Shout Factory has done us all a huge favor, pulling four 50s Westerns from the MGM/UA/Fox libraries — featuring no less than George Montgomery, Rory Calhoun and the mighty Joel McCrea — and offering them at a great price. All four pictures boast nice, clean transfers. They’re all presented full-frame, though three (the post-1953 titles) played theaters cropped to widescreen. I played around with the zoom on my HDTV and was satisfied with the results.
As we all know, there are dozens and dozens of films like these, and the more the better. Let’s hope this is the first of many.
Gun Belt (1953)
Directed by Ray Nazarro
CAST: George Montgomery, Tab Hunter, Helen Westcott, John Dehner, Jack Elam, James Millican, Willis Bouchey.
George Montgomery is Billy Ringo, a gunslinger who wants to settle down. We’ve all seen enough of these films to know how that usually works out.
Before the picture’s 77 Technicolor minutes are up, Johnny Ringo hands Ike Clanton over to Wyatt Earp! Director Ray Nazarro began his career as an assistant director in the Silents and ended it with these George Montgomery films, a few with Rory Calhoun and TV for Gene Autry’s Flying ‘A’ Productions.
The Lone Gun (1954)
Directed by Ray Nazarro
CAST: George Montgomery, Dorothy Malone, Frank Faylen, Skip Homeier, Neville Brand, Robert J. Wilke.
Who cares what it’s about when you have Montgomery, Dorothy Malone, Skip Homeier and Frank Faylen, not to mention Ray Nazarro, on hand? For what it’s worth: George Montgomery goes after the Moran brothers — alone, thanks to the gutless townspeople.
Produced by the Color Corporation Of America, it was probably done in the SuperCineColor process. It looks good here, with the color surprisingly true. It was originally run 1.66.
Gunsight Ridge (1957)
Directed by Francis D. Lyon
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
CAST: Joel McCrea, Mark Stevens, Joan Weldon, Slim Pickens.
I found this a good, tight little Western — better than its reputation. McCrea’s charm and strength, along with Ernest Laszlo’s beautiful black and white cinematography, make the most of an uneven script. Mark Stevens is a tortured, evil bandit pursued by McCrea, as a Wells Fargo agent, through and around Old Tucson.
Joan Weldon is wasted in a nothing part, but Carolyn Craig — who’s in a couple of my favorite films, Fury At Showdown (1957) and House On Haunted Hill (1959) — has a nice scene at the end of the picture. There are enough ideas here for half a dozen 50s Westerns — Stevens being a frustrated pianist is a good one — but they aren’t given the time and attention they need in this brisk 85 minutes. Those with a keen eye and a nice TV will see a jet trail and an autombile.
Ride Out For Revenge (1957)
Directed by Bernard Girard
CAST: Rory Calhoun, Gloria Grahame, Lloyd Bridges, Vince Edwards.
In the mid-50s, a number of Westerns went beyond the sympathetic, or apologetic, approach to Native Americans of, say, Broken Arrow (1950) and tackled racism itself. John Ford’s The Searchers (1956), of course, is the best of these — though I urge you to seek out George Sherman’s Reprisal! (1956). Ride Out For Revenge is a solid B film, from Kirk Douglas’ Bryna Productions, that manages to make its point without sacrificing action. Probably the best film in the set, and I have to admit I knew almost nothing about it beyond the title and cast. A real find.
Beulah Archuletta, “Look” in The Searchers, can be seen in a couple shots. She’s also in Calhoun’s The Hired Gun, from the same year.
This blog was set up to champion films like these, and I urge you all to give Shout Factory a strong economic reason to release further volumes.
Thanks for this Toby. I’m very much looking forward to these and have had them on pre-order since the announcement was first made.
A quick question: Are all the movies on one double-sided disc or on two?
It’s a single single-sides disc.
Glad to hear you’re getting one. Don’t think you’ll be disappointed, and I’d like to know what you think of a couple of these.
Thanks. I really hope these sell and encourage the label to give us some more.
Thats really good news regarding the Color on the Montgomerys
Toby as my old “off-air” copies look really faded so this upgrade is
most welcome.Its funny how the few titles made in this Color Corp
Of America process,mostly, only seem to survive in black & white.
(THE YELLOW TOMAHAWK,CAPTAIN KIDD AND THE SLAVE GIRL)
Oddly enough Color versions of OVERLAND PACIFIC do seem to
exist.
