A few days ago I bought the double-sided DVD of "The Big Sleep" with Bogart and Bacall. For those who prefer coherent plot to verbal foreplay, the original Howard Hawks edit - the one that was discovered a few years ago and is the second side of the DVD - is far superior to that shown in theaters.

One minor detail of the action fascinated me. Bogart enters his car, pushes a button on his dashboard, and beneath the dash drops a panel with three Colt revolvers kept in place with spring-loaded clamps. This is the only movie I have watched that had any firearm hidden in a non-obvious place, such as beneath a car seat. Anyway, beneath a car seat would be so obvious that perhaps I shouldn't refer to it as hidden.

That nifty panel got me wondering about where handguns and long guns would be hidden in vehicles' passenger compartments where they would be reasonably convenient to reach while being well concealed. Bogart's drop-down panel was nice, but the work involved in creating such an assembly would be daunting. I cannot think of anything better, though.

In The Maltese Falcon Bogart had a hidden panel, I think in the dashboard that held a couple of Colts. James Caan had a hidden comprtment in the door of his Cadillac in the movie Thief.

In the early 70's a friend of mine had a 57 Ranchero that he installed hydraulics in the driver side inner panel to open + get his model 19 out in a hurry.Not a cop in the world would even suspect it was there.