Sergio looks at Michael Anderson's 1958 suspense drama, CHASE A CROOKED SHADOW, a clever mystery with a strong cast and memorable payoff. It stars Anne Baxter as an heiress driven to near madness when a man turns up claiming to be her dead brother and everybody but her believes him. Richard Todd is the the smooth impostor and Herbert Lom plays the understandably confused police inspector.

Though uncredited, the premise of the film, and its memorable final twist on which the whole plot depends, had first been used on radio in 1946 for an episode of The Whistler:

"Stranger in the House" (CBS, 2 September 1946), starring Virginia Gregg and Gerald Mohr. Script: Harold Swanton and Mark Smith; Music: Wilbur Hatch; Producer / Director: George W. Allen

The radio play is included in today's podcast, which also looks at some of the many screen and stage variations that followed it. These include the following adaptations of the 1960 stage play by Robert Thomas, Piege Pour Un Homme Seul:

1965: Catch Me If You Can (Stage Play)

Witten by Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert Directed by Vincent J. Donehue

Starring Tom Bosley, Dan Dailey, Bethel Leslie, George Mathews

1969: Honeymoon with A Stranger (TV Movie)

Written by Henry Sleaser and David P. Harmon Directed by John Peyser

Starring: Janet Leigh, Rossano Brazzi, Barbara Steele, Cesare Danova

1976: One of My Wives is Missing (TV Movie)

Written by Peter Stone Directed by Glenn Jordan

Starring: Jack Klugman, James Franciscus, Elizabeth Ashley, Joel Fabiani, Garry Walberg

1987: Vanishing Act (TV Movie)

Written by Richard Levinson and William Link Directed by David Greene

Starring: Mike Farrell, Elliot Gould, Margot Kidder, Fred Gwynne

For this special Christmas episode, Sergio is joined by Scott K Ratner for an in-depth look at Dashiell Hammett's novel The Thin Man. We also consider the series of six movies it spawned, all of them starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles and Skippy as their pet Terrier, Asta. Here's a full list of the films in the series:

The Nick and Nora Charles Screwball Mystery Movies

1. The Thin Man (1934)
2. After the Thin Man (1936)
3. Another Thin Man (1939)
4. Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
5. The Thin Man Goes Home (1944)
6. Song of the Thin Man (1947)

We also look at some of our favourite movie whodunits, including AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945), GREEN FOR DANGER (1947), WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957), DEATH ON THE NILE (1978) and Rian Johnson's KNIVES OUT series starring Daniel Craig.

Scott K. Ratner is a Southern-California based writer/magician/actor whose endeavours are largely rooted in his interests in Golden Age detective fiction and classic era Hollywood cinema. He has written the libretto and lyrics for two whodunit musicals (All Talking! All Singing!! All Murder!!! and Murder on the High C’s) and a one-act Agatha Christie-related comedy (Kill A Better Mousetrap), as well as several nerdy articles for such magazines as Crime and Detective Stories and Mystery Scene. His magic act was once publicly praised by no less than Harry Blackstone, Jr. and the great Dai Vernon, though the truth of that story is considerably less impressive when the details are known. His brief sojourn as a teenage actor in television connected him with a few important players of the classic Hollywood era, and he regrets that he didn’t know enough about their filmographies at the time to ask the interesting questions. As a magician and theme park entertainer, he worked over two decades apiece at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm.

Sergio is joined by Luke Deckard and Matthew Booth, the hosts of the excellent Mean Streets podcast (https://meanstreetspodcast.podbean.com/) to find out what their top 10 Film Noir remakes are. The films under discussion include (in chronological order) are:

1. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
2. THE KILLERS (1964)
3. FAREWELL MY LOVELY (1975)
4. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1981)
5. NO WAY OUT (1987)
6. NARROW MARGIN (1990)
7. CAPE FEAR (1991)
8. THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY (1999)
9. CASINO ROYALE (2006)
10. NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021)

Luke and Matt are the hosts of the Mean Streets podcast, which you can find at: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/luke-deckard/. Both are published crime fiction authors. Luke's homepage can be found at: https://www.lukedeckard.com/. Details of Matthew's published novels can be found at the Crime Writer's Association website: https://thecwa.co.uk/find-an-author/booth-matthew/.

It's 40 years since Alan Plater's mellow comedy thriller THE BEIDERBECKE AFFAIR (1985), starring James Bolam and Barbara Flynn, first appeared on TV. Sergio is joined by Plater expert James Leggott to discuss the original serial and it's two sequels, THE BEIDERBECKE TAPES (1987) and THE BEIDERBECKE CONNECTION (1988).

