Interesting old movie with interesting arms

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elhombreconnonombre

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The Untamed, 1955, on the Voortrekkers in South Africa. Supposely to cover a several decades long period starting in 1847. There is scene where a circled wagon train is attacked by Zulus. The Zulu are defeated using muzzle loading rifles and Boer horseman, much like the true life events that occurred at Blood River in 1838. The mounted Boer appear to have cross draw holsters on their left hips, but I cant tell what pistols/revolvers they are actually carrying, if any for those scenes. Later in the movie you see some Colt revolvers.
 
Thanks Elhombre for the heads up. I think I'm going to order that movie IF the Colts are historically correct.
 
I just bought a collection of spaghetti westerns from Amazon that have been digitally re-mastered and while not particularly good plot wise, they all use period correct firearms such as the 51" Colts. Something I can live with. :)
 
The reason the English got massacred at Isandhlwana was their C.O. refused to properly laager the wagons. The Zulus had a field day slaughtering the Brits on open ground.

Boers always formed a laager every evening when traveling.
 
They sure didn't have 1851 Colts in 1838 or even 1847. And they would almost certainly not have had any revolvers in 1838. They might have had pepperbox pistols, but more likely had a brace of muzzle loading pistols, maybe flintlock, as percussion was still fairly new in 1838. (Many people, especially in remote areas, could not rely on getting percussion caps and stuck to flintlocks for many years after percussion guns were the norm elsewhere.)

Jim
 
"(Many people, especially in remote areas, could not rely on getting percussion caps and stuck to flintlocks for many years after percussion guns were the norm elsewhere."

2014: In some remote parts of the USA A lot of people, no longer able to rely on an adequate supply of percussion caps are going back to flint locks............:what:
 
A little mixed eras

I just returned from South Africa yesterday, my 15th working trip there. In my current fatigued state, I needed something like Untamed for entertainment.
It seems the movie mixed some South African eras. The "Commando" that was referred to in the movie did not appear until the Anglo-Boer war. The hats the "Commando" wore were more suited for the Boer War period some 70 years down the road.
The women's clothing, particularly Susan Hayward's, were a real laugh. The Vortrekkers followed the very strict Calvinist belief system that resulted in the Dutch Reformed Church. As one person told me in POtchefstroom, SA, a conservative Afrikaner area, the biggest concern his theological university administration had in the 1970s was that someone, somehow, somewhere, someway was actually having a good time. The low cut dresses would never be seen in that group of people. They were VERY conservative in dress and action.
To me, it was as others have said, a Cowboys versus Indians movie with Dutch and Zulus substituting.
Still, it was fun for a fatigued mind and body.
Ron
 
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My screen is small so I couldn't tell if one of those rifles was a trapdoor springfield. Also noticed the MK IV Webleys which didn't come out until much much later.
 
In "Quigley Down Under" the girl is reloading a Walker by using the rammer while in the cave so there is some hope we can actually "teach" an actor how to reload one of these percussion revolvers in the newer westerns. I hope.
 
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