On Friday 24th June 2011 I found myself, for the first time in my life, with my leg in a plaster cast. As is my usual practice in challenging situations, I turned to the movies for tips on how to cope, and with the help of the good people of Twitter, compiled a list of films featuring plaster casts.
Here is the Top Ten of my favourites:
ooo
“I have a head for business and a bod for sin,” says Melanie Griffith in this very 1980s corporate fairytale about a secretary who gets her own back on the female boss who stole her ideas by posing as an executive in her absence. The big hair, power-dressing and shoulder-pads have dated badly, but Sigourney Weaver, who should do comedy more often, is huge fun as the evil bitch boss who breaks her leg on a skiing trip; Joan Cusack steals scenes in a supporting role. Griffith’s recent career has been so low-key it’s easy to forget how appealing she used to be with her not so dumb blonde attitude and disarming streak of Monroe-like vulnerability, though Carly Simon’s Oscar-winning theme song makes me want to kill someone (preferably Carly Simon).
PLASTER CAST TIP: Just because you have a leg in plaster doesn’t mean you should let your standards slip. Weaver is quite possibly the sexiest plaster-cast wearer ever as she dolls herself up in lingerie for a visit from Harrison Ford, unaware that he has unaccountably become smitten with Griffiths in her absence.
ooo
I’m sorry, but Live and Let Die was the only Roger Moore Bond film that coincided with my adolescence, so I couldn’t be bothered to shell out the ticket money for the others. Even now I’m not entirely sure I’ve seen all the Moore Bonds – they tend to run together in my head in a brume of bad quip and raised eyebrow acting. But I do know I’ve seen For Your Eyes Only, mainly because I was interested in Carole Bouquet, who’d played one of Luis Buñuel’s Conchitas in Cet obscur objet du désir, and also because one of the villains is played by Michael Gothard, and I’ve been a Gothard completist ever since seeing him in 1967 as Milady de Winter’s vengeful son in the BBC’s The Further Adventures of the Musketeers. The plaster cast is basically a throwaway gag in Q’s laboratory; it swings sideways off its wearer’s arm and smashes a dummy’s head, at which Bond quips, “That’ll come in handy.”
PLASTER CAST TIP: Never forget that your plaster-cast can be useful as a weapon. But it’s a shame Bond didn’t use this one in the field.
ooo
“You’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!” Let’s hear it for the archtypal “putting on a show” musical, starring Warner Baxter as the Producer, Ginger Rogers and Una Merkel as wisecracking broads and Ruby Keeler as the chorus girl who steps into the limelight after leading lady Bebe Daniels breaks her ankle, and magnanimously says to Keeler, “You know Peggy, when I started for the theater tonight I wanted to tear your hair out, but then I started thinking… Well after all, I’ve had my chance, and now it’s your turn!” Busby Berkeley stages the musical numbers (including the naughtily suggestive “Shuffle off to Buffalo” and “Young and Healthy”) with his customary flamboyance, but what galvanizes the attention nowadays are the dancers’ figures. No Showgirls-type muscled hardbodies here – it’s chubby thighs a-go-go.
PLASTER CAST TIP: It’s my contention that Bebe Daniels didn’t really want to take part in that stupid show anyway. Never forget your plaster cast will provide you with the perfect excuse to get out of doing stuff you don’t really want to do.
ooo
Jerry Lewis plays an accident-prone orderly at a plush private sanitarium. Looney Tunes alumnus Frank Tashlin directed this comedy, and the best parts are cartoon-inspired slapstick; the last ten minutes, a beautifully choreographed medley of runaway stretchers and supermarket mayhem, are particularly brilliant. Elsewhere, Lewis’ exaggerated mugging has fallen so far out of fashion that it often seems grotesque, and it’s hard to watch without wondering if his ingratiating idiocy is merely a cover for the sour misanthropy he later displayed in Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy, while his physical antics seem laboured compared to the graceful stunts of, say, Jackie Chan. But there are good moments, including a peculiarly pertinent board of directors’ meeting that makes comic hay out of naked capitalism.
