The Carson City Kid
The Carson City Kid | |
---|---|
Directed by | Joseph Kane |
Produced by | Joseph Kane |
Screenplay by |
Robert Yost Gerald Geraghty |
Story by | Joseph Kane |
Starring |
Roy Rogers George "Gabby" Hayes |
Cinematography | William Nobles |
Edited by | Helene Turner |
Production company |
Republic Pictures |
Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time |
57 minutes 53 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Carson City Kid is a 1940 American Western film directed by Joseph Kane starring Roy Rogers and George "Gabby" Hayes.
Plot
Roy Rogers (Roy Rogers, and not playing "himself" but playing a character named Roy Rogers), posing as The Carson City Kid, is seeking vengeance on Morgan Reynolds, the man who killed his brother. To find Reynolds in the gold towns, he systematically stops stagecoaches and goes through the mail, hoping to find letters addressed to Reynolds and thus learn his whereabouts. Thus "The Kid" earns the reputation of a stagecoach robber, although he never takes anything, and the reputation is enhanced by the fact that he travels with Laramie (Francis McDonald), a notorious half-breed outlaw. A posse is about to capture them and Roy rides back to get Laramie whose horse has been shot, and Laramie repays the favor by slugging Roy and escaping on his horse Trigger. The posse rides by the unseen Roy and captures Laramie and, since he is riding the "Kid's" horse, take him to jail as being the "Kid." Laramie denies this and is told he will be free when he identifies the "Kid"; otherwise he will hang. Roy rides into town, having deduced that the Morgan Reynolds he is looking for operates the Yellowback Saloon under the alias of "Lee Jessup" (Bob Steele) . As part of his plan to get evidence against Jessup, who also does not know his true identity, Roy takes a job as saloon shotgun guard, and meets saloon singer Joby Madison (Pauline Moore, in one of the truly great performances found in the B-western genre) and falls in love with her. This doesn't set well with Jessup, as he has plans of his own regarding Joby. Young gold miner Scott Warren (Noah Beery, Jr.), having hit his strike and heading for home with his fortune, comes into the Yellowback, talks too much about his stake, and is soon relieved of it in a crooked poker game by Jessup and friends. Scott, realizing he had been cheated, breaks into Jessup's office and, announcing he is the Carson City Kid, holds up Jessup henchman Harmon (Hal Taliaferro) and takes his gold and some letters and papers from the safe. Captured, he is taken before Laramie, who quickly identifies him as the "Kid" although he has never seen him before, in order to win the immunity promised him. Roy, masked as the Carson City Kid and speaking Spanish as the Kid did on the stage holdups, intervenes and at gunpoint, asks Jessup to identify what Scott has stolen from him. Besides the gold, Jessup unwittingly identifies as his own the latters and documents, which establish him as Morgan Reynolds. Reynolds meets justice and Roy is exonerated. ne fine little B-western with an excellent performance by George "Gabby" Hayes (as Sheriff Gabby Whittaker), before he had the character down as a sleep-walking exercise and was still revolving, and by, as mentioned, Pauline Moore, as a no-excuses heroine for being where she was doing what she did as a saloon entertainer.
Cast
- Roy Rogers as The Carson City Kid
- George "Gabby" Hayes as Marshal Gabby Whitaker
- Bob Steele as Lee Jessup / Morgan Reynolds
- Noah Beery, Jr. as Scott 'Arizona' Warren
- Pauline Moore as Joby Madison
- Francis McDonald as Laramie
- Hal Taliaferro as Rick Harmon
- Arthur Loft as Saloon drunk
- George Rosener as Judge Tucker
- Chester Gan as Wong Lee
Soundtrack
- Pauline Moore - "The Golddigger Song" (Music and lyrics by Peter Tinturin)
- Pauline Moore - "You Are the One" (Music and lyrics by Peter Tinturin)
- Roy Rogers - "Sonora Moon" (Music and lyrics by Peter Tinturin)
- "Oh Susanna" (Music and lyrics by Stephen Foster as Stephen Collins Foster)
- "Camptown Races" (Music and lyrics by Stephen Foster as Stephen Collins Foster)
- "Polly Wolly Doodle"
- "Little Brown Jug" (Written by Joseph Winner)
See also
- Public domain film
- List of American films of 1940
- List of films in the public domain in the United States
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Carson City Kid. |
- The Carson City Kid at the Internet Movie Database
- The Carson City Kid is available for free download at the Internet Archive