Modern Times / Widow Jane Lucky 13 Bourbon

0:00 In 1936 director and star. Charlie Chaplin gave the world. A grimly humorous. Look at the then modern world. And the difficulty of getting ahead, which totally is an old-fashioned problem that we don't deal with anymore in 2023. We try a well aged bourbon from the heart of the Metropolis. The film is modern times. The whiskey is Widow, Jane. Lucky 13 and more of you them both this is the filling whiskey podcast. East.

0:47 Welcome to the film and whiskey podcast. Where each week, we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G. And this week we are rounding out our toward a Lynn with his 1936 Masterpiece modern times. Mmm. Bob, before we get into that, I have I have stunning news for you, that I think you'll appreciate. All right. Listen, I don't want to step on your news, but last time you made a big announcement on this show, it was that you made a really good burrito. Yeah, I did. I'm sure it was incredible, sure it was great. Is this more or less important than your burrito? I think that you personally will find it more important. All right, let's hear it.

1:30 I Bradley G have been now as of today, this morning, in fact, to Ikea OCH first time at Ikea first time that I really never been to Ikea before not a single time. There's one, like, 30 minutes from my house. Dude. Ikea's wonderful. Yeah, I have been there now and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that place sucks. No, come on, dude. It's the worst like the a the carts have forecasters on them. What are you doing? Like, figure out how to make a cart Sweden. Secondly, you just wander around and you're just lost in this Maze.

2:19 And there's like it's the most capitalistic thing I've ever seen a bunch of liberals fall in love with ever like it. It's the most consumeristic like the it's consumerism perfected like hey, you think you could live in this cool little 300 square foot apartment. Here's all the stuff you could spend your money on and yet for some reason it just feels like people across the land that are a little more, left-leaning love this place and I just I don't get it, man, the Communist Utopia. That is like you, yeah, although you're right, it is a more, of a capitalist Utopia so much so that they're You never have to leave, come eat meatballs example, he view stocked full of protein so that you can purchase more things Brad. I never not did not like Ikea.

3:12 I never expected that you would be the person railing against capitalism on this podcast, but here we are. And then you went home and watched modern times, I did, it seems like you have a kindred spirit here in Sir, Charles Chaplin. I just might Bob, mmm. Brad. No less than four weeks ago. You had never seen a silent film. And now you have seen three of them and a bonus fourth. Non silent film from Charlie Chaplin although this one, you know. It technically has dialogue, voiced by chart, you know, surprise. Yeah, there's there's a nice little breadcrumb, not breadcrumbs. What's the word? Just some nice little Easter eggs thrown in by Charlie Chaplin as we've said a few times.

3:55 Now he makes this movie nine years after the Advent of the sound film. And everyone else has moved on at this point. And Charlie. Chaplin really digs his heels in and says, I can't make the Tramp talk, I can't do it, it will completely ruin the mystery and the illusion that I have created. With this character. I'm gonna give him one final, send off and he's gonna, he's gonna remain a silent character. And I really think Brad before we talk about anything else with, you know, this movie or this character, I think it was the right choice, even if it was way way, way out of the norm in 1936, So yeah, I think it fits for this film and if I'm being honest, based on his first full production, sound film, The Great Dictator, I think that this film is better off, not being a sound film. Hmm.

4:44 Yeah, I agree like I I think that Charlie should have held back a little bit, and just made a few, like, short, 30-minute films or something that that had sound and dialogue and all that, before he dove into a feature-length, be picture. I love it when there's like a hangover from the prior week, when you're like, still not done talking about, whatever it was, that was irking you with last week's film. And now we're back in here and you're like, no, no, I'm not ready to let go of my my problems with the Great Dictator yet. Well, that's what I'm saying though. If you had done this as a sound film, it would have suffered and this is a pretty good movie and I would have hated to see that. So I'm just trying to give him a little friendly advice. There you go.

5:26 All right, Brad. Let's let's dive into talking about the movie. I have said for four weeks now, this is probably my favorite Charlie Chaplin movie. I really am excited to talk about the differences between this and City Lights. This is the first movie he makes After City Lights. There's a five-year Gap in the release of those movies in between the two. He kind of Terrence Malick. Yeah. Right in between the two, he kind of goes on a world tour of sorts. He meets with a bunch of dignitaries, he visits a lot of different countries, and he sees the effects of the Great Depression. And how It has tanked the world's economy and how people all over the world, who know this iconic character of the Tramp are all suffering economically in the same ways.

6:10 And he realizes, I've got to make my movie be about this. And so, you know, we've seen him set the character of the Tramp back in time in the gold rush. And now we see him not just set it in, you know, what could be contemporary like it wasn't city lights but to really, honestly say, no, this is right now like you see Billboards that Say the year like 1935 scattered throughout this movie when they were filming it and not only is this right now but this guy the Tramp is going through exactly what we're going through right now. I think it really is kind of a foreshadowing of the timeliness that he really leans into with the Great Dictator that he's not setting this in some sort of like you know alternative world where the Great Depression isn't happening know.

6:52 He's going through exactly what the audience is going through. Yeah and it fits with what's going on in At the time. And I think that's reflected in the way he continues to fight to try and get back up, but keeps getting knocked back down. And if you, if you really wanted to compare the ending of the movie to anything, you'd probably compare it to the ending of Grapes of Wrath. Hmm. Yeah. Like the way that it's great point. I didn't think about that, dude. I am full of great points. Not only are you full of great points? You quoted The Immortal bards Chumbawamba in your Dissertation here. He gets knocked down but he gets up again but then he gets.

7:34 You're never gonna keep him down. You sure won't man. Yeah he probably takes a lager drink at some point. All right man. I think it's time for our first segment of the day which we call Brad explains Brad's gonna give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds ticking on the clock. So let's go ahead and kill you take with this little segment that we call Brad explains. Brad explains is the part of the podcast where Ad breaks down the plot of the movie that he has just seen often for the first time. This is very obviously, Brad's first time seeing modern times, I'm really excited to see what you do with, Brad explains because there's a lot of like, there's a lot of stuff that happens in this movie.

