Carbine Williams

{{Short description|1952 film by Richard Thorpe}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Carbine Williams | image = CarbineWilliamscover.jpg | producer = [[Armand Deutsch]] | director = [[Richard Thorpe]] | based_on = {{based on|"The Most Unforgettable Character I've Met"<br>1951 ''[[Reader's Digest]]''|Capt. H. T. Peoples}} | writer = [[Art Cohn]] | starring = [[James Stewart]]<br>[[Jean Hagen]]<br>[[Wendell Corey]] | music = [[Conrad Salinger]] | cinematography = [[William C. Mellor]] | editing = [[Newell P. Kimlin]] | distributor = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] | released = {{Film date|1952|5|7|New York|1952|5|16|Los Angeles|ref1=<ref name="crowther"/>|ref2=<ref name="scheuer"/>}} | runtime = 92 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $1,111,000<ref name="Mannix">{{Citation | title = The Eddie Mannix Ledger | publisher = Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study | place = Los Angeles}}.</ref> | gross = $2,589,000<ref name="Mannix"/> }} '''''Carbine Williams''''' is a 1952 American [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] directed by [[Richard Thorpe]] and starring [[James Stewart]], [[Jean Hagen]] and [[Wendell Corey]]. The film follows the life of its namesake, [[David Marshall Williams]], who invented the operating principle for the [[M1 carbine]] gun while in a North Carolina prison. The carbine was used extensively by the U.S. military during [[World War II]], the [[Korean War]] and the [[Vietnam War]].

Originally filmed in black-and-white, the film has also been [[film colorization|colorized]].<ref>{{cite book |editor1-first=Leonard |editor1-last=Maltin |editor1-link=Leonard Maltin |title=Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide |year=2007 |publisher=Signet |location=New York |isbn=978-0-451-22186-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/leonardmaltins2000leon/page/211 211] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/leonardmaltins2000leon/page/211 }}</ref>

==Plot== David Marshall "Marsh" Williams of the [[Winchester Repeating Arms Company]] company takes leave to tend to family matters. His embittered young son David has been teased in school and Marsh decides that the time has come to inform his son about his past. He takes David to a prison and leaves him with his friend Capt. H. T. Peoples, who tells David that Marsh had served time there for murder and describes the circumstances in a series of flashbacks.

Marsh is a young man who leaves the Navy after several hitches and returns home. His strict father and the family of his girlfriend Maggie believe Marsh to be irresponsible. Marsh marries Maggie and takes a laborious job with a railroad, where he is introduced to the illegal practice of distilling [[corn whiskey]] during the era of [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]]. Marsh hides his new source of income from Maggie but she learns the truth when he is badly burned after a still explodes. She threatens to leave him if he will not quit the business. He promises to stop distilling moonshine but continues to expand the operation. When federal agents raid his operation, Marsh opens fire and escapes into the woods. Maggie finds Marsh and informs him that a federal agent had been killed in the gunfight. She convinces him to surrender and pledges that she will stand by him.

Marsh stands trial but the jury is deadlocked. He pleads guilty to second-degree murder to avoid a retrial and the possibility of a death sentence. The judge sentences him to 30 years in prison at hard labor. Maggie promises to wait for him.

In prison, a guard finds a knife on Marsh and he is ordered to work on a [[chain gang]]. The work is excruciating and the guards abuse the prisoners. The men are transferred to a different prison, where Marsh meets Peoples, the warden. Marsh refuses to communicate with his family. Peoples orders him to [[solitary confinement]] for insolence and Marsh remains there for 30 days, much longer than any man had previously endured.

Peoples grants Marsh 24 hours of leave and Marsh spends the day with Maggie. After returning, Marsh tells Peoples of his love of guns and shares his innovative design for an automatic rifle with a floating chamber. Marsh is allowed to work on his gun in the prison shop, but two other inmates steal it for a failed escape attempt. Marsh denies any complicity with the escape attempt and Peoples allows him to continue developing his concept. Peoples writes to Maggie to inform her of Marsh's progress with both the invention and his character.

Newspaper accounts report how Peoples has allowed an inmate to serve his time as a gunsmith, and the angry state prison commissioners hold a hearing. Peoples argues that he believes in Marsh's invention and vouches for him, offering to serve the remaining 22 years of Marsh's sentence himself if Marsh uses the gun to escape from prison. Marsh is allowed to demonstrate the carbine, which is an overwhelming success. A Winchester representative offers Marsh a job, and he is soon pardoned by the governor.

Back in the present day, Peoples tells David how his father holds 68 patents and developed the [[M1 carbine]], which has changed the face of war. David tearfully reconciles with Marsh.

