Best RKO Podcasts (2026)

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Warner Brothers – 1933: 42nd STREET & GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 1:42:58

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1h ago1:42:58

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This week's Warner Brothers 1933 Studios Year by Year episode brings the studio-as-auteur question back into focus with two highly distinctive Pre-Code musicals with a similarity of style and social outlook that can't be attributed to the directors, screenwriters, source material, or the presence of Hollywood's most idiosyncratic choreographer and …

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Special Subject: Christmas 2025 – S & X-Mas – EYES WIDE SHUT (1999) & ELLE (2016) 53:44

12d ago53:44

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Our S&xMas episode looks at two provocative, controversial, and not very sex-positive works made by aging auteurs after a long hiatus, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Paul Verhoeven's Elle (2016). Join us as we trace Tom Cruise's all-American odyssey of sexual paranoia and Isabelle Huppert's very European journey away from sex with men,…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 13: RIDE OUT FOR REVENGE (1957); ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (1959) and RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE (1966) 1:10:17

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It's our final Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, with which we also say goodbye to our comprehensive approach toward attaining a privileged vantage point on an actor's entire oeuvre. Of course, we cheated a little on this one and stopped short of Gloria's exploitation film era. Our oeuvre-view ends with two Westerns, Ride Out for Reveng…

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – MGM – 1933: FAST WORKERS & QUEEN CHRISTINA 1:04:03

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For this 1933 MGM episode we focus on rehabilitating John Gilbert's sound-era reputation with a double feature of underrated gem Fast Workers, a construction worker love triangle melodrama directed by Tod Browning, and Gilbert's most famous sound movie, Rouben Mamoulian and Greta Garbo's very serious (but also very sensual) costume drama Queen Chri…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 12: OKLAHOMA! (1955) and THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS (1956) 50:19

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In this week's episode of our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view, we explore the unique casting of unmusical Gloria in Fred Zinnemann's film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1955) and follow the thread that leads (through Jud Fry) from the supposedly "wholesome" musical to Charlie Kaufman's dark, experimental I'm Thinking of Ending…

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Paramount – 1933: ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON & DUCK SOUP 1:11:23

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This Paramount 1933 Studios Year by Year episode features two of the studio's defining stars of the era: the Marx Brothers, in their final, most famous, and (maybe) most nihilistic Paramount film, Duck Soup, directed by Leo McCarey, and Gary Cooper, miscast (or maybe not) in One Sunday Afternoon in the role that would go to James Cagney in the Warn…

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Special Subject - Truffaut's Antoine Doinel Series – LES QUATRE CENTS COUPS (1959); ANTOINE ET COLETTE (1962); BAISERS VOLÉS (1968); DOMICILE CONJUGAL (1970) and L'AMOUR EN FUITE (1979) 1:28:08

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For our November 2025 Special Subject we watched the Antoine Doinel films of François Truffaut: The 400 Blows (1959), Antoine et Colette (1962), Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), and Love on the Run (1979). In addition to the charms of star/auteur avatar Jean-Pierre Léaud, we focus on the films' evolving style and increasing interest in t…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 11: NOT AS A STRANGER (1955) and THE COBWEB (1955) 1:13:30

2M ago1:13:30

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Our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view continues with two 1955 liberal institutional melodramas: Stanley Kramer's Not as a Stranger, starring Robert Mitchum as a monomaniacally idealistic doctor, Olivia de Havilland as the wife he takes for granted, and Gloria as the Other Woman; and Vincente Minnelli's underrated The Cobweb, starring Richard Wid…

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Universal – 1932: THE OLD DARK HOUSE and THE MUMMY 1:11:11

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We've got a Halloween Hangover on this week's episode, with two Universal 1932 horror movies, James Whale's The Old Dark House (based on a novel by J. B. Priestley) and Karl Freund's The Mummy, starring Karloff. We explore the curious tone, social themes, and stellar cast (including Charles Laughton, Ernest Thesiger, Eva Moore, Melvyn Douglas, and …

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Special Subject - Halloween 2025 – Solo Freakouts - HOUR OF THE WOLF (1968) and VAMPIRE'S KISS (1988) 1:06:39

2M ago1:06:39

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Our 2025 Halloween episode is a double feature in the "mentally disintegrating men" genre: in Ingmar Bergman's Hour of the Wolf, Max von Sydow is beset by some unusual vampires, and in Robert Bierman's Vampire's Kiss, Nicolas Cage becomes an even more unusual one. If people attempting to bite each other to death without proper vampire fangs is your…

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Intels Recovery Shows Some Life 15:11

2M ago15:11

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In this episode I talk about: Macro debrief: CPI, Core CPI, Michigan Consumer Sentiment Earnings: NFLX, INTC

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 10: HUMAN DESIRE (1954) and NAKED ALIBI (1954) 52:00

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In this week's Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode our heroine reunites with Fritz Lang and Glenn Ford in Human Desire (1954), based on the Zola novel La bête humaine, which was more faithfully filmed by Renoir in 1938. We debate the relative merits of the two adaptations as well as the potential weakness that links them. Then we turn to t…

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – RKO – 1932: What Price Hollywood? and The Animal Kingdom 1:08:57

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In this RKO 1932 Studios Year by Year episode we discuss a couple of trademark Selznick productions: What Price Hollywood?, the first iteration of the A Star Is Born story, starring Constance Bennett as the rising star Mary Evans, "America's pal," and Lowell Sherman as her tormented director mentor; and The Animal Kingdom, based on the Philip Barry…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 9: PRISONERS OF THE CASBAH (1953) and THE GOOD DIE YOUNG (1954) 45:54

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This week's Gloria Grahame episode sees our acteur making some questionable career decisions: a rare headlining role in Columbia's Orientalist stinker Prisoners of the Casbah (1953), displaying a phenomenal lack of chemistry with Turhan Bey; and a micro-role in intriguing British heist noir The Good Die Young (1954) as a pragmatic actress tormentin…

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Time To Revolutionize Sports Gaming? 16:54

3M ago16:54

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about: Macro debrief: CB consumer confidence, JOLTs job openings, government shutdown Earnings: NKE Others: EA buyout, Open AI valuationBy FinanceNow

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Fox Film Corporation – 1932: YOUNG AMERICA & PASSPORT TO HELL 1:03:24

3M ago1:03:24

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For this 1932 Fox Studios Year by Year episode we watched Frank Borzage's unloved Young America, an idiosyncratic, primitive melodrama starring Spencer Tracy as a wealthy drugstore owner at odds with a disadvantaged delinquent, and Passport to Hell, Fox's surprisingly good take on the Sternberg-Dietrich formula, starring Elissa Landi as a woman of …

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Consumers Want Value 16:00

3M ago16:00

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about: Macro debrief: Powell speech, GDP, PCE, Core PCE, Michigan Consumer Sentiment Earnings: MU, COSTBy FinanceNow

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 8: MAN ON A TIGHTROPE (1953) and THE BIG HEAT (1953) 46:23

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In this week's episode of the Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view series, our heroine battles an organized crime ring in Fritz Lang's classic noir The Big Heat and the Soviets, or in any case her beleaguered circus capitalist husband, Fredric March, in Elia Kazan's Man on a Tightrope (both 1953). Dave and Elise are somewhat at odds about the effec…

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Special Subject - Accents on Olivier – THE 49th PARALLEL (1941) and THE DEMI-PARADISE (1943) 1:09:19

3M ago1:09:19

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Our Special Subject for September 2025 led us to watch a couple of wartime British films starring Laurence Olivier and his amazing accents: Québécois in Powell and Pressburger's The 49th Parallel (1941), which opposes a Platonic Idea of Canada to Nazi ideology, and Russian in Anthony Asquith's The Demi-Paradise (1943), an alarmingly Soviet-friendly…

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It’s Not RKO, It’s RPO 19:41

