Santa Fe Trail [1940]

“It has about everything that a high-priced horse opera should have – hard riding, hard shooting, hard fighting, a bit of hard drinking and Errol Flynn,” proclaims The New York Times. Add costars Olivia de Havilland, Ronald Reagan, Raymond Massey and a somewhat revamped re-creation of American history, and you’re on the Santa Fe Trail. Bright young lieutenants Jeb Stuart (Flynn) and George Armstrong Custer (Reagan) are assigned to Kansas Territory to guard the Santa Fe Trail. There, they clash with the fanatical abolitionist John Brown (Massey). On a more romantic side, they also vie for the hand of ‘Kit Carson’ Holliday (de Havilland). But the pursuit of Brown leads the army to the pivotal battle at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, which strikes the spark that hastens the Civil War.