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.
“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!”
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.
– children singing
“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.”
Dial 1119 [The Violent Hour] (Gerald Mayer, 1950)
Aug
28
Sherry Flips
Dr. John Faron (Sam Levene) and barfly Freddy (Virginia Field) drinking at the counter. Freddy is enjoying her sherry flip with what appear to be olives instead of cherries. Two more glasses are waiting for her. DP: Paul Vogel.
– TV announcer
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.
Hell Bound (William J. Hole Jr., 1957)
Aug
20
International Day Of Medical Transporters
Paula (June Blair) and Eddie (Stuart Whitman) in nurses' uniforms taking care of an injured child on the street. Behind them, two cops unload a stretcher from an ambulance. DP: Carl E. Guthrie.
The boss' girlfriend falls for an ambulance driver, derailing her man's gang's carefully planned narcotics heist.
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.
“How about you slip into something more comfortable, like a few drinks and some Chinese food?”
The Blue Gardenia (Fritz Lang, 1953)
Aug
5
International Hangover Day
Norah (Anne Baxter) and Harry (Raymond Burr) sharing a meal – and a drink (or two) – at the Blue Gardenia Club. DP: Nicholas Musuraca.
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.
– 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.
“Nice guys.”
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.
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.
Canon City (Crane Wilbur, 1948)
Jul
31
grub
A close-up of two prisoners' hands. One is handling grub with a spoon from a stainless steel soup bowl. DP: John Alton.
“Yes, I'm afraid of death… but for a humble secret agent that's a fact of life, like whisky. And I've drunk that all my life.”
Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Jul
16
petit déjeuner
In one of the very few daytime scenes, Natacha (Anna Karina) and Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) share breakfast at a small table while awkwardly sitting on the armrests of two upholstered chairs. A large television is set up directly behind the table. DP: Raoul Coutard.
– Lemmy Caution