“What a swell party this is”

(Title of this post stolen from a comment to this awesome photo – and the quote is, of course, already borrowed from another source – perfect!) There is so much about that photo that I absolutely love I am finding it hard to look away. I can smell the cigarette smoke. I can feel the rustle of the satin dresses. I can hear the noise, the hoopla, the brou-haha. Each person here is riveting. I love the glimpse of John Huston’s devilish amused eyebrows. Dietrich looks calm, cool, and maybe vaguely mortified. And Tallulah is just livin’ it up, totally unselfconscious. Perhaps not QUITE as unselfconscious as she is, uhm, here, but certainly totally being herself, regaling people with some inappropriate drunken story of doom, gin and tonics and sudden alarming nudity. How much do I want to hang out with those three? I love how much John Huston is getting a kick out of the whole thing.