In this episode, I discuss with Professor Timothy Corrigan his latest book "Describing Cinema". In Describing Cinema, award-winning film scholar Timothy Corrigan explores the art and poetics of writing about film. Part theory, part rhetoric, and part pedagogy, the text examines and demonstrates acts of describing scenes, shots, and sequences in films as the most common and most underestimated way viewers respond to movies.

In this episode, I spoke with author Burt Kearns on his recent book "Marlon Brando Hollywood Rebel. Over the last eighty years, Marlon Brando has become such an object of fascination, buried under so many accreted layers of mythos and half-truth, that it is all but impossible to see the man behind the icon. As we approach the centennial of this undisputed American legend, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel isa revelatory biography that tells its story the same way the man himself approached a role: from the inside.

In this episode, I spoke with the authors Alain Silver and James Ursini about their book "From the Moment They Met It Was Murder: Double Indemnity and the Rise of Film Noir'. The behind-the-scenes story of the quintessential film noir and cult classic, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity—its true crime origins and crucial impact on film history—is told for the first time in this riveting narrative published for the film's 80th anniversary.

In this episode, I spoke with Kathleen Loock regarding her book "Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture".From the inception of cinema to today’s franchise era, remaking has always been a motor of ongoing film production. Hollywood Remaking challenges the categorical dismissal in film criticism of remakes, sequels, and franchises by probing what these formats really do when they revisit familiar stories.

In this episode, I spoke with authors Colin Gunckel and Laura Isabel Serna about their book "There Are No Hispanic Stars! Collected Writing Of A Latino Film Critic In Hollywood, 1921-1939. In the 1920s and 1930s a uniquely Mexican American entertainment culture flourished across the southwestern United States. Spanish-language newspapers offered theater listings, coverage of favorite performers, cultural criticism, and serialized novels that thematized entertainment culture. Gabriel Navarro was a key figure in this milieu.

In this episode, we look at the career of Jackie Cooper.  Doug Hess is the host!

In this episode, I spoke with author Phillip Gefter about the book "Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" From its debut in 1962, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was a wild success and a cultural lightning rod. The play transpires over one long, boozy night, laying bare the lies, compromises, and scalding love that have sustained a middle-aged couple through decades of marriage.

In this episode, I discuss a "Forgotten Hollywood" Oscar winner, Ronald Colman. Doug Hess is the host!

In this episode, I discuss the life of actress Marsha Hunt.

In this episode, we discuss the life of actress Joan Blondell.