movie: The Big Heat

I enjoy getting a chance to see some of these old movies in an old theater, all in walking distance from where I live.

I went to see a 1953 film at the Heights Theater tonight.  They even had a guy playing the pipe organ for entertainment before the show.  I wasn't expecting the music, and I wasn't expecting the crowd either.  I guess that more than 150 people showed up.

It was a fun movie, and much of it was intentional.  The main character is a detective who offers many sarcastic comments throughout the film, and the female characters get some sassy lines that cracked up everyone.  The plot took a few nice turns.  The good guy convincingly avoids becoming a bad guy.  Some bad guys convincingly show their good side.  For a movie based on a serial story, it was actually pretty good.

Like a lot of these old movies, the sexism in the movie is laughable today.  Likewise, the audience found lots of unintended humor in the rampant use of cigarettes and liquor.  Even the dinner plate became a laughing matter, as the audience snickered at the inappropriateness of it.  It was nothing but a large baked potato and a thick steak nearly the size of the whole dinner plate.  Not a green, leafy vegetable anywhere in sight.  Oh, and beer to drink.

The movie also reminds me how awful it is to have an economy built upon perpetual inflation.  A beer back in 1953 cost 35 cents, and you could pay for it with a single 50-cent coin.  Remember when coins had value?  Even the pay phones used coins as if they were worth something.