Speculation on WB June 2007 western and/or adventure releases (1 Viewer)

I just got through reading the transcript of last night's Warners chat. I thought one of the most interesting answers occurred right near the beginning. Ben _ Jennings asked the excellent question:

"I'm wondering if you will release a boxed set of early Cinemascope western, adventure and epic Films like Moonfleet, The Command, Drum Beat, The Silver Chalice, King Richard and the Crusaders (sic). Sure they aren't the most famous (one is infamous), but releasing them in a box set could make them an attractive purchase."

Warners repsonded:

"There will be some surprising releases coming from us in June which we can't announce yet, that are similar to those you are mentioning, but not any of the specific titles. Moonfleet will probably be released next year. We no longer have rights to Drum Beat."

When they said "similar to the ones you are mentioning" that suggests that are talking about westerns and/or adventure films and/or epics from the 1950's.

For those of us that are great fans of westerns and adventure movies that raises some potentiallly welcome possibilities. As far as westerns from the 1950's (and late 1940's) are concerned here are a few of the top notch films that Warners has at its disposal that are either similar to "The Command" (an outstanding western in its own right) and "Drum Beat", or at least in the same genre.

Escape From Fort Bravo (MGM-1953 with William Holden and directed by John Sturges who directed The Magnificent Seven, Gunfight at the O.K Coral, The Great Escape, etc.

The Law and Jake Wade (MGM-1958-in cinemascope with Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark and also directed by John Sturges)

The Charge At Feather River (WB-1953-was in 3D-with Guy Madison and directed by Gordon Douglas who also directed Rio Conchos, Them!, etc.)-was sort of a prototype western version of the "Dirty Dozen".

Fort Dobbs (WB-1958-in black and white)-with Clint Walker and Virginia Mayo also directed by Gordon Douglas-a real gem

Yellowstone Kelly-(WB-1959)-also with Clint Walker and directed by Douglas-in color this time

The Iron Mistress (WB-1953)-with Alan Ladd playing Jim Bowie-also directed by Gordon Douglas

The Sheepman (MGM-1958-in cinemascope)-with Glenn Ford-however perhaps they would save that for what I hope is a Glenn Ford box set because it may be the best unreleased Glenn Ford movie they have in their control

Tribute to a Badman (MGM-1956 in cinemascope) with James Cagney and directed by the great Robert Wise

Rocky Mountain (WB-1950-in black and white)-with Errol Flynn and directed by William Keighley-the initial episode of the hit western television series Cheyenne was a condensced version of this film

Montana (WB-1950-in color) with Errol Flynn and directed by Ray Enright

Blood on the Moon (RKO-1948-black and white) with Robert Mitchum and directed by Robert Wise-based on a novel by the most influential western writer of that era, Luke Short-the best example of film noir in westerns, and one of the greatest westerns of all time

Colorado Territory (WB-1949-black and white) with Joel McCrea and directed by the great Raoul Walsh who also directed They Died With their Boots On, White Heat, Captain Horatio Hornblower (which is being released in early March), High Sierra, The Roaring Twenties, etc.-it is a remake of Walsh's own High Sierra in a western setting, and is just as good

Wagon Master (RKO-1950 in black and white) with Ben Johnson and Ward Bond and directed by the master of the Western, John Ford

Station West (RKO-1948 in black and white)- with Dick Powell, Raymond Burr and Jane Greer of "Out of the Past" fame and also written by Luke Short- perhaps the second best example of film noir in the western genre-a little gem.

Many Rivers to Cross-MGM-1955 in Cinemascope) with Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker

The Lusty Men (RKO-1952)-with Robert Mitchum directed by Nicholas Ray-the greatest of all rodeo films

Ambush (MGM-1949 in black and white)-with Robert Taylor

Best of the Badmen (RKO-1951) with Robert Ryan, Robert Preston and Walter Brennan-one of Ryan's best staring roles

I will post some speculations as to possible adventure films from the 1950's in the next post.

c Jim Bur

I'm not sure why "The Hanging Tree" WB 1959 never seems to make these western lists. The Cooper WB western Bright Leaf 1950 with both Bacall and Neal doesn't seem to be mentioned to much either.

This is a follow-up to my previous post. With regard to adventure films, here are some of the outstanding unreleased adventure films from the 1950's that Warners would have at its disposal. The list is narrowed down a bit since Warners is already releasing one of the all time great adventure films "Captain Horatio Hornblower (1953) as part of its Literary Classics set early next month. They've also indicated the excllent swashbuckler "Moonfleet" will likely come next year.

All the Brothers Were Valiant (MGM-1953) with Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger and directed by Richard Thorpe who also directed "Ivanhoe".

The Dark Avenger (Allied Artists-1955 in cinemascope)-also titled "The Warriors" with Errol Flynn and Peter Finch-Flynn's last swashbuckler-he plays Edward, the Black Prince during the Hundred Year War-somewhat similar to Ivanhoe-since Warners is releasing an Errol Flynn box set in late March, and since Universal is releasing "Against All Flags" in May, The Dark Avenger would be the last Flynn completed swashbuckler to remain unreleased on DVD-the film is quite good.

Quentin Durward (MGM-1956-in cinemascope) with Robert Taylor and directed by Richard Thorpe

His Majesty O'Keefe (WB-1953) with Burt Lancaster-they might be saving this for their Burt Lancaster promotion later in the year

The Flame and the Arrow (WB-1950) with Burt Lancaster and directed by Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past and Canyon Passage)-once again they might be saving this for their Burt Lancaster promotion

Young Bess (MGM-1953)-with Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons

Beau Brummell (MGM-1954)-with Stewart Granger and Elizabeth Taylor

Santiago (WB-1956-in cinemascope) with Alan Ladd and directed by Gordon Douglas

Valley of the Kings (MGM-1954) with Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker

c Jim Bur

I love "The Hanging Tree". It's one of the all time great westerns. However, Warners said it needed restoration just a couple of months ago as the reason it wasn't included in the Cooper box set. If that restoration is complete it would be great, however that might be pretty optomistic. I would also add, that if it is ready then it would be either the first or second best western they could release.

c Jim Bur

Actually I believe that it was stated it was in need of restoration at the time the set was being decided on, which would have been a very long time before the box set was released on November 7th. But you are probably right as WB probably hasn't even scheuled it for restoration yet if they decide to do so at all. Of course it does suffer from not having a famous actress in it although Maria Schell did a great job in it, but I do realize that most people buy Cooper movies for the actresses or actors that co-starred with him rather than because Gary Cooper was in it. I do think that a great many people here and elsewhere think that Gary Cooper was not a very good actor as he was a naturalist in his acting stye, which was far ahead of his time and does not appeal to many classic movie fans.

I'd probably buy every one of the westerns Jim listed, and several of the
adventure films, as well -- although finding enough 'shelf space' is becoming
an ongoing battle.

If 'shelf space' forces me to prioritize, my number 1 'wish list' items would
be the Columbia Scott/Boetticher westerns, followed closely by the
Columbia Guy Madison westerns, such as 'Reprisal' and 'The Hard Man'.

It's unfortunate if that is the majority opinion of Cooper. In my opinion, along with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, he ranks as one of the 3 greatest and most quintessential American film actors of the mid 20th Century. Robert Mitchum and the incredibly under appreciated Ronald Colman would round out my top five.

I think the reason Cooper might be underappreciated (and it is even more so the case with Colman) is that he worked for so many disparate studios that his body of work is spread out all over the place, and many of the best and most varied works have been unavailable for repeated showings (and in a few cases like with many of Colman films unavailable for any showings). Actors like Bogart have greatly benefited from the fact that they did most of their top work at WB (except for a few at Columbia and the idependently produced The African Queen), and therefore most of his best films have been available for repeated viewings on stations like TCM, and before that TNT back in the older days, which has constantly reinforced peoples high opinion of his work. "Out of sight, out of mind." A lot of people are just not aware of the astonishing range of Cooper's body of work. If Cooper's body of work had been gathered together under the control of one company, we could have been seing five or six box sets by now with an overall quality of films that would be blowing most of the others away.

c Jim Bur

Dave: I would put a release of Columbia's Scott-Boetticher westerns at the top of my wish list as well (the earlier non-Boetticher directed Coroner Creek is of the same high caliber). Can you imagine having "The Tall T", "Comanche Station", "Ride Lonesome", "Decision at Sundown", and "Buchanan Rides Alone" under your control and doing nothing with them, except periodcially renting them out to the Encore Western channel for an occasional viewing? These films cry out for a box set, and since Sony controls them all it would be so easy to do. In fact, it is my understanding that some or all of these films were restored several years ago. A boxset with an accompanying documentary on the making of these films, would likely make it the outstanding western box set of all time. It probably could be done on 3 discs since each of the films are fairly short. Now that Fox is distributing the MGM and Goldwyn films for Sony, I wonder if they are going to have any imput on the release of any of the Columbia films that Sony controls. Something along the lines of Fox's excellent Will Rogers boxsets, would be perfect.

c Jim Bur

I'm fascinated by all the early CinemaScope films, I buy most of what gets released, I'm happy that Warner are doing thorough restorations of Pete Kelly's Blues, and Kismet, and I hope they do release a lot of these adventure and epic films. In some ways those films are a lost art form, it is just too expensive making epics now the way they did then, and the Western genre exists more on cable TV than in the cinema.

