Not wanting to leave behind Peter Weller, we picked another one of his movies! He's not the nude one, well, kind of. It's time for Abel Ferrara's CAT CHASER! No, there are no cats in this movie.
We cannot escape the tempting clutches of Peter Weller, it seems. Unfortunately, this time, we are at a loss.
Elmore Leonard's CAT CHASER, adapted by Abel Ferrara (covered when we uncovered BAD LIEUTENANT), starring Weller and Kelly McGillis. What could go wrong? A lot supposedly. A troubled script process. Warring co-stars. Abel Ferrara.
For a film that depicts mostly a bunch of conversations in rooms and locations with very little action, there were a tonne of accidents and near-fatal incidents on this shoot. Kelly proclaimed, "I WILL NEVER ACT AGAIN!" and took a 6-month hiatus. This film is rare. There is even a rarer 3-hr slop print that exists on videotape in the film archives. You might have to deal with the DVD-quality version on Hoopla (support your local library).
Unpacking the Chaos: Catchaser's Behind-the-Scenes Drama
Laura: Well, hello there. Welcome to on the BiTTE, the podcast that uncovers full frontal male nudity in cinema. Uh, my name is Laura, and I am joined by my hotelier, Ryan.
Ryan: Meow.
Laura: Oh, my God. That. Okay, yeah, yeah, sure, Meow. Because we're Talking about the 1989 heist film Catchaser, directed by Abel Ferreira. Ryan, have you heard of this movie before?
Ryan: Um, I'd heard of it through the pantheon of Elmer Leonard's writing work. Okay, that is about it.
Laura: That makes sense. That makes you sound very, um, literature based. Yes. You read a lot.
Ryan: Yeah, well, I know of Elmer Leonard because he did. He was the, um. He had the original works from Jackie Brown, which was Rum Punch and then also out of Sight as well, because those films also have, uh, recurring characters, even though they're directed by two different people. Um, Tarantino and Soderbergh, respectively. Um, and yeah, he's known for these sorts of twisty, heisty, double crossy sort of crimey things. Um, and this is just one of his lessons, lesser known ones.
Laura: All right, well, this film stars Peter Weller, Kelly McGillis, Charles Durning and Tomas Million. The synopsis that I pulled from Letterbox is beautiful. One sentence.
Ryan: Thank God.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: It's the only thing not convoluted about this film.
Laura: Maybe it's a little too short, like the movie we'll see.
Ryan: Too, um, short. Well, that's why there's a two hour director's cut, which I will not force myself to watch.
Laura: I will talk about that after I tell you this. Uh, a Miami hotel owner finds danger when he becomes romantically involved with the wife of a deposed general from the Dominican Republic where he fought many years back. Okay, that's that, uh, the tagline from the poster is passion, Greed, Murder. Tonight they pay.
Ryan: It's meant to be like an erotic thriller, and this is another one of those nail in the coffin. Even though it's not particularly an erotic thriller, it might as well. It might as well just be one of those things that. Yeah, just puts another death nail into the genre itself. It's just very, um. I wonder, because we're talking about Elmer Leonard. His. His. The adaptions of his books became more of a prevalent thing in the 90s. So I feel like, is this maybe the jumping off point for the Elmer Leonard saga? You know, when out of Sight came out in the early 90s, and then obviously Jackie Brown came out, um, slightly later into the 90s, so I do wonder because he had a hand in writing this script.
Laura: He did. So I got a lot about the script. I have a lot. There is a very long article from 2014 that was kind of written about the saga. That is Catchaser.
Ryan: Okay. Because this is an Abel Ferreira joint.
Laura: It is.
Ryan: Um, and we've already covered him, um, and in length when we did Bad Lieutenant. Um, I like Abel's stuff. And he keeps on popping up in movies. He was in Marty supreme recently.
Laura: Oh, right.
Ryan: Um, you know, so he does keep on popping up a fair amount. But, yeah, I have a. I have a soft spot for. For Abel's stuff. I've always found it enjoyable. It's just a shame this one's a little bit boring.
Laura: Well, this film is, as we were talking about, Based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard, who is friends with Peter Weller. Actually, the original screenplay doesn't surprise me,
Ryan: like, in the slightest. Doesn't surprise me at all. I feel like if Peter Weller enters your life, it's very difficult to get him out.
Laura: I feel like Kelly McGillis will disagree with you there.
Ryan: Of Top Gun fame.
Laura: Mhm.
Ryan: Because what else has she been in other than this? In Top Gun?
Laura: Witness.
Ryan: Yeah, she was in Witness.
Laura: I feel she was. She's hot off the heels of Witness and Top Gun when this came out. So she is hot, hot property. She is the star of this film. Peter Weller is not the star of this film.
Ryan: He's not the hottest of properties, which is a real shame because he's a fantastic character actor. But, yeah, she's. Yeah, it's like, oh, my God, she was so sexy in Witness. Let's get her in something similar. And it's like, okay, no worries.
