There’s been some speculation on this one. Is it actually coming? Will it be widescreen? Has Fox dumped it MOD program? Movies Unlimited now has it listed for pre-order with a release date of December 16. And they say it’ll be widescreen — good news, since the CinemaScope picture is unwatchable pan-and-scan.
From Hell To Texas (1958, also known at The Hell Bent Kid and The Manhunt) is a very good late-50s Western from Henry Hathaway, one that has never received the attention it deserves. Don Murray is excellent as the young man on the run, and he’s backed by a terrific cast: Diane Varsi, Chill Wills, Dennis Hopper, R.G. Armstrong and Jay C. Flippen.
This is the film that lead to Dennis Hopper being blackballed in Hollywood for nearly 10 years.
Dennis Hopper: “[Hathaway]’d give you line readings. I was now trying to ‘live in the moment’ and doing things without preconceived ideas, and I walked off the picture three times on location. He’d beg me to come back… So the last day on the picture… He said ‘We’re gonna do this scene till you do it my way’… we started about eight o’clock in the morning. Around eleven at night, after 85 takes, I finally cracked, and said ‘Okay, tell me what you want to do.’ I did it, then I walked out. It wasn’t like somebody sent a black ball around after that, but word got around that I wasn’t somebody you wanted to work with. Soon after that, I was dropped from my contract at Warner Bros. I went back to New York and I studied with Strasberg for five years. I didn’t have another major role in a studio picture for nearly 10 years, until Hathaway hired me again for The Sons Of Katie Elder in ’65.”*
* From an interview that appeared in Venice magazine.
At a Cinecon screening a few years ago, a new 35 print was struck on request of honoree Don Murray, who had asked that this be the film shown. It was perhaps the movie treat of the year for me to see it again on the big screen.
In Q & A afterward, Murray said that although there was trouble during shooting between Hathaway and Hopper, the 85 takes story is pure myth and never happened. It’s interesting that it was Hathaway who indeed gave Hopper another chance in KATIE ELDER (and used him in TRUE GRIT too). It’s hard to see this as a completely negative relationship and as someone who doesn’t usually think that much of Dennis Hopper’s acting, I do think he’s fine in these films and consider Hathaway his best director.
FROM HELL TO TEXAS is a beautiful late 50s Western no aficionado should miss. It is simply superb on every level.
Movies Unlimited says it’s DVD-R. They also have HELL CANYON OUTLAWS listed for sale in DVD-R. I wonder what company is releasing that one. I saw it as a youngster and thought it was entertaining.
When I first saw this movie ages ago, Don Murray reminded me of Alan Ladd.
Further to my earlier comment, I realize Don Murray costars with Alan Ladd in another western titled One Foot In Hell. What a coincidence both westerns titled with the word “Hell” therein. Regards.
Toby, it was just titled “Man Hunt” in the UK, with no ‘The’ on the beginning. I have an Italian DVD of it (English language version) and the transfer is fine, 2.35:1 and 16 x 9 enhanced. It’s odd that this film had two different titles in the US and another different title in the UK. I could never see the point of that.
It was also released in Asia as “Manhunt”. Regards.
A good Film , I have seen it several times, it was based on the novel
“Road to Socorro” by Charles O Locke (1959) later re-publishes as “The Hell Bent Kid” presumably to tie in with the Film
For those who purchase DVDs from around the Planet Sony Spain have
a couple of new releases under the title “Columbia Essential Classics”
FORTY GUNS TO APACHE PASS
THE GREAT SOUIX MASSACRE
The former was Audie Murphys last starring Western and according to
DVD Go is a widescreen presentation
The latter is not a great Western but again is in widescreen and as far
as I can see is making its worldwide DVD debut.
At any rate the film is better than Sidney Salkows previous “Custer”
film SITTING BULL which is not saying much.Film uses much stock
footage from the previous title.
Nice piece on Lauras blog regarding RAILS INTO LARAMIE a fun
Universal Western that has a great early role for Lee Van Cleef.
RAILS INTO LARAMIE should have been released on DVD long before now, as it’s a really entertaining Western with vivid Technicolor; a catchy title song sung by Rex Allen (was it ever released on a record?) and Dan Duryea playing the kind of role he did so well, the smarmy bad guy pretending to be a good guy (at least until John Payne finds him out).
Y’all have got me really wanting to see this thing.
It’s one of the few James Griffith Westerns I haven’t seen, and I never really thought much about it’s other selling points.
