IMPRISON TRAITOR TRUMP.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Mystery Passenger Revealed

That lady riding in the cab with John Abbott is....



...Bette Davis.  This is from "Deception" (1946), which we covered here.  Notice how in both this photo and the one on Monday, she's holding onto the ceiling strap in the car.  A lot of us remember the days of no seatbelts in cars, but occasionally in some of these old movies we catch a glimpse of this strap suspended from the  ceiling.  "Invitation" (1952) is another one I can think of off the top of my head that shows the strap.  I'm not sure how useful it was in restaining oneself in a collision, but at least it's something to fiddle with when you're trying to bribe John Abbott to give up his position as first cellist with the orchestra.

8 comments:

Caftan Woman said...

This is why I was living for Thursday! Now the day will be lived in shame. Of course, Bette Davis!

Jacqueline T. Lynch said...

Caftan Woman, you crack me up. Now call me a cab.

Yvette said...

John Abbott is the guy who usually wound up being murdered in several movies whose titles, of course, escape me. Didn't recognize Bette Davis from the back - not a hope. Ha!

Jacqueline T. Lynch said...

Poor John Abbott. What a legacy. Murdered for a living.

Stacia said...

I knew he looked familiar, and I am ashamed to say I didn't even TRY to guess who the lady was!

In glancing through Abbott's IMDb listing, I see he was in television shows as far back as 1937. Wow.

Jacqueline T. Lynch said...

Hi, Stacia. TV 1937? Must have been in the UK. I wonder how many times he was murdered on TV.

DorianTB said...

Well, Jacqueline, money was tight back then, so sometimes a guy had to get himself offed to make a buck! :-) I must admit I saw bits of DECEPTION in DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID first, and since then I keep running across DECEPTION in bits and pieces on TCM. One of these days I'll see the film in its entirety! :-) By the way, I keep meaning to tell you how much I enjoy the lovely vintage songs that play while I read your blog posts.

Jacqueline T. Lynch said...

Thanks, Dorian, I'm glad you like the music track to the blog. As for John Abbott's resume of getting bumped off, I think I've heard somewhere that having a role where one dies on screen is considered good luck for one's future career. I don't know how true that is. I'm glad he didn't get murdered in this movie. They let him hang around long enough to cash his check.

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