Internet Horology Club 185
King of the Hill

This topic can be found at:
https://ihc185.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9886009961/m/2501023062

June 18, 2007, 18:20
Adam M. Dubin
King of the Hill
I highly recommend this little cinematic masterpiece by Steven Soderbergh (1993), which is even more overlooked as it has never been released on DVD. It concerns a boy on the verge of adolescence, struggling through poverty in 1933 St. Louis, and abandoned de facto by his parents for a short time. This ties into watches in several ways. At one point early on in the film a minor character pulls out his beautiful Waltham pocket watch (I am not conversant enough with pocket watches to tell you anything more, alas)...And soon the protagonist's ne'er-do-well father becomes a traveling salesman for the Hamilton Watch Co. (for Oklahoma and Kansas). "There's money to be made in watches," as his mother says, perhaps incorrectly for 1933! Still, the dad lands the job, and travels off, leaving the boy alone, the mom already in a sanatorium. We get to see the salesman's suitcase, replete with Hamilton watches sans movements, and with letter of authenticity signed by the president of the company. There's of course much more. Adrian Brody (star of the later Roman Polanski film "The Pianist") also plays a supporting role as the boy's mentor in street-smarts. Check it out. I think the video, at least, is still available (used) from Amazon.