JohnHowardReid 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 Howlin (Dan Dugan), Allene Roberts (Ella Sue), Jock O'Mahoney (aka Jock Mahoney) (Crake), Harry Cording (Moore Legrande), Sven Hugo Borg (Swede Swanstrom), Frank Ferguson (Marshal Bat Masterson), Irving Pichel (Harned), Harry Tyler (Rusty), Chief Thundercloud (Chief Longfeather), Paul E. Burns (Uncle Dick Wootton), Reed Howes, Charles Meredith, Paul Stanton, Richard Cramer, William Haade, Francis McDonald, Frank O'Connor, Harry Tenbrook, James Mason, Guy Wilkerson, Frank Hagney, William Tannen, James Kirkwood, Stanley Blystone, Edgar Dearing, Al Kunde, Art Loeb, Blackie Whiteford, Bud Fine, Richard Fortune, Lane Chandler, Charles Evans, Chuck Hamilton, George Sherwood, Louis Mason, Roy Butler, Ralph Sanford, William McCormack.Director: IRVING PICHEL. Screenplay: Kenneth Gamet. Based on the 1945 book Santa Fe: The Railroad That Built an Empire by James Leslie Marshall and the story All the Brothers Were Loyal by Louis Stevens. Photography in Color by Technicolor by Charles Lawton Jr. Film editor: Gene Havlick. Art director: Walter Holscher. Music composed by Paul Sawtell. Music director: Morris W. Stoloff. Producer: Harry Joe Brown. Executive producers: Harry Joe Brown, Randolph Scott. A Scott-Brown Production. A Columbia Picture.Copyright 13 March 1951 by Producers Actors Corp. Released by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Palace: 3 May 1951. U.S. release: 1 April 1951. U.K. release: 1 October 1951. Australian release: 4 January 1952. 7,926 feet. 88 minutes. Censored to 7,770 feet (86 minutes) in the U.K.SYNOPSIS: After the Civil War, the four Canfield Brothers, veterans of the Confederate Army, go West. Britt Canfield (Randolph Scott) becomes assistant to Santa Fe R.R. construction chief Dave Baxter (Warner Anderson), and falls in love with beautiful paymaster Judith Chandler (Janis Carter). Britt's brothers, Terry (Jerome Courtland), Tom (Peter Thompson) and Clint (John Archer) join an outlaw gang.COMMENT: Randolph Scott's fans will not complain, but this agreeably photographed but laboriously routine western is not one of his more appealing outings. True, the movie packs in plenty of action, but it's rather dull in between these well-directed spurts, leaving audiences to twiddle their fingers or talk among themselves or visit the refreshment counters, while they wait, none too patiently, for the plot to gear up and the screen to light up with more fighting, shooting, stunts and thrills.STORY BACKGROUND: On 22 December 1872, pioneering Santa Fe railroad construction crews completed laying tracks across Kansas to what they thought was the border of Colorado. Upon actual completion depended land grants from the United States government which would permit the road to continue to the Pacific Coast. They thought they had reached the Colorado line with 48 hours to spare.That night, to the horror of the construction engineer, it was discovered that the Santa Fe's surveyor had erred by four miles. The government's surveyor insisted that the State of Colorado lay four miles beyond the end of the Santa Fe tracks. To insure completion of the road, and to avoid bankruptcy, tracks would have to be laid over those four miles within 48 hours. Since the crew had been averaging only one mile a day, the feat was thought impossible — but the railroaders set to work.Beset by Indians, outlaws, gamblers and drunks, the crew completed the Santa Fe to Colorado by Christmas Eve, within one minute of the contract's expiration.In the film, Randolph Scott plays the construction chief responsible for the completion of the job. For the movie, the feat was accomplished not in Kansas but in Arizona where location scenes of Santa Fe were filmed. While no government franchises were at stake, the movie railroaders hewed to a rigorous schedule, under director Irving Pichel and producer Harry Joe Brown. — Columbia Publicity.OTHER VIEWS: Unexceptionable. — Monthly Film Bulletin.

JoeB131 I remember that rather hilarious line from "Blazing Saddles", but I think this is the first film with Mr. Scott I've ever seen.He was kind of the poor man's John Wayne.The plot here is that the Civil War is over, and while his brothers carry around a lot of anger about what happened during the war, Randolf plays a guy who goes to work helping to organize and build railroads connecting the west with the rest of the country.Some parts of the film, like the scene with the native Americans, and they remark "Some day we'll name a train after you, Chief." (Ha, ha, "Super-chief" How funny. Almost takes the sting off the genocide!) The brothers take to train robbing after gambling doesn't work out for them, and there's a bit of pathos between the good guys and bad guys and the historical Bat Matherson being dropped into the mix.

bkoganbing The Brothers Canfield, Randolph Scott, Peter Thompson, Jerome Courtland, and John Archer; are all Confederate veterans who get into a brawl with some Union soldiers who were drunk and started it. One of the Union men is killed. The Canfields flee via the Santa Fe railroad going west. Randolph Scott stays to work for the railroad, the other brothers decide to become outlaws for real. For Randolph Scott, Santa Fe is an interesting blend of two of his previous pre-World War II films The Texans and Western Union. In both he's involved in a great enterprise, a cattle drive in The Texans and building the telegraph in Western Union. In The Texans he's a returning Confederate veteran and in Western Union his conflict is with his brother.Santa Fe is a good action packed western, plenty of gun-play by a cast of veterans of many a western. Scott is his usual tight-lipped self. The part is a bit offbeat for him. Randolph Scott is usually a driven man with a mission and sometimes can be ruthless. His Britt Canfield here is a man of honor and a straight arrow, the kind of part Joel McCrea would normally be cast in. But Scott does well with the role.Olin Howland and Billy House provide some good comic relief as an engineer and his fireman. Western fans will not be disappointed.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) I have a special liking for this film because I used to admire the Santa Fe beautiful passenger trains in the fifties and I made a fantastic trip at that time on the Santa Fe from New Mexico to Chicago. This is a colorful, entertaining film which tells the story of Randolph Scott and his brothers who were confederates and after the war is finished, get in a brawl with some nasty northern soldiers. To get away from a posse they jump into a train of the Santa Fe and Scott starts working in the building of the railroad. As his brothers become outlaws, he gets uncomfortable in his position at the railroad. Scott changes his westerns outfits quite often, I suppose because at that time the movie stills were published in a lot of magazines. A great moment is when an 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. From "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.