Obscure movie gun identification question.

[KnightZero]

This is an obscure question, but I figured if I'll ever find someone who can answer it, I'll find them here. In the movie Electra Glide in Blue John Wintergreen ambushes his partner, Zipper. He is carrying a two tone revolver of some sort. I was wondering if anyone here could shed some light on what that gun is - my father and I discussed it last night as he was introducing me to the movie in question.

Also - Mods, if this is inappropriate for this forum, let me know.

[azredhawk44]

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...+Glide+in+Blue

Looks like it was a Colt Python, hybrid blued/chromed, specially made.

[KnightZero]

Ah, the things that I could learn from the search function. Thanks.

[Keltyke]

While we're this very interesting movie subject. Does anyone know the models carried by:

Reid and Malloy - Adam-12
Starsky and Hutch - Starsky and Hutch
Harry Callahan - Dirty Harry
Joe Friday - Dragnet

I'm open to others I may have missed.

[Dave85]

I know Harry Callahan carried a S&W Model 29. 6" barrel, I think. Didn't Hutch carry a 1911? I'm pretty sure one had an auto and one had a revolver.

[RickB]

Harry carried a 6 1/2" Model 29. Although I have seen promo pics that appear to show a 8 3/8" Model 25; the longer barrel and bigger bore looking even more intimidating.
I think Joe packed a Dick Special.
Starsky and Hutch used a variety of weapons. Hutch, a Python or Diamondback, and Starsky appeared to usually have a S&W M39, though in some scenes in the pilot episode he clearly was waving around a Commander.
Don't know about Reid & Malloy, but I'm sure they packed medium-frame .38s, either Smith K frames, or maybe Colt Official Police.

[Dave85]

I just went to the imdb page for Starsky & Hutch. There is a picture of Starsky with what appears to indeed be a S&W M39, and a picture of Hutch with what appears to be a (ridiculously long barreled) Colt revolver. But it is a long shot with little detail, so I cannot be sure which.

[Jeff #111]

Keltyke

While we're this very interesting movie subject. Does anyone know the models carried by:

Reid and Malloy - Adam-12
Starsky and Hutch - Starsky and Hutch
Harry Callahan - Dirty Harry
Joe Friday - Dragnet

I'm open to others I may have missed.

For at least a couple of seasons on Adam 12 they carried a S&W Model 14 with the 6" barrel in those really cool clamshell holsters that swung open. Later on they went to the Model 15 with a 4" barrel.

Joe Friday (Jack Webb) started out in the fifties with a Colt Detective Special. After Webb got feedback from real LAPD detectives he had Friday carry a S&W Model 10 with the 2" barrel in the late 1960's when Dragnet returned.

I believe the nickle and blue steel Colt Python that was used in Electra GLide In BLue was called a "Pinto" design. There were also S&W revolvers that were pmade in the "Pinto" design. According the Supica and Nahas Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson the "Pinto" Smiths are scarce. I would imagine that the Colt "Pintos" aren't real common.

Starskey carried a S&W M39. though there are those who say it was a S&W M59. Hutch carried a Colt Python with a 6" barrel. Not a real practical revolver for a detective, but it was the seventies and long barreled revolvers were cool thanks to Dirty Harry.

According to John Milius who was uncredited for the first Dirty Harry and did recieve writing credit for Magnum Force having Callahn carry the M29 was his idea. Supposedly Milius originally intended for Callahan to carry a 4" M29 but all they could get was the 6.5" model. Who knows there is alot of myth surrounding the movies and the Model 29 that was used in it. Especially the first movie.

If Milius is remembering correctly he played a role in starting a big gun fad of the seventies. It's a good story if nothing else.

[Dfariswheel]

At one point "One Adam 12" armed their stars with LAPD Colt Trooper Mark III revolvers with 4" barrels and a clam-shell holster.

[Jeff #111]

Adam-12 had really cool stuff.

[Horseless Trooper]

In the first season at least, Reid and Malloy carried their 6in. Smiths in what appeared to be either Safety Speed or Bucheimer Patrolman swivel holsters with a trigger finger break. The clamshell came later.

[OldMarksman]

Just came across this old thread.

I don't know about the Detective Special on Dragnet, but I remember a Dragnet episode in which Sgt. Friday was expecting a package, and he wouldn't tell Frank Smith what would be in it.

A paper package arrived, and Friday opened it in Smith's presence and took out a revolver. He described it as a Colt Cobra, mentioned the weight in ounces with some enthusiasm, and said something about the cartridge--either ".38 Special" or something about the power and may have also mentioned that it held six rounds.

He then holstered the gun, and may have discussed it in some detail with someone else later in the episode or in another one. Sorry about the fuzzy recollection but heck, that was more than a half-century ago.

Anyone else remember this?

I haven't been able to find it on Youtube.

[Jeff #111]

Don't remember that episode. I do remember the episode where Joe stops in at a local coin laundry to buy some cigs and walks in on a guy who is breaking into the machines. He pulls his Model 10 snubbie and tells the guy to stop. Suspect spins, snaps off a shot at Friday and Joe returns fire. The guy is found later, dead from his gunshot wound. There is some question about Joes side of the story until they locate the "perps" bullet in a wall - verifying his account.

This episode was from the second Dragnet series that aired in the late sixties and early seventies. When I wrote that Webb switched to the Model 10 after getting feedback I believe that occurred during the second series.

