Billy Wilder 1961-1981 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 9) /  by Karina Longworth

Billy Wilder directing on the set of Fedora, 1978, United Artists

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Hollywood’s 1960s began with Billy Wilder winning three Oscars for The Apartment. But Wilder’s biggest success would also prove to be his last film to be afforded such respectability, as Wilder largely abandoned the type of material that the Academy embraced, and veered gleefully into disreputability. Of the 9 films Wilder made in the 20 years after The Apartment, in this episode we’ll pay special attention to three that were engaged with the rapidly changing culture – in Hollywood and beyond: One, Two, Three (1961); Avanti (1972); and Fedora (1978).

Still from Avanti!, 1972, United Artists

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge by Joseph McBride

The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris

Cagney by Cagney: An Autobiography by James Cagney

Wilder Times: The Life of Billy Wilder by Kevin Lally

Nobody’s Perfect: Billy WIlder, A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Billy Wilder: Interviews edited by Robert Horton

“Wilder’s Work to be Shown at Museum of Modern Art,” New York Times, November 25, 1964

“Billy Wilder: He Directs Directors”, Joyce Haber, Los Angeles Times, January 24, 1972

S“Wilder in Italy: Order Among the Extroverts”, William Tuohy, Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1972

 “Romeos love the chubby Juliet”, Sunday Mirror, May 14, 1972

“Wilder: Movies Like Roulette,” Bob Thomas, The Day, May 15, 1972

“Avanti!,” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, January 1, 1972

“Avanti!,’ Another Billy Wilder Farce Stars Jack Lemmon,” A.H. Weiler, New York Times, December 18, 1972

“Wilder Made This…Sans Usual Wit”, Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News, December 18, 1972

“Hollywood: Forget the Incense,” TIME, December 28, 1962

“The Greatest Story Ever Told,” Variety, December 31, 1964

“The 10 Worst Movies of 1972,” Vincent Canby, New York Times, January 7, 1973

“Wilder laments change in movie-directing role”, Harry Tessell, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 19, 1977

“Back to Sunset Blvd.”,  Michael Ventura, LA Weekly, April 26, 1979

“How Joan Didion the Writer Became Joan Didion the Legend,” Lili Anolik, Vanity Fair, February 2, 2016


Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Still from One, Two, Three, 1961, United Artists

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"Vik Fence Larda” - The Fence

“Chai Belltini” - Vermouth

“Eggs and Powder” - Muffuletta

“Guild Rat” - El Baul

“Cab Ride” - Pacha Faro

“Coquelicot” - Magenta

“Hardtop Rocks” - Vermouth

“Rasteplass” - Oslo

“Flashing Runner” - Resolute

“Levanger” - Lillehammer

“Cobalt Blue” - Marble Run

“I Need to Start Writing Things Down” - Chris Zabriskie


This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Billy Wilder

Flashback: Sammy and Dino — Generation Gap /  by Karina Longworth

Sammy Davis Jr. by Phillipe Halsman

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

This episode was originally released on December 14, 2021. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.

In the mid-1960s, 47 year-old Dean Martin proves he's still got it by knocking the Beatles off the top of the pop charts, and by launching his long-running TV show, which brought a version of his nightclub act into America’s living rooms every week.  But his middle-aged drunk schtick sours as the decade of hippies and Vietnam wears on. Sammy Davis Jr has his own challenges, living up to the expectations of a new generation of activists--and he only makes matters worse by embracing Richard Nixon. After disastrously dabbling with Motown, Sammy records “The Candy Man” -- a silly novelty single that he hated, but which ended up saving his career.

Dean Martin and the Golddiggers on the Dean Martin Show, c. 1972

Music:

The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode: 

Calgary Sweeps - Vermouth

Chai Belltini - Vermouth

Gin Boheme - Vermouth

Gagool - Kevin MacLeod

Two Dollar Token - Warmbody

Glass Stopper - Vermouth

Thumbscrew - Sketchbook 2

Gaddy - Little Rock

Easy Listening in Jazz - Musique Libre de Droit Club

Lovers Hollow - Bitters

Chicken Steak - Truck Stop

Entrance Shaft 11 - The Depot

Latecomer (Bass Face) - Cafe Nostro

Credits:

This episode was written, narrated, and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola. 

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Sammy Davis Jr. and Richard Nixon, 1972

George Stevens 1958-1970 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 8) /  by Karina Longworth

Warren Beatty and George Stevens on the set of The Only Game In Town, 1970, 20th Century Studios

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

As a cameraman during World War II, George Stevens shot footage of the liberation of Dachau that showed the world the horrors of the Holocaust – and scarred Stevens himself for life. Pre-war, he had been a director of frothy comedies; post-war, he committed himself to making epic films about “moral disasters.” This yielded a number of masterpieces – A Place in the Sun, Giant, Shane – but by the mid-60s, though more in demand than ever as a director, Stevens felt he lost touch with the audience. He only released one film in the 1960s, The Greatest Story Ever Told – an epic about Jesus, and an epic flop – and then, in an attempt to come full circle to his comedy roots, concluded his career with The Only Game in Town (1970), an awkward mashup of old and new featuring the two biggest transitional stars of the day, Warren Beatty and Elizabeth Taylor.

Still from The Greatest Story Ever Told, 1965, United Artists

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

George Stevens: Interviews Edited by Paul Cronin

The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris

My Place in the Sun: Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington by George Stevens, Jr

Giant: George Stevens, A Life on Film by Marilyn Ann Moss

Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris

Star: The Life and Wild Times of Warren Beatty by Peter Biskind

Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Best-Selling Novel of Texas, and the Making of a Classic American Film by Julie Gilbert

Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century by Sam Kashner and Mary Schoenberger

Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan

“Movies Aren’t Movies Anymore: The Art of the Gimp Takes Over,” Manny Farber, Commentary, June 1952

“Compassion Ideal to Guide Stevens”, Philip K. ScheuerLos Angeles Times, April 22, 1960

 “Stars Clamor for Roles in Film of Christ”, Shreveport Times, January 1, 1961

“‘Greatest Story’ Cancelled by 20th”, Hedda Hopper, Los Angeles Times, September 5, 1961

“Biggest Hollywood Film Since 1945 Announced”, Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1962

“Hollywood: Forget the Incense,” TIME, December 28, 1962

“The Greatest Story Ever Told,” Variety, December 31, 1964

“$20 Million Film Gamble”, Jack Hirschberg, Los Angeles Times, January 10, 1965

“‘Greatest Story’ Exalted Spectacle”, Hedda Hopper, Los Angeles Times, February 12, 1965

“Stevens Skill Seen in ‘Greatest Story’”, Philip K. Scheuer, Los Angeles Times, February 17, 1965

“‘The Greatest Story in One Man’s View,” Joanne Stang, New York Times, February 14, 1965

“Cinema: Calendar Christ”, Time, February 26, 1965

Is God Dead? TIME Magazine Cover, April 8, 1966

Photo: “Elizabeth Taylor Leaves Hospital,” Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS, August 8, 1968

“The Only Game: Major Stars Converge on a Minor Script”, VIncent Canby, New York Times, March 5, 1970

“Festival Heads Offer to Quit Over Film Furore”, Los Angeles Times, July 5, 1970

“Oscar-Winning Director George Stevens, 70, Dies”, Los Angeles Times, March 10, 1975

