Every year the Film Forum, located on West Houston Street between the Avenue of the Americas and Varick Street, runs a series focusing on the twisted crime dramas with great hijinks known as “film noir”. Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder, from 1944, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, is the noiriest of all film noir films. It is a movie that never gets old.
This year’s series, scheduled to run from July 18-August 7, is called “Femme Noirs: Hollywood’s Dangerous Dames”. The Film Forum puts out a calendar that provides a synopsis of each film in the series, and it’s fun to peruse because the programmers highlight a few of the best lines from some of the films.
Since we at WS50 have tried our hand at the pithy one liner, we have utter appreciation for these quotes that capture a scene, a character, the mood of a gray shrouded night in a sentence.
So here’s a quiz. Match the quote with the movie and email your response to loandjule@gmail.com. Drinks at Rolf’s on us for anyone that gets them all right. (Answers will be posted on Friday).
The Quote
1. “I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened at my feet. I dived in.”
2. “Nobody’s all bad, deep down. She comes the closest.”
3. “Give me a kiss or I’ll sock ya.”
4. “If I’d only known where it would end, I’d never have let anything start.”
5. “Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you.”
6. “If you shoot, baby, you’ll smear us all over the road.”
7. “You’re not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.”
8. “I will not be ignored.
The Movie
1. Fatal Attraction. Adrian Lyne (1987).
2. The Lady from Shanghai. Orson Welles (1948).
3. Dead Reckoning. John Cromwell (1947).
4. Murder, My Sweet. Edward Dmytryk (1944).
5. The Postman Always Rings Twice. Tay Garnett (1946).
6. Detour. Edgar G. Ulmer (1948).
7. Body Heat. Lawrence Kasdan (1981).
8. Out of the Past. Jacques Tourneur (1946).
Such incredibly great lines. Sadly, I cannot identify a single one. I even tried to cheat using google.