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

In this episode of our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, our protagonist is rudely shoved into the background of the movies, barely appearing in Josef von Sternberg's Macao (1950) (she would have liked to have appeared in it even less) and playing a rote schemer in David Miller's Sudden Fear (1952). The movies themselves don't make up for her under-use, despite the amiable pairing of Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell in the former and the great Joan Crawford sobbing her way to an Oscar nomination in the latter. We do our best to articulate what went wrong for us, before turning our attention to James Gunn's Superman (2025) in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment. Gunn's approach triggers Dave's superhero comics nostalgia, but Elise is skeptical.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    MACAO (1952) [dir. Josef von Sternberg] 0h 22m 52s:    SUDDEN FEAR (1953) [dir. David Miller] 0h 42m 15s:    Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – James Gunn’s Superman (2025) at the Scotiabank Theatre on Richmond Street Ex

For this round of Paramount 1932, we watched our first Marx Brothers movie for the podcast (hard as that is to believe), Horse Feathers (directed by Norman Z. MacLeod), alongside Ernst Lubitsch's only sound-era drama, Broken Lullaby. Lubitsch's batshit WWI melodrama, bursting with intensity and unease, claims our attention first, and then we turn to the detached anarchy of the Marx Brothers. Elise probes Dave's obsession with their antics and offers her outsider's take on the poetics of their personas for his contemplation.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:      Paramount and 1932 0h 08m 41s:      THE MAN I KILLED aka BROKEN LULLABY [dir. Ernst Lubitsch) 0h 41m 01s:      HORSE FEATHERS [dir. Norman Z. McLeod]   Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler 1932 Information from Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer                                 +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete View

This week in our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view we watched one of her best-known films, In a Lonely Place (1950), directed by Nicholas Ray and co-starring Humphrey Bogart, alongside the unpromising Cecil B. DeMille circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). This may be the only time you find these two movies discussed together with roughly equal enthusiasm. Ray's portrait of a romance doomed by male violence may have psychological perception and stylish writing, but DeMille's Technicolor spectacle has a clown with a dark secret (played by Jimmy Stewart no less), Cornel Wilde shirtless in tight pants, a train wreck, the blood transfusion bonding trope, and of course, a love-crazed Nazi dangling an elephant's foot over Gloria Grahame's face. Unhinged Bogart meets unhinged DeMille, brought together by our Acteur giving restrained performances as wary observers.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    IN A LONELY PLACE (1950) [dir. Nicholas Ray] 0h 41m 24s:    THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH [dir. Cecil B. DeMille

For our Universal 1931 Studios Year by Year episode we took in a Sidney Fox double feature, Bad Sister (adapted from a Booth Tarkington novel, with an early role for Bette Davis as the good sister) and Strictly Dishonorable (adapted from Preston Sturges' only successful play and directed by John Stahl). Laemmle Jr.'s protegée uses her ingenue quality to good effect whether she's playing an unsympathetic Alice Adams or a complex early Sturges heroine, and in fact we argue that the latter performance is something of a tour de force, leading us to lament the brevity of her career. Lewis Stone and Paul Lukas also impress in Strictly Dishonorable, while George Meeker gives a game performance as an Ugly WASP American at home.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    BAD SISITER [dir. Hobart Henley] 0h 31m 02s:    STRICTLY DISHONORABLE [dir. John M. Stahl] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 inf

Our final Oscar Levant Special Subject episode covers his contribution to two of the greatest MGM musicals, Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris (1951) and The Band Wagon (1953), plus a 20th Century Fox curiosity, The I Don't Care Girl (1953) in which Mitzi Gaynor supposedly plays early 20th century vaudeville wild woman Eva Tanguay. Levant reaches new heights as a cinematic presence in An American in Paris, a film that, we argue, forms part of an "art life" Levant trilogy with Rhapsody in Blue and Humoresque, then flaunts some virtuoso piano performances in The I Don't Care Girl before succumbing to a heart attack prior to filming The Band Wagon. We give our general impressions of these must-see musicals while also trying to determine what quality Levant brings to An American in Paris, in particular, that it wouldn't have without him (besides self-loathing narcissism). What does Oscar Levant have to tell us about the figure of the artist? Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) [dir. Vi

