Excuse Me Film
Melanie Wendelberger
Excuse Me is a 2003 Indian Kannada-language romantic drama film starring Sunil Raoh, Ramya and Ajay Rao in the lead roles. The film is directed by Prem of the blockbuster Kariya fame. The music was composed by R. P. Patnaik. The film was praised for its interesting storyline and its music.[1]
Ajay is a young boy who lives with his mother Parvati. He plays sarangi well. Looking at his music skill, a couple of the same village who lives in Bangalore takes Ajay with them with Parvati's permission so that he could have better opportunities there. Also they take the village head's son: Sunil as he is spoilt there. Now both grownup, Ajay is a calm, innocent, humble man while Sunil, although being good at heart, is self-willed. Ajay one day composes a tune by himself. This is overheard by Madhu, a college student who immediately grows fond of it.
Madhu begins to like the one who played the tune and so does Ajay to the girl who expressed her feelings for the person who composed the music. Various instances take place which connect both Madhu and Ajay who then love each other without actually looking each other's faces nor even knowing each other'sidentity. One day Sunil sees Madhu, falls in love with her and pretends to be the one who originally composed that tune which Madhu was admiring. Madhu believes this and later both get engaged after convincing their families. On the other hand, Ajay keeps on searching the girl who admired his composition but in vain. In the climax, Ajay plays his tune in a South Indian music competition as his own composition which angers Madhu. She urges Sunil to reveal to everybody that he is the real creator of that tune. Ultimately Sunil's caretakers reveal to Madhu that Sunil doesn't know anything about music but Ajay indeed composed that tune. Heartbroken Madhu then goes to Ajay as he was her true love.
It happens far too often that I leave a movie theatre and am left shaking my head not at the film I just saw but rather at the chatter that I can overhear walking out of the auditorium. All too often I hear confusion at a rather simple film or mental constipation due to the fact that the film as somewhat more artistically rendered and opaque than the run-of-the-mill fare which makes up the bulk of our cinematic diet.
I am all for taking the time to absorb a film, any film at all, however, some of them present questions and quandaries that should be discussed in a more open way and post-screening discourse should not be so endangered.
The movie is set in 1895 and tells the tale of a small town inventor of a new fangled horseless carriage. He enters it in a race. I take it from that, that the horseless carriage features in some action scenes. Almost certainly the car or cars, were made in the studio's prop department. Even if they had suitable cars, they would not have stood up and been reliable enough for a movie shooting schedule.
So after searching around for hours I find the Red Skelton car is a Sears Roebuck and his rival is driving a curve dash Olds mobile. There are at least three other cars. You can watch the movie on Comcast TCM on demand.
I was searching through some of my stuff and found this undated article, written by Richard Kelley, which covers some of the history of Pacific Auto Rentals who supplied many cars to the movie industry.
"The antique section in the catalog shows a 1904 Olds curved dash, a stately 1910 Cadillac town car, a 1910 Rio roadster and a 1912 Winton touring. Although there was a 1902 Holsman Motor Surrey, a high wheeler which had a rope drive from its under-the-seat engine to the four foot rear wheels in the catalog. P.A.R.'s oldest vehicle wasn't a factory product at all. It was a curious looking little steamer that had been built in 1892 in Akron, Ohio, by circus performer Achille Philion as an attention getter, and it was the only one ever built. The Philion appeared in several movies including Red Skelton's 1951 comedy Excuse My Dust. Today it can be seen at the National Automotive Museum in Reno."
It has been a LONG time since I saw the "excuse My Dust" movie., But I remember that I loved it when I did see it! ( both times!) However, I was always a Red Skelton fan, even though most of his movies didn't showcase his real talents very well, I thought this one worked very well for him.
As I have said before, I was a strange kid. I wanted to own, restore, and drive antique automobiles since I was about five years old. Just loved the old things. On my Grandmother's bookcase, was some sort of a farmer's almanac and resource guide from about 1910. In it, was an advertisement for the Sears Automobile. I was about ten when I discovered that, and when we would visit my grandparent's place, I would usually look at that advertisement in that book (wish I had that book, some "adult" probably threw it out).
