Old Movies vs. New Technology

BY JOANNE CELI

I am a big fan of old movies. For me, there’s nothing like curling up on the couch with a glass of red wine and Turner Classic Movies on the TV. Over the last few years, I’ve become acutely aware that many of these movies would have been completely different, and some even totally irrelevant, with our new world technology. 

I don’t know where this fascination comes from. But whenever I see a relationship ending because one person doesn’t know where their loved one is, or if the missing person is even alive – I think “My kingdom for a GPS”.

A glaring example of “wouldn’t work now” is the movie Dial M For Murder. The key scene in the movie has Ray Milland’s character calling Grace Kelly’s character on her landline at a very specific time. The call is meant to get her out of bed and into the living room where the phone, and her murderer are. Now, everyone knows her cell phone would be right next to her bed. She’s not going anywhere near that assassin. 

My favorite Christmas movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, is shot full of holes. First of all, fumbling Uncle Billy would never be carrying all that cash to the bank. Money would surely be electronically transferred from a Savings & Loan company to a bank. If Mary just texted George that she had a whole town of doners for his GoFundMe, or if he looked at all the Venmo notifications on his phone, he may never have contemplated suicide. He wouldn’t have met Clarence and never would have known what life would be like without him.

There are so many movies that I watch with an eye out for obsolescence: With cell phones and caller ID, both the kids and killer would be safe in I Saw What You Did. In Psycho, Marion would certainly not have been carrying all that money. Plus, I’m sure she could have looked at any Yelp review of The Bates Motel and run for the hills.  

Even Key West’s classic, The Rose Tattoo, does not escape scrutiny. The passionate and fierce Serafina idolizes her husband, both in life and after his untimely death. She loves and brags about him until she finds out something the whole town already knows – he’s been cheating on her for years. You can’t tell me that, in all that time, those nasty gossip-mongers wouldn’t have used the opportunity to send her a screenshot of her husband and his lover. He might not have lived long enough to die in that fiery truck. And we may have been treated to more hot screen time with Anna Magnini and Burt Lancaster.

To prove the speed of technological improvements, today New York City removed its last public payphone. Already a movie made in 2002, Phone Booth with Colin Farrell, seems dated.

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