Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Warner Brothers – 1942: KINGS ROW and JUKE GIRL + Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto

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In this very special Warners 1942 episode we discuss two Dave faves, both starring (and romantically pairing) Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan, that push against the restrictions of the Production Code: Sam Wood’s Peyton Place/Twin Peaks forerunner, Kings Row, and Curtis Bernhardt’s noirish agrarian socialist drama, Juke Girl. We dive deep into Kings Rows’ Freud-and-Emerson-steeped advocacy of a less repressed and hypocritical society and Juke GIrl’s utopic/dystopic vision of humanity. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we have a very disparate group of films this week: Flowers of Shanghai (1998), One False Move (1992), and Brief Encounter (1945), which Elise compares to Jeanne Dielman (although – spoilers – Brief Encounter does have a happier ending). 

Time Codes:

0h 00m 45s:      KINGS ROW [dir. Same Wood]

0h 55m 28s:      JUKE GIRL [dir. Curtis Bernhardt]

1h 31m 31s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: Flowers of Shanghai (1998) by Hou Hsiao-hsien; One False Move (1991) by Carl Franklin & Brief Encounter (1945) by David Lean

 

Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler

                                   

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* 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, Unfaithfully Yours, 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

 

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Acteurist oeuvre-view – Dorothy McGuire – Part 2: A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945) and THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946) + FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO – Perpetratin’ Realism series at TIFF Lightbox

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In this week’s Dorothy McGuire Acteurist Oeuvre-view, two very different roles for our subject: in Elia Kazan’s first film, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), an imperfect mother in a difficult relationship with her protagonist-daughter; and in Robert Siodmak’s Gothic noir, The Spiral Staircase, (1946) a mute girl targeted by a eugenicist killer. We discuss the unique qualities McGuire brings to what could be an unsympathetic role in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and the intricacies of that movie’s family relationships. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we look at Set It Off, F. Gary Gray’s 1996 heist movie about four women who start robbing banks together, starring Jada Pinkett and Queen Latifah. 

Time Codes:

0h 0m 45s:        A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945) [dir. Elia Kazan]

0h 46m 31s:      THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946) [dir. Robert Siodmak]

1h 07m 36s:      FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO – Perpetratin’ Realism series at TIFF Lightbox – SET IT OFF (1996) directed by F. Gary Gray

 

+++

* 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 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 now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

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Valentine’s Day 2023 – KISS ME GOODBYE (1982) and MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940) + FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO – TIFF Lightbox – Love Will Tear Us Apart Series

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Our Valentine’s Day 2023 episode is all about loves from the past who have inconveniently returned. In My Favorite Wife (1940), Irene Dunne is newly remarried Cary Grant’s presumed dead wife, while in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982), James Caan is Sally Field’s actually dead, or undead, husband, interfering with her engagement to the (ostensibly) less charismatic Jeff Bridges. We apply Stanley Cavell’s concept of the “comedy of remarriage” to these movies and conclude that the comedy of My Favorite Wife really has nothing to do with its premise, whereas Kiss Me Goodbye does perform some interesting twists on comedy of remarriage tropes. In Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, two more movies about love pick up these themes: Stanley Kwan’s Rouge (1987) and Dorothy Arzner’s Merrily We Go to Hell (1932). Happy Haunted Valentine’s Day!

Time Codes:

0h 0m 45s:        MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940) [dir. Garson Kanin]

0h 29m 59s:      KISS ME GOODBYE (1982) [dir. Robert Mulligan]

0h 49m 58s:      FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO – ROUGE (1987) by Stanley Kwan & MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (1932) by Dorothy Arzner

 

+++

* 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 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 now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – MGM – 1942: WOMAN OF THE YEAR & TORTILLA FLAT + Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – 35th Anniversary Screening of Midnight Run (1988)

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Our MGM 1942 episode is a problematic Spencer Tracy double feature in which we’re treated to the full range of his persona, from smug saint to semi-demon: George Stevens’ brilliant but flawed Woman of the Year, the first Hepburn-Tracy romantic comedy, and Victor Fleming’s Tortilla Flat, in which Tracy co-stars with John Garfield, Akim Tamiroff, and Frank Morgan as John Steinbeck’s idea of Monterey, California paisanos. We try to explain just how Woman of the Year‘s humanist critique of feminism ends up going so badly wrong, but defend its infamous ending, before moving on to Tortilla Flat’s critique of the work ethic and property ownership. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we react to a 35th anniversary screening of Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin buddy pic Midnight Run.

 

Time Codes:

0h 00m 45s:      WOMAN OF THE YEAR [dir. George Stevens]

0h 46m 58s:      TORTILLA FLAT [dir. Victor Fleming]

1h 10m 55s:      FEAR & MOVIEGOING IN TOROTNTO – Midnight Run (1988)

 

Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story 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, Unfaithfully Yours, 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

 

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

 

 

Check out this episode!

Read Full Post »