The Clubhouse Podcast

iTunes Exclusive Episode Professor Marston And The Wonder Women

July 28, 2019 Season 8, Episode 99

The Clubhouse Podcast reviews Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman, a biopic written and directed by Angela Robinson about the true origins of Wonder Woman created by Professor William Molten-Marston, his wife Elizabeth, and Olive Bern. The hosts praise the film's performances, cinematography, and respectful handling of mature subject matter, but warn it is rated R and not suitable for children.

About this episode

Key takeaways

  • This is not a Wonder Woman superhero film—it's a biopic about the character's creation with adult themes; do not bring children
  • The film follows the true story closely, with approximately 80-90% accuracy according to the hosts' knowledge
  • Strong performances from Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, and Bella Heathcoat, with particularly impressive chemistry between the three leads
  • Production design is meticulous, with attention to period details like costuming, lighting, shoes, and fabrics from 1928
  • The film handles sensitive subject matter respectfully without becoming preachy, though some scenes could have been cut shorter

Q&A

Is this a Wonder Woman superhero movie?

No. This is a biopic about Professor William Molten-Marston and the true origins of the Wonder Woman character. Do not let the poster mislead you.

Is this appropriate for children?

No. The film is rated R and deals with very mature and sensitive subject matter. The hosts strongly advise against bringing children.

How accurate is the film to the true story?

According to the hosts, approximately 80-90% of the film follows what actually happened, though some character condensing and changes likely occurred.

Would the hosts see this film again?

Yes, but on cable, Redbox, or Netflix rather than paying theater prices. It's suggested as a one-time viewing, possibly at a matinee or second-run theater.

Read Transcript

If you are hearing the sound of my voice, it means the following conditions have been met. At least once in your life, you've checked out the Clubhouse podcast live every Sunday, 9-7 Eastern for Pacific, your one-stop shop for all things pop culture. It also means you've checked this out at least once in your favorite podcast app because it's time for iTunes exclusive number 323.

Almost to another milestone. That's how we get it done. Welcome.

My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast and I'm Batman. Prove me wrong. But I'm not alone for this particular episode, joining me in the co-host chair is the lady of the house.

And a woman that I think can have some very strong opinions about what we're about to talk about. She is Jen Rome. Welcome, friend.

Evening. I'm shocked. Me.

Have an opinion on anything. Well. Just sitting.

And sitting to her left is the official fact checker of this show. And a man who will probably at some point over the next few minutes talk about his Greek cred. You may know him as fond don go, but his mama named him Don Ford.

I'm going to call him Don Ford. Welcome, sir. Think about it when I don't have it.

There you go. And we're done. Whenever we do one of these, it is to review something and this is no exception.

There is a brand new film out. Call it a biopic, if you will. It is called Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman.

For which I'll take this whole thing? Yes, sir. We got to thank Caitlin and everybody at Slifox.

Zinnity. Zinnity. Zinnity.

Zinnity. This was Written and Directed by Angela Robinson. And again, thanks to everybody at Slifox.

They take such good care of us. We're such fans of them. Angela Robinson, she's directed an episode of Trueblood.

She directed an episode of the Charlie's Angels TV Reboot, eight episodes of the L word. She also did Herbie Fully Loaded and Debs back in the day. So here's what you need to know.

This is about the true story secret origins of the character of Wonder Woman, created by Professor William Molten-Marston, as well as his wife, Elizabeth Marston, and a young lady by the name of Olive Bern, played respectively by Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, and Bella Heathcoat. The Marston's are college professors, well, he is. He is.

She wants her degree from Harvard, but she can only get it from Radcliffe because note the pronoun of she and the time period is 20, it was like, 1928, I don't want to say that. I kind of feel like this is deep as I want to go, because there is some very mature subject matter here involved. Yes.

I do want to point out, it does glance over some important things that Dr. Professor Marston did for the world. He and his wife were the true creators of the lie detector and published the paper on it so it was open to the public versus being patented, and the- If you've ever heard of the disc assessment, it's what a lot of companies use as a personality test type thing.

That is his- my company uses it. Right, and it stands for dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance. This story is kind of told in parallel of him being interviewed by a children's decency league.

Yes. Being interviewed by a character played by the great Connie Britton. Which made you so happy to have her in the movie.

