Capturing a Golden Moment #3: Double Indemnity

In this series I'd like to present some exceptional scenes inspired by cinema's most gifted artists of yesteryear.

Double Indemnity (1944) 

Director: Billy Wilder

Scene: "Office Meeting"

What a set up for Edward G. Robinson. How would you like to have a moment like this with your boss?

Double Indemnity is available on a Region Free Blu-ray from Universal and is available here:

Double Indemnity - 70th Anniversary Limited Edition (Blu-ray + DIGITAL HD with UltraViolet)

$20.86

Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather

Buy on Amazon

It is also available on Blu-ray from Masters of Cinema (Region B locked ) and can be ordered here:

Double Indemnity [Region B]

$39.71

Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather

Buy on Amazon

Sterling Silver Dialogue #7

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?

"All right, all right, how much you pay?"  (response)  "Well, just how tough are ya?"  (reply)  "Well, you pay a little bit, we're a little bit tough. You pay-a very much, we're-a very much tough. You pay-a too much we're a too much tough. How much you pay?"  (response) "I pay plenty!"  (reply) "We'll... then we're plenty tough."

"I'm a homing pigeon, I always come back to the stinking coop no matter how late it is."

"The only reason I took the job is because my bank account was trying to crawl under a duck." 

"She was a charming middle aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud. I gave her a drink. She was a gal who would take a drink if she had to knock you down to get the bottle." 

"I'm afraid I don't like your manner." (reply) "Yeah, I've had complaints about it, but it keeps getting worse." 

"She tried to sit on my lap while I was standing up."

"I don't like your manners."  (reply)  "And I'm not crazy about yours. I didn't ask to see you. I don't mind if you don't like my manners, I don't like them myself. They are pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings. I don't mind your ritzing me or drinking your lunch out of a bottle, but don't waste your time trying to cross-examine." 

"Why did you have to go on?"  (reply)  "Too many people told me to stop."

"You're never around when I need you."  (reply)  "You never need me when I'm around." 
 

"I was thinking about that dame upstairs, and the way she had looked at me, and I wanted to see her again, close, without that silly staircase between us."

"We're both rotten."  (reply)  "Only you're a little more rotten."

"You know it's quite possible Octavian that when you die... you will die without ever having been alive." 

"Queens. Queens. Strip them naked as any other woman, they are no longer queens!" (reply) "It is also difficult to tell the rank of a naked general. Generals without armies are naked indeed."

"I have often wondered, Countess... why did you leave Warsaw?"  (reply)  "Bombs were falling. I felt I was in the way." 

"Many of our German friends before the War would come as our guests to hunt wild pig. I refused to invite Goering. I couldn't tolerate his killing a wild pig. It seemed too much like brother against brother."

"The source of your money has never concerned you any more than your source of electric light.  They became worrisome only when they were shut off."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #7 are here.

Six Degrees of Treasure Trivia: Quiz #4

6 DEGREES OF TREASURE TRIVIA:  

Further hints to question #1 will be provided in the others (#2-#6).  Feel free to send your answers to arthur@thecinemacafe.com

The first person to e-mail me at the address above with all of the correct answers will receive at no charge either:

A Region 4 DVD of The Big Heat: one of the great film noirs of all time or 

A Region 1 DVD of The Man From Laramie: one of the best westerns ever made. 

(Winner's choice) 

1. The following is heard in this film: 

"Uh-huh… I know what you're thinkin'. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I've kinda' lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" 

Can you name the film? 

2. Before delivering the speech above, we can see a theatre marquee displaying the name of a film the actor previously directed.  In addition, the director of film #1 appears as one of the characters in this film (on the marquee).

Name the actor who makes the above speech and the film on the marquee he previously directed before appearing in film #1. 

3. In a documentary about film #1 Arnold Schwarzenegger states that when the scene above takes place the character is eating a hamburger before and during some of the ensuing mayhem. 

 Is he right? 

