Santa Fe Trail (1940)

Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale ... see more  , Van Heflin , William Lundigan , Ward Bond , Gene Reynolds , Henry O'Neill , Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams , Alan Baxter , John Litel , Moroni Olsen , David Bruce , Hobart Cavanaugh , Charles D. Brown , Joe Sawyer , Frank Wilcox , Russell Simpson , Charles B. Middleton , Erville Alderson , Spencer Charters , Suzanne Carnahan , William Marshall , George Haywood , Luis Alberni , Arthur Ayleswofth , Roy Barcroft , Trevor Bardette , Al Bridge , Jess Lee Brooks , Georgia Caine , Lucia Carroll , Eddy Chandler , Lane Chandler , Cliff Clark , Edmund Cobb , Mildred Coles , Harry Cording , Joseph Crehan , Rev. Neal Dodd , James Farley , Mildred Gover , Mitzi Green , Creighton Hale , Theresa Harris , Edward Hearn , Louis Jean Heydt , Russell Hicks , William Hopper , Selmar Jackson , Victor Kilian , Wilfred Lucas , Frank Mayo , Lafe [Lafayette] McKee , Mira McKinney , Jack Mower , Nestor Paiva , Edward Peil Sr. , Susan Peters , Bernice Pilot , Addison Richards , Clinton Rosemond , Walter Soderling , Grace Stafford , Harry Strang , Libby Taylor , Emmett Vogan , Eddy Waller , Maris Wrixon , Henry Hall , Richard Kipling , Napoleon Simpson

Santa Fe Trail, Errol Flynn's third western, has precisely nothing to do with the titular trail. Instead, the film is a simplistic retelling of the John Brown legend, with Raymond Massey playing the f... read more amed abolitionist. The events leading up to the bloody confrontation between Brown and the US Army at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, are treated in a painstakingly even-handed fashion: Brown's desire to free the slaves is "right" but his methods are "wrong." Whenever the leading characters are asked about their own feelings towards slavery, the response is along the noncommittal lines of "A lot of people are asking those questions," "I don't have the answer to that," and so forth. Before we get to the meat of the story, we are treated to a great deal of byplay between West Point graduates Jeb Stuart (Flynn) and George Armstrong Custer (Ronald Reagan), who carry on a friendly rivalry over the affections of one Kit Carson Halliday (Olivia DeHavilland). Just so we know that the picture is meant to be a follow-up to Warners' Dodge City and Virginia City, Flynn is saddled with Alan Hale and "Big Boy" Williams, his comic sidekicks from those earlier films. Despite its muddled point of view, Santa Fe Trail is often breathtaking entertainment, excitingly staged by director Michael Curtiz. The film's public domain status has made Santa Fe Trail one of the most easily accessible of Errol Flynn's Warner Bros. vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi