Dark Command

Starring:Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Walter Pidgeon, Roy Rogers, George 'Gabby' Hayes, Porter Hall, Marjorie Main, Raymond Walburn, Joe Sawyer, Helen MacKellar, J. Farrell MacDonald, Trevor Bardette, Frank Hagney, John Dilson, Edward Hearn, Al Bridge, Tom London, Jack Rockwell, Tex Cooper, Mildred Gover
Director: Raoul Walsh
Studio: Republic Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Description

DARK COMMAND - John Wayne is good guy Bob Seton in Raoul Walsh's star-studded thriller set in the dark days before the Civil War. During this strained period in America's history, emotions run high and tension fills the air, especially during political contests. In the race for Federal Marshall of Kansas, Seton defeats William Cantrell (Walter Pidgeon), causing increased animosity between these two powerful figures. Their mutual ill will peaks when Cantrell steals Seton's girl (Claire Trevor), manipulating her into marriage to get even with Seton. Their rivalry reaches dangerous proportions when Seton exposes Cantrell and his guerrillas who have been raiding both Union and Confederate lines. Roy Rogers co-stars in one of his earliest film roles. A LADY TAKES A CHANCE - Finding men has never been a problem for city girl Molly Trousdale (Jean Arthur) - finding the right man is another matter. And women have never been a problem for cowboy bachelor Duke Hutkins (John Wayne) - until they want to marry him. If it's true that opposites attract, they're obviously made for each other. When Molly sets out from New York on a cross-country bus tour, she just wants to see America. But her plans take an unexpected turn out West, when she collides (literally!) with Duke while he's competing at the rodeo. He assumes she's just another pretty gal who'll fall into his arms, but she's a lady who won't be roped easily by a brawling, rough-and-ready cowboy. Jean Arthur shows the spunk that made her one of the biggest stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, and John Wayne is at his most charming when he falls for her against his better judgment. So get ready for the dust to fly when these two screen legends star in a truly classic romantic comedy, A LADY TAKES A CHANCE!

Customer Reviews:

Lady takes a chance and so should you.......2007-03-14

It is good to get two good films in a double feature like this. "Dark Command" has long time been a favorite of mine. Ayoung John Wayne play the part of an illiterate cowboy who becomes sheriff in Kansas just before the star of the Civil War. He must match wits with the wily villian played well by Walter Pidgeon. Throw in a cast that includes Claire Trevor, Gabby Hayes and Roy Rogers and you have great fun entertainment. "A Lady Takes a Chance" is more of a romantic comedy. Wayne is the rodeo star and Jean Arthur is the woman who falls for him. Look for Phil Silvers with a fine comedic bit.

Average customer rating:

"a fella doesn't get any place unless he tries"
A lesser known Wayne Classic
Popular Wayne Civil War -Era 'Western' Still Shines!
On to Kansas
interesting and rare John Wayne movie

Dark Command
Starring: Claire Trevor , John Wayne , Walter Pidgeon , Roy Rogers , and George 'Gabby' Hayes
Director: Raoul Walsh
Manufacturer: Republic Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0782011195
Release Date: 2000-05-16

Amazon.com

Historically dubious but vigorously entertaining, Dark Command is the best of John Wayne's many movies for Republic (not counting Wayne's lovely producing debut Angel and the Badman and those two John Ford films). Set in "Bleeding Kansas" just before and during the Civil War, it highlights the romantic triangle of amiable but unschooled Texan Wayne, banker's daughter Claire Trevor, and schoolmaster Walter Pidgeon--just long enough for the earnest pedagogue to become embittered, turn into bushwhacker William Quantrill (here Cantrell), and start wreaking havoc in the Border States. This was Republic's first star vehicle for Wayne, following his breakthrough in Stagecoach (away from Republic), and it's an uncharacteristically impressive production: good writers working from a W.R. Burnett novel, Raoul Walsh brought in to direct, music by Victor Young, and strong costars and supporting cast (Marjorie Main, Porter Hall, Raymond Walburn--and Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes!). Wayne himself is delightful. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

In this pre-civil War saga, Walter Pigeon, as Confederate renegade William Cantrell, along with his raiders, clashes with the new marshal of Kansas City, Bob Seton (John Wayne). Their long-standing rivalry of love and power reaches dangerous proportions when Seton exposes Cantrell and his guerillas, who have been raiding both Union and Confederate lines. Roy Rogers co-stars in one of his earliest film roles.

