Russell, John

Pale Rider

After a nine-year break from the genre that made him an international star (the Western just before this one was The Outlaw Josey Wales, from 1976), Clint Eastwood returned in this gritty Western, crafted in the tradition of Shane and High Noon. Eastwood directed and stars as the nameless stranger known only as "Preacher," because he rides into a beleaguered mining town wearing a clerical collar. He's either an agent of death or an angel of mercy, and the echoes of Shane ring loud and clear when he comes to the aid of independent miners who are being terrorized by a local tycoon (Richard Dysart) and his ruthless band of hired guns. Befriended by a miner (Michael Moriarty) and idolized by the miner's wife and daughter (played by Carrie Snodgress and Sydney Penny, respectively), the "Pale Rider" sparks the defiant spirit of the underdog miners and takes after the bad guys with single-minded purpose. Digital video disc offers standard and widescreen formats and a remastered soundtrack. --Jeff Shannon

One man stands up to the corporate mining boss who is out to kill all of the independent miners in gold rush California.
Genre: Westerns
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-SEP-2003
Media Type: DVD

Yellow Sky

A gang of outlaws enters what seems to be the ghost town of Yellow Sky where they meet a prospecter and his granddaughter who falls in love with the gang's leader.
Genre: Westerns
Rating: NR
Release Date: 23-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVD

It seems no one has ever had an unkind word for Yellow Sky, yet somehow this handsome, hard-edged, and very well-made late-'40s Western remains little-known. That may change with its release on a DVD so crisp and luminous, one wants to swear off Technicolor and luxuriate in the frosty glow of its highlights, the velvet blackness of its shadows, and the electric silver-gray of its desert skies.

Story's pretty good, too. Seven men led by Gregory Peck ride into a small Southwest town, wet their whistles at the saloon, then hold up the bank with a minimum of fuss. Escaping should be a cinch, except for a troop of cavalry who reduce their number to six and watch the survivors ride off into a desert they probably won't live to cross. Unexpected salvation looms in the form of Yellow Sky, a ghost town where the bandits find water, an old man (James Barton) and his tomboy granddaughter (Anne Baxter)--and the tempting rumor of gold. That's when the real trouble starts. The criminal partnership is severely strained by greed, several varieties of lust (for the girl as well as the treasure), the troublesome onset of conscience in some breasts and its total absence from others--notably Richard Widmark's.

Yellow Sky re-teams director William A. Wellman and writer-producer Lamar Trotti, who five years earlier had made The Ox-Bow Incident, an authentic but rather pretentious Western classic. Yellow Sky's opening scene is all but lifted from Ox-Bow (along with two character actors), but this time around, Wellman eschews self-importance and just concentrates on spinning a gritty yarn (from a novel by W.R. Burnett). Apart from sequences shot in Death Valley, the principal location is Yellow Sky itself, a grand ruin set against the timeless backdrop of the Alabama Hills. And oh yes, the man responsible for those awesome whites, blacks, and silver-grays is Joe MacDonald, the cinematographer of My Darling Clementine. --Richard T. Jameson

Rio Bravo

When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: John Ford's The Searchers, Howard Hawks's Red River, and Hawks's Rio Bravo. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for revenge and Red River is a sweeping cattle-drive drama ("Take 'em to Missouri! Yeeee-hah!"), Rio Bravo is on a much more modest scale. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T. Chance (Wayne), his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black cofee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally, singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. This most entertaining of movies also achieved some notoriety in the '90s when Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown) revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. Oh, and if the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two more times--as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. --Jim Emerson

One deputy (Dean Martin) is a drunk, one (Walter Brennan) is a cripple and another (Ricky Nelson) is an eager, tinhorn kid. But Sheriff John Wayne knows he can count on 'em when the bullets fly. A landmark salute to heroism, directed by Howard Hawks.

Jason of Star Command - The Complete Series

Working from within a secret section of Space Academy a daring soldier of fortune named Jason joins with his friends to combat the sinister forces that conspire to dominate the stars. Jason is aided on his missions by Commanders Carnavin and Stone computer expert Nicole strong alien Samantha eccentric scientist Dr. E.J. Parsafoot and 2 robots Peepo and the portable W1K1. Together they face the evil machinations of Dragos - the self-proclaimed Master of the Cosmos - and his ali9en minions aboard the Dragonship. Extras include new documentary commentaries special effects demo reel interview with villain Sid Haig photo galleries bookletFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 787364724499

Honkytonk Man

One of Clint Eastwood's mid-1980s experiments in change of pace, this melancholy attempt at comedy confirmed something Clint already had shown in Paint Your Wagon: he's not a very good singer. In Honkytonk Man, which he also directed, he plays a has-been who never was, a would-be country singer who dreams of performing at the Grand Ol' Opry. As he works his way to Nashville with his nephew in tow (played by Eastwood's son, Kyle), he also battles with tuberculosis in a movie more interested in creating soggy handkerchiefs than musical credibility. What little there is of the latter is provided by real-life music stars such as Marty Robbins (who didn't live to see this movie released). --Marshall Fine

Red Stovall (Clint Eastwood) is a Depression-era rascal whose fire-in-the-belly passion comes from the whiskey he slugs and the dream he chases: singing at the Grand Ole Opry. He takes off on a drive from Oklahoma to audition in Nashville with nephew Whit (Clint's son Kyle Eastwood) along to help keep the car on the road and Red on the straight and narrow.Running Time: 123 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085392752928

Man in the Saddle

In MAN IN THE SADDLE we see Randolph Scott in an archetypal role as Owen Merritt a man of few words unerring aim and unbreakable principles who swallows his pride when the woman he loves marries for wealth. But when her wildly jealous husband vows to ruin Merritt's ranch Merritt strikes back. A satisfying combination of action romance and breathtaking high-desert scenery MAN IN THE SADDLE also features Tennessee Ernie Ford in a rare movie appearance.System Requirements:Running Time: 86 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 043396091252 Manufacturer No: 09125

Though well short of the classics he would go on to make with Budd Boetticher (Seven Men from Now, The Tall T, et al.), Man in the Saddle is measurably superior to most of Randolph Scott's other '50s Westerns. The script has enough characters, criss-crossed revenge subplots, and tortuous romances for a miniseries; yet somehow, within a B-movie running time, director André De Toth manages to give all of them enough attention so that the movie makes sense, even threatens to get really interesting. He also finds distinctive ways to stage standard set pieces like, say, a saloon shootout. And there's a cumulatively amazing fistfight that starts in a mountain cabin, totally uses up that set, then spills downhill through snowfield and waterfall. Randy's character is a more complicated fellow than usual, and the Scots-Canadian actor Alexander Knox, best known for his Oscar®-nominated turn as Woodrow Wilson, makes a creepily compelling range baron. --Richard T. Jameson

Forever Amber

Elvira's Movie Macabre: Legacy Of Blood

Elvira continues her late-night horror tradition with the MOVIE MACABRE series which features the buxom Mistress of the Dark hosting a selection of her favorite campy horror classics. This volume presents LEGACY OF BLOOD (1978) in which a trio of greedy sisters find themselves stalked by an unseen killer when they spend a weekend at the family estate for the reading of their dead father's will.System Requirements:Running Time 90 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: NR UPC: 826663101010 Manufacturer No: DVDSF10101

The Cowboys / Rio Bravo

Legacy Of Blood (aka Blood Legacy)

A group of greedy relatives must spend a week in a haunted mansion to collect their inheritance.