TCM/Sony "Randolph Scott Westerns Collection" 9/2/13 (1 Viewer)

TCM Vault / Sony
Randolph Scott Westerns Collection
Sept. 2, 2013

Included in the collection are four titles never before released on DVD: THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA (1949) and THE WALKING HILLS (1949) in crisp black and white; and CORONER CREEK (1948) and 7th CAVALRY (1956) in Cinecolor and Technicolor. A must-have collection for all fans of Randolph Scott!


Technical Specs

[*]Format: DVD - Boxed Set
[*]Rating: Not Rated
[*]Number of Discs: 4
[*]Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen
[*]Studio: Sony
[*]DVD Release Date: September 2, 2013
[*]Audio: ENGLISH: Stereo
[*]Color: Black & White / Color
[*]Includes:

Digital Bonus Features on the DVD Include:
[/list]

[*]Introduction by Ben Mankiewicz
[*]Biography
[*]Digital Image Gallery
- Behind-the-Scenes Photo(s)
- Lobby Cards
- Publicity Still(s)
- Movie Poster(s)
- Scene Still(s)
- TCMDb Article
[/list]

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Saved in the nick of time! I was just about to take a chance and order the region 2 release of 7th Cavalry. Now I can get this and three other new to DVD Scott flix!

Welcome news. Randolph Scott is in fine form in each of these overdue westerns. Coroner Creek (1948) is the real gem in the collection. Like most adaptations of Luke Short novels it is rich in subtext, snappy dialogue and has more than enough plot that's way western. The film is well-directed by Ray Enright and photographed by Fred H. Jackman in the red rock landscapes of Sedona, Arizona (once a pristine country for filming, now a thriving city and new-age mecca). The Cinecolor, going by the old VHS tape and more recent broadcasts, has held up nicely. The Doolins of Oklahoma (1948) is about Bill Doolin trying to go straight if only people would let him. A strong early effort from Gordon Douglas who would go on to direct several underestimated westerns up through the 1970s. The Walking Hills (1948) is a hardboiled riff on Treasure of the Sierra Madre in the sand dunes with John Sturges making a decisive impression as director in his first western. 7th Calvary (1956) is an historically uninformed and implausible yarn about a captain Benson who goes back to the Little Big Horn to face off the Sioux Indians and recover the bodies of Custer and his men in order to prove he's not a coward. Exploitation director Joseph H. Lewis is always interesting and here he fills the widescreen frame with sturdy compositions, rich color and plenty of visual business. All in all, this is a welcome set of two average B westerns, one very good western, and one excellent western.

I had hoped to see Coroner Creek on blu-ray from Olive or Twilight Time but I will cheerfully buy this overpriced DVD set from TCM.

Press release calls out Full Screen Aspect Ratio for all features, including 1956's 7th Cavalry. I hope TCM can correct this mistake before the disks are pressed.

And some choice leading ladies too! Sally Eilers... Marguerite Chapman... Louise Allbritton...

bujaki said:

Press release calls out Full Screen Aspect Ratio for all features, including 1956's 7th Cavalry. I hope TCM can correct this mistake before the disks are pressed.

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That's got to be a misprint. 7th Cavalry is already out from streaming services, Amazon instant video, Vudu and ITunes in widescreen.

bujaki said:

Press release calls out Full Screen Aspect Ratio for all features, including 1956's 7th Cavalry. I hope TCM can correct this mistake before the disks are pressed.

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I hope that happens, but after their Western Horizons boxset I'm not so sure.

I'm still waiting for a color release of FIGHTING MAN OF THE PLAINS (1949), a very good Scott western shot in Cinecolor, but only shown by TCM in b&w.
There are a lot of good Scott westerns waiting to be released in box sets like these.

THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA is very good and one of the few westerns to show the exploits of veteran lawman Bill Tilghman, although they give him a different name (Sam Hughes) in this one. I've never seen CORONER CREEK or THE WALKING HILLS.

