Here are 10 things you should know about Esther Howard, born 132 years ago today. Following a successful decade on Broadway, she became one of Hollywood’s most prolific character actresses.
Tag: Detour
10 Things You Should Know About Ann Savage
Here are 10 things you should know about Ann Savage, born 99 years ago today. Few Hollywood actors have been as closely associated with a single role as Savage is with her portrayal of Vera in DETOUR (1945).
Detour: Edgar G. Ulmer’s Film Noir Classic Gets a Full Restoration
A clean, unchoppy print of Detour (1945), Edgar G. Ulmer‘s classic low-budget film noir, has been rarer than hen’s teeth for many years, so we were very pleased to learn that the film, a favorite of ours, has finally received a full 4K digital restoration (sure, sure, we’d rather it was a film restoration, too, but as the man said, beggars can’t be choosers).
Here’s the trailer. If you’ve seen Detour, it’ll leave you eager to see it again, looking better than it has in decades; if you’ve not seen it, it’ll give you a taste of what you’ve missed. We’ll be catching it at NYC’s Film Forum, where it opens on November 30; if you’re not within striking distance of the Big Apple, watch for it soon at a theatre near you (you might even want to lean on your local art/revival house into contacting Janus Films about booking this classic film).
Word has it, the restored Detour will also be released soon on DVD and BluRay, but take our word for it, you want to see it on the big screen if at all possible.
Poster art for art's sake
Like many movie buffs, we find ourselves drawn to the motion pictures of yesteryear more than those of today. Not there aren’t terrific movies made today—there certainly are—but so many current films are aimed at teenagers of all ages. As author Stefan Kanfer states in his recent biography of Humphrey Bogart, Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart, “Today, young viewers constitute some 70 percent of the filmgoing audience.” Of course, the question many movie buffs would ask is, “Which came first, the predominantly youthful audience or the movie industry that caters almost exclusively to them?” Not that it much matters. What’s done is done, and the situation isn’t likely to change in the near future.
But it’s not just movies that too often don’t stack up today. Movie posters have become so pedestrian as to be almost invisible. Honestly, when was the last time you really were taken by a movie poster, stopping to admire it on its own terms, quite apart from your interest (or lack thereof) in the picture it was advertising?
Too many contemporary movie posters feature no artistic touches whatsoever, just poorly Photoshopped scenes that too often appear as if the actors featured were not even in the same room when the shot was taken.
It wasn’t always so. Prior to 1960, movie posters were the work of artists, and they provided a pleasure all their own.
The man behind the blog Where Danger Lives, a college professor in Pennsylvania, understands the appeal of old movie posters. He recently posted his favorite 100 film noir posters (a genre for which we share an avid affinity with Mr. WDL). A few of the posters he chose tout movies we don’t consider to be film noir, but that’s picking nits. We’ll share a handful of the posters below and encourage you to visit Where Danger Lives to see the rest. Mr. WDL offers interesting insights on the design of the posters, but even if you’re not interested in what makes the posters “work,” from a designer’s point of view, the images themselves are well worth the click.