Blank Check — Patreon: Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free)

Published 2022-08-07; 1:46:10 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David (Patreon)” and the episode “Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free)”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims, Ben Hosley. Guests: none.

Subject films: Fear and Desire, Killer's Kiss.

On the transcript: No speaker labels and heavy ASR damage in ad-libbed crosstalk; the two fan-favorite films get most attention from the hosts, while the box office game (1953 and 1955 charts) takes a long stretch. 'You're in desire' and similar stand for 'Fear and Desire'.

Films that came up

Claims (30)

craft (tone): Fear and Desire → The Twilight Zone. The opening narration feels like the Twilight Zone.
“that intro, narration, despite not making perfect sense, feels very Twilight Zone”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:02:18 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (template): Stanley Kubrick → blank check directors. Kubrick's genre-by-genre career is a template many Blank Check directors follow.
“And it's also the thing that like he has this template that I think a lot of blank check directors follow”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:10:39 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (comparison): Stanley Kubrick → Alfred Hitchcock. Kubrick or Hitchcock as the most legendary director.
“It's either him or Hitchcock is like the most sort of like legendary director of all time, I guess.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:15:22 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (admired by): Stanley Kubrick → All That Jazz. Kubrick is said to have loved All That Jazz and Modern Romance.
“Like, oh, he loved all that jazz and modern romance.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:17:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (married): Stanley Kubrick → Ruth Sobotka. Ruth Sobotka, a dancer, is Kubrick's second wife and appears in Killer's Kiss.
“His 2nd wife is Ruth Sabatka, a dancer.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:25:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (similar trajectory): Stanley Kubrick → Christopher Nolan. Self-taught path from watching movies to directing, as Nolan did.
“Like, I mean, Nolan sort of has a similar trajectory.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:27:21 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (shared financing): Fear and Desire → Killer's Kiss. Both were funded by pharmacists and druggists.
“It's funny. Both of these films you read that all the money came from like fucking pharmacies and drugstores.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:27:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (devoted reader): Stanley Kubrick → Vsevolod Pudovkin. Kubrick obsessed over Eisenstein and Pudovkin, especially Pudovkin's book Film Technique.
“He's obsessed with Sergei Eisenstein and Bezvelod Pudovkin, the 2nd Pudovkin, especially, who wrote a book called The Film Technique.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:28:28 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (adaptation): Look magazine photo feature (Walter Cartier) → Day of the Fight. Day of the Fight was based on a photo feature Kubrick shot for Look.
“it was based on a photo feature he'd shot for look”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:30:17 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (inspiration): Day of the Fight → Killer's Kiss. The boxer short seems to the speaker like an inspiration for Killer's Kiss.
“Uh, it seems like a bit of, you know, an inspiration for killer's kiss, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:30:24 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (inspiration): The March of Time → Day of the Fight. Kubrick was inspired to make Day of the Fight cheaply after Singer worked on the costly March of Time short.
“what he was inspired by was Alexander Singer had worked on another short, the March of Time, which apparently it's like, they'd spent $40,000 making”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:31:10 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (led to): Day of the Fight → Flying Padre. RKO liked Day of the Fight and advanced money for Flying Padre.
“And so RKO, happy with what he made, gives him $1,500 advance to make flying Padre”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:31:53 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (shared cast): Fear and Desire → Killer's Kiss. Frank Silvera is in both films.
“The cast, Frank Silvera, who's also in Killer's Kiss.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:37:27 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (rough first film): Fear and Desire → Following. Following is the speaker's good example of a rough, interesting debut like this one.
“Like, well, I think following is a good version of this.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:39:36 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (rough first film): Fear and Desire → Story of a Three Day Pass. A first film scraped together outside the system, with feeling.
“story of a 3 day pass, the Melvin Van Peebles movie, which was similarly a 1st film that he kind of scraped together outside of the system.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:39:57 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (introduced): Alexander Singer → Gerald Fried. Singer knows Gerald Fried, the oboe major from Juilliard who scored the film.
“the music done by Gerald Freed, uh, who is like some oboe major at Juilliard that Alex Singer knows.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:41:23 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (comparison): Fear and Desire → Top Gun: Maverick. The unnamed enemy is like Top Gun Maverick's war without a country.
“it almost feels like a Top Gun Maverick thing of just, like, just let me tell a story about war without, like, being anything.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:43:13 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (disowned): Fear and Desire → Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick was embarrassed by the film; the host reads his quote.
“It's not a film I remember with any pride, he says.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:44:22 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (comparison): Fear and Desire → La Grande Illusion. Cutting to the generals feels like Grand Illusion.
“But it almost feels like a grand illusion thing where you like, you then cut to the office and you stay in their perspective for a while, you know?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:49:04 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (version): Moulin Rouge! → Moulin Rouge!. Baz Luhrmann did a version of Moulin Rouge that cost a fortune.
“he did a version of it that cost $1000000 per minute.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:57:39 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): I Love Melvin → Stanley Kubrick. A Look photographer lead in I Love Melvin: the speaker imagines Kubrick seeing it.
“I think Kubrick saw this and was like, excuse me.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:02:36 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Fear and Desire → Killer's Kiss. Killer's Kiss was conceived as pure action on a mechanical gangster plot, the opposite of the first film.
“This one was nothing but action sequences strung together on a mechanically constructed gangster plot.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:03:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (color): The Seafarers → Stanley Kubrick. The Seafarers was Kubrick's first color work, not repeated until Spartacus.
“It's also the 1st time he shoots in color for the 1st time and he won't do it again until Spartacus.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:04:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Stanley Kubrick → Eyes Wide Shut. Guerrilla street shooting in Killer's Kiss versus building his own New York for his last film.
“just funny thing to contrast with his career ending with eyes wide shut where he's like, I'm going to fucking make my own New York City.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:04:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (shared technique): Fear and Desire → Killer's Kiss. Both were shot silent and dubbed afterward.
“Oh, right, he does the same fucking thing again, where they shoot it without sound and dub over every line dialogue.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:05:27 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Killer's Kiss → Double Indemnity. The speaker expected a double-cross plot but got a tender romance.
“You went for some double indemnity thing.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:08:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (successor): The Killing → Killer's Kiss. The Killing puts all of this in a cooler package with better actors.
“The killing kind of just like puts all of this in a cooler package with better actors, no offense to the actors.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:21:52 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (remake): We're No Angels → We're No Angels (remake). The speaker half-recalls We're No Angels being remade later.
“Yes, and there was wasn't We're No Angels then remade as...”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:34:17 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (sequel): Gentlemen Prefer Blondes → Gentlemen Marry Brunettes. Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was sort of a sequel to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
“which was sort of a sequel to Gentlemen Prefer Braun.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:37:05 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (inspiration): I Am a Camera → Cabaret. I Am a Camera, from the Berlin stories, led to Cabaret.
“I am a camera, which is, of course, uh, the Julie Harris movie that will eventually... Come, Camera, inspires the guys into cabaret, yes.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:37:35 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items (23)

