Exclusive“Virginia City” (1940): Gold, Loyalty, and a Nation at War

Yes, we'll rally from the plague, boys, we'll rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom. We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain, shouting the battle cry of freedom. Nyan-nyan forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah! Down with the traitor, up with the storm, while we rally from the plague, boys, rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom. We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true, and brave, shouting the battle cry of freedom. And although he may be poor, he will never be a slave, shouting the battle cry of freedom. Nyan-nyan forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah! Down with the storm, while we rally from the plague, boys, rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom. All right, I have food and games worked out. Do you think that's enough? Well, it could be if you have enough games. I have enough, but we always are wanting to introduce people to classic movies. Maybe we should watch a movie. Oh, that would be fun. What movie do you want to watch? It's so hard to think of something everyone will like. I know, I know. Well, let's think about who the guests are. Well, Ned likes history, and Richard likes intellectual topics. And I'm still trying to convince Nick that old movies aren't silly. Well, what's an intelligent historical film that has dramatic subject matter? I know, Virginia City. I'm Tiffany Brannan. I'm Rebecca Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. Al Flynn, an originally Australian actor, is most known for playing swashbuckling roles, and particularly British characters, but he also made a surprisingly large amount of westerns. Usually, when you think about stars of classic westerns, you think about American actors like John Wayne and Gary Cooper. But Errol Flynn did make a surprisingly large amount of westerns, first at his heyday at Warner Brothers and afterwards. Of all his westerns that I've seen, the one I recommend is not simply a western, a sort of shoot-'em-up cowboy picture. It's also a Civil War film, a wagon train adventure, and a romance. That film is Virginia City from 1940. In the waning days of the Civil War, the Confederacy is failing. They don't have the money to buy the ammunition that they need to continue fighting. Julia Hayne, a devoted southerner, visits her old childhood friend, Vance Irby, now in charge of a notorious Confederate jail, Libby Prison, and tells him that she's been living in Virginia City, Nevada, where all the gold mines are held by southern sympathizers. So she suggests to him a plan to go there and smuggle $5 million worth of gold out of the city and to the south. However, a Union officer, Cary, who is being held at Libby Prison, escapes with two of his friends and is reassigned to go to Virginia City because he suspects that the very plan which Vance is putting into action is going to be enacted. On the wagon train there, he meets and falls in love with Julia. However, when she learns that he's a Union officer, their romance is destined for hard times. This is a Warner Bros. film starring Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, and Randolph Scott. It was produced by Hal B. Wallace and directed by Michael Curtiz. The production for this film is quite interesting. This is the case with multiple films. Of course, Errol Flynn's most common film partner was Olivia de Havilland. Right. He made his breakout film, Captain Blood, opposite her, and after that, Warner always wanted to put them together. But she had other ideas about her career. She wanted to play something other than just the ingenue leading lady to Errol Flynn. So she was originally offered the role of Julia in this film and turned it down, and it ultimately went to Miriam Hopkins, who actually was a native-born southerner. This was the only time they made a movie together, correct? That is correct. I think it's interesting to see a different type of leading lady like Miriam Hopkins because I think she brings a certain believability as a chorus girl because she is a saloon performer at one point. Now, it's for a good cause, but I think she adds some nuance to that role that maybe Olivia de Havilland wouldn't have. There's a certain undeniable sweetness about Olivia. And she's a very dignified young lady. She really has the air of she's a lady, and she usually played more refined characters. Miriam Hopkins, in her earlier film career, she made some of the most notorious pre-code films. Yes, she did. Story of Temple Drake and Design for Living were quite scandalous. And she was a chorus girl on the stage. That's how she sort of broke into show business. So she's very believable in this part. This movie is interesting because it stars mostly the usual Warner Brothers players. For instance, the two sidekicks, if you will, of Errol Flynn's character were his sidekicks in many movies, Alan Hale and Big Boy Williams. Right. And interestingly, Errol Flynn's first western was a movie called Dodge City, the year before 1939, with Olivia de Havilland and Alan Hale and Big Boy Williams are his sidekicks in that, too. So it's the same little kind of trio. And funnily enough, at the end of Dodge City, his character, who was based on Wyatt Earp, actually, says, oh, there's another town that needs to be cleaned up, Virginia City. And he's going to go there. Now, this film isn't a sequel. It's actually set significantly earlier than the previous film. But it's funny how there's that sort of perfect lead-in in this movie. That is interesting. But the thing that's different about this film than other Warner Brothers films of the same time is that his rival is a non-Warner Brothers player, Randolph Scott. Right. He also is another real southerner. And he had an interesting career that he wasn't just, well, this wasn't like he was at one studio his whole career. He kind of jumped around. He was at RKO. He was at 20th Century Fox. He was under contract then at this point. And they loaned him out for this film. And interestingly, in the original writing process, the character of Vance was intended for Errol Flynn, the southerner. And practically during filming, they switched the parts. Oh, interesting. And the script was not completed when they started filming. So Errol Flynn was not at his happiest on this project just because they totally changed his character kind of midstream. And he didn't get along very well with Michael Curtiz. They made several films together. Yes. But he, I believe, tried to get him thrown off of this project because they just didn't get along. And Randolph Scott was one of the only members of the cast who actually did get along with Michael Curtiz. There was a lot of tension. And then it was raining for two weeks straight while they were trying to film on location. And Errol Flynn wasn't in the best of health. So he got sick during that. And Humphrey Bogart, interestingly, plays this bandit, Morel. I think that's one of the most interesting things about this movie. I tend to forget that. I was like, oh, that's right. Humphrey Bogart is in this movie. Looking a little different than he usually did because he has a mustache. And he's doing a Mexican accent, which has been criticized greatly. It varies with its strength throughout the film. I don't know. It's pretty believable. If you can get past the fact that it's Humphrey Bogart wearing a mustache and doing a Mexican accent, then yes. And this is really before he was a big star. This is the year before he did The Maltese Falcon. A couple of years before Casablanca, which was also directed by Michael Curtiz. And he mainly played thuggish side characters up to this point. I don't know if it's the mustache or what, but he looks a lot younger in this movie to me than films that were just a couple years later, like Casablanca. Yeah, he does. I think it is partly the mustache. But his character is interesting, Morel, this bandit, because he's based on a real bandit, Morel. Although, the real man died, I think, 14 years before this film was set. And he never was that far west. But he was not that well known of an outlaw, but then he was sort of revived by this pamphlet that was written about him. And Mark Twain, the famous author, considered him to be equal to Jesse James as an outlaw character. And he's actually in Tom Sawyer. If anyone is familiar with that story, there's the gold, Morel's gold, that's based on the same character. Interesting. It's a really interesting connection. It's interesting to look at the history of this film because, like so many historical films, it's sort of a historical fiction. It's based on some real events with a lot of artistic license thrown in. There's a title card at the very beginning of the film that says it's dedicated to these men and women who took this perilous journey on a wagon train. Only the characters are fictional, the story is true. So I think this is something that did happen near the end of the Civil War. And it wasn't based on a book or anything, right? Not as far as I could find. It's not that easy to find background information about this film, interestingly. I don't think it was adapted from a particular novel or a play. It was just based on some true historical events. The Warner Brothers screenwriters wrote this original story based on historical events. Only three screenwriters, not all credited, worked on this project. And as a writer myself, I at one point was studying screenwriting. And I read about something very interesting where your standard film script has three acts. And every once in a while you come across a film that has four acts. And I think this film is one of those. And I always will notice that. And I think it's very interesting. It's like going along a certain path. I mean, it is interesting. It starts out very definitely. It's a Civil War picture. And then it goes into this real kind of Western. You've got the stagecoach, the bandit. It's like it gets very in the little souls in the cowboy hat. This rough Western town. The saloon. The saloon girl. All the usual earmarks of a Western. And then it goes into this last part where they're on this wagon train. It's like a pioneer film. Like a pioneer. Yeah, exactly. Even though they're not pioneers. They're going back to the… Yeah, they're heading east. They're heading east. But with the covered wagons. The wagon train, yes. It's very much that spirit. So it's interesting how it kind of has these different chapters in very different settings. Yes, it does. I think that's what's so fascinating about it. And it's always funny when Errol Flynn is in a Western because he has this undeniably kind of British sounding accent. He toned down the Australian accent a little bit. But they usually will throw in just like one kind of off-handed line to explain it. Quite often they'll say he's Irish. And there is a line like that in this film. He refers to when I was a boy in Ireland. So that's kind of interesting. Well, he identified as being Irish. Right. Because he was ethnically Irish. Right. When he first was introduced by Warner Brothers, they introduced him as like an Irish leading man of the British stage. Because he had done some British stage acting. Even though he was from Tasmania. Right. It's interesting to me that this movie is in black and white. Because many of the films Errol Flynn was making around that time, particularly the historical pictures, were in beautiful Technicolor. Right. Dodge City was. Most of his movies with Olivia de Havilland were. At least after a certain point. After Robin Hood. And I watched Dodge City and Virginia City right around the same time. I think I actually watched Virginia City first. And I immediately thought I preferred Virginia City. It's just a deeper film. But I can see how the other one has more of, I suppose, like the standard Western sort of tropes in it. It's actually one of the films that started some of those things. Because 1939 was really the year of the Western. Right. Being revived in the talking picture. And classic Warner Brothers Technicolor is absolutely gorgeous to look at. Yes. And the cinematography is stunning. But I think this film is very beautiful as well. Yeah, it's beautiful in black and white. And I think the reason why we are recommending this film versus Dodge City is because it's not just straight Western. It's also a Civil War picture. It's also a Wagon Train picture. It has a pretty deep romance. And there were a couple of times recently when we were just entertaining casually and I thought, if we're going to watch a movie tonight, I think it should be Virginia City. It just seemed like it was relatable to all the people that we're having over. And I didn't actually end up doing it because, I don't know, watching a movie during a party just kind of kills the flow of things. But I do think this would be a film that I would want to show to a lot of our friends. Yeah, it's a film which I think could be enjoyable to many different people. Very fast pacing. And because so many different things happen, you're not as likely to get bored, as you will, with a two hour Civil War film or a two hour Western. Because it's always changing. It's like half hour Civil War film, half hour Western. Half hour Wagon Train. I think they really kind of keep you on the edge of your seat with how often, particularly Errol Flynn's character is in mortal peril. You're pretty sure he's going to die about three or four times. It seems like it's leaning that way. He's probably not going to. Not that Errol Flynn didn't die in films. He did sometimes. Particularly in a couple of his Westerns. But it just feels like, I don't think it's going to die. Especially right at the, there's almost like a little fifth actor epilogue to the film. That's kind of a shocker. It takes a turn you're not expecting. Now, looking at it from a modern perspective, Civil War history has become very controversial recently. Obviously, it always has been. Because it's the only war where both sides were Americans. And particularly in recent decades, the South has been, dare I say, demonized. Obviously, they were the losers. They were the rebels. They were the ones who started all the problems. Because they were trying to break away. But because of growing, I don't want to say hatred for slavery. Obviously, the North was against slavery at the time. But as the climate of the United States has come to a point where recently people don't even want to talk about the Civil War. They don't even want to mention the existence of slavery. So, anything which depicts it, thus becomes controversial. Now, there is no slavery in this film. No. But it is about the Civil War, which was about slavery. And I think if you're going to watch something about the Civil War, you should go to the classic era. Because they always do a good job of not picking sides too strongly. And I think as a historical piece, that's the way you should do it. And I really love that about this film. After the first time I watched it, that was what immediately struck me. I thought they did a really beautiful job of showing both sides are good people fighting for a cause that they believe in. And how the North, they were basically just saying, it's not that they wanted to... Sheldon Adams was like, we don't want this conflict to go on. If they get this money to the Confederate Army, this conflict could last for years. Abraham Lincoln had just been re-elected, and he was really pushing for wanting to bring the country back together. Yes. And I think it's so sad that now, hundreds of years later, that we're letting that cause a division again. Because Mr. Lincoln really wanted us all to come together. Yeah, right after it was over. Before it was even over, he said, we can't consider these people our enemies anymore. They have to be our brothers, our fellow citizens. Because it isn't. Because they are. Germany. It isn't Japan. This is our own people. We're all Americans. The conflict was settled. The South came back into the Union. And I think the end of this film depicts that really beautifully. I don't want to spoil it. But the ending, it's just you really get that feeling of like that everyone was coming back together. And by having this almost Romeo and Juliet-esque love story of the Union officer and the Southern girl, it beautifully illustrates that. That's right. And because these two romantic rivals, these two men, are on opposite sides. So they're opposite politically on either side of the war, and they're fighting over the same girl. But Vance and Carrie end up acknowledging that they could have been friends. Too bad you and I had to be on opposite sides of the fence in this. I think we might have been friends. Right? Yes. If they hadn't been on either side of this. Because