San Antonio ** (1945, Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith) – Classic Movie Review 12,532

Warner Bros’ 1945 Technicolor Western film San Antonio was Errol Flynn’s most popular movie of the mid 1940s. Director David Butler said: ‘That was a fine, well done picture. We had a lot of fun and Flynn was great.’

Director David Butler’s 1945 Warner Bros Technicolor Western film San Antonio stars Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith. It is efficiently is written by Alan LeMay and W R Burnett, but it is a production line movie.

San Antonio is a middle-of-the-range knockabout Western in which good guy Clay Hardin (Flynn) takes barroom entertainer Jeanne Starr (Smith), the woman of the town’s nasty saloon owner Legare (Victor Francen).

Flynn turns in a lusty performance, there’s a good cast, and Warner Bros give the film the works, and it is nicely shot in Technicolor by Bert Glennon, but it is undeniably derivative and on the dull side.

It is the debut of handsome, rugged-looking Don McGuire, as a cowboy (uncredited), though he had four other appearances that year: God Is My Co-Pilot, Pillow to Post, Pride of the Marines and Too Young to Know.

Also in the cast are Paul Kelly, Victor Francen, S Z Sakall, John Litel, Florence Bates, Don McGuire, Robert Shayne, Monte Blue, Robert Barrat, Pedro de Cordoba, John Alvin, Tom Tyler, Chris-Pin Martin, Charles Stevens, Doodles Weaver, Dan White, Harry Cordiing, Eddie Acuff, Snub Pollard, Francis Ford, and Jack Mower.

San Antonio is directed by David Butler, Robert Florey (uncredited) and Raoul Walsh (uncredited). runs 110 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Alan LeMay and W R Burnett, is shot in Technicolor by Bert Glennon, is produced by Robert Buckner, is scored by Max Steiner, and is designed by Ted Smith.

It was nominated for two Academy Awards: for Best Original Song (‘Some Sunday Morning’) and Best Art Direction (Ted Smith, Jack McConaghy).

W R Burnett said he wrote the script in three weeks then rewrote it. He tried to persuade Jack Warner to hire Marlene Dietrich to co-star but the studio boss preferred to save paying her by using a contract actress. Burnett added that, when Butler was assigned as director, ‘It scared the hell out of us because he had never made anything but musicals, but he got a good picture out of it.’

David Butler said: ‘That was a fine, well done picture. We had a lot of fun and Flynn was great. They built probably the longest street that was ever built for a Western at Warners’ for the film but they built it the wrong way’. He was warned about working with Flynn but ‘I never met a nicer man in my entire life. He did everything he was told.’ He remembered Flynn was always on time and was drunk only once, for a close up.

Filming started in September 1944 at Warner Bros’ Calabasas Ranch.

It was released on 29 December 1945. It turned out well as Flynn’s most popular movie of the mid 1940s, earning $5,899,000 on a $2,232,000 budget as Warners’ third most popular film of the year, after Saratoga Trunk and Night and Day.

The cast are Errol Flynn as Clay Hardin, Alexis Smith as Jeanne Starr, S Z ‘Cuddles; Sakall as Sacha Bozic, Victor Francen as Legare, Florence Bates as Henrietta, John Litel as Charlie Bell, Paul Kelly as Roy Stuart, Robert Shayne as Captain Morgan, John Alvin as Pony Smith, Monte Blue as Cleve Andrews, Robert Barrat as Colonel Johnson, Pedro de Cordoba as Ricardo Torreon, Tom Tyler as Lafe McWilliams, Don McGuire, Chris-Pin Martin, Charles Stevens, Doodles Weaver, Dan White, Harry Cordiing, Eddie Acuff, Snub Pollard, Francis Ford, and Jack Mower.

W R Burnett recalled that Warner Bros had originally hired legendary Western story-teller Max Brand as writer: ‘He used to come in every day with a briefcase and go out every night with a briefcase. We found out later he brought in two quarts of gin every day and drank them up – took the empties out.’

Errol Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was the hero in a number of Westerns such as Dodge City (1939), Virginia City (1940), Santa Fe Trail (1940), and San Antonio (1945).

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,532

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