Tipping My Fedora

18. Mabuse Lives! with David Kalat

Before such monstrous miscreants as  Ernst Stavro Blofeld, The Joker, Hannibal Lecter and Bellatrix Lestrange besmirched page and screen, perhaps the greatest supervillain of them all was Dr Mabuse. Hell-bent on world domination, his devilish plans were chronicled in books and movies throughout most of the 20th century. And now he's back in a brand new box set bringing together his six dastardly movie appearance from the 1960s, courtesy of Eureka video in their Masters of Cinema series.

https://eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/mabuse-lives-limited-edition-box-set/

 

 

To celebrate I am joined by David Kalat, the world's foremost authority on the mad doctor and his schemes, in a special edition of the podcast spanning some 100 years of movie mayhem.

David Kalat is a film historian and a forensic technologist. He has contributed audio commentaries to the home video editions of numerous classic movies, written extensively for Turner Classic Movies and other publications. In 1997, he founded the independent DVD label All Day Entertainment, to rescue and promote motion pictures whose artistic value, historic importance, and all-around entertainment value merit a second-chance in the commercial marketplace. David Kalat also partners with other media companies such as Eureka, Kino-Lorber, the Criterion Collection, Classic Media, and others to bring the same attention to important films from around the world. He is the author of numerous books on film history, including The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse.

https://www.alldayentertainment.com/publications

17. Spring break

Our offices will be closed during the Easter period so we can take a small holiday and recharge the little grey cells. But we won't be gone for long and we have lots of special episodes all lined up and ready to go. 

To whet your appetite, here are previews from some forthcoming episodes including ones dedicated to boxing movies, Westerns and Noir scepticism, the various versions of BLADE RUNNER (and its sequel, BLADE RUNNER 2049), the radio origins of Orson Welles' MR ARKADIN ... and much more!

Tipping My Fedora will be back on April 27th with an edition featuring Dr Laura Mee, who will be taking a deep dive into David Fincher's 1995 neo-noir classic, SEVEN.

But until then ... take it easy and don't lose your heads down those dark streets of Noir City. 

And as Patrick McGoohan used to say, be seeing you!

16. The Noir books of Jim Thompson, with Jim Noy

Sergio is joined by novelist, blogger and podcaster Jim Noy to enthuse about the work of writer Jim Thompson, the sui generis maestro of 50s and 60's Noir. We explore some of Thompson's major themes, his often psychopathic protagonists and his horrifying and frequently surreal endings - and look in detail at such classic books as The Killers Inside Me, A Hell of a Woman, The Grifters, After Dark, My Sweet and Pop. 1280 (all of which have been filmed)

Jim Thompson's crime fiction bibliography includes the following novels:

• Nothing More Than Murder (1949)
• The Killer Inside Me (1952)
• Cropper's Cabin (1952)
• Recoil (1953)
• The Alcoholics (1953)
• Savage Night (1953)
• Bad Boy (1953)
• The Criminal (1953)
• The Nothing Man (1954)
• The Golden Gizmo (1954)
• Roughneck (1954)
• A Swell-Looking Babe (1954)
• A Hell of a Woman (1954)
• After Dark, My Sweet (1955)
• The Kill-Off (1957)
• Wild Town (1957)
• The Getaway (1958)
• The Transgressors (1961)
• The Grifters (1963)
• Pop. 1280 (1964)

Jim Noy is a maths supremo and a novelist - he made his debut with The Red Death Murders, which was published during the Covid lockdown and is a highly imaginative whodunit set sometime in the past during the plague imagined by Edgar Allan Poe for his classic story, 'The Masque of Red Death.' It is available in print and e-book editions via Amazon: 

www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Death-Murders-Jim-Noy/dp/B09SKY58WV

He also blogs about crime fiction at The Invisible Event: 

https://theinvisibleevent.com/.

He also hosts his own podcast, In GAD We Trust:  https://theinvisibleevent.com/category/in-gad-we-trust/

15. DEATH WISH II (1982) and DEATH WISH III (1985), with Simon Brown

Welcome back for the second half of Sergio's conversation with Simon Brown about the Michael Winner / Charles Bronson Death Wish trilogy - today's focus is on the first two sequels, produced by Cannon in the 1980s.

We look at what the sequels added to, and detracted from, this popular cycle of revenge films extending the success of the first and most distinguished entry in  the series. 

The first part of this podcast can be found at this link: https://tippingmyfedora.podbean.com/e/14-death-wish-1974-with-simon-brown/

Simon Brown, currently lecturing in film at Northumbria University, is an independent scholar who specialises in early film history, horror, adaptation studies and film technology. He is the author of Cecil Hepworth and the Rise of The British Film Industry (University of Exeter Press, 2016) and Screening Stephen King: Adaptation and the Horror Genre in Film and Television (University of Texas Press, 2018).

