I am looking for examples in literature or film of defensive glass switching (of wine or anything else) where a character is dining with someone who he suspects of poisoning his drink, and switches glasses with his adversary.
We already have The Princess Bride, The Devil’s Elixir and Ossian’s Ride.
I don’t know if it’s a defensive switch, but there’s the whole “flagon with a dragon” bit from Danny Kaye’s Court Jester. Which if not classically a defensive switch certainly plays off that convention.
Always Time to Die by Elizabeth Lowell has a scene midway through where there’s this little post-funeral ceremony, where each person takes a cup and drinks a mysterious mixture. Dan Duran, hero of the book, takes a cup other than the one intended for him–and it’s a good thing, as he gets a lower dose of something which was intended to kill him, and thus is able to save himself and the heroine.
ETA: Not wineglasses, but certainly defensive. Dan doesn’t really think there’s anything wrong with the glasses, he just objects to doing the expected. Too well trained to suspect poison anywhere.
At the end of the movie, Jodie Foster (a 14yo who’s lived alone since her parents died) is trapped in her house by a child molester. She offers him tea, and the child molester takes her cup instead of his. Turns out, hers was the cup which was poisoned. (It’s never clear whether she expected him to make the switch, or if she was trying to kill herself.)
Didn’t I see James Bond spin a lazy Susan with two wineglasses on it, once?
It wasn’t in the 1967 version of Casino Royale, or I would have bothered to remember it. I think it was one of the ones with that Simon Templar guy, Roger Moore.
“The Prince Who Was a Thief” (1951) starring Tony Curtis. I assume that switching glasses was a well established plot trick at the time because, during this little bit of deception:
Tony Curtis’ character only pretends to switch the poisoned goblet. His opponent then proceeds to switch the goblets “back” and is poisoned herself.
Thanks, those are all good, and some of you have some interesting observations. A relative is writing a paper on this and he was looking for examples, so this will give him more to think about!!
In a Three Stooges episode, Shemp indulges in repeated instances of the old mickey glass switcheroo with the beautiful Christine McIntyre. They take turns pointing to paintings in the room, saying, “I like that one”, and switching glasses while the other is looking. Christine ultimately prevails by merely tapping the glasses together, making Shemp think they’ve been switched (ala Tony Curtis above). As they prepare to down their drinks (Shemp’s spiked with “sleeping pills… the permanent kind”), Christine toasts to, “A short life, and a merry one”. God, she was hot.
The castaways of Gilligan’s Island had to get two Soviet cosmonauts drunk who’ve crashed on the island. (No mickeys: the Soviets bottle is real vodka, the other is water). On the first glass, the Soviets announce, “We have tradition in USSR: we trade glasses”. After they uneasily switch, but before they all drink, Mr Howell announces, “Wait – we have a tradition in America: we also trade glasses”, and they switch again.
I agree with the general idea that this was a cliche even in the 1950’s. Offhand, I recall two instances from TV: “Gilligan’s Island” (when cosmonauts crash-land on the island, they follow the “old Russian tradition” of switching glasses with their host at a celebratory dinner) and “Get Smart” (an overlong scene where one side audibly slide the glasses over the table while the other is cornily distracted; Smart is eventually fooled when his female adversary slides but doesn’t switch the glasses).
Both these examples make it seem as though this was a hoary, Horatio-Alger-style plot device; does anyone know the archetype that started this?