The Sea Chase

[pmanton]

TCM recently aired the John Wayne classic "The Sea Chase"

I noticed some magic. In one scene Wayne's mate-a nasty Nazi--pulls a gun on him. The pistol is a P-38. Wayne instantly knocks the pistol from the mate's hand and decks him with a single blow.When Wayne picks up the pistol it magically changed into a P-08 Luger. I tried this several times with my own P-38. Sadly it always remained a P-38.

By the way the movie takes place at the start of WW 2 Sept 1939.
The P-38 wouldn't have found its way onto a merchant ship thst early. :-)

[shouldazagged]

Kind of like Wayne's fifteen-shooters and thirty-round Winchesters. It's magic we mortals will never enjoy.

[Rustyt1953]

Kudos on a good catch. Diehard JW fans wouldn't care if he jumped up with a matchlock.

[shouldazagged]

There was never, in all movie history, anyone better at playing John Wayne than Marion Morrison.

[rockquarry]

"Sea Chase" is worth watching - once. Not John Wayne's best effort. Guess I overlooked the Luger / P38 shortcoming, but I suspect (as usual) it had no bearing on the story.

[Watchdog]

Originally Posted by shouldazagged

There was never, in all movie history, anyone better at playing John Wayne than Marion Morrison.

If it hadn't been for director Raoul Walsh, Marion Morrison would never have become John Wayne.

Thank goodness he turned down the role of Marshal Will Kane in 1952's High Noon.

[ShivasIrons]

Sea Chase is a fun movie. I have not watched it in over 20 years and watched it the other day on TCM. Good times!

[GaryS]

In The Comancheros, which is set in 1841, the characters are armed with Winchester repeating rifles and .45 SAA pistols.

They must have got their hands on the pre production prototypes.

That aside, I always thought that The Sea Chase was a good, but not typical, John Wayne move.

[Rudi]

Hollywood. There is a scene in "The Green Berets" where the Duke comes across a fallen comrade. He remarks that our guy must have got all the VC, "because they left this", meaning an M16. But he is holding the toy, Mattel M16. Funny, since they did have Army support in making the film.

[shouldazagged]

Originally Posted by Watchdog

Thank goodness he turned down the role of Marshal Will Kane in 1952's High Noon.

That would have been even worse than casting him as Genghis Khan. Or whatever Mongol he portrayed in that travesty.

[GaryS]

"The Conqueror" All that was missing from that was the Winchester repeaters. Everything else was a pretty typical JW western movie.

Originally Posted by shouldazagged

That would have been even worse than casting him as Genghis Khan. Or whatever Mongol he portrayed in that travesty.

[GaryS]

He wanted the "Ringo" role in "The Gunfighter", but hated the producer and refused to work for him. That role went to Gregory Peck, and a classic western was born.

Originally Posted by Watchdog

Thank goodness he turned down the role of Marshal Will Kane in 1952's High Noon.

[Frank46]

There was movie "the Fighting Seabees" During one attack he's running into battle with a Krag. One of the Jap snipers has a Springfield. Frank

[Absalom]

Then again, some of his early Westerns have some of the most authentic weapons imaginable ... the real thing.

Quite a few years ago I knew a guy who had several Springfield 1873 carbines for sale which were quite obviously the real deal with all markings, late 1870s or 1880s. In addition, they had property marks from MGM.

Back in the 1910s and 1920s, when the Hollywood studios and production companies first filled their warehouses, Bannerman in New York, who’d bought up pretty much any 19th century US military equipment they could get their hands on for scrap prices, sold them original stuff by the truck load.

Those Springfield carbines, Colts, cavalry bugles, etc. you see in “Ft. Apache”, “Rio Grande”, and other Wayne movies likely rode with the real cavalry.

I’m still kicking myself that I didn’t grab one of those MGM Springfields.

[Texas Star]

When was, Sea Chase made?

I think I recall a P-38 in an Indiana Jones movie, set before WW II.

[Rudi]

Raiders of the Lost Ark is lots of fun to watch but;
The Afrika Korps did not yet exist.
The MP38 was being developed.
RPGs did not yet exist. Esp. Soviet ones.
Plus a few other "problems". Still a classic film. The snakes looked real. UG!!!

