Tipping My Fedora

For this special Christmas episode, Sergio is joined by Scott K Ratner for an in-depth look at Dashiell Hammett's novel The Thin Man. We also consider the series of six movies it spawned, all of them starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles and Skippy as their pet Terrier, Asta. Here's a full list of the films in the series: The Nick and Nora Charles Screwball Mystery Movies The Thin Man (1934) After the Thin Man (1936) Another Thin Man (1939) Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) The Thin Man Goes Home (1944) Song of the Thin Man (1947) We also look at some of our favourite movie whodunits, including AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945), GREEN FOR DANGER (1947), WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957), DEATH ON THE NILE (1978) and Rian Johnson's KNIVES OUT series starring Daniel Craig. Scott K. Ratner is a Southern-California based writer/magician/actor whose endeavours are largely rooted in his interests in Golden Age detective fiction and classic era Hollywood cinema. He has written the libretto and lyrics for two whodunit musicals (All Talking! All Singing!! All Murder!!! and Murder on the High C’s) and a one-act Agatha Christie-related comedy (Kill A Better Mousetrap), as well as several nerdy articles for such magazines as Crime and Detective Stories and Mystery Scene. His magic act was once publicly praised by no less than Harry Blackstone, Jr. and the great Dai Vernon, though the truth of that story is considerably less impressive when the details are known. His brief sojourn as a teenage actor in television connected him with a few important players of the classic Hollywood era, and he regrets that he didn’t know enough about their filmographies at the time to ask the interesting questions. As a magician and theme park entertainer, he worked over two decades apiece at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm.

Sergio is joined by Luke Deckard and Matthew Booth, the hosts of the excellent Mean Streets podcast (https://meanstreetspodcast.podbean.com/) to find out what their top 10 Film Noir remakes are. The films under discussion include (in chronological order) are: THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) THE KILLERS (1964) FAREWELL MY LOVELY (1975) THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1981) NO WAY OUT (1987) NARROW MARGIN (1990) CAPE FEAR (1991) THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY (1999) CASINO ROYALE (2006) NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021) Luke and Matt are the hosts of the Mean Streets podcast, which you can find at: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/luke-deckard/. Both are published crime fiction authors. Luke's homepage can be found at: https://www.lukedeckard.com/. Details of Matthew's published novels can be found at the Crime Writer's Association website: https://thecwa.co.uk/find-an-author/booth-matthew/.

It's 40 years since Alan Plater's mellow comedy thriller THE BEIDERBECKE AFFAIR (1985), starring James Bolam and Barbara Flynn, first appeared on TV. Sergio is joined by Plater expert James Leggott to discuss the original serial and it's two sequels, THE BEIDERBECKE TAPES (1987) and THE BEIDERBECKE CONNECTION (1988). Dr James Leggott is Head of School, Design Arts and Creative Industries, at the Northumbria University. For more information about his work and publications, please visit: https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/l/james-leggott/ Music credit: "Crying All Day" (1927), Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke, courtesy of the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/1927-USA-Archives-1927-10-25-Bix-Beiderbecke-Frankie-Trumbauer-Crying-All-Day

Sergio is joined by Vincent M. Gaine of Lancaster University to discuss Michael Mann's hitman neo-noir, Collateral, starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith. A thriller made on the cutting edge of digital cinema of 2004, this in-depth exploration of the film will look at the new technology used to make it, how it sits within Mann's filmography - and why Sergio really has a problem with Tom Cruise's wig in the film. Dr Vincent M. Gaine teaches at Lancaster University and is the author of "Existentialism and Social Engagement in the Films of Michael Mann". The locus of Vincent’s research is the intersection of globalisation, liminality and identity politics in media. He has published on contemporary film genres, cycles and franchises, including superhero cinema, conspiracy thrillers and James Bond, as well as contemporary auteurs including James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow and Christopher Nolan. His current research concerns nostalgic espionage, liminal superheroes and the social-anthropological representation of Boston in media. Vincent is also a podcaster, with a monthly podcast called Invasion of the Pody People, and regular guest appearances on Not Just For Kids (https://notjustforkids.libsyn.com/), The Uncut Network and There Can Be Only One. He contributes film reviews to The Geek Show (https://thegeekshow.co.uk/) and the Critical Movie Critics (https://thecriticalcritics.com/).

Brad Friedman is back to talk about  Hitchcock's 1940s Noir thrillers with Sergio! This time they discuss the romantic whodunit, SPELLBOUND (1945), the spy drama NOTORIOUS (1946) and the real-time suspense thriller, ROPE (1948). Brad blogs about Golden Age mystery books and movies at Ah Sweet Mystery: https://ahsweetmystery.com/ To read "The House of Dr Edwardes" by Francis Beeding, the basis for SPELLBOUND, click here: https://freeread.de/@RGLibrary/FrancisBeeding/Novels/TheHouseOfDoctorEdwardes.html Spoiler alert: the plots for all the films discussed, including their respective endings, are explored in great detail.