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Spotting errors in Televised old films

(8 Posts)
12Michael Mon 11-May-20 08:05:06

Since the outcome , I have been watching some old films on either BBC or Sony Films Classics on Channel 50 on Freeview.
Seeing films like The Eagle as landed , i spotted one error , in the form of a car , the car may been from the period but is was coloured in cream and marron associated with early 1050`s British Railways colours . yet all cars were black .
Also saw the original Dads Army Film ,and one scene which John Le mersiur excuse error there came out of was a modern door not a door associated with the period .
Worth looking for these days when watching old films
Mick

Riverwalk Mon 11-May-20 08:18:18

Surely by the 1940s all cars were no longer black?

I'd rather concentrate on enjoying the film than looking for faults!

Witzend Mon 11-May-20 10:32:53

I’m not sure I’d notice such things but I know others do - the type of London bus that was only introduced 20 years later, etc.
What I do really notice is dialogue which sounds all wrong or too modern for the era or type of character.

I’m sometimes surprised, though. It wasn’t in a film but in a Trollope novel, written in 1860s/1870s, where someone said, ‘You may tell that to the Marines.’ That’s an expression I would have thought 20thC, if not WW2 ish.
You live and learn!

midgey Mon 11-May-20 10:37:48

Perhaps the reference was to seafarers Witzend?

quizqueen Mon 11-May-20 10:45:27

Oh, the irony. A post about spotting errors in films, where I lost count of the grammatical errors in the text!

MawB Tue 12-May-20 09:19:54

Sorry Mick - not all cars were black.
Today’s Telegraph has an article about the restoration of a 1939 Citroen.
It appears to have been cream and perhaps maroon or maybe black (hard to tell!) originally, but now is shiny black.
What we used to call a “Maigret car”

Pittcity Tue 12-May-20 09:31:03

"Tell it to the marines is part of a longer expression from the 1800’s, tell that to the marines, because the sailors won’t believe it. This was based on a sailors’ joke marines were so unintelligent they would believe almost anything they were told.
Byron confirmed it as an old saying in 1823."

Amazing what Google can tell you.

Witzend Tue 12-May-20 09:54:13

In the context, Midgey, it meant, ‘That’s a load of codswallop’, nothing to do with seafarers - it’s just an expression which I have a feeling came from across the pond. I haven’t heard it for a long time, though.