A THOUSAND MILES OF DANGER, A THOUSAND THRILLS A MILE!
In the 1850s, West Point graduates Jeb Stuart and George Custer (Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan) team up to hunt down the radical abolitionist John Brown (Raymond Massey) who keeps attacking Southerners along the Santa Fe Trail. One of director Michael Curtiz’s rare misfires still benefits from his direction and Flynn’s charisma, but the romance involving Olivia de Havilland is completely superfluous. And then there’s the historical errors. Normally I wouldn’t object to a mistake here and there but this movie presents its numerous, glaring errors as if they’re facts… and also sides with the slaveowners to some extent.
1940-U.S. 110 min. B/W. Directed byĀ Michael Curtiz. Cast: Errol Flynn (Jeb Stuart), Olivia de Havilland (Kit Carson Holliday), Raymond Massey (John Brown), Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, Guinn Williams… Ward Bond, Van Heflin.
Trivia: Massey played Brown again in Seven Angry Men (1955).
