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!

The plot is simple: It's based around 1876 in South Dakota and the Custer/Wild Bill Hickok events. Farmer plays Calamity Jane, although they never use the tag "Calamity" when speaking to or about her. One varied notice from other films, she's not in love with Wild Bill in this one but a saloon owner (Broderick Crawford) and then winds up killing him.This is a typical early day Western with lots of shootin', ridin', Indians, outlaws, and, of course, duo love interests which rival each other. It's a really good Western based upon that and comes even with some comedy (Andy Devine). It was well worth the money I paid to get it and I will certainly watch it again later.I won't speak about the historical points because, although there are a few of them (such as Wild Bill getting killed) they are not anywhere close to accurate.Rather, I bought the video because it had Francis Farmer in it. I'd never seen a movie with her until yesterday when I viewed two of them. I was most curious about this beautiful woman whose mother had her mutated.I gave this movie an 8 simply based upon Francis Farmer's acting in the movie. She was a great actress. I say that now based upon viewing two of her films this past week (Son of Fury). Criminals, like those who did what they did to this wonderful woman ought to be damned but time has taken them, as well as she, from our presence so we can. I notice she only made 15 films before they cut her brain. I would have loved to have seen more movies with her and, no doubt, had they not had their way, she would have made many more.

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.

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.