WELCOME TO THE BASEMENT HALL OF FAME
To recognize People and Entities that have had a significant impact on Welcome to the Basement.
2012 INDUCTEES
MICHAEL SHANNON
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?; Premium Rush; The Iceman
Michael Shannon is Matt and Craig’s acting crush. Sometimes Craig can impersonate him, but usually not. Starting out on the Chicago stage he went on to movies such as “Bug (mentioned in ep. 12)” “The Runaways,” “Revolutionary Road,” and “Take Shelter (ep.14),” “Man of Steel” (ep.29) and the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire.”
When he finds out about being chosen to be in the Hall-of-Fame, we hope that he reacts with a flash of anger in his eyes, an annoyed twitch to a cheek, followed by emitting an overwhelming sadness and a polite changing of subjects. Later, when alone he will think about the honor and allow himself the slightest of smiles, which if witnessed causes grown men to cry, because it reminds them of a time their father smiled. He then quietly gets back to learning his lines and honing his craft only occasionally pausing to wonder why people have to give him honors and
things when he’s just a simple actor doing his job.
MICHAEL IRONSIDE
Top Gun; Scanners; Starship Troopers
Part of the reason he is honored at the WTTB Hall of Fame is that he is the first actor to appear prominently in two separate episodes. The rest of the reason is that he is, as Craig calls him, the “Living Embodiment of Authority”. Ever wonder what Jack Nicholson would be like without all of that acting? Look no farther than Michael Ironside. Known to most as “that guy” due to his ubiquity in film and television for the last 3 decades, he’s also known as “the goon in Total Recall” and “the guy who’s chomped in half by a giant bug in “Starship Troopers.” Ironside is perfect for these gross-out moments, as his roots lie in the icky world of David Cronenberg, exploding onto the scene by exploding a guy’s head. With his mind (See Scanners, Ep. 13)
From his Canadian upbringing he went on to join the Hollywood Military and Police Force, earning many characters with the rank of Det., Insp., Capt., Col. Lt., Maj. or Gen and in “Top Gun” Lt. Cmdr. Rick Heatherly, or as we like to call him, Jester. As a Canadian who looks great in any American uniform, we salute him.
“AMERICA’S CAVEMAN” RON PERLMAN
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale; Season of the Witch
So far, Ron Perlman has only appeared in a supporting role in one film in our series, but he has merited mention in many others. There may be no actor (besides Warrick Davis) who is so adept at acting through the thickest of make-up, as he has proven in the cult tv show “Beauty and the Beast,” the Hellboy series, “The Name of the Rose” and his film debut “Quest for Fire.” Discussion of QFF inspired Matt and
Craig to dub him “America’s Caveman,” and it has caught on with our viewership. But he excels out of make-up as well, appearing in “Drive”, “City of Lost Children”,”Enemy at the Gates” and the FX series “Sons of Anarchy.” He has acted in English, Spanish, French, or all the languages of Europe at once (as demonstrated in “The Name of the Rose”), and he can also effortlessly crush skulls. In 2012
he broke the Scales of Awesome, by honoring a Make-A-Wish Foundation request to meet Hellboy by meeting a young boy in full Hellboy costume and make-up.
NANOOK
Nanook of the North
If raw manliness were the scale by which we measure WTTB Hall-of-famers,
Nanook would be on the top of the list. He can spear a fish (then bite it in the
head to finish the job), snare a fox, harpoon a walrus, spear and skin a seal, ride across a frozen wasteland, lick a knife in the bitter cold, store a moderately sized family in a kayak, and toss up an igloo (with an iceblock skylight) like it’s just another day — because it is just another day for Nanook of the North. There’s
only one other man who would do that, but not out of necessity, but because he is crazy, he’s german, and he’s also in the Hall of Fame.
KINSKI!
Fitzcarraldo; The Great Silence
Of course, we speak of Klaus Kinski. Matt has dubbed him the “Crazed eyed mad man of film,” which is like calling King Kong a “notable monkey.” According to some sources, Herr Kinski has appeared in over 200 films from “Dr Zhivago” to Spaghetti Westerns to…well pretty much anything, yet he turned down a role in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” because he found the script “moronically shitty.” What he is most known for, though, are the five films he made with quasi-nihilistic, obsessive director Werner Herzog (see Fitzcarraldo, ep. 9). His daughter Nastassja was mentioned in episode 11, “Unfaithfully Yours,” so Kinski is the first Hall of Fame family dynasty. Matt dressed as him for our first Halloween episode.
Inductees – Non-human Category:
THE MEGAFORCE THUMB KISS
Megaforce, The Rocketeer
You’re standing on the tarmac about to hop a plane to take you on a suicide mission across the border of some nameless country. Across the field, you spy the love of your life come to see you off. She wanted to join you in battle, but you can’t put her in danger. You want to hold her one last time, but she’s too far away. The engines
start up.
You have to board now or the mission will be in jeopardy. What can you do? Do you blow her a kiss or give her an assuring “thumbs up”?
Well, why not both?
Using the infamous MEGAFORCE THUMB KISS, you can show her that you are just as incompetent in romance and toughness as the makers of Megaforce. Simply kiss your thumb and give her the thumbs up. If she does the same to you, it might be love…love of campy 80’s action movies. And you can assure yourself that there’s a woman back home waiting for you who catches all of your most obscure movie references, and that’s a woman worth fighting…and living…for.
2013 INDUCTEES
UDO KIER
My Own Private Idaho; My Son My Son What Have Ye Done?; Armageddon; Suspiria
It started so innocently. Matt imitated him when his films “Blood for Dracula” and “Flesh for Frankenstein” were offered up for Seen It (episode 13). On the same episode we nearly watched “Suspiria” which he also co-starred in. It was as if we accidentally uttered a spell: name three movies and imitate him once, and he shall appear. Udo circled over our show for months like some sexy German eagle before striking and striking and striking again. He would just appear in supporting roles as if to say “You bore me with this Kinski worship. Ich bin ein intense German the whole family can make love to.”
Udo entranced us with what can best be described as his “Udocity”. It’s a sensation akin to “seetting on a boolleet sinking of pow-her.” Those of course are the lyrics to Mr Kier’s 1985 crazy-ass bit of Europop “Der Adler,” a song that would be the theme song for WTTB if we could afford the royalties.
RIVER PHOENIX
My Own Private Idaho; Explorers
On episode 17, Matt discovered Craig’s emotional Kryptonite, and his name is River Phoenix. Craig nearly couldn’t talk about “Stand By Me” during Seen It because he’s still recovering from Phoenix’s early death in 1993. It often seems that River Phoenix has been forgotten by everyone but journalists who love creating awkward moments during interviews with his brother Joaquin. For those who need reminding, in the late 80’s and early 90’s, he was the film world’s Kurt Cobain. Both were seen as the epitome of legitimate coolness, artistic integrity and emotional truth in shallow industries; both were burdened with messianic expectations; and their deaths both signified the ends of eras. Indie movies and alt-rock both became a lot less indie and alt after those two quit the scene.
He was the actor deemed perfect to play a young Indiana Jones, as mentioned on episode 40 as a coda to Craig’s notorious rant regarding a lesser actor. Almost all of his 13 movies are worth seeing, but if we may recommend “Dogfight” it’s a truly unique movie romance.
TRIVIA: “River” is his real name, but “Phoenix” is not. His last name was originally Bottom. This name would hardly befit a movie star.
ELEANOR BRON
Bedazzled; Help!; Alfie
Ms Bron does not hold the record for being in the most movies featured on WTTB but no one has played more roles. In “Bedazzled” alone, she played six wildly different parts while holding her own opposite two of the great comics of the era. Add to that the double agent Ahme in “Help!” in which she had the challenge of acting opposite the most popular rock band history has ever known. Her name stuck in Paul McCartney’s head, and soon thereafter he half-named the song “Eleanor Rigby” after her. If that’s not enough rock star cred, she is also name-checked in Yo La Tengo’s tribute to British films of the 1960’s “Tom Courtenay” (Craig’s favorite YLT song). The WTTB Hall of Fame is not the first boy’s club she’s broken into. She was also the first woman to join the famed British sketch comedy troupe the Cambridge Footlights (which is how English people pronounce Second City). Up to the point of her arrival in 1959, the Cambridge dons of comedy spent 76 years thinking that “man + dress = comedy.” She proved the imperfection of that equation, offering up her own: “woman (talent + wit) = just as funny if not more so.” Her Cambridge co-star Peter Cook did not forget.
