WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.180 In 1971, legendary film critic Gene Siskel walked 00:00:03.180 --> 00:00:07.820 out of a movie theater in just absolute disgust. 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:09.699 Right, which is saying something. Yeah, I mean, 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:11.640 he physically removed himself from the building 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:13.640 before the credits even rolled. And it was one 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:16.460 of only three times he would ever do so in his 00:00:16.460 --> 00:00:19.239 entire illustrious career. Only three times ever. 00:00:19.660 --> 00:00:23.219 Exactly. And the offensive material that broke 00:00:23.219 --> 00:00:26.899 this cinematic titan, it was a live action Disney 00:00:26.899 --> 00:00:30.199 comedy about a radioactive duck that poops solid 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:33.320 gold. It's just incredible. Welcome to today's 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:35.299 deep dive. We are so thrilled to have you with 00:00:35.299 --> 00:00:38.159 us as we explore a singular, completely baffling 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:41.899 Wikipedia article detailing the 1971 film, The 00:00:41.899 --> 00:00:43.880 Million Dollar Duck. It really remains one of 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:47.579 the most Fascinating paradoxes in Hollywood history, 00:00:47.740 --> 00:00:50.240 I think. You have this film that provoked a visceral, 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:52.719 just furious reaction from the era's top critics. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:55.479 But simultaneously, it earned two Golden Globe 00:00:55.479 --> 00:00:57.920 nominations and served as the feature film debut 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:00.799 for a highly respected stage actor. And that 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:02.859 is the central contradiction we are unraveling 00:01:02.859 --> 00:01:05.959 for you today. Like, how does a movie with a 00:01:05.959 --> 00:01:08.959 premise this inherently absurd manage to operate 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:11.019 on so many different conflicting levels? Right. 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:13.739 Because I have to admit, diving into this source 00:01:13.739 --> 00:01:16.319 material, I am filled with sheer delight. I mean, 00:01:16.459 --> 00:01:19.400 on the surface, it sounds like pure unadulterated 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:22.239 nonsense. It does. But beneath that brightly 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:25.650 colored sort of slapstick exterior, there actually 00:01:25.650 --> 00:01:29.409 lies a surprisingly sharp, modern retelling of 00:01:29.409 --> 00:01:32.030 Aesop's classic fable, The Goose That Laid the 00:01:32.030 --> 00:01:34.659 Golden Eggs. Oh, for sure. The film takes that 00:01:34.659 --> 00:01:36.959 ancient morality tale and, you know, wraps it 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:39.480 tightly in 1970s economic panic, mid -century 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:41.920 domestic struggles, and these incredibly complex 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:44.480 family dynamics. Okay, let's unpack this. Because 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:46.260 to understand the absurdity, you and I need to 00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:48.180 look at the mechanical foundation of this plot. 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:50.019 The mugs and bolts of it, yeah. Right, like how 00:01:50.019 --> 00:01:53.200 exactly does a standard waterfowl become a million 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:56.040 dollar geopolitical asset? Well, it all starts 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:58.159 with a guy named Albert Dooley. played by Dean 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:01.939 Jones. Right. Albert is a scientist, but he is 00:02:01.939 --> 00:02:03.760 fundamentally struggling. I mean, he can barely 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:05.900 keep the lights on. Yeah. And the movie goes 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:07.879 out of its way to show us a flashback, right? 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:11.419 Establishing that Albert was his college valedictorian. 