Stamps in movies: Shanghai Knights

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 01:57:47 GMT, (Tracy
Barber) wrote:


The 9 Queens

Spanish movie, overdubbed in English. Story about conmen who attempt
to steal the rarest (yeah, right!) block of Spanish philatelia. The
original goes in the drink at a local body of water and then they try
to pawn off forgeries.

A comedy of errors. Funny, dramatic, with a nice twist for an ending.

If you want a laugh, go for it!

Tracy Barber



Tracy:

I saw this one and quite enjoyed it.

Blair


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On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 10:59:00 -0400, TC wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 01:57:47 GMT, (Tracy
Barber) wrote:


The 9 Queens

Spanish movie, overdubbed in English. Story about conmen who attempt
to steal the rarest (yeah, right!) block of Spanish philatelia. The
original goes in the drink at a local body of water and then they try
to pawn off forgeries.

A comedy of errors. Funny, dramatic, with a nice twist for an ending.

If you want a laugh, go for it!

Tracy Barber



Tracy:

I saw this one and quite enjoyed it.

How'd you like the ending, eh? hehehehehehehehehe... There's a lot
of twists in that movie!

Tracy Barber

Off at a tangent, what about a good book?

John Caldigate by Anthony Trollope

"His innocence hangs upon the proof of a forged postmark, and here Trollope uses both his expert knowledge from his job
at the Post Office and considerable ingenuity to resolve the story. "

Trollope brief history.........
By the autumn of 1834, by influence, he became a junior clerk
in the General Post office, London. He had seven lonely years of dingy poverty in
London, making few friends and earning a reputation for insubordination, until his
transfer in 1841 to Banagher, Ireland, as a deputy postal surveyor, put him financially
at ease and introduced him to a larger, freer, outdoor life
After promotion in the Post Office and transfer to
Mallow in 1845, Trollope was sent in the spring of 1851 to the west of England on a
postal mission. Here in July 1852, he began The Warden (1855), in which he first
found his mZtier as the delineator of clerical life in cathedral towns. He was in Belfast
for a year from the autumn of 1853, then in Donnybrook, near Dublin. Further postal
missions, to Egypt, Scotland, and the West Indies, followed in 1858-59, and in
December of the latter year he settled at Waltham Cross, some twelve miles from
London, as surveyor general in the Post Office at £800 a year.




The story...........

John Caldigate, disinherited by his father after sowing a deal too many wild oats, sets sail for Australia to make his
fortune in the goldfields of New South Wales. He meets the adventuress Euphemia Smith, widow of a drunken actor and
herself a sometime music-hall entertainer, and the two conduct an indiscreet onboard romance.

Surprisingly, Caldigate makes a success of his gold prospecting, and meets up again with Euphemia in Sydney; she sets up
home with him posing as his wife, but inevitably the couple quarrel and separate. Returning to England a rich man,
Caldigate is reconciled with his father, and marries a previous love, the sweet-natured Hester Bolton: shortly
afterwards the couple have a child. Euphemia, now styling herself Euphemia Caldigate, makes a timely re-emergence and
attempts to blackmail her former lover by alleging -- among other claims -- that his marriage is bigamous and his child
therefore illegitimate. The ensuing trial goes against Caldigate, and he finds himself in truly hot water for the first
time. His innocence hangs upon the proof of a forged postmark, and here Trollope uses both his expert knowledge from his
job at the Post Office and considerable ingenuity to resolve the story. John Blackwood told Trollope he found the
eponymous hero 'too cold and complacent' to command any sympathy, whilst complimenting other parts of the tale. In fact
this is essential to Trollope's purpose, and his deftness with the novel's narrative technique: in presenting us with
such a character he virtually defies us to like him (he did something similar with the character of Harry in The
Claverings), and throws his character into clear relief by the depiction of Euphemia Smith. She is one of the author's
most complex creations, and one of his cleverest 'wicked women'. Her tactics are subtle, for she warns Caldigate against
herself when they first meet:

"Women are prehensile things which have to cling to something for nourishment and support. When I come across such a one
as you I naturally put out my feelers".

Using the Australian Goldrush of the 1870s as a backdrop, Trollope creates an intense, psychological feel to the novel.
Also included is the marvellous portrait of Hester Bolton's fanatically religious mother, ceaselessly quoting from the
bible, and so disapproving of her daughter's marriage that she attends the ceremony clad in mourning.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/trollope/bioov.html

I recall seeing several movies where stamps were used that were current
when the movie was made than when the story supposedly took place.
Dave
"Tracy Barber" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 10:59:00 -0400, TC wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 01:57:47 GMT, (Tracy
Barber) wrote:


The 9 Queens

Spanish movie, overdubbed in English. Story about conmen who attempt
to steal the rarest (yeah, right!) block of Spanish philatelia. The
original goes in the drink at a local body of water and then they try
to pawn off forgeries.

A comedy of errors. Funny, dramatic, with a nice twist for an ending.

If you want a laugh, go for it!

Tracy Barber



Tracy:

I saw this one and quite enjoyed it.

How'd you like the ending, eh? hehehehehehehehehe... There's a lot
of twists in that movie!

Tracy Barber

Blair

There are hundreds of films about letters. Are we looking
for philatelic or postal references here?

I think such a list needs to be focused on philatelic content, rather
than "just" postal, or else it will get very long.

