I just viewed D.O.A. again for probably the zillionth time. It is a favorite. I decided to see what the rest of you thought of it and went to the "comments" I noticed several people objected to the "Wolf Whistles" at the hotel convention! Very corny, I agree but that dumb toy, I guess you'd call it ,was part and parcel of any convention at the time. It was just a dumb thing that men out on the town at a convention did!
Badger37
They were pretty corny...
Ruben Studdard and Calista Flockhart jump off a cliff. Who hits the ground first?
I am surprised that the initial post generated so much discussion and so many negative opinions of the wolf whistles. I think badger-37 really gave the best explanation in the first posting: the wolf whistles were "part and parcel of any convention at the time. It was just a dumb thing that men out on the town at a convention did!"
I thought the wolf whistles (kazoos?) were funny and brilliantly set the tone (no pun intended) for the goings on at the hotel. Also, they were perfectly consistent with the culture of the time. In addition, they provided a stark contrast between Bigelow's initial state of mind in Frisco (jovial, upbeat), and the frenetic change that was to ensue shortly.
Yes, the film's plot was somehat convoluted (I was forced to write a flow sheet of the action, and of who did what, in order to make sense out of it all), but I think this is one of the best films of all time. Edmond O'Brien, and the rest of the players, were perfectly cast, in my opinion. A true classic!
The thing is...they are not HUMANLY-produced whistles. They sound like a slide whistle or toy. If the director had actually SHOWN someone making the sound, I could have put up with it. But we never see the source. The whole thing got very tiresome because it seemed like a cartoon soundtrack for a few minutes.
shareI love the wolf whistles in this movie along with the girls with the headlights. In many film noir movies they threw in things like this to bring levity to very dark plots. The jazz is very good also. This movie borders on a cult classic as well. If it wasnt for posioning I would love to go to that conventon any day. The movie is fun and just shows to go you even accountants can have an excitting life.
shareI don't know if this has anything to do with it, but the producer, Harry Popkin, was one of the rare independent producers of that time. He and his brother Leo, a director, began by turning out all-black flicks like ONE DARK NIGHT and GANG SMASHERS, which also interject oddball snatches of "humor" into otherwise grim proceedings. Later the Popkins produced a few offbeat films like DOA, THE THIEF (a movie with no dialogue, but plenty of sound effects and music)and THE WELL (a rare tackling of race problems) and two versions of an Agatha Christie classic. I've never read a detailed account of the Popkins' careers. If anyone has, please enlighten me.
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I hadn't seen this in a number of years and rented it again because I was curious about some street scenes in San Francisco and how those areas appear now.
I'd forgotten about those wolf whistles - they were kind of silly & my main complaint was that they were just too overdone. I think I was more annoyed by the jive bar scenes, especially the one "hip" guy who looked like he was having spastic seizures behind Edmund O'Brien. It's nice to see that people didn't have to wait until the '60s to look and behave like drug-addled idiots; the scenes were as comically absurd as any in Reefer Madness.
Some of the overall acting was pretty hammy and over the top too.
In spite of all this, it is still a good movie that grabs you and holds your attention all the way through.
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I too love this film and have to agree that these wolf whistles were more than a simple distraction. I'd have to disagree with some posters who call this the convention of the time as I find these sounds, happily, a unique occurrence in the noir genre and were probably an ill advised studio decision to, indeed, lighten the storyline or to show Bigelow's interest in other women as light and frivolous considering how we are to feel about his relationship with Paula at the end of the film.
shareEven though I understand what previous posts have pointed out about the conventions of the time and/or a purposeful attempt to lighten up the pre-poisoning scenes, I find the wolf whistles incongruous and off-putting. I did really enjoy the Fisherman club scene, though, and I'm from San Francisco. I can totally believe out-of-town partyers getting drunk and trying to be hep cats.
shareThe wolf whistles were totally inorganic and out of place. DOA is really one of the weaker noirs I've seen, what with the convoluted plot, the cornball acting and dialog, and the ultra embarrassing "jive" scene, but I enjoyed the movie anyway.
While the whistles didn't bother me, they did cause me to go, "WTF?!?"
It's the only time in the film I giggled a little...the first time. One or two of those whistles would have sufficed I think. After about the fifth one, I was wondering how much further they were going to run with it. So yeah, after the second whistle, it became more of a distraction for me.
That said, it did not cause my overall score for this film to drop below a 10/10. I just love noir films, quirks and all. In fact, I give most of them 10/10. I haven't seen too many that were poorly done.
Those cartoonish wolf whistle sounds in the hotel are the biggest flaw in this otherwise good film. What the character is thinking is explicit by the context and the expressions on his face as he oggles passing women. The corny sound effects are superfluous and ridiculous.
I'm not saying that wolf whistles weren't really a popular (if somewhat immature) method of openly expressing appreciation for attractive females in 1950. If the character had done it himself, by whistling with his lips, one time, it would have made sense. As it is, it's overdone, and done with that silly sound effect. It's just jarring, incongruous, and bad, bad, bad.
I am firmly against altering films (e.g., colorization, pan-and-scan, etc.), but in this case I would be all for a version on DVD with the wolf whistles removed. They are proof that sometimes film makers, even good ones, can make egregious mistakes.
I honestly believe that the wolf whistles were an obvious way where the director was indicating what was in the thoughts of the male actors. I did not observe any actors actually whistling.
And for any of the audience who wondered why Bigelow did not take his girlfriend along with him on this vacation, the whistles indicated to me what his true intentions were. And that was to enjoy other women before entering into a more permanent relationship (marriage?) with Paula Gibson, his girlfriend.
Hated the wolf whistles.
But reading the posts on this thread, I think there might be something to the notion that the slide-whistle sound was overdubbed on a later copy of the film. The sound just seems too out of place with the rest of the film's atmosphere to be original.
I honestly believe that the wolf whistles were an obvious way where the director was indicating what was in the thoughts of the male actors. I did not observe any actors actually whistling.
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I totally agree. The whistles were added (and that's why they sound artificial, because they were!) to indicate Bigelow's state of mind at that point in the movie, because he DID have doubts about his relationship with Paula and was vulnerable to his attraction to women and wanted to play the field. In other words, no one is shown whistling in the film, including Bigelow himself, but the whistles underscore Biglow's reactions and what was going on INSIDE his head. I got a kick out of them but also felt that they were unnecessary. Of course, later he realized how much he loved Paula, and the early part of the movie sets up this part of the story. In the first bar scene, Paula switches her beer with his because he was obviously hot and gulped his down while she just had a sip of hers. She was simply switching the drinks because his was empty and she wanted him to enjoy himself. That's ALL she was doing, imo.
It was a sales convention. They gave those whistle things out like new years noisemakers.
I was totally confused by the whistles. I didn't know if other people at the convention were using slide whistles, or if he was doing it in his mind, or what. I'm still confused, actually.
If you can't find a friend, make one.
-May (2002)
Fairly egregious, though at least there were other comic elements at work during this stage of the film.
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