M37 on TV

[Renegade05]

Charlton Heston & M37

Gordon, I think you may be referring to "The Omega Man" where he plays an Army doctor who is one of the few people left after a virulent disease wipes out most of the population, and makes some into violent maniacs. He lives in a fortified mansion, surrounded by barbed wire, and machine guns on the terrace...

"Soylent Green" is another futuristic, apocalyptic tale, wherein he's a detective in a world without enough food; Soylent Green is the foodstuff that everyone relies on, but the dirty little secret is that it's made from the bodies of those people who volunteer for "termination".

Charly sure liked the apocalypse, didn't he?

[Gordon Maney]

Re: Charlton Heston & M37

Originally posted by Renegade05
Gordon, I think you may be referring to "The Omega Man" where he plays an Army doctor who is one of the few people left after a virulent disease wipes out most of the population, and makes some into violent maniacs. He lives in a fortified mansion, surrounded by barbed wire, and machine guns on the terrace...

"Soylent Green" is another futuristic, apocalyptic tale, wherein he's a detective in a world without enough food; Soylent Green is the foodstuff that everyone relies on, but the dirty little secret is that it's made from the bodies of those people who volunteer for "termination".

Charly sure liked the apocalypse, didn't he?

Yes, you are right. The Omega Man movie was made a long time ago, wasn't it? I liked it at the time. The fact that it had an M37 made it even better.

[bosco]

M37 in an Elvis Movie

Was flipping through the channels this morning about 6am and ran across an Elvis movie called Kissin Cousins (1964). The King was driving a M37. Well, I haven't seen an Elvis film in years so I decided to watch the rest of it. There were only a few scenes with the truck, but one I found very amusing ... picture this: The truck's top is off and the windshield is down. Elvis is behind the wheel with 3 girls next to him. Now that's riding in style. I guess only Elvis could do that. There was also a couple of jeeps in the movie ... a flatfender (possible an M38) and a M38A1.

Hey, it really is Elvis' birthday. I guess that's why they were showing a few of his films on Turner Classic Movies.

[pieter]

Originally posted by ragnar
Just found a M37 in another movie.
"To End All Wars" (2001)
The movie is about a pow camp during WWII in Asia. The japs come riding up in a M37.

FWIW,
there is a Toyota that remarkably resembles a M-37...
If I find pics somewhere I will post them..

Pieter

[MGySgtPATTON]

toyo. M37

If you look at olive-drab.com>vehicle id>light vehicles, below the M37, you will see this toyota, which they say closely resembles the M37. They have a pic.

Link: Toyota FQ15

[MoparNorm]

In the '50's

the Japanese did a great deal of copying, gm 6 cylinder motors were cloned (stolen?) for the early Toyota and Datsun trucks, this "Toyota" looks to be a cloned M-37. The Japanese also cloned the Hughes H-1 racer, they called it the Zero.
Historically they have been very good, if not excellent, at cloning and improving, but with very little original thought. The biggest selling motor bike in history, the Honda 90, was little more than a Vespa with some very cleaver improvements.
MN

[bosco]

Jimmy Stewart - Mountain Road

Yeah, I know this is an old thread ... but this is an interesting movie. Jimmy is in an old 1960 movie in which the setting is WW2 in China. There are 3 M37's a M38 and I believe a M211. I just watched this movie today and found it to be a pretty darn good movie. Of course the M37s and the jeep are not correct for WW2, but there is some good footage of these trucks. Check it out. I have also posted 2 links ... 1 is for Turner Classic Movies which has the original movie trailer. The other is from Youtube which has a great 2 minute video. If you have the change to see this movie, I think you'll like it.

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?s...egory=Overview

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HFpfBkbXmCI

[creinemann]

M37's in the movies

Try this link, lots of photos of M37's in Movies, I didnt check to see if the movie you listed was in it, but if not, it should be added...

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles_make-D...?PHPSESSID=7a3...

[MasterYota]

On a more recent note, there is some great M37 racing in newest Indiana Jones movie, (Hollywood racing mind you...). And the latest Rambo flick has a several M37's still in use in Myanmar (Burma) where the movie is set.

