Sam Peckinpah's Noon Wine (1 Viewer)

I have been waiting in vain for a DVD release of Sam Peckinpah's critically acclaimed ABC-TV production of Noon Wine, starring Jason Robards and Olivia de Havilland.
 
It never even got a release on VHS.
 
Surely there would be enough interest in this to make it worth someone's while to put out on DVD. Is there some kind of thorny rights issue? I'd love to know why it's in limbo. I've never seen it but everything I've read about it makes it sound fantastic and I hate to think of this vital part of Peckinpah's legacy lying unseen on a dusty shelf.

I'd like to see this on dvd as well (I'd like to see all of ABC Stage '67 on dvd). The Paley Media Center has a copy, which is where I've seen it. I'd also love to see a dvd release of The Westerner, a truly great show. I'd have figured that this would have been out a while, given Peckinpah's legacy. Perhaps Fox will sub-license it someday...

The Westerner ran a couple of years ago on Encore.

Speaking of The Westerner,who has the rights to it? The IMDB lists Four Star Productions as the production company, and NBC as the distributor.

Originally Posted by PaulaJ
Speaking of The Westerner,who has the rights to it? The IMDB lists Four Star Productions as the production company, and NBC as the distributor.

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[COLOR= #0000cd]Fox owns the Four Star library, though they've licensed some titles to VCI, such as BURKE'S LAW. THE WESTERNER would be a splendid choice for them.[/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000cd]Mike S.[/COLOR]

Originally Posted by ToddR2
I'd like to see this on dvd as well (I'd like to see all of ABC Stage '67 on dvd). The Paley Media Center has a copy, which is where I've seen it. I'd also love to see a dvd release of The Westerner, a truly great show. I'd have figured that this would have been out a while, given Peckinpah's legacy. Perhaps Fox will sub-license it someday...

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Have looked at some of the episode synopsis' for The Westerner on TV.com and based on what I've read I too would like to see this released on DVD (and if it was possible for them to release it, by VCI). Sam Peckinpah's name mentioned in the crew credits, along with Warren Oates as a guest star in the first episode, has got me even more interested in this series.

The IMDb company credits page for Noon Wine dosen't offer much help with suggesting who could release it on DVD. Only that Dynasty was shown on ABC, and that has been released on DVD by CBS Home Entertainment.

I think NOON WINE fell under the radar there at ABC. I doubt if anyone at the network is aware of it. Katharine Anne Porter spoke very highly of it as an adaptation of her work. It should have been a supplement on MAJOR DUNDEE or one of the Peckinpah restorations that came out a few years ago. It circulates on videotape among the Peckinpah biographers-critics who act as if it's the Ark of Covenant or something to precious to let trickle down to others outside the clique. I did an obsessive search for it several years ago. I'd love to see it, myself.

Peckinpah would have been the perfect director for plays by Eugene O'Neill or Thornton Wilder. I wish he and Walon Green had been able to do their version of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. That would have been astonishing.

I saw and taped every episode of THE WESTERNER when Encore Westerns aired it, and it does not disappointment. It's in great shape. It's loaded with inspiration and reveals in embryo many of the themes, motifs, and visual bits of business that Peckinpah would refine in his films. The entire program could probably fit on two, perhaps three, DVD's. Easy.

Was The Westerner set before, during or after the Civil War? Was it shot on film (this question is based on what you've said about the quality of the episodes picture-wise)?

The Westerner was shot on 35mm film.
There were only 13 episodes, 30 minutes each, in monochrome.
It looks cheaply produced, but the creative quality is extremely high.

Setting is after the Civil War.
It is strictly a period western although it is not an "historical" program in the strict sense of the word.

As the creator of the program Peckinpah must have taken a hand in the writing of each episode. Other writers (like Tom Gries) are also credited, but you'll know what I mean after you've watched the episodes. Here is an episode guide with original airdates:

1: Jeff (30 September 1960) directed by Peckinpah.
2: School Days (7 October 1960)
3: Brown (21 October 1960) directed by Peckinpah.
4: Mrs. Kennedy (28 October 1960)
5: Dos Pinos (4 November 1960)
6: The Courting of Libby (11 November 1960) directed by Peckinpah.
7: Treasure (8 November 1960)
8: The Old Man (25 November 1960)
9: Ghost of a Chance (2 December 1960)
10: Line Camp (9 December 1960)
11: Going Home (16 December 1960)
12: Hand on the Gun (23 December 1960) directed by Peckinpah.
13: The Painting (30 December 1960) directed by Peckinpah.

