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

Elise and Dave launch their extended excursion into oligarchic auteurism with a pair of films from the studio whose special touch may very well have been its hands-off approach to directorial oversight. Certainly Behind the Make-Up (aka The Feeder) makes a very interesting companion piece to Dorothy Arzner’s later masterpiece Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) – a film discussed on this very feed earlier in 2019. It stars William Powell, Kay Francis, Fay Wray, and Hal Skelly, none of whom would wind up becoming intimately associated with Paramount (although an argument could be made for Francis). Then we turn our attention to that great cinematic marvel of the early sound era – the picture that proved talkies could move! In fact, filmed out of Paramount’s Astoria Queens facility, Applause rambles magnificently all over pre-Chrysler Building and Empire State Building Manhattan. It’s also damned moving, with a performance from Helen Morgan that’ll leave you wondering why any of us were born.   Time Codes: 0h 1m 00s: