Virginia City (1940)

Virginia City
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Robert Buckner
1940/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Kerry Bradford: [to Murrell] Don’t reach for that. Put ’em up! I thought that little Deringer of yours looked a little too well used for a sample, Mr. Murrell. In any case, I didn’t like your face. As a matter of fact, I still don’t.[/box]

Despite a couple of quibbles, I really liked this solid, action-packed Western.

It is the last months of the Civil War and the South is in desperate straits.  As the story starts, Kerry Bradford (Errol Flynn) is tunneling out of notorious Confederate Libby Prison.  He is stopped by prison commandant Vance Irby (Randolph Scott) who informs him that he watched the men work on the tunnel and let them sweat.  Bradford promises to pay him back one day.  Unbeknownst to Irby, the men tunnel out via an alternate route that night and set fire to the prison.

Simultaneously, Julia Hayne (Miriam Hopkins) arrives from Virginia City, Nevada to propose to Irby that he lead a mission to spirit Confederate gold out of the town, a Union stronghold.  The two take the plan to Jefferson Davis who endorses it.  Bradford, a Union intelligence officer, gets wind of the idea (but not its principals) and sets off for Virginia City.  Naturally, Julia is on the same stage coach and they fall in love.  Also on the stage coach is notorious Mexican bandit John Murrell (Humphrey Bogart, who should never EVER attempt a foreign accent!).

The stories of all these people intersect in Virginia City and on the long and arduous wagon train journey Irby leads East with the gold.  With Alan Hale and Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams as Bradford’s sidekicks, Frank McHugh as a comic insurance salesman, and Donald Dumbrille as a Union commander.

I thought Miriam Hopkins was utterly miscast as a saloon singer though she does better once she gets on the wagon train.  (As an aside, I had not realized she was quite so tiny until I saw the above picture.) Humphrey Bogart was even more totally wasted in this picture.  That aside, this is one of the better Westerns I have seen. Michael Curtiz has a flare for exciting action sequences and Errol Flynn, despite his out-of-place accent, is the perfect hero for this kind of thing.   I’m surprised Max Steiner was not nominated for an Oscar for his excellent score.

Clip – Miriam Hopkins sings “The Battle Cry of Freedom” .. and reunites with Errol Flynn