4M ago19:41

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about: Macro debrief: PPI, CPI, Core CPI, Previous week labour market revisions Earnings: ORCL, ADBE Other: AAPL Event, Paramount and WBD rumours.By FinanceNow

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Warner Brothers – 1932: TAXI! & THREE ON A MATCH 53:27

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This Warner Bros. 1932 episode is a double feature of Glasmon-Bright scripts directed by Pre-Code wizards: Mervyn LeRoy's Three on a Match, a tight little melodrama about the cryptic and arbitrary nature of self-destruction with Ann Dvorak as a wealthy housewife beset by ennui; and Roy Del Ruth's Taxi!, in which Loretta Young has to stand up to Jam…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 7: THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952) and THE GLASS WALL (1953) 1:00:10

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Our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvreview recovers from last week's rough spot with two excellent roles in two excellent films that display her range as a character actress. In Vicente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), for which Gloria won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, she's a sweet but silly Southern belle curiously sacrificed by …

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The AI Trade Is Still On 17:30

4M ago17:30

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about: Macro debrief: New Home Sales, CB Consumer Confidence, Michigan Consumer Sentiment, GDP, PCE and Core PCE. Earnings: - NVDA, DGBy FinanceNow

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – MGM – 1932: BLONDIE OF THE FOLLIES & FAITHLESS 1:09:41

4M ago1:09:41

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This 1932 MGM Studios Year by Year episode is a Robert Montgomery double feature, although the spotlight is on his leading ladies: an incandescent Marion Davies in Blondie of the Follies (directed by Edmund Goulding), and a distraught Tallulah Bankhead in Faithless (directed by Harry Beaumont). We discuss the strengths and incoherencies of Anita Lo…

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Resilience All Around 17:02

4M ago17:02

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about: Macro debrief: PMI (Manufacturing and Services), Jackson Hole, the path to rate cuts and how I am positioning myself. Earnings focused on the consumer: - HD, LOW, WMTBy FinanceNow

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Special Subject - Orson Welles and Jeanne Moreau – THE TRIAL (1962); CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (1965); and THE IMMORTAL STORY (1968) 1:10:54

5M ago1:10:54

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Our August Special Subject is Literature vs. Welles vs. Moreau: we discuss the three finished films that Orson Welles made with Jeanne Moreau, whom he considered "the greatest actress in the world." The Trial (1962) stars Anthony Perkins in an adaptation of the Kafka novel; Chimes at Midnight (1965) stars Welles as Falstaff in an adaptation of Shak…

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Black Monday For Monday.com 21:14

4M ago21:14

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about: - Macro debrief: Inflation numbers: both CPI and PPI, Retail sales Earnings: - MNDY, CRCL - BLSH IPOBy FinanceNow

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 6: MACAO (1952) and SUDDEN FEAR (1952) 1:02:46

5M ago1:02:46

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In this episode of our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode, our protagonist is rudely shoved into the background of the movies, barely appearing in Josef von Sternberg's Macao (1950) (she would have liked to have appeared in it even less) and playing a rote schemer in David Miller's Sudden Fear (1952). The movies themselves don't make up f…

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Palantir’s Billion Dollar Quarter 25:02

5M ago25:02

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about: - Palantir, their billion dollar quarter, strong growth, and lofty valuation - AMD, China restrictions, mixed earnings, and thoughts on the future - DIS, mixed results, strong turnaround in streaming growth coupled with weak traditional TV numbers.By FinanceNow

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Paramount – 1932: THE MAN I KILLED aka BROKEN LULLABY & HORSE FEATHERS 1:00:04

5M ago1:00:04

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For this round of Paramount 1932, we watched our first Marx Brothers movie for the podcast (hard as that is to believe), Horse Feathers (directed by Norman Z. MacLeod), alongside Ernst Lubitsch's only sound-era drama, Broken Lullaby. Lubitsch's batshit WWI melodrama, bursting with intensity and unease, claims our attention first, and then we turn t…

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Microsoft Is Up In the Cloud 34:31

5M ago34:31

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - Consumer sentiment, Labour market, GDP, Inflation, and more importantly the hidden state of the economy after the recent non farm payroll revisions. Earnings of interest: - Primarily focus on payments in the wake of a growing stablecoin era: PYPL, V, MA - Big tech: MSFT, META, AAPL, AMZN…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 5: IN A LONELY PLACE (1950) and THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952) 1:13:21

5M ago1:13:21

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This week in our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view we watched one of her best-known films, In a Lonely Place (1950), directed by Nicholas Ray and co-starring Humphrey Bogart, alongside the unpromising Cecil B. DeMille circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). This may be the only time you find these two movies discussed together with rough…

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Solar’s Lack of Love, Intel’s Under-appreciated Quarter, and Continued AI Mania 25:05

5M ago25:05

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - Labour market, Housing market, Japan and other major pending deals. Earnings of interest: - ENPH, INTC, NOW, TSLA, GOOG, GOOGLBy FinanceNow

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Universal – 1931: BAD SISTER & STRICTLY DISHONORABLE 58:57

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For our Universal 1931 Studios Year by Year episode we took in a Sidney Fox double feature, Bad Sister (adapted from a Booth Tarkington novel, with an early role for Bette Davis as the good sister) and Strictly Dishonorable (adapted from Preston Sturges' only successful play and directed by John Stahl). Laemmle Jr.'s protegée uses her ingenue quali…

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AI Chip Demand Just Doesn't End 18:56

5M ago18:56

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - Inflation updates, labour market, retail sales. Earnings of interest: - Banks summary - M&A activity, trading revenue, inflation outlook and net interest income, outlook on consumer sentiment and credit. - ASML, TSM, NFLXBy FinanceNow

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Special Subject - Supported By Oscar Levant – the 1950s – AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951); THE I DON'T CARE GIRL (1953) & THE BAND WAGON (1953) 1:03:34

6M ago1:03:34

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Our final Oscar Levant Special Subject episode covers his contribution to two of the greatest MGM musicals, Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris (1951) and The Band Wagon (1953), plus a 20th Century Fox curiosity, The I Don't Care Girl (1953) in which Mitzi Gaynor supposedly plays early 20th century vaudeville wild woman Eva Tanguay. Levant rea…

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – RKO – 1931: CIMARRON (dir. Wesley Ruggles) and TRAVELING HUSBANDS (dir. Paul Sloane) 1:02:39

6M ago1:02:39

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The movies we viewed for this RKO 1931 Studios Year by Year episode couldn't be more different: the sprawling Cimarron (starring Richard Dix as America's psychotic inner conflict) prompts us to speculate about Edna Ferber as a source auteur and the intertwining of her vision of America with Hollywood across three decades; while the tight, play-like…

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Flying Taxis and Figma's Debut 25:36

6M ago25:36

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - Labour market, unemployment rate, nonfarm payrolls, and the passing of the BBB. No earnings of interest this week. Instead, I discuss the eVTOL industry, and progress being made with flying taxis. Also talk about Figma's upcoming IPO and how the company separates itself from competitors. ARCH, JOBY, EH,…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 4: A WOMAN'S SECRET (1948) and ROUGHSHOD (1949) 53:50

6M ago53:50

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Our Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view continues with A Woman's Secret (1949), an oddball psychological drama with a screenplay by Citizen Kane writer Herman J. Mankiewicz and directed by Grahame's new husband Nicholas Ray; and Roughshod (1949), a consciously feminist Western written by a bunch of leftists. Proving her versatility-within-typecast…

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Euphoria vs Reality 25:30

6M ago25:30

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - CB Consumer confidence, New home sales, GDP, PCE, and trade deals 2 earnings of interest: - MU, NKE Also discuss Tesla's robotaxi rollout and my general thoughts on the market's current levels.By FinanceNow

