Graflex.org

[wolvertone]

Maybe I'm showing my younger age, but I watched an Alfed Hitchcock movie called Rear Mirror (I think)for the first time which featured Jimmy Stewart as a photographer stuck in his apartment with a broken leg. He witnessed a murder in the adjacent building and so goes the story.

What was really cool was at the beginning they panned the apartment and they showed a bunch of Graflex cameras! Talk about MINT! He was using what looked like an Exacta and a HUGE zoom for watching the neighbor.

Also, near the end of the movie, the murderer came into his apartment and he had all the lights off. He startled the guy by flashing his Graflex flash SEVERAL times. You should have seen him change those bulbs!! He went through an entire pack!!

Graflex saved the day!! No real point to this message, I just thought it was neat and would put a smile on somebody's mug, first day back to work and all.

Later,
Steve

[alecj]

You were close, Steve. It was "Rear Window". And you didn't mention Stewart was so effective with the flash bulbs that it lit up the goodness in Raymond Burr so that he later became an attorney defending accused murders [as Perry Mason].

[Les]

Another good movie for Graphics is "Enemy at the Gates" It takes place in Stalingrad in 1942. One scene is a press conferance with lots and lots of grpahics and some other cameras flashing about.

Only saw one Pacemaker with a Graflite (anachronism as these came out after the war) and of course most of the cameras had their bellows out so far they focused at about 2 feet. Still it was good. They acutally used flash bulbs in the scene rather than cutting in a couple of clear frames for the effect.

[wolvertone]

Saw another one!

Shawshank Redemption, near the middle where the warden is having a "Press Conference".

There they were, a WALL of 'em.

Maybe there are hundreds of examples like this, but since I'm new to LF, I didn't notice before!

Any others?

Steve

[hartwell_a_m]

There is a news confrence in the beginning of Space Cowboys that features alot of Speed Graphic cameras using flash bulbs. I dont know of any more movies featuring Speed Graphics.

[bertsaunders]

Gotta go you guys one better---Marks bros films---most show old Graflex cameras--D models, B models ect, no "modern" Speed Graphics here----haha Bert

[45PSS]

Watched 61 directed by Billy Crystal. It is about Roger Maris. There are a few sceens that have at least one pacemaker in the near background.

[Les]

while Grpahic cameras in the movies are almost common, it's rare to see a Graflex on celluloid. One movies come to mind. "Hit the ice". "Hit the Ice" is and Abbott & Costello film that has Bud & Lou as photographers USING Graflexes on the street in Chicago. A ganster (played by Sheldon Lenoard) mistakes them for the two hit men he hired out of Detroit. A conversation insues where Sheldon is talking about murder and Lou thinks he's talking about photography.

Leonard, "So, Do you two have any restriction on who you shoot?"

Lou "Oh know, we'll shoot anybody, in fact before your friend here picked us up, we were shooting people on the street"
Leonard, "Really? in broad daylight?!"

Lou, "That's the best time."

Leonard, "Do you shoot cops?"

Lou, "Oh we do them for free"

Leonard, "Free! welll, you Detroit boys are something, I'll bet you'd shoot your own mother."

Lou, "I did. Twice. Once for her birthday and once at Christmas."

[hartwell_a_m]

The clasic B&W movies will all be using Press cameras because they were, sometimes, the only cameras around, but it is the use of press cameras in modern movies that is rare. I just remembered another movie that featured what was I think a Speed Graphic, The Godfather it was being used by a photographer who was covering the wedding in the beginning of the movie.

[wolvertone]

Les, that Abbott and Costello dialog is the FUNNIEST thing I have read all week!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Steve

[sobahguy]

Another movie featuring quite a few graphics & rolleis was 1983 "The Right Stuff" about the original Mercury 7 astronauts. There were several scenes featuring press conferences & photo ops with the spacemen posing.
I also still cringe every time i see james caan slam the speed graphic into the asphalt during "The Godfather" wedding sequence.

[schmigrex]

There are lots of Graphics in movies, but here are a couple of notable weird ones from Batman movies. In Batman (1988) modern photographers use Graphics, as the art direction is supposed to be a decadent mix of modern and 1940s styles. But my favorite Graphic scene is from a mighty bad movie: the 1966 Batman movie, derived from the TV show starring Adam West. In a press conference in Commissioner Gordon's office (played by silent film star Neil Hamilton, by the way), about a dozen photogs all fire off their IDENTICAL Graphics all at once! They must have gotten them from props central (if there is such a thing.)

And as for the Godfather, the only thing that makes me wince more than Jimmy Caan busting that Speed is when he gets his payback, and both he and that beautiful old car get riddled with bullets at the tollbooth! (Actually it was pre-riddled for the scene, but still!) I can only hope neither the camera nor car were working models -- it would be a sin!

[schmigrex]

Oh, and one more. Since I started using my Crown I've become more conscious of Graflexes in movies (just as I am about movie camers since I began using them). I just saw John Sayles' great movie "Eight Men Out" about the 1919 Black Sox scandal, and during the "Say it ain't so, Joe" scene, the visual design dept. got it right -- the photographers all had Graflexes, chimneys and all.

And one last one, since the Stooges were mentioned -- let's not forget the famous publicity shot with the boys as street photographers, and Curly is holding an Anniversary Speed with front standard and logo in plain sight. Only he's holding it waist-level, like a Graflex, but I guess that's so you can see his goofy mug.

[jpmose]

I saw a Century Graphic in the movie "Shawshank Redemption" (1994). Great movie if you haven't seen it!

_________________
Best regards,

JP Mose

[jpmose]

Just saw "A Beautiful Mind". There is a Pacemaker Graphic with side rangefinder, along with a Leica screw mount in this movie.

This is a GREAT movie! I highly recommend it, even for those of you who don't go to movies too often. IT'S GOOOOOD!

JP