New Service in OLD John Wayne CowBoy movie

[Roninrlm]

Hey guys

I was just watching a collection of OLD John Wayne movies (Blue Steel 1934) and like any other Colt Nut I was trying to see what the pistols were that they were shooting. What do I see but the Bad Guy shooting at The Duke with a Doubble action NEW SERVICE! Can this be ??????? I am CRUSHED !

After watching 3 of the movies in the collection of 25 movies (a WalMart $9.95 special) I was supprized at the WIDE collections of pistols used and some I have no idea what they are. Just kind of fun watching those old movies and looking at all the different gear they used.

Ronin

[rhmc24]

I'm a movie-gun-watcher too. I was a kid watching those movies in the 1930s. There's no end of wrong guns in movies. Most common one (to me) is SAA Colts in Civil War period stories or maybe '92 Wins when it should be a '73 or a Henry. If the story period is not specific a New Service could be correct. There was little change in life between 1880 and 1910. The NS came on the scene in 1899.

All that said, in movie westerns of the 1930s the makers paid little attention to kind/model of gun so long as it was a revolver. Some tried to stick with SAAs, even to the extreme of dummy-up SAAs by New Services with fake ejector tubes added to look like a SAA. Keep an eye out for those.

[BearBio]

What I find interesting is to see old RARE guns in some of these old movies.

[kenhwind]

I have a tape or DVD of an old serial John Wayne did and in it he has a Colt Military Model 38 ACP, but it takes place when the gun would be correct.
In Major Dundee they at least tried to be authenthic; sort of; the revolvers used were cartridge conversions of the 1860 Colt. But the 92 Winchesters sans forearm filled in for the Henry repeater.

And of course the Star 9mm was used for a Colt 1911 in action scenes in "The Wild Bunch"

And sometimes they get them mixed up. In "The Sand Pebbles" there is a scene where Richard Crenna has a pistol on the table: one segment it is a Colt the other a Star.

[Wyatt Burp]

I have many books on westerns and Colt N.S. sixguns pop up every once in a while. Here is an old time B-western hero named Fred Scott who's packing an ivory handled N.S. in a fancy buscadero rig. His sidekick Al "Fuzzy" St. John might also have a N.S. here because he has one elsewhere in this same book. Of course, N.S. Colts have been used in many more modern westerns by actors who couldn't shoot Colt SAA's fast. These guns have dummy ejector rod on the guns as if we wouldn't notice. I think the N.S. in the pic below is 7 1/2" and is sticking out the bottom of the holster.

[Alan S]

I also like to watch for guns in movies, especially westerns, and this kind of thing crops up all the time. For most movies I would say that complete accuracy in firearms is low on the list of importance but sometimes inaccurate firearms are used for a reason. I have read, for example, that in most John Wayne movies he carries a Winchester 1892 instead of an 1873 because 1873s were exceedingly hard to come by and 1892s were still in production at the time. In other instances, such as in True Grit (the John Wayne version) double actions are used because the actors couldn't shoot single action. In that movie, for example, when we first meet Ned Pepper he is using a double action dressed up to look like an SAA because Robert Duvall couldn't shoot single action one handed fast enough, or so I read somewhere.

That being said, it often still annoys me that firearms in movies don't match the setting. In an age where movie costumes and sets are becoming more and more historically accurate, firearms still manage to be incorrect for the time period.

[MMCSRET]

A more recent production called "Bandidas", about two young women trying to stop a crooked bank manager in Mexico. One of the women carried a New Service that had an ejection rod housing mounted on the right side of the barrel, several scenes you can clearly see the cylinder release on the left side and the shark fin front sight.

[El Bibliotecario]

I imagine the New Service showed up in the B westerns for the same reason the Spanish guerrillas in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS carried Krags--because at the time M1917s were dirt cheap. This is no doubt why the bad guys on the original MISSION IMPOSSIBLE TV show invaribly carried Astra 400s--because at the time they sold through the mail for $19.95

As a kid, I recall the uniform armament for every western movie or TV show were Colt single action revolvers and Winchester lever carbines, either the Model 94 or 92--I was too young to know the difference. Even the movie cavalry were issued Winchester lever guns.

One of the perogative of getting older is griping about how the world has gone downhill--but movie props are a welcome exception. Obviously current western films try far harder than half a century ago to get the firearms--and the costumes--correct.

[rhmc24]

Almost anyone who is knowledgeable about anything sees how the movies and TV are careless with authenticity. Not only type of gun but shots in the same scene 'our hero' will be using a revolver, then an auto. We see one kind of airplane taking off and another type landing, History Channel story about WW2 in Europe showing a flight of B-29s on their way to Germany.

[El Bibliotecario]

...We see one kind of airplane taking off and another type landing, History Channel story about WW2 in Europe showing a flight of B-29s on their way to Germany.

In my youth I saw a film, FIGHTER SQUADRON, in which the Americans flew P47s and the Germans flew P51s. Even as a kid I knew that was hokey...but the German pilots--blonde beasts all--redeemed themselves with their campy dialog, such as shouting 'Das schweine!"

Back to firearms--am I imagining that during the '20s some westerns used double-action revolvers such as the New Service with dummy ejector rod housings?