Carson City (1952)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Very Cool!!!

Let's be realistic.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Early 50's..still thrilled with re-telling stories of the old west..a lot of us couldn't' wait for the next western to be released..whether it was Johnny Mack Brown or Wild Bill Elliott..or Hopalong Cassidy..we didn't care..but we all had our favorites..or whether they were shooting 8 or 10 shots from a 6 shooter without re-loading..it was all good fun..but when certain actors showed up in a western we seemed to pay a little more attention because these guys seemed authentic..James Stewart, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Henry Fonda..for me it was Randolph Scott and Joel McRea..now with Carson City, we have Randolph Scott who always wanted to see the other side of the mountain and meets up with his brother..the stable kind of guy with a regular job and a girl that Scott hasn't seen since she was 16 and admits to having a big crush on way back then..he's in town to build a railroad..a faster, easier way to ship all that gold coming out of the mines..Raymond Massey as the mine owner with no gold..but he always has plenty of it..you guess where it's all coming from..hold ups by a gang called the Champaigne Bandits because those robbed are well treated..fried chicken lunch and Champaigne for their troubles..there is animosity between the town folk and the railroad crews.. And a pretty good fight between Scott and one of his men in the saloon..pretty well staged..the girl in question has never gotten over Scott and she has never thought of his brother in that way..they both work for her father publishing the town newspaper until he is killed..it's got to be the railroad people, right? The way it ends reminds me of the Errol Flynn/Olivia Dehaviland western from 1939..Dodge City when someone proclaims that their railroad building days are over only to have their mind changed by a good woman..all in all there is plenty of action..some romance..some wolves in sheeps' clothing.. A good story made better with Scott..

No need to repeat the plot. I'm surprised Warner Bros. didn't introduce Warnercolor by going to a scenic location like the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. Instead, they took a cheaper route, filming in the scrubby hills of greater LA. Otherwise, it's a pretty routine entry in the Randoph Scott sweepstakes. Casting him as a railroad engineer is novel, at the same time, the tunnel collapse furnishes some unusual suspense for a western. The buckboard crash is spectacular even for a sagebrush staple like buckboard crashes. However, the plot's a little overcrowded for my liking, while the powerful Raymond Massey is pretty much wasted in a role any number of lesser actors could have handled. Then too, director De Toth films in straightforward fashion, unlike the beautifully wrought intrigue of his western masterpiece, Ramrod (1947). All in all, it's a decent oater, but for a Randy Scott feature, it's nothing special.

This is a pleasant western by talented Andre De Toth although in my book,it does not rank with his best ,with such works as " Springfield rifle" and "day of the outlaw" ,not to mention non western-efforts such as "House of Wax" or "two-headed spy".It looks like a "Dodge City" (Curtiz,1939) in miniature ,a feeling which the final scenes on the train reinforces. Scott is an intellectual this time ,Jeff,a courageous engineer while Raymond Massey plays the villain.Jeff has also a brother ,Alan (Richard Webb) who is trifle jealous of his brother and his -professional and others-success (they are both in love,of course ,with the same woman,Susan (Lucille Norman);generally it bodes ill for the washout.

Carson City has the distinction of two real western characters hiring the fictional character played by Randolph Scott to build a railroad from Virginia City to Carson City. William Sharon(Larry Keating) is getting very tired of having his gold shipments held up by a gang of bandits who also cater when they do a holdup. Sharon approaches banker Charles Crocker(Thurston Hall)who also is a big wheel in the Central Pacific railroad to build a spur line so he can ship by railroad.Of course the railroad has its opponents in Carson City and quite subtly mine owner Raymond Massey is heading the opposition. Because Massey doesn't have a working mine, he does it the easy way, he robs the gold from the other guys and then ships it as his own.Massey's the brains behind those bandit/caterers. His bandits holdup the stagecoach have the passengers removed and then show them to a picnic lunch topped off by a magnum of champagne. The other passengers don't care when the rich Larry Keating gets robbed and aren't too helpful to the law. It's unique in westerns I have to say, but it's also kind of silly, the sort of stuff you might see in a western from Roy Rogers or Gene Autry, but not Randolph Scott.Starting out with such a silly premise it was hard for me to get really into Carson City, even after it turned deadly serious with Massey trying to stop the railroad in any way he can. Randolph Scott had a unique leading lady here, radio singer Lucille Norman who sings not a note. That's a pity because the woman had a wonderful soprano. I have an album she did with Gordon MacRae of the score from The Desert Song. Lucille is the daughter of Carson City Clarion editor Don Beddoe who gets murdered by Massey when his suspicions are aroused. Lucille is also got Scott's half brother Richard Webb, TV and radio's Captain Midnight as a rival suitor and opponent of the railroad. Randy's got all kinds of personal problems for taking on this job.Carson City is also badly edited. There were a few things that were left in the air that I'm sure wound up on the cutting room floor.Randolph Scott's legion of fans will like Carson City, but it's far from his best work.