Major Boothroyd and the new gun [James Bond Semi Essentials]
Major Boothroyd and the new gun [James Bond Semi Essentials]
M advises Major Boothroyd to give Bond the Walther PPK.. One of the greatest scenes in this Movie..
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2:28 A PPK carried by Princess Anne’s personal police officer James Beaton infamously jammed during a kidnapping attempt on the princess and her husband.
…meanwhile at Mossad’s Headquarters… “…how many ?”… ‘how many WHAT Goldstein ?’… “how many CRATES of Berettas do I have to order for our agents, sir ?“…. ‘…ALL…Goldstein…. ALL, thank you…’
I love the old Bond films. Still, nobody would switch guns like that without firing a few magazines, and then a few dozen more.
The most British thing, you don’t have a licence to die
WHY DOES SOME SCENES IN THE FILM SHOW THE GUN WITHOUT ITS HAMMER…DID THEY USE DIFFERENT GUNS FOR DIFFERENT SCENES….VERY STRANGE
"Hey, it’s got plenty of stopping power!"
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bqXpPeWsoFE
you never pass a gun unchecked and you never house a mag by slapping the bottom of it – they needed a real armorer on set
What movie is this ?
Never have I heard 7.65mm (32acp) described as having a delivery like a brick through a plate glass window. Nowadays, it’s considered a mouse gun cartridge, too anemic for self defense. Not that I’d like to be shot with it, though.
If you watch closely, the Baretta is placed in a desk file holder that has sides, it’s somewhat out of camera view but when he leaves you can still see the gun in the file holder. Plus, no way he could have handed it to the bottom of the box with M looking at him as he leaves the front of the desk. A small continuity issue.
That desk lamp looks amazing, actually. Would love to get one like that.
I’ll bet Beretta weren’t very impressed with the review.
ike a brick through a plate glass window? The 7.65mm is another way to describe the .32 ACP, a marginal round at best, unless delivered at waist height to a 6" diameter target… such as the back of a victim’s neck. The Walther PPk is a fine handgun but it is NOT a powerhouse, it is a surgeon’s tool for fine work done up close. There… I’m BETTER now. 😉
Notice the very subtle but i believe intentional, pointing the muzzle of the beretta at M ? proper gun safety dictates never point a gun at somethimg you dont intend to shoot. bond pits the gun on the desk and slides it towards M, with the muzzle pointed at M, not to the side as proper safety would dictate. and given that the real boothroyd was an expert, flemming certainly would have known gun safety. also note that when describing the beretta, boothroyd makes reference to "in a ladies handbag" a reference to the real boothroyds conversation with flemming regarding the unsuitability of the 25 cal beretta….as the kind of weapon found in a ladies handbag, and not a very nice lady at that…
Volume too low for me.
A good example of what you can get away with in the cinema, as opposed to what you can pick up when you have the video to replay as many times as you like. The Beretta was first placed in M’s paper tray, then turned round mysteriously the next time it’s in shot, and it’s still visible in the tray on the desk when Bond picks up the Walther box – he never picks it up. But there it is, under the box when we see Bond at the door.
The trouble is that although continuity people are easily capable of keeping track of this on the day, editors patch together shots from many different takes of the scene, of course, and they have other priorities when doing so.
When did the CIA ever use the 7.65mm Walther?
The sound (meaning quietness) of this scene is great.
Sean Connery, Bond, James Bond, forever
That Walther will bite you hard.
"The American CIA" as opposed to another CIA?? What was the model of the Beretta? The Walther PPK was also a small pistol….they both look quite similar. Dr No is for me the definitive Bond movie…..the best that Sean Connery made as 007. The film has a fantastic feel to it….the location, the music. An agent sent to an exotic location to kill a psychotic visionary….it’s probably my favourite Bond film.
32 acp is a pathetic cartridge, a brick through a plate glass window yeah right
As I say. James Bond, his Beretta and close encounter with Klaus Schwab. Or maybe the Walther PPK.
The decor of M’s office changes with every movie…
Those were the days…. You could take a self destructive bag on a flight and no one would ask questions…..and a gun……!
at 2:37 he clearly says mi6 but is dubbed over as mi7.
never noticed that before
One of the worst scenes in the Bond movies. These men are supposed to be professionals and know how to handle firearms. And yet, here they are, passing a loaded weapon around without first clearing it.
“A delivery like a brick through a plate glass window” 😂
Has anyone seen a YouTube video in which the Beretta and Walther are fired competitively?