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:13.439 Exactly. He was the golden boy. He was supposed 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:15.800 to change the world. And instead, he's just drowning 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:18.979 in bills. It's so relatable, honestly. It is. 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:22.020 The film uses Albert to tap into a very specific 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:25.539 brand of mid -century existential dread. The 00:02:25.539 --> 00:02:28.599 early 1970s brought this harsh economic reality 00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:31.199 to the American middle class. Inflation was rising. 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:33.560 Exactly. Inflation was rising. The post -war 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:36.020 boom was fracturing. And the promise that a good 00:02:36.020 --> 00:02:39.879 education guaranteed a prosperous life was, well, 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:43.060 starting to look like a lie. Wow. Yeah. So Albert 00:02:43.060 --> 00:02:45.599 is carrying the heavy, suffocating burden of 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:48.120 unfulfilled potential. And that professional 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:50.979 and financial stress bleeds directly into his 00:02:50.979 --> 00:02:53.659 home life, specifically in his interactions with 00:02:53.659 --> 00:02:56.060 his wife, Katie. played by Sandy Duncan. Which 00:02:56.060 --> 00:02:58.819 brings us to the most chaotic, inciting incident 00:02:58.819 --> 00:03:00.659 I think I've ever encountered. Oh, it was brilliant. 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:04.159 So in a desperate attempt to cut down their grocery 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:07.020 budget, Katie tries to make this homemade applesauce 00:03:07.020 --> 00:03:09.659 recipe, but she botches it completely. Like, 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:12.139 it is practically inedible. Totally ruined. Right. 00:03:12.300 --> 00:03:14.520 And she gives this terrible applesauce to Albert 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:17.020 to take to his laboratory for lunch. And what 00:03:17.020 --> 00:03:19.520 happens next is described in the article as a 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:23.319 humorous chain reaction, which honestly is putting 00:03:23.319 --> 00:03:26.319 it mildly. It really is. The sequence of events 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:30.060 is highly specific. Albert. disgusted by the 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:32.620 applesauce, throws it into the laboratory trash 00:03:32.620 --> 00:03:35.800 can. Naturally. And then a test duck, which Albert 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:38.199 happens to be running behavioral experience on, 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:41.560 wanders over, eats the ruined applesauce, and 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.240 then waddles into a radiation lab where it is 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:47.180 bombarded with radioactive rays. I'm looking 00:03:47.180 --> 00:03:49.599 at this and immediately thinking about superhero 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:51.340 origin stories. Oh, absolutely. I mean, this 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:53.479 is the exact same narrative architecture as a 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:56.219 comic book. Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive 00:03:56.219 --> 00:03:58.900 spider and gains the proportional strength of 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:01.479 an arachnid. Bruce Banner gets hit with gamma 00:04:01.479 --> 00:04:04.300 rays and turns into the Hulk. Right, right. Here, 00:04:04.360 --> 00:04:07.840 a duck eats bad applesauce, absorbs nuclear radiation, 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.699 and gains the superpower of laying solid gold 00:04:10.699 --> 00:04:13.599 yolks. Except instead of fighting crime in the 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:16.139 streets of Gotham, this duck's primary mission 00:04:15.979 --> 00:04:18.720 is fighting the Dooley family's budget deficit. 00:04:18.899 --> 00:04:21.879 That's exactly it. But, like, you have to help 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:25.220 me with the internal logic here. Why applesauce? 