view
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
view
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
view
The Naked City (Jules Dassin, 1948)
Feb
10
Popsicles
A New York precinct. Across the street an ice cream vendor. Several kids are standing around the man's cart while one of them – a chunky monkey – leans against the nearest fire hydrant. A scruffy man in fedora walks past holding a Popsicle. DP: William H. Daniels; still photographers: Bert Anderson & Arthur “Weegee” Fellig.
“Another day, another ball of fire rising in the summer sky. The city is quiet now, but it will soon be pounding with activity. This time yesterday, Jean Dexter was just another pretty girl, but now she's the marmalade on 10,000 pieces of toast.”
– narrator
view
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
