User reviews

The title of this German film translates as 'The Emperor of California', so -- when I first heard of this movie -- I thought it would be a dramatisation of the bizarre true story of Joshua Norton, an eccentric beggar in 19th-century San Francisco who declared himself Emperor of the United States. This movie turns out to be inspired by the life of a 19th-century historic figure, right enough, but it isn't Joshua Norton: it's John Sutter (or Johann Suter), the immigrant on whose land was discovered (in 1848) the gold ore that led to the California Gold Rush.

I'm extremely impressed with this film. It was clearly made on a large budget, and several exterior sequences were actually filmed in California. Most of the cast give excellent, well-directed performances.

I'm slightly familiar with the life story of the real John Sutter. This German movie varies somewhat from the facts (as does Hollywood, constantly), but much of the rewriting here actually serves to make Sutter's life story *more* plausible, rather than less. It's not widely known that the real John Sutter's emigration to California was by an extremely circuitous path that took him through Hawaii and Alaska! But that trivium is ultimately irrelevant to the part of his story that really matters (the gold strike, and its aftermath), so Sutter's peregrinations are wisely left out here.

'The Kaiser of California' won Italy's Mussolini Cup as best foreign (non-Italian) film of the year. This means both good news and bad news. In order to win the Mussolini Cup, a film had to be genuinely well-made, featuring excellent photography, intelligent scripting, superlative performances. This movie has those assets in abundance. The bad news is that -- as you might guess from its patron's name -- the Mussolini Cup was ideologically motivated. To be worthy of that award, a film had to advance Fascist agenda. Which this movie, indeed, does. At every point where I spotted a deviation from historical truth in this movie, the deviation was always to the benefit of totalitarian (and anti-American) politics.

To begin with, the real John Sutter (or Johann Suter) was Swiss. When he founded a homestead in Spanish California, he cried it Nueva Helvetia: New Switzerland. In this movie, Johann Suter (not John Sutter) retains his German birthname throughout his life, and he identifies himself as German (not Swiss) to his dying day. In the time of the Anschluss, I can understand why Nazi filmmakers would want to blur the distinctions between Germans, Austrians and Swiss.

The basic nugget of historic truth is retained: when gold is discovered on Suter's land, his homestead is ruined by prospectors. Others make fortunes in the goldfields while Suter ends his days in poverty. The last reel of this film shows Suter shrieking on the steps of a U.S. courthouse, cursing the American politicians who have cheated him. The truth is more complicated. In real life, the U.S. Congress voted to compensate John Sutter very generously for the loss of his land ... but he died before the compensation could commence. Also, John Sutter's real-life son August amassed a fortune in the boom economy triggered by the Gold Rush. (The son selfishly refused to share the wealth with his father.) In this film, Johann Suter has a fictional son Rudolph who bears almost no resemblance to the real August Sutter. For that matter, the name of Suter's wife has been arbitrarily changed from Nanette (a Swiss name) to the more German-sounding Anna.

The injustices heaped upon Suter throughout this movie are presented as semi-official actions of the United States government, rather than what they actually were: depredations caused by greedy individuals. This movie stands as solid evidence that, as far back as 1936, the German film ministry were trying to stir up German-language audiences against the United States. 'The Kaiser of California' is anti-U.S. pro-Nazi propaganda, but it manages to be fairly subtle in its intentions: there is, of course, no explicit mention of Nazism nor Hitler. Since this movie achieves its intentions very proficiently, I'll rate it 7 out of 10, with a footnote warning viewers to proceed with caution.

P.S.: In real life, but not in this movie, some of the prospectors in the California Gold Rush were from Australia. One of them noticed that the land near Sutter's Mill bore a strong resemblance to the land near his own homestead in Kalgoorlie, Australia: after panning out his claim in California, this man went back home to Kalgoorlie and struck gold. Few Americans know that there was a gold rush in Australia immediately after the one in California. I hope that somebody will eventually make a film about the Kalgoorlie Gold Rush; it's a fascinating story.

Anyone with even a fleeting knowledge of the life of Johannes August Suter will realise that this is an idealised portrait of the Swiss pioneer who transformed the wastes of California into a veritable 'Eden' and was eventually ruined by both the Gold Rush and the betrayal of the American government.

Realists will say that one cannot make an omelette without breaking a few eggs; the eggs in this case being the Native Americans who were reduced by Suter to a state of slavery with all of its concomitant abuses. Suffice to say, this particular aspect is totally absent from the film.

The character of Suter was obviously of great interest to director Luis Trenker as he was also of Swiss descent and as a film-maker he was able to indulge his passion for the great outdoors.

The two overriding questions I suppose are: does it work as a Western and does it succeed as Propoganda? The answer to the first question must surely be a resounding 'yes!' The action sequences are effectively done, notably the burning of San Francisco whilst the images of the landscape, especially that of the desert, are simply stunning, not to mention the mesmerising special effects. The introduction of the 'ghostly stranger' played by Bernard Minotti is a masterstroke and there is an extremely touching performance by Viktoria von Ballasko as Frau Suter. The thrilling score is again supplied by Dr. Giuseppe Becce.

The film's effectiveness as Propoganda is doubtful. In common with so many Nazi Propogandist films it is highly unlikely that it had much effect on the consciousness of German cinema-goers. Suter's image as a messianic leader is balanced by his Hitlerian rants. Unsurprisingly the Americans considered it anti-American whilst the Russians surprisingly viewed it as being pro-American! Eighty-five years on of course such absurdly nationalistic prejudices are both laughable and irrelevant.

Trenker was very much his own man and his honeymoon with the Nazi regime was not destined to last much longer. After the war he faced accusations of fascist opportunism but these were eventually dropped.

Although not the subtlest of directors, his films possess an indefinable, almost mystical quality of their own and of the 1,300 or so movies produced by the Third Reich this must surely be one of the most bizarre and entertaining. Despite its smaller budget and shorter running time, it is infinitely more effective than Universal's monumental misfire 'Sutter's Gold'.

Germany has produced its fair share of westerns, most of which appeared in the 1960s based on the books of the popular late-19th-century author Karl May. Compared to that kind of stuff, 'Der Kaiser von Kalifornien' is pure gold. It is of course a Nazi film. There is a clear, if relatively subtle element of propaganda: Every positive character is a German (the main protagonist Johann August Suter (Luis Trenker), who really was Swiss, appears as a German, too), whereas every negative one is an American. Moreover, the rule of law in the US is presented as a sham. There is also an (admittedly relatively unobtrusive) element of racism, which is directed not against the Indians appearing in the film but against blacks and Chinese. Leaving these issues aside, 'Der Kaiser' is excellent. Photography - strongly influenced by German expressionism - is far ahead of that of American 1930s westerns. Watch out for the dream-like sequences where Suter is shown the world and the future by the strange, ghostly character he meets at the beginning and the end, or for how the scenes in the prairy and the desert have been filmed (on location, by the way). The mass scenes are impressive. Indians are shown in a positive light. The acting is good, and the plot is exciting (it does of course deviate from what really happened, but Hollywood mythologized the past no less). All in all, 'Der Kaiser von Kalifornien' easily holds its ground next to other westerns of the period. I was impressed.

In his time this movie is outstanding. One can see many features of a Wild West movie becoming standard after this one.

Naturally this movie reflects also in which environment it was made. But if we would have to discuss ideology of this time we would have to add also the exceptional relationship of whites with natives! In the USA of this time there would have been problems to show this kind of movie! Luis Trenker himself had many problems with the Nazi regime. To try to interpret a fascistic overlay seems crude to me. The filmmaker, Southern Tyrol was officially Italian since 1919, had to take part in the national film industry too, as in the beginning of every good director of his time and today.

The movie should be seen as a outer view of the the possibilities and risks of living The American Dream! For me, anything less than 10 out of 10 is not enough for this masterpiece of 1936.

This film was released the same year as (and inspired(?)) the American film, "Sutter's Gold", and was deservedly the winner of the Italian "Mussolini Cup" award in 1936 for Best Foreign Film. It is the story of the adventures of German/Swiss immigrant, John Sutter, and his famous discovery of gold that initiated the California Gold Rush. Ironically, this German production surpasses the American films I've seen on the subject. A real gem.