Glad to see the good words here for RAILS INTO LARAMIE, and thanks for the mention of my post, John! I had a wonderful time watching it. It has many strong selling points. Good movie.
Best wishes,
Laura
Laura, I love the way you keep doing great write-ups on little known
or really obscure films.I would not put RAILS INTO LARAMIE into that
frame as a lot of people are after a DVD release of this one.
There are LOTS of John Payne fans out there.
Someone sent me a lovely upgrade of this film recently.
Bad guy trios do not get any better than Dan Duryea,Myron Healy and
Lee Van Cleef.
James Griffith is wonderful as the sheriff who locks himself in his own cells
at night because he is inclined to sleep-walk!
Laura,in a previous post you mentioned that you like aviation dramas.
Have you come across JET STORM a crackerjack Britflick (American director)
early disaster movie with a dynamite cast.This one NEEDS a DVD release
though is available as an Aussie bootleg (i.e. unofficial release)
I will call this CONINCIDENTAL GOOD NEWS!! Your wish is Encore Western’s command. I always look over the Encore Westerns schedule over the next 12 hours when I get home at night. And lo and behold later today “Rails Into Laramie” will be shown late tonight or early this morning, depending on how you look at 4:20 a.m. E.S.T to 5:45 a.m., it will then be repeated on the 2nd chance channel (that’s what I call it) of Encore Westerns West channel 3 hours later at 7:20 a.m. By the way a neat Dana Andrews ’50′s western “Smoke Signal” will also be shown tomorrow at 8:50 a.m. EST to 10:20 a.m. EST. on Encore Westerns too. 2 good ’50′s westerns in one morning, be there or be square.
Thanks very much, John, I really enjoy exploring films “off the beaten path” and hopefully calling them to the attention of fellow film fans — something Toby also does here at 50 Westerns. I’ve found there are so many entertaining movies out there just waiting to be rediscovered.
I haven’t seen JET STORM, I’ve added that to my “watch for it” list! Just ordered TROUBLE IN THE SKY from VCI’s sale, which has George Sanders and a very interesting British cast.
Hope anyone with access to Encore Westerns can catch the RAILS INTO LARAMIE showing Johnny Guitar has pointed out. Encore will also be running it in January.
Best wishes,
Laura
One of the joys of collecting films is coming across these obscure “gems”
Thanks to the MOD thing many more of these are seeing the light of day.
A pal who is a Film Noir expert;in fact he has forgot more than I will ever
know about the genre;said I just have to see HOMICIDE recently released
by the Warner Archive.
This is a title “off my radar” so he loaned me his copy. I must say I was
blown away by this little gem;a tale of an ultra dedicated cop (Robert
Douglas) proving that a suicide was in fact murder.
Cannot say I know much about Robert Douglas either so I looked him up
on imdb and found that he was a Brit who went to America and apart
from acting became a most prolific TV director.
The film was very well directed by the little known Felix Jacovy who only
directed two films and worked mainly on Broadway.Films like this disprove
the “Auteur” theory!
Whoops!
There was a typo in my last post;the directors name is Felix Jacoves.
Sorry Felix!
I saw HOMICIDE earlier this year and agree it was a very nice little surprise, with an excellent leading man in Robert Douglas. My only quibble was I thought he was too dense in the last 10 minutes or so of the film. Otherwise I really liked it.
It’s definitely another movie which makes you wonder what other treasures are out there to discover, Western, noir, or otherwise!
Best wishes,
Laura
According to the Screen Archives Entertainment website, the new Fox Cinema Archives transfer of “From Hell to Texas” is 4 x 3 and 1.33:1, so it seems to be pan and scan. This is all the more surprising as they released it in full 2.35:1 and 16 x 9 enhanced in Italy. So why aren’t they using that transfer instead of an ancient pan and scan one created for television screenings decades ago?
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/23083/FROM-HELL-TO-TEXAS-1958/
Thanks for the news. Movies Unlimited lists it as widescreen.
Wonder who’s right?
So much for pre-ordering it.
Yes, it seems you have to actually buy these DVD-Rs of CinemaScope films and play them yourself to find out if they’re widescreen transfers or not. If they’re not and you wanted them in widescreen, you’ve wasted your money and they aren’t cheap. So you have to take a fifty-fifty gamble.
It would be nice if DVD Beaver or DVD Savant would state what aspect ratio they’re in, but, apart from the odd release here and there, such as “The Boy With Green Hair” or “The Window”, they generally don’t review DVD-R releases from Fox; Sony or Warner Archive.