I bet there aren’t many hospital-set comedies that don’t feature some comic business featuring plaster casts, but The Disorderly Orderly has three variations on the theme:
1) Jerry pushes a wheelchair containing a cigar-puffing man with a comically exaggerated cast on his foot. Blinded by cigar smoke, Jerry accidentally pushes the chair into a wall; hilarity ensues behind the opening credits.
2) Jerry accidentally tapes a nurse to a patient’s plaster cast.
3) Jerry accidentally lets go of a plaster-covered patient while out strolling in the hospital grounds. The man rolls down a grassy incline, the plaster smashes against a tree… and there’s no-one inside.
PLASTER CAST TIP: People in plaster casts are invariably seen as amusing, which is no doubt why they appear in so many comedies. You can always bring a smile to people’s faces with a well-timed pratfall. Though if you’re saddled with a plaster cast yourself, you’re unlikely to see it as a source of humour.
ooo
(aka SPOORLOOS)
George Sluizer’s Franco-Dutch psychothriller begins with the disappearance of Saskia, a young Dutchwoman at a service station in the south of France and ends with one of the most nightmarish denouements in film history. In the interim, we become almost as obsessed as the missing woman’s boyfriend with finding out what happened to her, though unlike him we’re privy to the kidnapper’s identity – he’s an ordinary-seeming family man played with chilling affability (and slightly dodgy Karswell beard) by Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu. But the game here is not whodunnit, but how and why, with missing pieces falling into place to show us how the madman ticks. All he needs now is an audience to appreciate his cleverness.
American serial-killer Ted Bundy would sometimes wear plaster casts, slings or crutches to gain the trust of his young female victims. In The Silence of the Lambs, Jame “Buffalo Bill” Gumb approaches a victim with his arm in a sling. In The Vanishing, we watch Raymond Lemorne meticulously planning the abduction of a young woman – any young woman – by wearing a fake plaster cast on his arm. In the end, ironically, he doesn’t need it to lure Saskia into his car; her misgivings are put at rest when she spots a photograph of his family.
PLASTER CAST TIP: A plaster cast can easily win you a stranger’s trust. Try not to abuse this trust by killing them.
ooo
Richard Harris plays an Irishman living in Canada who harpoons a pregnant female whale. Its mate seeks vengeance by attacking boats, houses, people, including Bo Derek, whose leg is in plaster following an earlier attack. Bo is chillaxing with a glass of wine in a seafront house on stilts (as you do) when the vengeful killer whale headbutts the stilts, tipping the house and sending Bo sliding down the floor. While she’s clinging on for dear life, waiting for Harris to rescue her, Orca chomps off her leg, plaster cast and all.
PLASTER CAST TIP: While your leg is in plaster, try to avoid situations involving killer whales, houses on stilts and Richard Harris.
ooo
One summer I got myself fitted with a slutty gold ankle chain as a special tribute to Barbara Stanwyck’s performance in this classic film noir adapted (by Raymond Chandler, among others) from a James M Cain novel. Babs plays Phyllis Dietrichson, a duplicitous housewife who seduces insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) into helping her bump off her husband, only for things to go horribly wrong as they invariably do in such tales. Me, I flaunted my ankle chain like mad, but have yet to meet my Walter Neff.
The plaster cast first appears, in silhouette, during the opening credits, and plays a pivotal role in the plot; Dietrichson has a broken leg in plaster and walks with crutches, making it easy-peasy for Neff to impersonate him after his death.
PLASTER CAST TIP: People will remember your plaster cast, not you. Unless you also wear an orange fright wig and spangly tutu, in which case they’ll probably remember what you’re wearing as well as the cast. I haven’t put this to the test, but it seems quite logical they’d be more likely to remember your signature injury rather than your face or your sparkling wit.
ooo
Before he went on to direct such films as Three Kings and The Fighter and yell obscenities at Lily Tomlin (see YouTube), David O. Russell cobbled together Spanking the Monkey on the short ends of other productions’ film stock and did such a splendid job of it that you readily forgive the odd rough edge in his writing-directing debut. The title is a slang term for masturbation, and the film itself is about incest, but don’t let that put you off – this is a classy coming-of-age black comedy that treats its themes in a thoroughly entertaining but responsible way.
