The Top 100 Project

This 28th Top 100 Project podcast finds us venturing down the mean streets of film noir with The Maltese Falcon. Finally, we get some Humphrey Bogart and John Huston in our film-loving lives! Check out our thoughts on this noir trailblazer as we continually compare The Maltese Falcon to a future Top 100 flick (Chinatown), discuss Hollywood homophobia, and spend plenty of time marvelling about Bogart…and Bond! Ward Bond. Careful! We spoil the endings of Bogart’s 3 other AFI films during a trivia question, although it’s in a very specific way. Time to hear about the bird!

The Kane chat continues in the second half of our 27th AFI Top 100 movie, Citizen Kane! This time we talk about Orson Welles the quadruple-threat artist and his ultra-talented cast & collaborators. We also open up the Top 100 emailbag and address the Sight & Sound’s 2012 poll because they knocked Kane out of its six-decade perch as numero uno on their own illustrious list. Anyway, this is AFI’s pinnacle, so get your #1 on and rejoice in what they say is the finest achievement in American filmosity in the history of time and space!

What do you say about AFI’s Greatest Movie Of All Time, Citizen Kane? Well, after 27 podcasts of talktalktalk, you take the time to say absolutely everything you can and split your ‘cast into 2 parts! In this 1st half we’ll focus on the politics of making the movie and the real-life comparisons (intentional or otherwise) to a Murdochian newspaper tycoon named Hearst. Details about Orson Welles’ collaborators and about Welles himself will be the focus of Part 2. As always, we’ve got trivia and other cool things. Don’t be scared off by The Greatest Movie Everrrrrr because it---like our podcast---is actually a lot of fun.

We’re branching out again, this time with The Now Playing Project! AFI classics need not apply here. This podcast is entirely devoted to a pair of newly released movies that you can see on the big screen right now. Our first duo: Enough Said (starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini) and Gravity (starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney). No spoilers for either flick until we make it clear we’re going down that road at the end of the podcast. Activate!

The 26th episode of The Top 100 Project finds us digging into The Philadelphia Story! Did it delight us the way it delights AFI voters? Do we think Hepburn should have married Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart or the other guy? Was it a worthy AFIer? Whether yes or no, what’s with classic romantic movies and all the spousal abuse? Hit that play button and enjoy our deeply critical thoughts about a frothy trifle of a movie.

With this little ditty about Fantasia, we’re 20% of the way through the list of AFI’s Greatest American Movies! Podcast #25 takes us into the surreal with its mixture of animation and classical music. Bring on a spirited debate as we strongly disagree about the AFI-worthiness. Who likes the cartoon and who doesn’t might surprise you! Or it might not! Anyway, Fantasia is an audio-visual experience like no other on the Top 100 list and our audio musings about it await your attention.

The Top 100 Project fires up the jalopy for the 24th time with an analysis of The Grapes Of Wrath! After the glitz of Gone With The Wind, John Ford grits it up with the dustbowl, starvation, and pretty overt hints of Communist firebrandery. Gasp...unions! What did we think of Henry Fonda’s signature performance? Of John Ford and his production team? What choked us up? You give a hoot and a holler, so take a listen!

Movie #23 of the 123 AFI movies is the event film to end all event films! It’s Gone With The Wind, the 1939 Oscar-grabber and all-around enormous product of the industry. What was our reaction to the marital rape? To the casual racism? Does it pass the Bechdel Test? Did we get through it in one sitting without having to call in some experts to massage our numb backsides? It’s our longest podcast to date, so make sure your own backside stays comfy and then frankly, my dear, press play!

This Top 100 Project flick is Mr. Smith Goes To Washington! It’s podcast #22 and it finds us taking ol’ Jimmy Stewart to task for his performance (he’s like a certain animated character from a Pixar movie!) while we also talk plenty about real-life and reel-life politics. There’s also trivia and we answer some more reader email! So bring your apple and your thermos, limber up your buttocks, and start filibustering our longest podcast yet.

The Top 100 Project hits you with a little Munchkin magic in podcast #21 because it’s The Wizard Of Oz! Take a ride on a twister to hear us compare Glinda The Good Witch to Kesyer Soze, enjoy us rant about how the Wicked Witch Of The West was screwed out of what was rightfully hers, and to question Dorothy’s home-and-away priorities. We also continue the new tradition of trivia questions and we even answer a loyal listener’s email! All that in an emeraldy little 40-minute package!

