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The Big Combo (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)
Jun
24
spaghetti
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
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Caged (John Cromwell, 1950)
Jun
20
prison chow
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
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Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
May
16
doubles
“I still think it would be wonderful to have a man love you so much he'd kill for you.”
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Sweet Smell of Success (Alexander Mackendrick, 1957)
April 20
20
oysters
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
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Crime Wave [The City Is Dark] (André De Toth, 1953)
Jan
29
dinner for two
Ellen Lacey (Phyllis Kirk) serving a bunch of punks (Bronson (2nd from the left, and Ted de Corsia (right) the food she prepared for herself and her husband Steve (Gene Nelson). DP: Bert Glennon.
“You know, it isn't what a man wants to do, Lacey, but what he has to do. Now take me – I love to smoke cigarettes, but the doctors say I can't have them. So what do I do? I chew toothpicks, tons of them.”
– Det. Lt. Sims
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Les yeux cernés [Marked Eyes] (Robert Hossein, 1964)
Jan
11
baguette
A young woman with big eyes and a dark bob (Marie-France Pisier) picks crumbs out of a fresh baguette. She's somewhere in a dreary small town. The snow's almost gone. DP: Jean Boffety.
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Ο Δράκος [O Drakos / The Ogre of Athens / The Ogre / The Vampire] (Nikos Koundouros, 1956)
Jan
2
Martini
The boss, Hondros (Giannis Argyris), pours out a stiff drink on the floor of his cabaret with Mr Tomas (Dinos Iliopoulos) in the background. DP: Kostas Theodoridis.
The first film dinner of 2024.
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Ο Δράκος [O Drakos / The Ogre of Athens / The Ogre / The Vampire] (Nikos Koundouros, 1956)
Dec
31
New Year's Eve
Men in identical white shirts and dark slacks dancing in the club during after hours. Their upper bodies seem top-heavy, tending to lunge towards the ground. DP: Kostas Theodoridis.
New Year's Eve celebrations.
A mousy bank clerk (Dinos Iliopoulos), who bears an uncanny resemblance to a criminal on the run, finds himself hiding in a shady cabaret on New Year's Eve instead of spending a quiet evening alone. During his forced stay at the nightclub, he comes to enjoy and identify more and more with his newfound persona and assumes the role of the notorious “Drago”.
An initial box office dud, it is now considered one of the top ten all-time best Greek films.
Happy new year, everyone! On to many more cinematic discoveries!
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Si muero antes de despertar [If I Should Die Before I Wake] (Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1952)
Dec
19
National Hard Candy Day
Lucio (Néstor Zavarce) and his new friend sharing one of her fancy 10¢ lollipops. DP: Pablo Tabernero.
Lucio is the class clown, a ne'er-do-well relying on his police-dad's rank and classmates' homework. One of these classmates, a smart little girl, promises him fancy lollipops in exchange for protection. And she has a secret for him too, about the origin of the candy, and the nice man giving her those and other nice things. Under oath, she tells Lucio everything and then promptly disappears. With his friend gone, killed as he later finds out, and an oath weighing on his heart, what can Lucio do when another girl goes missing?
“Only a child can kill the monster.”
– narrator
Cornell Woolrich's haunting tales of childhood lost leaped from Ireland to Argentina. With some similarities with Fritz Lang's M (1931), this fairy-tale feels more oppressive; due to the helplessness of a boy's power in an adult world and his understanding of grown-up responsibilities. A restored version in wider circulation is long overdue.
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Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Fritz Lang, 1956)
Dec
18
late late night dinner
Dolly Moore (Barbara Nichols) and girlfriends amuse themselves over late late-night dinner. DP: William E. Snyder.
– This guy's got a lot of class.
– Yeah? If he's got so much class, what's he doin' with you?
