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

MGM, 1939: the beginning of an era, as the Freed Unit gets started with the first Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland musical, Babes in Arms (directed by Busby Berkeley), and the end of an era, with Tod Browning's last film, the supernaturally tinged locked room mystery and bid for B-seriesdom, Miracles for Sale. Reflecting on the role of the blackface number in Babes in Arms prompts us to take a deep dive into the relationship of race to the concept of "American entertainment," and then at the end of the episode we return to problematic racial representations in classical Hollywood cinema, in the very different context of feminist film theory and psychoanalysis, in response to a listener email about our series on the Sternberg-Dietrich films.    Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                BABES IN ARMS [dir. Busby Berkeley] 0h 46m 09s:                MIRACLES FOR SALE [dir. Tod Browning] 1h 02m 30s:                Listener Mail with Dylan                           Studio Film Capsules provided The MGM Story by John

In this Book Club edition of the podcast, we finally have a chance to explore the work of Friend of the Pod Henry James. We look at James's short novel Washington Square (1880) and long short story "The Turn of the Screw" (1898), and two of their adaptations, The Heiress (1949, directed by William Wyler) and The Innocents (1961, directed by Jack Clayton). We focus on the arcs of the heroines in the two works and the very different directions in which the adaptations take them, as well as the acting opportunities they present for Olivia de Havilland and Deborah Kerr. We also praise the performances of Ralph Richardson as Austin Sloper and Martin Stephens as Miles, two very tricky, eminently Jamesian roles. But is Henry James unadaptable? We give our verdict.  Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:    Henry James: Quantum Romancer 0h 09m 30s:    Washington Square & THE HEIRESS (1949) [dir. William Wyler] 0h 43m 38s:    The Turn of the Screw & THE INNOCENTS (1961) [dir. Jack Clayton] +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ri

We start off 1939 with a bang with two Paramount movies that gave us a lot to discuss. First, Cafe Society (directed by Edward H. Griffith), the first of several pairings of Fred MacMurray with early Hitchcock blonde Madeleine Carroll, with an original screenplay by future Columbia Pictures producer Virginia Van Upp, takes the screwball (for the most part) out of class-conscious 30s romantic comedy, replacing it with a high degree of sexual tension and, especially, an unusual focus on the moral growth of the heroine. We discuss the textual evidence of female auteurship and note certain similarities with Dorothy Arzner's The Wild Party (discussed in our Clara Bow series). Next, we explain why Frank Borzage's Disputed Passage, based on the Lloyd C. Douglas novel, is really a superhero movie, in what sense it is and isn't a soap opera, and how it's not about the proper way to be a doctor but rather about the proper way to lead the religious life. And in our returning (again) Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segmen

In this week's Acteurist Oeuvre-view, we're still in the early stages of Daniel Day-Lewis's career, and once again the utterly obscure (Pat O'Connor's quirky comedy Stars and Bars (1988)) is paired with a much better-known film (Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot (1989), based on the life of disabled writer and painter Christy Brown). We discuss Stars and Bars' attempt to achieve a tone like Scorsese's After Hours, and why it wouldn't be the same if Hugh Grant were playing Day-Lewis's part. Then we move on to discussing what makes Christy Brown a perfect role for Day-Lewis and what emotional qualities make the performance great. We conclude that My Left Foot is sort of like Lynch's The Elephant Man with a demonic rather than saintly central figure.  Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:    Stars and Bars (1988) [dir. Pat O’Connor] 0h 22m 35s:    My Left Foot (1989) [dir. Jim Sheridan] +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the K

For this Universal 1938 episode, we begin by again discussing the relationship between comedy, tragedy, and horror, courtesy of John M. Stahl's Letter of Introduction, featuring famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his alter ego, Charlie McCarthy. Edgar rises and Adolphe Menjou falls in a kind of Tolstoyan double plot. Then we watch as Universal's new banker overlords do their best to launch another young female star with the initials DD. French actress Danielle Darrieux (later of Max Ophüls masterpieces) plays a real weirdo in The Rage of Paris, a risqué romantic comedy co-starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and directed by Deanna Durbin specialist Henry Koster, and we give our opinions on whether we think this attempt to launch her in America was a success.    Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:         LETTER OF INTRODUCTION [dir. John M. Stahl]  0h 39m 44s:         THE RAGE OF PARIS [dir. Henry Koster]                                                        Studio Film Capsules provided The Universal Story by Clive Hirschh

