There’s a lovely simplicity to it when they were making it, Film historian Patrick Rankin’s new podcast about the biggest stars of classic Hollywood. There is music, but just the right amount. There are no clips or gimmicks; The sole voice is Rankin’s, taking you through the lives of each iconic actor. From time to time you can even hear him turning the pages of his script. It all adds up to a sound experience that feels intimate and heartfelt.
This stylistically ornate approach undercuts the show’s overall thesis: the stories of the stars who made the movies were often just as exciting as the movies themselves, sometimes even more so. While still in its infancy, episodes so far have been over an hour long, sometimes bordering on two hours. Appropriately feature-length.
To mark his centenary, the first three installments of when they were making it Pay attention to Marilyn Monroe. Often throughout her career, Monroe was presented as a busty blonde woman with no signs of an interior life, and with no purpose other than to irritate the men around her. In fact, she bounced between foster homes throughout her childhood and struggled to become one of the most famous movie stars of all time, eventually managing to carve a path for herself to make more significant films. The story of how she continues to reinvent herself, fighting against both her inner demons and a studio determined to keep her on track, is utterly riveting.
Other episodes so far have covered Rudolph Valentino, Lana Turner, Marlon Brando, and the making of the 1961 classic. breakfast at tiffany‘S. Although all have been attractive, tiffany’s The installment proves that Rankin is capable of delivering in-depth work on an individual film as well as an entire career, which bodes well for the future of the podcast.
when they were making it Karina Longworth of the Film Story History Podcast clearly owes her grandfather some debt, you must remember this, Quite similar and stylistically (even their logos are similar). While they cover similar ground, Rankin focuses a little more on the emotional lives of the stars, and Longworth on the films themselves and their historical context. Rankine’s description, like Longworth’s, is silky lush in a way that helps transport us back to the Classic era. However, his delivery is quite slow – in this writer’s opinion, listening at X1.3 speed is optimal here, although your mileage may vary considerably.
At this early stage, it has only one glaring drawback when they were making it: Long-term overuse of the “Rule of Three” by Rankine.
It’s an old writing adage that lists have more impact when three items are used; Calling something “big, long, and strong” sounds better than saying “big, tall, strong, and powerful.” Perhaps this is true in moderation. Yet there are seven examples of this device in the opening vignette of the Valentino episode alone, a vignette that lasts less than four minutes. It becomes a real distraction when used at that level, and this is only emphasized by Rankin’s aforementioned dull delivery. Each new instance of the rhetorical crutch pulls you out of the story.
It’s a real shame, because otherwise the narratives are very well rated. There’s a good mix of the stars’ onscreen and offscreen lives, and the stories are told at a pace where we get lots of fascinating details without getting bogged down in anything unnecessary. By the end of each episode, it feels as if you’re on an epic journey with the respective star. There’s so much good here, it’s disappointing that something that could be solved with one more pass at the script risks being ruined.
But it’s early days yet, and there’s a simple solution. If that detail becomes clear in a future episode, when they were making it This may become an essential listen for film lovers. you must remember this.
