Firecreek

Bruce51 · Jun 1, 2013

Just finished watching the movie Firecreek. It's good to see Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Jack Elam and Inger Stevens playing their parts.

One thing I have learned is to watch for is the wrong guns in the wrong time.

Clearly when Jimmy Stewart loaded his revolver in the store he opened the hand ejector to load. This despite the ejector rod on the right side.

Later, right at the end, a lanyard loop is clearly visible on the butt of the gun.

It must be great to just make things up for a movie.

Clearly the bad guys were toting single action revolvers.

Bruce

OFT II · Jun 1, 2013

I think that I've seen him use that same revolver or one like it in several movies like the Cheyenne Social Club. It looks like a Colt New Service that someone dummied an ejector rod on the side for looks.

UncleEd · Jun 1, 2013

The DA New Service, usually with ejector rod braised onto the barrel, is used to "duplicate/replicate" the 1878 DA Frontier which was produced in .45 and .44.

The Frontier and the so-nicknamed DA Thunderers and Lightnings were very common Colts in the 1880s and onward.

For movie purposes, I believe it's hard to come by working models of the Frontier as most are really very much collector items and weren't produced into the 20th century as were the
SAAs.

Interestingly enough, the 1878 models had the cross pin spring loaded retainer for the cylinder pin while the SAA didn't get that design until the mid 1890s. Because of Army contracts, Colt didn't want to introduce the cross pin which would have complicated Army armorer maintenance of the SAA. The screw through the front of frame worked pretty well but wasn't ideal.

Where the "1878" becomes so noticeable as a fake in movies is when the actor must reload and swings out the cylinder to the left.

The New Service also was used a lot when the studio needed an actor to fire fast multiple shots. I've seen it where the hero carries a SAA but shoots a "Frontier" during the fast draw/gunfight.

Actually, Hollywood is trying to be "accurate" even though nearly all Western movies have nothing to do with the real old West.

It's the Buscadero holster where Hollywood goes far astray for films placed before the 20th century. Alas, Matt Dillon's leather rig wasn't factually correct.

Wyatt Burp · Jun 1, 2013

That was the most blatant use of a New Service colt with fake ejector. In "butch Cassidy.." Paul Newman uses one in the shootout with bandits. He just fans his hand over the top while Redford really fans a SA Colt. Check out this link of the NRA museum and there's a closeup of the type of gun you mention. This one used by Brando in One Eyed Jacks.
The National Firearms Museum: One Eyed Jacks (1961) Colt New Service

UncleEd · Jun 1, 2013

Wyatt, in Hombre Newman also uses a New Service ala a Frontier fake, in the final shootout with Richard Boone and gang. Before that I think he consistently carried a SAA in a holster hung so low that it must have given him a bad right knee.

Wyatt Burp · Jun 2, 2013

UncleEd said:
Wyatt, in Hombre Newman also uses a New Service ala a Frontier fake, in the final shootout with Richard Boone and gang. Before that I think he consistently carried a SAA in a holster hung so low that it must have given him a bad right knee.

I remember that in hombre! He shot the Mexican guy with the DA and we saw it from his point of view behind the gun. BTW, I hava a black left hand version of the exact Arvo Ojala fast draw rig you speak of. I ordered it new in 1985. My favorite scene in hombre is when he smashes that guy in the face with his rifle butt when he's drinking a shot of mescal. "Hombre" shot him later, but he survived, got rehabilitated, and got a job on the Ponderosa.

jimmyj · Jun 2, 2013

IIRC this same Colt New Servive .45 with the fake ejector housing was used by Robert Mitchen in "Five Card Stud" movie also starring Dean Martin.

Firecreek

Bruce51

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OFT II

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