Indiana Bond and I were conversing about his new S&W 1917 and possible conversion to a SA gun when we came across something, and possibly BIG. Michaelson and several others joined in on this other thread as well, so this post I kind of an amalgam of that thread.
According to the Indygear mainpage (based mostly I believe on Lee Keppler's info), the two S&Ws used in Raiders were the "Bapty" and the "Stembridge". The Bapty is credited as being used in all the scenes where guns were actually fired; the Stembridge is said to be a "non-firing" gun, used only when surrendered to Belloq in the Temple scene and when Indy tosses the gun into his suitcase at his house.
In ToD, it is stated that "either" the Bapty or the Stembridge was used in the car chase scene as Indy fires at Lao Che's pursuit cars. Based on the earlier statements, the non-firing Stembridge could NOT be the gun Indy shoots, as it is described as "non-firing". In a recent conversation with Lee Keppler, Indiana Bond said:
So now we discover that the Stembridge is actually a SHOOTING weapon, not a "non-firing" prop. To quote Michaelson:I decided to speak with Lee Keppler about the Stembridge gun and also its' use in TOD. Lee has confirmed to me that it was the Stembridge that was used in TOD. He was told by the Stembridge company that it was rented from them for TOD. He also confirmed that the car interior scenes were filmed in Hollywood. Furthermore he told me that the Stembridge is also a "shooter"! It was fired in the car chase scenes and also Lee fired it himself when he had it!
This brings us to the car scene. In the screen caps I can get off of DVD, I cannot identify the gun Indy fires; the camera focus is on HF's face, so the gun is blurred. However, after watching this scene dozens of times, I am convinced that, 1) the barrel has a blued tip, not a metallic tip like the Stembridge, and 2) the barrel is longer than 4", as on both the Stembridge and the Bapty. So what gun is being used?Hummm. Lee needs to get his stories straight. viewtopic.php?t=16398
Back in 2006, he was telling folks the Stembridge was the NON-shooter. The concensus back then was that the Baphy was the shooter: viewtopic.php?t=16273 What's changed in 3 years?
It has always been said that the 'shooter' in Raiders was also the shooter in TofD....it's just been dicey as to what gun was which, and the story shifts back and forth. Now we're reading it was fired in one, and not the other. Interesting twist. That's one I've never heard before today. It didn't even get included in the main page write up, so if it were 'known' all this time, THAT sure fell through the cracks!
Further, the gun Willie juggles in the interior of the car is DEFINATELY neither the Bapty nor the Stembridge. The gun has medallions on the grip (only the Bapty sported these) and has no swivel (as did both guns in question). In addition, I believe this gun has a barrel longer than 4 inches:
Now, could this be a rubber prop gun? Maybe, but do prop guns have a working cylinder that will open and close? In my (very) limited work in movies and props, my experience says no. In addition, the gun does not handle in Willie's hands like a rubber prop; it appears to have more weight.
More from Michaelson:
Therefore, based on Lee Keppler's info and my interpretation of the screen caps, I submit that the gun Indy fires and Willie handles in the ToD car chase scene is neither the Stembridge nor the Bapty nor a rubber prop but a hitherto UNIDENTIFIED REVOLVER. Now this may not be new news (as Michaelson pointed out, info on this gun has been up in the air forever); but, armed with new DVD/BluRay screen caps, perhaps we could start a new effort to definatively pin down the ToD revolver(s).It's also been reported for years that the gun tossed out the window of the car was a Colt New Service rubber 'stunt gun'....and yet in the latest clear photos of the still framed revolver, you can make out a barrel shroud in front of the cylinder. The big Colts weakness was its exposed cylinder pin under the barrel that was easily bent. The jury is STILL out on THAT one, even with the current photos. You can make out a cylinder pin shroud in the photos on our main page write up. Every New Service I've ever handled had its pin exposed, in the open with no front support.
Please feel free to pick as many holes in this thesis as possible.
RaiderZee