Michael

How about adding:

(1) Philadelphia Letter Carriers (USA - silent 1898)(S Lubin)

(2) Unmailed Letter, The (USA - Silent 1910) and many similar
silent films about letters.

(3) By Indian Post (1919) silent
Directed by John Ford Featuring : Hoot Gibson

(4) Dead Letter Office (1998)

Alice's father left when she was a child. She continued to share her
life with him in letters that she sent not realising that he never
received them. Eventually, they all come back with "Dead Letter
Office" stamped on the front. As an adult, she becomes consumed with a
desire to find him and takes a job with the Dead Letter Office,
convinced that she can use them to fulfill her romantic notions of a
reunion with her father. What awaits her at the DLO is far more than
that.

(5) Letter Box Thief, The (UK - silent 1909)
Directed by James Williamson

Michael Meadowcroft
Waterloo Lodge
72 Waterloo Lane
Leeds LS13 2JF
GB
Tel: +44 (0)113 257 6232

Rodney

Off at a tangent, what about a good book?

John Caldigate by Anthony Trollope

"Philatelic Fiction" is probably an even more fruitful seam to mine
than philatelic films. Paul Albright and I managed to compile a list
of sixty-four titles - and the odd new one keeps turning up. I've
managed to track down copies of all except five of them.

An early title I'd very much like to obtain is "The Clue of the
Postage Stamp", by Arthur Bray, published in 1913.

Michael

Michael Meadowcroft
Waterloo Lodge
72 Waterloo Lane
Leeds LS13 2JF
GB
Tel: +44 (0)113 257 6232

My favorite philatelic related movie is: 'Murder on Approval' (1956),
staring Tom Conway and Delphi Lawrence.

A collector from New York City travels to London, England to purchase the
only, (or so he thinks), copy of a Barbados overprint. While in London he
has an expert, in these matters, verify that the stamp is, in fact, genuine.
However, when he returns to NYC additional copies of the stamp appear,
around the country, out of nowhere. Hence, the mystery begins. As murder
mysteries go, a good film.

Rick Hovish

"Michael Meadowcroft" wrote in message
news:3F238C00.6515.FF0A13C@localhost...
Edward

Watched the Jackie Chan/Owen Wilson movie 'Shanghai Knights' last
night. In it, a man in China (the Forbidden City) receives a letter
from Chan, who is out west in the US. The year is 1887. I froze the
frame and zoomed in on the envelope, and it APPEARED to have a 5c
Zachary Taylor plus 3 'pinkish' stamps that appeared to be #64's
(which would have been demonitized in 1887). It was, however,
difficult or impossible to tell what they all were. If they WERE 3c
stamps, then the total on the envelope would have been 14c. I'm
wondering what the postage would have been from the 'west' (say,
California) to China in 1887. In a movie filled with anachronisms, it
would be funny if they got the postage right on an envelope that is
really only visible in a split second and with stamps visible only
when nearly a single frame is frozen and zoomed.

Interesting indeed, but, going further, what films are there that
have philatelic interest? I know of two: The 1941 (very) low budget
film "The Saint on Palm Springs", which is based on the attempt to
transport three valuable stamps to an heiress in Palm Springs, and
the 1966 feature film "Charade", in which Audrey Hepburn unwittingly
carries her murdered husband's fortune with her in the form of a rare
cover. It also includes a chase through the historic French open air
stamp market at Marigny, just off the Champs Elysee.

Any others?

Michael

Michael Meadowcroft
Waterloo Lodge
72 Waterloo Lane
Leeds LS13 2JF
GB
Tel: +44 (0)113 257 6232

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 02:46:01 GMT, wrote:

I recall seeing several movies where stamps were used that were current
when the movie was made than when the story supposedly took place.

Quite cool to see that take place. Usually, there's not a close up of
the envelope. Dontcha just love those turkeys that just rip open the
letter? You know they bother the stamp sooner or later!

Tracy Barber

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 10:20:07 -0700, "RickH"
wrote:

My favorite philatelic related movie is: 'Murder on Approval' (1956),
staring Tom Conway and Delphi Lawrence.

A collector from New York City travels to London, England to purchase the
only, (or so he thinks), copy of a Barbados overprint. While in London he
has an expert, in these matters, verify that the stamp is, in fact, genuine.
However, when he returns to NYC additional copies of the stamp appear,
around the country, out of nowhere. Hence, the mystery begins. As murder
mysteries go, a good film.

Rick Hovish



"Murder on Approval" is the US title of this movie.
In the UK, the title is "Barbados Quest".

Blair




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Subject: Stamps in movies:
From: TC
Date: 8/1/2003 12:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id:

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 10:20:07 -0700, "RickH"
wrote:

My favorite philatelic related movie is: 'Murder on Approval' (1956),
staring Tom Conway and Delphi Lawrence.

A collector from New York City travels to London, England to purchase the
only, (or so he thinks), copy of a Barbados overprint. While in London he
has an expert, in these matters, verify that the stamp is, in fact, genuine.
However, when he returns to NYC additional copies of the stamp appear,
around the country, out of nowhere. Hence, the mystery begins. As murder
mysteries go, a good film.

Rick Hovish



"Murder on Approval" is the US title of this movie.
In the UK, the title is "Barbados Quest".

Blair




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"You've Got Mail," was a good stamp movie.

S