Podcast: Smackdown '43 Companion
Monday, July 30, 2018 at 3:00AM 
Nathaniel R welcomes the panel Yaseen Ali (cinephile), Kristen Lopez (critic), Rebecca Pahle (critic) and Kieran Scarlett (screenwriter) to discuss 1943 at the movies with recommended favorites and our favorite switch-the-actresses around game. We had previously reviewed the supporting actress nominees.
We talk about the three actresses (Claudette Colbert, Veronica Lake, Paulette Goddard) in WW II women's picture So Proudly We Hail. The running time slog of For Whom the Bell Tolls which doesn't showcase Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman well, the hit play turned message movie Watch on the Rhine and its place as a "homefront" movie when the war barely touched our soil, and religious epic The Song of Bernadette which won Jennifer Jones the Best Actress Oscar.
You can listen to the 1 hour podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
Reader Comments (12)
Ahhh - Just went for a night-time ride along the beach, listening to the Smackdown - bliss!
Adam -- glad to hear it!
I'd totally watch a Song of Bernadette miniseries reboot, especially if they dispensed with the opening disclosure that asked for so much audience buy-in and went deeper and darker with the doubt.
Even if some of the films were a slog to get through I really enjoyed this discussion of them. Some I'll never watch again-Bell Tolls & Bernadette-but it was interesting to listen to others take on them in depth.
I'm so glad Kristen stands for The Song of Bernadette. I find this film to be so lovely and powerful--and that rare film about religion that takes it seriously but says something fascinating and potent. What a memorable performance by Jennifer Jones.
I'm back with a couple more thoughts after some reflection. So glad for two things.
First to find another giant Veronica Lake fan in Kristen! She was a very, very complex and troubled woman, loved her biography and would love to see Kristen's research on her. No disrespect to Paulette who was an enchanting screen presence and does good work but I agree that Veronica is the one who should have come out of the film with a nomination....but she was to put it politely a difficult woman to work with and not terribly popular at her home studio something especially in those days vital to a nomination. If she couldn't get a nomination for her delightful work the year before in I Married a Witch it was just never going to happen.
Secondly to hear that Jennifer Jones's appeal eludes someone else besides me made me happy!! As you said Nathaniel she's just not for me. Lord knows I've tried with her. I've seen all her films, usually because of her costars, and while she's less awful in some than others I only really thought she made an impact in her last, The Towering Inferno. Probably because the film didn't make that many demands on her, just to be dignified and classy team player which she was.
Looking forward to the next!
Joel -- that wasn't me who said that Jones wasn't for me. Maybe it was Yaseen or Kieran? But she *might* not be for me either. I have trouble predicting how I'm going to react to her from film to film. I liked her quite a bit in Since You Went Away but wasn't terribly into this performance. I didn't like her in Love is a Many Splendored Thing either but that film wasn't helping. There's still a couple of big titles of hers I haven't seen though so the jury is still out.
For those wanting to find out more about the versatile, unique and ethereal Jennifer Jones, I highly recommend her Oscar-nominated performance in Love Letters (William Dieterle), Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch), Madame Bovary (Vincente Minnelli), Carrie (William Wyler), and Portrait of Jennie (Dieterle).
Jennifer Jones is incredible in Beat the Devil.
Jones is also a lot of fun in the loony-tunes Duel in the Sun (my favorite non-Leone Western of all time). Her scenes with Gregory Peck are the kind of delirious camp so often promised but so seldom delivered. Similarly, she's a hoot as the gal from the wrong side of the tracks who inherits a lot of money under suspicious circumstances and turns the tables on the town without pity while trying to seduce Charlton Heston in Ruby Gentry.
Ken, totally agree! King Vidor directed both those insane films. He must've definitely had a strength of conviction lol. Love those movies for going there!
Jennifer Jones is such a divisive actress. It's so interesting. She was miscast a lot but I think there was something fascinating about her. I love the way she through herself into Duel in the Sun. Almost surreal. I can't imagine an actress today giving that kind of intense performance. She was so magical and hilarious in Cluny Brown. And I loved her work in Madame Bovary and Portrait of Jennie. Very bold and ethereal. I guess her style doesn't work for everyone but I think there was something special about her.