Product Description

In this rousing, action-packed post-Civil War adventure, legendary Western hero Randolph Scott stars as Britt Canfield, the eldest of four brothers who have seen their family's Virginia plantation stolen by carpetbaggers. With no choice but to start over, Britt accepts a position to help build the Yankee-funded Santa Fe railroad, where the straight-shooting ex-Confederate takes on superstitious Indians, crooked gamblers, vengeful war widows, and most dangerous of all, his three brothers, vicious Yankee haters who'll stop at nothing to prevent the completion of the Santa Fe. Even if it means killing their own brother.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45883 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2005-09-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 87 minutes

Amazon.com
The directorial career of Irving Pichel (pronounced peekl) ran from the Cooper-and-Schoedsack specials The Most Dangerous Game (1932) and She (1935) to a couple of religious productions in 1953-54; it peaked with the wartime dramas The Pied Piper (1942) and The Moon Is Down (1943). Pichel also kept busy as a character actor (e.g., the towering manservant Sandor in Dracula's Daughter). But his most indelible cinematic contributions went uncredited: it is Pichel's carillon of a voice that narrates the John Ford classics How Green Was My Valley (1941) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon(1949).

That voice is heard at the beginning of Pichel's own Santa Fe, seeking to graft Ford-style allegory onto a formulaic tale of post-Civil War animosities and railroad-building. Randolph Scott (hero of She 25 years earlier) plays a former Confederate officer who, in a charmingly daft moment, lurches onto a rolling flatcar while fleeing vindictive Union veterans and finds himself recruited by the Santa Fe Railroad. His three brothers, refusing to "work for Yankees," desert him and turn more or less accidental outlaws. Scott is supposed to be torn between loyalty to his blood kin and loyalty to his employer (Warner Anderson, later of TV's The Line-Up)--also his rival for the affections of the war widow (Janis Carter) whose Union-officer husband was killed in a battle with Scott's Rebs. But the script is piecemeal and the individual scenes flatfooted. Sole exception: an out-of-the-blue fiddling contest (!) in a mountain pass, which both exacerbates and helps resolve a desperate crisis for Scott. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Better than Routine
very enjoyable escapist saturday afternoon old technicolor flick. "routine" is also what Leonard Maltin has termed this movie but i agree with someone online at Amazon that says he can be a snob at times. I enjoy certain 2 and 3 star films as much as some of the highly lauded ones and this falls into that category. If u like the old western good guys against the bad decently done this will fit the bill superbly

"Santa Fe (1951) ... Randolph Scott ... Columbia Pictures Classic Westerns"
Columbia Pictures presents "SANTA FE" (1951) (87 mins/Color) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring Randolph Scott, Janis Carter, Jerome Courtland, Peter M. Thompson & John Archer --- Directed by Irving Pichel and released in April 1, 1951, our story line and film, Set in the years following the Civil War, the film centres on Britt Canfield, one of four ex-Confederate brothers who head West to carve out a new life. While his three siblings cast their lot on the wrong side of the law, Britt accepts a job with the Santa Fe Railroad. Inevitably, Britt is obliged to bring his wayward brothers to justice, though he knows full well that the person responsible for their downfall is gambling boss Cole Sanders. In a well-staged climax, Britt squares accounts with the evil Sanders and his hulking henchman Crake --- take note when the Indian chief complains that the train is making too much noise, so Scott allows him to drive the locomotive, to feel that he is in control ... classic tales of "The Iron Horse" on, the building of the railroads was always a great theme for westerns and Santa Fe tell its story with plenty of good action scenes --- The creative team of producer Harry Joe Brown and star Randolph Scott turned out some of the best westerns of the 1950s, and Santa Fe is no exception.--- And Mr. Scott was secure enough in his stardom that he gave good lines and depth to the younger actors in the film.

Under Irving Pichel (Director), Harry Joe Brown (Producer), Kenneth Gamet (Screenwriter), James Vance Marshall (Book Author),Louis Stevens (Screen Story), Charles Lawton (Cinematographer), Morris W. Stoloff (Musical Direction/Supervision), Gene Havlick (Editor), Walter Holscher (Art Director) - - - - the cast includes Randolph Scott (Britt Canfield), Janis Carter (Judith Chandler), Jerome Courtland (Terry Canfield), Peter Thompson (Tom Canfield), John Archer (Clint Canfield), Warner Anderson (Dave Baxter), Roy Roberts (Cole Sanders), Billy House -(Luke Plummer), Olin Howland (Dan Dugan), Allene Roberts (Ella Sue), Harry Cording (Moore Legrande), Sven Hugo Borg (Swede Swanstrom), Frank Ferguson (Marshal Bat Masterson), Irving Pichel (Harned), Harry Tyler (Rusty), Paul E. Burns (Uncle Dick Wootton), Chief Thundercloud (Chief Longfeather), Jock Mahoney (Crake) - - - - Randy Scott had a quiet gentleman nature about him which is not seen in the films of today ... Randy took his job and his responsibility to his audience very seriously ,,, would not settle for anything less than his best ... same was true in his personal life.

SPECIAL FEATURES BIOS:
1. Randolph Scott (aka: George Randolph Scott)
Date of birth: 23 January 1898 - Orange County, Virginia
Date of death: 2 March 1987 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

Special footnote, George Randolph Scott better known as Randolph Scott, was an American film actor whose career spanned the sound era from the late 1920s to the early 1960s ... his popularity grew in the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in such films as "Gung Ho"! (1943) and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1938); but he was especially famous for his numerous Westerns including "Virginia City" (1940) with Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart, "Western Union" (1941) with Robert Young and "Ride the High Country" (1962) with Joel McCrea (a coin was flipped to see whether Scott or McCrea would receive top billing, and Scott won despite having a slightly smaller role) ... his long fistfight with John Wayne in "The Spoilers" (1942) was frequently cited by critics and the press as the most thrilling ever filmed; they were fighting over Marlene Dietrich ... another smash hit film together that same year called "Pittsburgh" (1942) once again with Dietrich, Scott and Wayne --- Daniel Webster defines "Legend", as being a notable person, or the stories told about that person exploits --- well by the time Randolph Scott made his best films he had long established himself as a legend in the film industry --- they say practice makes perfect, if that is true by 1958 at 60 years of age he was the master with these oaters from the 50s ... "The Cariboo Trail" (1950), "The Nevadan" (1950), "Colt .45" (1950), "Santa Fe" (1951), "Sugarfoot" (1951), "Fort Worth" (1951), "Man in the Saddle" (1951), "Carson City" (1952), "The Man Behind the Gun" (1952), "Hangman's Knot" (1952), "Thunder over the Plains" (1953), "The Stranger Wore a Gun" (1953), "Ten Wanted Men" (1954), "Riding Shotgun" (1954), "The Bounty Hunter" (1954), "Rage at Dawn" (1955), "Tall Man Riding" (1955), "A Lawless Street" (1955), "Seven Men from Now" (1956), "Seventh Cavalry" (1956), "Decision at Sundown: (1957), "Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend" (1957), "The Tall T" (1957), "Buchanan Rides Alone" (1958), "Ride Lonesome" (1959), "Westbound" (1959), "Comanche Station" (1960) --- Scott's age seemed to matter little, they only came to see another Randolph Scott film and always got their money's worth --- Scott's films were good and getting better becoming classics --- so if you wonder "What Ever Happened To Randolph Scott", just rent or purchase one of his films and you'll see he's never left us.

2. Janis Carter
Date of Birth: 10 October 1913 - Cleveland, Ohio
Date of Death: 30 July 1994 - Durham, North Carolina

3. Jerome Courtland
Date of Birth: 27 December 1926 - Knoxville, Tennessee
Date of death: Still Living

4. Irving Pichel (Director)
Date of Birth: 24 June 1891 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Date of Death: 13 July 1954 - Hollywood, California

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 87 min on DVD ~ Sony Pictures Video ~ (9/06/05)

Solid action, good story line
Here we have dependable Randy Scott in a good railroad Western flick, well worth watching from time to time. The supporting cast is fine, and Columbia Studios did an excellent job in their production; good color print.