M37 on TV

[Threetoughtrucks]

Anybody remember the movie "Splash" about a mermaid. In the end the producers showed soldiers in a M-880 and a M-37 racing around lower NYC chasing after the mermaid..

The producers rented both trucks and wanted their own drivers for filming. The owners resisted and on shooting day the owners found out the shooting schedule called for the M-37 to crash in the chase, becoming airborne and crash into another truck.

Nothing wrong with that??? said the producers, "we'd pay for a new fender if one is dented!!! After all, it's just an old Army truck!!!"

Needless to say, the owner had a fit and the shoot was changed to "simulate" a crash.

Hollywood is Hollywood and any truck is a "Jeep".

BTW, Kelly's Heros was filmed in Europe in a former Commie state and they had use of fast amounts of US and German equipment held as surplus stocks. The three T-34 mockups as Tiger's, I believe were Brit built mockups and were used in alot of different movies after KH.

TTT

[RickL]

KH

Ever notice that the sniper in KH uses a scoped Mosin-Nagant?

[Threetoughtrucks]

I always thought that was strange. Of course, the guy would have used a '03 with a scope or at least a captured German rifle. I always marked using the Ruskie rifle up to the location where they filmed and the availability of Russian equipment.

For Hollywood, a sniper rifle is a sniper rifle, nobody will notice any difference. "A Jeep is a Jeep".

TTT

[HWooldridge]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Patton". I always thought they would have attempted to find WW2 vehicles for an epic on a great WW2 soldier but most of them were Korea-era vintage. I seem to recall his Jeep was an M38 but one of the escorts was an MB and I think they did have him in a command car on occasion but all the tanks were later model US.

The other day, I was watching the Military channel and saw a show on French armor. They have a large re-enactment every year at their "West Point" academy and appeared to have a real German Panther - I thought all the Panthers were gone but maybe not.

There was another show on the History Channel a couple of weeks ago on finding a lost B24 in the Libyan desert. The plane crashed in WW2 and the crew tried to hike out but all died in the effort. There was a lot of period footage from the fifties from the Army and private sources that showed both civilian Power Wagons and M37's in the desert. It was pretty cool to see a "new" vehicle tooling along at a comfy 30-40 mph thru the sand.

[Threetoughtrucks]

The B-24 was "Lady Be Good". Lost in 1943, found in 1959 perfectly preserved, guns and all, but no crew. In 1960 Graves Registration went to the site looking for the crew (they went with M-37's with dual wheels in the rear).

They ended up finding eight of the nine crew members, the ninth has never been found.

In the US Army Quartermaster Museum they have an exibit in the Graves Registration section with actual clothes from the site and the original diary kept by one of the crew.

Creepy. I don't remember what post I visited to go to that museum but the exhibit sticks in the mind.

TTT

[David H]

The USAF Museum in Dayton OH also has an exhibit of the "Lady Be Good", including various bit and pieces from the wreckage. These include crew belongings and a cylinder from one of the engines with a German round still imbedded in the cooling fins.

On the subject of faking military equipment, there was a "Twilight Zone" episode depicting the events identical to those of the "LBG". As B-24s were very scarce, they used a B-25 which has a twin tail configuration similar to the B-24, but with two engines rather than four and is about half the size of the B-24.

I'm reminded of a line in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury" where the Judge tried to pass off his "elderly ugly daughter" onto the young Barrister by saying that she "could very well pass for twenty-three, in the dusk with the light behind her." This is Hollywood's attitude.

[RickL]

quartermaster museum

The Quartermaster museum is at Fort Lee. I went there when they had the MVPA convention.

Here is a link the the Lady Be Good.

http://www.qmfound.com/lady_be_good_...r_recovery.htm

Rick

[Threetoughtrucks]

I've been to the museum at Ft. Lee, as a matter of fact, when you were there RickL, during the last MVPA convention on the East Coast.

I travelled for my job and every city I visited that had an Army base nearby I visited to see if they had a museum. Some interesting stuff in some of the smaller bases museums. Guess alot of them are closed now with new security on the bases. I thought the Graves Registration section I was talking about was in the mid-west somewhere, guess I'm wrong. The bases run together after a while.

And David H, I saw and remember the "Twilight Zone". As I remember, the final missing guy was killed when he was sitting under the tail boom in the desert when it collapsed and the ghost of the guy was pleading with the rescurers to find him to bring him home with the other bodies of the crew. I also remember them using a B-25 instead of a B-24.

TTT

[creinemann]

Another M37 tv sighting

Last night, my son and I were watching the first season of Hogan's Heroes on DVD, when on the very first episode, in Black and white, was an M37. Of course, it was an authentic Luftwaffe M37!! LOL
Later in the same episode, it was a black german truck with a red cross on it.

[creinemann]

Re: Another M37 tv sighting

M37 on Hogans Hero's....Just for fun

[David H]

Hmmm...

Strange one piece bumper notched out for a winch!

Also right hand side mirror, mounted how?

[creinemann]

Originally posted by David H
Hmmm...

Strange one piece bumper notched out for a winch!

Also right hand side mirror, mounted how?

...those German engineers....

[Renegade05]

More Ms in the Movies

I just saw "Goldfinger" the other day (for the umpteenth time, but who ever tires of hearing the name Pussy Galore?) Anyway, in the scene where they bad guys attack Fort Knox, they use an M43 ambulance that opens its roof to reveal a cheesy looking laser that they use to cut open the doors. It was also very obvious that Ford was a major sponsor -- aside from the Lincoln limo that gets crushed and the T-Bird that Felix (the CIA man) drives, the other vehicles in the "attack" are all Ford civilian vehicles painted OD.

[rumplecat]

Full Metal Jacket

The movie Full Metal Jacket has a couple of M37 and M43s just as they land in country. Good looking restoration on all of them.
James G,.

[Gordon Maney]

I remember a sci-fi movie, with Charlton Heston, where he had an M37. During one scene the truck was rolled, as I recall. I felt bad watching it.

The name Soylent Green sticks in my mind, but that may be the wrong movie.

It was a very nice truck.