Marqueed

I was watching Cassavetes' Shadows from 1959 last weekend and, as is usual, I was very excited by any street scene that showed the stretch of bright marquees from the Times Square/42nd St bevy of cinemas. It's like I have a minor (major) fetish for seeing what's playing and such on any screen in any town and a learned appreciation for the advertising displays out front. 'Shot on location' is always a winner for me and I think that's why I was so enamoured with a movie like American Graffiti (Wexler!) when I was younger or maybe it's a Canadian's over-familiarity with the documentary aesthetic or something that makes it captivating. It's hard to define but I am especially thrilled by these types of things and they thankfully crop up all the time in the lesser budgeted movies of both high artistic and lowly questionable merit. My luck! Anyway, I'll let you in on any I find.


While Lelia is checking the display for some Bardot film on a routine double feature, across the street patrons should no doubt be delighted to see the 'Naked' double bill from 1957.











As an aside, I'll offer that these poster examples are among the many 'disappeared' sizes that no longer grace and overwhelm us and our lobbies. The three sheet poster was a mighty sight to behold at 41 x 81 inches (104cm x 205cm) and it's sadly missed (along with her other paper brothers and sisters of yesterday with their different sizes and styles) in today's mostly uninspired backlit one sheet displays.



And then after that creep freaks her out by getting all grabby and stuff, she zips around the corner and safely off under this other stunner of a canopy!