FOX WESTERNS ON MAY - And The Gunfighter is among them!!!!! (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

I watched each title in that boxset and was very pleased with the PQ.





Crawdaddy

 

[jim_falconer]

Managed to watch "Rawhide" from the FOX Westerns Classic box last night. All I can say is, "Wow...what a movie!". I really wasn't expecting much, but was immediately drawn in to the story and characters. Being a huge John Wayne fan, I'm aware that Henry Hathaway did a great job directing some of Duke's best films. I was gratified to see him do the same top-notch job with this one as well. I had only seen Tyrone Power in one other film ("The Long Grey Line"), and didn't really care for him in that. But it's almost as if he was born to play the character he portrays in Rawhide. Jack Elm was never slimier, and Edward Buchanan, who is only in it for a short time, was never better. I highly recommend it those who have not seen it...great stuff!

This set was a blind buy for me. Now after seeing Rawhide, I can't wait to see the other two.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I don't think you'll be disppointed in the other two titles. Over the years, I actually preferred "Rawhide" over "The Garden of Evil", but I'm definitely in the minority in that opinion. Just goes to show you how film appreciation is so subjective.




Crawdaddy

 

[Haggai]

I'm with you on that, Crawdaddy, having watched everything in this boxset now on a blind buy. Garden of Evil is very nicely filmed and has that great score, plus some good drama whenever they get around to it, but the script is heavy on philosophizing and short on character or compelling situations. Rawhide has a much tighter and more involving script, with interesting stuff for pretty much every character to do.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Apparently the FOX CLASSIC WESTERNS collections are NOT BEING SOLD IN QUEBEC...

Does anyone know why??

 

[CraigF]

^ I suspect it's because there is no French on the packaging. I got mine in Canada, rare for me for a boxset. There are French language tracks.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I doubt that Craig, there are lots of releases without bilingual packaging. Well... not enough unfortunately. But Raoul Walsh's BIG TRAIL is a recent release that I purchased on street date and was happy to find it without a bilingual cover.

The recent MGM western singles on the other hand, I had to order online (DVDPlanet) because they didn't escape the wrath of the silly Quebec product language laws.

I wonder if there is a licensing issue with one of the titles in the set that is preventing it from being distributed in Quebec??

 

[CraigF]

^ Oh well, was just a (superficial) guess from looking at the packaging. I got my "John Wayne: The Fox Westerns" from the U.S., only bilingual set packaging around here.

 

[John Hodson]

Thirded. 'Rawhide' is an excellent western with a cracking script; a big hand for Dudley Nichols.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Damn...with all those comments...I'm gonna have to order that set. Pronto!

Has anyone seen this set at a B&M?

 

[Dave B Ferris]

In answer to Mike's question, yes, I found the set at a Virgin Megastore. True enough, it was filed in the 'action'/'westerns' section, but it was stashed at the tail-end of the section, as if no one was quite sure where it would have been filed alphabetically.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thanks, Dave.

Yup. I've been looking under "F" for Fox and "W" for Western and still wondering if I'm missing it because it got filed under something else...

I've seen the Big Trail filed under "B", "W" (for Wayne) and even--I kid you not--"T" (for The!). And, I've seen it in "War/Westerns", "Action/Adventure" and even "Drama."

I've seen similar filing issues at the big B&Ms with the Wayne Fox Western collection and the Ford at Fox collections.

And that's why I haven't been sure if the stores aren't stocking it...or I've just been missing it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

BIG NEWS!

The Big Trail is on sale for $8.99 this week @ Best Buy. This title is NOT included in the sale ad list of $8.99 titles on sale for father's day. But, as I was walking through my local store tonight...there it was in the display (marked $14.99). I took a copy to customer service and it scanned for $8.99. Lucky for me, I had my receipt from my prior purchase of The Big Trail @ BB still in my wallet and I immediately got a price adjustment pocketing $6.48.

Then I walked across the mall to my local FYE (TransWorld) store. FINALLY, I found a copy of the Fox Westerns Collection (filed under "F" in the War/Westerns section)! Although I knew I would be able to do much better I decided to take the plunge at the sticker price of $19.99. Lo and behold, at the register, it rang up $12.99!!! With tax that comes to $4.66 per movie.

What a surprisingly fortuitous night this bargain hunter had!

 

[CraigF]

Late to the party, but finally got around to Garden of Evil yesterday. The sound... The dialog was very intelligible, the background hiss pretty constant but not annoying to me, it was the 4.0: that drove me crazy. People would turn their heads or move a couple inches, and the sound would zip from center to far right/left. My decoder insisted this was a 5.0 track (??, I didn't hugely investigate), perhaps it just needs a good beating.

The scene where they first arrive at the abandoned Mexican town where everybody is a bit spread out is a good example. Ping pong sound. Or was it just here? If so I'll make a note of any setup suggestions for the next time (maybe I should have deleted the center speaker?). Thanks.

 

[Travis87]

i just got the fox westerns collection along with the big trail this week. so far i've only watched the big trail & rawhide but they were both great. i was really impressed with the visuals in the grandeur version of the big trail. there is so much going on in every shot either with the huge cast or the background it really seemed like a massive undertaking for such an old film that was pulled off very well. another thing that i'm impressed with is the extras on the fox set. i really wasn't expecting much especially with the low price, but i was pleasantly surprised. i hope they keep these up as long as they can!

 

[CraigF]

Yeah, I guess that was pretty lousy of me to mention the only "bad" thing I noticed in this bunch of movies. It was like a persistent itch though.

 

[Mark-P]

That is typical of early '50s stereo sound. Sound was recorded and mixed very differently then than it is now. To achieve directionality of the dialog, they literally had 3 microphones on stage so that the voices bounce around based on which mike picked up the most. You'll notice that you can always hear the dialog in all 3 front channels though it will be louder in one. A head-turn could literally cause a shift from one microphone to another.

 

[CraigF]

^ Ah...thanks. So it's not an artifact of the DVD production then, but is "accurate". That's fine then, long as I know, I guess I've never experienced this before or noticed it as much.

 

[Mike Frezon]

All three of these are blind buys for me (ashamed as I am to admit that).

Watched The Gunfighter the other night. Absolutely terrific. A classic western done really well. I thought that while some of the exterior scenes seemed excessively dark and grainy, that it was probably the intention of the director and DP for it to be so. The rest of the PQ seemed excellent and the sound was terrific.

While I guess some like to draw comparisons with Unforgiven, I thought both High Noon and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance both had a lot in common with The Gunfighter.

 

[Douglas R]

I love the fact that Fox DID retain the directional dialogue for GARDEN OF EVIL. So often with '50s stereo films, dialogue is remixed on DVD to only come from the centre speakers.