Expected more

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Blistering performances.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I love this movie. Contemporary reviews were luke-warm at best, but it has everything I like about the classic big-scale western. First of all, it's most lavishly produced- which no-one can deny, despite the use of a few stock shots under the opening narration. Secondly, it stars Errol Flynn at his cavalier best. Few other heroes can stand up to the villain with quite the tongue-in-cheek bravado, the calculated insouciance, the devil-may-care yet firmly right-thinking charm that Flynn always seems to project with such consummate ease and artistry. Thirdly, our boy is almost evenly matched by a first-rate pair of truly hard-hearted villains: Victor Francen, all purring viciousness; and Paul Kelly, the master of cowardly opportunism. Fourthly - and it's downright boorish of me to place her so far down the pecking order - is the radiant Alexis Smith, whose sweeping presence, gorgeous costumes and sparkling performance will keep even the most misogynist western fan happy. We could go on from here to list the virtues of all the support cast, but space prevents all but three. It would be churlish indeed to pass over the delightful Florence Bates. S.Z. Sakall is equally winning in a more dramatic role than usual. Last but by no means least, Tom Tyler. Tom always seemed a bit uncomfortable as Captain Marvel. It's great to see him back on firmer ground as the snarlingest, meanest-faced bushwacker this side of the Rio Grande.Another thing I really like about San Antonio is the way it's directed. One of the big differences between English and American films is that the vast majority of English directors are competent but frightfully dull, whereas their Hollywood colleagues tend to be much more daring and adventurous. San Antonio is an excellent example of the Hollywood willingness to push the medium to its limits. What does it matter if some of the angles don't match when the film is directed with such gusto and vitality? The director never loses an opportunity to take full advantage of the film's lavish budget. The camera glides through jostling crowds, pulls back from the stage of the cavernously ornate Bella Union, and frames some eye-catching vistas of both real locations and Hollywood sets. (Raoul Walsh is reported to have made a "substantial contribution" to the film, but which scenes are his are impossible to identify). The script has been widely condemned as routine and derivative. Both these observations are misleading. True, the basic bedrock plot is predictable, but most moviegoers - including me - would be very upset if the hero didn't thwart the villains and get the girl. Aside from this important premise, however, there are plenty of unexpected twists and turns. What's more, the script takes in some really interesting characters, not the least of which are Alexis Smith's unusually spirited heroine and Victor Francen's memorably double-dealing bad guy. Furthermore, the no-expense-spared budget has allowed the screenwriters plenty of scope for enough extravagantly staged action and breathtaking stunts to enliven at least three or four normal-sized movies. Technical credits are superb. Max Steiner's rousing score, Bert Glennon's atmospheric photography and Milo Anderson's gorgeous costumes deserve special applause. Ted Smith and Jack McConaghy were nominated for an Academy Award in the Color Art direction category (losing to Frenchman's Creek), while "Some Sunday Morning" was nominated for Best Song (losing to "It Might As Well Be Spring" from State Fair). OTHER VIEWS: Fascinating! What happened was that both Flynn and Smith took ill in the middle of shooting. And when she recovered, Smith was not available for San Antonio anyway, but was required back on the set of The Horn Blows At Midnight. As a result, the direction of San Antonio is to say the least peculiar. The movie is a patchwork quilt of the great and the mediocre, the inventively expedient and the downright banal. Producer Buckner doubtless took a hand in trying to doctor the script around his ailing stars.

