Dark Command, 1940

[yellowthornoftexas]

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[Vicksburger]

John Wayne, about Quantrill. Sorry, typical 1940's western...

I actually like this movie, although probably not historically accurate. I liked how they ended it, by John Wayne's character speculating that Shakespeare must have been from Texas: "Alls well that ends well, Shakespeare says." "We got a saying like that in Texas, he must have been from Texas."

 

[Patrick H]

I've read about this movie like...forever. I've never seen it.

 

[Copperhead-mi]

I've read about this movie like...forever. I've never seen it.

I'm watching it right now on the Movie Channel. North to Alaska with Wayne and Granger follows.

 

[Patrick H]

I saw the first 40 minutes of North To Alaska two days ago. Pretty funny opening.

 

[donna]

I have seen it a couple of times. John Wayne was one of my Dad's favorite actors. We saw just about all his movies. The old ones are on TV at times as well as can buy DVDs.

I believe a young Roy Rogers is in this film.

 

[Copperhead-mi]

Lol, copperhead, we were watching the same channel!!!

It's a great channel especially for older movies that one doesn't find on TCM or any other channel.

 

[ole]

Marion Michael Morrison was and is an American icon. I have no idea why. It just happened, There were hundreds of better actors than he was, but he rose to the top. Is there such a thing as misplaced adoration? Another example is Elvis. We are a strange bunch and I have no idea where this adoration comes from.

 

[TinCan]

Wayne went from B-movies in the 30's to leading man during the war cause everyone else was in the service.

 

[Nathanb1]

I like The Duke, but this movie to me seemed way too far fetched. I'm far from being an expert on Quantrill. But having living in Lawrence KS with his mother, he's a school teacher? The attire, the weapons....I'm usually not one to pick aovie apart, but after the ambush after a wedding, I turned it off.

Well.............he was a teacher (apparently a pretty good one) and he did live with his mother quite a bit......... It's just that movies back then really didn't even try to be "authentic," just action-packed.

 

[Nathanb1]

IMO, it's chiefly valuable because Roy Rogers is a bad guy

I hate to use Wikipedia (and we do have some real experts on Quantrill and his men around here) but it's a fairly decent summary.....

 

[Vicksburger]

Marion Michael Morrison's grandparents lived, during the civil war years in or around Monmouth, Illinois, if I am not mistaken, and the Duke's family eventually migrated across the state line into Iowa, where Duke was born in Winterset. Does anyone know if his grandparent(s) served in the war with a Illinois unit?

 

[Vicksburger]

Looks like Duke's grandfather Marion Mitchell Morrison of Monmouth, Illinois, served with Co. B, 83rd Illinois Infantry.

 

[ole]

Marion Michael Morrison's grandparents lived, during the civil war years in or around Monmouth, Illinois, if I am not mistaken, and the Duke's family eventually migrated across the state line into Iowa, where Duke was born in Winterset. Does anyone know if his grandparent(s) served in the war with a Illinois unit?

In Winterset, IA, the historical society doesn't claim he was born there. Rather, the house is billed as his "boyhood home" much like NBF's boyhood home in Tennessee.