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hyped garbage

Brilliant and touching

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

No, Michael Curtiz's "Virginia City" is not as memorable as "Dodge City." Curtiz helmed "Dodge City"(1939) about the taming of that historic frontier railroad & cattle town with Errol Flynn triumphing over the elements of chaos. He refuses to pin on a lawman's badge until the villains kill a helpless little boy. Warner Brothers lensed "Dodge City" in Technicolor , whereas the Burbank studio filmed "Virginia City" in black & white. The characters in "Dodge City" possess greater charisma, including Bruce Cabot's villainous Jeff Surrett. Robert Buckner, who penned the screenplay for "Dodge City," also wrote "Virginia City." Furthermore, lenser Sol Polito photographed both epics, and his cinematography is outstanding, except that the gorgeous desert locations in "Virginia City" lanquish by comparison in black & white. Although Warner Brothers wanted to capitalize on the success of "Dodge City," the studio cut many corners on this quasi-sequel. Whereas "Dodge City" was a rip-snorting, larger-than-life western, "Virginia City" differs because the good guys and the bad guys behave differently in the last quarter-hour. The last 30-minutes are pretty contrived and the hero makes a moral decision that conflicts with his command imperatives as a Union officer. The resolution seems rather far-fetched and an effort to wrap up everything with a happily-ever after ending. Humphrey Bogart makes an uncharacteristic appearance as a mustached Mexican bandit who preys on our heroes. The first time that he encounters Kerry Bradford (Errol Flynn) on a stagecoach, he tries to rob him, but Bradford outsmarts him. Actually, Bogart is the only genuine villain in this Civil War era oater that takes place in Nevada. Flynn plays a resourceful U.S. Army officer Bradford who tangles with Randolph Scott's Confederate Army officer Vance Irby. They are sworn enemies from the outset with Flynn and his cohorts Alan Hale and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams holed up in the notorious Libby Prison with Irby as a Confederate officer in charge who catches them trying to dig their way out. Later, they blow-up a powder magazine while tunneling to freedom when Irby is off elsewhere. Meantime, Captain Vance Irby (Randolph Scott of "She") and Julia Hayne (Miriam Hopkins of "Barbary Coast") devise an audacious scheme to transport $5-million in gold ingots from Virginia City to the South. President Jefferson Davis (Charles Middleton of "Flash Gordon") approves of the plan. Bradford and company set out to thwart Irby and Hayne. Although it is in black & white, Curtiz and Polito provide a good-looking picture and Flynn makes a first-class hero. Scott qualifies as a quasi-villain because Flynn and he wind up on the same side when Bogart's Hispanic outlaw attacks the wagon train led by Scott. The Confederates have cleverly concealed the gold in wagons with false bottoms. Naturally, Flynn falls in love with Hopkins. The action scenes are terrifi, especially when Murrell and his army surround the Southern wagon train in the desert! No, Michael Curtiz's "Virginia City" is not as memorable as "Dodge City." Curtiz helmed "Dodge City"(1939) about the taming of that historic frontier railroad & cattle town with Errol Flynn triumphing over the elements of chaos. "Virginia City" was lensed in black & white, whereas "Dodge City" was filmed in color and the characters in "Dodge City" have greater charisma, including Bruce Cabot's villainous Jerr Surrett. Robert Buckner, who penned the screenplay for "Dodge City," also wrote "Virginia City." Furthermore, Sol Polito shot both films and the cinematography is outstanding on each, except that the gorgeous desert locations lanquish in black & white. Humphrey Bogart makes an uncharacteristic appearance as a mustached Mexican bandit who preys on our heroes. Actually, Bogart is the only genuine villain. Flynn plays a U.S. Army officer who tangles with Randolph Scott's Confederate Army officer. They are sworn enemies from the outset with Flynn and his cohorts Alan Hale and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams are hard-riding and hard-drinking. The three of them blow-up a powder magazine while tunneling to freedom and escape. Meantime, Scott and Miriam Hopkins make arrangements to transport $5-million in gold ingots from Virginia City to the South, while Flynn and company try to stop them. Although it is in black & white, Curtiz and Polito provide a good-looking picture and Flynn makes a first-class hero. Scott qualifies as a quasi-villain because Flynn and he wind up on the same side when Bogart's Hispanic outlaw attacks the wagon train led by Scott. The Confederates have cleverly concealed the gold in wagons with false bottoms. Naturally, Flynn falls in love with Hopkins. THe action scenes are terrific!

