Props and Costumes from the Museum of Cinema in Turin (Italy)

[Jonesythecat]

A few of the many pictures I took in the National Museum of Cinema in Turin where many props and costumes are hosted (including some Marilyn Monroe's clothing and accessories). If anyone wants further description of these props just ask, I also took pictures of the descriptive tags.

By the way, the Gremlin is from the second movie, the alien is from Aliens (so are the egg and the facehugger) [edit: they are actually from Alien War but advertised as from Aliens], the Superman cape is from the first film.

 

[propologist]

love that Alien , and egg...get any more shots of the egg?

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Why do they have commercially available Don Post stuff in there for Star Wars?

 

[Jonesythecat]

Members on the Alien Legacy Board tell me that the Alien suit is actually from Alien War, not Aliens movie... so I'm having doubts about the other aliens props.

love that Alien , and egg...get any more shots of the egg?

I have a video but I still have to post it on youtube. Another picture came out very dark, don't know if it's any use

Why do they have commercially available Don Post stuff in there for Star Wars?

The above tags read:
1) Planet of the Apes (1968). Pre-production prop. Background mask from the original mold

- the weird masks are from Federico Fellini's Satyricon -

4) The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Prop: Darth Vader's head mask

5) Star Wars (1977). Pre-production head masks of Darth Vader, C3PO, Chewbacca and Stormtrooper. These masks, made from the original molds used in the film, were the samples that 20th Century Fox had to vision and approve for the production of Star Wars licensed items

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

The above tags read:
1) Planet of the Apes (1968). Pre-production prop. Background mask from the original mold

- the weird masks are from Federico Fellini's Satyricon -

4) The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Prop: Darth Vader's head mask

5) Star Wars (1977). Pre-production head masks of Darth Vader, C3PO, Chewbacca and Stormtrooper. These masks, made from the original molds used in the film, were the samples that 20th Century Fox had to vision and approve for the production of Star Wars licensed items

Yeah, those tags are wrong, sorry. Darth Vader is a Don Post Standard, the C-3PO looks like the latex mask from Post as does the Chewbacca and the Trooper. Someone sold this museum a false bill of goods on those things.

 

[Jonesythecat]

Apparently not just that, also the Aliens stuff is not from Aliens. I wonder if it's deliberate or they were actually conned.

The Star Wars 1977 stuff does say that they are samples for licensed items, not screen used stuff, so what you say about the commercially available stuff fits with the description doesn't it?

In any case, what should the tag read? So I can send them an email with the correct information.


(I'm very ignorant on the Star Wars props, what details show right away that the Vader mask is not a screen-used? It looks pretty much like the one in the film to my eyes... but as I said I'm not a SW expert at all)

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Hard to tell about the "ESB" one that is on the left of the Don Post stuff because it has the size of something that was pulled from a screen mold, but the rest of the items are typical DP. The Standard Vader face and helmet are smaller and were sculpted "based" off of the screen used, which means they took many liberties. The face mask is off, the dome is off. The 3PO is the latex version with that blown out neck The neck is not part of the 3PO sculpt.

I'd like a better pic of that Vader in the middle, if you have one.

 

[Jonesythecat]

Actually I do

 

[Qui-Gonzalez]

Still a bit hard to spot. Maybe the better Vader experts can chime in on that helmet, but the pic is a bit dark.

 

[T2SF]

I've seen a few Italian/European museums and they always had commercially available stuff displayed as props. Our movies are huge over there and commercially available props aren't as widespread over there.

 

[Jonesythecat]

I don't know of any other Italian museum with cinema props.
London obviously has the best collection in Europe (don't forget that Star Wars, Indiana Jones etc were all shot in England mostly).

However the Star Wars (1977) stuff in the museum in Turin is actually described as samples for the merchandising (as if saying "these are the toys from Star Wars").

Any Vader ESB expert to evaluate the helmet yet? I'm curious about that one considering it's the only one described as prop used in the film.

 

[Jonesythecat]

MOre pictures... a giant bull statue from 10 Commandments, and storyboards of Empire Strikes Back

 

[Eopie Herder]

The mask claiming to be from POTA looks exactly like one we sold at Spencer Gifts when I worked there a few years back. I'd consider that to be suspect too.

 

[Jonesythecat]

LOL, I woudn't pass that possibility too :lol

 

[obiwan2]

Cool! Thanks for sharing the pics!!

 

[lambotour]

I have quite a few pics of that Vader helmet that I'll post soon. It was sold by Christies in 1994 IIRC and was labeled as screenused. A few of us have talked about it, but I haven't given it much thought TBH since studying it can get a bit draining.

 

[lambotour]

Here are a few more of that Vader helmet that I got off the net and a shot of the same helmet auctioned off at Christie's. After quickly looking at it again, I'd say it's more ROTJ than ESB. A few things set it towards ROTJ: Cleaned up cheeklines with no worms, the knotch on the left side of the nose, thinner eyebrows, the shorter neck and the dome appears geared towards ROTJ to name a few.

http://img526.imageshack.us/i/2998249600101434745lgvq.jpg/

http://img217.imageshack.us/i/2620974680101434745hsxp.jpg/

http://img195.imageshack.us/i/2608626470101434745nert.jpg/

http://img203.imageshack.us/i/2256690770101434745iswt.jpg/

http://img189.imageshack.us/i/2233829700101434745bdba.jpg/

http://img10.imageshack.us/i/2216940190101434745gewy.jpg/

http://img267.imageshack.us/i/2173616370101434745ente.jpg/

And from the Christie's Auction

http://img268.imageshack.us/i/christies1994.jpg/

 

[Jonesythecat]

I see many details that match up with the pictures you posted. Can we say that it's really screen-used? (just the wrong film but still screen used?)

 

[lambotour]

Well that's the draining part. It's a lot like the trooper buckets. You see details on the trooper buckets and then you study the films and find it. Usually with Vader, however, the shots are either too dark or too quick a view and not detailed enough to make an accurate statement that it's screenused. The PA ESB stunt was by far the easiest one to be confirmed. Jez had someone last year who acquired the ESB poster helmet, that one was rather easy to confirm based again on details.

From a quick glance, I would say this one is not screenused because parts like the lenses and the grills aren't screen accurate, so it forces you to look at other areas. I'm not a big fan of ROTJ anyway, so I wouldn't try and study this casting as much to find out. One thing to keep in mind though, nothing is consistent in SW. I mention the shorter neck, but not all of the ROTJ screenused helmets had the shorter neck. Then of course you have the mixture of helmets used on films (ANH used in ESB, ESB and ANH used in ROTJ etc). From what I can tell, the knotch on vader's left side of the nose is a ROTJ specific detail. It's just one of many details you can use to distinquish between an ESB helmet and an ROTJ one.

 

[goapebilly]

I guess the museum is trying to pass a fast one. The poa backround mask is far from original, hair is totally incorrect, mask is wrong color ,looks like a cheap repo piece .It seems this place is trying to pass off mass produced repos as originals. You cant blame it on lack of items in europe, with the internet and some of the largest prop houses close by in england.But not really caring about authenticity