Though not quite as iconic perhaps as the AK-47 or Uzi, the German-made MP-40 is one of those historic firearms that is instantly recognizable. Its compact design went on to influence a dozen more subsequent firearms — including the American M3 “Grease Gun,” the PPS-43, and Vigneron among other submachine guns.
Designed by Heinrich Vollmer, it was essentially an improvement over the MP-38 and the apex of concepts dating back nearly a decade. It offered cost-saving alterations that include the extensive use of stamped steel rather than machined parts — one of Nazi Germany’s rare examples of moving to a wartime economy in 1940.
Not The Schmeisser!
Chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum, the open-bolt, blowback-operated SMG only featured an automatic mode — yet its low rate of fire also meant it was fairly controllable. It was often called the “Schmeisser” by the Allies, after German arms designer Hugo Schmeisser, despite the fact he had nothing to do with the design.
That is a moniker that remains even after 80+ years.
Approximately 1.1 million MP-40s were produced between 1940 and 1945, and the SMG saw use in all theaters of the Second World War with the German military as well as Nazi Germany’s European allies and satellite states. It was mainly issued to platoon and squad leaders — although movies and TV shows make it seem like every other German soldier was armed with one. It also found favor with paratroopers and tank crews.
The MP-40 went on to be used in countless wars around the world over the decades and has even seen limited service in the ongoing Syrian Civil War.
A Movie Star
The MP-40 has also become one of the most prolific firearms in the world of popular culture. One factor could be that countless examples were captured after the end of the Second World War and sold off as surplus.
It was reportedly easy to convert the open-bolt firearm to fire blanks, and it thus served as a “go-to” gun for the German soldier in countless World War II films, while also being employed as a firearm of choice for gangsters, terrorists, and other criminals.
The MP40 Makes Its Screen Debut
One irony of the MP-40 is that it had its movie debut not in a German-made film, but rather the Soviet WWII propaganda film “Sekretar raykoma” (“The District Secretary”), released in the U.S. as “We Will Come Back.” Made just a year after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the film employed captured MP-40s in a few scenes, and interestingly this film is also the first to feature the earlier MP-38 as well.
The MP-40 appeared almost exclusively in Soviet-made films during and immediately after the war. This fact shouldn’t actually be seen as all that surprising as Germany made almost no propaganda films about the war — and instead, its cinema was devoted to chronicling the actual war effort, while it also made a number of historical epics.
Moreover, while the Soviet Union appeared to have no shortage of MP-40s (or other German weapons) for use in its film industry, the same wasn’t true of the United States during the war. In most cases, generic-looking weapons filled the role of German firearms, or mock-ups were produced.
Thus the first depiction of an MP-40 in an American film was in 1943’s “Hangmen Also Die!,” a highly fictionalized account of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. Directed by Austrian-born Fritz Lang, who had made “M” and “Metropolis” in Germany before the Nazis came to power, the film isn’t the most accurate take on the events, yet it was still made within months of Heydrich’s assassination in Prague. While actual German Luger P08 pistols were used in the production, the German SS troops in the film are seen with faux MP-40s. In reality, those were mocked up from the American-made Thompson submachine gun.
The first actual MP-40 in a U.S. film was the 1947 espionage adventure “Golden Earrings,” starring Marlene Dietrich and Ray Milland. That production reportedly utilized surplus equipment and small arms used in the actual conflict.
The infamous German SMG has since been seen in dozens, and perhaps even hundreds of U.S. and Western-made war films, but it was 1950’s “Breakthrough” about the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division that first featured the MP-40 in a what could be described as a true combat setting.
The Action Stars
Though the MP-40 has become a de facto movie star in its own right over the past 80 years, it has been carried by a number of high-profile Hollywood “A-listers” over the years. The first Western star to have the distinction of using the now infamous SMG on screen was Marlon Brando in the 1958 film “The Young Lions.” As a junior officer on the front lines, it was an accurate choice of weapon for Brando’s character Christian Diestl to carry.
