anachronisms abound

Did anyone see "The Notebook?"

[crickets chirping.]

Didn't think so. My wife dragged me, kicking and screaming, into the theatre, explaining that "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" would not be a sufficiently romantic "Date Movie" for our eighth wedding anniversary. Midway through the film, she turned to me and apologized for the utter lack of fedoras. She was right -- there wasn't a single one! This in a film set in the 1940s!

I won't say I didn't enjoy it. Sam Shepard and Rachel McAdams both looked like they belong in that time period. And then there's Ryan Gosling; the "leading man," with his shoulder-length hair, full beard, and perpetually untucked shirt, looking like he just scored a backstage pass to a Pearl Jam concert.

And the guy who played Rachel McAdams' father had the biggest, cheesiest handlebar mustache this side of... oh. never mind. Sorry, Michaelson.

Anyway, I enjoy picking out anachronisms in period movies, and I think I found three in "The Notebook."

1. Rachel McAdams drives a 40s car with a decidedly modern-looking lace-up vinyl steering wheel cover. This was so glaringly obvious, I thought maybe I was wrong. Maybe they did have those in 1946. But I doubt it.
2. Ryan Gosling, while a fine actor, again looked like a walking anachronism.
3. After some passionate necking, Rachel McAdams whispers those lovely words into Ryan Gosling's ear, "Make love to me." Except that back then, those words didn't mean what they mean to us today. 'Making love' was a general term for wooing or courting. It didn't mean sex.

This is bourne out by the fact that in "It's A Wonderful Life," Donna Reed jokes -- to her mother -- that Jimmy Stewart is 'making violent love to me!' This in a film made in 1946 (at the height of the Hayes code), within a scene set in 1928! Surely the term has changed over the years.

And then there's the Cole Porter song "Mind If I Make Love To You," sung by Frank Sinatra in the 1956 film "High Society." Again, the Hayes code, which prohibited even married characters from sleeping in double beds - would never have allowed something so suggestive. Unless the meaning has changed.

Okay, I'm done.

Originally posted by schwammy
...After some passionate necking, Rachel McAdams whispers those lovely words into Ryan Gosling's ear, "Make love to me." Except that back then, those words didn't mean what they mean to us today. 'Making love' was a general term for wooing or courting. It didn't mean sex.

This is bourne out by the fact that in "It's A Wonderful Life," Donna Reed jokes -- to her mother -- that Jimmy Stewart is 'making violent love to me!' This in a film made in 1946 (at the height of the Hayes code ), within a scene set in 1928! Surely the term has changed over the years...

Click to expand...

I've often wondered about when the meaning of that, and other terms changed.

I didn't know what the Hayes code was, so Googled it. In case anyone is as dumb as me, here it is;

The Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of guidelines governing the production of motion pictures. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA, originally called the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association) adopted the code in 1930, began effectively enforcing it in 1934, and abandoned it in 1967. The Production Code spelled out what was and was not considered morally acceptable in the production of American motion pictures. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_Code, Apr 2004

This is hilarious -- LOL

In another famous scene in Duck Soup the Marx Brothers poke fun at the Hayes Code by showing a woman's bedroom and then showing a woman's shoes on the floor, a man's shoes and horseshoes. Harpo is sleeping in the bed with a horse. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Soup, Apr 2004

David

The effects of the Hays Code (later called the Breen Office, after Hollywood censor Joseph Breen), can perhaps be best seen by viewing pre-code films, even some late silents. (The code started in earnest in 1934.) Nudity or near-nudity was not unknown in silent, even early sound film. DeMille seemed to love it (check out Claudette Colbert's milk bath in "Cleopatra" with a finger on the pause button). Or take a look at the scene in "The Thin Man" in which a policeman is ransacking Nora's bedroom dresser and she says, "Nicky, what's that man doing in my drawers!" followed by one of the great double takes of the cinema from William Powell. My all time favorite pre-code jaw-dropper is from a W.C. Fields film, I think "International House," in which baloonist Fields lands in an exotic land called "Wu-Hu." He asks where he is and two native girls call back "Wu-Hu." He doesn't understand and asks again, and this time Franklin Pangborn waves flamboyantly and shouts back in falsetto: "Woo-Hooo!" Fields removes the flower from his lapel, throws it away and drawls, "Aw, don't let the posey fool ya."

Is there a plot, and plenty of fedora's that I can look at lustfully?

Plot was never one of Fields' prime concerns, nor were fedoras, though "The Thin Man" has some wonderful hats. The one worn by Nat Pendelton appears to be a rare example (in films, anyway) of a pre-blocked hat in the 1930s.

Or take a look at the scene in "The Thin Man" in which a policeman is ransacking Nora's bedroom dresser and she says, "Nicky, what's that man doing in my drawers!" followed by one of the great double takes of the cinema from William Powell.

Click to expand...

I love that line. And yet, Nick and Nora sleep in separate twin beds!

Brad Bowers

I need period films filled with fedoras as an affermation that I'm ok and perfectly normal... just out of time and place.