Woman on the Run, 1950 Original Half Sheet
Woman on the Run, 1950
Directed by Norman Foster
Holy Roller Coasters! Run Lady Run!
?????? What? Why isn’t Ann Sheridan running? Why is she standing around goading the cops?
Batman director, Norman Foster purposely re-titled the story Woman on the Run in order to capture the “essence” of a woman racing against time to retrieve her lost love. Yeah, sure. That’s what I get from the picture.
Criss Cross, 1949 Original Half Sheet
Criss Cross, 1948
Directed by Robert Soidmak
”All woman are bitches,” I said. She smiled at me. Her eyes were deep and black. “All woman are cheats and liars and bitches,” I told her.
“I’m not,” she said. “I’m a whore.”
“You’re different,” I said. “I mean real women.”
Criss Cross, 1934 by Don Tracy
Spicy.
Don Tracy’s double-crossing armed robbery caper about a down on his luck, love-struck, ex-boxer and his trampy ex-wife gets the “Hollywood” treatment by Soidmak in 1949.
The Blue Gardenia, original vintage half sheet
The Blue Gardenia, 1953, Directed by Fritz Lang
Based on the short story Gardenia , by Vera Caspary (Laura)
Fritz Lang, the monocle wearing “Master of Darkness” and director of the Steampunk masterpiece * “Metropolis” could also churn out some melodramatic clunkers.
Fritzy is SOOO Steam Punk!
After “fleeing” Berlin with all his moola intact, Fritzy decamped in Paris, then Hollywood in 1936. His first American film “Fury”, instantly cemented his auteur status.
In the years that followed, Lang, more than any other director, influenced the development of film noir style in America. Lang’s dour, depressing, dark depiction of life combined with the sheer volume of flickage set the mode. What set Lang apart from a lot of other dour, dark and depressing German directors was his ability to make his films suspenseful and watchable.
Somewhere in the Night, Half Sheet
Somewhere in the Night, Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Hollywood loves movies about amnesiacs. A klunk on the head can turn a snarling shrew into a panting geisha. Slinky sirens with murky motives turn up claiming to be your wife. Gangsters shoot first and east block sociopaths attach electrodes later…. Dull sitcoms are reborn. Momentarily.
Undercurrent, original vintage half sheet, 1946
Undercurrent, 1946, Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli, former Ziegfeld Follies dresser extraordinaire, male make-up aficionado and spawn-pop of Liza with a Z! got along just fine with reefer roaster and chain-gang refugee Robert Mitchum on the set of Undercurrent.
Kate Hepburn. Not so much.
The Oscar-winning star famously snooted/screeched/sneered at Mitchum,
“You know you can’t act. If you hadn’t been good looking, you would have never gotten a picture. I’m tired of playing with people who have nothing to offer.”
Kate felt lots of folk fell into the “can’t act” category. Silly girl. As if people in Hollywood are cast on their thespian powers.