The movies we viewed for this RKO 1931 Studios Year by Year episode couldn't be more different: the sprawling Cimarron (starring Richard Dix as America's psychotic inner conflict) prompts us to speculate about Edna Ferber as a source auteur and the intertwining of her vision of America with Hollywood across three decades; while the tight, play-like Traveling Husbands (starring Evelyn Brent as a bitter sex worker with noble impulses), demonstrates the pressures capitalism exerts on men and therefore on women. But together, these movies show that the Pre-Code is good for a lot more than just sex-and-crime titillation.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    CIMARRON [dir. Wesley Ruggles] 0h 41m 56s:    TRAVELING HUSBANDS [dir. Paul Sloane] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meti

Our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view continues with A Woman's Secret (1949), an oddball psychological drama with a screenplay by Citizen Kane writer Herman J. Mankiewicz and directed by Grahame's new husband Nicholas Ray; and Roughshod (1949), a consciously feminist Western written by a bunch of leftists. Proving her versatility-within-typecasting yet again, Grahame moves easily from the unlikely comic centre of a noirish vortex to a sympathetic sex worker in a fallen woman melodrama that uses the Western genre to deconstruct masculinity. (And if that makes it sound dull, it's also incredibly dark at moments, with John Ireland raising the tension as a nasty villain.) And in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we talk about Rear Window, voyeurism, movie-watching, and scapegoats.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    A WOMAN’S SECRET (1949) [dir. Nicholas Ray] 0h 27m 30s:    ROUGHSHOD (1949) [dir. Mark Robson] 0h 43m 52s:    Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto – Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) at The

A curious pairing for this Fox 1931 Studios Year by Year episode: an unsung WWI drama, but as good as any, William K. Howard's Surrender, starring Warner Baxter, Leila Hyams, and an almost unrecognizable (both his appearance and his performance) Ralph Bellamy; and the Will Rogers version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which mainly seems to exist so that Rogers can lasso a lance from a knight in a joust. Spoiler: modernity proves to be more than either King Arthur's Court or Ralph Bellamy want to handle, and we dig into their discontents.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT [dir. David Butler] 0h 28m 28s:     SURRENDER [dir. William K. Howard] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The Fox Film Corporation, 1915 – 1935: A History and Filmography by Aubrey Solomon Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meticulo

We say farewell to Farrow and Allen (for now, although we'll probably encounter them individually on the podcast again) with this final episode on their cinematic collaboration, covering Alice (1990), Shadows and Fog (1991), and one of their very best, the ill-fated Husbands and Wives (1992). In the first two, two more Allen characters struggle to live the good life in what couldn't be more different settings, and then we join Allen in meditating on all of the different ways that romantic relationships attempting to function at a high level can go wrong. Then, on Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we briefly glance at Siodmak's 1944 Phantom Lady, covered by us before, and Ray's In a Lonely Place (1950), to be covered in detail very soon as part of our Gloria Grahame series.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    ALICE (1990) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 23m 27s:    SHADOWS AND FOG (1991) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 33m 41s:    HUSBANDS AND WIVES (1992) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 59m 00s:    Our favourites from the Farrow/Allen canon

In this Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode we get to see more of what MGM was (not) doing with our acteur's career. Underused in Song of the Thin Man (1947), in which she brings the only real noir energy to the final Thin Man film, she gets a similarly brief but memorable role in the Red Skelton vehicle Merton of the Movies (1947), playing the most innocent nymphomaniac in cinematic history. We uncover the legacy of Harry Leon Wilson's 1922 Merton of the Movies novel and surprise ourselves with our appreciation of Red Skelton's acting.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    SONG OF THE THIN MAN (1947) [dir. Edward Buzzell] 0h 16m 33s:    MERTON OF THE MOVIES (1947) [dir. Robert Alton] +++ * 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: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York –

