Concertinas In The Movies

[Animaterra]

This topic may have been discussed before but I couldn't find it, so here goes!

 

Last night my daughter and I watched a video of Twelfth Night (with Helen Bonham Carter as Olivia and Ben Kingsley as Feste). Throughout the movie, a concertina showed up from time to time, first on board the ship, "played" by one of the twins, then on land, "played" by Feste. The soundtrack also had lots of concertina. The concertina looked to my inexperienced eyes like a Lachenal (English).

 

Before we get all huffy about the existence of concertinas in Shakespeare's day, this production was set in what looked like Edwardian times. So concertinas were around.

 

I won't go into how obvious it was that none of the actors knew what to do with a concertina. But it was lovely to see and hear!

 

Are there other movies that feature or at least briefly show concertinas?

[Peter Stephenson]

Whenever I try to play my concertina in the movies I get thrown out.

Yes there was a thread a while ago when it was recalled that in the Bob Hope film Paleface, or was it Son of paleface ? Bob seranaded Jane Russel in a stage coach with Buttons and bows, and some wag pointed out that with the title and all there should have been a fiddle in there too, geddit ?

[Peter Stephenson]

I dont know if concertinas feature in this film now on limited release but they are all raving about it over on the Session web site.

 

http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/cata...256FCGkLsA77E38

[Ken_Coles]

Wait, wait, there was a _huge_ thread on this in the old bbs that I manually archived and saved on my computer. After several months it had dozens of movies, I never counted. Placing it on C.net is already on the to-do list. Of course, if you want to completely recreate it while waiting for ol' slow poke here, you can.

[JimLucas]

Wait, wait, there was a _huge_ thread on this in the old bbs....

A couple more sources on the net:

... Squeezeboxes on the Silver Screen is a compilation of accordion & concertina appearances in movies (what about hamonicas?). Mainly accordion, but you can find the concertina references by doing a ctl-F search on each of the pages. (There are 5 pages, so when your search finds no more and you're still in the letter C, go to the bottom and click on the next page, which is F-J.)

... This search on Google Groups found 207 posts in the group rec.music.makers.squeezebox which included the word "concertina" and either "movie" or "film". Alas, not all are references to actual concertina playing in movies, but many are.

[Boney]

Here's a TV show which shows a concertina, at sea, presumably the 1700s (or earlier). A sad lapse of historical accuracy.

 

(The Simpsons, Season 20, episode 13).

[NoNaYet]

Just stumbled across another. Watching "The Last Hunt" for the first time, and there is Loyd Nolan sort of playing a concertina.

 

I've noticed that the movies will fake playing a violin or piano, but they just don't make much effort with a concertina. Just pushing and pulling like a fire bellow, and not even moving fingers. There was nothing Anglo about it, and it was a miraculous English if that was what it was.

 

NNY

[Leo]

Just stumbled across another. Watching "The Last Hunt" for the first time, and there is Loyd Nolan sort of playing a concertina.

 

I've noticed that the movies will fake playing a violin or piano, but they just don't make much effort with a concertina. Just pushing and pulling like a fire bellow, and not even moving fingers. There was nothing Anglo about it, and it was a miraculous English if that was what it was.

 

NNY

Hi NNY

 

And Lloyd Nolan singing. Now that's a great combination

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OTe9HSFyxQ&fmt=18

 

Thanks

Leo

[Michael Ducky Raley]

Alfred Hitchcock presents concertina mimicry

 

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1266942745/

 

the episode takes place in france , an entertainer in the cafe plays a 20 button anglo

which apears at 2:30 , around 04:00, 07:53, and again at 21:45

 

. The music seems to be a loop