Carbine Williams

Oh the magic of TiVo.

A month ago I recorded on TMC an obscure film called Carbine Williams. This movie, said Robert Osborne, did not appeal to moviegoers but may have been Jimmy Stewart's best performance. It tells the story of David Marshall "Marsh" Williams of North Carolina. Williams was an impatient young man with an aptitude for machinery. Unfortunately he put that talent to work building stills during Prohibition. During a federal raid a firefight broke out, an agent was killed, and the court sentenced Williams to thirty years in state prison.

While in prison, Williams bucked the system and earned a trip to the chain gang. After serving out his punishment he went to a prison farm where he started working in the machine shop. While there, he secretly constructed a new kind of gun. When the warden discovered the weapon, he was so amazed at the advances made that he approved of a demonstration. Present was a representative of Winchester. Because it worked, Williams earned a pardon and a job with that firm. The gun's reduced weight and superior firing capability made it the "grandfather" of the M1 used by soldiers in World War II.

The hero of the film was a gun maker, described as a "rugged individualist." His hard work and persistence paid off for him and also helped our soldiers better combat our most dangerous enemies.

This kind of movie is why I would much rather watch TMC than pay to see a recently made film. American values dominate this movie, values that left leaning liberals would rather we forget.