Andre deToth directed Carson City, a well-executed Western, starring Randolph Scott, Lucille Norman, and Raymond Massey.
Carson City | |
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Based on a story by Sloan Nibley, the film is about a railroad construction engineer whose plans to build a railroad line between Nevada’s Carson City and Virginia City are met with hostility by the residents. The locals fear that the trains will attract outlaws.
Shot on location at Iverson Ranch, Bell Ranch, and Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, Carson City was Warner’s first film in WarnerColor.
Mine owner William Sharon has his gold shipments held up by gang of bandits. Sharon hires banker Charles Crocker, who has connections in the Central Pacific Railroad, to build a spur line from Virginia City to Carson City for the gold to be shipped by rail.
Enter Silent Jeff Kincaid, the railroad engineer who’s the tale’s moral hero. However, there is opposition to the railroad from another mine owner, Big Jack Davis. As he doesn’t own a working mine, it’s easier to rob from the other owners.
Davis is the brains behind the gang holding up Sharon’s shipments. He is doing it by holding up the stagecoach and then providing food and champagne for the passengers, who then don’t care the gold is robbed.
Kincaid vows to rid Carson City of the bandits, but they frame him on murder charge.
In the climax, Kincaid must contend with a suspicious landslide that kills some of his workers, while trapping others, and gold bullion heist.
Cast
Randolph Scott as Silent Jeff Kincaid
Lucille Norman as Susan Mitchell
Raymond Massey as A. J. ‘Big’ Jack Davis
Richard Webb as Alan Kincaid
James Millican as Jim Squires
Larry Keating as William Sharon
George Cleveland as Henry Dodson
William Haade as Hardrock Haggerty
Don Beddoe as Zeke Mitchell
Thurston Hall as Charles Crocker
Vince Barnett as Henry
Directed by Andre DeToth
Screenplay by Sloan Nibley, Winston Miller, based on story by Nibley
Produced by Bryan Foy, David Weisbart
Cinematography John W. Boyle
Edited by Robert L. Swanson
Music by David Buttolph
Color process Warnercolor
Production and distribution: Warner Bros.
Release date: June 13, 1952 (USA)
Running time: 87 minutes
Box office $1.7 million (USA rentals)
Note:
TCM showed this Western on August 15, 2022.
Andre DeToth Filmography:
Passport to Suez (1943)
None Shall Escape (1944)
Dark Waters (1944)
Ramrod (1947)
The Other Love (1947)
Pitfall (1948)
Slattery’s Hurricane (1949)
Man in the Saddle (1951)
Carson City (1952)
Springfield Rifle (1952)
Last of the Comanches (1953)
House of Wax (1953)
The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953)
Thunder Over the Plains (1953)
Crime Wave (1954)
Tanganyika (1954)
The Bounty Hunter (1954)
Riding Shotgun (1955)
The Indian Fighter (1955)
Hidden Fear (1957)
Monkey on My Back (1957)
The Two-Headed Spy (1958)
Day of the Outlaw (1959)
Man on a String (1960)
Morgan, the Pirate (1960)
The Mongols (1961)
Gold for the Caesars (1963)
Play Dirty (1968)