I was watching that old masterpiece "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and was wondering what were the revolvers that were being used in the film. They look like M&P's but you can't be sure. Anybody able to identify them. And by the way did anyboby really shoot that way... that is holding the gun up but not really taking a bead?

I have a coffee mug from TCM with a picture from the movie on it.
Have seen the movie four times.
My 'semi-educated' guess is that Bogie's gun is a .44 Second Model.
Barrel-length seems right.
In the film, the hole in the end of the barrel is just too big to be .38 caliber, IMHO.
The gun's frame, likewise, seems bigger than a K.
A world-class flick!
And about that so-called 'shooting'...
Lots of the old 1930's, 40's and early 50's movies showed the shooters actually 'flipping' the gun towards their target, not drawing a bead, and certainly proving that the guns were loaded with blanks !
Don

I've seen the Treasure of the Sierra Madres many times, and just the other evening. Those revolvers definitely look like Colts and not S&W M&P models. The several detailed views (bandit attack on the train, bandit gunfight in the hills, Dobbs drawing his pistol against Curtin, Dobbs drawing his pistol against the bandits tht killed him, etc) all showed Colt features (hammer profile, lack of barrel underlug, front sights, etc).

Love that movie

I always find myself checking out the "iron" on these old classics .

Agree with John . They look like Army Specials or perhaps the earlier Army/Navy DA38's ?

Dey was Colts,and we don need no stinkin bayes

Front sight on Bogie's gun doesn't look real 'Coltish' to me.
Don

Colt Official Police .38 Special 4" barrels. How they just tossed them into the suitcase after the attempted train robbery just kills me.

quote:

Originally posted by Hobie:
Colt Official Police .38 Special 4" barrels. How they just tossed them into the suitcase after the attempted train robbery just kills me.

Colt OPs or Army Specials. One may have had a 5" barrel. When the chunked them back in the suitcase I wondered why the hell they didn't reload them.

Not sure Warner Brothers even owned/rented anything but Colt OPs/Armys.

But I do love the 30s, 40s movies. It seems
that in those days anyone who bought a double-breasted suit got a snub-nose .38 or a 4-incher, and sometimes a .32/.380 1903 auto, as part of the purchase price.

And the great thing about using those guns/calibers, it always gave the main bad guy or moll a chance to make a farewell "I'm sorry" speech before dying.

Dan

Damn them for not being M$Ps. When the movie comes on {often} I usually run and get my M&P out......it makes the movie more enjoyable. Helps if there is noboby home of course. Yeah and whats with them throwing them into the suitcase.....wellllll the next time the Treasure...is on I will throw mine into a suitcase. You see it makes the movie more ahhforgetit.

It could have been both at different times. Old time movie editors often missed details. I've seen it with rifles in The Searchers and tonight caught Kirk Douglas with 2 different rifles in Lonely are the Brave (pretty easy to spot in both movies-1892 Winchesters switched back and forth between carbine and short rifle). So Colt in part of one scene and S&W in another a few frames ahead.

Bogie was really a small man with small bones. Colt in "Sierra" was an Official Police Model. It just looked big in his hands. Besides the Director of the movie wouldn't know a Colt from a S&W if it bit him on the butt.

This might be a publicity shot and not the gun in the movie - your guess is as good as (probably better than) mine:

Dick Rumbaugh,

Are you sure John Huston wouldn't know a Colt from a S&W? How so?

Dan

I believe that John Huston's CV included some service as a cavalry officer, in the Mexican Army.