Haunted Honeymoon (1986)

Episode 439, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: We are week two into our month of horror comedies, brought to you by Craig. You chose all of these and uh, I have to say, I’m really happy with your choices. They wouldn’t have probably been the ones that I chose, but having chosen them, now that I’m looking at them, I’m like, I don’t know if I could have done a better job because I like going back to things that I haven’t seen in a while.

Mm-hmm. Or bringing to light stuff that might be a little forgotten or unknown. And I feel like this one just screamed out. From my past. The one that we’re doing today is Haunted Honeymoon. That’s starring Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner. And God, I remember very distinctly watching this movie. My dad rented it for us.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t see it in the theater. ’cause 1986 

Craig: you probably didn’t beget it had a, it had a super limited run. It bombed. Oh yeah. Bad it, it was only in theaters for 

Todd: like a week. That’s right. I remember watching it with my parents and it must have been at home and I remembered enjoying it, but thinking it was a bit odd because it.

It had this story within a story aspect to it, and also there was this mystery, and at the time I was really, I’ve always been kind of fascinated with radio and the old timey stuff, and because this is takes place, it is a period piece, right? It takes place during the, you’d say like the forties or whatever I suppose.

Thirties, forties. Yeah. Thirties, forties. Yeah. And is about these two people hosting a radio show. And I just remember, especially this moment in the middle of the movie where you think all these scary things are happening, but then outside the window there’s somebody shaking a thing that makes it. Like lightning thunder, the thunder sound type thing.

Yeah. Like shaking a metal big metal plate. Yeah. Yeah. Which now that I’ve watched the movie, I realized that’s kind of a false memory. Yeah. There is a guy who shakes a big metal plate for thunder sound, but it’s not outside the window in the middle. I. But the idea is the same anyway. Uh, yeah. And I, I haven’t seen it since, I guess probably 1986 when I was a kid, so I was really excited to come back to it.

So what made you decide to choose this movie? Man, 

Craig: I don’t know. This is, I think this is probably one of those movies from my. Childhood that I really liked, but I thought, I don’t know if we can really do it on the podcast, but we can. And I don’t know why I ever felt that way. First of all, we can do whatever we want, I guess.

Secondly, one of the few spaces in our lives where we have ultimate control, 

Todd: we should 

Clip: take 

Todd: advantage. 

Craig: Secondly, if it’s not a horror movie, which is a fair. Argument. It’s at least like a parody of a horror movie, which I think is fair game. Like, yeah, we’ve done Scream, I mean, scream’s kind of a, I don’t know if, if we were to do scary movie, I wouldn’t think that was out of bounds, and I don’t think this is either.

Plus I just. Love it. I mean, that’s, that’s why I picked it. This is kind of like I said, one of those that I’ve wanted to do forever and have just hesitated bringing up. ’cause I didn’t know if it really fit, but I love everything about it. I, I don’t even know where to begin it. It blows me away that it was.

So critically panned and it wasn’t successful at all because this movie is like, it’s just so joyful to me. Like I’m sitting here right now with the biggest smile on my face. It’s charming, it’s sweet. It’s. Innocent. It’s like, it, it’s fun. It, it does so much fun stuff with these old school horror movie tropes.

I love the whole radio show thing. It’s not really so much that they’re hosting a radio show. They are the stars of one of those. 1930s Radio serials. Yeah. Which I, I’ve never really listened to, and you and I have talked about this before. I know that you have kind of listened to some of those. Oh yeah.

But this movie has always made me. Fascinated about those. And, you know, this is Hollywood, so I don’t know how real it is, but I feel like I get a little peek behind the scenes of these people putting this thing together in the moment, all with, you know, practical sound effects and people doing different voices and, and they’re all just in, you know, one room in a recording studio.

But as the movie illustrates, they can tell a really vivid story. Uh, I just think the whole thing is so cool. 

Todd: Yeah. Well, I’ll, I’d kind of like to address a few of the things that you mentioned. I mean, number one, why did this movie do so poorly in the eighties? And I think if I can put myself back in the sensibility of where we were with movies, I think it’s probably just ’cause it was in the eighties.

I wanna say that now we are a lot more open, I think, to different kinds of movies, to people being a little playful with genre to movies that sort of subvert our expectations and, and mashed things up a little bit. But that’s not entirely true because the seventies were a big time period for film where there was a lot of this kind of experimentation going on, arguably way more than than today.

But I just think there was this period of time between the eighties and nineties where things started to kind of. Fall into neat little boxes, especially in the eighties. I mean, the eighties to me, at least in my recollection, but maybe I’m bi. Maybe it’s just my own personal experience. Were all about, it was an action movie or it was a like a war movie, like a Schwarzenegger type thing, or it’s a screwball comedy, or it’s like a big kind of blockbuster spielbergian type adventure movie.

Mm-hmm. Or it’s like a horror slasher, Freddie, or something like that. I mean. Maybe those four or five things, and anything that was too far outside of that, or even worse, really was too close to any of them at once. People didn’t know what to do with, you’d see a movie being advertised as a, as a comedy, but then you’d go in and you’d be like, Ooh, this comedy’s got a dark edge to it.

People would be a little, maybe a little more critical to it because it didn’t, it didn’t fit what they were expecting. Like marketing was really important. There’s really only one way to market things. That’s through the trailer. I mean, now, you know, think about it. God, now that I’m really thinking about it, you will know so much about a film before you ever go to see it.

Yeah. You might not have even seen the trailer, but you will know the development history and who starred in it and who almost starred it, and how many directors they went through, and how many rewrites it had and has it been in development hell for 10 years or whatever. All we knew about in the eighties was we saw this trailer on television and however that presented the film.

That was the film we expected to go see. So if it deviated from that at all, and films like this are really hard to pin down. Yeah. That way. You know, I can see why it probably just disappoint a lot of people who didn’t know what they were getting into. That is a long way of explaining it. But maybe, yeah, 

Craig: I, I can imagine, I think even today, this movie might be a little hard to market, but especially in the eighties.

Well, and, and maybe today too. Maybe, maybe people would react to it the same. I just feel like at that time there was so much focus on. I don’t know if this is a word. Modernity. 

