Raoul Walsh

John Wayne: The Fox Westerns Collection (The Big Trail / North to Alaska / The Comancheros / The Undefeated)

Includes:Disc 1: THE BIG TRAIL WSDisc 2: THE BIG TRAIL P&SDisc 3: THE COMANCHEROSDisc 4: NORTH TO ALASKADisc 5: THE UNDEFEATEDFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/CLASSICS UPC: 024543529620 Manufacturer No: 2252962

The Big Trail (Two-Disc Special Edition)

One of very few widescreen productions filmed at the dawn of the talkies, The Big Trail was dismissed by reviewers of the day, little seen, and soon shelved and forgotten--for more than half a century, as it turned out. For movie buffs, it became a sort of Holy Grail. After all, the esteemed Raoul Walsh had directed, the early 70mm angle was tantalizing, and wasn't this the movie that was intended to make a star of Duke Morrison, a 22-year-old former prop man whom Walsh had rechristened John Wayne for the occasion? For curiosity value alone, surely it rated a look.

Restored in the late 1980s and warmly embraced by film festival audiences, The Big Trail proved to be more than just a historical footnote. What were those 1930 reviewers thinking?! Wayne is fresh, exuberant, matinee-idol handsome, and irresistibly charming (only a little purple prose trips him up, and no one should have been asked to speak such early-talkie flapdoodle anyway). The scenario winds through epic settings from the banks of the Mississippi by way of the Grand Canyon to the snows of Oregon and the mountain vistas of Washington, marking both a wagon train's journey and the settling of a personal score between trail guide Wayne and Tyrone Power Sr. as a veritable ogre of a villain. (A villain off-camera, too: Legend holds that Walsh had the actor beaten nearly to death for attempting to force himself on leading lady Marguerite Churchill.) The Big Trail is now an authentic classic, and a swell movie. Probably always was. --Richard T. Jameson

The movie that made John Wayne a star Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail comes to DVD for the first time in its original 70 mm Widescreen version. This 2-disc Special Edition featuers both the 70 mm widescreen and the alternative standard fullscreen version plus three new docs. System Requirements:Running Time: 212 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WAR/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 024543519300 Manufacturer No: 2251930

Distant Drums

Pursued

Hollywood's first "psychological Western" and one of Robert Mitchum's best early films, Pursued boasts a dark scenario--by Niven (Duel in the Sun) Busch--about a man psychically scarred by a tragedy his mind refuses to recall. Modern-day audiences will have no trouble decoding the mystery, but that doesn't undercut the movie's dramatic power, or the rugged beauty of what's been put on screen by two master filmmakers, director Raoul Walsh and cameraman James Wong Howe. With seasoned professionalism, they accommodate all the newfangled Freudianism and smoothly integrate the bedrock Western with the inky film noir. The rest of the cast includes Teresa Wright (then Mrs. Busch) as Mitchum's adoptive sister, who may become his lover and/or his killer; Dean Jagger, smilingly sinister as a weasely in-law; and that grande dame of the Gothic, Judith Anderson, as a frontier matriarch. --Richard T. Jameson

Dark Command / A Lady Takes A Chance (Double Feature)

DARK COMMAND - John Wayne is good guy Bob Seton in Raoul Walsh's star-studded thriller set in the dark days before the Civil War. During this strained period in America's history emotions run high and tension fills the air especially during political contests. In the race for Federal Marshall of Kansas Seton defeats William Cantrell (Walter Pidgeon) causing increased animosity between these two powerful figures. Their mutual ill will peaks when Cantrell steals Seton's girl (Claire Trevor) manipulating her into marriage to get even with Seton. Their rivalry reaches dangerous proportions when Seton exposes Cantrell and his guerrillas who have been raiding both Union and Confederate lines. Roy Rogers co-stars in one of his earliest film roles. A LADY TAKES A CHANCE - Finding men has never been a problem for city girl Molly Trousdale (Jean Arthur) - finding the right man is another matter. And women have never been a problem for cowboy bachelor Duke Hutkins (John Wayne) - until they want to marry him. If it's true that opposites attract they're obviously made for each other. When Molly sets out from New York on a cross-country bus tour she just wants to see America. But her plans take an unexpected turn out West when she collides (literally!) with Duke while he's competing at the rodeo. He assumes she's just another pretty gal who'll fall into his arms but she's a lady who won't be roped easily by a brawling rough-and-ready cowboy. Jean Arthur shows the spunk that made her one of the biggest stars of Hollywood's Golden Era and John Wayne is at his most charming when he falls for her against his better judgment. So get ready for the dust to fly when these two screen legends star in a truly classic romantic comedy A LADY TAKES A CHANCE!System Requirements:Running Time: 180 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 017153213188 Manufacturer No: 21318

Dark Command

Historically dubious but vigorously entertaining, Dark Command is the best of John Wayne's many movies for Republic (not counting Wayne's lovely producing debut Angel and the Badman and those two John Ford films). Set in "Bleeding Kansas" just before and during the Civil War, it highlights the romantic triangle of amiable but unschooled Texan Wayne, banker's daughter Claire Trevor, and schoolmaster Walter Pidgeon--just long enough for the earnest pedagogue to become embittered, turn into bushwhacker William Quantrill (here Cantrell), and start wreaking havoc in the Border States. This was Republic's first star vehicle for Wayne, following his breakthrough in Stagecoach (away from Republic), and it's an uncharacteristically impressive production: good writers working from a W.R. Burnett novel, Raoul Walsh brought in to direct, music by Victor Young, and strong costars and supporting cast (Marjorie Main, Porter Hall, Raymond Walburn--and Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes!). Wayne himself is delightful. --Richard T. Jameson

In this pre-civil War saga, Walter Pigeon, as Confederate renegade William Cantrell, along with his raiders, clashes with the new marshal of Kansas City, Bob Seton (John Wayne). Their long-standing rivalry of love and power reaches dangerous proportions when Seton exposes Cantrell and his guerillas, who have been raiding both Union and Confederate lines. Roy Rogers co-stars in one of his earliest film roles.

In Old Arizona

Gun Fury

Hudson and Reed are newlyweds traveling to the West. Carey in a wonderful performance as a psychotic outlaw kidnaps Reed. Hudson is then forced to pursue the gang and tries to maintain his composure but ends up becoming just as crazed as Carey.System Requirements:Running Time: 82 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 043396050167 Manufacturer No: 05016

The Big Trail (Full Screen Edition)

One of very few widescreen productions filmed at the dawn of the talkies, The Big Trail was dismissed by reviewers of the day, little seen, and soon shelved and forgotten--for more than half a century, as it turned out. For movie buffs, it became a sort of Holy Grail. After all, the esteemed Raoul Walsh had directed, the early 70mm angle was tantalizing, and wasn't this the movie that was intended to make a star of Duke Morrison, a 22-year-old former prop man whom Walsh had rechristened John Wayne for the occasion? For curiosity value alone, surely it rated a look.

Restored in the late 1980s and warmly embraced by film festival audiences, The Big Trail proved to be more than just a historical footnote. What were those 1930 reviewers thinking?! Wayne is fresh, exuberant, matinee-idol handsome, and irresistibly charming (only a little purple prose trips him up, and no one should have been asked to speak such early-talkie flapdoodle anyway). The scenario winds through epic settings from the banks of the Mississippi by way of the Grand Canyon to the snows of Oregon and the mountain vistas of Washington, marking both a wagon train's journey and the settling of a personal score between trail guide Wayne and Tyrone Power Sr. as a veritable ogre of a villain. (A villain off-camera, too: Legend holds that Walsh had the actor beaten nearly to death for attempting to force himself on leading lady Marguerite Churchill.) The Big Trail is now an authentic classic, and a swell movie. Probably always was. --Richard T. Jameson

In this sweeping pioneer adventure, a courageous young scout (WAYNE) leads hundreds of settlers across treacherous cliffs, though brutal snowstorms, Indian attacks and buffalo stampedes to their destiny out West. Along the way, he loses his heart to a beautiful pioneer woman (MARGUERITE CHURCHILL) and never stops trying to win her love. TYRONE POWER co-stars in this visually spectacular epic.

The John Wayne Collection, Vol. 2

Here's something you don't see every day. Then again, would you want to? Several years before the 1950s' Davy Crockett craze, John Wayne donned a coonskin cap to play a militiaman in early-19th-century Alabama. He and his fellow Kentuckians are just passing through--"marching 600 miles," as they merrily sing (and sing, and sing), because riverboat magnate John Howard has refused to haul them. Howard and all-purpose scoundrel Grant Withers are scheming to dispossess a community of French émigrés--veterans of Napoleon's Grand Army who've come seeking life, liberty, etc. in the New World. Howard's also out to marry Vera Ralston, the French general's daughter. Naturally, Wayne's just the lad to gum up both plans.

Wayne himself produced The Fighting Kentuckian, but far from repeating the success of his maiden effort, Angel and the Badman, this is one of the feeblest films in his long career. Writer-director George Waggner never gets a handle on what a pre-Western should look and move like. Consequently, the cast does a lot of standing around looking silly in period costume, waiting--mostly in vain--for the script to establish their connection to one another and something resembling a plot. There is a glossier look to the proceedings than most Republic pictures achieved, thanks to Lee Garmes's pearly cinematography, but this is scant consolation. So is the almost creepy presence of Oliver Hardy, sans Laurel, doing Ollie-shtick as Wayne's jolly sidekick. No, he doesn't say, "This is another fine mess you've got me into!" But he should. --Richard T. Jameson