Can't Stop the Music The EuroWhat? Podcast The EuroWhat? Podcast Mike 0:02 if aliens were to come down and be like, this was the symbol of what the eighties were going to be, those aliens are going to be so confused. Ben 0:15 Hello, and welcome to the Eurowhat, episode 307, dropping on August 18th, 2026. We are a pair of Americans trying to make sense of the Eurovision Song Contest. I'm Ben Smith, and I'm here with my co-host, Mike McComb. Hey, Mike. Mike 0:28 Hey, Ben. Ben 0:29 In this episode, we'll be talking about the 1980 Village People disco musical, Can't Stop the Music. We are legally obligated to not stop the music. Mike 0:37 I've seen this movie a couple of times before, not really done any deep dives into the background of this, and boy, oh boy, there is a lot going on with this movie in which not much is going on in it. Ben 0:51 Yes, yeah, no, it's a very rich text, and none of the text is on screen. Mike 0:55 No, that is a great way of, framing ------ When did you first see Can't Stop the Music? ------ 0:58 Mike 0:58 it, have you seen this movie before? Like, what is your relationship with this movie? Ben 1:02 This movie uh, partially responsible for me getting an internship. Okay. Uh, yeah, so, uh, in college when all of my colleagues were getting engineering internships, I was doing, I mean, I was also trying to do that, but, like, the magazine Mental Floss had announced a summer internship. It was like, hey, put together a packet, and the thing that they asked for was, like, if we were going to do, like, a listicle, like, write something that you would do as that, and I wrote a listicle, five reasons that 1980 was a terrible year to make a musical. And I got the job, and that appeared on their website, so I am, yeah, so I am deeply familiar with all of these movies. At the time I wrote that, I had seen, I think, one of them, and I have now seen, uh, three of the five I wrote about. Actually, no, I've seen Popeye, so four of the five. you have Can't Stop the Music, you have Xanadu, you have The Apple, you have Popeye, and you have a remake of The Jazz Singer. Mike 1:53 is that the one with Neil Diamond? With, yes. Okay, okay. Oh, boy, alrighty, uh, adding that for future episodes? That big question mark? Yeah, no, no, no. I don't recall the first time that I saw this movie. It was probably in high school, and, I was never a big Village People fan. Like, I mean, like, you hear YMCA at sporting events, and, other songs are, like, kind of wedding songs in a weird way. Ben 2:21 Yeah, no, you've got your, yeah, your, your, uh, your YMCA's, your Macho Man's, you're in the Navies. You've, we've covered the major bases. Mike 2:28 most of the songs, not in this movie. Um, I do have the DVD for this. I received it as a gift. Ben 2:36 I have the Blu-ray of this. It it was cheap on eBay, and, like, since it's no longer on streaming, it felt, like, physical media is important. Mike 2:44 yes, we, we need to preserve our history. Uh, so, uh, Ben, you pulled the YouTube description. Ben 2:53 I pulled the YouTube synopsis because it's deeply incorrect in a way that amuses me. There will be occasional pauses for commentary here. The first mammoth screen musical comedy smash of the 80s. Incorrect. Not, no, no, like, we're not talking about this movie because it did well. a multi-million dollar explosion of sound, spectacle, and smash hit music. Yeah, they spent a lot of money on this. We'll get into that. Can't stop the music vibrates. That's technically how sounds work. I'll allow it. Uh, against the backdrop of two of the world's most exciting cities, New York and San Francisco. Correct. Uh, great work. Synopsis. Uh, and has the pulsating presence of the innovative and controversial group Village People. Citation needed. Okay. Uh, yeah. Please explain more. Mike 3:34 Yeah. Yeah. like the first mammoth screen musical comedy smash of the 80s. This debuted the same weekend as Blues Brothers, uh, which probably also does not help. So, yeah, aside from, I don't know, taste areas and overlapping with Eurovision, is there any sort of Eurovision connection that we can make with this to justify talking Ben 3:56 So, Jacques Morley, uh, who put together The Village People, wrote most of their music, uh, just general disco impresario, produced I Love America and a couple other songs for Patrick Juvet, who previously represented Switzerland in 1973 with Je va me marier Marie. Mike 4:26 I guess we also have, the ability to talk about this since we've talked about other 1980 disco musicals, on the show. Like, we talked about the Apple on the main feed. We talked about Xanadu, So Can't Stop the Music was the third in that particular genre. ------ A Truly Curséd Production ------ 4:43 Mike 4:43 I think it's important to point out that disco demolition happened in 1979. Ben 4:48 So this is like, that's what's deeply funny to me about all of this is that all of these movies were being made as