Ellroy Boys

Today on the Ellroy Boys, we're discussing a couple of films concerned with assassins, their networks and men who attempting to stop them. One, is a lean home invasion flick starring Frank Sinatra & Sterling Hayden, Suddenly, the other is The Parallax View, a film Alex Cox called the “greatest JFK conspiracy film of the all”. Whether or not you agree with said statement, Pakula's labyrinthine thriller, gorgeously photographed by Gordon Willis, is entertaining and wonderfully well put together. We discuss our favorite moments from each film and naturally, further extrapolate on how and why these movies are tied to themes so explicitly examined by our favorite writer.

The Ellroy Boys are joined by one of the finest people on the planet, the crime fiction scholar and author, Steven Powell. This show would not exist without his work as he is truly the original Ellroy Boy. Additionally, he created the wonderful resource, The Venetian Vase (https://venetianvase.co.uk/) and if you're at all interested in this show, if you're fan of the demon dog, it's just essential, so if you haven't, check it out. Anyhow, today we're talking about James Ellroy's latest novel, Widespread Panic, a benzedrine blitzed confessional from real-life police officer turned Hollywood extortionist and private investigator, the one and only "hellhound who kept Hollywood captive" Fred Otash. The boys dig deep into the pervdog opus that chronicles everything from communist conspiracies to Caryl Chessman to the depraved antics of Nicolas Ray while shooting Rebel Without A Cause. The book is a rhizomatic and wildly entertaining tale. It's a joyous jolt to the system, a devilish dexedrine trip without the comedown. We celebrate and analyze the book, while exploring its grand excavation of Hollywood perversion, exposing and illuminating the industry's purposeful perpetuation of corruption, as well as deconstructing it's most insidious myths with aplomb. That aside! Forgive my hyperbole, I just loved this book and had such a great time talking to this crew. Hope you enjoy! Nothing is left unsaid. Featuring Steven Powell @EllroyReader @luso_brendan @blauer_geist & @rubberwidow

The Night and the City is a wonderfully warped and thrilling noir that welcomes the audience into a shifting & vicious world hijacked by frauds and hucksters of the worst variety. The real heroes of the story, those like Gregorius (Stanislaus Zbyszko), have their hearts and bodies crushed by manipulative hustlers looking only to bleed them dry. It's a sad, stylish, and prescient film. Richard Widmark leads the way and he's terrific as an anti hero, whose really more of a villain than anything, and who slithers around London like a spastic, feral animal. It's dark and dreary and inseparable from the tales of Dassin making it. There's no fat on it, it's purposefully dark, beautifully photographed, and it's action sequences are peerless. The great brawl at the heart of the movie and the chase scene alone make the film worth watching. Our guest, Oliver Bateman does an incredible job shedding light on the history of the athletes featured in Night and the City, as well as those who appeared in other noirs. He explains the significance of movie's central fight scene and how it relates to the popularity of "works" in the professional wrestling world, as well as the athletes who pushed back against it. Hope you enjoy! with @MoustacheClubUS @blauer_geist @luso_brendan @rubberwidow

This week on THE ELLROY BOYS... Brendan and Sam are joined by dear friend and honorary Ellroy Boy, jack, the perfume nationalist, to discuss a mutual favorite work, James M. Cain's masterpiece, Mildred Pierce. And while we spend some time talking about the book, its origin, and all of it's adaptations, we concentrate on the best one: the Michael Curtiz version. It's a bizarre and baroque masterpiece and we celebrate it's strange power, the torrid and fascinating life of Joan Crawford, how the film revolves around unspoken & unrequited incestuous lesbian longing, the brilliance of Curtiz, why it's not a feminist picture, Cain's big 3, the madness of actors, and much, much more. Thirtysomething is even talked about. On another note, Blauer is unfortunately not on the episode but he's absolutely there in spirit. This is our second look at a Cain noir, so go ahead and re-listen to the Double Indemnity episode if you need a primer. featuring jack @lotus__point, brendan @luso_brendan, and sam @rubberwidow