fun, about Fear and Desire: The streaming copies are public-domain colorized versions that look like cheap AI, with color that will not stay on faces.
“It looks like it was done by some very rudimentary $5 AI, but it's this thing where the color like can't stick to their faces.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:01:36 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Forbidden Zone: Its colorization was done artisanally, by hand, by the original maker, unlike the Kubrick copies.
“No, but it was done artisanally by the person originally.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:02:02 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Fear and Desire: The poster sells a 'half animal girl' with an illustration of a kissed neck, making the war movie look supernatural.
“An illustration of, uh, Paul Mizurski kissing her neck that makes it look consensual, and says, fear and desire, trapped for desperate man, and a strange half animal girl.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:03:19 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Stanley Kubrick: Graduated Taft High with a 67 average; no college would take him.
“eventually ends up at Taft High School in the Bronx with a 60, graduates with a 67 average, which I guess is bad.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:18:21 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Stanley Kubrick: At double features he read his paper by whatever light he could find while actors talked, rustling it at the audience.
“If actors started to talk too much, he would read his paper by whatever light he could find until they stopped talking, very annoying audience members.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:26:24 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Fear and Desire: Making the film was Kubrick's film school: he saw a thousand movies, then taught himself by doing.
“then made his 1st film Fear and Desire, which was essentially making a film as film school.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:27:01 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Fear and Desire: Both first features were funded by relatives and acquaintances who ran pharmacies.
“The 1st 2 movies, he essentially gets financed by parents, friends, and relatives who run pharmacies.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:27:48 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Day of the Fight: Kubrick raised $3,900, self-produced the short, and sold it for $4,000.
“I can raise $3,900 to just self-produce this, and then he sold it for $4,000.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:31:03 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Stanley Kubrick: His uncle wanted a percentage of his whole career; Kubrick refused, then caved a month later for one film.
“And Kubrick, stubborn fuck that he was, was like, I'm not fucking signing right with my career.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:33:21 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Fear and Desire: Shooting silent and dubbing later tripled the budget; shooting cost $9,000, post $30,000.
“I fucking got to go in and add all the sound. And rerecord all the dialogue and then it like tripled his budget.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:35:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Frank Silvera: Out of money mid-shoot, Silvera said he was getting paid no matter what, and was.
“And Frank Silvera was like, well, I'm getting my money no matter what.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:38:48 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Fear and Desire: Kubrick on his own film, as read from the dossier.
“It's not a film I remember with any pride, he says.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:44:22 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Fear and Desire: Kubrick phoned to stop a rediscovered print from being introduced at a festival.
“And Stanley called him up and was like, please don't.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:45:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Call Me Madam: Ethel Merman's autobiography gives her marriage to Ernest Borgnine one blank page.
“In her autobiography, Merman, the chapter titled My Marriage to Ernest Borg 9, Ernest Borg 9, consists of one blank page.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 0:53:09 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about I Love Melvin: Donald O'Connor plays a Look magazine photographer in a 1953 hit, a coincidence for ex-Look man Kubrick.
“And in this movie, Donald O'Connor plays a look magazine photographer.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:02:32 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about The Seafarers: Kubrick's first color work, and he would not shoot color again until Spartacus.
“It's also the 1st time he shoots in color for the 1st time and he won't do it again until Spartacus.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:04:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Killer's Kiss: Kubrick fired the sound team when they wanted a microphone in his shot, and dubbed again.
“I set up a shot and they're like, well, we need to put a microphone there. And Kubrick says, cut.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:05:19 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Fear and Desire: Eerie shot: a dead woman's POV as a hand waves over her eyes, then a pulse check.
“They cut to a POV shot. I know. Of him waving his hand in front of her eyes.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:10:45 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Irene Kane: The lead later became an early CNN on-screen personality and celebrity ghostwriter as Chris Chase.
“And then you've got Gloria is the taxi dancer, played by Irene Kane, who later becomes one of the early CNN onscreen personalities.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:11:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Killer's Kiss: The shaving-mirror shot that reflects her window across the airshaft.
“And you see in the mirror her window.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:12:53 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Killer's Kiss: The Penn Station frame sets up a poetic tragedy, but the ending was forced on the film.
“And the ending was forced on this movie, I think.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:17:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Killer's Kiss: The mannequin warehouse fight is the coolest part of the movie.
“Like, which is the coolest part of the movie?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:18:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Blood Alley: Chinese characters, and hardly a Chinese name in the cast list.
“Scanning the cast list here, and I'm not seeing a lot of Chinese names.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free) · 1:33:13 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Admires Kubrick more than he loves the films, though he loves The Shining and counts Eyes Wide Shut as a favorite; has never seen Barry Lyndon or Spartacus. Loves rough, process-visible first films and tactile photography. Skeptical of war films and of overlong thin plots.
David Sims (host): Loves Killer's Kiss and 1950s noir and studio-era trivia, and is happy to run the box office game from deep knowledge. Dislikes padded plotless first films, and is quick to point out what a first film is missing.
Ben Hosley (host): Warm on A Clockwork Orange and The Shining, wary of Kubrick fandom's intensity, and obsessed with odd props like mannequins. Loves 3D and old movie titles like Blood Alley.