Dr James Leggott is Head of School, Design Arts and Creative Industries, at the Northumbria University. For more information about his work and publications, please visit: https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/l/james-leggott/

Music credit: "Crying All Day" (1927), Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke, courtesy of the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/1927-USA-Archives-1927-10-25-Bix-Beiderbecke-Frankie-Trumbauer-Crying-All-Day

Sergio is joined by Vincent M. Gaine of Lancaster University to discuss Michael Mann's hitman neo-noir, Collateral, starring Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith. A thriller made on the cutting edge of digital cinema of 2004, this in-depth exploration of the film will look at the new technology used to make it, how it sits within Mann's filmography - and why Sergio really has a problem with Tom Cruise's wig in the film.

Dr Vincent M. Gaine teaches at Lancaster University and is the author of "Existentialism and Social Engagement in the Films of Michael Mann". The locus of Vincent’s research is the intersection of globalisation, liminality and identity politics in media. He has published on contemporary film genres, cycles and franchises, including superhero cinema, conspiracy thrillers and James Bond, as well as contemporary auteurs including James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow and Christopher Nolan. His current research concerns nostalgic espionage, liminal superheroes and the social-anthropological representation of Boston in media. Vincent is also a podcaster, with a monthly podcast called Invasion of the Pody People, and regular guest appearances on Not Just For Kids (https://notjustforkids.libsyn.com/), The Uncut Network and There Can Be Only One. He contributes film reviews to The Geek Show (https://thegeekshow.co.uk/) and the Critical Movie Critics (https://thecriticalcritics.com/).

Brad Friedman is back to talk about Hitchcock's 1940s Noir thrillers with Sergio! This time they discuss the romantic whodunit, SPELLBOUND (1945), the spy drama NOTORIOUS (1946) and the real-time suspense thriller, ROPE (1948).

Brad blogs about Golden Age mystery books and movies at Ah Sweet Mystery: https://ahsweetmystery.com/

To read "The House of Dr Edwardes" by Francis Beeding, the basis for SPELLBOUND, click here: https://freeread.de/@RGLibrary/FrancisBeeding/Novels/TheHouseOfDoctorEdwardes.html

Spoiler alert: the plots for all the films discussed, including their respective endings, are explored in great detail.

Special guest Jonathan Rigby joins Sergio to discuss WOMEN OF TWILIGHT (1952), the film adaptation of Sylvia Rayman's 1951 groundbreaking all-female play.

Jonathan Rigby has been writing about films for over 30 years now - and has been an actor for even longer. He is the author of several books on horror cinema, including English Gothic, American Gothic and Euro Gothic - with American Gothic 2 on the way – and Studies in Terror, and has also written biographies of Christopher Lee and Roxy Music. He has also recorded loads and loads of audio commentaries and solo video interviews for Blu-ray releases. As an actor, he's best known for playing radio comic Kenneth Horne on numerous occasions, and as a director he revived the Sylvia Rayman play Women of Twilight for the first time in nearly 60 years - and that was over ten years ago, with no further professional revival having happened since. Today we’re going to talk about that play, his revival and the 1952 film adaptation, originally released in the US as Twilight Women.

The Fedora podcast is one year old today. And it's also my birthday! To celebrate, my awesome buddy Professor Stacey Abbott (who also just had her birthday) makes a very welcome return visit to Fedora. This time we get together to celebrate the John Wick series starring the mighty Keanu Reeves.

Please note, we pretty much spoil every single one of the films.

[This episode is being re-presented to correct an earlier technical problem]

My very special guest is Stacey Abbott, Professor of Film at Northumbria University, where she is a member of their Horror Studies Research Group. Her research focuses on horror and cult film and television, with a particular interest in vampire and zombies.

She is the author of Celluloid Vampires (2007), Undead Apocalypse (2016) and the BFI Film Classic on Near Dark (2020). She is the co-author of TV Horror (2013) and the co-editor of Global TV Horror (2021), both with Professor Lorna Jowett.

She regularly writes essays to accompany DVD and Blu-ray releases, including Second Sight’s Ginger Snaps, Possessor and Blair Witch Project, as well as Eureka’s Tank Girl and The Secret of NIMH.

She is currently writing a book on Horror Animation.

Publication details:

Near Dark (BFI Classics) by Stacey Abbott: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/near-dark-9781911239277/

Angel (TV Milestones) by Stacey Abbott: https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9780814333198

Celluloid Vampires by Stacey Abbott: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292716964/

Global TV Horror edited by Stacey Abbott and Lorna Jowett: www.uwp.co.uk/book/global-tv-horror/

TV Horror edited by Stacey Abbott and Lorna Jowett: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/tv-horror-9781848856189/

Undead Apocalypse by Stacey Abbott: https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/19174?login=false