James Stewart plays the titular role in the fact-based feature, Carbine Williams, directed by Richard Thorpe, about the inventor of the U.S. Army’s M-1 carbine rifle.
The film depicts Marsh Williams’ previous life as a bootlegger and embittered prison inmate, sentenced to 30 years at hard labor for killing a revenue agent.
After enduring chain-gang life and solitary confinement, Williams begins to develop a new type of automatic-gun piston. He is encouraged by prison warden H. T. Peoples (Wendell Corey), previously his opponent.
As Williams continues to develop his innovative weaponry notions, his wife Maggie (Jean Hagen) and Warden Peoples try to overcome red tape bureaucracy and win a pardon for him.
Stewart and Wendel Corey teamed again two years later in Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Rear Window.
Credits
Released: May 1, 1952 Wide
DVD: June 22, 2009
Warner