New Dillinger movie...

[keiser31]

I just saw the previews for "Public Enemies" again and realized that they are showing a 1936 Chevy front end. I have not seen the movie and I don't know if they are showing more than John Dillinger as far as later public enemies, but he died in July of 1934. Anyone know why they show a '36 Chevy? Could they have gotten it THAT wrong?

[TexRiv_63]

Just one example of many such errors in many movies. I drive my wife crazy pointing that stuff out but probably 99% of the viewers never notice.

[hddennis]

I haven't seen it for years but there was a Charles Bronson movie, might have been "The Valachi Papers" where they are driving down the street during the "Prohibition Era" and out of the side windows you can see they are in 1960's traffic. Kinda ruins the effect.

[Mark Shaw]

The people in Hollywood are story tellers...not historians. Our standards are much higher than theirs when it comes to being historically correct.

[keiser31]

I remember seeing the movie "The Last Convertible". The movie producers had everyone put their RVs and new cars up the driveways so nobody would see them. Problem was...in almost every shot from the passenger side or driver side, you could see ALL of the campers, boats and modern cars that were "hidden" up the driveways.

[Sweepspear]

In the movie Goodfellas, a scene at Idlewild Airport opens with a subtitle saying it is 1963, and then shows Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci leaning against a '65 Chevy.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TexRiv_63</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Just one example of many such errors in many movies. I drive my wife crazy pointing that stuff out but probably 99% of the viewers never notice. </div></div>

Same here. The wife just rolls her eyes and says, "Who cares?"

I care darnit! LOL!

[keiser31]

I CARE, TOO!!

[keiser31]

My wife laughs at me about the pointing out of the error, but understands that it irritates me.

[Dave@Moon]

My pet peave has always been the police cars in <span style="font-style: italic">The Godfather</span>. As I recall <span style="text-decoration: underline">every</span> police car is 2-3 years too new for the scene it's in.

But it's not like movies are the only offender.....:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-style: italic">I got a '69 Chevy with a 396, fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor...</span> </div></div>

[Guest Skyking]

I recently bought the full seasons of M Squad with Lee Marvin. There's around 116 episodes. Everyone drives 57 Ford products. Even in all the scenes, parked cars are Fords & Mercurys. My guess is they also advertised Fords...........

Still, it's nice to watch.

[jdome]

Many TV shows in the 60's & 70's were sponsored by Ford or Chrysler. That's why you will almost always see Fords on the Andy Griffin series, unless the car was wrecked or was going to break down as part of the script, then they would use a competitor brand. GM didn't do as much product placement in series but did a lot of commercials.

The Bonanza series took place before cars. There are a number of episodes with long shots of mountains or valleys and if you look close, you can see cars moving down a highway off in the distance.

[JD in KC]

My favorite is the '48 Packard in "Patton" (during WW2).

[Studemax]

Supposedly, in the new "Public Enemies" flick, a Studebaker once used by John Dillinger is filmed in a heist.

[Graham Man]

We were laughing on the set when they used the Chevy because if some of the Gangsters had not been shot they would not have all fit into the car! In reality the Gangsters used big cars Dillinger would not have been caught dead in a 6 cylinder Chevy not fast enough!

[Richard Lichtfel]

A lot of the Dillinger movie was filmed here in Wisconsin and the producers were very particular about the years and cars used in the sceines. One of Dillingers favorite cars was the V-8 Ford. They were fast and he lost many a police car with it. The city of Columbus, Wisconsin was used for several scienes of the movie and it was fun to watch how they converted the downtown to look like the early 30's. They even had changed all the displays in the store windows to things of the early 30's. They even changed the street lights and signals. My wife was walking down main street and saw this beautiful old furniture in one store window with a realy cheap price on it, she went in and wanted to buy it but found out it was movie props. They did a very detailed job.

[Reatta Man]

If you want some insight into the problems of technical accuracy in movies, read the post Beth started about trying to find correct cars.

On another note, I once went on the set of "Courage Under Fire" with Denzel Washington. They were filming the Pentagon scenes at an old Pepsi plant in Austin while I was the wing PA officer at Bergstrom AFB. The prop man comments on how authentic my uniform was (he thought I was an extra) and I politely let him know it was real. While on the set (less than 2-3 hours) I corrected at least 5 mistakes in their uniforms and military mannerisms--and I wasn't even the military advisor! I was offered a job before I left, but I politely declined....

The point is, movie production is fast-paced, very expensive to stop and make corrections, and often a director wants to get the actors "in the can" while he has them for HIS movie. Technical errors are very small, often insignificant details to them. Bottom line--we see things they don't see, whether it is a car or a military uniform.