Noon Wine could round off a 2-disc set.

Thanks Richard. You've said what I was thinking as well, that Noon Wine could easily be a 2-disc set.

Originally Posted by Richard--W
It circulates on videotape among the Peckinpah biographers-critics who act as if it's the Ark of Covenant or something to precious to let trickle down to others outside the clique.

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This is a very interesting and perceptive comment. There are many like you describe, even some who regularly post on forums, who can't quite forgive the internet for taking away their "old boy network" of "exclusives." 15 years ago the vintage collectible world was filled with Gollums: "My precious, my precious."

I saw most of the 13 episodes of Brian Keith's The Westerner series, when it aired on Encore Westerns on Wednesday nights in 2005. The show was OK, but nothing great.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor Echo
This is a very interesting and perceptive comment. There are many like you describe, even some who regularly post on forums, who can't quite forgive the internet for taking away their "old boy network" of "exclusives." 15 years ago the vintage collectible world was filled with Gollums: "My precious, my precious."

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Glen, you have been in rare form over the last 24 hours! Well, not really rare form for you because you always make a point in classic style. But you have really brightened my day with some hilarious posts. And I totally know some of those Gollums you speak of.

Gary "my hat's off to you, my friend - great stuff" O.

Originally Posted by Professor Echo
This is a very interesting and perceptive comment. There are many like you describe, even some who regularly post on forums, who can't quite forgive the internet for taking away their "old boy network" of "exclusives." 15 years ago the vintage collectible world was filled with Gollums: "My precious, my precious."

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Absolutely righr! People I know who spent a few hundred thousand dollars on building their collections and who won't make copies for the cost of 25 cent blank discs are just out and out greedy lowlifes. The nerve of them! I'm going to send them this post right now so they know they should be ashamed of themselves. It's like people who buy half a million dollar homes and then don't want to let other people live in them for free. These people are just sooooo selfish.

I have a different picture in mind, Professor Echo, to tell this guy what I think of his post, but it would only cause mass hysteria here and get me banned.


Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil Brock
Absolutely righr! People I know who spent a few hundred thousand dollars on building their collections and who won't make copies for the cost of 25 cent blank discs are just out and out greedy lowlifes. The nerve of them! I'm going to send them this post right now so they know they should be ashamed of themselves. It's like people who buy half a million dollar homes and then don't want to let other people live in them for free. These people are just sooooo selfish.

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What are you babbling about.
Your reasoning is just plain nuts.
Your analogy is ludicrous and pejorative.

What more can I add to that photo, Glen? A picture really is worth a thousand words.

And Richard, I think you are on to something. I read that post and thought the same exact thing.


Gary "my hat is off to you, Professor" O.

HTF's own John Hodson offers perspective on The Westerner and other matters Peckinpah on his excellent blog, http://filmjournal.net/john/2007/09/19/a-peckinpah-idolator-writes/

For many years there were only two existing video tapes of Noon Wine--ABC did not have one, as they had erased theirs--Jason Robards had one and the other (which may have been a dupe of Robards' tape) was (and probably still is) in a broadcasting museum in Washington, D. C. Someone may have had the brains to transfer the 3/4' tape to analog but who knows? An box set of the 13 episodes of The Westerner along with a restored Noon Wine and Peckinpah's 1963 Dick Powell show would be an excellent DVD buy. The Westerner has some excellent shows--Jeff, Line Camp, the one with the raped & murdered school teacher, etc and some that are only fair to middlin' The episode Line Camp is clearly an early version of the Tom Gries' directed, Charlton Heston starring Will Penny--an excellent western in its own right. Jeff, with its crazed religious woman, its S/M relationship between the bad guy and the girl, the high level of violence for the time, and Keith's excellent acting as the weary saddle tramp, is the best of the bunch but all of them are worth seeing.

Forgot to mention that there was a pilot for the Westerner as well that Peckinpah wrote & directed by Keith starring. It aired in the spring of 1959, 18 months or so before the actual series appeared. It's never been lumped in with the regular episodes so if it's still in existence than it could be added to a box set or two-disc release.