This weeks episode finds the Ellroy Boys talking about classic film noir, In a Lonely Place in addition to Dario Argento's Tenebrae. The first film, arguably auteur Nicholas Ray's best movie, is a deeply personal excavation of Hollywood's dark heart that follows a brilliant, cynical, and self-important screenwriter, both charismatic and possibly homicidal. It's Ray's most important film and Humphrey Bogart's character appears to be playing a version of the director. It's a sad & strange movie about loss and the self-destructive psyche of a troubled and violent man, whose gifts as an artist are inseparable from his sadistic streak. His nature keeps him in a lonely place and seems to suggest that this purgatorial state is one he's doomed to live in. It's a sad drunk of a movie that is more of a hyper-masculine maudlin melodrama than a film noir in my opinion, one that is deeply intertwined with the ego & self-pity of its director. Paired with it, is perhaps, Dario Argento's best giallo, Tenebrae, a splashy, vibrant, & blood soaked self-referential horror/thriller about a crime novelist going to Rome to promote his latest book. Upon arriving, a series of brutal murders begin, each exactly alike the killings described in the writer's latest work. The title of film may be a reference to Tenebrism, a painting technique, in which an artist keeps part of the canvas completely black, so as to strongly illuminate other elements of the drawing. This is different from Chiaroscuro, which refers to a kind of shading that gives figures in a picture a three dimensional quality. Interestingly, Tenebrae is a bright, bright film, and one of Argento's bloodiest and most lurid. If there's one thing that explicitly sets the film apart from Ray's picture, it's that Argento, while a serious artist, does not take himself as seriously as Ray, and while In a Lonely Place feels very seriously self-conscious about its own artistry, Tenebrae knows its limits as a genre film and embraces its own pulp sensibility in a way that elevates its overall quality. Its Grand Guginol filtered through Italian Vogue & it has no delusions of being anything else. Regardless, both films are exciting & worth investigating. Furthermore, we discuss Bogart, video nasties, where Ellroy intersects with gialli, Gloria Graham marrying both the director & his son, the insufferable self-important auteur, the french, and of course Nicholas Ray, his influence, career & the cult of film students he tormented toward the end of his career.

The Ellroy Boys are joined by the brilliant writer & poet, Hayden Church to discuss Hitchcock's lurid masterpiece of obsessive love, 1958's VERTIGO starring Jimmy Stewart & Kim Novak. We discuss peeping, prowling, perversion & how all these matters relate to the artists we love. Furthermore, we opine on Hitchcock's true intentions, why the film remains so haunting, and finally, Hayden hips us to one of his earliest and strangest films, 1927'S The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog.

This week, the intrepid Ellroy Boys venture into serial killer cinema. First, they discuss David Fincher's magnificent, epic procedural drama, 2007's Zodiac, in addition to 1971's singular and bizarre grindhouse oddity, The Zodiac Killer. The latter picture was in part crafted in collaboration with crime reporter, Paul Avery, who thought a movie might draw the real killer out of hiding, by drawing him into an actual movie theater. Furthermore, the boys explore why Fincher's film functions so well and why it remains so strangely addictive. It's a film, unafraid of it's inherent tragedy, of its bold dismissal of the idea that there can be closure and catharsis for the casualties of this monster. It explores how unchecked obsession eats some men alive while others manage to circumvent the abyss without letting it consume them. Despite a lack of closure, we still learn that people move on and that there is hope, but that it's not always in line with expectation. Ultimately, Zodiac is one of the last American cinematic tragedies writ large and is hugely emblematic of a kind of film we no longer see. -produced by @GOLDpny feat: @blauer_geist @luso_brendan @rubberwidow

The Ellroy Boys discuss David Lean's tragically beautiful, Brief Encounter, with the wonderful and wise, @bimboubermensch. The film, an adaptation of Noël Coward's Still Life, tells the story of an affair between two married strangers who meet at a railway station, prior to the beginning of WWII. The story is entirely set to Sergei Rachmaninoff's incredible Second Piano Concerto, which feels inextricably tethered to the film's heart and to it's success and overall effectiveness. Our discussion goes far and wide as we talk about love, extramarital affections, the death of romance, the film's Ellrovian sensibilities, and of course, Rachmaninoff. produced by @GOLDpny feat: @luso_brendan, @blauer_geist & @rubberwidow

The Ellroy Boys discuss Andre De Toth's minimalist noir masterwork, Crime Wave, an exceptionally well crafted crime picture elevated by it's sure handed direction and incredible cast, featuring Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Ted de Corsia, and Timothy Carey. The boys dive deep into police procedural mythos, the expanse of film noir, Ellroy's cinematic inspirations, old directors, redemption, and the excavation of sacred geography.

