Come Back a Star: A Movie Award Podcast

This will be our last episode for a bit while we retool the show a little. It is also, however, our most intense competition for the Notscar yet! We nominated 6 out of 10 of the movies we watched for this season, and we were honestly undecided until the very last moment. Listen in as we quickly cover the highs and lows of 1932-33 and then agonize over who was truly the top movie of the season.

The official Best Picture winner of 1932-33! We've had a lot of good ones this season - ones we've heard of and are still watched. Cavalcade is less known. It was interesting to see what came out on top compared to Little Women, 42nd Street, A Farewell to Arms, I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, or The Private Life of Henry VIII. Does this all sound kind of mysterious? Listen to the episode! You'll quickly learn our verdict on the movie and why it may have claimed the prize back in 1899, I mean 1932-33.

"You keep your feet on the ground and your head on those shoulders of yours and go out, and Sawyer, you're going out a youngster but you've got to come back a star!" Whooo! It's the source of our podcast's title! That doesn't mean we'll go easy on it though. The movie has its flaws, but so much of it is so iconic that its motifs have become tropes in our stories about showbusiness. Will it win a nomination for a Notscar? Tune in to see if whether or not we'll give our own award to the movie that gave us Come Back a Star's title.

"Beautiful movie hamstrung by censorship and the studios" could apply to a lot of movies as we enter into the era of the Hays Code, but A Farewell to Arms puts this on display in a very meaningful way. The movie seems to sway back and forth between an earnest romance and a critical realist anti-romance. The studio clearly wanted the tried and true box office romance. How badly did they want it? They originally had a different ending. Listen in to find out what they almost did!

More movie titles should just be what the movie is about from the perspective of the main character. I Am a Dinosaur in a Themepark. I Am a Mobster Taking Over for My Father. I Am a Fugitive from a  Chain Gang. This movie is a devastating look at the penal system of the US during the 20s and 30s. It sets you up with high hopes for the protagonist with the title, but things rapidly go downhill. Is the quality of the film a similar roller-coaster ride? Listen in to find out!

Ever want to rise from your apple selling existence and become a "Lady for a Day" for about a week? It's a happy wish fulfillment good time with gangsters, pool sharks, and apple vendors! Just ignore the many plot holes. IGNORE THEM! Just let the Depression audience have this, okay?

Listen in to hear if this Katherine Hepburn film lives up to the very long book. How does one cram that much story into a 2 hour movie? How does it compete with the more recent adaptations of Little Women from 1994 and 2019? None of these movies expanded into 6 hour epics, so what they decide to cut is always fascinating.

If you're looking for the real story about Henry VIII check out the Rex Factor podcast. Their episodes on the subject are fantastic! If you're looking for a movie that has the most fun with Henry VIII, check out The Private Life of Henry VIII. This dark comedy features Charles Laughton playing the titular Henry VIII in his most awful and boorish interpretation. The result works better than you might think. The movie is the first British film to be nominated for Best Picture and is a rare anti-Tutor drama presented in English! While few retellings of Henry VIII's story can be flattering, this movie goes out of its way to really hammer home a horrific yet buffoonish character.

"Oh dear heart!" said the ghost of his beloved Moonyeen. Smilin' Through is a goofy goofy melodrama, but hey. At least it doesn't say anything wildly offensive! Jason's also just a little bit here for it when it come to the goofy melodrama. If you're going to do melodrama might as well have ghosts and a lust for revenge that transcends generations in it.

Mae West at her Mae West-y-est dominates the screen in this filmed play that she wrote. It also a features a young fellow by the name of Cary Grant. He's pretty dull and overshadowed by West here, but I think he has potential.

And we're back! Sorry about the delay. We have been waylaid by moves and technical difficulties.   State Fair features not one but two rather mundane, yet risqué, romances. There are also piggys! Ring tosses! Trapeze artists on giant swings! Carnie antics! It is a State Fair after all.

Wow. We actually have a competition for the 1931-32 season. Several very good pictures came out this year and we only covered the official nominees from the academy! Which will take home the coveted Notscar: A Movie Award Podcast Movie Award for Movies? Will it be the hard hitting newspaper drama, Five Star Final? The Skippy prequel, The Champ? The Academy's choice, Grand Hotel? Listen in and share your own thoughts via twitter at @ComeBackAStar or via email ComeBackAStarPodcast@gmail.com or on our Facebook page!

How to describe Grand Hotel? It's a tough one. One character even claims nothing ever happens there, but oh it does. It does. This is the official Oscar winner and features a truly all-star cast with John and Lionel Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and Wallace Beery. Tune in and hear if we agree it was worthy of all the hype and high priced actors.

Like Cimarron, Arrowsmith was based on an epic novel about an adventurous hero man except this hero man adventured in SCIENCE! Is the movie able to capture the book, or is Hollywood still struggling like they did with Cimarron? Listen in!

It's a highly risqué movie poster for a fairly sweet everyday married couple. Will the movie hold up even if it doesn't live up to its poster?