4. The director of film #1 made another film directly after this one that cast 6 of the same actors (including the director himself) appearing in film #1.  Listed below are the actors (in bold) who appeared in both films next to the parts they played in film #1:

1. Andy Robinson as"Scorpio"

2. John Vernon as The Mayor

3. Woodrow Parfrey as Jaffe (food vendor)  

4. Albert Popwell as a bank robber

5. James Nolan as a liquor store owner

6. (the director) as a passerby (of title character's vehicle)

Listed below are the 5 character parts played (in no particular order) by the actors above in the same director's subsequent film: 

Murphy (plays table tennis and gets beaten) 

Maynard Boyle (Boss to Harold Young)

Unnamed (Clerk in a store the title character visits) 

Percy Randolph (has his car repossessed)

Harmon Sullivan (a bank robber)

Harold Young (bank manager)

Can you name the film subsequently directed by film #1's director, the director himself and match the parts listed in the director's subsequent film to the actors who played them (listed above the parts in bold)? 

5. The same director and star of film #1 made 4 other films together.

Can you name the other 4? 

6. The setting for film #1 is San Francisco. The same star plays a cop for the same director in their first film working together. In their debut working relationship, this actor has to travel to a different city (other than San Francisco) to extradite a prisoner. 

Can you name the pair's first film working together and name the city that the main character travels to, that most of the story takes place in? 

Capturing a Golden Moment #2: It's a Gift

In this series I'd like to present some exceptional scenes inspired by cinema's most gifted artists of yesteryear.

It's a Gift (1934) 

Director: Norman Z. McLeod

Scene: "The Picnic"

Ahh... the blissful life of domesticity.

It's a Gift is available on DVD from Universal Studios and can be ordered here:

W.C. Fields Comedy Collection (The Bank Dick / My Little Chickadee / You Can't Cheat an Honest Man / It's a Gift / International House)

$42.35

Starring W.C. Fields, Cora Witherspoon, Una Merkel, Evelyn Del Rio, Jessie Ralph

Buy on Amazon

Sterling Silver Dialogue #6

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from? Answers coming soon.

"Chicolini you're charged with high treason, and if found guilty, you'll be shot." (reply) "I object." (response) "You, object. On what grounds?" (reply) "I couldn't think of anything else to say."

"Chicolini, when were you born?" (reply) "I don't remember. I was just a little-a baby." (response) "Isn't it true you tried to sell Freedonia's secret war code and plans?" (reply) "Sure, I sold a code and two pair of plans."  

"I even offered to pay as high as 18 dollars but I no could-a get somebody to defend me." (response) "My friends, this man's case moves me deeply. Look at Chicolini. He sits there alone. An abject figure." (Chicolini:) "I abject."

"Something must be done! War would mean a prohibitive increase in our taxes."
(reply) "Hey, I got an uncle lives in Taxes." (response) No, I'm talking about taxes - money, dollars!" (reply) "Dollars! There's-a where my uncle lives! Dollars, Taxes!"

"Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot."

"Your Excellency... Haven't we seen each other somewhere before?" (reply) "I don't think so. I'm not sure I'm seeing you now; it must be something I ate."

"Don't look now, but there's one man too many in this room, and I think it's you."

"I could dance with you until the cows come home. On second thought, I'd rather dance with the cows till you come home."

"I was continuing to shrink. To become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I... the man of the future? If there were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast new world? So close - the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet... like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God's silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature: That existence begins and ends is man's conception, not nature's. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away and in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero. I still exist."

"You know, the worst ain't so bad when it finally happens. Not half as bad as you figure it'll be before it's happened."

"Who do you think you are... my guardian angel?" (response) "Not me, honey. I lost those wings a long time ago."

"I hate him when he looks at me like that. If he were mean or vicious or if he'd bawl me out or something, I'd like him better."

"This place is a mess! There's not any food in the house! Half the time you look like you fell out of bed! You spend more time in bed than any other human being past the age of 6 months than I ever heard of!" (reply) "The reason I sleep all day is 'cause I can't stand my life." (response) "What life?!!" (reply) "Sleeping all day!" 

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #6 are here.

Time Out - Pablo Francisco "Jackie Chan" Movies

Pablo Francisco on Jackie Chan movies. Enjoy!