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For this week's Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, we watched Jacques Becker's (1958), in which Palmer, playing Modigliani's rejected lover Beatrice Hastings, perfects her persona of brittle dissociation; and , the 1958 remake of the famous Weimar-era film about a teenager at an all-girls' boarding school who falls in love with her teacher. Our viewings provoke topics from the relationship between art and capitalism to the relationship between gender, sexuality, and militarism. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 35s: LES AMANTS DE MONTPARNASSE (1958) [dir. Jacques Becker] 0h 34m 14s: MADCHEN IN UNIFORM (1958) [dir. Giza Von Radvanyi] +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
This MGM 1946 Studios Year by Year episode is a Jules Dassin double feature that shows the range of the famed blacklistee even during his most constrained studio period: the noirish romantic drama , about two con artists (Lucille Ball and John Hodiak) and a cop who are all out to con each other; and the remarkable (starring Marsha Hunt and Hume Cronyn),a very postmodern (but also hilarious) deconstruction of gender conventions that's also a moving romance. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 35s: 1946 at MGM and Hollywod (per John Douglas Eames) 0h 04m 22s: TWO SMART PEOPLE [dir. Jules Dassin] 0h 26m 38s: A LETTER FOR EVIE [dir. Jules Dassin] STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY JOHN DOUGLAS EAMES ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For this Lilli Palmer episode of our Acteurist Oeuvre-view series, we watched another West German movie, (directed by Rolf Hansen), and (directed by Clément Duhour), a tribute to famed French playwright, screenwriter, and film director Sacha Guitry with an all-star cast. We analyze the surprisingly sophisticated structure of Duhour and Guitry's horned-up middlebrow French comedy (warning: one of the comedy sequences discussed is disturbingly racist), while answers a question it never occurred to us to ask: what would be like if Lilli Palmer played the Gene Tierney part? TIME CODES: 0h 00m 35s: TEUFEL IN SEIDE (1956) [dir. Rolf Hansen] 0h 44m 04s: LA VIE À DEUX (1958) [dir. Clément Duhour] +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
In this Paramount 1946 episode we look at two movies featuring Veronica Lake which otherwise could not be more dissimilar: (directed by John Berry), about the trials of pre-WWI Johns Hopkins medical students living in a boarding house presided over by Lillian Gish; and famous Lake/Ladd noir outing, (directed by George Marshall and written by Raymond Chandler). We discuss the potential influence of the leftists involved in making on its portrayal of race and gender and debate the amount of damage done to by the studio-mandated change to the plot. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we take a brief look at three very different movies: Tarkovsky's (stolen by a German Shepherd),Joseph L. Mankiewicz's (stolen by Linda Darnell), and Douglas Sirk's (starring Barbara Stanwyck). TIME CODES: 0h 00m 35s: MISS SUSIE SLAGLE’S [dir. John Berry] 0h 27m 06s: THE BLUE DAHLIA [dir. George Marshall] 0h 48m 13s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – (1983) by Andrei Tarkovsky; (1948) by Joseph L. Mankiewicz; and (1953) by Douglas Sirk STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY JOHN DOUGLAS EAMES ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
In this Universal 1945 episode of The Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year, we look at a couple of noir-adjacent films, Robert Siodmak's , starring Charles Laughton as an abused husband who looks for a way out of his miserable marriage when he meets sweet and lovely Ella Raines, and the comedy/crime film , which stars Deanna Durbin as an exuberant and resourceful murder mystery addict who gets involved in a real investigation when she witnesses a murder from her train window. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we discuss three short documentaries about James Baldwin, along with another Douglas Sirk masterpiece, (1956). TIME CODES: 0h 00m 35s: THE SUSPECT [dir. Robert Siodmak] 0h 27m 39s: LADY ON A TRAIN [dir. Charles David] 0h 38m 11s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – TIFF Cinémathèque – (1956) by Douglas Sirk and three short documentaries about James Baldwin STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY CLIVE HIRSCHHORN ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
