A Few Words About A few words about...™ Hour of the Gun -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Hour of the Gun, produced in 1967, and directed by John Sturges, is an interesting film.

It's a sequel to another film directed by Mr. Sturges, a decade earlier, with a different take on casting.

Wyatt Earp - Burt Lancaster / James Garner

Doc Holliday - Kirk Douglas / Jason Robards

Ike Clanton - Lyle Bettger / Robert Ryan

While the 1957 had support from Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet, John Ireland, Dennis Hopper and Lee Van Cleef, the 1967 has lesser known players.

The original also has a more polished, classic feel to it, while the 1967 seems far more '60s.

An interesting pairing for a double bill.

Twilight Time's new Blu-ray, courtesy of MGM, is quite lovely, with very nice color, decent grain structure, good black levels. The image is all there.

The only problem is that occasionally, it's a dirty picture.

Positive and negative dirt, tiny bits of damage, all of which could have been cleaned.

Image - 4.25

Audio - 5 (DTS-HD MA Monaural)

Pass / Fail - Pass

Recommended

RAH

 

[John Hermes]

The 1957 film is my favorite Western and I am a big Westerns fan. Paramount has an awesome Blu-ray of Gunfight At The O.K. Corral for anyone interested. Hour Of The Gun is good and, as RAH pointed out, would probably make a curious double bill with GATOKC, as it starts out with the gunfight and deals with its aftermath.

 

[Richard V]

Hmmm. Might have to reconsider this film. First time I saw this, didn't care for it much. But that was over 30 yrs ago, perhaps my tastes have changed since then.

 

[Robin9]

I like this film a great deal and I always have. I saw it when it first came out, and I made a point of seeing it again at every opportunity in the days when I frequented repertory theaters. I'm pleased that the picture quality of this Blu-ray disc is "quite lovely, with very nice color" but I'm annoyed that MGM were too bloody lazy to remove dirt which should be pretty easy with digital tools. Us amateurs do it with no problem with photo applications on our PCs.

My disc is on the way. I look forward to giving away the nice but "soft" DVD.

 

[B-ROLL]

I like this film a great deal and I always have. I saw it when it first came out, and I made a point of seeing it again at every opportunity in the days when I frequented repertory theaters. I'm pleased that the picture quality of this Blu-ray disc is "quite lovely, with very nice color" but I'm annoyed that MGM were too bloody lazy to remove dirt which should be pretty easy with digital tools. Us amateurs do it with no problem with photo applications on our PCs.

My disc is on the way. I look forward to giving away the nice but "soft" DVD.

You would have to do it 24 times for one second of sound film ...

 

[Robin9]

You would have to do it 24 times for one second of sound film ...

So? They get paid, don't they?

 

[David Norman]

So? They get paid, don't they?

Exactly -- they get paid. How much do you think that would cost for a 100 minutes film -- 145000 frames of film
Who's covering the cost to do it professionally and correctly?

 

[Robert Harris]

Exactly -- they get paid. How much do you think that would cost for a 100 minutes film -- 145000 frames of film
Who's covering the cost?

Doesn’t work that way. Most would be automatically removed, in addition to a bit of hand-holding. 5k tops.

 

[David Norman]

Doesn’t work that way. Most would be automatically removed, in addition to a bit of hand-holding. 5k tops.

Well I would never have thought such a low price. Learn something every time I open my mouth (figuratively).

Would there be another reason it wouldn't be done -- does that process cause any other issues that might harm the end product
short term or some long term issue?

 

[Robert Harris]

Well I would never have thought such a low price. Learn something every time I open my mouth (figuratively).

Would there be another reason it wouldn't be done -- does that process cause any other issues that might harm the end product
short term or some long term issue?

No. The problems here are neither major, nor difficult to massage away.

 

[Mike Boone]

The 1957 film is my favorite Western and I am a big Westerns fan. Paramount has an awesome Blu-ray of Gunfight At The O.K. Corral for anyone interested. Hour Of The Gun is good and, as RAH pointed out, would probably make a curious double bill with GATOKC, as it starts out with the gunfight and deals with its aftermath.

The 1957 film is my favorite Western and I am a big Westerns fan. Paramount has an awesome Blu-ray of Gunfight At The O.K. Corral for anyone interested. Hour Of The Gun is good and, as RAH pointed out, would probably make a curious double bill with GATOKC, as it starts out with the gunfight and deals with its aftermath.

Gunfight At The O.K. Corral is also one my top favorite westerns. And in addition to that film's well played character's, the terrific score that film music composer Dimitri Tiomkin wrote for "Gunfight", is a prime reason that I can sit down, on any day, and still get quite a kick out of Gunfight At The O.K. Corral.

(Also agree with you, John, that the Blu-ray edition of "Gunfight" is a terrific rendition of the VistaVision cinematography that Charles Lang did for the film.)

 

[John Hermes]

Gunfight At The O.K. Corral is also one my top favorite westerns. And in addition to that film's well played character's, the terrific score that film music composer Dimitri Tiomkin wrote for "Gunfight", is a prime reason that I can sit down, on any day, and still get quite a kick out of Gunfight At The O.K. Corral.

(Also agree with you, John, that the Blu-ray edition of "Gunfight" is a terrific rendition of the VistaVision cinematography that Charles Lang did for the film.)

