Coffee and Noir: TIME WITHOUT PITY
every instance of coffee in noir: 042
You can learn a lot about a character by how they take their coffee: sugar? cream? more whiskey than caffeine?
I’m cataloging every noir scene where coffee plays a role — rote and ritual, soul-dark or cream and sugar, served from dingy diners to shiny penthouses.
Time Without Pity tackles everything from the death penalty to alcoholism with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face — but that’s not necessarily a bad (or un-noir) thing.
David (Michael Redgrave) is fresh out of rehab when he comes to try and solve a murder to free his son from death row. As he amateurly sleuths around, many pressure him to drink, whether from cruelty, ignorance, or an attempt to make themselves feel better.
Ultimately, it’s the stress of the hangman’s shadow and his son’s (not inaccurate) accusations of abandonment and cruelty which drive him to drink again.
The night before this scene he’s been on a long binge, and when he wakes up in a strange place, the first thing he reaches for — well, you’re in a place called Coffee and Noir.
David’s drunk-and-hungover enough not to care the coffee is someone else’s leftovers; cold is better for skulling anyways (incidentally, siphon pot coffee is one of the best methods of making-hot-cooling-down).
I love the siphon setup with the china, and because the top is nowhere to be seen the insinuation is it was prepared elsewhere and brought in; all of the above suggesting a maid, as David has been brought to a rich person’s house, complete with ornate furnishings and ostentatious painting frames.
Does whiskey or coffee help David’s cognitive abilities? Not really. But both add to the atmosphere . . . and lead him to the drawer containing the revolver.
