On another thread, mention was made of Cooley's Reel being played in The Bounty. According to Fiddler's Companion, the oldest claim on this tune is to the 1940s. In The Revenant, set in the late 1700s, a fiddler plays Ragtime Annie, for the existence of which there is no evidence prior to the 1920s, according, again, to FC.

How difficult would it have been for the fiddlers involved to have come up with historically (and otherwise) suitable tunes? IMO: not very. I know these movies are primarily entertainment - but if it were me, I would have taken 10 or 20 minutes to think of and run over a good tune from the appropriate era. But, I suppose I'm not as busy as the guys who get hired to play in movies ... !

Wondering if anyone has noticed other tunes out of their time?