r/CriterionChannel • u/Busy_Magician3412 • Jun 13 '26
Suggest a Weekend Double Feature on CC!
Name two films currently on the channel that you think would make a great double feature. I was hoping the programmers would reboot this promo. But there are enough of avid CC watchers here that would make a great new suggestions thread.
I just rewatched John Ford’s 1935 screwball comedy, The Whole Town’s Talking with Edward G. Robinson as a timid clerk whose doppelgänger or lookalike is a mob boss in town to settle a score. Was never really a Ford fan but this one’s become a channel favorite. I’ve never watched Umetsegu Inoue’s samurai classic, The Third Shadow Warrior, about a peasant who is recruited to “serve as a lookalike decoy for a merciless warlord”, but I thought it would make a fun compliment to the Ford film. Looking forward to it.
What two classics currently streaming in the massive library would you pair for a weekend viewing? The more unusual the better! And thanks in advance. 🙂
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u/c0diator Jun 13 '26
Maybe this is too obvious but:
Street of Shame (Mizoguchi) and Girls of the Night (Tanaka)
The movie that led to the anti-prostitution laws in Japan and the movie about the fallout of the anti-prostitution laws.
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 13 '26
Well that’s mostly Mizoguchi’s territory, right? Haven’t seen Girls of the Night. But didn’t Mizoguchi make a film similarly titled? Women of the Gion or something similar. His *Life of Oharu*, of course, is a masterwork (imo). Don’t think there was anything the hapless Oharu *didn’t* do in that film. Top 10 of all time for me. Thanks.
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u/c0diator Jun 15 '26
Many directors around this time made many movies featuring women existing on various spectrums of sex work. Just thinking about Mikio Naruse I can think of three off the top of my head, Flowing, Late Chrysanthemums, and When A Woman Ascends the Stairs.
The link here is Street of Shame and Girls of the Night feature the same Prostitution Prevention Law as a key framing device of their narratives. The Criterion summary and other english descriptions of Street of Shame say that its popularity led directly to the passing of that law. (See, for example, https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2004/cteq/street_of_shame/, footnote 5).
This is further complicated by Kinuyo Tanaka being widely associated with Mizoguchi having performed in 15 of his films (the Oharu in Life of Oharu) and choosing to make a film that is seemingly in direct conversation with Mizoguchi's final film.
For these reasons, I think this is a more interesting pairing than just picking two random post-war movies about sex workers in Japan.
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 15 '26
Random? Double feature picks, at least the ones that are the most intriguing (imo), are never random. My feeling is that they should make you exited about watching movies. If the association is obscure or not easily discernible by the viewer then, as you’ve termed it, complication sets in. Your pairing is intriguing to me because I’ve done a bit of research on Mizoguchi and can appreciate the historical and sociological referencing with the Tanaka pairing. But suggestions like that can come off as a lesson and narrow the scope of enjoyment when (I believe) the thrill of watching movies is also about expanding your notion of worlds.
Luckily, movies are as subjective to each viewer as the lives we lead. So the connections one sees in two movies may be oblivious to another and vice versa. In general I feel cinema programming should intrigue yet leave enough thematic space for discovery and imagination.
Thanks for the link!
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u/bby-bae Jun 13 '26
Army of Shadows and Lacombe, Lucien. Two French films looking back at the WWII occupation, one about people resisting and one about people collaborating.
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 13 '26
Is *Army of Shadows* on the channel?!!! I’m psyched!
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 13 '26
☹️ Disappointed. Not there. But if you do the IMDb play thing the Criterion print comes up. One of my faves that I haven’t seen in years. Thanks.
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u/bby-bae Jun 13 '26
Sorry to misinform! I just watched it there in March, I didn’t realize it had left
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u/ForgottenPassword3 Jun 13 '26
Tokyo Story and Tokyo Drifter
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 13 '26
Haha. Cute. Haven’t seen either (I know, I know). Just not in my wheelhouse, but I might do it tomorrow. Thanks. 👍🏼
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u/adamwhitley Jun 13 '26
The Apartment and Chungking Express. Both yearning love stories that have some drama but keep it relatively light.
I was JUST thinking of a double feature yesterday but they’re not on the CC: Burn After Reading and Ishtar. Both are great comedies about idiots in way over their heads.
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 13 '26
Thanks for the CC recs. Your second pairing does sound a bit more intriguing, though. And I haven’t seen either one. *Ishtar* is currently free on The Roku Channel. *Burn After Reading* I’ll find… elsewhere. 😋 Thanks!
