1930s

The Next Reel • Season 12 • Series: 1940 Academy Award Best Picture Nominees • Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

August 17, 2023

We wrap up our series on 1940 Academy Award Best Picture nominees with a conversation about William Wyler’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic gothic romance, ‘Wuthering Heights.’ How does it compare to the novel? Do Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier work as Cathy and Heathcliff? Is it something that works for us? Tune in!

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The Next Reel • Season 12 • Series: 1940 Academy Award Best Picture Nominees • Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

August 10, 2023

We continue our journey through all the films nominated for Best Picture at the 1940 Academy Awards, today with Lewis Milestone’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men.’ It’s a strong film and provides for a fantastic conversation. Tune in!

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The Next Reel • Season 12 • Series: 1940 Academy Award Best Picture Nominees • Love Affair

Love Affair

August 3, 2023

We continue our exploration of 1939 films nominated for Best Picture at the 1940 Academy Awards. In today’s episode, we discuss Leo McCarey’s ‘Love Affair’ with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. Where does the film stand in comparison to its remakes? How are Dunne and Boyer as a pair? How iconic is that ending? Tune in!

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Dark Victory

July 27, 2023

We’re kicking off our 13th season of the show looking at various awards categories over the decades, starting with 1940 Academy Awards Best Picture nominees. Today, we discuss Edmund Goulding’s 1939 Bette Davis melodrama ‘Dark Victory.’ In the scope of disease films, how does it hold up? Tune in!

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The Next Reel • Season 12 • Series: The Thin Man Films • Another Thin Man

Another Thin Man

December 29, 2022

We continue our time with Nick and Nora Charles, this time with the 1939 film ‘Another Thin Man,’ the third in the Thin Man series. Now, they have a baby and they’re back in New York! What do we think of the story? The characters? The mystery? The comedy? The drinking? Tune in!

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The Next Reel • Season 12 • Series: The Thin Man Films • After the Thin Man

After the Thin Man

December 22, 2022

We return to the world of Nick and Norah Charles as we jump back into the ‘Thin Man’ series. We covered the first film as part of our ‘Black-and-White Cinematography of James Wong Howe’ series. Now, we’re finishing the series, starting with the 1936 film ‘After the Thin Man.’ It’s a pure delight. Tune in!

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Retake: Journalists

February 13, 2022

It was a short series and didn’t really have films that dealt with journalism so much as have characters who are journalists, but it was still an interesting series. We talked about Boat People, Merrily We Go to Hell, The Weight of Water, and Between the Lines. So what did we think of the series overall? Tune in to find out!

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The Next Reel • Season 11 • Series: Journalists • Dorothy Arzner's 1932 film Merrily We Go to Hell

Merrily We Go to Hell

January 27, 2022

We continue our Journalists series with a film that’s a bit more journalist adjacent – Dorothy Arzner’s 1932 film ‘Merrily We Go to Hell.’ What do we think of Frederic March and Sylvia Sidney? How about their modern marriage? And how did the Hays Code figure in to this movie? Tune in for more!

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The Grand Illusion

August 13, 2020

What is the grand illusion in The Grand Illusion? How does Jean Renoir’s realism work for this World War I film? Why is director/actor Erich von Stroheim so memorable as the director of the POW camp? And why is Dita Parlo so high in the credits? Tune in to this week’s show to get answers to these questions and more!

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The Adventures of Robin Hood

August 8, 2019

How does Errol Flynn compare to Douglas Fairbanks? Does this version of Robin Hood hold up as one of the best still? How did they do those arrow-in-the-chest stunts? Tune in to this week’s show to get these answers and more!

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