Mandos in the Movies

[mandodebbie]

Since I bought my first mandolin six months ago - and have been subsequently teaching myself how to play this lovely instrument - I have noticed more mandolins and their unique music in many movies. Captain Correli's Mandolin springs to everyone's mind, of course, but how many other movies of mandolin note (pun) can we name. I went to see Ella Enchanted. Guys, it really is just for little girls, and big litte girls such as myself. Anyway, Ella was ordered to practice her mandolin. #Which she dutifully did, as she was under a spell. #However, she played it with a bow. #Hmmm. It can be done. I watched Ragtime on the idiot-box Friday night. Someone was playing a mando in the core area of 1904 Philidelphia as Evelyn Nesbit search the deserted flat of her Jewish artist friend. There was a mando being played by the hillbilly musicians in Cold Mountain. ( I think.) Anyhow, people, name your favorite and not so favorite mandolin employed movies. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Staramouche]

I recently purchased "Kung Fu", the complete first season, which has an eoisode where a young Jody Foster (maybe 8 years old) is playing an A-style mandolin. #Caine, captivated, tells her it has the sound of "running water".

Then he asks if it's a Lute! #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[John Flynn]

Re: The A-style in "Kung Fu." I don't think there were A style mandolins in the Wild West timeframe. The character probably should have been playing a bowlback.

Anyhow, I saw a "Bollywood" film, one of those the big musical extravangnzas produced in India, with Indian actors, and subtitled. Sorry, I forgot the title. The main character carried a black A style in his backpack and played it several times in the movie.

[GVD]

Staramouche Posted on Sep. 25 2004, 12:49

I recently purchased "Kung Fu", the complete first season, which has an eoisode where a young Jody Foster (maybe 8 years old) is playing an A-style mandolin. #Caine, captivated, tells her it has the sound of "running water".

When you can name the brand of mandolin she was playing it will be time for you to go Grasshopper. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

GVD

[John Rosett]

"king of the gypsies" has a ton of mandolin-played by david grisman, with a little bit of andy statman, not to mention stephane grappelli and matt glaser on fiddles, and tony rice on guitar. there's a great scene where grisman is playing solo for a dancer. he also wrote the soundtrack.
dave appollan stared in at least one movie, although i've never seen it.
i saw a movie once that was probably from the late 30's where the main character played mando. his relatives wanted him to give it up and get a "real job". there's a scene that i'll never forget where he takes his fern F5, throws it in a drawer, and slams it. ouch! anyone know the name of that movie?
john

[Chicago]

O Brother, Where Art Thou is one of my favorite movies, and features several mandolin appearances http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[mad dawg]

I think A Mighty Wind featured a Gibson A and a Collings A.

[mad dawg]

Correct, Grasshopper:
The sound of running water
Pours forth from her strings

[mandocrucian]

This Is Spinal Tap in the great#"Stonehenge" sequence. (Has Jethro Tull ever played this tune as an encore?)

Talvisota (The Winter War) #Finns vs. Russians in the 1939 war. #Finnish soldier occasionally plays a bowl-back.

[Fretbear]

"The Godfather" has a guy playing an F-5 in the wedding orchestra; Bollywood films are full of mandolin music; loud, electric, and preferably played through a cracked speaker amp, although any "playing" done by the actors is just that, they don't even try to look authentic, which is refreshing in our world of videos where the artist is forced to lip-sync material that they have previously recorded, trying to remember how they felt when they were in the sound studio....

[flairbzzt]

In an episode of "The Partridge Family" , an older character (I think it's Mrs. Partridge's dad) has a disagreement with his wife and makes up by playing "Bye, Bye Blackbird" on a mandolin in a small club while singing. His playing amounted to keeping one finger at one position through the entire song. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[Staramouche]

"It is the merging of the instrument and the player that creates the music, alone each is silent"
# # # # -Master Po

#
# #"A bird can fly but a fly can't bird"
# # # # -Master Pooh

[SternART]

King of the Gypsies...........has Grapelli, Buell Neidlinger, Andy Statman, John Carlini, and David Grisman. Oh yeah & Brooke Shields.

[AlanN]

Of course, High Lonesome, a movie which celebrates the music and contributions of Bill Monroe, and has many clips of other mando pickers; someone mentioned Dave Apollon in the movies - there's a video floating around of Dave's movies, shorts of the segments which feature the master in his movie roles from the 30's - fantastic stuff.

[Jack Roberts]

"Ella Enchanted". great laughs in that film

[Strado Len]

"Peggy Sue Got Married" featured Rudy Cipolla playing a snakehead A Gibson while wearing some sort of silly Masonic hat. His playing helped helped Kathleen Turner travel back in time. Works for me, too!

