Fatal Attraction Ep. 03 - Pacific Heights / Unlawful Entry - Get Me Another

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
you
Hello and welcome to Get Me Another, a podcast where we explore those movies that followedin the wake of blockbuster hits and attempted to replicate their success.

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My name is Chris Iannicone and with me are my co-host Rob Lemorgi—
And, you know, I learned to go with my instincts.
The one time I used demographics, went belly up with the podcast, Chris.
You got it.
You got to go with your instincts.
Yeah.
And Justin Beam.
Square glass cube walls people.
100 % consistency in today's two films and at least one of last week's.

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Yes, yes indeed.
Today is the third episode in our Get Me Another Fatal Attraction series, and this weekwe'll be looking at two films where a stranger enters the lives of couples and wreaks
havoc on them.
But in one way or another, the law protects the stranger, not the couples.
So first up today from 1990, this is Pacific Heights.

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Carter Hayes has come to San Francisco.
He will search for the perfect apartment.
landlords.
begins.
I'm your new tenant.

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I'm Carter Hayes.
fifth.
with Humor Dean.
Mr.
Hayes?
straight

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heights.
Pacific Heights was written by Daniel Pine, who also wrote 1991's Doc Holliday.
Doc Holliday, Jesus.
I'm going to leave that in.
Doc Holliday, Doc Hollywood, he wrote, which was later remade many years later by Pixar asCars.

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If you watch those two movies together, you will realize that they are basically the same.
He also wrote Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday.
And this film was inspired by his experience renting an apartment and being unable toevict the tenants.
The film was directed by John Schlesinger, who in addition to being part of the BritishNew Wave in the early sixties, directed 1969's Midnight Cowboy for which he won the

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Academy Award for Best Director, as well as the 1976 thriller Marathon Man.
The film stars Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine as Patty Palmer and Drake Goodman, anunmarried couple who purchase and renovate a Victorian house in the Pacific Heights
section of San Francisco.
Now I mentioned that they are unmarried.

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because the film reminds us so many times that they are not married.
A real stigma back then.
Yeah, this was apparently a bigger deal in the nineties.
Yeah, real stigma.
was thinking about, like, guess it was less common for unmarried couples to live togetherin the nineties than it is now.
But, but the other thing is they take an unusual step of buying property together, whichfeels at least of a, as big of a commitment as getting married is, is owning property

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jointly.
goodness.
You're tied to that.
as far as I'm concerned, watching this movie, if they are married, Drake needs to takePatty's last name because she brings so much more to this marriage.
There's no question.
There's no
It's not the property or the money and no brings the hood spa.
She brings everything.
Yes.
She's a go-getter

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Honestly, know, when this whole, when their whole experience that gets chronicled in thismovie is over with, there's no way that he ends up keeping her for the long haul.
I've just, there's no way she should.
She should leave him.
Yes.
The film also stars Michael Keaton as Carter Hayes, a man who rents their now renovatedfirst floor apartment and quickly becomes the tenant from hell.

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This was Keaton's first role after 1989's Batman.
And it's an interesting choice for him because it is an out and out villain.
And I had mixed feelings on this movie, but he was terrific.
This is really interesting today, this duo of films that we're talking about, because wehave two male actors at their peak in this moment.

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They had both just experienced huge success in other realms, and then they made thesemovies too.
And yeah, I mean, you can see so much in Keaton in this.
And it's too bad when you look back historically, I wish there was more of a diversecatalog from him.
You know what I mean?
I wish that there were more films that explored different avenues for him.

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And I don't know why that hasn't happened.
Do you guys have any idea why?
You know, it's funny because he disappeared for a while.
It felt like, he was around a lot.
He did a lot of movies in the 90s of variant kinds.
And then, you know, he kind of vanishes from from the aughts.
And one of my favorite things in the last decade of movies has been sort of the MichaelKeaton Renaissance, where he's come back and now has been kind of, you know, present in

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films again.
And I'm thrilled about it because I think he's great.
Yeah, I don't know why, you know, that there was that sort of period in the middle wherehe just, you didn't see him and stuff.
I don't know, but oftentimes when that happens with a very good actor and then the verygood actor comes back, check the age of their kids.
That obviously with cultural norms happens lot more with female actors, but you know, canoften happen with male actors as well, where it's like you're in this critical part of

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your kid's life.
You've had success and you just go, I don't know that that is what for him, but I would.
That would be my suspicion.
I'm not going to check his family's ages here right now on Eric, cause that would becreepy.
But, but as, to the, the diverse, slate aspect of what you mentioned, I have a suspicionand it sounds a little crazy that that is a clean and sober problem that he caught a lot

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of flack for Batman, but it wound up being a hit or whatever, but clean and sober was sucha,
And it's not a bad film, but it did very, very poorly.
And I do wonder if that hurt him being able to do certain broader, like it's almost likehe had to go away and come back as an elder statesman to get Birdman, which obviously is

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also in part because he had Batman.
like you, it, do think that, you know, with the way Hollywood is that that, you know, one,one stepping outside of your box and it didn't do well.
And they just go, no, no, no.
Yeah.
I recently watched an older Michael Keaton movie from the 90s called The Paper, which Isaw in the movie theater and hadn't seen since and it was terrific and he was

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the newsroom one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a good one.
It's really good.
It was on Netflix.
I was just like, let's watch the paper.
And my wife had never seen it.
And it was like, it's really, really good.
But back to Pacific Heights, in addition to the main three, we also have appearances fromMako.
Yes.
I was so happy to see my.

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Great, yes.
Laurie Medcalf, Carl Lumley, Nobu McCarthy, Tippi Hedren, was Melanie Griffith's mom, DanHedea, my favorite Graham Norton guest, Miriam Margulis, and a strangely uncredited
Beverly D'Angelo.
He was looking for her in the credits.
What was up with that?

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I don't know.
She's not in the credits.
She's got a decent size supporting part and I can't find out why.
I checked.
I could not immediately find out why.
If I do, I'll post it on the social media, but it's weird that she's not credited in thismovie.
It's just, cause it's not like it's a surprise cameo.
It's not like, you know, spoilers for Robin Hood, of thieves.

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It's not like Sean Connery showing up at the end of Robin Hood, Prince of thieves.
It's just a good supporting role and I have no idea.
And she's in the film several times, so it's not just some brief scene.
It's not one scene.
She comes back a couple of times.
It's weird.
Legit supporting part.
It's as big as any part that isn't played by Matthew Modine, Melanie Griffith or MichaelKeaton.

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Exactly.
Exactly.
It's strange.
And I don't know what the deal is.
Now we should start at the beginning.
And I actually thought the beginning of this movie is wonderfully disorientating.
Like it doesn't start in San Francisco.
It starts out in the desert near Palm Springs.
And we have this shouts of windmills.
Everything's very kind of bright and washed out.
We have a guy, a pair of guys in a pickup truck with a baseball bat.

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We see like this housing complex.
I'm a sucker for models of, you know, like planned, you know, communities.
I'm going to ask you, you may not be as dumb as me, but as soon as I see that, saw thatmodel and I haven't even really seen Michael Keaton yet, but I just went, beetle juice,
beetle juice, beetle juice.
my, I'm sorry.

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Ha.
What a nice fucking model.
All time best, all time best.
And then we go into one of the units of this housing complex.
We see like a pile of phone books on the floor and a photo album with pictures of twoboys.
There's a picture of two boys and a monkey.
And they keep coming back to it.
We'll come back to that later.

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And there's a fairly steamy scene with Michael Keaton and Beverly D'Angelo in bed.
And I got to say, if you like your thrillers on the erotic side,
Well, this is basically all you're going to get on that front in this.
But it comes out of the gates hot though.
I mean like you.
Yeah, yeah.
and then it completely kind of dissolves.
There's no more sex.
It is maybe the most unsexy movie in this series, even more so than Presumed Innocence.

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there's some hot ice cube action too, guys.
Yeah, is.
And all of the hot remodeling.
mean, if you want to see someone get corrected on which way to paint, do you go left toright?
Or do you go up and down and up and down?
Say it again, say it slower Rob.
Yeah, yeah.
There we go.

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And we've lost all to two listeners now.
What we've gained to others.
They just, spidey sense knew that we were getting sex.
But they were talking about sexy time.
With sexy time soon interrupted by the pickup truck guys who burst into the room and theybeat the ever living shit out of Michael Keaton.

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And Justin, you mentioned this earlier, beginning to appearance of that hallmark of lateeighties, early nineties design, the glass blocks.
When Michael Keaton's face is smashed into the glass blocks, it is such a great use ofglass.
It really is it's probably the best use of glass blocks that we've seen so far, but I'mgonna leave that the championship belt on Unsold because I think we're probably gonna run

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into a lot more of this as we move through these movies But the other thing to note hereis that this is the first time that we've seen a mattress on the floor What what a fancy
situation for these two to be having a romantic rendezvous on like a mattress on the floor
And there are a lot of scenes of people laying on floors in this movie, strangely enough.
It's very odd.
Yeah it is, because when they're doing the renovating of the house, there's a lot of flooraction.

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Yep.
Well, everyone knows if you are doing the crime and you might have to make a hastygetaway, having a full bed just slows down.
hahaha
Yeah, you got to take that thing apart.
That's problem.
So the two men, beat the crap out of them.
They leave.
And Keaton says to the woman, the worst parts over now will go away and we'll go see myfamily.

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And I want to say that this line put an idea in my head.
I had not seen this movie before we started, before this week.
And it put an idea in my head that was totally 100 % wrong.
And I blame the movie, I don't blame me.
Because like the scrapbook I mentioned before, there's all these family photos, there'stwo kids and a monkey.

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And that, plus the line about going to see the family, made me think there was going to besome kind of revelation about Michael Keaton's family owning the house that the characters
are renovating.
Or that there was a secret connection between him and Matthew Modine, because in thatphoto book, there's one photo that looks like
an old Matthew Modine with a mustache.

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And I was just like, is it supposed to be he's the brother?
Maybe that's the other of the two kids or his father or something like that.
None of that was the case.
That is all me.
I have been looking like throughout the entire film.
This was my first time seeing it too, Chris.
I kept looking for the monkey to return.
Yeah, I was like, what?
They focus on the monkey.

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It comes that photo comes back again later in the movie.
It's such an odd thing to focus on it and it never.
The truth behind this monkey is never revealed.
If it was just a picture of two kids, you wouldn't think twice about it.
But two kids and a monkey, that's not something you see every day.

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So I was like, oh, there's got to be some.
It's true
Good God, yes, yes.
When we start our get me another store, that'll be the first thing up there.

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So yeah, no, I had to say it was like, there's gonna be some kind of connection andthere's nothing.
It was just, it didn't amount to anything.
So then we cut to San Francisco, right to a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge in case there'sany doubt.
And Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith are looking at this classic, if somewhat rundown,
Victorian, the asking price $750,000.

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Now, they're with a buddy of theirs who, you know, warns them that the place is out oftheir price range.
But listen, I'm from the future and I have an idea of what that property will be worth inthe distant year of 2025.
If these people don't buy that house, I will invent a time machine and go back and buy itmyself.

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Like it's worth millions.
Do whatever you have.
If that guy is their financial advisor telling him not to buy that fire.
And I know who not to rent to.
Right?
mean, you know, it's, yes.
Things went badly because they ran into the wrong person, but you know, it's.
And also there are the crawl spaces around this house are plenty large as we learn in thisfilm.

