Shea Cinema: The Best Picture Project

(Episode recorded November 15, 2025) Review #12 of the season, and another bonus episode! Plus, it's our second musical in a row! Come listen to Sara and Dad literally giggle about this ridiculous, lovely film. Gold Diggers of 1933 - A Classic Musical with a Bold Social Message Join us as we explore Gold Diggers of 1933 , a dazzling pre-Code musical that captures the spirit and struggles of t...

(Episode recorded May 7, 2025) Review #11 of the season, and our 7th nominee for Outstanding Production at the Sixth Academy Awards. 42nd Steet is a full-blown musical, and we have a full-blown stupendous guest in Klarissa Beckstead from I've Seen That One!   The film's musical numbers are staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It stars an ensemble cast of Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniel...

(Episode recorded November 2, 2024) 00:00 Introduction to Shea Cinema and King Kong 01:54 Guest Intro: Andrew Corns 05:31 The Academy Awards and Cultural Context 10:52 Production Insights and Screenplay Details 14:29 King Kong Musical 18:00 King Kong's Legacy and Influence on Cinema 28:17 Connections to Literature and Personal History 36:33 Character Development and Themes in King Kong 45:06...

(Episode recorded November 2, 2024) While the official episode on King Kong is just over three hours, Sara, Dad, and guest Andrew Corns recorded for nearly four hours! Not everything deserves to wind up on the cutting room floor, however. Case in point, this little snippet was too fun to discard entirely, but didn't fit into the larger discussion of the film (plus it was before we started the...

(Episode recorded October 26, 2024) It's our ninth review of the season, and our sixth nominee for Outstanding Production at the Sixth Academy Awards. State Fair is based on the bestselling 1932 novel by Phil Stong, and was the first of three film adaptations of the novel; the others were both musical adaptations made in 1945 and 1962. This family adventure at the local fair boasts the return...

(Episode recorded October 25, 2024) It's our eighth review of the season, but only our fifth nominee for Outstanding Production at the Sixth Academy Awards. In fact, She Done Him Wrong is the shortest film nominated for the top prize...and the top prize was it's only nomination. The film was adapted from the successful 1928 Broadway play Diamond Lil, penned by and starring Mae West. Desp...

(Episode recorded October 19, 2024) It's been three months since our last episode, but it's been even longer since we recorded this one! In our seventh review of the season, we are exploring the actual winner of the Oscar for Outstanding Production at the Sixth Academy Awards, Frank Lloyd's Cavalcade , based on Noel Coward's play. This smash hit was nominated for four Oscars, a...

WE ARE BACK! In our sixth review of the season, we are back on track with an actual Outstanding Production nomination. We dive into A Farewell to Arms , based on Ernest Hemingway's 1929 novel (which supposedly had 47 different endings!) We discuss the film's historical context, character dynamics, the challenges of censorship and adaptation, and the themes of love and war.  Did you know...

This is our third bonus episode and our fifth review of the season! We are covering one of Dad's childhood favorites: Cecil B. DeMille's notorious tale of forbidden love and Roman Empire decadence,  The Sign of the Cross.  With scandalous scenes such as the Dance of the Naked Moon and an over-the-top extravaganza in the Roman Colosseum (naked women! elephants trampling gladiators! lions...

For our second regular nomination review of the season, we are excited to welcome Kieran B. from Best Picture Cast as our first official guest host! Kieran, Dad and Sara take a deep dive into this classic Warner Brothers prison flick, making connections to Les Misérables, Ben Hur, The Shawshank Redemption (of course), and even Stranger Things. As a special treat, our history timeline includes a ga...

We are finally diving into our standard nomination reviews! This time we are covering Smilin' Through , starring Norma Shearer and Fredric March. This fascinating film has love triangles, murder, intrigue, tragedy, revenge...and GHOSTS. (And some neat camera tricks and flashbacks and double-roles.) Is it just an old-timey Hallmark movie, or is it something more? The historical timeline has so...

This is our 50th episode! For our second review of the season, we have another bonus episode! We are covering The Most Dangerous Game , based on a 1924 short story by Richard Connell. This film was made by the same crew who made  King Kong , even filming on the same sets, and using several of the same actors.  We also welcome guest (and family member) Jerry Shea, a retired English teacher who used...

