There's Sometimes a Buggy

This round of Warner Bros. 1931 brings us two gems by a couple of Pre-Code masters, Roy Del Ruth's Blonde Crazy and William A. Wellman's Night Nurse, showing off the early star charisma of Jimmy Cagney (oozing vulnerability) and Barbara Stanwyck (spitting fire), ably supported by Joan Blondell in both cases. Bonus: Young Clark Gable shows up for another, even nastier 1931 turn. Dave makes the case for Blonde Crazy as a proto-screwball comedy (Warner Bros. does Trouble in Paradise?). And in another Fear and Moviegoing discussion of Now, Voyager, we discuss the Bette Davis melodrama's authentic ties to Transcendentalism and what it means to not have sex for the right reasons.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    NIGHT NURSE [dir. William A. Wellman] 0h 31m 33s:    BLONDE CRAZY (dir. Roy Del Ruth] 0h 46m 59s:    Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto –Irving Rapper’s Now, Voyager (1942) at TIFF Lightbox +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s [https://timetravel.libsyn.com/complete-viewing-schedule-the-2020s] * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/1926-USA-Archives-1926-10-15-Jean-Goldkette-Orch-v-Keller-Sisters-Sunday]) * Read Elise’s latest film piece [https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2021/06/24/of-axes-oxes-turkeys-and-scapegoats/] on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy [https://twitter.com/therebuggy] Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com [therebuggy@gmail.com]   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!

Our second Gloria Grahame Acteur-Oeuvre-view episode includes a curious under-use of our acteur in the all-around baffling musical comedy It Happened in Brooklyn (nevertheless memorable for the chemistry between Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Durante), and a judicious use of her by RKO in Edward Dmytryk's anti-fascist noir Crossfire (also 1947). We try to work out just what Grahame's ongoing avant-garde skit with Paul Kelly (as "The Man") brings to Dmytryk's portrait of a dysfunctional post-war America. One thing's for sure: she sure hates him!  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    IT HAPPENED IT BROOKLYN (1947) [dir. Richard Whorf] 0h 21m 30s:    CROSSFIRE (1947) [dir. Edward Dmytryk] +++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project [https://anchor.fm/criterionproject?utm_source=listennotes.com&utm_campaign=Listen+Notes&utm_medium=website] – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s [https://timetravel.libsyn.com/complete-viewing-schedule-the-2020s] * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/1926-USA-Archives-1926-10-15-Jean-Goldkette-Orch-v-Keller-Sisters-Sunday]) * Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again” [https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2020/02/18/gangs-of-new-york-2002/] * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy [https://twitter.com/therebuggy] Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!

For this MGM 1931 episode we watched The Easiest Way, a feminist subversion of melodrama tropes by director Jack Conway and screenwriter Edith Ellis, starring Constance Bennett as the fallen woman and a young Clark Gable, verging on stardom, as her judgemental brother-in-law; and possibly the most sentimental movie ever made, King Vidor's The Champ, starring Wallace Beery as a ne'er-do-well ex-boxing champ dad and Jackie Cooper as his passionately devoted son. MGM delivers again in this new round of 1931! Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: The Easiest Way (1931) [dir. Jack Conway] 0h 43m 55s: The Champ (1931) [dir. King Vidor] +++ Studio Film Capsules provided by The MGM Story by John Douglas Eames Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler Additional 1930 information from: Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer              +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s [https://timetravel.libsyn.com/complete-viewing-schedule-the-2020s] * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/1926-USA-Archives-1926-10-15-Jean-Goldkette-Orch-v-Keller-Sisters-Sunday]) * Read Elise’s latest film piece [https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2021/06/24/of-axes-oxes-turkeys-and-scapegoats/] on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy [https://twitter.com/therebuggy] Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com [therebuggy@gmail.com]   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!

Our Farrow v Allen series continues with four more collaborations: September (1987), Another Woman (1988), Oedipus Wrecks (1989, part of the anthology movie New York Stories), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). We count the ways in which Allen mashes up his favourite playwrights, filmmakers, and Russian novelists, trace the development of Allen's "survivor" theme through these movies, and discuss the different flavours of invisible that Farrow brings to them. And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, Charles Burnett, in town to present De Sica's Bicycle Thieves and a 4K restoration of his own Killer of Sheep, tells us about the cost of art and the time someone stole his bicycle.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s: SEPTEMBER (1987) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 24m 17s: ANOTHER WOMAN (1988) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 44m 29s: “Oedipus Wrecks” segment of NEW YORK STORIES (1989) [dir. Woody Allen] 0h 57m 33s: CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989) [dir. Woody Allen] 1h 20m 24s:  Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep (1978), both introduced by Charles Burnett at TIFF Lightbox ++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project [https://anchor.fm/criterionproject?utm_source=listennotes.com&utm_campaign=Listen+Notes&utm_medium=website] – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s [https://timetravel.libsyn.com/complete-viewing-schedule-the-2020s] * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/1926-USA-Archives-1926-10-15-Jean-Goldkette-Orch-v-Keller-Sisters-Sunday]) * Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again” [https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2020/02/18/gangs-of-new-york-2002/] * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy [https://twitter.com/therebuggy] Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!

Welcome to our inaugural Gloria Grahame episode, which is also our final Acteurist Oeuvre-view! In this episode we consider Gloria's first significant movie role, as the cause of Blonde Fever (1944), in which she and Philip Dorn confuse each other and provide occasion for Mary Astor's multiple levels of irony. We then turn to Gloria's breakthrough role in one of our very favourite movies, It's a Wonderful Life (1946), examining it through the lens of Gloria's iconic character, Violet Bick. We consider Violet's thematic link to George at a crucial moment, Capra's invention of a "wholesome small-town siren" trope that's essential to David Lynch's universe, and the qualities that enable Gloria Grahame to embody this concept.   Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:    A Short Introduction to Gloria Grahame 0h 12m 48s:    BLONDE FEVER (1944) [dir. Richard Whorf] 0h 34m 09s:    IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) [dir. Frank Capra]   ++ * Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project [https://anchor.fm/criterionproject?utm_source=listennotes.com&utm_campaign=Listen+Notes&utm_medium=website] – a discussion of Late Spring * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s [https://timetravel.libsyn.com/complete-viewing-schedule-the-2020s] * Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/1926-USA-Archives-1926-10-15-Jean-Goldkette-Orch-v-Keller-Sisters-Sunday]) * Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again” [https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2020/02/18/gangs-of-new-york-2002/] * Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy [https://twitter.com/therebuggy] Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!