Episode Transcript
[00:00:26] Speaker A: In one place forever let that place be hallelujah all of my dreams and all of my wishes used to be great in Hallelujah after I wake up, put on my makeup guess where I'm heading.
You take Chicago, keep San Jose, just give me good hold jewels further than before if I could be in one place forever let that place be absolutely. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another Hollywood swinging episode of how Betty Davis saved my life. Life lessons from classic Hollywood. I'm Moya.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: And I'm Georgia.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: And just before we got on, Georgia and I were talking about just the crazy week we had, or the time period in between podcasting between being here in, in Texas and in Houston with a barrel that tried to barrel that barrel, as put it like that, and not being able. Wasn't sure I was gonna able to upload some stuff to our YouTube channel. Yes, we have a YouTube channel. Go check us out over there. Like, comment, share, subscribe, shout out to all our subscribers over there.
And wasn't George. I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to upload some stuff. And I think I uploaded, like, literally that Sunday for our Mondays. I had to edit and all this kind of stuff. And so I did get it done, and I was like, whoo. That was close. But then in my neck of the woods, had no power for, like, five days. And I'm going to dedicate this podcast to the victims of barrel. And the people are still out of power without power and is going on two weeks. So this. This buzz for you guys, um, and, um, you know, it's just. It is. It's a hurricane. And I didn't even get mad. Georgia, um, because it's. It's a hurricane. Well, it said a third. A tropical storm, whatever. It's a weather event, and it is nuts. So, you know, I ain't gonna get into all the positive pointing fingers and all that. I would be shocked if nothing happened during, what, 75, 80 miles per hour winds. You should be shocked if nothing happened. So, anyway, we're back. Georgia, tell us about your experience this past week.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: You know, I was one of the incredibly fortunate and blessed because we had a power outage around 04:00 a.m. but later in the evening. So about 16 hours later, at about 08:00 at night, our power did come back on. I found out that we were only one of maybe ten to 20% of the entire Houston metroplex area that had power while other people did not. And so we felt like we should let other family, family and friends know that we had power. And so we hosted Chip's sister over here. She spent the night with us and she got, it was she luxuriated in being able to take a shower that wasn't freezing cold and able to do laundry, those little things, you don't think about it immediately just puts you right back to the dark ages. No, no. And it wouldn't be so bad to have no power, but in sweltering summer heat is what really makes people so miserable. And so, yes, I join you Moya, in a shout out to all those people, this buzz for you. We dedicate, like Moya said, great idea dedicating this podcast, all of those who've been without power and have had such hardship through this hurricane.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Absolutely. And all our first responders and even the power line workers, I ain't mad at nobody. Like I said, you know, I'm not going to get into it, but it's a storm. Storms do a storms do. I think either this barrel system, I think it even traveled up and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know if, was this the same system that reached New York. Yes, the east coast and spit out tornadoes. So it is what it is, man, you know, since the beginning of creation of the earth and beginning of, you know, noted time, it's whether it does what it does and we are humans as great as God made us, and just the best machine ever created, the elitist of superbs of machines. You ain't gonna beat no weapon, I don't care. You can have an iron dome, build yourself a bunker, and if the wrong whether system hits, it may not hit you directly, but it might knock our system, blah, blah, blah, blah. It is what it is. So you better just hope, you know, whatever you believe in, that it can sustain you because it will try you. These are the, what's the term? These are the times that try men's souls. Well, barrel wasn't a joke. It was not a joke, so, but that's enough of that.
We are happy to be here with you today. And Georgia, hopefully we can help somebody, whatever's going on in your lives, our lovely audience, you know, help you. A little escapism with a little escapism. Georgia, what is our movie for today?
[00:06:25] Speaker B: We are doing Citizen Kane.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes. Go ahead girl, I, whatever, whenever you want to start, go ahead on. I'm going to just be putting the pictures up for you.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Citizen Kane is to me a little bit of an intimidating movie to do because it has often been at the top of so many best ever movies out of all cinema history. And so many consider it as the greatest film ever made. And it was made in 1941. It was about six months before Pearl harbor. And the star, the co writer, the director, the producer, was none other than Orson Welles. And Orson Welles was 25 years old when he made this movie. And when he was 23, he made the COVID of Time magazine. He. And it was because he did in 1938, this mockumentary. You've heard of it, it's called War of the Worlds, and it caused such a national panic.
So you have this wunderkind, this boy genius who has never, never made a film before. In fact, on day one, when he stepped onto the set, that was the very first time he'd ever been on a movie set. And here he's the director. He was given such unprecedented creative control and a surprising amount of freedom in doing this movie.
And so what he did was he assembled a group of his friends in the theater and from radio, and he wanted people who had never starred in a film before.
This was really amazing in that these people went on to become famous actors that we would hear about again and again later on. And I'm talking about Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorhead, Ruth Warwick. And at the very end, there's a little, tiny little bit of Alan Ladd there. He also got the best cinematographer. He was the number one cameraman in the world. His name was Greg Toland. And he told Orson Welles he wanted to work with someone who had never before made a movie so that he could do experimental camera techniques that other movies did not allow. And so they even cut holes in the floor for him. Camera from the floor, they were showing the ceiling.
And you never before in movies would see the ceiling because that's where all the cameras and microphones. I mean, that's where the microphones were. And so what they did was this technique where they would mount the microphones, and they, the ceilings were constructed of fabric to conceal the microphones. So that's what you're seeing. You're seeing the ceilings, but there's microphones just behind them.
They also had new techniques for sound that had never been done before. And they also. It was the first time they had this cutting edge makeup guy. He was a guy who'd been like an apprentice. He was sweeping the floors, literally. And they said, we're going to have you do it because you've got all these new ideas for makeup. And so he started using latex. It was the first time they had ever used latex and movie makeup to age Orson Welles from the age of about 21 until all the way until he's about 70 years old. But one of the things that I think is so remarkable about Orson Welles acting is that he makes every moment believable in his voice, his walk, in his every gesture, even in his, like, love scenes. You know, I mean, he's really so convincing about the way he ages. It just. That part of it really blew me away.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: So this movie, I'm gonna go ahead. And now that I've talked a lot about the techniques and about how cutting edge it was, you know, some of the things that was kind of funny, if the movie studio producer heads, he knew that they would probably disagree with some of the things he was doing. So to cover up, he would say, oh, let's take a break, go stand around, smoke a cigarette, go out and play some baseball. So they would do that whenever the studio heads came by. And this movie was actually filmed on a budget, believe it or not, the movie was not originally well received, and there's a reason for that. The reason is because in writing this movie, both Orson Welles and Herman Mankiewicz actually were supposed to have it be a composite of different tycoons and different millionaire magnates in movies and industry. And actually, they borrow more from the life of William Randolph Hearst, who was a huge newspaper publisher at the time. He was, like, incredibly huge.
And so a lot of it has to trail some of the things, like the huge palatial mansion and grounds and his collection of art treasures and his mistress, who was actually, I think, in my opinion, a very fine actress. Her name was Marion Davies.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: And so they copied and they. They made it so that. And I thought she was treated rather unfairly. And actually, Orson Wells admitted she was treated unfairly in this movie because he made her into a singer, and then he built even an opera house for her to sing in.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: So you're going to see that in the movie, how he promotes his. His second wife and his girlfriend.
I have actually had the privilege of going out to visit Hearst Castle in San Simeon.
Yes. It will blow you away. It was like one of the things I always, always wanted to do, you know, having lived most of my life in California before I came to Texas, that was one of the things that I always wanted to do, was go out to Hearst Castle in San Simeon. It is absolutely stunning. They would throw these wild, fabulous parties. He had this zoo of animals only comparable to maybe Noah's ark or something. The ground were, I cannot tell you, fabulous. It's like it rivaled palaces that you see in Europe. It just was just incredible, every kind of flower. And it was just amazing to me to visit that. And so when I saw this movie, I thought, oh, yeah, they are just so copying from his life and the events in his life.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Wow. Wow.
Show some of the imagery of San Simeon. I was trying to get a better.
I want to show this one.
Let's see. There we go.
