Showing posts with label Tom Jennings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Jennings. Show all posts

April 21, 2017

Guest Spot: Pickup on South Street (1953)

Mike guested on the Masters of Cinema Cast with host Tom Jennings to discuss Sam Fuller's Pickup on South Street.

From Masters of Cinema:

"If you refuse to cooperate you'll be as guilty as the traitors who gave Stalin the A-bomb."
"Are you waving the flag at ME?!"


Samuel Fuller's sensational film noir, Pickup on South Street casts a steely eye at America in the dawn of the Cold War, and brings 1950s New York City alive on the screen in a manner rarely equaled in the annals of film.

In one of his greatest roles, Richard Widmark plays Skip McCoy, a seasoned pickpocket who unknowingly filches some radioactive loot: microfilm of top-secret government documents. Soon after, Skip finds himself mixed up with federal agents, Commie agents, and a professional stool pigeon by the name of Moe (played by Thelma Ritter in her finest role this side of Rear Window).

With its complex ideology, outrageous dialogue, and electric action sequences, Pickup on South Street crackles in a way that only a Sam Fuller movie can, and is widely considered one of the director's finest achievements.

Download Episode Now:


Links:
Buy Pickup on South Street on Blu-Ray
Subscribe to Masters of Cinema Cast
Subscribe to Master of Cinema Cast on iTunes

Watch:




April 16, 2017

Episode 318: La Grande Illusion (1937)

Special Guest: Nick Macdonald
Guest Co-Hosts: Tom Jennings, Ken Stanley

Set during World War One, Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion (1937) stars Jean Gabin as Lt. Marechal, an airman who, along with Captain Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), are shot down by Captain Rauffenstein, who’s played by Erich von Stroheim. The two Frenchmen then spend most of the rest of the film in POW camps, primarily Hallbach and Wintersborn where they meet an array of fellow prisoners.

Tom Jennings and Ken Stanley join Mike to discuss this humanist film.

Download Episode Now:

Links:
Buy La Grande Illusion on Blu-Ray
Buy In Search of La Grande Illusion: A Critical Appreciation of Jean Renoir's Elusive Masterpiece by Nicholas Macdonald
Read Anarchist films of Nick Macdonald from '70s to get first Chicago showings by Michael Phillips
Listen to Masters of Cinema Cast
Listen to 24 Frames Cast
Listen to Ken's Loud Band

Music:
"Le Petit Navire" - June Tabor
"Frou Frou" - Franck Pourcel

Watch: