| Dark Command | |
|---|---|
1940 movie poster |
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| Directed by | Raoul Walsh |
| Produced by | Sol C. Siegel |
| Written by | screenplay by Jan Fortune F. Hugh Herbert Lionel Houser Grover Jones from the novel by W.R. Burnett |
| Starring | Claire Trevor John Wayne Walter Pidgeon Roy Rogers George "Gabby" Hayes Porter Hall Marjorie Main |
| Music by | Victor Young |
| Cinematography | Jack A. Marta |
| Editing by | William Morgan |
| Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 15, 1940 |
| Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $750,000[1] |
Dark Command is a 1940 western film starring Claire Trevor, John Wayne and Walter Pidgeon loosely based on Quantrill's Raiders in the American Civil War. Directed by Raoul Walsh from the novel by W.R. Burnett, Dark Command is the only film in which western icons John Wayne and Roy Rogers appear together, and was the only movie Wayne and Raoul Walsh made together since Walsh discovered Wayne and gave him his first leading role in the widescreen western The Big Trail a decade before.
The film also features George "Gabby" Hayes as Wayne's character's sidekick.
The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Art Direction by John Victor Mackay.[2]
Contents |
Mary McCloud (Claire Trevor) marries a seemingly peaceful Kansas schoolteacher William Cantrell (Walter Pidgeon), before finding out that he harbors a dark secret. He is actually an outlaw leader who attacks both sides in the Civil War for his own profit. After capturing a wagon loaded with Confederate uniforms, he decides to pass himself off as a Confederate officer. Her naive, idealistic brother Fletcher (Roy Rogers) joins what he believes is a Rebel guerrilla force. Meanwhile, Cantrell's stern, but loved mother (Marjorie Main) refuses to accept any of her son's ill-gotten loot.
A former suitor of Mary's, Union supporter Bob Seton (John Wayne), is captured by Cantrell and scheduled for execution. After being rescued by a disillusioned Fletcher McCloud, Seton and Mary Cantrell race to the town of Lawrence (site of an actual infamous Quantrill-led massacre) to warn the residents of an impending attack by Cantrell's gang.
Director Raoul Walsh had discovered John Wayne in 1929 when Wayne was a 23-year-old prop man named Marion "Duke" Morrison. Walsh was reading a biography of General "Mad Anthony" Wayne at the time and gave the prop boy the last name "Wayne" after casting him as the lead in The Big Trail (1930), a widescreen epic shot on location all across the West. Dark Command remains the only other film upon which both Walsh and Wayne collaborated during their lengthy careers.