While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

John Wayne elopes with the daughter of a wealthy immigrant family. Taking off for Fargo, he squares off against nasty Ward Bond, who had his life-savings stolen and is in the process of taking land in anticipation of the coming railroad.One of the minor Republic vehicles the Duke cranked out in the nineteen-forties, this starts out well, though it runs out of steam mid-way, ending up being okay but unspectacular and unmemorable.Production values and performances are good, but this seems bloated, even at 83 minutes. Republic should have tightened it up and made it one of their hour-long programmers.The best thing about this is crusty, old riverboat captain Walter Brennan. He and his sidekick almost steal the movie.

Vera Ralston was an actress that was cast into films because she was married to the big boss of Republic. In Dakota she comes out surprisingly well as Sandy Poli a determined woman, daughter of a millionaire who marries John Wayne. He wants to go to California, but she chooses Dakota and from then on she is the one who makes the most important decisions for the couple. It is not usual to see John Wayne in this situation but it makes the film more interesting. There are two familiar actors also, Walter Brennan and Ward Bond. It is remarkable that with a low budget they made quite a convincing scenery of what Fargo,Dakota must have looked like. The movie is quite entertaining except for the fact also mentioned in one of the comments, that they make too much use of scenes taking place at night. No need for that, it only makes it harder to understand what is going on.

This is the most enjoyable "B" Western I'd seen in quite awhile. It is fast-paced, mostly light-hearted yet doesn't stint on the serious implications of the dramatic sequences; it makes you feel and believe the human tragedies that would occur if town boss Bender (Ward Bond, marvelously effective and subtle as smooth-talking and thoughtful villain) were to be successful at bankrupting his fellow townspeople, paving the future railroad towns with the rubes' broken dreams. John Wayne was starting to solidify the nucleus of the stock company of supporting actors he would make many movies with in the future (on hand besides Bond are Paul Fix, Walter Brennan, Grant Withers, Olin Howard, Bruce Cabot, and Mike Mazurki.Wayne is perfectly cast as the rough-and-tumble gambler who falls for railroad heiress Vera Rhuba Ralston, much to father Hugo Haas' chagrin who is a rather slick and powerful operator himself. The twist here is that Ralston is as cunning and devious as her Dad and new husband combined, and is continually effective in steering things in the direction she wants them to flow. Not normally a Ralston fan, I thought she played the role with flair, attractiveness, and a perfect energy level. She doesn't have the on-screen chemistry with Wayne that Maureen O'Hara or Gail Russell later did, but when your husband owns the studio, you don't want to allow the chemistry to get too real-looking. Ona Munson as "Jersey" is hotter and makes both her scenes memorable. Walter Brennan is perfectly cast as a persnickety riverboat captain, and Nick Stewart provides able comic assistance as his blunt first mate(Racially stereotyped, of course, but still very funny, and not at all demeaning if you look at it objectively). Bond and Mazurki are excellent as the deceptive villains. Fix and Withers are professional and provide subtle special touches as Bond's hired guns.Given the budget and the generally pedestrian record of Director Kane, this is actually a surprisingly well made. My demands/expectations of this oater were small when I tuned it in on the Encore Western channel. I was looking for a fast-paced, check-your-brains-at-the-door oater to have on in the background as I picked up around the apartment. Instead, not only is it tautly directed, fast-paced, wry, and well-acted, but it has an extremely well-crafted adapted screenplay from Carl ("High Noon") Foreman. The insights conveyed by the script, even including some of the background and "throwaway" lines, are literate and register long after the lines have passed.Overall, this movie can be recommended on many levels. Deapite it's quite modest roots, it is a durable, high-spirited, well-acted, and well-directed oater that also is exceptionally well-written. Not the type of title that will impress your art-house buddies, unless they accept your challenge and actually watch it before they write it off. Those actually watch it are in for special treats.

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.