. I didn't say I liked it and then listed the ways I didn't like it.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:16

Named the bear.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:18

And Hamlet, and that's my Ophelia, okay?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:21

That doesn't make any sense, but if you read the book, you wouldn't know. I didn't mind this isn't a book club, it's a movie club, for Christ's sakes.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:28

If you read the transcript of the book.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:30

Again, that's not the agreement to being at the dinner table. It's to watch the movie.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:37

Well, I read the play.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:39

Yeah. What works for me. Um, Duncan. Oh boy. Um did you take the complete works of Shakespeare with you when you did the Appalachian trip?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:49

No, that would have added, like, I don't know, like, based on the book you have in front of you, but about five pounds or something on top of my 35 pounds uh that I was carrying the food and water.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:00

Let me just pause here for a minute because you brought this up and we were just talking before dinner. This is the one-year anniversary of the eve of Paul starting the year. Oh, yeah, yeah. A year ago, in April.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:18

A year ago, I was on the train to Charlottesville in Gainesville, Georgia, to then, as Kate said, start the next day.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

And the week before that, I took him to lunch with Bob Evans on Dorothy Lane. Yeah. And he told me what he was gonna do, and I said, Paul, you're my hero. Yeah, I did. And I never once backed down from that. That's true.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:38

He recovered from the shock of my news pretty quickly at Bob Evans.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:43

Ten days ago, a year ago, we went to lunch. I said, You lost your mind.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:51

Sam was trying to wrap his mind about somebody voluntarily quitting the job to go hike 2,200 miles, which makes you normal, but yes. That's not for you. And you store my hero ball.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:02

And Sam still thinks you've lost your mind.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:05

No, I think it turned out pretty well. Um, so I yeah, I wanted to uh like the movie because I had read Hamlet in high school, and uh uh Dan, I I neglected to mention this at the time because it wasn't really a big memory. But when I was in ninth grade, my ninth grade English teacher um as like the I was gonna say senior year, but as a ninth grade project, like she would stitch together a bunch of scenes from like different like Shakespeare plays and people had different roles. And I actually played one of the scenes where I was Claudius um in Hamlet, yeah. Okay, and uh the two folks um that had um uh what was it? It was uh uh Hamlet and Laertes, they had the sword fight. Like she had brought somebody in to like teach them how to like you know lightly do some sword fighting. Anyway, um so I wanted to like this uh movie, and uh as you know, Dan, because we watched it together, I I did not like it, and I was so fixated on like how in the heck did this win the Oscar? And the reason why I didn't like it was it just one, it seemed to be like uh, as we mentioned earlier, it seemed to be a stage production just happened to be filmed, which I know is not literally true from reading some things. Also, I I know it's supposed to be a brooding movie, Hamlet's brooding, it's dark, but it almost seemed like the production value, even for a black and white film, went backwards in time from the other movies that we have seen. Like that just seemed like the picture quality was not that great. Um, so those are the things that kind of like put me off of it a little bit. So, because of my fixation trying to figure out what the heck was happening, I did a little bit of research. Um, and so this is where I was asking, like, did the Academy Award, you know, uh the Academy like this versus the audience? And as it may be people here know this, but a couple years earlier, uh, well, in 1944, Lawrence Olivier um made a production of Macbeth, you know, over in the UK, and it was released in the UK um to great success, and then a couple years later it was released in the United States. So it was a box office hit, people loved it. Interestingly enough, it was filmed in Technicolor. I like this movie. Um and Olivier actually won, was awarded by the Academy a special Oscar Oscar for Henry V. Not some not like not a lifetime achievement thing, but specifically for bringing Henry V to life on the screen. And the only thing I can think of is that this is a makeup. This is a yeah, the Academy was making it up. I'm not I'm not blaming Olivier from doing anything, but like they they were just enamored with Olivier um or the English accent or something, and awarded him. It's like a makeup for Macbeth. You should have given it to him for something else, right? Yeah, yeah. Um I mean he he was he was like on the rise, or you know, and this is film, you know, this is these are both UK productions. Um, whatever that means.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:01