8:17 I don't know if you can quite capture every single scene in 60 seconds, so let's just kind of see where you go from here. Brad! You've got one minute on the clock spoil, this movie for us and go. Our beloved, Tramp is working as a factory worker and experiences a nervous breakdown when he's subject to ridiculous working conditions because of this, he's sent to a psych hospital when he's released. He finds himself in prison because he's leading a strike in prison. He stops a not a robbery a breakout from happening and is let out on good behavior and he begins the cycle of finding a job but then being Fortunately, forced out of the job, due to circumstances Beyond his control.

9:04 He works as a night Watchman at a department store, he works where I'll he works as a on the boat dock for like a hot minute. He works as a waiter in a singing restaurant and consistently. He finds himself down on his luck, not being able to get ahead in the midst of this. He meets and falls in love with a obviously like teenage girl who looks like she's 30 25 seconds it, and they travel the world together, and by the world, I mean, his heart on his luck life. There you go. There's modern times folks. Yeah, Brad. I really want to hear your thoughts on the movie itself.

9:45 I was recently re watching a clip that we've referenced throughout the seasons of this show, and it's a clip of the writers of the show, South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. And they're talking about how when you are writing, this was for television but just in general. When you're writing a script, the things that connect your scenes together should never be the words and then this happens. And then this happens. And then this happens, it makes for no dramatic Arc and you always need to have in between your scenes, so or but this happens, but this happens. So this happens instead and I think with City Lights, one thing that I would ding that movie for is that it doesn't always necessarily feel like like each scene is a logical you know, building off of the prior scene.

10:35 Where is in this movie even though it's very clear sometimes at the scenes are just there to set up a gag I think Chaplin does a much better job of putting the Tramp in a position where everything has a cause to it and there's like a ton of causality throughout the film. Yeah. The the story keeps him moving along in such a way that even when stuff is happening to him. and he doesn't really have agency in what's going on the, the stream of events is logical and Everybody's actions make sense like at every point, when the police throw him in jail, it's like well, based on their perspective, it makes sense why they threw him in jail and based on Chaplin, you know, the tramps perspective, it makes sense.

11:22 Why he he just considers himself, someone who is going to get ahead of entually someday. He is going to have a house with oranges and grapes growing outside the windows and a trained cow who can just you know, squirt, milk Abyssal man's? Yeah, I can. Milk itself. Yeah, he's gonna chief that dream someday, man. Yeah. And I think the thing that I really liked about this movie was that, even though everything that happens as kind of cyclical, we've already mentioned that it seems every time he gets ahead, there is some unfortunate happenstance that ends up winding him back in jail. He goes to jail like four times throughout this movie, it's essentially like playing a game of Monopoly, like he's just always Landing in jail and he gets back out and he starts to Some solved by many gets thrown back in jail again, and I feel like it could get really really repetitive and really like it could get grading after a while and yet Chaplin keeps finding fresh ways of making it seem like everything has a cause and effect to it. And I guess that's one of the things that I wanted to point out because I think there's some really solid writing going on in this movie, not just from like a gag standpoint. But overall structure really, I think this movie is a little more solid than City Lights I am with you. I just found myself board throughout this film. Whoa, no, Brad.

12:49 I didn't want to wait till the very end to drop the bomb on you Bobby, but this movie just didn't move at a pace that felt invigorating or felt like I kept my attention. I found myself multiple times throughout just kind of looking at the clock being like man. We've been doing this whole food machine thing for for quite a bit of time now, haven't we? And it feels like every Go gag goes on like that. Like the the worst one by far was the feeding of the man who's like poking out of the machine and it just goes on and on and then on a little longer and I'm like, I get it.

13:35 You're feeding him coffee through a chicken now. Like, it's, it's funny. Sure. And I think that's, I mean, we'll get it to my overall thoughts on chaplain in the episode about him. But, Overall with chaplain I think I like him as a silent film director. Much more than these hybrid films or a talky film. There's just I don't know. The the Gold Rush hit for me man and all three of the other ones are fine and good and interesting but not they're not my style man. Wow wow Brad, I I really hate that you feel that way and it bums me out, I was super excited for you to be. Exposed to Chaplin and I thought that this would work better for you than it did.

14:25 And it's especially a coming off of like, you know, we just re-watched Some Like It Hot for our patrons and did a review of that movie and there's so much physical comedy in that movie, but Brad, I was trying to prepare myself for the eventuality that you may not like this movie. Because usually, the ones that I hold most near and dear to my heart somehow, don't work on your cold, robot heart. And so, I was thinking about it like this, it kind of reminds me of Early Beatles music like, you know, up to and including Like A Hard Day's Night and then you kind of get into their, like their middle period, where they like discover marijuana and not young, not yet LSD, but definitely marijuana revolver.

15:10 Yeah. And then you've got late-era beetles, which is my favorite period of The Beatles, which is the, Let It Be album and Abbey Road. Like, I'd for, you know, and if the White Album, if you really want to include that like 100 by far, Ste by far, my favorite Beatles era and I would kind of consider the gold rush to be. Like if we're just looking at the four movies, we watched that's like early-to-mid Beatles to me, you know what I mean? Like, it's not super complicated or complex and I, for some reason, I've just always been more drawn to city lights and Modern Times And especially modern times and I think it's because the gags in this movie are the most elaborate gags and I think that it takes it's such a high wire act to be able to pull off some of these gags and especially like, my favorite part of the movie happens. I don't know, 10 minutes into the movie and it's that feeding machine, which I don't think it goes on too long at all. I think it's like probably would be in my top 5 moments of Comedy ever in a movie.

16:12 It's just, it is perfect physical comedy, but it also has like four minutes of setup of them going into the CEO of the factories office to demo this thing. To them picking out Charlie Chaplin to them. Getting him strapped into it before you get to the machine malfunctioning. There is so much set up to that and it's like you have to be able to deliver the goods with that much set up and I think time and time again with this movie. Chaplain does that. And so I can see why you like the Gold Rush a lot better because that is all that's like immediate set up and pay off. It's like, oh, there's a bear in the cabin and now we're going to fight a bear and it's like, that's all the setup you need.