00:04:25.699 --> 00:04:29.339 Why is a botched domestic recipe the necessary 00:04:29.339 --> 00:04:31.860 chemical catalyst for a nuclear reaction that 00:04:31.860 --> 00:04:34.240 produces precious metals? What's fascinating 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:36.800 here is how the film deliberately weaponizes 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:39.720 the mundane. The applesauce isn't just a plot 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:42.730 device. It's a physical manifestation of domestic 00:04:42.730 --> 00:04:45.529 failure and economic anxiety. Oh, I see. Yeah. 00:04:45.610 --> 00:04:47.529 The film is taking the things that keep average 00:04:47.529 --> 00:04:49.730 people awake at night, worrying about the grocery 00:04:49.730 --> 00:04:52.649 bill, dealing with career stagnation, and using 00:04:52.649 --> 00:04:55.209 them at the literal springboard for a fantastical 00:04:55.209 --> 00:04:58.370 solution. It solves the crushing weight of capitalism 00:04:58.370 --> 00:05:01.160 with a glowing bird. That is wild. And the script 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:03.579 adds this wonderful layer of oblivious absurdity 00:05:03.579 --> 00:05:06.100 to the domestic sphere. Albert decides to save 00:05:06.100 --> 00:05:08.160 the duck from being disposed over the lab by 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:10.399 bringing it home as a pet for his son, Jimmy. 00:05:10.699 --> 00:05:12.759 Played by Lee Montgomery. Right. And they name 00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:15.079 the duck Charlie, entirely ignoring the fact 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:17.100 that the duck is quite clearly female since, 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:19.699 you know, it's laying eggs. Just a perfect little 00:05:19.699 --> 00:05:23.160 cherry of nonsense on top. So the Dooley family 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:26.160 now has a duck named Charlie, who lays eggs with 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.279 solid gold yolks. But if I'm Albert, I'm waiting 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.339 by that duck's nest every single morning, expecting 00:05:32.339 --> 00:05:34.759 biology to take its course. You'd think so. But 00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:37.240 instead, the movie throws a bizarre wrench into 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:39.860 the mechanics of how this gold is actually produced. 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:42.300 Yeah, Charlie's biology has been fundamentally 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:45.920 altered, removing her from standard avian reproduction 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:49.259 cycles. Right. She operates on a highly specific 00:05:49.259 --> 00:05:52.610 Pavlovian trigger. Yeah. She only lays a golden 00:05:52.610 --> 00:05:55.089 egg in direct response to a singular stimulus, 00:05:55.449 --> 00:05:58.069 the barking of a dog. You cannot write this stuff. 00:05:58.269 --> 00:06:00.730 A duck that poops gold, but only when a dog barks 00:06:00.730 --> 00:06:02.810 at it. It's pure absurdity. So think about what 00:06:02.810 --> 00:06:05.490 you would do in this situation. Albert, Katie, 00:06:05.730 --> 00:06:07.910 their son Jimmy, and Albert's friend Fred, who 00:06:07.910 --> 00:06:09.769 was played by Tony Roberts in his motion picture 00:06:09.769 --> 00:06:11.689 debut, by the way. They start hoarding these 00:06:11.689 --> 00:06:13.709 golden yolks. Of course. They start secretly 00:06:13.709 --> 00:06:16.329 selling them off to solve their financial woes. 00:06:16.470 --> 00:06:18.949 But you can't just suddenly offload large amounts 00:06:18.949 --> 00:06:21.639 of untraceable raw gold. without people noticing, 00:06:22.459 --> 00:06:24.819 which introduces us to their neighbor, Mr. Hooper, 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:27.899 played by Joe Flynn. And Hooper is the crucial 00:06:27.899 --> 00:06:30.879 bridge between the private domestic comedy and 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:33.459 the public macroeconomic thriller. Oh, I like 00:06:33.459 --> 00:06:35.759 how you put that. He isn't just a nosy suburban 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:38.319 neighbor. He's actually a bureaucrat working 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:40.399 for the United States Treasury Department. Such 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:43.069 a convenient coincidence. Right. But his introduction 00:06:43.069 --> 00:06:47.050 is pure physical slapstick. He spends his time 00:06:47.050 --> 00:06:50.269 haphazardly spying on the Dooleys, climbing trees 00:06:50.269 --> 00:06:52.870 to peer into their windows. At one point, his 00:06:52.870 --> 00:06:54.790 wife Eunice yells at him to leave the neighbors 00:06:54.790 --> 00:06:57.689 alone, which startles him so severely he falls 00:06:57.689 --> 00:06:59.750 completely out of the tree. But the snooping 00:06:59.750 --> 00:07:02.500 actually pays off. Because Hooper manages to 00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:05.120 witness an egg -laying celebration firsthand. 