Old movies and vices

[shamus]

Seems that when ever I watch an old movie.. like tonight on turner.. The Haves and have nots...

Everyone is smoking and drinking and I get his urge to smoke and drink. I don't smoke but I get a taste for a lucky...

Why is that? When I watch a modern movie and everyone is drinking coke, I don't get a taste for the real thing....

When I watch Iron Chef I don't get an urge for seafood...

But put a B/W picture show on and suddenly I'm putting down the gin and smoking a pack of luckys.. unfiltered of course...

 

[scotrace]

"I see, Gestapo Spank..."

I quit smoking over ten years ago. This spring, after a watching of Casablanca, that was it. Then I saw Now, Voyager !

BUT.

Our grandfathers didn't tend to burn up a pack or more a day. I decant mine into a silver case, and rarely have more than a couple in a day. A pack lasts a week or more.
Please refrain from lecturing.
Your point, Shamus, is well taken. Vintage films often make me want to take up the cool stuff they're doing onscreen, whether it is Bogart's perfectly executed smoking, or seeking out Nick Charles' wonderful football sweater or any of his hats.

 

[shamus]

yes the hats and suits go without saying....

 

[scotrace]

I don't smoke and haven't in awhile (in spite of an extremely stressful couple of years). But every time I see someone light up in an old movie. BAM. I want one BAD.

 

[Undertow]

That's interesting. I will occassionally drop some brandy into a glass when I'm watching people in those b/w films, too. Hitchcock films are my worst enablers.

 

[Cricket]

There is just something about those old movies. I instantly want some sort of stiff drink. That doesn't help much when I catch one at home during my lunch break. It is a true test for me.

I especially love holiday movies with a whiskey drink for some reason. Just to sip through the memories I guess.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I always wanna drink and smoke more when watching an old movie. I only smoke on the weekends, though!

 

[Yeps]

I agree. However, Iron Chef does make me want that food. If I watch a movie about a chef (Ratatouille, Julie & Julia etc.) I tend to want to make an omelet. The power of suggestion is ridiculous.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Whenever I watch "Double Indemnity," I want to get married so I can scheme to bump off my dope of a husband and run off with an insurance salesman.

 

[Cricket]

You too?

 

[Amy Jeanne]

When I watch an old movie I get the urge to sew 10 dresses and set my hair lol

 

[rue]

I can't sew, but I get the setting my hair urge too lol

 

[Gregg Axley]

Thankfully I don't get that urge Rue...
I've told my wife that we need to watch something other than Film Noir's every so often.
Why? I told her I have the urge to put on my Fedora, drive my streetrod around, and commit crimes.
All the while using the lingo I hear night after night.
Good thing we don't watch Casino each night.

 

[rue]

You mean you don't put in pin curls Gregg?? For shame.......

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Ironically, I was talking about smoking today at work, and broke down and had one on break.

 

[The Good]

I'm not gonna lie, I'm no smoker myself, and as a matter in fact I am against it, but it can be a matter of style on film. Whether it's Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, or Alain Delon; they all seem to make smoking look cool and stylish in their scenes. I can't honestly say that contemporary actors are able to do the same. We live in a period of time in which smoking has become more of a taboo (thankfully so, really), and although it hasn't stopped altogether, none of the people seen in films smoking today manage to carry it off as well as any of the previously mentioned actors.

 

[dhermann1]

Being a lifelong ARDENT non-smoker, when I see scenes like that, I think about how horrible EVERYBODY must have smelled back in those days. Tho really, having been a child then, I, like everyone else, was so used to it I diidn't even notice it. My lungs today, however, are paying for it because I now have a mild case of COPD. (Tho I must confess I contributed to it with smoke of a . . . errr . . . nother sort for may years.)
Scott, I wouldn't agree that most granddads were not pack a day smokers. Lots and lots of folks were pack a day and more smokers. When Ike was Supreme Allied Commander he was putting away four packs a day. His doctor told him to quit in 1948, and he did, cold turkey. He said he just ordered hmself to, Now that's military discipline.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The big difference is that most cigarettes then were about 25 percent smaller than the usual size of cigs today, and because most of them didn't have filter tips, even less of the actual cigarette was smoked. It took a lot less time and effort to smoke a pack a day compared to now.

I've smoked exactly one cigarette of any kind in my life, and didn't see any reason to have another. But I did swank around with pretzel sticks in my mouth trying to look sophisticated.

 

[Tomasso]

Being a lifelong ARDENT non-smoker ........(Tho I must confess I contributed to it with smoke of a . . . errr . . . nother sort for may years.)

Funny how some draw the distinction between various leaves.......

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I was born in 1961, and remember the first time I went to Gabatoni's restaurant in Springfield Illinois. The ceiling is 9 feet in most of the place to accommodate the raised sections (1 foot maybe) at the back. I was somewhere between 5 and 7 years old. I couldn't see any of the adults heads because of the smoke.

As much as Lauren Bacall smoked in her movies, it's amazing she's still kicking over at 90 plus (I think).

Later