Down Dakota Way

Like many of the films from Republic from the late 40s and early 50s, "Down Dakota Way" was filmed in TruColor. Despite its name, TruColor wasn't exactly 'true'. Instead of the lush colors you'd get from Three Color Technicolor, film stock such as Cinecolor and TruColor used two colors to achieve a color-like picture. Why would the studio choose such an ugly version of color? Well, it was a heck of a lot cheaper than standard color film....nearly the same price as black & white film. But the trade-off was that the film not only looked a bit odd (you never got true purples, yellows or deep reds, for instance) but over time the film tended to get uglier and uglier....and often made the movies look orangy or blue-green.

When the story begins, a veterinarian is inexplicably kidnapped off a bus headed in to town. Roy and the gang arrive soon after and Roy gives chase. The trail leads to a nearby ranch and you know by the ranch hand's nasty reaction to Roy is sure indicative that there's something amiss at the ranch. In addition to this kidnapping, Roy also becomes involved with his old school teacher and her no-good son. What do these have to do with each other? And, can Roy get to the bottom of it?

The plot of "Down Dakota Way" is very similar to the plot in Roy's final Republic film, "Pals of the Golden West"....which was made only two years later. Both are about hoof and mouth disease and unscrupulous ranchers selling possibly infected beef (yuck!).

This story was pretty good. I especially appreciate the step-mother and her not so darling step-son angle. Overall, slightly above average and worth your time.



By the way, the version I saw of this movie on the Tubi Channel had an introduction from the 1980s. A few of Roy's films have him and Dale introducing the movie...and in this case they are joined by Pat Buttram and Gene Autry! What a rare treat!