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The 1936 nominees wrap up this week with Three Smart Girls, a sort of musical that’s basically a proto-Parent Trap… but are there three smart girls in it? There are three daughters of indeterminate age, true, but are they girls? And if so, why are we supposed to be rooting for two of them to date clearly adult men? Our hosts also wrap up their assessment of the 1936 Academy’s choice— spoiler, David and Suzan are not impressed.

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Nominated)

Additional audio: Three Smart Girls (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Start with It Happened One Night as the foundation, add William Powell and Myrna Loy back on their witty repartee from The Thin Man, and top with Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow, and you seemingly have a recipe for success, right? Libeled Lady has all the ingredients to make a tasty romantic comedy, but the different elements never quite gel, with a bizarre twist ending that makes for a deeply unsatisfying dish.

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Nominated)

Additional audio: Libeled Lady (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

A film that tries to justify a husband’s neglectful, sometimes abusive treatment of his wife basically because she wants to go on a vacation he promised her over 20 years ago, Dodsworth is a misogynistic polemic masquerading as the unholy marriage of a grand tour narrative and the slow, agonizing story of a couple’s divorce.

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Nominated)

Additional audio: Dodsworth (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

With Leslie Howard (41) and Norma Shearer (34) as the titular characters, Romeo and Juliet begins the long Hollywood tradition of casting extremely age inappropriate actors as teenagers. An obvious cash grab after the success of 1935’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, this movie’s best quality is that it reminded our hosts how good the Baz Luhrmann version actually is.

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Nominated)

Additional audio: Romeo and Juliet (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Never before have our hosts said, “But whatever,” as many times as in this episode (please do not turn this into a drinking game— you have been warned). Despite SToT favorite Frederic March giving it his all as the titular character, Anthony Adverse is a confusing and confused muddle devoid of character development and made worse by a middle third fraught with all kinds of racism. But it does have the distinction of being the lowest rated Best Picture nominee on Rotten Tomatoes, so at least it has that going for it.

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Nominated)

Additional audio: Anthony Adverse (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

San Francisco starring Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracey, and Clark Gable, is nearly two and a half hours of muddled confusion. Is it an historical dramedy? A musical disaster film? Or just an historical disaster?

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Nominated)

Additional audio: San Francisco (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Frank Capra continues his streak of good movies with the best one so far: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. It’s a funny, quirky, extremely moving, and socioeconomically progressive gem starring an incredible Gary Cooper as the eponymous Mr. Deeds and a delightfully complex performance by Jean Arthur. A fantastic film and the first 10 to be awarded by David and Suzan!

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Nominated)

Additional audio: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

The winner of 1936, The Great Ziegfeld is absolute Academy cat nip: a big flashy musical that’s also a biopic, almost three hours long and lousy with famous stars, and generally a celebration of the entertainment industry— Hollywood loves few things more than a movie about itself. But is it any good?

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Won)

Additional audio: The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

So far, 1936 holds steady with the totally acceptable biopic, The Story of Louis Pasteur. Telling the somewhat… uh… sanitized version of Pasteur’s proving the existence of microbes and the germ theory of disease, Paul Muni plays the famed chemist as a crotchety genius at odds with the rather sociable and charming members of the medical establishment, personified by Fritz Leiber as the fictional Dr. Charbonnet. Anita Louise (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Donald Woods (A Tale of Two Cities) also return to the podcast as Pasteur’s daughter and son-in-law, respectively. Not the best movie ever made, nor even the best our hosts have watched for Screen Test of Time, but a solid entry that gives them hope the curse of 1935 has not persisted into the following year.

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Nominated)

Additional audio: The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

It was the best of times, it was the— actually, know what? It’s just the best of times, because 1936 has kicked off with a solidly good movie! A Tale of Two Cities is a dream come true after the slog of 1935, and in many respects is a wish granted to our hosts who have received all the things they wished they’d seen in David Copperfield. Ronald Coleman gives a moving and brilliant performance as Sydney Carton, and a number of supporting actors from Copperfield return, this time in better roles, under better direction, and with better acting. This one may not be the Best Picture of 1936 (after all, it’s the first of the nominees), but it definitely won Suzan and David over!

SHOW NOTES:

Year Eligible: 1936 (Nominated)

Additional audio: A Tale of Two Cities (1936)

(Explicit language, as always)