Thonet Chairs in Movies
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Title |
Year |
Stars and Director |
Screenshot |
Notes |
Morocco |
1930 |
Gary Cooper Director: |
Madame Caesar, (Eve Southern), Adjutant Caesar (Ullrich Haupt), Monsieur La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou) and a Thonet No. 18 in a cabaret scene. |
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For the Defense |
1930 |
William Powell Director: |
Irene Manners (Kay Francis) and William Foster ( William Powell) in a restaurant scene.
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Detail The chairs at the tables are Thonet No. 18. |
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Street of Chance |
1930 |
William Powell Director: |
In Larry’s Caterers — Preserves and Table Luxuries The chairs are Thonet No. 18 on the left and back and Thonet No. 45½ on the right. |
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In Larry’s, later in the film. John D. Marsden, aka Natural Davis (William Powell).
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Detail Chairs at many tables in Larry’s are variants of Thonet No. 440. |
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The Divorcee |
1930 |
Norma Shearer Director: |
At a New Year’s Eve party. |
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Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18. |
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At the hat check. |
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Detail The empty chair in the forground is a Thonet No. 18 with optional back braces. |
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In a diner. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 45½. with optional back brace. |
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The Public Enemy |
1931 |
James Cagney Director: |
Tom Powers (James Cagney in his breakthrough role) walks into The Red Oaks Social Club and rests his hand on a Thonet No. 18 while looking over a pool game. The sign on the wall reads “Don’t spit on the Floor! Remember the Jamestown Flood” |
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Powers and Kitty (Mae Clark) in a later restaurant scene. |
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Detail Powers is sitting in a Thonet No. 18 (with a Thonet No. 45½ behind him) and Kitty is sitting in a Thonet No. 45½. |
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An American Tragedy |
1931 |
Phillips Holmes Director: |
Clyde Griffiths (Phillips Holmes) about to escape a pool hall through a window. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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Platinum Blonde |
1931 |
Loretta Young Director: |
Stew Smith (Robert Williams) and Gallagher (Loretta Young) in Joe’s Speakeasy. |
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Detail Thonet No. 18 |
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In a later scene, Stew Smith in Joe’s Speakeasy |
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Thonet No. 18 chairs |
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Ten Cents a Dance |
1931 |
Barbara Stanwyck Director: |
An altercation at Palais de Dance. Barbara O'Neill (Barbara Stanwyck) is center left. |
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Detail The chair on the left is a Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop. The chair on the right is a regular Thonet No. 18. |
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Scarface |
1932 |
Paul Muni Director: |
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Scarface opens with a scene of Antonio “Tony” Camonte (Paul Muni) committing his first murder, in a resturant the morning after the 1st Ward Stag Party. The restaurant features Thonet No. 18 chairs, the variant with a narrow inner back loop. |
A short time later, Tony Camonte is arrested in Pietro’s Barber Shop, which also has the same Thonet No. 18 variant. |
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Three Thonet chair models appear in the famous Columbia Café shootout scene. (Hawks includes a similar shootout scene in To Have and Have Not, 1944.) Poppy (Karen Morley) and Tony Camonte just before the shooting starts. |
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Tony and Poppy dodging machine-gun bullets, framed by Thonet chairs. |
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Near the end of the shootout, this frame starkly features an empty No. 18 variant with optional back braces and the Ring-shaped leg brace. |
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Trouble in Paradise |
1932 |
Miriam Hopkins Director: |
Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) and Lily (Miriam Hopkins) read newspapers in their apartment. |
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The camera zooms in on Lily,her face hidden by a newspaper. |
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Detail The chair is similar to the Thonet No. 440. |
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Me and My Gal |
1932 |
Spencer Tracy Director: |
The Drunk (Will Stanton) escapes after creating a row and fighting back with a chair in Ed’s Chowder House. |
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Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 3 |
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Taxi! |
1932 |
James Cagney Director: |
Two diners peruse the menu at Goldfarb’s Fish Grotto. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 45½ and No. 18. |
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Ruby (Leila Bennett) and Sue Riley Nolan (Loretta Young) in the ladies' room at Goldfarb’s Fish Grotto. |
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Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 45 variant |
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Wild Girl |
1932 |
Charles Farrell Director: |
In a hotel/saloon. Yuba Bill (Eugene Pallette) is in the back right. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 3 Writing Desk Armchairs. |
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Billy (Charles Farrell) about to escape from an upstairs room. |
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Detail The same No. 3 Writing Desk Armchairs. |
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If I Had a Million |
1932 |
Gary Cooper Directors: Ernst Lubitsch |
The vignette entitled Violet, directed by Stephen Roberts, begins with a bar scene. |
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Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 45½. There are also Thonet No. 18 chairs visible at other tables. |
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Back Street |
1932 |
Irene Dunne Director: |
“Cincinnati: In the good old days before the Eighteenth Amendment” The film opens in an outdoor drinking establishment... |
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In most of the shots of tables, an empty chair is in the foreground, between the camera and the drinkers. |
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Even children get a mug of beer |
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The chairs are all Thonet No. 18. |
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Dinner at Eight |
1933 |
Marie Dressler Director: |
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Millicent Jordan (Billie Burke) and Mrs. Wendel, the cook (May Robson) in a kitchen scene with an unoccupied Thonet No. 18 in the background, complete with noir shadow. |
Detail The chair next to the stand mixer is a Thonet No. 18, casting a noir shadow. |
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Dancing Lady |
1933 |
Joan Crawford Director: |
Steve (Ted Healy, in the dark suit and hat) and His Stooges in the Bradley Theater. He’s saying “Make with the chairs, boys!” Curly Howard, Moe Howard and Larry Fine went on to become the Three Stooges. |
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Detail Patch Gallagher (Clark Gable) in the Bradley Theater standing next to a Thonet No. 18. |
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Design for Living |
1933 |
Fredric March Director: |
George Curtis (Gary Cooper) leaves a café. |
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The chair in the foreground is a Thonet No. 45½. |
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A Study in Scarlet |
1933 |
Reginald Owen Director: |
A secret society meeting, chaired by lawyer Thaddeus Merrydew (Alan Dinehart), far right. Eileen Forrester (June Clyde) sits right of center. |
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Detail The chairs in the secret society meeting room are Thonet No. 18. |
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Of Human Bondage |
1934 |
Leslie Howard Director: |
Philip Carey (Leslie Howard) and Mildred Rogers (Bette Davis) in a restaurant scene. |
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Detail All the chairs in this scene are Thonet No. 18s, with the Ring-shaped leg brace. |
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The Woman Condemned |
1934 |
Claudia Dell Director: |
A restaurant scene. |
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Detail The visible chair seems to be a Thonet No. 45. |
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The Man Who Knew Too Much |
1934 |
Leslie Banks Director: |
Clive (Hugh Wakefield) and Bob Lawrence (Leslie Banks) enter Dentist George Barbor’s (Henry Oscar) office. |
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Detail The row of chairs, casting a row of noir shadows, are Thonet No. 14. |
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Manhattan Melodrama |
1934 |
Clark Gable Director: |
Jim Wade (William Powell) and Eleanor Packer (Myrna Loy) celebrate election night at The Cotton Club. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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Each table is supplied with mallets so celebrants can tap the table in rhythm with the band.
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Mandalay |
1934 |
Kay Francis |
Tanya Borisoff, “Spot White” (Kay Francis) descends the stairs at Nick’s nightclub. |
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Detail The chairs in the dining area are Thonet No. 18. |
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The Girl from Missouri |
1934 |
Jean Harlow Director: |
Edith ‘Eadie’ Chapman (Jean Harlow) sneaks out of a rehearsal past many Thonet chairs upside down on tables. |
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A few minutes later, Eadie returns to the rehearsal. Many Thonet chairs are visible around the dance floor. |
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Detail Thonet No. 45½ in the left foreground and on top of the table in the middle. Thonet No 18 on the table at right. |
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The Thin Man (First in the six-film series, five of which have Thonet chairs.) |
1934 |
William Powell |
In a bar/nightclub. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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Marion (Gertrude Short) and Harold Huber (Arthur Nunheim) at a table. |
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Detail Marion is sitting in a Thonet No. 45½, which is casting a noir shadow on the wall. |
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The Mystery Man |
1935 |
Robert Armstrong Director: |
In this restaurant scene, the chairs are Thonet No. 18. The scene includes the trope of chairs turned upside down on tables to indicate closing time. |
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Whipsaw |
1935 |
Myrna Loy Director: |
Near the end of the film, Ross McBride (Spencer Tracy) and Vivian Palmer (Myrna Loy) walk in to a Beanery, welcomed by owner Joe (John Sheehan). Gang members are right behind them. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 and No. 45. |
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McBride takes shelter behind an overturned table during the shootout with the gang members. |
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Fury |
1936 |
Sylvia Sidney Director: |
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Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy) drinks in a closed bar. |
Detail In the background, Thonet No. 18s stacked on tables, complete with noir shadows. There’s also a later restaurant scene featuring Thonet No. 18 and No. 45 chairs. |
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Katherine Grant (Sylvia Sidney) in the courtroom, which has Thonet No. 18s for lawyers and clients. |
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Swing Time |
1936 |
Fred Astaire Director: |
Edwin “Pop” Cardetti (Victor Moore) tries a card trick on a skeptical stage hand. |
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John “Lucky” Garnent (Fred Astaire) and Cardetti discuss wardrobe. |
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One Rainy Afternoon |
1936 |
Francis Lederer Director: |
Thonet No. 18 at the piano, with noir shadow. |
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Thonet No. 18 during a reading scene. |
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Thonet No. 18 with the narrow back loop in the courtroom scene. (Publicity still with Francis Lederer and Ida Lupino, from Wikimedia Commons) |
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Come and Get It |
1936 |
Edward Arnold Director: |
Swan Bostrom (Walter Brennan) and Barney Glasgow (Edward Arnold) enter the hotel restaurant. |
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Swan Bostrom, Barney Glasgow and Lotta (Frances Farmer). The restaurant features Thonet No. 18 and No. 45 chairs. |
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Big Brown Eyes |
1936 |
Cary Grant Director: |
Russ Cortig (Lloyd Nolan) falls into a Thonet B34 (or similar) after being shot in a restroom. |
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Detail |
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The Devil is a Sissy |
1936 |
Freddie Bartholomew Director: |
Robert “Buck” Murphy (Jackie Cooper) leads the gang into the Charles Chop House. |
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Detail The chairs at the tables are Thonet No. 18. |
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“Buck” Murphy at the counter, with Claude “Limey” Pierce (Freddie Bartholomew) on the left of the door, James “Gig” Stevens (Mickey Rooney) to his right, and a couple of gangsters just entering. |
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In the gang’s hideout, “Limey” Pierce falls though the torn cane seat of a Thonet No. 45½. |
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High Tension |
1936 |
Brian Donlevy Director: |
Two hoods start a fight in order to steal Steve Reardon’s (Brian Donlevy) cash. |
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Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18 with a narrow inner back loop, optional back supports and an old style ring-shaped leg brace. |
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In the pool room. |
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Detail The chairs casting noir shadows are a natural wood Thonet No. 45 variant with narrow inner back loop and a black Thonet No. 18. |
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After the Thin Man (Second in the six-film series.) |
1936 |
William Powell Director: |
At the LiChi Chinese Night Club Polly Byrnes (Dorothy McNulty) dances to Blow That Horn. |
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Detail The clapping man is sitting in a Thonet No. 45½. |
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Nick Charles (William Powell) and Nora Charles seated at a table in the LiChi club. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18s. |
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Dead End |
1937 |
Sylvia Sidney Director: |
Thonet No. 18s in Chez Pascagli (Famous Italian Dishes). |
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Bank Alarm |
1937 |
Conrad Nagel Director: |
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In the Club Karlotti. |
Detail Thonet bent steel chairs, similar to the B 34 armchair. |
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Easy Living |
1937 |
Jean Arthur Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs at the tables in the Automat. |
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Detail |
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Love Is News |
1937 |
Tyrone Power Director: |
Newsmen watch as Stephen “Steve” Leyton (Tyrone Power) plays checkers on the bar floor with whiskey shots and mugs of beer. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 |
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In a later shot in the same bar, Leyton talks with Egbert Eggleston (Elisha Cook Jr.), who was a college checkers champion. |
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Stella Dallas |
1937 |
Barbara Stanwyck Director: |
Ed Munn (Alan Hale) speaks to Stella Dallas (Barbara Stanwyck) (with her back turned to the camera) in a restaurant scene. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 29 or a similar model.
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Young and Innocent |
1937 |
Nova Pilbeam Director: |
Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam) at the counter and a Lorry Driver (Jerry Verno) in Tom’s Hat roadhouse. |
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Detail The chairs at the tables are Thonet No. 52½ or a similar model. |
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Fast Company |
1938 |
Melvyn Douglas Director: |
Lawyer Arnold Stamper, (Douglass Dumbrille) talking to his client Ned Morgan (Shepperd Strudwick). |
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Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 45½. |
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In Old Chicago |
1938 |
Tyrone Power Director: |
Dion O'Leary (Tyrone Power) holds a chair for Ann Colby (Phyllis Brooks) in The Senate, Dion and Belle’s new saloon. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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Senator Brooks (Berton Churchill) leads Belle Fawcett (Alice Faye) to a table after her song. |
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Detail A Thonet No. 18 (with optional back braces) and a Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop are visible on the right.
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Algiers |
1938 |
Charles Boyer Director: |
A scene in a sitting room. |
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Detail The chair in the background is a Thonet No. 18 with optional back-seat braces. |
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Holiday |
1938 |
Katharine Hepburn Director: |
Johnny Case (Cary Grant) and Julia Seton (Doris Nolan) in “The Playroom,” an upstairs room originally designed for children. |
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Detail Behind Johnny and Julia is a Thonet Kindersessel (children’s chair) No. 1 at a small table. The chair is featured in several shots in this set. |
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You and Me |
1938 |
Sylvia Sidney Director: |
“The Mob” in a café/meeting place. |
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Detail The chairs shown are two Thonet No. 18s (left and right), and a Thonet No. 45½ in the center. |
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Detail The Thonet No. 45½ is an unusual model where the inner back loop extends down and attaches to the legs. (See Historical Photo 1906 in Extras, where the inner back loop extends down to become the legs.) |
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Ninotchka |
1939 |
Greta Garbo Director: |
Nina Ivanovna “Ninotchka” Yakushova (Greta Garbo) and Count Léon d'Algout (Melvyn Douglas) in a restaurant. |
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Count Léon d'Algout falls, bringing the tablecloth with him. |
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The chairs in the restaurant are Thonet No. 45½. |
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Dust Be My Destiny |
1939 |
John Garfield Director: |
Joe Bell (John Garfield) and Mabel Alden (Priscilla Lane) embrace. |
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Detail Thonet No. 14 with Ring-shaped leg brace. |
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Two detectives leave Nick’s Diner. |
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Detail The same Thonet No. 14 chairs. |
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Midnight |
1939 |
Claudette Colbert Director: |
Tibor Czerny (Don Ameche) enters a café and greets Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert). |
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Detail The left chair is a Thonet No. 18. The lighter colored chair on the right is a Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop. |
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Another Thin Man (Third in the six-film series.) |
1939 |
William Powell Director: |
MacFay Estate Gatekeeper (Doodles Weaver) calls to announce Nick Charles (William Powell) and Nora Charles (Myrna Loy). |
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Detail The chair casting a noir shadow on the wall is a Thonet No. 18. |
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Half a Sinner |
1940 |
Heather Angel Director: |
The dénouement of this comedy noir takes place in Larry Cameron’s very modern kitchen with double stoves, double refrigerators and variations of the Thonet |
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A moment later, a bad guy looms in the kitchen doorway. |
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Detail Both Larry Cameron and a Thonet S 533 chair are caught unawares because they’re looking away from the door. |
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The Letter |
1940 |
Bette Davis Director: |
In the trial scene, attorney Howard Joyce (James Stephenson) sits next to an empty Thonet No. 18, with Ong Chi Seng (Victor Sen Yung) on the left and Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) in the near background. |
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Detail |
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The House Across the Bay |
1940 |
George Raft Director: |
Three models of Thonet chair appear in Spot 61, a nightclub.
