IMCDb Internet Movie Car Database

[Weaz]

The other night I was watching Back To The Future with my wife, and I got tired of searching every scene for a Kaiser. I Googled up 'movie cars Kaiser' or 'back to the future kaiser' or something and found the Internet Movie Car Database (IMCDb.org). I did a quick Kaiser search and easily found a list of scenes from various movies that have Kaisers in them. Fid emailed me today about 'It Came From Beneath The Sea' because there is a '49 Kaiser in it. Now that I look it up, it lists it as a '47. I'll go with Fid's estimate.

Just thought I'd share. Looks like an huge database. Hours of fun.

If you are already aware of IMCDd.org, please disregard.

[Fid]

Hey Weaz, I looked at the still shot from "It Came from Beneath the Sea" that's posted on the site and it is a 1947/48 Kaiser. My goof - it was late and I was slightly sedated when I watched the movie the other night so I thought it looked like a  49, same body and all. The listing on that website is correct, it's a 47/48 I was also watching it on a little 13" TV so maybe that's how I goofed...
Some movies that are missing on that site - "Steel Town", probably the one movie to most prominently feature KF cars.  A gray '51 Henry J deluxe, a '51 Kaiser Golden Dragon and you can see a '49 Kaiser in a warehouse parking lot scene later in the movie. I've heard that the steel mill scenes in Steel Town were filmed at Kaiser Steel in Fontana, CA.
The 1954 version of "Dragnet", the first movie spawned by a TV series, has a quick shot of a maroon 1951 Henry J driving by as the officers park their car in front a recording studio. Earlier in the movie, and you have to be really quick with the pause button on the DVD/VCR, as Sgt Friday's Ford is pulling out of the police garage, a streetcar passes quickly and as it does, a brown 1951 Kaiser Special whizzes by even faster. If you can snag it with the remote, it is easy to tell it's a Special as there is no molding on the side or tops of the doors. I need to find a way to capture this image from my DVD as you have to be quick to see it.  Let me know if you have a way to do that.  That one needs to be on that site.
Then there is "A Summer Place" where they buy a 1948 Kaiser at the end and sleep in it under a bridge. He later drives it up to a house and I'm pretty sure the sound was dubbed over because it did not sound like Kaiser engine that's for sure.
One of the last scenes in the 1949 movie "The Kid from Cleveland" has a shot of Russ Tamblyn squatting between two cars and the one behind him is a '48 Kaiser.
The old Superman series from the 50s was riddled with KF cars but I figured NIK at night would run that show forever so I never bothered to record them. I remember seeing some thugs try to escape our hero in a 1952 Kaiser and there was an old Nash and a '49 Frazer (not something seen very often anywhere) used in background scenes in a lot of episodes of Superman.

[Fabian 51K]

I have watched "Back to the Future" more times than I can count, it is one of my favorites. If you watch real close right before George McFly falls out of the tree you will see what looks like to me, to be the back end of a 53 Kaiser, it is yellow and you only see it for a second or two, but I am sure it is a Kaiser!

[Fabian 51K]

Weaz, I found another one! I was watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine. There is an episode in season six "Far Beyond the Stars" where the Captain is a science fiction writer in the 1950's. As he is walking out of the theater with his girlfriend, the second car parked on the street is a beautiful Turquoise Cerulean Blue 1953 Kaiser. The hood, side, and back of the car can be seen clearly. A few scenes later you can see the car driving past the publishing house. I wounder who this car belongs to?

[Weaz]

No way! I have a friend who has every episode. I'll have to check that out. Thanks.

[Fid]

I remember the short-lived TV Series, 'Alien Nation' (FOX 1989) featured an episode where an officer is trying to buy a car sometime in the future and the salesman shows him "The latest model featuring the newest craze in cars; sliding doors..."  as he reaches down to slide the door open, the camera zooms out and of course the car is a red Darrin. Then he opens the trunk and finds a body in it.  A body in the trunk of a Darrin was likely a victim of drowning as those trunklids really leaked!  The show only lasted one season but we used to watch it everytime it was on. I don't remember ever seeing a Darrin in anything else.

[darrin145]

Happy New Year!! That's a pretty neat web site. I checked it out and found a bunch of Amphicars, my other passion (pronounced money pit), and info on the Saleen Mustang from 2 Fast 2 Furious which is here in the collection! Oh, yes, I did finally receive those Darrin rear axles!

The best of everything to everyone in the new year, Gary.

[Weaz]

Glad to hear you finally got those axles.

I gotta get a Tivo. I swear I saw the rear quarter of a pre-50s Kaiser zip out of frame while the Missus was flipping through the channels last night. I shouted, "rewind, rewind! Go back, go back! KAISER!" She just rolled her eyes and kept on surfing. I don't know what it was from, but I think it was TMC.

[Fid]

There was a Wendy's commercial circa 1996 where they showed, in fast motion, various cars pulling up to a Wendy's drive-through window. One car was a 1954 Kaiser Manhattan, but just as Weas commented, blink your eyes and you missed it. I never got that one on tape.
I saw an Amphicar at a rally in Hastings, MN last summer.   I also found out that President Lyndon Johnson had one and drove it quite often. I recently saw an episode of the American Experience on PBS and they had a quick flash of of Johnson sitting in it in the water with the grandkids.

[darrin145]

That Amphicar is the same color as the one I sold at Manheim Auto Auction years ago. In fact, it was so long ago, I sold the car for $2,400 !!! That price won't even buy a rebuilt transmission today! I've had a bunch of them through the years, I'm now down to one. My dad sold them as a "sideline" in '65 & '66, those were the days. I did see the episode with LBJ and  have a black and white of him in the car. I have heard that his car is still at the ranch in Texas. Well, back to work on the Darrin!

Gary.

[Fid]

I must be getting old! I remember when $2400 would buy a nice Darrin!  I'll have to do some research on the Amphicar. I remember Pepsi used them in their commercials in the 1960s. I remember seeing one, painted up with Pepsi logos, in a parking lot in Omaha, NE circa 1965 or so. Maybe Youtube  has those clips. In those commercials the Pepsi catch phrase was "Come Alive" if I remember correctly. Then the young bronze California beach fans drove their car out into the ocean as they chugged their Pepsi.

[darrin145]

If you are interested, check out www.amphicar.com, which is the International Amphicar Owners Club website. Lots of info and many links to Amphicar related "stuff"!

Gary.

[Fid]

I can't get imcdb.com to come up any more. I wanted to check to see if they had the movie "Little Fugitive" from 1953 listed. I saw it last week on TCM and there's a nice shot of a 1951 Kaiser about 3 mins into the movie. Unfortunately, when I recorded it, about 15 minutes were blanked due to loss of cable so there may even be more shots of it.  Not really a good movie but if anyone is interested, TCM is showing it again on May 2 - check their website and don't forget to convert it to your specific time zone.

[ben-tex]

We had mention of movies with Kaisers in several of the Quarterlies I did. I recall a HJ in a Bud Abott and Lou Costello epic. A more recent example was a movie I saw about some really weird psycho killer where his next victim looked out and said something like "there's XXX and her new Kaiser." It was a 53 as I recall. And Lowell I think the movie was set in MN! The movie is likely to be seen inf IFC as they seem to show the same dozen or so movies over and over.

[Weaz]

Seems to me that the more prominently a Kaiser is mentioned in a movie, the less watchable the movie is...

Fid, I got IMCDB.org to load up. you were typing in DOT O R G, right?