A Trident Fawn Presentation

From Jason Beard, the mind behind the award nominated audio cinematic podcasts Leo Brawn, Magnetar and Topaz & Stillman... comes your new listening obsession.

Episode Summary: "Frankie's One-Take Broken Finger"

Host/Co-host: Jason Beard & Justin Merritt

Guest Stars: Larry Oblander & Mike Pelletier

To the listeners out there: this is a second dry run, not the final broadcast. We’re briefly lifting the lid on all our unedited mistakes and imperfections. Indulge your inner critic... while it lasts.

The global apocalypse is raging outside, but inside the bunker, old blue eyes is playing solitaire in our heads. Welcome back to Dystopian Drive-In with your hosts Jason Beard and Justin Merritt, alongside our resident "gallbladder" asset Mike Pelletier and our stellar announcer Larry Oblander. This week, under strict orders from the invisible but omnipresent El Presidente Scott, the crew dives deep into the 1962 black-and-white psychological Cold War thriller, The Manchurian Candidate.

Forget the Denzel Washington remake—we went straight for the absolute OG classic to see if Frank Sinatra’s brainwashed platoon deserves a spot in humanity's permanent vault or if it needs to be completely purged from existence.

In this episode, the bunker crew breaks down:

• Sinatra’s Dictatorship of Art: The real truth behind the film’s famously artsy, blurry, out-of-focus shots. Spoiler: It wasn't genius cinematography; Frank Sinatra just strictly refused to do more than one take because he believed a second take meant he was doing a second movie and deserved a second paycheck.
• The Hollywood Karate Pioneer: A hilariously wooden look at the first time karate was ever featured in a major American film. Plus, how Frank Sinatra literally broke his finger chopping a table in half on set and just aggressively pushed through the scene anyway.
• The Mommy Issues Final Boss: Analyzing Angela Lansbury's masterclass performance as the ultimate villainous handler. We unpack the deeply uncomfortable, sensor-blocking incestuous kiss she uses to trigger her son, and the mind-blowing trivia that she was only three years older than the actor playing her child in real life.
• The "Garden Club" Race Shift: A brilliant, easily missed editing detail where the old ladies in the platoon's brainwashed hallucinations completely shift demographics based on which soldier is having the nightmare.
• Fragile 1960s Throats: Why assassination via a loose napkin looks like it takes zero physical effort compared to a modern-day 10-minute piano wire struggle.

Does this slow-burning masterpiece withstand the test of radioactive time, or does it get blasted into oblivion? Tune in to hear the final verdict, catch a round of the trivia game "Spoilers Are Spoiled," and eavesdrop on our latest intercepted broadcast of the apocalypse's greatest radio romance, My Sweet Leonid.