Welcome to the Important Cinema Club podcast. I'm Will Sloan. My co-host, Justin DeClew, is still on paternity leave. He will be back with us, maybe even as soon as the next episode. I have met Justin's baby, by the way. Very cute. Maybe we'll get some more updates on that soon. But until then, his shoes will be ably filled by my good friend. He's the co-founder of the essential Toronto-based screening collective Bleeding Edge, as well as a writer for the film stage and other journals, as well as the man with whom I saw Warren Batey's Rules don't apply in a theater. It's Ethan Vesby. Hello. Oh, thank you for having me on, Will. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a dream come true, if anything. That's what I like to hear. This is the Carnegie Hall of Film Podcasts. Thanks for making the time to do a lot of unpaid work. I don't know. I'll buy you a drink next time I see you.

Really, it's a pleasure to have an excuse to talk about this subject of this week, to be honest.

I'm thrilled you suggested the subject of Richard Fleischer because first of all, I don't know if you know this. A couple weeks ago, I spoke to his daughter on this podcast.

His daughter was on to talk about her grandfather, Max Fleischer.

And right before the Zoom meeting started, I realized, wait a minute, Max Fleischer, you know,

I remembered who his son was. So, you know, my head almost exploded. And I didn't ask about Mandingo,

because I didn't know maybe that's a sensitive subject.

I don't know.

But I think it's a great film.

But I'm thrilled you suggested this topic because going in, I'd seen some Richard Fleischer films.

I knew that he is considered one of the quintessential Hollywood journeymen.

I knew that there were some people I respect who really like him. And overwhelmingly,

I knew him for Dr. Doolittle and Tora, Tora, Tora, Tora, you know, the bloated 60s stage of his

career. And maybe had a bit of a bias against him for that reason. So I'm curious, what's your relationship with Richard Fleischer and what made you want to talk about him?

Well, a few things.

I mean, I guess if I can like just backtrack as much as possible, the first Fleischer film I think I remember hearing of, I mean, besides Dr. Doolittle, I guess, was my dad was very fond of the movie Mandingo,

which he had brought up already.

And he brought it up as a favorite of his, and I'd always been intrigued by Mandingo

because of how often my dad brought it up.

I love the idea of a teenage him just watching it on a 35 millimeter print and a dingy,

well, not even multiplex, probably single screen theater and Brandon Manitoba but I'll say yeah talking about the Journeyman thing I

think I came to Fleischer particularly in the year 2013 when I was starting to get

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