Directed by Thomas Carr
Produced by Vincent M. Fennelly
Written by Dan Ullman
Director Of Photography: Ernest Miller
Cast: Wild Bill Elliott (Marshal Sam Nelson), Virginia Grey (Stella Walker), Henry Morgan (Alf Billings), John Doucette (Ernie Walker), Lane Bradford (William Norris), Stanford Jolley (Everett)
Released in May 1954, The Forty-Niners (1954) was William Elliott’s last Western. He’d finish out his career with a cool series of detective films (which many of us around here like a lot), but cowboy-wise, this was the end of the trail. It’s the last picture in the Warner Archive set The Wild Bill Elliott Western Collection.
Elliott is Marshall Sam Nelson, tracking down the murderers of a marshall in gold-crazy California. He strikes up an alliance with Alf Billings (Harry Morgan), a card sharp who may know the names of the killers. They wind up in Cold Water, where they run afoul of Sheriff Lane Bradford and saloon owner John Doucette. Nelson develops a bit of respect for Billings, who he suspects isn’t all bad. I’m oversimplifying things to avoid spoilers.
Dan Ullman’s script offers up twists and turns that we don’t see coming, even though we’ve seen a million of these things. It gives Henry Morgan a good part (he’d already appeared with Elliott in Republic’s The Showdown in 1950), which of course he’s excellent in. Morgan might have more screen time than Elliott does. Virginia Grey plays Morgan’s old flame who’s now married to Doucette. And to top it all off, Elliott narrates the picture Dragnet-style.
By the time The Forty-Niners began shooting at the Iverson Ranch and Corriganville, Monogram was called Allied Artists and the industry standard for projection was 1.85. So, thanks to the folks at Warner Archive, we’re treated to a widescreen William Elliott picture. The previous entry in the series, Bitter Creek (1954), was also 1.85 — it’s not included in this set. These films were done very cheaply, and no transfer can ever make up for that. But it was shot by a real pro, Ernest Miller, and the widescreen framing gives it a fresh look.
I can’t say enough about these films, or about how excited I am that they’ve made their way to DVD in such supreme condition. Highly recommended.
Sold! I’m a big Elliott buff, but I don’t have anything on DVD. That…. will now be corrected!
God, I love your blog.
Thanks for those kind words.
You know, I love this blog, too. Mainly for all the fine folks I’ve “met” through it.
I look forward to watching this one in widescreen,but from my
old off air copy I always thought what a terrible waste of the
wonderful Virginia Grey.
I watched THE LONGHORN which was OK and re-made scene for
scene as CANYON RIVER. I prefer the Montgomery picture because
it had the advantage of ‘Scope and color.
I’m kinda halfway between Nick Beal’s put-down of these films (please see
previous Elloitt thread) and Toby and the regular FWOTF crew.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that I thought the Elliott Republics
were so great especially in terms of production values.
I am also very fond of Elliott’s Wild Bill Hickok Columbia Forties films
and would love a collection of those…..paging Mill Creek.
Mill Creek are kind enough to reply to e-mail requests so hopefully
other members of Toby’s crew will get on their case as they are releasing
loads of old Columbia titles at bargain basement rates in super quality
too!
On the plus side I also watched TOPEKA and thought it was excellent.
Bill is on the wrong side of the law in this one and it’s really briskly
directed by Thomas Carr-full of unexpected twists and turns.
Certainly the best of this series I have seen so far.
Off-topic-on the previous thread Chip mentioned that Sidonis have
some interesting Columbia Westerns in the pipeline.
I know we have been down this well-worn trail before but Sidonis have
“forced” French subtitles on their DVD’s. I really don’t understand this
as other excellent French imprints like Carlotta,Elephant and Rimini
allow you to remove subtitles.
I am very upset that Sidonis are about to release two of the “missing”
Joel McCrea Westerns THE LONE HAND and BLACK HORSE CANYON.
To make things worse Sidonis are also releasing GUNFIGHTERS the
only Randolph Scott Columbia Western that has not been released
on DVD.I would order all these films today were it not for those
wretched subs.
Topeka is one of the better ones for sure. I like Waco a lot, too. I tend to prefer the ones with Phyllis Coates.
‘TOPEKA’ is a very good one, I think. Elliott playing the (ultimately) good badman, patterned after his own movie hero William S. Hart. I have only seen ‘WACO’ once and the copy I saw was so dark all the night-time action (there was quite a lot and quite crucial to the story) was lost. So I really look forward to seeing that one too. My copy is still crossing the Atlantic though it should be here any day now!
Despite its rather cheesy title, I think ‘VIGILANTE TERROR’ is quite strong too.
I liked Vigilante Terror, too. And Fargo has that great barbed wire sequence.
Actually, not forgetting ‘KANSAS TERRITORY’ now I come to think of it!!
I agree with John K, BTW, that a set now of Elliott’s Columbia B series (1938-42) would be terrific. I have a special fondness for the four superior films he made as Wild Bill Saunders in 1939-40. They should be known by all Elliott fans out there!
