Preceded by Kulturfilm: Colours 1939 (Alexander van Dülmen, 1992, 29 mins) (Der Kaiser von Kalifornien). An unlikely entity, a Nazi Western, The Emperor of California records Johann Suter's escape from Switzerland and his trek across the New World to California where he creates a veritable Garden of Eden. After gold is discovered on his property, mercenary interests destroy the settler's empire and banish him from paradise. With its fulsome romantic anti-capitalism, Trenker's displaced homeland film readily fit into party designs. It was premiered at the Reich Ministry with Hitler in attendance, receiving the official rating "politically and artistically especially worthwhile," later appearing among the "Great National Films" reprised during the Volkssturm at the end of 1944. Trenker himself has given rise to a wide range of responses. Goebbels valued Trenker's talent, but had no illusions about the opportunist's loyalty. "Trenker makes national films," the minister noted in his diary, "but he is and always was a real dirt-bag." A decade ago Trenker (was honored at) the Telluride Film Festival, and William K. Everson hailed him as "Germany's John Wayne and John Ford rolled into one." Trenker's course in time is a bizarre one: a filmmaker who prided himself on Hitler's sponsorship and readily served Mussolini has taken on the status of an anti-Nazi activist and an oppositional filmmaker.-E.R.