San Antonio is a 1945 Western film directed by David Butler and starring Errol Flynn.
1877: Clay Hardin (Flynn) is a cattle rancher in San Antonio, Texas—or rather, he used to be a cattle rancher. It seems that what is essentially an organized crime cattle rustling syndicate, led by a fellow named Roy Stuart (Paul Kelly), has taken over much of west Texas. Stuart and his minions have been stealing cattle in large numbers, taking them to Mexico, and then re-selling them. When Hardin tried to fight back, Stuart and his goons shot him and burned down his ranch, forcing a wounded Hardin to flee to Mexico to recuperate.
Now Hardin has healed and is determined to return and take down Stuart. This time he has proof in the form of a ledger documenting just how many cattle Stuart's gang has stolen from the cattle barons of the region. Hardin, aided by his old friend Charlie Bell (John Litel), returns to San Antonio to confront Stuart. Meanwhile, Stuart has opened a saloon/nightclub in town, partnering with a similarly slimy Frenchman named Legare (Victor Francen). Legare has engaged the services of a beautiful actress/singer, Jeanne Starr (Alexis Smith), who falls in love with Hardin.
Has nothing to do with the San-Antonio literary series by French author Frédéric Dard.
Tropes:
- As You Know: In the opening scene Charlie Bell meets Clay, and feels compelled to drop a lot of expository dialogue about how a guy named Roy Stuart not only stole Clay's cattle, but shot him up and burned down his ranch.
- Bathtub Scene: A gag in the opening scene has Charlie coming to Clay's Mexican hideout, only to run across a leggy young lady who is bathing in a tin washtub in the courtyard. Apparently Clay has been living well in Mexico.
- The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: During the big shootout in the club, one man throws a knife that lands pointy-end in another man's back.
- The Chanteuse: Jeanne's job. She has been engaged to play a week's worth of shows in Roy Stuart's saloon.
- The Dying Walk: Most of the people killed in this movie die by Instant Death Bullet. But in the first shootout, hired gun Lafe McWilliams drops his gun and staggers away for a little bit after Clay shoots him, before finally falling to the ground in death.Clay: What's the matter, Lafe? Something gone wrong?
- Funny Foreigner: Sacha Bozic, Jeanne's companion and manager (played by S. Z. Sakall, who specialized in funny foreigners). His malapropisms are a Running Gag. Twice he refers to riderless horses as "empty horses", a Real Life quote attributed to Hungarian immigrant film director Michael Curtiz. When asked about getting a spot on the next regular stagecoach out of town, Sacha says "Look, Tuesday it is last night we played already... so we got to be there, yesterday yet. Because the day before, we ain't no place, you know?"
- MacGuffin: The incriminating ledger, which Clay believes he can use to take down Roy Stuart in court, and which Legare kills Charlie for, so he can have leverage over Stuart. Clay winds up chasing down Roy and accidentally killing him after the big shootout, and the ledger is never even used.
- Meet Cute: In order to avoid Roy Stuart's goons, Clay makes sure to publicly buy a ticket for the public stagecoach from Mexico to San Antonio—then jumps into a private stagecoach instead. It's the coach that Jeanne Starr and her managers are riding in, which is how they meet.
- Misplaced Wildlife: There's a monkey outside Sacha's suite! Why?
- Monumental Battle: Legare is killed in a shootout in the ruins of the Alamo.
- The Place: San Antonio, Texas, back when it was a muddy cow town.
- Regional Riff: Naturally, the Mexican locals dance the "Mexican Hat Dance" in the town square.
- The Reveal: Jeanne seems to be wholly ignorant of cattle, wondering why Clay didn't keep them inside to protect them from theft and talking about how they have "antlers". She later sneers at San Antonio as a "muddy Indian town" and wonders why anybody would stay there. But she makes a careless reference to a specific brand of cattle in the last scene, which Clay immediately notices. It turns out she grew up in Fort Worth.
- The Rustler: The Rustler built up to full-on organized crime boss, as Roy Stuart has made an empire out of stealing cows.
- You Just Told Me: How Clay gets Jeanne to confirm that Sacha witnessed Charlie's murder, after Clay asked about him.Jeanne: Who told you?
Clay: You did. You haven't played enough poker.
