Sunbeams in the movies!

[65sunbeam]

Here is a great site I just found out about-lists all the movies various cars show up in and has some nice photos too. This is the Sunbeam section.
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles_make-Sunbeam.html?PHPSESSID=52d7c098e56d730ce1fbef413541781c
Eric

 

[Green67Alpine]

That's cool, Seems the French and German movie makers liked the Alpine !

Tom j

 

[lovethecar]

65Sunbeam, you found an amazing site. To think our Series V has a link with that wonderful film (To Catch a Thief) and the two of the most dazzling actors of "our" time(Grace Kelly and Cary Grant). I am impressed.
To drive the roads of the French Riviera...sigh!

Question: Has anyone here done that?

 

[Alpine 1789]

What a great site! Thanks for sharing it. It's funny that there is no picture from Pretty Poison; I think the car has as much air time as Tuesday Weld and Tony Perkins.

Looking through this reminds me to comment on something I recently noticed watching Commando. I've seen it a dozen times (or, more properly, I've watched the scenes with the Alpine a dozen times) but never noticed that there were actually two very different Alpines used. Maybe it’s because I now have an HD TV, but it should be pretty obvious since one had a tan interior and the other was black. They went to the trouble of taping over the convertible boot release on one of them (forget which), so it’s hard to believe they didn't bother at least using seat covers, but they didn’t. Plus, one car has its fender badges and the other had them removed and the holes filled in. The cars are used interchangeably in the same scenes. Then, the car gets smashed up in the chase with the Porsche, but goes back and forth between being damaged and undamaged. It has to be one of the worst editing jobs in movie history.

But I still enjoy watching the Alpine keeping up with the Porsche!

 

[Ken Ellis]

It seems that site missed an Alpine's appearance in "10" -- it's parked on the side of the road when he wrecks his Rolls/Bentley (?)convertible. You can see it for about four frames.

Ken

 

[RootesRooter]

Another difference in the two Commando Alpines shows when Ahh-nold drives the Alpine out of the 2nd parking garage. Besides sounding very un-Alpine-like, you can briefly see what looks like an open side-exhaust exiting from just in back of the PASSENGER side front wheelwell. (I'd like to see the powerplant in this one!) The odd exhaust doesn't show up during the wreck scene, so perhaps that car is still intact somewhere....?

Another peculiar missing entry here: they came up with a quickie background shot of an Alpine from a color episode of The Avengers, but no listing for the 30-second sequence from one of the earlier B&W episodes ("The Danger Makers") where the delectable Emma Peel gets taken for a perilous ride thru the countryside in a Series IV.

Still, quite a collection of obscure sitings of all manner of Sunbeams.

 

[v13311]

To Jim regarding the movie, "Pretty Poison". Agreed, the brand-new Series V had a major role in the movie. If fact, that car turned me on to Alpines back in the mid-sixties when the film came out - or did it turn me on to Tuesday Weld? How could one not love a car that had a cute blond driving top-down all over and making out in her car with Perkins? Anyway, I bought my first Alpine a few years after the film came out and then had it stolen (never recovered) after about a year of ownership. Thirty five years later I replaced the car with another Series V. I also purchased a copy of "Pretty Poison" off of e-bay. In the film I discovered the work of Joseph Lucas in an important scene in the film where Tuesday's mother's body was placed in the trunk. I'll leave it at that for now. Kind of a trivia question. What's wrong with her Alpine in that scene?


Ed