Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Warner Brothers – 1930: A NOTORIOUS AFFAIR & THE DOORWAY TO HELL

For the first episode of our second round of Warner Brothers 1930, we've got a thoughtful, ambitious gangster movie from the mind of little-known auteur Rowland Brown, The Doorway to Hell (directed by Archie Mayo), and a truly dismal melodrama, A Notorious Affair (directed by Lloyd Bacon), rescued from total worthlessness by Kay Francis's turn as a maneating countess. (Doorway to Hell is also notable for a very early appearance by another rising star, James Cagney, who, however, doesn't steal his movie as effectively as Francis does.) Plus, we give our lists of favourite Warner Brothers movies from Round One and offer our thoughts about the studio as auteur going into Round Two.  Time Codes: 0h 00m 25s:                Warner Brothers Recap 0h 28m 05s:                A NOTORIOUS AFFAIR [dir. Lloyd Bacon] 0h 43m 50s:                THE DOORWAY TO HELL [dir. Archie Mayo] Year in Film information from Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn 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!