Carovana d'eroi

This is a follow up (but not a sequel) to Dodge City (1939). That movie had ended with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland's characters leaving for Virginia City. Next year, the director Michael Curtiz and leading actor Errol Flynn are back together to film Virginia City, but the characters are different and de Havilland has been replaced by Miriam Hopkins.

This movie, unlike Dodge City, is black & white, but it does have stunning cinematography, with exteriors filmed in Painted Desert among other places. I thought it had a very good story, only slightly spoiled by a corny ending. It is a western and also a spy story, with a union agent (Errol Flynn) and a confederate one (Randolph Scott), who have a history together, competing to get the gold that was meant to help the Confederacy maintain the war effort.

Flynn and Scott did a good job. As in Dodge City, Flynn does not completely convince me as a cowboy. He is a bit too refined for that. But he has such a great camera presence that I don't mind. That guy was born to be a movie star. Hopkins is fine, but she is no de Havilland, and her singing scenes in the saloon are just OK. Then we have Bogart as the evil outlaw who is also after the gold. Much as I like Bogart, he is kind of ridiculous here, between that moustache and the weird accent. I liked him much better as a western villain in The Oklahoma Kid, where he was suitably menacing.

All in all, a very entertaining story. That ending could have been polished a bit more, though.

Imagine the opportunity to see a completely different (and better) cast of Gone With the Wind. Randolph Scott, Margaret Mitchell's personal choice for Ashley Wilkes and Georgia-born Miriam Hopkins, who had her heart set on Scarlett O'Hara, star in Virginia City, alongside my personal favorite contender for Rhett Butler: Errol Flynn. The cast is reason enough to rent this old western, because it's not often you get three "cast-offs" in one picture.

The plot is quite interesting, too. Errol is a Union soldier who escapes from a Confederate-run prison, run by Randolph Scott, the most famous Southerner of the silver screen. On his way to Virginia City, Errol meets and is enchanted by Miriam Hopkins. He thinks she's a great lady, but she's actually a saloon girl and a Confederate! The fly in the ointment is Humphrey Bogart, who plays a Mexican bandit. This is Humphrey Bogart, folks. Even his mustache doesn't seem Mexican.

Besides that, this is an entertaining movie, and well timed. Those of you disappointed by the casting of the 1939 epic can sooth their disappointments with this 1940 western. By itself, it's not really my favorite of its genre, but I really enjoyed seeing all three of them together. The only thing cuter would have been if Errol and Scottie played brothers, since they look so much alike! If you like this one, try So Red the Rose, a Gone With the Wind precursor with Scottie playing the Ashley Wilkes character and Margaret Sullavan as the flirty Southern belle.

Errol Flynn reteams w/his steady director in crime Michael Curtiz to tell this Civil War story where a band of Union soldiers are on the hunt of some Rebs who have stolen some gold w/the explicit intention of shoring up the coffers for the Confederacy. The off beat tale works due its hunter/hunted paradigm w/the action sequences shot w/flavor & zest. Look for Gilligan's Island Skipper's father (Alan Hale) & the baddie played by Humphrey Bogart (sporting a Mexican accent).

Those who are not used to classic Hollywood productions will probably shun this picture if only because the plot is somewhat complex and there are some glaring mistakes. Nevertheless, the simple fact that Errol Flynn is the lead role makes up for many of the shortcomings and makes this yet another solid production featuring Flynn and director Michael Curtiz.

In a story somewhat reminiscent of Gone With the Wind and Flynn's previous film Dodge City, Union captain Bradford (Flynn) escapes with his two sidekicks (the same in Dodge City) and travels to Virginia City to try and stop a group of Southerners from bringing $5 million in gold back from the mines of Nevada in order to fund the war which they are badly losing. This creates for some great tension scenes which I found very provocative between Flynn and Randolph Scott as the leader of the Southerners. Miriam Hopkins plays the role usually reserved for Olivia de Havilland, and although she isn't as personable or warm as her, Hopkins holds her own with both Scott and Flynn.

As for Humphrey Bogart as a Mexican bandit, he is highly miscast, but still a solid part of this strong cast that all comes together in the end in a final shootout in the desert. Curtiz certainly knows how to stage action scenes and those here are some of his best. Of course, like most others, this film belongs to Flynn. He is one of the most charismatic and likable leading men ever and his talents are at their best here. He is one of the very few actors who can make a film better simply with his presence. This one is no exception.

"Virginia City", released in 1940, is a film that could have been rated as a western classic, because of the cast members alone. Against the backdrop of the American Civil War, Errol Flynn, Union Captain, was up against Randolph Scott, Confederate Colonel, with Miriam Hopkins supplying the love interest between the two. Flynn breaks out of a Confederate prison commanded by Scott during the latter days of 1864, a period that saw the South's dwindling resources virtually shrink to nothing. There is a slim chance to smuggle a multi-million gold shipment from Virginia City, Nevada, to the South. Scott is given the assignment, and Flynn, hearing of the plan, is given the job by the Union to prevent the smuggled gold from reaching the Confederacy. There's the overview. The weakness comes in casting Humphrey Bogart as a Mexican-American bandit whose main interest in the gold is to steal it for himself. Bogart's miscasting really distracts from the film, even though it is no fault of his own.

Besides the stars in the film, there's good support cast members from Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Alan Hale, Sr., John Litel, and Moroni Olsen, all veterans of the Western genre. Add a stirring music score by Max Steiner, plus sweeping vistas of the West, and the struggles of the Confederate sympathizers in their efforts to succeed in their task, and you have a film that could have been great, but one that falls short. It is worth watching, however. 7/10