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Naked Spur rifles


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Here's what I concede is a minor thing.

 

I watched The Naked Spur last night; the Anthony Mann movie with Jimmy Stewart, Janet Leigh, and Robert Ryan. I'd watched it once before, a few years  back. It's pretty good.

 

The rifles: I was glad to see a Winchester 1873, when one sees so many anachronistic 92s in Westerns of the era. But the problem is that the movie seems to be set in 1868. So that puts the SAAs out of the timestream, too, along with the Winchester.

 

They could have put the movie a  few year later, easily. No big deal, really. But the kicker: a Marlin side-ejector, so an 1889 or even maybe an 1894.

 

So I was congratulating them for an 1873 rifle, a real attempt at Western realism in firearms, when up pops the Marlin!

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The other thing, I don't know that I'd ever seen a Marlin in an old Western before, or at least noticed. In this case, the rifle Ryan uses toward the end has a clear view of the distinctive Marlin 1889/1894 side-ejection feature that struck me immediately.

 

Just my musings....

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I've seen Marlins in episodes of Bonanza.

 

This little old lady rancher, in The Man From Laramie, has a Henry. Real Henry, not a Hollywood Henry, not in Italian repro. I don't remember her shooting it, but she had it across her lap when she's sitting in the buckboard.

 

1842633907_AlineMacMahonManfromLaramie.jpeg.448e7f0746d8c5ce5b6b585faf65b7e1.jpeg

 

 

alinemacmahon_th.jpg.78d4efc81f6d1a2c592e983686e877d1.jpg

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25 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

The other thing, I don't know that I'd ever seen a Marlin in an old Western before, or at least noticed. In this case, the rifle Ryan uses toward the end has a clear view of the distinctive Marlin 1889/1894 side-ejection feature that struck me immediately.

 

Just my musings....

 

Glenn Ford was using a Marlin in the movie Cimarron.  There was an old Rex Allan B western (can't remember the name of the movie) but, while investigating a shooting, he picked up an empty casing and said, "This came from a Marlin rifle".  Not sure how he knew that.

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"Broken Arrow", 1950, was set in the 1870's and was centered around a man trying to negotiate peace between Cochise and his band of warriors. Cochise died in 1874...

 

BrokenArrow.jpg.4caca9f5f7253153f098f238c019368c.jpg

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Coming soon is a WWII flick with ARs and AKs!

Unforgiven was one of the more accurate westerns: Starr revolvers, Schofield revolver, Adam's revolvers and a Spencer carbine.

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7 hours ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

Here's what I concede is a minor thing.

 

I watched The Naked Spur last night; the Anthony Mann movie with Jimmy Stewart, Janet Leigh, and Robert Ryan. I'd watched it once before, a few years  back. It's pretty good.

 

The rifles: I was glad to see a Winchester 1873, when one sees so many anachronistic 92s in Westerns of the era. But the problem is that the movie seems to be set in 1868. So that puts the SAAs out of the timestream, too, along with the Winchester.

 

They could have put the movie a  few year later, easily. No big deal, really. But the kicker: a Marlin side-ejector, so an 1889 or even maybe an 1894.

 

So I was congratulating them for an 1873 rifle, a real attempt at Western realism in firearms, when up pops the Marlin!

 

Pic of the Marlin

 

Robert_Ryan_and_Janet_Leigh_in_Naked_Spur.jpg

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7 hours ago, Buffalo Creek Law Dog said:

 

Glenn Ford was using a Marlin in the movie Cimarron.  There was an old Rex Allan B western (can't remember the name of the movie) but, while investigating a shooting, he picked up an empty casing and said, "This came from a Marlin rifle".  Not sure how he knew that.

 

Movie Poster featuring the Marlin

 

Cimarron

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This same lack of accuracy applies to every movie where they show the computer screen doing some heroic action.
Meh.

NCIS comes to mind.
Every now and then, they get something accurate.
Every now and then.

One of my (now retired) clients is a pediatrician.
He hated doctor shows... except for House.
He said House was the only doctor show he'd seen that was actually accurate.


As to the Westerns... Gabby Gifford will no doubt claim those 1894s used in 1868 are the root cause of gun violence today.
There is no cure for the Unwashed.

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21 hours ago, Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428 said:

I love spotting that old favorite, the 1892 Henry in movies and tv....

 

image.png.174d47fa4cf88fc9e2e1314cdd547cb2.png

Bonanza was real bad about using 1892's with the forearm removed for the Henry effect. Some they even went so far as painting them gold. 

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I think the thing that grabbed me about the Marlin was that The Naked Spur was an Anthony Mann Western, his second with Jimmy Stewart (they did four I think). The first was the great Winchester '73, which was a huge hit. (The Naked Spur did very well, too.)

 

Obviously, Winchester '73 was about the rifle and, one might think, would launch Mann onto 'period correct' Western firearms. When I saw the '73 early on in Naked Spur I sagely nodded at Mann's wisdom. Then along came the Marlin....

 

I have the feeling we CAS geezers care more about it than they did back then!

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From what I've read, most people back then called Marlins Winchesters. Just like my thermos is made by Stanley, and the kleenex I wipe my nose with is made by Puffs.

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On 7/21/2022 at 3:17 PM, Alpo said:

I've seen Marlins in episodes of Bonanza.

 

This little old lady rancher, in The Man From Laramie, has a Henry. Real Henry, not a Hollywood Henry, not in Italian repro. I don't remember her shooting it, but she had it across her lap when she's sitting in the buckboard.

 

1842633907_AlineMacMahonManfromLaramie.jpeg.448e7f0746d8c5ce5b6b585faf65b7e1.jpeg

 

 

alinemacmahon_th.jpg.78d4efc81f6d1a2c592e983686e877d1.jpg

It's also empty.

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