After a stint at Republic Pictures that resulted in some terrific Westerns (including a personal favorite, 1949’s Hellfire), William Elliott made his way to Monogram. By the time the series was over, Monogram had become Allied Artists and 1.85 had become the standard aspect ratio for American cinema. And the B Western was dead. These 11 pictures made sure it went out on a high note.
Warner Archive has gathered eight of these films for a three-disc set — The Wild Bill Elliott Western Collection.
The Longhorn (1951)
Waco (1952)
Kansas Territory (1952)
The Maverick (1952)
Rebel City (1953)
Topeka (1953)
Vigilante Terror (1953)
The Forty-Niners (1954, widescreen)
Following these rather adult B Westerns, Elliott would make a dynamite series of detective pictures (again for Allied Artists) then go into retirement. Cancer would take him in 1964.
For me, this is the DVD release of the year. It’s due October 13. Between this set and the double feature that’s already out, you’ll have everything but Bitter Creek (1954), which WA promises for a later release. Essential stuff.
Thanks to John Knight for the tip.
It’s the DVD release of the year for me too, Toby. To get to see films as good as ‘WACO’ & ‘TOPEKA’ in pristine prints is fantastic! And ‘THE FORTY NINERS’ in 1.85:1 to boot.
Like Randolph Scott, Elliott extended his screen persona at the end into something more mature and thoughtful, and the films themselves are fun to watch.
This will be a welcome release ,but hey ,what happened to the 11 movies they were originally working on ?
Hi, gcwe1. They are not including the two they already released (‘Fargo’ & ‘The Homesteaders’ so that, I guess anyway, we don’t have to buy them twice. Don’t know why ‘Bitter Creek’ is left out though.
Jerry Entract ,that does work out good except the exclusion of BITTER CREEK .FORT MASSACRE is available on DVD from the USA on the MGM limited edition series .I have it myself.
I just contacted WB ARCHIVE FACEBOOK about BITTER CREEK and their reply was -” BITTER CREEK is still being worked on and is slated for a later release”.
Also just saw that Kino Lorber are releasing 2 Joel McCrea movies on 1st December, which IS welcome. What is not though is that ‘FORT MASSACRE’ is being released ONLY as a BluRay which is no good for those of us (like me) who have not gone the BLU route. Pity – if they had dual-released both films I would certainly have bought the DVD.
Jerry, I recently bought Fort Massacre on a UK Simply Media DVD. I was happy with the widescreen picture quality, and looks even better if you have up scaling DVD player.
What Joel movie besides Ft. Massacre is Kino releasing? Like you, I could care less about Blu ray, my Day of the Outlaw looks perfect already from the commercial DVD available. How perfect can perfect be? Besides my eyes are never going to be as sharp as the blu ray claims it is. What I want most to see is Joel’s “Saddle Tramp” and NOT in blu ray only, if necessary both DVD and Blu but never blu alone.
And YES, this is FANTASTIC news on the Warner Bill Elliott westerns release, just what I’ve been wishing for. Gozilla released all Bill Elliott movie and I bought from them some years back, but I’m sure Warner’s quality will be a vast improvement. Looks like it’s double dipping time once again. (When will I learn?)
Johnny G, the other McCrea title being released by Kino is ‘GUNFIGHT AT DODGE CITY’ in both DVD and Blu.
At least I won’t be double dipping with GUNFIGHT AT DODGE CITY, already have MGM’s DVD and am quite happy with it.
These Monogram/AA are kind of like Wild Bill’s versions of those Randolph Scott movies where Burt Kennedy recycled the same story four times.
The Longhorn, The Maverick, and the one about transporting old dynamite all follow the same pattern. Will Bill assembles a band of misfits to help him transport something. There’s a girl, and an old friend he can’t trust, etc. Great Fun. Odd that they will eventually release BITTER CREEK as a single release.
Sidonis- Calysta in December :
– Lone hand
– black horse canyon
– cattle drive (l’enfant du désert)
region 2
Firstly the artwork for the Elliott collection is up at Laura’s and it
looks sensational-far superior to the graphics on the Archive’s
previous Elliott release.
To me it recalls the Elliott comics of the Fifties.
Regarding BITTER CREEK (another widescreen 1.85 picture BTW)
perhaps,and I say perhaps,Warner Archive are preparing a Monogram/
Allied Artists “rarities” collection. They could include some of the Wayne
Morris titles they hold and also include real oddities like YOUNG DANIEL
BOONE made in Cinecolor.
I would be very surprised if they released BITTER CREEK as a
“stand alone” release…but who knows.
