logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2022
1h 47m

Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss

Blank Check Productions
About this episode

He dominated the field in this year’s 20th Century March Madness competition, and now we’re celebrating with a parade and a big brass band…it’s time for our series on the films of Stanley Kubrick - Pods Wide Cast! Join us as we fill in the background strokes of Kubrick’s early career - his childhood in the Bronx, his photography apprenticeship with Look Magazine - and as we discuss his first two features - 1953’s FEAR AND DESIRE and 1955’s KILLER’S KISS. Some burning questions we end up asking: how much of later Kubrick is already present in these pretty amateurish works? How do these rank in the patheon of debut films by great directors? Is there a code of ethics for cab drivers when you jump into the backseat and request that they “follow that car?” Why has Ben been buying mannequins off eBay? And more!


Additional Music by Alex Barron


John Wayne Throws Kid in River


Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes.

Follow us @blankcheckpod on InstagramThreadsFacebook and X!

Buy some real nerdy merch.

Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord

For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up next
Jul 6
Vamps with Caroline Framke
Our Amy Heckerling series comes to an end with 2012’s Vamps, a film produced too late to have an appropriate budget, and too early to be a streaming series. However - we find it charming! Caroline Framke returns to the podcast after 6 years (an eternity for us, but probably a bli ... Show More
2h 47m
Jun 29
I Could Never Be Your Woman with Karen Chee
Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Amy Heckerling and Paul Rudd stars as ????? in a totally normal movie that might actually be a voodoo curse made against Amy’s enemies. Oh, also Saorise Ronan makes her FILM DEBUT. What a picture! The incomparable Karen Chee joins us to talk about 2007’ ... Show More
2h 23m
Jun 22
28 Years Later
Blank Check is going back to the British Isles with Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, and one extraordinarily well-endowed zombie this week as they discuss 28 Years Later. This movie has so much to love in it – wet bones, third-act Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer doing a thing, the Angel of ... Show More
2h 53m
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2024
Alfred Hitchcock: Killers, Auteurs, and Survivors
Alfred Hitchcock grew up on murder. He was the OG crime junkie; obsessed with true stories of stranglers, bodysnatchers, necrophiliacs, and serial killers. He was also afraid – not so much with these ghoulish figures, but of authority, the dark, crowds, and of being alone. He cha ... Show More
43m 36s
Apr 2021
How to Direct, Produce, Write, Star and Distribute your Indie Film with guest Guy Pidgen - 'Older'
This weeks episode is with the brilliant director, writer, producer and actor Guy Pidgen who’s film Older is out now! He talks to Giles Alderson and Robbie McKane about how he made his first film at 16, how he started in the business and how he got his break. He discusses who his ... Show More
1h 19m
Mar 2020
The Ranger (2018) feat. Annie Rose Malamet
In their attempt at social distancing, the boys abandon the city and head deep into the woods. Along for the ride is Girls, Guts & Giallo's Annie Rose Malamet, who schools the boys on all things punk (and Lisa Frank) so that they can understand the annoying teens in Jenn Wexler's ... Show More
1h 41m
Aug 2022
Getting your movie greenlit by a studio with Yariv Lerner producer and Exec producer of Expendables, Rambo: Last Blood, Hellboy & The Dare !
Today, our host Giles Alderson welcomes a very special person to the podcast: The man who greenlit his debut feature film, Yariv Lerner. Now, not only does Yariv run Nu Boyana Film Studios, the biggest film studio in Eastern Europe, but he is also the executive producer or produc ... Show More
1h 1m
Oct 2024
Brad Miska – Behind The Bloody Disgusting Box Office of Terrifier 3
Terrifier 3 made history this weekend by becoming the first unrated horror film to take the #1 spot at the US box office! And to celebrate, film producer and Bloody Disgusting website co-founder, Brad Miska joins! Brad explains how he and parent company Cineverse became the distr ... Show More
1h 9m
Feb 2025
Martin Scorsese (Pt. 2): One Night. One Murder. Five Directors.
Hollywood:1975. Martin Scorsese sits in his apartment, enraged. He wants to literally kill the man who is ruining his to-be-released film, Taxi Driver. Scorsese’s friends, filmmakers Stephen Spielberg, Brian De Palma, John Milius, and Paul Schraeder rush to Scorsese’s side to tal ... Show More
50m 6s
Sep 2021
Sound of Violence Writer & Director Alex Noyer talks going from Short to Feature, Clubhouse Horror Movies and fuding & making a hit directorial debut.
On today’s show, Giles Alderson and co-host Lucinda Rhodes Thakrar sit down with Alex Noyer, the writer and director of Sound of Violence, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2021. Alex dives deep into Clubhouse of Horror, what the room is about, what it’s ... Show More
1h 18m
Jan 2023
Main Khiladi Tu Anari | Has It Aged Well?
This week on ‘Has It Aged Well?’ we’re taking a trip to peak 90s with comedian and podcaster Antariksh Takkar aka Silverie by discussing ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’. As the trio tries to decipher this buddy cop action comedy, Antariksh sheds light on the film’s association with his y ... Show More
1h 1m
Jun 2024
The Many Faces of the Hit Man
“Hit Man,” a new film directed by Richard Linklater, is not, in fact, about a hit man. The movie follows Gary Johnson (Glen Powell), a mild-mannered philosophy professor who assists law enforcement in sting operations by posing as a contract killer—and playing on the expectations ... Show More
46m 51s
May 21
Michael Cimino Talks ‘Motorheads,’ ‘Love, Victor,’ Upcoming Album, and 'Never Have I Ever'
It’d be easy to assume Michael Cimino was an overnight success — he’s been everywhere the past five years. First as the titular character in coming of age (and coming out) series Love, Victor, then as the (not-so-bright) bad boy Ethan Morales in Never Have I Ever, and now he star ... Show More
1h 5m