carguychris
New member
I've often noticed this trope also. I don't know how it started but it seems to have peaked in the 1960s.FairWarning said:It's amazing how many P38s and P08 Lugers were used by villains prior to the '80s. I suppose the obvious Nazi connection was partially behind that....
I've seen them in the hands of many villains who have no obvious connections to Nazism, most notably and illogically Soviet characters, who in reality would presumably be loathe to carry a symbol of their bitterly hated former enemy! Of course, one contributing factor was that Tokarevs, Makarovs, and other Warsaw Pact service arms were hen's teeth in the West before they started filtering into the U.S. in the hands of servicemen returning from Vietnam. Recall episodes of "Mission: Impossible" and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." in which supposedly Soviet or Cuban troops carry M1 Carbines; at the time, if you had easy access to an SKS or an AK, your name probably had something like "Colonel" or "Lt. Commander" in front of it!
Of course, another trope was that modern-day cops almost always carried Colt or S&W revolvers, even off-duty, regardless of the circumstances. Even if the character was in a situation where one might prefer an automatic, he would have a Colt Detective Special!