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong

Kubrick rendered 'Cooper', 'Cubric', 'Stanley Cooper', 'Quinn' in places
Mizurski/Mazerski/Mazer = Paul Mazursky
Virginia Leath/Life/Leaf = Virginia Leith
Harry Tanto = Harry and Tonto
Gerald Freed = Gerald Fried
Ruth Sabatka/Sabakka = Ruth Sobotka
Martin per lever = Martin Perveler
Morris Busell = Morris Bousel
Joseph Burston = Joseph Burstyn
David Vaughn = David Vaughan
Ed/John Borman = John Boorman
Jenna Rowland's = Gena Rowlands
MT Carney = Ray Carney
Bezvelod = Vsevolod Pudovkin
Charles Lawton = Charles Laughton
Stuart Granger = Stewart Granger
Michael Curtis = Michael Curtiz
Gene Cherney = Gene Tierney
Eli Wallet = Eli Wallach
Barry Kroger = Barry Kroeger
Boana Devil = Bwana Devil
To Helen Back = To Hell and Back
Gendi Tartatowski = Genndy Tartakovsky
Baz Lerma = Baz Luhrmann
Marie Barty = Marie Bardi
Jaja Gabor = Zsa Zsa Gabor
Danny K = Danny Kaye
Salom/Salame = Salome

Blank Check — Patreon: Fear & Desire / Killer's Kiss (Ad-Free)

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (2)

passing (57)

compared (10)

anecdote (3)

recommended (2)

Claims (30)

Fun items (23)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong