Film Screening: Der Kaiser von Kalifornien

German 130a & 132a Film Screening -- All interested are welcome!

"The Emperor of California" has the distinction of being the first western film made in Nazi Germany. Some exterior scenes were shot in the US at Sedona, the Grand Canyon and at Death Valley.

The film follows the life story of Johann Augustus Sutter, the owner of Sutter's Mill, the birthplace of  the California Gold Rush of 1849. Reflecting the political environment of the film's creation: John Sutter was Swiss-German; the film emphasizes his German ethnicity and calls him Johann Sutter.

Unlike most American Westerns of the 1930s, the film offers a sympathetic portrait of the Indians, whom Sutter respectfully befriends.

In this it follows the Karl May tradition of German Western stories, which often featured noble Indians and German immigrants turned pioneers and gunmen.

The film was written and directed by the Tyrolean Luis Trenker, who also stars as Johann Sutter.