TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

kijii This old B/W Republic movie gives us a great cast, in some unusual roles. A young John Wayne is working his way West with his sidekick, "Gabby" Hayes, with Wayne getting into fights so that Gaby, acting as a western dentist, can pull people's teeth, at 2 bits a tooth, after Wayne knocks them loose.As Bob Seton (John Wayne) and his sidekick Doc Grunch (George "Gabby" Hayes) arrive in Lawrence, Kansas in 1859, we begin a movie about "Bleeding Kansas" when both Northerners and Southerners are moving in to help claim this territory—soon to be a state (1861)—as either a future "Slave State" or a "Free State" in keeping with the poorly conceived Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.Once in Lawrence, the patriotic Texan, Bob Seton, stops to listen to the school children from Will Cantrell's (Walter Pidgeon) class singing "America." When Mary McCloud (Claire Trevor) wants to pass by Cantrell's wagon, Cantrell "takes a liking" to her not realizing that she is the sister of Fletch McCloud (Roy Rogers). Fletch and Will become friends. Mary and Fletch's father is the town's banker and informal leading citizen, Angus McCloud (Porter Hall).Fletch wants to become a cowboy—remember that Roy Rodgers was later known as "The King of the Cowboys"--like Will and starts to emulate him. Will Cantrell wants to marry Mary, but she rebuffs hid advances.As the town grows bigger and more lawless, Angus McCloud decides the town needs a full-time marshal and approaches the local judge, Judge Buckner (Raymond Walburn) with the idea of hiring one. The need for the town of Lawrence to have a full-time marshal leads Bob Seton and Will Cantrell to run against each other for the office. (Though not generally know, Seton is illiterate and had previously sought out Cantrell to teach him to read and write, which had set up the two as friends before the election). But, the competition for town marshal puts a strain in their friendly relationship. When Seton wins the election, Cantrell decides to "follow a different path" than teaching, by making money as quickly as possible. Cantrell joins an illegal run-running guerrilla army and becomes its commander. Without knowing about Cantrell's moving to "the dark side," Mary marries Cantrell's as his mother (Marjorie Main) looks on, knowing that her last son has turned bad just like his brothers before him did. Raymond Walburn, as the town's judge, supplies comic relief to the movie with his confusing and impulsive excitement and bumbling speech. The open screen of this movie tells us that "Some portions of the photoplay are based upon actual incidences in the lives of its principal characters. All other event and characters are fictitious,and any similarity to actual events or person is coincidental." Yet, the true characters portrayed have different names in the movie and, as the IMDb tells us, there were some story changes:"The character of Will Cantrell is loosely based on the real life Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill. Like Cantrell, Quantrill was born in Ohio, taught school in Lawrence, Kansas, became a guerrilla fighter on the Confederate side and burned Lawrence to the ground. However, the Confederacy eventually distanced itself from him and later revoked his commission and disowned him, because of his band's propensity for executing prisoners, massacring civilians, looting and raping. The real Quantrill died not at the hands of "Bob Seton" but during an ambush by a Union cavalry unit, Unable to escape on account of a skittish horse, he was shot in the back and paralyzed from the chest down. He was brought by wagon to Louisville, Kentucky and taken to the military prison hospital, located on the north side of Broadway at 10th Street. He died from his wounds on June 6, 1865, at the age of 27."

John T. Ryan ALTHOUGH WE ALL remember Republic Studios as the home of less than top notch film, there were some notable exceptions. The studio did have an occasional production or two that managed to pull itself up by its bootstraps from the classification of the "Bs". If not exactly an "A" Picture, this production of DARK COMMAND is definitely a high "B+" picture.THE MOVIE HAS so many amenities that were lacking in the typical Republic fare of Serials and "B" Picture Series Westerns. DARK COMMAND has a really fine cast. Clare Trevor, John Wayne, Walter Pidgeon, Roy Rogers, George "Gabby" Hayes, Porter Hall, Marjorie Main, Joe Sawyer, Helen Mac Kellar, Raymond Walburn, J. Farrell McDonald and Trevor Bardette head up an unusually large cast; especially for Republic.OF ALL OF the principal players in the cast, only Wayne, Rogers and Hayes were regulars at the "Thrill Factory"; as Republic was knick-named.SITTING IN THE chair and manning the megaphone was none other than Mr. Raoul Walsh; who had directed so many successful movies at Warner Brothers.AS FOR THE story, we have a freely adapted story from out of the old American History book. The place was "Bleeding" Kansas; which had been divided in violent clashes between Free and Slave state advocates for some time before the Civil War.DURING THE WAR, one William Cantrell did lead a large band of renegades in seditious rebellion against the establishment free State Government as well as against any Federal forces. Origially being endorsed by the Confederate States of America, Cantrell was eventually disowned and condemned by the South; before his being killed by Union Cavalry forces.THE STORY MAINTAINS enough of a connection to the History Books to make it seem to be authentic. It can surely be said to be no worse than two other of Raul Walsh Historical Dramas for its fanciful treatment of fact. Both Michael Curtiz's SANTA FE TRAIL and Walsh's THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON are prime examples of that.BUT THIS PRODUCTION still delivers the desired results in action, adventure and drama. And Los Angeles' Griffith Park never looked so good!

