Sunday, June 17, 2007

TONY CURTIS SMOKES


I've had a pretty busy day today so forgive me for putting up a skimpy post. Here's some doodles I did while watching "The Defiant Ones" on TV a couple of days ago. Tony Curtis smokes up a storm in that film but I couldn't draw fast enough to get
most of it.

Anybody know of any films that contain good smoking scenes?

28 comments:

cableclair said...

Thank you for smoking :-D.
Good night and Good luck
The Man Who Wasn't There

Benjamin De Schrijver said...

Thank you for smoking? I haven't seen it, but I thought I heard that there's not one burning cigarette in it.

Maybe go through some film noir?

William said...

Big Sleep is good, but the best smoking movie of all time is Wong Kar Wai's incomparable In The Mood For Love. The pseudosequel 2046 also had some too.

BMW also made eight short films, a top-notch director heading each, and they had some great smoking in there.

William said...

Oh, and thanks for the doodles, O King of The Province of Doodles!

Lester Hunt said...

I admit this isn't a film but: Any time Rod Serling appeared on screen.

Anonymous said...

"Out of the Past" with Robert Mitchum. The whole movie is a great smoking scene.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Cable, William, Anon: Thanks for the tips! I put the titles in my wallet so I'll have them at hand when I need them!

Lester: Doesn't Serling just stand there with a burning cigarette? I'm not aware that he actually smoked.

cableclair said...

hahaha!omg! You're right!

IMDB says:

No one is shown smoking a cigarette throughout the entire movie. In fact, except in the black and white film that Naylor watches, no-one is seen even holding a cigarette. Naylor holds an empty packet and Robert Duvall holds an (unlit) cigar.

But it's a very funny movie ABOUT the smoking industry though, so defenitely worth a check-out!
And Good Night and Good Luck makes up for it ten-fold :-).

Lester Hunt said...

"Lester: Doesn't Serling just stand there with a burning cigarette? I'm not aware that he actually smoked." I guess you're right. Except when he was doing a cigarette commercial.

Actually, it there are more great smoking shots in old movies than you could shake a Marlboro at. For the same reason that the streets are always wet in night scenes: cigarette smoke, like wet streets at night, looks great on B&W film!

Anonymous said...

i always thought that there were some good smoking scenes in the first ghostbusters movie.. bill murray sometimes pouts his lower lip out while talking, letting the cigarette bounce a bit for a humorus effect.. and that scene with dan aykroyd where he see slimer and his cigarette tips out of his mouth and gets stuck on his lower lip..

Anonymous said...

Most Humphrey Bogart films contain smoking, which eventually killed him. There doesn't appear to be any footage of Walt Disney smoking, which he did like a chimney and which killed him too.

C. A. M. Thompson said...

Out Of The Past is one of those movies that would be a completely different movie if it was filmed without cigarettes. One of the best film noirs ever.

Anonymous said...

what do you think of hentai eddie? have you and john ever thought of making a warner brothers style version?

katzenjammer studios said...

Eddie, I can't forgive you for apologizing for this post. This is one of my favorites, and I think a great deal of gold is to be mined from your thoughts on acting. To see how many different drags you are drawing is really hilarious, and a HUGE testament to the often abstract concepts of "specific" acting. If it were only explained to me this simple the first time.

I'm so sorry that I never fulfilled my promise of setting up the pencil test system for you. If you're still interested in animating (which I'm hoping is true), the program I was talking about is MonkeyJam. It's free, and it has a dopesheet so you can retime stuff without having to reshoot it (like a lunchbox... BUT FREE!). Anyhoo, all you need is a digital camera. It can be downloaded here (go to the bottom and click download):

http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/download.html

- chris

Jeff Pidgeon said...

I imagine almost any Bogart film would have choice smoking scenes.

"Good Night, And Good Luck" does have quantity on its side.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Katz: LOL! Thanks for the compliments and double thanks for the reminder about MonkeyJam! I can't wait to try it!

Anon: What is hentai? I forget!

Cable, Jeff: "Good Night" is definitly on my list now and so is "Out of the Past!"

Anonymous said...

hentai is animated erotica, an extremely beautiful artform which is the national pasttime of Japan

cableclair said...

Oh! And how could one forget

Coffee and cigarettes

Andreas said...

A hilarious film about quitting smoking with scenes of Dick Van Dyke smoking as a preacher

Cold Turkey(1971)

Anonymous said...

I saw Norman Lear's "Cold Turkey" on its initial release. Despite a theatre equally filled with rednecks and hippies, the concept of beating tobacco addiction bridged the social gap.

Kali Fontecchio said...

"Wong Kar Wai's incomparable In The Mood For Love"

Also makes you fall asleep. I like the waltz in it though.

Anonymous said...

Great drawings of Tony Curtis smoking poses from
"The Defiant Ones".

Not a cigarette smoking film, but "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" with Cary Grant,Myrna Loy ,and Melvyn Douglas has some great pipe smoking scenes. Everyone in that movie (except Myrna Loy) seems to smoke a cool looking pipe. It was almost like "product placement" , except no particular brand of pipe tobacco or pipe maker is mentioned . Very funny movie, by the way .

The film "Smoke" starring Harvey Keitel has a lot of smoking scenes (cigars and cigarettes) as you might expect from the title.

"Paper Moon" has a memorable scene (somewhat controversial in these politically correct days)of Tatum O'Neal's 10 year-old character leisurely enjoying a cigarette.

I read recently where the Motion Picture Association Ratings Board was considering slapping an automatic "R" rating on any film which features a character smoking, especially if it's a film that would appeal to children. Can't you just see it ? --- "Pinocchio" Rated "R".

"The 101 Dalmatians", rated "R". (Cruella De Vil smoking)

Or will Disney just digitally remove all evidence of smoke like they did with Pecos Bill ?

Anonymous said...

Tatum got an oscar for those cigarettes, but she did not inhale.

Also she suffered what has happened to me on the occasions a cigarette may have dangled from my lips... Smoke gets in your eyes, if you are not madly drawing it into your system for your nicotine fix.

e. banks said...

Now Voyager has a really famous smoking scene with Bette Davis

Jenny Lerew said...

"Gilda". I just saw it, and if I had a dime for every time Rita and Glenn puff on a cig...also "The Big Sleep"(and as Jeff says, most any Bogart film).

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Coffee and Cigarettes, Cold Turkey, Mood for Love, Mr' Blandings, Smoke, Paper Moon, Now Voyager, Good Night and Good Luck, Smoke, Paper Moon...I'm a little skeptical about some of these but I'll look for them.

It seems to me that only 50s and early 60s man knew how to smoke. They realized that the ritual was more important than the tobacco.

Anonymous said...

"
It seems to me that only 50s and early 60s man knew how to smoke.
They realized that the ritual was more important than the tobacco.
"

I'd say that that's true of 1920s-1950-era men and women--much more so than the 60s.
"Cold Turkey" is a mediocre film about a town that quits smoking, not particularly good smoking reference imo.
"Paper Moon" is a 70s recreation of the depression era with the shock value of an 8 year old dragging on filterless cigs, but "Now Voyager" might have the most famous and nonstop smoking in it in all of cinema--and no one can argue the smoking isn't ritualistic in that one. It's a stand-in for sex.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Anon: "Now Voyager?" Sounds good! Thanks!