Lions, Towers & Shields

Apr 12 2025 119 ep. 57 mins 309

Lions, Towers & Shields Podcast artwork

A celebration of films from the classic Hollywood era. Shelly Brisbin leads a merry band through recaps and reviews of great old movies from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.

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119: I'm Still Watching...

Apr 12 2025 88 mins

This George Stevens (best director Oscar) epic looms large. It’s a classic “roadshow” film of the 1950s, complete with West Texas vistas, Technicolor, big stars like Rock (Hudson), Liz (Taylor) and Jimmy (Dean), but no intermission, even though it’s three hours long! It also looms large in the history of the Texas towns (Marfa and Valentine) where it was filmed. I’ve grow

118: Planting Bulbs in the Spring

Mar 29 2025 50 mins

Bette Davis brings the melodrama, right here in the imperial phase of her Warner Brothers career. She’s rich, she’s spoiled. Oopsie. She has a health crisis! Will she become a better person? Will she find love? Will she out-act Humphrey Bogart, George Brent (yeah she will) and Geraldine Fitzgerald? Will your host have a take almost none of the reviews she’s read have? Let’s

117: Alligator Pears

Mar 22 2025 60 mins

The first film Fritz Lang made in the US after he fled the Nazis, Fury is the story of a man who is lynched by the residents of a small town. The film is not a groundbreaking 1950s independent production, but an MGM star vehicle from 1936, featuring one of the studio’s then newest stars, Spencer Tracy. It’s not even Fritz Lang’s best film, but you’ll see some groundbreaking

116: His Personal Murder Concierge

Mar 13 2025 63 mins

If you meet up with Lawrence Tierney in a dark alley - or in a kitchen, for that matter - chances are the encounter won’t end well. Tierney is truly the bad boy of film noir, and no film shows it better than “Born to Kill.” Claire Trevor is great, as always, but I do question her taste in men. I imagine a few eyebrows raising at what the filmmaker gets away with here, includi

115: Gene Kelly's Guns

Mar 08 2025 59 mins

Greatest musical of all time, you say? Plenty of people would agree. Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly co-direct Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds through a delightful Comden and Gteen score, not to mention dance numbers that have achieved legendary status. For anyone who admires clever, energetic film choreography, it’s a joy to watch. For a fan of classic film, there’s

114: There's Lots of Nice Coats...

Feb 27 2025 48 mins

This film was a passion project for George Cukor and Katharine Hepburn. RKO let them do it, but the studio was sorry, when the movie confused audiences in 1935, and made no money. It has attained a bit of a cult following since. Hepburn and her father, Miracle on 34th Street’s Edmund Gwynn are fleeing trouble, and Sylvia dons a male disguise to help her dad. They meet con man Car

113: Untapped Reservoir of Cool

Feb 20 2025 56 mins

Let the show’s 5th year begin! LTS regular Micki Maynard turned me onto this one. Paul Newman and Sidney Pottier star as jazz musicians in Paris. Their love interests are Joanne Woodward and Dihann Caroll, repectively. Louis Armstrong plays a character called Wild Man Moore. If my synopsis seems superficial, that’s because I haven’t actually seen this one. But I love the cast

112: The Holiday Show

Dec 05 2024 95 mins

The Holiday Show Shelly Brisbin with Randy Dotinga, Micheline Maynard, David J. Loehr and Nathan Alderman Support this show and other shows like it on The Incomparable network by becoming a member. Members get early access to podcasts, bonus episodes, and more.

111: Go Out In Flames and Drama

Nov 28 2024 75 mins

We return surprisingly often to the Hitchcock well, but his 1940s films are so interesting. Here is a gothic romantic mystery, with poor Joan Fontaine just trying to get her bearings in an old, dark house. Why are her new husband, Laurence Olivier, and his housekeeper, Judith Anderson, so mean to Joan, and what’s become of the cupid in the morning room? Join us and find out....

110: Bogart: Life Comes In Flashes

Nov 21 2024 28 mins

A new film tells the story of Humphrey Bogart through the lens of the women who were most important in his life - his mother and his four wives. Shelly talks with Bogey’s son, Stephen Humphrey Bogart, about the new film....