Episode 157 of THE HD Movie Podcast is here! Hayley Alice Roberts and Darren Gaskell pick at the Christmas Day leftovers and start into the wine, having made sure Santa's buried in a place no one will ever find him. They'll also take a look at a movie of any year, any genre and any quality.

The final episode of 2024 is also the final offering of this year's Merry Podmas miniseries and your hosts have unwrapped a post-Xmas treat in the form of Luigi Bazzoni's 1971 giallo THE FIFTH CORD! Franco Nero stars as a boozy journo trying to unravel a series of murders which seem to be connected to a New Year's Eve party he attended.

Yes, it's taken giallo fans Hayley and Darren 157 episodes to finally cover a film from this subgenre and it was none which (inexplicably) neither of them had seen before. There's discussion of giallo tropes and how The Fifth Cord either sticks to or subverts them, Darren gets to talk about Daria Nicolodi (even though she's not in this movie) and there's Franco Nero fandom to mention. Your hosts also round off with a brief summary of their podcast year.

An auld acquaintance we won't forget is Mitch Bain! If you're one of the folks who has forgotten, Mitch writes and performs the music you hear on the podcast. He's on Instagram if you look for "evertheoptimitch".

You can follow and contact the Podcast on Facebook, X and Instagram by searching for "HDMoviePodcast". We're happy to hear from you.

You can find the hosts on X and Instagram too!

Hayley: @HayleyARoberts on X, hayleyaliceroberts on Instagram

Darren: @darren_gaskell on X, darren_gaskell on Instagram

Huge thanks to you all for listening! Have a very Happy New Year and we'll be back in 2025!