# Cool/interesting little touches you notice in movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174 "2010-07-10T00:52:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/61 "2010-07-13T01:35:20Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > That is a good beat there. Bishop is an android. He has no sense of self-preservation and probably has a safeguard programmed into him that wouldn’t allow him to even use the gun. And of course, if he actually got attacked by the Aliens, what good would a pistol do him? He might be able to take one down, if he managed to put it down far enough away so that the acid blood didn’t just melt him anyways. If he got attacked by more? Or got attacked by them in the pipe? The gun wouldn’t do him any good anyways, so it’d just be a useless thing to carry with him. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/62 "2010-07-17T04:17:12Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > Don’t know if this counts, but when _To Kill A Mockingbird_ was recently shown on TCM there was something in the scene where Atticus has to shoot the rabid dog. He raises the rifle, then realizes that his glasses are interfering with his ability to aim properly so he pushes them up onto his forehead. They immediately slide down and he pushes them back up, only to have them drop down again. He starts to push them up, then realizes that they aren’t going to stay there anyway and just tosses them over his shoulder. > > I’ve gone through the same up-and-down routine trying to read fine print and come close to tossing them over my shoulder a time or two myself. It’s been a long time since I read the book, but I think this bit with the glasses is taken straight from the book, not added by the movie-makers. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/63 "2010-07-18T05:01:01Z")
In _Singin’ in the Rain_, during “Good Morning”, the trio don their raingear for a brief portion of the dance. Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds are wearing each other’s rainhats. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/64 "2010-07-18T05:32:39Z")
I re-watched GhostBusters this evening, and for the first time realized: The groceries that Dana Barrett is unloading on the counter include a bag of Stay-puft marshmallows. And they didn’t melt when the eggs began to cook. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/65 "2010-07-18T06:30:39Z")
Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead are FULL of these. Hot Fuzz in particular has some that I would have never noticed without director commentary but I did see quite a few. One example, at the country police station there are a set of twins that manage the front desk. The one on the night shift is clean cut and the day shift is a slob. However, when you see them they are reading books, as it isn’t very busy at this police station. The books are are by the same author but one is reading a book written under the authors pen name and the other the author’s real name. At one point the detectives comment that everyone in town was the lawyer’s client, should we go through the phone book? Yeah, should we start with Aaron A. Aaronson? Later he meets Aaron A Aaronson. They also say that in the country, everyone and their mum has a gun. Like who? Farmers. And? Farmers mums. The first people he fights in the final battle are an old farmer and the man’s aged mother comes out shooting at him. (He kicks her in the face) ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/66 "2010-07-19T13:52:38Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > In _Children of Men_ this one stood out like a sore thumb but somehow I missed it the first time. > While on the run the main characters are to meet up a guy named Sid. As a meeting place they choose an abandoned elementary school. > It only hit me the scond time around. :smack:Of course it’s abandoned! There’s no more kids around. What I liked was that there was a statue of a dinosaur in front of the school. A statue of an extinct species, just like humans were about to become. ---
**Author:** ![DivineComedienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c67d28/32.png) [@DivineComedienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DivineComedienne)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/67 "2010-07-19T19:59:25Z")
> [@Daddypants](#): > > In Ocean’s 11, Brad Pitt’s character, Rusty, is eating in almost every scene he is in; except the heist. I noticed this, too, but I couldn’t figure out why he was always eating. Was there a point to this? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/68 "2010-07-19T20:05:00Z")
> [@DivineComedienne](#): > > I noticed this, too, but I couldn’t figure out why he was always eating. Was there a point to this? So they could have the punchline with his heartburn at the end? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/69 "2010-07-19T23:19:08Z")
> [@DivineComedienne](#): > > I noticed this, too, but I couldn’t figure out why he was always eating. Was there a point to this? Maybe just to show that the guy ate all the time? Not every quality a person has ever becomes particularly important. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/70 "2010-07-19T23:34:02Z")
Maybe it’s just me, but I got the impression that Rusty and Saul were possibly related, perhaps even father & son. ---
**Author:** ![rolandgunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cdc98d/32.png) [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/71 "2010-07-20T00:15:06Z")
The man who gives David and Jack a ride at the beginning of **An American werewolf in London** is the werewolf who attacks them later in the movie. Lot of people don’t notice that. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/72 "2010-07-20T00:16:57Z")
> [@DivineComedienne](#): > > I was watching Gone With the Wind for the millionth time, and again I noticed this: > At the barbecue at Twelve Oaks, Scarlett is wearing the green sprigged muslin dress, and a wide straw bonnet that ties under her chin with a wide green ribbon. Later, when the Siege of Atlanta is beginning and Melanie is in labor, Scarlett leaves the house to go find the doctor to help her (just before the famous “Wounded Soldiers at the Train Station” scene). As she leaves, she grabs a hat and…it’s the same bonnet from the barbecue. It always strikes me as a sad little touch, showing how much things have changed from that day before the war started. It’s not directly referred to in the script, it’s just a subtle little detail. The costume designer for GWTW was world class. He or she (not sure which it was) made umpteen different versions of some of the clothes, particularly the flowered-print dress Scarlett wears in late-Atlanta through wartorn Tara era, each with some more decay and patches; the same was done with Gerald and Mammy’s clothing- the first time you see their outfits they’re starched and clean and later you see the same shirt or apron ragged and nasty. One from that movie I always loved is Prissy packing the trunks to refugee from Atlanta. She’s putting in some just bizarre handfulls of things and the good china is in the top of the trunk then she slams it down and you hear the plates breaking. It’s _exactly_ what somebody who is panicked in the first place and doesn’t give a damn about any of this stuff (because it’s not her’s and she can’t stand the owner anyway) in the second. Another touch are the parrots on the terrace of their post-war mansion seen while Scarlett is recovering from her miscarriage. They’re pretty and colorful and nobody is taking any notice of them- they’re just there, like the rest of the house, for ostentation. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/73 "2010-07-20T00:20:01Z")
