Help Identify This Western

Cafe Society
1

The recent western threads reminded me of a western that I saw in my youth. I haven’t been able to find it again. I think it was a John Wayne movie. In one scene a young man is holding an automatic handgun. The main character (I think JW) asks him if he can shoot. He says yes, but fails miserably with the handgun (almost having a firearms accident since it held 8 rounds instead of 6). The young man then says he meant he was good with his rifle and then pulls out a scoped rifle and proceeds to shoot a deer on the run.

Help! What movie was this?

2

Possibly Big Jake. The guy with the scoped rifle is one of the title character’s sons (I think), and also rides a motorcycle later in the film.

3

Is that the one with the Mauser C96, or Luger P.08? And the guy shoots wildly with it?

I know a C96 was used in Joe Kidd, but I don’t remember the movie well enough to identify it. (And that was Eastwood.)

On Preview: Big Jake sounds extremely familiar vis-a-vis the automatic.

4

That’s absolutely it. The son in question is played by Christopher Mitchum, Robert’s son. The Duke’s other son is played by his real-life progeny, Patrick Wayne.

5

Snoopy Dance

For years, I’ve wanted to be the first to identify something in one of these threads.
:smiley:

6

Well, I’ve just ordered a DVD from an Amazon seller. It’s worth it to me, just for that scene.

7

Thanks guys! I added it to my Netflix queue. I’m glad to hear that I reminded someone else about this movie too. :slight_smile:

8

Pretty solid movie. Not great, but solid John Wayne. Great catch phrase for the Aging Duke:
Pretty much everyone in the movie: I thought you were dead, Mr. McCandles

Duke: Not hardly!

9

According to the Internet Movie Firearms Database entry for Big Jake (scroll to bottom):

PS: Watched Joe Kidd a few nights back. The C-96 is very cool.:cool:

10

Also:
In that IMFDB entry, the photo is of a Bergmann M1896, so not sure why it is has “1911” there. There was a 1910/12, but it looked more like a C96 than the M1896.

11

A line echoed (many times) years later in Escape From New York:

“Snake Plissken! I thought you were dead!”

I always wondered if the Jake/Snake rhyming thing had anything to do with their homage to that motif…TRM

12

That’s probably why I (mis-)remembered a C96.

13

And Little Jake, the kid who plays John Wayne’s character’s grandson, is John Wayne’s actual grandson, John Ethan Wayne. He goes by Ethan.

One of my favorite movies.

14

Oops I am wrong. Ethan Wayne is also John Wayne’s son, not grandson.

15

How cool! I was going to start a thread asking what gun Grace carries on Saving Grace, but there it is with just a click and a few keystrokes.

16

Did you “like” that particular part of the movie?

Frankly, IMO, that was the absolute worst!!! scene of an otherwise fairly good movie.

17

I liked it. Even though I’ve ordered it, ISTR that the last time I saw it that scene did seem a bit contrived. But it’s the one scene I remember from it, and I did like it the first time I saw it; so it’s worth it to me.

18

I was probably 10 or 12 when I saw that scene. Since that’s about 3 decades ago, I can’t really say. However, as Johnny mentioned, it’s the one scene that I actually remember from the movie. It must have stuck with me for a reason.

It should be coming from Netflix before long so I can see it again.

19

Can a movie with automatic pistols and scoped rifles and motorcycles in it even count as a Western?!

20

I consider films about Pancho Villa to be Westerns. Horses, deserts, big hats, people getting shot. And airplanes were used then. Most people consider the ‘Old West’ to have lasted until the late-19th Century. Many people will go to the end of the '90s, and I recall reading several mentions of the Old West lasting until Nineteen-Oh-Something. Some would say that the Old West period ended when Arizona became a state in 1912, and others say it lasted until the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1920.

So, yeah. Early-1900s count.

EDIT: The Wild Bunch, a film mentioned by several to be one of the best Western films, takes place in 1913.

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