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A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Man From Laramie -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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A quick check of release dates shows Anthony Mann's 1955 The Man from Laramie, as the third CinemaScope release from Columbia, after The Long Gray Line and Three for the Show.

While it seems that virtually of the other studios had premiered their CinemaScope productions in 1953 or 54, Columbia held back.  Paramount had gone with VistaVision.

Scope is well used in the production, and color (photographed by Charles Lang) looks terrific in this beautifully rendered Columbia production, heading toward the six decade mark.

Another technically perfect release from Twilight Time, showing off it's original stereo tracks, which I don't recall hearing previously.

Only one thing ages this film for me, as it does many films of the era...

those awful main title songs, which seem to have to tell the entire story of the lead character in ninety seconds of screen time, with truly awful lyrics.

Other than that, great film, and a nice addition to the ever-growing work of James Stewart available on Blu-ray.

Image - 5

Audio - 5

Recommended.

RAH

 

EddieLarkin

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Robert Harris said:
Only one thing ages this film for me, as it does many films of the era...

those awful main title songs, which seem to have to tell the entire story of the lead character in ninety seconds of screen time, with truly awful lyrics.
Despite being a 20 something watching this film for the first time via the TT Blu, I enjoyed the song, especially the reprise at the end.

High Noon and 3:10 to Yuma had better ones though!
 

Dick

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Robert Harris said:
those awful main title songs, which seem to have to tell the entire story of the lead character in ninety seconds of screen time, with truly awful lyrics.
I completely agree that most of the title songs were pretty awful in the 50's-60's. A few good ones squeaked through (NORTH TO ALASKA sung by Johnny Horton); FLAMING STAR from Elvis, "The Green Leaves Of Summer" from THE ALAMO by the Brothers Four, for example), but on the whole, it was a reprehensible practice whose only goal was to sell more soundtrack albums, regardless of how inappropriate the songs usually were for the movie. Worse still was the eventual near-disappearance of the symphonic music underscore in favor of the pop music of the day (THE GRADUATE pretty much sealed this trend for a decade or so). The best thing about STAR WARS was the fact that it inspired directors to return to genuine original film scores, only occasionally including main title songs.
 

Robert Harris

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EddieLarkin said:
Despite being a 20 something watching this film for the first time via the TT Blu, I enjoyed the song, especially the reprise at the end.

High Noon and 3:10 to Yuma had better ones though!
High Noon actually works for me.

RAH
 

Persianimmortal

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When I popped this disc in, I was surprised at just how crisp and vibrant it looked. Well-deserved 5/5 from RAH on this one. As for the title song, I could do without it, but I think the title song from The Hanging Tree is possibly the worst one I've heard.
 

davidmatychuk

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Robert Harris, on 16 Aug 2014 - 2:46 PM, said:
Robert Harris said:
those awful main title songs, which seem to have to tell the entire story of the lead character in ninety seconds of screen time, with truly awful lyrics.
I see them as the music world's revenge on the movie world for all of those RIDICULOUS music biopics.
 

ScottGros117

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Robert Crawford said:
I liked those two songs very much, but High Noon is the best in my opinion.
Dick said:
I completely agree that most of the title songs were pretty awful in the 50's-60's. A few good ones squeaked through (NORTH TO ALASKA sung by Johnny Horton); FLAMING STAR from Elvis, "The Green Leaves Of Summer" from THE ALAMO by the Brothers Four, for example), but on the whole, it was a reprehensible practice whose only goal was to sell more soundtrack albums, regardless of how inappropriate the songs usually were for the movie. Worse still was the eventual near-disappearance of the symphonic music underscore in favor of the pop music of the day (THE GRADUATE pretty much sealed this trend for a decade or so). The best thing about STAR WARS was the fact that it inspired directors to return to genuine original film scores, only occasionally including main title songs.
High Noon will always be the best IMO. The title songs for The Hunters, Sink the Bismarck!, and The Comancheros make the one used in The Man from Laramie sound like high art. Note, however, that those three title songs did not appear in the final cuts of their respective films, but did appear in the trailers (with exception of The Comancheros). Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's was pretty wretched as well. As Dick pointed out, it was just to sell more records and to market the film. Sadly they now mainly serve to date the films I have listed above (unless they wisely are left on the cutting room floor), with exception of High Noon. I can't say anything bad about that ballad.
 

AnthonyClarke

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I quite like The Man from Laramie's theme, but of course Tex Ritter's High Noon totally rules. I have three different versions of Tex singing this, as well as an original-issue 78 of it. Just love it ....
One of my Tex Ritter versions is without the rhythmic drum backing .. which they added to the master-take after they heard Frankie Laine's version!
 

Robin9

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The Man From Laramie title song is idiotic because it contradicts the theme of the film. The songs from High Noon and Gunfight At The O K Corral support their respective movies.

In his audio commentary for Separate Tables, Delbert Mann tells how outraged he was by Hecht and Lancaster dubbing the song onto the credit titles. I can see his point that a title song was not appropriate for this film but the song works on its own level, independently of the film. Vic Damone's recording used to be played quite often by radio stations in the days when songs with tunes and literate words were still popular.

Although it is undeniable that in the '50s the studios saw title songs as marketing tools, many of the resulting songs have survived as "standards" being recorded by singers like Sinatra, Nat Cole and Tony Bennett. Several singers made entire albums of title songs from movies.
 

Robert Crawford

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AnthonyClarke said:
I quite like The Man from Laramie's theme, but of course Tex Ritter's High Noon totally rules. I have three different versions of Tex singing this, as well as an original-issue 78 of it. Just love it ....
One of my Tex Ritter versions is without the rhythmic drum backing .. which they added to the master-take after they heard Frankie Laine's version!
Which besides the excellent lyrics helps set it apart from most of those western film songs.
 

John Hermes

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ahollis said:
The title song I always enjoyed was from THE WAR WAGON.
I don't know if you have it, Allen, but Intrada came out with a 2000 copy limited edition of The War Wagon soundtrack in 2010, with all the actual movie cues in stereo. The title song sounds even better in room-filling stereo!
 

ahollis

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John Hermes said:
I don't know if you have it, Allen, but Intrada came out with a 2000 copy limited edition of The War Wagon soundtrack in 2010, with all the actual movie cues in stereo. The title song sounds even better in room-filling stereo!
Thanks. I do have it. And it's on my iPod.
 

dpippel

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Why is this BD selling for $40+ everywhere I can fid a copy online? Am I missing something?
 

lukejosephchung

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dpippel said:
Why is this BD selling for $40+ everywhere I can fid a copy online? Am I missing something?
It's a 3,000-pressing LIMITED EDITION...which means Twilight Time gets to set the price wherever it's sold online...MSRP is $29.98 plus tax & shipping...
 

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