Santa Fe Trail is a 1940 western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, being the seventh Flynn-de Havilland collaboration. The film also has nothing to do with its namesake, the famed Santa Fe Trail, except that the trail started in Missouri. Instead, it follows the life of J.E.B. Stuart, a cavalry commander . The outdoor scenes were filmed at the Lasky Movie Ranch in the Lasky Mesa area of the Simi Hills in the western San Fernando Valley. One can visit the film location site, now in the very... large Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve , with various trails to the Lasky Mesa locale. The film purports to follow the life of J.E.B. Stuart before the outbreak of the American Civil War. Among its sub-plots are a romance with the fictional Kit Carson Holliday , friendship with George Armstrong Custer , and battles against abolitionist John Brown . The movie significantly differs from the actual details of Stuart's life.
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| Release date: | December 28, 1940 |
| Directed by: | Michael Curtiz |
| Runtime: | 110 Minutes |
| Producer: | Hal B. Wallis, Robert Fellows |
| Editor: | George Amy |
| Music by: | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography: | Sol Polito |
| Screenplay by: | Robert Buckner |
| Genre: | Action, Western |