Pipe smoking in fiction (novels, TV, movies)

[Benzadmiral]

Watched The Red House yesterday, a 1947 Gothic story (some call it noir, but I think of noir as being more in urban settings, not Midwest farms). Edward G. Robinson stars as Pete Morgan, a farmer who, we find, has a horrible secret and is descending into madness. In multiple scenes he smokes or loads a straight billiard pipe. Maybe it was his own; it's the same style of pipe you see in his portrait on the EGR tobacco tin.

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

In my mind's eye I can see Walter Pidgeon puffing away on a straight billiard, but I couldn't tell you which films or tv shows he smoked in - definitely not Forbidden Planet.

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

William Powell in My Man Godfrey - one of my favorite films.

 

[Columbo]

In my mind's eye I can see Walter Pidgeon puffing away on a straight billiard, but I couldn't tell you which films or tv shows he smoked in - definitely not Forbidden Planet.

Mrs. Miniver.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Watched The Red House yesterday, a 1947 Gothic story (some call it noir, but I think of noir as being more in urban settings, not Midwest farms). Edward G. Robinson stars as Pete Morgan, a farmer who, we find, has a horrible secret and is descending into madness. In multiple scenes he smokes or loads a straight billiard pipe. Maybe it was his own; it's the same style of pipe you see in his portrait on the EGR tobacco tin.

Also in 1943's The Destroyer, playing a chief bosun's mate on a WWII destroyer, Robinson loads a straight billiard while at home. We don't see him light it, though.

I'd mentioned James B. Sikking's Lt. Hunter from Hill Street Blues in the '80s, that he was often seen with a straight billiard clenched in his teeth. The early episodes are running now on H & I. We see him fire it up from time to time with a lighter (not sure if it's a pipe lighter), and smoke actually puffs out.

 

[2Vu5_T]

Deutsche Grammophon Ad:

 

[emwolf]

Deutsche Grammophon Ad:

He was my piano teacher's favorite living performer.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Two instances of Mandy Patinkin's "middle management for Death" character, Rube, in the old series Dead Like Me. In the first, episode Season 1 No. 9, he sits on a step with Roxy the meter maid (Jasmine Guy) holding what looks like a bent billiard or brandy pipe. Roxy says, "Didn't know you smoked a pipe." Rube doesn't answer that directly, and never lights the pipe in the scene.

In the second, Season 1 No. 13, Rube and his reaping team are in Georgia's old office at night to enter data on the last thoughts of people who have died. Rube pulls out the same bent pipe and a lighter and begins to fire it up. Georgia says, "You can't smoke in here." Rube's reply is, well, unprintable on a family forum!

 

[Benzadmiral]

On a 1969 episode of Mission: Impossible, Steve Ihnat plays a brilliant enemy agent named Miklos. Jim Phelps and the IM Force are leading him down the garden path to conclude that disinformation the US is sending to Miklos's country is true. Befitting his image as a sort of Communist Sherlock Holmes, Miklos sports a pipe, and actually lights and smokes it numerous times, once in an art gallery, and another time at an airport. The pipe is a cog in the IMF's plan, permitting them to plant a clue (actually false) in a booklet of paper matches Miklos employs.

His pipe seems in most scenes to be an all-black straight sandblast apple. In several scenes, though, the pipe appears as a smooth brown billiard with a black stem. Not necessarily an error; a dedicated pipe smoker might bring more than one pipe with him.

 

[Dan-O]

“Dig” on Netflix has Ralph Fiennes puffing on a pipe much of the movie. It’s a good story too.

 

[Chango]

As a pipe smoker it irks me when Hollywood assigns the pipe smoking to villainous characters. Example. Hulu’s version of “Catch-22”. Capt. Aarfy, the creepy sociopath that gets away with raping and murdering an Italian girl.

Negative stereotypes aside, I thought the series was pretty well done.

 

[Chango]

Another example. Greg Marmalard. The arrogant Omega House president from “Animal House”.

Still one of my favorite movies of all time though!

 

[Dan-O]

Another example. Greg Marmalard. The arrogant Omega House president from “Animal House”.

Still one of my favorite movies of all time though!


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Definitely a classic

 

[RookieGuy]

Another example. Greg Marmalard. The arrogant Omega House president from “Animal House”.

Still one of my favorite movies of all time though!


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I forgot about that one.

 

[steveclarkus]

I forgot about that one.

I was talking to an old roommate of mine just a few nights ago and he said we were likely among the few that didn’t think “Animal House” was that funny. Yes Clemson was much like that in the 60’s - at least for our lot.

 

[Benzadmiral]

In 1940's Carol Reed-directed classic thriller, Night Train to Munich, we see Rex Harrison as Bennett/Randall, the proto-James Bond character, light up what appears to be a straight sandblast billiard at about 24:30 into the movie.

Later, at 52:33 and in various scenes beyond that, those two comic-opera (but brave and reliable) Englishmen, Charters and Caldicott from Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, are seen smoking and clenching straight dark billiards. Very much in character for them, don't y' know.

Charters (in their train compartment, cracking open his book): "Bought a copy of Mein Kampf. . . . I understand they give a copy to all the bridal couples over here."
Caldicott (startled): "Why, I don't think it's that sort of book, old man --"

 

[Sniperx]

I was talking to an old roommate of mine just a few nights ago and he said we were likely among the few that didn’t think “Animal House” was that funny. Yes Clemson was much like that in the 60’s - at least for our lot.

You guys and my wife….but then she’s Japanese Gen Z, so she gets a pass.

However, I think the ending was pretty week with the car in the parade. There was no real closure or feeling of accomplishment.


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[KellyG]

You guys and my wife….but then she’s Japanese Gen Z, so she gets a pass.

However, I think the ending was pretty week with the car in the parade. There was no real closure or feeling of accomplishment.


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That was the whole point. To quote Otter, "I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part." These are the last guys seeking accomplishment! While perhaps not a great movie in the big scheme of things, it hit home for a lot of us!

 

[Sniperx]

That was the whole point. To quote Otter, "I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part." These are the last guys seeking accomplishment! While perhaps not a great movie in the big scheme of things, it hit home for a lot of us!

Not so much that, more of I wanted to see the bad guys really get theirs…


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[Benzadmiral]

That was the whole point. To quote Otter, "I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part." These are the last guys seeking accomplishment! While perhaps not a great movie in the big scheme of things, it hit home for a lot of us!

Oddly, I had, and still have, a sneaking admiration and affection for the characters in Animal House. Beyond that, it's endlessly quotable even today. And there's that beautiful Lincoln Continental that Otter & Co. commandeer for their road trip!