Fountain Pens In Movies And Tv

[markc]

Recently watched the Manhattan Project again with John Lithgow.. In one of the first scenes where he is showing some charts he pulls out a Montblanc (146 or 149) and circles a peak.

[jonwat]

In an episode of the recent BBC series Sherlock. Sherlock Holmes deduces that the writing on a note was done by Parker Duofold. I think he might be a little more specific than that but I'm not sure. Pretty impressive from just the writing.

 

You don't see the pen but he mentions the pen by name.

 

"Parker Duofold, iridium nib!"

[Scribero ergo sum]

Mad Men has become known for their period-specific accuracy of all sorts of props in the show. The lead character and a handful of others regularly use what appear to be exact period-accurate Parker Jotter ballpoints. And Don himself has written a time or three with a fountain pen that, to me, looked like a Parker 51.

 

An episode of Frasier from around the middle of the show's run had the Niles character all jazzed up about having bought some rare antique fountain pen, and they even named the name and the model, but I haven't seen the episode since my pen-fliction blossomed two summers ago so I don't recall precisely which pen and model names they mentioned. Knowing exceptional writing in that show, it was probably an actual pen make and model and was referenced accurately.

[brianmontgomery2000]

Dead Like Me -- Season 1 Episode 12 I think. Mandy Patinkin is filling a fountain pen and talking about how he has nice fountain pens for his team of reapers.

 

Three Stooges -- there's a whole episode about creating a fountain pen that can write underneath whipped cream.

 

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- I think Sean Connery squirts a fountain pen in a bad guy's eye.

 

I think there are several scenes (they seem to be in BW in my mind) of squirting ink or the like.

[georges zaslavsky]

In the bourne supremacy, bourne uses a mb 146 to write a letter and in the avengers movie an ad 2000 in carbon is used.

[PianoMan14]

There are a few MB"s poking around in Valkerie (with Tom Cruise). I hate the actor, but I loved the movie.

[gillyohan]

Tobey Maguire in the movie Brothers. He's in his office writing a letter, I think. I might be mistaken.

[Joshua Perz]

Just saw the movie The Oxford Murders with John Hurt and Elijah Wood (I think it's a direct to dvd thing). Hurt's character at one point writes with a fountain pen. There's also an episode of the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood where two of the characters are trapped in the past and one has to write some equations with a fountain pen. And now that I'm talking about it, I was watching season one of All in the Family on dvd. In one episode, Michael writes a letter to president Nixon, and Archie wants to write one of his own. Edith brings him some ballpoints to write with, but he tells her he needs "a real pen with real ink" and asks her where his Waterman is. You never see the pen because it's long been lost.

Edited January 10, 2011 by Joshua Perz

[sherlock_tomes]

For Christmas I received the complete series of Granada's Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett. Watson often uses a pencil for taking notes in the field, but pens when he is at Baker St. In The Resident Patient, it looked like the same long, slender, silver dip pen was used by both Watson and the young client. (I'd love to find one of those, though I'm not normally partial to dip pens.)

 

Tonight I watched the Boscombe Valley Mystery. At the end Watson hands the murderer a pen for signing his dictated confession. It is a large, black, flat-topped fountain pen with a clip on the cap. The Holmes stories were set primarily in the mid 1880s through 1890s (though I know some are later). Watson appears to have been an early adopter.

 

The Granada Holmes series is also a good place to check out Victorian tea sets, if you're into that sort of thing.

[WendyNC]

In the movie Road to Perdition, the Tom Hanks character writes a letter to his son and the fountain pen is shown. I'm not sure of the make/model (even though my dear husband ran the film frame by frame for me) but based on the jewel and the clip, I think it's an Estie.

[kuno]

Vivre sa Vie -- saw a Parker "51" just yesterday

[jsonewald]

There is the reference to fountain pens in "Doubt" where Meryl Streep's character finds a ballpoint, and bemoans the lack of discipline caused by allowing the students to use cartridge pens.

[yotiao]

A black/blue carbonesque Pilot vanishing point was spotted in the film, Transporter 3, when the minister was going to sign the paper

[Paddler]

Sunday night, Public Broadcasting showed "Murder on the Orient Express". There was a good closeup of a fountain pen writing a letter. Got a good look at it, but alas, my TV is low res and I couldn't make out the writing on the back of the nib. I don't have a pen like it and didn't recognize it.

 

Paddler

[Scribero ergo sum]

Just saw the movie The Oxford Murders with John Hurt and Elijah Wood (I think it's a direct to dvd thing). Hurt's character at one point writes with a fountain pen. There's also an episode of the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood where two of the characters are trapped in the past and one has to write some equations with a fountain pen. And now that I'm talking about it, I was watching season one of All in the Family on dvd. In one episode, Michael writes a letter to president Nixon, and Archie wants to write one of his own. Edith brings him some ballpoints to write with, but he tells her he needs "a real pen with real ink" and asks her where his Waterman is. You never see the pen because it's long been lost.

 

Just saw that AITF the other night. Archie asks for his pen and Edith says she has no idea where it is, but Archie says something to the effect of it being his good Waterman pen, "fifteen bucks, guaranteed to last a lifetime." Edith says it must be lasting someone else's lifetime, at which point Archie proceeds to write his first draft in pencil, anyway. Even when I saw this episode as a kid, I loved the idea that every man, every gentleman, had among his gentleman's tools a good, sturdy, nice pen, along with some presumption that it would last just about forever. Probably like an heirloom he'd pass on to his son, back when things were made to last instead of disintegrate within three years.

[AlanE]

In an episode of the recent BBC series Sherlock. Sherlock Holmes deduces that the writing on a note was done by Parker Duofold. I think he might be a little more specific than that but I'm not sure. Pretty impressive from just the writing.

 

You don't see the pen but he mentions the pen by name.

 

It is said that Arthur Conan Doyle was a Duofold user

[Guinness9]

On my recent vacations movie, I use a yello Lamy Safari for the grocery list. Does that count ?

 

OK, I am already out of here...

[jorgerp1]

There is the reference to fountain pens in "Doubt" where Meryl Streep's character finds a ballpoint, and bemoans the lack of discipline caused by allowing the students to use cartridge pens.

 

Ad she use an Esterbook

[mcnair55]

In more than one 007 Bond movie,you will see the villain write a cheque or some sort of debt owed to James Bond with a fountain pen.

 

Thinking about what I wrote a little more,remember a scene from a film where one of his gadgets was a fountain pen that contained acid to burn through metal.

Edited January 13, 2011 by mcnair55

[Albertine]

Just saw Tim Roth using a Vanishing Point in one of the early episodes of Lie to Me.

 

So apparently English actors on American TV shows are allowed to use fountain pens? Sigh. At least they don't have monocles and top hats on too.