TCM Vault: Universal Westerns of the 1950s, Feb 18 (1 Viewer)

[Camps]

I'll be getting this set . I just wish Universal would up their output . So many good films that still haven't made their way to DVD .

... or VHS... or a cable-network TV airing...
These are the types of movies I'm hoping Uni will explore within their vaults (if they're there...)
Not that these TCM sets are re-treads, but other Uni releases these last 3 years have been. If it's something I've already bought on DVD or VHS, I doubt I'd be buying again... (Though I might spring for 3D blu-ray...)

 

[JoeDoakes]

I might get this set for the Alan Ladd title. Personally, I would have rather seen Paramount westerns of the 20s and 30s. If Universal was going to release a mixed set like this, why not include Tyrone Power's Mississippi Gambler?

 

[Richard--W]

My suggestions for the next Universal / TCM westerns box:
All very interesting westerns.

 

[Richard--W]

I might get this set for the Alan Ladd title.

There isn't a bad film in the box, though. They're all worth owning.

Personally, I would have rather seen Paramount westerns of the 20s and 30s.

Which Paramounts of the 1920s and 30s?
I can think of a lot, beginning with the Gary Cooper westerns.

If Universal was going to release a mixed set like this, why not include Tyrone Power's Mississippi Gambler?

I second the motion for Mississippi Gambler (1953), although there are times when it seems interchangeable with Bend of the River (1952)..

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Richard--W /t/325572/tcm-vault-universal-westerns-of-the-1950s-feb-18#post_4007203
I second the motion for Mississippi Gambler (1953), although there are times when it seems interchangeable with Bend of the River (1952)..

I've not seen either so I'd be okay with both of them going into a boxset.

 

[Richard--W]

Somebody please tell Russell G about Bend of the River (1952).

 

[Timothy E]

Originally Posted by Richard--W /t/325572/tcm-vault-universal-westerns-of-the-1950s-feb-18#post_4007307
Somebody please tell Russell G about Bend of the River (1952).

Great film! I have not seen The Mississippi Gambler but both films have Julia Adams in common.

 

[Timothy E]

I had no idea that Burt Kennedy wrote 6 Black Horses but I would love to see it since I seem to enjoy every western that he wrote and/or directed.

 

[Richard--W]

I recently watched a poor-quality off-air recording of 6 Black Horses (1962) for the first time.
If you like the westerns Burt Kennedy wrote for Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott, you'll love 6 Black Horses. It's in the same spirit as Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station and shot in rugged, pictorial Utah locations that serve the same purpose as Boetticher's Lone Pine, CA. This just might be Kennedy's best script. Certain ideas and dialogues from those films are explored differently here. Burt was after something, and he found it in this story. It's a very strong piece and a memorable western. Universal needs to get it out ASAP.
Again, the reputation of Universal's 1950s westerns would improve, and would help sales, if they supplemented each film with a featurette that puts them in context and with a commentary by someone who knows his or her subject. Doesn't everyone agree?

 

[WadeM]

Looks like an interesting set of films.

Somebody please tell Russell G about Bend of the River (1952).

Anthony Mann and James Stewart--if you see those 2 names on the same western, buy it. They are essential.

 

[Richard--W]

Bend of the River has been on DVD for years so TCM wouldn't include it in a box-set of unreleased films.

 

[Ruz-El]

Originally Posted by Richard--W /t/325572/tcm-vault-universal-westerns-of-the-1950s-feb-18/30#post_4007581
Bend of the River has been on DVD for years so TCM wouldn't include it in a box-set of unreleased films.

sorry, didn't mean to ruffle feather. I'm ignorant about westerns other then knowing I like them and will buy them in affordable boxsets.

I'll see if I stumble upon this one, thanks for all the info.

 

[Richard--W]

No worries. Anthony Mann directed several of the best westerns ever made:
Devil's Doorway (Warner Archive, 1950) monochrome noir
The Furies (Criterion, 1950) monochrome noir
Winchester '73 (Universal, 1951) monochrome
Bend of the River (Universal, 1952)
The Naked Spur (Warner Brothers, 1953)
The Far Country (Universal, 1954)
The Last Frontier (Columbia, 1955)
The Man From Laramie (Columbia, 1955)
The Tin Star (Paramount, 1957)
Man of the West (Fox, 1958)
Cimarron (Warner Brothers, 1960 remake)
He shot them in National Parks and isolated wilderness areas where film cameras seldom went. Fortunately, the Anthony Mann westerns are easy to get. They're all out on DVD and most are real cheap on amazon and elsewhere.

 

[Ruz-El]

I got a few of those titles. "The Far Country" wasn't shot far from where I live. "River Of No Return" was shot close by too. Dad tells a story of being on a family trip in the mountains and seeing Monroe from a far when she stayed in Banff. Supposedly their car nearly got pushed off the side of a mountain due to film hands moving cattle around the location.

 

[Robin9]

. . . . Anthony Mann directed several of the best westerns ever made . . . . He shot them in National Parks and isolated wilderness areas where film cameras seldom went. Fortunately, the Anthony Mann westerns are easy to get. They're all out on DVD and most are real cheap on amazon and elsewhere.

I realise this is the wrong thread to ask this but isn't it time The Man From Laramie was out on Blu-ray?

 

[Richard--W]

Yes. It's overdue.
All the Anthony Mann westerns are overdue on blu-ray. It mystifies me how Universal could overlook these esteemed and popular titles during their so-called 100th Anniversary.
Aside from the Clint Eastwood and John Wayne titles, Universal has been practically inert when it comes to releasing its western holdings from the 1920s right up through the 1980s. They've been. slow. to. updgrade. their. DVD westerns. to blu-ray. That's why this new-box set from TCM is both welcome and a pleasant surprise. They picked some of their best westerns of the period for the set.

 

[Mark VH]

The Man from Laramie is a Columbia picture, is it not? Didn't Sony put it on DVD?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Mark VH /t/325572/tcm-vault-universal-westerns-of-the-1950s-feb-18/30#post_4008149
The Man from Laramie is a Columbia picture, is it not? Didn't Sony put it on DVD?

That is correct!






Crawdaddy

 

[cadavra]

Thanks, JoHud. Don't mean to be too much of a contrarian on Uni. Home Vid's choices of genre for these releases.
Like Mark VH, I'm frustrated with the slow pace because that lessens the chances they'll get around to releasing buried gems like the Universal Crime Club series, or '40s rarities like Mystery of Marie Roget or the Paramount horror mysteries, or '50s rarities like Girl in the Kremlin.
Unlike the titles in Uni's Noir ("Women in Danger") set, none of these has ever seen the light of day (to my knowledge) in recent decades on AMC, TCM, VHS or elsewhere (possible exceptions being the occasional local-TV airing).
If these titles are tangled in Rights Hell, then it's certainly understandable why they've yet to surface. Would be nice to know one way or t'other.
But Universal Home Vid only seems to talk to its customers via press releases. Hence my frustration.

I think there are some rights issues with a few of the Crime Clubs.
BTW, while I'm looking forward to this set, I wish they'd spell Budd Boetticher's name correctly.
Mike S.

 

[Richard--W]

Mike, any chance that Sony / Columbia might release Renegades (1946), the much-wanted Coroner Creek (1948), Relentless (1948), The Walking Hills (1949), Last of the Comanches (1953), and Reprisal (1956), to name only a few, in 2013?

The Man from Laramie is a Columbia picture, is it not? Didn't Sony put it on DVD?

That is correct!
Crawdaddy

I identified The Man From Laramie and The Last Frontier as Columbia films in post 32 above.