NitrateVille.com

Inspired by the Silent Swearing thread, here's a thread where we can add some notable instances of flipping the bird. Doesn't have to be limited to silents, and in that spirit, here are two frame grabs, one silent and one talkie (not necessarily in that order).

Harold Lloyd's famous moment in Speedy:

I've said it before and I'm going to say it again:
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

The Brando/Dean pic appeared in one of the Hollywood Babylon books, captioned "Brando gives Dean the finger" or something like that. Looking at the photo, it seems to be rather "innocent":

Ben Turpin gives the finger in A CLEVER DUMMY. Snub Pollard does the fingerloo motion but I forget the title of that comedy.

Marvin Loback does it in Springtime Saps (1929). Kewpie Morgan flips the bird in Ice Cold Cocos (1926).

What, you mean there aren't other females flipping fingers in films of the silent/early sound era? I can't believe that.

Here are 2 screen captures from a Hong Kong martial arts film of 1967 which included the discovery of this sacred relic:

There's a doozy in the Jimmy Aubrey short, Have A Heart, on Richard's Weiss-o-rama collection.

Jimmy's in a supposedly haunted house standing with his back to an oversized portrait. Of course, the portrait is actually a live villain dressed up in an old-fashioned soldier's uniform. The villain sticks Jimmy in the butt with his sword. Cue the stale routine of Jimmy trying to spin around in time to catch the villain in the act, while the villain always manages to freeze just in time.

And one time he freezes in the act of giving Jimmy the finger. Just in case viewers are myopic, we're even given a close-up. The gag runs close to ten seconds.

Jim

I saw a film on TCM a few years ago (possibly THE CHEATERS... I don't recall the title), in which Joseph Schildkraut, responding to an insult from another character, removed his white glove with his teeth, and let it dangle from his mouth by the middle finger.

I recorded A Clever Dummy the other night, and noticed Turpin's mechanical bird flipping. I'll post a screencap once I finalize the DVD-R it's on.

And, let's not forget Larry Fine in the opening scene of this 1955 Three Stooges short:

In Frank Capra's THE MIRACLE WOMAN (1931), there's a scene where Sam Hardy fires his chauffeur. When the door closes behind him, the chauffeur turns around and gives him the finger. "And your big black derby," he adds.

To add to the list to aid future historians, ben Blue and Billy Gilbert inadvertently(?) flip the bird to a motorcycle cop in TAXI BARONS (1933) - one of the Hal Roach TAXI BOYS entries. TCM ran it the other day as filler.

I could've sworn I posted a note in this thread about Spencer Tracy flipping the bird in Looking for Trouble (1934). Turns out I posted it in another, earlier thread on the same topic:

http://nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?f ... ird#p39724" target="_blank" target="_blank

Robert Armstrong in The Lost Squadron (1932)

Rollo Treadway wrote:Robert Armstrong in The Lost Squadron (1932)

Probably the most utterly gratuitous finger in filmdom--his pal is trying to warn him that his plane has been damaged!

In the Spike Jones "video" of Der Fuhrer's Face, you can see Spike and the gang liberally giving the "one finger salute."

Lew Smith, Barbara Stanwyck, Clark Gable and Bill Hickman on the set of To Please a Lady (1950).



"This photo was sent to the race car driver Johnnie Parsons, who played a driver in the film. Parsons had flipped the bird to his chief mechanic Harry Stephens as a reaction to the constant signals to slow down he kept giving him during a race. Smith and Gable had watched that race from John’s pit box and witnessed the whole thing and decided to mock him for it."

Finally crossed that "pip," PARACHUTE JUMPER off the list.

Near the end, Frank McHugh flips the bird. Someone even edited down a youtube video.

"Famous Fingers Of Filmdom"

Ah, yes - a classic mag, from the redoutable (or is that, "the doutable"?) Forfinger J. Ackerhand...

The British have their own version:



"Up yours!" - no, not "Peace"...



Which can be snuck in easily when counting, for example it's in Carry on Cleo.

It doesn't seem to be a real problem to show it on television.

Virginia Bruce from There's That Woman Again (1938). It is actually an innocent middle finger, as she is remembering tying a string around her finger, and not the usual vulgar usage.

In the Willie Whopper cartoon Spite Flight, St. Peter flips someone off not once but twice.

greta