[Darryl Wolfe]

Not seen but heard

themomi.org (http://www.themomi.org/museum/godfather/enter.html)

Click on the photos

[Tom C]

I saw one in Sanford & Son(still love those shows) on a shelf in Fred Sanford's house.

[John Craton]

Okay, I'll admit this is one I haven't seen (nor do I think I'd want to), but a quick check on the Internet Movie Database came up with this winner:

Meng gui da sha (1987)

Summary: A police sting takes place in a haunted apartment building. The sting goes bad when a female ghost crashes the party. Lots of chase scenes involving floating heads and headless bodies.. and, oh yes.... toy helicopters. And then it gets weird...A band of Chinese elves save the day (one of them plays a mandolin).

[Eugene]

There is a fine quintet for mandolin and string quartet in The Royal Tannenbaums that is erroneously credited to the baroque orchestra Il Giardino Armonico in the closing credits (I'd love to know who it really was and what they were playing). Of course, the soundtrack for Kramer vs. Kramer is laden with Vivaldi mandolin music. There is plenty of mandolin in Cold Mountain, which I found particularly amusing given that there is no documentation of mandolins on this continent at that time, and the mandolin in question looked very much like a ca. 1920s German instrument. I saw a groovy old Fred Astaire movie that involved a good deal of taunting for some poor square who, evidently inspired by the past successes of Appolon, insisted on playing his mandolin publically comfortably past the mandolin's golden era. I don't recall the name of the movie, but I know Neil Gladd does.

[dwmand]

The not so good movie Heartbreakers with Gene Hackman and Jeniffer Love Hewitt has Sigourney Weaver singing Back in the USSR in a Russian restaurant with a balalaika ensemble with mandolins. Rocky III has Rocky working out with a band behind him and a mandolin player with an F-style instrument.

[archie]

I think the film that Mandorose is referring to (where the fern gets tossed into the drawer) is called "Second Chorus".It Seems to me it was made in the mid-late 30s. I can't tell you much more about it, but I remember that the guy who's the mandolin player loses the gig. Someone should jump in soon with better details.
-archie

[Rick Schmidlin]

Last Waltz?:cool:

[mandodebbie]

Gee-whillikers!That's a lot of mando-movies. I forgot about Kramer Vs. Kramer. (Now why can't the Tablature fairies transpose some Vivaldi on this site? It's long over due. )Anyway, I would love to see that 1930's movies about the prodigal-son mando player. Those old films are really neat.

[Eugene]

I think the film that Mandorose is referring to (where the fern gets tossed into the drawer) is called "Second Chorus"...Someone should jump in soon with better details.
Better details (http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/39/secondchorus.htm)

[Staramouche]

Waterworld coulda used a Mandolin.....:p

Joe

[mandopete]

Funny, no one mentioned Cold Mountain. I think the mando player even got one of the girls in the end!

[mandodebbie]

Ummm...I mentioned Cold Mountain when I opened this New Topic , silly person. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
# # # # # # # # # # # # #

[mandopete]

Ummm...I mentioned Cold Mountain when I opened this New Topic , silly person. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
# # # # # # # # # # # # #
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

My Bad!

[Eugene]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

My Bad!
Your bad indeed! I even discussed his inappropriate, anachronistic mandolin at some length.

[Blueglass]

I think its Signs where the a guy is sitting at his table playing mandolin. or at least its a fairly new alien movie.
also on PBS the barenstien bears is all mandolin music through the whole show. I let my boy watch it just so I can hear all the great mandolin music.
Don't forget All the Pretty Horses and Marty S. mandolin inspired soudtrack. The movie Greatfull Dog had great mandolin music.
Bonnie and Clyde has mostly all banjo but a little mandolin in it.

[mandopete]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

My Bad!
Your bad indeed! #I even discussed his inappropriate, anachronistic mandolin at some length.
Fo' Shizzle!!

[jefflester]

At the Mandolin Symposium "music appreciation" classes that started each day, the teachers showed all sorts of clips of mandolin players. One of these clips in particular got quite the audience reaction. It was from a 1967 movie called "The Road to Nashville" and featured Donna Stoneman playing an electric mandolin (maybe a Gibson EM-150?) while go-go dancing (boots, fringed skirt etc) while other Stonemans (I think) accompany her on a rather progressive song (for the time). After the clip, one of the teachers (Dawg I think) said that was an example of "Go-Go-Grass." Bobby Osborne is in the movie and no doubt there are other mando appearances as well.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268582/

But other than the list of worst movies of all time, I've never seen a rating this low on imdb, so viewer beware! It's 2.4 would put it around #30 of the all-time worst list, but it doesn't have anywhere near enough votes.

