Screwballs

From Blind Alley (dir. Charles Vidor, 1939). Hal Wilson (Chester Morris), an escaped killer, sneers at learning and letters: “Teachers, writers — screwballs!”

What a great line. When Elaine and I watched this movie the other night, I wrote it down. And then I thought, Wait a minute, wait a minute.

We had realized, just minutes into the movie, that we had seen its remake: The Dark Past (dir. Rudolph Maté, 1948). I didn’t realize until I searched these pages that I had liked the 1948 utterance of this line enough to make a post about it in 2017. I am nothing if not consistent.