16:53 And You get three minutes of humor of him fighting a bear or whatever. But for me, I just think that the, the elaborate nature of all of these running gags in the movie, just kind of pushes this movie over the edge for me into being my favorite one. Bob, is you've just elaborately described. I'm a simple man. With simple tastes. I don't have any any understanding of the, the avant-garde nature of later. Charlie Chaplin not at all. I think that for me, You lose a lot of the life that chaplain brings to the screen when you have these long complicated setups and payoffs. And it's not that he isn't a, it's not that he is an incredible actor and, and has that physical comedy, you know, nailed down, pat, I think it's the fact that there's just not enough life in these films. And for me, the places where this movie worked best was when Paulette Goddard was on the screen. Yeah, let's talk.

17:53 About her. She is incredible in this movie so I try and tell you last week man cuz she's in The Great Dictator. Yeah. Albeit in a much smaller role and the funny thing is that movie is significantly longer than its against a least 40 minutes longer than this movie. But I feel like you barely see Paulette Goddard I'm sure she has like an equivalent amount of screen time but there's just something about the Vibrance of her character in this. She is just a ball of energy and she's matching the Tramp beat for beat. I just like and and the way he shoots her, the way the he lights her even when she has like this greasy, stringy hair of this kind of waif-like creature on the docks.

18:36 She's just freaking gorgeous man and like it, you know, by far. I think it's the best female pairing of any of the four movies that we watched from Chaplin. Yeah. And she is the reason this movie stayed afloat, I think that as you get Bogged down in Chaplin's political perspective and the way, he utilizes it, very obviously, throughout the movie just kind of slows down too much and, and it struggles, but as soon as Paulette Goddard gets on screen and they're just focused on them dreaming and being in love and scheming and finding ways to make money. I found myself completely enraptured in the story and I think that's my, that's my struggle with this film.

19:23 Is that there's There's two clear of a divide between the story of you know, the the young girl in the Tramp and their love story and chaplain trying to be a politician or you know, a political satirist at the very least. Yeah. It just doesn't work for me. It's too much. He's trying to do too much, man. I'm going to keep pushing your criticisms to the back burner and talk about other things because we pay, if you got to find a way to fill out the runtime here before you Just crap all over one of my favorite movies and I think that I want to talk about her character a little bit more in that this is the first movie, you know, of the four that we've watched where it is, like the Tramp has a companion throughout the whole movie. And every time he goes to jail, she's there waiting for him when he gets out and it's it follows.

20:16 I guess what I would say is like a much more conventional rom-com kind of template than any of the other movies do. Even though they're all, you know, romances quote-unquote and they all have comedy in them. This feels very much like the Tramp is dating somebody. And I don't think we've ever really seen that. To this point. What did you think of just that Dynamic Brad? That it wasn't so much him pining for a girl and maybe getting her at the end of the movie, but that she was like, side-by-side with him throughout so much of it. I think that's what made the movie have a driving force. Like, they are partners in crime. They're trying to figure this out together. And I think that speaks to the deepest element of the human soul that like yearns for community in times of difficulty and, and stress. And so, in the midst of all of the Tramp struggles throughout this, you know, once he meets her, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes into the film.

21:13 Once they connect and stay together the rest of the movie, everything about it is incredible. Like when, when she meets him after his probably, I think his Last time in jail, she is wearing nice clothes for the first time because she found a job as a as a dancing. Waitress and even in that moment like you can see the element of baby driver like when when he finally gets out of jail and she's waiting for him in a beautiful dress and they go off into the sunset together. Like there's this element of It just speaks to the the core desire of humans to be connected. And she has so much life and so much energy that I'm 100% bought in on that element of this film.

22:05 Alright. I think that in all of the episodes we've done on chaplain so far and this is kind of something that when we do comedies I always feel like we back load the episode with stuff about the comedy because we get too bogged down and talking about the details of the A movie on the front end. So I want to flip that around today. I can tell that you're not a huge fan of this movie Brad, but I imagine that there were at least a couple gags that really worked for you in this movie because there's so many of them. So, before we go to break, why don't we talk about what pieces of Comedy, or which gags worked for you, which piece of Comedy are gags. Worked for me. I think that the the food machine is funny but the setup took so long that it detracted for me. Just just the scene of him being fed food is incredible. And it puts on show.

22:56 What we talked about in the Gold Rush episode when he does the little dancing with, you know, the little feet on Chopsticks basically. Yeah. Like it's that all over again. Like your clothes up to his face every single time that silly like mouth washing thing that like wipes, his mouth off comes to them, they like surprises in it. It's just perfect. And I think that's where his comedy is at its best and when they put the. So the whole setup of this thing is like this company has invented a feeding machine, so that workers really never even need to leave the assembly line. They can basically get strapped into this, this big turntable with food on it and the Machine feeds the worker hands-free.

23:41 And of course, they try it out on Charlie Chaplin and everything. Goes awry. And one of the items on this big like, turntable is an ear of corn. And he's, 'I think this corn on the cob and it's like rotating as he's eating it and it starts to malfunction and it's going faster and faster and faster. And then it's sliding back and forth across his face and just see his nose contorting. And it finally it finally stops after it's like scrambled his brains and you get a moment of respite and then it goes right back into it again and it's the timing of that and they finally get this thing down after 30 seconds of, you know, No abuse from this ear of corn.

24:21 And then this the little sponge just slowly comes over to wipe his mouth again. Every time they use that little like napkin thing on a swivel. It's like the perfect amount of like just slow like defeat you don't hit me at. I just think that the way that that scene is choreographed is just beautiful, it's so funny. It kind of reminds me of the Timing of When Harry Met Sally, when they're at the football game and it's like the punch line hits when they're doing the line every single time the wave hits their part of the stadium. Yeah. And it feels like that. There's like three or four times where it comes over to wipe his face and it's just adding insult to injury, right?

