Our film podcast recommendation this week digs back into the history of films: it’s The Movie Palace.
Speaking as a millennial, when we think of classic movies, we tend to think of the ’70s and ’80s as the decades for quote unquote classic cinema. Maybe that’s just me, but it’s easy to forget that filmmaking goes way back. From silent movies, through to talkies, through to the first Technicolor film. Turns out there are a lot of films out there. Who’d have thunk it?
It was the studio system era of Hollywood that tempted Carl Sweeney to start a podcast detailing and discussing the films of the late 1920s to the late 1960s, also known as the Golden Age of Hollywood. Carl had previously co-hosted The X-Files podcast The X-Cast, and while studying for his masters degree in film, decided it would be the perfect time to branch out and create The Movie Palace.
Carl has always been fascinated by the dichotomy between art and commerce when it comes to mainstream filmmaking during that studio system period. Studios are there to make money, after all, but during the studio system’s peak, the number of films released increased exponentially. You might be correct in suggesting it was quantity over quality, however some truly remarkable films were made in Hollywood during that period, and The Movie Palace is here to celebrate them.
You don’t need to be a Golden Age aficionado to appreciate episodes of The Movie Palace, though. To anyone new to the era, Carl would recommend you start out by watching the well-known movies of the era, such as Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, Double Indemnity and Rear Window as your starting points to introduce yourself to the Golden Age of Hollywood. Plus, there’s actually a number of Golden Age Hollywood movies available on the BBC’s iPlayer service – head on over to our weekly updated list to find them and start watching!
Over the years since The Movie Palace’s inception in 2018, Carl has evolved the remit of the podcast to include British and French films, as well as slightly newer American films that have a connection to the Golden Age of Hollywood, and is now a proud member of the We Made This podcast network. The Movie Palace has been on extended hiatus this year, due to Carl studying for his PhD, however he has assured us that the podcast will be returning soon, and it’s a good job too, because very few podcasts have such a passion for older films. Carl himself is knowledgeable, relaxed and engaging, and he brings on guest hosts with just as much enthusiasm for the topic as he does.
It makes sense that the Golden Age of Hollywood has a gold-standard podcast dedicated to it.
Recommended episode: The Summer of Psycho 1 – Norman Bates – (13 July 2020) – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-summer-of-psycho-1-norman-bates/id1398503911?i=1000484624823
The Movie Palace can be found at: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-movie-palace-podcast/id1398503911
And followed at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MoviePalacePod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moviepalacepodcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoviePalacePod
All episodes of The Movie Palace are available and can be listened to or downloaded from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Are you a British movie podcast who would like to be featured on Film Stories? We welcome all suggestions and requests, but we especially want to hear from you if you’re female, BIPOC, non-binary, LGBTQIA+ or have a disability. Email Em – verbaldiorama at gmail co uk (Just remove the spaces and add the ‘@’ and the dots, but don’t send spam. She’s vegetarian.)
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