Caravana de Ouro

At the end of Michael Curtiz's enormously successful Dodge City in 1939, Olivia DeHavilland decides she's married a professional lawman after all so Guinn Williams ends the film with a resounding, 'Virginia City here we come' as Errol Flynn will now take the job offer of marshal.

Too bad that they didn't make a sequel with those same characters. A year later when Virginia City was made it was a fanciful Civil War out west tale about a Confederate scheme at the last minute to smuggle several millions in gold bullion into the South for supplies to keep the war going. And what happens in the end strains credulity to say the least.

Carried over from the cast of Dodge City are Errol Flynn, Guinn Williams, Alan Hale, and Ward Bond. Olivia DeHavilland chose not to make the trip. At that point in her career she was fighting with Jack Warner to not keep playing crinolined heroines. So Miriam Hopkins was the leading lady here.

Other reviewers have said how lousy Miriam Hopkins was as a singing saloon chanteuse. In fairness to Miriam I have to point out that she's a Confederate spy singing a Union song, The Battle Cry of Freedom with about as much enthusiasm as she can muster. And she's also in that establishment the Sazerac saloon, not being paid for her voice.

Errol Flynn, a former prisoner at the Confederacy's Libby Prison, after an escape gets an assignment to check out rumors that Southern sympathizing mine owners are going to smuggle their find into the Confederacy. At the same time the former commandant of Libby, Randolph Scott, gets an assignment to bring the gold out.

Of course when they meet at the Sazerac all pretense to undercover is out the window. But Scott's got an ace up his sleeve in Miriam Hopkins who Flynn is kind of sweet on. She leads Errol astray and into the Confederate hands. Talk about true life casting, Errol being led astray by his hormones.

There's a third player in this game and that's Humphrey Bogart who plays the Mexican bandit leader Murrell with an accent like the Frito Bandito's. Bogey was also fighting for some better roles and in fact he got one the same year in High Sierra that would turn his career around. What possessed Jack Warner to cast him in this role, God only knows. Bogey's looks dumb in this part and he knows it. Why couldn't they just get someone like Gilbert Roland for the part?

There's quite a shootout in the desert over the gold. What happens to it is rather unbelievable, let's just say that Errol Flynn took a great deal upon himself and he was quite the lucky fellow to get the fate he got.

Virginia City is entertaining enough in a B western sort of way. But if I had three film icons like Errol Flynn, Randolph Scott, and Humphrey Bogart in my film, I'd sure have looked for a better property, pardner.

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.

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.

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.

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. The only regret that I have is that I had never saw it up until 2 years ago. The movie does not take sides and gives you a neutral, fly on the wall view of a story unfolding. Randolph Scott plays a Southern officer who is sent to Virginia City, NV to obtain gold so that the South can finance the Civil War. They need to do this simply because this late in the war and with the South losing, the Confederacy no longer has financial credit with foreign powers. Errol Flynn is a Northern officer sent to stop Scott from completing his mission. There is a back story concerning these two men which adds to the tension. I left out much of the details because I do not want to ruin it for anyone who checks it out. This movie proves that who is the "bad guy" depends on which side you are on as both the main characters and those associated with them are simply doing what they feel is right. Great action, great building of the characters and you wind up not sure who to root for. Two great main actors, great supporting cast and even Bogart is here, showing that westerns should have been added to his studio lineup more often, minus the whole half-Mexican bandito thing. This movie should be given a chance and is just as good today as it was in 1940.