The 2002 film Home Room imagines the unlikely friendship between two survivors of a school shooting - women from very different backgrounds united in tragedy.  Busy Philipps and Erika Christensen play Alicia and Deanna respectively and Victor Garber is the police investigator hoping the two will help answer questions about the deceased shooter.  With Columbine fresh in the world's memory, director/writer Paul F. Ryan attempts to examine the effect a mass shooting can have on the community and...

The 1990 Australian film Blood Oath (aka Prisoners of the Sun) is the harrowing true to life story of the military tribunal put together on the Indonesian island of Ambon to investigate the mass killings of Australian soldiers in a Japanese POW camp.  Leading the charge is Captain Cooper, played by stalwart Aussie actor Bryan Brown (FX, Cocktail, Anyone But You) and a whole battalion of great supporting turns from Deborah Unger, Terry O' Quinn, Russell Crowe, Toshi Shioya, Tetsu Watanabe,...

Joan Bennett and James Mason, in only his third US film, play blackmailee and blackmailer respectively in director Max Ophuls' The Reckless Moment - his tale of a harried housewife whose life is turned upside down when her daughter accidentally kills a cad boyfriend and Bennett tries to cover it up.  After directing only five American films, German born Ophuls returned to France, where he was a citizen, and continued to direct until his untimely death at age 54.  Despite a relatively small...

Shot on location in New Orleans, blaxploitation horror film J.D.'s Revenge was the introduction of two of the hardest working and respected Black actors in the business - Glynn Turman and Louis Gossett.  Already established presences in lots of TV and film projects, J.D.'s Revenge gave them the opportunity to play leading roles.  With able support from Joan Pringle and Fred Pinkard, the movie, about a law student possessed by the spirit of a violent gangster, has become a cult favorite.  Dan...

Shot on location in foggy San Francisco, Blake Edwards' Experiment in Terror was his follow up to Breakfast at Tiffany's - again engaging a young sophisticated city girl with a handsome leading man but this time in a very different context.  Lee Remick plays Emily Sherwood, a bank teller menaced by a blackmailer and serial killer and Glenn Ford is the FBI agent assigned to protect her and capture the villain.  Ross Martin, known mostly for playing nice guys, is bad guy Red Lynch and was...

Hot Date is shaking things up for our latest episode. Instead of reaching back in history for a random date, Dan & Vicky stay in the present and discuss the serial killer thriller and recent release Longlegs, directed by Osgood Perkins and starring Maika Monroe, Nic Cage, Blair Underwood and Alicia Witt.   Along with Longlegs, your hosts chat about some recently seen including Sing Sing, Kneecap, Under Paris, the documentary Faye, and horror film Monolith.   Check us out on all our...

After Italian producers balked at director Enzo Castellari's idea to remake The Dirty Dozen, he raised the money himself and hired American B-movie titans Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson to lead a group of military prisoners across Nazi German territory (really the backlots of Cinecitta and surrounding areas) on a trek to freedom into Switzerland.  In 1978's The Inglorious Bastards, Castellari uses all the staples of Italian 70's schlock cinema (boobs, blood and bad dubbing) to great effect in...

1939's horror comedy The Gorilla was meant to be another 20th Century Fox showcase for the talents of The Ritz Brothers - three Newark born and Brooklyn raised brothers snatched from vaudeville by the studio in hopes they would bring Marx Brothers or Three Stooges size audiences.  The film, however, was plagued with false starts, lawsuits and bad blood.  It's failure effectively ended the trio's time at 20th and after one more film at Universal, they returned to the stage and nightclub...

A very special episode of the Hot Date Podcast with Dan & Vicky.  There's drama, there's tears, there's nausea inducing popcorn.  And, oh yeah, a movie to discuss.  This time it's 2000's Cornwall shot Saving Grace starring Brenda Blethyn and Craig Ferguson in the charming tale of a woman on the verge of bankruptcy with a plan to save her home by growing weed.   But truth be told, the movie isn't really the main feature this time - that would be our two hosts who maybe show a side of...

We've reached another tenth podcast which means Dan and Vicky give you their Top Ten! This time, your hosts are counting down to their favorite top ten creepy performances! Man, woman and children are eligible.  Try and guess which actor appears on both lists, which actor has two performances highlighted.  What made-for-TV film makes the list!?  Have a listen and see if you agree.  Send us some of your favorite unsettling performances Follow us here: hotdatepod.com FB:  Hot Date Podcast ...

Italian horror director Lucio Fulci's 1988 Aenigma seems to have been inspired by films as varied as Carrie and Patrick, with a dash of Argento madness and 80's slasher thrown in for good measure.  Shot in Serbia standing in for Boston, the film features make up effects by Guiseppe Ferrante, cinematography from Luigi Ciccarese and a score by Carlo Maria Cordio. Dan and Vicky discuss the film along with some recently seen like Exorcist: Believer, Meg 2: The Trench, Taylor Swift: The Eras...

Take a trip on decommissioned Streetcar 133 in Luis Bunuel's surreal and sweet 1954 film Illusion Travels By Streetcar (La Ilusión Vaja en Tranvía).  When two mechanics learn their favorite streetcar is being taken off the line for good, they take it for one last drunken joyride that turns into an existential examination of life in a big city.  The film stars Carlos Navarro and Fernando Soto as the hapless mechanics and Lilia Prado as their female foil and potential love interest.   Along...

1954's Sleep, My Love was an early directorial effort from German born emigre Douglas Sirk.  Sirk would later become recognized as an auteur - by, of course, the French - for his work with melodramas (Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows).  Sleep, My Love, starring Claudette Colbert, Robert Cummings, Don Ameche and Hazel Brooks, was his attempt at a domestic thriller. Dan and Vicky discuss the gaslighting noir along with alot of recently seen including A Haunting in Venice,  Talk to...

Actors Griffin Dunne, Mark Metcalf, and Amy Robinson were looking for film projects for their fledgling production company and all agreed that Ann Beattie's novel Chilly Scenes of Winter was ripe for adaptation.  Indie director Joan Micklin Silver came on board with John Heard and Mary Beth Hurt leading the cast.  The film struggled at the box office in 1979 under the new United Artists imposed title Head Over Heels.  When it was re-released in 1982 as Chilly Scenes of Winter, the film fared...

Mike White's (White Lotus, Enlightened, Chuck and Buck) directorial debut Year of the Dog tells the story of Peggy Spade, a mild mannered people pleaser who's life is upended when she loses her dog Pencil in a poisoning accident.  Or was it an accident?  Molly Shannon plays Peggy with a strong supporting cast that includes Peter Saarsgard, John C. Reilly, Regina King, Laura Dern, Josh Pais and Tom McCarthy.   Apropos to the film, Vicky discusses her love affair with dogs while Dan talks of...

Dan and Vicky head back to the old west for a Gunfight at the OK Corral.  The 1957 film directed by John Sturges and starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas tells the oft told tale of the legendary, albeit short, gun battle between the Earps and the Clantons and the violence, greed and passions that lead up to it.   In a wide ranging conversation, your hosts talk about the recent actors strike, Dan's show at the Bay Street Theater and lots of recently seen including Insidious: The Red Door,...

1985's Crimewave was the sophmore effort for Evil Dead director Sam Raimi, actor and producer Bruce Campbell and producer Bob Tapert.  The film started as the script The XYZ Murders by Joel and Ethan Coen.  Raimi and genre friendly production company Avco-Embassy agreed the script was a winner and started shooting on a 2.5 million dollar budget.  And that's when the problems started.  With really young and relatively inexperienced fillmmakers at the helm, the budget balllooned, actors started...

1963's Shock Corridor was director/writer/provocateur Sam Fuller's depiction of the search for truth in a hostile society bent on obfuscating and distorting it.  Set in a mental institution, Fuller's story of a Boston Globe journalist who gets himself committed to solve a murder gets at the hypocrisy and violence that can occur when that search butts up against racism, sexism and preservation of the status quo.  It stars Peter Breck, Conctance Towers, James Best, Gene Evans and Hari Rhodes. ...

At a time when there was considerable United States naivete and even support around Hitler's domination of Europe, Warner Bros. took the calculated risk of releasing the fervently antifascist 1943 film adaptation of Lillian Helman's Tony award winning play Watch on the Rhine.   Aiding them in delivering the important message was outspoken liberal Bette Davis, Hungarian born leading man Paul Lukas (who ended up winning the Oscar for Best Actor), Dashiell Hammett (taking over writing duties...

We're back with another Top Ten!  Every tenth show we try to pick a fun and engaging topic that'll yield a list of our favorite top tens.  This time it's Top Ten remakes.  Vicky's criteria was films that are better or just as good as the original.  Dan didn't really stick to that criteria as you'll hear but the lists are eclectic, cover several genres and span the globe!  Have a listen, enjoy and send us your Top Ten Remakes!  You can get tickets to Dan's show at Bay Street Theater, Tales...

Dan and Vicky discuss the 1998 Canadian psychological thriller Pin from writer/director Sandor Stern starring David Hewlett, Cynthia Preston, Terry O'Quinn and the voice of Breaking Bad actor Jonathan Banks.   Stern is most famous for penning The Amityville Horror from 1979. Your hosts discuss the cult favorite along with plenty of recently seen including the horror docuseries In Search of Darkness, 1965's Red Beard, the Michael Jordan biopic Air, Shudder's The Apology, and several classics...

On Hot Date episode 168, Dan and Vicky discuss the French-Polish film The Double Life of Veronique starring Irene Jacob, Philippe Volter, Sandrine Dumas and Claude Duneton.  This was the breakthrough film of Polish auteur KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI, who went on to make the acclaimed Color Trilogy and the Dekalog series. Your hosts also discuss dog sitting, Steve Guttenberg and give a shout out to a Hot Date Facebook fan!  Some films and TV covered in the recently seen section include Scream VI,...

Dan and Vicky discuss the randomly chosen 1950 melodrama Paid In Full starring Lizabeth Scott, Diana Lynn, Robert Cummings and Eve Arden.   Your hosts also discuss some recently seen including Cocaine Bear, All Quiet on the Western Front, Top Gun: Maverick, and the series Fleischman is in Trouble and History of the World Part II.   hotdatepod.com FB:  Hot Date Podcast Twitter: @HotDate726 Insta:  hotdatepod

Although stuntmen did most of the underwater work, Elvis Presley, cast as Navy frogman Ted Jackson, whose job it was to diffuse sunken mines, still had alot of scenes in and around water in 1967's Easy Come, Easy Go.  This necessitated being clothed head to toe in scuba gear and getting wet occasionally - two things Elvis was not a fan of.  Also appearing in this film, one of the last of Elvis' movie career, were an off shore treasure subplot, a yoga class musical number, hippies in full body...