The Sidonis McCrea titles Chip mentions is a mixture of good
and bad news.The good news is that THE LONE HAND and BLACK
HORSE CANYON are making their worldwide DVD debut.
(SADDLE TRAMP is now the only unreleased Universal McCrea Western)
The bad news is that Sidonis have “forced” and unremovable French
subtitles on the English language version…..bummer!
I know this subject provokes intense debate but over at The Widescreen
Museum BLACK HORSE CANYON is noted as being in 2.1 widescreen.
If the Sidonis version is in that ratio then that’s great.
I was hoping Koch in Germany would release these films without those
wretched subtitle issues.
The question EVERYONE is asking is what the **** are Universal doing?
All this great Universal product appearing everywhere but the Home
Nation. The Universal Vault series is virtually non existant only three
releases this year after a whole year’s gap.
Universal have had a brilliant year at the box office,they are raking
in bilions. I know they have several key works in progress-restoring
silent classics-new high def versions of their “second string” monster
flicks (HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN,SON OF DRACULA and the like)
also definitive W C Fields and Marx Bros collections,
All well and good but what about their Westerns…surely their bread and
butter during the Fifties.
Univerrsal should know their Fifties Westerns are beloved by so many of
us they are as important a part of the studio’s history as anything.
Perhaps one way to get their butts inrto gear is to have a Universal
Fifties Western Blogathon…only a thought I might add.
Regarding FORT MASSACRE and GUNFIGHT AT DODGE CITY.
I have the German Explosive Media Blu of FORT MASSACRE and
the Aussie Shock version of GUNFIGHT AT DODGE CITY.
FORT MASSACRE is a major upgrade on the USA MGM MOD version.
GUNFIGHT AT DODGE CITY is a considerable upgrade on the USA DVD.
I can see no reason why Kino’s versions shoud not be equally as good.
Jerry, please note that Explosive have released both these films on DVD
and I should imagine they are fine in terms of quality. They can be picked
up on Amazon quiet reasonably.
I was hoping Explosive would release THE LONE HAND and BLACK HORSE
CANYON;it’s a pity Sidonis got there first.
Ulrich who runs Explosive is a huge Western fan and his company does
great work.Most, if not all of Explosive’s product is remastered from
master elements. I am very much looking forward to Explosive’s Blu
Ray edition of GUNMAN’S WALK a personal favorite of mine.
As far as I can tell from my multi region player at least, is that Explosive’s
Blu Rays are region free.
Thanks for the tip, John. I am having trouble though identifying the Explosive Media issue on Amazon. I can see the MGM issue and one in 16:9 from Simply Media. The other appears to be a Region 2 Spanish issue…..??
Jerry,
Mikes given the thumbs up for the Simply Media release
so maybe that’;s the one to go with.,
The Spanish one you mention is probably a clone of the
Explosive version.
Thanks both John and Mike. It would appear that the ‘scope print has been adapted for 16:9 widescreen viewing by Simply Media. I will probably go with this now, taking Mike’s suggestion. Pity a good ‘scope print does not seem to be purchasable on DVD.
Off topic-
It’s also interesting that Warner Archive have several other
tasty items in their current flow of new releases.
Firstly there is CRY OF THE HUNTED a very rare Joseph H Lewis
thriller with the great Barry Sullivan,
I know this film does not have the best of reputations but with those two
involved it’s got to have lots going for it.
Secondly there is a real Allied Artists oddity BOBBY WARE IS MISSING
made by the same people who worked on several of the Elliott Westerns.
I remember being very impressed by this Thomas Carr directed little
film when it was first released.
David Rayner if you are out there I believe this film was shown in England
as the support feature to RAMSBOTTOM RIDES AGAIN a British
“comedy” Western starring popular Brit comic Arthur Askey.
RAMSBOTTOM is now considered a “lost” movie…probably just as well.
I note with great interest that The Archive are releasing Nicholas
Ray’s very wonderful WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES and at last
in the corerect ratio 1.85
This truly great picture has divided opinion over the years.
There were certainly well documented clashes between Ray and
writer Budd Schulberg. The fact that Schulberg was also the producer
also added to the creative differences.
According to imdb Ray was fired from the picture and Schulberg
completed it. In interviews I have read with Ray,he states that it’s never a
good situation when the writer is also the producer.
Ray’s main grips as far as I can understand is that there is a key scene
when Burl Ives takes his inbred son into town. Ray could never understand
why that was cut. The sensitive subject matter for the time, and even now,
may have had more to do with the suits at Warner Brothers actually
axing the scene.
