Those of you you are CC veterans know that Saturdays are usually reserved for trucks, RVs and other species of wheeled (winged?) machines. While I get today’s CC put together, you can get a preview of its theme from a couple of clips from the 1953 Movie “The Long Long Trailer” with Lucy and Desi. Most of the movie is the usual slapstick stuff, but there are a few nice scenes of cars and the 1953 Mercury with its 125 hp flathead V8 pulling the 40′ trailer in traffic. This is obviously before The Great American Anti-Towing Conspiracy started.
But the best scenes are when they head up a steep mountain road; but the studio was wise enough to know the Mercury would be way overtaxed, so some clever cosmetic surgery was done to make a much more powerful Lincoln look like the Mercury:
And this section, from Part 9, is the famous mountain scene, which was shot on Mt. Whitney Portal Road, a very impressive stretch of road indeed. You can actually see Mt. Whitney (I’m pretty sure that’s it) in a couple of shots. The studio used a Lincoln with its much bigger 205 hp 317 CID V8. In the very first scene, you can see the distinctive Lincoln side molding that was painted over while higher up Mercury molding was added.
Actually, these cars have the same basic body shell, but the Lincoln had sturdier underpinnings and the big motor.
Just a couple of comments. I’ve owned many convertibles, number one wifey compaint, “my hair is a mess” Lucy stays well coiffed, how can that be?
On another note,and I’m sure many will disagree. A 40 foot trailer of that weight should never be pulled behind anything less than a 3/4 ton V8 powered truck. The driver of said truck should be qualified, tested, and licenced,before ever driving on a public road.
Lucy stays well coiffed, how can that be? – Very simple – close-ups and dialog shots are done on a sound stage with backgroung footage running on a rear-projection screen. I don’t like the fakery, either!
Super Iron Hold hairspray, how else? 😉
One of the best parts of watching older movies, beside their inherent superiority to modern flckerdom, is spotting the cars of the day. This one is priceless, loaded with shots of 50’s automobiles.
But the sound of that Lincoln V8 sounds suspiciously similar to the Ricardo’s pre-wide track Pontiac they took across the country. (yeah, I know. A bit obscure.)
Much like the 70’s cop shows, often loaded with exterior car scenes, many times the villain would crash into some stationary object, then try to re-start his car to get away and there you’d have that distinct Chrysler starter sound!
I recall even Jim Rockford’s Firebird having that starter sound effect as well!
They didn’t fool this (at the time) 14 year old…
Concerning the spotting of old cars in movies and shows: I do the same thing all the time. My kids hated watching TV with me because I’d be calling out all of these old cars… And yes, I always could tell they were using the same sound effects, because ALL cars on TV sounded like they had Mopar starters… And they all had squeaky brakes, no matter how old or new the car on screen was…
I still remember an episode of Amos’n Andy , shown in England between 52 and 54 , where they were trying to pull a trailer/caravan with a motor scooter (the car had been sold to pay for the trailer).
I love this film,and always noticed the Mercury/Lincoln switch for the mountain scenes.Which begs the question,why didn’t they just use a Lincoln in the first place?
My guess? The Lincoln would have sent the wrong message of a newlywed couple where Ricky was a civil engineer. In the fifties, car hierarchies associated pretty strongly with social rank, and the Lincoln wouldn’t have been right. Or maybe just a product placement deal with Mercury.
Possibly a reason similar to why they used a “Nicky” instead of a “Ricky” as the main male character. 🙂
Though a couple of times during the movie, Lucy does call her husband “Ricky”.
The Long, Long Trailer…I loved this movie as a boy.
I don’t believe that Lincoln and Mercury shared a body during the 1952-54 model cycle. GM bought both, and tried to swap doors, and discovered that the Mercury door wouldn’t fit on the Lincoln, and vice versa. While I find both the Lincoln and the Mecury of this vintage to be attractive automobiles, Ford didn’t get its money’s worth, as the cars LOOKED as though they shared bodies, but didn’t. Customers even complained that the Lincoln looked too much like a Mercury or a Ford.
GM, meanwhile, cleverly shared major body components among Buick and Cadillac, but made sure that the parts the customers could see were different. Nobody in the early 1950s complained that Cadillacs looked too much like Buicks, let alone Chevrolets.
After finding all of those rocks, I bet she has some splainin to do!
“New Moon” made 40-foot trailer in 1950. That movie’s trailer is a 33-foot long.