In this Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, we discuss Tay Garnett's (1953), a pleasant curiosity with an all-star New York theatre cast, including Palmer and Rex Harrison in a brief sandwich-themed couple cameo, but nearly stolen by Lynchian radio humourist Herb Shriner; and (1954), Palmer's first German film, in which she plays a circus performer possessed by the guiding spirit of her clown father, as she expresses in the well-known song "O mein Papa." And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we discuss Douglas Sirk's outlandish yet subdued mystical melodrama and the depressive side of soap opera. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 35s: MAIN STREET TO BROADWAY (1953) [dir. Tay Garnett] 0h 24m 49s: FEUERWERK (1954) [dir. Kurt Hoffman] 0h 43m 57s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – TIFF Cinémathèque – (1954) by Douglas Sirk +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For this RKO 1945 episode, two beautifully filmed noirs (by Harry J. Wild), Edwin L. Marin's , another noir with a femme fatale (Claire Trevor) who loves too much (and gets a very unexpected - and gory - redemption)and Edward Dmytryk's , in which Dick Powell learns why you shouldn't hunt down Nazis and kill them with your bare hands, but doesn't seem very interested. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we discuss the 1982 documentary I, in which James Baldwin talks to the people who were there about the failures of the civil rights movement and what they say about America. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 35s: JOHNNY ANGEL [dir. Edwin L. Marin] 0h 29m 15s: CORNERED [dir. Edward Dmytrk] 0h 46m 40s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – TIFF Cinémathèque – (1982) by Dick Fontaine & Pat Hartley 0h 53m 22s: Listener mail with Simon! STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY RICHARD B. JEWELL & VERNON HARBIN ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For our Valentine's 2024 episode we looked at two movies about obsession that interrogate the notion of romantic love: Alfred Hitchcock's (1964) and Chantal Akerman's (2000). If you think an extensive discussion of sexual assault and of what it would mean to be "pressed to death" by your partner's love sounds like essential Valentine's Day content, this episode is for you. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, a very brief discussion of Douglas Sirk's , focusing on the wild performances of Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 35s: MARNIE (1964) [dir. Alfred Hitchcock] 0h 55m 47s: LA CAPTIVE (2000) [dir. Chantal Akerman] 1h 20m 42s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – TIFF Cinémathèque – (1956) by Douglas Sirk +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
Our Fox 1945 episode features two of the greatest and greatest-looking film noirs: Otto Preminger's and John M. Stahl's . We unpack the movies' love triangles, in which two strong-willed women exert their influence over a passive man; their treatment of the topics of love and obsession; the unique cinematic qualities of Alice Faye's presence and Gene Tierney's face; how Gene Tierney and Linda Darnell differ from the stereotypical femme fatale - and much more. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 35s: FALLEN ANGEL [dir. Otto Preminger] 0h 36m 39s: LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN [dir. John M. Stahl] STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY AUBREY SOLOMON AND TONY THOMAS ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For this week's Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode we watched two films pairing acteur Lilli Palmer with then-husband Rex Harrison. We discuss the potential relationship of thriller/courtroom drama (1951) to the scandal plaguing their marriage at the time and consider (1952) as a "marriage film," and what it has to say about that social and spiritual state. And in a packed Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we talk about five films from the TIFF Cinematheque's “Alone in the Arena” series: (1998), (1996), (1998), (1999), and (1986). Elise reveals that one of these movies finally made her understand what it feels like to care about a sport. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: THE LONG DARK HALL (1951) [dir. Anthony Bushell & Reginald Beck] 0h 20m 06s: THE FOUR POSTER (1952) [dir. Irving Reis] 0h 37m 37s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – TIFF Cinémathèque’s “Alone in the Arena” series – (1998) by John Dahl, (1996) by Leon Gast, (1998) by Spike Lee, (1999) by Oliver Stone & (1986) by Martin Scorsese +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For our January Special Subject, we look at three silent "family comedies" by Ozu, (1931), (1932), and (1933), although we argue that "comedy" doesn't entirely encompass the emotional range of these films. We argue that the melancholy of late Ozu is already discernible in these tales of father-son conflict and confrontation with life's disappointing nature, although offers a different kind of father-son relationship and unique brand of comedy. Then in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we discuss Robert Rossen's as a blacklisting allegory and the cinematic pyrotechnics of Brian De Palma's . TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: TOKYO CHORUS (1931) [dir. Yasujiro Ozu] 0h 26m 53s: I WAS BORN, BUT… (1932) [dir. Yasujiro Ozu] 0h 38m 36s: PASSING FANCY (1933) [dir. Yasujiro Ozu] 0h 57m 41s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – (1961) directed by Robert Rossen & (1998) directed by Brian De Palma +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
This Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode tackles two more films made with leftist colleagues, Elliott Nugent's , a Popular Front-style tale of early 20th century immigrants and the American Dream, and Lewis Milestone’s quirky, stylistically inventive comedy (written by Arnold Manoff). We also watched François Villiers' fascinating (also known as ), a vehicle for Maria Montez co-starring and co-written by her husband, Jean-Pierre Aumont, which Elise considers the Frenchest movie she's ever seen; Palmer co-stars as the Romani rival to Aumont's obsession. And in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we talk about Kira Muratova's (1971), a saga of the tormenting love between a mother and her teenage son, told in a distinctive style that did not find favour with the Soviet authorities during the Brezhnev era. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: MY GIRL TISA (1948) [dir. Elliott Nugent] 0h 25m 40s: NO MINOR VICES (1948) [dir. Lewis Milestone] 0h 41m 02s: HANS LE MARIN aka THE WICKED CITY (1949) [dir. François Villiers] 0h 57m 41s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – (1971) directed by Kira Muratova +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For this round of Warner Bros. 1945, we take on a very successful movie with two very big stars and one very terrible reputation, , with Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper, and a fascinating little B noir, , with Zachary Scott being his usual cheeky self and getting women upset. We discuss the stylistic risks of , the genius of Ingrid Bergman, the subtleties of Gary Cooper, and 's unusual feminist screenplay (from a novel by FOTP Phyllis Bottome). And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we deliver a quick verdict on the final entry in TIFF Cinematheque's Lubitsch series, . TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: Warner Brothers Overview, 1945 0h 03m 59s: SARATOGA TRUNK (1945) [dir. Sam Wood] 0h 35m 05s: DANGER SIGNAL (1945) [dir. Robert Florey] 0h 55m 38s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Ernst Lubitsch Retrospective at TIFF Cinémathèque: (1933) STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY CLIVE HIRSCHHORN ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
In this Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, we discuss Palmer's first two Hollywood films, Fritz Lang's anti-fascist spy drama, (1946), and Robert Rossen's socially critical boxing noir, (1947). We dig into the social context of these films, asking why these progressive writers and directors wanted to tell these stories at this moment, and how their political sympathies shaped the stories. We also talk about the persona emerging from Lilli Palmer's wartime British and American films, and her character in as representing the filmmakers' perspective on John Garfield's protagonist. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, our attendance of the Lubitsch retrospective at the TIFF Cinematheque continues with and a Christmas Eve viewing of , which prompt us to a brief consideration of the underlying (and sometimes overt) social criticism of Lubitsch's Depression-era films. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: CLOAK AND DAGGER (1946) [dir. Fritz Lang] 0h 26m 45s: BODY AND SOUL (1947) [dir. Robert Rossen] 0h 58m 51s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Ernst Lubitsch’s (1932) and (1939) +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For our December 2023 Special Subject, we're having ourselves a Monty Woolley Christmas! We look at three Christmas-adjacent movies from the 1940s featuring the anti-Santa in roles big and small: , in which he stars as waspish radio personality Sheridan Whiteside, who takes over the home of a bourgeois Middle American couple; , in which he plays a great actor who's been broken by alcoholism; and , in which he adds some New York Bohemian intellectual colour to the holiday classic. We discuss the cultural and political implications of and the uncanniness of Cary Grant and debate the appeal of alcoholism. Then in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we briefly discuss Ernst Lubitsch's (fully discussed in our Jennifer Jones series) and a new release, a Christmas movie even darker than our Monty Woolleys, William Oldroyd's, starring Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway (a rare spoiler-free exchange of impressions from us). And as a bonus, we become possessed by the spirit of Monty Woolley and rant about how much we hate contemporary movie trailers. (No analysis, just invective.) Happy Holidays! TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: Extremely brief Introduction to Monty Woolley 0h 04m 38s: THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1942) [William Keighley] 0h 31m 24s: LIFE BEGINS AT EIGHT-THIRTY (1942) [Irving Pichel] 0h 42m 47s: THE BISHOP’S WIFE (1947) [Henry Koster] 0h 54m 37s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Ernst Lubitsch’s (1946) and William Oldroyd’s (2023) +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
In this week's MGM 1945 episode, a Vincente Minnelli double feature: , a wartime romantic drama with two very intense stars, Judy Garland and Robert Walker, that doubles as a love poem to New York City; and a Technicolor musical fantasy about, in Dave's words (more or less), "A woman who wants to bleep an angel," starring Lucille Bremer as the woman and Fred Astaire as the angel. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, four Lubitsch movies over two weekends: , ,, and . Play "Masterpiece or Meh?" with Elise with these six movies, and hear Dave defend two "mehs" as "masterpieces"! (Or "meh-sterpieces"?) (No, "masterpieces"!) TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: MGM/Hollywood Overview, 1945 0h 04m 27s: THE CLOCK [dir. Vincente Minnelli] 0h 40m 20s: YOLANDA & THE THIEF [dir. Vincente Minnelli] 0h 56m 00s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Ernst Lubitsch Retrospective at TIFF Cinémathèque, Part I: , , , and STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY JOHN DOUGLAS EAMES ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
In this Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode we take a look at a Lilli Palmer who's (mostly) new to us, Lilli the victim: the victim of self-destructive womanizer Rex Harrison (Palmer's real-life husband) in Launder and Gilliat's enigmatic social satire (1945), and the self-destructive paralysis victim of (1946), based on the Stefan Zweig novel. Which of these adversaries is harder to contend with? Listen to find out! TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: THE RAKE’S PROGRESS (1945) [dir. Sidney Gilliat] 0h 42m 03s: BEWARE OF PITY (1946) [dir. Maurice Elvey] +++ BIBLIOGRAPHY: Babington, Bruce, , Manchester University Press, 2013. +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For this Paramount 1945 episode, we look at a couple of male melodramas: , a Gothic B-movie starring Nils Asther, "the most beautiful man who ever lived," according to Elise, as a scientist who becomes unscrupulous in his pursuit of eternal youth, and , a Raoul Walsh-directed hit starring Alan Ladd as a racetrack gambler who manipulates an unruly young jockey. The movies also boast fairly substantial love interest parts for Helen Walker as a socialite who sympathizes with Asther's Ubermensch impulses and Gail Russell as a schoolteacher who's caught up in Ladd's schemes. We dive into the question of how to create audience sympathy for a villain-protagonist and the curious nature of the Ladd phenomenon. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET [dir. Ralph Murphy] 0h 31m 53s: SALTY O’ROURKE [dir. Raoul Walsh] STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY JOHN DOUGLAS EAMES ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For our Ozu Noir-vember Special Subject, we look at three silent films by Yasujirō Ozu, (1930), (1930), and (1933), that not only bear a fascinating relationship to each other but also seemingly inaugurate the gangster film in Japan and anticipate (we argue) American film noir more closely even than French poetic realism, as well as the Nouvelle Vague. Join us as we marvel at Ozu's rapid evolution as a stylist and storyteller in the space of three years, and stick around to listen to our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment on Scorsese's . TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: WALK CHEERFULLY (1930) [dir. Yasujiro Ozu] 0h 23m 49s: THAT NIGHT’S WIFE (1930) [dir. Yasujiro Ozu] 0h 37m 54s: DRAGNET GIRL (1934) [dir. Yasujiro Ozu] 1h 01m 53s: Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto – Martin Scorsese’s (2023) +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
We dig into some substantial British cinema offerings in a Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode that's heavy on wartime themes: (1942), a philosophical examination of the disillusionment of a leftist; dramatically illustrated in a surprising way;(1943), Leslie Howard's eccentric and affecting semi-documentary about women in the British Army; and (1944), Terence Rattigan and Anatole de Grunwald's examination of the transformations taking place in British society as the result of the war in the form of a romantic comedy with a slightly kinky outlook (but don't tell Aunt Edna). Lilli Palmer contributes her comedic and dramatic talents and the gravitas of her personal history to these wonderful ensemble casts. Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s: THUNDER ROCK (1942) [dirs. Roy & John Boulting] 0h 46m 08s: THE GENTLE SEX (1943) [dir. Leslie Howard] 0h 59m 38s: ENGLISH WITHOUT TEARS (1944) [dir. Harold French] +++ Reading on THUNDER ROCK from by Leslie Halliwell +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
