Podcasts
The Bisexual Energy of the Cast of ‘The Mummy’ [Horror Queers Podcast]
Romancing the Mummy.
After concluding April with discussions of Ciarán Foy’s Eli (listen), a horror version of The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, and the pseudo-sequel to Videodrome in David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (listen), we’re kicking off May with a revisit to one of our favorite years for cinema: 1999! The film we’ve selected is Stephen Sommer‘s action-adventure-horror-romantic-comedy The Mummy!
In the film, adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) travels to Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, with librarian Evelyn “Evy” Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) and her older brother Jonathan (John Hannah). While there, they accidentally awaken Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), a cursed high priest-turned-invincible mummy, and must stop him before he sacrifices Evy in an attempt to resurrect his former lover (Patricia Velásquez).
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Episode 280: The Mummy (1999)
Don’t read from the Book of the Dead and definitely don’t pick up any of those Scarab jewels, because we’re discussing Stephen Sommers‘ masterful action-adventure-horror-romantic-comedy The Mummy (1999), just in time for its 25th anniversary! Tagging in for the conversation is Welsh singer-songwriter Rod Thomas, aka Bright Light Bright Light!
Join us as we go all in on this summer blockbuster spectacle. From the bisexual energy of a perfectly cast Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz to a rather wild and incredibly lengthy production history (Clive Barker was involved???), we’ve got you covered on all things The Mummy!
Plus: how Babe: Pig in the City almost ruined Universal, an educational conversation about Rotten Tomatoes, and one major disagreement over a drunk acting scene!
Cross out The Mummy!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re headed back in time to check in with a blind Audrey Hepburn in the 1967 classic Wait Until Dark.
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 306 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 1 Episode 5, a double feature of Sting and Infested, Tarot and The Strangers: Chapter One. And our audio commentary for the month will be on Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, just in time for its 15th anniversary!
It’s been a busy month on Murder Made Fiction podcast. In addition to introducing a new co-host (Perfectly Good Moment‘s Amanda Jane Stern), we spent Pride Month tackling a wide variety of Leopold and Loeb fictional adaptations.
In 1924 Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb plotted to commit the perfect murder when they abducted and killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks. As Amanda outlines in her primer on the case, the men were caught almost immediately and the media circus that followed was billed “the trial of the century”.
Listen to Leopold and Loeb mini primer.
The fallout has reverberated throughout the last century as countless books, plays, musicals, and films have drawn on the case for inspiration. Some are more faithful than others, such as Richard Fleischer‘s 1959 drama Compulsion, which stars a young Dean Stockwell as Leopold and Orson Welles as the boys’ lawyer, John Darrow (named Jonathan Wilk in the film).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Compulsion (1959).
Then there are the texts that use the idea of queer-coded killers as a jumping off point, but confuse (or flat-out disregard) the details of the real life case in favour of jumbled fiction. That’s what happens in Barbet Schroeder‘s Murder by Numbers, which awkwardly introduces a tortured backstory for lead actress (and executive producer) Sandra Bullock. The result is an uneven film that misunderstands which of its two competing storylines are actually interesting (hint: it’s the Leopold and Loeb stuff with Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Murder by Numbers (2002).
We ended up discussing other (often more successful) titles on Patreon, including 1992’s Swoon (a New Queer Cinema art-house take on the crime), Michael Haneke‘s 2007 Funny Games remake, and gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson‘s Scream, which proved to be a much more reverent and sly interpretation of L&L than we anticipated.
We wrapped up the month with a final summary episode about our favorite adaptations before chatting with author and archivist Erik Rebain, who literally wrote the book on Leopold (Arrested Adolescence) and maintains one of the foremost websites on the crime.
Watch our discussion on YouTube below (or listen here):
Next month: For July, we’re turning our attention to the Boston Strangler, with a look at films from 1964 and 1968, as well as the most contemporary version from 2023, starring Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon.
Want even more true crime adaptations and Murder Made Fiction? Support the show on Patreon to listen to the aforementioned episodes, as well as a full-length primer on the case and 160+ hours of bonus content.
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