Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, June 22, 2009

VIRGINIA CITY (1940)



This film was something of a sober-sided follow-up Western to the splashy TechniColor fun of DODGE CITY/’39, also starring Errol Flynn & helmed by Michael Curtiz. It has neither the rep nor the fans of the earlier pic, but in spite of its obvious flaws (Humphrey Bogart ‘s Mexican bandito is a particular horror), it holds uncommon dramatic interest not only for its split dramatic loyalties as the Civil War plays its coda, but in how it refracts on an America that viewed WWII either thru a prism of diehard isolationism or as an inevitable responsibility. Miriam Hopkins seems unable to settle on a look (she was still new @ Warners and older than her leading man), but her slight discomfort plays right into her confusion in choosing between Southern gentleman Randolph Scott & Northern spy Errol Flynn. The physical production & location work are outstandingly handsome under Sol Polito’s lens and the stunt work (largely from Yakima Canutt, who else) is jaw-dropping. Curtiz had gotten into so much trouble filming THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE/’36 that the shots are purposefully held until we can see that the horses are alright. And be sure to watch the two Looney Tunes included. The first is one of those goofy travelogues, but the best of its type, with a great ‘sick’ frog joke. While the second manages to almost hide a ‘Darky’ stereotype by zooming in on the objectionable frames. Should we be falsifying history like this?

No comments: