Nevada

Apart from westerns, Robert Mitchum always looks slick in these black and white films, particularly in the 40's. He has an arched lip which sometimes has an evil curve when he's angry. He's usually pushed to his limit, but it's always the tall, broad shoulders that surfaces in every film he's in.

Once again a well-made RKO Radio Picture from yesteryear provides a fine entertainment in a summer when TV is a total washout and there are no movies at the multiplex for grown-ups over 13.

This noteworthy formula western introduces Robert Mitchum in a story that moves along fast while focusing on the early days of the Comstock Lode in Gold Hill, CA. The story is good, the acting fine, the cinematography just great. They got the history straight and everything is on-the-level except that the real Gold Hill is on a steep grade, not flat; and that's the only flaw in the movie. Filming at Lone Pine, CA certainly fooled me, as the terrain is exactly the same as around Carson City, NV and Gold Hill.

They knew how to make westerns in 1944; they don't in 2007. Unlike 3:10 to Yuma, this one doesn't turn stupid in the final 16 minutes.

Look for NEVADA in recent DVD release. Then look around the house for an old $20 Gold Double Eagle minted from Comstock gold in 1870 at the mint in Carson City. It'll be worth $200,000 in poor condition; lots more if it still looks pretty.

It's always interesting to speculate on how different careers turn. RKO Pictures needed a new B western star because Tim Holt was going in the service. So this guy Mitchum was spotted in one of the Hopalong Cassidy films he played a bit role in and in fact Mitchum had done other parts like Thirty Second Over Tokyo, etc. So he got signed to a long term contract with RKO for this to be the first in a series of B Westerns.

To show how much he was supposed to be a Tim Holt stand-in, Mitch was given Richard Martin who played Chito Rafferty the same part he played as Holt's sidekick. He also got a second sidekick in Guinn Williams. And the billing for Nevada read "introducing Robert Mitchum."

The western itself is standard fare, nothing truly spectacular about it. It's source was a Zane Grey story which is a plus. But even then you could tell the camera loved Robert Mitchum. It's a must for Mitchum fans of which I'm one.

The thing I wonder about though is if William Wellman hadn't spotted Mitchum and given him that career making part in The Story of GI Joe, would Mitch have continued as a B western star with his career petering out in the mid 50s or earlier. Food for thought.

A man called Nevada is on the run from both the law and some outlaws. He was involved in a shoot-out with the latter over a crooked card game and is wrongly accused of murder by the former. The real killer is a crooked mining boss who assassinates the father of a prospecting family who live on silver-rich land that he wants for himself.

It would be fair to say that Nevada is only really notable for one thing and that is as the film where Robert Mitchum was given his first starring role. He isn't much remembered nowadays as a western star though. The genre wasn't suited that well to allow him to play to his own specific strengths. Nevertheless, he is certainly good enough here and it's a pretty decent performance. The movie itself is a fairly formulaic B-western – a film designed at the time to fit into a cinematic programme as the second highest billed feature – although it's still an enjoyable enough effort. It's paced well, with decent enough characters and story. While Nevada hardly breaks the mould, it's still good fun.

"Nevada" (Bob Mitchum] rescues "Julie" (Anne Jeffreys) from a grizzly fate and she warns him that the town they are both travelling to isn't a lot friendlier. He arrives and soon finds that is too true as he is arrested for a murder and a robbery. She tries to intercede for him with the fair-minded sheriff but when a lynch mob breaks into the jail he has to skedaddle and think on his feet to track down the real culprit and, with the help of an alchemist, find out just what is going on in this remote prospecting town. Now we know all along who is pulling the strings so there's not oodles of jeopardy here, but that said - Mitchum delivers quite well here as the decent cowboy embroiled in a battle of wits with a shrewd and greedy man who has designs not just on the town, but on "Julie" too. Jeffreys also delivers more strongly giving her character a little more oomph than was more common for the leading lady in these once-a-week procedural westerns. We even get a jolly ditty from his pal "Dusty" (Guinn Williams) and it's quite entertainingly paced for an hour of fairly action-packed drama.