Jeremy Davies is the antithesis of heroic, cool or witty in his breakout role as Ray, a medical student forced home to nowheresville in upstate New York to look after his attractive but neglected mother (Alberta Watson, also excellent) who has broken her leg in a botched suicide attempt. For Ray, it’s hell on earth. He is bored, frustrated, and thwarted in his attempts at sexual relief by the family dog. It’s only a matter of time before enforced intimacy turns into an intriguing combination of a boy, his mother and a plaster-cast.
PLASTER CAST TIP: If you fancy someone, you could try asking them to rub moisturizer into the skin around your plaster cast. Or you could get them to help you take a shower. Though probably best if you’re not related to them by anything other than marriage.
ooo
This brilliant Hong Kong thriller stars Tony Leung (Chiu Wai, that is, not the other Tony Leung) as a dishevelled cop who has spent a decade in deep cover amongst the Triads and Andy Lau as a dapper Triad who has been infiltrating the police department at the same time. Each is assigned by their respective bosses (Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang) to flush out his counterpart mole, leading to edge-of-seat tension, steely visuals and sparse but effective bursts of violence.
You’ll need to keep your wits about you to work out who’s who, who knows what, and which side they’re on – especially since the two lead characters aren’t always too sure themselves – but your reward will be one of the most gripping thrillers of the noughties. Martin Scorsese won an Oscar for remaking it as The Departed, but sacrificed the original’s tight narrative and knife-edged tension to sloppy storytelling and an out-of-control star performance from Jack Nicholson.
In the tense, pivotal scene in which each mole first becomes aware of the other’s existence, Tony Leung communicates by tapping out Morse code with the plaster cast on his arm, to let the cops know where a Triad drug deal is going down, while Andy Lau is simultaneously feeding information about the planned drugs bust back to the Triads.
PLASTER CAST TIP: Yeah, Morse code. Sometimes, SOS is all you need.
ooo
The pleasures of voyeurism have seldom been served up more seductively than in Hitchcock’s film of Cornell Woolrich’s story; it’s the Master of Suspense at his most gloriously entertaining. James Stewart, laid up in his apartment with a broken leg, starts spying on his neighbours through a telephoto lens, with results so fascinating it’s almost a shame when the plot proper kicks in and takes over. Has Raymond Burr murdered his nagging wife, or is our hero letting his imagination run away with him? Thelma Ritter is a riot as Stewart’s wisecracking nurse, while Grace Kelly as his fiancée is such a vision of gorgeousness – kissing her beau in slo-mo or saucily unpacking her negligé with the words, “Preview of coming attractions!” – you’ll be asking yourself why he’s finding it so hard to commit to her. All the answers, of course, are to be found in those windows across the yard, each of them cynically illustrating one of the many different stages in the eternal battle of the sexes.
PLASTER CAST TIP: In a perfect world, we would all have Thelma Ritter to rub us down and Grace Kelly to awaken us from our reveries with a magical kiss. But in the absence of either of these angels, we can console ourselves by spying on the neighbours in the house opposite. Or, if your window is too high and your vantage-point too low, by gazing mesmerised at Magritte-esque cloud formations and the gently swaying branches of the sycamore outside.
ooo
Honourable Mentions: A Clockwork Orange, The Tenant, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, Frida, A Fish Called Wanda, Splash!, GoldenEye, Assassins, Office Space, Election, Spider, Goodfellas, The Incredibles, Les amants du Pont-Neuf, L’astragale, Verso sera. (Please don’t hesitate to suggest other plaster cast-related titles to add to this list, which I realise is nowhere near exhaustive.)
ooo
ooo
If you’re looking for PHALLIC PLASTER-CASTS (and search engine terms in my stats suggest that some of you are) here’s a post about them.
ooo
ooo
MY TOP TEN GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME
ooo
EIGHT FILMS CONTAINING DREAM SEQUENCES MORE INTERESTING THAN THE ONES IN INCEPTION
ooo
FIVE ROM-COMS THAT DON’T MAKE ME WANT TO THROW UP
ooo
Related articles
- Printable Penises Are The Future Of Dildos (huffingtonpost.com)
- More Plaster Leaf Casting (artfulparent.com)
- Face Studies, Deglamorized (artamaze.wordpress.com)
- Plaster Casting with Playdough Molds (artfulparent.com)
- Sculpture: A richness of forms and materials (leslierankow.wordpress.com)
MULTIGLOM 
It isn't plaster cast for a medical reason but… – one of the scariest films of my yoof – A Bucket of Blood http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052655/combined and so all the other horror films where the dead are covered in plaster…
Hi Krizan, I love Bucket of Blood! This calls for a Plaster Cast/Sculpture blog – starting with that, After Hours, the documentary about the woman who makes plaster-casts of rock stars's penises and Tony Hancock's Aphrodite at the Watering Hole in The Rebel (possibly the finest film about modern art ever made).
Nice list, but by far not complete
see for instance
http://casterz.com/pop/vidslist.php?flt=wcx
or
http://www.gimpix.com/mediavid.html
defintive the best: Paperback Romance / Lucky Break
but check out also
28 Days
48 Hrs.
Al lupo, al lupo
All I Want
Banquière, La
Berlinquer ti voglio bene
Bernhadiner und Katz
Big Easy, The
Boy Friend, The
Brewster McCloud
Bring It On
Brotocalo
Brylcream Boulevard
California Suite
Cape Fear
Charlie's Angels
Crash
Critical Condition
Cry Terror
Delta Force 3
Desperate Lives
Dinner at Eight
Divka na kosteti
Doctor at Large
Don't Say a Word
Double Your Pleasure
Fatal Attraction
Fortress
Freundinnen und andere Monster
Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story
Getting Physical
Gift of Love, The
Gli ordini sono ordini
Guess Who's Sleepin in My Bed
Hanging Up!
Heart of Midnight
Hero
Highest Pressure – Altissima pressione
I Dreamed of Africa
I nouvi mostri
Il sorpassi
Illicit Intimacy
Just the Way You Are
Kindergarten Cop
King pf Comedy
Komm, süßer Tod
L'Astregal
Little Mo
Little White Lies
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Lost and Found
Love Letters
Luna di miele in tre
Made in America
Malibu Express
Man Trouble
Matt Helm
Meatballs
Mindgames
Miracle of Kathy Miller, The
Monster
Mr. Bean
Murder, She Wrote
Nessuno mi può guidicare
Omen, The
On Moonlight Bay
Onassis – The Richest Man in the World
Pacific Paradise
Parents Trap IV: Hawaiian Honeymoon
Perfect Timing
Personal Best
Possession
Pride of Jesse Hallam
Princess and the Warrior, The
Profil bas
Promises in the Dark
Rainmaker, The
Real Genius
Rosalie Goes Shopping
S.O.B.
Scream for Help
Simple Life of Noah Dearborn, The
Skipper Surprised His Wife, The
Slaves of New York
Smallville
Sposeò Simon LeBon
Springtime in Italy
Stirb für mich
Stuntwoman
Substitute, The
Superchick Superchick USA 1973
Tant quil y aura des femmes
Tenant, The
Terminal Velocity
Texas Justice
Three Fugitives
Too Far to Go
Tribute
Trois Couleurs: Bleu
Vero sera – Towards Evening
Winter Sleepers
Witches of Eastwick
With a Song in My Heart
Wonder Years, The
Zero Boys, The
Can you tell the movies updated name???
