Things you never really noticed the first time around...

[Vinnie Blues]

From Elwood, anything can happen, you're right.

[Mercer]

Originally Posted by Scott

I'd like to hear from a few more Europeans about which country that may be in Twiggy's case.

I don't know how it works in the United States, but here in Canada, vehicles that are imported into the country must be unregistered before shipment, inspected at a government-approved facility in Canada, and then re-registered in Canada with provincial license plates. This makes me suspect that Twiggy was not staying long in the United States.

To me it looks a lot like a dutch one, although at that time they had a black plate with silver lettering as far as I remember (might be different with diplomatic status). Nowadays they are yellow with black letters on them.
What makes me think they're dutch is the letter/number combination on it. Two letters combined with two groups of numbers to me look a lot like the dutch ones. I searched the web but didn't find a usable pic. The letters might be in the first place, in the middle or the last group as far as I know.
Anyhow it would be nice if someone who knows more about this would post whatever is to say about this subject. Is there anybody from The Netherlands here on the board?
Maybe I'm wrong and they are from I-don't-know-where-land and to be honest: it really doesn't matter at all.
I'm just curious because I think they are not from the US or Canada. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Mercer]

Originally Posted by Scott

I met a guy once who brought his Alfa Romeo over here. He said it was cheaper because he was only going to be here for two years while he works towards his pilot's license, and then he is going back to Austria. That surprised me, but he's done more research than I have so I took his word for it.

In Twiggy's case, it probably was a case of being filthy rich and attached to the car. Yes you have to pay for shipping both ways, but you save on not having to buy insurance over here.

Well, a lot of my comrades took their german cars with them to Texas back in the seventies. Mainly Mercedes, BMW and Porsches. They drove them there and sold them shortly before their return. They gained good money on old cars that were hard to sell here.
Meanwhile they had bought nice american cars and took them back home with them, sold them here and again gained good values for them.
The old Cadillac that I have here shared this experience the other way round. It was sold and left back by an american trooper having been stationed in Gießen who took a Mercedes back home.
It's just the fact that you always want, what not everybody has... simply human...

[Scott]

Twiggy's plates are definitely from some European country. License plates in North America are narrower and taller.

North America:


Europe:


This site might be helpful:
http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/
We can compare pictures from that site with screen captures from the movie and that should give us our answer.

[Mercer]

Thanks for that great help, Scott. This site is a great find and if you click on the link in my post you will find the dutch plates.
I still think it's some kind of dutch plate because of the "xx - xx -xx" style it shows. But the colors are different. Maybe it's some fantasy sign...
http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/jp...erlands_GI.jpg

[Vinnie Blues]

Great site ! Can someone post a screen capture of Twiggy's car plate ?

I think it may have been something like the 1978 Netherland series : 2 letters - 2 digits - 2 letters.

I also checked the plates for Abu Dhabi where I lived for 2 years in the mid-1990s. And yes, the plates are here, even the ones used for export ! (I still have them at home.) A nice trip down memory lane...

[Mercer]

Originally Posted by Vinnie Blues

Great site ! Can someone post a screen capture of Twiggy's car plate ?

too bad, I can't...
tried holding the monitor close to the TV set with the scene on it, but it didn't work out
kidding of course...
Even with the new Computer I have NO possibilities to make captures from a movie...
or maybe yes and I just don't know how.
sorry

[Mercer]

now....
just had a closer look on the plates site...
I don't believe it:
they even have the licence plate of the USA's lunar robot on it.
Here it is:
http://www.worldlicenceplates.com/general/XX_MOON.html

This is leaving me speechless

[Mercer]

I can do it....
I can do it....
I didn't know I could...
*PROOOUUUDDDD*

[Vinnie Blues]

Thanks for the screen captures, Mercer !

That settles the thing definitely : these are no Dutch plates, which are yellow while here they are white. And then, the series of digits and letters are not the same, i.e. 2-letters/2-digits/2-letters, as per the plate sites, the 78 series for the Netherlands.

The Chic Lady keeps her mystery.

[Mercer]

Tired of investigation already?
So if we know that it's NOT dutch, what is it?

[Cropper Classic]

Interesting.........

[Scott]

I looked through plates from several European countries and couldn't find a match. I also checked Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Nothing.

[Vinnie Blues]

Maybe Twiggy is some kind of alien coming from outter space, whose spacecraft was just transformed into a Jaguar to make it look less weird ? LOL

In fact, maybe the prop master in the movie thought this kind of plate would look exotic enough. I think the general 'foreign' look of the chic lady needed to be emphasized and such a plate was as good as anything else (car + accent).

[elizabeth]

Originally Posted by Vinnie Blues

I think the general 'foreign' look of the chic lady needed to be emphasized and such a plate was as good as anything else (car + accent).

Thus making her attractive to Elwood, which I think was the point.

[Vinnie Blues]

True, not only making her attractive to Elwood, and also to make a sharp contrast between her original (rich) background and that of Elwood, a poor boy from Chicago. The issue of class divide was discussed in the thread of the movie as a social commentary.

[elizabeth]

True, not only making her attractive to Elwood, and also to make a sharp contrast between her original (rich) background and that of Elwood, a poor boy from Chicago.

ooh! Like in Romeo and Juliet!

[Vinnie Blues]

Originally Posted by elizabeth

ooh! Like in Romeo and Juliet!

Err... not exactly. Romeo's and Juliet's family feud was based on power struggles between two clans in Verona, not class divide.

[elizabeth]

right, because they were both upperclass families.

[MrFabulous]

I love the "Mr. Man!" line. Who would of thought to script a line like that?

[MrFabulous]

Also, when Elwood brings Jake to his hotel for the first time, you can hear Vince McMahon announcing a wrestling match on the television.

[ElwoodRocks]

I don't know if anyone wrote this already, but in the salon "Curl up and Dye", I noticed there were framed pictures of Jake and the Mystery Woman on the desk. They're kind of blurry, but you can tell that it's John with Carrie Fisher. Did anyone else realize that?

Also, so many people probably caught this but the cross on top of the baptist church is crooked! I find that funny. =D

[ChiTownJohn]

Has anyone ever noticed that when Elwood takes Jake to the Hotel that the Drunk guy thats staggering down the street passed Carrie Fisher's car, Blows his stomach or spits or something, It's just before the scene cuts, You see this huge spray leave his facial area, becuse we see his back so it's hard to pickup on.

[Steam McQueen]

Originally Posted by ChiTownJohn

Has anyone ever noticed that when Elwood takes Jake to the Hotel that the Drunk guy thats staggering down the street passed Carrie Fisher's car, Blows his stomach or spits or something, It's just before the scene cuts, You see this huge spray leave his facial area, becuse we see his back so it's hard to pickup on.

LOL!! Outrageous.

He takes a drink and does a spit-take. That's so cool, ChiTown! I never noticed that before.

Maybe it was Carl Reiner. He did a good spit-take! lol
Spit-take - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Although that wiki article doesn't mention Carl Reiner, I remember an interview with him where he talked about comedy stuff and the spit-take was definitely mentioned.

Very funny find!

[Elwood72]

Here's something I've noticed all along,but I'm asking here anyway:

When Jake and Elwood are leaving the gig to drive to Chicago,and Elwood asks the promoter if there's another way out,he says: "I used to be head bouncer here back in the '70s",and then tells them about the electrical service duct ,my question is this:

How could it have been "back in the 70s" when the movie was made in 1979? Is there some inside joke I'm not aware of?