"It’s nice and light…in a ladies handbag." LOL
Some background to this:
Ian Fleming changed Bond’s gun due to a letter from a reader. Geoffrey Boothroyd was an ammunition manufacturer and firearm expert who lived in Glasgow. He wrote to Fleming after reading some of the early Bond books, in which Bond is armed with a Beretta 418 in .25ACP carried in a soft chamois leather shoulder holster. Boothroyd liked the character of Bond but disliked his equipment. He viewed the Beretta as underpowered, calling it “a lady’s gun and not a very nice lady at that’ and thought soft chamois leather holsters were prone to catching on the gun, especially when using a silencer, preventing a quick draw. Boothroyd said Bond wouldn’t last long with this equipment and recommended Bond use a revolver in a belt holster made of stiff saddle leather.
Fleming responded by asking Boothroyd to recommend an automatic pistol, a revolver and a holster for Bond to use. Boothroyd recommended the Walther PPK in .32ACP (also called 7.65mm Browning), the Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight revolver in .38 Special and the Berns-Martin Triple Draw holster. In ‘From Russia With Love’, Bond almost dies (Fleming actually intended to kill Bond off as he’d grown to dislike the character) when his silenced Beretta gets caught in the holster, forcing him into hand-to-hand combat and getting scratched with a concealed poisoned blade, spending six months in hospital. When Bond comes back in ‘Doctor No’, M forces Bond to adopt the Walther and Smith & Wesson.
My dad used to think that a 9mm was a hand cannon and that 7.65mm was about right. I remember him seriously studying my S&W model 29 wondering what that would feel like in recoil.
Afterwards, I presented him with one of my full house rounds which he took home with him.
.32 Auto for his sidearm “Upgrade”? Bond would be better off with the brick.
Actually, the delivery was more like a Nerf Ball at a brick wall. Later it was upgraded to a .380, which was like a water-soaked Nerf Ball at a brick wall.
Remember that Bond’s role was to gather information and bring it back, so he needed a small, lightweight pistol solely as a way to disengage from an attacker and make his escape. A larger pistol would be too obvious, and more power would encourage going on the offensive, neither of which was a Good Thing.
My favorite spy gun was, of course, the U.N.C.L.E Special, but the pistol alone was far more bulky than the PPK, and adding the accessory kit (extended magazine and barrel, suppressor and shoulder stock) would be impossible to hide under a normal sport coat. OTOH, the role of U.N.C.L.E agents was more toward law enforcement than espionage, and their common opponents were carrying military weapons.
That’s a 32acp gun.
The hilarious part is describing a Walther PPK (.380ACP) as something “packing quite a wallop” … it’s among the weaker pistol rounds, considered barely adequate for self-defense use.
not real fond of that heel release but my old baretta 22 shoot like a dream and everywhere you point it hits
I love the original books. Am reading them in order- again 🇺🇸🖖
The best Bond.
I think MI5 agents now carry a Heckler & Koch handgun.
It’s a Beretta 1934, not a 418.
What? Huh? Speak up!
I’m assuming that there are only 9, double 00 operatives, if there are more, 0010 and up then none of this is valid. If there are 9 and there’s been a 40% decrease in 00 deaths since M took over, there’s still been at minimum,2 deaths. There are so many other variables that can influence this, but this would be the most likely number. So, before M took over there were 5 deaths, which then accounts for 7 deaths between M and his predecessor. With this type of data we can now understand that James Bond has beaten the odds by staying alive throughout his tenure with “Universal Exporters”. In case you are wondering, this is where my mind goes when I watch scenes and movies for the 1000th time. Of course, we only come back to those things we love and Sean Connery’s Bond is IMO number 1.
I was amused at the thought of the 32 ACP being referred to as a powerful round, according to Boothroyd. LOL
I’ve always been intrigued by this particular scene. I wonder if the ‘Standard Intelligence’ duties M refers to is where you would find Harry Palmer of Len Deighton (and Michael Caine) fame. Because Palmer does seem to do the kind of dull, routine work that probably accounted for 90% of espionage in the Cold War (check Palmer’s early scenes in Ipcress File). Bond is clearly in the higher department where the more glamorous (and more dangerous) work is done. Maybe in years to come, this is where Palmer would have eventually ended up should he prove himself good enough. His boss too would likely take M’s place after a promotion or two.
This is funny. Casting aspersions on a Beretta for a Walther, and a 32 ACP for a 380 ACP which was also available in the Beretta and have similar real world performance. Both pistols are high quality, but like Bond, I prefer the Beretta.
All due respect – Sean Connery was the only Bond for me, since the 60s. He defined the role.
I had to have the Walther, as a young man. Didn’t care for it one bit. Promptly resold it.
Epic series never to be repeated again.
“Like a brick through a plate glass window” sounds more like a .45acp than a puny 7.65mm/.32acp lol, still love the PPK though