Vintage cars in movies

[Rogillio]

I'm watching The Godfather (for the 12th time) and looking at the vintage cars. I notice the cars are all 'perfect' and waxed and shined to a tee! Maybe people in the 40s took better care of their cars.

[60FlatTop]

Wiping them down with kerosene once a week does a good job. It's a Saturday ritual around here, right after you check the lights and fluids. Grandpa knows.

Bernie

[Rusty_OToole]

Check out some 40s street scenes on Shorpy and similar sites and you may get a different impression.

[nick8086]

 "Cry Baby" from Universal Studios (1989), with Johnny Dep and Tracy Lords (among others). Pink Kaiser...

 

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=Frazer&model=

 

 you can look up any car from this link:

[capngrog]

I'm watching The Godfather (for the 12th time) and looking at the vintage cars. I notice the cars are all 'perfect' and waxed and shined to a tee! Maybe people in the 40s took better care of their cars.

Maybe people who had chauffeurs required them (the chauffeurs) to keep the cars "perfect and waxed and shined to a tee".  Of course (tongue in cheek here), Hollywood would not require the cars of a major production to be "perfect and waxed and shined to a tee".  With that said, it's possible that people of the 40s took better care of their cars than we do today, because nowadays a car is considered to be a "given" and not a luxury.  I think the O.P. is on to something here.  We no longer consider a car to be some sort of a miracle of transportation, but just another power tool or appliance.

 

Just my opinion,

Grog

[padgett]

Might look for a copy of "Fit for the Chase" by Bernard Lee for stills and "Races, Chases, and Crashes" by Dave Mann is a great index of car movies.

[padgett]

Were sure a lot bigger. "Great American Land Barge" had a real meaning.

[ScarredKnightfan]

With that said, it's possible that people of the 40s took better care of their cars than we do today, because nowadays a car is considered to be a "given" and not a luxury.  I think the O.P. is on to something here.  We no longer consider a car to be some sort of a miracle of transportation, but just another power tool or appliance.

 

...& that (the appliance view), to me, is sad.....  But, fitting for most of the newer cars available today, with a few exceptions, of course.

 

Even when I was growing up in the 1970s & early 1980s, cars were (from my perspective, anyway) still seen as something of which to be proud & to treat well.  These days, it's throw away cars for a throw away society.

 

 

Cort www.oldcarsstronghearts.com

1979 & 1989 Caprice Classics | pigValve, paceMaker, cowValve

"I see our time has gotten stale" __ Eve 6 __ 'Inside Out'

[Rusty_OToole]

Today's cars look better even though they are not maintained because the finish is so durable. Cars of the forties and earlier would get dull and worn looking unless polished and waxed regularly and by that I mean, every month.

 

More durable acrylic paints, and synthetic waxes came out about 1955. The ads promised your car would look great if you only waxed it twice a year.

 

Most cars did not get that much attention especially when they got more than a few years old. A few people were meticulous about polishing and waxing their cars but most people were normal.

[Matt Harwood]

A big part of it is simply because the cars used in modern movies are collector cars owned by collectors. Most collector cars ARE all bright and shiny and perfect and while they're excited for them to be used in a movie, I bet they aren't going to permit them to be dirtied up simply for "realism." I recall when we participated in the filming of "A Christmas Story" one cold winter night here in Cleveland, everyone was furiously cleaning the slush and salt off their cars after each take. And you'll note that a LOT of old cars in modern movies have wide whites, which was most certainly not the case when they were new. I don't think it's any reflection on the condition of cars "back then" it's more a reflection of collector cars' condition today.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[60FlatTop]

I'll have to watch that Christmas Story again. All I remember was that Olds.

 

And about wiping cars down with kerosene, since I wrote that I have been trying to add up how many red and maroon cars I have cashed in on with that trick. I used to buy running red cars at the junkyard whenever a runner came in.

Bernie

[padgett]

Heck, I remember when "three on the tree" was a selling point. Speking of which there is that big red brake light on a early Corvette dash.

[Rogillio]

A big part of it is simply because the cars used in modern movies are collector cars owned by collectors. Most collector cars ARE all bright and shiny and perfect and while they're excited for them to be used in a movie, I bet they aren't going to permit them to be dirtied up simply for "realism." I recall when we participated in the filming of "A Christmas Story" one cold winter night here in Cleveland, everyone was furiously cleaning the slush and salt off their cars after each take. And you'll note that a LOT of old cars in modern movies have wide whites, which was most certainly not the case when they were new. I don't think it's any reflection on the condition of cars "back then" it's more a reflection of collector cars' condition today.

I was thinking alone the same lines with my OP. People haven't changed. There will always be people who wash and wax their cars and those that neglect them. My uncle (83 yo) said he owned the same model 1926 DB coupe that I cherish in 1955 when he was in the Navy with my dad. He said he paid $50 and it was a pos. It probably was as it was already 30 years old. Not a car you wash and wax often. But like someone posted, the cars in movies are owned by guys like us who take good care of them.

Edited June 23, 2015 by Rogillio (see edit history)

[padgett]

Well most of them but don't forget the "stand-ins" for the star that are often butchered for carrying cameras or used for gags.

One I remenber the most is the 67 Camaro that stood in for the Challenger at the end of Vanishing Point,

 

And then you have the cars that were in multiple movies like the 55 Chev in both American Grafitti and Two Lane Blacktop. AFAIR there were four of those.

 

Also suspect there are a few shops in LA that can turn out any make and model you want in a few days.

 

[Skylark4367]

In reply to Matt's comment above about wide whites; if you watch movies made when the cars were new (1930's especially) you'll see in the street scenes that most of the cars had black-wall tires.  There are a number of Three Stooges shorts that were filmed in local streets and there are plenty of cars with black tires.  There's one mid-thirties short where they play firemen and their chief takes delivery of a brand new coupe (which the Stooges wreck) that has black-wall tires.  I can't remember the coupe's make, I'm guessing it was a Ford.

[Paul Dobbin]

When they used my un-restored 1935 Ford Pickup in Hulk Hogan's "Thunder in Paradise" they use spray dirt in cans.

They had a sheet of magnetized rubber they painted the color of the truck to cover the lettering on the doors, then sprayed the spray dirt on it and the license plate.  The setting was a Hulk rescue of a girl in Cuba and the truck can be see in Scene II and at the end when they blew up a jeep in front of my truck.  No harm done to the truck and they paid me for the whole day and fed me too.

No shine on this one Matt.

 

Edited June 24, 2015 by Paul Dobbin (see edit history)

[Guest BillP]

Here's what you are doing after dinner tonight:

 

http://www.imcdb.org/

[Rusty_OToole]

In the forties if they were shooting a movie with new cars sometimes they had to kill the shine to keep reflections from glaring in the camera. So they would wipe them down with buttermilk. You can imagine how they smelled.

[capngrog]

Paul,

 

That's a great looking truck!  What is that on the rear running board?  It looks like a human foot wedged in behind a Crosley engine block, or maybe I just have a weird imagination.

 

Just curious,

Grog

[Paul Dobbin]

Grog,

Nothing weird about your imagination.  It's a rubber foot with a roofing nail it the sole (And some red paint for blood) sticking out of an antique Doctor's bag.  Nothing weird about that!  The fun part is the "Original Owner" sitting in the pickup bed with a fart machine under her dress.  There is also a rubber human hand reaching up from behind the seat holding onto the Daisy Red Rider hanging in the rear window.  Oh, and two crates of feather chickens in the bed too.  At least it gets the attention of younger folks at car shows and adds a little humor to a sometimes to serious hobby.

P. S. I see by your Lincolnesk hat that you are a historical wiz.