Podcasts about Unfaithfully Yours

For this MGM 1931 episode we watched The Easiest Way, a feminist subversion of melodrama tropes by director Jack Conway and screenwriter Edith Ellis, starring Constance Bennett as the fallen woman and a young Clark Gable, verging on stardom, as her judgemental brother-in-law; and possibly the most sentimental movie ever made, King Vidor's The Champ, starring Wallace Beery as a ne'er-do-well ex-boxing champ dad and Jackie Cooper as his passionately devoted son. MGM delivers again in this new round of 1931! Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: The Easiest Way (1931) [dir. Jack Conway] 0h 43m 55s: The Champ (1931) [dir. King Vidor] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

Our streak of finding gynocentric crime film gems continues with our second Paramount 1931 episode, featuring two movies directed by Sylvia Sidney specialist Marion Gering. 24 Hours pairs a despairing Clive Brook and Miriam Hopkins, haunted by marriages they can't escape in one way or another. And Ladies of the Big House, starring a radiant Sidney as a hapless shopgirl who (like Hopkins' nightclub singer) becomes the target of a gangster's obsession, depicts life in prison as a curious quasi-utopia of racial equality and solidarity among American's socioeconomically oppressed. We give you our take on Gering as unsung auteur! Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: Hollywood, 1931 and Paramount 0h 07m 09s: 24 HOURS [dir. Marion Gering] 0h 40m 51s: LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE [dir. Marion Gering] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

We complete our second round of 1930 on Studios Year by Year with Universal. This time around we've got two auteur entries, Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front, and a much deeper cut, Tod Browning's eccentric crime drama Outside the Law. We discuss All Quiet as emblematic of the Laemmele Jr. era before turning to Browning's tense, messy melodrama, with a powerhouse performance by the scandal-plagued Mary Nolan. A fine finale to another trip through 1930 with the Hollywood Studios!  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: Universal Recap 0h 15m 58s: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT [dir. Lewis Milestone] 0h 53m 51s: OUTSIDE THE LAW [dir. Tod Browning] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!           

In this week's RKO Studios Year by Year episode, we discuss our favourite movies from our first round with the studio and how that round shaped our impression of RKO, and then turn to two new 1930 movies: Framed (directed by George Archainbaud), a gangster movie focused on Evelyn Brent's tough/tender mixed-up moll, and The Runaway Bride (directed by Donald Crisp), a shaggy showcase for Mary Astor's affability. But wait, there's more! In Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we debate the meanings and merits of two daring films by Mai Zetterling, Amorosa (1986) and Night Games (1966), and dissect the post-WWII ennui of two by Binka Zhelyazkova, Life Flows Quietly By... (1957) and The Big Night Bathe (1980).  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: RKO Recap 0h 14m 54s: FRAMED [dir. George Archainbaud] 0h 31m 49s: THE RUNAWAY BRIDE [dir. Donald Crisp] 0h 52m 06s: FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO: Mai Zetterling's Night Games (1966) & Amorosa (1986) + Binka Zhelyazkova's Life Flows Quietly By (1957) & The Big Night Bathe (1980) +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story he RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

The first episode of our second Studios Year by Year round with Fox, the "Rube" according to Ethan Mordden, is a real ridiculous/sublime contrast: the sci-fi musical comedy Just Imagine (directed by David Butler), a vehicle for vaudevillian El Brendel, in whom Dave may have found his comedy bête noir; and the F. W. Murnau masterpiece City Girl, which reworks Sunrise with (we speculate) a Borzagean twist. Come for the idiotic, stay for the profound?  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: Fox Recap 0h 12m 41s: CITY GIRL [dir. F.W. Murnau] 0h 48m 02: JUST IMAGINE [dir. David Butler]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935: A History and Filmography by Aubrey Solomon Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!           

For the first episode of our second round of Warner Brothers 1930, we've got a thoughtful, ambitious gangster movie from the mind of little-known auteur Rowland Brown, The Doorway to Hell (directed by Archie Mayo), and a truly dismal melodrama, A Notorious Affair (directed by Lloyd Bacon), rescued from total worthlessness by Kay Francis's turn as a maneating countess. (Doorway to Hell is also notable for a very early appearance by another rising star, James Cagney, who, however, doesn't steal his movie as effectively as Francis does.) Plus, we give our lists of favourite Warner Brothers movies from Round One and offer our thoughts about the studio as auteur going into Round Two.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:                Warner Brothers Recap 0h 28m 05s:                A NOTORIOUS AFFAIR [dir. Lloyd Bacon] 0h 43m 50s:                THE DOORWAY TO HELL [dir. Archie Mayo] Year in Film information from Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

We start off our second round of MGM Studio Year by Year episodes with these 1930 films: the Marion Davies comedy vehicle The Florodora Girl (directed by Harry Beaumount) and Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan, which Elise decides is something like Eyes Wide Shut if it was made by James Cameron (but, alas, not as interesting as that sounds). (It's still pretty interesting, though, if only for the Art Deco Lightning Dancers. Yes, you read that right.) Plus, we give our impressions of MGM based on our first round of viewings and draw attention to some of the highlights from it.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: MGM Recap 0h 28m 41s: THE FLORODORA GIRL [dir. Harry Beaumont] 0h 45m 29s: MADAM SATAN [dir. Cecil B. DeMille]   Year in Film information from Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

It's time for another round of Studios Year by Year, starting over with Paramount 1930! And this time Dave has brought even more nostalgic reading material to give some context for this studio content. We also launch another new series feature: a review of our favourite movies from the previous 1930-1948 round. Turning to the Paramount movies we watched for this episode, we struggle to come to terms with the pointless battle of the sexes in Lubitsch's The Love Parade, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, who are having a lot of sexy Pre-Code fun until the dictates of storytelling demand conflict; and struggle through a nigh-unwatchable transfer/copy of the sturdy operetta The Vagabond King, starring MacDonald and Dennis King. In both films, the adorable Lillian Roth delights. And finally, as if all of that weren't enough, a New Year's Eve throwback (by the time this is posted) in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: we watched the beloved When Harry Met Sally and the cult classic 200 Cigarettes at the Revue Cinema.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: 1930 in film + Paramount Recap 0h 21m 10s: THE LOVE PARADE [dir. Ernst Lubitsch]          0h 43m 24s: THE VAGABOND KING [dir. Ludwig Berger] 0h 56m 50s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: When Harry Met Sally (1989) by Rob Reiner & 200 Cigarettes (1999) by Risa Bramon Garcia Year in Film information from Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