“A Place in the Sun,” Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader, October 26, 1985

“Selling Religion: How to market a biblical epic”, Sheldon Hall, Film History Vol 14, No 2, Film and Religion, 2002

“George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey,” PBS American Masters, July 13, 2005

“‘O.K.’: The Scandal That Almost Ended the Berlin Film Festival”, Tom Leatham, Far Out, February 13, 2024

“On the Death of Filmmaker Michael Verhoeven,” Observational, April 27, 2024


Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty in The Only Game in Town, 1970, 20th Century Studios

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"Periodicals” - Albany, NY

"Song at the End of Time” - Limoncello

“Four Cluster” - Fornax

"On the Passing of Time” - Kevin MacLeod

“Krok” - Simple Machines

“Coquelicot” - Magenta

“Vik Fence Haflak” - The Fence

“Messy Inkwell” - Architect

“County Courtship” - Illinois and Maco

“Tranquility” - Kevin MacLeod

“Danse Morialta” - Kevin MacLeod

“Melody of the Thrush” - Seven Rivers

“Order of Entrance” - Architect

“Caverna” - High Horse

“Kirkus” - Architect

“Peaceful Piano” - Musique Libre de Droit Club


This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

1972 Director’s Group party for Luis Buñel

Top row (L to R): Robert Mulligan, William Wyler, George Cukor, Robert Wise, Jean-Claude Carriere, and Serge Silverman. Bottom row (L to R): Billy Wilder, George Stevens, Luis Bunuel, Alfred Hitchcock, and Rouben Mamoulin.

Flashback: LIZ <3 MONTY /  by Karina Longworth

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.and Spotify

This episode was originally released on October 28, 2014. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.

Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift were best friends and co-stars in three films. The first, A Place in the Sun, is an undisputed classic which captures both stars at the peak of their talents and physical beauty. The shoot of the second, Raintree County, was interrupted by a horrible car accident in which Clift’s face was disfigured. This episode tracks Taylor’s relationship with the troubled Clift, from their first, studio-setup date through his untimely death — the result of what some have called “Hollywood’s slowest suicide.”

Show Notes!

Almost all biographical writing on Montgomery Clift seems to be indebted to Patricia Bosworth’s 1978 doorstop Montgomery Clift, which is the source of most of the quotes in this episode. Unfortunately, the countless Elizabeth Taylor biographies are mostly redundant, and the more recent they are, the more they seem to recycle old stories without new information or insight. My current favorite book about Taylor is Furious Love, by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, which tracks her relationship with Richard Burton, and thus was only useful for a small portion of this podcast. In researching this episode I consulted How to Be a Movie Star by William J. Mann, Who’s Afraid of Elizabeth Taylor by Brenda Maddox, and Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir by Elizabeth Taylor, Bring in the Peacocks, or Memoirs of a Hollywood Producer by Hank Moonjean, and Who the Hell’s In It by Peter Bogdanovich.

There are pictures of Clift and Taylor on the sets of both A Place in the Sun (including the contact sheet featuring the photo at the top of this post) and Raintree County in my book, Hollywood Frame by Frame. 

Special thanks to Kent Kincannon, who played Montgomery Clift. 

At the end of this episode, there’s an excerpt from the Clash song “The Right Profile.” I don’t know much about the writing of the song, although I’ve read it was inspired by Bosworth’s biography, and the song essentially summarizes the book. For awhile, Julie Delpy was planning to direct a biopic about Strummer named after the song, although that looks like it has fallen apart. I’ve thought about doing an episode about Joe Strummer and/in Hollywood at some point in the future, but my sense from doing a small amount of research is that it might be a difficult subject, and that I would need to find an expert to help. Anyone know anyone?

Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Discography:

“American” by Lana Del Rey

“Burning Desire” by Lana Del Rey

“Au coin de la rue” by Marco Raaphorst

“I Only Have Eyes For You” performed by The Flamingos

“I Am A Man Who Will Fight For Your Honor” by Chris Zabriskie

“Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod

“Out of the Skies, Under the Earth” by Chris Zabriskie

“Wonder Cycle” by Chris Zabriskie

“Off to Osaka” by Kevin MacLeod

“Dance of the Stargazer” performed by U.S. Army Blues

“Prelude No. 21” by Chris Zabriskie

“I Trust a Littler of Kittens Still Keeps The Colloseum” by Joan of Arc

“For Better or Worse” by Kai Engel

“Exlibris” by Kosta T

“Melancholy Aftersounds” by Kai Engel

“The Wrong Way” by Jahzzar

“Gymnopedie No. 2” by Eric Satie, performed by Kevin MacLeod

“The Right Profile” by The Clash

Otto Preminger 1960-1979 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 7) /  by Karina Longworth

Otto Preminger, Liza Minnelli, and Ken Howard on the set of Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Long an antagonist to Hollywood’s norms (not to mention its actresses), Preminger began the 1960s by directing a massive blockbuster (Exodus) and earning his second Oscar nomination (for directing The Cardinal). But towards the end of the decade, with 1967’s Hurry, Sundown, he began a run of six films which attempted to respond to changing times, all of which flopped. We’ll focus primarily on two of these: the much-maligned Skidoo, an indictment of both hippies and the true American establishment which Preminger prepared for by dropping acid with Timothy Leary; and the unfairly forgotten Such Good Friends, the rare sex comedy of the era to understand the extent to which the sexual revolution did little to liberate women from the expectations of men.

Groucho Marx and Donyale Luna in a scene from Skidoo, Paramount Pictures, 1968

Michael Caine and Jane Fonda in Hurry Sundown, 1967, Paramount Pictures

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"Circle Desserat” - Circle Kadde

"Bellow’s Hull” - Reflections

“Eggs and Powder” - Muffuletta

"Slimheart” - Bitters

“Lobo Lobo” - El Baul

“ZigZag Heart” - Nursery

“Trenton Channel” - Reflections

“Inside the Paper Crane” - Origami

“Benbient” - Canton Becker

This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Otto Preminger and Dyan Cannon on the set of Such Good Friends, 1971, Paramount Pictures

Flashback: Jean Seberg and Otto Preminger /  by Karina Longworth

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Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This episode was originally released on July 4, 2017. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.

Jean Seberg made her first two films, Saint Joan and Bonjour Tristesse, for director Otto Preminger, a tyrannical svengali character whose methods would traumatize Jean for the rest of her life and career. No wonder she rebelled against this bad dad figure by marrying a handsome French opportunist. Meanwhile, Jane Fonda moves to New York, joins the Actors Studio, takes up with her own hyper-controlling male partner, and tries to define herself as something other than Henry Fonda’s daughter.

Jean Seberg and Otto Preminger, c. late 1950's

Jean Seberg and Otto Preminger, c. late 1950's

Jean Seberg in Bonjour Tristesse, 1958

Jean Seberg in Bonjour Tristesse, 1958

Jane Fonda in a stage production of There Was A Little Girl, 1960

Jane Fonda in a stage production of There Was A Little Girl, 1960

Jane Fonda and Rod Taylor in Sunday in New York, 1963

Jane Fonda and Rod Taylor in Sunday in New York, 1963

Please note: as an Amazon Associate Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Music:

All of the music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, is from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. Outro song: “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode: “Meet Me In Queens 1, 2 and 3” by Örjan Karlsson, “By the Lake in the Evening” by Franz Gordon, “Be Still” by Johannes Bornlöf, “Widows Dance” by Håkan Eriksson, “Musique A La Carte 01” by John Åhlin, “Weekly” by Martin Gauffin, “Swing Manouche 05” by John Åhlin, “Old Time Action 2” by Gunnar Johnsén, “Cadillac Quiff Boys 1” by Victor Olsson, “Hot Rod Rebels 5” by Victor Olsson, “Hippies On A Bus 1” by Martin Landh, “It Takes Four” by Niklas Ahlstrom, “Readers Do You Read” by Chris Zabriskie.