Gosh, thank you HarmonHarm for that extraordinarily long list of plaster cast movies. I perhaps didn't make it clear that I was only really picking my favourites, but the blog is certainly enhanced by your meticulous input, and for that I am grateful. In future years, this will be the number one go-to page for plaster cast movie enthusiasts. And I don't mean that ironically; I wish I had found a list like this before writing the blog.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Love your blog; just got my full leg plaster cast on yesterday and have been searching the web. Get a load of that contraption on Famke Janssen's leg in Don't Say a Word. Paster tip: never forget a cast can very sexy if dispayed properly; keep your pedicure up.
Thanks Great legs, and the best of luck with your plaster-cast. I trust you've already discovered that thermos flask, tupperware containers and backpacks become your best friends when you're obliged to hop around on crutches. I also found a skateboarder's kneepad useful for going up and down stairs (I live in a duplex, with my bed in the attic) though if you're in a full-leg cast that might not be relevant. Last but not least, never forget – crutches may be a pain (literally) but they do wonders for firming up your triceps. No more chicken-wings!
Good advice. Do you dress to show your cast or conceal it? I can't figure out how to look good in this thing? (If you post on my blog with your email I won't publish it, but will email you so as not to clutter up your blog with girl talk.) Problem of the day: what to wear on the other foot. I will not be reduced to going ojut in flip flops.
I don't mind girl talk on the blog. I would show off your cast at all times – anything for sympathy and/or emotional blackmail. And until both my feet are completely operative again I am wearing nothing but clumpy flat shoes – at first it was Blundstones, but now I am finding 6-hole Dr Martens easier to get on and off my wounded foot. I am more interested in getting my foot well again than looking feminine. Even indoors, I would not not advise barefoot or anything sandally – don't forget your well foot is doing enough work for two at the moment and needs all the (literal) support it can get; after 10 days of hopping around barefoot, mine started hurting almost as much as the broken one, and felt much more comfortable in a solid shoe – this was very strange for me to get used to as normally I hate wearing shoes at home.
Of course, if you're lolling on the sofa, receiving visitors, you can wear what you like on the unplastered foot – six-inch stilettos and so forth. I just wouldn't advise wearing those on crutches…
Ok here is the Mise-en-scène: tall brunette lying in a hospital bed in her loft apartment with an enormous plaster cast from her toes to her groin and her leg held high in a sling like Signourey Weaver. BF returns next Tuesday from business trip to Asia. She doesn't want the cast to be turn off and she wants some old fashion loving, not the brother loving kind. What movie does she cue up and what other than her white cast should she be wearing when he comes in.
Well, you could do worse than take Sigourney in Working Girl as plaster-cast role model – see pic. But let me have a think about it…
Have you both seen Rear Window? That's the ultimate plaster-cast movie.
Great idea. Whe he arrives I will have my leg up in the sling to maximize the damsel in distress look, a lace bathrobe, a peep toe Jimmy Choo stiletto on the other foot, my cast and nothing else.
That sounds perfect!
It worked. Jimmy Stuart's and my enormous white casts evoked a wonderful flow of sympathy for this poor damsel in distress. The wiggling scarlet toes peeping out of the cast deseve some mention for their supporting role as does the costume designer at La Perla. With seven more weeks trussed up I plan to show him more of your cast movies. Any more suggestions would be welcome. Lets do a sexy gal in a full leg this time.
How is your leg/foot? What sort of cast did they put you in?
Great! So glad it worked out. But hard thinking of movies featuring sexy gals in casts; I assume you've considered Working Girl. Alberta Watson in Spanking the Monkey is very alluring, but the sex in that is incestuous so it might send out the wrong message. Have you inveestigated the films on HarmonHarm's list above? Otherwise I'd just aim for a good movie, plus La Perla.
Thanks I have working girl in reseerve. What do you kow about Lucky Break? Glad for the tip about avoiding incest.
Watched the Devil Wares Prada last nigh. Ann Hathaway is soo pretty and looks so good even in her cast that she makes a full leg cast seem like the newest fashion accesory. BF said both of you look good in plaster.
the end of “it's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world” is full of people in plaster casts and traction.
and catch-22 starts with yossarian in hospital looking at a man entirely encased in a plaster cast, having his piss bottle and water bottle changed byn nurses, who are distracted by gossip so just end up absent midedly sapping them.
