(Episode recorded October 26, 2024)

It's our ninth review of the season, and our sixth nominee for Outstanding Production at the Sixth Academy Awards. State Fair is based on the bestselling 1932 novel by Phil Stong, and was the first of three film adaptations of the novel; the others were both musical adaptations made in 1945 and 1962. This family adventure at the local fair boasts the return of Janet Gaynor (our first time seeing her in a talkie since our first season where she starred in two incredible silent films) as well as our much anticipated first encounter with Will Rogers. 

Our history timeline does get a big heavy (Hitler's rises to power and all), but the film, despite censorship, is lighthearted and fun. Listen in and find out if Sara cries over the romantic ending!

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(Episode recorded October 25, 2024)

It's our eighth review of the season, but only our fifth nominee for Outstanding Production at the Sixth Academy Awards. In fact, She Done Him Wrong is the shortest film nominated for the top prize...and the top prize was it's only nomination. The film was adapted from the successful 1928 Broadway play Diamond Lil, penned by and starring Mae West. Despite it's success on the stage, the play was actually banned, which led to multiple issues once production on the film began. Fun fact: this is our first official encounter with Cary Grant for this project!

Our song of the day is a surprise treat, and our history timeline includes veering off into a 1933 true crime segment...related to the death of Knute Rockne?

Books mentioned by Dad:

• Boller, Paul. Hollywood Anecdotes. William Morrow & Company, 1987.
• Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. Penguin Random House, 2004.

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(Episode recorded October 19, 2024)

It's been three months since our last episode, but it's been even longer since we recorded this one!

In our seventh review of the season, we are exploring the actual winner of the Oscar for Outstanding Production at the Sixth Academy Awards, Frank Lloyd's Cavalcade, based on Noel Coward's play.

This smash hit was nominated for four Oscars, and won three. The film covers 30 years, following two British families starting from the Boer War, through several other massive historical events, all the way into the current era of the 1930s. We discuss the film's historical context, character dynamics (or lack thereof), the challenges of censorship and adaptation (the Hays office took special exception to the language in the film), and the themes of love, war, and loss. Oh yeah, and Sara keeps referencing Forrest Gump.

As always, we have our history timeline, top song of the day, and an interesting legal follow-up to I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.

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WE ARE BACK!

In our sixth review of the season, we are back on track with an actual Outstanding Production nomination. We dive into A Farewell to Arms, based on Ernest Hemingway's 1929 novel (which supposedly had 47 different endings!)

We discuss the film's historical context, character dynamics, the challenges of censorship and adaptation, and the themes of love and war. 

Did you know Hemingway had a tiny feud with Mussolini? 

We also speculate that this might be the most sexually explicit film we've watched so far...

As always, we have our history timeline, top song of the day, and perhaps a few disagreements along the way.

Books mentioned by Dad:

• Boller, Paul. Hollywood Anecdotes. William Morrow & Company, 1987.
• McKuen, Rod. Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows. Random House, 1966.
• Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. Penguin Random House, 2004.
• Wilson, Edmund. “Ernest Hemingway: Bourdon Gauge of Morale.” Edmund Wilson: Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1920s & 30s, edited by Lewis M. Dabney, Library of America, 2007.

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This is our third bonus episode and our fifth review of the season! We are covering one of Dad's childhood favorites: Cecil B. DeMille's notorious tale of forbidden love and Roman Empire decadence, The Sign of the Cross. With scandalous scenes such as the Dance of the Naked Moon and an over-the-top extravaganza in the Roman Colosseum (naked women! elephants trampling gladiators! lions mauling Christian traitors!), Sara and Dad discuss whether this movie is a hidden treasure or a guilty pleasure.

PLUS, our history timeline includes a perplexing moment where Albert Einstein is...a villain? 

Books mentioned by Dad:

• Louvish,  Simon. Cecil B. DeMille and the Golden Calf. Faber & Faber, 2007.
• Quirk, Lawrence. The Films of Fredric March. Citadel Press, 1971.
• Boller, Paul. Hollywood Anecdotes. William Morrow & Company, 1987.
  
