Ep. #110 - SEASON 4 FINALE! What Is the DEAL with Richard Lester? A Hard Day's Night, The Three & Four Musketeers, Superman III

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On our season finale to our 4th blockbuster year in the podcast space,  we’re going to answer the burning question on everyone’s mind these days: 

What’s the deal with Richard Lester? 

In order to find the answer, we’re digging into the notable works from his four decades in show business, starting with 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night starring John Lennon Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr aka the Beatles along with Wilfred Brambell, Norman Rossington, John Junkin and Victor Spinetti then onto 1973 &74’s The Three & Four Musketeers starring Oliver Reed, Michael York, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee & Charleton Heston and topped off with 1983’s Superman III starring Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Annette O’Toole, Robert Vaugh, Annie Ross, Pamela Stevenson and Margot Kidder.

My guests this week are the ever-reliable Roseanne Caputi and fresh from the sweltering fields of the Sacramento Valley, camera in hand and twice the photobug that Jimmy Olsen ever could be, Gordon Alex Robertson. 

Before we bumble and stumble and pratfall our way into the madcap, muddled mind of Mr. Lester, the synopses: 

A Hard Day’s Night follows the Fab Four during a 24-hour period as they attempt to escape the responsibilities and madness of fame, their managers --who need them to just stay put for a television appearance-- and the misdeeds of Paul’s ornery grandfather who keeps throwing a monkey wrench in everyone’s plans. 

The Three & Four Musketeers adapts the classic Alexandre Dumas swashbuckler, following the adventures and exploits of D’artagnan a young swordsman who travels from Gascony to Paris to join the King’s Royal Musketeers as his father did before him. D’artagnan soon joins forces with three of the most colorful and dynamic musketeers, the friends Athos, Porthos and Aramis when the scheming Cardinal Richelieu’s Elite Guards attempt to arrest them all for dueling. From there it’s non-stop intrigue, war and tragedy as D’artagnan and his three cohorts try to rescue Queen Anne and her dress maker, the lovely Lady Constance, from the dastardly machinations of Count Rochefort and Milady di Winter, two of the Cardinal’s most dangerous and effective spies. 

Superman III features The Man of Steel pitted against Ross Webster, a ruthless business tycoon, who enlists a bumbling computer programmer Gus Gorman to try and control the global coffee and oil markets.  Thwarted by Superman at every turn, Ross and Gus build a living supercomputer to stop him for once and for all. But did Gus go too far?

Did Richard Lester go to far?

 Is he  an unsung genius, a Hollywood hack or stuck somewhere in the messy middle? 

 Find out!

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