YouTube - The Killer is Loose (1956)

Go to about 51.00 Nice 5 minute clear scene of an N frame 4 inch M-28/27 (possibly pre #) Depicted as a cannon. Notice the loud BOOM followed by the milk bottle shattering in the victim's hand.

This movie was made in 1956, one year after the .44 magnum. Probably started production in 1955 the final year of the .357 Magnum's superiority as the "most powerful handgun in the world"

In 1956 there would be no model number guns. Definitely an N frame 357 with the tapered barrel. Almost for sure a Highway Patrolman given the rarity of 4" pre-27s. Unusual for Hollywood that you can see the chambers are loaded. Most movie revolvers are obviously unloaded when you can see down the chambers.

I noticed the chambers filled as well. The actor who was shot was the Chief of Police in "Dirty Harry". I like the scene when he hands Harry the "Elephant Gun".

Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, was shot to death on the set of The Crow in 1993. A Smith .44 - I think it was a short barreled 629 - was used in a scene where it was shown from the front. The prop guy had loaded up some dummy rounds so the gun would appear loaded when viewed from the front. Apparently he used live primers, and at some point the gun was fired and the bullet from the dummy round lodged in the barrel. In a later scene another actor was supposed to shoot Lee with a blank round. The blank launched the stuck round into Lee's abdomen, with fatal results.

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

That actor was John Larch. Used to be in a lot of movies.

I am glad he recovered...

HA, I noticed the chambers were loaded to, but it didn't occur to me that most movies don't show that.

I thought 1956 was the year model numbers were introduced. Am I wrong?

or was it 1961?

I also THOUGHT I noticed target grips on that gun instead of the magna grips. Look at when the psycho is holding it after the shootee moves over to the refrigerator. The bottom of the grips in the guy's hand look kinda large.

Somewhere else in that movie, there is a scene when it is reported to the lead detective, who the bad guy is after for revenge, that the bad guy has broken into a hardware store and stolen a gun. A .357 Magnum. The lead detective laughs and jokes "He's not hunting me, he's hunting elephants."

I had seen John Larch in many movies and tv Westerns and police dramas like Gunsmoke and The Untouchables. Forgot he was the Chief of Police in Dirty Harry.

Just on the side, around the beginning of the movie when the police originally capture the guy, he is using a S&W Military & Police 4 inch .38 to try to keep them out of his apartment. Guess he figured he needed something with a little more stopping power. LOL!

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ROTFLMTEO!!!

Not by any means a first appearance but who remembers "Electra Glide in Blue" ?

Robert Blake starred using ,if I remember correctly, a two tone revolver possibly a Python ? and his partner I seem to remember had a 6 inch barreled revolver possibly a model 27 or 28 ?

Not cinemagraphic greatness, but I enjoyed the movie.

NB

That was my first thought too, but then about halfway through the scene the gun is moved to catch and reflect the studio lighting from high left. The whole side of the frame goes almost nickel in appearance, which suggests a high polish blue instead of a satin or matte finish. So despite the unusual barrel length, I think it may actually be a Pre-27.

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David Wilson

Patton had a 4 inch or 3 inch Pre Model 27 or Registered Magnum. That was in the 1940s


As for the movie, look at 28.45 and you'll hear them play the .357 Magnum as a hand cannon as though you could take down elephants with it. While it's not S&W 500, I can certainly understand this sentiment given the energy you feel going up your arm and shockwave bouncing off your chest with each thunderclap coming out of a .357 Magnum.

I was outside shooting with a friend of mine. He was shooting his .40 S&W and I was shooting my 6 inch Highway Patrolman. He said he could feel the ground under his feet vibrating standing about 8 ft behind me everytime I fired my gun.

Patton had the 3.5" RM with grip adapter he ordered in the mid '30s and carried it with a .45 Peacemaker, both wore ivory grips with "GSP". Somewhere on here there is a thread that shows his original order form.

A 4" pre-27 would so extremely rare I discount the possibility. Anything would look shiny under Hollywood movie set lights. Many early HPs are brighter than later ones.

I take more as a somber warning about the dangers of glass milk bottles. Either the noise/concussion of that massive magnum killed Larch's wife, too, or exploding glass shards must've got her . . . .

^^bahahaha!!! I thought the same thing. The concussive blast also made every pot and pan jump off of the wall. The bullet just grazed him, but he was actually killed by a falling skillet.

Lee Marvin used a 4" N frame in "Point Blank" with Angie Dickinson and John Vernon (mayor of San Francisco in "Dirty Harry"). The revolver looks to be a .44 Magnum but I couldn't be 100% on that. If it was, it could have been the .44's screen debut.

LOL!!!! And the refrigerator bump against the wall. If it will "penetrate an engine block" it will shake a household to pieces

HA! funny, and S&W is trying to reproduce "classic" revolvers. They have a M-27 in 4 inch barrel but no M-28 Hwy Ptrlmn at all. Of course these are the same guys that now produce a M-15 with an underlug