MetaChat - "As dumb as a pancake"

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18 October 2005

"As dumb as a pancake" →[More:]is a direct quote from: Fingers at the Window, a little known film noir that combines a snappy pace, Hitchcockian cinematography and decent acting with a bizarre plot, surreal scenes and the dumbest heroine ever dragged through a detective movie.

I knew I was in for a wild ride when the police psychiatrist in a city where 5 ax murders have been committed by 5 different murderers says, "The idea of a mastermind being behind these crimes is ridiculous. It is obviously a simple case of mass hysteria." And the police chief responds, "Round up all the morons."

Oh, and the post title is how the hero refers to the heroine after proposing marriage to her.

post by: Secret Life of Gravy at: 12:28 | 14 comments

I went to goatdog's old movie show a couple weeks ago and saw 5 Fingers, which contained this great dialog:

German Ambassador: "Why did you leave Warsaw?"
Polish Duchesse: "The Germans were dropping bombs on Warsaw. I felt I was in the way."

posted by me3dia 18 October | 12:38

I love Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival), which may be the most cynical film ever. It's by Billy Wilder, who also did Double Indemnity. Anyway, this guy is trapped in a cave-in and the jounalist who is making a carnival of the rescue effort (think baby Jessica), asks the hard-hearted wife if she shouldn't be praying for her husband.

She replies, "I don't kneel. It bags my nylons."

There is also, from Double Indemnity: "I thought you were a little bit smarter than the others. I guess you're just a little bit taller."

(These a paraphrases. Because I forget stuff.)

posted by dame 18 October | 12:43

In Three Strangers (1946), Peter Lorre gets to say "Don't ever get mixed up with a Chinese goddess. That's the worst thing that can happen, the absolute worst."

dame, that's one of my favorites too. We showed it at my "old movie show" last season.

posted by goatdog 18 October | 12:45

"that" being Ace in the Hole. I recently had a really bad experience at a screening of Double Indemnity, where an audience full of hipster assholes laughed through the entire film.

posted by goatdog 18 October | 12:49

Oh, I love Peter Lorre so much, goatdog. Especially in The Maltese Falcon, where his sliminess is spot on.

And yeah, Ace in the Hole is like the most perfect tragedy ever. Better than MacBeth, I think, which is my second favorite tragedy, There is something fascinating in the myriad ways people doom themselves. (Though in Ross MacDonald, it's always your parents who screwed you up.)

posted by dame 18 October | 12:52

ride the pink one.

Anyone here see "In a Lonely Place?"
Bogart.

posted by Divine_Wino 18 October | 13:00

Hipster assholes laughed at Double Indemnity? That is one of my favorite movies. Damn.

posted by gaspode 18 October | 13:08

Bogie's best performance. "It was his story against mine, but of course, I told my story better."

'pode, I bitched about it and the person who programmed the series commented.

posted by goatdog 18 October | 13:10

Anyone here see "In a Lonely Place?"

Oh, we loved "In a Lonely Place." It contains one of our favorite film-taunts of all time. Bogart runs a fellow motorist off the road, and the motorist angrily calls Bogart a "blind, knuckle-headed squirrel."

This epithet has gotten a lot of mileage around Chez Gravy. That and "cunt-face-fuckwad."

posted by Secret Life of Gravy 18 October | 13:25

Oyyyy. You guys made me remember when I was a sophomore in high school. Me and three friends went to see Throne of Blood at the Kurosawa film festival at Columbia University.
This kid Ben who was with us bought a back of those caramel peanuts (from one of those "Nuts about Nuts" stands) and throughout the movie everyone in the theater could hear this jackass crinkling his wax paper bag and crunching away. I think at one point someone shushed him, so he just did it slower.
This was in a place where I was trying to be extra-respectful, as we were clearly the youngest ones there.

posted by Edible Energy 18 October | 13:36

Johnny: How many men have you forgotten?
Vienna: As many women as you've remembered.
Johnny: Don't go away.
Vienna: I haven't moved.
Johnny: Tell me something nice.
Vienna: Sure. What do you want to hear?
Johnny: Lie to me. Tell me all these years you've waited...
Vienna: All these years I've waited.
Johnny: Tell me you'd have died if I hadn't come back.
Vienna: I would have died if you hadn't come back.
Johnny: Tell me you still love me like I love you.

Vienna: I still love you like you love me.

Johnny: Thanks. Thanks a lot.

posted by matteo 18 October | 14:08

goatdog, I liked to see the outrage in the comments as well. Such a good movie.

posted by gaspode 18 October | 14:10

and re: In a Lonely Place --

All of Ray can be boiled down to a single word from “In a Lonely Place.” Humphrey Bogart plays a Hollywood screenwriter who is suspected of killing a hat-check girl. The morning after the crime, he is visited by a cop, a friend who fought beside him in the war, and who now comes bearing news:

“You know I got married.”
“Why?”

and what dame said

posted by matteo 18 October | 14:13

I second the Peter Lorre love.

The husband is not much of an old movie buff. The first time we watched something with Peter Lorre in it, he turned to me and said, "Hey...is that the guy from the Bugs Bunny cartoons?"

(Yes, you lovely simple man. Yes it is.)

posted by jrossi4r 18 October | 16:17

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