Laura: When Abel Ferreira met her at the Chateau Marmont, he was thinking in her head. In his head. He's like, okay, this is the chick from Witness. Right. She
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Laura: walks in and he was like, you know, the things he says are
Ryan: a little bit maybe off the cuff, incendiary, not.
Laura: Yeah. He goes, I thought a prostitute walked in and she walked in the door. Um.
Ryan: Because Abel's straight from the streets, yo. Like, he. He doesn't give a. He really doesn't. He's lived that life. So.
Laura: Okay, I'm gonna go back a bit because the original screenplay was written by Alan Sharp and Ferrara, and Weller hated the script. And, um, by the way, he also wrote the screenplays for Rob Roy and the Osterman Weekend.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: They thought that he took, like, a character.
Ryan: Yeah. Uh, not a. Not a subtle hitter whatsoever. Has some cachet.
Laura: He does.
Ryan: Certainly. If it's Rob fucking Roy. Come on.
Laura: Well, they thought he took a character driven story and turned it into a plot piece. Weller obviously being friends with Elmore Leonard, has an affinity maybe for his works, right? So he's familiar with the book and goes, the book is good, the dialogue is good. Do the book. Why aren't we just doing the book? So Weller went into a meeting with the producer, Bill Panzer, and he told him he didn't like the script, but he was being very diplomatic about it. Then Abel Ferreira walks in like 20 minutes late, like full of piss and vinegar. I hate this fucking script. You have a brilliant book bullshit script. What the fuck did you fuck this book up for? So now we have an issue because the producers have a problem with not only Peter Weller having issues with the script, but they also have a problem with Abel Ferreira. So it's not getting off on the right foot at all.
Ryan: I would have been interested to read that script, actually. I say I'll take that back. I would have been interested to see a film adapted from a more plot driven script. Cuz they are trying to make a movie here, you know, and there's a lot of stuff in the film that currently is that you're like, like where was the love for the book? You know?
Laura: Well, that, that is certainly when you're
Ryan: confused, that is the problem 90% of the time.
Laura: Yeah, I will be leaning on Ryan a lot. I don't know what happened in this movie.
Ryan: Oh no. Uh, it's going to be mostly my description of the plot is going to be this guy did this and then this guy did that.
Laura: This guy fucks this guy's wife, this
Ryan: guy does this thing and then oh, bathtub. You know, like that's basically what's, basically what's going to happen because that's how my notes are.
Laura: Uh, uh, oh, bathtub.
Ryan: Uh, oh, bathtub.
Laura: Really good.
Ryan: Yeah, that's actually really good.
Laura: Okay, so Peter Weller suggested that Jim Borelli, who worked on the dialogue for Shakedown that came out the year before, um, he worked on it a bit with Elmore Leonard. So after a month they had a working script, but Borelli still didn't think it was ready even if Abel Ferrara did. And Borelli's like, abel, we got holes here, we got holes there. And Abel's like, I know, but like we can do it visually. So that, that was a problem.
Ryan: Then Elmore Leonard doesn't make any sense either because the film doesn't look good.
Laura: Correct.
Ryan: Film looks really droll.
Laura: Yeah, it looks kind of it looks sad. There is one, um, it looks very
Ryan: plain, which is kind of maybe worse to say than like some of it. Yeah, it's very kind of. It lacks a lot of color and depth to it. It's just very.
Laura: There is a scene where they're at a bar and she's like smoking cigarettes and a guy comes up to her. And then I think Peter Weller walks in. And there's something about that scene that made me so uncomfortable. It just looked bad.
Ryan: Yeah, I mean, Abel's not out there to make something that's, you know, for the masses. You know, I mean there's certainly. But the thing is, is like he doesn't lean into the dingy darkness of it, uh, enough either. So you're kind of just like. You're like, okay, well here's this story. It's like, wow, look at this Miami Beach. Isn't this nice?
Laura: Well, he just came off of doing some Miami Vice episodes.
Ryan: I mean, that's fine, but they look. I mean, yeah, I mean, not to put down Miami Vice, but Miami Vice looks like Miami Vice. Like it's not. It's not super cinematic. If you pick and choose, like certain episodes of, of Miami Vice, it's a TV or it's a TV show. You know, they're shooting things very, very quickly. Like it looks relatively quite. They're using the. They're using the backdrop of Miami to its best possible potential. And that's really kind of. And obviously they're wearing those terrible fucking suits, you m. Know. Um, but yeah, I mean, Miami Vice is Miami Vice. So yeah, it does. It does feel a little. It feels a little TV to me. It's incredibly well lit. Let's put it that way. It's very well lit.
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Laura: Okay, so Elmore leonard was given $20,000 to rewrite just the first 20 pages of the script because they missing like the A narrative.
Ryan: So God forbid they wanted to stick with the plot driven script. But anyway, that was the whole point.
