Fireplaces!

In classic era detective movies, whenever the hero finds some recent ashes in a fireplace there will always be a scrap of unconsumed paper with a word or part of a word on it. It will turn out to be a major clue.

One of my most hated movie clichés is the one where smashing glass is used to express high emotion. The earliest example of this I have found is in “All The King’s Men” (1949). As Joanne Dru stalks out of a room in high dudgeon, she flings her highball glass into a fireplace.

The New Series of Doctor Who (2005-Now) seems to like fireplaces. In season two, the Doctor finds a mysterious fireplace on a deserted space ship. Looking through it, he sees 18th century France on the other side. (All is explained during the course of the story.) For the Season 6 Christmas episode, the Doctor makes his first appearance, Santa Clause-like, down a fireplace chimney.

Dick Van Dyke and other Sweeps, sing and dance on London rooftops among fireplace chimneys.

M-G-M films frequently featured homey fireplaces to reflect family values -- even when unrequired. In UNDERCURRENT, Hepburn and Robert Taylor return to their unoccupied home after their honeymoon -- and there is already a roaring fire going in the fireplace (nope, no servants).

Mrs. Kane doing jigsaw puzzles in front of the massive Xanadu fireplace.

Later in the film, as Jim Blandings ignites the first fire in his newly-built home, he neglects to open the flue, filling the room with smoke, and it's up to his precocious daughter to rectify the situation.

Laurel and Hardy misadventures with fireplaces:

Hog Wild - Ollie endeavors to install a rooftop radio antenna and, with Stan's help, one of many attempts results in his quick descent down the chimney, depositing him in the living room fireplace amid a hail of bricks and soot.

Helpmates - Having helped Ollie clean up after a wild party before Mrs. Hardy returns home from out of town, Stan lights a cozy fire to welcome her while Ollie is off to retrieve her from the train station. Ollie of course returns to find Stan hosing down the smoking ruins of what's left of the Hardy home.

Dirty Work - Stan and Ollie are chimney sweeps. Well, you can just imagine...     

Teresa Russell naked in her camel hair coat about to seduce Nicol Williamson in Black Widow. They are cuddled under a fur throw in front of a roaring fire at his lake cabin. Spectacular! I have the biggest crush on Nicol Williamson.


The throwing glasses into the fireplace thing , seems like it's a ritual of certain men's clubs to indicate the finality of the toast just given, a final " let it be done" .in The House of Fear the good comrades drink a final toast to the departed member and dash the glass into the fire.

A great audio joke on one episode of Jack Benny's radio show concerned occasional guest Ronald Colman. Jack's watching an old Colman movie (UNDER TWO FLAGS) where its hero and the other members of the French Foreign Legion regiment drink a final farewell fatal toast and toss the glasses into the fireplace before going off to valiantly face their enemy and to almost certain death.

Back at the Colman mansion Ronnie and wife Benita (frequent guests often playing Jack's long-suffering next door neighbors) are hosting a cocktail party for their society friends from England and celebrating the host's new collection of priceless brandy glasses from the Napoleonic era.

An uninvited Jack enters to share his enthusiastic reaction to the film he has just seen and to congratulate Colman on his great performance. The ever-gracious host offers Benny a brandy as Jack, not knowing of the value of the glass in his hand, describes his viewing experience:

"And my favorite scene is when they give a toast before going off to battle, and then they do this ..."

(crash goes the sound of the glass into the fireplace)

Topper Returns 1941, within the fireplace is a button or something that opens a trap door, and who ever sits in a certain chair suddenly dissappears.

Gone with the Wind 1939, Scarlett throws a vase that hits a fireplace after she had a fight with Ashley.

Mary Poppins 1964, the childrens wishing list for the next nanny are thrown into the fireplace, ripped to pieces by their father, and is sucked upwards via the chimney into the hands of Mary, later in the movie all of London's shimneysweepers comes down the same chimney and out via the same fireplace.

Holiday Inn 1941, Bing Crosby plays piano with a fireplace behind him, not sure if it's Whte Christmas he sang in the scene.

Christmas in Connecticut 1945, Barbara Stanwyck comes home to celebrate Christmas at the old farmhouse she owns (farmhouses must be enormous in Connecticut) in that house is a huge fireplace, though not Citizen Kane huge.

The Maltese Falcon 1941, Mary Astor pokes around in the fireplace in her apartment, when she tries to avoid looking into the eyes of Humhrey Bogart.

Later on in The Pink Panther, Peter Sellars nonchalantly leans against the metal hood over the firepit-style fireplace in the ski lodge, burning his hand which he then thrusts into a convenient beer stein to relieve it...and naturally enough, gets it stuck therein.