was anyone else bothered by the constant haze of smoke from the characters in this (and indeed in most films of this era) film?
Also, did you notice after taking a drag on her cigarette, Joan picked a piece of tobacco out of her mouth? Is it just me, or was that gross and disgusting?
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.
No, that wasn't "gross" or "disgusting." She was smoking a filterless cigarette (quite common in those days) and got a piece of tobacco on her tongue. I thought it was a very realistic move, myself. Maybe you're just too young to remember when people smoked back then but filtered cigarettes weren't always the thing, especially in the 40s. Don't make the mistake of judging a film that's 71 years old and comparing it to today's standards.
shareYou can see both men and women do the same thing somewhat regularly in movies from the 30s and 40s. Like ScaryMary123 said, it was very realistic for smoking filterless cigarettes. Lucille Ball was still smoking them on "I Love Lucy" in the 50s. You could on occasion see her pick a piece of tobacco out of her mouth on the show.
It may sound strange but as a former smoker, watching others enjoy cigarettes on the screen is very satisfying so I'm not bothered by all the lighting up in movies. Call it smoking porn if you will.
It's just you...
sharePeople who smoke are gross, but the constant ingestion of nicotine, arsenic, and the other toxins within cigarettes have dulled their senses to any realization of how disgusting they are. They can't smell the stench of stale smoke in their hair and clothing; they don't notice how their faces and fingers have developed a yellow tinge; they've gotten used to snorting up the gloppy mucus in their sinuses
and hacking up hard, yellow balls of the stuff every morning when they get out of bed; and they don't notice that they're picking tobacco out of their mouths, or
that sometimes those little white crusty things in the corner of their eyes are black from the nicotine content in their bodies. Don't smoke!!
I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!
Hewwo.
Smoking in general is disgusting and yes, there was too much smoking in this film.
share"after taking a drag on her cigarette, Joan picked a piece of tobacco out of her mouth"
I've seen that multiple times with women in classic films. Audrey Hepburn did something similar in Roman Holiday during the café scene. The paper from the cigarette butt may rub off onto their lips, maybe because of their lipstick, and end up in their mouths, or something like that. Just a guess :-)
It's just you. I detest smoking as much as any rational person in 2024, but to enter the world of the 1940s you have to adjust your mind to that time, if you have one. Most adults smoked then, and it was just taken for granted as an everyday sight and smell, everywhere. Nobody made a big deal about it, or even thought about it.
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