Mandolins in the movies

[JeffD]

I just watched Godfather I for the umpty upth time - and in the wedding scene, in the beginning - during the dance, if you look closely you can see the mandolin player in the band. The mandolin seems to be a two pointer with a black pick guard, an L&H? You have to look quickly, or go back and forth and freeze it.

Of course his hand movements don't follow the beeeutiful mandolin you hear at the time.

Beautiful mandolin music throughout that movie, but only that one sighting.

Other sightings in other movies???

[Greenmando]

I forget which episode, but in Deadwood I seen a F5. Which was wrong for the period, bad propmaster.

[pathfinder]

There was a western a few years ago (about a cowhand in rural Texas in the 1920's) called 'Good Old Boys.' #It starred Tommy Lee Jones and had a nice farmhouse family jam with a vintage Gibson F2 or F4. #Just two-finger chords, but what a nice sound.

[Rick Schmidlin]

King Of The Gypsys has the DAWG all over it,

[8ch(pl)]

Good old Boys, Great Film after the book by Elmer Kelton. I remember both a Blackface F and an A. Saw it about 10 years ago.

[Paul Kotapish]

Matewan, John Sayles's excellent movie about West Virginia coal miners in the '20s, has some mandolin music and at least one scene of someone playing.

Bound for Glory, the Woody Guthrie biopic, has a number of scenes with mandolins.

Eat My Dust, an obsure, low-budget, stock-car racing flick, has David Grisman music, inluding the eponymously initialed title track, "EMD."

The recent Curious George soundtrack has lots of mandolin music and some pleasant, low-key songs by John Jackson. Can't find a player credit for the mando, but it's pervasive (unless it's some cleverly disguised 12-string work).

There's an underwhelming bit of mando in the entirely forgetable Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Others I can think of off the top of my head include:

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Cold Mountain

Michael Levine did a score for the upcoming Adrift in Manhattan that is rumored to feature mandolin in a prominent role.

The 1940 classic ("classic" might be overstating it, but it does have a great cast and it is in B&W) called Second Chorus features Artie Shaw's big band and includes a number of scenes with Charles Butterworth playing a Gibson F-5 while Fred Astair and the other hipsters make fun of him and his funny old mandolin.

[Larry R]

Not in the movies, but in TV land, The Andy Griffith Show had a few epsidodes with a mandolin player in a band.

[Super400]

The Andy Griffith show you speak of featured the band "The Darlings" which were actually The Dillards. Some outstanding pickin' there.

[Seafood]

"Not in the movies, but in TV land, The Andy Griffith Show had a few epsidodes with a mandolin player in a band."
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They were the Darlings in the series, but in real life they were the Dillards, with Doug Dillard on the banjo.

[humblemex]

"They were the Darlings in the series, but in real life they were the Dillards, with Doug Dillard on the banjo."

Yes, but there were also a few episodes with the Kentucky Colonels with Roland White on mandolin and Clarence on guitar. You can actually find a couple of the music scenes with the Colonels and the Dillard on YouTube.

[bush-man]

The Dillards mando player was Mitch Jayne.

russell

[Paul Kotapish]

The Dillards mando player was Mitch Jayne.

russell

Actually, I'm pretty certain the Dillard's mandolinist was Dean Webb. At least he was every time I saw them on stage and playing on the Andy Griffith show. There's one episode featuring "The Darlings" where Dean does quite a bit of picking--with his back to the camera--sitting on the communal bed of the Darling's one-room mountain cabin.

Mitch played bass and told stories. And smoked a pipe will doing both.

Last I heard, Dean was still playing mandolin and performing and recording with a bluegrass band on a cruise boat on a lake near Branson.

[bush-man]

You are absolutely right!! Alzhimers kicking in. hehehe I got Mitch and Dean mixed up. I used to listen to WheatStraw Suite over and over, back in the day.

russell

[mounmon]

Just watched the old 60's musical "Paint Your Wagon" and spotted an oval hole 3 point scroll in the dance scene at the beginning (along with a Martin Dreadnought - probably both quite a bit before their time).

Also, I recall a mandolin present in the old Bogie movie "To Have and Have not"

Rick

[grandmainger]

Back to the Future III. During the outdoor ball scene, there is a mando player on stage... Hard to see, in part due to the huge beards, but he's there!

[Martin Jonas]

Cafe member Plami (Plamen Ivanov) appears in the Holocaust movie "The Grey Zone". #He has just posted a clip on YouTube here. #Plamen plays the Puglisi bowlback with butterfly inlay on the right of the opening screen.

Martin

[groovemando]

In the Marx Brothers movie "A Night At The Opera" when the heroin (whats her name?) is leaving Italy for America on a boat, she sings a song and all you can see right behind her is a mandolin headstock, don't know what make though.

[Frank Russell]

Man, I don't remember anything about heroin in the Marx Bros. movies, but I may be naive. Frank

[mythicfish]

Jesus wept!

Curt

[mandocrucian]

This Is Spinal Tap - The "Stonehenge" sequence with Nigel on mandolin

[Jack Roberts]

There is a scene in Ella Enchanted where Anne Hathaway takes mandolin lessons.

[Daniel Nestlerode]

...when the heroin...is leaving Italy for America on a boat...

Wouldn't that be drug smuggling?
----

If memory serves, The Band's Scorsese directed concert film, The Last Waltz, has a bit of Levon Helm playing mandolin. Then there is, naturally, mandolin all over the film Grateful Dawg.

Daniel

[JeffD]

Matewan, John Sayles's excellent movie about West Virginia coal miners in the '20s, has some mandolin music and at least one scene of someone playing..

Yes I remember that now, it was a bowl back mandolin if I am not mistaken, and the music in that movie is great.

[JeffD]

The Andy Griffith show you speak of featured the band "The Darlings" which were actually The Dillards. #Some outstanding pickin' there.

I remember that. (I grew up on that show.) One of the family rented a room at the hotel, and the whole family snuck in to play music. When ever the landlord came by, they all hid real quickly and all you had was Grandpa playing a jug. As soon as the landlord left, the band re-appeared and the picking picked up again. Hilarious.

And I remember the daughter saying, after one stint of pretty amazing picking - she said "Oh, Papa, that one makes me cry".

[Deaf David]

Also on the Marx Brother's movie "A Day at the Races," during the elaborate musical scene at the fountain there are mandolins of some round variety (but clearly with eight tuning pegs)being strummed behind the singer.