It is incredible that all but one of the Warner westerns made with Errol Flynn (Dodge City) did not age and are fun to watch more than 60 years later. Virginia City is no exception and it is a shame it is in black and white, specially that it shows the Grand Canyon. If the cinematography would be on the same level as "Rocky Mountain" the B*W would be more acceptable. Contrary to some comments I did not find Humprey Bogart's performance bad, it is just not what we expect of him considering the big star he became. Just forget that Murrell, the bandit is Bogart and it is OK. Great music by Max Steiner. Randolph Scott has one of his best performances as Irby, the officer from the South, who is trying to take the gold of Virginia City in a caravan. Flynn and his friends from Dodge, Alan Hale and Big Boy Williams are as good as always. But best of all is the level of quality attained by Warner , which is superior to almost all t westerns ever done after. It makes you want to go back to the days of big studios.

Could any two less likely major stars be chosen to carry a Hollywood oater? There's Errol Flynn, an Australian with an accent of sorts who made his name waving a sword at sea and shooting arrows in forests. There's Miriam Hopkins, one of the most sophisticated and slyest actresses Hollywood has ever seen, but whose career as a major star in major movies had declined since the late Thirties. Yet together with Randolph Scott and director Michael Curtiz, they turn Virginia City into a rouser, part full-blown action western and part patriotic soap opera. With the movie slightly more than two hours long, Curtiz crams in more set-ups than probably he should have, but even all those separate piece-parts look good. Kerry Bradford (Flynn) is a Union officer imprisoned in Libby Prison just outside of Richmond. Vance Irby (Randolph Scott) is a Confederate officer assigned to run the prison while he recuperates from war wounds. The war is not going well for the Confederates. Bradford and two pals break out just as Confederate spy Julia Hayne (Miriam Hopkins), based in Virginia City, Nevada, arrives for a meeting with old friend Irby. Confederate mine owners in Virginia City have accumulated enough gold for a major shipment to Richmond...$5 million in bullion that could change the war. With Jefferson Davis' approval, Irby is ordered to go to Virginia City and organize a wagon train to try to get the gold down to Texas and the Gulf coast, then by ship back to Richmond. But Union spies know the gold is being readied. Bradford, back in uniform, convinces his superiors to send him to Virginia City, locate the gold and stop the shipment. And who should be on the stagecoach taking Kerry and his two pals to Virginia City? Yes, Julia Hayne. And not just her. There's a man with a hairline mustache, a twitchy way, a false smile and a strangely uncertain Mexican accent. It's Humphrey Bogart, disguised as the renegade John Murrell, the leader of Murrell's Marauders, a group of hard-riding robbers and killers. The stage is set for action...hair-breadth escapes, run-away stage coaches, tense stand-offs, rousing songs at the Sazerac Saloon (where Julia is the headliner as a singer and dancer), a desperate wagon train running out of water and attacked in the desert by Humphrey Bogart, bullet extractions, beautiful desert scenery, a court martial and a cavalry charge to the rescue, not in that order. We even get a dignified Jefferson Davis, a jocular General George Meade and a merciful and wise Abraham Lincoln, who recites parts of his second inaugural address to a teary-eyed Julia. Errol Flynn does a bang-up job, but Miriam Hopkins and Humphrey Bogart are game but miscast. Hopkins is as unlikely an earnest Southern spy as she is a saloon singer, yet she's still highly watchable as both. She was born and raised in Georgia, but the softness of a high-bred Southern belle with something approximating a New England tease makes for an accent that's uniquely hers. Her lower choppers are charmingly irregular and she can handle a high kick with ease. Hopkins was so mischievous and sly an actress that it must have been hard to find the right movies for her. That she took Hollywood less than seriously probably didn't help. For her best work, you'll need to watch Trouble in Paradise, The Smiling Lieutenant and Design for Living. At 47 she was memorable as Aunt Livinia in The Heiress. As for Bogart, after this movie he probably counted his blessings that in the following year he broke through with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. If Bogart hadn't scored these two, it's just likely he would have been stuck for the rest of his life competing for character parts with J. Carroll Naish. Thank goodness we have Randolph Scott to provide the movie's steadfastness and old- fashioned honor. He may be playing a reb, he may be up against Errol Flynn as a hero and a suitor, but Scott knows how to hold his own in these kinds of pictures. On balance, Virginia City is easy to watch, thanks to Scott and Flynn. Miriam Hopkins makes for a unique kind of heroine and even Humphrey Bogart's secondary villain is interesting in a ludicrous sort of way.