FOX/MGM DVDS on 05-22-07 including westerns, musicals and Gary Cooper films. (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

Better yet, where is "The Gunfighter"?

 

[Charles H]

Fox is also bringing out FURY AT FURNACE CREEK (1948) on 5/22. It's a remake of John Ford's FOUR MEN AND A PRAYER in a Western setting.

 

[GregoryMesh]

Amazon now has all these titles for pre-order

 

[Jim Bur]

It is certainly welcome to see that Fox is releasing Broken Arrow. It is one of the all time great classic westerns, and I would highly recommend it for purchase.

White Feather and Fury at Furnace Creek are both good westerns. I haven't seen the obscure westerns, Fort Courageious or Convict Stage, though a couple of the more reliable western guides give the impression that they are of the grade Z variety. Both westerns feature Donald Barry who was a notable B western star who made some charming B westerns for Republic in the 1940's and Lippert in the early 1950's. However, these 2 westerns are low budget affairs from the mid-60's. Most of these type of obsure westerns from the mid-60's were trash, and usually died a quick and deserved death, which helped lead to the demise of the western genre.

It is disappointing to see Fox releasing low grade westerns, when they have at least 5 genuine westerns classics which they have not yet released. These classics include The Gunfigher with Gregory Peck (directed by Henry King who directed Jesse James, The Bravados etc.), Garden of Evil starring Gary Cooper, and directed by the great Henry Hathaway, From Hell to Texas, also directed by Hathaway, the great western epic Western Union starring Randolph Scott and Robert Young and directed by Fritz Lang, and Rawhide, starring Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward, which is also directed by Hathaway.

This could be a case where Fox is just "watering their beer" sort of speak. They probably want to have a couple of top notch westerns for release next year and the year after, so they are padding their releases with a few turkeys so that the supply will last longer. All the companies do this to a certain extent, but this seems to one of the most blatant examples.

c Jim Bur

 

[Simon Howson]

Yeah it is quite funny, especially Convict Stage which doesn't even have 5 votes on IMDB! Fort Courageous has 9, so that's different :-P

I guess they figure that there is just a good market for the Western genre, and anything they release from that genre will sell. The less popular films may already have a good condition I.P. ready to be transfered to digital, whereas the more popular films were released more often, and thus require the production of a new intermediate element before a digital transfer can be made?

Personally, I just wish they would release more early CinemaScope films of any genre. I can't complain cos this batch of releases provides another two such films. But there are surely other '53 - '56 (2.55:1) CinemaScope films that are better over all films than a pair of Lesley Selander z-westerns.

 

[DanMel]

I'm not sure if Fox owns the rights to Garden of Evil anymore. It was released in Pal format overseas by a company called Optimum so perhaps it is now public domain.

 

[Robert Crawford]

They still own it and show if often on their Fox Movies channel.

 

[RafaelPires]

I made a research about the Fox's westerns filmed in the 30's, 40's and 50's that remain unreleased in dvd, and made the following list (60 titles):

1937
Secret Valley
Western Gold

1938
Hawaiian Buckaroo
Panamint's Bad Man
Rawhide

1939
Frontier Marshal (with Randolph Scott)
Return of Cisco Kid (Cesar Romero)

1940
Cisco Kid and the Lady (Cesar Romero, Geroge Montgomery)
The Gay Caballero (Cesar Romero)
Lucky Cisco Kid (Cesar Romero)
Viva Cisco Kid (Cesar Romero)

1941
Belle Starr (Randolph Scott, Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews)
The Cowboy and Blonde (George Montgomery)
Ride on, Vaquero (Cesar Romero)
The Riders of the Purple Sage (George Montgomery)
Romance of the Rio Grande (Cesar Romero)
Western Union (Robert Young, Randolph Scott)

1942
Lone Star Ranger (John Kimbrough)
Sundown Jim (John Kimbrough)

1948
Belle Starr's Daughter (George Montgomery)

1949
Te Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (Betty Grable)
Canadian Pacific (Randolph Scott)
Fightin Man of the Plains (Randolph Scott)

1950
The Cariboo Trail (Randolph Scott)
Dakota Lil (George Montgomery)
The Gunfighter (Gregory Peck)
A Ticket to Tomahawk (Dan Dailey, Anne Baxter)
Two Flags West (Joseph Cotten, Linda Darnell, Jeff Chandler)

1951
Rawhide (Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward)

1952
Kangaroo (Maureen O'Hara, Peter Lawford)
The Outcasts of Poker Flat (Anne Baxter)
Pony Soldier (Tyrone Power)
Return of the Texan (Dale Robertson)
Way of a Gaucho (Gene Tierney)

1953
City of Bad Men (Jeanne Crain, Dale Robertson)
Powder River (Rory Calhoun)
The Silver Whip (Dale Robertson)

1954
The Gambler from Natchez (Dale Robertson, Debra Paget)
Garden of Evil (Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward)
The Outlaw's Daughter (Bill Williams)
Three Young Texans (Mitzy Gaynor, Jeffrey Hunter)

1956
The Black Whip (Hugh Marlowe, Colleen Gray)
The Desperadoes are in town (Robert Arthur)
Massacre (Dane Clark)
Stagecoach to Fury (Forrest Tucker)

1957
Apache Warrier (Keith Larsen)
Bandlands of Montana (Rex Reason)
Cooper Sky (Jeff Morrow, Colleen Gray)
The Quiet Gun (Forrest Tucker )
The Restless Breed ( Scott Brady, Anne Bancroft)
The Storm Rider (Scott Brady)

1958
Ambush at Cimarron Pass (Scott Brady)
Cattle Empire (Joel MCrea)
The Fiend who walked the West
From Hell to Texas (Don Murray, Diane Varsi)
Frontier Gun (John Agar)
Sierra Baron (Brian Keith)
Showdon at Boot Hill (Charles Bronson)

1959
Lone Texan (Williard Parker)
The Miracle of the Hills (Rex Reason)

 

[Simon Howson]

Nice list!

Most of the post 1953 films strike me as being B-films, many from independent producers like Regal. I guess Fox used these films to fill out their bills when they were spending so much money on the early CinemaScope films.

I just don't think many of these films justify a single disc release. Many of them are 70 - 90 minutes long, to me they would be perfect candidates for 2 for 1 sets, kind of like the MGM Midnight Movies line. Fox could sell them with minimal extras (say a trailer and an odd commentary by someone who really likes Westerns) for say US$15 rrp (which would be closer to $12 online).

Were many of these released on VHS or LaserDisc? If so, then Fox probably already have a decent element ready for DVD transfer, without needing to revert to the negatives. If the sale price is good, then they don't need to provide a spectacular transfer.

I think a lot of these would be more interesting films than Convict Stage and Fort Corageous, or maybe I'm just demonstrating my preference for average 50s films ahead of average 60s films!

 

[DanMel]

Not sure Garden of Evil would be considered a B western as it had both Gary Cooper and Susan Hayward in it. Cooper was paid 300,000 for doing it and was his first cinemascope film. It was also produced and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox and had Henry Hathaway as a director. Not sure on the other three 1954 movies, but you may want to rephrase that as post 1954 films.

I am one that certainly believes that Garden of Evil deserves to be released on it's own in maybe a double disc SE package by fox in the 20 dollar range. I do think that it is considered by many and is on many lists as being the most wanted Fox movie in their entire vault of movies that is not released. It is most certainly a better western than the other Cooper/Lancaster western Vera Cruz which was filmed the same year and has been availble on dvd for a long time. It is also a better movie by a thousand fold to the other Henry Hathaway/Cooper movie that Fox did release last year in the 1951 "Your in the Navy Now". The people at Fox that decide to release movies must not have any idea on what they are doing to release that movie instead of Garden of Evil. I hope that Fox does not consider poor sells for that movie to have any reflection on how Garden of Evil would sell or even Ten North Frederick. Of course no one really seems to know if FOX still owns the rights to Ten North Frederick.

 

[Simon Howson]

I've got a feeling Fox are concentrating on films where they don't need to go back to the negative to make a good enough DVD transfer. If an existing element used for LaserDisc or VHS is in decent condition I think they are using that. They aren't like Warner who seem to go back to negatives more often than not. Maybe this is a cost cutting exercise? Maybe they realise how much people want a proper version of Garden of Evil, but just don't want to spend the money at the moment preserving it properly?

The R2 transfer of Garden of Evil is good, but nothing spectacular. However, it does have stunning shots like this:

 

[Robert Crawford]

Don't forget Richard Widmark in Garden of Evil. That being said, I wouldn't say it's a better movie than Vera Cruz, of course, that's my personal opinion.




Crawdaddy

 

[John Hodson]

Vera Cruz gets my vote too.

 

[DanMel]

Yes I have not seen Richard Widmark in any other movies but he was terrific in Garden of Evil. I do not dislike Vera cruz but when placed side by side with Garden of Evil, I would say that Garden of Evil edges it out with Susan Hayward's performance as opposed to the supporting actress in Vera Cruz. Both Richard Widmark and Burt Lancaster are superb in their co-starring roles with Cooper.

 

[Charles H]

Fox has a lot of Widmark films that have yet to be released on homevideo: ROAD HOUSE, SLATTERY'S HURRICANE, DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS, MY PAL GUS, DESTINATION GOBI, RED SKIES OF MONTANA. They certainly demonstrate a an enormous range of talent, and he was a significant contract player. It's unfortunate that when it comes to box collections, the studios discriminate against the living (e.g., Olivia deHavilland).

 

[Simon Howson]

I think Widmark is great in Warlock, a great Fox Western, and one of Edward Dymtryk's best films.

 

[Dave B Ferris]

According to a report at DVDJournal.com Fox will release the following catalog
westerns on April 24th:

Broken Arrow
Convict Stage
Fort Courageous
Fury at Furnace Creek
White Feather

Broken Arrow would probably be regarded as the gem from this batch.

 

[Jim Bur]

Dave: These films have been listed on Amazon and other internet sites as having a release date May 22nd. A couple of days ago Warners and Paramount announced the John Wayne titles they are releasing on May 22nd. I wonder if Fox has advanced the date of the release of these film so as no to conflict with the Wayne releases.

I also agree with you that Broken Arrow is the gem of this batch of westerns from Fox. A lot of people wish they had included The Gunfighter in this group instead of the other westerns they selected.

 

[Jim Bur]

Dave:

I checked the DVD Journal website, and the Fox westerns are still on for May 22nd. I think you may have misread the release date.

 

[walter o]

BREAKING POINT is a great 70's style action film with Bo Svenson. Glad it is finally coming out.

As for CONVICT STAGE, my god, not only does it have but mere five votes over at imdb, but no one have even posted a review at imdb! Odd choice for Fox, who still hasn't released KREMLIN LETTER after announcing it.