Smoking In The Old Movies

[Mr. Arkadin]

Nice post JF. I've always seen the film in a similar fashion. Joe even alludes to much of this in his voice-over where he discusses her holder. The cigarette case is a powerful bit of symbolism revealing Joe's entrapment and you are perfectly correct to link it to the pool. Joe's last attempt to leave Norma begins with him returning the case and then being returned to his prison figuratively (falling into the pool after he is shot).

[JackFavell]

Thanks very much, Arkadin. That''s super, what you wrote! I forgot he gave back the case!

When Joe turns on the lights in the pool, saying to Betty, "Come back sometime with Artie and go for a swim." I always think it looks just like a well lit grave.

I can't think of another film in which cigarettes play such an important role and are so meaningful in telling the tale, aside from Now Voyager.

Cigarettes are also important in prisoner of war films, as barter and trade commodities.... Stalag 17 and The Great Escape come to mind, but maybe this is a bit off the subject, since many times the cigarettes are not smoked.

[charliechaplinfan]

Thanks for posting the scene from Flesh and the Devil, it's the first silent I ever saw, it was broadcast about 20 years ago on Channel 4 and I had no intention of watching it, I only had to watch a couple of minutes to change my mind, the cigarette scene stayed in my mind for years. John Gilbert is holding a torch/small light bulb which lights up the moment I strikes the match.

There are certain stars I associate with smoking, Marlene Dietrich was so darn suggestive with cigarettes, Rudolph Valentino was too, Bogie and Bette Davis they always seemed to smoke a lot on screen but not in the same suggestive manner. I can't remember many of the MGM stars lighting up on screen although I'm sure they did. Private detectives seem to smoke a lot too, I guess quite a few of the girls in the film noir genre did too.

[JackFavell]

Thank you, kingrat!

I have to admit I got sucked into the story (sorry for the pun) while taking those caps and ended up watching through to the end again.

Cigarette girls are a staple of Hollywood classic films. This one with Don Ameche and Robert Young could be from "Josette" but I am not sure.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Here's one of my favorites which includes a cigarette girl and one of the best smoking lines ever:

Match me Sidney!
[youtube][/youtube]

[pvitari]

And then there's that 1971 Norman Lear comedy, Cold Turkey, about a town that pledges to quit smoking for a month in order to win $25 million, starring Dick Van Dyke and Pippa Scott.



It's now available on one of those DVD-Rs from MGM -- you can get it from Amazon. I haven't seen this disc so I can't vouch for its quality. From what I've read, some of the MGM DVD-Rs have NOT had anamorphic transfers so buyer beware.

[JackFavell]

I remember Cold Turkey! As I recall, it was pretty cynical but quite funny.

Arkadin - that is a great clip from SSOS.

[Birdy]

My favorite smoking line:

"Cigarette me, big boy."

Ginger Rogers as Puff Randolph in Young Man of Manhattan, 1930

Of course, being a huge fan of the 30s, I see a lot of smoking.
You gotta' love the box on the coffee table.

[JackFavell]

Yes, everything is so sophisticated - cigarette boxes, lighters.... oooh that reminds me....

[The Ingenue]

An evening spent in the company of "The Sainted Sisters" (1948, Paramount) reminded me of another "cigarette scene" I count among favorites.

The sisters of the film's title are Letty and Jane Stanton (Veronica Lake and Joan Caulfield), the topic of conversation in a New York D.A.'s office as the film begins...

• "In 1781, Yorktown was taken by General Washington-
  In 1865, Richmond was taken by General Grant. And-
  
  In 1895, Oswald T. Lederer was taken by two dames."

...and Oswald is howling. While, earlier in the evening, one sister slipped onto his lap, the other stood out on the fire escape snapping pictures which procured the sum of $25,000 from the frightened Mr. Lederer. But, rather than handing over the negatives, the sisters scrammed. The police have a lead: they think the girls are heading towards the Canadian border. And, indeed, they are, but in a fashion unsuspected (a ramshackle hay wagon driven along country roads), and with a way of holding cigarettes that defines the personalities of these two tricksters from our first glimpse.

• 

Veronica (on the left) is "Letty," and a revelation in the role. Her signature bang is replaced by a topknot of curls, her cool seductiveness by a foxiness worn with tired necessity, and those luscious lips are pursed in a Demarestian line from which dangles her cigarette. [I always think of Dana Andrews when I see a cigarette like that.] Letty is a tough cookie--she's had to be as guardian to a dizzy doll of a sister (Caulfield) whom, you will notice, handles a puff with daintiness. In a moment, Caulfield's "Jane" will toss the cigarette behind her, igniting the girls' inglorious exit from the wagon.

• 

Landing in a mud puddle which leaves them and their boodle (which is stashed in Letty's bustle!) soaking wet, the girls trek it to the nearest shelter they can find (a dusty affair which causes Jane to wonder, "Do you suppose anyone ever died in this bed?" Letty's reply: "Pull down the covers and see."). There they string the money on corset laces, like so...

• 

...while "storms with shoes" (the house's unexpected occupant, Barry Fitzgerald) prowl the hallways with luger. All of which whimsy (and this digressive post) is set off by a scene with cigarettes.

[JackFavell]

That was a wonderful post! I have got to get my hands on The Sainted Sisters (pardon me, I don't mean that way!) - it sounds great..... just my speed, pure escapism. I'd love to see Veronica in a Demarest-ian role.

[mrsl]

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Hey JackFavell:

I'm with you on that one. Sainted Sisters looks like a real treat. Maybe it's available to TCM, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I'm right in between the 30's and your generation, myself being a baby boomer, but the entire U.S. lived in a cloud of smoke for years. It was rare to find someone who did not smoke. I was watching A Letter to Three Wives again yesterday afternoon and again I was reminded how silly costume designers can be. First off, no matter what the style of the time, can you imagine joining 50 little kids on a boat to a picnic wearing a skirt and heels? Kate Hepburn had long before made slacks acceptable for that kind of outing. But equally amazing was Ann Sothern smoking a cigarette with cotton dress gloves on. Do you have any idea how restrictive that would be? Your fingers in those gloves would be equal in mobility to a pair of cheap vinyl winter gloves. What a joke, and who wears gloves to a picnic?

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