Dog Breath Variations

This week’s edition of The Forgotten is NOT the long-thought-lost silent version of CUJO, not any other kind of canine melodrama, but I couldn’t resist the above image, part of the atmospheric series of images that opens EROTIKON (1929). The side-lit rain, the snarl of the guard dog, and his puffs of breath in the cold night air, illuminated by that same intense key light, make for a truly striking bit of scene-setting.

The image is dedicated to Obie, a much more polite golden retriever with whom I’m staying in Hollywood this week.