A Wayne-Fellows Production
Directed by John Farrow
Produced by Robert Fellows
Screenplay by James Edward Grant
Based on a story (“The Gift Of Cochise”) by Louis L’Amour
Photography: Robert Burks, ASC and Archie Stout, ASC
Editor: Ralph Dawson, ACE
Music: Emil Newman and Hugo Friedhofer
Technical Advisor: Major Philip Kieffer
CAST: John Wayne (Hondo Lane), Geraldine Page (Angie Lowe), Ward Bond (Buffalo Baker), Michael Pate (Vittorio), James Arness (Lennie), Rodolfo Acosta (Silva), Leo Gordon (Ed Lowe), Tom Irish (Lt. McKay), Lee Aaker (Johnny Lowe), Paul Fix (Major Sherry), Rayford Barnes.
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Over the years, a number of things have kept Hondo from being recognized as the fine Western it is. First, there’s a tendency to discount all 50s 3-D films as slaves to a gimmick. Next, there’s the fact that it was released the same year as, and has a few similarities to, George Stevens’ Shane (1953) — which has taken its place as one of the genre’s giants. Then consider that Hondo sits among pictures like Rio Grande (1950), The Searchers (1956) and Rio Bravo (1959) in John Wayne’s filmography — it’s easy to be overlooked in a crowd like that. Then, and probably the toughest of these hurdles to overcome, is the decade or so the picture was virtually impossible to see.
This absence was brought about by Wayne’s estate and included all the films produced by Wayne-Fellows and Batjac. (When Robert Fellows was bought out, the company was renamed Batjac, after the shipping line in 1949’s Wake Of The Red Witch.) The Batjac pictures resurfaced on DVD in 2005, with a very nice edition of Hondo being one of the highpoints.
Hondo began as a Louis L’Amour story, “The Gift Of Cochise,” which James Edward Grant, Wayne’s scriptwriter of choice, adapted for Wayne-Fellows. (It appeared in the July 5, 1952 issue of Collier’s.) John Farrow was signed to direct, and Glenn Ford was offered the lead. Ford didn’t want to work with Farrow after his experience on a previous Wayne-Fellows picture, Plunder Of The Sun (1953). Unwilling to fire the director, Wayne took another look at the script and decided to do it himself.
Wayne is Hondo Lane, a Cavalry dispatch rider who turns up at the small ranch of Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page), located in the middle of Apache territory. He’s on foot, with his dog, having lost his horse fighting the Apaches. She says her husband is away and will be back shortly. Seeing through her lie — her husband doesn’t seem to be coming back — he urges her and her son (Lee Aaker) to seek safety from the Apaches. She’s never had trouble with the Apache chief Vittorio (Michael Pate) before, and decides to stay. From there things get a bit more complicated, as Wayne ends up killing Page’s ne’er-do-well husband (Leo Gordon) and being captured and tortured by Vittorio. There’s an exciting wrap-up as Wayne helps the Cavalry lead a number of settlers out of Apache territory.
Grant’s script expanded the L’Amour short story considerably, and L’Amour then novelized the screenplay. Published to tie in the film’s opening, it was a bestseller — and is still in print today.
Wayne-Fellows was in a distribution deal with Warner Bros., who’d seen runaway success with House Of Wax (1953) in 3-D, so it soon came to pass that Hondo was to be shot in 3-D. It would be the first time Warner Bros. would use its new All-Media camera rig — and the first of Wayne-Fellow’s productions in color (WarnerColor).
All the Batjac pictures benefited from Duke’s working relationships with some of the best actors and technical people around. Behind the camera were cameraman Archie Stout and John Ford, who visited the location and ended up shooting a bit of second unit stuff. The cast included third-billed Ward Bond, Paul Fix in a character part, and James Arness — under contract to Wayne’s company and still a few years from being recommending by Duke for Gunsmoke.
One clear break from what, and who, we expect from a John Wayne Movie turned out to be his leading lady — Geraldine Page.
Paul Fix: “Duke’s agent, Charles Feldman, also represented Geraldine Page who was a successful actress on the New York stage. Robert Fellows offered her the part without testing her… Duke was dismayed when he first saw her. She had bad teeth, so the first thing Fellows did was send her to a dentist who worked on her for three days.”
Cast and crew arrived in Camargo, Mexico, with shooting to start June 11, 1953. Thanks to the technical difficulties of shooting 3-D on location, things got off to a rather slow start. Setups were few and far between.
