settima

1940s

A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell + Emeric Pressburger, 1944)

Aug

27

A Canterbury Tale (1944)

Alison (Sheila Sim) looking out over the rolling hills of Kent with the Canterbury Cathedral somewhere out there. DP: Erwin Hillier.

“Well, there are more ways than one of getting close to your ancestors. Follow the old road, and as you walk, think of them and of the old England. They climbed Chillingbourne Hill, just as you. They sweated and paused for breath just as you did today. And when you see the bluebells in the spring and the wild thyme, and the broom and the heather, you're only seeing what their eyes saw. You ford the same rivers. The same birds are singing. When you lie flat on your back and rest, and watch the clouds sailing, as I often do, you're so close to those other people, that you can hear the thrumming of the hoofs of their horses, and the sound of the wheels on the road, and their laughter and talk, and the music of the instruments they carried. And when I turn the bend in the road, where they too saw the towers of Canterbury, I feel I've only to turn my head, to see them on the road behind me.”

– Thomas Colpeper, JP

Európa nem válaszol [Europe Doesn't Answer] (Géza von Radványi, 1941)

Aug

26

1939

Európa nem válaszol (1941)

DP: Rudolf Icsey.

 

The Beast with Five Fingers (Robert Florey, 1946)

Aug

15

The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)

Hilary Cummins (Peter Lorre). DP: Wesley Anderson.

“Eight bones has the carpus, five the metacarpus, fourteen the phlanges, all in all, all in all, twenty-seven all in all. Abracadabra.”

– Donald Arlington

簪​ [Kanzashi / Ornamental Hairpin] (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)

Aug

10

1941

Kanzashi (1941)

A formal paper with the date stamp for August 10, Showa 16 (1941). DP: Suketarō Inokai.

 

The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)

Aug

9

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth) and husband Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane) in the dizzying modernist finale. DP: Charles Lawton Jr..

“You need more than luck in Shanghai.”

– Elsa Bannister

Night Has a Thousand Eyes (John Farrow, 1948)

Aug

3

Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)

Mentalist John Triton (Edward G. Robinson, middle) and two of his conspirators. DP: John F. Seitz.

A continuity error later on in the movie makes it August 4.

“I'd become a sort of a reverse zombie. I was living in a world already dead, and I alone knowing it.”

– John Triton

The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)

Jul

20

1940

spoiler warning: click to toggle image The Killers (1946)

The July 21 headline. DP: Elwood Bredell.

“Don't ask a dying man to lie his soul into Hell.”

– Lt. Sam Lubinsky

D.O.A. [Dead on Arrival] (Rudolph Maté, 1949)

Jul

18

D.O.A. (1949)

A man's hand signs a car rental contract dated July 18. DP: Ernest Laszlo.

“You knew who I was when I came here today. But you were surprised to see me alive, weren't you? But I'm not alive, Mrs. Philips. Sure, I can stand here and talk to you. I can breathe and I can move. But I'm not alive. Because I did take that poison, and nothing can save me.”

– Frank Bigelow

The Life Magazine displayed at the San Francisco newspaper stand where Frank Bigelow stops is the issue of September 12, 1949, with Yugoslavia's leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito on the cover.

La diosa arrodillada [The Kneeling Goddess] (Roberto Gavaldón, 1947)

Jun

13

cake

La diosa arrodillada (1947)

A woman's manicured hand holds up a glass of champagne next to what appears to be an opulent wedding cake. DP: Alex Phillips.

 

Black Friday (Arthur Lubin, 1940)

Jun

13

Black Friday (1940)

DP: Elwood Bredell.