A boxing movie? Sort of? It also has a race horsie and Jackie Cooper as a kid who is more or less Skippy again. We like to think of this film as part of the greater Skippy cinematic universe.

In our first Edward G Robinson picture that was also nominated by The Academy, we see the classic mobster run a muckraking newspaper in a similarly amoral way. Robinson's Joseph Randall, newspaper editor, is ruthless and cold as he goes after the traumatic past of a private citizen. The film gives Robinson and Randall a chance to prove that he can be more than just a heartless monster though, as the newspaper editor struggles with his conscience and what he has done. TW: This movie involves suicide. Please take care of yourself. :)

No, you're not accidentally re-listening to The Smiling Lieutenant. It's another Maurice Chevalier movie and this time it's a romantic conundrum for old Maurice choosing between two women he's attracted to. Wait... that was in the Smiling Lieutenant too. Hm... this time he's a doctor instead of a lieutenant. There we go. There's the diff.

Marlene Dietrich is back with her first movie nominated by the academy in this story of intrigue! Mystery! And rich Westerners generally being obnoxious on a train! Along with Dietrich we get to see Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong rule the screen. Also Clive Brook is there! Will Dietrich and Wong's magnetic performances save the train and the movie? Will it survive to earn a prestigious Notscar nomination?

It's like The Love Parade but slightly less misogynistic and you can hear the people talking and singing. It's a significant boost over our last Chavalier movie, but is it enough to pull off a Notscar: A Movie Award Podcast Movie Award for Movies.

It was a great award season, but largely because we added a few that weren't included by the academy.

A cowboy movie? A social commentary? The story of people's personal evolution or lack thereof? It's tough to say what Cimarron is. It's definitely a Western that tries to deviate from the genre's typical storyline, but will that deviation pay off? Listen in and find out!

The movie that launched the prestigious career of Marlene Dietrich was not nominated for Best Picture despite its international acclaim. The film was done almost shot for shot in both German and English. With a variably bilingual German cast, we decided to watch the German version that is considered the better of the two. Technically the German version was not even eligible for the Academy Awards, but hey, this is the Notscar: A Movie Award Podcast Movie Award. We'll make up our own rules! Will the movie get a nomination from us? Tune in to find out!

Happy Holidays! Enjoy the season with family, friends, a warm drink, and a gangster movie about an ultra-violent mobster and his partner who just wants to dance!

The Public Enemy wasn't a nominee back in 1931, but we're covering it anyway because it sure has been seen by more people than any of the Academy's nominees for this year.

Early in the 20th century, the joke was that theaters would put on a play adaptation of East Lynne whenever they had just produced a flop. The story was just that well known and loved. When motion pictures came along, the novel was adapted for film SEVERAL times before this 1931 talkie. This adaptation keeps the principle characters' names the same, but otherwise re-writes decent portions of the story. The result is a more modern story that lacks some of the melodramatic absurdity of the original. Sadly the last twelve minutes of the film are missing. The big question is, will the changes made to this height of melodrama be enough to make us care about the missing footage.

Fresh off the presses! It's His Girl Friday sans the chemistry between actors. Not bad, just not His Girl Friday. Still, does The Front Page have merits in its own right? It did launch a genre for one.

Skippy took us a little by surprise. Great child actors are difficult to find, so finding a whole group of them to work on this film is an accomplishment itself. Jackie Cooper, 9 years old at the time, held the record for youngest Best Actor nominee for almost 50 years. That said, we've seen great performances in mediocre movies before. Will Skippy as a whole measure up to Jackie Cooper's acting? How well does a child-focused movie handle our first real look at the Great Depression? Listen in and find out!

It's The Patriot! Except it's not the missing 1928 Lubitsch film. It's the 2000 Mel Gibson movie. Get ready to dodge some musket fire and awkward moments about slavery! The Patriot *wasn't* nominated for Best Picture, so we won't be covering it in our 2000 season. Was it robbed though? Did it deserve a nod from The Academy? Listen in and hear what we think.

Trader Horn is just bad - both aesthetically and morally bad. Perhaps it is still an important movie to acknowledge-- as the worst example of the ethical lows Hollywood can stoop to.

From The Love Parade to All Quiet on the Western Front, we cover all of your favorites from the 1929-30 Academy Award season. We will talk about all of our Notscar nominees, but who will actually win the prestigious Notscar: A Movie Award Podcast Movie Award for 1929-30? Listen in to find out!

The last movie we are covering from the 1929/30 Oscar season is All Quiet on the Western Front. This movie about the futility of war stands in stark contrast to Love Parade, the movie we kicked off 1929/1930 with - and the only movie for this season we did not give a Notscar Nomination to. The Academy gave their Best Picture award to All Quiet on the Western Front, but that is no guarantee it will earn a Notscar Nom from us.

This week it's The Big House and this movie doesn't pull punches on its criticism of the prison system of the 1930s. The movie opens with a somewhat foppish gentleman being admitted to prison. The warden warns him that prison "doesn't give a man a yellow streak but it will bring one out." Will this unfunny Bertie Wooster of criminals learn to survive in the twisted world of the prison system? What of his fellow inmates? Could there be some diamonds in the rough there?

