Fountain Pens In Movies And Tv

[OcalaFlGuy]

The movie "Love Actually" (2003): Although the pen is not seen, the character played by Alan Rickman writes this note with a stub nib and a nice blue shading ink:

No doubt this type of note is best written with a nice fountain pen and not a Bic stic!!!

 

I would Almost be willing to bet money that is PR DCSSB.

 

Believe me, I KNOW what that ink looks like.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[Ernst Bitterman]

 

I would Almost be willing to bet money that is PR DCSSB.

 

Believe me, I KNOW what that ink looks like.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

Yep, that Supershow Blue looks a LOT like Diamine Sargasso... ever a contrarian, me

Edited April 16, 2014 by Ernst Bitterman

[deege]

Well I reviewed the Hannibal episodes. Hannibal definitely uses a FP repeatedly, I can't tell whether it is a montblanc, but it is a classic looking mainly black pen that could be a MB. You mostly see the nib when writing - it looks to me like a vintage nib - it is slightly hooded. He always uses black ink and thankfully doesn't resort to the scratching sound so often resorted to when demonstrating writing with a fountain pen.

[welch]

In the wee hours of this morning the wife and I watched Where the Sidewalk Ends a pretty nice film noir from 1950.

 

Towards the end of the movie Dana Andrews, as sketchy detective Mark Dixon, writes a multi-page letter. I couldn't see the pen all that clearly, and the pen is just about always moving, but I think it was a Sheaffer Triumph. It would have been a quite ordinary thing to see someone writing with in those days.

 

 

I just saw that movie on TCM. I'm pretty sure that Dixon's pen has a short clip and wide tassie. You see the clip just as he begins to write. Looks like a Sheaffer Tuckaway...the clip intended to meet US Army regulations during WW2. I was also amazed at how slowly and legibly he wrote. Also that Dixon takes the pen from a desk drawer, just as we might start a laptop; when he finishes the letter, he puts the pen back in his desk. The fountain pen does not leave the room.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

 

I just saw that movie on TCM. I'm pretty sure that Dixon's pen has a short clip and wide tassie. You see the clip just as he begins to write. Looks like a Sheaffer Tuckaway...the clip intended to meet US Army regulations during WW2. I was also amazed at how slowly and legibly he wrote. Also that Dixon takes the pen from a desk drawer, just as we might start a laptop; when he finishes the letter, he puts the pen back in his desk. The fountain pen does not leave the room.

 

Well, okay. My eyes are getting worse, and seeing something in a B/W movie that's moving is difficult. At least we both agree it looked like a Sheaffer of some sort.

[Ernst Bitterman]

 

I just saw that movie on TCM. I'm pretty sure that Dixon's pen has a short clip and wide tassie. You see the clip just as he begins to write. Looks like a Sheaffer Tuckaway...the clip intended to meet US Army regulations during WW2....

 

Had a look at it (here's the start of the scene), and it's a VERY informative scene from the standpoint of relying on movies to tell us how pens were used in the say. There's a few things to notice:

- It is indeed a military-clip Sheaffer (not a Tuckaway, see below) that comes out of his pocket; you can briefly make out the rear mounting point; I hesistate slightly, because it also looks like it has a broad band reaching right down to the cap mouth, and that's something certain models of Tuckaway WOULD have but I don't know any mil-clip models with that rig.

- It is NOT a military clip but it IS a Sheaffer when there's the close look at the addressing of the envelope; it's got the standard post-Truimph clip on it; I'd say a Valiant if I were sure of the point, but it might be a late Statesman.

- The pen gets abandoned on the desk, uncapped, just like we all do with our pens.

There's at least three different takes in this scene, because you've got Andrews in profile, Andrews face on, and over the writer's shoulder. All would have been done separately, and need to be considered in isolation. In the first, you have Hero Sits Writing Important Letter, and when he's done he needs to go check on The Girl. Either Dana Andrews thought the pen abandoning in this aspect of the scene would indicate how he's got bigger stuff on his mind or (more likely) the tool needed for that aspect of the shot has served its purpose and can be dismissed until someone shouts "Back to ones!"

 

Face on-- you can't even see if he's holding a pen, right? All that's important there is the story his face tells about his internal state.

 

Over the shoulder-- definitely holding a pen, but might have been shot days later and may not be Dana Andrew's hands. It's sort of second-unit stuff, all we needed was a man with a pen, and someone may have remembered that Andrews used a Sheaffer.

 

We're not really supposed to notice this stuff, if the directors doing his job and holding our disbelief well clear of the ground, but when my wife and I watch a movie, we watch the stuffing right out of it!

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/takematsu/SheafferMilvTuck.jpg

Edited April 25, 2014 by Ernst Bitterman

[carlos.q]

In a recent episode of NCIS Abby handles some evidence including a "stylish fountain pen"...

... which according to her forensic analysis was never used by the victim.

[carlos.q]

I recently saw "The Godfather"... again. There is a mention of a pen when Kay tells Michael she has bought a "Reynolds pen" for Tom Hagen (the Don's "consiglieri"). This was already mentioned in another thread:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/38551-reynolds-pen-company/

 

Besides that, fountain pens make two brief appearances in the film. The first is when Tom is talking to studio head Woltz:

 

 

At first I thought it could be a Parker 51, but in another clip, the pen seems to have an exposed nib:

 

 

The second appearance of a fountain pen is during a meeting of the heads of the crime families, when Don Corleone uses a BCHR pen to make his point:

 

 

Here is another look:

 

Edited May 26, 2014 by carlos.q

[irrigger]

While not real, in the animated move Madagascar 3, a fountain pen is used to sign the American tour contract towards the end of the movie.

[carlos.q]

In the NBC series "Will & Grace", the character played by Eric McCormack (a gay corporate lawyer) uses a fountain pen in the episode named "Terms of Employment":

 

 

At first I thought it might be a Montblanc FP, but later in the episode it appears as having a black cap and a blue marbled body:

 

[usk15]

A Pelikan?

[legitimate3]

A recently popular Korean Drama called My Love from Another Star AKA My Love from the Stars AKA You Who Came from the Stars 별에서 온 그대 has a scene with a fountain pen. It makes sense cause the guy is an Alien (Kim Soohyun) who has been living on Earth for a long, long time. It doesn't make as much sense for him to use a ballpoint cause he's really really old (but looks young). The drama makes much more sense if you watch it.

http://i.imgur.com/P2yjH4D.png

If you're interested, it's Episode 1 right around the 30 minute mark. You can find English subtitles around the internet.

[GTOZack]

Fellow Iraqi archaeologist/professor conversing with merrin used a Parker 51,

 

the scene is where the clock pendulum stop moving

 

 

some scene in band of brothers had some dip pen and FP's Pacific as well

Edited June 2, 2014 by GTOZack

[GTOZack]

In the NBC series "Will & Grace", the character played by Eric McCormack (a gay corporate lawyer) uses a fountain pen in the episode named "Terms of Employment":

 

 

At first I thought it might be a Montblanc FP, but later in the episode it appears as having a black cap and a blue marbled body:

 

Waterman Phileas?

[SyntheticEvil13]

On the History channel mini series World Wars they show a few fountain pens.

[GTOZack]

On the History channel mini series World Wars they show a few fountain pens.

yeah i noticed that and that show is great!

[SyntheticEvil13]

yeah i noticed that and that show is great!

 

It was a great show. As a history and more specifically a WWII buff I love how they presented it.

[Taiin]

In the Doctor Who episode, Victory of the Daleks, Winston Churchill signs a something with a fountain pen. No idea what kind!

[inkstainedruth]

In the Doctor Who episode, Victory of the Daleks, Winston Churchill signs a something with a fountain pen. No idea what kind!

You beat me to the punch on that one -- just finished (re)watching the episode a few minutes ago. It happened so fast that I only got a brief glimpse; all I know is that it was black and appeared to be a flat-top cap. So the time period of the episode is what, 1940-ish (?), during the Blitz. Any pen or WWII historians out there know what pen Churchill really used, and if it looks remotely like the one in that scene?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[OcalaFlGuy]

You beat me to the punch on that one -- just finished (re)watching the episode a few minutes ago. It happened so fast that I only got a brief glimpse; all I know is that it was black and appeared to be a flat-top cap. So the time period of the episode is what, 1940-ish (?), during the Blitz. Any pen or WWII historians out there know what pen Churchill really used, and if it looks remotely like the one in that scene?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

According to Conway Stewart, Churchill used, well, a Conway Stewart of course.

 

http://www.conwaystewart.com/product_info.php?cPath=37_13&products_id=56&osCsid=afa161c9d433b207add1438ed2fe8bf4

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl