Movie car ridiculousness

[rocketraider]

TCM showed 1964 "Kiss Me Stupid" with Dean Martin, Kim Novak and Ray Walston.

 

Final scene showed Kim Novak driving a Fiat 500- pulling a travel trailer!😄

 

Fiat had "$495- new tires!" plastered all over the windshield. Yes, I cackled!

[Paul Dobbin]

I've been getting in trouble with my wife for noticing crap like that for 54 years.

Like noticing the 57 Ford going off the cliff an turning into a 53 Mercury when  it crashes at the bottom.

And the 56 Chevy  Armored truck in a 1930's gangster movie.

The list goes on forever, but I've been asked to not notice it. 

[John S.]

In the movie "Palm Springs Weekend", the Hero drove around in a 1957 Mercury convertible with Steer horns on the hood. at the climax of the movie bad kid Robert Conrad runs the Merc off the road. The 1957 Mercury flips over and  burns,  but n ow it is a 1954 Mercury convertible on its top. Even as a ten year old kid watching the movie, I knew the difference. 

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

1 hour ago, Paul Dobbin said:

I've been getting in trouble with my wife for noticing crap like that for 54 years.

Like noticing the 57 Ford going off the cliff an turning into a 53 Mercury when  it crashes at the bottom.

And the 56 Chevy  Armored truck in a 1930's gangster movie.

The list goes on forever, but I've been asked to not notice it. 

 

 Your wife must be related to mine

 

  Ben

[JamesR]

 

1 hour ago, Paul Dobbin said:

I've been getting in trouble with my wife for noticing crap like that for 54 years.

Like noticing the 57 Ford going off the cliff an turning into a 53 Mercury when  it crashes at the bottom.

And the 56 Chevy  Armored truck in a 1930's gangster movie.

The list goes on forever, but I've been asked to not notice it. 

 

If we only had a nickle for every time a Hollywood producer or director said, "Who cares? Nobody will notice!"

 

War movies were the worst (at least as far as my dad was concerned.)

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Paul Dobbin said:

I've been getting in trouble with my wife for noticing crap like that for 54 years.

 

I find it helps if you yell "WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!! repeatedly and very loudly while shaking your fist at the TV. 

Netflix is minefield of gargantuan historical "anomalies", automotive and otherwise.

My latest bane is the newly coined "OC" movie rating for the  "Outdated Cultural Depiction" warning.  Which, strangely,  most Disney movies seem to have garnered. 

I'm certain Walt has turned in his grave.

[vintage1]

I agree with you GregLaR.  I notice a lot of times in movies or tv shows when the car crashes and turns over there are no exhaust pipes, engine or trans.

 

[rocketraider]

2 hours ago, JamesR said:

War movies were the worst (at least as far as my dad was concerned.)

 Pat Hood singing out of his vocal range notwithstanding... this is one of those songs that hits you like a bag of bricks when you listen to what it's saying. My Uncle Julian always said the war movies didn't get it.

 

 

[Flivverking]

The "Valachi Papers" 1972 movie with Charles Bronson was famous for it's anachronisms.Most notable were some late 1920's/30's period flashback ,gangster chase scenes at night and all the cars except the principal case cars on the streets being passed or passing by were modern cars..

To top it off there was a 1930 era time and car run into the river and the Twin Towers where in the back ground skyline.

 

Many times in older lower budget movies and TV shows that showed cars rolled over,run off clifts etc.they used previously filmed recycled old stock shots of a car 5 or 10 even 15 years older getting wrecked.

 

[oldford]

I remember the Henry Ford movie starring Cliff Robertson in 1987. It was just full of inaccuracies. It started with the camera moving silently through a machine shop, with men's voices in the background discussing the new Ford engine for 1908. Supposedly, it was Henry and his engineers and they were discussing the new casting and the internal magneto design. As the camera zoomed in on the engine, there, sitting next to the men was a 1926-27 engine with wide pedals. I knew I was in trouble...

 

Frank

[TAKerry]

Circa 1930's movies, I like the ones involving a chase scene, the bad guy is driving a big Lincoln or Packard. They crash off the cliff and its clearly a model T going into the ravine.

 

As far as pulling a trailer, how about 'The Long Long Trailer' with Desi and Lucy?

[hidden_hunter]

1 hour ago, Flivverking said:

Many times in older lower budget movies and TV shows that showed cars rolled over,run off clifts etc.they used previously filmed recycled old stock shots of a car 5 or 10 even 15 years older getting wrecked.

 

 

TV shows like macgyver were pretty bad for that sort of thing, there was an episode of it that was probably 90% the same clips used in man in a suitcase.

 

The other thing that with a lot of shows now we can see them in high definition is that you can read things that previously you wouldn't have, so it exposes a lot of stuff as well

[TAKerry]

As corny as it is/was, I started watching Knight Rider a few years ago. Was from my era, and its def entertaining, LOL. A lot of the times when the car is jumping you can see that it is nothing more than a hollow shell with 4 wheels.  Not to mention the really crazy scenes like when he drives on water and its a small scale plastic model!!

Edited August 4, 2021 by TAKerry (see edit history)

[8E45E]

17 minutes ago, TAKerry said:

As far as pulling a trailer, how about 'The Long Long Trailer' with Desi and Lucy?

I do remember reading about that. 

 

For the scenes of the '52 Mercury pulling it uphill, the trailer used was a gutted aluminum shell with as much weight as possible removed from it, while the close-up interior scenes inside were taken presumably when it was parked at a campsite or a roadside were all movie sets.

 

Craig

[CarlLaFong]

3 hours ago, oldford said:

I remember the Henry Ford movie starring Cliff Robertson in 1987. It was just full of inaccuracies. It started with the camera moving silently through a machine shop, with men's voices in the background discussing the new Ford engine for 1908. Supposedly, it was Henry and his engineers and they were discussing the new casting and the internal magneto design. As the camera zoomed in on the engine, there, sitting next to the men was a 1926-27 engine with wide pedals. I knew I was in trouble... And, according to the movie the first engine, the Quadracycle engine was a vertical shaft Briggs&Stratton. The makeout scenes between HF and his secretary were as creepy and cringeworthy as anything that I have ever seen. A terrible movie

 

Frank

 

[CarlLaFong]

In "Seabiscuit" in the opening scene the caption reads something like, "Pimlico" 1932" and up pulls a 36 Buick. I might be off on the dates. The car also has an Antique Automobile plate 0n the rear

[32tatra]

The only people who know less about cars, then these movie producers, are the producers who make the tv shows on Motor Trend tv!!!  

[michel88]

In the movie "The Long Long Trailer" the '53 Mercury convertible turned into a '53 Lincoln convertible when they were pulling the trailer up steep hills!

[46 woodie]

If you watch the chase seen in the movie Bullitt, count the times the hubcaps fall off the Challenger. The hubcaps magically re-appear several times during the chase and the final scene when it hits the gas pumps. 

[TAKerry]

Its been awhile since I have seen Bullit,  but I also recall seeing some of the same cars from different points of the chase.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, TAKerry said:

Its been awhile since I have seen Bullit,  but I also recall seeing some of the same cars from different points of the chase.

Yes, the green Volkswagen! 

 

[Jim Bollman]

I like the Germans using a 1948-50 Bonus Build Ford flatbed as a troop carrier during WW-2 in Hogans Hero's in at least one episode. 

 

Most of the big TV car crash roll overs the gas tank is missing.

 

Can't remember the name but it was a Boston Blackie movie and a very sleek custom 2 seater roadster goes over a cliff and turns into a 30s sedan as it tumbles down the cliff.

[hidden_hunter]

56 minutes ago, Jim Bollman said:

I like the Germans using a 1948-50 Bonus Build Ford flatbed as a troop carrier during WW-2 in Hogans Hero's in at least one episode. 

 

 

I don't think that they were going for historical accuracy  Early episodes also had the Nazi's with Thompsons 

[Frank DuVal]

3 hours ago, GregLaR said:

Yes, the green Volkswagen! 

 

What is that picture from? All that recent iron in the picture! Not any other car from the 60s seen there.

[Guest]

Hmmm?  It appears you are correct Frank.  I missed that.

