Carbine Williams

This is one of my favorite Jimmy Stewart movies and I feel it's also one of his most under-appreciated. It's a biopic of David Marshall Williams, the inventor of the M1 carbine rifle. Williams was a moonshiner who went to prison for killing a federal agent (a deputy sheriff in reality but changed to a fed here for some reason). While in prison, he works on a new kind of repeating rifle that would be the basis for the carbine invented later.

Stewart dominates the movie and his performance keeps you interested throughout. Jean Hagen and Wendell Corey offer fine support. This is a pretty straightforward and simple biographical movie. There are no bells and whistles. But there's something about it that always appealed to me. Jimmy Stewart fans will love it, I'm sure.

... and definitely a change from the more affable fellows he had been playing.

Marsh Willliams (James Stewart) is a guy with a chip on his shoulder, running a still during Prohibition. He is doing this for economic reasons, and also, like most people, thought that the 18th amendment was ridiculous. When his still is surrounded by federal agents. Marsh, along with the others working the still, run but first return fire with the agents, and one agent is killed. Convinced by his wife (Jean Hagen) to surrender, his murder trial ends in a mistrial - it could not be determined who fired the fatal shot - and Williams decides to plead guilty to second degree murder rather than have his father sell some of his land to pay for a second trial. He is sentenced to thirty years hard labor and unsuccessfully tries to convince his wife to divorce him so she can remarry somebody who can be with her.

On one level the film is a pseudo biography of Williams in prison and how he develops a semi-automatic rifle using just the tools he has in the prison blacksmith shop, and how focusing on that task literally changes his personality for the better. On another level it is a scathing indictment of the prison system and its brutality as it existed in the US until the middle of the twentieth century.

Jean Hagen plays Marsh's devoted and loyal wife, and Wendell Corey is good as H. T. Peoples, the warden of the prison farm Williams lands at after spending time in some horrendous places such as the chain gain and the rock pile. Peoples wants to know what makes Williams tick, but Williams keeps testing his authority in front of the other prisoners, creating a dangerous situation for himself should he just let these incidents go. When Williams ends up lasting 30 days in "the hole" when no other prisoner could endure a week he wants to know why, and the answer is intriguing.

At its core, Carbine Williams is a story of resilience, innovation, and redemption. Carbine's determination to develop a safer and more efficient firearm mechanism while serving time in prison is both inspirational and a testament to the human spirit's capacity for growth and change. The film does an excellent job of highlighting the importance of second chances and the potential for individuals to make positive contributions to society, even after making grave mistakes.

Ten years before Burt Lancaster came out with the acclaimed Birdman of Alcatraz, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced this neglected gem of a film starring a dark and brooding James Stewart as David Marshall Williams who invented the M-1 carbine rifle while in prison.

Before writing this review I took a look at the wikipedia article on Marsh Williams and found that MGM had stuck pretty close to telling the real story about Williams. For the farmer the Great Depression began after the Armistice was signed and the food they produced was no longer needed to feed troops. Many like Marsh Williams turned to making moonshine, not just as a way of distilling spirits for personal use, but for economic survival. That fact cannot be emphasized enough in telling the Carbine Williams story.

The federal men were seen as taking the bread out of the farmer's mouths in the North Carolina hills and other such places and the rural folk reacted accordingly. Williams was convicted of murdering a federal agent during a raid. He didn't get the death penalty because no one could tell who really fired the fatal shot, but as he was part of the group he shared responsibility. He got thirty years.

Williams was a skilled machinist and after he got over the bitterness of his incarceration with the help of a friendly warden he worked out the design of the weapon that later became the M-1 carbine rifle used by our armed forces in World War II.

James Stewart in developing his character as Marsh Williams borrowed a whole lot from some of the characters in his Anthony Mann westerns. This is not the 'aw shucks' Jimmy we all identify him with, but a very bitter man, as bitter even as George Bailey when he thinks the world's deserted him in It's A Wonderful Life.

Jean Hagen plays the Donna Reed like wife here who with a man incarcerated has a lot more troubles than Ms. Reed dealt with. The third major role is that of Wendell Corey's warden whose belief in Stewart is sustained.

Carbine Williams tread earlier along the same lines that Birdman of Alcatraz did. And in depicting the moonshining community, Carbine Williams shows folks that could have been the ancestors of the family Robert Mitchum was part of in Thunder Road. It's a good story about a man who found his soul and his work in the oddest of places.

I joined the Navy in 1951. I saw Carbine Williams before I joined in Tacoma, Wa. I saw it in San Diego ,Ca. before I left for Korea Then it was shown aboard the carrier Kearsarge while in the Sea of Japan.I cant remember where I saw it the next few times but I remember I saw it a total of eight times and enjoyed it more each time I saw it. I was especially happy when Marsh was pardoned for his crime.They didn't know for sure if he shot the government man ,but since he was considered the best shot in the group he was blamed and convicted. It was just a movie with a lot of heart.I would watch it again if I could find a copy. If anyone knows where I can get a copy of this movie I would be very happy.

"Graceful" is not a word one would use in the same sentence with "Jimmy Stewart." Gangly, awkward, and with a reedy, high-pitched voice, he seems to have none of the things that we think an actor should have, and yet he was truly one of the great ones. His presence in this true story of David Marshall Williams, designer of the M-1 rifle, lifts what is a fascinating human story to begin with by a quantum notch. Stewart's portrayal of the character transformation of this angry, troubled man is one of the finest things I have seen from him. Abetted by Wendell Corey in the essential role of his prison warden and an excellent script, this movie is truly an underrated gem. They just don't make 'em like Jimmy anymore.