The Comancheros

[zimmerstutzen]

If you pay attention, at the final shootout in the Cowboys, the one kid is using a walker and for a second they show the face of the cylinder. Looks like the cylinder chambers have been lined to shoot 32's.

 

[Hatchett]

The motion picture censorship "code" actually didn't allow films to feature Thompson submachineguns, at least in the hands of criminals. To my memory, only the original Scarface got away with it and only because it was a pre code film. You couldn't show them using a short barreled weapon or suppressor either. There's a Bogart picture where he has a machinegun but its kept in a box the whole movie and he only fires it off screen.

 

[messerist]

Several directors, John Ford and Howard Hawks to name a few, were unconcerned about the period authenticity of the firearms in their films. John Ford only cared that the guns went "bang!" when he wanted. I can't recall but one of John Wayne's mentioned it in a documentary I watched on the anniversary of Wayne's 100th birthday.

 

[Crawdad1]

The first movie I ever saw that showed the actor actually reloading his Colt, I mean half cocking the hammer, then opening the loading gate, rotating the cylinder while working the extractor, was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where, at the end of the movie, Robert Redford was covering Paul Newman as he ran towards the mules for additional ammunition. I don’t think I ever seen it since. Great scene though.

 

[Big Al Mass]

I can think of one before that. In For a Few Dollars More, when Manco (Clint Eastwood) kicked Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) out of his hotel room, Manco empties his gun with the ejector rod in the proper manner and reloads and continues to fire at Mortimer.

That is one of my favorite movies and my favorite movie song ever.

 

[mdauben]

I can think of one before that. In For a Few Dollars More, when Manco (Clint Eastwood) kicked Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) out of his hotel room, Manco empties his gun with the ejector rod in the proper manner and reloads and continues to fire at Mortimer.

I can't recall the title right now, but wasn't there an Eastwood movie where he actually used cap-n-ball revolvers, and was carrying around a set of spare cylinders to do "speed" reloads?

 

[Billy Shears]

That was "Pale Rider." And I believe they were cartridge conversions of Remington 1858s.

 

[Crossfire]

Mdauben

That Clint Eastwood movie was "Pale Rider," if I remember right.

 

[Big Al Mass]

Darn! You guys were a might quicker on the draw than me. Here is the Internet Movie Firearms Database (a fantastic resource by the way) page for Pale Rider: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Pale_Rider Is it just me, or do the barrels of movie guns seem to be bored out for dramatic effect? Because I would be afraid to fire any of those guns depicted on that page with live ammo if the barrel wall thickness is really that small.

 

[Patocazador]

I can't recall the title right now, but wasn't there an Eastwood movie where he actually used cap-n-ball revolvers, and was carrying around a set of spare cylinders to do "speed" reloads?

It seems he used authentic looking cap and ball pistols in "The Outlaw, Josie Wales,"

 

[JohnnyCremains]

nice

 

[shunka]

"Some" of the older films such as "Santa Fe Trail" with Errol Flynn (time period is "pre civil war" ) are remarkably accurate at times
- C&B revovlers (Colt & Remingtons) , "slim jim" and "california" style holsters, pistol belts without cartridge loops predominate!
- but even here, there is the occasional "1873 " or "1875" revolver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKF9Cv7l13k&list=SPEB9CE1A3C84CE3AD&index=5

at ~ 33:44 the crate of "bibles" breaks open and the discerning eye can make out Sharps Carbines (breechloading percusion models available since 1853)

at ~ 33:55 we clearly see John Brown's 1858 Remington belt pistol

but at ~ 37:44 slow motion allows us to see that John Brown's revolver magically grows an ejection rod ...

I also offer Spencer Tracy in "Roger's Rangers" and John Wayne in "Alamo" - granted, not "westerns" but they tried to be reasonably accurate whilst at times having to deal with hundreds of extras who cannot reload a musket - at one time a Hollywierd armory cobbled up some Springfield Trapdoor Rifles to look vaugely like flintlock muskets (at a distance) by altering the stocks and adding a fake flint hammer and frizzen.
These allowed untrained extras to reload using blank cartridges.

Bottom line- it's just entertainment and it is all up to the director.
Even in the latest "Last of the Mohicans", which was promoted as one of the most "Hysterically Accurate Fillums" of these times, whilst they worked VERY hard at Costuming, Military Drills, correct Quillwork, Wampum, Correct Eastern Tribes Tattoos, and convincing hand-to-hand Tomohawk, knife, and Warclub fight correography, the Director (Michael Mann) insisted that Hawkeyes legendary flint rifle should look more like
a Pennsylvania Rifle that would have been produced ~ 1790-ish than a more correct F&I War Era flint rifle produced post ~1750 ish .

http://www.mohicanpress.com/mo10015.html

( from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Revlist/message/2539 )
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>the movie, for some reason Hollywood saw fit to outfit a F/I War
>"longhunter" with what was apparently a long and plain Lehigh Valley rifle
>(stylistically) of the 1780's which was outfitted with suspiciously
>Southern-looking iron furniture.

According to Wayne Watson, who built "Kildeer" for Michael Mann's LOTM, it's
a 1790's Allentown rifle. Wayne tried to talk Mann into something more
appropriate, but Mann was adamant about what he wanted. Wayne's response
was IMHO a classic: "You're paying for it. I'll put a propeller on it if
that's what you want."

Regards,
Joseph Ruckman
-----------------------------------------------------------------

yhs
shunka

 

[saltydog452]

Help with google Fu

The riots in West Point, GA seems to have eluded Google. There was lots of really nasty stuff going on back then, I just can't find any in West Point, GA.

Thnaks,

salty

 

[StrawHat]

There were a couple of stock companies that supplied props to the movie industry. I recall watching some of the early TV serials and seeing Henrys, 1866 Winchesters and 1873 Winchesters along with a variety of early revolvers. All originals. At some point, the hard movie life caused them to be retired and since more modern pieces were cheaper, that is what got used, and repaired.

 

[Patocazador]

The riots in West Point, GA seems to have eluded Google. There was lots of really nasty stuff going on back then, I just can't find any in West Point, GA.

Thnaks,

salty

It was quoted in a Thompson SMG pamphlet as West Point but may have been La Grange, Ga.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_workers_strike_(1934)

This led to the passage of the NFA (National Firearms Act) which banned automatic weapons and other devices for US citizens.

 

[Big Al Mass]

It was quoted in a Thompson SMG pamphlet as West Point but may have been La Grange, Ga.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_workers_strike_(1934)

This led to the passage of the NFA (National Firearms Act) which banned automatic weapons and other devices for US citizens.

The NFA does not ban the ownership of anything by anybody. It regulates the transfer of the above-mentioned items, but they are not banned from ownership by law-abiding citizens.

 

[saltydog452]

Hat,

This Forums own, Larry Correia, was once a kinda-sorta fun loving wage slave to FBMG, (Fuzzy Bunny Movie Guns). They had some really, really, neat stuff for rent to movie Production Companys.

That was before he became a world famous Monster Hunter and penned a few novels published by Baen.

salty

 

[Patocazador]

The NFA does not ban the ownership of anything by anybody. It regulates the transfer of the above-mentioned items, but they are not banned from ownership by law-abiding citizens.

As long as you have DEEEEEP pockets.