1940s – What's in the Basket

Bonus 15. Romance on the High Seas (1948): Jack Carson Has Risen From the Grave

On this week’s bonus episode we tackle the postwar Warner Brothers musical Romance on the High Seas (1948), starring Doris Day, Janis Paige, Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall, and absolutely no one else. Warning: The following podcast contains material that may be disturbing to the ghost of Jack Carson. Listener discretion is advised.

Bonus 13. Berlin Correspondent (1942): That’s Not His Natural Chomp

This week the Gruesome Twosome heads back to the ol’ Dana Andrews well for a research-free look at the World War II thriller Berlin Correspondent (1942). We discuss the film’s extremely poor attempts at emulating Foreign Correspondent (1940), the evolution of Hollywood’s approach to the war as it unfolded, Hans Gruber’s Super Cool Postage Stamp Emporium, and that time Dana’s adult braces fused his jaw shut.

This episode was recorded prior to the onset of protests against racism and police brutality across the United States and around the world. If you’re unsure how to help, a list of resources can be found here.

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.

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 03. This Gun for Hire (1942): Philip Raven’s No Good Very Bad Terrible Week

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On this week’s bonus episode of What’s in the Basket, Candice and Amelia pull on their gas masks for a research-free discussion of This Gun for Hire (1942). They attempt to expose the truth of Alan Ladd’s height, struggle to unravel the movie’s convoluted plot, examine Veronica Lake’s screen persona and her legacy as an iconic woman of film noir, and issue an impassioned plea for Tiff’s safe return.

04. Laura (1944): Harry Highpants the Tailor

On this week’s episode of What’s in the Basket, we’re falling in love with a corpse as we discuss Laura (1944). We marvel over the perfect storm of second-choice casting decisions that is the Dana Andrews/Gene Tierney/Clifton Webb trifecta, explore a very Real Housewivesian battle of egos between Otto Preminger and Daryl F. Zanuck, and break it down to the chill groove remix of film noir’s most iconic theme song.

Bonus 02. Two Anthony Mann B-Pictures: My Cousin Knows Someone Who Swallowed a Can Opener

On this week’s bonus episode of What’s in the Basket, we’re heading out to Poverty Row for our research-free discussion of two Republic Pictures programmers from early in the career of director Anthony Mann: Nobody’s Darling (1943) and Strangers in the Night (1944). We jam out to “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” with our cool teen friends, bond with mysterious women over the homoerotic poetry of A.E. Housman, and have a few questions about phenobarbital and the physics of falling portraits.