Les aventures de Kit Carson

The western film Kit Carson, an independent release from United Artists in 1940 presents a rousing action filled portrayal of one of the greatest of American frontier characters. But the real Kit Carson was so much more interesting that it's almost a shame that this one is his screen epitaph.

Jon Hall plays Carson in proper frontier style with Mesquiteer like mountain men companions Ward Bond and Harold Huber. Dana Andrews is John C. Fremont noted explorer and surveyor of the west who eventually became the first Republican party presidential candidate. One thing I should dispel right away, they never quarreled over any woman, even one as beautiful as Lynn Bari. Fremont was already married to Jessie Benton, daughter of US Senator Thomas Hart Benton and Carson after living among the Indians and fathering two illegitimate children married the daughter of the governor of New Mexico when it was still in old Mexico. He even took instructions in the Roman Catholic faith to make such a marriage.

The action of about two years is compressed into approximately a few months with Fremont's expedition being the catspaw of the US government to check out California to see if it was ripe for the taking. Fremont never took a wagon train to California or anywhere else, especially since he was mapping and surveying the territory that Carson and other mountain knew about before. He had enough trouble getting him and his men over the Rockies and Sierras without women and kids along.

Both Hall and Andrews certainly do right by their characterizations of both men and I wish I could rate the film higher. Sad to say though its accuracy is so bad that it's almost on the level of a B western where they use some real life western figure and build a fictitious plot around them. Plenty of action though with Indian fights and then fights with the Mexican army in California. Kit Carson must have done well with the Saturday matinée crowd back in the day.

This Kit Carson doesn't run for historical truth, that's clear. But it's pure joyful entertainment with plenty twists and fast paced battles and a lot of surprising details (bath sequence). The tahitian Jon Hall is impressive as the leader of a convoy towards California braked by Shoshones helped by Mexican dictator Castro who wants to kill all Americans going to California. Carson is constantly determined to find quickly the right solutions to these constant dangers and it's fascinating. The triangle love story with Carson, his friend officer Frémont (a young but not yet great Dana Andrews) and beautiful Lynn Bari reminds me of some Howard Hawks movies, Carson and Frémont always being fair. I chose that DVD without knowing the director nor Jon Hall, but I saw a picture on the sleeve of the Monument Valley and that's how I decided to buy this DVD, and the Monument sequences are wonderful, I only regret it wasn't shot in colour. Anyway, a nice western that really reminds me of Howard Hawks.

It's really rewarding when you can find a gem where you weren't expecting to. I watched "Kit Carson" because it was raining and golf was cancelled, and I wanted to kill some time. What a surprise to see Jon Hall, of all people, in an action-packed story better than many with higher ratings. I figure it must have been the second feature paired with a more expensive picture, but this one held its own. It moves along at a good clip with some good second unit work on several fight scenes between the settlers and the Cavalry troop, led by Capt. Dana Andrews, chief scout Jon Hall and sidekick Ward Bond. One of the settlers wagons is driven by Clayton Moore - you can close your eyes when he talks and he becomes the Lone Ranger. Close your eyes again, and Jon Hall sounds like Randolph Scott, soft drawl and all.

See it when it's on again if you like surprises and action westerns, and overlook the plot holes. It's one of those pictures that is better the younger you are. I found it was nice to be young again.

Star rating is in the heading. The website no longer prints mine.

1. On a personal level, this movie is special to me because it is the only one I have ever seen when it first came out that was the entertainment provided for a kid's birthday party! In 1940, l was invited to a cousin's birthday celebration that featured the matinee showing of Kit Carson at a neighborhood movie theater. This was something rather unique and made all the more enjoyable because the audience primarily consisted of a bunch of pre-adolescent boys (and no girls!). Such matinee movie parties were much more common then than they are now.

2. I recently saw the Kit Carson film again. The experience confirmed my earlier impression of the movie. It is a pleasant narrative in the classic Western tradition that does not pretend to be representing the absolute truth. In that sense, seeing the movie is somewhat like the way many feel after eating an enjoyable Chinese restaurant meal--quite satisfied at the time but soon needing something more.

3. Perhaps the best feature of this movie is its great location photography. It may be favorably compared to the work of John Ford in his classic Stagecoach lensed just a year earlier. Monument Valley certainly was spectacular in both films!

4. This movie contains one of the very few leading man action-type roles that Jon Hall performed without resort to a "sarong" or similar exotic native-type garb. His naturalistic understated acting style was quite appealing. Too bad that he was afforded so few future opportunities to attempt similar acting challenges.

5. Hall's male co-star was a very young and inexperienced Dana Andrews. He appears as real life character John C. Fremont, with an unflattering mustache and a tight-fitting Army uniform. He labored in undistinguished movies for four more years until his breakthrough performance as the portrait-obsessed cop in the classic thriller Laura in 1944. Andrews ended up greatly surpassing Hall in popularity, and became a major leading man film actor for many years.

Great story with many great actors including Jon Hall, Ward Bond, Dana Andrews, Raymond Hatton, Clayton Moore, Renie Riano and Harold Huber. My personal favorite Lynn Bari, "The Woo Woo Girl" gave a career performance. Aside from the opening scene, the beginning was rather soporific but developed the characters and story wonderfully thereafter. The struggles against the Shoshones contrasted nicely with the love triangle of Hall and Andrews vying for Bari's affections. The scenery of Monument Valley was spectacular with one of the best circle-the-wagon scenes ever. This could be described as a loose knit Kit Carson biopic that was wonderfully produced and a classic in it's own right.