Our first round of Studios Year by Year comes to an end with these Universal 1948 movies: A Woman's Vengeance (directed by Zoltan Korda with a screenplay by Aldous Huxley, based on his short story "The Gioconda Smile") and Larceny (directed by George Sherman). Huxley's philosophical concerns add unexpected dimensions to familiar Gothic tropes and gives great material to Charles Boyer and Ann Blyth, while Cedric Hardwicke deals with Jessica Tandy. In the second half of our double bill, John Payne's con man tries his best to deal with Shelley Winters in honey badger mode (he's the honey and the bees).  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:      A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE [dir. Zoltan Korda] 0h 29m 24s:      LARCENY [dir. George Sherman]     Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler               +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the next two decades * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!   

In this 1948 Studios Year by Year episode, we look at two artefacts from Dore Schary's brief tenure as Head of Production at RKO, Berlin Express (directed by Jacques Tourneur), an early Cold War curiosity in which Robert Young and Merle Oberon try to save Paul Lukas from the clutches of Nazis in war-torn Frankfurt, and The Boy with Green Hair (directed by Joseph Losey), the pacifist fantasy, starring Dean Stockwell and Pat O'Brien, over which Schary clashed with the Elon Musk of studio-era Hollywood, Howard Hughes. We discuss the films' historical context, as well as the non-political pleasures they have to offer.   Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:      The RKO Story summary of 1948 at Radio-Keith-Orpheum 0h 05m 08s:      BERLIN EXPRESS [dir. Jacques Tourneur] 0h 24m 19s:      THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR [dir. Joseph Losey] 0h 46m 49s:      Listener mail with Amy Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin   Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler               Link:   For 'KL': The Boy With The Green Hair   +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!           

This 1948 20th Century Fox Studios Year by Year episode is a doozy, a doubleheader of psychotic lovelorn men with bad ideas in their heads. First, in Jean Negulesco's rural noir Road House, Richard Widmark's spoiled road house owner selects Ida Lupino's unlikely and unforgettable femme fatale as his reluctant assassin, and then, in Preston Sturges' black comedy Unfaithfully Yours, Rex Harrison's celebrated symphony conductor spins murderous melodramatic fantasies and faces a recalcitrant slapstick reality when he suspects his much younger wife (Linda Darnell) of cheating on him. We unpack the practically infinite riches of these colossi of studio-era filmmaking, one with and one without an auteur at the helm.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:      ROAD HOUSE [dir. Jean Negulesco] 0h 50m 02s:      UNFAITHFULLY YOURS [dir. Preston Sturges] Studio Film Capsules provided by The Films of Twentieth Century-Fox by Tony Thomas & Audrey Solomon   Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

For this 1948 Warner Bros Studios Year by Year episode, we watched a couple of the studio's most prestigious releases for the year, John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Jean Negulesco's Johnny Belinda. We explore some extraordinary performances by Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, and Jane Wyman in these tales of capitalist nihilism and rural prejudice.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:      THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE [dir. John Huston] 0h 44m 11s:      JOHNNY BELINDA [dir. Jean Negulesco] Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!   

This episode of The Other Side of the Bell, featuring trumpeter, Allen Vizzutti, is brought to you by Bob Reeves Brass. You can also watch this interview on Youtube. About Allen: Equally at home in a multitude of musical idioms, Allen Vizzutti has visited 70 countries, Japan 49 times, and every state in the union to perform with a rainbow of artists and ensembles including Chick Corea, Doc; Severinsen, the NBC Tonight Show Band, the Airmen Of Note, the Army Blues and Army Symphony Orchestra, Chuck Mangione, Woody Herman, Japan's NHK Orchestra and the New Tokyo Philharmonic, the Budapest Radio Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Leipzig Wind Symphony, the Slovenian National Orchestra and the Kosei Wind Orchestra. Performing as a classical and a jazz artist, often in the same evening, he has appeared as guest soloist with symphony orchestras in Japan, Germany, St. Louis, Seattle, Rochester N.Y., Dallas, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Phoenix, Edmonton, Vancouver, Seattle and Minnesota to name a few. Music lovers in Germany, Poland, England, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Australia and the United States have heard his brilliant sound over the airwaves of national television. Allen's status as an artist has led to solo performances at the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, Newport Jazz Festival, Banff Center for the Performing Arts, Montreaux Jazz Festival, the Teton, Vail, Aspen and Breckenridge Music Festivals, the Charles Ives Center, Suntory Hall & Opera City Hall in Tokyo and Lincoln Center in New York City. From his home in Seattle Washington, Allen's current career activities embody an impressive schedule of recitals, concerts, recording and composing. His continued commitment to music education and the value of music in everyday life results in an extensive schedule of guest appearances throughout North America, South America, Europe, Japan, Australia, Asia and New Zealand. Allen's many recordings include “Ritzville” featuring Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke,(available at www. vizzutti.com and on iTunes). Other solo jazz recordings include “Trumpet Summit” and “Skyrocket” from Summit Records. Classical recordings currently available (DeHaske Classical Recordings), are “The Emerald Concerto and Other Gems”, with the Budapest Radio Orchestra, “Vizzutti Plays Vizzutti” and “Vizzutti and Soli On Tour”. His “High Class Brass”, (on iTunes), is a wonderfully unique classical and jazz blend co-produced, co-written and performed with fellow trumpet artist, composer and conductor, Jeff Tyzik along with a 90-piece studio orchestra. (on iTunes) Other outstanding Vizzutti recordings are “Baroque and Beyond”, (CBS/Sony), “The Carnival of Venus”, (Summit Records), and “A Trumpeter's Dream, (Ludwig Music Publishing). As Artist in Residence, Allen has taught at the Eastman School of Music, the University of North Texas, the University of South Carolina, the Banff Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas State University, Ohio State University, West Texas State University, the Skidmore Jazz Institute, and the Trompeten Akademie of Bremen Germany. His extensive treatise, “The Allen Vizzutti Trumpet Method” and his “New Concepts for Trumpet”, (Alfred Music Publishing), have become standards works for trumpet study worldwide. Many more of Allen's jazz and classical books, play along recordings, and student and recital compositions are published by DeHaske/Hal Leonard, BIM Switzerland, and Village Place Music. His writing includes solo pieces for piano, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, tuba, and harp, chamber groups, wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, and symphony orchestra. Allen's love of expression through composition has led to premier performances by the LosAngeles Philharmonic, Budapest Radio Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic of London, the Nuremberg Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Syracuse Symphony, London Symphony, the renowned Summit Brass, the Royal Philharmonic Brass and others. After the world premier of his “Emerald Concerto” with the Syracuse Symphony Allen's writing was described in review: “The Emerald Concerto sparkles!...a vivacious treatment which speaks well for both his dramatic instinct and technical prowess as a composer.” While growing up in Montana, Allen was taught by his father, a self taught musician and trumpet player, until he left home to attend the Eastman School of Music on full scholarship. There he earned the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, a Performer's Certificate, a chair in the Eastman Brass Quintet faculty ensemble, and the first Artist's Diploma ever awarded a wind player in Eastman's history. Allen has performed on over 150 motion picture sound tracks, (such as Back To The Futureand Star Trek), as well as countless TV shows, commercials and recordings with such artists as Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Chick Corea, the Commodores and Prince. His soaring sound can be heard on recent the movies, “Mirror, Mirror”, “Furry Vengeance”, “40 Days and 40 Nights”, “Unfaithfully Yours”, “Gridiron Gang”, “Scary Movie Four”, “The Hulk” and the “Medal of Honor”, “Gears of War”, “World of Warcraft” ,and “Halo” video games. More information is available at www.vizzutti.com  Allen Vizzutti is a Yamaha Performing Artist

