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Help me identify this film from the John Lewis advert?

698 replies

BOFster · 07/11/2014 19:29

It's driving me crazy Grin

Here's a link to the John Lewis advert- take a look at the old movie showing on the television at 1 minute in, please.

Everybody thinks it's from It's A Wonderful Life, the embrace you can see at 3:21 in this clip:

But it really really isn't.

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ArsenicSoup · 10/11/2014 14:46

So she is called Vivian Austin

BOFster · 10/11/2014 14:52

IT IS REEEEEEEAL!!!!!

Oh my word, a happy ending Grin

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PetulaGordino · 10/11/2014 14:53

oh i will sleep well tonight

ArsenicSoup · 10/11/2014 14:58

I'm glad.

I don't think I recognise anything the actress was in. She has a very B-Movie life story though. She retired early from acting due to blindness but was cured and went on to marry the doctor.

www.imdb.com/name/nm0042549/?ref_=tt_cl_t2

AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves · 10/11/2014 14:58

Huzza! Well done to all concerned for settling this vitally important question. Grin

Based on the IMDB entry, I wouldn't hold your breath that it will be on Film4 any time soon, or that it would be a good watch if it did turn up. Why that film, I wonder?

PetulaGordino · 10/11/2014 15:01

it might be as boring a story as "we needed a B&W film clip of swooning/kissing and when we weighed up tone vs. affordability this was the best one"?

AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves · 10/11/2014 15:01

Vivian Austin

Help me identify this film from the John Lewis advert?
AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves · 10/11/2014 15:02

Oh dear, that's a bit dark. Here's another one.

Help me identify this film from the John Lewis advert?
PetulaGordino · 10/11/2014 15:04

obviously i hope the reason for that film is that one of the ad creators saw that film with his/her partner one rainy, dozy sunday afternoon on an obscure digital channel and that was when they decided to get married

ArsenicSoup · 10/11/2014 15:06

Bless you Petula, I fear you were right the first time.

BuckskinnedAstronaut · 10/11/2014 15:06

Interview with Vivian Coe Austin Grow

AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves · 10/11/2014 15:07

That's lovely, Petula! The description of the film makes it sound so boring that it certainly wouldn't have held the attention of the rainbound lovers, unless they were very keen on midget racing cars.

ArsenicSoup · 10/11/2014 15:12

You have a very romantic soul to come up with that.

She looks a bit like Amanda Holden in that picture.

PetulaGordino · 10/11/2014 15:15

Grin at romantic soul - i was actually being a bit sarky, but it would be rather nicer than the pragmatic reason

i have to agree that based on the description it's not a film i'm going to be spending much energy tracking down to watch

ArsenicSoup · 10/11/2014 15:21

Oh I realised sarky, but you still managed to invent a scenario. I couldn't have Wink

BOFster · 10/11/2014 15:33

The plot doesn't exactly rival Casablanca: "Johnny Randall, a young race-car driver, falls in love with Tony Bradley, who hates racing because her brother was killed in a midget car-race..."

Intriguing...

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Raahh · 10/11/2014 15:34

Thank goodness it's real!

What a lovely endingGrin

Raahh · 10/11/2014 15:35

That description has just made me laugh.

WTF is midget car racing??Grin

Raahh · 10/11/2014 15:36

An MG MIdget? although i prefer the version in my head of lots of little people...

BOFster · 10/11/2014 15:36

I know! I keep sniggering.

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PeteCampbellsRecedingHairline · 10/11/2014 16:21

I'm so glad it's real, but midget car racing? Confused

ZingOfSeven · 10/11/2014 16:31

Grin @ midget car racing!

BOF and everyone I'm glad we've got an answer, hurrah!

we can sleep well tonight. I'm glad I was wrong (and I seldom say thatWink )

Coumarin · 10/11/2014 16:32

Hooray! Wine

We can sleep easy in our four poster, silk sheeted beds tonight.

Coumarin · 10/11/2014 16:36

I'm too annoyed to be thrilled yet though. I was watching Top Hat on iplayer, paused it to get a snack, came back and it's no longer available!

They took it down whilst I was still watching it. How dare they? Shock

Now I'll never know if Dale divorced Beddini and married Jerry Travers --until they repeat it at Christmas probably

BOFster · 10/11/2014 16:48

It's ok Coumarin, the vicar was a fake, so it wasn't a legal marriage, hurrah!

Here's some trivia from Wikipedia about the famous Cheek To Cheek dance:

Although Bernard Newman was nominally in charge of dressing the stars, Rogers was keenly interested in dress design and make-up. For the "Cheek to Cheek" routine, she was determined to use her own creation: "I was determined to wear this dress, come hell or high water. And why not? It moved beautifully. Obviously, no one in the cast or crew was willing to take sides, particularly not my side. This was all right with me. I'd had to stand alone before. At least my mother was there to support me in the confrontation with the entire front office, plus Fred Astaire and Mark Sandrich."

Due to the enormous labour involved in sewing each ostrich feather to the dress, Astaire — who normally approved his partner's gowns and suggested modifications if necessary during rehearsals — saw the dress for the first time on the day of the shoot, and was horrified at the way it shed clouds of feathers at every twist and turn, recalling later: "It was like a chicken attacked by a coyote, I never saw so many feathers in my life." According to choreographer Hermes Pan, Astaire lost his temper and yelled at Rogers, who promptly burst into tears, whereupon her mother, Lela, "came charging at him like a mother rhinoceros protecting her young." An additional night's work by seamstresses resolved much of the problem, however, careful examination of the dance on film reveals feathers floating around Astaire and Rogers and lying on the dance floor. Later, Astaire and Pan presented Rogers with a gold feather for her charm bracelet, and serenaded her with a ditty parodying Berlin's tune:

Feathers — I hate feathers
And I hate them so that I can hardly speak
And I never find the happiness I seek
With those chicken feathers dancing
Cheek to Cheek

Thereafter, Astaire nicknamed Rogers "Feathers" — also a title of one of the chapters in his autobiography — and parodied his experience in a song and dance routine with Judy Garland in Easter Parade (1948).

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