A Few Words About A few words about...™ Wagon Tracks -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

For those who long for the days when men were men, and horses were always beside them, we have Wagon Tracks, a 1919 production. It stars the great William S. Hart, and is directed by Lambert Hillyer, who probably directed more B westerns than any ten filmmakers, and in the midst, gave us Dracula's Daughter.

It's a rarity to find a silent film arrive on Blu-ray, and this one is drop-dead gorgeous. It's based upon elements held at the Library of Congress, and has all tints attached.

Olive has given us a worthy release, that's both highly resolved, and very clean.

That's a good thing, because the film was early work by Joseph August, who stood behind the camera in later years for such films as Portrait of Jennie, Gunga Din, Mary of Scotland, Sylvia Scarlett, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Nary a car chase to be found. No super-heroes, or super-villains. Not a digital effect in sight.

Just a high quality silent western drama, that we're extremely lucky to have had survive.

Image - 4

Audio - n/a - new original music score

4k Up-rez - 4.25

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended

RAH

 

[Mike Frezon]

I have this on pre-order. Price at Amazon right now is $15.79

All my life I've heard of William S. Hart and have never seen one of his films. For one, Johnny Carson used to drop his name all the time when referencing old Western cowboys.

And I have to say that having a 98-year old film in my Blu collection will be kinda cool, too.

Looking forward to this. Encouraged to hear the visual elements are in such good shape. A bit disappointed that the film has only a newly composed score. But sometimes those can be really good, of course.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I know nothing about this title but am seriously tempted to pick it up after reading this.

 

[Frank Ha]

I know nothing either, but I just ordered it. Sounds very interesting. For the price, I'll take a chance.

 

[ArnoldLayne]

I know nothing either, but I just ordered it. Sounds very interesting. For the price, I'll take a chance.

Here's some great background and description:
http://buddiesinthesaddle.blogspot.com/2014/08/william-s-hart-wagon-tracks-1919.html

 

[Mike Frezon]

Price on Amazon has now dropped to $14.79.

Even though I pre-ordered January 21 at the $15.79 pricepoint and I've heard from Amazon that they won't deliver until January 30th, they have not adjusted my purchase price to the $14.79 price...

 

[Paul Penna]

Price on Amazon has now dropped to $14.79.

Even though I pre-ordered January 21 at the $15.79 pricepoint and I've heard from Amazon that they won't deliver until January 30th, they have not adjusted my purchase price to the $14.79 price...

I don't get pre-order price adjustment notices from Amazon until the item has been shipped. I presume this is because the price could drop a second time.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I notice the lower price is from a third party seller and not Amazon (but fulfilled by Amazon) - so you'll have to cancel and reorder from that seller to get that price. Probably will do that myself.

 

[Mark-P]

Price on Amazon has now dropped to $14.79.

Even though I pre-ordered January 21 at the $15.79 pricepoint and I've heard from Amazon that they won't deliver until January 30th, they have not adjusted my purchase price to the $14.79 price...

Yeah Mike, what Josh said. That lower price is from a third-party seller, so Amazon's pre-order price guarantee only applies to their own price which is still $15.79, and as today is the official release day, the guarantee expires at midnight, meaning any price drops AFTER release day will not be honored either.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I've already had one of those really annoying chat sessions with two different customer service reps which yielded nothing.

I see what you guys are saying about this situation. If only the customer service reps could have explained it as succinctly and as accurately. Their bottom line as to why i didn't get the title on release date was:

10:26 AM PST Akshay: Regarding your first question Mike. I have checked and see that the item is in demand so we are trying to deliver the item as soon as possible but as the orders which was placed before your order so the item will be delivered to them as scheduled so please do not worry this item should get delivered to you by the estimated delivery date assigned.

Then when I asked about why I can't get the Price adjustment (all of $1!) since I pre-ordered, the price dropped on release date and I won't get the disc until Jan 30...they said:

10:33 AM PST Shraddha: I'm sorry we do not have price match policy on website so we do not have the option to adjust the price.
10:34 AM PST Mike Frezon: Doesn't your pre-order price guarantee say that I receive the lowest price on the item between when I pre-order and the date of release?
10:35 AM PST Mike Frezon: I am not asking ANYTHING about a price match.
10:36 AM PST Shraddha: The price match guarantee is only before the item is shipped.
10:36 AM PST Mike Frezon: Exactly.
And the item has not yet shipped. I won't be getting it for another week!

...

