ABOUT THE EPISODE:

The first of many onscreen adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's beloved novel, the Katherine Hepburn starring Little Women is also the first that our hosts have been exposed to the story, at least for Suzan. David thinks he's seen the Winona Ryder one from the 90s but can't quite remember. This week wraps up the 1932/1933 nominees, so tune in to find out which movie they think should have won instead, and if any of the Academy's choices in a year when they chose the top 3 made the cut! 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Nominated)

Additional audio from Little Women (1933)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Lady for a Day is an almost entirely delightful rags-to-sort-of-riches fairytale with a brilliant ensemble cast of at the time relative unknowns. After a quick discussion of the Academy's upcoming addition of the Best Popular Film category, Suzan and David mostly rave about the first Frank Capra movie to be nominated for Best Picture... mostly. But unfortunately, like too many of these 1930s movies, its rating is brought down by an inexplicably random scene of unconnected racism leaving our hosts to wonder-- will any movie in the '30s manage to pass this part of the Screen Test of Time? 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Nominated)

Additional audio from Lady for a Day (1933)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

You know the clichéd portrayal of Henry VIII as an gluttonous, overgrown man child? Charles Laughton's portrayal of the English king with many wives in The Private Life of Henry VIII is where it all began. But does the movie stand the Screen Test of Time when so many other versions of the story have been told since? 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Nominated)

Additional audio from The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

The winner for 1932/1933, Cavalcade is like a season and a half of television that they've just slammed into a hundred and fifty minutes... or the first three seasons of Downton Abbey, with basically the same plot. The sinking of the Titanic? Check. World War I? Check. The Roaring 20s? Check. Well developed characters that we care about? Uh... Romanticism of the British class system? Check. Suzan has just returned from a trip to Thailand is super punchy with jet lag. David's just punchy as usual. 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Won)

Music: "Auld Lang Syne" recorded by Princes Band (no, not Prince's band, The Revolution) available at freemusicarchive.org. 

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

On last week's episode, Suzan was certain that this would be amazing and her choice for the 1932/1933 nominees, and her track record on week before proclamations holds steady. The first and only musical featuring Busby Berkeley's choreography to be nominated for Best Picture, 42nd Street has, no question, the best musical numbers of any movie so far featured on the Screen Test of Time, and Ginger Rogers has a cameo as a chorus girl that provides the funniest bit of business with a monocle ever to be documented on film. But will it take the Screen Test of Time award for Best Picture? 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Nominated)

Additional audio from 42nd Street (1933) 

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

In this week's episode, David posits the conspiracy theory that State Fair, remade half a dozen times in various media, is funded by the shadowy State Fair Lobby... but is his assertion as wild as it seems? Suzan believes the sole reason for this movie being made was because the camera operators figured out how to put a camera on a roller coaster. Janet Gaynor returns to the Screen Test of Time for the first time since the premier episode! 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Nominated)

Additional audio from State Fair (1933) 

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Clocking in at a mere 66 minutes, Mae West's She Done Him Wrong is the shortest movie ever nominated for Best Picture. Through some kind of manipulation of the space time continuum, however, it manages to have roughly five hours of musical numbers all stuffed in at the end. Cary Grant plays an undercover fed who is posing as a priest, which is maybe the most believable element in this convoluted narrative that strains credulity. 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Nominated)

Additional audio from She Done Him Wrong (1933) 

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

At the end of last week's episode, David and Suzan were sure that A Farewell to Arms, which stars Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes, had to be a good movie. Suzan expected that nothing with these two stars could possibly be bad, and David, for whatever reason, didn't expect it to be so "Hemingway-y." Boy, were they wrong all around. Not that you'd expect a WWI movie to be a bundle of laughs, but this one's a real bummer. 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Nominated)

Music from A Farewell to Arms (1932)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

The second film nominated for the 1932/1933 awards, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang was a ripped from the headlines, based on a true story, adapted from a book smash, and the rare movie that actually made an impact on changing the oppressive system it profiled. Impressive, definitely, but is it any good?

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Nominated)

Intro and Outro audio: music from the opening and closing titles of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Our hosts start off the 1932/1933 Academy Awards with Smilin' Through. Norma Shearer, short shrifted in The Divorcee as a glamorous doormat, finally gets her due in the role of spitfire Kathleen, and co-stars Frederic March and Leslie Howard match her stellar performance. But does this befuddling blend of gothic horror, WWI movie, Dickensian intergenerational family drama, and light hearted romantic comedy ever really find its feet? And the more pertinent question: do our hosts recover from the genre switching whiplash? 

SHOW NOTES

Year Eligible: 1932/1933 (Nominated)

Additional audio from Smilin' Through (1932)

(Explicit language, as always)