tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12795300916412725182024-03-14T04:03:21.997-04:00Where Danger LivesReviews and discussion of classic film noir and mid-century Hollywood films. Classic Film Posters. Film Noir / Science Fiction / Horror / Academy Awards.Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.comBlogger128125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-11763891916442123652020-12-01T23:30:00.011-05:002020-12-02T19:24:30.645-05:00WHY GIRLS LEAVE HOME (1945)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgptwha6qVM87g_DhG_dIM61Oe9gKaucjlWRRf3HMEVaCxWmhlYoo7UpunUVKp31R3S4L_bDW2UoI0DHRfJClmxxDk1x6ml1CiuUvRrd_qI37kpng5OBwCzuKy9f-ig8whDYKiBGRSrJw/s2048/Why-Girls-Leave-Home.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1351" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgptwha6qVM87g_DhG_dIM61Oe9gKaucjlWRRf3HMEVaCxWmhlYoo7UpunUVKp31R3S4L_bDW2UoI0DHRfJClmxxDk1x6ml1CiuUvRrd_qI37kpng5OBwCzuKy9f-ig8whDYKiBGRSrJw/w422-h640/Why-Girls-Leave-Home.jpg" width="422" /></a></div><br /> <br /><div id="fpCE_version" style="display: none;">8.5.5</div><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: courier; font-size: large;"><b>
“C’mon Diana, make with the tonsils.”</b></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Believed to be a lost film for decades, 1945’s <i>Why Girls Leave Home</i> recently became findable for those who know where to look for such things. I’ve been after for it for 25 years. And guess what? It’s a bona fide film noir. It’s not in any of the film noir books or on any of the film noir lists—<i>because nobody has seen it</i>. Were it not for a pair of Oscar nominations (score and song) it likely never would have resurfaced. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Make no mistake, this is Poverty Row stuff. But as far as PRC trash goes, it’s pretty good. Not <i>Detour</i> good, but good enough to hold me tight for better than an hour. I’m a fan of director William Berke—<i>Cop Hater</i> (1958) was one of the very first movies I wrote up here, <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2008/11/cop-hater-1958.html" target="_blank">all the way back in November of 2008</a>. Berke did a bunch of diggable B crime pics: <i>Pier 23</i> (1951), <i>FBI Girl</i> (1951), <i>Waterfront at Midnight </i>(1948), and <i>Shoot to Kill </i>(1947).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy_7iYh82h8Y0-s8jhbUdDlfPod97-dCWS9Sq5uTt_6yCKZpwdo7X5YCp3j15ozExJR747PX4zbelT9G4oS6MHuyFtgeR6vNafxS5vVhfdmH6M0PW4NqJEOTYiyEkgb6rx8TlPogyrBg/s1000/Lola.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="782" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy_7iYh82h8Y0-s8jhbUdDlfPod97-dCWS9Sq5uTt_6yCKZpwdo7X5YCp3j15ozExJR747PX4zbelT9G4oS6MHuyFtgeR6vNafxS5vVhfdmH6M0PW4NqJEOTYiyEkgb6rx8TlPogyrBg/s320/Lola.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Lola Lane<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Berke’s predominantly female cast is stellar: Lola Lane gets top billing and the juiciest part, though not the lead. Never as famous as her A-list sister Priscilla, Lola nevertheless appeared in more than forty movies (including a few big studio hits) before taking a powder in 1946. This was her next to last picture—she makes the most of it. The girl on that sexy one sheet is actually lead actress Pamela Blake, a steady presence throughout Tinsel Town’s double-bill era and probably best known as the kitten-hating cleaning lady who famously takes one in the kisser from Alan Ladd in <i>This Gun for Hire</i>. Constance Worth is fine as the best friend and Claudia Drake is even better here than she was in <i>Detour. (</i>No, not <i>her. </i>Drake was the girl Tom Neal was trying to get <i>to</i>, not the one he was trying to get away <i>from</i>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgufmw_hMr7EJgyBeyxs3p-lRTGnOy-c1hdf64aQZLGT7R0b5wh_RIG7via3YtfQntI9gHNVHSqmvg7Q9kI05ZYtLI00NjWi4E125mfmZOxM3LOhqcH215diATk60OWVqcOWPXkvZ-gew/s1453/Pamela.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1453" data-original-width="964" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgufmw_hMr7EJgyBeyxs3p-lRTGnOy-c1hdf64aQZLGT7R0b5wh_RIG7via3YtfQntI9gHNVHSqmvg7Q9kI05ZYtLI00NjWi4E125mfmZOxM3LOhqcH215diATk60OWVqcOWPXkvZ-gew/s320/Pamela.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Pamela Blake</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The men hold their own. Sheldon Leonard does his regular thing and so does Elisha Cook Jr.—except Cook does it and then some. His sleazy performance is the best piece of evidence that this movie has been buried deep since it last aired on small screens during Ike’s first term. If anyone had actually ever seen this, especially film noir folk, they’d still be talking about Cook’s work. Just as he’d done the year before in <i>Phantom Lady</i>, Cook plays a pasty white hepcat—except with a clarinet this time. Get a load of this boast: <i>“Yeah, Benny Goodman’s pretty good, but I think I’m a little deeper in the groove.” </i> Pamela White must agree. She bounces up and down through a late night “jam session” just like a poor man’s Ella Raines. It’s not the musical numbers where Cook scores this time around though, it’s with the girls. He’s a straight-up predator, of the type seemingly unique to the City of Angels, where fresh-faced cheesecake with canary dreams arrive by the busload. He’s a scumbag worthy of Ellroy; the fake-tough innocence of Wilmer Cook is long gone.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Perhaps I should set the story? Diana Leslie (Blake) doesn’t like it at mother and daddy’s place. It’s too cooped up and the neighborhood stinks these days. She was tired of doing without during the Depression, now she’s tired of doing without during the war. She’s young, she’s bored, she can sing a little, and clothes look good on her—why shouldn’t she go out and make a few bucks if she can, and maybe even have a good time doing it? She wants money. She wants things. She wants…<i>a career</i>.
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Diana’s hipster boyfriend (Cook)‚ a 4F if ever there was one, thinks there might be something for her at the Kitten Club. Her family thinks she’s all wet: <i>“Listen, you’re only my kid sister, but I don’t like you hanging out with those jive jumpers,”</i> her older brother sneers, right before he slaps her face for having a mind of her own. That’s the last straw; Diana bolts. Next thing she knows she’s warbling at the Kitten Club. Between numbers she plays “hostess,” luring out of town squares into the back room where they get fleeced at the roulette tables. The club’s merely a front, illicit gambling and “dates” are where the real money is.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1dcbnKn29vgwtK9g-BfAY_p5zFO4cepf2cnmqJq9TYAMbk5OpkZlyZ7wLeMgtrkCAHcu_zhAkPgVQwDtg4w9TGOxFk3VjzROs7ZxH9BmOFIHtOLmNedMOHho-uecEqTtgvxnOHh-fA/s1800/Why-Girls-Leave-Home-TLC.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1443" data-original-width="1800" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht1dcbnKn29vgwtK9g-BfAY_p5zFO4cepf2cnmqJq9TYAMbk5OpkZlyZ7wLeMgtrkCAHcu_zhAkPgVQwDtg4w9TGOxFk3VjzROs7ZxH9BmOFIHtOLmNedMOHho-uecEqTtgvxnOHh-fA/w400-h321/Why-Girls-Leave-Home-TLC.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Diana has a knack for the job. She’s a tough dame now, with a Chesterfield in a thin black holder: <i>“I know all the angles and I know how to protect myself in the clinches.”</i> That is, until one of her marks loses his shirt at the tables and then feeds himself a bullet sandwich in the men’s room. When the guy’s buddy protests to the management he catches lead in the temple. Diana sees the whole thing and finally gets wise. Can she get out of it all in time? Here comes reporter Chris Williams (Leonard) to the rescue. Movie good guys back then were reporters.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">All of this we learn through flashbacks. The whole picture unfolds that way, another trademark of classic noir. There are more: an opening sequence that features a shadowy nighttime game of cat and mouse along the waterfront. A midnight car chase on the back end. Booze, smokes, broads. A succession of back rooms, gutters, and nightclubs, all dimly lit to hide the cheapjack cardboard PRC sets. There’s even a montage. The movie snaps along with sharp, rat-a-tat lines delivered by a game cast who know how to get plenty of chatter into a brief running time. Hard boiled? Only every once in a while, but plenty stylish.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">More than mere style, however, <i>Why Girls Leave Home</i> carves out its noir street cred in how it treats its protagonist. (And, just as importantly, who it ultimately reveals as its villain. Wish I could say more on this, but forget it!). Diana Leslie makes the classic noir blunder: <i>she wants</i>. Our noir heroes get themselves into trouble when they want more than society has determined they ought to have. For Diana, it’s a career, new digs, a little money of her own. Why the hell not, we surely ask ourselves now. Plenty of reasons, 1945 audiences roar back at us. Ours, I guess, is not to judge.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Like I said a few hundred words ago, make no mistake, this is Poverty Row stuff. It’s not <i>Detour</i>, it’s not <i>Phantom Lady</i>, but it does have something all its own. A rotgut charm that was enough to keep a jaded customer like me fixed to the screen.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b><i>Why Girls Leave Home</i> (1945)</b></span></div><div><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Directed by William Berke</span></div><div><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Cinematographer: Mack Stengler</span></div><div><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Story and Screenplay: Fanya Foss (once Billy Bob Thornton’s mother-in-law)</span></div><div><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Starring: Pamela Blake, Lola Lane, Sheldon Leonard, and Elisha Cook Jr.</span></div><div><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Released by: Producers Releasing Corporation</span></div><div><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Running time: 69 minutes
</span></div><div><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/by6LEiMmaM4" width="320" youtube-src-id="by6LEiMmaM4"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JIi8qab9f4I" width="320" youtube-src-id="JIi8qab9f4I"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xvd17B4q3so" width="320" youtube-src-id="xvd17B4q3so"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aw7F7tBkT8w" width="320" youtube-src-id="aw7F7tBkT8w"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nMcnLi2MgYU" width="320" youtube-src-id="nMcnLi2MgYU"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-61218550816814489632020-05-04T23:21:00.000-04:002020-05-05T00:07:00.953-04:00NO QUESTIONS ASKED (1951)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvajoRIM6s0psE6bXbl_xxft5ntIYQvA4y2wvufF9BsQyjgofKcThrKjxYngy2BQVhkDGR7F6AYzf6Dgz-69DpahUNaiAJ0C-UWtm-pZUOnQ_oMyN-OmqsZ0eQaopoxkR1_nmco5mZ_w/s1600/NQA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1047" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvajoRIM6s0psE6bXbl_xxft5ntIYQvA4y2wvufF9BsQyjgofKcThrKjxYngy2BQVhkDGR7F6AYzf6Dgz-69DpahUNaiAJ0C-UWtm-pZUOnQ_oMyN-OmqsZ0eQaopoxkR1_nmco5mZ_w/s640/NQA.jpg" width="418" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">A black widow without a mate is just another spider.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />A man is on the run through the wet, deserted streets of lower Manhattan. He scuttles into the shadows cast by a stairwell just as a prowl car tears by, its siren whining against concrete and brick. As the man hunkers down we hear his voice, <span style="color: #f6b26b;">“My name is Steve Keiver. That’s what all the sirens are about. They’re screaming for me. I was very popular that night—everybody wanted me, dead or alive. You think there’d be a thousand hiding places in a large city, but there aren’t.”</span> More police cars make the scene, closing off any possible egress, their searchlights obliterating the deep dark. As Steve presses his back against the grimy recess of a doorway, the narration turns inevitably to the source of his dilemma, <span style="color: #f6b26b;">“You wonder how it happened and where it all really began…”</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />Steve (Barry Sullivan) is an insurance company lawyer who gets the brushoff from his girlfriend Ellen (Arlene Dahl), owing to the fact that his present salary won’t set her up in diamonds and pearls. A telling exchange early in the picture provides the straight dope on their shaky relationship. The scene finds their pair bickering during a taxicab ride home from the airport. Steve believes—what a chump—Ellen’s been on a solo ski trip to Sun Valley:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Her: “I’m not a one-room flat kind of girl. I don’t want to raise my children in the kind of poverty I was raised in. I couldn’t stand it. I want security.”</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Him: “If you’re just patient honey—“</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Her: “—I’ve waited a year. You can’t deposit patience in a bank.”</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Him: “We’re never gonna be rich, that’s not security. But we love each other, you can deposit that in my bank.”</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />Steve asks for a raise the following day, but his boss parries: “Ladders are built for patient men,” the guy says. However, the boss also makes an offhand remark about a recent stolen fur case: he’d pay ten grand to the thieves, <i>no questions asked</i>, in order to avoid settling the claim. Steve gets a big zinger: he’ll find out who heisted the furs and broker a deal between them and the insurance company. He’ll receive a finder’s fee and everyone will be happy: the thieves will get more for the goods than a backroom fence would pay, his boss dodges a six-figure payout, and Steve’ll have enough in the bank to give Ellen a swimming pool full of sparklies. Unbeknownst to him—what a maroon—it’s already too late. Ellen just eloped to Europe with Gordon Jessman (Dick Simmons), a smooth operator she met on the slopes in Idaho. Steve is crushed when he discovers Ellen’s deserted apartment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />Steve contacts the crime syndicate and eventually manages to buy back the furs for the insurance company. It isn’t long before he’s finessing a deal over another caché of stolen goods, and then another, and another. Before long he’s flush. With Ellen out of the picture, Steve finally notices Joan (Jean Hagen), a coworker. Joan’s a nice girl. Steve—what an idiot—should be so lucky. She knows that Steve is walking a tightrope in his new venture, but she’s been carrying a torch for so long that she can’t help going along.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />Cut to the gala premiere of a Broadway show. Two henchmen from the stable of gangster Franko (Howard Petrie), pull off a lurid robbery. In full-on drag-mode, they crash the powder room during intermission and relieve all the old broads of their Harry Winstons. During the fracas Joan gets pistol-whipped, leading the cops to think Steve might be in on the caper. What’s more is that the boys in blue have already named Steve Public Enemy Numero Uno—New York’s bad boys are stealing more than ever now that they know Steve can broker a high-dollar insurance company buy-back. Our guy Stevie may be a slick solicitor who knows how to walk the line between legal and illegal, but he’s forgotten all about the difference between legality and morality. It’s gonna cost him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />You didn’t think we were through with Ellen, did you? When she gets wind of Steve’s success, she gives Gordon the heave-ho and heads for Steve’s place, where she learns that he’s about to handle the buy-back of the loot from the Broadway premiere heist. Gordon—a cuckold but no fool—decides to rob Steve and take the jewels for himself. In doing so he kills a police detective and frames Steve as the trigger man. Already leery of cops, Steve runs. Real time and flashback coalesce as the film returns to its opening scene, with Steve clawing at the shadows in the cheap side of town.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />Meanwhile, Ellen and Gordon are frantically packing their bags when Franko’s men arrive, expecting to find Steve and the jewels. Ellen thinks they can sell the jewelry bundle back to Franko, and she and Gordon go along willingly to negotiate a deal. This is where <i>No Questions Asked</i> becomes something special. Folks, take my advice: don’t mess about with gangsters. Pretty simple, huh? Not to stuck-ups like Ellen and Gordon, who think their nice clothes make them smarter than the lower-class types. Instead they’re amateurs who are about to learn one of film noir’s most brutal lessons. Dig them trying to handle Franko:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Her: “How much are they worth to you?”</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Him: “How much are they worth <i>to you</i>? I don’t think I’m going to have to pay anything for them Mrs. Jessman. You’ve got the jewels—I’ve got you.”</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Her: “If anything happens to me you’ll never find those jewels.”</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f9cb9c; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Him: “You’re smart, but you made a big mistake: I never went to Vassar. I’m afraid you’re dealing with <i>dirty people</i>. When we get finished with you you’re going to be <i>begging</i> to tell us where those jewels are.”</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />Franko makes with some torture; Gordon pisses his pants and squeals. Ellen prostests. Ellen blubbers. Ellen screams. Franko puts a bullet in her. Ellen dead. Gordon looks on in stupified horror. Franko puts a bullet in him. Gordon dead. It’s one of the most matter-of-fact and chilling death sequences in the entire history of film noir.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />Steve—what a cluck—stumbles in and decides he wants to fight. He and Franko somehow go head over heels into a swimming pool. Too bad for Steve, but we learned earlier in the picture—for real!—that Franko’s special thing is holding his breath for a really long time. Boffo! Franko triumphs. Steve floats, all glassy-eyed. Enter the cops. They cuff everyone, resuscitate Steve, and then cuff him too. They figured out he didn’t pull the trigger on the dead cop, but he’s an accessory whether you like it or not. Joan hates it. The cops tells her that Steve looking at a two year jolt in Rykers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />Let’s get something straight about the noir femme fatale: she can’t exist without her special guy. And not just any old schlub—he’s got to be screwy enough to throw away everything he’s got and everything he believes in just to have her. In <i>No Questions Asked</i>, Ellen Jessman is that rare girl, a bona fide femme fatale. She’s greedy, manipulative, superficial, immoral, and exists to make Steve sacrifice his place in the world in order to satisfy her material whims. Irredeemable, and yet she’s merely one side of the coin—she’s got to have her man. Steve is every bit the archetypal a film noir protagonist. Like so many others before him, he suffers from the simple, fatal inability to resist a girl who’s no good. He sees it all clearly and still can’t help himself. Wasn’t Walter Neff the blueprint? When given a clear choice between a nice girl and vampire, Steve does the noir schmuck thing and chooses sex (and redheads). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />But because Ellen is beyond redemption she’s killed, along with her cowardly and murderous husband. Steve is murdered too, but just for a little while. He traded an honest career for a fast buck and gambled the good girl for adultery with the bad. Fate holds Steve—what a dumbass—accountable for his choices. His career is kaput, but maybe with luck and early parole for good behavior Joan’ll be waiting for him outside the gates. In the movies at least, the good ones wait.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />In spite of the title’s admonition, there’s still one question left as the end titles roll: When all is said and done, does Steve really get wise or is he the same sucker as before? With Ellen dead we’ll never know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">No Questions Asked </span></i></b><b><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">(1951)</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Directed by Harold Kress</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #663300; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">(Also one of Hollywood’s legendary film editors, recipient of two Academy Awards*: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), Mrs. Miniver, Random Harvest, The Yearling, I’ll Cry Tomorrow, Silk Stockings, How the West was Won*, The Poseiden Adventure, The Towering Inferno*.)</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Cinematographer: Harold Lipstein</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #663300; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">(Significant films as DP: The River’s Edge, Pal Joey, Ride a Crooked Trail, Hell is for Heroes.)</span></i><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br />Story: Berne Giler</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Screenplay: Sidney Sheldon</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Starring: Barry Sullivan, Arlene Dahl, George Murphy, Jean Hagen.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Released by: MGM</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Running time: 80 minutes</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-24970047201684140192020-04-17T17:00:00.000-04:002020-04-17T17:07:51.214-04:00100 GREATEST MOVIE POSTERS of FILM NOIR! 10th Anniversary edition! <div style="text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ten years, 1,000,000 hits, and a book later! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Just about ten years ago, when this blog was in its infancy, I garnered some attention by counting down </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">the 100 best film noir posters in a series of weekly posts</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">. When all was said and done, t</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">he countdown had been featured on more than 100 different web sites worldwide, attracted more than a million hits, and ultimately led to a book from Fantagraphics, released in 2014. The book features an introduction by none other than William Friedkin, Oscar-winning director of <i>The French Connection</i> and <i>The Exorcist </i>— who says blogging isn’t worthwhile? No longer in print, <i>Film Noir 101 </i>has become a way-too-expensive collector’s item. If you are desperate for a copy, reach out to me. Click on the cover at the right to check it out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At any rate, I’ve been very lucky to turn a blogging passion into a productive and ongoing relationship with a world-class publisher, not to mention the many opportunities this has created with the great people in the film noir community. I don’t get to dedicate very much time to blogging anymore—I’ve since released another book with Fantagraphics and am finishing up a third, but I still love doing this when I can and will certainly maintain this site forever. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To commemorate the anniversary of the poster countdown, I’ve decided put up this updated version, with revised commentary (my writing back then was even more atrocious than it is now, ugh!) and many improved images. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;">Here’s how this all started: This was a countdown about graphic design first and foremost. This is a ranking of posters, not movies.</span> </span>In the real world I’m a graphic design professor (as well as Chair of the Department of Art + Design at my school) and a designer who has completed more than 2,000 professional projects. My designs have appeared in what the industry refer to as “the annuals,” (such as <span style="font-style: italic;">Print</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">How</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Graphis</span>) more than 300 times. I’ve organized numerous gallery exhibitions of film noir posters, including a couple with the Czar of Noir himself, Eddie Muller! I decided it made a ton of sense to do some sort of a countdown that would blend my love of movies with my life as a designer and educator.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">What</span><span style="color: #996633;">’</span><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">s eligible: </span></span><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Only classic period films were considered (nothing after 1960), though my definition of film noir was much looser for this exercise than it is in than in my writing.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Only American issue posters of American films were considered. I love European noir posters, but including them would have created an apples and oranges situation. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Only standard one-sheets were considered. (No half-sheets, 3 or 4 sheets, lobby cards, inserts, daybills, etc.)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">No re-release, reprints, or retrospective posters allowed. Only original, first-run, theatrical release posters.</span></li>
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Judging criteria (In order of prominence): </span><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Design / Artistic merit.</span> Composition, color, balance, typography, use of illustration or photography, graphic power, etc.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Concept.</span> How well does the poster communicate the film’s message? Does it tell the truth or is it misleading? Does it connect with the intended audience?</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>Originality / Novelty.</b> I reward artistic risk-takers!</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Blank Slate rule.</span> All films are equal. <span style="font-style: italic;">Double Indemnity</span> doesn’t get a bump for being <span style="font-style: italic;">Double Indemnity</span>. As a matter of fact, that pink monstrosity doesn’t even make the list! In all likelihood, many readers will not have heard of all films on the list, and many will be seeing the posters for the first time. That should be half the fun.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">My personal taste.</span> The least significant of the criteria. My choices are guided primarily by the above, though it would absurd to imagine my personal likes, dislikes, emotions, and sense of nostalgia didn’t play some part in my choices. However I’m not hiding behind personal opinion:<span style="font-style: italic;"> this is not a list of my favorites</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;">This is an empirical list of what I consider to be the best, with my personal likes and dislikes shoved as far to the side as possible.</span> And while any such list is, of course, purely opinion, not all opinions carry equal weight: this one is highly educated, professionally seasoned, and exercised daily!</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgapZz2rCoX6uZ9rZ8_Efnxhf8scMA0NHVCMESKJxenwqh3cLFqKB2rQqk8JHNvA58-4oYxkdlD7FGwLFjT4TKYpBfA-4hlkaNTGX22se-goChFqaC7vzH02fGsT3HTHvFoa9MqxaXpFQA/s1600/100.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544046301770681698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgapZz2rCoX6uZ9rZ8_Efnxhf8scMA0NHVCMESKJxenwqh3cLFqKB2rQqk8JHNvA58-4oYxkdlD7FGwLFjT4TKYpBfA-4hlkaNTGX22se-goChFqaC7vzH02fGsT3HTHvFoa9MqxaXpFQA/s640/100.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="422" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">100. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Blue Dahlia</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(1946)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here’s a poster that would certainly have been placed higher (it’s essentially the cover of my book, for Pete’s sake!) were it not so crowded, but I like opening with such a well-known film. As we go through the countdown we’ll see numerous examples of posters designed in the style of mass-market paperbacks by famous authors, meaning that the names of the stars are more important than the title of the picture, and have been placed more prominently in the design. Don’t forget that motion picture marketing relies on star power. Yet this poster could have been executed better. It’s still attractive, but nearly as generic: these three mug shots could have been pulled from any Ladd / Lake / Bendix vehicle. Here’s a movie with a flower in the title, so why not work that motif into the poster, or perhaps include the neon “Blue Dahlia” sign we see in the film? Give me a more precise reference to the content of the movie and I’ll give this a higher ranking.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So why is this poster included when so many hundreds of others were not? The rendering is superb, even if the names at the top seem crammed into the available space. The representations of Ladd and Lake (though less so) are iconic, and the cigarette smoke that cleverly draws the viewer’s eyes across Veronica’s breasts is the icing on the cake. Too bad big Bill Bendix is sporting lipstick, and Doris Dowling (of <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2011/03/bitter-rice-riso-amaro-1949.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Bitter Rice</span></a> fame) is positioned so clumsily — though I’ll admit that her shoe poking through the title typography is a nice touch.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyFwAfe6lSnT-x_CouDJkrFjZKoO9VH0l-dei4UoEK57ScqjQYln0l9EwUMlMguRDXIa1WIrqDF5hKq02dwxRHdpcd4lvpLF_-Jvp7Tnhf_tyjFdZweSNaysvN6BQjtXuFCeunDS-mIwI/s1600/99.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544046301374414978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyFwAfe6lSnT-x_CouDJkrFjZKoO9VH0l-dei4UoEK57ScqjQYln0l9EwUMlMguRDXIa1WIrqDF5hKq02dwxRHdpcd4lvpLF_-Jvp7Tnhf_tyjFdZweSNaysvN6BQjtXuFCeunDS-mIwI/s640/99.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="429" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">99. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(1945)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Some of Hollywood’s most striking faces don’t translate particularly well to posters, while others become even more beautiful. Ella Raines is one of the unfortunates — take a look at her posters and you’ll realize that art doesn’t imitate life. (Lizabeth Scott, on the other hand, shines in her posters like no other actress.) This example is one of the rare exceptions, as the artist has done a fine job of capturing Raines’s astonishing good looks. An equally fine job has been done with George Sanders.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This poster scores points for not only the quality of the illustration, but also for the striking way in which Sanders’s direct gaze pleads with viewers. I appreciate the strong diagonal composition, but wish the female figure at the top didn’t seem so awkwardly perched atop Sanders’s head.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Finally, notice the ends of the stars’ names along the right-hand edge; draw an imaginary vertical line with your eye — those names should line up with each other, and with the sleeve of the standing figure at the bottom of the design as well. The human eye craves structure, and wants badly for things to “line up.” We’d appreciate this poster more were that the case.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBtDvJYfoYd_StrsrhsexCT-Q-AYqTM5gR_s9TJQxCiJ8V4QVvdfrb7axgPEtDYL_1YaQlQU46_FUMyc7H15j45jKz7w60qT7GV0aNubl3PevIc5tXjlAqppjEvNanlMqMXefLbzkVCc0/s1600/98.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544046278705000034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBtDvJYfoYd_StrsrhsexCT-Q-AYqTM5gR_s9TJQxCiJ8V4QVvdfrb7axgPEtDYL_1YaQlQU46_FUMyc7H15j45jKz7w60qT7GV0aNubl3PevIc5tXjlAqppjEvNanlMqMXefLbzkVCc0/s640/98.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="428" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">98. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Killers</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(1946)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Again and again, Burt Lancaster is handled curiously on movie posters: it’s amazing how often he’s rendered in profile, holding a woman in his arms. The posters for <span style="font-style: italic;">Criss-Cross, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, From Here to Eternity</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Rainmaker</span> all depict him this way. This one is the best of the bunch. H</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">e’s in love—she couldn’t care less.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And even though the quality of the illustration is poor (that doesn’t </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">really</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> look like Ava, does it?), the overall composition more than makes up for it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">See how the long shadows cast by the killers lead us right to the doomed lovers? That’s an example of a designer using composition to keep our eyes from straying off the poster while also reinforcing the concept of the movie. I’m also conscious of the attention to detail: despite the small scale and extreme angle, anyone who knows this film knows that the killers on the poster are the very same killers from the film.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Finally, all designers will confide that the worst word to include in a design (especially a logo) is “the,” because although it’s insignificant as hell it almost always comes first! As you examine film posters, try to decide whether or not “the” is handled well. The designer here solved the pesky problem of beautifully; the designer on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Blue Dahlia</span> poster, for example, did not.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDnumbko6s-XaP776C0X-owgGHGkuaKjS-jub_qQSZ7sGGHmH1hCRXBohaFGbR5kQfKtvJZd3fQYki_8ZkSGgk4HVvSN2zC5I19wl2jVaHxpUEIJGoocNrEbCSVB98taBvqy4GYy7SOHQ/s1600/97.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544046271696858242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDnumbko6s-XaP776C0X-owgGHGkuaKjS-jub_qQSZ7sGGHmH1hCRXBohaFGbR5kQfKtvJZd3fQYki_8ZkSGgk4HVvSN2zC5I19wl2jVaHxpUEIJGoocNrEbCSVB98taBvqy4GYy7SOHQ/s640/97.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="418" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">97. <span style="font-style: italic;">Wicked Woman</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(1954)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Like the forthcoming poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Beat Generation</span>, I’ve included the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Wicked Woman</span> because it’s so unusual. It isn’t an attractive poster, but it can’t be dismissed, And there’s a bit more going on here than initially meets the eye.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It’s impossible not to catch the reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne: instead of a large “A” (and befitting the radioactivity of the atomic age) we are confronted with a woman who is quite literally glowing scarlet. In addition to the inventive (and economical) use of two ink colors, I love how the designer has made us into voyeurs. All of the poster’s scenes are domestic — amorous, violent, indifferent — and we peer at them as if through the panes of an uncurtained window. There’s something very much in keeping with the film noir milieu here; the poster reminds us that for many folks the American Dream was a sham, and not every 1950s home was a happy one. I’m annoyed by the lowest image panel — it seems unrelated to the two above; and for that matter the “vampire” panel is confusing as well. Although this poster asks more questions than it answers, it’s evocative enough to warrant a spot in the countdown.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ErQD37eA9z8QiIALqdydqK7px8kmw3xb3np5ywe5omvB806HuCIltjMAc6DW6C-UKjV4sRGXPG5Ejf9dZp7qkwSGcNdt3opdh4jzsEs-zjmtsjvJ4XfLx9Z2wdaArmzWp-elwW5l4KA/s1600/96.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544046263685648210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ErQD37eA9z8QiIALqdydqK7px8kmw3xb3np5ywe5omvB806HuCIltjMAc6DW6C-UKjV4sRGXPG5Ejf9dZp7qkwSGcNdt3opdh4jzsEs-zjmtsjvJ4XfLx9Z2wdaArmzWp-elwW5l4KA/s640/96.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="416" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #996633;">96. <i>The Beat Generation</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><i> </i></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(1959)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Enter the realm of ugly but effective. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, originality will be rewarded. Why? Because originality sticks in the memory — and being memorable is everything. I don’t mean to imply that designers and illustrators are vain; it just makes sense that a unique design will linger in the mind longer than something run-of-the-mill. It’ll also pull in more sets of eyes and sell more tickets. Besides, anyone who’s seen<span style="font-style: italic;"> <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2009/05/ray-danton-double-feature.html" target="_blank">The Beat Generation</a></span><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2009/05/ray-danton-double-feature.html" target="_blank"> </a>knows that a traditional approach to the poster would have done the movie a disservice.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In one sense the design here is a mess: too many typefaces, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">type scattered everywhere,</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">not a smidge of negative space to be found, and three or four clashing illustration styles. Yet what does this crazy mishmash tell us? That we’re in for a hypodermic’s worth of sex, violence, music, and weirdness — a “beatnik” exposé featuring a hot Mamie Van Doren. For the squares in 1959 middle America, something this lurid couldn’t be missed.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD1zHU24uh9T0iTSKEvOHRjAIeD3DAaekwM_M5Ip-CeGbuadEqQxpY6jIumqCDXPrim2P2RgSS8Jpn6kNdcqS0CmQb74IkBZtVR0WkGYyCOQiOIj5a73c7DtJvCCfEt7QCaBHZ-OgXwWs/s1600/95.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544047125835211554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD1zHU24uh9T0iTSKEvOHRjAIeD3DAaekwM_M5Ip-CeGbuadEqQxpY6jIumqCDXPrim2P2RgSS8Jpn6kNdcqS0CmQb74IkBZtVR0WkGYyCOQiOIj5a73c7DtJvCCfEt7QCaBHZ-OgXwWs/s640/95.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="418" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">95. <span style="font-style: italic;">Highway 301</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(1950)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here’s the first example I’ve included that exploits the semi-documentary style of many noir films. It almost reads like a newspaper page or magazine cover (we’ll see that approach taken to extremes later in the countdown) with “ripped from the headlines” style type-treatments all over the place, a radio-style “Flash!” at the bottom of the poster, and authentic-looking, scandal sheet crime photos along the right edge.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">All of this visual noise frames a photograph of Steve Cochran pistol-whipping some cluck in a pinstripe suit. The expansive field of red in the background is also potently useful; it frames the artwork and anchors the many compositional elements, while suggesting a film that’s brimming over with blood and action. (It’s true—<a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2017/08/highway-301-1950.html" target="_blank">Highway 301</a> is brutal.) Through the choice of color, the immediacy of the shadows that morph into brushstrokes at the very top, and the diagonal composition, this vaguely recalls the <span style="font-style: italic;">Uncle Harry</span> poster, but this arrangement wins out. All of the elements work together to complete the overall rectangular shape, and the <i>Highway 301</i> title graphic points us leads the eyes to the poster’s unmistakable focal point: Steve Cochran—and it’s all accomplished with just two ink colors!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">My one gripe? Five different typefaces is three too many!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTlDTL9bJPfP1mudmcYgK3-4zRRvWJA3IwUBx0PA5zANF_AW7-zx6_5CrTEtE1-rLGl_tl2ZtfmT9clHVq2P9Uk-nWr_9SV-rzCkWgpLFmFSI_7dl7iWbJhFVq4N5W1iFv1gtDfnCcWGc/s1600/94.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544047121577066226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTlDTL9bJPfP1mudmcYgK3-4zRRvWJA3IwUBx0PA5zANF_AW7-zx6_5CrTEtE1-rLGl_tl2ZtfmT9clHVq2P9Uk-nWr_9SV-rzCkWgpLFmFSI_7dl7iWbJhFVq4N5W1iFv1gtDfnCcWGc/s640/94.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="420" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">94. <span style="font-style: italic;">Alias Nick Beal</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(1949)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here we have a strong counterpoint to the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Blue Dahlia</span>. What that one did wrong, <span style="font-style: italic;">Alias Nick Beal</span> does right. A simple, strong composition from top to bottom, it offers us a wonderfully colorful glimpse at Audrey Totter (even if the angle of her figure makes her hips seem strangely narrow), as well as a space-filling sketch at the bottom that provides some insight into the setting and the intrigue of the film. The characters have been arranged to accommodate the expansive red box that holds the film title and the stars’ names — and here we don’t have stars of such magnitude that they require the top of the poster to be wrecked, despite the fact that unlike the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Dahlia</span> stars, Milland was an Oscar winner. Finally, notice how the images of the performers are engaged with one another. Sure, Totter is objectified, but at least she’s attracted the attention of Milland, who in turn is eyeballed by Mitchell. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is a rare film, so I won’t give anything away, but know that the three leads are depicted very much according to character.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoCw_U-F25bBotelaIixEHy7VzUzw-CHShQcxcbbLBF55z0PDhm77PfipK4UJRNr0D3kpTY26wQR4RVygd8J-e1dKDE7PZK3_Ot6-I3LGgVNj7TxsQGCFPk5PYrLj80zLYNIUSJLl5bWU/s1600/90.-Johnny-Stool-Pigeon.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546528470204777090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoCw_U-F25bBotelaIixEHy7VzUzw-CHShQcxcbbLBF55z0PDhm77PfipK4UJRNr0D3kpTY26wQR4RVygd8J-e1dKDE7PZK3_Ot6-I3LGgVNj7TxsQGCFPk5PYrLj80zLYNIUSJLl5bWU/s640/90.-Johnny-Stool-Pigeon.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="419" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">93.<span style="font-style: italic;"> Johnny Stool Pigeon</span> (1949)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">I’d like this poster more if not for two things: first, the contrived publicity still pose of Dan Duryea (I can just see the photographer giving him direction, “Dan, hold the gun a little higher…”), and the fact that the designer has made it appear as if he is standing in Oscar the Grouch’s garbage can. The suggestion of violence is tantalizing, but why does the artwork have to be so forced and awkward? There’s also something amiss about the size relationship between Duryea and Mr. Lupino, whoops, I mean Howard Duff—in all likelihood they were not photographed together.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">So why is it here? The saving grace of the whole affair is Shelly Winters, who looks extraordinary: iconic and noir-ish to the nines in her beret, red dress, and fox fur. This is exactly what a noir dame is supposed to look like. I’ve taken a fair amount of heat in the years since I originally published this countdown for not including the poster for that most iconic of noir films, <i>Out of the Past</i>. Although I made that decision in part to court some controversy, I’ve never liked <i>OotP</i>’s rather dull depiction of Jane Greer, whose image could have very well been lifted from the poster for an 18th or 19th century period piece. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lGLKw18P0p0rCgEOHf762zlQtkXLhCYxzjJeC2RUWQn6v7ICPOW5qxSwmQbQX5EWTNJfx89kHsU8p0_ooK-4woGF1sBGL9m-NNjoG-bcuPObMwOqOxjMzZYjwZHLM3V8rYdgfYrEX38/s1600/93.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544047097056081058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9lGLKw18P0p0rCgEOHf762zlQtkXLhCYxzjJeC2RUWQn6v7ICPOW5qxSwmQbQX5EWTNJfx89kHsU8p0_ooK-4woGF1sBGL9m-NNjoG-bcuPObMwOqOxjMzZYjwZHLM3V8rYdgfYrEX38/s640/93.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="422" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">92. <span style="font-style: italic;">Blonde Ice</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(1948)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The poster for<span style="font-style: italic;"> Blonde Ice</span>, one of the most legendary B-noirs, is another that benefits from not having to include big star names above the title. The use of photography rather than illustration (a low rent outfit like Film Classics wouldn’t pay an illustrator when stills or publicity shots would do) benefits this design. T</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">he gigantic image of Miss Brooks and her smoking gun, far from glamorous or idealized,</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> suggests an intoxicating trashiness that’s what this movie is all about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Looking past that, the design holds up under any microscope: dynamic composition, deft blending of type and image, and follow that wafting gun smoke that leads up to the lover’s embrace. If only Brooks’s line of sight conformed to that of the typography, and the boxy, smoke-obscuring drop shadow on the capital “I” could be removed—not to mention the clumsy and unnecessary shadow of the two lovers—this poster might finish higher on the list.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PoPB64NI9ZCsp55rWS8PfHztuRzekibILzLiDFrievN19YSgf-5jypmKcDcU7M813Q-QLEU6NBAs-DJYmfdmx_hDs1pHTcQ25lw8TFcELELGbsTbh23uZQMW3hVVhyphenhyphenMN8Wg3LjdE5AQ/s1600/92.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544047088630543874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PoPB64NI9ZCsp55rWS8PfHztuRzekibILzLiDFrievN19YSgf-5jypmKcDcU7M813Q-QLEU6NBAs-DJYmfdmx_hDs1pHTcQ25lw8TFcELELGbsTbh23uZQMW3hVVhyphenhyphenMN8Wg3LjdE5AQ/s640/92.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="423" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">91. <span style="font-style: italic;">I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">(1951)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Nothing shouts B-movie like a two-color poster from the brothers Warner, and like the design for <i>Highway 301</i>, this is one of their best. Just as we appreciate films made on the cheap, I admire the economy of a poster done to match. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is a worthwhile film, strangely nominated for Oscar in the Best Documentary Feature category. It has also become widely available <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-was-communist-for-fbi-1951.html" target="_blank">since I originally wrote about it years ago</a>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There’s really a lot to like in this design: check out how star Frank Lovejoy </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">challenges the viewer</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">, with even more immediacy than George Sanders in the </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Uncle Harry</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> poster, breaking the fourth wall via that delightful quote. His arm points directly at the cascading vignettes of violence and sex, all guaranteed to entice audiences. Notice as well the wonderful title typography: not only does it use perspective to steer our eyes to the place Lovejoy’s finger points, but also it creates a “floor” upon which that lonely figure stands. Any designer capable of juxtaposing type and image this beautifully, while still maintaining the type’s readability, is aces in my book. Let it not go unsaid as well that audiences were sure to notice the prominent positioning of Warner Bros. and the </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Saturday Evening Post</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> in the poster design: like putting the Good Housekeeping seal on your 1950s Red Scare exposé picture.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5pFsdl9B4w_0FVlAXz0qzWIuvXStajtMKaq4BTVJz8Ft7rgAUNCWuYOmagOoHPPwY3qlebOUpw-BKa-9QBCzoyWQ54mcDLWwpcOU5tFhfjqzsenzL_7ZAd2WN4PHkJa80QA2bWlRLWtc/s1600/91.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544047087323404722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5pFsdl9B4w_0FVlAXz0qzWIuvXStajtMKaq4BTVJz8Ft7rgAUNCWuYOmagOoHPPwY3qlebOUpw-BKa-9QBCzoyWQ54mcDLWwpcOU5tFhfjqzsenzL_7ZAd2WN4PHkJa80QA2bWlRLWtc/s640/91.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="421" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">90. <span style="font-style: italic;">Short Cut to Hell</span> (1957)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Primarily notable as the only film directed by Jimmy Cagney, <span style="font-style: italic;">Short Cut to Hell</span> is a tepid remake of the Alan Ladd Veronica Lake classic <i>This Gun for Hire</i>. Regardless of the quality of the movie, this is one hell of a poster, and yet another that benefits from not having to promote a big name cast. Let’s take a few minutes and really sink our teeth into the design of this poster, <span style="font-style: italic;">because it’s that good</span>:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The first thing to note is the poster’s simplicity, which allowed it to be produced on the cheap. There are just three colors, none of which are registered tightly, meaning fewer throw-aways on the printing press and significant savings over the course of the print run. There’s also little illustration, with images captured directly from publicity photographs. The top image has been manipulated—</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">notice the inky quality of the trench coat. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I bet that the publicity still was somehow different than what we see here. More evidence of retouching can be found in the strange cropping of the female figure’s front shoulder underneath the word “Short.” Designers were often given a sheaf of publicity shots and told to make them into a poster—they had to make do with what they were given.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What’s even better about the photos is how they create depth — this poster is practically 3-D. The hood being gunned down erupts from the picture-plane, falling into our laps! But his body also overlaps the title typography, which itself beautifully frames him. That type, in turn, overlaps the large image in the background. Each aspect of the image: the falling figure, the title typography, and the large photograph of the couple integrate seamlessly. Gestalt! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now here’s the icing on the cake: take another look at the falling hoodlum. Where does his gun lead our eyes? Directly at the title of the movie. Where does his free hand point? At the cast list. Such positioning is certainly no accident! Now let’s look more closely at the big image on top. Where does that rather big, phallic gun point? You got it, and that’s no accident either.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Finally there’s the color, which is the mortar that holds these bricks together. The black ink really pops against the yellow and the red, but that large red rectangle is an incredibly powerful composition device, even more than on the <i>Highway 301 </i>poster. It gives the title typography, as well as the secondary typography, something comfortable to anchor itself to and align with; and it frames up all of the important information in the design. Like a picture frame, it shouts, “Look at me!,” and does it damn well.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Although there’s still a long way to go in the countdown, we aren’t likely to find many entries with better designs—there will certainly be more beautiful posters, more original posters, and more resonant posters, but few that are, as designers say, more <span style="font-style: italic;">designerly</span>. Posters like this one make me love my job. What do you think?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kxwFk6v9BUU1bseAaGFzx7jhVNEwTdyupv1KYMpXyVdcga5reokR2vagDAP6-PbCkGlGHeAZ6PZwxmbae9lm_27ASp93fXhpMGbjsVeBWino1M6P4gxPDKoCtOlJPBEHKtV1y9FB95Y/s1600/48.-Hoodlum-Empire.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567512473259106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kxwFk6v9BUU1bseAaGFzx7jhVNEwTdyupv1KYMpXyVdcga5reokR2vagDAP6-PbCkGlGHeAZ6PZwxmbae9lm_27ASp93fXhpMGbjsVeBWino1M6P4gxPDKoCtOlJPBEHKtV1y9FB95Y/s640/48.-Hoodlum-Empire.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">89. <span style="font-style: italic;">Hoodlum Empire</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1952)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What a great title! In addition to a stampede of westerns, lowly Republic Pictures issued several much beloved B crime films, with posters rendered in the studio’s house style: a cluttered hodgepodge of hand-drawn title typography, badly mismatched mechanical typefaces, and watercolor illustrations created from publicity stills. It would be easy to pass off Republic’s posters as the work of amateurs, but there’s something magical about how everything comes together in the finished product. I adore them—and poster collectors do too! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This design screams “B movie,” with an illustrative style that resembles that of a comic book. The images are cobbled together, the typography is clumsy, and the thing is convoluted as hell, but it all adds up to something really great. This may be another example of personal preference pushing objectivity aside for a moment, but this is one of those posters that evokes film noir in a way that, although I feel it in my bones, I have a hard time putting into words. No tip-toeing around Claire Trevor though, making yet another appearance in the countdown—and unlike the idealized version of herself appearing on the forthcoming poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Murder, My Sweet</span>, she is pure femme fatale here—that dismissive sneer says it all. Her illustration is so strong that it distracted everyone, even the artist (!), from the fact that the man holding her has two right hands!</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhipshwVjXqJ92j0OrCPtX6UdKoP3o0ekxrwBh0DDPc8U7_bTH8ZgG2DcUa6ssX3NlRoeh07hL9D7BUlmg6EzCZ0zDj9oCq2TLa52-7IGXMobKS-tQwDvzVAk5lcrnCjDLK1sOMVM7wP4A/s1600/88.-Human-Desire.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546530248079630738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhipshwVjXqJ92j0OrCPtX6UdKoP3o0ekxrwBh0DDPc8U7_bTH8ZgG2DcUa6ssX3NlRoeh07hL9D7BUlmg6EzCZ0zDj9oCq2TLa52-7IGXMobKS-tQwDvzVAk5lcrnCjDLK1sOMVM7wP4A/s640/88.-Human-Desire.jpg" width="422" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzA9GIW1yy1oMJsqKKE3hVve6NRgTpsKz3rftpuJKrT2bOyXJa2mvQfRKTj2luCJPM3zHsN67qexLE_KuRPR4yTprZhbZ9R78rUPyudda6mXPfSI_aQ83huqEARMkQIss2793-DmjC1M/s1600/87.-Big-Heat%252C-The.jpg"> <img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546530249791376450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGzA9GIW1yy1oMJsqKKE3hVve6NRgTpsKz3rftpuJKrT2bOyXJa2mvQfRKTj2luCJPM3zHsN67qexLE_KuRPR4yTprZhbZ9R78rUPyudda6mXPfSI_aQ83huqEARMkQIss2793-DmjC1M/s640/87.-Big-Heat%252C-The.jpg" width="427" /></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">88. <i>Human Desire</i> (1954)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">87. <i>The Big Heat</i> (1953)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">What is Glenn Ford’s problem? If I were Gloria Grahame I’d yank the cotton out of my mouth and tell him to get his mitts off me. My decision to place the posters for <span style="font-style: italic;">Human Desire</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Big Heat </span>next to one another in the countdown was completely accidental—but let’s call it a happy accident.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Although both posters are winners, I prefer the immediacy of the startling image on<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Big Heat</span> to the superior composition of <span style="font-style: italic;">Human Desire</span>, though Gloria Grahame is never sexier than on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Desire</span> poster. Thus the ranking order. </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Another minor but important aspect of the </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Desire</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> poster is that designers are </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold;">“</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">finally</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold;">”</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> coming to understand that placing quotation marks around the film title is silly and unnecessary. </span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">We’ll have to forgive the era for the abundance of male on female violence that we see in film noir posters (there’s more to come, in terms of number of entries and the amount of violence). </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Interestingly, the moment depicted on</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;"> The Big Heat</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> poster</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> between Ford and Grahame never actually happens: it’s Lee Marvin who grabs her like that in the movie! </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps the most interesting (and strangest) aspect of either poster is the odd appearance that a tiny Marvin makes in the margin of the poster for </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">The Big Heat</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">. What is he doing there? Who is he shooting at? Between Marvin on the <i>Heat</i> poster and the gigantic red shoe on </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Desire</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">, I’m not sure which poster has the stranger details.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIWQKGmYxzTnpN1IqcHwzcBX0bHRk7Jy3NP4nL0invv_IuQ0sG0awNa_ypDqZJayXFrtjMQe9trTIdyNNZhZTTXwID56wPyBEb5PzXm_mqxGO2KXLR1xGbyq2Z0wCJsO4gtoa4w-ptl0/s1600/86.-City-of-Fear.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546528451113142802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIWQKGmYxzTnpN1IqcHwzcBX0bHRk7Jy3NP4nL0invv_IuQ0sG0awNa_ypDqZJayXFrtjMQe9trTIdyNNZhZTTXwID56wPyBEb5PzXm_mqxGO2KXLR1xGbyq2Z0wCJsO4gtoa4w-ptl0/s640/86.-City-of-Fear.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="420" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">86. <span style="font-style: italic;">City of Fear</span> (1959)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">If we look at the posters from the silent era through the 1930s and 1940s, the majority were produced in the tradition of stone lithography popularized during the Art Noveau period: traditional illustrations wedded to hand-drawn typography in organic, curvilinear compositions. The design elements are nestled together like puzzle pieces rather than adhering to an underlying structure of imaginary horizontal and vertical grid lines.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Coming at the very last gasp of the classic noir period, the poster for 1959’s <span style="font-style: italic;">City of Fear </span>demonstrates the evolving design style that was finally finding its way into the art of the film poster. This is most apparent in the unadorned, minimal composition, the selection of modern, photographically produced typefaces, and the designer’s reliance on concept rather than an idealized star image to sell the movie. The fifties were the beginnings of the information age, as well as the corporate era, and American graphic design took on a minimal, mass-produced look and feel—an outgrowth of the Swiss Modern style that flourished in Europe in the years after the war. This sheet for <span style="font-style: italic;">City of Fear</span> is one that owes more to advertising sensibilities than it does to Hollywood poster-making tradition.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Yet it’s still something of a hybrid. The bedroom scene at the bottom of the composition and the trio of figures at the top seem old fashioned and out-of-style. The designer didn’t have the confidence (or more likely, the permission) to use only the frightened eyes and cityscape imagery, and must’ve felt compelled to include melodramatic moments from the film—no matter that they don’t seem to fit. The two figures at the top are bizarre: they nestle nicely among the red letters, but also appear to be clumsily falling through space.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENuPN6YUpQGcrOcPQE9LtX6qQhyphenhyphenl4TsPJ34RMtb-xTX_eVcC2Z1Qj-pL-IgkjGCQIxLt4Kp4ZBe9ivO-FQJsDviP3iyFkZxPLPhYDantnxKkubc4mSeBT4AsuNDQYb_ya158jStG_wnM/s1600/85.-Crime-of-Passion.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546527228587226418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENuPN6YUpQGcrOcPQE9LtX6qQhyphenhyphenl4TsPJ34RMtb-xTX_eVcC2Z1Qj-pL-IgkjGCQIxLt4Kp4ZBe9ivO-FQJsDviP3iyFkZxPLPhYDantnxKkubc4mSeBT4AsuNDQYb_ya158jStG_wnM/s640/85.-Crime-of-Passion.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="423" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">85. <span style="font-style: italic;">Crime of Passion</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1957)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">A clearly communicative, cleanly designed, and professionally executed poster. Its late cycle date (1957) again demonstrates the slow but certain arrival of modernist design principles in film poster design: expansive areas of bright primary colors, crisp lines, typefaces instead of hand-lettering, and photography instead of illustration.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">We’ve seen a few examples in the countdown so far where the poster begins to relate its own narrative by using the sequential panels of a comic strip. <span style="font-style: italic;">Crime of Passion</span> comes the closest to resembling an actual comic strip. In this instance the technique is successful because it uses narrative in the same fashion as a movie trailer does: to whet the appetite. When we arrive at the end of the sequence—<span style="font-style: italic;">THE SIN, THE LIE, THE CRIME OF PASSION—</span>we still very much want to visit the movie theater to learn how the story washes out.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Another nuance of the design that I appreciate is how the first two images are in the sequence are straightforward, almost unmistakable in their meaning, yet the third image is rather vague: has she just shot him? Is she about to? Has she simply just discovered the revolver among his things? We have to see film to find out, and that’s what makes this poster work.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4chBcuymxQM4iz6G0QWCIbFR8mS1dEy6uhyphenhyphenW7r0PDfwrBeCiM0_I7ID0cD3mOnKmAliWv-ydYuWwcRqEEKlqaqIjVLNx_7L82NHcPQ5ncL8hsauGhTSrGAV7t8utxiA0SyFvt_haRWJk/s1600/84.-Baby-Face-Nelson.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546530856738594066" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4chBcuymxQM4iz6G0QWCIbFR8mS1dEy6uhyphenhyphenW7r0PDfwrBeCiM0_I7ID0cD3mOnKmAliWv-ydYuWwcRqEEKlqaqIjVLNx_7L82NHcPQ5ncL8hsauGhTSrGAV7t8utxiA0SyFvt_haRWJk/s640/84.-Baby-Face-Nelson.jpg" width="421" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb4aQIpd9NVhDcLFX_TbTXPXx2TXBeI3Tl4lPP8x7DBYG7GsvGuFo-_g9cCl8As3XU7xhnFZ1fY9ssy5J4VZfT6CqeNNBq4UysSeQe1TsRDxocAQ60SGIWCA5cjWzIanGc7ML8Ho1SFU/s1600/Last-Mile.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546530859458181842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb4aQIpd9NVhDcLFX_TbTXPXx2TXBeI3Tl4lPP8x7DBYG7GsvGuFo-_g9cCl8As3XU7xhnFZ1fY9ssy5J4VZfT6CqeNNBq4UysSeQe1TsRDxocAQ60SGIWCA5cjWzIanGc7ML8Ho1SFU/s640/Last-Mile.jpg" width="416" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">84. <span style="font-style: italic;">Baby Face Nelson</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1957)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">I give you Mickey Rooney, snarling maniac.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">There are a few posters that made the list through sheer bad-assery, and this is one of them. As you can see, Mickey adopted this rough-and-ready screen persona in two posters, though the design for 1959’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Last Mile </span>isn’t nearly as sophisticated as <span style="font-style: italic;">Baby Face Nelson</span>’s; the type treatment at the top of the poster is forced and awkward, and the large, jowly face on the right is distracting. (I have to admit that I like the poster so much that I had to include it here as a bonus—the illustration of Mickey is too good to pass up!) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The clinchers for the red poster however are the ancillary images:</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> how about the sprawling dead figures at the bottom? As you can see, all four have been bound and executed, their blood splatters and stains the floor all around them. This sort of imagery was risqué in any Eisenhower-era film, it’s shocking and notable to see it on the poster. And </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">get an eyeful of shotgun-toting Carolyn Jones, of Morticia Addams fame. Too bad the poster artist gave her the gravitas of a linebacker in drag! </span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLRJYnU8c-UMa7JsnQzvhbXcJENuzEka-9o3PMk_aYC_ZQpEE3ytv0g9rDz0MBGvQauPXqUBsFkJfQopjeZdX8EdfqTkl0IDwtIcvXOGCL1f62wIiKbuOpn2dorIepvqcrZtiA6dpFWs/s1600/83.-Appointment-with-Danger.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546527211416561394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLRJYnU8c-UMa7JsnQzvhbXcJENuzEka-9o3PMk_aYC_ZQpEE3ytv0g9rDz0MBGvQauPXqUBsFkJfQopjeZdX8EdfqTkl0IDwtIcvXOGCL1f62wIiKbuOpn2dorIepvqcrZtiA6dpFWs/s640/83.-Appointment-with-Danger.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="418" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">83. <span style="font-style: italic;">Appointment with Danger</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1950)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">I’ve been an Alan Ladd fan for as long as I’ve enjoyed classic films, and back in the glory days of Netflix, when users could have avatars and publish reviews under their own screen names, Ladd’s face represented yours truly. <span style="font-style: italic;">Appointment with Danger</span> is an excellent hardboiled film that has recently become available on DVD; it’s one I’ve <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2010/08/appointment-with-danger-1951.html">written about here</a> and at the <a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/">Noir of the Week</a> site. The poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Appointment</span> is super: eye popping primary colors highlighting two classic images of Ladd in action. As with the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Short Cut to Hell</span>, I appreciate how the designer has used overlapping forms to give the poster a fore-, middle-, and background. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ladd was a huge star at the time, so his name, along with that of Phyllis Calvert (who plays a nun in the film and is consequently absent from the poster) is above the title. Nevertheless, the type all sits comfortably, and the poster’s only real drawback is the black box at the bottom. It irks me how it covers up the tumbling figure of Jack Webb. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Referring back to the points I raised with the <span style="font-style: italic;">City of Fear</span> poster, this poster is also one that bridges a style gap: none of the lettering here is drawn, it’s all the result of existing typefaces, yet the composition, with its large image of Ladd and ancillary action vignettes is pure Hollywood tradition.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">One final distraction, which admitted kept me from moving this poster up in the rankings, is a little nit-picky: click to zoom in on this one and dig Jan Sterling’s right arm. Poor woman.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrdc4E2xAlFVIqnAGq7DxMsna9Ktr-UYUvY3KCF_jc1cQdxOjmHZLW3zPD8UcJ0kyH_RwEW0DqP7hHODRxQez2Ovdn2ZMreF69vH_y0FSCG4iEsFOoUziLpjL95X9pNhQqKEIYgHc-w7M/s1600/82.-Lightning-Strikes-Twice.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546527201089933506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrdc4E2xAlFVIqnAGq7DxMsna9Ktr-UYUvY3KCF_jc1cQdxOjmHZLW3zPD8UcJ0kyH_RwEW0DqP7hHODRxQez2Ovdn2ZMreF69vH_y0FSCG4iEsFOoUziLpjL95X9pNhQqKEIYgHc-w7M/s640/82.-Lightning-Strikes-Twice.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="429" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">82. <span style="font-style: italic;">Lightning Strikes Twice</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1951)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">With taglines such as “A girl without a stoplight in her life” and “The first time you kissed her was one time too many,” all referring to the spectacular Ruth Roman (the look…the cigarette…priceless), </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">how can a poster this delicious go wrong?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A great two-color design in the classic fifties Warner Bros. B-movie style (remember </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">I Was a Communist for the F.B.I.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> and </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Highway 301</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">?), this poster just doesn’t miss. The Post-It note-style box at the top bothers me in that the hastily scribbled type seems out of touch with the rest of the design, but it’s a small gripe. This is a stunner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzdwqIAcdr1JqvxWhsANZxbYy0okyP_vxlAQ19q8damwDN_hfHO3MGBCD5WT1-nzciJAIP4FZbqO2i4cDHLzdezuDHb5mkuvx4jyRMy4a9IRabXad8x0S9RWHcieYRLFaAj6kKeIxhA_s/s1600/81.