Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Pocket notebook sighting: The House on 92nd Street

Pens, pencils, file folders, and so on: in my house we call them "supplies." The House on 92nd Street (1945, directed by Henry Hathaway) may be the most supplies-centric movie ever made. As the tools of spies and G-Men alike, office supplies are a given, appearing in scene after scene after scene. But the way in which the camera lingers on these objects suggests an devotion verging on fanaticism. The pocket notebook in this scene, found among the effects of an accident victim, turns out to be crucial in uncovering a Nazi spy ring.



"Hey, Doc, look at this — it's all in German."



"Stuff about ships, I think."



"Something funny about this."

When I first wrote about The House on 92nd Street and the dowdy world, I was working in Windows XP and unable to save screenshots while playing a DVD. Now I'm in OS X, where it's simple. There'll be more from this film in future posts.

More notebook sightings
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
Moleskine sighting (in Extras)
Notebook sighting in Pickpocket
Pocket address-book sighting
A pocket notebook in The Palm Beach Story
Pocket notebook sighting (in Diary of a Country Priest)
Pocket notebook sightings in Rififi
Red-headed woman with reporter's notebook

More from The House on 92nd Street
Is there a pencil in The House?

comments: 1

Speedmaster said...

Great find! ;-)