Welcome to our first film review of the season! We are kicking off with a special BONUS EPISODE! And what better super surprise than the very first zombie story ever told on celluloid! This obscure movie stars Bela Lugosi fresh off his success as Dracula, and offers up a zombie origin unfamiliar to the average movie-lover (we’ve got Haitian voodoo and mind-control to contend with). We explore its...

Welcome to our Season 6 Premiere! We took a two-month break, and we never want to be away for that long again! (Please scroll to the bottom for chapter timestamps.) Sara and Dad cover the 6th Academy Awards ceremony. This is the longest eligibility period to date: honoring the best in films released in the United States between August 1, 1932 and December 31, 1933. We discuss the context of these...

In this episode we wrap up the 5th Academy Awards, giving a quick rundown of all 8 films nominated for the top award, Outstanding Production. Walt Disney's Parade of the Award Nominees short: https://youtu.be/6PoSjUf1j7k?si=cWueX5ngKIiGbW58 Including our bonus film, we give our personal favorites and personal worsts . We also view the nominees as Oscar Bridesmaids, and bestow runner-up awards...

This is our last film review of the season, and we cover Outstanding Production winner, Grand Hotel . This movie is unique in that, while it did win the top prize at the 5th Academy Awards, it did not receive a nomination in any other category, a feat that has never been repeated. This is our most star-studded cast to date,  featuring Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John AND Lionel Barrymore, Wallace...

Welcome to our episode on One Hour With You,  our fourth Ernst Lubitsch film for the project, and our THIRD Lubitsch musical...which also means our third Maurice Chevalier vehicle. Chevalier is joined once again by Jeanette MacDonald. How is this film any different from the others we have reviewed? Well, this one doesn't feature fantasy royalty, and is grounded quite firmly in hoity-toity Fre...

Today we go over director Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express , starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, and Werner Oland. Based on a real-life incident of train passengers taken hostage in China, the story vacillates between a dramatic action film and a  searing love story. Rife with plenty of intrigue (prostitution, drug smuggling, civil war, rape, murder), Shanghai Express...

In our fifth regular film review of the season, we cover director John Ford's Arrowsmith , adapted from Sinclair Lewis's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. No, this is not the origin story of a 20th Century rock band, but it is the story of a young doctor who is determined to follow the scientific method no matter the cost. The story also has some unsettling implications for us now in the 21s...

That's right! It's a BONUS EPISODE, and today we are covering 1931's  Frankenstein.   Everyone thinks they know this classic monster movie whether they've seen it or not, and we take a deep dive as it falls right on our regular timeline. We covered  Dracula last season, and we thought it would be unforgivable if we didn't cover this Universal Pictures horror film too.  Joi...

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THIS IS OUR FORTIETH EPISODE!! This third film review of the season covers Five Star Final , starring Edward G. Robinson in a non-gangster role. This tale of yellow journalism gone horribly wrong showcases the horrifying consequences when a newspaper decides  to resurrect a long-forgotten murder case, and then does the unthinkable in order to make it happen. This screenplay has several literary al...

Here is our second film review for the season! Frank Borzage, who won Best Director at the first Academy Awards for Seventh Heaven , is back, with ANOTHER win for Best Director of this film, Bad Girl . Newcomer James Dunn dominates the screen in this Academy Award-winning adaptation of the novel of the same name. That's right, this pre-code gem won two out of three nominations, losing out onl...

In our first film review for the season, we cover The Smiling Lieutenant , another Ernst Lubitsch musical comedy. Starring Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert, and newcomer Miriam Hopkins, this jaunty, suggestive film focuses on a love triangle between a lieutenant, his violin virtuoso girlfriend, and a naïve princess. There is lots of innuendo, lots of sexual banter, and ridiculous songs compari...

Welcome to our Season 5 Premiere! Sara and Dad cover the 5th Academy Awards ceremony (honoring the best in films - screened in Los Angeles -  between August 1, 1931 and July 31, 1932).  We discuss (again) the context of these films being made during the pre-code era, and what the implications are for filmmaking moving forward. This season ups the ante with eight nominees instead of five, and we co...