Der Kaiser von Kalifornien (1936)
aka
The Emperor of California
Initially it seems a little surprising that Germany would produce a fair number of movies on the Old West of the states. Then considering how many movies the States has made on Knights, Vikings, Ancient Rome and the like, it probably isn't very unusual.
The film is the story of John Sutter (Johann Suter) the owner of Sutter's Mill, best known as the starting place of the California Gold Rush of 1848.
Based on the book "Der Kaiser von Kalifornien" by Luis Trenker. Trenker also directed the film and starred as Suter.
As can be expected from such films, historical fact can often take a back seat to artistic license and in this case you get a rather sanitized version of John Sutter beginning by portraying him leaving Europe as some type of political dissident.
Winner of the Mussolini Cup for best foreign film at the Venice Film Festival in 1936.
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| Luis Trenker and Viktoria von Ballasko |
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| Luis Gerold and Luis Trenker |
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| Luis Gerold |
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| Hans Zesch-Ballot (C) |
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| Reinhold Pasch |
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| Viktoria von Ballasko |