America's general, uh, feelings about this just curdled. Mike 4:57 yeah. Like, I was reading up on the background, of this and principal shooting started about two weeks after disco demolition A truly cursed production. uh, it was released on June 20th in 1980. Uh, again, the same weekend as Blues Brothers. G which one did better at the box office? the original budget for the movie was supposed to be like around 8 million, with promo and various other issues that popped up. It ballooned to about a $20 million budget. It made 2 million in the box office. Not great. in 2024 dollars, that's about $78 million budget and only 7 million coming in. It totally bombed in the U. S., but it was number one in Australia. So like did really well there. Alan Carr has a history of doing like movie premieres and stuff in Australia. So I think it was kind of banking on that connection. I discovered that it is a New Year's Eve staple for Australia's Channel 9. Ben 6:00 Like they will air it every year. Mike 6:02 Yeah, tradition. Um, and I did find a uh, thread, where the opening post is, I don't get it. It's a movie long forgotten by pop culture. There are much better movies which could be played every NYE. Is it an inside joke in the television industry? It's an objectively bad movie. Did the late Cary Packer stipulate this in his will? I simply do not understand why this, of all movies, is played every NYE and why everybody is fine with such an odd tradition. Also, Happy New Year! Ben 6:31 So- I just, I just like that there are, this is now a second thing in my list of like weird pop culture things I know about Australia. There's that they apparently show this every New Year's Eve. then also like, they have like a whole line dance set to Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits that I've tried to figure out why. Just, I was just like, we just, we just do it. Mike 6:54 uh, appa the first draft, of the script, uh, was written by Bruce Valanche, which is not surprising given the timeline of this was filming in 1979, this may have been fresh off of him being on the writing team for the Star Wars holiday special, which happened in 1978. Okay. Yeah, it's, it's just turtles all the way down. Let's see. Uh, Caitlyn Jenner was originally up for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar role in Airplane. And, uh, yeah, I'm just thinking, wow, how would pop culture have been different had that happened? Sliding doors. uh, another sliding doors casting thing, Olivia Newton-John was up for the Valerie Perrine role, but she wanted her own songs and they wouldn't give them to her. So she's like, nope, I'm going to do something else, uh, leading to Xanadu. if she were part of the YMCA sequence in this movie, would we have had physical? Like, would that have changed 80s pop culture? So yeah, this, this movie has a lot going on with it. Uh, its original title was Disco Land, where the music never stops. But of course, disco demolition happened. Disco was probably not what you wanted in your marketing. So it changed the name to Can't Stop the Music. And during principal production, they were in the same neighborhood that the Al Pacino movie Cruising was being filmed, which is about a serial killer killing gay men in New York. there were groups of protesters picketing that movie, but they thought that some of the filming for Can't Stop the Music was part of Cruising. So both movies ended up getting protesters. It's just like, oh, this is, yeah, just not, not a good time for anybody involved, really. The reviews for the film, um, not great. Gene Siskel, I did, I did find a review of his, uh, he did give it two and a half stars. had some constructive criticism and was just like, oh, yeah, like some of the music choices are weird and it's a little long. We'll get into that. I think what you're expecting from this movie is probably what you're going to get, uh, in terms of like whether you're going to like it or not. Ben 9:01 Speaking of Siskel and Ebert, like this shows up in like their year end 1980 special as like one of the dogs of the year. Mike 9:07 But other dogs are incredibly heavily publicized. And when they collapse, it sends ripples all through the movie industry. One movie like that in 1980 was Can't Stop the Music, an original musical with an idiotic story which starred the singing group, The Village People. Well, they advertised this as the entertainment explosion of the year and it was a bomb, all right. Can't Stop the Music is a musical that couldn't seem to start the music. It's a traffic jam of unrelated characters who all crowd onto the screen and create general confusion. When the movie does occasionally manage to let the village people actually sing like they did in that scene, the results are okay. But the movie was a major disaster. Even on opening night before the word was out about how bad this movie was, the theaters were already empty. Nobody wanted to go in