Leo Gordon: “They had that great big camera that was the size of a small truck.”
Geraldine Page: “It was a very temperamental machine. So we had lots of time to sit under the broiling Mexican summer sun.”
Wayne and mogul Jack Warner had been communicating via telegram from the beginning, often with Wayne complaining about the delays and expense of working in 3-D. Jack Warner saw some dailies and wired on June 18 about more close-ups: “Director is not moving you and Geraldine close enough to camera. Everything seems to be too far away.”
Wayne replied two days later: “Farrow has done everything but play music to get camera in for close shots… cameraman is over cautious for fear front office will scream eyestrain. Will show cameraman your wire.”
The “cameraman” Wayne refers to is Archie Stout, a Batjac veteran who shared duties on Hondo with Robert Burks, who’d worked on House Of Wax and would go on to shoot some of Hitchcock’s finest films. But the 3-D cameras and frustrated DPs weren’t the only things troubling Wayne. He was in the middle of a divorce from his wife Chata. Their relationship was volatile, to say the least. Then there were his scenes with Page.
James Arness: “Acting with Geraldine Page was difficult for Duke, since their styles were completely different. Here was dynamic Wayne, who wanted to move things right along regardless of meaningless details, and a very intense costar who wanted to know the meaning of every scene she was in… as they got used to each other, things worked out fine.”
What’s more, the Mexican temperatures sometimes topped 120 degrees.
James Arness: “It was mid-summer, and blazing hot down there. We worked 14 hours a day in the sun… After each day’s shooting, we’d all race back to our run-down Mexican motel and hit the bar to quench our thirst. We ordered anything, just so the glass was full of ice. After a few day’s, everyone came down with Montezuma’s revenge… The problem was solved when we realized the water for the ice in our drinks was coming from a polluted river near the hotel.”
Lee Aaker: “We were in Mexico for three months doing it… most of all, I remember John Wayne as being very nice to me.”
After wrapping in early August, the picture was quickly edited and scored for a Thanksgiving premiere in Houston. Its wide release in January of 1954 was very successful. There’s been a lot of debate over the years about the picture’s 3-D engagements. Some claim it played mostly flat, but that’s not the case. Almost all of its first run was in 3-D.
Whether flat or in 3-D, Hondo is an excellent film — not a great one. Its smaller size turns out to be a large part of its appeal, and it seems to hint at the look and tone of The Searchers (1956).
Wayne’s performance is excellent. Despite his trouble working with Geraldine Page, their scenes together are very good, some of his best work. It’s easy to wish Wayne had called up Maureen O’Hara for Mrs. Lowe, but Page brings lot to the film. She was perfectly cast, and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Ward Bond is terrific, making a big impression with relatively little screen time as Buffalo Baker, a grizzled old friend of Hondo’s. Leo Gordon is perfectly slimy as Ed Lowe — boy, am I glad when he gets shot. But acting honors have to go to Michael Pate as the Apache chief. He somehow manages to make Vittorio scary and sympathetic at the same time. Hondo is held up as an early example of Hollywood treating Native Americans and their culture with respect. It does it without preaching or sacrificing the action audiences came for. This is a cowboy movie that doesn’t need 3-D glasses to give you plenty of depth.
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Paramount’s Blu-ray of Hondo is, in some ways, simply a high-definition version of their 2-D DVD from 2005. Both contain the same bonus material — an excellent collection of commentaries, documentaries, trailers, photos and more. (A couple of the documentaries didn’t make it over from DVD.) But the Blu-ray’s 1.75 ratio makes all the difference. This is clearly how this film was meant to be seen. It’s one of the nicest WarnerColor transfers I’ve seen, with its harsher contrast helping you feel the heat Wayne and company suffered through. Of course, there’s the typical jump in sharpness and detail that comes with Blu-ray.
Audio is clean with a nice range, and I much preferred the original mono to the 5.1 mix. (I have to say it’s been the audio, as much the video, that has really impressed me with the shift to Blu-ray.)
Hondo is an essential 50s Western, if for no reason other than Wayne made so few cowboy pictures during the decade. And for those wondering if Hondo’s worth the upgrade to Blu-ray, put on your old DVD. Look at all the dead space at the top and bottom. Yep, it’s worth it.
