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1946 - We Ballin
55 Plays6 months ago
Hollywood bounces back from the war years with a great crop of pictures! Bogie & Bacall reteam for one of the great noirs, Hitchcock does cool spy stuff, Rita Hayworth hair flips her way into history, William Wyler and Frank Capra channel their post war angst, and France produces a dreamy, spooky fairytale!
You can watch along with our video version of the episode here on Youtube!
You can check out our social media crap here: http://linktr.ee/1w1y
And you can watch and form your own opinions from our 1946 Films Discussed playlist right here!
See you next year!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'One Week, One Year'
00:00:09
Speaker
welcome to One Week, One Year, podcast where we watch and discuss every year of film history in order, starting in 1895, the dawn of cinema, and this episode is 1946. I'm one of your hosts, Chris Selle. I'm a film projectionist, and joining me as always is Oh, who came in?
00:00:28
Speaker
I'm Glenn Covell. I'm a filmmaker. Look at that. We both have film in our names. Chris but Film Ellie, Glenn Film Covell.
00:00:41
Speaker
Yeah, our nicknames.
00:00:44
Speaker
um How's it going, Glenn? What's up? It's going...
Challenges of Podcast Production
00:00:50
Speaker
back Back on the grind, back at work. and ah It's 90 degrees in New York today.
00:00:57
Speaker
So got that air conditioning cranked. Man, it's a hot one. It's like seven inches from the midday sun.
00:01:09
Speaker
I have moved again recently, moving all the time. And every time it happens, it slows the podcast down. Glenn, you've lived in the same place for a long time, and I'm jealous of you.
00:01:19
Speaker
Yeah. yeah But it's been a new place. It has the new Yeah. It's chaos, dude. it's I've been here a month, and I still don't have anywhere to sit.
00:01:31
Speaker
There's no couch. You like you're sitting right now. i Well, I just fashioned this very, very recently. Oh, I see. There are some there places... impromptu sitting situation. Most sitting situations right now are a little impromptu, which is... um Yeah, ah ah we went we went to looking for a couch, couch surfing, if you will, um today, but we can't find anything that's cheap.
00:01:57
Speaker
We wanted to find something that's cheap. And ah there aren't a lot of used furniture stores around here that can yeah give us anything. Is there an Ikea in D.C.? That might be the the way.
00:02:11
Speaker
didn't recently go to Ikea. That's what's new with me. How did you like it? It's cool. I like it there. Did you eat meatballs? I wish I could just live in Ikea. You're familiar with um the the soap opera that was clandestinely filmed in Ikeas, right?
00:02:27
Speaker
I think I had heard of it, yeah, but and I'm ah not that familiar. Yeah. I mean... I'm not that familiar. Speaking of IKEA, ah Sweden was involved in World War II, which is over now.
00:02:41
Speaker
ah Was Sweden involved in World War II? I think they were. They were like conquered something, right? I think, yeah, I think kind of tangentially. I don't think they were...
00:02:52
Speaker
ah That involved. Oh, they were you know what? They maintained their policy of neutrality during World
Major Events of 1946
00:02:59
Speaker
War two I really... ah That was not a good transition. Meanwhile, Norway just got bombed left and right.
00:03:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And puppet governments installed. Oh, Statler and Waldorf. No, Ealing. ah It's time for the news, everybody.
00:03:18
Speaker
news of the year, 1946. but In the shadow of the war, the next era begins, the space age. The U.S. Army Signal Corps bounces radar waves off the moon.
00:03:30
Speaker
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC, is unveiled. It is 60,000 pounds. Turing complete and the first programmable general-purpose digital computer.
00:03:42
Speaker
North Vietnam elects its first president, Ho Chi Minh. The paramilitary organization of Holocaust survivors, NACAM, poisons SS soldiers in prison with arsenic in their bread.
00:03:53
Speaker
The plutonium demon corps kills a second physicist at Los Alamos in an accidental fission reaction. The United States begins its first post-war A-bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.
00:04:05
Speaker
Days later, the bikini swimsuit is first introduced, named for the bomb tests. The first official Formula One Grand Prix is held in Italy. Nazi war criminals are sentenced to death by hanging at Nuremberg.
00:04:19
Speaker
UNICEF is founded.
00:04:24
Speaker
Unrelated, UNICEF is founded. What whiplash. Yeah, that's fun, huh? Oh, that was the end? That was it? That's the end. Yeah. Nice.
00:04:36
Speaker
I was thinking at first that it was like the John Cena thing, but that's Make-A-Wish, right? yeah yeah I also like you refer to Make-A-Wish as the John Cena thing. Like he's the only one that does it. It's just him. he's i think he's like the number one Make-A-Wish guy or something. I mean, unsurprising because he seems like a great dude and like kids love him, I guess.
00:05:00
Speaker
Oh, that's speaking Mandarin? that that was That was what ah John Cena famously said in Chinese. Yes.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah. ah Well, make a wish. ah Between make a wish visits, he was promoting the Fast and the Furious ah in Chinese. Yeah. And talking about how he loves ice cream.
00:05:24
Speaker
ah All right. ah We have a podcast cast to do. Yeah, yeah.
Discussion on 'The Big Sleep'
00:05:29
Speaker
Don Cena's in movies, but not for a while. So let's ah let's talk about ah let's talk about the most famous film from this year.
00:05:37
Speaker
the The sleepiest film from this year. The Big Sleep. i I wouldn't even say it's the most famous film from this year. No, is. We got some real bangers this year. oh You think Big Sleep is the most famous for talking about? I don't think so.
00:05:49
Speaker
You know what? It's up there. You're right. You're right. This isn't a big daddy. This is not. ah But it has big in the title. So let's start there. The big sleepy. The big sleepy. Yeah.
00:06:01
Speaker
We're getting our podcast legs back. I feel like this is a little... Yeah. It's little chaotic, but we're we're here. We're doing it. First moments of The Big Sleep ah is an incredibly stylish opening and credits sequence where ah they are... ah Where Bogie and Bacall are in silhouette lighting each other's cigarettes.
00:06:23
Speaker
ah And the the titles are in front of them. And you're just kind of looking at these... you know, sexy silhouettes. And then, I think really in a really cool way, like a hand kind of reaches out of the darkness and puts the cigarette onto the, uh, onto the ashtray.
00:06:39
Speaker
Just a very stylish opening. It's a classic noir. What, what, what can I say? But it is an incredibly classic one one of the kind of totemic noir films.
00:06:50
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. It's like one of the ones
Impact and Insights of 'The Big Sleep'
00:06:53
Speaker
that is the most like, Oh, anytime people are like riffing on film, the war is a genre. They're, taking like most of it from this movie including like it's one of the one of the big ones yeah including being incredibly convoluted confusing this one especially is like famously convoluted which i don't know we want to go right into some ah behind the scenes stories on it.
00:07:17
Speaker
that we try We try and do synopses when we can remember and and all that, but like there's no way. There's no way with this one. Yeah, a bunch of stuff happens to the synopsis of this movie.
00:07:29
Speaker
I mean, this movie is so famously convoluted that Howard Hawks, the director, asked Raymond Chandler, who wrote the book this is based on, like what, who murdered this one character who's sort of like kind of incidental and like, we never really find out what happens, what happened to them.
00:07:46
Speaker
And Raymond Chandler was like, I don't know. I forgot. Like he didn't know. So was like, even the writer of the story was just like, ah, I i don't know who, who cares. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I think that really kind of speaks to like what's going on with these things a bit is that it's about like,
00:08:04
Speaker
I don't know. i feel like a lot of mystery movies and spy movies, they're about the experience of of solving mysteries and spycraft. Less than like the actual moment to moment plot, you know?
00:08:19
Speaker
Can I tell you what happens in a Mission Impossible movie? cannot. Never. Not one. But am I enjoying the vibe? Yes, I am. you know And I think that that's the case with a movie like this.
00:08:33
Speaker
Although, put a pin in that, because we might be talking about Mission Impossible later on in this episode. I won't say why. Okay. Yeah, another big bogey Bacall movie. Yeah, including reshoots to make it more of a bogey and Bacall movie. Right.
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah. ah This one, I was going to mention with the opening scene, or not the opening scene, but the opening titles where they're smoking cigarettes, and it's Bogart and Bacall.
00:08:57
Speaker
You know how to smoke, don't you you? just put your lips around it and suck. like
00:09:05
Speaker
Oh, if only that was real dialogue in this movie. Wouldn't surprise me if it was, but yeah. That that one's a little too far, I think. I think this movie is also... Had you seen this movie before?
00:09:17
Speaker
no Were you reminded of any other ah movies called The Big Something? Oh, I mean... ah Right. I guess I heard that this is like like a kind of... Big Lebowski's kind of riffing on this, right? Yeah.
00:09:32
Speaker
Especially the beginning. I think at a certain point, Big Lebowski really sort of... Goes off and does its its own thing. But a lot of... There's less bowling in movie. True. there a lot of the plot setup of The Big Lebowski is like
Comparing 'The Big Sleep' and 'The Big Lebowski'
00:09:46
Speaker
almost identical to this. Like there's the... Right.
00:09:49
Speaker
The main character gets brought to this big mansion a mysterious wealthy benefactor. Who has a butler and just like young women...
00:10:01
Speaker
around i guess in lebowski it's his trophy wife and this it's one of his two daughters but it's like you can you can clearly see the ways in which the big lebowski is riffing on this movie which i think is kind of like to to go back and re-watch this after having seen lebowski also it is like it's kind of like i'm getting a lot of big lebowski vibes from this it's like well sure Interesting. Guy who's only ever seen one movie.
00:10:27
Speaker
I have seen The Big Lebowski a couple times that's never super connected with me. And I can't say that I remember too much of the plot. But I am interested in seeing it again. mean, insanely convoluted and like hard to follow. So that's another way that's really riffing on this. I really can't tell you much of what happened in this movie.
00:10:48
Speaker
Well, there's... mean... i mean If I just watched it, I could probably tell you, but like even even looking back at my notes, I'm like, yeah, what what is but is the plot? I did just watch this, and it's like, okay, he's hired to ah investigate some kind of guy related to the family who disappeared.
00:11:10
Speaker
And then like the daughters are sort of involved in some of the stuff. And one of them is really messy. And the other one's like china ah trying try to like not reveal all of these things. And there's all of this like stuff with a gambling guy who is kind of wrapped all in and everything. It's it's yeah, lots of it's like he's hired to uncover like a blackmailing scheme.
00:11:33
Speaker
Yes. Which then leads to multiple murders and other crimes. So then it's like the sort of the tangled web he gets he gets sort of sucked into. Just like Frodo.
00:11:45
Speaker
Right. And also Lauren Bacall is there. So he's like, well, I can't I can't leave now. Lauren Bacall is here. My favorite my my favorite lady, Lauren Bacall. Yeah.
00:11:55
Speaker
I mean, but it's not just I was kind of surprised because, you know, they're top billing Bogart and Bacall. And like they they get, you know, the kind of relationship between the two of them develops a lot in this movie.
00:12:08
Speaker
But. It's kind of ridiculous how like every single lady that he meets is just like, I want you so bad right now. It becomes like a running joke.
00:12:19
Speaker
Like the first couple times it just feels really like silly and maybe a little bit like, all right, 1940s, we get it. But like the fact that it's like pretty much every side character in this movie is played by like a young, attractive woman.
00:12:34
Speaker
Who wants Humphrey Bogart. Every bookstore owner, every taxi driver, every like... Literally like everyone that this detective runs into. Philip Marlowe is his name. Kind of a proto-Bond sort of situation in that way.
00:12:51
Speaker
I guess, yeah, kind of. It feels more overtly comedic in this. It feels a little bit less... I guess it it is in a lot of Bond movies too, but like... Do you think that it's a joke in this?
00:13:04
Speaker
or it's like a Or it's like a fantasy? I mean, both. Much like Bond movies are. But i I think I definitely get the sense that there is a sort of cheekiness to it.
00:13:17
Speaker
And that it is sort of like... Yeah, It it feels deliberately comedic to me. The fact that it's like everyone he runs into is like, why, hello? And it also leads to a lot of great... This is another great sort of like...
00:13:31
Speaker
movie that is undermining the Hays Code at every opportunity. hmm. um And just has lots of make an eyes and lots of like innuendos in the dialogue and such.
00:13:43
Speaker
I think that the the scene at the bookstore is sort of... Yeah....cited as as like one one of the many Hays Code scenes that is like you know steaming up the screen. Yeah.
00:13:54
Speaker
Because of how horny it is. She's just like, you're ah you're a private eye, you said? i am shutting down the store right now, and we're going to the back room and having a cocktail.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, and then also the fact that it's like, ooh, it started raining outside. It's getting, they don't say this, but it's like, it's getting real wet outside. I see. Maybe maybe I'm taking it too far. I don't know. Maybe I'm just, my mind is in the gutter. But this movie invites the mind to be in the gutter, is what I'm saying.
00:14:20
Speaker
There is a bit of, so I've also read the book this is based on. Which is, right, similarly, insanely kind of eluded. The book definitely has some stuff that is cut out for, like, to meet Hays Code standards. Like, yeah.
00:14:33
Speaker
There's more reference, if I'm recalling correctly, there's a lot more references to like drug use in the book. And also, so when one of the daughters is found at the house where there's a dead body in the movie, she's in, she's like having pictures being taken of her in like a sort of vaguely Chinese dress.
00:14:58
Speaker
Which I feel like 1940s uses like Chinese as kind of a weird racist shorthand for like vice criminals ah kind of stuff. um In the book, I think she's naked and it's like much more.
00:15:12
Speaker
ah It's like she's been drugged in um in kind of a more overt. way yeah i mean like and he in in the movie he likes he says like she's high as a kite which you know i right it's uh i was surprised at referencing you know being high right in this movie right like it's clear that she is drugged or on drugs rather than drunk.
00:15:38
Speaker
um But, and and he refers to her as high, which I um have not seen that kind of reference before, I guess. ah Like the only other time I've seen, like previously that we've seen the term high is in high and dizzy referring to being drunk.
00:15:56
Speaker
ah for Right. And also being um ah being on a high up building. Yes. It's a pun. Yeah. I don't know if I have any ah any greater points about the book, but um it's good.
00:16:07
Speaker
I recommend it. It's got a lot of great hard-boiled dialogue, as does this movie. It's got a lot of great sort of Howard Hawks-ian banter yeah flying back and forth.
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's a fun one. It is very dialogue-heavy, and it is a movie that I think... The the big appeal is like the dialogue and the performance and the performances. like It's a very talky movie.
00:16:31
Speaker
but but But it's great talking. and It's like primo talking in this thing. That's the thing. its like I think that the the the plot is so much that um what this movie is good at is being a vibe, right?
00:16:46
Speaker
And it captures that kind of iconic noir vibe. uh very well and so in in some ways it like doesn't really feel like you really need to pay a lot of attention because you can just like observe whatever scene is happening in front of you and just uh enjoy enjoy the experience of it you know yeah yeah it is it is definitely ah a vibe movie in that like don't Don't worry about it. Not to steal i ah you know ah terminology from Patrick Willems.
00:17:22
Speaker
the The idea of like um a movie that is like... the The plot is secondary to just sort of the the atmosphere and the that kind of... we're We're seeing characters kind of going about their process.
00:17:35
Speaker
And that is what what is interesting. ah It is a documents movie as well. It's like to the library. thats True. It is also a documents movie. A lot of my notes are just dialogue.
00:17:47
Speaker
So there's a a scene of Bogie and Bacall at a bar flirting it up. And they're they're doing a lot of like horse racing metaphor stuff.
00:17:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like talking about horse racing, but like they're talking about horse racing in like the horniest way possible, which sort of to me is establishing this idea. idea that Like, oh, in the 1940s, horse racing was like a very sexy thing.
00:18:11
Speaker
It was like was very like cool and hot to be like, to. I don't know. I mean, maybe maybe just this movie is doing that. I'm I'm backed up because another movie from 1946 that we're also talking about.
00:18:24
Speaker
is the Hitchcock movie Notorious. Notorious. That also features hot, mysterious ah horse racing scenes. This I had not seen before.
Praise for Hitchcock's 'Notorious'
00:18:38
Speaker
No, yeah. And was very impressed by it. I would even go as for as far as to say it's maybe one of my favorite Hitchcock movies. Oh, wow. Nice. I love this thing. Yeah.
00:18:49
Speaker
Yeah. it was great it's ah It's a cool movie. I think there's like a lot of there's a lot of style in it and like good, good banter and that kind of stuff as well. Yeah. Cary Grant, Egren Bergman.
00:19:01
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Like a kind of romantic, romantic angle. Very forward, forward on this. day The romantic angle. I like how much this is like a romantic thriller.
00:19:14
Speaker
And yet, like, I think especially Cary Grant up until this point has often played like very comedic roles, usually a romantic lead, but like playing very, so he usually plays very silly characters up until this point, I would say.
00:19:29
Speaker
At least in the stuff we've seen him in. Right, yeah. of of But I think this feels like a real kind of shift in that like he's playing a much more... he's still playing a very like charming character, but it's he's much less silly than a lot of previous...
00:19:46
Speaker
Cary Grant ah characters. He has some different kinds of stuff to do. He's in this movie. He is being very restrained. ah And it's like it's about him like trying to be professional.
00:20:00
Speaker
And also has he has feelings of jealousy and and love. i think this is my stuff. I think this one we can summarize more easily.
00:20:11
Speaker
Go for it. Which is ah Ingrid Bergman plays the daughter of a Nazi who um is recruited by Cary Grant, who is a spy for the Americans.
00:20:24
Speaker
to ah rekindle a, not even rekindle, but to basically seduce a friend of her now dead father's, who's also a Nazi, and is who is in Brazil doing secret South American Nazi stuff.
00:20:41
Speaker
That guy is played Claude Rains. Naturally, Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant are sort of like falling in love during this, but Cary Grant is like, His job is to tell her to go seduce this other guy. Yeah.
00:20:55
Speaker
So that he can get the intel from him. And so he's having to sort of like, right, restrain all of his emotions and like push them all down and be like, you know like Ingrid Bergman is like, tell me, like, tell me not to do it. And he's like, I can't.
00:21:08
Speaker
It's like, it's my job. ah It's like. Right. But then meanwhile, Claude Rains, his character is like hopelessly in love with Ingrid Bergman.
00:21:19
Speaker
And is like also kind of charming. And like you you get the sense that he is like his feelings are very genuine. Right. Even though he's a bad person. And so there's this thing of like Cary Grant is having to sort of like put on this facade of like coldness.
00:21:36
Speaker
In order for to do his job. And so there is... and it's it's a It's an interesting take on the kind of like love triangle thing. Because like there' is there's lots of interesting dynamics happening during it.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Although, like you know I think there's a lot that I like about this movie. But kind of what I will say is that I don't really buy the chemistry between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.
00:22:01
Speaker
i think I think that Cary Grant's... i think that kry grant playing restrained him being like i'm not seeing like with brief encounter right it's like like from last from the last episode it's like these people who are like bursting out uh with their feelings and it's hard to compare any movie romance to brief encounter i Like that is such a high bar.
00:22:26
Speaker
But I mean, it's an example of like some people like who are trying to restrain their feelings. Right. But then they they can't help but feel them. And I think that like Cary Grant a lot in the time in this movie just kind of comes off like a jerk, you know, because like he often comes across as just kind of smug or cold. Yeah.
00:22:44
Speaker
So, I don't know. If you kind of look past that, I think there are some there are indeed some interesting dynamics happening. And to put on top of all the kind of like wrotepe love triangle dynamics are also like the spycraft dynamics where Ingrid Bergman, I think is doing like the most heavy lifting in this movie where she is, she's having to like show her feelings for this guy that she never really liked, but like she has this duty, but this duty is something that was like ascribed to her by someone else.
00:23:20
Speaker
But then she's like, I've got nothing else going on. So I'm going to dedicate my whole life toward taking down these Nazis. um But then like, she keeps getting pushed to do more and more dangerous things like, and close to blowing her cover and putting herself in danger, ah in order to get the job done, including like the best scene in the movie where the wine cellar.
Suspense Techniques in 'Notorious'
00:23:43
Speaker
Yes.
00:23:44
Speaker
The best scene in the movie where there's like a party at, you know, the Claude Rains bad guy Nazis house. And yeah the two of them are basically trying to like find some kind of secret uranium.
00:23:59
Speaker
ah They don't know what it is yet, but like this this kind of stuff that's being smuggled by the Nazis in in the basement. this perfect like Hitchcock ticking time bomb of when will the wine run out at this party?
00:24:14
Speaker
ah Because somebody is going to go down to the wine cellar where they are ah to get more wine. It keeps cutting back to the wine at the party, slowly running out. And the tension is so good. It is of got such like classic, great Hitchcock filmmaking. Yeah.
00:24:33
Speaker
Yeah. Another Hitchcock thing, the big MacGuffin of this movie is, right, the Nazis are trying to get uranium for nefarious purposes. And this this movie came out in 46, and I guess it was not really public knowledge fully that, like, uranium is what you use to make an atomic bomb.
00:24:53
Speaker
Or it was at least enough of a ah red flag that the U.S. government had to, like, investigate Hitchcock or like the screenwriters to be like, how did you know that this is like exactly the process that needs to happen?
00:25:10
Speaker
I think they just did their research really well, but it was like, they, they nailed it so much that the government got like, not upset, but they got concerned, i guess that they had like, stolen state secrets to make their silly spy movie it feels so much like hitchcock to be investigated by the u.s government right it really it really fits with like with what i know about him i think him him being a stinker yes To put it lightly.
00:25:41
Speaker
that whole i also want to say that that whole section of the the... They're at a dinner party and they're going downstairs in the wine cellar and doing all the spy stuff.
00:25:52
Speaker
It had like Hitman 20... Like the 2016 Hitman game. Right? Or just like the Hitman games in general. It had like so much of that same energy. ah yeah a lot of a lot of Yeah. A lot of sneaking into wine cellars in those games. Yeah.
00:26:08
Speaker
Right, but it is like, this does feel like it has a lot of like very classical like spy movie stuff in it. Yeah. That is, it's just great, great fun. I i love it. And then of course, right, like they were about to be discovered outside the wine cellar and so they start making out and so then it's like, oh, we we actually snuck away because like we're having and affair with Which adds like this of jealousy element ah for Claude Rains character into this whole thing. Yeah.
00:26:36
Speaker
And right. Just like another classic like spy movie thing of like, oh, no, we're caught quick. Kiss me. Which is always sort of like, is that the best? Like, I think you're you might do be doing this because you wanted to kiss somebody. But OK.
00:26:49
Speaker
As Ingrid Bergman's character is getting right deeper and deeper into this thing, Claude Rains asked her to marry him. And so then she's like. He has to commit to that in order not to break cover.
00:27:02
Speaker
And then eventually, Claude Rains and his mean mom. Of course, every villain needs a mean mom. He's got, I mean... yeah very Very big Cyril Karn vibes from this guy.
00:27:15
Speaker
He's got, I mean, I was going to say, like, Principal Skinner, you know? ah which like Domineering mother not a thing that Hitchcock would ever put in a movie. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:27
Speaker
but um But so, like, they discover that she is honeypot, a spy. um But then they can't reveal it because then the other Nazis will kill them because they've let this spy into all of their secret meetings. It's such a good element.
00:27:45
Speaker
And there's a part worker there's a part where he... um Where he he finds out but that he's married to a spy, and he tells his his mother, who can who knows how to make the Oops, I married a spy.
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah, and and he says, I'm married to an American agent. And then she just sighs, and it's just's just like, I need a cigarette. Ha ha ha ha ha.
00:28:10
Speaker
um And then, yeah, the the ending of this movie, I think, is great, where Ingrid Bergman is being slowly poisoned by ah by Claude Rains and his his mean mom and until Cary Grant.
00:28:25
Speaker
is able to show up and then undercover is able to like get her out of the house while not revealing sort of what the whole situation is. Cause there's all of the other like secret Nazis there at a meeting and Claude Rains keeps trying to leave with them.
00:28:42
Speaker
in order to maintain his cover that he's not married to a spy and killer grants was like sorry dude we're taking the car bye problem and he locks the box the door yeah just and that's that's the end where it's like they get away and it's just like it ends on claude reigns's like ruined face as like the door closes on him it's so good It's so satisfying.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah. Like, I feel like this movie is simultaneously like really tense. I buy this sort of like central romance of it. And it's also just like a ah romp. It's super fun. Yeah. um And there's some really cool, just really cool filmmaking in it too. There's like the, the whole, um when Ingrid Bergman is ah drunk driving at the beginning and her she like wakes up and she's all woozy and there's like a wacky, like,
00:29:33
Speaker
lens effect where it's like out of focus and it's like shifting all around as he like sees Cary Grant walking into the room. Just stuff like that. That is like just yeah, in interesting.
00:29:45
Speaker
Lots of cool like camera blocking. There's an amazing crane shot that like comes down from like all the way down from like a super wide shot of the whole room. it's like a big party. The big party. like Yeah. Like tons and tons of people. Tons of extras. And then it goes all the way down to a ring.
00:30:01
Speaker
Isn't the key in her hand, right? and It's the key. It's the key. Yeah, but it's like all the way to this like extreme close up. Yeah, that's it's a very it's a very it's a shot that calls a lot of attention to itself, but it's a very cool one.
00:30:14
Speaker
ah Yeah, it's so great. ah Speaking of like like ah like camera stuff, I thought it was interesting that there are some scenes with the Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman characters in their hotel while they're waiting to receive their job and kind of falling in love.
