Highway 62 Revisited

“Hey. Smile for the camera.”

“Sure. And you’ll just drop the film off at the drugstore?”

“…”

This is such a great sequence. Stephen’s as snug as a bug in a rug, contenting himself for the moment with the stuff, all the wonderful stuff. Francine sees that things are a little worse than all that and throws it back in his face.

Leaving Stephen sitting in his borrowed fake display living room, feeling just a little worse than when he started.

Oh man, the wood panelling and the plaid fabric on the couch really take me back. It’s such a perfect little domestic scene in that first frame. You might not even notice that it’s all for sale at first. You certainly don’t notice that it’s all part of a shop window or a zoo display where the humans are on parade.

Of course the whole “drop it at the drugstore” slam/joke is lost on us today. Most folks won’t remember the fun of mailing off film and waiting to see what kind of pictures you actually took or if you left the lenscap on or focused right or set the shutter speed wrong. That whole mystery of what was going to be on the film.