Todd: Yeah. 

Craig: Like everything modern. We’re so progressive and look at our technology and we’re, everything was looking towards the future.

Mm-hmm. Like we, we were dressing, like we were like from the future or something. I. And I, and I think that this is a major throwback to a time that maybe people weren’t particularly nostalgic for at that time. It could be for whatever reason I am. I just find it very, very charming and it’s, it’s really nice.

This movie’s rated pg. Have we ever done a PG movie before? Oh, surely we have, 

Todd: surely we have, I think we’ve talked about this before with what, the one other PG movie maybe, right? 

Craig: Yeah. But it’s pg like, it’s nice. It’s nice to just have something light and funny. And 

Clip: it is, 

Craig: and it’s a, it’s a spooky old ma haunted mansion.

Werewolf zombies ev like mishmash of. All this old fun stuff that I just think, ah, it just makes me wanna like curl up in a big blanket. And yeah, 

Todd: it’s a very deliberate and painstaking homage by Gene Wilder. I mean, the movie was his concept. He wrote it, he directed it. This was the last of the five or so movies that he did direct.

Yep, yep. And he very specifically wanted to do this, this homage to what is known as the old dark House type. Story. Yep. That was very popular in the twenties and thirties, the early days of cinema where they were horror comedies that were much more comedy than horror, very light in tone, trying to create this sort of spooky atmosphere that was created back then.

You know, it was not. What we would today consider very spooky, which I thought was interesting. I don’t know if you probably read some of this too, how Gene Wilder was quite deliberate about how he’s like, it’s not a comedy horror, but it’s not a horror comedy, and it’s not a comedy thriller. It’s a comedy chiller, and I’m like, I don’t know what the hell that means.

Sure. I’m trying to get a sense of what he is talking about. It doesn’t really thrill you, but it just kind of like. Chills you a little bit. 

Craig: I, I’m not familiar with those ones that were like intentionally funny, but would it be kinda like, okay, so what I’m thinking of is it would the fall of the House of Usher.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. But that’s not a comedy. 

Craig: Right. Right. That’s what I’m saying. But that’s what I’m familiar with. So would the ones that you’re talking about be more in line with like Abbott and Costello versus Meet Frankenstein or, yeah, 

Todd: it would be that type of thing, or. Maybe one that doesn’t overtly involve a comedian, you know, but they’re very light.

Like there’s a literal movie called The Old Dark House that I think kicked all this off and was thought to be lost to time, and was found, God, I don’t know what, maybe in the nineties or in the eighties or something like that. Boris Karloff starred in a lot of these too in his early career, where there’s people in an old spooky dark house and there’s creepy things happening, but none of it is particularly threatening or overtly scary.

It’s just like, Ooh, they don’t notice that there’s a werewolf peering from around the corner. And then when they look back, the werewolf isn’t there. But we saw the werewolf, but then the goofy character wanders into the room and looks in a mirror and thinks he sees the werewolf. And then has that kind of funny moment where they’re like touching their face and the werewolf touches his face and then he looks down and the werewolf looks down.

You know, it’s just this kind of like very simplistic comedy that happened back then. Atmosphere. I get it. Does that make sense? 

Craig: Yeah, it does make sense, right? That, I mean, that’s kind of what I was getting at. Like even if it’s not like Vincent Price movie that we saw, I feel like it’s that type of.

Environment. Yeah. It’s that setup. It’s a big mansion. Gothic like, almost like a ca like gothic castle. All of the windows are apparently open and the gossamer drapes are like flowing. Oh, to an 

Todd: insane degree. To, to a almost, yeah. Parody really. Yeah, 

Craig: candles everywhere. A huge grand hall. That’s like the entrance with a huge staircase.

And I mean, it’s exactly what you would picture if you think of like a huge old gothic castle or mansion. It’s amazing. But the setup, it opens. I just, God, I love everything about it. And I swear to God this movie is so short. If you cut out the credits, it’s like an hour and. 15 minutes. Yeah, it 

Todd: is pretty short.

You’re right. 

Craig: But I took so many notes and it took me at least a half an hour extra to watch the movie because I was pausing it like every second ’cause I was writing so much down. It opens with like a scary, laughing voice over the lead cast names. And the lead cast is amazing. Get to it in a second. But it’s one of those like, whoa, like this is the kind of movie you’re getting into and, and these.

Big doors that fill the whole screen open up to this foggy road, leading to this castle. And there’s like this organ music and orchestral music, exactly the kind of music that you would expect to see behind this big gothic mansion. And then the title, and then it, it zooms up on this house and an old woman is like pounding on the window trying to get out and she’s all panicked and yelling and she finally gets it open and she falls over.

The window cell and she’s got a knife in her back, but then a wig flies off her head and it’s actually a bald dude, 

Todd: Uhhuh, 

Craig: and he looks up and says, it’s not what you think. Yeah. And the camera starts to pan away and then it stops and he looks up again and says, well, it’s partly what you think, but. Oh, it’s so complicated.

He falls over again and then a werewolf grabs his toupee, and then a car arrives in the mysterious inhabitant, kicks the dogs in the werewolf, howls, and then we cut to. A studio. This is all a radio production and it’s fantastic. I love this. I just, I love the 

Todd: setup. Like it I do. I know what you’re talking about.

I, because, and you already said it, but I do love these things. This, I majored in journalism in college and. Radio was my passion and my love and that got me into it in the first place. And I moved my way very quickly up the ranks of the radio station. My whole dream there was to was to produce something like this.

These old fashioned radio shows where we’re making all these sound effects in house live. Kind of like the excitement of a live show that you go to see in the theater. Yeah. But it’s online. So neat. You could do more stuff ’cause you’re working with the theater of the mind, you know, with all these sound effects.

And stuff. And, but the, the, the excitement of doing it live and potential for screwing it up and yeah. So those are really cool. I really like that aspect to it. And it’s very old fashioned. You’re right. And. Maybe that did have something to do with, maybe people just weren’t as interested in this in the eighties.

But I have a second theory about it, and that is that the type of comedy that this is is just like those old house type comedies. It’s rather light. The movie, especially with this opening sequence that you just described, seems to be setting us up for two things. Number one, some kind of insane, complicated mystery.