Directed by David Butler, and written by W.R. Burnett and Alan Le May, this film is a Technicolor feast (fiesta?) for one's eyes! It received Oscar nominations for Art Direction and Musical Score. As a Western, it delivers many of the required elements: skilled horseback riding, singing, poker playing, a barroom shootout, some humorous gags, and an exciting chase.The film begins by introducing us to Charlie Bell (John Litel, who wears red & white checked pants!), the honest lawman in the area dedicated to solving the problem of rampant cattle rustling in the area. He crosses the border into Mexico to find Clay Hardin (Errol Flynn) who is recovering from injuries received presumably by some of the rustlers. Hardin also happens to have the goods on Roy Stuart (Paul Kelly), the richest man in Texas, by obtaining bills of sale that show Stuart has sold cattle with brands which aren't his in Mexico. His friend & mentor Charlie warns Clay that returning to Texas would be dangerous and getting through Stuart's men to the cavalry in San Antonio would be impossible. But Clay will not be dissuaded and even asks Charlie to buy him a ticket on the stagecoach from Laredo to San Antonio.Stuart's men learn of Clay's plans when Charlie purchases the ticket. Assuming that Hardin will try to board the stagecoach just outside of the town, gunfighter Lafe McWilliams (Tom Tyler) puts another of Stuart's men, Pony Smith (John Alvin) on the coach while he rides shotgun. Seeing this, Clay decides to board another coach that is trailing the well guarded one. Its passengers include singer Jeanne Starr (Alexis Smith), who's on her way to performing in Stuart's saloon, and her entourage: manager Sacha Bozic (S.Z. Sakall) & servant Henrietta (Florence Bates). Though initially put off by his brashness, Jeanne is won over by the charming, confident Clay. At the stopover in Cotulla that evening, to change horses, the unafraid Clay dances with Jeanne openly even though Charlie warns him against it. Lafe sees Clay and asks him to come outside. With Charlie's help, the ambush Stuart's men had planned turns against them and both Lafe and Pony are killed by Clay and his friend. However, Clay then has Charlie send Stuart a telegram, as if he was Lafe, to tell him that the job was successful.Shortly thereafter, when Jeanne's coach arrives in San Antonio, she is given a special welcome by Legare (Victor Francen), Stuart's partner in the club but not his rustling business. The crowd parts to reveal Hardin, who had ridden in on the same coach, standing boldly alone across the street, facing Stuart. But this is just a precursor to a future showdown, and Hardin with Charlie in tow, visits the cavalry's headquarters. Unfortunately, Colonel Johnson (Robert Barrat) is not there and Captain Morgan (Robert Shayne) refuses to keep the bills of sale until he returns, so Clay must hang on to them himself. Clay then organizes the few honest men in town (played by Monte Blue and Pedro de Cordoba), those who've had their cattle rustled by Stuart's men, to tell him his plan for them to testify against Stuart when Johnson gets back. He has some difficulty doing this as Sacha has arranged Miss Starr's rehearsal in the next room. Legare, who would very much like to be a partner in Stuart's more lucrative business, manipulates Stuart's actions as he schemes to acquire (steal) the bills of sale Hardin has to blackmail his way in.Of course, the film has the requisite distractions, mostly in the form of entertainment by Miss Starr and others, as it leads to the inevitable showdown between Hardin and Stuart. Plus, there are romantic forays by both men to Miss Starr. Clay's leads him into giving the valuable papers to Charlie, who is shot by Legare while Stuart is shooting at Clay. Though this was witnessed by Sacha, Legare scares him into keeping it a secret before Colonel Johnson in court. Without the bills of sale, Clay can't get anywhere with the Colonel. Then, the cavalry must leave town to head off an Indian uprising in another part of the state, which makes Clay's mission all the more challenging, especially since Stuart then summons all his outlaws to town.The film's conclusion, though predictable, is less satisfying and probable than one would hope it could be. In fact, the director and writers couldn't seem to decide how much comedy vs. drama this movie should contain, making the balance between the two tilt a little bit too much toward humor, even bordering on camp. It's as if they expected Flynn, given his success in exactly this type of drama with comedic elements (e.g. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)), to alone deliver all this film needed to be a classic. It isn't, not even close.

Goodness, could it get much worse? Every Western cliché intact, tepid, phoned-in performances at best by the leads, a simplistic story the writers couldn't keep in focus, ersatz "Western" music, hollow comedy that's out of step with the plot, costumes from Silly Costumes, Inc., what else? Could Mel Brooks have lifted the dance hall show for his movie "Blazing Saddles"? I thought this might be a celebration of the city of San Antonio, Texas, but it's just garbage, probably none of it filmed in San Antonio anyway. The first hour and a quarter are excruciatingly slow, but when the pace finally picks up, there's really nothing left to watch, except more clichés. A breathtakingly dull film.

Once it was established that ERROL FLYNN could fit the mold of a western hero (even with his Australian/British accent), his studio wasted no time in putting him through the paces of several westerns, the best of which was DODGE CITY ('39). By the time he did SAN ANTONIO, all the western clichés were pretty well used up, so what we have here is a routine storyline that gives Flynn a chance to play another one of his suave western heroes who romances the local dance hall girl (ALEXIS SMITH) so we get a chance to hear a couple of pretty tunes along the way.It's a shame that Warners had so little faith in Alexis' singing prowess that they dubbed her voice for the musical interludes. She went on to become an accomplished dancer/singer on Broadway in the years ahead. Nicest number is "Some Sunday Morning" which actually got an Oscar nomination as Best Song.The usual cast of competent Warner contract players is evident once again: John Litel, S.Z. Sakall, Paul Kelly, Tom Tyler (wasted in a small role), Florence Bates and Victor Francen. Conspicuously missing is Alan Hale, who usually played Flynn's sidekick.With a jaunty score by Max Steiner (who borrows his own title theme from DODGE CITY), this is the kind of western you've seen many times before, but enhanced by some of the nicest Technicolor and set decorations to be seen in any Warner film of this period.Errol Flynn fans will enjoy it as one of his lesser excursions into the western genre. Fast moving and breezy entertainment.