Dark Command (1940)
When transplanted Texan Bob Seton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas, he finds much to like about the place--especially Mary McCloud, daughter of the local banker, but politics is in the air: it's just prior to the Civil War and there is already a sharp division in the Territory as to whether it will remain slavery-free. When he gets the opportunity to run for marshal, Seton finds himself running against respected local schoolteacher William Cantrell. Not all is what it seems, though: While acting as the upstanding citizen in public, Cantrell is dangerously ambitious and prepared to do anything to make his mark, and his fortune, on the Territory. When he loses the race for marshal, he forms a group of raiders who run guns into the territory and rob and terrorize settlers throughout the territory. Eventually donning Confederate uniforms, it is left to Seton and the good citizens of Lawrence to face Cantrell and his raiders in one final clash.
THE BLACK KNIGHT OF KANSAS - Living and Loving in the True Rhett Butler Manner!
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.
Agoura, California, USA
Melody Ranch - 24715 Oak Creek Avenue, Newhall, California, USA
Sherwood Forest, California, USA
William Cantrell is based on William Quantrill. Like Cantrell, Quantrill was born in Ohio, taught school, became a guerrilla fighter, and burned Lawrence, Kansas to the ground. However, the Confederacy eventually revoked Quantrill's commission and disowned him because of the atrocities committed by him and his band (which included Frank and Jesse James) against soldiers and civilians. The real Quantrill died after an ambush by a Union cavalry unit at Wakefield Farm. Kentucky. Unable to escape, he was shot in the back and paralyzed from the chest down. He was taken to a military prison hospital in Louisville where he died on June 6, 1865, at the age of 27.
Marjorie Main plays the mother of Will Cantrell (Walter Pidgeon) but was only seven years his senior.
The second and last time director Raoul Walsh and John Wayne worked together. Walsh had discovered John Wayne and given him his first leading role 10 years earlier in "The Big Trail."
The third film in which John Wayne and Claire Trevor appeared together; the first was "Stagecoach," followed by "Allegheny Uprising," both in 1939.
Dark Command is the only movie that Roy Rogers and John Wayne was together in. Also with Gabby Hayes, it's like another Roy Rogers movie.
Continuity
In the scene near the end at Cantrill's camp, Joe Sawyer is very clearly clean-shaven. But in the Raiders' ride to Lawrence, which takes place that night, he has several weeks' growth of beard.
Revealing mistakes
When Fletch confronts Seton after Mr. McCloud is shot, he doesn't look Seton in the eye.
Anachronisms
Throughout the film, Colt Single Action Army revolvers (commonly known as Peacemakers) are used by various actors including John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and George 'Gabby' Hayes. This revolver was not produced until the 1870s. The film is set in the late 1850s and 1860s. The Colt is the 1873 model so it could not have been in the Civil War.
Early in the picture, Franklin Pierce is president (1853-1857) and Kansas is not yet a state (admitted 1861). Angus McCloud announces he is going to Dodge City. Dodge City was founded in 1872.
Plot holes
Cantrell sends a letter to Mary McCloud, telling her exactly where his campsite is. No military leader would send such detail in a letter that could be intercepted by his enemies.