When Dragnet was first on in the fifties LAPD detectives were carrying the Colt DS and Cobra. Or at least that is what I've read.

[OldMarksman]

Hey, I remember that one too!

Didn't know is was a Model 10, however.

Friend of mine pointed out something amusing about the second series. Friday would answer the phone and say something like

"Riverside? Right. We're on it"

hang up, and relate to Harry Morgan something like

"another clothing store robbery in Riverside five minutes ago, woman with a blonde wig and patent leather purse, nickel plated automatic, late model blue sedan, same M.O."

I made up the exchange but the point was that Friday often related much more than anyone could have told him during the short phone call!

Any idea what it was that Lt. Tragg carried on Perry Mason?

[Jeff #111]

I have friend who did a screen capture from the episode. It shows Webb pointing the revolver and it looks like a Model 10. Fixed sights, Baughman front ramp, front lock for the ejector rod and the frame appears to be a K frame size - not a J frame.

[Slopemeno]

Oldmarksman- So, so true. Jack Webb really had alot to say and not much time to say it in, didn't he? From the times I saw him on other shows when he wasn't being Joe Friday he seemed to have a great sense of humor about the whole thing.

[Mark Milton]

Dirty Harry was set to star Frank Sinatra and he turned it down. John Wayne turned it down too. Millius rewrote it for Eastwood and in the original script Harry has a four inch model 29 with a nickeled finish.
This is according to Millius himself.
Millius then saw a 6.5 inch model 29 he wanted. His contract said he got a gun per movie so he had them use if for the Dirty Harry gun.

For what it is worth, Millius also tells a different version of the same story claiming he got the gun from Magnum Force.

However still has one of the 29s and the two swords from Conan too. And the engraved Peacemaker from Red Dawn and Jeremiah Johnson's Hawken rifle...

Robert Blakes gun in Electraglide in Blue was a two tone python. Billy Green Bush had a model 21 .44 special...

On Starsky and Hutch, Starsky usually had a model 39. Look closely and you can see its a single stack Smith.
Hutch carried a six inch python that magically turned into a four inch python and a two inch model 10 whenever the prop and continuity people were sleeping on the job....Sometimes in one episode...Sometimes during the same shootout...

[Keltyke]

I saw him on other shows when he wasn't being Joe Friday he seemed to have a great sense of humor about the whole thing.

Jack Webb actually had a great sense of humor, as anyone who has seen the "Copper Clapper Caper" skit with Johnny Carson from the tonight Show.

[guntotin_fool]

I have a poster from the TV series somewhere and its a 6 inch python and a beretta 92, its late in the series, and it might have been just the photo op.

[OldMarksman]

FYI, the "clean copper clapper" skit is on Youtube.

[JohnKSa]

There is some question about Joes side of the story until they locate the "perps" bullet in a wall - verifying his account.

As I recall, the bullet grazed the bottom of a shelf just enough to lift the shelf slightly. The bullet then went into the wall and the shelf fell back down into place hiding the bullet hole. After going over the scene repeatedly and coming up dry, one officer decided to investigate the "pencil mark" on the bottom of the shelf and found the bullet.

Crazy what's stored in the old noggin. I probably watched less than 10 episodes, but that must have been one of them and it stuck.

[RickB]

I remember that scene, too! I couldn't have told you it was Dragnet, though. I've found if I watch a TV show twice, sort of a , "OK, I'll give it another shot, maybe it's improved since the first season", I invariably see the same episode again.

[Archie]

Originally Posted by OldMarkman

Any idea what it was that Lt. Tragg carried on Perry Mason?

You mean other than a wry smile and a truly icy glare?

Seriously, other than being the oldest cop on the Los Angeles Police Department, he must have been the most passed over for promotion, as well. Still, Arthur Tragg was a competent and implacable cop - other than he had that jinx where Perry Mason was involved.

The only time I ever saw Lt. Tragg with a sidearm, he was carrying a four inch S&W M&P, with the old 'pencil barrel'. Some villain pulled a gun and Tragg nailed him. The villain (a cop killer) had been wounded only and was whining about how much he hurt. Tragg was on the phone, calling in an ambulance and his final sentence - in that baritone, matter-of-fact delivery - was, "Don't hurry; he'll keep." Scene fades to black.

[OldMarksman]

Thanks, Archie, that's the guy, and that's precisely the scene I had in mind!

I thought I remembered a 2 inch snub, but I guess I was wrong.

There's another movie scene I'm trying to remember. A guy (well known U. S. actor whose name I cannot remember) is put out in the desert on foot with very little water (1950s movie, modern context--not an old western).

He has a .38 snub, and fires the entire cylinder load he has at a snake or some animal, missing with every shot.

His antagonist (I think) flies out once or twice in a low wing monoplane and the desperate man sees and hears the plane. The rest is even fuzzier. Any ideas?

By the way, that movie mad a real impression on me in terms of realizing the really short range limitation of the 2 inch barreled revolver.

[OldMarksman]

I can answer the first part of my own question: the movie was Inferno, starring Robert Ryan, released in 1953. Ryan' character breaks a leg and is abandoned to die in the desert by his wife, played by Rhonda Fleming.

It has been shown on AMC recently.

Can't remember the gun, though.

I'm surprised that I formed any impressions about snubbie accuracy at that age (9), but I did have a 1953 Shooter's Bible at the time and spent a lot of time on the Colt and S&W pages.

Then again, maybe it cycled through the theaters again a few years later.