"the finger" in 1932 Hollywood epic

[Joel S. Berson]

The question is -- is this an antedating?

Joel

At 5/13/2012 07:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>About three-fourths of the way through _The Lost Squadron_ (1932; dir.
>George Archainbaud), Robert Armstrong (later of _King Kong_) clearly and
>vigorously gives Richard Dix the finger from the cockpit of a biplane which
>has just been sabotaged by Erich von Stroheim.
>
>Naturally I thought I was crazy, but with the help of the olde DVR I
>verified the gesture plus my sanity.  A reviewer at IMDb caught it as well,
>even though he calls the gesture "the bird":
>
>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023151/reviews
>
>I've never seen it elsewhere in a movie before ca1970.
>
>Otherwise the film wasn't real swell. Two stars.
>
>JL
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org