the first place. Ben 9:50 Well, I think the problem in the film industry that this film is an example of is the pre-sold package. The guy who made this film, A Carr, took Grease a few years ago, an established package on Broadway, and made it a movie? Smash hit. But Grease had a story already established. He tried to do it again. Take a music group, the village people, put them in a movie, forgot the script. These are narrative movies. They need stories that make us want to watch the characters. Mike 10:15 And another problem was the village people were very much a trend. Eighteen months ago when the movie was being, when the idea was first being floated, by the time the movie came out last summer, the village people were over the hill. Nobody really cared. So there had to be something on the screen that they wanted to go see, and there wasn't. They were just hoping the village people would carry it. that and the promotion. They spent a lot of money promoting this movie, lots of parties, lots of ads. Their problem was they didn't have anything to promote. Ben 10:39 Part of the issue is with what Alan Carr has done here. So Alan Carr is the producer of the movie. He's notable for a number of things, and his career has some real high highs and some real low lows, he's one of the people who works to bring Grease to the in 78. So he's riding real high off of that. he's also responsible for La Cage à Folle on Broadway. But on, in terms of the low lows, you have things like the 1989 Academy Awards, which has like the weird Snow White opening. Mike 11:06 Oh, right. Oh, no. There is something to be said for creating the cautionary tale that everybody is trying to avoid recreating, you know? Yeah. Ben 11:19 And like with this, having now watched it a couple of times in relatively recent succession. Oh, no. I think, yeah, do not recommend, do not operate heavy machinery after watching this movie. A lot of where his success comes from as a producer and the thing that he liked doing when he was like in the 70s, like holding parties at his house in Hollywood, is he was always somebody who was trying to mix the old glamorous side of Hollywood with the new up and coming stars. And if you look at Grease, that's a lot of what's going on in there is you have a lot of, hey, here's some familiar faces along with your, your new talents, like your John Travolta's and your Olivia's Newton John. I think he just gets a little bit high on his own supply. He's like, oh, I can just do this with like another musical. And forgets the fact that the reason that Grease also works is that it's an existing stage show and there's a lot of structure to build on. It's not just what you did, Alan. a village people origin story. Okay. You could probably make that work. But there's just like such a weird mix of old and new people in this movie, too.I mean, even going to who's behind the camera, you have Nancy Walker, quote unquote, directing this because I think Alan Carr is also really driving a lot of this. Yeah. I mean, because like she's directed some segments on Mary Tyler Moore. She's directed a few episodes of like Rhoda or stuff like that. But like nothing that really screams this person should be in charge of a major musical. Mike 12:38 that that is the story that I am most curious about, particularly because in the special features for the DVD, they have this thing that you can scroll through where it's just like kind of telling the story of the individual members of village people and production of the movie. And in the Nancy Walker section, it says, quote, had no previous film or television directing experience. Not quite correct. And the performers in Disco Land could sense it. also,like there was just like this acidity to everything that was written about. It's like, this is her fault. And it's like, well, one, I can see that you have an axe to grind. But at the same time, I don't think she had the best tools to work with. Oh, no. Ben 13:16 It's like, no, she's she's coming from a place of inexperience. But like where it shows is just like watching the musical numbers is particularly fascinating because the background players have no clue what they're supposed to be doing. And they're either just like standing there or sort of like I'm thinking about like the the backyard party sequence where like some people are doing stuff in the background. You have some other people who are just there. ------ What is Can't Stop the Music about? ------ 13:39 Mike 13:39 we should actually get into like what this movie is about. What is this movie about? I have watched it several times recently and it's. Yeah. So let me read the back of the DVD case to see if this gives us any clues. New York City DJ songwriter Jack Morrell, played by Steve Guttenberg, needs just one big break to get his music heard and land a record deal. But with the help of his retired supermodel roommate, Valerie Perrine, and an uptight tax