Criterion Newsletter: Clues and More, Volume Four

[Morgan Creek]

Blu-ray.com is suggesting Gilda - given the bird's Rita Hayworth hair.

"Thrush" is slang for a female singer, so with the Gilda hair. . .

[reeCe]

It has to be Gilda.
1) It has Rita Hayworth's hair
2) Rita Hayworth is reffered to as a canary in the movie.

[FrauBlucher]

Plus, Charles Vidor has a phantom page. So I'm changing my pick to Gilda.

[danieltiger]

What was the last clue that wasn't a very basic pun?

[bdsweeney]

Tree of Life?

[giovannii84]

Would love for it to be Gilda. We need a Rita Hayworth film in the collection.

That said, my initial thought was Hedwig & The Angry Inch.

[Feiereisel]

What was the last clue that wasn't a very basic pun?

The blue key for Mulholland Drive, I think.

[danieltiger]

Ah yeah, that's right. But that was an iconic image from the film.

[HistoryProf]

What kind of bird is that? Maybe that's a clue!!

without color it's a run of the mill songbird...to me it most looks like a Robin. maybe a chickadee? a canary?

I got nothin on this one other than Red Robin hamburger jokes.

[ordinaryperson]

I was thinking it might be "Only Angels Have Wings" but knowing my other guesses for past newsletters I'm probably wrong.

[ezmbmh]

red-headed songbird = Gilda

[zeroism]

What kind of bird is that? Maybe that's a clue!!

without color it's a run of the mill songbird...to me it most looks like a Robin. maybe a chickadee? a canary?

I got nothin on this one other than Red Robin hamburger jokes.

David Finch-hair?

(Couldn't resist)

[movielocke]

I was thinking it might be "Only Angels Have Wings" but knowing my other guesses for past newsletters I'm probably wrong.

Isn't Hayworth in only angels have wings?

[swo17]

According to my perfectly serviceable TCM Blu-ray that came out less than a year ago, yes!

[Roger Ryan]

The Ride The Pink Horse / The Black Stallion newsletter clue wasn't a pun either, so I think Gilda seems most logical.

[ShellOilJunior]

I think it's Red Beard:

Criterion loves puns
It's Red Beard's 50th this year

[FrauBlucher]

I think Red Beard is definitely coming as a new 4k restoration is going to screen at the Venice Film Festival, but I think the clue is definitely for Gilda.

[hollis]

I don't think it's Red Beard, because 1) we can assume it's coming anyway and 2) that answer doesn't at all take into account the flowing red hair. I get it:--"red bird" sounds like "red beard," whoop-de-doo--but that answer doesn't satisfy any further. It doesn't solve the whole clue. Dont Look Back completely represented last month's blind-folded Bach doodle. Red Beard doesn't cut it.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

If it's Gilda why isn't the bird wearing long slinky gloves?
Was it Gilda that Gore Vidal called a triple orgasm film?

[Max von Mayerling]

I think some people on this board enjoy Criterion's clues more than they enjoy Criterion's releases.

[domino harvey]

I surely do not enjoy many of the infuriatingly bad guesses people put forth. "This has gotta be Slightly Scarlet, because the bird is only partially red"

[EricJ]

I think some people on this board enjoy Criterion's clues more than they enjoy Criterion's releases.

Oh, easily--
It's not like I'm going to be watching Red Beard OR Gilda (and I've already seen Midnight Cowboy), so the fun is in having enough art and classic-film acumen to get this stuff. Sort of like those "Bear climbing up a tree" doodles for the intelligentsia crowd. :)

(Case in point, are the flood of running Midnight Cowboy in-jokes REALLY coming from people who still don't get it? Can we see a show of hands?
Yes, some are bad puns--"Coat Unknown", "Don't Look, Bach"--and some require having actually seen the movie. I have to admit, last New Year's, the Cronenberg fan in me got a secret thrill from all the clueless folks saying "What's with all the hooded monks?...'Boyz N the Hood'?" Shame about the cover, though.)

As for Kurosawa vs. Hayworth, my first response is to say "If Blu-ray.com guessed it, it's wrong", and I agree with Nabob that a Hayworth clue, never mind Gilda, would HAVE to have gloves, but the circumstantial evidence could go either way.
I'm going with Gilda, just because it would have been an all-red bird otherwise. I'm guessing we'll get a pirate for Red Beard, and mirrors for Lady From Shanghai.

[swo17]

Case in point, are the flood of running Midnight Cowboy in-jokes REALLY coming from people who still don't get it?

If that clue really was for Il sorpasso then it was the worst clue of all time, as evidenced by the fact that it didn't even retroactively occur to anyone as the possible answer until like a year after the fact.

[djproject]

I think some people on this board enjoy Criterion's clues more than they enjoy Criterion's releases.

This is all because there is unrealized energy yet to be expended ... and the great aspect ratio debate thread is closed =D

[justeleblanc]

Rita Hayworth is entirely possible... but my mind went to a different place.

Robin + Bird + Wig.... could it be The Birdcage?