Marlowe's Car

Okay, here are some facts (not "I heards") about the type of car that Elliot Gould drove in the movie. This is boring information strictly for the "Gear-Heads" (isn't that the term that was used?).

Following WW2, Lincoln Continentals were built from Oct. 1945 until Mar. 1948. They all look the same except for minor trim differences introduced in Mar. 1947. For title purposes they were designated as separate model years 1946, 1947 and 1948 but the trim differences kind of place them in one of two groups. Oct. 1945 to Mar. 1947 are in one lot, and approx. Apr. 1947 until Mar. 1948 is another lot. The only differences are a change in design of hub caps and hood ornament, and some very minor differences in interior trim. You might call these two groups "early post war" and "late post war." All of the post-war Continentals were a warmed-over version of the short year production in 1942.

How many were made? In 1946-48, Ford offered the Continental in two body styles, a coupe and a cabriolet (fancy name for convertible) like Gould drove in this film. Total cabriolet production for all three years was 1,391 (coupes 1,943). Total Continental production 1946-48: 3,334. In my view, that's a fairly low production car. Continental was a small part of total Lincoln production which for all three years was almost 46,000. Another comparison might be made to Ford car production, which in 1946 and 1947 was a bit under half a million per year and in 1948 about a quarter million.

1948 was a short production year as 1949 Ford models were introduced early.

1946-1948 post-war Continentals were never referred to officially as "Mark I's" rather this was a term that was invented by non-FoMoCo car people after the introduction of the Continental Mark II in late 1955. With a Mark II extant, there's just got to be a Mark I somewhere, right?

The reason Ford has given for making the 1946-48 post-war Continentals mostly alike with a break outside of normal model year introduction had to do with reorganization of the company that was on-going and the difficulty of getting new tooling in the post-war environment when industrial capacity was being squeezed to satisfy pent-up demand due to the war. In reality, all of the car companies could sell as many cars as they could build and styling changes weren't required to lure buyers to a product. Most of the other manufacturers used warmed-over pre-war designs just like Ford did.

All of the 1940-48 Continentals were originally powered by a side valve/flat head V-12 engine of approx. 300 cubic inches. It wasn't a particularly good engine and many were replaced after not so many years with other engine types. You can tell by the sound that the car used in the film had an original type engine in it.

Speaking of the sound track, it was pretty good insofar as vehicle scenes are concerned. So often in films, they use a stock sound track for certain vehicle sounds, for example, a Chrysler-design starter grinding away (very distinctive sound) when a Ford or General Motors product is being started. In this film, when Gould powers away in low gear (for example at the Malibu gate guard shack), you can hear the "slap" sound as he lets his foot off the clutch pedal. When you watch it again, you'll hear it each time when he takes off. My dad and I owned a 1942 Continental coupe many years ago and it made that same clutch pedal "slap" when you let it out.

Along the line of H Series V-12 Lincolns of that era, also many years ago I owned a 1941 Lincoln Custom 7 passenger sedan (long one like a limo but without the divider glass). The car had belonged to Columbia Pictures, which was documented by a 1943 registration slip. The guy I bought the car from said it was used to drive studio execs and crew around, which it probably was. However, it recent years I've seen the same car used as a prop in a couple of films. One was a Gene Autry B short, and although Autry had his own production company (Flying A) it had a production and distribution agreement with Columbia pictures. I've also seen the car in the 1958 picture "The Case Against Brooklyn" which was also produced at Columbia. I know it was the same car because the original hood ornament had been replaced with an incorrect one. I don't know where the car wound up; I sold it to a new owner who had it shipped to Illinois.