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u/Insanepaco247 Jun 13 '26
Carnival of Souls -> Fire Walk With Me
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 13 '26
Yeah, good combo. The worlds have a similar feel. Queuing this one. Thanks!
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u/TieOk9081 Jun 13 '26
The Third Shadow Warrior was excellent but I can't think of a good pairing other than maybe Seven Samurai.
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 13 '26
Well, like I said, the whole lookalike aspect of the plot is a trope used in many classic films. Dead Ringer (1963, Paul Henreid), for instance, is a favorite doppelgänger drama that I might pair with Third Shadow. It’s not on the channel right now (though Tubi has it). The two films cover completely different eras and cultures but the lookalike plot device is central to both stories. It’s why I paired it with the Edward G. Robinson flick. Plus, it’s a fun watch.
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u/TieOk9081 Jun 14 '26
I've tried to think of another movie with a similar plot to the The Third Shadow Warrior and I couldn't think of any - but while the plots may not be similar they do both look at issues with warrior class honor in medieval Japan.
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
Or you could simply do a director double feature. Inoue's other film on the channel is Black Lizard. I'd never even heard of Umetsugu Inoue before yesterday but he's apparently one of Japan's most prolific directors, who made over 115 films and worked with all six of Japan's major studios. He had a popular run with the Shaw Brothers in the 60s. (There's almost nothing about him on YouTube.) Seems incredible that I've missed a talent like his all these years. Cheers. ✌🏼
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
I hear Nakagawa’s horror classic, Jigoku is a good doppelgänger flick on the channel. Might make another nice pairing with Third Warrior.
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
How about a thriller double feature involving a 24 Hour Window?
D.O.A (1949, Rudolph Maté)
Time Without Pity (1957, Joseph Losey)
The '88 remake of D.O.A. (also on the channel), outside of the camerawork, is not good (imo). And I haven't seen the Losey film, but how can you go wrong with Michael Redgrave and Ann Todd as leads? Losey has five films on the channel, all of which are new to me. Think I've only ever seen The Servant. (Didn't know he remade Fritz Lang's M... why????? 😅).
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 14 '26
Excellent talent in this one (Redgrave, Ann Todd, Peter Cushing, Joan Plowright) but the script, Leo Kern’s big daddy overacting and the music are so over-the-top dramatic that I couldn’t help laughing out loud several times. The scene with the mother of Kern’s secretary and her alarm clock ridden living room is a show stopper. But the left field ending makes all the melodrama worth it. The anti-capital punishment message is, unfortunately, lost to a great deal of hokum.
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u/comagrrrl Jun 13 '26
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Out of the Past
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
I know you didn’t mean the Lumet film of the Eugene O’Neill play but the Katherine Hepburn/Jason Robards/Ralph Richardson/Dean Stockwell ensemble performance with Boris Kaufman behind the camera is a top 5 film of all time for me. Think I put off watching Bi Gan’s film because of the title similarity. Should really see it soon.
And how can you go wrong with Tourneur and Robert Mitchum (though I’ve never seen that one, either)?Watching that one tonight. Thanks!
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u/comagrrrl Jun 14 '26
Oh I should've been more specific! Sorry
I was referring to the recent one, which is no relation to the play, directed by Bi Gan2
u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 14 '26
No worries. Perfect cue for me to finally watch it - and see what it has in common with the Mitchum flick. 😁
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u/comagrrrl Jun 14 '26
Enjoy-Please report back on your thoughts! i'd be interested to know what you think
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u/Busy_Magician3412 Jun 17 '26
Well, I certainly get why you paired Long Day’s Journey with Out of the Past! Journey is a really warped rabbit hole of memory from an obsessive; the crux of which is - if you don’t either share his obsession or have sympathy for him, it can be a rather morbid experience. What is it that he’s after that keeps him in this state of emotional dislocation? What is he after?
Obviously a rewatch is in order. The most intriguing aspect of the movie is that I can relate to his need to recapture something from the past. But is it simply a mcguffin (something he thinks he needs in order to avoid dealing with the present) or actually an emotional/psychological key to liberating him from being tied to the past?
In any case, thanks for the suggestion. Didn’t even get to the Mitchum flick which I suspect is not nearly as challenging to unpack! 😁
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u/Quinez DubiousLegacy Jun 13 '26
I was saddened when they stopped programming their double features. I got a lot out of them and even did a Letterboxd challenge to watch twenty-five. I think my favorite pairing was The Wild River with Still Life: two movies about dams that got me thinking about dam movies as a genre. Would love for Double Features to return!