The New Beverly Cinema presents the Pure Cinema Podcast.

My name is Brian Sauer, and we have a very special interview today in line with the New Beverly calendar for April of 2026, which is going to feature a very

large tribute to filmmaker William Bodine. We have author and film historian James L. Niebuhr and

he's written more than 30 books examining legendary actors, filmmakers,

film genres, often exploring them film by film. His subjects have included Buster Keaton,

Chaplin, Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Gene Harlow, Judy Garland, Clark Gable, James Cagney, Clint Eastwood,

The Monster Movies of Universal Studios, and many more, including, of course, the topic of our discussion today, his book directed by William Bodeen and overview.

James, thanks so much for being on the show.

Thank you very much for having me. I'm really happy to be here.

It's an absolute pleasure, and the book is great. And I have learned so much about this

director through your writing. So I appreciate it very much. So my big question off the top is,

you know, a lot of people are not going to necessarily be familiar with him, the director,

William Bodine. So why is he

important and why should people come out and see films of his if they don't know who he is?

What are your reasons for writing this book in some ways, I guess, too?

Well, there's a lot of things that's, you know, a lot to unpack there.

I think William Bodine is an excellent director and one of the most poorly represented

ones of all the directors of his time. He dates back to the silent movie era and worked well

into television. I mean, he directed stuff like Lassie and the Green

Hornet on TV. And there was a book that came out that was going through bad movies. You know,

one of those books that likes to put down films instead of celebrate them. And that was sort of a

thing. And it called him the worst

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