00:30:29
Speaker
um they're like on their balcony ah looking out over uh this kind of beach area in brazil and the it's shot on a stage and you can see the kind of rough edges of like the rotoscoping like around around them which it's you don't i guess you don't see that like so often of it's just like it's not like ah It's not like a rear projection. It is like we're doing like our kind of old-fashioned chroma key sort of thing where we are just masking them out.
00:31:05
Speaker
And, you know, it rough enough that you could tell what was going on. But, like, it was just kind of interesting to see. Yeah. I do you think that's the thing that, like, maybe doesn't get... thought it i I feel like people don't remember Hitchcock necessarily as a VFX-heavy director, but like he has lots of visual effects in his movies from like the beginning. like He's always really kind of experimented with process shots and reprojection and like compositing stuff. and like i feel like this and Rebecca both have lots of like both like big kind of location movies that are shot mostly on studios and have a lot of... like
00:31:43
Speaker
fake backdrops and stuff that still have like filmed elements and movement and things to them. Also, that scene is another like sort of Hayes code cheating the Hayes code scene where I think like you weren't allowed to kiss for longer than like two seconds on screen or something like that. There was some dumb arbitrary rule.
00:32:04
Speaker
And so they get around it by like inter by like putting dialogue in between like a bunch of shorter kisses. So they're like, their faces are right next to each other, but they're like talking through the kissing kind of. Yeah. And so it, it it just draws it out to like the length of the whole scene, right? Way more, way steamier than a normal kiss would be. So it's like, that is Duffy Hitchcock being like, all right, fine. I'll just, I'm just going to make this scene way longer than it would have been. Yeah.
00:32:32
Speaker
I saw a quote from Hitchcock of like his pitch for this movie, which was quote, the, the story of a woman sold for political purposes into sexual enslavement, uh, which like is definitely the, um, like definitely a very like lurid Hitchcockian kind of thing. I think like, I think it's kind of,
00:32:55
Speaker
cool how Ingrid Bergman, she gets a lot to do in this movie. It is not like, it takes this kind of complicated angle into this like, quote unquote, like sexual enslavement, right?
00:33:07
Speaker
She is having to go so deep undercover that she is you know, having sex with someone who, who is a Nazi, who she doesn't like, right?
00:33:18
Speaker
I also kind of get the sense though, that she never actually sleeps with Claude Rains. There is kind of this feeling that I get that like their relationship does feel very chaste and it does feel very like Claude Rains is clearly like incredibly in love with her.
00:33:36
Speaker
But I feel like that is almost all the more reason why she can probably string him along to the point of marriage without having sex with him. Maybe. Meanwhile, I think there's like her relationship with Cary Grant's character is like so I don't remember any of the character names.
00:33:52
Speaker
Devlin. Devlin. is right. It's like, there's, there's less of sort of like the domestic sort of niceties and of sort of like marriage and this and that, but it's like, there's a lot more kind of like sex. It's much more sexually charged. Right.
00:34:06
Speaker
Yeah. Contrasting, you know, like romantic relationship stuff. I think the the, the, the movie ends up being a lot more complex than like, that than Hitchcock's pitch for it. Um, it's just such a Hitchcock-y like thing of just like, Ooh, yeah.
00:34:21
Speaker
ah Yeah. she her peace She's told for political purposes into sexual enslavement. That's just like such a, such a kind of Hitchcock kind of. Yeah, I guess. Although I, I also think that description does make it sound like Ingrid Bergman's character has a lot less agency than she does in the movie. Yeah. um Like I think even when she agrees to like go along with the plan, she's,
00:34:46
Speaker
You kind of get the sense that she is almost trying to, like, call Kara Grant's b bluff a little bit. Like, you're not actually going to make me go through with this. Right. And then he he does. And there's, like, this thing of, like, both of them want to tell the other person, like, no, don't do it.
00:35:00
Speaker
I love you. you Like, this could never happen. Let's run away together. But, like, neither of them do. And both of them are, like, waiting for the other person to say it. But neither, you know. And it's like that. I feel like that kind of stuff is really...
00:35:12
Speaker
juicy.
'Notorious' and 'Mission Impossible 2' Similarities
00:35:13
Speaker
Yeah. So my hot take on this movie, I had, i had for a long time, i had known or had heard that the Mission of Impossible 2 was sort of like vaguely based on or inspired by this movie.
00:35:28
Speaker
And that they had like kind of a similar plot set up. And I had not seen Mission Impossible 2 for easily 10 years. I'm a big Mission Impossible guy. i have watched all of them many times.
00:35:39
Speaker
But 2 was the one I had definitely not seen in the longest amount of time. So after after watching this movie, Notorious, I decided to rewatch the Mission Impossible 2. Wow. wow And it is, Mission Impossible 2 is a straight up remake of Notorious.
00:35:53
Speaker
Oh, really? I almost think it's a it functions better as a remake of Notorious than as Mission Impossible movie. Because as a sequel to the first Mission Impossible, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is like the complete other end of like what this movie could be. It's so different.
00:36:13
Speaker
I think it's very funny that that Mission Impossible 2 is kind of a like early 2000s, like new metal remake of a Hitchcock movie. Wow.
00:36:25
Speaker
And it's like it it it's like scenes track onto each other way more than I thought that they would. Like there's right. There's the scene where Ingrid Bergman is drunk driving With with Cary Grant and like he pulls her out of the car Mission Impossible 2. There's the thing of like there's like the goofy car chase along a cliff.
00:36:45
Speaker
So it's like, ah you know, there's like that relationship starts in a car in both movies. There's like the the sort of recruitment and argument stuff plays out almost the exact same way.
00:36:58
Speaker
there is a There is a scene right where they they meet up at a horse race in Mission of Impossible 2. Vandaway Newton gets poisoned. In Mission Impossible 2 with like the super virus or whatever, much like Edward Bergman is getting slowly poisoned.
00:37:15
Speaker
There's like there's so many parallels where I was like, I didn't realize that it was like as much of a direct remake as as it is. I haven't seen Mission Impossible 2. That's interesting. um You should watch it. It's a it's a really silly, dumb version of Notorious. Nice. With a bunch of Mission Impossible stuff in it.
00:37:35
Speaker
I think the the biggest difference is that like, right, in Notorious, Claude Rains genuinely is in love with Ingrid Bergman, even if she isn't with him.
00:37:46
Speaker
Whereas in Mission Impossible 2, the main villain is like very much not actually in love with the woman who's doing the honeypot scheme and is like also trying to manipulate her in a like a... He's much more of a like callous...
00:38:03
Speaker
like on unforgivable villain. Like there, I feel like the, he's, he's much less vulnerable than Claude Rains is in this, which I think is a lot less interesting.
00:38:16
Speaker
Claude Rains can do a threatening, but he can also do pathetic really well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And he's really leaning into, i guess, both, but especially the pathetic stuff in this one. Yeah.
00:38:29
Speaker
I mean, another movie that is ah concerning Nazis in South America. Indeed. i guess everyone just kind of knew that this was happening. in in Right. i I'm kind of surprised right away.
00:38:44
Speaker
yeah right Right away. Everyone's like, they're all down in South America. Like, we all know that. I think even by 46, there were already, like... People like were getting sent to South America to like find, you know, were criminals that had escaped.
00:38:58
Speaker
And so there's a bunch of movies about it, naturally. Yeah, we're talking about Gilda. The movie from Shawshank Redemption. Oh. Which is certainly my like, I think that is almost kind of like this movie's biggest cultural footprint, at least for our generation, probably.
00:39:17
Speaker
The Shawshank generation. Yeah. Yeah, Millennials, the Shawshank generation. There was a post a pre and post Shawshank era.
00:39:29
Speaker
Yeah, although I will say that um one other kind of part of this movie that ah lived outside of the film itself that that I recognized was the song Put the Blame on Mame.
00:39:42
Speaker
Like, I've heard that in other in other places, yeah and that's that was written for this movie. Yeah. pro i Also, you like, that whole musical number feels like... I had definitely seen clips of that. That feels like a ah scene and a song that has sort of had at a ah very long kind of cultural footprint also.
00:40:01
Speaker
This is like the big... don't know if there's... This is... Maybe Rita Hayworth's most famous movie. Yeah, we haven't done any of her stuff before, right? No, this is kind of like the big or at least one of the early big Rita Hayworth pictures.
00:40:19
Speaker
And if this the plot of this movie is basically Rita Hayworth is hot. Like that's that is like most of what this movie is about. I mean, this has also got some kind of similar sort of love triangle among villains sort of thing going on. yeah This feels like a a much less effective version of Notorious in in some ways.
00:40:43
Speaker
i I don't know. i think that I like the style of this movie. I like the kind of straightforwardness and like the kind of like it's it's dark.
Themes and Significance of 'Gilda'
00:40:51
Speaker
It's like it's some I think Notorious is like a fun movie.
00:40:55
Speaker
And this is fun. It's fun in a way, but it's like so much more focused on all of these people who are just almost near irredeemable scumbags. Yeah, it's a it's a much scummier movie. It's a much seedier movie for sure.
00:41:09
Speaker
ah Like Gilda, I think is a bit of like a kind of, you know, maybe chaotic evil version of the manic pixie dream girl, you know, kind of. Yeah. I mean, i don't know.
00:41:25
Speaker
Maybe more chaotic neutral than chaotic evil. i light a Chaotic neutral with like a little hint of chaotic evil, let's say. Maybe, maybe. That almost is kind of my big issue with this movie is I find so many of the characters like irredeemable. And like the movie kind of expects me as like the audience to to like want them to succeed.
00:41:48
Speaker
And I'm like, no, I don't. they They're shitty. i hate I hate them. Yeah, I was thinking about this in in, I mean, this is definitely not laying it on so thick as Pandora's Box, right? Which was a movie that I kind of really hated because it was full of all of these irredeemable people that i just had no fun being around.
00:42:10
Speaker
I think this is a fun movie. Like, I think that, like, these people are evil in a way that I found fairly watchable, you know, or at least, like, the main true the main character... ah um What's his name? Johnny Farrell.
00:42:23
Speaker
ah Like, he is, like, a kind of... Terrible. Yeah, he's kind of like a like a but I mean, I think that he has a rise akin to like a little Caesar or a Scarface or something yeah like that.
00:42:36
Speaker
I actually, I, I, Scarface a good, uh, reference for sure. And, and, and so he's like a real piece of shit, but it's like, Right, in in Scarface, there's this sort of feeling of, like, this inevitable end where he's going to, like, go out in a blaze of will glory.
00:42:54
Speaker
Whereas in this movie, it is kind of spoilers. It's sort like, hey, like, he gets gets away and is, like, happy at the end. I'm like, no! This guy deserves to like get dropped down a well. kind of so shitty Kind of like the the end though, where they've both done so much horrible stuff to each other that like, he's like about to say like, I'm sorry. I actually do love you. I'm sorry for everything that I did. And she cuts him off and she's just like, isn't it great that neither of us have to say we're sorry because we're both such pieces of shit. Yeah.
00:43:26
Speaker
Like, let's just let's just not and enjoy the rest of our lives together. don't know. i I wish that that sentiment came across stronger. I feel like the ending of this movie, to me, just felt very unearned.
00:43:38
Speaker
Like, the oh writing just feels... I think that's possible also especially compared to Notorious, which is, like, a rock-solid screenplay. Notorious is so well-written. Whereas I think Gilda is, like, a very sloppy screenplay that is mostly an excuse for, like...
00:43:56
Speaker
Ray DeHaworth musical numbers and like crime stuff to happen. And it's like, it doesn't feel like it all fits together. It's just kind of like, ah you know, movie stuff.
00:44:09
Speaker
I think it it worked for me okay. I was having a fun time with it. I think like yeah one of the kind of main sort of plot elements in this is that there is... you know ah Johnny Farrell kind of gets recruited by this ah this guy who has married Gilda, who is his recent...
00:44:30
Speaker
ah his recent ex. ah and She comes back into his life because his boss, who has kind of brought him up from nothing to become the second in command of this illegal casino slash tungsten cartel.
00:44:45
Speaker
And then, and know, a tungsten cartel. And then, and then he's like, what do you think of my new wife? And he's like, that Doesn't want to say that this is his ex yeah from four weeks ago. evil ex is here.
00:45:02
Speaker
and And she's married to my boss. whoa ah But yeah, I kind of... the The way the Nazis kind of figure into this is that like they they had a sort of tungsten cartel and they sold off with like a kind of handshake deal all of their tungsten ownership to ah to the boss man and then they kind of come knocking saying like, hey, the war's over.
00:45:31
Speaker
Give us our tungsten back. Yeah. I do think it's kind of funny. There's a scene in this movie where they have to explain ah what a cartel is. I mean, you know, i i don't think a lot of people know what a cartel is. Like, I didn't know until pretty recently. But it's like, you know, people just think of the cartel of like. Right. But I i think like that association didn't really exist yet, at least in the United States.
