The Next Reel Film Podcast
The Letter
We unpack The Letter in our Bette Davis series: moonlit shadows, Hays Code pressure, colonial privilege, and a letter that turns into leverage.
January 22, 2026
For all you proper film enthusiasts who would like to peruse the films of TruStory FM’s entertainment podcasts by release year. Get ready for a firehose of film history in these here stacks.
We unpack The Letter in our Bette Davis series: moonlit shadows, Hays Code pressure, colonial privilege, and a letter that turns into leverage.
This month on Movies We Like, director Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part 2, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later) joins us to talk about one of his favorites, George Cukor’s 1940 film The Philadelphia Story.
Happy holidays, everybody! It’s time for our annual holiday episode here on The Next Reel. This year, we — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — are talking about a film that doesn’t actually take place at Christmas time. In fact, it’s a movie that doesn’t even really have anything to do with the holiday except that the name’s in the title. It’s Preston Sturges’ 1940 forgotten gem, “Christmas in July.”