[mtidasnubby]

Watched the two nights of A&E's Bonnie and Clyde. Did anyone else notice the actor playing Clyde was carrying a Series 70 Government Model? Several closeups clearly showed the rollmarks on the slide. I guess they couldn't find any prewar models to use but at least it was an actual Colt. I was hoping the story would be more factual but sadly was not.

 

[Safearm]

I didn't get a chance to see it. By chance, did they show Frank Hamer carrying his SAA and .38 Super 1911 at the final shoot-out?

 

[slow10ker]

Frank used a BAR in the shoot out in the series. I remember him carrying a single action on his hip in the first episode...

 

[johnlindly]

And they had freakin Thompsons at the final ambush!! There weren't no Thompsons there! Who the heck was the firearms advisor for this crapola?

 

[Safearm]

He actually used a Remington Model 8 in .30 Remington (there is disagreement among historians on the caliber, some say it was a .35 Remington) with an extended magazine (which made it look somewhat like a BAR). He was also carrying his SAA, "Old Lucky," an engraved 4 3/4 inch barreled .45 Colt as well as a .38 Super 1911.

 

[Hopalong]

And they had freakin Thompsons at the final ambush!! There weren't no Thompsons there! Who the heck was the firearms advisor for this crapola?

Oh, there were a lot of things in that movie that qualified as crapola.

 

[rhmc24]

The movie's interiors of homes, clothing, almost everything else were too colorful & glitzy for the 1930s. Only those with steady incomes lived and looked as nice as shown. Clyde & Bonnie were just desperate dirt-poor that got going in the wrong direction. There were a lot more like them that never made the headlines, got caught or shot early in their chosen careers. It was a time people took a bath once a week if possible.

I was a kid in So. Oklahoma in the 1930s. My Dad was 'Filling Station Manager' for Okla City area for an oil company who lost his job went it went belly up in 1931. We moved back down South, in with my G-parents. I remember cold water, ice box & Mom & G-mother washing clothes by hand in the back yard. My G-father had a one-man insurance business & some income. Dad ran a filling station ( gas station) went to work 6 days a week, 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. to make $10-15 a week at a time policemen & teachers made $80 a month. We soon got a water heater installed, refrigerator, a washing machine & a radio. Gas then was 12-15 cents a gallon -- about the same as today in comparison to incomes.

We were rich compared to most of the population, in that we had some income, ate regular & had cars. Dad a 1930 beat up Model A Ford and G-father his 1925 Model T he kept looking new. My G-father had a 40 acre farm he let to a share-cropper. I don't think he ever got a dime in payment other than driving the 6 miles out to get veggies, melons, a chicken or turkey - hardly worth the trip. The renter was typical dirt-poor, overalls held together by hand sewn patches & nothing in the house but bare essentials. No plumbing, no electricity, no heat. I kept thinking of that house & those people when I sat thru Bonnie & Clyde.

 

[DWalt]

Actually used at the ambush:

1. One M1918 BAR (NOT used by Hamer). Also not a Colt Monitor, as shown.
2. Two Remington Model 8 rifles. Neither was modified by POE to use a hi-cap magazine. Hamer had one, but that came well after the ambush.
3. Three Remington Model 11 semi-auto shotguns (no Winchester Model 12 pump guns as shown).

There is considerable disagreement over exactly who used what gun. Hamer is usually presumed to have used either a Model 8 or one of the Model 11 shotguns.

There probably wasn't a Thompson SMG in the whole county.

Not a great deal of the recent attempt at re-telling the B&C story was factual, more like a dramatized version of history. I don't think Clyde was telepathic, and I don't think the ambush was really an act of "Suicide by Cop," as portrayed. The 1967 movie was better, but no more factual. Overall, a big disappointment. I was expecting better.

 

[Major Dad]

I read some discussion in some of the other B&C threads here on the Forum. One comment was that while Bonnie was shown numerous times with a Colt DS, it was not a pre-war DS. Good eye, I thought, but I couldn't prove different.

 

[JS22]

I guess a series 70 would be a step in the right direction. I think I read somewhere that in the 1967 movie with Warren Beatty they used Star Model B's in place of the Colts at least part of the time.

 

[johnlindly]

They used the Star in lieu of the 1911 for the Wild Bunch too. It was filmed in the same time period. The Star was more reliable with blanks?

 

[.455Eley]

I think it was more that the Star was cheap and 9mm was more reliable with blanks than .45. Its why Magnum's government model was a 9mm.

 

[BigG]

I guess a series 70 would be a step in the right direction. I think I read somewhere that in the 1967 movie with Warren Beatty they used Star Model B's in place of the Colts at least part of the time.

I read the the Star Model B 9mm was much more easy to rig to fire with blanks than the Colt GM pistols so Hollywood used a lot of Star Model Bs whenever a Colt was indicated.

 

[Bigfifty]

I didn't get a chance to see it. By chance, did they show Frank Hamer carrying his SAA and .38 Super 1911 at the final shoot-out?

IMHO, You didn't miss anything.....one of the worst B&C movies made.

 

[LaVistaBill]

I just watched the first segment of B&C today and saw where Clyde accidentally ran into Frank Hamer. I rather doubt that actually happened, but it was a way to inject him into the plot. Later Clyde said that he'd read (or heard on the radio) that Hamer referred to his old Colt revolver as "Old Lucky." That was neat, but again very doubtful that it really happened...more Hollywood. I ended the first segment less than really impressed, but will withhold judgment until I've seen the second segment...

 

[.455Eley]

I just wish that the 'History' Channel would resist the urge to turn a historical program into a Hollywood production. They should just stick to making documentaries like they used to make when their programs actually had some resemblance to historical accuracy.

 

[johnlindly]

Hammer did shoot Buck Barrow with a Remington model 8 but nobody at the ambush in this work of art used one. Didn't think ole Frank was involved with Buck's death. Thought it was just a possy out looking for them. Interesting that in this account Bonnie was the bad one and old Clyde nobly led them into the ambush to stop her/Them ? Weirdest damn account of these two that I have ever seen!!

 

[twaits]

Another thing about that movie was the use of an obvious kit car. That yellow "model A" convertible. They used plenty of original cars in the movie, I couldn't understand why they used such an obvious kit car.

Speaking of Bonnie and Clyde, here's a non gun question (sorry Mitch!). What ever became of Clyde's Saxophone? The only mention I have seen of it is in this picture. It sure looks like the same case as in the old picture of the death car. It just says "private collection". Does anyone know who's private collection it went to? I also saw it mentioned in an old saxophone forum in a thread dated 2003. There was an old Ebay link to "Clyde Barrows Saxophone" It was for sale for something like $12,000-$14000

 

[fhlevib]

I thought in one of the scenes I saw Clyde cleaning what looked to be a Python. Did anyone else see that?

 

[Docjpo1980]

I'm curious about the mouse gun Bonnie passed Clyde in the first jail break scene of the movie. Was it a 1908 vest pocket with mother pearl grips? Did anyone catch that?


J