This week we check out the imperialism fan favorite, Disraeli - the movie, not the person. The movie covers the acquisition of the Suez Canal in an early spy thriller sort of way. It might not score super well for historical accuracy or acknowledging the evils of imperialism, but will it be good enough as a movie to still get some good scores? Maybe even a Notscar Nod? Let's learn together!

Chester Morris (Alibi) returns to our screen along with Norma Shearer in this dramatic story of rich people hurting each other's feelings. This movie is definitely pre-Code as it addresses the taboo subjects of divorce and infidelity. Will this movie condemn the heroine for having a job and being a modern woman? Will it show a bit of progressivism and lay some responsibility at the man's feet? Who knows what to expect from 1930! Listen in to find out.

The Love Parade, the prequel to the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup, is a musical romp through Sylvania. Sylvania is a country with an unacceptably unmarried monarch who finally finds love with a playboy noble freshly returned from France. Will the queen and her new prince be a power-couple on the regal scene or will they need to establish some regressive gender dynamics at home first? Was I kidding about the prequel to Duck Soup part? Tune in to find out!

Oof. The introduction of sound was not an easy transition for Hollywood. We'll review the let downs and then decide between one standout and a lesser standout who wins this season's Notscar - A Movie Award Podcast Movie Award for the talking pictures.

The first musical to win Best Picture, Broadway Melody seems to be our only feature for the 1928-29 season with fully audible and articulated sound and speech. If that wasn't exciting enough, the movie is also fun little drama club drama featuring some catchy tunes, well choreographed dances, and a romance so sadly devoid of chemistry that Jason was startled to hear the protagonists confess their love towards the end. Hey, at least it was a fun twist for him.

Sometimes a movie forces you to think about the world around you. A movie can challenge our assumptions and expose uncomfortable truths. Alibi starts off well, but follows through on none of these things. Will its start be strong enough to get Alibi into Notscar: Movie Award Podcast Movie Award territory though?

We're robbing stagecoaches and stealing hearts in the ooold West! In our first Western, a stereotype and an all-American jerk compete for the love of a stock femme fatale. We're pretty sure the audience is supposed to hate the femme fatale the most of these three, but the circumstances leads us to some different conclusions.The movie was daring enough to record sound outside, but it was a little too daring. There's a lot of dialogue the mic barely picked up. Maybe all the key dialogue to understanding why we should like the two fellas and despise the EVILLE WOMAN are in those muddled words.

Talking! Singing! Ukuleles! Comedy? It's all here in MGM's Hollywood Revue! Will this newfangled sound technology take off? What if moving pictures were in color? What if Buster Keaton did a dance for the god Poseidon? This movie dared to tackle all of these questions and more. Hollywood Revue! Starring everybody under contract by MGM! 

It has been a good batch of films for the 1927/28 season. The competition for Come Back a Star's 1927/28 Notscar: A Movie Award Podcast Movie Award will be fierce. We will recap the Academy's nominees including the two we nominated for our own award. Who will win? Wings or 7th Heaven? Tune in to find out!

Charlie Chaplin won the very special Charlie Chaplin Academy Award for Charlie Chaplin with this one for being a writing, producing, and performing genius. Some say that The Circus needed its own Award to stop it from sweeping the first Academy Awards. How does the movie truly stack up against our other nominees though? Would it have been a floppy clown shoe-in?

No, not the old program on The WB.7th Heaven was one of our favorites. It's simple and sappy, but it still manages to strike a chord that resonated with audiences back in 1927 and with us in 2020. It won four other Academy Awards, but was merely a nominee for Best Picture. Was the Academy correct to keep this movie to a mere nomination or was 7th Heaven robbed of the Best Picture award? Listen in to find out!

Mobster Scarsi and Police Officer McQuigg square off in this early gangster movie. Is it a battle between Lawful Good and Chaotic Evil? Or is indictment of both the heavy-handed police and the violent mob in the era of prohibition? Laura and Jason explore these theories in... THE RACKET.

MURDER! Sunrise gives us "A Tale of Two Humans" about love, fear, and runaway piglets. It's the second Academy Award winner we've covered for 1927/29. But wait. There's two? Yup. Sunrise won the Unique and Artistic Picture, which only existed for the very 1st Academy Awards. Will it win the coveted Notscar: A Movie Award Podcast Movie Award for Movies, though?

Our first movie review and it's of the first ever Best Picture winner. Do you like biplanes? How do you feel about LOTS of biplanes? If you answered yes to either, Wings is YOUR movie. (Seriously though, it is a great picture.) We'll give the movie our own ratings in our Acting, Writing, Cinematography, and Overall categories. Maybe we'll give out a few bonus points too in our bonus rounds, Costumes/Sets, Boldness, Longevity, and Legacy.

Our introductory episode! We're going to rate and review every Best Picture winner and nominee from the 1927/28 Academy Awards onwards. It's bananas!