Down Dakota Way

Republic Pictures released a series of formulaic contemporary westerns with Roy Rogers and his crew during the 1940s, of which this is a late example, a cookie cutter production with pleasing songs by Rogers and Foy Willing's Riders of the Purple Sage, comic interludes involving animals, and a hint of a romance between Roy and Dale Evans' character, none of which is remotely connected with the storyline. As is customary with productions directed by William Witney, this film is choppily edited and makes short shrift of a potentially interesting plot, i.e., cattle ravaged by hoof and mouth disease and a hired gun (Byron Barr) who attempts to cover up this plague by any necessary means, including multiple murders; there is excellent work by stage actress Elisabeth Risdon, who steals her scenes as the killer's stepmother, loyal to him until the finish, and a nice turn is included by great horseman Montie Montana as the local sheriff.

I've seen most of Roy Rogers' Trucolor westerns (made for Republic Pictures from 1947 to 1951) and I tend to like them, although the plots can be pretty far-fetched at times, e.g. the atomic spies operating out of a gentle western town in BELLS OF CORONADO. I'm happy to say that DOWN DAKOTA WAY (1949) has a more believable plot than most, with a distinct cowboy theme, making it more of a traditional western than most of Roy's Trucolor films, despite the odd modern touch here and there. It's bigger-budgeted than usual, with lots of scenes involving herds of cattle and cowboys and lawmen riding furiously through them and around them, all photographed on location in beautiful Trucolor, a two-color process unique to Republic. It's also got lots of action, with plenty of shootouts with the bad guys, a cattle gang seeking to get a quick pay-off for a diseased herd before word gets out that the cattle are afflicted with hoof-and-mouth disease. This plot would later turn up in the prestigious modern western, HUD (1963), which starred Paul Newman, Brandon De Wilde and Melvyn Douglas. As I recall, diseased cattle also play a part in a later modern western starring Newman, POCKET MONEY (1972). I like how DOWN DAKOTA WAY and POCKET MONEY handled this plot element, but I never cared much for the ponderous HUD.

Byron Barr and Roy Barcroft make excellent villains here as the hired gun and the corrupt rancher who employs him, while the heroes are saddled with the irksome Pat Brady who provides way too much unnecessary comic relief. Roy and Dale sing, along with Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage, but the sappy songs slow down the action more than usual. Still, there is much to reward a patient viewer and the film is highly recommended to fans of Rogers and the director, action specialist William Witney.

Roy Rogers is passing Down Dakota Way through the place of his birth on the way to the Cheyenne rodeo. He finds that the old school marm, Elizabeth Risdon, has been retired forcibly and Dale Evans taking her place. More importantly Roy finds out that unscrupulous rancher Roy Barcroft is up to no good.

Barcroft has hired a paid killer in Byron Barr to kill the area veterinarian Emmett Vogan and destroy a report stating that hoof and mouth disease is present in his cattle herd. Barcroft wants to get his cattle shipped and paid for before news gets out of the epidemic. Barr carries out the murder, but then he kind of goes off on his own game, neither of them really trust the other.

To see how these two events intersect you'll have to watch Down Dakota Way. Barr is particularly effective as the punk killer, the kind usually found in urban noir films. In fact Byron Barr's screen debut was as Zaccetti, the punk that Barbara Stanwyck almost frames for the murder of her husband in Double Indemnity. Barr played mostly those kind of roles in his career and did them well.

Roy and Dale and get their usual quota of songs to sing and although the accent is on plot and action more than music in this western. It's not a bad one from the great western studio of Republic and its boss Herbert J. Yates.

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!

Veterinarian Emmet Vogan tells rancher Roy Barcroft his cattle have hoof-and-mouth disease. They'll all have to be destroyed. Barcroft hires Byron Barr to kill the vet and make sure he can't get the news out. The law figures out Barr killed him, and goes to the house of his mother to arrest him, but Elisabeth Risdon holds them off so he can escape. Roy Rogers walks in, identifying himself as one of her old pupils, and she goes to jail. Meanwhile, Barcroft starts getting the diseased and deadly cattle ready for market.

Rogers' singing westerns certainly evolved from their relatively humble beginning. They still had real stories, but now they also were shot in color. Likewise, the choices of music are much more varied, with Dale Evans singing the only western song, and the outdoor sequences have a full, dramatic, orchestral score by Nathan Scott. If the ending is a little clangorous in its rush to wrap things up, and the stunt doubling a trifle obvious, there's still a fine story, an excellent performance by Miss Risdon, and some fine outdoors camerawork by Reggie Lanning.