Badlands of Dakota

"Badlands of Dakota" is one of those compact little westerns, running about an hour and a quarter, that Universal churned out in the forties. As was the case with most of them, it is filled with lots of recognizable faces. Usually the leads were up and comers or second leads from the studio's bigger budgeted features.

The story briefly, starts out with rough and tough saloon owner (Broderick Crawford) sending his seemingly meek brother (a very young Robert Stack) back east to fetch his intended bride (Ann Rutherford). On the return journey they meet Wild Bill Hickock (Richard Dix) and fall in love and marry much to Crawford's chagrin. Crawford becomes bitter and joins up with Jack McCall (Lon Chaney Jr.) and his gang after arranging to have Stack appointed town marshal. You can probably figure out the inevitable ending.

The beautiful and troubled Frances Farmer appears as "Jane" (for some reason they dropped the rather obvious "Calamity"), and gives an excellent performance as the frontier gal Crawford tries to leave behind. Along for comic relief are Hugh Herbert as the Fire Chief/bartender, Andy Devine as the mayor and Fuzzy Knight as the stagecoach driver. Riding with Chaney are the likes of Glenn Strange, Carleton Young and Richard Alexander. Addison Richards appears as Colonel Custer. Poor old Charlie King is around just long enough to be gunned down by Dix. Also,look for Kermit Maynard as a card player.

Stack does OK as the hero and Ann Rutherford fresh from the Andy Hardy series, makes an appealing heroine. Dix does what he can with a limited role, Crawford growls as usual and Chaney is good as the chief bad guy, but it is Farmer who virtually steals the picture. One can only wonder how really great she could have been.

There is plenty of action including chases, stage holdups, fights, comedy and a slam bang Indian attack of the town at the film's climax. A really entertaining little western.

BADLANDS OF DAKOTA (Universal, 1941), directed by Alfred E. Green, is a western featuring an all-star cast headed by the youthful Robert Stack. Though Stack later starred in the popular television series, "The Untouchables" (1959-1963), he was known during his early movie years as the young man who gave Deanna Durbin her first screen kiss in his motion picture debut in FIRST LOVE (Universal, 1939). While Stack's name alone in 1941 was not strong enough to make BADLANDS OF DAKOTA into a top-rated film, veteran actors Richard Dix and Frances Farmer became added attractions, giving this production some added appeal. Ann Rutherford, better known to many film historians as Polly Benedict in the "Andy Hardy" movie series, assumes loan-out assignment duties from MGM working opposite Stack playing the young girl who comes between two brothers.

FORWARD: "A few years after the War between the states - Dakota territory was given to the Sioux Indian nation and patrolled by the Seventh Cavalry under the command of General Custer. In 1874, gold was discovered and Custer was unable to keep out the hordes of white settlers who swarmed into the territory. Thus was born Deadwood, a red, raw town in a burned out gulch." Following brief scenes involving wagon trains traveling west and the building of the town called Deadwood, Speed (Andy Devine) is introduced as the master of ceremonies presenting some upcoming acts that are to be performed at the Bella Union, a saloon owned by Bob Holliday (Broderick Crawford). Bob's youngest brother, Jim (Robert Stack), takes advantage of those fearing Bob's rough exterior by cheating at cards and getting drunk at the bar. Having been in Deadwood for six months after being talked into staying by Bob, Bob decides to have his irresponsible brother do him a favor by heading back to their hometown of St. Louis to bring back with him Anne Grayson (Ann Rutherford), the girl Bob intends to marry. While Jim has known Anne during their childhood days, he is surprised finding the once homely little girl to be an attractive 22 year-old woman. During their venture home by riverboat, Jim first makes the acquaintance of a gambler by the name of James Butler Hickok, better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok (Richard Dix), and later falls in love with Anne, marrying her during the boat's stop at Fort Pierre. Disappointed by the news of their marriage given to him by Jane (Frances Farmer), who loves Bob (who only looks upon her as a business partner), Bob joins a group of bandits headed by Jack McCall (Lon Chaney Jr.) doing a series of stagecoach holdups while at the same time appoints his weakling brother as the new town marshal more out of for vengeance than as a favor to him.

The supporting cast also consists of Hugh Herbert ("Rocky" Flemmer, bartender/fire chief); Fuzzy Knight ("Hurricane" Harry); Addison Richards (George Armstrong Custer); Bradley Page (Chapman); and Samuel S. Hinds (Anne's hard-of-hearing Uncle Wilbur). Dwight Latin, Guy Bonher and Walter Carlson, credited as The Jesters, play musical entertainers performing such tunes as: "McNamara's Band," "We're Going to Have a Big Time Tonight" and "No One to Love." Of its cast members, Frances Farmer, billed simply as Jane, stands out as the character inspiration of Calamity Jane. Dressed in pants, buckskin clothes and western hat, her character is very much the tough talking, bar drinking and jealous nature Calamity Jane, and different style to the same character as portrayed by Jean Arthur in THE PLAINSMAN (Paramount, 1936). Unlike other movies about Calamity Jane's involvement with Wild Bill Hickok, BADLANDS OF DAKOTA shifts gears by having her more to the liking of Bob Holliday. Her involvement with Wild Bill Hickok, excellently played by Richard Dix, is barely existent here. Dix, sporting curly hair and mustache, is given little to do, which is surprising. His character is around long enough for attention, but other than gambling scenes, actually comes to Deadwood Gulch to find gold, and being more observant to Stack's activities than being a participant. Lon Chaney Jr., shortly before his achievement in horror films such as THE WOLF MAN (1941) and its sequels, plays a cattle thief known to Hickok for being the one who shot the Kansas Kid in Abilene in the back. Willie Fung resumes his stereotypical role of a Chinese laundryman, while Glenn Strange is seen with Chaney as one of his henchmen.