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So that's the perfect place to have your monkey.
The monkey can be climbing around in the walls.
You don't have to worry about it sneaking out.
It's got plenty of things to do.
you
of things to do.
I mean, honestly, it's because we get some shots of the neighborhood.
That house is the ideal situation because it's the shabbiest house in a greatneighborhood.
It takes a lot more time to fix up a neighborhood than it does to fix up a house.

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Yeah.
But the, with, with, all of the things in the movie to this point, I do want to call out,some of our trend differences.
Please.
While we've had crime-infused, sexy thrillers, you know, starting with Presumed Innocent,you know, although it's, know, this is the first one, because even in Consenting Adults,

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it winds up to be very criny.
Yeah.
But it doesn't start there.
Right.
This is the first one that from Jump is just, this is a crime thriller.
You know, right.
It tells you right away with the Michael Keaton stuff.
And then also now that we go to the couple here and it's establishing them with, you know,maybe getting this Victorian or whatever and fixing it up.

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Drake and Patty are happy.
They might be a little stretched, but so you aren't getting the dissatisfaction with theirlife either.
which makes sense because in some ways, since Carter's going to come in with a plan,
and pretend to be a good renter and then mess with them.

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You don't necessarily need Drake to be unhappy with his life to cheat on Patty becausethat's not going to happen.
So anyway, it's just interesting, but you are having the dangerous stranger coming in.
Yes.
And Drake and Patty do want something different.
They want this home to be fixed up.
So you're it's just interesting because you're seeing these things kind of plugged in anda little bit altered.

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at least for how things have been going so far with these films.
it comes back to something you brought up last week, which was that idea of the seductionof the new.
And often, you you have that discontentment, even if the lives themselves aren't so bad,but it's that seduction of the new that kind of, you know, sort of begins to cause a
problem.

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Here we have that in a different form, which is the desire to buy a home, which is notunreasonable.
It's not like, there isn't an underlying sin.
that gets paid for.
Drake is kind of an idiot, we'll tie and we'll get more into that.
But like the simple idea of, we're going to buy a piece of property and we'll have tworental units that can help pay for the mortgage.

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There's nothing inherent.
It's not inherent and wrong with that.
It's, it's, we need more rental units.
need more, you know, every, everywhere needs more, more housing.
That's a, that's out here in 2025.
It's a problem.
You know, it's a thing.
I want to mention, did anyone else pick up on what Drake and Patty do for a living?

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Yeah, what does he do?
Does he work in like a kite factory?
Yes, he runs or owns a kite making factory.
She is a horseback riding teacher and formerly a competitive equestrian, but he runs andowns a kite making factory.
And it took me forever to figure that out because we see him in his office on the phone acouple of times and the background, see all these people working at like sewing things and

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it's all color.
he's making kites?
He's a kite maker?
My goodness.
That is so weird.
It's just a weird, weird.
And he's one of these guys who's never down there doing it.
He's always up in his office that's clearly way up above his poor workers, and he justlooks over, lords over them from his palace above.
I had a moment where I was like, does he run a sweatshop?

(18:54):
Of course he does.
This is a very good point there.
I mean, someone has to own a kite factory.
Like, have you ever seen a movie about a blue collar worker or TV show and they work onthe condom factory line?
But someone has to, right?
It just comes home from the condom factory, but you never fucking see it.

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So this movie is going to give that.
Well, not that, but the kite.
Not that, but something, something.
exactly.
So they buy the place, they immediately renovate the first four apartments so they can usethem to generate income.
And while they're showing the place, there's a kid, they're showing, we see them shown toseveral different people.
There's a gay couple who wants to paint the walls and it's like, they just painted them.

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There's a kid who runs his toy car along the freshly painted walls who absolutely enragedme.
I was just like, my God.
Not only would I not rent to that couple, that family, I might actually hunt them downmyself.
a suspicion.
If they'd rented to them and Carter, that kid would have wound up killing Carter.

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Honestly, now I'm thinking there's a remake.
There's a remake of Pacific Heights where that's exactly what happens.
They rent the one bedroom to an older Japanese couple, the Watanabes who are perfectlypleasant.
Patty has a conversation with a prospective tenant played by Carl Lumley.
He's apparently newly divorced.
So therefore he is unable to operate a microwave oven.

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You see him fumbling with the microwave oven that they've put in and poor guy.
You know, it's like, you know, he can't operate a microwave because he's got Lord.
Lord help him if he had to record something on the VHS it'd be a disaster.
forget it.
If you're home, it's one thing, but you can't set a timer.
He'll never, never, never get that.
There's a little bit of tension at first, because he seems to not want to fill out thecredit application.

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But in the end, think it was just, he was really, really eager and he, you know, he didn'twant to lose the apartment, although he does.
And it was while the Watanabes were moving in, and this is when I started to realize thatDrake is kind of an asshole.
Like they have all these people moving, helping them move their stuff.

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And Drake's makes the comment, are all these people aren't moving in with you, are they?
And I'm just like, dude, that just feels, that is not enough.
That is the first, but not the last vaguely racist comment from Drake.
And it's just like, dude, you're, kind of suck.
Which is very weird because they make the point of having one of the apartments be theWatanabe's so that you know that they're not totally racist for not renting to the black

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man.
Right.
But then they have all the, like you say, there are all these other little things thatmake you go, no, actually, think maybe legit.
He is.
I don't think she is, but at least they don't get a sense of it, but he certainly is.
this is when Patty and Drake make their real mistake.

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It's early in the film, and you don't realize it at the time.
But they don't install a basket to catch the mail that comes in through the mail slot inthe front door, because Carl Umley's characters
credit application is lying on the floor, gets trod upon by the people moving in thefurniture.
Eventually guy just picks up the mango for it, tosses it aside.

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I'm like, all that work for the rental units, all of the fixtures, all the appliances, allof that.
They couldn't put a basket on the door to catch mail that would have solved all theproblems for this.
Well, that mail situation is sketch anyway, because the mailbox that they do have is theweirdest, most unfunctional, that's a word, least functional mailbox I've ever seen.

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He goes out and stuffs the mail into it.
The thing is vertical.
First of all, it's not even like a horizontal and it looks like it's about the size of noteven a loaf of bread.
Like what could you put in there?
And his mails hanging out the top of it.
I'm like, first of all, terrible mailbox.
Second of all,
Not only is he a dick and a racist, but he's also clearly horrible with managing handlingof mail.

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that kite factory.
mean, honestly, I'm surprised that kite factory is still afloat.
Like he's just not a competent guy.
In my in my mind, and I know it's the wrong coast, but that kite factory is the formerwhat good times to is from Christmas evil.
He took it over after the tragedy.
Yes.

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Amazing.
One of the best toy factories in all of cinema.
Yes.
my God.
my God.
So we enter Carter Hayes played by Michael Keaton.
And again, Keaton is really good in this role.
You know, even though you know from the start that he is the bad guy, you even one look atthe trailer, you know he's the bad guy.

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Even if you haven't seen it, he's sitting in his cool sports car.
He's watching the house.
He's basically casing the joint and he meets with Drake.
He lies about having talked to Patty.
And just everything about the persona that Carter presents is designed to appeal to aschmuck like everything.

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The suit, the cash, the car, the way he first addresses Drake as Mr.
Palmer.
sort of putting him, you know, it's like to a guy like Drake, it feels like that's goingto be a put down.
You know, he corrects it, well, I'm not married.
you know, Drake really overvalues his own capabilities.
I'm taking care of the rentals.
okay.
Well, are you Drake?

(24:36):
You know, it's you're doing a real bang up job.
It's just, just something.
So Carter makes some observations about the house.
Again, this fed into my erroneous theory that the family was connected to it.
Like he, mentions that his grandmother grew up in Pacific Heights.
Again, totally amounting to nothing.
and again, Keaton's so great here.
Cause the way he looks at the place, he is his eyes kind of

(25:00):
moving over the different surfaces, observing the job that they've done.
There's a lot that is unspoken in Keaton's scenes here, and I think he's just reallygreat.
Yeah, he plays dangerous understated, dangerous.
He also plays very stated dangerous later in the movie, but he plays it so well.
He is he was getting the award this week for best villain since Glenn Close until I sawthe next movie.

(25:27):
So this is nothing against Keaton himself.
And I quite like Melanie in this movie as well.
But Keaton is my favorite thing about this movie.
Like for sure, there is something.
It may be almost
too much the best thing about this movie in that I often as you're seeing, you know, thatthing where in like an oceans 11 movie, they tell you like what the plan is to rob the

(25:51):
place, but you maybe don't know everything.
And then you're seeing it happen.
And it's like, there's like a fun to watching the toy wind down, you know, in a weird way.
That is what you get with him slowly getting his hooks more into this property and gettingthe better of Drake.
But that is in part a problem because I'm supposed to be rooting for Drake.

(26:13):
And half the time I'm just like, Ooh, what's Carter doing next, baby?
And you don't see enough of them.
There's a lot of times where he's absent.
He has a big effect on the movie, but he is not actually present in all that much becausea lot of times, he gets in that apartment and he closes himself in and he doesn't answer

(26:35):
the door.
You hear stuff happening, but he's not visually present as much as you might like.
And the great mystery too is what are they doing in there?
I kept expecting there to be some kind of a reveal that they're building a, I mean, Idon't know, a death machine that they're creating tunnels into other people's homes
because they're showing up with like welding goggles on when they, when the door cracksopen and he and his, you know, the, the, what are they doing in there?

(27:03):
What they're doing.
it involve a monkey?
I don't know.
It doesn't involve a monkey.
So Carter, you know, again, he's not without some red flags.
He flashes a lot of cash, but is resistant to a credit check because he claims to work fora private trust that pays all of his expenses.
So he doesn't have a traditional credit.
Can I move in, Drake?
Oh, well, you know, just have to have you fill out an application.

(27:26):
don't mind paying the first six months in advance?
Well, I still need to get a ticket.
The reason for the six months is I travel a lot in my business and I'm in and out of thecountry, so I can't always guarantee you that I'll be here first of the month.
Damn, I've only got about $2,900 on me.
How about if I pay you 2,000 now and then of course I could pay the rest next week or Icould wire you the entire amount which would be 70...

(27:54):
7,500.
7,500 from my bank in San Antonio.
Um, you know, I'm sorry but I still have to get this application filled out.
It's just a formality.
Yeah, it's a credit history, that sort of thing.
Yeah, um, is there a problem?
Well, no.
It's just that I work for a private trust.

(28:14):
And the trust pays me my expenses and my salary.
They pay my bank cards, my room and board, etc.
So I don't really have that traditional kind of credit, you understand?
Um, could I verify the trust?
Well, see, I'm bound by client confidentiality.
I mean, they're a prominent family and they've got interests worldwide.

(28:37):
Boy, believe me, I would if I could.
Let me think.
I'm always running into this problem, you know?
Do have a phone?
Yeah, upstairs.
You know what better yet?
I'll tell you what.
Why don't I give you some local personal references?
Or you can call the trust private attorney, Bennett Fidlow.
yeah, okay.
A previous landlord.
I got it.

