Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – RKO – 1942: THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS & CAT PEOPLE

Our 1942 RKO episode is a very special one, with films by two of the studio's outstanding auteurs, writer-producer-director Orson Welles, and B-horror unit producer Val Lewton. First, we look at Orson Welles' mutilated (some even say "emasculated"!) masterpiece, The Magnificent Ambersons, exploring the movie's extraordinary characters and performances and giving our opinion of the ending imposed by the studio. Then we turn to Val Lewton's first production for RKO's horror unit, Cat People, grappling with its metaphors and digging into its unusual love triangle. And then, in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we discuss an adjacent film, Bell, Book and Candle, in which Kim Novak's slinky witch falls for normo Jimmy Stewart - but with a very different outcome. Join us as we look at some very lonely people who make some very bad decisions!    Time Codes: 0h 00m 45s:      THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS [dir. Orson Welles] 0h 38m 57s:      CAT PEOPLE [dir. Jacques Tourneur] 1h 05m 28s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto: Bell, Book and Candle (1958) by Richard Quine   Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler                                     +++ * Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s * Intro Song: "Sunday" by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive) * Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating. * Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!  Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy Write to us at [email protected]   We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!