Evidently intended to be a sequel to the successful Dodge City from the year before, this movie really has nothing to do with its predecessor and is considered by most not as good. But it has plenty of action, characters and intrigue to recommend it on its own. Flynn is a Union soldier who escapes from a Confederate prison run by Scott, after learning of a gold shipment being sent by Southern sympathizers to aid the rebels. He ends up in Virginia City, Nevada where the gold is to leave for Richmond. There he falls for Hopins who is a Southern spy working for, and supposedly devoted to Scott, but who falls for Flynn anyway. Mixed up in all this is Bogart, miscast as the cheesiest Mexican since Charleton Heston in Touch of Evil. Scott -- who is not bad here, by the way -- sets up the premise with the military lament: "Wars are won with gold nowadays, not with men..." Initially the film looks like a Civil War movie until the characters get to Virginia City, "Home of the Comstock Mines. The richest, roughest town on the face of the earth..." There the action and intrigue builds in true Western fashion, with ample doses of corny humor thrown in for good measure.
Virginia City serves up a commendable portion of action, suspense and romance. We wholeheartedly recommend it as a Good View.
Cast:
- Errol Flynn.... Capt. Kerry Bradford
- Miriam Hopkins.... Julia Hayne aka Julie Adams
- Randolph Scott.... Capt. Vance Irby
- Humphrey Bogart.... John Murrell
- Frank McHugh.... Mr. Upjohn
- Alan Hale.... Olaf 'Moose' Swenson
- Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams.... "Marblehead"
- John Litel.... Thomas A. Marshall
- Douglass Dumbrille... Maj. Drewery
- Moroni Olsen.... Dr. Rob Cameron
- Russell Hicks....John Arimistead
- Dickie Jones.... Cobby Gill
- Frank Wilcox.... Union Soldier
- Russell Simpson.... Frank Gaylord
- Victor Kilian.... Abraham Lincoln