The lonely walk

December 3, 2005 2:08 PM

What is being referenced when a movie or TV show depicts a lonesome character walking down a darkened street as images of neon signs fly by that all have something to do with the plot? I presume it's some famous movie that I've never seen.
posted by evilcolonel to Media & Arts (20 answers total)

I believe it's The Lost Weekend.
posted by Opposite George at 2:26 PM on December 3, 2005

Here:

The Lost Weekend - One of the scariest films ever made about addiction in any form, in this case, alcohol. The sight of Ray Milland (in his greatest performance) staggering up 3rd Avenue with the El rumbling overhead, looking for an open pawn shop and bar haunts even today. Milland busts out of the Bellevue drunk tank, and gets away by riding the 3rd Avenue El.

posted by Opposite George at 2:34 PM on December 3, 2005

That Lost Weekend sequence wasn't at night, though, and there weren't neon signs.
posted by gubo at 3:31 PM on December 3, 2005

Yeah, that was kind of bothering me, but I've always associated that setup with that movie (which I haven't seen in 20 years.) In retrospect I probably spoke too soon.

Maybe these folks can help?
posted by Opposite George at 3:37 PM on December 3, 2005

Wasn't there a sequence with Jimmy Stewart and "It's a Wonderful Life", where he's walking down the street and sees the garish neon signs of the stores in the nightmarish Pottersville? I don't own the flick, but I seem to remember something like the scene evilcolonel describes.
posted by dbiedny at 3:43 PM on December 3, 2005

Is it a reference to a specific movie, or just to the use/overuse of the flashing-neon-signs-floating-over-character effect during a certain period in Hollywood? I'm sure someone did it first, but I've seen it lots of times in old films. Seems a pretty common effect, like the spinning-newspaper-rushing-at-screen thing.
posted by mediareport at 3:43 PM on December 3, 2005

I think of Midnight Cowboy when I see this. I'm not sure if there is even a sequence like that in the movie, but that's what I think of.

It has been used twice in the Simpsons...
posted by 9000.68 at 3:52 PM on December 3, 2005

Well, the folks at gotfuturama.com seem to think it's The Lost Weekend too, but it's true that I've only ever seen the scene referenced as a night scene with neon signs so maybe they're wrong too?:

+ Lost weekend (movie)
- Bender, going through withdrawal, is assaulted on all sides by neon
images of "Boring Lecture Tonight" and "Church Revival." (See
Freeze Frame Fun for a complete list.) This is a reference to the
movie "Lost Weekend" from 1945. Of course, Ray Milland was tempted
by neon signs of "Beer" and "Bar" and "Tavern" while trying to stay
sober. {JK}

But this is bothering me now because it just doesn't seem right. When they did a similar scene in The Simpsons I think it was part of an On The Town parody so maybe that's it?

Off to do some research...
posted by Opposite George at 3:59 PM on December 3, 2005

Well, this is interesting: the imdb.com movie connections page entry for On the Town (1949) says that film references The Lost Weekend (1945).

So maybe Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen took Ray Milland's desperate stagger as inspiration for some three buddies out to have a good time scene (I'm thinking "New York New York," but I haven't seen the movie.) "New York New York" was the inspiration for the "Capital City" number where I believe our favorite scene was parodied -- they definitely used it when Bart and Milhouse went on a squishy binge and the 'net seems to think that parodied "New York New York" too -- but that was a negative energy scene whereas "Capital City" was upbeat.

Man, this is killing me. If only we were back at my old college -- we had very competitive music, dance, acting and film programs -- you could have just stopped anybody in the hall and they would have known.
posted by Opposite George at 4:43 PM on December 3, 2005

It made me think of "It's a Wonderful Life" as well.
posted by delmoi at 6:16 PM on December 3, 2005

It's a Wonderful Life has a scene that is sort of reminiscent of this, but it's a 1946 film, so it wouldn't be the earliest, either. The thing is, though, that in IAWL the stumbling, neon sign sequence is scarily fast-moving and confusing but realistic. It's not a nightmarish, blurred sequence with floating disembodied signs of the type meant to imply that several hours or days have passed in a drunken haze.

I would be surprised, anyway, if this convention of film were showing up so late in the game. Busby Berkeley-type films use a lot of impressionistic montage like this. Then, there are any number of 30s movies that use the map/travel version of this -- names and outlines of cities pasted together with flashes of say, the Eiffel tower or the Grand Canyon, to give the sense of much travel in a short time. So I have a hunch that the drunken bar sign montage shows up somewhere earlier than the 40s, too.

Where's Dr. Wu? He's got skillz in this area.
posted by Miko at 6:47 PM on December 3, 2005

This sounds exactly like the kind of scene I'd know about -- but you're drawing a blank.

The most memorable show with reoccuring neon signs I know is in an early Twilight Zone, "The Four of Us Are Dying" (aka Hotel Real).

