Movies with Appliances Being Used

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jakeseacrest

jakeseacrest

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Joined
Aug 5, 2006
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485
Location
Massachusetts
Mostly dishwashers and garbage disposals. Off the top of my head:

The Incredible Shrinking Woman: Lily Tomlin falls into the garbage disposal
The War of the Roses: Kathleen Turner loads a Jenn Air reverse rack and uses a disposal
Ordinary People: Mary Tyler Moore uses a disposal
The Last Married Couple in America: Natalie Wood loads a KDS-18
The Courtship of Eddie's Father: A Frigidaire spin tube gets loaded
Mirror Mirror: Karen Black loses her hand in a disposal
The Ice Storm: Joan Allen loads a KDI-15
Bachelor In Paradise: Bob Hope loses a battle with the disposal
Ghost in the Machine: A kid sticks his hand in the disposal and later the dishwasher kills the babysitter
Drop Dead Fred: Marsha Mason loads a Whirlpool dishwasher

Any others to add?
 
Critters: Dee Wallace uses a disposal after dinner
Amityville the Evil Escapes: a guy loses his hand trying to unjam a disposal
E.T.: Dee Wallace puts plates in a Caloric dishwasher
 
"The Birds"

In Alfred Hitchcock's, "The Birds" (1963), Lydia Brenner (Jessica Tandy) loads a built-in dishwasher (a Whirlpool??)

In "Bye Bye Byrdie (1963) Mama Mae Peterson (Maureen Stapleton) tries to asphyxiate herself in the oven of a range, only to have Paul Lynde inform her, "It's electric."
 
one more....

In "Who's Minding the Store" (1963),

Norman Pfiffer (Jerry Lewis) is attempting to repair a Hoover Convertible vacuum cleaner while a chagrinned Agnes Moorehead watches. the setting is in the appliance department of the department store Norman is working at. In the background are many home appliances (washers, dryers, disposals, etc.) including a row of beautiful RCA Whirlpool portable dishwashers.
 
Natalie Wood stuck her head into a gas oven in "Inside Daisy Clover."  I was a a teenager when I saw it and couldn't tell you anything about its brand or age, but I suspect it would have been an old stove for its day.

 

 
 
In 1936’s “Follow the Fleet”

Harriet Hillard aka Harriet Nelson of 1950’s TV “Ozzie and Harriet”, mom of Ricky and David Nelson,  cooks for Randolph Scott on  what appears to be a brand new electric stove, I believe it was a GE in she and her sisters (Ginger Rogers) tricked out San Francisco apartment.

 

BTW this is a pretty good 30’s RKO dancing musical with Fred Astaire also in the cast and Lucille Ball has a bit part too.

 

And on the “Ozzie and Harriet Show” their sponsor was Hotpoint and her kitchen had all Hotpoint appliances and she also did many of the Hotpoint commercials as well.

 

Eddie
 
"The Birds" dishwasher

Was a Whirlpool - the 'telephone-dial' model no less!  Found one a couple of years ago but still haven't used it...

 

And let's not forget the Westy slant-front washer being emptied in a frenzy when the grid shuts down in "The Day The Earth Stood Still".
 
Here’s a GE Promotional Film from 1933

with Bette Davis showing how to do the dishes in her new GE in the counter dishwasher.  Her whole kitchen is a wonderland of the latest GE appliances.  Her friend is character actress Ruth Donnelly.

 

Eddie

 

 
Here's a cringe-inducing film for us laundry nerds:

The scene in "The Accidental Tourist (1988)" where William Hurt's character gets a load of wash going in a Whirlpool Imperial (looks to be a 1986 model), then starts up the basement stairs. As he's going, the washer shifts into spin-dry, goes out of balance, bangs loudly, *AND A BUZZER SOUNDS*. This freaks out his dog, who trips up our hero, causing him to topple down the stairs leaving him laid up with an injury so that he's not able to do his job writing travel guides.

Um...what now? Possibly I'm wrong, but I never knew Whirlpools to have OOB buzzers.

One of the sound engineers apparently went home and recorded their Kenmore and used that in the soundtrack, I suppose? It's as nerve wracking for me as those '70s TV shows where we hear the same Chrysler starter motor canned sound effect in any scene where a car engine is being cranked, regardless of the car's manufacture.
 
 
No WP old-style belt-drives had OOB switches far as I know, unless maybe very early 1950s.  1986 is at the tail-end of production.

Whirlpool direct-drive Catalyst has an OOB because of the catalyst spin treatment, but no other WP or KA DD model that I'm aware.  I recall mention that some KM direct-drive models (other than the Catalyst) had OOBs.
 
TV Shows:
In the episode of Gimme A Break "Katie's Corner" Jonathan buys and tries to install an Insinkerator Model 77.

In an episode of Valerie the boys give Valerie a Badger 5
 
The washer and dryer in the basement of Home Alone was a Frigidaire, actually all the appliances in the house were Frigidaire. In Home Alone 2 the house under renovation had a Maytag center dial washer in the basement. In the movie Uncle Buck they had a Kitchen Aid washer and dryer. The movie The Birdcage there was a beautiful Coldspot bottom freezer refrigerator and there was also a nice vintage Kenmore washer and dryer. The movie She Devil, RoseAnn was cooking in a Caloric Eye Level gas range and later blew up the house by putting iron and other things in her copper tone 1967 GE filter Flo washer, the same movie later shows Meryl Streep breaking her nail closing the lid of a Hotpoint rim flow washer.
 
The Three Stooges, when Shemp is dating some hot girl and they are cleaning up the kitchen after eating in her apartment and Shemp opens a running early KA dishwasher and gets soaked when the auto shut off switch doesn't work trying to put a glass in.

Jon
 
Westinghouse Laundromat's

EuGene, lest we not forget the Tappan Fabulous 400, also making an appearance in "The Parent Trap." I didn't mention these as they weren't being used in the movie. But it and the dishwasher are, indeed, beautiful pieces of equipment (as is Maureen O'Hara, as well.)

Oddly, Mitch also has a built-it cook top in addition to the Tappan range. Maggie (Maureen O'Hara) is making Irish Stew, for Mitch (Brian Keith) on it.

I doubt if there are any sci fi buffs on this site so you may not have seen the classic "B" science fiction film. "The Magnetic Monster," starring Richard Carlson and Jean Byron (Patty Duke's TV mom.)

It also stars a whole row of brand new 1952/53 model Westinghouse Laundromats.

A scientist, in his laboratory located on the second floor over a hardware store, magnetizes the entire store below and the doors of the Westinghouse machines keep opening and closing on their own. You can also see many small appliances, of the day, (percolators, skillets) in the hardware store.

(BTW, Despite the silly title, this is a very well done film. You won't leave your chair in the last 15 minutes!)
 
Moving: Richard Pryor turns on the garbage disposal and the kitchen goes haywire. He has a Jenn Air reverse rack that goes crazy when this happens.
 
I have seen many but do not recall any of the names, i do remember home alone when Kevin uses that crappy indexing plastic tub Frigidaire set and pour half cap of the still orange liquid tide of the old days on the softener dispenser and all around.
The OCD side of me gets really annoyed by that! 😂
 
Movies with appliances being used

Michael Keaton “Mr. Mom” 1970”s Westinghouse washer,1960’’s Kenmore Dryer
Kathy Bates. Dolores Claiborne 1970s Kenmore Washer
Meryl Streep She Devil 1980’s Hotpoint washer and dryer
Mary Tyler Moore uses garbage disposal and Kitchen Aide dishwasher
 

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