Episodes

  • Episode 332: Gaslight (1944)
    Aug 20 2025

    This week, we talk about the meaning of "gaslighting" with the film that originated the term: George Cukor's 1944 film Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman as a woman slowly driven to the brink of madness by her abusive husband (Charles Boyer). This film also featured the cinematic debut (and first Oscar nod!) for Angela Lansbury, who turned 18 during filming.

    TW for discussions of domestic abuse and abusive relationships.

    Next week, one of the most Hitchcockian of the films we're discussing: Michael Powell's psychothriller Peeping Tom, which premiered two weeks before Psycho in 1960.

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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Episode 331: Charade (1963)
    Aug 13 2025

    For the first of our Hitchcockian films, we discuss the best "Hitchcock film not directed by Hitchcock": Stanley Donen's Charade (1963), a somewhat satirical, fantastically entertaining globe-trotting thriller with a stellar cast featuring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, and Walter Matthau.

    Next week we'll be chatting about Gaslight (1944), which somehow Hitchcock also did not direct.

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    54 mins
  • 330: North by Northwest (1959)
    Aug 6 2025

    It's Alfred Hitchcock's birthday month and we're kicking off the celebration with one of his quintessential films: North by Northwest.

    Cary Grant stars alongside Eva Marie Saint and James Mason in this tale of mistaken identity, espionage, and intrigue. From an attempted assassination via crop duster to the face(s) of Mount Rushmore, one of Hitch's biggest and more iconic films is thrilling, romantic, and funny.

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    1 hr
  • Episode 329: The Wedding Banquet (2025)
    Jul 9 2025

    We close out Pride Month this year with a brand-new film (that's technically a remake, but shhhh): The Wedding Banquet, from Fire Island director Andrew Ahn, and starring Bowen Yang, Han Gi-chan, Lily Gladstone, and Kelly Marie Tran as two gay couples who have to try to play it straight. The result is a beautiful (and hilarious) film about found family and queer identity.

    We'll be on a break for the rest of July, returning in August with our annual Hitchcock coverage (starting with North by Northwest!), but our patrons can continue to listen our Alfred Hitchcock Presents bonus episodes all through July! To join their number (and get some other bonuses as well) you can go to Patreon!

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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • 328 — D.E.B.S. (2005)
    Jul 4 2025

    We continue our Pride Month series with the 2005 lesbian spy rom-com, D.E.B.S. This gem of a movie, directed by Angela Robinson, is the story of a super hot super spy and a super hot super villain who meet and fall in love. Underrated in its time, but finding new popularity in recent years, D.E.B.S. is the kind of funny, silly girl movie we wish there were more of. How this didn't launch a whole subgenre is beyond us!

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    54 mins
  • Episode 327: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
    Jun 25 2025

    The Dames continue Pride Month with the seminal queercore punk-rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, directed by and starring John Cameron Mitchell. While Lauren tries to explain Judith Butler, Karen wonders why Hedwig is kind of a dick?

    Next week: D.E.B.S. and lesbians committing espionage!

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    1 hr
  • Episode 326: The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)
    Jun 18 2025

    The Dames are celebrating Pride Month! And we're starting off with the 1994 road trip movie, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Terrence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pierce star as a trans woman and two drag queens who embark on a road trip across Australia, encountering good, bad, and dangerous challenges along the way.

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    54 mins
  • Episode 325: Faces Places (2017)
    Jun 11 2025

    We close out our Varda series with her penultimate film Faces Places (2017), co-directed by visual artist JR, with whom Varda travels across France, meeting people, taking photographs, and discussing art, image, and the passage of time.

    We also decide that Godard is a jerk.

    Next week, we're moving into Pride month viewing with some queer classics and even a brand-new film! First up is The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)!

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    58 mins