settima

1950s

Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)

Sep

6

Sun

Pickpocket (1959)

The newspaper of Sunday, September 6, announcing a derby. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.

“The pickings were poor and not worth the risk.”

– Michel

On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)

Jul

28

liquor

On the Waterfront (1954)

Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint) apprehensively sips liquor with Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) in attendance. DPs: Boris Kaufman & James Wong Howe.

“You know this city's full of hawks? That's a fact. They hang around on the top of the big hotels. And they spot a pigeon in the park. Right down on him.”

– Terry Malloy

Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951)

Jul

1

steak

Ace in the Hole (1951)

A man dissects his steak with knife and fork at a round table with an oilcloth cover. Prominently in the centre of the table is an square cardboard box with air-holes punched in the lid. It's open and houses a small, live rattlesnake. DP: Charles Lang.

“I can handle big news and little news. And if there's no news, I'll go out and bite a dog.”

– Charles Tatum

The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)

Jun

24

spaghetti

The Big Combo (1955)

A man in a bathrobe (Ted de Corsia) lifts undrained, slightly overcooked spaghetti from a white enamel pan onto a plate. The overcookedness may be caused by this movie's horrible horrible AI “restoration”. DP: John Alton.

“I couldn't swallow any more salami.”

– Mingo

Caged (John Cromwell, 1950)

Jun

20

prison chow

Caged (1950)

The girls eating their grub. It'd be Marie Allen's (Eleanor Parker) first of many. DP: Carl E. Guthrie.

“What I'd give for a sink full of dirty dish.”

– Millie

Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959)

Jun

7

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor) and a man in white, seen from the back, eating alfresco near a beach. DP: Jack Hildyard.

“My son – Sebastian – and I constructed our days. Each day we would carve each day like a piece of sculpture, leaving behind us a trail of days like a gallery of sculpture until suddenly, last summer.”

– Mrs Vi Venable

Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)

May

16

doubles

Strangers on a Train (1951)

Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) (via). DP: Robert Burks.

“I still think it would be wonderful to have a man love you so much he'd kill for you.”

Domenica d'agosto [Sunday in August] (Luciano Emmer, 1950)

Apr

29

spaghetti di mamma

Domenica d'agosto (1950)

Marcella (Anna Baldini) enjoying mamma's spaghetti on the beach of Ostia. DPs: Leonida Barboni, Ubaldo Marelli & Domenico Scala.

Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)

April 20

20

oysters

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) pulling Sidney Falco's (Tony Curtis) tie over cocktails and oysters. DP: James Wong Howe.

“I'd hate to take a bite outta you. You're a cookie full of arsenic.”

– J.J. Hunsecker

Raggare! [Blackjackets] (Olle Hellbom, 1959)

Apr

3

Raggare! (1959)

Bibban, a beaming blonde (Christina Schollin) in a petticoat, at a small bar table smoking a cigarette. There's an half-empty glass and a full ashtray next to her. Just offscreen the object of her smile: a smartly dressed man reaching for his glass. DPs: Frank Dalin & Bertil Palmgren.