This week, the Ellroy Boys examine Samuel Fuller's sublime "The Baron of Arizona", an especially strange and wonderful western about infamous master forger, James Reavis and his fraudulent attempt to lay claim to the state of Arizona. The boys dissect the film and talk Vincent Price, alchemy, noir, 'geography as destiny', Brendan's adventure to the hallowed grounds of El Monte, CA, and why Samuel Fuller may be our new favorite director. Starring @blauer_geist, @luso_brendan, & @rubberwidow produced by @GOLDpny

On this blessed episode, Sam & Brendan are joined by the esteemed original ellroy boy Walter Kirn to discuss Billy Wilder's electric & all-consuming masterpiece DOUBLE INDEMNITY(1944), as well as James M. Cain's novel of the same name. Blauergeist is with us spiritually and will return in his corporeal form in our next episode. Produced by @goldpny

The Ellroy Boys discuss William Friedkin's bold existentialist opus, Sorcerer(1977), a nihilistic meditation on fate and a reimagining of Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear (1953). Four men from four different worlds find themselves in a hellish petroleum company town, somewhere in the jungles of Guatemala. They're all outlaws, men with treacherous pasts, all living on borrowed time. When a rebel group blows up one of the local wells, the company offers money to whomever can transport unstable nitro glycerine through the brutal, unforgiving terrain, in order to stop the blaze. This money presents our heroes with a way out of purgatory, a chance to escape. Sorcerer is arguably Friedkin's greatest film, despite it being notoriously maligned by critics and a total bomb at the box office. Nonetheless, it's resurgence has been significant and it continues to be venerated by all kinds of cinema enthusiasts. Today, the boys are joined by @Howlingmutantt & @CultWineGrinch for a celebratory analysis of the film and it's impact. Nothing is off the table and everyone gets a little lost in the weeds trying to put their finger on what makes this movie so remarkable, watchable, and immersive. Produced by @goldpny

The Ellroy Boys & Eddie of Car Crash (@edboy9k) talk Billy Wilder's masterful Ace in the Hole, a beautifully crafted and enthralling cinematic denunciation of corrupt media magnates, crooked newspapermen & mob morbidity. It's a sordid and cruel tale of a shameless reporter (Kirk Douglas) with a grim past looking to reinvent and redeem himself by any means necessary. When there's a cave-in at a local mine, that leaves a single man trapped, our "hero" sees an opportunity. He exploits and prolongs the man's pain to craft a hyper sensationalized tragedy that draws the attention of the nation. Wilder's film was considered so dark, upon release, that critics saw it simply as a celluloid slap in the face. Nonetheless, it is now regarded as one of the greatest American movies of all time. Ultimately, it was so impactful that Costa Gavras directed an especially clumsy and strange remake, Mad City, which takes some of the central themes of the original, but instead bases its narrative around a media man (Dustin Hoffman) exploiting a dim-witted security guard (John Travolta) who takes a museum hostage after being fired. This was a truly fun episode and a joy to record. Ace In The Hole is a must see if you care at all about movies. Also, if you care about good podcasts, check out Eddie's Car Crash, you won't be disappointed. Enjoy!

We're back in the books for this very special episode featuring original Ellroy Boy and brilliant crime fiction scholar and author, Steven Powell, as well as genius artist Howling Mutant. This time we're talking L.A Confidential, the third novel in the first LA quartet. We discuss Ellroy, the film adaptation, film noir, Disneyland, Brecht's Threepenny Opera, the cosmic horror of history, and the deeply haunted infrastructure of Los Angeles. w/ @Howlingmutant0, @blauer_geist, @luso_brendan & @rubberwidow Produced by @goldpny

The Ellroy Boys are joined by Rock and Roll Dream Shaman Dan Thrall @danXthrall aka the Nipsey Russell of podcasts, to talk master maximalist Oliver Stone's batshit 90's neo-noir U-Turn. Once again, no stone is left unturned and the second chapter of the Arizona trilogy comes to to a close. - Produced by @goldpny

The wonderful & wise Walter Kirn joins the boys for an off-the-cuff hang. We talk Ellroy, his brilliant book Blood Will Out, and the eternal dullness of psychopaths. Kirn further shares some excellent anecdotes, including a few about being friends with the Demon Dog himself. This one is special. with @blauer_geist, @luso_brendan & @rubberwidow produced by @goldpny

The one and only Howling Mutant is back with the boys, to talk Suicide Hill, the third and final novel in James Ellroy's Lloyd Hopkin's trilogy. It's almost certainly the finest book in the series and coincidently this is our best ep on the trilogy yet. Enjoy! feat. @blauer_geist, @luso_brendan, @rubberwidow, & @Howlingmutant0 Produced by @goldpny

Today, The Ellroy Boys are joined by the one and only, J a c k @lotus__point, to talk about what might be the greatest film ever made, Michael Cimino's 1985, ultraviolent, police procedural turned borderline grand guignol style soap opera, Year of the Dragon. Drenched in eye-popping grotesqueries and imbued with haunting melancholy, the story follows a beaten down Vietnam vet and brilliant detective, Stanley White (Mickey Roarke), as he becomes hell bent on taking on the previously unseen and mysterious Chinese mafia, a force so powerful, that it's tendrils are slowly wrapping around the whole of NYC's underworld. White sees this monopolization of power by Chinese supercriminals as an existential threat, not only to the gatekeepers of organized crime in the city, but also as a force of nature that might seize the region itself, instituting a new regime of crime, strong enough to usurp the Nation, a threat our hero doesn't take lightly. It's moving and funny and sad and beautiful and is just about everything movies will ever be again. There's a fella named John Lone in it, who you all should know and admire too. Do yourself a favor and watch Year of the Dragon, educate yourself about Cimino and listen to this podcast! It's fucking hysterical and per usual, no stone is left untuned.

The Ellroy Boys are joined by @bimboubermensch to discuss John Dahl's 90's neo-noir masterpiece, The Last Seduction. Not a single stone is left unturned and at some point Brendan becomes completely nude. Produced by @goldpny

The Ellroy Boys dig deep into the second installment of the demon dog's Lloyd Hopkins trilogy, Because the Night. While the sequel to Blood on the Moon has been largely dismissed as the least compelling Hopkins adventure, the boys find a lot to love. This one drifts into the phantasmagoric and is alive with the kind of borderline cosmic horror and transgression that makes it a book worth revisiting. @blauer_geist + @luso_brendan + @Howlingmutant0 + @rubberwidow produced by@goldpny

This weeks episode is the first of what will be a trilogy dedicated to Arizona on film. To begin, we talk about a film everyone should see, 'White of the Eye', directed by notorious and brilliant freak, Donald Cammell. There isn't anything else like it so we have to talk about it. Additionally, we were joined by the wonderful @aesthetics_ket of Pleasure Helmet. In short, everybody had a great time and we talked about everything there is to talk about and more. Featuring @blauergeist @luso_brendan @rubberwidow & produced by @goldpny

The Ellroy Boys dechurn, rechurn, and start somewhere close to the beginning. That means our brother, @Howlingmutant0 joins @blauer_geist, @luso_brendan and @rubberwidow to talk Blood on the Moon, the first novel in Ellroy's Lloyd Hopkins trilogy and the first Ellroy opus to be adapted for film, as Cop (1988), starring James Woods and directed by James B. Harris. This is the first breakdown of Ellroy's first series, and will further dive deep into the myth of Silverlake homeboy and supercop, Lloyd Hopkins and coming soon, we'll be breaking down Because The Night & Suicide Hill.

The boys are joined by the brilliant & mysterious Gwen @rancid0rchid to discuss Gary Sherman's singular, sleazoid slimeball masterpiece of a movie, Vice Squad (1982)starring the one and only Wings Hauser as Ramrod, the Judge Holden/Terminator of Hollywood pimps and featuring Season Hubley and Gary Swanson as those who dare to try and stop him. Apparently, Martin Scorsese was once at a Paramount dinner party and got into an argument. It's said the the award winning director exclaimed loudly that the 'Academy didn't have the guts to nominate the best picture of the year!' Vice Squad, of course, was the film in question, but don't take it from scorsleazy, the boys are here to celebrate and further elevate this feral exploration into Los Angeles - late, late at night... BLAUERGEIST is @blauer_geist BRENDAN is @luso_brendan SAMUEL is @rubberwidow GWEN is @rancid0rchid

THE ELLROY BOYS ride again...this time deep into the dark, tar-pit heart of Los Angeles, as depicted in Ellroy's first two LA Quartet novels: The Black Dahlia & The Big Nowhere. So, go ahead and pour yourself a strong drink and settle in for nearly 3 hours of lo-fi Ellrovian extrapolations!!

The Ellroy Boys (@rubberwidow, @blauer_geist, @luso_brendan)are joined by two very, very special guests, Jack (@lotus__point)and Howling Mutant (@Howlingmutant0)to discuss Sam Peckinpah's melancholic booze-soaked desert noir Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia. Extrapolations cohere and good time is had by all.