00:45:57
Speaker
Right. Right. And so, don't know, it's just that there's, like, this guy's like, have ever heard of the word cartel? And I'm like, I have. But it's, like, audiences in 1946, feel like we're getting, you know, introduced to the idea of cartels. The economic concept of a cartel.
00:46:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly. But also, right, it's, like, I had never actually heard a, like, full just, like, description of, like, what a cartel is. Basically, basically an international monopoly and ah and an agreement between different groups to fix prices.
00:46:32
Speaker
and then And then there's this whole thing of it's like, i I realized once I poured over all the documents that the one who controls the tungsten controls the world.
00:46:45
Speaker
ah Which, yeah, it's it's kind of an interesting sort of ah weirdly kind of in the weeds, like bureaucratic economic kind of thing going on in this movie about like a love triangle, you know?
00:46:59
Speaker
Right, and another thing where, like, I hate to compare this constantly to Notorious, but I do feel like there are so many similarities, and I feel like this movie fails in a lot of ways where that movie succeeds. It's like, they got, like, uranium.
00:47:12
Speaker
Nazis want to get uranium to, like, build bombs with. And this is, like, they want a tungsten cartel to like, fix prices and for, like, industrial things. You know, it's like, I just feel like the the machinations feel a lot more...
00:47:28
Speaker
convoluted in ways that don't necessarily benefit the the storytelling i guess uh yeah don't know i liked it i had fun time with it uh some kind of spare observations uh another very cool opening shot we to talk about the famous shot of rita hayworth flipping her hair up oh true yeah yeah when she's first introduced i was like i've seen this before Yeah, well, because she's introduced and her crime boss husband says, Gilda, are you decent?
00:47:57
Speaker
And then it cuts to her flipping her hair up and she's got a ah ah low cut dress and the shot is framed. So you can't really see the dress. You just see her bare shoulders. And it's like, ooh, it's very 1946.
00:48:08
Speaker
very right forty six It's very riskque Yeah. As this whole movie is, I feel like i this movie is very like, check out this gal over here. we're We're definitely in the Hayes era of like, we have figured out how to be as sexy as possible, like while still technically meeting the demands. Yeah. Like i I do think that Rita Hayworth is very attractive in this movie, but I also think there is something that is very kind of leering about this movie has very kind of like,
00:48:41
Speaker
male gaze-y stuff going on. It's very just like, ugh. This movie feels lecherous in in a way that i feel like Big Sleep and a Notorious don't.
00:48:52
Speaker
ah Yeah, i mean I mean, yeah, I think that I don't know, though. I think it kind of works for this movie. I mean, I mean, the whole movie feels very seedy. And and yeah, it's like it is part of the the vibe of it for sure.
00:49:09
Speaker
Hmm. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it's like a sleazy movie from like a male gay I could see the argument for like a kind of male gate. It's certainly, certainly present in this movie, but like, I don't think of it as like a sleazy movie just because like Rita Hayworth is hot, you know?
00:49:32
Speaker
Like, I think that, no, i I think that like, she has like a playfulness to her, um, kind of, I think it's like, it's more that the ways that the other characters in the movie itself kind of treats her.
00:49:45
Speaker
I think there's there's definitely, I think, a degree of kind of judgment on the narrative of the film itself. And I mean, against Gilda. Yeah. And there's also like a lot of like, like moving her around, like she's like a like a hacky sack between between people.
00:50:00
Speaker
And like there's I mean, I think that like, honestly, the movie does comment on that because there's like this whole thing at the end of like how, you know, ah Johnny is able to marry her.
00:50:13
Speaker
in order to exact just complete control over her life. And like, there's this whole thing about like, whether she can get divorced or get an annulment and like what's possible, like in different countries. That was the point where I was like, okay, Johnny is irredeemable. Like this guy is not like, I want to see this guy eaten by a lion. at ah Yeah. Because it's like, she is, I mean, this movie I think is pretty clearly commenting on just like how, um,
00:50:38
Speaker
like horrific how horrifically she can be treated just because she's married to somebody basically and i think for for a lot of them a lot of the time the movie is on gilda's side yeah is yeah sympathetic towards gilda i think gilda is the most sympathetic character in the movie and the only character that i was really rooting for at any point i liked the bathroom attendant he was the most oh yeah he was great character i i agree i also like the bathroom he was cool um And like I do think there is A degree to which Gilda is like very self-possessed And knows what she wants And is like I could also see this movie There being a sort of reading Of it that is more empowering Towards her But I think the movie kind of ah Shoots itself in the foot by having Johnny be like alright now let's go run off Because we're both big pieces of shit And I'm like no
00:51:32
Speaker
johnny Johnny can drown in a puddle of mud. The evil um kind of crime boss who owns ah the casino and all that, he's got kind of a Claude Rains-y sort of vibe to him with this like... He's got a sword cane, yeah. he's and And he's got like this you know British accent, this threatening British accent. Oh, God, what's the actor's name? George McCready, right? That's right, yeah.
00:51:56
Speaker
And he's he's has a he has a big scar on his face. It looks like a dueling scar. It's not... it's I forget how he actually got the scar. It was something a lot more innocuous. He played a lot of villains. And greg he has a very sort of like aristocratic manner to him. Yeah.
00:52:13
Speaker
um And he's got this big scar on his face that is like such a kind of like very classical villain looking scar, I guess. But I think he kind of was able to use that as as a as a performer and in a lot of ways, hes able to ah capitalize on that to get cast as a lot of aristocratic villains and such.
00:52:35
Speaker
He was, he was ah his name is Balin in the movie, ah but it's spelled Balin. If only his name was Balin. So my my partner walked in like and looked at the screen, and there's a point where like Johnny is like just stands up and he and like the the the the the captions or whatever that just says, Balin. Yeah.
00:53:00
Speaker
Weeball. So, yeah, I... Not my favorite movie of the bunch, but there there was also a lot to enjoy in it, for sure. I mean, it's got a lot of great noir-ish shit going on. And also, great good songs. this This has, like, multiple, just, like, full songs in it.
00:53:20
Speaker
Where Rita Hayworth is just singing and dancing and doing... fun stuff. Yeah. I, I, I rewatched it happened one night recently. And i was thinking that while I watched this movie, that movie and this movie of just like more more movies should just stop and have a song.
00:53:38
Speaker
Why not? I agree. Like, I absolutely agree. Like, and there's not like, not in the, the sort of Marx Brothers way where it is just like, we are going to cut to a different set where they do a song and then it's going to cut back to the rest of the movie. Yeah.
00:53:53
Speaker
Yeah, no, like I like the, um you know, I like the diegetic song performances. In It Happened One Night, you're just like listening to, they're on the bus and they're just playing, playing music or singing and playing music. And you're just sitting there enjoying it. You're enjoying the ride on the bus.
00:54:09
Speaker
And the movie just stops for a second and you just have fun. And it's great. And also, you know, she's in nightclub and you're listening to her sing. And it's great in this. I will say the counterpoint yeah to every movie should just stop.
00:54:20
Speaker
and have a song is Austin Powers 2, which, which um when when that happened, I watched Austin Powers 2 for the first time recently, and I was like, what the hell is this? like where it's something with Which song is Austin 2? There's like a horrific rap that Dr. Evil does. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah in Austin Powers 2. It's so unfunny. Okay, because they're like, the b BBC song, great.
00:54:50
Speaker
Daddy Wasn't There, also great. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. songs that Austin sings, I think i'm I'm a fan of. I do agree that the prison rap in 2, it's not as funny as the movie thinks it is, and that's that's the problem. I think Austin Powers, I love Austin Powers 1. I think Austin Powers 2 is awful.
00:55:08
Speaker
ah And Austin Powers 3 is okay. There's my review. I think that's i think it's that's a fair. The rest of this podcast is now going to be at Austin Powers.
Post-WWII Trauma in Films
00:55:17
Speaker
ah Unless we have anything else to say about Gilda, I think we can move on to another film about lingering effects of World War II. Yes.
00:55:28
Speaker
This is sort of a ah maybe ah a thin connection. No, no, no. It works. You got you got the segues on lock in this episode. A much more dramatic, austere film.
00:55:40
Speaker
The Best Heroes of Our Lives. Directed by William Wyler. Yeah. Who was in World War Two making documentaries and propaganda films.
00:55:52
Speaker
and who I found out recently, went deaf from being on a ah in a bomber that was too loud. And he permanently lost hearing. Wow.
00:56:04
Speaker
That I think eventually he got some of it back, and like he had hearing aids throughout the whole rest of his life. But yeah, like went into World War with ears that worked, and came out of it at least partially deaf.
00:56:15
Speaker
I mean, that really just touches on like one of the main things to talk about this mo with this movie, is um yeah this... like ah Really sympathetic um and, ah you know, woke for its time, certainly. like um Like depiction of disability. ah Yeah. and yeah um I think, you know, broadly you could say that this movie is about like trauma and PTSD and and just like...
00:56:44
Speaker
the ways that coming back from war affects you. It follows three characters who meet in a plane on the way back from World War two and come back to the same town and have are trying are reintegrating into their lives, basically. But ah what I was referring to earlier is this one character who lost both of his hands.
00:57:06
Speaker
And um and it has the movie spends a lot of time, like, with him grappling with his own feelings about his new, you know, his his hook hands that he's got and how he navigates other people's reactions to his hook hands.
00:57:29
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and also very notably played by ah Harold Russell, who plays ah Homer, the guy with the the hooks, who actually did lose his hands in World War And so it's like he was and he was not a professional actor.
00:57:46
Speaker
I think William Miller had seen it There was a like like a short documentary short about him just in sort of like how he was able to like readjust and learn to use prosthetic hands.
00:57:58
Speaker
And William Myler was like, I think the book this was based on had a third character that was like dealing with much more like kind of like psychological PTSD type symptoms.
00:58:08
Speaker
And William Myler rewrote the movie to be like, no, we're getting this guy. We're putting this guy in the movie, um even though he's not an actor. um And he's so good in the movie that he won not one, but two Oscars for the same role, which has never happened before or since.
00:58:24
Speaker
Yeah. um He was given he won Best Supporting Actor, which he was nominated for with a bunch of other people. And then he was also given like an honorary Oscar for inspiring people just through like being in this movie, which is crazy.
00:58:40
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. And I think it really kind of speaks at the Times to have just sort of like. the immediate like post-war mindset in America where like give this guy an extra Oscar just because of like him showing people, even if you come back with missing limbs or if you, if you come back, you know, feeling damaged in some way, like there, there is hope.
00:59:04
Speaker
The movie spends a lot of time just focusing on like how dexterous he is with his prosthetic hands. Yeah. Including like, like focusing on um him lighting cigarettes, which is kind of lighting cigarettes, writing stuff like, you know, unbuttoning a shirt. But I mean, like, you know, like ah another movie that deals with like, you know, physical disability that we've covered is Freaks, which just pauses the movie. has a lot of cigarette stuff which pauses the movie to show a guy with no arms and no legs rolling a cigar like a like a cigarette with his mouth and smoking it yeah uh it was one of the three most important things a human could do in the 1920s or 40s is is smoking a cigarette you're like can you walk can you open doors can you smoke a cigarette okay you're good you're set you can live life
01:00:00
Speaker
ah Speaking of the cigarettes, though, there's a scene, a movie that we didn't cover from the early 30s that I saw at a screening at the Library of Congress recently is called The Match King.
01:00:11
Speaker
And it's about like this kind of guy who rises to the top of... industry and like become super rich and powerful, uh, from, uh, and it's this kind of semi fictionalized, like, like biography of this real guy, ah who ran a match company.
01:00:31
Speaker
Uh, and in the movie, it shows him, kind of coming up with this marketing thing of trying to like spread the idea that it's bad luck to light a cigarette with more than to light more than two cigarettes with one match, uh, in order to get people to light more matches.
01:00:50
Speaker
And, um, there's a part in this movie where Homer is like saying like, Oh, you know, like I'm going to light another match because I've already lit your two cigarettes and I need to light a new one. Cause I don't want to do something unlucky.
01:01:03
Speaker
Which um I thought was oh interesting. Yeah. Either that was a cultural thing that existed pre Match King or Match King put that out into the.
01:01:14
Speaker
Oh, no, like like I think Match King was referencing the real cultural thing. OK, OK. See, I don't know. Cigarette culture. I don't I'm not I'm not up on these things.
01:01:26
Speaker
Yeah, ah this movie ah is very good. it I can only imagine how hard it hit for audiences when it came out because it it is like... It's so... It's very real. it's just very It's very emotional and it is very... It's like... It's not...
01:01:45
Speaker
It's really refreshingly and not melodramatic in most cases. Like, I think I was sort of expecting it to be a little bit more like... Like schmaltzy. Anguish! Yeah. And, yeah, schmaltzy. And it really isn't. It's very... It feels very well observed.
