Vintage Century Idle Hour

At long last Jennifer is exploring a science fiction film.  Some of the best science fiction films, in her opinion, are from the 1950s—the atomic age, when the future looked bright and scary at the same time.  Well, tonight she's diving into a seminal atomic age science fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still.  She got so invested—and so distracted—by this story, that she was actually late to an appointment and caused a lo...

Tonight on the Idle Hour we have another case of Hollywood telling its own story.  A few episodes back we explored another such tale when we featured the 1950 film All About Eve. That movie is about show business—mostly the stage—and the biting and clawing and scheming that goes into the making of a star.  Well, now we’re giving some love and attention to the “not so happily ever after” story of stardom in Sunset Boulevard.  Sunset...

When did the word “gaslight” change from a noun to a verb?  There for a while, it seemed everyone was trying to “gaslight” someone else–at least according to all the chatter on social media.  Jennifer's not entirely sure people really knew what that meant–and she's extremely sure a lot of people didn’t know where the term came from.  Well, guess what?  It’s a reference to tonight’s featured film from 1944, Gaslight.  She&...

Jennifer has spent the majority of her career working in corporations, and while the industries, services, policies, systems, technologies, and even the names and faces of the colleagues, change over time, there’s one truth that remains eternal:  work brings out the worst in people!  Organizational life has a way of changing us, making us—sad.  Rod Serling, the writer of tonight’s featured film, Patterns, must have felt the same wa...

Well, we have a melodrama this week–a bit of a downer, to be honest.  Our featured film, Dark Victory, is about a young woman in the prime of life who is dying.  Not a lot of laughs, this one.  But more than that, this is a profile in fear, and that’s why Jennifer finds this film interesting.  Our main character is—understandably—afraid.  She’s on a personal journey to find her courage–and she doesn’t have long.  As a person who’s ...

This is the 14th episode of the Vintage Century Idle Hour, and that means we’ve explored 13 stories from Hollywood’s Golden Age so far.  None of these films have been comedies, for one critical reason:  Jennifer's not wild about them–and because she's not wild about them, she doesn't gravitate toward them when choosing films.  It Happened One Night is a big name comedy in classic Hollywood films, so naturally, we hav...

 And now for a change of pace…

In the last few episodes of this series we have gone to some dark places.  Our main characters have been corrupt, manipulative, all around rotten scoundrels. There’s been murder, mayhem, death and destruction.  For those of you listening to this show at work or at bedtime–yikes, what a downer for background.  Well, how about a sweet, uplifting romance?  That’s what we’ve got in this week’s featured fil...

What were YOU doing at 25?  Here's what Jennifer was doing:  trying to pay rent and figure out how to be an adult.  You know what Orson Welles was doing at 25?  Making his first Hollywood film–what went on to be regarded by many as the finest film ever made.  We’re exploring Citizen Kane tonight, because–how could Jennifer possibly skip it in this series?  Oh, and  Jennifer wants to look at how it aligns with last week’s featu...

Reviews of classic movies from Hollywood's Golden Age: Touch of Evil.
Tonight we do a close read of the second film noir in our series.  You might remember that last week we explored the mean streets of Kansas City in Kansas City Confidential.  Well, now we’re in fictional Los Roblos, a rowdy town on the U.S.-Mexico border in Touch of Evil.  Jennifer heard about Touch of Evil for the first time last week.  She doesn't...

Reviews of classic movies from Hollywood's Golden Age: Kansas City Confidential

Today’s show sets a record for the sheer number of slaps and punches heard in a single episode.  Yes, we’re in the gritty, hard-boiled world of film noir today with a classic of the genre, Kansas City Confidential.  While we’re at it, we’ll take a look at what “noir” really is.  And, because we are in Jennifer's hometown for this one, she wants...

Reviews of classic movies from Hollywood's Golden Age: All About Eve
In the wee  small hours of the morning, have you ever had thoughts like this running through your mind:  You’re in a comfortable position at work.  Maybe you’ve risen through the ranks and are in a position of leadership.  You also have some experience behind you.  Well, you know what else may be behind you?  Younger, faster, brighter people coming in hot...

Reviews of classic movies from Hollywood's Golden Age: Tales of Manhattan. You know what’s great about anthology films?  Variety.  If you don’t love one story–hang on, you might love the next one.  In our last episode we explored the 1943 anthology, Flesh and Fantasy, which introduced us to the director Julien Duvivier.  Now, Jennifer is no film historian or expert or anything–she's just a classic film enthusiast–and that...

This week we’re deviating a bit from our original flight plan.  When Jennifer set out on this series her intent was—well, and still is—to study the great movies of Hollywood’s Golden Era to see if she thinks they’re great, and to look at what makes them great.  Our movie today, 1943’s Flesh and Fantasy, is NOT great.  But it IS fun.  So, why not go where the fun takes us, and do a little exploring?  This is actually part one of a d...

Jennifer's working her way through a growing list of classic movies to see what makes them great–or not.  One thing she's learning is that not all classic movies are great.  Who knew?  Anyway, this time around, her interest in Separate Tables began not because it’s a classic (though it is) and not because it’s one of her Dad’s favorite movies (though it is), but because Edith Head designed the dresses Rita Hayworth wore i...

What does the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee and the 1943 film The Ox-Bow Incident set in Bridger’s Wells, Nevada have in common?  Some people would say they have nothing whatsoever in common.  But others might say that they are both in locations that start with the letter “N” - as in “Nashville” and “Nevada.”  That ties these two things together, right?  Well, here’s something else they have in common:  They are both on Je...

Jennifer just watched Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic thriller, Psycho, for probably the fifth time in her life.  At this point, is there a person alive who hasn’t seen Psycho at least five times?  People like this movie. It’s always a scary, fun ride.  It never disappoints in that regard.  But sometimes people forget that it’s also a masterpiece.  Doing a close read of this very familiar story provides an entirely different and fr...

Jennifer's working her way through a list of classic films–watching and studying them to see what makes them great.  Well, our feature film in today’s episode was NOT on that list.  It just landed in Jennifer's Youtube feed, it was free, and she thought “OK, why not?”  Perhaps Tomorrow is Forever landed in her feed because, as she was recording this, it was right after Christmas, and there was a little Christmas tree spot...

Jennifer is on a personal journey of discovery to find out whether the films from Hollywood’s golden era live up to the hype.  Her  journey must include a stop in Casablanca.  After all, Casablanca is  at, or near, the top of every list of the greatest films of all time.  BUT…it has elements like war and international intrigue that Jennifer find extremely boring.  So, in this episode we seek to answer the following questions:  Does...