Most Excellent!!!!

 

Hello, Engine, I'm Jake Holman...'

 

The Chuck Norris of his age. He couldn't ruin movies - he could only save them.

 

...Steve Mcqueen and Chuck Norris in the same sentence...is just wrong...Tom Horn

 

What a Movie.

 

"Live Steam", "Sleepy Steam"...

 

great actor, classic movie!

 

Really good movie; I particularly liked Richard Attenborough as "Frenchy".

The book is even better.

Best regards,

 

Good stuff!!!!!

 

Goddamnit I love BARs, I had a chance to buy a semi auto for $750 back in the 80s but I was Colt happy at the time and couldn't justify the expense. After all, I bought a mint 6 inch blued "Starsky and Hutch" Python the same month for $350. All the women I let go in my youth don't compare to the regret I feel over not buying that gun, it had bakelite stocks. If only my rice bowl were bigger I'd be blowing peoples minds every time I go to the range. It should be the picture in the dictionary next to the word FIREPOWER. Kid Sporis should be here any second 'cause he loves this stuff, he must be napping. The queen boy was able to hold off the entire nation of China for ten or fifteen minutes with that gun, it's the hogleg of rifles. Yes I know it's a light machine gun but if you've ever held one you know it's really a giant rifle.

 

No other human has ever matched McQueen pinnacle of Coolness
He always had the coolest cars & coolest guns; the 1911 in "The Getaway" to the .38 Diamondback in Bullet to the BAR in "Sand Pebbles".
A friend who is a Mustang fiend tracks stories that the Bullet Mustang is still in an Ohio warehouse somewhere.

Holdin, I know how you feel about the BAR. An aquaintence at a club in MA had a legal one and it was awesome. The slow rate of fire allowed extremely accurate single shots. An Ohio Ordinance semi came on the market in MA and in the few hours it took me to arrange in $2K price it was sold. I was heart broken.

 

Welcome to the brotherhood of paycheck based gun collectors.

 

I remember the words " Hot stem wa wa " which meant hot steam valve, my sister and I still say that on occasion. It is to bad these old movies don't get played and highlighted enough.

RIP Steve M, hope you are riding the nice trails in the big sky.

 

The book was good reading in high school for me. The best sentence was when he was describing the engineer(chief engine mechanic): He was sitting on a nickels worth of knowledge and guarding it like the Inca's treasure.

 

This was shown not too long ago on one of the various channels we receive.

The book is usually better than the movie. I have an old paperback copy of The Dirty Dozen, and as good as the movie was or is the book could bring the reader inside the characters heads in a more detailed manner than can be done in a 2 hour movie.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_McKenna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sand_Pebbles

A great book- written by a real China Fleet Sailor, a great movie, a great American actor. Sad- they will never make films as good as this again. Happy- there are so many great old movies to watch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sand_Pebbles_(film)

 

"I was home...what happened...what the hell happened?"

 

I'm a big McQueen fan, and when I got a 60" flat screen high definition TV, the first movie I watched was the Blu-Ray DVD Sand Pebbles.

 

In frame #4 one can't help but notice the first actor (can't remember his name) had his 1911 in hand and the hammer is down. I guess the threat wasn't that viable or close for him to go to battle condition (hoping he had one in the chute). It's all in the detail.

Steve McQueen was the consummate actor and "Sand Pebbles", "Bullitt" "Pappillion" and of course "The Great Escape" were classics, never to be duplicated. The guy was a race car driver of the highest caliber. The remake of "The Thomas Crown Affair" was good but never quite touched the performance that McQueen lent to the role. He died way too young from cancer and the world lost the real deal.

 

In frame #4 one can't help but notice the first actor (can't remember his name) had his 1911 in hand and the hammer is down.......

Jeffrey, I believe his name is Barney Phillips and he played the role of Chief Boatswain's Mate (BMC) Franks.

 

The scene where the Capt (Richard Crenna) is sitting in his wardroom, or maybe its two different scenes; anyway in one the pistol on his desk is actually a Star, and in then it is the Colt (or vice a versa). No big deal, as the Star was the Colt's stunt double.

When I got my first VHS, the first movie I bought was The Magnificent Seven, which was also a top rated movie with Steve McQueen as a co-star opposite Yul Brenner.

 

As a Marine, I carried a BAR for a while in the early 1960's before they replaced it with the full auto verison of the M-14. I loved that old gun! I've always wanted one of my own, but never could quite scrape up the cash. Every time I got to the point where I felt I could afford one, the price went up!

My favorite Steve McQueen movie is NEVER SO FEW. He had a somewhat minor role, but was very, very good in it.

- - Buckspen

 

Yet another great one was "The War Lover". ("Lady, we belong to the most destructive group of men the world has ever known.")

 

"The Sand Pebbles" is one of my five or six all-time favorites. (Whenever my wife offers to mow the grass, I remind her that "that's my rice bowl".)

 

Seconded on the BAR. Without checking I think OOW makes them for about four thousand dollars. Great movie Paradise, thanks for the post.

 

I think this was one of Steve Mcqueen's best performances but he didn't win any awards for it if I recollect correctly. I also think it is an interested look at the China river gun boat era between the wars. In my opinion pretty authentic for an under documented time frame. The reason I know a little about this era is that I was an active duty Navy physician in the mid 80's and when on shore duty I would also see retirees in the clinic. I had 2 retired Asiatic Fleet sailors who were on gunboats in China between the wars and I loved to hear their stories (oral history) of this interesting time. I would always book their appointments for twice as much time as was usual so I could hear them tell their stories. I wish I would written them all down for posterity. I also had one patient who was a retired Marine Cavalryman who was in the China in the late 20's in Beijing with the "horse marines" and was he a character. I miss those guys.
Jeff

 

Great movie, great actor, fascinating time in history. Add in the1903 Springfields, 1911 Colts, and the 1918 BARs and you have a classic. The 1918 is so much sleeker and elegant than the A2 model. Essential belongings for the well stocked collection.

 

Don't forget the Lewis Gun on the boat deck.