PREPARE YOUR SIX-GUNS AND YOUR BOLOGNESE AS WE DIG INTO THE TWO-FISTED ITALIAN COWBOY TALES OF THE BIGGEST YEAR IN SPAGHETTI WESTERN HISTORY!

Welcome to another multi-part exploration of a single year in genre filmmaking. Join Gabe and returning guest Patrick Ripoll as they follow up their series on the slasher films of 1981, the gialli of 1971, and the giant monster movies of 1957 with a look at the spaghetti westerns of 1968.

Gabe, a superfan and massive nerd, narrowed down a list of seventy-seven (that’s 77) films to the 15 he thinks best represent this jam-packed and particularly uneven year for the genre. In episode one of what will (probably) be three total episodes, we discuss Ferdinando Baldi’s Django, Prepare a Coffin (Italian: Preparati la bara!), Giorgio Capitani’s The Ruthless Four (Italian: Ognuno per sé), Lina Wertmüller & Piero Cristofani’s The Belle Starr Story (Italian: Il mio corpo per un poker), Enzo G. Castellari’s Johnny Hamlet (Italian: Quella sporca storia nel west), and Giorgio Stegani’s Beyond the Law (Italian: Al di là della legge).

Check out the complete list here: https://letterboxd.com/gabepowers/list/the-spaghetti-westerns-of-1968/


00:00 – Intro: What is a spaghetti western? Why 1968?

14:13 – Django, Prepare a Coffin

35:37 – The Ruthless Four

56:00 – The Belle Starr Story

1:20:01 – Johnny Hamlet

1:36:24 – Beyond the Law

1:52:12 – Outro

COME WITH US AS WE TUMBLE DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE, PASS THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, ENTER THE WARDROBE, AND RIDE A TORNADO TO OZ!

It’s time to cover one of my favorite subgenres: movies where people cross over into another world where they learn a lesson and meet a bunch of walking metaphors. This episode’s guest host, Betsy, calls these Portal Fantasies and notes similarities to the popular anime/manga Isekai genre, but I’m afraid that those titles will mess up my search results, so I’m calling them [Blank] in Wonderland Movies.

We’re trying to cover some of the rarer examples of the genre – specifically Tsui Hark’s Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), Vladimir Grammatikov’s Mio, Min Mio (aka: Mio in the Land of Faraway, 1987), Hiroyuki Morita’s The Cat Returns (2002), and Gokhan Yorgancigil’s On the Count of Zero (Turkish: Sıfır Dediğimde, 2007) – but we can’t help but also talk about popular classics, like Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Pan’s Labyrinth, Spirited Away, and others.

00:00 – Intro and all the important, great movies we aren’t going to cover

12:29 – Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain

34:04 – Mio, Min Mio

1:07:22 – The Cat Returns

1:29:23 – On the Count of Zero

1:47:55 – Outro and other recommendations

IT’S SEQUENTIAL DRAWINGS VERSUS FLESH & BLOOD ACTORS IN A SHOWDOWN OF MULTIMEDIA PROPORTIONS!

Since the advent of filmmaking, people have been combining live-action photography with hand-drawn animation and now we’re talking about it. But this is a podcast and we don’t have time to cover a century of motion pictures, so Gabe and returning guest Tyler Foster are covering a smaller collection of movies released in the wake of Robert Zemeckis’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), some inspired by its success, others that would have existed without it.

This month’s diverse slate includes Walter C. Miller’s It’s the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown (1988), Maurizio Nichetti & Guido Manuli’s Volere Volare (To Want to Fly, 1991), Ralph Bakshi’s Cool World (1992), Jan Svankmajer’s Faust (1994), and Des McAnuff’s The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000). I had some issues with Tyler's audio and had to do some actual (gasp) mixing to correct it. Hopefully, I did my job well enough that it sounds relatively consistent.

00:00 – Intro

11:16 – It’s the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown

26:18 – Volere Volare

43:09 – Cool World

1:23:07 – Faust

1:41:43 – The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle

2:02:20 – Outro

A DEAD WOMAN WITH THE SOUL OF A MAN! A MURDEROUS MAN WHO CAN TRANSFORM INTO A WOMAN! PROBABLY JUST A COINCIDENCE!