Okay. Let me try to find it.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Well, you're doing that way. I'm going to tell our listeners about why this movie was initially had such a hard time, is because William Randolph Hearst himself was friends or had on his staff a very famous movie critic named Luella Parsons. And she saw a screening of the movie, and she stomped out of it. She was outraged and said, this is a hit piece. This is a hit piece on William Randolph Hearst. And so she told him about it. And so his newspapers tried to do everything they could to discourage people to watch it, to shut the movie down from being shown in all these theaters. They did everything they could. So it wasn't as well received as it should have been because of his efforts to go up against Orson Welles and the studio at the time to get this movie out there.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, I remember. And I'm going to pull up a picture of Luella Parsons. Yeah. She and what's her name with the hats head of Hopper. They were the queens of gossip, and they would. They could make or break careers, right?
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Absolutely. Moya, you got that right.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: And I just wanted to put this down. Here we go. Yeah. So that's Luella Parsons. So you say she and her were friends?
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Yes, they were. Luella Parsons and her. They were. In fact, I think she may have worked for him, but they were. They were at a close connection.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. That's crazy.
Well, nothing's changed, you know, and I'll get into that in a moment, but go ahead.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Well, I thought I would go into the plot of the movie a little bit, you know, but for all of its hype and notoriety and fame, the movie actually is really a simple story based on a simple story.
It starts with the main character, and it goes backward. I mean, it shows him at the end of his life, and then it's told backward from there. It's kind of like a thriller suspense, or a little bit like a whodunit, because there's this reporter, and he's been tasked with finding out what the meaning of his final word is, and they don't understand what the significance of this final word is. And so what they do is the reporter. I mean, so when it's based upon Charles Foster Kane, he's the title character. He's one of the richest men in the world, and he dies all alone.
And so this reporter is given the job of finding out what this word means. And the reporter talks to a lot of unreliable narrators in my viewpoint, including like Chain's ex wife, his manager, his best friend, his former legal guardian.
The only thing all of them can agree on is that this guy is really a very narcissistic, self absorbed person. He was obsessed. I mean, he wanted to find love, they all agree with that. But he didn't have an ability to love anybody or anything other than himself, actually.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: Why, that was Georgia, why do you think they had that? That was a theme in this movie.
Why, why he couldn't do it.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Well, you know, that's what's so interesting about him. Because when you see him, he starts out he's this really ebulliente young man. He's got all these ideals. When he starts out, he wants his to use his money to change the world as a force for good. So it starts out that way. And then I think to be more succinct in my answer way, it's because he's lacking the character or the moral underpinnings. Because you see after a while that he becomes this embittered, grim kind of like a tyrant. And he's life holds little for him. And he, like all of these projects that he puts himself into, they start to topple and go ahead. He's got everything any human being could possibly ever want in his life. But he doesn't know. He says, you love me, but he's not able to love people back with this to totally give of himself.
He can give you money, he can give you things, but he can't give you his outright love and affection and tenderness. You don't really see that ever coming from him towards another person in his life. You don't see that happen, except, like.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: They said, his mother. And so I just want to let's look at a little part of the movie, this little snippet of movie. And I think this explains who Cane is and or was and is and becomes. This is the root of it.
[00:19:06] Speaker C: I think we shall have to tell Ydev him now.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Yes, I'll sign those papers now.
[00:19:11] Speaker C: Mister Thatcher, you people seem to forget that I'm the boy's father.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: It's going to be done exactly the way I've told Mister Thatcher.
[00:19:18] Speaker C: There ain't nothing wrong with Colorado. I don't see why we can't raise our own son just because we come into some money.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: And so this is. That's Charles as a kid outside. He's about ten, I think. And you heard what they say, they've come into some money. Agnes Moorhead, that's his mother. Here's his father right here.
And so you heard the father say, I don't see why I can't raise my, my own son just because we've come into some money. And you can see the mom, she's about to sign some papers, basically making Charles just giving over their parental rights to a corporation, if you will, to raise her child, because he is the final heir to this huge fortune. Okay, so this is post civil war. This is about maybe ten plus years after the Civil War. I think it's 1890 something, I think, what, thirties? About 15 years after the civil. Almost 20 years, is that right?
About 30 years, yeah.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: 20 to 30 years, yeah. 1880s. Maybe late 1880s, I think.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Right. And so you see Charles, he's still outside yelling about the union, and that shows a lot about him. He's the only child in a storm yelling about the union. So that's another character trait you have to look at. He's already political in trying to control something. But anyway, if I want, I can go to court.
