scene,
I don't know if anybody got it.
It didn't get a laugh
but it was bizarre.
So we decided to take that concept
and expand it into "Top Secret".
And do a whole movie full of bizarre
jokes!
Mondo.
You think that's a mirror...
- It looks like a mirror.
- But actually... not a mirror.
- There were many meetings over that.
- Makes me laugh.
Now you've explained it I get it.
This fella's Jesse Emmett
who was in a theatre with us.
Actually that's not gasoline he just
poured, it's actually just water.
But... didn't we paint this
onscreen, the explosion?
Yeah, the explosion.
This is the one
post-production effect added.
Another $25 down the drain.
He really did time that beautifully.
Right here, $25.
Well spent, I think.
I thought it was funny.
I love the...
that St Christopher statue.
Leslie's just brilliant here.
There are whole scenes
when he doesn't move a muscle.
This line's right out of "Zero Hour".
"The lives of everybody
on this plane depends on..."
We bought the rights to "Zero Hour".
Bob's reaction
gets a laugh all by himself.
No, it's on "altogether"
that he does this great reaction.
That was "altogether."
It's coming up, Jerry, just wait.
You'll see it, you'll see it.
We must have missed it.
There's a rule coming up here, too.
Oh, yeah, ad absurdum.
We thought this would be funny,
just endlessly panning controls,
much further than you would ever go,
but it never...
It must have gotten a laugh.
No cockpit would actually have
this many controls but...
- where do you laugh?
- Which point?
I don't think anybody ever...
Big laugh.
You want to explain
to Howard Jarvis now?
Howard Jarvis wrote a tax initiative
in California called Proposition 13.
- In the middle '70s...
- Something like that.
A popular figure in the '70s.
Particularly
with California homeowners.
They have pictures of airplanes
up on the wall.
Reveal picture.
- OK.
- OK.
This is the Howard Anderson
Company...
- No, Hansard.
- Hansard, yeah.
Didn't like planes.
- We shot this before the movie.
- That's Jim.
Yeah, actually going "asshole."
I'm not the stuntman.
This is so fast.
We just speeded it up.
Remember the big discussion about
whether he should loosen his tie?
Then we got Eisner into the set...
Then we did the focus groups and...
- Tie loosened? Tie tight?
- So we did it two ways.
We tried to preview it and finally
at UC Davis they all whistled.
This line coming up
is actually from "Zero Hour".
No, that's wrong.
And notice the lighting, the...
It got quite dramatic.
Joe Biroc loved to do those shadows.
That's what Joe Biroc did,
it was all hard light,
no bounce light, no soft light,
just all direct hard light.
It never took... I always thought,
"Why does it take so long
to make movies?"
Because he never spent
over 15 minutes lighting a shot.
That stop-motion animation
was done by Bill Hedge.
I had forgotten that one.
There's some improvisation here.
This is one of the few things
we added on the set.
The basic joke was here
but we added the other stuff.
Leslie nails her twice here,
just for the sadistic...
One for the road.
This is a movie
that has almost no improvisation,
it's funny you mention that because
the script was shot religiously.
- The two misconceptions are...
- Here's Jim coming up.
One... oh, we have to be quiet.
Scientology?!
Stack did that stunt himself.
There's Jim.
- He was young then.
- Yeah.
Anyway, the two misconceptions
are that we do a lot of improv
and just come up with stuff
on the set
and that we're stoned when we
write it. Neither of which is true.
He didn't quite deliver that line.
But it always worked.
The original line was from
one of those old flying movies.
"He's a menace to himself
and everything else."
What draft was this
of the screenplay, guys?
There were hundreds of drafts... well,
dozens, maybe hundreds.
And all typed.
Yeah, without computers.
And not even really
Xerox