Podcasts · TV & Film · True Crime

Love is a Crime

Vanity Fair & Cadence 13

13 episodes

It’s one of the wildest scandals in Hollywood history: In 1951, major Hollywood producer Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) went to prison for shooting an agent who he suspected was having an affair with Joan Bennett (Zooey Deschanel), Wanger’s actress wife. When the dust settled, Wanger was accepted back into Hollywood’s inner circle with open arms, while a puritan panic virtually ended Bennett’s career in movies and her family would never be the same. How did Joan — the youngest member of one of America’s most famous acting families, and one of the key femme fatales of 1940s film noir — end up a real-life fallen woman, paying a public price for her husband’s crimes? In this limited podcast series, Joan and Walter’s granddaughter/filmmaker Vanessa Hope, and film historian/podcaster Karina Longworth (You Must Remember This), tell the untold story of the Bennett/Wanger romance and professional partnership — a film noir played out in real life.

Episodes

  1. New from Vanity Fair: Fair Game

    · 48 min

    On the first episode of Fair Game, Vanity Fair’s new interview show, Mark Guiducci sits down with actor, writer, and director Colman Domingo for a conversation about Colman’s career, sense of style, and philosophy on…

  2. Introducing: "The Journey," from In The Dark

    · 59 min · Bonus · Explicit

    “The Journey,” an audio investigation hosted by the New Yorker staff writer Ava Kofman, unravels the mystery of how Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang, a wealthy Los Angeles couple, obtained dozens of children through nearly…

  3. Episode 10: The Woman in the Window

    · 50 min

    In one last noir twist, Joan marries for a fourth and final time to a man with a secret life. The last chapter of our story takes us from the Greenwich Village cross-dressing scene of the 1960s, to the set of Dario…

  4. Episode 9: Dark Shadows

    · 49 min · Explicit

    While the shooting seems to enhance Wanger’s reputation in Hollywood’s eyes, the media frenzy that follows enacts a sharp price on the lives of Joan Bennett (Zooey Deschanel) and her children. Joan is forced to make a…

  5. Episode 8: I Want to Live!

    · 56 min

    Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) emerges from prison, and relaunches his career by producing several important films inspired by his experience, including the Oscar-winning I Want to Live!, and the original Invasion of the…

  6. Episode 7: The Shooting

    · 42 min

    In December 1951, Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) points his gun at Jennings Lang’s (Griffin Dunne) groin and fires -- and Joan Bennett’s (Zooey Deschanel) life and that of her family will never be the same. Though it’s her…

  7. Episode 6: Man Hunt

    · 43 min · Explicit

    In the years after World War II, the political climate abruptly shifts, and Walter Wanger’s (Jon Hamm) history of using movies to promote progressive causes makes him a target for persecution. Wanger’s personal and…

  8. Episode 5: The Apartment

    · 40 min · Explicit

    The third member of the Bennett/Wanger love triangle is Jennings Lang (Griffin Dunne), an agent at MCA, then the largest talent agency in the world. In 1951, Lang represents a threat to Walter Wanger’s marriage, but…

  9. Episode 4: The Reckless Moment

    · 46 min · Explicit

    Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) bets everything on a different Joan -- Joan of Arc, starring Ingrid Bergman -- and comes up short, as the actress playing the saint sparks an international sex scandal. With Walter’s fame and…

  10. Episode 3: Scarlet Street

    · 51 min

    Collaborating with mad genius Fritz Lang, Joan (Zooey Deschanel) and Walter (Jon Hamm) hit the peak of both their careers and their marriage. After the success of the ultimate S&M noir Scarlet Street, Joan continues to…

  11. Episode 2: The Man I Married

    · 52 min

    Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) transforms Joan Bennett’s (Zooey Deschanel) acting career by giving her a makeover. Now a raven-haired woman of mystery, Joan does her part during WWII by appearing in more anti-Nazi films than…

  12. Episode 1: Private Worlds

    · 1 h 04 min · Explicit

    Already a divorced mom while still in her teens, Joan Bennett (Zooey Deschanel) becomes a movie actress out of financial necessity, but she struggles to define herself as a star. Her life takes a turn when she falls in…

  13. Introducing Love is a Crime

    · 4:42 · Trailer

    When Hollywood mogul Walter Wanger (Jon Hamm) shot an agent he suspected was having an affair with his actress wife, Joan Bennett (Zooey Deschanel) — one of the key femme fatales of 1940s film noir — Bennett was the…

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