-This-Side-of-the-Law.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546530602522357730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzdwqIAcdr1JqvxWhsANZxbYy0okyP_vxlAQ19q8damwDN_hfHO3MGBCD5WT1-nzciJAIP4FZbqO2i4cDHLzdezuDHb5mkuvx4jyRMy4a9IRabXad8x0S9RWHcieYRLFaAj6kKeIxhA_s/s640/81.-This-Side-of-the-Law.jpg" width="417" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUznRWs6PY3zEw2XxbGxn7K-608Q23VKgUCRDAt0YGkPw9PzRAqODVqF2Y_kfFMkiAxTabEtCmge-aUNDFONsAGZAH8O86FQ0bcAqOn2zwtgkawKrmlD_hMs8HiRAcLzOdMC3cbhyXffU/s1600/Cape-Fear.jpg"> <img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546530609701349234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUznRWs6PY3zEw2XxbGxn7K-608Q23VKgUCRDAt0YGkPw9PzRAqODVqF2Y_kfFMkiAxTabEtCmge-aUNDFONsAGZAH8O86FQ0bcAqOn2zwtgkawKrmlD_hMs8HiRAcLzOdMC3cbhyXffU/s640/Cape-Fear.jpg" width="418" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">81. <span style="font-style: italic;">This Side of the Law</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1950)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Here’s our first one-color poster of the countdown (there will be others, including one that ranks very near the top). At first glance the design for <span style="font-style: italic;">This Side of the Law </span>is chaotic, with images and tag lines seemingly slapped down at random. However upon closer examination, we find the work of a skilled designer who really knows how to organize pictorial space. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The first thing to notice here is how the generous white border functions, in much the same fashion as a mat and picture frame: the illustration is busy, and the use of just one ink color makes it that much more difficult pick out details in the image. </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The designer understood that by providing ample white space around the image area, the poster would appear less chaotic. I also noticed how the white box near Kent Smith’s face actually provides some much-needed relief in the image’s most heavily shaded area.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Next let’s look at the balance. there are a whopping three tag lines, each designed in a different way! That’s busy and dangerous! The two tag lines inside the image area are each wedded to a nearby photograph, which allows them to finction as captions. Notice how the third tagline, that begins with “<span style="font-style: italic;">Trapped!,</span>” is perfectly in line with the cast list and fine print at the bottom of the poster, as well as the image area itself. Our eyes love it when things “line up,” and by sizing the type thus, the rectangle-within-a-rectangle effect is enhanced and the elements in the center of the poster become clearer. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Just to drive a few of these points home and understand how two posters can be similarly constructed, yet wildly different, I present the barking dog of a one-sheet for 1962’s big-budget <span style="font-style: italic;">Cape Fear</span>. Was Mitchum ever done a greater injustice than he is on this poster? Furthermore, if we haven’t seen </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Cape Fear </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">yet</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">, wouldn’t we assume that Gregory Peck is the villain? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ireFsWebtdunI_wo_a56aTFq6HN1-O5wxphNBKbVr3Y4cZeTxx-PfFK8r9lJp2uoQnoC8GakAt1xbHNRFQrBtdf-JImTE5tBjJDuURoWdb9k2KOnIEO1DxkRYsDL5_zi8t4uGWtIBF4/s1600/56.-Verdict%252C-The.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557018799763954370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ireFsWebtdunI_wo_a56aTFq6HN1-O5wxphNBKbVr3Y4cZeTxx-PfFK8r9lJp2uoQnoC8GakAt1xbHNRFQrBtdf-JImTE5tBjJDuURoWdb9k2KOnIEO1DxkRYsDL5_zi8t4uGWtIBF4/s640/56.-Verdict%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="430" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">80. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Verdict</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1946)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here’s another of the great limited palette posters from Warner Bros. Yet unlike so many of the others done in this style, this example unusually uses just a single photograph to shoulder the weight of the entire poster. No insets, no taglines, no cheesecake, and no violence; just a deliciously dark photograph of the film’s three leads looking off-screen, riveted by some unknowable nemesis.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The title typography is great—this is one of the first instances of a conceptual type treatment we’ve seen thus far. It appears to have been stamped, in red ink of course, by some colossally large bureaucrat with absolutely terrific force, as if on a correspondingly large manila envelope. It hangs in the air, looming above the three unsuspecting characters that strain under the weight of the verdict itself. The oversized red box that holds the star names is the only major drawback — as if the photograph couldn’t do the job of identification just as easily—after all, Lorre and Greenstreet were stars of the first order. The box is too big; it covers up too much of the photo, and weighs the whole thing down. It also bothers me that the red boxes are perfectly parallel to one another; if the lower box were set at a different angle, we might also get the impression of the boxes tumbling through space, as surely the characters in<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Verdict</span> must be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWDwnguX8oWHFRTBU6G0mvNZWG_5F3uvYfkFKwPadZBeIdNYHDRAnHUbi4ufYgdQTN_a-gtomZLAOyzAwuZ_P7bkYuoBsOpgKebSYPrjC6zWGWuvJ82um9MJw_FOedKrpSS6kQC0Nv1_U/s1600/80.-Stranger-on-the-Third-Floor.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174497853680322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWDwnguX8oWHFRTBU6G0mvNZWG_5F3uvYfkFKwPadZBeIdNYHDRAnHUbi4ufYgdQTN_a-gtomZLAOyzAwuZ_P7bkYuoBsOpgKebSYPrjC6zWGWuvJ82um9MJw_FOedKrpSS6kQC0Nv1_U/s640/80.-Stranger-on-the-Third-Floor.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="429" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">79. <span style="font-style: italic;">Stranger on the Third Floor</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1940)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stranger on the Third Floor </span>is one of the few films credited with being the very first film noir, though enthusiasts can spend hours arguing about it. Although the poster is done in the classic early forties style, it nevertheless captures the paranoia and alienation that are the hallmarks of film noir. My major qualm is that the accusatory hand pointing at all of those nervous faces might suggest to some viewers that this is a simple whodunit murder mystery, a style of film that was very much en vogue as the 1930s become the 1940s. Nevertheless, the faces are so vividly expressionist and well rendered—especially Peter Lorre’s—there’s little to complain about. I wish the title typography didn’t so sloppily cover up some of the faces—if it didn’t this would have been ranked higher.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXb3Ya4y6wxgF5X9Ce4raY-Eh7xpGc7GmBuTuIwJIgc44HJfhNYjzNlvTgI_yoEbcyumYyLgp5Hb-in6LTKsCBpEqVEc7Er1b6XmwPHb3adpYP1KzD7wcQNfj-SrVJ1MW29kpqqyI3g-k/s1600/79.-Side-Street.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174504701353266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXb3Ya4y6wxgF5X9Ce4raY-Eh7xpGc7GmBuTuIwJIgc44HJfhNYjzNlvTgI_yoEbcyumYyLgp5Hb-in6LTKsCBpEqVEc7Er1b6XmwPHb3adpYP1KzD7wcQNfj-SrVJ1MW29kpqqyI3g-k/s640/79.-Side-Street.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="422" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">78. <span style="font-style: italic;">Side Street</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1950)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">This was one of the more difficult entries to situate in the countdown; I’m still not confident about where it ended up. Just to be perfectly clear, I feel as if I might have placed <span style="font-style: italic;">Side Street </span>too high, rather than too low. The illustration of Granger and O’Donnell is very reserved compared to that seen on many of the other entries—which is something I appreciate. There’s a quiet elegance happening that I wanted to reward, along with the use of the sign motif that we’ll see again on the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Detour</span>—very iconic for film noir. Once again I’m pleased with a strong diagonal composition, divided in half by the sign pole. However, I find the photographic imagery at the poster’s left edge to be disappointing. It’s awkwardly presented, with halftones that are somehow lighter than the surrounding blue-purple background. Such gray shadows aren’t very seductive, and instead give the poster a cheap, unfinished look that almost wrecks it. I think we’d have a better design if those images could be removed, and the “fate dropped…” tag shifted into that area.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtzfcn9Uo8p6b4oQ7c_7dBveWuEpkhpRZN3l2n0TSA82LqkhYXD4PLvei9_uEhh6eZWt8xhwRaWuKY7Ze9LBeqPquDuRJMgBGiUIwLGyPRb7-6SiFhXXcYGhutHAgIHz_LxHt1tYKjgyk/s1600/78.-Bonnie-Parker-Story.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174509425030930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtzfcn9Uo8p6b4oQ7c_7dBveWuEpkhpRZN3l2n0TSA82LqkhYXD4PLvei9_uEhh6eZWt8xhwRaWuKY7Ze9LBeqPquDuRJMgBGiUIwLGyPRb7-6SiFhXXcYGhutHAgIHz_LxHt1tYKjgyk/s640/78.-Bonnie-Parker-Story.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">77. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Bonnie Parker Story</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1958)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Sheesh, what’s not to like? In case you can’t see it very clearly: it’s a beautiful woman with a tommy gun and a cigar. Yes! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Seriously though, score one for a great illustration of cigar-chomping Big Dottie Provine. I love the broken glass effect—a terrific solution to a daunting illustration problem. It’s almost an optical illusion, appearing both in front of her and to the side. The type treatment at the top is boring (though clean), but the poster has one of the best taglines ever: “Cigar Smoking Hellcat of the Roaring Thirties.” You can’t beat it.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQpXCzDDv5d-9SZHThYBPI9YLVwEV28hVGoAhNl9VBT_DC5bLFEtdyKQekFwmKN4aVeH7u1zAt9KfoT28frUTM4hxdVaxMNvkVV5dHte-wWWWiJJMBtbrMdlWLIVZ8YoWAYrAvQfH6RQg/s1600/49.-Blueprint-for-Murder.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567516096273266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQpXCzDDv5d-9SZHThYBPI9YLVwEV28hVGoAhNl9VBT_DC5bLFEtdyKQekFwmKN4aVeH7u1zAt9KfoT28frUTM4hxdVaxMNvkVV5dHte-wWWWiJJMBtbrMdlWLIVZ8YoWAYrAvQfH6RQg/s640/49.-Blueprint-for-Murder.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">76. <span style="font-style: italic;">A Blueprint for Murder</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1953)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Do I really need to explain this one? Although I mentioned at the outset that how honestly and accurately the poster represents its film is important to me, the red-blooded American male in me takes it back. The poster design tells us little about <i>Blueprint</i>’s story; it gets by on simple cheesecake alone. Nevertheless, the design is still well assembled. Nice title type treatment in the red box, even considering the cliché of using the stencil typeface to make us think of blueprints—at least the box itself isn’t blue, right? The names are up top where we’d rather not see them, but they balance the two images to their left quite well, and despite the brazen yellow color they do nothing to distract us from Peters, doing her best to lure ticket buyers into the theater.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEq6rFuny8c93Y5T66fR2K-juf7ctsgYRU-PG5Bke3cHIJWB4zWL_IoO7I6r1qc2StvDEESR2vWtlk1i2Lf4wELgFUoRQ144H6lYTCFO-fJkjrRTS0IFQzKxNEqktEe4_ZEZciTEZq5k/s1600/77.-Riot-in-Cell-Block-11.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174511715992402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEq6rFuny8c93Y5T66fR2K-juf7ctsgYRU-PG5Bke3cHIJWB4zWL_IoO7I6r1qc2StvDEESR2vWtlk1i2Lf4wELgFUoRQ144H6lYTCFO-fJkjrRTS0IFQzKxNEqktEe4_ZEZciTEZq5k/s640/77.-Riot-in-Cell-Block-11.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">75. <span style="font-style: italic;">Riot in Cell Block 11</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1954)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">We get back to our low budget roots with this poster, which looks fantastic in three colors (black, red, and yellow; the paper is white).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">How do you handle a film that boasts no star power? Simple: you overload the design with violence and action. I don’t envy the designer who had to sift through all of the production stills that eventually found a place in this composition, but I do wonder if they are all actually taken from this film. Dig the violence: everyone here is swinging a pipe or a club, Neville Brand is wielding some sort of prison yard shank, while a Barney Fife-ish screw is desperately trying to call in some help at the top right. An impressive, well-executed (ouch) photo-montage, especially considering it was done decades before the advent of that modern monstrosity: Photoshop.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJR2jU2gUtDfJZtRqQZWZtx9SJhs41E_LED7fdm73kjNMYQggnxRK168wd9ya-EDVEeFEnFe9P8ZhfWdlp0UErJlSdeN64oTKDXPGqY0Xx-irjoasImEGIVCJSGkZ53k77AIBoEC0SUZ4/s1600/29.-Mask-of-Diijon.jpg" style="color: #996633;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564755925036164178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJR2jU2gUtDfJZtRqQZWZtx9SJhs41E_LED7fdm73kjNMYQggnxRK168wd9ya-EDVEeFEnFe9P8ZhfWdlp0UErJlSdeN64oTKDXPGqY0Xx-irjoasImEGIVCJSGkZ53k77AIBoEC0SUZ4/s640/29.-Mask-of-Diijon.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="421" /></a></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">74. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Mask of Diijon</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1946)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Yet another poster that makes a strong noir statement, this time one of alienation. The sullen, paranoid expression on Erich von Stroheim’s face, in contrast with the serenity of the blonde, brings to mind the warped perspective of many noir protagonists. The dark colors further enhance the mood.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Another reason that this is such an interesting poster is that it begs viewers to ponder what’s actually going on. For the record, von Stroheim is actually a magician in the process of performing a trick, although it appears at first glance to be something altogether more grotesque: we think we are seeing a man with a woman’s decapitated head in a wicker basket. He almost appears to be seated on a train brooding over the passing landscape. This sense of ambiguity and melancholy is powerfully noir-ish, and makes for a titillating advertisement for the film. Bizarre but effective.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9_XY4sQNQYyc2HYW6APfqMick6kL7Jj-f9nvgZzKCMUsKC9yA2BFd-0pXP8SMwFZ-wREBcyY1MrucQdhfNFIxLTJJp1ALNyWnU6DkiE9JAdD3A1lzDi6sljwtRPAuspbik1EUuktaTU/s1600/76.-Detour.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174521350599922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy9_XY4sQNQYyc2HYW6APfqMick6kL7Jj-f9nvgZzKCMUsKC9yA2BFd-0pXP8SMwFZ-wREBcyY1MrucQdhfNFIxLTJJp1ALNyWnU6DkiE9JAdD3A1lzDi6sljwtRPAuspbik1EUuktaTU/s640/76.-Detour.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">73. <span style="font-style: italic;">Detour</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1945)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The only thing missing here is a vivid depiction of Ann Savage. Sure, that’s her leaning up against the light post, but she and Tom Neal look more like pals than anything else, and anyone who’s ever seen <span style="font-style: italic;">Detour</span> will tell you that they are about as far from being pals as two people can get. Nevertheless, this scores gigantic points for the use of film noir iconography—the street sign and lamp post—and unlike the <span style="font-style: italic;">Side Street</span> poster, the designer was able to turn the sign’s warning stripes into a frame that holds the entire composition together.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The interior imagery is nicely composed from illustrated movie stills, though I’ll nitpick the inexplicable white space left between the clarinet player’s arms. </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the plus side, note how well the artist has utilized overlapping to integrate the frame and street sign with the artwork—it’s subtle but effective.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Finally, you just can’t go wrong with a street lamp, even if it is in color. An interesting, and modestly successful artistic attempt to translate the beams of light into stylized forms.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganP5EyCJY52j6yImu5clSqrPllj7fkppYXKAd-BZdFmmUiggtna2i57-ToObtwqJMTNvwF-H3_wbFhS-Xnvhpm8ghcrntPK0_EfZbRrAo7Leg2Je4-Ew0vte1Ry7UbY7dCkUJfcT8-6k/s1600/75.-Glass-Key.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174691983645682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganP5EyCJY52j6yImu5clSqrPllj7fkppYXKAd-BZdFmmUiggtna2i57-ToObtwqJMTNvwF-H3_wbFhS-Xnvhpm8ghcrntPK0_EfZbRrAo7Leg2Je4-Ew0vte1Ry7UbY7dCkUJfcT8-6k/s640/75.-Glass-Key.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="424" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">72. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Glass Key</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1942)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Is that Veronica Lake or Kathleen Turner?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">What makes the world go ‘round here isn’t all of the imagery inside the key shape, it’s the key shape itself, combined with a vivid pallet and straightforward typography.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">This is, perhaps, the most phallic poster in the countdown, but while I acknowledge the shape of the key (which is a marvelous organizing concept), it’s sexual connotation doesn’t make me appreciate the poster any more or less. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The problems here aren’t insignificant: the image of Lake doesn’t do her justice, and the rest of the vignettes are far too redundant: men clutching and punching at one another, all obviously posed. This is still a strong poster, but too bad the interior artwork wasn’t a bit more creative. After all, there’s a lot more going on in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Glass Key</span> than fisticuffs. I</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">f we could go in and replace a few of those images this would skyrocket up the list, possibly into the top 20 or 25.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhheeGg0iJWaxki_OqFs84aM6hKedm23me5kKykBLRpA4rHCz-qKRLOL8OgrHH5kKw_IFYaMP0ioh8oaXNBbCXD2lGHjdPXDFOUS1GIBEYDc9UriaIXc8dnM5K553C1ABakaX4c6yOZfsU/s1600/74.-Big-Bluff%252C-The.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174696032006002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhheeGg0iJWaxki_OqFs84aM6hKedm23me5kKykBLRpA4rHCz-qKRLOL8OgrHH5kKw_IFYaMP0ioh8oaXNBbCXD2lGHjdPXDFOUS1GIBEYDc9UriaIXc8dnM5K553C1ABakaX4c6yOZfsU/s640/74.-Big-Bluff%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">71. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Big Bluff</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1955)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">One of the cheapest, trashiest posters in the countdown—I absolutely love it! The no-brainer influence here is undoubtedly <span style="font-style: italic;">Confidential</span> magazine: the colors, inset photographs, and of course, the ‘violators’ (Sorry, that’s design-speak. Those red rectangles with black type in them; I don’t know what else to call them!) in the upper-right corner of the design all intentionally evoke <span style="font-style: italic;">Confidential</span>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Directed by W. Lee Wilder (the great Billy Wilder’s brother, believe it or not), this is a true low-budget gem. The film itself is actually not as trashy as the poster suggests, but I still recommend this—it’s available as a bargain DVD. What a great central photo, with its vivid reds and blues. Just one question: what in the world is going on with the bongo player?!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvbVYpJt2diJfZpht8n0ea7DIyxir4akd79DmH5_fyAH8RFaLZJcbZ-r3WGvYuOkFr0nQY-n66RLXUJFxhytNnCpBUvrq_NKRDacZdC68qvjnEqaOkUZyY_oA0wPbmo0VA4BQea8-Kejg/s1600/73.-Garment-Jungle.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174711777595138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvbVYpJt2diJfZpht8n0ea7DIyxir4akd79DmH5_fyAH8RFaLZJcbZ-r3WGvYuOkFr0nQY-n66RLXUJFxhytNnCpBUvrq_NKRDacZdC68qvjnEqaOkUZyY_oA0wPbmo0VA4BQea8-Kejg/s640/73.-Garment-Jungle.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="418" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">70. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Garment Jungle</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1957)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">In addition to a large slice of cheesecake, the poster for 1957’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Garment Jungle</span> more than holds its own in terms of artistic merit. Voyeurism is a recurring theme in film noir (as we’ll see in some higher-ranked entries), so the keyhole point of view image of the model, who’s either dressing or getting undressed is certainly in keeping with the noir milieu. However, it’s the scissors that make this poster so unique and memorable. The hand / scissors motif is potent in so many ways: it adds spatial depth; it “cuts” the picture plane diagonally, providing edges that typography aligns to; it creates a negative space that holds a tagline and small action-image; and finally, it integrates with the background and the nice little garment tag that holds the title of the film. Finally, and most importantly, it portends violence and death. Notice also how that negative “white” space mirrors the angle and shape of the model’s body—that’s no accident!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDIIF-UtEPkM4SHPwV1I0s_qJiepdUJgEN3ZdV8G-ZijjwrSozImWOWjGACUSTH4zOoJrS5uOfsNP5GOxJSZhETQwU5S5qG9aOYyRu_mwb3gRTFRzw_Z-41dNWebh7XxkvNjtQ2BEjkvs/s1600/71.-Unsuspected.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174720392006626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDIIF-UtEPkM4SHPwV1I0s_qJiepdUJgEN3ZdV8G-ZijjwrSozImWOWjGACUSTH4zOoJrS5uOfsNP5GOxJSZhETQwU5S5qG9aOYyRu_mwb3gRTFRzw_Z-41dNWebh7XxkvNjtQ2BEjkvs/s640/71.-Unsuspected.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">69. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Unsuspected</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1947)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Black, white, and red are very potent colors—designers often go straight to them when they need to create something that pops. The colors work great here, with a little touch of yellow in the title typography contributing a nice visual surprise. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The composition is excellent: the positioning of the figures at the top is fascinating both pictorially and conceptually, and create in the poster a tremendous amount of visual depth. The juxtaposition of those figures and the title typography (remember we love diagonals!) with Claude Rains’ large face, staring directly at them, is quite striking. If this is marred by anything it’s too much type — I’d like nothing more than to simply wipe away the awkward “You Can’t Forsee It!” and “You Can’t Forget it!” lines, and leave the left-over spaces empty.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">This is a poster that rewards those who appreciate the little details: notice the exquisite little pattern of question marks in the top right quadrant of the poster. Subtle and wonderful.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgab2qTM4E8ELKti0guagW9ueNavfA3KkTMSm7VeTBfW36XxeRRSFu17byDtuBLzQGah8voF8RZBZ4ggcfg0bypfTN9QJIq6jXR-5Yrbe7wPRBalgqL_9r8RJEg3H2LfYGHPbyigqVIi6U/s1600/69.-No-Escape.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551801885671888354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgab2qTM4E8ELKti0guagW9ueNavfA3KkTMSm7VeTBfW36XxeRRSFu17byDtuBLzQGah8voF8RZBZ4ggcfg0bypfTN9QJIq6jXR-5Yrbe7wPRBalgqL_9r8RJEg3H2LfYGHPbyigqVIi6U/s640/69.-No-Escape.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" width="407" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">68. <span style="font-style: italic;">No Escape</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1953)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">San Francisco is one of the preeminent film noir locations, yet few noir movie posters actually integrate the city into their design. <span style="font-style: italic;">No Escape</span>, a B-thriller of zero reputation, is that rare poster that manages to capture the noir-ish mood of San Francisco, even if much of the city’s power is dulled amidst a sea of yellow ink.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Similar to the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Big Bluff</span>, the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">No Escape</span> is included primarily for the way in which it embodies the characteristics of noir, rather than for the merits of its design. And while the poster certainly has its share of flaws—even more than <span style="font-style: italic;">The Big Bluff</span>—it’s important to recognize that the rough, unsophisticated, thrown-together quality of many B-movie posters actually enhances their impact. So while this design is cluttered, oddly split vertically into halves, and lacks a focal point, its use of the San Francisco skyline and the gun-toting silhouette more than make up for its formal shortcomings. Besides, you just can’t beat a poster with a cowering hoodlum with a bottle of liquor poking from his jacket pocket—what’s more noir than that? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2iDRKSJoKZqv76h4kYWDa8l3St3WYIzlbOlVmzllxjSghLBvlK_wXCNC_y4OvrEwv58S3ZIPZN8pxUAslo8olgsFPSD3AEfhxNTCqKIc6Ggv1uYtn73XTmCyD8CZFF9SPOkuUY5LdDfM/s1600/68.-Women%2527s-Prison.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551801899154419954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2iDRKSJoKZqv76h4kYWDa8l3St3WYIzlbOlVmzllxjSghLBvlK_wXCNC_y4OvrEwv58S3ZIPZN8pxUAslo8olgsFPSD3AEfhxNTCqKIc6Ggv1uYtn73XTmCyD8CZFF9SPOkuUY5LdDfM/s640/68.-Women%2527s-Prison.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">67. <span style="font-style: italic;">Women’s Prison</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1955)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Sure, it’s exploitation-noir, but c’mon, what a great poster! </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> I’ve included it as another example of the “ripped from the headlines,” </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Confidential</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> magazine design style, in addition to a pretty solid design aesthetic. It</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> succeeds on the strength of its boxy, comic book style composition, and its surprisingly cohesive use of typography.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Cleo Moore isn’t well-known out side of film noir or Hugo Haas circles, but she always got the big star treatment from her poster artists. Ida Lupino was an A-lister and a household name at the time, Moore wasn’t—but it sure says something about Cleo’s appeal when she gets treated better than Ida on a film poster. Not to mention the other ladies in the film’s impressive roster of actresses, including vamps Audrey Totter and Jan Sterling. This film is arguably more camp than noir, but it’s a lot of fun no matter how you look at it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">On a side note: how about the subtle fifties materialism inherent in the taglines?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1laN_2j80sy_K6u3UQmEjou-UKilc4p2iMSZ0hY_R5bwN0l-Hs2er4hPzghlMlsG0mJzjAP__k_oZ0YtaPm3JFMDnlga5CN0Q4KSVyai5HNjinMhyphenhyphenn55YulzjeIOYdl4AWD77B_spRfs/s1600/67.-Shanghai-Gesture.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551801898083398258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1laN_2j80sy_K6u3UQmEjou-UKilc4p2iMSZ0hY_R5bwN0l-Hs2er4hPzghlMlsG0mJzjAP__k_oZ0YtaPm3JFMDnlga5CN0Q4KSVyai5HNjinMhyphenhyphenn55YulzjeIOYdl4AWD77B_spRfs/s640/67.-Shanghai-Gesture.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="428" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">66. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Shanghai Gesture</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1941)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Here’s a truly classic Hollywood studio poster that gets in on sheer beauty. The Von Sternberg film was released in 1941 and stars an impossibly young and beautiful Gene Tierney. It’s really a proto-noir more than a fully-fledged film noir. I love how ‘drawn’ this feels, especially after so many posters from the fifties that rely on photography. In fact, the only drawback is the use of the three inset photos—if only they could be stripped away! Nonetheless, the illustration of Victor Mature and Tierney, framed by the sweeping dragon and title typography is incredibly evocative of the film’s promise of intrigue.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijJuTafgKx2tntPM1fVsUK6fJIQxDrveC9Lcby0RXySgy6pMv_r5bT_2ieO9KOr81Yapmie96y51vWcxTvJ_ITNG4vL4MRH7XjuXRk-1APj7MwIoMwFWKXzJJqLIv32icDe5zasxXLsZk/s1600/60.-Ride-the-Pnk-Horse-1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557018814605133122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijJuTafgKx2tntPM1fVsUK6fJIQxDrveC9Lcby0RXySgy6pMv_r5bT_2ieO9KOr81Yapmie96y51vWcxTvJ_ITNG4vL4MRH7XjuXRk-1APj7MwIoMwFWKXzJJqLIv32icDe5zasxXLsZk/s640/60.-Ride-the-Pnk-Horse-1.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="426" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">65. <span style="font-style: italic;">Ride the Pink Horse</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1947)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Long has <span style="font-style: italic;">Ride the Pink Horse</span> held a place in my heart as the greatest film noir title of all time (along with <span style="font-style: italic;">Kiss the Blood Off My Hands</span>), and I love the poster nearly as much. For my money this is the best image of Robert Montgomery on a film poster, and any image whatsoever of the divine Wanda Hendrix is welcome anytime. It’s a bizarre poster to say the least: a “Hotel Stack” collage illustration scheme, some highly incongruous and suspect typography, a bizarre cartoon-style scene at the bottom, and a shade of green that brings poison gas to mind. Yet for some reason (and probably a visceral one, at least as far as I’m concerned), it all works. The power of gestalt is happening here in some wonderful way and turns this into a poster that just grabs at you. Combine its super magical power with Montgomery’s intense gaze and the poster lands a spot here in the middle of the countdown. This is one of those times where being offbeat goes a long way to the positive.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Hft1LBAnP0R3_1HBKMrefaCyNvwNzIRbP2piYB_WemxmM9qj168VcQap3sEBiSxjvGbkz5I7DolaH-_EaGVmcWMcJdTyHwth4IL0JoLjbjxQ_K6HaSW2MMs1U8gPF2Vih7pFdtCAVVA/s1600/59.-Johnny-Apollo.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557018811143378114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Hft1LBAnP0R3_1HBKMrefaCyNvwNzIRbP2piYB_WemxmM9qj168VcQap3sEBiSxjvGbkz5I7DolaH-_EaGVmcWMcJdTyHwth4IL0JoLjbjxQ_K6HaSW2MMs1U8gPF2Vih7pFdtCAVVA/s640/59.-Johnny-Apollo.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="422" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">64. <span style="font-style: italic;">Johnny Apollo</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1940)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here’s a poster from Fox that set the standard for those black, white, and red posters from Warner Bros. There’s nothing about the design for 1940’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Johnny Apollo</span> that really shouts at you, but there’s a lot to enjoy in the details. And I’ve placed it here in the countdown because it anticipates all of those of the fine Warner posters we’ve already seen. I love the palette: the warm sepia tones of the photography and the secondary type combined with black and the rich red of the title. The attention to detail in the text type is a plus as well, showing us that the designer really cared about the quality of the finished piece—a dedication to craftsmanship often absent from the mass-produced, mechanical style of the posters of the 1950s. The combination of script typography for the first names, with big bold surnames in deco-style hand lettering is just beautiful, as is the cheesecake photo of Dorothy Lamour. Edward Arnold’s part in this film is huge, so his presence in the poster is necessary, but I’d like this a bit more if we could nix him while “reflecting” the photograph of Tyrone and Dotty in order to get their faces to fall underneath their names.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDtEOUp3IOqzNogsii_k3iRt5xavIUcbFemJBogonn5vb_fdkJsKm7UEan2498Ooc_aV0WPDBoAHcvjgcwj1yyXLVGOSiP0kLv98wVHBh2MObL0xyw1LCrsZoknnuMG5X8LIBzdDZ768U/s1600/58.-Pickup-on-South-Street.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557018807035128690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDtEOUp3IOqzNogsii_k3iRt5xavIUcbFemJBogonn5vb_fdkJsKm7UEan2498Ooc_aV0WPDBoAHcvjgcwj1yyXLVGOSiP0kLv98wVHBh2MObL0xyw1LCrsZoknnuMG5X8LIBzdDZ768U/s640/58.-Pickup-on-South-Street.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="418" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">63. <span style="font-style: italic;">Pickup on South Street</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1953)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is one of the great noir pictures; if you haven’t seen it move it to the top of your list. If we can make the argument that Edward G. Robinson gives the greatest supporting turn of all time by a male actor in <span style="font-style: italic;">Double Indemnity</span>, then an equally strong case for a supporting actress can be made for Thelma Ritter’s in this film. It’s Sam Fuller’s best movie, and maybe Richard Widmark’s as well. Tough, cynical, and subversive; this is everything a mature film noir ought to be. The poster is fine: nice title type holding up a traditional, if a bit too-symmetrical composition. The star names are down at the bottom where they belong, and the inset images give us an idea of the film’s content, while nicely framing up the large artwork of Peters and Widmark. The white background isn’t very indicative of the movie’s dark subject matter, but it sits well on the poster and contributes to the all-American color palette, which is ironic given the movie’s cynical jab at the government.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6FLhdigrRu3NT5-6t0_ckx8DY5H8aTT0nelSUBVCWQB8_Cs4KpJmuMFFPgnY6Nnivap3zrYW4RB2g6Pfn0GTpfeHqdFw6i2OltVag9gt5WFVcHZJBHt8nU9WeZxGrBUqFLmiARJRgm6E/s1600/66.-Cop-Hater.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551801901238658850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6FLhdigrRu3NT5-6t0_ckx8DY5H8aTT0nelSUBVCWQB8_Cs4KpJmuMFFPgnY6Nnivap3zrYW4RB2g6Pfn0GTpfeHqdFw6i2OltVag9gt5WFVcHZJBHt8nU9WeZxGrBUqFLmiARJRgm6E/s640/66.-Cop-Hater.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">62. <span style="font-style: italic;">Cop Hater</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1958)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">William Berke’s 1958 <i>Cop Hater </i><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2008/11/cop-hater-1958.html" target="_blank">was one of the very first movies I ever wrote about here</a>. It’s a late-cycle film noir, so the look and feel of the design (particularly in how the tagline is handled) greatly portends the design aesthetic of the movie posters of the 1960s.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The design uses vivid primary colors to create “pop” and attract the attention of ticket buyers, while placing the Amazonian Shirley Ballard front and center in the eyes of male viewers.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The romantic imagery, along with the poster’s use of color and the design of the tagline almost make it easy to imagine this</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> as a comedy in the spirit of Rock Hudson and Doris Day, but the sex and violence keep this firmly grounded in the noir arena. Meanwhile, the poster’s forward-looking design style makes it one of the more original entries in the countdown, especially when compared to the classic feel of <i>The Shanghai Gesture</i>, which appears just below it in the countdown.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFRUNIUCFZDbDe_bHEvUU_hYNVDvuzZt8T-pwyFwww7EyFHCJWB8YRSvxyFyqckGvlm1ID6-qNEFvMeRFin2usoCFxd-97nfzwIhzR_x9uitCeFugLw9nqgBFpX5L3jEE3aUE2mh5KKQ/s1600/65.-Storm-Warning.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551802043574330370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFRUNIUCFZDbDe_bHEvUU_hYNVDvuzZt8T-pwyFwww7EyFHCJWB8YRSvxyFyqckGvlm1ID6-qNEFvMeRFin2usoCFxd-97nfzwIhzR_x9uitCeFugLw9nqgBFpX5L3jEE3aUE2mh5KKQ/s640/65.-Storm-Warning.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">61.<span style="font-style: italic;"> Storm Warning</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1951)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The always underrated Ginger Rogers stars alongside Ronald Reagan and scene-stealing Steve Cochran in the KKK-noir <span style="font-style: italic;">Storm Warning</span>. The two-color Warner Brothers house design style on display here should feel familiar by now—this is likely by the same by the same designer responsible for the posters for <span style="font-style: italic;">I Was a Communist for the FBI, Highway 301</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Lightning Strikes Twice, </span>as well as a few entries yet to come.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">I use the term “designer” rather than “artist” </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in this instance</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">very deliberately! The designer’s training—the hard-won ability to perfectly marry concept, typography, illustration, photography, and pictorial space is evident here as it is in very few other entries. This poster isn’t effective because of the quality of a drawing or painting, or a vivid color pallet, but rather through the thoughtful and masterful arrangement of type, image, and space. This design is not likely to adorn many walls, but it most certainly attracted attention and sold tickets. </span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">All of the qualities that made the designs mentioned above great are present here: a simple, dynamic composition; strong type choice and alignment; large white frame; boxed tag lines; and so on. Yet this design has more impact than those we’ve seen before: look closely at the terror in Ginger’s expression, notice how strongly it resonates with and reinforces the message of the tagline, and the incredibly clever cloud-like shape of the image area. Very strong: the title is at the top and the cast is at the bottom, as it should be; with the width of the cast names helping finish out the rectangular image area—it’s something of a signature style with this designer. Wish we could put a name to some of these folks!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFpKA1PUNXMupvpf7fj1ULxW6FVJfl7GC7VyT8i1dsnUwUOXi8JIU6Lag0_nJUc9Cf1oATgoW3THVCWxoEWZn2rwOW1LkSJe52-ho_yMGDK6d7-zk8HOsQGEn1Xa57xes_15iqPT-dYg/s1600/64.-Wrong-Man%252C-The.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551802046473606242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFpKA1PUNXMupvpf7fj1ULxW6FVJfl7GC7VyT8i1dsnUwUOXi8JIU6Lag0_nJUc9Cf1oATgoW3THVCWxoEWZn2rwOW1LkSJe52-ho_yMGDK6d7-zk8HOsQGEn1Xa57xes_15iqPT-dYg/s640/64.-Wrong-Man%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="420" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">60. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrong Man</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1956)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Here’s a poster that breaks all the rues and gets away with it. There are no large images of the stars, the title typography is too small and too hard to find, and there’s too much text type! And yet, precisely because this poster is so unorthodox, it must have really attracted a ton of attention. We talked briefly about voyeurism in the entry for<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Garment Jungle</span>, and here it comes again. This idea of secret watching, or of being watched, is an important noir motif, and it’s out in force here. Consider all of the ways in which the image of a put-upon Henry Fonda could have been depicted, yet the designer chose to give us this view, of Fonda being watched surreptitiously by some unknown assailant. The poster conceptually suggests that we too are about to take on the role of voyeur; and it isn’t lost on me that the round field of the car mirror is also oddly reminiscent of a microscope or detective’s magnifying glass. Some aspects of the design are forced: the angle of the car is strange, as is the placement of the mirror on the windshield, but both are necessary in order to get the mirror into the proper place in the composition, and at the best size.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWdEzwuaPX8WOpPvRMaqizjytwhDbojCeUVDtlVjWTmMx5m4OnF2ey-R3QDZdoMWjFtjq4NIUogedzbdiAS5R5S9AVnZdfq2O-p3BYAxJ_jy9TUefmpM5wL-IcGg99_ouRO_Xx_Ww6i0/s1600/63.-Scandal-Sheet.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551802047475061954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWdEzwuaPX8WOpPvRMaqizjytwhDbojCeUVDtlVjWTmMx5m4OnF2ey-R3QDZdoMWjFtjq4NIUogedzbdiAS5R5S9AVnZdfq2O-p3BYAxJ_jy9TUefmpM5wL-IcGg99_ouRO_Xx_Ww6i0/s640/63.-Scandal-Sheet.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">59. <span style="font-style: italic;">Scandal Sheet</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1952)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">From top to bottom, this is a well-executed poster in nearly all regards. Thank goodness Brod Crawford wasn’t a matinee idol, otherwise we’d have a completely different poster, most likely with a large image of him and a woman in some sort of embrace. Instead, we get a noir-ish full figure with the big fella in a coat and hat, gun in hand—strikingly lit, even in the illustration. He stands upon (no, it isn’t a pillow) one of the many crumpled newspapers that blow through the canyons of Manhattan. In the film Crawford plays the editor of such a newspaper—one who uses heartbreak to drive circulation, until he gets a dose of his own medicine. The integration of the Crawford with the big sheet of newsprint serves a dual purpose: it’s obviously conceptual, but the newspaper also gives the artist a nice field upon which to place the title typography. Here’s a really subtle detail, I wonder if you noticed it? Check out the final letter in the title—see how the crossbar on the “T” in “Sheet” just gets cut off? That’s attention to detail.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The tagline at the top is well done, especially in the juxtaposition with Crawford. The same can be said of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Confidential</span>-style inset photographs. For the umpteenth time it is made evident how the use of diagonals can invigorate a design. Two small qualms: First, I’m having a hard time figuring out the blue area at the bottom of the poster. My best guess is that it is meant to be a spotlight of sorts, the same that illuminates Crawford. If that’s the case the shadows don’t quite work and the leftover red, white, and blue effect seems a little out of place. Finally, the color transition above Donna Reed’s head is sloppy and awkward.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2FHJF1nivplQYS-_QlkCpos16yl23B7STqBfFxrpgpJnjYYQ08wp8e_O0UCcctng7VWlqjnBQQ2FHagBTmjuYdJLyrTrsikjIHQmpyM2wy4aAFGQJYM3kKlR8kOORirlF_rRbV73q9-s/s1600/57.-Where-the-Sidewalk-Ends.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557018801928757330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2FHJF1nivplQYS-_QlkCpos16yl23B7STqBfFxrpgpJnjYYQ08wp8e_O0UCcctng7VWlqjnBQQ2FHagBTmjuYdJLyrTrsikjIHQmpyM2wy4aAFGQJYM3kKlR8kOORirlF_rRbV73q9-s/s640/57.-Where-the-Sidewalk-Ends.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">58. <span style="font-style: italic;">Where the Sidewalk Ends</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1950)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Feel free to argue with me on this one, it’s another poster that I struggled to place in the right spot in the countdown. Along with the forthcoming poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Verdict</span>, this one features title typography that functions conceptually, in order to drive the message of the film home to viewers.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let’s ignore the sub-par illustrations of Dana Andrews and that generic broad somehow meant to be Gene Tierney; all the good stuff here is happening in the box with the title typography. On the whole, this poster should be darker, and much of what the artist has made blue should be black, but there is something powerfully noir-ish in the use of yellow here. We’ve seen yellow used so often before simply for its brightness and ability to contrast with black. Here, we have the yellow of a streetlight harshly illuminating the drama playing out amongst the typography. Whatever is happening under the harsh glare of the lights is fascinating—why is that man dragging a body?—and viewers are certain to have wanted to see more. Finally, the conceit of the type “ending” along with the sidewalk itself is conceptual and witty and provides the designer in me a chance to spend a few minutes simply enjoying the skill with which the artist was able to wrap the type along the curb while maintaining readability. Any professional designer will tell you that effects such as this, no matter how simple and effortless they appear to be, are notoriously difficult to get right.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE932134rfIRath0wIxtrZX0DD5Y56IxK3p8L0lifo0D0HEqPen1qjushrLzkXTpCocSGmL6LEB1eO4gyWYgHSkZq-DH2T6yoMQMYdpyAh_JKeTMz2RVoQW3ln1nrDlHHyQ_PChXpj8kg/s1600/55.-Beyond-a-Reasonable-Doubt.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557017373413480818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE932134rfIRath0wIxtrZX0DD5Y56IxK3p8L0lifo0D0HEqPen1qjushrLzkXTpCocSGmL6LEB1eO4gyWYgHSkZq-DH2T6yoMQMYdpyAh_JKeTMz2RVoQW3ln1nrDlHHyQ_PChXpj8kg/s640/55.-Beyond-a-Reasonable-Doubt.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="423" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">57. <span style="font-style: italic;">Beyond a Reasonable Doubt</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1956)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What would a noir poster countdown be without that particular facial expression from Joan Fontaine? I guess it’s a little ironic that I should accuse Joan of having limited facial expressions when she’s depicted alongside an actor as wooden as Dana Andrews. Make no mistake, I love the guy dearly—if you read my essay on <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2009/10/fearmakers-1958.html" target="_blank">The Fearmakers </a></span>you’ll know how much. Nevertheless, Andrews’ range wasn’t one of his strong suits. The poster here is quite nice, with the puzzle pieces doing exactly the same thing as the question mark in the forthcoming poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">House of Numbers </span>and the title typography in the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Verdict</span>—it looms over the main characters, casting an ominous pall over their lives and their fates. It’s the burden they must suffer under. Here the pieces seem to be closing in on the couple, like some angry mob, shortly to overwhelm them—or at least, one of them…</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi1pTD3EDgPZHltpiRCltvTyAYRr54MdtAHauAuXrKJL_7MT9qJKZR1uBgjk69B_ZGM1J7JhyK51lrMNEjfT2nwmAPyAusKzvutSCgK5pS_e1Kb4tVF6A2uiDrUslp3uGrKWSnxpFKWLc/s1600/53.-Brute-Force.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557017362549438130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi1pTD3EDgPZHltpiRCltvTyAYRr54MdtAHauAuXrKJL_7MT9qJKZR1uBgjk69B_ZGM1J7JhyK51lrMNEjfT2nwmAPyAusKzvutSCgK5pS_e1Kb4tVF6A2uiDrUslp3uGrKWSnxpFKWLc/s640/53.-Brute-Force.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="423" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">56. <span style="font-style: italic;">Brute Force</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1947)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It’s almost every film noir fan’s favorite prison picture, and the movie is hard-boiled enough to live up to its title. I have to admit that it’s also nice to see Burt Lancaster looking tough for once, and not wrapped in the arms of his latest paramour. A superb poster that gets the job done without the use of photography, this features vivid, stylistically consistent illustrations from top to bottom in the form of an “L” shape that frames the equally gritty title typography.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Note how tactfully the cast listing is handled in this example: the designer had to include the names of eleven different performers, and place them in some sort of hierarchy according to gender and billing. It works really well, and the accompanying prison-style taglines are a nice touch. This is a busy design, but if we first encounter this poster from a distance we’ll notice the big image of Burt and the title—the only things necessary to get us to approach, learn more about the movie, and ultimately enter the theater.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVr5khgWyGY7grY0o_2f7usrjVmAnFJSAMeiqR1kCA1JGebQs3NPFjXgs3KnPdQmfZ5vSAcUyncF17YZLJbq3Smm8xNFj-IHHhVMRFFN9hCd5DAXA5yzr51jhYo7Bq75dplVH6q-wvzM8/s1600/53.-House-of-Numbers.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557017367401342242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVr5khgWyGY7grY0o_2f7usrjVmAnFJSAMeiqR1kCA1JGebQs3NPFjXgs3KnPdQmfZ5vSAcUyncF17YZLJbq3Smm8xNFj-IHHhVMRFFN9hCd5DAXA5yzr51jhYo7Bq75dplVH6q-wvzM8/s640/53.-House-of-Numbers.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">55. <span style="font-style: italic;">House of Numbers</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1957)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Jack Palance, he of the chiseled face and the one-armed pushup, makes two appearances in this part of the countdown. The poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">House of Numbers</span> may initially slip your notice—it did mine. Yet with each viewing it resonated with me more and more—so much so that I finally tracked down a copy for my collection.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The poster features an iconic representation of Palance, one of film history’s greatest faces. And yet it’s the gigantic question mark that makes this poster tick, how it represents the monkey on Jack’s back, and the way in which the small images inside the question mark invite the viewer to solve the film’s mystery. After all, <span style="font-style: italic;">House of Numbers</span> is a prison-break picture—and a pretty good one, even if a little far fetched. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Readers are liable to think I’m screwy on this last point, but I love these little instances of visual surprise and non-conformity: check out how the red shaded area leeches down into the white frame of the poster for absolutely no good reason. Why does it do that?! Jack’s body stops at the edge of the frame to allow for the fine print, why not the red? Who knows, maybe it’s a mistake—but an intriguing one.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZMN0PXqWRQ9nyGaGJARq08IhvjppJ6-HzqjxhP69tFKAlONI2vQdvlljYU2y1n2of9_iqFRgtyNQmFPRWNh0L2bUjI-MLqBuP1709qKMjfopRKgphVHXpE6WBjB7L-x2TfdY_hxb5gE/s1600/52.-I-Died-1000-Times.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557017362267830242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZMN0PXqWRQ9nyGaGJARq08IhvjppJ6-HzqjxhP69tFKAlONI2vQdvlljYU2y1n2of9_iqFRgtyNQmFPRWNh0L2bUjI-MLqBuP1709qKMjfopRKgphVHXpE6WBjB7L-x2TfdY_hxb5gE/s640/52.-I-Died-1000-Times.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="417" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">54. <span style="font-style: italic;">I Died a Thousand Times</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1955)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Most of you already know that this is a remake of 1941’s<span style="font-style: italic;"> High Sierra, </span>with Jack Palance and Shelley Winters in the Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino roles from the earlier film. Palance lacked Bogie’s pathos, and Winters was missing Lupino’s vulnerability, so the remake falls short of the original, but the poster is still a gem.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It’s also worth noting (and this might help explain some of the design choices here), that unlike <span style="font-style: italic;">High Sierra</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">I Died a Thousand Times</span> was shot in color. The poster is simply marvelous. I don’t feel compelled to explain this one away, I’m sure you are all on the same page with me. It’s just a stunning design with a wonderfully stilted composition and vivid use of color. The large image is sexy as hell, and all of the panels combine to form a fantastic broken stained glass effect. And can you beat a film with Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez in the cast? Somebody get me one of these!</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpD3qjD2AKXwm9SHqKCKhk8U35QIt9MUa790eH7mdmVq4GilCUQFUaThQty9wyERpiPoM5NZJWtuJSpS7FfKoCSf91cUtqQ5sT4A3FAqgX2LJ2wcwWhF9UOEWES8rD8XgUKcwSx7GUn3Y/s1600/62.-Black-Tuesday.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551802053281458930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpD3qjD2AKXwm9SHqKCKhk8U35QIt9MUa790eH7mdmVq4GilCUQFUaThQty9wyERpiPoM5NZJWtuJSpS7FfKoCSf91cUtqQ5sT4A3FAqgX2LJ2wcwWhF9UOEWES8rD8XgUKcwSx7GUn3Y/s640/62.-Black-Tuesday.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">53. <span style="font-style: italic;">Black Tuesday</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1954)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">My affection for the great Edward G. Robinson is practically limitless: <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2012/04/mother-of-mercy-edward-g-robinson-and.html" target="_blank">I wrote a film noir biography of EGR for the Film Noir Foundation</a>, and <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2010/02/edward-g-robinson-and-black-tuesday.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Black Tuesday</span> is my favorite Robinson film</a>. It came at the time that the great man was forced to make a stream of B crime pictures because of his run in with the red baiters and subsequent gray-listing. It’s widely known that Robinson found this work on the poor end of the business distasteful, but it’s hard to blame him: his life was so miserable at the time that it’s difficult to imagine him having positive feelings about anything. Not only was his marriage a failure, his wife was mentally ill; his son gave him nothing but trouble; and he couldn’t grasp how the country he adored and to which he was devoted could treat him so poorly, and even call him a traitor.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">All of Robinson’s feelings bubble to the surface in <span style="font-style: italic;">Black Tuesday—</span>his performance is terrifying. It’s a rare film, but one very much worth seeking out. The poster is darn good as well—it’s one of the few times that Eddie gets the full-figure treatment in one of his posters. Owing to his unconventional looks and build, he often appears as a head floating in the background in order to make room for the romantic leads. Check out an earlier Robinson poster, <span style="font-style: italic;">Night Has a Thousand Eyes</span>, as a prime example. At any rate, it’s a great shot of a gun-toting Robinson, and the crosshatched / wood engraved illustration technique is fairly rare for a film poster. Yellow is a color we see more than any other, often unfortunately, but here it’s a hit. The color palette here, black and the primaries, really makes this pop out, as does the quality negative space that forces you to confront the image of Robinson. There a lot of typography here, possibly too much because the title gets lost, but it is well-stacked and the little square of negative yellow space balances the larger space above Eddie very cleverly. My favorite part: dig that little electric chair. Zap!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGNuXC4DNFEkUHnx-WvWMvdf4zaijg1EGLRVl3lct4X1mUf1mIYr5qTsvXS4uNVm7qU1terbTt731DfBEnuG3_b34p-LZ7q35VCoMEYOZgx9JOXctrc0EYhUDtmYvU7yOfguz_5GPwZgQ/s1600/61.-Blonde-Alibi.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551802056156920354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGNuXC4DNFEkUHnx-WvWMvdf4zaijg1EGLRVl3lct4X1mUf1mIYr5qTsvXS4uNVm7qU1terbTt731DfBEnuG3_b34p-LZ7q35VCoMEYOZgx9JOXctrc0EYhUDtmYvU7yOfguz_5GPwZgQ/s640/61.-Blonde-Alibi.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="426" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">52. <span style="font-style: italic;">Blonde Alibi</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1946)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Look at those gams, that plunging neckline, those “Victory Roll” curls. Holy smokes, sometimes design has to take a back seat to a blonde in a red dress—but this isn’t that time, because the design here is as delightful as the girl—or is it just as “bad” as the girl? Sometimes noir gets confusing. Seriously though, what a great noir statement this poster makes: the idealized and idolized woman surrounded by all the chumps and suckers who revolve around like so many satellites. Great colors, super composition, strong type treatments (especially in having Martha seated on the box that contains the cast names—talk about getting your money’s worth out of a simple box), quality negative space, and I’ll say it once again: the girl in the red dress. We’ll see better cheesecake posters before we get to the end of the countdown, but not by much.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3y7Cayn0lx-ZpasaJoGnPvyZB5zsf0pa_3xounCWfT_Q9Ojl_eOFm0EVrFZTobQyXEMtBZcpDGYFIQ6670T2-d50zGLOoDZuAJrtpq8OCU3uvir_Py8ogbeX8R8ykIiP0afr_pdpeK0/s1600/51.-Too-Late-for-Tears.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557017358871646674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3y7Cayn0lx-ZpasaJoGnPvyZB5zsf0pa_3xounCWfT_Q9Ojl_eOFm0EVrFZTobQyXEMtBZcpDGYFIQ6670T2-d50zGLOoDZuAJrtpq8OCU3uvir_Py8ogbeX8R8ykIiP0afr_pdpeK0/s640/51.-Too-Late-for-Tears.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="415" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">51.<span style="font-style: italic;"> Too Late for Tears</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1949)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Of course it’s possible that some readers could be bothered by the inclusion of a poster such as this in the countdown (though we’ve already seen a few milder examples in the posters for <span style="font-style: italic;">Wicked Woman </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Big Heat</span>), but such violence and imagery are inescapable aspects of the film noir underworld, and I make no apologies for including such posters.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> My one qualm is with the illustration of Scott, who looks more like Cybill Shepherd than she does herself. Otherwise this poster is a home run: the extreme scale of the illustrations of Duryea and Scott, the competing diagonals running all over the place, and the critical placement of the tagline. Dig how the tagline appears to be coming from Duryea’s mouth, practically comic book style. This puts the violence into an almost cartoonish context and makes it that much more palatable. My favorite thing about the illo is also the most subtle, and that’s the slick foreshortening of Scott’s left arm. Speaking of comic books, it’s almost Kirby-esque in how it creates depth and movement, and ties together the illustration with the yellow box and the narrative scene in blue at the bottom of the composition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For those of you who may not have seen this yet, that scene depicted at the bottom is crucial, and sets up all of the drama of the film. If you do track this down though, make sure to score the high-quality restored print from the Film Noir Foundations. <i>Too Late for Tears </i>has been in the public domain for a long time, and there are hardly any unrestored prints out there that are actually worth watching.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9R8-BR9i1uq3VoLmZK7Hr6vmV5Xm3F6niDtKJSpZ6X85asH2lvVZwdt4wOKtNaso7xcnhNOobe7i8E7gHqYOJ2Vk5XrE6YeyxNEj_qIcaZRvz8rxakCoTg7yJbKcG_3M79CwWhR3l6s/s1600/50.-Murder%252C-My-Sweet.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567521966567250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9R8-BR9i1uq3VoLmZK7Hr6vmV5Xm3F6niDtKJSpZ6X85asH2lvVZwdt4wOKtNaso7xcnhNOobe7i8E7gHqYOJ2Vk5XrE6YeyxNEj_qIcaZRvz8rxakCoTg7yJbKcG_3M79CwWhR3l6s/s640/50.-Murder%252C-My-Sweet.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="427" /></a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">50.<span style="font-style: italic;"> Murder, My Sweet</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span>(1944)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This poster, aside from its obvious beauty, is one crafty piece of movie marketing. Let’s think about another film for a moment, one I’ve written about here on the blog in one of my most visited posts: <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2010/05/deanna-durbin-christmas-holiday-1944.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Christmas Holiday</span> with Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly</a>. Imagine yourself in the winter of 1944, suffering under the brunt of gas rations, food rations, maybe even worrying about a loved one somewhere. You decide to take a break from life’s troubles for an evening at the movies—they’ve got the new Deanna picture over at the Strand, and this one co-stars that new boy, Gene Kelly. You see “Christmas Holiday” on the marquee, and in you go—for what turns out to be one heckuva dark, paranoid melodrama, not the light and whimsical holiday picture you thought you were going to see.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Much the same can be said of <span style="font-style: italic;">Murder, My Sweet</span>, the movie in which crooner Dick Powell reinvents himself as wry and tough private detective Philip Marlowe. Although the title of Raymond Chandler’s source novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Farewell, My Lovely</span>, was changed so as not to really put the whammy on potential ticket-buyers, the poster straddles the fence between Powell’s old and new screen personae brilliantly. Take a look at the rather stunning, yet purposefully ambiguous illustration of Powell and Trevor and ask yourself if you are looking at an advertisement for a crime story or a musical—with this poster, who knows? By not having the pair in a tighter embrace, or actually kissing, it was very easy for viewers to imagine that Powell was serenading his girl; after all, that’s what they expected from him at the time.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For such cleverly manipulative thinking coupled with a positively exquisite illustration, <span style="font-style: italic;">Murder, My Sweet</span> lands here.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf_NMzNGITdyf6CzJEmlG1LuoRYInwrXJaZeDE-rBuLb_7218x9pVUhVNLaLQK7grbZA8AAfsccpjBOkfbfnakPtDdAjrwyup9n6L23tp4eSVY3ioWRjs-KbB4_q8rP5iN8XjFxnfp_PU/s1600/36.-Chicago-Confidential.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268949057132818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf_NMzNGITdyf6CzJEmlG1LuoRYInwrXJaZeDE-rBuLb_7218x9pVUhVNLaLQK7grbZA8AAfsccpjBOkfbfnakPtDdAjrwyup9n6L23tp4eSVY3ioWRjs-KbB4_q8rP5iN8XjFxnfp_PU/s640/36.-Chicago-Confidential.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="418" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">49. <span style="font-style: italic;">Chicago Confidential</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1957)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You guys all know why this one is here, so instead of lauding it as an example of great design work, instead it gives us an idea of the extraordinary power and popularity of <span style="font-style: italic;">Confidential</span> magazine. For those of you who aren’t familiar with <span style="font-style: italic;">Confidential</span>, it’s the original scandal sheet, and was one of the most important pieces of fifties pop / Hollywood culture. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shocking-True-Story-Confidential-Scandalous/dp/0375421394/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295067308&sr=8-1">Recently the subject of a book I haven’t had the chance to read yet</a>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Confidential</span> and its bizarre history are worth looking into.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIydo9_GQGZQQJklVGHhLUAvtkHPaGgliyZZO_MXCxq6aEpt6MqVaOo5cMg4TXD7UEYstcO4Ebl-SgcCWdST7QxAYCWPIKRkcmlOWiC0fPh6E3jpQFRK4B4mPXnolHXTZge540ovqwGM4/s1600/89.-Threat%252C-The.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546528463909523106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIydo9_GQGZQQJklVGHhLUAvtkHPaGgliyZZO_MXCxq6aEpt6MqVaOo5cMg4TXD7UEYstcO4Ebl-SgcCWdST7QxAYCWPIKRkcmlOWiC0fPh6E3jpQFRK4B4mPXnolHXTZge540ovqwGM4/s640/89.-Threat%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="418" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">48. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Threat</span> (1949)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Felix Feist’s </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">The Threat</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> is one of those noir films that few other than hardcore enthusiasts have seen, and they carry a torch for it. The poster </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">moves</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">, with various elements surging from one area of the composition to the next. The designer gets a ton of mileage out of that large, sweeping red brushstroke, which encloses the title and leads the viewer’s eye to the illustration of crime pic icon Charles McGraw.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The next point is subtle, almost certainly the unconscious product of the artist’s intuition, but note how the heads of the three figures above the title mirror the swoosh of the red brush stroke—both in the similarity of the curve of the arch, and in how that movement surges outward from the face and body of the gun-toting McGraw at the top of the poster, down through Virginia Grey, and finally to Michael O’Shea’s face. Perhaps there’s something a bit campy about the three heads on the left and their accompanying tag lines, “<span style="font-style: italic;">Must HE die?</span>” and so forth, though what some might find corny, I think, at least in this instance, is pretty cool.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJNz6Nh0p99PJg2TWFx0b_nLLOjiAzl8nrlNG_y0fcdsMTlEeKNb2e1xEydeoydxzkgqcRTnECaNciGa9vqMoztPyn5AxTd9VgLUU81zj59bGz1o1Z_a3L7GKUKCuNs7ZqJ3lAPPtCRac/s1600/72.-Night-has-1000-Eyes.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549174713587894290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJNz6Nh0p99PJg2TWFx0b_nLLOjiAzl8nrlNG_y0fcdsMTlEeKNb2e1xEydeoydxzkgqcRTnECaNciGa9vqMoztPyn5AxTd9VgLUU81zj59bGz1o1Z_a3L7GKUKCuNs7ZqJ3lAPPtCRac/s640/72.-Night-has-1000-Eyes.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">47. <span style="font-style: italic;">Night has a Thousand Eyes</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1948)</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Fantastic poster, so-so movie. Despite the fact that this film was made when Edward G. Robinson was on the outs with the Hollywood establishment, suspected as a communist sympathizer, his star power was such that he still got his name printed, quite literally, above the title. The three names up top are something of an eyesore, making the design feel crammed into the bottom two-thirds of the space, but nevertheless this is a wonderful poster in the classic Hollywood style. It’s ironic that the title typography is situated amidst a sea of stars—at the bottom of the poster! Certainly this one would appear much higher on the list if that text could move to the top of the design while the stars’ names sank to the bottom. So it goes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Poor Eddie, he never seems to get his entire body into a poster design—instead his face is always floating in the ether, larger than life. Still, this has a strong triangular composition; it depicts its three leads well (though William Demarest walks away with this movie); and the Dali-esque title typography is out of this world and has made this poster extremely expensive. While I really like the small action illustration of the woman jumping in front of the rushing locomotive (yikes, what a spoiler!), it’s the wonderful title type that makes this one rate so high.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The noir themes of angst, persecution, and alienation that are so prominent throughout Cornell Woolrich’s novels are incorporated beautifully in this compelling design, and consequently the poster for<span style="font-style: italic;"> I Wouldn’t Be In Your Shoes</span> finds a higher place in the countdown than it would merit on visuals alone. <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2016/05/i-wouldnt-be-in-your-shoes-1948.html" target="_blank">I loved writing about this movie. </a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">I’d like this design so much more if we could diminish the dishonest depiction of Elyse Knox (she’s not a femme fatale in the film, though she’s presented as one here), and make the trio of pointing fingers much more powerful. Perhaps we could also shift the gun-pointing Regis Toomey to the opposite side and pose him so Don Castle’s big mug was squarely in his sights.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Finally, try to imagine the aqua-greenish color at the top as a deep blue (or even black)—better, right? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trashing the design here, I’d be happy to hang this poster on my wall. The use of faces rather than full-figures or busts give the poster a lot of punch—Castle’s head has to be at least a foot tall!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0wxYWlNZ6JTzZozA7-MFdJ9DBPy3u8BGCwRYaYyHQK4tKJ4hYjz1P5i8taHzXD-NQlX7OsmR1kdV6pmGzw70mlUYkvpOcXTt1JV-arsjKJpdOREJKG0bO1lE-tr0bXWQq_lM6pZfCb-Y/s1600/47.-Stranger%252C-The.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567508684636418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0wxYWlNZ6JTzZozA7-MFdJ9DBPy3u8BGCwRYaYyHQK4tKJ4hYjz1P5i8taHzXD-NQlX7OsmR1kdV6pmGzw70mlUYkvpOcXTt1JV-arsjKJpdOREJKG0bO1lE-tr0bXWQq_lM6pZfCb-Y/s640/47.-Stranger%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="425" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">45. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Stranger</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1946)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’m including this poster almost entirely on the basis its exquisite illustration. The typography is generally sufficient, though it’s far from exciting and is gives the poster an awfully unbalanced and unstable foundation. (The blue block of color in the lower left corner is simply awful.) But the illustration is pure magic, and the color palette is absolutely marvelous. Loretta Young’s performance in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Stranger</span> is a bit hysterical for my tastes, but she’s ravishing on the poster. Note how her face is the poster’s sole source of light, illuminating both of her costars. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Aside from the sophisticated technique, it’s nice to see such a well-executed portrait of Edward G. Robinson, not to mention Orson Welles, though both pale (quite literally) next to Young. What really gets this going though, and keeps the triple-portrait from becoming stodgy are the vibrant colors and the subtle magic of the background</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">—</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">the brushstroke style activates the background and give the whole poster a sense of movement. Like the next poster in line, for </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">The Postman Always Rings Twice,</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> this isn’t perfect, though parts of it are.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgN9azKEB0CMB6XTB5kbMa6E6L8-ABwsfkD1nq_TirBkiHlMtQynTUtxoBpzJ9zWKb0RUcKc3GhP-_A8dtI3tYQvyPevITF2V47fcKG0GO5p6CHkbR7YdBfwdwTz6N6wQbo6Cl8MpbQEA/s1600/40.-Raw-Deal.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268956884526354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgN9azKEB0CMB6XTB5kbMa6E6L8-ABwsfkD1nq_TirBkiHlMtQynTUtxoBpzJ9zWKb0RUcKc3GhP-_A8dtI3tYQvyPevITF2V47fcKG0GO5p6CHkbR7YdBfwdwTz6N6wQbo6Cl8MpbQEA/s640/40.-Raw-Deal.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="422" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">44. <span style="font-style: italic;">Raw Deal</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1948)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A Poverty Row product made by rising stars director Anthony Mann and cinematographer John Alton, <span style="font-style: italic;">Raw Deal</span> is one of the more revered film noirs. As for its placement, for the first time in the countdown (and hopefully the last) I think I got it wrong. Looking at the poster again to write the blurb, I’ve realized that it just doesn’t stack up to the quality of the entries around it, and I’d shuffle it backwards ten or fifteen spaces if I could. What originally pushed it up this high was the powerful image of Dennis O’Keefe spotlighted against the brick wall. It’s an illustration that longtime film noir enthusiasts encounter often—clipped from the poster and used as a prop on all sorts of noir websites and publications. That aside, I think the cobbled together elements that make up the rest of the poster just don’t hold water.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I appreciate the title typography but it reminds me too much of the sort of lettering you’d encounter in a prison picture from the previous decade, and the two words are simply too far apart. The arrangement of the other elements in the design is too loose, even though effort has been made to constantly steer the viewer’s gaze toward O’Keefe. The black type boxes at the tp and bottom of the design are wholly unnecessary, and I have a sneaky suspicion that the image of Claire Trevor has been borrowed from another film.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuDeI5mfscYYLhrHY2tBPJeqz1JYwsKzvb3WJ_cIG35RQsPNAqqtiC5IwBSZOba1s_XojewfH2WEKpqVzb09mA3ZEmtlo_DJg5po-3OiapICc-B17wzy6sIL5cWeuCymarF9D1Wpu0u0/s1600/45.-Police-Reporter.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567348194678178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuDeI5mfscYYLhrHY2tBPJeqz1JYwsKzvb3WJ_cIG35RQsPNAqqtiC5IwBSZOba1s_XojewfH2WEKpqVzb09mA3ZEmtlo_DJg5po-3OiapICc-B17wzy6sIL5cWeuCymarF9D1Wpu0u0/s640/45.-Police-Reporter.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="426" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">43. <span style="font-style: italic;">Police Reporter</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1947)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Many of you will know this Poverty Row entry by its other title, <span style="font-style: italic;">Shoot to Kill</span>. The poster design for both versions are exactly the same; I chose this one purely for the quality of the digital file. If you’ve seen it under either title, it’s a dog of a movie, but I’ve included it because of the incredibly powerful image of the hoodlum that dominates the poster. Surprisingly, this really stands alone in terms of this kind of treatment of the large male figure carrying the weight of the design. There’s another poster coming later in the countdown for a film that is much more well-known than this one, but the mood of the figure in that poster lacks the ferocity and menace of the one here. The combination of the great figurative illustration and the colorful gothic typography makes this one a no-brainer. Note: designers use the word ‘gothic’ to describe tall, condensed, sans-serif letters—I realize everyone else in the world uses the term differently!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE8xLGvHCnf1VKpp76bbsaCdHEZSWjY54Uavehlo8XKoV40HCK27jnf1b2Q8M3KhmRtRG5kLbbEHdAkws3G9wRRuyIcys7_oxiq80Lw7bGmJmVYbprB9ZjHt5p_f48Oh8X0ZQ9IJ1sULQ/s1600/44.-Guilty%252C-The.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567347214753826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE8xLGvHCnf1VKpp76bbsaCdHEZSWjY54Uavehlo8XKoV40HCK27jnf1b2Q8M3KhmRtRG5kLbbEHdAkws3G9wRRuyIcys7_oxiq80Lw7bGmJmVYbprB9ZjHt5p_f48Oh8X0ZQ9IJ1sULQ/s640/44.-Guilty%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="423" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">42. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Guilty</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1942)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Then we have the poster for 1942’s <span style="font-style: italic;">The Guilty</span>, another Poverty Row production, this time from Monogram. Unlike the ambiguity of the image for <span style="font-style: italic;">Murder, My Sweet</span>, this poster is unmistakably film noir. What I love about it is how, despite the use of color photography, the image ‘feels’ black and white, if you get my drift. The shadows … the clothing … the way the man clutches the woman … the title of the film itself: all are indicative of the public’s conception of film noir, and for that matter, mine as well. A wonderfully evocative image, I won’t even get started about my feelings for Bonita Granville—we’d be here all day.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbaLDfxDUPdgGOkd6sGUyS6XHoRSKkQoXz9B9dRQt9I22ppGMfFEyIL1DDrbUCynteooO9pLjGdpRHxfosN_MQQzTFCZpONg22l87ocmy8nZIR4eL2MouaiA68MN_4-w0KFdFxHFw-LIk/s1600/43.-Finger-Man.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567340811213250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbaLDfxDUPdgGOkd6sGUyS6XHoRSKkQoXz9B9dRQt9I22ppGMfFEyIL1DDrbUCynteooO9pLjGdpRHxfosN_MQQzTFCZpONg22l87ocmy8nZIR4eL2MouaiA68MN_4-w0KFdFxHFw-LIk/s640/43.-Finger-Man.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="418" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">41.<span style="font-style: italic;"> Finger Man</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1955)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One of my favorite poster designs, especially after I cleaned and brightened this one up! The film noir tropes of alienation and persecution are front and center here, as the anonymous figure in the center of the design points the accusatory finger at the EGR lookalike on the right. The man stands in a visual representation of a spiral, meaning he is about to be swept inescapably into some sort of vortex—the downward descent that almost always characterizes the noir hero’s journey. The bottom of the poster isn’t as exciting, in spite of promising the sex and violence audiences were avidly looking for.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The decision to place the film title in the center of the design is quite novel, splitting the central figure and consequently uniting the poster’s two halves, with the rest of the text sitting comfortably at the composition’s right edge. I wish that so many of these great film poster designs didn’t rely so heavily on fields of yellow—I’d love to see this in red with yellow text instead. Still a first-rate, highly original poster by any measure.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23FIVidJPjI2E8CechK6e2RXQrPFLmquhnw419bOMFtkYpzkSvxezZHn2nSX3f_YcXjCcJRFTVoBdaPv9pMtOPVIVmViOYztYIce2hPVK-cQXGdFMVvWsXEtrnBEW3ifEnN2jhvhxfsE/s1600/42.-Turning-Point%252C-The.jpg" style="color: #996633;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567332311473826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23FIVidJPjI2E8CechK6e2RXQrPFLmquhnw419bOMFtkYpzkSvxezZHn2nSX3f_YcXjCcJRFTVoBdaPv9pMtOPVIVmViOYztYIce2hPVK-cQXGdFMVvWsXEtrnBEW3ifEnN2jhvhxfsE/s640/42.-Turning-Point%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="422" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">40. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Turning Point</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1952)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here’s a poster that is as wonderful as it is unusual. In spite of everything that’s going on, the poster feels remarkably simple, boasting an “L” shaped composition that reminds us of the design for <span style="font-style: italic;">Brute Force</span>. Almost everything happening in the here is super, but the vivid color palette and the ingenious title typography (and the way in which the little cops and robbers are putting it to use) is amazing.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When we look down into the “L” shape, I’m impressed by the control and the tight spacing, especially in the handling of the white text, and the placement of the three heads. Pay close attention to the watercolor wash that seems to form the background of the “L” shape; notice how it perfectly holds all of the text, but gets looser and looser and it goes behind the heads, almost until it wafts around them like so much smoke. The female figure in the chair (Sharon Stone, anyone?) is the only photographic element, but by using the yellow overlay the designer has given the photo an illustrated feel that keeps in tune with the rest of the artwork, and, through the use of color, connects the top of the poster to the bottom. Now look away from the poster and ask yourself if you realized that the chair she sits in is a drawing?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The only thing I don’t like here is the yellow color field in the upper corner. I understand why the designer felt it needed to be there, but it wasn’t executed with the same degree of control as the rest of the artwork and sticks out like a sore thumb. This is a poster of rigid horizontals and verticals contrasted with the diagonal forms of the title type—there’s just no place in the composition for that haphazardly applied yellow blob.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSlrH601VWL-_rwKkMu69OnyliCXET5aO6VC0ZXHNTN2OJwLzjHroq4O0KW-cXExrkOY0l-kt_QSwr1n_iI4IwtPNrDTiEJLoBx877BmPy6wEXSUjVTDIPdgy5q9DURWQZkLrz7liTSc4/s1600/39.-Lady-from-Shanghai.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268951640640658" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSlrH601VWL-_rwKkMu69OnyliCXET5aO6VC0ZXHNTN2OJwLzjHroq4O0KW-cXExrkOY0l-kt_QSwr1n_iI4IwtPNrDTiEJLoBx877BmPy6wEXSUjVTDIPdgy5q9DURWQZkLrz7liTSc4/s640/39.-Lady-from-Shanghai.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="427" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">39. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Lady from Shanghai</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1947)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ah, Rita. We were all wondering when you’d finally show up.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here’s Ms. Hayworth as one of film noir’s better femme fatales. I don’t mean to channel Coco Chanel, but I love the lines of this poster. It would actually be easy to dismiss this as pure glamour—but the marriage of that tagline with that image is impossible to ignore. Once we read it, it becomes impossible to interpret the image as anything short of menacing. And yet, only after coming to grips with the tagline do we also notice that the woman is positioned against a scarlet background. Very sexy, very subversive, very subtle. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05wyJl0hrT1ktXMgdlOH6DKYkbNF61iLRTnLOux0ST-HX2dvU5dnuf0OzZVk1qIZWb-Ekx_hdCZYnpwEPPcJRLZ_aPjJrXwloSCZaMDo3T9-32ttOF2y6JPtuwO-sssolOXuSrM1y1Tc/s1600/38.-Born-to-Kill.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268954147067378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg05wyJl0hrT1ktXMgdlOH6DKYkbNF61iLRTnLOux0ST-HX2dvU5dnuf0OzZVk1qIZWb-Ekx_hdCZYnpwEPPcJRLZ_aPjJrXwloSCZaMDo3T9-32ttOF2y6JPtuwO-sssolOXuSrM1y1Tc/s640/38.-Born-to-Kill.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="426" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">38. <span style="font-style: italic;">Born to Kill</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1947)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’ll have to tally up the performers when all is said and done, but if Claire Trevor doesn’t make the most appearances in the countdown I’ll be really surprised. This is the sexiest treatment the Oscar winner ever got on a film poster, in a full-figured pose, one exposed leg invitingly stepping toward the viewer. The big image of a cigarette-smoking Lawrence Tierney is pure film noir (and anticipates the big-heads-style of contemporary movie posters), but it’s Claire in the classic femme fatale pose that sells the tickets. Executed in the classic RKO poster style, with a simple, straightforward composition that evokes a tornado—see it? There’s just one tagline, which is all this poster needs. It’s placed well and says a mouthful. The rest of the typography counterbalances the tag and takes up just the right amount of space in the composition.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSvVpI76CKO1f6Uxqb8t6gvZIzu2bkHrnwM-2qlhqXx1_PNDjHKLdY5v7msUHIRONzRpQjebepRR_Prux-bHD-KJTiUuAFFQ479yUByBomYYHf5594Uf-TlFsevcS5tOmAT73tR2a7S_8/s1600/37.-Crime-Wave.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268947278544562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSvVpI76CKO1f6Uxqb8t6gvZIzu2bkHrnwM-2qlhqXx1_PNDjHKLdY5v7msUHIRONzRpQjebepRR_Prux-bHD-KJTiUuAFFQ479yUByBomYYHf5594Uf-TlFsevcS5tOmAT73tR2a7S_8/s640/37.-Crime-Wave.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="429" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">37. <span style="font-style: italic;">Crime Wave</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1953)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">André de Toth’s gem<span style="font-style: italic;"> Crime Wave</span> is the last of the great 1950s Warner Bros. two-color posters to make the countdown. I think that if nothing else comes out of this exercise, I’m going to make an effort to collect this style. While I love the sexy shot of Ruth Roman on the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Lightning Strikes Twice</span> poster, the imagery here puts this in a different class. The grid-based composition is powerful: so much information crammed into such a small space, but it’s all essential and the design doesn’t feel cluttered. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I appreciate that the artist here offers up an illustration that, had it been on practically any other poster, would have divided its subjects </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(the</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> killer in the foreground, the cop and hoodlum in the background, and the couple on the right)</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">into three separate images.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Every detail has been carefully rendered. The title, illo, and inset triptych at the bottom all nestle together like they were born that way. The design’s vertical balance, with black text in the generous white frame at the top and bottom, and everything “lining up” on a clearly defined grid system is typical of the Warner Bros. house style. A masterfully controlled design, even if there are a few too many typestyles. And I love the small but significant attention paid to those initial capitals on the three stars’ names!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_FQUtr5B_SHDDyMyIUszq0dhEweoS8GOuA74TNM0LULSKjqEe4ZWa2Qo3OZalX1qtRwQMcUkz74FMlUcsZ9dxZnAwXwy92wp01y3Yo6chPOJJ-qAEfvT5CVqF60iYgKB6543IBsXrHJE/s1600/35.-City-that-Never-Sleeps.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268811973309586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_FQUtr5B_SHDDyMyIUszq0dhEweoS8GOuA74TNM0LULSKjqEe4ZWa2Qo3OZalX1qtRwQMcUkz74FMlUcsZ9dxZnAwXwy92wp01y3Yo6chPOJJ-qAEfvT5CVqF60iYgKB6543IBsXrHJE/s640/35.-City-that-Never-Sleeps.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="416" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">36. <span style="font-style: italic;">City That Never Sleeps</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1953)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is the highest-ranked entry from the artist that I’m betting worked on the posters for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Threat</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Hoodlum Empire</span>. Similar to <span style="font-style: italic;">Crime Wave</span>, the illustration tells many stories in its wonderfully pulpy, comic book style. Like its Poverty Row siblings, this poster has an unsophisticated composition and type treatment, but is so emblematic in its representation of the urban landscape so central to film noir that the sum of the poster is truly greater than the parts.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipelNGLxylW9UWz1kM3VrtPRfirKoUjnjih3XXNgTp-4iLhY7QgVshR0J7TZm3X4iXK_2_h1cobFSqU2wP3ukmsu_BmdG326UbjseqGAF_P2OnyuQNpVW_u2AZeteHre7MTueqTfOmM8U/s1600/34.-Long-Wait%252C-The.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268808802911634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipelNGLxylW9UWz1kM3VrtPRfirKoUjnjih3XXNgTp-4iLhY7QgVshR0J7TZm3X4iXK_2_h1cobFSqU2wP3ukmsu_BmdG326UbjseqGAF_P2OnyuQNpVW_u2AZeteHre7MTueqTfOmM8U/s640/34.-Long-Wait%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="423" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">35. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Long Wait</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1954)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sheesh, I know it’s a lotta text, but c’mon, this is one of the greatest poster images in all of noir! What a great pose…even the girl has a gat. I love how classic this is, covered from top to bottom in a mish-mash of hand drawn letters—surprising for a poster from 1954. Sure, there are a few typefaces there, but they don’t dominate and despite the sheer volume of text, everything fits together harmoniously and nothing distracts from the power of the central image. If this were a little less cluttered, I’m betting it would have cracked the top twenty. From a content point of view, this is pure, misogynistic Mickey Spillane—the artist nailed it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybYvdEW5GM9y3-pRVzvL9CqAqQXj1f8HCjFL2AURzJWCjGzYkVoTO0zxvwipUC1YfloqxH_-jzvAGGHJJycyi-mgH4kZgGyyT4_aHfH3qSPq9rP66spEFlsMyZ4PTPeEyPnssKsK8-_Q/s1600/19.-Maltese-Falcon.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567483086896738242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybYvdEW5GM9y3-pRVzvL9CqAqQXj1f8HCjFL2AURzJWCjGzYkVoTO0zxvwipUC1YfloqxH_-jzvAGGHJJycyi-mgH4kZgGyyT4_aHfH3qSPq9rP66spEFlsMyZ4PTPeEyPnssKsK8-_Q/s640/19.-Maltese-Falcon.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="423" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">34. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Maltese Falcon</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1941)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is a tough one, a very difficult poster to rank. I’m comfortable with it here, but I need to qualify the ranking by saying that the <i>Falcon</i>’s significance to film noir (and American motion pictures in general) influenced its placement. Not that it isn’t a good poster: the image of Bogart sporting a pair of Colt pistols is certainly powerful, and goes a long way to establishing this as a crime film of the first order. But upon reflection, I’d ask you to consider whether or not the Bogart we see is actually Sam Spade, or if this particular image isn’t of the cold-blooded Roy Earle from <span style="font-style: italic;">High Sierra</span>? For that matter, one wonders whether or not the hands and pistols are even from the same photograph of Bogart, or if this whole thing isn't one gigantic example of a designer cobbling things together?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Regardless, it’s an exciting design. I’ve already received a pair of emails asking if this would be the top poster, so I can say now that the answer is obviously no. Beyond Bogart, I wish the three primary typographic elements (the title, star names, and tagline) were more cohesive, and that the poster could somehow show the fabled bird itself more prominently than just as a microscopic image on the cover of the Hammett book. We have to remember that <span style="font-style: italic;">The Maltese Falcon </span>was essentially a B picture for Warners, and they wouldn’t have placed a premium on generating original art for the poster. The story had been filmed twice before, in 1931 and 1936, and there wasn’t much hope on the lot that this version would fare much better.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">33. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Glass Web</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1953)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Not too much to shout about here—a well-crafted cheesecake poster with everything in the right place. Pretty good girl artwork backed up with a nice title type treatment and an offbeat composition. The publicity shots of Robinson and Forsythe are a bit lazy, but the girl more than makes up for them. The artist here had the good sense to know that feet should be suggested more than fully rendered, as evidenced by comparing this image to the one in the forthcoming poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prowler</span>. Yikes!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0KkqNl8-UXL-VFkBIzr8XVMkBe-PixuTsnKWBf3xE-iTDyVpitafBSUmIUBg-Xrrm4S9Gr1gVD2aU14gEsziJTzzY-kmfYUs-iZaS_S3ouLRqDwlz2dDMJeyKCyHu1xTANEP4Ow78jJQ/s1600/41.-Kiss-Before-Dying%252C-A.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567326075377906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0KkqNl8-UXL-VFkBIzr8XVMkBe-PixuTsnKWBf3xE-iTDyVpitafBSUmIUBg-Xrrm4S9Gr1gVD2aU14gEsziJTzzY-kmfYUs-iZaS_S3ouLRqDwlz2dDMJeyKCyHu1xTANEP4Ow78jJQ/s640/41.-Kiss-Before-Dying%252C-A.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="418" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">32. <span style="font-style: italic;">A Kiss Before Dying</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1956)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sure, I know some of you might quibble about this being a color film, but Cinemascope and Technicolor were Hollywood’s two biggest weapons in its war with television, and crime pictures got the big screen treatment the same as everything else. Noir credibility aside, the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">A Kiss Before Dying</span> is truly a stunner—a happy marriage of modern sensibility and bravado with classic style, yet titillating with promises of the kind of sex and violence unable to be offered on the small screen.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I love the posters where I can see the thought process of the designer playing out on paper. Here we have a strong composition with something fairly rare in a film poster design: a single focal point. The white text, the angle of the figures, and the title typography all work together to form a large “X” that leads the eyes directly to the lips of the female figure. Let’s talk about her for a moment: the ambiguity is perfect: are they struggling or making love? Is she alive or dead? Is this the moment of her death? We can only find out by purchasing a ticket. All of the design elements here are spot-on in the bold, minimal, and powerfully graphic classic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0aI-F3wfyaL5_cAu5YgxMbZ6X_7PchmnZavxVwLT0M7sqCjFed0t_6XeVqiLekZfrQ3jOCsT7hRWfBBwfP9ibY5GpdA-sMZAcVuXvuWY3Ku03UUmGkD_tUk0TPd961Gl79HvvVuhlGNo/s1600/Canon-City-Original.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564756028104773026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0aI-F3wfyaL5_cAu5YgxMbZ6X_7PchmnZavxVwLT0M7sqCjFed0t_6XeVqiLekZfrQ3jOCsT7hRWfBBwfP9ibY5GpdA-sMZAcVuXvuWY3Ku03UUmGkD_tUk0TPd961Gl79HvvVuhlGNo/s640/Canon-City-Original.jpg" width="418" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikz1R_936mce9jR6iCfc8ugxTtFqdAHHdpLI43oHT_ktROCssjxuJIUg9ccsHI0bgocOXZmlNxH8IJWzjjQfv_yUn0Ft60QIrIcxzO_XWzv5ajTrz45EVQHB-RmuKoX53D9mwX87HtkjY/s1600/27.-Canon-City.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564756017153967842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikz1R_936mce9jR6iCfc8ugxTtFqdAHHdpLI43oHT_ktROCssjxuJIUg9ccsHI0bgocOXZmlNxH8IJWzjjQfv_yUn0Ft60QIrIcxzO_XWzv5ajTrz45EVQHB-RmuKoX53D9mwX87HtkjY/s640/27.-Canon-City.jpg" width="418" /></a></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">31. <i>Canon City</i></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1948)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A few weeks ago I messaged back and forth with someone who inquired about where I was getting such pristine copies of the posters, and I responded that I was making them myself—in Photoshop, of course. The person wanted to know more, as in what the posters look like when I start with them, and whether or not it is easy to learn to do. The poster for 1948’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Canon</span> (pronounce Canyon) <span style="font-style: italic;">City</span> was fairly annoying to jazz up (the original was filthy!), so I thought for once I’d include the source copy so all could see what I’ve been doing to these things. Is it easy? It took me about 30–45 minutes to get this one into shape, but I’ve been at this since the original version of Photoshop hit the shelves in 1990. Is it hard? No, not really. It just takes practice. For a blog post, I average 10 to 15 minutes per poster, time mainly spent removing the folds and tears. When I'm restoring a poster or comic book cover for one of my books, each image can take several hours. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At any rate, great poster. I’ve placed it here because of the immediacy of the violence. We’ve seen quite a few images of people kicking the crap out of one another, but the convict on the poster here is out to get <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">us</span>! A strong type treatment (even if it is a bit phallic in its positioning), and well executed small illustrations combine with an eye-popping color palette to make this a low-budget home run.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">30. <span style="font-style: italic;">Blonde Sinner</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1956)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the merits of its title alone, this film gets a free pass to the top thirty (even though this has questionable film noir credibility)! If you take a quick look back at <span style="font-style: italic;">Blonde Alibi, </span>you’ll see that this poster is trashier, sexier, and even manages to include some gunplay—thus the higher spot. You’ve just gotta love a poster with four separate shots of the same girl. No one is going to argue that the design here is life-changing, but the imagery is vivid and integrated into the composition with a surprising amount of care, especially considering this is a Poverty Row movie.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What do I mean by “a surprising amount of care”? Notice how much better the photos of Diana are clipped from the respective backgrounds than is the image of, for example, Evelyn Keyes on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prowler</span>. Notice also how the designer applied a painted shadow to help her fit more easily into the red background, not to mention the careful transition from her torso to the title typography—tentatively rendered with an airbrush instead of being cut with scissors. There’s a lot going on here, and I’d love to see the title a little larger—maybe at the expense of one of the images, but this is still a really fun poster.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">29. <span style="font-style: italic;">Somewhere in the Night</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1946)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is one of the more popular film noir posters, probably owing to the unusual color scheme and classic studio design. I’ve always found this poster odd in the sense that the texture of the illustration suggests that the poster was produced as a stone lithograph, though of course that’s highly unlikely, if not impossible. We normally only think of photographs as having grain, though the crayon artwork of the stone lithograph always produces a prominent grain — as you can see here. In all likelihood the illustrator rendered this on a toothy paper, but the effect is the same, and for vintage poster enthusiasts it’s alluring. Design-wise, the poster has many elements at home in film noir: a desperate, confused protagonist, a girl in a trench coat, a shady character, guns, romance, and so forth. The beams of light emanating from John Hodiak’s head are strange to say the least, but appropriate considering his character’s amnesia. This is a solid poster from top to bottom, though I wish the title typography had a little more pop.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">28. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Web</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1947)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If we could somehow forget what Ella Raines and Edmond O’Brien actually look like, this poster might vault into the top ten. Unfortunately though, while Ella fares passably (from the mouth up!), the poor schmuck caught in her web looks nothing like O’Brien, and so the poster suffers. Now don’t correct me—I realize Vincent Price is the nefarious web spinner in this story, but the poster certainly wants us to think it’s Raines. I obviously think this a fine film poster—and in spite of some anatomy problems in the rendering of Raines’s face, it is. The simple notion of a spider web is so in line with the noir milieu, and used so well here that the poster just can’t miss. I like how the artist has employed scale to his advantage, and although the typography feels forced, the gestalt of the poster is still spot on. If only the same hand that rendered the <span style="font-style: italic;">Street of Chance</span> poster had been at work here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVuAiTs6tR9DJ8fOtydeGwdt-u_IjptDiPmc7gfh1fsx-xUWC5AEDFRNLv9_1aCRABsI6PKUbqbKIWwadAo25o-LVMb_WOGp2ki5XZLC-6TabHUcMCNbIWnnGoihTK9XfZVfvdVcaghdU/s1600/24.-High-Sierra.jpg" style="color: #996633;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564755742123472050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVuAiTs6tR9DJ8fOtydeGwdt-u_IjptDiPmc7gfh1fsx-xUWC5AEDFRNLv9_1aCRABsI6PKUbqbKIWwadAo25o-LVMb_WOGp2ki5XZLC-6TabHUcMCNbIWnnGoihTK9XfZVfvdVcaghdU/s640/24.-High-Sierra.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="420" /></a></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">27. <span style="font-style: italic;">High Sierra</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1941)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This one really speaks for itself. Fortunately for the designer Bogart wasn’t yet well-known enough that he felt compelled (or was required) to grant the movie star treatment on the poster, leaving the way clear for this wonderful image—one of the most original I’ve ever seen. The extreme angle of the illustration juxtaposed with the broad expanse of orange space makes for a potent and original expression of the film. Sure, we could quibble that the design falls apart amidst all the rubbish at the bottom, but the upper two-thirds are so fantastic that this poster easily rates its spot in the countdown.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7eFxVvg_y_EsH-0okxBuca2uuqNR4Y_Ht6arxTOH4l6OnSt76cDS2yRpBkuQbWMsKQKGbbcgzJBG6i3CLJgs-jL4Vpve03NPnO-I-ZNCcwV58d5oRli23OMyGyEXvqZunVa1Ci6mjUQ/s1600/23.-Prowler.jpg" style="color: #996633;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564755735947322098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7eFxVvg_y_EsH-0okxBuca2uuqNR4Y_Ht6arxTOH4l6OnSt76cDS2yRpBkuQbWMsKQKGbbcgzJBG6i3CLJgs-jL4Vpve03NPnO-I-ZNCcwV58d5oRli23OMyGyEXvqZunVa1Ci6mjUQ/s640/23.-Prowler.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="417" /></a></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">26. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prowler</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1951)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Recently restored and released on DVD by our great friends over at UCLA and the Film Noir Foundation (<a href="http://www.filmnoirfoundation.com/">are you a member yet?</a>), favorite (and blacklisted) director Joseph Losey’s once-rare <span style="font-style: italic;">The Prowler</span> is one of the more provocative films in the noir canon. It deals with a wide range of issues, from sexual obsession and fulfillment to the mutability of middle class values and the American dream. It’s one of those films that simply begs to be talked about, and noir enthusiasts have been doing so for quite some time.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The poster is a gem as well—it’s not often that the designer is able to integrate type and image this successfully, with the film’s title fitting so nicely on the window shade. I’m not in love with the use of red for the lettering, which risks evoking the slasher genre, but the use of the window motif to place the film in a conceptual context and Van Heflin’s presence as a peeping tom (all the more troubling considering Van plays a cop) give the poster one of the darkest film noir statements in the entire countdown.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’m a big Evelyn Keyes fan, but I don’t feel like this photograph does her justice. It’s easy to understand why it was chosen: the deer-in-the-headlights expression and guarded body language are appropriate for someone who discovers a watcher outside her bathroom window, but there’s something about the pose, especially in the foreshortening of her shoulders, that looks wrong. The photo is clumsily clipped (look at her hair and her waist), and for some reason it looks as if Evelyn’s shoe size has to be 25—keep those things covered Ms. Keyes!</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VbOFF6ktEkkHbd8xD3c8oeZsTp7pdAWqVAiY5S38fUrwzOoFXHPAu9bLLPfAgFIhV0uELoayVzpTKE2u7lCqgHGBvoaemFPQD3zDFt96vQXMZUHZ1vmRUXDfgTsyP3grxOzhQNmevic/s1600/20.-Spider%252C-The.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567483087506922114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VbOFF6ktEkkHbd8xD3c8oeZsTp7pdAWqVAiY5S38fUrwzOoFXHPAu9bLLPfAgFIhV0uELoayVzpTKE2u7lCqgHGBvoaemFPQD3zDFt96vQXMZUHZ1vmRUXDfgTsyP3grxOzhQNmevic/s640/20.-Spider%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="418" /></a></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">25. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Spider</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1945)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">From <span style="font-style: italic;">The Web </span><span style="font-style: italic;">to</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">The Spider</span>. This is one of the lesser-known films to finish so highly in the countdown, and every time I sat down to tweak the rankings I had to resist the urge to push this backwards because it’s a movie that very few people have seen (only 13 votes on IMDb, one of which is mine!). There’s also a nagging feeling that the poster design, with its dramatic lighting and clutched male and female figures (not to the presence of comic relief Mantan Moreland) is more evocative of the forties comic-mystery tradition than it is film noir, though <span style="font-style: italic;">The Spider</span> qualifies as a noir. Frankly, the saving grace of the poster, and the primary reason why it rates so highly, is the image of the eyes looming in the background over Richard Conte’s shoulder. The eyes represent fate—that unknowable force that so often plagues the noir protagonist, in this case Conte, who gets in way over his head during a murder investigation. Beyond that, this is just a beautiful mid forties film poster, featuring a rare-for-the-time photographic image and beautifully hand-rendered typography.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDm5eiq8p8ST8Vrz5EI7SKieKZWLeUNmWCMdIub_6r1oH2fahyphenhyphenujgwQU0Fk4rjg52l1Zz6H1lNhIdUFESRz-2TqHyTgIozJEmA9om9_nDyGOE7LWFPhz4ZG8dH3WeJuuXv4aWFS6EPWYw/s1600/33.-Manhandled.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268801659560690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDm5eiq8p8ST8Vrz5EI7SKieKZWLeUNmWCMdIub_6r1oH2fahyphenhyphenujgwQU0Fk4rjg52l1Zz6H1lNhIdUFESRz-2TqHyTgIozJEmA9om9_nDyGOE7LWFPhz4ZG8dH3WeJuuXv4aWFS6EPWYw/s640/33.-Manhandled.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">24. <span style="font-style: italic;">Manhandled</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1949)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The violence here is so reminiscent of the covers of <a href="http://www.comic-covers.com/Ec/Shock-Suspenstories/index.html">EC Comics <span style="font-style: italic;">Shock SuspenStories</span></a>! A great image made even better by the artist’s attention to detail: the broken strap on the left shoe; the helpless policeman looking up from the fire escape the small, unrelated drama being played out in the alley far below. To top it all off, the performers actually look like themselves, which was no small feat on classic film posters. I consider the stars’ names at the top of the design to be something of a pleasant failure, but the title typography is out of this world, and doesn’t disturb the illustration at all. Move the title to the top and the names to the bottom and this could have placed a lot higher. Regardless, it remains one of the most jarring and powerful images in the countdown.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk9clGUoSaKhnxnyFqK7X_l47D_vw8_uLLEkHc-Luv6BuFJejB0Y4cL_AVFuFhiiexWRbNsNtrIFBHL_MniwyMU5cbWUhmmxMR4okvsHkQaGeq-y_d738bbhu2hIOVIv5RAlSnzXIUh0E/s1600/18.-Devil-Thumbs-a-Ride.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567483082432402466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk9clGUoSaKhnxnyFqK7X_l47D_vw8_uLLEkHc-Luv6BuFJejB0Y4cL_AVFuFhiiexWRbNsNtrIFBHL_MniwyMU5cbWUhmmxMR4okvsHkQaGeq-y_d738bbhu2hIOVIv5RAlSnzXIUh0E/s640/18.-Devil-Thumbs-a-Ride.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="425" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">23. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Devil Thumbs a Ride</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1947)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If anyone out there has one of these and is feeling generous……why not send one to your pal yours truly? This might be my favorite poster in the countdown. I love the somewhat awkward marriage of modernism with classic Hollywood poster style here—I think the scales are tipped towards modernism, with a little surrealism creeping in at the proverbial edges—evident in the floating placement of the gun smack dab in the middle of Lawrence Tierney’s forehead. The strange presence of the gun, the rather bent look in Tierney’s eyes, and the “L” shaped composition combine to make this marvelously original, even if the necessary evils of 1940s poster design are still present: the spot illustrations of romance and murder that fill up the corners. Beyond those images, my final qualm with the design is the clumsy use of crosshatching at the edges of the red shape that holds the title typography. For the majority of the countdown I had this just inside the top ten, but my head finally won out over my heart and I pulled it back a bit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjYlDGhoaBvcNXrpwkYRsLqXMe11wp7Pfa6mNBcGegDPjF9OgNcSkORcxT59mrMBpKK_TF-9MOEY0yoKdpMcZZlz_kl1H7VtwCfpC67wFv-oqfPLWm8Jb8RgCH1-dxhWXjhlCpkcyMYrg/s1600/16.-Harder-They-Fall.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567483076476426226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjYlDGhoaBvcNXrpwkYRsLqXMe11wp7Pfa6mNBcGegDPjF9OgNcSkORcxT59mrMBpKK_TF-9MOEY0yoKdpMcZZlz_kl1H7VtwCfpC67wFv-oqfPLWm8Jb8RgCH1-dxhWXjhlCpkcyMYrg/s640/16.-Harder-They-Fall.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="420" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">22. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Harder They Fall</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1956)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The thing that has always impressed me the most about this poster is that in 1956 Humphrey Bogart was still a major star—if not a living legend. And although the studio system was punch-drunk at the time, it’s quite impressive that a concept-driven design would win out in this instance over one that featured a gigantic portrait of an iconic (and bankable) actor like Bogart—or even one of rising star (and even more bankable) Rod Steiger, fresh off his big splash in <span style="font-style: italic;">Oklahoma!</span>. The fight picture is a force to reckon with in the canon of film noir: <span style="font-style: italic;">Body and Soul, The Set-Up</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Champion</span>, and are bona fide classics. Yet even though <span style="font-style: italic;">The Harder They Fall </span>doesn’t always spring quickly to mind when boxing noir is discussed, its poster is by far the best of the bunch. (Not much competition though, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Body and Soul </span>poster is a laugh.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and being that this is a movie about a newspaperman you’ll forgive me for invoking cliché, but it’s really appropriate here. The connection between the title of the film and the stark image of the boxer’s gloved hand splayed on the canvas is a potent reminder that the fighter himself is almost invariably the sucker in these movies. Where most posters go the route of showing the full-figure boxer, either posing or in action, the minimal approach and tightly-cropped image here is all the more powerful because it trumps our expectations of what the poster ought to be. I’d like it a little more if the taglines were deleted, and the ropes too for that matter (they are out of proportion with the glove anyway) but any way you look at it, this poster is still a knockout.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLW2RqXDuOVWoF25CNVmfu8bIs5FW_FpE1ECT7QIAxTsGo0uVNdsGES9anATnNNTsYyt19gLNSlsjw6QI5vwMDIjA-z3oIuOY2Ozpu8uMooVH5cq2DngFiiQr_rbMKhZvZbrYVkyI7NTQ/s1600/15.-Strange-Love-of-Martha-Ivers.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567482817583572130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLW2RqXDuOVWoF25CNVmfu8bIs5FW_FpE1ECT7QIAxTsGo0uVNdsGES9anATnNNTsYyt19gLNSlsjw6QI5vwMDIjA-z3oIuOY2Ozpu8uMooVH5cq2DngFiiQr_rbMKhZvZbrYVkyI7NTQ/s640/15.-Strange-Love-of-Martha-Ivers.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="422" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">21. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Strange Love of Martha Ivers</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1946)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I bet you didn’t notice that Liz Scott’s head is out of scale with those of Stanwyck and Heflin. That’s how stunning the artwork here is. One could make the argument that this is the most beautiful poster in the countdown, at least as far as the illustrations are concerned. Yet there’s a lot more going on here than just technical virtuosity; each of the three leads here is depicted in character, which is what really knocks this out of the park. We’ll come back to Liz Scott in a moment, in the meantime look at the nuance of what’s going on here between Stanwyck (Martha Ivers) and Van Heflin: she’s in the power position, with her hands on his face, situated above him in the picture plane, very much in keeping with the film. This isn’t a romantic image, it’s purely about sex and power. Is she kissing him? Or is she about to bite? Is she smiling? Enjoying herself? Heflin seems a little lost; he looks away from her, ostensibly at the viewer, or maybe even at Scott, as if to implore for some sort of help.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The star names at the top really represent the high water mark in that style of brush lettering that was so popular in the mid-century period. The typography junkies in the crowd (like me) could spend an hour simply exploring the letterforms in those three names. The “tt” ligature in Liz Scott’s name is enough to leave a graphic design professor breathless—so effortless and perfect it hurts to look at.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’m less excited about the type at the bottom. The designer has made the strange choice of aligning the typographic elements to the curve of the illustration instead of to one another, resulting in awkward negative spaces and a clumsy result. The title should have been much larger, and could also have occupied the space better. In spite of this, there shouldn’t be any doubt as to why this poster ended up near the top!</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbAFpVPBd9gSCp6XoYShhBEAZiFHFPxZ4XkeCtgVxCs36Z7stddDLd14V9b9B3jAaugLSGQuepdRHR2-tu1Yp6InklQPkqjIOTELYCQjLrDnQVDRUdNKjhk8KiVcsptgbAN1uq_HjU-I/s1600/11.-D.O.A..jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567482804610944050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbAFpVPBd9gSCp6XoYShhBEAZiFHFPxZ4XkeCtgVxCs36Z7stddDLd14V9b9B3jAaugLSGQuepdRHR2-tu1Yp6InklQPkqjIOTELYCQjLrDnQVDRUdNKjhk8KiVcsptgbAN1uq_HjU-I/s640/11.-D.O.A..jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="425" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">20. <span style="font-style: italic;">D.O.A.</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1950)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The imagery here isn’t as well-executed as it might be, but so what? The huge title type, punching Edmond O’Brien right in the gut as he presses backwards, terrified, into some unseen corner, all the while casting a gigantic shadow says more about the nature of film noir than practically any other poster or still image out there. Noir is notoriously difficult to define. As I said recently somewhere else it’s quite similar to art in that there are million different definitions floating around, yet few are adequate. This poster makes the matter simple though: if someone ever asks you what film noir is, just point them at this poster. No further definitions necessary.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrZPeAanISUBACzxqUgAK_iFqWBaSFJGA5b5WrhSyemurMT4LiLBqFmCYTxcLziAv4cxCfmkngXZ0xuxp_23uli5jxJ02qWkZQY931rvVZ9bdjBZq7W6xicbBRaUgNeFBaI5UrkVbMF5w/s1600/46.-Postman-Always-Rings-Twice.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559567504450788066" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrZPeAanISUBACzxqUgAK_iFqWBaSFJGA5b5WrhSyemurMT4LiLBqFmCYTxcLziAv4cxCfmkngXZ0xuxp_23uli5jxJ02qWkZQY931rvVZ9bdjBZq7W6xicbBRaUgNeFBaI5UrkVbMF5w/s640/46.-Postman-Always-Rings-Twice.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="423" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">19. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Postman Always Rings Twice</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1946)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Talk about iconic. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is one of the few noir movies familiar to casual classic film fans, and it maintains its popularity on the strength of star power and melodramatic romance more than on its chops as a crime film. Consequently, the poster is primarily marketing the Turner and Garfield’s sexual chemistry, while the noir content comes in second. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It’s instructive to compare this poster to that of <i>Double Indemnity</i>, which also features two romantic full figures, and understand why the latter is such a travesty. Where Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck look ridiculous smiling against a lurid pink background on their poster, Turner and Garfield, swathed in black, are perfection: he’s intensely focused; she’s unattainable; they’re all wrapped up in black, velvety doom. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Yet the poster’s incredible power is undercut by the comedic style of the title typography. I love that the typography is asymmetrical and falls on a diagonal axis, but it bothers me that the film’s title and the tagline at the top are so light, whimsical, and out of character with the story. In the end, we’ve got a poster here that has almost limitless potential, but significant flaws.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXPApR94zTdstCsDB_p5_5eaVB6FZnWJAlDQmKuWnpTCaYbln9RJWLQUBmr6j0FP4kDca6bfLcOX49iy2OHBNAlA-yRJdLV1HBRETDUay0WvWsD0pWjHkjbBaXyB2T4FCOvD5b86O6-I/s1600/32.-Accused-of-Murder.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268800483134658" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXPApR94zTdstCsDB_p5_5eaVB6FZnWJAlDQmKuWnpTCaYbln9RJWLQUBmr6j0FP4kDca6bfLcOX49iy2OHBNAlA-yRJdLV1HBRETDUay0WvWsD0pWjHkjbBaXyB2T4FCOvD5b86O6-I/s640/32.-Accused-of-Murder.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">18. <span style="font-style: italic;">Accused of Murder</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1956)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is one of the coolest posters in the countdown. You’ll notice as we move forward that there are fewer and fewer unknown films that make it this far, but one look at this poster tells you that it surely deserves such a high placement. The gun-toting image of sexy Vera Ralston is great, even if she couldn’t act, and her dress is a bit too <span style="font-style: italic;">Les Miserables</span> for my taste. Positioning her at the edge of the design instead of in the center reinforces the impression that she’s on the lam. And the silhouette of the Colt 1911 is brilliant—it draws heavily on the tenets of modernist book-jacket design and contains most of the narrative illustration, including the wall Vera hides behind and the men who pursue her through an ultra-noirish urban landscape. She stands on the title typography, and her weight has managed to push it down onto a diagonal, enlivening the composition of the bottom of the poster. Sublime.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_IWwCJ2crAAwBEYWdRf8uLSvOECsBqIrIvdy31ZnJ5zzXKlDAJF9yQOqfY-cm1wqEaLRgj-jmvXq7OHUAW4WgrooULF9Tgh1FiJf8mZVOgFt-UQrVhO15H7ClAe_dFK3Xx_1vn3lgnw/s1600/31.-Plunder-Road.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562268792813599330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_IWwCJ2crAAwBEYWdRf8uLSvOECsBqIrIvdy31ZnJ5zzXKlDAJF9yQOqfY-cm1wqEaLRgj-jmvXq7OHUAW4WgrooULF9Tgh1FiJf8mZVOgFt-UQrVhO15H7ClAe_dFK3Xx_1vn3lgnw/s640/31.-Plunder-Road.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="433" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">17. <span style="font-style: italic;">Plunder Road</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1957)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Plunder Road</span> is a personal favorite, and goes a long way to proving what a skilled designer can do with modest raw material. For once we have a road film with a poster that doesn’t actually depict a highway vanishing into some dreary spot on the horizon, with the text appearing in street signs.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A few words about the film; </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’ve never come across a noir buff that doesn’t like it. It’s a first rate heist picture, with an incredibly fatalistic ending.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Nevertheless, m</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">any readers probably haven’t seen it. It streamed for a while on Netflix, before they purged all of their classic film library, but is now available as an Olive Films Blu-Ray release. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The poster is as good as the film itself—sporting as powerful a use of negative space as we are likely to see, both in terms of the large red rectangle and the white strip that violates it. Does the stripe represent the road, or merely the white line diving the lanes? Is it some barrier through which the hoodlums in the film must somehow crash through? Or is it merely a graphic device used to nudge the poster closer to the avant garde? As far as I’m concerned it is all of those things! Furthermore, I love how the design plays with scale, depth, and perspective though the juxtaposition of the figures—such contrast! (Even if they are just swiped from publicity stills.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRuWyJKh2ZUqrx1AA1P3_jPnJkC1oqpLwrg1gKyHE9jdctc9yDysz8V8S7lVwxglM88_yev2KjuTTGpRAYbK32dTz5hqiqmAddyZxBwxCRo6tuXBkqZhUykRbDjeSxNcnOmBIBGxX3xqI/s1600/13.-Las-Vegas-Story.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567482809444458770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRuWyJKh2ZUqrx1AA1P3_jPnJkC1oqpLwrg1gKyHE9jdctc9yDysz8V8S7lVwxglM88_yev2KjuTTGpRAYbK32dTz5hqiqmAddyZxBwxCRo6tuXBkqZhUykRbDjeSxNcnOmBIBGxX3xqI/s640/13.-Las-Vegas-Story.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px;" width="419" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">16. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Las Vegas Story</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1952)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The poster for<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Las Vegas Story</span> earns its spot through visual fireworks alone. Consequently, there’s not much to explain here. If this one doesn’t knock you over you better check your pulse. Fans of Howard Hughes’ <span style="font-style: italic;">The Outlaw </span>are entitled to their opinion, but for my poker chips this is the most striking image of Jane Russell to ever grace a printing press.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There are basically two distinct things happening here, with Russell and Mature up front in a magnificent (if a bit traditional) illustration, while the vividly stylized interpretation of gangster-era Vegas in the background contrasts and frames the foreground image perfectly. Any inky-fingered pressman will tell you that blues are the hardest colors to print, and deep blues are the worst of all—the blue here is outrageous; and I can promise that of all the posters in the countdown, this one needed much less digital manipulation than you might expect. It’s just an extraordinarily vibrant presentation. Great harmony, beautiful people, precise execution, this one is just dripping with style.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">15. <span style="font-style: italic;">Street of Chance</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1942)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Made very early in the noir cycle (and having nothing to do with the better known 1930 William Powell / Jean Arthur / Kay Francis film of the same name), the 1942’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Street of Chance</span> offers us one of the most beautiful vintage Hollywood posters in this or any other collection of film advertising. And whaddayaknow? There’s our old pal, the beautiful Claire Trevor, this time a blonde, making yet another appearance in the countdown. There is little not to love here: the illustration is stunning, the typography is perfect, and the clever overlay of the hand with the knife is the icing on the cake. Finally, how about that streetlight? How can you not love a film poster poster that reminds us of the best traditions in classic mystery book jacket design? Great stuff.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">14. <span style="font-style: italic;">Trapped</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1949)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Could there be any doubt that this magnificent poster would rank near the top? Another Poverty Row gem, the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Trapped</span> scores with both genders, perfectly representing the film noir male and female. Let’s start at the top, with tragic beauty Barbara Payton. We won’t get into Payton’s story here (<a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2009/09/murder-is-my-beat-1955.html">though I do in the essay for <span style="font-style: italic;">Murder is My Beat</span></a>), but for those of you unfamiliar with her, I can tell you that the artist has captured her screen persona perfectly. Her sexy but trashy, slightly frayed, come-hither look, cast directly at the viewer is just extraordinary, and it’s matched by John Hoyt underneath. I’m surprised at the choice of Hoyt for the poster, considering that Lloyd Bridges is the film’s star, but it isn’t the identity of the man that’s important, it’s the use of light and shadow. When we think of film noir, one of the more ubiquitous visual signifiers are the shadows cast by the slats of window blinds, yet the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Trapped</span> is one of the only film advertisements that utilizes them—and it does so spectacularly. The tagline is delicious, the title typography is first-rate, and the small illustrations at the bottom of the composition are truly something else! With posters this good, there must be some real gems in the queue!</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2ZPqDXqeiW_e_bF7LR26J5DjBfdIYoUG-hXxOMebvSe6-m0iZoaW8XS43ykLnsf7vL7IfmX3HGXYWzqmHRMORi8KcZeuQhnQwUzhTC7VgECtPTlYe6hj3_zv8m_cgNyCAOA90Bx6UJo/s1600/14.-Hitch-Hiker.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567482817600094690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2ZPqDXqeiW_e_bF7LR26J5DjBfdIYoUG-hXxOMebvSe6-m0iZoaW8XS43ykLnsf7vL7IfmX3HGXYWzqmHRMORi8KcZeuQhnQwUzhTC7VgECtPTlYe6hj3_zv8m_cgNyCAOA90Bx6UJo/s640/14.-Hitch-Hiker.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="426" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">13. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hitch-Hiker</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1953)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If memory serves me correctly, I really owe Richard Edwards and Shannon Clute of the extraordinary podcast series <a href="http://www.noircast.net/">“Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir”</a> for turning me onto this poster. In their episode about Ida Lupino’s film <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hitch-Hiker</span>, they talk about this poster, and how it places you in the title character’s shoes. Throughout the countdown, we’ve seen posters that break the fourth wall in some way or another, with the characters on the poster directly engaging with the viewer. Yet this one takes the notion quite a few steps farther—not only does place you in the backseat of the car, looking through William Talman’s eyes, with Edmond O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy nervously staring back at you, but it puts the gun in your hand—making you an active participant in the movie’s extraordinary drama. This is an important, and exciting, development in poster design, but it’s more significant in its relation to the content of the film, and to film noir in general. One of the key strains of noir is its preoccupation with the proliferation of crime in the years immediately following the war, and not just urban crime. Countless film noirs were made in the 40s and 50s that depicted criminals, of the organized and unorganized types, functioning far away from their typical dark alleys and wet city streets—threatening everyday folks who were doing their best to work hard and achieve the American Dream. Film noir cynically endeavored to show that no one was safe, no matter how far they moved away from the urban center. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Hitch-Hiker</span> takes place primarily in Mexico, about as far away from the city as you can get. The victims of the film are two working stiffs, just like you and me. The poster also makes it easy to understand that the killer could be anyone—that’s why it puts the gun in our hands. And if the killer is just like us, it could just as easily be the guy next door, the nice guy we think we know so well. I won’t waste pixels talking about the design here, it just isn’t that relevant compared to the content, but I will mention how fantastic the use of red is—particularly in an era of filmmaking (1953) when any association whatsoever with the color was highly frowned upon. Ms. Lupino sure knew how to take risks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqDGKdYmDCdV6k_EDyLh2k6eHn92t-UPIPjb_HvSKJDJ3V2oaGtTgJdNVzVH0JQiQW1KsmkMkDaQpUq3plHbkNX1inxuoMznJuyCMaSFrlwtIolK5i8ApedSJzPVaA0V9ebhElJPVuyt0/s1600/12.-Cry-Vengeance.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567482805212895170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqDGKdYmDCdV6k_EDyLh2k6eHn92t-UPIPjb_HvSKJDJ3V2oaGtTgJdNVzVH0JQiQW1KsmkMkDaQpUq3plHbkNX1inxuoMznJuyCMaSFrlwtIolK5i8ApedSJzPVaA0V9ebhElJPVuyt0/s640/12.-Cry-Vengeance.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">12. <span style="font-style: italic;">Cry Vengeance</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1954)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This poster is a miracle. If we can be sure of one thing, it’s that none of us have seen anything like it. That’s why it’s s ranked way up here—it may be the most original in the whole shebang. The film itself is a taut revenge story set in San Francisco and Alaska, with some slick twists on a variety of noir tropes, it’s very much worth checking out. Obviously the unique setting is a big part of the poster’s novelty: the totem pole is literally out of this world. But that’s not enough to push this over the top—what really makes this tick is how, in spite of the unique imagery, the poster still speaks directly to the noir frame of mind. Get a load of Mark Stevens. Gun drawn and pointed right at us, he’s the ultimate noir hero—isolated and alone, casting an epic shadow. It’s hard not to imagine this as an Alan Ladd film, though Steven does a fine imitation here. The typography is mid-century-cool, and the cropped photo of the eyes floating above gets at the detective’s paranoid frame of mind like nobody’s business. It’s fair to suggest that the same set of complaints could be made about this poster that could be made about <span style="font-style: italic;">Gun Crazy</span>, but this has so much more nuance. Could we tighten the text type up? Sure. Could we lose the lower left photo? OK. But it’s the marriage of distinctive title/star typography with photography and illustration sets this apart. The placement of the two photos at the bottom within Stevens’ shadow is just brilliant.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This would rate even higher, but we’ll soon see a poster for a Hugo Haas gem that tops it. One certainly can’t argue against the film: <span style="font-style: italic;">Gun Crazy</span> is one of the most important film noirs ever made, and a few critics have even tried to argue for it as the <span style="font-style: italic;">Great American Movie</span>. In my Advanced Typography class I have the students create a program for a hypothetical film noir festival, and over the years I’ve shown a variety of movies to introduce them to the style. No movie has ever gone over with them like <span style="font-style: italic;">Gun Crazy</span>, not even <span style="font-style: italic;">Double Indemnity</span>. There is something so potent in the story of Bart and Annie Laurie, as well as the visceral, seat of your pants filmmaking that just reaches out and grabs you. Frankly, this is an instance where no poster could ever measure up to the film itself, which might be why the poster for the Haas film made the top ten and this didn’t.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">British honey Peggy Cummins is larger than life in the composition, and she just glowers back over her shoulder at us—challenging us, as if to say, “What are you looking at?” It’s one of the great images in the countdown, even if her near forearm is too long (the overlap of the smoking gun with the typography makes it worth it). However, the artist must have been terrified of negative space, he’s gone out of his way to fill every open area of the poster with either artwork or scribbling. I don’t think this is a top ten poster, but I’d like it more if we could lose the vertical photograph at the bottom, lighten the ink wash-shadows on the right, and nix one or both of the photos at the top. This thing is just too busy—leave the girl alone and let her carry the poster!</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBmEq-u0xzoHamn3lfVvAnhFNCzsnOVPCRB4pVCUzRmixQFo8_IB3XoPk4JfM8H8sbS9_43_DcNcPnm9Z1wmTeA19WtJQSbcdHeYeiTpAMEdJGS0MFQb30JkjIWUwyZJFS1v8nTsKebAw/s1600/10.-Pitfall.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569953561153509986" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBmEq-u0xzoHamn3lfVvAnhFNCzsnOVPCRB4pVCUzRmixQFo8_IB3XoPk4JfM8H8sbS9_43_DcNcPnm9Z1wmTeA19WtJQSbcdHeYeiTpAMEdJGS0MFQb30JkjIWUwyZJFS1v8nTsKebAw/s640/10.-Pitfall.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" width="424" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">10. <span style="font-style: italic;">Pitfall</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1948)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Kicking off the top ten is Andre de Toth’s 1948 <span style="font-style: italic;">Pitfall</span>, a domestic noir that finds family man Dick Powell in over his head when he falls hard for Liz Scott. The poster boasts a sophisticated composition, with a limited color palette, strong title lettering, and expressively colored photography. I love how the whole thing is held together by the circular shockwaves emanating from the impact of the punch in the small photo. The waves are conceptually significant: they remind us of one of film noir’s more popular themes—the domino effect that occurs when the protagonist takes his first step down the wrong path. Even better are the photos themselves. It’s clear in how Dick Powell is depicted that his tough guy screen persona is fully cemented in the public mind. Gone is the ambiguity of the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Murder, My Sweet</span>, where Dick appears to be as much crooner as private detective. In this poster he’s frayed, frazzled, and coming apart at the seams. Let’s shift to Scott. Although she isn’t front and center, this is nevertheless one of the most potent images of her (or any other noir fatale) to grace a film poster. Some might consider the coloring of her lips to be a bit much, but not me. It’s a highly charged, sexually provocative image presented in a style that reminds me of the film posters of the eighties—and <span style="font-style: italic;">Pitfall</span> was made in 1948! With this in mind, it’s difficult not to think the poster is way ahead of its time. Who wouldn’t hang this one up?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A visually stunning poster. In Jules Dassin’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Night and the City</span> Richard Widmark plays an American hustler in London, doing anything and everything he can to get ahead, with ultimately tragic results. There’s so much to say about this from a design perspective that it’s difficult to even begin. The style is pure postwar modernism, almost more reminiscent of the book jackets of the era than a film poster. The organic, floating composition is striking, and the sense of spatial depth is not just beautiful, but believable. Widmark is perfect: frightened, nervous, on the run; while the elegant Gene Tierney, herself something of a tragic figure, appears just on the other side of the wall, unable to look upward. The typography is conceptually appropriate, and the visual surprise of the looming figure at the top of the composition is the icing on the cake. One of the most striking and original film posters of the mid-century period, or any other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVvwOVDX87Nix-Ne-vJu-x0W-MyOSWEfuxlewKiHn4VBuSJ-RuRdoIWGko9jcCdzr_QUsCmI2fZlRERNTygEUOML2awrIQW2QjnXiWSqaI7fKNmbCNKQrB_0H2F10dAlKBxfepD8zAD8/s1600/8.-Guilty-Bystander.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569953548459401474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfVvwOVDX87Nix-Ne-vJu-x0W-MyOSWEfuxlewKiHn4VBuSJ-RuRdoIWGko9jcCdzr_QUsCmI2fZlRERNTygEUOML2awrIQW2QjnXiWSqaI7fKNmbCNKQrB_0H2F10dAlKBxfepD8zAD8/s640/8.-Guilty-Bystander.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="422" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">8. <span style="font-style: italic;">Guilty Bystander</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1950)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Way back when I started the blog I wrote about the poster for <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2009/06/guilty-bystander-1950.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Guilty Bystander</span> in my essay about the film</a>; it just resonates with film noir people in a way that few others have. Why? Redemption.