Come Back a Star: A Movie Award Podcast

From The Love Parade to All Quiet on the Western Front, we cover all of your favorites from the 1929-30 Academy Award season. We will talk about all of our Notscar nominees, but who will actually win the prestigious Notscar: A Movie Award Podcast Movie Award for 1929-30? Listen in to find out!

The last movie we are covering from the 1929/30 Oscar season is All Quiet on the Western Front. This movie about the futility of war stands in stark contrast to Love Parade, the movie we kicked off 1929/1930 with - and the only movie for this season we did not give a Notscar Nomination to. The Academy gave their Best Picture award to All Quiet on the Western Front, but that is no guarantee it will earn a Notscar Nom from us.

This week it's The Big House and this movie doesn't pull punches on its criticism of the prison system of the 1930s. The movie opens with a somewhat foppish gentleman being admitted to prison. The warden warns him that prison "doesn't give a man a yellow streak but it will bring one out." Will this unfunny Bertie Wooster of criminals learn to survive in the twisted world of the prison system? What of his fellow inmates? Could there be some diamonds in the rough there?

This week we check out the imperialism fan favorite, Disraeli - the movie, not the person. The movie covers the acquisition of the Suez Canal in an early spy thriller sort of way. It might not score super well for historical accuracy or acknowledging the evils of imperialism, but will it be good enough as a movie to still get some good scores? Maybe even a Notscar Nod? Let's learn together!

Chester Morris (Alibi) returns to our screen along with Norma Shearer in this dramatic story of rich people hurting each other's feelings. This movie is definitely pre-Code as it addresses the taboo subjects of divorce and infidelity. Will this movie condemn the heroine for having a job and being a modern woman? Will it show a bit of progressivism and lay some responsibility at the man's feet? Who knows what to expect from 1930! Listen in to find out.

The Love Parade, the prequel to the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup, is a musical romp through Sylvania. Sylvania is a country with an unacceptably unmarried monarch who finally finds love with a playboy noble freshly returned from France. Will the queen and her new prince be a power-couple on the regal scene or will they need to establish some regressive gender dynamics at home first? Was I kidding about the prequel to Duck Soup part? Tune in to find out!

Oof. The introduction of sound was not an easy transition for Hollywood. We'll review the let downs and then decide between one standout and a lesser standout who wins this season's Notscar - A Movie Award Podcast Movie Award for the talking pictures.

The first musical to win Best Picture, Broadway Melody seems to be our only feature for the 1928-29 season with fully audible and articulated sound and speech. If that wasn't exciting enough, the movie is also fun little drama club drama featuring some catchy tunes, well choreographed dances, and a romance so sadly devoid of chemistry that Jason was startled to hear the protagonists confess their love towards the end. Hey, at least it was a fun twist for him.

Sometimes a movie forces you to think about the world around you. A movie can challenge our assumptions and expose uncomfortable truths. Alibi starts off well, but follows through on none of these things. Will its start be strong enough to get Alibi into Notscar: Movie Award Podcast Movie Award territory though?

We're robbing stagecoaches and stealing hearts in the ooold West! In our first Western, a stereotype and an all-American jerk compete for the love of a stock femme fatale. We're pretty sure the audience is supposed to hate the femme fatale the most of these three, but the circumstances leads us to some different conclusions.

The movie was daring enough to record sound outside, but it was a little too daring. There's a lot of dialogue the mic barely picked up. Maybe all the key dialogue to understanding why we should like the two fellas and despise the EVILLE WOMAN are in those muddled words.