As far as I can remember Ives’ son hardly figures in the final cut.
WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES is still a marvellous film years ahead of
it’s time. Burl Ives and Christopher Plummer give towering performances.
The film offers a compelling portrait of an outsider in a primitive,feral
community, but it’s done with great humanity as well.
For me the film totally smokes DELIVERANCE a film that I personally loathe.
Hats off to Warner Archive for rescuing this very fine film from the obscurity
that is most certainly totally undeserved.
I wrote to John Knight that I’d add something. I very strongly agree with his estimation of this beautiful film, which I’ve written on at length.
I have also read accounts of the shooting, things Schulberg has said, and have heard Ray himself talk about all this. Putting that together with the way the movie plays, I believe it’s evident who is really the dominant personality.
WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES is poetic in the way it commands its subject and is also way beyond casting the nominal hero and villain in the familiar light we expect, even given that it was prescient in its ecological concerns and most of us will be inclined to sympathize with that. It is very open in how it is experienced and taken, mysterious and lyrical and finding so many of its beauties in marginal moments of the narrative, even though the drama itself is very strong.
All of this is at one with other Nicholas Ray movies but not at all like one expects Schulberg to be. In Schulberg’s two scripts directed by Elia Kazan, it’s always clear exactly where our sympathies are supposed to be, the films are emphatic and prosaic, and hit their points hard, even righteously. (The two films are ON THE WATERFRONT and A FACE IN THE CROWD). And it’s interesting too that without Schulberg as a writer–in WILD RIVER to take the best example–Kazan could be more like Ray is here).
Yet Schulberg liked Kazan’s direction and plainly they were at one on those two films. So it’s a little strange, and dubious too, that Schulberg so much had it in his mind that WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES was his film rather than Ray’s and was so insistent about this. He could never have created something like this on his own, nor would he have. He does deserve credit for finding the historical subject and creating the story basis, but the script was mostly written and revised while the film was being made, so Ray had the input a strong director would always have and made it his in shooting.
I will add this–while Schulberg always tried to take away all credit from Ray, Ray was much more generous when I heard him talk about. He said it didn’t matter who originated which specific idea and they both contributed. Too bad that Schulberg would not try to understand Ray better–in most of his films, Ray is a far greater director than his old friend Kazan; Kazan hit that level only at his best and not with Budd Schulberg.
IMDb now credits Schulberg as taking over the direction, but other accounts say it was not so simple and that Christopher Plummer and Joseph Brun (the film’s cinematographer) shared in the final direction. But in any event, as the script was being rewritten during shooting and so mostly shot in sequence, Ray was there through the Cottonmouth/Murdock drinking bout the night before their climactic journey back to Miami, so that left only about 10-12 minutes that Ray did not direct. I think that’s also verified by the evident fact that if there were a lot of the film left to do, and not just a little, another actual director would have been hired. And finally, the style of the film is consistent, at least reasonably so, which means they tried to follow Ray’s style–some of those last 10-12 minutes may be a little less than most of what came before, but mostly it’s pretty well-sustained. I give all who remained credit for that, including Schulberg, but he was not a director and has no other credits as one and if you know Nicholas Ray, this movie couldn’t exist without him.
BTW, I’m in sympathy with Ray on that central sequence where Cottonmouth and son quietly walk past Murdock and Naomi on the 4th of July. I’d really like to have seen it–and like to have seen the film as Ray would have cut it, great though it is in any event. The 4th of July sequence even as it is now is a beauty, with one of Ray’s most meltingly beautiful love scenes, one that was apparently based in his personal experience.
WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES is not a Western, I know, but I think it has a relationship and hope it’s OK I took this space here. It is a 50s film–that was Ray’s decade, and Ray was one of the greatest directors of Westerns with JOHNNY GUITAR, RUN FOR COVER, THE TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES and (even if marginally) the contemporary-set THE LUSTY MEN. Here, the turn of the century Florida setting does have a hero/outlaw situation reminiscent of Westerns, and a sensitive, non-cliche appreciation of Indians in its treatment of the Seminoles, especially Billy One-Arm. So I’d just say that without being a Western it burnishes Ray’s status as a director of Westerns in any event and also as a 1958 movie resonates against the mature treatment of themes, characters and stories then typical of the genre.
Thank you so much Blake,for your wonderful insight
and background information.
The fact that you love this film so much means a whole
lot to me.
I might revise my opinion on something that I said on a previous
thread. Both knowing our friend Laura’s attitude to violence
in movies I suggested that she would have a hard time watching
RUN OF THE ARROW.
