Kalifornien in Flammen (1952)

Kalifornien in Flammen: Directed by Lew Landers. With Cornel Wilde, Teresa Wright, Alfonso Bedoya, Lisa Ferraday. In the 1840s, most Californians want their state to break-away from Mexico and possibly join the USA but Russia, Britain and France aim to grab California for themselves.

“California Conquest tells the story of the battle for rule of what will eventually become a state, when gold is found here later. Teresa Wright does a good job as the daughter of a settler who is determined to get her married off to famed explorer John Fremont. As someone else has pointed out, what a mishmash of crappy accents that come and go, and about half the actors just mumble for some reason to the point of distraction. Cornel Wilde is Arturo Bodega (Bordega ?), fighting off the interloping Russians, but he sounds like a European. We get the usual amount of swordfights, gunfights, and oat burning horse chases. Some great outdoor photography, presumably California. Several of the scenes are very dark, and its hard to see what is occurring; not sure if its just bad lighting, or film degradation. There is the usual climactic battle of good versus evil at the very end. Entertaining, but Teresa Wright is the only shining star in this one.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDirected by Lew Landers, who had a long history in Hollywood; acc to wikipedia, he acted in two shorts around 1914, when he would have been about 12. He disappears for 15 years (war? working?) Then he pops up as crew on one film, and disappears again for about five years. Then starts a long career as director in 1934, and had been directing for almost 20 years when this film was made.”