Customer Reviews:

"a fella doesn't get any place unless he tries".......2007-05-28

This was director Raoul Walsh's second film with Wayne as the male lead. The first, "The Big Trail", was Wayne's first big film role, having just acquired his new stage name. Unfortunately, this very expensive film, as one of the first talkie westerns, was a box office bomb, with Wayne unfairly shouldering most of the blame. The present film is a mixed western-Civil War drama set in bleeding Kansas. Wayne has plenty of support from a cast of well known actors in this well paced drama/comedy.
Claire Trevor is actually given top billing as the belle around which Wayne, Walter Pigeon and a young Roy Rogers revolve. It seems highly implausible that Wayne, as illiterate drifter Bob Seton, should become infatuated with prim snobbish Claire Trevor, nor that she could ever consider him husband material. Wayne's persistence in promoting this union, even after her marriage, is a recurring source of comedy and drama. Initially, another source of comedy is the recently established working partnership between Wayne and immimical Gabby Hayes, a one time doctor, reformulated as a traveling dentist, barber and whatever else he can fix for you. Character actor Raymond Walburn also provides comedic touches as the bug-eyed stammering stuffed shirt of a judge and apparent mayor of Lawrence, Kansas. Roy Rogers looks rather incongruous as the frustrated brother of Claire, under his father's overbearing thumb, who yearns for the excitement of being a cowboy or soldier. His hot head nearly gets him strung up or otherwise killed. Wayne, on the other hand, with the backing of Gabby, changes from an apparent hot head into an honest coolheaded sheriff. Walter Pigeon is the eloquent-speaking legally literate but financially struggling rival of Wayne for the affections of Claire and for the office of sheriff. The striking contrast in personalities and skills of Wayne and Pigeon in their various competitions is another recurring source of comedy and drama throughout the film. We wonder why Pigeon, with his obvious gift for oratory and knowledge of law, is a poorly paid schoolteacher instead of a lawyer. We suspect that he has been a lawyer, but was forced to resign for some transgressions. In engineering Roger's murder defense, we see for the first time the snake that he is under all that eloquence. From his mother's comments, we are led to believe that the desire to do unethical things is a family trait he inherited or was taught.
Things get a lot more serious and complicated as the story progresses. Pigeon,as William Cantrell, knows he is a natural leader of men. Frustrated in obtaining a prominent position in the legal establishment of Lawrence, he organizes a large band of outlaws, posing as Confederate soldiers, as did his historical counterpart, William Quantrell. The film title may suggest this evil gang of thieves and murderers, or it may equally suggest the fact that most of the violent and smuggling confrontations occur at night. Pigeon faces the difficult task of trying to justify or hide from his new wife his rapacious activities. The continuing back and forth relationships between Rogers, Wayne, Pigeon and Claire provide much of the continuing drama of the film.

A lesser known Wayne Classic.......2007-03-05

This movie solidified Wayne's place as a western star after Stagecoach. It is a rollicking fun western that has plenty of action. A really amazing cast was assembled for this film starting with Claire Trevor (of Stagecoach) and Walter Pidgeon. Gabby Hayes and Roy Rogers round out the stars of this movie. This is just a joy to watch. The pace never falters and it delivers plenty of fights. Find out if the illiterate cowboy from Texas can overcome the learned teacher who becomes the leader of a vast outlaw band during the Civil War. Will John Wayne get the girl? Forget that I asked. Get this movie.

Popular Wayne Civil War -Era 'Western' Still Shines!.......2006-11-03

"Dark Command" is a rip-roaring, entertaining 1940 John Wayne western with plenty of excitement, romance, and comedy, and it offers one of his most engaging pre-WWII performances, as illiterate but straight-shooting Texan 'Bob Seton', wooing Claire Trevor while defending Lawrence, Kansas as the Civil War erupts.

The film is significant in Wayne's career, as it acknowledged his emergence as a major star by the studio (Republic Pictures) who had produced the bulk of his 'quickie' westerns over the previous decade (in their previous incarnation, 'Lone Star' films). With the success of John Ford's "Stagecoach", Wayne's value to the young studio increased dramatically, as a commodity that could be 'loaned out' to major studios for a tidy profit, but without 'quality' Wayne films of their own, his 'bankability' wouldn't last, so Republic mounted a major production, with a top director (Warner's Raoul Walsh, who had helmed the Duke's ill-fated 'starring' debut, "The Big Trail", nearly a decade earlier), a first-class cast (including Trevor, in her third pairing with Wayne in less than two years, and MGM star Walter Pidgeon), and a terrific screenplay (based on a story by respected author W.R. Burnett). Wisely including their most popular character actor, Gabby Hayes, for comic relief, and rising star Roy Rogers (who, surprisingly, doesn't sing!) in support, the end result would not only build upon Wayne's rising status as a major star, but would give the studio credibility within the industry as more than a 'B' picture factory.

While the history covered in "Dark Command" is largely fabricated (with infamous mercenary William Quantrill reinvented as a more urbane, if equally dangerous 'William Cantrell', portrayed by Pidgeon), Walsh never lets the 'facts' interfere with the action, and the end result certainly delivers!