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Detail The chair at the roulette wheel is a Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop. |
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Detail The chair at the table is similar to the Thonet No. 24. Also see Foreign Correspondent, 1940. |
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In the Sorrento Cafe—Alameda’s Rendezvous, Tim Nolan (Walter Pidgeon) joins Brenda Bentley (Joan Bennett) at a dining table. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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21 Days |
1940 |
Vivien Leigh Director: |
A restaurant scene in which Larry Durrant (Laurence Olivier) and Wanda Wallen (Vivien Leigh) begin their last three weeks together. |
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Detail The chairs are similar to the Thonet No. 12. |
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Saturday’s Children |
1940 |
John Garfield Director: |
Dancing at a going-away party for Rims Rosson (John Garfield) in Martin's Social Club. |
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The chair is a Thonet No. 14 with a cane seat. Similar chairs show up in a café set. |
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The Great McGinty |
1940 |
Brian Donlevy Director: |
The Lookout (Jimmy Conlin) looks on in horror as Daniel McGinty (Brian Donlevy) throws a Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop. |
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Detail The chairs at the tables are Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop. |
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Foreign Correspondent |
1940 |
Joel McCrea Director: |
John Jones, aka Huntley Haverstock (Joel McCrea) escapes agents by climbing into the bathroom window of a neighboring hotel room. |
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The chair in the bathroom (casting a noir shadow briefly in a later scene) is similar to the Thonet No. 24. Also see The House Across the Bay, 1940 |
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Blues in the Night |
1941 |
Richard Whorf Director: |
Thonet No. 18s in the probably fictional St. Louis Café. |
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Mr. District Attorney |
1941 |
Dennis O'Keefe Director: |
P. Cadwallader Jones (Dennis O'Keefe) and Terry Parker (Florence Rice) in a café scene. The chairs are like the Thonet No. 3 Writing Desk Armchair. |
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Detail |
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The Little Foxes |
1941 |
Bette Davis Director: |
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David Hewitt (Richard Carlson) greets Alexandra Giddens (Teresa Wright) in a restaurant. A Thonet No. 18 casts a noir shadow. |
A later shot in the same restaurant set also shows a Thonet No. 45 on the right at an empty table. |
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Citizen Kane |
1941 |
Orson Welles Director: |
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Citizen Kane is full of remarkable shots and scenes. In one crane shot, the camera moves through a neon sign (a miniature model built to open up for the camera), then down through a skylight (using a cross fade) to show a café scene below. |
Susan Kane (Dorothy Comingore) gets drunk after a show and talks with the faceless journalist. |
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Welles repeats this scene twice more, each time with changes in the set showing the passage of time. The second time, the Thonet chairs behind Susan have been moved, as if they had been used. The two distinct noir shadows are Susan’s and a Thonet No. 18’s. |
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In the third repetition, late in the film, the El Rancho café appears ready to close, with the Thonet chairs stacked in pairs on the tables in the corner behind Susan. Thonet chairs stacked on tables is a trope of noir movies. Thonet No. 18s with the Ring-shaped leg brace and some with the newer curved leg brace are shown. |
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A Woman’s Face |
1941 |
Joan Crawford Director: |
Waiter Herman Rundvik (Donald Meek) leaves the room. |
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Detail The chair looks like a Model 18 with added bentwood curls between the inner and outer back loop. |
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Detail In a later shot, the same model Thonet chairs stacked on a table, a movie trope indicating closing time. |
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Mr. & Mrs. Smith |
1941 |
Carole Lombard Director: |
David Smith (Robert Montgomery) and Ann Krausheimer Smith (Carole Lombard) in Mama Lucy’s Restaurant |
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Detail Thonet No. 18 chairs at all the tables. |
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Blonde Comet |
1941 |
Virginia Vale Director: |
Cannonball Blake (William Halligan) reads a paper while waiting for his daughter and old friend Barney Oldfield (played by himself). |
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The Blonde Comet, Beverly Blake (Virginia Vale), Cannonball Blake and Barney Oldfield discuss racing. The chairs are Thonet No. 45½. |
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Rage in Heaven |
1941 |
Robert Montgomery Director: |
Dr. Rameau (Oskar Homolka) and Stella Bergen (Ingrid Bergman) at a Parisian bookbinder’s shop recovering the last volume of the diary of Philip Monrell (Robert Montgomery). |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 (left) and No. 45½ (right). |
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Detail As Dr. Rameau and Stella leave the shop, two more Thonet No. 18 chairs are shown in the foreground. |
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Shadow of the (Fourth in the six-film series.) |
1941 |
William Powell Director: |
Asta (Asta [Skippy]) walks into Mario’s Grotto Restaurant. Note: the dog actor Skippy, who performed in numerous films, was often credited as Asta after he appeared in The Thin Man, the first of six Thin Man films. Skippy played Asta in the second and third Thin Man films as well. |
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Detail The chairs in Mario’s Grotto have curved X-shaped leg braces. |
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Nick Charles and Asta at a table. |
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Detail The chairs appear to be in the 390-441 series of Thonet chairs with a cut-out back panel and curved X-shaped leg braces. |
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Major Jason I. Sculley (Henry O'Neill) walks into Mario’s Grotto. |
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The chairs appear to be in the 390-441 series of Thonet chairs with a cut-out back panel and curved X-shaped leg braces. |
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Nazi Agent |
1942 |
Conrad Veidt Director: |
In a scene in The Continental Restaurant, upholstered Thonet chairs are at the tables. |
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Moontide |
1942 |
Jean Gabin Director: |
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Thonet bar stools in the Red Dot bar (featuring Eastside Beer). |
Nutsy (Claude Rains), Bobo (Jean Gabin), Tiny (Thomas Mitchell) and a Thonet No. 45 in the “Shower Room.” |
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Casablanca |
1942 |
Humphrey Bogart Director: |
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It’s easy to miss, but the chairs in the Blue Parrot bar are Thonet No. 14, 16, or 18 with striped fabric back covers. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) walks into the Blue Parrot to cut a deal with owner Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet). Also see fabric-covered Thonet chairs in Phantom Lady, 1944 and Peter Gunn, 1958-1960. |
Detail |
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This Gun for Hire |
1942 |
Veronica Lake Director: |
Willard Gates (Laird Cregar) and Philip Raven (Alan Ladd), background, in a restaurant scene. A Thonet a Kleiderstock (clothes stand) is in the back left corner. |
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The camera closes in on Gates and Raven. |
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The chairs are Thonet No. 440. |
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All Through the Night |
1942 |
Humphrey Bogart Director: |
Alfred “Gloves” Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) enters Miller’s Home Bakery. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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Leda Hamilton (Kaaren Verne) enters Miller’s Home Bakery. In a late scene, where the patriotic gangsters break up a Nazi fifth columnist’s meeting, Thonet No. 18 chairs appear again, some used as weapons. |
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Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon |
1942 |
Basil Rathbone Director: |
In an early café scene, Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone)—center rear, in disguise—prepares to snooker two Nazi agents. |
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The agents with an empty Thonet No. 18 chair in the foreground. |
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The Glass Key |
1942 |
Brian Donlevy Director: |
Ed Beaumont (Alan Ladd) after being beaten and thrown into a room. The chair is a Thonet No. 45½ with an extra leg-brace loop in the back. |
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Beaumont smashes his way out through a floor-level window with the chair. |
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Shadow of a Doubt Note: Shadow of a Doubt was filmed on location in Santa Rosa, California, as was Storm Center, 1956. Also see Extras. |
1943 |
Teresa Wright Director: |
Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa Wright) discovers the dark truth about her uncle Charlie in a newspaper in the Santa Rosa, California Free Public Library. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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Immediately after Charlie reads about her uncle Charlie comes a justifiably famous crane shot reminiscent of the ending of Citizen Kane. Charlie leaves the reading table passing through noir shadows cast by the chairs and the table. |
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The camera pulls farther away and Charlie casts her own noir shadow. This scene marks the pivot in the film as it turns from a (supposedly) light film about a family into a dark murder mystery. |
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The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp |
1943 |
Deborah Kerr Director: |
Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) being questioned in an office furnished with Thonet No. 14 chairs. |
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Above Suspicion |
1943 |
Joan Crawford Director: |
In Salzburg, Austria,Richard Myles (Fred MacMurray) and Frances Myles (Joan Crawford) find the master bakery and café a clue led them to. A Thonet chair seems to be hung up as a sign for the bakery-café. |
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Hi Diddle Diddle |
1943 |
Adolphe Menjou Director: |
Benny (Sidney Miller), Leslie Quayle (June Havoc) and Col. Hector Phyffe (Adolphe Menjou) in a bar scene. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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A Lady Takes a Chance |
1943 |
Jean Arthur Director: |
A jive band (The Three Peppers), with the pianist (Oliver “Toy” Wilson) sitting on a Thonet No. 18. |
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Below, tables in the saloon scene are set with Thonet No. 18 chairs. |
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Stormy Weather |
1943 |
Lena Horne Director: |
In Ada Brown’s Beale St. Café, Fats Waller and the Beale Street Boys play in the background while Ada Brown sings in the foreground. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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Several cast members around two tables. Lena Horne is seated; Katherine Dunham stands behind her. |
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Detail Three models of Thonet chair are identifiable in this shot: Thonet No. 45½ in the back, Thonet No. 18 at right and Thonet No 18 with narrow back loop at left. |
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Stage Door Canteen |
1943 |
Cheryl Walker Director: |
Many Thonet chairs appear in this film. Most of the scenes were filmed in Hollywood, not at the real Stage Door Canteen in New York. An opening scene in an office. |
|
A late scene in a dressing room. |
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A publicity still. |
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This photo was taken as entertainers waited to appear on a radio broadcast from the real Stage Door Canteen in New York. From left: Connie Haines, Maxie Rosenbloom, Ben Lyon, Morton Downey and Joan Blondell. The visible chairs are Thonet S 533 or similar. |
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The Hard Way |
1943 |
Ida Lupino Director: |
Albert Runkel (Jack Carson) pulls out a chair to site down with Mrs. Helen Chernen (Ida Lupino). |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18. |
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On a stage set, another Thonet No. 18. |
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Detail |
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Background to Danger |
1943 |
George Raft Director: |
Joe Barton (George Raft) in the Haliç Kabaresi (Golden Horn Cabaret). The chair is a Thonet No. 18. |
|
The aftermath of a fight in the cabaret. |
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Detail The chairs are one Thonet No. 45½ and two Thonet No. 18s. Note the noir shadow cast on the door by the right-hand chair. |
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The Woman of the Town |
1943 |
Claire Trevor Director: |
Dora Hand (Claire Trevor)walks through a hotel door. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18, casting a noir shadow. |
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The Leopard Man |
1943 |
Dennis O'Keefe Director: |
Kiki Walker (Jean Brooks) at a makeup mirror. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18, painted white. |
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In a later scene, with Jerry Manning (Dennis O'Keefe), Kiki Walker has her feet up on the white Thonet chair. |
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Cover Girl |
1944 |
Rita Hayworth Director: |
Cover Girl, a Technicolor musical, contains this remarkable after-hours nightclub set with many Thonet No. 18s and No. 45s (painted gold) casting larger-than-life noir shadows. |
|
Maribelle Hicks (Rita Hayworth) and Danny talking through Thonet chairs stacked on tables to indicate closing time. |
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Laura |
1944 |
Gene Tierney Director: |
In the restaurant scene where Laura (Gene Tierney) introduces herself to Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), there’s a glimpse of Thonet chairs similar to the No. 321 in the 1904 Thonet Catalog (with the newer curved leg brace). |
|
Detail |
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The Woman in the Window |
1944 |
Edward G. Robinson Director: |
The chairs around tables in the dining room of the club look like like a blond version of the Thonet No. 3 Writing Desk Armchair (Schreibtischfauteuils). |
|
To Have and Have Not |
1944 |
Humphrey Bogart Director: |
This is the first, and most iconic, of three screen adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not. All three include shots of Thonet chairs. This film also includes a shootout reminiscent of the famous Columbia Café shootout in Scarface, 1932, also directed by Hawks. A lot of the important action takes place in the bar of The Marquis Hotel, where Frenchy (Marcel Dalio) is the manager. The bar is furnished with Thonet No. 18 chairs, often shown prominently. A Thonet No. 52½ is visible in one shot. Here Marie “Slim” Browning (Lauren Bacall) has coffee while Cricket (Hoagy Carmichael) works out a song on the piano. |
|
Harry “Steve” Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) strides purposefully into the bar, with Thonet No. 18s prominently displayed in the foreground. |
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Late in the film, Cricket and Slim at the piano, framed by the legs of upside-down Thonet chairs. |
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Passage to Marseille |
1944 |
Humphrey Bogart Director: |
A member of a pro-German street mob destroys the office and press of La Verité Francaise, a patriotic newspaper that Jean Matrac (Humphrey Bogart) publishes. |
|
The man is using a Thonet No. 18 to smash glass office partitions. This action takes place during one of the several flashbacks in the film. |
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Murder, My Sweet |
1944 |
Dick Powell Director: |
In a scene at Florian’s Bar, Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) approaches Velma Valento (Claire Trevor). Thonet No. 18 chairs are piled up at the back of the bar, casting stark noir shadows on the back wall and ceiling. |
|
The piano player looks over after Moose Malloy has thrown the new Florian’s boss across the room. |
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Detail |
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Ministry of Fear |
1944 |
Ray Milland Director: |
Inspector Prentice (Percy Waram) waits in a hospital room for Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) to wake after nearly dying in a bomb blast. |
|
The chair is similar to a model 56b, with a cutout middle back. |
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The Suspect |
1944 |
Charles Laughton Director: |
Mary Gray (Ella Raines) in the breakroom of the shop where she works. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18. |
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Philip Marshall (Charles Laughton) in a restaurant scene. |
||||
The chairs are Thonet No. 18 with a narrow inner back loop. |
||||
Experiment Perilous |
1944 |
Hedy Lamarr Director: |
Allida Bederaux (Hedy Lamarr) and her Ballet Master (Michael Visaroff) at a lesson. |
|
Detail The chair at the piano is a Thonet No. 18, casting a noir shadow. |
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Phantom Lady |
1944 |
Franchot Tone Director: |
Jack Marlow (Franchot Tone) and Inspector Burgess (Thomas Gomez) in Marlow’s dressing room. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18 with a fabric cover. Similarly covered chairs are visible in the Blue Parrot bar in Casablanca, 1942 and Peter Gunn, 1958-1960. |
||||
When Strangers Marry |
1944 |
Dean Jagger Director: |
Millie Baxter (Kim Hunter), at far left, enters a café. |
|
The woman at the table in the foreground is sitting on a Thonet No. 18. |
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It Happened Tomorrow |
1944 |
Dick Powell Director: |
Sylvia Smith (Linda Darnell), part of a clairvoyant act with her uncle Oscar, in the audience of the Eden Gardens Theater. |
|
Detail The chair in the foreground is a Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Sylvia Smith pretends to be in a trance as a waiter swings a Thonet No. 18 over her head to place it at a table. |
||||
A later scene in a restaurant... |
||||
The chairs are Thonet No. 45½, casting noir shadows with lighting from two different directions. |
||||
The Great Flamarion |
1945 |
Erich von Stroheim Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs appear in dressing room scenes. Here Connie Wallace (Mary Beth Hughes) pours a drink. Thonet No. 18s and No. 45s can also be seen on stage scenes. |
|
Brief Encounter |
1945 |
Celia Johnson, Director: |
|
Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) and Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) in the Refreshment Room at the Milford Junction train station.