Hey,think how great it would be if Shout Factory were able to release
the Regalscope films in sets like this……..well a guy can dream!
This four-pack idea is a great way to package these things — especially at this price.
Color Corp was the same as SuperCinecolor. They changed the name in 1953 in an effort to distance themselves from the two-color system.
They have a color 35mm print on YELLOW TOMAHAWK but don’t want to pay for a new transfer. CAPTAIN KIDD/SLAVE GIRL is lost but a 35mm trailer survives.
I’ve had them on order from Amazon since February. Even with post to UK, price is great as you say. I haven’t see any of them.
Vienna’s classic Hollywood
Thanks very much for this preview, Toby! Like others here I’ve had this on pre-order since you first brought the release to our attention. Sorry for my ignorance, but I’m curious – when you say “matted for widescreen in theaters” on the post-1953 titles, do you mean these films were shot in Academy ratio and then shown wide (ala SHANE)? If so then they shouldn’t look too cropped in 4:3. Glad to hear the transfers look nice. Am very excited to check this set out for myself ASAP.
Yep, they were all shot 1.37 like Shane.
However, the key difference is they were shot with cropping in mind — with a lot of “dead” space at the top and bottom (even the titles avoid that area). They look fine full-frame, but the proper cropping (say that three times fast) gives them a nice, crisp look.
Shane was shot to use the full 1.37 frame. Anything cropped out is something Stevens meant for you to see.
For more on the subject, I really recommend the fine work from Bob Furmanek on the subject — http://www.3dfilmarchive.com/home/widescreen-documentation
You know, there are few things in life as fun as going back and forth on the aspect ratios of 50s Westerns!
Thanks Bob,for the info,I always thought SuperCinecolor looked pretty
cool,shame that it was not around too long.
I may be wrong but I believe SON OF BELLE STARR was shot in
SuperCinecolor,its a pretty decent little programmer and Warner Archive
plan to release it some time in the future.
Its nice to know that a 35mm print of THE YELLOW TOMAHAWK exists;
hopefully someone might sort this out in the future,
The film has a great cast and also has Lee Van Cleef in one of his best
early roles.I also understand the film had lots of problems with the censor
regarding nudity and graphic violence.
Its good to see Warner Archive in particular releasing so many Cinecolor
titles;I thought the transfers on FORT VENGEANCE and HIAWATHA
were very impressive to say the least.
I wonder if Shout Factory would be willing to pay for a new color transfer
of YELLOW TOMAHAWK;if this current 4 Movie set sells in huge numbers
perhaps they may consider it.
Films that were *composed for widescreen theatrical presentation* (unlike Shane) should be released on DVD in the intended aspect ratio for which they were composed. It really irks me that so many 50s films that were shot flat but intended and composed for widescreen theatrical viewing are being released on DVD in open matte format. Frankly, this drives me nuts.
Just as a cropped Shane would have driven me nuts too, as it was originally intended and composed for 1:37. (I would have welcomed the 1:66 version as an extra on the Blu-ray as a historical curiosity/approximation of what people saw in theaters in 1953 — too bad WB nixed that.)
Bob Furmanek posted the correct aspect ratios for this new Shout! Factory set on Home Theater Forum:
Gun Belt – 1.37
The Lone Gun- 1.66
Gunsight Ridge – 1.85
Ride Out for Revenge – 1.85
I would have bought a lot more of those MGM westerns (from the now-defunct MGM/UA program) if they’d been released in the proper widescreen format. The only ones I got were the two with Ben Johnson (Rebel in Town, War Drums) because, ya know, I just HAD to have them. Thank goodness Fort Bowie got a 1:85 release. Someone must have made a widescreen master at some point in the past as I’m sure otherwise it would have also been released open matte.
I also didn’t get the Blu-ray of Johnny Guitar because it is open matte. This really killed me — I wanted that Blu-ray so much.
I am very grateful that the Warner Archive Collection people remaster all their widescreen films before releasing them on DVD so they are presented in the proper aspect ratio.
Every film, no matter how crummy it is, should be presented the right way on video. But that ain’t gonna happen, especially stuff without mass appeal.
Pan-and-scan destroys a widescreen film.
Open matte doesn’t do justice to the original composition (compare the full-frame and anamorphic Tennessee’s Partner DVDs for a good example), but it warrants less jail time than pan-and-scan.
