Actor Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz, who eventually made twelve films together, had been adversaries ever since the mid-1930. Yet they were teamed up once again for May 1940's "Virginia City." Flynn, the lead in the Civil War Western as Captain Kerry Bradford of the Union Army, had locked horns with Curtiz beginning with their monumental blowout in 1936's "Charge of the Light Brigade." In turn, Curtiz loathed Flynn and his co-star Miriam Hopkins, a last-minute replacement for Olivia de Havilland. Compounding the tension on the set, Humphrey Bogart took the place of Victor Jory as a Mexican bandit, and was at odds with both Flynn and Randolph Scott.
"It wasn't a happy set," said film historian Jeff Arnold. "Flynn did not slacken his usual rhythm of heavy drinking and was often late. Curtiz was famously scathing of actors, whom he called bums." A reporter from Hollywood Magazine described the tension on the set: "Tempers flared and feuds raged. For one eventful weekend it appeared that the cast was about to choose sides - the blues and the grays - and refight the Civil War with bare hands, rocks or practical bullets."
Warner Brothers' premier of "Virginia City," named for the Nevada town where the film's opening release was taking place, was just as contentious. People paid a high price for tickets to attend the movie's first showing, with the promise Flynn, Hopkins and others in the cast would be on hand to talk about the film. None showed up, creating a scene unlike any other premier. The crowd took several Warner Brothers' employees hostage, and demanded their money back. The theater manager eventually agreed to refund them minus the standard admittance fee.
Not only was Flynn upset working with his loathed director, but he was upset the studio was so ill prepared going into the production. His role was switched at the last minute from Confederate officer Captain Vance Irby to the Union officer. Randolph Scott inherited the part of Irby, who in the waning days of the Civil War carries out the idea of spy Julia Hayne's (Hopkins) to shanghai $5 million at a rebel-held Nevada gold mine to help finance the Southern cause. Confusing as that was, the cast was faced with a partially-written script. Film historian Peter Valenti defends Flynn's frustration. "He changed from antagonist to protagonist, from Southern to Northern officer, almost as the film was being shot. This intensified Errol's feelings of inadequacy as a performer and his contempt for studio operation."
With all the drama behind the camera, it didn't deter from "Virginia City" becoming a big hit at the box office. The Western genre, so foreign to Flynn before 1939's "Dodge City," which ironically ended with he and de Havilland head to the Nevada town of Virginia City, solidified the Australian actor's image as an American Westerner. Bogart, however, took a step backward in his career as the leader of a gang of Mexican outlaws, John Murrell, whose Latino accent comes and goes like the prairie wind. Says film reviewer Frank Showalter, "Bogart's accent grows more pronounced as the film goes on, starting mild-and even vanishing-during his early scenes, but reaching full parody by the film's end."
The New York Times film critic Frank Nugent summed up the successful Western as containing "enough concentrated action, enough of the old-time Western sweep, to make it lively entertainment." And that was on the screen. Off camera, the drama between personalities was just as rousing.
"It wasn't a happy set," said film historian Jeff Arnold. "Flynn did not slacken his usual rhythm of heavy drinking and was often late. Curtiz was famously scathing of actors, whom he called bums." A reporter from Hollywood Magazine described the tension on the set: "Tempers flared and feuds raged. For one eventful weekend it appeared that the cast was about to choose sides - the blues and the grays - and refight the Civil War with bare hands, rocks or practical bullets."
Warner Brothers' premier of "Virginia City," named for the Nevada town where the film's opening release was taking place, was just as contentious. People paid a high price for tickets to attend the movie's first showing, with the promise Flynn, Hopkins and others in the cast would be on hand to talk about the film. None showed up, creating a scene unlike any other premier. The crowd took several Warner Brothers' employees hostage, and demanded their money back. The theater manager eventually agreed to refund them minus the standard admittance fee.
Not only was Flynn upset working with his loathed director, but he was upset the studio was so ill prepared going into the production. His role was switched at the last minute from Confederate officer Captain Vance Irby to the Union officer. Randolph Scott inherited the part of Irby, who in the waning days of the Civil War carries out the idea of spy Julia Hayne's (Hopkins) to shanghai $5 million at a rebel-held Nevada gold mine to help finance the Southern cause. Confusing as that was, the cast was faced with a partially-written script. Film historian Peter Valenti defends Flynn's frustration. "He changed from antagonist to protagonist, from Southern to Northern officer, almost as the film was being shot. This intensified Errol's feelings of inadequacy as a performer and his contempt for studio operation."
With all the drama behind the camera, it didn't deter from "Virginia City" becoming a big hit at the box office. The Western genre, so foreign to Flynn before 1939's "Dodge City," which ironically ended with he and de Havilland head to the Nevada town of Virginia City, solidified the Australian actor's image as an American Westerner. Bogart, however, took a step backward in his career as the leader of a gang of Mexican outlaws, John Murrell, whose Latino accent comes and goes like the prairie wind. Says film reviewer Frank Showalter, "Bogart's accent grows more pronounced as the film goes on, starting mild-and even vanishing-during his early scenes, but reaching full parody by the film's end."
The New York Times film critic Frank Nugent summed up the successful Western as containing "enough concentrated action, enough of the old-time Western sweep, to make it lively entertainment." And that was on the screen. Off camera, the drama between personalities was just as rousing.
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