When you think of guns in movies, you probably don’t immediately think of legendary actor Cary Grant, but perhaps you should. Grant was in close to 50 movies that ran the gamut of comedy, war, and mystery, and he played every role to its fullest. Guns did make appearances and according to interviews, he did enjoy and own firearms. Let’s check out some of the guns used in Cary Grant’s movies. It’s a good time for an armed walk down memory lane.
Colt Detective Special
It just isn’t a classic movie gun list without a Colt Detective Special. In the 1963 movie “Charade,” Grant co-stars with Audrey Hepburn. Grant claims to be someone invested in helping Hepburn evade criminals after her late husband’s fortune (if it really exists). The Colt Detective Special makes its most movie-specific memorable appearance during the film’s climax when Grant, wearing a trench coat, of course, wields it against the bad guys.
The Colt Detective Special is a snub-nosed revolver chambered in .38 Special. It has a 6-shot capacity. The snubby entered production in 1927 and went in and out of production with the most recent iteration ending in 1996. There were four variants made in total.
Quite a few interesting guns show up during “Charade.” Aside from the Colt Detective Special, there’s a Luger P08, a Colt 1911A1, and a Colt New Service. All of them are pretty era-appropriate handguns that manage to span several different calibers.
Colt New Service
“Gunga Din” came out in 1939 and was loosely based on a poem Rudyard Kipling wrote in 1892. The film itself is set to follow the life of a water bearer named Gunga Din (of course). Grant comes in as Sergeant Archibald Cutter, one of three sergeants. The movie is set in the 1880s, which is why we run into a bit of an issue with the gun they have Grant using. It’s a Colt New Service, and it didn’t exist yet in the 1880s.
The Colt New Service first hit the market in 1898 and enjoyed an uninterrupted run until 1946. It was a large-frame, double-action revolver offered in a variety of calibers. In “Gunga Din,” Grant and the other sergeants apparently used revolvers chambered in 45 Long Colt. It had a 6-shot capacity and was made with quite a few barrel lengths ranging from four inches to 7.5 inches long. The Colt New Service with a 5.5-inch barrel, chambered in 45 Long Colt, is the gun that was eventually used by the U.S. Military (back when they still issued revolvers).
Maybe the Colt New Service was used in this movie by Grant because they thought no one would notice, but when it comes to anachronisms in movies, someone’s always going to spot it.
Stevens Double Barreled Hammerless Shotgun
In “To Catch a Thief,” Cary Grant stars as a supposedly retired burglar. The movie came out in 1955 and was directed by none other than Alfred Hitchcock. Of course, as these things tend to go, Grant ends up being accused of stealing jewels. He is pursued by law enforcement and evades them, all while trying to catch the person he assumes is impersonating him. There’s a great deal of sleight of hand and trickery in this movie, so if you haven’t seen it, you might consider giving it a chance.
During the movie, Cary Grant wields a double-barreled shotgun. Although no one has been able to confirm the exact model, it’s generally thought to be a Stevens Double Barreled Hammerless Shotgun. The gun was a 12 gauge model with a long barrel and a receiver that contrasted with the darker color of the barrels.
These Stevens shotguns were boxlocks, a term that refers to the design of their internal firing mechanisms. It was very common for double-barreled shotguns to be used as the cool long guns in the movies at that time, despite the fact that they weren’t repeating shotguns and, therefore, weren’t exactly fast to fire and reload during a firefight.
Jaivana Cannon
“The Pride and the Passion” might not be a Cary Grant movie you’re familiar with, but it includes some impressive firepower. In the movie, which came out in 1957, they used an all-star cast. In addition to Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, and Sophia Loren headlined. Grant played Captain Anthony Trumbull, a British soldier who’s been tasked with finding and taking control of a cannon for the British before the French get their hands on it. The movie was set during the Napoleonic era and focuses on the battle for a Spanish city (Spain and Britain were allies). As for the cannon, well, some guerillas want to use it to win the aforementioned city and protect it from the invading French. That means taking the cannon across the country to use it in combat before the British take it away.
If you’re thinking that moving a cannon 620 miles shouldn’t be an entire movie plot, well, there’s a reason. It’s a Jaivana Cannon, a siege cannon that was one of the biggest ever made. So if you think it could just be buckled into a wagon or dragged by horses and moved, well, it’s not quite that simple. The Jaivana was a prototype that was said to have ever been fired once in real life. It’s still on display in Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur, in Indiana. As for the cannon in “The Pride and the Passion,” it’s thought to have been built for the movie based on that Jaivana. It makes sense because the movie siege cannon looks just like the Jaivana.
This is the biggest gun Cary Grant ever used in a movie. The Jaivana has a 20.2-foot barrel and a 7.2-foot barrel circumference at its narrowest spot. It has two removable 9-foot wheels and weighs 50 tons. Yes, it’s quite large. In “The Pride and the Passion,” Grant ends up helping the guerrillas and fires the siege cannon, blowing away the French rather effectively. A lot of people feel the movie was overhyped and it did end up losing money, but the cannon itself is extremely cool.
Mauser 98
Full disclosure, “Father Goose” was probably my favorite Cary Grant movie as a kid. This movie is set during World War II and has Grant playing Walter Eckland, a rather cantankerous and crude beachcomber. Grant gets tricked into going to Matalava Island, which is supposedly deserted, to watch for passing Japanese aircraft. The Commander who tricked him is clever enough to have hidden bottles of whiskey all over the island. They decide to tell Grant where one bottle is every time he reports a plane, and the sighting is confirmed. And when Grant is finally given a way off the island, he ends up finding seven schoolgirls and their caretaker, a French woman who is totally appalled by Grant’s behavior.
This movie goes about as dramatically as one might expect. People almost die, people fall in love, and Grant ends up being a grudging hero. Grant’s character has a few guns in “Father Goose” including what looks like a Mauser 98. It’s a bolt-action rifle that was made in 1898 and chambered in 7.92x57mm Mauser. He also has a revolver, an Enfield No. 2, which is a top-break gun chambered in .38 Special. In the end, the final battle is won more through cunning and dogged determination than anything else, but it’s fun to spot the guns as the movie goes along.
What’s your favorite Cary Grant movie, gun or no gun? Tell us in the comments section.
