John Knight just brought this to my attention. Olive Films has announced Showdown At Boot Hill (1958) for DVD and Blu-ray release in June. For me and many of you out there, a widescreen presentation of a Regalscope picture is a dream come true. To be able to enjoy every bargain-basement, black-and-white Scope detail in high-definition is icing on the cake.
Showdown stars Charles Bronson, Robert Hutton, John Carradine, Carole Mathews and Argentina Brunetti. It’s a very early lead for Bronson — his TV show Man With A Camera would debut in late 1958. Director Gene Fowler Jr. worked as an editor for the bulk of his career, cutting everything from Sam Fuller’s Forty Guns (1957) and Monte Walsh (1970) to Gilligan’s Island and The Waltons. The screenplay is by Louis Vittes, who also wrote I Married A Monster From Outer Space (1958) and a number of episodes of Rawhide.
Olive Films also has the rights to Ambush At Cimarron Pass (1958), a Regalscope starring Scott Brady, Margia Dean and Clint Eastwood. Let’s hope it’s not far behind.
This a charles Bronson movie that I have wanted for a long time. Do you have details of other Olive titles coming at the end of June?.
That’s great to hear. Toby, of the Regal Westerns I’ve seen (not as many as you maybe), I thought this one was the best. It’s an interesting movie with a kind of rueful mood–and Charles Bronson was always ready to be a lead.
I think you might have meant to mention in connection with Louis Vittes writing the script for I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE too that Gene Fowler Jr. also directed that–as good a movie in its genre as SHOWDOWN AT BOOT HILL is for Westerns so I wish Fowler had directed more.
Hope more Regals will come out–I will only watch them in proper format now, and sounds like that’s what we can expect.
This is good news, though I hope a normal DVD version is released, I’m still a blu ray holdout. But this movie was a goodie, I have a pan/scan version from a TBS broadcast from more than 20 years ago that I transferred to DVD but this widescreen version will be perfect (never thought I’d see these b/w cheapies being put out on DVD, even if it is blu ray).
Both DVD and Blu-ray are on the way.
If only the dreaded Fox Cinema Archives series cared about the
Regalscope titles that Republic/Olive do not hold the rights to.
If any should appear from Fox I have no doubt they will be pan & scans.
The Universal Vault MOD series have just announced a few new titles;
their first batch so far this year.The Universal MOD releases are really
hard to track,they never turn up on the likes of Screen Archives and
Oldies.They just suddenly appear on Amazon.
They have just released Joseph Pevneys BACK TO GODS COUNTRY
with Rock Hudson,which is more of a wilderness adventure.
Film does have a great punch-up between Hudson and Steve Cochran.
Also from Universal Vault a 1967 Western starring Bobby Darin
GUNFIGHT IN ABILENE,filmed in Techniscope.
I would much rather Universal released the original version SHOWDOWN
IN ABILENE a far,far superior film.
Still,the two latest titles from Universal are, as far as I know,making their
Worldwide DVD debut.
The Darin film must be one of Universals last Western programmers.
There are a few more titles from Warner Archives very fine Film Noir
series next week including a real oddity FALL GUY a 1947 Monogram
picture.The Archive are promising lots more in what is turning out to be
an excellent series so far.
Taken over by MCA earlier in the decade Universal of 1967 was a changed place from the Universal-International of 1956 which made SHOWDOWN AT ABILENE, an excellent Western that I too would like to see come out on DVD.
Those late 60s ones are often remakes (RIDE TO HANGMAN’S TREE, which I did manage to get through, was a remake of BLACK BART; A MAN CALLED GANNON, which I wasn’t able to watch the one time I tried, was a remake of the memorable MAN WITHOUT A STAR). These movies used a lot of stock footage, sometimes from the earlier versions–much more than any earlier films from the studio and it’s hard to distinguish them from the many television Westerns the studio was making at the time. Producer Gordon Kay, who did the studio’s last seven Audie Murphy movies as well as trying unsuccessfully to launch Tony Young in two Westerns (they are good though–and Dan Duryea is the villain in both) in first years of regime change, was above this with the his fine movies, and the last Murphy made there (GUNPOINT) was in 1966. For me these Kay movies, are kind of the last roundup of what we once loved about the studio’s Westerns.
On the other hand, BACK TO GOD’S COUNTRY also remakes a story Universal had made several times going back to the silents but it’s fully imagined as a 1953 Technicolor movie and well-realized by the underrated Joseph Pevney–good cast (Rock Hudson, Marcia Henderson, Steve Cochran, and Hugh O’Brian) and looks beautiful. Most here will want to see this one–and I would call it a Western, since I put Northerns like this one in the genre.
Saw RIDE TO THE HANGMAN’S TREE in the theaters as a teenager and even then was well aware of the usage of stock footage…Kind of remembering seeing stock footage from …’HANGMAN’S TREE also used in the opening title sequence of tv’s LAREDO series, but that just may be incorrect memory.
One of the great things about collecting DVDs these days is when
one of your “most wanted” titles suddenly turns up on Warner Archive
or somewhere else.
Its getting like every Tuesday is like Christmas Day as thats the day
The Archive announce their weeks releases,you just never know what
is going to turn up.
Today they have really made my day by sneaking in LOOPHOLE (1954)
one of my most sought after titles.
I know this is not a Western but I know that a lot of you folks out there
are Noir fans.
This one has great Noir creds;starring Barry Sullivan,Dorothy Malone
and Charles McGraw and directed by the very underrated Harold Schuster.
Its kinda confusing because a lot of these Allied Artists/Lindsley Parsons
things are now owned by Republic/Paramount.
I sure am glad Warners own this one.
Olive Films say they are going to release CRY VENGEANCE which
shares the same Producer,Writer and DOP as LOOPHOLE.
Stuck in the middle of nowhere is Schusters great Noir Western JACK
SLADE,which Warners do not hold the rights to,and sadly is not on
Olive Films list of films to release.
I am hoping these things can be resolved when this Warners/Paramount
distribution deal kicks in.
I feel that there is more great Noir in the Allied Artists library than
anywhere else,much of it directed by Schuster.
I must put in a word for Warren Douglas a writer who also acted as
well.Not only did Mr Douglas write LOOPHOLE,CRY VENGEANCE
and JACK SLADE but he has a whole raft of other great credits;
DRAGOON WELLS MASSACRE to name but one.
His creative writing was a great asset to the classic TV series CHEYENNE.
To have LOOPHOLE remastered and with such great cover art is
like a dream come true for this mad Limey!
Lindsley Parsons certainly produced some truly great low budget gems,
I recently caught up with WOLF LARSEN also starring Barry Sullivan.
I DO hope Warners own the rights to this one;a little gem IMHO;
strikingly shot by the great Floyd Crosby,and its all real,actually shot
on a sailboat,with no process shots or rear projection.Its almost like
Parsons said hey guys I have hired a boat we are gonna make The
Sea Wolf and make it up as we go along.The whole film is weird but
rather wonderful…….I love this obscure stuff!
I never saw an Allied Artists picture I did not like!
Before people start getting on my case I should have said UNRELEASED
Noir;regarding Allied Artists.