|
Detail Alec Harvey and Laura Jesson with Thonet No. 14s casting noir shadows. |
||||
Detail Laura Jesson alone at a table in another shot. Thonet No. 14 chairs, casting noir shadows. |
||||
Laura Jesson enters the Refreshment Room, passing a Thonet No. 14. Most of the chairs visible in The Refreshment Room are Thonet No. 14, but here, farther back, is a Thonet No. 54. |
||||
Detail A Thonet No. 98 or similar behind Dr. Alec Harvey. |
||||
Fallen Angel |
1945 |
Dana Andrews Director: |
Within the first few minutes of Fallen Angel, Thonet chairs appear in Pop’s Eats, the diner that is central to the plot. Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) enters and drops his coat on a Thonet No. 18. |
|
A bit later, Stella (Linda Darnell) enters and sits in a Thonet No. 18 to massage her aching feet. Thonet chairs also appear in Tavern/Dance Hall scenes and in a café scene. |
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The Lost Weekend |
1945 |
Ray Milland Director: |
Don Birnam (Ray Milland) contemplates a shot of whisky in Nat’s Bar, with Thonet No. 18s with Ring-shaped leg braces. In the far corner is a Thonet clothes stand. |
|
Detail |
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Scarlet Street |
1945 |
Edward G. Robinson Director: |
Thonet chairs appear in the opening scene, a reception where Christopher Cross (Edward G. Robinson) receives a gold watch for twenty-five years of service as a clerk. The chairs in this scene are Thonet No. 440s. The one in the background in this shot is casting a noir shadow. |
|
Christopher Cross and Katherine ‘Kitty’ March (Joan Bennet) eat at Tiny's (Lunch and Dinner). The café features Thonet No. 18s at the tables. |
||||
On an apartment deck, a padded version of the Thonet S533, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. |
||||
In the last scene, Thonet No. 3 Writing Desk Armchairs in a bar scene. |
||||
Detour |
1945 |
Tom Neal Director: |
Al Roberts (Tom Neal) plays Piano, while Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake) sings in the Break O' Dawn Club. Roberts is using a Thonet No. 45½.
|
|
Detail of a later shot The rest of the band members also have Thonet No. 45½s. |
||||
Cornered |
1945 |
Dick Powell Director: |
Thonet No. 18s, some stacked on a table. |
|
The Clock |
1945 |
Judy Garland Director: |
Corporal Joe Allen (Robert Walker) and Alice Maybery (Judy Garland) in the background of a restaurant scene. The chairs in the foreground are Thonet No. 18 variant with narrow inner back loop. |
|
Detail The leftmost chair casts a noir shadow on the tablecloth. |
||||
Whistle Stop |
1946 |
George Raft Director: |
|
As Whistle Stop comes to a close, Gitlo (Victor McLaglen) drags badly wounded Kenny Veech (George Raft) to Estelle’s Road House after closing time. The scene opens with Estelle (Carmel Myers) working on the books. Though the road house is clearly closed and has no customers, the sign outside reads “Dine Dance Open All Night.” |
|
||||
The camera zooms in to shoot through the upturned legs of Thonet No. 18 chairs. This combines the trope of upturned Thonet chairs signalling a closed establishment (and the end of the plot) with shooting through Thonet chairs. |
||||
The Stranger |
1946 |
Edward G. Robinson Director: |
|
A scene at about minute two in The Stranger prominently features a Thonet No. 18 with the Ring-shaped leg brace. Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) is orating in the back right. The Wikipedia entry on on this interesting film is well worth reading. |
Detail The inner back loop of the Thonet chair is missing one side, as if it was broken (Welles was on a severely restricted budget for this film) or modified. Another broken Thonet chair appears in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, 1960 |
||||
The Best Years of our Lives |
1946 |
Myrna Loy Director: |
|
Uncle Butch Engle (Hoagy Carmichael) and Homer Parrish (Harrold Russel) sit at the piano on Thonet No. 18s in Butch’s Bar. |
A waiter serves Peggy Stephenson (Teresa Wright) and Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) seated in Thonet No. 18s in Lucia’s Restaurant. |
||||
The Killers |
1946 |
Burt Lancaster Director: |
Thonet No. 18s in a café scene. No. 18s appear in another scene, as well. |
|
The Razor’s Edge |
1946 |
Tyrone Power Director: |
Larry Darrell (Tyrone Power), W. Somerset Maugham (Herbert Marshall), Isabel Bradley (Gene Tierney) and Gray Maturin (John Payne) in a dance bar scene with Thonet No. 18 chairs at the tables. |
|
Detail |
||||
After the café scene, at around 37 minutes, the characters go to a dance club. The scene features a hot drum solo by real-life band leader Cee Pee Johnson. |
||||
Detail The two visible chairs in the band are Thonet No. 18, with Ring-shaped leg braces and optional back braces. |
||||
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers |
1946 |
Barbara Stanwyck Director: |
Sam Masterson (Van Heflin) and Antonia “Toni” Marachek (Lizabeth Scott) walk into Farone’s Café (Cucina Italiana). |
|
Detail The chairs at the tables are Thonet No. 3 |
||||
Abilene Town |
1946 |
Randolph Scott Director: |
The band at the Drovers’ Hotel, Est. 1867, uses Thonet No. 18 chairs. |
|
Detail |
||||
The Blue Dahlia |
1946 |
Alan Ladd Director: |
After a fight in Gus’s Steaks early in the film. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 and Thonet No. 45, casting noir shadows. |
||||
That Brennan Girl |
1946 |
James Dunn Director: |
Martin J. “Mart” Neilson (William Marshall) and Ziggy Brennan (Mona Freeman) dine at Fisherman’s Grotto in San Francisco. The chairs are Thonet No. 45½. |
|
Later, in the ladies’ room. |
||||
The bent steel chairs are in the Thonet No. S 533 family. |
||||
Three Strangers |
1946 |
Sydney Greenstreet Director: |
Johnny West (Peter Lorre) watches the bartender (Colin Kenny) close The Blue Crown bar and inn. |
|
Detail The chairs upside down on tables are Thonet No. 3 |
||||
Nobody Lives Forever |
1946 |
John Garfield Director: |
In the Coast Café |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 45½. |
||||
Toni Blackburn (Faye Emerson) walks into Max’s Café. |
||||
Detail A Thonet No. 18 on the left, a Thonet No. 45½ on the right
|
||||
The Missing Lady |
1946 |
Kane Richmond Director: |
A bar scene |
|
Detail The chairs at the table are Thonet No. 3 |
||||
They Made Me a Fugitive |
1947 |
Trevor Howard Director: |
|
Clem Morgan (Trevor Howard) and Aggie (Mary Merrall) in Narcy’s headquarters.
|
In a later shot in the same set, the two Thonet chairs have been reversed, with the No. 54 now on the left and the No. 18 on the right. (cropped from screenshot). |
||||
It Always Rains on Sunday |
1947 |
Googie Withers Director: |
Thonet No. 14s. |
|
The Bishop’s Wife |
1947 |
Cary Grant Director: |
In the choir scene, the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir (and the organist) are using two Thonet models, both very similar to the No. 124 shown in the 1904 Thonet Catalog. |
|
Kiss of Death |
1947 |
Victor Mature Director: |
In this ex-con going straight film noir, several clubs and restaurants figure prominently, but only the last one—where Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) confronts the killer Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark, in his first film)— features Thonet chairs. In Luigi’s (Sea Food, Cocktails): |
|
Brute Force |
1947 |
Burt Lancaster Director: |
Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) confronts Gallagher (Charles Bickford) in the prison printing shop, with a No. 18. |
|
Detail |
||||
Dark Passage |
1947 |
Humphrey Bogart Director: |
|
Dr. Walter Coley (Houseley Stevenson) sizes up Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart) before performing the plastic surgery that will change Parry’s appearance. |
Detail A Thonet chair (model unknown) casts a noir shadow in Dr. Coley’s surgery. |
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Daisy Kenyon |
1947 |
Joan Crawford Director: |
Peter Lapham (Henry Fonda) in a restaurant scene with Thonet No. 45s and No. 18s. Across the street from the restaurant, the Greenwich Theater is showing Mr. Lucky, a 1943 romance starring Cary Grant and Laraine Day. |
|
Dancing with Crime |
1947 |
Richard Attenborough Director: |
In a restaurant scene (Fish Suppers Frying Nightly), Ted Peters (Richard Attenborough) center, with three models of Thonet chair visible: Back left, a Thonet No. 52½ (missing one back bar) and a No. 14 |
|
Born to Kill |
1947 |
Claire Trevor Director: |
In Mrs. Kraft’s boarding house, Thonet No. 33 chairs at the table. |
|
Lured |
1947 |
George Sanders Director: |
At a taxi dance hall, three Thonet chair models appear in the taxi dancers’ gallery. Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) has her hand on a No. 18, a No. 45½ sits on the left front row, and a No. 18 variant with a narrow inner back loop sits in the back row. |
|
Detail A later scene in the White Swan, with Thonet No. 18 chairs. |
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Out of the Past |
1947 |
Robert Mitchum Director: |
Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) in a Harlem club scene with Thonet No. 18s at the tables. |
|
I Walk Alone |
1947 |
Burt Lancaster Director: |
While walking through the kitchen in Dink Turner’s nightclub, Frankie Madison (Burt Lancaster) and Kay Lawrence (Lizabeth Scott) pass a Thonet No. 18 painted white. This chair has the optional side braces. |
|
The Lady from Shanghai |
1947 |
Rita Hayworth Director: |
A café scene featuring a Thonet No. 18. Though the sign above the door of the café only reads “Liquors,” the scene was filmed in Sally Stanford’s Walhalla (Valhalla) waterfront bar and café in Sausalito, CA. The Walhalla sign is visible in other shots. |
|
Johnny O'Clock |
1947 |
Dick Powell Director: |
Johnny O'Clock (Dick Powell) enters the back room of the casino in which he’s a junior partner. |
|
A short time later, Johnny and Nancy Hobson (Evelyn Keyes) in the same room. |
||||
Detail The chairs at the round gambling table are Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop. |
||||
Desert Fury |
1947 |
John Hodiak Director: |
In a pivotal scene near the end of the film, Johnny Ryan (Wendell Corey), Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak) and Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott) walk into the back room of the Night Spot Cafe. A Thonet No. 18 in the left foreground |
|
Detail In the right background, a Thonet No. 45½ casts a noir shadow. |
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Moss Rose |
1947 |
Peggy Cummins Director: |
A restaurant scene. |
|
Detail In the background, a Thonet No. 45½. |
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Repeat Performance |
1947 |
Louis Hayward Director: |
In a very brief scene in a blues club... |
|
Detail The chairs at the tables in the background are Thonet No. 391. |
||||
In the asylum, Sheila Page (Joan Leslie) visits William Williams (Richard Basehart). |
||||
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Song of the (Last in the six-film series.) |
1947 |
William Powell Director: |
Nick Charles (William Powell as ) and Asta (Asta Jr. ) enter a coffee shop. |
|
|
Detail The unoccupied chair at the table in the foreground is a Thonet No. 18. |
|||
After hours jazz jam. |
||||
Detail The drummer playing a Thonet No. 45½ using the back like a cymbal. |
||||
Raw Deal |
1948 |
Dennis O'Keefe Director: |
In the back room of Grimshaw’s Taxidermy, an empty Thonet No. 18 in the foreground bears mute witness to the double cross. Left to right: Grimshaw (Tom Fadden) Another Thonet No. 18 can be seen in the background of the main room at Grimshaw’s. |
|
Call Northside 777 |
1948 |
James Stewart Director: |
Thonet No. 18s and No. 45s at the tables of a bar. This is the bar where P.J. McNeal (James Stewart) finds a woman who knows Wanda Skutnik. The newspaper reads “Where is Wanda Skutnik?” |
|
Highway 13 |
1948 |
Robert Lowery Director: |
|
In the Clover garage and diner where trucker Hank Wilson (Robert Lowery) meets his fiance, the waitress (Pamela Blake). The chairs at the tables—shown only in the background—are Thonet No. 124s, with the newer curved leg brace. |
Detail |
||||
I Remember Mama |
1948 |
Irene Dunne Director: |
|
Thonet No. 18 and noir shadow in a scene in the “Gentlemen’s.” |
A later scene in a hospital room. |
||||
Sorry, |
1948 |
Barbara Stanwyck Director: |
|
Only seen briefly as the camera pans past the door to the kitchen in the Stevenson apartment, Thonet No. 45 with narrow inner back loop. |
Detail |
||||
A Song is Born |
1948 |
Danny Kaye Director: |
|
Hobart Frisbee (Danny Kaye) in the private musicology research institute. |
Detail A Thonet No. 18 chair with Frisbee’s tophat. |
||||
The Golden Gate Quartet |
||||
Detail A Thonet No. 18, complete with noir shadow as a prop. |
||||
The Fallen Idol |
1948 |
Ralph Richardson Director: |
Baines (Ralph Richardson) and Julie (Michèle Morgan) sit in Thonet No. 14s in an early scene in a restaurant. The empty chair on the left will soon be occupied by Philippe (Bobby Henrey), the third member of this tragic triangle. On the right, the chairs cast noir shadows on the wall and, importantly, on Baines’s back. |
|
No Orchids for Miss Blandish |
1948 |
Jack La Rue Director: |
No Orchids for Miss Blandish is a remarkable British ganster film noir, set in New York and featuring a mostly British cast (who sometimes forget their American accents). |
|
A bar set with a Thonet No. 20 in the foreground, a Thonet No. 15 and two Thonet No. 14s in the background. |
||||
Five Thonet chairs appear in this scene: Thonet No. 18 in the foreground |
||||
A restaurant scene with Thonet No. B 34 bent steel armchairs. |
||||
The old codger who runs a country gas station is gunned down in his Thonet rocking chair. |
||||
A restaurant scene shot from overhead (reminiscent of the ending of Citizen Kane) contains many Thonet No. S 533 bent steel chairs, some upsidedown on tables. |
||||
They Live by Night |
1948 |
Cathy O'Donnell Director: |
Arthur “Bowie” Bowers (Farley Granger) and Catherine “Keechie” Mobley in a night club scene. Thonet No. 18 chairs at the tables. |
|
Detail |
||||
A Foreign Affair |
1948 |
Jean Arthur Director: |
At the military airport waiting for the fog to clear. Colonel Plummer (Millard Mitchell) is in the background. |
|
Detail Both Thonet No. 45½ and No. 18 chairs are visible in this set. |
||||
A romantic-comedy ending in the apartment of Erika von Schlütow (Marlene Dietrich). Captain John Pringle (John Lund) fends off Congresswoman Phoebe Frost (Jean Arthur) with a Thonet No. 45½. |
||||
Force of Evil |
1948 |
John Garfield Director: |
Frederick “Freddie” Bauer backs away from a killer in a restaurant scene. |
|
Detail The chair, casting a noir shadow, is a Thonet No. 124 or similar, with a modern curved leg brace. |
||||
I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes |
1948 |
Don Castle Director: |
Ann Quinn (Elyse Knox) and Inspector Clint Judd (Regis Toomey) have coffee at a diner counter. |
|
Detail In the background, a woman sits on a Thonet No. 18 chair at a table. |
||||
Homecoming |
1948 |
Clark Gable Director: |
Lt. Jane “Snapshot” McCall (Lana Turner) alone at a table of an outdoor mess. |
|
Detail In the background, soldiers on a Thonet No. 45½ (left) and Thonet No. 18 (right.) |
||||
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands |
1948 |
Joan Fontaine Director: |
In The Anchor and Dolphin pub. |
|
Detail The chairs at the tables are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
In a pool hall scene. |
||||
Detail The chairs in the pool hall are Thonet No. 18. This empty chair casts a noir shadow on the brick wall. |
||||
On the Town |
1949 |
Gene Kelly Director: |
Gabey (Gene Kelly) ogles two women in Symphonic Hall. |
|
Detail An empty Thonet No. 18 with modern leg brace stands mute witness. |
||||
Gabey and Ivy Smith (Vera-Ellen) in a dance routine in a later scene. |
||||
A Thonet No. 18, with the Ring-shaped leg brace casts a noir shadow on the back wall. |
||||
In the Good Old Summertime |
1949 |
Judy Garland Director: |
|
A restaurant set features Thonet No. 18 and No. 45 ½ chairs. |
|
||||
Whisky Galore! |
1949 |
Basil Radford Director: |
George Campbell (Gordon Jackson) escapes from his bedroom, with a Thonet No. 14 (with noir shadow) in the background. |
|
Shockproof |
1949 |
Cornel Wilde Director: |
An early scene in a bookie joint. Thonet No. 18s at the tables. |
|
Criss Cross |
1949 |
Burt Lancaster Director: |
Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) enters the Round-Up Bar in a dramatic shot with Thonet No. 18 and No. 45½ chairs casting noir shadows. |
|
Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) seated at a table in the Round-Up Bar while Frank (Percy Helton) gives him a talking to. |
||||
Thonet No. 45½ in the foreground of a stark shot of a telephone booth in the Round-Up Bar. |
||||
Lust for Gold |
1949 |
|
Julia Thomas (Ida Lupino) in the café section of her Phoenix, Arizona bakery. |
|
Detail The left chair is a Thonet No. 18, the right chair is a Thonet No. 45 variant with narrow inner back loop. |
||||
In a later shot the drunken Jacob Walz (Glenn Ford) falls on the sidewalk. |
||||
Detail |
||||
The Third Man |
1949 |
Joseph Cotten Director: |
Harry Lime (Orson Welles) enters a bar. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 221. |
||||
The Great Sinner |
1949 |
Gregory Peck Director: |
Pauline Ostrovsky (Ava Gardner) and Fedya (Gregory Peck) in the casino at Wiesbaden. In an early shot in the casino, a Thonet chair is shown between the two, in the background, in another room, through a window. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 45½. |
||||
As Fedya sits down to order a drink, an empty Thonet No. 45½ is across the table from him. |
||||
The chair at the table behind Fedya is a Thonet No. 18 casting a noir shadow. |
||||
Fedya and another Thonet No. 18. behind him, this time occupied. |
||||
Black Hand |
1950 |
Gene Kelly Director: |
A meeting room with three Thonet models visible: No. 45½, No. 18 variant with narrow inner loop, No. 18. |
|
In the Naples restaurant in Naples, Italy, Louis Lorelli (J. Carrol Naish) speaks with a waiter. The camera looks down a line of No. 45½, No. 18 variant with narrow inner loop and No. 18 Thonet chairs. |
||||
Detail showing the chairs and their noir shadows. |
||||
Lorelli in an office standing next to a Thonet No. 18 variant with narrow inner back loop. |
||||
Stage Fright |
1950 |
Jane Wyman Director: |
On stage during a rehearsal at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) in the hoop skirt. |
|
Detail The chairs stacked in the background left are Thonet No. 14s. |
||||
Another camera angle during the rehearsal. |
||||
Detail The chair at the table is a Thonet No. 14. |
||||
The File on Thelma Jordon |
1950 |
Barbara Stanwyck Director: |
A restaurant scene early in the film. |
|
Detail The Thonet chairs may be examples of the dining chair designed by Gustav Siegel for Thonet in the early 1900s. Also see Teacher’s Pet 1958. |
||||
Woman on the Run |
1950 |
Ann Sheridan Director: |
Woman on the Run declares its noir sensibility with a Thonet No. 18 right at the beginining, when Eleanor Johnson (Ann Sheridan) lifts Rembrandt (actor uncredited) off of a Thonet No. 18. |
|
Thonet No. 18s show up in later scenes as well, for example, this one with the Thonet No. 18 in the foreground, used as a stand for a painting. |
||||
Young Man with a Horn |
1950 |
Kirk Douglas Director: |
Doris Day, Hoagy Carmichael and Kirk Douglas in a hospital room scene. Thonet No. 45s in the background. |
|
Caged |
1950 |
Eleanor Parker Director: |
Unknown model Thonet chair. |
|
Quicksand |
1950 |
Mickey Rooney Director: |
In the backroom of Gus’ Place, tables are set with Thonet No. 18 chairs.
