Another Kind Of Distance: A Time Travel, Twin Peaks, Film, Doom Patrol And Nostalgia Podcast

This Special Subject is something extra-special: we discuss philosopher Stanley Cavell's idiosyncratic classic of film criticism, Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage and three classic comedies that are the subjects of essays in that book, Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth, Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday, and George Cukor's Adam's RIb. What is Cavell's "comedy of remarriage," and is it really a genre? What does "marriage" mean to Cavell, and what does it have to do with America and democracy? Why does divorce make marriage more romantic? Are the conversations we're having about film in North America getting better or worse? Why should you take an interest in your experience? Join us as we take an interest in our experience of Stanley Cavell and work through these and more questions! Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:     Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage by Stanley Cavell (published in 1981) 0h 40m 31s:    THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937) [dir. Leo McCarey] 1h 06m 58s:    HIS GIRL FRIDAY (

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

Warning: our final Dorothy McGuire episode contains very little Dorothy McGuire in our discussion of the films, although we also compare our Top 10 performances and give a final analysis of how her career was shaped by its cultural moment. However, we still find lots to talk about in the oddball final feature films in which she appeared, particularly George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), a Diatessaron or harmonizing of the Christian New Testament Gospels. We discuss what Stevens chooses to emphasize and de-emphasize in the life of Jesus and the effectiveness or otherwise of his choice of actors. Then we turn our attention (briefly) to Flight of the Doves (1971), a British children's movie showcasing a multicultural Ireland, notable for its ham actor villain, a curious ressentiment figure portrayed by Ron Moody. Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:    THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (1965) [dir. George Stevens]             0h 33m 52s:    FLIGHT OF THE DOVES (1971) [dir. Ralph Nelson] 0h 43m 53s:    Requiem for

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

In our penultimate Dorothy McGuire Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, another pair of films in which only one of McGuire's "mother roles" affords her a dramatic opportunity. Find out which is which, between Delmer Daves' Susan Slade (1961) and Disney's Summer Magic (1963). We also discuss stealth soap opera radicalism, compare Disney and Vincente Minnelli's approaches to femininity as a construct, and argue for the surprising distinctiveness of early 60s kewpie doll blonde heroines. As a bonus, Dave comes to the end of his patience with Bosley Crowther. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we attend a sold-out screening of Scorsese's After Hours, which we analyze as the ultimate scapegoat movie.  P.S. We forgot to read the Leonard Maltin capsule reviews this time! Sorry, Leonard - we'll never do it again!    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:    SUSAN SLADE (1961) [dir. Delmer Daves] 0h 43m 38s:    SUMMER MAGIC (1963) [dir. James Neilson] 1h 03m 02s:    Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (198

Our special subject this month is The Silent Naruse: four of the five extant silent films of Mikio Naruse, Flunky, Word Hard!, from 1931, No Blood Relation, from 1932, and Apart from You and Every-Night Dreams, from 1933. We discuss these juvenilia as early examples of Naruse's materialist melodrama, and how much "transcendence" that perspective permits. Then, switching moods drastically: two tickets for Barbie! In Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we let you know whether or not we regret returning to the AMC Cineplex for the first time in 4 years to see Greta Gerwig's pop juggernaut.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:    Very brief introduction to Mikio Naruse 0h 04m 20s:    FLUNKY! WORK HARD (1931) [dir Mikio Naruse] 0h 14m 48s:    NO BLOOD RELATION (1932) [dir Mikio Naruse] 0h 29m 15s:    EVERY-NIGHT DREAMS (1933) [dir Mikio Naruse] 0h 44m 02s:    APART FROM YOU (1933) [dir Mikio Naruse] 0h 57m 23s:    Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023)   +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion

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 Gr

In this Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, Dorothy McGuire's string of interesting wife roles gets tangled up by two of the most sexist films Elise has ever seen in her life, Delbert Mann's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (based on the play by William Inge) and Disney's The Swiss Family Robinson. The Dark at the Top of the Stairs nevertheless gives us a lot to discuss in terms of psychiatric concepts and ideas about gender roles in 1950s America, as well as providing McGuire with one of the better acting opportunities of this part of her career. Also, we decide that Swiss Family Robinson should be cancelled.    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:    THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS (1960) [dir. Delbert Mann] 0h 38m 29s:    SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (1960) [dir. Ken Annakin] 0h 51m 15s:    THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS (1960) [dir. Delbert Mann] – final thoughts +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for

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

July's special subject is a sampler of noirs by 1950s noir auteur Phil Karlson: Kansas City Confidential (1952), 99 River Street (1953), 5 Against the House (1955), and The Phenix City Story (1955). We discuss one-time Fox musicals leading man John Payne's transformation into the ideal shlubby, haunted noir protagonist, Karlson's take on the hysterical male trope, his use of violence, his delineation of the ideal woman, the progressive and reactionary tendencies in his movies, and the lies and authenticity of his arguable masterpiece, The Phenix City Story. And much more, of course! Read Gareth Hedges’ thesis! Cinematic Memory and the Southern Imaginary: Crisis in the Deep South and The Phenix City Story Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:    Brief introduction to Phil Karlson 0h 05m 45s:    KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952) [dir. Phil Karlson] 0h 27m 44s:    99 RIVER STREET (1953) [dir. Phil Karlson] 0h 56m 42s:    FIVE AGAINST THE HOUSE (1955) [dir. Phil Karlson] 1h 19m 14s:    THE PHENIX CITY STORY (1955) [dir. Phil

