Those Wonderful People Out There In The Dark
Why, in a world crowded with opinions on films, do we need another podcast? I want to go through films that transcend, for me, what you're seeing on the screen and make you feel. Or make you think. Or both. That bring you alive, whether in a movie seat, on a couch, or propped up holding your phone. Every two weeks (or so) I'll be dropping a podcast of my thoughts on those movies, directors and actors which hit me hard emotionally.
Episodes
70 episodes
Night And The City
In most film noir, you may be able to pick out a teaspoon of nobility in even the most nihilistic, rotten protagonist --- they’re in the situation because of their attraction to someone, or due to desperation, or the breaks are against...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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45:14
The Killers
Our Noirvember pod on The Big Sleep had me ooohhhing and aaahhhing about the talent that brought the film to life in front of and behind the camera. As we enter the classic period of noir in America, we’re going to lo...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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44:31
The Big Sleep
Exit Scary Season, hello Noirvember and back to film noir in earnest! We’re leaving behind the subgenre of crazy kids on the run and into more established noir territory --- the private detective story. And do we have...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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49:25
Son Of Frankenstein
As the last four years, it’s time for our annual salute to Scary Season on the pod --- a little film nosh to whet your appetite for the fun of Halloween ahead. Last season we went down one of the paths of the classic Universal Pictures...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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1:01:23
Gun Crazy
We’re plowing ahead five years from last month’s pod subject but staying in the low – rent, “B” picture roots of film noir, with just a bit more polish, a little more class (because of a slightly larger budget). While last month’s ...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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36:18
Detour
No producer or director of the 40s and 50s set out to make a film noir. They were simply trying to put together a film that would entertain and turn a profit, dammit! During the 40s and early 50s, TV was a non-entity or a new, expensiv...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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37:42
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
The A-bomb had contributed to this soft reign of terror. It had also fired a period of excitement and fertility in the neglected field of science fiction. Before WWII, sci-fi in film was widespread, with examples such as Lang’s hallmark Met...
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Season 2
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Episode 12
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38:17
1900
Last month, we waltzed through mid – 19th Century Italy. Today, we jump forward a half – century --- royalty continues its decline, the middle – class and powerful industrial leaders are ascendant in Europe. It’s a new century and the dawn of a...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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34:54
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The Leopard
Visconti has been seen in this season as the director of the searing, accusatory film of the interdependence of the industrial class with the Nazis in Germany, The Damned. But where did this European industrial class arise, when Europe...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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40:26
The Great Silence
As with Django, Corbucci wrote the film with his brother Bruno, as well as Vittoriano Petrilli and Mario Amendola. He’d been deeply influenced by the recent assassinations of Che Guevara, Cuban revolutionary who had tried to spark a Co...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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37:31
Django
There’s a small set of seasons that lurk after the best of winter, but before spring is in the air. You’re emerging from the wonders of a White Christmas (TM) --- those beautiful, light, star-filled dustings of a snowfall, so picturesque. Then ...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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32:35
Danger! --- Femmes Fatale
Last season we walked through an admittedly unscientific list of the greatest character actors in recent memory --- all men and mostly known for roles as so-called bad men. But we made the promise to rebalance the favor in this season --- so he...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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47:02
Repo Man
Well, Noirvember may be over, but our journey into my made-up sub-genre, atomic noir, is not. It’s a cheery continuation for the holiday season. At least the next film has some humor in it, as opposed to the sadism in November...
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45:46
Kiss Me Deadly
It would still prove to be the American Century, but now it was overshadowed by the threat of the atom’s power. Air raid shelters were built in public buildings. Families dug and poured concrete in their backyards to construct personal bomb she...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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42:37
Nosferatu The Vampyre
Nosferatu 1922’s reputation grew down the years, especially among film lovers. One of these was German master director Werner Herzog. As the 70s ended, Herzog determined that he wanted to remake the film --- an homage to what he felt w...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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1:00:24
Dracula
For Scary Season 2024, we’re harkening back to a founding film in the genre of horror. In this era of the 21st Century, fans of horror are rich in the types of film they view to give themselves the creeps --- body horror, slasher films, psychol...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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58:33
Mephisto
Doesn’t seem like much of a bargain. An uber-being shows and coincidentally knows what you want --- merely sign away your post-existence --- usually in blood, that might be a clue! But repeatedly, people actually sign away their souls ...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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39:23
The Damned
The middle and lower classes, so-called, ultimately flocked to the message of fascism, not just in Germany but even earlier, in Italy in the ‘20s under Mussolini. For a class of people who had little or less than in the past, who felt powerless...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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35:59
Sunset Boulevard
It’s the end of season one, or cycle one, or Earth one, whatever you want to call it, for the pod… We wanted to end the season on something special and this film is just so --- a veritable treasure chest of recognizable and quotable lines for f...
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Season 1
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Episode 51
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38:33
That Guy, Over There!
You may have seen Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and if so, you know the moment in the film when Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton sees himself in a role on TV and points at the screen excitedly --- it’s a meme now. I do it all the time...
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Season 1
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Episode 50
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37:06
The Maltese Falcon
My top noirs are Double Indemnity and Out Of The Past, in that order, but Falcon is special. Right out of the hard-boiled school of writing, the character of the unstoppable but human private detective as a <...
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Season 1
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Episode 49
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39:08
Fargo
We’ve gone through quite a few pods on film, especially film noir and police procedurals, but this might be the first that has a female protagonist as the main character! More’s the pity! But what a protagonist! Perhaps to make up for ...
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Season 1
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Episode 48
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1:02:23
Werner Herzog
When film fans speak about directors, they often go on about idiosyncratic styles or bellwether looks and techniques. You can rapidly identify a Hitchcock film. Same for something from Orson Welles. Scorsese has tendrils that can be traced thro...
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29:36
Grand Illusion
Film is such a wonderful art form --- in some instances, almost the entirety of the world may be encompassed. Or the artist makes the attempt to capture the world. And thereby capture timeless subjects that are repeated down the years. Imagine ...
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34:00
The Godfather Part II
Many of us strive to accomplish great things in our lives. A smaller group reach the heights in terms of those dream accomplishments. Then what do you do? How do you follow that when you’ve climbed a steep hill and, perhaps exhausted, look back...
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Season 1
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Episode 45
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53:08