Our MGM 1948 Studios Year by Year episode is a Freed Unit double feature: the great Irving Berlin musical Easter Parade, starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, and Summer Holiday, a Mickey Rooney coming-of-age story based on a play by Eugene O'Neill, directed by studio-era "art director" Rouben Mamoulian. We discuss Easter Parade as a vehicle for presenting Judy Garland's "problematic" anti-star star persona and Summer Holiday's envelope-pushing leftist politics and middle-class sexual repression plot, wrapped up in cozy turn-of-the-century nostalgia.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:      SUMMER HOLIDAY [dir. Rouben Mamoulian] 0h 36m 24s:      EASTER PARADE [dir. Charles Walters] Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

In this Paramount 1948 episode we dig deep to get the stories behind the stories of two great film noirs starring Ray Milland: The Big Clock (directed by John Farrow), based on a novel by Depression-era poet and Communist Party fellow traveler Kenneth Fearing, and So Evil My Love (directed by Lewis Allen), a historical noir/Gothic melodrama based on a novel by the prolific and many-pseudonymed Marjorie Bowen. We discuss the ways in which the source authors' viewpoints make for fascinating deviations from standard Hollywood treatment of capitalism and gender.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:      SO EVIL, MY LOVE [dir. Lewis Allen] 0h 33m 22s:      THE BIG CLOCK [dir. John Farrow] Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

In this 1947 Universal Studios Year by Year episode, a little Ella Raines never hurt no one: we struggle to understand her role in the intermittently riveting Gothic melodrama Time Out of Mind (stylishly directed by Robert Siodmak), while Edmond O'Brien struggles to understand her role in Vincent Price's life in The Web, a white-collar film noir directed by future blacklistee Michael Gordon.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:      TIME OUT OF MIND [dir. Robert Siodmak] 0h 20m 07s:      THE WEB [dir. Michael Gordon] Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!     

We've been waiting for this episode, a 1947 RKO noir double bill with two of the all-time greats, Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past, in which Robert Mitchum's cool detective and Jane Greer's psychopathic moll work at cross purposes in their attempts to escape their shady pasts so that they can be free to love, and Robert Wise's Born to Kill, in which Claire Trevor's morally flexible social climber and Lawrence Tierney's paranoid psychopath just work at cross purposes. Elise agrees with Bosley Crowther that Born to Kill, one of her Top 10 favourite movies, "is not only morally disgusting but is an offense to a normal intellect," but will Dave be able to convince her that Out of the Past is "flawless"?    Time Codes: 0h 00m 30s:      BORN TO KILL [dir. Robert Wise] 1h 07m 09s:      OUT OF THE PAST [dir. Jacques Tourneur] 1h 35m 31s:      Listener Communiqué Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin   Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

This Fox 1947 Studios Year by Year episode looks at two examples of the docu-noir: Boomerang! (directed by Elia Kazan), starring Dana Andrews as a prosecuting attorney who has to decide between morality and political expedience; and Kiss of Death (directed by Henry Hathaway), in which Victor Mature's sympathetic gangster is menaced by Richard Widmark's psychopathic gangster and the legal system. Then another oddball assortment of movies in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and Spellbound (1945).    Time Codes: 0h 00m 30s:      BOOMERANG!  [dir. Elia Kazan] 0h 27m 35s:      KISS OF DEATH [dir. Henry Hathaway] 0h 54m 55s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022) by Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) by Mike Nichols and Spellbound (1945) by Alfred Hitchcock Studio Film Capsules provided by The Films of Twentieth Century-Fox by Aubrey Solomon and Tony Thomas Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!           

