Directed by Joseph Pevney
Written by Warren Douglas
Starring Clint Walker, Martha Hyer, Keenan Wynn, Nancy Kulp, Jack Elam, Leo Gordon, Regis Toomey
Olive Films is continuing their Olive Signature series with a couple of great ones for October on both DVD and Blu-ray. First, there’s John Ford’s wonderful The Quiet Man (1952) — of course, one of the finest films ever made.
Then there’s The Night Of The Grizzly (1966), a solid picture with a great cast, and a fine script from Warren Douglas, who wrote one of my favorite 50s Westerns, Dragoon Wells Massacre (1957). What’s kinda neat about this new edition is that among the “Signature Features” is a commentary by yours truly. It was a lot of fun to do, and I hope any of y’all that hear it enjoy it.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
A big congrats on doing the commentary track, Toby!! Would love to hear more about the experience when you can share. Looking forward to getting this in a couple months!!!
Yay Toby!!!!
Best wishes,
Laura
Wow, Laura, thanks. Doing the commentary was a lot of fun — and a ton of work. It takes a lot of research to dig up enough stuff to cover 102 minutes. Lucky for me, The Night Of The Grizzly provides plenty of stuff to talk about, from Cheyenne to Techniscope to Jack Elam to Nancy Kulp and The Beverly Hillbillies to grizzly bears. I didn’t go in and just ramble — that would’ve made for a horrible commentary. I wrote it all out and edited it to fit with the flow of the movie. As a result, I think I’ve now seen The Night Of The Grizzly about 27 times!
It was a blast and I’m eager to do another one. Hey, Universal, wanna do a swanky Blu-ray of Quantez? If so, I’m your man!
There’s another DVD/Blu-ray project I got to be a part of. Can’t wait till that one’s announced.
Can’t wait to get this and hear your commentary!
Commentary by “yours truly” certainly makes this worth replacing my old DVD.
That’s an awful nice thing to say. For me, 102 minutes of my own voice would be torture!
That is reason enough alone to buy this one, Toby! Many congrats.
Clint Walker remastered in 4K (we hope!)
and the Tobemeister to boot…it surely cannot get any better
than that!
The film sure takes a turn for the better when Leo Gordon turns up,
in fact it becomes a totally different movie.
Big Clint made sure Leo was on board,I guess he recalled their
classic punch-ups in CHEYENNE.
I’d sure love to see The Tobemeister turned loose on some of
Kino Lorber’s horror stuff.
Thanks so much for that vote of confidence. Maybe y’all should hear this first one before you start hoping for more!
If I could do a commentary for ANY movie of my choice, it’d be a Tim Holt RKO, a color Rogers, one of the Clayton Moore Lone Ranger features or a good solid 50s Western like Face Of A Fugitive or Dragoon Wells Massacre. Something like that’d be a dream. Then there’s Where Eagles Dare or the Dragnet feature or Monster That Challenged The World or House On Haunted Hill or …
You’re right, John, Grizzly shifts gears when Gordon turns up. He’s terrific in it, and it’s easy to see why it was his favorite of his own films.
I am anxious to see the reviews of The Quiet Man Signature edition before I buy it. The first Blu-ray Olive put out was widely panned as a poor transfer, even though it was mastered from a new 4K scan from the original camera negative. It was like someone forgot to finish up the transfer and we got raw data. See: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/a-few-words-about-%E2%84%A2-the-quiet-man-in-blu-ray.320788/ I hope Olive has gone back to the 4K scan and redone the transfer. I’m slightly optimistic, as they did respond to complaints about the aspect ratio of their original Johnny Guitar Blu-ray and the specs for their upcoming Signature Blu-ray indicate a corrected AR.
Toby, I can’t tell you how pleased I am to hear you’re doing the commentary track for this one – this has been one of my favorite sites on the net ever since you started it up and it’s terrific that you’re taking the opportunity to spread the good word about the kind of movies we love via another medium.
Thanks so much, Colin.
I hope Toby won’t mind if I post an appeal for everyone to help restore a lost film?
[b][i]September Storm[/i][/b] was really the last major two-strip 3-D release, and
the only one to employ anamorphic optics for a 2.35:1 screen ratio. This
historically important and entertaining 3-D film from 1960 will soon be coming to
Blu-Ray thanks to the 3-D Film Archive and the 3-D Space Museum. The
kickstarter campaign reached its $25,000 goal within two weeks, a testament to
the confidence all vintage 3-D fans have in the restoration and exhibition work
of Bob Furmanek, Greg Kintz and Jack Theakston of the 3-D Film Archive. Their
track record has been impeccable, and the quality of their work has been
consistently outstanding.
Unfortunately, the campaign stalled only $1,000 short of reaching its “stretch
goal” to restore the special-venue 3-D attraction SEA DREAM (1978) which
they’d like to include as a bonus on the blu-ray. Only five days left to raise
$1,000 to restore SEAD DREAM 3-D. Please help by contributing what you
can:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3-dspace/september-storm-1960-3-d-digital-feature-film-rest
Please help. We’re in the home stretch. Watch the videos, read the updates and make your pledge.
Initially I thought the Olive signature series was going
to be for bona fide classics only.
The fact that NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY is appearing in this
series bodes well for other lesser known titles among Olive releases.