I’ve heard that Olive Films releases stuff the way they get them from whoever they license them from. I imagine Shout Factory does the same — so the blame goes back to MGM/UA/Fox for not supplying SF with widescreen material. Wait a minute — those are the same folks you brought up whose on-demand program couldn’t be bothered with anamorphic transfers of their old movies.
“Every film, no matter how crummy it is, should be presented the right way on video. But that ain’t gonna happen, especially stuff without mass appeal.”
Amen to that, and I agree 100%.
I’m happy to report that based on our article and research, Plan Nine from Outer Space was properly shown in 1.85:1 at the TCM festival.
That felt good!
Plan 9 plays a LOT better without all that clunky dead space.
I’m so glad they’re paying attention to such things. Thanks for fighting the good fight!
Excellent post … but now you’re making me spend money again. 🙂
Sir, could I interest you in some lakeside property to go with those cowboy movies?
John: Having dealt with Shout, I would not expect them to pay a penny for a new transfer. They’re releasing titles that have already been mastered. The less money they have to spend, the better they like it.
I’ve always liked the peculiar look of Cinecolor. I personally funded – out of my own pocket – restorations of Scared to Death and Jack and the Beanstalk. They were originally released on laser back in the 1990’s and have now been copied by every public domain outfit. In both cases, I worked from pristine 35mm materials.
Son of Belle Starr is Cinecolor and I’m pretty sure it’s the three-color system. It was filmed in September 1952 and so far as I know, they had completely abandoned any two-color work by that point.
Paula: Thanks for the nice comments and I’m hoping that our research and article with original documents will help to make a difference. Please share so that more people will understand what was happening and when the studios switched to widescreen cinematography.
The reason so many United Artists films are full-frame is explained in these comments sent to be by a former employee/archivist:
“While I was at MGM I got permission to spend a week at the Margaret Herrick researching aspect ratios for 1953-60 titles owned by MGM (which, of course, includes a lot of UA, AIP, etc. titles) Given the limited amount of time I mainly went through VARIETY and THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER looking at reviews and trade ads. I found a lot of good info, passed it along to my boss, who was frankly horrified that MGM had transferred so many titles incorrectly. But instead of doing the logical thing, making sure everything was correctly transferred from that point on, he buried my report lest higher-ups discover his department’s mistake. In fact, somewhere I still have his old memo insisting all non-scope movies were meant to be exhibited full-frame well into the 1960s.”
In the case of Johnny Guitar, my TV’s zoom did a pretty good job of getting close to the intended composition.
Dear Bob, I laughed/cried at your story from the former employee/archivist. And thanks for all you do, your research is absolutely invaluable.
I sent a lot of e-mails to an employee at Allied-Vaughn, the firm that manufactures most of the DVD-Rs from the various burn-on-demand programs, explaining the problem with open matte releases and why this was killing the MGM program. He was sympathetic and said he had passed on the info to MGM — but my complaints had zero effect, of course. I sent him another e-mail more recently describing all the problems with the Fox Cinema Archives releases and didn’t even get a response to that one. 🙂 The one time my e-mails actually got something done is when I started complaining about some egregiously bad transfers — something had obviously gone wrong — and they investigated and found one of their machines was malfunctioning. They fixed it and redid the discs and the new ones were just fine.
I still long for a widescreen Johnny Guitar Blu-ray. I didn’t buy the open matte one, I was so annoyed. At least the powers that be got Hondo right.
The prettiest non-Technicolor color movie I ever saw was the restored Trigger, Jr. at the TCM festival. It was filmed in Trucolor and the 35mm print was a glorious palette of gorgeous blues and golds. Just stunning. It’s a crime they haven’t put that out on Blu-ray.
Thanks Paula, it’s truly a labor of love.
The HONDO Blu-ray is 1.85 but the older 3-D master that Gretchen Wayne shows – including the TCM festival – is full-frame. That’s unfortunate.
I saw several Trucolor titles on Netflix, all restored from two-color elements. If they were to release any of them on Blu-ray, I’d be first in line.
Trigger Jr. on Blu-ray would be a dream come true.
THIS-TV will be broadcasting Gun Belt on May 15, at 10:30a.m. Eastern
A while ago I got hold of a black and white copy of “Yellow Tomahawk” and found it to be a good, tough, gritty little movie and thought how good this would look in colour, as intended. I’m quite excited to learn that there is even the possibility of a colour print being issued. Does anybody out there know if “Fighting Man Of The Plains” exists anywhere in colour??