All Movie Guide

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 famed 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

Product Details

• UPC: 096009011192
• Source: PLATINUM DISC
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: B&W
• Sound: Dolby Digital
• Time: 1:50:00
• Sales Rank: 4,856

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Santa Fe Trail / Abilene Town
• Great American Western 1
• Great American Western, Vol. 9
• Great American Western 1
• Great American Westerns 1
• Ronald Reagan: This Is the Army / Santa Fe Trail
• Hollywood Westerns Classics
• Santa Fe Trail / Hell Town
• Western Classics: 100 Movie Pack
• Hollywood Western Collection
• American Classic Western Collection

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