BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign

Subject: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Helen
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 12:57 AM

Hi all,

This is totally un-music-related but this has been driving me nuts for about 40 years.

I saw a movie yonks ago and it was a comedy, Black & White, live action, not a cartoon. One scene shows the main character caught up in a large mechanical sign above a cafe, which has a large coffee pot and cup. The man is being poured from the pot to the cup and cannot get out.

I'm thinking Eddie Cantor, or someone with a similar whacky sense of the ridiculous.

Please help: any ideas would be good.

I know there'll be some Mudcatters who know this movie or know how to find it. I've seen the miracles you've worked before in Info-Detective Land.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: JennieG
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 06:13 AM

Sounds like the sort of thing that Harold Lloyd used to do.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 10:43 AM

I think this was Jack Benny in The Horn Blows At Midnight. There was giant advertisement with a moving coffee pot in the film.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Alice
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 10:58 AM

From imdb.com (internet movie database) page on The Horn Blows At Midnight, comment about the special effects:

"And of course the coffee pot sequence. SOME of it was clearly done with miniatures... but a LOT of it had to have been done with a full sized model of the pot (Benny falling into the cup, going down the drain tube, and being poured out of the coffee pot spout).

Didn't the Academy give awards for special effects and cinematography back then?

These guys did things that would make today's special effects folks go green with envy!"

------

I don't remember ever seeing this movie, but it looks like a really great one! Jack Benny plays an angel come down from heaven. The fan comments at imdb.com are very positive.

Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 11:07 AM

It is quite funny, standard Jack Benny.

I'll see if it is in Netflix.

:)

Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 11:08 AM

Didn't the Academy give awards for special effects and cinematography back then?

Don't they still?!?!? Maybe not in the primetime telecast, but at least separately?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Dec 08 - 11:36 AM

Not in netflix. Too bad!

Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Helen
Date: 21 Dec 08 - 02:12 AM

Stilly,

Thank you so much! And you answered within half a day what has been bothering me for 4 decades!

I kept thinking it is Cabin in the Sky, because it is about heaven/angels etc. I saw a copy of that DVD on sale a couple of weeks ago and that's what prompted me to ask about the coffee pot scene.

I would never have thought of Jack Benny, but it makes sense when I think of him doing the movie.

Now I'll have to see if I can find a copy of the movie. And I'll have to write this down in my "Memory" file (a special word file on my computer where I keep facts, info etc that I know I will forget later.)

Wonderful Mudcat, and wonderful Mudcatters to the rescue again!

Thanks, heaps,
Helen

Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Dec 08 - 02:25 AM

Thanks for the reminder of that great movie. Jack Benny was a classic and his films could stand to get some more attention these days. You might try getting the film at your library or via Interlibrary Loan if it isn't at any of your local movie rental places.

Amazon doesn't have it so I looked it up in WorldCat; There was an MGM Home Video release in 1990 (VCR). It lists a lot of public libraries in the U.S. with the film. ISBN: 079280824X :; 9780792808244.

SRS