Carson City (1952)
Average Scott Western
11 May 2012
No need to repeat the plot. I'm surprised Warner Bros. didn't introduce Warnercolor by going to a scenic location like the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. Instead, they took a cheaper route, filming in the scrubby hills of greater LA. Otherwise, it's a pretty routine entry in the Randoph Scott sweepstakes. Casting him as a railroad engineer is novel, at the same time, the tunnel collapse furnishes some unusual suspense for a western. The buckboard crash is spectacular even for a sagebrush staple like buckboard crashes.

However, the plot's a little overcrowded for my liking, while the powerful Raymond Massey is pretty much wasted in a role any number of lesser actors could have handled. Then too, director De Toth films in straightforward fashion, unlike the beautifully wrought intrigue of his western masterpiece, Ramrod (1947). All in all, it's a decent oater, but for a Randy Scott feature, it's nothing special.
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