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Nov 26, 2021

For Paramount 1938 we have two semi-comedic, quasi-historical tales of charming rogues, If I Were King (directed by Frank Lloyd, with a screenplay by Preston Sturges), starring Ronald Colman as medieval bohemian poet Francois Villon, and The Buccaneer (directed by frenemy of the podcast Cecil B. DeMille), starring...


Nov 19, 2021

For our Noirvember episode, we look at four Anthony Mann noirs, Railroaded! (1947), T-Men (1947), Raw Deal (1948), and Side Street (1950). We follow Mann as he ascends from Poverty Row to a collaboration with one of film noir's most distinctive cinematographers, John Alton, to the big-time at MGM, with his protagonists...


Nov 12, 2021

This Universal 1937 episode stays paused on the pivotal moment in the studio's history, with another James Whale/Deanna Durbin pairing: Whale's last hurrah, The Road Back, and Durbin's second outing, One Hundred Men and a Girl. Whale's film, based on a Remarque novel about Germany between the wars (familiar territory...


Nov 4, 2021

In this week's Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, Margaret Sullavan takes on the Nazis in Frank Borzage's The Mortal Storm (1940) and Fannie Hurst in Robert Stevenson's Back Street (1941). We discuss the subtleties and broad strokes of this early Hollywood depiction of Nazi Germany, Borzagean heroism, and...