Souvenirs of Death

This episode of John Nesbitt's THE PASSING PARADE, his long-running series of shorts for MGM -- and elsewhere, a radio and a television feature -- tells the story of a Mauser automatic pistol, picked up from the corpse of a dead German officer and taken home as a souvenir by a passing American soldier.

After it shot the family dog, it starts to make its way hither and yon until it falls into the hands of a bleak-eyed Morris Ankrum, a criminal who uses it for its intended purpose -- to make holes in people. Meanwhile, Nesbitt tells the story from the gun's viewpoint, precise, prissy, and totally uncaring about the havoc its owner wreaks. It all ends with a message from J. Edgar Hoover. While stirring music plays, the audience is told that these guns are bad things. The gun has already made it clear that it bears no responsibility for these matters. I agree with its logic.

There was Souvenirs of Death , the story of the life of a gun.

"Souvenirs of Death" is a very strange film in that the narrator of the film is a gun! John Nesbitt provides the voice for a German Mauser handgun and it follows the gun's path from a souvenir picked up by an American G.I. serving in the war. He brings it home and the gun ends up killing an innocent dog! Where it goes from there, you'll just have to see for yourself.

The style of the film is unique. The plot, however, is a bit familiar. "Winchester 73" has a lot of similarity as does the old "Hawaii Five-O" episode "Diary of a Gun" (1975). However, despite familiarity, the story is well written and a convincing argument that folks need to be much, much, much more careful if they're going to own a gun. Keep that thing locked up...with no chance anyone else will be able to get to it!

By the way, Barbara Billingsley is in a small role in the film--long before she starred on "Leave it to Beaver" or learned to speak Jive ("Airplane").

Anyone who collects World War Two military equipment (especially German) knows that our GIs were avid trophy hunters. Even today, some 70 plus years later, veteran "bring backs" turn up at gun shows and estate sales across the country. I saw this short film several years ago and I recall the pistol in question was a 1914 Mauser. But at the film's end there is an FBI message about the dangers of all war trophy guns and they showed an MP-40 sub machinegun.

Pretty dry story of a handgun that comes back from Europe after WW II. The narrator tells the story of how the guns come back to the US, and end up in the hands of the children, playing outside. And there's Barbara Billingsly, mom Cleaver in "Leave it to Beaver", as the dis-approving mom. It's all pretty droll. with a message from J. Edgar at the very end, warning of the perils of bringing these wartime weapons back to the U.S. It's a filler between films on Turner Classic Movies. Skip this one... about as interesting as belly button lint. Directed by Ed Cahn.