BONUS EPISODE: HAUNTED HONEYMOON (1986)

With special guest Michael Pressman

Intro, Math Club, and Debate Society (spoiler-free): 00:00-33:30
Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 33:31-1:00:18
Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 1:00:19-1:17:45

Director Gene Wilder
Screenplay Gene Wilder & Terence Marsh
Featuring Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Jim Carter, Dom DeLuise, Eve Ferret, Bryan Pringle, Jonathan Pryce, Gilda Radner, Jo Ross, Paul L. Smith, Peter Vaughan, Ann Way, Gene Wilder

Released July 25, 1986
Budget $13 million
Box office $8 million (worldwide)

SPOILER-FREE SYNOPSIS

What’s wrong with Larry Abbot?  The radio star is having bouts of fear, perhaps a remnant of childhood trauma.  Otherwise, everything’s swell:  he’s engaged to be married to his scene partner, Vickie Pearle.  But the radio show, hosted by the Manhattan Mystery Theater and lead sponsor Ralston-Purina, are concerned about Larry’s mental health, so they’ve hired Larry’s Uncle Paul, a psychiatrist. to employ a radical cure that will rid Larry of his fears in 36 hours.  Larry and Vickie travel to Larry’s ancestral stomping grounds, a palatial estate.  The cast of characters that assemble at the estate for Larry and Vickie’s wedding — Larry’s cousins Charles, Nora, Susan, and Francis Jr.; the family butler, Pfister; and the maid, the diminutive Rachel — all seem to have ulterior motives of one kind of another, which may include inheriting the fortune of the family matriarch, Aunt Kate.  Will Larry and Vickie make it through the next couple days alive?  Will we, the audience, make it through the next 82 minutes without clawing our eyes out?

SPOILER-FREE GUEST BIO

Award-winning director/producer Michael Pressman has worked across most entertainment genres and mediums, including comedies, dramas, social commentaries, short films, feature length studio and indie films, series television and movies, Broadway stage productions, and regional theater.  His directing credits for film include The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, Doctor Detroit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, To Gillian on her 37th Birthday, and Frankie and Johnny Are Married.  His television movies include To Heal a Nation, about the building of the Vietnam memorial, and the Anne Tyler adaptation Saint Maybe, starring Tom McCarthy, Blythe Danner, and Mary-Louise Parker (Hallmark Hall of Fame). He co-executive produced and directed David E. Kelley’s “Picket Fences,” which lasted four seasons and won him two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series. Pressman then launched Kelley’s next show, “Chicago Hope,” which earned him another Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series. Other series that Pressman has produced and directed include multiple episodes of the Emmy Award-winning series “Law & Order: SVU,” and two seasons of “Blue Bloods.” Pressman also directed the final two hours of the Emmy-nominated TV mini-series “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders,” starring Edie Falco and Heather Graham. He executive produced the fifth and sixth season of NBC’s “Chicago Med,” earning that show its highest ratings to date. Pressman’s stage work includes directing the Los Angeles premiere of To Gillian on her 37th Birthday, and a Los Angeles production of Frankie and Johnny in the Claire De Lune, the 2008 Broadway revival of Come Back, Little Sheba with S. Epatha Merkerson in the lead role (Best Director, NAACP Artist Awards). His most recent stage experience was directing Diane Frolov’s Come Get Maggie for L.A.’s Rogue Machine Theatre Favorite recess snack: Pizza.

EPISODE NOTES

Music from “Haunted Honeymoon” by John Morris.

Why did Professor Louryk choose this film? Find out in our Blog.

NOSTALGIA CORNER

TRAILER

SUPERLATIVES

The Gaspar Noe Award for Most Disturbing Scene
Michael: Larry attempts to make love to Cousin Francis’s corpse
Eric: Larry attempts to make love to Cousin Francis’s corpse
Bradford: Larry attempts to make love to Cousin Francis’s corpse

The Ellen Ripley Award for Character Who Most Deserves to Live
Michael: Vicky (Gilda)
Eric: Vicky (Gilda)
Bradford: Cousin Francis

The Michael Myers Award for Character Who Most Deserves to Die
Michael: Cousin Charles
Eric: Aunt Kate
Bradford: Cousin Charles

The Ken Russell Award for Most Baroque Screen Moment
Michael: Larry dissembles in the hallway that Rachel, the maid, has been all over him
Eric: Cousin Charles’ spectacular death through the window
Bradford: The “Get Happy” performance by Larry and Pfister’s legs

The Brad Dourif Award for Character Who Could Have Been Played by Brad Dourif
Michael: Cousin Charles
Eric: Cousin Charles
Bradford: Uncle Francis

FINAL LETTER GRADE

Michael: B-
Eric: C-
Bradford: A