Another announcement from the MGM Classics Collection, this one with a release date of “late September.” The titles include:
The Dalton Girls (1957) is a Bel-Air picture directed by Reginald Le Borg.
Top Gun (1955) stars Sterling Hayden and John Dehner. It was directed, on a tiny budget, by Ray Nazarro.
Trooper Hook (1957), from Charles Marquis Warren, has a great cast: Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck and John Dehner.
Valerie (1957), directed by Gerd Oswald, stars Sterling Hayden and Anita Eckberg. The underrated Oswald does a good job handling the picture’s complex, Rashomon-ish flashback structure.
War Paint (1953) packs plenty of action into its 89 minutes — just what you expect from Lesley Selander. It stars Robert Stack, Joan Taylor and Charles McGraw.
Also coming: Five Guns To Tombstone (1961) and one Ben Johnson fans have been waiting for, Grayeagle (1978).
Saw VALERIE on TCM and was disappointed, despite being a fan of both Gerd Oswald and Sterling Hayden.
THE DALTON GIRLS sound kinda hot, though. I’d happily crawl before their guns.
Toby, thanks for keeping us updated on upcoming western DVD releases. I grab them as soon as they are available.
Trooper Hook (1957) one of my favorite Joel McCrea films.
Not his usual role, but still entertaining.
Barbara Stanwyck and John Dehner.
appear as husband and wife, good supporting
roles for both of them.
John Dehner always a good character actor,
remember him well as Paladin on the radio
show “Have Gun Will Travel”, wonderful
voice and actually was released on radiio
after the much successful TV Series,
with Richard Boone.
All the films you have listed beiing released
are right up the trail of good viewing.
Mr. Jim
Amazon Vine Reviewer
With MGM/UA churning out the Bel-Air titles and the ongoing
Tim Holt series from Warner Archive a lot of Lesley Selanders
prolific output is finally making it to DVD.
Someone called Joseph Kane the John Ford of B movies.
That being so Selander would figure as the Howard Hawks of
B Movies.His films are littered with code of honor duty bound
males and strong feisty females.
Selander an old school pro probably directed more Westerns than
just about anyone.He could be pretty subversive at times too!
Take the torture by rawhide & rattlesnake in SHOTGUN.
THE BROKEN STAR the best of the last batch of Westerns from
MGM/UA has its moments too.Part Western,part thriller; part
parody; the script by John Higgins is full of dry wit.
Firey Lita Baron bursts into song in a Cantina cracking a mean
looking whip.The terrified looking male patrons watch in stoned
silence!Lita warbles a tune called “I Hate You” and sounds like she
means every word.
Howard Duff is excellent as the (very) corrupt lawman who sees
events spin out of control before him.Not only is he on the receiving
end of Litas whip but he also has to contend with a couple of extremely
slippery customers:Henry Calvins land baron/square dance caller
(their main scene together is an absolute hoot!) and Douglas
Fowleys equally corrupt Indian Agent. In the films big set piece an
extended bar-room brawl note the Saloon Gal who demonstrates a
pretty lethal right hook!
Add to this a crisp widescreen transfer and lovely Old Tuscon
locations.
Well recommended!
Higgins probably had more hard-boiled noir scripts to his credit than anyone other than A.I. Bezzerides or Sydney Boehm. Great, underappreciated writer.
Higgins relationship with Bel-Air co-founder Aubrey Schenck went
right back to T-Men. He was one of the house writers for Bel Air.
He continued to work for Schenck in post Bel-Air times on titles like
ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS.
I also note that he wrote the script for the missing John Payne/
Allan Dwan project HOLD BACK THE NIGHT.A lot of people;Toby
included, would like to catch up with that one!
Like you say; great,underappreciated writer.
I don’t know how “missing” Hold Back the Night is, since I have a copy of it.
A really crummy looking, full-screen copy (it was released in 1:85), but still a copy. 
Wonder what kind of elements WB has on it, would love to see it released as a Warner Archive disc.
Re The Dalton Girls, Reginald Le Borg has this to say about it (and War Drums) in that book-length interview he did with Wheeler Winston Dixon: “Well, you saw a piece of War Drums, and The Dalton Girls too. The producers made money out of them. I never got a nickel out of it.”
That’s all, she wrote.
Dixon wrote the following about The Dalton Girls in his lengthy introductory essay (The Films of Reginald LeBorg, Scarecrow Press, 1992).
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
The Dalton Gang is more interesting, as Holly, Rose, Marigold and Columbine Dalton, daughters of a deceased “Dalton Gang” member, turn to crime after Holly (Merry Anders) is forced to kill a man who attempts to rape her. Knowing that her story will not be believed because of her ancestry, Holly bands together with her sisters to form a new “Dalton Gang.” The four women commit a number of successful robberies, but are ultimately tracked down by a vigilante group at the conclusion of the film. Despite LeBorg’s rather derogatory comments about Dorothy Arzner and other women directors of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, he clearly sides with the Dalton women and views their choice of an outlaw existence as their only chance for freedom, dignity and independence. Although the patriarchal ruling group represented by the conventional forces of law “triumphs” with the closure of the narrative, LeBorg suggests that this ending is both arbitrary and false, dictated by then-current generic requirements more than anything else. Along with Roger Corman’s early Feminist westerns, The Oklahoma Woman (1955) and Gunslinger (1956), LeBorg’s The Dalton Girls is an overlooked and unusual addition to the director’s canon, and is certainly worth revival and further study.
*****
Like a lot of these MGM/UA DVDs from the late 50s, this 1957 widescreen (1:85) film is getting a full-frame transfer. The Box Office Magazine review is here: http://www.boxofficemagazine.com/the_vault/issue_page?issue_id=1957-12-14&page_no=77#page_start
And while I’m at it… here’s the Box Office magazine review of Hold Back the Night: http://www.boxofficemagazine.com/the_vault/issue_page?issue_id=1956-7-28&page_no=101#page_start
GUNSLINGER is the only Corman Western I have seen and frankly,
I did not care for it at all.With Giant Crabs and Teenage Cavemen Corman
was in his element but I get the impression that he did not have much
feel for the West.I am a huge fan of his Poe films and later efforts though.
As far as Feminist Westerns go my favorite is ROSE OF CIMARRON
(Harry Keller 1952).Keller certainly knew what the West was all about;and
certainly he was working with a much higher budget than Corman.
Underrated Mala Powers is both strident and winsome in the title role.
Incredible cast of veteran Western regulars too!
Another one I would love to see is TWO GUN LADY (Richard Bartlett 1955)
but these obscure gems are real hard to track down.
I am really looking forward to THE DALTON GIRLS it sounds great!