There is an amazing composition in this painting, with daring use of perspective and different light sources. That’s beofe you discover the emotional story – just a few people watching a film and an usherette lost in her thoughts.
The only major change I made in my version of Hopper’s painting was to include Humphrey Bogart as private eye Sam Spade smoking a cigarette in still from “The Maltese Falcon” from 1941 – two years after Hopper completed the painting.