SOURCES: James Arness: An Autobiography; Duke, We’re Glad We Knew You; Duke: The Life And Image Of John Wayne; this fabulous article by Bob Furmanek and Jack Theakston; and more.
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Excellent write-up, Toby. I’m jealous, too, you got the BD before it was released. I’m even more jazzed to June 5th to arrived now. Thanks.
I’m really stoked that the folks at Paramount found this blog worth a copy.
If you’re a fan of this picture, and things like aspect ratio are important to you, then by all means pick one up. My enjoyment of this film was boosted quite a bit seeing it this way.
By the way, the guts of this post were taken from my chapter-in- progress on it. There’s a lot of good stuff on this film. Be sure to check out Michael Pate in the documentary.
Thanks for filling the blanks of one of my favorite movies.
No blue-ray here but it won’t stop me from taking another gander from the library’s standard issue.
Rich
I don’t have a blue ray player but your review has been the first thing to make me now think about buying one. I taped the 3D version of Hondo when they played it 20 years ago, I recorded it several different times from different TV station broadcasts just in case one station had a better picture than the other. Recently I transferred it to DVD, I was disappointed. It just didn’t seem all that 3-D eee. Some scenes were not too bad, but 99% of it just looked like a blur of colors. I think the main problem is that this is a color movie and color movies and 3D just don’t combine together well. I have some b/w movies & Stooge shorts that look excellent in 3D. The color in the movie seems to take away from the blue/red 3D effect.
I watched my normal Paramount DVD of Hondo and the quality of that one was excellent, I had no complaints. My widescreen TV is able to expand the picture to fill in the “empty space”. The black bars at the top and bottom are either already filled in due to the TV being widescreen or if you use the “zoom” feature it fills in even more for extra wide pictures. However, if the picture is really wide and skinny even the “zoom” isn’t enough to fill in the screen’s top & bottom. Watched the new Mission: Impossible movie and that was an example of a really wide screened movie that was too much so that I still saw bars at top & bottom even with zoom on.
At any rate the old Paramount disc looks really nice so I’m still looking over the fence at blue ray. Honestly, these eyes see a very sharp picture now with a normal DVD and don’t see how it can be sharper than sharp. That’s why I don’t want to even start collecting all over again in blue ray when my DVDs look great.
It just occured to me that your freeze frame of the 3D Duke is in b/w along with the blue/red 3D colors. Do you think the real way a color 3D movie is supposed to be shown is in b/w along with the blue/red 3D colors? Why was this picture in b/w, is this the way the 3D version should have been shown, in b/w with blue/red 3D color? And have you heard anything about an official 3D version being released?
Hondo was originally shown in the Polaroid-type 3-D.
The red/green thing came along later it’s handy in that it only requires one projector. It makes for some whacked-out color and for a not-all-that-great 3-D presentation all around.
The Three Stooges shorts available on DVD are quite nice. I have a 16mm print of one and it works OK.
Exactly, the color movie combined with the blue/red glasses just seems to majorly detract from the 3D effect to the point where it is just about gone. However the b/w Stooge shorts look fantastic in 3D with the blue/red glasses. I have the 3 Creature movies in 3D (& b/w) and they also look good. I think it’s the color movie that ruins the 3D effect, it seems to work better if the film’s in b/w.
3-D comic books always worked well and they stayed away from color.
That’s a great piece Toby, with some some excellent behind the scenes info. I have to say the Blu-ray, with the correct AR, does sound tempting – I’ll have to think this one over.
I think the fact the movie remained out of circulation for so long is indeed one of the reasons its stock tumbled a little. However, it seems to be clawing back some of the respect it’s due.
i can’t quite make up my mind on Page in the film. At times i think she’s excellent, and at others i find her a little lacking. Having read the novel fairly recently, I found myself picturing someone else in the role, someone a little less refined or, I don’t know, eastern. O’Hara might have been interesting but maybe would have brought a little too much sass to the part. I can’t help wondering how Gail Russell would have fared.
Thanks a bunch, Colin. Especially since your writing on this picture was so good.
http://livius1.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/hondo/
A printout of it sits in my Hondo file — and I referred to it quite a bit. Good stuff.
Wow! That’s very flattering.
Seeing this again this week, I was really struck by how good Geraldine Page is in this. In fact, the acting across the board really impressed me.
There’s a lot to like about this picture. My main complaint is that the ending seems a bit abrupt. Plus, I think Michael Pate deserved a true death scene.
Yes, things do get tied up a bit too quickly. The book,which as you say was expanded on from the script, simply has a report of Vittorio’s death. When a character plays such a central role then it is a little disappointing to se them just shunted aside at the end.
That’s a very interesting account of the production, Toby.
I want to address two things there–one with regard to first release. I saw it then (late 1953) and it was in 3Dthen, the only time I’ve seen it that way. I wouldn’t say it needed it, and I say that as one who has come to modify a once negative opinion of 3D of the period. When I finally saw Jack Arnold’s 3D movies of those few years in 3D, especially his first IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, I found movies that I already liked very much gained from that director’s ideas about it (I’m also thinking of specific sequences in both CREATURE films he made). I would say HONDO remains in my experience the best 3D Western, in close contest with THE CHARGE OF FEATHER RIVER, though more for script and characters and things it represents for the genre in the 50s than as a 3D movie.
The second thing, Toby, is you need to correct one error. Archie Stout did shoot this and had often worked for John Ford, but unless he did some uncredited work he was not on THE SEARCHERS. Winton C. Hoch was the cinematographer and Alfred Gilks for second unit. I personally wouldn’t say that HONDO suggests THE SEARCHERS to me visually or in any other way, though wouldn’t say it doesn’t. I’d be interested to see you elaborate this idea more in the longer piece in progress.
Somehow, I can’t venture a strong opinion of HONDO though I’ve seen it three or four times. It’s certainly true that John Wayne, despite his central presence in the genre, made few Westerns in the 50s, but it seems to me the other titles you mention are so great they’d be enough, even if he hadn’t made HONDO. Needless to say, he is ideal in the role in any event.
I have mixed feelings about John Farrow’s four Westerns, generally interesting but I actually like 1953’s earlier RIDE, VAQUERO more than HONDO. A compelling movie I’d recommend to those who haven’t seen it.
Sympathetic treatment of Indians was well-established by 1953–HONDO is right at the heart of the pro-Indian cycle that took off in 1950–so it can’t claim anything special in that regard. I really like the romance best perhaps; for me, no matter how she came to be cast and no matter who else might have been, Geraldine Page is excellent in the role and plays well with Duke.
It might be pointed out that John Wayne was a consummate actor and could play well with anyone and probably handle any kind of role he was asked to. You’ll probably still find people who find Wayne as a Swedish seaman in THE LONG VOYAGE HOME a figure to ridicule, but on another forum on the internet, two actual Scandanavians who participate there pointed out that his Swedish accent was one of the best and truest they’d heard from an American actor and that he’d plainly worked very hard on the role and was not only excellent but felt very authentic.
Which doesn’t say a lot about HONDO I know, but there’s a reason why Wayne stands out so much in Westerns, especially in the genre’s maturity, and a reason why he became the preferred star of John Ford, whose gifts to the the Western were infinite.
Thanks for pointing out my Stout/Searchers mistake. Can’t believe I did that! Very very stupid — tracked it back to a scribbled thing in my notes that I misread. (It’s been fixed.)
While I agree with all your points about the picture — you’re dead on, my opinion of Hondo has really grown in recent years. (This Blu-ray has contributed to that.) I can easily see why people have such a soft spot for it, just as I can see how it can be faulted for various things. For me, it goes back to Hawks’ remark about three good scenes and no bad scenes. Hondo has some very good scenes, and they more than cover for some of the lesser ones.
You’re right about Wayne as an actor. One of the things that has come from monkeying with this book has been a real appreciation for Wayne — beyond him being a hero since I was a kid. The more I research him, the more I admire him as a person. The more I watch him, the more I marvel at what he could do. Even in the few films that aren’t very good, his talent and craft always shine brightly.
Where Hondo reminds me of The Searchers is mostly little stuff scattered throughout. Both films open on the scraggly ranches, though Mrs. Lowe certainly has a nicer spread than Ethan’s brother — and a much better outcome. The differences in how Wayne approaches those places is interesting. Hondo’s Indian attacks remind me of Ford’s work (in any of his Westerns), and those are the Hondo scenes Ford contributed to. I like the way both films treat the Indians — with a real attempt at showing us their culture, even if they’re just bad guys in the end. These meager similarities are fascinating to me because they let you see the differences in Ford vs. someone like Farrow. (I don’t mean to beat him up, but he’s not all that good with cowboys.) Ford brings a richness to almost everything he touches, and you can tell he not only understands how to make movies, but that he knows and loves the west.
