MovieChat Forums > Julie (1956) Discussion > The gear shift....

The gear shift....


The beginning scenes show Julie and Lyle in their lovely 1956 Chrysler New Yorker, as he tries to kill and/or frighten her on 17 Mile Drive. They show her grabbing for the gearshift, and Lyle holding it to prevent her from throwing the car into neutral or reverse or whatever. But, 1956 Chryslers did not have gear shifts. The transmissions were controlled by push buttons, mounted on a pod to the left of the wheel. She could have disengaged the gears or thrown it into a lower gear at any point. Later, when she is trying to get the car started at the house, you can even see her glance to her left, as someone would do, and she even appears to punch one of the buttons on the pod. Maybe this is only obvious to someone who knows about old cars now, but surely other Chrysler owners saw it in 1956 and took note of the contrived gear shift...

reply