01:01:59
Speaker
And it also... i like... Because it's following three different characters, we're seeing, like, a good... I mean, it's still, they're all white men still. So it's like that the the cultural snapshot we're getting isn't the widest, but it is like we're getting, each of them have very different home lives and like reactions to coming back from war.
01:02:19
Speaker
None of them are like these like bombastic, they're all just like subtle ways in which they feel out of place or out of touch or sort of like, you know that they That they have you know gone off and done this you know horrific thing that's incredibly traumatic for them and then come back and then it's like their hometown has kind of moved on without them to a certain degree.
01:02:45
Speaker
Because there's there's Homer with the hook hands There's, I forget the other two's names. There's there's out like Al Stevenson, who is the, who's played by um Frederick March.
01:02:58
Speaker
um Yeah. which i Our old pal, Frederick March. I did not recognize him in this at all. No, definitely recognized him, but I, i it is, i had not seen any Frederick March movies before starting this podcast. And now I feel like I'm like seeing like a ah mean like his entire career play out. Yeah, seriously.
01:03:17
Speaker
Once again, playing an alcoholic, which I'm like, this guy is, either he's getting really typecast, or like he's got a thing about playing alcohol. it's a different It's a different take on an alcoholic, though. I think it's honestly like a more nuanced, good take on an alcoholic than...
01:03:33
Speaker
um than in Star is Born. Yeah. It feels a lot less judgmental than Star is Born or ah Merrily We Go to Hell.
01:03:45
Speaker
Oh, that's right. Yeah, Merrily We Go to Hell, too. i yeah i And then also... And kind of designed for living a little bit, too. his um I thought it was kind of interesting also that you know the alcoholic's wife in this movie is played by Myrna Loy,
01:04:02
Speaker
uh, who gets left to play the wife of an alcoholic. No, I like, she gets top billing in this movie, which is interesting, but also like, yeah, it's like the thin man. It's like a completely opposite, you know, situation of the thin man where it's all just like, we're going to have so much fun being completely sloshed and solving a crime.
01:04:21
Speaker
And, uh, and this one's like, okay, um, you know, are you drinking a little too much? Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is kind of interesting that Myrna Loy is first billed because I think she was like the biggest star when this movie came out.
01:04:36
Speaker
So it was like that was going to sell the movie. It's like put Myrna Loy up front. First on the call sheet. Probably. Right. So ah Al.
01:04:47
Speaker
And then there's Fred. Homer has got is his his his sweetheart that he's not married to. back home. And then Fred, our last guy, is married, but ah sort of comes from, like, much...
01:05:03
Speaker
like we get the sense that Al has like a very nice apartment and Fred is like living with his parents in the kind of but like the, the rundown part of town a bit more. yeah And then he finds out that his, his wife has moved out and like found her own apartment somewhere and is working at a nightclub. But so they all, they all hit the town together at, at Hobie Carmichael's bar at Butch's.
01:05:30
Speaker
And there were also even like, they're all different ranks and like the ranks don't really correspond to like, like Fred is the highest ranked, but he sort of comes from like the least money. And then like, I, I, I i definitely thought there was like a deliberate kind of,
01:05:46
Speaker
dynamic there where like their ranks don't correspond to their like societal status uh-huh and when they come back home and they're from different branches too they're like army navy and air force right right um yeah fred was a uh a a bomber And it's like, hey, ah he's looking for jobs. And they're like, hey, what skills do you have? And he was like, I was i was a soda jerk. And and then I was bomber. can aim bombs really well.
01:06:15
Speaker
they're like, well, we don't really have any use for that. So you're going to go back to your job as a soda jerk. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, this movie, ah like I think like we were talking about, like it is...
01:06:26
Speaker
using these three characters to examine different aspects ah of the kind of returning to civilization experience ah for people who have just been at war.
01:06:39
Speaker
And the issue of employment is, and basically fret Fred is all about like, ah what does your army experience or your air force experience like mean um in as you're trying to reintegrate into society.
01:06:58
Speaker
But then also he's the one who kind of represents PTSD in this movie yeah as well, ah where he's constantly, he keeps having these recurring nightmares that are like reenacting this kind of horrific scene from his, ah from his past or from his, from, from when he was in and and and a plane.
01:07:18
Speaker
And like different characters have different levels of like sympathy, basically, for um for for his experience. Yeah. And then yeah and then one one for disability and one for... ah ah i don't want to and want to drink my problems away, basically.
01:07:35
Speaker
Although I don't think that like the um the Al character is like necessarily a you know sad drunk. that's but No.
01:07:46
Speaker
and i like I do feel like Al's character is dealing with a lot of like, he's dealing with like family stuff a lot of sort of like, there's a degree to which also like his family has kind of become more, I guess, autonomous without him there. And so he's like, I'm like the man, he comes he's like, I'm the man of the house. and they were like, cool, like we're going to work.
01:08:07
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like his kids are older, so it's like, You know, there's there's that thing where it's like he he feels sort of like so out of touch with them, too. And then, yeah, his his one daughter is ah falling in love with Fred, too. So that leads to a whole whole lot of drama there.
01:08:27
Speaker
um The the the like romantic subplot between Fred and what's her name? Wilma. al's daughter is like it definitely starts out oh no wilma no uh wilma is homer's uh uh oh no it's not homer it's peggy fred fred and wilma are from the flintstones but this does have two characters named fred and wilma true that's right fred and peggy it starts out where fred is drunk
01:08:59
Speaker
And Peggy lets him sleep in her bed. um and then he wakes up in her bed that morning, not really remembering the night before. And it's like, uh, like, did I do anything bad? And she's like, no, it's fine. Don't worry about it.
01:09:12
Speaker
And this was ah um Peggy. ah We saw her in ah Shadow of a Doubt. Yeah. Very true. Muriel Wright. It took took me a second to recognize her, but Teresa. Teresa Wright.
01:09:27
Speaker
Muriel Teresa Wright. like Another thing with Al is that this movie like kind of touches on microaggressions before ah before that term had any kind of existence ah in in the parlance.
01:09:42
Speaker
His journey, Homer's journey in this... um ah Homer's Odyssey in this movie is kind of about like him not accepting that other people will accept him and him grappling with like everyone. There's a point where he's like,
01:10:03
Speaker
either everyone is staring at my hooks or not, or, or deliberately staring away from my hooks. And yeah um that feels very real. they Like, I mean, yeah, you know, I've definitely been in a situation where like somebody kind of has some kind of like, um you know, don't, I don't know what, what like they have something kind of,
01:10:26
Speaker
going on like physically that, uh, I like you immediately have to make this decision of like, do like, okay, I don't stare, but I don't not stare too much.
01:10:40
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And it's a, it feels very, it feels very real. It's like the ways that people struggle, ah with, dealing with that. Like, you don't want to be a jerk about it, ah but there's like there's, like, different ways of being a jerk about it.
01:10:55
Speaker
And, like, you can see from a Homer's perspective all of the ways that he's feeling sensitive to that. And, yeah, it it does definitely feel like Harold Russell, the the actor who plays Homer, is, like, definitely drawing upon a lot of his real experience, I'm sure, with that.
01:11:14
Speaker
Like, for for someone who had never acted on camera before... um I mean, he's playing a sort of ah play character that's not that far off from his himself, but like he really he brings it.
01:11:27
Speaker
He does a really good job. but Yeah. Also, like I think some i I was thinking about just in like the right the the ways in which this movie deals with right people returning from war with injuries or not being able to find work because like their skills don't translate things like that. Like these are all things that are still problems now.
01:11:48
Speaker
like better yeah These are all problems that veterans still have now that they also had after World War II. None of to it. that's that none of this has has been like ah dressed To a degree where it, you know, that feels acceptable.
01:12:05
Speaker
It's well observed, certainly. I think that, um yeah I also really like that this movie, I think it kind of resists jingoism for the most part. Like, yeah, which I think is sort of refreshing for a movie all about like, you know, military people, right? It's like, it's a movie that is not,
01:12:25
Speaker
you know It's treating what they you know the what they did seriously and ah you know relatively reverently, but not like rah-rah reverently. you know yeah it's It's just dealing with them as people in like a very human way, which I think is it's not something that you typically see for like a military-related picture.
01:12:50
Speaker
Right. it's It's a very like pro veteran movie. And it's very sympathetic towards like the the issues that veterans have to deal with while still not. Yeah. Not feeling egoistic, which I'm sure also was like a thing that William Wyler was.
01:13:04
Speaker
and i don't know how much of that was like a deliberate attempt to like do it that way. But it it feels like he is also putting a lot of his own war experience into this movie. I think there's a there's the one scene where they're at a bar and there's a or at like a diner.
01:13:20
Speaker
And there's a guy reading a paper who, or no, it's not a diner. It's at the like the department store where Fred works. He goes back to his job at the department store and he's like working at the beauty counter and has a soda jerk and making ice cream for people.
01:13:39
Speaker
And there is something I think that is kind of funny about I think deliberately a little bit funny, but like Dana Andrews who plays Fred is like a very like stock 1940s, like square jawed looking dude. yeah And I think there is a like deliberate way in which they're like, not necessarily emasculating him, but they're like, they're taking this like very kind of like classical, like World War II hero looking guy and putting him in these like, v like jobs that like teenagers would have.
01:14:09
Speaker
Yeah. um And that does feel very deliberate that he's sort of like I like went away for like four years and like was Blowing things up and now I come back and it's like here go like make this ice cream cone for someone That's the only job you can get. Yeah, it's like, you know I was a kid and then I went and like became a man But now I can't carry that on because nobody cares about what I did and so now I go back to being a kid again basically Yeah.
01:14:37
Speaker
But so there's a scene where he's right we're working in the the ice cream counter or whatever. And Homer's there. And there's another guy who is basically saying like, we we as like the country of America, like joined the wrong side of the war.
01:14:53
Speaker
Like he was saying like, He's a Nazi sympathizer. He's like, we we shouldn't have fought them. We should have joined that side. And Homer is like, go fuck yourself, asshole.
01:15:04
Speaker
as As does Fred. And they get into a big fight and Fred gets fired because he socks him one. as As he should have. um But that, it's... I was surprised at that scene in 1946 that they would even have a character like voice that.
01:15:20
Speaker
That there would be post-World War II Nazi sympathizers just like... out and about, which is kind of, i mean, feels very, it it felt very, don't know, prescient or it it hit home,
01:15:37
Speaker
i watching it in 2025 for sure. The first neo-Nazi. I mean, far from the first. um The first neo-Nazi in this movie. Okay, yeah, yeah, church or true, true, true.
01:15:52
Speaker
But right, even like the fact that this movie is addressing how like not all Americans were like on board with fighting the Nazis. Yeah. Before or after World War II. Right. Yeah. um And even like that too kind of feels like a surprising, don't know, just a surprising thing to put in this movie.
01:16:12
Speaker
More nuanced than, feel like I'm giving like backhanded compliments. Like I'm surprised this movie is smart. but But um I think it's, it's 1940s movies tend to have very sort of like broad themes, like big ideas and like,
01:16:30
Speaker
They don't necessarily trade in subtlety as much as this does. um And, I mean, this movie won Best Picture at the Oscars in 1946.
01:16:42
Speaker
I'm stunned at how little we pay attention to the Best Picture. Right, because oh that's the thing about Best Picture is, like, a lot of those movies are kind of forgotten or, like, don't feel like they're necessarily, like, the most culturally relevant movie from every year. so it it does feel like...
01:16:57
Speaker
They don't always align with like the movies that get remembered the most. Apparently, Steven Spielberg watches this movie once a year. It's one of his favorites. um So that's fun. I finished watching that Netflix documentary Five Came Back about William Myler and John Huston and ah Frank Capra, all the guys who like went off to work for like the World War II filmmaking and like all of their experiences and stuff kind of afterwards.
01:17:26
Speaker
And so there's a good chunk of that about this movie and about like Harold Russell and about William Weillard sort of like taking his war experience and like putting all of that into into this and like trying to kind of make this movie too as a like way to kind of support his like all the people that he had uh served with which is kind of i like that sentiment i guess of it but like Because I think part of this movie is also very much about like civilians on the home front who like don't understand what people went through.
01:18:03
Speaker
Right. And kind of don't understand like the psychological place that they're at. I also feel like, i don't know, the such small potatoes compared to World War two But I feel like even like pre and post COVID, the degree to which it there was just a feeling of like,
01:18:20
Speaker
Stuff has changed and I don't feel comfortable anymore. Right. Like that, there was, that was just a way that I feel like I was able to kind of relate to it in a more personal
Cinematography in Post-War Films
01:18:32
Speaker
way.
01:18:32
Speaker
Like that. It reminded me of that feeling of just like, Oh yeah. Things are like, I'm trying to like go back to the things I used to do and it doesn't feel the same. Interesting. Yeah, true.
01:18:43
Speaker
Yeah. The, some, some context has changed, uh, uh, for, in both yourself and the world, uh, in both yeah cases. Yeah.