From that point on, I have wanted and read about Sears high-wheel automobiles. By the time I saw "Excuse My Dust"? I knew what the car was in the movie. I also noticed several things about it, or should I say "them". The Sears was in one way unlike most automobiles of that configuration. The hand crank for starting the car was on the FRONT of the car, whereas most high-wheel cars crank from one (and in a few cases, either) side of the car. At least one of the Sears cars used for the movie, was a good and proper Sears. It clearly could be seen that the hand crank was in the front, where it is supposed to be. At least one of the cars, was modified (I did not then know how much?). It did NOT have the crank in the front (I noticed that detail the second time I saw the movie, I was maybe sixteen at the time). At least two of the cars had a fake hand crank installed on the side of the body, for Red Skelton to spin when he was supposed to be starting the car.
A couple years ago, one of the cars was offered for sale on eBad. It was a mostly correct Sears, with a few minor changes for the movie. The seller gave quite a lot of details concerning the car, what was correct, and what wasn't, and its role in the film.
Thanks to everyone who responded to this post. The Sears car has always seemed strange to me because it came out when the Model T did but was really primitive solid rubber tires air cooled engine. But I think it would be fun to own one of these cars any way. The more I read about these old cars the more confusing it gets with number of companys entering the market back then. We were told that Europe started it all but Roper built a steam car and motorcycle in the U.S.A. in the 1860's. We are told that Ford started the first mass produced peoples car but the Dodge Brothers invested $60,000 of their own money tooling up and on raw materials to build the engine, transmission, frame, axels for the first model A while Ford spent nothing. These early cars are really interesting. It's nice to know that so many share this interest.
The Model T Ford wasn't anywhere near as popular in its first years as it later became. We tend to think of it in the context of the 20s... from about 1908 to at least 1912 it was just another light, relatively inexpensive car. It wasn't even all that inexpensive at first - that also came later. In 1951 the Sears auto was only about 45 years old and practically no one was collecting old cars. It would have had almost zero value - or at least such a low value that buying 3 or 4 to use in a movie wouldn't have been outrageous and wouldn't have cost much. I don't imagine they would have thought any more about damaging it that I'd think today about wrecking several 1970s cars to make a movie.
Many folks were collecting and restoring old cars, then and earlier, hence, AACA, VMCCA, HCCA, & Glidden Tours, to attest to the brass era and pre-war era hobby. A very rich & interesting history in those organizations!
In Sept 1950. my granddad received a letter from a California man who had just sold his Sears to MGM, and was hunting tow more Sears for MGM. Restoration of my granddad's Sears coincided with the open of "Excuse My Dust", and he displayed the car at his local theater.
Today, there are about 240 known Sears Motor Buggies... many are still driven and shown at shows. In fact, there is planned @ the Old Car Festival this September, a Sears Gathering that is likely to have 15-20 Sears in attendance.
TXSearsGuy, Boy. You really know how to hurt a guy. I have wished for years to attend the OCF, but finances and distance have made it out of my reach. This year it is IMPOSSIBLE for me! Bad enough that there will hopefully be more model K Fords running together there this year than have been in one place in nearly a century. Now I hear that more running Sears Autobuggies might be there also! Criminy!
The estimate of 240 Sears autobuggies still in existence surprises me a bit. How reliable is that number? I have visited the Sears website several times the past few years, it is very good, better than a lot of the small niche websites for specific marques.
For whatever it is worth, I have come close to getting a Sears a few times. One fellow simply wanted a bit too much for the pile of pieces he had (and the engine was a broken mess). A couple were just out of reach financially. And another fellow went and died between offer and acceptance (he said he would take it, but the son wanted much more and held onto two cars for a couple more years before taking what I had offered from someone else for the one I could afford).
Sell your wife, kids, dogs, and whatever will bring $$. The Old Car Festival is worth every dime that travel may cost. My first time, in 2009, I was like a deer in the headlights... just astounded by being with 8 other Sears Motor Buggies, and about 800 pre-war cars driving around Greenfield Village. People were met... friends were made!
However, early reports were that it was a wonderful success! Hampered somewhat by the weather. Early reports say at least eight Sears Autobuggies were there! I have already seen one photo showing at least five of the cars in a review group photo. There appear to be a few others behind what can clearly be seen. I would imagine the weather cut into the plans of a few that may have been planning to attend.
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