I am old now, so it makes sense that this week’s episode of Someone Else’s Movie should feature a film even older than me. And thankfully, my guest stepped right up to provide one.

The guest is Aaron Merke, an actor, improviser, puppeteer and makeup effects artist who you’ve seen in a whole bunch of stuff — most recently Ben Wheatley’s Normal, Andrew Kevin Walker’s Psycho Killer and the new Netflix adaptation of Little House on the Prairie. And he’s in the new TV series American Hostage, which is premiering in the Primetime program at TIFF next month. He’s everywhere!

And for his SEMcast, Aaron wanted to talk about The Ladykillers, the beloved 1955 Ealing Studios comedy starring Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom as thieves who rent a basement from a little old lady to pull off the perfect heist … only to find the little old lady a far more formidable opponent than any ten men in Scotland Yard. Aaron discovered the movie in the middle of a Guinness binge and fell in love with its weird mixture of English propriety and slapstick mayhem, and honestly that was the exact right reaction. So we talk about it, and the Coen brothers’ misbegotten remake, and the Safdies are in there somehow as well, and … eh, just listen, it’ll all make sense.

You know how this goes: Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts or your podcatcher of choice, or download the episode directly from the web and listen to it while you’re pretending to be rehearsing for that musical performance you’re never, ever going to give.

And then catch up on your Shiny Things reading! Last week I covered the new discs of Project Hail Mary, Hokum and Exit 8, and subscribers to the paid tier got my exclusive reviews of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, The Wrong Girls and Furious. You didn’t, because you’re not a paid subscriber? It’s as easy as clicking this link and getting all signed up. Five bucks a month! That’s practically free!

And you know what is free? Tonight’s Harbourtfront Free Flicks screening of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, which kicks off at 8:30pm down by the lake and offers dazzling costumes, eye-popping sets and the finest melodrama money can buy — as well as one of the best soundtracks of the 21st century. Come on down, theater kids! There’s even free popcorn!