A Few Words About A few words about...™ Cowboy -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Director, and writer Delmer Daves, may never be thought of as a "star" director, but his work was always top drawer. As I wrote that line, I opened Julie Kirgo's monograph, which sends the same message, which is that while Daves' westerns may lack the Ford iconography, and majestic settings, they're far more down to earth.

Cowboy, which gives us the interesting pairing of Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon, is a quality film, and lovely Blu-ray offered via Twilight Time, from a new master delivered by Columbia.

Dupes aside, color, densities, grain structure, black levels and resolution are all in line for a film shot in 1957 on Eastman 5248.

Image - 4.5

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 4.5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended


RAH

 

[atfree]

Watching my copy now...looks great!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Director, and writer Delmer Daves, may never be thought of as a "star" director, but his work was always top drawer. As I wrote that line, I opened Julie Kirgo's monograph, which sends the same message, which is that while Daves' westerns may lack the Ford iconography, and majestic settings, they're far more down to earth.

Cowboy, which gives us the interesting pairing of Glenn Ford and Jack Lemmon, is a quality film, and lovely Blu-ray offered via Twilight Time, from a new master delivered by Columbia.

Dupes aside, color, densities, grain structure, black levels and resolution are all in line for a film shot in 1957 on Eastman 5248.

Image - 4.5

Audio - 5

4k Up-rez - 4.5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended


RAH

IMO, Daves is an underrated director as many of his films are among my personal favorites starting the Destination Tokyo and even with Spencer's Mountain. By the way, Dalton Trumbo, while still blacklisted, actually wrote the screenplay for Cowboy which isn't surprising considering some of the great dialogue in this film.

 

[David_B_K]

It's great to finally get to see one of my favorite westerns on disc in the proper aspect ratio and no PAL speedup. Great job on the movie and the commentary.

 

[notmicro]

Now for a few more from Daves' opus, such as The Hanging Tree (1959 Warner), and the all-time classic teens-in-trouble trash-fest A Summer Place (1959 Warner), featuring the wonderful underrated actress Constance Ford gleefully chewing the scenery up and down as the wicked stepmother, Sandra Dee asking Troy Donahue "Are you bad Johnny? Have you been bad with girls?", and at the very end a shot of a boat named "Randy I", tee hee.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Now for a few more from Daves' opus, such as The Hanging Tree (1959 Warner), and the all-time classic teens-in-trouble trash-fest A Summer Place (1959 Warner), featuring the wonderful underrated actress Constance Ford gleefully chewing the scenery up and down as the wicked stepmother, Sandra Dee asking Troy Donahue "Are you bad Johnny? Have you been bad with girls?", and at the very end a shot of a boat named "Randy I", tee hee.

To make that character even more despicable, she wasn't her stepmother, but her actual mother. Though, A Summer Place was more popular with the great song attached to it, I always prefer Parrish as a film. Melodramas get shortchanged with many folks, but a good film is a good film despite what genre it comes from.

 

[atfree]

IMO, Daves is an underrated director as many of his films are among my personal favorites starting the Destination Tokyo and even with Spencer's Mountain. By the way, Dalton Trumbo, while still blacklisted, actually wrote the screenplay for Cowboy which isn't surprising considering some of the great dialogue in this film.

Those are 2 films I'd love to see on BD.....but not holding out much hope.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Those are 2 films I'd love to see on BD.....but not holding out much hope.

I watched "Spencer's Mountain" on DVD a couple of months ago, and it holds up very well. It's been an old favourite of mine since my whole family went to the theatre to see it first-run (we all liked it). The quality is outstanding for DVD, and if Warner Archive announced a Blu-Ray I wouldn't be at all surprised. As for "Destination Tokyo", what's on that particular DVD would need some clean up, though it's quite watchable, and hey, it's Cary Grant.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I just saw Destination Tokyo for the first time, and I think it might have been my first movie by Delmer Daves. Really enjoyed it. I'm starting to think that Warner made the best propaganda movies of the studios during WWII.

 

[OliverK]

Cowboy is available on the Sony 4k unlimited service and looking very nice, I am contemplating a rental!