I had heard that the final take was somewhere in the teens - and that Ford had failed to get the guy’s sword with the whip in every prior take. In exasperation, Frod draws and shoots, and both the attacker and crowd played along.
Either way, it did lead to at least one empty holster gag in each subsequent movie.
Sometimes the simplest things seem to take on a life of their own and crop up over and over.
Like Jones’s fear of snakes makes for some interesting moments.
Now I’m going to have to fire the DVD player up and watch them all.