[00:20:46] Speaker C: A father has a right to the border that beats his bill and leaves worthless stock behind. That property is just as much my property as anybody's now that it's valuable. And if Fred Graves had any idea, all so he.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: So you hear what he's saying, that he's against the dad, is against giving up their son. And I just told you to mom, and look on her face. She doesn't want to do it, but she knows or believes that this is the best move for her son. So, Georgia, I can keep going. Want me to get to the end of this point and you comment, or is there anything you want to say right now?
[00:21:27] Speaker B: This had to be a heartrending, painful decision to take a young boy like that and then tear him away from his family like that because he said he looks like a happy, just like every kind of normal kid that you would see about that time, playing outside and enjoying the outdoors.
But there is a little hint or little clue later on about the dad and about one of the reasons why the mom wants to get him away from the dad. You know, up to that point, I was really rooting for the dad, you know?
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Right, right. And it looks like, you know, people looked a lot older back then, but there looks like there may be a slight age difference between the mom and a dad as well. Okay. And so this scene is pivotal, darling. Charles?
Yes, mommy?
Mister Thatcher's going to take you on a trip with him tonight.
You'll be leaving on number ten.
[00:22:28] Speaker C: That's the train with all the lights on it.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: You going, mom?
[00:22:31] Speaker D: Well, no.
[00:22:31] Speaker C: Your mother won't be going right away, Charles.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: Would she'll be.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: And notice he says, are we. He didn't say, are we gone, mom, or you and dad? He said, are we going, mom, or are you going? I'm sorry, talking about just to mom. So notice that.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Where am I going?
[00:22:48] Speaker C: You're going to see Chicago and New York and Washington, maybe. Ain't he, Mister Thatcher? He certainly is. I wish I were a little boy going on a trip like that for the first time.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: Why aren't you coming with us, mom? We have to stay here, Charles.
[00:23:01] Speaker C: You're going to live with Mister Thatcher from now on, Charlie. You're going to be rich. Your ma figures, well, that is me and her decided this ain't the place for you to grow up in. You'll probably be the richest man in America someday, and you ought to get in. Of course not. Why, we're going to have.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: Well, look what she's saying. You won't be lonely, child. So she already trying to brainwash this dude, if you will.
And it's just so bizarre. And we know people back in these days had abject poverty, and this was just a windfall for them. So, I mean, you know, I'm not going to judge them too harshly.
I could not see myself doing it under any circumstance, I like to think, but we don't live in those times. And so look at. And Georgia just jumping at any moment. So I just. I just want everybody to get the full scope of this. These people are literally selling their child to a fully grown man, a complete stranger. And, you know, now we, like, super creepy cringe. Now, unfortunately, it still happens today, and that's a whole nother subject. But like I said, under these circumstances, this certainly seemed like a good idea.
And they know it's not a good idea. But like I said, these people now look in the back. They misses Cain's boarding house. She has a board, so she's a businesswoman. She has a boarding house. And that's kind of part of the story, how she came into this fortune. So they're not like super poor poor, you know, they're probably doing a little bit better than everybody else, but they ain't got no money like this. This boy about to be the richest boy in America.
[00:24:40] Speaker C: Some fine times together, really we are, Charles. Now, shall we shake hands? Oh, come, come, come. I'm not as frightening as all that, am I? Now, what do you say? Let's shake.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: My.
[00:24:48] Speaker C: Charles, you almost hurt me. What's that, Charlie?
You're.
I'm sorry, Mister Thatcher. What that kid needs is a good fashion.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: That's what you think, is it, Jim?
[00:25:02] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: That's why he's going to be brought up where you can't get at him. Okay. So was this what you were talking about?
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Okay. Um. So what do you think about what I just showed as to me, my theory, as to. This is what formed Charles Foster Kane. This. Right. This whole scene, I think that's. This is the beginning of the makings of the man. What do you think?
[00:25:28] Speaker B: I think that scene was so traumatic for him that he never got over it. It stayed with him as in entire life. And, you know, and later on, you see, there's like, a little. A couple of times, you see, like, there's a little snow globe, you know, and I'll just. You know, I'll leave it at that. I won't go into it anymore because I don't believe in spoilers, either. But I think that he felt that that was probably the very last time that he had childhood joy and simplicity in his life. And, you know, it just shows how trusting people were back then. It's amazing how.
