ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Both of your hosts are sniffling through head colds, but they persevere to bring you the final episode reviewing the 1929/1930 nominees! The Big House is sort of a watch-one-get-one-free movie: come for the surprisingly progressive commentary on the criminal justice system and you'll get a strange romantic melodrama dropped in the middle for free. Find out if this year the Academy continued its streak of picking the right movie! 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1929/1930 (Nominated)

Music: "Memphis, Tennessee" by Ethel Ridley, available at freemusicarchive.org

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Norma Shearer wears a Parisian dress shop's worth of fabulous outfits and Conrad Nagel plays the least immoral character in this movie as a man with a blatant disregard for the sanctity of other people's marriages. The Divorcee is all glitter and very little gold, despite the last act Jane Eyre hail Mary. David quotes scripture and Suzan makes a plea for someone to put together a Tumblr so no one need watch this movie ever again. 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1929/1930 (Nominated)

Music: "Don't Leave Me Daddy" by Marion Harris, available at freemusicarchive.org

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Ten movies in and we've finally found the origin of the Oscar bait flick! Which is not to shade All Quiet on the Western Front, which is great, but here's the origin of the Epic Horrors of War Film that will continue to dominate the nominees for, oh, ever. This week's episode is an exploration of German vs. American nihilism, WWI vs. WWII movies. Join us as David makes connections to some surprising later films this movie inspires and Suzan reveals her guaranteed personal cure for insomnia on this week's Screen Test of Time! 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1929/1930 (Nominated)

Music: "Over There" by Nora Bayes, available at freemusicarchive.org

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Ernst Lubitsch’s The Love Parade is a classic fairytale— boy meets girl, girl is the queen of some place called Sylvania, boy slept with her ambassador’s wife, but instead of ending up exiled forever, they get married and live happily ever after… and that’s just the first third of the movie. David thinks this is a sexist monstrosity, Suzan thinks it’s a subversive comment on the absurdity of men’s entitlement, but they both agree that the end of How I Met Your Mother was terrible. Just listen to the episode and it will all make sense. 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1929/1930 (Nominated)

Music: “The Royal Vagabond" by Jocker's Dance Orchestra, available at freemusicarchive.org

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

What do you get when you mash up a drawing room comedy, a spy caper, and a proto-biopic? Well, you get something of a mess, but at least a mostly entertaining one. Disraeli starts off the 1929/1930 nominees with a confused morass of a movie, but great fodder for David and Suzan to explore questions like "Should a paean to a guy who made Queen Victoria the Empress of India even exist?" "Are ladies men always inherently awful sexists?" "What really is a restoration comedy?" 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1929/1930 (Nominated)

Music: "Childrens Symphony" by Prince's Orchestra, available at freemusicarchive.org

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 was definitely a departure from the Oscar nominated movies so far: a musical revue that feels like it was plucked right off a Vaudeville stage, featuring a flapper dancing Joan Crawford, Laurel and Hardy, and a call back to The Broadway Melody with Anita Page, all MCed by Jack Benny and Conrad Nagel. You'd think that would at least be memorable, but our intrepid hosts find that they're suffering from a bizarre shared amnesia when it comes to this movie. Are Suzan and David just suffering from early onset memory loss, or is this film truly that forgettable? Find out, on this week's Screen Test of Time! 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1928/1929 (Nominated)

Music: Music: "Everybody's Jazzin It" by Collins and Harlan, available at freemusicarchive.org

(Explicit language, as always)