Episode 28: 1933 with Megan Abbott
A podcast about the great movie years.
Megan Abbott is one of the most prolific and acclaimed crime novelists of our time - an Edgar-award winner, and the author of The Turnout, Give Me Your Hand, You Will Know Me, The Fever, Dare Me, The End of Everything, Bury Me Deep, Queenpin, The Song Is You and Die a Little. But when we saw she had a new book coming out (Beware the Woman! On shelves May 30!) we knew we had to get her on the show, because she is a not-so-secret cinephile. I saw here do a post-screening Q&A for Zodiac with Adam Nayman, who’d just written a David Fincher book, and Matt Zoller Seitz, and it was not two film writers and a novelist; it was three film experts.
So we were delighted when she chose 1933 as her year, and picked a top five loaded up with Pre-Code delights. She briskly and efficiently explains exactly what that designation means during the episode, for those not in the know, but if you’d like to know more, I can direct you to the excellent site pre-code.com.
Mystery of the Wax Museum was long thought a lost film, and was then only available in shabby versions, until the big UCLA restoration (with the support of the George Lucas Family Foundation) back in 2020. You can read all about that here. The film is not currently streaming anywhere, but you should just spring for the Warner Archive Blu-ray we mention in the show.
Here’s a really good piece on Bombshell by Kimberly Pierce. The movie is available for digital rental or purchase.
The AFI Catalog entry on Gold Diggers of 1933 has some more fun facts about the picture. It’s available for digital rental or purchase.
The National Film Registry essay on Baby Face is a beaut. The film is (all together now) available for digital rental or purchase. It’s almost like the subscription streamers don’t think movies this old are worth licensing!
Here’s a really good piece on Design for Living, which (yay) is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel! But (boo) only through the end of May! So go watch it! (It’s also streaming on Redbox, which I didn’t even know you could stream on.)
And, as always, if you’d like to log and review these yourself, head on over to our list page on Letterboxd.
And if you somehow haven’t yet subscribed to MUBI, click on over to mubi.com/averygoodyear and you can get a 30-day free membership to try out their curated streaming service. Our recommendations this week of MUBI movies this week were recent selections: Free Chol Soo Lee and The Actress.
Thanks for listening - and stay tuned this week for the details of our upcoming paid subscriber option, and some samples of the bonus content it will include.
-jason