image: trailers24.net
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Compared to my live encounter with juvenile
whale sharks, Kon-Tiki's is decidedly more threatening just by the size of those crea- tures. But hey, mine's real. A glaring error in the Kon-Tiki whale shark scene is that it shows the fish blasting the raft with its blow hole. Not a whale but a shark, these gentle giants do not have blow holes. I give the research department an "F" for this clumsy and comical inaccuracy. |
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The other lo-tech sighting.
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Just as I completed this post, I serendipitously spot another typewriter at sea in Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 black-and-white film Lifeboat. It is World War II and a passenger ship gets hit by a German torpedo, throwing a motley group of people together in a lifeboat where, very much like Kon-tiki, nature and human nature come to a boil. A bravura performance by actress Tallulah Bankhead as Connie Porter, a writer/journalist in a mink coat(!) who takes her portable typewriter everywhere she travels. Unfortunately, the hapless machine gets tossed into the rough seas.
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Another "other" lo-tech sighting. Uncanny
resemblance to the Kon-Tiki scene. |
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Connie's handsome typer just seconds before the big splash.
Judging from the body shape, the return lever, the knobs on the ribbon spool
covers, and the time period, I think it's a Remington Model 1 (1938-1940).
Am I correct? Reference: The Classic Typewriter Page.(Or a Remington De Luxe Noiseless?)
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For an extended journey through rough seas, which of the typewriters in your stable will you take with you? I'll go for my Olivetti Lettera 22. Compact, suave, yet dependable; it's all set to go.
Kon-Tiki (dirs. Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg) ©2012 Nordisk Film Productions, RPC, DCM. Watch official trailer. King Kong (dir. Peter Jackson) ©2005 Universal Pictures. Lifeboat (dir. Alfred Hitchcock) ©1944 Twentieth Century Fox. Three more titles for my Typewriter and Cinema list.
*Typecast via Olivetti Lettera 22
15 comments:
Great finds! I love the last image, where we get the typewriter placed like the actors in angled front-view. And it's right spot on the "rule of thirds"
@Kevin, thanks. Actually, that last scene is just a split second setup before the collapsed sail swipes the typewriter and throws it overboard. It took me several attempts to get that precise screen capture!
Cool spottings!
Driscoll uses a Corona 3 (Hints: The high carriage, the spool on the left end of the carriage, and the partial name in the third picture), and I'm pretty sure Connie Porter's typewriter is a Remington Deluxe Noiseless.
Florian beat me to it. I was using as reference the shape of the carriage support/guide on the back, the position of the bell below the carriage, and the looks of the paper advance mechanism (and the lack of a proper return lever). Yep, it is a Corona 3, and I would venture a vintage 1920s machine.
Great post! Love it.
Nice typewriter spotting. I like the way Hitchcock put the typewriter in a leading role.
Now what is the radio in the 8th image? Johnson and Hallicrafters both used very similar knobs, but Johnson used the arc like in the radio in the photo.
@Florian, thanks, you're very observant. I have a spotty record in identifying partially revealed machines on screen. At least I got the Remington right, thanks to the label!
@Miguel, of course you were able to i.d. the Corona 3, you've had a lot of practice. Ha, a Royal QDL, what was I thinking??? (Or not thinking???)
@Bill, interesting question, although I am clueless...
@Luis, thanks for dropping a comment.
Look forward to seeing "Kon-Tiki".
Here are two suggestions for your Typewriter in Cinema list (which are also 2 of my favorite movies):
“84 Charing Cross Road” (with Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft).
“Julia” – the 1977 one with Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda as writer Lillian Hellman. (But you might have to avert your eyes in the scene when the frustrated Hellman hurls her typer out of the window!)
Wasn't into typewriters when I saw those movies years ago, so can't say what make or model they were.
Ton, help is at hand, there will be a quiz next week. :)
I love the last photo too. It's so interesting to see how prominently that typewriter is featured in the shot!
@Ping, thanks for the recommendations, I'll note them. I did see "Julia" when I was much too young to care about typewriters or the film Julia. ( :
@Florian, yes professor!
@Dana, yeah, it's great, even if it's just a flicker of a moment.
That is a very sturdy little typewriter at sea. Laptops have come so far. I never thought about the fact that journalists and writers traveled with their favorite typewriters! But they must have.
@Rebecca, they sure did. And you wouldn't imagine where members of the typosphere take their typewriters. Thanks for leaving a comment, hope to see you here again!
Ha! I recognize that scene from "King Kong"! I remember I watched that with a few of my cousins in the summer.
@William Fernandez, funny, I was not into typewriters when I first saw King Kong so all I really cared about was the giant ape!
Thanks for the comment, welcome here.
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