For our Valentine's Day 2022 episode, we examine Leos Carax's unique take on romantic love, from the adolescent autocritique of Boy Meets Girl (1984) to the anarchy and ecstasy of Les amants du Pont-Neuf (1991) to the abyss-gazing of his mind-boggling musical, Annette (2021). We discuss Carax's repeated association of love with abjection; his critique of the artist; and the many links between comedy, violence, and puppets.   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:    Boy Meets Girl (1984) [dir. Leos Carax] 0h 28m 20s:    Les amants du Pont-Neuf  (1991) [dir. Leos Carax] 0h 47m 07s:    Annette (2021) [dir. Leos Carax] +++ * 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 t

For RKO 1938, a Ginger Rogers double feature: Having Wonderful Time (directed by Alfred Santell - and George Stevens?), based on the play by Arthur Kober (the ex-Mr. Lillian Hellman), and Vivacious Lady (definitely directed by George Stevens), one of the best Hollywood comedies of the 1930s, but not one of the best known. We discuss the consequences of the de-ethnicizing of Kober's play; Stevens' audacity as a comedic stylist; Rogers' all-around comic genius; Jimmy Stewart's particular brilliance in playing drunk scenes; how Vivacious Lady fits the "democratic" version of screwball comedy; and more.    Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                       HAVING WONDERFUL TIME [dir. Alfred Santell] 0h 32m 34s:                       VIVACIOUS LADY [dir. George Stevens]                                                         Studio Film Capsules provided The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                    

Our second Daniel Day-Lewis Acteurist Oeuvre-view introduces us to the little-known, but very worthy, Nanou (1986), Conny Templeman's first and seemingly only feature, which we liked enough to discuss it in detail even though Day-Lewis's part is very minor. We draw comparisons between the film and Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir, and between Day-Lewis's part in it and Ben Stiller's in Reality Bites. Then we move on to Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) – in which Day-Lewis plays a cool and detached womanizer – and try to articulate the various ways in which the main characters (the others played by Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin) reflect and differ from each other in their attitudes to sex, aesthetics, and love.    Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                Nanou (1986) [dir. Conny Templeman] 0h 21m 33s:                The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) [dir. Philip Kaufman]                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2

In this 20th Century-Fox 1938 episode we look at two Tyrone Power-starring historical disaster spectacles, Suez (directed by Allan Dwan), about the construction of the Suez Canal and various sorts of post-Napoleonic idealism, and In Old Chicago (directed by Henry King), a heavily fictionalized account of how Mrs. O'Leary's cow started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Dave and Elise respectively take up the films' causes, while agreeing that they each make a hash of history.  Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                       SUEZ [dir. Allan Dwan]    0h 28m 39s:                       IN OLD CHICAGO [dir. Henry King]                                                  Studio Film Capsules provided The Films of 20th Century Fox by Tony Thomas and 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 Sist

In Part 1 of our Anna Magnani Sampler, we explore a range of the legendary Italian actress's modes and moods: from the neorealism of Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945) to the postmodernism of Renoir's The Golden Coach (1952); from a working-class mother's tragi-comic attempt to make her daughter into a neorealist child star in Visconti's Bellissima (1951) to an ex-prostitute's tragi-heroic attempt to keep history from repeating itself with her equally stymied and frustrated sister in Dieterle's Vulcano (1950). Larger-than-life? True-to-life? The definition or antithesis of a star? We try to get a grip on the mercurial Magnani.    Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                Rome: Open City (1945) [dir. Roberto Rossellini] 0h 24m 56s:                Vulcano (1950) [dir. William Dieterle] 0h 42m 54s:                Bellissima (1951) [dir. Luchino Visconti] 0h 57m 23s:                The Golden Coach (1952) [dir. Jean Renoir]                                                   +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculou

Our Daniel Day-Lewis Acteurist Oeuvre-view gets started with the two 1985 films that established his range, giving a naturalistic portrayal of a working-class youth in the one and a caricature of an upper-class aesthete in the other: Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Laundrette, Hanif Kureishi's Oscar-nominated dark comedy about race, class, and sexuality in Thatcher-era England, and Merchant-Ivory's A Room With a View, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Oscar-winning adaptation of E. M. Forster's romantic comedy of ideas. We argue for Day-Lewis as the lynchpin of these ensemble pieces, providing the (problematic) heart of one and the void at the center of the other, and consider how they anticipate his future performances.     Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) [dir. Stephen Frears] 0h 44m 01s:                A Room with a View (1985) [dir. James Ivory]                                                   +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * In

It's 1938 and Warner Bros. is in its prime, and so is Bette Davis, just now moving into the kind of top-quality romantic melodramas in which she'd excel. No longer the studio of James Cagney, Joan Blondell, gangster heroes and Busby Berkeley spectacles, it's now the studio of Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, glossy melodramas and action-adventure heroes; or at least, these stars and genres are co-existing with Cagney, Robinson, John Garfield, and soon, Humphrey Bogart vehicles. Warners is broadening its range and turning into the greatest of the studios (prove us wrong).  As for this episode: The Sisters (Anatole Litvak) stars Davis and Flynn as ill-matched lovers contending with gender role expectations and Flynn's obscure demons. Then in The Dawn Patrol, Edmund Goulding's anti-war masterpiece, Flynn transfers his affections to David Niven and his piebald pjs. Even though there's not a single woman glimpsed and barely a woman mentioned, Flynn, Niven, Basil Rathbone, Donald Crisp, and Donald Crisp's imaginary dog ac

For our Xmas 2021 episode, two bittersweet intellectual soap operas about forbidden love and sexual non-conformity in mid-20th century America, Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows (1955), starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, and Todd Haynes' Carol (2015), starring Rooney Mara and Cate Blachett. We talk about the interplay of satire and sincerity in Sirk, romance as a vehicle for self-actualization, coming-of-age story tropes, and how these movies use the expectations set by the holiday season. And in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, it's the last of the 20th Century Fox Noirs at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinematheque, two great Richard Widmark films: Jean Negulesco's Road House (1948), an Ode to Losers in Love, and Sam Fuller's brutal and lurid Ode to Losers in Life, Pickup on South Street (1953). Happy Holidays and see you in 2022! Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955) [dir. Douglas Sirk]  0h 38m 35s:                CAROL (2015) [dir. Todd Haynes] 01h 02m 57s:        

We bid Margaret Sullavan a sad farewell with her two final films, Cry 'Havoc' (1943), a very dark WWII propaganda film with an all-female main cast in which the Battle of Bataan meets Stage Door, and No Sad Songs for Me (1950), a peak-crazy woman's picture in the mode of The Shining Hour with a slyly progressive screenplay by Howard Koch. Sullavan manages to make having your man stolen from under your nose while dying and fighting fascists/propping up the empty shell-men of post-war America into a triumphant art form. Then: we give our Top 5 Sullavan performances. And in the Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we discuss and spoil Verhoeven's lesbian nuns/nympho mystic movie, Benedetta (2021), and Preminger's glorious film noir Fallen Angel (1945).   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                CRY HAVOC (1943) [dir. Richard Thorpe]  0h 20m 16s:                NO SAD SONGS FOR ME (1950) [dir. Rudolph Maté] 0h 38m 54s:                Margaret SullavanTop Fives 0h 00m 00s:                Fear and Moviegoing in To

For this week's Studios Year by Year, it's MGM 1938 and two aviation movies starring the King and Queen of Hollywood, Clark Gable and Myrna Loy. In Jack Conway's wildly entertaining Too Hot to Handle, Loy is a daredevil aviator with a sentimental mission and Gable an unscrupulous journalist who doesn't know whether he wants to exploit or worship her. It's all in good fun until the movie decides to take a weird comic turn into white supremacist psychosis, albeit in a way that's (maybe?) self-subverting. In Victor Fleming's masterful Test Pilot, Clark Gable's magnetic masculinity is under the microscope of Loy's female gaze and Spencer Tracy's queer one. We discuss Loy's thespian opportunities and Gable's perennially underrated emotionalism. Then: the return of Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto. Movies discussed (and spoiled): Niagara (1953), with Marilyn Monroe and Jean Peters, and Moontide (1942), with Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino.  Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                       MGM Star Roster, 1938 0h 03m 43s:    

