The Wicker Man (1973)

We are back with another episode this week with our good friend Scott, who joined us to review Hal's choice, the screwball romantic comedy classic You Can't Take It With You (1938).  Alice (played by Jean Arthur), the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, falls in love with Tony Kirby (James Stewart), but his wealthy banker father (Edward Arnold) and snobbish mother (Mary Forbes) strongly disapprove of the match. When the Kirbys are invited to dinner to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, things don’t turn out the way Alice had hoped. Director: Frank Capra  

For Izzy's latest choice for Spooktober, we are officially covering our oldest movie for the podcast with the renowned German Silent Horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), that tells the story of a hypnotist (Werner Krauss) who uses a Somnabulist Cesare (Conrad Veidt) to commit murders.  Director: Robert Wiene

For Hal's next big choice for Spooktober, we are reviewing the 1965 British psychological horror film Repulsion, starring Catherine Deneuve, who plays Carol, a withdrawn, disturbed young woman who, when left alone in the apartment she shares with her sister, is subject to a number of nightmarish experiences. Director: Roman Polanski

For Izzy's first Spooktober choice this year, she has chosen the popular zombie comedy film Shaun of the Dead (2004) written by and starring Simon Pegg as Shaun, a downtrodden London salesman who is caught alongside his loved ones and friend Ed (played by Nick Frost) in a zombie apocalypse. Director: Edgar Wright

In our first episode for this year's Spooktober season, Hal has gone with the famous British Folk Horror cult classic The Wicker Man, a first-time watch for us both! The film's plot centres on the visit of a police officer, Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), to the fictional, isolated Scottish island of Summerisle in search of a missing girl. What will he discover there? Director: Robin Hardy

For Izzy's latest selection she has selected the historical romantic drama The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018), based on the 2008 novel of the same name.  After the Second World War, Juliet Ashton (Lily James), a writer, decides to write a book about the residents of Guernsey. However, Juliet's life changes completely after she visits the island. Director: Mike Newell  

For Hal's latest selection, we have watched the highly rated 1957 Ingmar Bergman road movie Wild Strawberries, starring Victor Sjostrom as Dr Borg, an elderly emotionally-distant professor, who travels to Lund University with his daughter-in-law (Ingrid Thulin) to receive an honorary degree. The trip forces him to re-examine past choices and his future. Director: Ingmar Bergman

Izzy has selected the latest Hollywood blockbuster that the whole world has been talking about all summer, The Odyssey (2026), starring Matt Damon as Odysseus the Greek king of Ithaca, who undergoes a long and perilous journey home after the Trojan War and encounters mythical beings as he attempts to reunite with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway). Director: Christopher Nolan

We have something rather left-field this week with Hal's choice that is the TV Pilot movie that launched the iconic police crime drama Kojak in the 1970's.  Prior to the official launch of the series in 1973, Universal Television released a 2-hour TV movie special: The Marcus Nelson Murders, that was based on a real-life New York case in 1963.  Lieutenant Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas) leads an investigation into the murders of two women who were found in their Manhattan apartment. A young black man is arrested and confesses to the crime, but Kojak feels something is off about the case. Using his connections on the streets, he gets a tip from a drug addict about the real killer. Soon Kojak realises that his department contains crooked cops, and that the accused man was forced into the confession. Director: Joseph Sargent

For Izzy's latest choice, we have treated ourselves to the popular 1987 American Romantic Comedy starring Cher as a widowed Italian American woman who falls in love with her fiance's hot-tempered, estranged younger brother, played by Nicolas Cage. Director: Norman Jewison