Post by max23 on Jan 19, 2022 19:57:13 GMT -5
Not that kind of red, lol. I watched this movie last night - it's loosely based on the life of Melita Norwood, a UK citizen, who spied for the USSR for more than forty years. During World War 2, she worked for a company that was doing research that was important in Britain's attempt to develop an atomic bomb.
In the film, Special Branch police arrive at the company's offices to conduct an inspection. Joan has a camera she has been using to photograph documents, and scrambles to find a place to hid it. She comes up with an ingenious solution:
Joan (to another woman in the tea room): Karen, I don't suppose you've got any spare sanitary towels? I've been caught out.
Karen: I left a spare box in the women's lavatory.
The inspection commences, one of the police officers opens Joan's handbag, and feels something hard in the bag. He takes it out, and it's the box (a hard cardboard box) of sanitary towels in which Joan has concealed the camera.
Policeman (clearly embarrassed, he replaces the box without looking inside): I-I'm-I'm sorry, miss.
Joan (pretending to be flustered) Don't worry, excuse me. (Picks up her bag, and leaves the office.)
So quite clever I think - exploiting a 1940's male's fear of sanitary products
As an aside, in 1940s Britain, women were expected to wear stockings in public (held up by a suspender belt or garters), and you might have seen movies where a female character conceals something in the top of one of her stockings. This was perhaps not an option during WW 2. During the war, the materials used to make stockings were used instead in the manufacture of things such as parachutes and tents, and the government went as far as asking ministers to tell their congregations that women could attend church without wearing stockings.
In the film, Special Branch police arrive at the company's offices to conduct an inspection. Joan has a camera she has been using to photograph documents, and scrambles to find a place to hid it. She comes up with an ingenious solution:
Joan (to another woman in the tea room): Karen, I don't suppose you've got any spare sanitary towels? I've been caught out.
Karen: I left a spare box in the women's lavatory.
The inspection commences, one of the police officers opens Joan's handbag, and feels something hard in the bag. He takes it out, and it's the box (a hard cardboard box) of sanitary towels in which Joan has concealed the camera.
Policeman (clearly embarrassed, he replaces the box without looking inside): I-I'm-I'm sorry, miss.
Joan (pretending to be flustered) Don't worry, excuse me. (Picks up her bag, and leaves the office.)
So quite clever I think - exploiting a 1940's male's fear of sanitary products
As an aside, in 1940s Britain, women were expected to wear stockings in public (held up by a suspender belt or garters), and you might have seen movies where a female character conceals something in the top of one of her stockings. This was perhaps not an option during WW 2. During the war, the materials used to make stockings were used instead in the manufacture of things such as parachutes and tents, and the government went as far as asking ministers to tell their congregations that women could attend church without wearing stockings.