After looking over my daughter’s letter to Santa — some of the best, most persuasive writing she’s ever done — I got to wondering what would show up on a 50s Westerns wish list. So I polled a handful of folks who frequent this blog. Nothing scientific, just asking some Western fans what they’d like to add to their DVD collections. After compiling all the responses, here’s what we ended up with.
The Doolins Of Oklahoma (1949, Columbia)
Hellfire (1949, Republic)
South Of St Louis (1949, Warner Bros.)
The Walking Hills (1949, Columbia)
Ambush (1950, MGM)
North Of The Great Divide (1950, Republic, uncut)
The Showdown (1950, Republic)
Stars In My Crown (1950, MGM)
Trail Of Robin Hood (1950, Republic, uncut)
Apache Drums (1951, Universal)
Red Mountain (1951, Paramount)
Tomahawk (1951, Universal)
Westward The Women (1951, MGM)
The Big Sky (1952, RKO)
Gunsmoke (1953, Universal)
Jack Slade (1953, Allied Artists)
Woman They Almost Lynched (1953, Republic)
Drum Beat (1954, Warner Bros.)
Johnny Guitar (1954, Republic)
Masterson Of Kansas (1954, Columbia)
Ride Clear Of Diablo (1954, Universal)
Three Hours To Kill (1954, Columbia)
The Last Command (1955, Republic)
A Man Alone (1955, Republic)
Naked Dawn (1955, Universal)
The Rawhide Years (1955, Universal)
Run For Cover (1955, Paramount)
A Day Of Fury (1956, Universal)
Great Day In The Morning (1956, RKO)
Gunslinger (1956, American International)
The Quiet Gun (1956, Regal/20th Century Fox)
Quincannon Frontier Scout (1956, United Artists)
Pillars In The Sky (1956, Universal)
Red Sundown (1956, Universal)
Reprisal! (1956, Columbia)
7th Cavalry (1956, Columbia)
Star In The Dust (1956, Universal)
Fury At Showdown (1957, MGM)
Shootout At Medicine Bend (1957, Warner Bros.)
The Big Country (1958, MGM, the recent restoration)
Fort Massacre (1958, Allied Artists)
Gunman’s Walk (1958, Columbia)
Curse Of The Undead (1959, Universal)
The Hanging Tree (1959, Warner Bros.)
The Hangman (1959, Paramount)
The Wonderful Country (1959)
The picture with the most requests was Westward The Women. (It’s also the film that has spurred the most activity on this blog to date.)
I didn’t ask about box sets, but you cooked up some real interesting ones.
Allan Dwan at Republic
The Joel McCrea Universal Westerns
The RKO Tim Holts
Roy Rogers In Trucolor (This one came up a lot.)
The plan is to sort this list by studio — or by video rights, if I can figure them out — and get the titles to whoever controls them. Maybe it’ll do some good. If nothing else, it was a fun exercise.
If you’d like to add your favorites to the list, go right ahead. Comment away. I won’t be sending it anywhere till after the first of the year.
A most interesting list good to see so many obscure films
make the final selection.As a matter of interest many of these films have been released outside the USA;I thought
I would list a few of them.By the way I thought the list would have only included Fifties westerns otherwise
“The Doolins Of Oklahoma” would certainly have been
included with my choices.
TOMAHAWK
Recently released in Spain and Germany the German version is stunning and on a budget label to boot!
WESTWARD THE WOMEN
Recently released in Spain a bit grainy(which I dont mind at all) but overall a great transfer.
DRUM BEAT
The Spanish version by all accounts is dreadful.Bounty in Australia were said to be releasing it in the future. One things for sure Warner Archive will not release it as it was one of Ladds Jaguar productions and they no longer hold the rights.
RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO
Released by Koch in Germany;all their DVDs are top quality. The Australian Bounty version is excellent too.
THE RAWHIDE YEARS
Just released by Universal in Spain;a very good transfer.
PILLARS OF THE SKY
The German Koch version is as good as it gets!Stunning scope transfer.
GUNSLINGER
Released by MGM in Australia very decent scope/Pathecolour transfer.
RED SUNDOWN
Frustratingly only available in the Koch “Jack Arnold Western Collection”Hollywood Classics in England has the
Worldwide (excluding the USA) rights for this title but no takers yet………….WHY?
The way things are now is that vintage Westerns are only going to appear on US MOD/DVDr or European imports; if people are willing to follow this route there’s plenty to choose from.
Just to add to John’s list –
JOHNNY GUITAR has had a fine release in France/Holland via Paramount. Avoid the UK Universal one.
7th CAVALRY is due out in France in the New Year, but it’s going to have burnt-in French subs.
Colin;
Do you have a link to the French supplier for 7th Cavalry?
Are burnt-in French subs removable in any way?
Other French DVDs I have purchased do have removable
subtitles.
By the way Colin, I have finally tracked down the Koch
version of “Border River”;something to look forward to
in the New Year.
Thank you.
John – the Amazon.fr link for 7th CAVALRY is http://www.amazon.fr/Mission-du-Capitaine-Benson/dp/B004754THY/ref=pd_sim_d_7
While I’m not 100% sure the subs will be burnt-in I’d be surprised if they weren’t. Generally, such subs can be removed by burning a copy and disabling the sub stream during the copy.
Glad to hear you got your hands on BORDER RIVER.
Obviously as a Forrest Tucker fan I’d more than welcome THE QUIET GUN. CALIFORNIA PASSAGE and ROCK ISLAND TRAIL also.
Didn’t realize JACK SLADE was M.I.A. on DVD. Very deserving, good film. And HELLFIRE is one of the very best Republic films.
Tucker was very underrated;he was equally convincing as
a good or bad guy.He is a good guy in “Flaming Feather”
another film sadly M.I.A.
Always wanted to track down a nice scope print of “Gunsmoke In Tucson” hopefully the Warner Archive will
release it one day.Its a pity that their initial burst of Allied
Artists Westerns was short lived!
One of his best roles as an amiable baddie can be seen in
the soon to be released “The Nevadan”
Following Colins link to the French version of 7th Cavalry
it would also seem that our friends in France are also
going to release the following Columbia Westerns:
A LONG RIDE FROM HELL (Phil Karlson)
Later Glenn Ford Western also features a very young
Harrison Ford
GUNMANS WALK (Phil Karlson)
This ones for you Toby!
THE GUNS OF FORT PETTICOAT (George Marshall)
Audie Murphy vehicle produced by Harry Joe Brown
THE NEVADAN (Gordon Douglas)
For European Scott fans who will no doubt find this
cheaper to buy than the Columbia MOD version
THE DESPERADOS (Henry Levin)
A far cry from Levins previous outing with Jack Palance
and Neville Brand (The Lonely Man) this has Palance
OTT as never before.I have a sneaking feeling there
will be plenty of takers for this one as its extreme violence
will appeal to Spagetti fans.
Lets hope the burnt in subtitles do not apply.
Many of these French DVDs have most attractive Digipak
packaging.
That’s some good stuff.
Of course, Gunman’s Walk is big news around here. I haven’t seen A Long Ride From Hell, and a new Phil Karlson is always welcome.