For our penultimate Sullavan episode, two movies widely disparate in tone: John Cromwell's So Ends Our Night (1941), the fourth and final Sullavan appearance in an anti-Nazi film (and the second based on an Erich Maria Remarque novel); and Appointment for Love (1941), a less bitter Woman of the Year in which Sullavan revists her Even Newer Woman character from Next Time We Love and director William A. Seiter gets to redeem himself for The Moon's Our Home. Whether paired with a young Glenn Ford making puppy-dog eyes or a befuddled Charles Boyer who's so desperate he uses Eugene Pallette as his love confidant, Sullavan continues her streak of co-star chemistry.  Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                            SO ENDS OUR NIGHT (1941) [dir. John Cromwell] 0h 28m 05s:                            APPOINTMENT FOR LOVE (1941) [dir. William A. Seiter]                                                                                    +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 202

For Paramount 1938 we have two semi-comedic, quasi-historical tales of charming rogues, If I Were King (directed by Frank Lloyd, with a screenplay by Preston Sturges), starring Ronald Colman as medieval bohemian poet Francois Villon, and The Buccaneer (directed by frenemy of the podcast Cecil B. DeMille), starring Fredric March as Louisiana pirate and key figure in the Battle of New Orleans, Jean Lafitte - but perhaps more notable for the comedic chemistry of Akim Tamiroff and Hungarian cabaret star Franciska Gaal. We discuss If I Were King as a New Deal/French Revolution allegory all-in-one and possible source of future Sturgean explorations of wealth inequality in America; and early 20th century leftist mythologization of Andrew Jackson and weird ambivalence towards the idea of America in The Buccaneer. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:         IF I WERE KING [dir. Frank Lloyd]          0h 32m 13s:         THE BUCCANEER [dir. Cecil B. DeMille]            Studio Film Capsules provided The Paramount Story by John Dougl

For our Noirvember episode, we look at four Anthony Mann noirs, Railroaded! (1947), T-Men (1947), Raw Deal (1948), and Side Street (1950). We follow Mann as he ascends from Poverty Row to a collaboration with one of film noir's most distinctive cinematographers, John Alton, to the big-time at MGM, with his protagonists only getting more sweaty and desperate and his underworld brutes remaining just as psychotic. We discuss the scapegoating structure of Mann's noirs, their nihilism, their murder-mirror reflection of the capitalist’s bottom line and their emphasis on pain - relieved only, in the poetic realism-reminiscent Raw Deal, by some fatalistic romanticism that's nevertheless offset by relentless masochism.  Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                            RAILROADED! (1947) [dir. Anthony Mann] 0h 15m 36s:                            T-MEN (1947) [dir. Anthony Mann] 0h 31m 01s:                            RAW DEAL (1948) [dir. Anthony Mann] 0h 46m 18s:                            SIDE STREET (1950) [dir. An

This Universal 1937 episode stays paused on the pivotal moment in the studio's history, with another James Whale/Deanna Durbin pairing: Whale's last hurrah, The Road Back, and Durbin's second outing, One Hundred Men and a Girl. Whale's film, based on a Remarque novel about Germany between the wars (familiar territory for the pod), compromised by Nazi censorship, and mutilated by the studio, may not represent the director's vision, but is the emphasis on the low comedy characters played by Slim Summerville and Andy Devine a fatal flaw or a Shakespearean inspiration? Then we turn to Henry Koster's surprisingly dark depiction of the American obsession with success, a perfectly constructed comedy that makes good use of its star's boundless energy. Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:         THE ROAD BACK [dir. James Whale]        0h 40m 14s:         ONE HUNDRED MEN AND A GIRL [dir. Henry Koster]             Studio Film Capsules provided The Universal Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin Additional studio informati

In this week's Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, Margaret Sullavan takes on the Nazis in Frank Borzage's The Mortal Storm (1940) and Fannie Hurst in Robert Stevenson's Back Street (1941). We discuss the subtleties and broad strokes of this early Hollywood depiction of Nazi Germany, Borzagean heroism, and performative fascism. Turning to Back Street, we consider what this Code-era remake of a classic Pre-Code has to say about which gender has it worse under patriarchy (or the Code). Also: an announcement regarding the long awaited (by us, anyway) return of Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto.   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:                            THE MORTAL STORM (1940) [dir. Frank Borzage] 0h 42m 53s:                            BACK STREET (1941) [Robert Stevenson]                                                  +++ * 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 Elis