Fountain Pens In Movies And Tv

[Sherlock221]

I was wondering if anyone has an idea what pens are being used in the 1929 Silent German film Spione? Maybe Montblanc or Pelikan? Hope the screen caps help to identify the Pens…

[Paul-in-SF]

A fountain pen was used as an important clue in the British TV series Death in Paradise, Season 6 Episode 2. 

 

(spoilers follow)

 

The victim was supposed to have left a typed suicide note, signed with "a black biro." But the victim used only a fountain pen (which they showed, a slender maroon Montblanc, possibly a 144), and the corroboration was a journal that was nearly full and written entirely with the same fountain pen. 

[inkstainedruth]

Didn't get a good look, and wasn't home at the time (so wasn't able to put things on "pause"), but I think I spotted a fountain pen in an episode of Poirot on PBS when I was at the Ohio Pen Show a couple of weeks ago.  The episode was "The Mystery of the Blue Train".  Of course the setting is in the 1930s, so nobody would be using a ballpoint.  
Wish I could remember enough of (or re-see) the episode "Hickory Dickory Dock" because pens and ink figure prominently in the plot of the original book....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

[txomsy]

On 9/30/2023 at 5:06 PM, Sherlock221 said:

I was wondering if anyone has an idea what pens are being used in the 1929 Silent German film Spione? Maybe Montblanc or Pelikan? Hope the screen caps help to identify the Pens…

 

They don't seem Montblancs, but rather early 20th C eyedropper BCHR pens. But I cannot be sure.

[inkstainedruth]

Was just watching the new episode of The Late Show, and in the opening blurb to tonight's "Meanwhile" segment, Stephen Colbert rattles off something about the "regular" news segments in his monologue as a comparison to a MB Meisterstruck 149.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Misfit]

In a Marshall’s commercial, a deal is signed with a fountain pen. We see the nib, and it appears to be a left-handed writer holding the pen. 

[inkstainedruth]

Just watched Tuesday night's episode of the Night Court reboot.  And while there were no FPs, there was repeated utterances of a word that I first ran across on FPN.....

And that word?  "BLURPLE"....  I could NOT stop laughing!  

Now wondering if one of the writers on the show is, well, one of us.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Doc Dan]

We just watched Columbo. Donald Pleasence used what appears to be a plum Parker 51. The episode was "Any Old Port In a Storm."

 

I could be mistaken on the pen. I only got a glimpse, but that was my impression. 

[Prof Drew]

There is a bit of fountain pen writing in the newish wonderful French film Simone Veil, A Woman of the Century. It's available free on Amazon Prime with subtitles. Veil was a feminist French political pioneer, Shoah survivor, and EU Parliament President.

 

With that said, it isn't a light fluff film, but it was a very interesting bio-pic by a director who shared the stories of Piaf and Grace of Monaco. It told Veil's personal life but, also showed some of the complex context of how France came to terms with its wartime past, colonial empire, occupation, changing values, discrimination, and political infighting (and historical memory). With that said, it is very timely for American audiences to watch with all of the culture wars, racist dog whistles, and political infighting we're seeing here on the far right.

 

I didn't recognize the pen she was writing with, but there is a lot of writing, reading, talking, and interviewing in the film.*

 

*PS To try and answer my question I Googled ""Simone Veil" and "stylo de plume" and found this https://stylo-plume.org/viewtopic.php?p=374517  person who asked the same question on a French FP BBS.

[chromantic]

In the 3rd season of the Polish TV show The Mire (on Netflix now), a man is killed with a Pelikan, though I suspect it is a ballpoint rather an FP.

[ParramattaPaul]

Fountain pens show up in several episodes of "Masters of the Air" currently running on Apple (TV).

[welch]

9 minutes ago, ParramattaPaul said:

Fountain pens show up in several episodes of "Masters of the Air" currently running on Apple (TV).

 

I got a good look at one fountain pen. It was a Sheaffer "short clip" designed to fit under the flap on the officer's pocket. Authenticity.

