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The ROARING TWENTIES (1939) film "German Trench Helmet"


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in the movie "THE ROARING TWENTIES" starring James Cagney, he's a World War One combat veteran and he brings home a souvenir for his friend in a scene when he's coming home from the war.

 

I thought it was interesting that they showed a scene with military collectables in an old movie, looks like collecting and bringing home souvenirs has always been popular

 

the helmet collecting started back around 1917 from returning soldiers bringing them back

 

only the first part of the movie is about his time in WW1, the rest is about gangsters / bootegging / Speakeasys during prohibition.

 

after giving the helmet to his friend, he says "I'll give it to my kid some day" so thats probably what happened to a lot of these helmets, they were probably given to kids to play with and ended up in the junk pile.

 

 

 

  • Time - Phrase
  • 00:11:48 Oh, I'm glad you reminded me. Brought you a souvenir.

  • 00:11:51 You needn't have done that. I didn't expect anything. What is it?

  • 00:11:55 German trench helmet. Hope it fits.

  • 00:11:57 I had an awful time finding a Heinie with your head size.

  • 00:12:00 Say, that's swell.

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TheMinistryOfAviation

Very neat!

I'm almost positive this is how my M16 made it stateside!

Thanks for posting!

 

-Jeremy

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many helmets came back to be sold as war fund drive if you gave you got a helmet my uncle had one. saw a phote of

a pile of these on fifth ave nyc ready to be givin out for a donation,

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when he says: "I had an awful time finding a Heinie with your head size."

 

this is more evidence the larger German sized helmets have always been hard to find, he even made the remark in this old movie

 

so it must be true? it's always been that way, even now, most helmets are smalls or medium shells sizes.

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BILL THE PATCH

Isn't that the movie with Humphrey Bogart sniping in the beginning of the movie? Another classic.

 

Sent from my XT1031 using Tapatalk

 

 

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Isn't that the movie with Humphrey Bogart sniping in the beginning of the movie? Another classic.

 

Sent from my XT1031 using Tapatalk

 

yes, thats the movie , Humphrey Bogart is the soldier named George Halley B)

 

George Halley: [the men are taking cover in a bombed-out farmhouse, shooting at German soldiers somewhere off-screen. Lloyd takes aim at a German soldier, but hesitates, then lowers his rifle] Whatsa' matta', "Harvard," did you lose the Heine?

 

Lloyd Hart: No... but he looks like a kid, about 15 years old.

 

George Halley

: -

[Aims his rifle and without any hesitation shoots the young German soldier]

 

George Halley: He won't be sixteen.

 

[Seconds later, a fellow soldier rushes in to tell them the war is over, the Armistice has been signed]

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Very neat!

I'm almost positive this is how my M16 made it stateside!

Thanks for posting!

 

-Jeremy

It was taken as a war souvenir from the Germans?

 

More likely it was stolen from the US supply chain.

 

-Brian

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Well here's a ton of original M16s in America, that what was used in the 1930 cinematic classic All Quite on the Western Front. Even think all those Picklehauben were original too, if used though with repro helmet covers (coarse wool like material as opposed to the original smooth material). Indeed real M16/M18 helmets show up continuously in movies into the 50s where Germans Troops are portrayed, even WWII Germans :lol:, to name but three WWII ones of the more well known ones out a lot, A Walk in the Sun, Go For Broke, To Hell and Back.

 

Pity there weren't anymore around when they made the 1979 remake :lol: Awful right! They got the overall size and shape down, but everything else :blink:

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My first helmet besides my Dads helmet was an M1916 my uncle had found in a junkyard. This was in the late 60s and had no doubt come home from France with one of the WW1 vets of the small town where my parents had grown up. Still have it

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey got this Still Capture of the M16/M18 in use in the 50s for WWII Germans :lol:

 

To Hell and Back, the infamous ambush on the road scene in Sicily.

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  • 2 years later...

And finally found that shot of the mud covered German with the MP40, wearing M18 like they all are, at the Farmhouse scene in To Hell and Back, he has a face that when I first seen the movie way way back when, and always after when I would see it, reminded me of Frankenstein :lol:.

 

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And this one of a M16 being worn, normally they're M18s, the movie is GO FOR BROKE, the scene where the English speaking German, speaking admittedly with a German accent, tries to break in to a Nisei unit's radio net. Note that sidecap he's wearing, cap may be an original, can't really tell, but there's that oversized out of proportion cap eagle, with a too broad inverted chevron with no cockade :lol:

 

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Side cap is a movie copy

Look at the eagle and tress

 

 

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Soutache is the proper term for caps.....These of course denoted the individual military branches in each of the armed services...Branch denoted by it's waffenfarbe (military color)....These (soutache) were discontinued on German service caps about 1942....Bodes

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Side cap is a movie copy

Look at the eagle and tress

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, was wondering if the cap itself was original, a one where the original eagle and cockade was removed, one off a prisoner, say and then it, the cap, managed to get into a wardrobe house somewhere, and then these phony badges were added to it.