Joe

[Guest Bob Call]

The TV show Bewitched was sponsored by Chevrolet and in out of doors scenes there is at least one Chevy in the scene. Also, in the early 60's the TV show Combat quite regularly used Chevy/GMC duece and a half's as German vehicles.

Edited March 23, 2010 by Bob Call (see edit history)

[Dave Mellor NJ]

I don't think that 36 Chevy was even the newest in the movie,it looked like the rear of a 38 buick near the end. I don't know why they do this, they certainly don't have to.When they were first gearing up to make this movie they went around the midwest looking for certain year cars. they had a list in Old Cars Weekly and when I saw that some of the cars were post-34 I couldn't believe it.The thing is,they didn't have to.There are more than enough period-correct cars available to make hundreds of movies. The only thing I can think of is that they didn't want to overload it with Fords which constitute the majority of pre-35 survivors,even though Dillinger seemed to prefer them.

[Dandy Dave]

There is a sceen in "Sea Biscut" where a 2 cylinder John Deere D tractor is stopped in the middle of the race track. When they start it, you can tell the sound dub is a 4 cylinder car engine. :confused: And it revs up like one too. If I ever heard a Johnny Popper sounding like that, I would turn and run because it would be ready to blow.... :eek: That has to be the worst dub over I have ever seen. At least they could have used that classic John Deere sound that so many are familier with. Dandy Dave!

[Rusty_OToole]

In the prohibition era a few big shot gangsters may have owned Lincolns and bulletproof Cadillacs but the working bootlegger preferred a less conspicuous car, but one that could carry a load and outrun anything the cops were likely to have. Favorites were the Hudson Super Six and Studebaker Whiskey Six cars, and REO Speedwagon trucks.

A little later when Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Creepy Karpis were roaming the country, they usually drove low priced cars like Fords and Plymouths. Dillinger and Clyde Barrow were Ford fans while Karpis was arrested in a Plymouth with a concealed arsenal.

[Reatta Man]

REO Speedwagon made trucks? I thought they only did rock n' roll songs.....

Sorry, just couldn't resist....

[Guest AlK]

One thing you have to remember, when a film is being shot and it needs old cars, the film budget usually does not allow for cars to be flown and/or driven in from long distances. They have to use what is locally available, if the owners will even let them use their car. In the case of the 36 Chevy maybe that is all they could get. In the case of the Patton Packard, they could not find a 41 or 42 to do the job. Basically as was said most people did not care. I am a Packard club member and I did not notice that error until it was pointed out to me many years later.

[Graham Man]

We decided the motivation was art deco, Michael Mann wanted the newer cars they looked "smooth". In one scene we had period correct cars on the street, 1934 scene all the cars were only two years old almost twenty cars! In the middle of the depression! Even most of the police departments were driving model A's or T's in 1934. I would guess the budget for cars in this movie exceeded 2-3 million. It got to the point people would complain when I showed up in my 33 Graham every time he had me driving. The one time I parked the Graham they ran up and said "why is that car parked? get something else" I was blocking a fire hydrant.

[poci1957]

The TV show Bewitched was sponsored by Chevrolet and in out of doors scenes there is at least one Chevy in the scene. Also, in the early 60's the TV show Combat quite regularly used Chevy/GMC duece and a half's as German vehicles.

Hey Bob, they just ran a marathon of early black & white Bewitched episodes this weekend on TV Land. One of the first episodes had Samantha taking a driving lesson and EVERY vehicle in town is a Chevy. Trucks, police cars, Corvairs, some a few years old but ALL Chevys.

For a really fun video see this link:

[Reatta Man]

As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.

- Dick Cavett

[oldwood]

I have been on the set of a new movie being fimed here in Arkansas called " The Last Ride" directed by Harry Thomason(Designing Women). Its about the last days of Hank Williams Sr. I drove 2 of my cars in the movie, 1950 and '51 Buicks. The '53 Cadillac that Hank rides in was a POS, that I was hired to repair after the 1st day of shooting. It was great to get my cars in the movie and I got a non-speaking part. Hollywood here I come!!! Release date is early 2011

[Guest AlK]

OLDWOOD

May I have your autograph now while it is still cheap?

[LINC400]

In the prohibition era a few big shot gangsters may have owned Lincolns and bulletproof Cadillacs

I don't think most of the cars used by gangsters would have been purchased.

[jeff_a]

My grandfather was hired to provide an antique car for some scenes in a movie about a barnstormer in the Twenties ("Ace Eli & Rodger Of The Skies"). Once he signed a contract and drove the car to the location 20 miles away they mentioned that they wanted to load up his car (a 1921 Leland Lincoln Sedan) with people, drive it down the road at 50, and land someone on the roof who would be dangling from the landing gear of a biplane. Grandpa refused to do it, and only one 2-second scene of him and his car made it into the film.