[inkstainedruth]

20 minutes ago, welch said:

 

I got a good look at one fountain pen. It was a Sheaffer "short clip" designed to fit under the flap on the officer's pocket. Authenticity.

Cool!

Too many shows and movies tend to just think that a fountain pen is a fountain pen, and don't know/care if it's authentic to the time period setting.  Of course, that also can be the case for costumes and such as well....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mercian]

On 3/9/2024 at 9:12 PM, inkstainedruth said:

Cool!

Too many shows and movies tend to just think that a fountain pen is a fountain pen, and don't know/care if it's authentic to the time period setting.  Of course, that also can be the case for costumes and such as well....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

The other day I saw an old BBC documentary called ‘SAS: Rogue Warriors’ about the history of the eponymous British ‘Special Forces’ unit throughout WW2.

 

In one scene the presenter recreated a dinner at which the officer who founded the regiment got Winston Churchill and a couple of Generals to sign a blank sheet of paper as a ‘personal memento’ for him (he then typed something like “Please give the bearer of this note every possible assistance” above their signatures, and used it to get hold of supplies etc).

 

The geniuses who filmed the series had him use what appeared very strongly to be a Montblanc 146 for the recreation of the signing scene.

A ‘rather nice fountain pen’ that, while being recognisably a ‘rather nice fountain pen’, didn’t even exist in 1942 and which, being German, was not especially likely to be used by a British officer who was engaged in a war against Germany.

Tsk tsk!

[inkstainedruth]

And didn't he use a Conway Stewart pen?  I seem to remember reading that on some old thread on FPN.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkstainedruth]

On 10/24/2022 at 12:31 AM, Misfit said:

A new series on PBS called Magpie Murders features an author who starts his novels in notebooks using a fountain pen. A character mentions his expensive pens. 
 

Here are screenshots of the show. 
 

PBS has just started rebroadcasting this series on Masterpiece Mysteries.  Saw the first episode (they ran it and the second episode back to back) last night and wondered if someone had reported about it on this thread.  

Sadly, I couldn't get a good look at the pen to be able to ID it.  And noticed that it seemed to be being used as a dip pen....   But there was a nice close up of the nib and feed from the side (just not in such a way as to make an ID of the pen and/or nib...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[welch]

1 hour ago, inkstainedruth said:

PBS has just started rebroadcasting this series on Masterpiece Mysteries.  Saw the first episode (they ran it and the second episode back to back) last night and wondered if someone had reported about it on this thread.  

Sadly, I couldn't get a good look at the pen to be able to ID it.  And noticed that it seemed to be being used as a dip pen....   But there was a nice close up of the nib and feed from the side (just not in such a way as to make an ID of the pen and/or nib...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Rush, take a look at the first or second series of "Grantchester", in Masterpiece Mysteries, and tell me if Geordie uses a Parker 51 burgundy to draw a woman's blonde hear away from the back of her neck. She's the murder victim, of course, and memory tells me the pen is in Bloody English Burgundy. Which would be perfect for a murder and that time.

[Gloucesterman]

3 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

PBS has just started rebroadcasting this series on Masterpiece Mysteries.  Saw the first episode (they ran it and the second episode back to back) last night and wondered if someone had reported about it on this thread.  

Sadly, I couldn't get a good look at the pen to be able to ID it.  And noticed that it seemed to be being used as a dip pen....   But there was a nice close up of the nib and feed from the side (just not in such a way as to make an ID of the pen and/or nib...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Pretty sure the nib in the first image is a Sheaffer. No idea what model except that it probably is NOT a No Nonsense.

Can't be sure about the second image but it might have a white dot just above the clip.

[ParramattaPaul]

Sheaffer was my guess as well.

[Mr.Rene]

Hi..

The nib is a Sheaffer, it looks like sheaffer 100 fountain pen, it is a modern sheaffer pen, made in China, probably.

Regards