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.
The Big Heat, Half Sheet
No matter what the role — gang moll, vapid sexpot, drunken whore, pill-popping nympho, man-crazed slut, enlightened hooker, gun-slinging adulterous wacko — Gloria Grahame managed to give her characters real heat. Few could hold a candle to her on the big screen.
But her private life was en feugo. The real life antics of Britney Spears, Madonna, and Michael Jackson have nothing on this Noir Super vixen. Multiple marriages, affairs and botched plastic surgeries aside, few scandals can top the star’s affair with her then 13-year-old stepson with Nicholas Ray (Director of Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar. To top it off, she married him 7 years later when she was 37 and the marriage produced two more children. Her career took a dive and never recovered. If it were 2010, she’d probably
Gloria Grahame
knock the Kardashians off the covers of all the mags with a three picture deal and executive producing credits to boot.
Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin’s boiling coffee scene in The Big Heat remains one of the most famous in noir history. As a kid it made quite an impression on me. But something else made an even bigger impression on me. Later in the film, Gloria went out for revenge packing heat and wearing a full length mink. Now that’s killer style.
CONDITION: Mint. Never used. White background. No Fading. No pinholes. Not Folded. Kept in archival sleeves.
