Duesenberg in movie

You did good Chris,

I believe Bob & I have rubbed shoulders a time or two while ogling Duesenbergs over the years.

Mike

Bob Roller wrote: I hope to see you in "The Park" and I will wear external ID this time.
Chris Summers,the new and young Duesenberg historian for the club lives near here and stops in whenever he can. I gave him all I had on the "J"and he was aware of the material I gave to Ted and Gerry McPhail years ago that was published in the news letter. Shortly before he died,Ted gave me a set of the "Wolff Notes" pertaining to Duesenbergs and Chris copied them. Chris is completely trustworthy and returns anything I want back in good condition.

I introduced Bob to the forum a few days ago and helped him make an account. Bob is a treasure and what he knows and has is a treasure. It's an honor to take care of it for future generations. I might still be Duesenberg Historian without what I've learned from him, but I would do a much poorer job of it. Having learned so much and enjoyed his stories, I thought others might like to hear from him, too.

Looking forward to Auburn..."50 in 10."

Mike,
We hope to be in Auburn for the get together.
Joel Nystrom contacted me and hoped I would be there.
For us,it's a 600 mile round trip but we've done it before.
I told my wife that if we get tired,we'll stop at a motel and continue the next morning.We usually leave Huntington on Friday evening and stop in Van Wirt,Ohio and spend the night and then arrive at Eckhart Park early the next morning.The drive back after walking and talking all day is the killer.It is 300 miles to Auburn and 600 back or so it seems.On and on,the endless white line goes when one is tire so another night away seems attractive.My wife can drive but prefers not to anymore
You are right about George Sanders,he was the Nazi.In reality,Hitler led a "charmed" life as far as assassination attempts went.His propensity for changing schedules once in transit was the secret. He would schedule a trip to Rastenburg and then go to Bavaria.
I hope to see you in "The Park" and I will wear external ID this time.
Chris Summers,the new and young Duesenberg historian for the club lives near here and stops in whenever he can. I gave him all I had on the "J"and he was aware of the material I gave to Ted and Gerry McPhail years ago that was published in the news letter. Shortly before he died,Ted gave me a set of the "Wolff Notes" pertaining to Duesenbergs and Chris copied them. Chris is completely trustworthy and returns anything I want back in good condition.
Got to get to work,I am making some reproduction parts for a St.Louis muzzle loading rifle for a man in Virginia.

Bob Roller

Bob,

Sanders actually played the Nazi in that movie. It seemed a bit out of character for him. Agreed if it, had been a real story, a good shot from Pidgeon would have changed the world.

Will you be able to get to Auburn this year?

Mike,
You may be right about the lights on the "J".
It has been MANY years since I saw the movie.I thought it was George Sanders with the rifle. Too bad it didn't really happen with a real rifleman.
I have a friend here in Huntington WV that has an 8-100 in 2 door sedan body style with artillery (wood)wheels.It had an interior replaced some time ago and the whole car appears to be an unrestored by decently maintained original.It was last started about 4 years ago.
Have a good day.

Bob Roller

Bob,

I have saved the TIVO of this movie. After many views of it, I think they mounted some sort of stage lighting in place of the standard lamps. You never get a real good look at the front of the car and they were using the J's lights to illuminate the night scene when they pushed hero Walter Pidgeon off the cliff.

I saw that movie years ago and it IS a Duesenberg.
The premise of the story was that George Sanders character was to rehabilitate Adolf Hitler with a scope sighted rifle but got caught before he got the shot off.
The headlights on the Duesenberg were from a late thirties "something or other" and had sealed beam lamps in them. Looked like a dog's breakfast but at least the car was night driveable.

Yes, almost certainly. There was another one on Marshall University's public access channel here in WV a few months ago, called "Spider Babies," in which the car is driven by Lon Chaney, Jr.

The car's connection to E.L. Cord is a bit more tenuous. Jude Routh and myself beat that dead horse for weeks and couldn't even find the photo/s that supposedly exist of Virginia Cord with the car. She is generally accepted to have used it as a company car for a while; I have a copy of Randy Ema's info sheet on it that lists her as an owner. We have no proof that Mr. Cord himself sat in it, much less rode in it, much less owned it.

We asked Bill Hummel about it. His aunt Susan (Pereira, nee Cord), E.L.'s daughter, recalled her parents having a Duesenberg but by the dates it would have had to have been the prototype Baby Duesenberg now in the National Automobile Museum.

I saw this car yesterday. I believe I was told that his car was featured in more movies than any other Duesenberg....

Sure looks like the same car. I had tivo'd the movie, so I ran thru it last night and looked at the car again. You can tell it's a J by the exhaust note as it pulls up, I would say the cut out is open. The movie headlights look odd, smaller and perhaps mounted a tad higher than the normal ones. There is a pretty good look down the side of the car as Pidgeon, Sanders and his henchmen get out. You see the hoop door handles and can see the dome light wink off when they shut the door.

Thanks for that tip, West. I'm going to try to help the fellow positively identify the car if I can. Always interesting to hear from the family of former owners.

This may, or may not be the same car, posted on the AACA "what is it" forum.
forums.aaca.org/f170/what-car-pi ... 77074.html

Thanks guys, that's it! I was thinking either Judkins or perhaps a Willoughby. In the movie, it looks like they did something to the radiator shell & headlights (or touched it up in printing) along with it being a night shot & not a closeup. As we all know, many of the great unwashed thought the Duesenberg was a German car anyway.

By the way, if you get a chance to see it, it's not a bad movie for the time.

Thanks, Tom. Looking over those photos, I forgot just how nice that restoration is. Not exactly a pretty car, but beautifully done. I [i:3doe5sfj]think[/i:3doe5sfj] it's one of two surviving Judkins Limousines, and it's the only one that's been restored.

Hi,

Here's an article about this car.

www.oldcarsweekly.com/article/Judkins_Duesenberg

--tom

I haven't seen it but the car is Judkins Limousine J-255 / 2276, which was owned by Pacific Auto Rentals and appeared in many films over the years.

I believe there is a Duesenberg (a slightly altered large sedan or limo) in Man Hunt, a somewhat obscure 1941 release directed by Fritz Lang and starring Walter Pidgeon, George Sanders, Joan Bennett, John Carradine and a young Roddy McDowall. There is also a big open mid 30's Packard. The Duesie is being used by the Nazis.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0033873/

This was on TCM a few nights ago, and I hadn't see it before. The Internet Movie Cars Database ( www.imcdb.org ) seems to be having some problems tonight, but when I checked a few days ago, I didn't see didn't any cars listed for this movie.

Any one know this one?