The real Ford/Farrow question to me is — was Farrow trying to channel Ford, was Ford exerting more influence than just a little second unit work, or was Wayne using his authority as star/boss? I could go on, but hopefully you see what I’m talking about.
And since you brought it up, the first two Creature films are among my all-time favorites. I’ve been collecting Creature toys since I was a kid. And you’re right, It Came From Outer Space is incredible in 3-D.
Wonderful post about a classic film. If your eventual book is anything like this, sign me up for the first copy!
“Eventual book.” Yikes!
Thanks so much for the compliment.
Toby, thanks for elaborating on those points re Ford/Farrow/Wayne–it’s hard to know how much Ford actually did, and this question has always come up about THE ALAMO as well. I sometimes have the impression that Ford’s personality is so strong he only has to be around to inflect some of what he is into a film. So that may be true here even if it’s not THE SEARCHERS. In at least one interview later, Wayne gave the impression that he himself was the dominant creative force on the set, and didn’t seem to think much of Farrow in the end, though his negative opinion is more based on THE SEA CHASE since he was proud of HONDO.
John Farrow is definitely not a major director of Westerns, and more of his best films are in other genres, but I’m always interested in what some of these minor or non-specialist directors contribute to the Western in the 50s, as I know you are too. They rarely come up completely empty. I can’t think of anyone I completely dismiss. Charles Marquis Warren, for example, has kind of a bad reputation but did make some interesting Westerns among others that are pretty weak (I like TENSION AT TABLE ROCK and LITTLE BIG HORN for example).
I’ll add that I agree with what you say about Vittorio as played by Michael Pate, a strong character though maybe the lack of that “true death scene” does hurt it a little. I don’t think of the Indians as bad guys either here or in THE SEARCHERS–their culture and motivations are respected and have deep resonance, especially in the Ford; if they are functionally the “bad guys” it’s only because the focus of both is on Wayne as the hero (though an unusually complex hero whose dark side is important in THE SEARCHERS). It can never be stressed enough that Scar and Ethan in THE SEARCHERS are motivated by exactly the same things, and are each other’s doubles, something made explicit in the dialogue when they do meet.
“Functionally the bad guys” I really like that. And it’s exactly what I meant. The parallels between Ethan and Scar are one of the many things that makes The Searchers such a great film. “Someone teach ya?” Isn’t that the line?
I feel bad for giving Farrow a hard time, when he made so many cool films. I love The Big Clock and Five Came Back. As you said, it is interesting to see how a “regular” director fares when he packs up and heads to Sedona or Moab or just runs down the street to Iverson.
I can remember the days when HONDO was one of the most difficult John Wayne movies to see. There’s a very funny episode from an early season of MARRIED WITH CHILDREN where Al Bundy is looking forward to a long weekend, the highlight being HONDO presented on John Wayne Theater. He tells his family not to disturb him under any circumstances because HONDO is on, it’s never shown, he’s planning on taping it and he doesn’t want to be bothered by anyone. Of course, his wife’s family drops in unexpectedly and tapes over his recording of HONDO.
The Hugo Friedhofer/Emil Newman score is one of my favorites for a western from the 1950s and with so many classic soundtracks being released these days, I keep hoping one of the labels will release it, along with another Friedhofer/Newman effort, ISLAND IN THE SKY. (I suspect Friedhofer is responsible for most of the music in these movies.)
On another topic: someone here in another thread (awhile back) mentioned the Spanish DVD of AT GUNPOINT (ASI MUEREN LOS VALIENTES) had only a Spanish dubbed audio track (no English). The back of the box doesn’t mention an English language track, but the product description on Amazon.es says it has both an English track and a Spanish track. Can anyone confirm for certain, one way or the other, whether this Suevia Films “Far West” DVD includes the original English language track?
Mike, I have that Spanish release of At Gunpoint by Suevia, and it only has the Spanish dub. A really dumb decision on the company’s part, but there it is.
Sorry to hi-jack (yet again!) this epic and higly entertaining/informative
thread but I thought I would bring readers attention to another Fifties
3D Western just out on DVD.
I have just received the Sidonis DVD of WINGS OF THE HAWK.