25:07 One little throwaway gag that I was losing it over, is what it is. When he takes the little hand auger and he cuts holes into the cheese, Make a little slice of Swiss cheese something that's not swiss cheese. Yeah, that I don't know why out of all the gags in this film, that one killed me because it took like seven seconds and you don't totally get what he's doing at first. But then you see him chop it off and like, look at it and you're like, oh, you just made such ease and that, that was probably my favorite gag in the whole film. If anyone out there has never seen a movie this old, and I would, Imagine that most of our audience has never seen a movie from 1936 or before. Don't ever let anybody tell you that they weren't dealing with modern problems because this movie, that was shown to men, women and children in 1936 contains an extended sequence where in chaplain is high on cocaine and he, yeah, like I, like, Charlie Chaplin on cocaine is the funniest thing in the world to me because so, he's in, he's in jail, and he's in the mess hall, he's eating his food.

26:18 Food in the guy next to him sees that the heat is on and he's being suspected of smuggling in cocaine, which he did, he puts it in, what looks like a salt shaker. But I think it's being used as like parmesan cheese or something, men and chaplain, unknowingly picks it up and salt his food with it, and then starts eating his food and the face he makes when the cocaine hits is. Well, I think you could fool, the Imagine surfing what he's seeing it is so funny and I guess it's one of those things. Where, you know, the the Hays code that we talked about this idea of like the the film sensors that became prevalent in American Cinema from the late 30s, all the way through to the 1960s, we're just being put in place and chaplain really, obviously really railed against the censorship of it.

27:06 But I think sometimes when you go back and watch movies this old you think that the farther back you go, the more quaint the more unrealistic they'll be and it's just really funny to me because if you go back far enough you get back to being before the times when they started censoring stuff and then you can just have a scene where a guy is high on cocaine and like there's there's something about watching a movie this old and seeing the cocaine scene that you're like oh we're just watching a we're just watching The Wolf of Wall Street. It's just you know, 90 years ago. Yeah, the the reality is he stops a prison break out because he's high on cocaine, he gets completely drunk in the department store and is fired because of it like it.

27:50 The, the the themes that they bring out in this film, I was like Blown Away by because they have a title card or, you know, a subtitle card during the cocaine scene. And they just what, I forget, the term that they use was it knows power. Nose powder that was like whoa whoa whoa. It's Charlie talking about cocaine here and sure enough he's dummy. Okay, sure is nothing man. No, I think the overarching message is when stuff gets hard you need to abuse hard drugs, right? Like that's it that's the lesson. We need to take away from Charlie Chan. Yeah.

28:31 If your nose isn't just plastered with white powder, I mean that would be part of the whole gag is. He's like He's salting a thing and then he wipes his nose and he just yeah there's Coke all over his face. It's great. All right man. Well on that note it is time for us to indulge in addictive substances and we're going to try some Widow, Jane Lucky 13. What do you say? Did my buddy went on like a full everything fast for 14 days and he continued to not drink alcohol for like another 14 days after that and he was just like, dude, I had a drink of whiskey the other day. Day and it tasted like poison. And I was like, yeah, it literally is poisonous when it's delicious.

29:14 Let's drink some delicious poison together bread. Let's get to it. All right. So today we are checking out Widow. Jane Lucky 13. This is the first time we've tried Widow, Jane on this podcast. I've been really, really wanting to try it for a long time. Lisa, Roper wicker, who used to be their Master distiller, just moved back to Kentucky and she is at Town Branch. Now, she's going to be their Master distiller, and so we missed out on her. I really wanted her to come on the show and I was like, oh, we'll plan a whole episode around interviewing her and And drinking some Widow Jane and it never materialized Brad. And so we've had a sample of Widow Jane sitting in our homes, for probably, I don't know, two years. Now this sample that we're drinking today was sent to us by our friend, Austin Dupree, who you can find on social media at bourbon earring.

30:06 This is like I said, it's called lucky thirteen. It's a 13 year old barrel of whiskey. The one that you can typically pick up off shelves is a blend. But this one were drinking. Today is a barrel pick that was By the bourbon Society of Baton Rouge. So Brad, we typically don't like to review Whiskey's that are labeled as like Single Barrel just because I hate that like we're only ever going to review whiskey once, right, if we hate what it tastes like, we're not going to recommend it and we always put the caveat on it that, yes, this is from one single barrel, there's variance. You know, from Barrel the barrel. I don't mind doing it like this case. Yeah, it's not one single barrel from two years ago. Well yeah, but also I don't mind doing It this way. Because if we like this, I think that we can really heartily recommend it and then what people are getting off, the shelves is essentially the small batch version of that. So there's less variance and I kind of like doing it this way more than I like doing it the other way. So, I'm really excited to dive into this, man. I'm sure that you have tried this already. I'm trying it live on air.

31:10 Do you have any thoughts on it before? We just Dive Right In. Not a single one. I didn't take any notes. I just have a final score for you. Bob once again, a man of Simple Pleasures, and thought us, Bob, this is a delicious whiskey that I'm excited for you to get into the color on. This bad boy is very deep, very dark, almost a reddish Hue, which I really like, I don't really know what to make of that, but it looks damn cool in my glass. I like your take their papa. What does it look like, damn, cool. And cool. This is really spicy on the nose.

31:51 I like it a lot. It has like a ton of Oak spice to it. I don't know if that makes sense. Like Oak is not a spice, but it smells Dusty and smells like, you know, newly charred Barrel, but it has kind of a floral almost saw Dusty kind of thing going on as well. I think there's quite a bit of vanilla on this, but it, I don't know. Brad, it almost reminds me of that sort of, like, rose that I get on, will it products sometimes, but with a much more potent, Kind of prickly cinnamon to go with it, too. I like this, a lot on the nose. Yeah, I really enjoyed this. I myself found a lot of cherry on the nose.

32:31 There was caramel, there is vanilla the oakiness came through after a few noses of it and then like, as I spent time with it I got creamsicle like it like a really sugary creamy orange note and then it just hit me out of nowhere like a freight train. And all the peanut butter in the world. Like just the creamiest peanut butter knows I think I've ever smelled it on a whiskey. I give it a 9 out of 10 on the nose Bob. Yeah, I'm going to stick it in eight and a half for right now, just because it's continuing to open up for me. I think if anything the one thing I can say about this is it's a really complex nose and I think that the bourbon Society picked a really good Barrel, just in terms of finding complexity, so eight and a half for me. 94, Brad let's dive into the taste. Yeah, on the tasty.

33:20 I got a bunch of cherry caramel vanilla, all the nice things. The peanut butter turned into a true peanut flavor for me, but the, the overwhelming flavor I got on. This was just a really nice hunk of salted butter. It just had so much butteriness to it and not like the, like, the texture was buttery and smooth, but the actual flavor reminded me of salted butter. And I really, really enjoyed it. I came down a little bit from the nose, but this is an eight and a half on the pallet for me. I think it stays really spicy. I think it stays really prickly on the pallet.

34:00 For me. This is just very, very heavily charred Oak and it's man. It's different than I need to develop some sort of metric for, like, when I taste burnt things, and what it means because it sometimes I talk about Ash, sometimes I talk about like cigar This reminds me more of like a cigarette. Ash like it's it tastes like how an ashtray smells and I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way but I'm not getting a lot of the sweeter notes that you're getting on this Brad. I think for me the Char really takes over and dominates on the palette, I don't mind it but it also doesn't have as much complexity to me as the nose did. And it's definitely not coming in waves or layers or building upon anything.

34:44 So I'm just going to give it a 7 out of 10. And on the pallet for me that I'm kind of with you on this this whiskey disappearing but it does it for me on the finish. It really like literally the words I wrote were disappears into Oak bits of vanilla and Cherry remain like that. There's just not enough going on on the finish for me to go man, this has been a great experience throughout. I give it a 7 out of 10 on the finish. I think if I can like approximate The Sensation that I'm getting on the Finish. It's almost like if you could make the Americanized version of like a really heavily peated scotch and it's like the most PD version.

35:28 Yeah. And then like this is just so strongly Char and Ash forward that it's like man, I don't know. It's like a campfire that got rained on, it's like old timing 1980s. You're in a wood-paneled house and someone is smoking like Really bad Pall Malls or something, like it's just cigarettes, dude. I don't know how else to explain this. I don't like me. That's not my cup of tea. I don't think this is a poorly made whiskey but not like, you're not a chain smoker but I'm not a big fan of ashtray licking. Yeah man. Damn. I want this to be sweeter and I want it to be more complex than it is. Especially at 13 years.

36:11 I thought this was going to have some like some real richness to it. I'm not a huge fan of this. I'm gonna give it a six and a half on the Finish. Bob, I don't often do this with whiskey. I'm more than willing to call you out where you're wrong and other places in life but you know was he's a subjective experience sir. I think you're crazy. Hmm. Like I don't know what you're talking about here with Ash and cigarettes at like like I get it. There's a lot of oakiness and a little bit of spiciness that comes off of that but I don't know every other time you've talked about like Char and Ash and And I'm like oh yeah I can get that. I can see that the I'm not getting it on this one man the this one it like it definitely disappoints a little bit at the end but not because it tastes like an ashtray.

36:58 Yeah you know what like I'm on my fourth sip of it now and I'm trying to distinguish it because it it's a combination of like Char but then it also gets really bitter for me towards the end and I think that bitterness is presenting as like what I remember cigarette, Ash being but I think it might be two different things happening at the same time. I'm and that bitterness is like I don't know like really really bitter grapefruit peel like a grapefruit rind. It's really strongly better for me. Almost a vegetal kind of a thing and yeah so like I said I don't think that this is a bad whiskey. It's just like very far outside of my preferred wheelhouse and so when it comes to the balance on this, I think I'm actually going to give it a pretty decent balance score because I think there is someone out there that this Whiskey is for.

37:48 It is just not Bob book and so I'm going to give it a actually, I'm given the 8 out of 10 on balance that's higher than I gave it. I give it a 7 and a half out of ten on balance. It has like a really great opening knows it, blossoms beautifully and then it just kind of slowly finishes at an average place and yet, there's enough complexity to keep this balance score up there, you know, I give it a 7 and a half out of ten when we get. Into value Bobby. This is a tough one because it's not available anymore. You can't go down to the Baton society and get this anymore. However, this from what I have looked up, these bottles usually are around $100 for a Widow, Jane Barrel pick. It is listed at those state of Ohio on the OHL Cube website as 9999.

38:39 So there you go. That's the that's the MSRP. We're going to be working with Again, Brad, you know, we talked about this last week, you know, sometimes when you drink of whiskey, you say, like that's a thirty dollar whiskey and you don't actually mean, I think this whiskey should cost $30, you know, when taking the production into consideration, we're just saying, like, hey, if you gave this to me blind, this is how much I would say I would pay for this. Yep, I think $99 seems like a lot of money but a 13-year bourbon from a, you know, it's sourced. But it's from a small Our, I understand why. The price point on this is $99 now taking that into consideration. Is this worth paying $99 for?

39:21 No, I don't think it is. So like, I don't think it's necessarily overpriced. I just don't like the whiskey in the bottle. So at this price point, I will give it a six point five out of ten on value because I think I'm trying to split the difference between, yes, it's a reasonable price but also know, I don't like it that much. Yeah, you think too much Bob's it will score? I do I give it a six out of ten on value. Hmm I think it's an okay value in the world of single barrels. I think that if they just worked on the finish a little bit that if there's a little more complexity on the finish, this would be like a eight out of ten value.

40:02 It's it's a really interesting whiskey that I will recommend. I'm coming to a 38 out of 50 Bob, wow. Yeah, I think we're both a little bit higher than I thought. I thought that we would be like just taking our words into consideration. I'm at a 36 and a half out of 50 so we're coming to a seventy four point five out of 100 or thirty-seven point. Two five out of 50 on average. I will very cautiously recommend this as a try. It not so much as a by it. Like you know you want to try something new at the bar. I imagine that a poor. This is going to run you somewhere between ten and fifteen dollars like I don't think that's an astronomical. Think to ask for a poor of this it's it's Unique for sure and I think that if you like your whiskies Less on the sweet side and more on the sort of like spice Char side of things, this might be right up your alley.

