Camera escalation in the movies

[Matthew Currie]

Not really a propos of anything, but I'm here visiting my mom,

attempting to entertain her by watching old movies on TV which she's

seen before but does not remember anyway....Well, anyway, we watched

"High Society" last night, which some may remember is a musical remake

of "The Philadelphia Story." A character in both of these movies is a

woman who is a photographer for a gossip magazine. In the original,

she carries an Argus Brick (which is conveniently disabled/broken as a

part of the story). In the musical, moved up to 1956, I noticed she

had ramped up her arsenal a notch, with a spiffy rangefinder that

looks at passing glance like a Contax (which is again, dropped and

broken as part of the plot), but she announces that she carries a

spare, and comes out in the next scene with a pretty nice looking TLR.

 

OK, back to the land of memory loss and daytime TV....

[richard_oleson]

I don't think I've seen that one..... but I feel much better (unpatriotic though it may be) about the idea of movie producers smashing C3s than Contaxes.

 

I can just see the director calling "TAKE SIX" as the props guy pulls another new IIa out of the bin......

 

:(=

[OCULUS New York]

Matthew, My absolute favorite movie of all times. I first saw it, while in 3rd grade, with my first "girlfriend" (and and her mother). Fast forward, I have the records, movie and the CD with all of those wonderful Cole Porter tunes (it was his last movie).

 

I have not noticed the camera replacement detail, (Rollei I think), but that gives me an excuse to drag it out and replay it. (I listen to the CD all the time). An incredible cast of actors, musicians and of course, the Porter music, lyrics and delcious, sophisticated humor.

 

Probabably my favorite scene is when the two "reporters" are perusing the wedding gifts, and she sings right into the silver bowl. That garbled part was faithfully recorded on the original soundtrack, but has since been cleaned up on the new releases. Same applies to some of Sinatra's drunken banter in the library.

 

My favorite song, "True Love" is the least believable scene with Kelly and Crosby on the sailboat; pathetic cinemagraphic background. Second is the back-of-the-bus-crooning with Satchmo and the boys on the way into Newport. Oh well, thanks for bringing up a favorite.

Love the cars too.

Ray Hull

[Mike Gammill]

It's fun to watch for classic cameras in old movies and even in old TV reruns. A few years ago Natalie Merchant was sporting a Leica M series of some kind in her "Carnival" video. Mr. Howell on Gilligan's Island has what looks like a Contax "Bulls Eye" in one episode. What appears to be a Spiratone Sun 85-210 f4.8 stock-mounted zoom appears as a prop in the 1964 movie "Robinson Crusoe on Mars." I could go on, but I'm willing to let someone else have some fun too.

Nice find. I'll have to catch that movie again.

[wayne_cornell2]

Zorki or FED 1 used to shoot a group photo of the submarine crew in the Arctic in "K-19 the Widowmaker."