Towards the beginning of _The Hudsucker Proxy_ as Hudsucker (Charles Durning) is falling from the top of a skyscraper he takes off his glasses, wipes a bug off of them, and puts them back on just in time to go SPLAT. It was an improv on the part of Charles Durning while he was suspended in a harness in front of the green screen and that left it in- it’s only a couple of seconds of screentime but it’s brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/74 "2010-07-20T00:30:37Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The costume designer for GWTW was world class. He or she (not sure which it was) [Walter Plunkett](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Plunkett) ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/75 "2010-07-20T03:57:51Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Towards the beginning of _The Hudsucker Proxy_ as Hudsucker (Charles Durning) is falling from the top of a skyscraper he takes off his glasses, wipes a bug off of them, and puts them back on just in time to go SPLAT. It was an improv on the part of Charles Durning while he was suspended in a harness in front of the green screen and that left it in- it’s only a couple of seconds of screentime but it’s brilliant. Something else kinda funny about the Hudsucker Proxy: The entire college battlecry/chant/whatevertheheckthatwas that Tim Robbins and the secretary/reporter do is rather bizzare and funny (and, well, kinda what you expect from a college. Even nowadays alumni from the same school will throw out stuff like that, though probably not nearly as involved…) Anyhow, the comedy seems to come from the fact that the reporter lady is stumbling through it because she doesn’t know it (since her whole backstory is a lie to get her close to the main character), but her looking so confused wasn’t her acting. Tim Robbins ad-libbed the entire cheer and she was just kinda trying to go along with it for the scene.😃 Another nice little detail in that film… later on, another guy tries to replicate Wearing Hudsucker by jumping through the window, only to bounce off the glass and get laid out on the office floor. Actual skyscraper glass is about that strong because you don’t want windows breaking 50-100+ feet above a crowded city street. The stuff is thick and pretty solid. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/76 "2010-07-20T04:07:33Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > It was an improv on the part of Charles Durning while he was suspended in a harness in front of the green screen and that left it in- it’s only a couple of seconds of screentime… Not counting the mezzanine. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/77 "2010-07-20T04:21:04Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > My favorite “touch” is in **Lawrence of Arabia** at that point in his screenwriting and playwriting career, Robert Bolt was into extended symbolism (look at all the references to water, boats, etc. in both the stage and screen versions of _A Man for All Seasons_) In _Lawrence_, he worked with Lawrence’s pistol, which keeps showing up. As Lawrence is being conducted across the desert to Faisal, his guide admires the gun, so Lawrence makes him a present of it. When Sharif Ali kills his guide, Ali takes the gun. Later, as they cross the Nefud Desert and a the killing takes place that threatens to shatter the coalition, Lawrence takes the gun from Ali’s belt and executes the murderer with it, then tosses it away, after which men fight over it. What’s interesting is that the pistol in question- a Webley Mk VI revolver- was the standard pistol of British/Empire officers in WWI, but Lawrence himself was not known to have carried one. He had a number of sidearms; notably a Colt Peacemaker, a Mauser C96, and an M1911, but not a Webley. Still an outstanding film, though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/78 "2010-07-20T04:46:36Z")
I was a f’n moron the first time I watched it, but I still think the fact that Julie Christie plays both the wife and potential temptress of Montag in the film version of Fahrenheit 451 is a neat touch. The characters really don’t look the same to me; I guess I’m like Steve Ditko-- give a woman a new hair-do, and voila, she’s a different person. It also took me a few years to realize that the spoken credits at the opening were meant to fit into the same no-text universe. Hey, I saw it first as a kid, so I think I have a good reason to be a moron regarding the movie’s really obvious subtexts. ---
**Author:** ![illuminati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47774/32.png) [@illuminati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/illuminati)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/79 "2010-07-20T10:57:31Z")
> [@DivineComedienne](#): > > I noticed this, too, but I couldn’t figure out why he was always eating. Was there a point to this? I think this is covered on the directors commentry. (From memory) Brad did some research with some real life con artists, one of whom said he never knew when he could be rumbled and have to go to ground. He ate when he could as he may have to lie low for a day or two. Makes sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174/80 "2010-07-20T12:03:18Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > You start you car and have it running when you scrape your windows. Then your car is a little warmer by the time you are done. > > I used to start mine and then go inside and do something long enough to let the defrost work. Hmm, I don’t do that. 1) it’s strictly speaking illegal here and 2) my car heats up pretty quickly… cold weather specs and all that. The only reason I’d start the car first is if it was cold enough that I’d be unsure of it starting at all (so I’d know not to bother with the windows)… or if it’s so cold that I’ll want to get into someplace warm in a hurry… you know, -40 and below. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-interesting-little-touches-you-notice-in-movies/546174.md?page=5)