Sidonis have provided some sort of disclaimer regarding the quality of
the source material supplied by Universal.The transfer is VERY grainy
and there are some rather odd color hues.Also the whole thing looks
TOO dark at times.The film IMHO is the least impressive of Boettichers
Universal Westerns.On the plus side there is a nifty trailer which really
pushes the fact this is a 3D picture.There is also a 52 minute featurette
from 1997 on Budd/Carlos Arruza.This is in French and Spanish but there
is LOTS of Budd interview footage,new to me at least. Budds language
gets pretty colorful at times!He also states that his involvement with
the ill-fated ARRUZA project meant that he had to turn down the Duke
on directing THE COMANCHEROS.What a shame;that smash hit would
have placed him back in the mainstream where he belonged!
Please be warned: the featurette does include vintage; and to my eyes
extremely barbaric bullfight footage.
Also from Sidonis MONEY WOMEN & GUNS a lovely widescreen
Pathecolor transfer;also includes trailer.
Cream of the crop,for me is FRENCHIE (no trailer!).My off-air copy
was excellent;this Sidonis version is ten times better;a stunner!.
Often classed as a bland Destry remake I REALLY like the film and the
role is tailor made for Joel McCrea.Knockout supporting cast too!
Yep,Sidonis DVDs STILL have those wretched “forced” subtitles.
Thanks for the response. I notice, too, that THE SPOILERS (1955) appears to have no English soundtrack.
I’ve ordered MONEY, WOMEN & GUNS, which is on the way, and the HONDO Blu-Ray, which will be released soon. Now I’ll have to consider FRENCHIE, one I’ve never seen.
The holy grail of unreleased ’50s westerns for me is RIDE THE MAN DOWN, the colorful 1952 Republic adaption of Luke Short’s story. It has a fabulous cast. I have a DVD-R I copied from a VHS tape recorded off air some years ago, but I’d love to upgrade.
Mike, The Spoilers has the original English soundtrack & a Spanish dub. Subtitles are optional.
Thanks.
One thing further. THE SPOILERS has been released by both SUEVIA (Spain) and SIDONIS (France). I assume you’re referencing the SUEVIA release. How’s the picture quality? Anyone know how it compares to SIDONIS and whether or not the French release also has an English track?
I have the Suevia disc. The picture is so-so, colourful but not perfect. I’d imagine a Sidonis release would top it.
I ordered the PAL version of Cattle Empire, I was able to play it in English and without subtitles and the quality was EXCELLENT. It is in widescreen and the picture is sharp and clear. I transferred it to NTSC format on DVD-R. It looks beautiful and now I can play it on American DVD players. I haven’t been able to find the “Wings of The Hawk” Sidonis disc. Is there a Sidonis website that you can order from? The Amazon.es site was all in Spanish, no comprendo.
I saw a nice print of WINGS OF THE HAWK in 3D at a 3D fest a few years back–good color, couldn’t complain about it in any way. It was a treat–I don’t know that I agree it’s the least Boetticher Universal Western though definitely not among the best. For me, SEMINOLE and THE MAN FROM THE ALAMO
are the best, both outstanding–and to a lesser extent, THE CIMARRON KID is also excellent (I may like all of these better than Budd Boetticher did).
Thanks for sharing about MONEY, WOMEN AND GUNS–as you say this one is a good transfer, it would be worth having for me, though before I get Sidonis I’m going to try to negotiate with a friend who knows how to lose the subtitles.
But I am keeping them all in mind, especially THE LAST OF THE FAST GUNS, and also RED SUNDOWN and JOE DAKOTA and now this.
WINGS OF THE HAWK is up on Amazon France;Sidonis is a French
company;they do have a website but I have never ordered from them
direct.ALL their DVDs have “forced” French subtitles REALLY,REALLY
annoying especially when the French Universal DVDs have removable
subtitles!
Do any French western fans read this blog;PLEASE can you get on Sidonis
case!Johnny G you are right CATTLE EMPIRE from Spain is a magnificient
Scope transfer.OREGON TRAIL is top notch transfer wise too but the film
is not to hot; but better than its dreadful reputation.
The Spanish DVD to avoid at all costs is SIERRA BARON a wretched
version of a really good film!
Now,Blake Lucas to backtrack somewhat I do not share your view of
RIDE VAQUERO! a horrible,flabby MGM Western nearly as bad as
LONE STAR.Great Robert Taylor performance but film ruined by an
OTT bombastic dreadful hammy Anthony Quinn.