attorney, Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner, they bring together six singing macho men from the Greenwich Village scene for an outrageously 80s adventure of fun, fantasy and disco fever. Welcome to the not quite straight story of the creation of the village people in their one and only musical extravaganza. This is Can't Stop the Music. I'm fascinated by how obsessed this is with being the defining moment of the 80s as the decade to come. Because no. No, no. Ben 14:39 The decade is going to rapidly pivot away from all of this. Mike 14:43 Yeah. like reading through this is like, well, they got the names right. I feel like it's about the extent of like what the story is, because there's not really that much story going on here. No, no. Ben 14:56 Yeah. So like we have Jack Morrell, who is played by Steve Guttenberg, like the only person who I think escapes from this movie with a career. Mike 15:02 Yeah, that's actually in those extra features. It said specifically, the 22 year old actor was one of the few members of the cast to escape the film with his career relatively unscathed. Unscathed was the DVD's word. Ben 15:18 like the origin story of the village people is basically the Jacques Morali story because like he puts the group together. He writes their songs. the movie takes like an hour to get us to the six members of the group. Oh. It's a two hour long movie. Mike 15:31 Yeah. Like that, that is my biggest complaint about this. Like, I think it takes like 40 minutes, 45 minutes to get to when Caitlyn Jenner's introduced. And it's like, no, this is like act one is supposed to be done by 25 minutes. We should. Ben 15:45 We need the six guys together by like half an hour in. Mike 15:48 There are so many like little bits that are happening and attempts at wordplay and stuff like it's trying to be a screwball comedy, but it's not quite that. Ben 15:57 It's trying to be a Ben 15:57 screwball, but nobody knows how to write a screwball comedy. Like there, I had like the distinct impression that somebody found this movie super funny when they were like writing it slash making it and none of it translates. Mike 16:08 Yeah, well, I mean, I think it may depend on what substances are also in play. Yes, yeah. the pacing of it is just so slow. Like this, this could be a tight 90. Like really the movie that keeps jumping to mind to compare this to is Spice World, which I would argue is a legitimately good movie. Not a great movie, like not at all. It's not supposed to be a great movie, but I mean, it's, I think a better version of what this movie is trying to do, where it's just like, oh, we're bringing the group together and they have to do like the big performance. And like, there's just this like very vague event based MacGuffin that they're all working toward. one of the things that Spice World has is they get in and out of each of the little segments or skits or whatever relatively quickly. I mean, that movie could probably also be like maybe closer to 75 minutes instead of 90, but like there's no reason this need to be two hours. Ben 17:05 I have another even more ridiculous comparison point of what this movie could be in terms of getting the band together, in terms of actually being funny with bits, in terms of having occasional cameos of a whole of like Hollywood people that are supposed to be fun. The Muppet movie. Oh yeah. Yeah. Was that 79 or 80? That's 79. Okay. That's 79. And you know what? It's like 96 minutes long. Mike 17:28 that is exactly how long? That is the amount of attention span I have for this sort of And maybe that's what they were going for. Like maybe they were trying to capture some of that sort of energy. I don't know. Like, I'm actually kind of surprised the Muppets didn't show up in this one because everything else is just kind of randomly appearing. Like the, the number of tie-ins with this movie are, I'll say it, shocking. Ben 17:51 Oh, that is entirely Alan Carr. Like the man knew how to sell a movie is, he took the movie, I think it gets called Alive over here. Like the Chilean soccer players that get trapped in the, like the plane crashes and they have to eat one another to live. Uh, he saw that, he saw people queuing around the block in Mexico was like, we need to bring that over here and did that. Uh, he took the deer hunter and did what we now think of as like the standard Oscar campaign of like dropping it in December to, to get noticed, but also get people to come see it. He did that. So like, he's really good at movie promotion. Ben 18:24 Yeah. ------ Out of Control Promo Budgets ------ 18:24 Mike 18:24 He's just very bad at movie making and taste level. Okay. See that, that makes a lot of sense because like one of the reasons that the budget for this movie ballooned was because of promo and it's one of those things where like I think of this and the Oogie Loves movie, which, uh, we live tweeted once, uh, way back when. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. And that, that is a movie, like we will not get into it. We will not talk about it on the show because nobody has time. But like, that was a movie that where like the promotion budget it ultimately came out to like $55 million and it made like 200,000 in box office. So, like, where is this point of no return that happens in movie production where it's like, well, we have this thing, we need to sell it. Let's spend the exact same amount in promotion budget. And see if that works reader. It did not work for this one. Ben 19:25 Uh, and like, I dug into the special features on my end and one of them was just like an eight and a half minute long, like slideshow like the promo kit. Uh, and then also just sort of the like marketing dossier for, for theaters. So the actual tie-ins this movie had, uh, there was a tie-in with Baskin Robbins ice cream, which let's, let's put a pin in that and come back to, cause it's, it's very funny to me. Yes. Just reeks of flop sweat too. Just like, uh, the Arthur, Arthur Murray dance studios were teaching a milkshake routine the month the movie came out. the American Dairy Association had a tie-in, which that prop that pops up in the movie. Uh, Caitlyn Jenner's sportswear brand, Dr. Pepper, Fleischman distilling company, Pinnacle books, which like some of the promo materials looks like it was just like scans of like a photo book of the movie. Yeah. I remember those from the scholastic book fair, you know, I'm just, I'm just now picturing a pile of those just sitting on purchase at the scholastic book. Yeah. What do eight year olds love pictures of Valerie Perrine? Yeah. Um, GA, GAF view master, which I'm assuming is just like the view master toy. Casablanca records. Of course. Like this is, this is a musical, even though like the songs do nothing to advance the plot. They're just there. Mike 20:39 I think that's why I'm kind of thrown by it being described as a musical. Cause, there's nothing propulsive about what's happening with them and man, oh man, like they're the most repetitive songs. Like, I mean, I think that, that kind of describes their oeuvre, but the milkshake song. Ben 20:57 are all of the songs in this movie somehow both like three minutes long and also 20 minutes long. Mm-hmm. I'm just thinking of like the, the opening credits of this movie just really set the tone. like you've got the weird triple screen effect the entire time, whic looks awful. Mike 21:12 Yeah. Yeah. I'm like trying to imagine seeing that on a big screen, be like, oh, I'd just get a headache from it. Ben 21:18 And then just the most insipid song about New York. Did Eric Adams write this song? It is just like nightclub promoter level to sort of, you're really the tops, New York. Mike 21:47 Which, I mean, does kind of make sense because this is also the sequence where Steve Guttenberg is just roller skating around the city and he is being a nightclub promoter. So like tell that story, but like with that, they could have also woven in introducing like Caitlyn Jenner's character, rather than having like the extended mugging sequence with the old. Yeah. Like there's just so many things where like, this is how broken my brain was while trying to watch this movie, trying to figure out how to save it. It was like, oh no, you move this here, here, you edit this part out, get rid of that and that and that and that and that and that and that. And yeah, like, could this movie have ever worked? I, I think if it had not released in 1980, like if it somehow managed to be made in 1979, it probably would not have its status now in camp culture. Ben 22:41 If we cut it down to like a tight 80 minutes and we release it like before disco demolition night, is it good? No. Does it do better? Yes. also in the, the, the big dossier of here's all your marketing materials, like a bunch of pre-written ready to go profiles of like, like, like people magazine level profiles of Nancy Walker, Valerie Perrine, Caitlyn Jenner, Steve Guttenberg, uh, a sports figures and film quiz. And all of these have like little blanks for it'll be at your theater name here on date. like there's a section that's literally labeled exploitation, uh, literally just ideas for theaters. Oh, okay. Uh, and like, and like, it's just a real late seventies, early eighties tone of what was acceptable at the time. Cause like, this is direct quoting, uh, locate six of your city's most fetching foxes from a local sorority modeling school, or even your own staff of usherettes and fit them in roller skates. Dress each of these lovelies as one of the vivid village people and have the six sexy skaters roll down busy streets, carrying a wide banner, announcing themselves. Announcing the movie. Wow. Uh, yeah. Uh, there's like a, there's like a suggestion. You could have a village people personality day where if you show up to the movie in costume, you're entered for prizes. Biggest milkshake in history, which is just put a cement mixer in your theater parking lot and do some stuff. Organize a radio contest and award the grand prize winner, the ultimate dairy dream, a party for six and a hot tub full of warm milk situated in your theater lobby. Mike 24:00 What? How is that a prize? How is that a prize? I, I would not want to do that by myself, let alone with six people. Oh God. Yep. Yep. Wow. Ben 24:13 That's why, that's why, that's why I wrote that one now. Cause I'm just like, Mike is going to be just as horrified as I was. This was. Man. Mike 24:19 And like, not only that, like, I mean, American Dairy Association went hard on this. Ben 24:57 They Mike 25:03 the milkshake sequence is basically them filming their commercial. one of the things I read is it took five days of filming just that one sequence. I tried my best to try to find any information about this as a campaign, like what the ADA was thinking. Mike 25:20 Who is in the market for a five minute commercial for milkshakes? Ben 25:23 a good sequence. It's probably one of the best in the movie. Mike 25:25 Yeah. from the song just being way too repetitive, but. Oh yeah. Ben 25:28 No, like I also really dug into some of these, these promotional tie-ins with stuff like them. Trying to figure out what was the Fleischman Distilling Company involved in? There's a scene during the tryouts where like somebody, where, uh, the Leatherman is singing Danny Boy. And like right before the high note, he takes a swig of Dr. Pepper. Ben 25:45 Yeah. Now it's getting me thinking about like product placement in film. Mike 25:49 When did that start? Yeah. Mike 25:51 it sounded like this might be, if not the starting point, pretty close to the origin of that. but yeah, I was delighted to see the Baskin Robbins campaign ad, which, uh, yeah, I think we can throw the photo in the show now. Oh, I was going to make, I was, Mike 26:08 it might be the cover of the episode. Okay. There we go. Yeah. Mike 26:13 It was an ice cream flavor called Can't Stop the Nuts. Yeah. kind of your basic, go to Baskin Robbins and try this out. Ben 26:20 by the sensational new Alan Carr slash EMI film. Amongst my laundry list of complaints with this film, it's like the setup they take to get us to the YMCA number is so tortured. Mike 26:30 Yeah. I, I, the thing is like, it's about that point in the movie where I've really stopped paying attention. Like what is the conceit there? Are they just like going to rehearse? Ben 26:38 We now have the six guys. we need a place to rehearse. Ron knew about the Elks Lodge back in whatever town he's from. So he looked up to see what was locally available. And of course it's the Young Men's Christian Association. Mike 26:50 What does that have to do with the Elks? It's just, just sort of the same sort of, they have a haul that you can use. Wearing a crop top. Like it's, it seems like Ron has been turnt by, uh, his new colleagues. So. Ben 27:05 Yeah. He goes, yeah. He goes from like seventies lawyer wear to just cutoffs and a crop top. But they're just like immediately. Mike 27:10 uh, and then it goes into this extended sequence, which, uh, despite being a PG film, um, a lot of full frontal. Yeah. Just like full frontal. Ben 27:21 I mean, Alan Carr was not a subtle man. Like I have, like, there is a documentary on Amazon prime, uh, the fabulous Alan Carr. It helped inform my viewing this time around. Mike 27:32 as much as I'm complaining about this movie, I am fascinated about the creation of, of this. Like, how did we get to this point? Ben 27:39 It's such a weird combo of visuals and everything else going on. ------ Can't Stop (talking about) the Music (or the Cast) ------ 27:45 Mike 27:45 with the music, as I said earlier, I'm not really into village people. Like, I'm not, I'm not against village people. It's like, I don't, I don't seek out their work. I think that's the way to phrase it. But the song selections, were these good selections? Did this really highlight the group? Ben 28:03 They feel like songs that were written for a musical by someone who has no clue how to write songs for a musical. Cause it's just like direct, just like directly just saying what is happening. Just like we're recording our demo and it's a magic night. Mike 28:14 there is a Motown Philly vibe about the entire film where it's just like a song about a contract negotiation. My favorite genre. Ben 28:23 Well, just the, the, the song that Jack plays in the disco that makes Sam realize his prodigious talent and how, how much she should fund the, the making of his demo Ben 28:33 team. Ben 28:47 like the least disco song and everybody's sort of doing their best to groove to it during the scene. Mike 28:54 That scene is so weird because like so much of the movie is gay coded doesn't feel right. Cause it's like, it's not code. It's like, no, like this is very gay, but it cannot be gay at all. No one is acknowledging it in a way