they're both valiant officers. Right. Neither one hates the other. Even as they're fighting over the same girl. Right. They both are noble soldiers. If you read about it on Wikipedia, it acknowledges even though Carrie is technically the protagonist, Vance isn't really the antagonist. No. Herbie Bogart's character of Morello is the true antagonist of the film. And they end up siding together against the outlaws. That's right. And, I mean, he is cited as the antagonist of the film, but even he is more of a side character. The antagonist is the conflict. Yeah, the war itself. It's not that just the North is good and the South is bad. Some of the ideas behind the Confederacy were bad. The fact that they were trying to break away from the Union was bad. But really, the whole root of the Civil War was that the South thought the North was going to be against them. Abraham Lincoln didn't start that war. His election started the war. The South started seceding because they said, well, he's going to take away all our rights. Lincoln would have applied a more gradual end to slavery if the South hadn't done what they did. So, this film shows that in a very fair way that I think even modern audiences could appreciate. Don't start with Gone with the Wind if you're touchy about the Civil War and slavery. Start with this film. There's no slavery. You don't have to see any slaves. But you can just see how this conflict was playing out. And then once you are familiarized with that, you can expand to a deeper Civil War knowledge. And it's always fascinating to look into history to see how, unfortunately, there's always been division. Yeah, exactly. Since the beginning of time. But into the history of our nation as well, particularly. And I think this film does a good job of showing through the costuming an accurate representation of this time period, which is always entertaining and beautiful. My outfit is inspired by one of the costumes worn by Julia when she's working at the saloon. It's a long white dress with a tiered skirt and the signature off-the-shoulder, fancy style of the Civil War era with dragonfly sparkly accents and a large white flower in her hair. My outfit is based on the first costume which Julia wears when we first see her as a saloon girl when Carrie is shocked to see her dancing around and singing. Like most Warner Brothers films of this era, this features a beautiful Max Steiner score, which is interesting because it doesn't feature a lot of original melodies. There's one main theme that he did compose, but other than that, he really wove together songs of the Civil War era. You hear, of course, the more famous ones like Dixie for the South and Battle Hymn of the Republic for the North, but even in the saloon scenes, Julia sings one of the more popular rally songs of the day that's actually from the Union side, and that's how she's helping her side, the Southern cause, by befriending the Northern soldiers because Virginia City is quite Northern. She's sort of like a counter-spy. Yeah, she is. So she sings, we'll rally around the flag. The Battle Cry of Freedom is the name of the song. Yes, it's interesting how she uses that, and it takes a long time for her and Carrie to really realize they're on opposite sides. Right. Interestingly, both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis are at one point depicted in the film. Yes. And the actor who plays Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, was an actor who was actually quite known for playing Abraham Lincoln in multiple films. It's ironic that he was cast as the Southern leader in this film. That is ironic. You don't actually see Lincoln's face full on. You hear his voice, you see his shadow with that distinctive profile. That's a brilliant moment in the film. But the fact that they show not only Lincoln, but Jefferson Davis, and both in a very dignified manner. Davis doesn't look like a bad guy. He doesn't look like some kind of a despot. He's a very dignified leader, and he's depicted in a positive manner because we see Julia meeting him. And I think that's, again, part of how this film is very fair, because you must keep in mind, when this film was released, 1940, now that's approaching the 100-year anniversary of the Civil War, 80 years later. But there were still some people who were, shall I say, alive then, very young children, or at least their fathers had fought in the Civil War. There were still Southerners who, I don't want to say believed in the Confederacy, but they still held a bit of a dream of that hope, that goal they tried to achieve that didn't quite work with the idea that somehow the South was a little bit different. And Warner Brothers didn't want to insult that whole section of the country. And even now, that is part of Southern history. It's part of their culture. It's part of our culture as a nation. So I think that this film is an excellent example of a dignified depiction of that, as well as just a really entertaining film, and a good introduction to movies from this time period. This film is widely available, being available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video and other streaming services like YouTube. And it's also available in clear remastered copies on DVD. Both leading men in Virginia City have a strong moral code and a sense of honor which guides them. Join us next time as we discuss a film in which the leading man, under the strain of increasing financial pressures, abandons both his honor and his sense of right and wrong, plunging into a dangerous downward spiral. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.