Thanks by the way,many threads back for pointing me towards TWO
GUN LADY,a little gem.The version I have is not to good but I will get
an upgrade at some point.
For me MONEY WOMEN & GUNS is not in the same class as JOE
DAKOTA or LAST OF THE FAST GUNS but I am sure the film will
grow on me,it has many good points.In a way it sort of pre-figures the
A.C.Lyles films in that it has loads of veteran character actors in small
bits.I am in the fortunate position where I have not one but two people
who can dis-able these subtitles for me.They are also brilliant trading
contacts,able to get me Netflix stuff I cannot get in the UK.
Like I said before the Sidonis version of FRENCHIE is stunning and
its a really good film,far far better than its reputation.It has excellent
direction,lovely scenery a knockout cast and a climatic gunfight unlike
anything you have ever seen before.
I also note that STRANGER ON HORSEBACK is about to be released
in Spain in 4×3.I wonder if this is the same source material as the VCI
version or if it might be an upgrade?
Finally Mike Kuhns I too would like an upgrade of RIDE THE MAN
DOWN yet another great Republic Western on the missing list.
This is the sort of title that I dream of Olive Films releasing.
Did those Republic A Westerns have knockout supporting casts or what!
As this thread has sort of morphed into a “international Western DVD Forum”
I wonder what the upcoming Odeon UK DVD of MONTANA BELLE will be
like?
The Spanish version was nice sharp black & white. The French version
(without forced subs) was sharp but very faded color. (Trucolor?)
There are quality issues with Odeon;their recent DVD of The White Tower
was a black & white version of a color film.
Does this film qualify as a Fifties Western (made in 1948 but released in
1952) Another film far better than its reputation and far, far superior to
the horrendous THE OUTLAW.
Returning to Sidonis THE SAGA OF HEMP BROWN seems to have
vanished from their release schedule;I was really excited about that
one.
Amazon.fr still has SAGA OF HEMP BROWN listed, under the title “L’implacable poursuite”
but it includes the message:
“Currently unavailable.
We do not know when this item will be back in stock or if it will be.”
Maybe it’s just been delayed.
Here is a very good review of the Hondo Blu-ray on DVD Beaver (I compare all DVD versions there for which version to buy for best print available). It appears they have really hacked up the top and bottom in this WS version. I wonder why?
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdreviews18/hondo_dvd_review.htm
Read this review over the weekend, and it sent me back to the DVD for a comparison.
I don’t see the trouble they’re seeing with the framing. It looks terrific to me, and seems correct for the way the picture was shot.
Check out this article, which covers all its 3-D and aspect ratio stuff —
http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/hondo-3-d-release
I’d be tempted to order “Frenchie” but the forced subtitles stop my ordering fingers. I do have a very nice bright color version of it now but there’s always room for a perfect version, without subtitles that is. By the way, heads up, “Frenchie” will be shown on TCM tomorrow night!!
HONDO, and all the other 3-D features from the 1950’s (plus most of the shorts and all the cartoons) were originally shown in Polaroid 3-D. The red/blue conversions were not done until the 1970’s and 80’s. Check out this page for more information: http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/top-10-3-d-myths
That switch from Polaroid to red/blue was certainly not an advancement of technology.
Thanks for stopping by, Bob. Your 3D Archive is a great, great thing.
Thanks, Toby, you’re very kind. This looks like a great site, I’ll definitely spend some time here. I like the use of a Cinecolor track for the image at the top of the page. I’ve got a number of 35mm Cinecolor (and SuperCinecolor) titles and always enjoyed the unique look of the process.
Late comment. Just wanted to mention, Toby, that Ward’s Wagon Train cast was present in Hondo. Frank McGrath, Wooster, played Leo Gordon’s sidekick and was an Indian shot off a rock by Hondo. Terry Wilson, Bill Hawks, stunted for Duke in the majority of the Silva Knife Fight. Once you have seen Terry fight or knife fight, you can always pick him out. Watch the Wagon Train episode The Jonas Murdock Story….quite a fight scene between Terry and Noah Berry, Jr. After seeing that, you will ALWAYS be able to tell when Terry is stunting someone in a fight! Terry also was Leo Gordon ONLY when the Indian jumped off the rock onto him. It is very obvious in John Hagner’s drawing. Keith