Recently, I watched The Maltese Falcon for the zillionth time (a zillion being an indefinite number between 10 and one million). Early in the movie, Spade’s partner Miles gets plugged with a 45 caliber slug from a Webley-Fosbery automatic revolver. You heard me correctly, an automatic revolver.
The WF was an interesting design, being a six- or eight-shot revolver that functioned like an automatic. The cylinder had a series of snake-like grooves that matched a steel cam on the frame. When a shot was fired, the recoil slid the cylinder back along the frame, both cocking the hammer and turning the cylinder to the next round via the cam tracking along the grooves. A recoil spring then returned the gun to battery. The design worked fairly well, but the additional weight and complexity wasn’t worth the minor reduction in felt recoil, given that simpler double-action revolvers were reliable and in plentiful supply.
As an interesting side note, Bogart refers to the WF as an 8-shot 45, which is incorrect. The eight-shot WF was a 38, whereas the six-shot cylinder was 45 caliber.