Dark Command
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Grover Jones, Lionel Houser, and F. Hugh Herbert from a novel by W.R. Burnett
1940/USA
Republic Pictures
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video
[box] Miss Mary McCloud: I thought they bred men of flesh and blood in Texas. I was wrong. You’re made of granite!
Bob ‘Shortcut’ Seton: No, Mary, just common clay. It bakes kind of hard in Texas.[/box]
This is a better-than-average Republic Western with some good performances.
The story takes place in the period of “Bloody Kansas” just prior to and during the Civil War. Will Cantrell (Walter Pidgeon) is the school teacher in a frontier town. His mother (Marjorie Main), for some unexplained reason, has to live with him disguised as his servant. Will is in love with Mary McCloud (Claire Trevor), the banker’s daughter. He decides to run for sheriff to win her.
Then Bob Seton (John Wayne) rolls into town. Bob falls in love with Mary at first sight and decides to stick around. He also decides to run for sheriff. Will is sure that he will easily win against the illiterate Bob but Bob prevails. Bob is also soon gallivanting around with Mary. But his hopes to win her are dashed when Bob must arrest her brother Fletch (Roy Rogers) for shooting a Union-supporter in an argument about politics.
The bitter Will decides to get rich by becoming a secret treacherous and cruel marauder. He also acts as Fletch’s lawyer in his murder trial, secretly terrorizing the jury into voting “not guilty.” After the war starts, Will masquerades his gang as a troop of Confederate soldiers. The rest of the story deals with the love triangle and Bob’s efforts to round up Will’s gang of cutthroats and thieves. With Gabby Hayes as Bob’s sidekick.
This did not rock my world but is quite OK or even a little better than that. Roy Rogers does well in a rare dramatic part. Raoul Walsh certainly knows how to direct a good fight.
Dark Command was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Black-and-White Art Direction and Best Original Score (Victor Young).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxXLIsqD-6s
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