We weren't sure what to expect with our Universal 1944 "scary woman"-themed episode, but , starring the riveting Maria Montez, delivered, and the completely unknown , starring the less-than-riveting Lon Chaney Jr., was a surprise gem that seems to be nodding to Val Lewton's work at RKO. This episode causes us to ask such questions as: what is acting? Can anyone in these movies "act"? Does it matter? When are B-movies inherently sophisticated, and when are they deliberately sophisticated? Does that difference matter? To hear the answers to these questions (or, let's face it, probably just more questions), just press play and enter the Inner Sanctum of our pulsating flesh! (Our mind, what did you think I meant?) TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: WEIRD WOMAN [dir. Reginald Le Borg] 0h 40m 20s: COBRA WOMAN [dir. Robert Siodmark] STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY CLIVE HIRSCHHORN ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
This week's Acteurist-Oeuvre-view shows us two sides of Lilli Palmer: Bad Lilli in a comic supporting role, brawling with fellow chorus girl Renée Houston and competing with a demure Margaret Lockwood over wealthy patrons in Carol Reed's (1939); and Good Lilli assuming the lead in B-mystery (1940), seeking adventure with comic sidekick Gina Malo. It ain't Noël Coward, but we had fun. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: A GIRL MUST LIVE (1939) [dir. Carol Reed] 0h 24m 30s: THE DOOR WITH SEVEN LOCKS (1940) [dir. Norman Lee] 0h 42m 57s: Listener mail from Richard +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
For our Halloween 2023 episode, we take you on a tour of —the 1956 novel by Grace Metalious, 1957 Fox movie starring Lana Turner, and the mid-late-60s TV series starring Dorothy Malone and Mia Farrow (among many others) that reinvented television. We discuss the strange journey of Metalious's scabrous and scathing vision from satire to soap opera, in the course of which the story of shack-dweller Selena Cross's violation by her stepfather becomes the story of lower-middle-class Betty Anderson's resentful ambition, while ostensible protagonist Allison MacKenzie goes from being a bit of a jerk to being a nightmare of willfulness. But which versions of the story influenced David Lynch the most? We give our surmises. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: BY GRACE METALIOUS 0h 42 m 52s: PEYTON PLACE (1957) [dir. Mark Robson] 1h 02m 26s: PEYTON PLACE – TV SERIES (1964 to 1969) +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
This week's RKO 1944 episode brings a Hollywood slant to an English working-class perspective on the war. In her only first-billed feature film role, in , Elsa Lanchester plays an indomitable charwoman who embarks upon a self-appointed mission to assassinate Hitler after coming to believe that she's magically protected, while in , American playwright Clifford Odets' directorial debut, Cary Grant plays a Cockney dreamer who struggles with the reality of lower-class life during the Depression after trying to settle down and take care of his dying mother. We discuss the similarity in style and subject matter between and the poetic realist films of 1930s French cinema, and the curiosity of this underrated art movie being made by RKO so soon after its infamous entanglement with Orson Welles' similarly grim and poetic. If you've ever wanted to hear Dave start crying by recounting a crying scene, this is your chance. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: RKO in 1944 0h 05m 12s: PASSPORT TO DESTINY [dir. Ray McCarey] 0h 19m 22s: NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART [dir. Clifford Odets] STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY RICHARD B. JEWELL & VERNON HARBIN ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
Our second Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode sees the rising young star second-billed as the love interest in a couple of strange enterprises: (1937), a vehicle for popular American tenor Arthur Tracy, and (1938), an unhinged crime comedy starring Aldwych farces alumnus Tom Walls as a criminal superhero. As Lilli tries to orient herself in film acting, Dave and Elise try to orient themselves in this unfamiliar territory of 30s British cinema and its popular figures. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: General Lilli Palmer talk + a little from (Palmer’s autobiography) 0h 04m 17s: COMMAND PERFORMANCE (1937) [dir. Sinclair Hill] 0h 25m 12s: CRACKERJACK (1938) [dir. Albert de Courville] +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
Our Fox 1944 episode features a prestige production, , based on a Maxwell Anderson play and directed by John Stahl, and a modest marital drama, , directed by Otto Preminger just before he makes a name for himself in noir with . Between the two, the problems facing the men at the front and the women who love them are covered, as well as the kinds of moral dilemmas each might face. We discuss Preminger's handling of Jeanne Craine's character, and Bosley Crowther (back to being Nemesis of the Pod) inadvertently describes John Stahl's distinctive style/outlook. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: THE EVE OF ST. MARK [dir. John M. Stahl] 0h 33m 04s: IN THE MEANTIME, DARLING [dir. Otto Preminger] STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY AUBREY SOLOMON & TONY THOMAS ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
In our first Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, we spend some time with Lilli in England and take in her screen debut, in the "Quota Quickie" (1935); her small role in Hitchcock's eccentric (1936), in which she gets to play with an unhinged Peter Lorre; and a thankless role in a lyrical ode to Canadian nation-building a.k.a. labour exploitation, (1937). Then, in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we grapple with Angela Schanelec's , the one 2023 TIFF festival movie we got out to see, and our first time seeing a Schanelec on a really big screen, which was the right way to see this visually stunning film. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: Preliminary Words on Lilli Palmer 0h 05m 12s: CRIME UNLIMITED (1935) [dir. Ralph Ince] 0h 22m 51s: SECRET AGENT (1936) [dir. Alfred Hitchcock] 0h 34m 47s: THE GREAT BARRIER (1937) [dirs. Milton Rosmer and Geoffrey Barkas] 0h 47m 51s: Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto – TIFF’s presentation of Angela Schanelec’s (2023) +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
This Special Subject is something extra-special: we discuss philosopher Stanley Cavell's idiosyncratic classic of film criticism, and three classic comedies that are the subjects of essays in that book, Leo McCarey's , Howard Hawks' , and George Cukor's . What is Cavell's "comedy of remarriage," and is it really a genre? What does "marriage" mean to Cavell, and what does it have to do with America and democracy? Why does divorce make marriage more romantic? Are the conversations we're having about film in North America getting better or worse? Why should you take an interest in your experience? Join us as we take an interest in our experience of Stanley Cavell and work through these and more questions! TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: by Stanley Cavell (published in 1981) 0h 40m 31s: THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937) [dir. Leo McCarey] 1h 06m 58s: HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) [dir. Howard Hawks] 1h 23m 18s: ADAM’S RIB (1949) [dir. George Cukor] +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
This Warner Bros. 1944 episode makes good use of Warner Bros.' A-list stars, A-list character actors, B-list stars, and B-list character actors. and alumni converge in both Michael Curtiz's , starring Humphrey Bogart as a morally compromised hero, with Claude Rains and Sydney Greenstreet as the patriotic and pro-fascist alternatives for occupied France; while in Jean Negulesco's , a -like story of a self-made criminal without a Rosebud, Peter Lorre and Greenstreet form an unlikely friendship that reminds Elise more of Eric Blore and Edward Everett Horton than of Laurel and Hardy. We discuss the ways in which Curtiz finds the noir in his war movie and Negulesco finds the buddy comedy in his noir. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: Warner Brothers in 1944 0h 05m 26s: PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE [dir. Michael Curtiz] 0h 30m 10s: THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS [dir. Jean Negulesco] STUDIO FILM CAPSULES PROVIDED BY BY CLIVE HIRSCHHORN ADDITIONAL STUDIO INFORMATION FROM: 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 Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, , 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 the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
Warning: our final Dorothy McGuire episode contains very little Dorothy McGuire in our discussion of the films, although we also compare our Top 10 performances and give a final analysis of how her career was shaped by its cultural moment. However, we still find lots to talk about in the oddball final feature films in which she appeared, particularly George Stevens' (1965), a or harmonizing of the Christian New Testament Gospels. We discuss what Stevens chooses to emphasize and de-emphasize in the life of Jesus and the effectiveness or otherwise of his choice of actors. Then we turn our attention (briefly) to (1971), a British children's movie showcasing a multicultural Ireland, notable for its ham actor villain, a curious figure portrayed by Ron Moody. TIME CODES: 0h 00m 45s: THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD (1965) [dir. George Stevens] 0h 33m 52s: FLIGHT OF THE DOVES (1971) [dir. Ralph Nelson] 0h 43m 53s: Requiem for Dorothy McGuire and Host Top Tens +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of * 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 – “Making America Strange Again” * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com
