California Conquest

1952

Action / Adventure / Drama / History / Romance / Western

2
IMDb Rating 5.3/10 10 329 329

california settler

Plot summary

The period is the 1840s and California is part of Mexico. Many of the citizens wish to become part of the United States. Other countries are also interested and the Russians have established bases in the northern part of the state. To further their hold they have stolen guns and Don Arturo Bordega, a leader of those wanting statehood, is out to recover them.

Director

Lew Landers Photo
Lew Landers

Top cast

Cornel Wilde Photo
Cornel Wilde as Don Arturo Bordega
Herman Hack Photo
Herman Hack as Bandito
Paul Bradley Photo
Paul Bradley as Californian
Hank Patterson Photo
Hank Patterson as Sam Lawrence
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
729.23 MB
956*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 19 min
Seeds ...
1.32 GB
1424*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 19 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ksf-2

"Historical" Piece - rule over California

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.Directed 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.
Reviewed by mark.waltz 4 / 10

A bit of red, white and blue flag waving and anti-red propaganda, set long before the word communist was invented.

It's Sam Katzman as producer, and that's all you need to know, the leading producer of B movies both at Monogram and Columbia, focusing on action adventures like this later on at Columbia, looking higher budgeted with color photography and fast moving yet simple. He has an A pair of leads with handsomely rugged Cornel Wilde and Oscar winning Teresa Wright, playing a well to do Spanish settler in the Mexican territory of old California and the rough and tough gunslinging daughter of a lawman. After her father is killed by the bandit gang of Alfonso Bedoya, Wright vows revenge, teams with Wilde and infiltrates Bedoya's gang, only to find out that he's involved with imperialistic Russia in an effort to grab California territory before film makers from New York can claim it as the movie capital of the world.I enjoyed this for the fun elements, recognizing that it was just a colorful adventure programmer, one of dozens made during this time to take advantage of the good weather and show off the beautiful greenery of the open spaces not yet built up. Wilde is charming and Wright feisty, definitely based on other rough and tough female legends of the old west like Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley and Belle Starr. John Dehner and Eugene Iglesias costar as Bedoya's co-conspirators, fooling themselves into believing that by betraying their own people, they could rise in power without worry of being betrayed by the Czar's leaders in the new world. There are situations here that I found hard to believe, but those are minor complaints. It serves its purpose in giving a slight historically true story and entertain, with the colorful camera work a standout.
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