(28:58):
Yeah, I hope you don't mind calling out of town.
I don't think you'll have a problem.
And it's interesting because when Drake and Patty discuss it, she brings up theapplication of Mr.
Baker, Carl Lumley's character, and Drake points out they never received it.
And that's a fair point.
They never received the credit application.
But then he says maybe he's one of those minority scam artists.

(29:21):
Yep.
What?
I didn't get the application okay, but now you jump to he's a scam artist?
Honestly, Patty should get away from this guy as soon as possible.
He's a complete a-hole.
And again, it's not Matthew Modine's fault.
It's the way the character's written, but I just was like, God, this guy's...
Which by the way, just to just one slight step out here, I do feel that there are ways inthis movie is very much a product of its time.

(29:49):
Right.
Yes.
Because I don't know that the movie wants me to think of Drake as casually racist, butdefinitely from 2025, he is not so casually racist.
And that does actually affect the likeability.
You look back even to excuse me, fatal attraction.

(30:10):
where Dan wasn't like, my wife's out of town.
I'm going to go and try and have an affair, which would have made him much, much lesssympathetic.
mean, he's still met.
Which is how was in the original short.
That was the big change.
This just kind of happened.
Not that he's not responsible for his decisions, but...
So while we're making light of this, it actually really affects who you're rooting for inthe movie in weird ways, you know, in ways that I think don't help the film.

(30:40):
And this is, it's so rare that oftentimes when we bring up the, you know, the old natureof films and you got to take them in context, it's usually just, you know, essentially a
signpost of ignore that racist scene if you can.
And if you can't, you know, it's there, right?
And maybe you don't want to watch it.
But here,
It's actually affecting the functionality of the movie in a pretty big way that I don'tknow that.

(31:05):
not rooting for the guy the movie wants you to root
Correct.
I think that wasn't the intention back then, I'm gonna guess.
mean, I don't know, but it's weird, because normally it is just kind of window dressingthat we're saying to ignore, but it's so functional here.
It's bizarre.
It is totally, totally.
So one morning, Patty discovers that Carter's already moved in, or at least he's moved hisphone books in, which seemed to be his primary possession.

(31:31):
And of course the wire transfer with his first six months rent never arrives.
And when Drake goes to ask about it, a strange guy answers the door wearing goggles and hetells them that Carter isn't there, closes the door in his face.
Now, this is interesting because it may go some way towards explaining why this movie

(31:51):
feels so chaste in comparison to some of the other movies in this series.
In the original script, Carter Hayes was a bisexual man who actively paid attention toDrake and Patty and made them uncomfortable with his attention.
And that was dropped.

(32:12):
And we're left with just sort of a little bit of light leering by Carter towards Patty.
And it's an interesting aspect, I'm like, was apparently part of the original script, andI'm not sure where it got excised, but by the time the final film came out, that was no
longer a...
a plot point.

(32:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
There isn't that initial transgression by the person that we're supposed to root for whereit's like, they've opened the door.
Here, all they've done is rent an apartment.
I think that's also true in the second film where there isn't quite the transgression.
In the second film, make some decisions that in hindsight they shouldn't have, but therewas nothing they did that was sort of actively inviting.

(33:08):
And I think it's one of the things that links the two films this week.
yeah.
So at one point there's a power outage, goes in the basement to fix it.
Carter, he's just sitting there in his car watching her playing with a razor blade.
Because this movie, Carter goes from likable to kind of dangerous very, very quickly.

(33:30):
He goes from zero to creepy very fast.
There's not a lot of interim steps there.
And on the surface at the beginning of it, I did think, Whoa, like you've got MichaelKeaton, he can play charming.
They had him kind of doing it in the beginning.
And then he turns on a dime and I thought, Oh, this is a big mistake.
But actually in the context of this film, it is not because turning this dark anddangerous and letting them see it is actually part of his plan as it plays out.

(33:59):
it's, one of those things that the moment tripped me up.
But then as it went on, went, Oh,
No, actually, this makes total sense.
This is he's doing this deliberately.
Yeah.
Yeah, and also we learn what Patty tells Drake what the audience has actually known fromfairly early because early on she is sick and it's like as soon as she gets sick you're
like, she's pregnant.

(34:20):
Patty tells Drake that she's pregnant and that leads sort of like Drake is very quicklyfed up with Carter and I think the fact that his girlfriend is pregnant kind of feeds into
that.
So he immediately tries at one point to get into the apartment and he finds that the lockshave been changed.
And this whole sequence where he goes and turns off Carter's water and power is really akind of pivotal moment in the chess match between them.

(34:48):
And God, again, this is where I just don't like Drake.
He does that stupid little dance where he turns off the water and power and I just want topunch him.
Like he's so, I dislike him so much more.
It's like Kevin in Home Alone.
Yes.
So Carter responds by calling the cops and they basically take his side because you justcan't do that to a tenant.

(35:13):
There are legal protections for tenants and for good reason.
Now I was like, well, he never paid any rent.
And I went to my legal counsel, who also happens to be my wife, and I was like, how doesthis work?
I know laws are supposed to protect the tenants, but he didn't pay anything.
And she was like, if he signed a lease.

(35:34):
That's the key thing.
If he didn't sign a lease, then he's just, you know, what stops me from going intoanywhere just saying, I live here now.
We never see a lease, we never see it signed.
We needed to see the lease sign because I was asking myself the whole time, like, how canhe just get away with this?
The answer is if he had signed a lease, he might be able to.

(35:55):
But the movie doesn't show that moment where he puts his signature on it.
importantly, Drake and Patty have to sign it and give give him a copy.
Yes, I think it has to be executed by both parties.
And he would have to have a copy and but the thing the real thing is that it was the 90sman anything went

(36:16):
You
It's It's true.
90s.
So it's and of course all of this, the whole thing gets compounded by the fact that Drakeacts so unprofessionally during all, like he's cursing in front of the cops.
Like everything he does makes the situation worse.
And whenever Patty, who's more level headed, tries to step in, he's like, well, I canhandle it.

(36:40):
I can handle this, Patty.
Honestly, with his temper, I would not want him around my baby.
No!
This guy has no impulse control.
None.
Like it's just, God.
So Patty and Drake, take Carter to court to a victim, which is what you'd have to do.

(37:01):
And Drake's action of cutting off the water and power actually undermined their case sothat everything will take longer.
it's funny, because we have all these, it's like everything that Drake does feeds intoCarter's plan.
Like he's almost perfectly selected.

(37:22):
If Drake had been a little more level headed, Carter wouldn't have been able to stay inthe unit as long and therefore wouldn't have been able to follow through with everything
he intended to do when that finally gets revealed.
This is actually a point where by having Drake's character be so easily goaded and fly offthe handle, even sometimes without much goading at all, it actually hurts the villain.

(37:48):
It hurts the character of Carter because it makes him less smart.
Because as it happens in this movie, it feels like if Carter, if Drake wasn't so...
Had such impulse control and was frankly so did everything the absolute worst way at everyturn You know Carter's plan might probably wouldn't have worked like it it might have

(38:11):
depended on Drake being as dumb as he is Whereas if Drake had done things the right way,but Carter's plan was still trapping him It would have made Carter a more formidable
villain, right?
I bring this up because we're going to see something similar in the next film but executedwhere I think that is true
where the villain is so good at what they do that they're trapping you even if you'retrying to do the correct thing.

(38:37):
Absolutely.
We have some scenes which are intended to make Carter look like a psycho.
He's sitting in his apartment and there's just static on the television.
He's playing with a razor blade, a razor blade by the way, which he never gets to use onanybody.
It's just, you know, he might as well be playing with a silver dollar.
And he does grab that cockroach off the television because he's going to let cockroachesloose in the apartment, which is just the most disgusting scene.

(39:07):
Jesus, like they show up under the Watanabe sink and it's just awful.
They call the Orkin man and the Orkin man is terrible at his job.
And this is fun.
Orkin apparently paid $20,000 to be showcased in the movie and the company was so upsetwith their portrayal, they sued the producers and the case was settled out of
Coldwell Banker also figures prominently on all paperwork in this film.

(39:31):
And by the way, the Orkin man is Bob from Batman 89.
One of the jokers.
I was so excited to see his face.
I'm like, wait, that's Bob.
That's Bob.
That's That's amazing.
I knew I recognized him.
I didn't put two and two together.
That's fantastic.
Dan Hedea is another familiar face that shows up for one scene as a sketchy money lenderwho Patty goes to in order to try and keep, you know, get money to keep them afloat.

(39:54):
Carter basically makes the Drake and Patty's lives hell.
The Watanabes, they get out of there.
They break their lease and there's a huge setback in court.
And Drake is pushed to the point of having a really obvious and terrible dream sequence.
where it's like, one of those dream sequences, you know it's a dream sequence from momentone.

(40:14):
And then it's like, it ends with like, Drake discovering Patty, making out with Carter inhis sports car.
And I'm just like, this is not the best dream sequence as far as these things go.
Given what you said earlier, it feels like a holdover, like we were missing scenes whereDrake would have seen Carter and Patty maybe just being friendly, but Drake was being

(40:36):
jealous.
There's absolutely nothing to trigger that as far as a dream goes.
Yeah.
But Patty, the consequences of all of this stress are more serious for her as she suffersa miscarriage.
again, Drake, cause Drake handles everything terribly.
He handles this terribly too by saying to her, know, well we could try again in a fewmonths.

(40:57):
That is not what she wants to hear, pal.
I'm telling you that is not what she wants to hear.
So Carter comes up after she has that miscarriage, Carter comes upstairs and to give themhis condolences and Drake just loses his shit and attacks him.
Like, and it's a fight, like they go down the stairs.
There's both of these movies have have people falling down stairs and it seems veryserious.

(41:22):
He sends them crashing through the glass window in the front door.
And and all of this is part of Carter's plan.
Again, you mentioned this, Robin, I think it's a really good point.
If Drake was a better person, Carter's plan wouldn't have worked.
And now if, if you, just to go down, the road, not taken here, if at the beginning whenCarter was picking out which property to go after, if he had like cross-reference the

(41:50):
buyer's names and saw that like Drake was in a drunken brawl, know, three years ago or, orlike, he, he has an anger management issues so I can go after this guy, but that didn't
happen.
So it just it just feels coincidental.

(42:11):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And another thing is by having this fight here and this is look, this is just my personalopinion because this this whole movie is going and building towards one really big fight
at the end to have this physical confrontation here kind of robs it a little bit.
Yeah, I agree.
Because in pretty much every other one of these movies, the one thing that they all get

(42:35):
and presumed innocent didn't have a big fight at the end.
that exception everyone else kind of like you're ratcheting the tension until you'rehaving kind of this final big explosive explosion.
Yeah, at the end.
And so I feel that here you're, you know, it robs it a little bit, in addition toeverything else we've been talking about.

(42:55):
And because there's not just one, there's another fight too that comes up because afterthat first fight, Carter gets a civil lawsuit against Drake and gets a restraining order
against him, meaning Drake can't even go back into his own house.
But of course he does, you know, because he's an idiot.
And, you know, he immediately goes and has another confrontation with Carter who shootshim.

(43:21):
and plants a crowbar in his hand to make it look like Drake was coming after him and heshot him in self-defense.
And I don't even, like it's significant because it will take Drake out of the third act interms of a physical presence until the very end, but it doesn't feel like it's needed.
You've now had two of sort of eruptions of violence.

