This is a clip from an obscure 1919 film- Traps and Tangles. Look closely at the Colt Single Action at the beginning of the clip. Is that or is that not a "long flute" cylinder?

The time period is correct. Colt offered 1379 long flute Colts beginning in 1913. The release date of this film was 1/20/1919, so it likely was filmed near the end of 1918.

There is an optical illusion at the 12 second mark of the clip, making the trigger guard of the pistol appears much too large, which initially lead me to believe the pistol is a prop, but it is an optical illusion (at the 10 second mark, you can see that the true size of the trigger guard), and the actor spins the cylinder on the pistol.

For the film buffs- this is a Larry Sermon comedy released by Vitagraph, most likely filmed in Brooklyn, NY.

What do you think? The film quality is poor, unfortunately




For the unitiated, here's a Long Flute Colt SAA.

It sure looks to me like the flutes go back further than standard. I would say yes it is a "long flute" cylinder.

Looking at it again, it may be an 1878 DA Colt, which is where those cylinders came from, but one way or the other, it's a long flute cylinder. The back of the pistol sure looks like an SAA to me. The 1878 has a different shape to the area behind the cylinder.

I have never seen a long fluted cylinder on a SSA pistol. First time for everything I guess.

quote:

Originally posted by GT-40DOC:
I have never seen a long fluted cylinder on a SSA pistol. First time for everything I guess.

If you believe 'em, here's one on armslist:
Link

I was thinking a Thunderer with the barrel out past the ejector a bit.

Might be a Thunderer, yeah.

Probably is

I've had this one for years. Redone by Colt in the 1950s.

At the 12 second mark, the rounded trigger guard has it being a Thunderer.

Yeah, I thought it was an optical illusion, because just a couple of seconds earlier, the trigger guard looked like an SAA, but it's gonna be a Thunderer.

Too bad. It would have been really neat to spot a long flute SAA in an old film.

In the shot of the villains sliding down the chute, the background doesn’t look like anything I think of when I picture Brooklyn. Even back in 1918 I don’t think there were mountains or hills like that in NYC.

Then, they would have filmed it in New Jersey. In and around Fort Lee was the movie production hub of the country before Hollywood.

I suggested Brooklyn because that's where the film company's offices were located and most of the action/Western films were filmed in the New Jersey Palisades.

Why does everyone look white as a ghost in these old films? Did they have to wear a lot of makeup?

In the case of the clip in this thread, it's been copied many times, making it high contrast and cutting out much of the mid-tones.

Yes, actors in early films did frequently wear pancake makeup to lighten their faces. Part of the reason for this was due to the habits of actors who lightened their features for the stage, and this carried over to early film production, but there are technical reasons for this appearance as well. Early film stock was orthochromatic, which is sensitive to only certain parts of the visible light spectrum. Around the beginning of the first World War, panchromatic film was introduced, which is sensitive to the full spectrum of visible light.