Gort Klaatu Barada Nikto

[tomturbomatic]

I got to see the 1951 film The Day The Earth Stood Still today. When the power is shut down for a half hour around the world, there is a clip of a woman pulling sopping wet laundry out of a Westinghouse washer that had just one dial. You can tell from the squishy sounds that it stopped full of water. I had forgotten that segment.

I like the film for the way it displays military and human arrogance and hubris.

One other thing: the little boy who befriends Klaatu is played by Billy Gray, Bud Anderson on Father Knows Best.

Gort, Baringa!

 

[arbilab]

I'll watch DTESS any time it's on.  I think what makes it work so well is the degree to which it is understated, particularly for the genre.

 

[gansky1]

Remember seeing this for the first time a few years back, after the Keanu re-make came out.  

 

[ozzie908]

@ DTESS

I never understood why the lady removing the laundry from the machine didn't just leave it in there for when the power came back on, Thus allowing the machine to complete its cycle...

Or was it just to show the inconvenience of no power?

Austin

 

[tomturbomatic]

Most people and machines--go figure. I think you have the answer.

 

[spiralator60]

Laundry in the Westinghouse Washer

Hi Austin,

Another explanation for removing the clothes from the stopped machine is because at the time the film was made (1951), many people hung their wash on clotheslines outside - tumble dryers were not yet a common household appliance.

Many of us here can recall that our mothers and grandmothers made it a point to get wet laundry on the line as early in the day as possible, as all of the family laundry was usually done on a single day. I can remember that the latest my grandmother wanted to do this was after lunch, around 1:00 PM, and she owned both a wringer and automatic washer. This was so that the clothes could get dry enough after three or four hours to either fold, prepare for ironing, or hang inside the house overnight. Living in the warm Southern California climate, this was not an uncommon practice.

In the film's plot the power outage happened during the middle of the day, a time picked by the alien to interrupt and inconvenience lives and livelihoods everywhere.

 

[ozzie908]

@spiralator60

Thank you for that explanation, makes perfect sense now you said about hanging it out ASAP.

Before having an Automatic washing machine we had a Servis Supertwin they had pretty good spin dryers and if it was raining everything got extra spin and hung under a siding that stopped the rain but was open to allow the wind to blow. Everything dried eventually and was finished on an airer in front of a gas heater in the hall. Only downside was the moisture made the wall paper peel... We got a dryer in the 80's.

Austin