|
|
A customer (Bert Stevens, uncredited extra) leaves his table. |
||||
The chair casts a noir shadow on the door. |
||||
Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney) is just entering the scene at the far right down the bar hall. |
||||
The Asphalt Jungle |
1950 |
Sterling Hayden Director: |
|
“Doc” Erwin Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) sits next to an empty Thonet No. 18, which is casting a noir shadow. |
Detail In a separate shot, Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) stands next to a Thonet No. 18, also casting a noir shadow. A No. 45½ can be seen in other shots. |
||||
The Happy Years |
1950 |
Dean Stockwell Director: |
A shot during a pancake-eating contest features a Thonet No. 45½ and a Thonet No. 18. |
|
The Breaking Point |
1950 |
John Garfield Director: |
The Breaking Point is the second of three screen adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. All three have shots of Thonet chairs. In the dance bar scene, in Christian’s Hut, Leona Charles (Patricia Neal) sings among the tables. |
|
Detail The tables are set with simple ladder-back Thonet chairs with the Loop-shaped leg brace. |
||||
Golden Salamander |
1950 |
Trevor Howard Director: |
Agno (Wilfrid Hyde-White) walks toward a table where a waiter lifts a Thonet No. 18 chair. |
|
Borderline |
1950 |
Fred MacMurray Director: |
Pete Ritchie (Raymond Burr) frowns at his beer while Madeleine Haley, posing as Gladys LaRue (Claire Trevor) gets up close during a dance routine in La Gran Fiesta (6 señoritas). The café tables all have Thonet No. 18 chairs. |
|
No Man of Her Own |
1950 |
Barbara Stanwyck Director: |
A restaurant scene |
|
Detail Thonet No. 3 Writing Desk Armchairs at the tables. |
||||
Dark City |
1950 |
Charlton Heston Director: |
At least three models of Thonet chairs are visible in Danny Haley’s gambling establishment. Arthur Winant (Don DeFore) smiles as the gamblers let him win. |
|
Detail Thonet No. 18
|
||||
Barney (Ed Begley) nurses his ulcer. |
||||
Detail Thonet No. 45 |
||||
Fran Garland (Lizabeth Scott) looks fearfully at Danny Haley (off screen). |
||||
Detail Thonet No. 440 or similar |
||||
No Way Out |
1950 |
Richard Widmark Director: |
Edie Johnson (Linda Darnell) waits and smokes in a pool hall. |
|
Detail Some of the chairs at tables in the pool hall are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman |
1951 |
Ava Gardner Director: |
Pandora (Ava Gardner) appears early in a bar called Las Dos Tortugas (the two turtles). The bar’s chairs are Thonet No. 14s, with the Ring-shaped leg brace and optional back braces. Some have an added cane insert. |
|
Bullfighter Juan Montalvo (Mario Cabré) makes his dramatic entrance to Las Dos Tortugas later in the film(image cropped slightly). |
||||
Pool of London |
1951 |
Bonar Colleano Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs in a dressing-room scene. |
|
Detail A noir shadow is barely visible on the left. |
||||
The Big Night |
1951 |
John Drew Barrymore Director: |
Thonet No. 3 Writing Desk Armchairs in Tuffy's Tavern. |
|
Detail |
||||
On Dangerous Ground |
1951 |
Ida Lupino Director: |
Just glimpsed in a restaurant scene: a Melnikov Roundback café chair designed by Michael Thonet, or a variant. |
|
His Kind of Woman |
1951 |
Robert Mitchum Directors: |
Thonet No. 18s and No. 45½s in a diner. |
|
The Mob |
1951 |
Broderick Crawford Director: |
Johnny Damico, under cover as Tim Flynn (Broderick Crawford) nurses a beer in The Black Kitten bar, with an unoccupied Thonet No. 18 in the far background. |
|
Detail |
||||
Thunder on the Hill |
1951 |
Claudette Colbert Director: |
Willie (Michael Pate) climbs the stairs in the hospital ward of the convent. |
|
Detail The chair on the landing is a Thonet No. 18, casting a noir shadow. |
||||
Dr. Jeffreys (Robert Douglas) in the hospital lab. |
||||
Detail The chair is a Thonet chair of unknown model number, also casting a noir shadow. This same model (or at least similar ones) can be seen in Swing Time, 1936, Dark Passage, 1947 and Caged, 1950. |
||||
The Prowler |
1951 |
Van Heflin Director: |
Susan Gilvray at center at a Coroner’s Inquest. The witness chair is at front left. |
|
Detail The witness chair is a Thonet No. 18. The shot through the chair shows a jury member’s hat. |
||||
The Coroner’s Jury returns to deliver a death bty misadventure verdict. |
||||
Detail The jury chairs are all Thonet No. 18. |
||||
The Scarf |
1951 |
John Ireland Director: |
Connie Carter (Mercedes McCambridge) walks off camera in Level Louie’s bar/café. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Ezra Thompson (James Barton) and Connie Carter talking at a table in Level Louie’s bar/café. |
||||
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 124 or similar, with the modern loop-shaped leg brace. |
||||
Come Back, Little Sheba |
1952 |
Burt Lancaster Director: |
Marie Buckholder (Terry Moore) and Turk Fisher (Richard Jaeckel) in The Ram bar. |
|
Detail Tables are set with Thonet No. 18 and No. 45½ chairs. |
||||
Sudden Fear |
1952 |
Joan Crawford Director: |
The opening scene of Sudden Fear shows a rehearsal of Halfway to Heaven, a new Myra Hudson (Joan Crawford) play, with Thonet No. 18s on the stage set. |
|
Detail |
||||
The Greatest Show on Earth |
1952 |
Betty Hutton Director: |
Four clowns and a Thonet chair. Clown two sits in the chair but clown one grabs clown two’s leg and jerks him off the chair into the air. (Images cropped) |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18 variant in which the inner loop extends below the seat to become leg braces. |
||||
Affair in Trinidad |
1952 |
Rita Hayworth Director: |
|
Steve Emery (Glen Ford) and Martin, Wittol’s Henchman (Mort Mills) converse in The Caribe, Wittol’s nightclub. |
The right-side up chair is a Thonet No. 18 variant with a narrow back loop. The upside down chair is the usual No. 18. |
||||
Detail |
||||
Moulin Rouge |
1952 |
José Ferrer Director: |
Houston’s Moulin Rouge is based on a 1950 novel by Pierre La Mure. In the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (José Ferrer) finishes a bottle of cognac. |
|
Detail Henri’s table is set with Thonet No. 14 chairs. (See At the Moulin Rouge in Thonet Chairs in Art.) |
||||
As the Moulin Rouge closes, and partons leave, Thonet No. 14 chairs are stacked on tables, a movie trope denoting closing time. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is in the center of the frame. |
||||
Loan Shark |
1952 |
George Raft Director: |
In a bar scene, Joe Gargen (George Raft) discusses his new loan with Paul Nelson (Henry Slate, facing camera) and other workers from the tire factory. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
|
Carbine Williams |
1952
|
James Stewart Director: |
Marsh Williams (James Stewart) in bed with appendicitis. A Thonet No. 45½ is next to his bed. |
|
The Snows of Kilimanjaro |
1952 |
Gregory Peck Director: |
Harry Street (Gregory Peck) greets Emile, owner of Café Emile. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 and Thonet No. 45, in dark brown and blond stains. |
||||
The Green Glove |
1952 |
Glenn Ford Director: |
Christine 'Chris' Kenneth (Geraldine Brooks) and Mike Blake (Glenn Ford) eat at a café while they're on the run. |
|
A closer shot from a different angle. |
||||
Detail The chairs at the café are Thonet No. 54. |
||||
Vicki |
1953 |
Jeanne Crain Director: |
Jill (Jeanne Crain) and Vicki (Jean Peters) in Webster’s Cafeteria. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 391 or similar, with the more modern curved leg braces. |
||||
Jill packing in Club Capri. |
||||
Detail Upholstered Thonet chairs, showing the modern curved leg brace. |
||||
From Here to Eternity |
1953 |
Burt Lancaster Director: |
In a bar fight, Staff Sergeant James R. “Fatso” Judson (Ernest Borgnine) threatens Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra) with a knife. |
|
Detail A Thonet No. 45½ is prominent in the foreground. |
||||
The Band Wagon |
1953 |
Fred Astaire Director: |
A rehearsal scene in the “real life” musical. Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire) center. |
|
Detail On the left side in the screenshot above, from left to right: |
||||
Detail On the right side in the screenshot above, three Thonet No. 18 chairs with optional back braces and Ring-shaped leg brace. |
||||
This is the final segment of the musical within a musical. The segment has a noir (ganster) motif, and is set in Dem Bones Café. |
||||
Detail A Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Innocents in Paris |
1953 |
Alastair Sim Director: |
Susan Robbins (Claire Bloom) and Dickie Bird (Ronald Shiner) in Bal Du Moulin Rouge. Thonet No. 18 and No. 45 are visible at tables. |
|
Detail A different view of Thonet No. 18 chairs in Bal Du Moulin Rouge. |
||||
An outdoor café. |
||||
Detail Thonet No. 54 chairs. |
||||
The Fake |
1953 |
Dennis O'Keefe Director: |
In a bedroom. |
|
Detail The chair at far left is a Thonet No. 14. |
||||
The Blue Gardenia |
1953 |
Anne Baxter Director: |
Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter), Casey Mayo (Richard Conte), Drunk Reporter 1 (Frank Kreig) Drunk Reporter 2 (Frank Ferguson) in Bill’s Beanery. |
|
Detail The chairs at the table in the background are Thonet No. 391. |
||||
Miss Sadie Thompson |
1953 |
Rita Hayworth Director: |
Sadie Thompson (Rita Hayworth) in her room in Horn’s Hotel. |
|
Detail The pair of stacked chairs behind Sadie Thompson are Thonet No. 45½. (Or the lower chair may be a No. 18.) |
||||
Sgt. Phil O'Hara (Aldo Ray) about to open the doors. The doors are framed by pairs of Thonet chairs shown in several shots. |
||||
Detail The chairs on the right are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Sadie Thompson singing in Bill’s Place. |
||||
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Journey to Italy |
1954 |
Ingrid Bergman Director: |
Paul Dupont (Paul Muller) moves a chair in La Bersagliera - Fish restaurant and typical cuisine. Background center, Katherine Joyce (Ingrid Bergman). |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18 with Four arc leg braces. |
||||
Paul Dupont seated at the end of the table nearest the camera. Background center, Alexander Joyce (George Sanders). |
||||
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18, but not the same model as the one he moved earlier. This chair has a ring-shaped leg brace. |
||||
Sabrina |
1954 |
Humphrey Bogart Director: |
Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn) walks into her room above the garage. Thonet No. 18 chairs at the table and desk, a Thonet rocking chair, a Thonet table and a Thonet headboard and footboard. |
|
Detail Thonet No. 18 chair at the table. |
||||
Detail Thonet table. |
||||
Detail Thonet Headboard and footboard. A similar headboard design appears in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, 1960. |
||||
The Last Time I Saw Paris |
1954 |
Elizabeth Taylor Director: |
Charles Wills (Van Johnson) enters the Dhingo Café after returning to Paris.. At least three models of Thonet chairs are visible at tables. In this frame, two Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop are stacked on a table. |
|
The Dhingo Café features heavily in the film, with characters returning there several times. In a flashback, Marion Ellswirth (Donna Reed) watches Charles from a back corner of the Dhingo. |
||||
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. The drawing on the wall also features a Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Helen Ellswirth (Elizabeth Taylor) in a late scene in the film. She’s framed between a glass of whiskey and a Thonet No. 18 chair. |
||||
Detail |
||||
The Far Country |
1954 |
James Stewart Director: |
Judge Gannon (John McIntire) at a saloon table. Shown over his left shoulder is a Thonet No. 3 Writing Desk Armchair. |
|
Detail |
||||
In a similarly laid out shot from a later scene, Marshal Rube Morris (Jay C. Flippen), Ben Tatem (Walter Brennan) and Jeff Webster (James Stewart) have drinks at a saloon table. In the background are another Thonet No. 3 Writing Desk Armchair and Renee Vallon (Corinne Calvet) heading for the door. |
||||
Detail |
||||
The Glenn Miller Story |
1954 |
James Stewart Director: |
Wilbur Schwartz (Nino Tempo) auditions for the band. |
|
The chair is a Thonet No. 18, painted red. |
||||
River of No Return |
1954 |
Robert Mitchum Director: |
Harry Weston (Rory Calhoun) sweet talking Kay Weston (Marilyn Monroe) in the Black Nugget Saloon. |
|
Detail The piano player is sitting on a Thonet No. 18 chair. |
||||
It Should Happen to You |
1954 |
Judy Holliday Director: |
Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday) and Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon) in the 1029 Restaurant. |
|
Detail The chair at right is a Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop. In the background, there's a Thonet No. 45 or 45½. |
||||
Phffft |
1954 |
Judy Holliday Director: |