MADS MIKKELSEN
Valhalla Rising, King Arthur
Look at that face. Was he carved out of stone by ancient Danish tribes as an idol to ward off evil spirits? We have no proof to the contrary, so we must assume the answer is yes. Herre Mikkelsen stabbed, thrashed and strangled his way into both our basement and our hearts with “Valhalla Rising.” Few actors could pull off the role of the silent but deadly “One-Eye” with such depth. If you haven’t seen VR, you might know him as the guy who beats up James Bond’s crotch in “Casino Royale” or as a real-life Nazi fighter in “Flame & Citron.” These days he lives outside of Anthony Hopkins shadow playing a young Hannibal Lecter on tv. Whether tearing out his enemies intestines or cooking up some brain in a hollandaise sauce, Mads Mikkelsen makes beauty out of the terrifying. And to answer the question of what tough guys can and cannot do, he preceded his acting career by spending his twenties as a dancer. This makes him the Danish Christopher Walken.
CHRISTOPHER LEE
The Wicker Man; Horror of Dracula; The Three Musketeers; The Last Unicorn; Corpse Bride; Airport ’77; Season of the Witch
We all know actors get typecast, but what’s easy to forget is that roles get typecast, too. For a quarter of a century, to think of Count Dracula was to think of the short and creepy Bela Legosi. It wasn’t until 1956 when tall and charming Christopher Lee changed everything by walking up to us and saying “I’m Count Dracula,” and the world replied, “Yes. Yes, you are.” He smashed our perceptions, removing our mental typecasting of what the Count could be. Unfortunately, this got him typecast himself and it took him until 1973 to escape the cape, with the one-two punch of playing the affable pagan Lord Summerisle in “The Wicker Man” and the title character in “The Man with the Golden Gun.” In the decades that followed the children who grew up on his movies became directors themselves. Spielberg, Lucas, Burton and Peter Jackson all sought him out to bring his tall, suave spooky gravitas to their movies.
Mr Lee beat up Gandalf, chopped off Darth Vader’s arm and put out a number of death metal recordings, all when he was past the age of 75. And we cannot fail to note that he was a spy during World War II, and though he can never talk about what he did specifically in the war, he did once explain to Peter Jackson what it really sounds like when a knife enters a body.
NON-HUMAN CATEGORY
DANCING
(Episodes 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41, 42, 43…for starters)
If there’s anything WTTB has proven, it’s that the appropriate time and place to dance is anytime and anyplace. It’s the natural thing to do in discos, dance studios, Broadway rehearsal halls, Cape Cod drug parties, rock concerts, dockside taverns or just walking down a path singing a Song of the South. But it also works in mining camps, on distant planets, at an Indian political rally, down in a dungeon, while enjoying a pagan sacrifice or attending a biker funeral. It doesn’t matter. Sometimes, you just feel like dancing. It doesn’t matter if you have the genius of Tony Manero (“Saturday Night Fever”) or Lucky Garnett and Penny Carroll (“Swing Time”), or the drunken ineptitude of Ben Rumsen (“Paint Your Wagon”), if you gotta dance, you gotta dance. Even “The Great Train Robbery” had a dance number, and that movie was silent. In our archives there are more movies that include dancing than gunfire. Maybe even more than kissing. How can we not pay tribute?
WTTB HALL OF FAME 2014
BARRY BOSTWICK
Megaforce
How great of a guy is Barry Bostwick? Since 1975, he has been known as “Asshole” thanks to his performance as Brad in “Rocky Horror Picture Show” (Seen It, ep. 010, Lost Highway) and he is, from what we hear, o.k. with you just calling him that on the street. And he flew a god-damned flying motorcycle in “Megaforce.” That’s how great he is. But, what makes the eternally boyish Tony winner really great is that he somehow appeared on our show, telling you to watch “not every Friday, every other Friday,” before spreading the love in the way he does best, with a Thumb Kiss (See Episode 051 “The Man With the Golden Arm”).
KATSUHIRO OTOMO
AKIRA, Memories
There are only a handful of directors who sprang into the world fully formed, presenting a masterpiece on their first try. Examples would be Sophia Coppola with “The Virgin Suicides,” John Huston with “The Maltese Falcon,” and the Coen Brothers with “Blood Simple.” But, there are only a couple of directors that completely changed the game upon arrival. One of them is Katsuhiro Otomo. Before 1988, Japanese animation was a lazy, cut-rate, static world of limited color palates and rigidly still characters whose mouths flapped around with no regards paid to the dialogue. Then came Otomo and “AKIRA.” He treated the anime rule book like he was a telekinetic superchild blowing up Old Tokyo. Suddenly, we had a highly detailed setting with more colors than Pantone could ever imagine. We had realistic muscle movement and fantastical muscle expansion. This wasn’t anime. This wasn’t Disney. This was something new, and it has not only affected cartoons, but video games and live-action action films to this day. It also inspired both Matt and Craig’s season 3 Halloween costumes (ep 064 Pet Semetary).
RAY MILLAND
Love Story; Dial M For Murder; Panic In Year Zero
Welsh born handsome man Ray Milland was the jealous, monologuing husband plotting to “Dial M For Murder,” Oliver Barrett III, the aloof father of Oliver Barrett IV in “Love Story,” and the family man trying to survive when society collapses in “Panic in Year Zero” (which he also directed). Whenever he comes down to the Basement he brings three things, an elegant and dignified air, meticulous and charismatic craftsmanship, and a bat. He does not like that bat. This flying little beast comes from Billy Wilder’s “The Lost Weekend,” the first film to deal seriously with the perils of alcoholism: recklessness, poverty, and bats. It is the movie that won Milland his Oscar, and also the very first Best Actor award at Cannes. It also is one of the many reasons he joins our Hall of Fame.
GREGG TOLAND
Song of the South; Wuthering Heights
Some say he is the best cinematographer of all time, others say he is the most influential. We say he’s the first one to appear in the WTTB Hall of Fame. You know in movies, when the foreground and the background are equally and seamlessly in focus? That’s called Deep Focus. He invented that. For that alone, he’s earned his place, but he did so much more. When John Ford wanted to bring a documentary realism to “The Grapes of Wrath,” when William Wyler wanted to capture what home looked like to a returning veteran in “The Best Years of Our Lives,” and when Orson Welles wanted to make the most visually dynamic movie of all time, they knew there was one man for the job, cinematographer Gregg Tolland. He has also lugged his lenses into the Basement, bringing a Scottish gloom to the California locations of “Wuthering Heights” for which he won his only Oscar, and a swampy Georgian languor to “Song of the South.”
ROBERT LOGGIA
Lost Highway, The Ninth Configuration
Gravel-voiced Robert Loggia has been acting since the Truman administration. After a few decades of bringing the gruff to pretty much every drama that TV had to offer, he finally gained prominence in film by encouraging, then getting on Tony Montana’s bad side in “Scarface” (Seen It, episode 017, Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure). After that he went on to growl his way through “Prizzi’s Honor,” “Independence Day” and “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie.” He first appeared on WTTB playing Mr Eddy in “Lost Highway” where he gave out some vital roadside driving lessons (a role specifically written for him after he lost the part of Frank Booth in “Blue Velvet” to Dennis Hopper). He shouted some more as one of the menagerie of kooks in “The Ninth Configuration” in which he did a bit of dancing as well. Not the last time he would dance on film: he and Tom Hanks had two body double dancers fired from the movie “Big” insisting that they could dance on a giant piano just fine. One imagines that Hanks did the polite insisting to director Penny Marshall, while Loggia just locked eyes with her and waited.
Non-human category: FALLING
Falling has been a near constant presence on our show since Nanook first toppled his sled in episode one. Since then we’ve had characters fall from New York bridges, London clock towers, Chicago tenement balconies and No Name City brothels. They’ve landed on rainy Portland sidewalks and snowy Boston fields. They’ve flopped into bathtubs, Italian rivers and Texan garbage dumps. Balloons have fallen tragically to earth, astronauts have fallen triumphantly into planets’ atmospheres, and creepy little girls have fallen out of wardrobes. Whether you are exhausted, dying or have just received a round house kick to the face from Billy Jack, falling is there for you. Let us remember our fallen brothers and sisters by welcoming them and the gravitational force that they find so attractive into our Hall of Fame.
2015 Inductees
BILL DUKE
Car Wash, Menace II Society
He acts, he directs and he’s got a face that could stop a truck (and I mean that in a good way). Whether he’s stalking through jungles in Predator or staring down Terence Stamp in The Limey, Mr. Duke brings a calm intensity to all of his roles.
