Santa Fe Trail is a 1940 American western film directed by
Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland,
Raymond Massey and Ronald Reagan.
Written by Robert Buckner, the film is about the abolitionist John Brown
and his fanatical attacks on slavery as a prelude to the American Civil War.
Subthemes include J.E.B. Stuart and George Armstrong Custer as they duel
for the hand of Kit Carson Holliday.
The film was one of the top-grossing films of the year,
and the seventh Flynn–de Havilland collaboration.
The film also has almost nothing to do with its namesake, the famed Santa Fe Trail,
except that the trail started in Missouri and the railroad could be built
only after the Army drove Brown out of Kansas.
The outdoor scenes were filmed at the Lasky Movie Ranch
in the Lasky Mesa area of the Simi Hills in the western San Fernando Valley.
One can visit the film location site, now in the very large
Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve (a.k.a. Ahmanson Ranch),
with various trails to the Lasky Mesa locale.
Production
At one stage Randolph Scott was mentioned for the lead.
However it soon became a vehicle for Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.
John Wayne was mentioned as a possibility for Flynn's costar.
Dennis Morgan was originally announced for the role of George Custer.
Van Heflin was signed to play the villain following his success on Broadway
in The Philadelphia Story; it was his first movie since 1937.
Morgan was borrowed to appear in Kitty Foyle and was replaced
shortly before filming began by Ronald Reagan.
Filming started July 1940 although the shoot starting date was pushed back due
to a re-emergence of Flynn's malaria.
The film is frequently confused with the Raoul Walsh movie They Died with Their Boots On,
released the following year, in which Flynn replaces Reagan in the role of Custer
and also features de Havilland as Flynn's leading lady.
Release
The film was premiered in Santa Fe over a three-day festival, featuring a large number of celebrities.
There were 250 guests and two special trains, with a total cost of $50,000
- shared between Warners and Santa Fe Railroad.
Box office
The film made a profit of $1.48 million.
Look out for Duke's, 'Pals' Ward Bond, Russell Simpson
User Review
In The Tradition of Gone With the Wind
8 May 2007 | by bkoganbing (Buffalo, New York)
Display MoreWhen Santa Fe Trail was released in 1940 it was to general critical acclaim. Though it is in no way a classic like Gone With the Wind, it's view of the coming Civil War is not too dissimilar from the David O. Selznick film that also had Olivia DeHavilland as one of its stars. It was a popularly held view of the time, the abolitionists were well intentioned rabble rousers who brought on the Civil War and as Errol Flynn as J.E.B. Stuart says, the south will settle the slavery issue in its own time.
Back in the day even in A westerns like Santa Fe Trail, liberal use of the facts involving noted historical figures was taken. The fact that Stuart, Custer, Longstreet, Pickett, Sheridan, and Hood would all graduate West Point in the same class was really a minor bending of the rules. The following year with Errol Flynn as Custer in They Died With Their Boots On, they got Custer's graduation class right, but then compounded his life with more errors.
One interesting fact that no one mentions in this film is Henry O'Neill as the real life Cyrus K. Holliday (1826-1900) who considerably outlived just about everyone portrayed in the film. He's of critical importance in Kansas history as having built the Santa Fe railroad. His children neither went to West Point as William Lundigan, did graduating with all these Civil War heroes, nor did his daughter wind up marrying one.
Olivia DeHavilland playing her usual heroine, gets out of the crinoline for a bit as a Calamity Jane type daughter to Henry O'Neill. I have to say she showed quite a bit more spunk than her normal range of leading ladies at the time at Warner Brothers. She certainly Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan as George A. Custer on their toes.
If people remember anything at all about Santa Fe Trail today it is Raymond Massey as the fanatical John Brown. Yet even there, Brown has his hypocritical moments when he's quite ready to let a barn full of recent runaway slaves burn down so he can kill Errol Flynn in it. It doesn't ring true with the character as defined by Massey, I fault the scriptwriters there. Massey repeated his John Brown character in the later Seven Men From Now. Other than Abraham Lincoln it is the role that actor is most identified with.
As an action western though, Santa Fe Trail can't be beat. The battle scene with the army breaking John Brown's siege at Harper's Ferry is well staged. You really do think you are at Harper's Ferry watching a newsreel.
Though it never was history and hasn't worn well in its interpretation, western fans will still like Santa Fe Trail.