Definitely a 'keeper'!

On to Kansas .......2005-09-07

DARK COMMAND is a good, old-fashioned western. The movie takes places in Kansas on the eve of the Civil War. Not just anywhere in Kansas, either - the movie's set in bloody Lawrence, the hotbed of guerilla activity during that war. Perhaps no guerilla leader was more notorious than Kansas's William Quantrill, the school teacher turned raider who fought against the Union until his death in 1865.

Although DARK COMMAND is a work of fiction, it doesn't try hard to hide its sources. DARK COMMAND is adapted from a novel by the talented and prolific W.R. Burnett, whose Hollywood credits include either the based-on novel and/or screenplay for such action classics as Little Caesar, the original Scarface, The Asphalt Jungle, High Sierra, and dozens of others. John Wayne plays a roustabout Texan named Bob Seton who's traveling through with dentist/barber/sidekick Andrew `Doc' Grunch (George `Gabby' Hayes.) While in Lawrence Seton meets and immediately falls for pretty Miss Mary McCloud (Claire Trevor), local belle and daughter of the president of the town's bank, a Virginian (where you were from counted a lot in Kansas prior to the Civil War.) Seton's competitor for the affections of pretty Miss McCloud, and a bit later for the office of town marshal, is schoolteacher William Cantrell (Walter Pidgeon.) That the real life Quantrill was also a Lawrence, Kansas schoolteacher is, well, probably something more than a coincidence.

Of course, Cantrell loses both the election and the heart, if not the hand, of Miss McCloud to Seton. As filtered through the Hollywood lense that's more than enough justification to embark on a campaign of pillage and murder, which Pidgeon's Cantrell proceeds to do with a certain amount of righteous dignity. Raoul Walsh, whose last movie before this one was the classic gangster movie `The Roaring Twenties,' directed DARK COMMAND with his usual relentless flair. Also in 1939, the young John Wayne had finally broken through to the a-list after playing the Ringo Kid in John Ford's `Stagecoach.' `Stagecoach' co-star Clair Trevor is billed above Wayne on the credits, but this is very much a John Wayne movie. The two principals, director Walsh and star Wayne, were at strong points in their careers and this movie did nothing to derail them. Wayne wasn't an icon yet but he had the moves down - he's shy and awkward around the women folk, toweringly commanding with men. One of the text extras on the film quotes Walsh's observation that `Wayne had learned to walk and talk' by the time DARK COMMAND was filmed, and if you watch some of Wayne's earlier b-movies you'd have to agree with Walsh's shrewd assessment.

I've seen a handful of Raoul Walsh movies in the past year and enjoy them tremendously. Pidgeon's Cantrell seems to be a prototypical Walsh heavy - he's erudite, urbane and refined, and, we suspect, substantially smarter than the hero. If Hollywood was about to fall in love with Freud Walsh definitely wasn't leading the charge. Even the presence of a maternal housekeeper, played in American Gothic style by Marjorie Main, doesn't do anything to explain what makes Cantrell tick. Cantrell is a Walsh villain, which means he's evil because he's evil and that's that. We'll have to understand him through action rather than introspection. In lesser hands this would leave us with a scowling, carpet-chewing bad guy. But DARK VICTORY'S script is tight, Walsh was a master at action dramas, and Pidgeon is too good an actor - he never drops Cantrell's courtly façade, and he's all the more a menace for it.

Fans of old b-westerns will get a kick out of seeing a (very) young Roy Rogers and `Gabby' Hayes together in the same movie before they became cinema trail mates. Hayes' slightly mush-mouthed `gol-durn-it' routine can be grating, but Walsh uses him as a relatively subtle comic foil to good effect. If you've watched a few too many b-westerns chances are you'll find oddly touching the one scene between Hayes and Rogers. Rogers is in mortal danger and Hayes is his best and only hope. Hayes drops the Gabby act and lets George take over. It's a nice way for Walsh, through Hayes, to turn the tension up a notch and let us know that this is important. It's been my experience that Walsh's movies are filled with such nice touches, and it's one reason why I like them so much. DARK COMMAND has more than enough going for it to rate a strong recommendation. The script is good, performances are uniformly strong, and Walsh is a master at keeping things moving. It's a great early John Wayne western.

interesting and rare John Wayne movie.......2000-08-20

This Civil War era movie was very interesting as it tried to follow a generalized campaign of the very infamous Captain Quantrell, the Confederate leader of raiding party's into the North. This was not one of John Wayne's best pictures but it ranks up there as being rare and informative. A must see for true John Wayne fans.

John Wayne Collection: Dakota / Rio Grande / Dark Command (3 Pack)

Average customer rating:

John Wayne Collection: Dakota / Rio Grande / Dark Command (3 Pack)

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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