I’ve seen very few of his pre-Red Ryder films, something I need to take care of!
“THE TAMING OF THE WEST”, “PIONEERS OF THE FRONTIER”, “THE MAN FROM TUMBLEWEEDS” & “THE RETURN OF WILD BILL” are the 4 Saunders films, Toby. They are much more adult-oriented than the Red Ryder films and Elliott stamps his authority as an effective western lead from the get-go. As Laura says, that distinctive voice (with its great diction) is very much a part of it.
Hey, John K, I can’t find any information about a Sidonis DVD release of GUNFIGHTERS (1947). Can you provide any additional info?
Mike Kuhns ,you can find GUNFIGHTERS on Amazon France if you type in La Vallee Maudite .
January 2016 chez Sidonis calysta :
– Coroner creek (ton heure a sonné)
– the walking hills (les aventuriers du désert)
– the desperadoes (les desperados)
– gunfighters (la vallée maudite)
All Columbia, starring Randy Scott
Mike,
Advance info regarding the Sidonis is available on the French
Western site http://www.westernmovies.fr
I am enjoying my journey through this Elliott Western set.
I watched another good’un last night THE MAVERICK.
Again directed by Thomas Carr;Sid Thiel’s script punches well
above it’s weight,certainly as far as the conventions of B Series
Westerns go.
One could almost imagine this one as a Universal Technicolor
Western starring,say Joel McCrea or Audie Murphy.
That’s not to take anything away from Wild Bill who is fine as the
“by the book” cavalry officer having to cope with a formidable roster
of bad guys.
Certainly one that needs another look at from Nick Beal 🙂
Watched The Maverick a couple nights ago and really liked it. The comparison to a McCrea or Murphy picture is interesting — and it certainly fits.
Dang! With all this talk I am really anxious to start watching some of these Bill movies from this set. I ordered mine before it came out from Deep Discount and I STILL haven’t gotten it in yet. It’s officially on “Backorder” on their website. I called and they said the same thing, they say more are on the way but don’t know when it will come in. I got other items from that same order but not the Elliott set.. Oh well, patience, in the past Deep Discount has always come thru in the end, so Im not worried, only anxious to see these.
Now the temptation is even greater to go ahead and watch the Gozilla versions of these movies I got several years back. But I’m trying to hold off so I can see the excellent versions from Warners. Pretty soon I may just go for my Gozilla versions, dark and probably lousy looking or not.
Toby, delighted to see we each reviewed this one this week! That DRAGNET styling was hard to miss — I liked it. I am getting a nice introduction to Elliott. 🙂
Avidly reading the comments also for thoughts on others in this set.
Best wishes,
Laura
Koch Media in Germany have been very quiet lately on
the Universal Westerns front,but they have just announced
GUN FOR A COWARD making it’s Blu Ray debut in January….
should look great I’m up for any Universal CinemaScope
Western in high def.
I do wish that they would give us SADDLE TRAMP and
RAILS INTO LARAMIE though which are as yet unreleased
anywhere on DVD.
Well, I couldn’t wait anymore. Since my Warner Elliott set still hasn’t arrived yet, last night I decided to watch one of those famed Bill Elliott Republic movie features, PLAINSMAN & THE LADY. I spent years watching a different John Wayne movie every week, eventually seeing them all several times over. For that I became rather familiar with Duke’s Republic westerns. Watching this Bill Elliott (I don’t call him Wild Bill because he wasn’t billed that way on his Republic movies) western I was reminded very much of Duke’s Republic westerns. Especially with all the Republic stable of stars that shared both Duke’s Republic’s and Wild Bill, oops Bill’s Republic’s. There was Vera Ralston who seems to have improved her acting skills far beyond her early DAKOTA experience. She seemed stiff and unnatural in DAKOTA but seemed much more natural acting in PLAINSMAN & LADY. Joseph Schildkraut was there from FLAME OF BARBARY COAST, so I felt like it was old home week.
Bill was his usual great self, smart, smiling, determined and good guy. My favorite scene from the movie was between Bill and Andy Clyde (George from Real McCoys/Hopalong Cassidy sidekick/Lassie neighbor). Bill starts to tell Andy what to do next and then stops himself and says I don’t need to tell you this do I? This isn’t your first time around. You know what to do. Then he and Andy both have a friendly name calling exchange, while Bill has a big smile on his face. This is really one of the reasons I like Bill so much, he really seems to enjoy the company of his “sidekicks”. He never laughs at them (the way many of the other cowboy stars do) he always laughs with them with genuine appreciation. His sidekicks are not stupid bunglers stumbling over their own feet and walking into walls, they’re skilled at what they do and smart (even if they are funny while doing it).
At any rate this was a thoroughly enjoyable movie and I hope it gets an official restored release as Bill’s Allied Artists movies are. A fun movie to watch and after you see it you want to watch more Bill movies. Good stuff. Still holding out on not watching the Warner movies till I can see them in their pristine versions from Warner.
