Lions, Towers & Shields

James Cagney is a bootlegger. This is the story of his rise and fall. Warner Brothers had been producing gangster yarns since the early 30s, many featuring Cagney. But late ’30s filmmaking had become better and more watchable, with studio stalwarts like Cagney, Bogart and Frank McHugh now pros at the genre. Add in the wonderful and underrated Gladys George, and you’ve got yourself a movie! Raoul Walsh, whose career went back to silents, and who would later direct Cagney in “White Heat,” directed. “The Roaring Twenties” is part social commentary, crime movie and melodrama. And it’s one of the most entertaining movies of this genre.

The Roaring Twenties

Host Shelly Brisbin with Dr. Drang and Nathan Alderman.

Old Movies, New Things: discs, books and other physical objects

Sightings: what’s coming on TCM, streaming services, and the festival circuit

The Movie: review/commentary on a single classic film

* Next time, we’ll watch Roman Holiday (1953) available to stream via subscription, purchase or rental. *

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Here’s the film, based on James M. Cain’s story, that won Joan Crawford an Oscar, and began the Warner Brothers phase of her career, after MGM sent her packing. It tells the story of Mildred, who begins a new life when her marriage ends by building a restaurant empire. But her selfish daughter (Ann Blyth) and her lover (Zachary Scott) don’t make things easy for the proprietor of Mildred’s Fatburger. Bonus? Film noir with a female protagonist.

Mildred Pierce

Host Shelly Brisbin with Nathan Alderman.

Old Movies, New Things: discs, books and other physical objects

Sightings: what’s coming on TCM, streaming services, and the festival circuit

The Movie

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Screwball comedy and Depression-era inequity meet in “My Man Godfrey” (1935). William Powell is experiencing the Depression first-hand, from under a bridge, when a society swell arrives and offers him a few dollars to help her win a scavenger hunt. Before you know it, Powell is buttling in the house of a dysfunctional wealthy family. Hilarity, and the politics of class follow. Carole Lombard, William Powell, Alice Brady and Gail Patrick are all marvelous, as is the rest of the supporting cast. “My Man Godfrey” was nominated for six Oscars, including the first two supporting actor statues ever awarded, but won none.

We recap My Man Godfrey (1935)

Host Shelly Brisbin with Erika Ensign, Nathan Alderman, and Jean MacDonald.

Old Movie News

Sightings

Into the Nitrate Vault

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Action, adventure and noir at the border, with Ricardo Montalban, before he went into space.

Border Incident

Host Shelly Brisbin with Philip Michaels and Nathan Alderman.

Old Movie News

New Blu-rays

Sightings

Into the Nitrate Vault

Border Incident (1949) trailer

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We’re watching James Whale’s “The Invisible Man.”

The Invisible Man

Host Shelly Brisbin with Jean MacDonald and Dr. Drang.

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What do you get when you combine a director of 50s melodrama, a screwball TV comedian, a deliciously flamboyant cad, and a bunch of great character actors from Britain and America? Why, a British Jack the Ripper mystery, of course. On this episode, we’re talking about 1947’s “Lured,” directed by Douglas Sirk, and starring Lucile Ball and George Sanders. We will spoil the ending in this episode, like we do, so watch the movie, probably for free, before you listen.

We recap and review the 1947 mystery, Lured.

Host Shelly Brisbin with Annette Wierstra and Nathan Alderman.

Old Movie News

New on disc: Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (Kino Lorber), Indiscretion of an American Wife (Kino Lorber), HAMMER Volume 5 (Indicolor), Mad Magician (Indicolor), Show Boat (Criterion)

Sightings

On TCM: April star of the month, Jane Russell, Peter Bogdanavitch spotlight on April 11 and 25, Home edition of this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival April 16-19, New York in the 70s (Thursdays),

New TCM documentary podcast, The Plot Thickens

Lured (1947), trailer

Next time on LTS: The Invisible Man (1933)

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Classic films, by definition, are comfort food, or at least, they’re escapist entertainment. Our panel picks films they love, and want to watch right now, as we confront a lot of time indoors during the coronavirus pandemic.

We draft the classics in a time of isolation.

Host Shelly Brisbin with Philip Michaels, Jean MacDonald, Erika Ensign, and Nathan Alderman.

Classics drafter in three rounds:

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Lily has had a rough life. Her father has basically been pimping her out, and she's had it! She and her friend Chico, who happens to be a black woman, take off for New York so Lily soon begins climbing the corporate ladder, using each corporate executive s weakness to obtain what she wants. Because that's how Nietzsche would want her to do it. "Baby Face" is a quintessential pre-code movie. And it had a lot to do with the code being enforced a few months aster its release.

Baby Face

Host Shelly Brisbin with Nathan Alderman and Jean MacDonald.

Old Movie News

• Baby Peggy Dies

• Books: Home Work, second Julie Andrews memoir

• Blu-rays: Double-feature,The Captain's Paradise (1953) and Barnacle Bill (1957) Kino Lorber, It Started with a Kiss (1959) Warner Archive, Hollywood Horror House (1973), Vinegar Syndrome, Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Picture, Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Kino Lorber

Celluloid Sightings

• More Noir City Hollywood: suggestions on what to see, TCM highlights for second half of March: Star of the Month, Joe E. Brown, racism in America, 26, Mankiewicz family weekend, 27-29, 100 years of womens' suffrage, 31

Baby Face (1933)

• trailer
• Available to stream: Rent on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu
• On disc: Forbidden Hollywood, Volume 1

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Come with us to late 1930s New York. It's the Depression, but you wouldn't know it here on Fifth Avenue, where the Setons live, and where things would be even better - if we had the right kind of government. We're discussing the 1938 film, Holiday, directed by George Cukor, and staring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. There's a bit of old movie news, too. Just a bit.

We review George Cukor's 1938 film, Holiday.

Host Shelly Brisbin with Dr. Drang and Moisés Chiullán.

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We begin a journey into the past, for the love of classic Hollywood-era movies. We've got memories of Kirk Douglas, Blu-Ray news, and a recap and review of Robert Wise's 1949 masterpiece, "The Set-Up."

We review Robert Wise's 1949 masterpiece, "The Set-Up."

Host Shelly Brisbin with Monty Ashley, Dr. Drang, and Nathan Alderman.

Old Movie News

• Kirk Douglas dies at 103

• New on Blu-ray from Arrow, a restoration of "Black Angel" (1945). Criterion releases "Fail Safe" (1964). "Bell Book and Candle" (1958) from Sony, From Warner Archive "Two On A Guillotine" (1965).

Streams and Sightings

• TCM 25th 31 Days of Oscar continues.

• "Love Story" is the latest "big screen classic" coming to theaters from TCM and Fathom Events. Next month it's King Kong, on March 15.

Reviewing "The Set-Up"

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