Moonraker. wider than a mile…

videoarchives
August 2, 2022

Did you figure out Gala’s clues from last week’s after show?

Yes, on today’s second full-length episode of The Video Archives Podcast, Roger & Quentin take on one of 007’s most infamous missions in Moonraker! Then they come down to Earth, but not all the way down, staying skybound for Clint Eastwood’s Cold War set airplane heist thriller Firefox. And that’s not all; this week, your hosts introduce a third film into the mix, a forgotten gem from director Peter Maris called Delirium. We’ve got trivia, VHS covers and more in today’s Counter Talk; let’s get into it…

This week’s Moonraker matchup was highly anticipated by Quentin and Roger, since it’s not only a James Bond film Quentin had long avoided, it’s one of Roger’s very favorite Bond entries. They both came in ready to make their case, and the result is one of the most contentious and entertaining film discussions they’ve had so far. (In fact, their Moonraker face-off was so in-depth, we had to trim it down, saving a lot of it for next week’s after show!)

This CBS-Fox VHS poster cover shows off the Ken Adam sets Roger gushes about in the episode, and other wonderful details abound, from Holly Goodhead’s suggestively placed hand on Bond’s thigh, to a striking zero-G action pose from Jaws as he goes in for the kill:

(Speaking of Jaws, my introduction to Richard Kiel was his role as Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore, another role that makes excellent use of the gap between Kiel’s towering size and sweet personality. He really is a goodie, not a baddie!)

The back of the Moonraker box is quite straightforward, though the bold tagline is all you really need: “James Bond now in space!”

You know the name Firefox now as a semi-ubiquitous web browser, but did you know it was also an Atari arcade game? The 1984 cabinet game is an aerial combat shooter not unlike the later Nintendo title Starfox, and used actual footage shot for the film as a backdrop. (I wonder if Atari superfan Roger has ever played it!)

The VHS cover features a stone faced, black-suited Eastwood against a hellish red sky:

And the back helpfully clarifies that this film is “adult action”:

This week’s third film, Delirium, is a “video nasty” with a deceptively simple cover - all you get is a bloody knife, an ominous pair of aviators, and a tagline about poor, poor Charlie:

I can’t spoil Delirium’s pleasures here, but for my money, this lurid poster does a better job selling the film than the more abstract tape cover:

And that’s it for Counter Talk this week. Tune in for even more Moonraker on next week’s after show with Gala – until then, keep telling your friends about the show! I’ve loved reading all your chatter and posts about us online – for instance, check out this terrific Letterboxd list listener Mike Kenny made, featuring every film mentioned on the first episode. If you need even more Quentin and Roger in your ears before Tuesday, listen to them draft their top films of 1987 on The Big Picture podcast. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and remember to rate us on Apple and Spotify, it really helps the show! See you next week.

–Josh