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We’ve talked about many themes throughout the countdown, yet I think the notion of redemption is new here. Instead of chronicling the protagonist’s fall from respectability to the gutter, <span style="font-style: italic;">Guilty Bystander</span> picks up where other films have left off, with Zach Scott languishing in a hell of his own creation, inwardly looking for some way to climb back out of the gutter. Such roles came easily for Scott—he was a professional heel in the movies, and audiences loved hating him. In<span style="font-style: italic;"> Guilty Bystander</span> he plays a man who gets a second chance, and somehow manages to reclaim the important things he thought were lost to him.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Noir pictures so often chronicle the breaking of a man, and the poster here shows a man broken. Look at Scott’s face, such pathos! Yet he’s on his feet, gun in hand, trying hard to get past all of the terrible things he’s been part of, looking tentatively off into the distance at some seemingly impossible future. For me at least, this isn’t a poster; it’s a mirror.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XiozpkRTZ9tvnxYm5ysvrRqCcpekteTmKx6QgCZVJ74lYbK2Po88JBaUfzDIadbTm7M4OCvykmrAK1lvKIJ70PT3_a9cODtHcgAHdpBvy-qdgQcQNG4cYrtjD5geeQuhH50DN88z72M/s1600/7.-Pickup.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569953548342534434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XiozpkRTZ9tvnxYm5ysvrRqCcpekteTmKx6QgCZVJ74lYbK2Po88JBaUfzDIadbTm7M4OCvykmrAK1lvKIJ70PT3_a9cODtHcgAHdpBvy-qdgQcQNG4cYrtjD5geeQuhH50DN88z72M/s640/7.-Pickup.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="420" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">7. <span style="font-style: italic;">Pickup</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1951)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A case could be made for this as the top poster, but the lack of a strong male presence is a setback. I’m betting most of you haven’t seen this poster before (or the film either!), so it probably just knocked you on your ass. Undoubtedly the most extraordinary image of the trashy, B movie femme fatale that has ever appeared on a legitimate, non-exploitation poster, one would almost wonder if Bev Michaels actually looks like this in the film (she sure does). Folks are free to have any opinion of Hugo Haas that they like, but if Alfred Hitchcock had a thing for icy blondes, Haas sure loved the trashy ones. The get-up and the facial expression are just priceless and iconic: those eyes, the lips, the sneer, the cigarette—I bet Bev doesn’t even muss her lipstick when she tells the coppers to kiss her ass. I want this one for my office.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH37f8mTj6GJLuXt0JzDHAGHEcQwArOmJnnCr4x19_yBDwsx1wpnTjKKN_ocRmJnZqATFlcl6nyCmlmUJDgjVTHbGZ5e8krCfGuN2-rUVW0NX682l5LRua9tuu4a3yIAwaTQ2yo7FLag4/s1600/6.-Killing%252C-The.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569953544389265618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH37f8mTj6GJLuXt0JzDHAGHEcQwArOmJnnCr4x19_yBDwsx1wpnTjKKN_ocRmJnZqATFlcl6nyCmlmUJDgjVTHbGZ5e8krCfGuN2-rUVW0NX682l5LRua9tuu4a3yIAwaTQ2yo7FLag4/s640/6.-Killing%252C-The.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="411" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">6. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Killing</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1956)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’m not the Kubrick fan that most film buffs are, but <span style="font-style: italic;">The Killing</span> is one the greatest heist pictures ever made, and certainly no one can argue the extent of its influence on contemporary filmmakers. Yet unlike <span style="font-style: italic;">Gun Crazy</span>, this is an instance when the poster is as far ahead of its time as the movie it represents. Kubrick didn’t have any caché with audiences when this was made, so it’s easy to understand why the producers would use the poster as a vehicle to invoke the titles of such films as <span style="font-style: italic;">Scarface</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Little</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Caesar</span> (even though it’s a little bizarre considering that <i>The Killing</i> isn’t a mob picture.) However the large taglines aren’t a drawback here—they offer some clues about story, and the use of red and blue reinforces what’s happening elsewhere in the poster. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is worth a reminder to mention that this was released in 1956, and the design couldn’t have been more original for the time. As a matter of fact, I think this poster would look a great deal more comfortable on the wall of a contemporary multiplex than it did all those decades ago. Drawing on the graphic power of bold primary colors and posterized illustrations, it presents a pastiche of overlapping images in a deceptively simple arrangement—and catch an eyeful of those stiffs at the bottom. Just shocking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5r8XSanx-4eku1d6i0Gd5THLXuw7TvdW521jScUzkNYHFDTlU7rPSPlxIpu35YuNXm3aB9K4EoHR59E5UhbTyXEYr_07r4JlxDJiHviYljmdZ1eO8oH9TIF5dejaq66QRImRk1c6h1Wc/s1600/5.-This-Gun-for-Hire.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569953323556701026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5r8XSanx-4eku1d6i0Gd5THLXuw7TvdW521jScUzkNYHFDTlU7rPSPlxIpu35YuNXm3aB9K4EoHR59E5UhbTyXEYr_07r4JlxDJiHviYljmdZ1eO8oH9TIF5dejaq66QRImRk1c6h1Wc/s640/5.-This-Gun-for-Hire.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="415" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">5. <span style="font-style: italic;">This Gun for Hire</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1942)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the end, it landed at number five. Of all the film noir one-sheets, this is among the most important (and the second most valuable: one example sold in 2007 for $47,800. A <i>Gilda</i> one-sheet sold for $77,675 in 2014).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Veronica Lake: the ice-princess, the girl with the peekaboo bang. Next to Marilyn Monroe, the most photogenic Hollywood actress of all time. In James Ellroy’s <span style="font-style: italic;">L.A. Confidential </span>she’s the lurking, symbolic presence of the Hollywood mystique. Lake’s history is well known, so I won’t rehash it here; but at 4' 11", her career really took off with<span style="font-style: italic;"> This Gun for Hire</span>, when Hollywood finally found an actor in 5' 3" Alan Ladd who looked good standing beside her—and people wonder why they made so many pictures together! Ladd was such a beginner at the time that he only rated fourth billing, even though he’s undoubtedly the film’s star.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What’s not to like here? Why place it at five? I have a few reasons for not placing this in the top spot—though in my first few drafts of the list I had it there. First is the typography at the top of the poster, Alan Ladd’s name (four letters, like Lake) would look so much better up there, and would certainly balance the composition more than Preston’s; and I don’t think the names integrate well with the rest of the design. They are too heavy, and the poster would improve if they could shift to the bottom, and the artwork could shift up. More importantly though (and don’t get mad at me!), I have issues with the illustration of Lake, it’s fine, but it doesn’t quite look like her. If you disagree that’s okay, but Lake had a girlish quality to her beauty that is absent here, not to mention an exquisite delicacy to her features that I also can’t find in the image. As I’m writing this I’ve placed a photograph of her face beside the poster and it just doesn’t stack up. Nonetheless, this is a showstopper, I’ve used the image of Alan Ladd as my internet avatar for many years. This is one of the greatest film posters ever made.</span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNB5n2aOdfDJyD-gG69Z1B9xfK-uUSCy93HVC0ATZt3RuX1XEZ79gkAS5vVkX9iLGy699UILj2-_Frm-cI7eb0Mb8I25GuRzgHRV6qV4gkHCinpDP-3FfCYgHjUALOgM0feZ7jGLogba0/s1600/4.-Gilda.jpg" style="font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569953321111441554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNB5n2aOdfDJyD-gG69Z1B9xfK-uUSCy93HVC0ATZt3RuX1XEZ79gkAS5vVkX9iLGy699UILj2-_Frm-cI7eb0Mb8I25GuRzgHRV6qV4gkHCinpDP-3FfCYgHjUALOgM0feZ7jGLogba0/s640/4.-Gilda.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="427" /></a></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">4. <span style="font-style: italic;">Gilda</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1946)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And then comes <span style="font-style: italic;">Gilda</span>, another poster that vied for the top spot. This presents the noir female as exactly the opposite of the girl we see in the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Pickup</span>. Rita Hayworth, lovely Rita, Harry Cohn’s screen goddess, is the living embodiment of male sexual fantasy. Her allure is so intoxicatingly powerful that one risks everything in even approaching her, which brings us to <span style="font-style: italic;">Gilda</span>. Far from being one of the truly great noir pictures, it still resonates with audiences because of Hayworth’s unforgettable performance. The poster itself is elegant instead of hardboiled, and lacks other tropes we would expect to see in a film noir image, but it remains the single most iconic representation of the noir female, of Hayworth herself, and even of cigarette smoking in motion picture history. As I mentioned in the entry for <i>This Gun for Hire</i>, this is also the most expensive film noir one-sheet ever sold, having brought $77,675 </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in 2014</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">. Put the blame on Rita.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The poster for John Cromwell’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Dead Reckoning</span> spent almost as much time as the eventual winner in the top spot, bit I finally pulled it back a few places because I didn’t feel it measured up conceptually. I long fought a strong urge to see a Bogart film finish at the top, though it looks like #3 will have to do. There’s something melancholic, possibly forlorn about this image that it brings to mind the doomed lovers of so many noir pictures, though I had to admit to myself that doomed love isn’t in play in this story, and that Lizabeth Scott and Humphrey Bogart aren’t Cathy O’Donnell and Farley Granger in <i>They Live by Night</i>. What remains when we consider the poster for <span style="font-style: italic;">Dead Reckoning</span> is beauty—this is simply one of the most artful, emotional, and beautiful film posters ever made. Bogart’s name goes over any film title, so it’s nice to see that all the typography is so sensitively and perfectly handled nonetheless, while the image of the performers is simply heartbreaking. If anyone out there ever wondered how or why the husky-voiced actress of questionable talent became a star, take a look at this poster.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the cheap. Black and White. Full bleeds. <span style="font-style: italic;">Film noir. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A full bleed vintage film poster, how cool is that! Have you ever seen a film poster from this era without a border? Few were made, and this is certainly the best of them. We’ve seen many limited color palettes, but none this limited—and it’s surprising to think that in the entire body of classic noir this is the only poster that uses black and white to such stunning effect! An outstanding poster in every regard, from the composition to the quality of the illustration, to the typography, and on and on. The image of Victor Mature perfectly summarizes his character’s frame of mind: world weary, terrified, and constantly looking over his shoulder. Note also the way the letter “I” in “Kiss” is used to cleverly integrate type and image. I also love the subtle knife-shaped shadow speeding into Mature’s head from the right. This is pure film noir, the only thing missing is Tommy Udo and the wheelchair.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnm93iSs-XM5xJTzbzoEQu86fg6i04sHmF8dQFYSdmHjGOOipIv21EKwldDGbeAm_0xjxckI11mvSTRkQYiM8-ypB8Pm-sLlMaQ4seWQtaRcJTqg1MEYclikTPikoeywx5wr03101gzo/s1600/1.-Sunset-Boulevard.jpg" style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569953306227652514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnm93iSs-XM5xJTzbzoEQu86fg6i04sHmF8dQFYSdmHjGOOipIv21EKwldDGbeAm_0xjxckI11mvSTRkQYiM8-ypB8Pm-sLlMaQ4seWQtaRcJTqg1MEYclikTPikoeywx5wr03101gzo/s640/1.-Sunset-Boulevard.jpg" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;" width="421" /></a><span style="color: #996633; font-weight: bold;">1. <span style="font-style: italic;">Sunset Boulevard</span></span></span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;"> </span><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: 700;">(1950)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">From the perspective of the graphic designer this is the greatest film poster of all time. No example from another era, nor one in another style, genre, or whatever you want to call it so perfectly (or simply) communicates the content of its film as well as the poster for Billy Wilder’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Sunset Boulevard</span>. I don't have a great deal of affection for this film, so I surprised myself a little by placing it here. In the end, doing so was simply unavoidable, and even my personal preferences couldn’t overcome the incredible power of this poster.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And what better kind of film to merit such a compliment as one about the movie industry itself? First, the designer must also be applauded for avoiding the obvious: the street sign. How easy it would have been to simply make a poster with a Sunset Blvd. sign and call it a day—sorry to those involved with the later musical, but lazy is as lazy does. The designer here dug deeper and uncovered the truth, and frankly, no poster solved with a mere street sign could ever do this movie justice. Billy Wilder understood this too: the movie opens not with the title on a street sign, but stenciled on the curb, next to the gutter.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The poster itself is extremely simple—even minimal by 1950 Hollywood standards. Its greatest strength is that unlike other posters, and in spite of its own simplicity, it attacks the design problem with <span style="font-style: italic;">two</span> concepts: the first is the filmstrip, the notion of which is at first almost a cliché, but it’s less about the filmstrip than it is the knot—making it appear as some sort of noose, drawing ever nearer and ever tighter around the neck of hack screenwriter Joe Gillis. The second is Gloria Swanson, whose Norma Desmond looms over this film like no other character had ever done before. The size relationship of the images is important as well, Desmond is a monstrosity: always present, larger than life, watching, ready to swoop down on Joe should he try to escape the filmic ‘knot’ in which she’s bound him. It speaks to the strength of the tandem concepts here that the poster could succeed if one or the other were removed—take out the filmstrip or all of the images and the poster still works. Leave them and they coexist gloriously.</span></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-84089729977750575352020-03-31T23:49:00.000-04:002020-03-31T23:51:05.672-04:00A CHAT NOIR WITH GRAHAM CHAFFEE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 28px;"><i>This interview was originally published in <a href="http://www.tcj.com/" target="_blank">The Comics Journal</a>. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">“I’m a </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">terrible writer, is what it is,” Graham Chaffee tells me—but I don’t believe him. The cartoonist, who spends his days working as a tattoo artist in his Hollywood studio, is being too modest. H</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">is fourth graphic novel, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><a href="https://www.fantagraphics.com/to-have-and-to-hold/" target="_blank">To Have and To Hold</a></span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">, is a gut-punch thriller that argues otherwise, proving that Chaffee’s a storyteller who knows how to make the most of his medium. Whether he’s using spoken dialog or intimating a narrative through his character’s gestures, facial expressions, or body language, his work is consistently engrossing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Set in the early 1960s at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, <i>To Have and to Hold</i> centers on Lonnie, a disgraced ex-cop forced to eke out a living as a night watchman, and his beleaguered wife Kate, whose marriage never served up any of the bliss promised by all those TV commercials and glossy magazine ads. Now the Ross’s life together is etched by petty bickering and smothering resentment. When Lonnie discovers that Kate has been stepping out on him, he reacts in a way that brings their world into chaos and threatens to destroy more than just their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Over the course of 200 chiaroscuro pages, Chaffee puts his spin on the classic heist story through deeply-articulated characters and a black-and-white style perfectly matched to the subject matter. On the one hand, his work captures the visual élan and narrative smack of some of the best classic Hollywood B crime pictures—think 1950’s <i>Armored Car Robbery </i>or 1953’s<i> Crime Wave</i>, while on the other hand it recalls the melancholy bleakness and sophisticated relationship politics of noir writer David Goodis, rather than the cardboard rat-a-tat of Mickey Spillane.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Over the course of several emails, Chaffee and I discussed, among other things, his creative process, the influence of cinema on his work, and the dark side of the promise of prosperity in postwar America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">You’re a full-time tattoo artist in Los Angeles. I’m curious about how that job overlaps with your work as a cartoonist. Does your work in one area inform or influence your work in the other, and do you ever struggle to avoid burnout?</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Tattooing is restrictive to my work as a comics artist. I am so used to crafting these clean designs with recognized protocols for outline, shading, and color, that it’s hard to switch gears and loosen up as a draughtsman. I fear my comics are more controlled and uptight than I’d like them to be. I’m no Ware or Burns, but I’d like to be even less so: looser, more expressive, more Julie Doucet!</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">You once described your graphic novels as “paper movies.” The narrative sensibilities in <i>To Have and To Hold</i> are often unmistakably cinematic—even the cover is reminiscent of a vintage movie poster. In what ways do films and filmmaking inform your process?</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">It’s more that I see the story like a movie in my head. I’m trying to draw the scenes the way I’d shoot them if I had a camera. I watch a lot of movies, but I don’t study specific scenes or shots or anything. This also means I don’t use a lot of narrative boxes or thought balloons—I’m a “show it, don’t say it” kind of guy. My characters run around and do stuff, and you gotta infer their motives and desires from their words and actions, because we’re not going inside their heads. This means a lot of the weight is carried by the actors—their gestures, body language, facial expressions, tone of voice and whatnot.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">To Have and To Hold</span></span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;"> is a noir crime story in the classic sense. Does your fascination with noir come just from movies, or are there other sources—pulp fiction, true crime, or other comics and graphic novels?</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Hmmm…Well, I read a ton of pulp fiction and detective stories. I love Cain and Thompson and Hammett and Chandler and all that crew—Christie, Sayers, Greene, Highsmith, Doyle—not to mention the Scandinavians... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">But <i>Noir </i>seems more a product of postwar <i>cinema</i>—and I think my noirish influences are more movie-oriented than bookish. I’m never thinking about books or authors when I’m trying to write or draw a scene; I’m definitely moving a camera around in my head.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">The Cold War, specifically the Cuban Missile Crisis, is a constant presence in the story. Why did you choose to situate the story in that specific moment in history?</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">To date, all my stories have taken place in the same imaginary east-coast metropolis and the time is vaguely 60s—that’s a paradigm that just sort of evolved through the various graphic novels. You’ll see the same people and buildings recur throughout my work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Anyhow, for <i>To Have and To Hold</i>, I needed a realistic news broadcast that could play on the radio or television in various scenes. I found one from October of 1962 and the Missile Crisis was the main story—so I thought, okay: October ‘62—that’s when all this happens. As the plot developed, the Crisis seemed more and more appropriate as a paranoid backdrop for a story with so many tense and unhappy people. So, to be honest, it was a serendipitous sort of accident.</span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">I couldn’t help but grin when I saw your nod to the poster for <i>The French Connection</i>. It’s just one of many cultural references that are peppered throughout <i>To Have and To Hold</i>. What’s behind them? Do you ever worry that they might yank your readers out of the story? </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">I’ve been pulling that shit since <i>Big Wheels</i>—I can’t help myself! Sometimes, I see an image that’s just too good not to include—too inspiring. Like this painting by Millard Sheets:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLGim1l0ytRxI2OGYkf9cxPEIFOPxmUOTGFM_-kM_O4yQvjoqNxNXrnclnHatJPRr5LNS0kbJ0h4cJjRJT66jBA0ovbpOXaGDUndcaqm1zrDqIJk3K8B0IH_5ugT0r3IesfV3xaCzZ4g/s1600/Millard_Sheets-LACMA.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLGim1l0ytRxI2OGYkf9cxPEIFOPxmUOTGFM_-kM_O4yQvjoqNxNXrnclnHatJPRr5LNS0kbJ0h4cJjRJT66jBA0ovbpOXaGDUndcaqm1zrDqIJk3K8B0IH_5ugT0r3IesfV3xaCzZ4g/s400/Millard_Sheets-LACMA.jpg" width="322" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">…or this one by Norman Price, from <i>Treasure Island</i>, which has haunted me since childhood—my <i>French Connection</i> image is my way of giving it a 60s update, while also paying homage to the Friedkin film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">While we’re here, I’d like to point out the closing reference to the closing shot in <i>Psycho</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">So, yeah—it’s childish, but whatevs—I look at it this way: anyone who would get these references is likely the sort of person who would enjoy spotting them more than they mind being briefly taken out of the story...at least I hope so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">Your drawings capture the dark moodiness (or is it the moody darkness?) that goes hand in hand with noir, while retaining a confident, economical quality that lends itself to this kind of storytelling. Is that something that comes naturally, or did you need to tweak your technique for this project?</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">It comes naturally. I have always wanted to tackle noir—love the dramatic imagery—my favorite panels are the nighttime shots. It’s a challenge to compose using only black and white. I have become reasonably adept at it, but I’m still far behind masters such as Alex Toth and/or [<i>Epileptic</i> author] David B. In fact, I have recently branched out into gray—which you’ll see in my next book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">Your action sequences are especially vivid, yet so much of the story is told through smaller, often silent panels that rely on facial expression or body language instead of dialog. I’d like to learn more about your process here. Do you work from a tight outline? Are there moments, for example, when you realize a page needs an additional panel, or that a panel is unnecessary?</span></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Good Dog</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"> had a typed script, then a fully finished sketchbook layout with lights and darks, before I started the finish art. So I did the whole book three times, which was exhausting and slowed me down a lot. And then Gary [Fantagraphics publisher Groth] told me it was too short for a graphic novel and I had to go back through it and add 30 more pages somehow...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">So for <i>TH&TH</i>, I decided to just get into finish art as soon as I could. I plotted the story—the main bits of it—and then wrote the first scene, sketched a layout or two, and jumped into finish art right away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">I kept on that way, writing a page or two ahead of the art and finishing as I went along. I definitely went back and rewrote and redrew stuff as the story evolved—sometimes gluing a new panel over an old one, sometimes replacing the whole page. Sometimes it’s just finding a better image, like here:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">…and other times, it was about writing a better scene. Mostly this involved the evolution of Kate, from “cheating wife” to actual person. There’s a scene at the beginning of the book, after Lonnie has learned that he’s been deceived, and he wakes her up to fish for clues. There’s a conversation that amounts to a struggle for moral advantage, which Kate wins by means of a grumpy handjob. I rewrote that sequence twice—and redrew four pages trying to get it right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">The plot of <i>To Have and To Hold</i> is more urgent and straightforward than that of <i>Good Dog</i> or <i>The Big Wheels</i>, with an ending that offers readers plenty of closure. And at 200 pages it’s also a good bit longer. How has working this way been different for you, and is it a direction you think you’ll carry on in the future?</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">I’m a terrible writer; is what it is. <i>Big Wheels</i> and <i>Good Dog</i> are just sort of: “Okay, it’s 6:00 AM and we wake up...now what?” <i>To Have and To Hold</i> is the first story with a real plot—it was way more work, but now I feel sort of committed to the idea of beginning/middle/end, so I’ll probably keep trying to do it...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">The marriage at the center of the story is in awful shape. Lonnie and Kate are bored, bitter, barely getting by, and without children to soften life’s hard edges (though you give us a few glimpses of what their life together was like in younger, happier years). What does their story<i> </i>say about the postwar American Dream? </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Well, it’s the promise of prosperity that fuels Kate’s dissatisfaction, isn’t it? We can see in the flashback panels that she thinks she’s backed a winner. When Lonnie threw his career away, dealing impounded dope with his beatnik friend, she felt gypped. Now they have to watch their expenses; she’s gotta go back to secretarial work to help pay the bills—hardly the fulfillment of the American dream. Tucker, on the other hand, seems like a pretty safe bet: good job, swell dresser, looks a little like Kennedy. If she can’t have the American dream, she can fake it with Tuck, and she’s realistic enough to know that’s about as good as it gets for her.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">I really enjoyed getting to know Kate; she’s a wonderful character, easily the story’s most subtle and—awful pun <i>completely</i> unintended—fully developed. Was she difficult to write? Is she a <i>femme fatale</i>?</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">She wrote herself. Kate started this story as “cheating wife” but I knew as soon as I gave her a line of dialog, that she wasn’t gonna stay there. Her real breakout came in this scene:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Lonnie thinks he’s got her number. He thinks that he’s gonna toy with her and learn the truth, but she shuts him down while still half-asleep and then, when he pushes it, reverses the moral advantage he feels he has and leaves him in no position to question her about anything. Their dialog in this scene told me what my heist story was really about: the slow dissolve of a marriage. Fictional characters (at least my characters) exert a level of independent agency, outside the writer’s control. Once you introduce them, they take on their own personalities and insist on being heard. Kate moved herself out of the fairly insulting role of “protagonist’s object of desire or revenge” to “real person who has her own desires.” The final story is as much about her as it is about him. She has the best lines, too...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">She is not a <i>femme fatale</i>, for all the reasons outlined above. A <i>fatale</i> exists only as an object for the hero to desire/pursue/whatever. They aren’t real people; you have no idea what they like or dislike or want or anything. They’re just there to reflect the hero’s own desires. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">This never happens to a <i>femme fatale</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">To Have and To Hold</span></span></i></b><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;"> is dedicated to Eddie Coyle and Popeye Doyle—a worn-out crook and an obsessed cop—two of the early 1970s cinema’s grittiest anti-heroes. Lonnie is cut from the same cloth. What is it about these guys that appeals to you?</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Lonnie is one of those guys who is just smart enough to underestimate the people around him—to think he’s got an edge. Feeling like he’s a little smarter than everyone else has given him this frustrated sense of entitlement; he’s his own worst enemy, perpetually biting off more than he can chew. If he didn’t, there wouldn’t be a story, naturally, so perhaps that’s the appeal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">“The consequences of hubris” is a pretty well-established theme, going back past Popeye Doyle to...Oedipus, maybe? Lotta antiheroes in between. Lonnie’s got plenty of company there, wherever he is...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcfURyADD4efWLtrWGnDeveJdC_DULQEjnC3JvDh_GpCI6vWtBumRHNgal0V0hdPMxKoUQJbMgZn3tb9qhyphenhyphenjLfj7IjzUE1T8gp3ywAW3wZIigeF8plyIB-eG5dQYC50girxNdiMarTg/s1600/THTH_Page-143.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcfURyADD4efWLtrWGnDeveJdC_DULQEjnC3JvDh_GpCI6vWtBumRHNgal0V0hdPMxKoUQJbMgZn3tb9qhyphenhyphenjLfj7IjzUE1T8gp3ywAW3wZIigeF8plyIB-eG5dQYC50girxNdiMarTg/s400/THTH_Page-143.jpg" width="290" /></a></span></b><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"> </span></b></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">He’s also an ex-soldier and an ex-cop forced into “early retirement,” both of which are familiar noir beats. Nevertheless, <i>To Have and To Hold </i>breaks from that tradition in some fascinating ways. Unlike heist films such as <i>The Asphalt Jungle </i>or even<i> Ocean’s Eleven</i>, it doesn’t waste page after page scouting out the perfect crew or glorifying the details of the plan. Was it important for you to update (or upend) certain noir tropes?</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">It’s less about upending noir tropes and more about telling a story I like. While I love noir and have always wanted to do a noir story, I wasn’t too concerned with sticking to the rules of the genre. I am not the world’s most original writer, and I knew I was gonna lean on some archetypes and clichés—but I wanted to keep ‘em to a minimum—to make my characters as real as they could be in this absurd situation I created for them to run around in. I wanted it to feel grounded in reality. I didn’t want to romanticize any of it. I knew <i>To Have and To Hold</i> was gonna end hard for somebody—that doom was inevitable—but that’s about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">There’s a bleak, understated quality to some of these crime films of the 60s and 70s (<i>Get Carter</i>, <i>The Friends of Eddie Coyle</i>, <i>The Taking of Pelham 123</i>, etc., etc.) that appeals to me as a writer. I don’t think I could have escaped the lurid, hammy, melodrama of classic black and white noir. I wanted to play with atmospheric lighting and whatnot, but all those weary gumshoes and sexy dames are too entrenched in their iconography for a guy like me to break ‘em out. But these little 70s noir flicks—I could get in there and push my story around without feeling like I was gonna break the genre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">I follow you on Instagram, where you post a lot of in-progress panels and pages. Howzabout telling us what we can expect from you in the future?</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">I’m working on another noir, this time in 1970s Hollywood. It’s about some low-budget filmmakers who fun afoul of the mob. There’s arson and insurance fraud and general mayhem in the valley.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Here’s that gray I was talking about:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-89064875672029485182020-02-05T20:00:00.000-05:002020-02-05T23:51:12.619-05:00CHAMPION (1949)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKEnVHJDLWJYoG_U-qO2oB9xUnfZ1BIV0buct7-x9F0rhW7vjuh1UFOaazYEuMm-Q6k13wI2-EhsdB2ogMxDrud7zo7WZ3V3hEOVC8DY_LFvGi0phpYpQt0JoFeNu68MYN-a_bDxYLrg/s1600/Champion.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKEnVHJDLWJYoG_U-qO2oB9xUnfZ1BIV0buct7-x9F0rhW7vjuh1UFOaazYEuMm-Q6k13wI2-EhsdB2ogMxDrud7zo7WZ3V3hEOVC8DY_LFvGi0phpYpQt0JoFeNu68MYN-a_bDxYLrg/s640/Champion.jpg" width="424" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Champion</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> is usually described as a cautionary tale about the bitter price of ruthless ambition. </span></span></span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Rubbish. The character of Midge Kelly is heroic, admirable, and downright glorious. A rotten son of a bitch? Certainly. But I envy him, and you should too.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Champion</span> airs from time to time on TCM and has been available on DVD for ages, so this essay assumes that you know the film. Besides, you just can’t dig into this thing without considering the ending — proceed knowing that spoilers await. For those who need a refresher, the story goes like this: Michael “Midge” Kelly (Kirk Douglas) and his brother Connie (Arthur Kennedy) are heading west in search of their fortune when they get rolled and are forced to thumb it. They cadge a ride from a palooka (John Day) on his way to fight a main event in Kansas City. Hoping to earn a quick buck, Midge takes a fill-in spot on the undercard. He’s beaten badly but catches the eye of manager Tommy Haley (that noir-iest of actors, Paul Stewart), who offers to Mickey him into a real fighter. When Midge and Connie reach Cali and discover their prospects vanished they are compelled to find scut work in a roadhouse. Both are attracted to a waitress, Emma (Ruth Roman), who Midge is forced to marry in the wake of a tryst. Feeling trapped, Midge eighty-sixes Emma and scrams for L.A., where he takes Haley up on his offer. Midge’s toughness and ambition make him a natural in the ring, and soon he rates a bout with number one contender Johnny Dunne, the same cat who taxied him into Kansas City. Midge is ordered to take a dive in trade for a legit title shot down the line, but he stuns everyone when he batters an unsuspecting Dunne. Although irate gamblers get their revenge, Midge’s refusal to cheat makes him appear heroic and he gets a title shot anyway, which he wins. Now standing on top of the heap, Midge alienates everyone around him. When he gives Dunne a rematch, he takes a terrific beating — until the jeering crowd and the ringside announcers spur him to final victory. Staggered, leering, and triumphant, Midge returns to his dressing room where he collapses and dies.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVHhj-W_j6wEebGFylf0iBLml0ulccLW8UE9HH6s-vHgWSOVR6XtJ7g4OQXlTn1vZm8twBUduDEcBM7BvG8p5hERj4rKErCrFZ-J8dp3MRJ2UvpeXit2SB_V3R_u869pwoqW7M9sUEdw/s1600/Kirk-Douglas-Champion-1949-stars-from-the-past-31734330-1712-1744.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVHhj-W_j6wEebGFylf0iBLml0ulccLW8UE9HH6s-vHgWSOVR6XtJ7g4OQXlTn1vZm8twBUduDEcBM7BvG8p5hERj4rKErCrFZ-J8dp3MRJ2UvpeXit2SB_V3R_u869pwoqW7M9sUEdw/s320/Kirk-Douglas-Champion-1949-stars-from-the-past-31734330-1712-1744.jpg" width="313" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Everyone involved scores points for making a great picture about an asshole, but Kirk Douglas deserves the lion’s share of the credit. His Midge Kelly is one the most interesting and complicated boxers in screen history, which is a significant accomplishment considering how droll the character likely would have been in the hands (gloves?) of a lesser talent. <span style="font-style: italic;">Champion</span> was a landmark early Douglas landmark film and justly earned him an Academy Award nomination. Most of what has been written about the movie praises his virtuoso performance or affirms the film’s status as a morality tale. While Douglas is indeed the stuff of legend, the “What Price Fame?” angle just doesn’t wash. <span style="font-style: italic;">Champion</span> is a coldly cynical movie about a hard-as-nails tough guy; made during an era when all the little kids didn’t get a trophy. If it were merely a cautionary tale it would have ended differently: with Midge dead and defeated in the center of the ring. Redemption? No, thanks. An apology tour? Piss off. Midge Kelly isn’t redeemed at the end of <span style="font-style: italic;">Champion</span> — he’s validated. Let’s come back to this later, first Douglas deserves his due.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Kirk Douglas was a great performer who, if nothing else, understood what made him a movie star. He was blessed and cursed with a hyper-magnetic screen presence. Everything about him was just...exaggerated. No actress could wrest the spotlight from him, which is why he isn’t remembered as one of the great romantic leads. Don’t buy it? Next time you watch him in a love scene and things start to heat up, take note of who grabs your attention. It’ll be Douglas. That was his great gift: he was bigger than the story, bigger than his cast, bigger than his directors. His innate arrogance was his greatest asset. He’s cast perfectly here. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let’s get back to Midge. Here’s a Depression-era kid who came up tough. His father took a powder in the first round of Midge’s life. And his mother, unable to keep both her sons, sent Midge to the orphanage and kept Connie at home. Midge grew up abandoned and institutionalized, on the losing end of a low-rent Sophie’s choice. Then with adulthood came the war and the bloody hell of combat. This is a guy who’d been rolled, robbed, cheated, chastised, red-taped, taken for granted, swindled, and sent to war. How would you handle it? After Midge mustered out he took on the thankless role of provider for his mother and little brother, and bore no grudge. Sure, he stepped on people along the way, but didn’t he get stepped on first? In spite of it all, he’s probably the most upbeat character in the film. He raised himself out of a hellish upbringing through his own grit to become the champion of the world. All he wanted out of life was the respect of other men offered by success in the ring. Boxing exacts a steep price in exchange for that success, and Midge saw clearer more plainly those around him that he’d ultimately have to pay it. If success left Midge feeling entitled yet emotionally crippled, who can blame him? </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Who does he hurt? The story places Midge in the arms of three different women. First with Emma, the wife/waitress whom he deserts. Of the film’s women, she’s the most deserving of happiness, which she ultimately finds with Connie. Although she married Midge, she understood going in that he didn’t love her. Their mistake causes her much short-term distress, but it was through him that she met Connie and eventually found what she was looking for.* Midge’s second tryst was with the aptly named Grace Diamond (Marilyn Maxwell), a good-timer who treats fighters like Kleenex. She’s an opportunistic user who meets her match. The idea that Midge could hurt someone so despicable is silly. His final girlfriend is Palmer Harris (Lola Maxwell), the spoiled and slumming wife of the crooked fight promoter. Their affair is brief, and ends when Midge agrees to cut ties in exchange for a bigger percentage of the gate. Undoubtedly a cold-blooded choice, but it bears repeating Midge has no idea how to make himself or anyone else happy, especially not a married woman. Midge is a pig, but he never tries to hide it. All the women in the story are well rid of him, but none suffer lasting harm.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIlQjBLFcwayUm3kH37wvQf5sgwiXIPIS2x7L8-95IWpBDtvXwXUCzM5JV1zhLaTcGibI2lCf5NS2mJhsAFkKKQlaaOyVpLVkNCUfC_uHBsBASGnRQG9p384WceuOIVadPxyxFVBx12w/s1600/kirk-douglas-champion-1108x0-c-default.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIlQjBLFcwayUm3kH37wvQf5sgwiXIPIS2x7L8-95IWpBDtvXwXUCzM5JV1zhLaTcGibI2lCf5NS2mJhsAFkKKQlaaOyVpLVkNCUfC_uHBsBASGnRQG9p384WceuOIVadPxyxFVBx12w/s320/kirk-douglas-champion-1108x0-c-default.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That leaves the brother and the trainer. Connie is supposedly the sympathetic conscience of the film, constantly exasperated with his brother, yet he seems to have forgotten who pays the bills—and, for that matter, who grew up in the orphanage. Hell, Connie even gets the girl; what does he have to grouse about? As for the trainer, Haley is the only guy in the picture who knows the score all along. In quintessential noir fashion, he knows that he’ll be dropped him when the bigger purses come, yet he returns to train Midge for his climactic title fight anyway. As he repeats time and again, “I can’t keep away from it, I like to watch a good boy in action.” The idea of a fighter leaving one trainer for another happens as often on screen as it does in real life, a cliché in both worlds. It’s important to realize that </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Champion</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">is a noir film in which none of the characters come away clean. Dig this most of all: when Midge finally lands that first big fight with Johnny Dunne, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">both Connie and Tommy want him to take the dive—they <i>want</i> him to cheat. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If the movie has a flaw it’s that it doesn’t fully depict the grueling physical realities of the prizefighter’s life. The ring scenes (directed by Stanley Kramer rather than Mark Robson, who Kramer said didn’t know enough about boxing) are exquisite, but the narrative’s preoccupation with fight-fixing doesn’t afford any screen time to the everyday sacrifices made by fighters. Midge stacks knockouts way too fast and scores a title shot in no time at all, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">while in reality the achievement of a world’s championship, or even a spot on the undercard of a championship bout, was a pipe dream for most pugs.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The film does include a </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Rocky</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">-style training sequence, though nowadays it plays for laffs. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Douglas is miraculous in his final scene. Bloody and victorious, having returned to his dressing room after ferociously pummeling Dunne, he leers and gesticulates at the camera, his battered face a desperate reflection of his maimed but resilient soul. Midge’s life comes full circle with his defeat of the man who opened the door to a life in the ring—a dichotomous life that offered not only the illusory pleasures of fame, fortune, and women; but more importantly, the respect and legacy he craved. Cinematic convention keeps us expecting that he’ll see the light and turn an improbable Ebenezer Scrooge-like corner at the end, yet he never does. Midge’s refusal to compromise or live on anything but his own terms is a worthy valediction. It imbues his life with a strange and moving integrity. It also makes him an iconic hero of film noir. It’s fitting that he should die after he wins the final fight; he has nothing in the world left to prove. S</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">ome men are not meant to suffer old age.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>Champion</i> (1949)</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Director: Mark Robson.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Cinematographer: Franz Planer </span><br />
<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Screenplay: Carl Foreman, based on a story by Ring Lardner. </span><br />
<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Starring: Kirk Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Marilyn Maxwell, Ruth Roman, and Paul Stewart. </span><br />
<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Released by: United Artists</span><br />
<span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Running time: 99 minutes</span><br />
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<i><span style="color: #996633; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">* </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(Some viewers/reviewers of </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Champion</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> suggest that Midge rapes Emma late in the film. For the record, after numerous viewings I still don’t read the code in that way, but I’d certainly change my tune (and, of course, my review) if someone were to convince me. This essay is something of a justification Midge’s bad behavior, but certainly not for rape. </span></i></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-650157122584377702018-09-27T01:11:00.000-04:002019-11-02T23:31:11.247-04:00HIGHWAY 301 (1950)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="background-color: black; color: #bf9000; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large;">“You cannot be kind to congenital
criminals like these. They would show you no mercy. Let them feel the full
impact of the law.”</span></b></div>
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<i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span></span></span></b></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJzCJV__7HP0PLsUpnZSmUqtWXxvqBlHECLeK2T0nHRUSGXJ03h35nvWiHGN4U74CwYz11GqMWIApMS5qH5w4hcFcTVyKN88tQMz9CLwTzOWg_NtzKjwmRG32pswzYhAmeL5L_V8fHg/s1600/Postcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJzCJV__7HP0PLsUpnZSmUqtWXxvqBlHECLeK2T0nHRUSGXJ03h35nvWiHGN4U74CwYz11GqMWIApMS5qH5w4hcFcTVyKN88tQMz9CLwTzOWg_NtzKjwmRG32pswzYhAmeL5L_V8fHg/s320/Postcard.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Back
in the days before the no-holds-barred speedway/parking lot that is Interstate 95,
sun-seekers in their Nash Ramblers and Studebaker Champions trekked from
Baltimore to Florida on U.S. 301. In the 1950 Warner Bros. noir, </span><i>Highway 301</i>, a ruthless band of killers known as the “Tri-State Gang”
exploit the thoroughfare’s easy on-easy off access to engage in that most American of crimes:
kicking over banks.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">The
leader of the outfit is played by Steve Cochran, a good-looking and
underestimated actor who could do more than the critics of his day were willing
to acknowledge. Cochran could be boyish and naïve in one picture and a greasy scumbag
in another; in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Highway 301</i> he creates
a legitimately terrifying screen persona, most certainly influenced by Jimmy
Cagney’s neurotic turn in the previous year’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White Heat</i>, in which Cochran co-starred. Here, Cochran borrows from the older actor and still manages to keep him at arm’s length. Unlike Cody Jarrett, Cochran’s George Legenza murders so casually that the film’s heartbeat
barely flutters whenever he squeezes the trigger. Yet despite the actor’s idyllic
good looks and his wardrobe of switchblade-sharp suits, there’s zero glamour
to be found in this evocation of the criminal life. The Tri-State mob live out their
doomed lives in a series of cheap roadside flops, greasy spoons, and chop suey
palaces. Hustling from place to place, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">all cigarette smoke and nervous sweat,</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">crammed five or six to a car, going nowhere.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If
you can get your hands on a copy (Warner Archive DVD), stick with it beyond
the first five minutes—viewers must first endure a trio of warnings from the
governors of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina about the perils of the
criminal life. Juvenile delinquency was an ongoing national concern in the
postwar period, as distressing as polio, the bomb, and Biro and Wood’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crime Does Not Pay</i>. Parents, teachers,
and church groups wrung their hands over how all this glorification of crime
might lead to a generation of profligates, so the brothers Warner must have
been eager to let three pontificating politicians blow for a minute or two at
the start of the picture. This is by no means a juvenile delinquency movie—that
filmic fad was still a few years away—but given the gunfire about to light up
the screen, it’s hard to blame them for welcoming any stripe of official
endorsement. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2k00Gyz0TUXX-hMtw85N0hxdc3aoBYCXq9riW0_CyghLYQuhK2VzYAYdxqmX5YX8z8HgQ4Siz2baXa84T9BDy9UOwSwTUNjVvOBKzfnG_RSCgnzBG62-tYRVu5EKfbjyJkjDXhtIjJQ/s1600/Crime-24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2k00Gyz0TUXX-hMtw85N0hxdc3aoBYCXq9riW0_CyghLYQuhK2VzYAYdxqmX5YX8z8HgQ4Siz2baXa84T9BDy9UOwSwTUNjVvOBKzfnG_RSCgnzBG62-tYRVu5EKfbjyJkjDXhtIjJQ/s320/Crime-24.jpg" width="232" /></span></a><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wait.
Biro and Wood,* you say? Who? They were the boys behind the most brutal comic
book ever made. You thought those 1950s EC strips were bad? Get wise. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crime Does Not Pay</i> plumbed the depths of
human depravity and put it all on display on the glossy covers and pulpy pages of
a sensation that was devoured by millions of kiddies and adults each month from
the 1940s to the early 1950s. The comic dodged censors (at least for a while) because
its crooked culprits always got it in the end, but in the pages leading up to
those last few panels, Biro, Wood, and company exalted in an orgy of tommy
guns, nooses, shotgun blasts, short skirts, and shallow graves. They spilled
buckets of blood; they jammed hypodermic needles in their characters’ eyes;
they set women on fire. As a matter of fact, in their June 1948 issue they even
told the story of notorious Depression-era gangsters Walter Legenza* and Bobby
Mais, the same fellows whose capers loosely inspired <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Highway 301</i>. The movie creeps right up on that same thin razor of a
line between documentary and exploitation that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Crime Does Not Pay</i> gleefully spat upon. With the exception of,
perhaps, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Phenix City Story</i>, it
comes closer than any other midcentury crime film to capturing the wanton
lewdness of those comics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Highway 301 </span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">opens
in tobacco country, with the Tri-State crew taking down a Winston-Salem bank in
broad daylight. One by one, as the hoods exit the idling getaway car and take
up positions in the lobby, a narrator gives up the skinny on their respective yellow
sheets. One henchmen boasts 21 arrests and zero convictions—accused of everything
from arson to murder. Another has just as many collars, with nothing to show
for it beyond a hundred-dollar fine. George Legenza himself is on the lam,
having busted his way out of the state penitentiary some months ago—though if
he’s worried about being nabbed it doesn’t show. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Highway 301</i>’s moralizing tone is front and center from open to
close: the system treats crooks with kid gloves, and the boys and girls in the
audience need to be scared straight before the George Legenzas of the world get
their hands on them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The
robbery comes off fine—turns out the gang has been tearing up and down Highway
301 for a while, leaving the bluecoats in the lurch. Even the feds are in on it
now, but, as it happens in so many mid-century noirs, the law is obliged to impotently
wait on the crooks to goof up. Fate and Destiny are the twin puppet masters of
the noir universe, and they don’t give a damn about making the police look
smart. When noir screenwriters wanted to lay crooks low, they zeroed their
scripts in on tiny mistakes that turned out to have big consequences—a cosmic,
ironic brand of justice. Take, for example, a canonical picture like Stanley
Kubrick’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>: karma comes
not via the law, but rather from a discarded horseshoe in a parking lot, a
cuckolded husband, and a gust of wind on an airport tarmac. In the noir
universe, cops mostly chase their tails until the time comes for them to swoop
in and pick up the pieces. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Highway 301</i>, fate comes with penciled
eyebrows and a French accent. Lee Fontaine, (B-movie actress Gaby André), a
recent conquest of Legenza’s protégé, is new to the gang. After she’s logged
enough time to see what Legenza does to cops (shoots them in the back), armored
car guards (shoots them in the back), and his girlfriends (shoots them in the
back), she decides to beat it back to her native Canada. The film’s second and
third acts take a detour from all that bank robbing and nestle into the shadowy
confines of the Warner’s back lot, as the narrative shifts focus away from the
gang’s crime spree to Legenza’s efforts to snatch Fontaine before she can blab. Don’t
think too hard about why the Tri-State boys carpool to and fro with their
girlfriends stashed at nearby motor courts instead of leaving them safe at
home—the story falls apart if they don’t. But let’s at least acknowledge that
in most other like-minded films (including Cochran and Cagney’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White Heat</i>) the paramours don’t travel.
I’ll back off that point as far as Hollywood lifer Virginia Grey is concerned.
Her seen-it-all floozy steals every scene, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Highway 301</i> would be a lonely stretch of blacktop without her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Yet
the film’s tone is such that it barely resembles the iconic noirs from just a
few years before. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Double Indemnity,</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Laura</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Postman Always Rings Twice</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Big Sleep,</i> and many others class-up their violence under a veneer of lust
and sex. That’s not the case here—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Highway
301</i> is as brutal as it is detached. Its killings are more coldly matter-of-fact
than any seen in the classics mentioned earlier, and more closely resemble
those from another bank job picture, 1995’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heat</i>,
release nearly a half-century later. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In
the end, this is a low budget affair, but a stylish one. Yes, Richmond, Virginia
has far too many palm trees and conspicuously resembles the Bunker Hill neighborhood
of downtown Los Angeles, but the serpentine streets of the WB back lot never looked
better, doused in shadow and drenched with rain. The film’s final moments, including
a fantastic car stunt and a hair-raising sequence set atop a train trestle, are
not only worth the price of admission, but also render bearable all of the
dreary semi-documentary bits that showcase law enforcement. •<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8a8jdUXC62kYNsw4df-ATDJaloemLNmho1tJeeBFgvd17kJmwlh2cwPyD0a9Y-He1ampJYatCPklawpbhzIaw_AeYiloita0vV0aBcVf4xy0fctvL5SFJ2H6dcuvXEDsMG1AX46JWcg/s320/Crime-64.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="219" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><o:p>Legenza in <i>Crime Does Not Pay</i><br /><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></o:p><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><o:p style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">*
Writer-artist Bob Wood beat a woman to death in New York’s Irving Hotel—she was
“giving me a bad time” he bragged to the cabbie who drove him home—and did
three years for first-degree manslaughter. Seem like a short sentence?
Apparently in those days being drunk was a mitigating factor. Rest easy though:
Wood signed some IOUs with the made guys at Sing Sing in order to make his
prison stretch go easy. When he got out and the time came to pay the piper,
Wood couldn’t find his wallet. He was murdered within a year of his release.</span></span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">*
The real-life Legenza would die in Virginia’s electric chair on February 2,
1935. <a href="http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2012/07/10/the-tri-state-gang-in-richmond-murder-and-robbery-in-the-great-depression/" target="_blank">A wealth of documents are available here. </a></span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Highway
301<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #bf9000; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">Written
and Directed by Andrew Stone</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Produced
by Brian Foy<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Starring Steve Cochran, Virginia Grey, Gaby André, and Robert Webber</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Cinematography
is by Carl Guthrie</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Released by Warner Bros. Pictures<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Running
time: 83 minutes</span></span></div>
Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-39305549307496382212017-04-13T16:36:00.002-04:002017-04-14T13:17:30.935-04:00A New Book by Yours Truly! <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hi everyone! I haven’t been very active lately, and the reason was just released by <a href="http://www.fantagraphics.com/takethatadolf/" target="_blank">Fantagraphics</a> this week. My newest book, <i>Take That, Adolf! The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War</i> hit <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Take-That-Adolf-Fighting-Second/dp/1606999877" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.target.com/p/take-that-adolf-the-fighting-comic-books-of-the-second-world-war-paperback-mark-fertig/-/A-52114796" target="_blank">Target</a>, and <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/take-that-adolf-mark-fertig/1124109442/2676533680781" target="_blank">bookstores</a> on Tuesday. It's a full-color coffee table book that digs deeply into the comic book industry’s participation in WWII, and features more than 500 covers, all restored by me. I feel pretty strongly that this is one of the most beautiful and comprehensive collections of Golden Age comic covers ever collected in a single volume. There’s also a 50,000+ word essay that examines all of the issues surrounding comic’s involvement with the war, including the rise of the patriotic hero, government propaganda, racism, bond and stamp sales, and so on. I hope everyone will check it out, and forgive me for not posting for such a long time! I'll be back on the crime front in no time! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWRnOHifbvpaMc1L08tMobdl4HpIcfQRCNcfk5NTRlvdvNzSA1mVmgwFND-_kVXsCw1SM95mLaC6Y6v_pyP-CnZreKoy7V3hUtCcmg3-UX5M2IRgA7o8x_mdbKiLQJ0Ys9_9w6aepug/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWRnOHifbvpaMc1L08tMobdl4HpIcfQRCNcfk5NTRlvdvNzSA1mVmgwFND-_kVXsCw1SM95mLaC6Y6v_pyP-CnZreKoy7V3hUtCcmg3-UX5M2IRgA7o8x_mdbKiLQJ0Ys9_9w6aepug/s640/0.jpg" width="464" /></a></div>
<br />Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-84516501660150425942016-06-09T10:38:00.002-04:002018-10-27T20:20:16.239-04:00BODYGUARD (1948)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXE5-e119-Qvi-YYJGJmGohhaUwobw3bmJOc-tN2UYLr86a6NLrb8ByAs8GPDzpDqX2G6srnUchtNrLXIB9OeWjhQ2jLxX_VnSkRvoCHNJcJMuRYAMwLLHloIv54SeL2Had8uVvbXE7w/s1600/Bodyguard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXE5-e119-Qvi-YYJGJmGohhaUwobw3bmJOc-tN2UYLr86a6NLrb8ByAs8GPDzpDqX2G6srnUchtNrLXIB9OeWjhQ2jLxX_VnSkRvoCHNJcJMuRYAMwLLHloIv54SeL2Had8uVvbXE7w/s640/Bodyguard.jpg" width="425" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: large;">Lawrence Tierney’s hallowed
reputation as the real-life embodiment of a film noir tough guy endears him to
most movie fans and generally insulates him from criticism. Hard core
enthusiasts often establish their noir bona fides by slinging stories of his off-screen
exploits. He’s the cinematic equivalent of a made guy. If you can’t get with
Tierney, it seems at times, you might as well leave film noir well enough alone
— it probably ain’t for you. In spite of all that, beyond Tierney’s unique
one-two punch — leading man good looks and his spectacular ability to
project menace — he wasn’t much of an actor. When a role came along that he
couldn’t charge into with his head down and his fists up, as was the case with
director Richard Fleischer’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bodyguard</i>,
his performance comes up a few shells short of a stacked clip.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: large;">There’s little to care
about here by way of story: Tierney plays a detective who gets pink-slipped on
account of his strong-arm tactics, then framed for the murder of his
lieutenant. That’s the extent of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bodyguard</i>’s
noir statement: wrongly accused ex-copper has to get out from under on his own
steam. The rest is just running time. Along the way Tierney gets mixed up in
some intrigue surrounding a murder cover-up at a meat-packing plant, and the
wealthy owners who may or may not have had something to do with it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: large;">Nevertheless, the critical
mass surrounding <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bodyguard</i> is
generally favorable, owing to some slick dialog and several deft directorial
touches by Fleischer, just beginning his career. As far as Tierney is concerned,
most other reviewers rehash the same tough mug platitudes that one bumps into
when reading about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dillinger</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Devil Thumbs a Ride</i>, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Born to Kill</i>. In this case the praise
isn’t merited. Tierney is miscast; and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bodyguard</i>
would have been a better movie with a more capable leading man. Woe is us that Paramount had Alan Ladd locked up at the time, because this is the kind of
part that he was made for. Tierney is one-dimensional and flat; Ladd had
something else. I’ll stop — I know the comparison is unfair.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: large;">Tierney had more in common
with film noir’s iteration of Raymond Burr, and maybe even a leg up on him. Admittedly,
this comparison is also unfair because Burr, in spite of his wide range and other
special gifts as an actor, didn’t look like Ben Affleck. But can you imagine
Tierney instead of Burr in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pickup</i>?
It’s at the very least intriguing. His air of corruption, the rough edges, the
cheapness, and that hair trigger? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bodyguard</i>
asks him to holster all of these things, to sit on his hands, and one wonders
if Priscilla Lane — she’s too perky not to like — wasn’t cast as the girl
Friday in order to soften Tierney. After all, if we like her, and she likes
him, we ought to as well, right? The hard sell goes even further: Tierney plays
big brother to some neighborhood kids, tosses a ball back and forth with
another, and drinks his milk like a good boy. But we’re unmoved; as an actor Tierney
just wasn’t meant to be liked. Perhaps it took this movie to make sure of it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #999999;">* A note or two about the poster:
In spite of the artwork, Tierney doesn’t rough up any women in the film. (For
that matter, he never actually works as a bodyguard either.) Certainly the RKO
brass were hoping the artwork would pull in the audience from his successful
turn the previous year’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Born to Kill</i>. And the image of Lane — it couldn't be less flattering. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Bodyguard</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">
(1948)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Directed by Richard
Fleischer<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Screenplay by Fred Niblo
Jr. and Harry Essex, based on a story by George W. George and Robert Altman. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Starring Lawrence Tierney
and Priscilla Lane<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Produced by Sid Rogell<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Cinematography by Robert
De Grasse<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Released by RKO Pictures<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Running time: 62 minutes </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-5069537189130515242016-05-18T12:50:00.000-04:002018-10-27T20:19:38.945-04:00I WOULDN'T BE IN YOUR SHOES (1948)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZrtvJuKmrCR5VEQmoeMBMwf8RLgLMZ-q1pNXZ3Ok4oLf3kjrcdx9B-8ASEas4uB_qQ9dRBKQESUk8MJqaHhG__KlCUM7UVJWto4go89K3lxQ4I5eDQmp_3LB0hzJlB8-0KHW-_lvkg/s1600/70.-I-Wouldn%2527t-Be-in-Your-Shoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZrtvJuKmrCR5VEQmoeMBMwf8RLgLMZ-q1pNXZ3Ok4oLf3kjrcdx9B-8ASEas4uB_qQ9dRBKQESUk8MJqaHhG__KlCUM7UVJWto4go89K3lxQ4I5eDQmp_3LB0hzJlB8-0KHW-_lvkg/s640/70.-I-Wouldn%2527t-Be-in-Your-Shoes.jpg" width="420" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It opens,
this thing, on death row. A nameless penitentiary squats next to a river that turns
over and over, churning like the guts of the suckers wasting away inside its
walls. Three hours to go until the lights flicker and the warden once again
flips the switch on the vacancy sign. It’s Number Five’s turn tonight, and he’s
got no taste for the meal that arrives hot under a silver platter. Number Three
puts on a record, hoping to take Number Five’s mind off the ticking of the
clock, which echoes so loudly that not even the crashing of the river can drown
it out. The other doomed men whisper to him from up and down the block, “Talk
boy, tell us how you got here. Talking takes your mind off things when you’re
up close to it.” So Number Five hunkers down onto the rack, probably for the
last time, and gives. It has to do with a dead man, a wallet full of big bills,
and a pair of dancing shoes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Where
you been?” he remembers asking her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Around
the world in a rowboat.” She said, her lips barely moving, tired after yet
another night on her feet, eyeballing the bed and longing for the numbness of
sleep. Give her a few hours and she’ll come back to life, having momentarily
forgotten the too-tight heels, the threadbare dress, those same old tired
records, and the wretched breath of lonely, clutching men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It stings
to look at her, to think about what she does for the rent. He isn’t pulling his
own weight — they live off her sweat and tears. They both used to be real
dancers, but that was a lifetime ago. The city was magnificent when the war was
on, bright and abundant with six-week contracts, every grinning theatrical
man’s door wide open. Not now though. In the months since it ended and the
naval yard in Brooklyn began to teem with men again — older now, their
eyes different — the nightclub gigs dried up and the city boiled down to
this one room apartment and the dark alleys that surround it on all four sides.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He
remembers his anger that night, the tangy flavor of it, remembers throwing one
new dancing shoe, then the other after the alley cats bleating on the fence
outside their window. The shoes were a gift from her, a sign that she still
hoped, but to him they were just another reminder of his failure. He shut his
eyes thinking he’d either get the shoes back in the morning or he wouldn’t, but
when he dragged himself out of bed they were already there, leaning neatly up
against the flat’s scarred door. He should’ve figured the shoes’ reappearance was
fishy. If he wasn’t such a dumb cluck he would have thrown them in the
incinerator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Maybe he
should have gotten wise later that afternoon, when he found the wallet and the money
on the street. Third-rate hoofers like him didn’t catch breaks, there was
something else at work here. It was if the thing had been put there just for
him, where only he would find it. He had pounded this stretch of sidewalk, from
one dour theatrical man’s locked door to the next, so often that he could do it
through the haze that his life had become. He could have, should have turned it
in — he wanted to, really — but she lit up when she saw the bills. She thought
of the money as their ticket out, to the coast and maybe a chance in the movies,
and what good was a man if he couldn’t give his girl the things she wanted? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But the
cops had his number. They had taken a plaster of the footprint at the murder
scene — in the alley right outside the apartment window. They knew it was
a tap shoe. They knew the damn thing belonged to a man of his size and build.