Laura: And then. But they gave it back to the source.
Ryan: If anyone is familiar with Elmer Leonard's stuff, it's the stuff that always, always drives his work forward is just you. You pinpoint what the plot is and you just drive it forward and. And then you inject your own little style into it. That's why out of Sight and Jackie Brown work so well is that they take a very interesting Elmer Leonard story, put a good cast in it, who develop the characters because most of the time the characters are fairly cookie cutter, very stereotypical, um, who then kind of elevate it a little bit more, which you don't really get with this. No one really owns their role in Catchaser. You never really explained as to what Catchaser means.
Laura: Yeah, Catchaser was the, like, the unit he was in when they went to the Dominican Republic. Oh. Uh, to overthrow the regime.
Ryan: Well, I mean, that's even one more thing, you know, more than me, so, you know, I don't know how I. Yeah, well, according. According to them, we're all animals. So, you know.
Laura: Well, they gave the script back to Leonard to rewrite it. Right. Just to write the first 20 pages. But he ended up rewriting the whole thing. But then when they got it back, they're like, this is completely different, uh, to the story. He goes, well, I don't remember the story. I wrote that ages ago. It's like a mess. Oh, and then, and then Ferreira didn't want to use this script either. So it just became a big freaking mess, you know. And, uh, Ferreira took the book and blew it up to like 11 by 14 sheets and was just taking a big marker and just marking out this and a highlighter and highlighting this and then just putting everything together in it. And then this is what we have.
Ryan: It's a disaster. Yeah, it's a literal disaster.
Laura: It didn't help that the cut was taken away from the director. There was a late stage re edit orchestrated by the producers by Bill Panzer and Peter Davis, who, who produced Highlander. They removed a lot of the film, much of what Ferreira considered to be basically the heart and the grit from the material. And then they added in that off putting narration. Peter Weller was like, I'm not doing the narration. It doesn't make any sense and it sounds like shit. And so they got Rennie Santoni, who played Clint Eastwood's partner in Dirty Harry, to do the, the voiceover narration, which
Ryan: is so odd, which is the guy that Clint Eastwood's character is really racist to during the course of that entire movie.
Laura: So there, there's a three hour raw cut of this that was screened at, uh, Anthology Film Archives in New York back in 2014. And it was a three hour VHS that Anthony Redmond and Abel Ferreira, uh, found on a shelf by accident. So. And it's just, it's got like the time codes in it totally like unfinished. So there's not technically a, uh, director's cut of this film. There is just one random ass VHS uncut. It doesn't have those black and white war scenes in it.
Ryan: It's just a Work print. Yeah, yeah, it's just the slot print. Basically. It's the. Here's everything put together. Now let's try and craft something out of this slot print. Um, okay. Interesting. He didn't even know that existed, so. Because they took away his ability to cut. I mean, to be fair, what would. What would be the purpose of bloating this out?
Laura: He didn't.
Ryan: Twice its length.
Laura: It was never going to be three hours. That was not the point. That was just what they had on the shelf. So they decided to screen it. Um, Though he would love to have it recut together one day in his own way. That would make more sense for the film to actually have that narration and have like, that relationship. I don't know. To have more information. It's sloppy.
Ryan: It's very. Yeah, it's devoid of info. Even just character names.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: Um, are kind of just. Yeah. I mean, the only reason I know Peter Weller's name is they say it constantly.
Laura: They also. He also made them, ah, call him that on set because he's method.
Ryan: Of course he is.
Laura: RoboCop.
Ryan: Yeah. Robo wants an Oreo.
Laura: Um, so Weller and McGillis did not get along. They clashed constantly. If you couldn't tell by their complete lack of chemistry during the film. Um, I don't think this was an issue for Weller, but. But Kelly McGillis got paid more than him. And he said that they didn't get along from day one,
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Laura: base before production even started. When they met, she rubbed him the wrong way. She walked in when they met, to the hotel, just acting like a star, just okay, M. Everything belongs to her. Everyone is below her. And he wasn't really that into it. And then he was method the entire time. She wasn't a fan of that either. She's like, I don't get it a lot.
Ryan: Yeah, a lot of people don't really get it. And I don't. Yeah. I don't know if it really translates that much.
Laura: And this guy is just like, who? I don't know. He's just kind of a dude.
Ryan: He's not. Yeah, he's nothing. I don't want to say he's nothing special.
Laura: Like, I know he's ex military and stuff, but, um, that doesn't really show through in the film either.
Ryan: But then how many films are out, uh, there. Certainly Hollywood films where someone is ex military. You know, most of the actors who you remember from films of that time in the 70s into the 80s were all character actors who most definitely within their lifetime went to War. So it could quite easily be like, well, you know what? I can draw upon this in my particular character state because I did go to war myself. So, um, yeah, it's. Yeah, there's aspects, certainly, of George's character. There's aspects of it that are a bit of a mystery and his motivations are kind of cloudy at best. Um, Yeah, I mean, he's. Yeah, it's. It's a. It's a. Yeah. I don't even want to go through the story. I really don't.
Laura: I've got more. I have more tales.
Ryan: Yeah,
Laura: there. There were issues on set with Kelly McGillis.
Ryan: You don't say.
Laura: She had breast augmentation surgery in the middle of their Christmas production break.
Ryan: Nice.
Laura: So there were obviously problems with continuity. And she had nude scenes.
Ryan: Okay, right.
Laura: So that was a problem. And, um, let's see. There was a lot of accidents. There was a lot of, like, near death accidents that happen constantly.
Ryan: How?
Laura: On set?
Ryan: What, while we were.
Laura: Or hospital. Like, people had to go to the hospital. So there's a scene where Peter Weller was, like, running in Santa Domingo and he runs into a barricade and the cinematographer, Anthony Richmond, was, like, running beside him with the camera. And Weller went into the barricade so hard that this huge piece of metal, like, flew at Anthony Redmond, uh, or, sorry, Anthony Richmond, and cut his eye and he had to go to the hospital and get stitches. There was a child who almost drowned on set. There was, like, no nurse around to help. And there was another person who got their feet run over by a car. And there's also that scene where they're. Let's see, what is it? Uh, Kelly McGillis's character and her husband, the general, are having that divorce discussion.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: And the dock blows up.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: That blew up in rehearsals on accident. And there was crew around, so there was like a near death experience of, like, almost 10 different crew members when the dock blew up outside. Then they had to rebuild the dock and do the whole thing again.
Ryan: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. I wouldn't have thought from watching the film because it's mostly just a bunch of rooms and people talking in them. Um, there's very little in the way of, uh, actual action, um, other than obviously when the dock blows up. You're like, oh, that's interesting. A slight flash of color, but it's. Yeah, okay. All right, that's interesting.
Laura: I don't know if you noticed. You probably did, but they did not film in the Dominican Republic. Uh, they filmed in Old San Juan in Miami and in Coral Gables. They started production in November of 1988, and they wrapped in early 89. And also, Kelly McGillis described making catchaser as, quote, the most hateful experience of my life.
Ryan: Well, um, good for her, I guess. It's, uh. Yeah, it's a, uh. It's a fucking. It's a thing. I mean, we even thought Harvey Keitel was the. Was the narrator.
Laura: I did. I did think he was.
Ryan: And I would have expected them to be like, hello, this is Harvey Keitel. I will be narrating the movie Catchaser in the opening title sequence. And I was like, all right, here we go. Take me on a. Take me on a journey, Harvey.
Laura: I didn't know any of the things about. I knew that there was a longer VHS cut of this, and I knew. I didn't. I didn't know that much, though. So when that narration came up, it's awful, it's horrific.
Ryan: It just weird. It hits like, um. It hits like a
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Ryan: ton of bricks, like, every single time.
Laura: Because I was getting confused and in my own head about it, because I go, isn't this Peter Weller's character? Like, he's describing what's going on? But then I'm like, is this another person, not Peter Weller that's describing the story?
Ryan: Well, I thought the narrator, for what I could bear to listen to, was talking in the third person.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: So, you know, he was narrating. He was. He was basically the storyteller. It's like Jack and Ory, you know, like, he was just kind of telling the story of, like, the general and the general's wife and the murder and the crooked cop and the white suit. And he's always wearing the same clothes. Clothes for. Yeah, every. Yeah. You're like, okay.
Laura: Um. Well, he's always tucking in his shirt.
Ryan: That's true.
Laura: Yeah. Constantly.
Ryan: He's like, I don't need the dress. It's like, okay, um. There's a fantastic bit where they're having a fight out near the pool. And he and Peter Weller jukes one of them because they have to go around the pool because they're not going to jump in the pool to get to him. And he's just like, where am I going? Left or right? I really like that bit. That was it. Yeah, you come. Come to me. Then it's like, okay, just someone go to him. Like, someone get to him and progress this forward, please.
Laura: I didn't write anything about the movie because I don't know what happens. I don't Know what happens in this movie?
Ryan: I didn't really care. That's the thing. Because it's just, like, you have a guy who owns this apartment complex that he's renting out in Miami. He was a soldier during the Dominican
Laura: Republic, and, uh, someone saved him, and he was trying to find her.
Ryan: Yeah. And it wondered if you, like, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones were all animals. Some guy's wife, obviously. Harvey Keitel, the general.
Laura: The. The general that was deposed from the Dominican Republic is married to Kelly McGillis.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: And she wants his dollars.
Ryan: And the guy in the white shirt with the white coat, he's a crooked ex cop. Jiggins. He's a crooked. Well, he's trying to get the money. The money has been stolen.
Laura: Okay.