TxMike It still amazes me how many movies they made back then, and how busy a popular actor like John Wayne was. Even though this is a 1940 release, when Wayne was just 33, he already had roles, some uncredited, in upwards of 90 movies.This one is set in Lawrence, Kansas, somewhere in the early 1860s. Abe Lincoln was president but the Civil War had not been fought yet. John Wayne is Texan Bob Seton, not very well educated, but he "can smell out a crook". He gets elected sheriff, beating out the early favorite Walter Pidgeon as Cantrell, very loosely based on a real outlaw. Cantrell was a teacher and mostly a good guy, but when he was defeated he decided he would not be a poor teacher any more and became an outlaw.Much of the movie is about Seaton convincing the people of Lawrence that Cantrell really was the outlaw leader of the rogue band dresses as Southern soldiers, and then the eventual confrontation. Of course the good guys prevail. Claire Trevor is Mary McCloud, the love interest of both men. She actually marries Cantrell but when she fully realizes what a crook he is she agrees to run in Seton's direction. Roy Rogers is her brother Fletch McCloud who gets mixed up with the crooks but he eventually turns on Cantrell and does what is right. It was also fun seeing Gabby' Hayes as Doc Grunch. I remember him well from all the western movies I saw growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. For such an old movie it has held up well, and it was great seeing young Wayne and Rogers in action. I saw this on the "Movies!" channel.

classicsoncall With a budget of seven hundred thousand dollars, "Dark Command" was Republic's costliest film, and it wound up being their biggest box office hit. It shows too, the production values are quite good and the entire film is crisp and clean. I've been waiting quite a while to catch this movie on one of the cable channels, so it was easily worth getting up early for a four thirty showing this morning on AMC. The intrigue for me was in the casting of John Wayne and Roy Rogers in their only team up together, and I was actually quite surprised to see how much screen time Rogers had with the bigger box office name at the time. Rogers' character is Fletch McCloud, brother to the story's romantic interest (Claire Trevor) for both Bob Seton (Wayne) and school teacher turned border raider William Cantrell (Walter Pidgeon). Pidgeon's character is nominally based on William Clarke Quantrill, a Confederate sympathizer who led raids on local farms and Union detachments during the days of the Civil War in Kansas. Though not historically accurate in most respects, the picture does hold one's interest, both for it's historical leanings and certainly for it's well staged action scenes.One of those action scenes is a definite sit up and take notice event. While attempting to escape a Cantrell posse, Seton and Doc Grunch (Gabby Hayes) are faced with nowhere to go at the edge of a cliff facing a river. I'm thinking to myself 'no way', but sure enough, the pair of horses, buckboard, and the daring duo make their way end over tin-cups into the water in a remarkable display. Now it's not unusual to see similar gimmicks in other 'B' Westerns, including some of Wayne's earlier flicks for Lone Star Productions, but this has got to be one of Yakima Canutt's finest efforts. I really can't imagine how they got the horses to do that, unless they were blindfolded. Canutt's handiwork is also evident in one of his signature moves later in the picture, straddling the middle ground underneath another wagon as it careens along.Because of the nature of the story and Roy Rogers' secondary billing, there aren't any songs here, but that doesn't prevent Roy's frequent screen partner Gabby Hayes from getting into the act. Gabby's sort of a jack of all trades when it comes to the healing arts, and he's got a unique philosophy on the practice of dentistry - Wayne can loosen a tooth with a sock to the jaw while Gabby can finish the job by pulling it out. Hayes teamed with both cowboy stars in his career, so it's not unusual to see him here as Wayne's mentor and partner in the opening scenes.Mustn't forget Claire Trevor, who's actually top billed over Wayne. This was their second screen pairing following the previous year's "Stagecoach" which turned out to be Wayne's 'overnight' success film after appearing in over fifty prior movies, mostly Westerns. Mary McCloud's (Trevor) allegiance swings between villain Cantrell and sheriff Seton over the course of the story. I was actually a little surprised that Wayne's character propositioned Mary to run off with him while still married to Cantrell, taking some of the bloom off the hero persona he otherwise conveyed. Not a big thing, but something to think about. Something else I thought about after hearing some of John Wayne's dialog was how patriotic his character was. During an early scuffle between pro and anti-slave factions in Lawrence, Wayne intervenes remarking - "A man born in this country is an American". That might be the first instance in one of his pictures where he champions America, along with individual freedom and liberty. If you enjoyed "Dark Command", you might want to try a couple more films with a similar setting and theme. 1940's "Santa Fe Trail" is a take on John Brown's abolitionist movement and it's parallel dissolve into lawlessness, also set in pre-War Kansas. 1950's "Kansas Raiders" deals with Quantrill and his band, and stars Audie Murphy in a somewhat dubious role as Jesse James riding with Quantrill. That story has an interesting cast, but the story itself is a bit of a mess, so if faced with a choice, stick with Wayne and Rogers.