He has been directing since 1985 and his directing credits include Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (but we won’t hold that against him). He’s also directed a whole lot of TV and appeared in the Busta Rhymes video for “Dangerous”.
Welcome to the Hall of Fame, Mr. Duke. If there’s anyone who could possibly defeat Michael Shannon in a staring contest, you’re the man.
BOB BALABAN
Altered States, Catch-22
Are you looking for a calm, non-threatening, aloof, kindly, and droll intellectual? Do you find Richard Dreyfus too high-strung, Ron Rifkin too serious, and Austin Pendleton too weird? Then do we have the guy for you! We present Bob Balaban, who for nearly 50 years has been offering up his refined and subtle skills at underplaying both comedy and drama. He is great at playing the intellectual curious: people who really wants to know what’s going on whether it’s alien sightings around the world (“Close Encounters”), what is the mind’s full potential (“Altered States”) or what exactly is pegging (“Broad City”). Mr. Balaban is instantly recognizable on screen, with one notable exception: “Catch-22” in which he showed up all clean shaven and goofy to play the film’s heroic oddball Captain Orr. Orr is Balaban minus all things Balaban. Or as Matt called him “Bob Barely-recognizable-ban.” Still, amidst an army of much more famous actors he couldn’t help making his quiet presence known.
WILLIAM CAMERON MENZIES
as director: Things to Come, Invaders From Mars; as writer: Alice in Wonderland
When Matt accidentally chose two Menzies movies back-to-back during Sci-Fi July, it was clear that the fates were shoving the golden age director/designer into the direction of the Hall of Fame. A quick glance at his resume pretty much guaranteed it. Not many people are so innovative in their field that a new job title has to be invented to describe him [“Art Director”]. He burned Atlanta for “Gone with the Wind.” He figured out how to make a carpet fly for “The Thief of Bagdad” (in 1924, long before carpet technology advanced into the aeronautic age). He helped bring the nightmare visions of Salvador Dali to the big screen for Hitchcock’s “Spellbound.” But, here in the Basement, he’s a director first, a director who can’t help but build astonishing worlds. Whether creating something as simple as the stark and endless police station lobby in “Invaders From Mars,” or the sleek cavernous Everytown of the future in “Things to Come,” Menzies couldn’t turn off the “art” when he was a director.
RICHARD PRYOR
The Mack, Lost Highway, Car Wash
Known to millions as a profane truth teller, legendary cautionary tale and arguably the most important stand-up comedian ever. What is forgotten is that he was a damn good actor. Look at “The Mack.” The movie is as much a camp classic as it is a Blaxploitation classic, but amid all this cartoonishness, Pryor brings real humanity to his role. A few years later, he would briefly appear as a more outlandish character in “Car Wash,” but when his wealthy celebrity preacher is confronted with a moment of truth, Pryor allows a crack to show in his façade. He not only could play a perfect comic foil for Gene Wilder, but also go toe-to-toe with Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto in the drama “Blue Collar.” And let us not forget that he once urinated on Shelly Winters during the filming of “Wild In the Streets.” Due respect to Ms Winters, but you don’t become a legend by NOT urinating on Shelley Winters.
Welcome to the Hall of Fame, Mudbone.
OLIVIA HUSSEY
Romeo and Juliet, Black Christmas
One may think that Olivia Hussey is merely a lovely Anglo-Argentinian actress who was something of a star in the 1970’s, but if you look closer, you will see that she is an agent of destruction. Wherever she goes death follows. Her breakthrough performance was in “Romeo and Juliet” where a goodly portion of fair Verona was wiped out. In “Black Christmas”, all of her housemates, her boyfriend, a cop and a neighborhood child all croak it. She witnessed death on the Nile in “Death on the Nile,” and was in the tv movie version of Stephen King’s “IT.” Her greatest bloodbath, though was “Virus” [a.k.a. “Day of Resurrection”] in which almost the entire population of the planet is wiped out.
Ms Hussey, you may not be the safest person to hang with, but we’ll risk it by placing you in our Hall of Fame.
Non-human category
SCREAMING (Pretty much every episode, except for the silent ones in which screaming is merely implied. But not “Nanook of the North,” because Nanook don’t scream.)
You ever get into one of those situations where satanists are torturing you via voodoo doll? How about when you zombies are pulling you apart or the Germans are shooting at your bomber? Then why not try screaming? It’s great for expressing your feelings, and it releases a lot of tension. It helps if you need that little oomph while Chinese boxing (“Way of the Dragon”). You can use it to tear a hole through a brick wall (“Phantom of the Paradise”), or if you work at a “Car Wash” and you need to scream with laughter at every little thing that happens. Or you can be like us and scream from the safety of the old leather couch when those cave things revealed themselves in “The Descent.”
ERNESTO
Appearing at the end of every episode since #4, this loveable rotund tabby has become the official mascot of Welcome To The Basement. He can occasionally be seen wandering in the background of shots and making unexpected appearances on the old leather couch during a movie. He is an important addition to our Hall of Fame and he is a good boy.
2016 INDUCTEES
JESSICA HARPER
Phantom of the Paradise; Suspiria
Are you making a quirky 1970’s cult movie that is stylish and fun and weird, but you forgot to give your female lead any depth or backstory? Good news! We have an actress who doesn’t need a well-rounded character to create an intriguing woman that you can’t help but care about. Her name is Jessica Harper and she’s here to give a bit of emotional weight to your poorly drawn work. She did it for young Brian de Palma and Dario Argento. Who was Phoenix in “Phantom” and Suzy in “Suspiria,” really? No one knows. But, you cared about them because Ms Harper brings a weary vitality to the roles that makes you want to protect her while at the same time demonstrating that she’s smart and strong, and doesn’t really need any help.
PADDY CHAYEVSKY
Paint Your Wagon; Altered States; Marty
First off, Mr. Chayevsky could have got into the Hall of Fame based off the fact that he wrote the script for Marty alone. The story of the lonely butcher who finds love at the advanced age of thirty-four (oh, how times have changed) swept Craig and Matt off their feet, but that wasn’t the first time Paddy C. was featured in the Basement. He first reared his head all the way back in episode five as the rewrite man for “Paint Your Wagon,” and later as the man who wrote the book that “Altered States” was based on. Think of that: he wrote an outer-borough realism film, a slapstick western, and a post-hippy psychedelic psycho-drama. Add to that the fact that he wrote the peerless media satire “Network,” and it becomes clear that Paddy Chayevsky truly contained multitudes.
RUSS MEYER
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill!
Russ Meyer is a slinger of Sexploitation, a lifelong dirty old man, and something of an artist. Do his movies make sense, or take place in a setting anywhere close to reality? No, but that is all by design. Meyer understood that his movies were fantasies, but instead of wizards and unicorns, you have structurally impressive women seducing and/or trying to murder muscled-up man-hunks. His camerawork is surprising, weird and vibrant, like the lens itself is giddy with excitement that it could be present for such spectacle. Sure, his actors were cast based on looks not talent, and his movies were ethically questionable, but in the end, he proved that a movie doesn’t have to be good to be great.
CHARLES GRODIN
Ishtar; Catch-22; Beethoven
Charles Grodin’s career was going great. He had a wide array of roles ranging from family fare to smart adult comedies, to the occasional dramatic part. He was working with DeNiro, Hoffman, and a big sloppy dog. And then in 1994, he just stopped. At first, it was because he started in having a political talk show, and then it was to raise his children that he had late in life. This left a void because no one else could quite pull off irascibility like he could. He seemed not to care at all whether or not the audience liked him, which paradoxically made them like him anyway. He played the cranky dad in Beethoven, the neurotic criminal accountant in Midnight Run and quite possibly the worst man in the world in The Heartbreak Kid (where he perfected the Comedy of Awkwardness 30 years before Ricky Gervais created David Brent). After a nearly two decade hiatus, Grodin has returned to acting working on projects for Louis C.K. and Noah Baumbach, two directors who are perfect matches for his dry, cantankerous humor.
NATALIE WOOD
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice; Miracle on 34th Street
Born in San Francisco in 1938, Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko made the right choice to change her name to something a little less Russian when she became a child actress at the height of the Cold War. Her plan worked out and we got the All-American Natalie Wood. She started acting young, rocketing to success at nine years old running rings around her adult co-stars in Miracle on 34th Street. She grew up (though not tall: she topped out at an even five feet), without falling prey to the child star curse of losing it all upon adulthood – despite having ample opportunity (during her wild years she dated troublemakers Dennis Hopper and her Rebel Without A Cause director Nicholas Ray). Not just an accomplished actress, but a sharp business woman: She learned her lesson after not taking a percentage of the take for West Side Story, and raked in plenty when she did the opposite for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, which kept her quite comfortable for the rest of her short life. It should also be noted that her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner played a small part in “Lost Highway” [Episode 10].
