Year of Release: 1940Country of Origin: USA
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Van Heflin
Plot outline: The story of Jeb Stuart, his romance with Kit Carson Holliday, friendship with George Custer and battles against John Brown in the days leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War (IMDb).
Santa Fe Trail has about everything that a high-priced horse-opera should have - hard riding, hard shooting, hard fighting, a bit of hard drinking and Errol Flynn. It touches sketchily upon the pre-Civil War struggle between slaveholders and abolitionists in Kansas Territory, thereby acquiring a note of profundity. It is very solemn about manifest destiny. The Cavalry comes whooping to the rescue not once but twice - and beautifully. Yet for any one who has the slightest regard for the spirit - not to mention the facts - of American history, it will prove exceedingly annoying. For, without the least hesitation, the producers have blithely enrolled Jeb Stuart, George Custer, Phil Sheridan, James Longstreet, George Pickett and John B. Hood in the Class of 1854 at West Point; has graduated them en masse to Kansas, like a troop of adventure-loving Rover Boys, and has there put them to guarding the perilous trail to Sante Fe. But, very soon, Jeb and the boys run afoul of John (Osawatomie) Brown, the abolitionist leader, and from then on it is Jeb and his Young Generals versus old Osawatomie and his villainous band all the way from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to the final kill at Harpers Ferry, Va. It is a noisy and bloody pursuit. Now, the judgment of history upon John Brown is divided, it is true. Some hold that he was a great martyr to the cause of freeing the slaves, others suspect he was just a wild fanatic driven mad by a high ideal. But he was hardly the crack-pot villain that the producers have broadly implied, and he deserves a better classification in the minds of impressionable movie-goers than that just one peg above a marauding cattle rustler from Bloody Gulch. Still, the story demanded a bad man for Mr. Flynn and his laddies to chase, so John Brown turns out it. Flynn plays Jeb Stuart, who was famous for his flowing red beard, with but the trace of a moustache on his lip. A shorn and fragile Jeb, one may complain; yet think what the fans would say if Flynn had to play a romantic role behind a mess of herbage! However, Raymond Massey, as John Brown, makes up in hirsute adornment what Flynn lacks - and in vigorous authority, too. Massey's Brown, though mad, is a very commanding person. In fact, he is the most convincing leader in the movie. Next to his, Van Heflin's performance as a treacherous follower contains the sharpest punch. The rest are all routine. Incidentally, we would like to know what happened to that strange railroad we saw building in just one shot. Did it ever reach Santa Fe? (NYT)
My judgement: **1/2 out of 4 stars
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