Sponsors:

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron, Naturebox and Squarespace.

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Alfred Hitchcock 1966-1980 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 6) /  by Karina Longworth

Alfred Hitchcock in a publicity photo for Family Plot, 1976, Universal Pictures

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Hitch’s most iconic decade – a decade of Technicolor grandeur and peril inflicted on famous blondes – came to an end in 1964 with Marnie, a critical and box office flop which wounded Hitchcock’s ego and left him unsure how to move forward in a changing world. His subsequent four final films – Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, Family Plot – are the result of his efforts to mix up his formula for an era in which he felt ripped off by James Bond and mourned the decline of the Golden Age stars.

Hitchcock and Paul Newman on the set of Torn Curtain, 1966, Universal Pictures


Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Still from Frenzy, 1972, Universal Pictures

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"I Knew a Guy” - Kevin MacLeod

"An Unknown Visitor” - Cold Case

"Pacing” - TinyTiny Trio

"Single Still - Vermouth

“Tarte Tatin” - Confectionery

“Kalsted” - Lillehammer

“Cobalt Blue” - Marble Run

“Chai Belltini” - Vermouth

“Dowdy” - Muffuletta

“Pips and Boil” - Confectionery

“Tessalit” - Azalai

“Labyrinth” - Sergey Cheremisinov

This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Alfred Hitchcock prepares a meal.

Flashback: Grace Kelly /  by Karina Longworth

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.and Spotify

This episode was originally released on April 11, 2017. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.

The quintessential “Hitchcock blonde,” Grace Kelly had an apparently charmed life. Her movies were mostly hits, her performances were largely well-reviewed, and she won an Oscar against stiff competition. Then she literally married a prince. Was it all as perfect as it seemed? Today we’ll explore Kelly’s public and private life (and the rumors that the two things were very different), her working relationship with Hitchcock, her Oscar-winning performance in The Country Girl, the royal marriage that took her away from Hollywood and Kelly’s very specific spin on blonde sexuality.

Show notes:

Sources:

High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly by Donald Spoto

Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies by Donald Spoto

Grace Kelly: The Secret Life of a Princess by James Spada

Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Vincente Minnelli 1962-1976 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 5) /  by Karina Longworth

Liza Minnelli with her father, Vincente, on the set of A Matter of Time, 1976, American International Pictures

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Vincente Minnelli was the ultimate creature of the studio system, spending twenty years working for MGM and perfecting a distinct brand of big-budget, beautifully designed, often musical entertainment, from Meet Me in St. Louis to An American in Paris, The Bad and the Beautiful to Gigi. Minnelli’s late period begins with two films he made toward the end of his run at MGM, his proto-psychedelic remake of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962) and Two Weeks in Another Town, which painted such a caustic picture of moviemaking decadence that MGM forcibly recut it. Knocked off his game, with both his faculties and his power waning, Minnelli made a trilogy of films about reincarnation and rebirth, one of which starred his famous daughter, Liza.

Still from Two Weeks in Another Town, 1962, MGM

Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland by Gerald Clarke

Cahiers du Cinema: The 1960s (1960-1968) New Wave, New Cinema, Reevaluating Hollywood by Jim Hiller

“Screen: ‘4 Horsemen of Apocalypse’: New Version of Work by Blasco Ibanez Remake of 1921 Film at the Loew’s State,” Bosley Crowther, New York Times, March 10, 1962

“New 4 Horsemen’ Appeal Geared to Different Level,” James Powers, The Hollywood Reporter, February 8, 1962

“Actors Re-create Royal Past with a Sumptuous Repast, Sally K. Brass, Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1969

“The Streisand Show,” Tom Milne, The Observer Review, August 1 1971

“A Matter of Time,” Pauline Kael, New Yorker, Nov 1, 1976

“The Nostalgia Express: Gideon Bachmann interviews 2 Minnellis and a Bergman”, Gideon Bachmann, Film Comment Vol 12 No 6, Nov/Dec 1976

“One Kind of Dream”, George Morris, Film Comment Vol 12 No 6, Nov/Dec 1976

“Movie of the Week: ‘A Matter of TIme’”, Richard Brody The New Yorker, August 27, 2015

Vincente Minnelli papers collection, Margaret Herrick Library


Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Director Vincente Minnelli surrounded by posters for his films

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"ZigZag Heart” - Nursery

"Kalsted” - Lillehammer

"Chai Belltini” - Vermouth

"Bellow’s Hull” - Reflections

“Hardtop Rocks” - Vermouth

“Single Still” - Vermouth

“Jumbel” - Muffuletta

“Tarte Tatin” - Confectionery

“Heath” - Moon Juice

“Coquelicot” - Magenta

“Apple Spice” - Sunflower

“The Maison” - Desjardins

“Out of the Skies, Under the Earth” - Chris Zabriskie

“Four Count” - Reflections

“Song at the End of Times” - Lemoncello

This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Still from On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, 1970, Paramount Pictures

Flashback: Lana Turner /  by Karina Longworth

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Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

This episode was originally released on December 1, 2015. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.

Lana Turner, the legendary "Sweater Girl" was one of MGM’s prized contract players, the epitome of the mid-century sex goddess on-screen and an unlucky-in-love single mom off-screen who would burn through seven husbands and countless affairs. After nearly twenty years as a star not known for her acting prowess, Turner's career suddenly got interesting in the late 1950s, when the hits The Bad and the Beautiful, Peyton Place and Imitation of Life sparked a reappraisal of her talents. In the middle of this renaissance, Turner became embroiled in one of Hollywood history’s most shocking scandals: the murder of Turner’s boyfriend Johnny Stompanato at the hand of her 14 year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane.

Sources: 

The Star Machine by Jeanine Basinger

Lana: The Lady, The Legend, The Truth by Lana Turner

Detour: A Hollywood Story by Cheryl Crane with Cliff Jahr

Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer by Scott Eyman

The Bad and the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties by Sam Kashner and Jennifer Macnair

Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Howard Hawks 1955-1977 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 4) /  by Karina Longworth

Howard Hawks in a still from a 1977 interview near the director’s home in Palm Springs

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

In the 1960s, many American directors saw their fortunes turn after they notched massive hits. In the case of Howard Hawks – a director who had thrived in virtually every Hollywood genre since the late silent era– the undisputed masterpiece of Rio Bravo gave way to four poorly-received efforts, each of which bared the marks of a dying studio system, if they weren’t compromised by the literal dying off of the previous generation of stars. In the middle of this run, Hawks made Red Line 7000, a car racing drama which was at once familiar and personal to Hawks, and also totally foreign in that it was a movie set in the 1960s, infused with ‘60s sexual politics, and built around future New Hollywood star James Caan. 

Still from Red Line 7000, 1965, Paramount Pictures.

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Who the Devil Made It? by Peter Bogdanovich

The American Cinema: directors and directions 1929-1968 by Andrew Sarris

Hawks on Hawks by Joseph McBride

Focus on Howard Hawks by Joseph McBride

Howard Hawks: New Perspectives by Ian Brookes

Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood by Todd McCarthy

Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker by Stephen Galloway

“‘Red Line 7000’ Arrives; Film on Racing is at Neighborhood Houses Script by George Kirgo Directed by Hawks,” Bosley Crowther, New York Times, December 9, 1965

“The Ultimate Caan Game,” Stephen Rebello, Movieline, October 1993

“Sponsor Without Pause,” Newsweek, December 27, 1965

“Red Line 7000 Tieups with 10 Big Companies,” Hollywood Reporter

“Red Line a winner,” Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1965

“HAWKS,” Joseph McBride, Film Comment, March-April 1978

“Latest from Howard Hawks: Hatari,” Andrew Sarris, Films and Filming, 1962

Hawks on Hawks (1977)

Plimpton! Shootout at Rio Lobo (1970)

Rare 7-minute interview with Legendary director Howard Hawks


Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Howard Hawks and John Wayne on the set of El Dorado, 1966, Paramount Pictures

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"Jat Poure” - The Sweet Hots

"Holo” - Grey River

"Slimheart” - Bitters

"The Face of the Thrush” - Migration

“Dakota” - Unheard Music Concepts

“Railroad’s Whiskey Co” - Jabzzar

“Engine” - Oslo

“Borough” - Molerider

“Gaddy” - Little Rock

“Laser Focus” - TinyTiny Trio

“Magenta” - Coquelicot

“Our Only Lark” - Bitters

“Lick Stick” - Nursery

“Ranch Hand” - Truck Stop

“Au Coin de la Rue” - Marco Raaphorst

“One Quiet Conversation” - K2

This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Still from a 1977 interview with Howard Hawks at the director’s home in Palm Springs

Flashback: Bogey, Before Bacall /  by Karina Longworth

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

This episode was originally released on September 9, 2014. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.

Humphrey Bogart is perhaps the most enduring icon of grown-up masculine cool to come out of Hollywood’s first century. But much of what we think of when we think of Bogart — the persona of the tough guy with the secret soft heart, his pairing on-screen and off with Lauren Bacall — coalesced late in Bogart’s life. Today we take a look at how Humphrey Bogart became Bogey, tracing his journey from blue blood beginnings through years of undistinguished work and outright failure (both in the movies and in love), to his emergence in the early 1940s as a symbol of wartime perseverance who could make sacrifice seem sexy. Finally, we’ll look at what it took to get him to take the leap into a fourth marriage that seemed to saved his life … until the world’s most glamorous stoic was faced with cancer.

Show Notes!

This episode was researched in part at the Warner Brothers Archives at USC. Thanks to Brett Service for inviting me to make use of the Archives and for helping me find what I needed. 

As I noted last week, each episode in this season has some connection to Hollywood Frame by Frame, the book I worked on which compiles previously unseen contact sheets of Hollywood still photographers. The admittedly rather flimsy connection to this week and next week’s episodes is that there are images in the book of Bogart and Bacall on the set of The African Queen. Pre-order the book now! </blatant plug>

There are a lot of biographies of Humphrey Bogart. I’ve flipped through many of them over the years, and I’m not sure there’s a single definitive or really great one. But, the most recent, Stefan Kanfer’s Tough Without a Gun, at least does the work of sorting through most of the previously published sources and comparing versions of the truth. Bogey by Clifford McCarty was one of the few film books my parents had around when I was a kid, and it was disappointing to open it during research for this episode and find that it had more pictures than text, although that also makes it pretty emblematic of the wave of Bogey image worship that sprung up in the late-60s and 1970s, which we’ll talk about in next week’s episode.

I became interested in the idea of exploring Bogey’s life before Bacall through City of Nets, Otto Friedrich’s beautifully written book on Hollywood in the 1940s. which dramatizes Bogart’s relationship with his third wife, Mayo Methot. Other sources relevant to this episode include By Myself by Lauren Bacall, Who the Hell’s In It and Who the Devil Made It by Peter Bogdanovich, Humphrey Bogart by Nathaniel Benchley, Bogart and Bacall by Joe Hyams, Slim: Memories of a Rich and Imperfect Life by Slim Keith with Annette Tapert. and finally, the chapter on Bogart in Louise Brooks’ Lulu in Hollywood. After his death, more than one Bogart biographer disputed Brooks’ impressions/interpretations of her old friend Humphrey Bogart, who she insisted was not the same man as the Bogey the world thought they knew. Of course, Brooks’ recollections are self-serving, but I always think first-hand accounts are interesting, especially when they challenge or add shading to a legend. And that’s the thing about Bogartography: for all that’s been written about the man, his life and his work, there still seems to be so little that we actually know. 

Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Discography

"Intro" by The Big Sleep

"Fourty Four" by The Kills

"Dances and Dames" by Kevin MacLeod

"Out of the Skies, Under the Earth" by Chris Zabriskie

"Divider" by Chris Zabriskie

"Melody" by Serge Gainsbourg

"Love Like a Sunset" by Phoenix

"roughcut" by Tripwire

"Life Round Here" by James Blake

"Your Impersonation This Morning of Me Last Night" by Joan of Arc

"Rite of Passage" by Kevin MacLeod

"For Better or Worse"Chris Zabriskie

"Intelligent Galaxy" by The Insider

"Looped" by Jahzzar

"Shadow of a Doubt" by Sonic Youth

"Cyllinder One" by Chris Zabriskie

"Theresa’s Sound World" by Sonic Youth

"Will Be War Soon?" by Kosta T

"Prelude No. 21" by Chris Zabriskie

"Tikopia" by Kevin MacLeod

"Benbient" by canton

”Don’t Fence Me In,” by Cole Porter, performed by Frank Sinatra

John Ford 1962-1972 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 3) /  by Karina Longworth

John Ford in a still from Directed by John Ford, directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Born in the 19th century, his career forged in the silent era, John Ford helped to invent the genre of the Western and still holds the record for the most Best Director Oscar wins of all time. Though he made films in all genres, and sometimes even tackled the same historical territory from different angles in different films, Ford had by the 1960s become synonymous with depictions of American history that honored maverick white men, while often villainizing, distorting or erasing Native Americans. In this episode, we will talk about the influence of Ford’s last masterpiece, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and will look at Ford’s last two films, which to some extent feel like “mea culpas” for the offenses of his earlier career: the revisionist Western Cheyenne Autumn, and the female-centric adventure film 7 Women.

Still from Cheyenne Autumn, 1964, Warner Bros.

“Sidekicks and Savages,” nativeamericanroots.net, June 21, 2008

“John Ford’s Mythic West,” Victor A. Walsh, American History, February 2016

“When the Navajos Fooled John Ford,” Guillermo Altares, El Pais, February 20, 2024

“Screen: John Ford Mounts Huge Frontier Western,” Bosley Crowther, New York Times, December 24, 1964

“‘The Doddering Relics of a Lost Cause’ John Ford’s The Sun Shines Bright,” Jonathan Rosenbaum, Rouge, 2004

“Looking at Jane Fonda’s Decades of Activism and Protest,” Hannah Militano, L’Officiel, December 21, 2022

“Cheyenne Autumn,” Mark Ayala, New Beverly program notes, May 14, 2017

“John Ford Rides Again,” A.H. Weiler, New York Times, April 23, 1972

“John Ford 1895-1973,” Roger Greenspun, New York Times, September 9, 1973

“Wild Eastern,” TIME, May 13, 1966

“Facts About Ford,” Jenn Thornton, JohnWayne.com

“John Ford: The Last Frontiersman,” Ron Chernow, Ramparts, April 1974

“John Ford’s Trojan Horse-Opry,” Richard Oulahan, Life, November 27, 1964

“The Old Wrangler Rides Again,” Bill Libby, Cosmopolitan, March 1964

“John Ford: Hollywood’s Living Legend,” Dan Scannell, Westward, August-September 1961

“Greatest Films of All Time,” Sight & Sound Magazine, 2022

“John Ford in Monument Valley,” Todd McCarthy, American Film, May 1978

“The Current Cinema: John Ford,” Penelope Gilliatt, New Yorker, September 8, 1975

“Joan Didion: Staking Out California,” Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, June 10, 1979

“John Wayne: A Love Song,” Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

“John Wayne and the Six Security Men,” Farran Smith Nehme, Self-Styled Siren, August 19, 2022

“John Wayne: Playboy Interview,” Playboy, May 1971

“Films,” Andrew Sarris, Village Voice, May 26, 1966

“The Case of John Ford Advances at MOMA,” Andrew Sarris, Village Voice, September 15, 1975


Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Still from 7 Women, 1965, MGM

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"Base Camp” - K2

"Calisson” - Confectionery

"Respite” - Desert Kalimba

"Two Dollar Token” - Warmbody

“Coquelicot” - Magenta

“Slimheart” - Bitters

“Stretch of Lonely” - Truckstop

“Four Count” - Reflections

“Cinema Pathetic” - Banana Cream

“Ewa Valley” - Cloud Harbor

“Suzy Textile” - Cloud Harbor

“Asian Relax (New Age)” - Musique Libre de Droit Club

“Pukae” - Cloud Harbor

This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Right to left: Dennis Hopper, John Ford, and John Huston in 1971. Photo by Victor Strebneski

Flashback: Peter Bogdanovich and the Woman Behind the Auteur /  by Karina Longworth

Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt c. 1968 | Photo by Bruce McBroom via mptvimages

Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt c. 1968 | Photo by Bruce McBroom via mptvimages

Listen to this episode Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This episode was originally released on June 3, 2020. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.

After the death of her first husband and creative partner, Polly moves to New York, where she swiftly meets and falls in love with Peter Bogdanovich. Together Polly and Peter build a life around the obsessive consumption of Hollywood movies, with Polly acting as Peter’s Jill-of-all-trades support system as he first ingratiates himself with the previous two generations of Hollywood auteurs as a critic/historian, and then makes his way into making his own films. Together, Polly and Peter write and produce Targets, Bogdanovich’s first credited feature, and also collaborate on a documentary about the great director John Ford. By the time Polly gives birth to their first daughter, she believes she and Peter are an indivisible, equal creative partnership — regardless of how credit is distributed in Hollywood. 

Peter and Polly in England, c. 1965 | Photo courtesy of Antonia Bogdanovich

Peter and Polly in England, c. 1965 | Photo courtesy of Antonia Bogdanovich

SHOW NOTES: 

Sources specific to this episode:

This season is based in large part on Polly Platt's unpublished memoir, It Was Worth It, excerpted with the permission of Sashy Bodganovich.

 This episode includes excerpts from interviews with: Jules Fisher, Sashy Bogdanovich, Barbara Boyle, Fred Roos, Frank Marshall, Peggy Steffans and Rachel Ambramowitz. 

 Here is a full list of sources referenced on this season. 

Boris Karloff and Peter Bogdanovich in Targets c. 1968

Boris Karloff and Peter Bogdanovich in Targets c. 1968

Music:

The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode: 

Trust In Fate - Julien Guillaume Yves Bonneau, François Rousselot
Play Smart - Franck Sarkissian
Hazy Nights - Various Composers
Without You Crooner - Franck Sarkissian
Strain Therapy - Massimo Catalano, Remigio Ducros
Silver Bullet - Elliot Holmes
Tooth Fairy - Various Composers
Sunset - Kai Engel
Suspicious Cat - Ilan Moshe Abou, Thierry Oliver Faure
Low Horizon - Kai Engel
Locked Minds - Walt Adams
Rite of Passage - Unknown Composer
Stripper - Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne
The Call of the Sea (Piano Only) - John Paul Labno
Nashville Girl - Various Composers
I Knew A Guy - Unknown Composer
Piano Sonata in C Minor
Ready to Love - Various Composers

Peter Bogdanovich and John Ford on the set of Bogdanovich's documentary Directed by John Ford

Peter Bogdanovich and John Ford on the set of Bogdanovich's documentary Directed by John Ford

Credits:

This episode was written, narrated and produced by Karina Longworth.

Featuring special guest Maggie Siff as the voice of Polly Platt.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media, transcription and additional research: Brendan Whalen.

Transcription and additional research: Kristen Sales and Wiley Wiggins

 Produced and edited by Tomeka Weatherspoon.

 Audio engineers: Jared O'Connell, Andrea Kristins and Brendan Byrnes.

 Supervising Producer: Josephine Martorana.

 Executive Producer: Chris Bannon.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Fritz Lang 1959-1970 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 2) /  by Karina Longworth

Fritz Lang from an interview with William Friedkin, 1975

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

In the mid-1930s, Fritz Lang fled Hitler and left a successful film career in Germany behind to come to America. After a 20 year career in Hollywood, Lang went back to a much-changed Germany to make two films that he had first developed in the 1920s, set in India but largely cast with non-Indian performers in brownface. Even Lang’s collaborators were concerned that these films, The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb, were politically incorrect and out-of-date. How did the director behind some of the most influential films ever made end up here, and how can we understand his late movies – and his appearance as himself in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt – as the culmination of all that came before?

Still from Der Tiger von Eschnapur, 1959, Fritz Lang, Director

Fritz Lang and Jean-Luc Godard

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"Temperance” - Eltham House

"Cran Ras” - Vermouth

"Krok” - Simple Machines

"Blue Feather” - Kevin MacLeod

“Borough” - Molerider

“Peaceful Piano” - Musique Libre de Droit Club

“Jat Poure” - The Sweet Hots

“Song at the End of TImes” - Limoncello

“The Maison” - Desjardins

“Cobalt Blue” - Marble Run

“Coquelicot” - Magenta

“El Tajo” - Cholate

“Heather” - Migration

“Mosic” - Textiles

“Vdet” - Fjell

“Gale” - Migration

This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Fritz Lang in a 1972 interview

Frank Capra 1959-1971 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 1) /  by Karina Longworth

Frank Capra Interview | Cinema Showcase (January 30, 1979)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The director of It’s a Wonderful Life, who won five Oscars in the 1930s for films that embodied the pre-World War II notion of American exceptionalism, was pushed into semi-retirement by the early 50s by changes in tastes and political priorities. Capra was brought back to the Hollywood director’s chair by Frank Sinatra in the 1960s, but Capra quickly became embittered by an industry that he felt had left him behind, and in 1971 published an autobiography airing grievances about an industry that he believed was “stooping to cheap salacious pornography in a crazy bastardization of a great art to compete for the 'patronage' of deviates and masturbators.”