NON-HUMAN CATEGORY
PUNCHING
Where would movies be without punching? For one, boxing movies would make no sense at all. Most people think all punching is fueled by hatred or power. Take these examples from season 5: You want to save your St Bernard? PUNCH A GUN TOTING SCIENTIST! (Beethoven) Are you the Joker establishing dominance? PUNCH THE BATMAN! (Batman: Mask of the Phantasm) Are you staging a mutiny on the Potemkin? PUNCH THE OFFICERS! (The Battleship Potemkin) It only makes sense.
What we forget is that punching can also be used to express love. We DO NOT condone this, but we have encountered it here in the basement. You want to express the glee of middle-aged love? PUNCH A STREET SIGN! (Marty) Are you Rachel McAdams and crazy in love with Ryan Gosling? PUNCH HIM! (The Notebook) Are you Ryan Gosling and crazy in love with Rachel McAdams? PUNCH YOURSELF! (ibid.). Again, do not punch your lover or yourself. Save it for the ring, or your local Fight Club or your neighborhood Nazi.
2017 Inductees
JAMES HONG
Big Trouble in Little China, Colossus: the Forbin Project
Craig wishes James Hong was his grandfather. Maybe it’s that Hong was born in Minnesota, not too far from where Craig’s own grandfather was born. And who wouldn’t want a distinguished, yet sprightly old man around who will encourage hard work and artistic expression by his own example?
It’s amazing that it took over five years for James Hong to appear on our show, because the guy is prolific. Since making his movie debut in 1954 he has amassed over five hundred film, tv and video game credits. And at 89-years old he’s still going strong, adding eight more projects onto his nigh-endless résumé in 2017. He pops up in such classics as Blade Runner, Chinatown, The In-Laws, Mulan, Kung-Fu Panda and Airplane! His greatest claim to fame, though, is the movie that brought him to the Basement, Big Trouble in Little China in which he plays the charmingly demonic David Lo Pan. Lo Pan may not have been as immortal as he thought he was, but Hong will live forever in our Hall of Fame.
VINCENZO NATALI
Splice; Cube
About two minutes into the movie Cube, a man steps into a booby trap and gets chopped to pieces by a flash of wires. And just like that, the guy is cubed, a devilish pun to start the directing career of Canada’s own Vincenzo Natali. Though his debut could easily be seen as an ancestor of the torture porn school of horror films such as Saw and Hostel, there is something a little more palatable about his tale of strangers trapped in a murderous puzzle box, a certain something that belies the hopelessness of the situation. He again gave his audience an unexpected gift in a familiar wrapping paper with Splice, his disturbing satire of the perils of parenthood dressed up as a modern Frankenstein tale. Weird presents, horrifying boxes, family drama: it’s only appropriate for a man whose name sounds like the Italian word for Christmas.
MICHAEL YORK
Romeo and Juliet; Logan’s Run;The Three Musketeers
This feline-faced, syrup-voiced British actor first swaggered onto our screens in Franco Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet, as the doomed (well, who isn’t doomed in that story?) Tybalt. It’s a great role to get yourself noticed. You get a lot of screen time (in the first half at least), you hardly talk (he only has 17 lines of dialogue), and you get one hell of a sword fight (Scratch that: two hells of a sword fight). His skill with the blade, as well as a surprising adeptness for physical comedy, was again on display playing the aspiring musketeer D’Artagnon in The Three Musketeers. Add to that his other swaggering appearance in the Basement in his most iconic role as the title character in the camp sci-fi thriller Logan’s Run. No sword fighting there, but he gets into a fair number of life or death scrapes. And, hey, he also played Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers trilogy, so there’s that.
He was nearly in a fourth WTTB selection, but he turned down the role of Oliver Barrett in Love Story, since they were only paying scale, plus a percentage of the gross. It seems that he thought the movie wouldn’t make much money. And that’s the story of how Michael York didn’t make $10,000,000.
Run, runner, straight to our Hall of Fame.
THE BEATLES
Help!;Yellow Submarine
Yes, they recorded around a dozen albums over a nine year span, reinvented rock and roll on a regular basis, and were under near-constant scrutiny by the media, but they also made a few movies while they were at it, which also happened to be insanely innovative. Sure, Help! was a bit of a mess, but it was still far more epic than your typical Elvis movie. Yes, Yellow Submarine had impersonators doing their voices, but their music fueled the vision for the film—which is unlike any mainstream cartoon you’ll ever see.
Their cinematic influence reverberates beyond the handful of movies they made together. They gave tv director Richard Lester his first movie (the joyful semi-autobiographical romp A Hard Day’s Night). Lester went on to direct The Three Musketeers, [Ep. 122] and his style was echoed in countless rock videos. George bankrolled Monty Python’s Life of Brian, The Long Good Friday and Time Bandits. Ringo starred in the weirdo comedy Caveman, while Paul crafted arguably the greatest James Bond theme song. The role of the nihilistic computer programmer Professor Falken in Wargames was written for John who died before production. It’s only fitting that their band’s name is a movie reference: it is said their namesake is the Beetles, Lee Marvin’s shaggy biker gang in The Wild One [ep.133].
GREGORY PECK
Roman Holiday;The Omen
Burbury Peck bur his burst appurrbance in the Burment way burk in ourr furrst season with Burbur Holiburrrr. That was wherrn Matt discoburred he could dur a burfect imburrsonation. Yes, Peck is a great actburr, burrt we really lurrve him burr that vurrce. To use Matt’s wurrds, “He sounds like a thunderstorm,” and alturrnatively “like a house settling.” He showed urrp agurrn this seasurrn, to ourr great delight, as the bedeviled Amburrsadurr Thurrn in The Omurrn.
Of burrse, he’s nurt urnly knerrn furr these two murbies. He’s also in The Guns of Naburrone, Murrby Durk (as Captain Urrhab), Gentleman’s Aburrment, Spellburrnd, On the Burrch, and of currrse, his iconic and Oscurr wurrning purrferrmence as Atticus Furrnch in To Kill a Mockingburrd.
Bur bur burr, Mr Peck. Bur-burr burr buurrrrrr.
RAQUEL WELCH
Bedazzled; The Three Musketeers
Chet Huntley was one of the first television nightly news anchors, a paragon of gravitas and one of the most respected personalities in America. In 1970, he appeared on the Dick Cavett Show, sharing a panel with Raquel Welch…and the guy went freaking insane. Stammering, flustered and vocally ecstatic that he was in the presence of Her. It was as though he was sitting next to the living embodiment of Lust, which, ironically, is the first role she appeared in on our show (Bedazzled). Though she is usually seen more as a sex symbol than an actress, she proved herself a skilled comedian in The Three Musketeers sharing a clumsy forbidden romance with fellow Hall of Famer Michael York. Yet, for a generation of film-goers her most notable movie appearance was in The Shawshank Redemption where her image emblazons Andy Dufresne’s final poster. In the womanless world of prison, she was not just a sex symbol, and not just a symbol of her sex, but of all the things men lose when shut off from the world. She was escape, she was freedom and she was redemption.
MONSTERS
These monsters, they get such a bad rap. Sure they bite people, torment beautiful ladies, rampage through cities, and ruin Christmas for everybody forever, yet what would we do without them? Not to be a monster apologist, but if it weren’t for these career evil-doers, where would horror and sci-fi movies be? Who would watch The Omen if it were just about a diplomat working out trade negotiations between the US and Britain? What if The Valley of Gwangi followed through with its first act promise and was just about cowboys rustling some tiny horses? What if Mr Sardonicus was just a normal-faced rich prick? What if the adventurers in The Mummy just found a normal mummy that was dead and stayed dead? They’d be boring, with no reason to exist. Without David Lo Pan and his gang of supernatural goons, John Carpenter wouldn’t be following Jack Burton and his buddies around with a camera. Without the serial killer, Black Christmas would just be a slice-of-life movie about a sorority. And for those movies where the true monster was…mankind, Alfie would be about a guy just trying to find a suitable bride. And sometimes the monsters aren’t all that bad. Just look at the lovable jungle cats in the movie Roar. Well, that might be a bad example. Still, monsters: we love ya. Crawl out from underneath our children’s beds and take a bow.
