Shea Cinema: The Best Picture Project

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

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In this episode we wrap up the 5th Academy Awards, giving a quick rundown of all 8 films nominated for the top award, Outstanding Production.

Walt Disney's Parade of the Award Nominees short:
https://youtu.be/6PoSjUf1j7k?si=cWueX5ngKIiGbW58

Including our bonus film, we give our personal favorites and personal worsts. We also view the nominees as Oscar Bridesmaids, and bestow runner-up awards.

Alternate Ending review of Grand Hotel:
https://www.alternateending.com/2015/05/people-come-people-go-nothing-ever-happens.html

Additional insights:

• Patterns we noticed this season
• Favorite Top Song of the Day
• Movie Event Statistics over 5 Academy Awards (weddings, deaths, etc.)
• Bimbo Award
• Sara asks Dad questions to reflect on relating to doing this project

You don't want to miss it!

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

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

This is our last film review of the season, and we cover Outstanding Production winner, Grand Hotel. This movie is unique in that, while it did win the top prize at the 5th Academy Awards, it did not receive a nomination in any other category, a feat that has never been repeated. This is our most star-studded cast to date,  featuring Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John AND Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and Lewis Stone. Oh, and it also  features an adorable dog named Adolphus.

Tune in to find out how Grand Hotel might have a connection to outer space, a deep dive into the Lindbergh kidnapping, and top song of the day.

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

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

Welcome to our episode on One Hour With You,  our fourth Ernst Lubitsch film for the project, and our THIRD Lubitsch musical...which also means our third Maurice Chevalier vehicle. Chevalier is joined once again by Jeanette MacDonald. How is this film any different from the others we have reviewed? Well, this one doesn't feature fantasy royalty, and is grounded quite firmly in hoity-toity French upper-crust 1930s society.  It's a frivolous little romp through the ups and downs of one happily married couple as they grapple with infidelity. 

As always we have our history timeline and top song of the day!

Please leave us a review wherever you are listening!
Email us rants as well as raves: [email protected]
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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

Today we go over director Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express, starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, and Werner Oland. Based on a real-life incident of train passengers taken hostage in China, the story vacillates between a dramatic action film and a  searing love story. Rife with plenty of intrigue (prostitution, drug smuggling, civil war, rape, murder), Shanghai Express is a feast for the eyes. It also grapples with racial tension/prejudice, some of it unintentional, as Werner Oland, a Swedish actor, plays a half-Chinese villain.

Our history timeline features a bizarre and unsettling platonic love triangle between the Pope, Gandhi, and Mussolini, but top song of the day is an absolute bop!

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

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