This thread was long overdue as I love "spotting" items I'm interested in (it's more than just typewriters I'm afraid) when watching films.

I've got many "film typers" to add to this thread, but only have photos of a few of them at the moment. 

Film: Valkyrie (2008)
Typewriter(s): Unidentified

I'd love to be able to identify the machines used in this film, any of them, as there were many used. These images aren't the best to use in trying to identify a make and model, so I'll have to see if I can grab better ones.

The most memorable typewriter moment in the film was the thunderous clacking produced by a mass of typers in a busy communications room. I grabbed this still and the following three from that scene:


Can you tell they used an antique for realism? I doubt a machine of the period would have already shown such pitting as this paper finger shows.


This is also interesting. Notice the missing slug on the very right?



This typewriter is very fascinating; I assume it was some sort of a teletype machine from the era?


These images were from another scene during which a lone typewriter was being used at a desk:







Film: Citizen Kane
Typers: Unidentified

Again, there were many typewriters shown in this film, not surprising considering the plot involves a newspaper company. These images are also not much help for identification purposes, but the one Kane was typing on did have a carriage shift. 


"Get me a typewriter, I'm going to finish Mr. Leland's notice," demanded Kane.





Film: Misery
Typewriter: Royal 10

Arguably the most famous typewriter in contemporay film. "I got a deal on this 50 pound clunker on account of its missing an 'N'," Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) said as she forced the Royal 10 on author Paul Sheldon (James Caan).





 

Last edited by Uwe (02-4-2013 00:47:51)

Game: Mafia (2001)
Typewriter: Main Menu

This game, set in the 1930s, has a typewriter in the main-menu screen, called "The Wolf". It's a three-bank desktop model. 

Film: "Schindler's List"
Typewriter: Underwood Standard (?)




Who could forget the famous scene in "List" where Schindler and Stern are typing out the famous list of Jews? I can't tell from the side-on shot, but it looks like an Underwood Standard. Although the chances of getting one of those in wartime Poland seems rather slim... 

Film: "Der Untergang" ("The Downfall")
Typewriter: U/K

In this film about the last days of Adolf Hitler, we begin with Hitler interviewing new secretaries. He takes one of them into his office for a dictation-test. We only see the typewriter's make for a split-second. But I'd like to think it was something like a desktop Continental...



Film: Moulin Rouge
Typewriter: Underwood Standard 5



The main character in this film is a writer living in Paris in 1900. His machine of choice, seen at the start of the film, is an Underwood 5 Standard. 

TV: Upstairs, Downstairs
Typewriter: Corona three-bank folding portable

In the TV series "Upstairs, Downstairs", the character of Hazel Forrest, later Mrs. Bellamy, secretary to Lord Bellamy, does all her typing on her folding Corona portable. The episodes featuring this machine take place in 1912. 



TV: Murder, She Wrote
Typewriter: Royal KMM

Who could forget the opening to "Murder, She Wrote", with Jessica Fletcher (the incomparable Angela Lansbury) typing her latest murder-mystery thriller novel on her trusty old Royal KMM "Magic Margin"? 


 

Last edited by Shangas (02-4-2013 02:42:26)

Y'know, not a single one of those pages is identical, and neither are they photocopied. Someone sat at that typewriter for HOURS and typed every single line out by hand. And every single one had to have some sort of flaw within it. 

Film: Shanghai
Typewriter: U/K

In the midst of the Sino-Japanese War, an American naval intelligence officer sails to the International Settlement of Shanghai in the Republic of China, to find out what happened to a friend of his. The Settlement is living on borrowed time and any day now, the Japanese could invade and overrun the Western-controlled downtown part of Shanghai. But in the meantime, it's business as usual. The officer sets himself up in cover as a journalist, working for the Shanghai Herald (an actual Shanghai English-language newspaper of the 1930s). 

There's a shot of the newsroom with all the reporters at their desks. But there's no clear shots of the typewriters. The film takes place in 1941. I'm guessing that the machines are probably Royals, but I have no idea. 

TV: Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction? (Episode: "The Scoop")
Typewriter: Underwood 1?

The episode is set in 1883, long before Underwood started making anything. But that's what the machines look like, anyway. For that period, the machines would probably be upstrike blind Remingtons or something.  

Here's the episode on YouTube for you to look for yourselves: 



 

Last edited by Shangas (02-4-2013 15:23:32)

Upon closer inspection, I think Anton Ego's typewriter in "Ratatoullie" was inspired by the L.C. Smith No. 8: 





I notice a couple of similarities between the L.C. Smith, and the movie typewriter: 





Obviously they're not one and the same, but they look similar enough. 

Film: "Warm Springs" (2005)
Typewriter: Royal Model 10 (Single Pane)

Set in the 1920s, 'Warm Springs' is about Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempts to cure himself of his paralysis through the use of hot mineral springwater, and to bring hope to others who had been crippled by polio, which was endemic throughout the U.S.A. at the time. 

About halfway through the film, FDR dictates a letter to his secretary, who types it up for him on a Royal 10: