We Had Faces Then

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Jan Sterling, 1950, in a publicity shot for the women’s prison film Caged

Gaby Rogers in Kiss Me Deadly (Robdert Aldritch, 1955)

Frederic March and Gary Cooper in Design for Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933)

The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925)

Anton Dolin, 1923

Boxer Rocky Graziano, 1950, photo by Stanley Kubrick, from the series “Rocky Graziano: He’s a Good Boy Now” for LOOK magazine

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, 1957, photo by Sam Shaw

Gary Cooper in Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, 1930).

Robert Donat in The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

James Dean, 1955, photo by Phil Stern

Paul Newman in Paris Blues (Martin Ritt, 1961)