Review of Dark Command

. . . it immediately began cutting corners. Republic replaced GONE WITH THE WIND's lavish color with often murky black & white film (especially the many Dark-O-Vision night scenes straining the eyes of DARK COMMAND viewers). Instead of a rousing Max Steiner original musical score, DARK COMMAND's audience is treated to a repetitious and often anachronistic stew of over-used oldies, such as "Camptown Races." With a running time less than half GWTW's, there's not a chance of straining even the tiniest bladders in attendance. Compared with GWTW, DARK COMMAND's cast is made up of strictly "B-Listers," with John Wayne assuming the Rhett Butler role, "Mr. Miniver" (Walter Pidgeon) trying to inject some gumption into his version of Ashley Wilkes, Claire Trevor giving us a Scarlett O'Hara without a single "Fiddle-Dee-Dee" (or chuckle of any sort), and Roy Rogers oozing into the Melanie Wilkes space in a bit of gender-blind casting. This sorry quartet play a pack of Fifth Column Losers who try to spread the venom of the Old South's Lazy Racist Black Slavery into a hotbed of Freedom Fighters in Lawrence, KS. (Which, of course, they manage to burn to the ground, as most of the population is slain.) Wayne personally knocks out the teeth of 17-plus Abolitionists, and Rogers guns down an unarmed 18th Union Backer in his haste to jump into Satan's Surrey. Wayne proposes Bigamy to Ms. Trevor, and it takes a Nasty-Gram from the U.S. Production Code Administration to keep Rogers from doing it with Trigger.