This Warner Bros. 1947 Studios Year by Year episode features two gems that put their own particular slant on noir's familiar theme of murderous conflict between women and men: Curtis Bernhardt's Possessed, starring a more-than-usually deranged Joan Crawford, with Van Heflin as the rakish object of her obsession, and Delmer Daves' Dark Passage, starring an unusually passive Humphrey Bogart as a man convicted of killing his wife, with Lauren Bacall as an eccentric socialite who decides to help him. And in our Fear and Moviegoing segment, a real clash of moods: Ridley Scott's terrifying sci-fi/horror classic Alien and Wong Kar-wai's whimsical romantic comedy (of a sort) Chungking Express. Though admittedly it also has its terrifying aspects. (If only Van Heflin had been charmed by Crawford's fixation, how differently it could have gone!)

Time Codes:

0h 00m 35s: POSSESSED [dir. Curtis Bernhardt]

0h 41m 53s: DARK PASSAGE [dir. Delmer Daves]

1h 11m 24s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Alien (1979) by Ridley Scott at the TIFF Lightbox and Chungking Express (1994) by Wong Kar-wai at the Revue Cinema

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

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe 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!

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Our second Anna Magnani Sampler includes three Hollywood films, two with parts written for her by her friend Tennessee Williams, as well as the second film directed by Pasolini: The Rose Tattoo (1955), Wild is the Wind (1957), The Fugitive Kind (1960), and Mamma Roma (1962). Paired with a wacky Burt Lancaster, a bullying Anthony Quinn, a quietly intense Brando, or a nihilistic teenager, Magnani takes on such enemies as the racist South, patriarchy, and the class system with varying results, but always with ferocity and gusto.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 30s: THE ROSE TATTOO (1955) [dir. Daniel Mann]

0h 23m 03s: WILD IS THE WIND (1957) [dir. George Cukor]

0h 37m 34s: THE FUGITIVE KIND (1960) [dir. Sidney Lumet]

0h 52m 55s: MAMMA ROMA (1962) [dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini]

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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!

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In this episode of our Lilli Palmer Acteur-ist Oeuvre-view series, we watched a couple of 1969 movies somewhere on the horror spectrum: De Sade, a movie of ideas that doesn't live up to them, written by famed horror/sci fi author Richard Matheson; and The House That Screamed, an Italian slasher with a twist or two to recommend it. Good parts for Lilli Palmer in a couple of seriously silly movies. And in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, Fast Times at Ridgemont High leads Elise to go on a weird despairing rant about teenagers and sex (if she does say so herself). Come for the irresponsible opinions, stay for the bumper butt orgies.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 30s: DE SADE (1969) [dir. Cy Endfield]

0h 26m 13s: THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (1969) [dir. Narciso Ibanez Serrador

0h 42m 03s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) by Amy Heckerling

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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!

For this MGM 1947 Studios Year by Year episode, we discuss Cynthia, a gentle family melodrama starring a luminous 15-year-old Elizabeth Taylor as an over-protected teenager, and High Wall, a psychiatric film noir with great roles for Robert Taylor and Herbert Marshall as sweaty noir protagonists at cross purposes. Our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, meanwhile, features discussion of two radically different films: James Cameron's Terminator 2 and a 4K restoration of Vittorio de Sica's influential early neorealist drama Shoeshine. Realist horrors or horror fantasy, take your pick!

Time Codes:

0h 00m 30s: CYNTHIA [dir. Robert Z. Leonard]

0h 38m 15s: HIGH WALL [dir. Curtis Bernhardt]

1h 01m 44s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) by James Cameron at TIFF Lightbox and Shoeshine (1946) by Vittorio De Sica at The Revue Cinema

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

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe 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

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

After some rocky episodes, our Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view uncovers a couple of gems: Nobody Runs Forever aka The High Commissioner (1968, directed by Ralph Thomas), a spy thriller bursting at the seams with the charms of Rod Taylor and Christopher Plummer, and Hard Contract (1969, the only feature film made by writer-director S. Lee Pogostin), one of the most eccentric movies we've ever seen, a meditation on love, murder, and modern life with Lee Remick and James Coburn as an improbably moving pair of lovers. Lilli Palmer adds her own flavour of eccentricity to Hard Contract as Remick's "immorally innocent" friend and makes a big impact as Christopher Plummer's wife in Nobody Runs Forever.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 30s: NOBODY RUNS FOREVER (1968) [dir. Ralph Thomas]

0h 25m 53s: HARD CONTRACT (1969) [dir. S. Lee Pogostin]

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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!

For this Paramount 1947 Studios Year by Year episode we watch a couple of films by producer/director team of Seton I. Miller and John Farrow: California, starring the belligerent sexual tension of Barbara Stawyck and Ray Milland in a left-leaning fable about the establishment of law and order in the West Coast, and Calcutta, a terrific Alan Ladd/Gail Russell noir, stylishly shot by Billy Wilder fave John F. Seitz.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 30s: CALIFORNIA [dir. John Farrow]

0h 25m 44s: CALCUTTA [dir: John Farrow]

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

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joe 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!

For our June Special Subject we revisit the work of Kenji Mizoguchi, looking at two films from earlier than his best-known (in the West) period: The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939), about cross-class lovers and what it takes to become a great artist, and The 47 Ronin (1941), based on a true story that became emblematic of samurai values. Topics discussed include King Vidor parallels, feminism, Marxism, revenge tragedy, and propaganda and its subversion.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 35s: Brief Mizoguchi briefing

0h 08m 00s: THE STORY OF THE LAST CHRYSANTHEMUM (1939) [dir. Kenji Mizoguchi]

0h 42m 11s: THE 47 RONIN (1941) [dir. Kenji Mizoguchi]

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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!

This week's Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view sees Lilli in two small but crucial roles: Sebastian (1968), starring Dirk Bogarde as a Cold War cryptanalyst of divided political loyalties, and Oedipus Rex (1968), starring Christopher Plummer as Freud's favourite plaything of the gods. We discuss Cold War politics, the Swinging Sixties New Woman, free will, and the perils of adapting ancient Greek tragedy. And in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we briefly discuss the final Powell Pressburgers of TIFF cinematheque's retrospective, A Matter of Life and Death and Canadiana curiosity 49th Parallel, as well as Elise's first big-screen Cassavetes, A Woman Under the Influence, and how no one should ever have parties.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 30s: SEBASTIAN (1968) [dir. David Greene]

0h 23m 17s: OEDIPUS THE KING (1968) [dir. Philip Saville]

0h 44m 11s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and 49th Parallel (1941) by Powell & Pressburger; A Woman Under the Influence (1974) by John Cassavetes

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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!