Identifying Phones in Movies

[HobieSport]

Since I enjoy classic phones and classic movies, I like to try to identify most of the phones I see while watching the old films, and if it's not immediately obvious what model of phone it is, I pause and take a quick screen shot to look at and try to identify later.  Call me obsessed, because I am.

Here's one I'm not familiar with, because I'm not familiar with British phones.
(Or maybe I was just thinking more about Grace Kelly )
It's the famous phone from Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder", 1954.

Any idea what British model of phone it is?  I haven't really tried to find out yet on the web.

If anyone is curious to identify any other phones in movies, mention it here if you like, as I enjoy re-watching the good old movies, capturing the screen shots, and posting the pics so we can all have a look see.

[contraste]

Probably a GPO type 232, first made in the 30's and in use well into the 50's. Manufactured by Siemens.

[HobieSport]

Thank you Contraste, it seems the GPO 232 with separate ringer is a perfect match.

It makes good sense that Hitchcock would not only have used a very typical telephone from the era, but also that the phone would have a separate ringer and not have been able to be moved from the desk in the movie, as that was absolutely integral to the murder plot.

It would be fun to get one of these phones, but for my own collecting, I would normally have a tendency to get a 232 with the deeper base and built in ringer, but then it wouldn't match the one used in the movie.

Are the 232s in an un-refurbished condition very difficult to find or very expensive in Britain?  I guess there is not a good chance of finding an affordable one in the US, but if it was from the UK I'd be faced with the horrendous shipping and tax fees.  Sigh.

[HobieSport]

Now I'm thinking that the "Dail M for Murder" phone might be a 162 model, because it's hard to tell, but the phone in the movie doesn't seem to have a note-taking drawer.

[bingster]

According to Bob Freshwater's site, each can be found with or without a drawer.

[Stephen Furley]

It would be fun to get one of these phones, but for my own collecting, I would normally have a tendency to get a 232 with the deeper base and built in ringer, but then it wouldn't match the one used in the movie.

Are the 232s in an un-refurbished condition very difficult to find or very expensive in Britain?  I guess there is not a good chance of finding an affordable one in the US, but if it was from the UK I'd be faced with the horrendous shipping and tax fees.  Sigh.

The 'deeper base' is not part of the telephone, it's a number 26 bellset, which would normally be wall mounted, but could also be mounted under the telephone if required.  This was done using two special double-threaded screws to replace the normal ones which held the bellset cover.  These screws are rare, but in the last few days two pairs of them have sold on Ebay for a lot more money than you would want to pay.  I'm at work at the moment, where Ebay is blocked, but do a search for 'GPO screws' with location worldwide, and completed items selected, and they should come up so you can see what they look like; they're very strange things with two screw threads on the outside, and one inside.  A short external braided bellset cable was also needed between the side of the bellset and the back of the telephone.  Because this was a rather cumbersome arrangement the 300 series was introduced with an internal bell, but the 200 series remained available for use where a separate bell was required, often in residential installations, whereas the 300 was more popular in offices.   The 232 was still being made well into the '50s, about 1957 I think, and they could still be found in use in the early '70s; there were several where my mother worked at that time.

There's a picture of the bellset itself here:

http://www.britishtelephones.com/bellst26.htm

information on the various models of the telephone here:

http://www.britishtelephones.com/t232.htm

and instructions for fitting the bellset under the telephone here:

http://www.britishtelephones.com/pyramidandbell.htm

There's also a picture of the strange screws required to do this on this page.

[Greg G.]

Here's a large prop of the phone with Hitchcock giving the bird!

[Greg G.]

A friend of my wife's was saying she wanted a "30s-era" phone like the one in Dial M, but what she described sounded more like a D1, because she said it had an oval base.  Was there a D1 somewhere in that movie?  I've never seen it.  I've looked through a lot of images online, but don't come up with a D1.  I'm not sure what era the movie was set in, but I don't think it was 30s, more like 50s?