Santa Fe Trail (1940)

Description

Santa Fe Trail is a 1940 American Western (genre) 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 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, being 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 Movie ranch#Famous Players-Lasky Movie Ranch – Ahmanson Ranch in the Lasky Mesa area of the Simi Hills in the western San Fernando Valley.