It’s The Not 100 Project! A non-AFIer gets reviewed and the first one we’ll cover is Die Hard. Pop this one into your device to enjoy some off-key caterwauling, then stick around as we make it extremely clear that McClane is shoeless in this movie. Also, who can spot my screw-up at the 20-minute mark that’s actually an unintentional homage to the originally erroneous credits of another movie we mention during the Die Hard podcast? All that and tons (TONS!) more. Yippie ki yay, Mister Falcon!

The 20th Top 100 Project podcast is the tortured-love soaper, Wuthering Heights. Settle in for a recurring comparison to a fellow AFIer released 58 years later, to hear Bev’s theory about why this movie is as popular as it is, and to discover our choice for the real villain of this piece (hint: it’s the lady!). Also, we’ve got a new sponsor! All that and quite a tick more awaits you.

Saddle up dem horses and hit the trails as the Top 100 Project brings you podcast #19, Stagecoach! What did Bev think of her first John Wayne movie? Whom did one executive want to play the Ringo Kid instead of the Duke? And did we dare to compare Stagecoach to Gilligan’s Island? All that and, oh, 3 or more points of interest are contained within.

The 18th Top 100 Project podcast is the zany rom-com Bringing Up Baby! It’s Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn and director Howard Hawks (he was gooooood…and this is his only AFIer), so you have 3 terrific reasons to tune in. Enter the Top 100 world for facts about the near-demise of Hepburn’s career, Grant’s reluctance to even be in the flick, and to hear Bev’s 2 main reasons for liking this film!

Podcast #17 finds us chatting about one of the all-time box office champs, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs! If you want theories about evil fruit, how the Queen is the original Bond villain, and to hear us sing an impromptu ditty, then this is the ‘cast for you. Also, Fox likes to contribute to our work and he did it yet again. Settle deep into your couch or office chair or bed of nails and let us regale you about Snow, her 7 platonic friends, and the most homicidal stepmother in the land!

16 podcasts in and here is our first full-fledged musical, the Astaire & Rogers dance-fest known as Swing Time! Plop down in a comfy chair whilst Bev & Ryan tear the plot and the characters to shreds. Stay comfy as Bev goes on a lengthy rant about the film’s absurdities. And slouch in your chair even more as they debate not only the validity of this film’s inclusion on the AFI Top 100, but the validity of the musical genre itself. You might not have heard of this flick before now, but you won’t soon forget it once we’re done!

Podcast #15 is...wait a minute! What? They give away the ending on the cover of the DVD?! Those fools. Well, since The Top 100 Project is all about ruining every inch of a movie for you, we’ll let it slide. Chaplin’s AFI swan song is Modern Times. Did we like it more or less than his previous masterpieces, The Gold Rush and City Lights? How does the story stack up to the reality of today? And just how much face-dirt is required to make the lovely Paulette Goddard the rabble-rousing gamin she’s supposed to be? Those issues and a lot more can be found by clicking on the link and opening your eardrums...

For the 14th time, the Ellises podcast their thoughts about an ancient AFI flick. It’s A Night At The Opera, starring the Marx Brothers and a bunch of other chumps. Bev didn’t dig much on the previous Marx film, Duck Soup. How about this one? Did she LOL a lot more? What did we think of the story this time (for one thing, did it have one)? And did the retirement of Zeppo destroy all that is holy? All that and so very much more!

It’s a baker’s dozen! Podcast #13 is Mutiny On The Bounty, the Oscar-winner from 78 years ago. Come settle in for a tangent-fest about other movies as we analyze the merits of this one. How did manly Clark Gable and man-loving Charles Laughton co-exist? Is Captain Bligh truly a villain? And just who is The Top 100 Project’s new sponsor?! All that and so much more in this lengthy yet remarkably entertaining podcast!

We’ve reached a dozen podcasts with this analysis of the Oscar-sweeper and rom-com classic, It Happened One Night! What were our favourite lines? Which pop culture icon did Clark Gable inspire? How much pre-code semi-nudity did we get to enjoy this time? All those answers and so much more are waiting for your eardrums. Listen!