Santa Fe Trail (DVD)

Set in pre-Civil War America, this "blood 'n thunder western" (New York Times) stars the dashing Errol Flynn as cavalry officer Jeb Stuart and a scene-stealing Raymond Massey as the famed abolitionist John Brown. Upon graduation from West Point, Stuart is charged with stopping John Brown and his band of zealots who are murdering and pillaging all who oppose their ideology, culminating with the bloody battle at Harper's Ferry. Ronald Reagan turns in a gritty performance as George Armstrong Custer, and the beautiful Olivia De Havilland enchants as the tough-willed Kit Carson Holliday. With a stirring score by Max Steiner (Gone With The Wind) and sweeping frontier battle sequences on the journey from Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas to Santa Fe and Virginia, this epic thriller from the Golden Age of westerns is marvelously staged by director Michael Curtiz.

• western