help ... does somebody know who owned the roadster backed into by Spencer Tracy in th movie GUESS WHOS COMING TO DINNER.. the movie was on last night..sat it was light blue and was it really damaged ? someone should know and have a pic thanks if ya can help
Don't know who's name was actually on the Pink Slip but I bet you a cyber-donut George Barris arranged it to be in the movie.
Movie was early sixties, I think? Saw it in theater, still have nightmares and flashbacks... Accident I believe was certainly real--on film, period special effects and cuts were not good enough to be unnoticeable--even on the high-dollar James Bond movies of the day, cuts and splices could be seen when action was faked. I remember a new Lincoln being crushed with bad guy inside in a junkyard crusher in a roughly contemporary movie, and you could clearly see it turn into a rusty used car just as the jaws reached metal... Huge dent in quarter was shown in movie right after crash, too. At that time, I'd say a deuce roadster, though scarce and desireable, was likely worth less than the new car that hit it, and bodywork was cheap... film company probably just contracted to pay the owner for damage repair. As I recall from 40 years ago (I can't bear to watch again...), the roadster had what looked like the extra-cost (39 or 49.95 rather than $29.95) Earl Scheib metallic blue--this was the closest approach to a vaguely metalflake/candy look that could be achieved on the super cheap.
i looked it up, it was made in 1967, Stanley Kramer( not cosmos dad!!lol) directed it. I also looked on www.imcdb.org & couldn't find anything.Its a great website for finding cars that where in movies, its like www.imdb.com. Also when your making a movie & the budget is a few million a 50K car isn't **** to them, just another prop,sic!! jimV
as i saw it Spencer backs (reverse T bone)his Valiant into the roadster at a drive in... the driver(a black man in matching vest and hat)is going nuts ...the driver says he just got his car fixed up and he's pissed cuz he did not see him.. i believe they show damage to the side of the car ... pretty well crushed in!!!!! Spencer asks how much to get it fixed the owner says "40 bucks".. Tracy gives him 50... and says good bye.. huh.... redo a whole duece side in blue paint 40 bucks in 1967???? okay some one with the tech save the image and post it i dare ya double .... triple dog dare ya thanks guys fro any input so far ... bruce .. your off the list for viewing it again
On movie budgets...the deuce probably was a $2,000 car back then... I'm pretty sure the Lincoln that was replaced by a junker in the crushing scene was in an early Bond movie, state of the art for the times and with a budget that surely made the cost of a Lincoln trivial...yet they didn't crush it.
It was a studio lot car- or from a place that supplied cars to movies because it was in Beach Blanket Bingo in '65, the Spencer Tracy movie in '67 and a David Niven movie in '68. And getting the **** beat out of it in all 3 of those movies. I also think it was a coupe with the top cut-off.
WELL NOW WE ARE GETTING SOMEWHERE.. thanks jima i knew you knew .. or stayed at a holiday inn last night any one have a still from any of these flicks?
Here is a scene photo from the 1968 film "The Impossible Years" showing David Niven backing his Chrysler into a deuce roadster. I'm not sure if it's the same roadster as the "guess Who's Coming To Dinner" car, but it looks like a roadster to me not a coupe conversion. Mick
I just saw the David Niven movie yesterday and thought it was the same car from Beach Blanket Bingo and that was before I even saw this post.
I realize this is a 4+ year old thread, but ... Here's some stills from the scene in "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" where Spencer Tracy's character backs his Plymouth Valiant into a '32 Roadster: click thumbnails to enlarge At the time of the filming of "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" (1967), this Deuce Roadster was owned by 20th Century FOX Studios. The roadster still exists today ... rumored to be in Professor Ray Kinnunen's garage ... now full-fendered, painted black, and sitting on a P-Wood ch***is.
Am I seeing it right ...... the dent is there before impact ?? and that is the same car as in post #11, right?
The dents could have been there from before. They probably did more than one take of the scene, and it's kinda hard to have more than one identical hot rod like that on the set.
thank you 1 less thing to wonder about.. exept for the square hole in the dash??? actually had forgotten ... i'm a senior citzen now
Yep ... before posting the pics, I watched the scene again to ensure that I had the stills in chronological order ... the door was clearly caved-in before the Valiant even hit the roadster! ... and I found this on the IMDb website: Goofs in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967): Continuity: The car that Tracy backs into already has a dent in the front door panel. During the accident the relative position of the two cars and the number of dents in the side panels change with each change in shot. Continuity: When Matt and Christina are at Mel's Drive-in, the rear view projection of the street shows it running perpendicular to the parking lot. During the actual shots of the property, the street runs parallel to it. Revealing mistakes: Just before Drayton crashes his car into Frankie's, the dent on the side of Frankie's car is already present. Continuity: While the Draytons are at the drive-in, Christina's large ring switches hands at least twice.
In 1964, I was station at Fort Gordon Ga. One of the guys in the barracks was a LA Roadster Club member. In those days, most of the GI's were gearheads and I mentioned I had a deuce roadster. Thats when the LAR member spoke up. The base theater had a movie running called "Bikini Beach" which had a bunch of LAR cars in it. My friend knew all of the owners and told me who the owner of that roadster was. 47 years later, I can't recall the owners name, but the car was 57 Thunderbird goldenrod yellow then. It also had upholstery that rolled up over the doors. Fast forward to the early seventies, the car was in Dayton Ohio at Leo Gephardt's car lot. It was metallic blue and was in decent condition, except for the half-*** repair on the right door. The price was around $6800 then, Way too rich for me in those days. That is the last I saw of it.
Hi Roadwarrior...my wife was watching the "Coming to Dinner" movie and called me over to watch the ice cream/cream the deuce scene...and yes I saw the dents before and thought I would search before posting and yeah...old news here. I read through the thread and saw your post and Avitar...is that your ride? If so or not do you have any more pics to share...it looks pretty cool. movie links I found to ad... http://autoculture.org/?p=1029 Clip link here...scene at 1:54 approx http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/...ner-Movie-Clip-Less-Than-Twelve-Percent-.html
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