They started watching him and waiting for him to spend the money. It was a Bakelite
radio that fouled them up, and not even a good one. Can’t a man buy his wife a
radio without being hauled in for murder? Not in this nightmare. Now in a few
hours, at midnight, this first Tuesday after Christmas, the lights will flicker
and a day or two later some other sap will take his place, and the others will
call him Number Five. He’ll have a story of his own to tell, and a river that
listens. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> (1948)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Directed by William Nigh<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Screenplay by Steve Fisher<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Story by Cornell Woolrich<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Starring Don Castle, Elyse Knox, Regis Toomey<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Cinematography by Mack Stengler<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Released by Monogram Pictures (Walter Mirisch Productions)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Running Time: 70 minutes</span></span></span></div>
Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-15517539756087155632015-10-03T18:08:00.004-04:002015-10-03T23:30:57.355-04:00Film Noir Movie Posters: ROBERT RYAN!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here’s a 30 poster set of film noir posters featuring the one and only Robert Ryan. The great actor bore little resemblance to many of the characters he played — though everyone knows he was a fine amateur fighter in real life. Ryan was truly a great America, and a bona-fide icon of film noir. Enjoy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Things have been really slow around here lately as I’ve been dedicating every spare moment to writing the text and digitally restoring the images in my upcoming book — thanks for sticking with me! I should be able to make an announcement (with links) giving the exact title of book within the next few months. But until then I can say that it’s primarily concerned with mid-century comic books! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hope you cats and kittens enjoy the posters! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNo14PwT5SHbwIdKQUXImrkM32s85jLPJOmPDuwVXozmqzV9vbUSchpw7OAKtCQk8_rfwuaoXKLM-Q32cbLDiKh1mWvFMJGK4jlzyTKBwjGz-1pLnJ2j9C16L7iw8mVZr1chSimXFVig/s1600/Crossfire-%2528French%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNo14PwT5SHbwIdKQUXImrkM32s85jLPJOmPDuwVXozmqzV9vbUSchpw7OAKtCQk8_rfwuaoXKLM-Q32cbLDiKh1mWvFMJGK4jlzyTKBwjGz-1pLnJ2j9C16L7iw8mVZr1chSimXFVig/s640/Crossfire-%2528French%2529.jpg" width="466" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Crossfire </i>(1947), French</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ZHmXPBYzARYygBNVrN4rjrMtuC1YNOYkOGcczlQrCou4iuI2Df51HVU_kYcqgGYykoj5KzWVJpCpudJJAY5ejGg8anXyaIPd-tJQAowVvPHzzls0eRZ6kl1qStKoN1uyhqK0Mc73tw/s1600/The-Racket-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ZHmXPBYzARYygBNVrN4rjrMtuC1YNOYkOGcczlQrCou4iuI2Df51HVU_kYcqgGYykoj5KzWVJpCpudJJAY5ejGg8anXyaIPd-tJQAowVvPHzzls0eRZ6kl1qStKoN1uyhqK0Mc73tw/s640/The-Racket-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" width="456" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Racket</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1951)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Italian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh01cvBJk0bFkI3SUUbnMHahKk0pzWGiAM1j8yFVppuEMrKVT94reWyUbMXQxAQoopNkmb9iH_5xodMglhf3kg4GTjQPyc7s0Vj8z1s5Qplx_m3HvWCthD7TH9_fqC_Pjf30jeb_b0XdQ/s1600/Crossfire-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh01cvBJk0bFkI3SUUbnMHahKk0pzWGiAM1j8yFVppuEMrKVT94reWyUbMXQxAQoopNkmb9iH_5xodMglhf3kg4GTjQPyc7s0Vj8z1s5Qplx_m3HvWCthD7TH9_fqC_Pjf30jeb_b0XdQ/s640/Crossfire-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" width="454" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Crossfire </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1947)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Italian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUQdkQ75dx8J9wkdIBP8alHfNq78Tdv23mHham61UKuM4nsioofaUjVlSC2m2OuUEhiQj91U1PqPFDLc064gTXdmtP4DK59DZZcqDYr2HHpEYSFkNnigTi_XZmqTFEN-StaSugejjaBw/s1600/Act-of-Violence-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUQdkQ75dx8J9wkdIBP8alHfNq78Tdv23mHham61UKuM4nsioofaUjVlSC2m2OuUEhiQj91U1PqPFDLc064gTXdmtP4DK59DZZcqDYr2HHpEYSFkNnigTi_XZmqTFEN-StaSugejjaBw/s640/Act-of-Violence-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i>Act of Violence </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1948)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOrm5loLifBLSik2t1kMamJaBKUniEJdZq4A-HRPg2VsnuvF_09pVz9EFFfDYTI1HIPk721XjELaHbLF2vC06iN7xhlNSaEvgkO4gebzfK7QFWwsfpgv-dUDvaOdETiKodzkP6CZY7AA/s1600/Berlin-Express-%25286-sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="638" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOrm5loLifBLSik2t1kMamJaBKUniEJdZq4A-HRPg2VsnuvF_09pVz9EFFfDYTI1HIPk721XjELaHbLF2vC06iN7xhlNSaEvgkO4gebzfK7QFWwsfpgv-dUDvaOdETiKodzkP6CZY7AA/s640/Berlin-Express-%25286-sheet%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i>Berlin Express</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1948)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Six-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifXbqOl55ppJZiCVi6LjsAB40o6LoThzVPqv6t7DB1w3vxRj7TSvbaqAaMRvhw_UQJroBcwm9jA7P_qlmdn9Bc-YdsNm7pEe-hVJJjEMFQBD2ojN-E22VTSMZAl7ZYgvu_lK21Ob_lUQ/s1600/Berlin-Express-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifXbqOl55ppJZiCVi6LjsAB40o6LoThzVPqv6t7DB1w3vxRj7TSvbaqAaMRvhw_UQJroBcwm9jA7P_qlmdn9Bc-YdsNm7pEe-hVJJjEMFQBD2ojN-E22VTSMZAl7ZYgvu_lK21Ob_lUQ/s640/Berlin-Express-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="434" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Berlin Express</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1948)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiVHc-tFH04dWNCPCZGkMl1SdhfmghcLWS1kh_325lJkgOH2cHa3x2OFVU1aQRmSDp8szY7sOu-eS-aWcgVE5GmYJEsR09zmpP6M5G6azsJ9rhN6XQgdN0mi4b0muKGpnLZ6LbYVj-cQ/s1600/Beware-My-Lovely-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiVHc-tFH04dWNCPCZGkMl1SdhfmghcLWS1kh_325lJkgOH2cHa3x2OFVU1aQRmSDp8szY7sOu-eS-aWcgVE5GmYJEsR09zmpP6M5G6azsJ9rhN6XQgdN0mi4b0muKGpnLZ6LbYVj-cQ/s640/Beware-My-Lovely-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Beware, My Lovely</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1952)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObRHHaTA2-KS33ezWZLB_SX-UTuaKVboPTSgQ5VdJvTfbqvcxTk9IM7LcL-s_22zZz8_7OTbiHqTgTjVM99BkqLqHFMFl8aaTOe8TKZLmtD33ON8Bn6W9oN3oSWvlL7gPk5QDlAaVAw/s1600/Born-to-be-Bad-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObRHHaTA2-KS33ezWZLB_SX-UTuaKVboPTSgQ5VdJvTfbqvcxTk9IM7LcL-s_22zZz8_7OTbiHqTgTjVM99BkqLqHFMFl8aaTOe8TKZLmtD33ON8Bn6W9oN3oSWvlL7gPk5QDlAaVAw/s640/Born-to-be-Bad-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" width="454" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Born to be Bad</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1950)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Italian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV3K8Y374OUbKvnH5rGy7JhwkpNDlo8zb5FOK31ZLr03U3AC3qT1RRRIShjTM4Hx2WxIBgy-VeSnznemAjlbOAf0KrxqoGxJuw2PgDXOJGlFM2IRo1Gd_hyxvYe6_rzN0xnGk-TfI31Q/s1600/Caught-%2528half-sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV3K8Y374OUbKvnH5rGy7JhwkpNDlo8zb5FOK31ZLr03U3AC3qT1RRRIShjTM4Hx2WxIBgy-VeSnznemAjlbOAf0KrxqoGxJuw2PgDXOJGlFM2IRo1Gd_hyxvYe6_rzN0xnGk-TfI31Q/s640/Caught-%2528half-sheet%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Caught</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1949)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Half-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ADzSFbRxBfDsMndTMDct-2Sl8qOl8ptjFKm9qIr3zjFmd8ccnt0iU7lS4LFweLS9Ysj7gEn08Ogq1TpGFrLIrQtPrLrkAnZCOHbN60IdGw9IaSUtpBxWF5qPd3BtBLdCjJyfxzkwLQ/s1600/Caught-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ADzSFbRxBfDsMndTMDct-2Sl8qOl8ptjFKm9qIr3zjFmd8ccnt0iU7lS4LFweLS9Ysj7gEn08Ogq1TpGFrLIrQtPrLrkAnZCOHbN60IdGw9IaSUtpBxWF5qPd3BtBLdCjJyfxzkwLQ/s640/Caught-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Caught</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1949)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnIL6li5n8AQMllHczR7yYPfAs7hIdUTmmkkBM4WIRb3G7mciFiPPAS2SeMUb_lEFgOgu7CnFeN8KCCoAghkincJSDrisPz1dJbIPp8zhXL5yRTcFyAlsoXZnv3c-mi08xdFjI7slsw/s1600/Clash-By-Night-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnIL6li5n8AQMllHczR7yYPfAs7hIdUTmmkkBM4WIRb3G7mciFiPPAS2SeMUb_lEFgOgu7CnFeN8KCCoAghkincJSDrisPz1dJbIPp8zhXL5yRTcFyAlsoXZnv3c-mi08xdFjI7slsw/s640/Clash-By-Night-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Clash by Night</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1952)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoVwB-Oh6mE-ms7r90mqvbH0vZsepo8Ehxw-d1eDX7-hYRGVDkYGfSoH5CArE8Q5ySlP62bwQ8VFbYmF1A1WUVBMltOIMICwBJUg6xK_4VOsr6JZgBs4ilo-Pfh2phsxPhfnvo1SjCQ/s1600/Crossfire-%2528Belgian%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoVwB-Oh6mE-ms7r90mqvbH0vZsepo8Ehxw-d1eDX7-hYRGVDkYGfSoH5CArE8Q5ySlP62bwQ8VFbYmF1A1WUVBMltOIMICwBJUg6xK_4VOsr6JZgBs4ilo-Pfh2phsxPhfnvo1SjCQ/s640/Crossfire-%2528Belgian%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Crossfire</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1947)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Belgian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFYNZEwuGttWdsDliwEegO8z26Jt18JqP3NbxdjYFHCvDJzxGV6d65cEd64WbFPLXOivs3s1PEnAhGBg7XLUV16ZPlB8FzsAtwN0MSUH9927yzhbAdJSANPzG4bWZLo4430SolTdsweA/s1600/Crossfire-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFYNZEwuGttWdsDliwEegO8z26Jt18JqP3NbxdjYFHCvDJzxGV6d65cEd64WbFPLXOivs3s1PEnAhGBg7XLUV16ZPlB8FzsAtwN0MSUH9927yzhbAdJSANPzG4bWZLo4430SolTdsweA/s640/Crossfire-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Crossfire</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1947)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_bTRYGIxOFM6g8N83xzlbYeGZIX64btdKyqDfIGWv4dDdTMIrj9gAbhUEik8nle1pPfrXIM1NocRNdEdZFZtg8EuuCDnZ7XXO_ldHPyOueMrLIiUMr0F_Yedz2Oxbt29pRE2IPZljQ/s1600/House-of-Bamboo-%2528Belgian%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH_bTRYGIxOFM6g8N83xzlbYeGZIX64btdKyqDfIGWv4dDdTMIrj9gAbhUEik8nle1pPfrXIM1NocRNdEdZFZtg8EuuCDnZ7XXO_ldHPyOueMrLIiUMr0F_Yedz2Oxbt29pRE2IPZljQ/s640/House-of-Bamboo-%2528Belgian%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>House of Bamboo</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1955)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Belgian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigicOWJ7FgqsLzeJcz9FlJA_FbLavfRatac1x640tVddpfOae0d7VIe7lfJjyZ3j9W_mr_sYDZ7kWyzSMUBXwxkHBKpLFWiz1f9ZJ5kBUCpZ78IWEWQB-Cw3YHjzADiBI2GSJcrOy6Xw/s1600/House-of-Bamboo-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigicOWJ7FgqsLzeJcz9FlJA_FbLavfRatac1x640tVddpfOae0d7VIe7lfJjyZ3j9W_mr_sYDZ7kWyzSMUBXwxkHBKpLFWiz1f9ZJ5kBUCpZ78IWEWQB-Cw3YHjzADiBI2GSJcrOy6Xw/s640/House-of-Bamboo-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" width="442" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">House of Bamboo</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1955)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Italian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyiNuPxGuSFDmHc0LuN6OBDvaYZhAQPgvOK63MAnwwxmYUY2h7oRoAk8JHkEpeAm8DIN6OBfw1j_KSioP9IlDsAFc_nAbF7eUyFrMGOjo76n2wR7prw27LaS0REVJG-EbfNo5YPLHx3w/s1600/House-of-Bamboo-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyiNuPxGuSFDmHc0LuN6OBDvaYZhAQPgvOK63MAnwwxmYUY2h7oRoAk8JHkEpeAm8DIN6OBfw1j_KSioP9IlDsAFc_nAbF7eUyFrMGOjo76n2wR7prw27LaS0REVJG-EbfNo5YPLHx3w/s640/House-of-Bamboo-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">House of Bamboo</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1955)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg36okPiHojtEs9LJvzwhG2YSprREAgVkWl7XwTV4twt6n-pjEKzeZ8QrT8SRZf3XrIsP5V5rkm_dzXyRd35zxQw12f0NXz-ZfIvACsOZiTqdRNd4WWoGnAm37PXAIiQcr7oO76yYPGVw/s1600/Odds-Against-%2528Japanese%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg36okPiHojtEs9LJvzwhG2YSprREAgVkWl7XwTV4twt6n-pjEKzeZ8QrT8SRZf3XrIsP5V5rkm_dzXyRd35zxQw12f0NXz-ZfIvACsOZiTqdRNd4WWoGnAm37PXAIiQcr7oO76yYPGVw/s640/Odds-Against-%2528Japanese%2529.jpg" width="452" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Odds Against Tomorrow</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1959)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Japanese</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ENRJap_824EynxzXKcZrVyBA7P72hGM9vUz4ixZsXmtqHERB3jOCSDx24Sy26F7SFNWr_BpGfC9VCzj9Ffe1a111WwUXUHx5sN0sy9vsaRZ1jWqvfxTNtZNDW5F7M7GgopeDT2fw7A/s1600/Odds-Against-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ENRJap_824EynxzXKcZrVyBA7P72hGM9vUz4ixZsXmtqHERB3jOCSDx24Sy26F7SFNWr_BpGfC9VCzj9Ffe1a111WwUXUHx5sN0sy9vsaRZ1jWqvfxTNtZNDW5F7M7GgopeDT2fw7A/s640/Odds-Against-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Odds Against Tomorrow</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1959)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-B1whTi-fvP0lQ-zkHaoiOXLALjG3fJ7RwBdAsBaLItNg6qUkwVHBuDF1vTRoouZS9PhVdL1bMtXDxrrMGkgktzGAYZr9g50Xg5rpPL8QnZMKRidTI9m_TEo3CK0P_A4iRLbfL0dEHg/s1600/On-Dangerous-Ground-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-B1whTi-fvP0lQ-zkHaoiOXLALjG3fJ7RwBdAsBaLItNg6qUkwVHBuDF1vTRoouZS9PhVdL1bMtXDxrrMGkgktzGAYZr9g50Xg5rpPL8QnZMKRidTI9m_TEo3CK0P_A4iRLbfL0dEHg/s640/On-Dangerous-Ground-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">On Dangerous Ground</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1951)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXXkwVPzRUoyTP9gSxOOcNhOXuL4t8hIqa6__wNa9pvOX_BaGXendPdOB4sazFRVbm5KKtglYV2dYbN4D2yfXuvnmH31K0OniGy0sIpdSIBBHWsPY0fS5sATImDHOmmhEGgF3J1FtCEQ/s1600/Act-of-Violence-%25283-sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXXkwVPzRUoyTP9gSxOOcNhOXuL4t8hIqa6__wNa9pvOX_BaGXendPdOB4sazFRVbm5KKtglYV2dYbN4D2yfXuvnmH31K0OniGy0sIpdSIBBHWsPY0fS5sATImDHOmmhEGgF3J1FtCEQ/s640/Act-of-Violence-%25283-sheet%2529.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i>Act of Violence</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1948)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Three-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPJZfXomAQYJM7oNQrSRtKnEtK-8DgZ4zt_AlbnirUWxyemT1s_slLCG7mToESxPphYpV4hkAGCMn-K0eOxtOrTP4gWBZI6Cal9mTbfMc6HOlNSPV7UkSCcn8kXdXz-wPHd-KpMm6oA/s1600/Racket-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPJZfXomAQYJM7oNQrSRtKnEtK-8DgZ4zt_AlbnirUWxyemT1s_slLCG7mToESxPphYpV4hkAGCMn-K0eOxtOrTP4gWBZI6Cal9mTbfMc6HOlNSPV7UkSCcn8kXdXz-wPHd-KpMm6oA/s640/Racket-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Racket</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1951)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmKPqO40NiM4DCJKDStlJ1OFj9DARFg2a971BkmrgW02KKA9pp52N9hbSpURYiik0gkJMLQvcOGqMMqTjDkgF5wFkKm_9eeZW0gqYf2MhTq5zeVQMoCweKW4Db9NUSQV1Jpk8DHiu_tQ/s1600/Secret-Fury-%2528Australian%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmKPqO40NiM4DCJKDStlJ1OFj9DARFg2a971BkmrgW02KKA9pp52N9hbSpURYiik0gkJMLQvcOGqMMqTjDkgF5wFkKm_9eeZW0gqYf2MhTq5zeVQMoCweKW4Db9NUSQV1Jpk8DHiu_tQ/s640/Secret-Fury-%2528Australian%2529.jpg" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Secret Fury</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1950)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Australian Daybill</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBydy2nEziJZXFdfOiBl5dVALLs16oFcHiKiTyDzHiNA47nwORKR30JVvrZRuogsZvfdzAso-DV_GGi4vCp3PWOPW8z4pOCD0_LZnzkTLaG-hX1F5owsPKdclvSfyc68N_2SwQj5WHw/s1600/Secret-Fury-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBydy2nEziJZXFdfOiBl5dVALLs16oFcHiKiTyDzHiNA47nwORKR30JVvrZRuogsZvfdzAso-DV_GGi4vCp3PWOPW8z4pOCD0_LZnzkTLaG-hX1F5owsPKdclvSfyc68N_2SwQj5WHw/s640/Secret-Fury-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Secret Fury</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1950)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm8tcvjcWI9RGcIMtZIQKDYSX5cjI5YOkJZkkRyJXxRmaLLmlFhskO6wGJKAfNEFCNrnFbewu4u1G4bg-hy6YdRTC10t84JMc7axjwTCs8STUDGn7mAhRlfCUdy8dPOo4-cGHn-zBAqA/s1600/Set-Up-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm8tcvjcWI9RGcIMtZIQKDYSX5cjI5YOkJZkkRyJXxRmaLLmlFhskO6wGJKAfNEFCNrnFbewu4u1G4bg-hy6YdRTC10t84JMc7axjwTCs8STUDGn7mAhRlfCUdy8dPOo4-cGHn-zBAqA/s640/Set-Up-%2528Italian%2529.jpg" width="458" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Set-Up</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1949)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Italian</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3chtYYF5SVyC9h1o7i_-cd-flXwrod1098XiYisxMxa9aqnYMv3N0MldcJ0z2BLaJsxrGvSsVcQBQf5uud41K82o0J03B2JQTP1Q8bZy6VLFoaztik7kBbKvAFvwTwcchntIUMsUoA/s1600/The-Set-Up-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG3chtYYF5SVyC9h1o7i_-cd-flXwrod1098XiYisxMxa9aqnYMv3N0MldcJ0z2BLaJsxrGvSsVcQBQf5uud41K82o0J03B2JQTP1Q8bZy6VLFoaztik7kBbKvAFvwTwcchntIUMsUoA/s640/The-Set-Up-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Set-Up</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1949)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOhfOfnWng10ISWtnAp2kWNtWF68xHdjWMrNyARqtmSWrnvHGzVcKbjyoNz7s0DGeyrJCJaaM1Z3ZqOgnRoQR2gNTLGSzE7Lm0cw7MhMJQ10c7vbjia0okavNlle8uXga44QSd4kmbrg/s1600/Woman-on-13-%2528Lobby-Cards%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOhfOfnWng10ISWtnAp2kWNtWF68xHdjWMrNyARqtmSWrnvHGzVcKbjyoNz7s0DGeyrJCJaaM1Z3ZqOgnRoQR2gNTLGSzE7Lm0cw7MhMJQ10c7vbjia0okavNlle8uXga44QSd4kmbrg/s640/Woman-on-13-%2528Lobby-Cards%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Woman on Pier 13</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1949)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Lobby Cards</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkSCyYf-pdr8LWOKk3JPy7Jt6kCZBU0OOxEh-LCaf8NvLbp5Msafk64UklF6kOOaA5roDP9odMJ8_LHuoN_KPG4BJDkQ1NKt0OXpAj_RUBNcWjv2Y856acA71FdNr_Zc4Z_DZKj_q6A/s1600/Woman-on-Pier-13-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkSCyYf-pdr8LWOKk3JPy7Jt6kCZBU0OOxEh-LCaf8NvLbp5Msafk64UklF6kOOaA5roDP9odMJ8_LHuoN_KPG4BJDkQ1NKt0OXpAj_RUBNcWjv2Y856acA71FdNr_Zc4Z_DZKj_q6A/s640/Woman-on-Pier-13-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i>The Woman on Pier 13</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1949)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoYp8OFVyGtxCXoE2UR9DfPAAlO3GVpllgrNzOVbzgaFARg8OOWycA4U2RJl1g1FViPdXe83dMvSE9BTemQsiiz69RZFpFbWeTewxev5otJrCr-7blXBFREXqhefTjbokRRl9hnxIo_g/s1600/Woman-on-the-Beach-%2528half-sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoYp8OFVyGtxCXoE2UR9DfPAAlO3GVpllgrNzOVbzgaFARg8OOWycA4U2RJl1g1FViPdXe83dMvSE9BTemQsiiz69RZFpFbWeTewxev5otJrCr-7blXBFREXqhefTjbokRRl9hnxIo_g/s640/Woman-on-the-Beach-%2528half-sheet%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i>The Woman on the Beach</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1947)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Half-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEikoD5g2Oml6znpC_IMYX6rk53jXfQRtjOShtBrqaaU8i4hLwJkkBaW_0HWy1-QRu_kMmjwraMOCYKk-7bjDSZHswg4EQTrR1dFVhiqEKzlX-gpF0Z38hoi5U3X0lH4c8AECjJYEIJA/s1600/Woman-on-the-Beach-%2528Insert%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEikoD5g2Oml6znpC_IMYX6rk53jXfQRtjOShtBrqaaU8i4hLwJkkBaW_0HWy1-QRu_kMmjwraMOCYKk-7bjDSZHswg4EQTrR1dFVhiqEKzlX-gpF0Z38hoi5U3X0lH4c8AECjJYEIJA/s640/Woman-on-the-Beach-%2528Insert%2529.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Woman on the Beach</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1947)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, Insert</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTM8rxVDe55XoHBH-tG4I7fVQExaTvm58I1uIZO79oUZGu7sA2T4_MmlZMi3p3ApMJOv8KjaTAeJG8KUM9G-gY96XLP0NiyPpMgPtySSCrvKJGwfhROf5hMzdrMKBzTx3r2UucfLqU0g/s1600/Woman-on-the-Beach-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTM8rxVDe55XoHBH-tG4I7fVQExaTvm58I1uIZO79oUZGu7sA2T4_MmlZMi3p3ApMJOv8KjaTAeJG8KUM9G-gY96XLP0NiyPpMgPtySSCrvKJGwfhROf5hMzdrMKBzTx3r2UucfLqU0g/s640/Woman-on-the-Beach-%2528One-Sheet%2529.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">The Woman on the Beach</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(1947)</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, One-sheet</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-43690371215660892142015-06-05T14:46:00.000-04:002019-11-02T23:34:07.254-04:00TWO OF A KIND (1951)<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOSqyFGeZQgl5Yz91ORiNYEFXc0a-8jh38SDwJ0ftG-Dq9lC2JFUd9U1cDohpZBL4awVEhPiuhjrYP87xfEPKrzuQw9BNS543VLyG9_vDkz86ymu-uxjdenauxo6498kJUg6SX1lCk-bI/s1600/Half_Sheet.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="504" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5456895962107236818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOSqyFGeZQgl5Yz91ORiNYEFXc0a-8jh38SDwJ0ftG-Dq9lC2JFUd9U1cDohpZBL4awVEhPiuhjrYP87xfEPKrzuQw9BNS543VLyG9_vDkz86ymu-uxjdenauxo6498kJUg6SX1lCk-bI/s640/Half_Sheet.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Talk about a sheep in wolf’s clothing. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Two of a Kind</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, released by Columbia in 1951, is a perfect example of how a Hollywood ending can derail a promising noir. The premise is enticing: three grifters try to work an inheritance scam on an elderly California couple. They plan to pass off a fellow con-artist as the couple’s long-lost son and claim a huge inheritance when the aged millionaires finally kick over. The cast is rock-solid, and includes noir icons Edmond O’Brien and Lizabeth Scott, as well as President Woodrow Wilson himself, Alexander Knox. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Two of a Kind</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> moves with verve and is characterized by tough talk and slick Burnett Guffey photography. It establishes itself as a noir early on, with a wonderfully memorable scene involving the two leads, a car door, and some great banter. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Two of a Kind</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> also foreshadows doom in half a dozen different ways, including a slew of references to the game of craps, yet in the end it fails to deliver on its dark promises — instead wrapping up like an MGM musical, where boy and girl hop into a ragtop and ride off into the setting Pacific sun, leaving the audience jilted and angry.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The opening finds Brandy (Lizabeth Scott), searching for a man she’s never met, a very specific kind of a man who fits the requirements that she and her accomplice Vincent (Alexander Knox) require to orchestrate a swindle of gigantic proportions. It seems that many years ago, a wealthy California couple, the McIntyres, lost their son during a trip to Chicago. Mrs. McIntyre had a dizzy spell and cracked her head on the sidewalk outside Marshall Fields. When she woke up her toddler son was gone. She wasn’t without hope though — the tip of little fellow’s </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">left little finger is missing, making him easy to recognize. Yet despite this unusual telltale, after more than three decades the McIntyres have never been able to locate their son.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The McIntyre family attorney, who turns out to be none other than Brandy’s partner Vincent, has long been in charge of the search for the boy. And it’s Vincent who first sees the opportunity to make a grab at the McIntyre family millions; he and Brandy just need to find the right man to play the part of the prodigal son: white male, early thirties, from the Chicagoland area, raised in an orphanage, and finally: willing to pare his pinky for a big payoff. Enter Mike ‘Lefty’ Farrell (Edmond O’Brien).</span></span><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QClN1hLSLH8/TwPvy5PWC9I/AAAAAAAABb0/W7iBzcx3fzw/s1600/TwoOfAKind_Poster1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QClN1hLSLH8/TwPvy5PWC9I/AAAAAAAABb0/W7iBzcx3fzw/s400/TwoOfAKind_Poster1.jpg" width="257" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times"; font-size: small;"></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Throughout film history there have been countless scenes when a character loses some limb or another, and most such films exploit the suspense-filled moments before the axe falls, the knife slashes, or the chainsaw rattles to life. In this case the exchange between Brandy and Mike leading up to the “ouch” is just as compelling. The scene occurs early on, just after Brandy discovers Mike drearily checking cards at an L.A. bingo joint. In a brief sequence of impressive narrative economy, Brandy manages to catch Mike’s eye, test his mettle against a hired thug, get him arrested and bailed out, clue him in on the potential scam, and convince him to put his little finger in the path of a car door. Considering the pair just met, Mike seems too eager to go along with her plan. It’s a weak point in the story that relies on the seductive power of the</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> femme fatale </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">to make believable — after all, how many men will maim themselves for a woman they’ve just met? It’s a hard pill to swallow, and Liz Scott isn’t the girl to help it go down any easier. Scott was certainly a wonderful actress — she could outperform most fifties crime pic ingénues with her eyes alone, but she lacked that </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Rita-esque</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> brand of raw sexuality necessary to close this deal. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nevertheless the sequence is </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Two of a Kind</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">’s best — though it’s the doom and gloom dialogue which brings the whole thing off. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The outcome is never in doubt; we know the finger has to come off for the story to move forward, but the film carves out mucho character development before the big moment. Brandi pulls up to a shadowy curb, the emergency hospital quietly looming a block ahead. She cuts to the chase: </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“It has to look like an accident — you walk in with a smashed finger and tell them you caught it in a car door.” “And how does it really get smashed?”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Mike asks, to which she deadpans,</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> “In a car door.”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Brandi leans across Mike’s chest and pushes open his door, while he eyes her warily for the first time. She removes the lipstick from her handbag and paints an aiming line on his little finger before announcing, </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“You’d better have a cigarette.”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Still gregarious, Mike asks, </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“Who gets to make with the door?”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> To which Brandy’s curt </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“I do” </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">not only establishes her clear control of the situation but also that Mike (like other noir protagonists) is in way over his head. Her final admonition, </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“Look the other way”</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> comes just a second before she crushes his finger. The scene is certainly the most noirish in the film, particularly in how it parallels Mike’s predicament with that of a man about to be executed. The cigarette, the turning of the head, the willing submission, and finally, the moment’s sexually-charged, emasculating violence are quintessentially noirish, and ensure that<i> Two of a Kind </i>would be much better-remembered if only it didn’t shoot itself in the foot so soon after chopping off Mike’s finger.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But the stakes are so low! One of the reasons the car door scene resonates is because it’s the only exciting moment in the movie — and all it involves is a busted up little finger! The film is otherwise light on crime, and the inheritance scheme fails miserably. No one gets killed, and when the plan is unraveled Mr. McIntyre doesn’t even press charges, even knowing that Vincent secretly hoped to kill him in order to get rich even quicker. </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">McIntyre</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> simply demands that the larcenous lawyer close up shop and leave town, while he actually invites the repentant Mike to perpetuate the ruse for the sake of the forlorn Mrs. McIntyre’s newfound happiness. As a matter of fact, the stakes are so low that everyone would likely have been better off if the hustle had succeeded: The McIntyres would have lived out their final years in the happy knowledge that their son had returned, while the already-rich Vincent and Brandi would have just gotten richer and Mike would have endured a guilty inheritance. Considering that the McIntyres had no other potential heirs, perhaps the only real losers would have been the charitable organizations that would have otherwise inherited the funds.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Yet if a deeper reading is made, an important question comes to mind, though it’s one that potentially destroys the film, or at least makes it awfully difficult to like: </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What about the McIntyre’s real son? </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It’s not that viewers would expect this lost child to joyously reappear after thirty years to throw a monkey wrench into Brandy and Mike’s plans (though that may have made for an interesting twist). Postwar audiences were as aware as any of the potential for horror in the world, and the details of the Lindbergh case still lingered in the public mind, as would the circumstances of the Wineville Chicken Murders (known to contemporary audiences thanks to Clint Eastwood’s </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Changeling</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">) and many other newswire scandals of the period. In giving </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Two of a Kind</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> such a happy denouement, fate can’t mete out the justice required by the noir universe. Sometimes the happy ending is an important part of the noir journey, as in the redemption-oriented </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Tomorrow is Another Day</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">. Yet here Vincent, Brandy, and Mike contrive a terrible crime: they casually and unremorsefully attempt to cash in on the grief and hope of a decent family that has lost its only child, in all likelihood to a horrible death. The film trades justice for romance, and no two stars, even O’Brien and Scott, possess screen chemistry sufficient for us to forgive a crime that involves preying on the heart of a bereaved mother. We are left to wonder how the title, </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Two of a Kind</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, is intended to represent Brandy and Mike, though in some dark, accidental way conjures thoughts of Mike and that vanished little boy, a plot device of so little consequence to the film that he’s denied even the human dignity of a name.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Two of a Kind</span></span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> (1951)</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Director: Henry Levin</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Producer: William Dozier</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Cinematography: Burnett Guffey</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Screenplay: James Edward Grant, James Gunn and Lawrence Kimble</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Starring: Edmond O’Brien and Lizabeth Scott</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Released by: Columbia Pictures Corporation</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #996633;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Running Time: 75 minutes</span></span></span></div>
Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-70718498808164631132015-02-17T21:55:00.000-05:002015-02-17T21:57:52.353-05:00OUT OF THE STORM (1948)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXx8kgbEnlZi1eVgOvu00ivHgyguCS_7_pX-bv40iPN2e0D4cKpbXsDQj-PHfj8tzowQEWi9xvB8AkLG6lVyiOshtbtjn6-70ZfnSoGOHYqa8ZEIAFx7yX4y3Ad_QHJV2e-1zWZNMfQA/s1600/out+of+the+storm+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXx8kgbEnlZi1eVgOvu00ivHgyguCS_7_pX-bv40iPN2e0D4cKpbXsDQj-PHfj8tzowQEWi9xvB8AkLG6lVyiOshtbtjn6-70ZfnSoGOHYqa8ZEIAFx7yX4y3Ad_QHJV2e-1zWZNMfQA/s1600/out+of+the+storm+poster.jpg" height="640" width="424" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In order to understand how important typecasting was in classic Hollywood, how it could
make or break a movie — even a cheap B picture with a twelve-day shooting
schedule — look no further than Republic’s 1944 crime programmer </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">Out of the Storm</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">, starring Jimmy Lydon. Lydon
gained fame playing comic strip teenager Henry Aldrich nine times for Paramount
Pictures throughout the war years. After the fighting ended he signed a
contract with Republic Pictures (which he jokingly referred to as Repulsive Pictures!)
and made several low rent crime films, the most notable of which was Edgar Ulmer’s </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">Strange Illusion</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> (1945). From time to
time Lydon appeared in supporting roles in major studio productions, including
a pleasantly funny turn alongside Elizabeth Taylor in the 1947 William Powell hit
</span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">Life with Father</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">, and, believe it or
not, as Ingrid Bergman’s little brother in Victor Fleming’s 1948 colossus, </span><i style="font-family: Georgia;">Joan of Arc</i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">. Lydon enjoyed a lengthy
acting career in Hollywood films and on television before transitioning into a
significant role as a producer. He even did a stretch as vice-president of the
Screen Actors Guild. As of this writing he’s approaching 92 and living happily in
California with his wife of 62 years.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO6vCgNDT7LKerz5bPPU8WRXnnMXgntWhnoW0f1PIJNRhN_wjP4H1VCkGs5KcCCxBjOfv1aSbdesBdH1BdDwOuVLXme5nQUUufGveBihymOewidHbiE5s_1kWQjXu0NK3pQcnp-X26sw/s1600/JamesLydon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO6vCgNDT7LKerz5bPPU8WRXnnMXgntWhnoW0f1PIJNRhN_wjP4H1VCkGs5KcCCxBjOfv1aSbdesBdH1BdDwOuVLXme5nQUUufGveBihymOewidHbiE5s_1kWQjXu0NK3pQcnp-X26sw/s1600/JamesLydon.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Out of the Storm</i>, set during the war, he
is perfectly cast as Donald Lewis, a clerk at west coast naval yard. Amidst the
tumult of the never-ending stream of tankers, freighters, and liberty ships
sliding into the Pacific, Donald spends his days in the relative calm of the
payroll office, endorsing checks for the yard’s ten thousand workers. It’s
Christmastime as the movie opens, and Donald has just taken possession of
$125,000 in folding money, when a crew led by Stubbins (familiar hood Marc
Lawrence) hurries up the stairs and into the payroll loft. Stubbins shoots the guard, beats another man
unconscious, and then forces Donald to grab stacks of bills from the safe.
After the gang flees Donald telephones security, but before they arrive he
gapingly realizes that the crooks overlooked the $100,000 intended for the workers’ Christmas
bonuses and made off with significantly less: the $25,000 in fives and tens meant for check
cashing. Donald hesitates for just a moment, and then hides the money. He
returns later, in the dead of night, and smuggles it home. The remainder of the
movie vacillates between the predictable and the surprising as Donald tries
hard to hang onto the loot before eventually coming around — though <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Out of the Storm</i> pleases even when it
treads this familiar ground.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Let’s
momentarily imagine the challenge faced by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Out
of the Storm</i>’s producers, needing to fill the lead. Here we have a fairly
straightforward morality tale about a war worker who steals, albeit passively
(everything about Donald is passive), and most importantly, whose crime becomes
the catalyst for his coming of age. We need an actor who can sell two key
characteristics: the audience must be able to understand his motivation to
steal, and in time they must be able to forgive him. The movie never explicitly
tells us why Donald isn’t in the service, though there are two possibilities:
he could have received a 2-B deferment from service as an employee of the war
industry, or his designation could have been the dreaded 4-F: “registrant is
not acceptable for military service.” The casting of Jimmy Lydon, neither a
tough guy nor a dreamboat, makes it clear exactly which weak-kneed designation the
filmmakers wanted us to assume, and it shows us why the casting process is
vital.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">What kind
of a guy would take this money? What kind of guy would end up in the payroll
office in the first place? Donald lacks the physical strength required to man
either a rivet gun or a machine gun. And he’s bitter about it. Here’s a kid
with guilt. The movie’s opening narration, in which he resignedly laments his
situation over stock footage of the smoking wreckage of Pearl Harbor, and then
over images of countless ships under construction during the big buildup of 1942,
is a self-pitying diatribe about how some young men “went to the fighting lines
[and] some went to the assembly lines.” Donald feels left out of both groups,
resenting not just the servicemen overseas, but also the blue-collar workers
who make more money than he does: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #999999;">“Seemed like everybody in the yard was making money.
Everybody else was really building something, really doing something. But me? I
got stuck in the payroll department with a lot of adding machines and file
records and a salary of $40 a week. How far can you make that go?”</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">And yet
Donald is still a good boy — he mails a chunk of his meager earnings home
to his mother and struggles by on the rest. We get the impression that all
would be well if only he could strap on a uniform and get in the fight like
everybody else. All of his simmering guilt is cleverly ratcheted up by the
presence of his girlfriend and coworker Ginny (Lois Collier, sort of a poor
man’s Gail Russell). Ginny’s a real doll, and entirely out of Donald’s league.
They’ve been together for nearly a year, after bumping into each other during
lunch. Here's how it needles: it’s a mismatched relationship only made possible by the war, and Donald knows it. He constantly uses his small salary as an excuse not to get married, but we suspect that he really believes he doesn’t deserve such a great girl in the first place. Ginny, for
her part, is strangely desperate to get hitched, Donald’s finances be damned.
(It’s terribly easy to imagine a dead Marine on Guadalcanal with her picture in
his breast pocket.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">At any
rate, the film excellently establishes Donald’s angst at being left out of the
fighting and his disappointment at not landing an appropriately butch spot in the war effort, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">then</i>
being saddled with a devoted girlfriend whom he doesn’t feel he deserves. Such
a character could easily come across as a weasel. We’d hate Donald if we didn’t
think his heart was in the right place, if he didn’t so obviously love his
mother, if he hadn’t fretted and called the guards after the theft, and if he wasn’t just a
dumb, jealous, understandably immature kid. But we do like him, and we also feel sorry for him.
We understand, just as he does, that Captain America is just a comic strip
character and that there wasn’t a place on the front lines for every weak-kneed
kid who wanted to get in. Perhaps the movie’s best, most transformative moment
comes near then end, when Ginny looks Donald in the eye and calls him a coward,
and the sting of the remark compels him to finally understand something that
all of us ultimately have to come to grips with: that life ain’t fair, and that
not getting all the things we want isn’t an excuse to act out. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Out of the Storm</span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> presented a complex casting
problem that, in this instance, the filmmakers solved perfectly. Jimmy Lydon is
nearly flawless as one of the countless fellows left to grapple with self-worth
while fighting the war from home. He successfully spins the confused,
frustrated angst of youth into the moral ambiguity and misguided choices that
lie deep within the tangled heart of film noir. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Out of the Storm</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> (1948)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Directed
by R.G. Springsteen<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Screenplay
by John K. Butler <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Story by
Gordon Rigby<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Starring
Jimmy Lydon, Lois Collier, and Marc Lawrence<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Cinematography
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Released
by Republic Pictures<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Running
Time: 61 minutes</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-92165697616338143022014-10-18T16:38:00.002-04:002017-08-27T15:46:40.793-04:00The 30 GREATEST ALFRED HITCHCOCK MOVIE POSTERS! (Spoiler: VERTIGO finishes second!)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<b style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">At long last, a new
countdown — a one-shot!</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Here are the thirty best US (or
British) one-sheets for the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Given that Hitch
directed more than sixty features I had hoped that this would be at least a
fifty-poster countdown. But alas, many of the posters for his early efforts in
his home country are not to be found, and somewhat surprisingly, many of the
available posters are designed particularly well! In the end I decided to rank
thirty posters, and if my goal was to showcase solid design work I might have
been better off showing just twenty. However, in the end I decided the more
images the better! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">For those of you new to
the site, feel free to read my design thoughts or just check out the images! As for the rules I set for myself, here’s the straight dope: 1) The posters shown here are ranked based
solely on their design merits; this is not a ranking of the films themselves.
2) I only rank American (and in this case, British) one-sheet posters. No other
formats, or posters from non-English-speaking countries are considered (apples
and oranges, you know?) 3) I evaluate using several criteria, primarily the
communicative effectiveness of the design. Posters are meant to sell tickets; aesthetics
are often secondary to this goal. This is sometimes difficult for those outside
of design and advertising to grasp because they’ve never really thought about
it, but when relevant I discuss below. 4) Finally, although any such list is
subjective, my qualifications as a design evaluator aren’t too shabby. I am a university
graphic design professor with twenty years experience, my personal design work
has been recognized with more than 300 national level awards, and my book,<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Film-Noir-101-Posters-1940s-1950s/dp/1606997599/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413664499&sr=1-1&keywords=film+noir+101" target="_blank"> Film Noir 101 – The 101 Best Film NoirPosters of the 1940s and 1950s</a> was just published by Fantagraphics Books.
Go get a copy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><o:p>If you'd like to review my other countdowns, here are the links: </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><o:p><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2011/05/100-greatest-posters-of-film-noir.html" target="_blank">The 100 Greatest Posters of Film Noir</a></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2013/04/75-greatest-movie-posters-of-neo-noir.html" target="_blank">The 75 Greatest Neo-Noir Posters</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2012/12/50-greatest-classic-sci-fi-poster.html" target="_blank">The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi Posters</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Enjoy the countdown and feel free to comment, you
mugs! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">30. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">TORN
CURTAIN</i> (1966)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">This isn’t an awful
poster, but it certainly lacks the sense of hierarchy found in better designs.
I wanted to open with it (even though I do so at the expense of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Strangers on a Train</i>) because it
illustrates the problem often found in posters for prestige productions from
big directors and major stars: contractual obligations requiring that star’s
names appear above the title and in a certain size, color, or position relative
to one another. Such constraints often limited the designer’s ability to make
the poster that the film really deserved, and in other posts I’ve argued that
this is one of the primary reasons why B movie posters are often superior to
their big-budget counterparts. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torn
Curtain</i>, we can easily isolate the image area (photograph/hand/knife) and
imagine that if were bigger and the surrounding names smaller, we’d likely have
a better poster. Of course a studio executive could argue that names in
two-inch letters sells tickets, but we know now that ticket buyers recognize
and respond better to images than they do printed names. As it is, this design sacrifices
the film’s title at the altar of star power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">29. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MARNIE</i>
(1964)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">On that note, the poster
for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marnie</i> offers only a smidgeon of
improvement over <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torn Curtain</i>, and in
fact they both share pasted-together quality. I prefer this design, even though
it lacks concept, because the typography is more interesting and the sense of organization
missing from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torn Curtain</i> is more
present here. Besides, who doesn’t love a good “sex mystery”? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDRrKdvxI_4B1uj8VyMcHQpObNkee7yQcAa6grrDwafLvFAgrSR2mYWMV7Ard8rXtU09qDKPyVQHv6Oq3KliUwon7T9UAxDLsYZe8FsZzuMf9dFb5PWLafGgXvMzqhki1MK46YnGB-g/s1600/28+Saboteur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDRrKdvxI_4B1uj8VyMcHQpObNkee7yQcAa6grrDwafLvFAgrSR2mYWMV7Ard8rXtU09qDKPyVQHv6Oq3KliUwon7T9UAxDLsYZe8FsZzuMf9dFb5PWLafGgXvMzqhki1MK46YnGB-g/s1600/28+Saboteur.jpg" width="420" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">28. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SABOTEUR</i>
(1942)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Better type in this
example, but diminished greatly by a weak illustration at the top and too-small
photographs at the bottom. I sure wish some of that white space could have been
put to better use. Graphic designers, get a load of the typeface used for
Hitchcock’s name — is this the inspiration for Émigré’s iconic 1990s
typeface Modula? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj50e1WZ_m-PuocmF3JjHYifShES-2tZbXrVEfE-ndida8V8QFzHsUJUTSzuVhqk7paHcGUfi6XObioowOiEnxTU9mA-Qa1oZBXCxQ2y5cYNzjqyd8bOpOz8-6SaXcLJSQDnxrXUoB2Tg/s1600/27+To+Catch+a+Thief.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj50e1WZ_m-PuocmF3JjHYifShES-2tZbXrVEfE-ndida8V8QFzHsUJUTSzuVhqk7paHcGUfi6XObioowOiEnxTU9mA-Qa1oZBXCxQ2y5cYNzjqyd8bOpOz8-6SaXcLJSQDnxrXUoB2Tg/s1600/27+To+Catch+a+Thief.jpg" width="428" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">27. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">TO CATCH
A THIEF</i> (1963)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Wasted potential. This
could have been an all-time classic film poster, but the ridiculous white box
touting Grant and Kelly shoves the illustration so far to the left of the
composition that Grant’s head is at risk of falling out of the design. Get my
drift about big star names wrecking a poster? Let’s push that box to the right
border and steal some of that unused space for the sake of giving the cat
burglar some breathing room, or better yet, lose the box altogether and make
the type white. The bottom half of this poster is redemptive, but it can’t save
poor Grace from looking decapitated!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIlWEMRwp-Kkf0b2tuusqsfzDHHdyNAvpMKp135ITWeAtQqvgpl8jNNSY9cVHE8JZrxdX9lLKIZ0twTQwmzs03YKuN6-ASIRXV2k9z5VlPebGXnYAe8oUbyRJQmR6x0svNWmMyr6YwBA/s1600/26+Family+Plot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIlWEMRwp-Kkf0b2tuusqsfzDHHdyNAvpMKp135ITWeAtQqvgpl8jNNSY9cVHE8JZrxdX9lLKIZ0twTQwmzs03YKuN6-ASIRXV2k9z5VlPebGXnYAe8oUbyRJQmR6x0svNWmMyr6YwBA/s1600/26+Family+Plot.jpg" width="418" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">26. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FAMILY
PLOT</i> (1976)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">The design here is too
busy, but its organization is light years ahead of the poster for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Torn Curtain</i>. And rather than shouting
at us with big letters as the poster for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marnie</i>
does, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Family Plot</i> lets its imagery do
the talking. The use of photomontage and circular halftone screens is novel for
the 1970s, but putting Hitch’s head inside a crystal ball is silly and verges
on self-parody. I also find the “you must see it twice!” tagline mildly
insulting—the typestyle hurts the design, and I’ll happily decide for myself
whether or not this is worth a second viewing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSSsxhnvR6dgvkfNsZeTSFZuHrM5-GKyqG-uKrhkObBQ_4nhge-es59VT9GOxh_MNrjOmUwOSWHH7B3iJ3NcYLIQFVoWMfsCF33c8vVa2d_ljxQydIJ8zwfAy5fmHkCkvoXB9DiYW2Yg/s1600/25+Man+Who+Knew+Too+Much.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSSsxhnvR6dgvkfNsZeTSFZuHrM5-GKyqG-uKrhkObBQ_4nhge-es59VT9GOxh_MNrjOmUwOSWHH7B3iJ3NcYLIQFVoWMfsCF33c8vVa2d_ljxQydIJ8zwfAy5fmHkCkvoXB9DiYW2Yg/s1600/25+Man+Who+Knew+Too+Much.jpg" width="422" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">25. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE MAN
WHO KNEW TOO MUCH</i> (1956)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">James Stewart makes his
first appearance in the countdown, framed in red alongside Doris Day. Solid
organization and subtle layering land this one here, though again we see that
big star names usually hurt more than they help. I’m fond of the title
typography: it recedes into the picture plane and leads the viewer’s eye back
to the star’s faces. Here’s a neat design trick at work too: the designer chose
to make the title blue, drawing needed attention to it in an otherwise
overwhelmingly red composition. The sense of pictorial depth is also enhanced
by the use of figures in small, medium, and large sizes, and in how Stewart’s
head overlaps his red rectangle, while Day’s rests beneath hers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv54-Bqg-DgJOAs0fPBCeLfBK_UG-9EZ_W3olKGYcnoCZtqzNlqAEtqyLeAtkcH5-nYcVJr0Qi8nA-ChJqLSCn08bPp4Erv1yB-zpPl-2Dw3n4df_vI-rpQSz3R2AdZ9C6i7nLVUvOOQ/s1600/24+Under+Capricorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv54-Bqg-DgJOAs0fPBCeLfBK_UG-9EZ_W3olKGYcnoCZtqzNlqAEtqyLeAtkcH5-nYcVJr0Qi8nA-ChJqLSCn08bPp4Erv1yB-zpPl-2Dw3n4df_vI-rpQSz3R2AdZ9C6i7nLVUvOOQ/s1600/24+Under+Capricorn.jpg" width="418" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">24. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">UNDER
CAPRICORN</i> (1949)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Tell me if you think I’m
crazy, but I wonder if Bergman and Cotton are cobbled together from separate
still photographs, possibly even those taken for other films? I can’t get past
their hands — something’s not quite right about how his lays on her hair
and cheek, and how hers are clasped around his back. I also wonder if the red
box containing the title typography is situated to cover an area where the photos
couldn’t be properly matched? It’s a trivial concern, but if true I applaud the
designer for a job well done! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">At
any rate, the Warner’s house style, with its generous white borders, allows for
the silhouette of the figures to give the composition an unusually organic
feel, while also suggesting the shape of the human heart. I find the blue
“glow,” as well as the sheer number of differing typestyles to be distracting,
but it’s all saved by the small script introducing the cast: “Strange things
happen to…” How fantastic and original is that? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">23. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">LIFEBOAT</i>
(1940)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">A lively poster with an
effective zigzag composition. The artist had a tall order to fill with so many faces
to paint, but leaving out extraordinary actor Canada Lee was a crime for the
ages — I guess his name at the end of the cast list will have to do. Most
1940s Fox posters are distinctively illustrated, but this one appears to have a
watercolor quality unusual for the studio — note the ink wash quality of
the area underneath William Bendix.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Plenty
of depth here with the cast set against the stormy backdrop, but note also how
Bendix’s head overlaps and obscures the “L” in Lifeboat. As odd as it sounds
now, that was a risk on the part of the artist, one you won’t often find
realized in posters of this vintage. Pet peeve: Hitchcock’s name appears twice;
once is enough!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">22. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">STAGE
FRIGHT</i> (1950)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">This one’s easy: let’s swap
the typographic block from the bottom of the poster with the one from the top.
Once we do that, the boxed portraits of Wilding and Todd can go to bottom of
the design where they belong, and Dietrich and Wyman can be given the
prominence that they deserve. The mystery novel style illustration here is
terrific! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">The
old-timers here at Where Danger Lives will tell you that I’m a sucker for the
Warner Bros. house poster style. (<a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2012/12/50-greatest-classic-sci-fi-poster.html" target="_blank">See the sci-fi countdown.</a>) As with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Under Capricorn</i>, it’s a testament to
Hitchcock’s prestige as a director that Jack Warner allowed the designer to use
full-color — it didn’t happen every day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIDqoa1-QCerOh5osFx9VX2qhgkIVd7T4CKJsib_byDTwN14qjqn_kFLf2N7IjU6j6zKS0HObG6TTV84iSXuR06CfnvPYM_3MBdFEU8nFKhyDFdfDPLUZrh3PvVHDqxqchKqFk8SXIw/s1600/21+The+Birds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIDqoa1-QCerOh5osFx9VX2qhgkIVd7T4CKJsib_byDTwN14qjqn_kFLf2N7IjU6j6zKS0HObG6TTV84iSXuR06CfnvPYM_3MBdFEU8nFKhyDFdfDPLUZrh3PvVHDqxqchKqFk8SXIw/s1600/21+The+Birds.jpg" width="418" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">21. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE BIRDS</i>
(1944)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">The L-shaped frame from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Man Who Knew Too Much</i> appears here
again, though with more success this time around. The designer had to include a
great deal of text, as well as an image of the director himself, his likeness
now iconic in the wake of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alfred
Hitchcock Presents</i>. The frame allowed the artist to organize the
information into rectangles of varying degrees of importance, the largest of
which contains the illustration of the attacking birds and the title
typography. By placing the director’s shoulder behind the white box, it
effectively pushes the illustration forward in space, even though the two areas
don’t touch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">I’d
score this one higher if the birds themselves were larger and a bit more
frightening. But then again, the same point could be made about the film
itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EwTC6apA7o04_kGjDo9RlqwHNRuEOz54mNs_XDroHfsxVmeZAHXj6JfYLgB3fjwfejetirz2mpCp_2xpV2GpmnV3DHXh2KCQiRJZAZG6t8PdvM4tDfqY9zNSmh7BgGDJRPqfulRv8g/s1600/20+The+Man+Who+Knew+Too+Much.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EwTC6apA7o04_kGjDo9RlqwHNRuEOz54mNs_XDroHfsxVmeZAHXj6JfYLgB3fjwfejetirz2mpCp_2xpV2GpmnV3DHXh2KCQiRJZAZG6t8PdvM4tDfqY9zNSmh7BgGDJRPqfulRv8g/s1600/20+The+Man+Who+Knew+Too+Much.jpg" width="422" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">20. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE MAN
WHO KNEW TOO MUCH</i> (1934)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">First of all, forgive the
shoddy image; this is an exceptionally rare poster and we have to work with what
we can get. This poster revolves around an iconic image of the nefarious Peter
Lorre as the scarred kidnapper of Banks and Best’s daughter Nova Pilbeam. There
is little conceptual thinking evident in the image, other than cashing in on
Lorre’s burgeoning fame in a classic, completely hand-rendered
stone-lithograph. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkwk18in5V74K86M3SCZ0KBaTKXJb5P4VvfsCGAsp2vn4gGRCcSwXjBXr-GGNG9VB0im-AIdFoXocdy1dqu55-4QVzVWbXPI4ZCxVWCP0RCyYLOaF3mCfTBB_AXhUqOqEYzyUo0jngg/s1600/19+The+39+Steps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkwk18in5V74K86M3SCZ0KBaTKXJb5P4VvfsCGAsp2vn4gGRCcSwXjBXr-GGNG9VB0im-AIdFoXocdy1dqu55-4QVzVWbXPI4ZCxVWCP0RCyYLOaF3mCfTBB_AXhUqOqEYzyUo0jngg/s1600/19+The+39+Steps.jpg" width="424" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">19. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE 39
STEPS</i> (1935)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">An improvement on the
previous entry, this is another hand-rendered stone lithograph from Hitch’s
pre-Hollywood period. Given the rather spectacular auction prices associated
with this poster ($18,000 in 2011), its beauty is undeniable. Yet I find the
image at the bottom of the composition to be far more compelling than the
larger than life (but painfully reserved) glamour shots at the top. Swap them
and I’d move this up a dozen spaces in the rankings. But what a great film! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">18. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SUSPICION</i>
(1941)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">As I mentioned in the
introduction, beauty isn’t the designer’s goal as often as consumers think it
is. Kick that around for a second. Generic packaging is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">created</i> to look inexpensive — it isn’t as if the manufacturer lacks
the budget to pay for a more attractive design! Such packages look the way they
do in order to communicate non-verbally with the intended consumers: those
shoppers who are on a tight budget and only wish to quickly locate the cheapest
can of peas on the shelf. Surely horror movie posters aren’t often meant to be
beautiful, nor are those for comedies. Yet the poster for 1941’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Suspicion</i> is clearly meant to be
beautiful…and glamorous…and melodramatic…and entirely about its two glittering
stars. In this case the approach is appropriate (and appropriateness is what
matters in design), and the artist was entirely successful. Nevertheless, I’ll
continue to wring my hands over the sizing of credits: if only Grant and
Fontaine’s images could be 20% larger, and their names 20% smaller…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyCotm3UnL6Tm6Pz69AB5Hi2R3Wgxti6j4QV5ukHJrPqOWwrJrscWAjYtk_aUXUGpPCH1rs10650pwN7jzFBmpHeqltYJl7vnSJI2v_fntM7DuKNpOwsxzP-8gCzTpBr7S9ONTD1IGuw/s1600/17+Notorious.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyCotm3UnL6Tm6Pz69AB5Hi2R3Wgxti6j4QV5ukHJrPqOWwrJrscWAjYtk_aUXUGpPCH1rs10650pwN7jzFBmpHeqltYJl7vnSJI2v_fntM7DuKNpOwsxzP-8gCzTpBr7S9ONTD1IGuw/s1600/17+Notorious.jpg" width="428" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">17. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NOTORIOUS</i>
(1946)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">One of filmdom’s most
famous posters, I ranked <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Notorious</i>
just ahead of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Suspicion</i>, though the
two posters are somewhat similar and consequently make for interesting
comparisons. Looking just at the depiction of the stars, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Suspicion</i> wins hands down. No one would describe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Notorious</i> as light fare, though
Bergman’s image suggests an altogether more playful romance than what Hitchcock
actually serves up. For his part Grant seems lifeless and disengaged, while
Claude Rains suffers the Edward G. Robinson movie poster treatment — too
famous not to be pictured, but floating disembodied in some forgotten corner of
the design. Regardless, the positives here can’t be ignored. The proportion of
image to typography is better than in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Suspicion</i>,
and the added conceptual element of the large silhouetted key pushes this
poster slightly ahead. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHG79NIUin-w0JvZF0VZpkQd2MAo-vdITSmjDJszfu8mw_hrjwsRqtNRPdB4_t8KwQ77DOjsv7oxP-DCMJe1As3vMw63jz4rOnkTOx2wfI5QDkigQlhnrLeTlEjZai8t8iFrCLw5mqbw/s1600/16+The+Trouble+with+Harry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHG79NIUin-w0JvZF0VZpkQd2MAo-vdITSmjDJszfu8mw_hrjwsRqtNRPdB4_t8KwQ77DOjsv7oxP-DCMJe1As3vMw63jz4rOnkTOx2wfI5QDkigQlhnrLeTlEjZai8t8iFrCLw5mqbw/s1600/16+The+Trouble+with+Harry.jpg" width="418" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">16. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE
TROUBLE WITH HARRY</i> (1955)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">A little romance, a little
murder, lots of fun. For the OCD life of me I can’t figure out why “Paramount
Presents” has to be carelessly pushed off-center for the sake of a single leaf,
but this is otherwise an excellent piece of work. The reverse “C” of the image
frames the title beautifully, and none of the other logos, snipes, or inset
photos feels forced or out of place. As a culture we tend to value illustrated
images rather than photographic ones, and this poster appears to be something
of a hybrid between the two. I’m not sure that it wouldn’t have been more
successful had it been entirely illustrated, but it works well enough as it is,
and remains one the more unusual posters in the Hitchcock canon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHY0IPkU4hNJc4qEZUp00Zp3cw88RseyuK6fu8aBSem6nCF0UOlWaAVEK0BdIllCqXj4mJqTFvS8OP72MD6aw8Z0a6FkpcToVGRjFZyIjgBvVmvct-Jdz1ewte0-ZaAx7zEOHHBWfjrg/s1600/15+Sabotage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHY0IPkU4hNJc4qEZUp00Zp3cw88RseyuK6fu8aBSem6nCF0UOlWaAVEK0BdIllCqXj4mJqTFvS8OP72MD6aw8Z0a6FkpcToVGRjFZyIjgBvVmvct-Jdz1ewte0-ZaAx7zEOHHBWfjrg/s1600/15+Sabotage.jpg" width="420" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">15. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SABOTAGE</i>
(1936)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Sabotage</span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">
was released in England in late 1936, and it debuted a month or so later in the
US under the title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Woman Alone</i>,
though history rightly remembers the film under its British title. The stone
lithograph poster is lovely, and sports the best such image of star Sylvia
Sydney. Two things I’d change about it though: first, I’d make the silhouetted
image of Sydney’s attacker much more about the hands than the head. Shrink the
head, makes the hands larger and more menacing! Second, let’s place all of the
text on a diagonal, or none of it — you can’t have it both ways. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMuhEay7U165K_xvjAA8aFIgjdV6HZPRbudOkM_cX8vh8u9_wyFLCQyRCofQZFR2jI7sxtmO_G5uhi0DgM1OCpJopOh7DfNOu1Ne1e-PT42O-ioA0IeZ-ohszurpS-hs1tWVNxv-1sAQ/s1600/14+Shadow+of+a+Doubt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMuhEay7U165K_xvjAA8aFIgjdV6HZPRbudOkM_cX8vh8u9_wyFLCQyRCofQZFR2jI7sxtmO_G5uhi0DgM1OCpJopOh7DfNOu1Ne1e-PT42O-ioA0IeZ-ohszurpS-hs1tWVNxv-1sAQ/s1600/14+Shadow+of+a+Doubt.jpg" width="422" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">14. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SHADOW OF
A DOUBT</i> (1943)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">I was critical of the type
alignment on the previous entry, and here we see how consistently arranged type
can rescue a potentially mediocre design from the scrap heap. The designer’s
choice to place the type over top of Cotton’s looming shadow is a risk that
pays off modestly here, creating ample negative space at the top of the poster
that forces the viewer to deal with the conceptual value of that long, long
shadow. The “X” relationship formed by title type and the shadow activates the
design and quietly reinforces the notion that the lovely Teresa Wright’s
comfortable suburban world is about to be turned on its ear. I can’t help but
feel that the colors are bland throughout this poster, but especially in the
dirty dishwater of the background. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqw9CWLmzrlp3Zijc7SWZBtBreiXHPOqxGAK28W1czn4vWXCLzS7jTxl4CSrgXnUKepnloSh3LhL1Q7MxmUkyj8fxdvy7oOwJ969zO1pxGRWsjVEPhy8r1oiwYBYB94RDtBSKYAjXmA/s1600/13+The+Lady+Vanishes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrqw9CWLmzrlp3Zijc7SWZBtBreiXHPOqxGAK28W1czn4vWXCLzS7jTxl4CSrgXnUKepnloSh3LhL1Q7MxmUkyj8fxdvy7oOwJ969zO1pxGRWsjVEPhy8r1oiwYBYB94RDtBSKYAjXmA/s1600/13+The+Lady+Vanishes.jpg" width="424" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">13. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE LADY
VANISHES</i> (1938)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Not a poser that I’ve ever
loved, but it’s a rare animal that succeeds on typography alone. I’m pushing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lady Vanishes</i> up in the countdown
primarily for the risk-taking involved with letting the typography do the
lion’s share of the heavy lifting. I’ve always appreciated hand-drawn posters
(I started off as a printmaker, and I’ve done my share of stone lithos!) and I
pay a lot of attention to the human nuances found in designs that weren’t
created with the robotic, often stale precision of a computer. Take a look at
the alignment of the typography at the bottom of the design — nothing is
quite where it should be. One black line bisects the poster in half, yet neither
the word “with,” nor any of the ensuing text, is properly centered. In
contemporary student work this would result in massive grade reductions, but in
a vintage, hand-rendered poster it only adds to the charm.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">12. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I CONFESS</i>
(1953)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Not a great deal to say
here, which is fitting for a poster that dedicates a typographic block to
having been filmed in Canada. Intriguing (if only vaguely recognizable) images
of Clift and Baxter in a poster dominated by strong title typography, though I
sure wish the designer would have made up his mind about the exclamation point
— either include it or don’t, but no half-measures please. Notice how that
various taglines attempt to lure viewers with words such as “sin” and “shame.”
In an era when film and television were engaged in a pitched battle for America’s
leisure time, film posters grew louder and increasingly more salacious in order
to with the fight. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO43kVY7420u8-4Sb96hewjXfsVihlAqRjfVL_Pf4LWBe6TDHFrYSzGTxjUMIRkbMpfOrFpIXLJwaWDHdkPH2jNXAIvVVcC5NCkO6l3jy85j3BOoNrE7xkEj9ZRIztv3fHQrvCFhrN1w/s1600/11+Frenzy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO43kVY7420u8-4Sb96hewjXfsVihlAqRjfVL_Pf4LWBe6TDHFrYSzGTxjUMIRkbMpfOrFpIXLJwaWDHdkPH2jNXAIvVVcC5NCkO6l3jy85j3BOoNrE7xkEj9ZRIztv3fHQrvCFhrN1w/s1600/11+Frenzy.jpg" width="422" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">11. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FRENZY</i>
(1972)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">The designer here was
clearly paying his respects to Saul Bass and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i>, but whether that’s a positive or a negative in your book
the poster is a winner. The image itself brings to mind John Whitney’s spirals
used in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i>, though the addition
of the necktie wins points for originality rather than mere appropriation. It’s
even fair to say that there are way too many things happening typographically,
but at least the proportions have been reigned in enough to let the image carry
the day. (By the way, if anyone knows the typeface at the top, leave a comment.
