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

20 Dec 08 - 12:57 AM (#2520372)
Subject: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Helen

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


20 Dec 08 - 06:13 AM (#2520478)
Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: JennieG

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

Cheers
JennieG


20 Dec 08 - 10:43 AM (#2520616)
Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Stilly River Sage

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


20 Dec 08 - 10:58 AM (#2520625)
Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Alice

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.


20 Dec 08 - 11:07 AM (#2520631)
Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Stilly River Sage

It is quite funny, standard Jack Benny.

I'll see if it is in Netflix.

:)


20 Dec 08 - 11:08 AM (#2520632)
Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: wysiwyg

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~


20 Dec 08 - 11:36 AM (#2520650)
Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Stilly River Sage

Not in netflix. Too bad!


21 Dec 08 - 02:12 AM (#2521135)
Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Helen

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


21 Dec 08 - 02:25 AM (#2521140)
Subject: RE: BS: B&W film: man poured in coffee pot sign
From: Stilly River Sage

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