Santa Fe Trail
About Santa Fe Trail
At West Point in 1854, Carl Rader is thrown out for starting a fight over John Brown's pamphlets. Jeb Stuart and George Custer are sent to Fort Leavenworth. On the way both fall for Kit Carson Holliday, whose father is building a railroad toward Santa Fe. They take Brown's wounded son Jason, who names a ranch at Palmyra before he dies. Stuart rides in disguised, is caught, and is pulled from a burning barn when Custer's cavalry arrives. In 1859, after Stuart proposes to Kit in Washington, Rader warns him that Brown will seize the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Troops under Robert E. Lee take Brown. Brown is hanged, and Stuart marries Kit on one of her father's trains.
Cast & crew
More about Santa Fe Trail
Michael Curtiz directed. Robert Buckner wrote it. Hal B. Wallis was the executive producer. George Amy edited. It premiered in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 13 December 1940 and opened in New York on 20 December. Domestic rentals were $1,748,000 and foreign rentals $785,000. It was the seventh film pairing Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.
Themes
Background
The story uses John Brown's Kansas raids and the 1859 seizure of the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, then changes the dates, the officers, and the troops.
Look
Sol Polito photographed the California ranch and railroad locations.
Music
Max Steiner wrote the score.
Preservation
Copies are on the Internet Archive and on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Errol Flynn plays Jeb Stuart, Ronald Reagan plays Custer, Raymond Massey plays John Brown, and Van Heflin plays Rader.
- Henry O'Neill plays Cyrus K. Holliday. Gene Reynolds plays Jason Brown. Moroni Olsen plays Robert E. Lee. Alan Hale is also billed.
- Stuart, Custer, and the others were not one West Point class. Custer and Stuart did not know each other. The railroad to New Mexico was not begun until 1879.
- The cavalry assault on Harpers Ferry in the film was, in 1859, a Marine action.
- Kit Carson Holliday is an invented daughter. The real Mrs. Stuart was Flora Cooke.
- A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Scenes
- Stuart is trapped in the burning barn at Palmyra until Custer's cavalry arrives.
- Brown is hanged after the arsenal fight, and Stuart and Kit marry aboard a train.
Also available
- Internet Archive (Santa_Fe_Trail_movie)