Ryan: Um. And there's slightly more narration, so I
Laura: have more things to say about how shit it was, apparently, for Kelly McGillis. She said the first day on set was pure sexual harassment. She said they hired a, quote, stripper from a club in Miami to stand in for her nude scene, and everyone was groping her. So she left. Um, she came back, but she left that day. Everyone on the crew dismisses that comment. Abel Ferreira is like, what if that stripper was, like, one of the crew's girlfriends? I don't know.
Ryan: Oh, no.
Laura: Um.
Ryan: Abel, you gotta just stop talking sometimes.
Laura: She said, um, if this is what acting is going to be, I will not do it. Some people say that she clashed more with Weller than she did with the director. And so there. There is. In this erotic thriller, if I'm not mistaken, isn't there only one sex scene?
Ryan: Yeah, because when she gets nude the second time, that's not sex.
Laura: That's the rape scene.
Ryan: Well, that's the scene where he's like, yeah, he's using a gun on her.
Laura: Right.
Ryan: Um, so you don't see any of that stuff. But obviously, you know, it's what. They talk about it as if it was fine as well. Like, her character and George, like, talk about it as if it was okay.
Laura: Right.
Ryan: It's like, well, I hit him first. It's like, okay, but isn't. Uh. There's a lot. There was a lot of other things happening. It's pretty up, you know.
Laura: Well, during the sex scene with McGillison and Peter Weller, it was the last thing that they shot, and Peter Weller was being really, really awful to her. So they're meant to be having sex on the floor, and they were shooting over Peter Weller's back, and he needed to take his underwear off. Right. Because you're supposed to see his butt.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: And the cinematographer recalls something happening. Like he made some really horrible remarks to her. Quote, something like, I'm not gonna do this. I'm not gonna take my pants off. And then he made some remark about her about, like, what he might catch or something like that. Like, peter, well, is just being a prick.
Ryan: What's he gonna do?
Laura: And he's. I don't know. But he. Nothing.
Ryan: But I like the idea of him maybe trying to take his pants down and then he like, farts that.
Laura: Oh, my God. That whole sex scene, that erotic scene is so gross. I'm like, there's not a boner in the house. This is not the dick scene. The dick scene is way worse. But you see his butt and it's just like he's got his trowel, like half down his thighs and he's just sadly pumping. And it's like they're barely kissing. And it's sweaty, but not like body heat sweaty. Not sexy sweaty. It's gross.
Ryan: She was so happy to see him, though.
Laura: Uh.
Ryan: Oh, my God, I can't believe you're here. It's like, oh, my God, I can't believe you're here.
Laura: How much she hates him in her eyes.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: It's like they're opposite magnets. Like, it's not going well or. No, they would be the same magnet, right?
Ryan: They'd be the same magnet.
Laura: The same magnet repelling.
Ryan: Yeah. You just couldn't. You couldn't push them together.
Laura: No.
Ryan: You know, um,
Laura: so after they wrapped that particular scene, which was the last one that they shot, she said to Abel Ferreira, are you done with me? And he said, yeah. And she walked into her trailer and shaved her head and said, screw you. I never want to act again. She got on a boat the, uh. And sailed for six months after that.
Ryan: What the fuck?
Laura: Okay, yeah, she was over the, um.
Ryan: Film doesn't have the film. At worst, this film is boring.
Laura: Right?
Ryan: So how she's. How she's excising so much trauma from this thing, I have no idea. 90% of it is literally just folk in rooms talking to each other like that set. So I'm like. I'm like, what the is going on?
Laura: I cannot speak for this woman. I cannot speak for her trauma. Uh, she was one of one woman on set. It looks like there was maybe a couple other females, but it was a very male dominated set that she's the
Ryan: only one that had any issues.
Laura: Correct. It seems as though possibly. And I cannot speak for her this is just an idea that there was maybe more going on behind the scenes in her life that she brought to set.
Ryan: Right.
Laura: So, you know.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: A lot of the crew were like, I don't know why working on this movie would, like, make you quit acting forever. But, you know, she didn't quit forever, but she did take a pretty long break. You were. We were talking about the scene with her. With her husband, the general.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Like, after their. Was it. Was this after their divorce talks? And he. It's like this rapey scene with a gun.
Ryan: Well, he's like, divorce me because I'm fucking done, basically.
Laura: Right. Because if she divorces him, she doesn't get money or something.
Ryan: Something like that.
Laura: Okay, sure.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: So she's holding on so that she doesn't. Because she likes money. Fair enough.
Ryan: Yeah, I guess.
Laura: So you can imagine in an Abel Ferreira, uh, movie how much further the rape scene went in his original, at least screenplay, the original cut of the film. So during that scene, they're. They're rolling around and they're punching, which is kind of like a stunt thing. So Abel Ferreira was like, well, maybe we should have a body double. And he didn't want to talk to Kelly McGillis about it. She finds out that he hired someone to be a body double for, like, this stunt scene. At least this is according to him. And she, According to him, says, you don't like my body? You want another chick? And he replies, like, are you kidding me? I've never. I would never think of replacing an actress with a double for that reason. And he just thought that maybe, like, maybe she would want someone for. At least for the rehearsals. But she took it as a huge offense, like, to her as, like, a reaction to her body.