Blake I remember you stating that Fuller’s film is so important
that Laura indeed should see it.
I also feel Laura would have a hard time with certain elements in
WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES.
Then again Ray’s film is so important that again Laura should take
the opportunity to see it. (especially as Laura is a Warner
Archive specially selected reviewer)
Furthermore I would love to hear Laura’s opinion of both these
films in detailed reviews on her very fine blog.
Somewhere else in cyberspace I remember our friend
Colin stating that while he is now OK with minor/little known
films appearing in the MOD/DVD/R format he is not too happy
with more high profile titles being released in that format.
I would have thought both RUN OF THE ARROW and
WIND CROSS THE EVERGLADES should have been
given “pressed” DVD releases or better still Blu Ray editions.
At any rate I am not going to question Warner Archive’s
splendid work or the decisions that they make especially
considering all the little known films that they rescue
from the vaults.
Their restoration of RUN OF RTHE ARROW was splendid
and I am sure WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES will
look wonderful too.
Furthermore I don’t know if Wild Bill Elliott is within Colin’s
comfort zone 🙂 but I hope that maybe he is still with
this thread.In fact I don’t know if Colin has seen WIND
ACROSS THE EVERGLADES,I would certainly love to hear
his take on this one!
I had never heard of Wind Across The Everglades before but about a month or so ago TCM showed it. When I saw this film starred Burl Ives that was all I needed to know to go ahead and record it. I haven’t seen it yet though, but I can tell you TCM’s version was a full screen version. Thought it interesting that Burl’s beard was a dark red full beard, even though he looked like he was old enough to have some gray. But disappointingly with just a cursory glance at the movie as I taped it it seemed to be an anti-hunting/tree hugging “message” movie from the oh so enlightened left. UGH with capital letters. But being the fair minded individual I am I shall reserve my opinion till after I see it all. Let’s hope this will be a great movie and not another lesson for the unwashed.
More McCrea
One ray of hope for those not wanting the Sidonis McCrea
Westerns with “forced” French subtitles on the English language
version is that in all probability these films will eventually surface in
Spain-more than likely as bootlegs with no subtitle issues.
They may even get “official” releases as McCrea is very popular in Spain.
Spain is the bootleg centre of the Universe with many Spanish imprints
“cloning” releases from just about everyone including Sidonis.
The unusual copyright laws in Spain seem to allow this to go on without
any legal action.
Why I do not approve of this and small imprints like Explosive need all
the sales they can get to survive I will happily purchase a clone of a
Sidonis release because those subtitle issues are a real pain.
I don’t know why Sidonis have to have those wretched “forced” subtitles,
other French imprints like Carlotta and Elephant have removable subtitles.
I collect McCrea and I would be more than happy to replace my already
excellent off air copies of THE LONE HAND and SADDLE TRAMP.
Furthermore my off air copy of BLACK HORSE CANYON is the worst of
the bunch quality wise.
With Sidonis continuing to have those horrible subtitles I am left with
no choice to go for those Spanish “clones” when they finally appear.
I would.I might add buy virtually every Sidonis release were it not for
those dreaded subs.
At the end of the day,when all is said and done we really should be getting
Uinversal Vault releases of all of the McCrea Westerns.
It’s such a shame Sidonis are compromised in this way because normally
the picture quality on their DVD’s is first rate..
I purchased a French release of WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES a couple of years ago. It looked good, but I don’t recall the aspect ration.
John K ,Sidonis tell me that when they deal with the studios the subtitles are forced on by contract .It is said to reduce the risk of International piracy ,but you have to wonder why other labels don’t do the same thing.
Mike,
Wild Side/Classics Confidential released WIND ACROSS THE
EVERGLADES in 2012. It was a lovely transfer but the ratio was
1.33 as opposed to 1.85.
Furthermore that release had “forced” French subtitles on the
English language version.. So glad someone else admires this great film.
gcwe 1
A friend of mine complained to Sidonis about the “forced” subs
and was told they are purely for the French market and not to be
so bitter!
The bootleggers certainly have the technology to remove the
subs so why bother. Furthermore Sidonis don’t seem to be
bothered about international sales as I’m sure lots of folks would
buy the McCrea’s if it were not for the subs issue.
Now the McCrea’s are “out there” I’m sure they will eventually turn up
in other territories.
I asked WB Archive if BITTER CREEK would be a single release or released in a collection and they said no announcement at this stage except it would be released in the future and would be newly mastered and 16×9 widescreen.