Robert Tracey (Jack Lemmon) and Nina Tracey (Judy Holliday out of the frame to the left) in an unnamed restaurant. |
|
Detail The chair at left is a Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop. |
||||
The chair (at right in the background above) is a Thonet No. 18. (The same restaurant set may have been used in Phffft and It Should Happen to You, above.) |
||||
The Long Gray Line |
1955 |
Tyrone Power Director: |
Martin Maher (Tyrone Power) at a backroom table in Harry’s Bar, as a West Point cadet enters to persuade Marty to go home. |
|
Detail The chair at left is a Thonet No. 45½. The chairs to the right in the background are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Martin Maher looks up. |
||||
Detail The empty chair to his left is a Thonet No. 18. |
||||
The Big Knife |
1955 |
Jack Palance Director: |
Hollywood actor Charlie Castle (Jack Palance) on a set for studio publicity stills. The chair is a Thonet No. 18 variant with narrow inner back loop. |
|
Detail |
||||
The Big Combo |
1955 |
Cornel Wilde Director: |
Mr. Brown (Richard Conte) walks behind a light-colored Thonet No. 18. |
|
The only recognizable chair and the only unoccupied chair was intended for Nils Dreyer (John Hoyt), who’s just been murdered by Joe McClure (Brian Donlevy), left. Mr. Brown addresses the three henchmen: |
||||
I'll Cry Tomorrow |
1955 |
Susan Hayward Director: |
|
An early scene in I’ll Cry Tomorrow shows girls hoping to be chosen for a movie role—and their mothers—sitting on Thonet chairs. |
An empty Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop sits in between the two girls. |
||||
Detail |
||||
Three Cases of Murder |
1955 |
Alan Badel |
Three Cases of Murder is a so-called omnibus movie with three separate stories. This scene is in the middle segment “You Killed Elizabeth,” directed by David Eady. The chairs look like a more modern version of the No.12 or No. 393 shown in the 1904 Thonet Illustrated Catalogue. |
|
French Cancan |
1955 |
Jean Gabin Director: |
Café scenes feature Thonet chairs, as befits this consciously painterly film. Here two models appear to have the backs of the Thonet No. 14 and Thonet No. 18 models, but with trapezoidal seats. These chairs also have unusual leg bracing. |
|
The Phenix City Story |
1955 |
John McIntire Director: |
Just the top of a Thonet No. 18 (lower right) in a bar scene. |
|
Guys and Dolls |
1955 |
Marlon Brando Director: |
In the gangster-romance musical Guys and Dolls, tables at Mindy’s are furnished with Thonet No. 18 chairs, with the optional back braces. Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) tries to sucker Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) into betting on whether Mindy’s sold more cheesecake or strudel the previous day. |
|
Nathan sings to Miss Adelaide (Vivian Blaine) using one of the Thonet No. 18s as a prop. Also see Cover Girl, The Band Wagon and Cabaret. |
||||
Illegal |
1955 |
Edward G. Robinson Director: |
Victor Scott (Edward G. Robinson)—in Joe’s Bar. |
|
Detail Thonet No. 18 chairs. |
||||
Detail Thonet No. 45½ Chairs, with more Thonet No. 18s in the background. A Thonet No. 45½ appears in another scene, in the office of D.F. Jarvis Bail Bonds, where Victor Scott is getting his stomach pumped after drinking poison in a courtroom. |
||||
Man with the Gun |
1955 |
Robert Mitchum Director: |
Criterion Channel includes Man with the Gun in their collection labelled Western Noir. A woman mocking a gunfighter who shot a boy’s dog.
|
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 24 or similar. |
||||
Wichita |
1955 |
Joel McCrea Director: |
|
Detail In the bar of the Keno House, Gyp Clements (Lloyd Bridges) is knocked out of a Thonet No. 18, with narrow back loop.
|
Detail The arm chairs at the bar’s tables are Thonet No. 3 office chairs, or similar. |
||||
The Catered Affair |
1956 |
Bette Davis Director: |
Ralph Halloran (Rod Taylor) and Jane Hurley (Debbie Reynolds) meeting in a diner, with Thonet No. 45s (variant with narrow inner back loop).
|
|
A later restaurant and dance hall scene with Thonet No. 18s. |
||||
The Killer Is Loose |
1956 |
Joseph Cotten Director: |
The room in which police are recording a tapped phone is furnished with Thonet No. 18 chairs. Here the shot is over the back of an empty chair. |
|
The Killing |
1956 |
Sterling Hayden Director: |
Maurice Oboukhoff (Kola Kwariani) and Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) in the “Academy of Chess and Checkers.” A Thonet No. 45 seems like a third party to the conversation in this shot. Both Thonet No. 18s and No. 45s are visible in several shots in the academy. |
|
Time Table |
1956 |
Mark Stevens Director: |
Joe Armstrong (King Calder) and Charlie Norman (Mark Stevens) in the Winston Hotel Coffee Shop. |
|
Detail The chairs in coffee shop are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Around the World in 80 Days |
1956 |
David Niven Director: |
A bar scene. |
|
Detail In her cameo, Marlene Dietrich stands between Thonet No. 18 chairs. |
||||
Storm Center Note: Storm Center was filmed on location in Santa Rosa, California, as was Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, 1943. Also see Extras. |
1956 |
Bette Davis Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs in the Free Public Library.
|
|
Freddie Slater (Kevin Coughlin) enters the library after learning that Alicia Hull (Bette Davis) had been fired. |
||||
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18, with optional back braces and the Ring-shaped leg brace. |
||||
Fire in the library. |
||||
Detail The chair shown close up during the fire at the end of the film is a Thonet No. 18 variant with a narrow back loop and a loop-shaped leg brace |
||||
The Man Who Knew Too Much |
1956 |
James Stewart Director: |
The Ambrose Chapel figures importantly in the film. Jo Conway McKenna (Doris Day) initially thinks the name refers to a man, Ambrose Chappell. Instead of pews, the main floor contains rows of Thonet chairs, something like 90 chairs in all. |
|
Detail Two Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop and one No. 18 are empty in the front rows. |
||||
After the parishoners leave, Ben McKenna (James Stewart) confronts Edward Drayton (Bernard Miles) who led the service. |
||||
Detail Four models of Thonet chair can be identified on the floor, Thonet No. 18, No. 18 with narrow back loop, No. 45 and No. 45½. Previous shots show Ben McKenna through Thonet chair backs. |
||||
Bus Stop |
1956 |
Marilyn Monroe Director: |
Chérie (Marilyn Monroe) in her dressing room at the Blue Dragon Café. |
|
Detail A Thonet No. 18 casts a noir shadow on Chérie’s dress. |
||||
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt |
1956 |
Dana Andrews Director: |
Dolly Moore (Barbara Nichols) and Tom Garrett (Dana Andrews) in a dressing room. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 45½. |
||||
Top Secret Affair |
1957 |
Susan Hayward Director: |
A nightclub scene, with Thonet No. 18s at the tables. |
|
Witness for the Prosecution |
1957 |
Tyrone Power Director: |
After a brawl in Die Blaue Laterne (The Blue Lantern), Thonet No. 18 chairs are among the wreckage. |
|
In a back room, where Christine Helm (Marlene Dietrich) lives, Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power) reaches for a Thonet No. 18 that holds up the ceiling. He later knocks the chair over, bringing the ceiling down. |
||||
Sweet Smell of Success |
1957 |
Burt Lancaster Director: |
Early in the film, Joe Robard (Joseph Leon) in Robard’s Jazz Club, with Thonet No. 18s at the tables. Thonet No. 18 chairs are also visible (barely) in later shots in 21 Club. |
|
Detail |
||||
The Smallest Show on Earth |
1957 |
Bill Travers Director: |
|
The Smallest Show on Earth is a British comedy in the tradition of American screwball comedies, with no hint of noir in the plot. The presence of Thonet No. 14 chairs in the Private Office of the Bijou Kinema (the “flea pit”) is a reference to the golden past of film (and film noir), as the Bijou is part of that past. Robin Carter (Leslie Phillips), Matt Spenser (Bill Travers) and Jean Spenser (Virginia McKenna) in the office.
|
Jean Spenser in the the office with a noir shadow of the No. 14 she’s sitting on. |
||||
Fire Down Below |
1957 |
Rita Hayworth Director: |
Near the end of the movie, in a bar, Felix sits in a Thonet No. 391 or similar, while Irena sits in another model, with a flat inner back panel. |
|
Detail The model with a flat inner back panel also appears in a later scene in a barber shop. |
||||
Nightfall |
1957 |
Aldo Ray Director: |
|
In an early café scene, Thonet No. 18s, some with the narrow back loop. |
Detail |
||||
A Face in the Crowd |
1957 |
Andy Griffith Director: |
Thonet chairs In the background of a bar scene. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 variant with a narrow inner back loop. |
||||
The Garment Jungle |
1957 |
Lee J. Cobb Director: |
Alan Mitchell (Kerwin Mathews) finds his father Walter Mitchell (Lee J. Cobb) murdered in the dress shop. |
|
Detail An empty Thonet No. 18 at a desk in the near background. It is casting a noir shadow on the desk. |
||||
The Tarnished Angels |
1957 |
Rock Hudson Director: |
Left to right, Jiggs (Jack Carson), Burke Devlin (Rock Hudson), Roger Shumann (Robert Stack) and LaVerne Shumann (Dorothy Malone) in the Airport Café. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 |
||||
Near the end of the film, a wake for Roger Shumann is held at the Claude Mollet Café and Seafood Cellar. On the outdoor dining patio, Thonet No. 18 chairs are placed upside down on tables, a trope indicating the ending of a scene or film. Jiggs sits with a bottle of whisky as a drunk man approaches. |
||||
Detail Thonet No. 18 with the Ring-shaped leg brace. |
||||
The Incredible Shrinking Man |
1957 |
Grant Williams Director: |
Robert “Scott” Carey (Grant Williams) speaks with Dr. Bramson (William Schallert) in the doctor’s office. |
|
The chair in the background is an unknown Thonet model. This same model (or at least similar ones) can be seen in Swing Time, 1936, Dark Passage, 1947, Caged, 1950 and Thunder on the Hill, 1951. |
||||
Touch of Evil |
1958 |
Charlton Heston Director: |
Uncle Joe Grandi (Akim Tamiroff) in his bar. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
The Gun Runners |
1958 |
Audie Murphy Director: |
Sam Martin (Audie Murphy) rushes into the dance bar, using Thonet No. 18s to keep his balance. The Gun Runners is the third film version of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. All three have shots of Thonet chairs. |
|
Teacher’s Pet |
1958 |
Clark Gable Director: |
The Thonet chairs in this scene look like examples of the dining chair designed by Gustav Siegel for Thonet in the early 1900s, in this case with decorative nails. Also see The File on Thelma Jordon (1950). |
|
Party Girl |
1958 |
Robert Taylor Director: |
In Party Girl, Thonet chairs appear in a dressing room set, and in several bar scenes but are barely visible. |
|
The violent, climactic scene features a Thonet No. 18 in a corner, casting a noir shadow on the wall. Rico Angelo (Lee J. Cobb) realizes that the game is up, while the chair looks on. |
||||
Orders to Kill |
1958 |
Eddie Albert Director: |
A café scene. |
|
Detail Thonet Kleiderstock |
||||
Detail Thonet No. 54 with a rectangular seat. |
||||
Hong Kong Confidential |
1958 |
Gene Barry Director: |
Fay Wells (Beverly Tyler) at a nightclub piano, sitting on a Thonet No. 18 that casts a noir shadow. |
|
Some Came Running |
1958 |
Frank Sinatra Director: |
A fight at a party in a hotel room. Dave Hirsh (Frank Sinatra) in the white shirt. |
|
Detail Two of the chairs in the room are Thonet No. 45 variant with round seat and narrow inner back loop. |
||||
Detail Thonet No. 45 variant with round seat and narrow inner back loop. |
||||
Bonjour Tristesse |
1958 |
Deborah Kerr Director: |
Cécile (Jean Seberg), Philippe (Geoffrey Horne) and Anne Larsen (Deborah Kerr) enter a casino. |
|
Detail I the background a man is sitting on a painted Thonet No. 18 chair. |
||||
Peter Gunn Many episodes show Tonet chairs. In Season 2 Episode 2, Mother’s interior was wrecked by a riot started by protection racket hoodlums. In Season 2 Episode 3 and later, Mother’s has new decor, with no Thonet No. 18 chairs. Season 3 Set Decoration for most episodes is credited to |
1958 - 1961 |
Craig Stevens Director: |
Season 1 Episode 2 Peter Gunn (Craig Stevens) enters Mother’s, a jazz club that Gunn uses an an office. Emmett (Bill Chadney), the resident piano player at Mother’s, plays while Gunn’s girlfriend Edie Hart (Lola Albright) looks over her shoulder. |
|
Detail The chairs in Mother’s—seen in many episodes—are Thonet No.18 or No. 45 with fabric back covers. (In some shots, chairs without covers are visible.) |
||||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
||||
Season 1 Episode 11 Peter Gunn (Craig Stevens) and Edie Hart (Lola Albright) enter Joe’s Café, unaware that a hoodlum is holding a gun on customers. |
||||
Detail The chairs in Joe’s Café are Thonet No. 18.
