Untouchables, the movie

[Mike Irwin]

This was on Bravo last night.

Lots of fun gunhandling, even if some of the guns weren't correct for the period, such as the S&W's with sights and extractor rods that didn't come about until well after the period in question.... Small nitnoids, really.

However, in the scene near the end, where Ness chases Nitti in the court house, and Ness uses the Baliff's gun...

What the heck is it?

It looks like a Colt, with the firing pin on the hammer (but no through rivet, like an S&W) and an unsupported ejector rod, but I'll be darned if I can figure out the model. At times it looks like a Colt .45, but I'm not sure if that's just an illusion or not.

 

[Slabside]

Would be interesting to know what happened to Ness' personal 1911 and other firearms. Anyone have information?

 

[Mike Irwin]

See, that's the thing, Saxon. The firearms used in the movie did appear to be authentic for the times, except for the the small nitnoids I noted.

1911s, S&W revolvers (including several with the proper half-moon front sights), Model 1897 shotguns, and Model 1928 Thompsons with drum magazines.

I don't know Colt revolvers, though, so I'm just trying to figure out what this particular one was.

I don't think it was a New Service.

If anyone has any stills from it I'd be more than interested in looking at them.

 

[Cosmoline]

You may be talking about a Colt Police Positive Special, a revolver I've recently acquired and come to appreciate. Stills would tell for sure.

 

[George Hill]

In Westerns you see a lot of Remingtons but they are really just colts with a triangle flange to give it that remington look.

But what really irked me was the FNP90's in the movie SPAWN... they were really just dressed up INGRAMS!
OUTRAGE!

Don't take movies too seriously.

 

[Cosmoline]

http://www.theibstore.com/index.cfm/page/ProductOffer/prodID/36/cat/10/productzone/offers/head/10

Sorry about the long link, but that site shows a metal prop revolver from "The Untouchables" which looks to my eyes like the Police Positive Special, albiet a tad beefier around the edges.

Yikes! They're asking 1,800 pounds for it! I paid $175 for the real thing just last week

 

[Kamicosmos]

I hadn't seen the movie before, and caught is as well on Bravo. Now, I'm sure being edited and all, that the movie may have lost something. But...

Well. I didn't really like it that much. It just came off as a cliched gangster movie that was held back by the late 80's 'clean and flashy' trend. I still prefer the older 60's and early 70's gangster flicks. They seemed to retain a bit of grit in them, so at the end of them, when the main bad guy gets lit up like the proverbial X-Mas tree...you don't really want to be in his shoes...
To give it some credit, I think it was a bit too star heavy. I have a problem seeing past Sean and Kevin sometimes. Mel Gibson suffers from that problem too. And that's more my problem than the movie...

 

[CWL]

Also caught it last night, lost interest after the Canadian border raid.

Air-burst shotguns closed open mind.

 

[Mike Irwin]

"Don't take movies too seriously."

I'm not taking the movie too seriously...

I just want to know what the damned gun is!

It's a REAL gun, and actual production model. Not a dressed up something else, and not a prop designer's conception.

I'm just hoping that someone who has seen the movie might have the kind of eye for Colts that I have for S&Ws.

 

[Mal H]

Quick! It's on again right now. Maybe you can make a tape of it.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Yep, I know.

VCR is dead, though.

 

[Cosmoline]

Vell, there is no pleasing you zen.

 

[PAshooter]

A not-specifically-gun-related comment:

I think the scene in the train station is one of the greatest scenes ever put on film.

IMHO, you understand.

 

[Mike Irwin]

I actually didn't like the scene in the train station too much.

I liked the scene on the bridge more, especially Malone's method of "questioning" a suspect.

 

[Sunray]

"I just want to know what the damned gun is!" It's likely a prop gun. If you've ever seen actors handling firearms you'd know immediately why real firearms aren't used in movies. Death scenes invariably involve the firearm being thrown across the world as the ham spins to the ground or gets launched backwards like he was hit by a truck.
And the RCMP had long given up its nags in favour of that new fangled American invention the Buick. Built in Oshawa near Toronto. Horses indeed. Costner is an idiot.

 

[Wil Terry]

THE REVOLVERS WERE COLT POLICE SPECIALS, THE NITTI

Pistol had an external extractor like the STAR 1911 pistol.
I liked how he kept snapping it on an empty chamber...geesh...stuff like this makes me want to throw my Shiner Bock bottle through the TV.

 

[Monkeyleg]

Sorry, Mike. I don't know what gun it is, either.

But Kevin Costner could make D-Day boring. If it wasn't for Sean Connery in that movie, it would have been a complete dud. And Costner's ripoff of the "Odessa Steps" sequence?

 

[Mike Irwin]

I don't care whether anyone liked, disliked, hated, loved, etc., the movie. Actually, I do, but just not at this particular moment in time...

I don't care if you want to give it the Oscar or the Finger.

I just wanted to know if anyone recognized the gun...

Sob...