What's in the Basket

Bonus 11. Service de Luxe (1938): I Burned Her

It’s another Candice-and-Amelia Special this week as the Gruesome Twosome take on Service de Luxe (1938), the Constance Bennett romantic comedy that served as Vincent Price’s film debut. Recorded way back on March 7th, we discuss toilet paper shortages from the perspective of that long-ago time before Tom Hanks got COVID-19, then we dig into tractors, arson, fourth-wall breaking, and our dream cast for a remake of the lost Bessie Love vehicle Pegeen (1920).

Bonus 10. Thirteen Women (1932) and When’s Your Birthday? (1937): A Racist Final Destination

We’re looking to the stars this week for a research-free discussion of two very different cinematic approaches to astrology: Thirteen Women (1932), a proto-slasher starring Myrna Loy, and the Joe E. Brown comedy When’s Your Birthday? (1937). We talk about the impact of the Production Code on Hollywood’s handling of racial subject matter, the only screen appearance of the tragically infamous Peg Entwistle, Billy Wilder’s later mastery of Brown’s occasionally unappealing schtick, and—of course—hitchhiking babies.

Bonus 09. My Favorite Wife (1940) and Move Over, Darling (1963): Who Would You Commit a Bigamy With?

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This week we’re taking a research-free look at two romantic comedies that combine nineteenth-century tragic poetry with Hollywood’s love of bigamy: My Favorite Wife (1940) and its remake, Move Over, Darling (1963). We discuss our love of Doris Day and ambivalence towards Irene Dunne, the confounding screen dynamic between rumoured real-life couple Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, and whom among both casts we’d invite to our respective Bigamy Squads.

12. Oscars Moments of Yore: A Twentieth-Century Academy Awards Odyssey

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We’re doing something a little different this week as we explore sixty years of the Oscars, from the anti-union origins of the Academy in the late 1920s to the career-ending broadcast of 1989. Join us for tales of gatecrashers, axes, protesters, decapitations, fascists, streakers, and some good old-fashioned Joan Crawford chaos magic from the very messy history of the best worst awards show we know.

Bonus 08. The Prowler (1951): Sorry for Everything

On this week’s bonus episode of What’s in the Basket, we’re peeping in on the Van Heflin-Evelyn Keyes film noir The Prowler (1951). We discuss big ol’ foreheads, Dalton Trumbo’s handling of female characters, ghost towns, sarsaparilla, and Heflin’s presence in the films of Van Johnson (hint: he isn’t in them).

Bonus 07. Postal Inspector (1936) and Telephone Operator (1937): People Have Always Been Scammin’

On this week’s bonus episode of What’s in the Basket, we brave the floodwaters for a research-free look at Ricardo Cortez, Bela Lugosi, and Patricia Ellis in Postal Inspector (1936) and Judith Allen and Alice White in Telephone Operator (1937). We learn that Alice White was Jughead, FDR was Alexa, and everyone in Old Hollywood was a tax evader.

11. Trading Places (1983): Eddie Movie

On this week’s episode of What’s in the Basket, we’re cornering the entire frozen orange juice market as we discuss the Eddie Murphy-Dan Aykroyd role-swapping comedy Trading Places (1983). We attempt to parse the ins and outs of commodities trading, determine whether or not Don Ameche was dead, and learn how Candice feels about Cats (2019).

10. Remember the Night (1940): Ayn Rand’s Winter Wonderland

One week and three days late, we emerge…triumphant?…with a very belated Christmas episode about Remember the Night (1940). We discuss Barbara Stanwyck’s work ethic, Fred MacMurray’s emotional repression, the world of contrasts between Mitchell Leisen and Preston Sturges as directors, and poor Sterling Holloway just trying to make it through the day.

Bonus 06. Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) and Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987): Old People Orphanage

On this week’s bonus episode of What’s in the Basket, we’re revisiting our slasher movie origins with a research-free look at the Christmas horrors of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) and its sequel Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987). We discuss the series’ unexpected connections to Evangelicalism and The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, question the reasoning behind its elaborate soundtrack, and seriously consider launching an investigative podcast into a particularly compelling hot-dog related business venture of the 1980s.

Bonus 05. Bachelor Mother (1939) and Bundle of Joy (1956): That’s a Trauma for Another Episode

On this week’s bonus episode of What’s in the Basket, we head down to the foundling home for a research-free look at two lighthearted holiday takes on child abandonment: Ginger Rogers in Bachelor Mother (1939) and Debbie Reynolds in Bundle of Joy (1956). We explain why David Niven so handily defeats Eddie Fisher in the battle of the Merlin party boys, lay out our arguments for why children shouldn’t be allowed in Hollywood, and offer Douglas Fairbanks Jr. some posthumous family therapy.