Ben Gazzara

And I think one of the things that the Safdie brothers took from John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a unlikable, likable main character.

Ben Gazzara's Cosmo Vitelli, who is in a lot of ways, I think they project themselves differently.

He's a little quieter, but it's both that like, But at the same time, you're rooting for this guy, and you're like, I'd probably be friends with him if we're being honest with ourselves.

Drew, Uncut Gems, what's your

And you're saying this is a movie that's about Cosmo Vitelli.

Yeah.

And is that going to work if the performance is good? For me, it does work because I think Ben Gazzara is giving an unbelievably good performance in this movie.

Yeah.

And I go into the studio.

Who is there? Are you ready for this? Ben Gazzara.

Wow.

I'm sorry.

Cool or what? Ben Gazzara.

Not only run for

your life, but just a great actor.

Just one of those great...

And St. Jack, I think is, I don't want to say underrated, but it's a movie that is really strong.

And it's certainly anchored by an incredible performance by Ben Gazzara.

Maybe like one of those movies you watch and go, oh, here's the thing he was meant to do.

You see Killing of a Chinese Bookie and you see this and you're like, oh, here are the movies he was meant to be in.

I'm gonna ride to town.

Now, having left Universal, he returned to Broadway, replacing Ben Gazzara as Brick in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Ilya Kazan.

He also began appearing on television in this episode and several other of the anthology shows that we love so well, such as the craft mystery theater episode Run, Joe, Run, the Twilight Zone episode Young Man's Fancy, opposite Phyllis Thaxter.

We used to sit in here all the time listening to music.

And the movie, and it wasn't through Paramount, it was through Columbia that Irwin helped Cassavetes get out, was called Husbands.

And he starred in it with Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk.

Wow.

That's very cool.

There's a brilliant John Cassavetes film called The Killing of a Chinese Bucky.

And it's Ben Gazzara, who basically owns this club and they have sort of little weird acts on, as well as strippers and stuff like that.

And then there's a crime... sort of subplot and it's all very naturalistic and genuinely this film reminded me of sorry this episode in part and especially the saw orbits especially the cup bits reminded me of that film

Wow.

But because he narrates it and he talks about his early days, Lords of Flatbush, Rollerball, going to California from New York and stuff.

And he talks about, did you see the movie Capone with Ben Gazzara? Yeah.

Yep.

You did.

I forgot that.

Wow.

No, Ben Gazzara, because Brando and him went to school together, he was always like, why didn't I become? I'm better than Brando.

I should be the big box office star.

None whatsoever.

And she tells the story about how she had been dating Ben Gazzara.

And I can't remember where they were filming a thing, but she said she, you know, and in walks Rock Hudson.

And, you know, and he had called her up and asked her if she wanted to have a drink or whatever.

Ambitious doesn't even cover it.

The movie itself stars Ben Gazzara as a federal agent trying to stop a political extremist played by E.G. Marshall from releasing nerve gas at a political convention.

Oh, and a young Martin Sheen is along for the ride.

A very solid cast for an ABC movie of the week.

She was a Hollywood kid, right? She, she went to Hollywood High School, and then she busted into acting.

Some of her early appearances, she was in, on the Gidget TV show, and then she had standout app- uh, performances in the ear- in the mid-'60s on, on Larry Cohen's Invaders TV series and, um, opposite Ben Gazzara in Run For Your Life.

And, um, this, you know, approaching this character, um, you know, she had actually, like s- like Rhoda herself, had a really hard time finding the character, um, for, for, uh, Barbara Hershey.

You know, she said, "This is, this character is, like, so not me," that in a lot of ways she had to find it.