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.

As an actor, James Stewart seems to have hit his stride in the fifteen years or so after the Second World War. Known up to this point as a gee-whiz, gulp-and-golly, boy-next-door Everyman type, Stewart took on roles of increasing complexity, most notably in the psychological "adult" westerns of Anthony Mann. Even his famous and much loved role as George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life" contains a dark brooding undercurrent which belies its sunny reputation as a feel-good family Holiday film. All of which goes to show that Stewart could bring something unexpected to even the "corniest" movies.

In "Carbine Williams", Stewart plays the title role, a moonshiner who is convicted of murdering a Federal agent, and who then gets sent to a chain gang after being implicated in a prison murder. His rebellious nature brings him into conflict with the warden at the prison farm, Captain Peoples (Dracut MA's own Wendell Corey), until he discovers a means of channelling his anger and bitterness.

The real-life David Marshall Williams did indeed invent the improvements in firearms which led directly to the development to the M-1 carbine, the weapon which helped to win World War II. And he did it while serving a long prison sentence for murder. The story is interesting enough on its own, but Stewart brings an intensity and heart to the role which makes it even more fascinating than a mere telling of the facts would be.

One of many excellent films James Stewart made during the 1950's, this one is somewhat obscure, not particularly well-remembered today. But it deserves to be.

This is a great story about David Marshall Williams - an independent spirited man who rightfully or wrongfully gets accused of killing a law enforcement officer during a moonshine distillery raid and goes to prison. The twist is that he's not a career criminal but a strait forward man, and also an inventor who comes across wrong during the trial for speaking the event as he believes it, and gets the unfair blame for the death. Williams (Jimmy Stuart) is an honest man who says things as he believes it - which doesn't win him charm points with the prison warden, but has a principle he believes in. Some of his integrity shines through, and although seen as a trouble maker, he is entrusted to be in the machine shop of the prison. There he puts his mind to work and starts working on a new rifle design. During one altercation, he's thrown into solitary confinement where he uses the time to invent the new gas action loading mechanism for his rifle. By this time prison warden Capt. H.T. Peoples (Wendell Corey) is sympathetic with Williams and allows him to develop his idea. He even allows Williams to have time out of prison to spend with his wife. Marshall could have escaped during this time, but he returns to prison again showing his strait forward integrity. On the day Williams completes the design, to test fire the rifle, Capt. Peoples hands Williams the bullet - warden is giving his prisoner a bullet to fire a rifle ! The design works, and Williams applies for patent. Colt fire arms is interested in his design, and visits him in prison to license his design. The design becomes none other than the M1 rifle which became the staple fire arms during WW II for the U.S. military.

This is a great story told by great actors about a man who despite his odds achieved something no short of a miracle. It also tells a story about human heart, that there are good men who can be understanding, generous, and develop friendship despite situations they are placed under. James Stuart play the role of Carbine Williams character perfectly. An honest man of few words, but lives by a principle he believes in. He's an anti-hero of a sorts in this movie, but is my most favorite part he's ever played in a movie. Wendell Corey plays somewhat of a protective role to Williams who he understands is living life too honestly for his own good. Their muted but genuine friendship shines through in this film.

One of the few unknown classic of Hollywood. A marvelous movie to watch.

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.

"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.