Have you ever noticed that Hammer Studios made two horror films that work as trans allegories? Well, technically three, but I forgot about one of them. Anyway, I’ve been curious for a while as to what an actual trans person might think of Terence Fisher’s Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) and Roy Ward Baker’s Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), so I invited back my friend and the co-host of the Defend Your Trash Movie podcast, Luana Saitta, in order to pick her brain (Frankenstein-related wordplay intended).

This was originally going to be a look at multiple horror movies with a trans/genderqueer slant, but we ultimately had more than enough to talk about with just these two films. Are they really trans allegories? Have they aged well? Are they good outside of the allegory? I hope you agree, enjoy this angle on a couple of Hammer classics, and have a happy Halloween season!

00:00 – Intro

13:55 – Frankenstein Created Woman (and other Hammer Frankenstein movies)

50:32 – Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (and other Hyde and Jack the Ripper movies)

1:42:26 – Outro and sections from Luana’s ‘trans canon’

If you are in a position to make the world a better place, please consider the following fundraisers:

Trans Lifeline: https://translifeline.org/

Hope Mill Inc's Hurricane Relief:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-hope-mill-incs-hurricane-relief

Florida Disaster Fund (PayPal):

https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/119147482333313104/charity/1521272

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund:

https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief

TAKE ONE LAST TRIP INTO THE UNKNOWN FOR THE ULTIMATE GIANT INSECT MOVIE, THE ULTIMATE GIANT MAN IN A DIAPER MOVIE, AND THE ULTIMATE KILLER, UM, ROCK MOVIE…

Welcome to the final part of Gabe and Patrick’s look back at the biggest year in giant monster movie history. This episode features the most eclectic collection of movies, including a shoestring ‘lost world’ epic in Virgil W. Vogel’s The Land Unknown, Edward Ludwig’s absolutely incredible Black Scorpion, Bert I. Gordon’s second giant bald guy movie of the year, The Amazing Colossal Man, John Sherwood’s uniquely eerie The Monolith Monsters, and the only real kaiju movie released in 1957, Ishirō Honda’s The Mysterians.

Remember to also check out part one, which covers Nathan H. Juran’s 20 Million Miles to Earth, Roger Corman’s Attack of the Crab Monsters, Jack Arnold’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Kurt Neumann’s Kronos, as well as part two, which covers Nathan H. Juran’s The Deadly Mantis, Kenneth G. Crane’s The Monster from Green Hell, Fred F. Sears’ The Giant Claw, Arnold Laven’s The Monster that Challenged the World, and Gordon’s The Beginning of the End and The Cyclops.

This episode is taken from two recording sessions, so forgive us for overlap and minor changes in audio quality.

00:00 – Intro

5:32 – The Land Unknown

25:24 – Black Scorpion

43:16 – The Amazing Colossal Man

56:55 – The Monolith Monsters

1:17:43 – The Mysterians

1:56:24 – Outro

If you are in a position to make the world a better place, please consider the following fundraisers:

Trans Lifeline: https://translifeline.org/

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund: https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief

Anera Gaza Aid: https://www.anera.org/where-we-work/palestine/gaza/

Donations 4 Abortions (state by state abortion funds): https://donations4abortion.com/

YOU DON’T NEED TO GO TO AMITY ISLAND FOR A SHARK MASSACRE!! IN FACT, YOU DON’T EVEN NEED A SHARK!!

It’s easy to recognize a Jaws knock-off when it revolves around a shark eating people, but what about all of those movies without sharks that lift scenes and ideas from Steven Spielberg’s film and Peter Benchley’s novel? Well, around here we call those movies “Jaws, Minus the Shark” movies and they make up a surprisingly versatile and eclectic little subgenre, one full of Brodys, Quints, and inordinately sexy Hoopers.

Join Gabe and Ann-Marie Taylor – returning to Genre Grinder for the first time since 2020’s Bad Shark Movies episode – as we explore what defines a Jaws, Minus the Shark movie and look at four such films: Michael Anderson’s Orca (aka: Orca: The Killer Whale, 1977), Lewis Teague’s Alligator (1980), Dick Maas’ The Lift (Dutch: De Lift, 1983), and Christophe Gans’ Brotherhood of the Wolf (French: Le Pacte des loups, 2001).

