Where is the real Car of Dreams?

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With a title like Car of Dreams, it is perhaps no surprise that a car plays a pivotal role in the 1935 comedy film of the same name. The plot is as modest as it is innocent. A pretty young woman (played by the German actress Grete Mosheim) is window-shopping at a car dealership and dreamily remarks that she would love to own a car like that. The son of the factory’s owner (John Mills), who also happens to be there, overhears her and instantly falls for her. He ends up buying the car for her without revealing who he is. What he does not realize, however, is that she is one of his father’s employees…

The actual “car of dreams,” which enters the film on a rotating display, turns out to be a then brand-new Rolls-Royce 20/25 fitted with a sharp and rather elegant drophead sedanca coupé body by H.J. Mulliner. In the film, it carries the registration “BUC 8,” a plate that still appears on a 1935 Rolls-Royce today. The registration was last issued in 1993, so perhaps the car is still hiding somewhere. But is it even the same sedanca coupé? Oddly, the registration number appears to have first been issued in December 1935, by which time the film had already been released. The registration also describes the car as green, while it appears white or cream in the movie.

A few more fun facts: the showroom at the corner of Piccadilly and Old Park Lane, where the Rolls-Royce is displayed, has hardly changed today, although it is now home to the Hard Rock Cafe. Meanwhile, the factory seen in the movie turns out to be the de Havilland aircraft factory in Hatfield. Interestingly, we also discovered that this 1935 British film was based on a 1934 Hungarian movie of the same name, in which a Horch 780 Sport Cabriolet played the starring automotive role.

Words by Jeroen Booij; Pictures: IMDb / Reelstreets

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