The Ruby Throated Sparrow

Movie Still of the Day: Out of the Past

I love Robert Mitchum’s face. It looks like it was carved from driftwood.

Movie Still of the Day: The Big Sleep

Bucking tradition a bit with this one. Bogie and Bacall are, as always, fabulous in this film, but praise is also due Martha Vickers as Bacall’s nymphomaniacal kid sister.

Black and White Movie Still of the Day: Chinatown

Nothing better than a noir on a Sunday evening, and Chinatown remains one of the best. 

Black and White Movie Still of the Day: Diabolique

An intensely suspenseful and creepy film about two women who conspire to bump off the mutual man in their lives, then are none too pleased when the corpse up and disappears—then decides to come around again to exact some revenge. If you like Hitchcock, you’ll love this—it was actually written by the same two men (Boileau and Narcejac) whose novel D’entre Les Morts provided the basis for Vertigo.

Black and White Movie Still of the Day: The Letter

Lesson #1: Thou shalt not tempt the wrath of Bette Davis. Particularly when she is armed.

Black and white movie still of the day: Touch of Evil

While on the outset some elements of this film may be a bit questionable (Charlton Heston? As a Mexican? Question mark?) those are soon forgotten as you’re pulled into this deep murky story of murder and corruption at the border. From the masterful opening shot to the final nail-biting surveillance climax, this is one of the true noir masterpieces. 

Black and white movie still of the day: Laura

Half noir, half ghost story, Laura is romance filled at every corner with lies, twists and surprisingly subversive turns. What else could there be when your detective hero finds himself falling in love with the portrait of a dead woman? 

Black and White Movie Still of the Day: Double Indemnity

Never has one picture summed up a movie so well. I once heard it described as “the ultimate venus-flytrap noir” and it is. You want the most fatale of femme fatales, look no further than Barbara Stanwyck as the bleached paragon of manipulative female desire luring sap Fred MacMurray towards his inevitable demise.