Episode 34: Skullduggery (1970)

Today we’re reviewing the most problematic movie we’ll ever recommend you watch (but only once, and then never again): Skullduggery (1970) stars Burt Reynolds as a charismatic misogynistic capitalist who manipulates an anthropologist into accidentally discovering a living missing link, whom he enslaves, and whose humanity he later tries to prove in a court of law. If that sounds unbelievable, you may not be prepared for the twists and turns this movie takes.

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In this episode:

Watch the movie on YouTube before we spoil it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RY1YhVQPbc

This history of Homo erectus taxonomy: https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21873

The tuberculum geniale is on the mandible, not the humerus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_spine

Species concepts: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/evo-eco-lab/species-concepts/

You can’t name a species after yourself: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-to-get-a-species-named-after-you/

Hominid and Hominin: what’s the difference? https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/hominid-and-hominin-whats-the-difference/

What is an anthropoid? https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0908320107#sec-2

Dating an archaeologist: https://digventures.com/2016/02/4-things-you-lose-when-you-break-up-with-an-archaeologist-and-4-things-you-gain/

Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman: https://www.monticello.org/thomas-jefferson/jefferson-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-a-brief-account/