I don't know if like John Wayne and True Grit.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:04

Yeah, yeah. Um the other thing I was trying to figure out like, was Shakespeare like popular, but I mean that that really just ends up like Shakespeare. Everybody wants to do Shakespeare. Like, I mean, we all know Shakespeare, right? I mean, even in the 40s and before, people are reading Shakespeare, people going to like local productions being top, people going to local productions because before television, right? So you go to see Shakespeare, and um, there have been other attempts at at movies uh with Shakespeare, not generally financial successes. Um, like in 1936, um oh man, was it uh Midsummer's Night Dream? Yeah, there's Midnight Summer Night.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:42

Mickey Rooney, everybody was in it.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:43

Yeah, so Mickey Rooney, James Cagney, and Olivia de Havilland's um screen debut was a Shakespeare play. Orson Wells uh did uh Twelfth Night as a short film in 1933. In fact, it's his own it's his earliest surviving film where he directed. Um and then uh what was I gonna say 1936? Uh Leslie Howard of Gone with the Wood played an ancient Romeo.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:09

He played Romeo, Leslie Howard of Gone with the Wood fame.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:14

So it's like everybody wants to do Shakespeare. Um and so I'm not surprised that Hamlet was chosen, but the fact that it to me it just seems surprising that he won an Oscar for Best Picture, I think just has to do with the Academy's I'll say love or interest, and Lawrence Olivier specifically, particularly after the success at Henry V two years earlier, where they won they won him a special Oscar. So, anyway.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:46

Yeah, so it's like uh Russell Crowe and Gladiator Awards that was the makeup for the like the artsy stuff he did that was way better.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:56

What are you talking about? Gladiator was a great movie. Let me tell you all the reasons I don't like it. It's a great movie.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:05

I definitely want to hear from now we can argue that. I mean, when I watch these movies, my default my default viewing mode is like, oh, I want to give latitude because of one Oscar, but like everything everybody has said about the actual production value. The only thing I found intriguing um after doing some like you know, diving into this was that one of the um choices that the cinematographer made was is called deep focus, meaning that like everything in the foreground, middle ground, and background all in focus. And uh it was a choice made um for some reason for this film, but it was in and it was influenced by Orson Wells and also William Weiler, who had won an Oscar, or I shouldn't say won an Oscar, but had done Mrs. Miniver and Best Years of Our Lives. So, I mean it in a way this movie fits into some of those you know emerging traditions, even though I still don't think it's it's no it's no best years of our lives, yeah. Yeah. Um anyway, yeah. I'm glad I watched it with you, Dan, because otherwise it would have been way more difficult to watch on my own. It was hard to watch on my own.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:10

Did you watch it alone, Kate?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:12

I did. I watched it yesterday afternoon. I I put it off, I told Dan it was the first time in this whole venture that I was dreading the homework.

SPEAKER_09 1:18:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:26

And and I'm I normally look forward to it, and this time I was dreading it. And I read this in high school. I remember I don't know that I enjoyed it as much as Macbeth and some of the other things that we read that were Shakespeare. But I don't remember being um anti-Hamlet. I I think like, you know, I still remember, thankfully, because my attention span for this was pretty short. Um, so it's good that I remember the plot from reading it back in high school. Um this was that was rough. I don't know, I I didn't care for how it was shot. I I don't know if it was this idea, this focus thing or whatever, but I felt like if you've ever seen like really early TV, like television.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:18

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:19

Yeah, it felt like that kind of production value. Yeah, yeah, it did. And it's like for TV in those early days, it's like you get it has to start somewhere, and they're they're trying this new medium and trying to like do something for a small screen. That's what it felt like to me in a lot of the scenes. I was like, I'm watching like a it just for the production value to be hailed as something special really struck me as odd because it just didn't seem that way to me at all. Um I felt like very much, I think several of you have mentioned they were he clearly Olivier, he did like, you know, he was like the man behind everything in this movie. Like it was clearly a labor of love to do this. He wrote the screenplay, he wrote like he adapted the screenplay and didn't like give himself credit for it. And then you know, it's like he directed it, he you c he clearly had a hand in like every piece of this movie, right? Because it mattered to him. But the choices to go like it is a brooding play, without doubt, but the way it was shot, it just it's like instead of brooding, it was like too dark, right? It's you know, it's like what are they doing? Where you know, like I can't even tell what's going on, it's so dark, and like the sun never shines in Denmark. The sun never shines, but it's like you know, the choices he made. I understand if if you are going into it and you're like, okay, I've got a four-hour play that I've got to cut down to two and a half hours, like stuff has to go, but he chose to remove every bit of like there was humor in this play, and that was completely removed. Like the only light moment of the whole thing happened toward the end when he comes back after the pirates and he comes across the grave and the man digging the grave, right? And they have like a little banter where there's a lot of wordplay happening, but it's like the only moment that's remotely lighthearted or humorous, like close to humorous. Yeah, and there actually is other humor in this play, but it's like it's like nowhere to be found. And I like again, I understand you got like to cut an hour and a half out of a play, you gotta like make big cuts, but oh gosh. Um Sam made the point. I his relationship with his mother was very edible, and like that seemed to be played up even more than in the original play. I think so. Um it was definitely a choice. Ophelia was an afterthought, like she was it felt like she was barely on the screen, and you're right. Like she just was like dancing around and like she was barely there. Um so yeah, I it this was a tough one. Um least favorite, least favorite. Bottom of the list. Truly, I think, least favorite, yeah. Even Broadway melody better. Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:28

There's no right or wrong here. This was my least favorite.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:32

This was it was the hardest for me to get into, and I don't think I ever really did.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:37

I just I was trying to know nothing bad. Only conscious makes its sell.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:43

It just this felt very like check in the box for me.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:48

What'd you think, Dan?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:50

I'm going to conclude with something that was written by.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:57

You liked every movie. Did you like this movie?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:00

I'm going to conclude. Well, my remarks I'm going to talk about, but I do want to put this out here because this is things we've just talked about. Uh what I've been reading from the notes that are in the DVD.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:13

That are also long.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:15

Uh, but I haven't read them all. Uh uh by Terrence Rafferty, who is a critic at large for GQ magazine and the author of The Thing Happens ten years of writing about the movies. Okay, Olivier's performance, which at first appears unnaturally constrained and regressive, picks up speed as the narrative rushes to its tragic climax, as if the characters were being driven by a helpless, perverse attraction to death itself. Olivier conveys the terrifying force of an intelligent man's desire to reach, quote, the undiscovered country from whose born no traveler returns. And in this picture, the melancholy prince's thrusting, aggressive wit and his feverishly exuberant sword play in the fatal last act duel with Laritis has an unsettling, erotic charge when Olivier's Hamlet expires, limp and spent. We feel just how devoutly this consummation was wished for. So, anyhow, and he also makes this note, and this is the last thing I'm gonna read. Uh uh, and 18-year-old Gene Simmons is the loveliest, most heartbreaking aphilia you'll ever see. And I think that's true. So, anyhow, did I like this movie? Oh, hell yes.

