Cubs BCB After Dark has spent a week asking readers who should start third in the playoffs, then turned to music and movies. Tonight’s movie is a 1940 Western that is not a Western, a Civil War movie set in Kansas, and a terrible one at that.
The Film That Isn’t What It Says
Santa Fe Trail stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ronald Reagan and Raymond Massey. It follows Jeb Stuart and George Armstrong Custer at West Point, with Flynn playing Stuart and Van Heflin as a cadet named Carl Rader who gets expelled for abolitionist literature. The film sends Stuart and Custer to Kansas, where Stuart pursues John Brown, played by Massey.
Why It Doesn’t Work
The film is racist, according to the reviewer. It ignores pro-slavery violence in Kansas and makes Brown the only one committing violence. Brown runs freed slaves through Kansas as part of the Underground Railroad, but the film also shows him as a hypocrite who treats his charges poorly. When a barn full of runaway slaves catches fire, Brown flees while Stuart risks his life to save them.
The Worst Scenes
An elderly Black couple in the film speak about freedom in Kansas, with the woman saying she has no use for it and her husband wanting to return to Texas. The film argues that slavery was not worth fighting over. Stuart, who was a slave owner in real life, tells Brown that Southern states would end slavery peacefully if he stopped his crusade.
The raid at Harper’s Ferry is stopped because Heflin’s character betrays Brown after not getting paid. This paints the abolitionists as hypocrites in it for fame, money and glory.
The One Good Thing
The reviewer’s one saving grace is Massey’s performance. He plays John Brown as a bug-eyed zealot, the villain of the film but the most interesting character. When Brown is captured, the film lets Massey quote his final words correctly: “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”
The Music
Before the review, the site played John Coltrane with Duke Ellington on “In A Sentimental Mood,” noting that Coltrane showed a softer side than his usual big, brash sound. Aaron Bell played bass and Elvin Jones played drums.
The Review’s Own Contradiction
The review spends considerable time mocking the film’s racism and hypocrisy, then ends by praising the actor who plays the villain for his commitment. That is an odd move, since the point of the review is that the film’s portrayal of Brown is wrong.
What We Learned
Santa Fe Trail is a bad movie, a bad piece of history and a bad Western. It is not worth watching, and it should embarrass everyone who made it except perhaps Raymond Massey.
Key Facts Box
- Film: Santa Fe Trail (1940)
- Director: Michael Curtiz
- Stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ronald Reagan, Raymond Massey
- Setting: Kansas, during Bleeding Kansas and the Civil War
- Score: Terrible, per the reviewer
The Verdict
The review is a warning, not an endorsement. The film fails on every level, and the praise for Massey reads as a concession that the whole project was misguided.
Santa Fe Trail is a terrible film, and the review makes that clear. The praise for Massey feels like a footnote, not a counterpoint.
See the video the story is built around at Sports.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.