Useful skills learned from movies

[dans]

What are some useful skills a Hollywood stuntwoman might have learned from working on specific movies filmed in the 1930s? I'm interested in real life skills, and it would be nice if the movie was part of a serial, but 'it's MY comic book' so I can change the title somewhat if necessary to make it fit.

Some examples:

climbing walls                   The Spider's Web   (will change this one to "The Web of the Spider Woman")

swinging on cables            Tarzan

using a cape to glide         Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers

sword / whip                    Zorro Rides again

I'd like to tie a specific skill to a specific movie, so 'how to safely fall off buildings' and 'how to ride a horse' wouldn't qualify unless there was some reason a particular movie might jump to mind when the skill is mentioned. So if I say 'Deann learned to climb the walls of brick buildings while working as the stunt double for Iris Meredith in The Web of the Spider Woman readers will nod and say 'of course, that makes sense!'

Thanks!

[DocQuantum]

A lot of specialized crew work on movie sets. I know people who have worked as electricians and locksmiths on set, for example. Because movie productions are highly unionized, only the specialist is allowed to fix anything, even if it's an easy enough job an amateur could do it.

The thing about working in movies is that there's a lot of waiting around. If you're not careful, you could get fat eating all the food sitting out for people.

In that kind of environment, while they're waiting to be called to the set, I could easily see a locksmith or an electrician or carpenter showing a stuntwoman a thing or two about their specialties. It's not as exciting as swinging on a cable, but a specialist could tell her a lot about the cable itself and how much weight you should expect it to hold in a given situation, and how to avoid "rope-burn" when sliding along the rope. An experienced armorer could tell her a lot about firearms, and might even invite her along to the target range. Makeup artists could teach her a lot about subtle ways to completely change her appearance as a quick disguise. So many possibilities.

[DocQuantum]

Sorry, that probably doesn't help with your request.

[dans]

My feeling is there is probably a lot of canoodling going on during the waiting around periods - particularly on movies filmed on exotic locations, where everyone is away from home. But I don't see offhand how I can make that kind of skill useful to a super heroine (although I suppose I _could_ have her do some spy/infiltration work, those skills always seem useful to 007!)

[DocQuantum]

BTW, unless you’re a walking movie encyclopedia I think it’s perfectly fine to make up movie titles for a story as needed. That’s part of the fun, making up fictional products, people, and places.

[dans]

I made up a couple of movie titles, and I made up new stars for some real titles.

[starskyhutch76]

She could have learned fencing if the movie was a period piece and she had to stand in for the heroine. Other things could be rappelling, hang-gliding, diving, horseback rifding, or even skydiving.

[starskyhutch76]

another useful skill she would develop is the ability to roll with punches to avoid getting her head taken off by overzealous actors during fight scenes!

[dans]

Certainly she knows riding horses, probably quite a bit about rope tricks, fighting and rolling with punches and how to fall safely from high places. And yeah, she did learn swordsmanship as the stunt double for Olivia De Haviland (Maid Marion) in the movie The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Buster Crabbe.