We continue our month of discussing Soviet Cinema with a look at Elem Klimov's Welcome, or No Trespassing (1964). It’s the story of a group of kids at a summer camp where one boy, Kostja Inockin (Viktor Kosykh), breaks from the pack and swims a little too far. He’s immediately expelled by Director Dynin (Evgeniy Evstigneev) but later Inockin returns.
On this special episode, Mike talks with director Matt Eskey about his documentary feature debut, The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon (2022) which sheds some much-needed light on the unusual career of Mojo Nixon.
Mike speaks with Andrew J. Rausch about his 2019 book, My Best Friend's Birthday: The Making of a Quentin Tarantino Film. It's a look at Quentin Tarantino and Craig Hamann's first feature film from the early '80s. Told as an oral history, the book features the voices of Hamann, Tarantino, Roger Avary, Rand Vossler, and more.
Learn about how this "lost" film came to be and how it can be seen as a Rosetta Stone for Tarantino's themes and career.
We are kicking off a month of discussions around Soviet cinema with a look at the 1962 film, The Amphibian Man. It’s the story of a love triangle between the daughter of a poor man, Guitierre (Anastasiya Vertinskaya) who has been promised to the rich Don Pedro (Mikhail Kozakov). She’s saved from a shark attack by the titular Amphibian Man, whose real name is Ichthyander (Vladimir Korenev). Of course, Guitierre and Ichthyander fall in love and should really be together. Can they escape from Argentina to Australia and live their lives there or will Don Pedro not allow their love to flourish?
Special Guests: Joseph McBride, Charles Dennis Guest Co-Hosts: Sylvia Hubbard, Kat Ellinger
We’re wrapping up Screwball month with a look at Frank Capra’s Arsenic & Old Lace. Released in 1944, though shot several years before that, the film stars Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic and avowed bachelor who has found the love of his life in Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane) who lives right next door to his kind-hearted aunts, Abby and Martha. There’s just one thing…. Abby and Martha have a terrible habit of poisoning their single, lonely old men boarders.
Screwball month continues with a look at Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth (1937). Based on the play by Arthur Richman, the film stars Cary Grant and Irene Dunn as Jerry and Lucy Warriner, a couple who break up before the first act is even over. They would have a clean break apart from their both wanting custody of their dog, Mr. Smith, and that they both still may love one another.
Kat Ellinger and Aaron Peterson join Mike to discuss the film as well the 1953 interpretation of Richman's play, Let's Do It Again.