-Jeff Lester

[mandroid]

there is a breif scene in Fellini's 'the Clowns', [todays rental], with a mandolin banjo player {a very tiny head, a banjo playing pinhead?) Zippy, where are you?
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Spencer]

I seem to remember a F-5 type being used as a prop in an old Marx brother film, but I can't remember which one. Anybody know if this is correct, and if so which one? I think there was some gangster gang involved and a lot of running in and out of hotel rooms. That's probably about as helpful as saying there are banjos in bluegrass.

Spencer

[AlanN]

Gee, I'd like to see that movie. As a younsgter, I watched them all, but was not mando-centric yet. They were all musicians, as you know. Chico - piano, Groucho - guitar, Harpo - guess!, not sure what Zeppo played.

[John Bertotti]

Meng gui da sha (1987)

The description makes it sound like a show I would love to watch and laugh at. Chinese Elves, hahaha!

Now I'm 39 in a couple of months and I remember this but I'm surprised someone else here didn't mention the singing cowboys in some of the Gene Autry movies. Several Mandolin appearances. I think the singing cowboys were the Sons of the Pioneers. John

[madog99]

The Alamo . The scence where Billy Bob is doing a cool fiddle tune at the dance , you can see a guy playing mando behind him .

[mandodebbie]

They need to make a Mondo Mando movie. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[mrmando]

There are bowlbacks being played during the sappy love song sequence in the Marx Bros. "Cocoanuts." I don't remember ever seeing an F-style mandolin in any Marx Bros. film and I've seen them all. Groucho plays a nice Gibson archtop guitar in "Horse Feathers" and then throws it in a lake.

Hoagy Carmichael's band in "To Have and to Have Not" includes a mandolin player.

[Paul Kotapish]

The scene in Horse Feathers features Groucho singing "Everyone Says I Love You," pursued by a duck who quacks at the end of every line. At the end of the song, Groucho chucks his guitar at the duck and it ends up in the drink. If you look carefully, you'll notice that there's a quick edit and they swap Groucho's Gibson for a cheapo. Very funny.

Other mando-in-the-movies sightings:

Matewan Italian mandolin
Grapes of Wrath A model
Eat My Dust Grisman soundtrack
Hot from Petrograd Dave Apollon
Club Cassanova Dave Apollon
Merry Go Round Dave Apollon
Second Chorus Charles Butterworth playing an F-5, Fred Astair making fun of him, and Artie Shaw in on the action, too.
Bound for Glory I think it's Tom Sauber on the mandolin

[Tom C]

While watching Woody Allen's Zelig, I saw Leonard Zelig playing a Gibson F4 in a mariacchi(sp) band.

[GRW3]

I can't believe I got to the end of the list without seeing

Captain Corelli's Mandolin

He was not a cook but an Italian Army Officer enchanting the ladies with his playing.

Robert Altman's Nashville has some mandolins sprinkled througout.

[jefflester]

I can't believe I got to the end of the list without seeing

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
It was mentioned in the very first post.

[GRW3]

oops :whistling:

[Phillip Tigue]

Now why can't the Tablature fairies transpose some Vivaldi on this site? It's long over due.

There are tablature fairies?

[Scott Tichenor]

A few selections from the This Day in History (http://www.mandolincafe.com/archives/thisday) part of this site:

January 1, 1935 - Dave Apollon and his Romantic Serenaders appeared as themselves in the movie In Town Tonight
January 13, 1972 - Second movement of Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in C major used in the movie "The Cowboys", released on this date.
March 24, 1972 - "The Godfather" movie released with a now famous mandolin track entitled "Speak Softly Love."
May 8, 1937 - Dave Apollon starred in the movie "Movie-Mania" as himself.
June 29, 1999 - David Grisman appeared as himself in history of jugband movie "Chasin' Gus' Ghost."
August 17 , 2001 - The movie "Corelli's Mandolin" is released starring Nicholas Cage and Penelope Cruz.
August 19, 1914 - The movie "The Fable of the Two Mandolin Players and the Willing Performer" released.
September 11, 2001 - Director Gillian Grisman released the movie Grateful Dawg about her father David and musical relationship with Jerry Garcia.
November 14, 1937 - Dave Apollon appeared as bandleader in the movie "Merry Go Round of 1938."

[frankenstein]

Gee, I'd like to see that movie. As a younsgter, I watched them all, but was not mando-centric yet. They were all musicians, as you know. Chico - piano, Groucho - guitar, Harpo - guess!, not sure what Zeppo played.

mando ?:)

[bluegrassman3.0]

There is about a second of a mando in the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. It looks like a Fender acoustic-electric A-style.