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Five Came Back by Mark Harris

Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success by Joseph McBride

Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir by Victoria Riskin

“Profiles: Thinker in Hollywood,” Geoffrey T. Hellman The New Yorker, February 24, 1940

The American Cinema: directors and directions 1929-1968 by Andrew Sarris

“Sinatra, Sellers, Matthau: One Weekend, Fifty Stars!” by Kim Goodrich, American Movie Classics Magazine, July 1998

Hollywood: The Oral History by Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson

“Capra Production Packs Plenty of B.O. Appeal; Well-Acted” by Jack Moffitt, Hollywood Reporter, May 19, 1959

“Capra Once Again Shoots For Laughs” by Philip K. Scheuer, LA Times, November 28, 1958

“Return of a Native: Mr. Capra Does it With A Hole in the Head” by Bosley Crowther, NY Times, June 26, 1959

Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan

The Name Above the Title by Frank Capra

“Crusade Forgotten” by Peter Bogdanovich, Frontier, 1959

“Ford, Bette Davis in Upbeat Comedy” by Hedda Hopper, Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1961

“Film Rates Kudos as Uplifting Fare” Hollywood Citizen-News, December 26, 1961

“‘Miracles’ Another Frank Capra Ditto” by Kay Proctor, Los Angeles Examiner, December 26, 1961

“Capra’s Formula for Farce Again Enlivens Movie” by Dick Williams, LA Mirror, December 26, 1961

“Is Sweet Corn of Yore Palatable to Moderns?” by Dick Williams, Los Angeles Times, November 12, 1961

“TradeViews” by Don Carle Gillette, Hollywood Reporter, 11-15-61


Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Frank Sinatra and Eleanor Parker in Frank Capra's A Hole in the Head, 1959

Frank Sinatra and Eleanor Parker in Frank Capra’s A Hole in the Head, 1959

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"Temperance” - Eltham House

"Au Coin de la Rue” - Marco Raaphorst

"Coquelicot” - Magenta

"House of Grendel” - Lemuel

“True Blue Sky” - Bitters

“Vdet” - Fjell

“Gusty Hollow” - Migration

“Guild Rat” - El Baul

“Base Camp” - K2

“Kalsted” - Lillehammer

“Levanger” - Lillehammer

“Vik Fence Haflak” - The Fence

“Rasteplass” - Oslo

This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Frank Capra on The Dick Cavett Show in 1972. From Left to Right: Peter Bogdanovich, Dick Cavett, and Frank Capra

Flashback: The African Queen, Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn /  by Karina Longworth

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.or Spotify

This episode was originally released on March 1, 2016. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.

In the late 1940s, as the country was moving to the right and there was pressure on Hollywood to do the same, Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and John Huston all protested HUAC in ways that damaged their public personas and their ability to work in Hollywood. Hepburn’s outspokenness resulted in headlines branding her a "Red" and, allegedly, audiences stoning her films. Bogart and Huston were prominent members of the Committee For the First Amendment, a group of Hollywood stars who came to Washington to support the Hollywood Ten -- and lived to regret it. With their career futures uncertain, the trio collaborated on the most difficult film any of them would ever make, The African Queen.

Show notes:

Here is a list of published sources that the entire season draws from:

The Red and the Blacklist: An Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate by Norma Barzman

Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical by Larry Ceplair and Christopher Trumbo

Trumbo: A biography of the Oscar-winning screenwriter who broke the Hollywood blacklist by Bruce Cook

When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics by Donald T. Critchlow

Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten by Edward Dmytryk

City of Nets by Otto Friedrich

Hollywood Radical, Or How I Learned to Love the Blacklist by Bernard Gordon

I Said Yes to Everything by Lee Grant

Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War by J. Hoberman

Naming Names by Victor S. Navasky

Sources specific to this episode:

West of Eden by Jean Stein

By Myself and Then Some by Lauren Bacall

Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart by Stefan Kanfer

Kate: The Woman who was Hepburn by William J. Mann

Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn

An Open Book by John Huston

John Huston: Courage and Art by Jeffrey Meyers

“As Bogart Sees it Now” Milwaukee Journal, December 3, 1947

“I’m No Communist” by Humphrey Bogart, Photoplay, May 1948

Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

Special thanks to our special guest, Rian Johnson, who reprised his recurring role as John Huston.

This episode included excerpts from the following videos:

Episode 1 of Hollywood Fights Back:

The Committee for the First Amendment was an action group formed in September 1947 by actors in support of the Hollywood Ten during the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). It was founded by screenwriter Philip Dunne, actress Myrna Loy, and film directors John Huston and William Wyler.

Bogart on Episode 2 of Hollywood Fights Back:

The Committee for the First Amendment was an action group formed in September 1947 by actors in support of the Hollywood Ten during the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). It was founded by screenwriter Philip Dunne, actress Myrna Loy, and film directors John Huston and William Wyler.

Katharine Hepburn’s speech at the May 1947 Henry Wallace rally:

In 1947, Katharine Hepburn got involved in politics when she gave a speech on May 19 during the Henry A. Wallace tour, the Progressive Party's presidential candidate. Afterwards, she was labeled a communist by certain newpapers and accused of attending communist meetings and raising money for them.

Humphrey Bogart’s Oscar acceptance speech:

Humphrey Bogart wins the Oscar for Best Actor for The African Queen at the 24th Academy Awards. Greer Garson presents the award; hosted by Danny Kaye.

This episode was edited by Henry Molofsky, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks. 

Introducing: The Old Man is Still Alive /  by Karina Longworth

John Ford by his Pool in Bel Air dressed in his Admirals uniform, 1973. Photo by Allan Warren

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

A preview of the new season of You Must Remember This, which covers the late careers of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Vincente Minnelli and ten other directors who began their careers in the silent or early sound eras, and were still making movies in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, in spite of the challenges posed by massive cultural changes and their advanced age. In this mini-episode we’ll discuss the parallels between this history and today, from the tech industry takeover of Hollywood to the late work of Coppola and Scorsese; the interview with George Cukor that inspired the title of this season; the Orson Welles-Peter Bogdanovich-Quentin Tarantino connection that informs the way we think about “old man” movies, and much more.

An older man (Vincente Minelli) and younger woman (Liza Minelli), both in the height of 70s fashion, her in a sort of leisure suit with a scarf tie, and him in a black suit and light tie

VIncente Minnelli with daughter Liza Minnelli, 1978

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"Coquelicot” - Magenta

"Cloud Line” - K4

"Cobalt Blue” - Marble Run

"Bask VX” - Limoncello

This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Frank Capra on Late Night with David Letterman, November 22, 1982

The Hard Hollywood Life of Kim Novak — 10th anniversary restoration /  by Karina Longworth

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The first episode of You Must Remember This tells the story of actress Kim Novak -- a top box office draw of the late 1950s and the iconic star of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo -- and her painful struggles to assert herself from the mid-20th century through well into the 21st, in a Hollywood that repeatedly sent her the message that she was only valuable for the way she looked, while also insisting that she didn’t quite look good enough. Originally released in April 2014, this episode has been “lost” for almost as long due to copyright issues with its soundtrack. Today, in honor of the podcast’s ten-year anniversary, we’re rereleasing this episode with new music, largely re-recorded voiceover, and just enough of the original episode intact so you can hear how far the show has come over the course of a decade.