00:07:05.339 --> 00:07:07.660 He does. He sees Albert and Fred cheering over 00:07:07.660 --> 00:07:10.959 a freshly laid solid gold yoke. And this is where 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:13.620 the movie violently shifts gears. Hooper runs 00:07:13.620 --> 00:07:15.560 straight to his boss at the Treasury Department, 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:18.060 a man named Rutledge, played by James Gregory. 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:22.360 And panic ensues. Exactly. Hooper starts screaming 00:07:22.360 --> 00:07:25.720 about the massive economic upheaval that an easy 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:28.100 supply of gold would cause. Well, and Rutledge 00:07:28.100 --> 00:07:31.290 is initially skeptical, but... Cooper's panic 00:07:31.290 --> 00:07:33.949 forces the narrative to scale up dramatically. 00:07:34.529 --> 00:07:36.870 The rumor mill begins to turn within the government. 00:07:37.009 --> 00:07:40.230 But we watch this whole sequence of panic nationwide 00:07:40.230 --> 00:07:43.089 phone calls among high -level politicians. The 00:07:43.089 --> 00:07:45.850 anxiety travels all the way up the chain of command, 00:07:46.310 --> 00:07:48.930 culminating in a phone call directly from President 00:07:48.930 --> 00:07:51.500 Richard Nixon. who orders the Treasury Department 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:53.259 to capture the duck. No, wait a minute. Let me 00:07:53.259 --> 00:07:55.399 push back on the critical consensus that this 00:07:55.399 --> 00:07:57.720 movie is just a brainless kid's romp. OK, go 00:07:57.720 --> 00:07:59.800 ahead. Isn't this actually a brilliant piece 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:02.980 of macroeconomic commentary? You have this brightly 00:08:02.980 --> 00:08:05.620 colored comedy, but right underneath the surface, 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:08.220 it's tackling the fragility of global markets. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:10.560 It really is. Because if you consider the historical 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:13.800 context, this movie came out in 1971. That is 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:16.019 the exact same year President Nixon famously 00:08:16.019 --> 00:08:18.879 enacted the Nixon shock, taking the United States 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:21.709 off the gold. standard. I mean the movie is literally 00:08:21.709 --> 00:08:24.569 playing out the existential terror of a fiat 00:08:24.569 --> 00:08:27.009 currency system collapsing. The parallels are 00:08:27.009 --> 00:08:29.629 deeply profound whether intentional or accidental. 00:08:29.870 --> 00:08:32.870 Right. The film takes a universal childhood fantasy 00:08:32.870 --> 00:08:35.789 the idea of a magical limitless money machine 00:08:35.789 --> 00:08:38.870 and rigorously applies adult bureaucratic logic 00:08:38.870 --> 00:08:41.600 to it. Yes. If a child finds a duck that lays 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:43.980 gold, the child thinks of all the bicycles and 00:08:43.980 --> 00:08:46.679 toys they can buy. But if a U .S. Treasury bureaucrat 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:48.799 finds out about it, their immediate thought is 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:51.299 the total collapse of a global economy. Because 00:08:51.299 --> 00:08:54.059 the supply is suddenly infinite. Exactly. If 00:08:54.059 --> 00:08:56.759 a backyard fowl can infinitely replicate the 00:08:56.759 --> 00:08:58.700 precious metal that underpins global wealth, 00:08:59.220 --> 00:09:02.159 then gold becomes worthless. Hyperinflation sets 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:05.059 in. The film forces the innocent fantasy of limitless 00:09:05.059 --> 00:09:08.220 wealth to violently collide with the harsh reality 00:09:08.220 --> 00:09:11.299 of macroeconomics. And that macro level governmental 00:09:11.299 --> 00:09:13.960 panic, the Treasury Department mobilizing the 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:16.580 president getting involved, forces a micro level 00:09:16.580 --> 00:09:19.299 crisis right inside the Dooley family. Like the 00:09:19.299 --> 00:09:21.779 external pressure exposes the internal cracks. 