"The Maltese Falcon" weapon followup ...

Posted by Michaelson from em12-686.utsi.edu on August 30, 1999 at 19:34:48:

In Reply to: Re: "The Maltese Falcon" weapon.. posted by Michaelson on August 29, 1999 at 09:56:55:

: : I saw "The Maltese Falcon" this week. All the men in it wore fedoras; not unusual for a thirties film. But also, Miles Archer, the first victim, is killed with a Webley. My untrained eye wouldn't have known by looking but the cop mentions it to Bogie when he shows him the gun.

: The weapon in the "Falcon" is a Webley varient, and an article write up of this very gun is in last month's (August) issue of Guns and Ammo. Bogart says what it is in the movie when he shows it, and it's one of the few times (according to the article) that a hand gun is correctly identified by a movie character on screen. It's actually classified as an automatic (!) instead of a revolver, and can fire faster than a Colt 1911 .45 due to it's interesting and unique camming arrangement! It's an 8 shot weapon, not a 6 like the standard Webley, and though short lived in production time, was VERY popular with the buyers that actually got hold of one, and is a very sought after gun in the collectors market. Try and get a copy of the mentioned G & A issue. It's a fascinating piece of machine work. Regards. Michaelson

The weapon was a Webley-Fosbery "Automatic revolver" that was introduced in 1901 in two calibers, .455 and .38 Colt Automatic. The gun mentioned in the "Maltese Falcon" was the .38, as the .38 was an 8 shot, and the .455 was a 6 shot revolver. Regards. Michaelson

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: : : I saw "The Maltese Falcon" this week. All the men in it wore fedoras; not unusual for a thirties film. But also, Miles Archer, the first victim, is killed with a Webley. My untrained eye wouldn't have known by looking but the cop mentions it to Bogie when he shows him the gun.

: : The weapon in the "Falcon" is a Webley varient, and an article write up of this very gun is in last month's (August) issue of Guns and Ammo. Bogart says what it is in the movie when he shows it, and it's one of the few times (according to the article) that a hand gun is correctly identified by a movie character on screen. It's actually classified as an automatic (!) instead of a revolver, and can fire faster than a Colt 1911 .45 due to it's interesting and unique camming arrangement! It's an 8 shot weapon, not a 6 like the standard Webley, and though short lived in production time, was VERY popular with the buyers that actually got hold of one, and is a very sought after gun in the collectors market. Try and get a copy of the mentioned G & A issue. It's a fascinating piece of machine work. Regards. Michaelson

: The weapon was a Webley-Fosbery "Automatic revolver" that was introduced in 1901 in two calibers, .455 and .38 Colt Automatic. The gun mentioned in the "Maltese Falcon" was the .38, as the .38 was an 8 shot, and the .455 was a 6 shot revolver. Regards. Michaelson

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