Bad Dreams (1988)

Episode 451, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, you know how I am about tribute episodes. Maybe I get a little more enthusiastic than you are. It depends on who it is. I mean, today’s tribute is to a man named Harris, Len. I don’t think that name is on the tip of too many people’s tongues when they’re asked to, uh, spout out, you know, 10 most famous actors they know, right?

If you see this guy’s face, you’ll be like, oh, that guy. Yeah. He died in June at the age of 87. And he has been in so much stuff. In fact, I think, uh, much like the last person that we did a tribute episode for, he was kind of one of those guys who enjoyed all of the big roles and probably the money and stuff of Hollywood without having to deal with the trappings of fame.

Mm-hmm. Because he was just shy of getting that, you know, one breakout role that would just kinda lift him up and sort of define his career. But the guy is very versatile, although he did tend to get cast in a lot of roles like this. Like he is in this movie. And the movie we’re doing, by the way, is Bad Dreams from 1988.

You know, like a psychiatrist or a police officer or a, a judge. Judge, yeah. Like a doer or serious government official or something like that. You know, it was fun to learn a lot, a little bit about him. But this is why we do this. It’s so good to have an excuse to learn more about some of these guys. It is 

Craig: kind of cool.

Todd: Right. Did so, did you look up, uh, some information about him? 

Craig: Just a little bit. I mean, I, I was mostly impressed that he really started in the theater and did some really amazing stuff and worked with really amazing people. When he was a, a younger man, he, he really didn’t get into. Film and TV until the second half of his life.

But, well, I don’t know. He, he lived to be pretty old, but like in his thirties, I think. Yeah, thirties and forties. But just, just looking at his theater resume was pretty mind blowing. Tons of Shakespeare and with huge people, I wanna say like Kevin Klein and James Earl Jones and like, 

Todd: yeah. Yeah, 

Craig: I, it was really, really impressive.

Todd: It’s insane. And then you go and look at his film when he did start getting into film, you know, he’s been in so much stuff. Scarface Ghostbusters two, I remember him from Clear and Present Danger. He had a pretty big role in that one. Rush hour Rush, rush Hour two, I think. Again, we could say all these things.

You probably wouldn’t know who we’re talking about until you saw his face. I know him. Anyway, a sort of middle aged looking guy with a very, very receding hairline and just, uh, like I said, almost always, just like a serious. Ish face on i I, when I was going through and reading about some of his filmography, I saw that he played, I think it was this Wyatt Earp or Doc Holiday, I’m not sure.

One 

Craig: or the other. Yeah. 

Todd: In a movie called Doc, uh, from 1971. And I actually pulled that up and started to watch it and said, okay, I’m putting a pin in this after we record our podcast. I think tomorrow I’m gonna watch that. ’cause it looks like a really cool version of that story. He looks young in that one.

Uh, he still looks like almost exactly the same. It’s like the same. Face, just fewer wrinkles. I mean, hopefully we could all be that lucky, but he’s got these big glassy eyes that were just so much more obvious when he was younger that, I mean, a lot of expression possible with big eyes like that. It’s, uh, a weird thing to hone in on.

But it was just really jumping out at me when, uh, when I saw him in that. Anyway, there were a couple ones we could have chosen. There was the believers, which has been requested a couple times, and we briefly considered doing that, but I skimmed through the believers and I realized he didn’t have such a big role in that one.

However, in this one Bad dreams, he has a fairly significant role. He doesn’t have a ton of screen time. Mm-hmm. But, uh, his role in the story is, is pretty significant. So I’m glad we chose this one, and I’m really glad that we had the opportunity to do this movie because I’ve been wanting to do this for the podcast for a while.

Uh, had you seen this before? No. 

Craig: I don’t think I had heard of it before. 

Todd: Oh, you’d never saw it on the shelves? 

Craig: Not that I recall, but my God, that’s been 30 years ago. Yeah. Back when we, I dunno, 

Todd: perused the shelves of video stories. Right. I, this one always reached out at me ’cause it’s got a very scared looking woman.

It’s just a closeup of her face. There’s a gross hand over her mouth and the reflection of a knife in it. And it’s kind of hard to miss. 

Craig: Is it in black and white? 

Todd: Yeah. Yeah, 

Craig: I bet that’s why I didn’t ever look at it. Oh yeah, I bet. I thought it was a black and white movie and just passed it by. But I’m glad we did it too, because it’s a really interesting movie.

I think it’s gonna be very interesting to talk about. But Harris Yulin would all say, I will anytime I see him, I think, oh, that’s the judge from Ghostbusters too. And he’s really mean, and he like yells at them at the top of his voice and for whatever reason, and it’s not like I know him from a lot of things, but anytime I see him he just kind of exudes some kind of like authority, like Yeah, he looks, he looks like somebody who’s in charge.

Yeah, he does. And, and he looks like somebody you don’t wanna mess with. Uhhuh. And he is not even like a big guy or anything at all. No. He just has a really commanding presence. He also played the, uh, he