If I remembered that Warner owned the Allied Artist films I would've asked about Jacques Tourner's 1955 Western called Wichita.

Yikes. the original question posted to warners was about a possible boxset of historical spectaclar CINEMASCOPE films.
Gong with that flow - here is a short list of unreleased scope films from this early era.
The Command
Drum Beat
Green Fire
King richard and the Crusaders
The Silver Chalice
Diane
The Kings Thief
Landof the Pharoahs
Many Rivers to cross
Moonfleet
the Prodigal
Quentin Durward
the Scarlet Coat
Strange Lady in Town
The Burning Hills
the Last Hunt

From my personal perspective, I wouldn't mind seeing the following films released.

• The Burning Hills (Not enough Natalie Wood on dvd)
• The Last Hunt (A good Robert Taylor western)
• The Scarlet Coat (A fine film adaptation of early American history)
• Drum Beat (Alan Ladd and a early look at Charles Bronson)
• Green Fire (Grace Kelly is all I have to say)

I feel the need to admit that Ben_Jennings is a friend of mine, yes he is an actual person, I did not somehow log in twice. But I asked him to ask the second chat question, which prompted this thread.

It was a complete fluke that we came first and second in the first round of questions! We are both in Australia, so in previous chats the lag made it very difficult for me to ask even a single question (from memory I missed last year's chat, but the year before I waited for over an hour before finally being able to ask about East of Eden and I Died a Thousand Times).

This year I asked Ben if he would also 'YO' like crazy to increase the chances of being able to ask a single question about early CinemaScope films. I repeat, it was just a massive fluke that both of what were really my questions were able to be asked as the first and second questions of the entire discussion.

I am sorry if this constitutes abusing the rules controlling the Warner chat. However, Ben logged in according to the rules, and managed to be awarded a question on his own terms. He just decided to use his opportunity to ask the question that I was interested in.

I am writing a thesis on Hollywood widescreen style, so the more of these early CinemaScope films that get released on DVD the easier it is for me to do my research in a comprehensive way. I have tried sourcing original prints from Australian film archives, but they are normally full of splices, and are often completely faded. Other than arranging a study trip to the U.S., my best source for these films are R1, and occasionally R2 DVD.

Again, I am sorry if effectively asking two questions counts as abusing the Warner chat rules, I feel kind of guilty about it. But at the very least the questions have lead to this thread, and further speculation and anticipation from other fans of early widescreen cinema.

They should release a Robert Taylor Collection !

Robert: Drum Beat would be great to see on DVD. Unfortunately, Warners indicated they no longer have the rights to Drum Beat. Mark Edward Heuck did some research which he posted on another thread which indicated that the film was originally produced by Alan Ladd's own company, Jaguar Productions, and apparently released through WB. He indicates that the rights have apparently reverted back to Ladd's estate. I don't recall ever seeing that film on VHS either. I did catch it on Encore Western channel a few times many years ago and I recall the print looked good, though they didn't present it in scope.

I think Delmer Daves, who directed Drum Beat, had a real knack for westerns. So far 4 of his westerns have been released on DVD, Jubal, 3:10 to Yuma, Cowboy, and The Last Wagon. In my opinion, all of them are classics. It's been recently indicated that Fox will be releasing another of Daves' classic westerns, Broken Arrow in May. That leaves only The Hanging Tree, Drum Beat, The Badlanders, and The Return of the Texan, as the only Daves' westerns unreleased on DVD. Warners could do western fans a great service if they could do whatever it is they need to do to get The Hanging Tree in shape for a DVD release. It was promised last year as part of the Cooper boxset, but omitted because, as Robert Harris indicated, it needed restoration. Badlanders (MGM-1958) is also owned by Warners. It is in cinemascope, and is a remake in a western setting of "The Asphalt Jungle". That film also stars Alan Ladd, however in my opinion it doesn't seem to work as well as Daves' other westerns.