Our penultimate Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode brings us Lilli as a protagonist again at last, in Lotte in Weimar (1975), based on the Thomas Mann novel, and Lilli Lite in The Boys from Brazil (1978), an outrageous anti-Nazi sci fi story in which Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck wage an epic battle (and also get into a very brutal girl-fight). And this week's Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto is a real smorgasbord: Saturday Night Fever, Coffy, It Happened One Night, and Beverly Hills Cop. From the charm of young John Travolta to screwball brutality and from exploitation auteurism to... the charm of young Eddie Murphy. We've got the movie talk you crave! Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      LOTTE IN WEIMAR (1975) [dir. Egon Gunther] 0h 32m 51s:      THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978) [dir. Franklin J. Schaffner] 0h 50m 08s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Saturday Night Fever (1977) by John Badham; Coffy (1973) by Jack Hill; It Happened One Night (1934) by Frank Capra; and Beverly Hills Cop (1984) by Martin Brest Studio Film Capsules provided by The Films of Twentieth Century-Fox by Aubrey Solomon and Tony Thomas Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!         

This Warner Bros. 1947 Studios Year by Year episode features two gems that put their own particular slant on noir's familiar theme of murderous conflict between women and men: Curtis Bernhardt's Possessed, starring a more-than-usually deranged Joan Crawford, with Van Heflin as the rakish object of her obsession, and Delmer Daves' Dark Passage, starring an unusually passive Humphrey Bogart as a man convicted of killing his wife, with Lauren Bacall as an eccentric socialite who decides to help him. And in our Fear and Moviegoing segment, a real clash of moods: Ridley Scott's terrifying sci-fi/horror classic Alien and Wong Kar-wai's whimsical romantic comedy (of a sort) Chungking Express. Though admittedly it also has its terrifying aspects. (If only Van Heflin had been charmed by Crawford's fixation, how differently it could have gone!)  Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      POSSESSED [dir. Curtis Bernhardt] 0h 41m 53s:      DARK PASSAGE [dir. Delmer Daves] 1h 11m 24s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Alien (1979) by Ridley Scott at the TIFF Lightbox and Chungking Express (1994) by Wong Kar-wai at the Revue Cinema  Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!           

​Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues    Aya de Leon in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. Aya de Leon is the Poet Laureate of the City of Berkeley. She is a novelist and poet who currently teaches creative writing at U.C. Berkeley. She is the author of ten books, the most recent of which are the adult novel, “That Dangerous Energy,” and the young adult novel, “Untraceable.” Originally a hip hop artist, Aya de Leon is also a noted local activist, and the acquiring editor of Fighting Chance Books, the climate justice fiction imprint of She Writes Press. She organizes with the Black Hive, the climate and environmental justice formation of the Movement for Black Lives.   Stuart Klawans, author of “Crooked but Never Common: The Films of Preston Sturges,” in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. Stuart Klawans was film critic for the Nation  from 1988 to 2021, and before that wrote a small press and poetry column for the magazine. His previous books were Film Follies: The Cinema Out of Order, and a collection of his reviews and essays from 1988 to 2001, Left in the Dark. Preston Sturges was the first in the Hollywood sound era to write and direct his own films, creating a series of movies, from The Great McGinty in 1940, through The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and other classics to Unfaithfully Yours in 1948, that still resonate today. All the films mentioned in the interview are available streaming either for rental via Amazon or Apple, or in the case of Unfaithfully Yours, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock and The Great Moment, free on YouTube. Complete 52-minute interview.   Review of “Evita” at San Francisco Playhouse through September 7, 2024.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. B ook Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 10th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2, 2024. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. BookShop West Portal. Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).  Calendar of upcoming readings. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Alter Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. American Conservatory Theatre  Carrie, The Musical, The Reuff at The Strand, August 1-11. Noel Coward's Private Lives, September 12 – October 6, Toni Rembe Theatre. Aurora Theatre  The Lifespan of a Fact by Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, June 21-July 21. Streaming:  July 16-21. Awesome Theatre Company. Por La Noche (By Night), October 11 – 26, 2024. See website for information. Berkeley Rep. Mother Road by Octavio Solis, June 14-July 21, Peets Theatre. The Best of the Second City, July 16-29, Roda Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company. See website for upcoming shows. Boxcar Theatre. New Years Eve at the Speakeasy, Jan. 1, 2025. Magic Man, Jan 3 – June 2, Palace Theatre. Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Mrs. Doubtfire, July 2-28. Girl from the North Country, July 30-Aug 18, Golden Gate. See website for events at the Orpheum, Curran and Golden Gate. Broadway San Jose:  Disney's Frozen, August 21 – September 1. California Shakespeare Theatre (Cal Shakes). As You Like it, September 12 – 29. Center Rep: Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring September 8 -29. Lesher Center for the Arts. Central Works  Accused by Patricia Milton, July 13 – August 11. Cinnabar Theatre. See website for upcoming productions.. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre In Repertory: Hamlet and Rosencranz and Gildenstern Are Dead, September 7 – 22. Curran Theater: See website for special events.. Custom Made Theatre. In hibernation. Cutting Ball Theatre. See website for upcoming shows. 42nd Street Moon. Bright Star postponed. Golden Thread  11 Reflections: San Francisco, October 4-5 Brava Theatre Center. See website for other events. Hillbarn Theatre: Always…Patsy Cline, August 22 – September 15. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. Lower Bottom Playaz  See website for upcoming productions. Magic Theatre. Magic Gala, August 8, 2024.  Richard II by William Shakespeare, August 21 – September 8. See website for other events. Marin Theatre Company Yaga by by Kurt Sondler, October 10 – November 3, 2024. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) Ride the Cyclone by Jacob Richmond & Brooke Maxwell, September 20 – October 20. Oakland Theater Project.  Angels in America, Parts I & II, September 27 – October 26, Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Pear Theater. Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight  by Greg Lam, June 28 – July 21, 2024. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Legally Blonde, September 7-29, 2024, Victoria Theatre. See website for Spotlight Cabaret Series at Feinstein's at the Nikko (It's Britney, Bitch, July 24). San Francisco Playhouse. Evita, June 27-September 7. 2024. SFBATCO.  See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: See website for upcoming schedule. Shotgun Players.  Collective Rage by Jen Silverman. July 20 – August 18. South Bay Musical Theatre: No, No Nanette,  Sept 28 – Oct. 19. Saratoga Civic Theater. Stagebridge: See website for events and productions. Storytime every 4th Saturday. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Lunatico  See website for upcoming productions. Theatre Rhino  Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. King James by Rajiv Joseph, October 9 – November 3,  2024. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for BAM/PFA. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2023 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org The post July 18, 2024: Aya de Leon – Stuart Klawans appeared first on KPFA.

