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The Beast with Five Fingers (Robert Florey, 1946)
Aug
15
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
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The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)
Aug
9
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
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The Red Shoes (Michael Powell + Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
Aug
3
red
A ballerina's lower body in focus. She wears a long tulle off-white dress, slightly sheer, with her white stockings showing through slightly. Part of her right lower arm is visible, the hand clutched, a turquoise bracelet on the wrist. What stands out most are her ruby red ballet shoes that appear to move away from her. The backdrop is a dull, washed out carpet. DP: Jack Cardiff.
Red: best use of red in food or fashion*
“She looked at the red shoes, for she thought there was no harm in looking. She put them on, for she thought there was no harm in that either. But then she went to the ball and began dancing. When she tried to turn to the right, the shoes turned to the left. When she wanted to dance up the ballroom, her shoes danced down. They danced down the stairs, into the street, and out through the gate of the town. Dance she did, and dance she must, straight into the dark woods.”
– Hans Christian Andersen, De røde Skoe (1845, tranl. Jean Hersholt, 1949), via
Another one of The Archers' #Technicolor extravaganzas. This time, not to wow the worn-down post-war black-and-white audience, but as an an active storytelling instrument.
Built around Hans Christian Andersen's haunting tale De røde Skoe (1845).
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Night Has a Thousand Eyes (John Farrow, 1948)
Aug
3
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
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簪 [Kanzashi / Ornamental Hairpin] (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)
Jul
24
relaxation
Men relaxing at a roten-buro, an outdoor onsen. DP: Suketarō Inokai.
Someone goes to a spa, beach, or retreat*
“There’s something almost poetic about finding a hairpin in the bath. It’s like the sole of my foot has been pierced by poetry.”
Relaxing at an onsen, a soldier steps on the titular kanzashi. Now injured with too much time on his hands, he and his fellow nosy patrons go out looking for its owner.
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The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
Jul
20
1940
spoiler warning: click to toggle image

The July 21 headline. DP: Elwood Bredell.
“Don't ask a dying man to lie his soul into Hell.”
– Lt. Sam Lubinsky
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D.O.A. [Dead on Arrival] (Rudolph Maté, 1949)
Jul
18
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.
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野良犬 [Nora inu / Stray Dog] (Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
Jul
14
Someone enjoys a drink or beverage*
“On the bus, the air was so thick, he felt woozy. A wailing infant shook with tears and the woman beside him reeked with the stink of cheap perfume.”
– narrator
On a sweltering summer day, Detective's Murakami's Colt gets stolen on a crowded bus. He must delve deep into the sticky sweaty seedy underbelly of Tokyo to retrieve it.
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Black Friday (Arthur Lubin, 1940)
Jun
13
DP: Elwood Bredell.
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El gran calavera [The Great Madcap] (Luis Buñuel, 1949)
May
31
Lobbycard. DP: Ezequiel Carrasco.