Did nobody else notice this? At first the wire from the phone downstairs got cut, so theoretically there was no more phone connection to that house.
Even though Ann Southern later calls the guy who buys silver and talks to him.
Did houses way back then have two phone lines instead of just one?
Or is this a plot hole?
I just figured that the line that was cut was specifically for that phone, the wire that goes directly from the phone to the wall. Not the wire from which the other cords (for different phones) connected.
But this is from memory so I could be wrong.
"Well, 4 out of 5 doctors agree that I am actually insane." - Hayley Stark
It was just the cord for the downstairs phone that was cut. This is is the same as just pulling out a phone cord from its socket in your house. That doesn't stop the other phones from working. (and yes I grew up in the 1970s and 80s, when we all still had landlines :P )
sharehmm Wondered about that too. Could be artistic license. Usually the main phone line would come in to ground floor then be fed as extension to rest of house if wanted. So sure cutting main floor would take out extension (s). Also phones have their own independent power source to keep working even when power is out.
But highly unlikely they'd run two independent mains to various floors. More chance of external damage to second outside line than running extension in house for one thing. Notice how shaky the electric power box was?
Funny when she was lying under the window a/c I thought the darn thing was going to fall on her just to complete the cycle of how they were all involved in the 'society is to blame' routine. But, no, guess that would have been over the top for the day. Law & order you know.
What a freak film. Saw elements of Clockwork Orange in it. Shades of the bad teens films of the mid 50s as those horrible rockers were shown running rough over the normals. B films can be choice at picking under the rug.
I didn't really think of Brando as Caan source mentioned by IMDb. Was about 10 years later but guess that would be the one to channel even then.
Looking up another b/w Career 1959 with Dean Martin & Shirley MacLaine, others.
Doesn't ring a bell but solid casting. MacLaine is such a treat.
It's electrical science and technology, not artistic license. Landline telephone service is fed from outside to a common terminal (usually located on the building's exterior), which is wired to individual terminals in rooms with so-called telephone "extensions." By yanking the living room phone's cord from the wall, Sade disconnected only the telephone connected to the individual terminal in that room. Electrical power sockets work similarly. All the electrical power in your home doesn't go away just because you unplug, say, a lamp or radio.
shareOk, home phones use DC current. Home devices electric AC. Home can lose AC while phones still work as during serious weather. Dif circuits. So if baddies cut electric power to house there'd still be phone (s) working.
The use of an upstairs phone just added to plot concept of her wealth. Naturally she’d have more toys than the average household, hence the robbers singling her out. I mean why rob a home that only has one phone and no inside elevator.
Audience assumes her wealth would allow for a second line (on either the secondary black, yellow pair or a totally separate entire line & number). Such a second line would work even if primary phone unplugged since the black, yellow pair run to upstairs phone.
Screenwriters know audiences wouldn't have been concerned with such mundane matter. Story by then had centered on her many attempts to escape her tormentors. How didn’t matter, just the struggle. Can she do it?
Artistic license is when you don’t let nitpicking about mundane matters get in the way.
Filmgoers who love the "see the mike shadow at 10 mins in?" aren’t the most fun.
Serious plot holes, things that truly disrupt a story arc, a sloppy performance -- well that will get the paying customers rightly freaked.
Check out this story today about Hollywood license bending the truth for sake of historical drama. As noted in comments, it's not a documentary:
The movie ‘Selma’ has a glaring flaw
By Joseph A. Califano Jr. December 26
Joseph A. Califano Jr. was President Lyndon Johnson’s top assistant for domestic affairs from 1965 to 1969.
What’s wrong with Hollywood?
The makers of the new movie “Selma” apparently just couldn’t resist taking dramatic, trumped-up license with a true story that didn’t need any embellishment to work as a big-screen historical drama. As a result, the film falsely portrays President Lyndon B. Johnson as being at odds with Martin Luther King Jr. and even using the FBI to discredit him, as only reluctantly behind the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and as opposed to the Selma march itself.
In fact, Selma was LBJ’s idea, he considered the Voting Rights Act his greatest legislative achievement, he viewed King as an essential partner in getting it enacted — and he didn’t use the FBI to disparage him.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-movie-selma-has-a-glaring-historical-inaccuracy/2014/12/26/70ad3ea2-8aa4-11e4-a085-34e9b9f09a58_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
Sigh... A second phone on the second floor is not artistic license etc. Telephones didn't cost a fortune anymore in the 1960's. This film doesn't take place in the 1800's! There was NOTHING WRONG regarding the telephones in this film.
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