Both films seem to have got the sound wrong though, I don't recall my 251 sounding as throaty or peppy as either of those.... But decent movies anyway.

As for Toyota copying things, the first Land Cruiser was built around 1955, and if one were to crawl underneath, the drivetrain looks remarkably similar to the M37, (given some creative slack in the copyright...) Its almost arguable that the M37 could be considered as the Grandfather of the Land Cuiser. And there is no denying the heritage link between the M37 and the FQ15. It would make for an excellent bench racing session...ha ha.

[maineSS]

If anyone has watched "Saints and Soldiers", you'll see a real good effort made at period authenticity for Battle of the Bulge. It was a low-budget independent film that took first place in audience votes at quite a number of film festivals. They worked with historical re-enactment groups and managed to field items like the German Skfz 251 halftrack. They had a scene during the Ardennes Massacre with a King Tiger in the background- may have been a model?

The German Panther was used by the French til the mid 50's, and some ended up in Indochina. I remember reading an article in Scale Modeler about a USAF aircrewman seeing one in Laos during the late 60's in enemy territory that was painted pink!

Today's computer imaging technology is getting good enough to make studio prop vehicle rentals a thing of the past, pretty soon actors will be looking over their shoulders...

[Threetoughtrucks]

It is very hard to believe the French would have shipped such a large vehicle like a Panther to VN. For what reason would they? In the 50's, I believe Ho Chi Min had no large tanks to fight the French?

If you have any pics of a Panther in VN, I'd eat my words.

I saw White half-track hulks and even a Chaffee hulk, that had been in French service, while I was there in the 60's, and of course Dodges were wherever the post-war French served, but a Panther in VN?

As for "Saints and Sinners", there is a T-34/Tiger mock up in a German re-enactment group on the East Coast, so that vehicle may have been used in the movie.

TTT

[maineSS]

Some of the references I have on the Panther mention that some were shipped to Vietnam to counterbalance the rumored supply of Soviet armor to Ho Chi Mihn, which didn't happen till the French were long gone. The French were particularly concerned about the Stalin series, and the Panther was the only vehicle they had with a chance of knocking it out. The high-velocity 75 carried by the Panther was a very good gun for its time, better penetration than the Tiger I's 88- the French 105 used in the Israeli "Super Sherman" was a direct copy of it. The King Tiger shown in the Malmedy massacre scene has the Porsche turret- very rare. The sloped hull and overlapped running gear of the King Tiger really can't be accurately duplicated by Soviet armor reworks, so I'm thinking this had to be some creative filming with a model ( the movie was shot in Utah). I've never heard of any original Tiger I or King Tiger outside of museum collections- virtually none survived WW II, or the intensive scrap drive after the war.

[Threetoughtrucks]

Can you provide your source for your comments about French Panthers being sent to VN?

It is an interesting idea. My source is Wikipedia and it says the French got 50 Panthers in 1945, but those were replaced by French heavy tanks by 1950. I can't find any source that mentions Panthers in VN. I'd sure be interested in any source you have.

As to the Tiger/T-34, it is easily spotted as a T-34 for any tank nut, but the mock up was used for Hollywierd general audiences, not us. I believe it was used in SVR, but the same mock up idea were used in Kelly's Heroes.

TTT

[HWooldridge]

The German tanks had large front drive sprockets, which is not correct for a T-34 and a real Panther is very rare - about the same as a Tiger I or II. Doubtful any would be seen outside a museum or military collector's show. I also don't think any would have been sent to VN - they would have been very difficult to support with spare parts.

[Threetoughtrucks]

Not only would the use of German tanks by the French in Vietnam be difficult to justify for supply reasons, the small bridges that cover Vietnam would not hold up to to the weight of a Panther, limiting their use.

The French use of U.S. M-41 Chafees and M-47 Walker Bulldog tanks would have been more than a match for the medium tanks fielded by the Viet Minh.

I am sure the use of Panthers in Vietnam is a myth like the myths that floated around while I was there of the existence of old French warehouses filled with hundreds of WW2 Jeeps and Harley Davidson WLA motorbikes, in the original crates, waiting for somebody to ship them home. There was always a catch, like you had to buy 25 or 50 vehicles to ship them home and paying for beer and other things always took all our money....

TTT