Johnny Guitar ,like you I too have that Gozilla set of Bill Elliott westerns .Yesterday I received a couple of DVDs that I ordered ,among them THE WILD BILL ELLIOTT WESTERNS set from Warner and THE LAST COMMAND from Filmjuwelen .Since the first 3 movies on the WBset are on the Godzilla DVD,I watched THE MAVERICK and just started to watch REBEL CITY .They are in great condition .WB are to be congratulated on this fine collection .Unfortunately the same cant be said for THE LAST COMMAND .
Although I enjoyed seeing a different telling of THE ALAMO with a good cast ,the copy they used to transfer it to DVD was a German copy ,this time with an English soundtrack ,but with a thin line running through most of the film .Also about the last quarter of the film has white specks in it .However ,it’s better then nothing ,especially if we don’t know if a better print will be forth coming in the future.
Richard Oravitz ,I now have MEANWHILE BACK AT THE RANCH on order .I managed to find a copy on U tube and watched a couple of scenes .
Exciting times! My Wild Bill Elliott Westerns Collection just arrived safely from Oldies.com and I cannot wait to revisit these terrific little westerns in pristine shape. Hope yours arrive soon, Johnny G.
Just watched “WACO” from my new Elliott set. Much of the climactic action takes place at night and my old copy was so dark the action was just plain missing! Great to see it in pristine shape! Many congratulations to our friends at Warner Archive for a stunning restoration.
BTW, are folks out there familiar with the 1960 TV series “THE WESTERNER”? We Brits are currently able to watch the entire series (only 13 episodes) on our TV screens and this week I was able to view this well-regarded series for the first time. Well ahead of its time. As most of you probably know, the series was created, produced and mostly written by Sam Peckinpah and he certainly stamps his mark on it ahead of going into his first cinema project. The episode I watched today was directed by Andre De Toth so some great credentials there!!
Glad you got your set. Ain’t it great! I haven’t gotten to Waco yet.
The Westerner has to be one of the best Western TV shows ever. I sure wish someone would get around to putting them on DVD.
Yeah, I had always heard good things about “THE WESTERNER”. I am downloading all 13 episodes (in correct sequence) onto discs. Great opportunity!
Brian Keith and his old dog Blue (or whatever it was) moseying thru the countryside and encountering characters, crooks and killers. My kind of show. Yes it was a good show and would love to see it get a restored official release. Timeless Media are you out there? TV Land showed this back when they were a great channel that showed classic old TV shows. Now it’s been years since I’ve tuned into TV Land ever since they went “mod” & started showing crappy new shows which was the reason we went there in the first place- to escape from such crapola. Anyway, the technical quality of these shows was excellent, so looks like they have already been restored 15 or more years ago. So no problem in a good looking release. Now if only a company would do it.
Also some good US TV news: The Get Channel is now showing every Saturday several rarely seen westerns, Man Called Shenandoah, Hondo, Laredo, Nichols, Tall Man & Whispering Smitty. Also I haven’t seen it mentioned here, but has anyone looked at GRIT TV’s showings of LARAMIE? Wow the picture quality and the beautiful bright & accurate color are world’s better than the horrible Timeless Media official releases. The commercial DVD’s look like dubs of dubs of dubs, the color quality on the color episodes is green, purple and very faded. But on Grit TV the quality looks like they were just filmed last week. What a difference in quality. If only Timeless could have gotten a hold of the actual NBC vault copies that Grit TV has been showing (including the NBC logo and NBC early color brag at the end of each show).
Good news, today I got the word that Deep Discount is finally sending out my order along with the brand new CD release of Jimmy Dean’s original Christmas album called “Christmas Card”. A real enjoyable Christmas record you would probably enjoy and now it’s available again. 2 goodies I can’t wait to get.
I’m shivering a bit because I’m typing this outside, standing by the mail box waiting for Bill & Jimmy.
Finally received my shipping notice for my Wild Bill set from importcds.
I think Universal finally made new transfers of LARAMIE because of GRIT and cable sales.
I am too lazy to record them. (I still use VHS). I have the unrestored DVD sets. They show multi episodes daily. Laramie is not a big favorite of mine but I enjoyed it and may try to record, at SP, some favorite episodes.
I notice on HONDO, Hondo wears the same gunbelt, and eagle claw around his neck, as Johnny Yuma, THE REBEL. Both shows had the same producer, Andrew J. Fenady.
The Saturday GET.TV schedule is also adding the rare fifties series, THE THIN MAN, with Peter Lawford and Phyillis Kirk, and Asta, on Nov. 28th.
This is how you wanna start out a Saturday morning. This is the first chance I’ve had to really sit down and watch Elliott’s work. Now that the films are in good quality on disc. Haven’t reached The Forty Niners yet, but I’m having a good time with these films. What took so long!
My memory must be going. I keep forgetting, who controls Republic’s 1940s catalog now? I want to see Wild Bill’s films at Republic released. I mean all of them.
Happy you’re catching up with these fine little westerns, Richard. Great, aren’t they?!
It’s Paramount that holds the control unfortunately as they seem disinterested in their back catalog.