Ryan: Right.
Laura: And they actually let her McGillis, write the rape scene, like, for her own, I guess, comfort to whatever she would be comfortable with. And the rape scene in the film is what she wrote. That's what they shot.
Ryan: Right. Okay.
Laura: Um. But, yeah, it goes a lot further. You could tell because he's got the gun in her mouth. He's bringing the gun all the way down. And basically, it's a lot more of that grotesque, you know, penetration with a gun that's going on.
Ryan: Yeah. Well, you find. You find out that this particular general likes to strip people down naked before he kills them.
Laura: Is that why what happened happens?
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: Okay. Got it.
Ryan: It's his thing.
Laura: Okay, that makes so much sense.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: Because at an hour and 12 minutes and about 30 seconds into this film,
Ryan: and we were terrified as well. Cuz we, this was a film that we weren't able to, um, verify cuz it's so rare. And even the, the, even the quality of the version we're watching, it's incredibly poor. It's very poor.
Laura: The highest quality version you can get is on dvd. We watched this on our free library app, Hoopla.
Ryan: Yeah, if you're not utilizing your library, then you're, you're a done support your
Laura: libraries and watch Catchaser.
Ryan: Cat chaser. Yeah.
Laura: So why don't you set this up for me, Ryan? Because I don't remember. All I, I remember them getting into the bathroom.
Ryan: I get a. Flex my plot muscles.
Laura: Thank God.
Ryan: Um, so here we go. Um, so there's a bunch of stuff that
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Ryan: happened up to this point, right? Yeah, obviously, spoilers aside. Right. Um, and we have the crooked ex cop and the general. They're in the house and she's, she's at the, she's at the brink of leaving, right? She's definitely leaving. And there's this, there's this hint of this money, this money in the suitcases, right?
Laura: Because she found the money. And I don't remember in what order this happens.
Ryan: She does. They're in identical suitcases. This is something um, like this is something that like a good, like a good Hollywood writer would make abundantly clear to its audience. But you're like, you're just look at you like, hold on.
Laura: I thought they missed a step because she had the two suitcases. And I'm like, okay, one of those definitely has money in it. But then he had two suitcases. A switcheroo at all?
Ryan: No, there is no switcheroo.
Laura: Yeah, okay.
Ryan: From, from us watching so many fucking movies. Because, you know, we're old now from watching so many fucking movies. You put two and two together and it's there. And for whatever reason, like cops are coming to the mansion because things are in jeopardy. Peter Weller picks her up, the suitcases are in the back of the car. Um, and there's a, uh, back and forth between the ex cop and the general. And the ex cop says he's going to go to the bathroom. At which point the general and his right hand man take this opportunity to murder the ex cop who's in the bathroom without knowing when they kick the door down, they've riddled the whole thing with bullets. They look down and there's just a uh, can of Budweiser sitting on the rim of the toilet.
Laura: Right? Okay. Okay.
Ryan: I remember this obviously dripping into the toilet. So it sounds like the Guy. The guys make a pee pee noise and then all of a sudden, who jumps out of the bathtub? Uh, but the ex cop with a gun. And he's like, I tell you, I think I saw this coming. All this sort of shit, right?
Laura: He does like a 10 minute monologue about how a gun silencer works at some point.
Ryan: Pretty much, yeah. He says, like, look how quiet this is. And it just kind of keeps on happening.
Laura: He might have said that later in the movie, but I did mean that.
Ryan: He was just like, what if your lady just had a heart attack? She was like, oh, no, you're walking
Laura: down the street on Bayshore Avenue.
Ryan: Yeah. Ah, you heard that?
Laura: And you just fall to the ground.
Ryan: As far as I'm, um, aware. Suppressors, like silencers that are that quiet, they don't exist. Suppressors don't exist like that. They still make a noise, but it's a suppressed noise, you know? You know, it's just like kind of.
Laura: Yeah, but he's so impressed. It's like, when did this. I'm gonna. While you're telling this story, I'm gonna find out when it first.
Ryan: It's meant to. It's meant to be like a flash guard, you know, because you don't. Like. If you say, for example, if you're a sniper and you're shooting someone from a distance, you don't want people pinpointing your position from the muzzle flash when you shoot. So that's suppressors. Alight. But also, I think suppressors also, like the, uh, they fuck with your accuracy. Like the bullet can, you know, go in different directions, all that sort of stuff.
Laura: Anyway, man, silencers have been around since like the end of the 19th century. They've been around forever. And this guy's talking like it. They were just invented.
