How a London photographer’s air pistol came to be used in one of cinema’s most iconic posters

By Nigel Horne

 

LAST UPDATED 10:27 AM, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

 

One of the most famous pistols in movie history - the one held by Sean Connery in the iconic poster for the 1963 Bond film From Russia With Love - was sold at auction in London yesterday, fetching £277,250. It was ten times the estimate Christie's had put on it.

The gun has a fascinating history - not least because it was a total fake.
As every James Bond fan knows, agent 007 carried a Walther PPK. When Bond is first handed the weapon in Dr No, the Secret Service armourer Boothroyd - only later re-christened Q - informs him: "It has a delivery like a brick through a plate glass window."

But when Sean Connery and his handlers from United Artists arrived at the photographer's studio to do the publicity shots, midway through shooting the second film, From Russia With Love, they forget to bring the weapon with them.

Luckily the photographer, David Hurn, who worked for the famous Magnum agency, was a keen target shooter and kept a Walther LP-53 air pistol in his studio.
Hurn told The First Post this morning: "I took the film's publicist, Tom Carlile, to one side and said, 'Don't worry, we can use this. No one will know and they can airbrush the long barrel later'."

Once the photoshoot at Hurn's studio in the shadows of Chelsea football ground was over - it involved five girls as well as Connery - the prints were duly sent off to the designers.

There was only one problem: the message never got through about the airbrushing. Which is why the posters show 007, licensed to kill, holding an air pistol that would never stop a Smersh agent and certainly did not possess "a delivery like a brick through plate glass window".

Hurn told The First Post that he went on using the pistol for target shooting for several years after the session with Connery. He also went on to do more shoots with Tom Carlile, most notably the equally iconic publicity shots of Jane Fonda in Barbarella.
About 10 years ago, Hurn sold the pistol at Sotheby's for £14,000.

When I broke the news to him this morning that it had just fetched £277,250, he was sanguine. "It's not really surprising, I suppose. The image was used for three or four Bond films so the gun is really well known. And anything a little bit kooky like this seems to attain a huge value these days.

"Still, £277,250 would have been handy." 

Read more: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/72052,people,news,bonds-fake-walther-ppk-fetches-277250-at-auction#ixzz16Of6XKDY