Forgotten Hollywood

Doug Hess spoke with the Author of the book: The Secret Hitchcock: How Hollywood's Legendary Director Lived through Cary Grant and James Stewart (Screen Classics)Cary Grant and James Stewart were everything Alfred Hitchcock was not. Grant radiated charm and sophistication. Stewart embodied resilience and depth. Hitchcock—a meticulous, private man ruled by fear—found the freedom to express himself through their performances. Between 1941 and 1959, Hitchcock made eight unforgettable films with these two stars: four with Stewart—Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958)—and four with Grant—Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). In those eighteen years, Grant shed his comedic persona to become a hero, Stewart transformed from boy next door to a war-hardened everyman, and Hitchcock reached the pinnacle of his craft—living his most daring, mysterious self through their performances. These relationships are key to understanding Hitchcock's creative process and the deeper layers of meaning in his iconic films.
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Doug Hess talks with the author!
James Mason (1909–1984) was born to be an actor. He just didn’t know it. A Cambridge graduate with a degree in architecture, he arrived in London at a time when nothing was being built. With few prospects, he turned to the stage, where his modest experience proved enough to land him a spot in repertory theater. Those early performances led to film roles in which he was initially deemed “adequate” before finding his niche as a brooding, sophisticated villain―an identity that made him a star in British cinema.
Out on Amazon!
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From the author of the beloved Fifth Avenue, Five A.M. and The Big Goodbye comes the definitive account of one of the quintessential American artists, Frank Capra, visionary behind the iconic and timeless It’s a Wonderful Life.Frank Capra, the director of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It Happened One Night, and, supremely, It’s a Wonderful Life remains one of the great chroniclers of the American heart, how we love, lead, dream, hope, and fight for our individuality. But Frank Capra was a more complex artist than is usually reckoned and a more complicated man than anyone knows. As his most famous collaborator Jimmy Stewart put it, “the best Frank Capra story is the story of his own life. It’s got more highs and lows than a roller coaster. It’s heartwarming. It’s kind of hard to believe, really. And it could only happen in America.”Like many great American stories, this story begins in Ellis Island where a penniless family of Sicilian immigrants arrives in 1903. Frank Capra’s life goes on to take in the explosive growth of Southern California and the film industry, the depths of the Depression, the enormity of the Second World War, and America’s uneasy post-war as an empire riven by a loss of unity. It is a life as shot through with both “moonbeams” and melancholy as that of his greatest creation, George Bailey. Capra is both the exemplar of American ideals, as in his truly vital work for Roosevelt’s war effort, and of American failings, as in his informing during the McCarthy period.This extraordinary book, making full use for the first time of Capra’s own archives, including deeply personal writings from his later years, has brought this seminal artist into urgent life. At the same time, in its epic richness, it offers a dazzling portrait of both a lost America and an enduring one.
Doug Hess is the host.

In honor of Columbus Day/Indiginous Peoples Day, James Lott Jr talks about two films that came out in 1992 that depicted Christopher C's journey to America. Included is some of the music from Vangelis for one of the films, 1492. (We do not own the rights)
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He won his Oscar in 1996 for Braveheart and died on March 2, 2022, at age 84. His daughter Amanda Ladd-Jones made the documentary Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies about his career. And more.....
James Lott Jr is the host.
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