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:24.200 Yeah, as the wealth accumulates, Albert becomes 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:27.659 entirely consumed by greed. The college valedictorian 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:29.799 who felt like a failure suddenly has everything 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:32.269 he ever wanted. and it completely corrupts his 00:09:32.269 --> 00:09:34.929 moral center. It's tragic, honestly. He stops 00:09:34.929 --> 00:09:37.690 caring for his son, Jimmy. His focus narrows 00:09:37.690 --> 00:09:39.950 entirely onto the wealth that Charlie the Duck 00:09:39.950 --> 00:09:43.009 can provide. And this deeply alienates Jimmy, 00:09:43.529 --> 00:09:45.509 fracturing the very family unit that the money 00:09:45.509 --> 00:09:48.490 was originally supposed to save. Imagine being 00:09:48.490 --> 00:09:51.309 Jimmy in this situation. The pet you love has 00:09:51.309 --> 00:09:54.029 turned your father into a monster. So when the 00:09:54.029 --> 00:09:56.330 Treasury Department officials, led by Mr. Hooper, 00:09:56.830 --> 00:09:59.070 finally descend on the Dooley house to confiscate 00:09:59.070 --> 00:10:01.929 the Duck... Jimmy takes action. He climbs out 00:10:01.929 --> 00:10:03.970 of an upstairs window with Charlie. And in a 00:10:03.970 --> 00:10:07.830 twist that is so perfectly 1970s, he manages 00:10:07.830 --> 00:10:10.029 to hitch a ride with a couple of teenage boys 00:10:10.029 --> 00:10:12.090 in their hot rod, leading the federal government 00:10:12.090 --> 00:10:15.529 on a high -speed chase. It's amazing. And the 00:10:15.529 --> 00:10:17.789 chase culminates in this surprisingly suspenseful, 00:10:18.169 --> 00:10:20.690 high -altitude climax that serves as a brilliant 00:10:20.690 --> 00:10:22.789 physical metaphor for the family's emotional 00:10:22.789 --> 00:10:26.139 state. Right, the ladder scene. Yeah. Jimmy ends 00:10:26.139 --> 00:10:28.419 up stranded on a ladder that is precariously 00:10:28.419 --> 00:10:31.019 bridging a massive gap between two parking garages. 00:10:31.740 --> 00:10:33.820 He is trapped high in the air, terrified, clutching 00:10:33.820 --> 00:10:35.860 the duck while the authorities and his father 00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:38.399 close in. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:41.159 Albert rushes to the edge of the garage and reaches 00:10:41.159 --> 00:10:44.159 out to his son, begging Jimmy to grab his hand 00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:47.059 before the ladder gives way. But Jimmy refuses. 00:10:47.299 --> 00:10:49.440 He does. He looks at his dad and tells him to 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:52.320 go away. Jimmy genuinely believes that his father 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:55.009 doesn't care if he falls. He thinks Albert only 00:10:55.009 --> 00:10:57.190 wants to secure Charlie so he can keep getting 00:10:57.190 --> 00:11:00.570 rich. It is a stark, devastating representation 00:11:00.570 --> 00:11:04.009 of their emotional distance. The wealth has literally 00:11:04.009 --> 00:11:07.009 placed them over chasm. Wow. But as the ladder 00:11:07.009 --> 00:11:10.429 begins to snap, Jimmy's primal fear takes over. 00:11:10.929 --> 00:11:13.980 In the final, terrifying moment, Right before 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:16.580 the ladder completely falls away, Albert reaches 00:11:16.580 --> 00:11:18.460 out and pulls his son to safety. Leaving the 00:11:18.460 --> 00:11:21.179 duck behind. Right. Albert saves Jimmy, leaving 00:11:21.179 --> 00:11:23.379 the duck behind, realizing in that split second 00:11:23.379 --> 00:11:25.799 that his child is vastly more important than 00:11:25.799 --> 00:11:28.139 the gold. But the moment their feet hit the concrete, 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.320 the reality of the adult world comes crashing 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:32.840 back down. Albert is immediately arrested by 00:11:32.840 --> 00:11:35.019 the authorities for owning raw gold as a private 00:11:35.019 --> 00:11:37.259 citizen. Which leads us to the courtroom scene. 