A young Marilyn Pauline "Kim" Novak

Kim Novak and William Holden, Picnic, 1955

Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.  

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

"Out of the Skies, Under The Earth" by Chris Zabriskie

"Balcarabic Chicken" by Quantum Jazz

"Gibraltar" by Unheard Music Concepts

"Rite of Passage" by Kevin MacLeod

"Dinner Music" from the compilation "Musique Libre de Droit Club"

"Tikopia" by Kevin MacLeod

"Dakota" by Unheard Music Concepts

"Piano Spa" from the compilation "Musique Libre de Droit Club"

Kim Novak, The Legend of Lylah Clare, 1968

This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Kim Novak and Mattthew McConaughey at the Oscars, 2014

Erotic 90s archive /  by Karina Longworth

Erotic 90s continues the story of Erotic 80s, with 21 episodes tackling sex in Hollywood movies of the 1999s, spanning the creation—and disastrous rollout—of the NC-17 rating in 1990, through the release of Eyes Wide Shut in 1999.  Listen to all 21 Erotic 90s episodes here.

Erotic 90s Episodes:

  • 1988: PROLOGUE: PORN, FEMINISM & THE FOLLY OF NC-17 (EROTIC 90S, PART 1): Erotic 80s began with a prologue about the short-lived heyday of the X rating, pornography, and feminism. Erotic 90s begins with a prologue about the disastrous rollout of NC-17 –the X rating’s replacement  – and the evolving state of both porn and feminism at the dawn of the 90s. Topics include David Lynch, Harvey Weinstein, “pro-porn” feminism, “the new morality,” video stores, Magic Johnson, date rape and much more. Listen


  • PRETTY WOMAN, SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY AND JULIA ROBERTS IN THE EARLY 90S (EROTIC 90S, PART 2): The first blockbuster about sex of the 90s, Pretty Woman both reinvigorated Richard Gere’s career, and turned Julia Roberts into the biggest female movie star of the era. We’ll dissect the gender politics of this fantasy about love between a streetwalker and a corporate villain, analyze its lasting appeal, and trace the wild rollercoaster ride of the first few years of Roberts’ movie stardom. Virtually unknown before 1989, within a year of Pretty Woman’s release Roberts was considered the most bankable woman in movies, a controversial icon of 90s womanhood and, eventually, a romantic antihero whose performances and personal life were put on a pedestal by a breathless media, only to be swiftly knocked down. Listen


  • “THE ACTRESS EVERYBODY WANTS TO FUCK”: THERESA RUSSELL AND SONDRA LOCKE (EROTIC 90S, PART 3): An enigmatic sex symbol dating back to the 70s, Theresa Russell made a play for Hollywood stardom in the late 80s and early 90s, making a number of films about the sexual commodification and role playing. Ken Russell’s Whore was marketed as a gritty answer to Pretty Woman, showing the “truth” about Los Angeles street prostitution. In Impulse, a neo-noir romance in which Russell plays an undercover cop posing as a sex working in a hopelessly corrupt LAPD, Russell was directed by Sondra Locke, longtime girlfriend and co-star of Clint Eastwood. When Eastwood dumped Locke while she was directing the movie, she fought back, instigating a series of lawsuits that revealed that Eastwood and his studio had conspired against her. Listen

  • THELMA & LOUISE (EROTIC 90S, PART 4): One of the most controversial movies of the 1990s, Thelma & Louise pushed every hot button of the new decade: date rape, sexual harassment, the failure of the feminist movement to create real change for the working class, and how pissed off women were, or were not, entitled to be about all of the above. Though it made more noise as a media phenomenon than at the box office, Thelma & Louise made so many people so mad that it had the feeling of a turning point. We’ll talk about the anger the movie communicated, the anger it inspired, and debate its lasting legacy. Listen


  • THE BLANKS FROM HELL: FATAL ATTRACTION’S CHILDREN (EROTIC 90’S, PART 5): In the five years after the release of Fatal Attraction, Hollywood scrambled to make one movie after another about homes and workplaces invaded and threatened by sexy outsiders. Today we’ll talk about five of these films: Presumed Innocent (1990), The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992), Single White Female (1992), Consenting Adults (1992), and The Temp (1993). Listen


  • BASIC INSTINCT (EROTIC 90’S, PART 6): One of the biggest hits of 1992, Basic Instinct was sold as Michael Douglas’s return to Fatal Attraction territory, but its success owed to an alchemy of three other creatives: a writer (Joe Eszterhas) who was driven to become the highest-paid scribe in movies; a director (Paul Verhoeven) who was determined to redefine the amount of sex considered acceptable in a Hollywood movie; and a female lead (Sharon Stone) who had waited a long time for her breakout role, and finally found it in a bisexual murderess with the sheen of a Hitchcock blonde. We’ll talk about all of that, detailing the extremely messy production that was protested by LGBT activists – and its screenwriter – virtually from beginning to end, and examine Basic Instinct as a collision of toxicity and commerce that was emblematic of just-pre-Clinton era. Listen


  • MURPHY BROWN, DAN QUAYLE AND DAMAGE (EROTIC 90’S, PART 7): In the early 90s, one of the biggest scripted shows on TV was Murphy Brown, starring 40-something Candice Bergen as a product of the 60s whose high-powered career precluded marriage and family. When the character became a single mother, and was criticized for it by vice president Dan Quayle, a massive conversation about “family values” began that would change the culture – and, arguably, American politics. Off-screen, Bergen was married to French filmmaker Louis Malle. While his wife was in the middle of the “family values” maelstrom, Malle was making Damage, one of the most sexually intense films of the 90s, and one which used sexuality to explicitly critique the hypocrisy of politicians. Listen

  • 90S LOLITAS, VOLUME 1: DREW BARRYMORE, AMY FISHER AND ALICIA SILVERSTONE (EROTIC 90’S, PART 8): Culture in the 90s was obsessed with the sex lives of teenagers. This is a theme we will come back to several times throughout the season. In this episode, we’ll talk about Drew Barrymore, who became a massive star at age 7 in E.T., went to rehab at 13, became an emancipated minor at 15, and immediately started pushing buttons with naked photo shoots and her comeback role as a murderously seductive teen in Poison Ivy. With teenaged Drew scantily clad in magazines and on screen – and “Long Island Lolita” Amy Fisher making headlines for shooting her adult lover’s wife – the media was eager to exploit the precocious sexuality of other teen girls. But while she made her film debut in the Poison Ivy-esque The Crush, Alicia Silverstone vocally pushed back on being branded “the next Lolita”. Listen


  • RED SHOE DIARIES AND SEX ON TV IN THE 90S. (EROTIC 90’S, PART 9): While the MPAA’s confusing and hypocritical ratings decisions were leaving filmmakers flummoxed in the early 90s, cable TV was opening up new possibilities for erotic content. Today we will offer a brief history of sex on TV, and then focus on Red Shoe Diaries, the cheesy-but-charming late night softcore soap that was the brainchild of 9 ½ Weeks writers/producers Zalman King and Patricia Knop. Listen


