In 1973, filmmaker Bill Gunn’s vampire/addiction movie Ganja & Hess was a sensation at the Cannes Film Festival. Starring Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, musician Sam Waymon, and Gunn himself, this mysterious, fascinating film should have been an arthouse sensation in the States. Instead it played a single New York theater for two weeks, before it was pulled and eventually re-edited in a more conventional manner for the exploitation market. I talked with Christopher Sieving, author of Pleading the Blood: Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess, about the film, Gunn’s greatest works, and the career that this remarkable director, writer, and actor should have had. 

More information about Pleading the Blood: Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess. 

The soundtrack for Ganja & Hess has been released by Howling Wolf Records.

The show is available on Spotify, PocketCasts, Breaker, Stitcher, Anchor, Google, Radio Public, and YouTube.

Watching Classic Movies podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts! If you are enjoying the show, please give it a 5-star review and share it with your friends.

Like the podcast? Want to hear more frequent episodes? Click on the Support button here. 

My guest, Alicia Malone is a TCM host and the author of Backwards in Heels: The Past, Present, and Future of Women Working in Film, The Female Gaze: Essential Movies Made by Women and her latest Girls on Film: Lessons from a Life of Watching Women in Movies. We talked about her journey to embrace her authentic self, what she’s focusing on next in her remarkable career, and how her perspective on film has grown and changed over years of movie fandom. 

To learn more about Alicia's latest book go to Mango Publishing.

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The show is available on Spotify, PocketCasts, Breaker, Stitcher, Anchor, Google and Radio Public.

Watching Classic Movies podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts! If you are enjoying the show, please give it a 5-star review.

Like the podcast? Want to hear more frequent episodes? Click on the Support button here. 

My guest Brian Sauer writes the review site Rupert Pupkin Speaks, hosts the podcast and YouTube channel Just the Discs, and is co-host of the official New Beverly Cinema podcast Pure Cinema. 

As the complete Thin Man mystery series has been released on Blu-ray for the first time, we celebrated by talking about the many fascinating and amusing elements of these six movies and the legendary pairing of series stars Myrna Loy and William Powell. 

Keep up with Brian:

Pure Cinema Podcast, Just the Discs Podcast, Just the Discs YouTube, and Rupert Pupkin Speaks

Twitter, Instagram

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The show is available on Spotify, PocketCasts, Breaker, Stitcher, Anchor, Google and Radio Public.

Watching Classic Movies podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts! If you are enjoying the show, please give it a 5-star review.

Like the podcast? Want to hear more frequent episodes? Click on the Support button here. 

Kristen Lopez of Ticklish Business is one of my favorite classic film bloggers and podcasters. She's long had an interest in classic film biopics. We talked about the hits and misses in this most fascinating genre. 

Keep up with Kristen: 

Ticklish Business Blog 

Ticklish Business Podcast 

Instagram 

Twitter

The show is available on Spotify, PocketCasts, Breaker, Stitcher, Anchor, Google and Radio Public.

Watching Classic Movies podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts! If you are enjoying the show, please give it a 5-star review.

Like the podcast? Want to hear more frequent episodes? Click on the Support button here. 

Martin Turnbull is the author of several novels, including the nine book Garden of Allah series and his latest, All the Gin Joints. We talked about the history of the Garden of Allah Hotel and how it has influenced his writing. 

Learn more about Martin’s novels here. 

For loads of great Hollywood history and photos, follow Martin on Twitter.

The show is available on Spotify, PocketCasts, Breaker, Stitcher, Anchor, Google and Radio Public.

Watching Classic Movies podcast is also now available on Apple Podcasts! If you are enjoying the show, please give it a 5-star review.

Like the podcast? Want to hear more frequent episodes? Click on the Support button here. 

Love all the classic film GIFs online? That is thanks in part to my guest, GIPHY Editor Tiffany Vazquez, who has made a career of bringing brief, but potent moving images to millions of users.

While Tiffany loves sharing movie history and fun clips with the masses, there’s so much more to her work, from ways to make life easier to highlighting vibrant moments from the past. We had a great talk about the magnificent power and variety of GIFs.

You can follow Tiffany on Twitter and Instagram.

Check out Tiffany's GIF gallery here.

Take a look at the amazing Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture GIPHY channel here.

Like the podcast? Want to hear more frequent episodes? Click on the Support button here.

My guest Paula Guthat is the co-founder of Cinema Detroit and the popular TCM Party hashtag. She came to me with a dilemma, how do you react when you learn that one of your cinematic favs has done something horrific? The answer is personal, often not definitive, and complicated, especially when you are a film programmer as Paula is. We talked about the issue as it relates to our past, present, and future.

For show notes, go to watchingclassicmovies.com

This episode I went into a classic horror deep dive with my guest Miguel Rodriguez, founder and director of the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival. While talking about some great films, we discussed when the style of horror as we know it emerged, when it transitioned from the classic era to the modern age, how what scares us is so personal and how what makes a monster has changed with the times. We had a quick visit from Miguel’s daughter Scarlett, a budding film festival director, I hope you enjoy the way she also enhanced the background of our conversation with happy three-year-old sounds as much as I did.

The show is available on Spotify, PocketCasts, Breaker, and Radio Public.

You can learn more about the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival here.

Follow Miguel Rodriquez on Instagram and Horrible Imaginings Film Festival on Twitter and Instagram.

I’ve been fascinated by silent film accompanists ever since I saw an organist playing jaunty tunes for Charlie Chaplin shorts at a local pizza parlor as a kid. 

Accompanist, composer and film historian Ben Model has accompanied silent films since his college years. His career has taken him around the world. In pandemic time, he’s found a new international audience from his living room, streaming comedy shorts and live accompaniment via The Silent Comedy Watch Party with his co-host, film historian Steve Massa. 

We talked about Ben’s unusual career, creating the perfect score, and how to reach an audience whether they think they like silent movies or not. 

You can listen here at Anchor.

The show is also available on Spotify, PocketCasts, Breaker, and Radio Public.

You can learn more about Ben Model at his website

Watch The Silent Comedy Watch Party

Follow Ben on Instagram and Twitter

Next episode posts Wednesday, November 17. Stay tuned!

Joan Harrison was one of only three women producing films during the studio age. Also a talented screenwriter, she was instrumental in helping Alfred Hitchcock develop his style on films including Rebecca and Foreign Correspondent, in addition to his long-running television shows. She was key in molding the film noir genre with movies like the edgy for their time The Phantom Lady and They Won’t Believe Me, and she also pushed boundaries with several television dramas. I talked about this remarkable filmmaker with my guest, Christina Lane, author of Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, The Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock.

Films Discussed:

Nocturne (1946)

The Phantom Lady (1944)

The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945)

Ride the Pink Horse (1947)

They Won’t Believe Me

Rebecca (1940)

Young and Innocent (1937)

Television Shows Discussed:

Janet Dean, Registered Nurse

Journey to the Unknown

The Most Deadly Game