Here's my IMDB review of DOOLINS:

Bill Doolin was an outlaw operating in Oklahoma territory in the 1890s who was captured in 1896 by a devoted lawman named Bill Tilghman who had spent four years doggedly pursuing him. Doolin escaped from prison but was eventually shot down by a U.S. Marshal named Heck Thomas. In THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA (1949), Doolin is played as something of a "good" outlaw by Randolph Scott. He's tall, handsome, polite to civilians, and blessed with a remarkable degree of self-control. He even goes straight at one point and marries a pretty, loving farm girl (Virginia Huston) and starts up a working farm. But, unfortunately, he gets pulled back into the outlaw life. As directed by Gordon Douglas, the film offers several bursts of exciting, well-staged western action, including lots of chases on horseback and some amazing feats of horsemanship. Scott is doubled in the long shots, but he does his own furious riding in medium-shot. Most of the chase scenes appear to have been shot in the familiar rocky terrain around Lone Pine, California, at the foot of the Sierras, a dramatic landscape perfect for such scenes, even if it looks nothing like Oklahoma.

Western buffs will enjoy the way the film incorporates other historical western figures, including a couple who had later movies of their own. At the beginning we see the Dalton gang carry out the famed disastrous raid on Coffeyville, Kansas, a fiasco that only Doolin survives because his horse went lame at the last minute (which matches the account of the raid supplied in the book, "Bill Tilghman, Marshal of the Last Frontier," by Floyd Miller). The Dalton gang, of course, has been the subject of many westerns. Later in the film, after Doolin has recruited various gang members, they all adopt the habit of hiding out between jobs in the wide open town of Ingalls, where one of the gang, Bitter Creek (John Ireland), has a girlfriend. She is called Rose of Cimarron and is played in a mature, elegant fashion by Louise Allbritton (SON OF Dracula). One of the characters we meet in Ingalls is a spunky little two-fisted, sharp-shootin' teenage cowgirl named Cattle Annie who wants to join the gang and is well-played by Dona Drake (who was 35 at the time!). A later western, ROSE OF CIMARRON (1952), starred Mala Powers in the title role and I remember her as quite a fiery display of dark-eyed female outlawry. In 1980, there was a film called CATTLE ANNIE AND LITTLE BRITCHES, which starred Amanda Plummer as Cattle Annie, Burt Lancaster as Bill Doolin, and Rod Steiger as Bill Tilghman.

There's a U.S. Marshal in this film named Sam Hughes who pursues Doolin for nearly all of the film's 90 minutes. He appears to be based on Tilghman. Why the name change when Marshal Heck Thomas is left intact, I can't say. Hughes is played by George Macready and Thomas is played by Robert Barrat. Tilghman, one of the most daring of western lawmen, was played by name in only two films I know of, the aforementioned CATTLE ANNIE and the TV movie, YOU KNOW MY NAME (1999), which starred Sam Elliott. The book I mentioned, "Bill Tilghman, Marshal of the Last Frontier," by Floyd Miller (Doubleday, 1968), is highly recommended if you want to read a vivid account of a real western lawman's exciting career. As for this movie, I would urge you not to expect the most accurate portrayal of events, but to take it as a piece of solid, well-crafted western entertainment, with an above-average cast and an attention to details normally left out of studio westerns.

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Robert Crawford said:

I hope that happens, but after their Western Horizons boxset I'm not so sure.

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True, but those and other OAR issues were from their Universal releases. The Sony TCM titles are pretty much always the correct OAR so I have more faith that this one will be correct.

JoHud said:

True, but those and other OAR issues were from their Universal releases. The Sony TCM titles are pretty much always the correct OAR so I have more faith that this one will be correct.

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I hope you're right. Bob Furmanek confirmed to me that 7th Cavalry should be 1.85:1 ratio as it was filmed January, 1956.

For the info benefit of Three Stooges fans among us, Joe DeRita has a small role in CORONER CREEK as the town barkeep...

classicmovieguy said:

And some choice leading ladies too! Sally Eilers... Marguerite Chapman... Louise Allbritton...

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Don't forget Ella Raines Nice to see another one of her films on DVD!

jdee28 said:

Don't forget Ella Raines Nice to see another one of her films on DVD!

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. . . and don't forget Virginia Huston, she of Out of The Past and not much else.

Vic Pardo said:

I'm still waiting for a color release of FIGHTING MAN OF THE PLAINS (1949), a very good Scott western shot in Cinecolor, but only shown by TCM in b&w.
There are a lot of good Scott westerns waiting to be released in box sets like these.

THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA is very good and one of the few westerns to show the exploits of veteran lawman Bill Tilghman, although they give him a different name (Sam Hughes) in this one. I've never seen CORONER CREEK or THE WALKING HILLS.

Here's my IMDB review of DOOLINS:

Bill Doolin was an outlaw operating in Oklahoma territory in the 1890s who was captured in 1896 by a devoted lawman named Bill Tilghman who had spent four years doggedly pursuing him. Doolin escaped from prison but was eventually shot down by a U.S. Marshal named Heck Thomas. In THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA (1949), Doolin is played as something of a "good" outlaw by Randolph Scott. He's tall, handsome, polite to civilians, and blessed with a remarkable degree of self-control. He even goes straight at one point and marries a pretty, loving farm girl (Virginia Huston) and starts up a working farm. But, unfortunately, he gets pulled back into the outlaw life. As directed by Gordon Douglas, the film offers several bursts of exciting, well-staged western action, including lots of chases on horseback and some amazing feats of horsemanship. Scott is doubled in the long shots, but he does his own furious riding in medium-shot. Most of the chase scenes appear to have been shot in the familiar rocky terrain around Lone Pine, California, at the foot of the Sierras, a dramatic landscape perfect for such scenes, even if it looks nothing like Oklahoma.

Western buffs will enjoy the way the film incorporates other historical western figures, including a couple who had later movies of their own. At the beginning we see the Dalton gang carry out the famed disastrous raid on Coffeyville, Kansas, a fiasco that only Doolin survives because his horse went lame at the last minute (which matches the account of the raid supplied in the book, "Bill Tilghman, Marshal of the Last Frontier," by Floyd Miller). The Dalton gang, of course, has been the subject of many westerns. Later in the film, after Doolin has recruited various gang members, they all adopt the habit of hiding out between jobs in the wide open town of Ingalls, where one of the gang, Bitter Creek (John Ireland), has a girlfriend. She is called Rose of Cimarron and is played in a mature, elegant fashion by Louise Allbritton (SON OF Dracula). One of the characters we meet in Ingalls is a spunky little two-fisted, sharp-shootin' teenage cowgirl named Cattle Annie who wants to join the gang and is well-played by Dona Drake (who was 35 at the time!). A later western, ROSE OF CIMARRON (1952), starred Mala Powers in the title role and I remember her as quite a fiery display of dark-eyed female outlawry. In 1980, there was a film called CATTLE ANNIE AND LITTLE BRITCHES, which starred Amanda Plummer as Cattle Annie, Burt Lancaster as Bill Doolin, and Rod Steiger as Bill Tilghman.

There's a U.S. Marshal in this film named Sam Hughes who pursues Doolin for nearly all of the film's 90 minutes. He appears to be based on Tilghman. Why the name change when Marshal Heck Thomas is left intact, I can't say. Hughes is played by George Macready and Thomas is played by Robert Barrat. Tilghman, one of the most daring of western lawmen, was played by name in only two films I know of, the aforementioned CATTLE ANNIE and the TV movie, YOU KNOW MY NAME (1999), which starred Sam Elliott. The book I mentioned, "Bill Tilghman, Marshal of the Last Frontier," by Floyd Miller (Doubleday, 1968), is highly recommended if you want to read a vivid account of a real western lawman's exciting career. As for this movie, I would urge you not to expect the most accurate portrayal of events, but to take it as a piece of solid, well-crafted western entertainment, with an above-average cast and an attention to details normally left out of studio westerns.

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I agree THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA is an entertaining western, and a really good production. I enjoy it for many reasons, especially Randolph Scott. He played the southern Confederate who must adapt in how many films? I don't insist on factual accuracy in period films, but I do think that when people who actually lived are being used, that their lives should be accurately represented. THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA tortures biography and history. Even when it gets something half-way right it does so in the wrong context. In fairness, at least the historical issues are present in the film's story. I'm glad you know about the Floyd Miller book, which is okay, but for the sake of historical intelligence I hope you'll read some of the more clinical histories, such as Glenn Shirley's West of Hell's Fringe (published 1978 and still in print) the classic account of law enforcement and outlawry in Oklahoma Territory by the leading authority on the subject. The book includes the Doolin story. Shirley also wrote several of the best biographies on peace officers and outlaws, including Heck Thomas: Frontier Marshal (the 1981 edition) and Bill Tilghman: Guardian of the Law (published 1989). After reading those books you won't recognize THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA as having anything to do with history. It's just a good western. I'll be glad to get it, finally, in TCM's punitively overpriced boxset.

