The Gauntlet

Kochaj albo rzuc aka Love it or Leave it aka Big Deal (1977) / Roll Bounce (2005) This week we end as we began by returning to the windy city as we crash the Polish diaspora with Kargul and Pawlak and hit the roller disco with Bow Wow

The Gauntlet is going on indefinite hiatus. But we WILL be doing one more episode - please SEND US messages for this last hurrah at gauntletmoviepodcast@gmail.com

The Bandwagon (1953) / Baron Blood (1972) This week we’re checking our blind spots as we dance with Fred Astaire and resurrect the dead with Mario Bava

Night of the Demon (1957) / Race With the Devil (1975) This week we’re on the run from evil as we try to lift a cryptic curse with Jacques Tourneur and outrun some deep fried devil worshipers with Jack Starrett

Rise and Shine (1941) / Jim the World’s Greatest (1976) This week we’re grinding it out on the goal line as we try to make the grade in Alan Dwan’s collegiate comedy and go beyond the gridiron in Don Coscarelli and Craig Mitchell’s teenage melodrama

The Whole Shootin’ Match (1978) / Ratboy (1986) This week we’re working towards a theory of Porch Cinema™ as we kick back some Lone Stars with Eagle Pennell and try to make it in Hollywood with Sondra Locke

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014) / The Great Satan (2018) This week we’re celebrating The Cut as we take aim at power with the minimalist deadpan of Roy Andersson and the maximalist montage of Everything is Terrible!

Invasion (1969) / Sur (1988) This week we’re going down to Buenos Aires as we defend the city with Hugo Santiago’s army of shadows and tango through the terrible past with Fernando Solanas

Electra, My Love (1974) / Fool for Love (1985) This week we’re putting plays on screen as we stage a mythic rebellion with Miklós Jancsó and crash out at a desert motel with Robert Altman and Sam Shepard

Nightmare at Noon (1988) / American Hunter (1989) This week we’re taking the chopper as we battle zombies and the EPA with Nico Mastorakis and try not to get blown up hunting for top secret microfilm with Arizal

The Scarlet Empress (1934) / City of Lost Souls (1983) This week we’re pitching a big tent as we rise to power with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg’s hallucinatory historical pageant and try to make it in Berlin in Rosa von Praunheim’s trans new wave musical

Hitokiri aka Tenchu! (1969) / Demons (1971) This week we’re bucking the bushido code with a pair of disreputable ronin as we go on a killing spree with Hideo Gosha and go to hell with Toshio Matsumoto

Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers (1972) / Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) This week we’re feeling restored as we move to NYC with Holly Woodlawn’s lost and found star vehicle and say goodbye to the old West(ern) with Sam Peckinpah’s contested cuts

The Story of a Cheat (1936) / InterVista (1987) This week we’re embracing the powers of the false as we cheat our way through life with Sacha Guitry and get lost in layers of lies in Federico Fellini’s Cinecittà

Woman Basketball Player No. 5 (1957) / Edge of America (2004) This week we’re hitting the hardwood as we dunk on the past and look to the future with Xie Jin while Chris Eyre teaches us how to run-and-gun on the reservation

A Canterbury Tale (1944) / Three the Hard Way (1974) This week we’re talking threesomes as we make a propaganda pilgrimage with Powell & Pressburger and try to stop a genocidal plot with Gordon Parks Jr.’s action supergroup

Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998) / The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) This week we’re not feeling so good as we try to survive the doctor’s plot with Aleksei German and go from bellyache to the grave with Cristi Puiu

Message from Space (1978) / Vegas in Space (1991) This week we’re floating through the cosmos as we’re conscripted into Kinji Fukasaku’s star war and take a much needed vacation at Phillip Ford and Doris Fish’s Vegas in Space

Mighty Peking Man (1977) / Pulgasari (1985) This week it’s go big or go home as Alyssa Heflin joins us as to track down a giant ape in the jungle and battle imperialists with a mythical metal-eating monster

Phenomena (1985) / The Decay of Fiction (2002) This week we’re dozing off into a deep dark slumber as we sleepwalk through the Swiss Alps with Dario Argento and haunt the Ambassador Hotel with Pat O’Neill

The Games of Countess Dolingen (1981) / The Blood of Heroes (1989) This week we’re dipping into short-lived directorial careers as we play formal games with Catherine Binet and gear up for Jugger with David Webb Peoples

Wee Willie Winkie (1937) / Once Upon a Time in China III (1993) This week we’re rushing headfirst into the 20th century with John Ford and Tsui Hark as we drill with Shirley Temple and Lion-Dance with Jet Li

We’re No Angels (1955) / Fear Strikes Out (1957) This week we’re loading the camera horizontally as we discuss the vista-less visions of Michael Curtiz’s stagebound comedy and Robert Mulligan’s baseball crack-up

Moving (1993) / The Girl and the Spider (2021) This week we’re packing up and being left behind as we struggle through divorce and roommate drama with Shinji Sōmai and the Zürcher brothers

The Candy Snatchers (1973) / The Protector (1985) This week we’re being abducted, shanghaied, and buried in the dirt by exploitation cinema as we discuss the vulgar visions of Guerdon Trueblood and James Glickenhaus