“VIRGINIA CITY” FOR REGENT

Southland Times, Issue 24242, 27 September 1940, Page 3

“VIRGINIA CITY” FOR REGENT

DOMINION PREMIERE TOMORROW MIRIAM HOPKINS AND ERROL FLYNN With Errol Flynn in the type of dashing role that suits him so well, and Miriam Hopkins awarded the important leading role on the strength of her fine performance in “The Old Maid,” Warner Bros. “Virginia City,” which is to have its first New Zealand screenings at the Regent Theatre tomorrow, promises to be one of the major attractions of the season. The background of the film is a page out of America’s most gripping historical era, the West during the Civil War. The setting is the colourful, lawless “mushroom” mining town, Virginia City, during its rowdiest days. The theme recounts an authentic episode which Robert Buck-

ner adeptly wove into the moving screen play. Michael Curtiz, one of Hollywood’s most skilful directors, filmed the production. As a Union Intelligence officer, Kerry Bradford, portrayed by Errol Flynn, is sent to the new Virginia city to track down a gold shipment intended for the Confederancy, sent by Southern sympathizers in Nevada. His romance with the queen of Nevada’s dance halls, Julia Haynes, Miss Hopkins’s role, is short lived when the girl has him kidnapped and he learns that she is a Confederate spy. Bradford is taken prisoner on the Southern gold caravan led by Vance Irby, played by Randolph Scott. When attacked by bandits, led by a notorious guerrilla, portrayed by Humphrey Bogart, it is Bradford who outwits the band and saves the caravan. He refuses to surrender the | gold, claiming it belongs to the men who mined it. Held for court martial, it is news of the war’s end that exonerates him in the eyes of the North, the South and Miss Julia Haynes. The impressive supporting cast includes such seasoned players as Alan Hale, Frank McHugh, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams and John Litel. “Virginia City” does not deal with the Civil War in the larger manner of battles. Its story is that of people engaged in hazardous enterprises connected with that war. These enterprises provide a film of thrills.