Thonet Chairs in Movies

Thonet Chairs in Movies | Thonet Chairs Extras | Thonet Chair Models

Thonet chairs, with their attractive bentwood curves and often open backs, have been featured on film sets since at least 1930. By 1950, Thonet chairs had been mass produced for more than 50 years.
They cast recognizable shadows, sometimes beautiful, sometimes scary, a feature seen in many noir films.

Often the chairs are only partly visible, just part of the set, no more important than a rug.
But in other scenes, it’s clear that the director and set decorator are calling attention to the Thonet chairs, in the background or foreground.
Unoccupied Thonet chairs sometimes seem to be treated as characters in a scene, or placeholders for a character who’s missing or will soon appear. See, for example, The Fallen Idol, 1948, The Big Combo, 1955, or The Sense of an Ending, 2017 in the Thonet Chairs in Movies page.

	This famous crane shot in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, 1943, represents a dramatic pivot in the plot. Not only do the Thonet No. 18 chairs cast threatening noir shadows, but Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa Wright) casts her own noir shadow as she leaves the Santa Rosa, California Free Public Library, after confirming that her uncle Charlie is actually the “Merry Widow Murderer.” Also see Extras.
	A common image in film noir is a background of Thonet chairs turned upside down on café tables (to make cleaning the floor easier, presumably). This image often denotes the closing-down or after-hours aspect of the scene, or the beginning of the end of the plot. Another crane shot, a late scene in one of the greatest films ever made, Citizen Kane, 1941, exemplifies this trope.
	Cover Girl, a 1944 Technicolor musical, contains this remarkable set with many Thonet No. 18s and No. 45s (painted gold) casting larger-than-life noir shadows. Shots on this after-hours nightclub set also include the trope of Thonet chairs upside down on tables and filming through Thonet chairs.
	A shot from Peter Gunn, 1:11, “Death House Testament,” 1959, includes a dramatic noir shadow of a Thonet No. 45 in the background. Helena Mears (Katharine Bard) is framed by upside down Thonet chairs as she waits for Gunn after closing time in Mother’s Jazz Club. On the left is a Thonet No. 18 with a cloth back cover. On the right are Thonet No. 18s. Most episodes of the Peter Gunn series include Thonet chairs.
	In a scene from Raw Deal, 1948, an empty Thonet No. 18 in the foreground bears mute witness to the double cross in the back room of Grimshaw’s Taxidermy. The stuffed bear in the background may stand in for the classic noir shadow of the killer. Or is the bear looming over the killer himself? Left to right: Grimshaw (Tom Fadden) Joe Sullivan (Dennis O’Keefe) Looming Bear (Stuffed Bear) Fantail (John Ireland)
	This scene—Foyle’s War 7:3, Sunflower, 2013—contains six Thonet No. 14 chairs—two in the far background. Foyle is in the left foreground, his back to the camera. An empty No. 14 stands symmetrically in the right foreground, with Foyle’s signature hat on the seat. Thomas Nelson sits on a No. 14 in the center of the room. An empty No. 14 is shown on the right.

It’s clear that modern directors and set decorators are well aware of the history of Thonet chairs in earlier films. Thonet chairs appear in modern films and TV episodes, sometimes as set decorations obviously paying homage to earlier films. About half of the entries in Thonet Chairs in Movies are dated 1960 or later.

Thonet made a bewildering array of chairs. There are more than 40 pages of chairs in the 1904 Thonet catalogue (republished by Dover and still available). Catalogs from other years show other models and sometimes have different model numbers.
Many models are made of only a few parts, held together by screws, and are to some extent modular, with interchangeable parts. They were shipped unassembled.
Two models might differ only in that the inner back loop is different (Thonet No. 16 and No.18).
Thonet marketed many variations, including caned and solid back inserts, some designed for specific restaurants and cafés, such as Vienna’s famous Café Central and Café Daum. The 1888 catalog shows chairs No. 18 and No. 14 with perforated wood seats and backs and No. 18 with a caned back insert.
The 1904 catalog contains furniture for babies, children, dolls, churches, offices, theaters, fake bamboo furniture, folding garden furniture, bedroom furniture, bar stools, a whole line of rocking chairs, and more.
Thonet also made many models of chairs and tables made of bent steel tubing. While dating from the 1920s, they still look modern today.

Companies descended from the original Gebrüder Thonet (Thonet Brothers) still manufacture Thonet chairs in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.
Authentic Thonet chairs are available new and as antiques. Furthermore, chairs built using the same wood bending techniques—and in some cases original Thonet factory equipment—have been made by other companies since the turn of the last century in several countries.
A United States Thonet factory became Thonet Industries, and continued making Thonet chairs in the U.S.
A whole line of bent steel café chairs and tables that resemble Thonet designs were manufactured in the U.S. and show up in several movies.
Reproduction Thonet chairs and chairs echoic of Thonet designs are available new.
For the purposes of these pages, I’m using “Thonet chair” as a generic term.

The Thonet No. 18 is the most common model I’ve seen in movies, but No. 16 (new), No. 14 (the classic Vienna café chair), No. 45½ (or 45) and many others also appear. (See Thonet Chair Models)

Thonet chairs also appear in paintings, magazine covers and, of course, in historical photos.

These illustrated lists are not presented as comprehensive, but I have documented Thonet chairs in more than 400 films from 1930’s Morocco to 2022’s A Jazzman’s Blues, from many of cinema’s best directors:

Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder 9 films each
Fritz Lang, 7 films
Robert Siodmak, Howard Hawks, 6 films each
W. S. Van Dyke 5 films
Otto Preminger, Michael Curtiz and Vincente Minnelli, 4 films each

In addition, I have documented Thonet chairs in some 40 TV or streaming series episodes up through Slow Horses: Season 4 Episode 2 in 2024.

The Peter Gunn TV series, 1958-1961 is in a category by itself with dozens of episodes showing Thonet chairs, and many carefully designed shots featuring shooting through Thonet chairs, stark noir shadows of Thonet chairs and Thonet chairs upside down on tables after closing time.

There are many other movies and TV episodes in which an interested viewer might see Thonet chairs briefly shown or partly obscured.
Thonet clothes stands, such as the No. 4, No. 12, and the Café Daum Kleiderstock, and Thonet rocking chairs show up in many films as well, often casting their own noir shadows. See Thonet Chair Models.
For example, Five Graves to Cairo, 1943, Billy Wilder, features a Thonet Kleiderstock and a Thonet Rocking Chair in the lobby of the Empress of Britain hotel.

I’ve added a few sightings in other media on the Thonet Chairs Extras page.

Thonet Chairs in Movies | Thonet Chairs Extras | Thonet Chair Models

“Bent wood | The Thonet 14 on film” by Karen Krizanovich in Civilian

Gebrüder Thonet

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