Westerns year by year--recommend the best for blu (2 Viewers)

[benbess]

For pre-1940 Westerns we only have a handful of titles so far on blu-ray. We do have The Big Trail (1930) and Stagecoach (1939), but anything else? And what would be your top titles in addition to the good suggestion of a boxed set of Hart's very early silent Westerns?
I still think DeMille's The Plainsman (1936) with Gary Cooper is worthy.

 

[JohnRa]

For pre-1940 Westerns we only have a handful of titles so far on blu-ray. We do have The Big Trail (1930) and Stagecoach (1939), but anything else? And what would be your top titles in addition to the good suggestion of a boxed set of Hart's very early silent Westerns?
I still think DeMille's The Plainsman (1936) with Gary Cooper is worthy.

"The Plainsman" is definitely worthy. Movie stars at high wattage!

 

[John Hodson]

Again, I've seen a very nice broadcast HD transfer of The Plainsman; whet the appetite. And also Drums Along The Mohawk which is *gorgeous* in HD.

 

[Richard--W]

For pre-1940 Westerns we only have a handful of titles so far on blu-ray. We do have The Big Trail (1930) and Stagecoach (1939), but anything else? And what would be your top titles in addition to the good suggestion of a boxed set of Hart's very early silent Westerns?
I still think DeMille's The Plainsman (1936) with Gary Cooper is worthy.

You mean just from the 1930s?
At the top of my short list are:
1939 Union Pacific (Paramount) -- Joel McCrea
1939 The Marshal of Mesa City (RKO) -- George O'Brien
1939 Man of Conquest (Republic) -- Richard Dix
1939 Jesse James (Fox) -- color -- Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda
1939 Dodge City (Warner Brothers) -- color -- Errol Flynn
1939 Destry Rides Again (Universal) -- James Steward, Marlene Dietrich
1938 Gold Is Where You Find It (Warner Brothers) -- color -- George Brent, Olivia de Havilland
1936 Yellow Dust (RKO) -- Richard Dix
1936 Trail of the Lonesome Pine (Universal) -- color -- Henry Fonda
1936 The Robin Hood of El Dorado (MGM) -- Warner Baxter
1936 Ramona (Fox) -- color -- Loretta Young
1936 The Plainsman (Paramount) -- Gary Cooper
1936 The Gay Desperado (United Artists) -- Ida Lupino in Rouben Mamoulian musical
1935 The Arizonian (RKO) -- Richard Dix
1935 Annie Oakley (RKO) -- Barbara Stanwyck
1934 Viva Villa! (MGM) -- Wallace Beery
1932 Robbers' Roost (Fox) -- George O'Brien
1932 The Rainbow Trail (Fox) -- George O'Brien
1932 Law and Order (Universal) -- Walter Huston
1932 End of the Trail (Columbia) -- Tim McCoy
1931 The Squaw Man (Paramount) -- Warner Baxter
1931 The Sunset Trail (Fox) -- George O'Brien
1931 Riders of the Purple Sage (Fox) -- George O'Brien
1931 Fighting Caravans (Paramount) -- Gary Cooper
1931 Cimarron (Warner Brothers) -- Richard Dix
1930 The Texan (Paramount) -- in Grandeur -- Gary Cooper
1930 The Silent Enemy: An Epic of the American Indian (independent) -- documentary -- Chief Yellow Robe
1930 Lone Star Ranger (Fox) -- George O'Brien
1930 Last of the Duanes (Fox) -- George O'Brien
1930 The Cisco Kid -- Warner Baxter
1930 Billy the Kid (MGM) -- in academy ratio and Grandeur version -- Johnny Mack Brown
The history of 1930s westerns needs to be rewritten. The published histories I've read are uninformed and presumptuous in evaluating this period. The authors need to invest more time studying more 1930s westerns. There is so much going on. There are a large number of primitive early talkies that dig deep into western mythos and ideology, that play out almost like docudramas or as stage plays about moral decisions set against spectacular outdoor scenery. A number of small, independent production companies were making B programers that hold up as good drama and authentic, gritty westerns today. I need to collate a list of them, however. MGM and Paramount invested big money into epic western adventures. The Zane Grey adaptations starring George O'Brien are innovative and defining excursions in the genre, about equal to the Boetticher-Scott collaborations of the late 1950s, only with more money spent on the productions (in adjusted dollars, of course). Several of the Hopalong Cassidy films at Paramount are important westerns of the period, particularly the 1936 and 1937 entries.
Now that Olive Films has released several of John Wayne's B programmers from the 1930s on blu-ray it's time for home video distributors to take stock of their western holdings. There are so many gems in the 1930s. They are best released in box-sets or at the very least as double-features.