2018 Inductees
WARREN OATES
Badlands,Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Dillinger
Warren Oates didn’t often play men who got happy endings. Sometimes, they’d just be unlucky like the father he plays in Badlands. Usually though, they didn’t get happy endings because they didn’t deserve them. Lifelong outlaws, career low-lifes, leering scumbags, black-hatted cowboys, or just guys who made the mistake of stepping too far over the wrong line. Oates had sympathy for these devils. As he said, “Heavies are closer to life than leading men. The heavy is everyman — everyman when he faces a tough moment in life.” And man, does he face a tough moment in Alfredo Garcia. Going in, you just know that his character Benny is doomed. A big clue is that Sam Peckinpah directed the movie, and leads don’t fare well in his hands. And hell, Oates was killed off the last two times he stepped in front of Peck’s camera, why should this time be any different? The difference was that after years of playing doomed sidekicks and flunkies, this time he was the lead—one of only four starring roles he had in his career. The sweat-stained Benny was tailor-made for him, the rare actor who could pull off the levels of anger and fear that can make you believe he’d haul off and punch a severed head riding shotgun on the road to hell.
It should also be noted that a few years later, he was cast in Stripes as Sgt Hulka, an authority figure so authoritative that he could make Bill Murray, the biggest anti-authoritarian in Hollywood, drop and give him twenty.
JANET GAYNOR
Sunrise: Song of Two Humans; A Star Is Born
At the age of 22, Janet Gaynor became the youngest woman ever to win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance (for her role in Basement favorite Sunrise, and two other performances. The Oscars were different back then). Granted, she broke this record during the first ever Academy Awards ceremony in 1928, but still that’s not bad for someone who two years prior was working as a secretary, hoping for her big break. She survived the talkie purge which destroyed the careers of most silent film stars (unlike first ever Best Actor winner Emil Jannings). Her sudden rise mirrors that of her other most iconic role as Vicki Lester a.k.a. Esther Blodget in the original A Star Is Born. Her character even won an Oscar, just like Gaynor. For that scene, she brought in her own award as a prop, which was a kindness to save the art department time. Having netted both the top award and a quasi-biopic, Gaynor soon decided she was done with the biz, and basically retired to a life of painting at 33. She took her Oscar record to the grave: it wasn’t topped until 21-year old Marlee Matlin won in 1986, two years after Gaynor’s death.
ANDREA MARTIN
Black Christmas, My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Andrea Martin is huge. Not physically. She is a petite 5 foot, 4 inches (or, as they say in her adopted Canada 162 ½ cm). It’s her presence that it so large. This makes her perfect for the theater, where her outsize personality can blast through to the back of any balcony. Theater likes her too, since it seems that she can’t walk down Broadway without someone throwing a Tony nomination at her. She had to be huge to blend in so seamlessly with that cast of giants in the legendary sketch comedy show SCTV, where she played the horn-rimmed and leopard-clad Edith Prickley and roughly 5,000,000 other characters. But, here in the Basement she broke through as the adorable college coed Phyl in the proto-slasher film Black Christmas, who upon her entrance makes modern audiences sigh, “Aw, no. She’s too quirky. We’re going to have to watch Andrea Martin die.” But, she came back to us as the scene-devouring Aunt Voula in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, where she wasn’t brutally murdered. Her “twin” though…with the teeth and the spinal column…not so lucky. So, say a hearty “Opa!” to our dear Ms Martin on her induction into our Big Huge Basement Hall of Fame.
LEE MARVIN
Paint Your Wagon, The Wild One, Bad Day At Black Rock, The Caine Mutiny
Lee Marvin’s Paint Your Wagon co-star Jean Seberg said his singing sounded like “rain gurgling down a rusty pipe.” That was true of his speaking voice, too, but, what a rain! What a rusty pipe! What gurgles! When he calls out to Brando in the Wild Bunch, his voice curls and croons. It’s like he’s singing, and this plays like he is mocking our Great Method Actor’s mumbling by running as far from a mumble as possible. He seems to know the only way to out-cool and keep up with Brando is to do everything Brando didn’t. If Marlon is quiet, hunched and cagey, then Lee is loud, sprawling and blatant, and this makes him the only actor in the movie not blotted out by the light of Brando’s sun. His stillness is equally powerful, as he demonstrates in Black Rock when all he has to do is nothing and he makes any other actor in the scene look nervous by comparison if they make even the slightest gesture. If an actor is just a sum of voice and movement, he’s a damn good actor. You add a mountain’s worth of gravity, the ability to let fear and vulnerability seep out of even the toughest characters, and a brutal honesty about violence, you have a great one. A lesson he didn’t learn in acting classes, but from being a marine sniper in World War II.
By the way, that gurgling singing he did for “Paint Your Wagon” earned him a gold record. Not bad for a rusty pipe.
WILLIAM CASTLE
Mr Sardonicus, The Tingler, and as an actor, Shampoo
He might seem like a low-rent Hitchcock, cribbing the Master’s self-promoting styles down to having a trademark silhouette of his giant wedge-shaped head, but William Castle was a lot more. The PT Barnum of the movie world, Castle brought the “theater” back into movie theaters: He floated skeletons over audiences, he stationed nurses in the lobbies and hearses outside to deal with all the heart attacks, he had audiences vote on the fate of villains. And for The Tingler, he wired seats in select theaters to give audience members an electric shock, ensuring highly vocal screams. All of these shticks both heightened and mocked the very idea of cinematic fear. He knew simpler tricks as well like making the screen go black for a really long time while unseen victims scream, leaving the audience in absolute darkness to deal with the terror.
He’s Robert Zemeckis’s favorite filmmaker and Joe Dante paid tribute to him with the movie Matinee. John Waters followed Castle’s lead as both self-promoter and gimmick artist (his infamous Odorama cards used in Polyester was first used by Castle who called it “Smell-O-Vision.”). He also influenced contemporaries: noticing the huge profits that Castle’s movies were garnering, a more famous director tried his hand at making a black-and-white horror cheapie.
And that’s how we got Psycho.
JOHN STURGES
The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock
Is John Sturges coming to town? You better hope not, because where Sturges brings his movie crew, mayhem follows. Black Rock, CA, was doing fine for four years, but once Sturges showed up, the town went into high paranoia trying to cover up its murderous and racist past. A Mexican village was doing fine getting pillaged every few months, and then Sturges shows up with a Magnificent Septet and suddenly the townsfolk are drawing straws to see who’s on corpse duty. Even a German prison camp can’t keep things straight when Sturges shows up and they lose a few dozen prisoners to a Great Escape. In less cynical terms, Sturges brought justice to Black Rock and Mexico, and he certainly made those Nazis look like fools. Mayhem followed by Justice: isn’t that what we like to see in our movies? If so, then John Sturges delivers. He’s also smart and honest enough to know that good guys can die on the path to victory, which for a Hollywood director in the 1950’s was quite radical. Welcome to the Hall of Fame, Mr Sturges. Your Mayhem and Justice are welcome here.
PARENTHOOD
Please click on the link below for the extended entry about learning Parenthood in the Basement.
2019 Inductees
RICHARD E. GRANT
Corpse Bride; How to Get Ahead in Advertising
He is just so damn refined with his sepulchral good looks, ascot-ready neck and voice that sounds like it was gently peeled off the walls of Buckingham Palace. And yet, his most iconic role is the extravagantly sloppy misanthrope Withnail in Withnail & I (maybe our most requested Seen It title). What might be the most stunning aspect of his performance is that this flailing disaster of a man is in some strange way refined. A film debut seemingly impossible to top, Grant followed Withnail by going grander with what may as well be a movie-length monologue about boils and capitalism (How To Get Ahead…). After a completely unrefined breakdown, his character bounces back more suave than ever. He is so refined he instantly sprouts a pencil thin moustache (and it looks great). And from here, it becomes clear that Grant has made a career of being a parody of British refinement: the human personifications of an island that can never let on that it is no longer an Empire.
DAN O’BANNON
Dark Star; Lifeforce
Do you have a space ship and you’re thinking about picking up some extra cargo that wasn’t exactly on your mission docket? If so, you might want to call screenwriter Dan O’Bannon. He’ll tell you exactly what’s going to happen next. This is the screenwriter who brought sexy space vampires into the Basement with Lifeforce, and an unruly beach ball alien in Dark Star, (which he also acted in). Between those two projects, he crafted sci-fi’s most famous stowaway, the xenomorph in Alien. Will humanity never learn? If O’Bannon is writing the script for our planet, then no, probably not. Even for Earth-set projects like Return of the Living Dead he couldn’t help inviting in creatures that best be left outside. Well, we’re inviting you in, Mr O’Bannon. Into our Hall of Fame. But, you are not allowed to bring any guests.
