Nile paddlers

[AlistairD]

Was surfing thew web today and came across a couple of websites on Nile paddle steamers
http://www.steam-ship-sudan.com/english/history-sudan.html
on SUDAN with a video and panoramic veiws
and
http://www.setifirst.com/docs/pboats_memnon.htm
on MEMNON.
SUDAN was used in the recent John Suchet "Death on the Nile" and MEMNON in the Peter Ustinov film of the Agatha Christie book

Here's an idea, how about some postings about paddle steamers in films, real paddle steamers, that is, not mock-up Mississippi ones on the studio

[Eddy Matthews]

A couple of great looking sites Alistair, thanks for letting us know about them.

I like the idea of your paddlers in films suggestion - Unfortunately I'm not a film buff, I rarely watch them, but there must be lots that have been featured over the years.... I eagerly await the response from our other members, I can see I'm going to have to sit down and watch some movies! :-)

[AlistairD]

I think it really needs a new Topic but I am  writing this as an email and not on the website and it is almost midnight and I  am too tired to go to the website
 Those I can think of are
 "The Four Feathers" featuring some Nile sternwheelers,this is  the 1939 version with Ralph Richardson
 "Maverick" using PORTLAND, the preserved stern-wheel tug at  Portland, Oregon
 "Steamboat Round the Bend" which is a 1920s movie using a  number of long deceased California paddlers and is supposed to be very  good
 "Showboat" which has on TV in the UK recently, with a  Mississippi paddle named COTTON BLOSSOM
 Â 
 Alistair
 

  ----- Original Message -----
   From:    Paddleducks (websites@paddleducks.co.uk)
   To: websites@paddleducks.co.uk (websites@paddleducks.co.uk)
   Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 11:23    PM
   Subject: Nile paddlers
   

The following message was posted on Paddleducks, by Eddy    Matthews    
A couple of great looking sites Alistair, thanks for    letting us know about them.

I like the idea of your paddlers in films    suggestion - Unfortunately I'm not a film buff, I rarely watch them, but there    must be lots that have been featured over the years.... I eagerly await the    response from our other members, I can see I'm going to have to sit down and    watch some movies!


     
Regards
Eddy


Exported by    Paddleducks Mail System.

[thewharfonline]

Don't tell me we're pioneering in the ways of paddlers in films

The River kings
PS Industry
PV Akuna Amphibious

All the Rivers Run 1 and 2
PS Pevensey
PS Emmylou
PS Adelaide
(And varying other background steamers!)

Then there are TV series such as
Chuck Finn
Which featured the barge 'Dart" with paddle steamer housing etc built on top of it

(Actually the above two movies were both TV series first...just on tape/DVD they are movie versions!)

How about Mickey Mouse, his pioneering role was on a paddle steamer...yah huh!

[mjt60a]

...I believe that Kingswear Castle was used in the filming of the TV/VHS version of 'Great Expectations' - as a cross channel steamer! (somewhat disguised with artificial superstructure???)
...and Compton Castle was used for 'engineroom scenes' in the Onedin Line!

Waverley featured in an episode of the kids TV show 'Balamory' (but the less said about that, the better - I mean, imagine, they forgot to print any tickets........ :roll: .)

[Bierjunge]

I just came across this clipping of the 1966 movie "Khartoum" showing a Nile sidewheeler disguised as gunboat "Abbas". Does anyone know the name and fate of the real boat used in making the movie?
http://www.cityofart.net/bship/khartoum_gunboat_video.html

[mjt60a]

Apparently (as I haven't seen it) Medway Queen appeared in the 1958 movie 'Dunkirk' - as did a model of Crested Eagle!
take a look - http://www.irishseashipping.com/features/ShipsOnFilm/shipsonfilm.htm

[Roderick Smith]

Sean has given the major Australian ones (I have yet to see either).  The boats appeared under film names, not their real ones.  IIRC Pevensey - Philadelphia; Industry - Mabel.  One nice touch was Etona reprising its original role, under its original name: a mission boat, in the wedding scene of 'Philadelphia' (a character based on Captain Pearl Wallace).

Not paddle, but dominating a whole plot: the one set on the Amazon, using both a real vintage diesel screw vessel and a mockup for the bizarre scenes. [Edit on 11.2: The film is Fitzcarraldo].

One which stickes in my mind: 'Around the world in 80 days'.  In the plot, Fogg arranges for the whole superstructure of the trans-Atlantic paddlesteamer to be burned as fuel (PS Hatteras? Savannah?).

Presumably there are films of the Mark Twain novels with real paddleboats.

The stage musical 'Showboat' has a paddlesteamer set for act 1; then it has to be removed somehow for act 2.  What was used for the film version?

One company converted its Showboat set into 1930s art deco, and then did 'Anything goes' in the next season.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor