Oct 7, 2022
In our Jean Arthur Acteurist Oeuvre-view this week, we look at two of Arthur's best-known comedies, Easy Living (1937), directed by Mitchell Leisen, with a screenplay by Preston Sturges, and You Can't Take It With You (1938), directed by Frank Capra. Dave explains why Jean Arthur's performance in Easy Living is his all-time favourite comedy performance by an actress. (Hint: it involves a pig called "Wafford.") We ponder Arthur's transformation into a glamorous romantic lead, even as she retains her (slightly off-kilter) ordinary person qualities, and the contrasting comic visions of Sturges and Capra. Then, in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we discuss our second double feature of Tod Browning's Dracula and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, the subject of our 2019 Halloween episode. This time around we find a lot to say about Coppola's Dracula as a Dionysian Christ figure who can lead Winona Ryder out of the death-in-life of civilization.
Time Codes:
0h 1m 00s: EASY LIVING (1937) [dir. Mitchell Leisen]
0h 49m 27s: Jean Arthur v. Harry Cohn – 1937/1938 (from John Oller’s Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew)
0h 54m 19s: YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938) [dir. Frank Capra]
1h 22m 35s: Fear & Moviegoing in Toronto – DRACULA (1931) by Tod Browning & BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola
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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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