The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Lying around with a flu I just watched Ricardo Cortez play "For You" on a Credenza in The Maltese Falcon (1931). The record has the early twenties Brunswick "batwing" label and has an eccentric groove at the end. I don't remember that feature on Brunswick. The camera watches the Credenza fail to shut itself off and one assumes Ricardo has gone "all the way" with Bebe Daniels on the divan.

wjw wrote:Lying around with a flu I just watched Ricardo Cortez play "For You" on a Credenza in The Maltese Falcon (1931). The record has the early twenties Brunswick "batwing" label and has an eccentric groove at the end. I don't remember that feature on Brunswick. The camera watches the Credenza fail to shut itself off and one assumes Ricardo has gone "all the way" with Bebe Daniels on the divan.

Mmm, I'll have to watch that one again. I own the DVD. In the 1931 (pre-Code) version, Sam Spade is much randier than in the 1941 version with Bogart and Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke, alias Mary Astor. Cortez (geb. Jacob Krantz) is quite forward with Una Merkel, too. Perhaps that's why I didn't notice, or don't remember, the Credenza....

Later: I watched the scene (it starts at 30'10" into the film) and noticed a couple of things, to wit, barely noticeable (if any) "surface noise" emanates from the record; speaker doors remain closed (!); the lid remains open (contrary to VTMCo. directions). I strongly suspect that the music was being played by a studio orchestra during actual filming, not dubbed in as became the later practice.

Someone already mentioned "My Fair Lady." Just wanted to add that Rex Harrison as Prof. Higgins has his house full of Edisons. In another film I think from the thirties, possibly forties, Edward G. Robinson plays a painter with wealthy but mean-spirited wife. He falls in love with a younger woman who has a petty crook of a boyfriend. They mean him no good. I can't remember the name of the movie but well worth watching. In one scene in his wife's apartment you see a disk player with an outside horn, and the girlfriend has a portable player. Both machines have nothing to do with the plot but interesting to see them. No happy end to this movie.


Posted a couple of hours later: The movie I had in mind is called "Scarlet Street." It dates from 1945 and was directed by the great Fritz Lang.

While watching the original 1962 "The Music Man," I wondered about the cylinder phonograph (gramophone) seen in the background near the beginning of the movie. It's during Widow Paroo's "If You Don't Mind Me Saying So" during the piano lesson at the beginning. There are a number of Edison and Columbia cylinder containers, and from the arm, the machine looks like a Columbia BKT or similar. Since the movie is supposed to be in 1912, at least they were historically accurate. The machine is also seen later, but through the curtains.

I just recently saw the the excellent English spy thriller "The Spy in Black" (1939) starring Conrad Veidt. Veidt was such an excellent actor, but most people only know him as the Nazi commander in Casablanca. The phonograph appears at 41 mins. in the movie. It appears to be an English His Master's Voice machine. Since Conrad Veidt was such a great actor, I wondered why I never saw him in another movie after Casablanca. After looking him up on Wikipedia, I saw why. He died of a heart attack in 1943 on a golf course, right after filming Casablanca!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SqUAqAwkao

Wow--Marc and others....I just opened up my browser and went to the Machines section and the author of this thread on wind up phonographs in movies popped up as tuberecods! That is Steve Lavoie, who was laid to rest this very afternoon. Imagine my surprise when this thread appeared just now! Good night Steve. Rest in Peace!

Mike Sorter
Riverside, CA

edisonplayer

That new show that's out, WestWorld; or whatever, on HBO had a nice edison standard (or what seemed to be) in the first season. Pretty good show if y'all haven't seen it.

https://youtu.be/ftmScAQ7ynQ

Gets me every time.

A phonograph kinda' hides in the background in this famous scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g-w5cuWI5o
With Bette Davis chewing the scenery, you'd hide too.

OrthoFan