==Cast== {{Div col}} * [[James Stewart]] as David Marshall "Marsh" Williams * [[Jean Hagen]] as Maggie Williams * [[Wendell Corey]] as Capt. H. T. Peoples * [[Carl Benton Reid]] as Claude Williams * [[Paul Stewart (actor)|Paul Stewart]] as Dutch Kruger * [[Otto Hulett]] as Mobley * [[Rhys Williams (actor)|Rhys Williams]] as Redwick Karson * [[Herbert Heyes]] as Lionel Daniels * [[James Arness]] as Leon Williams * [[Porter Hall]] as Sam Markley * [[Fay Roope]] as District Attorney * [[Ralph Dumke]] as Andrew White * [[Leif Erickson (actor)|Leif Erickson]] as Feder * [[Henry Corden]] as Bill Stockton * [[Frank Richards (actor)|Frank Richards]] as Truex * [[Howard Petrie]] as Sheriff * [[Stuart Randall (actor)|Stuart Randall]] as Tom Vennar * [[Dan Riss]] as Jesse Rimmer * Bobby Hyatt as David Williams {{Div col end}}

== Production == The film is based on a story by Capt. H. T. Peoples titled "My Most Unforgettable Character" (misidentified in the film as "The Most Unforgettable Character I've Met") that was published in the March 1951 issue of ''[[Reader's Digest]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peoples |first=H. T. |date=March 1951 |title=My Most Unforgettable Character |journal=[[Reader's Digest]] |volume=58 |issue=347 |page=6}}</ref> MGM announced the film project in March 1951, with Marsh Williams hired as a technical adviser.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schallert |first=Edwin |date=1951-03-20 |title=Colorful Inventor Saga Bought; Shaye Cogan Due to Play Fairy Princess |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |page=27}}</ref>

Production began in mid-December 1951<ref>{{Cite news |date=1951-12-15 |title=Production Schedule |work=[[Community_newspapers_in_Hollywood,_California#Citizen-News_(1931–1970)|Citizen-News]] |location=[[Hollywood, California]] |page=9}}</ref> and wrapped by mid-January 1952.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1952-01-12 |title=Production Schedule |work=[[Community_newspapers_in_Hollywood,_California#Citizen-News_(1931–1970)|Citizen-News]] |location=[[Hollywood, California]] |page=5}}</ref>

==Reception== In a contemporary review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', critic [[Bosley Crowther]] noted the plot's irony of freeing a man from a murder conviction because he has developed a weapon that will cause many more deaths, writing: "A certain degree of sentiment is aroused that may not be entirely supported when the elements are carefully analyzed. ... [T]he sympathy is loaded too heavily on the hero's side. His obvious indiscretions, not to mention his out-and-out crimes, are softened much too glibly with pity or comedy. If this is, indeed, the true story that it purports to be, it falls very neatly into the pattern of inspirational romance. Finally, there is the question of whether the invention of a gun is a humanitarian accomplishment worthy of the enthusiasm that is generously enjoined."<ref name="crowther">{{cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |date=1952-05-08 |title=The Screen in Review |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=37}}</ref>

Critic [[Philip K. Scheuer]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' wrote: "The clash of wills between warden and prisoner—and one's realization of the odd and interesting fact that this was how and where the modern light automatic rifle came into existence—constitutes the film's pertinent highlights. There's not too much else."<ref name="scheuer">{{Cite news |last=Scheuer |first=Philip K. |date=1952-05-17 |title='Carbine' Discloses Odd Fact |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |page=9}}</ref>

According to MGM records, the film earned $1,787,000 in the U.S. and Canada<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1953-01-07 |title=Top Grossers of 1952 |journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |volume=189 |issue=5 |page=61}}</ref> and $802,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $575,000.<ref name="Mannix" />

==Comic-book adaptation== * [[Fawcett Comics|Fawcett]] Movie Comic #19 (October 1952)<ref>{{gcdb issue|id=245431|title=Fawcett Movie Comic #19}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0044480}} * {{TCMDb title|751}} * {{AFI film|50447}} * {{rotten-tomatoes|Carbine_Williams}}

[[Category:1952 films]] [[Category:1950s biographical drama films]] [[Category:American biographical drama films]] [[Category:American black-and-white films]] [[Category:1952 English-language films]] [[Category:Films directed by Richard Thorpe]] [[Category:Films set in North Carolina]] [[Category:Films set in the 1920s]] [[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films]] [[Category:Films adapted into comics]] [[Category:1952 drama films]] [[Category:1952 American films]] [[Category:English-language biographical drama films]] [[Category:1952 biographical films]]