The Ruby Throated Sparrow

Black and white movie still of the day: Giant

I’ve always loved this image. Giant is an epic, ambitious saga of family and greed and prejudice, starring some of the most beautiful, captivating actors of its era. 

Black and white movie still of the day: The Big Heat

This noir classic recently made the rounds at Film Forum in New York City while I was there and I made an effort to go see it—I’d sort of half watched it before and hadn’t really appreciated it fully. Plus, any chance I get to go see something from before 1970 on the big screen is a chance I am going to barrel toward headlong. 

And boy, I’m glad I did. It was cool, it was sexy, it had twists coming left and right, hot coffee coming out of left field (watch it, you’ll understand), it was exciting, it was scary, it had the best bad guy (Lee Marvin, can’t beat ‘im) and the slinkiest femme fatale of them all, Gloria Grahame. I’m not sure who else could have played her role—as gangster’s moll Debby Marsh she is sensual, vain, droll, poignant and vengeful all at once. Check out their action in the mirror above. You know you want to watch it. 

Black and white movie still of the day: To Have and Have Not

To Have and Have Not, in addition to being an extremely fun escapist adventure, plays like a master’s course on onscreen chemistry. Check out the above eye action between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart—it’s such fun to see an individual as independent and clearly strong as Bogart completely bowled over by Bacall’s presence. You get the sense that he truly respected her.

The best enduring onscreen (and offscreen, for that matter) couples are the ones in which there is clearly an equality between the two: a similarity in intelligence, independence and spirit. Think Hepburn and Tracy, Loy and Powell, Grant and Kerr. But with Bogart and Bacall it was something extra special. He was the epitome of the gruff, strong alpha male. No one was tougher than Bogart…except Bacall. I highly recommend checking out any of the movies they made together. To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep are my personal favorites.