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

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