01:18:55
Speaker
I don't have a lot more to say, but like ah one spare note is that Greg Toland did the cinematography here. And there are couple of shots with just incredibly deep focus, like yeah wacky stuff going on where like somebody you're supposed to be paying attention to somebody in like a tiny little corner of the screen, like 400 feet away.
01:19:14
Speaker
It does feel like even if I didn't know that I'd be like, did Greg Toland shoot this movie? has It has a lot of his signature stuff in it. Also, one thing they point out in that documentary that I think Spielberg talks about in it is how like the movie is very visually is is pretty um not generic but it's pretty plain like just there's like the deep focus stuff but it's very like can the camera doesn't really move it's very sort of like here's a room here's people talking that's what we're going to show you and it doesn't it doesn't look bad it look bland but it's not like the camera's not doing a lot
01:19:48
Speaker
um until the scene where Fred goes to, he's like looking for work, he gets fired from his ice cream job, and then he goes to an airplane graveyard full of like old bombers and fighters that have been like stripped for parts, and he's walking through this like forest of like decommissioned airplanes it's such a and stunning and like stunning image suddenly we're going to like crane shots and dolly moves and stuff and it's like it feels like it's we're getting like drawn into his brain yeah way because like the movie has been so restrained with its camera moves up until that point
01:20:29
Speaker
And then it's like putting all of it into this one scene that is all wordless. If it was like walking through this stuff, it's a plain graveyard. lane And he is, he is you know, that it's a, it, it, it feels like a graveyard for all of the people who died around him. Also like it, it, yeah it it is like this really eerie. Yeah. Like forest. You were saying, well,
01:20:55
Speaker
There's all these like they're they're set up in these like long rows and it's like making all these kind of weird geometric shapes and things. It's really striking. It's a. Yeah. And it feels really just especially like visually distinctly different from the rest of the movie.
01:21:09
Speaker
Yeah, and then there's a part where he climbs into a bomber and sort of tries to have this sort of ah experience. Like he just kind of sits there and almost like almost just kind of meditates in a way to just like kind of try and like get through his experience to try and like put himself back in a bomber in a completely safe place and like relive it in his mind to like get through it.
01:21:36
Speaker
And then the camera also the camera does all this like subjective stuff around him while that's happening. I think it's kind of him like returning home a little bit too. Like he's returned to, he's returned home to like his hometown, but then it's like, he feels so out of place. And so he goes to this airplane graveyard and goes and sits in the bomber and he's like, Oh, I like, he doesn't, this is never expressed in the movie, but I'm, I get the sense just through context clues that like, that is a moment where he's like,
01:22:04
Speaker
I've spent so much time sitting in the front of a bomber that this now feels more comfortable or more safe or more like home. It's a womb, which is heartbreaking. It's ah it's a, he's returning to a womb of safety.
01:22:18
Speaker
If you want to get all like Freudian on it, you know, I, but I feel like that's, that's there in the movie. Yeah. like it's yeah bit Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's like the movie is dipping into, I think, much not necessarily surrealism, but it's dipping into sort of a little bit more of that kind of like heady psychological imagery, I guess, than the rest of it.
01:22:41
Speaker
Yeah, good stuff. And then the ah Homer and Wilmot get married at the end and everyone is happy. Yeah. And then Fred and Peggy get together, too, after Fred leaves his wife because his wife is mean to him.
01:22:55
Speaker
We didn't really talk about that plot. It's a love triangle, whatever. Yeah. yeah um How many love triangles have we if we covered? It's ridiculous. too many Far too many.
01:23:09
Speaker
Quick, one last thing. i do want to shout out Dana Andrews. Drunk walk acting, i think, is phenomenal in this movie. Like his walk of like, he's like standing kind of too straight.
01:23:21
Speaker
It's that thing of like good drunk acting is like trying to act sober, you know? And it's like just his like very, he's like slow walk when he's like, you can tell that he's just like trying to keep himself upright.
01:23:33
Speaker
I was like, I know that walk. That's good. That's good drunk acting right there. Another movie. by a an american director who went off to join the war effort and is making their big sort of first post-war movie and also features uh some some good drunk acting true is uh i think probably the most famous movie from 1946 yeah you're right it's a wonderful life it's a wonderful life christmas classic yeah yeah um
01:24:07
Speaker
Yes.
Exploring 'It's a Wonderful Life'
01:24:08
Speaker
Also, maybe the most famous Frank Capper movie? question mark Yeah, you know you know, now that you're saying all this, you're definitely correct that it's the most famous Frank Capper movie and the most famous movie in this episode.
01:24:20
Speaker
ah ah movie that notably was not that famous, not that beloved at the time, and then became a staple from being on TV all the time. ah Which is crazy to me because this movie is really good. It's really, really good.
01:24:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. This is like his right. Frank Capra is like big, you know, his first movie back after World War Two. And even though it isn't directly, I mean, it's partially about addresses World War Two. There's like, you know, it that happens in the plot of the movie.
01:24:54
Speaker
But it's not a war movie. It's not really about... yeah like this in the in Not in the same way that Best Year preserv of Our Lives is. But I think it's psychologically... it is sort of like metatextually about World War II in a similar way.
01:25:10
Speaker
ah How do you mean? um I think in the the sense of... ah I don't know. Do we want to a synopsis? George Bailey is sort of sacrificing so much of himself for his community and doesn't feel like he is being seen for it. And that he feels like he has sort of wasted so much of his life, the best years of his life, perhaps. He's, he's always choosing to help people over helping himself.
01:25:38
Speaker
And, yeah and he, and he feels unappreciated and he feels like he's not bitter though. It's just that like, He's kind of bitter at times. I think he's not... he's i think Well, when you say it, it's like he's not bitter at other people.
01:25:53
Speaker
He's just... He's bitter at himself. He feels unfulfilled when he is constantly choosing to not fulfill himself. Yeah. Right. He's constantly choosing other people's needs over his own. Yeah.
01:26:07
Speaker
Big mood. Right. um I mean, this was also ah Jimmy Stewart's first movie um after World War Two. He also fought. yeah I mean, he was like in a bomber in World War Two.
01:26:20
Speaker
He was like constantly trying to get like not preferential treatment because he was a movie star. He was like, no, like send me to France, send me to Germany. I want to actually do stuff. I want to actually do stuff.
01:26:33
Speaker
Let me do some stuff. Go out there and and drop bombs.
01:26:38
Speaker
And so like there's, I guess we'll get into it as we talk about the movie, but like there's there's been, I think, you know, much written about how like, His his like psychological state after World War Two adds so much to this performance where it's like he he was able to bring so much more emotion and depth to it because he was like drawing upon the his own, you know, not necessarily like.
01:27:06
Speaker
yeah, his own trauma or his own experiences. He, he plays haunted well at points in this movie, I guess to, to, to summarizing, summarizing also is that like, yeah, uh, he does all this stuff. He takes over his dad's company that helps people who are struggling to buy homes, the building and loan, the building alone.
01:27:27
Speaker
ah and there's an evil banker, ah who he kind of is, is always trying to take him down. ah and, eventually there's some misplaced money that ends up in this banker's hands. And he says, now is my time.
01:27:43
Speaker
I'm going to use this to destroy him. Uh, and he starts becoming destroyed. and there's this whole framing device of like, we're watching through his life as being described to his guardian angel.
01:27:59
Speaker
which Clarence. There's a ah moment where he he has his life insurance policy and he's told he's worth more dead than alive. He's about to kill himself and then his guardian angel steps in and shows him all of the ways that ah that the world is better. Well, because he's he's he's talking to the... right He's going to jump off a bridge.
01:28:22
Speaker
The guardian angel jumps into the river ahead of him, so he jumps off the bridge to save Clarence, who he doesn't yet know as an angel. And while he's talking to Clarence, he says, i wish I was never been born.
01:28:34
Speaker
And Clarence is like, I can
Critique of Gender Roles in 'It's a Wonderful Life'
01:28:36
Speaker
arrange that. to And so in order to show George Bailey how much of a wonderful life he has lived, he shows him what the world would be. He transports him to an alternate reality in which he had never been born. And he sees his wonderful hometown Bedford Falls.
01:28:55
Speaker
The most American town that has ever existed. He he he sees his Back to the Future 2 nightmare. What? Exactly. Yeah. Back to the Future 2. Very inspired by this movie, I'm sure. where Which has now become Pottersville one run by Potter, the evil banker.
01:29:11
Speaker
um And, you know, all of all of the good deeds that he has done over his life haven't happened. And so the town is just a sort of a ah cesspool of of capitalism.
01:29:22
Speaker
And I do think it's funny that they're like, the the town has been ruined. It's full of nightclubs. yeah A lot of anti-nightclub sentiment in these movies. Very much so, yeah. There's there's also like a part where... Pro-alcoholism, but anti-nightclub.
01:29:36
Speaker
He ah is trying to check in on all of the people in his life ah when he has never been born. And he's like, what about my wife? Like, what about this person that I love? And then and then his guardian angel's like, oh you don't want to see that.
01:29:50
Speaker
She's a 36-year-old unmarried librarian.
01:29:57
Speaker
What a loser. That is, i think, the part of the movie that I don't really have, I think, is right to be criticized. I think that that point kind of sucks.
01:30:10
Speaker
I've heard arguments for and against it. I've heard people, I've heard readings of it that are more positive and aren't sort of so kind of misogynist.
01:30:24
Speaker
But, um yeah, I'm not a big fan of the Mary becomes an old maid thing. A spinster. you're You're mentioning, you know, all the small town and all these people who, um you know, know each other and everything. And while I was making this movie, this doesn't hit every point, but I was kind of making a bullet list of Capricorn attributes. Right. Yeah.
01:30:48
Speaker
We got small town. ah We got everyone loves the main character and he knows everyone in this small town. yeah We have a very earnest main character who believes in stuff and wants to make the – believes in principles.
01:31:04
Speaker
But Gates takes an advantage of because of that ah goodness. Yep. ah This movie doesn't have this, but we but we have the cynical woman who whose cynicism is defeated ah by the main character and comes to believe in stuff.
Capra's Themes and Style
01:31:21
Speaker
I would kind of argue that um it's not she's not as big of a character in this, but um what's her name? Violet, who's sort of the like...
01:31:32
Speaker
The more... um I don't know, because there's like Mary who's like that the the nice girl that he marries. And Violet is the one who's always kind of like trying to seduce him away. Or to like lead him more to like... ah There's sort of this road not taken, I guess, sort of with Violet.
01:31:49
Speaker
um I do think Violet has a bit of a sort of like... She's presented, I guess, as a slightly more cynical character. She doesn't really fit in that archetype. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm grasping at straws here.
01:32:01
Speaker
ah ah Other, other points, ah working class families that also have servants for some reason. um Right. Chaotic families, America rules. In, in, ah in um in the best years of our lives. When al comes is back, he's like, Oh, like it's the maid's day off. And they're like Oh no, we got rid of the maid. We can't afford one anymore. And I was like, you could afford a maid before.
01:32:23
Speaker
ah but yeah uh capra movie capricor loves america and uh class conscious but not communist and uh and also ah punching solves problems yeah even though i found out the fbi apparently did accuse this movie of being like communist propaganda the fbi The FBI.
01:32:48
Speaker
Goddamn J. Edgar Hoover saw this movie and was like, communism. I mean, that's the thing. It's like, you know, Capra is quite conservative, ah but he makes, I don't, he's nowhere near ah D.W. Griffith levels, but he is making, he he's aware of bad businessmen and is always making movies about ah bad businessmen must be defeated.
01:33:15
Speaker
Yeah. ah The bad businessman in this movie, Mr. Potter, may be one of the most famous evil banker characters in all of American fiction. Yeah. A real Scrooge type.
01:33:26
Speaker
He is a real Scrooge type. Which apparently The reason Lionel Baron Moore was cast is because he had played Scrooge, I think, on the radio. And they were like. Also, I mean, he worked with Capra before. in um you cannot take it with you.
01:33:39
Speaker
Can't take it with you. Or as we call it, quirky grandpa. And here he goes from playing quirky grandpa to evil a banker. Yeah. Not grandpa because he has no children. But. I mean, speaking of ah you, ah you can't take it with you ah in the savings, in the savings alone. ah theres There's a, there's a picture of his dad on the wall with a quote that says, all you can take with you is that what you've given away.
01:34:06
Speaker
ah so it's kind of like so hitting the same idea of like, you know, yeah. Don't don't you can't take your money with you into the afterlife. Like do good things yeah while you're alive. Basically, there's right. There's a lot of recurring actors in this movie from that from that one and a lot of recurring, I think, thematic ideas. I think this movie is so much better than you can take it with. you Yeah. Yeah. Like.
01:34:30
Speaker
Hot take, It's a Wonderful Life, I think is great and rules. And I watch it every year. This is only my second time seeing it. I saw it for the first time recently and I was shocked at the suicide angle in it. Yeah, it's dark. it is It is funny that this is like a classic Christmas movie because it only like maybe 20 minutes of it of it take place around Christmas. Yeah.