where. Yeah. Like, like, say, saying gay without saying the word gay. And it's just like, it is a gay disco that they are doing this sequence in, but it's the most hetero gay disco. Like, I don't know how to describe it in like a way that makes sense. The movie obviously didn't either, Ben 29:25 We get YMCA. That is the one village people song that you know that is in the movie. Mike 29:29 Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. No, uh, in the Navy, no go West, which really it's weird. Wait. Yeah. Go West isn't in it. Right. No. No. Even though they go West cause they go to San Francisco. Oh my God. This movie. Ben 29:41 how do we send our notes into the past to fix this? The one random Richie family song at the end that like they play like in the record store and then that shows up at the end. Give me a break. Like it's fun. And like, it feels like the sort of thing that would be like the first song in like one of those SNL sketches. That's just like a compilation CD. Mike 30:12 Yes. Mike 30:12 like, I think that song is genuinely good, but it also does feel like late seventies and not early eighties. Ben 30:19 the song can't stop the music title song is just so bad. Mike 30:23 Yeah. Yeah. And like that particular sequence, I think is kind of hilarious because like the village people are performing on stage and like, it's like their big number. That part is fine. But then all of the supporting cast comes out on stage. Whereas if I were in that show, it's like, who the hell are these Who the hell is this lady? Ben 30:42 Why is Countess Luanne here? Ben 30:44 Every supporting character from the movie somehow starts, comes on stage. Mike 30:49 and there are way too many supporting characters. Cause I mean, you have the group itself is six people. Plus you have Steve Guttenberg who I, I would argue is the only person who actually understands the character, like he, he is doing everything he can and should. Yeah. like MVP of the film. but then you have like Valerie and Caitlin I don't know if they're really necessary to the story. Like they're B's and C plots. And then, I don't know. I guess you did have to have like the straight relationship in order to be like, this movie's not gay. Ben 31:20 My son can't be gay. He loves women. The women, uh, Valerie Perrine, Tammy Grimes as Sydney Channing. Yea. The proto-Countess Luanne. Mm-hmm. She has a line about, cause like, she's the one who pulls the, the American Dairy Association tie-in and just like, I'm going to insist they cork it. She's a, yeah. She's just like a great fancy lady. Mike 31:39 I think the person I'm most fascinated by is, uh, AltaVise Davis, not her specifically, but the role that she's playing as, uh, Sam's friend, was originally supposed to go to Felicia Ayers-Allen, who's now Felicia Rashad, the mom from the Cosby show, uh, who used to be married to police officer of Village People. Which is one of my favorite pop culture trivia tidbits of all time. Ben 32:06 The other character that I find just like fascinating in this movie, uh, Marilyn Sokol plays Lulu Brecht, who is Sydney Channing's assistant, who is just constantly abused by her. But also over the course of the movie, I feel like Lulu basically makes eyes at and or hits on every man in the film. Yes. That, that, that is her quirk. I guess. Yeah. It's just like, she does not understand why none of the village people are in her. Mike 32:29 I am interested in her arc in the movie. I just wish it was better defined or like, I don't know if there was like actual jokes about, I don't know. Again, I can fix this. I'm just looking at the lineup of village people because, uh, Victor Willis, uh, Felicia, Iris Allen's ex-husband, he left the group shortly before principal filming, I think as well. So like they had to get a new cop admiral, wait, what is his full job description? Cause there was a lot of. Yeah. Yeah. Ben 33:03 Cause like,yes , uh, in the original seven members, Victor Willis was alternately the cop, the admiral, the athlete, the gigolo slash nondescript. Thanks Wikipedia. Mike 33:16 What does that mean? Mike 33:17 I love that for him. Ben 33:18 during the filming of the movie, the cop is Ray Simpson, uh, who is the brother of the Simpson in Ashford and Simpson. Ben 33:25 Oh, I did not know that. Mike 33:27 a weird time capsule. if aliens were to come down and be like, this was the symbol of what the eighties were going to be, those aliens are going to be so confused. It's like, Oh no. Oh Mike 33:37 no. Let's go. Let's come over here and watch a different movie. ------ Would you recommend Can't Stop the Music? ------ 33:40 Ben 33:40 I don't know if I can actually recommend this one. Ben 33:43 No, no. Like it's, it's interesting, but I'm not sure it's entertaining. Mike 33:48 Yeah. Like when I was, uh, in undergrad, I was in film course where, of the overall theme was musicals. Like there were other movies that we were watching that were