Aside from Robert Stack playing a weakling turned into a town marshal, reminiscent but not superior to James Stewart's classic take in DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (Universal, 1939), BADLANDS OF DAKOTA doesn't disappoint with typical western action-packed style of gun shooting, Indian attacks, cavalry rescues, and so much more crammed into its 74 minutes. If the plot in general doesn't prove interesting, then the impressive casting of its players or runaway stagecoach scene involving Fuzzy Knight should.

Not seen regularly on commercial television since the 1970s (notably New Jersey station, Channel 68, in 1978), BADLANDS OF DAKOTA has turned up decades later on cable television's Encore Channel. Due to its latter day viewings, the film overall should be a worthy rediscovery for western film buffs or anyone unaware of its existence. Overlooking the plot toying with historic facts and characters, BADLANDS OF DAKOTA, with comedic overtones, is fast-paced and surprisingly well-done. (**1/2)

An interesting, fairly high-budget (at least by Universal standards) western, mixing historical characters like Will Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane in a fictional environment. The cast is uniformly excellent and fairly eclectic, including Broderick Crawford and Robert Stack as brothers (and there is quite a family resemblance--NOT), Lon Chaney Jr., comedy relief by Andy Devine and Hugh Herbert, a barbershop quartet (in fact, everything including the kitchen sink), but most importantly, a radiant Frances Farmer in an impressive characterization as Calamity Jane. More luminous than Jean Arthur, and more raucous and even vulnerable than Doris Day, this is easily Farmer's best performance from the last part of her career before her unfortunate arrest and institutionalization. The film seems to have been worked on by several writers, and veers back and forth between straight narrative and some obviously interpolated comedy bits and barbershop numbers. An enjoyable, if historically laughable, western from Hollywood's golden era. Farmer fans will be thrilled.

During the golden years in Hollywood, studios created an image of the old west that was pretty much hogwash. Despite these movies, folks DIDN'T have shootouts on Main Street nor were there that many folks running about in cowboy hats. But the biggest mistake the films made was by taking real life westerners and completely fictionalizing their lives. The Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp of film fame simply bore very little similarity to their onscreen characters. In "Badlands of Dakota" they manage something many of these films didn't do...it used several of these fictional real life characters...such as Wild Bill*, Calamity Jane** and General Custer. As long as you don't take any of this as fact, it is entertaining and features a lot of familiar character actors.

The story concerns two brothers who have a falling out over a girl in the old west. There on hand are Wild Bill and others....all helping to bring truth(?) and justice to the West.

The younger brother is played by Robert Stack. I've seen several of his early films and have noticed that he must have taken voice lessons, as his voice has a different cadence and is much higher than it was in the late 50s onward. He does NOT sound like Elliot Ness in this one! He is supported in the film by Richard Dix (Wild Bill), Ann Rutherford, Broderick Crawford (the older brother) and many character actors such as Andy Devine, Fuzzy Knight, Hugh Herbert and Lon Chaney Jr.. The quality and caliber of these actors help out the film a lot and elevate it far above the usual quickie B-western. The only cheap portion was the runaway wagon sequence...with its awful rear projection. Also, I wasn't taken by Ann Rutherford's speech about the west (just before Robert Stack snogs her)...talk about ridiculous dialog! But apart from that, on balance, it's a pretty good FICTIONAL story.

*The death of Wild Bill was accurate in the film...shot in the back while playing poker and he had what's known (because of this) as the dead man's hand (with two pair...both spades).

**Calamity Jane was NOT the pretty rootin' tootin' cowgirl who loved fightin' and shootin' like she is seen in the movies. In reality she was quite different--a cross-dressing woman who was NOT especially beautiful and was an alcoholic. She also worked, off and on, as a prostitute and even a frontier scout! But she also was apparently incredibly kind and accounts of her helping the poor and destitute abound. I actually think the real Calamity would be the great subject of a film!

Like a number of his earlier works, Badlands of Dakota assisted Broderick Crawford to develop the pained, overachieving Willie Stark he so absorbingly played in ALL THE KINGS MEN. The warpaint he occasionally dons does detract from the seriousness of his delivery but with plot twists like the finale, the paint probably was a welcome cover for his embarrassment. What I did like about the film was the restrained performance of Richard Dix as Wild Bill Hickok and the raw and bitter characterization of Calamity Jane by the exquisite and doomed France Farmer. The film is worth the time spent watching it if only to watch Farmer's swaggering scenes and to hear her deep and soothing voice.