#3 ARNOLD JOHNSON
Putney Swope, Menace II Society
He became a Basement icon with his performance in Putney Swope, a movie that confused us so much that we describe any movie that goes off the rails of comprehension as causing a Putney Swope Panic. Now, Johnson himself didn’t cause the panic. That was the fault of notorious writer/director/father Robert Downey, Sr, who added to the insanity of the picture by dubbing over his star’s voice with his own impersonation of a black man. Still, Johnson delivered the “truth and soul” the part called for. Most of Johnson’s career was spent playing bit parts on tv, so it was safe to assume that we wouldn’t be seeing him again. But, no, he sneakily sneaked in one more time with his late career performance as the ignored, benevolent grandfather in Menace II Society, helplessly watching his grandson edge closer and closer to doom. In his few scenes he delivered the truth and soul yet again.
Are we for surreal inducting Putney Swope himself into our Hall? Don’t panic, Putney, we are indeed for surreal.
#4 DICK MILLER
The Wild Angels, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Corvette Summer, Night of the Creeps, Explorers
You may not know the name, but you know the face because as Matt says, “He’s been in approximately 12,000 movies” that’s a slight exaggeration, but he certainly has been in a few of ours.
Born and raised in the schlocky studios of Roger Corman, he went on to be tormented by Gremlins twice and killed by a Terminator, before moving to Beverly Hills and opening the Peach Pit.
Here’s the crazy thing about the hip, yet working class actor Dick Miller. He was there when we didn’t even realize it. Sure, he’s obviously there in his short scenes in Night of the Creeps and Corvette Summer, and of course, if you know his gravelly voice you can hear him in the Batman cartoon we watched, but it turns out he’s lurking around in The Wild Angels, too, which came as a surprise to us when we were researching this piece. So, for all we know he has been in every post-silent era movie we’ve ever had on the show. Was he a toddler running around with Little Caesar? Was he an extra on the tour bus in The Bigamist or a B.I.M. dancer in The Apple? Did he do Ringo’s voice in Yellow Submarine? Was he a cab driver in In the Mood for Love or a cave creature in The Descent? Was he in that Krampus outfit?
I think the safe answer to all these questions is “Maybe.” Dick Miller was everywhere. And now he’s in our Hall of Fame.
HANS CONRIED
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T; The Phantom Tollbooth
“Yeah, he’s evil.” That’s what Matt said all those years ago when first laying eyes on Dr Terwilliker in The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T. With his jutting chin, spring-loaded eyebrows, damning glare and foppish-preppy haircut, he didn’t have to say a word to convey a mountain of narcissistic authority. But, luckily this cartoon made flesh did speak because his voice is a master class in mellifluous over-enunciation that matches Conried’s rubbery face perfectly. This voice gained immortality as Disney’s Captain Hook, Ward’s Snidely Whiplash, and Dr Seuss’s Grinch (taking over the role after Boris Karloff’s death). There were some non-evil parts, too, such as Thorin Oakenshield in Rank and Bass’s The Hobbit and his dual performance as King Aziz the Unabridged and The Mathemagician in The Phantom Tollbooth. But, it is as Dr T that he became a Basement icon. Seemingly the only person in the cast who really understood the style needed for the movie. He fearlessly carries the whole cinematic crazy contraption on his back while flinging out Dr Seuss’s prose like he was the bastard son of Yertle the Turtle and a Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz. If 5,000 Fingers is remembered today, it is mostly due to master, Hans Conried.
And if you must know: Dan Castellenata modelled the voice of Futurama’s Robot Devil on the Conried purr.
GIUSEPPE ROTUNNO
All That Jazz; Fellini Satyricon
Some directors have such vision that they are called visionaries. If you look up the definition of visionary, though, it is not all that complementary. Sure it means things like “imaginative,” but it also means “one whose ideas are impractical” or “incapable of being realized or achieved.” So, how does the “Visionary” become transformed into something we can actually see? A good place to start is by hiring the right cinematographer, and for four decades the go-to man for getting a director’s impractical ideas onto film was Guiseppe Rotunno. Federico Fellini hired Rotunno for eight films for which he produced the look of everything from a hellish ancient Rome (Satyricon) to a heavenly vision of the director’s youth (Amarcord). Terry Gilliam brought him in for his most Gilliamy film Baron von Munchausen. When Robert Altman made a live-action cartoon (Popeye) Rotunno was there to lend a hand. And when Bob Fosse needed someone to bring to film the countdown to death that was his life in All That Jazz, he called Rotunno (he got his Oscar for that one). If you want to see movies of your dreams, you know who to call.
Buono fortuna, signore Rotunno! Benvenuti nel seminterrato!
KISSING
A lot of pretty things have been said of kissing. Cyrano said “A kiss is a secret which takes the lips for the ear.” e.e. cummings said “kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom lady i swear by all flowers.” His grammar, not ours. Longus once said “It is as if I were about to suffocate, yet, nevertheless, I want to have another kiss. Strange, never-suspected pain! Has Chloe, I wonder, drunk some poisonous draught ere she kissed me? How comes it that she herself has not died of it?” Sylvia Plath proclaimed, “Kiss me, and you will see how important I am.” Matt and Craig said, “Mwahh-gromble-gromble-slobber-awnggwanggwang-blaaahhhhhh.” And they’ll say it every time a kiss passes by the tv screen in the Basement. Mwah!
2020 Inductees
ANITA LOOS
Musketeers of Pig Alley; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; The Mystery of the Leaping Fish
The four foot eleven inch tall Anita Loos was a colossus in the early decades of Hollywood. She has one of those staggering resumes from when Hollywood was a pure entertainment factory-140 writing credits, most of which were produced between 1912 and 1922. Starting out as a scenario writer, she was an early champion of intertitles as both a storytelling device (which helped her tie together DW Griffith’s sprawling, four-hour long Intolerance) and source of humor (which helped her make Douglas Fairbanks, Sr, one of our first action stars). After witnessing her friend, the journalist H.L. Mencken fall for a woman of negligible intelligence, she was inspired to write her masterpiece, the novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Mencken loved it, saying that she was “the first American writer to ever poke fun at sex.” The fun sex poking continued with a sequel (But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes), a Broadway musical and two film adaptations- the second of which vaulted Marilyn Monroe to stardom.
After being part of Hollywood history, she spent her twilight years penning histories of the silent era. All of which is why the gentlemen of the Basement prefer Anita Loos.
BUCK HENRY
Catch-22; Day of the Dolphin
During the early years of Saturday Night Live, when it was a thriving hive of youthful punk comedy, the most frequent guest star was an unassuming middle aged writer who looked like an accountant who believes that if he is a good person, he’ll come back in the next life as another accountant. This is what made Buck Henry so dangerous: his square looks hid his devilish eyes. Always subverting, never subservient, he was something of a trickster god. He made his bones as a hoax artist, convincing countless people-including America’s most trusted newsman Walter Cronkite- that he led a movement to make zoo animals wear pants. He went on to co-create the tv show Get Smart with Mel Brooks before satirizing the suburban malaise of the late 1960’s with the script for Mike Nichols’ The Graduate. His partnership with Nichols continued to two more films: adapting the seemingly unfilmable Catch-22 (in which he also appeared as Col. Korn), and the political thriller Day of the Dolphin. Among his many roles as a character actor, he played a desperate screenwriter demonstrating the lack of good ideas in Hollywood by pitching a sequel to The Graduate. His character’s name: Buck Henry.
Despite the fact that he died in 2020, it’s still a good year for old Buck Henry because that’s the year he made it into our hallowed Hall.
JOSEPH COTTEN
Soylent Green; Airplane 77; Gaslight
You look at Joseph Cotten’s face and you know what to expect: a gently decent man always striving to do the right thing, not for riches or for glory, but because it’s right and decent. Unlike most movie stars, he looks like someone who you could meet in real life, and maybe you have. A trusted teacher or minister from your youth, maybe even your father. This worked out very much to his favor in his first appearances on the show where he wasn’t allowed much screen time to prove that he was a man of integrity and quiet heroism. His very appearance in Gaslight was a clear beacon for the seemingly hopeless Paula Alquist. Clever directors knew how to subvert this. Hitchcock used Cotten’s WASPy charm to build the foundation of the sociopathic Uncle Charlie in Shadow of a Doubt. Later, in The Third Man, Carol Reed used Cotten’s angel-face as a representation of cocky American benevolence, a man who erroneously believes that since he looks like a hero then must be a hero. Well, you’re a hero to us, Mr Cotten. Welcome to the Hall of Fame.