00:11:37.620 --> 00:11:41.600 Yes. Which operates exactly like a failed magic 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:44.309 trick reveal. You have to picture how absurd 00:11:44.309 --> 00:11:46.850 this looks to a casual observer in that courtroom. 00:11:47.129 --> 00:11:49.370 Well, the government has the burden of proof. 00:11:49.769 --> 00:11:52.250 They have to demonstrate to a judge that this 00:11:52.250 --> 00:11:55.529 specific, entirely ordinary -looking duck is 00:11:55.529 --> 00:11:58.029 a threat to the United States economy. Exactly. 00:11:58.590 --> 00:12:01.309 So Mr. Hooper, a high -ranking Treasury official, 00:12:01.870 --> 00:12:04.250 stands up in a court of law in front of a judge, 00:12:04.690 --> 00:12:07.309 looks at a duck, and starts aggressively barking 00:12:07.309 --> 00:12:09.470 like a dog. And nothing happens. Nothing happens. 00:12:09.490 --> 00:12:12.610 He looks like a lunatic. Then Albert tries. Albert 00:12:12.610 --> 00:12:15.370 barks at the duck. The Pavlovian trigger finally 00:12:15.370 --> 00:12:18.289 works. The duck lays an egg. The courtroom holds 00:12:18.289 --> 00:12:20.909 its breath. The judge takes the egg, cracks it 00:12:20.909 --> 00:12:22.990 into a glass. Wait, cracks it into a glass. And 00:12:22.990 --> 00:12:26.110 it's just a perfectly ordinary runny yellow egg 00:12:26.110 --> 00:12:28.570 yolk. The magic is gone. The magic is completely 00:12:28.570 --> 00:12:30.610 gone. The text notes that the effects of the 00:12:30.610 --> 00:12:33.710 radiation had simply worn off over time. But 00:12:33.710 --> 00:12:36.720 the narrative symbolism is crucial. The fading 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:39.019 of the radiation perfectly mirrors the fading 00:12:39.019 --> 00:12:41.320 of Albert's greed. Oh, that's a great point. 00:12:41.539 --> 00:12:43.720 Yeah, breaking the biological mutation is akin 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:46.840 to breaking a fever. The curse of the limitless 00:12:46.840 --> 00:12:50.399 wealth lifts at the exact moment the family unit 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:53.500 is emotionally and morally restored. Because 00:12:53.500 --> 00:12:55.539 there's no longer any proof of the golden eggs, 00:12:55.940 --> 00:12:58.039 the judge is forced to dismiss all the charges. 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:01.600 Albert turns to his family and admits that while 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:03.960 the money was nice, at least they get to keep 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:07.320 Charlie as a regular pet. The status quo is restored. 00:13:07.500 --> 00:13:10.299 Yeah. But that courtroom scene represents the 00:13:10.299 --> 00:13:12.879 ultimate rejection of the duck's value within 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:15.580 the movie's universe. And ironically, transitioning 00:13:15.580 --> 00:13:17.960 to the real world, film critics were doing the 00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:20.740 exact same thing to the movie itself. The history 00:13:20.740 --> 00:13:23.559 of how this movie was received is just as polarized 00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:26.480 as the plot itself. Even the production details 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:29.240 are a study in absurdity. The Walt Disney Studio 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:31.700 actually held massive open auditions for the 00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:34.080 role of the duck. Just picture being a casting 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:36.320 director on that particular Tuesday. You're bringing 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:38.799 in hundreds of ducks looking for that elusive 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:41.919 star quality. The lead role was ultimately won 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:44.940 by a duck named Webfoot Waddle. And we even know 00:13:44.940 --> 00:13:47.399 the names of the runners -up who were kept on 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:52.259 set as understudies. Two ducks named Jennifer 00:13:52.259 --> 00:13:55.720 and Carlos. Webfoot Waddle, Jennifer and Carlos. 00:13:56.100 --> 00:13:59.399 The holy trinity of 1970s avian cinema. Truly. 