Shea Cinema: The Best Picture Project

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

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]
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

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

In our fifth regular film review of the season, we cover director John Ford's Arrowsmith, adapted from Sinclair Lewis's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. No, this is not the origin story of a 20th Century rock band, but it is the story of a young doctor who is determined to follow the scientific method no matter the cost. The story also has some unsettling implications for us now in the 21st century, as it grapples with an outbreak of plague and the uncertainty of using an untested vaccine. The film stars Ronald Colman and Helen Hayes.

Of course we have our history timeline (it takes a dark turn in this episode), 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

That's right! It's a BONUS EPISODE, and today we are covering 1931's Frankenstein.  Everyone thinks they know this classic monster movie whether they've seen it or not, and we take a deep dive as it falls right on our regular timeline. We covered Dracula last season, and we thought it would be unforgivable if we didn't cover this Universal Pictures horror film too.  Joining us again for our final thoughts is Kid Keely, weighing in with her own fantastic insights. 

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

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 FORTIETH EPISODE!!

This third film review of the season covers Five Star Final, starring Edward G. Robinson in a non-gangster role. This tale of yellow journalism gone horribly wrong showcases the horrifying consequences when a newspaper decides  to resurrect a long-forgotten murder case, and then does the unthinkable in order to make it happen. This screenplay has several literary allusions, and a stellar cast. 

Of course we have our history timeline, top song of the day, and, as always, baseball!

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

Here is our second film review for the season! Frank Borzage, who won Best Director at the first Academy Awards for Seventh Heaven, is back, with ANOTHER win for Best Director of this film, Bad Girl. Newcomer James Dunn dominates the screen in this Academy Award-winning adaptation of the novel of the same name. That's right, this pre-code gem won two out of three nominations, losing out only on Outstanding Production. We try to figure out why. Give a listen as we dive into sexual harassment, walks of shame, marriage, and tenement living during the Great Depression.

Of course we have our history timeline, top song of the day, and, as always, baseball!

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