First James Bond movie and its guns

[38snapcaps]

Its fun to see how knowledge increases your awareness and enrichens such simple life experiences as watching an old movie.

My wife and I decided to watch the first two James Bond movies, the first being Dr. No, 1962. I remember seeing it at the theater back then so it was fun to "time warp" to our own past. I was then 15 and knew only about my .22 bolt rifle. Today I've been involved in reading about and shooting handguns for a little over three years.

Right away in the movie the armorer is called in to update Bond's weapon from a Beretta of some kind to a PPK .32. My wife gets a big smile and looks at me when he says "Walther" (I've been contemplating buying a PPK/s for three months now). I found it amusing that Bond is told he needs a gun with more hitting power and the PPK round impacts like a brick thru a glass window. What do you find today-incessant talk in the gun mags and here how anemic the .32 is.

The armorer further explains the PPK has provision for a silencer. Later in the movie you see Bond using the silencer, but he does'nt screw it on he "press fits" it into the muzzle. Hmmm, that's interesting! Ain't never seen one of them yet.

In his hotel room he is sitting in a chair after making up the bed to look like he's sleeping in it , knowing for sure someone is coming by to kill him. We see what is definitely a 1911 with a silencer poke thru the slowly opening door and empties the mag into the bed covers. The slide doesn't move and there is no recoil. Bond surprises the would be killer and dispatches him with the PPK stating, "that's a Smith & Wesson, and you've had your six".

In the scene on Dr. No's island he is shooting at the headlights of a flame thrower armored car at probably fifty yards and scores a hit! Wow, now that's some shootin! Then I noticed as the scene shifts back and forth his gun changes from a PPK to a 1911 and then back again.

Also during a close up of his hand with the Walther in it I thought I saw what appeared to be the upper grip panel of a Colt 1903 automatic where it has in large letters COLT. I wish I had a DVD for this movie so I could freeze frame it real good and get a better look.

So, it was fun to see things I wouldn't have seen if I hadn't been involved with firearms. Even my wife commented on his wading around in waist deep streams, "what about his gun, it can't get so wet can it?" She's seen me worrying about every speck of anything on my guns at the cleaning table, that's for sure! The movie did show him wiping the magazine off sitting on the bank, but then he's right back into the water again!!

What have you seen, Bond movies only? We're watching the second one tonight so don't you guys ruin it for me (I WILL be looking for Makarovs).

 

[otomik]

about the makarovs, they're usually not that realistic about soviet weaponry. in The Living Daylights there's a case scene with the soviet police which clearly have 1911s (pretty sure i'm not mistaking a tokarev) rather than makarovs. the north koreans do have makarovs and you get to see them clearly at the beginning and the end of Die Another Day.

in Dr. No his Beretta looked too big. I think they used a Model 34 (.380ACP) rather than the Model 418 (.25ACP) he used in the novels.

Another interesting thing about the scene where he gets the Walther is that Major Boothroyd is the name of the real-life gun expert that wrote to Ian Fleming and told him a Walther PPK would be more suite to Bond. Amazon.com search Major Boothroyd and you see some of his stuff still in publication.

 

[HBK]

I watched that movie the other day. I liked the part where he got his Walther. "Brick through a plate glass window." I really need to get a PPK...

 

[Reason]

If you look at the insert for the You Only Live Twice DVD, you can see Sean Connery holding a Glock (17?), which weren't around in 1967 when the movie was released.

 

[bookman]

If I am not mistaken the Walther look's like a PP in Dr No...

 

[Newton]

It was more to do with style than anything else.

A BHP or 1911 would look clumsy for 007, revolvers don't look right either, even if Roger Moore used one in the voodoo scene of, errr, Live and Let Die (I think).

The PPK, Aston Martin DB7, Dom Perignon, Vodka Martini etc were all perfect choices for Bond.

 

[Doubleought]

Although in the book Dr. No, he did carry a wheelgun, a Smith Centennial. When they started up the books again with John Gardner they had him toting some sort of Ruger .44 Magnum revolver which struck me as a mite odd.

 

[David4516]

The bad guys do carry Makarovs in latter Bond Movies. Also, you get to see Maks in "K-19".

 

[Dr.Rob]

Ah, but you forget Maj. Boothroyd recommended the PPK AND The Colt Cobra to Flemming, as those were standard issue in the CIA.

Bond's silncer equipped piece in Dr. No is a 1910 Browning.

Bond carried a .38 Police Positive Special in "The Spy Who Loved Me" (the book) along with a Walther.

 

[Cosmoline]

"like a brick through a plate glass window"

By that, I take it he means it will smash the window then promptly fall on the floor. Maybe you could attach a little message to it, too.

 

[Nick96]

I seem to recall in Dr. No that the PPK became a PP in some scenes. Also, in You Only Live Twice, the PPK becomes a Beretta in some scenes. In "Moonraker" the PPK jammed at a critical point (which was probably the most accurate representation of a real PPK in action I've seen in any of these movies).

 

[Lone Star]

I recall, "Dr. No" very well. The REAL Geoffrey Boothroyd, with whom I corresponded about it, even sent me some stationary from the movie set. Still have it. (Yeah, I was in my teens then. Been awhile since 1962. But I was already a Bond fan.)

The PPK does become a PP in some scenes, a Browning M1910 in others.

Boothroyd mentioned to Fleming an, "American Rifleman" article evaluating the US .45 M1911 vs. foreign military pistols. The PPK was on that list; I read the article.

Boothroyd wanted Bond to carry a S&W Airweight Centennial on him and a S&W M27 .357 Magnum in his car's secret compartment. (Where Bond was carrying a "long-barrelled Colt .45" that was evidently a New Service that Fleming was holding in an article in, "Life.") Fleming got confused, liked the PPK, and Bond wound up taking the Centennial and the PPK to Jamaica.

Bond got the S&W wet in the river on Dr. No's island, but knew how to field strip it, and dried it off. Read the book.

Look in your public library's files for, "Sports Ill." from about April and May, 1962 or 1963. I think the issue was April 19, 1962 or '63. It has an excellent article on Boothroyd and Fleming and Bond's guns. Boothroyd even displayed his own Ruger Super Blackhawk, although it wasn't a Bond piece. Probably the last pro-gun story ever in, "Sports Illustrated"!

If you can find a copy, "The Handgun" by Geoffrey Boothroyd is probably the best general pistol book ever written, and is chock full of great photos.

Boothroyd's S&W Victory Model .38, modified along lines that would have thrilled Col. Chas. Askins, appeared on the cover of one of the Bond hardcovers. Fleming eventually bought a Centennial while in New York, and posed with it on the back cover of many of the original series paperbacks of the Bond novels. Before that, the gun he held was a Colt Official Police given to him by Bill Donovan, the OSS chief!

I trust that this was of interest. The Bond books since Fleming's are just not the same. And the books were much more plausible and worthwhile than the films once the movies got past, "Thunderball".

Lone Star