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Originally Posted by Robert Crawford
I'm very happy about these releases, but I find it odd that the best film of the bunch doesn't have any real extras. Anyhow, at least it's coming out on DVD.
Crawdaddy
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But the best film of the bunch does have all kinds of special features with a commentary, Making of Garden of Evil, Henry Hathaway doc and restoration comparison's.
Actually I knew this was going to have a making of documentory as my friend John Mulholland was notified about 9 months ago that they needed info on the movie and Gary Cooper in a hurry. It is too bad the Vol 2 box sets on Gary Cooper he was also notified on around the same time from WB and Universial never got to the release stage and may not ever. I am not familar at all with The Gunfighter or the director Henry King but John says it's an excellent western so I am looking forward to seeing it. It also has an interesting Gary Cooper history according to him:
Hey, Dan:
In the previous e-mail, you mentioned the two other westerns in the Fox
set on May 13 -- The Gunfighter and Rawhide.
The Gunfighter is an excellent western, with a fascinating GC pedigree.
Andre de Toth, who wrote the original screenplay, gave it to GC in 1949,
he wrote it for GC. GC read it and loved it, said he wanted to do it and
gave him the okay to use his name in shopping it. De Toth,
who'd directed a very good (if forgotten) western in 1947 -- Ramrod, with
Joel McCrea -- shopped the script around. Fox bought it and de Toth was
very excited.
Six months later, he reads in the trades that it is being made with Gregory
Peck in the title role and directed by Henry King. Fox had both Peck and King
under contract and decided it was far cheaper to use them than GC and
de Toth.
So, The Gunfighter comes out in 1950, huge critical hit (and b.o. flop). And
Peck is now the first choice to play Will Kane in the upcoming High Noon, but he turns it down because it is too similar to The Gunfighter. Peck later said
it is the one script he turned down which he regrets not doing.
GC always felt bad about de Toth being zapped by Fox. They became good
friends during Springfield Rifle (de Toth directed). In late 1952, GC learns
that WB is doing a 3-D horror flick. He brings de Toth in to a meeting with
Jack Warner and gets him the directing job.
It's a neat irony that the best 3-D film of them all -- House Of Wax -- was
directed by a one-eyed man, Andre de Toth.
Best,
John