Very, very big crush on her. Also has another one of my favorite actors in it, the great Oliver Platte. That was a fun little camera.

I'm a huge fan of- I like him. I want you to understand something, dear listener, and I want you to understand this on a very molecular level. Just because a poster resembles Wonder Woman does not make this a Wonder Woman film, and I want you to be very, very clear on this.

Do not- and I cannot say this enough- do not- do not- do not bring the kids. This is dealing with some very, very adult subject matter, very, very sensitive subject matter, and these are not conversations you want to have in the van on the right home. Correct.

Period end of statement. It is rated R. For a reason.

For many reasons. I'm not going to say hard R, but it flirts with it. It flirts with it.

Meaning it for what it is. I really don't know where to go right now, because I really want to walk the line without being spoilerific and still talk about this film. It's very beautifully shot.

The costuming and the scenery and the whole- the putting you in the time period is so well done with so many details. I mean, even the shoes, because of course back then shoes were cut differently than now. Sometimes that gets over looked, but I mean some of the smallest details were painted.

The fabrics used, the lighting, the- what everybody else around was even actually doing. You know I'm a sticker on that. You are?

So what I've been impressed? Absolutely. The performances here are incredibly strong.

Oh yeah. Like Evans, to me, was working a combination of Michael Shannon and Joseph Gordon Leffitt. It was a very strange combination of looks to him, but it worked.

Now, I like a lot of things that Hollywood does. The actors playing these roles did their true life counterparts a favor. The one of the biggest examples I've ever seen is Brad Pitt and Moneyball, if you ever seen who he actually played, not even close, or Ben Affleck and Argo, not even close.

At the very, very end of the movie they do show some photos of these and I'm like, so not the same. Yeah, no. But still strong performances.

Oh yeah. I thought the chemistry between the three of them was very, very strong. There were some moments where he needed to be proud of either woman, both women.

He needed to be proud of them and you could see it. I've seen that a look similar on my dad's face when I accomplished something. He was so proud of these women that are in his life and it was nice to see that, and this isn't really a spoiler.

He doesn't agree with some things in the time period that women are held back. Why couldn't she have the degree from the school she wanted? Well, and you see her struggles too.

You see her struggle. On multiple levels. Right.

She's struggling with the world. She lives in and how she fits into the world. It was just really nice to see for a movie that I thought was going to possibly bring into question some things because of things that are covered in this movie, it was nice to see at the same time that they did show him respecting and honoring these women in his life.

Well, and I think that even the very, very mature, very, very sensitive material I thought was handled respectfully, that they were definitely challenging morays of the time. Well, even of today's time. Yeah, in some cases you're absolutely right, but they did it in a way that wasn't preachy.

It got close in a couple of spots to being preachy with it, but it never got to the point where I was like, okay, I get it. And there were maybe a few scenes that I would have cut shorter, one in one in particular. Yeah, this runs about an hour 50.

I thought it was paced well. It's not about that. I think it went just from a content standpoint, because you and I talked a little bit after a film about that.

Too much into the material than what we needed in our face. And it'll be interesting. I said when I put my post up that we were at the screen, they'll be interested to see how this film is received.

Because what I want people to understand is this film is when it comes to the character of Wonder Woman, it's very unapologetic in what it is, because that's the way the story was. It is. It's origins and the things that it was involved in and things like that.

That's the way it happened. Yes, this is true information, and it'll be interesting to see if they do any of the other stories. Do they cover Superman, Batman, Stan Lee's story?

If they cover any of the... Well, I know there's rumors of a Stan Lee biopic, Leonardo DiCaprio wants to play him. It'll just be interesting to see how those turn out as...

But what I want people to understand is in a year where the Wonder Woman film was released, do not let whatever your personal feelings may be about the content of this film, don't let that affect your kids and how they see the character. And what she is now. Yeah, because what she is now is she's a strong role model for women.

Oh yeah, and I am one of the biggest Wonder Woman fans. You are indeed. You are indeed.

I have all three seasons of Linda Carter's TV show on DVD. I love me some Wonder Woman. This did not change my love for her.

Nor should it. It does cause me concern on how some people might react. I agree with you.

And I'll be interested to see how it happens, but remember this is not a sins of the father kind of situation. No. So I got to want to interact.