This round of Warner Bros. 1931 brings us two gems by a couple of Pre-Code masters, Roy Del Ruth's Blonde Crazy and William A. Wellman's Night Nurse, showing off the early star charisma of Jimmy Cagney (oozing vulnerability) and Barbara Stanwyck (spitting fire), ably supported by Joan Blondell in both cases. Bonus: Young Clark Gable shows up for another, even nastier 1931 turn. Dave makes the case for Blonde Crazy as a proto-screwball comedy (Warner Bros. does Trouble in Paradise?). And in another Fear and Moviegoing discussion of Now, Voyager, we discuss the Bette Davis melodrama's authentic ties to Transcendentalism and what it means to not have sex for the right reasons.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    NIGHT NURSE [dir. William A. Wellman] 0h 31m 33s:    BLONDE CRAZY (dir. Roy Del Ruth] 0h 46m 59s:    Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto –Irving Rapper’s Now, Voyager (1942) at TIFF Lightbox +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: Th

Our second Gloria Grahame Acteur-Oeuvre-view episode includes a curious under-use of our acteur in the all-around baffling musical comedy It Happened in Brooklyn (nevertheless memorable for the chemistry between Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Durante), and a judicious use of her by RKO in Edward Dmytryk's anti-fascist noir Crossfire (also 1947). We try to work out just what Grahame's ongoing avant-garde skit with Paul Kelly (as "The Man") brings to Dmytryk's portrait of a dysfunctional post-war America. One thing's for sure: she sure hates him!  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    IT HAPPENED IT BROOKLYN (1947) [dir. Richard Whorf] 0h 21m 30s:    CROSSFIRE (1947) [dir. Edward Dmytryk] +++ * 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: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America

For this MGM 1931 episode we watched The Easiest Way, a feminist subversion of melodrama tropes by director Jack Conway and screenwriter Edith Ellis, starring Constance Bennett as the fallen woman and a young Clark Gable, verging on stardom, as her judgemental brother-in-law; and possibly the most sentimental movie ever made, King Vidor's The Champ, starring Wallace Beery as a ne'er-do-well ex-boxing champ dad and Jackie Cooper as his passionately devoted son. MGM delivers again in this new round of 1931! Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: The Easiest Way (1931) [dir. Jack Conway] 0h 43m 55s: The Champ (1931) [dir. King Vidor] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sis

Our Farrow v Allen series continues with four more collaborations: September (1987), Another Woman (1988), Oedipus Wrecks (1989, part of the anthology movie New York Stories), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). We count the ways in which Allen mashes up his favourite playwrights, filmmakers, and Russian novelists, trace the development of Allen's "survivor" theme through these movies, and discuss the different flavours of invisible that Farrow brings to them. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, Charles Burnett, in town to present De Sica's Bicycle Thieves and a 4K restoration of his own Killer of Sheep, tells us about the cost of art and the time someone stole his bicycle.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: SEPTEMBER (1987) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 24m 17s: ANOTHER WOMAN (1988) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 44m 29s: “Oedipus Wrecks” segment of NEW YORK STORIES (1989) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 57m 33s: CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989) [dir. Woody Allen] 1h 20m 24s:  Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: Vittorio De Sica’s The Bic

Welcome to our inaugural Gloria Grahame episode, which is also our final Acteurist Oeuvre-view! In this episode we consider Gloria's first significant movie role, as the cause of Blonde Fever (1944), in which she and Philip Dorn confuse each other and provide occasion for Mary Astor's multiple levels of irony. We then turn to Gloria's breakthrough role in one of our very favourite movies, It's a Wonderful Life (1946), examining it through the lens of Gloria's iconic character, Violet Bick. We consider Violet's thematic link to George at a crucial moment, Capra's invention of a "wholesome small-town siren" trope that's essential to David Lynch's universe, and the qualities that enable Gloria Grahame to embody this concept.   Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    A Short Introduction to Gloria Grahame 0h 12m 48s:    BLONDE FEVER (1944) [dir. Richard Whorf] 0h 34m 09s:    IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) [dir. Frank Capra]   ++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel

Our streak of finding gynocentric crime film gems continues with our second Paramount 1931 episode, featuring two movies directed by Sylvia Sidney specialist Marion Gering. 24 Hours pairs a despairing Clive Brook and Miriam Hopkins, haunted by marriages they can't escape in one way or another. And Ladies of the Big House, starring a radiant Sidney as a hapless shopgirl who (like Hopkins' nightclub singer) becomes the target of a gangster's obsession, depicts life in prison as a curious quasi-utopia of racial equality and solidarity among American's socioeconomically oppressed. We give you our take on Gering as unsung auteur! Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: Hollywood, 1931 and Paramount 0h 07m 09s: 24 HOURS [dir. Marion Gering] 0h 40m 51s: LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE [dir. Marion Gering] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer

Our final Diana Wynyard episode has arrived all too soon! We look at her two final key roles, in Alexander Korda's film of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband (1947) and The Feminine Touch (1956), a nurse drama that's better than its silly title. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we cover the 2025 Toronto Silent Film Festival, focusing on three films built around miraculous performances, Victor Sjostrom's The Wind (1928), starring Lillian Gish, Victor Fleming's Mantrap (1926), starring Clara Bow, and Josef von Sternberg's The Last Command (1928), starring Emil Jannings (ably supported by Evelyn Brent), before turning our attention to a film that was entirely new to us, the blatantly anti-capitalist The Johnstown Flood (1926), featuring Janet Gaynor in her first major role.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    AN IDEAL HUSBAND (1947) [dir. Alexander Korda] 0h 23m 27s:    THE FEMININE TOUCH (1956) [dir. Pat Jackson] 0h 41m 54s:    Diana Wynyard – The Summing Up 0h 48m 01s:    FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO: Toro

**** [Retro Re-issue Alert!] **** Turns out it wasn't such a great idea to use Le Tigre's "What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" as our podcast's theme song in 2019 and 2020! Anyway, Spotify (and presumably Le Tigre) don't seem to think so.  Accordingly, please find the attached re-issue of one of our foundational episodes, minus the intro music + a couple of words of greeting from Elise.  Consider it a fragment shored against our (Julie) Ruin.  First issued: August 23, 2019 This week’s episode serves as both a prolegomenon to our imminent Hollywood Studios Year By Year series and as a wistful look back to Dave’s teen years, when he picked up Ethan Mordden’s freewheeling speed date with Old Hollywood History and discovered a new way to split the difference between Adornian culture industry theory and auteurist ontology. Journey back to a time when oligopoly really meant something and most entertainment companies weren’t somehow beholden to Disney. We quote from and quibble with Mordden’s characterizations of the qui

In this Farrow vs. Allen Special Subject episode we dig into a strong set of films, The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Radio Days (1987), united by their examination of art, popular culture, and fantasy, the possibilities they offer for transcendence, and the conditions of that transcendence. We also, of course, particularly examine Mia Farrow's role in these films, from Allen avatar to intimidating enigma, wistful waif to materfamilias.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 31m 01s:    HANNAH & HER SISTERS (1986) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 54m 18s:    RADIO DAYS (1987) [dir. Woody Allen]   ++ * 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: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America St

We complete our second round of 1930 on Studios Year by Year with Universal. This time around we've got two auteur entries, Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front, and a much deeper cut, Tod Browning's eccentric crime drama Outside the Law. We discuss All Quiet as emblematic of the Laemmele Jr. era before turning to Browning's tense, messy melodrama, with a powerhouse performance by the scandal-plagued Mary Nolan. A fine finale to another trip through 1930 with the Hollywood Studios!  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: Universal Recap 0h 15m 58s: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT [dir. Lewis Milestone] 0h 53m 51s: OUTSIDE THE LAW [dir. Tod Browning] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Go