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TCM

0:49

Melo listeners, Ben here.

0:51

The next episode of The Blackthickens comes out

0:53

on Tuesday, but we have a little weekend

0:55

treat for you. This is a really

0:57

engaging story. Pam told us

0:59

about a gladiator movie she made in nineteen

1:01

seventy three for Roger Corman. The

1:04

movie was called The Arena.

1:11

Andrear is the fiery noobian

1:13

slave. I

1:14

am mowi.

1:15

Margaret Markoff is the beautiful

1:17

high priest thrust

1:19

together, fighting for their lives

1:22

as gladiator women. Believe

1:25

it or not, Roger Korman actually asked Martin

1:27

Skors SEZY to direct the arena,

1:30

but Scorsese turned it down, made

1:32

mean streets instead.

1:34

Roger

1:34

may not have landed the director he

1:36

wanted but he did get Pam for

1:39

one of the leads. In nineteen seventy

1:41

four, she flew to Italy to film the arena.

1:44

It was shot in a large studio in Rome

1:46

called Cinecitta. Cinecitta

1:48

means cinema city and

1:50

it lives up to that name. Everyone

1:52

told me how all the directors

1:55

had worked at Cinecitta. This is

1:57

like the holy ground

1:59

of

1:59

Italian directors.

2:04

Cinecitta is actually the largest

2:06

film studio in Europe. It has

2:08

several outdoor sets, including a

2:10

freestanding Gladiator arena.

2:13

They live as slaves,

2:15

fight

2:15

like demons, and love on

2:18

command. The

2:19

script required Pam and her fellow

2:22

gladiators took ride horses.

2:25

Anne was eating lunch in the commissary before

2:28

rehearsing one of those scenes. A

2:30

crew member found her with some distressing

2:32

news. Yeah.

2:34

We're gonna rehearse the horses.

2:36

You have Donatello. he's

2:39

a stallion and why he's

2:41

a stallion.

2:43

Pam

2:43

knew enough about horses to realize

2:45

that riding a stallion was not

2:48

good idea. He's

2:49

a stud. What

2:52

if a female mirror is in heat?

2:54

I'm

2:54

gonna die. he's

2:57

gonna go after.

3:01

Pam arrived on set and carefully

3:03

got on the stallion. Donatello. He

3:07

was big, muscular, powerful.

3:10

Donatello was in front of all

3:12

the other horses I'm leading

3:14

the charge, and

3:16

a crew member comes out of the

3:18

building with a white cloth.

3:21

Pops his flanks.

3:24

Why? I don't know.

3:26

To see us die, I

3:28

don't

3:28

know.

3:29

Well,

3:31

he takes off.

3:33

And the reins are very

3:35

thin, and I'm wearing these thin

3:37

sandals and there's not really much of a saddle

3:39

underneath and it's like, this

3:41

horse is spooked

3:42

and I have to run his energy

3:44

down for fifteen

3:45

minutes or he's gonna kill me. Pam

3:48

managed to stay on her horse. Everyone

3:50

behind her wasn't so lucky.

3:53

They all fell off. And

3:54

that's the first thing I thought, oh my god.

3:56

All these people was gonna be death and

3:58

injury.

3:59

Remember, Pam's Stallian

4:02

was rampaging through a movie

4:04

studio. There were people everywhere.

4:07

I'm just trying to hang on because he's going full

4:09

board. We're we're going, like, thirty, forty miles

4:11

an hour. I'm just using

4:13

pure balance, my purest

4:15

leg strength to stay on.

4:17

And I don't wanna kill them, and I don't

4:19

wanna die. And I don't want him to break

4:21

his leg and throw me or falls on top of

4:23

me. It could be a a really bad day

4:25

for everybody. The

4:28

arena was hardly the only movie

4:30

being shot at Chinecitta. Donatello

4:33

took a turn and ran

4:35

through someone else's set.

4:37

Stop. Stop.

4:39

As we go through,

4:40

there's a group of crew

4:42

and a man and a hat with a

4:44

viewfinder and

4:45

they're setting up the next

4:48

shot. And the crew members are looking

4:50

and This is a totally

4:52

different movie. Totally different movie. Not not my

4:54

movie at all. It's on the other side of the lot.

