TOMiSA

John Huston, Part Two: 1975-1987 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 15) /  by Karina Longworth

John Huston with Anjelica Huston and Donal McCann on the set of The Dead, 1987, Vestron Pictures

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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.

Brad Dourif in Wise Blood, 1979, New Line Cinema

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

The Hustons: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Dynasty by Lawrence Grobel

Watch Me: A Memoir (A Hollywood Memoir) by Anjelica Huston

John Huston: Interviews by Robert Emmet Long

Ready When You Are Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Coppola, Mr. Crowe by Jerry Ziesmer

“Beating the Devil: Thirty Years of John Huston,” Dupree Jones, Films and Filming, January 1972

“John Huston on Kipling, Hemingway and Jack Daniels,” Jim Watters, New York Times, February 15, 1976

“Wise Blood to be John Huston’s 1st Film Since King,” Dale Pollock, Variety, January 1979

“‘Wise Blood’; Huston’s 33d Feature,” Vincent Canby, New York Times, September 29, 1979

Video: “A Conversation with John Huston (1979)”

“Conversation with John Huston,” Claudia Dreifus, LA Herald Examiner, December 17, 1980

“How Huston Beats the Hollywood Odds,” Gregg Kilday, Saturday Review, January 1981

”John Huston Honored by Film World,” Aljean Harmetz, New York Times, March 5, 1983

“Huston’s Volcanic Vision,” Cathleen McGuinan, Newsweek, October 31, 1983

“The Private World of John Huston,” Roger C. Toll, House and Garden, February 1984

 “Master Moviemaker John Huston Finds Unwedded Bliss As Mentor To His Caretaker, Maricela Hernandez.” People, March 10, 1985

“John Huston makes Prizzi’s honor his Fortieth Film,” Alan Karp, Boxoffice, July 1985

“Making a Name—Hers—For Herself,” Roderick Mann, Los Angeles Times, August 17, 1985

“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.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

From A Conversation with John Huston, 1979

John Huston, Part One: 1966-1974 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 14) /  by Karina Longworth

John Huston as Noah Cross in Chinatown, 1974, Paramount Pictures

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

The Hustons: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Dynasty by Lawrence Grobel

Watch Me: A Memoir (A Hollywood Memoir) by Anjelica Huston

John Huston: Interviews by Robert Emmet Long

John Huston: Courage and Art by Jeffrey Meyers

A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York by Anjelica Huston

Five Came Back by Mark Harris

The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris

Miss Aluminum: A Memoir by Susanna Moore

The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson

“Parlor Games with Gats,” Manny Farber, The Nation, June 4, 1949

“John Huston As He Was, Is, and Probably Always Will Be,” Brian St. Pierre, New York Times, September 25, 1966

 “‘The Bible’ Powerful and Faithful,” Philip K. Scheuer, Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1966

“Movie Epics,” Pauline Kael, New Republic, October 22, 1966

 “John Huston Wants Hepburn For Film” Sheilah Graham, Hollywood Citizen-News, September 5, 1967

“Riots Stop Huston Walk” UPI, September 29, 1968

“Films in Focus,” Andrew Sarris, Village Voice, October 16, 1969

 “Off with the Statues’ Heads!,” Pauline Kael, New Yorker, October 11, 1969

 “The Kremlin Letter,” Gerald Astor, Look

“Fat City,” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, 1972

“Huston Takes a New Look at Life in ‘Fat City’,” Vincent Canby, New York Times, July 27, 1972

“John Huston fights his way back to Fat City.” Thomas Moore, Life, August 4, 1972

“John Huston Talking to Rosemary Lord,” Rosemary Lord,Transatlantic Review, August/Winter 1974

“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

Stanley Donen 1967-1984 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 13) /  by Karina Longworth

Director Stanley Donen behind the camera on location.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies by Stephen M. Silverman

Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris

The Richard Burton Diaries by Richard Burton and Chris Williams

Inside Out: A Memoir by Demi Moore

But Enough About Me: A Memoir by Burt Reynolds and Jon Winokur

“Stanley Donen interviewed by Stephen Harvey,” Film Comment Vol. 9 No. 4, July-August 1973

“Graffiti Reads as Big Dollars for Katz Pair,” Variety, August 29, 1973

“Lucky Lady Turning Into Disaster Film,” James Bacon, LA Herald Examiner, June 13, 1975

“On Location in Mexico With Liza and Friends,” Joseph N. Bell, New York Times, June 29, 1975

“‘Lucky Lady’ Filming Just Plain Unlucky,” Mary Murphy, Los Angeles Times, June 29, 1975

“Why Couldn't This ‘Lady’ Have an Unhappy Ending?,” Stephen Farber, New York Times, December 14, 1975