This week's Dorothy McGuire episode continues the trend of unusual wife and mother roles with two family melodramas from 1959, Henry King's tale of an economically and psychologically troubled viticulture dynasty, This Earth Is Mine, and Delmer Daves' frank, sex-positive look at sexual mores among the respectable middle classes during the late 1950s, A Summer Place, which had contemporary reviewers reaching for the smelling salts. Whether playing a sympathetic adulteress who has to deal with her teenage son's inconvenient libido in addition to her own or a love-thwarted wife who wants to appropriate the family patriarch role, McGuire is a far cry from the typical housewife of 50s TV.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:         THIS EARTH IS MINE (1959) [dir. Henry King] 0h 34m 03s:         A SUMMER PLACE (1959) [dir. Delmer Daves] +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Su

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

Our Dorothy McGuire episode this week is guaranteed to give you mood whiplash. We begin with Disney classic and Boomer phenomenon Old Yeller (1957), the most hellish depiction of the war of all against all in nature we've seen since King Kong, with a moving central performance by Tommy Kirk as a boy ungracefully slouching toward manhood with the indispensable assistance of a good dog and a seraphic mother (McGuire). After imbibing its gnostic wisdom, we turn to the very different problems facing The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959), a comedy about an early 20th century progressive businessman who adopts bigamy as part of his forward-thinking program but forgets to tell his wife (McGuire). McGuire's wife and mother roles continue to give her a wide range of things to play, while drawing on her cool efficiency in a crisis - whether that's a dog who's been torn up by hogs or a husband with a secret second family.    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:         OLD YELLER (1957) [dir. Robert Stephenson] 0h 38m 06s:       

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 Fi

Our June Special Subject samples the surviving silent cinema of Dave's favorite director (now revealed!), King Vidor. We tease Vidor's auteur preoccupations out of these four early films—The Sky Pilot (1921), Peg o' My Heart (1922), Wild Oranges (1924), and La Bohème (1926)—and find a common focus on the successful, frustrated, or warped self-realization of his heroines. We explore the way Vidor articulates this theme through sometimes eccentric versions of a variety of genres: Western, comedy, Gothic melodrama, woman's picture. And if that doesn't tempt you, there are graphic and brutal fist fights, random storks, demonic dogs, milk-loving dogs, dangerous stunts, and Lillian Gish going that extra 10 miles for her art long before De Niro and Day-Lewis. (10 miles, dragged along the cobblestones, in fact.)    Time Codes: 0h 0m 45s:           King Vidor, Transcendentalist         0h 13m 05s:         THE SKY PILOT (1921) [dir. King Vidor] 0h 34m 38s:         PEG O’ MY HEART (1922) [dir. King Vidor] 0h 44m 03s: 

We continue last week's theme of Hollywood's attitude toward the Soviet Union as our Dorothy McGuire Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode takes us beyond not only the Popular Front era but just a shade beyond the heyday of McCarthyism. We also find that we spoke too soon about McGuire entering her mom-roles era, as in this episode's movies she embodies an unmarried professional woman with a liberal attitude toward sex and a shady political past in Trial (1955, directed by Mark Robson, based on the novel by Don Mankiewicz), as well as a Quaker minister (and wife and mother) whose family's pacifist views are put to the test in William Wyler's Friendly Persuasion (1956). McGuire brings her particular mixture of the soothing and the astringent to not very committed Communism and very committed pacifism, proving that her range encompasses both the ultra-worldly and the otherworldly.  Time Codes:  0h 0m 45s:      TRIAL (1955) [dir. Mark Robson] 0h 30m 25s:      FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956) [dir. Wiliam Wyler]   +++ * Li

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

Our Dorothy McGuire movies this week occupy two ends of the mid-50s Hollywood spectrum: a low-budget black-and-white noirish crime thriller for Republic, Make Haste to Live (1954), and a vibrantly colorful Cinemascope travelogue romance for Fox, Three Coins in the Fountain (1954). We find plenty to recommend in both, from Make Haste to Live's stylish cinematography (by John L. Russell of Moonrise and Psycho fame) and palpable nastiness to McGuire's odd comedic chemistry with Clifton Webb in Three Coins. As McGuire seriously settles into the "mother and spinster roles" part of her career, we consider what kind of scope individual roles of this kind gave her, and so far they're looking as eccentric as any "love interest" roles she had in the past, which is good news.    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      MAKE HASTE TO LIVE (1954) [dir. William A. Seiter] 0h 35m 50s:      THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN (1954) [dir. Jean Negulesco] +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spri

Our Special Subject this month is the films of Jacqueline Audry, a fairly recently rediscovered postwar French director. We watched all of the films we could find with English subtitles: Gigi (1949), Olivia (1951), Huis clos/No Exit (1954), and Les petits matins/Hitch-Hike (1962). From literary adaptations of some strong and scandalous material to an unusually gentle New Wave comedy, these films reveal a director who tackles the erotic frankly but not uncritically. We also have a Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment this week, in which we share our wildly divergent opinions on the Bob Fosse musical Sweet Charity. Can Shirley MacLaine do what Daniel Day-Lewis could not and save this unnecessary musical adaptation of a Fellini movie? Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      Introducing Jacqueline Audry & Colette 0h 15m 49s:      GIGI (1949) [dir. Jacqueline Audry] 0h 31m 28s:      OLIVIA (1951) [dir. Jacqueline Audry] 0h 53m 14s:      HUIS CLOS (1954) [dir. Jacqueline Audry] 1h 03m 43s:      LES PETITS MATINS  

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 Paramount Story John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Mar