Since a remake of Daves' classic 3:10 to Yuma, starring Russel Crowe, has recently finished shooting, it could very well be that there will a general revival of interest in Daves' classic westerns in the near future, and perhaps for classic westerns in general, so perhaps some of the companies might want to get ahead of the curve. Over half the movies made during Hollywood's golden age were westerns, and the vaults of the major studios are filled with unreleased and untapped western gems. Perhaps the brilliant people in the marketing departments of some of these major companies should make some effort to develop interest in the classic westerns in much the same way as film noir. There is a tremendous body of excellent work that awaits rediscovery by a new generation.

c Jim Bur

I read those comments about Drum Beat's video rights, since I originally posted them on the forum during the chat, but I was just commenting that I would like to see those titles I listed released onto dvd whether by Warner or somebody else.




Crawdaddy

If you don't have it, I highly recommend Daves' Western Jubal. I think it is the best film out of those you mention, which are all very good. The Columbia DVD is good quality.

Simon: I think Wichita, which starred Joel McCrea, is a very good western.

There were a number of excellent westerns produced by Allied Artists and its predeceasor Monogram which I believe Warners should have in their library. I think the best of them is a 1948 western which was filmed in sepia called Panhandle, which starred Rod Cameron. Blake Edwards not only had a key supporting role in the movie, he also co-wrote the screenplay. It's a great little western, one of my all time favorites. He also co-wrote a follow-up called Stampede, also produced by Allied and/or Monogram. There was also another excellent little western produced in this series called Short Grass, though Edwards was not involved in that one.

Allied Artists also put out an excellent series of B westerns in the early 1950's starring William Elliott. I think there were about 9 in that series, including Bitter Creek, The Longhorn, etc.

It would be great if Warners would give consideration to putting out some of these westerns on DVD. The triple feature collection format that they used for last year's release of some Randolph Scott and John Wayne B westerns, would seem an ideal format for release of these westerns.

c Jim Bur

Hi Joe! Warners said the films were similar to the ones the questioner mentioned, however they didn't specify in which way they were similar. While all the films mentoned were in cinemascope and released in the 1954 to 1955 time frame, 2 of the films were westerns, 2 adventure type pics, and 1 biblical epic. Do you actually think Warners would be limiting their June releases to a "technical format" (i.e cinemascope) or to a specific year (i.e. 1954 or 1955)as opposed to a "theme" (i.e westerns, adventure pics, epics)? In my opinion, theme will win out every time.

May and June are the months that companies tradionally release male oriented genre films such as westerns, war films, etc. Their main competitiors, Universal and Fox are each releasing a batch of westerns in May, plus Fox is releasing the Tyrone swashbuckler box set in May.

Warners already said that 5 of the films on the above list would not be released in June 2006 (i.e. Drum Beat, The Command, Moonfleet, The Silver Chalice, King Richard and the Crusades), which considerably pares down the above list.

I would speculate that Land of the Pharoahs as being definitely a possiblity, and if not in June, then sometime soon, since the reputation of that Howard Hawks epic has been climbing in recent years.

Except for Many Rivers to Cross, Quentin Durward and the The Last Hunt, I submit that the remaining films on the above list are a very weak group. Why would Warners limit itself to the above list, when it has so many other much stronger films from which to choose? The operative word in the title of this thread was "Speculation", so who knows. However, it just wouldn't make any sense if they took such a narrow approach. I'm hoping they cast a much wider net to take in some of the great films that have been discussed in some of the previous posts.

c Jim Bur

I doubt Warner will release a box of just early CinemaScope films. People buy films based on star actors, genre, and sometimes director. So if a set of this type is released in June, it will most likely contain a mix of 40s and 50s films, I just hope two or three early 'Scope films are included.

But perhaps (hopefully!) it will become a defacto early CinemaScope set, like the way the Classic Musicals: Broadway to Hollywood Collection happened to feature three Vincente Minnelli films out of a total of 6 films. Sadly Minnelli still isn't famous enough to justify a dedicated boxed set like Warner's efforts for Hitchcock, Kubrick and Scorsese. But Warner have not let fans of Minnelli down by releasing so many of his wonderful films in other genre and actor signature collections. I'm still hoping that a Sinatra set is released this year which includes Some Came Running, and a Glenn Ford set with Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.

If a studio was to release an early CinemaScope collection, you'd think it would be Fox. They could include early CinemaScope shorts, cartoons, test reels, and plublicity materials. The films are obvious, just reissue The Robe, and How to Marry A Millionaire, but add to it King of the Khyber Rifles, a proper version of Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, and perhaps Demetrius & the Gladiators.

I have an old big-box VHS of Drum Beat, issued by the redoubtable United Home Video. I think United is the only VHS outfit that issued both an Alan Ladd film and a tape of Competition Coon Hunting.