SIDE HUSTLE: SIR RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH: PINKIE MAGIC

The Good, The Pod and The Ugly

Send us a text

SIDE HUSTLE 12: RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH AIN'T NO DUMMY
Only four episodes left in our epic season ten, talking side hustles. While we mostly have discussed directors better known as actors, this week we talk Richard Attenborough, who, if not for Jurassic Park, would probably be better known as a director today. But he was a great actor! And not just when playing billionaire softy grandpas that accidentally upturn the biological order of an entire planet because he wanted his grandkids to have cuddly raptors. He was legitimately a great actor.
BRIGHTON ROCK (1948) is the first of two movies based on books with scripts credited to the author of the books themselves, and not some schmuck (this one is by Graham Greene. Directed by John Boulting, Rock has Attenborough in one of his greatest roles as Pinkie Brown, a nasty hood on the rise in the titular town of Brighton between world wars. It's a fairly grim film with Attenborough seething malice at nearly every turn. He's so good!
MAGIC (1978) was a bit of a breather for Attenborough, the director, as he worked to get his passion project, a tiny indie film no one ever saw called GANDHI, made and re-teamed with producer Joseph E. Levine and author/screenwriter William Goldman, both of whom worked with Attenborough on 1977's epic A BRIDGE TOO FAR, for something quite small by comparison, a thriller about a magician who mysteriously rises to fame once he brings a dummy, named Fats, into his act and then decamps to his old hometown right before his big breakthrough to stalk a high school crush. The magician, Corky, is played by Anthony Hopkins and the crush by a dressed down Ann-Margret. Fats generally steals the show as things go from creepy to violent. It's great! Co-host Ken read the book and spills on all the changes made from page to screen (spoiler: not much). Ken and Thomas discuss the rest of Attenborough's career as one of the few great actors who moved away successfully from acting to be full time great directors.
Bonus: Fats joins us!
THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
Email: [e-mail]
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g
Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/
Letterboxd (follow us!):
Ken: Ken Koral
Jack: jackk1096