Ryan: Okay, it was very. It was very droll. Anyway, he basically forces the general and his right hand man to strip off naked. Um, and this is where you find out, like, this is the general's thing. He's just like, that is something you used to do to everybody, isn't it? And he would just kind of show. And like, the general's taking his clothes off in a little bit of a huff. Not gonna lie. He's kind of annoyed. And because it's all fairly wide, it's all fairly kind of in mid. Nothing's very close. He asks the guys to get into the bathtub. And it really is like, that's a screenshot moment is when they're standing in the bathtub.
Laura: Dark. Not lighting wise, but Just narratively very
Ryan: dark, you know what's gonna happen. But that, to me, that's a Kodak moment because it's just like, it's just like, oh, look at these two sad men. These two sad middle aged men, you know, certainly not in their prime, just standing naked together in this bathtub.
Laura: Because we've seen naked shower scenes before, but this is a, this is a new one for the books.
Ryan: This is completely different. This is kind of like. Yeah, this is kind of like, you know, a drug murder sort of thing. And it's kind of fucked up and nasty and you're just kind of like, oh. And they just, they kind of just allow it to happen as well. Which I'm also kind of like. I'm like, but there's two of you. I'm sure your right hand man would take a bullet in the
00:35:00
Ryan: stomach if he could try and overpower the overweight ex cop. And the general was able to get his gun and then shoot. Like there could have been something else happening here, but they literally just will themselves to die.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: And they stand in the bathtub and he just shoots them. And it's incredibly graphic.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: Um, very, very graphic.
Laura: It's the juxtaposition of colors in the shower because I believe there's green tiles. And then you've got this, the red, red blood. And it's just upsetting looking.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Really good.
Ryan: Yeah. You're just like, huh, huh. All right.
Laura: By far the best thing in the movie.
Ryan: Yeah, it is. And it's, it's, it's good for, it's good for all the wrong reasons, though. That's the issue.
Laura: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ryan: You know. Okay.
Laura: That's the dick scene.
Ryan: Yeah, that's it. Yeah.
Laura: An incredibly dark penis scene by Abel Ferreira. Once more.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Never, um, doubt him. To have something for your brain that you won't forget quickly. I won't forget. Bad lieutenant. I won't forget this one.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: I will forget the movie. I already forgot the movie. I don't know what's happening.
Ryan: No, I just, I don't care.
Laura: I don't mind that Kelly McGillis, um, shaved her head. Her hair was really bad in this film. Really, really bad.
Ryan: Yeah, just have a do over, Kelly.
Laura: Just, Just a beautiful lady.
Ryan: Try again.
Laura: Bad haircut.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: The budget for this film was somewhere between 6 to 10 million dollars. And I'm sure you can understand they didn't make that money back because it didn't really get shown anywhere. And. Yeah, I said all my crazy things. There's so much more there's that. That article is really good. Um, if anyone wanted to read the whole thing, be like, oh, that's where she got her information from. Um, but it was called, uh, the A Snake Pit Gig. The Making and Undoing of Abel Ferreira's Catchaser back in from 2015. Okay, I would love to watch that really long. Would you call it a slop cut? Is that what they call it?
Ryan: Like a work print? Slop cut? Yeah, slop print.
Laura: Well, let's get into our ratings. Um, you know what? I'm gonna go first. Just because I feel like it. I'm gonna give that first five. I'm gonna give that scene a five. Five, five, five. I won't forget it. I would like to make an art of it and put it on my wall. It was dark and sad and slightly amusing and gruesome. And I think for a movie like this, it, it was so shocking and I really appreciated it. I don't necessarily like penises for shock's sake, but this was. It's not shocking to see the penises. That's not the shocking part, the shocking part.
Ryan: It's the violence that.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Because you have this man who had been so powerful for so long, just stripped to the bones and just, uh, taken out in such a pathetic way.
Ryan: I think what I really like though is he looks at his right hand man as they're standing in the tub and he's thinking to himself, why didn't you just go for his gun?
Laura: They really could have taken him.
Ryan: They could have done anything other than to sum total the fuck all. I mean, basically, what happened. I don't know if I agree with the 5. I'd maybe give it more of a 4 because it's not that clear. Also.
Laura: It is. You see it before they even get in the shower and they're just standing there.
Ryan: And the thing is, it does make me wonder, like, was this actually shot on 4, 3 or was it shot 16, 9? Because there's frames that are obviously much wider because you wouldn't, you wouldn't film them. You wouldn't film them so that like half the people who are on either side of frame are like cropped out. Like, it doesn't make any sense. So for me there's certain, there's certain, um, there's certain aspects of it that I'm like, okay, this is technically not very, this isn't very good technically. Um, it's incredibly bright as well. You know, should have been a lot more done with say like the, you know, maybe some Window light or something like that. Try and make it feel a little bit more cinematic.
Laura: You're correct. On. On the aspect ratio. Is that what you would call it?
