Famous Fingers Of Filmdom

mndean · Post by **mndean** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 2:15 pm

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).

Rollo Treadway · Post by **Rollo Treadway** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 2:47 pm

Harold Lloyd's famous moment in Speedy:

SteppenBow59 · Post by **SteppenBow59** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 2:59 pm

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

JFK · Post by **JFK** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 3:17 pm

1. I'd thought of starting a nose thumbing thread!!!!
Harpo nose thumbed in at least one film,
but did he ever give anyone the finger whilst plucking ?
2. There is a still, I think, a group shot
with Marlon Brando and James Dean,
where Brando gives a finger salute

Rollo Treadway · Post by **Rollo Treadway** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 3:43 pm

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":

Gloria Rampage · Post by **Gloria Rampage** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 6:31 pm

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

Post by **silentfilm** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 7:42 pm

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

JFK · Post by **JFK** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 8:46 pm

At the 8:54 point in the Three Stooges'
Punch Drunks (COLUMBIA STUDIO 1934),
as the referee introduces K.O. Stradivarius,
a man, seated directly behind the ref's left shoulder,
twice raises his arm for a middle finger salute.
This rude fight fan's appearance
was accomplished via back projection,
so he may well have kept registering his ringside
rancor on into the Terry Malloy era of pugilism

mndean · Post by **mndean** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:58 am

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

Bruce Long · Post by **Bruce Long** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:30 pm

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

Jim Roots · Post by **Jim Roots** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 6:28 am

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

Jay Salsberg · Post by **Jay Salsberg** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:16 am

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.

s.w.a.c. · Post by **s.w.a.c.** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:40 am

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.

JFK · Post by **JFK** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:27 pm

Jus' Passin' Through (1923)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312855/
After Will Rogers takes Billy Engle's seat at the jailhouse dinner table,
they exchange rude gestures- Billy biting his knuckle,
and Will, in response, holding his middle digit
up to his mouth.

(Charley Chase directed the film-it is one of the nicer comedies
in the Becoming Charley Chase collection)

JFK · Post by **JFK** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:47 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obscene_gesture
Boston pitcher Old Hoss Radbourn pictured giving the finger to cameraman, 1886.
(Back row, far left). First known photograph of gesture.

Richard Finegan · Post by **Richard Finegan** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:12 am

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

JFK · Post by **JFK** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 11:53 pm

CoffeeDan · Post by **CoffeeDan** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 12:04 am

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.

Harlett O'Dowd · Post by **Harlett O'Dowd** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:55 am

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.

Wm. Charles Morrow · Post by **Wm. Charles Morrow** » Fri Jul 11, 2014 8:55 am

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

Rollo Treadway · Post by **Rollo Treadway** » Wed Jan 20, 2016 2:22 am

Robert Armstrong in The Lost Squadron (1932)

entredeuxguerres · Post by **entredeuxguerres** » Wed Jan 20, 2016 8:45 am

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!

Tommie Hicks · Post by **Tommie Hicks** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 2:31 pm

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

Rollo Treadway · Post by **Rollo Treadway** » Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:20 pm

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."

Harlett O'Dowd · Post by **Harlett O'Dowd** » Fri Nov 08, 2019 10:05 am

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

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

wich2 · Post by **wich2** » Fri Nov 08, 2019 11:08 am

"Famous Fingers Of Filmdom"

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

Spiny Norman · Post by **Spiny Norman** » Fri Nov 08, 2019 2:34 pm

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.

Post by **silentfilm** » Thu Jul 16, 2020 11:48 am

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.

greta de groat · Post by **greta de groat** » Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:46 pm

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

greta

wich2 · Post by **wich2** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 10:10 am