And number two, almost like a Mel Brooks style wacky comedy uhhuh. And while. This is, there’s a mystery of sorts here. I don’t know. It’s not this complicated, exciting thing to unpack, you know? It just, it just is, and it all kind of flutters off into nothing. It’s funny and stupid. It’s funny and stupid. And then the Mel Brooks, the, the other aspect to it is that it’s funny, but it’s not Mel Brooks wacky comedy, psych gags all the time over the top jokey characters.

Kind of funny. Those aspects are in there, but they’re in there to a much smaller degree than maybe people were expecting. If, I think you, you may be right. Gene Wilder coming off of Blazing Saddles, you know, space balls I think came out around this time. Right. So I think this probably didn’t meet those expectations if people went in with those expectations.

And I’ll bet a lot of people did. 

Craig: Yeah. Gene Wilder is kind of. Well, I, I say this based on this movie only ’cause I have, I don’t believe I’ve seen any of the other movies he’s directed, but he’s kind of Mel Brooks Light. Yes. Mel Brooks is edgy. Really edgy. Yeah. And funny. Gene Wilder is not edgy, at least in this movie, but I also think that that is part of the callback to a simpler time.

Yes, of course. 

Todd: I agree a hundred percent. Fits It fits the movie 

Craig: and it also fits because what’s happening. Okay, so he is the star. His name is Larry something. Larry Abbott. He is the star of this radio serial. It’s haunted honeymoon and it stars him and. Vicki Pearl played by his wife in real life. Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, I believe, are the most wholesome couple America has ever produced.

Yeah, and seeing them on screen together is. I just wanna die. Yeah. And, and this is surely the only movie that we will ever do to feature Gilda Radner. So, yeah, I am, I can’t say enough. I think that she was some sort of special gift from Heaven. She, I have never heard a single negative thing said about her.

I have only heard that she was just. The loveliest most talented, gifted kind person. You, all those people from the, uh, original cast of SNL adored her. They talk about her as though she was an angel. They, you know, they say everyone was in love with Gilda, and Gilda was in love with everyone. 

Clip: Yeah. 

Todd: Famously Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner were madly in love with each other.

Craig: Yeah. And it’s, and this is, this was her last movie. It’s so sick and tragic. It’s so sad. It’s so sad. Ugh. She was so, so talented, so funny and beautiful. And in this movie, she is just like, she’s sweet and innocent. Yeah. She, she has a little bit of an edge to her, but she’s also, I feel like happy to play second.

Fiddle to her husband, like it doesn’t come across that way. Mm-hmm. But she’s not stealing the spotlight. Yes. It’s Gene Wilder’s movie. He’s the director, he’s the star, he’s the focus and she is just right there on his arm. Yeah. And it is, I. Lovely. 

Todd: They’re true co-stars in this film. Mm-hmm. I mean, you’re kind of right.

I mean, gene, it’s really about Gene Wilder, but ultimately it’s about them as a couple. I think, you know, that’s how it begins. That’s how it ends, and that’s the heart throughout it. And I mean, he wrote it. I think with that in mind, they, I think fell in love on the. Set of another movie that they did before this hanky panky or something that did not do well?

I don’t remember. They got married and I think they were married for three years when they started this movie, and he wrote this obviously specifically for them to do. Then at some point during the filming of this movie, she even had a, was starting to have a hard time walking and people didn’t really know what was going on and I’m not sure to the extent that she was fully aware of her health problems.

But long story short, I think she developed ovarian cancer pretty quickly and didn’t catch it early enough. And so by the time everyone realized she was sick, she was almost dead. Yeah, I think it was really fast. Just a year after this movie came out, actually, and man, dude, I, you could go down a rabbit hole learning about this whole thing because I remember, um, listening to, I think it was upon Gene Wilder’s death.

That NPR had replayed a interview that they did with him like in 2010 or something like that, you know, in his later years long after, you know, her death. Pretty much this whole conversation with him focused around Gilda, their relationship, his feelings about her, what kind of a person she was, and just to hear him talking about her and describing her life and their, and their relationship together was just nothing short of inspiring.

Clip: Mm-hmm. 

Todd: Mm-hmm. And, and sad at the same time, you know? Anyway. It’s good that we have this movie, 

Craig: right? It it is. And if she was unwell, you know, whether she was aware of it or not, you’d never know. She looks lovely and vibrant in this movie. Yeah, she’s fun. She’s just, her smile, just, you can’t help but smile when she smiles.

She’s so charming and they’re getting married and they have this charming, like the press comes in and interviews them and that’s, that’s so funny. This charming dialogue. I didn’t write it down. I we’re 

Todd: like. Everything that comes out of their mouth is a joke. Like they wrote it. Yes. But it’s so sweet. Its so cute.

Romantic. It’s. Adorable. And it’s also a parody. Know the number. You know, I mean, it’s a parody of these kinds of scenes in these movies where people are Yeah, just effortlessly clever, which nobody is ever in real life, but in Hollywood movies, they always are, 

Craig: but don’t, don’t they seem it though, like, yes, gene Wilder and Gilda Radner in this.

Scene are so natural. Yes. And charming. Like I totally a hundred percent believe that they are just like that all the time. Right, 

Clip: right. 

Craig: But the executives are worried about Larry because he has been freaking out. Yeah. He kind of freaks out a little bit. Like he kind of goes into a trance. While he’s being interviewed and she has to kinda rescue him from it, which is also adorable.

’cause she does, and then the execs are worried and then they go back to recording. And those sound effects that you were talking about, the metal thunder, which by the way is so cool to see and it sounds fantastic. There are a couple of running gags that are not gonna be funny when I say it, but like he keeps doing this thing where he’ll say like he’s kind of in a trance.

And somebody will talk to him and he’ll say, Hey, is my tie straight? Yeah, that’s fine. No, but is it straight? Yeah, it’s straight. He’s talking to, I don’t know, a producer, the sound guy or whatever, and he’s like. Say, I swear to God, your tie is straight and the guy’s like, I swear to God, your tie is straight.

And then he’s okay. And he has this thing with his tie throughout. Like that’s when you know that he’s starting to freak out if he starts messing with his tie and he Yeah, he says those lines, he says ’em to Gilda later. Like, okay, so they get through it, right? He He kind of cracks up on air. 

Todd: Yeah, he’s seizing up.

Yeah. 

Craig: Yeah. The thing that they’re shooting is like a werewolf thing, I think. And in the script. It says that if somebody’s a werewolf, you’ll know because they’ll stumble over the W in any word. And so a bit of werewolf lore, by the way, I’ve never heard before. 

Todd: Yeah, 

Craig: yeah. Gilda Radner character in the radio show starts like asking him questions, prompting him to say words with Ws in them, and he can’t, he keeps stumbling over them and.

He gets anxious or something and starts laughing. It’s this, I, it’s so funny to see this scene because the scene is supposed to be him kind of cracking up. But me as the viewer watching it, I’m like, oh my God, they are such good actors. Like, yes. Gene Wilder is just a, a, I think a comic genius. Yes. I’ve always felt this just brilliant, 

Todd: understated.

I mean, it’s, it’s really, it’s really complicated, hard to do comedy. I think he’s just really good at this stuff and this scene also for me as a kid, made me think, is he a werewolf? The way he performs it, you’re not sure if he’s. Cracking these words up as part of the actual performance, or if he’s unintentionally cracking these up.

And the way that Gilda, Gilda responds, you’re not sure if she’s disturbed by what’s happening or if, I don’t know. Anyway, I feel like that this. Has a little bit of mystery and doubt onto him as a person. Like, are we gonna be getting into some werewolf stuff here? You know, where he’s actually a werewolf or maybe, I don’t know.

That’s just how I felt about it. I don’t know if you did, but, uh, 

Craig: well, yeah, I mean, sure. I mean, especially because it’s just so funny how the lines are blurred. Yes. Oh, 

Clip: frightening. Isn’t it? Laughing. I don’t know. Is that the way you rehearsed it? No, it isn’t. But you know, Larry,

darling, I’m going to have a Sherry. Who would you or wouldn’t you like some? Oh, I will, I will. I, 

Craig: um, 

Clip: yes, I’ll 

Craig: have something. But they get through it. But the executives are like, oh no, he, you know, he’s cracking up. That’s it. This is the third time or whatever. He’s fired. But then his. Uncle this, this big guy, Dr.

Paul Abbott bursts in and he’s this big, huge, huge bald guy and he comes in and says, no, you can’t fire him because I can cure him. He says, when did this start? And they’re like, three weeks ago. And he’s like, when did he get engaged three weeks ago? He is like, okay. So the engagement made a crack in his psyche and the cure is to scare him.

To death. Death,

Todd: by the way, did you recognize him? Uh, he was familiar, but no, we’ve talked about him before. He was bluto in Popeye, but he was also, I. In, uh, pieces. He was the kind of like suspicious groundskeeper or janitor at the school, you remember? Yeah. Yes, 

Craig: I do. Hard to miss. That’s funny. More so than I usually do. I, in my notes marked down the actor’s names because I.

So many of them were familiar, and I thought, I’ll go back and look them up, but I didn’t. Mm. So, um, but, but honestly, so many of the people in the movie are familiar, but maybe, maybe they’re just familiar to me from this movie. 

Clip: Yeah. I don’t 

Craig: know. It could be. Maybe that’s it. I, I’ve watched this movie so many times, but he says Larry’s whole family is meeting at his aunt’s estate this weekend for the wedding because they’re getting married.

That, that scene. I don’t know, just little things like when he’s telling this story, he’s like, we’ll all be meeting at at Kate’s estate. And the whole time he’s saying this, it’s an intense closeup on just the upper three quarters of his face, and there’s a projection of the Mansion slash castle on his forehead.

It’s so old school. I love it. And his eyes are just like super intense and twitchy. 

Todd: Mm-hmm. 

Craig: And Vicki doesn’t know, but they’ve got this plan to scare him to. Death. So you know, everybody congratulates them. They’re leaving to go get married or whatever, slide cut to them in a car, and he’s anxious, but she reassures them and she says, listen, if you ever start to freak out, just say.

Whoops. There goes my imagination again. How do you like that? And then I just have in my notes that then she sings and tells jokes and is just generally adorable. She whistles, who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, which is a theme that comes up several times. Uhhuh big, huge haunted house that they’re driving up to.

Is it the exact same house? That we’ve seen before. I’m not 

Todd: sure. 

Craig: It sure looks like it. That’s why I say that. It’s interesting how the lines blur. 

Todd: Yeah, that’s a good question actually. 

Craig: They basically drive into. The story that they set up Yes. Earlier, 

Todd: which is in Stormville, New York. It’s not without its sight gags and, and silliness, but like I said, it’s, it’s very light on that.

But then of course it does get rather silly because as soon as they pull up to the mansion, you know, they knock on the door with this giant door knocker that makes these comb comb, comb sounds. And this really strange butler comes to the door, turns out to be Mr. Ster. Fester Butler,

oh boy. Fester the butler. 

Craig: Played by a guy named Brian Pringle, and I don’t remember if I looked him up or not, but like he’s just like the most stereotypical tall, bald, like with like a crown of hair. Huge, bushy. Eyebrows in a tuxedo with a British accent, like just the most stereotypical butler you can imagine.

His 

Todd: eyebrows are like their own little animals. This guy. You, you, I mean, you’re not wrong. Brian Pringle’s a veteran of the screen. I mean, 200 credits to his name going all the way back to the fifties. So like everybody else in here, probably familiar to my parents or my grandparents, they probably would’ve known exactly who this guy was.

Craig: Vicki is initially scared of him and they have a very charming little interaction where she’s like, uh, uh, uh, uh, I, I’m married to, uh, Larry, and he, uh, said that he, he grew up here and maybe I’ll just come back later. Like, it, it’s super funny. And then they go inside and. She is in awe as anyone would be.

’cause it’s like this grand hall with this huge staircase. And she’s like, you grew up here? And he’s like, yeah, I learned to ride my bike in this room. And then one of my favorite lines is Fister. We’re looking at them and there’s this giant staircase. 