I mean, this is something I personally could never, ever do. I just could not do something like that, give up my own flesh and blood like that.
But these people thought at the time that, let's think with our heads, not with our hearts, what our heart tells us to do. This is the best thing for him. And we're giving him a future, and he's going to be wealthy, and he's going to be educated and have all the things that we can't have. And so that was their way of looking at it.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: And I think that was secondary because, to your point, I think it was more of the mother loathing her situation with the father and practicing parental alienation probably had no problem. She's. She had been alienating Charles from his father. And so, because you saw we going, mom, he. He went. The dad called him over there, and that's his dad. He's respectful. He went over there, but as soon as the mom called him, boom, you know, and that's just brilliant how wells and them did this and shot this and if you just. And see now looking at it again, like many of our movies, Georgia, through lived experience and adult eyes, I'm like, wow, wow. This dysfunctional couple, like, all the time, this is nothing new, are the roots of this man's ultimate social ruinization, his inability to fully trust people, love people, even though he had many friends and people and married and all that. But. And then he has some tragedy with his, his own child, you know, and go watch the movie because that's another piece of it that we know that changed. Changed him. Okay. Like it would change any parent. So, you know, like I said, I love going back and look at these movies through adult eyes because I see it totally differently.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: Me too, moya. Because the first time I saw this movie many years ago, I didn't watch it with the same understanding or appreciation of the message in it. And what, what had happened to affect his personality.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so fast forward, I showed you some videos. Like I said, some. Some photos, rather, how he, you know, we saw how he got, got his money, and he became, like I said, the richest boy and man in America. And you'll see in a movie. He focused on media information. Cause he owned all kind of commodities and land and what have you, but he focused on a newspaper information because, like, now we have information wars. What is, like when we just had this recent historic event with Trump, everybody wants to know what happened. Well, you know, it was like people would just. I mean, I got shout out to the alternate alternative media. Some of them were on it. They had the news breaking and other people were just getting their shoes on. So.
But if you control the information, you control the world, let's just be honest. And so Randolph Hearst in his real life, you know, and he did start the inquiry, like, so it's so funny. Orson Wells and them, they did a. Not, they, I. They. I don't even think they tried to veil who they were talking about because Hearst owns, um. And I don't know, George, I forgot to do the research. Do they still own inquire? Because Hearst is not as big as it was, obviously, but yes, that's the same. Hearst with Patty Hearst were back in the day with the terrorists and, and all that kind of stuff in the seventies and all that same thing. She's his great granddaughter or granddaughter, something like that. But anyway, um, I don't know. They still own as much as they do or still in media, but they had such a large. Their tentacles were everywhere, for lack of better word. Do you know they still own anything.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: Well, I don't think this is the same inquirer that's mentioned. The newspaper he has. It's not the same as the National Enquirer. It's a different inquirer. And, um, so I don't think that he was an owner of that. I could be mistaken, but I don't think that he was. I think this is a whole different one. But the comment that I wanted to make about what you said, moya, I mean, it was spot on about what he. Cause this is what he did in the movie Charles Foster Kane. Did you see him interfering with the news to make slanted material? He's purposely giving it a slant. And he's not going factual. He's going for sensationalism.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: He goes for journalism that he thinks is going to sell newspapers. Not so much that it's about truth, but it's about getting people to buy his newspaper. And so you can see if you keep your eyes and ears open, you know, you, you're very suspicious of news today and you want to really get to the truth for yourself.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: Right? And like I said, nothing has changed. You, you, I mean, I sound like a broken record, but I just want to go right to this part. So these group of men, they are. Can you, can you see this, Georgia? No, no, no. Let me share my screen.
Let me share this. Okay. Yeah, I'm gonna show a scene, another scene from the, from the movie. Let's see. Here we go.
Yeah, I'm going to show, I want to show you all this scene because.
Nope.
Yeah. Because he poached this group of journalists from their rival paper so they could be number one. He knew that these guys, they were, they were, they, they were the news. They made the news and they made history. Okay? So he poached them for, think at the Chronicle or something in New York. And so they about to have this party. One of my favorite scenes, this party they have. And I don't know why because I just, it was so silly. But I just liked that scene. Plus a little trivia. The Simpsons redid this scene. You don't know. So those of you. I know, I don't look at this. I haven't looked at the Simpsons since like, maybe the first two or three years. But Mister Burns, they did like a parody of this scene I'm gonna show you. And it was so freaking funny.