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Fox Film Corporation – 1931: A CONNECTICUT YANKEE and SURRENDER 59:01

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A curious pairing for this Fox 1931 Studios Year by Year episode: an unsung WWI drama, but as good as any, William K. Howard's Surrender, starring Warner Baxter, Leila Hyams, and an almost unrecognizable (both his appearance and his performance) Ralph Bellamy; and the Will Rogers version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which mainly …

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Stablecoins, Unstable Valuation 21:40

6M ago21:40

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - Retails sales data from this last week and the much awaited Fed interest rate decision. No earnings of interest to cover this week, but I go through - Circle's IPO and dominant 2 week stock performance. - Meta's Scale AI deal, and brand new Oakley Gen AI glasses.…

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Special Subject - Farrow vs. Allen – Part 4: ALICE (1990); SHADOWS AND FOG (1991) & HUSBANDS AND WIVES (1992) 1:08:11

7M ago1:08:11

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We say farewell to Farrow and Allen (for now, although we'll probably encounter them individually on the podcast again) with this final episode on their cinematic collaboration, covering Alice (1990), Shadows and Fog (1991), and one of their very best, the ill-fated Husbands and Wives (1992). In the first two, two more Allen characters struggle to …

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Oracle’s Might and Chewy’s Bite 21:29

7M ago21:29

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - Latest inflation data including CPI and PPI, the steadily worsening labour market, geopolitical tensions in the middle east and the tragic Air India accident. Earnings: - ORCL, CHWY Additionally, sharing my thoughts on Apple's recent WWDC.By FinanceNow

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 3: SONG OF THE THIN MAN (1947) and MERTON OF THE MOVIES (1947) 42:59

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In this Gloria Grahame Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode we get to see more of what MGM was (not) doing with our acteur's career. Underused in Song of the Thin Man (1947), in which she brings the only real noir energy to the final Thin Man film, she gets a similarly brief but memorable role in the Red Skelton vehicle Merton of the Movies (1947), playin…

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Time For Consumer Defensives 22:28

7M ago22:28

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - Labour market showing resilience, Musk vs Trump, Trump and Xi. Earnings: - DG, DLTR, MDB Focusing on consumer defensives, how they've outperformed SPX ytd and why the future looks promising for them. MDB is more growth focused, but a valuable company that has been doing well both as a organisation and a…

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Warner Brothers - 1931: NIGHT NURSE & BLONDE CRAZY 53:49

7M ago53:49

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This round of Warner Bros. 1931 brings us two gems by a couple of Pre-Code masters, Roy Del Ruth's Blonde Crazy and William A. Wellman's Night Nurse, showing off the early star charisma of Jimmy Cagney (oozing vulnerability) and Barbara Stanwyck (spitting fire), ably supported by Joan Blondell in both cases. Bonus: Young Clark Gable shows up for an…

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Chips and Cybersecurity 29:13

7M ago29:13

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - Tariff court ruling, consumer sentiment (both CB and Michigan), PCE, GDP, and Labour market. Earnings: - NVDA, S and ZS Focusing on semiconductor and cybersecurity - why I like cybersecurity, what I like about both S and ZS, and what I think about Nvidia.…

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Gloria Grahame – Part 2: IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN (1947) and CROSSFIRE (1947) 50:38

7M ago50:38

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Our second Gloria Grahame Acteur-Oeuvre-view episode includes a curious under-use of our acteur in the all-around baffling musical comedy It Happened in Brooklyn (nevertheless memorable for the chemistry between Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Durante), and a judicious use of her by RKO in Edward Dmytryk's anti-fascist noir Crossfire (also 1947). We try to…

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Recession Worries Are Back 24:59

7M ago24:59

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Send us a text In this episode I talk about - Bond market and recession worries driven by weak 20Y auction, Moody's credit downgrade, tax bill etc. Earnings: - HD, LOW and TGT Continuing the theme of consumer and retail in light of weakening consumer strength, sentiment, and rising delinquencies.By FinanceNow