I Saw the Signs - "Cruising" for Prime Beef Cuts
Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at 10:00PM Shove a professional sign or any diegetic text or hand-scrawled message in front of the camera and we go all bookworm eyes. Are they subliminal subtitles? That's surely up to the set decorator, prop man, production designer and director. In this new visual series (we previously did Silence of the Lambs - don't read anything into two queer serial killler pictures in a row, erp!) we'll share textual images from a film that use unspoken words to tell the story... or are merely fun period details.
This week's victim is the infamous homophobic serial killer movie Cruising (1980). Here are 28 photos of signs and messages and letters and whatnot from the film with a few notes on actual NYC history and a few asides to other pop culture wonders ...
You always know you're in good professional hands when detectives use hand written signs to organize things in their offices.
Out of curiousity I looked up all the companies and places listed on signs and there is still a NYC company called Arrow Transportation but I dont know if it's the same one. Imagine being immortalized in a much-hated movie like this one!
Imagine having enough delusional confidence to tattoo "Hot" on your own ass!
Radio Shack, omg. Remember those? There's no scuzzy St James Hotel in NYC anymore but there is a boutique "Hotel St James" that says it's been around since 1972. Hmmm.
Wrestling magazines -- there apparently used to be a ton of them.
Do police stations still use corkboards or is everything wipe boards? (I can't with Al Pacino's hair in this movie)
Pacino flips through a bunch of porn magazines. This particular magazine was published from 1974 though 2007. I screencapped it because it even made Cyndi Lauper horny in the '80s...
Well hell, I see him every night in tight blue jeans.
in the pages of a Blue Boy magazine 🎶
The RAMROD was an actual leather bar, the most popular leather bar in the late 70s in NYC though not the inspiration for the movie (that was a place called "The Mineshaft" which was more hardcore). The Ramrod closed in the early 80s after a former transit officer opened fire on patrons, killing two and wounding more saying "I want to kill them all". Society being what it is (see also Milk) the assassin was found not guilty (sigh) by reason of insanity and was institutionalized rather than sent to prison. At least he didn't blame twinkies.
I couldn't find any history of a Wolf's Den in NYC
Nobody is even looking at the signs. Wasted advertising dollars!
I couldn't find any place called 712 Bar but I believe this is on 125th street right near were Dinosaur Bar•B•Que is now on the West Side Hwy.
The Meatpacking district is a pretty hilarious place to set this movie. But also where a bunch of the gay bars were at the time so it makes for great signage for the brutal animalistic movie with a lot of signs mentioning prime meats and beef cuts and whatnot. It's just too bad there's not a sign that says "fresh meat" to screencap.
I have no idea what this sign is implying, do you?
Coin boxes are bugged for our protection.
Porn movies named after real movies has been a thing since movies began basically. Note the "And God Created Man" sign behind this dangerous fellow here -it's an all French porn obviously riffing on Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman (1956) starring Brigitte Bardot and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
This newspaper, underneath a card trick seems to have no subliminal message for the movie. It's just a newspaper. But it's all about Wimbledon. Are you excited about the John McEnroe movie we're getting? It takes place in the same year as Cruising was released!
$11.99 pant suits? That's quite a deal. This actor here is Gene Davis and here's a little gay trivia note for you: he is the brother of the late actor / queer icon of sorts Brad Davis (Querelle / Midnight Express). He hasn't worked in several years but he had some success in the 80s, most notably in a violent thriller in the Charles Bronson thriller 10 to Midnight 
There is still a restaurant / bar called The Iron Horse in NYC but it's a rowdy all female bartender type Wall Street place and I don't think it's the same place as this movie.
Al Pacino, disappointingly not wearing a "members only" jacket
That's not really how you abbreviate engineering, is it? Hideous.
LOL, that this is the bookshelf in the serial killer's dorm room. People who love musical theater are sickos!!!
Why is there a notice about a Christian history and philosophy book
Our gay killer has daddy issues we learn in these letters to his daddy. Or dzaddy if you will -- sorry have you seen this gay spoof of Get Out? It's too too funny. Todrick Hall saves the best joke for last so watch it all the way through.
Is the "Gay Killer Still at Large"? That depends on how you view the stupid end of the movie I suppose... though maybe you hoped to never think of this movie again and we just brought it up again? Sorry! We just love the time travel aspects of contemporary movies when they become eventual period pieces.
Reader Comments (10)
It's an alright movie but man, that perm Pacino had is terrible.
Cruising is pretty fascinating. It seems to try to mean well, but it's just so wrong and walks into such easy traps.
Have you actually seen 10 to Midnight? Because that one's sick with no attempt to mean well.
One of the screen shots has a sign that says Tandy. You make no remark about Tandy. Now this year Michelle may go on to win her long eluded Oscar. Will you end your beef with a dead woman?
One of my favourite horror movies, essential Halloween viewing and a perfect double session with Joe Dante's The Howling, oh those scary sex cinema booth scenes!! Sweet teenage memories.
I loved this so much! Such a great era to investigate in this sort of way. Strange movie.
Love this sort of stuff! It's crazy how things change. Now Meatpacking is full of fancy museums, hotels, and boutiques.
Also, Radio Shack definitely still exists haha.
Also, just to add, that is definitely the St. James on 45th Street. The facade mostly still looks like that. The Radio Shack is now a cafe.
712 Club was a bar / restaurant at 712 W. 125th.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/15/garden/food-notes-682988.html
Was a Jamaican place at one point. Recently was BTH before closing last year. So it was right next to where Dinosaur BBQ is.
You missed the Eagle's Nest sign too! It would have been the old location I imagine.
As for the Iron Horse, I think it was a restaurant in Penn Station at one point. Judging by that still, looks like they could be walking out of Penn Station. Mentioned at the end of this article
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/21/nyregion/lirr-service-is-halted-as-power-for-signals-fails.html
Love this post! The movie is terrible- it barely works as a thriller and makes no sense
Mike -- i think i have seen it actually - as a teenager way after the fact on cable or something.
TANDY4EVA!