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:02.539 Now, from a strictly financial perspective, The 00:14:02.539 --> 00:14:06.179 movie was a hit. It pulled in $5 .1 million in 00:14:06.179 --> 00:14:09.000 rentals in North America, which was a very solid 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:11.559 return in 1971. Yeah, it was profitable. And 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:14.419 Tony Roberts got genuinely solid reviews for 00:14:14.419 --> 00:14:16.840 his feature film debut. And the Hollywood Foreign 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:19.340 Press Association clearly saw something of value 00:14:19.340 --> 00:14:22.299 here because both Sandy Duncan and Dean Jones 00:14:22.299 --> 00:14:25.460 received Golden Globe nominations for their comedic 00:14:25.460 --> 00:14:27.669 acting. But while the Golden Globes were handing 00:14:27.669 --> 00:14:30.330 out accolades, the major Shum critics of the 00:14:30.330 --> 00:14:32.830 era were sharpening their knives. Uh -oh. Yeah. 00:14:33.309 --> 00:14:35.549 The legendary Roger Ebert reviewed The Million 00:14:35.549 --> 00:14:38.309 Dollar Duck and did not hold back. He called 00:14:38.309 --> 00:14:40.549 it, quote, one of the most profoundly stupid 00:14:40.549 --> 00:14:43.129 movies I've ever seen. Ouch. And his partner, 00:14:43.330 --> 00:14:45.649 Gene Siskel, had an even more visceral reaction. 00:14:46.110 --> 00:14:47.669 As we mentioned at the top of the show, Siskel 00:14:47.669 --> 00:14:49.570 actually walked out of the theater. Unbelievable. 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:52.100 To put that into perspective for you, Siskel 00:14:52.100 --> 00:14:54.840 reviewed thousands upon thousands of movies during 00:14:54.840 --> 00:14:57.259 his decades -long career. He only walked out 00:14:57.259 --> 00:15:00.539 of three films. Ever. That is just wild. Right. 00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:04.279 One was the grim 1980s slasher film Maniac. One 00:15:04.279 --> 00:15:07.419 was the 1996 Chris Farley comedy Black Sheep. 00:15:07.740 --> 00:15:09.919 And the third was The Million Dollar Duck. That 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:14.379 is elite baffling company. And the criticism 00:15:14.379 --> 00:15:16.690 hasn't softened over the decades either. Really? 00:15:17.009 --> 00:15:18.590 Yeah. Modern critics have pointed out elements 00:15:18.590 --> 00:15:21.970 that age terribly. Scott Weinberg from DVD Talk 00:15:21.970 --> 00:15:24.389 blasted the film's depiction of Sandy Duncan's 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:26.889 character, Katie. He noted that she is asked 00:15:26.889 --> 00:15:30.129 to play a housewife who is, in his words, easily 00:15:30.129 --> 00:15:33.049 as stupid as a stone. Oh, wow. He highlighted 00:15:33.049 --> 00:15:35.169 that her total incompetence is played entirely 00:15:35.169 --> 00:15:37.590 for laughs, calling it one of the studio's worst 00:15:37.590 --> 00:15:40.490 live action family comedies. To this day, the 00:15:40.490 --> 00:15:43.149 aggregate scores remain incredibly low, a 17 00:15:43.149 --> 00:15:46.090 % approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a Metacritic 00:15:46.090 --> 00:15:49.389 score of 45 out of 100. So what does this all 00:15:49.389 --> 00:15:51.850 mean? Like, how do you reconcile these two massive 00:15:51.850 --> 00:15:54.409 extremes? On one hand, you have a movie that 00:15:54.409 --> 00:15:56.649 Gene Siskel fundamentally refused to finish sitting 00:15:56.649 --> 00:15:58.759 through. On the other hand, the Golden Globes 00:15:58.759 --> 00:16:00.879 looked at that exact same piece of media and 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:04.379 said, yes, this is award -worthy acting. If we 00:16:04.379 --> 00:16:06.940 connect this to the bigger picture, you have 00:16:06.940 --> 00:16:09.159 to look at the mechanics of film criticism in 00:16:09.159 --> 00:16:12.419 1971. This was the peak of the new Hollywood 00:16:12.419 --> 00:16:15.039 movement. Oh, right. Critics like Siskel and 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:19.000 Ebert were championing gritty, realistic, director 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:22.320 -driven masterpieces films, exploring moral ambiguity 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:25.159 and raw human emotion. Right. So when they were 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:27.360 presented with a Disney formula film about a 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:29.879 radioactive duck, they evaluated against those 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:32.039 high -brow standards of narrative structure and 00:16:32.039 --> 00:16:33.960 thematic depth, where it is inevitably going 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:36.120 to fail. That makes total sense. But the Golden 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:37.820 Globes recognized something entirely different. 