(43:45):
And I think you're right.
I think they kind of undercut.
the violence that happens at the very end.
Anyway, Drake and Patty, finally get Carter evicted because he hasn't actually paid anyrent.
And then they get into the apartment and they find that Carter is gone and the place isstripped clean of everything.

(44:06):
The fixtures, the appliances, the wiring, the copper pipes, everything.
Yeah, it is wrecked.
It's absolutely wrecked.
And this is apparently what Carter does.
He moves into a place, he strips it clean, but he has to stay in there long enough for itbe able to do it.
So Pacific Heights equivalent of the bunny on the stove is in this case, the stove itself.

(44:33):
Yeah, yeah.
And coincidentally makes this room unrentable, which will assure that Drake and Patty aregoing to lose this place.
They never talk about if Carter had a plan like was he going to be able to buy this or ifhe's literally just stripping, you know, the apartment for stuff and making his he's just

(44:55):
making his like 20 grand on the materials and moving on that kind of a thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's so, there's one last twist that amounts to nothing.
Carl Lumley shows up again as the cop investigating the case.
And he's like, don't you wish you had written to the black man and Patty very honestlyapply, you know, replies that she never got his application.
Again, it all goes back to the fact that this could have been avoided if they had a bettermailbox.

(45:18):
Like that's really what the, their real sin that the real thing they did wrong is notputting in a better mailbox, but like,
He just comes in for that one scene to just be like, hey, you know, don't you wish you hadrented a million?
So, well, obviously yes, because the person turned out to be a crazy criminal, but like,doesn't amount to any, it's not like, he helps her in doing anything.

(45:41):
It doesn't amount to anything.
Do we?
the thing that they never bring up to is given that they did get to evict Carter and thenthere's all of that obvious damage wouldn't this be an insurance claim and if they just
left well enough alone it would be fine
There's a line where, we canceled, the insurance was canceled.
don't, and she's got a line in some context where she says the insurance was canceled.

(46:07):
A, I don't understand why.
B, we never see that happen, but.
Yes.
Yeah.
And also this is a perfect point for all aspiring screenwriters.
If you get a note about a logic bump and you go, I know how I'll fix it.
One line of dialogue tossed off in the middle of a scene that's about something else thatdoesn't fix it.

(46:29):
Absolutely.
Yes.
That's a, that is a, that is a good lesson.
So we go in, we go into act three, which is almost a different movie as like Patti, she,she kind of Drake is recuperating at home and she begins to investigate Carter and she can
do this because Carter stupidly left that scrapbook that I mentioned earlier with thephoto of the two kids in the monkey.

(46:53):
He left that behind and, and helpfully written on the back of the photo is the name JamesDanforth.
There is no way he'd be that careless except because the plot needed him to be.
She needs that in order to kind of be the first piece of the puzzle.
it just feels like he's so careful.
Why would he leave that behind?

(47:15):
But he left behind because the plot needed him.
We and I'm glad because this is my favorite part of the movie is this the slack yes, threeis and look it's been you know enjoyable, you know up to this point.
It's not a perfect film or anything by any stretch, but this last act is is totally myfavorite because you get this cat and mouse game my

(47:36):
It's totally different from the first two.
Like, Patty starts investigating James Danforth.
She discovers he is the estranged son of a wealthy family, has money and a trust thatcan't be touched.
She tracks him down to his last address in Palm Springs, where we were in the opening.
We talked to Beverly D'Angelo again, who dramatically tells us that his name isn't CarterHayes.

(48:00):
Yeah, we know, lady.
Like that would have sounded much more mysterious earlier in the film, but at this pointwe know that he's not Carter Hayes.
And she traces him to the JW Marriott Hotel in Century City, where he's now staying underthe name Drake Goodman.
So he doesn't just steal lighting fixtures, he steals identities.
And in a time before the internet, that's really something.

(48:22):
Patty gets into his room, she orders a bunch of room service and has Drake cancel all thecredit cards under his name, leading to...
Carter Hayes slash James Danforth slash Drake Goodman to be arrested.
It's such a petty bit of revenge and I absolutely love it.
Absolutely.
Like again, all this stuff where Melanie Griffith takes center stage in the third act,again, it's very different from the first two parts of the movie, but it's easily the most

(48:48):
entertaining.
And completely justifiable too.
gives us our, I mean, this is our hero coming through and finally getting one up on thisguy who seems to constantly be railroading them.
And I, and I enjoy the fact that he sits in the room then trying to convince others thathe's the victim, which of course is how the world works, that these guys who destroy

(49:08):
others always are the playing the victim.
And, and, and she has, she has won that little battle.
It's a wonderful sequence.
It really is, it really is.
But of course, Carter Hayes slash James Danforth slash Drake Goodman isn't done yet.
So he shows up back at the house in San Francisco in full slasher mode.

(49:29):
Like he beats Drake with a golf club.
There's golf clubs prominent in both of these movies.
That was another thing I didn't realize when I paired them.
And he menaces Patty with a nail gun.
But then, know, there's, again, this is where we have that burst of violence that feelsundercut.
by some of the earlier violence as Drake is crawling underneath the floorboards and hekind of grabs him by the ankle.

(49:51):
And ultimately, Carter is killed by an exposed pipe.
He's impaled by an exposed pipe.
And then sometime later, we see Patty and Drake selling the now repaired building toanother yuppie couple and making a profit on the whole thing.
And the couple ask why they're moving.
And she says, was just an investment all along.

(50:12):
And it's oddly unreflective.
it's an unreflective moment at the end.
I'm like, did they learn anything?
Did we learn anything?
I'm not sure.
I actually think this movie has a lot to say.
You know, the fact that, you know, sort of in the nineties, you have middle-class andupper middle-class people were moving back into cities and making those places less

(50:35):
affordable for working class people.
But I'm not sure how the movie feels about that.
Or even if it's really kind of,
part of the equation.
Yeah, I mean, it doesn't feel like this movie is saying anything larger.
Certainly sociopolitically, I don't even know that it's saying anything personally, youknow, like about the human condition to use the highfalutin language.

(51:01):
You know, like I don't think this is saying anything about, you know, arriving at thatpoint in your life where you're going to, you know, try and throw down roots and nest,
right?
It's just it's just a thriller.
Right.
And there
In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with that.
Like, no, sometimes you can just be a thriller and it really is about the fun story of itall.

(51:22):
you know, this one doesn't always do it for me, but it's weird that it's all of it's doneat a pretty high level.
And, you know, and I love Michael Keaton, you know,
But I do think it's interesting that the ultimate threat to Drake and Panny's dreamdoesn't come from below them on the social ladder.

(51:44):
It comes from above because James Danforth is part of this wealthy family.
And it comes from the fact that Drake is a stupid jerk.
like, I mean, that the enemy is not the working class or minorities.
It's stupid middle-class men unknowingly assisting the wealthy in screwing them.
Yeah.

(52:05):
That's really profound given the political landscape of 2025.
Like that is something significant in the world today, but you know, the movie doesn'tquite know that it has that much.
Well, I'm not sure that it does because I viewed it slightly differently, which is that ifyou're looking at a message that it might have that is unintentional because Carter is not

(52:26):
rich.
As a matter of fact, Carter, essentially the backstory boils down to Carter was born evil.
His family realized this and cut him off.
So he is the classic American, you know, he's a grifter.
tale of he is evil so he can't be rich.

(52:48):
People are evil and now the evil poor person who was so evil he couldn't be rich eventhough he was born into it is now attacking you.
So that is another possible unintended lesson.
Amazing.
Well, you know, it's funny because our second film today also deals with a mysteriousstranger who menaces a couple and has the law on his side.

(53:12):
In fact,
has the most beautiful eyes, yes.
Absolutely.
In fact, he is the law.
From 1992, this is unlawful entry.
you feel?
Watch the man come into my own home, attack my own wife and I can't do anything about it?
I'm never gonna be in that position again.

(53:34):
Michael, do you remember officer Davis?
I didn't recognize you had a uniform.
I'm gonna make sure that your blocks controlled all night long Would you like to go get acup of coffee?
You're safe with me.
I'm a cop remember?
What's going on?
What the hell are you talking about?
You and Pete.
He wants you.
He thinks you want him.
We're staying away from this guy you got it

(53:56):
I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you.
How do I get a cop off my back?
Here it is.
Five thousand.
You walk away and don't mess with my wife.
Drive Mikey.
Call whatever you want Pete.
I don't know what's going on with Michael.
He's losing it.
This guy's a decorated officer you're accusing.
I don't care how many medals he has.
I want this taken care of.

(54:18):
He's making up these stories?
Maybe you're overreacting a little bit?
He threatened to kill me last night.
How do you suggest I react to that?
These wild accusations about me?
Mr.
Carr, is there something personal in this?
I told you he was dangerous.
What's it gonna take?
Me in a body bag?
Anything I seem to do makes it worse.

(54:39):
I got a cop who wants my wife.
in here and lock the door.
So alone, Mikey.

(54:59):
for long.
It's interesting to me that Unlawful Entry might be, of all the movies we've talked aboutso far in this series, this might be the one that sticks closest to the fatal attraction
formula.
Like there are beats from fatal attraction here.
And ironically, it's also one that works the best.

(55:21):
Like it's really, it really is firing on all cylinders.
Unlawful Entry was written by Lewis Kolick, who also wrote a movie we discussed on thisshow way back when.
Judgment Night.
Ha!
A movie that I has the best buttons.
But we were not among them.
It was directed by Jonathan Kaplan, who started his career with Roger Corman's New WorldPictures, and later directed the Academy Award-winning film The Accused, and then a whole

(55:49):
lot of television, including a lot of episodes of ER.
I think he was the producer-director on ER and did a ton of...
And in 1994 directed one of my guilty pleasures, the Western bad girls also starringMadeline.
Oh, that Justin you'll appreciate this.
originally saw at the dollar cinema by Lindale mall.

(56:12):
Yes.
I missed second run theaters.
were great.
what a time.
We didn't know what we had.
It was also produced by Charles Gordon, who not long after would produce Waterworld, amovie we talked about not long ago on the show.
And the film stars Kurt Russell, Ray Liotta, Madeline Stowe.
And I was thrilled.

(56:33):
I've never seen this before.
I'm watching the opening credits.
Roger E.
Mosley, TC from Magna PI.
was so excited to see him.
Without the mustache though.
Without the mustache, indeed.
And we open with overhead shots of Los Angeles, including the LA River that I always loveto see the LA River because I think it's great.

(56:54):
And there's an interesting dividing line in these establishing shots because we see likecops making an arrest.
They're surrounding a suspect, there's multiple cop cars.
And then in contrast, the backyards and homes and pools of people in affluentneighborhoods.
And we focus in on the counts of Michael and Karen Carr, which I took one look at and waslike immediately,

(57:15):
I want that house.
Like this is the kind of house that people in Los Angeles really aspire to.
Like realistically, really aspire to.
It's like, want that.
And I'll just to say it off the top here is we're talking about the you're talking aboutthe cop imagery.
The one giant piece of context for this movie.

(57:37):
The LAPD beat Rodney King on March 3rd, 1991.
This movie comes out in 1992.
Yes.
And I don't know when it was written.
was apparently written before that.
that it happens in the con- you know, like that it came out a year after that happened andyou have a cop beating a black man.