 

[Matt Hough]

Please don't leave out Destry Rides Again.

 

[Richard--W]

I never cottoned to Destry Rides Again in any of its three versions, but I'll put it in the list because you like it, Matt.

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by Richard--W /t/311206/westerns-year-by-year-recommend-the-best-for-blu/210#post_4007217
I never cottoned to Destry Rides Again in any of its three versions, but I'll put it in the list because you like it, Matt.

Greatly appreciated. I really do like it a lot and would love to have it on Blu.

 

[Alan Tully]

Universal had/have a James Stewart Western Collection seven disc box set DVD's:
The Rare Breed
Shenandoah
Night Passage
The Far Country
Bend Of The River
Winchester '73
Destry Rides Again
Most, probably all of these have been on TV in HD. I saw Winchester '73 in HD a couple of months ago & I thought it looked fantastic, & Shenandoah looked really nice (a few flurries of sparkle from the neg, but a good despotter could clear that up in a day), & there's Bend Of The River on this weekend (UK), it's not on a channel that I get in HD, but I'll enjoy the new transfer. I think this is an obvious candidate for a Universal Blu-ray box set for next year.

 

[Richard--W]

I added END OF THE TRAIL (Columbia, 1932) to the 1930s list in post 224. Although a primitive early talkie, this story about a cowboy who goes to live with Indians on a reservation in Wyoming is very modern in its thinking. Loosely based on a Zane Grey novel and filmed on location with the tribe. It also reflects the extraordinary life of its star, Tim McCoy an authentic westerner. I suspect his life as much as this film were the true inspiration for Michael Blake's and Kevin Costner's DANCES WITH LOVES. The outdoor and nature photography is first-rate. One thing to remember about early westerns, and another reason to transfer the best available elements in hi-def for blu-ray, they are outdoor pictures that show the American west before development and progress spoiled the landscape. You see a USA in early westerns that is largely gone forever, and that's no exaggeration:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AABGAS/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
In addition, I added W. Douglas Burden's and H.P. Carver's documentary THE SILENT ENEMY: AN EPIC OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN (independent, 1930) which simply has to been seen:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005KH2E/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

 

[oscar_merkx]

I'm probably missing something, but the only silent Western that I think might be considered for blu-ray is John Ford's 1924 epic The Iron Horse. By this time Ford had already directed a couple dozen films, many of them Westerns, and almost all of them lost. This one was even released on DVD a few years ago. The reviews seem mixed, with some saying it's a terrible bore, and other's saying it's classic John Ford. Haven't seen it myself...

I found it to be an impressive movie, so much that Sergio Leone was influenced by this when he made Once Upon A Time in the West

 

[RobHam]

I found it to be an impressive movie, so much that Sergio Leone was influenced by this when he made Once Upon A Time in the West

Leone did so much homework on John Ford that Once Upon a Time in the West could be viewed with a great deal of suspicion as to how much is homage and how much is theft.
I am genuinely interested in other opinions.

 

[John Hodson]

Leone did so much homework on John Ford that Once Upon a Time in the West could be viewed with a great deal of suspicion as to how much is homage and how much is theft.
I am genuinely interested in other opinions.

OUATITW is Leone's love letter to The Western; whilst it deliberately references many, many westerns (and not simply Ford, though Leone was a *huge* fan and possessed a cherished signed photo of Pappy - 'To Sergio Leoni [sic] with admiration -John Ford'), and is therefore an absolute joy for other fans of the genre, it's also an exhilarating, sumptuous visual and aural feast in it's own right. This is not theft; this is Leone's ultimate expression of adoration.

 

[John Hodson]

Followers of this thread might like to know Amazon.fr is showing Jacques Tourneur's Way of A Gaucho coming March, alongside Hawks' Red River:
Coffret-livre contenant :
- le Blu-ray du film
- le DVD du film
- le livre exclusif écrit par Philippe Garnier, illustré de photos et documents d'archives rares (80 pages)
Documentaire sur la restauration du film
Le film dans sa version courte Director's Cut d'Howard Hawks inédite
If nothing else, the latter makes the long anticipated Criterion release seem less distant.

 

[kingofthejungle]

Way of A Gaucho is one of my favorite Tourneur westerns. A great performance by Rory Calhoun, and almost mystically beautiful diffuse-lensed photography of Argentina.
This is one of those films that would be a dream on a good Blu-Ray (As would most of Tourneur's richly textured visuals). The MOD available from Fox is pretty good looking as those things go, though.