For this MGM 1947 Studios Year by Year episode, we discuss Cynthia, a gentle family melodrama starring a luminous 15-year-old Elizabeth Taylor as an over-protected teenager, and High Wall, a psychiatric film noir with great roles for Robert Taylor and Herbert Marshall as sweaty noir protagonists at cross purposes. Our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, meanwhile, features discussion of two radically different films: James Cameron's Terminator 2 and a 4K restoration of Vittorio de Sica's influential early neorealist drama Shoeshine. Realist horrors or horror fantasy, take your pick! Time Codes: 0h 00m 30s:      CYNTHIA [dir. Robert Z. Leonard] 0h 38m 15s:      HIGH WALL [dir. Curtis Bernhardt] 1h 01m 44s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) by James Cameron at TIFF Lightbox and Shoeshine (1946) by Vittorio De Sica at The Revue Cinema Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!           

For this Paramount 1947 Studios Year by Year episode we watch a couple of films by producer/director team of Seton I. Miller and John Farrow: California, starring the belligerent sexual tension of Barbara Stawyck and Ray Milland in a left-leaning fable about the establishment of law and order in the West Coast, and Calcutta, a terrific Alan Ladd/Gail Russell noir, stylishly shot by Billy Wilder fave John F. Seitz.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 30s:      CALIFORNIA [dir. John Farrow] 0h 25m 44s:      CALCUTTA [dir: John Farrow] Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

For this Universal 1946 episode, we chose a B-movie double bill, The Cat Creeps (directed by Erle C. Kenton, best known for Island of Lost Souls) and She-Wolf of London (directed by Jean Yarbrough, Abbott and Costello specialist), hoping for hidden gems. But did we find any? And in the Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, our Powell and Pressburger retrospective viewing continues with Black Narcissus and Michael Powell's notorious investigation of cinema, voyeurism, and violence, Peeping Tom. Time Codes:  0h 00m 30s:       THE CAT CREEPS [dir. Erle C. Kenton] 0h 12m 00s:       SHE-WOLF OF LONDON [dir. Jean Yarbrough] 0h 26m 03s:       Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Black Narcissus (1947) by Powell and Pressburger and Peeping Tom (1960) by Michael Powell Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

In this RKO 1946 episode we discuss Crack-Up (directed by Irving Reis), an eerie noir with a couple of great Expressionist set pieces. Pat O'Brien oozes vulnerability as a WWII vet and populist art critic who has to find out who's trying to make him look, or go, insane; Claire Trevor plays the love interest who's trying to help him (or is she?). Oh yeah, and we also watched Step By Step (directed by Phil Rosen), a goofy spy drama in which Lawrence Tierney gets to play a nice guy for once. Remember this episode when we watch Tierney and Trevor at their nastiest in Born to Kill, coming soon!   Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      STEP BY STEP [dir. Phil Rosen] 0h 17m 09s:      CRACK-UP [dir. Irving Reis] Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

This week's Fox 1946 Studios Year by Year episode features the strange bedfellows of Henry Hathaway's The Dark Corner, a curiously feminist film noir in which the tormented protagonist is saved by the persistence of a good woman (played by Lucille Ball), and Edmund Goulding's The Razor's Edge, based on a Somerset Maugham novel about spiritual enlightenment and bourgeois ennui, featuring Gene Tierney's best performance, although Anne Baxter won the Oscar. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, the TIFF Cinematheque Duras retrospective continues with Nathalie Granger, Baxter, Vera Baxter, Le Navire Night, and Les Enfants. We discuss comedy, mysticism, nihilism, recalcitrant children, and happy endings in Duras's films. Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      THE DARK CORNER [dir. Henry Hathaway] 0h 25m 04s:      THE RAZOR'S EDGE [dir. Edmund Goulding] 0h 52m 22s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: Nathalie Granger (1972), Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977), Le Navire Night (1979) and Les Enfants (1984) – all by Marguerite Duras Studio Film Capsules provided by The Films of 20th Century-Fox by Aubrey Solomon & Tony Thomas Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe W. Finler                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!           

For this Warner Bros. 1946 episode we watched two fantastical biopics, Devotion (directed by Curtis Bernhardt), starring Ida Lupino and Olivia de Havilland as Emily and Charlotte Brontë, and Night and Day (directed by Michael Curtiz), starring Cary Grant as Cole Porter and Monty Woolley as himself. We found them to be like night and day in terms of their quality, but you'll have to listen to find out which of the two we deemed redeemable. And then for something completely different: in a long Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, tragic love, communism, colonialism, demons, and various approaches to deconstructing cinema dominate our discussion of the first half of TIFF Cinematheque's Marguerite Duras retrospective.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      DEVOTION [dir. Curtis Bernhardt] 0h 33m 42s:      NIGHT AND DAY [dir. Michael Curtiz] 0h 46m 48s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: Détruire dit-elle (1969), La femme du Gange (1974), India Song (1975), Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert (1976) and Le camion (1977) by Marguerite Duras Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

This MGM 1946 Studios Year by Year episode is a Jules Dassin double feature that shows the range of the famed blacklistee even during his most constrained studio period: the noirish romantic drama Two Smart People, about two con artists (Lucille Ball and John Hodiak) and a cop who are all out to con each other; and the remarkable A Letter for Evie (starring Marsha Hunt and Hume Cronyn), a very postmodern (but also hilarious) deconstruction of gender conventions that's also a moving romance.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      1946 at MGM and Hollywod (per John Douglas Eames) 0h 04m 22s:      TWO SMART PEOPLE [dir. Jules Dassin]            0h 26m 38s:      A LETTER FOR EVIE [dir. Jules Dassin] Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!   

In this Paramount 1946 episode we look at two movies featuring Veronica Lake which otherwise could not be more dissimilar: Miss Susie Slagle's (directed by John Berry), about the trials of pre-WWI Johns Hopkins medical students living in a boarding house presided over by Lillian Gish; and famous Lake/Ladd noir outing, The Blue Dahlia (directed by George Marshall and written by Raymond Chandler). We discuss the potential influence of the leftists involved in making Miss Susie Slagle's on its portrayal of race and gender and debate the amount of damage done to The Blue Dahlia by the studio-mandated change to the plot. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we take a brief look at three very different movies: Tarkovsky's Nostalghia (stolen by a German Shepherd), Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives (stolen by Linda Darnell), and Douglas Sirk's All I Desire (starring Barbara Stanwyck).  Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      MISS SUSIE SLAGLE'S [dir. John Berry] 0h 27m 06s:      THE BLUE DAHLIA [dir. George Marshall] 0h 48m 13s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Nostalghia (1983) by Andrei Tarkovsky; A Letter to Three Wives (1948) by Joseph L. Mankiewicz; and All I Desire (1953) by Douglas Sirk Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

In this Universal 1945 episode of The  Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year, we look at a couple of noir-adjacent films, Robert Siodmak's The Suspect, starring Charles Laughton as an abused husband who looks for a way out of his miserable marriage when he meets sweet and lovely Ella Raines, and the comedy/crime film Lady on a Train, which stars Deanna Durbin as an exuberant and resourceful murder mystery addict who gets involved in a real investigation when she witnesses a murder from her train window. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we discuss three short documentaries about James Baldwin, along with another Douglas Sirk masterpiece, There's Always Tomorrow (1956).  Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      THE SUSPECT [dir. Robert Siodmak] 0h 27m 39s:      LADY ON A TRAIN [dir. Charles David] 0h 38m 11s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – TIFF Cinémathèque – There's Always Tomorrow (1956) by Douglas Sirk and three short documentaries about James Baldwin Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

For this RKO 1945 episode, two beautifully filmed noirs (by Harry J. Wild), Edwin L. Marin's Johnny Angel, another noir with a femme fatale (Claire Trevor) who loves too much (and gets a very unexpected - and gory - redemption), and Edward Dmytryk's Cornered, in which Dick Powell learns why you shouldn't hunt down Nazis and kill them with your bare hands, but doesn't seem very interested. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we discuss the 1982 documentary I Heard It Through the Grapevine, in which James Baldwin talks to the people who were there about the failures of the civil rights movement and what they say about America.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      JOHNNY ANGEL [dir. Edwin L. Marin] 0h 29m 15s:      CORNERED [dir. Edward Dmytrk] 0h 46m 40s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – TIFF Cinémathèque – I Heard it Through the Grapevine (1982) by Dick Fontaine & Pat Hartley 0h 53m 22s:      Listener mail with Simon!   Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!         

This week on THE BIG 4-0, Ron and Peter wish a happy birthday to the surprisingly fun Duddly Moore/Natasia Kinski/Armand Asante/Albert Brooks farce, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (a movie neither of us had ever heard anything about until this pod) and, inspired by BROADWAY DANNY ROSE a few weeks ago, we also look back at Woody Allen's seminal ANNIE HALL, a first-time watch for Ron. And as a bonus, at the top of the episode we discuss several recent - and not so recent - films we each watched over the last week or so, including BIRD ON A WIRE, THE SUPER MARIO BROTHERS MOVIE, THE GREATEST NIGHT IN POP, HEARTBURN, IN THE LINE OF FIRE, DRAGON FORCE, THE HOLDOVERS, EVIL DEAD RISE, and LEAVE THIS WORLD BEHIND among a few others. Please remember to Rate, Like, and Subscribe, and we'll be back next week to dance the night away celebrating The Big 4-0's of FOOTLOOSE and BLAME IT ON RIO!

Only one new film to wish a Happy BIG 4-0 this week - the Aiden Quinn/Daryl Hannah teen drama RECKLESS - so we also dip back into 1983 for a belated Happy BIG 4-0 to the Troma camper-sex farce THE BIG TURN-ON!, which we somehow missed last year. As always, please Rate, Like, and Subscribe; and we'll be back next week to wish a Happy BIG 4-0 to Dudley Moore, Natasia Kinski, Armand Asante, and Albert Brooks in UNFAITHFULLY YOURS, as well as a look back at Woody Allen's ANNIE HALL - a first-time watch for Ron! PS: The shirt Peter mentions at the beginning of the ep reads "Written and Directed by Quentin Tarrentino" (I'm sure you've all seen it).

Our Fox 1945 episode features two of the greatest and greatest-looking film noirs: Otto Preminger's Fallen Angel and John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven. We unpack the movies' love triangles, in which two strong-willed women exert their influence over a passive man; their treatment of the topics of love and obsession; the unique cinematic qualities of Alice Faye's presence and Gene Tierney's face; how Gene Tierney and Linda Darnell differ from the stereotypical femme fatale - and much more.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 35s:      FALLEN ANGEL [dir. Otto Preminger] 0h 36m 39s:      LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN [dir. John M. Stahl]    Studio Film Capsules provided by The Films of 20th Century-Fox by Aubrey Solomon and Tony Thomas Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

For this round of Warner Bros. 1945, we take on a very successful movie with two very big stars and one very terrible reputation, Saratoga Trunk, with Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper, and a fascinating little B noir, Danger Signal, with Zachary Scott being his usual cheeky self and getting women upset. We discuss the stylistic risks of Saratoga Trunk, the genius of Ingrid Bergman, the subtleties of Gary Cooper, and Danger Signal's unusual feminist screenplay (from a novel by FOTP Phyllis Bottome). And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we deliver a quick verdict on the final entry in TIFF Cinematheque's Lubitsch series, Design for Living.    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      Warner Brothers Overview, 1945 0h 03m 59s:      SARATOGA TRUNK (1945) [dir. Sam Wood] 0h 35m 05s:      DANGER SIGNAL (1945) [dir. Robert Florey] 0h 55m 38s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Ernst Lubitsch Retrospective at TIFF Cinémathèque: Design For Living (1933)   Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

In this special holiday bonus episode, Anne and Ryan have seen MAESTRO and simply must have an emergency discussion of Bradley Cooper's long-gestating 2023 biopic of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein. Cooper's drama largely focuses on Bernstein's marriage with Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), and the couple's many challenges in the face of Bernstein's success. Enjoy this surprise discussion of MAESTRO that also diverts into Humoresque, TÁR, The Bandwagon, Beavis and Butt-Head, Oppenheimer, Unfaithfully Yours and much much more! MAESTRO is currently available to stream with subscription on Netflix.