In classic Hollywood cinema, a common use of neon signs was a kind of abbreviation -- rapid cuts between sign after sign would symbolize the main characters having a night on the town. (In fact, there was something like this in "On The Town" which I saw not long ago.)

But "The Lost Weekend"? I love this picture, and try to catch it again every year or two, 'cause it's just so weird. But there's nothing like this in there.
posted by Rash at 8:39 PM on December 3, 2005

So, maybe we can narrow it down this way: is anybody familiar enough with cinema effects that we could pin a "definitely couldn't have been done in a movie earlier than X" date on it?

I do feel like I've seen this scene in a live-action movie, but the only examples that come to mind are the lonesome guy without the drifting neon (Lost Weekend) or the drifting neon bracketing the evening promenade of a happy couple or small group. Neither of the live-action examples that come to mind exactly match the original request but darn it I just know I've seen it before and not just in cartoons.

Hey, come to think of it -- wasn't there a scene like this on SCTV when Garth and Gord visited Yonge Street? Obviously that's not where it came from but I loved that goof on Canadian TV movies.

Maybe I'll bop over to that "What Movie Is This" page and drop the question in there if it hasn't been done already.
posted by Opposite George at 9:35 PM on December 3, 2005

I agree with Rash. This was actually a fairly common early montage technique. There's a similar version in Singing in the Rain depicting the lights of Broadway, but without the lonely walk. There are probably countless throwaway "follies" type musicals that depicted nights on the town this way.

Apart from that, the blinking neon sign and a "dark wet street" is considered a defining characteristic of film noir -- one key example being Night and the City -- but that's 1950.
posted by dhartung at 2:03 AM on December 4, 2005

As a 30s and 40s buff, I can't recommend strongly enough that you look at films earlier than anything in the 40s. The montage-y stuff was well established by then. I'm putting in another plug for the style developed with Busby Berkeley. Check out 42nd Street. I can't remember whether there's a drifting-neon sequence, but there are a lot of production elements that are along that continuum. Viz:

As well as being one of the most commercially-successful films of its time, it was also the first major work of Busby Berkeley, a tremendously talented choreographer, whose direction of voyeuristic, surrealistic production numbers is illustrated in extravagant, musical numbers, giant kaleidoscopes of imagery, dancing girls forming abstract designs and patterns, and innovative camera images. He was particularly known for his overhead shots, freely-moving camera (dollies and pans), and for creating numbers especially-made for films that went far beyond conventional boundaries.

From the detail section lower on the page:

full frame closeups appear of street corner signs along 42nd Street: Vanderbilt Avenue and E. 42nd St., 8th Avenue and W. 42nd St., and 9th Avenue and W. 42nd St. Then, in quick succession: 6th, 5th, Lexington, and Third Avenues, and finally Times Square. The image dissolves into a view of a theatrical agent...
posted by Miko at 7:13 AM on December 4, 2005

Best answer: I don't think there's any one movie they're spoofing, either. Many movies have used that technique.
posted by pmurray63 at 8:33 PM on December 4, 2005

I don't think there's any one movie they're spoofing, either. Many movies have used that technique.

True -- but somebody did it first, and that's why it's an interesting question. I love discovering early innovations in film storytelling, because it's a form that it is only a little over 100 years old. It developed its conventions and vocabulary incredibly fast -- borrowing a lot from the stage and literature, but creating its own (montages, for instance) with amazing speed.
posted by Miko at 7:23 AM on December 5, 2005

Miko's suggestion of 42nd Street is a reasonable one, as it's certainly the kind of thing that would have fit into the movie--but, in fact, it's not there.

The sequence of street signs at the beginning of the film are straightforward cuts, and nothing like the montage the asker is looking for. And the surrealistic production numbers at the end of the film don't feature anything like that montage, either.
posted by yankeefog at 7:32 AM on December 5, 2005

Miko's suggestion of 42nd Street is a reasonable one, as it's certainly the kind of thing that would have fit into the movie--but, in fact, it's not there.

Oh, I totally agree, Yankeefog. What I'm trying to suggest is that somewhere between the introduction of the surrealist-montage style, as seen in 42nd street at the end, and 1945, when The Lost Weekend was released, the answer is to be found. It would be hard to believe that 12 years of film would go by before the technique was used in the way the Asker mentioned. I don't have the answer, I'm just saying: look earlier than the 40s, because similar ideas were being used in the early 30s.
posted by Miko at 9:27 AM on December 5, 2005

Ah, that makes sense, Miko. I understand.

Actually, having thought about it, I wonder if you might even find this sort of thing in the late 20's. If you look at some of the German expressionist silent films, there is some pretty sophisticated use of this kind of techniques.

Hmm... I know another board where somebody might have an answer. I'll go ask there.
posted by yankeefog at 12:58 AM on December 6, 2005