MovieChat Forums > The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) Discussion > What is 'that word' that Mrs. Muir typed...

What is 'that word' that Mrs. Muir typed?

posted 15 years ago by wobblythoughts
19 replies | jump to latest

It is a four letter word that seems to start in the ASDF area, shifts to YUIOP-HJKL for the next two, and finishes in the left side of the keyboard, QWERT-ASDFG.

The immediate 4-letter word that came to mind was of course the one that starts with an F and ends with a K, **** that is, but the positions of its letters don't seem to correspond with the ones she typed.

Some seconds later Capt. Gregg says "guts" and Mrs. Muir reacts to it, so I immediately thought this was it, but alas the letters don't seem to fit either.

Anybody have a good guess? Or perhaps she only typed a clear-cut asfjlfk?

[–] CountVladDracula 14 years ago

It probably was supposed to be that word but the actress didn't actually type it. She might not have really known how to type. Typing is a very modern skill, sixty or so years ago knowing how to type was a business skill and only about fifteen-percent of women could do it. Possibly less.

[–] liscarkat-2 7 years ago

"the actress didn't actually type it. She might not have really known how to type. Typing is a very modern skill, sixty or so years ago knowing how to type was a business skill and only about fifteen-percent of women could do it."

In the 1930s, when Gene Tierney was a teenager, all high schools offered typing classes, and many people knew how to type. Whether she had ever learned formal typing technique or not, in the movie she was using the "hunt and peck" two-finger method, and was looking at the keys as she typed. Unless the typewriter had been modified for teaching by having the letters removed from the keys, it would have been easy for her to see which keys to press.

[–] CountVladDracula 7 years ago

Remember, it was a movie prop. We don't know what she was looking at. It may not even have been a real type writer. There have been movie prop type writers with entirely blank keys.

[–] strntz (10779) 4 years ago

I don't know why anyone would bother to build a prop of a typewriter. Makes no sense. Just put a typewriter in the scene..

There have been movie prop type writers with entirely blank keys.

When I took typing in my junior year of high school, all the typewriters in class had blank keys. It completely eliminated learning the bad habit of looking at the keys and not at the item you were copying or at the actual type writing going on.

[–] liscarkat (16476) 2 years ago

Exactly. Typewriters were so commonplace in 1947 that there would be no reason to make a fake prop, even for a forty-year-old model. Even when I was in high school typing class in the 1960s the typewriters had blank keys so we'd be forced to memorize where the letters were without looking.

[–] NxNWRocks 11 years ago

I think the joke is just that it's a four letter word. Gene may have just hit random keys, not really typing anything out. It might not even have been spelled out in the script.

"Worthington, we're being attacked by giant bats!"

[–] slgr7 10 years ago

The f-word.

[–] beetiesmom 10 years ago

For some reason, I thought it might be the word "damn".

[–] strntz (10779) 4 years ago

The f-word.

Yep. It was THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!

[–] huigh 10 years ago

You are presumably a relatively young person if you are suggesting Mrs Muir in 1900 was typing our most common obscenity. This film was made after WWII when the word you suggest did come into much more common currency but the stress remains on the "common", only the absolutely coarsest person would ever use the word publicly then. Furthermore, this film is set in 1900 and everyone of the generation that made this film in 1947 would have known with absolute assurance that it would have been inconceivable that anyone would have used the word in 1900.

I too do not give a damn.

[–] lookslikehowie 10 years ago

huigh is right. And, it really doesn't matter what the word was supposed to be, it was left to the viewer's imagination.

[–] ScopeWatcher 10 years ago

While I believe it's very true that polite society in the early 1900s (especially a lady in Great Britain) would have been unlikely to use or tolerate the word that has become "our most common obscenity," the point is that it's the rough-hewn Capt. Gregg who has employed the word in question. Let's remember that it's the refined Mrs. Muir who in fact objects to "the word."

And the fact of the offending word's NOT being revealed is a reflection of both the real limits of what couldn't be stated or represented in a 1947 film, and the characteristic, amusing subtlety of director Joseph L. Mankiewicz. (Isn't every viewer's imagination more engaged over Tierney's indignant pecking-out on the typewriter than if "the word" had simply been stated in the dialogue?)

Most great films deserve a more appreciative audience than they get.

[–] ghostfan 10 years ago

I really need to pull out my copy of the Gamm movie script and see if there is any indication there what the word might be!

I love reading the script. Sadly there are things cut that never should have been!

How sad, that you were not born in my time, nor I, in yours.

[–] aciolino 10 years ago

Could have been anything as benign (to us) as "darn." It's 1900 for *beep*'s sake!

[–] Ed in MO 9 years ago

I agree with the previous post. The joke is just that it's a four-letter word. Gene Tierney probably didn't have any definite word in mind when she typed it out....she just typed out four letters.

Remember that even "hell" and "damn" were very risque words for movie audiences in 1947. God forbid no Hollywood film would have ever used the "f" word, the "s" word, or (yikes!) the "c" word back then, even though the members of the audience knew what they meant.

Once in about 1938, in a Three Stooges short, Curly was on the stand in a criminal case with his hand on the Bible and the bailiff intoned, "Do you swear..." and Curly replied, "No, but I know all the words!"

[–] Soujurn 9 years ago

You have to look at the context of what Capt Gregg was describing. He was talking about sex. What Gene actually typed is irrelevant. She only had to make sure she didn't just type one letter four times as that would have been too obvious and would have put a big crack in the 4th wall.

"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."
-Dennis

[–] johcafra-150-658402 8 years ago

From the Edwardian Era? They had their share of words that fit. But the brilliance of the scene was that you (in ANY period) could only guess at it...and you'd probably be right!

From a postcard of (I believe) the same period: "Are you getting any on the side?" "I haven't gotten it in so long I didn't know they moved it!"

[–] tonaluv 8 years ago

OK from your well researched keyboard knowledge, I, and only I, seem to have worked it out. First letter comes from ASDF? S. Next two letters come from YUIOP-HJKL? HI. Next letter QWERT-ASDFG? T. *beep* Tell me I'm wrong. It was a terrible word in those days - my parents won't even say it today!

[–] strntz (10779) 6 years ago

LOL! you may have worked it out but the auto-censor blocked it!!! (or was it the ghost???)