|
||||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
||||
S1 E28 “Skin Deep” Peter Gunn (Craig Stevens) enters Mother’s by the back door. He’s carefully framed by Thonet No. 18 chairs, some upside down on tables. |
||||
In another carefully framed shot, Helena Mears (Katharine Bard) waits for Gunn in Mother’s. |
||||
Detail The chair casting the noir shadow in the background is a Thonet No. 45. |
||||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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S3 E3 “The Maître D'” This shot, in Edie’s jazz club, combines two tropes of film noir, filming through Thonet chairs and Thonet chairs upside down on tables after closing time. In the background, Lieutenant Jacoby (Herschel Bernardi) is on the phone. |
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S3 E12 “Sepi” Detail The Thonet chairs in Edie’s jazz club are similar to a No. 321, with a caned back insert. |
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S3 E12 “Sepi” Detail The Thonet chairs in Edie’s jazz club are similar to a No. 321, with a caned back insert. |
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The Crimson Kimono |
1959 |
Victoria Shaw Director: |
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A Thonet No. 18 in Sugar Torchs’ (Gloria Pall) dressing room at the 258 Club. |
Shuto (played by the Japanese-American wrestler and stuntman Fuji) throws a Thonet No. 18 at Det. Sgt. Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) in a Pool Hall. |
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Thonet No. 18s and No. 45s stacked on tables. |
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The Nun's Story |
1959 |
Audrey Hepburn Director: |
This set, the day room in a mental hospital, is furnished with Thonet chairs, model unknown. There are also Thonet No. 18s barely visible, as well as a Thonet Kanapee. |
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Middle of the Night |
1959 |
Fredric March Director: |
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Jerry Kingsley (Fredric March), with his back to the camera, Betty Preisser (Kim Novak) and Walter Lockman (Albert Dekker) in the office of Kingsley’s garment factory. |
Detail Thonet No. 23 Writing Desk Armchair |
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Some Like It Hot |
1959 |
Marilyn Monroe Director: |
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Chicago, 1929 In Mozarella’s Funeral Parlor (24 Hour Service), “Spats” Colombo (George Raft) cleans his spat after a drunk spilled “coffee” on it. |
Most of the chairs in Mozarella’s are Thonet No. 18s, some with the optional back brace like the one Spats’s henchman (Mike Mazurki) is sitting in. |
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The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery |
1959 |
Steve McQueen Director: |
George Fowler (Steve McQueen) and Ann (Molly McCarthy) in a restaurant scene. |
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Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 45½. |
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The Journey |
1959 |
Deborah Kerr Director: |
A russian soldier sets up chairs for passengers. |
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Detail The chair is a Thonet No. Thonet No. 54. |
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A later scene in a restaurant. |
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The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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North by Northwest |
1959 |
Cary Grant Director: |
Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) enters a cafeteria (apparently filmed in the Buffalo Room of the Memorial View Building at Mount Rushmore). |
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Detail |
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Detail The chairs are similar to a Thonet No. 52½, with the modern Loop-shaped leg brace. |
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Pier 5, Havana |
1959 |
Cameron Mitchell Director: |
Steve Daggett (Cameron Mitchell) explores a crook’s lair. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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Compulsion |
1959 |
Orson Welles Director: |
Judd Steiner (Dean Stockwell) and Artie Straus (Bradford Dillman) visit a dance club. Sid Brooks (Martin Milner) is right of center behind the table. |
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Detail The chairs at the club are Thonet No. 18. |
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The Apartment |
1960 |
Jack Lemmon Director: |
About 6 minutes into The Apartment, C. C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) enters his apartment, which is furnished with four Thonet chairs. |
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Detail Two Thonet No. 4 Café Daum chairs sit at a circular table with one half folded down. |
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Detail The right-hand Thonet No. 4 at the table casts a noir shadow on the tablecloth. |
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Detail In a later scene, C. C. Baxter has his hand on the right-hand Thonet No. 4 chair, which is now missing part of the inner loop. See also another broken Thonet chair in The Stranger, 1946. |
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In a late scene, Fran Kubelik is reclining in Baxter’s bed, which has an ornate Thonet bentwood headboard similar to the one in Billy Wilder’s Sabrina, 1954. |
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The Sundowners |
1960 |
Deborah Kerr Director: |
|
While Zinnemann insisted on filming much of The Sundowners on location in Australia, interiors were filmed in Elstree Studios in England. Several sets feature Thonet chairs. The first is in a kitchen. A Thonet No. 14 is in the back right. (Cropped screenshot)
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A house Ida Carmody (Deborah Kerr) hopes to move into includes two Thonet chairs. The first, a Thonet No. 18 with optional arms, appears in two scenes. Here the chair awaits Bluey Brown’s wife, who’s about to have a baby. |
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In another scene in the house, a Thonet No. 19 sits empty but prominently shown in the left foreground. It awaits Jean Halstead (Dina Merrill), who’s just entering. |
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Jean Halstead carries the No. 19 to the table. |
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Ocean's 11 |
1960 |
Frank Sinatra Director: |
|
In Burlesque Phoenix’s Finest, Thonet No.45½ and No. 18 chairs. |
Detail |
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One, Two, Three |
1961 |
James Cagney Director: |
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The “Grand Hotel Potemkin,” in East Germany, is furnished with Thonet chairs, No. 14, No 507 or similar, and other models. According to the script, the Grand Hotel Potemkin used to be the Great Hotel Göring, and before that, the Great Hotel Bismarck. The name “Grand Hotel Potemkin,” may refer to the 1925 Eisenstein film Battleship Potemkin, but seems at least as likely to refer to a Potemkin village—a fake village—and the “Grand Hotel Potemkin,” is a fake “grand” hotel.
|
Both images cropped from widescreen screenshots. |
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Paris Blues |
1961 |
Paul Newman Director: |
|
The first view of a Thonet chair in Paris Blues—a No. 14—comes at just 45 seconds into the credits, behind guitarist Michel “Gypsy” Devigne (Serge Reggiani). |
Ram Bowen (Paul Newman) seated behind the piano player on a Thonet No. 18. |
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Detail The piano player’s Thonet No. 18 has optional back braces and four curved leg braces, as shown in the bottom row of Thonet Chair Models. Some band practice scenes show Thonet chairs and stools jumbled upside down on tables. |
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The Hustler |
1961 |
Paul Newman Director: |
Thonet No. 45 in a bar scene. |
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Thonet No. 18 upstairs in the pool hall. |
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One-Eyed Jacks |
1961 |
Marlon Brando Director: |
In a barroom shootout scene, three models of Thonet chairs are visible: |
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Hauling the body, shot through two Thonet chairs. |
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The Children's Hour |
1961 |
Audrey Hepburn Director: |
A piano recital at the Wright-Dobie School for Girls. |
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Detail The chair at the piano is a Thonet No. 18. |
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In the foreground, with her back to the camerra, Karen Wright (Audrey Hepburn) In the background, Martha Dobie (Shirley MacLaine) |
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Detail In the background, right, a Thonet No. 18 casts a noir shadow. |
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Lover Come Back 1962 |
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Rock Hudson Director: |
Carol Templeton (Doris Day) and Jerry Webster (Rock Hudson) in a seafood restaurant. |
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Detail The chiars are all Thonet No. 18, painted seafoam blue or seafoam green. |
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David and Lisa |
1962 |
Keir Dullea Director: |
Thonet No. 18 in a single scene in the dining room of the residential psychiatric treatment center. Some other chairs in this set may be Thonet No. 18s with cloth back and seat covers. |
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Two Weeks in Another Town |
1962 |
Kirk Douglas Director: |
|
This empty Thonet No. 18 sits in front of the first row in a studio screening room, between director Maurice Kruger (Edward G. Robinson) and the screen. Kruger seems to be resting his feet on the chair. (The movie they’re watching is The Bad and the Beautiful, also starring Kirk Douglas and directed by Vincente Minnelli.) |
Detail |
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Detail from the shot as Kruger is leaving the screening room. |
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Hell Is for Heroes |
1962 |
Steve McQueen Director: |
|
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The Manchurian Candidate |
1962 |
Frank Sinatra Director: |
The famous Ladies’ Garden Club scene in The Manchurian Candidate shows the ladies sitting in a wide variety of chairs, including Thonet No. 18 chairs painted white.
|
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Detail The point of view of the soldiers also shows a Thonet No. 18. |
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Requiem for a Heavyweight |
1962 |
Anthony Quinn Director: |
Probably a Thonet No. 18 that Luis "Mountain" Rivera (Anthony Quinn) is sitting on. From a television script by Rod Serling. |
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Walk on the Wild Side |
1962 |
Laurence Harvey Director: |
Kitty Twist (Jane Fonda) walks into Teresina’s Cafe, run by Teresina Vidaverri (Anne Baxter). |
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Detail The chairs at the table near the pay phone are a Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop nearest the camera, and a Thonet No. 98 variant in the background. |
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Dove Linkhorn (Laurence Harvey) in earnest conversation with Teresina (offscreen left, behind the counter). |
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Detail The same Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop casting a noir shadow.
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Sherlock Holmes and the |
1962 |
Christopher Lee Director: |
Sherlock Holmes (Christopher Lee) and Dr. Watson in the Inspector’s office. |
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Detail Behind Holmes is a Thonet No. 18 chair casting a noir shadow on the far wall. |
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The same set from another angle. |
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The empty chair in the foreground left is a Thonet No. 18, probably the same one as in the shot above. |
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Irma la Douce |
1963 |
Jack Lemmon Director: |
|
Irma la Douce (Irma the Sweet) features Thonet chairs and other Thonet furniture more than any movie I’ve seen. Detail Irma enters Chez Moustache (bar and poolroom). |
Chez Moustache has Thonet No. 45s at the tables and at least one Thonet bar stool at the bar. |
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Near the end of the movie, as Moustache mops the floor, Thonet chairs are shown stacked on tables, a noir trope. |
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Irma’s “office” (bedroom), contains at least three styles of Thonet chair, including a Thonet armchair very similar to a No. 3. |
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The inspector’s office includes a Kanapee (sofa), similar to No. 12, a Kleiderstock (clothes stand) similar to No. 4 in the 1904 Thonet catalog, or the Café Daum coatstand, and what looks like a red upholstered Thonet chair. (See The Apartment, 1960 |
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Donovan's Reef |
1963 |
John Wayne |
Marquis Andre de Lage (Cesar Romero) shows off his telescope, with a Thonet office stool based on the No. 3 Writing Desk Armchair. |
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Detail Thonet office stool based on the No. 3 Writing Desk Armchair. Note the combined footrest and lower leg brace loop. |
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Thomas Aloysius ‘Boats’ Gilhooley (Lee Marvin) in a restaurant scene. |
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The chairs are Thonet No. 3 Writing Desk Armchairs, often seen in restaurant scenes. |
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The Train |
1964 |
Burt Lancaster Direcor: |
|
Thonet No. 54s appear in several restaurant scenes—Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) center. Another scene briefly shows the top of a Thonet No. 18. |
Detail |
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Fanfare for a Death Scene |
1964 |
Richard Egan Director: |
|
Fanfare for a Death Scene, a made-for-TV pilot for an unsold series to be titled “Stryker,” ends with an extravaganza of Thonet No. 18 chairs during a shootout at an orchestra concert. Some of the chairs appear to have been painted. John Stryker (Richard Egan) shoots between Thonet chairs at a henchman (Khigh Dhiegh), in a shot framed by Thonet chairs. |
Stryker rolls over, knocking down one Thonet chair, and shoots again, |
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Below, the dying henchman falls into the orchestra pit, also full of Thonet chairs, including a No. 18 casting a noir shadow. |
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The World of |
1964 |
Peter Sellers Director: |
Henry Orient (Peter Sellers) and Stella Dunnworthy (Paula Prentiss) in Gino’s, a “spaghetti joint.” Thonet No. 18s at the tables. |
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Man’s Favorite Sport? |
1964 |
Rock Hudson Director: |
Roger Willoughby (Rock Hudson) and Abigail Page (Paula Prentiss) in a seafood restaurant. |
|
Detail Most of the chairs at tables are Thonet No. 18. |
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A shot from another angle |
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Detail One of the chairs in the background (on the right) is a Thonet No. 45½. |
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Bunny Lake Is Missing |
1965 |
Laurence Olivier Director: |
|
Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) escapes from a hospital through the dark basement, passing behind a prominently displayed Thonet No. 14. |
Detail |
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The Big Valley |
1965 |
Barbara Stanwyck Director: |
The Barkley Ranch in Stockton, California. |
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Detail Two Thonet No. 15 armchairs and a Thonet No. 3 |
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I Spy |
1965 |
Robert Culp Director: |
After hours in Tokyo Night Bar. On the left, a Thonet No. 18 with Ring-shaped leg brace. On the right, a Thonet No. 18 with Loop-shaped leg brace. |
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Detail |
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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
1966 |
Elizabeth Taylor Director: |
|
In the Red Basket Roadhouse “Cocktails - Dancing,” two models of Thonet chairs appear on camera: Thonet No. 18 chairs, the variant with a narrow inner back loop, behind Martha (Elizabeth Taylor).
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Another No. 18 variant, with noir shadow, behind George (Richard Burton), under the Squirt sign. |
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Detail |
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Detail A ladder-back Thonet chair, complete with noir shadow. |
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Torn Curtain |
1966 |
Paul Newman Director: |
Near the end of the film, Professor Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman), background, and Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews) enter an East Berllin café with exiled Polish countess Kuchinska (Lila Kedrova), who wants them to sponsor her to emigrate to the United States. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 and No. 45½. |
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Gambit |
1966 |
Shirley MacLaine Director: |
Harry Tristan Dean (Michael Caine) and Emile Fournier (John Abbott) in a Hong Kong nightclub. The chair, featured in the foreground in several shots, is a Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop. |
|
The two discover Nicole Chang (Shirley MacLaine) at a table. |
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Detail The chairs at the tables are mostly Thonet No. 18. |
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Wait Until Dark |
1967 |
Audrey Hepburn Director: |
Carlino (Jack Weston) and Roat (Alan Arkin) walk toward the kitchen of Susy Hendrix’s (Audrey Hepburn) apartment. |
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Detail The chairs at the kitchen table are Thonet No. 19 with the Ring-shaped leg brace. |
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Mike Talman (Richard Crenna) and Carlino attack Roat in the living room of the apartment. |
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The chairs in the living room are Thonet No. 20, with Ring-shaped leg brace. Tallman’s stance looks remarkably like that of lion tamer Clyde Beatty, but Tallman is swinging a 35mm camera by its strap instead of brandishing a bullwhip. (See Taming Trump at the end of Thonet Chairs Extras.) |
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Susy Hendrix staggers when she realizes the danger she's in. Between her and the kitchen is the living room Thonet rocking chair shown in several shots. There's not enough of the rocker shown in the film to determine the model. |
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The Killing of Sister George |
1968 |
Beryl Reid Director: |
Thonet No. 18 in a restroom. |
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Bullitt |
1968 |
Steve McQueen Director: |
|
In one scene, Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) meeets an informant at Enrico's Restaurant, a famous resturant in San Francisco from 1959 to 2006. Bullitt is in the background left, just entering the restaurant. |
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 45½ and Thonet No. 18, the variant with the narrow back loop. |
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Rosemary's Baby |
1968 |
Mia Farrow Director: |
Thonet No. 33 chairs show up in several shots of the kitchen. Another Thonet chair can be seen in a bedroom scene. |
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The Sergeant |
1968 |
Rod Steiger Director: |
This screenshot is from the climactic scene where Sgt. Callan (Rod Steiger) kisses PFC Swanson (John Phillip Law) in a bar. The chairs are Thonet No. 56 (1904 catalog) with the newer arched lower braces. |
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Detail |
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The Wild Bunch |
1969 |
William Holden Director: |
Two Thonet chairs appear in this scene. They look like part of the No. 19 - No. 31 series shown in the 1904 Thonet Illustrated Catalogue. |
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Detail |
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Detail |
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The Cheyenne Social Club |
1970 |
James Stewart Director: |
The bar set in The Cheyenne Social Club includes Thonet No. 18 chairs and at least one No. 18 variant with the narrow inner loop. |
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Detail |
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Rio Lobo |
1970 |
John Wayne Director: |
|
In a saloon scene, there are Thonet No. 18s at the table near the stairs and on stage. The closer tables have No. 3 writing desk armchairs. |
Detail |
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The Phantom Tollbooth |
1970 |
Butch Patrick Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs at a table early in the live action segment of the film. |
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The Looking Glass War |
1970 |
Christopher Jones Director: |
John Avery (Anthony Hopkins) and Haldane (Paul Rogers) enter an apartment/office. |
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Detail The chair in the background is a Thonet No. 14. |
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Detail A room upstairs contains two more Thonet No. 14 chairs. |
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The Girl (Pia Degermark) in her apartment sitting in a Thonet Rocking Chair. |
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McCabe & Mrs. Miller |
1971 |
Warren Beatty Director: |
The bar set in McCabe & Mrs. Miller includes at least two Thonet models. |
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Detail A Thonet No. 45½ in front of John McCabe (Warren Beatty) and Constance Miller (Julie Christie) and a Thonet No. 18 to the left. |
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Thonet No. 18 variants with narrow inner loop at a gambling table. |
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Detail |
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Doc |
1971 |
Stacy Keach Director: |
Wyatt Earp (Harris Yulin) walks into a bar. |
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Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop. |
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Doc Holliday (Stacy Keach) talks with The Kid (Denver John Collins). |
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Detail The chair in the background is similar to a Thonet No. 68 with a single inner back loop. |
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Cabaret |
1972 |
Liza Minnelli Director: |
The famous opening scene of Cabaret is full of Thonet chairs, mostly No. 18s. |
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A Doll’s House |
1973 |
Jane Fonda Director: |
Thonet No. 18s In the Kaffe Salon. |
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Detail |
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Emergency! |
1974 |
Kevin Tighe Director: |
Fire in a winery. |
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The Front Page |
1974 |
Jack Lemmon Director: |
In Wilder’s widescreen take on The Front Page, a Thonet No. 18 sits outside the office of Walter Burns’ (Walter Mathau). |
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Detail Hildebrand ‘Hildy’ Johnson (Jack Lemmon) walks out after telling Burns he’s quitting and getting married. |
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In a later scene, Mollie Malloy (Carol Burnett) fights off a crowd of journalists with a Thonet chair (unknown model). |
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Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia |
1974 |
Warren Oates Director:
|
Thonet No. 14s in a restaurant scene. |
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The Cars That Ate Paris |
1974 |
John Meillon Director: |
A resident of Paris, Australia working on a craft project involving parts of wrecked cars. |
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Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18. |
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Russian Roulette |
1975 |
George Segal Director: |
Cpl. Timothy Shaver (George Segal) walks by a bathroom while checking out an apartment. |
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Detail The chair in the bathroom is a Thonet No. 18 painted white. |
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Shampoo |
1975 |
Warren Beatty Director: |
Detail George Roundy (Warren Beatty) and Felicia Karpf (Lee Grant) at a Republican election-night party. The chair in the foreground is a Thonet No. 18. |
|
Jill Haynes (Goldie Hawn) and Dennis Lolly (Randy Scheer) in another room at the party. |
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Detail The chair looks like a No. 45 with the inner loop extending down to the rear legs. |
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Columbo
|
1976 |
Peter Falk Director: |
Thonet No. 18s at a ballet school. |
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A Star is Born |
1976 |
Barbra Streisand Director: |
In this third version of A Star is Born, John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson) first sees Esther Hoffman (Barbra Streisand) singing in a bar, and a fight breaks out. The bar’s tables are furnished with Thonet No. 18 chairs. |
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Emergency! |
1976 |
Kevin Tighe Director: |
Thonet No. 45 and No. 18 |
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Emergency!
