Sutter's Gold (1936)

Name: Sutter's Gold
Genre: Western
Released: 1936-03-01
Duration: 94 min
Rating: 7
Cast: Edward Arnold, Lee Tracy, Binnie Barnes, Katharine Alexander, Montagu Love

Sutter's Gold (1936), directed by James Cruze, starring Edward Arnold and Lee Tracy.

03/01/1936 BR Western 1h 34m

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Quiz about this movie

Men lived for it! Men killed for it!

Synopsis

Story of the gold strike on an immigrant's property that started the 1849 California Gold Rush.

George RobinsonCinematography
James CruzeDirector
Philip CahnEditing
Edmund GraingerProducer

About the film

Sutter's Gold is a 1936 American Western film. It is a fictionalized version of the aftermath of the discovery of gold on Sutter's property, spurring the California Gold Rush of 1849. Edward Arnold plays John Sutter. The supporting cast includes Lee Tracy, Binnie Barnes, Katherine Alexander, Montagu Love, and Harry Carey as Kit Carson. The film was directed by James Cruze.

The film is based on the novel L'Or–la merveilleuse histoire du général Johann August Suter by Blaise Cendrars, and the play Der General und das Gold by Bruno Frank.

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The film is based on the novel L'Or–la merveilleuse histoire du général Johann August Suter by Blaise Cendrars, and the play Der General und das Gold by Bruno Frank.

Production and aftermath

Carl Laemmle, president of Universal Pictures, was a fan of action westerns and he wanted to make a big outdoor spectacle, along the lines of the well remembered silent epic The Covered Wagon (1923). Laemmle hired that film's director, James Cruze, for the new film Sutter's Gold. The studio assembled a "name" cast of popular character players including Edward Arnold, Lee Tracy, Harry Carey, and Binnie Barnes. Neither the studio nor the film had any big "star" names to attract moviegoers, and—dooming the project—Laemmle had given director Cruze carte blanche to make the film and Cruze spent money lavishly, as was his custom in the silent days. The expenditure was too lavish for the budget-conscious Universal, and the no-star spectacle failed disastrously. Sutter's Gold damaged James Cruze's standing irreparably and it ruined Universal. A consortium of investors ousted Carl Laemmle and took over the company (now known as "the NEW Universal"). The only real benefit Universal derived from Sutter's Gold was its value as stock footage; Cruze's carefully staged outdoor scenes were often edited into the studio's low-budget adventures, westerns, and serials.

Cast

Edward Arnold as John Sutter

Lee Tracy as Pete Perkin

Binnie Barnes as Countess Elizabeth Bartoffski

Katharine Alexander as Anna Sutter

Montagu Love as Capt. Kettleson

Addison Richards as James Marshall

John Miljan as Gen. Juan Bautista Alvarado

Harry Carey as Kit Carson

William Janney as John Sutter Jr.

Nan Grey as Ann Eliza Sutter

Robert Warwick as Gen. Alexander Rotscheff

Morgan Wallace as General Fremont

Allen Vincent as Juan Bautista Alvarado Jr.

Mitchell Lewis as King Kamehameha

Harry Cording as Seaman Lars (uncredited)

George Irving as Dr. Billings (uncredited)

References

External links

Sutter's Gold at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

Sutter's Gold at IMDB

Text from Sutter's Gold on Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutter's_Gold

Trivia

It premiered on March 1, 1936, a Sunday.
It runs 1h34 — a typical feature length.
This film's quiz has 11 questions — enough to play more than once without repeats.