Rod Steiger used the MP-40 as one of his weapons of choice in the 1961 crime thriller “The World in My Pocket” while it was then carried two years later by Klaus Kinski in the West-German heist film “Dr. Mabuse vs. Scotland Yard.” It was also just one of several films in which Kinski was seen with an MP-40 on the big screen.
Years before leading TV’s “The A-Team,” George Peppard was seen with an MP-40 in 1965’s “Operation Crossbow,” while Charlton Heston and Leslie Nielsen each got their chance with the SMG in 1968’s “Counterpoint.” The MP-40 was also in Heston’s arsenal in 1971’s “The Omega Man” — and was seen jamming in the film’s climax. Perhaps the filmmakers didn’t want the American guns he carried throughout the film to be the firearm that fails him in the end!
Other stars to use the MP-40 over the years included Rock Hudson, James Coburn, James Mason, Maximillian Schell, Carl Weathers, Sonny Bono, Gregory Peck, Bryan Brown, and Timothy Dalton.
Carried by Allied Soldiers?
In the 1969 film “The Bridge at Remagen,” a fictionalized account of the U.S. efforts to seize the last German bridge over the Rhine River, U.S. Army Sergeant Angelo (Ben Gazzara) carries a captured MP-40. It seems an unlikely choice to be honest — in part because the U.S. Army didn’t use any weapons chambered for the 9x19mm ammunition. But also because the report/sound from the German SMG was so different from any U.S. weapons — and it should be added that this author’s great uncle, a World War II combat veteran, told a story of how he considered using the MP-40, but decided that his fellow GIs would hear the gun and shoot first and ask who was firing after!
However, it makes more sense that Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton also used the MP-40 in 1970s “Where Eagles Dare” as they were tasked with infiltrating a German fortress in the Alps. This film is notable too for having the “highest body count” of any of Eastwood’s films, with more than a few gunned down by the SMG.
The Bad Guys’ Gun on TV
As noted, the MP-40 appeared in various movies as a firearm employed by those in the underworld — notably appearing in the 1964 James Bond film “Goldfinger,” where it is carried by a number of the title character’s “troops.” That could help explain why it makes a similar appearance in TV’s “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “Mission Impossible” as it offered an exotic and almost villainous appearance.
The World War II firearm was also used in such sci-fi series as “Firefly,” “Caprica,” and “His Dark Materials” — the latter suggesting the design was used on another world in the distant past, and in an alternate reality. It seems to be that innovative!
The MP40 in the World of Indiana Jones
The German SMG is seen prominently in the 1981 film “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” despite the film taking place in 1936 — four years before it entered service.
Even the MP-38 would be incorrect for this time period, and firearms historians have suggested the Haenel-Schmeisser MP28/IIs, Steyr MP34, or Bergman MP35/Is would be the period correct choice. Of course, this is also the film that sees the German military practically in control of Cairo without the British noticing, while somehow Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is able to make it to the secret U-Boat base undiscovered.
Moreover, while Ford employs a number of weapons as Indy, he never uses the MP40 in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” but he does use the weapon in the follow-up “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” Set in 1938, the submachine gun is still wrong for the era — although it could be a stand-in for the MP38.
It is also notable that the aforementioned MP28/II and MP35/I are both present in that later film — perhaps suggesting the armorer heard the initial complaints!
Not In the “Dogs of War”
Finally, one film where the MP-40 should be, but isn’t, is the 1980 mercenary film “The Dogs of War.” In the 1974 novel, which the film is loosely based on, the mercenary unit acquires a cache of vintage MP-40s from the Second World War. It makes for an interesting side point in the novel on how the cache of weapons is smuggled across international borders. In the film, the team just buys some Uzis — which presented a problem for the film production as the armorers were unable to secure enough of the Israeli firearms and had to dress up Ingram MAC-10s instead.
Also notable is that one of the mercenaries was played by English actor Paul Freeman, who didn’t get to carry an MP-40 in “Dogs of War,” but as rival archaeologist René Belloq, he was briefly seen with one in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