|
1976 |
Kevin Tighe Director: |
A fire at a stage set. |
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Julia |
1977 |
Jane Fonda Director: |
Thonet No. 18s in a restaurant scene. |
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Columbo |
1977 |
Peter Falk Director: |
Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop in a restaurant. |
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The Turning Point |
1977 |
Shirley MacLaine Director: |
Emilia Rodgers (Leslie Browne) and DeeDee Rodgers (Shirley MacLaine) |
|
Detail Thonet No. 18 |
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Despair |
1978 |
Dirk Bogarde Director: |
An outdoor café table. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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The Cat from Outer Space |
1978 |
Ken Berry Director: |
Jake / Zunar-J-5/9 Doric-4-7 (Rumpler or Amber) |
|
Detail Jake is perched—complete with noir shadow—on a Thonet-style office stool with a back similar to a No. 3 Writing Desk Armchair. |
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Time After Time |
1979 |
Malcolm McDowell Director: |
Detail H. G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) i the apartment of Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen). Her table has two chrome |
|
Airplane! |
1980 |
Robert Hays Director: |
Thonet chairs appear in a flashback scene in an old-timey bar. Detail |
|
Still in the flashback, two “girl scouts” start a barroom brawl after one cheats at poker. |
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Detail The chair might be a Thonet No. 24. |
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Later, as the “girl scouts”continue their brawl, Thonet bar stools are shown at the bar. |
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Detail See Irma La Douce, 1963. |
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The Ninth Configuration |
1980 |
Stacy Keach Director: |
|
Early scenes in The Ninth Configuration feature a Thonet No. 14 painted green. |
Detail Later, in Kane’s office in the castle, there are two Thonet No. 14s for visitors. |
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Escape from New York |
1981 |
Kurt Russell Director: |
A pit band in the theater scene is seated on Thonet No. 45 variant, and Thonet No. 18 chairs, painted light gray. The violinist, center right, is played by the director, John Carpenter. |
|
Detail |
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Rich and Famous |
1981 |
Jacqueline Bisset Director: |
In Rich and Famous, George Cuckor’s final film, Thonet No.16 chairs at a dining table in the home of Merry Noel Blake’s (Candice Bergen). |
|
Tootsie |
1982 |
Dustin Hoffman Director: |
Jeff Slater (Bill Murray) exits stage left. |
|
The kitchen table, with wig and makeup. The left chair is a Thonet No. 54. In a later scene, Jeff circles the table, grabbing the Thonet chair as he goes around. |
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Gallipoli |
1981 |
Mark Lee Director: |
A café scene early in the film. |
|
Detail Thonet No. 31 chairs at the tables. |
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Detail Thonet No. 14 chairs (with solid seat) in a later café scene. |
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Absence of Malice |
1981 |
Paul Newman Director: |
Megan Carter (Sally Field) and Gallagher (Paul Newman) dine in Caramba’s. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 16. |
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The Year of Living Dangerously |
1982 |
Mel Gibson Director: |
Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver) and Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) having drinks at a dockside outdoor café. From the screenplay: “They sit outside at a small, nondescript bar overlooking the harbour.” |
|
Detail The chairs are in the style of Thonet No. 14, in bent bamboo or faux bamboo. |
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A later indoor scene. |
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Thonet No. 14 chair with a solid or plywood seat. |
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The Verdict |
1982 |
Paul Newman Director: |
|
|
Buffalo Bill |
1983 |
Dabney Coleman Director: |
No. 18 and No. 16 |
|
L'argent |
1983 |
Christian Patey Director: |
Thonet No. 54 (or similar) in a restaurant scene near the end of the film. |
|
Lianna |
1983 |
Linda Griffiths Director: |
|
|
WarGames |
1983 |
Matthew Broderick Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs (with narrow inner loop) in 20 Grand Palace game arcade. |
|
The Trip to Bountiful |
1985 |
Geraldine Page Director: |
Jessie Mae (Carlin Glynn) sits on a Thonet No. 19 in Sam’s Pharmacy. |
|
In a late scene in a bus station, Mrs. Watts (Geraldine Page) and an unocupied Thonet No. 98, or a similar model in the 90 series. |
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The Key to Rebecca |
1985 |
Cliff Robertson Director: |
Elene Fontana (Season Hubley) and Maj. William Vandam (Cliff Robertson) in an outdoor café scene. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
|
Alex Wolff (David Soul) and Abdullah (Anthony Quayle) at another table. |
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Detail In a later scene in a club, Thonet No. 391 chairs at the tables. |
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Clue |
1985 |
Eileen Brennan Director: |
Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd) |
|
The chair in the background is a Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop. |
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Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart |
1985 |
Laureen Chew Director: |
Uncle Tam (Victor Wong) in his room. |
|
The chair in the center of the frame is a Thonet No. 18, casting a noir shadow. |
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Crossroads |
1986 |
Ralph Macchio Director: |
In a bar scene. |
|
Detail The visible Thonet chairs are No. 16 |
||||
A slightly later shot in the same set. |
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Detail Thonet No. 16 |
||||
The Quick and the Dead |
1987 |
Sam Elliott Director: |
A Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner loop. |
|
Best Seller |
1987 |
James Woods Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs in a restaurant scene. |
|
Another Woman |
1988 |
Philip Bosco Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs in a bar. |
|
Coming to America |
1988 |
Eddie Murphy Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs in McDowell’s restaurant. |
|
Detail |
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The Presidio |
1988 |
Sean Connery Director: |
After Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell (Sean Connery) knocks down a bully (Rick Zumwalt) in Nicky’s Oyser Bar and Restaurant. |
|
Detail The Thonet chairs in Nicky’s are an unknown model. |
||||
The bully gets up and throws a chair at Lt. Col. Caldwell. |
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The Tenth Man |
1988 |
Anthony Hopkins Director: |
Jean Louis Chavel (Anthony Hopkins) emerges from the Caveau Du Palais (Palace Cellar Café). |
|
Detail The chairs at the outdoor tables are Thonet No. 18, with a squared seat. |
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The Freshman |
1990 |
Marlon Brando Director: |
Detail Carmine Sabatini, “Jimmy The Toucan,” (Marlon Brando, parodying his own role as Vito Corleone in The Godfather) operates out of a headquarters furnished with Thonet No. 18 chairs. It’s not a coincidence that a film satirizing filmmaking includes this reference to so many past films. |
|
The Russia House |
1990 |
Sean Connery Director: |
Barley Scott Blair meets with a group of Russians. The chairs at the meeting table are Thonet No. 17 (or similar). |
|
Detail from another shot in the same set. |
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A Tale of Springtime |
1990 |
Anne Teyssèdre Director: |
Jeanne (Anne Teyssèdre) in an apartment. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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The Committments |
1991 |
Robert Arkins Director: |
Thonet No. 14 in the background. More Thonet chairs appear in other scenes. |
|
Miss Marple: |
1991 |
Joan Hickson Director: |
Thonet No. 14. |
|
Howards End |
1992 |
Anthony Hopkins |
The wedding party tent is furnished with Thonet No. 18 chairs. |
|
Detail |
||||
The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries Season 1 |
1993 |
Patrick Malahide Director: |
Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn (Patrick Malahide) talks to Miss Duffy (Anna Cropper) at a restaurant. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Citizen X |
1995 |
Stephen Rea Director: |
The chair is a Thonet No. 54, with a plywood seat. |
|
Devil in a Blue Dress |
1995 |
Denzel Washington Director: |
A dance club scene |
|
Detail Thonet No. 18 chairs at the tables |
||||
Shanghai Triad |
1995 |
Gong Li Director: |
Thonet No. 18. |
|
Big Night |
1996 |
Minnie Driver Director: |
Paradise, the restaurant run by Primo and Secondo—and the location of much of the action in Big Night—contains four models of Thonet chairs. |
|
Detail of another shot Thonet No. 18 and 18 variant with narrow inner back loop
|
||||
A Summer’s Tale |
1996 |
Melvil Poupaud Director: |
Thonet No. 18. |
|
Primal Fear |
1996 |
Richard Gere Director: |
Martin Vail (Richard Gere) in John Barleycorn’s Memorial Pub (a real bar where the bar scenes were shot). |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
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L.A. Confidential |
1997 |
Kevin Spacey Director: |
A restaurant scene behind the opening credits. |
|
Detail Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop. |
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Tea with Mussolini |
1999 |
Cher Director: |
Some of the Scorpioni in a restaurant scene. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Detail In a kitchen scene, Lady Hester Random (Maggie Smith) appears to contemplate a Thonet No. 375 or similar. |
||||
In a late scene, Luca Innocente (Baird Wallace) leans on a piano. |
||||
Detail Thonet No. 18 chairs upside down on a table, a trope indicating closing time or the beginning of the end of the film. |
||||
Black Books |
2000 to 2004 |
Dylan Moran |
Bernard Black (Dylan Moran) in a restaurant featured in several episodes. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
|
America's Sweethearts |
2001 |
Catherine Zeta-Jones Director: |
The scene is from “Time Over Time,” a film made by Hal Weidmann (Christopher Walken), reworking the opening of Cabaret. |
|
The Quiet American |
2002 |
Michael Caine Director: |
Thonet No. 14 chairs at an outdoor café scene. |
|
Till Human Voices Wake Us |
2002 |
Guy Pearce Director: |
Thonet No. 14. |
|
Evelyn |
2002 |
Sophie Vavasseur Director: |
Thonet No. 14 on the right, the top of a No. 18 on the left. |
|
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind |
2002 |
Drew Barrymore Director: |
|
In a break-room scene, the chairs look like a variant of the Melnikov Roundback café chair designed by Michael Thonet. |
In the background of a bar scene, a Thonet writing desk armchair No. 3. |
||||
Speakeasy |
2002 |
David Strathairn Director: |
A restaurant set |
|
Chicago |
2002 |
Renée Zellweger Director: |
||
In the Cut |
2003 |
Meg Ryan Director: |
In a restaurant scene most chairs are the usual Thonet No. 18s. One, barely seen early in this set is a Thonet No. 16. |
|
Monarch of the Glen |
2003 |
Lloyd Owen Director: |
Thonet No. 16s and Thonet No. 18s in a restaurant scene. |
|
Coffee and Cigarettes |
2003 |
Roberto Benigni Director: |
Coffee and Cigarettes consists of eleven shorts, with some themes connecting the shorts. Thonet chairs appear in several segments. At the end of the first segment, Strange to Meet You, Roberto Benigni exits. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 |
||||
In Those Things’ll Kill Ya, the fourth segment, Joseph Rigano and Vinny Vella talk about the dangers of cigarettes in a coffee shop. The empty Thonet chair between the two actors will be filled by Vella's son later in the scene. |
||||
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
In the final segment, Champagne, William Rice and Taylor Mead chat during a coffee break. |
||||
Detail In the background, several chairs are jumbled, some on a table, a trope indicating the end of a plot or scene. |
||||
The Recruit |
2003 |
Al Pacino Director: |
James Douglas Clayton (Colin Farrell) and Layla Moore (Bridget Moynahan) at her kitchen table. |
|
Detail |
||||
Ray |
2004 |
Jamie Foxx Director: |
After hours. |
|
Thonet chairs upside down on restaurant tables (or stacked) is a trope of noir movies. |
||||
Sideways |
2004 |
Paul Giamatti Director: |
Maya Randall (Virginia Madsen) in a wine café. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
|
Chaos |
2005 |
Jason Statham Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs in a café scene. |
|
Detail |
||||
Good Night, and Good Luck. |
2005 |
David Strathairn Director: |
Thonet No. 16 chiars in a restaurant scene. |
|
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) |
2006 |
Ulrich Mühe Director: |
Thonet No. 23, Writing Desk Armchair (Schreibtischfauteuil), centered in the frame of a bar scene.
