MovieChat Forums > Seven Days to Noon (1950) Discussion > Bed + Breakfast scene

Bed + Breakfast scene

posted 15 years ago by Tim-O-T
12 replies | jump to latest

When the professor is shown the room at the bed & breakfast, the landlady turns down the covers of the bed to find a cat. She then removes something else. What was it?
The reason I ask is because it looked like a bottle or jug to warm the bed at night. If it was, it doesn't fit with an earlier scene when the professor was walking down a road and two or more boys run past him in what looks like swimming trunks and shirtless. Maybe someone can explain this.

[–] sneakygreenalien 15 years ago

I also wondered what was removed from the bed. Typed 'water bottle bed' via google images and found identical images matching what was pulled from the bed. Come to find out there were also metal variations.

[–] hillfox20 15 years ago

I think these stone water bottles must have been made before and during WW2 when rubber was at a premium and was needed for tyres etc for the war machine.
That said, it still doesn't account for the two boys running down the road in swimming trunks - perhaps it turned cold at night!! lol !

[–] saavik-girl 15 years ago

It was a clay stone hot water bottle, both my grannies had them. Perhaps the ladylady felt the cold, she was getting on a bit, and assumed her lodgers felt the same.
Kids go swimming in all weathers, I did.

"It tickles!"

[–] weremoth 14 years ago

Saw this on Saturday on Film 4. It's been years since I last saw it - forgot how good it was.

As Saavik-girl says, it was a stone hot watter bottle. There is dialogue which explains the weather. I think it was in the scene where the Professor first meets Goldie in the pawnbrokers. One of them mentions that it is a lovely day outside, and the other replies something along the lines that it is, but it is still cold at night.

That makes me think that the film takes place sometime during Spring.

[–] Blocoboy 14 years ago

Watched the film today..it was a stone water bottle as everyone has said..I had one in the late '50s..I had an old football sock to cover it because it was so hot and the noise it made when it fell out of bed was incredible.

[–] escalera-2 14 years ago

That would explain the cat as well since they like to nap on warm spots.

[–] heathentart 14 years ago

Almost no homes, flats, hostels or hotels in England in the '50s were fitted with central heating. At best, you had this coin-operated heating thingie on the wall or in an old fireplace.

Trust me, after traveling through England in the '70s, in summer, central heating was still not widely available, and many a nice little bed & breakfast outfitted the guest rooms with hot water bottles.

You'd be surprised how deep, down, bone cold it gets at night with no central heating. Did you never wonder why everyone wore twinsets (women) and jumpers (men) in their homes?

We Americans are spoiled rotten. Thank God!

People who don't like dogs should be killed. - Simon Marchmont

[–] SueBee55 13 years ago

I too remember how cold unheated houses were. We moved recently and changed heating from LPG to oil and so had a few days with no heat. It made me recall the days I lived in flats and bedsits in London with only a bar electric fire or old gas fire to heat them. That bone numbing cold is awful. And you're right, far fewer houses in the UK had central heating in the 70's. You yanks have no idea with your cheap fuel! For example, to fill my car, a VW Golf, costs about £60 or $70!

[–] TongueFu 14 years ago

There was a fireplace in the room, so I don't know if the hot water bottle would have really been necessary. Seems the fireplace would have served to heat the room quite adequately. I was wondering how the cats got into the room when the door had been closed.

[–] sludgehound 14 years ago

Cats prob got in when landlady had set up the room because she was advertising
the place expecting people. Rem after the war there was still a shortage of
housing after the Blitz & fires.
Clothing did seem to be a time filling feature in film. Bomber ditched his
overcoat. Then was looking for replacement in pawnshop. Actress woman was
getting her fur out of hock both for her show biz impression, and as a way
to make conversation about the cold. Notice her eyes toward bomber as she
was doing some makeup in pawnshop.
Film itself sure had a lot of small details going for it. Sewer search by
troops was repeated in many 50s sci-fi US films. Giant ants, and classic
40s like The Third Man. Lighting in b/w made whole film cheaper yet plays
on the Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil mood so popular.
Also there's that eerie sense of the military-industrial establishment still
hanging onto the populace psyche. So orderly both in army & citizens.
Yet those signs on buses of This Is the Man We Are Seeking. Real Big Brother
touch to that.
Quite spooky given that "dirty bombs" carried by terrorists to bring down a
modern city is still an event in play 60 years later.
Exchange Russians for whomever and concern is just as real. More real actually
since obtaining one of these things is lot wider now. What was confined to
an inner circle is now practically an eBay item w/ Wiki directions for use.
Just hope the ding dongs blow themselves up first.
Neat to see such a template for what became such a genre of countdown. Even
mixing in the church at the end. Seen that in a few films. The Siege had this
kind of tone of military & civilians under stress and what they'd do.
There was even the mad science vs nature theme in a brief exchange.
Tight little number. Strong filmwork.

[–] John-367 14 years ago

TongueFu: "There was a fireplace in the room, so I don't know if the hot water bottle would have really been necessary."

Bed sheets could be bitterly cold before central heating was common.
People used to be much more careful with heating than is generally the case now. Fires wouldn't have been lit all the time, especially if it was warm during the day.
Unless it was the middle of a heatwave, people in the UK at the time usually did wear thick clothing at home. Men almost always wore vests (undershirts for Americans), not unusually long johns and frequently a pullover or cardigan indoors. Most rooms in the house would not have been routinely heated at all.

Using a hot water bottle rather than having a fire going all day and night in a bedroom was definitely routine, even into the 1970s.

[–] 14 years ago

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