Kit Carson (1940)

Kit Carson (Jon Hull) and his band of trappers are coming down from the mountains to return to civilization and sell their furs when they are set upon by a band of Shoshone.  Worse still, these Shoshone are armed with rifles!  Most of Kit's party was killed but he and two others escaped.  Arriving at Fort Bridger, they are offered a job by Capt. John Fremont (Dana Andrews), who is seeking a trail to California.  Moreover, Fremont is escorting a wagon train funded by Dolores Murphy (Lynn Bari), who hails from Monterey, California.  Though Carson refuses Fremont's job offer, he reluctantly accepts Murphy's, mostly because he expects she will get scalped if he doesn't.

In California, General Castro has been arming the Shoshone with specific purpose of killing migrants.  He sends one of his underlings to make sure that Fremont and the wagon train are wiped out before crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Back in the wagon train, John is fallen in love with Dolores but Dolores has fallen in love with Kit.  The love triangle must be put on hold in order for Kit to save everyone from a concerted assault by rifle-armed Shoshone.  When the party arrives safely at the Murphy Hacienda, Kit decides it is time to leave.  Such plans are ruined when he comes upon a Mexican wagon train of weapons and gunpowder.  It turns out that Castro is going to wipe out all the American settlers.  Kit warns the American settlers and they reply by establishing the California Republic and raising the Bear Flag.  Carson and Fremont arrange for a battle with General Castro.  Of course, they defeat him.  Kit kisses Dolores and heads south with Fremont toward Los Angeles to join US forces there in the Mexican American War.

Of note, Ward Bond - a character actor who was ubiquitous in the 40s and 50s - played an Australian with an American accent but he did have a boomerang.  Clayton Moore, who would go on to play the Lone Ranger in the long running TV series, appears as the leader of the wagon train.

Though a fun film, it is wildly inaccurate.  Jim Bridger was only 5 years older than Carson but he is played by 53 year-old Raymond Hatton to the 25 year-old Jon Hall.  Huh.  Carson was only 5'6" but is portrayed by 6'1" Hall.  Huh.  Carson and Fremont's first expedition in 1842 never went to California.  Their second one, in 1843, did.  It was their third expedition in 1845 that coincided with the Mexican-American War and the Bear Flag Revolt.  Jose Castro was the commanding general of Alta California during the war but never engaged in a battle.  In 1840, Fremont married Jessie Benton, daughter of the powerful Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and was therefore unlikely to propose marriage to a woman on her way to California.  Likewise, Carson had married Josefa Jaramillo in 1843, with whom he had 8 children.  The romance angle of the movie is out of place.

Popcorn fun but terrible history.