(57:58):
We see that in this film.
You you can't divorce that from the context.
And the blue wall that you see in this movie of the, know, as we're getting there where.
on one side, everybody else on the other.
Yeah.
And they say that several times.
Karen is a school teacher.
Michael is a commercial property development.
Specifically, he is involved in a deal to renovate the Mayan theater, which I don't knowif they actually say, but I recognized instantly that was a theater that was built in the

(58:26):
late 20s downtown.
It fell into disrepair.
It was a porn theater for a number of years.
And shortly before this movie came out, it underwent a huge renovation and became a live
Performance venue and nightclub, which it still is today.
So he's basically working on a project that actually happened.
Beautiful space.
that theater is absolutely gorgeous.

(58:46):
it really is.
It's like you it's the Mayan architects.
it's in the way that you have the Egyptian and the Chinese.
This was from around the same period of the 20s.
And it's just it's just great.
The other interesting connection between the two movies today is they are both of thecouples in this week's movies don't have children.
Like Patty's miscarriage is a plot point in Pacific Heights.

(59:07):
But here it's mentioned, but we never get specifics on why they just they just don't.
But that separates it from some of the other movies that we talked about earlier in theseries, where there was always a child or children that allowed a different kind of
threat.
Like when Alex takes the daughter in the third act of fatal attraction, that is adifferent kind of threat.

(59:31):
Of course, in Consenting Adults, that kid was off at boarding school, so who cares?
I guess that didn't...
So one evening...
As Karen is watching TV in bed and Michael is working in his home office, she hears anoise from downstairs.
And interestingly, like that sense of middle-class discomfort that we've seen in thesemovies, I think it's still there, but it's played in a more subtle way.

(59:55):
Like Michael has got a line, he talks to his wife and he's lying about being jealous ofthe cat because she gets to sleep with, the cat gets to sleep with Karen more than he
does.
But it's more, again,
Whatever discontent these people have, it is a little bit more below the surface.
There's a moment where Madeline's character, when things start to heat up, when thingsreveal themselves, she briefly mentions, we can barely afford this place now.

(01:00:23):
Like we're already scraped, we need to sell the house.
mean, we'll get there in a few minutes in this discussion, but I think that's just the onetime they sort of tip their cards so you can see that maybe they're not, yeah, they're
living in this place that everyone aspires to, but they're barely getting by.
essentially like they're on the verge anyway, although the movie doesn't lean into that asa stress point for them necessarily.

(01:00:45):
No, it's just a fact of he's got to make this deal work because they have so much moneytied into that deal.
And the other interesting thing, and we'll touch on this again a little bit later, butwhen I kind of went back and watched some of the scenes a second time, they are clearly
relatively new to LA.
we'll see, there's things in that that we'll talk about.

(01:01:08):
But one of the things is there's a picture of Kurt Russell's character.
pointing it, you know, with a car and pointing at the license plate and the Californialicense plate.
And it's like, that is only something you do if you just got in a California license platefor the first time.
Cause otherwise why would you have that framed picture in your house?
So Michael, goes down, you know, to check out whatever noise was.

(01:01:29):
He doesn't think it's anything, but he brings a golf club just in case.
And we should say that Kurt Russell wears glasses in this movie.
So, you know, he's not bad ass Kurt Russell.
He's every man Kurt Russell.
And Kurt Russell is versatile enough that he can do that, but you know, he's still snakeplushkin at the end of the day.
So downstairs he finds an open skylight and moments later someone jumps out of the closet.

(01:01:54):
There's a struggle.
Michael grabs him by the ankle.
The guy escapes into the kitchen where he grabs Karen who's come downstairs and he grabs akitchen knife.
So there's this standoff with the guy.
He's got a knife to Karen's throat.
He goes out the back, we hear a splash and we see Karen in the pool and the guy is gone.

(01:02:14):
And there's a couple things I want to talk about with this scene, because this is sort ofthe inciting event of the movie.
One is that it's interesting that there'd be a break-in into a house while the occupantsare still home.
I feel like that's relatively rare.
Most of the time when you get break-ins and people robbing places, they specifically arelooking for homes where nobody is there, because nobody wants a confrontation like this.

(01:02:38):
if they're new to LA, I mean, we're just thinking outside the script here, but maybe theseguys, this guy had been watching the house for some time, thought it wasn't really
occupied.
And so this was his night that he thought he'd make the strike or something.
I mean, who knows.
Yeah, well, and also going outside the movie to the context of the time is this is alsothe height of this period, time period in America's very specific fear of black people

(01:03:02):
that was being projected out into the culture at large, especially centering around LosAngeles.
Yes.
And in this movie, it's funny.
know, funny is one word for it where they use it both to be a real threat in this scene.
Yeah.
But then also to undercut
that as not actually being the real threat later on in the movie.

(01:03:25):
it's, it's like trying to have its cake and eat it too, by using the racial stereotype ofthat time in the way the ratio stereotype intended it to be used.
Right.
But then also then flipping it on its head and saying that's wrong.
I don't even know how I feel about that, but I just wanted to call that out.
It's unusual.
It is, it is.

(01:03:46):
And the other thing, I mean, I watched this whole scene and I think the movie, somethingthat we does very well is I found myself saying, you know, looking at Michael, the way
Michael handles this situation and what else could he have done?
And like the answer is really nothing.
Like you're not going to attack the guy and risk him cutting your wife's throat.

(01:04:06):
It's unlike Drake.
who makes the wrong move at every turn.
And I'm not saying that Michael as a protagonist does everything right all the time, buthe takes actions and does things that I understand.
It's like, I might react the exact same way in that situation, because I can't evenimagine being in that situation.

(01:04:29):
But I feel like that would be, you're not a badass.
You're not going to just take the guy out or.
You know, I unfortunately have not completed my ninjitsu training, so I couldn't just takea throwing star and, you know, and take the guy out before he could, you know, move the
knife.
And that's not something that Michael blows out of proportion later either.
When there's a discussion shortly here after he, and it's, well, thank goodness Michaelwas here.

(01:04:54):
Well, he admits in that scene, well, I didn't, I didn't know what to do.
I mean, he's basically, he's showing he's not a hero.
He's not Snake Plissken.
He's, he's, he's, you know, he's, he's just a, and again, that Kurt Russell can do both ofthose kinds of characters is very, it's just a testament.
yeah, we'll look back at Big Trouble in Little China, one of my all time favorite filmswhere he is the perfect non-hero, where he makes mistakes at every step and, you know,

(01:05:23):
fires his gun in the air and so a block lands on his head and knocks him out.
I mean, it's just...
I have loved that movie since I saw it in movie theater.
Next year is going to be like the 40th anniversary, think.
you know, like, yeah, next year, like with the 40th anniversary, we're to have to dosomething for Big Trouble because I know we all love it.
But one other thing about this for Michael is that unlike say something like Bird with theCrystal Plumage where in initial you're impotent and can't act then drives an obsession,

(01:05:55):
Here it does.
It also doesn't do that.
Michael doesn't get crazy like, I didn't save her in the moment.
So now I'm going to become a vigilante.
That doesn't happen either.
But what it does is it does fuel the seduction that is about to happen.
Yes.
which again is a huge fatal attraction, you know, type moment that I think the seductionin this movie, although very, very different with our mysterious stranger from fatal

(01:06:21):
attraction functions just as well.
And I, and I think that Michael's not being able to do anything in this moment reallyhelps fuel that in a, in a, you know, more realistic manner than, than maybe some of the
others.
Yes, absolutely.
soon the police arrive in the form of Officer Pete Davis and his partner Officer Roy Cole,played by Ray Liotta and Roger E.

(01:06:43):
Mosley.
And from the get-go, it is very clear that Pete is taken with Karen.
And for good reason.
Like, I really appreciate that this movie doesn't try to pretend that Madeline Stowedoesn't look like Madeline Stowe.
Like,
It's obvious that like, she's intended to be a very attractive woman.
The movie says it several times.

(01:07:04):
have other characters commenting on it and that, you know, that, she doesn't do anythingnecessarily to lead him on.
Yeah.
But like it's, it's that thing where, where, know, you could see why Pete is obviouslytaken with her and you can understand.
Yeah, because that is the thing is it actually this isn't just I'm sure there are manymovies from the early 90s that had an attractive female lead that commented on her looks

(01:07:31):
all the time and you're just kind of like what but here it actually is part and parcel ofthis movie.
Like it has to be this way because she needs to be someone that officer Pete could obsessover.
Although it's not just about her looks because we'll write and they actually have somescenes later that show that it's not about the looks and that

(01:07:51):
in many ways, the obsession is actually more dangerous than just that.
Because it's about her all-American image and like the quote unquote purity of her and allof these tropes and cultural stories around certain types of white women.
And there's a moment of where like a physical contact here in this opening scene whereKaren is about to step on a piece of broken glass from the fight and he prevents her from

(01:08:20):
doing so.
Again, it's nothing that's untoward.
You do that for anybody just to, hey, don't step on the broken glass.
But it's played in such a way that like, is there genuine chemistry or is it just hisperception?
Like, is it just what's in his head?
And the movie plays it ambiguously.

(01:08:43):
I think it's just really interesting and really smart.
So the next day, Michael is talking to investors.
gets the runaround from the police on her follow-up requests.
Michael suggests calling the officers from the night before directly.
And when he arrives home, he finds all the follow-up work being done, a security systembeing installed, all of it under the supervision of an out-of-uniform.

(01:09:08):
Officer Pete Davis.
I thought that he was out of uniform was so interesting.
So like when she when they offer him a beer, it's like, yeah, sure.
I'll take it.
Like he's clearly not on duty at this point.
And and he's starting to sort of, you know, become a part of their world.
He is literally installing things into their house.
And what I love about this is, you you talk about Michael in some ways doing a reasonablething.

(01:09:34):
You're like, you're getting the run around by the system and then you go, we'll reach outto those officers who were so nice.
Maybe they'll do something.
And in this instance, the thing that you hope for is exactly the wrong thing.
And this is where Pete underplaying it in the scene or, Ray Liotta underplaying it in thescene.
Uh, like we get some closeups so the audience knows that he's got a thing for her.

(01:09:56):
but there's nothing that Michael or Karen would have seen that would have given thatimpression to them.
Right.
So it's, you know, he's, he's essentially said, call the cop who's obsessed with you.
And of course, from, from his angle, from officer Pete's side, the lady who you thoughtyou had a connection with reached out to you personally.

(01:10:18):
And you're like, there, are things where
This is one of those movies too, like I had with Fatal Attraction, where I'm wondering,like, if they never made that call, would Officer Pete have ever come back and obsessively
come after them?
I don't know.
I don't know.
It's interesting.
Yeah, like what it would have just been, you know, one evening and that was that.

(01:10:39):
Well, essentially, I mean, it's established throughout the film, reinforced, I should say,that he is drawn just to the women he's around.
He's not someone who I think that's a good point, Rob, about would there have even been astory had that call not happened?
These little fragile moments that can lead to ultimately very, very important decisionsbeing made.