You know how a lot of times in films, they say based on a true story about 20% of it is actually what happened and 80% is Hollywoodized. What would you say would be a percentage where this is where they really show what from what I know from what I know of the story. Yeah.

It's pretty solid. Yeah. Word for word.

Yeah. I mean, it's never going to be worth. It's like 80, 90% of what really happened.

You would say I can't go. I can't tell you a percentage, but I can say based on what I know of the story itself. It follows the story itself.

Yeah. It followed at least, you know, yeah, I mean, I'd have to do deeper research to go to they change up some carrier characters. Do they condense some characters?

Some of that probably happened, but it does follow what I know to be true about where she came from. And it's definitely a story that if you don't know it will take you off guard. So I would say, because a lot of times I'll say, you know, don't do your research.

Do your research so you know about this film, because if you don't, it might take you a little off guard. Right. And you, and yeah, and that may affect whether you choose to see it or not.

I hope it doesn't, but do do your research. Do your research first. Yes.

Please do. Anything else you know before we get to the final analysis? No.

I'm talking to you, sir. No, no, no, I'm good. All right.

The way we do the final analysis on this show, we're not going to give you thumbs up, thumbs down. We're not going to give you lassoos, nothing like that. See, you knew it was going to happen.

It's two questions. Question number one is, would we see this film again if the answers know that we're done here? If the answer is yes, then the second question is how far are we willing to go to see it?

From the best of the best of the worst of the best, here's your spectrum. People price at the theater, twilight, matinee, early morning, second run, red box netflix cable. General, would you see this again?

I probably would. Okay. How far you want to go?

Only because I think some of it needed to be cut out, and I want to be able to fast forward it. It would have to either be a red box netflix, buy it off Amazon, and I probably wouldn't buy it, but I'd probably watch it through a free platform. I would see this again, but I'd go the cable route.

I wouldn't go out of my way to see this thing, because it's not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. No. Just not a great film.

I suggest seeing it once, and if you do, maybe the early Saturday or the second run of the dollar theater, if you haven't seen it yet, but for a second viewing, I don't see me going out of my way to make that happen. I would say watch this if for nothing else for Rebecca Hall's performance. I think she's incredibly smart at this.

I'm interested to see this. I'll probably do, like, on cable, and it gets under your eye. We can talk off-air about the things that we're not trying not to talk about in the actual episode, because again, do your research kids.

Don't go into this story blind, because we ran into some of our friends in the press core that didn't know the story. I said, well, I'm not going to ruin it for you, but I will be interested to see what you thought of it. I was talking to Cynthia, and next time I see her, I have to ask her her thoughts.

Okay. So, it is Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman. For we in this whole thing.

Yes, sure. Then we got to thank Kate, and everybody at Slifox. Zining me, Zining me, Zining me, Zining me, Zining me.

Thank you guys so much for letting us see films and reviewing for the Empire, so they can make the best possible decisions with their entertainment dollar. That being said, let's go to the plugs. Visit our website.

It is www.theclubhousepodcast.com, find out everything you need to know and some stuff you don't. Follow us on social media. Twitter is at ClubhouseShow, everything else is at the Clubhouse Podcast.

All three words in that order, or you will wind up somewhere else. You can follow me on social media, everything is yes to that Rob Irvin that has spelled ERVIN. My normal co-host for this show is Chad Womack, you can follow him at ChadNPG69.

I'm Jen Rome, home on Instagram. And I'm at Fawn, Dongo, and Twitter, and that's with two A's at the beginning and three O's at the end, and also at Don at the Clubhouse Podcast dot com. Follow Don for anything, because you like to put fun stuff up, but you can also email him for information on how we can come to a live show you.

We love doing live remote shows and hanging out with the Empire. You can email me, questions, comments, concerns, tell me to go pound sand. I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com, Chad is Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com.

Charlotte Parker's on Pinterest, because we're morally obligated to say that. Jules Womack probably hanging out with her husband, because that's what they do. Faith Ford, probably getting ready for her husband to be home.

Our normal show every Sunday night, 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific, as you're one stop shop for all things pop culture. Or just keep following us on your favorite podcast. Have you got all the cool stuff like this?

So for Don, for Jen Rome and for the Empire, I'm Rob. Clubhouse is closed. You don't have to burn you, Palmer.

I mean, she could be a student at the college, she could pass for it, I'm just saying. Thank you. Thank you.

Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye.

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