Very arcane, possibly impossible to answer movie question.

OK, first off, this might not even be a movie I’m looking for, it could be some promotional film, TV show, or who knows. Second of all, I could could relatively easily find the answer to this question with one phone call, but it sure would be a lot more fun if someone here can answer the question for me.

OK, so I live in St. Paul, MN, and one of the mainstays of the east side of town is called the Dari-ette Drive In. It is a genuine 1950s style (as it was actually opened in 1955 and hasn’t changed), drive-in…you know, where you can actually pull up to a speaker and order from your car? It was featured on an episode of the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, you may have seen it (though I can’t find a video of it online), and just so I don’t have to describe it, here’s a picture. Basically it’s like a Dairy Queen, only with much higher quality ice cream, and delicious Italian food (one secret, they deep fry their meatballs). It’s the kind of place that’s been in one family for 3 generations now, and it’s kind of a landmark of the area.

Anyway, I was dining here recently, and on their walls in a couple of places they have this photo of the outside of the restaurant, which at first glance seems like it could be THE iconic photo of the 50s drive in, or at least THIS 50s drive in. All the cars are 50s era, the lot is full and cars are parked in front of the restaurant as well. Carhops are taking orders, people are milling around, all wearing 50s era clothing and hairdos, and what I didn’t notice at first was that this car, possibly a ‘57 Chevy (I’m, not a car guy, could be WAY off on this, but it was a long 50’s style car anyway), cherry red, was pulling out of the restaurant, but the kicker was, the driver had his window open, and he was talking to a cop who was standing outside the car at the driver’s window peeking in from above. There was a cop car parked behind him kind of right in the middle of the lot and the cop car door was open. The officer was wearing a tan uniform and hat. I thought, “what an interesting happening to capture”.

But then I looked at the napkin holder on my table…it too had pictures of the restaurant, encased in plastic, which made the finer details of the picture kind of hard to pick out. But on the napkin holder was the same photo, except, it was kind of like one of those things they put in the newspaper…spot the differences. What caught my eye was that the police officer in this picture was standing not facing into the window of the parked car, but facing the camera. What really stuck out to me though was that he was NOT wearing a tan uniform, but a white top and black slacks, and I believe no hat. I looked into the car and neither the driver nor the passenger was in the car. I looked and every single car, from the ones that were parked in the lot, to the ones that were parked on the street were the same and in the same places, the menu board said the same thing, some of the same people were in similar spots. But the focal point of the scene was different. And on closer inspection when I looked at the outer edges of the photograph, I could see that it was taken from several feet further back, and you could see more of the periphery. In that extra space, particularly on the right hand side of the photograph, I could see several dozen people who looked to be spectators standing behind a cordoned off area. And in the foreground of the photo to the far right, I could see movie cameras…the big old style ones with the huge film canisters on top, the type that recorded the images right onto the film.

So, clearly, at some point, someone had set this scene up and had filmed “something”, probably a movie, but perhaps something else, with the parking lot of this establishment as the backdrop to a scene where someone was being pulled over right at the exit to the establishment. I would assume that the cop in the picture at my table was an actual St. Paul cop, leaving his real car behind to be used as a prop in the movie, and this was probably just before they brought out actors, one of whom was wearing a tan police uniform, to take their places in and beside the car. It was an interesting before and after scene, but it raised more questions than it gave answers. And of course, I have to wonder, what movie is this from? Now, I could have asked the proprietors, being family owned, there’s almost always one of the owners on site, but I thought, hey…maybe some film buff on Fluther actually saw this movie, possibly without even knowing where the film was set, just that they might remember a scene in a a movie where the setting was the parking lot of a 1950s drive in and someone was being pulled over in their cherry red car while exiting the lot. So, anyone?