What does it say about your favorite podcast host that he considers the 1979 BBC adaptation of John le Carre's seminal espionage novel 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' to be COMFORT VIEWING??

Nonetheless, as Smiley would say, there we are.

In this episode, curiously one in which I am still totally unresolved as to how best to approach this series in episodic fashion, I explore the myriad genius aspects of the production.

Considering the versatile, endlessly watchable and iconic American actor Gene Hackman.

HERE IT IS! Your most-anticipated episode of the year.

I'm joined by David Schumann of the IG and YouTube accounts @vhsrevolution as we each offer up our Top Five out of the 10 Best Picture Nominees ahead of Sunday night's Academy Awards telecast.

And yes, I will be doing my Postmortem Recap episode following the broadcast. 

Follow David on Instagram here.

Check out David's YouTube Channel here.

Here's the third of my episodic trilogy about George Roy Hill's films 'Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid', 'The Sting', and, now: 1977's 'Slap Shot'.

My deep dive into the films of Director George Roy Hill continues with the most iconic Western ever made: "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid".

George Roy Hill's 1973 masterpiece 'The Sting' (released December 1974) grossed in 1974 what would be over 900 million dollars today.

It's a deceptively simple, stealthily subversive and counter-cultural film wrapped in the meticulous trappings of a 1930's Warner Bros gangster picture, and re-teaming Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid with that film's director.

In this episode: How Peter Boyle, Jack Nicholson, Richard Boone, and Warren Beatty almost got cast in 'The Sting', the brilliant Marvin Hamlisch Scott Joplin songs used on the soundtrack, the fantastic supporting cast of instantaneous-read character actors like Jack Kehoe, Dana Elcar, and MORE!

In Hollywood, the story beats of werewolf movies were codified in 1941 by a German-Jewish emigrant to Hollywood via London named Curt Siodmak, who wrote the seminal film 'The Wolf Man', starring Lon Chaney, Jr.

40 years later, John Landis made the most important and enduring and influential werewolf film ever made in 'An American Werewolf in London'. It was his follow-up to the one-two punch of 'Animal House' and 'The Blues Brothers'.  He could make any film he wanted, with anyone he wanted. So he made a script he'd begun when he was 18 years old. A script he'd first discussed with an aspiring special effects and creature-design guy named Rick Baker in 1971.  10 years later, he'd found two unknown leads, hired basically the entire cast of an acclaimed touring production of 'Nicholas Nickleby', and called Baker on the set of another werewolf movie ('The Howling') and convinced him to decamp to England to work on 'An American Werewolf in London'.  For his groundbreaking innovations on the film, Baker won the ver first Academy Award ever given for makeup special effects.

Featuring a snappy, smart script, Landis' virtuosic comedy/horror chops, and an unexpected soundtrack of moon songs, 'An American Werewolf in London' is in a class by itself and is one of the most important films ever made.

Other werewolf films of note and worthy of your time:

'Ginger Snaps'

'Wolfen'

'Wolf'

'Dog Soldiers'

'The Howling'

'The Wolf Man' (1941)

'Werewolf of London' (1935)

"Werewolf of London' inspired Zevon's song 'Werewolves of London'. Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers had watched the film and told Zevon jokingly that he should write a song with that title and start a dance craze.

And as far as listicles go, this one is well-reasoned by someone who knows their werewolf films:

The 25 Best Werewolf Movies 

Sparse. Laconic. Expansive. Languid. Wry.

The Coen Brother's 2007 Neo-Noir Western 'No Country For Old Men' moves to the fatefully ticking beat of it's own Grandfather Clock. 

It's a film that rewards close viewing and is astoundingly faithful to Cormac McCarthy's novel while also being so completely a "Coen Brothers film" even as it's their (only?) adaptation of an existing book.

Featuring an iconic performance by Javier Bardem as the philosophical killer Anton Chigur, brilliant cinematography from frequent Coen collaborator Roger Deakins, and perfectly wrought twangily-Texas turns by Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones.

A number of signature Coens scenes of the lead characters interacting with a variety of shop clerks, receptionists, store owners, and authority figures abound.

'Liquid Sky' was a $500,000 largely experimental film by the Russian expat director Slava Tsukerman that sprung from a group of friends and colleagues surrounding School of Visual Arts acting teacher Bob Brady.  What's it about?  Heroin, Cocaine, Aliens, Art, Fashion, Dancing, Nightclubs, Science, Sex, Lesbian Knife Fights, Androgyny, Shrimp, Berlin...and that's just the first 45 minutes.  Much more than just a so-bad-it's-good b-movie, 'Liquid Sky' has endured and is best appreciated for its fantastic design, cinemotography, and score and the period specificity of it's troupe of amateur actors. It has to be seen to be believed, and it's worth checking out! Join me!

Get the very cool 4K restoration DVD of Liquid Sky here.

Listen to the groundbreaking Fairlight CMI synthesizer soundtrack.