 

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Yes, was wondering if the cap itself was original, a one where the original eagle and cockade was removed, one off a prisoner, say and then it, the cap, managed to get into a wardrobe house somewhere, and then these phony badges were added to it.

 

Quite possibly an original German service cap....The commonwealth countries used a style somewhat similar, but those often used an integrated bill when the side panels were pulled down over the ears...Bodes

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The Rooster

In the silent movie from 1925 "The big Parade" The big guy with the wide eyes to the right in this photo...

He goes out on a mission alone, and on his way back to his lines, he stops and picks up several German helmets to bring back as souveniers. The krauts hear the helmets clanking together and he gets blasted by machine gun fire in no mans land over his souviners.

Soldiers have always kept souveniers Im thinking it goes as far back as recorded time. I'l bet the Romans kept them.

etc etc etc. Pilots in ww1 would land near the aircraft they shot down and cut a piece off the victims aircraft........

....for a souvenier and as proof that they shot down the enemy.

Soldiers have always gathered plunder. Its as old as people.

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The Rooster

In the silent movie from 1925 "The big Parade" The big guy with the wide eyes to the right in this photo...

Heres where they find their buddy. Notice the german helmets laying next to him.

post-181333-0-37558400-1584457888_thumb.jpg

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Soutache is the proper term for caps.....These of course denoted the individual military branches in each of the armed services...Branch denoted by it's waffenfarbe (military color)....These (soutache) were discontinued on German service caps about 1942....Bodes

Of course that’s the correct term it was eArly in the morning

At least I spotted it

Owen

 

 

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Yes, was wondering if the cap itself was original, a one where the original eagle and cockade was removed, one off a prisoner, say and then it, the cap, managed to get into a wardrobe house somewhere, and then these phony badges were added to it.

 

Western costume was full of movie stuff like this for years

Mostly a bad shade of vague grey ax were the tunics

 

 

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Western costume was full of movie stuff like this for years

Mostly a bad shade of vague grey ax were the tunics

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ah ha. Props, what were they made out of, did you e er handle any these.

 

post-34986-0-66537400-1581657146.jpg

 

 

This one on Gert Frobbe in The Longest Day maybe real, if not then a real good replica, the tunics too, these now have accurate hoheitsabzeichen. One thing I dd notice long time ago is the wear of a U.S. HBT M43 shirt on one of Major Pluskat's (Hans Christian Blech) junior officers, here with boards collar badges a breast eagle, here no doubt subbing for a Reed Green tunic,.

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I had a few pieces over the years

Remember there is featured uniforms like above that was probably custom cut as he’s a speaking part and background

Both show different skill level and workmanship

 

 

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The Nco from longest day looks custom

Look at the 1937 41 type sewn in style boards for example

 

 

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  • 6 months later...

Hey I remember they used them in SAHARA, stands to reason, as this film was started to be  shot in January 1943, don't think the army was sending home captured German M35 and M40 helmets just yet 754236197_emoticonlaugh.png.538eefef01b4b508c0ab3b1a5cca2883.png,  Which brings up the question as to why these WWI types were always used in WWII  movies or TV series in what remained of the 40s through the 50s even into the 60s, you think by then lots of actual German WWII helmets would of found they way to Hollywood, but it doesn't seem to be the case right, they used props of WWII looking helmets even, like in The Longest Day , and that was shot as we know on location, what they couldn't come up with even a couple dozen real WWII German helmets  754236197_emoticonlaugh.png.538eefef01b4b508c0ab3b1a5cca2883.png.

 

Note the oversized Eagle, I guess it's hand painted.

Sahara43_15.jpg

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On 9/26/2020 at 11:18 PM, patches said:

Hey I remember they used them in SAHARA, stands to reason, as this film was started to be  shot in January 1943, don't think the army was sending home captured German M35 and M40 helmets just yet 754236197_emoticonlaugh.png.538eefef01b4b508c0ab3b1a5cca2883.png,  Which brings up the question as to why these WWI types were always used in WWII  movies or TV series in what remained of the 40s through the 50s even into the 60s, you think by then lots of actual German WWII helmets would of found they way to Hollywood, but it doesn't seem to be the case right, they used props of WWII looking helmets even, like in The Longest Day , and that was shot as we know on location, what they couldn't come up with even a couple dozen real WWII German helmets  754236197_emoticonlaugh.png.538eefef01b4b508c0ab3b1a5cca2883.png.

There's a famous picture of a large pile of German WW1 stahlhelms after the Armistice....Many did come to the United States and perhaps England as well....So really no surprise they wound up being used ad nauseam in war movies through the years following the Great War..Bodes

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