In this week's MGM 1945 episode, a Vincente Minnelli double feature: The Clock, a wartime romantic drama with two very intense stars, Judy Garland and Robert Walker, that doubles as a love poem to New York City; and a Technicolor musical fantasy about, in Dave's words (more or less), "A woman who wants to bleep an angel," starring Lucille Bremer as the woman and Fred Astaire as the angel. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, four Lubitsch movies over two weekends: To Be or Not to Be, The Love Parade, Heaven Can Wait, and Ninotchka. Play "Masterpiece or Meh?" with Elise with these six movies, and hear Dave defend two "mehs" as "masterpieces"! (Or "meh-sterpieces"?) (No, "masterpieces"!) Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      MGM/Hollywood Overview, 1945 0h 04m 27s:      THE CLOCK [dir. Vincente Minnelli] 0h 40m 20s:      YOLANDA & THE THIEF [dir. Vincente Minnelli] 0h 56m 00s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Ernst Lubitsch Retrospective at TIFF Cinémathèque, Part I: To Be Or Not To Be, The Love Parade, Heaven Can Wait, and Ninotchka Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                             +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

For this Paramount 1945 episode, we look at a couple of male melodramas: The Man in Half Moon Street, a Gothic B-movie starring Nils Asther, "the most beautiful man who ever lived," according to Elise, as a scientist who becomes unscrupulous in his pursuit of eternal youth, and Salty O'Rourke, a Raoul Walsh-directed hit starring Alan Ladd as a racetrack gambler who manipulates an unruly young jockey. The movies also boast fairly substantial love interest parts for Helen Walker as a socialite who sympathizes with Asther's Ubermensch impulses and Gail Russell as a schoolteacher who's caught up in Ladd's schemes. We dive into the question of how to create audience sympathy for a villain-protagonist and the curious nature of the Ladd phenomenon.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET [dir. Ralph Murphy] 0h 31m 53s:      SALTY O'ROURKE [dir. Raoul Walsh]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!     

Barrett Fisher and Sam Mulberry meet up in the video store to talk about the 1948 film Unfaithfully Yours and to get Barrett's film recommendation for next week. For more information about Video Store or to find all of our episodes, check out our website: https://videostorepodcast.wordpress.com/

We weren't sure what to expect with our Universal 1944 "scary woman"-themed episode, but Cobra Woman, starring the riveting Maria Montez, delivered, and the completely unknown Weird Woman, starring the less-than-riveting Lon Chaney Jr., was a surprise gem that seems to be nodding to Val Lewton's work at RKO. This episode causes us to ask such questions as: what is acting? Can anyone in these movies "act"? Does it matter? When are B-movies inherently sophisticated, and when are they deliberately sophisticated? Does that difference matter? To hear the answers to these questions (or, let's face it, probably just more questions), just press play and enter the Inner Sanctum of our pulsating flesh! (Our mind, what did you think I meant?) Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      WEIRD WOMAN [dir. Reginald Le Borg] 0h 40m 20s:      COBRA WOMAN [dir. Robert Siodmak]    Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

This week's RKO 1944 episode brings a Hollywood slant to an English working-class perspective on the war. In her only first-billed feature film role, in Passport to Destiny, Elsa Lanchester plays an indomitable charwoman who embarks upon a self-appointed mission to assassinate Hitler after coming to believe that she's magically protected, while in None But the Lonely Heart, American playwright Clifford Odets' directorial debut, Cary Grant plays a Cockney dreamer who struggles with the reality of lower-class life during the Depression after trying to settle down and take care of his dying mother. We discuss the similarity in style and subject matter between None But the Lonely Heart and the poetic realist films of 1930s French cinema, and the curiosity of this underrated art movie being made by RKO so soon after its infamous entanglement with Orson Welles' similarly grim and poetic Magnificent Ambersons. If you've ever wanted to hear Dave start crying by recounting a crying scene, this is your chance.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      RKO in 1944 0h 05m 12s:      PASSPORT TO DESTINY [dir. Ray McCarey] 0h 19m 22s:      NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART [dir. Clifford Odets] Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!   

Our Fox 1944 episode features a prestige production, The Eve of St. Mark, based on a Maxwell Anderson play and directed by John Stahl, and a modest marital drama, In the Meantime, Darling, directed by Otto Preminger just before he makes a name for himself in noir with Laura. Between the two, the problems facing the men at the front and the women who love them are covered, as well as the kinds of moral dilemmas each might face. We discuss Preminger's handling of Jeanne Craine's character, and Bosley Crowther (back to being Nemesis of the Pod) inadvertently describes John Stahl's distinctive style/outlook. Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      THE EVE OF ST. MARK [dir. John M. Stahl] 0h 33m 04s:      IN THE MEANTIME, DARLING [dir. Otto Preminger]       Studio Film Capsules provided by The Films of 20th Century-Fox by Aubrey Solomon & Tony Thomas   Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!           

This Warner Bros. 1944 episode makes good use of Warner Bros.' A-list stars, A-list character actors, B-list stars, and B-list character actors. Casablanca and Maltese Falcon alumni converge in both Michael Curtiz's Passage to Marseille, starring Humphrey Bogart as a morally compromised hero, with Claude Rains and Sydney Greenstreet as the patriotic and pro-fascist alternatives for occupied France; while in Jean Negulesco's The Mask of Dimitrios, a Citizen Kane-like story of a self-made criminal without a Rosebud, Peter Lorre and Greenstreet form an unlikely friendship that reminds Elise more of Eric Blore and Edward Everett Horton than of Laurel and Hardy. We discuss the ways in which Curtiz finds the noir in his war movie and Negulesco finds the buddy comedy in his noir.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      Warner Brothers in 1944 0h 05m 26s:      PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE [dir. Michael Curtiz]       0h 30m 10s:      THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS [dir. Jean Negulesco]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn   Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!         