I hope the rumors are true that Siegel’s INVASION OF THE BODY
SNATCHERS is lined up for a future signature project.
I would have loved for Toby to have done the commentary on Olive’s
RETURN OF DRACULA or any Paul Landres film come to that
I’m loving this Landres fest over at The Hannibal 8.
Koch,Germany have listed three more titles in their
“Classic Westerns in HD” Blu Ray series.
The “must buy” for me is George Sherman’s CHIEF CRAZY HORSE
making it’s worldwide Blu Ray debut. The DVD’s of this film have
always looked good so the Blu should be a real treat.
Not to sure about SOUTHWEST TO SONORA which Koch have
released previously on Blu as part of a three film set.
Also not too sure about Jack Arnold’s MAN FROM BITTER RIDGE
which Koch have previously released as a very nice looking DVD.
It would seem that this series is solely for films previously released by
Koch.
I like MAN FROM BITTER RIDGE a lot-perhaps not as good as
as Arnold’s RED SUNDOWN or NO NAME ON THE BULLET
but it’s fast moving fun and crammed full of action with a cast chock
full of stellar character actors.
I may be in a minority here but I always liked Lex Barker in Westerns
and wish that he had made more of the Hollywood variety.
Update on The Quiet Man. Olive responded to another person’s question about the Signature edition transfer: “Yes, the same 4K transfer, but with some extra work done on it.” This is good news and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they got it right this time. Meanwhile — Toby, congrats on the commentary for Night of the Grizzly! Looking forward to listening to it. 🙂
@john k or anyone else in the know:
I see Amazon.de has a DVD of GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING (1956) with an English soundtrack coming out Tuesday from a company called EDEL GERMANY GMBH and a Blu-Ray of LAWMAN (1970) with Burt Lancaster coming Oct 28 from WVG MEDIEN GMBH. Is anyone familiar with these releasing companies and the general quality of their products? The prices are quite reasonable.
Mike-Don’t know a thing about the outfit releasing
GREAT DAY IN THE MORNING. Interesting that
Amazon de notes that it’s in widescreen.
Warner Archive will release this film sometime in the
future,although according to them the film requires extensive
restoration work. Myself-I’ll hold out for the Archive version
though the German version is pretty cheap.
Never heard of the outfit releasing LAWMAN but from the
artwork it is an “official” release.
Again the cost is very good and it’s one I certainly will be getting.
Mike BTW have you seen the Explosive Blu Ray of COMANCHE
STATION-a doozy of a transfer I thought.
I do have it, but I haven’t watched it yet.
Toby, sounds like you’re really doing a commentary the right way. Taking it serious and devoting time to deliver some interesting facts behind the movie. This is the way I would like all commentaries to be. I’m one of those who actually always will listen to commentaries whenever they’re available. Unfortunately I’ve heard my share of lousy commentaries where the person “commenting” will sit silent and watch the film (for the first time they will sometimes admit) only making the most mundane comments you could well hear from your Uncle Manny. Especially bad are the commentaries done by Marlo Thomas on some of the episodes in her THAT GIRL series. She does the style of non-commentary I just described. Laughing at some of the jokes along the way, no information at all on the background of the actors, the story, any behind the scenes stories, no talk of what went into making of the episode. Really a waste of time. Another of those “this is the first time watching” commentaries. Then I’ve also heard other commentaries (not Marlo’s) filled with constant information and background of the movie. The commentaries can be very fascinating when done right and it sounds like Toby is doing it exactly the right way. Congratulations to you and here’s to a Toby commentary on a future Bill Elliott or Fred MacMurray western, that I’d like to hear.
The Tombstone Territory Rendezvous:
http://ttr2016.info/
is held every year following the annual Helldorado Days at end of October, celebrating the gunfight near the O.K. Corral and Tombstone’s pioneer heritage:
http://www.tombstone.org/helldorado-days/
“Hey Universal…wanna do a swanky Blu Ray of QUANTEZ”
Actually Toby,Koch in Germany have already released QUANTEZ
on Blu Ray. It’s a nice transfer but giving this film the high def
treatment does not make a great deal of sense.
Certainly as much sense as filming THE HATEFUL EIGHT in 70mm.
80% of QUANTEZ takes place in the interiors of a ghost town.
The chase scenes at the beginning and end of the film are indeed
visually striking. While the many interiors do show off Carl Guthrie’s
natural lighting which is certainly enhanced on the Blu Ray edition.
One feels that Eastwood and Bruce Surtees used QUANTEZ as
a template when they made their Westerns certainly as far as interiors
and natural lighting went.
To my point of view Westerns that have splendid scenic values are
best served by the Blu Ray format. Two titles that spring to mind
are THE LAST WAGON and COMANCHE STATION.
I am very much looking forward to the forthcoming Blu Ray of
THE LAST FRONTIER which had many moody interior scenes but
also some splendid exteriors.
Toby and only Toby could give as an arresting commentary on
a film like QUANTEZ and I for one would love to hear it,myself I’d be
hard pressed to spend more than 15 minutes discussing QUANTEZ,
a film that I find impressive,to say the least.
I must say that it’s wonderful that Koch are giving us Blu Ray editions
of Universal Fifties programmer Westerns like QUANTEZ,STAR IN
THE DUST and the forthcoming MAN FROM BITTER RIDGE.