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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 in Bonjour Tristesse, 1958
Jane Fonda in a stage production of There Was A Little Girl, 1960
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.
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.
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
Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad
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
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 Memoirby 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
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
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.
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
Please note: as an Amazon Associate Karina earns from qualifying purchases made when you click the clinks above. #ad
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.
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).
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.
This episode was originally released on January 6, 2015. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.
This is the story of how Bette Davis evolved from a wannabe starlet who was constantly told she was too ugly for movies, to the most powerful woman in Hollywood, by playing heroines that had never been seen on screen before — to borrow a term from Davis herself, sympathetic “bitches.” After Pearl Harbor, the tenacious Bette became the figurehead of the Hollywood Canteen, a nightclub for servicemen staffed by stars, which was the locus of the industry’s most visible support of the troops on the home front.
The Hollywood Canteen was a catalyst for propaganda in more ways than one, aims Hollywood furthered by telling the story of the Hollywood Canteen in a movie called, um, Hollywood Canteen, starring Davis, John Garfield, Barbara Stanwyck, Peter Lorre and other celebrities as “themselves.” The movie and most press accounts of the Canteen portray it as a miraculous force for good in the world, which it probably was, but that narrative leaves out a lot, including illicit affairs, a murder, and an FBI investigation whose findings would have an impact on the blacklist of the following decade.
Show Notes
This episode was a hell of a thing to research. BetteDavis published two autobiographies and both are very, very far from being impartial, but I consulted The Lonely Life a bit, as well as the authorized biography The Girl Who Walked Home Alone by Charlotte Chandler. I’d also recommend the Mysteries and Scandals episode on Davis, mostly to marvel at all of the ways in which A.J. Benza manages to call her a bitch without actually using the word “bitch.” Mark Harris’ Five Came Back was useful, particularly in its shading of the relationship between Davis and William Wyler.
More difficult was nailing down the story of the Hollywood Canteen. Hollywood Canteen: Where the Greatest Generation Danced With the Most Beautiful Girls in The World is as prosaic as its title; at least Hollywood’s propaganda about the Canteen, including the Delmer Daves movie Hollywood Canteen (excerpted in the episode) makes the spin fun. Much, much better is Dance Floor Democracy: The Social Geography of Memory at the Hollywood Canteen. by Sherrie Tucker — a fascinating, beautifully written and researched study of the Canteen which goes into deep consideration of the social/racial/class/political conflicts enmeshed into this supposedly squeaky-clean nightclub which has become an icon of the supposed uncomplicated patriotism of the generation who fought WWII.
Discography:
Dance of the Stargazer performed by the US Army Blues Band
Rite of Passage by Kevin MacLeod
Lonely Town performed by Blossom Dearie
Ghost Dance performed by Kevin MacLeod
Au coin de la rue by Marco Raaphorst
I Knew a Guy by Kevin MacLeod
The Insider Theme by The Insider
5:00 AM by Peter Rudenko
Will be war soon? by Kosta T
Off to Osake by Kevin MacLeod
Balcarabic Chicken by Quantum Jazz
Hi Ho Trailus Bootwhip by Louis Prima and His Orchestra
For over 40 years, William Wyler was one of Hollywood’s most dependable classicists, culminating in 1968 with the ultimate New Hollywood-era throwback to Old Hollywood, Funny Girl. Then, for his final film in 1970, Wyler uncharacteristically directed a searing indictment of contemporary race relations, called The Liberation of LB Jones.
Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, 1968, Columbia PIctures
Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad
On the set of The Liberation of LB Jones, 1970, Columbia 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:
Levanger - Lillehammer
Piano Spa - Musique Libre de Droit Club
Vernouillet - The Sweet Hots
Trois Gnossiennes 3 - The Nocturne
True Blue Sky - Bitters
After Work (Piano Elevator Music) - Musique Libre de Droit Club
Lick Stick - Nursery
Li Fonte - Architect
Junca - Orange Cat
Laser Focus - TinyTiny Trio
Maisie Dreamer - Nursery
Trailrunner - Zander
Asian Relax (New Age) - Musique Libre de Droit Club
Thumbscrew - Sketchbook
Trenton Channel - Reflections
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.