*** Note: the movie came out in 1973, was written by Steven Spielberg, and starred Cliff Robertson and Bernadette Peters (her film debut). It was kind of an awful movie.

Edited March 26, 2010 by jeff_a (see edit history)

[stock_steve]

...they wanted to load up his car (a 1921 Leland Lincoln Sedan) with people, drive it down the road at 50, and land someone on the roof who would be dangling from the landing gear of a biplane. Grandpa refused to do it...

What an unreasonable man your Grandpa was!

KIDDING OF COURSE!

At an old car (specifically old VW) gathering I attended this past weekend, one fellow who drives a "stereotypical '60s hippie bus" had displayed next to his bus on the ground the most godawful looking burned & melted clutch & pressure plate I've ever seen in my entire life. He explained that while he had lent the bus out to some film crew, they eventually called him and said that "it stopped running." Two hours after he got the bus back home and removed the engine, the flywheel was still too hot to touch. Eventually he was able to remove the assembly and view the carnage.

Lesson learned about letting non-car-people mess around with your old car???

[Graham Man]

I was on the set for 9 days with my 1933 Graham it was the most fun I have ever had with my cars, great car people! The 36 Chev..... My Graham was parked behind the Chev and across the street when Baby Face is shooting up the street they show the Graham as people are running for cover. We were laughing because not only was my Graham about 30 mph faster then the Chev but if they had not shot a few of the bank robbers they would not have all fit in the car! In reality Dillenger and the crew used a Packard and a Buick both eights. The director wanted the movie to have the "art deco" look that is why he used later cars.

[padgett]

My favorite is one of the early scenes in "Hurry Sundown". Set in 1946 they drive by a set of the biggest brightest 64 F*rd tailights ever seen.

Have always enjoyed the periodic "for sale" averts for movie cars. The words sound like one of a kind when typically there will be five or six of each including ones cut away for cameras and other designated "crash" vehicles (sometimes not even the same make e.g. the Camaro in "Vanishing Point").

Then often the same car will show up dressed a little differently in other movies (Chev in TLB and American Grafitti comes to mind).

When all is said and done, provenance is usually impossible, particularly with pool cars.

However the whole movie biz is fascinating and if you can take the time to be in one with your car, it can be great. If there is a crash scene, there will probably be a stand-in, just read the contract carefully.

ps it helps to live less than a mile from Universal.

[FrankWest107]

I just saw the previews for "Public Enemies" again and realized that they are showing a 1936 Chevy front end. I have not seen the movie and I don't know if they are showing more than John Dillinger as far as later public enemies, but he died in July of 1934. Anyone know why they show a '36 Chevy? Could they have gotten it THAT wrong?

Hollywood is so screwed up.

I saw a 1954 gang busters tv program and Dillinger was driving a 1953 Chevy!!!!!!

[R W Burgess]

Not much difference between a '53 and/or '54 Chevy. Most viewers would not know the difference.

[keiser31]

Not much difference between a '53 and/or '54 Chevy. Most viewers would not know the difference.

I don't think Dillinger would have driven either one...

[FrankWest107]

I don't think Dillinger would have driven either one...

Because he was assasinated in july 1934!

[FrankWest107]

The dillinger gang robbed getaway cars and usually switched license plates.

The following cars were actually used in various bank jobs.

Large Packard 8 cylinder

1933 Essex Terra-plane

Ford V8 Tudor Sedan

1933 Plymouth Sedan

Ford 1930 Model A coup

maroon 1931 Chevy 6 cylinder

Black Buick Auburn

Studebaker

Blue DeSoto Getaway car

Chevrolet coupe

Yellow Chrysler Imperial Roadster

Blue Dodge

Note" it was the great depression and they could not always find the exact car the wanted and had to make due. Usually, two cars we used. One car was parked way out side town, to confuse eye witnesses.

[Dave Henderson]

And another inaccuacy; In the old Bonnie and Clyde movie with Warren Beatty, Hollywood got the car right, a '34 Ford sedan, but it lacked the Potter type trunk with spare mounted on it and had an incorrect dashboard.

[FrankWest107]

Wood grain dash?

That movied used a lot of Chevy's rather than fords. I guess they were cheaper.

[R W Burgess]

Hollywood is so screwed up.

I saw a 1954 gang busters tv program and Dillinger was driving a 1953 Chevy!!!!!!

"Not much difference between a '53 and/or '54 Chevy. Most viewers would not know the difference."

I was speaking of Frank's post.