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Odd "sight" on a movie Thompson?


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I was thinking of an old prison riot movie. After some internet searches, I found the picture was called "The Big House," from 1930 starring Wallace Beery. I found some stills and in one, Beery is holding a Thompson with an unusual sighting tube attached to the barrel. Has anyone seen this before?

 

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I was thinking of an old prison riot movie. After some internet searches, I found the picture was called "The Big House," from 1930 starring Wallace Beery. I found some stills and in one, Beery is holding a Thompson with an unusual sighting tube attached to the barrel. Has anyone seen this before?

Only in that movie still that was posted here many years ago.

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Looks like someone forced the drum mag into the mag well improperly. Maybe they used a hammer to "persuade" the drum into the rails on the upper reciever while the lower locking lug did not engage. That could have bent the drum lips.

 

The sight looks like a piece of tube someone strapped to the barrel to simulate a "gangster" modification to the gun.

 

This whole thing reeks of movie prop amateurs trying to play with a gun they knew little about.

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Shadow of the picture and lighting. The drum is in perfectly. and it functioned on the set. i have the original movie still Promo items from it, signed from that picture. Sold them to a buddy and sold him the gun to,Which i owned also. "The Big House"June 1930

 

It went from a 21a to a 21ac later on.And from a blank shooter to a live fire.

 

RON K.

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Yes the gun was also used in Never So Few and Bataan. Robert Taylor,I had talked with one of the M.G.M prop guys who was still kicking about much of that around 1989.Thompson History so much of it... And great to look back.

RON K.

 

 

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Keith White addressed this very strange device on the Thompson SMG Collectors and Enthusiats (Worldwide) Facebook group:

"When I make a mistake, I don't mind owning up to it. When I penned the chapter on Hollywood movie Thompsons for Tracie Hill's book, THOMPSON: The American Legend, I made the assertion that Wallace Berry used a TSMG fitted with a telescopic sight in the 1930 crime drama, "The Big House." Further, I wrote that this same gun appeared in, "The Doorway To Hell," (1930) and, "Pardon Us," (1931).

 

On this page, Mr. Dave Taylor and Mr. Judah brown both took me to task on this subject. They insisted it was a blank firing device. Not a scope.

They were right. I was wrong.

 

It was some sort of piston which converted the submachine gun from a delayed blowback into a gas operated weapon. The rear of the piston was attached to the actuator. I assume that a hole was drilled into the top of the barrel, creating a port which allowed expanding gases to enter the tube, forcing the piston rearwards. As the pressure dissipated, the recoil spring threw the bolt forward.

 

I'm sure that some studio gunsmith at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Or Stembridge Gun Rentals) was proud of himself for devising this method for getting the Thompson submachine gun to cycle with blank ammunition. However, I am, oh, so very glad that the dream merchants didn't rest on their laurels and kept working on the problem until they found a much less obtrusive blank adaptor for the movie Tommy gun!"



For anybody who might note how I improperly formatted that quote: I would have put it in a block quote but I couldn't figure out how to efficiently do so in this forum.

Edited by Brick Davis
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All thanks should go to Mr. White. His Facebook group is full of useful information. If you have FB, I'd recommend joining.

 

 

I've searched FB, but I can't find the group. Could you PM a link? Thanks.

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