(01:11:00):
Yeah, it's different from Carter Hayes in the last movie who was targeting, you know, ahouse specifically.
And yeah, this feels, again, it's like fatal attraction.
If his umbrella hadn't malfunctioned, would any of that happen?
You know, here it's like, if they just hadn't called or if the police had sent the peopleto do the follow-up work on time, would this movie have even

(01:11:27):
There's a high tech security system put in place.
There's a code word that Michael decides is pyramid.
And it's important that Ray Liotta's character Pete knows that code word.
I did like the idea of turning the bathroom into a de facto safe room.
Like I might remember that in the future.
Like, cause I'm never going to have a house with a dedicated safe room, but putting lockson like one bathroom to achieve the same effect actually seems like a fairly reasonable

(01:11:53):
idea.
That's a very Midwestern thing.
We grew up with tornado drills and knowing where in every building we need to go in theevent of some kind of catastrophic thing happening.
So when I heard when they were doing that and explaining it, I was like, that'sreasonable.
Like that makes sense.
We have those in our homes here and the bathroom actually is it.
The bathroom is where it's always advised.
Go into the bathroom, get in.

(01:12:13):
If there's a tornado coming through, get into the shower.
in the bathroom because it's usually central in the house in the middle, no windowstypically.
And then you have this protective structure to a certain extent around you.
So this made a lot of sense to me.
Interesting, interesting.
So all the interaction between the cars and Pete on the service, you know, it feelstotally innocuous.

(01:12:37):
it's Robin, as you say, it's like from their point of view, again, we know that Pete isreally into Karen because of the way the camera choices, the closeups.
And then also one other little thing when he's driving away with Roger Mosley.
right.
Yeah.
yeah.

(01:12:57):
That, his partner says, mentions like that look.
I know what you're thinking again.
know things like, don't do it.
And then they're laughing about it.
So clearly things like this have happened before and we'll see that they will see them inaction as a partner with, with women at a different point, but you're really left with
the, the partner's making a joke.
Clearly it wouldn't happen this time because

(01:13:19):
Right.
This is a couple in a different socio economic strata.
Right.
But so like we really know but yes, you were as you know, Michael and Karen don't
They have no idea.
It's interesting that in both movies today, the antagonist has a cool car that can belocked with a remote control from a time when that was the height of automotive
technologies.

(01:13:40):
You can lock your car with a remote control.
And again, they invite him to stay for dinner.
Nothing feels awkward.
It just feels like courtesy of someone who did them a favor.
And it's interesting that Pete is the one who's hesitant about it.
He says,
you know, it could be crossing the line.
And that line is between cops and everybody else.

(01:14:03):
And that line comes back in a number of times with cops and everybody else.
But they do have dinner.
And Karen gets to know Pete a little bit more.
There's some stuff that only seem like red flags in hindsight or because we know the kindof movie we're watching.
Like the fact that Pete says he's never had a serious relationship, like this is a guy inhis 30s and he's never had a serious relationship, that's...

(01:14:25):
Yeah, I mean, it's one thing to not be married.
It's another thing to have never had one.
He does explain it in a way that would fit with a lot of people's, you know, preconceivednotions where he says essentially being a cop makes it tough.
And I think that is at least in the States, a widely held belief, you know, whether or notbased in fact or not.
I, so it's, as you say, it red flagged us watching the film and we know, and we've, youknow, may have even seen the trailer, but I buy that for Karen in that instance, it's not

(01:14:55):
a red, it shouldn't be a red flag.
No, it's just this, oh, that's an aspect of this person's life that comes up.
Michael expresses a desire to get a gun.
And I thought it was interesting that Pete tells him that's not a good idea that the wrongpeople end up getting their hands on it.

(01:15:15):
And there's a little bit of masculine posturing that goes on.
After they've left the house, they've had dinner, and they're outside at the car.
And he's, know, Michael's talking about wanting to beat up the guy who attacked his wife.
I just wanted to thank you.
You really went out of your way, and I can't tell you what you did for Karen.
That's no problem.

(01:15:36):
She'll bounce back.
She'll bounce back a lot quicker because of you.
What about you?
Have you bounced back?
I don't know.
guy gets his hands on your wife like that you feel pretty help.
Well you did what you could Michael and I mean you showed a lot of balls going up againstthat guy.
You know there was there was one moment there where he had a hold of her you know I hadthat stupid golf club in my hand but I thought I could just

(01:16:03):
I didn't take a shot.
Nightmare when you think about what could happen to her man, I'll tell you one thing Iwouldn't mind one more shot at that son of a bitch Really?
Hell yeah Like to kick the living shit out I'm sure you would And you?
I already know what I would do I was just wondering about a nice civilized guy like youAfter what he did to Karen, think all the rules are out the window Rip his fucking heart

(01:16:33):
out Cole, you're a scary guy
Now the feelings that Michael's having here are unreasonable.
Like, his wife was attacked.
I can appreciate the rage that you would feel of wanting to be like, yeah, I'd love to getmy hands on him.
But you can see the wheels turning in Pete's head.
He invites Michael to go on a ride along with the cops the following night.

(01:16:58):
Before we get there, I just want to say that there is one thing Karen does unknowinglywhen she has a moment alone with Pete with the broken teacup.
Yeah, like the neighbor's dog comes coming in in the teacup.
She drops the teacup.
Yeah.
And she says this one line to him that I was I wrote down.
after she I forget even what Pete is saying and that he didn't used to be as outgoing orsomething like that.

(01:17:25):
And she she just says, take it from a teacher.
We love those quiet little boys in the back of the class.
And then you get the shot of Ray Liotta and I'm like, it's done.
that's that.
That is and their lady in the tramping like picking up broken teacup parts after the dogbark.
a jump scare and it is just, was like, boy, like you can't falter, but, boy.

(01:17:49):
No, nothing she said on the surface is, well, she was leading him on.
It's just a conversation.
he takes it all, you know.
So by the time he's invited Michael to the ride along, you know, there's something,there's something here.
But again, from Michael's point of view, it's not, it's interesting the way this movieworks with the moves that the antagonist makes, that Pete makes.

(01:18:17):
They don't
read on the surface as loaded.
We know that they are, but the other characters, the characters of Michael and Karen don'tknow that and wouldn't reasonably jump to that conclusion because they haven't seen the
trailer for the movie that they're in.
very similar to look Dan's having an affair, but there's nothing about going out dancingafter you had sex on night one of your fling.

(01:18:47):
You wouldn't jump to the conclusion.
I'm going to wind up with a boiled bunny and, and, attempted murder.
Like you wouldn't, you wouldn't jump there.
Exactly.
It's, you know, even less here cause Michael and Karen don't even think they're doinganything wrong.
And they aren't.
Right, it's not even like, know, Dan in Fatal Tracks knows he's doing something wrong.

(01:19:08):
He knows he's doing something wrong.
Again, you don't think that the consequences are that the woman you had an affair with isgonna kidnap your child.
Like, why would you even think that?
But he knows he's crossing a line.
Here, they don't even realize they're doing it.
So they go on the ride along, Michael has a chance to see things on the other side of theline.

(01:19:30):
This is where I was like, I...
there's no way Michael is, is, has lived in Los Angeles that long.
Cause they go to a place for dinner and Michael just seems put off by Mexican food.
And I'm just like, if you live in Los Angeles and you're put off by Mexican food, you havea problem.
That is a, that is going to be a problem.
Yeah.
So they go to the Rytle again, he, he, he sees the world that these cops live in day inand day out.

(01:19:56):
And it is a dangerous world.
There's people who really want to do harm.
and they constantly have to be on their guard.
And I think the movie brings up this idea of people who have to live like that because oftheir job.
It really does take a toll on.
Yeah.
And another important part of this is there's, it's very, very minor.

(01:20:19):
It's around the, when they stopped to get food and they have, I believe a sex worker comeup and start, start talking to, Michael and asking if he's a detective, you know, he'd be
making more money than the plain clothes cops, guess, presumably in that case.
So she's targeting him and he's sitting with, you know, the two officers and it's justvery,

(01:20:43):
very minor, but Michael kind of jokingly, you know, to the other two is like lieutenantactually.
Yeah.
And then she gets in and they, they shoo her away, but you can see in officer Pete at thismoment when Michael said he wanted to beat up the other guy, you know, Pete mentions a lot
of, wouldn't think a civilized guy like you would want to do that.
And now here he just, it's, it is like a little white lie felony or whatever ofimpersonating an officer, but you can also see in

(01:21:13):
Ray Liotta's performance where you're like, you can see he clocks it.
He's like, He just, he just lied about being an officer and like, that's kind of a bigthing.
Now it isn't in this instance, but this is good.
This is building to what Pete wants to do with Michael next.
Yeah.
Yes, and we should mention, and I think it's worth mentioning right now, Ray Liotta isamazing in this movie.

(01:21:38):
This came out two years after his breakthrough role in Goodfellas, obviously, you know, amovie that we've all seen many times, and he's great in it.
He is so good in this movie because Ray Liotta has the ability to be both charming andterrifying, and to move from one to the other and have them be absolutely genuine

(01:22:01):
in both ends of the spectrum and move between them very quickly.
He is great.
Like he's the best antagonist since Alex, since Glenn closes Alex in Fatal Attraction thatwe've encountered so far.
As you say, Michael Keaton was going for that but but Ray Liotta is amazing here.
And part of this is the function in this, like Pacific Heights, it's not set up for Carterto be in seduction phase for that long at all.

(01:22:25):
It just, it's like more of a trick.
Yeah.
And it's just about the money, right?
Right.
He's just luring them with the promise of money here.
The seduction is very, very long and involved and it's just.
You know, I frequently don't like a lot of tragedies where it feels like the characterjust keeps making a dumb decision over and over again because of whatever their flaw is.

(01:22:49):
And again, here it's like they are really being seduced by by Officer Pete.
And it is like there is also a, you know, again, it's that like watching the heist, seeingPete worm his way into their life, even when you're going, no, no, no, there's an
enjoyment to that because it's done so well.
Yeah, yeah.

(01:23:09):
And the other interesting thing about this movie is that it separates out Michael andKaren after a while, you know, Michael has kind of turned, you know, at a point, and we'll
get to it very shortly, where Michael has turned on Pete, but Pete is still working Karen.
And their opinions of them are not the same at the same time.

(01:23:31):
They end up in the same place, obviously.
But like, it's not like...
When in Pacific Heights, when Carter Hayes essentially reveals himself to be a bad guy,both Drake and Patty find that out at the same time.
Here, the couple doesn't.
Michael and Karen don't.
So there's a disconnect there.

(01:23:52):
Yeah, because and then you get conflict with the married couple and conflict is drama.
So that is all very good.
Absolutely.
So after the ride along, they drop off Roy and Pete takes Michael for one more thing.
And Pete has found the guy that broke into the car's house.
And this scene is just, my God, like he basically offers up the guy to Michael, be like,hey, you could beat the crap out of and do it.

(01:24:20):
You know, I'll give you my nightstick.
And it's just like, it's so...
unsettling.
the way he says he's got these lines like you go into my friend's house scare him and hispretty wife.
First of all your friend's house and the fact you mentioned the pretty wife like it's reallike Ray Liotta is so great in these scenes don't you resist me don't you resist me like

(01:24:46):
honestly terrifying.
It goes back a little bit to the discussion that we were having during the fatalattraction coverage where it's, this just someone who's trying to find a kindred spirit?
And in a madman's mind, maybe he's doing this guy a favor.
This is the moment where he may be feeling like, yeah, I'm helping you get the justice youtold me that you wanted to get.

(01:25:11):
So.
Even though we see things ratcheting up all around and the clues are all there leading usinto the direction the film is eventually going to land.
This is one of those moments where it almost seems like he's in his warped perceptiondoing this guy a solid.
Yeah, what happens is, and I wanna talk to that, because that's an interesting point.

(01:25:33):
Michael refuses to beat the guy.
He does not wanna do that.
And how different would this movie have been if Michael had beaten the shit out of thatguy?
How differently would it have gone?
I'm curious.
Cause in many ways in the moment it does play like officer Pete is, trying to help and youknow, maybe if he thought Michael could protect Karen, would he have gone away?

(01:25:59):
I don't know, but I have a suspicion that Pete is already so obsessed that if Michael hadbeaten this guy up, Pete would have turned him in and this would have, because it's going
there eventually anyway.
think that's interesting.
think it was a setup, but
There's nothing in the, the, this is one of the nice things about this film as well.

(01:26:20):
There's sometimes that not getting information.
does feel like you're missing out on something.
But with this, because Pete is unstable, I don't know that we could know for sure.
And I don't know that Pete in that moment would have consciously known, but in any event,it is a, it's a super interesting question.
And I, I, know, I go back and forth on it myself.

(01:26:40):
Yeah.
It's really, really interesting.
So Michael is not going to beat the guy up because he's just, he's not going to do that.
He throws the nightstick on the ground and the guy kind of makes a break for it.
catches him and beats the shit out of him as Michael's telling the stop.
And again, this is where you can't help but think of the 1991 beating of Rodney King.
It's, it's, it's, is, it's grim and frightening.

(01:27:01):
so Michael goes home.
He tells Karen what happened, which I also liked, like he didn't try and hide it.
Like he, he, didn't.
be like, everything was fine.
He tells her what's happened.
And she's like, are you overreacting?
But he isn't.
He's been there and he knows.
So what you're seeing is that separation of the husband and wife, they're being less of aunit because her opinion of Pete is different than his opinion of Pete because he's seen

(01:27:28):
things that she hasn't.
And not long after Karen's swimming in the pool, she comes out, there's Pete.
and he explains everything that happened the night before, you know, from his point ofview, which is not the truth.
And he does an interesting thing.
There's an interesting thing.
He points to the wound on his chest.
Look.
When I first started out, I went on a routine call.

(01:27:53):
Alright, this young kid, was high on drugs, was beating on his girlfriend.
Alright, she couldn't have been more than 15, 16, sweet girl, blonde hair, blue eyes.
Also, I didn't pay her much attention.
I was reading the kid his rights when she took out a gun and she shot me right here.

(01:28:16):
in the chest.
So now I restrain felons first with whatever it takes.
With whatever it takes.
And that's how was last night.
I don't need another bullet in the chest and you don't need a dead husband, do you?
You I'm very sorry if Michael's upset.
I was just doing my job.
Pete, wait.

(01:28:38):
I'm...
I'm glad you got them.
not to toot my own horn, but I immediately was like, this story's bullshit.
Cause the wound is right over his heart.
Like if he was shot there, he'd be dead.
it would have destroyed his heart.
But you know, it's effective enough.

(01:28:59):
It keeps Karen thinking well of him.
So Pete Nick shows up at the investors party that Michael throws at the Mayan.
And again, obviously Pete is crossing a line, but because
Michael and Karen have had different experiences with him.
Their reaction to him, to Pete, is a little bit different.

(01:29:22):
And even the fact that Michael, you know, the first time Pete shows up at the party,Michael is telling a joke that Roy told when they were on the ride along and Michael has
repurposed for that party.
It shows that he's, it's just a really interesting dynamic.
Yeah, because you do in any movie like this, where you have just to be totally reductive,the wimpy nerdy guy, you know, right, you've got your Richard Dreyfuss and jaws, right?

(01:29:48):
And then you've got your your quint.
In this case, Officer Pete, and it's like, you know, Michael's not quite masculine enoughto get the job done at the beginning of this thing.
And here he just turned down the real violence, but now he's play acting at being that
kind of person.
And it is fascinating.

(01:30:08):
So he's, he's putting on the facade, but it's hollow and empty.
Although we are in the second half of this party sequence, we are going to get somethingthat is kind of real from Michael, but it's, there's nothing to back it up.
And it's gonna, it's gonna get start getting him in big trouble.
Yes, indeed.

(01:30:29):
I also want to mention that this is the party where we first induce Penny, who is anotherteacher at Karen's school that Karen would like to fix up with Pete, but Pete has no
interest in Penny because he only has eyes for Karen.
I also want to mention it's funny that Madeline Stowe's character is named Karen becauseRay Liotta will say that name a lot.

(01:30:51):
His voice sounds basically the same as in Goodfellas and all I could hear is, why did youdo that Karen?
That was all we had!
And basically we reach a scene where Pete and Michael have a confrontation where Petetells him to get the hell out.
Here's to your club, Pete.

(01:31:13):
I want to get something straight here.
I'd like you to leave.
Michael, what is with you tonight?
Why'd you even invite me here?
No, no, no.
Telling you and inviting you are two completely different things.
You seem so uptight.
Relax.
Is it because you were up late last night?
You nervous about all this?
How do you know?

(01:31:34):
think I know.
I driving by your house on patrol and saw that your lights were on.
You didn't go to bed until well after three.
You don't have to protect us anymore, Pete.
You caught him.
Remember?
Mike, one guy's out of business and you think that's it?
You're not a virgin anymore, buddy.
You saw how much evil shit there is out there.
Now what kind of friend would I be if I didn't do what I could to protect you and Karenfrom all of God damn it, you listen to me because I'm telling you.

(01:31:56):
You leave us alone.
You know, I think I understand where this is coming from.
do you?
Just cut the shit, okay?
Nobody expects you to be me.
I'm a cop.
I make my living going up against guys like Pike.
You don't.
You've got nothing to be ashamed of.

(01:32:16):
What'd you think this...
do?
I bet you had one hell of a night last night when you got home, didn't you, Michael?
Juices flowing and everything?
I'm not your friend.
I'm not your buddy.
I'm nothing to you.
You got that?
I think you're a sick guy, Pete.
I don't want you around me, and I don't want you around my wife.
Michael, honey, you guess...

(01:32:36):
I'll be there in a second.
Pete was just about to Michael needs to get some things off his chest.
Michael, Roger, he has to talk Please.
Kicking me out, Michael?
Honey, please don't keep him waiting.
If I.
It's it's pretty good.
And Michael, you know, look, he's he's very clear at this point, right?
He is not mincing words, which is why now Pete's just going to be after Michael afterthis, right?

(01:32:59):
Right.
Because he knows Michael is play acting at being a strong guy.
Right.
He knows it firsthand from from Pete's perspective.
Right.
But I want to there's one bit of direction that stood out to me that
is indicative, I think of a lot of the visuals in this movie where after Pete gets kickedout, right?

(01:33:21):
And he's pissed and he's at the valet stand waiting for his car.
And he can see inside where Michael and Karen are with the other investors and they'relaughing and ha ha ha ha.
Yeah.
And Pete looks totally pissed.
He gets into the car and the valet is, know, like, Hey, have a good night, sir.
And he's just like, grr, but you get Pete getting into his car.

(01:33:44):
And that's more of like a medium to long shot.
And then you whip pan to the left, to a close up of Karen, you know, from Pete, Pete's POVlooking in at her as he's getting into the car, you whip pan.
It's a close up of Karen toasting with champagne in a glass, right?
Yeah.
And her face is on the left side of the screen and you dissolve from that close up to theclose up of Pete on the right.

(01:34:10):
who would have, as you're coming in, it's like he's staring straight at her close up asyou're dissolving.
And he is drinking coffee out of a paper cup.
So you're really getting into some of the signifiers of the, you know, the social statusbetween officer Pete and the yuppie couple who's coming in to gentrify Los Angeles.

(01:34:33):
Not that it's not that it's ever played that way as far as like
greater socio political LA here, it's just kind of taken as a a given.
It's like what they do.
But it is interesting.
Yeah and it's a common theme between these two movies.
Both deal with sort of the gentrification of American cities which in the 90s was reallystarting to pick up after a couple of decades where American cities had kind of fallen

(01:34:59):
into disrepair.
And just a great visual representation of that.
it does, there's a lot of nice little things like that throughout this film.
is, yeah, that I just enjoyed seeing.
Pete has an encounter with a prostitute in his car where he's having sex with a prostitutein his car.
And I think there's clearly the implication that he couldn't climax.

(01:35:22):
don't know if you guys, like I was like, he just, can't like, he's clearly so focused onKaren that he can't get off with this, this prostitute.
She does remark on the scar in his chest.
He tells her it was a fishing accident.
So again, what is, what is the truth?
Again, I would think it's the fishing action.
Cause if he took a bullet there, he'd be dead.

(01:35:42):
And then he, you know, he's, he gets so angry at her, he dumps her out of the car andleaves her in the middle of God knows where.
And she's like, I don't even know where I am.
She's like, that's your problem, isn't it?
Isn't it?
And holy shit, Ray Liotta does fury.
Amazing.
Like he is so, he's scary as, he may be the most frightening antagonist we've encounteredin this series so far, even including Alex.

(01:36:09):
And it's established through their little banter as this is happening that they've knowneach other that she's like, it so nice to hear from you.
haven't heard from you in a while.
So, and he still has that turn on her, even though it's someone that he, it's not justsome stranger.
It's not just the hookup with a random prostitute.
This is someone that he has reached out to, get together with.

(01:36:30):
I mean, nothing is sacred to him.
Anyone is open for victimization and the way he ditches her.
It's why he's never had a relationship.
It's why he ends up, you know, preying on people all the time through his role as a cop,which is another thing that they talk about quite a bit.
He and his partner about how women love cops.
think that we're so powerful and everything.

(01:36:52):
And, and it's shown time and again, but here he is.
I mean, just nobody means anything to him ultimately.
And that's the moment where we fully realized that in this.
And then we have a great, I'm not talking about filmmaking in this film, there's a greatcut from him dumping the prostitute out of his car to immediately him talking to kids at

(01:37:12):
Karen's school and saying how being a policeman is really about helping people.
And it's just, the dichotomy there is great and it's just a great cut.
Absolutely.
So things start to happen to the cars.
Their credit cards get canceled.
Michael's car gets booted, which costs him $600 to get back.

(01:37:36):
Hey, look for Dick Miller as the guy at the impound lot.
Remember Jonathan Kaplan started with Corman.
So there you have a nice, you have a great little Dick Miller appearance there.
And the film does an interesting thing because it leaves just a little bit of doubt.
I think just a margin of doubt that are these just a
things that happen or is Pete behind them?

(01:37:58):
I think the answer is that Pete was behind them because he's basically started hiscampaign against Michael, but they're also, like, hey, it could be just the credit cards.
Maybe he got the boot because he hadn't had a parking ticket paid.
Or it's a mistake.
Yeah.
Because again, it, has to, there has to at least be plausible deniability, right?
There's nothing, there's no notes or anything.

(01:38:21):
It would be crazy to immediately for Michael to assume, officer Pete is behind everything.
Right.
Right.
Because you need some delayed response to build to Michael's realization that, my God,officer Pete is behind everything.
Right.
Right.
Again, this just makes Michael not an idiot.
He is a reasonable person trying to do reasonable things.