more like foundational, like this is examples of lighting, examples of this. and I think we probably could have watched this movie in that syllabus. I'm glad we didn't, but I'm kind of curious. Like it was just like one week it'd be like all that jazz. And then can't stop the music and then dancer in the dark. I could sort of see it getting slotted in that way. And I think it is an interesting study in how, the Hollywood decision-making process of why, at what point could the word no, no longer work?And this has to happen and it should not have happened. And yeah, just, just the, the domino effect of just like, oh, this movie should not have happened. Ben 34:43 But yeah, there are so many reasons this movie should not have happened. Mike 34:46 I would strongly recommend Spice World over this movie. If you are in the, if this is the type of story that you want. it's too long. there's nothing propulsive about it. I will say like the musical sequences, they're kind of proto music videos in a So that's, so that's interesting, but it just takes way too long to get to anything happening in the movie. Ben 35:09 I cannot stress this movie is like two hours long and you will feel every minute of it. Mike 35:14 Yeah. Like this is something that you do while you're doing laundry, cleaning your oven, filing your quarterly taxes. Like, like this is absolute background noise, punctuated by songs that, yeah, if it's not on your Spotify playlist, b yeah, like you're not even getting their big songs. Ben 35:32 No, you're getting like, you're getting one. You're getting one. In hindsight, I cannot recommend this Mike 35:38 of this disco trilogy of Xanadu, the Apple and Can't Stop the Music, how would you rank them? Ben 35:45 first is easy for me because like the Apple is like my ride or die. So bad it's good movie. I have watched it many times it's maximalist filmmaking. I find a new detail every time I watch it in an interesting way. The way that it fits into the, the legacy of like Canon films, uh, is very intriguing to me. So like that one's just like my number one ride or die. Can't Stop the Music and Xanadu are just some real stinkers. Mike 36:07 you have to choose one. Ben 36:08 Yeah, I know. And it's like, I mean, the thing with, the thing with Xanadu is like for a long time, it had been like when I mentally thought about these three movies was like my top one. Cause like, oh yeah, you have Olivia Newton-John Imperial Phase. You have ELO Imperial Phase. And I went to like a midnight screaming of it was like, this is a terrible film. Mike 36:24 Like this is bad. Like it's impressive that their careers did not end. Ben 36:28 Oh, and just like, I went to a screening of The Warriors recently and that has the same guy who's the main lead in Xanadu. And like, that's a real weird one, two career kickoff. Yeah. Yeah. He did not leave unscathed. Apologies to Michael Beck, but like, that's a real rough combo of movies. you know, I'm going to put Xanadu in front of this one just because Xanadu has the decency to have better music and also not be two hours long. Mike 36:50 Yeah. I think, I think my order is the same. Like at least with the Apple, there's a story or at least enough of a story where you're like, at least if you're confused by it, it's like, wait, why is this happening again? L there's stuff to kind of keep your mind busy as you're watching the movie. I don't think it has the best music of the three. Like I, like Xanadu, that's what Xanadu has going for it. Like it is really a genuinely good soundtrack with some very good songs on it and does have some lovely sequences. Like scene where she and Jean Kelly are dancing together. that's great. With Xanadu, there was no real conflict in the story and it's at least trying to introduce some visual effects or, I don't know, does seem more like a gateway to the eighties. At least the purples and blues. Ben 37:39 Yeah, the neon colors, the, the exercise wear as, as like the leg warmers. Mike 37:45 Yeah. Yeah. Like there's a fashion about it. Whereas like can't stop music. It feels like it's trying to continue the seventies and like the rough part of the seventies. If you are in the mood for a disco musical, Apple is probably the weight that I can't believe I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. Ben 38:06 A movie that I probably would not have been aware of had. If it wasn't. Yeah. It's like that, that is my ministry. And my, my evangelism is hello. Everybody used to watch this, this one. Tha Eurovision. That's going to do it for this episode of the Eurowhat. Thanks for listening. The Eurowhat Podcast is hosted by Ben Smith, that's me, and Mike McComb. Mike 38:26 That's me. You can find our full archive of episodes on our website at Eurowhat.com. You can also find us on Blue Sky, Patreon, and most other social media sites at Eurowhat. Ben 38:39 Next time on the Eurowhat, it's Eurovision New Year and the start of Season 10.