Our Town as TWIN PEAKS CINEMA #10 (podcast)

Sandwiched between Kings Row and Peyton Place in my "Small Town Blues" miniseries, the 1940 adaptation of Thornton Wilder's beloved play Our Town might seem out of place, more tame and innocent in the lives it depicts (though not in its avant-garde presentation on the stage, translated more naturalistically but still unconventionally to the screen). Certainly most of the characters in Grover's Corner, New Hampshire, have fewer secrets than the folks we met in Kings Row (Missouri?) and will meet in Peyton Place (also New Hampshire). And the seamy side of this turn-of-the-century community is left mostly unexplored - especially compared to those other two scandal-mongering texts. But Our Town, starring William Holden, Martha Scott, and an ensemble of top character actors, has its own dark, melancholy heart, marked by a wistful sense of mortality, and it's perhaps this quality which most informed Mark Frost in the creation of Twin Peaks not just as a series but also as a literary universe. Frost has cited Wilder as his favorite playwright, and the idea of building and exploring a community always animates his interest in the world of Twin Peaks, Washington. Incidentally, another Our Town connection that unfortunately never even comes up on either podcast - maybe someday in a later piece - is its director, Sam Wood, who also helmed Kings Row a couple years later. Subjects that do arise in this discussion include the heroine's ability to watch her loved ones from another realm; the more or less comprehensive town portraits on television, stage, cinema, and page; and how season three adds a dimension of passing time which brings it closer to the perspective of Our Town.

Subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts

You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

(and most places podcasts are found)

LINKS FOR EPISODE 10

Ojai People: Mark Frost, Storyteller by Mark Lewis (Ojai Quarterly, re-published in Ojai History)

The relationship between "Twin Peaks" and "Fire Walk With Me" by Hussein Ibish (Ibishblog - discusses Laura watching Twin Peaks in the Red Room

Recently on Lost in the Movies podcast: Holy Smoke! (w/ Em & Steve of No Ship Network)

Recently on Lost in the Movies patron podcast: Twin Peaks Cinema - On Dangerous Ground (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Pete, Doc, Spirits, Glastonbury Grove, Bank, Mystery box/Mulholland Drive & Twin Peaks Cinema - The Sweet Hereafter (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Cliff, Jeffries, Carl, Mo's Motor, Oregon FBI office, Bobby killed a guy/Season 3 Part 9, archive reading of Affliction & more) on Patreon within the next couple days

Recently on Twin Peaks Conversations podcast - Murder at Teal's Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks author Mark Givens (public part 1) & ($5/month tier part 2) & Laura's Ghost: Women Speak about Twin Peaks author Courtenay Stallings (public part 1) & ($5/month tier part 2) will appear on You Tube & Patreon on Monday at 8pm