(01:38:43):
He's even tried to say, Hey, we don't want any more your help.
I don't want to beat people up.
That seemed perfectly reasonable to me.
What is not reasonable is that one night Michael and Karen start to do what might be themost ill-advised thing in the whole movie.
They start making out on the bathroom floor.
my God.

(01:39:04):
It's just like, don't do it, man.
That's not, it's not sanitary.
And then the alarm system goes off.
Michael rushes to see what happens.
and so thankfully the, the, the, their coitus on the bathroom floor gets interrupted and
And on the way, he grabs the gun that his wife didn't know he bought.

(01:39:25):
And again, I thought this was real interesting.
The gun is stored in the stupidest place possible.
It's in a duffel bag on the top shelf of the closet.
Now, I don't own a gun because I know that I shouldn't own a gun.
But if you do have a gun, you want it to be secured so no one but the owner can access it.
But you also want so the owner can get to it quickly if they need it.

(01:39:48):
Here,
The gun is neither secured nor can Michael get to it quickly.
It shows that he just doesn't have experience and that probably shouldn't have.
Yes, all of that.
And it is.
Was it?
my God.
What is the Sherlock Holmes story with the woman?

(01:40:10):
Scandal Bohemia.
Yes, where the fake fire causes the person to show you exactly where the where the
is kept where the the where the letter and photograph were hidden yeah yeah
So here it is the setting.
And again, we are not told or shown this, but this is clearly Pete testing them, I think,right, so that he can see if you know what Michael's response is.

(01:40:36):
And so now he knows Michael has a gun and may or may not even know where it is.
Right.
Well, the alarm turns out to be false.
then, and I swear to God, thank goodness they moved from the bathroom floor to the bedbecause the bathroom floor was really, really upsetting for me.
I'm like, no, no, don't do that.
But then as they're having sex in bed, Ray Liotta enters the room behind them and it'sjust, it's the most unsettling moment.

(01:41:04):
He turns on his flashlight, his gun is drawn.
And he said, you know, it's like, it's so creepy.
He claims he was just there following up on the alarm, but Michael, you he you tripped ityourself, didn't you?
Like it's, it's the escalation here is, and it's just so, my God, like that it'severything's dark and Ray Liotta, the flashlight comes in.

(01:41:25):
It is so, it's just, it's a really great scene.
It's, but it's terrifying.
It's like the bathroom confrontation in Fatal Attraction with the mirror.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Michael goes to Pete's captain to lodge a complaint, he, he, this is where he, he's not,he's not equipped for this.
Like he doesn't bring any concrete evidence of wrongdoing.

(01:41:48):
Like he, he, you know, he goes, has these complaints, but he doesn't have any evidence ofit.
Um, and so that's going to go nowhere.
But now, now Pete knows that he's lodged a complaint against him.
He talks to his lawyer buddy who says maybe you can bribe him.
Uh, so he goes to try and bribe him.
Uh, and, you know, they're meeting up on like Mulholland drive, looking out over the city.

(01:42:11):
And, uh, and Pete tells this story about how he took a call up in that area when he was ayoung comp, uh, because a coyote had taken, uh, had this old, this woman's, you know,
poodle and that all they found of the poodle was the diamond studded collar.
And it's such a.
Like it's so withering of like you're part of this upper class, but you, you can't protectthe things you have.

(01:42:36):
And that's really like Pete's thing is like, you know, Michael, Michael can't protectKaren.
That's how he feels, but I could.
except he can't because he himself is the danger to Karen.
Exactly.
He's, he is the coyote.
he, the attempts to bribe, there's the attempt to bribe goes badly instead, you know, Petesucker punches Michael and sticks a gun in his mouth.

(01:42:57):
He's like, I could kill you and get away with it.
Like, yeah, he could probably kill Michael and arrange the circumstances.
So he would get away with it.
and Michael goes to Pete's partner, Roy, tell them what happened.
Roy then tells Pete to back off and leave the cars alone.
But Pete,
respond, I'm better for her than he is.

(01:43:18):
Like it's, he's gone full delusional.
And there's this scene where Pete chases a suspect down the street, down an alley and upto the guy's apartment and Roy's with him.
And once Roy has the suspect apprehended, Pete puts on a pair of gloves and he pulls out asecond gun and he shoots Roy.

(01:43:39):
And then the suspect, and he makes it look like the two died in a shootout.
was one of those moments.
It was one of
couple moments in this movie where I actually stopped and said, shit out loud when he shotthe partner because the partner threatened he's like, hey, don't don't approach them.
I could go I could go above your head.
And Pete's like, and he does exactly what he told Michael he could do, you essentiallykill somebody with total impunity.

(01:44:04):
It's sad.
It's really sad.
I mean, that's like the only voice of reason that's anywhere near him.
Yeah.
Gone.
Absolutely.
So soon Michael gets arrested because the cops storm his home.
They find a comically large amount of drugs stashed in his home.
It's like a feed bags worth of cocaine.
And Michael's arrested.
The bail is set fairly high because of a prior plea deal he had had years earlier where aninvestor hid drugs in his car and he got busted for it.

(01:44:32):
And while his lawyer's trying to put together the bail money,
Karen's now home alone.
Well, not alone.
She's got her friend Penny keeping her company.
And Pete shows up with some groceries at the back door, but Pete, Penny won't let him in,which is smart.
But then he puts the groceries down and leaves and she opens the door to pick them up.

(01:44:52):
And that's stupid.
When Karen awakens, she finds Pete cooking dinner in the house.
And this whole last sequence is just so incredibly intense.
And Ray Liotta and Madeline Stowe are amazing in this sequence.
It is terrifying.
But they are great
Yeah, I mean, he is.
It's just so creepy and chilling.

(01:45:14):
Yeah.
And she knows she's trapped in his like kind of trying to play a law.
It's just the like the cat and mouse, but you're in the same room.
Yeah.
Like within sight of each other.
And he's dressed in civilian clothes, but the gun is very prominent on his belt.
Pete expresses his love for Karen.

(01:45:36):
And this is the second holy shit moment.
Karen goes in, she's looking for the cat, or she says she's going to look for the cat.
And she opens the front hall closet and she finds Penny's body stuffed inside.
And I wrote down, shit, Penny is the bunny!
Yes
So Michael finally makes bail, but when he can't reach Karen at home on the phone, he getsconcerned and he races there.

(01:46:00):
And now that she realized how dangerous Pete is, she doesn't know what's going to set himoff.
She goes upstairs.
She's like, I got to change.
let me, you know, but she's really looking for the gun that her husband bought, but Petealready has it.
And just, just like he said to Michael early in the movie, the gun always ends up in thewrong hands.
I'm sorry.

(01:46:20):
It's it's Chekov's wax gun safety.
It's true.
Like it's, it's, it's, it's from early on.
It's check exactly that.
And Karen, she gets the gun and she's, she aims it at Pete.
And he's like, you're not going to do that.
And she pulls the trigger.
But of course he's taken out the bullets, but now he's pissed.

(01:46:43):
Cause now like he becomes enraged.
He calls her a whore because he had set her up on this pedestal.
She was different from.
the prostitute that he was having sex with in the car, the women that he sees on thestreet night after night.
And this was so intense.
Like, my God, like he put his hand between her legs.

(01:47:03):
Like I winced.
was like, this is terrifying.
But then his car alarm goes off outside.
Car alarms, which were useful for like one week in 1984 and then have never been usefulagain since.
When's the last time you heard a car alarm outside and ran out to see?
Wow.
Is someone stealing a car?
No, they're useless.

(01:47:24):
What's the point?
Michael comes home, he reunites with Karen.
Now they both know that Pete's a danger.
Pete bursts in through the window.
There is a fight.
And it's worth mentioning the contrast between this and Pacific Heights because PacificHeights had had those earlier physical confrontations.
We didn't really have that to the same degree here.
This fight just feels so brutal and terrifying.

(01:47:46):
Pete's head gets smashed into a glass cabinet.
Michael gets hit with a frying pan.
finally, Pete takes a fall down the stairs and just, it looks like he smacks his head intothe tiles down there.
And Michael and Karen's like, is he dead?
And obviously, I mean, we've watched a number of these movies.

(01:48:07):
You kind of can guess what's going to happen.
But Michael and Karen don't know that.
They're trying to get to the front door.
And of course, Pete pops up one more time and Michael shoots him with his own gun.
The thing that Pete thinks he's not
capable of doing, Michael does.
What is amazing to me is how many beats this movie borrows from Fatal Attraction almostdirectly, but it does it so well.

(01:48:29):
It just works.
All of these sequences work really well.
That fight at the end is amazing.
But this was terrific.
This is one of the best ones we've had so far.
Yeah, it's so good.
It's so much better than the first.
think that there's a pretty stark difference between A and B on today's lineup of the twofilms.
I think that, I mean, Leota and Russell are both fantastic in this one here.

(01:48:54):
The diversity of the settings, the scope of the production, it's much bigger than evenlast week's.
mean, it's like, this is something very different than what we've experienced so far sincethe first that we discussed in Fatal Attraction.
And it's, it's interesting to me that the, you know, many ways it is, well, I guess withthe antagonist, it's gender flip from fatal attraction, but like fatal attraction, is a

(01:49:20):
character from the outside of our family who is obsessed and, and unhinged and does notsee reality.
The biggest difference is that I think Alex is probably has a lot more.
points that are true, whereas I think officer Pete is just divorced from reality.
Yeah, it becomes more clear as the movie goes on that he is just, he's not.

(01:49:44):
He does not have good points in the same way that Alex has some good points about Dan, youknow, was the one who had the affair and, you know, is trying to just sweep her away and
all of that.
Exactly.
But man, Ray Liotta, Kurt Russell, Madeleine Stowe, they are all so great in this movie.
And I think best hair since Anne Archer.
Am I wrong, Chris?

(01:50:05):
Absolutely kind of timeless hair.
So, and it's interesting you mentioned that in both of these movies, again, you haveoutsiders.
Next week, we're gonna look at two movies where the danger comes from somebody closer thanyou might expect.
So first is gonna be an obsessed husband in the movie Sleeping with the Enemy starringJulia Roberts from 1991.

(01:50:29):
And then a deranged nanny played by Rebecca de Mornay in Curtis Hansen's
the hand that rocks the cradle.
So we'll be covering both of those next week.
Come back.
It's going to be really interesting.
call will be coming from inside the house for sure.
Inside the house.
Thank you so much for listening.
Again, we are your hosts, Chris Iannico, Rob Lemorgas, and Justin Beam.

(01:50:51):
If you've enjoyed our show, please consider subscribing and following us on Blue Sky,Instagram, threads, and Twitter at Get Me Another Pod.
In addition, check out the Justin Beam Radio Hour wherever you listen to podcasts.
And you can find Justin's new book, Roadside Memories, at JustinBeam.com or wherever booksare sold.
If you've liked the show, tell your friends about it.

(01:51:12):
Tell your enemies about it.
Tell that mysterious guy who just moved into your house and may or may not have your bestinterests at heart, and join us next time as we continue to explore what happens when
Hollywood says, Get the End of It.
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Fatal Attraction Ep. 03 - Pacific Heights / Unlawful Entry

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Fatal Attraction Ep. 03 - Pacific Heights / Unlawful Entry