Note: There’s something going on with my mic during this recording that makes me sound a little weird. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice until I was editing. Apologies.

00:00 – Intro

10:48 – Orca (and the unfortunate truth of killer whales in captivity)

50:08 – Alligator

1:10:32 – The Lift

1:33:50 – Brotherhood of the Wolf

2:02:42 – Outro

If you are in a position to make the world a better place, please consider the following fundraisers:

Justice for Sonya Massey: https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice-for-sonya-massey

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund: https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief

Anera Gaza Aid: https://www.anera.org/where-we-work/palestine/gaza/

Donations 4 Abortions (state by state abortion funds): https://donations4abortion.com/

FROM THE FROZEN WASTES OF THE ARCTIC TO THE DEPTHS OF THE AFRICAN JUNGLE, THE ARID DESERTS OF MEXICO, AND THE AMERICAN MIDWEST THEY CAME…

Welcome to part two of Gabe and Patrick’s look back at the biggest year in giant monster movie history. We’ve got a lot of big bugs this time, including Nathan H. Juran’s The Deadly Mantis, the wasps of Kenneth G. Crane’s The Monster from Green Hell, ocean mollusks of Arnold Laven’s The Monster that Challenged the World, and locusts of Bert I. Gordon’s The Beginning of the End. For good measure, we also talk about the really big bird from the antimatter universe seen in Fred F. Sears’ The Giant Claw and the mutated monster man of Gordon’s The Cyclops.

Remember to also check out part one, which covers Nathan H. Juran’s 20 Million Miles to Earth, Roger Corman’s Attack of the Crab Monsters, Jack Arnold’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Kurt Neumann’s Kronos. We recorded this in two parts and I apologize for a change in audio quality that occurs at the beginning and middle of this middle part.

Here’s the full Letterboxd list we are working from: https://letterboxd.com/gabepowers/list/1957-giant-monster-movies/

00:00 – Intro and corrections

5:32 – The Deadly Mantis

25:24 – The Monster from Green Hell

43:16 – The Giant Claw

56:55 – The Monster that Challenged the World

1:17:43 – Beginning of the End

1:39:40 – The Cyclops

1:56:24 – Outro

If you are in a position to make the world a better place, please consider the following fundraisers:

Trans Lifeline: https://translifeline.org/

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund: https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief

Anera Gaza Aid: https://www.anera.org/where-we-work/palestine/gaza/

Donations 4 Abortions (state by state abortion funds): https://donations4abortion.com/

FROM THE FURTHEST REACHES OF SPACE AND THE DEEPEST DEPTHS OF THE SEA CAME ALIENS, MUTATED CREATURES, AND OTHER LARGE, SCARY ALLEGORIES!

Welcome to another patented Genre Grinder deep dive into a specific year where a specific genre peaked. This time, Patrick and Gabe are looking at 15 of 17 movies about gigantic monsters released in some capacity during the year 1957 (festival, roll-out, wide, et cetera). The other two are a lost film (Tokyo 1960) and one already covered on a different episode of Genre Grinder (Quatermass II). Not unexpectedly, the conversation carried on for some time, so the complete 15-movie discussion will be spread over three episodes.

In part one, following an intro to the genre and era, we’re covering Nathan H. Juran’s 20 Million Miles to Earth, Roger Corman’s Attack of the Crab Monsters, Jack Arnold’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Kurt Neumann’s Kronos.

Here’s the full Letterboxd list we are working from: https://letterboxd.com/gabepowers/list/1957-giant-monster-movies/

00:00 – Intro: Why were there so many Giant Monster movies in 1957?

13:21 – 20 Million Miles to Earth and the cinema of Ray Harryhausen

42:47 – Attack of the Crab Monsters and the cinema of Roger Corman

1:02:46 – The Incredible Shrinking Man and post-WWII gender politics

1:26:40 – Kronos

1:48:27 – Outro

If you are in a position to make the world a better place, please consider the following fundraisers:

Trans Lifeline: https://translifeline.org/

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund: https://pcrf1.app.neoncrm.com/forms/gaza-relief

Anera Gaza Aid: https://www.anera.org/where-we-work/palestine/gaza/

Donations 4 Abortions (state by state abortion funds): https://donations4abortion.com/