| Virginia City | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis (executive producer) |
| Written by | Robert Buckner (play) Howard Koch (uncredited) Norman Reilly Raine (uncredited) |
| Starring | Errol Flynn Miriam Hopkins Randolph Scott Humphrey Bogart Frank McHugh |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Sol Polito |
| Editing by | George Amy |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | May 16, 1940 |
| Running time | 121 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1 million[1] |
Virginia City is a 1940 black-and-white movie starring Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, and Randolph Scott, and featuring a mustachioed Humphrey Bogart in the role of the real-life outlaw John Murrell. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz. The film premiered in its namesake, Virginia City, Nevada.
Contents |
The action begins in a Confederate prison, from which Union officer Kerry Bradford (Errol Flynn) stages a daring escape under the nose of the prison's warden, Vance Irby (Randolph Scott) — but not before learning that the rebels plan to smuggle five million dollars in gold from Virginia City, Nevada (in Union territory), to Texas, from which it can be shipped to Richmond to aid the Confederate war effort. Bradford reports to Union headquarters and is immediately sent to Virginia City, to determine where the gold is being kept. On the stagecoach, he meets and falls in love with the elegant Julia Hayne (Miriam Hopkins), who unbeknownst to him is in fact a dance-hall girl — and a rebel spy! Also on the stagecoach is a mysterious gun salesman (Humphrey Bogart) who quickly reveals himself as the legendary John Murrell, leader of a gang of bandidos. But Bradford gets the drop on him and his gang is sent away empty-handed; Murrell himself escapes by leaping into a river.
Once the stage has reached Virginia City, Julia gives Bradford the slip and heads off to warn Irby, who has been sent to manage the gold-smuggling operation, that Bradford is in town. Bradford follows Irby to the rebels' hideout, behind a false wall in a blacksmiths' shop; but the gold is moved before he can discover it. The Union garrison is called out to patrol the streets, so as to catch any wagons trying to leave town.
Meanwhile, Irby happens to be meeting with the sympathetic town doctor when Murrell shows up, looking for a man to set his broken arm. Irby offers Murrell $10,000 to perform a small service: Murrell's bandidos will attack the garrison, forcing the Union soldiers in the streets to come to its defense. While the soldiers' backs are turned, Irby's rebels will be able to smuggle the gold out in the false bottoms of their wagons. But first Irby needs to take care of Bradford: He uses Julia to arrange a meeting between the two men, and then takes Bradford prisoner, intending to return him to prison. (Irby, of course, is too honorable to simply shoot Bradford on the spot.)
The rebels' wagon train reaches a Union outpost, where the wagons are stopped and searched. The skittish rebels start a firefight, and in the confusion Bradford escapes. Pursued closely by Irby and his men, he rides his horse down a steep incline and ends up somersaulting down the hill. The rebels, not wishing to follow, leave him for dead. The train continues toward Texas, while Bradford sends a telegraph to the garrison. The major in charge of the garrison (Douglass Dumbrille) is not as adept as Bradford in anticipating Irby's tactics, and does not take kindly to advice, so the pursuit falls ever further behind the rebels (who are themselves fighting thirst, privation, and the unforgiving terrain).
However, at this point Murrell and his bandidos return, not satisfied with $10,000 when there are better pickings to be had. The wagons are circled in a canyon, and the rebels and their gold seem to be lost, when Bradford and his small force arrive. Irby is wounded in the fight, but Bradford's superior military skills and the rebels' long guns drive off the bandits. That night, knowing that in the morning both Murrell's men and the mass of the Union garrison will arrive, Bradford takes the gold from the wagons and buries it in the canyon with the help of two kegs of gunpowder.
When the major and his men arrive in the morning in time to crush the bandits' renewed attack, Bradford denies the gold ever existed. He is brought up in a court-martial, where he defends his actions by explaining that while, as a soldier, he knows the gold might be used to end the war sooner, still it belongs to the South, and, as a man, he would rather it go to rebuild the South's shattered economy and wounded honor after the war. Nevertheless, the court finds him guilty of high treason and sentences him to death on April 9, 1865.
But on the day before Bradford's scheduled execution, Julia meets with Abraham Lincoln (Victor Kilian, seen only in his silhouette cast on a piece of paper) and pleads for his life. Lincoln reveals that at that very moment, Generals Lee and Grant are meeting at Appomattox Courthouse to end the war. As the war is over, and in a symbol of the reconciliation between North and South, Lincoln gladly pardons Bradford, and the film ends with Lincoln's voiceover quoting from his second inaugural address: "With malice toward none; with charity for all...."