Mon 22 Feb 2016
A Western Movie Review: KIT CARSON (1940).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[8] Comments
KIT CARSON. United Artists, 1940. Jon Hall (Kit Carson), Lynn Bari, Dana Andrews (Captain John C. Fremont), Harold Huber, Ward Bond, Renie Riano, Clayton Moore, C. Henry Gordon. Screenplay: George Bruce. Director: George B. Seitz.
First of all, let me reassure you that I did not take a single word or scene from this movie as a meaningful reflection of anything that ever happened in the real world. I won’t go into it further, but I really doubt that Kit Carson used the help of a troop of the US Cavalry, lead by John C. Fremont, to guide a wagon train of settlers headed for California. And all the time vying for the hand of of beautiful Dolores Murphy (Lynn Bari), daughter of the owner of a large hacienda already in place there.
They run into all of the usual problems on the journey, of course, challenges mostly caused by Indians, Shoshones in particular, all riled up and supplied with rifles by General Castro (C. Henry Gordon), the governor of California with designs of becoming the dictator of the entire territory as well as Mexico, and American are most decidedly not welcome.
But included in this movie is one of the best filmed circle-the-wagons scenes I’ve watched in a while, while at the same time the soldiers are trapped in a dead-end canyon with Indians shooting at them from atop the cliffs on either side. Life was tough back then.
Miss Murphy is also first aghast at the sight of Carson and his fur-trapping buddies torturing a Mexican who has been spying on them, then repulsed by Fremont (following the rule book) summarily calling up a firing squad and executing the prisoner right in front of her.
Which one of the two will she choose after this incident? I’ll give you a hint: What’s the title of the movie?
Even though his ways are uncouth and he is barely literate, and he seems determined to do what’s best for her and not himself, her heart belongs to Kit. What struck me right away was how much Jon Hall’s performance seemed to channel Randolph Scott, down to the latter’s soft southern drawl. I didn’t learn until later that the role was actually intended for Scott, before things didn’t work out.
This is a strange movie in another way, besides being a biopic with not much emphasis on the “bio.” It’s a large scale production, running nearly ninety minutes long, but (and you can correct me if I’m wrong) the people in it are far from being A level stars, even in 1940.
February 22nd, 2016 at 10:49 pm
Every line of Jon Hall’s seems like it was written for Randolph Scott, and it was. Glad you pointed that out, Steve. And how much better, more fun, had Scott played it.
February 22nd, 2016 at 11:33 pm
I’ve not seen this movie, but from your description of it it seems more fiction that fact and reminds me of the anecdote that when someone showed the real Kit Carson a copy of a dime novel written about him he is supposed to have said that while the events depicted on the cover may have really happened he had no recollection of them.
February 22nd, 2016 at 11:42 pm
I like the circle-the-wagons attack scenes in movies but I’ve read more than once that Indians rarely did such attacks. Riding around in circles firing at men under cover of wagons is not likely to be successful. I guess it happened every now and then but not as frequently as in western films.
February 23rd, 2016 at 3:25 pm
Far from a bio pic as Carson was a rather small blonde from most accounts, not the tall muscular Hall. Physically he was closer to Alan Ladd as far as leading men go, and I recall him being played very well once on television by James Daly. Of course Bill Williams television series with Noah Beery Jr. was far from historical as well. I think Rip Torn played him opposite Richard Chamberlain’s Fremont in a mini series.
Nothing in his adventures with Fremont are quite as active as this movie, but what the heck, its fun and no one intended it as serious history. It plays a bit like a serial frankly, or one of those Zane Gray films Gary Cooper did before Randolph Scott took them over. Likely the studio was thinking of Scott’s previous success as Hawkeye in LAST OF THE MOCHICANS.
There is a good picture of the real Carson in George Macdonald Fraser’s FLASHMAN AND THE INDIANS. As always the research is impeccable there.
If you visit his old HQ just off the plaza in Taos, New Mexico you can see much of Carson’s memorabilia, including his Sharp’s rifle, a 4 bore, yup, a 4 inch barrel. That had to have stopped a buffalo or two, it looks like a small field piece.
Carson gets short changed a bit in Hollywood Western history for coming along too soon historically. His adventures, like those of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, or earlier Daniel Boone, take place in a period well out of the standard Western setting of the Post Civil War to late 1880’s most Westerns are set in. He was primarily involved in the Navajo wars, and mostly a peace maker and explorer, neither of which were big Saturday matinee draws. His crossing of the Rockies with Fremont is an extraordinary story of survival and courage, but not much of a shoot ’em up.
The original casting of Scott makes sense. It always struck me odd that Dana Andrews was cast second to Hall, but if it was supposed to be Scott that explains a good deal about the film. That said, I was struck by how good Hall is in this. He didn’t often get a chance to show any skills he might have had at acting. Nice to see him with someone other than Maria Montez for a change.
January 4th, 2017 at 11:54 pm
I am a descendant of the “real Kit Carson” and served on the board of directors of the Kit Carson Foundation in Taos. Although he married Josefa, she never left the area around Taos and never met Fremont. So he wasn’t part of the later Western scene. He surveying the Oregon Trail would have been a better movie.
February 7th, 2019 at 11:59 am
Producer Edward Small had subcontracted with Samuel Goldwyn for then rising star Jon Hall (The Hurricane 1937) for two films. Hall had already done South of Pago Pago (1940). Small brought on Director George B. Seitz for Kit Carson mainly because of his filming experience in Monument Valley where he directed The Vanishing American in 1925. Seitz’s first choice was Randolph Scott to play Carson because of his previous association with Scott in The Last of the Mohicans (1936) where Scott had the role of Hawkeye. However, Scott was unavailable because of previous commitments. So out of default Hall was given the title role. Dana Andrews had not yet hit his stride to carry the title role so was given the role as Fremont. As it turned out, Hall was very sturdy in the title role which paved his way to star in other westerns down the road.
February 7th, 2019 at 12:10 pm
Another factor why Hall may have been given the title role over Andrews. Andrews was only 5’8″, as Hall was a muscular athletic 6’1″. Hall proved to be quite capable of handling a horse.
July 29th, 2020 at 6:03 am
Kit Carson, shot effectively in black and white, I thought a very well-done and enjoyable movie, and an important one for me as a kid. Randolph Scott might have been a better pick than Jon Hall, although as someone pointed out, he performed convincingly as a mountain man and had real presence. Seems a shame his career didn’t really take off, and by all accounts his life had a sad ending. Dana Andrews was surely taller than 5, 8, nearer 5, 10 I would have said.