40:56 Yeah. I mean this is not a helpful review Bob because I'm gonna say that I thought this was a lot sweeter than that. It had some Savory notes but it was in the realm of like a peanut butter that is kind of sweet in its own right as well. So I think that this was a really, really great whiskey that had a few things hampering it. But yeah, I would recommend trying or buying like if you've had Widow Jane before and you're thinking about getting a single barrel like go for it. I think that they have some really interesting stuff coming out there. All right man what do you say? We get back into talking about modern times, let's get to it.

41:36 All right, everybody that was widowed Jane. 13-year Barrel. Pick a whiskey that we liked this, fine? Yeah, yeah, we liked it. Yeah. You know what I like Bob is it Canada's favorite segments? It, sure is. We're talking two facts and a falsehood is gonna try to stop you. Bob All right. And what is wrong to fax in a faucet? To fact, in a falsehood is the part of the podcast where Brad presents three items to me, as fact about the making of this movie, one of which is a complete fabrication and it is my job to suss out belie Brad.

42:23 I don't remember how I'm doing on the season right now. I think I was at 500 after Mariah, five and seven Robert also, I lost two in a row after Marie. Maya, help me out. Dang dude, I got to make up some ground here. Did you go easy on me? This week is the question. I think I did. I really this was a tough week. I will challenge any of you trying to come up with lies about a movie that are like, convincing is really hard and I'm quite proud of my 7 and 5 record. I was gonna say, especially when the movie is almost 90 years old. Yeah, it's not easy. All right.

43:03 Hit me with your two facts and a falsehood fact. Number one, the machine that Sir Charles Chaplin goes through like a film projector was made of rubber and would rather than steel but was still quite uncomfortable enough. So that chaplain only wanted to do it once to show him going backward. Again chaplain simply played the film backward. Fax number two chaplain considered this one of the finest films that he ever made saying that it was the quote cleverest and most brilliant film I've ever met. Made fact, number three, several sequences were cut before the release on the recommendation of the Hays office. According to a January, 6, 1936, Memo from Joseph Greene. The eliminations needed because of vulgarity were the first part of the pansy gag.

43:50 No doubt referring to the jail cell mate. Who's knitting disconcerts? Charlie number two. The word dope in a printed title. And number three, most of the business of the stomach rumbling on the part of The Minister's Wife and Charles But the cocaine was good. We were fine with that. Right. Totally fine with the cocaine chaplain when talking about mr. Hayes, who was I think a minister of some sort. Before he took on this role, he was quoted as saying I don't like censorship of any kind, but I especially don't like Presbyterian censorship. And so I just, I really like such a good quote. Yeah, man. There's some really there's some really fun little tidbits about the Hays code.

44:33 Code. And the making of this movie, apparently, you know, the beginning of the movie, where the Tramp goes into the bathroom to smoke a cigarette, just to get away from the grind of everything. Chaplin had a sign hung outside of the men's stalls. That said welcome, mr. Hayes like into into the the toilet. I really liked that a lot. I think three is true. I think one is true. I'm going to say to is the falsehood and I'm really did not basing that on anything except it just sounded the most like something you might have made up. So Number two is the falsehood fact. Number two, the quotes, the cleverest and most brilliant film I've ever made is a quote that Charles Chaplin said.

45:14 However, he said it about his 1947 film, I don't remember the name of it, I think that would be miss your will do. Yeah. That was one server. Do I say it was a French title. There it is. So I win. Nailed it. Bob you won. Six and seven. I'm sneaking back into it, man. You are the Cleveland Browns of the filmin, whiskey world. I really thought that I would clean up throughout the four weeks of chaplain. And you bested me? Yeah, that was man. Well, well played sir. I'm happy to play you to a draw on these four weeks. I appreciate it. I was worried, man. I was waiting for a 4 and 0 on your on your part. I want to talk a little bit about this movie as kind of like a contemporary comment on things that we're going on at the time. And part of it is because right before it like, literally, right before we press record, I was on Twitter and I was reading this quote from the director, Steven Soderbergh, he was talking about how he hates using cell phones in movies. Like, he thinks that depicting phones in movies has ruined movies because it just takes the drama out of everything. It is so hard to like, Cinematically depict. Someone sending a text message and I still don't think Hollywood has figured out like the best way to do that and he was commenting on that and the person who shared this quote was talking about basically listed out all of what we would consider to be the most important filmmakers and how many years it's been since

46:47 they've made a movie set contemporaneously. Hmm. And it's just really fascinating, because I feel like the farther we go into this like World of cell phones, the less Lawmakers are actually engaging with this world and yet that's because people suck that are on a cell phone. Well, I hope people people sucks during the Great Depression that was going to be my Segway Brad. Like and yet here's Chaplin doing it in 1940 with the Great Dictator doing it here in 1936 with modern times. I guess I just want to hear your impressions of like Imagine you're an audience member in 1936. Like what, what is your impression of this movie as it's speaking to your contemporary time, man.

47:33 I mean I think that a vast swath of America didn't live in the city still then. So I feel like a lot of the elements of like it, you know, it's very clearly set in like a New York City Style Place geography. And so So I wonder if that would not relate to everyone's super. Well, I think the elements of it that relate are the places of man. I just feel like I can't keep a job. No matter what I do, man. I like, I just want to get ahead and care for my the woman that I love, but it just feels like such, everything keeps pushing me down, you know, and I already reference this movie once but it reminds me of The Grapes of Wrath with, you know, the best part of that film, which is the speech that is given about, like, who can I Go shoot and he's like, wow, this guy does this and but he's owned by the Banks.

48:25 And the banks are owned by the stockholders of the stockholders are owned by these people. And, and like this felt like a comedy version of that speech. And and so, I think that there's definitely elements of this, that would work as a, you know, current reflection current in 1936 of what's going on in the world around them. And I would imagine that it would capture the Rada nation of people to say yes, like this is what I'm going through. Brad. I think that watching this movie. Now, you kind of have to step back a little bit and think about all the things that Chaplin was depicting on screen. As kind of like this fantastic goal.

49:07 Heightened version of reality, almost science fiction, e at the beginning of the movie, and I think Chaplin was really heavily influenced by a movie that I think we referenced. When Mariah was here, Fritz Lang's movie metropolis and this idea of this giant machine that we are like feeding people into like, it's Devouring humans chaplain goes into the machine but even this idea of, you know, the CEO of the company is sitting up in his office doing nothing but jigsaw puzzles and then surveilling everyone but you know, it's like for us to watch that we're like, oh yeah, he's looking at the the CCTV. He's watching the cameras, they didn't have surveillance like that in 1936 know, here's chalalan, that hit that hit me man, here's Chaplin depicting. This big brother kind of thing and not only He is he like able to watch each sector of the factory. He has like a TV screen and like commercial television was not a thing yet.

50:03 I think the first I'm looking at it right now. Google. The first successful demonstration of a television was 1927 but they were not a real thing in American Homes until like the 1940s and even after that and so here you have the very first time anyone ever speaks in a Charlie Chaplin movie, it's mediated through this gigantic TV. Green. It's the CEO talking to a guy down on the floor, telling him to like increase the speed on a conveyor belt and we're just watching it like, oh yeah, he's just popping up on the screen. He's telling this guy what to do. That's not a thing that existed. It's just this thing that chaplain inserted and it's a really brilliant little comedic and cinematic touch, but it's also so clever that.

50:47 Yes, he's going to use some sound in his movie now, but even in using the sound, it's kind of a commentary on the whole thing, like he's only Using sound when it's mediated through a machine. And then like the real people, the real world of this movie is still silent. I just, I really love everything about that opening sequence in the factory. I think it's the strongest part of the movie, honestly? Yeah, I mean, the the places that he uses sound are from the voices that he hates the most, as a filmmaker, right? And in that place you start to realize like this is a meta commentary on the Movement of Motion Pictures towards sound, like he's not pumped about it. And so the only place is he's going to put sound in our, in the, the stuff that the audience is is told to dislike, you know, as you're watching this film.

51:38 So yeah, I think it's interesting and I think that he, you definitely understand how water Theory would come about with directors. Like, you know, Charles Chaplin in the rearview mirror of like, yeah, this is how it's been from the very start. You have guys like Chaplin who are, you know, famously fastidious and meticulous about the way his movies are made all the way through people, you know, like Kubrick and and Beyond Yeah I totally agree but I also think that you know it's not just like the voices that he hates that he puts sound in the mouth of like he kind of also has some fun with the idea of letting the Tramp speak because that's what people really wanted to hear. They wanted to see the Tramp become a sound figure and so at the end of this movie after you know 20 years plus of playing this character chaplains like I'm gonna have the Tramp sing a song. The first thing that you hear come out of the tramps mouth in beautiful.

52:35 That sound is a song that he is singing in a nonsense made-up language because he forgets the lyrics in English and it's just it's a really funny little like yep. The Tramp sings also he doesn't speak English and he doesn't speak any discernible language that humans would recognize. And I just I kind of like, you know, to your point he's not super pumped about the prospect of sound and so he's like, yeah, I'll do it. But he's not going to speak a real language. Yeah, I mean honestly it felt like almost like a In Williams type of gag right? Where he's just speaking complete gibberish and because of his physicality and what he's bringing to the screen, it comes to life and that. And that's that's the charm of Chaplin, right? It's his physicality.

53:21 It's the way he draws you into his characters through his body language. And I think that you get a final send off to the Tramp in a really beautiful reminder that it's not his voice in the words that he is. Saying that matters, it's who he is as a person and you don't need words to express that. And I think, you know, in the modern times, you know, from from 1930 on once we've had had sound. I think that the best actors in the world, consistently, remember the message of chaplain that you don't have to use complicated dialogue to bring a character to life for a before we get into, you know, our last couple segments of the day here, I want to talk about the ending of this movie and just Pick your brain a little bit about it because basically our two main characters cannot get ahead in life and when things are really, really looking up for them, their past comes back to find them and they are back to square one at the end of this movie. And not only are they at square one, like it fades in and says it's Dawn and you see them sleeping on the side of the road in just a complete like desolate. Like, they're not even near the city anymore, they've had to completely leave the city because there's so little opportunity for them there.

54:36 And the girl is saying like, what is the point of even trying anymore? And the background music is the, the melody, to the song smile, which became a standard and a very famous song that chaplain wrote. And the send-off that they get is he says like hey we gotta keep trying, I know it sucks. Let's just try it again. And they start walking off into the distance and then they pause for a second and compose themselves. And he tells her to smile and they walk off smiling. And yet it's like the most ambiguous. Louis kind of sad ending. And I think it really says a lot about the fact that this movie was made in the middle of the Great Depression. Like there is no end in sight to this, there is no light. At the end of the tunnel Chaplin himself doesn't know how this is gonna go.

55:19 And he has kind of the balls to end his movie. And basically say goodbye to the Tramp in such an ambiguous way. You know, Brad you've now seen the three most famous examples of the Tramp on screen. What do you think of the way that he sends this? Dr. Off. I think it totally makes sense for the character. Like if you consider the Tramp as a long form, study of, you know, a character, he continues off into the sunset the way he starts with uncertainty and positivity. He doesn't know where he's going. He doesn't know where his next meal is coming from. The only thing he knows is that he loves this girl and he'll do whatever it takes to make the future better.

56:05 Them and that feels like the American story in a lot of ways. And so I love the way he sends off the Tramp. All right, man with that, it is time for our last segment of the day which we call. Let's make it a double we near the end of the episode. So thanks for listening to the film and whiskey show. Let's pair another film with this one. Even if it's struggle, it's a final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. Let's make it. A double is the part of the show, where we pick a movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect. Feature Braddock kind of sounds like you already have maybe the best possible choice for this. I do Bob, what movie are you referring to? I mean, you've talked about The Grapes of Wrath like three times already, so I just kind of figured we're going here.