  

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For our second regular nomination review of the season, we are excited to welcome Kieran B. from Best Picture Cast as our first official guest host! Kieran, Dad and Sara take a deep dive into this classic Warner Brothers prison flick, making connections to Les Misérables, Ben Hur, The Shawshank Redemption (of course), and even Stranger Things.

As a special treat, our history timeline includes a game-by-game look at the 1932 World Series, which features some surprises of its own.

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We are finally diving into our standard nomination reviews! This time we are covering Smilin' Through, starring Norma Shearer and Fredric March. This fascinating film has love triangles, murder, intrigue, tragedy, revenge...and GHOSTS. (And some neat camera tricks and flashbacks and double-roles.) Is it just an old-timey Hallmark movie, or is it something more?

The historical timeline has some scientific revelations! And while we have top song of the day, we also have an extra song at the end.

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This is our 50th episode!

For our second review of the season, we have another bonus episode! We are covering The Most Dangerous Game, based on a 1924 short story by Richard Connell. This film was made by the same crew who made King Kong, even filming on the same sets, and using several of the same actors. 

We also welcome guest (and family member) Jerry Shea, a retired English teacher who used the short story and movie in his classroom.

Our history timeline includes some fun baseball stats, as well as a look at the very first Venice International Film Festival.

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Welcome to our first film review of the season! We are kicking off with a special BONUS EPISODE! And what better super surprise than the very first zombie story ever told on celluloid! This obscure movie stars Bela Lugosi fresh off his success as Dracula, and offers up a zombie origin unfamiliar to the average movie-lover (we’ve got Haitian voodoo and mind-control to contend with).

We explore its historical context, cultural significance, and the evolution of zombie films. Of course, we discuss the film's plot, character dynamics, and critical reception, while also reflecting on its impact on modern horror cinema. The conversation highlights the film's shortcomings and its role as a cultural touchstone, ultimately leading to a nuanced discussion about gender representation and the legacy of horror films. We also welcome Andrew Corns from The Revisionist’s Almanac to our final insights, who offers an additional critique of this bizarre tale.

Our history timeline is full of our usual touchstones: headlines, top song of the day, and a deeper than usual examination at an often-overlooked tragedy in Washington D.C.  

Article Link: The Tragic, Forgotten History of Zombies

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Welcome to our Season 6 Premiere! We took a two-month break, and we never want to be away for that long again! (Please scroll to the bottom for chapter timestamps.)

Sara and Dad cover the 6th Academy Awards ceremony. This is the longest eligibility period to date: honoring the best in films released in the United States between August 1, 1932 and December 31, 1933. We discuss the context of these films being made during the pre-code era, and what the implications are for filmmaking moving forward. (Frank Capra has a very interesting influence on the structure of the Academy and voting moving forward.)

Last season we had eight nominees for Outstanding Production. This season we have even MORE with ten nominees. In addition, we are also going to be covering a record number of bonus episodes (movies that were not nominated for Outstanding Production but still fall on our historical timeline). 

Of course, we give an overview of the ten films nominated for the top honor, and speculate on our interests.

The Movies:

• Smilin’ Through  (1932) 
• I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
• A Farewell to Arms (1932)
• Cavalcade* (1933)
• She Done Him Wrong (1933)
• State Fair (1933)
• 42nd Street (1933)
• Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
• Lady for a Day (1933)
• The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
• Little Women (1933)

Books mentioned by Dad:

• Capra, Frank. The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography. MacMillan, 1971.
• Schulman, Michael. Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears. HarperCollins, 2023

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Shea Cinema and the Oscars

02:23 The Sixth Academy Awards Overview

08:02 Will Rogers, Frank Capra, and the Ceremony

18:34 Category Capers and Changes in the Academy

28:21 Exploring the Nominees: Smilin' Through to Little Women

1:15:24 Dreading/Looking Forward To

1:18:16 Historical Context, the Pre-Code Era, the Impact of the Hays Code, and Labor Strikes

1:29:27 Looking Ahead: Bonus Episodes and Future Discussions

Additionally, Sara created Top-Song-of-the-Day Playlists for each season on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@SheaCinema/playlists

Please leave us a review wherever you are listening!
Email us rants as well as raves: [email protected]
You can also find us on Instagram (and now Twitter/X): @sheacinema