TERRANCE STAMP
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; Modesty Blaise
I mean, how do you beat Terrence Stamp? He’s just the coolest, man. His parents disapproved of acting as a waste of time, so he didn’t tell them his dreams until he achieved them. He was roommates with Michael Caine on the way up and they became the peak of Carnaby Street fashion. When his career slowed down in the 1970s, he moved to India, lived on an ashram for a few years to study meditation. This turned out to be great research for his role as a targeted Zen gangster floating above fear in “The Hit,” making him the coolest thing in one of the coolest movies ever. He beat up Superman as General Zod (the only time his hair has ever looked bad). He was The Limey, dammit. He based his performance of Bernadette in “Priscilla” in large part on his friend Princess Diana. Yes, THAT Princess Diana. He wrote a pile of memoirs and vegetarian cookbooks. He dated Julie Christie back in the 60s. He was the first to bad mouth The Phantom Menace, saying that filming with blue screens instead of actors was “boring.” In his youth, he was one of the most striking people on the planet, and in his old age, he still looks better than most. We feel like a couple of freshmen dorks asking this, but… um, Mr Stamp, we were wondering, I mean, we’d be honored if you, you know, would, um. [nervous laughter] Just! …Wow. Your eyes are so blue, uhh….We feel silly even asking… [why can’t we stop this laughing? What’s wrong with us? OK. Deep breath.] WouldYouLikeToBeInOurHallOfFame? I mean, we already have Barry Bostwick, Charles Grodin and Bob Balaban. I mean, Lee Marvin, Pam Grier and Warren Oates. You will? O, thank you Mr Stamp. Because you like Bob Balaban? Really? That’s great! You really are the coolest.
PAM GRIER
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; Scream! Blacula, Scream!; Something Wicked This Way Comes
Pam Grier is awesome. You know that. We know that. She’s strong. She’s beautiful. She’s talented. She is an inspiration. She was Foxy Brown and Jackie Brown. She made Blacula scream. She was the right person to cast to trap lustful men in Something Wicked. We know all that. But, being that dogs are also going in to the Hall this year, and because Matt and I are both animal lovers, here’s a story she once related about a dog and her audition for Mars Attacks.
“Tim Burton had called me to audition, but one of my dogs was dying of cancer, so I wasn’t in the frame of mind to audition to do that role. So I said, ‘I can’t,’ and I turned down Tim Burton. And I remember one of my dearest friends who I knew before he became an actor – Michael Keaton… I told him that I’d turned Tim down. I said, ‘I’m just not ready to read, because one of my dogs, one of my family members, is very ill. I just can’t do it. So I passed.’
But they called back again, and they said, ‘Well, would you put something on camera?’ And I said, ‘No, because what I’ll put on camera is sadness, and I’m not ready to do that right now.’
And then they called back again…and they said, ‘Well, you’ve just auditioned. Because in the story, she’s a mom who protects her children. Even under the worst situations, she won’t leave her children. She’s a true mom.’ And I wouldn’t leave my dog, not for anybody – including Tim Burton- or for a huge salary or to work with Jack Nicholson or Glenn Close or the rest of the stellar cast of that film. So he said, ‘You passed the audition. You wouldn’t leave your family for me, so you’ve got it. And we’ll shoot around you. We’ll wait, and you let us know when the time is right, when you’re ready to shoot.’ And I said, ‘Thank you, but it could be awhile. I don’t know. But I’m not leaving his side, because [when] I had cancer, he was with me.’
But they waited. They shot around me until I was ready to say, ‘Okay, he’s passed on. He let me go.’ And Tim and I have been great friends ever since…because I said ‘no.'”
MARCEL DALIO
Catch-22; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Pillow Talk
Tired of only being in the greatest French movies of his time (Rules of the Game, The Grand Illusion, Pepe le Moko), Marcel Dalio came over to the States to appear in what is arguably the best American movie of all time, playing the small role of Emil the croupier in Casablanca (“Your winnings, sir.”). That’s one way of looking at his story, but it leaves out a lot. He did appear in those movies, but the story of his leaving Europe was a lot more like those of the characters found on the other side of Emil’s roulette table. He fled in the advent of the Nazi invasion of Paris, made it to Lisbon, got a visa to Chile which turned out to be a forgery, was forced to jump ship in Mexico, before making his way to Hollywood to play a parade of European characters. Back at home, his celebrity made him the literal poster boy for anti-Semites when the Nazis put his face on signs as an example of “a typical Jew.”
So, you know: Screw the Nazis. Marcel, you’re in the Hall of Fame. You were charming as a charmed judge in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and you killed it as the rascally 107-year old man in Catch-22. Welcome to the Hall.
DOGS
Over the years, many cats have wandered Matt and Tona’s basement, but there’s no rule that says dogs can’t be in our Hall of Fame. Who is Oblio’s only friend in The Point? A dog. Who is the only thing argued over in the divorce at the center of The Awful Truth. A dog (a dog who sings along with Cary Grant!). Who heroically don’t catch The Defiant Ones? Dogs. Who drools all over Charles Grodin and his house in Beethoven? A dog. And that dog saves a bunch of other dogs. Who raises Mowgli? Wolves, who are close relations to dogs. Who does the Corpse Bride give to her living fiancé to woo him? His long dead dog. Who tries to warn the family that dad is an undead monster in Black Sabbath? The dog. Is there anything a dog can’t do? Clearly no. And they can play basketball, too. Who’s a good boy? Dogs. And they’re now in our Hall of Fame. All of them. Even yours.
2021 Inductees
ANGELA LANSBURY
The Last Unicorn; Gaslight; The Picture of Dorian Gray
Angela Lansbury has been acting for an impossibly long time. The daughter of Dionysus and a local dryad, young Angela made her stage debut in 421 B.C. at the theatre of Epidaurus playing the baby Oedipus in a lost prequel to Sophocles’s great tragedy. She went on to a long and varied career working in medieval mystery plays and early commedia dell’arte performances, before crossing the English Channel in 1661 when Charles II made it legal for women to act in Britain. She remained there until 1940 when she moved to L.A. to avoid the Blitz. Once there she thought she’d dabble in the local film industry, making her cinematic debut as the cheeky maid in Gaslight. This earned her the first of three Oscar nominations—the latter two for playing the un-cheeky singer in Dorian Gray and the world’s most terrifying mom in The Manchurian Candidate. Over the ensuing decades she worked with such geniuses as Disney and Sondheim all while solving scores of murders, then writing about them. She also played a singing teacup. Lansbury once said that winning an Oscar would have ruined her career, but, in truth, the Oscars wouldn’t have a chance in a fight with the immortal Angela Lansbury. Welcome to the Hall, Dame Angela.
PENELOPE SPHEERIS
The Decline of Western Civilization 2; Suburbia
Spheeris is a Punk Rocker. Maybe more so than any other director. Her three central projects looked at the punk and metal scene first through the lens of realism, then as tragedy, then as farce. Her documentary trilogy The Decline of Western Civilization, touched on the LA punk, metal and skater scenes. Suburbia is a fictionalized take on some of those same punks, shining a light into their darkness. Finally, after a decade of scrambling outside the system, she directed a little movie about a couple of loveable metal heads called Wayne’s World. Along the way, she directed music videos for Megadeth, showed the comedic possibilities of real life Ozzy Osbourne, gave Flea his first real acting gig, and put Milwaukee history into Alice Cooper’s mouth.
Wayne broke her into Hollywood, but working inside the system was an uneasy fit for a punk rock filmmaker. The studios only saw her as the director of that Big Comedy Hit, so they forced comedies her way, and within a few years was directing an update of the Little Rascals. This no doubt paid the bills, and it’s easy to look at it cynically, but what are the Little Rascals if not a bunch of lower class, slum-dwelling punks who create their own family and get into a mess of trouble by rejecting society’s rules. It’s Suburbia all over again, except Petey the dog doesn’t eat kids.
Welcome to the Hall, Ms Spheeris. I would say that “we’re not worthy,” but I imagine you’re tired of hearing that one.
BIBI ANDERSSON
The Magician; Quintet
Bibi Andersson has twice visited the Basement, doing the opposite of what one would suspect, in films where great directors plays against type. First, she did light comedy for the usually tragic Ingmar Bergmann, playing a very flirty housemaid wearing oh-so-many buttons. Then she showed up in a tragic, tiny sci-fi movie directed by Robert Altman, who is best known for his sprawling, slice-of-life comedies. One might suspect Altman thought, “I need the living embodiment of winter. Let’s get one of Bergmann’s actors.” Yes, she delivered the chill (along with a well-placed smile), but, she embodied so much more than the oppressive darkness of Swedish winters. She was also the joyful light of endless summers days and Bergmann knew this—in The Seventh Seal, her hope saves her and her family from Death. And when she played in his darker movies, her inner light showed through. It had to, lest the darkness become unbearable, most notably in Persona where she plays a nurse gazing into the abyss. That film ties in with the Basement, as well: In Weekend, Jean-Luc Godard mocked Andersson’s character’s lengthy monologue in which she recounts a menage-a-trois. Jokes on Godard, though. Persona holds up. Weekend doesn’t. And Bibi is in the Hall, and he ain’t.
NICOLAS CAGE
Left Behind; Rumble Fish; Season of the Witch
No actor swings harder than Nic Cage. He springs from a weird mélange of influences, including silent melodramas, Superman and Elvis Presley, which has led to extreme- sometimes questionable- choices, but when it works he achieves god-level work. His 80s work in comedies such as Raising Arizona and Moonstruck are funny as anything done by the Murrays and Murphys of the age. Craig believes his performance in Vampire’s Kiss as “might be the greatest film performance of all time.” When he applied his powers to the high drama he could deliver Leaving Las Vegas. And yes, when he misses it’s cataclysmic, but really, is there any correct way to perform a transformation into a biker demon? How would you play getting a bucket of bees poured onto your head?
Oddly enough, his three visits thus far to the Basement are examples of how he can rein in his intensity. The roles: a PTSD scarred crusader looking for redemption, a smoldering opportunist who was sexy and smart enough to steal a girlfriend from Matt Dillon, and a rational man trying to make sense of the Rapture. That last performance in Left Behind could have been a litany of sweaty screams, but he knew he had to be the sanity in the center of the madness. Whatever extreme he is reaching for, he is something to wondered at. Welcome to the Hall, Mr Cage. We promise: there are no bees.
MARIO BAVA
Black Sabbath; Planet of the Vampires
Not everyone achieves their childhood dreams. Take Mario Bava. He wanted to be a painter, but things didn’t go as planned. So, instead he went into the film industry. There are worst jobs for a thwarted artist than cinematographer, special effects coordinator and director, and worse times for a painter to take those jobs than during the dawn of color film. And, man, did Bava turn movie screens into his canvas and light into his paint box. The rich greys and greens of the spaceship contrast the shifting multi-hued clouds in Planet of the Vampires. Black Sabbath teems with Baroque ruin-encrusted landscapes and ornate interiors. And if you like blasts of color check out his lurid proto-slasher film Blood and Black Lace where it would come as no surprise if it turned out the killer was the color red. Black Lace launched the Italian “giallo” genre which combined mystery and horror with eroticism. This style reached its apex in Dario Argento’s Suspiria [ep. 112], which takes Bava’s painterly influence to crazed Expressionistic heights. Bava shows that when you can’t have your dream job, turn the job you get into that dream. Congratulazioni, Mr Bava. Welcome to the Hall.
DELROY LINDO
Heist; Crooklyn
When Delroy Lindo made his first entrance in Heist, Matt described him as a “walking, talking Easter Island Statue.” In Crooklyn, he enters blowing into a cow’s horn like an ancient warrior sounding a call to battle. The man is grand, legendary, totemic. He could easily just play the tough guy, but he knows his best moments come when the statue starts to sweat. The Heist hoodlum flinches at gunfire; the Crooklyn father is gentle and rich in love, but in his eyes you can always see his heartbroken fear that he will never achieve his artistic dreams or properly provide for his family. Spike Lee turned to Lindo again for Da 5 Bloods when he needed someone who could pull off playing Paul, a guilt-riddled black Trumpite. A hard role to pull off, but finding that character is easy in comparison to his climactic monologue . It’s delivered in a tight close-up straight to the camera. He is all but literally exploding in sweat. This veteran is at war with himself lost in the country he fought against for a country that fought against him. Paul is the endpoint for the sins of a nation: the legacy of slavery, colonialism, war, failed promises, dreams deferred. The statue dissolves into a man. It’s astounding.
Well, it’s no sweat getting you into the Hall, Mr Lindo.
Hey true story: I stayed in a very strange hexagonal shack for two weeks on a farm in Northern California… then later I found out it used to belong to Kinski! No joke. He had it built to resemble a teepee (an allusion to one of his films), and used to have it full of arrowheads and other weird things… I also unknowingly used his wheelbarrow the entire time I was there… He was the farmer’s neighbor and then they bought part of his land or something.
The Thumb Kiss Bwhahaha its like a trip down memory lane.
I’m glad you guys watched that movie so I don’t have to.
i really liked, thx
I loved the Michael Shannon entry. That seems like exactly what he would do if he found out about his place in the hall of fame. What an awesome actor. Take Shelter is one of my favorite movies. I love Welcome To The Basement.
I don’t think it is a secret but Michael Shannon is epic in Premium Rush. The movie it’s self stinks, if your movie is a stinker and you have JGL and Michael Shannon in it you suck. The only reason to watch the movie is for Michael Shannon and if someone could do a fan edit so that it just has Michael Shannon in it that would be great.
Wow, I had a lot of respect for Ron Perlman before, but dressing up in full Hellboy makeup for a dying child totally boosts him from mere *Talented Actor” status to straight “Awesome Human Being” status. I really hope that Matt hasn’t seen one of his better movies, Ron P. deserves better screentime on WTTB than a Uve Bowle(sp?) film. Thumbkiss for Ron Perlman, as a fellow Ron, we need more Rons like him. I can only hope to, one day, say I was half the Ron Mr. Perlman is.
I think that the Michael Shannon entry could/should be updated, following his appearance in “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done”.
Udo Kier should be in your HoF according to me 😛
Eliot: Your wish is granted.
Mads Mikkelsen is without a doubt my favorite actor in your hall of fame. The Hunt should be mentioned in his creds. His role of One Eye is amazing. I watched VR a few months before you guys did the episode on netflix and it really got me into watching foreign movies. I’ll be donating this summer in the name of poor Lucas. *Thumb kiss *
IT’S ME STEW should be a non human inductee. Though not actually taking place in any of the movies, Stew has become one of my favorite regular characters on Welcome to the Basement. I Vote for Stew.
The “Dancing” entry in the non-human category literally made me laugh out loud. Keep up the good work guys 🙂
David Lynch totally deserves a spot,
guy is the Beethoven of Surrealist film-making
I really hope that was Robert Loggia’s headshot.
I had no idea Emile Hirsch could actually act until I saw “The Mudge Boy”. Very strange, very disturbing, like an agrarian David Lynch film, w/ chickens.
You still haven’t completed the Alfred Trifecta, a Michael Caine film must be watched so I recommend the original Sleuth from 1971. A film, which along with Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, addled my young mind leaving me the social misfit I am today.
On a side note have you seen Guy Ritchie’s Revolver, it’s a real Putney Swope Panic inducer.
Hall of Famer Michael Shannon on the Nerdist podcast:
http://nerdist.com/nerdist-podcast-michael-shannon/
He talks about Dungeons and Dragons and pretends to contort himself into a water bottle, among other things.
Just discovered your show and love it! I’m a third generation movie fan. Was wondering if you’ve seen one of my late grandmother’s favorites: Born Again staring Judy Holliday?
How about Paddy Chayefsky? Altered States, Paint Your Wagon, and Marty…
G’Day from Melbourne, Australia. I just read through your Hall of Fame list and wanted to mention how well it was written (and shall no doubt continue to be). It has a very natural and inviting pace that reads with a conversational tone but in no way disguising the bountiful information included in the narrative (for lack of a better word). I’ve been watching your show since the beginning and certainly hope it continues well into the future. It’s entertaining, informative, consistent and juuuust “under-professional” enough to feel like a truly genuine project and not some over produced lie created by a larger investor “Wayne’s World” style. 5 outta 5 fellas (and pit crew). Stay safe and have another glass of wine. Cheers from Oz.
[Craig here] Thank you for your words about the Hall of Fame. I am very happy you appreciate and enjoy those. I spend a lot of time every January crafting those, and it’s always good to hear that someone likes them. We hope that you continue to enjoy the show for however long we do it (and not to worry, there’s not end in sight). Glad to see that the strings of our malevolent, corporate puppet master cannot be seen. And yes, that puppet master is Rob Lowe.
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