Cameras in Movies n+5: This Island Earth 1955

[JDMvW]

<p><strong>Cameras in Movies n+5: <em>This Island Earth</em> 1955</strong></p>

<p>Did I mention that I like old 1950s Sci-Fi movies? Apparently I do.<strong><br /></strong></p>

<p><em>This Island Earth</em> 1955 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047577/ <br>

First cameras shown in the film, right at the beginning — press cameras, probably mostly Graphics, at the interview with Dr. Cal Meecham (Rex Reason):<br /><br /></p>

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[JDMvW]

<p>After assembling an all-purpose machine (not a desktop, exactly), Exeter appears on the screen. Meecham’s assistant, Joe Wilson (Robert Nichols ), tries to photograph the "interociter".</p>

<blockquote>

<p><br />Exeter(Jeff Morrow): “I beg your pardon, Mr. Wilson.<br />Your camera will pick up nothing but black fog. Images on the interocitor don't register on film. “</p>

</blockquote>

<p>[a lot of us doing our own processing at this same time had the same ‘black fog’ problem]<br /><br /><br />Here it is coming out of Joe’s desk so you can see the top of the camera:<br /><br /></p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>This is the mystery to me. The film was “2 and a half years in the making” so this was probably a camera available in 1952-3. Here it is in the best of the front views of it:<br /><br /></p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>A small view of the back and another front view:</p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>I looked through the 1953 Directory published in May, 1953, in <em>Popular Photography</em>.<br />Two sort-of possibilities are the Diax 1 or the Regula 1, but neither have what seems to be an (later) Argus(?)-like emblem on the lower front right of the camera in the pictures.<br /><br /></p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p> I also looked in the previous years listing and found some other similar looking cameras (Leica-like rounded body anyhow)<br /><br /></p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>None of these seem quite right, however. <br />Any suggestions? <br /><br />So’s you can try for yourself for better candidates, here the 1953 ‘directory’ (cameras only) in 2.3 MB pdf file. I felt some of you might want it anyhow.<br /><br /></p>

[JDMvW]

<p>It is done.<br /><br /></p>

[rick_drawbridge]

<p>Adox Adrette, (Model 1), a clone of one of the Wirgin cameras? Pretty close, though what appears to be a nameplate on the face of Joe's camera isn't typical. In the first pic of Joe at his desk, it looks as if he's about to extend the lens?</p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>Well, it looks as close as the others, although I don't see the 'reel' bulges in whatever Joe is doing in the first pictures?</p>

[Matthew Currie]

<p>The camera in the movie has either a nameplate or something else at about where the Argus emblem on some cameras occurs. I don't see an Argus that matches it, but whatever it is should have that feature.</p>

[tgh]

<p>Robot 1 perhaps? What looks like a name plate would then be the shutter speed dial.</p>

[tony_lockerbie]

<p>Thanks JDM, can't pick the camera but I want to see that movie! Don't know which is the most scary...the aliens or those spandex suits!</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Some variants of the Robot II don't look too bad, especially if your mind controls the eye (the Martian Canal problem):</p>

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[JDMvW]

<p>As for the spandex suits, Faith Domergue, playing Dr. Ruth Adams, said some of her costumes were so tight that she had to have help getting them on and couldn't wear any underclothes.... (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047577/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047577/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2</a> )</p>

<p>Scary? You decide.</p>

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[Mike Gammill]

Too early for a Bolsey B2, I suppose? I love that movie and have it on DVD. I've always wondered about what camera Joe was using.

JDM- have you noticed the zoom lens used by Paul Mantee in "Robinson Crusoe on Mars"? Looks like an early Spiratone Sun with pistol grip (maybe the 85-210 f4.8 that they used to sell)?

[JDMvW]

<p>I think the TIE camera lacks the trapezoidal body shape of the Bolseys, though that was one of the first I thought of too.</p>

<p>Likely the <em>Robinson Crusoe on Mars</em> gadget is the early model of the Sun (Spiratone) 85-210 (scroll down at <a href="/classic-cameras-forum/00bfuT">link</a>).</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>I dug out my Bolsey B2 and another unforeseen consequence -- when I got it a couple of years ago the shutter was frozen and didn't work. I had tried minute amounts of naphtha (what else?) but it had not worked. When I pulled it out just now, "dadgum" if the shutter doesn't seem to work fine! Another reanimation by Dr. JDM von Frankenstein! (It's alive!)</p>

<p>I pulled a roll of Ektar out of the refrigerator, and - mind you - I will now have to give it a try. This, of course, is in the nature of a threat.</p><div></div>

[tgh]

<p>I was thinking of the pre-war Robot, like the one here:<br>

http://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Berning-Robot/Robot-I.html<br>

Note the square tubular viewfinder visible under Joe's left hand, the two-piece wind knob in the middle of the top plate, the release button up against the wind knob and the teardrop shaped piece behind the shutter speed dial.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>todd, that does look pretty good, doesn't it? <br>

There's no doubt that the props department had a bunch of old and peculiar items, as we've seen elsewhere.</p>

<p>Any other bids? ;)</p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Spandex? Nope, not invented until 1959. Tight clothes didn't stretch in 1952!<br>

The Robot I sure looks quite likely.</p>

[james_elwing]

<p>Now 'The Phantom' clearly wore knitted wool as that has a fair bit of stretch. Might have been a little itchy without underclothes, so I plump for fine wool</p>

[john_cogburn]

<p>I say it is a Samoca, or else one of the Tenax models that made square images on 35mm film.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Thanks all.</p>

<p>On all the Samocas I could find pictures of (e.g., http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00chFH ), the 'chrome' band across the top of the camera is too wide to be Joe's TIE camera. Tenax is a possibility if the finder is folded down.</p>

<p>I'm beginning to converge on the Robot answer, myself.</p>

[james_styles1]

<p>It's very appropriately a Robot but not an RUR one-look it up...... I still dream of owning a Robot Royal 36. As well made as a Leica.</p><div></div>