Souvenirs of Death

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buck460XVR

buck460XVR

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Anyone else ever see this?

Saw this last night @ 4:00 a.m. on T.V. on TCM network....was up account of being an insomniac. A 10 minute short news reel type film that used to be shown before major movies back in the 40s and 50s. Brought home the fact that guns have been portrayed as "evil" in the media long before most of us were around. There was even a paragraph long quote by J.Edgar Hoover at the end warning all responsible citizens to be on the lookout and avoid/dispose of all evil guns that had no purpose other than the killing of humans.


Here is a short synopsis of it.......

Storyline

As seen through the indifferent eyes of a callous Mauser pistol, the story line tracks its chain of custody after being picked up on a French battlefield by an American GI near the body of its dead owner, a German soldier. Although he takes precautions for its safe display, the GI's young son is able to access it and show it to friends, one of whom ends up killing the family dog. Although the father disables it, the boy's mother insists it be disposed of, so he sends it to his brother for use as a souvenir paperweight. It is lost in a poker game, hocked, and bought by a gunsmith who restores its firepower. Ultimately it reaches its seventh and last owner, a gangster who uses it to rob a casino and murder a policeman.
Click to expand...

The story was told in a first person narrative by the gun itself. Here is part of the gun's self perspective...,,

As a war trophy, my story began in 1944 on a battlefield in northern France. The victorious Allies were marching through now, and my first owner, Herr Lt. Von Bider was facedown in the mud, a matter of complete indifference to me since my sole function is to puncture the human body. It appeared I was to have a new owner.
Click to expand...

Wish I could've recorded it and saved it for future reference. One of the stars was Barbara Billingsley, we all remember her as "the Beaver's" mom.
 
"...a matter of complete indifference to me since my sole function is to puncture the human body."

True statement really, all guns are tools made to puncture at a distance. They aren't much different than a wrench or a screwdriver. We love to give qualities to objects they don't possess instead of placing responsibility with the user.
 
I seem to recall a made-for-TV movie from the 1970s that used the same story; possibly it was a remake of this.
It's Hollyweird, folks.
It's chock full of film makers who think they can change the world by making a movie .....
 
"I am a simple spoon with no regard for whoever grasps my handle, or shoves my shallow bowl into their mouth. My first owner used me to add sugar to their tea and stir it gently, while they chatted with their spouse about the days events. But soon my owner passed on, and I was sold off to a new family who used me to feed their young growing child. After a while, a new set of silverware replaced me, so I was donated to a local thrift store where I was bought for a cheap price by a food addict. Here I was forced to spoon gulp after gulp of ice cream, pudding, greasy fast food, and all sorts of other junk until my owner died of a coronary. The greiving family disposed of me as trash because I reminded them of how their loved one died, even though I was just a deliverer of the food that ultimately killed my owner and I did not have any will of my own for how my owner misused me."
 
A spoon is common in cooking up heroin. That means it is also responsible for drug use.
 
I checked Youtube and nothing on there. I checked TCM and I don't see when it is going to be rerun. But they can email you if they are going to run it again.

http://www.tcm.com/schedule/weekly.html

http://www.tcm.com/structure/reminder.html?id=401639&tz=null


There is an online description of it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0143893/

Its official name was "Passing Parade No. 66: Souvenirs of Death" . Released 19 June 1948. Made at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

.
 
There was a Western called DAY of The Evil Gun. Might have much more convincing if the gun, a sawed off shotgun, picked itself up off the floor, loaded itself, opened the door, went out of the house and scouted for targets, selected some one and shot them. But as I recall , it was a man who picked it up, loaded it and fired it at someone. Shoulda called it Day of the Evil Man! Well, that`s Hollywierd for ya!
 
referencing the signature line above this post, no one hit with a .44 is NOT necessarily better than 4 hits with a .22lr. If the 44 hit is to the limbs, shoulder or gut and 3 of the 22 hits are to the head, I'll take the .22, any day.
 
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