Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Paramount – 1945: THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET & SALTY O’ROURKE

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For this Paramount 1945 episode, we look at a couple of male melodramas: The Man in Half Moon Street, 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 Salty O’Rourke, 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 The Paramount Story by John Douglas Eames

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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Special Subject – Silent Proto-Noirvember with Ozu – WALK CHEERFULLY (1930), THAT NIGHT’S WIFE (1930) and DRAGNET GIRL (1933) + Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto: KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (2023)

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For our Ozu Noir-vember Special Subject, we look at three silent films by Yasujirō Ozu, Walk Cheerfully (1930), That Night’s Wife (1930), and Dragnet Girl (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 Killers of the Flower Moon. 

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 Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) 

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* 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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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 4: THUNDER ROCK (1942), THE GENTLE SEX (1943) & ENGLISH WITHOUT TEARS (1944)

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We dig into some substantial British cinema offerings in a Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode that’s heavy on wartime themes: Thunder Rock (1942), a philosophical examination of the disillusionment of a leftist; dramatically illustrated in a surprising way; The Gentle Sex (1943), Leslie Howard’s eccentric and affecting semi-documentary about women in the British Army; and English Without Tears (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]

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Reading on THUNDER ROCK from Halliwell’s Harvest by Leslie Halliwell

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* 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 – Universal – 1944: WEIRD WOMAN & COBRA WOMAN

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We weren’t sure what to expect with our Universal 1944 “scary woman”-themed episode, but Cobra Woman, starring the riveting Maria Montez, delivered, and the completely unknown Weird Woman, 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 The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn

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!

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 3: A GIRL MUST LIVE (1939) & THE DOOR WITH SEVEN LOCKS (1940)

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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 A Girl Must Live (1939); and Good Lilli assuming the lead in B-mystery The Door with Seven Locks (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 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!

Read Full Post »