Photographic goofs in westerns

[Old Doc]

Doesn't qualify as a western movie but the other night I am watching one of the gazillion new gun shows on TV, most of which are pretty lame. In the show they are comparing the flintlock, to the 1873 Colt SAA, to a modern semi auto. It was bad enough that while talking about the Colt, they kept showing drawings of a Schofield and a Remington 1875 but when they showed secenes of how you load the Colt, the loading gate was on the wrong side of the gun as was the watch and ring of the shooter. The film had somehow been reversed for that one scene.

[Thomas (Tom) Horn aka James Hicks]

Appaloosa- Scene where Everett is coming out of the barber shop and town elderman is waiting on him to question Everett about Virgil Cole (the marshal) beating a man with his fists in the saloon from the night before. Everett Hitch is carrying his 10ga... as they walk down the street talking, you can see the 10ga does not have a metal butt plate...raw wood showing. Then with a blink of the eye, the shotgun has a butt plate... hmmmm

Open Range in the shoot out... next time you folks watch it... count the bullets that Costner fires from his Winchester '73 at the beginning of the gunplay after Costner shoots the hired gun in the head. Hollywood.... some things never change.

[Old Doc]

Appaloosa- Scene where Everett is coming out of the barber shop and town elderman is waiting on him to question Everett about Virgil Cole (the marshal) beating a man with his fists in the saloon from the night before. Everett Hitch is carrying his 10ga... as they walk down the street talking, you can see the 10ga does not have a metal butt plate...raw wood showing. Then with a blink of the eye, the shotgun has a butt plate... hmmmm

Open Range in the shoot out... next time you folks watch it... count the bullets that Costner fires from his Winchester '73 at the beginning of the gunplay after Costner shoots the hired gun in the head. Hollywood.... some things never change.

You mean his Colt, don't you ? Costner was not carrying a rifle.

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[PJ Hardtack]

I thought that I paid attention to detail, but you guys make me feel like a blind man! How 'bout a list of movies where they got the tack, guns and holsters RIGHT! Ought to be a short list .....

I was looking for gun boo-boos in "War Horse", and if there were any, I missed them. No Landjaegers with Lee-Enfields or Tommies with Mausers. I liked the shoulder stocked P-'08 carried by the German Officer.

[Old Doc]

Apparently, it hasn't gotten any better in "modern" westerns. In the premier episode of the new AMC show, Longmire, the victim is killed with a slug from a .45-70, which somehow they find in snow, 2 feet deep, 30 feet from the body . The sheriff consults his local gun expert, who informs him, that only antique guns were chambered for .45-70 and therefore, the killer must have used a Sharps. The rest of the show they spend looking for the owner of a Sharps. Moral to the story is if you are going to kill someone in that part of the West, use a Marlin Guide Gun. They'll never find you.

[Drayton Calhoun]

In Hannie Caulder Christoper Lee 'custom builds' her a revolver...a double trigger Tranter.

[PJ Hardtack]

I've got a .450 Army Tranter (single trigger); looks like something Sherlock Holmes would have carried.

I'd love to see some frontier 'smith pound out one of these on his anvil .....  ;>)

[Drayton Calhoun]

When I was in Spain back in 88, I stopped in an antique store that had two Tranters for sale for what amounted to about 100 bucks each. Unfortunately, I was on the USS Forrestal and our C.O. was an anti-gunner so, our Beretta gun sale that was traditional was nixed and ANY firearm purchases were forbidden. Suffice to say I was a bit perturbed...

[PJ Hardtack]

There is something fundamentally wrong with a professional Naval Officer, (a man sworn to defend your Constitution against enemies, domestic or foreign) misusing his power and authority in such a manner.

Captain of a ship with more firepower than several WW II bomber wings and he's "anti-gun" - right ..... a scenario worthy of a Monty Python skit. What he was saying was that he didn't trust his crew with personal weapons which could have been secured somewhere onboard. That is a leadership failure. "O" tolerance is an admission that no solution can be found for a particular situation; the default position of poor management.

Politicians, b'crats and PC 'do-gooders' similarly misuse power and authority to enforce their anti-gun agenda. "It has nothing to do with power - it's all about control".

[Drayton Calhoun]

He was not fondly thought of by the crew. What really ticked me was, I had been planning on getting a Beretta 12 ga, over and under percussion shotgun. Our price was 275.00 the cost back here was over 700.00. Ah, well, no point getting pissed at the past.

[Crow Choker]

Back in the mid-60's, there was a near by 'big city' (30,000 pop, but bigger than the 1000 pop I lived by), that had three show houses. Two of them showed all the recent movies fresh from 'Holly-wierd' and the third was known to show all the 'cheapies'. My Mom always told us not to go there as rats and mice were reported to be 'free grazers' between the seats. Went there a few times just to laugh at the poor production of 'cheap' movies. The only one I can remember anything about was some western, whose title has long been forgotten, that had so many 'goofs' in it that a friend and I laughed till our sides hurt. Of course, all the guns could be shot several hundred times before needing any reloading, but the two things I'll never forget were really standouts. One scene that involved the 'settlers' heading west showed them standing in sandy areas with rubber tire tracks with heavy mud and snow type tread criss-crossing the wagon train path. This happened three or four times. The other standout was when the Indians were attacking the circled wagon train, riding around in a circle firing their rifles at the outnumbered settlers. One of the "Indians" while in full gallop lost his hair, ie. got his scalp lifted and the skin that had been hidden by the wig was a 'Whiter Shade of Pale' than the rest of him. Musta greased himself up with 'Coppertone' or something. Thing is, in several other scenes of the Indians riding around the wagon train, the same Indian was goin like 'H', with a crew-cut type haircut, still firing his rifle. Quess they didn't want to stop the camera's rollin' and take him out. Remember the wig to, it was parted down the middle with both sides braided. Still can see these scenes after 45 some years of seeing that movie. Anyone ever see it and recall its title? It was 'a goody'!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Old Doc]

I know this one is routine but nonetheless....the other morning I am watching a movie on the Westerns Channel. I believe it was called "Black Dakotas". The townspeople refer repeatedly to their then President, Abraham Lincoln in the present tense. Of course they are all wearing 1873 Colt SAA's and holding 1892 Winchesters.

[Crossdrawnj]

I just noticed this in John Wayne's True Grit just last night. Even after watching this movie dozens of times (its the only one my daughter will watch) I noticed the scene after Mattie falls in the snake pit. JW repels down into the pit, draws and shoots at the snake and hits the ground. He helps Mattie out of the hole and she asks for her fathers gun. JW turns to pick it up, and as he bends over he is not wearing a gun belt. The next scene he turns to climb up the rope, and the gun belt is back on. 

Never noticed this before.

Crossdraw

[Coal Creek Griff]

You're right!  I just pulled out my DVD and took a look.  I'm amazed that I haven't noticed that before.  It was all I could do to resist watching the movie from the beginning, but I'm supposed to be in bed in an hour.

By the way, in "The Plainsman" with Gary Cooper, I noticed an Indian threatening Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill's wife with a Henry rifle (in 1936, an original).  The bolt was forward and the hammer down, but the lever was in the down/forward position. Not a photographic goof, but the rifle wasn't much of a threat in that condition.

CC Griff

[Old Doc]

I was watching The Raiders today on the Westerns Channel . At some point, a guy gets pistol-whipped and as his attacker returns his gun to its holster, it's obvious that it is a rubber gun. I wonder if it's the same one used by Ron Howard in the Shootist. I've read that the guns used by Wayne in that movie were his personal engraved Great Westerns, not Colts. In the final scene, Ron Howard picks up one of the dying Wayne's guns and uses it to kill the bartender, then in some fit of symbolism, hurls the gun away, the thrown gun being a rubber stand-in for the Great Western.

[Old Doc]

I know this one is routine but nonetheless....the other morning I am watching a movie on the Westerns Channel. I believe it was called "Black Dakotas". The townspeople refer repeatedly to their then President, Abraham Lincoln in the present tense. Of course they are all wearing 1873 Colt SAA's and holding 1892 Winchesters.

Just saw the movie again from the beginning. Picked up something else. Gary Merrill is the bad guy. In one scene, he is in the sheriff's office with an 1875 Remington in his hand. The camera then shows the people he is holding the gun on. When it comes back to Merrill, he is now holding an 1873 Colt SAA and at the start of the movie, it says the story takes place in 1864.

[Shotgun Franklin]

Some stuff is the fault of the cutting room.

Open Range in the shoot out... next time you folks watch it... count the bullets that Costner fires from his Winchester '73 at the beginning of the gunplay after Costner shoots the hired gun in the head. Hollywood.... some things never change.

I saw the scene as it was before it was edited. Costner is carrying 4 revolvers. It actually shows him changing guns but then the scene was 'fixed'. It doesn't change the fact that the gun action is wrong but at least someone tried to make it right to start with.

[Col.Will B.Havoc]

One person asked why suspenders and belt was a goof. Most trousers were not made with belt loops until the late 1880's.
Another glaring goof is the number of westerns in which cowboys are wearing blue jeans. Most cowboys considered jeans beneath their dignity. Wool or courderoy were far more common. One of the worst I ever saw, was the Mini-series North and South.
They had good uniform parts, put together incorrectly. Two of the worst were depictions of Regular Army officers. In one they show an artillery officer wearing an enlisted man's hat. hat cords and insignia were very different. The other is in the first halfr, a New graduate of West point is shown as an Engineer officer. A few scenes later, he is with Berdan's Sharpshooters.

[Old Doc]

Found another . Watching  Randolph Scott on Westerns Channel the other day . He's holed up in a barn fighting off the bad guys. His holster rig in the movie is a double loop Mexican style over a standard cartridge belt. At one point he emerges from the barn and while doing so, severely cuts his right hand. He retreats to the barn amidst speculation, that he's done for now because his gun hand is no good.  Shortly thereafter, he dispels this notion by emerging from the barn and dispatching the bad guys shooting with his left hand . There must have been a leather maker in the barn because the right hand holster has now been replaced by an identical left hand holster .

[Old Doc]

Found another . Watching  Randolph Scott on Westerns Channel the other day . He's holed up in a barn fighting off the bad guys. His holster rig in the movie is a double loop Mexican style over a standard cartridge belt. At one point he emerges from the barn and while doing so, severely cuts his right hand. He retreats to the barn amidst speculation, that he's done for now because his gun hand is no good.  Shortly thereafter, he dispels this notion by emerging from the barn and dispatching the bad guys shooting with his left hand . There must have been a leather maker in the barn because the right hand holster has now been replaced by an identical left hand holster .

The movie was Decision at Sundown. Just saw it again.