SPEAKER_09 1:24:44

I think you're lying.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:47

Get thee to a nunnery. Exactly. My entire life, I'm 73 now, I've always wanted to read Shakespeare. And I've never been able to do it. I just don't have the patience for the language. I mean, I've always wanted to do it. You know, I were for rejoiced what Conquest brings the home. I had to memorize that 14 lines, any 14 lines we wanted from any play we wanted. I always wanted to read Shakespeare. When Eddie got this, I thought, I'm gonna start reading this. Hell no. I just can't do it. And I know he's a great author. I love Hammett uh watching that. It was a great movie, and I'm glad I watched it. I'm a big fan of Just Lee Buckley, who got Best Actress this year for playing Shakespeare's wife. You can't see that yet.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:54

Well, I okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:57

There's things that happen when they happen. So, anyhow, uh, you know, and I've I've seen Shakespeare movies, Midsummer's Night's Dream that we're talking about, da da da. I will say this. After we watched it, Polly turned to me, and the first thing he said was, So, is Ordinary People still your most uh disliked movie? And I said, I gotta think about that. Hamlet was very difficult.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:27

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:28

It was very difficult. I do give, I've always been in awe of those English and Irish stage actors whose whole careers are so devoted to bringing Shakespeare to life. Sure. Sir Alex Guinness, Lawrence Olivier, Patrick Stewart now, Peter O'Toole, Richard Harris, the whole bunch Richard Burton, the whole bunch of them. If you can do Shakespeare in the guy that played uh Gandorf the Good, McKellen, uh if you can be Shakespeare in London, then you have arrived. And I think that's so such an interesting tribute to somebody that has been dead for 500 years or whatever, that there's people today now, 18, 15, 16 years old, that are aspiring to do this role in in Shakespeare, you know, either to be Macbeth or to be this or to be King Lear. Uh and you know, there's always been so many different um versions of it, you know. So, yeah, this movie, I will tell you this. If I live to be the age of Methuselah, I will never watch it again. This is coming from a guy who in one day watched Gone with the Wind twice.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:56

You're happy that there's no like director's commentary. Or other people.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:01

I was extremely happy that there was no extra because I would have done it.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:06

Bonus material.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:07

But I will say this it's in the book. It won the best picture.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:12

So moving on.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:15

So now we won't be talking Oscar and Shakespeare for quite a while until we review 1998's Best Picture Winner, Shakespeare in Love.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:26

Thank God. That was a good show.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:28

And that is 50 movies from now.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:31

Yeah, there we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:32

One year. That is 50 movies from now. Dea, we'll call you and I know.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:36

You can um call in to the pod any time.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:40

And uh some of our dear listeners have asked what the next movie is going to be. And for the majority of people at this table, it is in our wheelhouse. It is. It is a great political movie. Yeah. I've read the book a long, long time ago. I have the book. I've seen the movie. It's a great movie. And it's called All the King's Men. And we've got some pretty uh rabid politicians sitting here at this table. Some still active, others in retirement.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:10

Um we'll work on it. I mean, we know a lot of politicians.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:18

Get your mind thinking about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:19

Yeah, we'll think about it. We stay Sam did secure some new guests coming up.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:23

Yes. We're hopeful that Tom Archdeacon will be here for On the Waterfront. And Jimmy Rouget is gonna make a return for uh Patton. Was it Patton or uh Patton's air?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:39

Is there something else? Oh, and Cheryl Robinson's coming to an American in Paris. American in Paris.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:43

And we're we will have French food that night. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:47

Do we make the I can make the Coke of On again? We can do that.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:51

Yeah, let's see where we are.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:56

Final thoughts, Dan?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:57

Um hope everybody has a good week. Hope it's um uneventful.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:03

Sam?

SPEAKER_08 1:30:05

Uh Sam?

SPEAKER_01 1:30:07

Dea?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:11

Same.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:12

Eddie? I do. I do?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:14

I do. Do you?

SPEAKER_05 1:30:16

No, I'm good, Dan.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:17

Oh?

SPEAKER_05 1:30:17

No final thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:19

Kate?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:20

Nope. I've got nothing more to say after all that.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:24

Okay. Well, I'd like to thank everybody for tuning in to us. Uh, hopefully we won't have to take time off uh like we did, because I really missed doing it.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:34

I missed you guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:35

But it was uh we had a we all had a busy week. Uh so anyhow, until uh we meet again, I'm gonna say Godspeed and fair wednesday until we meet again.