Spoiler warning - we pretty much give away the endings of both the films being discussed.

14. DEATH WISH (1974), with Simon Brown

Sergio is joined today by Simon Brown for the first of a two-part look at the trio of Death Wish films that were directed by Michael Winner and starred Charles Bronson.   

One of the key releases of the 1970s, Michael Winner’s 1974 box office smash, Death Wish, starred Charles Bronson as a man driven to murderous reprisals after a violent assault that left his wife dead and their daughter an emotional wreck. Adapted from the 1972 novel by Brian Garfield, it crystallised an emerging trend of films featuring disillusioned individuals who turn to violence as a way to deal with the chaos in which they find themselves.

Joining me to discuss this seminal and highly controversial work is Simon Brown, an independent scholar who specialises in early film history, horror, adaptation studies and film technology. He is the author of Cecil Hepworth and the Rise of The British Film Industry (University of Exeter Press, 2016) and Screening Stephen King: Adaptation and the Horror Genre in Film and Television (University of Texas Press, 2018).

Spoiler warning: please note, we do explore the film, and its ending, in considerable detail. 

13. David Lynch and Film Noir, with Dr Lindsay Hallam

As a tribute to the late David Lynch, Sergio is joined by special guest Dr Lindsay Hallam, Senior Lecturer in Film at the University of East London to discuss his work in the Noir context.

Dr Hallam is author of the books Screening the Marquis de Sade and a Devil's Advocates volume on Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and has written several articles and book chapters on the works of David Lynch.

She has also contributed audio commentaries and essays for Blu-Rays released by such labels as Arrow, Severin, Second Sight, Umbrella, Eureka, 88 Films, Indicator and Vinegar Syndrome. She is also the co-host of SciFrights, a movie podcast from the Interzone where horror meets science fiction

https://rss.com/podcasts/scifrights/

 

We explore the way that Lynch used the motifs, tropes and visual signifiers associated with Film Noir in so many of his films. Those discussed include: 

BLUE VELVET (1986)

WILD AT HEART (1990)

TWIN PEAKS (1990-91)

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992)

LOST HIGHWAY (1997)

MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001)

 

For more information on Dr Lindsay Hallam, please visit:

www.uel.ac.uk/about-uel/staff/lindsay-anne-hallam

https://lindsayhallam5.wixsite.com/website

Screening the Marquis de Sade: Pleasure, Pain and the Transgressive Body in Film www.amazon.co.uk/Screening-Marquis-Sade-Pleasure-Transgressive/dp/0786462965/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=

Twin Peaks: Fire Walks with Me (Devil's Advocates series): www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781911325642

 

12. KISS ME DEADLY (1955), with Mark Dillon

Today’s podcast is devoted to KISS ME DEADLY, the classic Film Noir directed by Robert Aldrich from Mickey Spillane's best-seller featuring his ultra-hardboiled PI, Mike Hammer.

My guest is Mark Dillon, an award-winning Toronto-based journalist specializing in film, TV and pop music. He is a former editor of Playback, the business publication for the Canadian media industries, and to which he still contributes. He has been writing for Hollywood magazine American Cinematographer for more than 25 years. He is author of Fifty Sides of The Beach Boys, chronicling America’s band, and co-hosts the (non-noir) podcast Surf’s Up: A Beach Boys Podcast Safari: https://soundcloud.com/user-93394161

11. Christmas Noir, with special guests Simon Brown and Stacey Abbott

Can the shadows of Film Noir retain their dark power even during the holiday season?

Come and join me in front of the fireplace for a special yuletide edition of Tipping My Fedora with friends of the podcast, Simon Brown and Stacey Abbott and their devoted pooch Lilli, while they take a break from sleuthing as we look at some classic crime movies set between Christmas and New Year.

The films discussed include: 

THE THIN MAN (WS Van Dyke, 1934)

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY (Robert Siodmak, 1944)

THE RECKLESS MOMENT (Max Ophuls, 1949)

BLAST OF SILENCE (Allen Baron, 1961)

THE SILENT PARTNER (Daryl Duke, 1978)

And of course Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1947), a classic movie with more than a hint of Film Noir magic about it. 

 

Happy holidays - thanks to all our listeners, and contributors, for their valuable support in 2024.

And please don't forget to subscribe and comment wherever you get your episodes of Tipping My Fedora.

The podcast will be back on 5 January 2025 with a new episode in which Mark Dillon joins me to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Robert Aldrich's classic private eye mystery, KISS ME DEADLY. See you then!

 

Graphic by Frazer Ash

Additional Music: Christmas Spirit (Top-Flow / Pixabay)