Virginia City (1940)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writer:

Robert Buckner (original screenplay)

Release Date:

23 March 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History | Romance | Western

Tagline:

Go West!...to Virginia City...for excitement, for adventure, for primitive romance!!!

Plot:

Union officer Kerry Bradford escapes from Confederate Prison and is set to Virginia City in Nevada....

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Nevada | Gold | Escape | Hold Up

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Captain Kerry Bradford
Miriam Hopkins	...	Julia Hayne
Randolph Scott	...	Captain Vance Irby
Humphrey Bogart	...	John Murrell
Frank McHugh	...	Mr. Upjohn
Alan Hale	...	Olaf 'Moose' Swenson
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams	...	'Marblehead'
John Litel	...	Thomas Marshall
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Major Drewery (as Douglas Dumbrille)
Moroni Olsen	...	Dr. Robert Cameron
Russell Hicks	...	John Armistead
Dickie Jones	...	Cobby Gill
Frank Wilcox	...	Union Outpost Soldier
Russell Simpson	...	Frank Gaylord
Victor Kilian	...	Abraham Lincoln

Runtime:

USA:121 min | West Germany:105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #5857) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Miriam Hopkins replaced Olivia de Havilland.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the opening scene Captain Irby inspects a pistol. He opens a loading gate on the right side of the pistol. This indicates a metallic cartridge pistol. Almost all Civil War pistols in use at that time were cap and ball or paper cartridges. Both were loaded in the open end of the cylinder and used percussion caps.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Adventures of Errol Flynn (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Oh! Susanna

Standard Flynn Western, with Offbeat Bogart Portrayal...

VIRGINIA CITY, the "non-sequel" to Errol Flynn's big 1939 hit, DODGE CITY, gives the impression that the Warner Brothers were suffering from a shortage of good Western scripts in 1940. The film 'borrows' much of Max Steiner's DODGE CITY musical score, reunites Flynn with DODGE CITY costars (and friends) Alan Hale and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams (playing virtually the same characters, with different names), and attempts the visual 'sweep' of DODGE CITY, in black and white, with a smaller budget. What is most memorable about the film, however, are two truly offbeat casting choices; Humphrey Bogart as a half-breed Mexican bandit, and tone-deaf Miriam Hopkins as a saloon singer. Bogart did NOT want to do the film (he felt himself miscast in westerns), but faced suspension if he didn't 'show up' for work, and his unconvincing Mexican accent and forced performance give clear evidence to his unhappiness with the role. Hopkins, whose reputation had been established in pre-Production Code sex comedies and dramas of the early thirties, was, at 38, already past her prime, and unbelievable as a love interest for either Flynn, or Randolph Scott. As a 'sexy' chanteuse, her singing is so incredibly bad that it must be heard to be believed!

The plot, of an undercover Union captain (Flynn) attempting to wrest a shipment of southern gold from a wagon train headed by the Confederate colonel (Scott) who had run the prison camp he'd previously escaped from, gets bogged down in subplots, and, in trying to appease viewers from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, makes everyone so noble that you wonder why there was a Civil War! Certainly, in Randolph Scott's case, the role wasn't much of a stretch, and would be one he would repeat frequently, with minor variations, for the next twenty years. Tasmanian Flynn, however, appears more comfortable in the Western genre than he had in DODGE CITY, and, after the on and off-screen battling with Bette Davis in his previous film, THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX, it must have felt like a vacation (even with hated director Michael Curtiz helming the project!)

VIRGINIA CITY is, ultimately, a 'B' movie with an 'A'-list cast and crew, and while the end result isn't terrible, it isn't a film that either Flynn or Bogart would list as among their best efforts.