Carson City (1952)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Carson City is a western that has an easy, but enjoyable story-line to follow. Randolph Scott pleases in his role as a engineer, taking on the assignment of constructing the railroad between Carson City and Viriginia City. However, he encounters plenty of objection and division from the residents of Carson City. Now add in the bad guys, a group of outlaws, dubbed the Champagne Bandits for their serving the bubbly drink to those they rob. Raymond Massey makes the most of his role as the gangs suave leader. Pretty actress Lucille Norman plays the girl with romantic feelings towards Scott. The film ends with a showdown between Scott and Massey. Carson City moves at a satisfying pace, with your typical saloon brawls and other action packed western activities. The color is not vivid as technicolor and the cinematography is average, but it does not distract from the performance of the actors. The combination of Scott and Massey in this film is superb, and Lucille Norman lights up the screen with her pretty blonde tresses. If you are a fan of Westerns from the early 1950s and Randolph Scott, I suggest Carson City is well worth watching.

There's absolutely no surprises in this little old Western but I enjoyed it immensely – in fact have done ever since I saw it as a youngster over 40 years ago. And it appeared as corny then as it did just now, it's nice returning to a simple story with black and white characters in Warnercolor. Simple pleasures indeed.Railroad is required to be constructed to connect Carson City with Virginia City and granite-like Randolph Scott is the only man who can engineer it through. Baddie Raymond Massey is grimly supported by James "Herb" Millican and his dozy gang of Champagne Bandits aiming to stop it ever coming to pass. There's an interesting assortment of alliances and oppositions in the town – there's always mixed feelings when people are faced with Progress after all; and a stuttering love affair between Scott, his old flame and his brother – Richard Webb replaying his petulant performance in Build My Gallows High from 5 years before. Favourite bits: The puzzling and wimpy opening robbery – even Robin Hood could never have behaved like that!; the well-intentioned barroom brawl that terrorised the town; the race to rescue the trapped miners and the high moral tone; the photography when Scott was rounding up the first of the baddies was especially excellent. Back then there was plenty for men, women, boys and girls to savour, nowadays sadly much more sex, violence and crudity is required to attain the status of Good Film.Everything in here was done better before by the likes of Flynn, Cooper and Wayne but it's still an entertaining, colourful and logical waste of time with no ethical or emotional loose-ends at the conclusion. Don't ask for anything more from any of Randolph Scott's films and they're great!

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..

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.