I'm. Georgia, did you, did you look at the Simpsons?
[00:32:47] Speaker B: I did a few times over the years, but I was never a regular follower.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, yeah. I used to love the simpson, when they first came out.
So let me just play this real quick, and then, and I want to talk about it.
[00:33:02] Speaker D: Well, six years ago, I looked at a picture of the world's greatest newspaper men. I felt like a kid in front of a candy store. Well, tonight, six years later, I got my candy, all of it. Welcome, gentlemen, to the inquirer. Make up an extra copy of that picture and send it to the Chronicle.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: Okay, so I just told you that. So then they all sitting around chewing the fat and back slapping and boozing and, you know, having a great time celebrating, you know, what's this? Peacocking, if you will. But anyway.
[00:33:37] Speaker D: Are we gonna declare war on Spain or are we not?
[00:33:42] Speaker A: So I don't know if you heard what he said. He said, are we gonna declare war on Spain or not? So there's orson welles and his writers. They're letting you know in no uncertain terms that, and we know this now. If you're naive, you, nowadays, it's cause you wanna be that don't believe everything you, you're told. There's things behind the scenes and people and the media is almost always complicit in these type of conflicts and these type of traumatic events that we're seeing there. There's some kind, and all the politics of it. Okay.
[00:34:29] Speaker D: Oh, mama, here they come.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: And so. Yeah, what's the name? Did something with that. The Simpsons. And let's see. Okay, this is the part. I kind of skipped it.
Here we go.
Head on now. No, we don't want to see that.
Of course they're going to put that on. It's like you flew too close to the sun, ma'am. Okay, let's try it again.
Thank you all for bearing with us as we present this to you.
Let's see, because I want to do this with, with context.
Okay.
[00:35:22] Speaker D: 184,132. Right.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: And enough. Wilson.
[00:35:31] Speaker D: Copy of that picture and sent it to the Chronicle.
It'll make you all happy to learn that our circulation this morning was the greatest in New York. 684,680. 4132. Right.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: And enough. Welcome to.
[00:35:49] Speaker D: I hope you'll forgive my rudeness.
[00:35:50] Speaker C: Taking leave of you.
[00:35:51] Speaker D: I'm going abroad next week for a vacation. I promised my doctor for some time now that I'd leave when I could. And I now realize that I can.
Hey, Mister Cain, as long as you're promising, there's a lot of pictures and.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Statues in Europe you haven't bought yet.
[00:36:07] Speaker D: You can't blame me, Mister Bernstein. They've been making statues for 2000 years. And I've only been vying for five.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: Promise me, Mister Kane.
[00:36:16] Speaker D: I promise you, Mister Bernstein. Thank you. Mister Bernstein.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:36:20] Speaker D: You don't expect me to keep any of those promises, do you?
[00:36:23] Speaker A: And I just wanted to show that because my point, Georgia, is people like Cain, even though he's a fictional character. But like they said, that he's based off of basically hearst. But men like Cain, we have these people amongst us now who become iconic.
They are power brokers, they're king makers, and they're just so iconic and so you can name them the musks of the world, President Trump and just other people who are just characters.
And I just find it so fascinating because you'll see in the movie, Cain had a core team around him. He got the best around, he bought the best, got them around. He surrounded himself with the best, then he surrounded himself with beauty. And this is not a new thing. I guess that's my point. And I, and so people need to understand, and let me ask you this. Are these people born or are they made or, and when I say they're made, do we make them or do they make themselves? Is it inevitable that these people will become iconic and a bezos, these type of people, and even people in, you know, some people in politics, you know, that's, I'm more specifically talking about business and people actually control and by press of a button, shutting something off like we saw this week as well. But do you see what I'm saying? Are these people born already made or what? What do you think?