|
|
Detail Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) in the foreground, Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) in the background. |
||||
The Prestige |
2006 |
Christian Bale Director: |
Sarah Borden (Rebecca Hall) and her nephew watch a magic show at The Strand Theater. This set uses at least five models of Thonet chair: No. 14, No. 16, No. 18, No 18 with narrow back loop, and No. 20. |
|
Detail Sarah sits in a Thonet No 16. An emptyThonet No 16 is in the middle back, next to the man in the hat. In front of the empty Thonet No. 16 is an empty Thonet No. 18 with narrow back loop and in front of that an empty Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Detail At the far right of the screen shot above is an empty Thonet No. 20. This chair has the Ring-shaped leg brace. |
||||
Last Chance Cafe |
2006 |
Kevin Sorbo Director: |
Madge Beardsley (Samantha Farris) looks for love online in her place, the Last Chance Cafe. |
|
Detail The chairs in the café are Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop. |
||||
Once |
2007 |
Glen Hansard Director: |
Guy (Glen Hansard) and Girl (Markéta Irglová) at the dining table in Girl’s apartment. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 14. |
||||
In a late scene, Girl is using a Thonet No. 14 at her new piano. |
||||
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day |
2008 |
Frances McDormand Director: |
Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) walks through a dressing room. |
|
Detail Thonet No. 18 and No. 16 chairs. |
||||
I’ve Loved You So Long |
2008 |
Kristin Scott Thomas Director: |
An unnamed man (Pascal Demolon) meets Juliette Fontaine (Kristin Scott Thomas) in a bar with rows of Thonet No. 18 chairs, their curves echoed by the curves at the top of the windows on the right. |
|
Me and Orson Welles |
2008 |
Zac Efron Director: |
Sonja Jones (Claire Danes) serving wine in her apartment. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Coco Before Chanel |
2009 |
Audrey Tautou, Director: |
Thonet No. 18. |
|
Today's Special |
2009 |
Aasif Mandvi Director: |
Three models are shown: |
|
Georgia O'Keeffe |
2009 |
Joan Allen Director: |
A Thonet No. 16 in a hospital room. |
|
Grey’s Anatomy |
2009 |
Ellen Pompeo Director: |
Thonet No. 14 (?) in a bar scene. |
|
Julie & Julia |
2009 |
Meryl Streep Director: |
A restaurant scene. Julia and Paul Child (Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci) are seated at the far left rear. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 16. |
||||
At Le Cordon Bleu. Julia Child (Meryl Streep) is on the right. |
||||
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
The American |
2010 |
George Clooney Director: |
Thonet No. 18s in the Bar Del Monte. |
|
Foyle’s War |
2010 |
Michael Kitchen |
Thonet No. 18 chairs in a bar scene. |
|
Detail |
||||
Foyle’s War |
2010 |
Michael Kitchen |
|
In an early scene in Der Alte Palast Dresden Café, one room has many Thonet No. 18s. In the background is a tall stool with a back, possibly a Thonet No. 10/14 or No. 20. |
|
||||
Shanghai |
2010 |
John Cusack Director: |
|
A restaurtant scene with Anna Lan-Ting (Gong Li). |
Detail The Thonet chairs are similar to No. 391, but with a shaped flat panel in the back instead of a bent inner loop. |
||||
Castle |
2010 |
Nathan Fillion Director: |
Detective Javier “Javi” Esposito (Jon Huertas) and Detective Kevin Ryan (Seamus Dever) in a warehouse with manequins. |
|
Detail Behind the two detectives is a stack of Thonet chairs. |
||||
Another view of the warehouse. |
||||
Detail The chair behind the manequin in the middle of the frame is a Thonet No. 16. |
||||
Castle |
|
Nathan Fillion Director: |
Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and a bar worker enter The Old Haunt. |
|
Detail The chair is a Thonet No. 18. |
||||
The Adventures of Tintin |
2011 |
Director: |
Captain Haddock, Snowy and Tintin, with Thonet No. 18s in the background. |
|
Detail |
||||
Hugo |
2011 |
Ben Kingsley Director: |
Thonet No. 18. |
|
Mildred Pierce |
2011 |
Kate Winslet Director: |
Mildred’s Restaurant is furnished with Thonet No. 16 chairs.
|
|
Two scenes feature the Thonet No. 16s upside down on tables: A later, similar scene comes toward the end of the plot. |
||||
Community |
2011 |
Joel McHale Director: |
Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) sitting near a Thonet stool based on the No. 18 chair. |
|
Detail This stool is similar to the Bureausessel (office stool) No. 10 and No. 20 in the 1904 Thonet catalog. A model apparently identical to the one in this set is listed today as the No. 18 Barstool in the Thonet Australia website, which notes that it “has been adapted from the classic No. 18 chair.” |
||||
Renoir |
2012 |
Michel Bouquet Director: |
A Thonet No. 14 in the background. |
|
Not Fade Away |
2012 |
James Gandolfini Director: |
Detail Grace Dietz (Bella Heathcote) packs her car. |
|
The Bletchley Circle |
2012 |
Anna Maxwell Martin Director: |
In an apartment. |
|
Detail |
||||
Much Ado |
2012 |
Amy Acker Director: |
Beatrice (Amy Acker) hides under a kitchen counter. |
|
The chairs in the background are similar to the Melnikov Café Chair, with Four arc leg braces. |
||||
Downton Abbey |
2013 |
Michelle Dockery Director: |
Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) and Jack Ross (Gary Carr) in Jack’s practice studio. The chairs are Thonet No. 18, with optional back braces and the modern curved leg brace. |
|
Foyle’s War |
2013 |
Michael Kitchen |
Looking through a Thonet No. 14, with Foyle’s hat on the seat, at another Thonet No. 14, an echo of the over-the-shoulder shot from Foyle to Thomas Nelson. Other episodes in Season 7 also show Thonet chairs. |
|
The Best Offer |
2013 |
Geoffrey Rush Director: |
The Best Offer—a film about an art collector—includes Thonet No. 18s in some scenes. |
|
A Thonet No. 18 in a painting (which was apparently made for the film). |
||||
Inside Llewyn Davis |
2013 |
Oscar Isaac Director: |
Thonet chairs upside down on restaurant tables and noir shadows of Thonet chairs are tropes of noir movies. |
|
Detail Thonet No 18s on restaurant tables. |
||||
Detail In the far background, the chairs cast noir shadows. |
||||
American Hustle |
2013 |
Christian Bale Director: |
Thonet No.14 appears in an outdoor cafe scene. |
|
Jimi: |
2013 |
André Benjamin Director: |
Thonet No. 18 in a dressing room. |
|
Saving Mr. Banks |
2013 |
Emma Thompson Director: |
Unknown model with Loop-shaped leg braces. |
|
Phantom |
2013 |
Ed Harris Director: |
|
Thonet chair in background. |
Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself |
2013 |
George Plimpton Director: |
In a Paris café, Thonet No. 18. |
|
Days and Nights |
2013 |
Jean Reno
|
Thonet No. 18 with the more modern leg brace. |
|
The Village |
2013 |
John Simm Director: |
John Middleton (John Simm) in the local pub. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 14. |
||||
Blood Ties |
2013 |
Clive Owen Director: |
Thonet chairs in an outdoor snack shop. The chairs appear to be painted white. |
|
Good People |
2013 |
James Franco Director: |
Thonet No. 14, painted. |
|
The Last of Robin Hood |
2013 |
Kevin Kline Director: |
Florence Aadland (Susan Sarandon) sits beside a makeup table as her daughter Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning) leaves, seen in the mirror. |
|
Detail A white-painted Thonet No. 18 is seen both at the makeup table and in the mirror. |
||||
Broadchurch |
2013 |
David Tennant Director: |
Thonet No. 18s in the pub of The Traders Hotel, with journalist Karen White (Vicky McClure). |
|
Downton Abbey |
2014 |
Rob James-Collier Director: |
|
Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier) in The Underground London Club The Velvet Violin. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
Detail |
||||
Testament of Youth |
2014 |
Alicia Vikander Director: |
Thonet No. 18 chairs in a hospital scene. |
|
Detail |
||||
An Honest Liar |
2014 |
James Randi Director: |
This documentary shows Thonet chairs in several scenes, including this one, with Harry Houdini ringing a bell with his toes. Other scenes show stage escapes from being tied in a Thonet chair. |
|
Houdini |
2014 |
Adrien Brody Director: |
|
|
To Be Takei |
2014 |
George Takei Director: |
This is a scene from Takei’s musical Allegiance, which shown in the documentary. The chair is a Thonet No. 18 with narrow inner back loop. |
|
Klondike |
2014 |
Richard Madden Director: |
Thonet chairs appear in other scenes as well. |
|
The Crimson Field Episode 2 |
2014 |
Rupert Graves Director: |
The field hospital set in The Crimson Field includes several Thonet Chair models. This screenshot highlights a Thonet No. 54. |
|
Castles in the Sky |
2014 |
Eddie Izzard Director: |
Robert Watson-Watt (Eddie Izzard) makes notes next to a Thonet No. 98 chair with Four arc leg braces. The table is also at least in the Thonet style. |
|
Detail |
||||
Bosch |
2014 |
Titus Welliver Director: |
Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) in a restaurant scene. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Grandma |
2015 |
Lily Tomlin Director: |
A Thonet No. 391 in the Bonobo Café. |
|
Danny Collins |
2015 |
Al Pacino Director: |
A Thonet No. 18 chair. |
|
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries |
2015 |
Essie Davis Director: |
Thonet chairs also appear in other episodes. |
|
An Inspector Calls |
2015 |
David Thewlis Director: |
Alice Grey (Sophie Rundle) appeals for help to Sybil Birling’s women’s aid society board members. The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
|
|
||||
Bartender |
2016 |
Don Cheadle Director: |
One of nine short black-and-white virtual-reality films set in the world of “L.A. Noir,” Bartender takes place in a dimly lit bar. |
|
Detail In the background, Thonet No. 18 chairs, some upside down on top of tables. |
||||
Don Cheadle in a publicity still with Thonet No. 18 chairs. Noir tropes used in this still include Thonet chairs casting noir shadows and chairs upside down on tables, |
||||
The Crown |
2016 |
Claire Foy |
Thonet No. 18s in a “gentleman's club.” |
|
Another shot in the same set shows a Thonet No. 14 from the back. |
||||
Café Society |
2016 |
Jeannie Berlin Director: |
Thonet No. 18s and 45s. |
|
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You |
2016 |
Norman Lear Director: |
This is a movie set shown in the documentary. Lear is sitting in a No. 18, the other three chairs are No. 16s. |
|
La La Land |
2016 |
Ryan Gosling Director: |
|
Thonet No. 18s in the jazz club scenes, echoing many movies with jazz club scenes, including musicals Cabaret and The Band Wagon. This is not surprising, as La La Land is full of homage to earlier musicals and other classic movies. |
Detail |
||||
The Magnificent Seven |
2016 |
Denzel Washington Director: |
Detail A Thonet No. 18 in a very brief cameo in the background of one shot. |
|
The Exception |
2016 |
Lily James Director: |
Captain Stefan Brandt (Jai Courtney) in the bedroom of Mieke de Jong (Lily James). The chair is a Thonet No. 45½. His pistol is on the seat. |
|
Call the Midwife |
2017 |
Created by Heidi Thomas |
Thonet No. 18s in a restaurant scene with, left to right, dentist Christopher Dockerill (Jack Hawkins), his daughter Alexandra Dockerill (Tipper Seifert-Cleveland), and nurse Beatrix “Trixie” Franklin (Helen George). |
|
The Sense of an Ending |
2017 |
Jim Broadbent Director: |
|
At a boys’ assembly, in the foreground left to right: |
The Lost City of Z |
2017 |
Charlie Hunnam Director: |
Detail Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) sends a telegram in an office (a consulate?) next to a Thonet No. 18 with optional back braces. |
|
Frankie Drake Mysteries: |
2017 |
Lauren Lee Smith Director: |
“Out of Focus” concerns a murder on a silent movie set, ostensibly directed by Mack Sennett. Thonet No. 18 chairs are featured on the movie set, and seen in both black and white silent clips from the movie and in several scenes on the set. Above: filming a stunt where Frankie Drake (Lauren Lee Smith) gets hit with a stool. |
|
A scene filmed through the legs of a Thonet chair. |
||||
The Cotton Club: Encore |
2017 |
Richard Gere Director: |
The Cotton Club, 1984, has many scenes with Thonet chairs of several models. These screenshots are from the 2017 Director’s Cut called The Cotton Club: Encore. Dutch angle shot of The Cotton Club, showing tables with Thonet No. 18 chairs. |
|
Detail |
||||
Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins) at a table in The Cotton Club. |
||||
Thonet No. 391 chairs at a table. |
||||
Detail |
||||
Frankie Drake Mysteries: |
2018 |
Lauren Lee Smith Director: |
In a bar scene, a Thonet No. 16. |
|
Detail |
||||
Madam Secretary |
2018 |
Téa Leoni Director: |
Mickey Kensington (Quentin Earl Darrington) and Jay Whitman (Sebastian Arcelus) have lunch. Thonet No. 18s in the background. |
|
Ladies in Black |
2018 |
Angourie Rice Director: |
|
Thonet No. 14 chairs in a dining-room scene. |
Detail |
||||
Press |
2018 |
Charlotte Riley Director: |
Peter Langly (Brendan Cowell) and Amina Chaudury (Priyanga Burford) walk past an outdoor café. |
|
Detail Thonet No. 18 chairs |
||||
Vienna Blood |
2019 |
Matthew Beard Director: |
Vienna Blood, a PBS TV series, is set in Vienna in 1900, so it’s not surprising to see Thonet chairs on set in many episodes. Here’s just one example. Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard) in a police station interview room. This same room is shown in several other episodes. |
|
Detail Thonet No. 98 (with a solid-wood seat). |
||||
Toy Story 4 |
2019 |
Tom Hanks Director: |
In Second Chance Antiques: Thonet No. 18. |
|
Detail |
||||
World on Fire |
2019 |
Jonah Hauer-King Director: |
In a café, Harry Chase (Jonah Hauer-King), Nancy Campbell (Helen Hunt) and Thonet No. 18 chairs. A Thonet kliederstock is in the background. |
|
Detail |
||||
A Call to Spy |
2019 |
Sarah Megan Thomas Director: |
A café scene with Thonet No. 16 chairs at some tables. |
|
Detail |
||||
The Highwaymen |
2019 |
Kevin Costner Director: |
Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson) and Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) at a café stop in Oklahoma, with Thonet No. 18 chairs at the tables. |
|
Detail Note how Hamer’s coffee cup is framed by the chair in this shot. |
||||
Crossword Mysteries: |
2019 |
Lacey Chabert Director: |
Detective Logan (Brennan Elliott) and Chief Chauncey Logan (John Kapelos) in the hotel where the annual crossword championship is being held. |
|
Detail The table at the back right has Thonet No. 18 chairs, casting noir shadows. |
||||
Agatha and the Midnight Murders |
2020 |
Helen Baxendale Director: |
A Thonet No. 18 in the basement where the characters took refuge during an air raid. |
|
Detail Note Ring-shaped leg brace and cane seat. |
||||
Virgin River |
2020 |
Alexandra Breckenridge Director: |
John “Preacher” Middleton (Colin Lawrence), the chef at Jack’s Bar. S2 E1 “New Beginnings” |
|
Melinda “Mel” Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge) walks into Jack’s Bar after closing time. S2 E10: "Blown Away" |
||||
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 23 Writing Desk Armchairs. Upside down Thonet chairs are shown in many episodes of Virgin River. |
||||
Miss Scarlet and The Duke |
2020 |
Kate Phillips Director: |
Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips) waits to observe a women’s suffrage group. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18 and No. 14. |
||||
Coda |
2020 |
Patrick Stewart Claude Lalonde |
Helen Morrison (Katie Holmes) and Sir Henry Cole (Patrick Stewart) in Arthur’s Restaurant. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. The man at far right is sitting on a Thonet bar stool.
|
||||
Detail |
||||
Frankie Drake Mysteries: |
2021 |
Lauren Lee Smith Director: |
Roger LeBlanc (Thom Allison) strides into a room. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 18. |
||||
Operation Mincemeat |
2021 |
Colin Firth Director: |
An outdoor café scene in Spain. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 54, with the Loop-shaped leg brace. |
||||
A Jazzman's Blues |
2022 |
Joshua Boone Director: |
Bayou (Joshua Boone) enters his dressing room to find Buster (E. Roger Mitchell) waiting. |
|
Detail The chairs are Thonet No. 45½. |
||||
Slow Horses: |
2024 |
Gary Oldman Director: |
River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) enters Le Blanc Russe, a café in France. |
|
The chairs are Thonet No. 54. |
||||
© 2024 Stephen Hart |