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Laura (Otto Preminger + Rouben Mamoulian, 1944)
Dec
11
Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) interrupts arsine newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker (a delicious Clifton Webb) with her designs during his lunch. DPs: Joseph LaShelle & Lucien Ballard.
“I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom.”
– Waldo Lydecker
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Si muero antes de despertar [If I Should Die Before I Wake] (Carlos Hugo Christensen, 1952)
Nov
28
soup
Lucio (Néstor Zavarce) having dinner with his mother (Blanca del Prado) and strict father. DP: Pablo Tabernero.
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The Medium (Gian Carlo Menotti, 1951)
Sep
18
Madame Flora (Marie Powers) by herself at a small table in a shady bar. DP: Enzo Serafin.
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M [M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder] (Fritz Lang, 1931)
Sep
5
Jury Rights Day
Schränker (Gustaf Gründgens) and his kangaroo court. Under his clenched fist a photograph of one of the murdered girls. DP: Fritz Arno Wagner.
“Just you wait, it won't be long,
The man in black will soon be here,
With his cleaver's blade so true,
He'll make mincemeat out of you!”
– children singing
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Dial 1119 [The Violent Hour] (Gerald Mayer, 1950)
Aug
28
Sherry Flips
“And now for the benefit of the folks who tuned in late, I should like to say that this is the most traumatic spectacle I have ever had the GOOD fortune to witness.”
– TV announcer
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Hell Bound (William J. Hole Jr., 1957)
Aug
20
milk
Stanley Thomas (George E. Mather) and Daddy (Dehl Berti) in a sleazy nightclub. Daddy raises his glass of milk to someone offscreen. DP: Carl E. Guthrie.
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Hell Bound (William J. Hole Jr., 1957)
Aug
20
International Day Of Medical Transporters
The boss' girlfriend falls for an ambulance driver, derailing her man's gang's carefully planned narcotics heist.
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Salón México (Emilio Fernández, 1949)
Aug
13
$120 cerveza
Mercedes (Marga López) sitting at a small round table at the salón. A waiter just came over to take her order. In the other room, meticulously dressed couples dance to live music. DP: Gabriel Figueroa.
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The Blue Gardenia (Fritz Lang, 1953)
Aug
5
International Hangover Day
After a horrible birthday alone followed by a lovely night out, Norah wakes up with a terrible hangover and a hunch of being a murderess.
“How about you slip into something more comfortable, like a few drinks and some Chinese food?”
– Harry
The Blue Gardenia is Lang's hard-bitten take on the gruesome Black Dahlia murder case and part of his newspaper noir trilogy together with While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, both from 1956.
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Canon City (Crane Wilbur, 1948)
Aug
1
Colorado Day
Counting the inmates. DP: John Alton.
They've been planning this for months, Canon City's Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility's toughest inmates. It's going to happen on December 30, and all men are ready to go.
“Nice guys.”
Fascinating about Canon City is the usage of some of the actual locations, ánd people, involved in the 1947 #prison break.
Also striking, unfortunately, is the unevenness of the affair. John Alton's cinematography, while wonderful, wanders between noir and stuck camera shutter. And that voice-over… well, lets not mention that at all.
