Dr. No Beretta - M1934 for sure, or could it have been an M1935?
skipcress
Posts: 12MI6 Agent
Hi all,
To the best of my knowledge, there’s no way to visually differentiate between an assembled Beretta M1934 and Beretta M1935 aside from markings, as they are basically the same gun aside from chambering (9mm Short for the M1934, and 7.65 Browning for the M1935).
Despite this, every source I find on the matter claims the Beretta used in “Dr. No” was an M1934, specifically. For this to be known for certain, wouldn’t we need the Bapty records for that gun? And yet I can find no such records publicly available, nor have I found evidence of any gun at auction claiming to be the Beretta in question.
I readily acknowledge that it seems perhaps more likely that it was an M1934, but without the knowledge we have today that Sean Connery’s PP in the film was in fact a VERY early Manurhin gun in 9mm Short I would have bet good money it would be a wartime PP in 7.65 Browning instead.
As such, do we actually KNOW it was an M1934? Or is this purely speculation?
Thanks!
Skipcress
Comments
Welcome aboard, skipcress. You certainly know a lot more about this than most including me. I'd like to ask @Asp9mm if he can help with this.
I will wager it was a .32, as that would have been a more common “Euro” available pistol in the early ‘60s. The .380 is seen as more desirable in the U.S.A.
The 1935 Beretta was common war surplus, and likely to be acquired cheaply by prop houses back in the day.
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
As an aid to anyone who might otherwise find this confusing:
They’re the same cartridges / chamberings, just imperial vs. metric units, and branding (“ACP” stands for Automatic Colt Pistol, “Browning” refers to John Moses Browning, the designer, etc.).
You may very well be right, although M1934 production outnumbered M1935 production by a factor of 2:1 during the war (about 1,080,000 M1934s as opposed to 525,000 M1935 pistols). The M1934 was the official sidearm of the Italian Army, whereas the M1935 was used by the Italian Navy and Air Force (the idea was that the 9mm Corto had more “stopping power”, but had too much recoil for the rest of the Italian military, both concepts I personally find laughable). The M1934 was also exported in greater numbers.
Therefore, if it were a pure numbers game the M1934 would be the favorite. However, going back to my previous point, for similar reasons I would have guessed Sean Connery’s PP in the film would be a wartime PP in 7.65, which we now know couldn’t be much further from the truth.
Skipcress