10:41 AM PST Mike Frezon: The item in question is the Blu-ray of Wagon Tracks.
10:41 AM PST Shraddha: I see that Wagon Tracks [Blu-ray] is far into shipping stage.
10:41 AM PST Mike Frezon: Then if I am a Prime Member, why am I not receiving it until January 30th?
10:42 AM PST Shraddha: It is far into shipping stage now, it should be delivered to you at the earliest possible.
It may be delivered before Monday.
10:44 AM PST Mike Frezon: You can't have it both ways. You can't tell me that your supply of the disc is causing a delay in getting the item to me past the release date (and not until January 30th)...and then say that I MAY get it more quickly so you won't honor your own pre-order price guarantee.
10:45 AM PST Shraddha: I do not have the option to make any changes to the order as of now as it is in shipping process.
I'm so sorry, but we can't offer any additional insight or action on this matter.
Unless there is a different issue I can help you with, I will be ending this chat.
10:46 AM PST Mike Frezon: In other words, you don't want to talk to me any more about this one particular issue? All over a price change of $1?
10:47 AM PST Mike Frezon: You are deciding that you are ending this chat?

And with THAT, I was disconnected!

There's a dollars worth of aggravation (in a half-hour chat) that I really needed today.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The price dropped to $11.99 today.

 

[Robert Harris]

I've already had one of those really annoying chat sessions with two different customer service reps which yielded nothing.

I see what you guys are saying about this situation. If only the customer service reps could have explained it as succinctly and as accurately. Their bottom line as to why i didn't get the title on release date was:



Then when I asked about why I can't get the Price adjustment (all of $1!) since I pre-ordered, the price dropped on release date and I won't get the disc until Jan 30...they said:



And with THAT, I was disconnected!

There's a dollars worth of aggravation (in a half-hour chat) that I really needed today.

Been there. Done that.

Life is far too short to share it with these wonderful creatures. I don't recall who said it...

But, people are better than anybody

 

[bujaki]

Bestbuy.com also has it for $11.99.

 

[Mike Frezon]

The price dropped to $11.99 today.

And...it now says the item will ship in 1 to 2 months...

To update, I complained to Amazon via e-mail about the way their rep treated me. I received a non-responsive e-mail which just told me they wouldn't honor my request for the price adjustment.

They also sent one of those e-mails asking if I was satisfied. I said no and they wanted to contact me further. I opted to let them call me...and spoke with another customer service rep who I could barely understand. I asked for the supervisor and got a different person who had a marginally better command of English. She said I would get an adjustment (now I'm not sure if it will be for $14.79 or $11.99) and would contact me to make sure it got processed.

I complained about the amount of time I spent on the chat and on the call tonight and--most specifically--about the way I was treated during the chat--which they can call up and plainly see. And all I got was "we'll contact the person's supervisor."

I should take RAH's advice. I already spent too much of my time today with these people.

I hope I enjoy this film!

 

[Mark-P]

The price dropped to $11.99 today.

There you go, Mike! Since the official Amazon price dropped on release day, you will get an automated refund of the difference. It may take a few days but I've never known it to fail.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm also now in the 1-2 month boat...I don't think it usually takes that long on a restock, they tend to overestimate. But I'll enjoy it whenever it shows up.

 

[Mike2001]

I watched this today and thoroughly enjoyed it. Remarkably clean and stable for such an old presentation. The tints were great. I am curious about the running time though. The disk states 69 min. Imdb has it at 64 minutes. Wikipedia has it at 78 minutes. I didn't notice anything obviously missing, but I am curious if anybody knows the time definitively.

 

[Robert Harris]

I watched this today and thoroughly enjoyed it. Remarkably clean and stable for such an old presentation. The tints were great. I am curious about the running time though. The disk states 69 min. Imdb has it at 64 minutes. Wikipedia has it at 78 minutes. I didn't notice anything obviously missing, but I am curious if anybody knows the time definitively.

Depends upon how many frames per second it's being projected. Silent theatres had a tachometer that communicated speed between the booth and the conductor / organist / pianist.

As I recall, to perfect speed for this presentation, every fifth frame is repeated.

Many films were measured as opposed to being timed.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I see that the prolific director Lloyd Bacon is in this film's cast as Guy Merton. After giving up acting, Bacon directed a lot of Warner films including many Cagney films, but my favorite film he directed was "The Sullivans".

 

[Mike Frezon]

Finally got around to watching my copy of this the other night.

I really enjoyed it. I get a real kick, for some reason, of thinking what times were like in 1919 when a film like this was made. After all, it wasn't all that far off from when the west was won (certainly closer to current events rather than ancient history).

The idea of The William S. Hart character taking the two bad guys out into the desert to get them to turn on each other is certainly something I could see happening in a Tarantino film today...

Loved the horses...loved the dogs, too.