MGM, 1944 is an odd one. First, MGM's effort to help the war, Song of Russia (directed by Gregory Ratoff), prompts us to ask the question, "What were all of these Communist writers doing working for Louis B. Mayer?" And then, William Dieterle's Kismet, starring Ronald Colman as an amoral magician with misguided plans for his daughter's future, proves to have more to recommend it than just the campy set-piece for which Marlene Dietrich painted her legs gold. Despite the box office failure of Kismet, lavish Technicolor fantasy will have more to do with the future of MGM than Popular Front romance, but in any case, the era of Mickey and Judy and family values is over.    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      SONG OF RUSSIA [dir. Gregory Ratoff] 0h 39m 18s:      KISMET [dir. William Dieterle]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames   Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!           

This week's Paramount 1944 films take the studio's talent of this period in unexpected directions: Mitchell Leisen's Lady in the Dark makes a Technicolor extravaganza of the fantasy sequences in this psychoanalytical tale of a woman's (Ginger Rogers') ambivalence about glamour, based on a hit Broadway musical; and Alan Ladd and Raymond Chandler (as star and screenwriter) bring a hardboiled note to a soapy plot about a socialite (Loretta Young) seeking a cure for her deafness in And Now Tomorrow, a woman's picture/noir hybrid with more interest in class issues than that genre usually shows. Bouncing off of Martin Scorsese, we discuss the "psychological disturbance" in relationships between men and women in Hollywood musicals and just what Lady in the Dark has to say about the possibility of an equal relationship between a woman and a man.    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      LADY IN THE DARK [dir. Mitchell Leisen] 0h 31m 58s:       AND NOW TOMORROW [dir. Irving Pichel] 0h 52m 35s:        Letter from Listener Gregory Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames   Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!   

Universal 1943 is a strange one, starting with The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler, starring Ludwig Donath as a reluctant Nazi collaborator who's forced to impersonate Hitler, and continuing with Robert Siodmak's Son of Dracula, with Lon Chaney Jr. as a hapless Dracula who falls victim to femme fatale Louise Allbritton. We discuss WWII AU scenarios, the Twilight Zone scenario of being a soul trapped in Hitler's body, and the comedy team of Frank Craven and J. Edward Bromberg as a down-to-earth doctor and sub-Van Helsing forced to confront supernatural shenanigans and, worse, a wayward woman with a plan.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      THE STRANGE DEATH OF ADOLPH HITLER [dir. James P. Hogan] 0h 29m 59s:      SON OF DRACULA [dir. Robert Siodmak]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!       

For our RKO 1943 episode, we look at two films that exemplify the nascent RKO noir style: Richard Wallace's The Fallen Sparrow, starring John Garfield as a traumatized Spanish Civil War veteran hunted by Nazis and the Val Lewton production The Seventh Victim, starring Kim Hunter as a sheltered young woman who wants to find out about the sorrows of the world and does not want to be told to drink her milk. Featuring cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca and scores by Roy Webb, these films embrace opacity and ooze paranoia while presenting portraits of sophisticated New York milieus harbouring evil in their midst. And, keeping to the noir theme, in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto we discuss a 30th anniversary screening of Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way, starring Al Pacino as a gangster who carries his doom around inside him.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      THE FALLEN SPARROW [(dir. Richard Wallace] 0h 29m 14s:      THE SEVENTH VICTIM [dir. Mark Robson] 1h 09m 06s:      FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO – Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way (1993) at The Revue Cinema   Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

In this extra-special 20th Century Fox 1943 episode, we stare agog at a couple of dazzling musicals: Stormy Weather, whose all-Black cast is headlined by Bill Robinson and Lena Horne and boasts an embarrassment of geniuses; and Busby Berkeley's The Gang's All Here, a Technicolor psychedelic extravaganza that's the pinnacle of Fox's signature variety-style musical. We try to sketch out some of the complex representational issues attending Stormy Weather, and our reasons for thinking that the movie itself has an awareness of them and is attempting to be progressive and sophisticated in certain ways. Turning to The Gang's All Here, we focus on its exhibition of sometimes jarring self-reflexivity and the way it perfects the typical romantic and comedic storylines of this era of Fox musical. But if all of that sounds too dryly academic, don't be afraid - we want to play!   Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      STORMY WEATHER [dir. Andrew L. Stone] 0h 51m 53s:      THE GANG'S ALL HERE [dir. Busby Berkeley]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The Films of 20th Century-Fox by Tony Thomas and Audrey Solomon   Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!         

Our Warner Brothers 1943 episode is a very special one, a Popular Front anti-Nazi double feature, the Stalinist propaganda film Mission to Moscow (directed by Michael Curtiz) and Lewis Milestone's drama about Norwegian resistance to the Nazi occupation, Edge of Darkness. We attempt (as complete non-experts!) to lay out the stakes involved in the case made by Mission to Moscow and discuss the circumstances of the film's production and the impact it made on Hollywood. Then we move on to Milestone and screenwriter Robert Rossen's depiction of what it takes to form a successful resistance movement—in this case led by a subdued Errol Flynn and a steely Ann Sheridan. Come to find out how Dave and Elise would have felt about living through Stalin's Five-Year Plans, stay to find out whether or not they would have been quislings. Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      MISSION TO MOSCOW [dir. Michael Curtiz] 0h 45m 43s:      EDGE OF DARKNESS [dir. Lewis Milestone]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join! 

For our MGM 1943 episode, we look at two films that are highly representative of the Mayer ethos, The Human Comedy (directed by Clarence Brown), a portrait of WWII-era American small-town life infused with the beatific sensibility of William Saroyan (who provided the story), with Mickey Rooney in a coming-of-age story that's equal parts Andy Hardy and David Lynch; and the children's classic Lassie Come Home (directed by Fred M. Wilcox), which we compare to Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff as a sold-into-slavery story but find wanting in its social analysis despite its Communist screenwriter. We try to tease the strangeness out of the sentiment—which doesn't really take much doing.    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      THE HUMAN COMEDY [Dir. Clarence Brown] 0h 43m 59s:      LASSIE COME HOME [Dir. Fred M. Wilcox]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!