The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 33 – Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures

The Eclipse Viewer – CriterionCast

English - August 19, 2015 12:00 - 81.8 MB - ★★★★★ - 20 ratings
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Previous Episode: The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 32 – Pearls of the Czech New Wave [Part 2]

Next Episode: The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 34 – Agnès Varda in California

David and Trevor indulge in the guilty pleasures to be enjoyed in this set of massively popular English women's films from the WWII era.

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 36: Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures.

About the films:

During the 1940s, realism reigned in British cinema—but not at Gainsborough Pictures. The studio, which had been around since the twenties, found new success with a series of pleasurably preposterous costume melodramas. Audiences ate up these overheated films, which featured a stable of charismatic stars, including James Mason, Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Phyllis Calvert. Though the movies were immensely profitable in wartime and immediately after, Gainsborough did not outlive the decade. This set brings together a trio of the studio’s most popular films from this era—florid, visceral tales of secret identities, multiple personalities, and romantic betrayals.

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Episode Links
Gainsborough Pictures

BFI Screenonline studio history by Sue Harper
Gainsborough Melodramas: A Unique Phenomenon by Gerry Cobb
Project Gutenberg article
Guardian article about the conversion of Gainsborough Studios to luxury flats (2001) by Steve Rose
The Hitchcock Zone–Gainsborough Pictures
The Hitchcock Zone–On Memorialising Gainsborough Studios by Pam Cook
The Guardian: “The Final Reel” by David Thomson

Who is Leslie Arliss? – BFI ScreenOnline Biography

Who is Arthur Crabtree? – BFI ScreenOnline Biography

Box Set Reviews

New York Times review by Dave Kehr
Steamy Screen: The Melodramas of Gainsborough Pictures by Kenneth George Godwin
Criterion Confessions review by Jamie S. Rich
PopMatters review by Sarah Boslaugh
DVD Savant review by Glenn Erickson
The Morton Report review by Chaz Lipp
New York Times review by Dave Kehr

The Man in Grey

David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
Cinema Enthusiast review by Catherine Stebbins
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die review by Kim Wilson
BFI ScreenOnline review by Michael Brooke
New York Times review (1945) by Bosley Crowther

Madonna of the Seven Moons

David’s Journey through the Eclipse Series review
Cinema Enthusiast review by Catherine Stebbins
New York Times review by Hal Erickson