Tag: Hollywood’s golden age

audio, not a book

Not a Book: The Plot Thickens

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Happy Sunday everyone, and I’m back with another podcast recommendation for you today. Regular readers will know that I’m really interested in stories of Old Hollywood and the latest series of The Plot Thickens is a really good one of those from an interesting perspective.

The Plot Thickens is TCM’s official podcast, and is now in its sixth season. In previous series host Ben Mankiewicz has looked at director Peter Bogdanovich, the making of the movie Bonfire of the Vanities, the careers of Lucille Ball, Pam Grier and John Ford. But it’s the sixth and most recent season that I really want to talk about because it’s about the making of the movie Cleopatra. Now the production of Cleopatra was legendarily troubled – with budgets ballooning, timelines expanding and stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s scandalous affair.

So what is different about this look at it I hear you say. Well the difference is that Ben Mankiewicz is the nephew of Joseph L Mankiewicz, the legendary writer and director who directed and co-wrote Cleopatra. Ben Mankiewicz has access to the family archive, including his uncle’s diaries and unheard interviews with cast and crew, as well as interviews with film experts. I’ve read about the production of Cleopatra as it has come up in the books about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton that I’ve read, but they’re not really covering the film production itself, more as the catalyst for their love affair. So I learned loads from this, because as well as the production of the film and the difficulties on set, it looks at how the film affected Joseph Mankiewicz. And as a hint: Ben says early on that the family used to joke that Joe’s brother Herman wrote the best movie of all time (Citizen Kane) while Joe directed the worst. It’s also got a lot about the economics of film production and dying days of the old studio system.

All the parts are out now and as well as finding it on all the usual podcast platforms, it’s on YouTube too. And if you want some of my other recommendations for Old Hollywood, I’ve written about a pair of Liz Taylor documentaries, the Liza Minelli documentary, the podcast You Must Remember This, actor memoirs, Judy Garland, books about Hollywood to name just a few.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

film, not a book

Not a Book: Singin’ in the Rain

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I have series of films that I always watch at this time of year, so I thought I’d feature them here too. And as I kicked off my Christmas by watching this last weekend, we’re starting with the immortal classic: Singin’ in the Rain.

In case you’ve never watched it, it’s the story of a Hollywood leading man as the movie business transforms from silent films to talkies. Don Lockwood is an ex-Vaudeville song and dance man who got his start as a stunt man who then got paired up with a glamorous leading leafy, Lena Lamont. Lockwood and Lamont have been a marquee double act ever since. The problem is that Don can’t stand Lena – and now the bigger problem is that Lena’s voice is… not suitable for the talkies. Early in the film Don meets Cathy Seldon, a hopeful actress with a great singing voice, searching for her big break. And it all goes from there.

This has a great cast – Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor – a great story and some of the best song and dance numbers you’ll see – and not just from Gene Kelly.

And the final sequence – starting with Lena’s attempts to take over the studio (I will never tire of Jean Hagen as Lena saying “detrimental and deleterious”) all the way through to the end is just *chef kiss*. And like many of these old Hollywood movies, you can dig into the making of it and the stories behind it and it just gets more fascinating. I’m not going to say any more here though – because I know some people think that spoils the magic.

It’ll definitely be on TV at least once over the next month, but you can rent it from all the usual places too

Enjoy!