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: How they filmed it.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Yeah. Okay. Anyway, yeah, I give it a 4 because there's certain aspects of it I think are. The issue is. Is it's only. It's only shocking and. And decent. Good. Because of what. Obviously, you know, what we've already watched. It's like. It's interesting because it's like, oh, my God, this is so starkly different from what we've just been suffering through.
Laura: Um, the film, you mean?
Ryan: Yeah, the film itself in this type
Laura: of movie as well. Like, you have an erotic thriller and there's. There's violence, obviously, in these type of films, but nothing like this.
00:40:00
Laura: But I think that's just thanks to the director who is helming this thing. Otherwise that wouldn't have happened.
Ryan: Yeah, but then you have it in a Verhoeven movie like Basic Instinct, she puts the fucking ice pick through that guy's head. Like, that's pretty fucking gross.
Laura: I don't know why, but this just seems sadder to me. This is just worse.
Ryan: I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it was sad. I think it's kind of just pathetic because you also have.
Laura: You can use my word as the same. A synonym.
Ryan: I guess so. I mean, it's just kind of pathetic because you're just. You're like. You're like, oh, this guy who I was told about, uh, not too, like, he's like, really powerful. She has a big house. So I'm like, who fucking gives a shit? Like, who cares at this point.
Laura: Yeah. I still don't know who anyone is.
Ryan: Uh, no.
Laura: They were talking about the General, and I didn't realize it was, like, her husband the whole time.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Andre, because she calls him Andre. And I was like, that's. I. I don't. I didn't get. I didn't understand. And it's. It's not a difficult movie to follow.
Ryan: And there was.
Laura: I just didn't.
Ryan: Yeah, but then there was that whole thing as well, where they're just like, whoa, he knows. And he's like, what do you mean he knows? He's like, he knows you've been having sex. Like, it's like, what.
Laura: How'd he even find. Uh.
Ryan: It doesn't make any sense to me because he was.
Laura: He said. He said to him, like, right in the beginning, like, I've never touched your wife. And Then like five seconds later, he's fucking his wife. I'm like, really?
Ryan: Yeah. It didn't make any sense to me. I was just like, oh, right, okay. He's like, I never touched her. I never cuddled her. You know, we're just friends. And then they're immediately straight into it. And I'm like, okay.
Laura: Ugh. So gross, too.
Ryan: Yeah, it's not great.
Laura: Anyway, um, I originally, when we watched it, I gave it a two and a half. And I'm gonna. I might drop it to it too. It's boring, it's bad, it's cut poorly, the narration is ghastly. But I fucking love Peter Weller. I really do. Every time I see his little face, it just makes me smile. And I know he's a chaotic problem,
Ryan: but he doesn't bring anything to this.
Laura: Yeah, but if he wasn't in this movie, I wouldn't have, uh. I've wanted to watch it. You know, I figured, let's do another Peter Weller movie. Because we had just done Ivan's Ecstasy. And he's incredible in that. I'm not saying he's not bad. I just like to watch him. It doesn't matter if the movie's good or not. I just think he's. I like Peter Weller. Two. Two stars. Bad movie.
Ryan: Yeah, it's a bad movie. It's not like it's good bad, it's just kind of bad. Um, yeah, I'd probably give it two stars as well. I gave it two and a half and I'll just leave it on. Letterboxd at two and a half.
Laura: But I would say if you were listening to this and you're like, that sounds insane. I would still like. It's 90 minutes. It's a straight up 90 minute movie. It's not gonna ruin your day to watch it. You're not gonna come out feeling worse. So if you wanted to watch it, knowing all the chaos that happened behind the scenes and all the people that almost died and how much the leads hated each other, and I think that might make it more entertaining, personally, just to see what chaos is going behind the scenes of such a mediocre motion picture. But that's just my opinion.
Ryan: Yeah. Such an untold amount of suffering for a bunch of folk, for something that really didn't matter.
Laura: I mean, suffering doesn't make things better, does it? Clearly not.
Ryan: Depends on who you speak to. But, um. Well, no. I mean, yeah, that's the thing is, like, there's an untold amount of suffering that went over the course of the making of this film, which all seemed to me incredibly accidental. And none of it was actually deliberate. No, basically, yeah. Summed up to a big pile of shite, so.
Laura: But I'm still fascinated by it. If I ever could get my hands on a copy of that vhs, I would want to watch it.
Ryan: But anyway, good luck with that.
Laura: Thank you all for joining us, uh, for catchaser. And make sure to follow us on Letterbox. You can follow us on Instagram at On the Beat, bitte. And if you want to rate us or review us, you can do that on any podcast platform, because we're on all of them. Just be nice, because that is the good and proper thing to do, and we are good and proper people. Right.
Ryan: Um, Coming to be able.
Laura: Yes. Coming to you from the Coconut Palms Motel, where there are no palms. I have been. Laura. Meow.
Ryan: You can't do a meow.
Laura: Yes, I can. That was a meow. Okay, that was a meow. Leave me alone.
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