Great legs – I don't remember a cast in The Devil Wears Prada. When does that happen?
and thanks Paul, don't think I've seen Mad, Mad World since I was very small, but I should have remembered Catch-22. Both great additions to what looks as though it's turning into The Definitive Plaster-Cast Movie List.
How is your leg? Still in a cast?
Love your blog. I am on the sofa with a broken foot in a leg cast and this is what I need to prime my Netflix account with
Hi Fetching, get well soon! Use it as an excuse to sit around and watch movies.
Great Legs, hope you're on the road to recovery – my foot is pretty much back to normal now. I'm back at my tapdancing class, but am taking it easy for the time being and not doing hops.
Prolix – Blundstone for ever! My favourite footwear.
thought the documentary ‘plaster caster’ was bound to make the list…
Hi, What about: Broken embraces “Los abrazos rotos” of Pedro Almodovar? Penelope Cruz is spotted with a beautifull leg cast. And almost forget: Movie: “You again” or in Spanish: “Otra vez Tu”, a cute actress with shoulder body cast + long arm cast…
I had a full leg cast with crutches for 8 months, then complications caused the removal of my leg at mid-thigh, so I have seen it from both sides. My cast definitely was a guy magnet, and to a lesser degree so is a missing leg.
Erica
Blimey, Erica, that sounds devastating. I am filled with admiration for your positive attitude. I hope you don’t find this suggestion flippant, but have you seen Tristana (1970) by Luis Buñuel? A long time since I last watched it, but Catherine Deneuve’s character has a leg amputated in that; you might find it interesting. I would love to hear what you think of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZnZ3zZupEU
Thanks for the suggestions, Cybercast 70.
Pingback: Top 10 Career Killing Movies | Job To Do
As Good As It Gets.
Not really a plaster cast movie, but I have always had a soft-spot for this scene (admittedly more bandages than cast) from Dead & Buried.
Great clip! Thank you. (nb – maybe not for the faint-hearted!)
Only just read this. Great list. Another candidate for your potential Plaster Cast/Sculpture blog is Curtis Harrington’s twisty thriller ‘Games’ (1967). The BBC used to show it all the time (it seemed) when I was a kid and I’m sure it made me grow up wrong. I’ve never seen it screened anywhere since, TV or cinema. James Caan, Katherine Ross and Simone Signoret.
I’ve heard of that, never seen it. It DOES sound great! Must track it down, thanks for the reminder.
Only just read this. Great list. Another candidate for your potential Plaster Cast/Sculpture blog is Curtis Harrington’s twisty thriller ‘Games’ (1967). The BBC showed it all the time (it seemed) when I was a kid and I’m sure it made me grow up wrong. I’ve never seen it screened anywhere since, on TV or cinema. James Caan, Katherine Ross and Simone Signoret.
So back somewhere in 1979-1980 there was a B horror movie set in some kind of summer school camp in the mountains. The movie’s opening scene was a group of girls sitting in the classroom, and the camera pans across their feet, which includes one girl in a heavy plaster SLWC. Super nice close up! There are other scenes later in the film where she is dealing with the cast, including trying to run from the bad guy in a slwc. Does anybody remember this movie?
Sounds interesting, also I love horror movies set in girls’ schools, but afraid it doesn’t ring any bells. Would love to know what it is, though. I’ll ask on Twitter, see if anyone knows.
Movies is sleep away camp,summer camp nightmare,are summer camp massacre
insidious chapter 3 is one of the recent leg cast candidate..most of the movie you could see Stefanie Scott wears CLC and LLC. Even film name “Crooked arrow ” has the SLC girl for through out the movie. try out these ! btw anybody have a link to Stirb für mich full movie??
Just caught uo with this post and, although not movie related, feels it needs an acknowledgement of ace plaster caster Cynthia…
http://www.cynthiaplastercaster.com/
It Follows is another recent one. Plaster casts now seem to appear less in comedies and more in Horror movies.