There is a great GUNFIGHT soundtrack CD on the La La Lands Records label, if you can find it. I love Dimitri's Westerns music. Another great track is LAST TRAIN FROM GUNHILL.

 

[Paul Rossen]

Gunfight At The O.K. Corral is also one my top favorite westerns. And in addition to that film's well played character's, the terrific score that film music composer Dimitri Tiomkin wrote for "Gunfight", is a prime reason that I can sit down, on any day, and still get quite a kick out of Gunfight At The O.K. Corral.

(Also agree with you, John, that the Blu-ray edition of "Gunfight" is a terrific rendition of the VistaVision cinematography that Charles Lang did for the film.)

The score to Hour of the Gun isn't too shabby. It's by Jerry Goldsmith and is quite good. The complete score was newly recorded by Tadlow records.

 

[Mike Boone]

There is a great GUNFIGHT soundtrack CD on the La La Lands Records label, if you can find it. I love Dimitri's Westerns music. Another great track is LAST TRAIN FROM GUNHILL.

Thanks John for giving everyone a heads up about La La Land's very complete CD edition of the original film soundtrack of Mr Tiomkin's wonderful music score for Gunfight At The O.K. Corral. I was fortunate enough to learn of the CD's existence about 18 months to 2 years ago, immediately ordered it, and became one tremendously happy camper when the disc arrived and I discovered that it contains every passage of music, as well as every musical cue, that viewers of the film get to hear. And for music that was recorded 60 years ago, the CD's sound quality is quite good, and cleaner than I expected that it might be.

The back of the CD's case states that the company produced the CD as a limited edition of just 2000 units. But since unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, in this situation, the number of Americans who collect movie scores and soundtracks of films from Gunfight's era is relatively small, so I really hope that the CD is still available for any HTF members who would be interested in getting it. I've seen Gunfight At The O.K. Corral so many times on TV, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray that I have a tremendous time playing the CD because I can picture the exact scene where every one of the musical passages and cues is heard in the film.

Of course, many of us older film fans easily remember the days of old when having movie soundtracks on LP was actually the closest that we could get to having our own copies of films.

Anyway, I can't think of a score for any other western that I like as much as what Dimitri Tiomkin gifted western fans with by creating his score for Gunfight At The O.K. Corral. And, coincidentally the other of my 2 favorite film scores is music that also adds a lot to another Kirk Douglas movie, Spartacus. Who could imagine Spartacus without its terrific music by Alex North?

BTW, a few minutes ago in reading the fascinating booklet with the Gunfight At The O.K. Corral CD, that details the making of the film, I learned the interesting fact that in choosing a music composer for his western, producer Hal Wallis had actually considered hiring Alex North, or Leonard Rosenman, for the job, before ultimately deciding that Dimitri Tiomkin would be ideal for the task. Man, did Mr Tiomkin ever accomplish that assignment with colors flying! Tiomkin's music for the film turned out to be so expressive that I wonder if the producer might have given his composer some form of bonus, above his contractual salary, when Wallis finally got to hear how the music was so effective at filling out his movie.

 

[Mike Boone]

The score to Hour of the Gun isn't too shabby. It's by Jerry Goldsmith and is quite good. The complete score was newly recorded by Tadlow records.

Paul, I'm also a big fan of the music of the late Jerry Goldsmith. And if you don't happen to have it, I very highly recommend Jerry Goldsmith: 40 Years Of Film Music which is a 4 CD set, the case of which identifies it as SILCD 1183 from Silva Screen records.

Upon getting that set of CDs, years ago, I was extremely happy to finally have a recording of that nice theme that Mr Goldsmith composed for Papillon, which is mostly heard in the last half of that film.

BTW, I just checked all 57 tracks that are on the 4 discs, and I'm sorry to report that none of them is music from Hour of the Gun.

 

[commander richardson]

I like this film a great deal and I always have. I saw it when it first came out, and I made a point of seeing it again at every opportunity in the days when I frequented repertory theaters. I'm pleased that the picture quality of this Blu-ray disc is "quite lovely, with very nice color" but I'm annoyed that MGM were too bloody lazy to remove dirt which should be pretty easy with digital tools. Us amateurs do it with no problem with photo applications on our PCs.

My disc is on the way. I look forward to giving away the nice but "soft" DVD.

the disc is littered with dirt such as white speckling and similar and could have been so much better.............a disappointment is this release............3/10

 

[Robert Crawford]

the disc is littered with dirt such as white speckling and similar and could have been so much better.............a disappointment is this release............3/10

Wow!

 

[commander richardson]

Wow!

I will expand..............picture Quality........ 3/10 Sound........ 7/10 Movie....... 8/10

 

[Robert Crawford]

I will expand..............picture Quality........ 3/10 Sound........ 7/10 Movie....... 8/10

No need, the picture quality didn't meet your expectations. I'm playing my disc now and so far I have to agree with RAH's rating.

 

[Rodney]

The perfectionist in me wishes they would have spent the $5K and cleaned it up.
The pragmatist in me remembers the little boy who watched this film (and many others) on television, cut up, pan and scanned, faded with film scratches and "cigarette burns".

We've come a long way, baby.