I’m wondering if it’s some variation on Cooper Black?) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxkVeG9Kiv-OAmXNFrloXFpCrVr0P6ABglmWSAAqk1JQyt8fA76oefabcVAKOOp60GVAUIezfokb5vw1OTZKHPTVvlYvF3cD1_9t92ADDg08JR3sUmrbn-PU_dIlL8Cf52gAVuBiSKew/s1600/10+North+By+Northwest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxkVeG9Kiv-OAmXNFrloXFpCrVr0P6ABglmWSAAqk1JQyt8fA76oefabcVAKOOp60GVAUIezfokb5vw1OTZKHPTVvlYvF3cD1_9t92ADDg08JR3sUmrbn-PU_dIlL8Cf52gAVuBiSKew/s1600/10+North+By+Northwest.jpg" width="418" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">10. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NORTH BY
NORTHWEST</i> (1959)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Remember, this is a
ranking of posters, and not the films themselves — I love <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">North by Northwest</i> as much as the next guy. Besides, this is a
pretty darn good poster as well! Excellent typography, and I adore the
organizing device of the imperfect rectangles. I wish the design was a bit more
assertive though; is Grant falling forward away from Saint’s silly gunshot, or
is he falling backwards down the rabbit hole? Furthermore, I wish it had more “pop” — meaning that the white background is bland, and that the poster would reach out and grab viewers a bit better if the designer had chosen a more vibrant background. Why shoot yourself in the foot? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Interestingly,
several sources assert that Saul Bass designed this poster, though more
reliable evidence says this isn’t the case. (If anyone can offer the final
word, chime in.) In fact, I see a few uncomfortable similarities with Bass’s
design from the previous year for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i>
that diminishes this poster in my esteem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTf4nqksKdv8i-OvRsi3qWI3VvySlJ3K-tAoSVQKKmwRTOLVQYkvyj9BBDU-W9-QGOs1EJongtQXag0T9EEUSez-XgdNhxb2jhiilcRIJ5P4CCPX6o5tmLt4cGgMGO0SfmzP4pc2Mt1A/s1600/09+The+Wrong+Man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTf4nqksKdv8i-OvRsi3qWI3VvySlJ3K-tAoSVQKKmwRTOLVQYkvyj9BBDU-W9-QGOs1EJongtQXag0T9EEUSez-XgdNhxb2jhiilcRIJ5P4CCPX6o5tmLt4cGgMGO0SfmzP4pc2Mt1A/s1600/09+The+Wrong+Man.jpg" width="416" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">9. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE WRONG
MAN</i> (1956)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">I wonder how long designer
Bill Gold searched for just the right car mirror to do what he wanted with this
design. The search paid off, because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Wrong Man</i>’s poster gets big points for originality, even if in the end it
might be a victim of it’s own novelty. Similar to dust jackets but unlike most
other forms of graphic design, a poster must be successful from multiple
vantage points. It has to work equally well from a few feet away and from
across the street. This design is just fine up close — it probably was
adapted to trade magazine advertisements with very few changes — but I’m
afraid that from further away, caught in the corner of one’s eye from the sidewalk
on the other side of the street, there isn’t enough “pop” here to entice a
viewer to brave traffic in order to find out what the poster is all about. Regardless,
the originality lands it squarely in the top ten. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">8. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ROPE</i>
(1948)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">The best image of James
Stewart on a Hitchcock poster. I don’t have a great deal to say about the
positives here that hasn’t been echoed in previous entries, though I appreciate
the noirish quality of the cityscape and those red clouds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlvpBKUS7elaMjhLzEXD2xPLdyeAMgrsWfdrrUKvAq5wem-zqFG5EjeKptgLkklHPKpnEW1vgGoe5bZfpvb-HVR42IvaKNqpZwN4zkc6Ag-mxYebNblKw6wG1szdjwqd0WPL1Eimp2Zw/s1600/07+Rebecca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlvpBKUS7elaMjhLzEXD2xPLdyeAMgrsWfdrrUKvAq5wem-zqFG5EjeKptgLkklHPKpnEW1vgGoe5bZfpvb-HVR42IvaKNqpZwN4zkc6Ag-mxYebNblKw6wG1szdjwqd0WPL1Eimp2Zw/s1600/07+Rebecca.jpg" width="428" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">7. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">REBECCA</i>
(1940)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Oh, that eyebrow.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Rebecca</i> was easily my mother’s favorite
Hitchcock picture, and it may be mine as well. It was one of the more quotable
films of my childhood (thanks primarily to Mrs. Van Hopper), and I’m confident
I’ve viewed it more than a hundred times — so I’m glad it made it onto my final
list.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">This
is a poster that broods. It’s tense, nervous. In spite of what appears at first
glance to be a typically banal postwar design with romantic overtones, there’s
a thorough depth of thought going on here that rewards those familiar with the
material. Fontaine and Olivier appear as husband and wife, but surely they
aren’t…together, both staring intently at something outside the frame. The
title slashes through the design in scarlet letters, connecting the unhappy
couple to the title character herself (!), unseen in the film yet stalking the
lower corner of the design and looming over the doomed mansion, Manderley (or
is that Hill House, Eleanor Lance?). The designer worked successfully within
the studio-mandated parameters that the typography be situated on a gigantic
book jacket, in order to capitalize on the popularity of Daphne Du Maurier’s
novel. Finally, direct your eyes to the upper left hand corner, that turbulent
space full of dark energy and gothic foreboding. In spite of its emptiness it’s
one of the most vital areas in the design. What a carefully considered,
velvety, delicious poster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">6. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">REAR
WINDOW</i> (1954)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">I wanted very much to rank
this poster third, but it’s failure to “tell the truth” bothers me — take
a gander in those windows and if you’ve seen the film enough times you’ll
understand what I mean. That being said, I’m also a bit troubled by the
implication of violence in the center window. Is it a spoiler given that part
of the allure of this film is our initial uncertainty at what exactly happened
across the courtyard after Stewart dozed off? Regardless, this is a winning
design that at least on a superficial level represents its film very well. The
Stewart image is great, but I wonder if the designer missed an opportunity to
be brilliant here? What if we were to take the image of Stewart and blow it up
to the full height of the poster, and then use the lenses of his binoculars to
reflect the dramas being played out across the way? Grace looks fine, and I
understand that she has to be included in the poster, but I’d also argue that
this works better without her. Notice also that the building is a drawn-over
film still — see the ghost of the doggie-basket hanging between the two
windows at the very top? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzWkhwp0g-X3xxSXjXtBOFbdel6yp4T-x5EOclvJTN0bDGdVY38igv7pTiChyphenhyphenw9g7nujqJcfuZ5EG4KapSQkfJVJ180kw9mTsjvmkSa_aqVlO8yHFVhbpcuZKIWLZWmOsG-GnqR_ekfw/s1600/05+Secret+Agent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzWkhwp0g-X3xxSXjXtBOFbdel6yp4T-x5EOclvJTN0bDGdVY38igv7pTiChyphenhyphenw9g7nujqJcfuZ5EG4KapSQkfJVJ180kw9mTsjvmkSa_aqVlO8yHFVhbpcuZKIWLZWmOsG-GnqR_ekfw/s1600/05+Secret+Agent.jpg" width="430" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">5. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SECRET
AGENT</i> (1936)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">The best of the 1930s
Hitchcock stone lithographs, this one surpasses that of the British <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Man Who Knew Too Much</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The 39 Steps</i> in nearly every way. Color,
composition, typography, drama, movement — this is thoughtful, controlled
image making. For me, the skill involved here is evident, and not just in the
draftsmanship. I love the big, beautiful title typography. It speaks to viewers
of the poster, “I’m here; read me and move on. I’m simply designed so as not to
distract you from the illustration below.” The designer uses the type to frame
the image, which is subtle and provocative. Look at those facial expressions.
This picture says a thousand words. One question: who’s holding that knife? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">4. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">SPELLBOUND</i>
(1945)</span></span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghbEl6zUfiN15xdZ5JniFHFYyq-qcTvcb3mzjfZYMMEjkEmE_5TLLmtza7Rhqdg0n6i4wOjyfutujkoi502Gh7aA614VQ7q9RGPHT0Mt714YYGLxQ7bz4HyAaZ82HurxboyWK9i8xm9w/s1600/04+Spellbound_Mark+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghbEl6zUfiN15xdZ5JniFHFYyq-qcTvcb3mzjfZYMMEjkEmE_5TLLmtza7Rhqdg0n6i4wOjyfutujkoi502Gh7aA614VQ7q9RGPHT0Mt714YYGLxQ7bz4HyAaZ82HurxboyWK9i8xm9w/s1600/04+Spellbound_Mark+copy.jpg" width="133" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Better?</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">This is a wonderful
poster, but also one of the most <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">maddening</i>
(see what I did there?) in this or any other countdown. In 1945 Bergman was the
main attraction; Peck had only appeared in three features, one of which was the
barely seen <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Days of Glory</i>. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Keys of the Kingdom</i> ensured his
place on the A list, but at the time Bergman was still the bigger star. Given
the issue of the pecking order, it’s easy to understand just how masterfully
executed the image is. It’s all at once startling, moving, and frightening,
while satisfying the marketing demands of the studio. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spellbound</i> is not a noir, yet it’s poster is easily more unsettling
than that of practically any classic film noir.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">But
as I mentioned above, the poster is maddening. With such a show-stopping,
once-in-a-lifetime piece of artwork in hand, why divide the space in half and
waste all that space on (especially) banal typography? I realize that we’ve
covered this territory before and that the type is sized to satisfy Selznick’s
requirements, but what a shame. This could have been one of the great film
posters of all time, and perhaps the definitive movie paper image of Ingrid
Bergman, but instead it just finishes fourth among all of Hitchcock’s films.
Not too bad, but oh, what it could have been…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRy6JmZ5NPPcYBDIPM5aduZSNN5REmaM7hKNA1EMTtujvZhgDyKLKCj4PEX_XUPhLQVvYX_DSmdYhiQxuXfECkEo0iPLhIWB3bgK2PZBEFryPd_PzTRXDNtcB_romnrAChIwrK4EzcLw/s1600/03+Psycho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRy6JmZ5NPPcYBDIPM5aduZSNN5REmaM7hKNA1EMTtujvZhgDyKLKCj4PEX_XUPhLQVvYX_DSmdYhiQxuXfECkEo0iPLhIWB3bgK2PZBEFryPd_PzTRXDNtcB_romnrAChIwrK4EzcLw/s1600/03+Psycho.jpg" width="416" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">3. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">PSYCHO</i>
(1960)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">I purchase vintage movie posters
at auction on practically a weekly basis, and so I’m consequently browsing
though hundreds of images of posters for sale. The years bracketing 1960, when <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psycho</i> hit theaters, represented a drab
period in Hollywood advertising design. This bold thing must have really stood
out among the plethora of early sixties movie paper (in fact, one graphic
design writer claims that viewers would have associated the design with those
for pornographic films), when so many one-sheets featured delicate
illustrations set against bland white backgrounds. One might argue that like
the poster for 1956’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Killing</i>,
this poster is two or three decades before its time. In its style, execution,
and incredible graphic boldness, it more closely resembles the brightly colored
posters of the 1980s and early 90s than it does its late 50s and early 60s
counterparts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Whereas
the more old-fashioned <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Spellbound</i>
poster was divided in half, failing to enhance its powerhouse image, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Psycho</i> poster is divided vertically into
thirds, with type and image juxtaposed so that the visual tension is increased
exponentially. There’s so much unifying rhythm in the arrangement of the words
and pictures, yet the designer uses color and shape to control our eye
movement, while the fractured diagonals suggest the underlying sexuality (look
at that penetrating “V”) of the story and make for marvelous visual surprises.
Here is a poster where design and problem solving trump virtuosity of
draftsmanship. It relies on photography rather than illustration, but still
surpasses (and not by a small margin) the posters behind it in the countdown.
It’s a veritable art school lesson in the sense that it proves a poster artist
doesn’t have to be able to draw or paint so long as he or she can think
critically and understands the fundamental principles of good design. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVN9iO8xZDrKPDhtbaBlqcDD0xkjCmb7lnyYOcOU3091DbE7ehrrNi_NLeHilfmF13cRUPcMzWrXehmtGiIECPsadYpif5E4767w4oXZQY49XO28rKJRH0u79TJyavLewKskfHfntVkg/s1600/02+Vertigo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVN9iO8xZDrKPDhtbaBlqcDD0xkjCmb7lnyYOcOU3091DbE7ehrrNi_NLeHilfmF13cRUPcMzWrXehmtGiIECPsadYpif5E4767w4oXZQY49XO28rKJRH0u79TJyavLewKskfHfntVkg/s1600/02+Vertigo.jpg" width="416" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">2. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">VERTIGO</i>
(1958)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">In the 2012 iteration of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sight and Sound’</i>s venerable poll, critics
named <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i> the greatest film of
all time, toppling longtime champ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Citizen
Kane</i>. Its poster is the centerpiece of the sacred triptych of Saul Bass
film movie paper design. Flanked by his equally impressive one-sheets for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Man with the Golden Arm</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anatomy of a Murder</i>, this is perhaps the most famous film poster of all time. It’s a marvelous and exquisite; nevertheless
I haven’t awarded it the top spot. Certainly you might disagree with me, and I
won’t quibble with you if you do, but hear me out first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Before
that, the design professor in me wants to give Saul Bass his due. He’s possibly
the most famous and influential designer since Toulouse-Latrec, Mucha, or
Cassandre. His name is canonical, one learned early on in art school, along
with those of Paul Rand, Milton Glaser, Herb Lubalin, Bradbury Thompson, Alexy
Brodovitch, Massimo Vignelli, and others. Most of you reading this are here for
your interest in film and posters, but Bass was a complete designer; his
corporate identity designs are every bit as good as his film posters and title
sequences — maybe even better. Even if Bass had never worked for the movie
industry, the logo designs shown here would have ensured his place in the
graphic design lexicon. No other designer, except maybe for Rand, was as
brilliantly versatile. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJ7n2hELNLgWwguaXb3NZCiwHCO_GZnDOwjD3I-D67_nEx2jRA6gEWe6LFeu276NQNgbNDJCYL1l8S9KX2Yy79NV3yPFZr34BE_hoEo-hTIhzmZN8RN5mVzO9Xq2pAg7tnvO3okn9EQ/s1600/saulbass_logodesigns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHJ7n2hELNLgWwguaXb3NZCiwHCO_GZnDOwjD3I-D67_nEx2jRA6gEWe6LFeu276NQNgbNDJCYL1l8S9KX2Yy79NV3yPFZr34BE_hoEo-hTIhzmZN8RN5mVzO9Xq2pAg7tnvO3okn9EQ/s1600/saulbass_logodesigns.jpg" width="400" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Back
to the poster. When I teach magazine design, it’s important that students learn
to draw a parallel between their cover artwork and that of the first spread of
the primary feature article. With the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i>
poster, Bass has done the cinematic equivalent, connecting his poster artwork
not only to the overarching concept of the film, but to his title sequence as
well. To use contemporary jargon, Bass created a brand identity for the film, a
practice in which he was well versed. In addition to the one-sheet, Bass also
adapted his design to majority of other poster formats offered in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i>’s press book, as well as
numerous magazine advertisements. And while this was a mildly revolutionary
approach to film marketing in the late 50s, it’s also partly the reason why I’m
relegating this poster to second place: as good as it is, it was derived from
the title sequence, yet (naturally) fails to match it. How could it? Bass’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i> titles are universally acclaimed
as a landmark moment in movie history. In choosing to align his poster design
with those titles, he set himself with a nearly impossible task. The poster is
wonderful, but it’s a pale echo of the titles, and it failed to accomplish its
primary task of ensuring an audience in an era when that was a poster’s chief
responsibility. On a personal level, I’ve never loved how cobbled-together
Bass’s falling figures feel when placed against artist John Whitney’s
electronic spirals. There’s an uncomfortable visual disconnect happening there
that no one likes to talk about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Interestingly,
and as you already know, upon its release <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i>
didn’t perform as expected at the box office or with critics, and Bass’s
illustrative designs were considered by the bosses at Paramount to be too
‘artsy’ to properly attract ticket buyers. A more traditional set of posters
and ads featuring romantic shots of the two stars in San Francisco settings
were hastily thrown together and made available to exhibitors, but ticket sales
remained stagnant. It’s also interesting to note that Bass’s designs were
seldom adapted when <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i> was
released overseas, and were often ignored when new posters were created for
rereleases. Recognizing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i>’s
skyrocketing renown throughout the decades, and the span of time itself, it
nearly impossible for us to imagine how 1958 audiences responded to its
advertising campaign. I could have easily acceded to popular expectation and
given this poster the top spot, but I’m choosing a different direction and
instead shining my spotlight on, perhaps, the greatest movie poster designer
who ever lived. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5PM_fa84PfIKl40tvnsNga2TgMKES1UWN9-4Phh0jTSOG49yvlgkr5pSJW3P0nuj3T8klmN7bvr9vCpfuGkPmFbkQPtEMxUpbuDo0GCkAINX46cNY9AMxF0-1RrKKSgEIbuc8VPOICw/s1600/01+Dial+M+for+Murder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5PM_fa84PfIKl40tvnsNga2TgMKES1UWN9-4Phh0jTSOG49yvlgkr5pSJW3P0nuj3T8klmN7bvr9vCpfuGkPmFbkQPtEMxUpbuDo0GCkAINX46cNY9AMxF0-1RrKKSgEIbuc8VPOICw/s1600/01+Dial+M+for+Murder.jpg" width="420" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">1. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">DIAL M FOR
MURDER</i> (1954)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">An astonishing poster, one
of the most underrated in movie history, and not surprisingly from Warner
Bros., the studio which reliably cranked out top notch movie paper, especially
during the 1950s. The graphic designer at work here is Bill Gold, who you may
not have heard of before, though you’ve seen his work—and once you’ve
read his poster resumé it becomes clear that he takes a backseat to no one—not even Saul Bass.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Here
are a few highlights form Gold’s amazingly long career at the top: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Casablanca</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yankee Doodle Dandy</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Big
Sleep</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Streetcar Named Desire</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">East of Eden</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mister Roberts</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Moby Dick</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Searchers</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Face in the Crowd</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Giant</i>.
Believe it or not the list goes on: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For
Your Eyes Only</i> (those legs!), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Clockwork Orange</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bullitt</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cool Hand Luke</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bonnie and Clyde</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dirty Harry</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Funny Girl</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sting</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alien</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Unforgiven</i>. Just so we’re clear on this,
the man who made the poster for 1942’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Casablanca</i>
and five other Best Picture winners is still alive and working at age 93,
having created more than 2,000 movie posters. He designed the poster for 2011’s
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">J. Edgar</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Let’s
circle back to his poster for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dial M for
Murder</i>. It’s a risky, daringly designed thing, and every aspect of the
finished product is rewarding. I’ve noted throughout the countdown how the
studio’s need to treat stars’ names in large type is usually detrimental. This
poster proves my point. It’s plain to see here how unnecessary it would have
been to plaster Kelly and Milland’s names across the top of the poster in
144-point type. In fact, this poster is such a dramatic powerhouse that it
isn’t necessary that we recognize the two stars at all! By obscuring their
famous faces, Gold forces the viewer to confront the raw, violent sexuality of his
illustration. It’s a potent image, but it also manages to titillate without
giving away the plot or the circumstances of this confrontation, which might be
amorous, or might be nefarious — purchase a ticket and find out for
yourself! The female’s hand is starkly lit against the vivid red background
— giving us the attention-grabbing focal point that so many other film
posters lack. This is a uniquely Hichcock-ian image, boiling over with suspense
and mystery. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And look at that typography! The vertical (phallic!) alignment
of the title typography perfectly balances the horizontal illustration, and for
once we have a midcentury designer who knows how to choose typefaces. This one
boasts a consistency of typeface, with its condensed sans-serif letterforms,
that is seldom found in other posters of the era. If you’ve read some of my
previous entries you know just what I’m talking about. This typographic
consistency, as well as the use of color and the manner in which the dangling
phone connects (no pun intended!) the bottom of the composition to the top make
this one of the most cohesive, pleasing film poster designs I’ve ever seen. Mr.
Gold, my hat’s off to you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><b>See you next time! Thanks for Reading! <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-29306188503119621062014-08-23T23:30:00.000-04:002014-08-24T00:12:28.794-04:00FILM NOIR 101 is HERE!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m not much of a
self-promoter so I promise to only do this once! My new book from
Fantagraphics, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Film Noir 101</i>, has just been released. The book is available in stores and on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1606997599/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d1_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1ZRBF6NBEYF21P2JT4Y2&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/film-noir-101-mark-fertig/1116879895?ean=9781606997598" target="_blank">Barnes& Noble</a>, <a href="http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Film-Noir/Mark-Fertig/9781606997598?id=6080429939843" target="_blank">Books-a-Million</a>, and other sellers. It can also be purchased
directly from <a href="http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/film-noir-101-the-101-best-film-noir-posters-from-the-1940s-1950s-pre-order--5.html?vmcchk=1" target="_blank">Fantagraphics</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Film Noir 101</span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> is a large format (it’s scary-big, an Amazon reviewer described it as about the size of a place mat) coffee table book chock full of full-page reproductions of classic noir posters. I did all of the digital restoration myself, so you won’t see any scratches, tears, or fold lines. The colors, however, are magnificent. I believe very strongly that <b>these are the best reproductions of classic noir posters that have ever been published</b> — and Fantagraphics pulled out all the stops in terms of production design and print quality.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrGJanxIRHyLp4WP4FcZeQqZlCWqhLEn1w3hYuk32ZfLnc5cW4j4pQfeRA8-jmc5qkkw5L9cj_2koioWVCBrW7IVX1QwVrkPWaUqmfdwjIuSG3Rcqyel_N0ZLaxOdxnPsHZg5rZalEA/s1600/10506635_790818816024_8540789766952542397_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrGJanxIRHyLp4WP4FcZeQqZlCWqhLEn1w3hYuk32ZfLnc5cW4j4pQfeRA8-jmc5qkkw5L9cj_2koioWVCBrW7IVX1QwVrkPWaUqmfdwjIuSG3Rcqyel_N0ZLaxOdxnPsHZg5rZalEA/s1600/10506635_790818816024_8540789766952542397_o.jpg" height="440" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">The book was born right
here on the pages of this blog. Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth enjoyed my
<a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2011/05/100-greatest-posters-of-film-noir.html" target="_blank">100 Greatest Posters of Film Noir</a> countdown, and asked me if I’d consider
developing a book along similar lines. After a great deal of discussion we
decided that it made sense to make the book as much about the films themselves
as it is about posters, so those of you familiar with the countdown here on the
blog will find lots of brand new stuff in the book. (Here’s a secret: the book
celebrates the posters, but ranks the films!) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gary also asked me whom
I’d like to write the intro for the book, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Friedkin-Connection-A-Memoir/dp/0061775126/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1408043208&sr=8-2&keywords=william+friedkin" target="_blank">William Friedkin</a>, Academy Award
winning director of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The French Connection</i>
was really my only choice!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s not
forget that Friedkin also directed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Exorcist</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sorcerer</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Killer Joe</i>. (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sorcerer-Blu-ray-Roy-Scheider/dp/B00HT2RTU6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408043258&sr=8-1&keywords=sorcerer+bluray" target="_blank"><i>Sorcerer</i> just came out on Blu-Ray!</a>) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m going to be doing a
ton of events in the coming weeks and months to promote the book. Hopefully I’ll
be able to meet some of you in person who I’ve gotten to know so well on-line.
Here are a few highlights: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">On Friday, September 12 I’ll
be introducing a noir film at the <a href="http://www.grandillusioncinema.org/" target="_blank">Grand Illusion Cinema</a> in Seattle. The
following day, Saturday September 13, I’ll be giving a talk and signing books
at the Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">On Saturday, September 27
<a href="http://www.weho.org/residents/arts-and-culture/weho-reads" target="_blank">I’ll be in Los Angeles at the WEHO READS: NOIR festival</a>. I’ll be giving a
lecture about the design of classic noir film posters at the West Hollywood
library that afternoon, and then signing books afterwards with the wonderful
people from L.A.’s best bookstore: <u><a href="http://www.booksoup.com/" target="_blank">Book Soup</a></u>. Also on display in the WEHO
library throughout the month of September will be a collection of classic noir
posters curated by yours truly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://talkingwithtim.com/wordpress/2014/08/14/mark-fertig-on-film-noir-101-the-101-best-film-noir-posters/" target="_blank">Here’s a link to a recent interview with more details about the book</a>. I'll chime in in a few weeks with details on east coast events! </span></span></div>
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<br />Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-19488568983367563832014-07-12T15:19:00.000-04:002014-07-12T15:27:44.060-04:00OVER-EXPOSED (1956)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGwB2M5wZ4guiMj8z_MDl4Nc-epfRxD2m0Rsi3CTZ8eNv0Uyi71MOP1fmLpp7jdXzeeOONbVvYDbksX6YWEH4fuTiiO6sj-mlQEsI7egjzNh7SI0uBXpbUU7yjVFBtoy_snjfSucicA/s1600/Over-Exposed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGwB2M5wZ4guiMj8z_MDl4Nc-epfRxD2m0Rsi3CTZ8eNv0Uyi71MOP1fmLpp7jdXzeeOONbVvYDbksX6YWEH4fuTiiO6sj-mlQEsI7egjzNh7SI0uBXpbUU7yjVFBtoy_snjfSucicA/s1600/Over-Exposed.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">I haven’t
written much about Cleo Moore or Hugo Haas aside from an earlier essay on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2010/03/other-woman-1954.html" target="_blank">The Other Woman</a></i>, in spite of seeing the
lion’s share of their respective pictures. I’ve always intended to do some sort
of magazine length piece about the director and his peroxide muse, but the
moment never seems right. However I had a chance to take a look at Moore’s 1956
film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Over-Exposed</i> on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bad Girls of Film Noir, Volume 2 </i>disc,
released by Columbia Classics in 2010. My initial viewing was via a rough
bootleg, so the high quality transfer here was a welcome surprise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is
the rare Cleo Moore outing minus Hugo Haas, and it’s refreshing to see the
actress with her name above the title and out from under the big Czech’s pervasive lack of self esteem and his
bittered pleas for Hollywood recognition. On the other hand, worn-out Lewis Seiler,
who directed Moore the previous year in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Women’s
Prison</i> (on the same disc <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as
Over-Exposed</i>), is asleep at the wheel. Nobody out there is shouting that this
would-be Monroe was a great actress, but surely she wasn’t hopeless — see
her sexy splash scene opposite Robert Ryan in Nick Ray’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Dangerous Ground</i>. Throughout <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Over-Exposed</i>
Moore appears to have only just learned her lines, just a take or two away from
getting it right, but Seiler is either too easily satisfied or simply too
anxious to get the movie in the can. It makes for a frustrating viewing experience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">The story
here takes a backseat to cheesecake, with many of the scenes contrived to get
Moore into a series of cantilevered gowns and swimsuits by legendary Columbia
costumer Jean Louis (picture Rita/Gilda singing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Put the Blame on Mame</i>). And although the 5' 3" canary blonde was at best a poor man’s bombshell,
Moore never looked better than she does in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Over-Exposed</i>,
and if Marilyn or Lana saw the move there must have been a few moments when
even their eyebrows perked up. Spectacular cleavage aside, Moore plays Lily
Krenshka, a small town girl who arrives in the Big Apple only to get busted after
she landing a job as a hostess in a clip-joint. Lily’s perp walk is flashpopped
by Max West, an aging, drunken photographer who somehow manages to convince her
to pose for swimsuit photos in his apartment studio. Intrigued by the possibilities
of a life on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other</i> side of the camera,
Lily stays on with West, tending to his alcoholism and reviving his flagging
business, all while learning the ins and outs of the photographer’s life (via a nice montage). Eventually she leaves the nest with a camera of her own and a sexier name
— Lila Crane, but finds career opportunities few and far between. Spurned
by the legitimate news agencies, she finally lands a position as a barely-clad
picture grabber at a Manhattan nightspot. Before long Lila shrewdly develops
herself into one of the top portrait and advertising photogs in the city, but
will her reckless ambition and her casual willingness to photograph anyone, at any time, doing anything, bring it all crashing down? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Although <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Over-Exposed</i> is ostensibly a crime film,
it’s a stretch to call it a film noir. There’s no doom, dread, or angst, and with
the exception of a scene near the end involving pock-marked love interest Richard Crenna,
there’s little in the way of visual style. Most of the scenes are flooded with
light, giving viewers a never-ending eyeful of a decked-out Moore, in spite of
otherwise cheap production values. In trading Haas for Seiler we get to finally see what Moore could do in an unabashed star vehicle, but at the expense of Haas’s weird, and inherently noirish psychological peccadilloes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Over-Exposed</span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"> exploits its star under the façade
of a morally upright tale about runaway ambition, but such irony was obvious
even in 1956. In the end contemporary viewers will find a film that merely
reinforces those same old gendered mid-century stereotypes about “threatening” women
who want to work in a man’s world. Faced with desperate circumstances after
being arrested as a hostess (prostitute), Moore’s Lily/Lila admirably manages
to lift herself out of a deplorable situation through a legitimate professional
career. And although the script paints her as a careerist who eschews morality </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19px;">and a place in the kitchen </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt;">for money and glamour, contemporary audiences will find little fault
with her actions. After all, is it fair that Lila lives in a world where the
quality of her photographs seems not to matter?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Over-Exposed</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"> (1956)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Directed
by Lewis Seiler<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Produced
by Lewis J. Rachmil<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Screenplay
by James Gunn and Gil Orlovitz<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Story by
Richard Sale and Mary Loos<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Cinematography
by Henry Freulich<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Starring
Cleo Moore and Richard Crenna<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Released
by Columbia Pictures<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Running
time: 80 minutes<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-91948367271462349262014-06-28T12:17:00.001-04:002014-06-28T12:17:07.223-04:00WOMEN FROM HEADQUARTERS (1950)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm5sh-ZVWuaW6RvleBp3xNbOPSojw8OXPUXPZJ8ycGdIQNZXidb9P61kIUQHGyDiUVreB_8FwvMdYShOrLdTg8Mf7vEXfkCq42mEq4CBxgxyyjsWEnoRwzjub97r5biiFrhKo3tf0F5w/s1600/Women-from-Headquarters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm5sh-ZVWuaW6RvleBp3xNbOPSojw8OXPUXPZJ8ycGdIQNZXidb9P61kIUQHGyDiUVreB_8FwvMdYShOrLdTg8Mf7vEXfkCq42mEq4CBxgxyyjsWEnoRwzjub97r5biiFrhKo3tf0F5w/s1600/Women-from-Headquarters.jpg" height="640" width="332" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;">“Around
the clock you will rescue children from unfit homes, neglectful parents, and
crime provoking surroundings. On patrol of public parks, playgrounds, and
schoolyards, you will keep a vigilant watch over safety of children. Our files
tell a meaningful story of lost and despairing wrecks of girls led out of the
shadows of crime and from the brink of destruction and suicide by the friendly
hands of policewomen.” </span><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>“And
nothing will stand between you and the unforeseen danger of your every
assignment except what you’ve learned here at the academy. There’s a snub-nosed
police revolver in your shoulder bags or under arm holsters that’s for your
protection in emergency. Keep that in mind: for emergency only. Congratulations
and good luck to each one of you.” </b></span><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Given
that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Women from Headquarters</i> is a
bottom of the bill crime programmer from Republic Pictures, shot in only twelve
days, one’s expectations would surely be low. Not so fast though — with a
director like George Blair and with John MacBurnie behind the camera, it’s safe
to raise the bar a little. By 1950 these cats, along with other members of Republic’s
crime quickie crew (producer Stephen Auer, editor Harold Minter, etc.) had
established a track record of modest but surprisingly good stuff (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Streets of San Francisco</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Post Office Investigator</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alias the Champ</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/02/federal-agent-at-large-1950.html" target="_blank">Federal Agent at Large</a></i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Unmasked</i>,
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Destination Big House</i>). All that
being said, it’s a shame that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Women from
Headquarters</i> falls short of expectations in just about every way
imaginable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Joyce Harper
(Virginia Huston) and Ruby Kane (Barbra Fuller) have been struggling by on
their own for years — Joyce practically raised the younger girl. But when
the war came Joyce joined the Army nurses’ corps, leaving teenage Ruby without
the crutch of an older role model. Now back together in Los Angeles, the two
women (Ruby’s just turned 21) are trying to make a go of it as roommates in the
brave new post-war world. At first glance, Ruby appears to be making out
better. She’s got a nice gig hopping cars at a drive-in off Sunset and a steady
boyfriend — though Joyce hardly approves. For her part, Joyce is struggling.
She’s been bouncing from secretarial job to secretarial job, unattached and
unable to find fulfilling work that doesn’t involved getting pawed by her bosses.
She says early on, “when I got out of uniform I came back to a world I didn’t
fit into. I felt sort of lost and unhappy in the work I’d done before.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Joyce
finally discovers her purpose on the night Ruby gets busted. Her motherly
suspicions of the younger girl’s beau Max were well founded. While out on a
date at a local watering hole (Ruby likes to get loaded) Max slips into the
back room to negotiate a drug deal with the proprietor, leaving Ruby alone with
her drink. When a drunken barfly tries to get fresh, Ruby tosses her highball
in his face at precisely the moment a girl-boy cop team braces the bar on a
routine check. Surprisingly, it’s Ruby who gets popped — the lady cop, Sergeant
Rogers (Frances Charles), is prowling for suspected jailbait. Rogers puts Ruby
in the backseat and drives her home to Joyce, who verifies the girl’s age and
gets her off the hook. In the course of their conversation, Rogers gives Joyce
the low-down on the LAPD and tells her she thinks she’d be a great fit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Rogers
wasn’t kidding either. Joyce churns her way through the LAPD academy and upon
graduation is assigned to a plainclothes unit working directly out of
headquarters. In her first few months on the job she amasses a record that
would make Edmund Exley piss his pants: busting up high class gambling dens,
saving kidnapped children, and chasing down bank robbers. Joyce even brings in
a cop killer. Unfortunately all we get to see of her exploits are a montage of
newspaper headlines and B roll of crooks on the run.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">While all of this is
happening Ruby is suspiciously absent from the movie. Following her near miss
with the cops, she and Max bolt the Southland for Chicago. We don’t see her
again until much later, after Joyce gets promoted to the narcotics squad. The
headline-grabbing lady cop learns that her old friend has returned to
California when she discovers her in the infirmary at the city jail, pregnant
and battered by Max, now a hardcore felon. Sharing her tale of woe with her old
pal, the naïve Ruby delivers the movie’s campiest line: “I was married to a
criminal dope peddler.” Joyce agrees to get Ruby out of the clink if she rolls
over on Max, who is then expected to stooge on his supplier, and on and on up
the chain until Joyce can hopefully expose “Mr. Big.” Max’s paternal instincts
kick in when he learns that Ruby is knocked up, and he happily spills on his
bosses, leaving Joyce and her blue crew to move in and clean out the garbage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">I don’t
know about you, but the two quotes set off at the top of the essay are worth
getting excited about. They suggest a movie about female police officers more
concerned with rolling their sleeves up and doing good work than with keeping
their makeup on straight. Too bad for us, secretary turned cop Virginia Huston
never wears a uniform or pounds a beat in this movie, and her face — delightful
as it is — is always perfectly, and frustratingly, composed. In fact, she
somehow manages to get through the picture almost entirely without showing off
any real police work, and the early promise of those “despairing wrecks of
girls” are left to the speeches, while that snub-nosed police revolver stays forever
hidden in her shoulder bag. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Women from Headquarters</span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">’s<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>promise as a film noir is wrapped up in Joyce’s feelings of angst at
her return from the war, and her unusual career response to those feelings.
This inability of the returning veteran to reintegrate into domestic society is
one of the cornerstones of noir; it’s only too bad that the film doesn’t do more
with it, though surely we have to award Republic some points for the gender
switch. While Joyce’s response to her newfound malaise is to defy societal expectations
by pursuing a potentially deadly job in the police force, she outwardly
displays none of the angst or inner turmoil that we hope for. Certainly we
can’t blame the actress. For what its worth, this is the same Virginia Huston
who played Robert Mitchum’s girlfriend Ann in that noiriest of noirs, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Out of the Past</i>. Huston’s filmography
lists only 13 roles, but the majority were top shelf projects. We have to believe
she could act a little.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Possibly
the failure is the normally excellent Blair’s. He allows his cast to stumble
through, and fails to manipulate his camera and the lighting with same verve
that I’d come to expect from him. In the end, this is an instance when we have
to accept the shortcomings of B material and make allowances. The story is too
plot driven and the reels are simply too few to allow for an A picture
exploration into Joyce’s psyche. Regardless, while <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Women from Headquarters</i>’s failure to rate as a film noir is
forgivable,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>its failure to entertain
isn’t. The promise of the subject matter gives me shivers, the noir-style character
tropes are evident, and the thing moves along quickly enough, but it’s a sloppily
rendered paint by numbers picture that isn’t particularly worth looking at. If
you want to see somewhat similar material handled the right way, check out 1953’s
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2010/06/code-two-1953.html" target="_blank">Code Two</a></i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;">Women from
Headquarters</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"> (1950)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Directed
by George Blair<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Written
by Gene Lewis<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Starring
Virginia Huston, Robert Rockwell, and Barbra Fuller<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Cinematography
by John MacBurnie<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Released
by Republic Pictures<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Running
time 60 minutes </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-40786382069992496262014-05-21T17:27:00.000-04:002014-05-21T17:33:53.487-04:0050 Extraordinary Noir and Crime Posters from Republic Pictures!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Herbert Yates’s Republic Pictures sprung to life after the merger of several Poverty Row studios (Monogram, Majestic, Mascot, Liberty, Chesterfield, and Invincible) under Yates’s leadership. The studio began cranking out B pictures, and more or less thrived throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Known primarily for their B westerns featuring Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and even John Wayne, the studio nevertheless had a few prestige hits — either as production company or U.S. distributor — including Wayne’s <i>The Quiet Man</i> and Best Picture winner <i>Hamlet</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I’m a longtime admirer of Republic’s noir, crime, and mystery films. Be on the lookout for more and more essays in the coming year about some of the films featured in this post. But more than anything else, Republic had the most recognizable poster style of any studio in Hollywood, and perhaps the most striking — I </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">certainly </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">think so. The studio favored the use of inkwash-style illustrations instead of photography, and bold red typography almost always situated on a diagonal that violates the center of the composition. Pay special attention to the color pallette, and how the artists created depth by using cool colors and monochromatic illustrations in the backgrounds, against warmer, more detailed imagery in the foreground. It's masterful stuff! For a designer like me, the artists’ ability to control viewer eye movement and convey dramatic emotion via illustration is exhilarating! Enjoy!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh8Hv8-hYJ3rIV2KbfmcH91TO66W8B0JNhRmq7SgDig5IgKL62HQ8R2TMT_WzthuNSkJVwHP-SfQmkDjPznkY3pcM8D2LY8pzvwrPmc5Pjt8Z2bAuuu8mhIXA8RN0KAwAt4XEF2_r1ZA/s1600/Arson-Gang-Busters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh8Hv8-hYJ3rIV2KbfmcH91TO66W8B0JNhRmq7SgDig5IgKL62HQ8R2TMT_WzthuNSkJVwHP-SfQmkDjPznkY3pcM8D2LY8pzvwrPmc5Pjt8Z2bAuuu8mhIXA8RN0KAwAt4XEF2_r1ZA/s1600/Arson-Gang-Busters.jpg" height="640" width="421" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1938</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5U_uMp4UlfZOKruUm41jDLuoXBZ0dTCN7_7Ud5yrJ-lOdIJpxti2Cd4uutAvRt0m0Jy_ha7OcJFXc4sn0xfDD7S7NnftDp4nGtN_j32ETPk5fkWh-t_2D67edVb1C-7wUk6S-eqg7hA/s1600/Forgotten-Girls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5U_uMp4UlfZOKruUm41jDLuoXBZ0dTCN7_7Ud5yrJ-lOdIJpxti2Cd4uutAvRt0m0Jy_ha7OcJFXc4sn0xfDD7S7NnftDp4nGtN_j32ETPk5fkWh-t_2D67edVb1C-7wUk6S-eqg7hA/s1600/Forgotten-Girls.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1940</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHX0e1XNwQlDU-f3Nr_x41lfEjwSC4GPfQ0_on4FlDIQohQsm9OhEdRma-AM1MLSFw-4XCQzA4eXJSJGNbGFi2HSsfpHxybf8G_xy_E1arVG9Y_vNXYhgnOhKCkPA-x57EH3GMX8IjPw/s1600/Citadel-of-Crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHX0e1XNwQlDU-f3Nr_x41lfEjwSC4GPfQ0_on4FlDIQohQsm9OhEdRma-AM1MLSFw-4XCQzA4eXJSJGNbGFi2HSsfpHxybf8G_xy_E1arVG9Y_vNXYhgnOhKCkPA-x57EH3GMX8IjPw/s1600/Citadel-of-Crime.jpg" height="640" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1941</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSKunYEzoMElzIlkeUjyvb4p2_KDVCMY73IOgOw5Ptk6FXy7ISyVp9wnEH9u6rHjzw_X0c3OzGA9YK-D6juOm4Q8wxCkxg5vJdaDj5nZ55XaPeuT7TR_k8ov9WUXKshDXmc-d9-Fx4ag/s1600/Public-Enemies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSKunYEzoMElzIlkeUjyvb4p2_KDVCMY73IOgOw5Ptk6FXy7ISyVp9wnEH9u6rHjzw_X0c3OzGA9YK-D6juOm4Q8wxCkxg5vJdaDj5nZ55XaPeuT7TR_k8ov9WUXKshDXmc-d9-Fx4ag/s1600/Public-Enemies.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1941<br />
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</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS62K1VkyoutjOwTznPoeFxVnYdoSLxbA9pqb2Y3ymnZRVHzi5ddf6ennPQKlKpFuLOrVDdYcsrdCSBTo7d-QOmk94IMDrYEejLcG222FcLx1zjoMT9Tr_nddL2Sjr2Jnl50Ci3qDnRA/s1600/X-Marks-the-Spot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS62K1VkyoutjOwTznPoeFxVnYdoSLxbA9pqb2Y3ymnZRVHzi5ddf6ennPQKlKpFuLOrVDdYcsrdCSBTo7d-QOmk94IMDrYEejLcG222FcLx1zjoMT9Tr_nddL2Sjr2Jnl50Ci3qDnRA/s1600/X-Marks-the-Spot.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1942<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9rDYTcNBUepdJ7k584ZRNb9YDPfzcn2fYCSKC144XYzds56CWA5LVbD9pX5y8Nqi8C9gxxFGJ53Xsi1FC8VL3pOcqQJ3MWSAI02kZw5AwHkeHUx22CskRuc6WGTNEJ4HG0dgsDiyTMQ/s1600/End-of-the-Road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9rDYTcNBUepdJ7k584ZRNb9YDPfzcn2fYCSKC144XYzds56CWA5LVbD9pX5y8Nqi8C9gxxFGJ53Xsi1FC8VL3pOcqQJ3MWSAI02kZw5AwHkeHUx22CskRuc6WGTNEJ4HG0dgsDiyTMQ/s1600/End-of-the-Road.jpg" height="640" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1944</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsiuWkB2Jg-s2M0CjKp7pB5ywOY-Q4fxFxNNiz1nmxLTMkJ7yONDx3tZ5ub-Gj6tZ4-xMvbohWO-LJHmkXkTV2tOgDITKb8TkllssqZIBO2pU389Ma0AIJ8n9S590nqs54KwF8hh29qg/s1600/Storm-Over-Lisbon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsiuWkB2Jg-s2M0CjKp7pB5ywOY-Q4fxFxNNiz1nmxLTMkJ7yONDx3tZ5ub-Gj6tZ4-xMvbohWO-LJHmkXkTV2tOgDITKb8TkllssqZIBO2pU389Ma0AIJ8n9S590nqs54KwF8hh29qg/s1600/Storm-Over-Lisbon.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1944.<br />
Vera Ralston was married to Republic mogul Herbert Yates.<br />
John Wayne reportedly departed Republic because he couldn't stand her!<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincFtiUQlmBJd444v1m97qbRiKoCNqOePryQjbyI29BpuhsJl5zeYu2WFiQMFtHj8M0rjKQlqU_WZx8MgJyIVVm5U2kPNPIXd6FZYpbT2CQYAVK3fpbtBG3NtWhKxgkhQQsuIvG9hbLQ/s1600/Girls-of-the-Big-House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincFtiUQlmBJd444v1m97qbRiKoCNqOePryQjbyI29BpuhsJl5zeYu2WFiQMFtHj8M0rjKQlqU_WZx8MgJyIVVm5U2kPNPIXd6FZYpbT2CQYAVK3fpbtBG3NtWhKxgkhQQsuIvG9hbLQ/s1600/Girls-of-the-Big-House.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1945</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUxLIZLThWio_cCPMmkYbjmmZbN6JMHrUSk49TPglk1IizQyBy6YyEkHuMdMiNNDAkD8u7_Q_lZ4W1-V5JTFbet5SERjqV9zw6xuItLdEpK8Jgm-Gql9gO-jYPUe5V1ST5I5b29NtrSw/s1600/Great_Flamarion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUxLIZLThWio_cCPMmkYbjmmZbN6JMHrUSk49TPglk1IizQyBy6YyEkHuMdMiNNDAkD8u7_Q_lZ4W1-V5JTFbet5SERjqV9zw6xuItLdEpK8Jgm-Gql9gO-jYPUe5V1ST5I5b29NtrSw/s1600/Great_Flamarion.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1945</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimkUqzwe_uukGtKH8jG61OdJlCI11fkT-QSu54Y601keHqFbD5AAQh_M6SlefGNwuRpHMa2VJjznYXRBKER5yVAj6dH_yMZQH6NKAC_D6CQvNP1mOMa28ZEN5dTB7TeTxmnQFuomh9Aw/s1600/Grissly's-Millions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimkUqzwe_uukGtKH8jG61OdJlCI11fkT-QSu54Y601keHqFbD5AAQh_M6SlefGNwuRpHMa2VJjznYXRBKER5yVAj6dH_yMZQH6NKAC_D6CQvNP1mOMa28ZEN5dTB7TeTxmnQFuomh9Aw/s1600/Grissly's-Millions.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1945<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcYmHApsMV75xtDKc02ADCZvtr0x-Y8YGNJVOhAw1eOB9WhkYLWJLRqGA7mfGeWqnojydgGj9HJJBsSuUW5jBeQXKpCN-5Qy8KmfRwVjx6BhzHl_8j0TlJA504PGPGz2GiWeYU0c5rXA/s1600/Scotland-Yard-Investigator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcYmHApsMV75xtDKc02ADCZvtr0x-Y8YGNJVOhAw1eOB9WhkYLWJLRqGA7mfGeWqnojydgGj9HJJBsSuUW5jBeQXKpCN-5Qy8KmfRwVjx6BhzHl_8j0TlJA504PGPGz2GiWeYU0c5rXA/s1600/Scotland-Yard-Investigator.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1945, re-release poster</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYJ5pkoLM_brecC6KAh8zq4VR0Uf5ATBFcEvF1XijkuXBMu0y7AKRcCBSS__l0WB4QT6a5q3GUoZBGaqrAuDm6QO9-rufQ-bntfKeQIG3YmX-G0meeyWpIgCb4GAq6Pg7_PyQ43NdIw/s1600/Inner-Circle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYJ5pkoLM_brecC6KAh8zq4VR0Uf5ATBFcEvF1XijkuXBMu0y7AKRcCBSS__l0WB4QT6a5q3GUoZBGaqrAuDm6QO9-rufQ-bntfKeQIG3YmX-G0meeyWpIgCb4GAq6Pg7_PyQ43NdIw/s1600/Inner-Circle.jpg" height="640" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1946<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnCIOX0PYqz6eqwg69L9SzDU4hYUK1y2jKOBad0-4pErVvjiqOLjdAgBjt17fOJdSE_bpPl4ovOYePakzAi6hR_CuwljDM9cnW-EIW849gxiJPkmiUdwBnQG8BdgGeahmrh54b5ejk4Q/s1600/Last-Crooked-Mile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnCIOX0PYqz6eqwg69L9SzDU4hYUK1y2jKOBad0-4pErVvjiqOLjdAgBjt17fOJdSE_bpPl4ovOYePakzAi6hR_CuwljDM9cnW-EIW849gxiJPkmiUdwBnQG8BdgGeahmrh54b5ejk4Q/s1600/Last-Crooked-Mile.jpg" height="640" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1946</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTR2sQwihuBfztlNWE5BtTR2kzw-l4NW8l_XMAkp7MVAT1XECPEcznwfBGsd8YmcbBZNCWA9KK4vTlBnZqsHC8MVlWK6yUkfmwq2tJ1k6XWCkb_e_LwRN-aQFGEtRh1iomHlIdsh3k1w/s1600/Mr_Valentine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTR2sQwihuBfztlNWE5BtTR2kzw-l4NW8l_XMAkp7MVAT1XECPEcznwfBGsd8YmcbBZNCWA9KK4vTlBnZqsHC8MVlWK6yUkfmwq2tJ1k6XWCkb_e_LwRN-aQFGEtRh1iomHlIdsh3k1w/s1600/Mr_Valentine.jpg" height="640" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1946<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikx0hbeSua7xMbvwRV4qfD3fNGUya3d6zDpOg8DIpNufxPYZcJb0bXpMaa6vU17eV1lpZanKNORVUXrDmKUMwCyDDgEXsM-YgDe_DSsjt7ycPHWKt_CVRpRJa2f90Y9W6wZj-UJfPqWA/s1600/Specter-of-the-Rose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikx0hbeSua7xMbvwRV4qfD3fNGUya3d6zDpOg8DIpNufxPYZcJb0bXpMaa6vU17eV1lpZanKNORVUXrDmKUMwCyDDgEXsM-YgDe_DSsjt7ycPHWKt_CVRpRJa2f90Y9W6wZj-UJfPqWA/s1600/Specter-of-the-Rose.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1946<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJ-qBahRU76xSvy4A3AQmv7JbRsFgsqIATyxEWEE7oRYRqWkzjoXYXlmZC19_4R0oQeJJKlMNeFC2pR-WbfX3z8G2A9MRyBRb27dYY8pIOMORkGbF42HntFXUczZAuljcq_DutTdEbw/s1600/Strange-Impersonation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJ-qBahRU76xSvy4A3AQmv7JbRsFgsqIATyxEWEE7oRYRqWkzjoXYXlmZC19_4R0oQeJJKlMNeFC2pR-WbfX3z8G2A9MRyBRb27dYY8pIOMORkGbF42HntFXUczZAuljcq_DutTdEbw/s1600/Strange-Impersonation.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1946<br />
Does it get any better than this?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjN5crwIftGXkZOIXKnSMAAcNhLI4NJsvgkODWB1lg4IXn-fPwhEtugiczytwU6CjfJGYQWyTgVY7T3gzA23ZUtOBZwzoCFBUl24L8hbg1cOkL1kZYQJxnwZXyi41dHcB59r_YKjOFGg/s1600/Traffic+In+Crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjN5crwIftGXkZOIXKnSMAAcNhLI4NJsvgkODWB1lg4IXn-fPwhEtugiczytwU6CjfJGYQWyTgVY7T3gzA23ZUtOBZwzoCFBUl24L8hbg1cOkL1kZYQJxnwZXyi41dHcB59r_YKjOFGg/s1600/Traffic+In+Crime.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1946<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PF3Ax-kRc4WKCnOWBBU7iUS64uTy6UEp7oRJBsBovjr7Ob_c9eLQTDCkhNgPW6_NQpsSCNz8UyiGU4lF6by8gHbB4M1vm9QiDIYKJMzqfDu0PTddxJwrUEYoFd4S0PRBvv5p5CV6Lg/s1600/Blackmail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PF3Ax-kRc4WKCnOWBBU7iUS64uTy6UEp7oRJBsBovjr7Ob_c9eLQTDCkhNgPW6_NQpsSCNz8UyiGU4lF6by8gHbB4M1vm9QiDIYKJMzqfDu0PTddxJwrUEYoFd4S0PRBvv5p5CV6Lg/s1600/Blackmail.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1947</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2zKexWLBonei-u31Ntxi5bjrLsNgh7BhcQ8uBSCMNljBlfzBuXl19kWx8umzlmMzOmj6nJ1-_24QHRNLrQWAAQ9tkHNTZLxqg9JDdnHj78uyYNFMaJ7AffwTqC8NgkTr-VUyaRhx-1Q/s1600/Pretender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2zKexWLBonei-u31Ntxi5bjrLsNgh7BhcQ8uBSCMNljBlfzBuXl19kWx8umzlmMzOmj6nJ1-_24QHRNLrQWAAQ9tkHNTZLxqg9JDdnHj78uyYNFMaJ7AffwTqC8NgkTr-VUyaRhx-1Q/s1600/Pretender.jpg" height="640" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1947, <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2010/01/pretender-1947_25.html" target="_blank">click here for my essay</a><br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYYoVYwb6FfbR9DGnKY2snfN4E5BmbJf553IOAmVz-nEP1ckOMO97S5BEzE9cRBpi2ZrIC367GUWeuObq5STg_PJl67sykGnur5oexm6fAAFGBOPQxp1VUj0IMHy1xZCoXZIsys2O6cA/s1600/Web-of-Danger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYYoVYwb6FfbR9DGnKY2snfN4E5BmbJf553IOAmVz-nEP1ckOMO97S5BEzE9cRBpi2ZrIC367GUWeuObq5STg_PJl67sykGnur5oexm6fAAFGBOPQxp1VUj0IMHy1xZCoXZIsys2O6cA/s1600/Web-of-Danger.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1947<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixI9sv4_p-M4JPAVg_gUQlaRUMlcNuX7CfbmDNiGz2ikhTLGyrVAQsgbrng_RL4WrKDzpeV5eBEsjaOtfPN5UuMn0njPVNxCCSIU81skVx5dWQTYSWXSkWgR3OunnC4_XvryNQjLopHQ/s1600/Homicide-for-Three.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixI9sv4_p-M4JPAVg_gUQlaRUMlcNuX7CfbmDNiGz2ikhTLGyrVAQsgbrng_RL4WrKDzpeV5eBEsjaOtfPN5UuMn0njPVNxCCSIU81skVx5dWQTYSWXSkWgR3OunnC4_XvryNQjLopHQ/s1600/Homicide-for-Three.jpg" height="640" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1948<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR-6VfwgNKOUy1EJiaihOCYW577_kYhbtS6Rem9z5j4EtwVnTv-MRqHgAzrow6Y5gwGcSAwwymN3A9tWd_yLDRhdmnL7nv7zSQtqhgBYEzKbYPAhMJRYukQnIKxso9vLDuR6yID96o1Q/s1600/Moonrise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR-6VfwgNKOUy1EJiaihOCYW577_kYhbtS6Rem9z5j4EtwVnTv-MRqHgAzrow6Y5gwGcSAwwymN3A9tWd_yLDRhdmnL7nv7zSQtqhgBYEzKbYPAhMJRYukQnIKxso9vLDuR6yID96o1Q/s1600/Moonrise.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1948<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik7JHGoEjlOH5YHUa4ky5yLTDiNxuh4mhMdVR1DjwSJx8OLEtTFYIWe8Iq2p_yT0I56MOcBx2N59SdR4m2CA-y_0WtNGBkvX1I5fKiys4ZVGESj-7yj1S01z4vbG_nl0JYc24ga-qFZA/s1600/Secret_Service_Investigator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik7JHGoEjlOH5YHUa4ky5yLTDiNxuh4mhMdVR1DjwSJx8OLEtTFYIWe8Iq2p_yT0I56MOcBx2N59SdR4m2CA-y_0WtNGBkvX1I5fKiys4ZVGESj-7yj1S01z4vbG_nl0JYc24ga-qFZA/s1600/Secret_Service_Investigator.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1948<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxri0j0E2amzsSa1jIgla_ZCJQRAXefV7TGfAx_2T2FbGpETV1AUlUTAunGOTd3Di5-fQM-VVBjiDr5s7A58smEJ9WN2vOcZyqC-gVDiOfHBwfn3HQ-wKbhwFiHGTeds7DKl9UoMBdXg/s1600/Hide-Out.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxri0j0E2amzsSa1jIgla_ZCJQRAXefV7TGfAx_2T2FbGpETV1AUlUTAunGOTd3Di5-fQM-VVBjiDr5s7A58smEJ9WN2vOcZyqC-gVDiOfHBwfn3HQ-wKbhwFiHGTeds7DKl9UoMBdXg/s1600/Hide-Out.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1949<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwRu55JDl4EK-BM38BFqu77M-M_TZTqoA0izsUeEkEbDW35K_lSHp8p3KreIPrWA_pHYWqa3xx6KX2HmoAcVmSHBtarDn-dHW8HGa1jPSRLPrHu7Oh55LyGXOyGZXUWbrzlTpD9wwww/s1600/Post-Office-Investigator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwRu55JDl4EK-BM38BFqu77M-M_TZTqoA0izsUeEkEbDW35K_lSHp8p3KreIPrWA_pHYWqa3xx6KX2HmoAcVmSHBtarDn-dHW8HGa1jPSRLPrHu7Oh55LyGXOyGZXUWbrzlTpD9wwww/s1600/Post-Office-Investigator.jpg" height="640" width="326" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1949, Three Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkzuFLk3aghFT3Z7B2CqMWPwjPehE7wp1-06B7NQUre-bwKHAZN2Jsj7eHQkFItPf05HLeoExlL_MEmN_vs9CAKRPGhD3oo03j3SDdCy_GfeW1wl63uAbLzTntP2k-t0Ao2xWuz-KFA/s1600/Blonde_Bandit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkzuFLk3aghFT3Z7B2CqMWPwjPehE7wp1-06B7NQUre-bwKHAZN2Jsj7eHQkFItPf05HLeoExlL_MEmN_vs9CAKRPGhD3oo03j3SDdCy_GfeW1wl63uAbLzTntP2k-t0Ao2xWuz-KFA/s1600/Blonde_Bandit.jpg" height="640" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1950</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjej3_PJNGx-mClwXTcOZ6xkKEIxty73-nTe89DQfPOl5LJmP8hAeRcbrBb5c9idj__0IMZoiF3srSgHCnD1a69KGPqCi56NlKgfLis-bO31rCwcS9l1yAAMwPJ88HiA49blyoNPfptig/s1600/Destination-Big-House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjej3_PJNGx-mClwXTcOZ6xkKEIxty73-nTe89DQfPOl5LJmP8hAeRcbrBb5c9idj__0IMZoiF3srSgHCnD1a69KGPqCi56NlKgfLis-bO31rCwcS9l1yAAMwPJ88HiA49blyoNPfptig/s1600/Destination-Big-House.jpg" height="640" width="326" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1950, Three-Sheet<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKxQxelLsLTOkLiDonEcsuqn0yyO0mF0DPIPWQxtFSG02Oh2VfsyxtTABu9jVnjUryASiiLP8Tgwi6FY3HWPzWL2lEzD2x2j0kOkxhm3Citk9hOLWMx1QZw3OsLLU9S1Ka1r5D1Obrcg/s1600/Fed_Agent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKxQxelLsLTOkLiDonEcsuqn0yyO0mF0DPIPWQxtFSG02Oh2VfsyxtTABu9jVnjUryASiiLP8Tgwi6FY3HWPzWL2lEzD2x2j0kOkxhm3Citk9hOLWMx1QZw3OsLLU9S1Ka1r5D1Obrcg/s1600/Fed_Agent.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1950, <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/02/federal-agent-at-large-1950.html" target="_blank">click here for my essay</a>.<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTkhxLmAI52W89XZSv6wlNm1LQExwP-A2LTjDHKDLAWx3joW9ccKZrv42JP03n5UY7wFKU5g5gC2dOv7OD3g4QHFmVTtiHzjUF86yQTcl0vCohWWE5DCk4bvTgqfUXcjv50T-CrsraKw/s1600/Fugitive-Lady.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTkhxLmAI52W89XZSv6wlNm1LQExwP-A2LTjDHKDLAWx3joW9ccKZrv42JP03n5UY7wFKU5g5gC2dOv7OD3g4QHFmVTtiHzjUF86yQTcl0vCohWWE5DCk4bvTgqfUXcjv50T-CrsraKw/s1600/Fugitive-Lady.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1950</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIF2_Z_o5B9Dpiwj4PPMnwqQ0qIq8kKvX0uSIG-8avnopS4OSVSM44sOp9P-HJrUfjOMAdNr4hRDUYfUGo0DexgocPs1ZcDzTMostgf95H6Z9OO25Ma-Q30rCzr77UoJFQKUdFJKomvQ/s1600/House-by-the-River.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIF2_Z_o5B9Dpiwj4PPMnwqQ0qIq8kKvX0uSIG-8avnopS4OSVSM44sOp9P-HJrUfjOMAdNr4hRDUYfUGo0DexgocPs1ZcDzTMostgf95H6Z9OO25Ma-Q30rCzr77UoJFQKUdFJKomvQ/s1600/House-by-the-River.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1950<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsVi0Jq-dg2-s2J32ehZxFGzn7IhjmgbodJ64jNFruM0gcohPtEHXMhxvyWe_8t2dINosbz07f5ZZ941lE_uTqYM0RVn1wAQPSoOBjUP9CC1hA30613KhiP6VjJCLlincN3MjNvjj4Pg/s1600/Lonely-Heart-Bandits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsVi0Jq-dg2-s2J32ehZxFGzn7IhjmgbodJ64jNFruM0gcohPtEHXMhxvyWe_8t2dINosbz07f5ZZ941lE_uTqYM0RVn1wAQPSoOBjUP9CC1hA30613KhiP6VjJCLlincN3MjNvjj4Pg/s1600/Lonely-Heart-Bandits.jpg" height="640" width="414" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1950</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlv5SftvEaqj-Y8xKv066cQTHVQMQFWEjppvybkZapV02nBLsSMiwxTFnwoOZt9-KF9GkeNGZs-rmK7kPUMfV90PeNsKUT9D76VnFQ1dgCKlxYFtR3SzwrOzv1JE-MbaL_CCapc1NBjw/s1600/Trial-by-Jury.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlv5SftvEaqj-Y8xKv066cQTHVQMQFWEjppvybkZapV02nBLsSMiwxTFnwoOZt9-KF9GkeNGZs-rmK7kPUMfV90PeNsKUT9D76VnFQ1dgCKlxYFtR3SzwrOzv1JE-MbaL_CCapc1NBjw/s1600/Trial-by-Jury.jpg" height="640" width="332" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1950, Three Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipJRe6jleStmHDQqnMm9oyiGbZOju4a6i12S4Mhp9qHoSCDzJ8BJpkzrQu4NsOKR25rR5jqSEFpVfHGdkCmCe_VTW_jrGP9ef4OIggpLek-tBuYub0LzB8t3fdHqr3RopoX9SBwUETYA/s1600/Unmasked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipJRe6jleStmHDQqnMm9oyiGbZOju4a6i12S4Mhp9qHoSCDzJ8BJpkzrQu4NsOKR25rR5jqSEFpVfHGdkCmCe_VTW_jrGP9ef4OIggpLek-tBuYub0LzB8t3fdHqr3RopoX9SBwUETYA/s1600/Unmasked.jpg" height="640" width="328" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1950, Three Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU-gp9Lk7otA-SP-a7uAVBX8M5FVxZAn9lHFm5VnLqGPxF7efAvub6LjX1GFUv7VEWcOkVfu1XlwzLL5QSZS_jMLb3oWc59kD3-7qelh-MTrczguNEmN3CkfsSGEYyPbHFVUV2TMGZvQ/s1600/Women-from-Headquarters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU-gp9Lk7otA-SP-a7uAVBX8M5FVxZAn9lHFm5VnLqGPxF7efAvub6LjX1GFUv7VEWcOkVfu1XlwzLL5QSZS_jMLb3oWc59kD3-7qelh-MTrczguNEmN3CkfsSGEYyPbHFVUV2TMGZvQ/s1600/Women-from-Headquarters.jpg" height="640" width="332" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1950, Three Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqez8SiPMG75pRrS7YmREPdWhWVcXsktM5r5ubGgLy6JNiWKgCPPyB3g4BGU2tWzOaM_OLyzKfUaxyef_3HHrnLZgLs4ZTNPRxlsc8uZQHLME4C-m51Tzx5uXPujnNC3n8T7qf3Y9RQ/s1600/Insurance-Investigator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqez8SiPMG75pRrS7YmREPdWhWVcXsktM5r5ubGgLy6JNiWKgCPPyB3g4BGU2tWzOaM_OLyzKfUaxyef_3HHrnLZgLs4ZTNPRxlsc8uZQHLME4C-m51Tzx5uXPujnNC3n8T7qf3Y9RQ/s1600/Insurance-Investigator.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1951<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjczZ0uinqaNzQnvfFyYUGTVwZwdHYGEfVRx-DZrqmeMPEJqii49dPK0uSuxiQBaBoAGGq526lTyP7NXb_KmnlBUjNc6XhwU-x0g0yQkMatxoosaF1nLTNAgFnenerjmSjNJoc_wKLWRQ/s1600/Million-Dollar-Pursuit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjczZ0uinqaNzQnvfFyYUGTVwZwdHYGEfVRx-DZrqmeMPEJqii49dPK0uSuxiQBaBoAGGq526lTyP7NXb_KmnlBUjNc6XhwU-x0g0yQkMatxoosaF1nLTNAgFnenerjmSjNJoc_wKLWRQ/s1600/Million-Dollar-Pursuit.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1951<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFMwQ6yc4GKHArVy-pD66cNUtF0ei-lynRhpMjJobTV6IYxPaiMm4yr-SdMOKEBnXiNj3Yv_tpPGROIRWb7ocX40iDNtZrhz6KkYKov4Ymrfl-FtsVL9cSZ-ePiJyLKdQUZVwVJBdVQ/s1600/Street-Bandits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNFMwQ6yc4GKHArVy-pD66cNUtF0ei-lynRhpMjJobTV6IYxPaiMm4yr-SdMOKEBnXiNj3Yv_tpPGROIRWb7ocX40iDNtZrhz6KkYKov4Ymrfl-FtsVL9cSZ-ePiJyLKdQUZVwVJBdVQ/s1600/Street-Bandits.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1951<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUj7iGb-Y32VlvEgaodEFPhmXvTGKP77EVcVrkh185KiTjuTl7SvuZdegLgSlA5HVaSK58UeagCxw_5OBid0lMkyxnDmDAbpstCVKOCRQ8qB5qc33a4OKIlDGJhaoE8ubGj7ZPQHvNyg/s1600/Hoodlum-Empire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUj7iGb-Y32VlvEgaodEFPhmXvTGKP77EVcVrkh185KiTjuTl7SvuZdegLgSlA5HVaSK58UeagCxw_5OBid0lMkyxnDmDAbpstCVKOCRQ8qB5qc33a4OKIlDGJhaoE8ubGj7ZPQHvNyg/s1600/Hoodlum-Empire.jpg" height="640" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1952<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pOT_9F2ysFL6mPHJBpVqK_ePtYBU9jg1XNCW1UPjfAO-xyiUYQ1bLvdRq8da_C6_7i9XWFIOvOCEY1Qrg8yvP0pWE9HKcHf5MVS2aw2khcboQBa60wKcTbK7B9sFDlE7qQkMI6zhxg/s1600/Woman-in-the-Dark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pOT_9F2ysFL6mPHJBpVqK_ePtYBU9jg1XNCW1UPjfAO-xyiUYQ1bLvdRq8da_C6_7i9XWFIOvOCEY1Qrg8yvP0pWE9HKcHf5MVS2aw2khcboQBa60wKcTbK7B9sFDlE7qQkMI6zhxg/s1600/Woman-in-the-Dark.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1952<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3lu32NRhHr4UPllqv1NxlzuAwzGFqBI2GFqP2tyRJZhy6b9wZcYXQIIagb5AI-Kt-sDzqWTC6owAIlheSecS-JI-xRK2YiC_CrEGn0RsNNkhUqWp9_jAtF6-6yTWLZphnrbKc82zVw/s1600/Trents-Last-Case.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3lu32NRhHr4UPllqv1NxlzuAwzGFqBI2GFqP2tyRJZhy6b9wZcYXQIIagb5AI-Kt-sDzqWTC6owAIlheSecS-JI-xRK2YiC_CrEGn0RsNNkhUqWp9_jAtF6-6yTWLZphnrbKc82zVw/s1600/Trents-Last-Case.jpg" height="640" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1952<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYPsNRwE3OBvcUGJZyKN8CQoIkgjA5UzAFFRMTVRQ2nJbusiYVq8HevngEznFq0-ZYTyRaETidNj62vbKUHBGW-vqGVFp-ffG9a6-cG08tpHdopXdguQzP1hB_EFl7ZLY8FWQTYuMMw/s1600/City-that-Never-Sleeps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYPsNRwE3OBvcUGJZyKN8CQoIkgjA5UzAFFRMTVRQ2nJbusiYVq8HevngEznFq0-ZYTyRaETidNj62vbKUHBGW-vqGVFp-ffG9a6-cG08tpHdopXdguQzP1hB_EFl7ZLY8FWQTYuMMw/s1600/City-that-Never-Sleeps.jpg" height="640" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953 </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ZaImeJaQaK2FCe3I8O4jmaWQO8Mq9Ubr2WGIBfCf-5DYcR_EUqVGl6c6uNSosg0-RSM5bw1MWVLE_gA2DgteGLA8quNQYjCZcohlNMJmO9arRmehcC8nHJEAeQtgJ4xanzA3DI5SxA/s1600/Hells_Half_Acre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ZaImeJaQaK2FCe3I8O4jmaWQO8Mq9Ubr2WGIBfCf-5DYcR_EUqVGl6c6uNSosg0-RSM5bw1MWVLE_gA2DgteGLA8quNQYjCZcohlNMJmO9arRmehcC8nHJEAeQtgJ4xanzA3DI5SxA/s1600/Hells_Half_Acre.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1954</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS2nfKrv1DwkfL92_7EzWw5PTwA03Yny9yPgcKSimKB12e2BuvKeKt1OWs-a8y0dro03t_eidjmAI6CEFQNG3rAOBXUTwJE-UJ1nu8QidE8IDfx4_p1-LXFcJMNWJ9LRGjFlFlhyphenhyphenLrEg/s1600/Make_Haste_To_live.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS2nfKrv1DwkfL92_7EzWw5PTwA03Yny9yPgcKSimKB12e2BuvKeKt1OWs-a8y0dro03t_eidjmAI6CEFQNG3rAOBXUTwJE-UJ1nu8QidE8IDfx4_p1-LXFcJMNWJ9LRGjFlFlhyphenhyphenLrEg/s1600/Make_Haste_To_live.jpg" height="640" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1954</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9pTEmN1UAbd3lL0n7eE1qalOevL88Ng3JZefNX2gtELxHqOykk_Dpd8kot6AtI1bz7VT6OmOWzn1j1dK8etCH-G3bn6ujoCeugmugaUznCmPTwJr1HVedXgXXz83e56h4XnXU4DxCg/s1600/I-Cover-The-Underworld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9pTEmN1UAbd3lL0n7eE1qalOevL88Ng3JZefNX2gtELxHqOykk_Dpd8kot6AtI1bz7VT6OmOWzn1j1dK8etCH-G3bn6ujoCeugmugaUznCmPTwJr1HVedXgXXz83e56h4XnXU4DxCg/s1600/I-Cover-The-Underworld.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1955</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4vamPyleJrpfl6q9WYwAGPBza5RnUvdxtQ2lz-CNijfBZTONZuftxW9Q7PPUWI1Oh0w3_eHf9U3wvTxf9-zyNpYBEpfmkfDquyddiQMNJET8GrWUY8y-NFHCH6ZJfCJ43SWGNa5QPw/s1600/Shanghai-Story.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4vamPyleJrpfl6q9WYwAGPBza5RnUvdxtQ2lz-CNijfBZTONZuftxW9Q7PPUWI1Oh0w3_eHf9U3wvTxf9-zyNpYBEpfmkfDquyddiQMNJET8GrWUY8y-NFHCH6ZJfCJ43SWGNa5QPw/s1600/Shanghai-Story.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1954</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKFvbi_Awf9yXk16e1Wuuenwl2AncOhgHWtwPYOZ15S4Mv0QVf4Bw9PO47kyfwFOPcd8YLbNuZTsq5cDNZsYnpk54K6NDcXK_7DBPMM6cB0oaGaVXMnVgHO_7dIHfsqf5QxmiGkipVuw/s1600/City-of-Shadows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKFvbi_Awf9yXk16e1Wuuenwl2AncOhgHWtwPYOZ15S4Mv0QVf4Bw9PO47kyfwFOPcd8YLbNuZTsq5cDNZsYnpk54K6NDcXK_7DBPMM6cB0oaGaVXMnVgHO_7dIHfsqf5QxmiGkipVuw/s1600/City-of-Shadows.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1955</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDD4fBk2h4ENW7HsC-cBUVnlK2qprJT62F-Yjuak7169s0AkBKOGtdcdFk_updx-_7FVdePbJuno1MpcYf4K19gMbX5zms_lg3QeHF_uOrp1oeYVfVFu463wBwEtgVIzwzKr6exqoyg/s1600/Headline-Hunters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDD4fBk2h4ENW7HsC-cBUVnlK2qprJT62F-Yjuak7169s0AkBKOGtdcdFk_updx-_7FVdePbJuno1MpcYf4K19gMbX5zms_lg3QeHF_uOrp1oeYVfVFu463wBwEtgVIzwzKr6exqoyg/s1600/Headline-Hunters.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1955</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCx5XmleNjhaeCgCRbbPvSSVgush__Idhe2CEQyt00pVBbGC0LIGA9nSwRRu8ExYwdvXolLehyYgpGkGIz5Dz1IfHMJGQMXzpc7taq_D4zDiK60JzoqCYbzMU2YHuWyL38MZrd3i-mA/s1600/Track-the-Man-Down.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCx5XmleNjhaeCgCRbbPvSSVgush__Idhe2CEQyt00pVBbGC0LIGA9nSwRRu8ExYwdvXolLehyYgpGkGIz5Dz1IfHMJGQMXzpc7taq_D4zDiK60JzoqCYbzMU2YHuWyL38MZrd3i-mA/s1600/Track-the-Man-Down.jpg" height="640" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1955</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtwf3EyYxEXndW9tlVYb4n6UtiTUJiFdSfmUfRR4NA7Zbiye0ss3gmqYYnHSXUoGVfOaDDq6uHVTD_tu8Zscr2zYUa-hrS-Tkm4ksFNMJlIPtW3GJUyRyzNcN6Fz-JjhrIJYXTsW7Fg/s1600/Terror-at-Midnight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtwf3EyYxEXndW9tlVYb4n6UtiTUJiFdSfmUfRR4NA7Zbiye0ss3gmqYYnHSXUoGVfOaDDq6uHVTD_tu8Zscr2zYUa-hrS-Tkm4ksFNMJlIPtW3GJUyRyzNcN6Fz-JjhrIJYXTsW7Fg/s1600/Terror-at-Midnight.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1956</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuqiVeoNvYOyM8TkWjIfI7RDdB3bQojnfDsVlltcCjopyI5jitt7LrNud0X9RWOEuWW0qHhwPFHHnHiTbDIAB78W7DyNI39j3VGIkfAQ3C-1XWfp1XOBfzsmtRF_aXwRwunn_CtrirMQ/s1600/Crooked-Circle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuqiVeoNvYOyM8TkWjIfI7RDdB3bQojnfDsVlltcCjopyI5jitt7LrNud0X9RWOEuWW0qHhwPFHHnHiTbDIAB78W7DyNI39j3VGIkfAQ3C-1XWfp1XOBfzsmtRF_aXwRwunn_CtrirMQ/s1600/Crooked-Circle.jpg" height="640" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">1957</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-58154949395771014542014-03-27T17:04:00.001-04:002015-12-11T01:30:09.069-05:00The Bad-Good Good-Bad Guy: Dan Duryea in The Underworld Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj50NJkR1qC-MEcYZ4aWq3RZw2oACttxyqh0WvJ9AyQCAfzESJId4FX7vg2em5cbrBcjVQfJZcQLPLc2agtTWBuUEbJskzoHojpoM8iP_v0WmGa5DDQ18_Lbc39RMewp_ZMLsptgMaWxg/s1600/Underworld-Story.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj50NJkR1qC-MEcYZ4aWq3RZw2oACttxyqh0WvJ9AyQCAfzESJId4FX7vg2em5cbrBcjVQfJZcQLPLc2agtTWBuUEbJskzoHojpoM8iP_v0WmGa5DDQ18_Lbc39RMewp_ZMLsptgMaWxg/s1600/Underworld-Story.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nobody could deliver a line quite like
Dan Duryea. My favorite comes in 1949’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2011/09/manhandled-1949.html" target="_blank">Manhandled</a></i>,
when his slimy, gum-chewing private detective brags, “You’re not talking to a
cluck Charlie. You’re talking to a guy who knows all the angles.” It wasn’t his
wittiest line, nor was it the most hard-boiled or sarcastic, but it said a
mouthful about Duryea’s screen persona. After all, the lanky blonde actor made
a name for himself in the forties and fifties playing a series of pinstriped
hustlers, leering hoods, and—believe it or not—two-fisted misogynists. His
sardonic losers always thought they knew the score, but by film’s end were
seldom on the right side of the law, if they were even breathing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yet in the period
following the war, as the hopeful forties gave way to the uncertain and
confused fifties, and as the fears of a disillusioned public began to creep
into the movies, Duryea’s ability to contrast antisocial behavior with boyish
charm, to “know all the angles,” or at least pretend to, made him more valuable
than ever in Hollywood. He was uniquely able to actualize the audience’s itch
to play those same angles, to grab a handful of that easy money, to flout those
shiny post-war promises that most of them had missed out on anyway. And if the
right property came along, Duryea might even get to play the good guy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">That property
turned out to be 1950’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Underworld
Story</i>, a nearly forgotten and oddly titled film (it has next to nothing to
do with gangsters) that, thanks to the Warner Archive, is now widely available.
No mere programmer, the United Artists production is one of those rare
low-budget pictures that offer a frightening snapshot of its time—of everyday
Americans, their optimism sapped, struggling to get by in a new world amidst
the tumult of progress. The film is complex without being complicated, though a
detailed synopsis would require much more space than I’m allotted here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In a nutshell, it
tells the story of Mike Reese, a venal big city reporter with a chip on his
shoulder. Reese’s editors set him up as the fall guy after one of his stories
gets a mob stoolie executed on the steps of city hall. Given a pink slip and blacklisted,
Reese leaves town and buys into a sleepy suburban paper, but soon finds himself
back in the thick of current events. A wealthy socialite has been murdered, and
her maid—a black woman—is wrongfully accused of the crime. It just so happens
that the murdered woman is the daughter-in-law of Reese’s former publisher, and
the killer is the mogul’s spoiled son. Regardless, Reese believes the maid to
be guilty, and burns through the majority of the running time playing both ends
against the middle in an effort to line his own pockets. But as the story
uncoils and the truth finally becomes clear to him, Reese is forced to make a decision
between his own rank selfishness and the girl’s life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Director Cyril
Endfield turns in an intelligent and beautifully constructed film. It’s smart,
well-paced, and looks gorgeous—Stanley Cortez’s lighting and camera work holds
up against that of any iconic film noir. Endfield coaxed great stuff from his
entire cast, but Duryea in particular shines—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Underworld Story</i> is one of the best roles of his career.
Endfield wrote the screenplay himself, adapting a story by Craig Rice
(pseudonym of mystery writer Georgianna Craig) with assistance from Henry
Blankfort. The resulting script is foreboding, laconic, and brimming with
razor-sharp dialogue. It undertakes a range of issues, including the power of
the fourth estate to manipulate public opinion, the capacity of the wealthy to influence
the judicial process, the country’s never-ending struggle with racism, and the
capriciousness of small town morality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However, if the
project represented a zenith for many of its principals, for a few the nadirs
to come were life-changing. The film’s multi-layered criticisms of the
Communist witch-hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee are so
apparent that even the committee members themselves couldn’t have missed them. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Underworld Story </i>goes so far as to give
its lone black character, Molly (played by Mary Anderson, a white actress), the
wrongly accused and persecuted murder suspect, the same surname as HUAC member
John E. Rankin, the racist and bombastic congressman from Mississippi. Thus,
it’s no surprise that Endfield’s film (along with his other incendiary 1950
piece, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sound of Fury</i>) drew the
government’s ire: screenwriter Blankfort, actor Howard Da Silva, and Endfield himself
would soon join the ranks of those defamed by the blacklist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDP4flKU53roujtrBehC-oxOxxjD1qmEcDFsya56DSzddMY45EWuWYgYZWORi19W_MlPUa-kTNQaE417_hFfk9-ZNicCcTGhLiNZCU8LBMsz-1gfhb4VPWU53mUkDiy-lh2T57tq5XOQ/s1600/NC-Fall2013_x319.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDP4flKU53roujtrBehC-oxOxxjD1qmEcDFsya56DSzddMY45EWuWYgYZWORi19W_MlPUa-kTNQaE417_hFfk9-ZNicCcTGhLiNZCU8LBMsz-1gfhb4VPWU53mUkDiy-lh2T57tq5XOQ/s1600/NC-Fall2013_x319.jpg" width="308" /></a><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Dan Duryea’s task
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Underworld Story</i> was
formidable. He had to create one of noir’s more subtle protagonists, a cynical,
manipulative, and morbidly opportunistic reporter, his idealism forgotten
somewhere among all the column inches and carriage returns (Yes, Mike Reese
will undoubtedly bring to mind the character of Chuck Tatum in Billy Wilder’s famous
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ace in the Hole</i> [1951], but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Underworld Story</i> reached screens
almost a full year earlier). Yet unlike Duryea’s heavies of the forties, this
character had to take a sharp turn back towards the light, and bring a
skeptical audience along for the ride. The Reese of the first two-thirds of the
film is a scoundrel of the first order: a man who will exploit any situation
for the sake of a payoff. Duryea’s tremendous range and feel for the part are
most evident in two scenes involving Becker, a seedy defense attorney (Roland
Winters).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The first—which
shows Reese at his worst—happens over a T-bone lunch in the city, as he tries
to convince the disinterested mouthpiece to take Molly’s case. Becker deflects
him with a stack of fresh headlines that already have her head in a noose. “If
she was white she wouldn’t stand a chance against these,” he says. Reese
parries with money, offering to split the forty thousand dollars raised by the
defense committee fifty-fifty. “She’ll hang,” sighs Becker. Reese’s response,
“So she’ll hang,” is so callous that it stops the lawyer cold, a forkful of
steak frozen in mid-air. Duryea knows that Reese must eventually turn the
corner, but he also realizes that the payoff will be better if the audience
harbors some doubt. The lunch scene is the linchpin in his character
development—Duryea wants us to hate him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yet Reese’s
primary function in the film is redemptive, and his moment of transformation—
new territory for Duryea—comes during his next encounter with Becker. This
scene takes place at the penitentiary, where the two men meet in order to
persuade Molly to cop to a reduced charge of manslaughter. She flatly refuses,
knowing that a guilty verdict at trial will mean the death penalty. In her
anger she compares Reese’s schemes to those of a slave trader, and rises to
leave. “Even if you die?!” he shouts in bewilderment, to which she fires back,
“All I have left is that I’m innocent. I won’t give it up!” This is the film’s
big moment, when the fact of Molly’s innocence finally obliterates Reese’s
cynicism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After she departs
with the matron, the camera’s attention returns to him. Duryea underplays
it—perfectly. His profile lit starkly against the shadows, he hems and haws,
toying with his hat as he asks Becker to accept all of the committee’s
money—including his cut—in order to give Molly a proper defense. Becker says
the whole wad may not be enough. “How fat can you get?” scoffs Reese, the book
on his cynicism slammed shut. Duryea makes the transformation so believable that
by film’s end it’s impossible to imagine any other actor in the role.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">What still
matters about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Underworld Story</i> and
Dan Duryea’s vivid performance is the extent to which the character of Reese
had to resonate, at least in a few ways, with post-war movie goers—people who
could drum up the cost of a double feature easily enough, but had somehow
missed out on the gravy train that everyone was so damn sure of back in 1945.
Duryea understood their frustrations, and he becomes a proxy for the audience, fulfilling
their desire to act out—to mouth off, to do the wrong thing, to get rich
quickly. A self-centered knucklehead who still manages to save the day must
have been a welcome, even liberating presence on the screen.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And although Duryea’s career playing the heel was typically thankless, he is now rightly regarded as one of noir’s essential performers. If his jaded screen persona is uninhibited by rules and morality, it’s only so the audience can bask in all that delicious freedom—at least until the end titles and house lights nudged them once again into conformity. ■</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;"><i>The Underworld Story</i> (1950)</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Written and Directed by Cy Endfield</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px;">Based on a story by </span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px;">Georgianna Craig</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Cinematography by Stanley Cortez</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Starring Dan Duryea, Gale Storm, Herbert Marshall, and Howard Da Silva</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Released Through United Artists</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Running time: 91 minutes</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisbbG64ly-ietWlW1yAn59LfVoxIeKAcMLOFYK2P3i4kTOBlBp4cYKu9I7wFZ13lwIZDrCbQpUcBK_IIgi3fNp_BfDqGisKlS4U2Q_BkHvctTjKQxWXfxJrw5VWi0eHvISCL2MXbmLYg/s1600/nc6_230x324.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisbbG64ly-ietWlW1yAn59LfVoxIeKAcMLOFYK2P3i4kTOBlBp4cYKu9I7wFZ13lwIZDrCbQpUcBK_IIgi3fNp_BfDqGisKlS4U2Q_BkHvctTjKQxWXfxJrw5VWi0eHvISCL2MXbmLYg/s1600/nc6_230x324.jpg" width="283" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: normal;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />I originally wrote this piece for </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: normal;">Noir City</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: normal;">, the quarterly magazine of the <a href="http://www.filmnoirfoundation.com/home.html" target="_blank">Film Noir Foundation</a>, and it is included in the recently released </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: normal;"><b>Noir City Annual 2013</b></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: normal;">. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/NOIR-CITY-ANNUAL-Best-Magazine/dp/0615928315/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395983932&sr=8-1&keywords=noir+city+annual" target="_blank">Do yourself a favor and order a copy from Amazon here</a>. The book is crammed full of the best in noir writing, and the proceeds go to the preservation of the original prints of these great films! </i><br />
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-22000169883041180282014-02-19T23:13:00.000-05:002014-02-19T23:19:48.088-05:00END OF THE ROAD (1944)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FR0y_uz22LM823b35LDph9ppgCY92ITjkY_g9O-TE2-SOEfQDDX_MLxs13jFD-D4D5gLE2t_NmVQia_S_T8OTyzw-vRvoIW88B0DH1090zz7uGscGNB2QZaTLSyNNXYs5Ml9E1JPCA/s1600/End-of-the-Road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7FR0y_uz22LM823b35LDph9ppgCY92ITjkY_g9O-TE2-SOEfQDDX_MLxs13jFD-D4D5gLE2t_NmVQia_S_T8OTyzw-vRvoIW88B0DH1090zz7uGscGNB2QZaTLSyNNXYs5Ml9E1JPCA/s1600/End-of-the-Road.jpg" height="640" width="424" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m
beginning to appreciate the inventive ways that George Blair uses his camera so
much that I find myself paying more attention to his technique than I am to the
story he’s trying to tell. That’s not to say that Blair’s films are bad,
because they certainly aren’t. His crime programmers for Republic Pictures are
undeniably cheap, inarguably brief, and patently unbelievable, but my journey
through his filmography has introduced me to several enjoyable films that,
while broadly forgotten by (or unknown to) most film noir enthusiasts,
undoubtedly deserve a place in the noir conversation. 1944’s <i>End of the Road</i> is an excellent example
of his work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Edward
Norris plays Bob Kirby, a reporter for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Living
Crime</i> magazine. Serious noirists will best remember Norris from the
spectacular and outrageous 1946 B movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Decoy</i>.
In this film, Kirby’s grumpy, cynical editor dispatches him north to the Q to
get an interview with one Walter Gribbon, recently convicted and sentenced to
the death house for the murder of his girlfriend Nora. After their meeting Kirby becomes convinced of Gribbon’s innocence and launches his own
investigation, even though his refusal to smear the condemned man costs him his job. He quickly comes to suspect
Chris Martin (John Abbott), one of the Nora’s coworkers, and orchestrates a
complicated plan to get him to confess. Kirby’s scheme eventually pays off, and
in pure throwback fashion he gets his job back with a big raise. Oh, he gets
the girl too. After all, there’s always a girl.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">We <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> in film noir territory here, even
though the movie ends well and Kirby is a completely cardboard good guy. The
visuals are solid: black, moody, and stylish. Shadows from venetian blinds striate
practically every wall. In an important scene that takes place in Martin’s
room, the neon light of the hotel’s sign throbs incessantly through the window,
disturbing the murderer’s sleep. This visual device was still years away from
being a cliché, and Martin actually takes a moment to lament the light’s debilitating
effect on his state of mind. This sort of neurotic fixation is heady stuff for
a 51-minute Poverty Row program picture from 1944—film noir was everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">More on
Abbott, he really makes this thing work. Where Edward Norris falls short as a
noir protagonist, Abbott totally delivers, and actually manages to wring a
great deal of pathos out of his limited screen time. His mounting sense of
desperation and alienation is compelling, particularly when he is unable to
find a job after quitting the florist shop in the wake of his crime. His
motivation for strangling Nora had been entirely financial—she refused to loan
him money. The notion of a man being unable to find work in the peak wartime
economy of 1944 would not have gone unnoticed by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">End of the Road</i>’s theatrical audience. Even a little picture such
as this one portends the labor uncertainties to come when the boys returned
home.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">One key
sequence is also critical in establishing the film’s noir credibility. In it, Kirby
attempts to unsettle Martin with the help of the German shepherd that was in
the flower shop at the time of the killing. Night after night, Kirby stands
vigil with the keening, forlorn dog outside Martin’s window. Martin becomes so unraveled
at its wailing that he abandons his apartment and flees to Los Angeles. The dog
functions as a reminder of Martin’s crime, returning from “out of the past” to
terrify him. This acknowledgment of the psychological underpinnings of a murder
is impressive for an early-cycle film noir, and plays clearly towards 1940s
audiences’ armchair fascination with Freudian psychology. Abbott’s performance
is strong enough that we empathize with him and begin to believe that Kirby’s
persecution is cruel. The British-born actor’s work here ample proof that in
spite of whatever else might be wrong with a film, when the actors give honest,
committed performances, it’s awfully difficult not to like the final product. Unfortunately
for me, the print of the movie that I watched was so dark through this section
of the movie that I was essentially only able to listen to Martin’s flight from
the grieving animal to the train station. I’m certain that had the quality of
the print been a little better, Blair would have made it well worth paying
attention to. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m
usually not that interested in the more technical aspects of filmmaking, but
much of what Blair does is difficult to ignore. In my essay on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2014/02/federal-agent-at-large-1950.html" target="_blank">Federal Agent at Large</a></i> I suggested that
Blair reminded me of Otto Preminger, though I’m beginning to reconsider whether
or not the resemblance isn’t to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jaws</i>-era
Steven Spielberg. Blair and cinematographer William Bradford (an Oscar nominee
for the very rare film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://cin-eater.blogspot.com/2012/11/women-in-war-1940.html" target="_blank">Women in War</a></i>) keep
the camera moving—though not usually on a crane like Preminger or tracks like
Ophüls. Instead we get a steady combination of pans and zooms, along
with several brief tracking shots. It’s a fine exercise in low-budget
filmmaking—Blair gets through several scenes with just a single camera, using a
prizefighter’s mix of combination shots to keep our eyes in motion. And his
scene transitions are marvelous: wipes, extreme close-ups, and a rapid 180° pan
that might make your head spin. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Unbelievable
story. Darn good B moviemaking. Give <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">End
of the Road</i> a chance, if you get the chance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">End of the Road</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> (1944)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Directed
and produced by George Blair<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Screenplay
by Denison Clift and Gertrude Walker<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cinematography
by William Bradford<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Starring
Edward Norris, John Abbott, and June Storey<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Released
by Republic Pictures<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Running
time: 51 minutes</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-82002679371809149552014-02-03T16:30:00.002-05:002014-09-25T15:04:53.558-04:00FEDERAL AGENT AT LARGE (1950)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0XIBjEIH3MBsKK9c3PuQ0UfVaYNM0E1qPTBkTx_nEmM-a1_QZAwEF3VZD3dQrOdwkCuufDhL57eYNODd7JKCrRzRMv7QzCh0VVB_f0J0XA0dgmVxKx7wAYwJ8in0pREtj23PA0YokdA/s1600/Fed_Agent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0XIBjEIH3MBsKK9c3PuQ0UfVaYNM0E1qPTBkTx_nEmM-a1_QZAwEF3VZD3dQrOdwkCuufDhL57eYNODd7JKCrRzRMv7QzCh0VVB_f0J0XA0dgmVxKx7wAYwJ8in0pREtj23PA0YokdA/s1600/Fed_Agent.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">“To beat somebody with
your fists doesn’t make you anybody. On the other hand, a shiv gives you real
authority.” </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">What a great line that
is—hardboiled and hopelessly nostalgic. The character that says it in
Republic’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Federal Agent at Large</i> is
a nervous twitch called Jumpy. Nostalgic? Of course. What kind of hood totes a
knife? One circa 2014 stop-and-frisk and you’re off to Rikers. Then again,
maybe by 1950 the nostalgia was wearing thin. Late in the picture Jumpy learns
the hard way not to bring a switchblade to a gunfight.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifbHlUH7X-Mui1Wlq5oIGJWmWSbXgRkZEBSaDWruM6T-zxMB3kJp4g4IFHKcb9CJmlaSJwWegYJw3-MxL4yYn5gCxF0qvfN32CxPENUP-TLbbiVenG5buz2PMqJ7FAs9oxJXeQc97efQ/s1600/Silence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifbHlUH7X-Mui1Wlq5oIGJWmWSbXgRkZEBSaDWruM6T-zxMB3kJp4g4IFHKcb9CJmlaSJwWegYJw3-MxL4yYn5gCxF0qvfN32CxPENUP-TLbbiVenG5buz2PMqJ7FAs9oxJXeQc97efQ/s1600/Silence.jpg" height="213" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Silence of the Lambs! Note the one-sheet<br />hanging above the TV at Quantico.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; text-align: center;">Lots of people, even
devoted crime and noir fans, consider Poverty Row stuff like this practically
unwatchable, especially considering the atrocious prints that collectors have
access to. Not me. This is my favorite end of the pool. The water here may be a
little cloudy, but the temperature suits me just fine. Beside, who can’t fall
in love with this kind of dialogue? Here’s another one. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; text-align: center;">“Guys like you, they all come to the same end— in the pen or in a ditch.” </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; text-align: center;">That’s courtesy of the film’s big-shot heavy,
“Mr. Upstairs.” He’s giving the title character, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; text-align: center;">an undercover T-man trying to hustle some diamonds in exchange for a gambling stake,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; text-align: center;"> some free advice. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large; text-align: center;">You ready to watch this yet? I thought so.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpdojKngAVAFOHL7IKlQ5iNXh2u7IQZO4N0OYW0s17s00NN_H6Qj9tSY6QvA4CLPt_i-uW0nthvtnP4sMhOEpl2ACQo6sddHF0Z6ivpHrug_0SOzl-HNab-rNigQvxyx2781ENMDRyA/s1600/7484194754_ea84954fce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpdojKngAVAFOHL7IKlQ5iNXh2u7IQZO4N0OYW0s17s00NN_H6Qj9tSY6QvA4CLPt_i-uW0nthvtnP4sMhOEpl2ACQo6sddHF0Z6ivpHrug_0SOzl-HNab-rNigQvxyx2781ENMDRyA/s1600/7484194754_ea84954fce.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Jumpy. Mr. Upstairs. The dame?
Call her Solitaire. With character names as delicious as these, the plot practically becomes secondary. Here it is anyway. The Feds send Mark Reed (Kent Taylor) down Mexico
way to get to the bottom of an elaborate gold smuggling ring. Seems like a gang
of hoods, run by Mr. Upstairs, have blackmailed a university archaeology
professor (Robert Rockwell) into sneaking the gold through customs hidden
inside artifacts from his dig. Reed infiltrates the gang and things unfold
about as you’d expect them to—until a whopper of a surprise at the end almost pushes the movie into film noir territory. (Not quite though.) There’s almost no chance
you’ll track this down and see it, so I don’t mind spoiling: There’s no sunset
to ride off into for agent Reed. Just when you think he’s about the turn the
tables on Mr. Upstairs, the old man uncorks a revolver and ventilates him.
Borrowed from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">T-Men</i>? Maybe, but
eyebrow-raising nonetheless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXmNBTq869a7bKNNtaxagvK1PZmNzyVZRzSIxN0g2zU8OWITtrr8pqtgIl_PxlX5ESYEVcK5r10V8TZ7SPCaFDv8Wl_ov0MnVDOF8cNX45pkPzWS2Wub0LuAosvbnvPilp3pxBrUmmWA/s1600/Dorothy+Patrick+++++06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXmNBTq869a7bKNNtaxagvK1PZmNzyVZRzSIxN0g2zU8OWITtrr8pqtgIl_PxlX5ESYEVcK5r10V8TZ7SPCaFDv8Wl_ov0MnVDOF8cNX45pkPzWS2Wub0LuAosvbnvPilp3pxBrUmmWA/s1600/Dorothy+Patrick+++++06.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Star Kent Taylor acted in
Hollywood for five decades, but he’s a forgettable hero. Likeable but bland, he
reprised Chester Morris’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boston Blackie</i>
character on television for three years in the early 1950s. Dorothy Patrick
actually gets top billing as Solitaire, the is-she-or-ain’t-she-a-bad-girl
nightclub owner. Patrick accounts for most of the film’s verve. She was coming
off a strong showing in the 1949 Oscar heavyweight <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Come to the Stable</i>, but her career never took off as it should
have. Film noir fans will undoubtedly recognize her as the girl Friday in
1949’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/2009/06/follow-me-quietly-1949.html" target="_blank">Follow Me Quietly</a></i>. Bag of
potatoes Robert Rockwell is billed third. He and Eve Arden spun <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Our Miss Brooks</i>’s into some small
measure of immortality, but then the cast falls into obscurity. All the fourth billed star, Estelita Rodriguez, has
to offer is a pair of songs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is a little movie, 59
minutes long and relegated to sound stages and the back lot. Just like Anthony
Mann’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">T-Men</i>, it ends with a gun
battle on a big ship tied up in Long Beach. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Federal
Agent at Large</i> isn’t a knock-off though, the budget wouldn’t have allowed
for it. Make no mistake, we are in bad movie territory here. But look past
budget and production values and you’ll find something to like. Director George
Blair (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lonely Heart Bandits</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Destination Big House</i>) didn’t have much
to work with beyond a routine script peppered with a few great lines, but he managed
several competent moving-camera shots and starkly lit nighttime interiors and
exteriors. The brawls and gunfights are far from boring, and the way the film establishes its flashback structure and voiceover narration (minimal) is quite original. If you manage to watch this and can’t find
anything to like, then at least get a load of the poster. If you don’t like
that, something’s wrong with you. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Federal Agent at Large</span></i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> (1950)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Produced by Stephen Auer<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Directed by George Blair<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Written by Albert DeMond<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Georgia; font-size: large;">Starring Dorothy Patrick,
Kent Taylor, and Robert Rockwell</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Cinematography by John MacBurnie<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Released by Republic Pictures</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #bf9000; font-size: large;">Running time: 60 minutes</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-57826899994504767452013-12-19T23:30:00.000-05:002013-12-19T23:16:28.334-05:00THE OTHER WOMAN (1954)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhScF2qaBgD_ductN_fZis_uS03kEl6edBXWUHuJ4D2XNXuc6xJbfjFE7w4qmuMKiCUjvcV3CGqkUMDL11ecIdIdHWGbCaYM755kaKWLHoyMINaIqvSARWBNcYQWksIOQZjKM9RdcZvAnI/s1600-h/Other-Woman-Poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448145276288304802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhScF2qaBgD_ductN_fZis_uS03kEl6edBXWUHuJ4D2XNXuc6xJbfjFE7w4qmuMKiCUjvcV3CGqkUMDL11ecIdIdHWGbCaYM755kaKWLHoyMINaIqvSARWBNcYQWksIOQZjKM9RdcZvAnI/s640/Other-Woman-Poster.jpg" width="429" /></span></a></div>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">One of the joys of cultivating an interest in film history lies in the discovery of a marvelous yet forgotten film or filmmaker, such as Hugo Haas and his 1954 film noir <span style="font-style: italic;">The Other Woman</span>. The Jewish-born Haas was an established comedic actor in his native Czechoslovakia who also successfully wrote, produced, and directed his own films. In 1938 he fled the Nazis for France, then finally settled in America and spent the war years doing stateside radio broadcasts in his native language. (Haas’ brother Pavel, a well-known composer, would die in Auschwitz.) Haas worked to improve his English and resumed acting in the mid-forties, and although he worked regularly in Hollywood, and even gave acting lessons, he couldn’t achieve the fame he had enjoyed in Europe. He was an ardent admirer of Chaplin, and envisioned himself succeeding in the same writer-director-star mold as the famous comedian. Wanting desperately to regain his status as a filmmaker, he used his life savings to launch his own company, Hugo Haas Productions, through which he brought to the screen a fascinating string of ultra low budget crime pictures. From 1951 – 62 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in a dozen features, many based on Czech source material, which he considered cinematic calling cards. The “written, produced, and directed by” title board of most are emblazoned with his signature. Yet in the case of <i>The Other Woman</i>, ostensibly a crime thriller but really a movie about the movie business, Haas’ deep-rooted frustration with his status (or lack thereof) in Hollywood bubbles to the surface in moments where he castigates the industry establishment and its collective failure to embrace his talents.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD28hHChOjIyFmrhM8PKyp4q3M_0DOJzeTkD9g23RyQ7Y_ysnEdQFrkhssap2nIGuO6E6iQf3ldPtws6FDpcdXjCT9b0Fa1mRLKJGma-BEfs3DKy8jiezQbFaZcfHfkQeSWXkAa-UrttY/s1600-h/Hugo-Haas.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448144947711921090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD28hHChOjIyFmrhM8PKyp4q3M_0DOJzeTkD9g23RyQ7Y_ysnEdQFrkhssap2nIGuO6E6iQf3ldPtws6FDpcdXjCT9b0Fa1mRLKJGma-BEfs3DKy8jiezQbFaZcfHfkQeSWXkAa-UrttY/s320/Hugo-Haas.jpg" style="height: 320px; width: 238px;" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Haas’ American films are remembered today primarily for his R. Crumb-like obsession with casting buxom blonde bombshells. He directed and starred alongside Cleo Moore in seven pictures, including <span style="font-style: italic;">The Other Woman</span>. Moore was a Louisiana girl of epic proportions who worked as a cover model for men’s magazines and, in the wake of Marilyn Monroe’s success, made her mark as a B-Movie vixen. She and Haas are inexorably linked in collective memory, and while Moore wasn’t a terrible actress she also wasn’t a strong lead, and it’s worth considering how differently Haas’ films might be received today if he hadn’t so slavishly cast her in them. In Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward’s brief analysis of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Other Woman</span> they actually claim, quite erroneously, the pair were married. Yet surely it’s unfair to dismiss Haas as a from-hunger purveyor of drive-in cheesecake. <span style="font-style: italic;">The Other Woman</span> demands otherwise. Despite its obviously low budget production values and cast, it’s a polished, highly personal film with a nuanced, clever script that doesn’t compromise its own dark underpinnings — even if the story of blackmail and murder is hackneyed. What elevates<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Other Woman </span>over similar potboilers is how Haas uses the story and visual tropes of film noir to comment about his personal life in Hollywood.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3LZ3m5-MERwbgARoxPE5bLuGPREiZeEqIlHInaB75ZtJwO_YsXc6r2ODkTpjoicWMEPRWBcmqCC7ooXnQlt4IGpB8JVrAyZ7-YZiLm-RUQJfjmhOl-MwS8ykVLNc4o6pNa7gCgm8utm4/s1600-h/Cleo_Moore-1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448144925170605666" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3LZ3m5-MERwbgARoxPE5bLuGPREiZeEqIlHInaB75ZtJwO_YsXc6r2ODkTpjoicWMEPRWBcmqCC7ooXnQlt4IGpB8JVrAyZ7-YZiLm-RUQJfjmhOl-MwS8ykVLNc4o6pNa7gCgm8utm4/s320/Cleo_Moore-1.jpg" style="height: 320px; width: 234px;" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The story is routine: Sherry Steward (Moore) is working on a film set when she gets a shot at a fill-in part. Although the role only calls for three lines, she blows it. Humiliated and seething, she blames her failure on director Walter Darman (Haas), and decides to gets revenge. Sherry eventually drugs Walter and convinces him they enjoyed a night of raucous sex, which resulted in a pregnancy. He never believes her, but is terrified that a scandal will ruin him. Sherry demands $50,000 to stay mum, but doesn’t realize Walter hasn’t got the money — his career is in a shambles. His pictures are deemed too hopelessly “artistic” to make a profit and his studio chief father-in-law wants to cut him loose. Walter reckons it makes more sense to simply murder Sherry, and does. The police see right through his alibi, and Walter soon confesses.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">While there’s nothing outwardly special about the premise, it allows Haas essentially to play himself on screen — a struggling émigré film director trying to create art in a shallow town where the bottom line is all that matters. The cleverest aspect of the setup is Walter’s marriage to the boss’ daughter. The relationship allows Haas to not-so-subtly allude to the nepotism inherent in Hollywood (don’t forget David O. Selznick’s marriage to Irene Mayer), while at the same time creating a filmic relationship that allows for on-screen arguments about the nature of the movie business. The entire arc of the film, in which Haas’ character moves from one sort of prison to another, is also telling. Along the way he falls prey to Sherry, who symbolizes everything bad about Hollywood. In spite of Walter’s efforts to appease her, he never fully understands why she is trying to destroy him — and because of this he eventually finds himself in a prison that he desperately wants us to believe is not of his own making.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUPVh-SuSClcelCHPhfinuGfkR6aOCJoV1lrHmANQSs-4ICNJC7XJcsUdz5ZFDeWwas58fEnUMiWLfAXkxmoQJanlD9zvvTegZG7K6eqBvXeTcOi_rIG83XFaKRsbrra96_Kmz3VtmuY/s1600-h/Lobby-Card.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448145273645270226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUPVh-SuSClcelCHPhfinuGfkR6aOCJoV1lrHmANQSs-4ICNJC7XJcsUdz5ZFDeWwas58fEnUMiWLfAXkxmoQJanlD9zvvTegZG7K6eqBvXeTcOi_rIG83XFaKRsbrra96_Kmz3VtmuY/s400/Lobby-Card.jpg" style="height: 310px; width: 400px;" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Hugo Haas intended<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Other Woman </span>to serve as a parable of his own life. The first scene sets the stage as Sherry and a coworker watch Darman coaching an actor on how to properly play a crucial prison scene. Sherry remarks about the harried director, <span style="font-style: italic;">“He’s quite a ham.”</span> The savvy coworker expresses surprise that she isn’t hip to Darman’s background: <span style="font-style: italic;">“Are you kidding? He was a big star in Europe. Here he played bits — just nothing — guess you have to know the right people.”</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Yet Darman does know the right people. He’s the producer and director of the film only because of his marriage to the daughter of studio production chief, Charles Lester (Jack Macy). He remains in perpetual disagreement with his father-in-law about what constitutes good filmmaking however — the older man is emblematic of the cookie cutter efficiency of the studio system, while Darman is portrayed as the intellectualized ‘continental,’ more interested in art than profits. The pair tangles over the status of Darman’s current directorial project:<span style="font-style: italic;"> “Look Walter, I ran the whole picture twice … I even talked it over with the projectionist — everybody’s opinion is valuable. I admit, there are some artistic shots, but in general it’s a dull picture. I’m sorry, but there’s no beating about the bush when big money is involved. Every time we have these arguments Walter, you put on the expression of a martyr; you’ve been in America long enough to catch onto the public’s tastes.”</span> Offended, Walter lashes out at Lester, at the same time suggesting how Haas really feels about the movie industry’s pandering status quo: <span style="font-style: italic;">“The public’s taste is much higher than you might expect … but it seems to be easier to make pictures for kids and imbeciles — making little delinquents of a whole generation, and the poor adults have to sit through it and suffer. Always the same story, the same characters, the same happy endings, it’s just ridiculous.”</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCA4D5zZEUNkvxlOnYTfsAHU4jp7I4hdQH4KHtEbeTkvdGQUjZjtqd9NsRrwmGDCc82AvwjPk7M49jJljwiDuTi32-whIq7VsMyi8u8KOa3e7467OfPXELp2qRmpI694B4u-reZFW8Fak/s1600-h/Cleo-Moore_Cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448144946105263186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCA4D5zZEUNkvxlOnYTfsAHU4jp7I4hdQH4KHtEbeTkvdGQUjZjtqd9NsRrwmGDCc82AvwjPk7M49jJljwiDuTi32-whIq7VsMyi8u8KOa3e7467OfPXELp2qRmpI694B4u-reZFW8Fak/s320/Cleo-Moore_Cover.jpg" style="height: 320px; width: 243px;" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Later, after Walter’s film fails dismally with a sneak preview audience, the two men’s relationship implodes and Lester berates Darman:<span style="font-style: italic;"> “In all my thirty years of picture-making I never saw anything like it … I never felt so terrible in my life — I should’ve taken the scissors myself, instead of arguing with a stubborn, art-stricken genius — and cut all the dragging meditations and psychological nonsense … and deep ideas.” </span>When Walter accuses the older man of sabotaging the preview, Lester storms out, telling his son-in-law, <span style="font-style: italic;">“I’m through with you.” </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In <i>The Other Woman</i>’s final moments, as Darman finds himself behind a real set of bars, he laments his situation, putting a new spin on Lester’s formula for profitable moviemaking: <span style="font-style: italic;">“How did it happen? How did it happen? Movies. Take a handful of sex, mix it with violence, give it some comedy relief … and a happy ending.”</span> Then, as the end music begins to swell, he lifts his eyes, stares directly into the camera and says, <span style="font-style: italic;">“I’m sorry, no happy ending for this one.”</span> It’s a wonderful moment in the film, and a slickly layered piece of cinema that bookends the opening, when Darman naïvely advised the young actor how to play the very scene he is now relegated to. One is left with the overwhelming conviction that the pretense between fiction and reality has been dropped, and we are no longer certain whether the spoken lines and the prison setting are more relevant to the character, the actor playing him, or the director of the film — all of whom represent different parts of Hugo Haas.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwGlI-GgBSrQrxsJGO0tmjGtTttC-xuBe9VJX0MQ7oS7O46PHP9bTxUyg3ArdxXPPpj9U6hAVreUPL_1ZolaoAljyzlHLdQ1LmcLbyNdRNlQTRwx6onLkqaXywjmnXDgRjDYsvo7LDsDQ/s1600-h/Cleo_Moore-2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448144931337816178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwGlI-GgBSrQrxsJGO0tmjGtTttC-xuBe9VJX0MQ7oS7O46PHP9bTxUyg3ArdxXPPpj9U6hAVreUPL_1ZolaoAljyzlHLdQ1LmcLbyNdRNlQTRwx6onLkqaXywjmnXDgRjDYsvo7LDsDQ/s320/Cleo_Moore-2.jpg" style="height: 320px; width: 247px;" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It’s clear that Haas indeed envisions himself as a tragically exiled and underappreciated artist — which he was. It also seems that he suffered, as most artists do, from self-loathing and guilt — it’s essential to remember that he was also a survivor horribly affected by the War. In spite of his personal demons, or maybe because of them, what he accomplished in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Other Woman</span> is meaningful: he gives us an enthralling low-budget film that is part crime thriller, part Hollywood exposé, and part anguished parable of his perplexing Tinseltown odyssey.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Other Woman</span> is Hollywood.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #996633; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>The Other Woman </i>(1954)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #996633; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Director: Hugo Haas</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #996633;"> Cinematographer: Eddie Fitzgerald</span> <span style="color: #996633;"><br />Screenplay: Hugo Haas</span> <span style="color: #996633;"><br />Starring: Hugo Haas, Cleo Moore</span> <span style="color: #996633;"><br />Released by: Twentieth Century Fox</span> <span style="color: #996633;"><br />Running time: 81 minutes</span></span>Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-12297708881479469652013-11-15T17:27:00.000-05:002014-03-28T01:13:24.806-04:00THE CLAY PIGEON (1949)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiCL6PpT3nqCcfQRuYF-H9BUFAoz7BEG2gQqtWerftcmbw_9eRo4U_uJcemd1hn8LxTUYnJf2PxhLSGllAyQfNYANiuXqjoczAgfPRff859o8JU45xArgrOgTE7ALSa-8DtQhAoJGog/s1600/Clay-Pigeon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiCL6PpT3nqCcfQRuYF-H9BUFAoz7BEG2gQqtWerftcmbw_9eRo4U_uJcemd1hn8LxTUYnJf2PxhLSGllAyQfNYANiuXqjoczAgfPRff859o8JU45xArgrOgTE7ALSa-8DtQhAoJGog/s640/Clay-Pigeon.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I tend to celebrate B movies here, and I’m seldom as critical as I could be.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> But even I have to take my shots at <i>The Clay Pigeon</i>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Jim
Fletcher (Bill Williams) wakes up in a military hospital with a blind man
clawing at his throat his throat. A nurse intervenes, but rather than offering
comfort she calls Jim traitor. He soon learns that he’s accused of ratting his fellow
POWs out to the Japanese, who then tortured and executed them. After Jim’s convalescence, he’ll face a treason charges. The only problem is that he can’t
remember whether he did it or not — he has amnesia! Hoping to somehow recover
his lost memories and clear his name, Jim (inexplicably unguarded) escapes the
hospital and flees for San Diego — remembering that his best friend from
the Navy, Mark Gregory, lives there with his wife Martha (Barbara Hale). Martha
is charming as she ushers Jim inside, but when she excuses herself to make
coffee Jim notices the headline on her newspaper: “James Fletcher, Seaman First
Class, Wanted for Treason! Blamed for Torture Killing of Mark Gregory” Holy
Smokes! Jim rushes into the kitchen to explain, and finds Martha frantically
attempting to dial 1119. (See what I did there?) They fight! Martha scrapes and
claws like a wildcat, but Jim subdues her. He then uses her phone to contact
another buddy from the POW camp, Ted Niles, who agrees to help. Dragging a
trussed-up Martha along for the ride, Jim takes her Plymouth and makes for the
City of Angels. (Now folks, if the baby-faced Jim was actually guilty, this
wouldn’t be called <i>The Clay Pigeon</i>,
so once Ted gets involved it becomes pretty clear who the real culprit is. If
nothing else, this is a movie that just can’t keep a secret.) At any rate, Jim
drives; Martha stews. Then, in one of B filmdom’s most mind-boggling leaps in
logic, somewhere along the road, and in spite of her being a kidnap victim,
Martha accepts Jim’s protestations of innocence and decides, in light of any
evidence in his favor, that he can’t be responsible for her husband’s death. For
the rest of the hour (this is a short one), she makes like his girl Friday
(Hale neatly anticipating her career-defining role as <i>Perry Mason</i>’s Della Street). And in no time at all, everything
works out in their favor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Really?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Richard
Fleischer directed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Clay Pigeon</i> for
newly minted RKO chief Howard Hughes. Fleischer knew his business (three words:
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Narrow Margin</i>), so the direction
is up to scratch. This moves quickly and with purpose, the pacing and staging are fine,
the acting is competent, it has several stylish scenes (including a nice on
location cat and mouse sequence through L.A.’s Chinatown) and more than enough
tension in the final reel (especially impressive when the denouement is a no-brainer).
The problems here have to do with the script, with the limitations of the running time, and most
importantly, with the film’s failure to live up to the responsibility of its
premise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But in terms
of competent storytelling <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Clay Pigeon</i>
is a misfire. Worse than that, it must have been terribly insulting to a large
segment of its 1949 audience. Look no further than Martha’s change of heart.
Here’s a woman who lost her husband to the war — and not even in combat.
