San Antonio (1945)

Tough dance hall girl working for the local villain falls for a cowboy trying to clean up the town.

Director:

David Butler

Writers:

Alan Le May (screenplay), W.R. Burnett (screenplay)

Stars:

Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S.Z. Sakall

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Errol Flynn	...	Clay Hardin
Alexis Smith	...	Jeanne Starr
S.Z. Sakall	...	Sacha Bozic (as S.Z. 'Cuddles' Sakall)
Victor Francen	...	Legare
Florence Bates	...	Henrietta
John Litel	...	Charlie Bell
Paul Kelly	...	Roy Stuart
Robert Shayne	...	Captain Morgan
John Alvin	...	Pony Smith
Monte Blue	...	Cleve Andrews
Robert Barrat	...	Colonel Johnson
Pedro de Cordoba	...	Ricardo Torreon (as Pedro De Cordoba)
Tom Tyler	...	Lafe McWilliams

Storyline

Clay Hardin is a San Antonio rancher who has been run off his land by cattle rustlers. There's a range war going on and Hardin is determined to get the man behind it all, Roy Stuart. Hardin has been hiding out in Mexico, biding his time and decides the time has come for him to return. He's managed to get hold of one of Stuart's tally books that clearly shows he was selling cattle that didn't belong to him. Stuart and his partner Legare will go to any lengths to stop Hardin before he can put the evidence before a court. Beautiful dance hall performer Jeanne Starr arrives in San Antonio under contract to Stuart and Legare but she is clearly smitten with the handsome Hardin. When the army is called away, Hardin and his supporters are left on their own to defend themselves.

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Plot Keywords:

dance hall | rustler | cowboy | rancher | mexican border | 

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Taglines:

Strong Men . . . Brave Men . . . Real Americans - and their Women!

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Genres:

Romance | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

29 December 1945 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cidade sem Lei

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Bozic in the film twice refers to riderless horses as 'empty horses'. This is likely to be a reference to director, Michael Curtiz, with whom Errol Flynn had worked on 'The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)'. When wanting to see stray horses wandering through the battle, Curtiz directed the wranglers to "Bring on the empty horses." When David Niven and Flynn cracked up laughing, he responded with: 'You people, you think I know fuck nothing; I tell you: I know fuck all". Niven later made this "curtizism" immortal by titling a volume of his autobiography:"Bring on the empty horses."

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Goofs

When Clay Hardin tells the driver to turn the coach around at the end, the long shot shows his horse tied to it. However, just before this shot, Bozic sees Hardin's 'empty' horse running free.

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Quotes

Clay Hardin: [about the dance] Took me years to pick up.
Jeanne Starr: It must have been the only thing that took you that long.
Clay Hardin: Well, we don't get pretty girls like you down here often. Guess that's why we have to pay for it.

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Connections

Referenced in Hollywood Wonderland (1947)

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Soundtracks

"Put Your Little Foot Right Out"
(uncredited)
Written by Larry Spier

User Reviews

one of the high achievements of Warner, a still enjoyable western.

When I first saw this film in a rerun at the early fifties I was impressed by the colors. Before this western only a few were made in color like "Dodge City", "Jesse James", and "Drums Along the Mohawk". There is a scene at the beginning where a young boy takes a telegram from one person to another passing through the town, and the scenery and colors of this scene never left my memory, it was breathtaking. When I saw this film recently on DVD, the colors looked great, but because of the higher definition, the painted scenery became very obvious. "San Antonio" is one of those high achievements of Warner, a western that has stagecoaches, shootouts, (one of them at the Alamo), a big saloon with music, Alexis Smith, and of course, Flynn. I lost the count of the times I have seen this movie and I keep on enjoying it.