Clip: Be very careful of that magnificent vase on the landing.

There are only three like it in the entire world.

Oh 

Craig: my God. I just think that is such a funny’s, hilarious, that magnificent vase.

Oh, and it’s just such a hilarious. Obvious. Setup. Setup. It’s so funny. And a 

Todd: giant vase, which does not belong on the top of a stairway at all. 

Craig: No. Oh gosh. There’s no other ornamentation. It’s just like on a pedestal in the middle of this. Oh, it’s so silly. It’s funny. The other, the other funny thing about that scene to me, and it’s a.

Carryover joke throughout the rest of the movie, they’re walking up the stairs and Gene Wilder is, Larry is trying to explain to Vicki that the Butler is hard of hearing, but the Butler kind of overhears and says What? And Gene Wilder says, oh, I’m sorry, my fiance’s a little hard of hearing. And he says, oh, I’ll kind, I’ll try to remember that.

And then for the rest of the movie, anytime he addresses her. He shouts aggressively in her face, like he gets a centimeter from her face and shouts at the top of his lungs. Oh, and she just has to pretend like there’s nothing going on and it goes on for the whole movie. It’s hilarious. Okay. Then a whole bunch of people show up.

When I looked at the IMDB page, I was excited because I thought, oh look, it’s not really a big cast. And then this sequence of events happened where more and more people just kept knocking on the door. I’m like, oh my God, there’s so many people. Alright, so let me see if I can do this. Oh, okay. Well, we meet Rachel.

She is the maid. She is sister’s wife. You don’t know that initially, but you find out. And she’s funny. She’s little and sassy. Yes, and, and. Puritanical and judgy and hilarious. Mm-hmm. The first person that knocks on the door is a, Rachel opens the door and there’s this sinister looking man there, and his eyes glow and she seems to be entranced by him.

Mm-hmm. And his name is Montego. He says his name is Montego and he’s the husband of Susan Abbott. And she’s gonna be arriving soon. So the Abbotts are the family. And so I guess Susan’s one of the cousins 

Todd: and he’s a magician and he’s played by Jim Carter, who people may recognize from Downton Abbey and, you know, 150 other things.

But most recently, yeah, 

Craig: again, familiar. Yeah, like he’s a, I don’t remember if he says he’s a magician at that point, but he got the glowing eyes thing, and then he does like a funny levitating cane trick, which was hilarious because there was clearly just somebody under there like, you know, under the camera view, just like swinging his cane around.

But it was hilarious. 

Todd: I, I think, honestly, if you’re not so familiar with movies from the thirties and forties. You may think this is super strange, right? Like because there are these very obvious complete parodies. I even hesitate to call him parodies. It’s just stuff from those movies that that he’s doing here too.

Like you said, that super imposition on the guy’s forehead when he was thinking about the mansion and this whole deal where suddenly, and this happens a couple times when the magician stares at somebody and it’s almost like a freeze frame and his eyes start to become more and more white like they’re glowing and it’s like somebody is slowly dimming the lights all around him.

Yes. To where. He’s in darkness and all you see is that, and that is such a cliche from. That era of the horror movies of the, of the thirties and forties, like this was just a, a trope really. But like, I, you know, I guess if you, again, you would just be like, well, that, those were odd choices, you know? And, and why did that just happen?

And then stop if you weren’t really familiar with what this movie is, is homage. Yeah. 

Craig: And, and there’s tons of. Also just interesting comedy going on. Like there are fun little scenes with Vicki and Larry like being shown to their rooms and they’re staying in separate rooms because that’s the rules of the house or whatever.

But she tells them, if I get scared, I’m gonna come stay in your bed. And there’s, you know, he’s still being anxious and getting scared by seemingly nothing. Like he thinks he sees a snake. And there’s so much comedy that will never read with me just yeah. Explaining it. So you please watch this movie. It, it, it’s hilarious.

It’s so good. And I can’t explain the comedy, but there’s just a lot of situational stuff going on. More people show up. Cousin Charles played by Jonathan Price, who is a brilliant actor of stage and screen. One of my all 

Todd: time favorite actors. Yeah. Mr. Dark. He’s fantastic. From the. Something we could this way comes.

Craig: Yeah. And this would, this would be kind of around the same time, I think. Yeah, very much so. He’s handsome and, and debonair. He’s fantastic. Got his American 

Todd: accent going. 

Craig: Uhhuh, he shows up with, for lack of a better word, for the, you know, this type of film, the floozy, you know? Yeah. Sylvia, who’s funny. 

Todd: They can’t stop from kissing each other.

Craig: Right, right, right. Whatever. Oh God. There’s, there’s hilarious jokes like Larry talking to Finster and talking about somebody and saying he’s a widower. And Finster says widower than what? What do you mean widower than what? What’s he widower then? Well, he’s not widower than anything. He’s just a widow.

Well then why didn’t you just say that? See how I can’t explain the comedy? Yeah, yeah. But in the moment it’s 

Todd: hilarious. It’s hilarious. I mean, I don’t know. Is it hilarious? It’s. It’s chuckle worthy. I thought it was hilarious. Yeah, we, we might have a slight disagreement on that. I think it’s funny. But I wasn’t rolling on the floor over it or anything.

And there’s a lot of that kind of humor in there. A lot of it, a lot. It’s silly. It’s cute. It’s funny. It’s a smile on your face kind of humor. It’s not necessarily like guffawing at what just happened. 

Craig: Fair. It’s light, it’s silly, it’s family friendly and I love it. Yeah. Uh, the last people to arrive are the cousin that we’ve already met, the big guy, Dr.

Paul and his wife Nora, who. Barely plays a part at all. But they’re all meeting down for cocktails or, or something before dinner. And we skipped a scene, which is fine because I preferred to God, I don’t even, when is it? I, I just want to get to it so badly. Are you talking about 

Clip: the 

Craig: dinner scene? No, no, no.

They, they all meet, they all convene. And Aunt Kate makes her entrance. Yes. We skipped a scene where an we see a gloved, mysterious person. Spies on Aunt Kate and one of the her nephews who’s like the executor of her will, where she’s like, someone in this family is trying to kill me or something, and she’s like, Larry is the only one I can trust.

