LEAVE THE SPOOKY SIDE OF DEATH BEHIND THIS MONTH AND JOIN US ON A JOURNEY INTO THE ROMANCE, COMEDY, AND BUREAUCRACY OF THE AFTERLIFE.
We’ll get back to scary things next month, because this month is all about the wholesome possibilities of death stories. Gabe and returning guest Tyler Foster explore a surprisingly prevalent subgenre of romantic comedies concerning the processes of the afterlife. Avoiding movies that focused too much on haunting or possession, we still ended up with a list of seven movies that share a curious number of concepts and tropes in common – Alexander Hall’s Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Victor Fleming’s A Guy Named Joe (1943), Vincente Minnelli’s Cabin in the Sky (1943), Ernst Lubitsch’s Heaven Can Wait (1943), Powell & Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death (aka: Stairway to Heaven, 1946), Warren Beatty & Buck Henry’s Here Comes Mr. Jordan remake, Heaven Can Wait (not otherwise related to the Lubitsch movie, 1978), and Albert Brooks’ Defending Your Life (1991). In the process of breaking these films down, we also talk briefly about Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), Steven Spielberg’s A Guy Named Joe remake (Always [1989]), and Paul & Chris Weitz’ Here Comes Mr. Jordan remake (Down to Earth [2001]).
00:00 – Intro
7:13 – Here Comes Mr. Jordan
19:36 – A Guy Named Joe
36:01 – Cabin in the Sky
47:12 – Heaven Can Wait (1943)
56:36 – A Matter of Life and Death
1:14:06 – Heaven Can Wait (1978)
1:31:15 – Defending Your Life
1:46:03 – Outro
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