Carson City (1952)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

André De Toth

Writers:

Eric Jonsson (writer)
Winston Miller (writer)

Release Date:

9 January 1953 (Finland)

Genre:

Romance | Western

Plot Keywords:

Frameup | Romantic Rivalry | Stagecoach Robbery | Stepbrother Stepbrother Relationship | Tunnel

Cast

Randolph Scott	...	Silent Jeff Kincaid
Lucille Norman	...	Susan Mitchell
Raymond Massey	...	A.J. 'Big' Jack Davis
Richard Webb	...	Alan Kincaid
James Millican	...	Jim Squires
Larry Keating	...	William Sharon
George Cleveland	...	Henry Dodson
William Haade	...	Hardrock Haggerty
Don Beddoe	...	Zeke Mitchell
Thurston Hall	...	Charles Crocker
Vince Barnett	...	Henry

Also Known As:

The Champagne Bandits (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Warnercolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Bell Ranch, Santa Susana, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

This was Warner Bros.' first film shot in WarnerColor.

Quotes:

Zeke Mitchell: This will be a different town if you put a railroad in here, you know that.
Silent Jeff Kincaid: It could stand a little wakening up.
Zeke Mitchell: I happen to like it the way it is.
Silent Jeff Kincaid: Growing pains are always a little tough. But you can't get to be an adult without them. That goes for towns too.
Zeke Mitchell: That depends on what you mean by being an adult.

Catering Bandits

Carson City has the distinction of two real western characters hiring the fictional character played by Randolph Scott to build a railroad from Virginia City to Carson City. William Sharon(Larry Keating) is getting very tired of having his gold shipments held up by a gang of bandits who also cater when they do a holdup. Sharon approaches banker Charles Crocker(Thurston Hall)who also is a big wheel in the Central Pacific railroad to build a spur line so he can ship by railroad.

Of course the railroad has its opponents in Carson City and quite subtly mine owner Raymond Massey is heading the opposition. Because Massey doesn't have a working mine, he does it the easy way, he robs the gold from the other guys and then ships it as his own.

Massey's the brains behind those bandit/caterers. His bandits holdup the stagecoach have the passengers removed and then show them to a picnic lunch topped off by a magnum of champagne. The other passengers don't care when the rich Larry Keating gets robbed and aren't too helpful to the law. It's unique in westerns I have to say, but it's also kind of silly, the sort of stuff you might see in a western from Roy Rogers or Gene Autry, but not Randolph Scott.

Starting out with such a silly premise it was hard for me to get really into Carson City, even after it turned deadly serious with Massey trying to stop the railroad in any way he can.

Randolph Scott had a unique leading lady here, radio singer Lucille Norman who sings not a note. That's a pity because the woman had a wonderful soprano. I have an album she did with Gordon MacRae of the score from The Desert Song. Lucille is the daughter of Carson City Clarion editor Don Beddoe who gets murdered by Massey when his suspicions are aroused. Lucille is also got Scott's half brother Richard Webb, TV and radio's Captain Midnight as a rival suitor and opponent of the railroad. Randy's got all kinds of personal problems for taking on this job.

Carson City is also badly edited. There were a few things that were left in the air that I'm sure wound up on the cutting room floor.

Randolph Scott's legion of fans will like Carson City, but it's far from his best work.