4:58

Even at high speed, Pam

5:00

recognized the man with the hat

5:02

and the viewfinder. And

5:04

it's Federico Falini. During

5:06

the nineteen sixties and seventies,

5:08

Federico Falini was quite possibly

5:10

the most famous filmmaker in the

5:12

world. He

5:16

won four Academy Awards plus

5:18

an honorary Oscar. His movies

5:20

were considered events and he was shooting

5:22

a new one at Chinecitta. It

5:24

was called Amikor. The new

5:26

Felini, Amikor. and

5:29

it would go on to win one of those Oscars.

5:32

That was the set Pam Greer stormed

5:34

onto, riding an out of

5:36

control horse. When

5:39

he sees me with my afro bopping

5:41

in the air and my leopard skin on

5:43

and sandals and and the

5:45

black Australian writing

5:47

crazily through the cardboard

5:50

water of his set. They all

5:52

scattered and he goes, by

5:54

fun to see his come true.

5:55

Another

5:58

thing about Thalini. We loved

5:59

American women. but Pam was

6:02

in no position to say hello.

6:04

She was busy trying to control

6:06

Donatella. And

6:08

I could feel my body starts sliding

6:11

up his neck because I'm gonna go

6:13

over his head and down

6:14

on the crowd. So I've got to be able

6:16

to do some kind of stunt role, you

6:18

know, so I don't kill myself. And

6:20

then I slide off and I go,

6:26

Pam was thrown to the ground on

6:29

the set of spinal cord. Next

6:31

thing I know, there's, like, all these

6:33

spaces around me.

6:35

Belle, I Belle, you okay. x.

6:37

They help me up.

6:39

and Furlaney comes over and he says,

6:42

oh, my god. You're the American. You're

6:45

the American actress.

6:45

Oh my god. This is a hire

6:48

so much a bunch of we have to have lunch.

6:52

Pam had to get back to her own movie

6:54

set. They were waiting to find out what happened

6:56

to her. But

6:57

when Federico Falini invites you

6:59

to lunch,

7:00

you don't say no.

7:03

And so we go back to the commas sir.

7:06

And so he sits down the table. So

7:09

do

7:09

you know about the hotdog?

7:10

I said,

7:12

yes. I know about the hotdog.

7:14

When I go to America, I eat the hotdog.

7:17

But

7:17

I love going to Harlan where I eat the priority

7:20

chicken. Do you know how to make a priority

7:22

chicken? I said, Yes.

7:24

I know how to make the fried chicken.

7:26

I teach you you red sauces, and

7:29

you teach me how to make a fried chicken.

7:31

so

7:31

Pam agreed to make Thalini fried

7:34

chicken, except the kitchen

7:36

didn't have an important ingredient. Okay?

7:39

You got

7:39

some chicken. No, we don't have a

7:41

chicken. We got a Squab Bay.

7:43

Pigeon. We fly the

7:45

Pigeon. Can you fly the Pigeon? I'm

7:47

going, Yeah.

7:48

I can fry pajans. Sure.

7:52

And so I set up the cauldron

7:54

with oil

7:55

and And I said, he's supposed

7:56

to double dip to make it really crispy.

7:59

The

7:59

double dip, and he's turning to a secret

8:02

to double dip, and they're all writing down

8:04

double dip. a double dip. Thalini

8:07

wrote down Pam's fried chicken recipe,

8:09

then the famous director in Pam

8:11

sat down and ate lunch together.

8:14

And he was trying to tell me in the

8:16

brief hour that we spent

8:18

about Italian culture. So

8:21

I found it I found

8:23

it wonderful.

8:28

and that's the story of how Pam Greer,

8:30

star of a low budget gladiator

8:33

movie, became friends with Federico

8:35

Falini, and taught him how to

8:37

cook fried chicken.

8:40

I'm

8:43

Ben mankowitz, and thanks for listening.

8:46

We'll be back on Tuesday with our next full

8:48

episode of the plot thickens. We'll

8:50

see you then.

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