In response to Sunday’s query about classic-era big-city marquees, a friend pointed to a gallery of Times Square photos on Flickr. Most were posted by Christian Montone of “central New Jersey.” The 1953 Stalag 17/The Moon is Blue shot is owned by a guy named “pfala” who’s requested permission to post, but didn’t include contact info — brilliant.
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Taken in August 1953 looking south from 47th Street. It seems vaguely odd to consider Billy Wilder’s monochrome Stalag 17 being visually represented in grand vivid colors.
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Early in the run of Stanley Kramer’s still-decent anti-war film, based on the novel by Nevil Shute. This north-facing shot of the Astor marquee was possibly taken soon after the film’s 12.17.59 opening.
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Early in the 1955 run of John Sturges’ now completely forgotten CinemaScope drama, which basically sold Jane Russell’s boobs through the filter of underwater photography.
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Allegedly snapped in 1950.
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I recently tried watching a spiffed-up DVD of Robert Rossen‘s Lilith (1964) with Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg. An intriguing moment or line pops through now and then, but mostly it’s a leaden dirge-like thing.
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George Seaton‘s The Counterfeit Traitor was never a great or top-drawer World War II spy thriller, but it’s definitely a decent one — a solid B or B-plus. It came out on DVD in ’04 — available through Amazon. It’s visually drab, but I’ll never forget a scene in which Lili Palmer (playing an anti-German spy and William Holden‘s romantic interest) and three or four others are machine-gunned to death in the courtyard of a German prison. Klaus Kinski has a vivid scene as a guy being smuggled to safety inside a small yacht who smothers to death rather than cough and alert the Germans to his presence. Traitor opened on 4.17.62. Notice the splashy Oscar-award promotion given to Judgment at Nuremberg (which had opened roadshow-style in late ’61) at the next-door Palace.
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