MovieChat Forums > The Time of Your Life (1948) Discussion > Cool Saloon Doors

Cool Saloon Doors

posted 16 years ago by rockcairn69
3 replies | jump to latest

Do the saloon doors in this movie have the embellishments that look like solid wood rods with round beads spaced a few inches apart across the arched top of the doors? And do they also have a brass handrail across them?? And I believe there were big glass doors that were outside the saloon type doors, right??

If my memory serves me well, I gave this movie the distinction of having the best dressed saloon doors in all the movies!! At least all the movies I've seen so far, of course. And it was odd, I thought, that it would be this movie and not one from a western that that distinction went to.

Now, there are different strokes for different folks, sure enough, and I realize each one has their own tastes about what makes a smart looking saloon door. Some prefer the basic solid panel design with simple saddle curve to the top, others the long row of louvers, and still others a fancy swirled horn on the top saddle of the door, with wainscotted panels. I don't really know all the architecual names for the different parts of the door panels but I love 'em all!! But the doors in this movie seemed to have all the major ornaments on them together.

See, I once made up a journal of each door design and in what movie I had seen it in. A quirky interest, maybe, but an intense interest for me at the time. Some were just a quick sketch and scribbled down description because the scene the door was shown in was so brief. It ended filling up a whole college ringbound notebook, and I was going to do a bunch of research and write a book about those eternally and mysteriously forboding, but at the same time luridly inticing, swinging partitions!! Where that book is these days is anybody's guess!! Still in my head, maybe??

I don't know where else to start a discussion as to where the best looking saloon doors are so here is as good a place as any, I suppose.

If you've gotten this far in reading this, you've heard my opinion about the subject. Now I'd love to hear yours.....

"Go back to your oar, Forty One."

[–] micaofboca-1 15 years ago

What a delightful post! Your love of beauty in design glows through your words. You remind me of the Charles Laughton film "The Big Clock". (They made a derivative update to that film in 1987 called "No Way Out" which lacked all of the artistry in set design of the original. In The Big Clock, a great degree of attention was focused upon those set designs which were so startingly different from any other movie, in that virtually every scene captured that 1930's style of furniture design and architectural construction that was predominant in those days of Ayn Rand and Albert Speer (not one of my favorites). It's almost difficult to pay attention to the movie when the scenes are so replete with samples of its distinctive aesthetic. The austerity of style, of course, would probably disgust you since you're so tuned to the ornamentation that defined those saloon doors which you found so compelling in their beauty and artistic relevance. I'm with you there, since that economy of style is antithetic to the more decorative and embellished genre which excites your creative impulses.
But all that aside, I was blown away by the movie's attention to those details that aroused you in a likewise fashion, albeit to an entirely different direction. If you get a chance, rent the movie and watch all those incredible sets do their magic in creating an air of artistic beauty to the movie to which that element wasn't integral to the story, but rather placed the movie in a different category, one of aesthetic charm that clearly placed itself in those prewar days when austerity and simplicity of design was paramount. And even though I'm no fan of that school of design, its importance in the history of the arts is undeniable.

[–] TongueFu 8 years ago

You gave it the distinction...?

[–] Devans00 7 years ago

The whole movie I tried to peek out the salon doors to try to figure out where in San Francisco they placed the bar. All I know is that it wasn't one of the areas with steep streets.

Another sign the bar wasn't placed in SF, the open space around the saloon doors. Anyone who lives near The City knows that it's often freezing year round. Everyone would have had a coat on with those breezy doors.

No two persons ever watch the same movie.