Henry Hathaway started directing in the early 1930s and though he made movies of all genres, he was particularly associated with Westerns. This allowed him to ride out the 1960s making pretty much the same kinds of movies with the same stars (Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum) that he had been working with for decades. But shortly after the massive success of Hathaway’s True Grit in 1969 – for which John Wayne won his only Oscar – the director felt he was being put out to pasture by a changing industry. His last film would be Hangup (also known as Super Dude) a work-for-hire that he claimed he took only as a favor to the producer, and which was dismissed at the time as a sop to the Blaxploitation trend - not least by Hathaway himself.
Henry Hathaway and Dean Martin on the set of The Sons of Katie Elder, 1965, Paramount Pictures
Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad
Still from Hangup (aka Super Dude), 1974, Warner Bros./Dimension 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:
Grey River - Holo
Calumet - An Oddly Formal Dance
Kevin MacLeod - Danse Morialta
Kajubaa - The Kishner Method
K2 - One Quiet Conversation
Architect - Order of Entrance
Ray Catcher - Chromium Blush
Flatlands - Talltell
Cloud Harbor - Suzy Textile
Cloud Harbor - SuzyB
Bitters - True Blue Sky
Bitters - Slimheart
Cafe Nostro - Jenner
Migration - Heather
Holyoke - Bus at Dawn
Limoncello - Song at the End of Times
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.
Henry Hathaway directs Steve McQueen on the set of Nevada Smith, 1966, Paramount Pictures
This episode was originally released on March 21, 2017. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.
How did a star whose persona seemed to be all about childlike joy and eternally vibrant sexuality die, single and childless, at the age of 36? In fact, the circumstances of Marilyn Monroe’s death are confusing and disputed. In this episode we will explore the last five years of her life, including the demise of her relationship with Arthur Miller, the troubled making of The Misfits, and Marilyn’s aborted final film, and try to sort out the various facts and conspiracy theories surrounding her death.
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. Special guest appearance by Rian Johnson as John Huston. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.
George Cukor had always experimented within his relatively broad lane, often finding nuanced ways to explore women’s lives, including their sex lives, under the constraints of the Production Code. But after winning the best Director Oscar for Best Picture-winner My Fair Lady in 1964, Cukor’s career slowed down considerably, and as the 60s turned into the 70s and both gender roles and the movies went through massive changes, Cukor was still making the same kinds of things he would have made at the peak of the studio system, regarding which he adopted an extremely defensive stance. Then, suddenly, in 1981, with Rich and Famous, Cukor caught up with the sexual revolution – a decade too late.
Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset in Rich and Famous, 1981, MGM
Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad
Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, 1964, Warner Bros.
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:
Nursery - ZigZag Heart
Whale Watcher - Smooth Waters
Bitters - Our Only Lark
Reflections - Frank and Poet
Muffuletta - Net and the Cradle
Nursery - Lick Stick
Vermouth - Chai Belltini
Confectionery - Calisson
Confectionery - Tarte Tatin
Eltham House - Heath
Fornax - Four Cluster
Architect - Kirkus
Magenta - Coquelicot
Oslo - Engine
Migration - Heather
Simple Machines - Krok
Chris Zabriskie - I Need to Start Writing Things Down
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.
Cukor with Jacqueline Bisset on the set of Rich and Famous, 1981, MGM
This episode was originally released on December 22, 2015. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.
In the 1940s, Louis B. Mayer was the highest paid man in America, one of the first celebrity CEOs and the figurehead of what for most Americans was the most glamorous industry on Earth. In 1951, Mayer was fired from the studio that bore his name. What happened -- to Mayer, and to movies on the whole -- to hasten the end of the golden era of Hollywood?
Special thanks to Craig Mazin, who throughout this series played Louis B. Mayer. Mazin will return in a supporting role as Mayer next season, which begins in late January. Thanks also to all of our special guests this season, including Wil Wheaton, Dana Carvey, Steve Zissis, Kelly Marcel, Adam Goldberg, Rian Johnson and Noah Segan.
And extra super special thanks to Teddy Blanks, who created our new iTunes logo, and Henry Molofsky, who edited this episode and every episode this season.
How does an artist once perceived to be ahead of his time fall behind the times? The choreographer/director of Golden Age classics like Singin’ the Rain and Funny Face left Hollywood for all the 60s and the first half of the 70s, perfecting a certain brand of sophisticated comedy/romance abroad with films like Charade, Bedazzled and Two for the Road. His rough Hollywood re-entry was marked by exercises in nostalgia for eras gone by (Lucky Lady, a movie about Prohibition Era gangsters starring Burt Reynolds and Liza Minnelli; the 1930s spoof Movie Movie) and attempts to give audiences of the 80s what it was assumed they wanted (the sci-fi debacle Saturn 3, the sex comedy Blame it on Rio).
Gene Hackman, Liza Minnelli, and Burt Reynolds in Lucky Lady, 1975, 20th Century Studios
Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad
Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Charade, 1963, 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:
Magenta - Coquelicot
Macrame - Waltz and Fury
Vermouth - Lowball
TinyTiny Trio - Laser Focus
Pglet - Still Nite
Migration - Gale
Kajubaa - The KIshner Method
Tres Leches - Orejitas
Capocollo - Capocollo Theme
Blue Nocturnal - Variation Waldheim
Vermouth - Chaunce Libertine
Sketchbook 2 - Thumbscrew
Architect - Palladian
Architect - Crosswire
Architect - Kirkus
Orange Cat - JoDon
Fornax - Lacaille
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.
Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett in Stanley Donen’s Saturn 3, 1980, ITC Film Distribution
This episode was originally released on March 3, 2015. Listen to help prep for the next episode of our new season, The Old Man is Still Alive.
She was the raven-haired beauty whose lily-white persona was forged by her supporting roles in Gone With the Wind and several Errol Flynn swashbucklers. He was the real-life swashbuckler, the heroic lover/drinker/fighter whose directorial debut The Maltese Falcon, was an enormous success. They met when Huston directed de Havilland in his second film, In This Our Life, and began an affair which would continue, on and off, through the decade, as he joined the Army and made several controversial documentaries exposing dark aspects of the war experience, and as she waged a war of her own, taking Warner Brothers to court to challenge the indentured servitude of the star contract system. De Havilland’s lawsuit went all the way to the California Supreme Court, and had massive implications on the future of labor in Hollywood and beyond.
Show Notes:
Special thanks this week to Rian Johnson, who played John Huston.
Olivia de Havilland is still alive, living in France and, judging by her most recent interview, she’s still, at nearly 99 years old, lucid and fascinating. I should note that in that linked interview, which I came across after finishing this episode, De Havilland says she and Errol Flynn never actually got together despite a mutual attraction. In talking briefly about their supposed affair in this episode, I probably should have used a qualifier like “reported." There are, in fact, many reports suggesting that the pair did have an off-screen relationship; still, I can’t think of any reason why we should doubt a 98 year old woman when she insists that the hot affair that she is rumored to have had 65 years earlier didn’t actually happen. That said, she can protest all she wants, but the idea that she and Flynn were lovers is so pervasive that, true or otherwise, it’s part of Olivia De Havilland’s legacy in the collective imaginary. And that’s what we do on this podcast: talk about myths, legacies, and the collective imaginary.
Certainly, most of what John Huston has said about his own life should be assumed to be some kind of spin or exaggeration, although in his case he’s more likely to invent affairs that didn’t happen than downplay reports that one did. Huston’s entertaining autobiography An Open Book was a source for this episode, but weighed with a grain of salt against Lawrence Grobel’s The Hustons, John Huston: Courage and Art by Jeffrey Meyers; and Mark Harris’ Five Came Back, which goes into much further detail on Huston’s war documentaries, and particularly the stagings of The Battle of San Pietro, than I was able to include here.
As far as I can tell, there has not been a biography devoted solely to De Havilland. There is Robert Matzen’s Errol and Olivia, which I flipped through but didn't really put much stock in, as it's obsessed with the idea of a Flynn/De Havilland affair to the point of distraction. I did not bother with Sisters: The Story of Olivia De Havilland and Joan Fontaine by Charles Higham, because Higham is a controversial figure involved in next week's episode, but when I inevitably do an episode on Olivia and her sister Joan, I'm sure I'll look into it.
To fill in the gaps, I relied on two articles buried deep in the files at the Margaret Herrick Library: “In the State of California De Havilland vs Warner Brothers: A Trial Decision That Marked a Turning Point” by J.L. Yeck, American Classic Screen Magazine, May/June 1982; and a transcript of talk with students De Havilland gave at AFI’s Institute for Advanced Film Studies, on October 23, 1974. I also watched the Huston episode of Creativity with Bill Moyers, and listened to the audiobook of the first few chapters of Anjelica Huston's memoir, A Story Lately Told.
Discography:
The Simple Complex by Uncle Bibby
Private Hurricane (Instrumental version) by Josh Woodward
The Wrong Way by Jahzzar
Gymnopedie No. 3 by Eric Satie, performed by Kevin McacLeod
Tara by Roxy Music
In This Our Life opening titles score by Max Stiener, performed by the National Philharmonic
Readers! Do You Read? by Chris Zabriskie
Dances and dames by Kevin MacLeod
Laserdisc by Chris Zabriskie
Rite of Passage by Kevin MacLeod
Melancholy Aftersounds by Kai Engel
Slim Fitting by Glass Boy
For Better or Worse by Kai Engel
Air Hockey Saloon by Chris Zabriskie
I’m Not Dreaming (Instrumental version) by Josh Woodward
You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ performed by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood
This series began with the story of a director who wrote his autobiography to secure his place in history after his career had gone down the drain. It ends with the story of a man who wrote his autobiography as a “dead man walking”...and then continued to make movies for another half a decade, until the literal last breath left his body. Hollywood’s original “nepo baby” director, John Huston was never a conventional studio system stalwart, and in some respects he was able to go with the flow of changing times a lot better than some of his contemporaries. In part one of our two-part season finale we’ll talk about his flight from Hollywood to Ireland, literally playing God, Huston’s long fallow period in the late 60s, Anjelica Huston’s misbegotten film debut, Huston’s reinvention in the New Hollywood era and the health crisis that almost ended it all.
Jeff Bridges and Stacy Keach in Fat City, 1972, Columbia Pictures
“John Huston Finds That The Slow Generation Of King Has Made it a Richer Film,” Joseph McBride, Variety, December 16, 1975
“John Huston in Retrospect” University of Washington Office of Lectures and Concerts, April 5, 1977
“Conversation with John Huston,” Claudia Dreifus, LA Herald Examiner, December 17, 1980
Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad
Elizabeth Taylor in Reflections in a Golden Eye, 1967, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
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:
Reflections - Frank and Poet
Magenta - Coquelicot
Origami - Cocoon Transit
Makropulos - Two Fleet
Dorica - Marble Transit
Fretwork - Tiltram
Dorica - Column and Law
K2 - One Quiet Conversation
K2 - Base Camp
TinyTiny Trio - Laser Focus
Castle Danger - Szaree
Bitters - Our Only Lark
Architect - Kirkus
Limoncello - Song at the End of Times
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.
John Huston directing Anjelica Huston in A Walk with Love and Death, 1969, 20th Century Fox
In part two of our season finale, we explore the final decade of John Huston’s life and career. As he was slowly dying of emphysema and undergoing massive turmoil in his personal life, Huston continued to work almost compulsively on both passion projects (The Man Who Would Be King, Wise Blood, Under the Volcano) and paycheck gigs (Annie). His career ended, fittingly, with two collaborations with the next generation of Hustons, Prizzi’s Honor and The Dead.
“John Huston, The Cinema’s Grand Old Man,” Jack McDonough, Wall Street Journal, June 30, 1987
“What A Life!,” David Elliott, San Diego Union, August 29, 1987
“Family Ties,” Tony Huston, American Film, September 1987
“John Huston 1906 - 1987,” Andrew Sarris, Village Voice, September 15, 1987
His Last Bow,” Kenneth Turan, GQ, December 1987
Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad
Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset in Under the Volcano, 1984, 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:
Orange Cat - Daymaze
Fornax - Four Cluster
Sketchbook 2 - Thumbscrew
Grey River - Holo
Reflections - Bellow's Hull
Flatlands - Talltell
Fornax - Lacaille
Textiles - Mosic
Pacha Faro - Cab Ride
Cloud Harbor - SuzyB
Nursery - ZigZag Heart
Algae Fields - Algea Tender
Magenta - Coquelicot
Sunday at Slims - Two in the Back
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.