[00:38:02] Speaker B: I guessing more that they're made because we see news being manipulated to fit people's agendas. And then you see people who have massive amounts of influence because their wealth, you know, you see, and it can be for good or for bad, you know, you know, we're seeing all these people are in the news. Like, you know, over the years, it's been, you know, you have Bill Gates, you've had Jeffrey Epstein, you've had Elon Musk.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: You've had so many people with incredible George Soros, incredible amounts of influence over, like you said, moya kingmaker, kingmakers. I think they evolve. That's my guess. I don't know that they're born, but I think I'm gonna weigh up more on the side that they are made. They, they're self made and they have power that they've amassed because of their money and their influence. And so they, I think that's what we're seeing. We've been seeing it for many years.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I think you're right. I also think it can be both. And so, and I think what sets one above the rest is when you make yourself like, it's great if you have a hand up, you know, you inherit wealth or whatever, but what do you do with that after you get it? Do you increase it then? Some people just have these personalities that they just permeate every part of society and either loved or hated or whatever, but you can't stop talking about them, and they transcend their business. And so to Cain, and because Hearst, you know, he, it was kind of, yeah, it was based off of him, but hers wasn't.
He didn't become this, you know, flam, now say flamboyant, but this bombastic and this, you know, outright people, person and beloved like Cain, you know, some people love and hate him.
He wasn't as entertaining. Let's just say that, as Cain. But when people transcend that, I just find it absolutely fascinating how you can transcend your, your, whatever your roots are your business and, and become iconic and your names on everything and Pete. And when you get known by your last name. And I just think that's just fascinating. I'm gonna give you the last word because that's just some of the stuff I want to touch on with this movie because I know everybody name Mama probably have seen it, but if you haven't, please go and watch it.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Well, you know, Roger Eberta, the famous film critic, said about this movie, its surface is as much fun as any movie ever made, and its depths surpass understanding. Yes, it's deep, and it has a deep message. And I, in my opinion, I think it is a very thought provoking movie. But I have a question for you, Moya. Do you think this movie is overrated? Do you think it's up to the hype?
[00:41:12] Speaker A: I think it's up to the hype because of what you said earlier about the groundbreaking and production, and it still stands the test of time. And I know Orson Welles got mad at the studio because they were trying to re edit it and do all kind of stuff with it. But, you know, I think this is his final cut. And you all correct me if I'm wrong, but yeah, and like I said, now, because of what we live in and then with the politics surrounding us, it's more. And, guys, we do not plan. I mean, we have no idea. We plan these movies out, like, what, months in advance? Georgia, we don't know what's gonna happen in politics. So we not say, hey, let's pick this movie. Cause ABC 123 was because this is going on, this movie, it just happened. With all that's going on in the political world, this movie just happened to fall where it did. And so like I said, now looking at it through political eyes and grown eyes and lived experience, this movie will never go away. I personally think it, me personally, I think it lives up to the hype. What about you?
[00:42:23] Speaker B: Well, the greatest movie ever made, maybe, maybe not the most influential. I think nearly all the critics say yes. Yes. It's definitely so influential because some of the things that you see in this movie, you can see other movies borrowed from this movie so much.
And so I'm going to say, yes, it was definitely groundbreaking. But for my money, I think there are other movies to me that are greater than this one, to be perfectly honest. You know, I, you know, just off the top of my head, I would say, you know, gone with a wind, I think is maybe a greater movie than this one. But I don't want to take anything away from the amazing amount of talent.
[00:43:05] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: Into making this movie because it really is, it's, it's stunning.
But I, you know, it's, it's not going to be one of my top favorites, but I have to give it all props and all due respect, right?
[00:43:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And you know, I'm with you. Going with the win is my favorite movie of all time.
And see now, because we, we're learning. So, you know, we're exploring more movies certainly for that year. Obviously won all the wars and blah, blah, blah. But just me, that's the top of my list. And then we could go on with Casablanca, Citizen Kane, then like we just did a taxi driver and all. So, you know, it's year by year, you know, but it's for my list. You're right. Going to me, going with the wind is my favorite movie and it's the greatest movie for me ever made because I think it combines, no, it's not in black and white and it didn't use the shadows and all that, but it had a lot of innovation as well. So, you know, and it was only, what, two years removed. This movie was two years removed from going with the wind as far as coming, being put out into the public. So, but yeah, thank you for going down this memory lane with Citizen Kane and your research. I enjoyed it.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Thank you, moyade. There's lots more, but that would make our podcast run over an hour.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: Well, go ahead. I mean, like I said, I, and thank you for that. Thumbs up. I appreciate the support on Facebook but no, go ahead. You did your research. You know, we've gone to an hour before, so. Because I don't have anything else. So you got the floor.