Mark was executed in a POW camp after being accused of stealing rations by a
fellow American, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">his best friend</i>. Now
that bastard, a traitor on the front page of every paper, is at her front door
— making a fool out of her and her husband’s memory. Martha’s fight with Jim is
an eyebrow raiser: savage, believable, and utterly appropriate, but her
inexplicable and abrupt change of heart mere moments later is the film’s great
crime. It does a profound injustice to the postwar audience members who lost
loved ones overseas and couldn’t move on quite so easily as Martha does. I
don’t mean to suggest that there wasn’t a plausible way to get her on Jim’s
side, but rather that the movie’s attempt is pathetic. Surely new testimony
from a fellow prisoner who saw the newspaper, or even the early return of Jim’s
lost memories might have convinced Martha of his innocence. Instead, she comes
to believe in him even before he himself — don’t forget his amnesia — can
recall exactly what happened. The next thing the audience knows, they’re shacked
up in a beachfront cottage, swimming and cavorting a week away while Jim gets
his head straight. It just doesn’t wash, and this is a movie — B or not
— that owed an audience with fresh memories of cataclysm a little more
respect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There’s a
oft-noted moment however, when it tries to make good, but I say it still comes
up short. Earlier I mentioned the foot chase sequence through the (strangely
deserted) streets of Chinatown (One of them, at least. Back then L.A. had three:
Old Chinatown, New Chinatown, and China City). In the scene, Jim ducks into a
building and shelters in the home of a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Japanese</i>
American woman, who also happens to be a war widow. She covers for Jim when the
hoods barge in, and we soon discover that her dead husband earned the DSC as a
member of the legendary Japanese-American 442<sup>nd</sup> Infantry Regiment. The
script expects us to take for granted that she’s too simple to read the
newspaper, because although she easily intuits that Jim’s pursuers aren’t the
policemen that they claim to be, she’s inexplicably unaware that the man in her
back room is the most wanted fugitive in the southland. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Certainly
the scene pays homage to the Japanese Americans who fought for their country,
an important balancing act given that one of the movie’s villains is the POW
camp guard, Tokoyama (Richard Loo), who murdered Martha’s husband and is now
hanging around chop suey joints in Chinatown. This all raises an important question:
What in the world would a fugitive Japanese war criminal, or even a Japanese
American widow, be doing in Chinatown? Weren’t the Japanese responsible for the
murder of nearly 6,000,000 Chinese citizens throughout the course of the war?<sup>1</sup>
Believe me folks, I dug into this as deeply as I could and all indications are
that those of Japanese descent steered clear of Chinese neighborhoods in the
months and years after the war. It’s unfathomable to me how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Clay Pigeon </i>postulates that anyone
and everyone of Asian descent would make themselves at home in Chinatown. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">War is
terrible, and some people do horrible things to get through it. In the end, the
most troubling aspect of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Clay Pigeon</i>
is its failure to grapple with this — treason here is just another plot
device, an excuse for Jim Fletcher to run. His amnesia only serves to keep us in
the dark for a brief time while the movie builds some steam — until, just
like Martha, we get to know him well enough to understand that such a nice,
clean-cut boy couldn’t possibly have betrayed his pals. (Go ahead Martha, why
not just forget about your dead husband and marry the guy?) Well, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Act of Violence</i>, Van Heflin’s clean-cut
Frank Enley doesn’t have the luxury of amnesia. Enley actually committed the
crimes that Jim Fletcher is accused of, and he has to live with himself. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Act of Violence</i> dwells long and hard on
Enley’s guilt — and builds forcefully towards his desperate final act of
contrition. There’s a reason why it’s a minor classic and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Clay Pigeon</i> is merely a cardboard exercise “in what happens
next?” moviemaking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What does
happen next? They get married, of course. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Clay Pigeon</i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> (1949)<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">RKO Radio
Pictures<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Directed
by Richard Fleischer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Produced
by Herman Schlom<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Written
by Carl Foreman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Cinematography
by Robert De Grasse<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #bf9000; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Starring
Bill Williams and Barbara Hale<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #bf9000;">Running
Time: 63 minutes</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><sup>1 </sup>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP3.HTM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-22103650849146318762013-10-15T14:58:00.001-04:002013-11-22T02:49:09.366-05:00PEROXIDE POSTERS: A batch of B-Crime Beauties! <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here’s a large set of B movie babes (girls <i>and</i> posters, take your pick) to tide you over for a while. Here’s looking at you, Cleo Moore!<br /><br />Right click all you like, but </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">please link back to me </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">if you post any images on another site (especially Facebook). Oh, and if you are feeling generous, following the blog publicly would be much appreciated! Thanks, and enjoy — you mugs! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5AV31Oo6NaUJAUSczsRDLrYXhe7LZ_nhSESYUbIu0VwYz3AKYMeA8Hca-9kinqw4WVvHk_Gs5gFDg6SkdmvhfOF_D9SEEJalTUoEFiabpxxVYcGN-Gl0Fsja2OlMn-1c8pfq_-PTh00/s1600/Bait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5AV31Oo6NaUJAUSczsRDLrYXhe7LZ_nhSESYUbIu0VwYz3AKYMeA8Hca-9kinqw4WVvHk_Gs5gFDg6SkdmvhfOF_D9SEEJalTUoEFiabpxxVYcGN-Gl0Fsja2OlMn-1c8pfq_-PTh00/s640/Bait.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1954</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Jx1fHDM2h4UBEBdolKrnXHF6vSfVDRnj8NHpKCRn6nKrNXPtQzO-Hj9plOpKAKowAzCa9US6R1Dd7INMQ6EOHXlfhQnuRtCVDA5bB3rP0XZDDFScPHoERNalRYL3Jbd9Is6kksqcbL8/s1600/Blackmail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Jx1fHDM2h4UBEBdolKrnXHF6vSfVDRnj8NHpKCRn6nKrNXPtQzO-Hj9plOpKAKowAzCa9US6R1Dd7INMQ6EOHXlfhQnuRtCVDA5bB3rP0XZDDFScPHoERNalRYL3Jbd9Is6kksqcbL8/s640/Blackmail.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1947</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6wErsz6ePu1-KoiTUQJxOkiQfO2PoL34yZI7oo8gbN3ZGvwOm4cna_MJ9AtwUhJDgnNzfWFfqQsawz9baM3O6m2_ChytrkL0rV_3kGYVUFUIhWi68SFh46OzvETzEPL2cfmGGPDeSKM/s1600/Blonde+Alibi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6wErsz6ePu1-KoiTUQJxOkiQfO2PoL34yZI7oo8gbN3ZGvwOm4cna_MJ9AtwUhJDgnNzfWFfqQsawz9baM3O6m2_ChytrkL0rV_3kGYVUFUIhWi68SFh46OzvETzEPL2cfmGGPDeSKM/s640/Blonde+Alibi.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1946</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0sJuI7jysyxEtTb6uTLOQHNZo2ZMbtXN6WnicS5GWE24BWa7m3JWUdMeOV3iJxLtmh_uUy6y8qlX7nPmYkDe-jYYhMuMipqAVJeeY43bU73LSbnBkZHWw5uiOi4ESxqn_YSWZmGulOt4/s1600/Blonde+Ice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0sJuI7jysyxEtTb6uTLOQHNZo2ZMbtXN6WnicS5GWE24BWa7m3JWUdMeOV3iJxLtmh_uUy6y8qlX7nPmYkDe-jYYhMuMipqAVJeeY43bU73LSbnBkZHWw5uiOi4ESxqn_YSWZmGulOt4/s640/Blonde+Ice.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1948</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXnstbmnly5MbE-Pw8C289wa6lJOmBxw8IriQssVZ0kXEXmCs6zSBLlbPPnH4YC8uyf-R8dGgJ5IECoDfSjW-Xr2SScmY7gLsouw147Hpm1SY1s6O92836dK7Z95ODCMbEjvNPfAu_oo/s1600/Blonde-Bait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXnstbmnly5MbE-Pw8C289wa6lJOmBxw8IriQssVZ0kXEXmCs6zSBLlbPPnH4YC8uyf-R8dGgJ5IECoDfSjW-Xr2SScmY7gLsouw147Hpm1SY1s6O92836dK7Z95ODCMbEjvNPfAu_oo/s640/Blonde-Bait.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1956<br />
Another classic image of “That <i>Pick-Up</i> Girl,” Beverly Michaels. This was Bev’s last movie, but her son is one of the top editors in Hollywood, and an Oscar winner for his work on the <i>Bourne</i> films.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGqug71DyrwQG91eOUJ2791-HVoS7ljc5P11fnshO-wce8z3WXkf3n5eNJIU8tzqWg2yfoasT94I2Spq7b4w9G50REjweKfET4QsbRAf1JXR2ucR4MaGWi6p5oPigNJC8IroV9gRRoiAY/s1600/Blonde-Blackmailer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGqug71DyrwQG91eOUJ2791-HVoS7ljc5P11fnshO-wce8z3WXkf3n5eNJIU8tzqWg2yfoasT94I2Spq7b4w9G50REjweKfET4QsbRAf1JXR2ucR4MaGWi6p5oPigNJC8IroV9gRRoiAY/s640/Blonde-Blackmailer.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1955</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTgVM7qGXVfRbcNATaJeWCoTfz50UmtkmzhSrZbqksEwdlf0MffXo-apam8I8OcEDfFDJTp4siy3lsUcub5Tidrq_K8qmVYn-T9T7QY0zU_SaXuPTWhoxO2Z9z1HzzmXRsC1weMSDSiA/s1600/Blonde-Pick-Up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTgVM7qGXVfRbcNATaJeWCoTfz50UmtkmzhSrZbqksEwdlf0MffXo-apam8I8OcEDfFDJTp4siy3lsUcub5Tidrq_K8qmVYn-T9T7QY0zU_SaXuPTWhoxO2Z9z1HzzmXRsC1weMSDSiA/s640/Blonde-Pick-Up.jpg" width="432" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1951</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDz_01LKCig1QQ2zlVcEFbKIkylMfbbrZGNC-jCC_3r_yS2aZMOl0yhik-QZuyRWM-94zsi8UQ19CntkJxFiujXJiqDt32bVypzv0f-_EklHudk49vetVOuIx5iOenVnbQWfP0FKXcUE/s1600/Blonde_Bandit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDz_01LKCig1QQ2zlVcEFbKIkylMfbbrZGNC-jCC_3r_yS2aZMOl0yhik-QZuyRWM-94zsi8UQ19CntkJxFiujXJiqDt32bVypzv0f-_EklHudk49vetVOuIx5iOenVnbQWfP0FKXcUE/s640/Blonde_Bandit.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1950 </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLY6HXQ2HwAoHUMxaM10hVTIWsye_XWI5joiNBgTp0tj-Pd9HkycsuFi-LiVGyB2K9TqM96z03gwYP8d8uvRiv4RPndObWq4SEl9bM_WpMS5kAOYg2MEt3QLKLQ6aCsBlJjWtEbj1YIk/s1600/Blone+Sinner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLY6HXQ2HwAoHUMxaM10hVTIWsye_XWI5joiNBgTp0tj-Pd9HkycsuFi-LiVGyB2K9TqM96z03gwYP8d8uvRiv4RPndObWq4SEl9bM_WpMS5kAOYg2MEt3QLKLQ6aCsBlJjWtEbj1YIk/s640/Blone+Sinner.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1956</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_wILdja6yAOmHlcpOe5P3636ndEVBPwmWrZ-293bBnXJzZh_eMZTDFLwr55FDO6m2woYVLIr_cN7gc-SbzsiJFTiEGFImTM3uHlJpoPKjniK4qjzkrCz2TjDYeGIWmkQMOgTqM-OyoE/s1600/Calling-Homicide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_wILdja6yAOmHlcpOe5P3636ndEVBPwmWrZ-293bBnXJzZh_eMZTDFLwr55FDO6m2woYVLIr_cN7gc-SbzsiJFTiEGFImTM3uHlJpoPKjniK4qjzkrCz2TjDYeGIWmkQMOgTqM-OyoE/s640/Calling-Homicide.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1956</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7XdCYzm8r2_2DwcB6mpvRK1NAhaRzzA6PxH4zzRUEcrqh7H3poEZWTMh7tGQ64giirvANp-sPK51bqrUWUifo4nW_WOqJTCI3euphKO7IrR74tAaePB1YwJdfPN3hvYU-0KG55BkDIj8/s1600/Confidence-Girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7XdCYzm8r2_2DwcB6mpvRK1NAhaRzzA6PxH4zzRUEcrqh7H3poEZWTMh7tGQ64giirvANp-sPK51bqrUWUifo4nW_WOqJTCI3euphKO7IrR74tAaePB1YwJdfPN3hvYU-0KG55BkDIj8/s640/Confidence-Girl.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1952</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHDzs2_6Gl3IiMqposiujawwjHu3r8l0WzrijxkPpXlotQh7Eouab0DeBijxHGnYx4NmK5UasTvwgWW_lnv-sy2VdnWaRyWot4OPc1OAv-aBkqLcQzgQvMBD5MQndesSnFjZpmh_KO3U/s1600/Count-the-Hours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHDzs2_6Gl3IiMqposiujawwjHu3r8l0WzrijxkPpXlotQh7Eouab0DeBijxHGnYx4NmK5UasTvwgWW_lnv-sy2VdnWaRyWot4OPc1OAv-aBkqLcQzgQvMBD5MQndesSnFjZpmh_KO3U/s640/Count-the-Hours.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkyXdjJYVqlO6ph6kFlun1rAuKJIUpsp-Cvp0Z99pO_pUJTMcG2ORE_5ursiq-uvn2n3eWVtfCqdr7UdIKw_Ash-S6R-0LmgwTgaUm3XsuGRjbS6IyXlP1RLPlEzXLGSfEHfVLItC5Wg8/s1600/Crooked-Web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkyXdjJYVqlO6ph6kFlun1rAuKJIUpsp-Cvp0Z99pO_pUJTMcG2ORE_5ursiq-uvn2n3eWVtfCqdr7UdIKw_Ash-S6R-0LmgwTgaUm3XsuGRjbS6IyXlP1RLPlEzXLGSfEHfVLItC5Wg8/s640/Crooked-Web.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1955</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Vj6lvgNON-mvfN9cb4nn6Iw7RsEaG0TVEn4VeI5EHLCWoEQ_7XxvIBd5I_zYRDhy32lb4EMNieElOH0FAzHU7JJkunXHhdcgyuuxWIpknWW2BN7YbJ-MoWCb8Cxb5qyCLbjHAkm4oSw/s1600/Dangerous_Blondes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Vj6lvgNON-mvfN9cb4nn6Iw7RsEaG0TVEn4VeI5EHLCWoEQ_7XxvIBd5I_zYRDhy32lb4EMNieElOH0FAzHU7JJkunXHhdcgyuuxWIpknWW2BN7YbJ-MoWCb8Cxb5qyCLbjHAkm4oSw/s640/Dangerous_Blondes.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1943</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdl53UtdCdMZg-HFqmVJaky0jRYYFmhDnXiGLm6kFF5fQO9UptU3Nc4tlbN_62WXjXRIQYebiEDtwibwbLmy3-BrK0rWgDiIzzelVPTReOAoZHinXj0nVql0B_pz8XQnj8BhZPGeanifo/s1600/Fingerprints-Dont-Lie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdl53UtdCdMZg-HFqmVJaky0jRYYFmhDnXiGLm6kFF5fQO9UptU3Nc4tlbN_62WXjXRIQYebiEDtwibwbLmy3-BrK0rWgDiIzzelVPTReOAoZHinXj0nVql0B_pz8XQnj8BhZPGeanifo/s640/Fingerprints-Dont-Lie.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1951</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMCYNMXbpyFea1EfbHI9NVmOMuf6lXzq56mMFVfaONDbJ79eAzm6_gsYlhGTydOMPz-NW7rnoH2reijtv55Z5Mh2ZTUZwGazlMe7LwXYNBx_EZMcoQrKEeJPbVlEKMIsFqvbOIt_VPYU/s1600/Forgotten-Girls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMCYNMXbpyFea1EfbHI9NVmOMuf6lXzq56mMFVfaONDbJ79eAzm6_gsYlhGTydOMPz-NW7rnoH2reijtv55Z5Mh2ZTUZwGazlMe7LwXYNBx_EZMcoQrKEeJPbVlEKMIsFqvbOIt_VPYU/s640/Forgotten-Girls.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1940<br />
A stunning poster!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMGKcMJkeFVrJ9KJFXfnL_sk98_o4v91_uj5P5-eHw6IQyRR4I-BaGqspJqsWTkrsEQ6R-tJGXXlwai8RtPCNW3EiLoRgBoOEIrmNNktBCFNsyWDCIEzxR_pzPYrYNZvOKrDFK-inKt_Q/s1600/Girl-Black-Stockings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMGKcMJkeFVrJ9KJFXfnL_sk98_o4v91_uj5P5-eHw6IQyRR4I-BaGqspJqsWTkrsEQ6R-tJGXXlwai8RtPCNW3EiLoRgBoOEIrmNNktBCFNsyWDCIEzxR_pzPYrYNZvOKrDFK-inKt_Q/s640/Girl-Black-Stockings.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1957</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqU5tAcK4IvpjBOKQJBx-C3HO-ia4n3t3z1YjJy-tBSkMGWeBb3Z3fJ7WhHNUsHzfnB0M54UIwh4Yi7QHj20HKm3aEsWrsNX9CqGmjICDiL0qvo1Vl_qI38AqdhWXp-I2Z4SVMgQuSYY4/s1600/Girl-Itch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqU5tAcK4IvpjBOKQJBx-C3HO-ia4n3t3z1YjJy-tBSkMGWeBb3Z3fJ7WhHNUsHzfnB0M54UIwh4Yi7QHj20HKm3aEsWrsNX9CqGmjICDiL0qvo1Vl_qI38AqdhWXp-I2Z4SVMgQuSYY4/s640/Girl-Itch.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1958<br />
One of the all-time great film titles! Stay far away from the “Girl with an Itch”!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwlB-2j-8fKhy6bUWGi6XarH11R6jHCtgA-9rnRQA1HvJx-iLgQiWSbKiKBUykMGKFR6vVB8fZ_e_fZ4rGct1vAORB04x2E8Ns70UkempqWBFg4r7wa8LcbvL-p2Lmd-w2aig4FspBSk/s1600/Girl-on-the-Bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwlB-2j-8fKhy6bUWGi6XarH11R6jHCtgA-9rnRQA1HvJx-iLgQiWSbKiKBUykMGKFR6vVB8fZ_e_fZ4rGct1vAORB04x2E8Ns70UkempqWBFg4r7wa8LcbvL-p2Lmd-w2aig4FspBSk/s640/Girl-on-the-Bridge.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1951</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizkcHKJxAI2ovXVQ5qh7zUZCSq6YLSrxm5_R2l3L9NzxVCS7PUkn-mjgYBmrNgxF8vCYuRmlzSFVWaN2K_gGCsRQR0sAOSxKASYDIqNPUVWLRLAJONqPMWbSlxDidC6p18xfwoNGJWDTc/s1600/Girls-in-the-Night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizkcHKJxAI2ovXVQ5qh7zUZCSq6YLSrxm5_R2l3L9NzxVCS7PUkn-mjgYBmrNgxF8vCYuRmlzSFVWaN2K_gGCsRQR0sAOSxKASYDIqNPUVWLRLAJONqPMWbSlxDidC6p18xfwoNGJWDTc/s640/Girls-in-the-Night.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953<br />
I didn't want to include a too many juvenile delinquency posters, but I love this one.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQqBu-ezw405oVd-hZ__srHGEoa-lwhaL7is3PpVvw4IAgvdYPKcBWRWEu-10xd1O6lNcbNtiNQT62wKUgmKepNjDSyaCXiM2mA6flq7yWG8w5IhFSfH85GsOkK8O2t24F-ozM8p7G_A/s1600/Glass+Web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTQqBu-ezw405oVd-hZ__srHGEoa-lwhaL7is3PpVvw4IAgvdYPKcBWRWEu-10xd1O6lNcbNtiNQT62wKUgmKepNjDSyaCXiM2mA6flq7yWG8w5IhFSfH85GsOkK8O2t24F-ozM8p7G_A/s640/Glass+Web.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953 </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjchjZnxov7m8-AJMpX-vak1Ni33K3rUTHY_jX1VQuZvWM1maRzCHPz0Q4zPZCkgeq0XgGCKbSKIVkFj0XwAxyqrvp_so3yYW_WoBnDsbGdUTeG0FRvMjh3ENbLBhhy3kxFVT9Ed3uui3Y/s1600/Having-Wonderful-Crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjchjZnxov7m8-AJMpX-vak1Ni33K3rUTHY_jX1VQuZvWM1maRzCHPz0Q4zPZCkgeq0XgGCKbSKIVkFj0XwAxyqrvp_so3yYW_WoBnDsbGdUTeG0FRvMjh3ENbLBhhy3kxFVT9Ed3uui3Y/s640/Having-Wonderful-Crime.jpg" width="432" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1945<br />
Yeah, Yeah. I don’t care if it <i>is</i> a comedy!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj074mONbg6zXAIYpKR6HCvtwDvjqGSraFOs1tfNW76BXTz7XBtOD_E-CgT6rK348QYirZS6_l3gELUgmTPh3GXsz7Nv6wJOgP3HGPjyiLWwsDCx3EYHifjLHX2kVtL2VDzb2wyzEJhT4Q/s1600/Hold-Back-Tomorrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj074mONbg6zXAIYpKR6HCvtwDvjqGSraFOs1tfNW76BXTz7XBtOD_E-CgT6rK348QYirZS6_l3gELUgmTPh3GXsz7Nv6wJOgP3HGPjyiLWwsDCx3EYHifjLHX2kVtL2VDzb2wyzEJhT4Q/s640/Hold-Back-Tomorrow.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1955</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NWUfbhqqsXbj3V8_v4wTuICCUiCZmh9JYIbLbYscZrDnFxg4wOben9WmPa3UI_z4eyvak6JWLCzjY1lP9u3yhHlbW57WBrxidxzDnTqeEDZej8YoK3L45PIsVYL757LDvmVNCSQeJkI/s1600/I-Cover-The-Underworld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NWUfbhqqsXbj3V8_v4wTuICCUiCZmh9JYIbLbYscZrDnFxg4wOben9WmPa3UI_z4eyvak6JWLCzjY1lP9u3yhHlbW57WBrxidxzDnTqeEDZej8YoK3L45PIsVYL757LDvmVNCSQeJkI/s640/I-Cover-The-Underworld.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1955</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOK70fDzRy1SQnzzpr-jg1dJ99bVx-dJf61fDmcRcsXwYI-wQQIXnMhFsNW79HXTaGnN8NF_eBRHCB9Oc43RPTIJEGerA6R7xgwRahq4QAVGOxAZSyIcqgWYe_8odaqcTGBWPcnRlm7vo/s1600/Lady-Confesses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOK70fDzRy1SQnzzpr-jg1dJ99bVx-dJf61fDmcRcsXwYI-wQQIXnMhFsNW79HXTaGnN8NF_eBRHCB9Oc43RPTIJEGerA6R7xgwRahq4QAVGOxAZSyIcqgWYe_8odaqcTGBWPcnRlm7vo/s640/Lady-Confesses.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1945</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLWu1mSB82lGX4QkaCs_am3Tt_FA4wgQ48DUY4XYNahD1NdyCE6MflYKC7d7BRP0WBr1YTDznV80BwzFtiC0KMN5LsmTaBJ2qwY_eSJz8ECzgdB4vPIvsVNMxsLoGe9peE4mEOL79ORY/s1600/Lady-in-the-Death-House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLWu1mSB82lGX4QkaCs_am3Tt_FA4wgQ48DUY4XYNahD1NdyCE6MflYKC7d7BRP0WBr1YTDznV80BwzFtiC0KMN5LsmTaBJ2qwY_eSJz8ECzgdB4vPIvsVNMxsLoGe9peE4mEOL79ORY/s640/Lady-in-the-Death-House.jpg" width="414" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1944</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDLNdf4fa0RocEXxDG9ou7eWtR5ldoAgjYbUvEOa1NhhbjkGB6opJxNPCwdvUyn-poQV-D3JGkPXm2OKKJyhswQlN8hYZZs_Km1wzf_fKfBxwMZDg-EZSE5f1b9J4ZnOySrgk4GqmjXk/s1600/Man-Crazy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDLNdf4fa0RocEXxDG9ou7eWtR5ldoAgjYbUvEOa1NhhbjkGB6opJxNPCwdvUyn-poQV-D3JGkPXm2OKKJyhswQlN8hYZZs_Km1wzf_fKfBxwMZDg-EZSE5f1b9J4ZnOySrgk4GqmjXk/s640/Man-Crazy.jpg" width="412" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953<br />
Neville Brand gets top billing!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNC5Q6vyIUELUM4eb47Ozy-S_nJ6Bx0UtnCUHmL0EWpKnaO-fRtTqmL_BTAclJXh83YQ8_AWPb4nIg5N0OlbM2WjqkpvKNnsCnPcterNsZETqjc7wSh8Oj-4Dqt12mC6SjxcT-uWTR-9A/s1600/Murder-Without-Tears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNC5Q6vyIUELUM4eb47Ozy-S_nJ6Bx0UtnCUHmL0EWpKnaO-fRtTqmL_BTAclJXh83YQ8_AWPb4nIg5N0OlbM2WjqkpvKNnsCnPcterNsZETqjc7wSh8Oj-4Dqt12mC6SjxcT-uWTR-9A/s640/Murder-Without-Tears.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVIeLmkaeD94yszMvUyc7JdJCrCkPXXIvWi5V5CY_7AX-18Tj0She3l8B8IZX0qLE28SiBnV0Osaxn3PoDBXWRkmnMV81P0mIYMbwxuudYViwEo5gu7NyQ-yYkRIzu3M_BvkGdeAuoHs/s1600/New-Orleans-Uncensored.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVIeLmkaeD94yszMvUyc7JdJCrCkPXXIvWi5V5CY_7AX-18Tj0She3l8B8IZX0qLE28SiBnV0Osaxn3PoDBXWRkmnMV81P0mIYMbwxuudYViwEo5gu7NyQ-yYkRIzu3M_BvkGdeAuoHs/s640/New-Orleans-Uncensored.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1955</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGGjUuinz0Xqk-6s_ThNWf2VAPF1WIQtqXQTHwGRMXelxLZMsbl-rqFd4OfRDi-Gg-NN2reUndCBAsCFSCT86yi4lCm8UScZ7IeJqtDYJz06OE2fXr-3PQU1zsqlMc5FT969zoOR4PCaY/s1600/One+Girls+Confession.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGGjUuinz0Xqk-6s_ThNWf2VAPF1WIQtqXQTHwGRMXelxLZMsbl-rqFd4OfRDi-Gg-NN2reUndCBAsCFSCT86yi4lCm8UScZ7IeJqtDYJz06OE2fXr-3PQU1zsqlMc5FT969zoOR4PCaY/s640/One+Girls+Confession.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-EwPyB16ggiyGE5ofdUpWjCi4SrGdSZf4zqKgSswUXNrOr2Li6yLPM8rlpF6LxnhzQ-wbQM1Z21qMnS7WZT-oCuE855Mf6W9uOnlymZ08qpo7mWqtkE3QZalHtjFuarv4rMRkGLSptQ/s1600/Over-Exposed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-EwPyB16ggiyGE5ofdUpWjCi4SrGdSZf4zqKgSswUXNrOr2Li6yLPM8rlpF6LxnhzQ-wbQM1Z21qMnS7WZT-oCuE855Mf6W9uOnlymZ08qpo7mWqtkE3QZalHtjFuarv4rMRkGLSptQ/s640/Over-Exposed.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1956</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrgMOSXuuOJycurY9faov2zoAjKq76X-F2KYw2upy87JdDA5A9HyrOnoi4uvCiO1w4P7-3eHKjNnyDZl5XiIPSULf2YGXrPJBBYsQE3WA_3ajV7vyULjhQlOfG8zg-uJ49K158QdMrdkQ/s1600/Pickup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrgMOSXuuOJycurY9faov2zoAjKq76X-F2KYw2upy87JdDA5A9HyrOnoi4uvCiO1w4P7-3eHKjNnyDZl5XiIPSULf2YGXrPJBBYsQE3WA_3ajV7vyULjhQlOfG8zg-uJ49K158QdMrdkQ/s640/Pickup.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1951<br />
Here’s Bev again, in one of the great movie poster images of all time. Don’t believe me? Try to actually buy one of these things — it ain’t easy!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj394m9NneRDbyK_KlZSnRvRctFNCLuVFJc3_rbUPVwAEe-XOGr_8y2Ui5kyvVO25oH_t2kFkxgMUEsv-g_cRiY7ZcHEOEb6_ivVJjDzTYziUwUsiiXU6LcX-eYmdU4JK9pJQCbTo3K4PY/s1600/Police-Bullets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj394m9NneRDbyK_KlZSnRvRctFNCLuVFJc3_rbUPVwAEe-XOGr_8y2Ui5kyvVO25oH_t2kFkxgMUEsv-g_cRiY7ZcHEOEb6_ivVJjDzTYziUwUsiiXU6LcX-eYmdU4JK9pJQCbTo3K4PY/s640/Police-Bullets.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1942</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDcXlvpHg2Crp1WS_kippA4NEgGNz9tpPAM_iXwbvOHOR3A-Z01CfiAtyEMnLmsRsgEGf1N63xv5OpJoITIMMup8cfkusRvv-yMKl9vIIh7yXj3BMwFxhM9SXdZ8zrIpCQXuFxnNoTgI/s1600/Second_Chance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDcXlvpHg2Crp1WS_kippA4NEgGNz9tpPAM_iXwbvOHOR3A-Z01CfiAtyEMnLmsRsgEGf1N63xv5OpJoITIMMup8cfkusRvv-yMKl9vIIh7yXj3BMwFxhM9SXdZ8zrIpCQXuFxnNoTgI/s640/Second_Chance.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1947</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg854Otc1maCgFbxgH5QmbLQZW8peVTMVDOe8t3dReOAraZoFNgool4x9H3qbUIYQBthQZ4y0ik2NZ0Sh-EAKUJQamK_jjgRa9bboG7Sks_8nY5crCxAVG5UTZDDsHo_SljxM2kt905BE/s1600/Sensation_Hunters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg854Otc1maCgFbxgH5QmbLQZW8peVTMVDOe8t3dReOAraZoFNgool4x9H3qbUIYQBthQZ4y0ik2NZ0Sh-EAKUJQamK_jjgRa9bboG7Sks_8nY5crCxAVG5UTZDDsHo_SljxM2kt905BE/s640/Sensation_Hunters.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1945</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLPcj5hI49s9Jk5h8cMBOF8U0i_vV7WJzsZDvBfv6LnePZrMWqbW88ezy777Drb3JXSvHvjgl8McpKhHAn_qTSVqMJbQtWRSmEHkCTlCiq2e0IDcbep0dfzwfpqysMgsdwHhiRfsHFRSU/s1600/Shakedown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLPcj5hI49s9Jk5h8cMBOF8U0i_vV7WJzsZDvBfv6LnePZrMWqbW88ezy777Drb3JXSvHvjgl8McpKhHAn_qTSVqMJbQtWRSmEHkCTlCiq2e0IDcbep0dfzwfpqysMgsdwHhiRfsHFRSU/s640/Shakedown.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1960</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGZmfTXutKwvV3rFHmX4qedfLiB8SxsdvV7JF28FIi-NerLXfl1mepixBd86YZuX-jSJLFlXMB16GY8AeIdMa49ZHl0rBVgL03h-7DK8Te5Iz0FF7eUmynY7pLSjbCvtXK_zPdLBP0VA/s1600/Strange-Fascination.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGZmfTXutKwvV3rFHmX4qedfLiB8SxsdvV7JF28FIi-NerLXfl1mepixBd86YZuX-jSJLFlXMB16GY8AeIdMa49ZHl0rBVgL03h-7DK8Te5Iz0FF7eUmynY7pLSjbCvtXK_zPdLBP0VA/s640/Strange-Fascination.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1952</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd4zcTQ4WnAsr7yGYrgLiA86ZqltYNX_GHtNwVVdzhm3zOtNNNQnMpISe69kCb-zomxADHOagjwXKeDpUTfS3Oz1_b4JvMPunxIP3ZkWGIuvCPT2SZrEXm5XbpMVtQ8DjHErbIw3wWG_g/s1600/Thy-Neighbors-Wife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd4zcTQ4WnAsr7yGYrgLiA86ZqltYNX_GHtNwVVdzhm3zOtNNNQnMpISe69kCb-zomxADHOagjwXKeDpUTfS3Oz1_b4JvMPunxIP3ZkWGIuvCPT2SZrEXm5XbpMVtQ8DjHErbIw3wWG_g/s640/Thy-Neighbors-Wife.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnyIA-HyYlyTjqC0quLgsHCYxiNGeEjEQv6W4B48STUoA_CWfIbP79TKZ4QyZ1jnL8hEb1CTlyd5iiKpKy2vmadJaEFneGamGnTjGCcxKspjX_uxlikj0q4dmYstmH6n7KYEh-BuBTR8/s1600/Tokyo-File.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnyIA-HyYlyTjqC0quLgsHCYxiNGeEjEQv6W4B48STUoA_CWfIbP79TKZ4QyZ1jnL8hEb1CTlyd5iiKpKy2vmadJaEFneGamGnTjGCcxKspjX_uxlikj0q4dmYstmH6n7KYEh-BuBTR8/s640/Tokyo-File.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1951</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitzTvEO2rGDRlJGlrqXg0VbOllyLE2vdvMmTsOaOQkw1SbYIb3-D-vPua-XFcKywFVvKMwr45MtBS-Ks7iYi-4n6G3ghaOQtVSHRYtdnVpD6wm3ujy2AK9HJvbXp93iZMQ3PtIsk3l8FU/s1600/Traffic+In+Crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitzTvEO2rGDRlJGlrqXg0VbOllyLE2vdvMmTsOaOQkw1SbYIb3-D-vPua-XFcKywFVvKMwr45MtBS-Ks7iYi-4n6G3ghaOQtVSHRYtdnVpD6wm3ujy2AK9HJvbXp93iZMQ3PtIsk3l8FU/s640/Traffic+In+Crime.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1946</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhojONmLFM2Q_I3reeoaMb6b-vl1nwnIqcrFH8U7nok9gIRXSiYgr1Ct1WmINfVKEvUaNYiO6HIlsGbZvcFKymI7iMoqjVsJ8XrwVR_weJHyr_KbDtnR1NbOIjORkW2Hd13UmtCiqIgGAY/s1600/Trapped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhojONmLFM2Q_I3reeoaMb6b-vl1nwnIqcrFH8U7nok9gIRXSiYgr1Ct1WmINfVKEvUaNYiO6HIlsGbZvcFKymI7iMoqjVsJ8XrwVR_weJHyr_KbDtnR1NbOIjORkW2Hd13UmtCiqIgGAY/s640/Trapped.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1949<br />
Barbara Payton!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp7uT5K4pYK6CaxtG4imlVfZ9sP-3S1SXrtZSgtGZhTFJ98FclW68DASvVSktG-lRuUcos2FJzhVU3QTbejpSBhrDu6OFrL_F-7-FqBI2XDE0J-2fN8BEsgRQnvKNAUfrRLTbpw8Ra4aM/s1600/Undercover-Girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp7uT5K4pYK6CaxtG4imlVfZ9sP-3S1SXrtZSgtGZhTFJ98FclW68DASvVSktG-lRuUcos2FJzhVU3QTbejpSBhrDu6OFrL_F-7-FqBI2XDE0J-2fN8BEsgRQnvKNAUfrRLTbpw8Ra4aM/s640/Undercover-Girl.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1950<br />
Fantastic!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kmmgtX_xHTokJPE_edv0apHw_FsKrsU_inKDIuJvMUWAhRbZ-2VzvxYtWIvj2BME8F_DD7xRMfMEdhqG-gtMMmyoZx9oXMR-k3SxgXzBBqXe84ApMC2gM15FPuOolU1gv7Q5oxDAINE/s1600/Vice-Raid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1kmmgtX_xHTokJPE_edv0apHw_FsKrsU_inKDIuJvMUWAhRbZ-2VzvxYtWIvj2BME8F_DD7xRMfMEdhqG-gtMMmyoZx9oXMR-k3SxgXzBBqXe84ApMC2gM15FPuOolU1gv7Q5oxDAINE/s640/Vice-Raid.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1960<br />
A little late, but one Mamie is a must. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnnM_5d6GtZLaPPsc3JtdMIPR4LXbtp8g1ilUC83j1ziUNldqezxgtYlxy41Ma1RqD7PCe4ICDmQZreVxGuVjUJxqsh2Mp1wDEXhFDGrqvpqkMD741DY5a1TF313ukVE1JjHLBrhiLXeQ/s1600/Why-Girls-Leave-Home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnnM_5d6GtZLaPPsc3JtdMIPR4LXbtp8g1ilUC83j1ziUNldqezxgtYlxy41Ma1RqD7PCe4ICDmQZreVxGuVjUJxqsh2Mp1wDEXhFDGrqvpqkMD741DY5a1TF313ukVE1JjHLBrhiLXeQ/s640/Why-Girls-Leave-Home.jpg" width="418" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1945<br />
I desperately would like to see this film! If anyone who knows where or how I can do so, please let me know!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2cbg_huZ5mOaPOhyyNHrT5_EQwzPMIempBZNLMvM7aIAV06LJmGafT8u6GRhH07thS5SiZ_ArJa8ygqwrXxT_b1zx-Q9lI14SsAC9n0zlAjKlIoPYIzdmD6tUJLwjM7ba4lhZ-5Assc8/s1600/Wicked-Wife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2cbg_huZ5mOaPOhyyNHrT5_EQwzPMIempBZNLMvM7aIAV06LJmGafT8u6GRhH07thS5SiZ_ArJa8ygqwrXxT_b1zx-Q9lI14SsAC9n0zlAjKlIoPYIzdmD6tUJLwjM7ba4lhZ-5Assc8/s640/Wicked-Wife.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1953 (British)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-52935424755786453962013-09-09T17:00:00.000-04:002013-09-09T17:08:00.955-04:00Film Noir Movie Posters: LIZABETH SCOTT<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Sorry I’ve been away for a while — a publisher has approached me about doing a film noir book</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> (Yay blogging!) and it has been taking the lion</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">s share of my free time!<br /><br />Here</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">s a great set of posters featuring the inimitable Emma Matzo of Scranton, Pennsylvania — otherwise known as Lizabeth Scott. At 91 years young, Scott is one of our last remaining links to classic Hollywood.<br /><br />Her image use in poster design is fascinating. Notice how artists struggled to capture the unique expressiveness of her face, and only seemed to do so successfully when working directly from a photographic source, as in the extraordinary poster for <i>The Strange Love of Martha Ivers</i>. In posters more rooted in illustration, <i>The Company She Keeps</i>, for example, Scott is hardly recognizable as a generic blonde. This is likely the result of her signature deep-set eyes, which are often lost in the film stills and some of the more blandly-lit studio portraits that poster artists were given to work from. Scott was also that rare actress that whose screen persona had a great deal to do with her voice, which poster artists obviously couldn’t zero in on. Enjoy!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBM-lgi8vcz4WX8Sw2u2I-z4jnzk97AJZ3F50dBAhIx8Oyg6Jj-pZwuKw5iO198QFaIQD2pnzZHVLoRQB7tZ8rUEuMnV5nOzlfh1na5MvC0S7JpubBJ1Vj0rTLD64cXPvPgv9zwMTmhO8/s1600/Scott_Photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBM-lgi8vcz4WX8Sw2u2I-z4jnzk97AJZ3F50dBAhIx8Oyg6Jj-pZwuKw5iO198QFaIQD2pnzZHVLoRQB7tZ8rUEuMnV5nOzlfh1na5MvC0S7JpubBJ1Vj0rTLD64cXPvPgv9zwMTmhO8/s640/Scott_Photo.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXXZKeg-4OI6aPER2TJNNBMjdDJSQLyZhyRhPC8HUMBtgGjTlae2l9aMUgOD2heO9cPWGRkOqHtYVPw7kf_yZOcOC6_evfzwGruce3JOrA-t1dDvQT0BQofI2kPoMtI47qyFOwvlo4qrM/s1600/Scott_Still_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXXZKeg-4OI6aPER2TJNNBMjdDJSQLyZhyRhPC8HUMBtgGjTlae2l9aMUgOD2heO9cPWGRkOqHtYVPw7kf_yZOcOC6_evfzwGruce3JOrA-t1dDvQT0BQofI2kPoMtI47qyFOwvlo4qrM/s640/Scott_Still_3.jpg" width="470" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIOSlo9XkBa86VtogsKAnnM4crp4kOrV8cdYVz_fWckueUC0tjRmnHXNs7NdPoBTDKwW-H0a4HQXwMXLDS8nEc16cRYVmN6k3J5K4oX1t5sonLy_Ryr5iUOKL4msnW-AKcvmNRfDsHjs/s1600/Scott_Still_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHIOSlo9XkBa86VtogsKAnnM4crp4kOrV8cdYVz_fWckueUC0tjRmnHXNs7NdPoBTDKwW-H0a4HQXwMXLDS8nEc16cRYVmN6k3J5K4oX1t5sonLy_Ryr5iUOKL4msnW-AKcvmNRfDsHjs/s640/Scott_Still_2.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holy smokes I love this!</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitsBD4kHJ9RVFcErATlw_iRCE98u7d96ibKtLIrixMXZpEZfAsMOuNZo-VFY4BowzlhGMPdDDro1K3OrS6ANEI1oXXWkGRYCcd5NPPpnjoCmpqYapc0UNIDMmpRr9juRiAxS2c3C0K92g/s1600/Scott_Still_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitsBD4kHJ9RVFcErATlw_iRCE98u7d96ibKtLIrixMXZpEZfAsMOuNZo-VFY4BowzlhGMPdDDro1K3OrS6ANEI1oXXWkGRYCcd5NPPpnjoCmpqYapc0UNIDMmpRr9juRiAxS2c3C0K92g/s640/Scott_Still_1.jpg" width="474" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6dIUWA-1oeZqrBt81JdSqGxaIWFc5nWrS_WUsiC1d-EM7Y3e_xSWbV30dtQn4qKX_Pp17QW94OuElgOEN5sOFJrr15eayXTYh-8Oib5xkRk4KxSlMp6wDQIoTiY54onKw7DeS43pan5k/s1600/BadForEachOther_1-Sheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6dIUWA-1oeZqrBt81JdSqGxaIWFc5nWrS_WUsiC1d-EM7Y3e_xSWbV30dtQn4qKX_Pp17QW94OuElgOEN5sOFJrr15eayXTYh-8Oib5xkRk4KxSlMp6wDQIoTiY54onKw7DeS43pan5k/s640/BadForEachOther_1-Sheet.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bad For Each Other, </i>One-Sheet</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbQI1G8oJ12mpiZYJwrcA_nUu2B_s1ii8q0uakbRA1nEvZ1_uWfzSLEDNrdrMiYmlwch_eMiy84-4ybL-l8hswNri9-XKN6Q-8_HWINYR0GhLLqXavsGJ8_GVJyzi4Yl6WTwGZzWOMqEw/s1600/Company_She_Keeps_1-Sheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbQI1G8oJ12mpiZYJwrcA_nUu2B_s1ii8q0uakbRA1nEvZ1_uWfzSLEDNrdrMiYmlwch_eMiy84-4ybL-l8hswNri9-XKN6Q-8_HWINYR0GhLLqXavsGJ8_GVJyzi4Yl6WTwGZzWOMqEw/s640/Company_She_Keeps_1-Sheet.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Company She Keeps, </i>One-Sheet. Scott is unrecognizable. O'Keefe looks like Alan Ladd!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwFcLcyKMv-6eBKW-6zSF_64t6f5ghxJQRRrpMC1uFKAKnyefvL6EPOmqGay_l6f6feFXVKdRlIlQT9KjMcpqq6pH43gjSdRXqjsEtGyDwIqafMR6i12TyJhgP5_TQa_0K9dbu6bscTE/s1600/CompanySheKeeps-Australian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwFcLcyKMv-6eBKW-6zSF_64t6f5ghxJQRRrpMC1uFKAKnyefvL6EPOmqGay_l6f6feFXVKdRlIlQT9KjMcpqq6pH43gjSdRXqjsEtGyDwIqafMR6i12TyJhgP5_TQa_0K9dbu6bscTE/s640/CompanySheKeeps-Australian.jpg" width="274" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Company She Keeps, </i>Australian Daybill </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwTsPY1I-behMlwQX2sIX6-ZmSvpxBJRgVF_JtbOb-iIeopJSpzXnkd3Kus6rlfusRti13XpGL4YDIqvh-Bowz43fi0Gb5Ohq9Zq0xTkpxnobKj3RgCp2uSTY9J5990TrTviESDheC0qQ/s1600/DarkCity_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwTsPY1I-behMlwQX2sIX6-ZmSvpxBJRgVF_JtbOb-iIeopJSpzXnkd3Kus6rlfusRti13XpGL4YDIqvh-Bowz43fi0Gb5Ohq9Zq0xTkpxnobKj3RgCp2uSTY9J5990TrTviESDheC0qQ/s640/DarkCity_1.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dark City, </i>One-Sheet</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5KiOkgAbYIOfZBwP4E1cxxmvsGve-jIgLd-wfiQH6PQM8C_kB_BIU5Q5ema3YKpCtpFX-M7rxpQcjgvqWFQcCZEe38KwSO_MjC96i7RHM1UGZcn3MsxXJMSn2yuYbpbE9PFXKl0cuBXs/s1600/DarkCity_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5KiOkgAbYIOfZBwP4E1cxxmvsGve-jIgLd-wfiQH6PQM8C_kB_BIU5Q5ema3YKpCtpFX-M7rxpQcjgvqWFQcCZEe38KwSO_MjC96i7RHM1UGZcn3MsxXJMSn2yuYbpbE9PFXKl0cuBXs/s640/DarkCity_2.jpg" width="466" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dark City</i>, Italian</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnC4V-trobbHJdMfQlCCmjcRgEVCkx_ysczy8mZzaHcLMJ6rHYPsP45FcA5XI4tRzh9_5wm3UHmQFMKNYp253IQES-GKSixt1c_hkKrvD3DE0Lj5MQrwbAuDvfBs2WYzbwkXvHld84ic/s1600/Dead-Reckoning-French.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnC4V-trobbHJdMfQlCCmjcRgEVCkx_ysczy8mZzaHcLMJ6rHYPsP45FcA5XI4tRzh9_5wm3UHmQFMKNYp253IQES-GKSixt1c_hkKrvD3DE0Lj5MQrwbAuDvfBs2WYzbwkXvHld84ic/s640/Dead-Reckoning-French.jpg" width="460" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French Grande for <i>Dead Reckoning</i>. Scott looks more like Veronica Lake. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Y4P6dQcYHeY0PABgcoPWK0gx9VWtv2_4UWtOlEb7nFZeasgH-BRXel8aK_7XDXcRLlXdDf7inkZWI8IK7TT_iosEgyKT50F9VUMko-7-pVn2o79tLxL7-xnTk4FmslHE59fB5HctRBo/s1600/Dead-Reckoning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Y4P6dQcYHeY0PABgcoPWK0gx9VWtv2_4UWtOlEb7nFZeasgH-BRXel8aK_7XDXcRLlXdDf7inkZWI8IK7TT_iosEgyKT50F9VUMko-7-pVn2o79tLxL7-xnTk4FmslHE59fB5HctRBo/s640/Dead-Reckoning.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dead Reckoning</i>, US One Sheet, Style B, one of the truly great film posters</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HgsNyHcQ3Mtnh9QbLysWC9F6eqOAXDvRw_EZcfYe44CeSJLxjBksfOHePAG8QUzDlCDJFR1pgQ3PqnaT9S9u0TjSl_7s-U3mX52BR3unHwvc3EkRcWIETB1OmhzJrJI94ELrndDAfY4/s1600/Dead-Reckoning_Italian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HgsNyHcQ3Mtnh9QbLysWC9F6eqOAXDvRw_EZcfYe44CeSJLxjBksfOHePAG8QUzDlCDJFR1pgQ3PqnaT9S9u0TjSl_7s-U3mX52BR3unHwvc3EkRcWIETB1OmhzJrJI94ELrndDAfY4/s640/Dead-Reckoning_Italian.jpg" width="448" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dead Reckoning</i>, Italian </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjJamaDdjosGISzbF9CJwFaCbFumjuO6AaXHlfzdEcDEoEw1KcdznCahyfmB2qdzf8sRv1cFqVdOnokTuGjpK50xY50owoUM4fKHq-hBTz4evdXwW6vl9uGaqTk92mCbwm3M881GBI6rQ/s1600/Dead_Reckoning_Danish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjJamaDdjosGISzbF9CJwFaCbFumjuO6AaXHlfzdEcDEoEw1KcdznCahyfmB2qdzf8sRv1cFqVdOnokTuGjpK50xY50owoUM4fKHq-hBTz4evdXwW6vl9uGaqTk92mCbwm3M881GBI6rQ/s640/Dead_Reckoning_Danish.jpg" width="556" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dead Reckoning</i>, Danish</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEnbzhP7J6VkFPly7xtYDJcGKN63QbLsPW-cbqgRywZCzhjVf69EaZyR1A80xD_trYQfS40qBb-MUObs5akixj8QddDP0a0RALrdGMYCwpalAeVgmowGXKt3WixJwSQ3kS7TTgaIVxUCc/s1600/Dead_Reckoning_Italian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEnbzhP7J6VkFPly7xtYDJcGKN63QbLsPW-cbqgRywZCzhjVf69EaZyR1A80xD_trYQfS40qBb-MUObs5akixj8QddDP0a0RALrdGMYCwpalAeVgmowGXKt3WixJwSQ3kS7TTgaIVxUCc/s640/Dead_Reckoning_Italian.jpg" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dead Reckoning</i>, Italian</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBnla_OZX0nMSocMa5Sai3Mge7mwDNBfQY1pYR9aWV5GUDeHgiawNyL1VAwGgcAGALQT4KQxPFB5e0IvjxOUiYjnLbchUEy3VkzJU2JkOI_1Hsd7X5Cqrw2OaEyQPadzX-2yGz6JblzAA/s1600/Dead_Reckoning_Lobby_Card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBnla_OZX0nMSocMa5Sai3Mge7mwDNBfQY1pYR9aWV5GUDeHgiawNyL1VAwGgcAGALQT4KQxPFB5e0IvjxOUiYjnLbchUEy3VkzJU2JkOI_1Hsd7X5Cqrw2OaEyQPadzX-2yGz6JblzAA/s640/Dead_Reckoning_Lobby_Card.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dead Reckoning</i>, iconic lobby card</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9aaVp_hA193ZhtNL0CTGOuCANeP2ka3pHoAsS0eF2oDl6ptz1IjKCua-LOBFYjGya1FXDtE9tWdzRRtxSE0xx7t_O3NvsgFhk1HgC0tKBHUDt6FMMD8_Fv4cOuwIMcbNjRe2KoziSbM/s1600/DeadReckoning-1-Sheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9aaVp_hA193ZhtNL0CTGOuCANeP2ka3pHoAsS0eF2oDl6ptz1IjKCua-LOBFYjGya1FXDtE9tWdzRRtxSE0xx7t_O3NvsgFhk1HgC0tKBHUDt6FMMD8_Fv4cOuwIMcbNjRe2KoziSbM/s640/DeadReckoning-1-Sheet.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dead Reckoning</i>, US One Sheet, Style A</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirVQNdORMbSvU0HCUufAkyy2rmAaeCXVL0LScH1E6HFjVp0XQfgS0J5k4dXuAmCA9DerMPF2S3FENr2EamFTxVvYep4_zupcMzPqx-ApEDs9vPjwXMQ5jn4pBk21Ju5wWiMjZ8d2mxhtg/s1600/DeadReckoning_1982_French.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirVQNdORMbSvU0HCUufAkyy2rmAaeCXVL0LScH1E6HFjVp0XQfgS0J5k4dXuAmCA9DerMPF2S3FENr2EamFTxVvYep4_zupcMzPqx-ApEDs9vPjwXMQ5jn4pBk21Ju5wWiMjZ8d2mxhtg/s640/DeadReckoning_1982_French.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dead Reckoning</i>, French, 1982 re-release</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKVS8gv8FjgacRIbssqRyYF2nLm2Jgpe6jXG8gaqRW8mlHgvvgD27Tsd5sbffjvQCLo9nxV9RgU8hIobvRPFhvwnu747FxyyyDegNtTgOKmU3qJRGmM1Q3m6eVsg29HTFzQlIw0_AGNaQ/s1600/DeadReckoning_Spanish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKVS8gv8FjgacRIbssqRyYF2nLm2Jgpe6jXG8gaqRW8mlHgvvgD27Tsd5sbffjvQCLo9nxV9RgU8hIobvRPFhvwnu747FxyyyDegNtTgOKmU3qJRGmM1Q3m6eVsg29HTFzQlIw0_AGNaQ/s640/DeadReckoning_Spanish.jpg" width="436" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dead Reckoning</i>, Spanish</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFRw5k_zOBEvnW4qpiPd_bfojXXOpF_7BVl_6GIBWpqWgrpTmexV6Nz2q7XEF6CV1NncfZ9X2QmYbIP1ak1-nCiRSJm9FSXYUGO3nueAYP4CilZYGIH2y6nlOpSjP0gm_LQn8zjGO_m_4/s1600/I+Walk+Alone+Half+Sheet+Movie+Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFRw5k_zOBEvnW4qpiPd_bfojXXOpF_7BVl_6GIBWpqWgrpTmexV6Nz2q7XEF6CV1NncfZ9X2QmYbIP1ak1-nCiRSJm9FSXYUGO3nueAYP4CilZYGIH2y6nlOpSjP0gm_LQn8zjGO_m_4/s640/I+Walk+Alone+Half+Sheet+Movie+Poster.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>I Walk Alone</i>, Half-Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_HgPT-CmwzhWBaMH1rIYpsFecV84W5o_azU1BA3Ua9XRNL-hrDx1SUvDQaScEPWouDQqEQlyj_ZhN8PKKDU6d19tTVtFTXJYLhOvY2ieDTxEhEKIlm53c8XMlPNxRvq-IAhqWL5ncaIo/s1600/I+Walk+Alone+Three+Sheet+Movie+Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_HgPT-CmwzhWBaMH1rIYpsFecV84W5o_azU1BA3Ua9XRNL-hrDx1SUvDQaScEPWouDQqEQlyj_ZhN8PKKDU6d19tTVtFTXJYLhOvY2ieDTxEhEKIlm53c8XMlPNxRvq-IAhqWL5ncaIo/s640/I+Walk+Alone+Three+Sheet+Movie+Poster.jpg" width="332" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>I Walk Alone</i>, Three-Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQbe5kdJoUhIe5DWVH7jJBI8lHZRpQ5hUjgGdw3WLGspiw78wXPzENC6J7jzFDHNUCjLpageCChDgvLpZBu39hb3GVbc4-CI_sw7ryQrui47TY_p17qDr0BMbH5QnDRjrJKIyOKJDIaU/s1600/IWalkAlone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQbe5kdJoUhIe5DWVH7jJBI8lHZRpQ5hUjgGdw3WLGspiw78wXPzENC6J7jzFDHNUCjLpageCChDgvLpZBu39hb3GVbc4-CI_sw7ryQrui47TY_p17qDr0BMbH5QnDRjrJKIyOKJDIaU/s640/IWalkAlone.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>I Walk Alone</i>, One-Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj131bBbffrSItI4H_Cgi4FFG1ni_QeMFGgi6paDXUkeMS9M2r3Dqbjh_15K4VwbXRBr-n0U2ChmBtXoyoY7gYs42w9zIKa-Qp61p9YErncwHvXWPSnmN7TaqxcMgkfAbdlLv0bvDz7WGc/s1600/Pitfall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj131bBbffrSItI4H_Cgi4FFG1ni_QeMFGgi6paDXUkeMS9M2r3Dqbjh_15K4VwbXRBr-n0U2ChmBtXoyoY7gYs42w9zIKa-Qp61p9YErncwHvXWPSnmN7TaqxcMgkfAbdlLv0bvDz7WGc/s640/Pitfall.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pitfall, </i>One-Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxtmCYuUzxWI2QWKxDXWbaaNvTEOiiSMtdOBG0ylEHrHwOOppqPbBjnzPJZCD0naOmGX_DrH4BXwaHDkxuJlNz2I25GZ25jcjqT6JAShKGplsApuQL4-GLZPCeegSREq7HKZvIZviuf4Y/s1600/Pitfall_Insert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxtmCYuUzxWI2QWKxDXWbaaNvTEOiiSMtdOBG0ylEHrHwOOppqPbBjnzPJZCD0naOmGX_DrH4BXwaHDkxuJlNz2I25GZ25jcjqT6JAShKGplsApuQL4-GLZPCeegSREq7HKZvIZviuf4Y/s640/Pitfall_Insert.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pitfall</i>, Insert</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fjSicMhppKBjtwETS8abvK0T8ZjTqXNr0uJaTqbA6EaNj7hA2oaQffQUMM6mud9JaKHg0rQRt7fMvcFGpz_YZJcr50DFOvXdjNxS6HEnP4fsiTGqI6WxRF5vpflvOsOJjRI3ZOeweNQ/s1600/Racket_1-Sheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fjSicMhppKBjtwETS8abvK0T8ZjTqXNr0uJaTqbA6EaNj7hA2oaQffQUMM6mud9JaKHg0rQRt7fMvcFGpz_YZJcr50DFOvXdjNxS6HEnP4fsiTGqI6WxRF5vpflvOsOJjRI3ZOeweNQ/s640/Racket_1-Sheet.jpg" width="414" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Racket, </i>One-Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfgl28t1UGbEtm6pAa4JIaHWWoQ022tZftiZrRJZRAF-S_u1o2gi_n6wDBImOCJjmAABu30OwuTdQzyHC6UzfjSe0edNBLmqGQgg9IqZ2227vS_C_m-HpWfud8Cdzn6l4af4WSkmaar4k/s1600/StolenFace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfgl28t1UGbEtm6pAa4JIaHWWoQ022tZftiZrRJZRAF-S_u1o2gi_n6wDBImOCJjmAABu30OwuTdQzyHC6UzfjSe0edNBLmqGQgg9IqZ2227vS_C_m-HpWfud8Cdzn6l4af4WSkmaar4k/s640/StolenFace.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Stolen Face, </i>One-Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheWwuxkpVzlaZebIVQoG6Ack3XtfTBAkDjFPfjxPZ09lWtxRLhyphenhyphenUtgn-w_dutOqjUY5T7rdAhctFkGha10fh0W578B6ugjeP8E_KohJzizAfjhAew_BYM000QnXYGx6H_aNUmS50lDpr0/s1600/Strange-Love-of-Martha-Ivers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheWwuxkpVzlaZebIVQoG6Ack3XtfTBAkDjFPfjxPZ09lWtxRLhyphenhyphenUtgn-w_dutOqjUY5T7rdAhctFkGha10fh0W578B6ugjeP8E_KohJzizAfjhAew_BYM000QnXYGx6H_aNUmS50lDpr0/s640/Strange-Love-of-Martha-Ivers.jpg" width="422" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, </i>One-Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaz8wx63VLz5oRmnvBNGzbgUpHtiblRDkhyVZCbzZVRH0UbjWygaNDkDmKV0HjzYyu0iLg5zRRlfMMoyeUKZY81qJ5LLYNoCMpYgtu1KeLY7ICGUHb46Mxj-lrPVgNEibNgR0FuEJ9TgI/s1600/Too-Late-for-Tears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaz8wx63VLz5oRmnvBNGzbgUpHtiblRDkhyVZCbzZVRH0UbjWygaNDkDmKV0HjzYyu0iLg5zRRlfMMoyeUKZY81qJ5LLYNoCMpYgtu1KeLY7ICGUHb46Mxj-lrPVgNEibNgR0FuEJ9TgI/s640/Too-Late-for-Tears.jpg" width="414" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Too Late for Tears, </i>One-Sheet. Cybil Shepard?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjglgq7aYkoag4ej89T8Rd6A4-_mz2pv8_rDrOhnGcx5EKXNNfEsHtizU8la5FsGZkeENWx3UmIMRJb9PiYZWeCzjUIBeihhwJVe9YYkpeDS9f9eEQLhvFTtqNF50e08eSxfe4g0b9WPpo/s1600/TooLate-WindowCard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjglgq7aYkoag4ej89T8Rd6A4-_mz2pv8_rDrOhnGcx5EKXNNfEsHtizU8la5FsGZkeENWx3UmIMRJb9PiYZWeCzjUIBeihhwJVe9YYkpeDS9f9eEQLhvFTtqNF50e08eSxfe4g0b9WPpo/s640/TooLate-WindowCard.jpg" width="416" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Too Late for Tears</i>, Window Card</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTgN1sKnZhS-UV_UW44iexYo0kwhD249SPzH8YAukRz50fVqAHNshPUO53-hOBOQHb-xUi73BSJzdw0IMwZracL_-3V89qD-MUqGREXoUQkFXH34JawSyap94FfyqndrRXJ2evrbmk5hs/s1600/TwoofaKind_Half_Sheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTgN1sKnZhS-UV_UW44iexYo0kwhD249SPzH8YAukRz50fVqAHNshPUO53-hOBOQHb-xUi73BSJzdw0IMwZracL_-3V89qD-MUqGREXoUQkFXH34JawSyap94FfyqndrRXJ2evrbmk5hs/s640/TwoofaKind_Half_Sheet.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Two of a Kind</i>, Half-Sheet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Two of a Kind</i>, One-Sheet</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1279530091641272518.post-44247256274164246692013-07-29T14:27:00.000-04:002013-07-29T14:32:44.581-04:00VIOLENCE (1947) <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Film noir’s definition may be as elusive as ever, but we can say with confidence that noir confronted the harsh realities of the postwar world more immediately than other kinds of Hollywood films. With their smaller budgets, noir movies developed a penchant for low cost, “ripped from the headlines” subject matter. They also often realistically depicted the internal and external struggle of veterans attempting to readjust to a culture irrevocably changed — more anonymous, more sophisticated, more neurotic — than the one they left behind at the outbreak of war.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #cccccc;">Released originally by Monogram Pictures and recently made available through the Warner Archive, 1947’s </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Violence</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> is concerned with the efforts of intrepid magazine reporter Ann Dwire (Nancy Coleman) and federal investigator Steve Fuller (Michael O’Shea) to uncover the truth behind veterans’ aid group the United Defenders. Headed by fire-breathing jingo “True” Dawson (Emory Parnell), and his cold-blooded right hand man Fred Stalk (Sheldon Leonard), the U.D. isn’t the legitimate organization it’s cracked up to be, but rather a picket-busting goon squad available to the highest bidder. Dawson uses his gift for polarizing oratory to enthrall returning servicemen, bellowing that the Defenders are the “…fearless spine that will stand behind you for all the things you’ve been promised: better housing conditions, your jobs back with privilege of seniority, and relief from the shortages that affect the happiness and well-being of you and your families!” Meanwhile, he and Stalk are secretly cultivating a six-figure deal with a mysterious “Mr. Big” figure to hire the Defenders out as club-wielding thugs: “We get ‘em young and tough, the kind that’s already wearing a chip on its shoulder — and then we’ll prime then for the payoff. We’ll prime them with hate! Hate for labor, hate for management, hate for the party that’s in, hate for the party that’s out!” During one such rant, a vet dares to challenge Dawson’s violent rhetoric, prompting the big man (in an obvious reference to HUAC — whether it’s an embrace or an indictment is unclear) to whine that the Defenders’ enemies can “get on the inside too.” He then calls for “a couple of red-blooded boys” to take care of the problem with their fists.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #cccccc;">In order to properly come to grips with just how ‘of the moment’ </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Violence</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> was, we need to take for a closer look at the domestic situation at the time of its release. It isn’t exactly correct, that conception most folks have about the period of time just after the war being a moment of unbridled prosperity and optimism in the United States. There was a short period of adjustment, before the renewed militarism of the Cold War and Korea (not to mention the rising middle class’s demand for new leisure and consumer goods) that would find returning soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines faced with a crisis of uncertain jobs, declining wages, sorry working conditions, and piss-poor housing.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #cccccc;">Everyone who wanted a job had worked when the war was on, and while the home front labor shortages guaranteed high wages and almost unlimited overtime, rationing of staples and the general lack of luxury items led to out-of-control inflation, even after the surrender. After four long years folks were tired of going without; they had saved fastidiously during the war and now wanted to spend their money on their wants rather than their needs. By 1946 most families were eyeballing one of those new suburban bungalows, complete with a TV set in the living room and a Ford Super De Luxe in the carport. Yet as the economy was returning to a peacetime model and millions of G.I.s were rejoining domestic life, big business believed the transition period presented the right opportunity to slash wages and overtime, pare women from the labor pool, and return to a more profitable depression-era pay scale. An emboldened American people wouldn’t stand for it.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #cccccc;">In the wake of the layoffs, the cuts in pay and overtime, and four years’ worth of stockpiled grievances (the AFL and CIO promised not to strike during the war), things got ugly. In what would become known as the Great Strike Wave of 1946, as many as five million Americans walked off the job. Steel, coal, oil, transportation, utilities, retail; it seemed to involve everyone. Entire cities went on solidarity strikes. Confrontations were commonplace, and there were those, like </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Violence</i><span style="color: #cccccc;">’s Dawson, who were ready to cash in on the trouble. Big business had a long history of using the police and the National Guard to quash strikes, and when that wasn’t legally possible they turned to private contractors. By the time Congress opened the 1947 session, the labor situation was a national calamity, and more than 250 related bills were under consideration by lawmakers. It was during this maelstrom, in May 1947, that </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Violence</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> hit theaters. Just a few weeks later, and over President Truman’s veto, congress passed the controversial Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, made it far more difficult for workers to strike.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #cccccc;">That brings us back to </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Violence</i><span style="color: #cccccc;">, a movie that attempts to cash in on the fears and the tumult of a country trying to get back to work, and hoping to recover from too many years of war and depression. It opens in the cellar of the United Defenders’ Los Angeles headquarters with the thuggish Stalk and simple minded crony Joker (Peter Whitney) murdering an employee who got too close to the truth, while Dawson blusters away to the Ladies’ Auxiliary in the meeting hall just over their heads. It’s a delightfully noirish beginning — dark and hardboiled — but the rest of the film fails to live up to these opening moments. As the action moves upstairs, we meet UD secretary Ann Mason, who appears dutiful until we realize that she’s using her secret bracelet camera to photograph everyone in the room! Mason is actually Ann Dwire, girl reporter for VIEW magazine. With microfilm negatives hidden in her bag, she departs for Chicago to pen her exposé. She hops a taxi outside the Union Station, but is tailed by agent Steve Fuller. The chase results in a fiery crash that sends Ann to the hospital with a bad case of — wait for it — amnesia. Deciding to play the situation to his advantage, Fuller sneaks into the hospital and convinces her that they’re engaged, and then tricks her into getting him a job with the UD. Unfortunately for Steve, Ann no longer remembers who she really is, and when she learns that he’s actually a G-Man, she rats him out to Dawson and Stalk!</span><br /><br /><i style="color: #cccccc;">Violence</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> was Monogram’s follow up to its 1946 hit </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Decoy</i><span style="color: #cccccc;">, and features many of the same principals: director Jack Bernhard, producer Bernard Brandt, writer Stanley Rubin, and actor Sheldon Leonard. But don’t go looking for a repeat performance. Where</span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Decoy</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> was creative and stylish, </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Violence</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> is drab and predictable. The cast often seems disinterested, the production design is tepid, and Bernhard’s direction is uninspired. Even the talented Leonard suffers in comparison. His droll delivery in </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Decoy</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> acts as a foil to Jean Gillie’s outrageously over the top femme fatale, and his deadpan style doesn’t wash playing against two leads (Coleman and O’Shea) unable to parry his style. In short, </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Violence</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> fails to deliver on either the tastiness of its title or the promise of its topicality — and it fails to capture even a little of the same verve that made </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Decoy</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> so much fun. Rather than drawing attention to an issue of national importance — the problem of returning veterans in labor strife — </span><i style="color: #cccccc;">Violence</i><span style="color: #cccccc;"> simply morphs its fascinating premise into grist for the Poverty Row mill. What it needed was a shot of Methylene Blue.</span><br /><span style="color: #b45f06;"><br /><b><i>Violence</i> (1947)</b>Directed by Jack Bernhard<br />Produced Bernard Brandt<br />Written by Stanley Rubin and Lewis Lantz<br />Cinematography by Henry Sharp<br />Starring Nancy Coleman, Michael O’Shea, Emory Parnell, and Sheldon Leonard<br />Released by Monogram Pictures<br />Running Time: 72 minutes</span></span>Markhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07715057178983752370noreply@blogger.com1