00:16:38.009 --> 00:16:40.909 They recognized the sheer athletic effort required 00:16:40.909 --> 00:16:44.350 by the actors. Dean Jones and Sandy Duncan were 00:16:44.350 --> 00:16:47.090 doing incredibly heavy lifting. They had to take 00:16:47.090 --> 00:16:50.230 a script featuring a nonsensical premise, outdated 00:16:50.230 --> 00:16:53.350 domestic tropes, and a duck named Webfoot Waddle 00:16:53.350 --> 00:16:55.990 and somehow ground it with enough energy and 00:16:55.990 --> 00:16:58.809 comedic timing to keep paying audiences in their 00:16:58.809 --> 00:17:02.570 seats for 92 minutes. Exactly. The award nominations 00:17:02.570 --> 00:17:05.210 were an acknowledgement of the performances making 00:17:05.210 --> 00:17:08.559 an impossible script workable. The actors brought 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:11.200 a desperate humanity to a cartoonish reality, 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:14.299 even if the critics despise the premise itself. 00:17:14.500 --> 00:17:16.819 It's like winning an award for successfully bailing 00:17:16.819 --> 00:17:18.619 water out of a sinking ship. I mean, you have 00:17:18.619 --> 00:17:20.799 to respect the craft of an actor who can genuinely 00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:23.039 sell a scene where a U .S. Treasury agent falls 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:24.900 out of a tree while spying on a duck. I really 00:17:24.900 --> 00:17:27.910 do. Well, as we wrap up this deep dive, I want 00:17:27.910 --> 00:17:29.630 to bring this back to you. Listening right now, 00:17:29.869 --> 00:17:32.190 think about Albert Dooley's journey. Think about 00:17:32.190 --> 00:17:34.369 the tension between what we desperately want 00:17:34.369 --> 00:17:37.390 and what we actually need. It's a universal struggle. 00:17:37.690 --> 00:17:40.750 It is. What would you do if you suddenly stumbled 00:17:40.750 --> 00:17:43.309 upon an unlimited resource in your own backyard? 00:17:43.910 --> 00:17:46.549 If your crushing budget anxieties vanished overnight, 00:17:47.029 --> 00:17:48.630 would you be able to keep your moral compass 00:17:48.630 --> 00:17:51.589 straight? Or would you end up completely alienated 00:17:51.589 --> 00:17:54.130 from your family, standing in a crowded courtroom, 00:17:54.670 --> 00:17:57.210 desperately barking at a duck? It's a ridiculous 00:17:57.210 --> 00:18:00.289 image, but it asks a profound question about 00:18:00.289 --> 00:18:02.609 the corrupting nature of wealth. And if nothing 00:18:02.609 --> 00:18:05.130 else, I hope this exploration proves that there 00:18:05.130 --> 00:18:08.730 is a rich, complex, and fascinating history hiding 00:18:08.730 --> 00:18:11.289 behind even the most critically panned, bizarre 00:18:11.289 --> 00:18:14.299 pieces of pop culture. It absolutely proves that. 00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:16.400 And I want to leave you with one final detail 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:18.799 to ponder, drawing right from the very end of 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:21.259 the film. Oh, what's that? Remember the judge's 00:18:21.259 --> 00:18:23.839 final remark to young Jimmy after the duck lays 00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:26.759 a normal egg and the crisis is averted. The judge 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:28.960 leans over the bench and says, if that duck ever 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:31.240 lays another golden egg, bury it quick. I want 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:33.799 you to consider the weight of that impulse. When 00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:37.359 society encounters an inexplicable anomaly, something 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:39.720 that completely disrupts our economic systems 00:18:39.720 --> 00:18:43.130 or challenges our accepted reality, Why is our 00:18:43.130 --> 00:18:45.869 immediate institutional instinct so often to 00:18:45.869 --> 00:18:48.789 bury it rather than try to understand it? A phenomenal 00:18:48.789 --> 00:18:50.430 question to leave on. Thanks for taking this 00:18:50.430 --> 00:18:51.910 deep dive with us. We'll catch you next time.