[00:44:51] Speaker B: All right. Well, one of the funny things about this movie is that Orson Welles, behind the scenes, his excessive eating and drinking habits actually affected the production.
[00:45:00] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:45:02] Speaker B: He drank more than 30 cups of coffee every day, and he got caffeine poisoning, and he switched to tea. But he drank so much, his skin changed color, and he would not eat for long periods of time. And then he would have a meal of three steaks at a time.
He sprained or broke his ankle. There's like a scene with him at the top of these stairs, and he fell in. So he had to direct the movie from a wheelchair for a couple of weeks. And when there's a scene where there's a very destructive scene where he goes into a rage, he cut up his hands so badly during that scene. So if you watch that, and then.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: He was a method actor before being a method actor.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: Yes, he was.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: Method actor. Hilarious.
[00:45:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you know, interestingly enough, and I hope people don't mind that I mention this, but this is reported to be one of Donald Trump's favorite films, and he interprets the film's themes as well. He says, you learn in Citizen Kane that maybe wealth isn't everything because he had the wealth, but he didn't have the happiness. He said, in real life, I believe wealth does, in fact, isolate you from other people. It's a protective mechanism. You have your guard up much more than if you didn't have wealth. And he says, perhaps I can understand that. So that's what, what former President Donald Trump had to say about this movie.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: Wow, that's so interesting. And we see there's a lot of, like I said, this, you could throw a lot of today's billionaires and like I said, the kingmakers and movers and shakers into this character.
But so unfortunate that Cain did not have a family.
And I don't want to give too much away. He tried to have one, but tragedy struck, you know, and.
But, I mean, girl, we already know money. Money can't buy you happiness, and it can't buy you love, but you can rent it for a while.
Yes.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: That is so true, isn't it? I mean, what a powerful message this movie has.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: It does, girl, I absolutely love it. Anything else you got for us?
[00:47:43] Speaker B: No, I think that's going to be a wrap for me today, moya.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: Okay, well, guys, go and check out. Like I said, we probably. I hope we've said something you haven't heard before. We try to do that for you here on how Bette Davis saved my life. Life lessons from classic Hollywood. And this movie is certainly ripe, full of them. So I hope that you get a chance to watch Citizen Kane. Let us know what you think about the movie and about us. And you can always suggest movies to us. The best place to do that is on our Facebook page of the same name. And we sure do appreciate you tuning in and listening, having a some fun with us. Georgia, what's our next movie?
[00:48:30] Speaker B: Our next movie is Destri rides again.
[00:48:35] Speaker A: That's right. And we're going to drag poor Norman back into our foolishness.
And that's on the 3 August. So we're going to drag poor Norman back in and get in on destrise again, starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. And it's a western. We haven't done a western in a while. And so I think our last western, was it either oxbow incident might be our first and last. I can't remember.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: Maybe so. Moya.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: Oh my.
[00:49:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been way too long since we did a western, right?
[00:49:09] Speaker A: And I love westerns. It's just trying to pick, pick because I could do all the b ones I like, even the bad westerns because it's just so corny sometime in camp, but yeah. So we want to do the street rides again because I want to do it because that fights scene in the saloon, that's like, to me, one of the best fight scenes in movie history. And there have been a lot of them. So destrides again on the third 01:00 p.m. right here live central standard Time with Georgia and Norman. Thank you so much for tuning in and we really appreciate you on our listening platforms and on our YouTube channel.
Again, like comment share subscribe we really, really do appreciate you, George. Is there anything else?
[00:49:54] Speaker B: Nope, that's it for me.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: All right, well, you guys have a great time. Oh, you know, and let's we all in this together, guys. We can agree to disagree, like with these movies, you know, George and I, we disagree, but I'm not gonna just say, get out of here. And George is not gonna say get out of here because we, what we can agree on is that we love movies and we want to keep these movies alive. So for how Betty Davis saved my life, I'm Moyadeh.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: And I'm Georgia.
[00:50:24] Speaker A: And I've been saying a long time, but don't forget, you are the superstar of your very own show. Don't you ever, ever forget that. You guys take care, and we will see you next time.
