Dakota (1945)

Director:

Joseph Kane

Writers:

Carl Foreman (original story)
Lawrence Hazard (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 December 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Western

Tagline:

MIGHTY ADVENTURE...ROMANCE...EXCITEMENT...of America's Last Frontier (original poster)

Plot:

In 1871, professional gambler John Devlin elopes with Sandra "Sandy" Poli, daughter of Marko Poli, an immigrant who has risen to railroad tycoon...

Plot Keywords:

Railroad | Wheat | Farmer | Boat | River

Cast

John Wayne	...	John Devlin
Vera Ralston	...	Sandy Poli (Devlin) (as Vera Hruba Ralston)
Walter Brennan	...	Capt. Bounce of the Riverbird
Ward Bond	...	Jim Bender
Ona Munson	...	'Jersey' Thomas
Olive Blakeney	...	Mrs. Stowe
Mike Mazurki	...	'Bigtree' Collins
Hugo Haas	...	Marko Poli
Nick Stewart	...	Nicodemus (Capt. Bounce's Bosun) (as Nicodemus Stewart)
Paul Fix	...	Carp
Grant Withers	...	Slagin
Robert Livingston	...	Lieutenant
Olin Howland	...	Devlin's Driver (as Olin Howlin)
Pierre Watkin	...	Wexton Geary (Marko Poli's Representative)
Robert Barrat	...	Anson Stowe (as Robert H. Barrat)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | West Germany:12 (nf) | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #11126)

Filming Locations:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Republic Pictures

Goofs:

Continuity: When Devlin is tossed out of Poli's house, he tumbles down the steps with his head toward the right of the porch. But on the cut to the close-up, he completes the fall with his head toward the left, a complete mismatch from the previous shot.

Quotes:

Sandy Poli: That's papa! He's shooting at us!
John Devlin: All I want to know is: do you take after your papa or mama?
Sandy Poli: Papa always wants to shoot things out. He has no more sense than you have. I do hope he doesn't kill us. He'd never get over it.
John Devlin: Well, I'd feel kind of regretful about it myself.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of John Wayne (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Coax Me

Movie too dark to see much of the time.

Why, oh why, must film makers make a movie so dark? Sometimes I think they must have gotten a great deal on filters, and felt that they had to use them all on this one film. Some of the shots in this one are so dark that one is hard pressed to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

Darkness is sometimes used to hide poor (read: cheap) special effects in a "B" movie, and I guess that's to be expected; But there was no reason for Dakota (1945) to be under exposed. I couldn't tell if it was a good movie or not because I couldn't see half of it.