Laura Poisson History 262

Santa Fe Trail 110 minutes, black and white

Released by Warner Brothers in December of 1940

Santa Fe Trail was directed by Michael Curtiz, who was probably best known for directing Casablanca in 1942. It’s a black and white film and is 110 minutes long. http://members.tripod.com/~curtiz/histo.htm

The popular duo Errol Flynn—who plays J.E.B. Stuart--and Olivia de Havilland—who plays Kit Carson Holliday--have top billing. Raymond Massey—who plays abolitionist John Brown--and Ronald Reagan—who plays George Custer--also star. Ronald Reagan had just hit it big in October 1940 with the film Knute Rockne. Susan Sackett. The Hollywood Reporter Book of Box Office Hits. NY, NY: Billboard Books, 1990.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033021/ http://history.acusd.edu/gen/filmnotes/santefetrail.html

The movie’s a Western and a pre-Civil War movie, and it’s pretty absurd at times, so it’s best to just sit back and watch…..and save the analyzing for later. There are lots and lots of historical errors.

It starts by showing six well-known Civil War officers as cadets in their last year at West Point: J.E.B. Stuart, George Custer, George Pickett, Phillip Sheridan, James Longstreet, and John Hood. Two other cadets are fictional: Robert Holliday, and Carl Rader. [Although all actually went to West Point, only J.E.B. Stuart graduated in 1854.] Stuart and Custer are best friends and are also vying for the affections of the same woman, Kit Carson Holliday, Cadet Holliday’s sister. The Holliday family runs the freight company on the Sante Fe Trail and hopes to eventually extend the railroad from Ft. Leavenworth, KS, to Sante Fe. [This is true and Mr. Holliday succeeds; he didn’t, however, have a daughter named Kit].

http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/generals.html http://www.emporia.edu/business/kbhfhistdetail.php?k_id=1

The just-graduated cadets board a train for Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas—or “Bloody Kansas” as it was then called. Only a short while after arriving, they have their first run-in with John Brown; and the rest of the movie shadows Stuart and Custer, who are always one step behind Brown. The viewer’s also kept informed about the romance subplot. Thanks to one of the former cadets—dishonorably discharged Rader—who turns in John Brown, J.E.B. Stuart and the cavalry save the day by capturing Brown just after his attack on a federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry. [The Harper’s Ferry incident is real, although it happened a bit differently than in the movie.] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2940.html

The last scene shows Stuart & Kit and Custer & Charlotte Davis (daughter of Jefferson Davis!) getting married in a moving railroad car, presumably heading out West on the just-built tracks to Sante Fe.

Historical Background on Kansas and John Brown:

Kansas was bloody because settlers were fighting over slavery. On May 30, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act replaced the repealed Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited slavery in the north part of the Louisiana Territory. The 1854 Act allowed the inhabitants of Kansas and Nebraska to determine for themselves whether or not they wanted to become a free or slave state.

John Brown was born in Connecticut in 1800 and was taught from day one to revere the Bible and hate slavery. In time he became a militant abolitionist, involved with the Underground Railroad. By 1850 he was having visions and thought himself commissioned by God to save the U.S. from slavery. In August of 1855 at the urging of his sons, he left New England and went to Kansas, determined to make it a free state. While there, a wealthy group of men called “The Secret Six” were raising money to fund Brown’s efforts. He was planning to capture a federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, take the weapons, and arm and lead a slave rebellion throughout the South. On October 16, 1859, he and his men took hostages and raided the armory, but he was captured there two days later. He was tried, and hung on December 2. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Missouri.htmlcs/kansas.html http://brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/03-3/03-3a.htm http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/brown/peopleevents/pande07.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Six

The Big Questions and Their Answers:

Why is John Brown portrayed as such a monster, an “outright terrorist,” said one reviewer?

Why are all these soon-to-be important Civil War officers made to be in the same graduating

class at West Point?

In the minds of the slaveholders and their sympathizers, John Brown was attacking their way of life—one that was sanctioned by U.S. law. Lots of them thought that if the government didn’t stop Brown, who knew what could happen. In the North, anti-slavers thought Brown a martyr, willing to sacrifice his life for the freedom and welfare of his fellow man. Brown had tired of the years and years of talk about ending slavery; he was prepared to do something. Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to John Brown as a “saint,” and Henry David Thoreau compared Brown—a personal friend—to Jesus. The actions at Harper’s Ferry pointed out that the nation was at the crossroads of civil war and that it could find no acceptable compromise. Hugh Hawkins. The Abolitionists. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co. 1964

Pals Custer and Stuart were the good guys in the film—the heroes. They were always shown as perfectly dressed and well-mannered gentlemen and officers, constantly with a smile on their faces. They didn’t mix politics and soldiering; they took their orders and followed through. Their eventual representation of different sides in the Civil War was to show audiences that putting differences aside and working together enables good to prevail over evil.

Why tell the story this way….and why now?

Most Americans in December 1940 weren’t ready to jump into WWII with two feet, but England was getting heavily bombed and people were starting to worry about Hitler. [See below for more detailed history.]

Santa Fe Trail was the first of many Westerns with Civil War characters or plots designed to build “American nationalism.” These movies endeavored to unite Americans of all “regional, ethnic or political” persuasions in order to prepare them for the possibility of entering WWII. The movies defined America’s enemy and showed that the nation needed to stay together in order to “save Democracy.” The U.S. could and did defeat John Brown; they could defeat Hitler if necessary.

Bruce Chadwick, Ph.D. The Reel Civil War, Mythmaking in American Film. NY: Vintage Books 2002

Title significance: None, except for the fact that Stuart and Custer’s adventure together began and ended on the Santa Fe Trail.

Music: Playing in the background more than once is the tune the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Before it became the Battle Hymn, it was called “John Brown’s Body.” It was originally thought to be about abolitionist John Brown but in fact was composed as a joke by the friends of a different John Brown--a young Union soldier. The Battle Hymn words were written by Northerner Julia Howe in 1861 and published in Harper’s Magazine in February of 1862. http://www.friesian.com/history/anthems.htm

Reviews:

New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther said on Dec. 21, 1940, that, “The most significant comment one can make about the Warners’ rowdy-dowdy Sante Fa Trail is that the action of it never reaches Santa Fe”…. that “it misses the trail entirely…” “The judgment of history upon John Brown is divided, it is true. Still, the story demanded a bad man for Mr. Flynn and his laddies to chase…”

http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?_r=1&title1=Sante%20Fe%20Trail&title2=&reviewer=BOSLEY%20CROWTHER&pdate=19401221&v_id=&oref=slogin

From Leonard Maltin's 1998 Movie & Video Guide: “Lopsided picture can't make up its mind about anything: what side it's taking, what it wants to focus on, etc. Worthless as history, but amid the rubble are some good action scenes….” Signet Book. 1997.

Online TV Guide:

“Despite its misleading title, this roaring, action-packed film, directed with great vigor by Curtiz, is not a western and has little to do with the Santa Fe Trail. And though it purports to deal with a serious segment of American history, even that is inaccurate. A travesty of history, SANTA FE TRAIL is nonetheless a rousing adventure yarn, offering a great romp for Flynn and providing a bevy of colorful characterizations. De Havilland is at her feisty, attractive best, while Reagan has the "best friend" role, losing her to the handsome Flynn. The film's gratuitous patriotism is countered by the tentative sympathies Reagan and a few others utter on behalf of Massey, stating that he may be misdirected but that his ambition to free the slaves is a worthy one. “

Star Rating:

http://online.tvguide.com/newsearch/detail.aspx?tvobjectid=116753&more=ucmoviereview

Yahoo! reviewers gave it a B+; Amazon reviewers gave it 4 out of 5 stars; IMDB gave it a 6.1 out of 10.

My grades: a D for historical accuracy, a C for historical value, and a B for entertainment.

Additional History -- WWII and Racism in December 1940

War in Europe: The British were being heavily bombed by the Germans. Lots of Americans believed Hitler would eventually attack the U.S., but most didn’t want to join the fight. In early December, FDR visited various Caribbean Islands and met with the Duke of Windsor (who at the time was Governor of the Bahamas). FDR was “inspecting” British bases in the Caribbean for possible use by the U.S. On December 20, the day of the New York release of the film Santa Fe Trail, the Roosevelt administration announced the establishment of an Office of Production Management, the goal of which was to expand defense efforts and speed military aid to the British and other non-Axis powers. On December 21 the German government denounced the act as a form of "moral aggression." On December 29, President Roosevelt, in a “Fireside Chat,” (his second of the year—the previous one was in May 1940) called for a huge war production effort that would make the United States “the great arsenal of democracy”: planes, ships, guns, and munitions for those countries fighting for Democracy.

http://libraryautomation.com/nymas/americafirst.html http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1940.htm

Racism: America was still a segregated country with frequent acts of violence. African Americans were starting to recognize the dangers of Nazism. At the 1936 Olympics, Hitler had refused to acknowledge Olympic champion Jesse Owen’s four gold medals for the U.S. because Owens was Black. In 1939 Hitler began “genetic cleansings,” and in August of 1940 radio news programs began regularly reporting the events leading up to the Jews being sent to concentration camps beginning in Sept. 1940. On Nov. 16, a large African-American civil rights protest in Philadelphia made headlines, doubling the membership in that city’s branch of the NAACP.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761595158_8/African_American_History.html

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578922/Jesse_Owens.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust#Euthanasia_.281939-1941.29

http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=395127

http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/bltimeline3.htm

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1157/is_n1_v61/ai_20787854

A few websites about the stars:

Olivia de Havilland talks briefly about the movie: http://www.sag.org/history/dehaviland.html

Errol Flynn info: http://www.answers.com/topic/errol-flynn

Ronald Reagan, Screen Actors Guild site, w/links: http://www.sag.org/history/presidents/reagan.html

Final note: One reviewer thought the point of the film was that it ascribed to and was illustrating the theory of the “Needless War School.” After WWI the first school of war revisionists began to question Lincoln’s accepted image as the great peacemaker. They theorized that the Civil War was an “avoidable conflict” or “needless war.” This theory died off towards the beginning of the ‘50s but a revival started in 2003. http://www.uvsc.edu/plsc/journal/journal2005.pdf#search=%22%22needless%20war%20school%22%22