01:34:53
Speaker
And it is. it is. really surprisingly dark for a like light family comedy as it usually remembered as, but it works. I think the darkness, you know, it balances. This is the kind of movie to move you to tears sort of thing. It's a very, it's a very, it gets you in the feelings.
01:35:10
Speaker
And I think it needs that darkness in order to, but it's like, but it's, it's happy tears. I feel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This, this movie definitely gets the waterworks going in, in a good way.
01:35:22
Speaker
um But it's like, it feels like it's like cathartic, it's like cathartic tears. It's not like, yeah, this movie is very much not a bummer despite its darkness.
Post-War Performances of Jimmy Stewart
01:35:33
Speaker
Yeah. This is a movie about like somebody losing sight of everyone who loves him and appreciates him. And then in the end of the movie, they're like, of course, we'll help you get out of your jam. We all love you and appreciate you. It's like, oh, yeah.
01:35:51
Speaker
Yeah. So that the scene right before George goes to the bridge to jump, he has this bit where he he he prays. And as he prays, he he breaks down to tears.
01:36:01
Speaker
And apparently, as as the story goes, the tears were unscripted. It was just supposed to be him like sitting there and praying. And then he leaves. But because James Stewart had had, you know, was just like so overwhelmed with emotion shooting the scene because of like, you know, his his years of being in the war and coming back and just like all of these sort of like emotions were sort of like hitting at once.
01:36:27
Speaker
And he actually broke down while they were shooting it. And so that's what's in the movie. I don't know how true that is. That's sort of one of those like behind the scenes stories that I'm like, I don't know.
01:36:38
Speaker
You know, it's sort of like it's become legend at this point. But I do think there is like, like were saying, like James Stewart plays melancholy really well. And I do think this is definitely one of the movies he's known for, like really hitting the melancholy stuff, even though he does a lot of goofy stuff too. um Early on, especially.
01:36:57
Speaker
i do feel like there is a a noticeable sort of like shift in, in his performance style or in like the roles he takes post war. I think a lot like a lot of people he like his early thirty s It was like 30s and early 40s. Movies are much, much more comedic, much more lighthearted.
01:37:18
Speaker
And I think his like 40s and 50s movies, he goes a bit more into the darkness. Well, he starts working with Hitchcock and then doing all of these all these roles of like very compromised people. ah Obsessive, murderous people. Yeah.
01:37:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's an interesting to see how like... World War II did sort of like affect just people's maybe worldviews to like how they approached storytelling a little
Magical Realism in 'It's a Wonderful Life'
01:37:44
Speaker
bit. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a lot we're not. to There's like lots of like famous scenes, I guess, that we're not talking about. But I'm also kind of like, what what are we going to say about the scene where they're dancing and the floor opens up and they fall in the pool?
01:37:57
Speaker
other than it's great yeah it rules yeah it's a good time dancing but they they fall in the pool and they keep dancing in the water it's it's great yeah this movie this movie like ah like really believes in um in like nice little moments there's the uh there's the part where he is talking to the uh I don't know, more corrupted lady who's still nice.
01:38:19
Speaker
um And he's like, right let's, it's also like very, a very, seems like a very wonderful person. It like doesn't really, you know, but he's like, oh like, Oh, let's all let's go. And we're going to take our shoes off and walk in the grass. And we're going to, we're going to have a, have a time where we're, you know, just really, really getting real. And she's like, ah taking your shoes off. yeah Gross. No, thank you.
01:38:44
Speaker
uh and yeah like the moment to me it's like violet's not real man violet's not real in the same way that mary is yeah you know yeah uh and then of course there's the uh you want the moon i'll i'll lasso it i'll throw around and pull it down for you Yeah, it's a very kind of ah like a hometown girl next door sort of story.
01:39:07
Speaker
yeah Yeah, there's a lot of back and forth with them too. Like George keeps kind of being a jerk to her, I think. And there's like they they're a lot of like kind of near misses with their romance, it feels like. um Like right after the the high school graduation dance where they fall in the pool and they have the the moon talk.
01:39:28
Speaker
he gets the news that his his dad has died. And so that like, kind of like pulls him in a whole nother direction. And then like, they do eventually get married, but then they have to spend all their honeymoon money to keep the building and loan in business.
01:39:42
Speaker
And right. All this sort of like, he keeps deferring his happiness because like something came up, right? Like, Oh, I can't do. ah He keeps wanting to travel the world. And it's like, Nope, you can't do that. Now you've got to stay in town and take over your dad's business.
01:39:55
Speaker
You can't do this. And he's watching everyone else in his life. Go. His brother goes off and joins the art, the air force. And, ah you know, his friends are going off and doing other things. And he yet he keeps having to stay in this town.
01:40:08
Speaker
And it you do feel it. I think that it's like you feel his frustration, even though he is he is living a very nice life. Right. He's like has has a ah ah nice marriage. He has nice kids.
01:40:21
Speaker
Everyone, everyone likes him. Yeah. You know, like, but it's this thing. It's like, oh, he keeps wanting to like do other things. And like the, the universe is like not letting him almost.
01:40:33
Speaker
um And so when he hits his low point, it does. It just feels like there's like so much of this like pent up. Yeah. Just emotion in that. Like, even though everything's nice, you can believe the moment that he's about to commit suicide.
01:40:51
Speaker
Right. Yeah. He does. He does snap at his wife and all of his kids. And that i he always I always get so mad at him when he does that. I'm always like, George, what are you doing?
01:41:02
Speaker
And then right. And then it's like, but I also think this right. This movie is whole kind of central premise is right. the The idea of him like going and seeing what his life would be. if he'd never been born, which is a very small section of the movie. It's really only the third act.
01:41:17
Speaker
pretty much Yeah. It's like, it's like an hour and a half into the movie before like the kind of famous stuff happens. Yeah. But it's right. It's like, it's, there's tons of great scenes before that. Yeah. It's just all sort of like building to this central kind of like, uh, magical realism kind of,
01:41:36
Speaker
premise of the movie. Yeah. I guess that's what you'd call it. It's not because it's not really it's certainly not science fiction. i But I also wouldn't really call it fantasy either. But it's like the idea of a guardian angel coming down from outer space.
01:41:51
Speaker
Right. We see like we see like galaxies talking at the beginning. Yeah. Lighting up and talking to each other. It's it's an interesting depiction of angels. Right. It's got this like shot. But it's like he heaven as like the heavens. Yeah.
Dialogue Styles of the 1940s Films
01:42:05
Speaker
Of just like the sky Yeah, it's not like it's not like angels in clouds with harps like we might see in Cabin in the Sky.
01:42:13
Speaker
But it it was more... It almost feels like this sum this like ah like secular vision of heaven. It's got this spacey sort of...
01:42:25
Speaker
proto beginning shot of contact, uh, where it's like swooping through galaxies, ah until it like lands on these glowing galaxies and stars that are the angels. And then they kind of materialize as people, which I, i like I like how this movie deals with like prayer and angels and like morality and things like that without that feeling like it, it's not as overtly Christian as it could easily. I know, yeah. If this movie were more Christian, I'd have a harder time with it. But I but i also think it like it's it it appeals like to a Christian audience, for sure. Yeah. like It just doesn't feel like it's... It doesn't... um Yeah, it's it's not... Whatever the...
01:43:10
Speaker
version of religious jingoism would be. Yeah. Right. It's like, it's not jingoistic in that sense. Um, which, which I do like there is, i feel like I have to shout out one of my favorite scenes in this movie when Clarence has transported him to the, the alternate reality where he he wasn't born, but he hasn't quite realized it yet.
01:43:29
Speaker
And it goes back to the bar that he was just at, uh, martinis, And the bartender Martini is like in the running for I know we bring this up like every episode in the running for the most 1940s man who has ever lived.
01:43:44
Speaker
Oh, not not Martini. It's the it's the the guy who um it's the other guy. Well, yeah, the the the the guy that has replaced Martini. Yeah. Because ah Clarence, the angel, ah orders mulled wine with like extra allspice or whatever. And then goes, look here, pal. Around here we serve hard drinks for men who want to get drunk fast.
01:44:05
Speaker
And we don't need any characters hanging around giving the joint atmosphere. Get me? Incredible. should I slip you my left for a convincing? but great And yes, I did memorize that whole line because it's so good.
01:44:19
Speaker
Great line reading. Also just, I'll slip you on my left for a convincer is his way of saying, I'm going to punch you if you don't shut up.
01:44:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's great. he's like The use of language in 1940s movies, I'm so enamored of. And like i want I want to speak like someone from a 1940s movie.
01:44:41
Speaker
I realize people in the probably didn't actually speak this way. It's just because screenwriters are good at writing it. But like ah just the lingo, the the creative use of language, I love.
01:44:53
Speaker
Damn the 90s for giving us dialogue that's too naturalistic.
01:45:00
Speaker
Dang you, Linklater. Tarantino. For giving us dog naturalistic talking. dog do Do they do that with Dogmay? Get some information up in the frame. Dogmay? Isn't that Dogmay94? Is it pronounced Dogmay?
01:45:17
Speaker
That's how it's spelled. Oh, well. Dogma95. i guess it is an E, not an A. Yeah, it's Danish. don't know.
01:45:29
Speaker
Anyway. um you yeah ever You ever heard of Maison Sans? Get some information up in the frame, bitch.
Visual Influence of 'Beauty and the Beast'
01:45:35
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. it's is Is there any big things? I feel like weirdly there, i think we have almost less to say about this movie because so much has been said about it already. What we say? It's a wonderful life. It's a wonderful life.
01:45:45
Speaker
It's wonderful. A different movie from 46 that I think we both watched yeah that deals with magic yes is... The French film, Beauty and the Beast, or if you're French, La Belle et la Bête.
01:45:58
Speaker
La Bête. La Bête. Je suis la Bête. Bonjour. La Bête. La Belle. Mon Bête. Mon Bête.
01:46:10
Speaker
Oui, belle. Yes. um Où es que vous? A foundational entry in furry cinema. Oh, for sure. For sure.
01:46:22
Speaker
um ah Yeah, this ah this movie is um it's Beauty and the Beast. ah It's yeah hitting those same bullet points what that you've seen. What's the plot?
01:46:34
Speaker
Beauty and the Beast. Yeah. ah But it's definitely like a, you know, compared to the one that I think more people are familiar with, ah it is a lot dreamier.
01:46:46
Speaker
It's a lot. and It's a lot more like lot spookier. It's got some spooky vibes. um And it's got like the the beast is a bit more of like a like ah a sexy kitty cat instead of ah instead of whatever they kind of draw him as in the movie.
01:47:06
Speaker
I do think the Disney movie is... I don't know... so i i haven't done a lot of research into this. I'm curious how much the Disney movie is drawing directly from this movie as opposed to what is inherent to the like the original story. Yeah, I mean, you don't french so you know...
01:47:23
Speaker
the that does It does inspire some of the same i you know think ideas. you You kind of ah you think see some of this the same scenes happening. i do It is my understanding that this that like the visuals and the way that the castle in particular is depicted is a pretty direct influence toward the Disney movie.
01:47:44
Speaker
Right. I have not read the original sort of fairy tale that this is based on. ah So I don't know how much of that is like the beast looks like a lion man, which is how the beast is basically always been depicted in any sort of, ah ah you know, visual depiction I've seen in modern times.
01:48:05
Speaker
This may be included. Whether it's this or the Disney movie or the remake of the Disney movie or the Ron Perlman TV show where he lives in the sewer and like fights crime, I think.
01:48:18
Speaker
Never seen it. But yeah, this is obviously predates the the animated Disney movie. And so it is... all you know All in French, it's French film.
01:48:30
Speaker
question of I would not describe it as a children's film, although I think the opening text of the movie invites the audience to sort of watch it with childlike eyes. Yeah. Sort of. Yeah. like Try to keep a childlike mindset while watching this and don't, don't try to be like, well, actually this would happen. It's got like basically it's a fairy tale. Yeah. It's like a disclaimer at the beginning. It's just like, this a fairy tale by the way, like approach it that way. Yeah. This is directed by John Cocteau, who I have only ever seen, i think one other film from that we we got to do on the show when we get to it, the 1950 Orpheus movie, which rules. Yeah.
01:49:09
Speaker
Um, and i think Cocteau really came from a lot more of the kind of like surrealist art movement. Hmm. Also, and you can really feel that in this movie. This movie is, I think, reminds me almost a little bit more.
01:49:26
Speaker
It's like more leaning towards almost like the Maya Deren stuff. ah Yeah, a little bit. It's not nearly as surreal or avant garde as that. it's You know, this is a narrative movie. But when I say that it's like dreamy, there's like a lot of lot of parts where the movie just kind of slows way down for you to just experience imagery and feelings.
01:49:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Which I love about it. Like, i I really enjoyed this movie. I want to watch it again because I feel like I was not in the right mood for, like, slow, dreamy imagery, and I wasn't, like, on board with it.
01:50:04
Speaker
But I think in another scenario, I could be... I got really liking that I was able to see this in a theater on film too, which I do think was like, you know best possible scenario to see this movie. um Yeah, this has lots lots of this movie looks gorgeous. Unsurprisingly, it's got lots of like foggy woods and castles and like palace rooms.
01:50:26
Speaker
And it's got a lot of like really cool in camera effects in it too. Like a lot of like really cool like camera trick stuff. the I think the the makeup for the Beast looks great and holds up really well in like extreme close-ups a lot of the time. Yeah.
01:50:45
Speaker
And yeah it does it it does i think a good job of like simultaneously at times being like frightening looking and it's like there's this big hairy lion guy with claws and teeth whose eyes like reflect in the night.
01:50:58
Speaker
And then there's like a close-up where Belle is like you know Snuggling up next to him and it's like he's adorable. He's yeah, like you said, he's kitty cat man. Yeah, got the whiskers and you're like oh like he is simultaneous like at times like kind of gross and kind of creepy and also Really adorable.
01:51:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think that he is on the whole cuter than the beast in the Disney movie think that, I mean, maybe this is just a matter of opinion or whatever, but I think that he's never covered in blood in the Disney movie though.
01:51:34
Speaker
ah Right. I guess there's that whole angle of like, like danger, uh, uh, with him of like, what is it? He must kill or something like that. Yeah. Yeah.
01:51:47
Speaker
um And then whenever he does, it's like ah he starts smoking. Yeah. His hands will will give off smoke. Very fantastical. Like like a bunch of kind of ah we invented these rules ah for how this fantasy creature works in order to make cool imagery. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
01:52:06
Speaker
one of the things that I think this movie is most famous for is like the all the stuff in in the palace where the palace itself is alive.
Innovative Effects in 'Beauty and the Beast'
01:52:13
Speaker
Right. Like the at the the ah staff has been sort of turned into the furniture and the architecture of the chateau where the the beast lives. And so instead of getting, you know, sort of, <unk> you know, singing candlesticks as Disney would do.
01:52:31
Speaker
We get ah candelabras held by arms that move with you as you walk through the hallway. And like ah like a ah table with like a hand that reaches out and pours wine.
01:52:46
Speaker
And like statues on the walls that like their face will turn and watch you as you walk past. A la the Jekyll and Hyde restaurant in New York City.
01:52:57
Speaker
Oh, if, oh man, I am so annoyed that that place does not exist anymore. I want to go back so bad. I'm so, I feel so blessed that I was able to go there more than once in life.
01:53:09
Speaker
I, um, uh, I was thinking about, i mean, there, there are some of the, you know a lot of this stuff, it's very clearly like, you know, two dozen people who are sitting on the edge of the set and sticking their arms through the wall, you know?
01:53:21
Speaker
Uh, but it's like, it, it, it's, it's so easy to tell how it was done in that sense with like, yeah, they have a a person sticking their arm through the wall, yeah but it, it works so well. It does sort of like your brain is still sort of seeing it and being like, what is, what am I looking at?
01:53:39
Speaker
Like there is a degree to which it is like, hitting the brain in like just the right way. Yeah. The, um, there's a lot of the interiors that just kind of fade off into black in the movie where like, like the kind of things that you're supposed to pay attention to are like, you know, it's a black and white movie. They're just like in bright kind of high contrast. It's like, here's a face, here are the characters. And they're almost just like sitting in a void.
01:54:05
Speaker
Like the castle just becomes this black void that, for like, yeah for you to just focus in on like exactly the kind of set elements that, uh, you're supposed to pay attention to slash that they were paying for, you know? Yeah.
01:54:20
Speaker
Something I was kind of surprised by, i guess, is just how, how much kind of visual influence, uh, From this is in the Robert Eggers Nosferatu remake.
01:54:34
Speaker
Like the the statues, the heads turning is like directly from this movie. Really the entire Hutter coming to Orlok's castle in that movie, I would say, is drawing more visual influence from this Beauty and the Beast movie than original Murnow Nosferatu.
01:54:53
Speaker
True. There's even a shot where Belle is sort of moving towards the camera on sort of a dolly like she's kind of floating towards camera in a very similar way to how. um ah Yeah, how does in in that movie?
01:55:08
Speaker
Um, a lot of like yeah great, like, uh, uh, curtains flowing, blowing in the wind oh yeah with like light streaming through. um this movie looks, uh, incredible.
01:55:21
Speaker
Maybe it's just the fact that it's like being made outside of Hollywood, but I feel like it is, it does feel like it has very distinctive kind of visual style that feels very different from like the Hollywood movies that we're watching. Yeah. It makes sense that, uh,
01:55:38
Speaker
It feels arts the artsy, artsy fartsy in a French way. Powell and Pressburger are doing like crazy visual stuff, but like in a different way from what this movie is doing.
01:55:49
Speaker
i'm I'm writing this down right now because I feel like it would be... I'm sorry. I'm getting a little distracted because i i it would be so doable now to make those candelabra arms with like little robot arms and like a Microsoft Kinect or whatever to like tracking people. It's like the arms move to follow you.
01:56:11
Speaker
Are you going to put that your new apartment? Oh, some Someday, someday i will make the Beauty and the Beast castle real.
01:56:21
Speaker
ah liver I'm not a Disney adult. I'm Cocteau adult? I'm a TCM adult.
01:56:32
Speaker
Oh, boy. Yeah, there is like, I do think one thing, and maybe this says more about me than anything about the movie necessarily, but like, I do love how much kind of like camera trickery And things like that are in this. And just like the just like I mean, the lavishness of like the sets and i'll all of that and the costumes.
01:56:51
Speaker
But like how much is like there's a lot of like hidden cuts in like whip pans in this movie, which I think is something we haven't seen that much of. in filmmaking up to this point of like the movies that we've covered.
01:57:04
Speaker
Like there's a lot of like reverse film. There's a bit where like bell uses a glove to teleport back to her village. And she like comes out of a wall in this way that i is just her getting like pulled, i think, into a floor that has been reversed and made to look like a wall. But it's like she is in this big dress that is like kind of emerging out of a wall in a really cool way.
Artistic Execution of 'Beauty and the Beast'
01:57:30
Speaker
There's a really amazing, super simple effect where Belle goes to the castle where the beast is living to save her dad. And then she's like, hey, can I go back to my village for like a day? And the beast is like, fine, here's a teleporting glove.
01:57:46
Speaker
She teleports back. That's the kind of movie this is. And, you know, she's covered in like finery. And she has her two shitty sisters that are like, never do work and just like parade around in jewels all day. And they're like, ooh, Belle's wearing jewels now. Big whoop. Ooh, look who's suddenly decided to be fancy. And one of them tries to take her necklace.
01:58:09
Speaker
And when she picks it up, and the necklace turns into this like smoking, like, gross like hunk of like black matter and she so she drops it and like as she drops it the camera whips down yeah floor and there's a hidden cut and so as it's like she drops it it falls and like the camera whips down and it hits the ground and it's back to being like pearls and nice jewelry but it's so seamless it's like yeah yeah and it's that's the kind of stuff that i think
01:58:42
Speaker
and One of the things in this movie that I really love and appreciate is just like they're showing magic and they're showing creatures and they're showing all this stuff. But it's like through just such simple camera tricks that all work incredibly well.
01:58:58
Speaker
Like the simplicity does not make them feel any cheaper or sort of like less effective. Um, if anything, it makes them more impressive because it's like they didn't, that's all they did. And it still works super well. Yeah. Yeah. Confidently done.
01:59:13
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah. Very. This whole movie is very, definitely very confidently done. There's the, the kind of dual role of the beast is played by the same actor as Avenal, who's the sort of guest on,
01:59:26
Speaker
character braggadocious jock of of the town and then at the end of the movie they like switch places kind of through magic where like Avanon dies and turns into a beast and then the beast is returned to human form. But since he's played the same actor, he looks like that guy. And Bella's like, you look like that that guy that I know.
01:59:52
Speaker
And he's like, is that a problem? And she's like, I guess not. this is yeah This is the case in the Disney one too where like when he turns back into a human she kind of mixed feelings about it. Right it's like I was so into you being a kitty cat man that like now I'm a little bummed. Yeah.
02:00:10
Speaker
I mean I do think that is definitely in this movie is very much a slow sort of like you know Avanon is like a beast in on the inside. Cause he's such an asshole.
02:00:20
Speaker
Hmm. And the beast is like a real softy on the inside. So like they, they switch. It wasn't until Shrek that this, uh, this paradigm was turned on its head.
02:00:33
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Very true. Which it is definitely a thing that I think is, I, I agree with Guillermo del Toro and the, the, the writers of Shrek that like,
02:00:47
Speaker
Yes, instead of, like, the monsters getting turned into, like, you know, conventionally attractive people, they should just stay as monsters and live a happy life that way.
02:00:59
Speaker
Because, like, why is that a problem? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I feel like all all of my things about this movie were just, like naming cool stuff that happens. Because, like, I feel like thematically it is...
02:01:10
Speaker
Maybe not the deepest movie. I don't know. It's getting into sort of like... It's a fairy tale. Right. And it's it's it's very much... you know don't Don't judge people if they look like cat monsters.
02:01:22
Speaker
um Yeah. You know, ah if your family is mean to you, then ah go live in a castle. don't know. I think... Right. It's not... We're not getting into like the... the You know, the sort of emotional depth that I think, like, it's a wonderful life and ah best interest our of our lives are.
02:01:46
Speaker
And I think, like, yeah this is ah this is a totally different mode of filmmaking than those are. Those are, like, really, like, telling really deeply human stories. And this is telling ah a very fanciful fairy tale through, like, just incredible filmmaking technique.
Emotional Depth in Storytelling
02:02:04
Speaker
yeah And so it is, like... i can I can see how this maybe wouldn't appeal in the same way as as those do. I got to give it another chance. But I really like it. You know, this isn't a silent movie, but it goes on the playlist of things to put on the background. Ooh, yeah.
02:02:23
Speaker
it And it does actually, now that you say that, it does actually kind of almost feel like a silent movie in its approach in some ways. It does have a lot of the kind of like the grandeur and the kind of like experimental nature of a lot of silent movies.
02:02:38
Speaker
True. Yeah. um Well, yeah what's your favorite, Glenn? Oh, God. Such a difficult question. Because i really loved a lot of these movies.
02:02:51
Speaker
Like, 46 is a hell of a year. Mm-hmm. i'm I'm really tempted to say Notorious. And I think a lot of it is because of like... I do feel like that one is kind of just like... It's so balanced of like everything I want in a movie. i feel like it has like emotional depth.
02:03:09
Speaker
Like it has like really sharp writing. Like the screenplay feels really like tight. And I think it's got great dialogue. It's got good characters. It's got cool like flourishes.
02:03:21
Speaker
It's a movie about like messing with Nazis, which I love. ruining Ruining plans that Nazis are trying to make. Yeah, of the cast. It's, I do think, but like, also like, it's a wonderful life. Am I not going to pick it's a wonderful life? I don't know.
02:03:37
Speaker
I mean, I'm going to pick it's a wonderful life. Okay, so then, all right, as long as you pick it, I think I i can safely put Notorious as my favorite. Although like, i put him on a core just I could just as easily say it's a wonderful life, I think.
02:03:53
Speaker
It's a wonderful life is ah it by a mile for me. It's it's ah's so it's so good. It's so touching. ah yeah It's a classic for a reason because it's very, very good.
02:04:05
Speaker
And it's earnest and it's real. And it's not earnest in a way that annoys me a little bit like some some of Capra's other movies. I think it's earnest in a way that ah feels earned and good.
02:04:17
Speaker
and ah And it's great. It's a wonderful life. Yeah, it is great. Oh, you're making me regret not picking that as my favorite. Too bad. I want shout out Notorious because I also think Notorious is incredible.
02:04:30
Speaker
I think sometimes we use our favorite segment to shout out in a movie. ah that Right, yeah. In particular. Especially if it's like if it's all the same.
Conclusion and Recommendations
02:04:40
Speaker
like i I don't really feel like one is you know necessarily better than the other.
02:04:48
Speaker
ah Well, that'll do it for this episode. ah ah thank Thanks for joining me. Glenn, thanks for joining us. All you people out there and in podcast land, as they say. Indeed. ah and so I don't know. i i i my My podcast...
02:05:07
Speaker
ah Early years were filled with stuff you should know, the the podcast, and they say podcast land in that one, ah which I like. I like with that. ah But yeah, um I hope you enjoyed.
02:05:19
Speaker
Stick around for the the tail end of the 40s and into the 50s. And ah thanks for thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Check out our Letterboxd and our YouTube channel and all that good jazz.
02:05:33
Speaker
And um yeah. That's about it. Glenn, I will see you in 1947. I'll see you next year. See you next year. see you next year