  • MADONNA: SEX, EROTICA AND BODY OF EVIDENCE (EROTIC 90’S, PART 10): In the early 90s, Madonna was the biggest pop star in the world, and she used – and in the minds of some, squandered – her star capital to launch a multi-media exploration of sexuality: the album Erotica and its companion book Sex, followed by her starring role in the much-maligned erotic thriller Body of Evidence. What was Madonna really trying to do in 1992-1993, how was it perceived and misunderstood at the time, and how does the blowback she experienced then relate to how she is being criticized today? Listen


  • INDECENT PROPOSAL (EROTIC 90’S, PART 11): Are men okay? Several films from 1993 answered that question with a resounding no. One of the highest-grossing movies of its year, Adrian Lyne’s Indecent Proposal was misunderstood as a gimmick, and its insight into toxic masculinity and male sexual insecurity got lost in a media frenzy, much of it sparked by feminists. What had changed since Lyne’s Fatal Attraction, in Hollywood and in the culture? We’ll also talk about Proposal star Demi Moore as the controversial “diva” of the moment. Listen

  • SLIVER AND SHARON STONE AS SUPERSTAR (EROTIC 90’S, PART 12): Sharon Stone and Joe Eszterhas’s post-Basic Instinct reunion film was one of the most troubled productions of the 90s. A post-Hitchcock tale of sexual surveillance given a technological update for the 90s, after a long battle with the MPAA the sanitized, R-rated version of Sliver was rejected by critics and audiences, but the movie and the juicy gossip leaked from its production (which included a love pentagon involving both actress and screenwriter) only enhanced Sharon Stone’s aura as an old-school Hollywood star for a decade that didn’t know what to do with her. Listen

  • THE LAST SEDUCTION, DISCLOSURE, & FEAR OF THE FEMALE BOSS (EROTIC 90’S, PART 13): The 90s were obsessed with what magazine writer Tad Friend would describe as “do me feminism” – and the attendant fear that men could be victims of female sexual aggression. Two films from 1994 married these anxieties to the still-lingering bugaboo of the 80s, the powerful career woman. But though the female stars of The Last Seduction and Disclosure (Linda Fiorentino and Demi Moore) were styled almost identically, the films had very different points of view on the panic over female power. Listen


  • SHOWGIRLS, JADE, AND THE FALL OF JOE ESZTERHAS (EROTIC 90’S, PART 14): Joe Eszterhas’s tenure as the hottest screenwriter in town ended with two notorious 1995 flops: the NC-17 rated Showgirls (directed, like Basic Instinct, by Paul Verhoeven) and Jade (produced, like Sliver, by Robert Evans), We’ll analyze why these films failed to connect with audiences in 1995, and, more importantly, why the media at the time seized on them as major embarrassments for the industry. Listen


  • “LESBIAN CHIC”: BOUND AND ANNE HECHE IN WILD SIDE (EROTIC 90’S, PART 15): At the beginning of the 90s, lesbians were a punchline for a male-gaze-oriented media, an easy target for expressing the anxiety that women might not need men after all. By the middle of the decade, women-loving-women had become the heroes of a number of neo-noir crime films, but the culture at large still rejected lesbianism when not intended to arouse men. While The Matrix has widely been reappraised as a trans allegory after the transitions of its directors the Wachowski sisters, their previous feature Bound was transparently queer, but its reception was complicated by the media’s perception of its makers. Bound was released just a few months after the burial of an extremely similar film called Wild Side. Barely seen on its initial release amidst studio recutting and the suicide of its director, today Wild Side plays as a heartbreaking and troubling example of what could have been for its star Anne Heche, who would soon after become one-half of the most famous lesbian couple in Hollywood – and suffer the career consequences. Listen


  • CRASH AND DAVID CRONENBERG (EROTIC 90’S, PART 16): One of the only high-profile NC-17 releases post-Showgirls, David Cronenberg’s Crash was the kind of dark adult art film that the rating was supposedly created to support. We’ll talk about how Crash fits into Cronenberg’s filmography, why it was controversial when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996 and when it was released in the US in 1997, how it played into the UK general election of 1997, how it functioned as an early warning against charismatic billionaires, and how it embodied a post-Prozac and pre-Viagara moment. Listen

  • THE LYNCH FAMILY: BOXING HELENA & LOST HIGHWAY (EROTIC 90’S, PART 17): One of the most notorious – and least seen – erotic narrative films of the 90s, Boxing Helena was the misbegotten passion project of Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David Lynch. Four years after Boxing Helena, the elder Lynch released one of his most controversial films, Lost Highway, which tackles similar themes as Boxing Helena, including male sexual fragility and the “Madonna-Whore” complex. Today, we’ll talk about how Boxing Helena became bigger as a punchline than a movie, and we’ll trace David Lynch’s career as a provocateur to try to explain why his excavation of the dark, sexual core of Americana was celebrated when he made Blue Velvet, and pilloried a dozen years later when he made Lost Highway. Listen

  • 90’S LOLITAS VOLUME 2: ADRIAN LYNE’S LOLITA (EROTIC 90’S, PART 18): In the previous decade, Adrian Lyne had made two movies (Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal) that had grossed over $100 million in the US alone. With carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, he adapted the Nabokov novel about a 40-year-old pedophile’s obsession with his adolescent step-daughter – and no distributor wanted to release it. In a decade rife with the commodification and sexualization of young teens (see our previous episode on Drew Barrymore), what lines did Lyne’s Lolita cross? Listen


  • 90S LOLITAS VOLUME 3: WILD THINGS, CRUEL INTENTIONS AND BRITNEY SPEARS (EROTIC 90’S, PART 19): If Adrian Lyne’s Lolita became a case study of what Hollywood and America didn’t want to acknowledge about its sexualization of young girls, as the 90s came to a close, the culture was full of “acceptable” depictions of teens in heat. Two hit films from 1998 and 1999, Wild Things and Cruel Intentions, adapted classic templates of adult sexual manipulation to turn teen girls into femme fatales (probably not coincidentally, both featured actresses Neve Campbell and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who were famous for playing high school students on TV). Also, no coincidence: these films entered the culture simultaneous to the debut of 17-year-old Britney Spears, whose videos and persona centered her status as “not a girl, not yet a woman.” Listen


  • EYES WIDE SHUT, PART 1 (EROTIC 90’S, PART 20): At the peak of their careers, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman left Hollywood for two years to collaborate with legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick on an erotic drama that the media speculated would pull back the curtain on maybe the most fascinating famous couple in the world. Though the meta element can’t be ignored, what Eyes Wide Shut actually ended up being is much more interesting. It’s a culmination of every theme and trope we’ve discussed across Erotic 80s and 90s, and the last film of the twentieth century headlined by American superstars to question the moral rot of the rich and powerful. In part 1 of the Eyes Wide Shut story, we’ll analyze the film and the media frenzy over the mystery of its making. Listen

  • EYES WIDE SHUT, PART 2, AND THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE IN 1999 (EROTIC 90S, PART 21): In part 2 of the Eyes Wide Shut story, the movie is finally unveiled, and critics are divided on its quality and the use of digital effects to evade an NC-17 rating. Where could Hollywood eroticism go from here? We’ll wrap up the Erotic 90s story with some thoughts on Richard Gere’s two-decade journey from American Gigolo to becoming PEOPLE Magazine’s 1999 “Sexiest Man Alive,” and other ways in which time and politics combined to make that which was once transgressive harmlessly mainstream. Listen