56:49 No. No, I'm course not any. No, no, that would be way too much sense. Yeah, come on, come on, come on. I'm going to recommend a movie that is about one man fighting against the system. And questioning everything that has you know, made him who he is. And Questioning, the world that's been built up around him. I'm going to recommend that you watch 1982's Blade. Runner Blade Runner. I thought you're gonna say ET. Damn it. Yep, that's definitely the movie. I'm going to recommend but listen, I would Perry T up with anything. I don't care what you say. Yeah. All right. Well, lead role where Man versus machine, I like it. Brad. I think that you could go a lot of different directions with this.

57:30 I think you could pair this up with a movie like Metropolis to kind of go with the man versus machine. Eames. I think you could pair It Up With The Grapes of Wrath as you've been talking about, I'm actually going to go ahead and pair it up with another Charlie Chaplin movie and it's probably his next most famous one that we didn't get to its movie called The Circus. And it was the reason that I started talking about all the Beatles stuff earlier, because if I could recommend to you Brad, one more movie that I think you would actually like a, a lot more than these last few that we've watched. I think you should watch the circus. It's the closest in tone to the Gold Rush, which you really Seem to like a lot more but I think it also has that the kind of ambiguous ending that you get here with the Tramp which is like I've talked about it a couple times.

58:15 He's not dumb, he's maybe a little bit too trusting and at the end of the movie, he walks off into the sunset and he breathes a heavy sigh. And he's learned A Life Lesson, and it's not necessarily him in a happier place, but it's him, learning and moving on to the next thing. And I think the endings of both of these movies are so reminiscent of each other. That I'm going to go. Ahead and pair it up with the circus. So, Brad picks, Blade Runner. I pick the circus and that means that it's time for final scores, man. Brad, I'm a little bit nervous. I don't know where you're going to go with this, but the floor is yours, sir. Well, I mean, I assume that I know what you're going to give this Bob. I am going to give modern times A seven and a half out of 10. Damn dude.

59:09 I like at the end of the day, I don't think I'll ever like, sit down and watch this movie again. And like for me that has become a differentiation between eight and under, like, if I'm gonna give a movie an 8 out of 10, it's got to be a movie that I'm like, oh I really want to revisit this at some point. And this movie just there were moments that were quirky and funny and worked for me. But overall it just didn't do enough to move me into that realm of An eight or higher. So so seven and a half out of ten. Yeah. This is a ten out of ten. Like, I think this time through having watched it like 30 times before I was like, all right, this is kind of dragging and parts for me. Maybe I'll give it a nine and a half this time and then I'm like oh Brad gave it a 7 and a half out of ten. No, I'm giving us a 10, it's you're not basing the score on on your watch of the movie, your solely basing it to spite me, I mean, okay, if it's a difference between a nine and a half and a 10, If you want me to give it a 9 and a half I will. How about that?

1:00:11 I'll give it a nine point five out of ten. Bob, this is your moral movie conscience that we're talking about here. I I'm off the, I'm off the bench, man. I'm ready. Are you to lecture me on morals, Brad? Gee, I'm just saying, man, this is like you have to deal with your own soul in saying that I gave this movie A 10/10 even though I don't think it's the time to know I had saying that's I'm saying that I've seen it 30 times now and that Yesterday when I was sick in bed, like it wasn't hitting the way it hit the first 30 times, but it was still a nine and a half. So I think in the grand scheme of things, it washes out to a 10, it's a 10 out of 10 and that means that we're coming out to an average of an eight point seven five out of ten, which is fairly well aligned with its score.

1:00:58 On IMDb where it has an 8.5 out of 10. It is one of I believe the top 50 maybe 60 movies in the IMDb top 250 really well Beloved movie except by Brad and I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but I still am. So that's it for Chad like that. This has been a rough season for us. I feel like for us. Yeah. Like you and me are our bond, our friendship. You know what? Yeah. Like, I think the highest rated movies we've had so far. We've had three movies. Hit a nine point two five. We haven't had any tents. We haven't had any nine-and-a-half saint average Brad, I think it's time that we turn the page here. We're done with chaplain, we're moving into the fan boyish of all Fanboy directors in anticipation of his upcoming movie. Oppenheimer, we're going to be watching a couple movies from our boy Christopher Nolan in the coming weeks and that means that we're going to kick things off with his movie. Memento a movie that I have not washed in probably 15 years. Here's Brad.

1:01:59 If you ever seen Memento, I have not one of my best friend's. Steven has been like begging me to watch that with him for a very long time now. And I kept telling my was like, well, we'll probably get to it on the podcast and I don't really watch more than one movie a week, so when I get to it on the podcast we'll watch it together. So Stephen and I are going to sit down sometime soon. We're going to watch Memento. I am very, very excited for it. I have a more important question for you, Bob. Oh yeah! What's that? If you were to have Hans As Zimmer compose a score for a Charlie Chaplin film? Which film would you want him to do it for And we're not talking about like Hans trying to imitate the old style. We're getting modern tile on Hans probably modern times, although it'd be kind of cool to see him composing for like the frozen tundra of the gold rush to. That's that's what I was thinking, man. Every time like that, I am the door of the cabin. Blows open.

1:02:54 You just hear want comes in. Yes. That I for me, I think that's, that's the clear winner. All right, everybody. You can let us know what you think of Charlie Chaplin and And or Christopher Nolan by finding us on our social medias Facebook. Twitter Instagram Tick-Tock at film whiskey or jump onto our Discord. We have been talking all the things silent film. All the things, the, the fun of Summer that we are having. And if we're being honest, we talk about whiskey a lot. So, jump onto the Discord, you can find a link to it at the end of every single one of our show notes. All right, we will see you a week from now for Memento Brad. I'm very excited for that, but until then, I am Bob book. Look, I'm Reggie and we'll see you next time.