Sweet nutcracker

January 16, 2009 6:58 AM

Movie/TV ID question: a half-remembered scene where a minor (?) character cracks nuts with his wooden hand.

A "colorful detail" from a movie popped in to my head yesterday evening, and I can't figure out for the life of me figure out where it's from. A character has a wooden hand that he opens and closes by using a screw/knob placed somewhere up his forearm. He uses this to crack nuts by opening the wooden hand, placing a nut in its palm, and then cranking the knob with his other hand so hard that the nut breaks. Then repeat.

That's all I remember accurately. I have a feeling that this was a minor character in the movie/TV series; perhaps it was something like a cop movie or a western, and he was doing this while the main character was talking to him? I have no idea when I saw it, though it probably wasn't within the last three or four years. Any help the hive-mind can offer would be greatly appreciated.

posted by Johnny Assay to media & arts (3 comments total)

Young Frankenstein? Specifically, the Inspector?
posted by Gneisskate at 7:09 AM on January 16

the barman, a friend of one of the soldiers demonstrates his wooden hand by cracking nuts in Un long dimanche de fiançailles.
posted by Substrata at 7:28 AM on January 16

Ah, now it's all come flooding back — it was indeed the barman in Un long dimanche de fiançailles. Many thanks!

(Aside: I haven't seen Young Frankenstein, but it's funny to think that this unusual plot device was used in two different movies...)
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:53 AM on January 16