And so she’s changing her will to make Larry the soul. Inheritor. The other guy, the executor’s, like, what happens if Larry dies? And she’s like, well, then the rest of you can split it. 

Clip: Mm-hmm. 

Craig: So we had that little scene, but now Aunt Kate makes her entrance and does she say she makes a God? Where is it?

Todd: You’re talking about her entrance before she slides down the banister. 

Craig: Before she slides down the banister. That’s what I’m trying to get to. Oh, she, she stands there and says, this house 

Clip: is cursed.

They were all godless here. Old. They used to bring their women to this house. Brazen loling creatures with their silks and sands. Oh, they filled this house with laughter and sin, laughter and sin. 

Craig: This is a callback to the source material. Yeah. The point that I’m trying to get to that’s taken me forever is that Aunt Kate is played by Dom DeLuise.

Yes. In drag. 

Todd: Yes. 

Craig: And as he often did. Yeah. And it’s. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life, and I love Dom DeLuise. I think that he is absolutely hysterical. He is in some of my all time favorite movies, this best little URA in Texas. Oh yeah. An American Tale and. A bazillion other animated things from that time.

The secret of Nim, almost 

Todd: every Mel Brooks movie, it seems like 

Craig: he is brilliant and his, his aunt Kate is so funny and he just commits to it. A hundred percent and he just plays it big and body and unapologetically. And it’s not even like, well I think it’s, it’s not played, I don’t think, for cheap laughs.

No, it’s 

Todd: just comedy gold. Well, the way you describe it, big and body. It makes it sound like he’s this over the top flamboyant character and he’s quite the opposite. Aside from being dressed like a woman, he’s almost flat. I don’t know. And, and I think the flatness of how he’s portraying it is supposed to be funny, but I kind of disagree, man.

I felt like this was one of his sort of least inspired performances. I just thought he was playing it awfully flat, like every line that he delivered was just announced with very little to no emotion. I found it baffling, honestly. I was disappointed. 

Craig: I thought that he was making very deliberate character choices and I would have not liked it if he had gone for Oh yeah.

Like Madam, like you remember, you remember that? That puppet character Madam? Mm-hmm. Like if he had gone for that, I would’ve, that would’ve annoyed me. I thought that he was playing. This character as though he were taking it seriously as an actress in this type of movie. I agree, but And it is. It is over the top, but over the top and melodramatic in, in a way that I could believe that it would’ve been, I.

Played sincerely, if that makes sense. Well, 

Todd: gene Wilder gave that instruction to him. He said, don’t play it for laughs. You’re just playing a woman. Like the comedy will come from just that. You’re not a guy playing a woman. Don’t try to make it that. Just play a woman. And apparently he based this, this character off of someone in one of these movies, but.

Man, it just didn’t work for me. I, I, he was, I, I, but again, I like you. I would also be disappointed if he went for the easy get, which is like, 

Clip: like he does a 

Todd: lot of Mel Brooks movies, to be honest, you know, which I don’t personally find that funny myself. It feels very dated type of humor. 

Craig: I mean, I find it funny, but I wouldn’t have.

Yeah, I wouldn’t have cared for it in this context. I, I, I, I felt like he met the mark. He, he, he got the assignment. I, I just thought it really worked. I’m, I’m 

Clip: all right. 

Craig: I’m sad, like I’m sad for you that 

Clip: you don’t get 

Craig: it, but it didn’t work for me. It worked for you. That’s fine. But the other thing that I wanted to say, and, you know, I’ve never thought about this before, really.

And I, I come back to this movie every couple of years and I love it. Drag has been around. Forever. 

Clip: Mm-hmm. 

Craig: Drag has always been a part of the culture. It has always been in entertainment, in acting Shakespeare. I don’t understand why people are getting their panties all in a bunch about drag. Oh, it’s ridiculous.

Todd: What the fuck? Like, well, it’s, it’s ignorant. Pete, grow up. I’m sorry, but it’s ignorance. I mean, in the earliest days of Western stage, we’re talking Shakespeare and stuff like that. Well, I mean obviously earlier as the Greeks and whatever, but it was uncommon for women to even act. Yes. So men were always playing female roles and that goes across cultures in Japan, like um, the no theaters and the kabuki theaters and things, all men.

Chinese opera and all that, all men, they were dressing in drag for thousands and thousands of years. So I know 

Craig: it just, it just irritates me like if that, like you really, you seriously have nothing better to worry about. Like calm down. Yeah. Anyway. Gotcha. I’m not gonna let that sully my good time. We Sounds like someone’s got a chip on his shoulder.

Speaking of time, we’re running out of it, and there’s a whole plot. There’s so much more. There’s a whole mystery plot like Aunt Kate announces melodramatically at dinner. Someone in this family is a away wolf. She tells a whole story about how her brother was bitten and she hoped the curse wouldn’t pass down and blah, blah, blah.

It’s 

Todd: funny because what they’re doing here is he’s layering, ’cause it’s very common for these old house stories to have some light mystery attached to them. You know, that drives the plot amongst the mood and the, the silliness hijinks with the ghosts or the whatever, you know, the monsters that are there.

But this is just layering thing upon thing upon thing. We got this guy who’s scared of everything and we’ve got that element to it. We’ve got this element where we know that he’s being potentially tormented by these guys intentionally. Right? Or is it real? So there’s that mystery for us. Then there’s the whole will thing, you know, which is classic.

Murder mystery things. Her announcing that someone’s gonna kill them, and then she layers on this werewolf thing, which would seem like it’s come from out of the blue, except we’ve seen a fricking werewolf, proudly just classic werewolf from the wolf man. In Universal Days. Yeah. Prowling around. It’s just the comedy comes from the fact that it just gets more and more ridiculous how deeply Gene Wilder has committed to this theme that he’s just mashed up like 10 different stories into one and we’re, we’re here trying to sort 

Craig: them all 

Todd: out.

Craig: And most of it, most of it makes sense, you know, like they are intentionally tormenting him. We don’t know who this werewolf is. We eventually find out that it’s not a werewolf. And that this werewolf is actually in collusion with somebody else. Another shady figure with gloves, uhhuh, um, who, who says, you know, the werewolf, whoever that guy was behind the mask, killed the cross-dressing.

Cousin, cousin Francis, who likes to dress up as Aunt Kate and sometimes gets arrested in women’s bathrooms because of it. I guess he, he was the cross. Dressing guy that we saw get killed in the beginning. He killed him, but now his boss or whoever this guy is, wants him to kill Larry. He is like, no, you kill him yourself.

Or do you even have the guts? And then that guy kills him. So, yeah, presumably, you know, it’s, it’s gotta be somebody in the family ’cause they want the in inheritance or whatever, right? Mm-hmm. And then there are other weird scenes. Like when they are intentionally trying to scare him. At some point they do enlist.

Vicki, she didn’t know about it initially, but they do enlist her. And there’s a whole sequence where she’s like ghostly in a wedding dress floating outside of his room, and then she leads him into a clearing where there’s a grave and a hand comes out and grabs him by the throat. And all of this terrifies him.

Of course. Yeah. But we later find out that it’s all just. Really impressive setup. He finds out, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s fake. Yeah. He finds out, 

Todd: yeah. He sees the ropes and then he goes and he sees this lightning machine that flashes on and off, and then he goes and he pulls this arm out of this grave, which is somehow mechanical.

And then he gets whacked in the shovel by the wolf man and knocked into a coffin, 

Craig: the second killer, who’s now also wearing the Wolfman thing. Right. And that’s getting near the end. But in. The midst of all this. There are also just these, um, such wonderful scenes Yes. That I could just watch on repeat over and over again.

For example, a scene that starts as a closeup on Aunt Kate’s face and she’s saying something and it’s very serious, and then it seems like she’s having a very serious conversation with Vicki Uhhuh, but it turns into. A musical number? Yes. Like this is after, like this is after dinner and they’re all just in the music parlor enjoying their coffee.

And they do a whole musical number of ball in the Jack. Yeah. 

Clip: One, two, and then around and twist around.

Put out and bring it back.

Craig: These two actors, it just brings me so much joy because it looks like they are having the time of their lives. Yeah. And, and that’s one of the things that I liked about Dom DeLuise’s performance. Like you’re right, he is very one note in his line delivery. I think it’s intentional and I think it’s funny, but it is one note.

But there are times like when he slides down the banister, which he does more than once. Yes. Um, and it’s quite a sight to see. And in this number, aunt Kate just loves Vicki from the get go and they’re super cute together. Period. Mm-hmm. But in this number, when they’re singing and dancing and having fun together, it’s just so joyful.

Yeah. Like you guys, it’s true. If, if you’re having a bad day, if it’s a rough week. Find this movie and watch it like it is so light. It is. You know what it is? 

Todd: It’s a throwback to when all movies were kind of like this. Right? They weren’t cynical. You too clever. No. You know, like I actually kind of pine for this.

Like I have this personal theory that maybe our art has gotten a little too self-aware and self-referential and too dark and cynical and stuff where we’ve just forgotten that. Sometimes you can just have a joyful, earnest story, you know? Mm-hmm. That’s just unapologetically sappy or inspiring. God, man. I watched Cloak and Dagger the other day and I felt exactly like that.

I was like, God, this movie is so good. I cried at the end. Have you ever seen Cloak and Dagger? No, you have never seen cloak and 

Craig: oh my God, 

Todd: dude, this can’t be the first time I brought this up to you. 

Craig: No, you’ve brought it up many times. 

Todd: You t you’ve got time, man. You need to see fricking cloak and dagger. 

Craig: We should do something with it.

We’ll, we’ll do something. I would wa you know what? Seriously, it’d be fun to talk. 

Todd: I would do that for the patrons. I would do a cloak and dagger. I could talk for hours about that movie. It will. And you would love that movie? 

Craig: Yeah, it, it’ll be cool because I will have only seen it once. And you’ll have had a whole lifetime with it.

Yes. It’ll be cool. We should do it. Yes. One of my other favorite scenes, gene Wilder is running around. He’s figuring out that things are going on. He ends up going down like a firewood shoot and his dead cousin is in there and Fister is drunk and thinks that he killed him. So thinks that Larry killed.

The cousin. So they fight and Gene Wilder out of necessity has to knock him out. Well, just as he knocks him out and they’re fighting in this shoot or what this like bin police come down ’cause they’re invest, I don’t know, something shadys going on or whatever. So there’s this whole scene where Gene Wilder is straddling.

The actor who plays Fister’s legs. So it’s that classic 

Clip: gag.

Todd: We’re in somebody else’s legs. Yeah, on his body. 

Craig: And it’s, and it’s very silly, but it’s a funny gag. He’s and I liked it. He’s 

Todd: perfect at this kind of humor and he, this is a very, this is hard to pull up. This is Buster Keaton level stuff. Uhhuh. Have you ever seen Buster Keaton like an actual Buster Keaton movie?

I’ve never seen an entire film. I’ve seen clips. He could just do the stuff all day long and it is so difficult to do. Well, and convincingly and wilder nails it. I thought this was one of the funniest scenes of the whole movie. And again, we’re not talking sophisticated humor. Right. We’re just talking about silly, goofy, heartfelt, but very legitimate comedy.

Craig: I, I know, I know. And I’m telling you, that guy, like he’s got the physicality, he’s got the face, he’s got an amazing voice. Like just the timing, he’s just got it all. It’s insane. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So talented. Yeah. So there’s that scene. Okay. So eventually, uh, it turns out that it’s Jonathan Price. That’s right. He, he’s, I couldn’t even 

Todd: remember.

He’s 

Craig: the bad guy. 

Todd: I paid so little attention to the actual mystery. 

Craig: A a lot of stuff happens leading up to this guy’s. Seriously watch it, but it, it’s Jonathan Price and he’s, he’s chasing Vicki around. And Larry then. Has been buried but has now Kate dug him up and so now then he is in pursuit of both of them and, and they meet on the staircase.

Of course, Larry, this, this is a that, did you, this was a very. Well choreographed long fight 

Todd: scene. It was a very long fight scene, but of I, the minute it ended up on the staircase, I was like, thank you. This is, this vase is gonna the off the magnificent. And I think that’s part of the char. Again, that’s part of the comedy.