It was just a screen capture of "Bullitt Green Volkswagen" images.  Perhaps someone was reliving the moment complete with the green Volks?  

However, the car does appear at least half a dozen times on different streets in different blocks throughout the chase scene travelling both directions and in cross traffic.

Cheers, Greg

 

[28 Chrysler]

Wow that bug can fly.

[Paul Dobbin]

On 8/4/2021 at 8:32 AM, TAKerry said:

 

 

As far as pulling a trailer, how about 'The Long Long Trailer' with Desi and Lucy?

    That Long Long Trailer movie shou;d be a mandatory watch film before anybody can own and opperate a towable RV.

[TAKerry]

Getting back to the Knight Rider tv show, I have the series on DVD and we watched every episode in sequence a couple of times. Its been awhile but I believe its a yellow VW rabbit that appears in a lot of the street scenes. We started to look for that car. I surmise it may have been someone on the crew's personal car. 

[K8096]

Movie Ridiculousness?   A 1964 LIncoln Continental sedan weighs 5050 lbs.   In the movie Goldfinger, they crushed one and then put it in the back of a Ford Falcon Ranchero pickup.  The Ford weighed 2750 lbs.   How on earth could the Falcon hold a 5000 pound car in it's bed?   Look at the picture of it driving down the road.  The rear of the Ford isn't saging one bit.   5000 pounds of weight in the back and it's perfectly level.  Impossible.   

 

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by K8096 (see edit history)

[CarlLaFong]

It's even more ridiculous to believe that you could squoosh s Continental to a cube that size

[Bleach]

On 8/4/2021 at 4:50 PM, Jim Bollman said:

I like the Germans using a 1948-50 Bonus Build Ford flatbed as a troop carrier during WW-2 in Hogans Hero's in at least one episode. 

 

I don't recall that one but I do remember these two Fords.

 

 

There's a bunch of other oddballs in the series.

Hogan's Heroes, TV Series, 1965-1971

[Dosmo]

From 1953, "Angel Face" starred Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons.  Simmons' parents drive a '51/52 Chrysler convertible.  She fiddles with the transmission linkage on the Chrysler, so that when her father puts the car in gear to go forward, he doesn't realize the transmission is in reverse, and the car goes backwards off a steep cliff.

 

The only thing is, as the car goes backwards, it changes from a '51 Chrysler to a 47/48 Buick convertible as it goes off the edge of the cliff.  Looking at some still photos of the footage, one can see that the Buick has had the "V" trunk emblem added from a Chrysler, as well as different tail lights in an attempt to mask the fact that it is not the same car as the one at the beginning of the scene.

 

It surprises me that the studio would have taken even these measures to try to fool the audience.  

[ejboyd5]

The willing suspension of disbelief for the moment.

[Paul Dobbin]

As my wife says, "It's just a movie, not a documentary, get over it."  and I might add, "Shut UP!"

[rocketraider]

Half the time even documentaries get the details wrong.

[CarlLaFong]

If you're as old as I am, you must have noticed that all auto accidents make the same sound. I guess all of the Foley artists shared the same sound loop back then. Oh yeah on most of the process shots of people in cars, the shift lever always seems to be in the park position

[Harold]

One glitch that stands out to me is in the movie Goodfellas, where they have a close-up of a '65 Impala trunk and then the title of the scene saying '1963' is overlaid.  Very sloppy research on the part of the production company!

[JACK M]

For some reason I like to watch the western cable channel.

I find it odd that Slim and Jess often ride on a dirt road with tire tracks on it. (not just that show).

I see Cheyenne and others do it too.

Those cheap westerns crack me up.

[Pfeil]

In the original Terminator Chevrolet crash scene;

you will not see a engine, transmission, driveshaft, or fuel tank.

[TAKerry]

2 hours ago, CarlLaFong said:

If you're as old as I am, you must have noticed that all auto accidents make the same sound. I guess all of the Foley artists shared the same sound loop back then. Oh yeah on most of the process shots of people in cars, the shift lever always seems to be in the park position

And every car that goes off of a cliff explodes into a ball of flame......, Usually before it hits something solid!