I'll probably go for this one and pray none of the films suffer like "The Unguarded Moment" did in the "Women in Trouble" set or whatever it's called. Watched it last night, might be the worst looking disc I've purchased in the past 5-6 years. :S

Richard--W said:

I agree THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA is an entertaining western, and a really good production. I enjoy it for many reasons, especially Randolph Scott. He played the southern Confederate who must adapt in how many films? I don't insist on factual accuracy in period films, but I do think that when people who actually lived are being used, that their lives should be accurately represented. THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA tortures biography and history. Even when it gets something half-way right it does so in the wrong context. In fairness, at least the historical issues are present in the film's story. I'm glad you know about the Floyd Miller book, which is okay, but for the sake of historical intelligence I hope you'll read some of the more clinical histories, such as Glenn Shirley's West of Hell's Fringe (published 1978 and still in print) the classic account of law enforcement and outlawry in Oklahoma Territory by the leading authority on the subject. The book includes the Doolin story. Shirley also wrote several of the best biographies on peace officers and outlaws, including Heck Thomas: Frontier Marshal (the 1981 edition) and Bill Tilghman: Guardian of the Law (published 1989). After reading those books you won't recognize THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA as having anything to do with history. It's just a good western. I'll be glad to get it, finally, in TCM's punitively overpriced boxset.

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Thanks for those book recommendations. I do have the Heck Thomas one but haven't read it yet and I'll seek out the two others.

Looks like this was delayed until Dec 2 instead of a week from now.

In the meantime, if I love the Boetticher//Scott films in the box set that Sony released, and I enjoy "Seven Men From Now", do any of the other Randolph Scott westerns approach how good those are? I've always heard that the Boetticher/Scott collaborations produced some of the best westerns, but how do the other Randolph Scott westerns compare?

WadeM said:

Looks like this was delayed until Dec 2 instead of a week from now.

In the meantime, if I love the Boetticher//Scott films in the box set that Sony released, and I enjoy "Seven Men From Now", do any of the other Randolph Scott westerns approach how good those are? I've always heard that the Boetticher/Scott collaborations produced some of the best westerns, but how do the other Randolph Scott westerns compare?

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There are books about the Boetticher/Scott westerns, but you won't find books about the Gordon Douglas/Scott westerns or the Edwin L. Marin/Scott westerns, etc. The Boetticher westerns are "auteurist" works, or at least some of them are, and thus have the seal of approval of auteurist critics and academics. There's a certain tone that Boetticher brought to them that wasn't evident in the directorial style of most other directors of Scott westerns. If that's what you're looking for in a western, then you may be disappointed in other Scott westerns, no matter how entertaining they are or how polished their production is. Scott made dozens of westerns and some are better than others, depending on script, director, co-stars, budget, etc. I love THE DOOLINS OF OKLAHOMA, as indicated in an earlier post I contributed to this thread. I watched TCM's cablecast in May of CANADIAN PACIFIC, a sprawling railroad western filmed on location and I was really impressed with it. On the other hand, I was really disappointed in RIDING SHOTGUN when I watched it for the first time a couple of years ago and THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS when I re-watched it around the same time. (They were on a Scott triple-feature DVD with THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN, which held up much better. Check out my Amazon.com review of that set.)

There's another Boetticher/Scott collaboration you didn't mention, which is WESTBOUND. I do recommend it.

As critical as I can be with other genres, I find myself embracing westerns from all eras often unconditionally. Of course, I recognize, analyze and invest more in the ones that are somehow superior, but it remains my go to genre more than any other, regardless of inherent quality.

In my own fiction I am fascinated by working within the impositions of a genre and then deviating from them as inspiration strikes. That accounts for my love of westerns since they are bound by certain trappings, but by the grace of good direction, writing and acting, can often finds way to transcend all of that. I've seen this in the best a studio can bestow upon a western production and I've seen it in lowly, poverty row B pictures. For me, no other genre can do so much with seemingly so little.