You know, it’s not explicitly stated, but you just intuitively feel. That they are purposely lengthening this fricking fight scene because all you could think about during this whole thing is when are they gonna knock that damn base over? 

Craig: And they fight. And fight and it really is very well choreographed and pretty brutal.

Yeah. At one point Vicki tries to intercede and gets punched. Yeah. And, and, and not to the floor. And it seems that cousin Charlie is, is getting the better of. Larry, but then, oh, and, and I think he stands above him. He lifts up the magnificent vase and, and is holding it above his head and is gonna smash Larry with it, I guess.

And then bang. And he gets shot and he flies back through the window and the magnificent vase goes with him and it cuts to Aunt Kate. With a shotgun and she says that vase cost $5,000. There are only three like its in the world. And Fister says two. She says two.

Oh my God. So then she slides down the banister again and she’s like. Now let’s have this wedding and it cuts immediately to the wedding. And, and, and Aunt Kate interrupt, like puts her hand in between right when they’re about to kiss at their wedding and she’s like, I just have this speech where I’m gonna say, and she’s like, at last the dark cloud over this.

House has pissed, uh, passed. Passed, and then it cuts back to the studio. Yes. Blurred lines again. Mm-hmm. This whole thing has been the radio show, this whole thing has been haunted. Honeymoon. Yep. And again, so everybody’s there. Jonathan Price is there. Don DeLuise is there not in drag. They’re all super chummy.

They’re all super happy for Larry and Vicki, and they’re sending them off. To get married and Larry and Vic, Vicki drive away singing a super cute song, the two of them singing together. Mm-hmm. It’s just adorable. It’s sweet. But then the narrator voice comes on and says. Are you so sure that our story has ended?

Hmm. Until next time. This is your host wishing you pleasant dreams. And then the, the werewolf like turns and looks at the camera and is like following their car down the road. And those doors that opened at the beginning close. And then that’s the end. Yeah. And my whole day was made. I was just happy for the rest of the day.

Todd: It is really a perfect throwback to a simpler time. He managed to cram everything visual and thematic that he possibly could into this movie to make it feel like you were watching one of those, well, about five of those old films all at once. I would say, yeah, bit of a modern, humorous sensibility, but not too far.

Honestly. A lot of the jokes are pretty old like that, you know? And that’s part of the charm, I think. Yeah. You know, I get. Very tired personally. All right, now I’m just talking about me. My personal opinions, I get very tired sometimes of seeing comedy after comedy of dumb juvenile humor, which I feel like, 

Craig: yeah, 

Todd: really started to explode in the late eighties, early nineties, and to some extent either never got out, never got never let up, or just got even dumber and more crazy pushing that envelope until it got to be cynical and sometimes kind of just nasty.

And there are times when I just. See a movie like this and remind myself, oh yeah, we can laugh at this stuff too. This is also funny and I appreciate this stuff more. ’cause it’s not easy. 

Craig: Yeah. 

Todd: You know, 

Craig: there’s, there’s, there’s room for all of it. Don’t get me wrong, but I just Exactly. That’s what I was gonna say.

There’s room for all of it. Yeah. But this. And maybe it’s because it’s a period piece, maybe it’s because it’s a throwback to something. This feels very timeless to me. I feel like I could watch this with anybody and I feel like anybody could enjoy it. You could watch it with your kids. Oh, yeah. Kids would get this humor.

Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s kind of universal. You could watch it with your kids, you could watch it with your parents without having to worry about being uncomfortable and embarrassed. You could, I could show it in school, you know, like Right. Without a permission slip. Without a permission slip. And, and I don’t know young people, I don’t know if they would appreciate it and I understand that.

I don’t know if I would appreciate it if I were their age. Yeah, I did when I was their age, but it was a different time. I don’t know. Well, yeah, we’ve talked about that before. It’s always a different time. Every time. Every time is a different time. Yeah. But this does, it just feels very timeless to me. And you know, it, it.

I, I feel like if you’re a fan of the show, you kind of have a sense of what our tastes are and if you ever like the stuff that I like or get excited about, the kind of stuff that I get excited about. And I know there are a lot of you out there who are about my age or grew up with siblings about my age.

So you were exposed to the same movies that we were If somehow you missed out on this one. You are in for a treat. 

Clip: Yeah, 

Craig: find it. It’s not easy to find. Sadly. I had to have, sadly, Todd send it to me, but he actually sends it to me on a pretty legit looking site, so I think it is out there. 

Todd: Yeah, 

Craig: I It’s not so legit.

Todd: The site button is,

it looked kind of legit. Yeah, well give it that for sure. It did give that air. I’ll delete it out of my history. No, no, don’t worry about it. I mean, you’re not gonna get like a, a virus or anything, but you know. Yeah, I mean, I think it’s even up on YouTube, but the version up on YouTube is like a VHS copy.

It’s not nearly as nice as what you could find if you got a DVD of it, or if you went to, if you just did a Google search for haunted honeymoon, it’ll be up there in the first 10 hits or so. A nicer copy. Have a look. It’s fun. I’d recommend it. And again, this, this is a very different flavor than probably anything else we’re gonna do this month or ever again.

Mm-hmm. I’d imagine, right? Probably. Yeah. So it’s, it’s, it’s worth it. Definitely more comedy than horror. Oh yeah. But we’ve, we’ve been down this road before. Alright, well thank you guys so much for listening to the podcast. If you’re a Gene Wilder, a Gil or Radner fan or horror comedy fan, and you have good memories of this movie, please let us know about it.

We’d love to hear from you guys. You can drop us a message on the page at our website, chainsaw horror.com, or go to any one of our social media channels. You’ll find us there, or you can come back behind the curtain, have these conversations where we do back with the patrons. You go to patreon.com/chainsaw horror, and for the low, low price of five bucks a month, you can have a more immediate access to us, access to our book club, access to our unedited phone calls, and minisodes, and little writeups and just thoughts and ideas that we post regularly back there.

For our patrons patreon.com/chainsaw podcast. Until next time, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.