There Will Be Blood. . . and Money

Yul Brynner in “Invitation to a Gunfighter”

BLOOD

I recently watched two movies almost back-to-back, “Invitation to a Gunfighter” (1964) and “The Pope of Greenwich Village” (1984). In “Invitation,” Jules Gaspard D’Estaing (Yul Brynner), a Creole hired gun, is brought to a New Mexico town after the Civil War to get rid of Matt Weaver (George Segal), a Confederate rebel. Toward the end of the film, Jules is shot in the chest and bleeds on his white shirt.

L to R: Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts in “The Pope of Greenwich Village”

In “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” cousins Paulie Gibonni (Eric Roberts) and Charlie Moran (Mickey Rourke) rob a mobster’s safe. When the mobster, “Bed Bug” Eddie Grant (Burt Young), finds out, he takes revenge on Paulie by cutting off his left thumb. We don’t see the amputation, only Paulie’s horrified, anguished reaction. Paulie later returns to Charlie’s apartment, raging, intoxicated with painkillers, and with his bloodied, bandaged hand. Charlie cries with him in sympathy. The scene is heartbreaking: dim-witted, incompetent Paulie should not have had to suffer such a fate.

In these two films, both protagonists are bloodied. But the blood on Paulie’s bandage is much more naturalistic than the blood on Jules’s shirt. Within the twenty-year span that separates these movies, filmmakers sought greater realism in sanguinity.¹ They learned that due to oxidation of the blood after exiting the body, it darkens, and it more closely resembles that on Paulie’s bandage than on Jules’s shirt.

MONEY

In “Dark Passage” (1947), escaped convicted killer, Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart), seeks illicit plastic surgery from a doctor whose license was revoked. Parry pays the doctor $200 upfront. The $50 bill on top looks nothing like a U.S. bill of that denomination. In “Who’s Minding the Mint?” (1967), treasury worker, Harry Lucas (Jim Hutton), accidentally discards and later destroys $50,000 along with fudge no one wants. Apparently, armed guards watched over the real currency used for the second film.² The obviously fake bills used in “Passage” and many early films would have strained the viewers’ credibility if they had been used in “Minding the Mint,” particularly because there are many scenes depicting legal tender.

Humphrey Bogart pays for plastic surgery in “Dark Passage”

Jim Hutton accidentally discards $50,000 with some fudge in “Who’s Minding the Mint?”

By the mid-twentieth century, filmmakers sought greater veracity in their props, whether it was money, blood, or something else, particularly with the almost exclusive use of color film. Nevertheless, in search of realism in regards to currency, they now must comply with the federal requirements of the “Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992” (31 CFR 411), to prevent crime.³

Blood and money are integral parts of life. Their continued “flow” is a necessity. And this is true even in films. Money might make the world go ‘round, and blood might be thicker than water, but when audiences attend the movies they want their entertainment to be as credible as possible. And filmmakers continue trying to deliver credibility.

Copyright © 2024 by Rosi Prieto, Ph.D.

All Rights Reserved

1. A video depicts how fake blood is made:

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Minding_the_Mint%3F.

3. https://www.moviemaker.com/cinema-law-can-i-film-u-s-currency/.