“Lucky Lady Affair, Minus Liza Minelli [sic],” James Bacon, LA Herald Examiner, December 16, 1975

“All’s Not Quiet on the Lucky Lady Front,” Dorothy Manners, LA Herald Examiner, December 26, 1975

“The Final Cut,” TIME, December 29, 1975

 “Kubrick’s Gilded Age,” Pauline Kael, New Yorker, December 29, 1975

“Unlucky with a ‘U’,” Joyce Haber, Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1976

“‘Double Feature’: Revisiting the ‘30s,” Wayne Warga, Los Angeles Times, January 29, 1978

“'The End' is just the beginning” Film Comment, May-June 1978

 “Movie Movie – Why? Why?,” Larry Gelbart, New York Times, November 19, 1978

“Nostalgia Takes a Holiday,” Andrew Sarris, Village Voice, November 27, 1978

“The Current Cinema: Taming the Movies,” Pauline Kael, New Yorker, December 4, 1978

“Hollywood’s Heart of Lightness,” Richard Corliss, New Times, January 18, 1979

“Barry Exits As ‘Saturn’ Director” Variety, February 7, 1979

“Is Fawcett Running Cold?,” Roderick Mann, Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1979

“Saturn 3 Makes its Mach in Space Race” Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, February 14, 1980

“Stanley Donen,” John Tibbetts, American Classic Screen, March-April 1984

“He’s the Rain Man,” People, May 18, 1998

Marilyn Beck, “Oscar Winner Confronts ‘A Tough World’,” Marilyn Beck, syndicated column, March 10, 1999

“Jean-Luc Godard 10 best films Cahiers du Cinéma 1956-1966,” jdcopp.blogspot.com, December 28, 2006

“Saturn 3: The 1980s’ Weirdest Sci-Fi Movie,” Ryan Lambie, Den of Geek, February 3, 2016

“Stanley Donen: What Audrey Hepburn Had, You Couldn’t Even Learn It,” Film Talk, October 5, 2016

“Cinema ’67 Revisited: Two for the Road,” Mark Harris, Film Comment, April 26, 2017

“Stanley Donen Made Film Sing But Never Got an Oscar Nomination,” Susan King, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 23, 2019

“Stanley Donen: 1924-2019,” Carrie Rickey, rogerebert.com, February 23, 2019

“Stanley Donen: An Appreciation,” Frederic Raphael, Commentary, April 2019

“Seamless Transitions: Remembering Stanley Donen,” Filmmaker, June 19, 2019

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

George Cukor 1960-1981 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 12) /  by Karina Longworth

George Cukor in 1973. Photograph by Allan Warren.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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

Henry Hathaway (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 11) /  by Karina Longworth

Henry Hathaway and cast members on the set of True Grit

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Henry Hathaway: A Director’s Guild of America Oral History by Rudy Behlmer and Polly Platt

Henry Hathaway: The Lives of a Hollywood Director by Harold N. Pomainville

Cahiers du Cinéma: The 1950s: Neo-Realism, Hollywood, New Wave edited by Jim Hillier

Cahiers du Cinéma: The 1960s (1960-1968): New Wave, New Cinema, Re-evaluating Hollywood edited by Jim Hillier

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs, and Rock n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind

The Hollywood Professionals by Kingsley Canham

Maggie: A Love Story by John Sanford

Hawks on Hawks by Joseph McBride

“Faberge Tools Up For Sweet Smell of Screen Success,” Thomas Wood, Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1972

“Hathaway, 75, Thinks Young,” Bob Thomas, San Diego Union, April 11, 1973

“‘...I made movies.’ An Interview with Henry Hathaway,” Scott Eyman, Take One, September-October 1974: Vol 5 Iss 1

“The Cinema Scene: Impact of Black Action Films,” Carole Kass, Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 17, 1974

“Elliott Hand-Handling ‘Hang-up’ After WB Sidesteps Brut Film; Gala Preem Launch in Newark” Variety, January 15, 1975

“Super Dude,” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, September 5, 1975

“Film Festival pays tribute to famed director Henry Hathaway,” The Orange County Register, October 21, 1984

“Henry Hathaway Dies at 86; Directed More Than 60 Films,” Alvin Krebs, New York Times, February 13, 1985

“Between Worlds,” Michael Atkinson, Film Comment Vol 29, No 4, July-August 1993

“Henry Hathaway: Raw Nerve”, Harry Carey, Jr., Films of the Golden Age, April 29, 2009


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

William Wyler 1965-1971 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 10) /  by Karina Longworth

William Wyler and John Ford

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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

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.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

William Wyler on the lot with Barbra Streisand

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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