[mtgianni]

Originally Posted by Frank46

There was movie "the Fighting Seabees" During one attack he's running into battle with a Krag. One of the Jap snipers has a Springfield. Frank

When you are working for wages on contract one sure way to not return is to tell the boss he doesn't know what he is doing.

[Alpo]

Originally Posted by Rudi

Hollywood. There is a scene in "The Green Berets" where the Duke comes across a fallen comrade. He remarks that our guy must have got all the VC, "because they left this", meaning an M16. But he is holding the toy, Mattel M16. Funny, since they did have Army support in making the film.

In El Dorado, Joey shoots him and he's laying on the riverbank. She comes down to look at his dead body and he knocks her to the ground. He then picks up her rifle and throws it in the river.


It is a Daisy Spittin' Image 1894 BB gun. You can clearly see the plastic "wood grained" stock.


Since they had real guns, why use a toy?


Because they were going to throw it in the river.


At the end of that scene you were talking about in the Green Beret, he breaks that rifle against the tree. Better to break the Mattel toy than try to break a real gun.

[Rudi]

Originally Posted by Alpo

In El Dorado, Joey shoots him and he's laying on the riverbank. She comes down to look at his dead body and he knocks her to the ground. He then picks up her rifle and throws it in the river.


It is a Daisy Spittin' Image 1894 BB gun. You can clearly see the plastic "wood grained" stock.


Since they had real guns, why use a toy?


Because they were going to throw it in the river.


At the end of that scene you were talking about in the Green Beret, he breaks that rifle against the tree. Better to break the Mattel toy than try to break a real gun.

That's where the magic of editing comes in.

[SMSgt]

Originally Posted by Rudi

Raiders of the Lost Ark is lots of fun to watch but;
The Afrika Korps did not yet exist.
The MP38 was being developed.
RPGs did not yet exist. Esp. Soviet ones.
Plus a few other "problems". Still a classic film. The snakes looked real. UG!!!

Well, it was never promoted as an historical documentary.

[Imissedagain]

Growing up in NYC I thought the Duke with a Winchester was describing Namath’s arm throwing the ball.
Years later I outfitted and seatriailed his Blackfin.
A yard worker drilled a hole in the bridge to mount a light and drilled into the autopilots hydraulic pump... fluid pouring out and Namath smiles and says.... keep an eye on those guys.

[GaryS]

Since we're talking movie gun bloopers...

Last night I was watching the 1940 Wallace Beery movie "Wyoming" on TCM. There's a lot of gun play, mostly with revolvers.

Expecting to see some variation of a Colt single action, something didn't look right. I watched carefully and unless I'm completely off, they were using some sort of "Hand Ejector" DA revolver. They cocked the hammer each time, but there was no ejector rod as the SA guns have.

One gun clearly had a non shrouded ejector rod under the barrel. Beery had a revolver with an at least 6" barrel and a "half moon" (what I call it) front sight.

Weird.

BTW, Beery was the highest paid actor in Hollywood during the 1930. He was apparently as big a jerk in real life as he portrayed in his movies.

But I digress.

[vonn]

John Wayne movies are what I grew up watching and probably what I will still be watching when I kick off.

[Absalom]

Originally Posted by GaryS

Since we're talking movie gun bloopers...

Last night I was watching the 1940 Wallace Beery movie "Wyoming" on TCM. There's a lot of gun play, mostly with revolvers.

Expecting to see some variation of a Colt single action, something didn't look right. I watched carefully and unless I'm completely off, they were using some sort of "Hand Ejector" DA revolver. They cocked the hammer each time, but there was no ejector rod as the SA guns have.

Some movie trickery about Old West handguns is described in this article from True West magazine.

I particularly like the Colt New Service DA revolver made to look like a SAA by sticking an ejector rod housing to the side of the barrel

Hollywood’s Six-gun Fakery - True West Magazine

[Chino74]

Brando used a DBLE ACTION revolver in the scene in the bar where he kills Timothy Carey in 'One Eye Jacks'. He shoots from behind a post as cover to get off several quick shots w one hand., otherwise it's supposed to be his Colt SAA in all other scenes.

[steveno]

Walter Brennan used a double action revolver modified to look like a Colt in the shoot out in "Support Your Local Sheriff"