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

In Part 1 of our look at Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' cinematic pairings (part 2 is penciled in for January 2023), we discuss Mark Sandrich's The Gay Divorcee and Top Hat, William A. Seiter's Roberta, and George Stevens' Swing Time. What formula does Sandrich set up for the stars, and how do the other films acknowledge and/or depart from it? What does RKO contribute to the 30s musical? Why is Ginger so paranoid? Is Fred really more like the romantic heroine? What makes Edward Everett Horton sexually irresistible? Expect these and other searching questions to be pondered.  Warning: in case anyone in the world doesn't know, Swing Time contains a blackface number. It's not minstrelsy, perhaps... but it might be something even worse.    For further information, we recommend: Arlene Croce’s The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book The greatest studio documentary of them all: Hollywood – The Golden Years: The RKO Story (episode 2 is devoted to the Astaire/Rogers pictures)   Time Codes: 0h 01m 00s:      Preamble